Saudi confirms testing man suspected of contracting Ebola

Saudi Arabia is testing a man for suspected Ebola infection after he returned recently from a business trip to Sierra Leone, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

It said the man, a Saudi in his 40s, was at a hospital in the Red Sea city of Jeddah after showing "symptoms of viral hemorrhagic fever", which resemble symptoms of the Ebola virus.

The ministry said it had taken precautionary measures, including isolating the patient at a specialist hospital and had sent blood samples to an international laboratory in coordination with the World Health Organisation (WHO) for further checks.

Ebola is one of the deadliest diseases known in humans with a case fatality rate of up to 90 percent. The death rate in the current West Africa outbreak is around 60 percent.

Saudi Arabia has been on alert against the spread of the virus from west Africa, where more than 800 people have died, suspending issuance of visas from several countries for the annual haj pilgrimage or for other visits to Muslim holy places.

Credit to arabianbusiness.com

Tayyip Erdogan: ¨Israel will drown in the blood it sheds"

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan accusedIsrael on Sunday of deliberately killing Palestinian mothers and warned it would "drown in the blood it sheds", pulling foreign policy to centre stage as a presidential race enters its final week.

Addressing hundreds of thousands of supporters at his biggest rally so far ahead of the Aug. 10 election, Erdogan again likened Israel's actions to those of Hitler, comments that have already led Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accuse him of anti-Semitism and drawn rebuke from Washington.

"Just like Hitler, who sought to establish a race free of all faults, Israel is chasing after the same target," Erdogan told the sea of cheering supporters at an Istanbul arena.

"They kill women so that they will not give birth to Palestinians; they kill babies so that they won't grow up; they kill men so they can't defend their country ... They will drown in the blood they shed," he said.

Erdogan's comments drew a sharp rebuke from a Jewish leader in the United States, who called the Turkish prime minister "the Joseph Goebbels of our time," referring to Hitler's chief propagandist.

"The time has come for world leaders to say that he has now crossed a line, and has crossed a line into the area of anti-Semitism and the world won't tolerate it," Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, told Reuters.

Pro-Palestinian sentiment runs high in mostly Sunni Muslim Turkey, and protesters have repeatedly taken to the streets in recent weeks to demonstrate against Israel's offensive in Gaza.

Over 50 million Turks are expected to vote next Sunday, electing their president directly for the first time. Two polls last month put Erdogan on 55-56 percent, a 20-point lead over the main opposition candidate, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.

Ihsanoglu, a diplomat and academic who was at the helm of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation for nine years, has accused Erdogan of populism with his anti-Israeli rhetoric.

"I think the foreign policy issues are used in domestic politics to rally people, but it creates problems and pushes governments into corners," Ihsanoglu, who has run a much lower-key campaign than Erdogan, told Reuters in an interview last week.

Kurdish candidate Selahattin Demirtas, running a distant third in the polls, urged Erdogan on Sunday to cut economic and military ties with Israel instead of "screaming and shouting". Turkey was once Israel's closest regional ally.

"Forget the shouting ... If you want to provide help to the Palestinian people, stop fooling the people. With a serious boycott, let's all together stop the Israeli state's policies of massacres," he told tens of thousands of supporters at a rally that was also held on the Asian side of Istanbul.

Credit to Reuters

´RUSSIA DOESN’T MAKE ANYTHING:’ President Obama

President Barack Obama dismissed Russia as a nation that "doesn't make anything" and said in an interview with the Economist magazine that the West needs to be "pretty firm" with China as Beijing pushes to expand its role in the world economy.

Obama has tried to focus U.S. foreign policy on Asia, a response to China's economic and military might. But for months, that "pivot" has been overshadowed by a flurry of international crises, including Russia's support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Russia is the world's third-largest oil producer and second-largest natural gas producer. Europe relies heavily on Russian energy exports, complicating the West's response to the Ukraine crisis.

Obama downplayed Moscow's role in the world, dismissing President Vladimir Putin as a leader causing short-term trouble for political gain that will hurt Russia in the long term.

