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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
9/19/2012 10:16:39 PM
This article by Steve beckow may be an eye opener for some people. To be honest, I still am not sure what to think concerning everything it says. If true, may God come and set it all right soon. Only then will all be happy and safe.
NOTE: Highly controversial as it is, I have posted this article in this forum's "Is The New Age Really Coming"? thread too

I Apologize to World Islam

2012 SEPTEMBER 19
Posted by Steve Beckow

The largest part of the American, British and other peoples have probably not awoken to the fact that the tragic events of 9/11 were staged by elements of western governments, militaries and business communities themselves; what we commonly call the “military-industrial complex” and “the secret state.”

They don’t know it was staged to initiate a series of wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran that would ensure the control and dominance of a group of nations and elites that go by various names and are only dimly known to most people.

The wider agenda, if I were to give it here, would prove so shocking that I’m not sure many people could or would believe it. It was to start a nuclear World War III, in the event that the regional wars did not cement the control of that group, in which all but 500 million of the Earth’s population of 7 billion would perish, the remainder being enslaved.

The survivors would wait out the resulting nuclear winter in deep underground military bunkers, which, since August 2011, have been progressively destroyed by “white knights” in many military services who’ve opposed and overcome the forces of the secret state.

False-flag operations of the 9/11 type probably go back further than Biblical times. Dressing your soldiers up in the uniforms of other armies and staging an attack to start a war was used by the Japanese to start their war against China. Attacking or blowing up your own ships was used in the destruction of the U.S.S. Maine and was resorted to again in the Tonkin Gulf, the attempted destruction of the U.S.S. Liberty, the U.S.S. Cole, and many other instances. The attacks on the Murrah Building in Oklahoma, the Madrid train bombing, the London bombings, and the Mumbai assault all were staged in the same false-flag way that 9/11 was.

But 9/11 was the most monstrous example of a false-flag attack that ever occurred. Dr. Carol Rosen in her 2000 testimony before the Disclosure Project showed how the American military-industrial complex had the whole false-flag history of the United States planned as far back as the 1970s.





In many of these attacks, though not all of them, the blame was laid at the doorstep of “Muslim terrorists.” However this allegation is not now and never was true. It’s true to say that terrorists exist in all nations and cultures. In the United States, terrorists can be seen occupying the Presidency (George Bush, Sr. and Jr.) and Vice-President (Dick Cheney). As shocking as that statement is, it’s accurate, given that the two Bush administrations were totally committed to the goal of world domination and the second Bush administration largely engineered 9/11.

Osama bin Laden, who was “killed” for a second time in 2011, was not responsible for 9/11. On the eve of 9/11, as Dan Rather reported at the time on the CBS News, bin laden was lying in a Rawalpindi hospital, guarded by the Pakistani military and having kidney dialysis. In July of 2001, he was visited by the local CIA chief while in a Dubai hospital, even though he was wanted at the time for embassy bombings.

Bin Laden (or Tim Osman, to use his CIA alias) had nothing whatever to do with 9/11, aside from allowing his name to be used as an undercover CIA agent, for which I’m sure he received suitable rewards. He probably died in Dec. 2001 from his many illnesses.

This having been said, all the actions taken against Muslims – the discriminatory treatment accorded them, the refusal to allow them to build religious centers, the suspicion levelled against them, and all other actions traceable to their being held responsible for 9/11 – all have no basis in fact.

But, even if they had a basis in fact, they would not have a basis in ethics or morality. No population in total should be held accountable for the actions of a few of its members. If we applied that principle, no nation or religion in the world would be exempt from the resulting responsibility. But let’s leave that for another occasion and concentrate here on the allegations’ lack of a basis in fact.

The corollary of what I’ve just said is that that there was no justification on any grounds for the manner in which we’ve treated our Muslim populations in our various countries and world Islam in general. Such attacks as the recent anti-Muslim film are simply designed to re-awaken incipient hatred against Muslims for such events as 9/11 and inflame Muslims to respond with violence in countries where they form the majority, further damaging them in the eyes of the non-Muslim world.

I apologize to world Islam for the false charges levelled against them for so many years and the suspicion and mistreatment that have arisen from our mistaken attitudes and misunderstanding of events. I apologize for our failure, even if any of this were true, to rise above any such events that continue to be laid at the doorstep of Muslims and blind us to our being brothers and sisters. I call upon our governments, who’ve made apologies to Japanese-Americans and Canadians, Australian aborigines, and others, now to extend those apologies to world Islam for the unjustified and unjustifiable misery and suffering caused them in recent years.

