Friday, May 30, 2008

STEPHEN CAMP

UPDATED SUNDAY, JUNE 1, 2008

www.seecamp.com

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Fischer: US, Israel will attack Iran
Sat, 31 May 2008 04:16:42

Joschka Fischer
Former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer says Israel is planning to attack Iran in the near future over its nuclear program.

He wrote a piece that appeared in today's Daily Star, an English-language Lebanese newspaper, arguing that President Bush's recent visit to the Middle East was a precursor to a war against Iran.

"The Middle East is drifting toward a new great confrontation in 2008. Iran must understand that without a diplomatic solution in the coming months, a dangerous military conflict is very likely to erupt. It is high time for serious negotiations to begin," he said.

Fischer said Bush's speech during his address to the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, this month indicated a coming Israeli-US attack on Iran's nuclear program.

"He (Bush) seemed to be planning, together with Israel, to end the Iranian nuclear program -- and to do so by military, rather than by diplomatic, means.... Although it is acknowledged in Israel that an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would involve grave and hard-to-assess risks, the choice between acceptance of a nuclear Iran and an attempt at its military destruction, with all the attendant consequences, is clear. Israel won't stand by and wait for matters to take their course," Fischer said.

Fischer was German's top diplomat from 1998 to 2005 and is a visiting scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.

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'Bush gearing up to wage war on Iran'
Wed, 28 May 2008 07:03:10

US President George W. Bush
The Bush administration is drawing up plans to launch a strike against Iran within the next two months, says a former top US diplomat.

The source, a retired US diplomat and former assistant secretary of state, said senior Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein of California and Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana have already been briefed on the attack plan.

Senator Feinstein, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Senator Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, plan to go public with their opposition to the new Iran war plan in a New York Times editorial 'within days', Asia Times Online reported the source as saying on the condition of anonymity.

According to Asia Times Online, Feinstein and Lugar will attempt to offset the August attack by creating a furor about President George W. Bush's intentions of launching air strikes against the headquarters of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps.

In September 2007, the US Senate approved a resolution by a 76-22 vote, calling on the White House to brand the IRGC a terrorist organization.

US echelons accuse Iran of contributing to the killing of American soldiers in neighboring Iraq. This is while the White House is yet to provide concrete evidence in support of its allegation.

Iran insists that it is committed to aiding Baghdad in its efforts to restore stability in the war-ravaged country.

The Bush administration also accuses Iran of developing nuclear arms, a claim which was rejected by 16 US intelligence agencies on December 3 when their assessment conceded that Tehran is not conducting a nuclear weapons program.

According to the most recent UN nuclear watchdog report on Tehran's nuclear program, there is no link between the use of nuclear material and 'the alleged studies' of weaponization attributed to Iran by Western countries.
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Iran Achieves a Four-Front Missile Command, Breakthrough on Nuclear Missile Warheads

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

May 31, 2008

Gen. Mohammed Ali Jafari, chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps

Gen. Mohammed Ali Jafari, chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps

DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps have created a separate missile command, in which Syria’s missile force is to be integrated. The joint command was formalized in a new mutual defense treaty signed by the Syrian defense minister, Gen. Hassan Turkmani in Tehran last week.

Israeli military sources judge the operational merger of Iranian and Syrian missile corps to be a major strategic hazard to the Jewish state.

Western and Israeli military experts connect it with other indications that Iran’s program for developing missiles capable of delivering nuclear payloads has gone into high gear and reached an advanced stage. They believe the Iranians have beaten most of the technical difficulties holding it up.

On May 26, the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, which often goes easy on Iran, released a harsh report confirming Iran’s progress in “missile warhead design.”

The new missile command was cautiously announced last week by the IRGC commander, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari. He said: “An independent command might be created in Sepah (IRGC) in order to fortify the structure and activities of the missile section.”

DEBKAfile’s Iranians sources explain Jafar’s cautious language on three grounds:

1. He was preparing Iran’s population and the Arab world for a pretty portentous development.

2. He was at pains not to put off figures in the West who argue strongly in favor of unconditional talks with Tehran over its nuclear misdeeds. He counted on those advocates shouting down the Western strategists who would appreciate the startling significance of the separate command.

3. Tehran also views Syria’s co-option and the new mutual defense treaty as a sort of guarantee that Assad’s “peace talks” with Israel will in no way detract from his military and other commitments to Iran.

DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources disclose that the details of the combined command were worked out ahead of the Syrian defense minister’s talks in Tehran: It was agreed that Syria’s missile units would come under the new independent Iranian missile section and their operations would be fully coordinated with Tehran. Iranian officers are to be attached to Syrian units and Syrian officers posted to the Iranian command.

In the interim, Hizballah’s rise to power in Beirut has brought Lebanon into the shared Syrian-Iranian orbit. This development has enabled Tehran to line up a row of missiles deployments of varying strengths from Iran, Syria and Lebanon and up to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip – a missile array never before seen in the Middle East and a strategic menace most of Israel’s security leaders rate unacceptable.

Military experts comment that Tehran’s centralized control of four hostile missile fronts will virtually neutralize the American and Israeli anti-missile defense systems in the region; the Arrow and the Patriot missile interceptors could handle incoming missiles from one or maybe two directions – but not four.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Israel’s armed forces have been working overtime, against repeated holdups, to get the third Arrow battery installed. It is to be deployed in northern Israel as a shield against Syrian ballistic missiles and Iranian missiles stationed in Syria.

The formation of the joint Iranian-Syrian missile command has slowed the project down. It calls for modifications in the Arrow’s deployment to meet the fresh challenge and a time-consuming study by US and Israeli intelligence specialists of how the new command structure functions. Western military sources doubt the Arrow system will be up and running by this summer, a period considered critical by military observers.

They discount as over-optimistic recent claims by Israeli officials that the new Iron Dome will be ready for operational testing against short-range missiles in the next year or two.

In a related development, DEBKAfile’s Gulf sources report that next week, Iran’s supreme ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Syrian president Bashar Assad launch a major campaign to further isolate American influence and bludgeon moderate Arab governments into alignment with their extreme anti-US, anti-Israel line.

Assad sets out Sunday, June 1, for the United Arab Emirates for talks with Sheikh KHalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan in Abu Dhabi. Tuesday, he spends two days in Kuwait. The visits were set up by the Qatar ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who spent Friday, May 30, in Assad’s palace, gathering compliments for the Doha accord he mediated which solved Lebanon’s political crisis by installing a national unity government in Beirut dominated by Hizballah.

