Russia sends tanks and troops into Ukraine, seizes a strategic town

Russian tanks and troops fired their way into eastern Ukraine on Thursday and seized a strategic gateway town on the road to the heavily militarized Crimean peninsula in a brazen display of support for pro-Russia separatists fighting Ukrainian government troops. Defense officials in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, said two armored Russian columns burst across the border into southern Ukraine at midday and rolled over the town of Novoazovsk on the Sea of Azov, opening a new front in the 5-month-old separatist battle.

 The government’s account was bolstered by satellite photos released by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization showing convoys of tanks and armored vehicles entering Ukraine from Russia's Rostov region over the last two weeks. Also exposing Russia’s hand in the Ukraine crisis, a key separatist leader said in an interview with Russian state television that at least 3,000 Russian citizens, most of them military veterans or active-duty soldiers on leave, have been fighting in Ukraine on the side of the insurgents. “They are fighting with us, understanding that it is their duty,” Alexander Zakharchenko, the leader of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, told Russian state television in an interview aired Thursday.

 The evidence of Russian troops and hardware on the territory of sovereign Ukraine undermined Russian President Vladimir Putin’s steadfast denials that Russia has been arming and instigating the anti-Kiev uprising, which has taken more than 2,000 lives since April. President Obama deemed the Russian military intrusion into Ukraine proof, “if there was ever any doubt, that Russia is responsible for the violence in Ukraine.” “This is not a homegrown, indigenous uprising in eastern Ukraine,” Obama told a White House news briefing. “The separatists are backed, trained, armed, financed by Russia.”

 He said Russia was now “more isolated than at any time since the Cold War” and that the latest provocation would lead to a toughening of sanctions, which have already spooked investors who are pulling billions out of the Russian economy. French President Francois Hollande said the presence of Russian troops in eastern Ukraine was unacceptable. “If the escalation continues, European Union sanctions will remain and could even be strengthened,” he warned.

http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-ukraine-russia-invasion-20140828-story.html

Ukraine Accuses Russia of Invasion

Kiev Orders Draft Reinstated as Obama Rules Out U.S. Military Response; Putin Remains Defiant

Kiev and its Western backers accused Moscow of sending Russian troops and armor to fight alongside rebels in eastern Ukraine, dimming hopes for a diplomatic solution to the crisis and prompting the U.S. and Europe to threaten new sanctions. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko convened an emergency meeting of his security chiefs Thursday and vowed that "Ukraine can defend itself." He dispatched troops to meet the Russian-backed advance as his government ordered the reinstatement of a draft this fall—though it pledged not to send conscripts into the war zone.

 But while officials in Kiev called on Western capitals for support, including military aid, the initial reaction from the U.S. and Europe included expressions of frustration with the Kremlin but no immediate action. President Barack Obama ruled out a U.S. military response but said that the escalating incursion into Ukraine would bring more costs for Moscow. "It is not in the cards for us to see a military confrontation between Russia and the United States in this region," he said at a White House news conference.

 In an apparent sign of defiance, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued an appeal to the separatists early Friday, hailing their successes on the battlefield and calling on them to open corridors to allow encircled Ukrainian troops to escape. He demanded Kiev end its military operation immediately. His appeal used the word "Novorossiya," a czarist-era term for lands including much of what is now southern and eastern Ukraine that has been taken up by the separatists. Mr. Putin first used the term publicly in the spring, but he had since dropped it from official statements until Friday.

 Mr. Obama didn't detail any new consequences that the Kremlin might face, but the White House said later that he had discussed the situation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and agreed that it was necessary to consider additional economic sanctions on Russia. "We want a diplomatic solution; we won't let up in this," Ms. Merkel said earlier in Berlin. "But we must observe that things in recent days have become more difficult and have deteriorated." The White House also said Mr. Obama would host Mr. Poroshenko in mid-September to show the U.S. commitment to stand with Ukraine. In Brussels, diplomats said a summit of European leaders set for Saturday could lay the groundwork for widening economic sanctions, but that there doesn't appear to be support for sweeping new measures.

 Mr. Obama also said further actions would be discussed at a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit next week in the U.K. Russia's latest moves suggested that the sanctions so far weren't enough to serve as a deterrence, despite helping to push its economy into recession. The Russian benchmark Micex equity index fell 2% on the tensions, while the ruble weakened to the lowest level against the dollar in nearly six months. A senior NATO official said Thursday that more than 1,000 Russian troops were fighting alongside the separatists in eastern Ukraine, by far the largest such force ever reported by the alliance. But he stopped short of calling it an invasion, saying it represented an "incursion" apparently aimed at preventing Kiev's forces from defeating the rebels.

 NATO also released new satellite photos that it said showed Russian forces engaged in military operations in Ukraine. The photos showed Russian self-propelled artillery units moving through the Ukrainian countryside and setting up firing positions in the area of Krasnodon, NATO said. This and other evidence shows "a severe escalation in the situation" over the past two weeks, said Brig. Gen. Nico Tak, head of NATO's crisis-management center. NATO planned to hold an emergency meeting on Friday at the request of Ukraine.

 At a U.N. Security Council meeting, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin did not deny there were Russians fighting in Ukraine, but said they were volunteers. "No one is hiding that," he said. Mr. Obama called the moves a continuation what Russia has done for months. "Russia determined that it had to be a little more overt in what it had already been doing, but it's not really a shift," the president said. A Ukrainian diplomat at the United Nations, Oleksandr Pavlichenko, urged the West to act urgently. "How many more red lines are to be crossed before this challenge is addressed?" he said.

More: http://online.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-accuses-russia-of-invasion-west-to-consider-sanctions-1409222768?tesla=y

Hitler's Nightmare: Part 1 of 5

Hitler's Nightmare: Part 1 of 5

Hitler's Nightmare: Part 1 of 5

Hitler's Nightmare: Part 1 of 5

Iranian General Threatens Surprise Attack on Israel

Iranian military leaders on Tuesday vowed that Tehran would take military action against Israel in response to an alleged Israeli drone that was shot down in Iran on Sunday. Iran “will not give a diplomatic response,” but will air its grievances with Israel on the “battlefield,” senior Iranian generals were quoted as saying on Tuesday. “Our response to this aggression will not be diplomatic, we will retaliate in the battlefield, but will not necessarily announce it,” Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the Lieutenant Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) was quoted as saying during a ceremony on Tuesday meant to commemorate “martyred” Iranian military personnel. “The enemy will see and understand it,” Salami was quoted as saying by the semi official Fars News Agency. “We never step back (in the confrontation) against the enemy. The Islamic Republic is powerful and is capable of confronting any power at any level and we never bring down the level of our goals.”

 The threat of a surprise attack against Israel for its apparent attempts to send a spy drone into Tehran came just a day after Iranian government officials threatened to sue Israel in the International Criminal Court. Iranian military leaders announced over the weekend that they had used a surface-to-air missile to shoot down a drone that it claimed was an Israeli-made Hermes 450 unmanned plane. The drone was allegedly on its way to the Natanz nuclear enrichment site, which is believed to be part of Iran’s clandestine attempts to build a nuclear weapon.

