Trumpet Weekly 11/28/09

‘‘ ‘‘ ‘‘ ‘‘ ‘‘ ’’ ’’ ’’ ’’ ’’ trumpetweekly The episode passed into folklore, exemplifying the Royal Navy’s centuries-old tradition of triumphant boldness.

China is changing the way that espionage is being done.

2009 is the first year of global governance.

The United States has run out of a crucial raw material.

The first marijuana coffee shop in the U.S. has opened.

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A digest of significant world news from the Philadelphia Trumpet staff  •  for the week of Nov. 22-28, 2009

The Source of American Greatness

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the treats Americans could set their eyes on today, Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation ranks among the most thoughtprovoking and beautiful. “The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies,” proclaimed Lincoln. “To these bounbrad macdonald ties, which are so constantly enjoyed columnist that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, … the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.” What a sublime example of humility and hope. Lincoln was at the helm of a nation embroiled in a civil war. It was a time of discouragement and despair. America’s future hung in the balance. Yet humble Lincoln encouraged his people to count their blessings, and to not forget the “source from which they come.” Lincoln knew that despite the war, America was on the road to becoming a great nation. “Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore,” he stated. America was growing, expanding, pushing into new frontiers, producing bountiful crops, marching toward greatness—even as civil war raged. And Lincoln understood why: “No human counsel hath f all

devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great

things.

They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.” America’s 16th president saw God’s role in the “great things” unfolding within his nation. He considered America’s growing physical and material wealth “gracious gifts from the Most High God.” And he intended Thanksgiving to be a yearly reminder of the role the “Most High God” played in shaping American history! Abraham Lincoln was an avid student of the Bible. Although we don’t know how familiar he was with the book of Genesis and the details of the birthright promise God made to Abraham, it’s clear that Lincoln wholeheartedly believed America was a divine product of God’s creation. He was right!

This “birthright promise” is a key theme in our book The United States and Britain in Prophecy, written by the late Herbert W. Armstrong. We are first introduced to this promise in Genesis 12:1-3: “Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show you. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make they name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” In The United States and Britain in Prophecy, Mr. Armstrong explained that this promise comes in two stages, “one purely material and national; the other spiritual and individual.” While the spiritual phase of this promise—the promise of grace through Christ—is given lots of attention, Mr. Armstrong explained that the “birthright promise,” that “most amazing national and material promise to Abraham,” has been “almost entirely overlooked.” When Abraham Lincoln discussed the hand of the “Most High God” in American history, he was, in essence, talking about this birthright promise! In fact, this promise is key to understanding world history, and especially the history of the United States. “These are not casual, incidental, unimportant promises,” wrote Mr. Armstrong, referring to the birthright promise. “These are basic—the foundation for the establishment of the greatest world powers ….” God reveals further details about the birthright promise in Genesis 17. “And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Eternal appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. ... Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee” (Genesis 17:1-5). Before Abraham died, the birthright promises were conferred to his son Isaac (Genesis 26:3-5), who, before he died, conferred them upon his son Jacob (Genesis 27:26-29; 35:10-12). In due time, Jacob passed the same promises down to his grandsons Ephraim and Manasseh (Genesis 48), two of the 12 tribes of Israel. The reason God rescued the Israelites from Egypt and took them to the Promised Land was that He wanted to fulfill His promise of national and material greatness to Abraham. Mr. Armstrong identified Leviticus 26 as the “very

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The trumpet weekly  November 28, 2009  •  2

Middle East

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ran’s army

and Revolutionary Guard Corps began a five-day, largescale air-defense drill on Sunday. The previous day, Mojtaba Zolnour, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s representative in the Revolutionary Guard, told state news agency irna that any attempt by Israel to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities would be met with a military response. “If the enemy tries its luck and fires a missile into Iran, our ballistic missiles would zero in on Tel Aviv before the dust settles on the attack,” he said. Despite its defiance and rhetoric, however, Iran does have deficiencies in its air-defense capabilities, reports Stratfor. “In the end, it is Iran’s threat to close the Strait of Hormuz and make American efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan far more difficult that deters attack, not Iran’s air-defense capabilities” (November 23). Fox News reports that three of the Navy seals who in September captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq—the alleged mastermind behind the murder and mutilation of four Blackwood security contractors in 2004—now face criminal charges. “[I]nstead of being lauded for bringing to justice a high-value target, three of the seal commandos, all enlisted, face assault charges and have retained lawyers” (November 24). Ahmed Hashim Abed accused his captors of punching him, resulting in a bloody lip. The abuse complaint was apparently made to Iraqi authorities after the detainee was handed over to them following his capture. Abed was returned to American custody, and an investigation was carried out. The court martial of the three seals is scheduled for January. This incident further highlights how the U.S. military is hamstringing itself through its “just war” policy and surrender to “lawfare.” Israel tv reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is proposing a 10-month freeze on construction in Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The report said the proposal did not include any freeze on Jewish construction in East Jerusalem. Jerusalem will remain the primary sticking point between Palestinians and Jews.

