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Monday, July 23, 2012

The Dark Night Rises


Joseph Herrin (07-20-2012)

Isaiah 60:2
For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples...





The first e-mail I read this morning contained a link to a news item on the shooting in a Colorado theater where the movie The Dark Knight Rises was being screened. The movie was a midnight showing, the very first opportunity for theater goers in America to see the latest installment in the Batman film franchise. Witnesses testified that a young man dressed as Bane, the villain in the movie, burst through a door as if on cue. Some testified that it was timed to coincide with a shoot-out in the film, while others say it occurred at the same moment Batman first appeared in the movie.

The intruder to the theater reportedly tossed one or two tear gas canisters into the crowded theater, then fired some shots from a weapon into the air. He then lowered the barrel of the gun, or rifle, and began to shoot patrons of the cinema. In all, more than fifty people were shot and twelve have died. Among those injured were a three month old baby, and a six year old child whose parents had brought them to this dark and violent movie.

There is much in this news event that arrests the attention. The first thing that struck me was the profusion of homophones - words that sound identical to other words that have different meanings. For example:

Movie Name
The Dark Knight Rises
The Dark Night Rises

Actor Who Plays Batman
Christian Bale
Christian Baal

Villain in the Movie
Bane
Bain (Bain Capital, Mitt Romney’s Company, has been in the news).


Other Characters in the Movie Played By
Michael Caine (Cain, the murderous son of Adam)
Gary Oldman (“put off the old man with his deeds” Colossians 3:9)
Morgan Freeman (See verse below)

Revelation 6:15-17
Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"

There were also significant details. The theater complex that the attacker entered had 16 cinemas. He attacked those in cinema number 9. E.W. Bullinger in his book Number in Scripture provides the following information on the Biblical significance of this number.

[Nine] is the last of the digits, and thus marks the end; and is significant of the conclusion of a matter.

It is akin to the number six, six being the sum of its factors (3x3=9, and 3+3=6), and is thus significant of the end of man, and the summation of all man's works. Nine is, therefore, THE NUMBER OF FINALITY OR JUDGMENT,

for judgment is committed unto Jesus as "the Son of man" (John 5:27; Acts 17:31). It marks the completeness, the end and issue of all things as to man—the judgment of man and all his works.


It is a factor of 666, which is 9 times 74.
[Source: http://philologos.org/__eb-nis/nine.htm]

This was a MIDNIGHT screening of the movie. The attacker entered the theater around 12:30 A.M.. In “the dark of night,” during a movie titled “The Dark Knight Rises” an act of great darkness was committed.

This was the very first scheduled showing of what is predicted to be a blockbuster movie. It is the third part of a trilogy by the same director, featuring the same actors. The previous movie in the series pulled in more than one billion dollars worldwide. It too was marked by death as one of the main characters, Heath Ledger who played the character of The Joker, was found dead of a suspected drug overdose. Ledger’s death occurred after the second Batman movie was filmed, but prior to its release. The interest generated by his death was linked to the tremendous success of the movie. A thought provoking article on Heath Ledger’s death can be found here:

http://vigilantcitizen.com/moviesandtv/the-imaginarium-of-doctor-parnassus-and-heath-ledgers-sacrifice/

This is now the second consecutive movie in this series that has been born out of some act of death. This “coincidence” causes me to reflect on the use of human sacrifice in the works of Satan. Human sacrifice is very real. That Satan has inspired men to practice such rituals to incur favors from the rulers of darkness, or to release dark spiritual energy to accomplish some wicked purpose, is recorded in the Bible. Human sacrifice was practiced by the inhabitants of Canaan, and was one of the transgressions that brought forth the judgment of Yahweh.

Deuteronomy 18:10-12
"There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire..., for whoever does these things is detestable to Yahweh; and because of these detestable things Yahweh your God will drive them out before you.”

An interesting account that reveals the connection between human sacrifice and invoking the powers of fallen angels and unclean spirits is recorded in II Kings.

II Kings 3:26-27
When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took with him 700 men who drew swords, to break through to the king of Edom; but they could not. Then he took his oldest son who was to reign in his place, and offered him as a burnt offering on the wall. And there came great wrath against Israel, and they departed from him and returned to their own land.

