Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
The Vatican has created an anti-terrorist unit in order to guard the Holy See and the pope from a possible attack. Vatican security forces now include an anti-bomb squad and a rapid response team. The Vatican will also work more closely with Interpol to gather information on any threats.
Archbishop Sambi, representative of the Pope to the US, has explained in an interview that Benedict XVI's successful visit is bearing fruit in the local Church and in has opened the eyes of the secular world.
Catholic political leaders must make the social teaching of the Church an "essential" priority, since it is centered on the person and the common good, says the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
A communiqué of the dicastery explained that the cardinal reminded his listeners that for Christian leaders involved in social, economic and political issues, an "essential priority, which can never be given up, is a constant and committed reference to the Social Doctrine of the Church, with its passion for man and the common good, and with its principles of the universal destination of goods, of subsidiarity and of solidarity."
A communiqué of the dicastery explained that the cardinal reminded his listeners that for Christian leaders involved in social, economic and political issues, an "essential priority, which can never be given up, is a constant and committed reference to the Social Doctrine of the Church, with its passion for man and the common good, and with its principles of the universal destination of goods, of subsidiarity and of solidarity."
A third of all members of the Social Democratic Party are considering leaving the SPD, according to a survey published today.
Mountain biking, barbeque and no demonstrations -- President Bush's final visit to Germany was little more than a pleasant country outing. The president is trying to change his image, but the Germans aren't biting.
Now that Bush is a lame duck, German politicians feel free to attack him, even those from Chancellor Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats. Eckart von Klaeden, foreign policy expert for the CDU, said he won't miss Bush.
His counterpart at the allied conservative Christian Social Union party, Theodor Freiherr von Guttenberg, said: "We're all looking forward to a new US president."
Press...
German newspaper commentators have launched a scathing attack on President Bush's record, saying he embodies "the arrogance of power" and has shattered the world's faith in America.
Finnish and Estonian lawmakers overwhelmingly ratified the European Union's Lisbon Treaty today — a day before a national referendum in Ireland could determine the fate of the charter.
On Thursday, Irish voters will go to the polls to approve -- or reject -- the Lisbon Treaty. A "nay" would pitch the EU into yet another crisis, but surveys show that the treaty's skeptics have the upper hand.
(Op-ed: The luck o' the Irish)
In an admission that France and Germany are contemplating a possible Irish no vote on the European Union's Lisbon treaty, the two countries have promised a joint response if the result of the referendum Thursday in Ireland plunges the bloc into political crisis.
With London's continued efforts to ram through the Lisbon Treaty which the Fabian Society's London had intended to impose on continental Europe before the Summer, London clearly did not intend that it should submit its own self to that imperial tyranny, the presently proposed Treaty, which it has been hastening to impose on the western and central regions of the continent.
The intention of the relevant Fabians, in particular, was, frankly, shades of the war-time Nazi occupations of the continent, a scheme to get continental Europe locked into what would be a British occupation-style dictatorship under the Lisbon Treaty, but with Britain itself remaining to gloat over the prisoners of that Treaty.
The proverbial fly in London's dish, is that the present international financial-monetary system is already at the verge of an early plunge into a vortex, a global breakdown-crisis now menacing the world at large.
Thus, the effort to ram through the Lisbon Treaty, creates a world crisis which is already echoing, immediately, many of the kinds of economic and related features which are to be associated with the earlier outbreaks of the 2 so-called world wars of the previous century.
British intelligence is making attempts to establish control over EU political institutions by means of a series of accusations that allege widespread Russian spying, a high-ranking Russian security official said on Monday.
In his opinion, London has long been trying to strengthen its positions in the EU by placing British officials in key posts in the EU's political structures, while opposing the main mechanisms of European integration, including common currency, free travel and a draft European constitution.
He said London was pursuing its own political agenda and was attempting "to impose on European officials a system of loyalty checks and constant surveillance in the best traditions of the Cold War" to protect its regional interests and promote far-reaching ambitions.
Whenever the EU has sent the police or troops to trouble spots around the world, Russia has never objected. It always wanted a stronger Europe that could serve as a counterweight to the US and weaken the trans-Atlantic alliance.
But on Kosovo, Russia has turned the tables on the EU. As a member of the UN Security Council, it has blocked Brussels from replacing the UN administration in Kosovo. Russia will not accept the change in the UN's role in Kosovo to make way for the EU.
Ever since Dmitri Medvedev's nomination to succeed Vladimir Putin as president of Russia, followed by his election and now his inauguration, Kremlin watchers, both Russian and Western, have been discussing the so-called "Putin-Medvedev tandem" and asking who will really lead Russia.
Is the duumvirate stable? Will it degenerate into squabbling among the Kremlin clans behind the scenes? The pundits have identified 4 plausible scenarios.
