Archive

Archive for March, 2012

Experts: 1-in-8 Chance of a Solar ‘Megastorm’ by 2014, Trillions in Damage, Cities Blacked Out For Up to a Year

03/05/2012 Leave a comment

By Martin Robinson and Rob Waugh – “There is a one in eight chance of a solar ‘megastorm’ before 2014, according to a Californian scientist – and other space weather experts agree that Earth is facing a burst of violent activity that will peak within two years.

It’s unknown what effects this could have on our planet – but scientists have analysed the worst recorded solar event in history, 1859’s Carrington Event, and worked out what effects a similar event would have now.

In our connected, satellite-reliant electronic age, the effects would be devastating, they say, as it would disrupt global communications and take out power sources, and could cause up to $2 trillion of damage.

They fear the sun could now be entering a two year ‘hurricane season’ of solar storms, and the star flared violently on Valentine’s Day this year.

‘We live in a cyber cocoon enveloping the Earth. Imagine what the consequences might be,’ Daniel Baker, of the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics told National Geographic when asked about a potential ‘megastorm’.

‘Every time you purchase a gallon of gas with your credit card, that’s a satellite transaction.

‘Imagine large cities without power for a week, a month, or a year. The losses could be $1 to $2 trillion, and the effects could be felt for years.'” Read more.

Spaceweather – Strong Solar Activity – “Solar activity is now high. Big sunspot AR1429, which emerged on March 2nd, is crackling with strong flares. This morning brought the strongest so far–an X1-class eruption on March 5th at 0413 UT. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash… The explosion also hurled a bright CME into space. According to analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the CME will probably miss Earth, although it will hit Mercury and Venus. An animated forecast track shows the likely progression of the cloud.” Read more.

Flashback: NASA Scientists: Solar Storms Beginning 2012 Could Be Unprecedented, Create an ‘Avalanche of Blackouts Carried Across Continents’ – “NASA officials said Wednesday that Earth is likely to face a barrage of increasingly common solar storms over the course of 2012 and 2013… An avalanche of blackouts carried across continents by long-distance power lines could last for weeks to months as engineers struggle to repair damaged transformers, NASA officials say. Planes and ships could face problems with GPS, and banking and financial networks might go offline.” Read more.

Categories: Cosmic Craziness

German Media: North Korea May Have Already Tested Nuclear Warheads For Iran

03/05/2012 Leave a comment

Maybe this is the reason why Iran almost seems to want, even provoke, an Israeli attack. Germany’s “Weiner Zeitung” released an article today that has, at the very least, confirmed what I’ve already suspected for quite some time (see here and here and here): It has been revealed that Western intelligence agencies are under the belief that North Korea has been conducting nuclear tests — not (only) for itself — but for Iran. But should this really be a surprise to anyone? Iran has a long history of using proxies to do its dirty work, from Hezbollah in Lebanon, to Hamas in Gaza, and even with Al Qaeda, so North Korea is a logical choice. Why this is only being reported now is anyone’s guess, but if confirmed, widespread dissemination of this news would certainly be a game changer that would cause the markets to rightfully fear — and reflect — a certain, if not imminent, all-out war …

Weiner Zeitung (Google translation): “North Korea on Sunday also caused by a German media report caused a sensation. The ‘Welt am Sonntag’ reported, citing Western security circles, some intelligence agencies assumed that the government in Pyongyang had conducted at least one of these tests for Iran.

This would mean that Tehran has been built with North Korean help, and ignited a nuclear warhead. According to the newspaper ‘Welt am Sonntag’, this assumption is based on data from the Organization of the contract for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban. Accordingly, the Swedish nuclear physicist Lars-Erik De Geer is based on data from monitoring stations in South Korea, Japan and Russia believe that North Korea instead of the two secret uranium tests as in two earlier tests in 2006 and 2009 used plutonium. In January, reported the journal ‘Nature’ in advance of de Geer research results.

