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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
3/7/2015 11:12:18 AM

Outrage: Extremists take ancient statues, damage Iraqi site

Associated Press

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ISIS Bulldozes Ancient City of Nimrud in Iraq

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BAGHDAD (AP) — Islamic State extremists trucked away statues as they damaged the irreplaceable remains of an ancient Assyrian capital, a local resident and a top UN official told The Associated Press Friday.

Nimrud, a nearly 3,000-year-old city in present-day Iraq, included monumental statues of winged bulls, bearded horsemen and other winged figures, all symbols of an ancient Mesopotamian empire in the cradle of Western civilization.

The discovery that extremists removed some statues before using heavy equipment to destroy much of the site Thursday was cold comfort as outrage spread over the extremists' latest effort to erase history.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon considers the destruction a war crime, his spokesman said in a statement.

Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, said in his Friday sermon that the extremists are savaging Iraq, "not only in the present but also to its history and ancient civilizations."

"I'm shocked and speechless," said Zeid Abdullah, who lives in nearby Mosul and studied at the city's Fine Arts Institute until the extremists shut that down. "Only people with a criminal and barbaric mind can act this way and destroy an art masterpiece that is thousands of years old."

A farmer from a nearby village told the AP Friday that militants began carrying tablets and artifacts away from the site two days before the attack, which began Thursday afternoon. The militants told the villagers that the artifacts are idols forbidden by Islam and must be destroyed, the farmer said, speaking anonymously for fear of reprisals.

But the group also is known to have sold off looted antiquities as a source of revenue.

Some statues were "put on big trucks, and we don't know where they are, possibly for illicit trafficking," UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova said.

UN officials have seen images of destroyed Assyrian symbols including statues with the head of a man, the torso of a lion and wings of an eagle. These symbols were referred to in the Bible and other sacred texts, she said.

"All of this is an appalling and tragic act of human destruction," she said.

UN officials were studying satellite imagery of the destruction, since it remains too dangerous to approach the site, she said.

These violent Sunni extremists have been campaigning to purge ancient relics they say promote idolatry that violates their interpretation of Islamic law. A video they released last week shows them smashing artifacts in the Mosul museum and in January, the group burned hundreds of books from the Mosul library and Mosul University, including many rare manuscripts. Many fear Hatra, another nearby ancient site could be next.

Iraqi authorities were still trying to assess Friday exactly how badly the ancient site was damaged Thursday.

"The destruction of Nimrud is a big loss to Iraq's history," Qais Mohammed Rasheed, the deputy tourism and antiquities minister, told The Associated Press on Friday. "The loss is irreplaceable."

UNESCO previously warned that the group was selling ancient artifacts on the black market for profit. Rasheed said authorities have not ruled out the possibility that the militants could try to sell these, too.

Bokova already wrote the International Criminal Court about a possible war crimes prosecution, and plans to alert INTERPOL, major museums, auction houses and Middle East governments to recover any trafficked artifacts.

"Somebody is going to buy these," said Iraq's U.N. Ambassador, Mohamed Alhakim.

Nimrud, also known as Kalhu, was the 9th century B.C., capital of Assyria, an ancient kingdom that swept over much of present-day Iraq and the Levant. The site spans 3.3 square kilometers on the Tigris River, and boasted the remains of temples, palaces and a ziggurat pyramid as well as the huge statues.

Many artifacts from Nimrud were moved to museums in Mosul, Baghdad, London and Paris.

In the 1980s, archaeologists discovered a trove of hundreds of gold items from Nimrud's royal tombs — considered one of the 20th century's most significant archaeological finds. The "treasures of Nimrud" were kept in a basement safe of the Central Bank in Baghdad for years until they were "re-discovered" in 2003, and now most of it is in the Baghdad Museum.

Nimrud was already on the World Monument Fund's list of most endangered sites due to extreme decay and deterioration before it was captured in June as extremists took over nearby Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city.

Last year, the militants destroyed the mosque believed to be the burial place of the Prophet Younis, or Jonah, as well as the Mosque of the Prophet Jirjis — both revered ancient shrines in Mosul. They also threatened to destroy Mosul's 850-year old Crooked Minaret, but residents surrounded the structure, preventing the militants from approaching.