A 350-year-old cavalry battle has become the latest irritant between Russia and its neighbour Ukraine after Russia's foreign ministry on Tuesday accused Kiev of using the clash to foment anti-Russian feeling.
As EU and US leaders meet this week in Slovenia, Arab League chief Amr Mussa urged them to talk seriously about peace in the Middle East.
Troops from Djibouti and Eritrea have fired shots at each other along their shared border, the Djiboutian military said in a statement.
Western pressure has failed to stop Iran's nuclear programme from advancing, its president said today. "With God's help today (the Iranian nation) have gained victory and the enemies cannot do a damned thing. They've tried by military threats ... and political pressure to stop you from your luminous path but today they have seen that all their planning has failed."
President Ahmadinejad said today that President Bush's era "has come to an end" and he has failed in his goals to attack Iran and stop its nuclear program. Ahmadinejad, addressing thousands of people in this central Iranian city, also described the US president as "wicked."
"This wicked man desires to harm the Iranian nation. (Bush) made plans, moved into Afghanistan and then Iraq, and announced that Iran was the third target. I tell him (Bush) ... your era has come to an end. With the grace of God, you won't be able to harm even one centimeter of the sacred land of Iran."
Iran's foreign minister says the US does not have the capacity to carry out a military strike on Iran. Referring to recent threatening remarks by Israeli and US officials, Mottaki rejected the possibility of an attack against Iran.
Following Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Condoleezza Rice's visit with the Bilderberg Group this past weekend in Chantilly, during which they urged European globalists to support an attack on Iran, the EU and the US today threatened Iran with further sanctions.
Despite the fact that most Europeans at the Bilderberg conference expressed their opposition to a military strike, war drums are beating louder today after the combined US and EU threat, in addition to revelations that Israel has set up a special unit within its air force to manage an air strike on Iran.
In a joint communiqué issued after a summit meeting in Slovenia Tuesday, the US and the EU threatened to impose new and tougher sanctions against Iran, going beyond those approved by the UN Security Council, if the government in Tehran does not bow to demands that it halt its uranium enrichment program.
At a press conference after the US-EU summit, Bush did all of the talking on the Iran question. While he insisted that Washington and the European governments were "on the same page" in relation to Iran, neither of the EU representatives chimed in to support this assertion.
Members of Congress joined religious and civil society leaders today in an urgent call to stop the "drumbeat of war" with Iran and open up diplomatic talks to resolve growing tensions between Washington and Tehran.
Senate report exposes key role of the Israel lobby in fomenting war with Iran
Yes, we are prisoners of history. Our invasion of Iraq has led directly to a looming confrontation with Iran, just as the war-planners knew it would. What the 2nd portion of the Senate report shows, however, is that we are also prisoners of the Israel lobby, which is inexorably pushing us into war with Iran.
IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei talks to Spiegel about Israel's propensity for unilateral action against countries like Syria, the US's tendency to keep the IAEA in the dark and the threat of nuclear terrorism.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) introduced 35 articles of impeachment against President Bush on Monday night, reading the resolution into the Congressional Record. ... Kucinich has introduced a similar impeachment resolution against Vice President Cheney.
That resolution was referred to the House Judiciary Committee, which has taken no action on the measure. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other top House Democratic leaders have stated that there will be no consideration of impeachment proceedings against Bush, calling the idea "off the table."
(And: Mainstream media yawns)
President Bush bush tries to save the West from the imminent crisis that may result from the growth of prices on energy sources.
President Bush has admitted that his bellicose rhetoric about Iraq encouraged the world to form a mistaken impression of him as a warmonger. "I think that in retrospect I could have used a different tone, a different rhetoric."
After being denied a speaking slot at the Republican convention this summer, former candidate Ron Paul, who is not supporting John McCain, has decided to stage his own parallel convention in Minneapolis.
Bloggers are raising questions about Illinois Barak Obama's qualifications to be US president, because of the secrecy over his birth certificate and the requirement presidents be "natural-born" US citizens.
Jim Geraghty, reporting on the Campaign Spot, a National Review blog, cited the "unlikely" but still circulating rumor that Obama was born not within the US, but elsewhere, possibly Kenya.
This year, the 56th Bilderberg meeting took place over the weekend at the Westfields Marriott in Chantilly, Va., 7 miles from Washington Dulles International Airport. As in previous years, Bilderberg critics are berating the mainstream press for observing a "blackout" of a group they believe directs a secret, shadow government.
One of the over 120 Israeli "art students" who cased federal office buildings and military bases during a year and a half before the 9/11 attacks has revealed details of her "assignment" in the US to a WMR source. She and her group were ordered by their superiors to be "out of [NY] city" on September 11, 2001.
To the 9/11 truthers, "building 7" – the 3rd building in the World Trade Center complex to collapse on September 11 – is evidence that the mainstream media is in on the plot. On that day, the BBC reported the building's fall almost half an hour before it happened.