 “This hostile action is a violation of Iran’s territorial integrity and sovereignty,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham was quoted as saying Monday by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). Afkham also hinted that military action is being considered by Tehran. “Iran has the right to take the necessary defensive action and pursue the case in international legal courts,” IRNA reported Afkham as saying. Other IRGC officials also have adopted the rhetoric of war and slammed Israel in vitriolic terms following the incident. “This mischievous attempt once again made the adventurous nature of the Zionist regime more evident and added another black page to the dark record of this fake and warmongering regime, which is full of crimes and wickedness,” the IRGC said in a statement reported by Al-Manar News.

 The IRGC claimed that it “reserves the right of response and retaliation for itself,” according to the statement. IRGC leader Salami claimed that Tehran has definitive proof the drone was made by Israel and claimed that it had not originated from the Jewish state, but another nearby country. “What some people say that the drone had started its flight from Israel is not correct and we are almost certain about its origin, yet we would like to reserve judgment at present,” Salami was quoted as saying during a press conference on Tuesday. Iranian military leaders apparently spotted the drone on its border but permitted it to “enter the country to see the intention (of the hostile forces operating it) and then we targeted and hit it at the right time,” Salami said, according to Fars. Salami further claimed that the technology in the drone is not unfamiliar to Iran, which has itself built several indigenous models of drones, some of which are believed to be based off of a downed U.S. drone reportedly captured in 2013. The U.S. State Department has remained quiet thus far when confronted with questions about the incident. When asked on Monday if she could confirm that an Israeli drone was downed by Iran, State Department Spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki demurred. “I don’t have anything to update you on that front,” Psaki said. “My apologies.”

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/iranian-general-threatens-surprise-attack-on-israel/

Hamas and Israel Agree to Extended Gaza Cease-Fire

GAZA CITY — Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday reached a long-term cease-fire after seven weeks of fighting, according to officials on both sides, halting the longest, bloodiest battle either side has experienced in years — but without resolving many of the bigger issues underlying the conflict.

 “Israel has once again accepted an Egyptian proposal for a complete cease-fire,” a senior Israeli official said on the condition of anonymity. “This cease-fire is unlimited in time.” Shouts of “God is great” rang out from mosque loudspeakers across Gaza City, as people fired gunshots into the air to celebrate. “We declare the victory of the Palestinian resistance, the victory of Gaza,”
 Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for the militant Hamas movement that dominates Gaza and led the Palestinian militants’ operation, announced at a news conference at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. “We achieved some of our instantaneous demands out of this battle.” The agreement came on the 50th day of a conflict that has killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and destroyed thousands of homes and other buildings across Gaza, displacing at least a third of its 1.7 million residents.

 On the Israeli side, 64 soldiers and five civilians were killed – the last one even as the cease-fire was being announced, as mortar rounds from Gaza struck near a swimming pool on a kibbutz just beyond its border. People familiar with the agreement said it would ease but not lift Israeli restrictions on travel and trade, largely reviving the terms of a 2012 cease-fire agreement that ended an eight-day air war. It also will allow construction materials and humanitarian aid to enter Gaza in large quantities for a major rebuilding effort, with a monitoring mechanism to ensure that concrete and cement would go only to civilian purposes. “We’re not interested in allowing Hamas to rebuild its military machine,” the senior Israeli official said. Other issues — including Hamas’s demand for a Gaza seaport and airport, Israel’s demand for Gaza’s demilitarization, and the return of Israeli soldiers’ remains believed to be in Hamas’s hands — were to be addressed after a month if the truce holds, people familiar with the agreement said.

 Drafts of a document outlining cease-fire terms had been passed back and forth throughout the day on Tuesday, even as Israeli airstrikes killed at least half a dozen people in Gaza and felled two high-rise buildings. More than 100 rockets from Gaza also rained down on Israel’s battered south, continuing even beyond the 7 p.m. deadline that some officials said marked the onset of the cease-fire. The mortar that killed the Israeli around 6:30 p.m. wounded six others, two of them seriously, according to a spokesman for the Israeli police.

 In Ashkelon, the Israeli city less than 10 miles from Gaza, a long-range rocket destroyed one home, damaged dozens of others and sent 20 injured people to the hospital, the most in a single strike this summer. The rocket smashed through the red-tile roof of the home where Yuval and Ofra Cohen had lived for 10 years with their children, now 14 and 17, according to the Israeli police and Ynet, an Israeli news site. Continue reading the main story “We hadn’t managed to make it into the safe room when it fell in our bedroom,” Mr. Cohen said in an interview on Army Radio. “It caught us in the children’s room, all the shrapnel and the dust and all of the glass. I don’t know how we escaped without harm, it’s a miracle.”

 In Gaza, the Health Ministry said two people were killed in an afternoon airstrike in east Gaza City. Two others died in a drone attack in the territory’s north, and two more were killed in an airstrike at dawn, the ministry said. Voice of Palestine radio said that more than 20 homes had been destroyed overnight. Israel’s felling of two Gaza City towers took place in the early hours on Tuesday, after having destroyed an 11-story Gaza City apartment tower on Saturday.  Assessing the Damage and Destruction in Gaza The high-rise destroyed on Tuesday, known as the Italian Compound, had 13 floors, with four apartments on each floor. It rose above an 80,000-square-foot mall with seven shisha cafes surrounding a garden and shops selling shoes, pharmaceuticals and mobile-phone accessories, as well as the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Public Works. It was one of Gaza’s finest residential buildings, with 24-hour guards, and generators and wells to keep the elevator running and taps flowing when electricity and water ran short. On Tuesday morning, the apartment line on the southeast corner and the elevator shaft were all that was left after a series of Israeli airstrikes that started after midnight, injuring about a dozen residents and leaving 40 families homeless.

 “We spent the whole night in the street outside because it was dangerous to move,” said Hani Ashi, 44, who bought his 1,750-square-foot apartment on the tower’s fifth floor for $63,000 four years ago. Mr. Ashi said he had fled in shorts and a sleeveless undershirt, carrying only his family’s identity cards and a jalabiya, or cloak, which he donned when he got outside.

FULL STORY: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/27/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-strip-conflict.html

The West Forgets History. Putin Repeats It

By outsourcing the Ukraine problem to Germany, the U.S. echoes 19th century mistakes that led to repeated conflicts.

Hapless in response to Vladimir Putin's wars, successive American leaders are left puzzling over the Russian's place in time. "Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century," said President George W. Bush in August 2008, after Russia's invasion of Georgia. When the Russian force of "little green men" took Ukraine's Crimea last February, Secretary of State John Kerry exclaimed, "You just don't in the 21st century behave in 19th-century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext." Mr. Putin has proved impervious to complaints about his outdated behavior. On Monday morning, Ukraine reported that a column of 10 Russian tanks and a couple of armored vehicles charged over Ukraine's southeastern border into areas held by Russian rebels. Russian artillery now fire at Ukrainian military positions from inside Ukraine's territory, NATO said on Friday. Ignoring objections from Kiev, Russia announced its intentions to send a second "humanitarian aid" convoy in a week of military trucks dressed in white, bringing and taking who knows what. As the military pressure grows on the pro-Western government in Kiev, the Europeans are adding their own. Plainly anxious that these latest escalations risk a replay of 20th century wars, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday turned up in Kiev to push for an accommodation with Moscow. The chancellor pressed the Ukrainians to cease fire and ruled out new EU sanctions against Russia. So Mr. Putin comes into talks Tuesday in Minsk with Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko with fresh leverage.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/matthew-kaminski-the-west-forgets-history-putin-repeats-it-1409008065

Report: U.S. begins surveillance flights over Syria

U.S. surveillance flights over Syria have started with President Obama's go ahead, a step that will provide potential targets if airstrikes against Islamic State militants are approved.

