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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
2/7/2016 9:58:48 AM

EU ministers want to buttress borders to stem refugee flow

Associated Press

A woman covered with a blanket walks with her children at a parking area near the northern Greek village of Idomeni, on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. A European Union official says Greece is making "rapid progress" in overcoming delays in building screening centers for migrants and refugees on islands facing Turkey, after involving the armed forces in the effort. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)


AMSTERDAM (AP) — European Union nations anxious to stem the flow of asylum-seekers coming through the Balkans are increasingly considering sending more help to non-member Macedonia as a better way to protect European borders instead of relying on EU member Greece.

With Athens unable to halt the tens of thousands of people making the sea crossing from Turkey, EU nations fear that Europe's Schengen border-free travel zone could collapse, taking with it one of the cornerstones on which the 28-nation bloc is built.

"If Greece is not ready or able to protect the Schengen zone and doesn't accept any assistance from the EU, then we need another defense line, which is obviously Macedonia and Bulgaria," Hungarian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Szijjarto said at Saturday's meeting of EU foreign ministers in Amsterdam.

An estimated 850,000 migrants arrived in Greece in 2015, overwhelming its coast guard and reception facilities. Aid groups say cash-strapped Greece has shelter for only about 10,000 people, just over 1 percent of those who have entered. Most of the asylum-seekers then travel on across the Balkans and into the EU's heartland of Germany and beyond.

Szijjarto said EU nations are "defenseless from the south. There are thousands of irregular migrants entering the territory of the EU on a daily basis."

Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said the cash-strapped government in Athens still underestimates the crisis.

"I still don't have the feeling that it has dawned on Greece how serious the situation is" for receiving nations like Austria, he said.

The situation has pushed some EU nations to send bilateral aid to Macedonia, a non-EU nation, to control its border with EU member Greece. There has been even talk of sending military troops to Macedonia to beef up the Greek border.

Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki said after the meeting it did not matter what the aid was technically called.

"The essential thing is that we have people and equipment to control the border and do registration where legal crossing should happen," he said.

He said Macedonia has already put its own military on the job.

"They're making sure that we have decreased the illegal crossings through our border and we're going to continue to make these efforts," he said.

Because of the relentless influx of people, several EU members have re-imposed border crossings to manage the flow into their nations better. EU officials, however, are doing their utmost to keep the Schengen zone as open as possible and want member states to focus on reinforcing the zone's external borders only.

And the EU is also looking at Turkey to make a better effort to make sure that refugees from the Syrian war do not make the dangerous sea crossing. EU nations have committed 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) to Turkey for helping refugees as part of incentives aimed at persuading it to do more to stop thousands of migrants from leaving for Greece.

The EU also called on Turkey to open its borders to thousands of Syrians fleeing fierce government offensives and intense Russian airstrikes and said it is providing aid to Ankara for that purpose.

"Unquestionably, the fact that people coming from inside Syria are Syrians in need for international protection," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Saturday. "On top of that: the support that the EU is providing to Turkey, among others, is aimed exactly at guaranteeing" that Ankara can protect and host Syrians needing asylum.

EU foreign ministers met with their Turkish counterpart for informal talks in Amsterdam on Saturday and Mogherini said "this was the message we delivered."

"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?
2/7/2016 10:13:42 AM

Anti-Islam groups rally across Europe; clashes in Amsterdam

Associated Press



Mounted Dutch riot police disperses demonstrators during a Pegida demonstration against islamization in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)


DRESDEN, Germany (AP) — Protesters rallied against Islam and immigration in several European cities Saturday, sometimes clashing with police or counter-demonstrators amid growing tensions over the massive influx of asylum-seekers to the continent.

Riot police clashed with demonstrators in Amsterdam as supporters of the anti-Islam group PEGIDA tried to hold their first protest meeting in the Dutch capital. Only about 200 PEGIDA supporters were present, outnumbered by police and left-wing demonstrators who shouted, "Refugees are welcome, fascists are not!"

Dutch riot police detained several people as officers on horseback intervened to separate the two groups of demonstrators. It was not immediately clear how many people were detained.

In Germany, up to 8,000 people took part in a PEGIDA rally in Dresden, according to the independent group Durchgezaehlt, which monitors attendance figures. Up to 3,500 people took part in a counter-demonstration on the other side of the Elbe River that divides the city, it said.

No incidents were reported at the event.

In the northern French city of Calais, police dispersed a rowdy anti-migrant protest with tear gas after clashes with protesters and detained several far-right demonstrators.

Around 150 militants from the anti-Islam, anti-immigration group PEDIGA gathered Saturday chanting slogans like: "We must not let Calais die!"

