STORMS SWEEP NORTHERN EUROPE

1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS. 2-Moderate quake shakes New Zealand Island. 3-Calif. hospitals won't meet deadline. 4-Snow in southern California as cold snap grips US. 5-Severe storms claim first victim in Germany. 6-Snow and ice heading to southern Plains feedlots. 7-Huge storms sweep northern Europe. 8-Comoros island shakes, volcano still a threat. 9-Rice will face expectations gap in Mideast. 10-EU wants boost to Mideast peace efforts.11-Israel to build bomb shelters near Gaza. 12-PM Eyes Winograd C´tee, Promises New IDF Chief Within Days. 13-France's Royal wants new EU constitution referendum. 14-Barroso lists top five values for EU birthday text.

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.

WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)

Update time = Fri Jan 19 12:02 AM EDT

FRI JAN 19 NO QUAKES YET

JAN 18,07
MAP 3.1 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.7 NEVADA
MAP 5.9 SOUTHWEST OF SUMATRA, INDONESIA
MAP 4.5 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.2 WESTERN TURKEY
MAP 4.1 HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
MAP 2.5 UTAH
MAP 2.9 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 4.1 GULF OF CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.2 MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
MAP 3.7 ALASKA PENINSULA

JAN 17,07
MAP 2.5 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 6.2 CARLSBERG RIDGE
MAP 2.9 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.3 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP 5.6 DRAKE PASSAGE
MAP 2.9 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.5 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.9 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 5.0 NEAR THE COAST OF SOUTHERN PERU
MAP 3.7 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.7 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.5 ROMANIA
MAP 2.8 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 2.5 ARKANSAS
MAP 5.4 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 2.5 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 4.8 OFFSHORE GUATEMALA
MAP 2.5 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 6.0 PAPUA, INDONESIA
MAP 3.8 GULF OF ALASKA
MAP 2.9 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 2.5 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 3.5 MONA PASSAGE, PUERTO RICO
MAP 3.5 PUERTO RICO REGION

Moderate quake shakes New Zealand Island Thu Jan 18, 12:58 AM ET

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A magnitude 5.3 earthquake shook New Zealand's central North Island Thursday, seismologists said, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. The temblor was centered near Taihape, 150 miles north of the capital, Wellington, at a depth of 30 miles, the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences reported.New Zealand sits above an area of the Earth's crust where the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates are colliding and records more than 14,000 earthquakes a year but only about 150 are felt by residents. Fewer than 10 a year do any damage.

Calif. hospitals won't meet deadline By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer
Thu Jan 18, 9:18 AM ET

LOS ANGELES - Nearly half of California hospital buildings in danger of collapsing during a major earthquake will not meet a state deadline for safety improvements, according to a study released Thursday.

Tough standards passed after the deadly 1994 Northridge earthquake required that vulnerable buildings be retrofitted or replaced by 2008, a deadline that was extended to 2013. By 2030, all hospitals must be able to stay open and treat patients after a disaster.The report projected that nearly half of some 900 hospital buildings statewide will not meet the retrofitting deadline, even by 2030. Complicating the matter is that the majority of weak buildings more than 80 percent are in the densely populated San Francisco Bay area and greater Los Angeles region. Hospitals that buckle during a quake in those areas would severely disrupt delivery of care and put patients at risk.The study, funded by the California HealthCare Foundation and conducted by Rand Corp., does not single out hospitals, but notes the buildings are on over 300 hospital campuses across the state.The study also projects that quake-proofing the hospital buildings by the deadlines would cost between $40 billion to $110 billion.

Although the law was well-intentioned, following through has proved to be a headache as half of the hospitals in the state are operating in the red, said Jan Emerson, spokeswoman for the California Hospital Association, which represents about 500 hospitals and health care systems.If policymakers stay the course, the state could be forced to close noncompliant hospitals. If the state loosens some of the requirements or provides money for hospitals to comply, it would put those that have spent millions of dollars in upgrades and construction costs at a disadvantage, the report noted.

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.

Snow in southern California as cold snap grips US JAN 18,2007

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Snow has fallen in normally balmy southern California, as Americans coped with a deadly nationwide cold snap that has left hundreds of thousands in the dark and caused billions in crop damage. More than 60 deaths across nine states were blamed on the harsh weather, US media reported Thursday, mostly in car accidents as drivers lost control of their vehicles on icy roads.A layer of snow on Wednesday blanketed hills in Malibu, a seaside town near Los Angeles popular with entertainment industry celebrities. The town is situated by the Pacific Ocean and is famous for its beaches and year-round sunshine.

Snow also fell on parts of metropolitan Los Angeles, with the upmarket neighborhood of Westwood receiving a dusting of flakes as the unseasonably low temperatures continued across California.The six-day regional cold snap took a surreal turn with the snow, the Los Angeles Times said, adding that chilly temperatures were forecast for Thursday.

The weather even forced transport authorities to close portions of a major California highway that links Los Angeles to the state capital Sacramento. The stretch remained close early Thursday.California's temperatures have plunged to near-record lows, prompting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to declare a state of emergency.The cold snap has devastated California's citrus fruit industry, with authorities forecasting losses of more than one billion dollars because of the damage to crops.Unusually low temperatures hit most of the southwestern state of Texas, with up to 7.6 centimeters (three inches) of snow accumulating in Dallas,
and ice and freezing rain forcing schools to close in San Antonio and Houston.A quarter of all flights from the busy Dallas airport were canceled Wednesday due to the low temperatures, local media reported, with service expected to resume normally on Thursday.Ice was the most dangerous regional culprit: accumulated snow and hail that melted during the day would freeze at night, creating treacherous roads.Low temperatures are expected to remain for the next days, weather forecasters said.

Meanwhile some 300,000 people in the midwest and northeastern US were without power, including about 100,000 in Missouri and 92,000 in Oklahoma, CNN reported.President George W. Bush declared an emergency in Oklahoma on Sunday and in Misouri on Monday, freeing up federal funding for recovery efforts.Oklahoma state governor Brad Henry toured areas hit by the ice storm, The Oklahoman newspaper reported Thursday.It looks like a war zone, Henry told the newspaper.It's hard to imagine ice could cause so much damage.Recovery is expected to last for weeks or months, the newspaper reported.Ice is expected to cause serious problems Thursday in South Carolina and as far south as Atlanta, forecasters said, with National Weather Service posting ice and freezing rain advisories across the region. In the northwestern states of Oregon and Washington, thousands stayed home on Wednesday after a heavy snowfall a day earlier but forecasts Thursday called for snow and freezing rain. Portland city crews worked around the clock plowing, sanding and de-icing streets, though most streets are expected to remain icy and snow-covered for days, the Portland Oregonian newspaper reported Thursday.

Severe storms claim first victim in Germany JAN 18,2007

BERLIN (AFP) - The violent storms lashing Germany claimed their first victim when a motorist was killed after his car collided with a fallen tree in the southwest of the country. The incident Thursday took place in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg where winds of up to 120 kilometres per hour (75 miles per hour) were recorded, the state interior ministry said.The storm was sweeping across the country from west to east, meteorologists said.It was set to be the most severe storm to hit Germany in four or five years and authorities warned people only to go outside in exceptional circumstances.Heavy rain was also falling on much of the country.

The conditions were causing flight cancellations at the country's busiest airport, Frankfurt, a spokesman for its operators Fraport said.At least 17 flights were cancelled by 1000 GMT.Forecasters also warned of severe flooding along the coast.The highest wind speed recorded was 169 kph (105 mph) on the Brocken mountain in the Harz range in the centre of the country, the national weather bureau in Offenbach said.The head of the German rescue services (THW), Albrecht Broemme, said tens of thousands of emergency workers were on standby.If this hits all of Germany, things could become pretty bad, he said.The stormy weather was expected to continue on Friday.Britain and other parts of northern Europe have also been affected.

Snow and ice heading to southern Plains feedlots JAN 18,07

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Snow and ice are headed to cattle feedlots in the U.S. southern Plains starting Friday, a private forecaster predicted Thursday. The storm should start in the west Texas feedlot areas then spread further north and into Kansas on Saturday.The heaviest amounts will be in west Texas 1/4 to 1.0 inch of precipitation. That could be worth 4 to 8 inches of snow depending on temperatures, said forecaster Mike Palmerino of DTN Meteorlogix.Further north into western Kansas, 0.10 to 0.50 inch of precipitation or 2 to 4 inches of snow should fall.It doesn't look good for west Texas areas. It could be quite stressful promoting sloppier conditions in the feedlots, Palmerino said.Further north it's just more moisture that they don't need right now, he added.