 The Associated Press reported Tuesday that an unnamed U.S. official said the flights had begun. USA TODAY reported Monday that the flights will provide information on potential targets for strikes in Syria if Obama approves. White House officials declined Tuesday morning to comment on the status of the flights. "We're not going to comment on intelligence or operational issues, as we've been saying, we'll use all the tools at our disposal," said Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the National Security Council. "While the president has not made a decision to take additional military actions at this time, we don't restrict our options by geographic boundaries when it comes to the central mission of protecting our people."

 The initiative to plan intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions over Syria was contained in the execution order that allowed for the airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq, according to a Defense Department official speaking on condition of anonymity because the details were not authorized to be released publicly.

 Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would not confirm or deny the reports but did say the military wants a clearer picture of the jihadist militants who are operating in Syria. Dempsey said the United States has a better view of the militants in Iraq, where the U.S. military is flying more than 50 surveillance and reconnaissance missions per day in addition to conducting airstrikes. The militants, who call themselves the Islamic State, are operating in both Iraq and Syria and U.S. officials have said it would be difficult to defeat the threat without addressing the militants on both sides of the porous border between the two countries.

 "Clearly the picture we have of ISIS on the Iraqi side is a more refined picture," Dempsey said, referring to the group by one of its acronyms. "The existence and activities of ISIS on the Syrian side — we have some insights into that but we certainly want more insights into that as we craft a way forward." Dempsey made the remarks to reporters during a short trip to Afghanistan.

 Obama has not decided which steps to take in Syria. Col. Ed Thomas, a Dempsey spokesman, said Monday that Dempsey is working with U.S. Central Command, which oversees troops in the region, to select options "both in Iraq and Syria with a variety of military tools, including airstrikes." Surveillance flights over Syria would allow the military to get a better picture of the viability of the airstrikes, should the White House make such a decision, but officials caution that a decision has not been made.

 In Iraq, the U.S. military is coordinating with Iraqi forces in carrying out airstrikes against the militants. The strikes are limited to protecting U.S. personnel and supporting humanitarian efforts. The United States would have no such partner in Syria, where the militants are fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad, a foe of the United States. Dempsey has said that countering the threat in Syria and Iraq will ultimately require a broad coalition aimed at undermining the support the group has among Sunnis in the region. "ISIS will only truly be defeated when it's rejected by the 20 million disenfranchised Sunni that happen to reside between Damascus and Baghdad," Dempsey told reporters recently at the Pentagon. "It requires the application of all of the tools of national power — diplomatic, economic, information, military."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/08/26/american-surveillance-flights-syria/14607355/

Syria warns against strikes on Islamic State on its soil

Syria warned the United States on Monday not to extend its air war against radical Islamist militants into Syria, saying that it would regard any attempt to do so as an act of “aggression.” The warning came a day after fighters with the Islamic State group overran another important Syrian military facility, putting them in full control of the north-central province of Raqqah.

 American photojournalist James Foley was held for much of his captivity in the province before he was beheaded last week by a masked Islamic State guard with a British accent. Raqqah is also the site of a failed rescue attempt earlier this summer in which Delta Force commandos sought to snatch Foley and a group of other Americans held by the Islamic State from a prison east of the city of Raqqah, according to U.S. officials and witnesses in the area.

 U.S. officials have not ruled out extending the airstrikes launched in Iraq earlier this month into Syria, where the Islamic State has been battling the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. On Monday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem signaled that Damascus would not be prepared to tolerate unilateral action against the extremists even in the parts of the country that the government no longer controls.

 He told reporters that his government was “ready to cooperate and coordinate on the regional and international level in the war on terror.” But fighting terrorism should be undertaken in cooperation with the Syrian government, “not through transgression against countries’ sovereignty,” he said. “Any breach of Syrian sovereignty by any side constitutes an act of aggression,” he added.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/syria-warns-against-strikes-on-islamic-state-on-its-soil/2014/08/25/6fe98b38-2c5d-11e4-994d-202962a9150c_story.html

ISIS an 'Incredible' Fighting Force, US Special Ops Sources Say

With the Obama White House left reeling from the "savage" slaughter of an American journalist held hostage by ISIS terrorists, military options are being considered against an adversary who officials say is growing in strength and is much more capable than the one faced when the group was called "al Qaeda-Iraq" during the U.S. war from 2003-2011.

 ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, has been making a "tactical withdrawal" in recent days in the face of withering U.S. airstrikes from areas around Erbil in northern Iraq and from the major dam just north of Mosul it controlled for two nail-biting weeks, according to military officials monitoring their movements.

 "These guys aren't just bugging out, they're tactically withdrawing. Very professional, well trained, motivated and equipped. They operate like a state with a military," said one official who tracks ISIS closely. "These aren't the same guys we fought in OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom) who would just scatter when you dropped a bomb near them." ISIS appeared to have a sophisticated and well thought-out plan for establishing its "Islamic Caliphate" from northern Syria across the western and northern deserts of Iraq, many experts and officials have said, and support from hostage-taking, robbery and sympathetic donations to fund it. They use drones to gather overhead intel on targets and effectively commandeer captured military vehicles – including American Humvees -- and munitions.

 "They tried to push out as far as they thought they could and were fully prepared to pull back a little bit when we beat them back with airstrikes around Erbil. And they were fine with that, and ready to hold all of the ground they have now," a second official told ABC News. ISIS didn't necessarily count on holding Mosul Dam, officials said, but scored a major propaganda victory on social media when they hoisted the black flag of the group over the facility that provides electricity and water to a large swath of Iraq, or could drown millions if breached.

 U.S. special operations forces under the Joint Special Operations Command and U.S. Special Operations Command keep close tabs on the military evolution of ISIS and both its combat and terrorism -- called "asymmetric" -- capabilities, officials told ABC News. A primary reason is in anticipation of possibly fighting them, which a full squadron of special mission unit operators did in the Independence Day raid on an ISIS camp in Raqqah, Syria. "They're incredible fighters. ISIS teams in many places use special operations TTPs," said the second official, who has considerable combat experience, using the military term for "tactics, techniques and procedures."

 In sobering press conference Friday, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said ISIS has shown that it is “as sophisticated and well-funded as any group that we have seen.” “They’re beyond just a terrorist group. They marry ideology, a sophistication of strategic and tactical military prowess. They are tremendously well-funded,” he said. “This is beyond anything that we’ve seen.”

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/isis-incredible-fighting-force-us-special-ops-sources/story?id=25116463

North Korea May Soon Have More Powerful Rocket

SEOUL, South Korea — Satellite images indicate that North Korea is likely to have the ability to launch a longer-range rocket that can carry a heavier payload by the end of this year, according to an American research organization that monitors the North’s activities. The research organization, the U.S.-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Affairs, reported Thursday on its website, 38 North, that North Korea’s expansion of its Sohae Satellite Launching Station was on track to be completed by fall.