In July, they removed the crosses from Mosul's 1,800-year old Mar Behnam monastery and then stormed it, forcing the monks and priest to flee or face death.

A U.S.-led coalition has been striking the Islamic State group since August and is preparing a large-scale operation to retake the city of Mosul. But U.S. and Iraqi officials have been cautious about setting a timeline for preparing Iraq's embattled military for the campaign.

Meanwhile the battle to recover Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit progressed Friday with Iraqi government forces taking back the town of Dawr, 10 miles (15 kilometers) south of the city. Raed al-Jabouri, the provincial governor, said security forces should reach Tikrit by Sunday.

The Tikrit campaign launched Monday has been stalled because extremists lined strategic roads into the city with explosives and land mines, military officials said.

Dawr is the hometown of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Saddam's former deputy, who has been suspected of collaborating with the Islamic State militant group.

___

Anna reported from the United Nations. Sameer N. Yacoub and Ahmed Sami in Baghdad, Verena Dobnik in New York, Amanda Myers in Washington, Jamey Keaten in Paris and Danica Kirka in London contributed to this 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?
3/7/2015 3:36:20 PM

Jim Fetzer VT 3-5-15… “The Netanyahu Speech: A 10-point deconstruction”

veterans_today_banner_NEW_73veterans_today_jim_fetzer_banner_17Yes, I did read this one… mainly because it’s all pictures and videos!!

——————————————————————–

The Netanyahu Speech: A 10-point deconstruction

The speech was a masterpiece artfully woven of lies, deceit and deception

The distance between Bibi’s words and reality was like that between the Capitol and Gaza


(1) Iran has not attacked another country since 1775. Washington was inaugurated in 1789.



(2) The sanctions imposed are war crimes. They violate the Geneva Conventions of 1949.


(3) Iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapons program. Our intel agencies and Mossad agree.


(4a) Iran is entitled to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. So the US is violating the NPT.


(4b) Iran has signed the NPT; Israel has not. The US is also violating it with new weapons.


(5) Israel is the terrorist state. It commits atrocities in Argentina, which it blames on Iran.


(6) Israel was complicit in 9/11, brought to us by the CIA, DoD Neo-Cons and the Mossad.



(7) The Holocaust is but a prop. 6,000,000 Jews did not die in gas chambers using Zyklon B.



(8) He is playing politics with Congress. He claims, “When Bibi speaks, the world listens!”




(9) The leaders of Israel despise non-Jews. Consider the words of PM Menachem Begin.




(10) We are doing the dirty work for Israel. Listen to Wesley Clark. The time has come to end it.




"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?
3/7/2015 4:10:54 PM

Preston James VT 3-3-15… “Hubris Beyond Imagination – Bibi’s Speech to Congress”

veterans_today_banner_NEW_72veterans_today_preston_james_banner_28Another Preston milestone-type summary article here, and it has a number of links at the end that are likely helpful tools to assist many to wake up to all of the (previously) “veiled and disguised” criminal organizations that have been attempting to run this planet.

A link to find all of Preston’s VT articles is here.

“…he has two serious flaws, the first one is extreme Hubris which has led him to go too far in his quest to infiltrate and hijack the whole World for the Khazarian Mafia (KM)… The second major flaw is one shared by most of his Likudist compatriots which is an extreme paranoid racial delusion that everyone in the World is trying to destroy the Jewish race and Israel.

“The Khazarian Mafia (KM) is a large Organized Crime Cabal run out of the City of London Financial District, a separate country with its own Ambassadors, police force like the Vatican and pays no taxes paid to England.

“…now both Russia under Putin and the American Sleeping Giant are both on a collision course once again with the Khazarian Mafia (KM) in a final battle of the ages….

“Bibi’s ridiculous speech before Congress today was filled with lie after lie, but if one carefully examines what he actually stated, it also reveals his secret intentions and the evil he has been directing Israel to do as a nation state.

