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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 10/8/2015 5:09:16 PM
	ISIS Propaganda More Focused on State-Building Than Violence, Study Shows By Felicity Capon 10/7/15 at 8:37 AM Residents queue to buy bread in the town of Tel Abyad, Raqqa governorate, June 19, 2015.Rodi Said/Reuters Most propaganda from the Islamist militant group Islamic State (ISIS) is now focused on proving it is a genuine nation, rather than attempting to glorify or inspire acts of violence, a new study suggests. The study by the counter-extremism think tank Quilliam, is based on a 30-day survey of Islamic State propaganda conducted across the Islamic month of Shawwal, between July and August of this year. During this time, the think tank compiled an archive comprising 1,146 separate propaganda "events"– including discrete batches of media, such as videos and photo essays, and audio statements and songs. The report found that over half of this propaganda was focused on depicting civilian life in Islamic State-held territories, in an attempt to show that economic activity, social events, abundant wildlife, unwavering law and order, and pro-active, pristine 'religious' fervor are flourishing under Islamic State rule and underpin the foundations of the group's civilian appeal. "In this way," a statement accompanying the report reads, "the group attracts supporters based on ideological and political appeal." This would appear to contradict the reality of life under Islamic State rule. A recent Newsweekstory said the fall in the price of oil and growing U.S. airstrikes on oil facilities and fighter has squeezed the group's revenues. ISIS now heavily depends on taxing its 8 million citizens. An exodus of professionals and the group's restrictive laws on women in the workplace have also hobbled the ISIS-run economy. The Quilliam report goes on to say that Islamic State still uses brutality to market itself, but that the intended target audiences for its violence are more regional than before. "It seems that fostering international infamy could now be secondary to intimidating its population with a view to discouraging rebellion and dissent," the report reads. Quilliam also points out that the volume of propaganda produced by the Islamic State—38.2 unique items a day—far exceeds previous estimates, which up until now have been conservative, the report suggests. The think tank also warns that the "quantity, quality and variation of Islamic State propaganda in just one month far outweighs the quantity, quality and variation of any attempts, state or non-state, to challenge the group. All current efforts must be scaled up in order for meaningful progress in this war." In a statement accompanying the report, Quilliam's managing director, Haras Rafiq, said: "In many respects IS is operating like a media company. Our response has to be proportionate. We must realise that there is no elixir that can deliver us from IS' information supremacy, no catch-all counter-narrative to undercut its carefully cultivated and choreographed image." Rafiq continues: "The IS 'caliphate' is marketing itself on an industrial scale. If we are to destroy its brand, we must first be able to fathom its depths." (Newsweek)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+1

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 10/8/2015 11:53:09 PM
	Not to be outdone by climate change, God to end world today By Katie Herzog on 7 Oct 2015 So long, friends! The world ends today. At least, that’s the prediction of Chris McCann, the founder of the eBible Fellowship, an online religious group based in Philadelphia. The Guardian reports: The expectation of the world ending this fall stems from an earlier prediction by Harold Camping, a Christian radio host who was based in California. In 2011 Camping used his radio station, Family Radio, to notify people that the world would end on 21 May of that year. When that turned out to be incorrect, Camping revised his prediction to October 2011. That also turned out to be incorrect, and Camping retired from public life soon after. He died in 2013, at age 93. McCann believes that Camping’s 21 May 2011 prediction did have some truth, however. That day was declared to be “judgment day” because it was actually the day God stopped the process of selecting which churchgoers will survive Wednesday’s massacre, McCann said. Now, before you start LOLing about crazy Christians and their thirst for the apocalypse, let’s just open our minds for a second, shall we? The past couple of years have seen the following: The disappearance of a commercial airplane, the deaths of hundreds of South Korean school children in the Sewol ferry disaster, Ebola, the kidnapping of 276 Nigerian girls, an epic drought in the U.S., a violent attack on a black church in Charleston, the destruction of ancient city sites by ISIS in Iraq, an unprecedented fire season in the western U.S., the deaths of 148 — mostly students — in a mass shooting in Kenya, the Nepalese earthquake, the Greek debt crisis, the Syrian refugee crisis, Donald Trump, etc. Seems pretty apocalyptic to me. McCann might be wrong about the exact date — though there are still a few hours left in the day, so don’t count him out yet — but it doesn’t take a prophet to see that **** is getting pretty dark around here. Personally, I think he’s onto something. Divine retribution may not bring fire and floods to the little planet we call home — but that doesn’t mean we won’t do it on our own. (grist)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+1