The expansion, which began last year, will enable it to launch a rocket more powerful than the country’s Unha rocket, one of which was used in 2012 to put a satellite into orbit, the report said. “As a result, the North will be able to conduct new launches from this site before the end of the year should it decide to do so,” the report said.

North Korea displayed what appeared to be KN-08 missiles during military parades in Pyongyang in April 2012 and again in July 2013. But some analysts who studied images from the parades suspected that they were mock-ups. Rocket tests at the Sohae site, at Tongchang-ri in the country’s northwest, coupled with nuclear tests in Punggye-ri in the northeast, are seen as part of a North Korean effort to develop a long-range missile, fitted with a nuclear warhead, that is powerful enough to reach the United States mainland.

 It remains unclear how close North Korea has come to achieving that goal. But fears that it was making progress grew after its successful satellite launch in 2012. North Korea said the launch was part of a peaceful space program, but Washington considers it a front for developing and testing intercontinental ballistic missile technology. After the 2012 test, the United Nations tightened sanctions against the North for violating the organization’s resolutions banning it from testing technology used to develop ballistic missiles. The United States also beefed up its missile defense system along its West Coast. North Korea has not tested a long-range rocket since then. But in recent months, it has conducted an unusually frequent series of tests of short-range rockets and missiles.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/23/world/asia/north-korea-may-soon-have-more-powerful-rocket.html

Rebels parade captured Ukrainian soldiers on streets of Donetsk as citizens shout & hurl eggs

DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — To shouts of "Fascists!" and "Hang them from a tree!" captured Ukrainian soldiers were paraded through the streets of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk on Sunday as bystanders pelted them with eggs, water bottles and tomatoes. The spectacle of the bruised and filthy soldiers being marched hands bound and surrounded by gun-toting pro-Russian insurgents came as Ukrainians in Kiev celebrated their country's independence from the Soviet Union — a stark display of the growing divisions between east and west.

 While support and mobilization for Kiev's campaign against the separatists has grown in many parts of the country, resentments fester in much of the east, where civilian casualties and shelling have become a part of daily life. Illustrating the divisions, an ostentatious procession of tanks and weaponry rumbled through downtown Kiev to mark Ukraine's 23rd anniversary of independence from Moscow — a highly publicized event accompanied by speeches and a vow by President Petro Poroshenko to boost defense spending to defeat the rebels.

 In Donetsk, thousands gathered in the main square as the insurgents staged their own spectacle mocking the national army. To jeers and catcalls, dozens of captive soldiers, some wearing tattered Ukrainian military uniforms and some in torn and dirty civilian clothing, were forced to march past as nationalistic Russian songs blared from loudspeakers. They were flanked by rebels pointing bayoneted rifles. One visibly agitated man yelled slurs as he held an infant in one arm. "Hang the fascists from a tree!" one woman shouted as other women rushed at the prisoners, trying to kick and slap them. Two water trucks followed the captives, hosing down the road in a move apparently meant to cleanse the pavement where the Ukrainian soldiers had passed.

 The image had historical parallels as well: In 1944, Red Army soldiers paraded tens of thousands of German prisoners of war through the streets of Moscow. The top rebel commander sent a mocking message to the Ukrainian government. "Kiev said that on the 24th, on the Independence Day of Ukraine, they would have a parade. Indeed, they did march in Donetsk, although it wasn't a parade," top rebel commander Alexander Zakharchenko said. "Soldiers of the armed forces of Kiev walked along the main streets of Donetsk. What Poroshenko planned has taken place." Several fire-blackened, shrapnel-shredded Ukrainian military vehicles were put on display in Donetsk's main square, where supporters posed for photos in front of one of the destroyed tanks.

 One onlooker grabbed a Ukrainian flag from the wreckage of one tank and threw it to the ground. Several others trampled on it, wiping their feet and spitting. "Today is the so-called independence day of what was Ukraine. And look what has happened to their equipment. This is what has become of Ukraine!" shouted a pro-Russian rebel fighter who identified herself by her battle name, Nursa, pointing at the remains of a Ukrainian troop transport. Alexander, a 40-year-old businessman from Donetsk who declined to give his surname, said the Ukrainian flag had no place in the city. "I feel this is no place for this flag. The great achievement here is that people can see it in the state that it deserves to be in," he said.

 Resentment has grown in the east as residential areas have increasingly come under fire in recent weeks, with the civilian death toll rising to at least 2,000 since April, according to United Nations figures. In Donetsk, an estimated 300,000 of the city's population of 1 million have fled the fighting, and many of those who remain have gone weeks without electricity or running water and spent days hunkered down in bomb shelters.

http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2014/08/24/ukraine-plans-3-billion-boost-to-defense-spending

Journalist beheaded; ISIS threatens to kill Miami reporter next

ISIS has released a video that shows the beheading of U.S. journalist James Foley. The video also shows the group threatening the life of another American if President Barack Obama doesn't end military operations in Iraq. The National Security Council confirmed the authenticity of the video on Wednesday. In the video posted Tuesday on YouTube, Foley is seen kneeling next to a man dressed in black. He reads a message, presumably scripted by his captors, that his "real killer'' is America. "I wish I had more time. I wish I could have the hope for freedom to see my family once again," Foley can be heard saying in the video. He is then shown being beheaded.

 Obama was briefed about the video and "will continue to receive regular updates," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said. ISIS has carried out executions, including beheadings, as part of its effort to establish an Islamic caliphate that stretches from Syria into Iraq. In many cases, ISIS -- which refers to itself as the Islamic State -- has videotaped the executions and posted them online.

 Foley disappeared Nov. 22, 2012, in northwest Syria, near the border with Turkey. He was reportedly forced into a vehicle by gunmen; he was not heard from again. At the time of his disappearance, he was working for the U.S.-based online news outlet GlobalPost. On Tuesday, Foley's mother, Diane, took to social media with an emotional statement to praise and mourn her son. "We have never been prouder of our son Jim. He gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people," she said in a post on the Free James Foley Facebook page. "We implore the kidnappers to spare the lives of the remaining hostages. Like Jim, they are innocents. They have no control over American government policy in Iraq, Syria or anywhere in the world. "We thank Jim for all the joy he gave us. He was an extraordinary son, brother, journalist and person. Please respect our privacy in the days ahead as we mourn and cherish Jim.''

 The video also shows another American journalist. In the video, the militant, who speaks English in what sounds to be a British accent, claims the journalist's life is dependent upon what Obama does next. That journalist is believed to be Miami native and University of Central Florida graduate Steven Sotloff, who was kidnapped at the Syria-Turkey border in 2013. Sotloff is a contributor to Time and Foreign Policy magazines. On Wednesday, Pinecrest police were spotted outside Sotloff's family's home, as his family members did not want to speak with reporters who were stationed outside. U.S. Rep. Illeana Ros-Lehtinen has been in contact with Sotloff's family since his capture. On Wednesday, she told Local 10 News "We never had proof of life. Unfortunately now we see this video. What a horrific organization this ISIS is. They have no respect for human life."