The Qatari ruler, Assad and Khamenei have joined forces to use the Lebanon accord as an object lesson to teach Arab governments that they do not need the United States or Saudi Arabia to help them manage their problems.

This message was relayed in Iran foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki’s arrogant statement in Stockholm Friday. He said: “The United States of America needs a serious review of its foreign policy towards the Middle East. These policies in… Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and generally speaking in the Middle East are mistaken policies.”

DEBKAfile’s political sources point out that these reverses are piling up against the United States and Israel at the worst time possible: both governments are hobbled - Washington in the dying days of the Bush administration, and Israel, by the grave corruption allegations against prime minister Ehud Olmert which have placed him and the other two senior policy-makers, the defense and foreign ministers, at loggerheads.

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Putin Calls U.S. `Frightening Monster,' Urges French Solidarity

By Henry Meyer

May 31 (Bloomberg) -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin compared the U.S. to a ``frightening monster'' and urged France to distance itself from its American ally.

``How can one be such a shining example of democracy at home and a frightening monster abroad?'' Putin said in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde transmitted live to journalists in Paris yesterday.

Putin, speaking the day after meeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy, said the U.S. was creating ``new Berlin Walls'' in Europe by pushing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to expand into ex-Soviet states Georgia and Ukraine.

The Russian prime minister, who passed on the presidency earlier this month to his handpicked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, continues to set the foreign and domestic policy agenda. Under Putin's eight-year presidency, Russia clashed with the U.S. and the European Union over matters such as NATO expansion and a planned U.S. missile-defense system in eastern Europe.

``France, I hope, will continue to conduct an independent foreign policy,'' said Putin, whose interview was embargoed until publication by Le Monde today. ``This is in the nature of French people, they don't want their country tied down, and any French leader will have to respect that.''

The election of Medvedev, 42, a lawyer who has called for more dialogue between the East and West, has raised hopes of an eventual thaw. Still, Sarkozy decided to meet with Putin, breaking with the tradition of Group of Eight leaders of dealing with Russia at a presidential level, showing the 55-year-old former KGB colonel's dominant influence.

Presidential Power

Under Russia's constitution, the president is supposed to be solely responsible for foreign policy and has more formal authority than the prime minister, who can be fired by presidential decree and is charged with implementing Kremlin policies.

Putin ``remains the pre-eminent power'' in Russia, said Michael Emerson, a former EU ambassador to Moscow and an analyst at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels. ``The EU has to deal with the people who are there, both of them.''

Putin, who has threatened to point missiles at Ukraine should it host missile bases as a NATO member, said expanding the military alliance deeper into former Soviet territory risked a return to Cold War competition.

``NATO expansion means drawing up new dividing lines in Europe, new Berlin Walls,'' he said. ``This time we can't see them, but they're no less dangerous.''

Military Infrastructure

Putin said Russia sees ``military infrastructure coming closer to our borders,'' and denounced the U.S. for seeking a ``monopoly in world affairs.''

Asked about the division of power between himself and Medvedev, Putin said that his successor had ``the final word.''

At the same time, the Russian premier slipped up by referring to himself as the president of Russia. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon at a press conference two days ago mistakenly called Putin the Russian president three times.

Putin's visit to France -- a month before the country assumes the EU's rotating presidency -- came a week before Medvedev meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on his first Western European trip as Russia's head of state.

To contact the reporter on this story: Henry Meyer in Paris via the Moscow newsroom at Hmeyer4@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 31, 2008 10:20 EDT
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My Choice in "Plastic Pistols"

By Stephen Camp

I'll say up front that I prefer steel pistols, almost always in a single-action design, and that I think nothing looks better than well done bluing and quality stocks of walnut or rosewood. I guess that makes me a traditionalist. I have nothing against hard chrome, electroless nickel or some other finishes, but if use in extremely harsh environments for extended periods of time is not an issue, I'll go with blue.

The bulk of my firearms are blued, but there are a few in stainless steel as well as hard chrome and E-nickel and I own one "plastic pistol."

I've owned others, but not all that many. They were a couple of Glock 17's, a Glock 22, and a Springfield XD9. I also owned an early Kahr P9. The above were sold or traded off. They just weren't for me despite the fact that they're extremely popular with a large number of shooters. Yet, I kept one plastic gun; it's features "work" for me.

If you're not a fan of the polymer pistols or are a traditionalist (like me), you might want to read on.

The pistol I kept was a Glock 26. For anyone who actually knows me or has read my stuff to any degree, it's no secret that I normally opt for longer barrels and full size versions of handguns. In my case, exceptions are snub .38's (for pocket carry), a 2 1/2" S&W Model 19 simply because I like it and a 3 1/2" Model 27 for the very same reason. Ditto an old Colt Agent .38 snub. I find all of them pleasing to the eye, fun to shoot, and have "pride of ownership" in each.

To me, the Glock 26 is one of the less attractive looking models in the Austrian stable of handguns. So why on earth would I pick a short-barreled, non-blued, polymer pistol? The reason is simple: It meets my perceived needs. That's not completely true; it meets nearly all of them.

I think this is an "ugly" pistol, but it has never malfunctioned with any ammunition tried, lends itself to inexpensive customizing for my particular "needs" and is capable of very satisfactory groups at 15 and 25 yards. I do not do as well with this pistol at 50 yards as with a Hi Power, CZ-75, or 1911. The two shots below the group shot at 15 yards in the picture were due to me, not the pistol. It does not exhibit the "first round flyer" syndrome present in some handguns.

So why did I go with the G26? I was looking for a pistol for pocket holster carry. I wanted something that would be easy to shoot well at speed, be utterly reliable and safe, and that would stand up to long term use with lots of shooting over coming years. I'd tried an early Kahr P9 that was more comfortable and slightly easier to conceal, but got rid of it. The reasons were two-fold:

1. It was not reliable with +P ammunition. My P9 was one of the early ones and at least once per magazine the slide lock would prematurely engage. While it worked fine with standard pressure ammunition, I insisted upon +P due to the shorter barrel and its accordingly lower velocities.

2. The Kahr P9 also abraded the skin at the base of my thumb. I'm the only person in the world that I've heard of having that problem, but it happens to me with P9's and to a lesser degree, K9 pistols.