FrontPage Magazine, November 20

Obama to Israelis: Jerusalem Is a “Settlement”

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sked by Fox News in China what he thought of Israel’s plans to build 900 housing units in the Gilo neighborhood in southeastern Jerusalem, President Obama responded: “… I think that additional settlement building does not contribute to Israel’s security. I think it makes it harder for them to make peace with their neighbors. I think it embitters the Palestinians in a way that could end up being very dangerous.” To most Israeli ears the statement is discordant. The avowal of commitment to Israel’s security doesn’t jibe with describing building in Gilo as “dangerously embittering” the Palestinians. Gilo, now a neighborhood of 40,000, was annexed by Israel in the aftermath of the 1967 war as part of the reunification of Jerusalem. Gilo is a fact; ordinary Israelis live in it, and calling them settlers would be laughable. Not that Obama was breaking new ground in calling a Jewish Jerusalem neighborhood a settlement. … Nor was Obama, of course, alone in his statement; he was leading the international charge. … Just as the official international reaction was unanimous in opposing

joel hilliker | Columnist

None Calls for Justice A merica’s war against Islamist extremists has been downgraded to an “overseas contingency operation.” Terrorists are no longer enemy combatants; they are merely criminals. Attorney General Eric Holder has decided that the “holy warriors” who carried out 9/11, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be tried in a New York civilian court. This gives these terrorists even more rights than uniformed enemy soldiers who abide by the laws of war: It awards them the same constitutional protections that U.S. citizens have. The implications of this decision are huge, and all detrimental to the United States. Among its significant problems: that the process of discovery will jeopardize government intelligence secrets; that it destroys the incentive for soldiers to behave according to the laws of war; that it tells terrorists that they’ll receive more legal rights by attacking American citizens rather than soldiers; that it will turn into a jihadist propaganda circus. Whatever the outcome, this will batter America’s image abroad: If the suspects are convicted, the U.S. will be accused of dispensing sham justice; if they are acquitted over some legal technicality and not released back into the public, that would invite fresh hatred and vitriol from America’s enemies. While it is impossible to find a sound legal reason for the Obama administration’s decision, it is easy to see its probable political motives for doing so: This will open Bush-era officials to scrutiny and possible legal action. It appears this administration is prioritizing the scoring of political points above both the nation’s war-making capabilities and its people’s safety. “None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth; they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity” (Isaiah 59:4). Even thinking of a team of American lawyers putting their intellectual talents toward trying to secure an acquittal for these terrorists makes the heart sick and the blood boil. “The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths …” (verse 8). While those behind this decision stump for peace, their actions invite ruin. Their sense of justice is twisted. Their judgment is absent. They simply have no idea of the way of peace.

The trumpet weekly  November 28, 2009  •  3

the building, the internal Israeli reaction was unanimous in supporting it—and included leading figures from both the government and the opposition. … Nir Barkat, mayor of Jerusalem, was the least restrained, stating: “Israeli law does not discriminate between Jews and Arabs and between east and west [Jerusalem]. The demand to specifically halt construction for Jews is not legal in the U.S. or in any other enlightened country in the world …. I cannot imagine the American administration demanding a halt to construction in the U.S. based upon race, religion or sex, and the attempt to demand this of Jerusalem constitutes a double standard and is unacceptable. The Jerusalem Municipality will continue to enable construction in all parts of the city to both Arabs and Jews, with one law for all.” … In a better world, the Israeli reaction would lead the administration to ask: Is pushing Jews out of Jerusalem really an American interest, and is it consistent with American values? For how long do the Palestinians—who have flatly rejected every peace offer since 1937 and have refused even to negotiate with Israel since Obama has “In other words, the current dispute over been in office—deserve such East Jerusalem is a strong sign that the Day consideration? Is the presof the Lord is almost here! … But here is the sure by the larger Muslim greatest ‘scoop’ of all, and the news media world to downgrade the Jewtotally ignore it! The peace talks will lead ish connection to Jerusalem directly to the fall of East Jerusalem.” something the United States —Gerald Flurry, Jerusalem in Prophecy should submit to?

Europe

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ermany ’s finance

minister says the United States is contributing to another possible round of global instability by setting low interest rates. Speaking at a banking conference in Frankfurt November 20, Wolfgang Schäuble echoed concerns of China’s banking regulator Liu Mingkang, who a week previously warned that low U.S. interest rates were fueling another round of asset price bubbles. By accusing America of irresponsibility, Schäuble was really saying that the U.S., if left unchecked, will cause yet another financial crisis. Schäuble is actively and systematically building the case for stronger global German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble financial regulation out of Europe—a trend accused the U.S. of acting financially irresponsible that is already well by setting low interest rates. underway with the European-controlled Financial Stability Board poised to become the world’s most powerful financial regulator. Watch for Europe to become the center of economic activity as America is sidelined by accusations of incompetence and blamed for the world’s financial woes. Germany has a “special responsibility” toward Israel, said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle as he visited Jerusalem on Monday. Next week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and German and Israeli ministers getty images