This weekend's expected ice and snow come on top of a series of storms that began in early December. While the dormant hard red winter wheat crop was soaking up all the moisture, it has turned feedlots muddy and added stress to animals.The six- to 10-day forecast offered some hope to livestock feeders as it was expected to turn drier and warmer, with the weather forecasting models in agreement on Thursday morning, Palmerino said.The Meteorlogix forecast for the U.S. Plains, Tuesday through Saturday, called for near to above-normal temperatures and normal to mostly below-normal precipitation.I don't have significant confidence in the forecast since it's a break from the past month and a half, Palmerino added.

Huge storms sweep northern Europe JAN 18,07

People in Germany have been advised to stay indoors.At least 15 people have been killed as violent storms lashed northern Europe, causing travel chaos across the region. Britain was the worst hit with seven people killed as heavy downpours and gales of up to 70mph swept the country. Hurricane-force winds battering Germany have claimed at least three lives. The other deaths were reported in the Netherlands and France. The severe weather has forced hundreds of flight and ferry cancellations and prompted road and school closures. The first fatality was reported in Shropshire, England, where a 54-year-old man died after his car was crushed by a falling branch. Three other people died on the roads in the UK. A two-year-old boy also died when a wall collapsed on him in the capital, London. One man was killed on a road in south-western Germany when he crashed into another vehicle as he tried to avoid a fallen tree, police said. In Bavaria, a 73-year-old man was killed when he was struck by debris. In Munich, an 18-month-old child died after being crushed by a door that blew off its hinges. Three people were killed by falling trees in the Netherlands, and one person was killed the same way in Roubaix, France. A 30-year-old man was also killed in a motoring accident in the Somme.

Stay indoors

The BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Berlin says schools have been shut and emergency services have mobilised extra staff. The weather system is moving across western German states. German radio says more than 40,000 volunteers are on standby, as widespread damage is expected.The crew of MSC Napoli abandoned ship in the English Channel Low-lying areas of northern Germany are preparing for possible flooding. In the Netherlands, as in Germany, people have been advised to stay indoors. Our country has not had a storm like this in years. We advise you to follow weather alarms and messages to the letter, the Netherlands Royal Weather Service said. Austria forecast winds of up to 170kph (105 mph) at higher altitudes in the Alps, and officials warned skiers to get off the mountains and seek shelter well before nightfall.

In other developments:

A British container ship is listing in the English Channel almost 50 miles (80km) off Cornwall - all 26 crew of the MSC Napoli abandoned ship.US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cuts short her visit to Berlin in order to leave for London before weather worsened London's Heathrow Airport, Europe's largest, cancels 123 flights. Other major airports including Frankfurt, Munich, Amsterdam and Vienna report delays and cancellations Ferries are cancelled or delayed in Britain, Ireland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Finland - where minor floods are reported near Helsinki Residents along the North Sea coast are warned to expect storm swells up to 3.5m (11.5ft) higher than normal Traffic on the Eurostar, the train service connecting Britain with continental Europe, is suspended after an electrical cable holder fell onto tracks near the French city of Lille

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)
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) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Comoros island shakes, volcano still a threat JAN 18,2007

MORONI (Reuters) - Comoros' largest island shook twice on Thursday, residents said, and experts said there was still a threat of eruption from the Indian Ocean archipelago's Mount Karthala volcano despite the tremors weakening. Comorian authorities have made emergency plans to help as many as 30,000 people in case the 2,361 meter (7,746 ft) volcano, which dominates the main island of Grand Comore, blows.I felt very faint tremors in the morning and at three o'clock, resident Mounira Boba said. But I'm not so worried.The volcano seemed to have settled since the weekend when strong tremors thought to have been caused by lava trying to escape forced thousands of people to sleep outside for fear their homes might collapse.Mount Karthala, one of the world's largest active volcanoes, began glowing red and emitting fumes last week.Scientific equipment has continued to record more than a thousand small tremors every day, officials at the Karthala observation center said. Residents cannot feel such tremors.Patrick Bachelery, a vulcanologist and academic from the nearby island of Reunion, warned Grand Comore residents not to drop their guard.Even if activity quietens down, it could be a sign of eruption, he said.Karthala's eruptions have happened every 11 years on average, but have rarely caused a major disaster.In 1903, 17 people died when noxious fumes seeped from cracks in the mountain, and the last big eruption was in April 2005 when thousands fled in fear of poisonous gas and lava.

Wed, Jan. 17, 2007
Rice will face expectations gap in Mideast.She'll negotiate talks with Abbas and Olmert - BY RICHARD BOUDREAUX - Los Angeles Times

JERUSALEM /A day after agreeing with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on a way to move toward peace with the Palestinians, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert toured along the West Bank separation barrier Tuesday.His talking points demonstrated the gap of expectations Rice will face when she returns to the region next month for three-way talks with Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The concrete barrier is reviled by Palestinians as a unilateral attempt by Israel to define its border with a future Palestinian state.Speaking at the wall's Ephraim crossing, Olmert ignored that explosive issue. Instead, he pressed Israeli inspectors to speed up scanning procedures so more cargo trucks could enter Israel from the West Bank.There is a large population whose quality of life will decide what kind of neighbors they will be, the prime minister said.During Rice's visit to Israel and the West Bank, Abbas had asked her to arrange the three-way meeting so he could start talking to Olmert about the core issues of a final settlement. These include the delineation of a new Palestinian state, the status of Jerusalem and the claims of Palestinian refugees to return to homes they abandoned in 1948 in what is now Israel.

In agreeing to Rice's proposal, Olmert made it clear he had a more modest agenda. His aides said he would approach the encounter as part of a pre-negotiation stage in which the two sides might build trust through initial steps, such as Israel's easing of cargo restrictions, a halt to Palestinian rocket attacks and an exchange of prisoners.We're still at the early stages of building the confidence necessary to open peace negotiations, said Miri Eisen, the prime minister's spokeswoman. We're not there yet, and we're not going to be cutting corners.Small deals between the two men have come to naught, including Olmert's December pledge to release $100 million in frozen funds to the Palestinian Authority and Abbas' November commitment to prevent militant groups from firing rockets from the Gaza Strip.Abbas most likely will not accept another round of confidence-building with Olmert unless there are tangible results, one of the Palestinian leader's aides said Tuesday. He wants to go beyond minor issues and sign an accord, along with the Israelis and the Americans, laying out a timetable for creating an independent Palestinian state.

Further complicating matters, the Palestinians are suspicious of the Bush administration's intentions as it wades deeper into Mideast diplomacy.If you look at the last six years, the only thing we see the Bush administration doing is trying to manage the conflict, not to resolve it, said Diana Buttu, a former legal adviser to the Palestinian Authority. You don't see any real pressure on Israel to live up to its agreements. Israel is allowed to use peace talks to buy time and is given carte blanche to torpedo any progress if it feels its security threatened.Rice's three-day visit, which ended Monday, marked the deepest U.S. engagement in the conflict in four years. Whether she can push both sides toward a resolution remains to be seen.

EU wants boost to Mideast peace efforts JAN 18,07

CAIRO (AFP) - European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana has said that Middle East diplomacy should move from crisis management to negotiations towards a final peace deal. If possible, the first months of 2007 can signify mobilisation, impulse in the dossiers which are important, especially the peace process, he told reporters in Cairo after meeting Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa.He also met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit.Solana kicked off a tour of the region days after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came for talks with regional leaders, in a bid to revive moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.My trip was started in Egypt to measure the temperature, see how people are feeling and see if we can put together some things that may push the process forward, Solana said.I think the peace process, the manner in which it has been handled, has been a crisis management type of tactic, he said.We can't forget that the standard of living of people has to change for the better. We have to begin to project those elements into the political process.

Embattled Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas' allies including Egypt and Jordan have also pushed for a jump to the so-called endgame, a resumption of final settlement talks between Israel and the Palestinians.We are trying to build around the consensus. We feel the Americans are understanding a need to reach a political process, Solana's spokeswoman Christina Gallach told reporters.There has been so much crisis management that we have not been able to concentrate on the real effort, she said.The Middle East quartet which groups the European Union, the United States, Russia and the United Nations is due to meet in Washington on February 2, Gallach said.The quartet drew up the roadmap for peace in 2003 with the aim of establishing a viable Palestinian state living peacefully alongside Israel. But the blueprint has largely remained a dead letter.

