Steve Jackson’s Illuminati: The Game of Conspiracy was originally released in 1982, and many believe the game has already predicted major events that have come to pass, including: the 9/11 attacks, Princess Diana’s death, and the Japanese tsunami.

Worryingly, the game predicts that we are about to experience an “imminent” nuclear attack that will spark the beginning of World War 3.

The image below was drawn on a card taken from the 1990s board game showing what appears to be an eerie representation of the 9/11 terror attacks – years before it actually occurred.

The Illuminati – most famously featured in Dan Brown’s novels – is an alleged secret group made up of the world’s elite who conspiracy theorists claim are plotting to introduce a “new world order” which will give them total control over all of us.

The fact that a game about such a shady society appears to have predicted the world’s worst terror strike has given conspiracy theorists more fuel than they could have ever dreamed of.

One theory regularly touted by conspiracy theorists – known as 9/11 truthers – is that the atrocity was actually orchestrated by the Illuminati through US intelligence services to garner support for the series of wars which then unfolded in the Middle East.

The card in question, printed in 1995, looks strikingly similar to images of the 9/11 attacks in New York that spread across the globe, with an explosion ripping through the middle of one of the buildings.

About 3,000 people died after a series of al-Qaeda terror attacks on US soil on September 11, 2001.

Two hijacked passenger jets were deliberately flown into both towers of the World Trade Centre in Manhattan causing them to collapse onto the city below.

Where the “prediction” falls down is there is no mention of planes being used and the card itself is described as the “Terrorist Nuke” card.

The top of the building is also tipping to the right, suggesting it could be about to collapse.

Another card called “Pentagon” shows the US defence HQ burning.

The Pentagon was also targeted the same day, suffering serious damage after a commercial plane was flown into its side.

But one conspiracy theory is that the planes were a decoy and the twin towers were actually blown up with a pre-planted nuclear device.

A new article about the cards was published by www.cuttingedge.org, a website which says it gives “spiritual insights into the New World Order”.

The author of the piece wrote: “How in the world did Steve Jackson know that the Twin Towers were going to be attacked?

“This card accurately depicted the World Trade Center attack in great detail.

“The card accurately depicts that the place of impact is some distance from the top of the twin towers.

“The caption at the top properly identifies the perpetrators of the attack as “terrorists”

“The Twin Towers were not destroyed by a terrorist nuclear device, or were they?

“Was a micro-nuclear device used at the base of the Twin Towers?

“That kind of small, but nuclear, explosion would account for the sudden manner the reinforced concrete and steel shell simply crumbled into dust as it fell.”

Turning to the Pentagon card, he added: “When I saw this card, immediately after seeing the Twin Tower picture, my blood froze! Unless one had advanced knowledge of the Illuminati Plan, there is no way on earth that they would have been able to create pictures in 1995 that accurately depict the unfolding events of 9/11.”

Some claim that Mr Jackson somehow obtained a copy of the Illuminate’s master plan and used the roleplaying industry to leak it to the world.

This theory is further fuelled by the fact the US secret service DID raid his business address before the game was released.

The cutting edge report added: “He got a surprise visit from the Secret Service, who tried their best to shut him down and prevent him from publishing his game.”

According to Mr Jackson’s website, a large amount of equipment was seized, including four computers, two laser printers, hard disks and hardware.

The investigation was into suspected “fraud” in connection with alleged hacking.

But a judge threw out the case and awarded Steve Jackson Games $50,000 plus $250,000 costs.

So what is predicted next?

If you believe all this stuff, then worryingly it is World War III.

The “World War III” card gives players the chance to unleash another global conflict to usher in a New World Order, which is also featured on it.

A large drawing of a mushroom cloud – suggesting a third global war will be nuclear – takes up most of the card.

Hopefully this is not a stark prediction of what is in store.

Another card warns of a huge asteroid strike.

The last two cards predict the rise of the anti-Christ, followed by the Rapture.

(yournewswire.com/)

Pepe Escobar

So now Iran is back to being demonized by the West as “provocative” and “destabilizing”. How come? Wasn’t the nuclear deal supposed to have brought Iran back to the Western-concocted “concert of nations”?

