By Chet Bowen | December 10, 2008 - 9:07 pm - Posted in Islam, Religion, Survival, The world, Uncategorized
Saudi Arabia’s top cleric has used his annual sermon to Muslim pilgrims assembling for hajj to urge Muslim countries to renounce capitalism and form an Islamic economic bloc that adopts interest-free finance.

Grand Mufti Abdelaziz Al al-Sheikh told worshippers assembling on the plain of Mount Arafat that global economies now caught in crisis were suffering the result of using interest as a bedrock of their financial systems. Under Islamic law, or sharia, paying or receiving interest is forbidden.

The crisis, he said, demonstrated that “Muslim countries must have sharia-compliant economies and unite to become a formidable economic power”.

Islamic banks, which grew rapidly in the Gulf region in recent years from an influx of oil receipts, often depend on retail deposits rather than money markets for funding. As a result, sharia-compliant banks generally demand strong collateral, which some argue is why their exposure to toxic loans is limited.

The white-bearded mufti, wearing the traditional white robes of the pilgrim, also warned young Muslims to stay away from the corrupting influences of the modern media, which he termed “ideological terror” and said was targeting them.

The mufti’s economic edicts are meant to serve more for spiritual guidance, and commenting on a global economic phenomenon is a rare event.

Some pilgrims said that they would pray for an end to the global financial crisis.

Mohammad Fateh, who works for a brokerage in Egypt, told Reuters: “The economic crisis is on the mind of most pilgrims. They are going to pray to God to alleviate the problem…It’s an unexpected crisis and the only solution is mercy from heaven.

“The Arab and Muslim worlds are going to be affected by this crisis. I’ll pray to God to lift this scourge,” he said, adding that many had asked him to offer prayers on their behalf.

The hajj retraces the path of the Prophet Mohammed 14 centuries ago after he removed pagan idols from Mecca, his birthplace, and years after he started calling people to the new faith, now embraced by more than 1bn people worldwide.

At Arafat, Muslims pray for forgiveness and for their own and fellow Muslims’ welfare.

After sunset, the pilgrims were scheduled to continue their gradual trip toward Mecca, heading for Muzdalifa to gather pebbles for the symbolic ritual of throwing stones at a set of pillars and walls representing the devil.

Saudi media said this year a record 1.72m hajj visas had been granted to Muslims abroad and at least 500,000 local people had received permits.

This year’s hajj has so far not faced any of the problems or disasters that have marred the event in previous years, which included fires, hotel collapses, police clashes with protesters and deadly stampedes caused by overcrowding.

Saudi Arabian authorities have carried out renovations over the past year in an effort to ease the flow of pilgrims inside the Grand Mosque and at the disaster-prone Jamarat bridge. In January 2006, 362 people were crushed to death there in the worst hajj tragedy since 1990.

By Chet Bowen | December 3, 2008 - 2:59 am - Posted in Islam, Religion, Survival, The world, Uncategorized
Once again we have witnessed an Islamic terrorist attack incited and justified through appeals to Islam by its perpetrators. On one level it is understandable why so many in the West are unwilling or unable to connect the militant ideology of political Islam to the thousands of Islamic terror attacks that have been committed worldwide since 9/11. We extol the virtues of tolerance and pluralism and believe others in the world do so as well, so it is easy to dismiss such attacks as the work of a few “extremists,” rather than the product of adherence to an ideology.

The fatal flaw in this thinking is this: How can we successfully win a war on Islamic terrorism if we don’t correctly define the threat doctrine that motivates its adherents?

It is argued that most of the world’s Muslims are not terrorists. While true, this fact is irrelevant. Most of the world’s Muslims have never read the Qur’an or the Hadith in a language they can understand. They have not read the hundreds of passages that call for jihad against infidels, nor do they renounce such passages. They do not organize en masse to denounce the terrorist acts perpetrated by other Muslims in the name of Islam, nor do they denounce the frequent exhortations to world subjugation found in the holy books of Islam.

Yes, there are Muslims who have denounced the Mumbai attacks. But examine their denunciations closely and you will be hard-pressed to find renunciations of the supremacist doctrine of political Islam — the foundation for jihad — which emanates from its holy books. This is the justification commonly cited by terrorists for their actions. We in the West must come to grips with the uncomfortable fact that terrorism is a symptom of this militant, supremacist ideology. Terrorism is a means to an end, not an end in itself. And it is but one of many means used by those who are devoted to the supremacist ideology of political Islam.



Religious head incited killers

Bruce Loudon, South Asia correspondent | December 01, 2008

Article from: The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24731818-2703,00.html

THE al-Qa’ida-linked Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists suspected over the Mumbai massacre were trained in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, and were incited by speeches from their leader in Lahore.

As the sole surviving terrorist was interrogated in Mumbai, security sources told The Australian that 10 terrorists were picked by LET for the suicide mission.

They were ordered to “kill until your last breath” and murder up to 5000 people.

They did so after provocative speeches by Hafiz Mohammed Saeed last month in Lahore, capital of the Punjab.

Saeed, described as LET’s supreme religious and political head, declared in one speech: “The only language India understands is that of force, and that is the language it must be talked to in.”

The email claiming responsibility for the Mumbai attack minutes after it started last Wednesday was generated on a computer based in Pakistan.

And a satellite telephone captured from the terrorists revealed calls made to numbers in Pakistan during the attacks, reports said.

Officials said the terrorists’ route to Mumbai had been recorded on GPS co-ordinates contained in the satellite phones.

Sources said the 10 terrorists — most of whom were believed to be Pakistanis — were ordered to undergo training to attack Mumbai.

The captured gunman, Ajmal Amir Kamal, 21, reportedly told intelligence sources the group had trained openly in Muzaffarabad before heading to the nearby Mangala dam for lessons in marine commando techniques.

The group then visited Rawalpindi, which adjoins Islamabad, the Pakistan capital and site of the Pakistan army headquarters.

From there, the group took a train to the port city of Karachi, where, heavily armed, they boarded a freighter for the trip to Mumbai. Along the way, they became nervous about Indian coastguard activity and almost aborted the mission.

They “dragooned” a less conspicuous, passing fishing boat into service, shooting dead four of its crew members. The skipper of the fishing boat and another crew member took them closer to Mumbai before they, too, were killed. One was decapitated and the other had his throat slit.

Close to shore, they transferred to small speedboats for the run into the two landing points they had selected in Mumbai – Sassoon Docks and Badhwar Park, on Cuff Parade.

Conflicting evidence obtained by intelligence agencies suggests that the group may have had local support, and that one or more of its members may have been staying locally, possibly even in the Taj Mahal hotel.

A British link to the attacks was raised over the weekend when a senior Indian official claimed that Britons were among the militants.

Vilasrao Deshmukh, the chief minister of Maharashtra state, in which Mumbai lies, was quoted on an Indian television station as saying that British citizens had been detained.

British MP Patrick Mercer, a former Tory security spokesman, said he had been given information that at least two of the terrorists had credit cards and other identifying documents that linked them to Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, in northeast England.

The claims, however, were not substantiated by official British sources, who said there was no evidence “at this stage” that Britons had taken part in the attacks, although they acknowledged that events were “moving fast” and more information was emerging about the nationality of the terrorists.

MI5 and British counter-terrorist police are keeping in close touch with their counterparts in India and are alert to the possibility that Britons with Pakistani origins might have been involved. Significant numbers of young British Pakistanis have taken part in terrorist training in Pakistan.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that there was no evidence of Britons being involved, and the Foreign Secretary David Miliband said: “We obviously will want to work very closely with the Indians but it is too early to say whether or not any of them are British.”

Malaysian police are investigating reports that Malaysian-issued credit cards were found in the belongings of the terrorists involved in the Mumbai attacks.

Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Malaysia had no links with the terrorists, responding to an Indian report that nine of the gunmen claimed to be Malaysian students when they travelled to Mumbai several months ago.

Terror analyst Praveen Swami said that at a meeting of key LET leaders in Lahore on October 19, LET leader Saeed, who insists he is only head of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa welfare organisation, made plain his view of Pakistan’s neighbour.

“India, he claimed, was building dams in (Indian-controlled) Jammu and Kashmir to choke Pakistan’s water supplies and cripple its agriculture,” Mr Swami reported Saeed as saying.

“Earlier, in an October 6 speech, Saeed claimed that India had ‘made a deal with the United States to send 150,000 Indian troops to Afghanistan’ and that it agreed to support the US in its existential war against Islam.