1/18/2007 8:30:00 AM -0500
Israel to build bomb shelters near Gaza

TEL AVIV, Israel, Jan. 18 (UPI) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced Thursday in Tel Aviv Israel will spend $70 million to build bomb shelters near the Gaza border. Olmert told a group of municipal leaders he made the decision after determining six years of rocket attacks by Palestinian militants in Gaza was threatening the inner balance of the communities, YNetNews reported. He said homes up to five miles away from the Gaza Strip will be eligible for bomb shelters in the near future. In the West Bank, Palestinian sources said Israeli soldiers had shot and killed a member of Fatah's armed-wing, the al-Aqsa Brigades, and three other militants were injured in a shootout near Nablus. The Israeli military also reported it had apprehended 13 wanted Palestinians before dawn Thursday.

PM Eyes Winograd C´tee, Promises New IDF Chief Within Days
By Ezra HaLevi (INN) JAN 18,07

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says a new IDF Chief of Staff will be appointed in the coming days. Defense Minister Amir Peretz has already begun meeting with prospective candidates. The country’s 19th Chief of Staff will either be Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Gabi Ashkenazi or Ground Forces Commander Maj.-Gen. Benny Ganz, according to media reports.Peretz held meetings with both leading candidates, and others, on Wednesday.Ashkenazi is reported to be favored over Kaplinsky due to the likelihood that the latter will be criticized by the Winograd Commission once it publishes its findings on last summer’s war with Hizbullah in Lebanon. Northern Command OC Maj.-Gen. Benny Ganz is considered by others to be too young and inexperienced for the job.Ashkenazi was passed over for the post in favor of Halutz by former Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz in 2005. Halutz succeeded Moshe Yaalon, who was released to early retirement due to his opposition to the Disengagement Plan.

Prime Minister Olmert said that although it is Peretz’s job to make the decision, but Peretz said he intends to set up a clear process, in order to choose the best possible Chief of Staff.Olmert’s aides say the PM plans on consulting with the Winograd Commission, which he appointed, to see whether its conclusions might implicate any of the candidates.

Ganz, Kaplinsky and Ashkenazi all appeared, or are scheduled to appear, before the Commission.The government intended to keep the Commission’s findings under wraps, but the Supreme Court ordered the state on Wednesday to explain, within five days, why the hearings are not open to the public and the protocols of testimony not published.The Supreme Court petition was filed by Meretz MK Zahava Gal-On. Gal-On sought to add to the request a provision delaying the appointment of a new Chief of Staff, on the grounds that Olmert and Peretz are not ethically authorized to appoint one. The request was rejected on the grounds that it was not filed with the original petition.

France's Royal wants new EU constitution referendum
18.01.2007 - 09:22 CET | By Mark Beunderman (Eu Observer)

Segolene Royal, the socialist candidate to become France's next president, has said she is in favour of holding a new referendum on a revised EU constitution in 2009, proposing to make the treaty more attractive to the French by attaching a social declaration. I want the French people to be consulted once again in a referendum in 2009, Ms Royal said after meeting Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday (17 January), according to press reports. My idea is that this referendum would take place at the same time as the European elections, she indicated. Wednesday's remarks, made ahead of the French presidential elections with first and second rounds in April and May, distance Ms Royal from her main centre-right rival for the presidency, Nicolas Sarkozy. Mr Sarkozy has called for a simplified mini-treaty for the EU containing key elements of the constitution, which could be ratified by the French parliament without a referendum. By contrast, Ms Royal said a new version of the text should add a fresh social declaration on workers' rights and public services, in order to avoid a repetition of the 2005 referendum when almost 55 percent of French voters rejected the charter.

I do not want the French to punish the European countries which have already expressed themselves [on the constitution]. What I wish is that there is a social aspect and that the rights of workers are taken into consideration in Europe, she said. Without being specific about the content of the proposed declaration, she said that with this, I think that the French people will regain confidence and I will be able to bring them along, those who voted yes and those who voted no.

What they want is not less Europe, but a Europe which will better protect social rights, fundamental freedoms and progress for all.Luxembourg's Jean-Claude Juncker said he backed the idea of attaching a social declaration to the EU constitution, explaining that it could contain principles like a minimum wage - the level of which would be up to national governments - and minimum lay-off standards. The idea of a social declaration is likely to be viewed with scepticism by free market-oriented states like the UK, the Czech Republic and Poland which have put ratification of the constitution on ice.

Risky

But it is likely to be backed by German chancellor Angela Merkel who last year proposed to add a social declaration to the constitutional treaty herself, vowing to keep most of the charter's existing text unchanged. Ms Merkel is however likely to be less happy by Ms Royal's push for a second French referendum, which carries the risk of a second French no and which complicates Germany's main EU presidency goal of reaching a quick deal on a revised constitution. Ms Royal admitted that a new referendum is risky, saying I am prepared to take political risks in this matter...and explain to the French that if Europe wants to stand on its feet, we have the task of giving it the institutional means to function.

Barroso lists top five values for EU birthday text
17.01.2007 - 17:01 CET | By Honor Mahony

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said Brussels should be included in the preparation of a highly symbolic 50 year anniversary declaration on the future of Europe.The statement should look ahead to the next 50 years of the EU and must fully involve the Parliament and the Commission, Mr Barroso said before MEPs and in the presence of german chancellor Angela Merkel, currently heading the bloc.Talking animatedly, the Portuguese politician presented the statement as the next significant step in the EU's history, comparing it to when the founding fathers of the union, Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman, first considered their vision for the continent over half a century ago.I think today's leaders should stand on the shoulders of the founding fathers, and look ahead to the next 50 years. To the challenges which could not be imagined in 1957 but which Europe must face in 2007.The commission president went on to outline five points he thought should be covered in the statement, including: solidarity, accountability, security of European citizens and promoting European values in the world.

Green convert

A recent convert to the importance of fighting climate change - it is said because of the long-term economic benefits it will bring - Mr Barroso also put environmental matters in his five points to be included in the 50th anniversary declaration.The fight against climate change, through energy and other policies, should be a defining mission for Europe's future, said the commission president.

He has also asked for the climate change issue to be inserted into the EU's constitutional treaty with talks soon to start between member states on how to revive the document, in political limbo since it was rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.The commission's sudden interest in matters green has seen it strike a unilateral note on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (proposing a 20% decrease for the bloc by 2020), tackling pollution emissions from all airplanes coming in to the EU from 2012 and making a strong commitment to biofuels.However, Mr Barroso's aim to put the climate change battle into the constitution raises it to a new status.It is reminiscent of a recent proposal by Liberal MEP Andrew Duff to include issues that specifically address citizens' concerns in the document, making it more accessible For her part, chancellor Merkel was supportive of Mr Barroso's ideas for the declaration.I can assure him [Mr Barroso] I will back him up on these points, she said.She added the declaration would be shaped by the parliament, commission and the council but did not say concretely how MEPs and the commission would be involved, with Berlin keen to keep the numbers of people directly working on the anniversary document at a minimum so the exercise does not become too unwieldy.

THE NEXT HOLOCAUST

1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS. 2-Moderate quake rocks Indonesian province. 3-23 dead in Oklahoma as winter storms spread south. 4-Wintry precipitation eyes Southeast. 5-Typhoon Muifa creating battering waves. 6-Scores die, crops devastated in harsh US winter storms 7-Warm spell in Russia wakes up the bears 8-Wildfires burn in southern Australia. 9-FACING THE GIANTS MOVIE. 10-Climate change, nuclear threats push world towards Doomsday.11-Pressure mounts on Olmert to resign 12-Palestinian talks may be in trouble.13-Merkel warns of historic mistake on EU charter.14-New parliament chair drops call for God in EU constitution.15-Exclusive: Jimmy Carter Interceded on Behalf of Nazi SS Guard.16-The Second Holocaust Will Not Be Like the First.

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.

WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)

Update time = Thus Jan 18 12:07 AM EDT

JAN 18,07 NO QUAKES YET

JAN 17,07
MAP 2.9 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.5 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.9 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 5.0 NEAR THE COAST OF SOUTHERN PERU
MAP 3.7 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.7 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.5 ROMANIA
MAP 2.5 ARKANSAS
MAP 5.4 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 2.5 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 4.7 OFFSHORE GUATEMALA
MAP 2.5 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.9 PAPUA, INDONESIA
MAP 3.8 GULF OF ALASKA
MAP 2.5 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 3.5 MONA PASSAGE, PUERTO RICO
MAP 3.5 PUERTO RICO REGION

JAN 16,07
MAP 3.5 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 4.4 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.2 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.6 JUJUY, ARGENTINA
MAP 5.6 MOLUCCA SEA
MAP 3.0 NEVADA
MAP 3.3 SAINT MARTIN REGION, LEEWARD ISLANDS
MAP 4.8 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
MAP 3.5 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 3.1 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 4.7 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.5 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 3.1 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP 5.2 TAIWAN REGION
MAP 2.8 CENTRAL ALASKA

Moderate quake rocks Indonesian province Wed Jan 17, 12:40 AM ET

JAKARTA, Indonesia - A moderate earthquake rocked parts of Indonesia's Papua province on Wednesday but there were no reports of any damage.