world tribune | november 23

Jihad Infiltration Not Factor in Army’s Screening A former senior army official told Congress that the military service drafted guidelines on a range of scenarios, including racism. But the army, despite the recruitment of thousands of Muslims, many of them converts, failed to examine prospects of infiltration by Al Qaida and other Islamists. “Clearly we don’t have specific guidelines in dealing with jihadist extremists,” [Ret.] Gen. John Keane, former army vice chief of staff, told the Senate Homeland Security Committee. In testimony on November 19, Keane acknowledged that the army refused to draft guidelines on how to deal with Islamist recruits who preached war against the West. He said this failure, fostered by the fear of political and legal repercussions, enabled a Muslim officer to plan an attack in Fort Hood, Texas, the largest army base in the world, in which 13 people were killed. “There is no doubt in my mind that was operating here,” Keane, who retired in 2003, said. Hours after Keane’s testimony, the Defense Department said it would launch an investigation into Al Qaida influence in the military. Officials acknowledged that the military had failed to track Islamist recruitment or even determine the number of Muslims in the armed forces. … The Senate committee was told by former military commanders and officials of a reluctance to investigate the alleged shooter at Fort Hood, Maj. Nidal Hassan. They said without clear military policy any investigation of Hassan or other Al Qaida supporters in the military could have been regarded as discrimination of Muslims. … President Barack Obama has warned against identifying Hassan as an Islamist. … At the hearing, Hassan was said to have given a presentation at Walter Reed Hospital on Islam. He was quoted as saying that the Koran demanded the establishment of Islamic rule by force. Later, the fbi was reported to have found evidence that Hassan was in contact with an Al Qaida-aligned cleric in Yemen to finance attacks against the United States. … “There are some who are reluctant to call it terrorism, but there is significant evidence that is,” Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Sen. Carl Levin said. “I’m not at all uneasy saying it sure looks like that.”

The trumpet weekly  November 28, 2009  •  4

will hold a joint cabinet meeting. Stratfor reports that this is “part of a larger diplomatic offensive by Israel to muster support for a firm response to Iran’s nuclear activities” (November 24). Israel can see that the U.S. won’t help it, so it is looking to Germany. Watch for this trend, specifically prophesied in the Bible, to intensify.

ISRIA, November 24

Germany—First Official Visit to the Holy Land

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ederal Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle is now in the Middle East. With Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he held his first political talks in Jerusalem. Before leaving he had emphasized the “special responsibility” Germany bears towards Israel as well as its backing for all efforts to breathe new life into the Middle East peace process. Westerwelle expressed his support for a “just two-state solution,” noting that Israel had a right to secure borders and the Palestinians a right to their own state. Germany is committed to the so-called Road Map, which envisages inter alia an Israeli freeze on all settlement activities. According to Westerwelle, “that is not only the German government’s view, that is also the view of the whole international community.” … The main focus of the talks was the Middle East peace process, how to manage the economic and financial crisis and Iran’s nuclear program. Westerwelle made clear he was opposed to Iran acquiring nuclear weapons. Such a prospect was totally unacceptable to the international community, he noted. The first day of Westerwelle’s program in Israel also included a visit to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust commemoration site. Together with Charlotte Knobloch, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, the federal foreign minister was taken on a guided tour of the Holocaust History Museum on the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem. … In the Hall of Remembrance, the focal point of commemoration at Yad Vashem, Westerwelle laid a wreath and rekindled the Eternal Flame dedicated to the memory of the Shoah’s victims. The floor of the hall is engraved with the names of 22 of the largest concentration camps. Before the Eternal Flame stands a stone crypt containing the ashes of concentration camp victims. After a minute’s silence, Westerwelle visited the Children’s Memorial. In the Yad Vashem visitors book, he wrote, “We will not forget. Our responsibility remains—our friendship grows.” … In 2008 the State of Israel celebrated the 60th anniversary of its founding. In this connection Germany and Israel on March 17, 2008, held in Jerusalem their first intergovernmental consultations. For Germany these were the first-ever consultations to be held with a non-European country. Federal Chancellor Merkel and the then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided to expand relations “Here is why that is so dangerous. In many between their countries end-time prophecies, God discusses Israel’s and intensify cooperation Assyrian ‘lovers,’ and how Israel will be particularly in the economic the victim of a treacherous double-cross. sphere as well as on research … Israel will foolishly put its trust in the and innovation. They also Germans, instead of in God!” agreed to promote interso—Gerald Flurry, cietal contacts and youth Nahum—An End-Time Prophecy for Germany exchanges.

ron fraser | Columnist

What’s Germany Up to Now? Some ask, why have Germany and France forced the appointment of two apparent unknowns to the two most senior positions in the European Union hierarchy as created by the Lisbon Treaty/European constitution? The reason links back to the unfolding process of German hegemony, initiated in its latest postwar effort, under the auspices of the European Union. The global economic catastrophe has presented to German elites the very crisis that creates the opportunity to seize control of the global financial system. To obtain that level of control, Germany simply needs direct control of the globe’s central bankers. “[H]eavyweight Germany has aroused suspicions that it wants another job—president of the European Central Bank. … [O]bservers believe Germany could be saving itself to push for the top job at the ecb—arguably the most influential EU post, as the president governs monetary policy for all the countries that share the euro” (Expatica.com, November 20; emphasis mine). The power of the ecb president extends far beyond the EU. Of the richest and most influential nations—the G-20 which coordinate the global economy—the majority are EU member nations. With the G-20 member nations having a single vote each on matters of global economic and financial policy, which the G-20 oversees, the majority vote will always rest with the EU. That’s how the world signed up to the future regulation of the global economy by the EU Financial Stability Board (fsb). It was won by the EU majority vote, hands down. Within the G-20, it’s the powerful central bankers who control the purse strings of the world. Hence Germany’s desire to seize the top job of the most powerful and influential of all central banks, the European Central Bank. But Berlin will not be alone in competing for the ecb president’s job. The other strong contender is—guess who? Rome! Whether Berlin or Rome is successful in seizing what has become the most prominent central banking post on the planet doesn’t matter in the whole equation of unfolding events involving centralized control over the global economy. Either way, one powerful entity wins: the rapidly emerging seventh and final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation!