When this passage says that “there came great wrath against Israel,” we need to identify the source of this wrath. The wrath did not originate in the people of Moab, for they were already intent on slaughter and warfare, but were not strong enough. The wrath did not come from Yahweh, for He would not honor the king of Moab slaying his son. The wrath came from those principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, the spiritual forces of wickedness in high places, to whom the sacrifice was offered. Human sacrifice is still required by Satan and those powers in league with him. When men seek the favor and power of Satan they will commit murder to accomplish their ends.

Consider the timing of the following connected events.

Following a bid headed by former Olympic champion Sebastian Coe and the then Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, London was selected as the host city on 6 July 2005 during the 117th IOC Session in Singapore, defeating bids from Moscow, New York City, Madrid and Paris. London will become the first city to officially host the modern Olympic Games three times, having previously done so in 1908 and in 1948.
[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Olympics_2012]

The 7 July 2005 London bombings (often referred to as 7/7) were a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks in London which targeted civilians using the public transport system during the morning rush hour.


On the morning of Thursday, 7 July 2005, four Islamist home-grown terrorists detonated four bombs, three in quick succession aboard London Underground trains across the city and, later, a fourth on a double-decker bus in Tavistock Square. Fifty-two people, as well as the four bombers, were killed in the attacks, and over 700 more were injured.
[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_July_2005_London_bombings]

It was unanticipated that London would be selected as host of the 2012 Olympics. Paris was the frontrunner. When the IOC announced that London had been chosen people were stunned. Some unseen force had made certain that London would be the host city for the 2012 Olympics. The next day the city of London experienced massive deaths and injuries as a terrorist event occured on her subway system. Was a ritual sacrifice demanded as reward for this selection? Were the spiritual forces of wickedness in high places being offered up a sacrifice to insure that these games were spiritually charged with Satanic power?

For those unfamiliar with the London Subway bombings, they have been as controversial in England as the 911 bombings have been in America. Many have suggested that the government of the UK was behind the bombings, that those accused of setting off explosions were themselves victims.

Video Link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4943675105275097719

If you have been following the posts in the series titled Babylon Rising, you will be aware of the Satanic nature of the Olympic games being held in London. I believe the timing of London’s announcement as host of the XXX Olympiad, and the deaths and injuries that followed the very next day in London, were linked. A human sacrifice was offered to Satan, and you can be certain that these Olympic events will reveal the presence and power of Satan. His cunning is already visible in the symbols, buildings, rites and images associated with the 2012 games. The opening and closing ceremonies will be profoundly marked as Satanic rituals of the highest order.

These deaths and massive injuries at the inaugural showing of The Dark Knight Rises in the United States arrest my attention. One must ask “In what way is this movie being used as a tool of Satan?” I believe that one way the movie is being used is in continuing to set forth a message of class warfare. It is espousing that there are those with money and power who are hoarding the world’s wealth for their selfish purposes while the masses go without. One movie reviewer has suggested that the movie presents a fascist message.

[Fascism] promotes regulated private enterprise and private property contingent whenever beneficial to the nation and state enterprise and state property whenever necessary to protect its interests. At the same time, fascists are hostile to financial capital, plutocracy, and "the power of money."
[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism]

Note especially the highlighted words from the Wikipedia article on “fascism.” “Fascists are hostile to financial capital.” Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate for president of the United States, was one of the founding partners of a company known as Bain Capital. This fact has been much in the news of late as Barack Obama and his supporters have accused Romney of exporting jobs out of America through his role at Bain Capital.

Here is another interesting homonym. The name Bain sounds like “bane.” The English word bane is defined as follows:

1. a person or thing that ruins or spoils: Gambling was the bane of his existence.
2. a deadly poison (often used in combination, as in the names of poisonous plants): wolfsbane; henbane.
3. death; destruction; ruin.
4. Obsolete. That which causes death or destroys life: entrapped and drowned beneath the watery bane.
[Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bane?db=dictionary]

The bane of capital would be that which destroys, or ruins, the wealth and possessions of others. The deceit involved in that which is being fomented by a hidden cabal of wealthy men and women is that they are egging on this class warfare, knowing that they are themselves untouchable. The anger and jealousy of the lowest classes of mankind will not reach them. It will only bring death, destruction, and ruin to those individuals within the reach of the lower classes. In effect, what remains of the middle class, and the upper middle class, will be destroyed by those who are incited to looting and rioting.