The 5.9 magnitude quake hit 80 miles southwest of Jayapura, the provincial capital, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site.Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.A massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004, killed more than 131,000 people in Indonesia's Aceh province alone and left half a million homeless.

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.

23 dead in Oklahoma as winter storms spread south JAN 17,07

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - Freezing winter storms across the central U.S. plains killed at least 23 people in Oklahoma and snarled transportation across the country's midsection on Wednesday, officials said. The storms were part of a system that has moved across the central United States over the past week. While forecasters expect the cold weather to retreat from the Gulf Coast on Thursday, forecasters expect more snow and rain across Kansas, Oklahoma and northern Texas by Friday.In Oklahoma,the southeastern part of the state was the hardest hit. At least 23 people in Oklahoma were killed in car accidents on icy roads, state officials said.Many of McAlester,Oklahoma's 18,000 residents were huddling in church shelters because the town has been without power since Friday.The U.S. Army Ammunition plant in McAlester may take two weeks to restore full operations after losing power on Friday, a spokesman told the Daily Oklahoman newspaper. The plant is the leading maker of precision-guided bombs for the U.S. military.Hundreds of flights into and out of Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and the Tulsa, Oklahoma, airports were canceled. Flights at Houston and Oklahoma City airports were departing and arriving, but airport closures across the United States caused some cancellations.Sections of Houston were hit by the first ice storm in a decade, slowing traffic on the city's expansive highway system.

Texas set a winter power consumption record on Tuesday as freezing temperatures and precipitation covered much of the state.

DTN Meteorlogix forecaster Joel Burgio said the looming storm, expected to arrive on Friday, could be somewhat weaker than the latest one, but there was still chance it could gain strength.I think the chance of a heavy storm has diminished somewhat from this morning, Burgio said. It could change if it slows. Right now, it looks like it should move through rather quickly.Meteorlogix expects 2 to 6 inches of snow to fall from the Texas panhandle to the Kansas border, while southern Kansas could get 1 to 3 inches this weekend.There is less of a cold dome associated with this, so it should be either snow or rain and not a lot of ice, Burgio said.For plains states cattle producers, this week's storms have killed thousands of young cattle out to pasture and stressed older cattle that had to trudge through muddy feedlot pens.

Wintry precipitation eyes Southeast Senior Meteorologist, The Weather Channel JAN 17,07

South

Parts of the Southeast are likely to be plagued by light freezing rain (icing) tomorrow as a storm center cranks up off the Atlantic coast. The most vulnerable areas would appear to be northeast Georgia and the western Carolinas (see Storm Watch). Farther east, just plain ole rain is forecast for southeast Georgia and the eastern Carolinas. Elsewhere in the South, isolated showers are possible along the Gulf Coast. Interior Texas could see some patchy sleet or freezing drizzle, but nothing to compare with recent days. High temperatures are forecast to range from the 30s in the piedmont of the Southeast, and parts of Texas and Oklahoma, to the 70s and low 80s over the southern two-thirds of the Florida Peninsula.

Northeast

Except for a light wintry mix of precipitation, or a mix with rain, moving into Virginia and parts of the Mid-Atlantic coast tomorrow, the Northeast should stay dry, and in New England, not nearly so cold as today. Highs are forecast to range from the teens in far northern Maine to the 40s along the Mid-Atlantic coast. Most of the region will top out in the 30s.

West

With only a few exceptions, most of the West will be dry tomorrow. A handful of showers, maybe mixed with snow, will dampen western Washington.

scattered late day showers could push into extreme southern New Mexico; and scattered snow flurries will reach from eastern Washington into northwest Montana. High temperatures are expected to range from the teens in much of the northern Rockies to the 60s along parts of the California coast and in Southern California and southwest Arizona.

Midwest

Gusty winds will kick up over the Great Plains and Midwest tomorrow, as will scattered snow showers and flurries from the eastern Plains to the Great Lakes (generally north of a St. Louis-Detroit line). No significant accumulations are forecast. High temperatures will range from the teens in much of North Dakota and far northern Minnesota to the 40s from southeast Missouri through the Ohio Valley and Kentucky.

Typhoon Muifa creating battering waves Tim Ballisty, Meteorologist, The Weather Channel Wed Jan 17, 7:19 AM ET

What started Tuesday innocently enough as a moderate tropical storm has become a small, but potent, typhoon east of the Philippines.

Typhoon Muifa (Moy-fa) became worthy of its prefix today when winds were estimated at near 105 mph. Muifa is at best meandering to the north while churning in the Philippine Sea just east of Manila. In fact, for all intents and purposes, the typhoon has stalled. Though forecast to move west over the islands, forward progression will be slow. Bad news for the island chain as flooding and mudslides will result from the copious amounts of rain expected to fall over the next 48 hours. There is no doubt that the large and powerful waves have been battering the eastern coast of the northern Philippines. The system is forecasted to weaken gradually over the next 5 days as it heads towards southern Vietnam. The Atlantic and eastern Pacific Basins remain quiet.

Scores die, crops devastated in harsh US winter storms JAN 17,07

CHICAGO (AFP) - Harsh winter weather dogged much of the United States, leaving scores of people dead, hundreds of thousands without electricity and jeopardizing
California's citrus crops.

At least 50 deaths were blamed on the storm, the majority in car accidents on icy roads, major US news media reported. Several were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning from malfunctioning generators and heaters after the power went out.A massive storm that began churning across the country on Friday brought ice, sleet, rain, flash floods and even a few tornadoes as it moved from the southwestern states of New Mexico and Texas to far northeastern Maine.A separate icy snap in normally balmy California led Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to warn that the region's citrus fruit industry could be devastated.Damage to the citrus industry alone is close to a billion dollars, Schwarzenegger said.California supplies nearly a quarter of citrus fruit sold in the United States, according to state agricultural authorities. Avocados, green leafy vegetables, broccoli, strawberries and cauliflower also grow in the state and have been affected by the freeze.

Low temperatures also struck the US northwest, where cleanup crews in Portland, Oregon on Wednesday focused on de-icing major roadways after the area was hit with up to 13 centimeters (five inches) of snow on Tuesday.Cars stuck in the snow were abandoned on Portland freeways, and transportation officials temporarily ordered all vehicles on the roads to use chains or snow tires.City officials and forecasters predicted a light dusting and were unprepared for the heavy snowfall, local news media reported.The sudden snowfall and slick roads also triggered a 30-car pileup on a major highway outside Seattle, Washington on Tuesday.Low temperatures will keep the snow and ice on the ground in the northwest at least until Friday, according to local forecasts.The storm that covered much of the Midwestern US was caused by a vast cold front that dropped temperatures by as much as 17 degrees C (30 degrees F) and brought wave after wave of freezing rain and sleet as it moved slowly eastward.

It weakened somewhat by early Wednesday, sparing the major East Coast cities of New York, Boston and Philadelphia from the worst of the ice and sleet.Schools and businesses remained closed in Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri where freezing rain and sleet knocked down trees and power lines and made driving conditions extremely dangerous.President George W. Bush declared an emergency in Oklahoma on Sunday, and Federal Emergency Management Agency workers were in the state handing out emergency supplies.The Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported more than 300 road accidents in which 14 people were killed and 128 people were hospitalized.Texas has still got all sorts of problems they have freezing rain, sleet and snow, said Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the National Weather Service. In Oklahoma they have so many (power) lines down it's going to take a while to get things back up.The weather service has also issued flood warnings for the Mississippi River Valley from Louisiana to Illinois and for Indiana and Ohio. Bush also declared a state of emergency for Missouri including the city of St. Louis on Monday, freeing up federal funding for recovery efforts. More than 300,000 people lost power in the state due to downed power lines, and a utility worker was injured, Missouri state officials said.

While power will be restored over the next days in storm-stricken areas, the California freeze is something that's likely to affect farmers and consumers for months to come, said Dave Kranz, a spokesman for the California Farm Bureau Federation. Kranz said it was still too early to put a dollar estimate on the losses but acknowledged damage was widespread. The freeze could be a costly blow to the industry, said Tim Chelling with the Western Growers Association, representing 2,500 farmers and produce shippers in California and Arizona. A two-night 1998 area freeze resulted in 700 million dollars in crop losses, he said. This is already a five-plus night event with another cold front predicted in 10 days, he said. In the far northeastern state of Maine, temperatures early Wednesday were as low as minus 24 degrees C (minus 11 degrees F) but no major problems were reported. Ski resorts welcomed the icy weather and fresh snow, which allowed them to open runs that have been closed during unseasonably mild temperatures over the Christmas and New Year holiday period. One skier at the Lost Valley resort in the town of Auburn said she was happy the winter weather had finally arrived. I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for the bitter cold and now it's finally here, so I like it. It feels normal again, Shelly Fitts told local television station WCSH from the ski slopes.