Calais has been a focal point for migrants who want to slip into Britain via the Channel Tunnel. Several thousand have been living there in slums for months.

PEGIDA, whose German acronym stands for 'Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West,' has become a magnet for far-right and anti-immigrant sentiment since it was founded in Dresden two years ago. After a drop in attendance last spring, the group saw a rise in support from people angered by the unprecedented influx into Europe of refugees from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Aside from its nationalist and anti-Islam stance, the group has also sided strongly with Russia. Several Russian flags were flown at Saturday's rally in Dresden, along with banners including "Peace with Russia" and "Stop war against Syria."

Smaller PEGIDA-style protests were also taking place in France, Britain, Poland, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Denmark, Finland and Estonia.

"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?
2/7/2016 10:23:26 AM

EU calls on Israel to halt demolition of Palestinian housing

AFP

Israeli authorities use heavy machinery to demolish a house belonging to a Palestinian family in the Arab east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Shuafat on January 27, 2016 (AFP Photo/Ahmad Gharabli)

Brussels (AFP) - The European Union on Saturday called on Israel to halt the demolition of Palestinian housing, some of which was EU-funded, and reiterated its opposition to expanding Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

"In the past weeks there have been a number of developments in Area C of the West Bank, which risk undermining the viability of a future Palestinian state and driving the parties yet further apart," the EU diplomatic service said in a statement.

It referred to Israel's decision on January 25 to declare 154 hectares (380 acres) of land near Jericho in the West Bank as state land, with reported plans to build around 150 new residences for settlers.

This was followed by the demolition of several Palestinian residences in the south Hebron hills on Wednesday.

"This is particularly concerning both because of the extent of the demolitions and also the number of vulnerable individuals affected, including children who need support," the EU said, adding that "demolitions included EU-funded structures."

"We call on the Israeli authorities to reverse the decisions taken and to halt further demolitions," it said.

Foreign ministers from the 28 EU nations had confirmed "the EU's firm opposition to Israel's settlement policy" and criticised the actions including demolitions, confiscation and forced transfers.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday he was "ashamed" at a lack of progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which has been deadlocked since a US peace mission collapsed in April 2014.

"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?
2/7/2016 10:40:40 AM

‘Aggressors to return home in coffins’: Syrian FM warns against foreign ground op

Published time: 6 Feb, 2016 15:12


© Faisal Nasser / Reuters

Any ground operation in Syria, carried out without consent from Damascus, will be viewed as an ‘act of aggression,’ Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem has warned.

"Any ground intervention on Syrian territory without government authorization would amount to aggression that must be resisted," Muallem said, as cited by Reuters.

"Let no one think they can attack Syria or violate its sovereignty because I assure you any aggressor will return to their country in a wooden coffin," the minister said during a press conference in Damascus.

Earlier this week, Saudi Arabia expressed eagerness to deploy its troops on the ground in Syria if the US-led coalition decided such an operation is necessary.

“We believe that aerial operations are not the ideal solution and there must be a twin mix of aerial and ground operations," Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, adviser to the Saudi defense minister, said.

Bahrain’s ambassador to the UK, Sheikh Fawaz bin Mohammed al-Khalifa, said his country is ready to provide its troops to act "in concert with the Saudis," adding the United Arab Emirates was also interested in the Syrian ground operation.

When asked about the Saudi initiative, US State Department spokesman John Kirby stressed the coalition is generally supportive of having partners who contribute more in the fight against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

The US-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against IS in Iraq and Syria since mid-2014.

Over the course of the operation, US President Barack Obama has repeatedly stated there will be no American boots on the ground in Syria. Russia’s Foreign Ministry treated reports of a planned Saudi ground operation in Syria with irony.

“I’m afraid to ask, have they already defeated everybody in Yemen?” Maria Zakharova, the ministry’s spokesman, wondered.

The Saudi-led coalition has been bombing the Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen since March 2015, after they toppled a Sunni government backed by Riyadh.

The operation has been severely criticized by human rights groups for targeting hospitals and other civilian infrastructures.

READ MORE: UN exposes ‘widespread’ Saudi strikes on civilian targets in Yemen, UK arms exports questioned

A leaked UN report blamed at least 119 Saudi-led military missions in Yemen for violations of international law.

"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?
2/7/2016 10:56:07 AM

The mechanics of globalism – Migration as a weapon of war and ethno-engineering

Catherine Shakdam
Catherine Shakdam is a political analyst, writer and commentator for the Middle East with a special focus on radical movements and Yemen. A regular pundit on RT and other networks her work has appeared in major publications: MintPress, the Foreign Policy Journal, Mehr News and many others.Director of Programs at the Shafaqna Institute for Middle Eastern Studies, Catherine is also the co-founder of Veritas Consulting. She is the author of Arabia’s Rising - Under The Banner Of The First Imam
Published time: 3 Feb, 2016 17:02


© Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters

Today, war refugees have become headlines onto themselves. Whether referred to as migrants or asylum seekers by a well-thinking media complex, the semantics of this new crisis nevertheless betrays a very globalist agenda – yet more engineering, yet more manipulation.