The best strategy to stop the Khazarian Mafia (KM) in its take-down of the whole World. 1. Expose The Perps to everyone you can… 2. Break up the Controlled Major Mass Media (CMMM)… 3. Decapitate the KM from it elastic FIAT Counterfeited money supply… 4. Serve a Writ of Mandamus to the US Department of Justice… 5. Serve a Writ of Mandamus to the US Provost Marshals… 6. Call and write your Members of Congress…

———————————————————————

Hubris Beyond Imagination – Bibi’s Speech to Congress

Bibi sets himself on fire in front of Congress to get attention

Bibi Netanyahu, a very crafty man, is the recognized operational leader of the worldwide wealthy and powerful Khazarian Mafia (KM) which is based in the City of London Financial District and which uses Israel as its main action-agent.

However he has two serious flaws, the first one is extreme Hubris which has led him to go too far in his quest to infiltrate and hijack the whole World for the Khazarian Mafia (KM).
Read more at VT…

2-303x320This extreme Hubris was especially evidentwhen he gave the go ahead order for the 9-11-01 nuclear attack on America.

This extreme, unimaginable Hubris led to Bibi’s deployment of the Nuclear Attack on America on 9-11-01 using the Mossad, the PNACers, Top NeoCons, Israeli-American “Israeli-first” Dual Citizens living in America, Traitors in the JCS, USAF, NORAD and the FAA, and the Bush Crime Cabal, all of which who functioned as partners in crime or assets of Bibi and the Khazarian Mafia (KM).

When a nation’s leader has extreme Hubris this can easily lead to narrow minded, overly confident rationalizing that certain extreme covert operations will never be found out, such as attacking America with a Gladio-style, False-Flag operation on 9-11-01 and manipulating Americans with false news reports that Islamic radicals did it, thus justifying another set of Mideast Wars for Israel fought by Americans.

Normally such an action would probably have never been found out by the American Public but for the new worldwide Internet which is becoming more and more popular by the day.

Bibi and his stateside PNAC boys and assets never realized what the full impact of the growing popularity of the Worldwide Internet would turn out to become.

They did not understand that the Internet has become the New Gutenberg Press of the World. They did not understand that the new popularity of the Internet and would eventually result in the US Military High Command, most American Soldiers and the average American finding out that not only did Israel with do the 9-11-01 attack on America with the help of American Traitors.

Nor did they ever conceive that mainstream American would find out that 9-11-01 was also a nuclear attack using decommissioned W-54 Davy Crockett nuclear Pitts stolen out the back door at Pantex in Texas.

Bibi’s second major flaw.

The second major flaw is one shared by most of his Likudist compatriots which is an extreme paranoid racial delusion that everyone in the World is trying to destroy the Jewish race and Israel. This kind of a delusion is dangerous when it produces “first blood” pre-emptive attacks because it can end up functioning as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

This tendency by the Likudist to engage in numerous pre-emptive strikes based on this paranoid racial delusion has resulted in numerous unjustified attacks on innocent Palestinians, the covert formation of ISIL, ISIS, Daish.

And this same paranoid racial delusion has led Bibi to attempt to manipulate Israeli sympathizers inside America by delivering a speech based on well conceived manipulative but clearly false claims.

What is the Khazarian Mafia?

images (2)The Khazarian Mafia (KM) is a large Organized Crime Cabal run out of the City of London Financial District, a separate country with its own Ambassadors, police force like the Vatican and pays no taxes paid to England.

It was Veterans Today’s own Financial Editor Mike Harris who was able discover this hidden history, almost all of it which has been carefully extracted from the history books and libraries. The more he has focused on this hidden history the more facts emerge which explain the intense inter-generational lust for bloodletting and revenge against the Russian People and the American People for successfully bucking and defeating the Khazarian Mafia (KM) numerous times in the past.

And now both Russia under Putin and the American Sleeping Giant are both on a collision course once again with the Khazarian Mafia (KM) in a final battle of the ages. It is likely going to be bloody at least in America as the Khazarian Mafias Police State occupation Force Homeland Security run by some of the biggest American Traitors and Dual Citizen “Israeli-first” infiltrators ever start as Civil War against the American People as they deploy their long planned operation to transform America into GAZA II, the World largest open air prison camp and make 90% of Americans the New Palestinians.

