Menu



error This forum is not active, and new posts may not be made in it.
PromoteFacebookTwitter!
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
1/18/2018 5:00:31 PM

Israel said to hit Hezbollah weapons depot near Damascus

The reported attack follows an alleged Israeli airstrike on a Syrian military base last week


Illustrative. An Israeli F-15 fighter jet. (Tsahi Ben-Ami/Flash90)


Israel carried out airstrikes at a military airport near Damascus Tuesday night, possibly hitting a weapons depot belonging to the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, according to unconfirmed Syrian opposition reports.

There was no immediate reaction from official Syrian or Israeli sources.

According to the reports, the airstrikes targeted the Mezzeh Military Airport southwest of Damascus.

Last week the Syrian military said that Israel had conducted airstrikes on a military base in the city of al-Qutayfah, outside Damascus, reportedly on a weapons depot containing long-range missiles.

“We have a longstanding policy to prevent the transfer of game-changing weapons to Hezbollah in Syrian territory. This policy has not changed. We back it up, if necessary, with action,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last Tuesday at an event with NATO officials in Jerusalem.

Senior Israeli ministers and defense officials have reportedly been recently holding high-level talks about the situation in Syria and Lebanon, specifically regarding Iranian entrenchment in the region. Iran is the key backer of Hezbollah.

“The Middle East is raging around us, and what concerns us the most are Iranian efforts to establish military bases in Syria,” Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz told Army Radio last week after being asked about reports that the high-level security cabinet has been holding a series of “extremely significant” meetings on the threats from the northern border.

Last month, Israel allegedly fired missiles at a suspected Iranian base in Syria, reportedly killing 12 Iranian military personnel and destroying several buildings.

A satellite image showing the results of an alleged Israeli airstrike on a reported Iranian base being set up outside Damascus, from December 4, 2017. (ImageSat International ISI)

Israel has been negotiating with the United States and Russia, the main brokers in Syria, to keep Hezbollah and other Iran-backed Shiite militias away from the border.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and others have all said that Israel’s policy is to target shipments of advanced weaponry, including accurate long-range missiles, that are heading to or in the possession of Hezbollah.

Last week, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot said the most serious immediate threat to Israel was posed by Hezbollah, followed by other jihadist groups supported by Tehran positioned on the Syrian border.

Describing Iran as a “multidimensional threat,” the army chief said the most worrying aspect is the Islamic Republic’s desire to obtain nuclear capabilities, followed by its efforts to achieve hegemony in the region.

IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot speaks at a conference at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya on January 2, 2018. (Adi Cohen Zedek)

He noted the over $1 billion that the country invests in its proxies in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and — increasingly — Palestinian terrorist groups in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

According to Eisenkot, each year Iran sends between $700 million and $1 billion to Hezbollah each year, $100 million each to Shiite militias in Syria, Shiite militias in Iraq, rebels in Yemen and to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas terrorist groups.

The army chief did not provide the source for those figures.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

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

+1
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
1/18/2018 5:25:26 PM

Uncle ‘kidnapped, raped niece before hiding her body in freezer,’ court hears

Edited time: 18 Jan, 2018 07:49


@ Celine_Dookhran / Twitter

An “obsessed” man kidnapped, raped and slit his niece’s throat before hiding her body in a freezer, a court has heard. He allegedly decided if he couldn’t have her, “nobody else could.”

A second victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was also kidnapped but managed to survive.

Builder Mujahid Arshid, 33, is accused of taking the women to a £1.5 million (US$2 million) mansion he was working on in Kingston, Surrey, and raping them. He then allegedly slit their throats before dumping their bodies in a freezer, the Old Bailey heard.

Jurors were told that Arshid had become “sexually fixated” with the women, and had resolved to “have them” at all costs.

“Aware that they were having sex with their boyfriends, aware that they were beyond his clutches, he must have resolved that if he could not have them, no one else would,” prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC said as he opened the case, according to the Daily Mail.