This is actually what is portrayed as occurring in the movie The Dark Knight Rises. Posters from the movie show Gotham City in flames. An army arises from underground that is set upon destroying everything above them. The venom of the rabble is especially aimed at those who are living the good life, having attained some semblance of prosperity. Rather than building something of their own, this underground army has no higher aim than to pull the city down upon their own heads. Everyone is thereby reduced to poverty and ruin.

This is precisely what Satan and those “illumined” individuals in league with him are seeking to bring about. With the entire world reduced to poverty and chaos, the elite’s power and rule over the world, will be assured as they control the military, the corporations, the financial system, and food and fuel supplies of this world.

What the world has been seeing in the past couple generations is a massive aggregation of wealth. Companies like Bain Capital have taken over multiple corporations and companies that were formerly standalone businesses. Each of these standalone businesses had their own owners, shareholders, and officers which tended to spread the wealth around, creating a solid middle class. As companies like Bain capital have bought up these companies, they have cut out much of the middle class. There is a sharp delineation between those massively wealthy individuals who control these conglomerates, and the average man on the street.

Bain Capital controls hundreds of companies. Among them are such well known businesses as AMC Entertainment, Burger King, Burlington Coat Factory, Clear Channel Communications, Domino's Pizza, DoubleClick, Dunkin' Donuts, Guitar Center, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), Sealy, The Sports Authority, Staples, Toys "R" Us, Warner Music Group and The Weather Channel. There was a time when each of the hundreds of companies controlled by Bain were standalone enterprises, and this fostered a vibrant middle class. By aggregating all of these businesses together there has developed a class of the super-wealthy. These are not the one percent that the Occupy Wall Street group has set their sights upon. These super-elite, and phenomenally wealthy individuals, are at the top tier, the very top fraction of the one percent. The amount of global wealth they control is staggering. One Internet article reports the following:

Corporations not only completely dominate the U.S. economy, they also completely dominate the global economy as well. A newly released University of Zurich study examined more than 43,000 major multinational corporations. The study discovered a vast web of interlocking ownerships that is controlled by a "core" of 1,318 giant corporations.

When the team further untangled the web of ownership, it found much of it tracked back to a "super-entity" of 147 even more tightly knit companies - all of their ownership was held by other members of the super-entity - that controlled 40 percent of the total wealth in the network. "In effect, less than 1 percent of the companies were able to control 40 percent of the entire network," says Glattfelder. Most were financial institutions. The top 20 included Barclays Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and The Goldman Sachs Group...

Giant corporations have become so dominant that it has become very hard for small businesses to compete and survive in the United States.

Today, even though our population is increasing, the number of small businesses continues to decrease.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.6 million Americans were self-employed back in December 2006. Today, that number has shrunk to 14.5 million.

This is the exact opposite of what should be happening under a capitalist system.

Big corporations completely dominate the media. Almost all of the news that you get and almost all of the entertainment that you enjoy is fed to you by giant corporations.

Back in 1983, somewhere around 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the United States.

Today, control of the news media is concentrated in the hands of just six incredibly powerful media corporations.

Big corporations completely dominate our financial system. Yes, there are hundreds of choices in the financial world, but just a handful control the vast majority of the assets.

Back in 2002, the top 10 banks controlled 55 percent of all U.S. banking assets. Today, the top 10 banks control 77 percent of all U.S. banking assets.

The "too big to fail" banks just keep getting more and more powerful. For example, the "big six" U.S. banks (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo) now possess assets equivalent to approximately 60 percent of America's gross national product.
[Source: http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/corporatism-is-not-capitalism-7-things-about-the-monolithic-predator-corporations-that-dominate-our-economy-that-every-american-should-know]

People, those with the true wealth and power are the 1,000th of 1 percent. Civil unrest will not touch them. They control everything. They choose which men run for government office. They control the media so that only the world view they want promoted will be heard. If class warfare erupts, and they seem to be intent on insuring it does, all that will occur is that the last vestiges of the middle class will be wiped out. Then the world will be a true two-tier system. There will be the super wealthy ruling class, and a massive population of drones, or worker bees.

Let the thoughtful individual consider that Mitt Romney is a Mormon. The Mormon church was born out of Freemasonry. The first Mormon groups met in what were called Mormon Lodges. These were Masonic lodges promoting their unique blend of religion. Utah, where the Mormon church is headquartered, has adopted the beehive as a state symbol. It is on the state flag.