"I do think it's important to keep perspective. Russia doesn't make anything," Obama said in the interview.

"Immigrants aren't rushing to Moscow in search of opportunity. The life expectancy of the Russian male is around 60 years old. The population is shrinking," he said.


Obama told Putin last week that he believes Russia violated the 1988 Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces treaty designed to eliminate ground-launched cruise missiles.

Speaking of Russia's "regional challenges," Obama said in the interview: "We have to make sure that they don't escalate where suddenly nuclear weapons are back in the discussion of foreign policy."

Obama described U.S. tensions with China as "manageable."

China is engaged in territorial disputes with its neighbors in the oil-rich South China Sea, and frequently skirmishes with the West over intellectual property issues.

"One thing I will say about China, though, is you also have to be pretty firm with them, because they will push as hard as they can until they meet resistance," Obama told the Economist.

Credit to nydailynews.com

ISIS Gains First Ground in Lebanon

Militants associated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) captured the Lebanese city of Arsal in fighting that began on Friday and continued Monday.

According to The Telegraph, a Syrian rebel group set up check-points in the border city but have not yet declared the area as part of the caliphate. In addition to 40,000 residents, there are roughly 120,000 refugees living in Arsal.

The conflict broke out after the Lebanese Army arrested Abu Ahmad al-Jumaa, a former commander in the Free Syrian Army who later declared allegiance to ISIS. Officials said they arrested Jumaa because he planned to attack an army outpost.

Since the Syrian Uprising began in 2011, an estimated one million refugees have crossed the nearly 250 mile border from Syria into Lebanon, a number expected to hit 1.5 million by the end of 2014 The United Nation's Refugee Agency predicts.

The Sunni insurgents said they will leave Arsal if the government releases Jumaa, something Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Slama flatly rejected on Monday.

There is no political solution with extremist groups who are manipulating the Arab communities under religious obscurantism and strange titles, seeking to transfer their sick acts into Lebanon...Today, the only solution is the withdrawal of the gunmen from Arsal and its surroundings.”

Located along Lebanon's northeastern border, the town of Arsal is majority Sunni, a group that overwhelming backs rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. The Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, which controls the area to the west of Arsal, has vowed to help the Lebanese Armed Forces retake the city from the insurgents.



 

Credit to Yahoo News

What Will It Mean If The Potential Ebola Victim In New York City Actually Has The Virus?

On Monday, we learned that a "possible Ebola patient" was being treated at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.  We are being told that this individual recently returned from a country in Africa where there have been confirmed cases of Ebola.  So that would narrow it down to Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and Nigeria.  The patient is being described as a male "with high fever and gastrointestinal symptoms".  The hospital says that "necessary steps are being taken to ensure the safety of all patients, visitors and staff".  But could you imagine the panic that is going to be created if there actually is a confirmed case of Ebola in the heart of New York City?  There is nothing in the post-World War II era that would even be comparable.  Certainly 9/11 created fear for a short period of time, but a full-blown Ebola outbreak would create a panic that could potentially last for months or even years.

And this comes on the heels of another Ebola scare in the United Kingdom.  According to a British news source, a seriously ill 72-year-old woman "collapsed and died" after getting off a plane from Sierra Leone at Gatwick Airport...

Airport staff tonight told of their fears of an Ebola outbreak after a passenger from Sierra Leone collapsed and died as she got off a plane at Gatwick.

Workers said they were terrified the virus could spread globally through the busy international hubfrom the West African country which is in the grip of the deadly epidemic.

The woman, said to be 72, became ill on the gangway after she left a Gambia Bird jet with 128 passengers on board. She died in hospital on Saturday.

Officials tell us that the plane was rapidly quarantined and that they were tracking down anyone that had been in contact with that woman.

I don't know about you, but all of this is starting to remind me of some of the really bad Hollywood disaster movies that I have seen.

In my article yesterday, I included the following chart which shows how this Ebola outbreak is beginning to grow at an exponential pace...

