U.S. IN ISRAEL TO SIMULATE WAR SENARIO

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 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.
18 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.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

Microchip Implant to Link Your Health Records, Credit History, Social Security By Jim Edwards | Oct 5, 2009

Novartis and Proteus Biomedical are not the only companies hoping to implant microchips into patients so that their pill-popping habits can be monitored. VeriChip of Delray Beach, Fl., has an even bolder idea: an implanted chip that links to an online database containing all your medical records, credit history and your social security ID.As this presentation to investors makes clear, the chip and its database could form the basis of a new national identity database lined to Social Security and NationalCreditReport.com. The VeriMed Health Link homepage describes the chip:… a tiny, passive microchip (the nation’s first and only microchip cleared for patient identification by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration) and a secure, private online database that links you to your personal health record. Your Health Link is always with you and cannot be lost or stolen.

That database can be accessed by doctors and nurses:

About the size of a grain of rice, the microchip is inserted just under the skin and contains only a unique, 16-digit identifier. The microchip itself does not contain any other data other than this unique electronic ID, nor does it contain any Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking capabilities. And unlike conventional forms of identification, the Health Link cannot be lost, stolen, misplaced, or counterfeited. It is safe, secure, reversible, and always with you.But VeriChip’s ambitions don’t end there, as this diagram indicates:Yes, it shows your Health Link chip linked to Google, Microsoft, employers and insurers. The company also sees the VeriMed Health Link linked to your identity security services,through a separate VeriChip product, PositiveID. This slide show states:PositiveID puts people in control of their personal health records and financial information, bridging the gap between secure medical records and identity security

PositiveID dovetails with Health Link:Cross marketing opportunities: cross-sell the NationalCreditReport.com customer base the Health Link personal health record and vice-versa,Differentiates PositiveID as the only personal health record that offers identity theft protection,It’s a future in which your doctor tags you like a dog with a microchip that allows anyone with the right privileges to look at your medical records, credit history, social security number (see slide 6), and anything else that stems from that.Suddenly, storing medical records on paper in locked cabinets inside a single doctor’s office starts to look like something we may not want to rush to give up.

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

JOHN LOEFFLER THE PAPACY AND GLOBAL GOVERNMENT
http://britanniaradio.blogspot.com/2009/10/10102009-papacy-and-global-governance.html#links
SIMCHAT TORAH
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/1473

Tropical depression forms in Pacific off Mexico Sun Oct 11, 4:44 pm ET

MIAMI – Forecasters say a tropical depression has formed in the Pacific off Mexico's western coast, and it could become a tropical storm in the next day.On Sunday afternoon, the depression was centered about 400 miles (640 kilometers) south-southeast of the southern tip of Baja California.The storm's top sustained winds are 35 mph (55 kph). Forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami say the system should get stronger and could become a tropical storm late Sunday or Monday.

The depression is moving to the north-northwest near 6 mph (9 kph).The five-day forecast track shows the system could clip the southern part of Baja California later in the week.

Philippines speeds up relief in typhoon-hit north Sun Oct 11, 11:45 am ET

MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines turned its focus on Sunday from rescue operations to sending relief to northern provinces devastated by floods and cut off by landslides as the death toll from two typhoons in 14 days rose to more than 600.Using shovels and their bare hands to avoid triggering more landslides, rescue teams kept up a search for bodies in the areas of northern Luzon island that remained isolated.But Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said in a television interview:The most important thing is to open roads so we can send relief goods because we cannot hope to find alternate routes.We have a massive push using our assets -- the armed forces, coast guard, police, and the U.S. forces are in the north.Officials considered a possible $1 billion rehabilitation plan for typhoon-hit areas to be funded mostly by foreign aid.U.S. troops on exercises nearby sent a C130 transport plane and three Chinook helicopters to help bring food and medicine to Baguio City in mountainous Benguet province, 250 km (155 miles) north of the capital, and nearby areas cut off by landslides.As of now, food and relief materials can only be delivered by helicopters because it will take two to five days to clear up roads and bridges washed out by floods and landslides,said Lieutenant-Colonel Ernesto Torres, spokesman for the national disaster agency.Lieutenant-Colonel Romeo Brawner, spokesman for the Philippine military, said: We are now slowly diverting our attention from rescue operations to disaster relief operations.

BOULDERS BLOCKING ROADS

Olive Luces, head of the civil defense office in the northern Cordillera region, said the main access roads to Baguio City were still cut off by landslides.He said boulders twice as high as commuter vans blocked the winding highway snaking through the mountains.The latest report from the national disaster agency put the death toll from Typhoon Parma, which hit the Philippines a week ago, at 193, including 134 from Benguet province alone.But Luces said at least 152 died in Benguet, a toll higher than in the official report, with 50 others killed in Baguio and 29 in the nearby Mt. Province not included in the report by the national headquarters.Initial estimates of damage from the two storms on production of rice, the country's staple, was estimated at 478,000 tonnes, equivalent to 7 percent of the forecast harvest of 6.5 million tonnes in the fourth quarter, Jesus Emmanuel Paras, agriculture undersecretary, said on Saturday.Manila, the world's biggest rice buyer, is considering importing rice to augment its supply for 2010 after the typhoon damage, with Vietnam and Thailand eager to provide the grain.Teodoro said total damage to crops and infrastructure from the two storms amounted to at least 15 billion pesos ($324 million), with the Philippines now rushing a 10 billion peso additional budget for 2009 to fund rehabilitation efforts.Joey Salceda, governor of Albay province in central Philippines and the president's economic adviser, proposed creating a $1 billion fund, overseen by a committee made up of members of the public and private organizations, to rebuild areas devastated by the typhoons.Salceda said the government should tap foreign donor agencies and bilateral partners to commit funds in an international pledging session that could be held in Spain and Japan, the top two providers of bilateral grants to the country.Besides setting off landslides in the mountains, rains dumped by Typhoon Parma have swollen rivers and reservoirs, forcing dams used for hydropower and irrigation to release water and causing more flooding in areas downstream. Parma first hit the Philippines on October 3 and hovered around the northern part of the main Luzon island throughout the week before weakening and moving out to sea.The floods and mudslides came two weeks after another storm, Ketsana, inundated areas in and around Manila, killing 337 people and forcing half a million from their homes.(Reporting by Manny Mogato and Rosemarie Francisco, Editing by Jeffrey Heller)

EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

EARTHQUAKES

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

Moderate 5.9 quake shakes Tonga Sat Oct 10, 5:33 pm ET

NEW YORK – A moderate magnitude 5.9 earthquake shook the South Pacific near Tonga on Sunday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. No tsunami watch was issued.The quake struck at 8:41 Sunday morning (1941 GMT Saturday) at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), the USGS said.It was centered 65 kilometers (40 miles) east-northeast Hihifo, Tonga, and 645 kilometers (400 miles) north-northeast of the capital, Nuku'alofa, Tonga, the agency reported.Sunday's quake was 260 kilometers (160 miles) southwest of Apia, Samoa, which was hit by a quake and a devastating tsunami on Sept. 29, with at least 183 people killed.The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued no tsunami warning after Sunday's quake.

INVENTION OF THE ATOMIC BOMB.

2 PETER 3:10-11
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,

NUCLEAR WEAPONS WILL BE USED.

PSALMS 97:3
3 A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about.

REVELATION 14:18-20
18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
20 And the winepress was trodden without the city,(JERUSALEM) and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.(200 MILES) (THE SIZE OF ISRAEL)

ISAIAH 66:15-18
15 For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.
17 They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD.
18 For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.

ISAIAH 26:21
21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.(WW3,1/2 earths population die).

ISAIAH 13:6-13 KJV
6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:(FROM FRIGHT)
8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

ISAIAH 24:17-23 KJV
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

2 TIMOTHY 3:1
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.

JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.

EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.

ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

REVELATION 9:18
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)

LUKE 17:34-37
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).

MATTHEW 24:37-51
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49 And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Israel, US to simulate response to war Sunday, 11 October 2009 06:34 News from Jerusalem .An IDF drill at Shizafon (Photo IDF)

Israel and the United States, amid growing tensions with Iran, will simulate interoperability between missile defense systems this week during the biennial Juniper Cobra missile defense exercise.The exercise, set to simulate a response in the event of war between Israel, the Islamic republic, Syria and Hizbullah, will begin on Monday and end on Friday. More than 1,000 American troops from the European Command in Stuttgart, Germany have deployed in Israel for the exercise - mostly in the Negev - in addition to some 15 missile ships, some of them carrying the Aegis ballistic missile defense system.Adm. Mark Fitzgerald, commander of the US Navy's Sixth Fleet, will oversee the exercise alongside senior officers from EUCOM and the US Missile Defense Agency. On the Israeli side, the commander of the exercise will be the new head of the Israel Air Force's Air Defense Division, Brig.-Gen. Doron Gavish.On Friday, Iranian cleric Mojtaba Zolnour, who is Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's representative in the Revolutionary Guard, said that if a US or Israeli missile lands in Iran, Iranian missiles will hit Israel in retaliation.

Should a single American or Zionist missile land in our country, before the dust settles, Iranian missiles will blow up the heart of Israel,Zolnour was quoted as saying by the state IRNA news agency.In March, Iran's deputy army chief made similar remarks, warning that his country would eliminate Israel if it attacked the Islamic republic.Should Israel take any action against Iran, we will eliminate Israel from the scene of the universe,Gen. Muhammad Reza Ashtiani said at the time in Teheran.
Ashtiani claimed Israel was very vulnerable and dismissed allegations that Iran was worried about Israeli maneuvers.Due to its special conditions, Israel is very vulnerable in the region,he said.The aggressors will face a crushing response.The Juniper Cobra exercise will include the Arrow missile defense system as well as three American systems - the THAAD, Aegis and PAC-3 - that will all be deployed in Israel for the duration of the exercise.The purpose of the exercise, defense officials said, was to ensure that if there were a need, the Israeli Arrow 2 ballistic missile defense system would be capable of working with American systems that might be deployed here to bolster Israeli defenses.Israel is in the midst of developing a multi-layered missile system that starts with the Arrow for long-range missiles; the David's Sling for medium-range missiles, that is currently under development and will be operational in a few years; and the Iron Dome to counter short-range rockets, which will be deployed along the Gaza border in the coming year.

