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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
2/6/2015 8:51:29 PM

Purported IS claim: Jordan airstrike kills female US hostage

Associated Press

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BEIRUT (AP) — A statement attributed to the Islamic State group claimed that an American female hostage was killed in a Jordanian airstrike on Friday on the outskirts of the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, the extremist group's main stronghold.

The statement identified the woman as Kayla Jean Mueller and said she was killed during Muslim prayers — which usually take place around midday on Fridays — in airstrikes that targeted "the same location for more than an hour."


Photo for the female hostage, Kayla Jean Mueller killed in airstrikes on today,says
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No Islamic State militants were killed in the airstrikes, the statement further claimed. It published photos allegedly of the bombed site, showing a severely damaged brown colored three-story building — but no images of Mueller.

The Jordanian government said it was highly skeptical of the claim, and American officials said they were looking into the report.

Bernadette Meehan, the spokeswoman for President Barack Obama's National Security Council, said the White House has "not at this time seen any evidence that corroborates" the claim.

White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters traveling with the president to Indiana Friday that the U.S. does coordinate with the Jordanian air force as they fly airstrikes. He wouldn't say whether the U.S. was aware of the hostage's location.

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The Raqqa information office of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) released a photoset on Friday, February 6, announcing the death of a female...

The Raqqa information office of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) released a photoset on Friday, February …

The IS statement could not be independently verified but it appeared on a militant website commonly used by IS and was also distributed by IS-affiliated Twitter users.

Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani said Jordan was looking into the claim.

"But as a first reaction, we think it's illogical and we are highly skeptical about it," he said. "How could they identify a Jordanian warplane ... in the sky? What was the American lady doing in a weapons warehouse?"

IS released a video earlier this week, showing a captive Jordanian pilot being burned to death in gruesome images that sparked outrage in Jordan and the region.

Mueller, of Prescott, Arizona, had been working in Turkey assisting Syrian refugees, according to a 2013 article in The Daily Courier, her hometown newspaper. The 26-year-old told the paper that she was drawn to help with the situation in Syria.

"For as long as I live, I will not let this suffering be normal," she said. "It's important to stop and realize what we have, why we have it and how privileged we are. And from that place, start caring and get a lot done."

According to the local paper, Mueller had been working with the humanitarian aid agency Support to Life, as well as a local NGO that helped female Syrian refugees develop skills.

A 2007 article about Mueller from the same local newspaper said she was a student at Northern Arizona University and was active in the Save Darfur Coalition.

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The Raqqa information office of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) released a photoset on Friday, February 6, announcing the death of a female...

The Raqqa information office of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) released a photoset on Friday, February …

On Sunday, Obama said the U.S. was "deploying all the assets that we can" to find Mueller.

"We are in very close contact with the family trying to keep them updated," he said in an interview with NBC's Today Show. "Obviously this is something that is heart-breaking for the family and we want to make sure we do anything we can to make sure that any American citizen is rescued from this situation."

Mueller's identity had not been disclosed until now out of fears for her safety.

If her death is confirmed, she would be the fourth American to die while in the captivity of the Islamic State militants. Three other Americans, journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid worker Peter Kassig were beheaded by the group.

Jordan, which is part of a U.S.-led coalition bombing Islamic State group targets in Syria, stepped up its attacks after IS announced it had killed the Jordanian pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kasaesbeh.

The Syrian government said Thursday that dozens of Jordanian fighter jets had bombed Islamic State training centers and weapons storage sites. It did not say where the attacks occurred.

The Jordanian military said that Jordanian jetfighters carried out "a series of attacks today and destroyed the targets and returned safely." It did not elaborate or give a location for the airstrikes.

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The Raqqa information office of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) released a photoset on Friday, February 6, announcing the death of a female...

The Raqqa information office of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) released a photoset on Friday, February …

But activists who monitor the Syrian conflict from inside the country said U.S.-led coalition planes hit several targets on the edges and outskirts of Raqqa, in quick succession on Friday.

A collective known as "Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently" said the planes targeted multiple IS positions and headquarters in the western and eastern countryside of Raqqa, sending columns of smoke into the sky. Explosions could be heard in the city. The collective said there were no recorded civilian casualties, and did not mention IS casualties.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said dozens of IS members were killed in coalition airstrikes that targeted a tanks-and-vehicles depot in the area of al-Madajen and at least six other IS positions, including a training camp and a prison.