Iran will once again be discussed at the UN Security Council. The reason: recent ballistic missile tests, which according to the West, are “capable of delivering nuclear weapons” – an alleged violation of the 2015 UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

© AP PHOTO/ MEHR NEWS AGENCY, MAJID ASGARIPOUR

No Reason to Raise Question of Iran's Ballistic Missiles in UN Sec. Council

This is bogus. Tehran did test-launch ballistic missiles in early March. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei stressed missiles were key to Iran's future defense. Ballistic missiles have nothing to do with Iran’s nuclear program; and yet Washington kept bringing it to the table during the manufactured nuclear crisis.

Russia knows it, of course. The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control, Mikhail Ulyanov, once again had to go on the record saying the ballistic missile tests did not breach the UNSC resolution.

What else is new? Nothing. Washington will keep pressure on Tehran for a fundamental reason; the US did not get the natural gas commitments they were expecting after the nuclear deal. Iran privileges selling natural gas to Asian – and European – customers. Eurasian integration is the key.

South US Sea, anyone?

Pressure also runs unabated over China related to the South China Sea. Beijing is not exactly worried. As much as Washington and Tokyo ratchet it up, Beijing increases its footprint in the Paracels and the Spratlys. The meat of the matter though is further south.

For China, the key is non-stop smooth trade and energy flows through a maritime highway that happens to contain crucial choke points. These choke points – most of all the Malacca Strait – are supervised by Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

© AP PHOTO/ XINHUA, GAN JUN

Fueling Tensions: Washington ‘Anxious’ Over China’s Presence in South China Sea Shoal

There’s absolutely no incentive for Indonesia to confront China. And Beijing for its part characterizes Jakarta as a peacemaking power. What matters for Jakarta is actually to boost maritime trade ties with Beijing. Same for Kuala Lumpur – even if Malaysia and China do have their not exactly apocalyptic South China Sea quarrels.

The (rhetorical) pattern from Washington spells out the usual, well, torrent of words. But what is the Empire of Chaos to do? A naval takeover of the South China Sea? Order Indonesia and Malaysia not to further improve their own – mutually beneficial — economic ties with Beijing?

Let’s keep rotating

Then there’s NATO. Many a key player across the Beltway is absolutely fed up with turbulent “NATO ally” Sultan Erdogan. Yet the impression is being created – by the Masters of the Universe lording over the lame duck Obama administration – that they are turning to Turkey to reinforce an already anti-Russian NATO, with the whole process covered up in “terrorist” rhetoric. The fact that Ankara is for all practical purposes blackmailing the EU is dismissed as irrelevant. This is a classic misdirection policy.

Yet it’s still unclear how “NATO ally” Turkey will keep acting in Syria, considering that Washington and Moscow may – and the operative word is “may” — have struck a grand bargain.

© AFP 2016/ PETRAS MALUKAS

Looking Past Obama: Pentagon to Boost Military Presence in Europe

This does not mean that the pressure over Russia will be relaxed any time soon. The Pentagon announced it will be spending $3.4 billion on deploying hardware and hundreds of “rotating” US troops to Eastern Europe to counter – what else – “Russian aggression”. This after the Pentagon announced it will quadruple the funds for the so-called European Reassurance Initiative in fiscal year 2017, pending Congress approval, which is all but inevitable.

Moscow is not exactly worried. The US brigade will have about 4,500 troops. Then there will be a few Bradley fighting vehicles, Humvees,
Paladin self-propelled howitzers and perhaps, by 2017, a Stryker brigade. No air force. Perhaps the odd Warthog. This is basically window dressing to appease hysterical Baltic vassals.

Now let’s sing Under Pressure

Pressure over Iran. Pressure over China. Pressure over Russia – which included the (failed) plot to destroy the Russian economy using the oil production of the GCC petrodollar gang even if that would mean the destruction of the US oil industry, against US national interests.

Syria has graphically demonstrated Russian military capabilities to the real rulers of the Empire of Chaos – and that has left them dazed and confused. Up to the Syrian campaign, the whole focus was on China, especially Chinese missiles that could hit US guidance satellites for ICBMs and cruise missiles, as well as Chinese ability to shoot down an incoming foe traveling at a speed faster than an ICBM. A silent Chinese submarine surfacing undetected next to American aircraft carriers compounded the shock.