According to some media reports, Juniper Cobra will involve limited live fire from the Israeli and US defense systems. Israeli defense officials would not confirm the reports, but said that it was possible that, following the exercise, the US would decide to leave in Israel some of the systems, most likely the Patriot PAC-3 defense system.Expectations in Israel are that the US will deploy several Aegis ballistic missile ships - which are capable of intercepting ballistic missiles - in the Mediterranean and Red seas. Israel is already home to the advanced X-Band radar that the Bush administration gave as a farewell gift last October.jpost

U.S. forces in Israel for missile drill Saturday, 10 October 2009 17:08 News from Jerusalem .X-Band Radar system

Amid smoldering tension with Iran, U.S. forces are deploying in Israel for a strategically important ballistic missile defense exercise, considered one of the most complex ever conducted by the two allies.Juniper Cobra 2009, the latest in a biennial series that began in 2001, will focus on how well U.S. and Israeli forces can integrate and operate together in any future confrontation with the Islamic Republic.U.S. officials insist that the exercise, due to commence Monday and end next Friday, is routine.This exercise is not related to or in response to any world events,the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv stressed.But the maneuvers have taken on added importance since the U.S. administration scrapped plans to deploy land-based ballistic missile defense systems in Eastern Europe in August. The focus will now be on U.S. naval forces in the Mediterranean and the North Sea.Military exercises like Juniper Cobra do not take place in a vacuum,according to the Texas-based security consultancy Strategic Forecasting.The 2009 exercises were scheduled for spring. It seems that the schedule changed and regardless of the reason, the timing of these exercises will ratchet up already sky-high tensions between the West and Iran.The exercises, it added, were certainly a show of force at a politically opportune moment.It is also possible that the unusually extensive U.S. participation this year is intended to reassure Israel, which considers Iran's nuclear and missile programs to be an existential threat.

Israel has threatened to launch unilateral pre-emptive strikes against Iran, while Washington, seeking to pursue a diplomatic solution, has urged caution. The sizeable U.S. deployment for Juniper Cobra 2009 could be meant to convince Israel to stay its hand.There has been speculation that the Americans will leave behind some missile units when the maneuvers end to bolster Israel's defenses.Some 1,000 troops from the U.S. European Command, headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, and 15 warships from the U.S. 6th Fleet will participate in Juniper Cobra to work alongside Israelis in countering computer-simulated missile attacks from Iran and its Arab ally Syria, as well as from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.The Israelis have long feared that if Iran launched a ballistic missile strike at the Jewish state, it would be accompanied at some point by shorter-range attacks from Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.Israel is in the process of building a multilayered defense shield against all calibers of missiles, dominated by the high-altitude, long-range Arrow-2 anti-ballistic system, whose development over the last decade has been largely funded by the Americans.But the U.S. military, whose bases and installations in the Middle East are also potential targets for Iranian missiles, has found that Israel has become a handy testing ground for its own ballistic missile defense systems.This dates back to the 1991 Gulf War, when Israel came under fire from Scud-type missiles unleashed by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The U.S. Army deployed Patriot missile batteries in the Jewish state to bolster Israel's own Patriots.Juniper Cobra will involve limited live-fire exercises. The Israelis will test their upgraded Arrows during Juniper Cobra, while the Americans will test three of their BMD systems.The Patriot Advanced Capability-3 batteries will link with an advanced U.S. X-band radar unit, capable of detecting and tracking multiple incoming missiles. That unit, manned by U.S. personnel, was set up at the Nevarim air base in the southern Negev desert in 2008.

The Americans will also deploy the Theater High Altitude Area Defense system, which works in conjunction with PAC-3 to intercept missiles in the final phase of their trajectory.The 6th Fleet ships, which will be an integral part of the new U.S. BMD network, will complete the triad of U.S. BMD systems with the Standard Missile-3 aboard upgraded Aegis guided-missile cruisers and destroyers.This will not be the first time different elements of the U.S. BMD architecture have been tested together,Stratfor noted,but there will be noteworthy developments nonetheless: Operating with foreign systems could offer considerable insight into the true state and deployability of the current American BMD architecture.UPI

Israel May Bomb Iran by Christmas? Saturday, 10 October 2009 07:26 News from Jerusalem .Sneh. Elicited Iranian response (Photo Yaron Brener)

Iran's ambassador to UN demands Security Council take steps against comments made by Ephraim Sneh, who said Israel would attack Iran if sanctions weren't in place by Christmas.Iran's ambassador to the UN, Mohammad Khazaee, sent a letter of protest to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moonin which he wrote that there is no explanation for Israel's continuing threats against Tehran.He was referring to an interview given by former Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh to the Sunday Times in which he said that if Iran were not further sanctioned by this Christmas Israel would attack the country.Sneh told the paper that if Israel were forced to attack the Islamic Republic on its own it would do so, remarks the Iranian ambassador deemed irresponsible.He said he hoped the UN would take steps against such comments. Remarks such as these, stated once in a while by Israeli leaders, are no more than sorry excuses aimed at avoiding supplying answers regarding Israel's nuclear arsenal and deflecting public awareness from the crimes and terror Israel commits in the region,he said.Khazaee once again stressed that his country's nuclear program was intended for peaceful purposes and said that the only threat in the region is Israel's nuclear arsenal, which remains unsupervised to this day.ynet

Turkey Forced to Cancel Drill After US, Italy Pull Out Tishrei 23, 5770, 11 October 09 03:09by Hana Levi Julian

(Israelnationalnews.com) A multinational military drill has reportedly been cancelled due to Turkey's unwillingness to allow the Israel Air Force to participate in the exercise.The cancellation came after the United States and other nations allegedly withdrew from the joint drill following Turkey's ban on Israel's participation.The air force exercise, which has been held five times since June 2001, was to be hosted by Ankara and originally involved Turkey, Italy, the U.S., NATO forces and the IAF.But Turkish military officials informed the IDF last week that the IAF was not welcome to fly in this week's Anatolian Eagle exercise due to the use of its planes during Israel's counterterrorism Operation Cast Lead in Gaza last winter.The operation was launched by Israel on December 27, 2008 to end the thousands of rocket attacks fired at civilians living in towns and cities in Israel's southern region. It lasted until Janary 20, 2009.Anatolian Eagle was slated to begin Monday, October 12, and continue through October 23.

According to a Jerusalem source, the United States and other members of NATO (North American Treaty Organization) expressed to Turkish officials their displeasure at the ban on Israel.Turkey was forced to postpone the exercise indefinitely after the U.S. and Italy refused to take part without the IAF.Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told Voice of Israel government radio on Sunday, however, that Turkey has been, and remains an important strategic anchor in the Middle East, and certainly its relations with Israel are something that serve the entire region.The Anatolian Eagle exercise, intended to improve international aerial cooperation, was hosted at the Konya air base, 250 kilometers south of Ankara. The aircraft trained over the plains of Anatolia (hence the name), near Turkey's borders with Syria, Iran and Iraq.Israel and Turkey, which until last year enjoyed strong diplomatic, military and trade relations, have flown together over each other's territory in various joint military drills since the signing of a bilateral defense alliance between the two nations in 1996.Formerly warm ties between Israel and Turkey have cooled considerably since Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's harsh criticism of Israel's role in Operation Cast Lead.Tensions between Turkey and Israel intensified in the wake of a harsh debate over the matter between Erdogan and President Shimon Peres at the World Economic Forum, held in Davos, Switzerland last January.

Clinton downplays threat to Pakistan nuke arsenal By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer – OCT 11,09

BELFAST, Northern Ireland – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday the Taliban siege of Pakistan's army headquarters showed extremists are a growing threat in the nuclear-armed American ally, but she contended they don't pose a risk to the country's atomic arsenal.Clinton, in London on the second leg of a five-day tour of Europe and Russia, also joined British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in warning Iran that they would not wait long for the Islamic republic to convince the world that its nuclear intentions are peaceful.Before stops in Ireland and Northern Ireland, Clinton pledged continued U.S. support for the Northern Irish peace process and said those who continued to exacerbate tension and violence are out of step and out of time.With her British counterpart, Clinton said there was nothing to suggest that Pakistan's nuclear weapons could fall into terrorist hands despite Saturday's audacious Taliban attack on the army headquarters in Rawalpindi that highlighted security weaknesses.Clinton said extremists were increasingly threatening the authority of the state, but we see no evidence that they are going to take over the state. We have confidence in the Pakistani government and military's control over nuclear weapons.Miliband told reporters at a joint news conference with Clinton that although Pakistan faced a mortal threat from extremists, there was no danger of its nuclear weapons being compromised.He scolded those who might raise the suggestion. I think it's very important that alarmist talk is not allowed to gather pace,he said.The Taliban have launched a series of increasingly bold attacks on military and political targets in Pakistan in recent months. The latest came Saturday, when militants dressed in military fatigues attacked the army headquarters, taking dozens of hostages. The 22-hour siege ended Sunday when commandos stormed the building. At least 19 people died in the standoff, including three captives and eight of the militants.

Miliband said he and Clinton had spent much of their time discussing the conflict in Afghanistan, the situation in neighboring Pakistan and the crisis over Iran's nuclear program.They deferred comment on the Obama administration's review of how to handle Afghanistan, particularly following allegations of fraud in the presidential election in August. But they were firm on Iran, which is defying international demands to come clean about its nuclear ambitions.Clinton warned Iran that the world will not wait indefinitely for proof it is not trying to develop atomic weapons. Iran insists it has the right to a full domestic enrichment program that it maintains is only for peaceful purposes such as energy production.She said a recent meeting in Geneva in which Iran and six world powers resumed nuclear talks was "a constructive beginning, but it must be followed by action.Miliband added that Iran will never have a better opportunity to establish normal relations with the international community.Before leaving London, Clinton met British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat outside London, and stressed that the trans-Atlantic special relationship remained strong.On arriving in Dublin for a brief stop before heading for Belfast, Northern Ireland, Clinton met Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen and urged communities in Ireland and Northern Ireland to follow through on the peace process.There's a deadlock between Northern Ireland's rival Catholic and Protestant leaders over transferring responsibility for Northern Ireland's justice system from British to local hands.The step of devolution for policing and justice is an absolutely essential milestone, Clinton said. Clearly there are questions and some apprehension, but I believe that ... the parties understand that this is a step they must take together.On her way out of Dublin, Clinton stopped at Bewley's cafe for a coffee to go, drawing large crowds on Grafton Street, and took a few sips before ordering a half pint of Harp lager at McDaids, a nearby pub. She was accompanied by the U.S. ambassador to Ireland, Daniel Rooney.

Late Sunday night, Clinton arrived in Belfast, where she planned to meet Monday with Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness. She also planned to address the Northern Ireland assembly and said she would provide lawmakers with as much encouragement and support as I can.Cowen said he believed progress on the matter would be achieved in the coming days.Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

FAMINE

REVELATION 6:5-6
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.(A DAYS WAGES FOR A LOAF OF BREAD)

FAMINE

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

Dinner is grass in South Sudan after drought kills crops by Guillaume Lavallee – Sun Oct 11, 1:13 pm ET

LOBIRA BOMA (AFP) – In a rustic village at the foot of a steep mountain, women prepare meals by crushing dried grasses, all there is to eat after drought left over a million people in south Sudan short of food.You soak the herbs in water, and then eat. This is what we eat every day,said Juspine Ifuho, showing the fine green powder collected from a hollow in the rock she uses as a mortar.At the edge of Lobira Boma in East Equatoria state, home of people from the Latuka tribe, a valley extends all the way to the neighbouring mountains.In these remote regions of south Sudan, farmers depend mainly on rain to grow sorghum, millet and peanuts, but a severe drought in May and June ruined the summer harvest.We have nothing else to eat because the harvest is gone. We should buy grain at the market, but we don't have money,said Pilagio Ohiasa, the village's deputy chief, dressed in a (American Football team) Dallas Cowboys T-shirt.The drought, price rises and the increase in tribal violence all contribute to the severe food insecurity which affects 1.5 million people in south Sudan, according to Michelle Iseminger, director of operations of the World Food Program (WFP) in South Sudan.Those who have cows can sell them (to buy food), but not everyone has cows,Ohiasa said.At the local market, there no fruits or vegetables on the stalls, only bottled water, fizzy drinks and biscuits brought over from Kenya and Uganda through torturous routes and sold at high prices.