I really regretted this, but despite Kahr's best efforts at the time, the P9 could not be made reliable to my satisfaction and for a "serious" carry pistol, reliability is a must.

I went with the Glock 26 for the following reasons:

1. The pistol has proven utterly reliable with all ammunition tried. This includes standard pressure ball and JHP's as well as Nato loads, +P JHP's, and +P+ JHP's. I have shot everything from 50-gr. specialty ammo to 147-gr. JHP's through this pistol with zero reliability problems. It's worked fine with handloads using jacketed or plated bullets.

This Glock 26 has been shot with lots of varied ammunition and it has never missed a beat. It handle's +P with ease. Bullet weight has not proven to be a problem in this particular pistol. The pistol packs sufficient "punch" with the better 9mm loads in my opinion to be considered a capable defense pistol.

2. While at the upper limit of what I can personally carry concealed in a pocket holster, the G26 can be carried in such a manner. I did carry it just that way for about a year, but in the end went back to an S&W J-frame. It is just that much more comfortable to carry via a pocket holster. I also noticed that with it flat profile, when I was seated just so, the pistol tended to try and slide out of my pocket. For these reasons, I no longer routinely carry it as a pocket gun. It can be done if deemed necessary, but I've pretty well regulated that "duty" to the lightweight snub .38.

3. As has been mentioned, I am not a real Glock fan. I have no particular pride in this pistol, something that cannot be said of many others I own. However, it has so many strong points that I intend to keep and use it for certain purposes. As most know, if a handgun is used in shooting another person, justified or not, it will spend some time away from home and in an evidence locker. It will be tested by a firearms expert as well. In short, the gun will be out of our control and subject to perhaps not the best treatment possible. I'd rather have my Glock subjected to less than ideal conditions than a more traditional blued firearm or one that holds strong sentimental value. My G26 could probably be replaced with another showing the same level of performance.

4. While it is not blued, it does have a dark finish…and one that turns out to be very durable and corrosion resistant. That is a plus to me.

5. I was able to make some minor changes in the gun without the expense associated with similar changes to more traditional pistols. Namely, I changed the sights, recoil spring guide, and added a plug for the hollow behind the magazine well to keep out dust. (Some opine that this is not needed, but I did it when I was carrying the gun via a pocket holster. Untold amounts of lint and debris found their way into that hollow and since I could see parts when looking through it, I didn't want to take a chance that some of it would eventually make its way into the guts of the gun. From what I've seen, I don't think it would actually affect reliability, but I was not willing to take the chance. The plastic sights, while usable, wore down with not that much practice from the holster. I replaced them with AroTek fixed sights. They mimic Novak sights somewhat and are reasonably priced. While I left the recoil spring alone, I did go with a Wolff two-piece, steel recoil spring guide system. I'm told that it's not at all necessary, but I just didn't like the flexible, polymer factory spring guide. The gun's functioned perfectly with the Wolff unit, but it never malfunctioned with the factory plastic rod, either.

Not a "match gun" by any standard, the Glock possesses plenty of accuracy for its intended purpose and is capable of better than the "combat accuracy" mentioned by some gun writers. Despite its short grip, I was very pleased that it is easy to shoot. The abbreviated grip presented me no control problems and allowed for both a precise hold for slow, precision shooting as well as for the faster "practical" drills. While felt recoil is subjective, varying from shooter to shooter, I did not find the G26 objectionable to shoot with even the hotter loads such as the Corbon or Winchester shown above.

6. The Glock 26 does not give up much with most ammunition despite its 3.46" barrel. This was a pleasant surprise. Elsewhere on this site, you will find "Glock 26" velocities listed if interested. It should be noted that a couple of favorite standard pressure loads do not quite "satisfy" when used in the Glock 26. Federal 115-gr. JHP and the now discontinued 124-gr. Nyclad simply don't work as well in the short barrels as in those 4 or 5" long. Triton, Corbon, Winchester, and other newer +P loads give virtually the same velocities from the Glock 26 as did my Hi Powers, albeit usually to the low side. However, differences were not great, velocities remain well in the ballistic envelope at which the bullets are designed to expand, and on the receiving end, there's probably no practical difference.

7. Having an abbreviated grip or butt, the Glock 26 is exceptionally easy to conceal under a loose

fitting shirt or jacket. With a proper belt and holster, the gun that was too heavy for pocket carry will

be almost forgotten! In short, the G26 is extremely easy to carry via belt holsters. While I usually go

with a Commander .45 or a Browning Hi Power 9mm when wearing a belt rig, there are times that I

opt for the Glock. One reason is when wearing waist-length jackets. The longer guns can protrude

below the bottom of the jacket. The G26 does not.

I also believe from observation and the written work of folks using Glocks heavily that they last. They last for years and with heavy use. I am a shooter and long-term durability is a factor I look at strongly. The Glock meets this requirement.

While I do not believe in "Glock Perfection," I do believe that if an old traditionalist like me can find a use for one, others might, too. If you think you might try one, understand that like the Hi Power and 1911, the Glock design does not suffer foolish gun handling well. While pressing the trigger does move but a partially cocked striker rearward, this distance is not great compared to either a Kahr, most other DA autos or a double-action revolver. It is essential that the trigger finger not touch the trigger until ready to fire. This must be religiously practiced with all handguns, but especially so with a Glock. Despite its "safe action," it ain't so "safe" with the finger on the trigger as the one and only external safety has just been depressed and deactivated. Likewise, choose holsters with care and absolutely avoid those in which thumb breaks or retaining straps of any kind can get into the trigger guard when the pistol's being reholstered. This can cause the gun to be fired unintentionally.

Do NOT put your finger on the trigger or in the trigger guard until actually preparing to fire.

My Glock 26 has a home because it does what it's called upon to do very well…with the exception of being an "always" gun in a pocket holster. It's capable of spitting out up to 11 hot 9mm JHP's before reloading and felt recoil is very easy to control in rapid fire. I may never be a member of the Glock Camp (Sorry,couldn't resist), but this model has proven itself a capable performer and a viable carry pistol for me under certain circumstances.

If you are looking for a compact pistol, don't care for single-action, and want a durable, long-lived handgun in the 9mm power range, I suggest giving the Glock 26 a long, hard look.

It may be ugly, but it is worthy of serious consideration.

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MUST READ THIS ARTICLE

http://survivalacres.com/wordpress/?m=200805



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READ THIS CAREFULLY:

Load Up the Pantry
April 21, 2008 6:47 p.m.