The trumpet weekly  November 28, 2009  •  5

Telegraph, November 22

Herman Van Rompuy: Europe’s First President to Push for “Euro Tax”

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of taking office in January, the former Belgian prime minister will put his weight behind controversial proposals already floated by the Commission’s head, José Manuel Barroso, for a new “Euro tax.” He will add credence to Mr. Barroso’s plans, to be formally tabled in the New Year, by arguing for a Euro-version of a “Tobin Tax”—a levy on financial transactions already floated by Gordon Brown as a solution to the international banking crisis. It would result in a stream of income direct to Brussels coffers, funding budgets that critics say are already rife with waste and overspending. Mr. Van Rompuy, 62, who was appointed to the newly created £320,000-a-year post at last week’s special EU summit, set out his stall on direct Euro-taxes during a private speech at a recent meeting of the Bilderberg group of top politicians, bankers and businessmen. The group officially meets in secret, but when selected details of his remarks leaked out, his office was forced to issue a public statement on his behalf. “The financing of the welfare state, irrespective of the social reform we implement, will require new resources,” he said. “The possibility of financial levies at European level needs to be seriously reviewed.” … A new Euro tax could appear on all shopping and petrol station receipts, showing the amount of vat or fuel duty creamed off directly to Brussels. … Mr. Van Rompuy has not set out in detail exactly which tax-raising mechanisms he favors most, “Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of but after the Bilderberg taxes in the glory of the kingdom: but within meeting his spokesman said few days he shall be destroyed, neither in he would look favorably on anger, nor in battle. And in his estate shall either green taxes or a verstand up a vile person, to whom they shall not sion of the Tobin Tax, origigive the honour of the kingdom: but he shall nally proposed in 1972 by come in peacably, and obtain the kingdom by the U.S. economist James flatteries.” Tobin as a tax on currency —Daniel 11:20-21 speculation. … ithin days

Sunday Times, November 22

Catholic Bishops Prepare Path for Anglican Exodus

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he Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has taken the first steps towards receiving Anglican converts en masse. Archbishop Vincent Nichols, its leader, has appointed a panel of bishops to plan the recruitment of entire Church of England parishes. The move, effectively to “poach” Anglican congregations disenchanted with their church’s liberal drift, came as Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, held a meeting with Pope Benedict xvi in the Vatican. Speaking after their meeting, Williams denied that the pope’s offer to allow members of the Church of England to convert while preserving many of their traditions was “a kind of dawn raid on the Angli-

daily mail, max hastings | November 24

A Cowardly Navy and Britain’s Humiliation On Feb. 16, 1940, the destroyer Cossack, acting on Churchill’s personal orders, steamed headlong into neutral Norwegian territorial waters in defiance of international law, boarded the German freighter Altmark and freed 299 captive British merchant seamen. … The episode passed into folklore, exemplifying the Royal Navy’s centuries-old tradition of triumphant boldness. On Oct. 28, 2009, the armed Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker Wave Knight met Somali pirates transferring the British couple Paul and Rachel Chandler from their yacht Lynn Rival to a hijacked Singaporean container vessel. When warning shots from Wave Knight failed to deter the pirates, its 100-strong crew stood by and did … absolutely nothing. We know of this sorry incident only because a British sailor leaked the truth. The Ministry of Defense’s original statement declared, evasively and deceitfully, that Wave Knight had encountered the yacht unmanned. Nothing was said about the British ship witnessing the hostages’ removal. Adm. Sir Mark Stanhope, the first sea lord, has since asserted apologetically [that the] Wave Knight and its crew “did the best they could.” Yet it is a reliable principle that when officials lie about the course of events, as at first they did in this case, there is something to be ashamed of. The outcome is that the British couple today languish at a pirate lair ashore, where a £4 million ransom is demanded for their release. It seems a long, sorry voyage from the glories of the Cossack’s Norwegian adventure to humiliation in the Indian Ocean. … What is the purpose of the Royal Navy’s presence in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea if it shows itself toothless? For centuries, the civilized world’s navies kept the high seas safe. From the North African coast to the Malacca Straits, any pirate craft which encountered the British or U.S. Navy knew it would be sunk out of hand. Today, instead, lawyers reign supreme …. No warship’s captain feels able to take action that might breach the rights of others, even when those others are murderous Somalis. … If the Royal Navy cannot act more effectively to defend British interests and citizens on the high seas, then it becomes hard to see what it exists for.