“Finally, in a sermon to a congregation at the Jamia Masjid al-Qudsia (mosque) in Lahore at the end of October, Saeed proclaimed that there was an ‘ongoing war in the world between Islam and its enemies’.

“He claimed that ‘crusaders of the East and West have united in a cohesive onslaught against Muslims’.”

Chet Bowen

By Chet Bowen | November 24, 2008 - 11:55 pm - Posted in Islam, Religion, Survival, The world, Uncategorized

War News Update: What In The World?

By Mark Harvey Sunday, November 23, 2008

I haven’t done a War News Update in quite a while due to the fervor of the elections quagmire but now that it is almost over, I will begin these updates at least once a week. I do have nearly 700+ dispatches saved up so expect a flurry of data that the media cannot reveal. Seeing that this is Victory In Iraq Day (VI-Day), let us begin with some information that has been widely ignored b y the Defeatocrats and those responsible for the war going as long as it has.

The first order of business will be a report from GrEaT sAtAn’S gIrLfRiEnD with the Military Advisors Manual. This report reveals what I have been espousing for quite some time seeing that I have some experience in this area. It is a worthy report and I agree with it entirely. General David Petraeus is a genius and it is too bad that politics got in the way of his ability to win this war earlier. If his ideas and concepts had been implemented sooner, perhaps the traitors and subversives would have been put in their proper places…in prison. Then again, the folks that could have done that are too cowardly to actually enforce current law.

CIA: Every Major Terror Threat, World Wide, Involves Pakistan

This has been known for quite some time but it wasn’t politically expedient to make it known. I am sure Czarbie would know something about this seeing that he did spend quite some time in Pakistan before he had threatened to bomb the hell out of Pakistan during his illegal campaign. Illegal campaign? Yes, that is what I said…the fool isn’t a US citizen but that won’t stop the enemies of the US from the coronation of the impostor.

Other posts I have done involve the Global Cultural Jihad. England is experiencing this and the United States is on track for Shar’ia Law by 2050. I suppose the Democrats will realize this when they are the first to be put to death by the sword of allah. In accordance with Shar’is Law, the ungodly will die first. The fools that have been “upset” by Prop 8 in California will be the most surprised.

In spite of the alleged Obama victory, Iran has decided not to honor their original “promises”. They will continue their Hate America mantra. They are also going to have a meeting. This isn’t a big surprise to me seeing that I still have difficulty differentiating the basic democrat party leader from the terrorists and their leaders…they speak the same language – America Sucks.

Steven J. Rosen has a piece up at the American Thinker published on 11/16 entitled, ”Did Iran Offer a ‘Grand Bargain’ in 2003?” Without getting into the details here at this time, we all know where this is going and from where it came. We also know that the premise was born in the bowels of the morons that have prolonged this war for the sake of political expediency and power. It was a farce and a lie then and it is even more so now. Rosen explains it in detail and I have the background of all that nonsense stored right here…have fun.

It is said that OBL is still alive and his busily farming out details of more attacks now that the week-kneed and thin-skinned coward Obama has theoretically won the election. They, the terrorists, know that Czarbie will do nothging to defend this Nation so their plots and plans will move forward in the hopes to reverse their losses in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraqw as well as just about everywhere else.

Vindication. It smells and tastes oh so sweet. For those of you that know me, you will know and remember that I have said this for years: CIA Agent Confirms Al-Qaeda Was In Iraq In 2002. Remember? This is one of the many areas that I have major issues with President Bush. It wasn’t politically expedient to make this known. Why? I have no idea. I do know that the war was prolonged because of it. I also know for a fact that the ones that made hay-day over President Bush being silent on this FACT also knew the data was factual but utilized the silence to further their cause of political power. They also rendered aid and comfort to the enemy during that process. Did I not make it widely known that we “watched them flee Afghanistan and flee to the Four Winds”? Yes, I did. I will stress this once again. We watched the enemy flee Afghanistan to Pakistan, Iran and Iraq. We stopped them in Tajikistan. Flopping Aces has more. However, neither Gateway Pundit, Flopping Aces or CQ Politics has what I have in my head and heart. They were not there. I was. Like I said. Vindication is sweet. Eat that you libtard morons. The libtards can also eat their BS about the WMD deal as well.

In other news, Stealth Jihad? It seems as though the Jihad is using the List of 45. Interesting that. Please note that I didn’t say “surprising”. Then again, we can always consider the Muslim Brotherhood and their ties to CAIR and the List of 45, can’t we? The proponents of CAIR and their democrat and RINO sympathizers are useful idiots in the demise of this Nation and the libtards are “Rather” pleased with themselves. I am going to laugh at them as their heads are lopped off by the sword of allah and just might break out the marshmallows to roast over their burning bodies. Then we can focus on killing the Jihadi scum in this nation.

While we are at it, seeing that Obama was having meetings with HAMAS all during his campaign, what if we had an investigation about that and why Syria and Iran have given HAMAS the green light? Surely there is something to that besides Obama being the pathological liar that he is. And, knowing that Obama is such a pathological liar on top of being a narcissist, can we really believe that he will not support the “Saudi” Israeli-Arab peace pact? Or, can we actually know why Iran is now backing off from their previous statements about supporting SOFA? Why on Earth wold they support that Plan now that the weakling Czarbie is set to steal the White House? Isn’t it just like a terrorist to act like a democrat and “change their mind” when politically expedient to do so? Democrats and terrorists…same-same.

Oh. And expect the usual “illegal war” crap to come up again. Naturally, thee isn’t any evidence to support that BS but that won’t stop the pathological liars on the left, will it? Then again, when they are clueless about the Iraq War, why should anyone really give them the attention they lust after?

As our Troops have won in Iraq and are winning in Afghanistan, NATO not withstanding, the Confederate Yankee tells us to brace for a total loss in the future. It is what the Democrats are all about. Then again, when the terrorists declare war on Pakistan, one has to wonder where all of this is going. Obama and the terrorists want to bomb Pakistan…

Whereas the treatment of President Bush has been off the charts and psychotic, at times I think he may have deserved it. He never seemed to take the libtards seriously. I do and don’t blame him for it but when it put our troops in danger, he should have at least came out and shamed the libtards out in the open and in public.

Some are saying that Afghanistan is barely winnable and I think that is primarily a NATO result. I have been a long supporter of disbanding NATO due to its ties to the UN. But, that is for another post for a different day.

Chet Bowen

By Chet Bowen | November 10, 2008 - 4:21 pm - Posted in Islam, Religion, Survival, The world
Posted by: MarcusCygy // 32 minutes ago // viewed 13 times
Port Coquitlam, British Columbia //
Last updated: 24 minutes ago
http://marcuscyganiak.blogspot.com/2008/11/world-leaders-receive-threats.html

It has been reported today on multiple sourced websites that on-going anonymous threats have been sent out to world leaders within the past 72 hours. Among the threats is that of a nuclear bomb attack in the very near future on United States soil.

Such an attack on America “would make 9/11 insignificant,” said Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

On Barack Obama’s first day as President-Elect, he immediately received threats via US intelligence that Israel are plotting to attack Iran before he is sworn into the White House on January 20, 2009. Russia has also gone into high-gear in noting that they are enforcing their own missile defense systems bordering Poland to counteract the US-stationed missile defense system there.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said, “we will not retreat,” when dealing with the United States in Europe. Former Russian President Putin believes that President George W. Bush has setup multiple missile defense shield systems across Europe to keep a close eye and target on Russia. Contrary to that claim, President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice diligently state that these stations in Europe are nothing but goodwill safety measures put forth for the EU, Nato allies, and American interests upon fending off terrorists, extremists, and notably Iran.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has ignored President Bush and Condoleezza Rice’s claims with triggers ready to attack.

So with Russia visibly upset with the United States and Iran being an ally of Russia, one has to wonder where these world leaders outside of that inner circle are receiving the nuclear bomb threats from. You can go ahead and add in Korea and China into the mix since they have nuclear bombs as well, and are too allies of Russia.

Among the nations that have publically stated they have received the cryptic threats include Australia, England, France, and the United States.

Is any of this a surprise for anyone though?

The now Vice President-elect Joe Biden had some chilling comments to make during the campaign trail just a week prior to Election Day. He repeatedly told us, “Mark my words, mark my words.” Barack Obama is going to be tested with a “generated crisis” within the first six months he explained.

So would an attack on America, potentially larger in catastrophe to 9/11 as Australian PM put it, be the crisis Joe Biden is referring to? Does Biden know something we do not?