I call upon the world’s religions, who all worship the same Creator, to cease fighting with each other. I call upon the armies that serve the agendas of the secret state to lay down their arms, and embrace peace. I call upon those secret forces in the world who continue to try to foment conflict and hatred to stop their actions.

There is momentum in the world towards creating world peace, global prosperity, and a new age for humanity. Dictatorial regimes around the world are stepping down or falling. The nations have gathered to create a new economy that will bring global abundance to all. It’s time to apologize to world Islam and to all groups and religions who’ve been mistreated and to turn our backs on a sordid and shameful period in our history.

It’s time to embrace one another as a global population of brothers and sisters, for whom all of us is responsible and which is itself responsible for us all. It is time to work for what one man called “a world that works for everyone.” This is an achievement which has been denied us for all the years we were divided and conquered, but which is possible for us now as a world about to become free and united.


"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?
9/20/2012 12:32:15 AM
Another bombshell here!

Former State Dept. Veteran Drops Bombshell: WWIII Starts Sept. 25
Read more: http://www2.thestockmarketwatch.com/stock-market-news/former-state-dept-veteran-drops-bombshell-wwiii-starts-sept-25/34348#ixzz26xrTQVg1

"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?
9/20/2012 12:56:56 AM

RT: America and Libya give completely different versions of Benghazi consulate attack

Posted on
Published: 19 September, 2012, 01:15












A Libyan security guard holds a slogan, which reads in Arabic “Where is the security for us and for our guests” at the main entrance of the US consulate in Benghazi on September 18, 2012 (AFP Photo / Abdullah Doma)

One week after an assault in Benghazi left an US ambassador and three fellow Americans dead, conflicting reports into the details surrounding their passing from both the White House and Libyan officials leave the facts of the raid uncertain.

Tuesday marks one week since Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed after a US consulate in Benghazi was destroyed on September 11, but reports describing the events that led up to his death differ depending on the source. The Obama administration insists that a mob stormed the consulate to show their contempt with an American-made film that mocked the Islamic prophet Mohammad, but overseas the explanation is much different.

Some authorities in Libya say the attack on the consulate that killed Ambassador Stevens had roots with al-Qaeda, and that the White House has whitewashed the facts in order to make the explanation more favorable for American audiences on the eve of a presidential election.

On Tuesday this week, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters, “We have provided information about what we believe was the precipitating cause of the protest and violence based on the information that we have had available,” and that the US stands by the claim that “spontaneous” attacks on the consulate resulted in the loss of four Americans.

“[W]e do not have any indication at this point of premeditation or pre-planned attacks,” said Carney, adding, however, that“we’re not making declarations ahead of the facts here.”

In the American media, the story has largely been the same: protests erupted over an anti-Islamic film leaked to the Arab World called ‘Innocence of Muslims,’ and outrage in Cairo quickly spread to Libya. It’s there, though, that officials disagree with the White House’s explanation.

“The way these perpetrators acted and moved, and their choosing a specific date for this so-called demonstration, I think that this leaves us with no doubt that this was pre-planned, pre-determined,” Libyan parliament chief Mohammad Magarief, the head of the Libyan National Congress, said Sunday, McClatchy reports.

According to a report by Radio Free Europe, Magarief went on to explain the raid as “definitely” planned, and not the spontaneous storming of the consulate that American authorities claim. Additionally, Magarief believes that the assaults were planned by Islamic extremists, mostly foreigners, some of whom he considers “affiliates and sympathizers” with al-Qaeda.

To Fox News, an intelligence source on the ground in Libya told the outlet on condition of anonymity that the“spontaneous” protest claims were incorrect, and the attack ”was planned and had nothing to do with the movie.”

An al-Qaeda led assault on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks doesn’t seem unlikely, but could significantly hinder US President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign if true. The president has relied heavily on the execution of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to drum up support, and showing that the US failed to act on a premeditated strike targeting its own citizens could show that the War on Terror is far away from over.

To Fox News, a senior White House official remarked anonymously that Magarief’s comments shouldn’t be consider factual because “he doesn’t have the information” the Obama administration does.