The trumpet weekly  November 28, 2009  •  6

can communion.” He added: “I don’t think it’s a question of the Catholic Church trying to attract by advertising and special offers.” … The Catholic committee targeting Anglican converts will look at ways of overcoming obstacles to receiving entire parishes. A key problem is property. Many of the congregations wanting to defect to Rome are attached to beautiful church buildings. … The committee of Catholic bishops will scrutinize the possibility of church sharing, the use of temporary buildings for convert vicars and their congregations. The panel will also look at the possibility of taking out long-term leases of Anglican churches, giving the Catholics responsibility for repairs and maintenance for up to 100 years. … The archbishop of Canterbury and the pope talked alone for 20 minutes—a relatively short time by Benedict’s standards. … The pope will visit Britain for the first time next year when he will “The pope will step in as the supreme beatify Cardinal John Henry unifying authority—the only one that Newman, the 19th-century can finally unite the differing nations of Anglican convert to Rome. In Europe. … Europe will go Roman Catholic! an unprecedented move, he Protestantism will be absorbed into the may hold the ceremony in ‘mother’ church—and totally abolished.” Westminster cathedral or even —Plain Truth, October 1961 Wembley stadium.

Agence France-Presse, November 19

China Ramps Up Espionage Against U.S.

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U.S. government report warned Thursday that China is sharply stepping up espionage against the United States as the rising Asian power invests in cyberwarfare and grows more sophisticated in recruiting spies. “China is changing the way that espionage is being done,” said Carolyn Bartholomew, the chair of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. In its wide-ranging annual report to Congress, the commission reported a steep rise in the disruption and infiltration of websites of the U.S. government and perceived Beijing rivals …. Col. Gary McAlum, a senior military officer, told the commission the U.S. Defense Department detected 54,640 malicious cyber incidents to its systems in 2008, a 20 percent rise from a year earlier. The figure is on track to jump another 60 percent this year. While the attacks came from around the world, the commission said China was the largest culprit. Some Chinese “patriotic hackers” may not receive official support, but the report said the government likely planned to deploy them in a conflict to disrupt a foreign adversary’s computers. The bipartisan commission found that China was the most aggressive nation in spying on the United States and was trying to recruit more American spies. While China historically tried to tap Chinese Americans … it was now turning to the Soviet model of seeking to bribe informants with cash and gifts, the report said. It said the Chinese were expanding “false flag” operations, in which sources are deceived into thinking they are providing information elsewhere. It pointed to the case of Tai Shen Kuo, a furniture salesman in New Orleans arrested last year after persuading two retired U.S. military officials to give sensitive information by telling them it was headed to Taiwan, not mainland China. …

world net daily | november 23

EU Champions Global Management In accepting his appointment to be the first permanent president of the European Council in the European Union, Herman Van Rompuy affirmed his belief that the new world order would be dominated by international organizations that would seek to destroy the last vestiges of nationstates on the face of the globe, Jerome Corsi’s Red Alert reports. In the following speech captured by bbc … Van Rompuy proclaimed, “2009 is the first year of global governance with the establishment of the G-20 in the middle of the financial crisis.” He continued, “The climate conference in Copenhagen is another step toward the global management of our planet.” … Mario Borghezio, a member of Italy’s Lega Nord who is also a member of the European Parliament, pointed out in a speech to the European Parliament that Van Rompuy is a frequent attendee at Bilderberg Group and Trilateral Commission meetings. Borghezio asked how it is possible that no one has mentioned Van Rompuy is a candidate of these “occult groups” who “meet behind closed doors to decide matters over the heads of the people.” Van Rompuy is known in Europe for his proposals that in the EU, national symbols need to be replaced by European symbols, such that the national flags of the EU member nations would disappear in favor of the EU flag, and the same would happen with license plates, identity cards and even sporting events …. “Even the selection of the largely unknown Van Rompuy to be the first EU Council president and the selection of the equally unknown Lady Catherine Ashton, an EU trade commissioner, to be EU foreign policy head, smacked of back-room deals made by global elitists seeking to fill the new posts created by the Lisbon Treaty with EU global elitists like themselves,” Corsi wrote. He said neither Van Rompuy nor Ashton was elected, noting that Lady Ashton has never held an elected position in her life. Corsi wrote, “Following Van Rompuy’s comments, there should be no doubt that the globalists have no intention of stopping or slowing down, as even the EU itself is simply one small step of regionalism on the new world order journey of international government in which nation-states themselves become bygone entities of a once-treasured past.”

The trumpet weekly  November 28, 2009  •  7

Africa/South America

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irates captured an oil tanker off the coast of Benin on Monday. The attack was probably carried out by Nigerian militants in an attempt to raise money for the upcoming Nigerian election. The International Maritime Bureau says pirate attacks in West African waters are increasing, with around 100 incidents recorded last year. Such attacks show that Britain and America no longer control the seas as they once did. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad enjoyed a warm welcome in Brazil on Monday. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said the world needed to engage Iran and that Iran had the right to develop peaceful nuclear power. The two nations were renewing “century-long ties,” said da Silva. The two leaders met for three hours before announcing new bilateral ties in technology, energy and agriculture. Brazil’s trade with Iran doubled between 2003 and 2007, to around $2 billion. Watch for the Latin American nations to align themselves with America’s enemies.