Then DHS plans to cut off the food and water through some staged terror or engineered weather and then transport Americans to “re-settlement Camps” where the men, women and children will be separated and then progressively and systematically exterminated. All Red list American dissidents and Vets will be immediately exterminated.

The Hidden History of the Khazarian Mafia (KM).

It’s run by the Rothschild Family and its close associates. It controls over 90% of the central banks of the World which are based on phony FIAT money which is actually counterfeit.

They have put a worldwide system of banking in place that is based on ancient Babylonian Money-Magick which specializes in the accrual of debt from pernicious usury which is used to make debt-slaves of those under the control of their fraudulent private central banking system.

In America we are under the occult “Babylonian Money-Magick” bondage of the Federal Reserve System which deployed pernicious usury to make debt-slaves out of most Americans. The Khazarian Mafia’s origin goes back to ancient Babylon where they worshiped the false god Baal. These same family lines became prominent in the nation of Khazaria which was severely sanction twice by surrounding nations in 600 AD and again in 1200 AD.

3d230d44-320x285The first sanction of the Khazarian Oligarchy in 600 AD was for Khazarians normal practice of robbing travelers passing through Khazaria, frequently murdering and robbing them, and then falsely assuming their identities whenever possible.

The Khazarian King was given the ultimatum pick one of the three Abrahamic religions as your national religion and order your people to practice it and raise their kids with it.

The Khazarian King picked Judaism, but he and his court secretly continued to practice a form of Baal worship better known as Luciferians or Satanism.

In about 1200 the surrounding nations led by Russia attacked and destroyed the Khazarian nation. the ruling families fled to Europe and continued their evil ways, eventually residing in Germany, France and England and taking over Banking.

They were able to place Oliver Cromwell in power in England and used him as a beachhead from which to deploy covert means to infiltrate and hijack the Bank of England and to eventually hijack the whole nation of England and the City of London.

In 1913 the Khazarian Mafia (KM) Chieftains were able to establish a beachhead in America with their induced illegal, Unconstitutional passage of the Federal Reserve System. They were able to bribe enough Members of Congress to get this law passed, but it was illegally passe because there was no required quorum present.

The Rothschilds plotted revenge against the Russians for destroying Khazaria, and for helping the American Colonists defeat England, as well as helping the North win the Civil War. They created Bolshevism and deployed it in Russia in 1917 and proceeded to rape, torture and murder over 100 million innocent Russians as revenge. They then plotted revenge against America and began their plan to infiltrate, hijack, asset strip, abuse, tyrannize and then destroy it while mass-murdering most Americans.

Later the KMs created Naziism to use to create their “Holocaust” Psyop and “anti-Semitism” Psyop and to form the basis for a large second World War that would rapidly increase their Bankster profits and World Power, which it did. Babylonian Talmudic Judaic leaders would then use the two Mind-kontrol triggers “Holocaust” and “anti-Semitism to block any potential criticism of their post WW2 actions and continue to do so even to this very day.

The Rothschilds used their crafty means to deploy the Work-camps in Nazi Germany where kidnapped Judaics were taken at gunpoint and forced to work on behalf of western owned or controlled corporations supplying the Nazi war machine. Then they used their created Psyop terms of “Holocaust” and “anti-Semitism” and set up the nation-state of Israel to be their private enclave and action-agent form which they could proceed to infiltrate and hijack the whole World.

And Israel has been deployed as the main action-agent of the Khazarian Mafia (KM), causing wars, mass death, incredible mass human suffering and destruction all over the World in the attempts to hijack the whole World and make massive profits from war which is their specialty.

The Khazarian Mafia (KM) which can also be appropriately referred to as NeoBolsheviks, under Bibi’s leadership, proceed to use his Mossad and his stateside assets and Traitors to initiate a nuclear attack on America on 9-11-01 which was covered up by the KM’s Controlled major Mass Media (CMMM) and by paid-off members of Congressional Intel committees.