Eastern Equatoria used to be a food basket for all of southern Sudan, but this year is different. We don't have anything at all,said Dennis Okumu, food security and nutrition officer at the Catholic Diocese of Torit.The main stable food crop here is sorghum and for people here without sorghum, there is nothing,he told AFP.The region gets an average of 360 millimetres (14 inches) of rainfall between March and September, but this year there were only 280 mm, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said.The big problem is the distribution of the rains,explained Rogerio Bonifacio, of FAO Sudan.A rainy April followed three parched months which destroyed the crops.The month of May was one of the driest in 10 or 15 years,he said.

The vast resource-rich but underdeveloped area is blessed with fertile land. But south Sudan is still trying to recover from a devastating civil war with the north that left two million people dead by its end in 2005.South Sudan has a history of war. After the peace agreement in 2005, emphasis was placed on education and basic services. It's only now that agricultural activities are restarting. But the systems in place are not very developed,said March Bloch, regional representative for the Swiss aid agency Caritas.In Lobira Boma, residents have replanted millet and peanuts on sun-drenched land. They hope for rain... and new food aid.

FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS

REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

New warning for catastrophic Australian wildfires Sun Oct 11, 2:50 am ET

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australian officials Sunday announced a new warning for catastrophic bushfires, under which residents would be urged to abandon their homes rather than stay and fight the flames.The scrapping of the controversial stay or go policy, which left homeowners to make their own decision on whether to flee an approaching blaze, follows February's so-called Black Saturday fires in which 173 people died.

Victoria state Premier John Brumby said the new fire danger rating system acknowledged that when weather conditions were at the most extreme level -- termed Code Red (Catastrophic) -- lives would be in danger.There is no house that can be guaranteed to be 100 percent safe on such a day,he told reporters.Authorities will not be able to force people to leave their homes, but residents of bushfire-prone areas will now be strongly urged to seek safety elsewhere early on a Code Red (Catastrophic) day, he said.A Code Red (Catastrophic) day will also carry the warning that: people may die or be injured; thousands of homes or businesses may be destroyed; and well prepared, well constructed homes may not be safe during a fire, he said.As Australia enters into the southern hemisphere summer, Brumby said it was crucial that the lessons of the February 7 fires remained fresh in the minds of all Victorians.The task for us all is to work together to be as fire-safe and as fire-ready as possible, to protect lives in a fire season that's shaping up to be every bit as bad or worse than the season we've just experienced.It is expected that at least one day this summer will reach the Code Red level seen on February 7 when entire towns and more than 2,000 homes were destroyed in the blazes, Australia's worst natural disaster of modern times.

DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADE BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).

David Miliband lined up as EU foreign minister- David Miliband is being lined up to become the European Union’s first foreign minister as a plan B should Tony Blair be blocked from becoming its president.By Patrick Hennessy and Bruno Waterfield, in Brussels Published: 10:15AM BST 11 Oct 2009

With resistance growing in some countries to Mr Blair, diplomats have been suggesting alternatives to boost Britain’s standing in the reshaped EU.One hypothetical suggestion gaining ground in Brussels links the Foreign Secretary to the job of High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, a post created by the Lisbon Treaty.Tories ready for war if Blair becomes EU president If Blair does not get the presidential job, then Miliband is in line to become the High Rep. This means Britain would keep a top post,said an EU official.It is a powerful post and he could really make something interesting of it.If Mr Miliband took the job next year, he would have to resign from the Cabinet. This would be likely to lead to claims that he had effectively given up on Labour’s chances of winning the next general election.The post, effectively that of European foreign minister, is widely regarded in diplomatic circles as being equal, or even superior, to the presidency. Any future EU foreign minister will become Europe’s front line trouble shooter in conflicts, such as the war in Georgia last year.He will also play a leading role in the day-day-to management of international negotiations in the Middle East and with Iran.Mr Miliband’s tenure as Foreign Secretary has won him admirers in Brussels where many are understood to consider him ideal material.

From The Sunday Times October 11, 2009 Germans seek to oust Czech president Vaclav Klaus over EU treaty-Sudeten Germans leaving the Czech Republic in 1946
Bojan Pancevski in Brussels

Revelling in the fuss he was causing, Vaclav Klaus, the president of the Czech Republic, calmly tucked into a plate of steamed shellfish on the terrace of the elegant Adriatic hotel in the Albanian seaside resort of Durres last week. In faraway Brussels furious diplomats were calling for his impeachment and even his country’s expulsion from the European Union because of his obstinate refusal to sign the Lisbon treaty. Klaus, now the only European leader holding out against ratifying the document, made it clear he did not give a damn. European leaders were told he was not available to take their calls. The Eurosceptic president and his wife Livia were completing a brief tour of the Balkan country where Klaus, 68, attended the launch of the Albanian edition of his controversial book, Blue Planet in Green Shackles, which argues there is no such thing as man-made global warming.The trip had clearly been planned to coincide with the diplomatic blitz that Brussels launched after last weekend’s referendum in Ireland, which appeared to remove the final hurdle to ratification. Klaus seemed to have other ideas.Lech Kaczynski, the Polish president, left Klaus further isolated by signing the treaty into law yesterday. The EU remains a union of nation states, a strict union, and let it remain so,Kaczynski said.Calling the organisation a successful experiment without precedent in human history, he said it could not be closed to those who wish to join,not only in the Balkans but also countries like Georgia.

On Klaus’s return to Prague he dropped a political bombshell. At a press conference in his official residence the Czech leader announced that he would sign the treaty only if his government negotiated an opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which is incorporated in the treaty.He was concerned that the charter may permit retrospective property claims by the Sudeten Germans, a 3.5m-strong minority group expelled from the Czech Republic after the second world war.I have always considered this treaty a step in the wrong direction,Klaus said. As he is well aware, the slightest change to the treaty, which was first proposed in 2001, would require all 27 EU member countries to agree.His remarks were greeted with outrage in Europe. German and French diplomats, in talks with their Czech counterparts, explored two ways of removing the Klaus obstacle: impeach him or change the Czech constitution to take away his right of veto.If the president is obstructing the democratic process and opposing the decision of parliament as well as the will of the people, he is moving beyond the law and will need to face the consequences,a German diplomat told The Sunday Times.Jiri Oberfalzer, a member of the Czech senate and Klaus’s closest ally, said Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, had already threatened the Czechs with expulsion from the EU.Ideas of changing the constitution just to get rid of the president only shows how weak our young democracy is,said Oberfalzer, a Eurosceptic.

The political hot potato now lands in the hands of the caretaker government of Jan Fischer, the prime minister.Under the Czech constitution a president can be impeached only if he commits high treason against the country’s independence or its territorial integrity and democratic order. It is highly unlikely that parliament would pass such a measure under Fischer’s interim government.There are other hurdles. The treaty has been approved by the Czech parliament but senators loyal to Klaus have lodged three challenges with the constitutional court, which has rejected two and is widely expected to follow suit with the third.Opponents of the treaty hope that Klaus will be able to stall ratification until the British general election in May. David Cameron, the Tory leader, has promised a referendum if his party wins and the treaty is still unsigned.Klaus is unlikely to give in without at least some concessions. He is said to want to be seen as the leader who derailed the European project. A comparison is being drawn in Prague with Edvard Benes, the pre-war Czech leader who in 1938 had to flee to Britain after refusing to cede territory to Hitler under the Munich agreement.

Czech president last obstacle for EU reform treaty
By KAREL JANICEK and GEORGE JAHN (AP) – OCT 10,09

PRAGUE — The Irish finally said yes, and the Poles did Saturday, but the EU reform treaty still has a huge hurdle to clear. A "no" from the lone holdout — Czech President Vaclav Klaus — could cripple plans to transform Europe into a global player.For most European leaders the treaty is a big step toward a European Union that is more effective, more accountable and better prepared to take on big issues on the world stage.Not for vehemently Euro-skeptic Klaus, who has been tirelessly attacking the treaty — and now finds himself in the unique position of potentially blocking it.Klaus is a largely ceremonial head of state — like the Queen of England —and since both houses of Parliament have ratified the treaty, he is all but legally bound to sign the document.However, speculation runs high he may try to hold off on his blessing until British elections next year — which the famously Euro-skeptic Conservatives are expected to win easily.That could prove fatal for the treaty: The Tories have pledged a referendum on the charter if it has not been ratified by the time they are elected. With the British traditionally aloof — if not downright hostile — toward continental Europe, they would be expected to vote no.The reason Klaus may have some stalling time is that a group of anti-EU Czech senators have mounted a challenge to the treaty in the nation's Constitutional Court.The tribunal is expected to reject their charges of unconstitutionality (it has already rejected a similar challenge in the past) but if the proceedings drag on, Klaus may just have a chance of withholding his signature until the crucial British poll.

Failure of the Lisbon treaty would send the EU into an unprecedented crisis.

At stake for Europe are lofty plans for new posts of EU president and foreign minister, a streamlined decision-making process, and more powers to the European Parliament. Treaty negotiators say the reforms are needed to make the EU function more effectively in line with its rapid growth eastward since 2004.The conservative Klaus relishes being at odds with the mainstream. He is outspoken in questioning the widely accepted view that humanity is the probable cause of global warming, and is a strong opponent of gay marriage in what is considered one of Europe's more liberal nations.The fate of the Lisbon Treaty, a document for a half billion community, is entirely in the hands of the Czech president,the Czech daily Lidove Noviny said in a recent editorial.Will he sign, in the end? Or will he not?

A cautious person would not bet on it.Klaus argues that the treaty gives too much power to Brussels and strips individual countries of their sovereignty by removing their veto power and replacing it with majority voting.The Lisbon Treaty is a step back to the rejected European Constitution,Klaus said recently on his official Web site.It is a document that represents a significant shift from an Europe of states to an Europe of one single European state.Klaus remains unflappable amid heated speculation about his intentions.Consider the (senators') criticism serious and I expect the Constitutional Court will provide convincing answers,Klaus said last month.It is only on the basis (of those answers) that I can consider further action.