Meanwhile, both federal and private investigators alike have opened a probe into ‘Innocence of Muslims” and the filmmaker behind the flick in order to see if the amateur producer had intended to provoke mass protests, which continue one week later. Researchers have so far uncovered a trove of information about the filmmaker, identified as Nakoula Basseley Nakoula of Los Angeles, perhaps most significant being that he cooperated with federal prosecutors to serve as a government informant during a check fraud investigation as recently as 2010.

After serving time for his role in a check scheme himself, Nakoula told prosecutors in 2010, “I decided to cooperate with the government to retrieve some of these mistakes or damage happened. I want to cooperate with the government so that they can catch with this other criminals who is their involvement.”

"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?
9/20/2012 1:21:27 AM
And here is more on a possible WWIII through a false-flag operation

“Innocence of Muslims”, the GOP and World War III by Jim Fetzer, September 18, 2012 (VIDEO)

We are being told by ABC News that Iran has launched a submarine and a destroyer into the Persian Gulf from Bandar Abbas port on Tuesday at the same time as U.S. and allied forces held massive naval exercises in the same waters to practice keeping oil shipping lanes open.

Tehran has repeatedly threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, a route for oil exports from the gulf, if Iranian nuclear sites are attacked by Israel, which believes Tehran is trying to develop an atomic bomb. But think about it.

As Mike Rivero observes, this may well be a propaganda run-up to a false flag attack in which one of Israel’s Dolphin submarines, admitted by Germany to be armed with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles, sneaks up along the Iranian cost and fires an attack at a US ship, quite possibly the soon-to-be-scrapped USS Enterprise. So, ahead of hearing the Big Bang and the inevitable screams from Israel’s presstitutes at ABC/NBC/CBS/FOX. Just use your common sense and ask yourself why Iran, trying as hard as they can to avoid a war, would initiate such a foolish attack? As a reminder, Iran has not started a war in over 300 years. And a “false flag” attack under these circumstances would be all too easy to arrange. We are on the verge of World War III. How did we reach this point?

With the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, the US military-industrial-complex was on the verge of losing its principal justification for the gravy train of producing endless arms and ammunition to restrain the relentless expansion of the Communist Empire. It desperately needed a new, alternative “boogie man” to keep the conveyor belts moving and its profits–from increasingly technical and expensive weapon systems–soaring, where nothing could work better than some shadowy and elusive enemy in the form of “terrorists”, whose identity has no geographic boundaries and where “terrorist acts”, like the Bali bombing, can be arranged at any time it would be politically expedient. If the government claims such an act was done by “a terrorist”, very few are in the position to explain that it was actually Blackwater (now “Xe”), Delta Forces, or the CIA.

The fabrication of the events of 9/11, which were done with complicity by the Mossad, fulfilled that objective perfectly, especially by blaming those attacks on 19 Islamic fanatics under the control of a guy off in a cave in Afghanistan. Few have noticed that the first reported claims of responsibility were attributed to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, as Preston James and I explained in “Peeling the 9/11 Onion: Layers of Plots within Plots” (2011). 15 of the 19 “hijackers” were from Saudi Arabia, but no one here seemed to notice.

That Osama had been “our man in Afghanistan” was never acknowledged and, although stories of “blowback” have abounded, until this latest series of protests, which appear to represent the culmination of the decade of abuse of Muslims as a people and Islam as a religion, they seemed fabricated or contrived. Certainly, the low road taken by the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld troika, which, in “9/11 and the Neo-Con Agenda” (2008), I likened to a crime syndicate masquerading as an administration, sowed the seeds for bona-fide “blowback”.

The Assassination of an Ambassador

The deaths of Ambassador Christopher Stevens, information management officer (“propaganda specialist”) Sean Smith, and two others may have been cunningly contrived. In his recollections of Stevens, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy has remarked, “This time, the imbeciles have won”, because the ambassador was among the strongest friends of the Islamic world the US has ever placed in the field. While my thoughts about this are somewhat speculative, it may have instead been part of the plan to use the excited protest against this deliberately provocative film, “Innocence of Muslims”, as a cover to take out one of our most effective ambassadors, where there are reasons to believe that he was not going to go along with new plans to destabilize Libya once again. Sen. John McCain, who recently visited Benghazi, has laid the responsibility for his murder on Obama for not paying enough attention to foreign affairs, which suggests that this incident may be part of the GOP “game plane” to elect Mitt Romney by attacking the President’s foreign policy. There are reports that the attackers may have had help from inside the consulate.