Well, today the World Health Organization says that the total number of cases has risen to 1,663 and the total number of deaths has risen to 887.  So just imagine what that chart would look like now.  Yes, it is definitely not an exaggeration to use the word "exponential" to describe what is happening.

If Ebola does start spreading inside the United States, it would be incredibly disruptive to our way of life.

In areas where there were confirmed cases of Ebola, it is inevitable that schools would be shut down and large gatherings of people such as concerts and sporting events would be cancelled.  In addition, due to fear of catching the virus, foot traffic at grocery stores and shopping malls would drop off dramatically.  If the panic lasted for multiple months, our economy would essentially grind to a halt.  Most economic activity still involves face to face interaction, and if people are afraid that if they go out in public they might catch a disease that will kill them, it would create an economic disaster of unprecedented proportions.

And what happens if strict travel restrictions (to prevent the spread of the disease) or plain old fear cause massive interruptions in our transportation system?  Almost all economic activity involves moving something from one location to another, and if we are not able to move stuff around because of an Ebola pandemic, that would create nightmarish problems almost immediately.  For example, the following is an excerpt from a report released by the American Trucker Associations that I discussed in a previous article...

*****

A Timeline Showing the Deterioration of Major Industries Following a Truck Stoppage

The first 24 hours

• Delivery of medical supplies to the affected area will cease.
• Hospitals will run out of basic supplies such as syringes and catheters within hours. Radiopharmaceuticals will deteriorate and become unusable.
• Service stations will begin to run out of fuel.
• Manufacturers using just-in-time manufacturing will develop component shortages.
• U.S. mail and other package delivery will cease.

Within one day

• Food shortages will begin to develop.
• Automobile fuel availability and delivery will dwindle, leading to skyrocketing prices and long lines at the gas pumps.
• Without manufacturing components and trucks for product delivery,
assembly lines will shut down, putting thousands out of work.

Within two to three days

• Food shortages will escalate, especially in the face of hoarding and consumer panic.
• Supplies of essentials—such as bottled water, powdered milk, and
canned meat—at major retailers will disappear.
• ATMs will run out of cash and banks will be unable to process
transactions.
• Service stations will completely run out of fuel for autos and trucks.
• Garbage will start piling up in urban and suburban areas.
• Container ships will sit idle in ports and rail transport will be disrupted, eventually coming to a standstill.

Within a week

• Automobile travel will cease due to the lack of fuel. Without autos and busses, many people will not be able to get to work, shop for groceries, or access medical care.
• Hospitals will begin to exhaust oxygen supplies.

Within two weeks

• The nation’s clean water supply will begin to run dry.

Within four weeks

• The nation will exhaust its clean water supply and water will be safe for drinking only after boiling. As a result gastrointestinal illnesses will increase, further taxing an already weakened health care system.

This timeline presents only the primary effects of a freeze on truck travel. Secondary effects must be considered as well, such as inability to maintain telecommunications service, reduced law enforcement, increased crime, increased illness and injury, higher death rates, and likely, civil unrest.

*****

Are you starting to get the picture?

A major transportation disruption would not just result in an economic downturn.  Many Americans would start running out of food and basic supplies very rapidly.  Without the ability to constantly resupply at the grocery store, a lot of people would start giving in to panic in just a matter of days.

And needless to say, a full-blown Ebola outbreak would wreak havoc on our financial system.  The stock market would almost certainly collapse and we would witness a credit crunch that would be absolutely unprecedented.  Nobody would want to lend to anybody in the midst of an Ebola pandemic.  The flow of money through our system would come to a screeching halt, and we would be facing an economic nightmare that would make 2008 look like a Sunday picnic.

So let us hope and pray that this crisis goes away and that Ebola does not start spreading across the country.

Because if it does, it could potentially kill millions of people, destroy our economy and plunge this nation into utter madness.