But he makes no secret of his stance.My views are known and clear,he said after the upper house approved the charter in May.I cannot afford to be, at one moment, absolutely against (it), and then, just easily change my mind just because it is about to suit my political or career goals.Those close to him suggest that his comments are vintage Klaus. Ladislav Jakl, the president's chief political adviser, said it would be typical for Klaus not to decide until he has to.Among factors that will tip his decision, Jakl said, would be the Constitutional Court ruling and the public's reaction to that decision.Even before the court weighs in, however, it seems clear most Czechs want the treaty.A Sanep agency poll showed 53 percent of 4,320 respondents aged 18-66 saying they would approve it in a referendum, with 44 percent thinking Klaus is damaging the country's image by withholding his signature and 43 wanting him to sign without delay.The margin of error for the survey conducted Oct 1-3 was plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.In the end, President Klaus will sign the treaty,said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso last week, while French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned of unspecified consequences for the Czech Republic if Klaus continues to withhold his signature.But Klaus seems unimpressed — both by the polls and a full-court press in Brussels and elsewhere meant to budge the contrarian president.

Instead of buckling to pressure, Klaus is making demands — calling for Czech exemption to a human rights charter included in the treaty that the Poles and the British have also secured.On the home front, pro-treaty politicians are girding for battle, if Klaus withholds his signature despite Constitutional Court rejection of objections to it.If he rejects, someone else has to do it,said deputy Senate speaker Alena Gajduskova.She said that both parliamentary chambers could vote to strip the president of his power to approve the treaty if he fails to act and instead have Prime Minister Jan Fischer sign.Klaus could even be charged with high treason, Gajduskova said, while adding that was unlikely.Jahn reported from Vienna. Associated Press writers Ondrej Hejma in Prague and David Stringer in London contributed to the report.

Czech Republic to table Klaus demand at EU summit
HONOR MAHONY Today OCT 12,09 @ 17:42 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Czech government on Monday indicated it intends to put an eleventh-hour demand by Czech President Vaclav Klaus concerning the Lisbon Treaty on the table of an EU summit at the end of this month.After thoroughly assessing all internal and foreign political aspects, the government declares its readiness to negotiate with its European partners about a possible solution to the current situation,Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer said following an emergency meeting to discuss the situation, reports the Czech Happenings news service.Mr Fischer made it clear that the discussions should take place at the 29-30 October summit and that he would try and ensure it would be Mr Klaus' last demand.The move represents something of a victory for Mr Klaus, who on Friday caused a political ruckus in Brussels by suddenly demanding that Prague be awarded an opt-out from the fundamental rights charter contained in the Lisbon Treaty.His demand came atop his months-long refusal to sign the treaty, which has been ratified by Czech parliament.It has put Mr Fischer, currently presiding over a caretaker government, in an awkward position.

The Czech prime minister had previously sought to reassure other member states that there would not be a further delay in final ratification of the treaty if the court declares it compatible with the Czech constitution.The government states with regret that the president's demand was not known when negotiations on the Lisbon treaty were held, nor was it raised during the ratification process in parliament,the prime minister said after the meeting.Mr Klaus made the surprise move on the Charter of Fundamental Rights because he said he was concerned that it could be used by ethnic Germans to seek compensation for property taken at the end of World War Two after they were expelled from Czechoslovakia.But a Czech opt-out has raised fears that the ratification process could be re-opened in all member states.

Guessing game

Mr Klaus appears to have rejected the easier path of negotiating guarantees on interpretation of the charter, in a syle similar to the guarantees secured by the Irish government on an interpretation of the treaty in politically sensitive areas.
Ladislav Jakl, the Czech president's spokesperson told the Irish Times that this [Irish way] seems to me as an absolutely impossible way forward.The president will not be satisfied by any declaration, but only guarantees for every citizen. For him, this condition is fundamental, necessary, unbreachable.The eurosceptic Mr Klaus, a vocal opponent of the EU treaty, has kept Brussels guessing as to his next actions for several months now.His signature is needed to complete ratification of the treaty in the central European country. It would also lead to the treaty's implementation across the 27 member states.The treaty is currently being examined for a second time by the Czech constitutional court, but there is no guarantee that Mr Klaus will put pen to paper if the judges, as after the first examination, give it the green light.Other member states are impatient. The mandate of the current European Commission as well as the EU foreign policy chief expire at the end of this month.Several decisions on a new commission and other appointments can only be taken once other capitals have a clearer idea of Mr Klaus' timetable and demands.Prime Minister Fischer will travel to Brussels on Tuesday to discuss the delicate situation with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

Associated Press Polish president ratifies EU reform treaty
10.10.09, 06:19 AM EDT

WARSAW, Poland -- Poland's president has completed his country's ratification of the European Union reform treaty - leaving the Czech Republic as the only nation yet to sign off on the agreement.President Lech Kaczynski signed Poland's ratification of the so-called Lisbon Treaty on Saturday at a ceremony attended by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.Poland's parliament overwhelmingly approved the treaty last year, but Kaczynski's signature was still needed.To come into force, it must be ratified by all 27 EU nations. Czech President Vaclav Klaus has not yet signed it.

Poland ratifies Lisbon Treaty as Czech cloud hangs overhead
ANDREW RETTMAN 10.10.2009 @ 15:18 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Polish President Lech Kaczynski signed the Lisbon Treaty at a ceremony in Warsaw on Saturday (10 October). But Czech head of state Vaclav Klaus put a dampener on the occasion with attempts to revive World War II-era tensions from his castle in Prague.The Polish ceremony got off to a humorous start.After making the EU wait for 557 days since the Polish parliament passed the treaty and in full view of foreign VIPs and TV cameras, Mr Kaczynski's first pen failed to write, forcing him to ask for a new one.It wasn't planned, a Polish official, Pawel Wypych, later told Polish TV. Mr Kaczynski warmly endorsed Poland's EU membership. But he said integration should not go too far and indicated that his accord is based on trust that the EU will take in more former Communist states in the future.Without any complexes, without fears we have opted for further integration with the European Union, because we feel good, we feel confident inside this fellowship, he said.The union is a collection of sovereign states and will remain so. But co-operation will become ever more close.The union as an exceptionally successful experiment cannot be closed to others who want to join it. Not just Balkan countries, but also Ukraine, Georgia, in the future, others. The union can't say No to them,he added, in his final words before putting pen to paper.The event was attended by EU commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, Swedish leader and EU president-in-office Frederik Reinfeldt and Mr Kaczynski's political nemesis, Polish premier Donald Tusk.

News emerged earlier on Saturday that 60 Polish MPs have signed a petition to send the treaty to the Polish Constitutional Tribunal to see if it is compatible with national law.The move, if it goes ahead, could force Prime Minister Tusk to give MPs more powers over his dealings with Brussels in line with recent reforms in Germany.
But the real cloud hanging over the events in Warsaw was a grumpy Vaclav Klaus, who made clear on Friday that he plans to push for last-minute changes to the EU's new treaty at the upcoming 29 October summit.

Klaus reveals his hand

The Czech president said in a statement that he wants Prague to get an exemption from the Charter of Fundamental Rights on the model of Polish and British opt-outs, which were added to Lisbon in 2007 in a special protocol.The opt-out is needed, he added, in order to make sure that German families expelled from the Czech Republic 65years ago cannot use EU courts to claim back their property.[The charter] will make it possible to bypass Czech courts and to raise property claims, for example, of those displaced after World War II directly before the Court of Justice of the EU, he said.From a legal point of view, it is unclear whether Mr Klaus as president is entitled to demand changes on behalf of Prague or if the other 26 EU states would have to re-ratify the document if a change is made.The Czech president voiced anger that Sweden's Mr Reinfeldt forced him to unveil his Lisbon challenge earlier than he had planned, by revealing the contents of their phone conversation on Thursday to journalists.After the disclosure of the contents of our conversation that – according to our agreement – was to stay confidential, a number of speculations appeared that I'd like to stop,he said.

WHY WILL ISRAEL ATTACK IRAN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEpp9E6aJGw&feature=player_embedded

Lisbon Treaty: Europe’s Slow-Moving Coup d’État From the desk of Soeren Kern on Sat, 2009-10-10 15:43

Irish voters have overwhelmingly approved the European Union’s controversial Lisbon Treaty, a document that will forever change the dynamics of European (and potentially global) politics. The yes vote comes less than 18 months after Irish voters gave the wrong answer by rejecting the treaty in a first referendum.According to the final results, 67.1 percent of Irish voters approved the treaty, while 32.9 percent voted no.Turnout in the three-million electorate was 58 percent.During the past year, the Irish government has faced intense pressure from an irate European political establishment, which demanded a second referendum that would produce the correct answer. Dublin achieved the desired result by playing on public fears over Ireland’s faltering economy, which is expected to contract by a shocking 10 percent this year. It also warned that Ireland would be pushed out or left behind in Europe in the event of another no vote, a disconcerting prospect for a country traumatized by the second-highest unemployment rate in the EU.Ireland, which accounts for 1 percent of the Union’s 500 million population, was the only one of the EU’s 27 member states to put the Lisbon Treaty to a public referendum. Twenty-four other EU countries quietly rubber-stamped the treaty in their parliaments, which has proved to be a far less risky route than direct democracy to get the document ratified. The leaders of Poland and the Czech Republic, the only two remaining holdouts, will now be induced to ratify the treaty as quickly as possible (the parliaments of both countries have already approved the treaty) so that the grand European project can proceed apace.The Lisbon Treaty, also known as the Reform Treaty, is nearly identical to the European Constitution, a document that was soundly rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005. Among many other innovations, the 250-plus page Lisbon Treaty will establish a permanent EU president (Tony Blair?), a European foreign minister and a European Union diplomatic service. The agreement also paves the way for the covert creation of a European army by way of a mutual defense clause called Permanent Structured Cooperation.

Moreover, the Lisbon Treaty obligates EU nations to surrender their sovereignty in many areas to centralized decision-making; and it reduces national veto rights to allow more decisions to be made by majority voting instead of by unanimous consent.
The Lisbon Treaty is the stunning culmination of more than 50 years of European economic and political integration, a process that has resulted in the systematic erosion of democracy and democratic accountability in Europe.The EU has its origins in the Treaty of Rome (1957), which gave birth to the European Economic Community (EEC). The EEC, also known as the Common Market,was a customs union. EEC member countries agreed to dismantle all tariff barriers over a 12-year transitional period, and over time a common tariff was also established for all products coming in from third countries.The Single European Act (1987) extended the scope of the EEC to include not only the free circulation of goods, but also the free movement of persons, capital and services. The Act established a genuine common market, but it also codified European Political Cooperation, which was the forerunner of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).The fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) and the reunification of Germany (1990) led French President François Mitterrand, who feared a return of German hegemony, to search for a way to permanently anchor Germany within European institutions. Together with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who was keen to relieve misgivings in Paris and London about a reunified Germany, Mitterrand worked to transform the whole of Europe into an all-encompassing union.In 1989, an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) established monetary and economic union. In 1990, another IGC was called to study the constitution of a political union. Then, in 1992, following three years of closed-door debate which ignored public demands for more transparency, the Treaty of the European Union (also known as the Treaty of Maastricht) came into being.The Maastricht Treaty modified the Treaty of Rome and the Single European Act by moving far beyond the limits of a common market toward political union. The Maastricht Treaty also changed the official name of the EEC to the European Union.