But now with the worldwide Internet, the New Gutenberg Press, the actual truth of Israel initiating the 9-11-01 nuclear attack on America is now being published and broadcast and is spreading like wildfire.

The term “Jew” was never used until 700 AD.

Of course we now know that the term “Jew” was never even conceived or used until 700 AD and at that time was only applied to one of the twelve Hebrew tribes of Israel, the tribe of Judah. And we also now know that recent peer reviewed John Hopkins genetic research show that approximately 97.5% of Israeli’s have no ancient Hebrew blood and thus have no legitimate ancestral claim to any Palestinian lands, while 80% of the Palestinians do have ancient Hebrew blood and have an ancestral right to all Palestinian lands. What this means is that Israeli leaders are the World’s biggest anti-Semites

A person suffering form a paranoid racial delusion does not typically declare his private plans or intentions. But it is usually quite easy to know what they are because they typically frequently express them by accusing others of what they are actually doing. This practice is best referred to as the psychological defense mechanism of projection.

Bottom line, if you want to know what Bibi and his boys are up to in secret, just listen carefully to his accusations towards others, especially Islamics in general and specifically Iranians, Palestinians and Hamas which was secretly started and financed by Israel as a false-flag terror mechanism to justify Israel aggression against Palestinians and more theft of their land.

Bibi’s ridiculous speech before Congress today was filled with lie after lie, but if one carefully examines what he actually stated, it also reveals his secret intentions and the evil he has been directing Israel to do as a nation state.

If you take Bibi’s ridiculous speech in Congress which he delivered today and listen to it carefully or read the transcript and then substitute the word Israel or even better “The Likudists” every time the word Iran appears, and substitute the term Israelis every time the world radical Islamics appears or Hezbollah, you will be amazed how well these substitutions fits. Yes, Bibi was projecting the secret dirty sins of Israel and the Likudists that run it. And how did the Likudists get into power?

The same way the Khazarian Mafia Kingpins and Cutouts always acquire the illegitimate power of another nation, they infiltrate it and hijack using the money power of the City of London Khazarian Mafia Banksters (aka the Rothschild private World Zionist Fiat Central Banksters) and political influence it buys.

The Khazarian Mafia (KM) knew that in order to expand their influence they had to remain covert. Therefore they set up a worldwide system of Satanism which specializes in Babylonian “black magic”, pedophilia, child sacrifice and other grisly actions based on the Satanic law “Do what thou wilt.”

They infiltrated Freemasonry, especially using the Scottish Rite and the York Rite. Obviously if everyone treated them with their same law of “Do what thou wilt”, they would be shot down in the streets and assassinated in their own lairs, being exterminated within a month.

RothschildBankingMeme12

How can the Khazarian Mafia (KM) be stopped in its inhuman criminal efforts to take over and control the whole World?

Obviously this is a difficult task because the KM owns and controls over 90% of the central banks of the World. And their Central Banking System is privately owned by the Rothschilds and a small collection of related “bloodline” families.

And the KM has actually been able to use it’s espionage fronts in America to buy, bribe or human compromise almost every Member of the US Congress.

Thus the KM can create most of the money it needs as long as it doesn’t put so much money in circulation that the whole system goes “Weimar” like it did in post WW1 Germany.

The KM has other ways to raise the funds it needs to operate and to pay its mercenary forces deployed as ISL, ISIS, Daish: international illegal narcotics and weapons trafficking; illegal organ trafficking often associated with kidnapping and murder; human trafficking; kidnapping, sex trafficking (forced prostitution); home mortgage scams such as MERS; manipulation of the stock market using shorts and induced media reported incidents to drive the stock prices down; setting up secret Mossad fronts as DOD and USG contractors to obtain massive US Taxpayer funds as “Corporate Welfare.”

The best strategy to stop the Khazarian Mafia (KM) in its take-down of the whole World.

1. Expose The Perps to everyone you can: Expose all the Big KM Lies, false-narratives and propaganda broadcast and published by their six Controlled Major Mass Media (CMMM). Be polite and reasonable when you do this and it is probably best to avoid talking about this while at work. This means to tell your friends, family and other associates who seem open.