Bear in mind that the Israels are the most accomplished practitioners of “false flag” ops in the world today. You do not have to go back to the bombing of the King David Hotel in 1946 when a gang of Irgun terrorists dressed as Arabs murdered 91 and injured another 46; or the attack on the USS Liberty in 1967, when Israeli fighters torpedoed and strafed an American spy ship during the Six Day War, killing 34 and wounding 170; or the bombing of its own Embassy in Bueos Aires, Argentina, in 1992, which did not result in enough deaths, so they bombed the Jewish Community Center for greater political effect in 1994 (“False Flag Attacks in Argentina: 1992 and 1994″, with Adrian Salbuchi). But the massacres at Sabra and Shatila in 1982 are nice illustrations of the duplicity of the nation’s highest leaders, where Arial Sharon provided cover for the massacre of between 762 and 3,500 Palestinian and Lebanese Shiite civilians by a Lebanese Christian Phalangist militia, while the IDF illuminated the streets to facilitate the killing. So taking out Ambassador Stevens under the cover of this protest would have posed no problems for the Mossad.

The “Innocence of Muslims” as Provocation

Of course, those who understand the history of the three great Abrahamic religions are aware of their common origins, but that kind of knowledge and sensitivity is exceedingly rare in the USA. As Christof Lehmann observes, “Hollywood stirs Middle East Plot“, Asia Times (18 September 2012), it is rather difficult to imagine that this inferior, low-budget film and those earlier cartoon denigrations of the Prophet Mohammed could possibly explain the resistance they have met in the Middle East, which appears instead to be the latest manifestation of decades of stereotyping of Arabs that has come from Hollywood. Westerners and non-Muslims are seemingly so used to the scapegoating, stereotyping and denigration of Muslims and in particular Arab Muslims in art and entertainment, he remarks, that they don’t realize the degree to which the Western news and entertainment industry, and in particular Hollywood–which is largely dominated by individuals who are dedicated to the cause of Zionism and to promoting Israel’s interests–is representationally depriving an entire population, predominantly Muslim, of its essential humanity.

As Lehmann also reports, the Arab American scholar, D. Jack Shaheen, has studied more than 1,000 movies, from the oldest Hollywood productions to the greatest blockbuster productions up to 2001 before published Real Bad Arabs, How Hollywood Vilifies a People. Shaheen concluded that no less than 300 movies, more than 25% of those he studied, vilified Arabs and Muslims in one way or the other, which represents an effort comparable to World War II Nazi propaganda against the Jewish people. This extensive and enduring cinematic portrayal of Arabs, especially Palestinians, creates a cultural background against which current events have to be understood. Even the Disney Classic Aladdin, which has been seen by millions of people worldwide, affords an example of Hollywood’s dehumanizing approach. The gullible and naive, especially children, are subtly induced to believe that Arab countries are typified by barbaric practices, such as where innocent women have their hands amputated for forgetting to pay at the bizarre; and, in other films, as he explains, Arab men are depicted as imbecilic and super-rich, sex-addicted tyrants, who not only mistreat their women but especially American women, who are kidnapped and sold off to sleazy Arabs at auctions. That theme is nicely illustrated by “Taken” (2008), where a retired CIA agent (played by Liam Neeson) travels across Europe and relies on his old skills to save his daughter, who was kidnapped on a trip to Paris and sold at auction to a wealth Arab sheik. Even my wife and I enjoyed the film, which I am embarrassed to admit, but it is of that kind.

The film as Zionist anti-Muslim Propaganda

According to The Washington Post (14 September 2012), the man who goes by the name, “Sam Bacile”, turns out to be Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, if that indeed is his real name, who has been convicted of financial crimes. By making the film, he may have violated the terms of his parole and could be sent back to prison. He pleaded “no contest” to bank fraud charges in 2010 and was banned from using computers or the internet or the use of false identities as part of his sentence. Kakoula has identified himself as a “Coptic Christian”, where much of the film was apparently shot inside the offices of Media for Christ, a non-profit based in Duarte, an area of Los Angeles, CA, which has raised more than $1,000,000 to “glow Jesus’ light” to the world. A Hermit, CA, man who was script advisor for the film, Steven Klein, has reported having received several death threats, but claims this was an exercise of his First Amendment rights and that he is prepared to die defending them.