It is understood the victim, Celine Dookhran, 20, had moved in with her uncle after falling out with her parents over her relationship with a Libyan Muslim. The woman was of the same religion but from India.

Aylett warned jurors: “The evidence that gives rise to those charges is, I am afraid, simply horrific. You will have to steel yourselves for what is to come.”

The prosecutor went on to describe Arshid’s intentions after abducting the pair.

“Thereafter, and it is as bizarre as it is terrible, he intended to rape them before murdering them and disposing of their bodies.

“He considered either putting them in acid, in order that their bodies might dissolve, or else concealing them in a deep freezer,”Aylett said.

The second victim, 21, was kidnapped with Dookhran, and like her had been raped and had her throat cut. She managed to survive by making her attacker believe they could have a relationship. The victim then called her mother and police flew to the scene, finding the body of Dookhran in the freezer.

It was further alleged that Arshid had already sexually abused his niece as a child.

The court also heard that the defendant knew he could not overpower the two women alone, and therefore summoned his employee Vincent Tappu, 28, a building laborer, to help him carry out his meticulously planned murder plot on July 19.

Jurors were told Tappu played no further part other than helping in the abduction of the girls.

“The two women were taken from the house wrapped in dust sheets, and placed in the boot of the first defendant's pickup truck,” Aylett said.

Arshid, of no fixed address, denies murder, attempted murder, two counts of kidnap, two counts of rape, two counts of conspiracy to falsely imprison another, and possessing a firearm – a Taser – with intent.

Tappu, from Acton in west London, denies two counts of kidnap, two counts of conspiracy to falsely imprison another, and one count of possessing a firearm with intent.



(RT)

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

+1
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
1/18/2018 5:37:07 PM
Windsock

Storms Batter The Netherlands: All Five Dutch Storm Gates Closed For The First Time In History

storm nederland
© Tineke Dijkstra
Strong storm on the Dutch coast. The storm led to high water levels near the shore.
When storm Eleanor was sweeping through Europe in early January, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) issued a code orange weather warning for northwestern provinces due to powerful wind gusts. The storm caused widespread damage and chaos in the Netherlands: Trees crashed down blocking the roads, flights were canceled, and several buildings were damaged.

It also led to high water levels, which moved the Dutch infrastructure agency, Rijkswaterstaat, to simultaneously close all five flood barriers for the first time in history. These storm surge barriers are:
  • The Maeslantkering, a flood barrier on the Nieuwe Waterweg, which closes if the city of Rotterdam is threatened by floods.
  • The Hartelkering, another barrier which lies in the city of Spijkenisse. The last time this gate was closed, was in November 8th, 2007, after a storm hit the Dutch coast.
  • The five-mile-long Oosterscheldekering in the province Zeeland, south-west of the country.
  • The Hollandsche IJsselkering in the province Zuid-Holland, near the city of Rotterdam.
  • The Balgstuw Ramspol, an inflatable rubber dam, which lies between the lakes Ketelmeer and the Zwarte Meer, in the province of Flevoland.

As Rijkswaterstaat tweeted on January 3rd, 2018: "Unique: All our five major storm gates are closing today! That has never happened before. The Maeslantkering and the Hartelkering are the two last gates that will be closed due to the storm and high water levels."

For several hours, wind gusts of approximately 55-63 mph (89-102 km/h) or 'wind force 10' on the Beaufort scale hit the northern Dutch island Vlieland. The strong storm on January 3rd, 2018, was the tenth strongest storm of this century, according to the KNMI. The strongest wind gusts were measured in Vlissingen, 87.6 mph (141 km/h), and Herwijnen, 75.8 mph (122 km/h).

Today, a code orange and a code red weather warning was issued as another storm has made its way to the Netherlands (and Germany), causing wind gusts of up to 80.7 mph (130 km/h) or 'wind force 10', especially along the Dutch coast in the early morning hours, according to Weerplaza. At least three people in the East of the country have been killed due to the storm, and public transport has come to a halt as fallen trees are blocking the rails.