Warm spell in Russia wakes up the bears JAN 17,07

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - Winters in Russia are always tough, but rarely like this — so warm that bears aren't hibernating and so gray that humans are having trouble
waking up. Much of the European part of Russia has been gripped by an uncharacteristic warm spell this winter, with temperatures generally well above freezing and little if any snow.It's an astonishing contrast to last year, when it was so cold that even Russians inured to frigid winters complained about temperatures that lurked around 30 below zero for days at a time.This year, they'd probably be happy for the cold to come back.The bears in the Leningradsky Zoo in St. Petersburg certainly would be. Two of the zoo's five bears have come out of hibernation already, weeks ahead of time.On Saturday, visitors were surprised when, despite a sign reading The bears are in their den; they are hibernating, a bear named Varya ambled out into view for a snack.Some of the zoo's hedgehogs also are waking up.They can't sleep because of the weather, said zoo assistant Lyuba Astakhova, who added that they nod off when the temperature falls below freezing.

Humans, meanwhile, are complaining about the seemingly endless days of heavy cloud cover that reduces what little light is available to Russians at this time of year, when the sun clears the horizon for only about seven hours a day.

Average temperatures throughout European Russia have mostly been above freezing in December and January, some 11-15 degrees higher than normal, Roman Vilfand of Russia's Hydrometeorological Center said Tuesday.Short-term fluctuations have occurred before, but such weather persisting for a whole month is a previously unseen phenomenon, the RIA-Novosti news agency quoted him as saying.But Vilfand held out some hope, predicting the temperature will fall to 14 in about a week.

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.

Wildfires burn in southern Australia Wed Jan 17, 12:57 AM ET

MELBOURNE, Australia Firefighters battled Wednesday to contain a wildfire that razed a number of homes in southern Australia amid soaring temperatures and warnings
that the worst was yet to come. Two fires in southern Victoria state destroyed a number of homes late Tuesday, including one west of the capital, Melbourne, and three in the state's northeast, where a massive blaze has blackened nearly 67,000 acres over the past two days, according to the Victoria Country Fire Authority.

Authorities earlier reported that eight houses had burned down, but revised the figure after firefighters were able to enter the charred areas and inspect the damage.Meanwhile, firefighters were struggling to contain the northeast blaze, which knocked out a main electricity circuit on Tuesday — plunging some 200,000 homes and businesses into darkness, and affecting hundreds of traffic signals and suburban train services.Several people were caught in elevators when power went out in some buildings and had to be rescued.The power was restored early Wednesday, but Victoria's Premier Steve Bracks urged residents to conserve electricity as temperatures were set to exceed 104 degrees Fahrenheit this week.This is the worst bush fire conditions we have ever had in Victoria's history because it is going to go on and it is going to get worse, Bracks told reporters Wednesday. We have never encountered this in Victoria before.Nearly 3,900 square miles of Victorian forest and ranch land have been destroyed since the start of the southern hemisphere summer, when soaring temperatures and gusty winds often combine to spur the sometimes deadly blazes.Officials also evacuated tourists and residents of a resort community in the Snowy Mountains of neighboring New South Wales state on Wednesday, where firefighters and six water-bombing aircraft were struggling to contain a blaze, the Rural Fire Service said.

January 17, 2007
FACING THE GIANTS MOVIE

Dear Stan,

I am not a movie fan. I haven't been to five movies in the past 10 years. When Facing the Giants came out, I was urged by several of my employees to go see the movie. I went, more to please them than to expect anything on the screen. I am glad I did. Because if I had not, I would have missed one of the best movies I have ever seen!

As I sat through Facing the Giants, I cried and I laughed. I was entertained, and I was inspired. Facing the Giants is what movies can and should be.Let me say it again. It was one of the best movies I have ever seen! If we could see movies like this all the time, I wouldn’t mind paying the more than $7 to see them.I wish everyone could see the movie. I want you to see it. No cursing. No sex. No violence. Just a great heartwarming, wholesome movie that made me feel good when I walked out of the theater.I was so moved by the movie that I wanted to offer it to you. So we approached the distributors of the movie and worked out an arrangement to offer it to you! I hope you will watch it.

If you have children eight years old or above, I hope they will watch it. I hope they will invite their friends to watch it.I could write four more pages praising the movie, but I'm out of space. Don't make the mistake I nearly made by skipping this one. Let me say it again, this is one of the best movies I have seen.Order a copy, invite friends over to your house, pop some corn and break out the soft drinks. Then sit back and get ready to laugh, cry and be inspired! It's that good -- and better.

Click here to order Facing the Giants. Your order will be shipped Jan. 29.
http://offers.afastore.net/a/jgroup/bg_store-afanet_afaso-0111-giants-bp_276.html

If you think our efforts are worthy, would you please support us with a small gift? Thank you for caring enough to get involved. Sincerely,Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman (American Family Association)

OZONE DEPLETION

ISAIAH 30:26-27
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:

MATTHEW 24:21-22,29
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened (Daylight hours shortened)
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

REVELATION 16:7-9
7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS WILL BE USED.

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 2:20,30
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

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.

REMEMBER FOLKS THE EARTH GOES ON FOREVER, THIS NUCLEAR WAR ONLY LASTS FOR A SHORT TIME, THEN JESUS THE TRUE PRINCE OF PEACE, RULES WITH A ROD OF IRON FROM JERUSALEM. NO MORE WAR EVER AGAIN, THEN.BUT SIN HAS TO BE ELIMINATED FROM THE EARTH FIRST, THROUGH DISASTERS AND WW3.AND DON'T BLAME GOD FOR ANY OF IT, SATAN IS BEHIND ALL THESE WARS AND DISASTERS, GOD JUST ALLOWS THEM TO HAPPEN SO PEOPLE REPENT FROM SIN.

ISAIAH 14:12-23
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, (SATAN) son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;
17 That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?
18 All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.
19 But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.
20 Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.
21 Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.
22 For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD.
23 I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts.
24 The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand.

SATAN HATES ISRAEL BECAUSE GOD LOVES THEM

1CHRONICLES 21:1
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.

Climate change, nuclear threats push world towards Doomsday by Katherine Haddon JAN 17 Clock set at 11:55 and Counting.

LONDON (AFP) The world is inching closer to nuclear Armageddon, top scientists have warned while moving a symbolic Doomsday Clock nearer to midnight and stressing the growing threat of climate change. Renowned British physicist Stephen Hawking was among the Nobel laureates behind the warning, which cited North Korea and Iran as particular reasons increasing the danger of a nuclear winter.It is now five minutes to midnight, Hawking said after the clock was moved forward two minutes from 11:53 pm, where it had stood since 2002.We foresee great peril if governments and scientists don't take action now to render nuclear weapons obsolete and to prevent further climate change, he added.The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has kept a Doomsday clock since 1947 as a reminder of the dangers of nuclear proliferation.In simultaneous events in London and Washington on Wednesday the clock's big hand was pushed forward, its sixth move since the end of the Cold War with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

We stand at the brink of a Second Nuclear Age.

Not since the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has the world faced such perilous choices, said the scientists in a statement.North Korea's recent test of a nuclear weapon, Iran's nuclear ambitions, a renewed emphasis on the military utility of nuclear weapons, the failure to adequately secure nuclear materials, and the continued presence of some 26,000 nuclear weapons in the United States and Russia are symptomatic of a failure to solve the problems posed by the most destructive technology on Earth.First set at seven minutes to midnight a phrase that has become part of pop culture the clock has been moved 17 times in response to global events, varying from two minutes to midnight in 1953 to 17 minutes to midnight in 1991.The most recent shift was in 2002 when it moved two minutes forward because the United States withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and terrorists were known to be seeking nuclear and biological weapons.Founded in 1945 by scientists who had helped develop the atomic bomb and were deeply concerned about the use of nuclear weapons, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists counts 17 Nobel laureates among its boards of directors and sponsors.The London event was held at the Royal Society, Britain's top scientific institution, whose president Martin Rees joined in stressing the threat of climate change as well as nuclear proliferation. Nuclear weapons still pose the most catastrophic and immediate threat to humanity, but climate change and emerging technologies in the life sciences also have the potential to end civilization as we know it, he said.

Pressure mounts on Olmert to resign By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer JAN 17,07

JERUSALEM Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz came under renewed pressure to resign Wednesday after the Israeli army's chief of staff stepped down in the wake of the flawed Lebanon war.