With war raging on in the Middle East, millions of people were forced to flee before the advances of terror. Trapped in a conflict which was not of their making, and hunted by armies which have sought only their enslavement and/or annihilation, communities have chosen exile over death, chased out of their lands by the brutality of war. In the face of such human tragedy, Europe opened its borders, inviting in, those who lost everything … or so we were told.

It is this ‘humanitarian’ narrative EU officials have volunteered to both their constituents and the media – this idea that Western nations hold a duty of care and protection over the millions displaced by war.

Indeed, Western powers are responsible. Actually no … their role far exceeds the responsibility since the Mid-East has burnt under their fire. Let us remember which powers in fact engineered and purposely exported destabilization to the MENA over the past decade. From Iraq, to Syria, Libya and Yemen, military pyres have lit up many skies, engulfing all in their wake.

I would argue that Western powers stand guilty of crimes against humanity; responsibility is not strong enough of a word to define what in fact they have inflicted onto several continents.

How many campaigns and interventions will Western capitals have to promote, sell, and invent for the public to recognize that WAR is indeed the driving ambition behind every, and all political agendas? Left, right or centre, most politicians have played to the same tune, only with a different beat.

Europe has opened itself up to human tragedy so that globalists could have at it. The real trick here would be to define this elusive “it”. What is it that the powers that be want with Europe? And more importantly how are refugees fitting in?

I personally refuse to believe that this “refugee crisis” we are seeing play out on our screens can be reduced to simple fear-mongering against Muslims. Yes, Muslims have become Europe’s appointed scapegoats for their faith was made to rhyme with terror, but racism and xenophobia are hardly more than the foot-soldiers of an agenda which speaks of global control, and global re-engineering.

Beyond the human trafficking, the drug connections and the despicable sexual exploitation lies a grand exploitation scheme, where society as a whole is being re-arranged, re-aligned and re-programmed to fit within one system of socio-political and economic governance – notwithstanding the imposition of secular atheism as the new supra-state religion.

A bit much you say? It sounds too outlandish or conspiracy-like for your taste buds you argue?

Consider this: EU officials, Angela Merkel right in the lead, made absolutely sure that war refugees would find their way to Europe’s green landscapes. Actually experts such as Scott Bennett, a former US special op. intelligence officer have long established that refugees were “made to come to Europe” through a clever game of geographical bottle-necking. Ever wondered why Europe’s staunchest allies in the ME refused to open up their borders to offer Jordan and Turkey some relief? Ever wondered why the likes of Saudi Arabia or Egypt for example were not called upon to share in the refugee load given they are geographically connected to this crisis, and could have socially absorbed newcomers since they all share ethno-religious markers?

According to a report by Amnesty International, the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council offered zero formal resettlement slots to Syrians by the end of 2014.

“The missing linkage in this tragic drama is the role of Arab countries, specifically the Gulf countries,” Fadi al-Qadi, a regional human rights expert in Jordan told Time in an interview last September. “These states have invested money, supported political parties and factions, funded with guns, weapons et cetera, and engaged in a larger political discourse around the crisis,” he added.

Europe has been set up. There is no way around it. The real questions we ought to ask is why, and to fit whose agenda. I personally believe globalization to be the culprit. Europe I would argue has been transformed into a giant social Petri dish.
Globalists are re-arranging society, hoping that the overlapping of various ethnicities, traditions and faiths will justify for greater state oversight: i.e. social diktat. We are quite cleverly being programmed for a social, military and economic takeover.

British Prime Minister David Cameron’s recent comments on Muslim women’s alleged “submissiveness” and their role in driving radicalization forward plays into this narrative that all our identities need blending into one “harmonious” lump.

Let’s be clear here, the powers that are looking onto us as if we were corporate assets and products– and we all know how much corporations love individualism.

If we agree to step out of the xenophobic bubble officials stuck us into, we will realize that this new migration wave will actually serve capitalists’ agendas. No mistakes were made; there was no lack of foresight, only manipulation.

As migrant-related violence will breed social outrage and prompt calls for actions on the part of our governments, state institutions will be able to manifest those civil liberties, thinning they would not have otherwise been able to roll out. And then of course there is the little matter of cheap labor and human exploitation: those made destitute will have little say when it comes to their future working conditions … further eroding at those rights we all take for granting.

I’ll let you chew on that for a while.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

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

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