In Den Bosch in the South of the country, wind gusts were so strong that they literally blew people down the street:


Trees were also blown down, giving some Dutch citizens a close call:


High-sided trucks also didn't fare well in the gale force winds (in Germany):


Heavy shipping containers at Rotterdam port were also no match for the gusts:


And a portable toilet was, of course, like a leaf in the wind (hopefully no one was inside)


weerplaza nederland
© Weerplaza
Storms and other extreme climatic and environmental events are likely to become more frequent and more destructive due to the 'Earth Changes' that our planet seems to be undergoing right now. For more information on extreme weather from around the world, check out Sott.net's Earth Change Summaries.
Avatar

Bahar Azizi (Profile)

Originally from Afghanistan, Bahar Azizi lives in Europe, holds an MA in psychology, is an instructor in Éiriú Eolas meditation, and is a keen animal lover. Bahar has been a contributing writer and editor at SOTT.net since 2012 and occasionally co-hosts the 'Behind the Headlines' show on ‌the Sott Radio Network.

(sott.net)


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

+1
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
1/19/2018 9:33:47 AM

Parents of Students at Middle School Concerned After State Survey Asks Children About Their ‘Sexual Orientation,’ ‘Gender Identity’

By on


BOURBON, Mo. — Some parents at a middle school is Missouri have expressed objection after a survey from the state Department of Mental Health asked students about their so-called “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”

The Missouri Student Survey, also known as the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities Survey, is sent to schools every other year to understand the issues that students face, from bullying to drug use to suicide. Children grades 6-12 complete the survey, and are informed that they may leave any questions blank that make them feel uncomfortable.

This year, the survey also asked students about whether they consider themselves to be heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual or “other,” and if they identify as transgender. It stated that the questions were being asked to “better understand the health and healthcare needs of people with different sexual orientations.”

“Do you consider yourself to be transgender? This is when your gender identity (how you feel) is different than how your body is (your anatomy),” one question read in part, and also allowed the answer of “prefer not to respond.”

The questions upset some parents, who spoke with local television station KMOV about the matter.

“It’s inappropriate subject matter for sixth graders to be answering questions on,” said parent Shane Burns.

“To me, anybody asking my 11-year-old daughter if she likes girls or boys and if she [identifies as] transgender, … if it’s not coming from me [as their parent], that’s just perverted,” also remarked parent Courtney West.

Following the controversy, Brian Witt, the principal of Bourbon High School and Middle School, sent a letter to parents to advise that he did not like the questions either, and that he has requested that the Department of Mental Health not ask such questions of his students in the future.

“School districts are not provided with the survey questions prior to giving the survey to students,” he outlined. “This year, there were two questions on sexuality included in the survey. When I was made aware of the questions, I contacted the Department of Mental Health and asked for those questions to be removed from the survey.”

Witt said that the Department agreed to remove the questions from future surveys submitted to his schools.

He also explained that parents will receive prior notice of the survey in the future, and that administrators will “be diligent in a request to review any future survey content from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Missouri Department of Mental Health.”

Read the letter in full by clicking here.

Questions for 6th graders on drug use and sexual orientation outrage parents
02:08
Questions for 6th graders on drug use and sexual orientation outrage parents

KMOV.com


(christiannews.net)

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

+1
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
1/19/2018 9:52:46 AM
USA

Praise the Lord! Freedom House Says Trump "Abdicating" US Role as Worldwide Democracy Promoter

Trump thumbup
© CNN
The orange-faced duck-haired God-Emperor of the United States doesn't get much good press. In fact, even his good press tends to be bad press, except when it's coming from places like Breitbart and Fox. But sometimes even the most 'eminent' and 'respectable' sources can't help but pay Trump an unintentional compliment. The neocon-infested, U.S.-government-backed NGO Freedom House released a report today with attention-grabbing conclusions that would make Chicken Little die in a fit of acrobatic hysterics.