Joe Biden also went on to say, “I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate, and he’s (Barack Obama) going to need help. And the kind of help he’s going to need is, he’s going to need you – not financially to help him – we’re going to need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it’s not going to be apparent initially, it’s not going be apparent that we’re right.”

Confused yet? Well while I can join you on that trail of confusion, I still want to figure this out.

An obvious note of observation is that these high level politicians around the world all seem to be coordinated with these warnings received. I’m talking about Vice President-elect Joe Biden, even former US Secretary of State Colin Powell, another former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and finally Admiral Lord Alan West of the British Home Office as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State.

Are all these high level politicians preparing the world for a crisis of gigantic fatal measures?

When looking back at the US invasion in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2003 as part of the War on Terror, and most recently the US embarking on attacks in Syria and Pakistan shortly after the Russian invasion in Georgia, you just have to wonder if these events are the prelude to World War III. These high level politicians are certainly painting the picture that way.

So now I take you to the overall big picture:

  • Russia continues to threaten a new Cold War, with missiles lined up to attack Poland because of the US missile defense shield system agreement that was signed. Should that shield system officially be built, Russia states that they will deploy missile attacks.
  • Russia has the capability of launching missiles from Russian soil to American soil.
  • Iran too claims to have the same capabilities in being able to launch missiles over to US soil.
  • Israel continues to send out warnings that they will be attacking Iran, which would call for US troops’ help.
  • President George W. Bush has expressed an interest in attacking Iran before his run in the oval office is over because of Iran’s nuclear program to produce nuclear weapons.
  • Russia will attack US troops and Israeli troops, should an attack on Iran become apparent.
  • Korea has sent out threats of attack to the United States in the past and they too carry the capacity of nuclear bombs while being allies of Russia and Iran.
  • You can add China into the list of allies with Russia.


Does this not look like one big circle of tension to you? It sure does to me, and it’s one that is growing far too tight in tension now. As a result, it could only be a matter of days, weeks, or months before one nation pulls the trigger to ignite World War III.

Sources:
1) http://www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com/israelnews/politics/80-political/335-warnings-from-world-leaders-all-within-72-hours-.html
2) http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=amM6gBY9JgJA&refer=home
3) http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iyTh4daEIukZscHQWC558dEr3×5gD94BR7FG0
4) http://www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com/israelnews/israel-news/83-israeli-news/407-israel-war-on-iran-on-the-radar.html

Chet Bowen
By Chet Bowen | - 11:35 am - Posted in Islam, Religion, Survival, The world

November 6, 2008

I feel certain that many in my stream of the Church want a statement from me concerning Tuesday’s presidential election. I will be frank in my remarks but I do not, however, intend to vent anger or attack anyone. I have read several statements from friends and colleagues I respect very much.


Their thoughts are well stated and, for the most part, insightful.  None of them, however, seem to want to say some things that I believe need to be said. I do not claim infallibility or to have the final word, but my convictions run deep and I believe I bear a God-given responsibility to share them.

Was This God’s Will?


Was what happened Tuesday God’s will?  I am quite confident it was not.  America was offered a very clear choice between moving further toward protecting the unborn or further away; between a Supreme Court that would move toward honoring God, life and morality or away from it.  The stakes couldn’t have been higher nor the cost greater. As a nation we put on blinders concerning Barak Obama’s background, associations, beliefs and practices, and set these causes back years, possibly decades.
And in doing so we took another step away from God and His plans for America, and another step toward judgment.

Judgment Will Increase


This is not a fire and brimstone warning from an angry, legalistic preacher.  In fact, I feel more sadness and grief than anything else.
Perhaps I feel what Jesus felt as He wept for Jerusalem while announcing its judgment. I am not hoping for judgment; I am saying it is inevitable. I don’t know where the unbiblical belief comes from that says a nation can live any way it pleases, can reject God and His ways-even mock Him-and not receive His judgments.  Nor do I know when the belief came that it is always mean-spirited or judgmental to warn of these things.  To the contrary, I believe it is our responsibility.

In warning of judgment, I am not suggesting that God is going to intentially and directly hurt people.  Much judgment is simply the absence of God’s protection and provision, caused by a rejection of His laws and ways.  We have been experiencing some forms of judgment in America for years, but God in His incredible patience and mercy has kept us from the level we’ve deserved.  I believe this will change to a degree and judgment will now
increase:

  • For those in the Church who aligned themselves with pro-abortion forces, I believe judgment will result.

  • For leaders in the Body of Christ who refused to take a stand for fear of losing people, money, and tax-exempt status-I believe there will be a degree of judgment.

  • For those, both within the Church and without, who voted money over morality-a potential raise or better health insurance over the life of a baby-there will be judgment. (The irony is that this decision to base one’s vote on the hopes of a better economy won’t produce the hoped for result anyway. The scriptures teach that it is righteousness which exalts a nation and that the nation is blessed whose God is the Lord.)

I have heard the argument that God cares as much about social justice issues (such as poverty and racism) as He does abortion, making a vote for Obama OK.  I certainly believe God puts a very high priority on caring for the poor and I, too, have wanted to see equality demonstrated through a “minority” president. But to equate having a better income or the desire for a first black president, regardless of his positions on abortion and morality, to the issue of killing 50 million babies is not justice-it is a gross distortion of justice and great deception. I fear that we have been desensitized to this issue of abortion.  I believe it kills babies and takes innocent life.  I also believe it is blood sacrifice that empowers demons. Let’s not forget this in our noble attempts to be kind and conciliatory.
For African Americans I can easily see how it could bring healing to have a first black president, just as it would be for Native Americans to achieve this or for women if a woman were elected president.  Again, I have wanted to see justice in this way.  I am only saddened that the price for this healing ended up being Barak Obama, a man that will set the cause of life and, most-likely, our God-given destiny as a nation back so drastically. (I also realize there are some who interpret any criticism of Obama as racism. Racism is so NOT what I am about nor what I live, that I will not even dignify any such accusations with a response.)

What Can We Expect?


What are some of the judgments we can expect on our nation from this election?

  • More economic woes
  • More violence in an already violent nation
  • Disease and death (satan, who is responsible for these things will have greater inroads to our nation.)
  • Natural disasters (weather-tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, drought; fires; earthquakes; etc.)
  • Terrorism (they will fear us much less now)
  • War, perhaps on our own soil
  • Judgments relating to the Court. The stacking of the Supreme Court against the sanctity of life and God’s influence on America will occur, which will in turn cause the shedding of more innocent blood, more rejection of God’s laws and the stealing from us of our godly heritage-all of which will perpetuate a cycle of even more judgment.

How Did This Happen?


I’ve been asked if this could have been averted had there been more prayer.  I’m not sure. I believe there was a remnant of Christians fervently praying over these elections-I don’t think there was anything more they could have done. Others, obviously, should have done more.  The complacency and lack of discernment concerning our real condition in America-especially by the Church-is both appalling and horrifying.  America is in serious trouble and it seems no one wants to say it.  Fewer still are willing to do anything to change it.

Though I understand our reasons, we must be careful in our attempts to placate our feelings and calm our fears through religious phrases like “God is still on the throne” or “God has a plan”.  He was on His throne 35 years and 50 million babies ago.  And He had a plan back then.  The problem is, it was us.  I understand our reasons for waving high the banner of God’s sovereignty at times like these-it gives us hope.  I will wave it, as well.
But please be careful with this. Too much emphasis on God’s sovereignty and we’re worthless; too little and we’re hopeless.  Maybe we should say, “we lost a critical battle but God will give us strategy to win the war.” Then find the strategy.

But still yet, since God is usually willing to work through a remnant, I thought we had enough prayer. Obviously, God decided otherwise.  There comes a time when He will not forgive or bless the majority based on the prayers or actions of only a few.  America rejected God and asked for a king; I believe we now have our Saul (see 1 Samuel 8:5-7)-a man who does not have God’s heart for America but his own. Like Israel in scripture, our nation believes it can turn from God and still be blessed.  In His mercy and justice He will show us otherwise.

Like many, believing I had many promises and confirmations that God would “grace” us with a pro-life president in this election, I failed to consider strongly enough that all promises-even scripture-are conditional 99.9% of the time. Though I never prophesied or made guarantees that McCain-Palin would win, failing to factor this principle in strongly enough no doubt caused me to share my optimism with others inappropriately. If this caused any harm or confusion, I apologize.