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 10/9/2015 10:06:53 AM
	NATO talks tough on Russia in Syria, with scant action By JOHN-THOR DAHLBURG15 hours ago NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a media conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015. NATO defense ministers meet Thursday to consider the implications of recent Russian military actions in Syria, as well as ongoing measures to retool NATO to meet contemporary security threats. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo) BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO talked tough Thursday about Moscow's expanding military activity in Syria, but the U.S.-led alliance's chief response to the Russian airstrikes and cruise missile attacks was a public pledge to help reinforce the defenses of member nation Turkey if necessary. "NATO is able and ready to defend all allies, including Turkey, against any threat," alliance secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg declared at the onset of a meeting of NATO defense ministers. The meeting attended by U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter and counterparts from NATO's other 27 countries was overshadowed by concerns about Russia's recent military actions in Syria. On Wednesday, Russian warships fired a volley of cruise missiles in the first combined air-and-ground assault with Syrian government troops since Moscow began its military campaign in the country last week. U.S. officials said Thursday that some of those missiles missed their targets and landed in Iran. Over the weekend, Turkey reported back-to-back violations of its airspace by Russian warplanes. Stoltenberg said NATO had already increased "our capacity, our ability, our preparedness to deploy forces, including to the south, including in Turkey, if needed." View gallery U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, front left, looks toward Turkish Defense Minister Mehmet Vecdi … However, pressed about what NATO precisely intended to do to aid Turkey, which shares a border with Syria, Stoltenberg told a news conference the mere existence of a beefed-up alliance response force, as well as a new and highly nimble brigade-sized unit able to deploy within 48 hours, may suffice. "We don't have to deploy the NATO Response Force or the spearhead force to deliver deterrence," Stoltenberg said. "The important thing is that any adversary of NATO will know that we are able to deploy." Carter predicted Russia's support for the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, including the new joint offensive, "will have consequences for Russia itself," adding: "I also expect that in coming days the Russians will begin to suffer casualties in Syria." Echoing Winston Churchill's celebrated pronouncement in 1946 that an "iron curtain" had fallen across Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe, Carter told a news conference that modern-day Russia continues to "wrap itself in a shroud of isolation," and only the Kremlin can decide to alter that course. Russia called its penetration of Turkey and NATO airspace a minor incident that was unintentional, but NATO issued a strongly worded statement insisting such violations must cease. View gallery Spanish Defense Minister Pedro Morenes Eulate, second right, speaks with Turkish Defense Minister Me … "We see an escalation of Russian military activity in Syria," Stoltenberg said. "And the ministers agreed that Russia's military escalation in Syria raises serious concerns." He said NATO was "constantly assessing" the situation with Turkey's leaders, and that he would meet Thursday with Turkish Defense Minister Mehmet Vecdi Gonul. Carter essentially accused the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin of lying about its actions and intentions in Syria, saying "what is clear is that Russia said one thing and did another." As an example, the Obama administration official said, Moscow has insisted it is striking facilities of the Islamic State militant group, but that so far this hasn't matched up with the targets Russia is blasting from the air. "They have initiated a joint ground offensive with the Syrian regime, shattering the facade that they're there to fight ISIL," Carter said, using an acronym for Islamic State. View gallery British Secretary of State for Defense Michael Fallon, second left, speaks with from left, German De … German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said Russia must recognize that if it targets opposition groups in Syria that are fighting Islamic State, "Russia will strengthen IS, and this can be neither in the Russian interest, nor in our interest." British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon accused Russia of making a serious situation "much more dangerous." Many NATO officials, including Stoltenberg, have expressed fears there could be an encounter, accidental or otherwise, between Russian planes and the air forces of the U.S.