According to Freedom House, democracy is "under assault and retreating" around the world. The U.S. is "abdicating" its "traditional role" of acting as galactic champion of "democratic ideals". The Demon-Spawn Nations of Russia and China are "increasing repression" and exporting their "malign influence" abroad. Indeed, this is democracy's "most serious crisis in decades"; basic democratic tenets are "under siege" across the world, according to Freedom House President, Michael Abramowitz. The gates of hell have been opened, Satan has appeared, and he looks a lot like Xi, Putin and Trump.

The great bastion of CIA-sourced freedom and democracy, RFE/RL, reports:
"A major development of 2017 was the retreat of the United States as both a champion and an exemplar of democracy," the report says. Freedom House ... says it has "tracked a slow decline in political rights and civil liberties in the United States for the past seven years." But it says that "the decline accelerated in 2017, owing to evidence of Russian interferences in the 2016 elections, violations of basic ethical standards" by President Donald Trump's administration, and "a reduction in government transparency."

The report says that "the press and the judiciary have remained resilient in the face of unprecedented attacks from President Trump." But it warns that those institutions ultimately could be weakened by Trump's attacks, "with serious implications for the health of U.S. democracy and America's place in the world."

Abramowitz said, "the core institutions of American democracy are being battered by an administration that has treated the country's traditional checks and balances with disdain."
I can't say they're entirely wrong. But I harbor a strong suspicion that if Hillary Clinton were president, they would've gone lightly on their criticism of U.S. democracy. The fact is, the U.S. abandoned its so-called democratic ideals many years ago, more than the "7 years" cited in the report at least. Judge Napolitano, on his last episode of "Freedom Watch" on Fox Business, wasn't far off the mark:

That was back at the beginning of 2012, six years ago, presumably only one year after American political and civil liberties started to decline. Does anyone else find it fairly remarkable how a nation can go from "champion and exemplar of democracy" to total ****-show in just one year...? But Freedom House doesn't want you to focus on Obama (or Bush and Clinton, for that matter). No, the decline took a marked turn only last year, apparently. Considering the things Napolitano said in 2012, which only scratched the surface of how far America has fallen, you'd think things must have gotten pretty bad, like Gestapo-death-camp-babies-in-incubators bad. What horrors has Trump wrought on the American body politic? His administration is unethical, lacks transparency, and... Russia!

Give me a break! Two of those items are standard operating procedure, and have been for generations. And the third is a delusional fantasy dreamed up by mentally-deranged losers. Actually, the very fact that that third item made the list makes me question the first two. Given that there is absolutely no freaking evidence of Russian meddling, the bar can't have been too high for ethics and transparency violations. But coming back to the report, let's take a look at what else Russia and its evil Commie neighbor have been up to:
Meanwhile, Freedom House says, "autocratic regimes" in Russia and China have "taken advantage of the retreat of leading democracies" and are "acting beyond their borders to squelch open debate, pursue dissidents, and compromise rules-based institutions."

Abramowitz says the Trump administration's "sharp break from the political consensus of the last 70 years" has cast aside democracy as the "animating force behind American foreign policy."

He said Trump's "hastening withdrawal" from the historical U.S. commitment to supporting democracies abroad has made "the challenge posed by authoritarian regimes all the more powerful and threatening."

The report says Russian President Vladimir Putin's government has "demonstrated the increasing sophistication and reach of modern authoritarian regimes" by "organizing disinformation campaigns during elections in European democracies" and cultivating ties with "xenophobic political parties across the continent," threatening its closest neighbors, and serving as "an alternative source of military aid for Middle Eastern dictatorships."