The longtime director of the Policy Planning Staff in the German Defense Ministry, Hans Rühle, writes in the ‘Welt am Sonntag’ that ‘some of which now go out intelligence that North Korea has actually conducted a nuclear test in 2010, at least for Iran.'” Read more.

Flashback: Hundreds of North Korean Nuclear and Missile Experts Working in More Than 10 Locations Across Iran – “Hundreds of North Korean nuclear and missile experts have been collaborating with their Iranian counterparts in more than 10 locations across the Islamic state, a diplomatic source said Sunday. The revelation lends credence to long-held suspicions that North Korea was helping Iran with a secret nuclear and missile program. It also represents a new security challenge to the international community as it seeks to curb the nuclear ambitions of Pyongyang and Tehran, and thwart trading of nuclear and missile technology. North Korea has long been suspected of being behind nuclear and missile proliferation in Iran, Syria, Myanmar and Pakistan.” Read more.

Flashback: Iran Warns World of Coming Great Event, ‘Islam Will Be Victorious’ – “Amid crippling sanctions over its nuclear weapons program, Iran is continuing to prepare itself for war against the West, and now is warning of a coming great event. ‘In light of the realization of the divine promise by almighty God, the Zionists and the Great Satan (America) will soon be defeated,’ Ayatollah Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader, is warning. Khamenei, speaking to hundreds of youths from more than 70 countries attending a world conference on the Arab Spring just days ago, told a cheering crowd in Tehran that ‘Allah’s promises will be delivered and Islam will be victorious.’” Read more.

Flashback: Tehran’s deputy defense minister warns Jerusalem that Iran is ‘ready and willing to wipe Israel off the map’ – “As speculations over a possible strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities grow, the Islamic Republic is exacerbating its rhetoric. Deputy Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi on Friday warned Israel against mounting such an attack: ‘Any act by the Zionist regime against Iran will bring about its destruction.’ … ‘Iran’s warriors are ready and willing to wipe Israel off the map,’ he declared.” Read more.

London Telegraph Reports ‘Netanyahu to Tell Obama: Attack Iran – Or Else’, WND Reports ‘Israel Shelves Iran Military Option’

03/04/2012 Leave a comment

Is the London Telegraph over-interpolating? Is WND misinterpreting Israel’s UN ambassador? Or do two seemingly contradictory articles mean something else is in play? …

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, Israel National News – “Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will deliver President Barack Obama an ultimatum that if the United States does not attack Iran soon, Israel will, the London Telegraph reported Sunday.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said last month that there is a ‘strong likelihood’ of an Israel attack by June. If Prime Minister Netanyahu delivers an ultimatum, it would give the United States 2-3 months to act or face the reality of an Israeli attack that would almost certainly require the United States coming to its aid, if necessary.

Israeli officials have said that in several months, Iran will have buried so many of its nuclear facilities deep under concrete bunkers in mountains that an attack would not be effective.

The Israeli Prime Minister ‘has the upper hand,’ claims the Telegraph’s correspondent Adrian Blomfield.

‘Exuding confidence, Mr. Netanyahu effectively brings with him an ultimatum, demanding that unless the president makes a firm pledge to use U.S. military force to prevent Iran acquiring a nuclear bomb, Israel may well take matters into its own hands within months,’ wrote Blomfield.” Read more.

Israel Shelves Iran Military Option, WorldNet Daily – “Ron Prosor, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations says Jerusalem believes diplomacy is the preferred course to resolve the current nuclear standoff with Iran. ‘We should really pursue and focus on the sanctions and the diplomatic elements in trying to bring the regime in Tehran to reassess the way they want to go forward,’ explained the Israeli diplomat. The emphasis on the diplomatic option would appear to be a shift toward the position of the Obama administration which has stressed stepping up the diplomatic and economic pressure on the regime of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.” Read more.

