Menu



error This forum is not active, and new posts may not be made in it.
Promote
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
9/16/2014 11:22:03 PM

You are right Joyce. As if the people you see everywhere nowadays were making every effort to fit their depiction therein.



"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

+0
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
9/17/2014 12:20:51 AM

Islamic State supporter warns of attacks against U.S.: SITE

Reuters

A F/A-18E Super Hornet of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA-31) comes in to land onboard the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), in the Gulf August 12, 2014. Planes have been taking off from the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN77) to strike key positions taken over by the Islamic State fighters in Iraq. U.S. President Barack Obama has authorised air strikes to confront the Islamist fighters in various cities of Iraq. (REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed)


BEIRUT (Reuters) - A supporter of Islamic State militants has warned of attacks on the United States and its allies if they continue to carry out military action against the group that has seized large parts of Iraq and Syria, the SITE monitoring service said.

The message on a well-known militant Islamist online forum is one of the few responses from supporters of Islamic State to Washington's announcement last week that it was prepared to extend airstrikes against the group into Syria.

The posting on the Minbar Jihadi Media website condemned "intervention in the affairs of other peoples" and said it would trigger an equal response, SITE said late on Monday.

"It will lead to an equal reaction of the same strength in targeting the American depth and also the nations allied to it and in all aspects," the message said in a translation from Arabic, according to SITE, which tracks militant forums.

The United States has stepped up its military response to the hardline group, which has beheaded several Western hostages.

On Sunday Islamic State released a video that it said showed the beheading of a British aid worker.

U.S. President Barack Obama is calling for a coalition of Western and Middle Eastern countries to fight Islamic State.

"I direct a sternly worded warning to each of those nations involved with America, or that are allied with it in their war against the Islamic Caliphate, that their local and international interests will be legitimate targets," the posting by a supporter referred to as "Amir al-Thul" said.

The posting used religious language and said the author was speaking from a "blessed pulpit" but it was not clear what influence he had on the actions of Islamic State.

The message called on the public in the United States and its allies to oppose government actions against the group.

(Reporting by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Related video







The message on a militant online forum is one of the few responses from IS supporters to planned U.S. airstrikes in Syria.
'Equal reaction'



"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

+1
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
9/17/2014 12:34:23 AM

Russia to send troops to Crimea as NATO holds exercises in Ukraine

Reuters



Storyful
Armed Men Surround Mejlis Building in Crimea



By Thomas Grove

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia threatened to send more troops to its newly-annexed territory of Crimea on Tuesday, after NATO began exercises in western Ukraine while Kiev's forces are fighting pro-Russian separatists in the east.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the escalation of tensions in Ukraine and the presence of foreign military near Russia's borders made the deployment of troops a top priority in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in March.

"The situation in Ukraine has escalated sharply and the presence of foreign military has increased in the immediate vicinity of our borders," Itar-Tass quoted Shoigu as telling military commanders.

"The deployment of proper and self-sufficient forces to Crimea is one of (our) top priorities."

Unrest in Ukraine, which Kiev says is being fanned by Russian weapons and soldiers, has plunged ties between Russia and the West to their worst since the end of the Cold War.

Moscow warned that NATO's Rapid Trident exercises, which will last until Sept. 26 and involve more than 1,000 troops from the United States and its allies, threatened peace efforts in eastern Ukraine, including a fragile ceasefire.

NATO said Russia still had around 1,000 soldiers and hundreds of combat vehicles and artillery inside Ukraine, despite some cuts in troop numbers since the ceasefire began on Sept. 5.

The Rapid Trident exercises, seen as a sign of alliance's commitment to support non-member Ukraine, are to be held around Lviv near Ukraine's border with Poland, nearly 1,000 km (600 miles) from the rebel stronghold of Donetsk in the east.

NATO officials have said the bloc will not send "lethal assistance" to Ukraine, but member states may do so.

Earlier this month, a senior Ukrainian official said Kiev had agreed on the provision of weapons and military advisers from several members of the U.S.-led alliance. Four of the five countries named, including the United States, denied this.

On Tuesday, Russian parliamentary speaker Sergei Naryshkin said shipments of weapons from NATO countries would "abet war crimes" in Ukraine, where Moscow accuses Kiev's forces of bombing residential areas.

Washington has promised Ukraine $52 million in non-lethal security aid and has already provided combat rations, body armor, radios and other equipment. Pentagon leaders have met Ukrainian counterparts to discuss cooperation, but, for now, arms supplies have been ruled out.

The United States European Command says exercises in Ukraine will involve about 200 U.S. personnel and 1,100 from Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Britain, Canada, Georgia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Norway, Poland, Romania and Spain.

Focused on peacekeeping, it will include command post drills, patrolling and dealing with improvised explosive devices.

(Editing by Andrew Roche)








Moscow cites NATO exercises in western Ukraine and an escalation in tensions with Kiev.
Fragile cease-fire in place



"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

+1
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
9/17/2014 1:05:54 AM

U.S. general says cannot rule out larger ground role in Iraq

Reuters



U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel (L) and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey testify during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on U.S. policy toward Iraq and Syria and the threat posed by the Islamic State on Capitol Hill in Washington September 16, 2014. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

By Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The most senior U.S. military officer raised the possibility on Tuesday that American troops might need to take on a larger role in Iraq's ground war against Islamic State militants, but the White House stressed they would not deploy on a combat mission.

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there was no intention now to place American military advisers on the ground in direct combat. U.S. assistance is taking other forms, including air strikes.

Still, Dempsey outlined scenarios in which he might recommend having U.S. troops do more, potentially accompanying Iraqis during complicated offensives, such as a battle to retake the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State fighters.