 On Wednesday we also heard from Sotloff's former roommate at UCF. "Yesterday was the first time his dad had seen or heard from his son since December, and of course that’s not the circumstances you want to hear or see him in," said Emerson Lotzia. "His dad wasn’t in the worst spirits yesterday because as of right now he knows his son is alive. He hadn’t known since December if his son was alive or not." A petition has been created to urge Obama to do whatever is necessary to free Sotloff from his captors. The Committee to Protect Journalists estimates there are about 20 journalists missing in Syria, many of them held by ISIS.

 Among them is American Austin Tice, a freelance journalist who was contributing articles to The Washington Post. Tice disappeared in Syria in August 2012. There has been no word of from him since his abduction. As a freelancer, Foley picked up work for a number of major media outlets, including Agence France-Presse and GlobalPost. "On behalf of John and Diane Foley, and also GlobalPost, we deeply appreciate all of the messages of sympathy and support that have poured in since the news of Jim's possible execution first broke," Philip Balboni, GlobalPost CEO and co-founder, said in a published statement, referring to James Foley's parents. "We ask for your prayers for Jim and his family." Foley had previously been taken captive in Libya. He was detained there in April 2011 along with three other reporters and released six weeks later. Afterward, he said that what saddened him most was knowing that he was causing his family to worry.

 Foley grew up in New Hampshire and graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in 2008. Like other young journalists who came of age after the September 11 terror attacks and American wars overseas, Foley was drawn to Iraq, Afghanistan and other areas of conflict. Friends described Foley as fair, curious and impressively even-tempered. "Everybody, everywhere, takes a liking to Jim as soon as they meet him," journalist Clare Morgana Gillis wrote in a blog post about him in May 2013, six months after he disappeared in Syria. "Men like him for his good humor and tendency to address everyone as 'bro' or 'homie' or 'dude' after the first handshake. Women like him for his broad smile, broad shoulders, and because, well, women just like him."

 The video of Foley was released as ISIS is being targeted by American airstrikes ordered by Obama. "I think they may have been surprised and are doing the best they can to retaliate," former CIA director R. James Woolsey, Jr. told CNN. Foley's killing recalled the murder of Daniel Pearl, The Wall Street Journal correspondent who was kidnapped while reporting in Pakistan in January 2002. His murder was captured on video and posted on line by al Qaeda. It also harkened to the videotaped beheadings of Americans Nicholas Berg, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley carried out by al Qaeda during the height of the Iraq War. Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby released the following statement late Wednesday afternoon: "The United States attempted a rescue operation recently to free a number of American hostages held in Syria by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). This operation involved air and ground components and was focused on a particular captor network within ISIL.

 Unfortunately, the mission was not successful because the hostages were not present at the targeted location. "As we have said repeatedly, the United States government is committed to the safety and well-being of its citizens, particularly those suffering in captivity. In this case, we put the best of the United States military in harms' way to try and bring our citizens home. "The United States government uses the full breadth of our military, intelligence and diplomatic capabilities to bring people home whenever we can. The United States will not tolerate the abduction of our people, and will work tirelessly to secure the safety of our citizens and to hold their captors accountable."
http://www.local10.com/news/journalist-beheaded-isis-threatens-to-kill-miami-reporter-next/27624954


UPDATE:

AP File

ISIS Releases Video Purportedly Showing Beheading of Second American Journalist

ISIS Tightens Its Grip With Seizure of Air Base in Syria

BAGHDAD — Extremist fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria seized a military base in northern Syria on Sunday from forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, further solidifying control inside their self-declared Islamic state spanning the Syria-Iraq border. The fall of the Tabqa air base followed the group’s seizing of two other Syrian military bases and gave it effective control of Raqqa Province, which abuts the Turkish border and whose capital city, Raqqa, has long served as the group’s de facto headquarters. Recent military advances by ISIS in northern and eastern Syria have highlighted the lack of local military forces that can effectively battle the group, which President Obama last week called a “cancer” that must be eradicated from the Middle East.

At a mosque in Birmingham, England, a young man carries a Union Jack bag.Great Britain Appeals to Anti-Extremist Imams in Effort to Uproot Seeds of RadicalizationAUG. 24, 2014 Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, fielded questions about events in the Middle East and Ukraine on Friday.U.S. Weighs Direct Military Action Against ISIS in SyriaAUG. 22, 2014 Syrian rebel groups that formed to fight Mr. Assad’s government never managed to take the air base, and while Mr. Assad’s forces have been bombing ISIS from the air and killing its fighters, they lack the ground troops necessary to challenge the group’s hold on terrain.

 The United States began airstrikes on ISIS positions in Iraq this month, leading to some advances by Iraqi and Kurdish forces. But Mr. Obama has declined to intervene in Syria’s civil war. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the conflict from Britain through a network of contacts inside Syria, said ISIS’ attack on Sunday was its fourth in the past week. The Syrian government had launched airstrikes on ISIS positions, but the group’s fighters managed to enter the grounds of the air base on Sunday and took it over after many of the troops inside withdrew.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/25/world/middleeast/isis-militants-capture-air-base-from-syrian-government-forces.html?_r=0

Israel air strikes rain down on Gaza Strip

The strikes in the southern town of Rafah came just hours after Israel bombed an apartment tower in Gaza City, collapsing the 12-story building with 44 apartments. Around 30 people were wounded in the strikes, but no one was killed, Palestinian officials said. The targeting of large buildings appears to be part of a new military tactic by Israel.

 Over the weekend, the army began warning Gaza residents in automated phone calls that it would target buildings harbouring "terrorist infrastructure" and that they should stay away. A senior military official confirmed that Israel has a policy of striking at buildings containing Hamas operational centres or those from which military activities are launched. The official said each strike required prior approval from military lawyers and is carried out only after the local population is warned. However, he said, there was now a widening of locations that the military can target. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to discuss the matter with reporters. In the 12-story apartment tower, the target was a fourth-floor apartment where Hamas ran an operations centre, according to Israeli media. In the past, Israel has carried out pinpoint strikes, targeting apartments in high-rises with missiles, while leaving the buildings standing. However, this time a decision was made to bring down the entire tower, according to Channel 10, an Israeli TV station.


he military declined immediate comment when asked why it collapsed the entire building instead of striking a specific apartment. Meanwhile, Gaza militants continued to fire rockets and mortar shells at Israel, including at least 10 on Sunday, the military said. That was in addition to more than 100 on Saturday, most aimed at southern Israel. Elsewhere, five rockets were fired from Syria and fell in open areas in northern Israel. It was not immediately clear whether they were fired by pro-government forces or rebel groups. Amid persistent violence, Egypt has urged Israel and the Palestinians to resume indirect talks in Cairo on a durable ceasefire, but stopped short of issuing invitations. Several rounds of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas have collapsed, along with temporary ceasefires that accompanied them.