The symbolism of the beehive contains an esoteric meaning. Only the “illumined” ones are intended to know its true meaning. Even as a beehive is ruled over by a single individual, and all the rest of the hive are worker bees, or drones, so too do the elite ruling class seek to establish a world system where a very small number of individuals control the vast multitudes of the population.

This same symbolism is found in London, that center of global banking and secret government. The Lord Mayor of the City of London meets with his privy council in a building that is nicknamed “the beehive.”



London City Hall - The Beehive

People of God, the movie The Dark Knight Rises, could very well be titled The Dark Night Rises. It is a prophetic foretelling of the collapse of civilization into anarchy. Class warfare, race warfare, religious warfare, and every imaginable form of strife is being fomented by the powers that exist. David Wilkerson had visions of New York City (the model of Gotham City) in flames with tanks rolling through the streets. The day when such an event occurs is not far off. These things are depicted in the movie that this blog post is examining.

I looked at the sound track for the movie. It is a dark and somber musical score. The titles of the songs are equally dark. Following is a partial list of songs from the movie soundtrack.

A Storm is Coming
On Thin Ice
Gotham’s Reckoning
Underground Army
Born in Darkness
The Fire Rises
Nothing Out There
Despair
Fear Will Find You
Why Do We Fall
Death By Exile
Imagine the Fire
Necessary Evil
Rise
The Shadows Betray You
The End

People of God, I believe there is a prescient anointing to this movie and the music that goes with it. It is foretelling of that which stands before mankind. “A Storm is Coming.” I have not watched the movie, but the preview reveals the substance of the opening song. A woman is dancing with Bruce Wayne, the billionaire who is secretly Batman. She tells Bruce Wayne that a storm is coming. She speaks of the evil of the rich hoarding their wealth and the discontented masses who will rise against them. Following are the exact words spoken in the movie trailer.

You think this will last. There’s a storm coming Mr. Wayne. You and your friends better batten down the hatches. Because when it hits you are all going to wonder how you ever thought you could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us.

Video Link: http://youtu.be/GokKUqLcvD8

Does this movie serve as a Satanic pronouncement of that which is even now at the door? I believe it does. I believe the movie’sopening being birthed in mayhem, in blood, and death, is a token of that which is coming soon to the nations. The dark night of mankind is at hand. Chaos and civil unrest will come suddenly, even as it came to a theater in Aurora, Colorado last night. Most will not expect it. They will be focused on entertainment, ease and pleasure when their world is rocked by sudden tragedy.

Our Father has been telling His sons and daughters that these things are coming. He has been directing His called out ones to make themselves ready spiritually, and physically. If you discern the hour you live in you will not sleep as others sleep. Cast off the stupor. Cease living as those who are blind and deaf. Seek Yahweh while He may be found. The dark night rises. A storm is coming. David Wilkerson declared before he died that what is coming will be of such severity and burst forth with a suddenness that it will cause even the godly to tremble.

I encourage you to read the following devotion by this man of God and prophet to America.

http://davidwilkersontoday.blogspot.com/2009/03/urgent-message.html

May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these days.

Spain bans short-selling of shares as markets fall


Market Data

LAST UPDATED AT 19:31 GMT
Dow Jones12697.51Down-125.06-0.98%
Nasdaq2887.91Down-37.39-1.28%
FTSE 1005533.87Down-117.90-2.09%
Dax6419.33Down-210.69-3.18%
Cac 403101.53Down-92.36-2.89%
BBC Global 306178.73Down-26.81-0.43%

Spain has banned short-selling of shares to try to limit price moves after markets fell sharply on fears the country may need a full bailout.

Spain's market regulator blocked the practice for three months to try to restore order after sharp falls in bonds and shares.

"Short-selling" is a way that traders can make money by betting on falling share prices.

Italy has also banned short-selling of financial stocks for one week.
BBC


Shoe ID Lab Developing Biometric Shoe To Identify Individuals Based On How They Walk

If you have a funny Walk you are cook!



PITTSBURGH (AP) — High-tech security? Forget those irksome digital eye scans. Meet the biometric shoe.

A new lab is working to perfect special shoe insoles that can help monitor access to high-security areas, like nuclear power plants or special military bases.