Turkey: Erdogan’s Reforms Mean Less Schooling, More Qur’an

03/04/2012 Leave a comment

ANSAmed – “The goals of an education reform bill introduced by the Islamic party of Turkey’s Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan have been characterised by opposition parties as aiming to halve the length of compulsory schooling to promote more Koranic schools and veil wearing. The opposition secular press, trades unionists and other commentators, have for a month now, but especially over the past two days, been aiming their criticisms at the Islamic tendencies of the reforms of alleged faults in the country’s education system. Today the countries confederation of industry, the TUSIAD, has joined in the chorus of protest. The bill would in effect abolish the present laws obliging children to attend school for eight years, halving them to the period of primary education alone.

Although this radical move is softened by the offer of distance learning, critics are calling it an incentive to quit school, especially in the less developed eastern areas of the country, and in cultural milieu where the ban on wearing the veil inside school premises meets strongest resistance. The ban comes from the secular, Western stamp given to Turkey’s constitution in the 1930s by the country’s founder Kemal Ataturk. A reduction in the number of years of compulsory education would also promote the so-called ‘Imam Hatip Lisesi’, the religious Islamic schools, like the one in which Mr Erdogan was educated. Following its third electoral victory in succession, with nearly 50% of votes cast, Erdogan’s single-party pro-Islamic government has already abolished the minimum age requirement for attendance at such schools and this reform would encourage children to give up attending their secular secondary schools in favour of religious institutions which now would take over some of the functions of the grammar schools.” Read more.

Turkey: Journalist in isolation for a year – “One of the most well-known of the more than a hundred Turkish journalists in prison, Mustafa Balbay, has been in isolation for a year, according to the Turkish newspaper Vatan, which has focussed its attention on the detainment of journalists, one of the most widely-criticised aspects of Turkish democracy, which aspires to be a model for the Middle East. The newspaper says that Balbay has been in prison for almost three years (since March 6 2009) and until last year was the cellmate of another journalist awaiting sentencing, Tuncay Ozkan, who was arrested earlier still (in September 2007).” Read more.

Turkey: Women’s protection law watered down – “Concepts such as ‘equality of woman and man,’ ‘de facto equality,’ ‘gender equality in society,’ and ‘domestic violence’ were removed from the draft law. Funny how that keeps happening: resistance to reforms in favor of protection and expansion of women’s rights in Islamic societies routinely invokes Islamic law and principles. The proverbial elephant in the room is the content of Qur’an 4:34: ‘Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other …'” Read more.

Flashback: Turkey: Muslims Subjecting More Christians to Discrimination and Attacks, Followers of Christ Vilified in Media, Textbooks – “Despite some promising developments, Christians in Turkey continue to suffer attacks from private citizens, discrimination by lower-level government officials and vilification in both school textbooks and news media, according to a study by a Protestant group. In its annual ‘Report on Human Rights Violations,’ released in January, the country’s Association of Protestant Churches notes mixed indicators of improvement but states that there is a ‘root of intolerance’ in Turkish society toward adherents of non-Islamic faiths.” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam

Ohio-Based ‘American Center for Islamic Research’ Founder: War with the US – Why Not? Allah Is On Our Side and Will Obliterate America

03/04/2012 1 comment

This is the same “religion of peace” advocate who issued a religious decree last year stating that “Every Muslim who meets a Zionist is entitled to kill him” …

Sallah Sultan: “By the grace of Allah, we broke the backs of Hosni Mubarak and his henchmen. Can we not do the same with regard to this gang of cowardly sons of Zion? Allah said about them: ‘They will not fight you, save from fortified cities or from behind walls.'”

Host: “But if we fight Israel, we would be fighting the US as well …”

Sallah Sultan: “Why not? Indeed, we will fight Israel and all those who are behind it. Even if Europe in its entirety is behind it … The people of Gaza are wretched, but they are lions. They are real men. Did they not humiliate the US, Europe, and anybody who ever gave weapons, money, and aid to the Zionist entity? They entered Gaza in order to defeat it, but they were defeated themselves. Wasn’t Israel defeated in Lebanon and vanquished in Gaza?”

Host: “True.”

Sallah Sultan: “Allah is present in this equation, and He is capable of obliterating America and any other oppressor. This is a divine law… He will deliver a mortal blow [to America] at a time when no one expects it.”