Credit to Economic Collapse

NFL Players Will Receive RFID Microchips For 2014 Season

08/04/14 – OVERNIGHT INDOCTRINATION OF MILLIONS OF SPORTS FANS TO ACCEPT THE MARK OF THE BEAST

“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” Revelation 13

Now The End Begins are reporting that the NFL has just made the stunning announcement that beginning in the 2014 football season, all players will receive RFID tracking chips that will be integrated into their shoulder pads. Their every movement will be tracked, cataloged and analyzed in massive computer systems, with the stats being spat back out in real-time. Overnight, millions of rapid sports fans the world over will be completely sold on the idea of human-wearable RFID microchip technology. From there, it will be the shortest of leaps to implanting those chips into the bodies of the players. The Devil is very smart, and his plan is right on schedule.

For the initial rollout, the RFID system will be used in 17 of the NFL’s 31 stadiums. (Astute sports fans will note that the NFL has 32 teams, but the Giants and the Jets share the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.) When squaring off in these stadiums, players will actually be tracked by two RFID chips — one in each shoulder pad. Data is broadcast in real-time to provide information on positioning, velocity, direction, distance run and even force-of-impact.

All of that data is instantly analyzed by the NFL’s MotionWorks system, which then generates statistics for every play. The data can also be instantly incorporated into the visual elements of the TV broadcast. In fact, the MotionWorks system crunches the numbers so quickly that graphics can be added within the broadcast’s standard two-second delay.

The upshot of all this is that viewers — not to mention coaches and team executives — will be able to track every players’ movement in the often chaotic scrum of the typical NFL football game. When a blocking assignment is missed or a receiver is suddenly wide open in the end zone, fans will know precisely which player screwed up, and when and where.

This partnership is an evolution of the NFL’s initiative to test player tracking in-game, and will be the broadest deployment of a system to date.  Zebra’s sports solution will be installed in the 15 stadiums that host Thursday Night Football games (Atlanta, Baltimore, Carolina, Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Green Bay, Houston, Jacksonville, Miami, New England, Oakland, San Francisco, St. Louis, Washington) as well as Detroit and New Orleans, and will capture information from all 32 teams.

This amazing revelation shows you how very close we are to the Rapture of the Church of Jesus Christ, and how very close those who will be left behind are to entering the time of the Great Tribulation.

Credit to Breaking Deception

Gerald Celente This Week In Money

Russia Says NATO Revives 'Cold War' Rhetoric to Justify Military Spending

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday that NATO has revived its 'Cold War'-type propaganda against Moscow to justify the alliance’s military buildup and defense spending.

In a Sunday interview with French newspaper Midi Libre, Rasmussen said the alliance would draw up new defense plans in the face of alleged "Russia's aggression" against Ukraine, and again encouraged NATO countries to increase their defense spending.

"It's all done to justify the alleged need to 'rally its ranks' in the face of an imaginary external threat to NATO, to increase military expenditure and to boost the demand for the alliance in the 21st century," the ministry said.

Rasmussen said last month at the Atlantic Council in Washington that NATO intended to step up cooperation with its Eastern partners, including Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova. He specified the alliance was not considering expansion, but was rather continuing "to take steps within our open door policy," welcoming "European countries that fulfill the necessary criteria."

The NATO chief said the threats, the alliance was facing, made increased defense spending a necessity in order to provide significant military assistance to Ukraine, likening the collective defense budget to an insurance policy for member states.

NATO has already been placing additional forces in the Baltics after the political crisis, erupted in Ukraine and Crimea, reunited with Russia in March. The representatives of the Baltic states said they were prepared to make the necessary investment.

In early June, US President Barack Obama called on all NATO members to step up their defense spending, citing the need to protect Eastern European countries and requested the Congress to approve a $1 billion plan to boost US military presence in Eastern Europe.

On April 1, NATO ended all practical cooperation with Russia over Ukraine, only maintaining contacts at the ambassadors' level and higher.

Russian Ambassador to NATO Alexander Grushko suggested that the alliance was trying to use to its maximum the crisis in Ukraine in order to prove its relevance in the current security environment."