The most reasonable interpretation of the production of this film, where the actors themselves did not know the roles they were destined to play when it was edited, like earlier cartoons belittling the Prophet Mohammed, is that it was intended to inflame tensions in the Middle East, which have already been exacerbated by the ongoing presence of US military forces in Iraq and in Afghanistan, not to mention their presence in Pakistan and the on-going use of predator drones. So much of what is taking place has to be understood as stage props in political theater, none of which have been more blatant than the second killing of Osama bin Laden or concealing the first death of Saddam Hussein, which I summarized in “9/11: Have we been bamboozled?” (2012). The political situation relative to the presidential election to be held in November suggests that this may be part and parcel of a plan to salvage the prospects of Mitt Romney, who has staked virtually his entire political fortunes on the claim that Barack Obama has a failed foreign policy.

The Master Plan: to take over 7 nations in 5 years

Remember that Wesley Clark, the former Supreme Allied Commander Europe (a 4-star general), acknowledged that he had been informed of plans for the US to attack 7 countries in 5 years at The Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco (3 October 2007). Most of the countries on that list, including Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, have been taken over, where the battle for Syria continues to rage and that for Iran appears to be about to begin. We have reports that Iran is supporting Syria, which makes excellent sense, and it would come as no surprise if Russia were not doing what it can to maintain the Assad regime in place. In my view, if Russia were to declare that any attack on Iran would be regarded as an attack on Russia, it would bring about a high degree of stability and end the hysterical calls for attacking Iran, which have been promoted by Benjamin Netanyahu, especially, who turns out to be a close friend of Mitt Romney and may even believe he would be in the position to dictate US foreign policy were Romney to be elected.

http://youtu.be/E8Jo_tD0448

A situation like this would be inconceivable in times past when there was domestic disagreement between the political parties in the United States but still unanimity in foreign affairs. As David Kerans (3 October 2012), has explained, however, the parties have become so polarized that even foreign policy is no longer bipartisan. Since the misconceived “Citizens United” decision by the Supreme Court to allow corporations unlimited spending on political advertising, the US has become increasingly under the control of the rich and powerful. Economic discussion is dominated by free market theology, which has no basis in reality, since the conditions that Adam Smith declared necessary for free markets, including transparency in pricing and the absence of monopolies, do not exist in America today and are one more part of the illusional ideology known as “American exceptionalism”. When an administration can murder 3,000 of its own citizens, fabricate evidence and promote political myths, which is the grim reality of 9/11, it should be apparent to the world that the US is no longer a responsible member of the community of nations.

Coping with disinformation and propaganda

Most of what is going on in the US and the world today that affects public opinion about the war on terror and the ongoing aggression in the Middle East is, like the events of 9/11, either phony or contrived. Wayne Madsen (“Wayne Madsen Reports”, 23-24 July 2012), for example, has found several links between James Holmes of the Aurora, CO, “Batman” shooting, and U.S. government research: “James Holmes, the 24-year old suspect in the mass shooting of Batman ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ movie goers in Aurora, Colorado that left 12 people dead and 58 injured, has had a number of links to U.S. government-funded research centers. Holmes’s past association with government research projects has prompted police and federal law enforcement officials to order laboratories and schools with which Holmes has had a past association not to talk to the press about Holmes.” This is very suspicious on its face and suggests the possibility of mind-control.

Similarly, Madsen has also discovered (7-8 August 2012) that the dead suspected gunman who opened fire inside a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin served from April 1992 to October 1998 as a member of the psychological operations unit at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. “CNN cited a ‘Pentagon source’ claiming Page was discharged from the Army in 1998 for “patterns of misconduct.” However, the U.S. Army only revealed that Page was awarded several medals, including good conduct medals and a humanitarian service medal.” This does not prove that these were staged events, but they certainly create that presumption. And CNN has also just reported (16 September 2012), “Egypt’s prime minister said some of the thousands involved in days of protest near the US Embassy got paid to participate, state news reported Saturday, the same day riot police managed to force demonstrators from the area”. It is becoming increasingly difficult to sort out which events are real and which are Memorex.