Has the fact that my prayers weren’t answered shaken my faith? No. I’m a little confused and discouraged. I’m also somewhat angry at the nation in general and much of the Church. Mostly I’m grieving over the nation and what this will cost us. I am not, however, angry with God and do not question His justice. And it is not true that we wasted our time, energy and money in our efforts anymore than it is a waste when we share the gospel with people who don’t get saved.  We must keep in the forefront of our thinking the fact that ultimately we are doing this for Him and that He will reward us for our faithfulness.  And who knows, perhaps He will store up all those prayers for the next battle (Revelation 5:8, 8:3-5).

A friend and fellow warrior said it well,

“We did ‘give it our all.’ I know the Lord was pleased with that. A coach wants to know one thing at the end of a heartbreaking sports loss: ‘Did you leave it all on the field?’ (your passion, your commitment, your strength, your courage, etc.) I know that we ‘left it all on the field.’ We didn’t hold anything back until the game ended. Tragically, it ended in defeat. We will rise for another day because Jesus is worthy.”

Where Do We Go from Here?


Does this election outcome shake my faith that we can see a great awakening and ultimately reformation in America? Absolutely not (and it strengthens my resolve).  We will simply get there through greater pain and loss.  Even my passion to see the Supreme Court shift is not from a presupposition that there can be no spiritual awakening without it.  It is simply due to my deep conviction that their decisions bring so much death, destruction, curses and judgment to America; and because our full destiny as a nation is unquestionably linked to their decisions. So, yes, we will get an awakening and reformation; but the reality is that this reformation of the nation will reform the Supreme Court (and government, in general), not vice-versa.  My faith has never been in people or a political party; my faith is in the God who works through them.

I’ve been asked if my feelings about Sarah Palin have changed.  They have not. I believe she is an Esther, a Deborah, with a huge mantle from God for reformation. God has a great destiny for her related to this nation if she chooses to continue down this path.

So, in conclusion, we must re-group as an apostolic, praying church and advance.  We must maintain an immovable faith in God, His plans for America and His mercy.  And we must move beyond simply asking God for a spiritual awakening and ask Him for strategy to produce reformation, as well.  I, for one, am just getting started!

For God and this great nation,
Dutch Sheets

Chet Bowen

By Chet Bowen | July 31, 2008 - 7:45 pm - Posted in Islam, Religion, Survival, The world, Uncategorized

Busting the Anthrax Myth

July 30, 2008



By Fred Burton and Scott Stewart

Dr. Jeffrey W. Runge, chief medical officer at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, told a congressional subcommittee on July 22 that the risk of a large-scale biological attack on the nation is significant and that the U.S. government knows its terrorist enemies have sought to use biological agents as instruments of warfare. Runge also said that the United States believes that capability is within the terrorists’ reach.

Runge gave his testimony before a subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology that was holding a field hearing in Providence, R.I., to discuss the topic of “Emerging Biological Threats and Public Health Preparedness.”

During his testimony, Runge specifically pointed to al Qaeda as the most significant threat and testified that the United States had determined that the terrorist organization is seeking to develop and use a biological weapon to cause mass casualties in an attack. According to Runge, U.S. analysis indicates that anthrax is the most likely choice, and a successful single-city attack on an unprepared population could kill hundreds of thousands of citizens.

Later in his testimony, Runge remarked that many do not perceive the threat of bioterrorism to be as significant as that of a nuclear or conventional strike, even though such an attack could kill as many people as a nuclear detonation and have its own long-term environmental effects.
We must admit to being among those who do not perceive the threat of bioterrorism to be as significant as that posed by a nuclear strike. To be fair, it must be noted that we also do not see strikes using chemical or radiological weapons rising to the threshold of a true weapon of mass destruction either. The successful detonation of a nuclear weapon in an American city would be far more devastating that any of these other forms of attack.
In fact, based on the past history of nonstate actors conducting attacks using biological weapons, we remain skeptical that a nonstate actor could conduct a biological weapons strike capable of creating as many casualties as a large strike using conventional explosives — such as the October 2002 Bali bombings that resulted in 202 deaths or the March 2004 train bombings in Madrid that killed 191.

We do not disagree with Runge’s statements that actors such as al Qaeda have demonstrated an interest in biological weapons. There is ample evidence that al Qaeda has a rudimentary biological weapons capability. However, there is a huge chasm of capability that separates intent and a rudimentary biological weapons program from a biological weapons program that is capable of killing hundreds of thousands of people.

Misconceptions About Biological Weapons

There are many misconceptions involving biological weapons. The three most common are that they are easy to obtain, that they are easy to deploy effectively, and that, when used, they always cause massive casualties.

While it is certainly true that there are many different types of actors who can easily gain access to rudimentary biological agents, there are far fewer actors who can actually isolate virulent strains of the agents, weaponize them and then effectively employ these agents in a manner that will realistically pose a significant threat of causing mass casualties. While organisms such as anthrax are present in the environment and are not difficult to obtain, more highly virulent strains of these tend to be far more difficult to locate, isolate and replicate. Such efforts require highly skilled individuals and sophisticated laboratory equipment.

Even incredibly deadly biological substances such as ricin and botulinum toxin are difficult to use in mass attacks. This difficulty arises when one attempts to take a rudimentary biological substance and then convert it into a weaponized form — a form that is potent enough to be deadly and yet readily dispersed. Even if this weaponization hurdle can be overcome, once developed, the weaponized agent must then be integrated with a weapons system that can effectively take large quantities of the agent and evenly distribute it in lethal doses to the intended targets.

During the past several decades in the era of modern terrorism, biological weapons have been used very infrequently and with very little success. This fact alone serves to highlight the gap between the biological warfare misconceptions and reality. Militant groups desperately want to kill people and are constantly seeking new innovations that will allow them to kill larger numbers of people. Certainly if biological weapons were as easily obtained, as easily weaponized and as effective at producing mass casualties as commonly portrayed, militant groups would have used them far more frequently than they have.

Militant groups are generally adaptive and responsive to failure. If something works, they will use it. If it does not, they will seek more effective means of achieving their deadly goals. A good example of this was the rise and fall of the use of chlorine in militant attacks in Iraq.

Anthrax

As noted by Runge, the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis is readily available in nature and can be deadly if inhaled, if ingested or if it comes into contact with a person’s skin. What constitutes a deadly dose of inhalation anthrax has not been precisely quantified, but is estimated to be somewhere between 8,000 and 50,000 spores. One gram of weaponized anthrax, such as that contained in the letters mailed to U.S. Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy in October 2001, can contain up to one trillion spores — enough to cause somewhere between 20 and 100 million deaths. The letters mailed to Daschle and Leahy reportedly contained about one gram each for a total estimated quantity of two grams of anthrax spores: enough to have theoretically killed between 40 and 200 million people. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the current population of the United States is 304.7 million. In a worst-case scenario, the letters mailed to Daschle and Leahy theoreticall y contained enough anthrax spores to kill nearly two-thirds of the U.S. population.

Yet, in spite of their incredibly deadly potential, those letters (along with an estimated five other anthrax letters mailed in a prior wave to media outlets such as the New York Post and the major television networks) killed only five people; another 22 victims were infected by the spores but recovered after receiving medical treatment. This difference between the theoretical number of fatal victims — hundreds of millions — and the actual number of victims — five — highlights the challenges in effectively distributing even a highly virulent and weaponized strain of an organism to a large number of potential victims.

To summarize: obtaining a biological agent is fairly simple. Isolating a virulent strain and then weaponizing that strain is somewhat more difficult. But the key to biological warfare — effectively distributing a weaponized agent to the intended target — is the really difficult part of the process. Anyone planning a biological attack against a large target such as a city needs to be concerned about a host of factors such as dilution, wind velocity and direction, particle size and weight, the susceptibility of the disease to ultraviolet light, heat, dryness or even rain. Small-scale localized attacks such as the 2001 anthrax letters or the 1984 salmonella attack undertaken by the Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh cult are far easier to commit.

It is also important to remember that anthrax is not some sort of untreatable super disease. While anthrax does form hardy spores that can remain inert for a period of time, the disease is not easily transmitted from person to person, and therefore is unlikely to create an epidemic outside of the area targeted by the attack. Anthrax infections can be treated by the use of readily available antibiotics. The spores’ incubation period also permits time for early treatment if the attack is noticed.