-led coalition attacking Islamic State in Syria. Carter said the Russians "shot cruise missiles from ships in the Caspian Sea without warning. They've come within just a few miles of one of our unmanned aerial vehicles." Dutch Defense Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said that in Syria, "Russia is not constructive, not reliable and not cooperative — so it is of great concern." Thursday's meeting, the ministers' first since June, implemented further changes in the alliance, in line with a blueprint ordered by President Obama and other NATO leaders at the 2014 Wales summit, a reform process expected to last until the next summit in July 2016 in Warsaw. View gallery NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a media conference at NATO headquarters in Bru … A retooled NATO is supposed to be able to deal faster and more potently with an array of new security challenges, Putin's Russia and armed Islamic extremism in the Middle East and North Africa chief among them. The new measures agreed upon Thursday include finalized plans, including command and control arrangements, for a NATO Response Force of up to 40,000 — twice the current size — and creation of new NATO headquarters offices in Hungary and Slovakia to enhance those Eastern European nations' defenses and speed reinforcement by their allies in the event of a real or perceived threat from Russia. "All of this sends a clear message to all NATO citizens. NATO will defend you, NATO is on the ground, NATO is ready," Stoltenberg said. ___ Lolita Baldor in Brussels contributed.
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 10/9/2015 10:18:41 AM
	Russian missiles aimed at Syria crashed in Iran: US official By Maya Gebeily with Bryan McManus in Brussels6 hours ago A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), shows Syrian army units and pro-government forces deploying at an undisclosed location in western Syria on October 8, 2015 (AFP Photo/) View Gallery Beirut (AFP) - Four Russian cruise missiles aimed at targets in Syria crashed in Iran, a US official said Thursday, as regime troops backed by Lebanon's Hezbollah pressed a "vast offensive" against rebels in the war-torn country's west. Related Stories Syria army in 'vast offensive' backed by Russian strikes AFP Syria extends major offensive to retake territory in west Reuters Russia ramps up strikes as Syria army launches offensive AFP Russia presses Syria strikes in defiance of the West AFP Russia's expanding air campaign in SyriaAFP The missiles were thought to be among a salvo fired Wednesday from Russian warships in the Caspian as part of a nine-day-old air war targeting foes of President Bashar al-Assad. Russia hit back at the claims, saying all the shots were on target, and the defence ministry posted a graphic on its website showing 26 missiles flying over Iran and Iraq before striking inside Syria. Tehran made no comment. "Any professional knows that during these operations we always fix the target before and after impact. All our cruise missiles hit their target," ministry spokesman General Igor Konashenkov said in a statement. Moscow launched an air war in Syria at the end of last month it said was aimed at the Islamic State group and other "terrorist" organisations fighting in the country's four-year-old civil war. Russia's air force hit 27 "terrorist" targets in central and northern Syria Wednesday night, the defence ministry said, including eight IS strongholds in Homs province and 11 training camps in Hama and Raqa provinces. View gallery Pro-government regime forces have advanced in western Syria in a "vast offensive" against … Western powers have dismissed these claims as window-dressing for a campaign that primarily seeks to prop up Assad's embattled regime against a much broader group of rebels. Washington said more than 90 percent of Russian raids have targeted groups other than IS or Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, Al-Nusra Front. Another US official said the missiles that landed in Iran were Kalibr-NK cruise missiles, which Russia had "used for the first time in a combat setting". "They appeared to help operations by Iranian-backed Hezbollah" in Syria, where the powerful Lebanese Shiite group has been fighting alongside regime forces, the official added. - 'Troubling escalation' - View gallery An image grab from a video released by the Russian Defence Ministry on October 7, 2015 reportedly sh … The Russian air war has provided cover