Setting the Stage for World War III

It’s a matter of setting the stage for further and more ominous actions. The UK “Telegraph” (15 September 2012), has now reported that an armada of US and British naval power is massing in the Persian Gulf in the belief that Israel is considering a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program: ”Cruisers, aircraft carriers and minesweepers from 25 nations are converging on the strategically important Strait of Hormuz in an unprecedented show of force as Israel and Iran move towards the brink of war. . . . In preparation for any pre-emptive or retaliatory action by Iran, warships from more than 25 countries, including the United States, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, will today begin an annual 12-day exercise.” We have here what may well be the ingredients for a “perfect storm”.

The situation is completely absurd: Iran has not attacked any other nation for over 300 years. Iran has renounced development of atomic weapons. Iran has signed the NPT and allowed inspectors into its facilities. Israel, by contrast, has 200-600 or more of these little beauties, has not signed the NPT and does not allow inspectors into its facilities. Yet its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, “King Bibi: ‘Red Line’ with Iran Means War Next 60 Days“, YouTube (16 September 2012), has demanded the US draw a “red line” to demarcate developments by Iran that would commit the US to war. The US so far has refused to do that, which may itself be a “false front” by the Obama administration. But the situation is enormously fraught with hazard and represents the greatest threat of precipitating World War III since the Cuban Missile Crisis, when cooler heads and higher intelligence prevailed.

Jim Fetzer, a former Marine Corps officer and McKnight Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota Duluth, is the founder of Scholars for 9/11 and organized The Vancouver Hearings (15-17 June 2012) with Joshua Blakeney.

"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?
9/20/2012 10:40:29 AM
Yet more info on Arctic ice melting here. Will skeptics still label global warming 'a hoax'?

Arctic ice shrinks to all-time low; half 1980 size


Associated Press/U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center - This image made available by NASA shows the amount of summer sea ice in the Arctic on Sunday, Sept. 16, 2012, at center in white, and the 1979 to 2000 average extent for the day shown, with the yellow line. Scientists say sea ice in the Arctic shrank to an all-time low of 1.32 million square miles on Sunday, Sept. 16, 2012, smashing old records for the critical climate indicator. That's 18 percent smaller than the previous record set in 2007. Records go back to 1979 based on satellite tracking. (AP Photo/U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a critical climate indicator showing an ever warming world, the amount of ice in the Arctic Ocean shrank to an all-time low this year, obliterating old records.

The ice cap at the North Pole measured 1.32 million square miles on Sunday. That's 18 percent smaller than the previous record of 1.61 million square miles set in 2007, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo. Records go back to 1979 based on satellite tracking.

"On top of that, we're smashing a record that smashed a record," said data center scientist Walt Meier. Sea ice shrank in 2007 to levels 22 percent below the previous record of 2005.

Ice in the Arctic melts in summer and grows in winter, and it started growing again on Monday. In the 1980s, Meier said, summer sea ice would cover an area slightly smaller than the Lower 48 states. Now it is about half that.

Man-made global warming has melted more sea ice and made it thinner over the last couple decades with it getting much more extreme this year, surprisingly so, said snow and ice data center director Mark Serreze.

"Recently the loss of summer ice has accelerated and the six lowest September ice extents have all been in the past six years," Serreze said. "I think that's quite remarkable."

Serreze said except for one strong storm that contributed to the ice loss, this summer melt was more from the steady effects of day-to-day global warming. But he and others say the polar regions are where the globe first sees the signs of climate change.

"Arctic sea ice is one of the most sensitive of nature's thermometers," said Jason Box, an Ohio State University polar researcher.

What happens in the Arctic changes climate all over the rest of the world, scientists have reported in studies.

The ice in the Arctic "essentially acts like an air conditioner by keeping things cooler," Meier said. And when sea ice melts more, it's like the air conditioner isn't running efficiently, he said.

Sea ice reflects more than 90 percent of the sun's heat off the Earth, but when it is replaced by the darker open ocean, more than half of the heat is absorbed into the water, Meier said.

Scientists at the snow and ice data center said their computer models show an Arctic that would be essentially free of ice in the summer by 2050, but they add that current trends show ice melting faster than the computers are predicting.

___

Online:

The National Snow and Ice Data Center: http://nsidc.org/

___

Seth Borenstein can be followed at http://twitter.com/borenbears


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

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