The deadliest known anthrax incident in recent years occurred in 1979 when an accidental release of aerosolized spores from a Soviet biological weapons facility in Sverdlovsk affected some 94 people — reportedly killing 68 of them. This facility was one of dozens of laboratories that were part of the Soviet Union’s massive and well-funded biological weapons program, one that employed thousands of the country’s brightest scientists. In fact, it was the largest biological weapons program in history.
Perhaps the largest attempt by a nonstate actor to cause mass casualties using anthrax was the series of attacks conducted in 1993 by the Japanese cult group Aum Shinrikyo in Tokyo.

In the late 1980s, Aum’s team of trained scientists spent millions of dollars to develop a series of state-of-the-art biological weapons research and production laboratories. The group experimented with botulinum toxin, anthrax, cholera and Q fever and even tried to acquire the Ebola virus. The group hoped to produce enough biological agent to trigger a global Armageddon. Its first attempts at unleashing mega-death on the world involved the use of botulinum toxin. In April 1990, the group used a fleet of three trucks equipped with aerosol sprayers to release liquid botulinum toxin on targets that included the Imperial Palace, the National Diet of Japan, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, two U.S. naval bases and the airport in Narita. In spite of the massive quantities of toxin released, there were no mass casualties, and, in fact, nobody outside of the cult was even aware the attacks had taken place.

When the botulinum operations failed to produce results, Aum’s scientists went back to the drawing board and retooled their biological weapons facilities to produce anthrax. By mid-1993, they were ready to launch attacks involving anthrax; between June and August of 1993, the group sprayed thousands of gallons of aerosolized liquid anthrax in Tokyo. This time, Aum not only employed its fleet of sprayer trucks but also used aerosol sprayers mounted on the roof of their headquarters to disperse a cloud of aerosolized anthrax over the city. Again, the attacks produced no results and were not even noticed. It was only after the group’s successful 1995 subway attacks using sarin nerve agent that a Japanese government investigation discovered that the 1990 and 1993 biological attacks had occurred.

Biological Weapons Production

Aum Shinrikyo’s team of highly trained scientists worked under ideal conditions in a first-world country with a virtually unlimited budget. They were able to travel the world in search of deadly organisms and even received technical advice from former Soviet scientists. The team worked in large, modern laboratory facilities to produce substantial quantities of biological weapons. They were able to operate these facilities inside industrial parks and openly order the large quantities of laboratory equipment they required. Yet, in spite of the millions of dollars the group spent on its biological weapons program — and the lack of any meaningful interference from the Japanese government — Aum still experienced problems in creating virulent biological agents and also found it difficult to dispense those agents effectively.

Today, al Qaeda finds itself operating in a very different environment than that experienced by Aum Shinrikyo in 1993. At that time, nobody was looking for Aum or its biological and chemical weapons program. By contrast, since the Sept. 11 attacks, the United States and its allies have actively pursued al Qaeda leaders and sought to dismantle and defang the organization. The United States and its allies have focused a considerable amount of resources in tracking and disassembling al Qaeda’s chemical and biological warfare efforts. The al Qaeda network has had millions of dollars of its assets seized in a number of countries, and it no longer has the safe haven of Afghanistan from which to operate. The chemical and biological facilities the group established in the 1990s in Afghanistan — such as the Deronta training camp, where cyanide and other toxins were used to kill dogs, and a crude anthrax production facility in Kandahar — have been found and destroy ed by U.S. troops.

Operating in the badlands along the Pakistani-Afghan border, al Qaeda cannot easily build large modern factories capable of producing large quantities of agents or toxins. Such fixed facilities are expensive and consume a lot of resources. Even if al Qaeda had the spare capacity to invest in such facilities, the fixed nature of them means that they could be compromised and quickly destroyed by the United States.

If al Qaeda could somehow create and hide a fixed biological weapons facility in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas or North-West Frontier Province, it would still face the daunting task of transporting large quantities of biological agents from the Pakistani badlands to targets in the United States or Europe. Al Qaeda operatives certainly can create and transport small quantities of these compounds, but not enough to wreak the kind of massive damage it desires.

Al Qaeda’s lead chemical and biological weapons expert, Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, was reportedly killed on July 28, 2008, by a U.S. missile strike on his home in Pakistan. Al-Sayid, who had a $5 million dollar bounty on his head, was initially reported to have been one of those killed in the January 2006 strike in Damadola. If he was indeed killed, his death should be another significant blow to the group’s biological warfare efforts.

Of course, we must recognize that the jihadist threat goes just beyond the al Qaeda core. As we have been writing for several years now, al Qaeda has undergone a metamorphosis from a smaller core group of professional operatives into an operational model that encourages independent grassroots jihadists to conduct attacks. The core al Qaeda group, through men like al-Sayid, has published manuals in hard copy and on the Internet that provide instructions on how to manufacture rudimentary biological weapons.

It is our belief that independent jihadist cells and lone-wolf jihadists will almost certainly attempt to brew up some of the recipes from the al Qaeda cookbook. There also exists a very real threat that a jihadist sympathizer could obtain a small quantity of deadly biological organisms by infiltrating a research facility.

This means that we likely will see some limited attempts at employing biological weapons. That does not mean, however, that such attacks will be large-scale or create mass casualties.

The Bottom Line

While there has been much consternation and alarm-raising over the potential for widespread proliferation of biological weapons and the possible use of such weapons on a massive scale, there are significant constraints on such designs. The current dearth of substantial biological weapons programs and arsenals by governments worldwide, and the even smaller number of cases in which systems were actually used, seems to belie — or at least bring into question — the intense concern about such programs.

While we would like to believe that countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia have halted their biological warfare programs for some noble ideological or humanitarian reason, we simply can’t. If biological weapons were in practice as effective as some would lead us to believe, these states would surely maintain stockpiles of them, just as they have maintained their nuclear weapons programs. Biological weapons programs were abandoned because they proved to be not as effective as advertised and because conventional munitions proved to provide more bang for the buck.

In some ways, the psychological fear of a “super weapon” — undetectable, microscopic, easily delivered and extremely deadly — shapes assessment of the threat, more so than an objective understanding of actual capability and intent (not to mention the extreme difficulties of ever creating some sort of a super bug). Conventional weapons systems, and unconventional tactics, continue to be the most cost-effective and proven methods of warfare, whether between state actors or between state and nonstate actors. Nuclear weapons have also been shown to have true weapons of mass destruction power.

To help keep the cost-benefit calculation of a biological warfare program in perspective, consider that Seung-Hui Cho, the man who committed the shooting at Virginia Tech, killed 32 people — more than six times as many as were killed by the 2001 anthrax letters. John Mohammed, the so-called “D.C. Sniper,” was able to cause a considerable amount of panic and kill twice as many people (10) by simply purchasing and using one assault rifle. Compare Mohammed’s effort and expenses to that of the Aum Shinrikyo anthrax program that took years of work by a huge team and millions of dollars to develop but infected no one.

Now, just because biological weapons are not all they are cracked up to be does not mean that efforts to undermine the biological warfare plans and efforts of militant groups such as al Qaeda should not continue or that programs to detect such agents or develop more effective treatments and vaccines should be halted. Even though an anthrax attack probably will not kill huge numbers of people, as we saw in the case of the anthrax letters, such an attack can be quite disruptive. Cleaning up after such an attack is expensive and takes considerable time and effort. Like a dirty bomb, an anthrax attack will more likely serve as a weapon of mass disruption and not a weapon of mass destruction.

Due to the disruption and the potential for some deaths as a result of an anthrax attack, the threat against the United States does remain a significant concern. However, the threat it represents is not as great as that of conventional attacks using firearms and explosives against soft targets, and it certainly does not rise anywhere near the level of a threat posed by a terrorist attack using a nuclear weapon.

Homeland security resources are very limited and have been shrinking as we move further from 9/11 and as other items begin to take precedence in the federal budget. This means that an array of different programs is being forced to scramble for an ever-shrinking piece of the funding pie. In such an environment, it is often a temptation to overstate the threat. Such overstatements are harmful because they can sometimes prevent a rational distribution of resources and prevent resources from being allocated to where they are needed most.

Chet Bowen

The world that Allah demands is a
nightmare. This we cannot abide. Allah
is not at all like the Father of Jesus or
Yahweh, the Lord God Creator, but is
more akin to The Beast of The Apocalypse.
Therefore, we have a moral duty to resist
this Death Cult’s incursion into our world.

Top US military chief is convinced Iranians seek atom bomb

20 July: Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Fox News he is convinced the Iranians are seeking to building an atomic bomb, “a very destabilizing possibility in that part of the world.” He stressed the US had the capacity and the reserves to attack Iran as a last resort.