The concept is based on research that shows each person has unique feet, and ways of walking. Sensors in the bio-soles check the pressure of feet, monitor gait, and use a microcomputer to compare the patterns to a master file for that person. If the patterns match the bio-soles go to sleep. If they don't, a wireless alarm message can go out.

"It's part of a shoe that you don't have to think about," said Marios Savvides, head of Carnegie Mellon University's new Pedo-Biometrics Lab, in Pittsburgh.

The lab, which has $1.5 million in startup funding, is a partnership with Autonomous ID, a Canadian company that is relocating to several U.S. cities. Todd Gray, the company president, said he saw the potential when his daughter was in a maternity ward decorated with representations of different baby feet all along a wall.

Autonomous ID has been working on prototypes since 2009, with the goal of making a relatively low cost ID system. Gray said they've already run tests on sample bio-soles, which are no thicker than a common foot pad sold in pharmacies, and achieved an accuracy rate of more than 99 percent. He said Carnegie Mellon will broaden the tests to include "a full spectrum of society: big, tall, thin, heavy, athletic, multicultural, on a diet, twins and so on."

Gray wouldn't speculate on what the system will cost or when it might reach the marketplace, but each worker at a site would have his or her own pair of bio-soles.

"Within the third step, it knows it's you, and it goes back to sleep," he said. "If I put on yours, it would know almost instantly that I'm not you."

The idea may seem far-fetched, but scientists have known for centuries that individuals have unique ways of walking, and in recent years the U.S. Department of Defense has been funding millions of dollars of gait research, as has the Chinese government.

The Institute of Intelligent Machines is doing extensive research into gait biometrics, including reports of systems where a floor monitors footsteps without people's knowledge.

One expert who is not connected with the CMU lab said the biometric sole seems promising.

"I must admit I find this news very exciting," said John DiMaggio, an Oregon podiatrist who has worked with law enforcement to use foot information in forensic investigations. While it is too early to fully judge the CMU research plan, DiMaggio said using feet as a biometric identification source makes sense.

While researchers have noted that gait can vary with injuries, fatigue and other factors, Savvides said the bio-soles can detect signs of those things, too.

The bio-soles might also have medical uses. Several papers presented this month at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Vancouver suggest changes in how elderly people walk — such as a slowing pace or variable stride — can provide early warnings of dementia.

Gray said the technology is less invasive of privacy than eye scans and other biometrics, in part because the individual data stays inside the bio-soles.

But one group that has followed biometrics and privacy issues said there could still be problems.

"Any biometric capture device is a potential tracking device, just like every iPhone is a potential tracking device. That's just the way these things are," said Lee Tien, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco nonprofit that monitors free speech and privacy issues.

Tien said that the bio-soles themselves "might make a person feel a little bit better" than other security systems and that Gray's claim that the system can ID a person within three steps is "pretty impressive."

But he added that if the project is successful, bio-soles could also be implanted in shoes secretly.

"I wouldn't expect Nike to build these in. But it's potentially covert," he said, meaning it could be used to help spy on people.

Tech

China approves military garrison for disputed islands


The command will be based in Sansha city on Woody Island in the Paracels; a city formed in June to govern the area.

On Sunday 45 legislators were also named to the new city's congress.

The moves come amid severe tensions between China and its neighbours over ownership of the several groups of islands in the South China Sea.

China took command of the Paracel islands in 1974 following a battle with Vietnam. Taiwan also claims the islands, whose population numbers only a few thousand, mostly fishermen.

Sansha city was established in June as China's administrative base for the whole South China Sea area, including the disputed territories of the Spratly Islands and the Scarborough Shoal.'Mobilisation'

The Central Military Commission (CMC) authorised the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Guangzhou Military Command to ''form a garrison command in'' Sansha city, Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.

The troops would be ''responsible for managing the city's national defence mobilisation, military reserves and carrying out military operations'', said the brief announcement, which was also carried on the defense ministry's website.

The command will be ''under the dual leadership of the Hainan provincial sub-command and the city's civilian leaders'', it added.

No further details, including numbers to be deployed or the timing of deployment, were given.

The moves are set to add to already rife tension in the region.

Vietnam has protested against China's decision to establish the administrative city, its plans to run tourist cruises to the area by the end of the year and calls for oil exploration bids.

Diplomatic tensions are also high between China and the Philippines after a stand-off over the Scarborough Shoal, which is claimed by both sides.