I don't want to alarm anybody, but maybe it's time for Americans to start stockpiling food.

No, this is not a drill.

You've seen the TV footage of food riots in parts of the developing world. Yes, they're a long way away from the U.S. But most foodstuffs operate in a global market. When the cost of wheat soars in Asia, it will do the same here.

Reality: Food prices are already rising here much faster than the returns you are likely to get from keeping your money in a bank or money-market fund. And there are very good reasons to believe prices on the shelves are about to start rising a lot faster.

"Load up the pantry," says Manu Daftary, one of Wall Street's top investors and the manager of the Quaker Strategic Growth mutual fund. "I think prices are going higher. People are too complacent. They think it isn't going to happen here. But I don't know how the food companies can absorb higher costs." (Full disclosure: I am an investor in Quaker Strategic)

Stocking up on food may not replace your long-term investments, but it may make a sensible home for some of your shorter-term cash. Do the math. If you keep your standby cash in a money-market fund you'll be lucky to get a 2.5% interest rate. Even the best one-year certificate of deposit you can find is only going to pay you about 4.1%, according to Bankrate.com. And those yields are before tax.

Meanwhile the most recent government data shows food inflation for the average American household is now running at 4.5% a year.

And some prices are rising even more quickly. The latest data show cereal prices rising by more than 8% a year. Both flour and rice are up more than 13%. Milk, cheese, bananas and even peanut butter: They're all up by more than 10%. Eggs have rocketed up 30% in a year. Ground beef prices are up 4.8% and chicken by 5.4%.

These are trends that have been in place for some time.

And if you are hoping they will pass, here's the bad news: They may actually accelerate.

The reason? The prices of many underlying raw materials have risen much more quickly still. Wheat prices, for example, have roughly tripled in the past three years.

Sooner or later, the food companies are going to have to pass those costs on. Kraft saw its raw material costs soar by about $1.25 billion last year, squeezing profit margins. The company recently warned that higher prices are here to stay. Last month the chief executive of General Mills, Kendall Powell, made a similar point.

The main reason for rising prices, of course, is the surge in demand from China and India. Hundreds of millions of people are joining the middle class each year, and that means they want to eat more and better food.

A secondary reason has been the growing demand for ethanol as a fuel additive. That's soaking up some of the corn supply.

You can't easily stock up on perishables like eggs or milk. But other products will keep. Among them: Dried pasta, rice, cereals, and cans of everything from tuna fish to fruit and vegetables. The kicker: You should also save money by buying them in bulk.

If this seems a stretch, ponder this: The emerging bull market in agricultural products is following in the footsteps of oil. A few years ago, many Americans hoped $2 gas was a temporary spike. Now it's the rosy memory of a bygone age.

The good news is that it's easier to store Cap'n Crunch or cans of Starkist in your home than it is to store lots of gasoline. Safer, too.

Write to Brett Arends at brett.arends@wsj.com

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Best Buys In Handguns, Part III: Used/Surplus

By

Aaron Brudenell

Many folks interested in firearms will choose the ones they collect for a number of reasons. Some accumulate products from one gun maker, a specific time or event, or even a single model that may have been copied by numerous manufacturers. Whatever a person’s criteria, most of us will find it hard to resist an obvious bargain even if the item is outside the scope of what we normally fancy. This writer is no exception, in fact, I find myself particularly susceptible to a splendid deal at a gun shop or show. Part of my interest, like many others I’m sure, comes from remembering a time when I was younger and much less able to afford the things I wanted most of all. The big advantage in choosing a highly affordable firearm later in one’s collecting is that you tend to have a greater benefit of experience in spotting a truly useful bargain rather than something that’s just cheap.

Say you have $200 and need a handgun for self-defense. The list of new firearms that can be had at that price isn’t a long one and many of them are of notorious quality and not to be generally trusted for one’s life if there’s a suitable alternative. I found two very good used ones in this price range, and feel sure others exist (both on this site and elsewhere). I was able to obtain the Smith and Wesson K-frame revolver for just under $200 from a retail store specializing in used and surplus firearms. The Makarov pistol was purchased for around $150 from a licensed dealer at a local gun show; however, I’ve noticed prices on this and similar models slowly drift up to and even slightly beyond the $200 mark in the time since. Here’s the first lesson: conspicuous bargains don’t always remain so!

Here is a picture of the 3" Model 10 and the Makarov pistol. Each handgun has its own strong points compared to the other, but both of these do have one thing in common: reliability.

Each of these handguns is a used firearm previously issued to a military or law enforcement agency and that’s a great place to start looking, regardless of how much money you have to hunt for a bargain. The revolver was reportedly one of many issued to a large metropolitan police department in France that probably upgraded to semiautomatic pistols like so many other agencies. Because it was sold abroad and imported back into the US, it bears the dot matrix stamp of the importer. In all other respects, it’s a standard K-frame model 10-5, the standard .38 Special successor to the original Military & Police revolver made before World War two. The only unusual feature is the barrel, which is a tapered 3" version unlike the more common 4" variety.

Makarovs were the main sidearm for many of the Soviet block countries for the latter part of the cold war and were produced by Russia, East Germany, China, and in this case, Bulgaria. East German models are widely considered to be best of all, however, I find the Bulgarian model to be in a close 2nd place! Chinese guns can be of inconsistent quality and I don’t care for the Russian models, which have an adjustable rear sight (an unnecessary addition of size in my view). The exact history of this Bulgarian Makarov is not known, but the double circled "10" indicates it was made in the state run arsenal and these pistols were most likely used by military and police agencies in that country until sometime after the fall of the iron curtain. As with the revolver, this handgun was imported and bears a similar dot matrix identifier of the importer (the same one as it turns out).

When comparing this pair of options, more differences exist than the usual "revolver" versus "semiautomatic" debate but first I’d like to consider the commonalties. Both handguns have numerous grip options available and this is very important if one is to select a handgun for their primary defense arm. Most of the Makarov grips are similar in style and shape, however, differences in thickness and texture are significant enough to fit most people’s needs. I chose the East German style of grip because I have small hands and like the texture. Many friends of mine have opted for the soft rubber Pearce grips that fill larger hands and soften recoil. Like any K-frame Smith and Wesson revolver, there is a virtually endless supply of grips available for the model 10 and the mismatched pair of small factory panels suits my needs adequately.