___

Associated Press writers Julie Pace in Washington and Karin Laub in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.






The Islamic militant group says that Kayla Jean Mueller is dead as a result of Jordanian airstrikes.
Officials investigating report



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

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
2/7/2015 12:58:07 AM

Putin-backed rebels just made a huge move right under Europe's nose

Business Insider



Reuters/Maxim Zmeyev Merkel, Putin, and Hollande attend a meeting on resolving the Ukraine crisis at the Kremlin in Moscow on Feb. 6, 2015.

On the eve of Angela Merkel and François Hollande's meeting with Vladimir Putin in Moscow, the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) made a concrete push for Putin's vision of eastern Ukraine.

The self-proclaimed, largely unrecognized DPR moved closer to unifying with the other region that has forcefully broken away by declaring itself the legal successor of a 1918 self-proclaimed Soviet republic.

"We, the deputies of the Donetsk People's Republic, aware of our responsibility before the past and paving the road for the future, proclaim the continuation of the tradition of the Donetsk-Krivoy-Rog Republic and announce that the state of Donetsk People's Republic is her successor," the memorandum stated, according to Gazeta.ru.

The Donetsk-Krivoy-Rog Republic declared independence from Ukraine on Feb. 12, 1918. And then,36 days later, it was incorporated into the Ukraine Soviet Republic — that is, one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union.

On Friday, the DPR's memorandum was sent over to another self-proclaimed state, Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), according to a report from Interfax. One of the leaders of the DPR, Andrei Purgin, noted that the leadership of the LPR is in talks with Luhansk to synchronize the legislative activity.

"Memorandum on state-building and continuity of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog republic will be adopted also in LPR," he said.

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DonetskKrivoy Rog Republic
Wikipedia Location of Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic, 1918.

That the DPR adopted the document indicates that the project of "Novorossiya," or New Russia, a term Putin has used, is ongoing and that the breakaway republics are starting to move toward unification, according to the coordinator of the press Center of Novorossiay, Daria Mazeva.

"The DPR published a memorandum declaring themselves as heirs of the Donestk-Krivoy-Rog Republic in order to push the idea of federalization of Ukraine and possibly control more territory, given the Hollande-Merkel-Putin talks," a person familiar with the matter told Business Insider. "This can be considered a means for the further expansion of the DPR and the LPR, and possibly the two states coming closer together."

The Russian government has supported federalization in Ukraine after the annexation of Crimea in March 2014. Federalization would give greater autonomy to the southern and eastern parts of Ukraine where there is ongoing conflict right now.

"Each region [in Ukraine] would have control of its economy, taxes, culture, language, education, and 'external economic and cultural connections with neighboring countries or regions,'" Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has previously stated about the "federalization" plan, according to The Guardian.

Further, the rebel regions are declaring themselves the successors of a Soviet region that included lands currently under control of Ukraine. Given that Russian troops and weaponry have helped rebelsconquer more and more territory over the last six months, the military implications of the memorandum are alarming.

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Ukraine

If Russian troops and rebels push further toward the historical boundaries of the Donestk-Krivoy-Rog Republic, they would need to conquer the strategically vital port city of Mariupol.

Taking Mariupol would connect the rebel-held regional capital Donetsk to the north, the sea, and the land route to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in March.

And the city of 500,000 is vital for eastern Ukraine's steel and grain exports, which make the city a desirable target for a budding pseudo state that's struggling economically.

As geopolitical expert Ian Bremmer noted in November, it looks like "the Kremlin is moving towards making Crimea and southeast Ukraine a single place."

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Denis Pushilin, Chairman of self-declared Supreme Council of Donetsk People's Republic, left, and Alexander Borodai, Republic's Prime Minister
AP DPR Chairman Denis Pushilin with the rebel republic's Prime Minister Aleksander Borodai at a press conference on May 29.

And it's notable that the DPR has some heavy-duty support for the decree.

"The historical continuity has value only when it is supported by resources. And their main resource — is the position of Russia," Professor Valery Solovey told Gazeta.ru.

So while Merkel and Hollande meeting with Putin in Moscow, the Kremlin-backed rebels made a serious move in Europe's backyard.

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

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
2/7/2015 1:43:19 AM

6000% INCREASE IN CANCER RATES AT FUKUSHIMA SITE

Hushed up by international governments
by CHRISTINA SARICH | INFOWARS.COM | FEBRUARY 6, 2015

As reports from individuals like Chieko Shiina, a supporter of the Fukushima Collaborateive Clinic talk about exploding rates of thyroid cancer in children, as well as an epidemic of leukemia, heart attacks, and other health problems, the Abe-led government and US continue to sweep the fall out of the Fukushima disaster under the rug.