The South China Sea disputes sparked controversy at an Asean regional forum earlier this month when, for the first time in its 45-year history, the 10-nation bloc were unable to agree on a closing statement.
BBC

New Dark Knight Massacre Details and The History of Gov't Staged Terror Attacks

Did Ahmadinejad brag about Iran’s role in the Bulgaria terror attack?


Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gloated on national television about the deaths of five Israelis in a suicide bus bombing in Bulgaria this week — and may have hinted at Iran’s involvement in the attack.

The Times of Israel reported:

Speaking hours after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had publicly blamed the bombing Wednesday at Bulgaria’s Burgas airport on “Hezbollah, directed by Iran,” Ahmadinejad described the attack as “a response” to Israeli “blows against Iran.”

“The bitter enemies of the Iranian people and the Islamic Revolution have recruited most of their forces in order to harm us,” he said in a speech reported by Israel’s Channel 2 TV. “They have indeed succeeded in inflicting blows upon us more than once, but have been rewarded with a far stronger response.”

He added: “The enemy believes it can achieve its aims in a long, persistent struggle against the Iranian people, but in the end it will not. We are working to ensure that.”

According to the Times, Ahmadinejad’s speech was interpreted in Israel as admitting that the bombing was revenge for the killing of Iranian nuclear scientists, something Iran has in the past accused Israel of being behind.

Five Israelis — Itzik Colangi, 28, Amir Menashe, 28, Maor Harosh, 25, Elior Price, 26, and Kochava Shriki, 44 — were killed in the attack, as well as the Bulgarian bus driver. Thirty-three others were wounded.

According to the Times, Ahmadinejad’s remarks are starkly different from the Iranian Foreign Ministry, who said Iran, “the biggest victim of terrorism, believes terrorism endangers the lives of innocents…is inhumane and so strongly condemns” the attack.

The Blaze

Greek economy is in a 'Great Depression' says Samaras


Mr Samaras's comments come two days before a team of Greece's debt inspectors arrive in Athens to push for further austerity measures if the debt-laden country wants to qualify for further rescue payments and avoid a chaotic default.

Athens wants to soften the terms of a €130bn bailout agreed last March with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, to soften their impact on an economy going through its worst post-war recession.

Greek GDP is expected by the end of this to have shrunk by about a fifth in five consecutive years of recession since 2008, hammered by tax hikes, spending cuts and wage reductions required by two EU/IMF bailouts. Unemployment climbed to a record 22.6pc in the first quarter.

"You had the Great Depression in the United States," Samaras told Clinton, who was visiting Greece as part of a delegation of Greek-American businessmen. "This is exactly what we're going through in Greece - it's our version of the Great Depression."

Athens must reduce its budget deficit below 3pc of GDP by the end of 2014, from 9.3pc of GDP in 2011 - requiring almost another €12bn euros in cuts and higher taxes on top of the 17 billion successive governments have cut from the budget shortfall.

The Telegraph

Two hours for Syrian chemical weapons to reach Lebanon. Four armies prepared


The IDF, the Turkish and Jordanian armies and US Middle East forces have switched to preparedness mode in the last few hours in case the Syrian chemical weapons arsenal starts moving west toward Lebanon, DEBKAfile’s military sources report. Acting in unison, those armies are on the ready for instantaneous action because it would take no more than two hours to cover the distance from Syria to the Hizballah-controlled Bakaa Valley of east Lebanon. Their arrival there, unless thwarted, would mean a war on Hizballah.

Therefore Israeli and US military chiefs prefer to stop the arsenal in its tracks before it moves across the border. This would call for surgically precise, rapid action against a target going to extreme lengths to stay concealed.

In the view of a senior US military source quoted by DEBKAfile, the risk is solid but it comes from a different direction. He stressed that “President Assad has not decided to hand over his chemical weapons to Hizballah, nor has Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah decided to accept them.”

The chemical stockpile is kept at the al-Safira base northwest of Damascus in the care of the president’s personal guard unit which takes orders from Bashar Assad and no one else. If the heads of that guard saw the regime suddenly collapse – as it was expected to do last Wednesday when assassins murdered the men closest to the president - the American official says, “It is impossible to predict how they will act or what use they will make of the weapons systems under their guard.”