Both the Makarov and Model 10 have outstanding accuracy and reliability to the point I’d be hard pressed to distinguish one in either category. The biggest limitation for each in accuracy is their sights and in both cases, I remain satisfied given their role as a rugged self-defense gun. Because each has both single and double-action capability, they can be carried safely and ready to fire quickly or cocked for more precision shots. Recoil for both is also comparable—standard pressure ammunition for each is mild enough for a novice to master and the +P .38 Specials have the same extra impulse as a few of the heavier recoiling (higher bullet weight) rounds available for the 9x18mm chamber.

Ammunition is the first obvious area of distinction between the two firearms with .38 Special being much more available and diverse in the US than 9x18mm. I often refer to the "Walmart Test" of ammunition availability and clearly you’re more likely to find .38 Specials than 9x18mm wherever you buy your ammunition.

That said, however, the Makarov can be re-barreled quite easily for .380 ACP with minimal cost and I’ve tested several unmodified 9x18mm firearms with .380 ammunition and found surprising reliability with only a slight loss in accuracy. This is not to be considered a recommendation—it’s probably comparable to firing .22 Long Rifle cartridges in a .22 Magnum chamber. Problems with certain short bullet designs and the occasional split case should be expected and I think it’s better to buy a good supply of surplus ammunition for the long term. But in an emergency or if 9x18mm cartridges become rare the Makarov will not become a paperweight. With the pistol in this article, I tested 9 brands of .380 ammunition and only had problems with Winchester Silvertips and some cast reloaded ammunition, both of which had rather short overall lengths.

The Makarov pistol is notably smaller than the revolver and lighter by about 1/3 pound. These are both key features when considering a handgun for concealed carry self defense. The Makarov also has 50% more firepower with a capacity of 8+1, which compares favorably to a six-shooter. Even though the Makarov’s magazine requires a heal release and is slow to reload by modern pistol standards, it’s still quicker than the Smith and Wesson and preloaded magazines are easier to manage than revolver speed loaders and strips. I also find the Makarov to be much more natural to point shoot than the revolver although this ultimately amounts to a personal choice and/or a selection of grips. I come to this conclusion with no lack of experience with Smith and Wesson wheel guns that I’ve owned and used without complaint but for me, with the right grips, the Makarov just fits better.

The Smith & Wesson also has its advantages over the Makarov. For starters, both the double and single- action trigger pulls are lighter and a touch smoother. Additionally, it’s hard to argue with the simplicity of a double-action revolver. The Makarov’s safety is not a bad one: down takes it off while up decocks the hammer and locks the entire action (hammer, trigger, and slide). But with the revolver, as long as the cylinder is fully closed, the gun will function fully with or without ammunition and there are no safeties to forget or worry about. Dry fire practice is always more realistic with a revolver than with a semiautomatic and if firing for effect, the solution to a failure is simply to pull the trigger again. The last and most significant revolver advantage would have to be power.

The S&W Model 10 in any of its configurations is a proven design and in a caliber that is probably more potent than the 9x18mm Makarov. Its primary limitations remain but a six-shot capacity and slower reloading.

The Makarov holds more shots between reloading than the revolver and despite its magazine release being at the butt of the gun, it is probably quicker than speed strips with the revolver. With speed loaders, the revolver might be just as fast or faster. This would depend upon the skill level of the user. Notice also that even though slide-mounted, the safety on the Makarov works in a natural direction. Down for fire and up for safe.

For self-defense, I’m a big fan of the Speer Gold Dot, which is a good bullet design and in most cases loaded to a healthy power level in factory ammunition. The latest .38 Special + P Gold Dot is a 135 grain bullet that leaves this 3" barrel at around 1000 feet per second. The 9x18mm Gold Dot has the same velocity but is only a 90-grain bullet. Both of these are good options but I would expect the 9x18mm Gold Dot to be less effective by more than a single shade of gray. If one is after heavier weight non-expanding bullets to maximize penetration, good options also exist for both. Fiocchi .38 Special FMJ’s can be had in 158 grain while the Wolf brand 9x18 JHP is available in the 120-125 grain range and doesn’t expand in most media. As with expanding bullets, the edge in the heavier non-expanding projectiles still favors the revolver. (Note: For those interested, there are articles on snub ammunition as well as expansion and comparison tests between 38 Special, 380 ACP and 9x18mm Makarov in "Other Handguns.")

Here are two 9x18mm rounds that were fired into water. The Wolff (left) did not expand while the Silver Bear did. (Bullet and jacket separation is not uncommon when firing into water.)

Speer's excellent Gold Dot bullet expands reliably in 9x18mm.

Although both handguns have their respective strong points, neither would leave you inadequately prepared for most uses and for my own purposes, I plan to keep both! The last and final advantage of finding suitable budget guns is that you can avail yourself of more options than you could with less affordable pieces. There are plenty of other affordable used bargains out there and as newer designs replace older ones, one can expect the quality and list of advantages to grow rather than shrink.

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Marines bringing combat training to Indy

Posted: May 29, 2008

U.S. Marine helicopters will land at the old Eastgate Consumer Mall, Brookside Park and other Indianapolis locations when the city becomes a mock battlefield next week.

About 2,300 Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., will conduct urban warfare training from Wednesday through June 19 in and around Indianapolis.

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hills

Relaxed: Hillary Clinton could be about to exit the race to become the Democratic Party's presidential nominee

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Monday, May 26, 2008

PERSONAL COMMENTARY - LONG OVERDUE

UPDATED THURSDAY 5-29-08

Islam Pushes, Europe Reacts


The European Union’s tolerance of Islam’s incursion is reaching its limits. By Ron Fraser

Europeans have been tolerant of the inroads that Islam has made into their society over a period of decades. But things are changing. That tolerance has produced such strains on the Continent that it is now creating a political backlash.

Perhaps the first public display of European reaction to its creeping Islamization was the publishing by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten of the Muhammad cartoons on Sept. 30, 2005. Just one year later, Pope Benedict xvi threw down the gauntlet to Islam during a provocative speech at the University of Regensburg.

Since then, Europe has gone on the offensive against the Islamic push from the south. Calls from responsible politicians across the board to stem the flood of immigrants into the Continent are getting louder. The contest between European Christianity and Islam is heating up.

A Religious Powder Keg

Two politically overt actions taken within a week of each other in March illustrate the point.