Credit to RIA Novosti

US enhances nuclear strike capability at Guam

Bombers at Anderson Air Force Base, Guam. (Photo/US Air Force)

The United States is enhancing its nuclear strike capability at Guam for a potential confrontation against China in the Far East, the Tokyo-based Sankei Shimbun reported on July 30.

General John M Paxton Jr, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, said at a Navy hearing that the US military forces in Japan are improving their capability to launch amphibious operations against the China coast should conflict break out in the East or South China seas. He said the US Marine Corps has a total of four amphibious assault ships and amphibious transport docks under its command at United States Fleet Activities Sasebo.

Paxton said that with the support of those vessels, the Seventh Fleet of the US Navy is capable of launching a strike against crucial targets on the China coast. Equipped with 36 aircraft including AV-8 Harrier fighters and AH-1W assault helicopters, the USS Essex amphibious assault ship was recently sent to the South China Sea for a joint exercise with the Philippine Navy. Sankei Shimbun said this is a move aimed against Chinese ambitions in the disputed region.

In addition to B-2 stealth bombers, the United States Air Force Global Strike Command is preparing to deploy more than 20 advanced B-52H strategic bombers to Anderson Air Force Base on Guam. Though President Barack Obama has declared that the United States does not want war with China, the bombers with nuclear strike capability are there to prevent the People's Liberation Army from taking the disputed Diaoyutai islands (Senkaku to Japan, Diaoyu to China) by force.

Liu Jiangping, a Chinese military expert, told China's Global Times that the Sankei Shimbun report should be seen as a strong warning to Beijing. Liu said it is time for the PLA to strengthen the defense of its military facilities in eastern and southern China. However, he also claimed that Japan is the only nation in the world which would want to see a war between China and the United States and that the leadership in Beijing should not set too much stock by the report.

Credit to wantchinatimes.com

Truth Rising,Important NEWS

NEXT PHASE OF THE EBOLA CRISIS: TERRORISM

Frightening dimension to forever evolving war on terror



The Ebola scare may soon feed into the war on terror narrative.

On Sunday Breitbart covered a report produced by the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency stating that an increasing number of people apprehended on the border are infected with the Ebola virus.

“At least 71 individuals from the three nations affected by the current Ebola outbreak have either turned themselves in or been caught attempting to illegally enter the U.S. by U.S. authorities between January 2014 and July 2014,” Breitbart reported.

The report also noted a significant number of illegal immigrants caught crossing the border are from Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, countries where Islamic terrorists are active.

Texas Governor Rick Perry underscored this potential threat when he told CNN some illegal immigrants coming across the border are from countries with substantial terrorist ties.

The mention of possible terrorist infiltration and Ebola sets the stage for a scary prospect — a biological attack on America.

For the government this represents an opportunity to expand a terror narrative that has dominated domestic and foreign policy for over a decade.
Weaponized Ebola

In 2013 Global Policy, a journal produced by the London School of Economics, warned about the prospect of Ebola being used as a terrorist weapon.

“The increase in natural outbreaks in [Africa], coupled with a possibility of a terrorist group recruiting experts to acquire the virus and to prepare it to use as a bioweapon, should lead policymakers to consider the risk of a deliberate outbreak,” Amanda M. Teckman wrote for the journal.

Although weaponization of Ebola is complex and unlikely, experts in the field say transmission of the virus by air has occurred between animals. They believe “with advancing knowledge about how to manipulate viruses, the traits that make these [hemorrhagic fever virus agents] difficult to weaponize might be a diminishing barrier.” Additionally, a “reverse genetics system provides a way to produce highly virulent mutated viruses for the purpose of biological warfare or biological terrorism,” scientists believe, according to Teckman’s research.

It remains to be seen if a terrorist group like ISIS – which has demonstrated a willingness to engage in large scale mass murder, including the uninhibited murder of civilians – has the capability to produce a weaponized version of Ebola.

If ISIS manages to defeat the al-Assad regime in Syria it may come into possession of biological weapons. According to U.S. intelligence the Syrians have a biological weapon program run out of the Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC) in Damascus with labs in Aleppo and Homs.