“They may decide to sneak out of Syria to Lebanon and take with them the entire arsenal as insurance for their safety and future,” he suggested.
According to our military sources, the arsenal which could be spirited across to Lebanon contains a lot more than chemical weapons. It also includes Scud C and Scud D surface missles capable of delivering chemical warheads and also the Russian-made advanced Pantsyr-S1 (NATO codenamed SA-22 Greyhound) anti-air missiles, which have been guarding the chemical stocks.

This background accounts for the words used by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak Sunday, July 22, to make their intentions clear:
“Israel would have to act if the Syrian regime collapsed without changing and if there’s a risk Syria’s chemical weapons and missiles could fall into the hands of military groups,” such as Hizballah or al Qaeda, Netanyahu said.

Asked if Israel would act alone, he said that Syria’s stockpile was a “common concern” – hinting at the coordination in place between the Israeli, Turkish and Jordanian armies and US regional forces.
Barak was more specific: “I’ve ordered the Israeli military to prepare for a situation where we would have to weigh the possibility of carrying out an attack against Syrian weapons arsenals.” He told reporters.

”The state of Israel cannot accept a situation where advanced weapons systems are transferred form Syria to Lebanon.”




Debkafile

IMF ‘suppressed signs that Europe was facing debt crisis’


Peter Doyle, an economist in the IMF’s European department, also used the letter to attack the appointment of Christine Lagarde, the fund’s managing director. The allegations are particularly embarrassing coming from someone who until last month was a senior official at the Washington-based institution and at a time when Europe’s debt crisis shows little sign of easing.

“The substantive difficulties in these crises, as with others, were identified well in advance but suppressed here (at the IMF),” Mr Doyle wrote in the letter to Shakour Shaalan, head of the IMF’s board of directors. The letter goes on to claim that “the failure of the fund to issue them (warnings) is a failing of the first order, even if such warnings may not have been heeded”.

The IMF, which has played a central role in the bail-outs of Greece, Portugal and Ireland, has recently tapped countries from the UK to China for another $500bn (£320bn) to be deployed in Europe, should the debt crisis escalate. Mr Doyle, whose 20-year career at the fund included spells in Sweden, Denmark and Israel, said its failure to give a warning has led to “suffering” in Greece and elsewhere and left it “playing catch-up and reactive roles in last-ditch efforts to save it (the euro)”.

Last year’s election of Ms Lagarde, the former French finance minister, is also criticised by Mr Doyle as illegitimate. The selection process for the top job at the IMF has come under increasing criticism for failing to reflect the changing economic balance of power in the world. Since the IMF’s founding in 1944, a European has always had the top job, while an American has run the World Bank.

“Even the current incumbent is tainted, as neither her gender, her integrity, nor elan can make up for the fundamental illegitimacy of the selection process,” says the letter.


The Telegraph

Gerald Celente on The Edge with Max Kesier

Turkey sends missile batteries to Syria border



AFP - Turkey sent batteries of ground-to-air missiles to the border with Syria on Sunday, media reports said, boosting its firepower as rebels in Syria seized several border posts.

As fighting raged in Damascus and Aleppo, rebels were said to have taken control of three crossing points on the border with Turkey, which is sheltering thousands of Syrians who have fled the conflict at home.

A train convoy carrying several batteries of missiles arrived in Mardin in southeastern Turkey and will be transferred to several army units deployed on the border, according to the Anatolia news agency.

Television footage showed at least five vehicles in the convoy were carrying air defence missiles, in the latest show of force by Syria's one-time ally which is now a fervent critic of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned last month after the downing of a military jet initially blamed on Damascus that it now regarded Syria as a "clear and imminent threat".

Syria has in turn accused Turkey of sheltering rebels and training and supplying militants fighting the regime in a conflict that erupted in March 2011 and has now claimed at least 19,000 lives according to activists.

Meanwhile, Syrian rebels were now in control of the Jarabulus, Bab al-Hawa and Al-Salama posts along the nearly 900-kilometre (560-mile) frontier with Turkey, a diplomat and Anatolia said.

An amateur video showed armed men celebrating the takeover of the Al-Salama post, north of Aleppo, which the diplomat said occurred early Sunday.

The crossing faces the Turkish border post of Oncupinar near Kilis in the southeast, where refugees at a camp there clashed with Turkish police after demonstrating over their living conditions.

The video footage supplied by the shows one fighter, who identifies himself as spokesman for the "Northern Storm Brigade" of the rebel Free Syrian Army, said the border post was now under their control.