"The central goal of these efforts was to disrupt democratic states and fracture the institutions that bind them together."
So much stupid, it hurts. Russia and China are only "autocratic" because they're not American-backed autocracies. The U.S. loves them some dictators, as long as they're "our" dictators. And compared to some of American's finest democratic exports, Russia and China are veritable democratic utopias. The U.S. has the longest and most successful record of "squelching open debate", "pursuing dissidents" and "compromising rules-based institutions" in countries all over the world. Russia and China haven't taken advantage of "democratic retreat"; they've taken advantage of the fact that the U.S. is in the process of losing pretty much every vestige of international credibility. Every country with the privilege of having been gifted with American freedom and democracy over the past 17 years is a ****hole, bombed out, sucked dry, drenched in blood, and overrun with sadistic death squads.

It can be frustrating to read such Freedom House drivel, until you realize that what they mean by democracy isn't what people like you and me think of as democracy. The "political consensus" of the last 70 years is simply this: "The U.S. on top, and f*** the rest of you." Democratically-elected leader the U.S. doesn't like? Kill him. The threat of some resource-rich country going Commie? Arm some death squads and kill them. Some country standing up for its own sovereignty and rejecting U.S. demands? Say they've got WMDs, load up the bombers, and kill them. Or just sanction them and (hopefully) watch them die a slow death.

Russia and China's stand for national sovereignty (which is what Freedom House et al are really moaning about) has been promoting open debate and empowering dissidents globally by providing an outlet for those alternative voices that Western media ignores and censors. All the while, Russia and China have been desperately lobbying for a real rules-based system, otherwise known as international law. The only reason Russia is charged with "election-meddling" is because ordinary people are sick and tired of the "political consensus" status quo. Because that status quo will not give airtime to their opinions - and Russian media does to some degree - it must be Russia's fault that they feel the way they do. But it's not. It's the fault of the Western establishment for screwing things up so badly that their own people are sick of it.

For 70 years, the U.S. has exported its own brand of "malign influence" throughout the world. Its "animating force" has been the barrel of a gun, or a sharp blade held to the throat. But nations like Russia and China, who know a thing or two about the reality of this kind of freedom and democracy (just look at Russia during the 90s), have gotten smart. They are indeed demonstrating "increasing sophistication and reach", simply by telling the truth. Russia hasn't meddled in European elections. They have not "cultivated ties with xenophobes" or threatened their neighbors. That's the U.S.'s M.O., as well as their allies'. Just look at Ukraine, a country overrun with neo-Nazis who torture and kill people for "sympathizing" with Russia.

Against the threat of real Soviet-like totalitarianism (which threatens the U.S. itself more so than it does Russia), the best solution is not traditional U.S. meddling and military invasion; it is what Trump proposed in his presidential inauguration speech:
We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to follow.
And if the U.S. can't live up to its own example, it certainly has no business messing with other countries' business. Full stop. If Russia and China want to expand their influence by making win-win deals with other nations, that is infinitely better than zero-sum American democracy. Meanwhile, even though Trump has the right idea, the "freedom bombers" still refuse to give up their claim to world democracy-domination. See Joe Quinn's Obnoxious, Arrogant, Imperial America in Syria. These people are really determined to watch the world burn.

Still, according to Freedom House, Trump's administration had made a "sharp break" from this "political consensus" of cluster-bombing nations into a state of terminal freedom and democracy, preventing said nations' own democratic will from taking shape, and ensuring any so-called democracy takes the form of U.S. vassalage. And that is the highest of compliments. Freedom House can feel free to cry itself to sleep. If Trump were actually able to put an end to the U.S.'s self-defined role as democracy-promoter world wide, the world could breathe a sigh of relief.
Avatar

Harrison Koehli (Profile)

Harrison Koehli co-hosts SOTT Radio Network's Truth Perspective and Behind the Headlines, and is an editor for Red Pill Press. He has been interviewed on several North American radio shows about his writings on the study of ponerology. In addition to music and books, Harrison enjoys tobacco and bacon (often at the same time) and dislikes cell phones, vegetables, and fascists.

(sott.net)


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

+1


facebook
Like us on Facebook!