Take good Veterans Today articles that present the evidence that Israel did 9-11-01 and that it was a nuclear attack on America. and share them, re-post them on Face-book and other social media and blogs if you use them. The sooner most Americans find out that9-11-01 was a nuclear attack on America and Israel did it using stateside Assets, and was ordered by Bibi, the better.

Veterans Today has published the findings of the previously secret AEC Sandia Labs investigation of 9-11-01 which was taken by Snowden to the Russian Federation who dumped them into the public domain and to VT.

2. Break up the Controlled Major Mass Media (CMMM): Since their six Controlled Major Mass Media (CMMM) actually forms an illegal News Monopoly or Cartel, enforce all the existing antitrust laws and break this News Monopoly up into hundreds of independent News Bureaus.

3. Decapitate the KM from it elastic FIAT Counterfeited money supply: This means: nationalize the Federal Reserve System, set up a new real money system backed by Gold, Silver and real assets and commodities, seize all of its assets and records and transfer it to the US Department of the Treasury. Cancel the phony national debt, claw back all of the Federal Reserve System Owners’ assets gained through this massive financial counterfeiting fraud go all the way back to its origin in 1913.

Remember there is no statute of limitation for major Fraud like this. Seize all the Banks empty homes taken by MERS fraud. Then distribute all these seized and clawed-back funds and real estate and set up a panel of citizens from all classes and occupation to distribute these assets to those damaged and to all Americans in the most equitable way that can be reasonably determined.

4. Serve a Writ of Mandamus to the US Department of Justice. A Wit of Mandamus is a command to perform according to legally mandated duties. The US Department of Justice has the legal authority to enforce the US Constitution as the Law of the Land and can arrest and prosecute the owners of the Federal Reserve System and any large Wall Street Bank Principals involved for financial fraud and RICO.

5. Serve a Writ of Mandamus to the US Provost Marshals. The Provost Marshals have the legal right to arrest and prosecute any congressman of USG official or any members of the US Military who are engaged in espionage inside America on behalf of a foreign power, in this case Israel. If the US Department of Justice wakes up and agrees to do its job these prosecutions could be a joint operation. Certainly the two Political Fixers who called themselves the “Puppet-masters” should be arrested for attempting to shakedown Ambassador Lee Wanta for billions of dollars and also threatened his life, all left on Wanta’s DC embassy voice mail.

6. Call and write your Members of Congress. These are the folks who are supposed to represent you. Be polite but explain that you have now become aware that Israel did 9-11-01 and that it was a nuclear even and that you want a new investigation opened up and the perps prosecuted.


"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?
3/7/2015 4:30:24 PM

Top Qaeda leader, commanders reported killed in Syria

AFP

Fighters from the Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda's Syria branch, hold a position near Syria's northern city of Aleppo as they fight against forces loyal to the regime on December 19, 2014 (AFP Photo/Fadi al-Halabi)


Beirut (AFP) - The military chief and several top commanders of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front have been reported killed in northwestern Syria, where the jihadist militia has made major gains in recent months.

The UN Security Council, meanwhile, adopted a US-drafted resolution condemning the use of chlorine in Syria and threatening measures if chemicals are used in attacks again.

Syrian state media, a monitoring group and a local activist all reported that Nusra's Abu Hammam al-Shami had been killed, but provided contradictory information on the circumstances.

Official Nusra sources did not announce the death of the jihadist, a Syrian believed to have fought with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

"Shami... was killed with a number of other leaders during a special operation by the army" in Idlib province, Syrian state news agency SANA reported, without specifying a date.

Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, also said the commander had been killed but that the circumstances were unclear.

"Shami died of injuries on Thursday, but it is not clear when he sustained them," Abdel Rahman told AFP.

He said Shami may have been one of five Nusra leaders wounded in an air strike in Idlib province on February 27 by the US-led coalition attacking jihadists in Syria.

An official Nusra statement that day named two commanders killed in the strike but did not mention Shami.

Local Syrian activist Ibrahim al-Idlibi told AFP Shami had been killed in the February raid but that Nusra had not published his name due to the "sensitivity" of the information.