"It could very well be part of that particular mission - to provide close combat advising or accompanying for that mission," Dempsey said.

Dempsey acknowledged that Obama's "stated policy is that we will not have U.S. ground forces in direct combat."

"But he has told me as well to come back to him on a case-by-case basis," he said.

Obama said last week he would lead an alliance to defeat Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, plunging the United States into a conflict in which nearly every country in the Middle East has a stake.

But Obama also ruled out a combat mission, saying "we will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq." How exactly America's role might evolve in the open-ended conflict remains unclear, however.

Responding to Dempsey's comments, the White House said Obama’s military advisers had to plan for many possibilities and that overall policy had not changed - that Obama would not deploy U.S. troops in a combat role in Iraq or Syria.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters that Dempsey was "referring to a hypothetical scenario in which there might be a future situation where he might make a tactical recommendation to the president as it relates to ground troops."

Dempsey's spokesman also issued a statement stressing that the four-star general's exchange in the Senate was not about "employing U.S. ground combat units in Iraq."

Dempsey was testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, along with U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, as the Obama administration makes its case to Congress for broadening operations against the Sunni militants, which would include U.S. air strikes in Syria for the first time.

NO "SHOCK AND AWE' IN SYRIA

The U.S. military's Central Command is due to brief Obama on its plans on Wednesday. Hagel said those plans envision striking the militant group's safe havens in Syria to knock out infrastructure, logistics and command capabilities.

Dempsey said the strikes would degrade the group's capabilities as broader efforts get under way, including training of more than 5,000 Syrian rebels.

"This won't look like a 'shock and awe' campaign because that's simply not how (the Islamic State militants' group) is organized. But it will be a persistent and sustainable campaign," Dempsey told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"Shock and awe" was a term popularly used to describe the initial air assault on Baghdad in the U.S. campaign to oust Saddam Hussein in 2003, and refers to use of overwhelming force to undermine an enemy's will to fight.

Congress is expected to approve this week a request from Obama for authorization to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels, one part of his program.

Still, Hagel acknowledged the number of Syrian fighters that could be trained over the course of the year would only put the opposition on a path to roll back Islamic State fighters.

"Five thousand alone is not going to be able to turn the tide. We recognize that," Hagel said.

The Senate hearing was repeatedly interrupted by anti-war protesters, shouting slogans such as, "There is no military solution." One protester was escorted out of the room while holding a sign that read: "More war = More extremism."

Senator Angus King of Maine, expressing concern that the United States would be drawn into interminable fights against extremist groups around the world from Iraq to Syria to Africa, said: "This is geopolitical Wack-a-mole."

(Additional reporting by Missy Ryan and Steve Holland; Editing by Bill Trott, Susan Heavey, Bernadette Baum and Ken Wills)



U.S. won't unleash 'shock and awe' in Syria


It sees a "persistent and sustainable campaign" instead of massive airstrikes against Islamic State militants.
Vote coming on $500M


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

+1
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
9/17/2014 1:43:29 AM

Gas production blamed for rise in Colorado, New Mexico quakes

Reuters

In this March 29, 2013 photo, workers tend to a well head during a hydraulic fracturing operation at an Encana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc. gas well outside Rifle, in western Colorado. The first experimental hydraulic fracturing occurred in 1947. More than 1 million U.S. oil and gas wells have been fracked since, according to the American Petroleum Institute. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)


By Daniel Wallis

DENVER (Reuters) - The deep injection of wastewater underground by energy companies during methane gas extraction has caused a dramatic rise in the number of earthquakes in Colorado and New Mexico since 2001, U.S. government scientists said in a study released on Monday.

The study by U.S. Geological Survey researchers is the latest to link energy production methods to an increase in quakes in regions where those techniques are used.

Energy companies began producing coal-bed methane in Colorado in 1994, then in New Mexico five years later. The process creates large amounts of wastewater, which is pumped into sub-surface disposal wells.

Scientists have long linked some small earthquakes to work carried out below ground for oil and gas extraction, which they say can alter pressure points and cause shifts in the earth.

The new study, published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA), focused on the Raton Basin, which stretches from southern Colorado into northern New Mexico.

The report said the area had been "seismically quiet" until shortly after major fluid injection began in 1999. But since 2001, the scientists said, the area experienced 16 earthquakes of greater than 3.8 magnitude, compared with only one of that strength recorded during the previous three decades.

"The increase in earthquakes is limited to the area of industrial activity and within 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) of wastewater injection wells," the study said.

The researchers said "several lines of evidence" suggest the earthquakes are directly related to wastewater disposal as a by-product of extracting methane, and not to the separate practice of hydraulic fracturing occurring in the area.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a controversial technique that involves pumping water and chemicals into rock formations underground to push out gas and other hydrocarbons.

The USGS scientists said there are now 21 high-volume wastewater disposal wells in Colorado and seven in New Mexico, and that since mid-2000 the total injection rate across the basin has ranged from 1.5 to 3.6 million barrels per month.

They said the timing and location of seismic events correspond to the documented pattern of injected wastewater, and that their findings suggest seismic events are initiated shortly after an increase in injection rates.

Experts say fracking and wastewater disposal may also be linked to the soaring number of earthquakes rocking Oklahoma, which has already surpassed last year's record-breaking 222 "felt" earthquakes, defined as those strong enough to rattle items on a shelf.

(Reporting by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Will Dunham)

Related Video






Tremors increased sharply in a formerly "seismically quiet" region after fracking began in 1999, a study shows.
Shaky ground in Okla.



"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

+1


facebook
Like us on Facebook!