"Bab al-Salama has been liberated from the hands of Assad's mafia, after a suffocating siege on them," he said, without giving his name.

Regime forces "withdrew after suffering losses", he added, describing Turkey as a "sister nation".

Several men standing behind him hold up their weapons to celebrate, chanting: "Allahu Akbar! (God is greatest)".

The man called the takeover of the outpost a step on the road "to liberate Aleppo, and then Damascus, and then the presidential palace".

Anatolia reported that rebel fighters took Al-Salama after hours of fighting during the night, and that the sounds of the battle could be heard from the Turkish side of the border.

On Tuesday, rebels took control of the Jarabulus border post, north of Lake Assad in Aleppo province.

Rebel forces gained control of the Bab al-Hawa crossing on Thursday, but on Saturday, a group of some 150 foreign fighters were in control of the post, an AFP photographer said.

Some fighters said they belonged to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), while others claimed allegiance to a group called Shura Taliban. They were armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, rocket launchers and improvised mines.

France 24

Israel fears Iranian attack on Israeli athletes at Olympics




Israel reportedly fears Iran or a proxy organization may seek to attack Israelis during the Olympic Games, set to begin later this week, The Sunday Times reported.

Israel had already planned for beefed-up security for its delegation at the Games in London, but now harbors concerns that the terrorists responsible for last week’s bombing of an Israeli tourist bus in Burgas, Bulgaria, will strike again, the British paper reported Sunday.

According to The Sunday Times, agents from the Mossad spy agency and Shin Bet security service hastened to Bulgaria in the wake of the bombing to try to identify the bomber and his helpers, in an effort to counter any possible threats on Israel’s delegation to the high-profile event.

A Mossad agent in Bulgaria has reportedly been in close contact with Britain’s security service about possible threats. According to the report, special Mossad agents have been dispatched to capitals around Europe where members of Iran’s Quds Force are known to be working out of embassies.

Though the group responsible for the Bulgaria bombing Wednesday, which left six dead, is still unconfirmed, Israeli officials have pointed to Iran or its proxy Hezbollah as the probable culprits.

Iran is also thought to have been behind a number of foiled attacks on Israeli targets around the world in the last several months, including a car bomb targeting the wife of Israel’s Defense attaché in India in February.

Officials have said terror groups are now looking to hit “soft” Israeli targets outside of Israel, rather than trying to penetrate security measures inside the country.

The Defense Ministry’s director of policy and political-military affairs, Maj. Gen. Amos Gilad (res.), rejected the Times’ description of the efforts in an interview to Army Radio Sunday morning, characterizing them as “literary descriptions taken out of spy novels.”

“Intelligence services simply don’t operate in that way, dispatching dozens of agents to chase down ghosts,” said Gilad. He explained that Israel’s intelligence agencies, in cooperation with their international counterparts, are constantly working to foil terror attacks and that in reality their tasks involved meticulous work conducted by skilled operatives. He urged people to remain calm and keep things in perspective, and said there was no concrete threat of an attack during the Olympics.

Gilad reiterated Israel’s belief that Iran and Hezbollah were behind the Burgas attack, stressing that Israel and its partners had successfully foiled several terror attacks in recent months. “When the terrorists succeed they make bloody headlines. Our successes seldom get reported,” he said.

Tensions between Iran and Israel have ramped up in recent years as Israel has lobbied against Tehran’s nuclear program, threatening military action if needed to stop it. The Islamic Republic has fingered Israel for a number of assassinations of nuclear scientists, a claim Israel denies.

British officials have said security around the high-profile Olympic games will be tight, and Israeli athletes will be under special protection and kept in an area apart from the general athletes’ village.

“We are in a closed-off and sterile section of the Olympic village. Surrounding us is a security network that should be able to thwart any attempted attacks,” said Efraim Zinger, who leads the Israeli delegation to London.

The London Games mark the 40th anniversary of an attack on Israeli athletes in the Munich Olympics that ended with 11 members of the team being killed. In that case, Palestinian terrorists stormed the Israelis’ living quarters, killing two and taking nine hostage. The hostage Israelis were later killed during a botched raid by German soldiers.

Zinger said that the security in London was nothing like that which was in place in the 1972 Munich Games. “Munich was like a summer camp compared to this. It feels like an army base here,” he told Army Radio.

The Times of Israel