Afghanistan: Beast Worshiper Declares Qur’an Burning Incident Convinced Him To Become Suicide Bomber, ‘It Is Running In My Blood’

03/04/2012 Leave a comment

Revelation 6:8a, “And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him …”

Reuters – “Matihullah, 24, had always dreamed of becoming a lawyer. Then news spread that Western soldiers had burned many copies of the Muslim holy book at a NATO base in Afghanistan.

He gave up his studies and embarked on a new mission in life — to become a suicide bomber.

‘Since the desecration and burnings of holy books of the Koran, I have been burning with the desire of revenge. It is running in my blood,’ said Matihullah, wearing the traditional white skull cap worn by many Afghans.

‘I have two other brothers to take care of our family and I feel very proud to get my revenge.’ The desecration of the Korans, which the United States described as unintentional, triggered widespread protests in which 30 people were killed. Afghan security forces turned their weapons on American soldiers.

Two senior US officers were shot dead at their desks in the heart of the Interior Ministry by what Afghan security officials said was a police intelligence officer, stunning NATO and the Kabul government.

The incident also raised the possibility that Afghanistan could see more suicide bombings — one of the Taliban’s most effective weapons — by those who have concluded that is the only way justice can be served.

‘I couldn’t do any harm to the Americans by protesting and throwing stones,’ said Matihullah. ‘I want to put on the suicide vest and blow them apart.'” Read more.

Nigeria: Islamists Declare War on Christianity, Plans to Eradicate Christians, Claims Gov’t ‘Cannot Be Prepared for What is to Come’

03/04/2012 2 comments

By David Eto – “LAGOS: A Nigerian spokesman for the Islamic militant group Boko Haram told Bikyamasr.com on Sunday that they are planning a ‘war’ on Christians in the next few weeks.

According to the spokesman, speaking via telephone from northern Nigeria, the group ‘will launch a number of attacks, coordinated and part of the plan to eradicate Christians from certain parts of the country.’

Boko Haram have taken responsibility for a number of bomb attacks on Christian churches across the country since a Christmas Day bombing left dozens of people killed.

The government has promised to crackdown on the group and has deployed military units across the country in an attempt to curtail the Islamic group’s activities, arresting and killing a number of members in recent weeks.

But the spokesman said the government ‘cannot be prepared for what is to come.’

He said, without giving specific details, ‘we will create so much effort to end the Christian presence in our push to have a proper Islamic state that the Christians won’t be able to stay.'” Read more.

Flashback: Islamist Leader in Nigeria: ‘I Enjoy Killing Anyone that God Commands Me to Kill the Way I Enjoy Killing Chickens and Rams’ – “Abubakar Muhammad Shekau was once thought to have been killed, but has re-emerged to lead Islamist group Boko Haram from the shadows as it carries out a bloody onslaught in northern Nigeria… A video released on YouTube earlier this month portrayed a markedly different man compared to earlier images — he appeared considerably heavier, for example — but a Western diplomat said ‘we assessed it was Shekau.’ He was seen as the second-in-command of Boko Haram at the time of a 2009 uprising put down by a brutal military assault which left some 800 people dead… In another part of the message, he says, ‘I enjoy killing anyone that God commands me to kill the way I enjoy killing chickens and rams.’” Read more.

Fukushima – Did We Almost Lose Tokyo?

03/04/2012 Leave a comment

RT: “Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear joins Thom Hartmann. In a little over a week – we’ll hit the one-year anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that triggered a nuclear crisis at Fukushima in Japan. And this week – we’re learning that that nuclear crisis is even worse than was originally thought. On Wednesday – Japanese Scientists announced that twice as much radioactive cesium than estimated blew out of the plant after the earthquake and tsunami. That’s about 40,000 trillion bequerels. And it took just 18 days for those radioactive particles to encircle the planet – turning up in places as far away as Vermont. French scientists are now calling on Japan to remain vigilant in its inspections of fruit, milk, and game to prevent further radiation contamination.”