The Maastricht Treaty created three pillars, one of which enables joint actions in foreign policy and military matters, and another one which enhances co-operation in the fight against crime. The Maastricht Treaty also established a European Central Bank (ECB), fixed exchange rates and introduced a single currency called the euro.In 1998, the Treaty of Amsterdam modified parts of the Maastricht Treaty, again with no public participation. The main change introduced by the Amsterdam Treaty was the creation of a new position called the High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy. The treaty also provided the EU with a common security policy, including the gradual formulation of a common defence policy.In 2001, the Treaty of Nice was designed (once again without public input) to reform the institutional structure of the EU, with a view toward eastward expansion.Fast forward to 2009, and the stated aim of the Lisbon Treaty is to complete the process started by the Treaty of Amsterdam and by the Treaty of Nice with a view to enhancing the efficiency and democratic legitimacy of the Union and to improving the coherence of its action.

Supporters of the Lisbon Treaty say its purpose is to cement European integration by streamlining decision making. But in its essence, the Lisbon Treaty, which has been called a slow motion coup d’état,is all about the centralization of political power by an unelected ruling clique in Brussels who desire to rule Europe free from the constraints of democracy.The Lisbon Treaty also promotes European aspirations far beyond Europe, which is why Americans should take notice. Indeed, European globalists hope the Lisbon Treaty will transform the EU into a superpower capable of counter-balancing the United States in global affairs.European strategists have long been frustrated by Europe’s inability to speak with one voice, a debilitating weakness that often neuters Europe’s economic and political weight on the global stage, especially vis-à-vis the United States. The Lisbon Treaty is designed to remedy this deficiency by imposing a European president and foreign minister at the top of the European edifice.More specifically, the Lisbon Treaty is meant to avoid a repeat of European divisions in the lead up to the Iraq War, when France and Germany were frustrated in their attempts to present a unified European front to block the American invasion. At the time, a fair number of European countries broke ranks with France and Germany and joined the United States in a coalition of the willing,much to the anger of the Brussels elite.By giving unelected EU bureaucrats jurisdiction over questions of war and peace, the Lisbon Treaty will usurp the national prerogatives of its member states on the use of military force. This will make it far more difficult for European allies to support the United States in unpopular wars in the future.The Lisbon Treaty will push the EU in a direction that should be deeply disconcerting to Americans and Europeans alike. The Lisbon Treaty will make Europe more centralized and far less democratic than it already is. For transatlantic relations, this means that many foreign policy decisions that directly affect the United States, ranging from economics and trade to transatlantic cooperation on Islamic counter-terrorism, will increasingly be made by unelected (and often pathologically anti-American) bureaucrats in Brussels rather than by national governments.The history of European integration is a textbook case in how a simple economic treaty can be gradually transformed into an all-encompassing non-democratic supranational federal leviathan. Indeed, the Lisbon Treaty should be a warning to Americans who dream of remaking the United States in Europe’s image.
Soeren Kern is Senior Fellow for Transatlantic Relations at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group.

One More Time: Mitchell Meets with Netanyahu Prior to Departure
by Hana Levi Julian OCT 11,09

(IsraelNN.com) U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell continued his shuttle diplomacy mission between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) on Sunday, meeting once more with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu before heading back to Washington, D.C. It will be the second time the two men have talked since Friday and follows a day of talks with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and other PA officials.The American negotiator was back in Jerusalem Saturday night, meeting with Yitzchak Molcho, chief negotiator for Israel, and Michael Herzog, chief of staff for Defense Minister Ehud Barak, after spending 24 hours in Samaria. The U.S. envoy had followed up his meeting Friday morning with Netanyahu by traveling to Ramallah, where he met with Abbas, PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat and other officials.Mitchell told reporters at a joint news conference with Erekat following a two-hour meeting Friday night, We discussed our common vision of a viable and independent Palestinian state with contiguous territory. President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton are deeply committed to that.Erekat implied in his statement that the PA was continuing to insist on preconditions before it would agree to resuming talks with Israel. The Jewish State, he said, should first express clear commitment to implementing the Roadmap plan, which includes stopping settlement, and be commited to the two-state solution before the PA would agree to resume talks. He also said Israeli and PA negotiators would most likely travel to Washington within the next two weeks.Israel, however, has not made any commitment to freeze construction on public buildings such as synagogues, schools and health clinics in existing communities, nor anywhere in Jerusalem. Moreover, Netanyahu has not approved a freeze on the 2,500 housing units that are currently being built, nor has he reneged on his agreement to allow construction of 450 units that were approved a month ago.

Simchat Torah Dancing in Homesh Ruins
by Gil Ronen OCT 11,09

(IsraelNN.com) Veteran Homesh activists and guests celebrated the holiday of Simchat Torah among the ruins of the Shomron (Samaria) community razed in the 2005 Disengagement and said they believe it would soon be rebuilt.Most of the celebrants were members of the Homesh First group and of the Homesh Yeshiva, which has been operating at the mountainous location for the past two years.It was an uplifting sensation,one of the guests told Arutz Sheva after the holiday ended.There was great holiday joy in the air and excitement over the privilege of holding rounds of dancing in the very spot where a harsh and criminal eviction had taken place. Simchat Torah in a place like Homesh gives strength and power for the coming year.

Hoping for rebirth
Holding Simchat Torah at Homesh is the most symbolic thing,said Homesh First spokesman Yossi Dagan.The ones who came and destroyed Homesh wanted one thing more than anything else: to smash religious Zionism and the strength combined strength of Torah and land which are embodied in the people... The tikkun (correction) of the crime of the expulsion began when thousands of people ascended to Homesh, and is advanced daily by the students of the High Yeshiva at Homesh, who study at the spot despite the many evictions.Dagan added: We are certain that with the grace of HaShem, in the next winter that is coming upon us, the political establishment, too, which already admits that the expulsion was a grave mistake, will correct that mistake and formally and fully re-establish the communities that were uprooted: first, Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim and Kadim in northern Shomron, and later with HaShem's help, the communities of Gush Katif.

Obama wows gay rights activists I will end don't ask-don't tell,Obama vows
By JOSH GERSTEIN Updated 6:19 AM EDT, Sun, Oct 11, 2009

Getty Images President Barack Obama wowed a crowd of gay rights activists Saturday night with an impassioned defense of equality for gays and lesbians, but he offered no new commitments to assuage concerns that he has given a low priority to issues critical to the gay and lesbian community.Obama received a series of rousing ovations from the more than 2,000 attendees at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual dinner in Washington as he insisted he is fully committed to their cause.I’m here with a simple message: I’m here with you in that fight,Obama declared.The president was quick to acknowledge the impatience many gay activists have expressed about his failure to carry through on campaign promises regarding gays in the military and other issues.

Obama's Littlest Constituents
I also appreciate that many of you don’t believe progress has some fast enough. I want to be honest about that,Obama said.Even as we face extraordinary challenges as a nation, we cannot and will not put aside issues of basic equality.We should not be punishing Patriotic Americans who have stepped forward to serve this country. We should be celebrating their willingness,Obama said.I’m working with the Pentagon and its leadership and members of the House and Senate on ending this policy…I will end don’t ask don’t tell. That’s my commitment to you he said to a raucous ovation.But while emphatically renewing his pledge to end the military’s ban on openly gay soldiers and sailors, Obama gave no timetable for making the change, and no promise to put an immediate stop to discharges based on sexual orientation.Obama's comments did omit some of the qualifications he expressed during a speech to gay leaders at the White House in June.As Commander-in-Chief, in a time of war, I do have a responsibility to see that this change is administered in a practical way and a way that takes over the long term,he said then.But while the speech was applauded in the hall, reaction outside of it was was harsher, with many prominent gay voices concerned by the president's lack of specifics.Prominent gay blogger John Aravosis, in a post entitled Where's the Beef?,wrote that Obama repeated his campaign promises. That was it.

An opportunity was missed tonight,said Kevin Dix of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which had urged Obama to set a deadline for ending Don't Ask Don't Tell. When are we going to get this done? We didn't hear any of that tonight Obama said on health care if you want to get anything done in Washington, set a timeline,said Dix. We're just following what he laid out.At one point, Obama conceded that some gay issues have been sidetracked by the economic slump and other crises.Progress may be taking longer than you would like as a result of all that we face. Do not doubt the direction we are headed and the destination we will reach,he said.Obama also asked the gay and lesbian activists not to view their agenda as limited solely to gay civil rights issues.I think it’s important to remember there is not a single issue my administration deals with on daily basis that does not touch on the lives of the LGBT community. We all have stake in reviving this economy. We all have stake in putting people back to work,he said.While some may wish to define you solely by your sexual orientation or gender identity alone, you know and I know that none of us wants to be defined by just one part of what makes us whole.Some activists were eager to hear Obama address gay marriage battles taking place across the country. Obama is only partially aligned with gay advocates on the issue. While he says he personally opposes same-sex marriage, he has also opposed efforts to block or overturn gay marriage at the state level and has called for repeal of a federal law that limits recognition of same-sex couples, the Defense of Marriage Act.My expectation is when you look back on these years, you will see a time when we put a stop to discrimination against gays and lesbians, whether in the office or on the battlefield. You’ll see a time in which we as a nation finally recognize relationships between two men and two women as just as real and admirable as relationships between a man and a woman,he said as applause thundered to a crescendo.

However, Obama’s speech was carefully worded to sidestep his disapproval of gay marriage. He also disappointed some in the crowd by referring to the state marriage battles only in vague terms.I support ensuring that committed gay couples have the same rights and responsibilities afforded to any married couple in this country. I believe strongly in stopping laws designed to take rights away and passing laws that extend equal rights to gay couples,Obama alluded briefly to conservative attacks on some of his gay and lesbian appointees. In recent days, a gay Education Department official and a lesbian nominee for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have been the subject of strident criticism from conservative groups and media outlets.If any of my nominees are attacked not for what they believe but because of who they are, I will not waver in my support,Obama said, without elaborating.In his 25-minute speech, the president repeatedly linked the fight for gay rights to the civil rights struggle Africans Americans faced in the 1960s.These ideals when voiced by generations of citizens are what made it possible for me to stand here today. These ideals are what made it possible for the people in this room to live freely and openly……..That is the promise of America,Obama said.The reception Obama received as he began his speech was so warm that he joked: You’re making me blush.About 50 gay-rights demonstrators outside the convention center were more confrontational.A Chicago welcome for Obama: Keep your @#%! Promises! one sign read. How about the audacity of action Mr. President! another said.Obama, Obama let mama marry mama, the group chanted as it marched on the sidewalk before Obama’s talk.Obama was introduced by Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese, who gave the president some political cover by telling attendees that the White House has been vigorous in pushing for hate crimes legislation—even if the work has gained little attention.We have never had a stronger ally in the White House—never,Solmonese insisted.The word from this White House, unlike the last White House was, Get on with it. No more delays. No more poison pill amendments. Get on with it…. We seldom see what goes on behind the scenes. It was formidable and I thank them.