“The SSRC is a huge complex, with wings and units designated for specific pathogen research. The labs are state of the art and, unlike chemical weapons, stockpiling biological weapons is obsolete. The infrastructure to support both clandestine and legitimate research is identical, making identification of the development of biological weapons exceptionally difficult,” the National Interest reported last September.

In October British experts at the Henry Jackson Society (HJS) “issued a stark warning over what they say is the ‘clear and present danger’ of Al Qaeda gaining possession of the Assad regime’s stockpile of biological weapons, claiming to have substantial evidence that Al Qaeda-linked groups may already have possession of toxic agents,” Israel National News reported.

“Unlike chemical weapons, maintained in military designated stockpiles which are generally identifiable and which Assad maintains command and control over, the structure of Syria’s biological warfare programs are latent, compartmentalized and spread across its remaining bio-pharmaceutical infrastructure. The programs are designed to be highly agile to allow swift production if required,” the HJS report explains.

“Worryingly, the report suggests that the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front may already have possession of ‘biological pathogens or weaponized agents either of which would pose a threat to the international community.’”

In June it was reported al-Nusra had merged with ISIS.

This does not mean Syria has developed weaponized Ebola, only that it likely has a sophisticated biological weapons program and, if the victory trajectory of ISIS continues, viral agents may fall into the hands of terrorists who would use the weapon in an attack in the United States or Europe.
Biological Terror Meme Part of U.S. Propaganda War

Despite the infeasibility of terrorists acquiring sophisticated biological weapons, the U.S. government has constructed a narrative portraying al-Qaeda as a terrorist group fully capable of launching a biological attack.

Key figures in the al-Qaeda constellation have professed a desire to use biological weapons. For instance, U.S.-born Anwar al-Awlaki, the al-Qaeda leader reportedly killed in a drone attack in 2011, called for the use of biological weapons. “The use of chemical and biological weapons against population centers is allowed and is strongly recommended,” he wrote for the al-Qaeda magazine, Inspire.
In 2001, less than three months after 9/11, the government pushed the meme that al-Qaeda had stockpiled anthrax spores in Afghanistan and planned to attack the United States. The theory arose following the September 18 anthrax attack which the Bush administration reflexively blamed on Osama bin Laden.

The fear al-Qaeda may eventually attack America with biological weapons is a central tenet of the terror narrative. From the death of 40 members of al-Qaeda in Algeria allegedly infected with Black Death when a biological program went wrong to the less than incontrovertible proof the al-Nusra used sarin gas in Syria, the threat of biological warfare by terrorist groups has dominated the war on terror storyline for more than a decade.

The fear of terrorists crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and the recent CBP reports of Ebola victims present in the growing influx adds a new and frightening dimension to the ever evolving war on terror.

It remains to be seen if terrorists are indeed crossing with tens of thousands of unaccompanied children and other illegal immigrants, or if there is an active terrorist plot in the works.

Despite the lack of evidence the government will opportunistically marry the fear of Ebola and terror together to advance its ongoing effort to forge a police state with a high-tech surveillance apparatus and a military and diplomatic component designed to put forward the foreign policy objectives of the global elite.

Credit to Infowars

Ukraine Claims Russia Has 33,000 Troops & 160 Tanks Near Border

Having unleashed a massive military drill earlier in the day, Russia is reportedly amassing military force on Ukraine's border once again:

• *RUSSIA HAS 160 TANKS NEAR UKRAINE BORDER, KOVAL SAYS: INTERFAX
• *RUSSIA BOOSTS BUILDUP NEAR UKRAINE TO 33,000 TROOPS, KOVAL SAYS

Mykhailo Koval, deputy head of Ukraine’s National Defense and Security Council, spoke on Russian military buildup on ICTV channel, according to Interfax. We await YouTube confirmation...

Some have claimed up to 42,000 troops are positioned on Ukraine's borders:

and the state of affairs in Ukraine as of last week...

Credit to Zero Hedge