On March 22, Pope Benedict baptized, confirmed and gave the Eucharist to Magdi Allam, a well-known Egyptian-born Muslim resident in Italy. Allam is a senior editor for the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera in addition to being a high-profile author. His conversion ceremony seemed calculated for maximum exposure: It took place right at St. Peter’s Basilica on the eve of Easter Sunday, and was heavily covered by the Vatican and other news outlets.

Just five days later, Dutchman Geert Wilders released his controversial and long-anticipated film Fitna. The 15-minute film “consists of some of the most bellicose verses of the Koran, followed by actions in accord with those verses carried out by Islamists in recent years. The obvious implication is that Islamists are simply acting in accord with their scriptures,” the Jerusalem Post reported (April 3). Fresh Catholic convert Magdi Allam said Wilders’ main point was that “the root of evil is inherent” in Islam. That phrase, “the root of evil,” is so close to a quote employed by Pope Benedict in his Regensburg speech that the two seem to follow the same script.

None of this is surprising. The tolerance of the creeping Islamization of Europe shown by the socialist, center-left governments fashionable during the latter 1990s and on through the middle of the current decade was bound to place strains on European society to the point of explosion. The explosions occurred in Paris and other French cities in the rioting of Islamist thugs in 2005 and 2007. Some wanted to excuse the outbreaks of violence by blaming the unemployment and social problems rife in many of France’s poorer suburban areas. The question is, why have those problems arisen? Political scientist Ernst Hillebrand points directly to the soft policies of European governments on immigration. Singling out the left wing of European politics as the culprit, he observed, “Multiculturalism—the left’s answer to the significant rise in European immigration in recent decades—has failed. It has led to fragmented societies and ghettos of marginalized minorities in which the mutual frustrations of indigenous populations and immigrants have increased. This applies above all to immigrants from Islamic countries, among whom the second and third generations often have much more hostile attitudes to Western society than their elders” (Prospect, March 2008; emphasis mine throughout).

Why are unemployment and social problems endemic to France’s poorer suburbs? Simply because immigrants of a culture totally incompatible with that of France have been allowed to enter and settle without acculturating into French society. This has produced a cultural powder keg within not only France, but also many other west European countries.

Who has taken the lead in trying to address this growing problem? None other than the Vatican.

“Revive Your Roots”

For 30 years, Rome has been sounding a clarion call to Europe to return to its cultural and spiritual roots (see article, page 1). It started with Pope John Paul ii in 1981, who sought to beat back the onslaught of secularism, liberalism and pan-Islamism with this battle cry: “It can be said that the European identity is not understandable without Christianity and that it is precisely in Christianity that are found those common roots by which the Continent has seen its civilization mature ….” The pope then cried out to all Europe, “Find yourself again. Be yourself. Discover your origins, revive your roots. Return to those authentic values which made your history a glorious one and your presence so beneficent in the other continents.”

Pope Benedict xvi is repeating that call. In July 2005, he prayed for God “to stop the murderous hand of those who, driven by fanaticism and hatred,” commit acts of terrorism. He then returned to the same theme introduced by his predecessor: the need for Europeans to return to their Christian roots. He quoted John Paul ii’s “revive your roots” speech.

The pope’s speech in Regensburg, Germany, came 14 months later. In that speech, the world’s attention was caught by a quote Benedict used from a dialogue between Byzantine Emperor Manuel ii Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam: “Show me just what Mohammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

Since then, Pope Benedict has increasingly emphasized the need for adherents to the Church of Rome to undertake a new evangelism for their faith.

It is a message that seems to be steadily bearing fruit. To quote Ernst Hillebrand again, “There are signs that in Western [European] societies, a creeping change of values is taking place …. In some countries the zeitgeist appears to have become conservative once again: Opinion polls indicate a slow shift in the direction of traditional values” (op. cit.).

The values to which Hillebrand refers are those that lie at Europe’s roots. They are the values that, as John Paul ii said, made Europeans’ history “a glorious one.” The history of Europe is the history of the Holy Roman Empire. It was the spiritual leadership of Rome combined with the military force and might of Germany that gave Europe the history which John Paul ii and Pope Benedict xvi refer to as “glorious.” It is that very history that is even now reviving within Europe, leading to a gradual return to European conservatism, with the increasing reassertion of the right wing in European politics.

A swing to the right across the European continent will not bode well for Islam.

Building to a Confrontation

There can be no doubt that the success of John Paul ii’s appeal to Europe to return to its Holy Roman roots galvanized Eastern Europe’s rebellion against Soviet communism. John Paul’s great success was the merging of the eastern leg of old imperial Europe with its western counterpart.

Benedict’s challenge is now to deal with the enemy within, the onslaught of Islam on European society.

What this pope started with that Regensburg speech is building to a confrontation between Rome and pan-Islam that will end in the heat of a whirlwind battle—and one thing’s for sure, Rome will not be the loser!

The papal call for Europe to return to its roots is engaging Europe’s ethnic citizenry. It is progressively engaging its politicians. With each threat against Europe spouted by an Islamic extremist, the battle heats up. Europe is clearly feeling the push from its south and is now reacting increasingly against it.

As Daniel Pipes observed, “Indeed, [Magdi] Allam and [Geert] Wilders may represent the vanguard of a Christian/liberal reassertion of European values. It is too soon to predict, but these staunch individuals could provide a crucial boost for those intent on maintaining the Continent’s historic identity” (Jerusalem Post, op. cit.).

That’s a statement that would surely warm Pope Benedict’s heart!

Continue to watch for a progressive swing to the right within both the electorate and key political parties in Europe. Watch for an increasingly imperialist Europe to work at fielding a stronger military presence, in particular under nato’s umbrella, within several theaters. Watch for the European Union to more willingly accept America’s request to take on a greater share of the burden of security within Eurasia and, in particular, the Middle East.

As you watch, know that there is coming a mighty clash between the German-dominated European Union and the increasingly Iranian-led Islamic powers. The evidence of the impending fulfillment of Daniel 11:40-41—the clash of the “king of the north” and the “king of the south”—is there for all to see. Not only is that explosion, which today’s events are preparing the way for, foretold, but so too is its outcome.

Make no mistake, Islam will soon be routed from Europe, by force!