Flashback: Some parts of Tokyo now as contaminated as the worst area of Chernobyl – “The contamination level of Mizumoto Park turned out to be the same level of ‘off-limits zone’ in Chernobyl. The contamination level of the park was 23,300 Bq/Kg. According to Nuclear Safety Commission, it is converted to be 1.4 ~1.5 million Bq/m2. In Chernobyl, if the area is more contaminated than 1.48 million Bq/m2, it was labelled as off-limits zone, which was the worst level of the pollution. Because cesium doesn’t choose Mizumoto park intentionally, at least some parts are contaminated as the worst area of Chernobyl.” Read more.

Categories: Natural Disasters

Assad Threatens Israel With Missiles if Syria is Attacked

03/04/2012 Leave a comment

By Elad Benari – “Syrian President Bashar Assad has ordered the heads of his military to hit Israel with a barrage of missiles should there be any foreign intervention in Syria, a Jordanian news website reported on Saturday.

According to the site, Our Country’s News, Assad gave the order in a secret meeting with the heads of the Syrian army last Thursday, in light of his fear of a U.S. military strike in Syria.

The report said that Assad ordered that if any military action is started against Syria, the Syrian army should respond by firing missiles in Israel, with a particular emphasis on Israeli military airports.

The report added that an operations room has been opened in Damascus and that it is continuously manned by officers from Syria and Iran, as well as by Hizbullah terrorists, all of whom coordinate their military operations in the event of external military intervention in Syria.

A similar operations room has been opened in Tehran, said the report, and is manned by Iranian as well as by Hizbullah terrorists.” Read more.

Shhhh: State Department Quietly Warning Region About Syrian Weapons of Mass Destruction – “The State Department has begun coordinating with Syria’s neighbors to prepare for the handling of President Bashar al-Assad’s extensive WMD assets if and when his regime collapses, The Cable has learned. This week, the State Department sent a diplomatic demarche to Syria’s neighbors Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia, warning them about the possibility of Syria’s WMDs crossing their borders and offering U.S. government help in dealing with the problem, three Obama administration officials confirmed to The Cable.” Read more.

NASA: Asteroid 150 – 200 Feet in Diameter with the Destructive Power of a Thermonuclear Bomb May Hit Earth in February 2013

03/04/2012 3 comments

“To avert a possible catastrophe – this time set for February 2013 – scientists suggest confronting asteroid 2012 DA14 with either paint or big guns. The stickler is that time has long run out to build a spaceship to carry out the operation.

NASA’s data shows the 60-meter asteroid, spotted by Spanish stargazers in February, will whistle by Earth in 11 months. Its trajectory will bring it within a hair’s breadth of our planet, raising fears of a possible collision.

The asteroid, known as DA14, will pass by our planet in February 2013 at a distance of under 27,000 km (16,700 miles). This is closer than the geosynchronous orbit of some satellites.

There is a possibility the asteroid will collide with Earth, but further calculation is required to estimate the potential threat and work out how to avert possible disaster, NASA expert Dr. David Dunham told students at Russia’s University of Electronics and Mathematics.

‘The Earth’s gravitational field will alter the asteroid’s path significantly. Further scrupulous calculation is required to estimate the threat of collision,’ said Dr. Dunham, as transcribed by Russia’s Izvestia. ‘The asteroid may break into dozens of small pieces, or several large lumps may split from it and burn up in the atmosphere. The type of the asteroid and its mineral structure can be determined by spectral analysis. This will help predict its behavior in the atmosphere and what should be done to prevent the potential threat,’ said Dr. Dunham.

In the event of a collision, scientists have calculated that the energy released would equate to the destructive power of a thermo-nuclear bomb.” Read more.

Categories: Cosmic Craziness

Daylight: New Film Blasts Obama’s Israel Record, ‘This Is Not How You Treat An Ally’

03/03/2012 1 comment

By Josh Rogin – “One day before the AIPAC conference kicks off in Washington, an anti-Obama pro-Israel group is widening its criticism of President Barack Obama’s record on Israel — while the White House defends its treatment of the relationship.