“I’m fighting two wars and I don’t need a third one,” said Mullen referring to Iraq and Afghanistan.


( My comment: Iran should have been destroyed long before this. The idea that they have nuclear plants scattered all over the country is to horrifying to think of the radioactive material that will bring harm to neighboring countries. The only way to ensure they destroy their nuclear programme now is to nuke every single site then make sure Ahmadinejad is dead dead dead, including the Ayatollah.

People are going to put Israel on the back burner should Obama win this election and then the horrors will begin. I can’t understand the utter blindness that seems to engulf so many people that are supposed to be intelligent. Ahmadinejad is as insane as Jeffery Dalmer.

I’m ready for the return of Christ and I surely hate to see so many people doomed to total seperation from God when this comes due to the course of events leading up to enough is enough and there is certainly enough evil going on to fill that quota.

The world that Allah demands is a nightmare. This we cannot abide. Allah is not at all like the Father of Jesus or Yahweh, the Lord God Creator, but is
more akin to The Beast of The Apocalypse. Therefore, we have a moral duty to resist this Death Cult’s incursion into our world and destroy them now……..Chet )



Senior Israeli official: If nuclear talks fail, Bush will order attack between November and January

20 July: This assessment was reported by Israeli national radio Saturday overnight quoting a high-placed “security-political” source.

The source predicted that President George W. Bush would order Iran attacked between the November 4 presidential election and his exit from the White House in January.

The quote was aired shortly after the six-power talks with Iran in Geneva – with US official participation for the first time – ended inconclusively, and just before Israel chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi set out for Washington, to spend a week there as guest of Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

DEBKAfile’s political sources describe the Israeli disclosure as a step aimed at slowing down the collapse of Israel’s stated policy of relying on international diplomatic pressure to thwart Iran’s acquisition of nuclear arms. As a high-risk step to derail the accommodations Washington and Tehran are on the way to reaching in their secret talks on a wide range of issues. Israel fears being abandoned and left out in the cold on all its fronts against Iran by these accommodations.



McCain: We can never allow a second Holocaust

21 July: Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain told an Israeli Channel Two TV interviewer Monday, July 21, that he is in favor of communications with Iran at different levels, but would object to face-to-face talks with [president Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad who has publicly dedicated himself to destroying Israel.

The Republican senator spoke shortly before his rival, Democratic Senator Barack Obama, arrived in Israel from Iraq during his foreign tour.

Asked about the possibility of Israel taking unilateral military action to eliminate Iran’s ability to achieve a nuclear weapon, Senator McCain said: I would hope Israelis would not feel bound to do this. I have some optimism we can succeed with sanctions. I think we still have a lot of options to explore before a military option and we have not exercised them all.”

He added: “We can never allow a second Holocaust.”



US, UK, France launch exercise to mock partial naval blockade on Iran
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

21 July: DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Operational Brimstone, starting Monday, July 21, aims at giving military teeth to the two-week ultimatum the six world powers gave Iran in Geneva Saturday to accept the suspension of uranium enrichment or face harsh sanctions.

The penalty of withholding refined oil products from Iran would be exercised by means of a partial international naval blockade against Iran.

Chet Bowen

By Chet Bowen | July 13, 2008 - 6:36 pm - Posted in Islam, Religion, Survival, The world
Congress examines EMP threat
Iran believed to test missiles for attack on U.S.


WASHINGTON – More than four years after a stunning report about America’s vulnerability to a nuclear electromagnetic pulse attack was released to Congress, the House Armed Services Committee will hear testimony from the scientist who issued the warning and who believes Iran is pursuing such an option.

William R. Graham, President Reagan’s top science adviser and the chairman of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, will update the committee Thursday morning.

Graham warned in 2005 that Iran was not only covertly developing nuclear weapons, but was already testing ballistic missiles specifically designed to destroy America’s technical infrastructure with the aim of neutralizing the world’s lone superpower.

The radical Shiite regime has conducted successful tests to determine if its Shahab-3 ballistic missiles, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, can be detonated by a remote-control device while still in high-altitude flight, Graham said in his report.

Graham said then there was no other plausible explanation for such tests than preparation for the deployment of electromagnetic pulse weapons – even one of which could knock out America’s critical electrical and technological infrastructure, effectively sending the continental U.S. back to the 19th century with a recovery time of months or years.

Iran would have that capability – at least theoretically – as soon as it has one nuclear bomb ready to arm such a missile.

The stunning report was first published in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence newsletter published by WND’s founder.

Iran surprised intelligence analysts by describing the mid-flight detonations of missiles fired from ships on the Caspian Sea as “successful” tests. Even primitive Scud missiles could be used for this purpose. And top U.S. intelligence officials reminded members of Congress that there is a glut of these missiles on the world market. They are currently being bought and sold for about $100,000 apiece.

Others agree with Graham’s sobering assessment.

“A terrorist organization might have trouble putting a nuclear warhead ‘on target’ with a Scud, but it would be much easier to simply launch and detonate in the atmosphere,” wrote Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., in the Washington Post in 2005 after reading Graham’s report. “No need for the risk and difficulty of trying to smuggle a nuclear weapon over the border or hit a particular city. Just launch a cheap missile from a freighter in international waters – al-Qaida is believed to own about 80 such vessels – and make sure to get it a few miles in the air.”

The Iranian missile tests were more sophisticated and capable of detonation at higher elevations – making them more dangerous.

Detonated at a height of 60 to 500 kilometers above the continental U.S., one nuclear warhead could cripple the country – knocking out electrical power and circuit boards and rendering the U.S. domestic communications impotent.

In 2005, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security chaired by Kyl, held a hearing on the electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, threat.

“An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack on the American homeland, said one of the distinguished scientists who testified at the hearing, is one of only a few ways that the United States could be defeated by its enemies – terrorist or otherwise,” wrote Kyl “And it is probably the easiest. A single Scud missile, carrying a single nuclear weapon, detonated at the appropriate altitude, would interact with the Earth’s atmosphere, producing an electromagnetic pulse radiating down to the surface at the speed of light. Depending on the location and size of the blast, the effect would be to knock out already stressed power grids and other electrical systems across much or even all of the continental United States, for months if not years.”

The purpose of an EMP attack, unlike a nuclear attack on land, is not to kill people, but “to kill electrons,” as Graham explained. He serves as chairman of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack and was director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Graham told WND he could think of no other reason for Iran to be experimenting with mid-air detonation of missiles than for the planning of an EMP-style attack.

“EMP offers a bigger bang for the buck,” he said. He also suggested such an attack makes a U.S. nuclear response against a suspected enemy less likely than would the detonation of a nuclear bomb in a major U.S. city.

A 2004 report by the commission found “several potential adversaries have or can acquire the capability to attack the United States with a high-altitude nuclear weapons-generated electromagnetic pulse (EMP). A determined adversary can achieve an EMP attack capability without having a high level of sophistication.”

“EMP is one of a small number of threats that can hold our society at risk of catastrophic consequences,” the report said. “EMP will cover the wide geographic region within line of sight to the nuclear weapon. It has the capability to produce significant damage to critical infrastructures and thus to the very fabric of U.S. society, as well as to the ability of the United States and Western nations to project influence and military power.”

The major impact of EMP weapons is on electronics, “so pervasive in all aspects of our society and military, coupled through critical infrastructures,” explained the report.

“Their effects on systems and infrastructures dependent on electricity and electronics could be sufficiently ruinous as to qualify as catastrophic to the nation,” Lowell Wood, acting chairman of the commission, told members of Congress.

The commission report went so far as to suggest, in its opening sentence, that an EMP attack “might result in the defeat of our military forces.”

“Briefly, a single nuclear weapon exploded at high altitude above the United States will interact with the Earth’s atmosphere, ionosphere and magnetic field to produce an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) radiation down to the Earth and additionally create electrical currents in the Earth,” said the report. “EMP effects are both direct and indirect. The former are due to electrical systems, and the latter arise from the damage that ’shocked’ – upset, damaged and destroyed – electronics controls then inflict on the systems in which they are embedded. The indirect effects can be even more severe than the direct effects.”

The EMP threat is not a new one considered by U.S. defense planners. The Soviet Union had experimented with the idea as a kind of super-weapon against the U.S.