Now the Masters have realized the Pentagon is even more incapacitated compared to Russia. So Russia, and not China, is now the top “existential threat”.

© AP PHOTO/ MINDAUGAS KULBIS

Obsolete Alliance: Why It is Time for US to Withdraw From NATO

Certainly if Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, not to mention France and the UK had any idea how far behind the Russians the US really is, then NATO might collapse for good, and the entire “West” would eventually shift away from Empire of Chaos hegemony. And if that was not dramatic enough, reality TV entertainer Donald Trump is emitting signs that the US should disassociate itself from NATO – imagine it dissolving under Trump rule, in parallel to the implosion/disintegration of the EU.

It may be enlightening to go back to what happened nine years ago, at the Munich security conference. Vladimir Putin already could see it coming, if not in detail at least conceptually. The inevitable geo-economic expansion of China via the One Belt, One Road (OBOR), the official denomination of the New Silk Roads – which are bound to unify Eurasia. The steady progress of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), evolving from a sort of Asian economic/trade community towards a sort of Asian NATO as well. The success of the “4+1” coalition in Syria should be read as a precursor to the SCO’s increased international role.

What’s left for the Empire of Chaos in the Eurasian front is the wishful thinking of attempting to encircle both Russia and China, while both keep actually expanding all across the Eurasian Heartland, shedding US dollars and buying gold, signing a flurry of contracts in yuan and selling oil and gas to all and sundry. Under Pressure? Well, call it a song by Queen and David Bowie; It's the terror of knowing/What this world is about/Watching some good friends/Screaming, "Let me out!"

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do notnecessarily reflect the official position of Sputnik.

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — A veteran Miami police officer with two decades of experience dealing with the media and community leaders will take over as police chief in Ferguson, hoping to help the St. Louis suburb heal as it rebounds after the fatal 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown.

Miami Police Maj. Delrish Moss was announced as chief Thursday, putting a black man in charge of a mostly white department that serves a town where African-Americans make up two-thirds of the residents.

"This has been a long and strenuous process, but we believe Major Moss is the right choice," Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III said in a statement. "We understand the past 18 months have not been easy for everyone, but the City is now moving forward and we are excited to have Major Moss lead our police department."

The 18-year-old Brown, who was black and unarmed, was fatally shot by white officer Darren Wilson during a street confrontation on Aug. 9, 2014. The shooting prompted months of unrest that sometimes grew violent and helped spark the national Black Lives Matter movement.

A St. Louis County grand jury and the U.S. Department of Justice declined to indict Wilson, who resigned in November 2014. But the Justice Department issued a critical report of Ferguson in March 2015, citing racial bias in policing and a municipal court system that made money at poor and minority residents' expense.

Ferguson's city manager, municipal judge and Police Chief Tom Jackson all resigned within days of the report. The Ferguson City Council just two weeks ago agreed to a settlement with the Justice Department that calls for major reforms in the city's criminal justice system.

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In this Jan. 18, 2008 photo, Miami police officer Delrish Moss, right, talks with Chief Adam Burden …

Moss said Thursday in a telephone interview he looks forward to working with all segments of the Ferguson community and also hopes to diversify the department.

"The police department should be much more reflective of the community it serves. ... I certainly plan to hire more people of color, more women," Moss said. "I'd like to hire people from Ferguson who are actually committed to what happens there."

A news release from the city of Ferguson said City Manager De'Carlon Seewood made the final decision to select Moss.

"Our officers have worked extremely hard to implement community policing and community engagement in their daily practices," Seewood said in the release. "Mr. Moss is the right man for the job to continue those initiatives."

Moss, 51, grew up in Miami's inner-city Overtown neighborhood and as a teenager lived through rioting after white police officers fatally beat a black motorcyclist in 1980.

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In this Aug. 9, 2006 photo, Miami police officer Delrish Moss, helps David Jenkins into the van in M …

He also said he was mistreated by two police officers when he was a young teenager in Miami. He said he was about 14 and walking home from an after-school job cleaning a bank when an officer pushed him against a wall, frisked him, searched his belongings "and no sooner than he arrived he left," Moss said. He said the encounter left him "scared and embarrassed" and is among the reasons he became a police officer.