The sudden departure of Israel's top military official, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, delivered another setback to the prime minister, whose popularity has plummeted following last summer's war and a string of political scandals. On Tuesday, Israel's attorney general opened a criminal probe into Olmert's role in a 2005 bank privatization. Halutz stepped down after dozens of internal inquiries into the monthlong Lebanon war found widespread problems in the military's performance. Halutz had previously rejected calls to resign, despite the growing loss of confidence of his political superiors and subordinates in the army.With Halutz on his way out, critics quickly clamored for the heads of the country's other wartime leaders, Olmert and Peretz.The war clearly was mismanaged, and when a war is clearly mismanaged, there is no doubt the chief of staff is responsible, said opposition lawmaker Ran Cohen, a former high-ranking military officer. The responsibility is shared by him, the prime minister and the defense minister, and sooner or later, they, too, will have to leave.

Neither Olmert nor Peretz publicly addressed the demands for their resignation. Olmert made a routine appearance at parliament, sparring with lawmakers over unrelated domestic issues and promising to appoint a new military chief within days. Peretz said he would begin interviewing candidates for the vacant military post immediately.

But pressure on Olmert and Peretz is likely to increase ahead of the release of a wide-ranging government inquiry into the war. The investigative panel, focusing on the performance of military and political leaders, is expected to announce its conclusions in the coming weeks.Halutz's step was unavoidable, but he was not the only one responsible for the failures of the war — the government was too, lawmaker Ophir Pines-Paz, a member of Peretz's Labor Party, told Army Radio.He stopped short of calling on Olmert and Peretz to resign, saying he wanted to wait for the government panel to reach its conclusions.An opinion poll published last week showed Olmert's approval rating at just 14 percent, and his Kadima Party losing if new elections were held.

It is not clear whether the prime minister will be able to survive the resignation of chief of staff Halutz and his own political problems,said Ephraim Inbar, a political scientist at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv. We may see pressure in his own party to replace him. This resignation is definitely the beginning of political turmoil in Israel.Peretz's public standing, meanwhile, is equally dismal. The former union leader won the defense portfolio under a coalition deal with Olmert's Kadima Party, despite his scant military experience.The war's many flaws only cemented sweeping doubts about his fitness to serve as defense minister, and he now faces multiple challenges to his leadership within his own Labor Party, which is scheduled to hold primaries for chairman in May.Both Peretz and Olmert are in a very shaky position, said political scientist Avraham Diskin of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.Israel went into the war with a united front against Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas just hours after they killed three Israeli soldiers and captured two in a July 12 cross-border raid, but that solidarity collapsed after the fighting ended.Critics questioned whether Olmert moved too hastily with a full-scale campaign that ended without achieving its declared aims — recovering the captured soldiers and crushing Hezbollah.More than 1,200 people were killed on both sides, most in Lebanon, according to U.N., Israeli and Lebanese officials. Israel claims it killed 600 guerrillas, but that number has not been substantiated, and Lebanon says most of its casualties were civilians.A total of 159 Israelis were killed, including 39 civilians who died in rocket attacks. Soldiers returning from battle complained of poor planning and shortages of ammunition, food and water.Uri Guralcky, 30, a graduate student and electronics vendor in Jerusalem, said Peretz and Olmert must accept responsibility for the war's failures. They must go together with Halutz, he said. Hezbollah legislator Hussein Haj Hassan told The Associated Press that Halutz's resignation is the result of the defeat of the Israeli enemy in Lebanon.

MUSLIM NATIONS

EZEKIEL 38:1-12
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW)and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

EZEKIEL 39:1-8
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.

JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS) 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.
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

Palestinian talks may be in trouble JAN 17,07

RAMALLAH, West Bank Negotiations between the rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas hit a new snag Wednesday, people close to the negotiations said, raising the
possibility of a new round of violence. In recent days, negotiators had reported significant progress in the talks, being held in the Syrian capital Damascus, over forming a coalition government. The talks are also aimed at ending recent clashes between Hamas and Fatah.But Fatah's chief negotiator left Damascus on Wednesday, and it was not clear whether a new round of talks would be held, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to the media.Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas' politburo, denied that the talks were in trouble.Negotiations were good. There was positive talk about all the subjects that have been raised. All parties are supposed to be positive, Abu Marzouk told AP by telephone in Damascus.We are about to achieve a partnership and this needs constant dialogue, he said.Tensions have been high since Hamas defeated President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement in legislative elections last year. Abbas favors peace talks with Israel, while Hamas remains committed to Israel's destruction, despite an international boycott against the Hamas-led government.Abbas has been pushing Hamas to join him in a more moderate coalition. Those talks broke down in November, leading to a month of political violence that killed 35 people in the Gaza Strip.

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.(TR 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).

Merkel warns of historic mistake on EU charter By Darren Ennis Wed Jan 17, 10:25 AM ET

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned on Wednesday that failure to revive the European Union's constitution would be a historic mistake that would leave the bloc divided and mired in bureaucracy. Merkel said Germany would aim by the end of its six-month presidency of the European Union in June to offer a plan for resolving the deadlock before European Parliament elections in mid-2009, but offered no hint of how a compromise could look.I know it is a very difficult door I am knocking on, but please don't make this historic mistake. Don't prevent Europe from taking a step in that direction which basically you also want, she told the European Parliament in a plea directed explicitly at eurosceptics in Britain and elsewhere.Asked about Britain's reluctance to revive the stalled treaty, Merkel said it was paradoxical that some of the strongest supporters of EU enlargement opposed institutional reforms without which any further expansion would be impossible.Efforts to overhaul Brussels' unwieldy structures have been in limbo since French and Dutch voters rejected the charter designed to streamline decision-making in 2005.A lumbering bureaucratic, divided Europe will not solve the challenges it faces, be they in foreign and security policy, climate and energy, European research, cutting red tape or in dealing with enlargement and with our neighbors, she said.Appealing for the EU to deepen ties with the United States and Russia, and make its influence felt from the Balkans to the Middle East and Africa, Merkel said it was time the EU had its own foreign minister a key provision of the constitution.Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the executive European Commission, said any final compromise must clear the clouds of doubt which hang over parts of Europe.

SCEPTICAL ON REFERENDUMS

With French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair set to leave office this year, Merkel has emerged as Europe's most influential leader.German officials say what she can achieve depends largely on who is elected president of France on May 6. The French No vote on the EU constitution stemmed partly from fears that cheap labor from new member states in the east would take away jobs in western Europe.Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal said for the first time on Wednesday she would ask the public to vote again in 2009 on a revised constitution, which she said should include an added declaration on workers' rights and public services.With this, I think that the French people will regain confidence and I will be able to bring them along, those who voted yes and those who voted no, she said in Luxembourg.Her conservative opponent, Nicolas Sarkozy, has advocated a mini-treaty stripped down to the key institutional reforms, to be ratified by parliament, not a referendum.Merkel made it clear her skepticism about more referendums, rejecting a call for a pan-European plebiscite. The treaty can only enter into force if all 27 member states ratify it.Behind the scenes, diplomats say Germany is sounding out its partners on what would have to be removed from the text ratified so far by 18 member states to enable the remaining countries to endorse it, if possible without referendums.Aside from difficulties with France and the Netherlands, Berlin faces a struggle to convince governments in the seven other states that have not yet begun ratification procedures.Britain, Poland and the Czech Republic, which promised referendums but never held them after the French and Dutch votes, have cold feet about reviving the treaty. Critics of the charter slammed Merkel's approach as undemocratic in the debate that followed her speech.The EU's political establishment is now going full steam ahead to thrust the constitution upon us, eurosceptical British Conservative Neil Parish said. If the leaders of the EU attempt to airbrush out the wishes of the French and Dutch voters, they risk destroying the very institutions they revere. (additional reporting by Michele Sinner in Luxembourg)

THE EU HAS TO BE GODLESS OR THE DICTATOR COULD NOT DECIEVE ISRAELIS INTO BELIEVING HE IS THEIR LONG WAITED MESSIAH BY PUTTING JESUS DOWN.

New parliament chair drops call for God in EU constitution
16.01.2007 - 17:38 CET | By Lucia Kubosova

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The new president of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Poettering has promised to act as a fair and objective president of the whole assembly, indicating that despite his personal convictions, he would no longer press for a reference to God in any revised EU constitution.