The trailer for a new 30-minute video, entitled ‘Daylight: The Story of Obama and Israel,’ cuts together clips of Obama quotes and outside commentary to put forth the narrative that Obama has made statements and taken actions as president that have put him out of step with the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his supporters.

‘We believe that that the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines,’ Obama is shown saying, a reference to his May, 2011 speech, where he for the first time explicitly defined U.S. policy as supporting the 1967 borders with agreed swaps as the basis for Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

‘He didn’t quite have a full grasp of what the full region looks like,’ conservative journalist Lee Smith is shown saying in the video. ‘This is not how you treat an ally.’

The ad goes beyond the Israeli issue to suggest that the president is too solicitous of Muslim concerns. The end of the trailer shows Obama saying, ‘I want to make sure we end before the call to prayer,’ a clip from his town hall meeting with Turkish students in Istanbul in April 2009.” Read more.

Flashback: Israeli Prime Minister Slams Obama: The Arab World Is Moving Backward, Not Forward – “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday blasted Israeli and world politicians who support the Arab Spring revolutions and accused the Arab world of ‘moving not forward, but backward.’… Netanyahu also slammed Western leaders, and especially U.S. President Barak Obama, who had pushed Mubarak to resign from power. At the time this was happening Netanyahu said in closed talks that the American administration and many European leaders don’t understand reality.” Read more.

Flashback: Netanyahu associate: Obama detached from regional realities – “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s associates expressed their disappointment with Barack Obama’s speech Thursday, with one aide saying that the US president is detached from regional realities… Referring to the US president’s Mideast policy speech, a Netanyahu associate said: ‘He (Obama) didn’t deliver the goods…Obama apparently does not understand the reality in the Mideast.’” Read more.

Categories: Anything Else

Iraq: Christian Teacher Killed by Muslim Student in the Kurdish City of Sulaimaniyah

03/02/2012 Leave a comment

“COSMOPOLIS, Wash. (AP) – The Muslim 11th-grader in northern Iraq approached her Christian teacher one day last fall and declared quietly, ‘I don’t know what to do.’ She’d been reading about Jesus and believed what she read, she explained, but her parents would never let her become a Christian.

The teacher, Jeremiah Small, responded in what those who knew him described as a characteristically thoughtful manner.

‘I encouraged her to consider what she had read and explained that it wasn’t my place to tell her to be a Christian,’ he wrote in an email to friends that day, asking them to pray for her conversion. ‘Keep reading and let the object of your faith take shape and its character be proven.’

Small, of Cosmopolis in southwestern Washington, was shot to death Thursday at the Classical School of the Medes, a private Christian academy in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq’s most peaceful region. The gunman, an 18-year-old, then shot himself in the head as other students scattered from the room.

No motive was evident; students reported that a brief quarrel preceded the shooting, but the cause was unclear.

Nashville, Tenn.-based Servant Group International, which employed him, said it was stunned. Small had taught history and literature at the school since 2005, returning year after year because of the changes and hope he saw in the lives of his students, the organization said in a news release.

‘He was a beloved teacher and friend,’ the statement said. ‘His love for his students extended beyond the classroom, and he regularly led hiking trips, camping trips and other outdoor activities with the students.’

Small was the eldest of seven siblings from a deeply religious family. His parents, Dan and Rebecca, ran the Shiloh Bible Camp in Cosmopolis for about a decade. Dan Small confirmed his son’s death on his Facebook page, writing, ‘Our oldest, Jeremiah was martyred in Kurdistan this a.m.,’ though it wasn’t clear if there was a religious motive for the killing.

Jeff Dokkestul, a board member at Servant Group International, insisted that the purpose of the three Medes schools in the region is to provide a classical education – not to proselytize to the students, who are overwhelmingly Muslim. His organization provides some of the curriculum and teachers, he said.

Servant Group’s website lists its mission: ‘Through outreach, education, and discipleship, SGI teams work to share the truth and beauty of Jesus with our Muslim friends. Our hope is to see the gospel bless and transform Muslim families and communities for generations to come.'” Read more.