DISEASES

REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

DRUG PUSHERS AND ADDICTS

REVELATION 18:23
23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries (DRUGS) were all nations deceived.

REVELATION 9:21
21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries (DRUGS), nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

CDC official downplays risk from swine flu vaccine Sun Oct 11, 1:12 pm ET

WASHINGTON – A top U.S. health official says the risks from not getting the swine flu vaccine are greater than any potential risks associated with the vaccine.Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says she's surprised by all the misinformation going around about the new vaccine. She says a good safety record from past vaccines bodes well for the swine flu vaccine now becoming available.Schuchat says there's no problem associated with getting shots for both the swine flu and seasonal flu on the same day. But health officials recommend a three-week period between receiving the nasal versions of the vaccines.Schuchat says vaccines remain the best way to protect children and adults from both strains of flu.
She appeared Sunday on CNN's State of the Union.

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 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.
18 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.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/
CNBC VIDEOS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15839263/site/14081545/?tabid=15839796&tabheader=false

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS MON OCT 12,2009

09:30 AM +8.45
10:00 AM +51.92
10:30 AM +50.46
11:00 AM +65.74
11:30 AM +51.54
12:00 PM +38.84
12:30 PM +37.48
01:00 PM +43.98
01:30 PM +39.07
02:00 PM +41.11
02:30 PM -0.08
03:00 PM -6.58
03:30 PM +17.08
04:00 PM +20.86 9885.80

S&P 500 1076.19 +4.70

NASDAQ 2139.14 -0.14

GOLD 1,056.70 +8.10

OIL 73.14 +1.37

TSE 300 (HOLIDAY)

CDNX (HOLIDAY)

S&P/TSX/60 (HOLIDAY)

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow +12.40%
S&P +18.63%
Nasdaq +35.65%
TSX Advances 714,declines 796,unchanged 243,Volume 456,549,902.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 484,Declines 456,Unchanged 369,Volume 242,303,864.

Dow +37 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow +1 points at low today.
Dow +66 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,055.70.OIL opens at $73.67 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow +1 points at low today so far.
Dow +66 points at high today so far.

DAY TODAY PERFORMANCE - 12:30PM STATS
NYSE Advances 2,375,declines 1,129,unchanged 108,New Highs 459,New Lows 55.
Volume 1,507,425,466.
NASDAQ Advances 1,523,declines 967,unchanged 117,New highs 186,New Lows 09.
Volume 624,322,439.
TSX Advances 717,declines 793,unchanged 243,Volume 469,242,439.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 484,Declines 456,Unchanged 369,Volume 242,343,365.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -16 points at low today.
Dow +66 points at high today.
Dow +0.21% today Volume 158,847,345.
Nasdaq -0.01% today Volume 1,732,247,599.
S&P 500 +0.44% today Volume N/A

KENYAN GRANDMOTHER GLAD OBAMA WON PEACE PRIZE
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?cl=16017054
THE SHOT IS THE PANDEMIC NOT THE FLU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VSKC1Fu5Ys&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxQAymlEzXs&feature=player_embedded
IS THE DOLLAR DITCHED
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrD9sBBFFrc&feature=player_embedded

Financial crisis testing EU's foundations, says Stiglitz
ANDREW WILLIS Today OCT 12,09 @ 18:07 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Nobel prize winner in economics, Joseph Stiglitz, says the financial crisis is forcing the EU to re-examine its cornerstone policy area – the single market.The crisis has brought home a couple of fundamental questions for the single market concept of Europe that have not really been adequately discussed, said the star economist at a conference on banking regulation in Brussels on Monday (12 October).Referring to the banking collapses in Ireland and Iceland late last year, Mr Stiglitz said financial regulation in one country clearly presented problems for depositors in other countries. And we need to get a grasp on that, he said. But the former World Bank economist, turned critic of its sister organisation the International Monetary Fund, questioned whether Europe was now dealing with such economies correctly.The current solution which is to put undue burdens on those particular countries that followed the model of deregulation is one that we might want to question,he said.Since member states pumped billions into banks facing meltdown last year, the European Commission has increasingly said that governments need to stem ballooning budget deficits in order not to saddle future generations with mountains of debt.But member states have shown varying degrees of enthusiasm when it comes to reigning in deficits, with all agreeing a solid economic recovery must be secured first.

Financial contagion

The single market theme was later picked up by the EU's economy commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, who warned that differences in financial regulation across the EU pose a dangerous threat to the bloc's internal market. While global tax havens have drawn greater scrutiny following the break-out of the financial crisis over a year ago, Mr Almunia said it was vital that the EU iron out its own in-house discrepancies or risk contagion to the real economy.If we are not able to protect the internal market in the financial sector, we will immediately encounter problems in implementing our competition and state aid rules,said the Spanish commissioner who is seeking a second term in the economy post.We know from our Brussels platform how difficult it is to protect the internal market during a crisis such as this,he said.The comments come as member states and the European Parliament currently examine draft proposals on a new EU framework for financial supervision put forward by the European Commission last month.These, combined with draft measures released before the summer on greater regulation of Europe's hedge fund sector, make up the core of the EU's response to the financial crisis.

Regulatory capture

But advocates of greater regulation fear recent indications that Europe may be clawing its way out of recession could put the breaks on the proposed initiatives. In particular, they worry that the banking sector's substantial influence will end up silencing attempts at real reform.My fear is that nothing will happen. This is dangerous because if we look at the costs of the financial crisis, we can see that in Europe we have lost six to seven percent of GDP,said MEP Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, who is also president of the Party of European Socialists.Mr Rasmussen says many in the financial sector are working overtime to see the hedge fund proposals watered down, referring to a recent visit by the mayor of London, Boris Johnson.In that last two weeks, you even saw the mayor of London here in Brussels. We looked into his campaign funding and it looks like more that 60 percent of his campaign costs were covered by hedge funds,said the former Danish prime minister.

Soros to Invest $1 Billion in Clean Energy, Form Advisory Group
By Katherine Burton

Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire George Soros, looking to address the political problem of climate change, said he will invest $1 billion in clean-energy technology and create an organization to advise policy makers on environmental issues.Soros, the founder of hedge fund Soros Fund Management LLC, announced the investment in Copenhagen yesterday at a meeting on climate change sponsored byProject Syndicate. The group is an international association made up of 430 newspapers from 150 countries.I want to apply rather stringent criteria to the investments,said Soros in an e-mailed message.They should be profitable but should also actually make a contribution to solving the problem.Soros, whose own wealth accounts for much of the approximately $24 billion his New York-based money-management firm oversees, didn’t provide any details in his speech on the type or scope of investments he might make.

Soros, 79, also will establish the Climate Policy Initiative, a San Francisco-based organization to which he will donate $10 million a year for 10 years.It will be part advisory service, part policy developer and part watchdog,saidThomas Heller, who is heading the initiative. Heller is a professor at Stanford University Law School whose expertise is in energy law and regulation and environmental law.

The Public Interest

Its goal is to look after the public interest as policies and programs are created to address climate change. The group will work in the U.S., Europe, China, India and Brazil, he said.The problem of global warming is primarily a political problem at this point,Soros said.The science is beyond dispute, but how do we achieve the objectives we all know are necessary? That is a political problem.The organization will address subjects such as carbon- emissions trading.Soros has said he prefers a greenhouse-gas tax because carbon emission-trading systems, which are used in Europe, can be manipulated by investors.Some U.S. legislators, energy companies and traders are campaigning for a so-called cap-and-trade system in the U.S. It would set limits for the release of carbon dioxide, which is blamed for global warming, and let companies trade emissions allowances. Such a system already operates in the European Union, where permit prices have been erratic since it started in 2005.The system can be gamed; that’s why financial types like me like it -- because there are financial opportunities,Soros said at a London School of Economics seminar in July.

Soros’s philanthropic efforts to date have primarily focused on promoting free andopen societies, and have included initiatives supporting education, free press and public health.In August, Soros donated $35 million to help needy children in New York state buy back-to-school supplies, and in May he made a $50 million challenge grant to the Robin Hood Foundation, which helps fight poverty in New York City.To contact the reporter on this story: Katherine Burton in New York atkburton@bloomberg.net

Celente - People Should Brace For Greatest Depression 2012 Forecast - Food Riots, Ghost Malls, Mob Rule, Terror By Bob Unruh WorldNetDaily Exclusive
10-10-9

A trends forecaster says the current economic rebound from last winter's Wall Street collapse of banks, insurance companies and automobile manufacturers is an artificial blip created by phantom money printed out of thin air backed by nothing.And Gerald Celente of TrendsResearch.com, says people right now should be bracing for the greatest recession which will hit worldwide and will mark the decline of empire America.Crop failures could be among the minor concerns.Here we are in 2012. Food riots, tax protests, farmer rebellions, student revolts, squatter diggins, homeless uprisings, tent cities, ghost malls, general strikes, bossnappings, kidnappings, industrial saboteurs, gang warfare, mob rule, terror,he writes for a quarterly publication that is available through subscription on his website.He also talked about his forecasts with Greg Corombos of Radio America/WND in an interview that has been posted online.The recent surge in Wall Street indexes back to near the 10,000 level, still far below the 14,000 prior to the crash, should be no reassurance for anyone, he said.There's no recovery. This is merely a cover-up,he said.The market crashed in March of 2009 and around the world they papered over the damage from the collapse with phantom money printed out of thin air backed by nothing,he said.

This is much bigger than an economic collapse, he said. This is the decline of empire America.Find out what you can do to be more prepared .Look what's happened to the dollar,he warned.Gold prices are surging forward. That's the evidence. The rest that's coming from Washington and Wall Street is rhetoric.This is the beginning of the greatest depression. We're telling our readers to take pro-active measures in anticipation of much worse to come,he said.USA Today says Celente has a knack for getting the zeitgeist right,and CNBC says,The man knows what he's talking about.The Wall Street Jounral has said,Those who take their predictions seriously consider the Trends Research Institute.He said during the Radio America/WND interview that retail sales this coming Christmas season will be the real nail in the economic coffin.The second American revolution has already begun; it just hasn't been announced yet by the mainstream media,he said.Anybody waiting for hope to show up at the door with a big bag full of money is going to be in for a shock.Tim Barello in the Examiner noted that since 1980 Celente has made at least 40 accurate predictions about major world events, such as the 1987 stock market crash.Throughout the 1990's, many other forecasts came true, including the collapse of the Soviet Union, surges in global terrorism, the popularity of spiritual and new age philosophies, public backlash against globalization, upsurges in online shopping, and the 1997 Asian financial crisis, to name a select few,he wrote.Now comes his forecast for a global depression and for the United States, Obamageddon.We want to make it very clear that the policies leading to the decline of Empire America have been long in the making, Celente told Barello.