Anglo-America

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ne in six Americans is underemployed or jobless, Bureau of Labor statistics show. The broadest measure of unemployment, U-6, includes workers who are looking for jobs, are working part-time as they try to find a full-time job, or have given up completely and are living on the dole. The national figure rose from 8.4 percent in November 2007 to 17.5 percent last month. It is the highest rate since the federal government began recording U-6 in 1994. In Michigan, the rate was 21 percent. According to minutes released by the Federal Reserve on Tuesday, senior officials are worried about the job situation and about the long-term effects of cheap interest rates. They are also worried about Congress. cnbc reported that Texas Rep. Ron Paul and other legislators are calling for a plan that requires the General Accounting Office to begin auditing the Fed’s decisions. Contrary to popular belief, the Federal Reserve is a private bank independent of the federal government. Frederic Mishkin, a former Fed official, said the idea was “really dangerous stuff,” and a “serious attack.” Meanwhile, the rest of the crisis-fraught nation is caught between having private bankers make decisions that affect everyone, and having the government control yet another huge chunk of society. South Carolina legislators have begun hearings for the impeachment of Gov. Mark Sanford. Sanford disappeared for five days in June, telling staffers he was hiking the Appalachian Trail, when he actually flew out of the country to meet an Argentine woman. Sanford failed to leave anyone in charge of the state, and has also been charged with multiple misuses of funds.

New York Times, November 23

Shortage Slows a Program to Detect Nuclear Bombs

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Department of Homeland Security has spent $230 million to develop better technology for detecting smuggled nuclear bombs but has had to stop deploying the new machines because the

he

thetrumpet.com | November 24

Australia: Bushfires Wreaking Havoc, Again Thousands of homes are threatened by huge wildfires sweeping across eastern Australia. Record temperatures and persistent winds have combined to make this the worst bushfire threat in 100 years in New South Wales, just months after the country’s most devastating wildfire disaster to date. The record heat has kindled fears of a repeat of February’s cataclysmic fires in Victoria that killed 173 people and consumed more than 2,000 homes. The conditions have prompted authorities to issue the first “catastrophic” or “Code Red” alert—a new level of warning introduced since the deadly Black Saturday fires in February—for parts of New South Wales and South Australia. “The very hot temperatures we’ve seen across New South Wales right throughout this last week are simply breaking hundred-year records,” said Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons. … Fire expert Kevin Tolhurst said, “What we saw on (Black Saturday) was an extraordinary day from a weather point of view. We are starting to see those sort of days more frequently.” The extraordinary weather conditions in Australia are not limited to those that foster fires. Earlier this month, authorities declared a natural disaster along parts of Australia’s east coast as severe floods stranded almost 5,000 people. It was the fifth major flooding incident to strike the region this year. Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has often pointed to the imminent fulfillment of the prophecies of the book of Amos. Back in 1996, he declared both the source of and the reason for this devastation: “The Prophet Amos prophesied about this problem in the end time …. ‘And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered’ (Amos 4:7). God says, ‘I caused it’! God is the cause. We are being cursed by God! Do we really understand what that means? When we continue to have serious floods and droughts at the same time, it is a warning sign from God. And this is only the beginning” (April 1996).

The trumpet weekly  November 28, 2009  •  8

United States has run out of a crucial raw material, experts say. The ingredient is helium 3, an unusual form of the element that is formed when tritium, an ingredient of hydrogen bombs, decays. But the government mostly stopped making tritium in 1989. “I have not heard any explanation of why this was not entirely foreseeable,” said Rep. Brad Miller, Democrat of North Carolina, who is the chairman of a House subcommittee that is investigating the problem. An official from the Homeland Security Department testified last week before Mr. Miller’s panel, the Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee of the House Science Committee, that demand for helium 3 appeared to be 10 times the supply. Some government agencies, Mr. Miller said, did anticipate a crisis, but the Homeland Security Department appears not to have gotten the message. The department had planned a worldwide network using the new detectors, which were supposed to detect plutonium or uranium in shipping containers. The government wanted 1,300 to 1,400 machines, which cost $800,000 each, for use in ports around the world to thwart terrorists who might try to deliver a nuclear bomb to a big city by stashing it in one of the millions of containers that enter the United States every year. … Earlier this year, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, part of the Energy Department, said in a report, “No other currently available detection technology offers the stability, sensitivity and gamma/neutron discrimination” of detectors using helium 3.

Wall Street Journal, November 24

Global Warming With the Lid Off

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MMs have been after the cru station data for years. If they ever hear there is a Freedom of Information Act now in the UK, I think I’ll delete the file rather than send to anyone. … We also have a data protection act, which I will hide behind.” So apparently wrote Phil Jones, director of the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (cru) and one of the world’s leading climate scientists, in a 2005 e-mail to “Mike.” Judging by the e-mail thread, this refers to Michael Mann, director of the Pennsylvania State University’s Earth System Science Center. We found this nugget among the more than 3,000 e-mails and documents released last week after cru’s servers were hacked and messages among some of the world’s most influential climatologists were published on the Internet. The “two MMs” are almost certainly Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick, two Canadians who have devoted years to seeking the raw data and codes used in climate graphs and models, then fact-checking the published conclusions—a painstaking task that strikes us as a public and scientific service. Mr. Jones did not return requests for comment and the university said it could not confirm that all the e-mails were authentic, though it acknowledged its servers were hacked. Yet even a partial review of the e-mails is highly illuminating. In them, scientists appear to urge each other to present a “unified” view on the theory of man-made climate change while discussing the importance of the “common cause”; to advise each other on how to smooth over data so as not to compromise the favored hypothesis; to discuss ways to keep opposing views out of leading journals; and to give tips on how to “hide the decline” of temperature in certain inconvenient data. … Yet all of these [e-mails] underscore what may be the most revealing truth: that these scientists feel the public doesn’t have a right to know the basis for their climate-change predictions, even as their governhe two