Mr Poettering was elected to chair the bloc's legislature by a majority of 450 votes out of 715 MEPs voting in the first round of Tuesday's (16 January) election.Despite three other candidates running for the presidency - with Greens co-chairman Monica Frassoni receiving 145 votes, leftist GUE/NGL president Francis Wurtz 48 votes and Danish eurosceptic Jens-Peter Bonde 46 votes - most group leaders said they believe Mr Poettering will manage to act as a neutral president of all members.Following the vote, the German deputy said one of his key priorities would be to boost a dialogue between cultures, particularly between Christian and Muslim religions.At the same time, he stressed that he wants the parliament to be actively involved in a March declaration to mark the EU's 50th birthday and make sure the document mentions not only the commitment to the bloc's reforms but also its values.However, when asked by journalists if he would press for a reference to God and Christianity to be introduced in a new version of the EU constitution, he said as a president, I can't do it.As chairman of the EPP-ED [centre-right] group in the European Parliament, I favoured the mentioning of Christian values in a constitution but now I have to represent a majority position, he said.German chancellor Angela Merkel last year also mooted the possibility of re-introducing the idea in the re-drafted document, saying after her August visit to the Pope Benedict XVI we need a European identity in the form of a constitutional treaty and I think it should be connected to Christianity and God, as Christianity has forged Europe in a decisive way.Mr Poettering himself wants to meet both the Pope and other religious leaders during his presidency of the EU legislature as part of his initiative to enhance dialogue between cultures.

Exclusive: Jimmy Carter Interceded on Behalf of Nazi SS Guard
18:45 Jan 17, '07 / 27 Tevet 5767 by Ezra HaLevi (INN)

A former U.S. Justice Department official disclosed to Arutz-7 that former U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s advocacy extended beyond the Palestinians, when he interceded on behalf of a Nazi SS man. Neil Sher, a veteran of the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigation, described a letter he received from Carter in 1987 in an interview with Israel National Radio’s Tovia Singer. The letter, written and signed by Carter, asked that Sher show special consideration for a man proven to have murdered Jews in the Mauthausen death camp in Austria.In 1987, Carter had been out of office for seven years or so, Sher recalled. It was a very active period for my office. We had just barred Kurt Waldheim – he was then president of Austria and former head of the United Nations – from entering the U.S. because of his Nazi past and his involvement in the persecution of civilians during the war. We had just deported an Estonian Nazi Commandant back to the Soviet Union after a bruising battle after which we were attacked by Reagan White House Communications Director Patrick Buchanan. Also around that time, in the spring of 1987, we deported a series of SS guards from concentration camps, whose names nobody would know. One such character we sent back to Austria was a man named Martin Bartesch.Bartesch, who had immigrated to the U.S. and lived in Chicago, admitted to Sher’s office and the court that he had voluntarily joined the Waffen SS and had served in the notorious SS Death’s Head Division at the Mauthausen concentration camp where, at the hands of Bartesch and his cohorts, many thousands of prisoners were gassed, shot, starved and worked to death. He also confessed to having concealed his service at the infamous camp from U.S. immigration officials.

We had an extraordinary piece of evidence against him a book that was kept by the SS and captured by the American armed forces when they liberated Mauthausen, Sher said. We called it the death book.

It was a roster that the Germans required them to keep that identified SS guards as they extended weapons to murder the inmates and prisoners.An entry in the book for October 10, 1943 registered the shooting death of Max Oschorn, a French Jewish prisoner. His murderer was also recorded: SS guard Martin Bartesch. It was a most chilling document, Sher recalled. The same evidence was used by the U.S. military in postwar trials as the basis for execution or long prison sentences for many identified SS guards. We kicked him out and he went back to Austria. In themeantime, his family he had adult kids went on a campaign, also supported by his church, to try to get special treatment. In so doing they attacked the activities of our office and me personally. They claimed we used phony evidence from the Soviet Union which was nonsense. They claimed he was a young man of only 17 or 18 when he joined the Nazi forces, asking for some sympathetic treatment and defense from our office, which they claimed was just after vengeance.

The family approached several members of Congress.The congressmen would, very understandably, forward their claims over to our office and when they learned the facts they would invariably drop the case, Sher recalled.

But there was one politician who accepted the claims without asking for any further information. One day, in the fall of ’87, my secretary walks in and gives me a letter with a Georgia return address reading Jimmy Carter. I assumed it was a prank from some old college buddies, but it wasn’t. It was the original copy of the letter Bartesch’s daughter sent to Carter, after Bartash had already been deported.In the letter, she claimed we were un-American, only after vengeance, and persecuting a man for what he did when he was only 17 and 18 years old. I couldn’t help thinking of my own father who returned home with shrapnel wounds after he joined the U.S. Army as a teenager to fight the Nazis and hit the beaches at Normandy at that same age on D-day.On the upper corner of the letter was a note signed by Jimmy Carter saying that in cases such as this, he wanted special consideration for the family for humanitarian reasons.I didn’t respond to the letter the case was already over and he was out of the country but it always stuck in my craw. A former president who didn’t do what I would expect him to do with a full staff at his disposal to find out the facts before he took up the side of this person. But I wasn’t going to pick a fight with a former president. We had enough on our plate.Now, following Carter’s book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, Sher has decided to go public with the hope that a public made aware of Carter’s support and defense of a Nazi SS man will help illustrate why the arbiter of the Camp David Accords came out with a book defending the Palestinians after the landslide election of the Islamist Hamas terror group. It always bothered me, but I didn’t go public with it until recently, when he wrote this book and let it spill out where his sentiments really lie, Sher said. Here was Jimmy Carter jumping in on behalf of someone who did not deserve in any way, shape or form special consideration. And the things he has now said about the Jewish lobby really exposes where his heart really lies.

THE SECOND HOLOCAUST

Below is an English-language version of an article by Israeli historian Benny Morris, which appeared recently in the German daily DIE WELT (http://www.welt.de/data/2007/01/06/1165992.html). It is an extraordinarily frightening analysis of the nuclear threat facing Israel from Iran, which should be read and pondered by anyone who cares about Israel. For years Benny Morris was the darling of the ISM and anti-Israel activists, a revisionist historian whose articles were used to relentlessly attack ISrael. Today, he has completely reversed himself:


THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION THE SECOND HOLOCAUST
The following is the original text in English provided by Benny Morris.
-------------------------------------
The Second Holocaust Will Not Be Like the First
By Benny Morris

The Nazis, of course, industrialized mass murder. But still, the perpetrators had one-on-one contact with the victims. They may have dehumanized them, over months and years of appalling debasement and in their minds, before the actual killing. But, still, they were in eye- and ear-contact, sometimes in tactile contact, with their victims. The Germans, along with their non-German helpers, had to round up the men, women and children from their houses and drag and beat them through the streets and mow them down in nearby woods or push and pack them on cattle cars and transport them to the camps, where Work makes Free, separate the able-bodied from the completely useless and lure them into shower halls and pour in the gas and then take out, or oversee the extraction of, the bodies and prepare the 'showers' for the next batch.The second Holocaust will be quite different. One bright morning, in five or ten years' time, perhaps during a regional crisis, perhaps out of the blue, a day or a year or five years after Iran's acquisition of the Bomb, the mullahs in Qom will covoke in secret session, under a portrait of the steely-eyed Ayatollah Khomeini, and give President Ahmedinejad, by then in his second or third term, the go ahead. The orders will go out and the Shihab III and IV missiles will take off for Tel Aviv, Beersheba, Haifa, and Jerusalem, and probably some military sites, including Israel's half dozen air and (reported) nuclear missile bases. Some of the Shihabs will be nuclear-tipped, perhaps even with multiple warheads. Others will be dupes, packed merely with biological or chemical agents, or old newspapers, to draw off or confuse Israel's anti-missile batteries and Home Guard units.

With a country the size and shape of Israel (an elongated 8,000 square miles), probably four or five hits will suffice: No more Israel. A million or more Israelis, in the greater Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem areas, will die immediately. Millions will be seriously irradiated. Israel has about seven million inhabitants. No Iranian will see or touch an Israeli. It will be quite impersonal.Some of the dead will inevitably be Arab. 1.3 million of Israel's citizens are Arab and another 3.5 million additional Arabs live in the semi-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Jerusalem, Tel Aviv-Jaffa and Haifa have substantial Arab minorities.

And there are large Arab concentrations immediately around Jerusalem (in Ramallah-El Bireh, Bir Zeit, Bethlehem), and outside Haifa. Here, too, many will die,immediately or by and by.It is doubtful whether such a mass killing of fellow Muslims will trouble Ahmedinejad and the mullahs. The Iranians don't especially like Arabs, especially Sunni Arabs, with whom they have intermittently warred for centuries. And they have an especial contempt for the (Sunni) Palestinians, who, after all, though initially outnumbering the Jews by more than 10 to 1, failed during the long conflict to prevent the Jews from establishing their state or taking over all of Palestine. Besides, the Iranian leadership sees the destruction of Israel as a supreme divine command, as a herald of the Second Coming, and the Muslims dispatched collaterally as so many shuhada (martyrs) in the noble cause. Anyway, the Palestinians, many of them dispersed around the globe, will survive as a people, as will the greater Arab Nation, of which they are part. And surely, to be rid of the Jewish state, the Arabs should be willing to make some sacrifices. In the cosmic balance sheet, it will be worth the candle.