What has happened in the Obama administration is that they have taken policies far beyond even what Bush took with the TARP program; for example, with his stimulus package, with the buyouts, with the bailouts, the rescue packages, these are unprecedented in American history.Never before has so much phantom money been printed out of thin air, backed by nothing, producing practically nothing,Celente continued.You don't even have to be a student of history to know the outcome of this. All you have to do is have your eyes open, and start thinking for yourself.In his conversation with the Examiner, Celente warned with the bubble bursts, U.S. taxpayers will be slammed because, unlike during the dot-com bubble, the stock market bubble and the real estate bubble, they are stockholders in a long list of major companies.He forecasts the possibility of a civil war, and says if people want to see what Main Street America will look like, they should drive around Detroit. Look at all the blown out houses and empty neighborhoods. Look at the violence that's increasing. Look at the types of heinous crimes being committed by people some blowing their whole families away.

Rainy-day oil funds see Mideast through downturn By ADAM SCHRECK, AP Business Writer – Sun Oct 11, 5:53 am ET

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The Middle East has weathered the global economic downturn better than other parts of the world because its energy exporters were able to tap billions of dollars in oil profits collected when prices were booming, the International Monetary Fund said Sunday.By reaching into those reserves, major oil producers like Saudi Arabia shielded their economies from the worst of the slump by maintaining government spending and injecting liquidity into domestic banking systems rattled by the credit crisis.Doing so not only blunted the impact of the downturn on their own economies, but also helped shore up the economies of neighboring countries without large oil reserves, the IMF said.By and large, they all responded quickly and decisively. ... They continued spending,the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia Director Masood Ahmed said of the major oil exporters.This acted, if you like, as a bit of a circuit breaker in terms of not having that shock transmit itself into the non-oil economy.

That spending came at a price.

The IMF estimates Mideast oil exporters together drew down their rainy-day reserves by nearly $350 billion over the past year. That figure includes the major exporters in the Persian Gulf as well as far smaller exporters such as Sudan and Yemen.The interesting thing for me is not so much that it happened, but the magnitude,Ahmed said at a presentation of the report in Dubai.The plunge in oil prices from last year's record high near $150 a barrel has left the Middle East's oil exporters with less revenue to replenish its cash reserves this year.The IMF expects the portion of the countries' economies based on oil to fall by 3.5 percent this year. That drop is partially offset by slower but still positive growth of 3.2 percent in the rest of the economy.Next year, the IMF expects the region's oil exporters will see both the oil and non-oil parts of the economy rise by around 4 percent.A rebound in demand for oil should also allow energy exporters to refill their coffers with more than $100 billion in oil revenue next year, the IMF predicts.Mideast countries without oil exports to fall back on have been only moderately hurt by the global recession, the IMF said.That is because they are not so tightly linked to the global banking system, and because trade and labor ties allowed them to benefit from richer neighbors' willingness to spend.The fact that (Gulf) countries have maintained spending had positive spillover effects ... to the oil importers, which are also labor exporters,said Nasser Saidi, chief economist of the Dubai International Financial Center.

Much of that gain came from money sent home by Arab workers living in Dubai and other Gulf business hubs.Those worker remittances officially account for 15 percent of Jordan's economy, and more than 20 percent of the economies of Lebanon and Egypt, though unofficial remittance levels may be double that, Saidi said.So remittances played a very, very important role,he said.The IMF expects the economies of the region's non-oil exporters to grow at 3.6 percent this year, down from 5 percent in 2009.Just as their economies took a less severe hit during the downturn the IMF expects they can only look forward to a very modest rebound as the world economy improves.

British PM Brown to announce assets sell-off Sun Oct 11, 2:41 pm ET

LONDON – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown plans to announce a sale of government assets aimed at raising 3 billion pounds ($4.8 billion), his office said Sunday.
Nonfinancial assets to be sold over the next two years include the Channel Tunnel rail link, the Dartford bridge and tunnel crossing the River Thames, betting company the Tote, and the government's 33 percent stake in European uranium consortium Urenco.Brown is due to make the announcement in a speech Monday. Downing Street released details Sunday.He also plans to say that local governments will sell off another 13 billion pounds ($21 billion) in assets. The money will help finance capital investment and pay down debt, his office said.Britain is suffering its worst recession in decades and the budget deficit, the gap between spending and revenues, is widening. But Brown has recently sounded cautiously optimistic about the economy.

In an interview published Saturday, he said the economy would grow by 1.5 percent next year, more than many economists have foreseen.Monday's speech is part of a bid to counter arguments by the opposition Conservatives that only deep public spending cuts can slash the debt and turn around the economy.The Conservatives propose raising the state pension age, tightening welfare programs and freezing the pay of hundreds of thousands of public sector workers.Brown plans to say that slashing public spending would cut the legs off from under the recovery and lead to higher deficits and debts down the line.The economy looks certain to be the dominant issue in a national election that must be held by the middle of 2010. Opinion polls give Cameron's Tories a substantial lead over Brown's Labour Party, which has been in power since 1997.Downing Street said Brown would call on Monday for unconventional thinking ... to avert a Japanese-style lost decade of low growth and jobless recovery.

2012 isn't the end of the world, Mayans insist By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer – Sun Oct 11, 3:58 am ET

MEXICO CITY – Apolinario Chile Pixtun is tired of being bombarded with frantic questions about the Mayan calendar supposedly running out on Dec. 21, 2012. After all, it's not the end of the world.Or is it? Definitely not, the Mayan Indian elder insists.I came back from England last year and, man, they had me fed up with this stuff.It can only get worse for him. Next month Hollywood's 2012 opens in cinemas, featuring earthquakes, meteor showers and a tsunami dumping an aircraft carrier on the White House.At Cornell University, Ann Martin, who runs the Curious? Ask an Astronomer Web site, says people are scared.It's too bad that we're getting e-mails from fourth-graders who are saying that they're too young to die,Martin said. We had a mother of two young children who was afraid she wouldn't live to see them grow up.

Chile Pixtun, a Guatemalan, says the doomsday theories spring from Western, not Mayan ideas.A significant time period for the Mayas does end on the date, and enthusiasts have found a series of astronomical alignments they say coincide in 2012, including one that happens roughly only once every 25,800 years.But most archaeologists, astronomers and Maya say the only thing likely to hit Earth is a meteor shower of New Age philosophy, pop astronomy, Internet doomsday rumors and TV specials such as one on the History Channel which mixes predictions from Nostradamus and the Mayas and asks: Is 2012 the year the cosmic clock finally winds down to zero days, zero hope? It may sound all too much like other doomsday scenarios of recent decades — the 1987 Harmonic Convergence, the Jupiter Effect or Planet X.But this one has some grains of archaeological basis.

One of them is Monument Six.Found at an obscure ruin in southern Mexico during highway construction in the 1960s, the stone tablet almost didn't survive; the site was largely paved over and parts of the tablet were looted.It's unique in that the remaining parts contain the equivalent of the date 2012. The inscription describes something that is supposed to occur in 2012 involving Bolon Yokte, a mysterious Mayan god associated with both war and creation.However — shades of Indiana Jones — erosion and a crack in the stone make the end of the passage almost illegible.
Archaeologist Guillermo Bernal of Mexico's National Autonomous University interprets the last eroded glyphs as maybe saying, He will descend from the sky.Spooky, perhaps, but Bernal notes there are other inscriptions at Mayan sites for dates far beyond 2012 — including one that roughly translates into the year 4772.And anyway, Mayas in the drought-stricken Yucatan peninsula have bigger worries than 2012.If I went to some Mayan-speaking communities and asked people what is going to happen in 2012, they wouldn't have any idea,said Jose Huchim, a Yucatan Mayan archaeologist. That the world is going to end? They wouldn't believe you. We have real concerns these days, like rain.The Mayan civilization, which reached its height from 300 A.D. to 900 A.D., had a talent for astronomy Its Long Count calendar begins in 3,114 B.C., marking time in roughly 394-year periods known as Baktuns. Thirteen was a significant, sacred number for the Mayas, and the 13th Baktun ends around Dec. 21, 2012. It's a special anniversary of creation,said David Stuart, a specialist in Mayan epigraphy at the University of Texas at Austin.The Maya never said the world is going to end, they never said anything bad would happen necessarily, they're just recording this future anniversary on Monument Six.Bernal suggests that apocalypse is a very Western, Christian concept projected onto the Maya, perhaps because Western myths are exhausted.

If it were all mythology, perhaps it could be written off. But some say the Maya knew another secret: the Earth's axis wobbles, slightly changing the alignment of the stars every year. Once every 25,800 years, the sun lines up with the center of our Milky Way galaxy on a winter solstice, the sun's lowest point in the horizon. That will happen on Dec. 21, 2012, when the sun appears to rise in the same spot where the bright center of galaxy sets.Another spooky coincidence? The question I would ask these guys is, so what? says Phil Plait, an astronomer who runs the Bad Astronomy blog. He says the alignment doesn't fall precisely in 2012, and distant stars exert no force that could harm Earth.They're really super-duper trying to find anything astronomical they can to fit that date of 2012,Plait said.But author John Major Jenkins says his two-decade study of Mayan ruins indicate the Maya were aware of the alignment and attached great importance to it.If we want to honor and respect how the Maya think about this, then we would say that the Maya viewed 2012, as all cycle endings, as a time of transformation and renewal,said Jenkins.As the Internet gained popularity in the 1990s, so did word of the fateful date, and some began worrying about 2012 disasters the Mayas never dreamed of.Author Lawrence Joseph says a peak in explosive storms on the surface of the sun could knock out North America's power grid for years, triggering food shortages, water scarcity — a collapse of civilization. Solar peaks occur about every 11 years, but Joseph says there's evidence the 2012 peak could be a lulu.While pressing governments to install protection for power grids, Joseph counsels readers not to use 2012 as an excuse to not live in a healthy, responsible fashion. I mean, don't let the credit cards go up.
Another History Channel program titled Decoding the Past: Doomsday 2012: End of Days says a galactic alignment or magnetic disturbances could somehow trigger a pole shift.The entire mantle of the earth would shift in a matter of days, perhaps hours, changing the position of the north and south poles, causing worldwide disaster,a narrator proclaims.Earthquakes would rock every continent, massive tsunamis would inundate coastal cities. It would be the ultimate planetary catastrophe.The idea apparently originates with a 19th century Frenchman, Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, a priest-turned-archaeologist who got it from his study of ancient Mayan and Aztec texts.Scientists say that, at best, the poles might change location by one degree over a million years, with no sign that it would start in 2012.While long discredited, Brasseur de Bourbourg proves one thing: Westerners have been trying for more than a century to pin doomsday scenarios on the Maya. And while fascinated by ancient lore, advocates seldom examine more recent experiences with apocalypse predictions.No one who's writing in now seems to remember that the last time we thought the world was going to end, it didn't,says Martin, the astronomy webmaster. There doesn't seem to be a lot of memory that things were fine the last time around.