Cancer rates have exploded at an increase of almost 6000% in areas near the reactor meltdown. Aside from people-on-the-street interviews that a rare media outlet like “Hodo station” will report on, mainstream media stays completely silent. One Japanese resident, Carol Hisasue, laments that as the incident has disappeared from the media, it has also disappeared from people’s consciousness.

So why does Fukushima continue to be a see no evil, hear no evil event? You can watch an over hour-long report that goes into detail, but to sum it up, people can’t even turn on their gas-stoves near Fukushima because “it would be like burning radioactive fuel in their kitchens.” The contamination levels are too ridiculous to even comprehend.

No matter if the accident was caused by a purposeful nuclear attack, an act of weather warfare (as some conspiracy analysts have suggested), or by the sheer greed of the nuclear industry who built it, it is essentially a massive nuclear weapon on fault lines. The Japanese government and TEPCO are guilty of crimes against humanity, and their neglect is compounded by a complete disregard, not only for human life, but for all life upon this planet.

The US is also responsible. After the spotlight was put on failing plants across the United States that continue to leak radiation into our air, water, and soil every day, the multi-billion dollar, US taxpayer-subsidized contracts of the nuclear industry came into question. And you can be sure any real inquiry into the infrastructure of our nuclear plants was hushed up as quickly as concerns were raised.

The World Health Organization once warned that cancer rates could soar 50% in less than 20 years – but we’ve already surpassed that estimate, which once seemed catastrophic, exponentially.

So tell me – why are we in such a hurry to forget Fukushima, and why are plans being drawn up to build more nuclear reactors in the US using taxpayer monies?



This post originally appeared at Natural Society


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

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
2/7/2015 2:11:41 AM

World heading for financial crisis worse than in 2008 — China’s Dagong rating agency head

February 04, 13:34

A setback in the growth model focused on credit-based consumption may become a source of a new crisis

© EPA/YANNIS KOLESIDIS


BEIJING, February 4. /TASS/. The world economy may slip into a new global financial crisis in the next few years, China’s Dagong Rating Agency Head Guan Jianzhong said in an interview with TASS news agency on Wednesday.

"I believe we’ll have to face a new world financial crisis in the next few years. It is difficult to give the exact time but all the signs are present, such as the growing volume of debts and the unsteady development of the economies of the US, the EU, China and some other developing countries," he said, adding the situation is even worse than ahead of 2008."

"The current crisis in Russia is caused by Western countries’ sanctions rather than internal factors. If we look at the US and the EU countries, their crises were caused by internal and not external factors," the president of China’s Dagong rating agency said.

"As distinct from Russia, the scope of crediting in these countries exceeded the potential for the production of goods and created a bubble. This crisis was transmitted to the entire world through the policy of quantitative easing and the use of the printing press. All the countries had to pay for that," he said.

A setback in the growth model focused on credit-based consumption may become a source of a new crisis, he said.

"Developed countries, including the US and the EU, remain the main consumers. But these countries develop only if there is consumer demand while the main potential for this consumption is based on borrowings. The US, the EU and Japan are increasing consumption through growth in crediting, which poses a risk," he said.

Some emerging market countries have also been increasing consumption through crediting in recent years and the global economy has been based on the model that promotes consumption through funds that will be earned in the future," the head of China’s Dagong rating agency said.


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

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
2/7/2015 10:03:07 AM

In unison, Muslim clerics lash out against Islamic State (update)

Associated Press

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Queen of Jordan Joins Thousands in Rally for Pilot

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BAGHDAD (AP) — The immolation of a Jordanian pilot by the Islamic State group has brought a unified outcry Friday from top religious clerics across the Muslim world — including a prominent jihadi preacher — who insisted the militants have gone too far.

Abu Mohammed al-Maqdesi, considered a spiritual mentor for many al-Qaida militants, said the killing of Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh is "not acceptable in any religion." He spoke in an interview with Jordan's Roya TV a day after being released from more than three months in detention.

At Friday prayers in neighboring Iraq, where the militant group has seized territory in a third of the country, top Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani declared in a sermon that the "savage" act demonstrates the extremists know no boundaries and violate "Islamic values and humanity."