The gaps between Israel and the Islamic militant group on a new border deal for blockaded Gaza remain vast, and there's no sign either is willing to budge. The Israeli military said it had carried out some 20 strikes on Gaza since midnight Saturday. In Rafah, Israeli aircraft bombed the seven-story Zourab building, which houses an office of the Hamas-run Interior Ministry. Witnesses said the building was levelled and that the strikes caused severe damage to nearby shops, homes and cars. It was not immediately clear if anyone was wounded or killed. Another strike hit a nearby shopping centre with dozens of shops, sparking a fire that gutted the two-story building and wounding seven people. After daybreak Sunday, smoke was still rising from the site as shop owners inspected the damage. Windows and doors had been blown out in nearby buildings. The military said the two buildings were attacked because they housed facilities linked to militants, but did not provide details.

 The Gaza City apartment tower toppled Saturday was targeted because a Hamas command centre operated from there, the army said. Twenty-two people were wounded in that strike. Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Kidra, who confirmed the casualty figures for the strikes, said two people were killed in a pair of air strikes near a coastal road on Sunday, including one on a group of people coming out of a mosque after morning prayers. Two more fatalities were registered when a motorcycle following a car evacuating the wounded from the strikes was targeted, he said.

 The UN estimates that more than 17,000 homes have been destroyed or damaged beyond repair since the war began on July 8. In some of the attacks, family homes with three or four floors were pulverised. However, the weekend strikes marked the first time large buildings were toppled. Since the fighting began, Israel has launched some 5,000 air strikes at Gaza, while Gaza militants have fired close to 4,000 rockets and mortars, according to the Israeli military. More than 2,100 Palestinians, including close to 500 children, have been killed, according to Palestinian health officials and U.N. figures. Israel has lost 64 soldiers and four civilians. Israel says it is targeting sites linked to militants, including rocket launchers, command centres and weapons depots. The U.N. says about three-fourths of the Palestinians killed have been civilians.

 The war stems from the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank by Hamas operatives in June, which triggered a massive Israeli arrest campaign in the West Bank, followed by an increase in rocket fire from Gaza.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/gaza/11043763/Watch-live-Israel-air-strikes-rain-down-on-Gaza-Strip.html

California braces for aftershocks after magnitude 6.0 earthquake

Residents of northern California are bracing for aftershocks after a magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit near Napa Valley Sunday, injuring at least 172 people and causing extensive damage, including fires sparked by burst gas lines, in the largest tremor to rock the Bay Area since the magnitude 6.9 Loma Prieta quake in 1989. Aftershocks were expected to continue for several weeks, though State Geologist John Parrish told the Associated Press that they would decrease in magnitude and it was unlikely that there would be a large follow-up earthquake. Still, he warned people to be careful because buildings that were damaged by the quake were now more susceptible to collapse from aftershocks.

 The U.S. Geological Survey says the tremor struck just before 3:30 a.m. Sunday local time about 10 miles northwest of American Canyon, which is about 6 miles southwest of Napa. Of the 172 patients admitted to Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa, 13 were admitted to the hospital with broken bones and respiratory or cardiac conditions, while the rest were treated and released for less severe injuries, hospital president Walt Mickens said at a news conference Sunday evening.

 Only one patient remains in the hospital in critical condition while another, a 13-year-old boy, was airlifted to another trauma center in critical condition after pieces of the fireplace at his home collapsed onto him, Mickens said. The boy is now listed in serious condition. The most common injuries were from household items falling off of walls or shelves onto people or from those who stepped on debris in their homes, he said. Mickens announced earlier Sunday that 120 people had been treated at the hospital, but that number rose as dozens of people got injured while cleaning up after the quake, he said. Napa City Manager Mike Parness said the city declared a local emergency at 8:59 a.m. California time, which is the first step in getting more help from the state. Pacific Gas & Electric said that 2,200 customers were without power as of late Sunday evening and said the utility hoped to have power restored to all customers by Monday morning.

 A spokesman said that approximately 70,000 customers in Sonoma and Napa counties lost power during the earthquake. Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, said about 90 to 100 homes were deemed not habitable. He said the next step was to continue damage assessments and get a cost estimate for potential federal assistance. Officials said they were still assessing buildings in the area.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/08/25/usgs-60-magnitude-earthquake-shakes-northern-california/

Ukraine says Russian forces cross border in tanks, armored vehicles

KIEV — Ukraine charged that Russian forces crossed into eastern Ukraine early Monday in military vehicles, including tanks, as Russia vowed to send a second convoy into the country this week to deliver humanitarian aid to areas held by pro-Moscow separatists. Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said Russian military vehicles with the insignia of the separatists’ self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic “violated the state border of Ukraine” near Novoazovsk in the southern part of Donetsk region. He said at least 10 tanks, two armored vehicles and two trucks crossed at 5:20 a.m. Monday.

 The highway leading to the key port city of Mariupol is currently under control of the Ukrainian military, he said. Lysenko said in a briefing Monday that the Russian military vehicles flying rebel flags moved toward the village of Shcherbak, where they engaged in battle with soldiers of a Ukrainian border unit, who then called for reinforcements. He said the Ukrainian forces managed to stop the advance of the convoy with gunfire just outside the villages of Shcherbak and Markyne.

 The villages are north of the larger town of Novoazovsk, about five miles from the Russian border. Another military source said that after the encounter outside the villages, Ukrainian troops fell back to regroup and the Russian tanks remain in the area. On Saturday, Lysenko said, Russian forces fired artillery across the border and later used rocket launchers to destroy the Ukrainian checkpoint there. In Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed the Ukrainian claim that Russian tanks had opened a new front in Ukraine, saying it was likely “misinformation.” Lavrov also announced Monday that Russia would send a second aid convoy to eastern Ukraine this week, using the same route employed by trucks that entered Luhansk without the Ukrainian government’s permission last week. “We are convinced that it needs to be done this week,” Lavrov told reporters in Moscow, adding that he hoped the second convoy would go “more smoothly.”

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/ukraine-says-russian-forces-cross-border-in-tanks-armored-vehicles/2014/08/25/8cb7d1d4-2c3f-11e4-994d-202962a9150c_story.html

NO DEATH, ONLY LIFE!

PROVERBS 12:28 In the way of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death. God does not want us to worry about whatever happens in the world.

We don’t need to be affected by whatever is causing the world to be afraid because we are the righteousness of God in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:21) And the Bible says, “In the way of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death.” The patriarchs of the Old Testament did not suffer during the famines that occurred in their lifetimes. Abraham remained very rich in livestock, silver and gold. (Genesis 12:10, 13:1–2) Isaac reaped a hundredfold in the land he sowed. (Genesis 26:1, 12–14) Joseph, with his entire family, was richly provided for in Egypt. (Genesis 47:11–13, 27) They weren’t just spared from suffering—they prospered exceedingly!

 So even if our nation or the world enters a recession, we need not suffer. As long as we keep our eyes on Jesus, our righteousness, we will thrive! This proved true for a church member whose boss told everyone to expect a substantial pay cut during an economic downturn. But while her colleagues received pay cuts, she received a substantial increment! As the righteousness of God in Christ, she saw provision in a time of lack. 

In the midst of fearful news such as terrorist attacks, deadly pestilences and natural calamities, God says, “In the way of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death.” In fact, He protected an entire coastal town in South India during the Asian Tsunami in 2004. A pastor who lived in that coastal town was praying that morning when he felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to plead the blood of Jesus over his entire town. So he did just that. When the tsunami struck, his town was untouched while five other towns, which were further inland, were wiped out by the devastating flood.