Waco Siege Enforcer To Rule Over Global Police Force Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com Monday, October 12, 2009

UN and Interpol officials will meet today to discuss the formation of a global police force that would enjoy access to a worldwide database of DNA, biometric and fingerprint records. The effort will be spearheaded by a man known as The Enforcer who helped federal authorities both conduct and cover up the murderous Waco siege which killed 76 people in 1993.Interpol and the United Nations are poised to become partners in fighting crime by jointly grooming a global police force that would be deployed as peacekeepers among rogue nations riven by war and organized crime, officials from both organizations say,reports the New York Times.The emergence of a global police force is of course something that people like Alex Jones have been warning about for well over a decade. The global police force, just like the world army, is a key centerpiece of the march towards a dictatorial global government.

Those who were once called paranoid conspiracy theorists for claiming that the plan all along has been to centralize law enforcement into a global body run by the world government under the auspices of the UN and Interpol have been proven right once again.For a taste of what Americans who aren’t so favorable to taking orders from foreigners on home soil can expect, consider the fact that the secretary general of Interpol, and one of the men at the forefront of setting up the global police force, is none other than Ronald K. Noble.Noble, who is known as The Enforcer,has been instrumental in working with Chinese authorities to provide policing in the Communist country for major national events. However, his most notorious role was in ordering and then, in his position as Undersecretary for Enforcement of the United States Department of the Treasury, whitewashing the actions of the BATF following the federal government’s murderous siege on the Branch Davidian compound at Waco which killed 76 people including more than 20 children and two pregnant women in April 1993.As Carol Moore writes, Noble had approved the decision to go ahead with the raid,and therefore,had little interest in issuing a report that either would challenge significantly the BATF’s investigation or modus operandi or would admit these led to crimes against the Davidians.Noble ignored in his report more than a dozen eyewitness reports, along with photographic and video evidence, of a BATF helicopter firebombing the Waco church during the siege. He also ignored David Koresh’s July 1992 invitation to the BATF to inspect the Waco compound, which if it had gone ahead could have prevented the siege and the murder of 76 innocent people altogether.

The 1993 Waco Siege

During the hearing, Friend-of-Bill Webster Hubbell denied repeatedly that he and Clinton had discussed the Waco situation informally, and improperly. However, an Associated Press article claimed Hubbell had revealed he was giving Clinton updates on Waco. And House staffers discovered a memorandum in which then-Treasury official Ron Noble asserted Hubbell would take the matter up with Clinton if the Treasury Department’s review did not downplay BATF errors. Clearly, Noble condones covering up government crimes against citizens,writes Moore.Noble was picked directly for the position of secretary general at Interpol by fellow Waco siege accomplice, former Attorney General Janet Reno.During his September 2005 secretary general re-election acceptance speech in Berlin, Noble attributed Interpol’s rebirth to the events of 9/11, saying that the terrorist attacks allowed the organization to go from being treated as largely irrelevant to setting it on the path to becoming an international police force.Noble told the New York Times that one of the main roles of the global cops would be to stop people to check their identities against a global database.The police will be trained and equipped differently with resources,Mr. Noble said.When they stop someone, they will be consulting global databases to determine who they are stopping.As we previously reported, Interpol is setting up a huge biometric facial scan database of international travelers so they can cross-check everyone against a database of terror suspects, international criminals and fugitives. The database will hold the records of every citizen who has ever traveled in and out of the virtually every country in the world, representing intelligence agency style bulk interception of information.According to the NY Times report, Interpol agents would be given special electronic passports that would allow them to speedily cross international borders.With the meeting of justice ministers on Monday, which coincides with a general assembly of Interpol police members, the group is expected to debate the global police issue and to craft a declaration that would lead to an action plan for international police peacekeeping within 12 months,reports the Times.

The danger of having a global police force conducting law enforcement on U.S. soil under the control of Interpol and the UN is self-evident. Global cops who do not have to swear an oath to uphold the Constitution have no obligation to follow it. Operating outside of the realms of the U.S. legal system, global cops will have carte blanche to snatch, grab and intern citizens without recourse. A highly centralized system of policing guarantees hardly any liability whatsoever and therefore encourages rampant illegality and police brutality.With many experts predicting a Soviet-style collapse of the United States within the next few years, the prospect of U.N. peacekeepers and Interpol global cops ordering Americans around is a harrowing possibility.The fact that this move is all being spearheaded by a man known as The Enforcer who was instrumental in ordering the killing of 76 innocent people at Waco, including 20 children, and then covering it up, should send shock waves through the liberty movement and lead to intense scrutiny on Noble’s position at Interpol and his agenda to head up a global police force.

Police State Canada 2010 and the Dark Side of the Olympics
Dana Gabriel NAUresistance October 12, 2009

The 2010 Winter Olympic Games will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia, from February 12-28. It will be the largest security operation in Canadian history. Military planners will undoubtedly use it as a template for securing future high profile events.Canadian security officials continue to work closely with their American counterparts in preparation for the test that the Games will pose to the security of its shared border. Integration of Canada’s security and military structures with the U.S. have already been advanced through the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD), NORTHCOM, the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), the Bi-National Planning Group, the Civil Assistance Plan, as well as other initiatives. Training and security provisions for the Olympics might be used to further accelerate the merging of U.S-Canada command structures and the militarization of North America. The 2010 Olympics will be a hellhole of police state measures with far-reaching effects that could remain in place long after the Games are finished.Security planners have followed a graduated process in preparation for the 2010 Olympic Games. This includes the Olympic Integrated Exercise Program which is designed to ensure coordinated responses are sufficiently tested in preparation for incidents that might arise during the 2010 Winter Games. The program has three key components.Exercise Bronze was held in November 2008. It brought together all agencies involved with security for the games and examined security structures. Exercise Silverwas held in February of 2009 and focused on information-sharing across government and non-governmental agencies as well as providing safety and security participants with hands-on experience.Exercise Gold is scheduled for November of this year and will confirm readiness for the Games.There has been questions whether Exercise Gold would involve American forces.The Canadian Defense Department has responded, Yes.NORAD is a bi-national command that includes both Canadian and American personnel and equipment.NORAD will be participating in exercise Gold.Various US military headquarters and operations centres will be exercising with Canada Command during exercise Gold, through exercise Determined Dragon (a Canadian Forces exercise) and exercise Vigilant Shield (a US military exercise). In addition, a small number of US military liaison officers will be participating with Joint Task Force Games.

In September of 2008, the 2010 Winter Olympics security preparations spending bill was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. This included funding for construction of the Olympic Coordination Center in Bellingham, Washington. Members of the 2010 Olympic Security Planning Committee have stated that, The 2010 Olympics Security Coordination Center will coordinate the security efforts for over 40 federal, state and local agencies on the U.S. side of the U.S. – Canadian border. This facility will provide a strategic response platform to facilitate critical response efforts during the Olympic Games and beyond.In September of this year, NORAD conducted Exercise Fabric Virgo, which involved CF-18 fighter jets flying at low altitudes and escorting civilian-looking aircraft.This exercise was designed to familiarize NORAD personnel with operations in the Vancouver area.There are numerous other drills and exercises which are planned before the Games begin or have already been conducted. Some have not been made public. Training for the Olympics and the actual security operation could be used as a pretext for the further militarization of North America.It could also advance the merging of U.S.-Canada military and security structures. As part of the SPP, there were calls for a North American security perimeter.The entire security operation for 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games is being overseen by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).This will include over 5000 RCMP officers, along with an additional 1800 other police from municipal, regional and provincial units from across the country.Canadian Forces will provide maritime security, logistical support and surveillance.This could include the use of unmanned drones which are now being used along the U.S.-Canada border.Some 4500 Canadian soldiers will also be deployed for various security purposes. This is twice the number of troops that Canada has in Afghanistan. The U.S. is set to contribute Coast Guard and Navy vessels.NORAD will be a key player in Games security.They will patrol the skies and monitor the airspace over the Olympics. In addition to police and military, there will be up to 5000 private security personnel. Olympic venues will be designated as special security zones. This will include electronically monitored fencing and other measures similar to security screening at airports. Surveillance cameras will also monitor venues and public areas using face-recognition technology. Some residents of Whistler, B.C., which will host skiing and other events, have complained that it feels like they are already living in a security zone. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) is working with the RCMP and other federal agencies in evaluating and monitoring security threats and have warned of the potential for violence by anti-Olympic activists.

In advance of the 2010 Games, anti-Olympic groups have been subjected to surveillance and harassment by police and intelligence agencies. There is a concerted effort to curb any protests during the Olympics and restrict the right to freedom of assembly and freedom of speech. City of Vancouver 2010 Winter Games By-laws will limit protesters to specific free speech zones. They will prevent anyone who is not licensed to do so, from carrying signs or handing out materials on or near Olympic venues and other designated city property. Violators could face huge fines or jail time. A lawsuit has been filed which challenges the Olympic sign law. It was filed by Chris Shaw, a professor at the University of British Columbia and student Alissa Westergard-Thorpe. Shaw is an outspoken critic of the Olympics and author of the book Five Ring Circus. Regardless of the outcome of the lawsuit, he plans to criticize the Games with signs and the distribution of leaflets at prohibited sites. Under another by-law possession of any voice, amplification equipment on city property is prohibited for the duration of the Games. Many of the by-laws are an attempt to quell dissent and give the illusion that everyone supports the Olympics. They can only be described as unconstitutional. It will be interesting to see if any LRAD sound cannon weapons, which were used against protesters at the recent G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, will be deployed at the Olympics. Some of the police state measures being enacted for the Vancouver Olympics are temporary, but others including infrastructure, will remain in place long after the Games are over.There are rising costs associated with holding the Olympics which will leave taxpayers on the hook for millions. The security bill alone is expected to top $900-million, which is almost five times higher than original estimates. Like previous Olympics, Vancouver will be left with a huge deficit. This has left some local residents less then enthusiastic about hosting the Games. Anti-poverty and housing rights groups also point to the negative impact the Olympics have on the homeless. This includes the criminalization of the poor in areas near event facilities. The Olympics are being used to impose greater social control and rid the Vancouver city core of its poor. According to some estimates over the last 20 years, the Olympic Games have displaced over two million people around the world. In many ways, the Olympics have become a political tool, a corporate driven agenda that goes far beyond the athletes and sporting events. Much of the security surrounding the Olympics in Vancouver seems aimed more at protesters and other so called undesirables.Security measures at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games will be an indication of what to expect at other upcoming events.In June of the same year, Canada will host the G8 as well as the G20 Summits.Both will attract their share of protests.Canada is also expected to host the 2010 North American Leaders Summit where security measures could dwarf what was witnessed at the 2007 Summit in Montebello, Quebec.Some will recall that anarchist protesters were identified as police provocateurs.There are fears that police could infiltrate anti-Olympic groups, in order to stage events which would justify a crackdown during the 2010 Winter Games. It is important to be aware of those who not only seek to demonize peaceful protesters, but also incite angry and violent responses by police. In some cases, police do not need an excuse as was evident at the recent G20 Summit in Pittsburgh and this could be a prelude of what to expect in the coming year. Welcome to police state Canada 2010!