for Assad's ground troops, who have lost swathes of the north, east and south of the country to jihadists and rebel groups since the conflict erupted in 2011. A Syrian military source said Thursday the Russian strikes had helped regime forces take back territory in an area that has been the focus of a months-long offensive by a rebel alliance, including Al-Nusra. "They have seized most of the hilly region of Jeb al-Ahmar," which overlooks the strategic Sahl al-Ghab plain to the east and Assad's western coastal stronghold of Latakia, the source said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, confirmed the advance. Tensions have been rising between Russia and Western powers over the air campaign, which has seen Russian jets violate the airspace of NATO member Turkey at least twice. View gallery US defense minister Ashton Carter speaks at NATO Headquarters in Brussels on October 8, 2015 (AFP Ph … US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter forecast Thursday Russia would soon begin to suffer casualties of its own. "This will have consequences for Russia itself which is rightly fearful of attacks... In coming days, the Russians will begin to suffer from casualties," Carter said at a NATO defence ministers meeting in Brussels. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said there had been a "troubling escalation" in Moscow's air campaign and pledged to "assess the latest developments and their implications for the security of the alliance". - 'Serves the Christians' - The Melkite Greek Catholic archbishop of Aleppo Jean-Clement Jeanbart on Thursday welcomed Moscow's intervention, which he told Swiss television "serves the Christians' cause". View gallery Syrians stand on the rubble of buildings after a missile fired by Syrian government forces hit a res … Syria's army appeared to regain ground Thursday, after chief of staff General Ali Abdullah Ayoub announced "a vast offensive to defeat the terrorist groups" and restore control over opposition-held areas. State TV said the army had targeted "terrorist positions" in the central province of Hama, killing 32 militants and destroying four armoured vehicles, while Russian and Syrian warplanes also hit Al-Nusra positions in Latakia province. A military source in the Sahl al-Ghab plain told AFP Russia had targeted at least three villages there Thursday morning. Backed by allied militia and Russian air cover, regime troops have retaken around a dozen villages in Hama, according to Syrian daily Al-Watan, which is close to the government. At least 13 regime fighters and 11 rebels were killed, the Observatory said. Rebel forces shot down a low-flying military helicopter, but it was unclear if it was Syrian or Russian, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said. In Aleppo province, the monitor said a car bombing blamed on IS in the town of Hreitan -- controlled by a group of Islamist rebel factions including Al-Nusra -- killed 12 people and wounded a similar number. Russian missiles bound for Syria crash in Iran U.S. officials say at least four rockets fired from Russian navy ships land in Iranian territory. 'Unidentified flying objects' reported
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+1

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 10/9/2015 10:35:45 AM
	Iran refuses to confirm or deny hit by Russia missiles 1 hour ago Russia's Su-24M bomber dropping bombs during an airstrike in Syria (AFP Photo/-) Related Stories Russia says talk of Moscow hitting non-IS targets in Syria is distortion Reuters 4 Russian Cruise Missiles Crash in Iran En Route to Syria ABC News Russian missiles aimed at Syria crashed in Iran: US official AFP Syria army in 'vast offensive' backed by Russian strikes AFP Iran-Saudi tensions soar over hajj stampede, arms boat AFP Tehran (AFP) - Iran on Friday declined to confirm a claim by a US official that Russian missiles targeting rebels in Syria crashed in its territory this week. "We don't confirm" this information, foreign ministry spokeswoman Afkham Marzieh said when asked about the claim. The US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, had said the missiles crashed in Iran on Wednesday, but did not provide details about where they might have come down or whether they caused any damage. Russia's defence ministry has flatly denied the claim. "Any professional knows that during these operations we always fix the target before and after impact. All our cruise missiles hit their target," said ministry spokesman General Igor Konashenkov. Russia posted a graphic on the defence ministry website Wednesday showing 26 missiles overflying Iran and Iraq before striking inside Syria, where it has been conducting air strikes in defence of President Bashar al-Assad since September 30. The missile launches were in support of a major ground offensive by the Syrian army on several fronts in the war-torn country's west.
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+1

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