A question may nevertheless arise in the Iranian councils: What about Jerusalem? After all, the city contains Islam's third holiest shrines (after Mecca and Medina), Al Aksa Mosque and the Mosque of Omar. But Ali Khamenei, the supreme spiritual leader, and Ahmedinejad most likely would reply much as they would to the wider question regarding the destruction and radioactive pollution of Palestine as a whole: The city, like the land, by God's grace, in twenty or fifty years' time, will recover. And it will be restored to Islam (and the Arabs). And the deeper pollution will have been eradicated.To judge from Ahmedinejad's continuous reference to Palestine and the need to destroy Israel, and his denial of the first Holocaust, he is a man obsessed. He shares this with the mullahs: All were brought up on the teachings of Khomeini, a prolific anti-Semite who often fulminated against 'the Little Satan'. To judge from Ahmedinejad's organisation of the Holocaust cartoons competition and the (current) Holocaust denial conference, the Iranian president's hatreds are deep (and, of course, shameless).He is willing to gamble the future of Iran or even of the whole Muslim Middle East in exchange for Israel's destruction. No doubt he believes that Allah, somehow, will protect Iran from an Israeli nuclear response or an American counterstrike. Allah aside, he may well believe that his missiles will so pulverize the Jewish state, knock out its leadership and its land-based nuclear bases, and demoralize or confuse its nuclear-armed submarine commanders that it will be unable to respond. And, with his deep contempt for the weak-kneed West, he is unlikely to take seriously the threat of American nuclear retaliation.

Or he may well take into account a counter-strike and simply, irrationally (to our way of thinking), be willing to pay the price. As his mentor, Khomeini, put it in a speech in Qom in 1980: 'We do not worship Iran, we worship Allah … I say, let this land [Iran] burn. I say let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant For these worshipers at the cult of death, even the sacrifice of the homeland is acceptable if the outcome is the demise of Israel.Israel's deputy defense minister, Ephraim Sneh, has suggested that Iran doesn't even have to use the Bomb to destroy Israel. Simply, the nuclearization of Iran will so overawe and depress Israelis that they will lose hope and gradually flee emigrate, and potential foreign investors and immigrants will shy away from the mortally threatened Jewish State. These, together, will bring about the State's demise.

But my feeling is that Ahmedinejad and his allies lack the patience for such a drawn-out denouement; they seek Israel's annihilation in the here and now, in the immediate future, in their lifetime. They won't want to leave anything up to the vagaries of history.As with the first, the second Holocaust will have been preceded by decades of preparation of hearts and minds, by Iranian and Arab leaders, Western intellectuals and media outlets. Different messages have gone out to different audiences but all have (objectively) served the same goal, the demonization of Israel. Muslims the world over have been taught: 'The Zionists\the Jews are the embodiment of evil and Israel must be destroyed. And Westeners, more subtly, were instructed: Israel is a racist oppressor state and Israel, in this age of multi-culturalism, is an anachronism and superfluous'. Generations of Muslims and at least a generation of Westerners have been brought up on these catechisms.The build-up to the second Holocaust (which, incidentally, in the end, will probably claim roughly the same number of lives as did the first) has seen an international community fragmented and driven by separate, selfish appetites Russia and China obsessed with Muslim markets; France, with Arab oil and the United States driven by the debacle in Iraq into a deep isolationism. Iran has been left free to pursue its nuclear destiny and Israel and Iran, to face off alone.But an ultimately isolated Israel will prove unequal to the task, like a rabbit caught in the headlights of an onrushing car. Last summer, led by a party hack of a prime minister and a small-time trade unionist as defense minister, and deploying an army trained for quelling incompetent and poorly-armed Palestinians gangs in the occupied territories and overly concerned about both sustaining and inflicting casualties, Israel failed in a 34-day mini-war against a small Iran-backed guerrilla army of Lebanese fundamentalists (albeit highly motivated, well-trained and well-armed). That mini-war thoroughly demoralized the Israeli political and military leaderships.

Since then, the ministers and generals, like their counterparts in the West, have looked on glumly as Hizbullah's patrons have been arming with doomsday weapons. Perversely, the Israeli leaders may even have been happy with Western pressures urging restraint. Most likely they deeply wished to believe Western assurances that somebody, somehow the UN, G-7 would pull the radioactive chestnuts out of the fire. There are even those who fell for the outlandish idea that a regime-change in Teheran, driven by a reputedly secular middle class, would ultimately stymie the mad mullahs.

But even more to the point, the Iranian program presented an infinitely complex challenge for a country with Israel's limited conventional military resources. Taking their cue from the successful Israel Air Force's destruction in 1981 of Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor, the Iranians duplicated and dispersed their facilities and buried them deep underground (and the Iranian targets are about twice as far from Israel as was Baghdad). Taking out with conventional weapons the known Iranian facilities would take an American-size air force working round-the-clock for more than a month. At best, Israel's air force, commandos and navy could hope to hit only some of the components of the Iranian project. But, in the end, it would remain substantially intact and the Iranians even more determined (if that were possible) to reach the Bomb as soon as possible. (It would also, without doubt, immediately result in a world-embracing Islamist terrorist campaign against Israel (and possibly its Western allies) and, of course, near-universal vilification. Orchestrated by Ahmedinejad, all would clamor that the Iranian program had been geared to peaceful purposes.). At best, an Israeli conventional strike could delay the Iranians by a year or two.In short order, therefore, the incompetent leadership in Jerusalem would soon confront a doomsday scenario, either after launching their marginally effective conventional offensive or in its stead, of launching a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the Iranian nuclear program, some of whose components were in or near major cities. Would they have the stomach for this? Would their determination to save Israel extend to pre-emptively killing millions of Iranians and, in effect, destroying Iran?

This dilemma had long ago been accurately defined by a wise general: Israel's nuclear armory was unusable. It could only be used too early or too late. There would never be a right time. Use it too early, meaning before Iran acquired similar weapons, and Israel would be cast in the role of international pariah, a target of universal Muslim assault, without a friend in the world; too late would mean using its nuclear weapons after the Iranians had struck. What purpose would that serve? So Israel's leaders will grit their teeth and hope that somehow things will turn out for the best.

Perhaps, after acquiring the Bomb, the Iranians will behave rationally? But the Iranians are driven by a higher logic. And they will launch their rockets. And, as with the first Holocaust, the international community will do nothing. It will all be over, for Israel, in a few minutes not like in the 1940s, when the world had five long years in which to wring its hands and do nothing. After the Shihabs fall, the world will send rescue ships and medical aid for the lightly charred. It will not nuke Iran. For what purpose and at what cost? An American nuclear response would lastingly alienate the whole of the Muslim world, deepening and universalizing the ongoing clash of civilizations. And, of course, it would not bring Israel back. (Would hanging a serial muderer bring back his victims?) So what would be the point?
Still, the second Holocaust will be different in the sense that Ahmedinejad will not actually see and touch those he so wishes dead (and, one may speculate, this might
cause him disappointment as, in his years of service in Iranian death squads in Europe, he may have acquired a taste for actual blood).

And, indeed, there will be no scenes like the following, quoted in Daniel Mendelsohn's recent The Lost, A Search for Six of Six Million,in which is described the second Nazi Aktion in Bolechow, Poland, in September 1942:A terrible episode happened with Mrs. Grynberg. The Ukrainians and Germans, who had broken into her house, found her giving birth. The weeping and entreaties of bystanders didn't help and she was taken from her home in a nightshirt and dragged into the square in front of the town hall. There … she was dragged onto a dumpster in the yard of the town hall with a crowd of Ukraininans present, who cracked jokes and jeered and watched the pain of childbirth and she gave birth to a child. The child was immediately torn from her arms along with its umbilical cord and thrown It was trampled by the crowd and she was stood on her feet as blood poured out of her with bleeding bits hanging and she stood that way for a few hours by the wall of the town hall, afterwards she went with all the others to the train station where they loaded her into a carriage in a train to Belzec [extermination camp].In the next Holocaust there will be no such heart-rending scenes, of perpetrators and victims mired in blood (though, to judge from pictures of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the physical effects of nuclear explosions can be fairly unpleasant).But it will be a Holocaust nonetheless.