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Washington asks nuclear watchdog to search for two more Syrian nuclear sites – report

May 29, 2008, 3:00 PM (GMT+02:00)

F-16 warplane in Israeli Air Force

F-16 warplane in Israeli Air Force

According to the Washington Post, US officials have identified at least three suspected nuclear sites in Syria, two more than the Al Kibar reactor Israel bombed last year, and passed the information to the International Atomic Energy Agency. This confirms the Oct. 25, 2007, disclosure by DEBKAfile military sources that the Israeli raid of Sept. 6 had destroyed at least two nuclear sites in Syria.

Washington released its request to the IAEA now - both to point up its disapproval of the Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert’s peace talks with Damascus and to continue the pressure on Syrian president Bashar Assad. More such disclosures are therefore expected.

CIA Director Michael V. Hayden told the WP that the intelligence community’s insight into Syria’s nuclear ambitions had deepened since the Israeli raid. “Do not assume that Al Kibra exhausted our knowledge of Syrian efforts with regard to nuclear weapons.”

Our military sources add: The fact that Syria was building three interconnected nuclear sites, a North Korean reactor and facilities for supplying nuclear fuel rods and fuel processing for extracting plutonium, proves Damascus was close to completing a weaponization program fueled by plutonium rather than enriched uranium. Both American and Israeli sources reported that the reactor was only weeks or months away from being ready for production.

Our sources add that if Syria was that close, how much closer must Iran, the senior partner in the alliance, be to its goal of a homemade nuclear weapon?

Syria has not responded to any IAEA requests for a date to conduct inspections.

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WELCOME TO THE NO BS ZONE OF TEDDY JACOBSON

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS - MUST READ

I have been thinking about all this for many years. If you are a DEMOCRAT and you vote your party you are on an ultra high speed PLANE, DESTINATION = "HELL"

If you are a REPUBLICAN and you vote your party you are on a ultra high speed train = DESTINATION = "HELL"

It does not matter whether you ride in coach or in the first class compartment, you are going to the very same place. IF YOU THINK CAUSE YOU NOW HAVE MONEY YOU ARE AMONG THE ELITE YOU ARE THEN SADLY MISTAKEN.

The fact that there are about 160 countries give or take in this world, this entire world is run by about 115 people that control it all. If we went into "IRAQ" it was for oil and where is this oil now. IRAQ is sitting on one of the largest oil reserves in this world, it comes out of the "SPICKET" in BASRA. Some one is getting super rich off this oil and its not you or me.

G-D knew this was a key ingredient to the end times and in ISAIAH Chapter 34, Verse 6 = he said there will be a slaughter for G-D in BASRA. All the world wants to control Basra, Iraq....think about what I am saying, this is all about oil and power and money = human greed... after all how much money do you need, I have showed you below that you can "NOT" take it with you.

My father always asked me about the LAW OF RETRIBUTION - he wanted my opinion about this for some reason, I have no doubt what so ever that PAYBACKS FROM G-D ARE HELL. We are now in Iraq for years and where is this oil going, true some lines have been destroyed by Radical Islam but they repair them immediately. The evil and guilty people in this world can not hide from their creator, just think what has and is happening to some of the evil people.

When they allegedly captured SAADAM if you will remember they conveniently had a professional camera set up on a TRIPOD to video tape all this. I asked many military people if they came across a spider hole with a possible enemy inside what would they do, they all answered they would first toss in a grenade. In my opinion this was a phony staged event for you and me. He had so many surgically altered doubles I have no idea if they ever got the real SAADAM out of the spider hole or was he killed in the first day of bombing by our planes.

IRAN has always been killing us and our military, even when REAGAN was in BEIRUT when our marines (242) were killed by that truck explosion, why didn't REAGAN fight back instead of running out of BEIRUT. I am not as smart as you - so you tell me. We had a more efficient military then than we do now.

There is a story that an ISRAELI sniper had his cross hairs on "ARAFAT" in Beirut and asked ARIAL (ARIK) SHARON FOR PERMISSION TO TAKE THE SHOT AND SHARON SAID "ABORT" = G-D has now dealt with Arial Sharon just like he will with everyone. There is no escape from your evil past, it can not be done, sure in this physical world you can bribe people and hire lawyers and get away with murder, but "HELL" COMES FROM THE OTHER SIDE.

If you elect OBAMA you have an inexperienced man that has been groomed to take over by unknown people, we have no clue what he knows and where his loyalties lie. His association with some of his friends and the Chicago "PEOPLE" are still unknown. We do not know who owns him, He talks and says nothing.

If you vote for CLINTON you are going to get more of the very same that you had before. They destroyed our military. They surely are very smart and will take revenge on their enemies here in this country. Letting Bill roam the W.H. you run the risk of him seeking the help of young women. Its not worth it.

If you vote for McCain, hes some what confused and he reminds me of a person that is caught in a revolving door with no exit. He has made deals with both sides of the isle and you could never be sure what he says one day will be the same method of thinking the very next day. Remember what his 94 year old lovely MOM said that if you want to vote for her "JOHNNY" you will have to hold your nose. Maybe thats why they are selling so many "NOSE CLIPS"...

Its the young generation that I am so concerned about. What kind of future are we leaving them. Sadly the American Dream is "OVER" but the average American just continues to live in his fantasy world of BS...they come home from work and watch the grass grow.

Have a better day.

Teddy

olmert
DEFENSE MINISTER BARAK demads Olmert step aside as Israeli PM.

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"PAYBACKS FROM G-D ARE HELL"

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rense.com
Kennedy's Deadly
Legacy For America

By Frosty Wooldridge
Denver Post Editorial Comment
5-28-8

Re: "America is richer for Ted Kennedy's service" DP/5/25/08

Instead of a rich legacy bequeathed upon the United States by forever U.S. Senator Teddy Kennedy, the oft-intoxicated, blubbery fourth brother of the Kennedy clan-four decades ago--drunkenly drove over a bridge that caused the death of Mary Jo Kopechne and lied about what happened.

But his worst and most destructive legacy for the United States stems from his authorship of the 1965 "Immigration Reform Act" that added the bulk of our additional 100 million people into America within 40 years. It jumped legal immigration from 170,000 annually to 1.1 million annually. Added to that disastrous environmental legacy, his actions provoked a complete ethnic change of our stable society into a fractured civilization. How? He provided for entrance of immigrants from cultures totally incompatible with U.S. culture. He downgraded citizenship by not enforcing our laws or maintaining educational standards.