 My friend, God protects us when the world is experiencing evil because we are the righteousness of God in Christ. His Word declares that “in the way of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death”!

Did Russia and Ukraine just start a war?

On Friday, as a Russian "aid convoy" of 280 trucks neared the Ukrainian border, NATO said that a separate "incursion" of Russian military forces had crossed into Ukraine. The Russian forces are reportedly in eastern Ukrainian territory held by Russia-backed separatist rebels, according to NATO and Ukrainian government officials. Some reports suggest that there may be open fighting between Ukrainian military forces and the Russian incursion, but it's far from clear whether that's true or what precisely is happening on the ground. Did Russia really invade Ukraine outright? Is this now an open war? Here is a running account of what we know and what we don't know.

http://www.vox.com/2014/8/15/6006281/russia-ukraine-war-what-we-know

What Happens When FATCA Kicks In-H.R. Bill 2847

There’s a bill that will go into effect on July 1. It’s known as H.R. 2847 which contains FATCA (the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of 2010). H.R. 2847 also known as HIRE (the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act) was a law passed in March 2010 which will go into effect on July 1. The bill seeks to provide payroll tax breaks and incentives for businesses to hire unemployed workers.

 However, “the worry” is the FATCA piece of that bill. FATCA deals with U.S. taxpayers that hold foreign accounts overseas. It requires them to report their foreign accounts and offshore assets to the government and foreign financial institutions (banks, stock brokers, hedge funds, pension funds, insurance companies, trusts, etc.) are also required to report information about the ownership of overseas assets.

 These institutions will have to send annual reports to the IRS on the name and address of each U.S. client as well as their largest account balance in the year and their total debits and credits within the accounts. If an institution does not comply, the United States will impose a 30 percent withholding tax. There are other requirements too. This is just an overview to better inform you about this bill and what it entails. There are reports that attempt to spark fear in the investor, saying that the dollar will collapse on July 1 when this bill goes into effect. I just want to go on record by saying that is ridiculous and that it’s not going to happen.

 Yes, the dollar will continue its gradual erosion…but there will not be a collapse on that date nor any other date soon. Why? Everything always goes back to politics. So you must view this through the eyes of an elected official. If the dollar instantly collapses, what’s going to happen? There would be riots in the streets and the risk of a political overthrow. At best, the current elected officials would not be re-elected and new officials would be voted into their places. They can’t have this.

Therefore, they aren’t going to allow a quick dollar collapse to happen. Secondly, the Federal Reserve has much more to do with the speed of dollar depreciation than any governmental law that’s passed. Now, with that said…will this bill be a “dollar negative” and a negative for the U.S. overall? Yes! There’s no doubt about it.

Full story:

 http://www.moneynews.com/SeanHyman/Foreign-Account-Tax-Compliance-Act-FATCA/2014/05/24/id/573219/

Billionaires Dumping Stocks, Economist Knows Why

A handful of billionaires are quietly dumping their American stocks . . . and fast. Warren Buffett, who has been a cheerleader for U.S. stocks for quite some time, is dumping shares at an alarming rate. He recently complained of “disappointing performance” in dyed-in-the-wool American companies like Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, and Kraft Foods. Buffett’s holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, has been drastically reducing his exposure to stocks that depend on consumer purchasing habits.

 Berkshire sold roughly 19 million shares of Johnson & Johnson, and reduced its overall stake in “consumer product stocks” by 21%. Berkshire Hathaway also sold its entire stake in California-based computer parts supplier Intel. With 70% of the U.S. economy dependent on consumer spending, Buffett’s apparent lack of faith in these companies’ future prospects is worrisome.

 Unfortunately Buffett isn’t alone. Fellow billionaire John Paulson, who made a fortune betting on the subprime mortgage meltdown, is clearing out of U.S. stocks too. Paulson’s hedge fund, Paulson & Co., dumped 14 million shares of JPMorgan Chase according to a recent filing. The fund also dumped its entire position in discount retailer Family Dollar and consumer-goods maker Sara Lee. Finally, billionaire George Soros has sold nearly all of his bank stocks, including shares of JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs. Between the three banks, Soros sold more than a million shares.

 So why are these billionaires dumping their shares of U.S. companies? After all, the stock market is still in the midst of its historic rally. Real estate prices have finally leveled off, and for the first time in years are actually rising in many locations. And the unemployment rate seems to have stabilized. It’s very likely that these professional investors are aware of specific research that points toward a massive market correction, as much as 90%.

One such person publishing this research is Robert Wiedemer, an esteemed economist and author of the New York Times best-selling book Aftershock. Editor’s Note: Wiedemer Gives Proof for His Dire Predictions in This Shocking Interview. Before you dismiss the possibility of a 90% drop in the stock market as unrealistic, consider Wiedemer’s credentials. In 2006, Wiedemer and a team of economists accurately predicted the collapse of the U.S. housing market, equity markets, and consumer spending that almost sank the United States. They published their research in the book America’s Bubble Economy. The book quickly grabbed headlines for its accuracy in predicting what many thought would never happen, and quickly established Wiedemer as a trusted voice. A columnist at Dow Jones said the book was “one of those rare finds that not only predicted the subprime credit meltdown well in advance, it offered Main Street investors a winning strategy that helped avoid the forty percent losses that followed . . .” The chief investment strategist at Standard & Poor’s said that Wiedemer’s track record “demands our attention.” And finally, the former CFO of Goldman Sachs said Wiedemer’s “prescience in (his) first book lends credence to the new warnings. This book deserves our attention.” In the interview for his latest blockbuster Aftershock, Wiedemer says the 90% drop in the stock market is “a worst-case scenario,” and the host quickly challenged this claim. Wiedemer calmly laid out a clear explanation of why a large drop of some sort is a virtual certainty. It starts with the reckless strategy of the Federal Reserve to print a massive amount of money out of thin air in an attempt to stimulate the economy. “These funds haven’t made it into the markets and the economy yet. But it is a mathematical certainty that once the dam breaks, and this money passes through the reserves and hits the markets, inflation will surge,” said Wiedemer. “Once you hit 10% inflation, 10-year Treasury bonds lose about half their value. And by 20%, any value is all but gone. Interest rates will increase dramatically at this point, and that will cause real estate values to collapse. And the stock market will collapse as a consequence of these other problems.” See the Proof: Get the Full Interview by Clicking Here Now. And this is where Wiedemer explains why Buffett, Paulson, and Soros could be dumping U.S. stocks: “Companies will be spending more money on borrowing costs than business expansion costs. That means lower profit margins, lower dividends, and less hiring. Plus, more layoffs.” No investors, let alone billionaires, will want to own stocks with falling profit margins and shrinking dividends. So if that’s why Buffett, Paulson, and Soros are dumping stocks, they have decided to cash out early and leave Main Street investors holding the bag. But Main Street investors don’t have to see their investment and retirement accounts decimated for the second time in five years. Wiedemer’s video interview also contains a comprehensive blueprint for economic survival that’s really commanding global attention. Now viewed over 40 million times, it was initially screened for a relatively small, private audience. But the overwhelming amount of feedback from viewers who felt the interview should be widely publicized came with consequences, as various online networks repeatedly shut it down and affiliates refused to house the content. “People were sitting up and taking notice, and they begged us to make the interview public so they could easily share it,” said Newsmax Financial Publisher Aaron DeHoog. “Our real concern,” DeHoog added, “is the effect even if only half of Wiedemer’s predictions come true. “That’s a scary thought for sure. But we want the average American to be prepared, and that is why we will continue to push this video to as many outlets as we can. We want the word to spread.”

 Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com
http://www.moneynews.com/MKTNews/billionaires-dump-economist-stocks/2012/08/29/id/450265/#ixzz3ATlmUaFa 

World War III Is at the End of the Highway and We Have ‘Missed All the Exits’

Glenn Beck on Monday warned that “we have missed all the exits,” and World War III is at the end of the highway. Beck took his audience back 15 years to all of the predictions he has made, starting with his warning in 1999 that Osama bin Laden posed an enormous threat to the United States. “I talked about a guy [Osama bin Laden] — I couldn’t even pronounce his name,” Beck recalled on his television program. “I got so frustrated at one point at a caller, I said, ‘Look, within the next ten years, this guy is going to rain blood and bodies and buildings in the streets of New York. Will you then wake up?’” Beck said “we could have done something,” but after 9/11, it was “too late.”

 He said the same thing about a number of other predictions. Before the housing market collapsed, Beck said he begged his audience not to take out loans they couldn’t afford. Before the banking crisis, he also begged his audience to safeguard their money. “It was right around here that I started saying, ‘This is a highway; these are off-ramps,’” Beck said. “There are things on the horizon and if you don’t get off here, or here, or here … at some point we run out of road.”

 In 2011, Beck warned that Islamists were seeking to re-build the caliphate, and that radical leftists and radical Islamists would unite to collapse the western world. “I believe we’re at the end of the highway. This is it,” Beck said. “The caliphate is here. We are headed towards World War III … [and] I don’t know how to tell you not to get there because we’ve missed all of the exits. We are headed for massive European anti-Semitism. … We’re headed for a collapse beyond our understanding because we got off the gold standard.”

 Beck said that over the weekend, Russia and China took yet another step to cut the U.S. dollar out of their transactions. “Which side do you think China has just picked? They’ve picked Russia,” Beck said. “Which side is Russia on when it comes to the caliphate? Oh, that’s right, Iran and Syria. What side are we on? Saudi Arabia. Gee, that puts America in the position of World War II.”

 Beck said in World War II, America faced communism and fascism and, though we didn’t like either system of governing, we decided to “cozy up to the communists” because we liked them more than the Nazis. “It’s almost like, who do you want to cozy up to? You’ve got Iran running a caliphate, or you have Saudi Arabia. Well, we really don’t like Iran, but we kinda like Saudi Arabia,” he remarked. “It’s World War II all over again.” Beck said he thought all weekend about “how to get out of this,” but he’s “already said it all.” He said the only thing his audience can do is embody “gospel principles.” “That’s it,” Beck said. “Live like Jesus. Live like Gandhi. I don’t care who your model is. Live like Buddha … What you have to be is the impact zone. You have to be the parachute. You have to be the one that helps society absorb what’s coming.” “If we don’t stand, and stand together, across all political parties, all lines, all classes, and we just help each other, and we exercise the human heart … if we don’t do that, I don’t know if we survive,” he concluded. “I don’t know who does, but the world is about to change.”

Complimentary Clip from The Blaze:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/08/11/glenn-beck-says-world-war-iii-is-at-the-end-of-the-highway-and-we-have-missed-all-the-exits/

Financial Experts Say World War 3 Is Coming … Unless We Stop It

Nouriel Roubini, Kyle Bass, Hugo Salinas Price, Charles Nenner, James Dines, Jim Rogers, David Stockman, Marc Faber, Jim Rickards, Paul Craig Roberts, Martin Armstrong, Larry Edelson, Gerald Celente and Others Warn of Wider War.

  Paul Craig Roberts – former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President Reagan, former editor of the Wall Street Journal, listed by Who’s Who in America as one of the 1,000 most influential political thinkers in the world, PhD economist – wrote an article yesterday about the build up of hostilities between the U.S. and Russia titled, simply: “War Is Coming”.

 In the article, Roberts notes: As reported by Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge, the Russian response to the extra-legal ruling of a corrupt court in the Netherlands, which had no jurisdiction over the case on which it ruled, awarding $50 billion dollars from the Russian government to shareholders of Yukos, a corrupt entity that was looting Russia and evading taxes, is telling. Asked what Russia would do about the ruling, an advisor to President Putin replied, “There is a war coming in Europe.” Do you really think this ruling matters?”

Full Article: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/07/war-2.html

US wants World War 3

Paul Craig Roberts

 The extraordinary propaganda being conducted against Russia by the US and UK governments and Ministries of Propaganda, a.k.a., the “Western media,” have the purpose of driving the world to war that no one can win. European governments need to rouse themselves from insouciance, because Europe will be the first to be vaporized due to the US missile bases that Europe hosts to guarantee its “security.”

 As reported by Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge, the Russian response to the extra-legal ruling of a corrupt court in the Netherlands, which had no jurisdiction over the case on which it ruled, awarding $50 billion dollars from the Russian government to shareholders of Yukos, a corrupt entity that was looting Russia and evading taxes, is telling. Asked what Russia would do about the ruling, an advisor to President Putin replied, “There is a war coming in Europe.” Do you really think this ruling matters?”

 The West has ganged up on Russia, because the West is totally corrupt. The wealth of the elites is based not only on looting weaker countries whose leaders can be purchased (read John Perkins’ Confessions of an Economic Hit Man for instruction on how the looting works), but also on looting their own citizens. The American elites excel at looting their fellow citizens and have wiped out most of the US middle class in the new 21st century. In contrast, Russia has emerged from tyranny and from a government based on lies, while the US and UK submerge into tyranny shielded by lies. Western elites desire to loot Russia, a juicy prize, and there stands Putin in the way.

 The solution is to get rid of him like they got rid of President Yanukovich in Ukraine. The looting elites and the neoconservative hegemonists have the same goal: make Russia a vassal state. This goal unites the Western financial imperialists with the political imperialists. I have recorded for readers the propaganda that is used in order to demonize Putin and Russia. But even I was stunned by the astounding and vicious lies in the UK publication The Economist on July 26. The cover is Putin’s face in a spider web, and, you guessed it, the cover story is “A Web of Lies.” http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21608645-vladimir-putins-epic-deceits-have-grave-consequences-his-people-and-outside-world-web?spc=scode&spv=xm&ah=9d7f7ab945510a56fa6d37c30b6f1709

You need to read this propaganda both in order to see the gutter level of propaganda in the West and the obvious drive to war with Russia. There is no evidence whatsoever in the story to support The Economist’s wild accusations and demand for the end of Western “appeasement” of Russia and the harshest possible action against Putin. The kind of reckless lies and transparent propaganda that comprises The Economist’s story has no other purpose than to drive the world to war. The Western elites and governments are not merely totally corrupt, they are insane. As I have previously written, don’t expect to live much longer.
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/07/28/war-coming-paul-craig-roberts/

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West and How America Was Lost.