daily news, nouriel roubini | November 15

The Worst Is Yet to Come Think the worst is over? Wrong. Conditions in the U.S. labor markets are awful and worsening. While the official unemployment rate is already 10.2 percent and another 200,000 jobs were lost in October, when you include discouraged workers and partially employed workers the figure is a whopping 17.5 percent. While losing 200,000 jobs per month is better than the 700,000 jobs lost in January, current job losses still average more than the per month rate of 150,000 during the last recession. Also, remember: The last recession ended in November 2001, but job losses continued for more than a year and half until June of 2003; ditto for the 1990-91 recession. So we can expect that job losses will continue until the end of 2010 at the earliest. In other words, if you are unemployed and looking for work and just waiting for the economy to turn the corner, you had better hunker down. All the economic numbers suggest this will take a while. … The long-term picture for workers and families is even worse than current job loss numbers alone would suggest. Now as a way of sharing the pain, many firms are telling their workers to cut hours, take furloughs and accept lower wages. Specifically, that fall in hours worked is equivalent to another 3 million full-time jobs lost on top of the 7.5 million jobs formally lost. This is very bad news, but we must face facts. Many of the lost jobs are gone forever, including construction jobs, finance jobs and manufacturing jobs. Recent studies suggest that a quarter of U.S. jobs are fully outsourceable over time to other countries. … The weakness in labor markets and the sharp fall in labor income ensure a weak recovery of private consumption and an anemic recovery of the economy, and increase the risk of a double-dip recession. As a result of these terribly weak labor markets, we can expect weak recovery of consumption and economic growth; larger budget deficits; greater delinquencies in residential and commercial real estate and greater fall in home and commercial realestate prices; greater losses for banks and financial institutions on residential and commercial real-estate mortgages, and in credit cards, auto loans and student loans and thus a greater rate of failures of banks; and greater protectionist pressures. The damage will be extensive and severe ….

The trumpet weekly  November 28, 2009  •  9

ments prepare staggeringly expensive legislation in response to them. … However, we do now have hundreds of e-mails that give every appearance of testifying to concerted and coordinated efforts by leading climatologists to fit the data to their conclusions while attempting to silence and discredit their critics. In the department of inconvenient truths, this one surely deserves a closer look by the media, the U.S. Congress and other investigative bodies.

Telegraph, November 20

First Marijuana Coffee Shop Opens in America

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marijuana coffee shop in the U.S. has opened, posing an early test of the Obama administration’s move to relax the policing of medical use of the drug. The Cannabis Cafe in Portland, Oregon, is the first to give people who have been prescribed marijuana by a doctor a place to get hold of the drug and smoke it, although they have to remain out of public view. Patients who have been prescribed marijuana usually have to buy it from a licensed dispensary and then take it elsewhere. Eric Solomon, the owner of the cafe, said he is looking forward to holding marijuana-themed weddings, film festivals and dances. “I still run a coffee shop and events venue, just like I did before we converted it to the Cannabis Cafe, but now it will be cannabis-themed,” he said. Madeline Martinez, who runs norml, a group seeking legalization of the drug, said: “This club represents personal freedom, finally. Our plans go beyond serving food and marijuana. We hope to have classes, seminars, even a cannabis community college, based here to help people learn about growing and other uses for cannabis.” … The creation of the cafe comes almost a month after the Obama administration told federal lawyers not to prosecute patients who use marijuana for medical reasons or dispensaries in states which have legalized them. … he first

Telegraph, November 23

Children Should Be Allowed to Play in the Dirt

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cientists have discovered that bacteria on the surface of the skin play an important role in combating inflammation when we get hurt. The bugs dampen down overactive immune responses, which can lead to rashes or cause cuts and bruises to become swollen and painful. The findings support previous research which suggests that exposure to germs during early childhood can prime the immune system to prevent allergies. Professor Gallo said: “These germs are actually good for us.” He said that his team identified for the first time ever a previously unknown mechanism by which a product of staphylococci prevents invflammation. … Parents Outloud, the pressure group, said the research provides scientific support for its campaign to prevent children being mollycoddled by health and safety regulations. Its spokeswoman, Margaret

online journal, peter morici | November 19

America’s Leadership Deficit The economic recovery is not creating jobs, unemployment is rising, and the president and Congress offer little more than nostrums and platitudes. … The huge trade deficit and reckless banking practices caused the Great Recession and still weigh down the economy. Oil imports and cheap consumer goods from China account for nearly the entire trade gap. Americans drive big cars with thirsty engines. … Congressional conservatives are unwilling to submit to genuine energy conservation, and liberals believe developing domestic fossil fuel is immoral. China undervalues its currency to boost its U.S. sales, domestic employment and growth. Its economic miracle is engineered by Beijing buying hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars, with freshly printed yuan, to keep its currency undervalued and Chinese products inexpensive in U.S stores. … President Obama, afraid China won’t buy U.S. debt, won’t challenge China on currency and trade. … The tarp was intended to … purchase bad loans and mortgages from banks and ultimately made a profit on properties it acquired as the economy recovered. Wall Street bankers objected—they wanted to offload their problem loans but keep the profits on properties down the road. Presidents Bush and Obama gave in to Wall Street, and abused the tarp to bail out General Motors and Chrysler. The Federal Reserve bailed out Wall Street banks with trillions in cheap credit they used to make trades, not new loans, to earn big profits to cover losses on their failed mortgages. … Americans spend too much on health care …. High administrative costs, drug prices and malpractice insurance are the principle villains. … Legislation offered by Senate and House Democrats skirt malpractice and drug costs, and would spend another $200 billion annually, funded by higher taxes and health insurance premiums. Spending more is not the hallmark of a program that lowers costs. Now the Democrats, fearful that unemployment, stagnant wages and their fiscal follies will result in big electoral losses in 2010 are cooking up another stimulus package. They will call it by another name, perhaps a “jobs initiative.” … All this is remindful of bread and circuses in a declining Roman Empire. Those kept the crowds happy while the state was failing.