Religious groups, often at odds with one another over ideologies or politics, are increasingly speaking out in unison against the militants, who continue to enforce their rule in Iraq and Syria through massacres, kidnapping, forced marriages, stonings and other acts of brutality.

Iranian Shiite cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani claimed in his sermon that militant groups like the Islamic State are created by Western nations as a means for promoting "an ugly picture of Islam."

Earlier this week, Islamic State militants released a video of al-Kaseasbeh, a Muslim, being burned to death in a cage. While the beheading of hostages from the U.S., Britain and Japan brought condemnation from most religious sects within Islam, the gruesome images of the airman's slaying served as a unifying battle-cry for Muslims across the world.

Jordan joined a U.S.-led military coalition against the militants in September, but said it would intensify its airstrikes in response to the killing of its air force pilot. On Thursday, dozens of fighter jets struck Islamic State weapons depots and training sites, Jordan's military said.

Outrage escalated in the capital of Amman following Friday prayers, with demonstrators unfurling a large Jordanian flag and holding up banners supporting King Abdullah II's pledge for a tough military response to avenge al-Kaseasbeh's death.

"We all stand united with the Hashemite leadership in facing terrorism," one banner read.

It is unusual to see such a unified response from religious institutions, because moderate camps often represent drastically different views to those of hard-line minority groups. The recent attacks on journalists at the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, for instance, brought a range of responses in the Muslim world, with many condemning the death of innocent people but disagreeing on whether the publication crossed the line in its caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

The Sept. 11 attacks in the United States spurred a hint of celebration and praise from anti-American radical groups, including al-Qaida, the group behind the hijackings, but condemnation from moderate Islamic factions. Now, even al-Qaida has grown more outspoken against the Islamic State group, which originally was an al-Qaida offshoot in Iraq. That criticism has left the IS extremists in an increasingly isolated position.

Even clerics aligned with the Islamic State group are said to be speaking out against the pilot's killing. Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said extremists dismissed one of its religious officials in Aleppo province after he objected to how the Jordanian pilot was put to death.

The religious official, a Saudi cleric known as Abu Musab al-Jazrawi, said during a meeting that such killings contradict the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, Abdurrahman said. Other clerics in the meeting in the northern town of Bab began a verbal attack against the Saudi cleric, who was later sacked and referred to a religious court, he said. The incident could not be confirmed independently.

Many Facebook users in Bosnia posted pictures Friday of the Jordanian king in his military uniform, hailing his pledge to take a "severe response" for the pilot's death. The head of Bosnia's Islamic community, Husein Kavazovic, denounced the militant group, saying "there is no 'but' in condemning those crimes." At least 150 Bosnians have reportedly joined the Islamic State group, and Kavazovic called on his government to strip them of their citizenship.

Al-Maqdesi criticized the militants for declaring a caliphate, or an Islamic state, last year in the areas under their control. Al-Maqdesi said such a state run according to Islamic law is meant to unite Muslims, but the extremists have been divisive.

Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb, head of the world's most prestigious seat of Sunni Islam learning, Cairo's Al-Azhar Mosque, said earlier this week that the IS militants deserve the Quranic punishment of death, crucifixion or chopping off their arms for being enemies of God and the Prophet Muhammad.

"Islam prohibits the taking of an innocent life," al-Tayeb said. By burning the pilot to death, he added, the militants violated Islam's prohibition on the immolation or mutilation of bodies — even during wartime.

Iraq's top Sunni mufti, Sheik Mahdi al-Sumaidaie, said the crime against al-Kaseasbeh is "unprecedented," adding that "the Prophet Muhammad said that only God can punish with fire."

Pakistani Sunni cleric Munir Ahmed, in his sermon in Islamabad, also dismissed any theological basis for the crime, saying the "gruesome" death of the Jordanian pilot "is the most horrible act of cruelty." It's a punishment that "Allah has kept for its own authority and no human is authorized to do it," Ahmed said.

___

Associated Press writers Mohammed Daraghmeh and Karin Laub in Amman, Jordan; Bassem Mroue in Beirut; Ahmed Sami in Baghdad; Nasser Karimi in Tehran; Aida Cerkez in Sarajevo; Zarar Khan in Islamabad; and Maggie Michael and Hamza Hendawi in Cairo contributed to this report.






A spiritual mentor for al-Qaida fighters say the execution of a Jordanian pilot is "not acceptable" in any religion.
Unified outcry



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

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