"He did nothing in that encounter to restore my dignity, or explain why he had treated me that way," Moss said.

He joined Miami police in 1984, steadily rising through the ranks. He worked for a time in the homicide unit, according to his LinkedIn page, before taking over media and community relations 20 years ago.

The job entails handling the city's media and working with community leaders, particularly in high-crime areas such as the Liberty City neighborhood, according to the department.

He was among 54 candidates for the top police job in Ferguson, a St. Louis County town of about 20,000 residents. Other finalists were Frank McCall Jr., chief of nearby Berkeley, Missouri; Mark Becker, a former FBI agent who recently resigned as police chief in East Chicago, Indiana; and Brenda Jones, who was fired as police chief in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, in 2013 but won a lawsuit alleging race and gender discrimination.

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In this June 11, 1999, photo, Miami police officer Delrish Moss, poses for a photo in Miami. Moss wa …

Moss was named to Miami Police Chief John Timoney's executive staff in 2009 and promoted to major two years later. The Miami Herald reported his office is filled with plaques of appreciation from city leaders, activists and church elders. He is a member of the NAACP and president of the Police Athletic League, which works with young athletes.

Moss was scheduled to retire from the Miami department in September.

Andre Anderson, a black veteran of the police department in Glendale, Arizona, took over as six-month interim chief in Ferguson in July, and was expected to be a candidate for the permanent job. But he resigned early, leaving Dec. 2. He cited a desire to return to his family in Arizona.

Ferguson's leadership was mostly white at the time of Brown's death. But the new city manager, municipal judge and police chief are all black men. The city has also begun an effort to recruit more black officers to its department.

Moss, who's expected to begin work in early May, also said he would like to meet with Brown's family.

"I want to hear their story. ... I think that will remind me of the task at hand," he said.

___

Associated Press writer Maria Sudekum in Kansas City, Missouri, and AP researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report. Anderson reported from Miami.

North Korea fired another short-range missile off its east coast on Friday, South Korean officials said, as regional leaders met in Washington to discuss the threat of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme.

It was the latest in a series of North Korean missile launches during what has been an extended period of elevated military tension on the Korean peninsula, triggered by Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test on January 6.

The launch came as the South Korean coastguard reported that around 70 fishing vessels had been forced back to port after GPS navigation issues caused by North Korean radio-wave jamming.

South Korea's defence ministry said the surface-to-air missile was fired at around 12:45 pm (0345 GMT) from the eastern city of Sondok.

The range and precise trajectory could not immediately be confirmed, a ministry official said. The South's Yonhap news agency said it flew 100 kilometres (60 miles) into the East Sea (Sea of Japan).

The launch came in the middle of a two-day nuclear security summit being hosted by Barack Obama in Washington, at which North Korea has been the focus of the US president's talks with the leaders of China, South Korea and Japan.

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A public TV screen shows file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a railway station in Seoul …

Obama spoke Thursday of the need to "vigilantly enforce the strong UN security measures" imposed on the North after its latest nuclear test and subsequent long-range rocket launch.

Pyongyang's state media has labelled the summit a "nonsensical" effort to find fault with the North's "legitimate access to nuclear weapons".

Existing UN sanctions ban North Korea from conducting any ballistic missile test, although short-range launches tend to go unpunished.

Last month, the North upped the ante by test-firing two medium-range missiles, which were seen as far more provocative given the threat they pose to neighbours like Japan.

Earlier Friday, Seoul said North Korea was using radio waves to jam GPS signals in South Korea, affecting scores of planes and vessels.

The coastguard said 71 out of 332 fishing boats that set out for sea on Friday morning had to return after GPS problems compromised their navigation systems, Yonhap reported.

"North Korea's GPS jamming is a clear act of provocation... we call for an immediate end to it," the South's defence ministry said in a statement.

"If North Korea continues its GPS jamming attempts despite our we will -- with close cooperation with the international community -- make North Korea pay the price," the statement said without elaborating.