Journalist Jane Standley was broadcast at 4.54pm eastern time reporting that the tower had collapsed – but in the background, it was still standing. It fell 26 minutes later, 7 hours after the Twin Towers came down.
This film follows the growing momentum of 9/11 truth, as people throughout the world take action against their globalist masters. It also shows how a growing number of people around the world are questioning the official version of events that day.
Rarely have we been able to witness, within such a compressed time-frame, such a compelling illustration of the fact that the economic destiny of our respective households is controlled by people over whom we exercise no controlling authority.
After more than a month of claims that the worst is behind us, the banking crisis is suddenly back in the headlines.
Those who compare the propaganda to the calendar will see a pattern forming, revolving around the fiscal quarters, in which the beginning of the quarter is dominated by the reports of the losses from the previous quarter, followed by a period in which it is claimed that, with all that bad news, the worst must be behind us.
Then, as the quarter enters its final month, the propaganda machine begins preparing the population for another round of losses. The banking crisis itself is not back, because it never went away, and is worse than ever.
Facing foreclosure (cartoons)
Wall Street fell sharply today as oil prices rebounded more than $6, aggravating concerns that inflation may lead the world's central banks to raise interest rates.
European shares fell today as bank stocks sank on both sides of the Atlantic -- notably Royal Bank of Scotland in Europe -- and as high oil prices stoked fears of rising inflation and slower growth.
In an interview with the FT, Angela Merkel said the Anglo-Saxon system of financial regulation has failed, and that it is now up to the euro area to provide leadership for setting new rules for the financial system.
In particular, she advocates a system in which there is a more transparent relationship between capital and risk. She also advocates the creation of a euro area wide rating agency, to compete with the American market leaders, S&P, Moody's and Fitch.
The FT is full of praise in an editorial on Angela Merkel, who is described as Europe's strongest political leader. Apart from the obvious points about her leadership in Europe, the editorial makes the additional point that Merkel's Grand Coalition has performed better than some people have forecast.
Good news for long-suffering gold bugs. Iran is switching a chunk of its $80bn reserves into bullion. The deputy foreign minister in charge of economic affairs said Tehran was pulling its money out of euro instruments to avoid sanctions over its nuclear weapons programme. The news may have hurt the euro, which dived in morning trading.
With oil at the current price, Iran is building up reserves fast. If it parks a 20% or so of the build-up in bullion, it could be enough to swing the gold market.
Bears were blindsided by the past week's sudden spike in gold and commodities. But gold bugs have an explanation: the world smells war in the Middle East, specifically, an attack on Iran.
Gazprom, Russia's gas monopoly, on Tuesday predicted oil prices would reach $250 a barrel in 2009. The striking prediction came as the International Energy Agency, the developed world's energy watchdog, warned that record high prices were needed to choke off demand in order to balance the oil market.
"Today we are witnessing a very great change for hydrocarbons. The level is very high and we think it [the price of oil] will reach $250 a barrel."
Oil could hit $200 US by the end of this year, soar to $250 or burst like a speculative bubble. And as delegates to the Global Petroleum Show discovered Tuesday, the so-called "experts" are anything but united on what lies ahead when it comes to oil prices.
(And: Stop the oil speculators)
A meeting due June 22 in Saudi Arabia for the world's biggest oil producers and consumers to discuss record-high crude prices will be at head-of-state level, OPEC chief Abdullah al-Badri said today. "The meeting in Jeddah will be (at the level of) the head of states and they will discuss why we have high energy prices."
Could it be that the rise of a successful food system meant to feed us will spell our destruction as a society? That is the fear of author Paul Roberts who has written the chilling The End of Food, the follow-up to his bestseller The End of Oil. His work is well-researched and his conclusions, chilling. The world faces a serious food crisis that could be one disaster away from toppling the supply chain.
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[Latest edition of The Religion WAR]
Look up and see the past
What if you had a time machine and could travel back into the past? You can't do that, but you can look back in time – literally – when you look out in space. Due to the limited speed of light, absolutely everything we see is in the past, from a tiny fraction of a second for things around us to thousands of years for distant stars.
[WAR: As I've mentioned before, the stellar even to produce the crown of 12 stars above the constellation Virgo (Rev 12:1) has already happened -- the light just hasn't reached us yet. But it's almost here...]
YAHWEH said to Moses, "I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you. ... Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes and be ready by the 3rd day, because on that day YAHWEH will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people." ... After Moses had gone down the mountain to the people, he consecrated them, and they washed their clothes." (Exo 19:9-14)
[WAR: The assumption has always been that this is talking about 3 consecutive days -- "today, tomorrow ... the 3rd day." But there's another way of viewing this. Moses consecrated the people today and tomorrow, then ... I'll explain the rest on "Friday"...]
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