“What is different now is that some potential sources of EMP threats are difficult to deter – they can be terrorist groups that have no state identity, have only one or a few weapons and are motivated to attack the U.S. without regard for their own safety,” explains the commission report. “Rogue states, such as North Korea and Iran, may also be developing the capability to pose an EMP threat to the United States and may also be unpredictable and difficult to deter.”

Graham describes the potential “cascading effect” of an EMP attack. If electrical power is knocked out and circuit boards fried, telecommunications are disrupted, energy deliveries are impeded, the financial system breaks down, food, water and gasoline become scarce.

As Kyl put it: “Few if any people would die right away. But the loss of power would have a cascading effect on all aspects of U.S. society. Communication would be largely impossible. Lack of refrigeration would leave food rotting in warehouses, exacerbated by a lack of transportation as those vehicles still working simply ran out of gas (which is pumped with electricity). The inability to sanitize and distribute water would quickly threaten public health, not to mention the safety of anyone in the path of the inevitable fires, which would rage unchecked. And as we have seen in areas of natural and other disasters, such circumstances often result in a fairly rapid breakdown of social order.”

“American society has grown so dependent on computer and other electrical systems that we have created our own Achilles’ heel of vulnerability, ironically much greater than those of other, less developed nations,” the senator wrote. “When deprived of power, we are in many ways helpless, as the New York City blackout made clear. In that case, power was restored quickly because adjacent areas could provide help. But a large-scale burnout caused by a broad EMP attack would create a much more difficult situation. Not only would there be nobody nearby to help, it could take years to replace destroyed equipment.”

The commission said hardening key infrastructure systems and procuring vital backup equipment such as transformers is both feasible and – compared with the threat – relatively inexpensive.

“But it will take leadership by the Department of Homeland Security, the Defense Department, and other federal agencies, along with support from Congress, all of which have yet to materialize,” wrote Kyl, so far the only elected official blowing the whistle this alarming development.

Kyl concluded in his report: “The Sept. 11 commission report stated that our biggest failure was one of ‘imagination.’ No one imagined that terrorists would do what they did on Sept. 11. Today few Americans can conceive of the possibility that terrorists could bring our society to its knees by destroying everything we rely on that runs on electricity. But this time we’ve been warned, and we’d better be prepared to respond.”

By Chet Bowen | June 20, 2008 - 9:05 pm - Posted in Islam, Religion, Survival, The world

The Homegrown Young Radicals Of Next-Gen Jihad

By Marc Sageman

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/06/AR2008060603501_pf.html

We are fighting the wrong foe. Over the past six years, the nature of the international Islamist terrorist threat to the West has changed dramatically, but Western governments are still fighting the last war — set up to fight an old al-Qaeda that is now largely contained. Unless we understand this sea change, we will not be able to ward off the new menace.

The version of al-Qaeda that Osama bin Laden founded is a fading force. After a week in which five detainees who allegedly planned the Sept. 11, 2001, atrocities were arraigned before a U.S. military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, it’s worth remembering that the terrorists behind 9/11 were mostly young, well-educated middle-class expatriates from Muslim countries who had become radicalized abroad, especially in the West. Such key 9/11 plotters as Mohamed Atta, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ziad Jarrah and Marwan al-Shehhi met and became radicalized as students in Hamburg, then went to Afghanistan looking for al-Qaeda. But over the past six years, most of the professional terrorists who fit this profile have been eliminated during the U.S.-led manhunt for “high-value targets.” The few that remain are huddled in the Afghan-Pakistani border area, struggling to extend their reach beyond Pakistan.

That old guard is still dangerous and still plotting spectacular attacks. But it is the new wave that more urgently requires our attention. This cohort is composed of homegrown young wannabes who dream of glory and adventure, who yearn to belong to a heroic vanguard and to root their lives in a greater sense of meaning. Inspired by tales of past heroism, they hope to emulate their predecessors, even though, for the most part, they can no longer link up with al-Qaeda Central in the Pakistani badlands. Their potential numbers are so great that they must now be seen as the main terrorist threat to the West.

This threat is not well understood by U.S. policymakers. After 9/11, I realized that spectacular instances of collective violence such as terrorism and the Holocaust tend to be the product of small-group dynamics, not individual action. (As a former CIA case officer who ran programs in Afghanistan in the 1980s, I learned how hard it was to motivate groups to perform field operations.) I began putting together graphs and charts to see how friendships and kinship groups had shaped al-Qaeda’s networks. I was able to recognize these concepts precisely because of my isolation from the U.S. government, which was focusing on old, top-down, command-and-control theories. And I worry again today that those charged with protecting us are not being imaginative or rigorous enough to understand the next generation of jihadists.

Unlike their pre-9/11 predecessors, today’s would-be terrorists are usually the poorly educated teenage children of unskilled and secular Muslim immigrants. They have been born, raised and radicalized in their host countries (unlike, say, Atta, an Egyptian who recoiled at modern Germany). This new generation’s youth culture celebrates a sort of “jihadist cool.”

Consider the “Hofstad Netwerk” in the Netherlands, which I believe is typical of this new wave. It consists mostly of young people who were born in Holland or immigrated to that country very early in life. They met around their neighborhoods, in Internet cafes or in online chat rooms, then self-radicalized through their admiration for the supposed Islamist heroes fighting the West. One man linked to this cohort, Mohammed Bouyeri, repeatedly shot the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004 on an Amsterdam street. Other members of this informal network reportedly planned to murder prominent Dutch politicians and bomb the Dutch parliament, a nuclear power plant and Amsterdam’s international airport.

Or consider another network that sprang up in placid surroundings: the group of second-generation immigrant men and youths in the Toronto suburbs who Canadian authorities allege plotted to set off truck bombs in Toronto, bomb the Canadian Parliament and kill Prime Minister Stephen Harper. They reportedly spent time praising their terrorist heroes on the Internet and living out mujaheddin fantasies by playing paintball games in rural Ontario.

What makes next-gen terrorists tick? How did these ordinary kids come to be so attracted to political violence? The process of radicalization consists of four prongs, which need not occur in sequence. Here’s the recipe: having a sense of moral outrage; seeing this anger as part of a “war on Islam”; believing that this view is consistent with one’s everyday grievances; and mobilizing through networks.

Many Muslims feel a powerful sense of moral outrage at the treatment of their coreligionists, be it the sight of U.S. troops killing Muslims in Iraq or the aftermath of police harassment of local mosques. To lead to political violence, a next-generation jihadist must come to believe one simple sound bite: that there is a “war against Islam.”

Unlike their fanatical predecessors in the old al-Qaeda, the new terrorists are not particularly religious. The defendants in the Hofstad trials, the March 2004 Madrid bombing trial, the Toronto case and the many trials in Britain are not intellectuals, let alone Islamic scholars. Many became religious only a few months before their arrests, and some are not religious at all. The new generation is not likely to be swayed by abstract arguments. Young jihadist wannabes do not go to Iraq to have theological debates; they go there to blow themselves up.

The problem has been worse in Europe than in the United States. In the land of the American dream and the melting pot, a broader, more inclusive view of American-ness undermines the jihadist insistence that the U.S. government is at war with its Muslim citizens. Notwithstanding some ugly jeering by nativist bigots and some clumsy profiling by law enforcement, ordinary Muslim Americans simply do not feel some “war on Islam” in their daily experiences.

But things are far less cheerful in Europe. The children of unskilled Muslim immigrants there face discrimination across the continent, resulting in striking unemployment rates. Many non-Muslim Europeans resent having to compete with Muslim immigrants for low-level jobs and worry that poor immigrant suburbs mean higher crime rates. Anti-immigrant sentiment, which propelled far-right parties to win around 20 percent of the vote in contests in France, Austria and Switzerland in recent years, only reinforces the message of rejection — and produces grist for the terrorists’ mill.

There are many angry young Muslims in the world, of course. What transforms a tiny number of them into terrorists is mobilization by networks. Until a few years ago, these networks were made up of face-to-face groups: local gangs of young immigrants such as the Hofstad group or expatriate students such as the Hamburg cell that planned 9/11. These cliques of friends became radicalized together. The group acted as an echo chamber — amplifying grievances, intensifying members’ bonds to one another, deepening their rejection of the values of the host society and making it easier to gradually separate themselves from it.

Over the past two or three years, face-to-face radicalization has started to be replaced by online radicalization. People’s beliefs used to be changed in small cliques; now they are being altered in jihadist Internet forums. These forums have become virtual marketplaces for extremist ideas — the “invisible hand” organizing terrorist activities worldwide. They are transforming the terrorist movement, attracting ever younger members and women, who can now join in the discussions.