The trumpet weekly  November 28, 2009  •  10

Morrissey, said: “Parents have become so paranoid about their children playing outside and getting dirty that today’s youngsters are not enjoying a proper childhood. You cannot blame parents for this because they are constantly bombarded with advertising telling them they have to buy antibacterial products to keep their children clean and healthy. However, hopefully research like this will help parents realize that it’s natural and healthy for children to get outdoors and get mucky and that it doesn’t do their health any harm.” …

source from page 1 pivot of the Old Testament,” the “basic prophecy of the Old Testament.” Why? Because in Leviticus 26 God informed the Israelites—including Ephraim and Manasseh, inheritors of the birthright promise—of the conditions for receiving their inheritance. Although God’s promise to Abraham became unconditional after Abraham’s display of faith and obedience, God imposed conditions on the Israelites for them to inherit the promise in their time. In this chapter God made it clear that if the Israelites obeyed Him, particularly the Second and Fourth Commandments, He would lavish them, in their time, with the blessings of the birthright promise (verses 1-14). But notice! If the Israelites refused to obey God, He would withhold the birthright promises from Ephraim and Manasseh for 2,520 years (verse 18). As Mr. Armstrong explained thoroughly in The United States and Britain in Prophecy, that delay began in 721 b.c., when Israel, including Ephraim and Manasseh, was taken captive by the Assyrians. Although God delayed fulfilling His promise to Abraham, He was bound by His word to shower Abraham’s descendants, specifically Ephraim and Manasseh, with the birthright blessings. And He did— right around the year 1800—2,520 years after Ephraim and Manasseh had been taken into captivity. America and the British Commonwealth are the modern-day descendants of Manasseh and Ephraim, respectively. If you’re familiar with the history of these nations, you know that each began to emerge as a major global power beginning in the early 19th century. “We should face the facts today,” wrote Mr. Armstrong in The United States and Britain in Prophecy, “and know that we were given all this vast unprecedented material wealth because God promised it, unconditionally, to A braham.” Abraham Lincoln, though he may not have recognized all this history, knew that American greatness was an act of God. During an address on March 30, 1863, during which he declared a day of prayer and fasting, he stated: “It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God … and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord …. We have been the recipients of the choicest blessings of heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in number, wealth and power as no other nation ever has grown: But we have forgotten God! We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.” Thanksgiving affords us the opportunity to walk in Lincoln’s footsteps, and to see that beneath American greatness lies God’s spectacular promise to Abraham! To learn more, join 6 million others and request your copy of The United States and Britain in Prophecy. Of all the treats Americans could set their eyes on today, this work by Mr. Armstrong ranks among the most thought-provoking and beautiful.

robert morley | Columnist

“Doing God’s Work” Goldman Sachs apologized to America—sort of. Goldman’s ceo admitted Wall Street had sinned. Now millions of unemployed are paying the price. But embedded within the halting apology—and obscured by an enormous bribe—is language that shows that nothing has really changed. There are “people who feel—and are right—that there’s some meaningful things where we may have—not may have, certainly our industry is responsible for things. And we’re a leader in our industry, and we participated in things that were clearly wrong, and we have reasons to regret and apologize for,” he said. So far so good. Goldman realizes that it has erred. Now Wall Street can go about changing its ways. Right? Unfortunately, Blankfein’s public relations apology is undermined by comments he made just days earlier to the Times. People need to get over their anger at the big banks, he said. Goldman Sachs is part of a virtuous system that serves a greater good, he claimed. “We’re very important,” he told reporter John Arlidge. “We help companies to grow by helping them to raise [money]. Companies that grow create wealth. This, in turn, allows people to have jobs that create more growth and more wealth.” It is all part of a “virtuous cycle” in which Goldman serves a “social purpose.” If you think about it, Goldman Sachs is really just “doing God’s work,” he said. This firm is often compared to a “robber baron” and an “opportunistic vulture,” but in reality, it is God’s agent on Earth! So says Goldman. When the Goldman bookies take their cut—and judging from their record profits this past quarter it’s a big one­—they are really doing it for the good of the country. The ironic thing is this: Goldman Sachs may actually be “doing God’s work”—just not the way that Blankfein thinks. A common thread running through the Bible is that of blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. God is clearly sending the curses today. By facilitating the crash of America’s economy, Goldman Sachs and the other big banks are actually serving to help arrest the nation’s attention. America needs to wake up. God’s work is being done, but not by Goldman Sachs.