Reports of Shami's death came as the Al-Qaeda affiliate consolidates gains in northern Syria.

Already the most powerful military force in Idlib province, Nusra handed a major defeat to one of its rivals -- the Western-backed Hazm movement -- at the weekend when it seized Hazm's base in Aleppo province.

Nusra also claimed to have led a spectacular assault against a regime intelligence headquarters in Aleppo city on Wednesday, blowing up a tunnel near the building before storming the area.

Attacks on the group's leadership are "an indication of the rising strength and influence of Nusra on the ground in Syria in recent months", said Lina Khatib, director of the Carnegie Middle East Centre think tank.

- 'Definite hit to morale' -

"Because it operates in a decentralised manner, not top down, the loss of a leader is something that Nusra can recover from with minimal damage," she said.

Thomas Pierret, a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, called Shami's death a "severe blow" but said its impact should not be overstated.

"Organisations of this type are very well structured and prepared for the loss of important leaders," he said.

But Idlibi, the local activist, disagreed.

"It's a definite hit to the morale of Nusra's supporters," he said.

He said there were rumours of serious internal disputes within Nusra ranks regarding an apparent Qatar-led proposal for Nusra to split off from Al-Qaeda.

"They want to turn it into something like the Taliban -- into a political movement," he said.

Idlibi said Nusra political chief Abu Mohamed al-Jolani favours such a split, while Shami was against it.

Nusra has emerged as the most powerful jihadist group in northwestern Syria and, as well as fighting President Bashar al-Assad's regime, has clashed with moderate rebels and its jihadist rival the Islamic State group.

At the United Nations Friday, 14 of the 15 Security Council members -- including Damascus ally Russia -- adopted a US-drafted resolution condemning the use of chlorine in Syria.

It also threatened measures if chemicals are used in future attacks.

While the measure does not single out the Damascus regime over the use of chlorine, Western powers have made clear that the evidence points to attacks being carried out by Assad's forces.

The resolution states that the Security Council "decides in the event of future non-compliance... to impose measures under chapter 7" of the UN charter, which provides for sanctions and possibly military force.

However, Russia's envoy Vitaly Churkin said measures under chapter 7 could not be decided unless there is proof of chemical weapons used by either side in the conflict.

A January report by the OPCW chemical watchdog concluded "with a high degree of confidence" that chlorine gas had been used in attacks on three villages in Syria last year.

The Assad regime and the rebels have accused each other of using chemical agents, including chlorine, in the nearly four-year war that has killed more than 210,000 people.


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

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
3/7/2015 4:38:02 PM

Salvation Army Turns #TheDress Into a Domestic Violence PSA

News Editor

The debate that divided the world is now being used as a powerful campaign to raise public awareness around domestic violence. Salvation Army’s South African chapter brilliantly took #The Dress, which pitted millions of people against each other in camps of white and gold versus black and blue, and asked on Twitter: “Why is it so hard to see black and blue?” Against an image of a woman wearing a white and gold version of the dress, it reads: “The only illusion is if you think it was her choice. One in 6 women are victims of abuse. Stop abuse against women.”

Salvation Army Turns #TheDress Into a Domestic Violence PSA

Of course, once dressgate, everyone freaked out that the world wasn’t freaking out about real issues — war, poverty, etc. — but this advertisement for the charity’s #StopAbuseAgainstWomen effort seems to take the foolishness out of the original situation and turn it into a powerful (non-fashion) statement.

The tweet, which was posted on Friday morning, has already received positive feedback for appropriating the viral phenomenon for good. Many called it “brilliant,” “powerful,” and a smart way to leverage social media. “The best hijacking of online culture I’ve seen recently,” Andrew Blakeley wrote. Jonathan Blades added, “The Salvation Army taking the silliness of #TheDress to make a powerful point. that is how you jump on the bandwagon.”

While the argument over whether the dress was white and gold or black and blue ended — it was black and blue for anyone who’s failed to turn on a TV, check the Internet, or read a newspaper for a week — one more thing’s for sure: Domestic violence is a serious issue that deserves the same kind of fevered attention that was paid to #thedress.

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

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