The West has successfully contained the terrorists who perpetrated 9/11. But al-Qaeda has adapted from the bottom up, producing a network that’s scattered, disconnected and decentralized. The new jihadist movement doesn’t have an operational leader, but it is every bit as dangerous as the old one.


Marc Sageman is a sociologist, forensic psychiatrist and scholar in residence at the New York Police Department. He is the author of “Understanding Terror Networks” and “Leaderless Jihad.”


ACT for America
P.O. Box 6884
Virginia Beach, VA 23456
www.actforamerica.org

By Chet Bowen | June 12, 2008 - 12:44 am - Posted in Islam, Religion, Survival, The world

One of the best thinkers on the subject of Islam and its threats to non-Muslims is Bill Warner, affiliated with the Center for the Study of Political Islam.

Mr. Warner has recently published a series of commentaries entitled “An Ethical Basis for War Against Political Islam.” We took special note of his latest newsletter in this series, “Strategy – A Way to Defeat Political Islam.”

As you read the commentary below, please note our comments in red.

 

An Ethical Basis for War Against Political Islam

This newsletter is one of a series on the subject-Newsletter #10

Strategy–A Way to Defeat Political Islam

Moral Purpose
Before we discuss strategy, we must declare our moral purpose. Our moral purpose is to defend the very existence of the culture of the Golden Rule, an ethical civilization, from the 1400-year assault by the dualistic ethics of political Islam. We must stop the continued killing of kafirs, the enslavement of humanity and the spread of terror by Islam.

The Situation
Islam represents 20% of the world’s population and is growing. Islam is united, has a vision, a strategy and successful tactics.

Political correctness and multi-culturalism rule our world. Our government will not help in this war and instead gives aid and comfort to the “minority” Muslims. Our government is staffed by multiculturalists who will give every edge to Muslims. Our schools have been occupied by the Muslim Brotherhood and the dhimmi leftist professors.

Kafirs are divided into Christian, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, atheist, conservative and liberal. Each of the divisions has further divisions. The relations between the groups is marked by historical rivalries and hatreds. No group comprehends the suffering of others at the hands of Islam. So not only do none of the victims know their own story, they do not know the story of the others.

The Muslims have a great momentum. They are taking over by birth and immigration. We have fewer children while Muslims have huge families. Osama bin Laden has 53 children. Demographic statistics show that France will become Islamic in the year 2020. Run the population numbers.

Islam knows us well. Islam knows our history, secret shame, rivalries and hatreds, weaknesses and divisions. Kafirs don’t know anything about Islam. We may fear and dislike it but that is just “feelings”, not knowledge. Our so-called experts (none of whom know the actual doctrine of political Islam) make apologies and tell us that all of Islam’s problems are caused by our poor governmental policies.

We are filled with cultural self-loathing, demoralized, fatalistic, nihilistic, too fat and too rich. (Wealthy people are weak at war, they have too much to protect.) We have lost the mind of war and feel that “peace” is the moral high ground. We are pacifists in the face of jihad. Our artists extol the virtues of peace with no knowledge about what happens when peaceful people are vanquished.

A Strategy for the Weak
At this stage of our intellectual and emotional development, our strategies are limited. We are too weak to attack Islam and need an opening strategy for now.

First, we must learn the doctrine of political Islam. We must know the enemy. We must also know who our allies are and who are the allies of Islam. We have two sets of enemies-the far enemy, Islam, and the near enemy-those who apologize for Islam, the dhimmis.

The thought of actually attacking Islam is too frightening at this stage of the game. However, we can make flanking attacks on our enemy’s allies, the apologists. Even dhimmis can think about attacking or pressuring the near enemy.

We can make a flanking attack on our enemy by attacking his strategies. We must expose Islam through its doctrine from the Koran, the Sunna (the Hadith and the Sira). According to Sun Tsu in The Art of War, attacking your enemy’s strategy is the highest level strategy. And Islam’s strategy is laid out in the Trilogy. We now have the weapons, the books exposing their strategy.

Another principle of Sun Tsu is to shape the enemy. Islam always poses as a religion to cloak their politics . It is useless to attack a religion, so Islamic politics are under the radar. We must shape Islam as a political doctrine. We must attack the far enemy-political Islam. This means that we attack Mohammed, not Allah.

So we have a slogan for our opening strategy:

Build community [this is the mission of ACT! for America]

Expose the far enemy [this is the mission of American Congress for Truth and part of the mission of ACT! for America]

Attack the near enemy [organize and mobilize through the local chapters]

Community [The objective of ACT! for America is an informed, organized and mobilized community]
We must form ourselves into a community. The term kafir civilization has been used in this work, but this is not an historic fact, it is just a concept. However, we must make ourselves conscious of who we are or we will lose.

When the Orthodox church in Bethlehem was destroyed by the Palestinian jihadists in 2002, no one protested. The American Christians did not protest, the Hindus did not protest, nor did the Jews protest, the TV/print media did not protest. But when a mosque in Iraq got hit by American fire, everyone knew it. All of Islam protested, along with their apologist allies. Moral: the Muslims are organized. Kafirs do not even know they who they are.

This must change. There are many ways for this to change, but one that we need is a Web network community-call it kafir Web community.

The kafir Web community must carry out the functions:

Web site community

We have hundreds of Web sites that speak out against Islam. Each stands alone. There is an informal group of people who may visit different sites and carry information from one site to the other, but each site is an island unto itself. Imagine that all of the anti-Islamic sites were members of a community site list-serve. In this way, Web site owners could communicate among themselves. This could serve two functions. One, we could mobilize, focus and coordinate tactics during special times such as the Mohammed cartoon attacks. Two, there are materials that it would be good for many to publish at the same time. For instance, if this pamphlet were to be spread by the site network to all the sites, then it could be read simultaneously across the globe. You get a much better strategic impact from speed and a broad front.

And who knows what else can happen as site owners communicate with each other?

Personal Community [ACT! for America chapter leaders and chapter activists]
At this time most people personally know only a few people from church or another social group who are working in some way against Islam. Even if you wanted to meet someone else from your town how would you do it? This is a geographic grouping. Another grouping could be writers, scholars, translators or jihad history buffs. We need a way to form special communities (actually the Web site community is a special case). We need to use the Web to form local communities.

The Swarm Community [ACT! for America members and our outreaches to other like-minded organizations]
We Kafirs usually act as individuals, but we must have ways to unite and attack as a pack or swarm. Islam does this with great effect. When they need e-mails or phone calls, they use the Islamic community, not individuals.

Swarm software would link a community of intellectual warriors with projects. As an example, a project could be to protest the way an event was portrayed in a newspaper. Let’s further assume that the event came from a news-wire and so is in many papers. We need a way for one writer to send a letter to all of those who need it.

Local Politics [ACT! for America chapters and their members engaging on a local and community level]
You live in a small town and wake up one day to find that Muslims, who moved here a few years ago, are pressuring and making demands to use the school for prayer during Ramadan. The ACLU howls if the Bible is taught in schools, but makes no protest about the Islamic school usage during Ramadan

Or: you live in a city and when reading the paper, watching TV or talking to a friend find out that Muslims are making demands that we change to accommodate Islam. You feel helpless and afraid. Everything about these events seem wrong, but no one in the media or government will even give guidance on how to protect our very civilization.

Multi-culturalism says that even wanting to preserve your culture is biased thinking. Political correctness says that any talk about Islam that is negative or judgemental is hate speech or racist.We really don’t even know exactly what it is we are losing, but we are losing. We are losing a war that is not allowed to be spoken of.

We must form a political community. We must have organizations that works at the pure grass-roots.First and foremost, we need ways to teach people what is going on. Islam will make demands on every area of our lives. Education, politics, customs, medicine, art, law, funding will all have demands and pressure to change to be more Islamic.

National Politics [ACT! for America having a congressional lobbyist backed by the national grassroots organization, which will effect change]
Saudia Arabia and other Islamic nations spend billions of dollars each year to spread Islam in the US. And what do we have to oppose this multi-billion dollar political organization with a 40-year head start? A few volunteers with no budget and no support. Who is going to win?

We must have national organizations that can support local politics. We must lobby about national issues such as immigration and the massive Federal welfare programs for Muslims.This means money. We must move from amateur status to professional status. We must also have state and local organizations that can deal with lobbying at the state and local level.

 

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ACT for America
P.O. Box 6884
Virginia Beach, VA 23456
www.actforamerica.org