"We are the only country in history that deliberately changed its ethnic makeup, and history has few examples of 'diversity' creating a stable society." Governor Richard D. Lamm

As those immigrants poured into this country, he facilitated and languished as millions of illegal aliens marched across our borders to wreak havoc on our schools, communities, jobs, hospitals, language and prisons. Over 20,000 members of MS-13 gangs distribute $130 billion in drugs yearly. We pay for 400,000 babies born to illegal alien mothers annually. We suffer 28 million Americans on food stamps because illegals downgrade wages and take jobs from our working poor.

Kennedy single handedly planted the seeds for the destruction of our country per the words of President Teddy Roosevelt, "The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, or preventing all possibility of its continuing as a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities."

How did Kennedy answer that crisis of unrelenting illegal border crossing? He proposed, wrote and encouraged Ronald Reagan to sign the 1986 Immigration Amnesty that allowed what he said were only 1.3 million illegals. The true number of illegal aliens that gained instant citizenship became 4.3 million.

Later, Reagan said signing that amnesty was the worse mistake of his presidency.

Last June, 2007, as another 20 million illegal aliens broke over U.S. borders since 1986, Kennedy tried to give another amnesty by forcing S.B. 1639 into law with his bluster and pompous bellowing. He voted to double legal immigration to 2.2 million annually! Kennedy remains responsible for our $346 billion annual costs paying for illegal aliens!

In Dr. Otis Graham's "Unguarded Gates: A History of America's Immigration Crisis", he writes, "Most Western elites continue urging the wealthy West not to stem the migrant tide, but to absorb our global brothers and sisters until their horrid ordeal has been endured and shared by all--ten billion humans packed onto an ecologically devastated planet."

Kennedy voted for the fraudulent Iraq War that killed 4,000 American soldiers and wounded 31,000 to date. He's voted against making English our national language which ensures further Balkanization of our nation via linguistic chaos. When a nation cannot speak to itself, it becomes fractured and separated.

While he battles with brain cancer, we battle for our nation's life. While he sails his boat around Martha's Vineyard, we pick up millions of pieces of trash on our borders from invading illegal alien hordes that he encourages. While he tips yet another glass of wine, we struggle to maintain our schools, communities, hospitals and prisons from this illegal invasion. While he sat on his barnyard wide rear-end for 40 years in the Senate creating the problems that now destroy our nation, we watched the American Dream turn into a nightmare.

Contrary to the editors of the Denver Post, Ted Kennedy may be likened to Nero of Rome who fiddled while it burned. Kennedy drank while we fought for our nation's survival. Kennedy ate at the finest tables while we struggled with his voting for H-1B and H-2B visas that displaced millions of American workers. Kennedy sailed his boat while our nation sank into consequences of a dysfunctional and unsustainable nation.


Because of Kennedy, our successful culture finds itself turning into a foreign culture that failed, i.e., Mexico. The March PEW report shows Mexicans in America becoming the new dominate majority by 2050 at 53 percent.

In other words, rather than serving America and our future, Senator Ted Kennedy destroyed our America just as quickly as he took Mary Jo Kopechne's life on a drunken night somewhere back in the 60s. As she fought for her life in that car as the waters rose above her, he escaped.

While we struggle nostril-deep in the nightmare waters of immigration swirling around us, we may well drown, too!

Once again, Teddy Kennedy escapes via death while we struggle for our nation's life.


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Revived warning of al Qaeda’s intention to use WMD against Americans

May 28, 2008, 8:48 AM (GMT+02:00)

Four audiotapes this year

Four audiotapes this year

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko told ABC News Wednesday, May 27: Although there have been similar messages in the past, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security have no intelligence of any specific plot or indication of a threat to the US.” The FBI has sent a bulletin to 18,000 law enforcement agencies across the country “out of an abundance of caution.”

A group that monitors terrorist messages on the Web described the video entitled Nuclear Jihad, the Ultimate Terror,” as a jihadi supporter video compilation of old footage and not from an official group.

The most serious threat of a WMD attack was reported by DEBKAfile in August 2007, and triggered a high alert. Our monitors of terrorist Web sites connected messages which spelled out an al Qaeda threat mentioning New York, Los Angeles and Miami as targets of attacks “by means of trucks loaded with radioactive material.”

NY police posted radiological sensors on vehicles, boats and helicopters and set up vehicle checkpoints in Wall Street, lower Manhattan’s financial district, and at bridges and tunnels.

Aug 13, 2007 Click HERE

Aug. 17, 2007 Click HERE

DEBKAfile’s terror experts confirm indications that al Qaeda may have acquired some form of dirty bomb, possibly a primitive one. One US official told Reuters: There is no sign that al Qaeda has acquired the capability to use WMD, “But it’s clearly their intention and it’s something we need to be aware of and concerned about.” Our experts also note that Osama bin Laden’s threats may be long-term – often a year or two into the future.

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The more I see in the news the sicker I get. The America that I grew up in and loved is gone, it died in 1945 as a Military Power. Just growing up in the 50's and 60's was remarkable as we lived in a nation that was genuine and cared. I will always remember what General Dwight D. Eisenhower said = "BEWARE OF THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX" - how true that really was but we never could understand things in those days.

When John Kennedy was assassinated I was in a bank with my Mother and I was about 22 years old. Having shot a Manlicher Carcano Italian rifle in 6 or 6.5 mm there is no way in this world that "OSWALD" could have made those shots. I forget the exact designation of the caliber. The cartridges were painted dark green as I believe it was a steel case. The barrel of the rifle was paper thin and the scope was pure junk.

This Italian rifle was sold for about $21.00 from Kleins mail order in Chicago. It was totally worthless and I can not believe anything of the official story even to this day. America started to implode after World War II and if you have studied Bible prophecy and read as much as I have you would then understand that the decline of America and the United Kingdom and Israel is pre ordained by G-D.

There is only one G-D and everyone thinks that they are right. I want to ask you a very simple question, IF YOU WERE G-D AND YOU LOOKED DOWN TO THIS EARTH AND SAW THE RESULTS OF THE CIVILIZATION THAT YOU CREATED - WHAT WOULD YOU SAY AND WHAT WOULD YOU DO ?????

There are about 160 countries in this world and we are approaching 7 billion people. EACH BILLION IS 1000 Million. In a world gone mad there are only 12 million Jews left in this world and you please tell me why they are in the headlines every day. Your answer lies in LEVITICUS CHAPTER 26. There are other major chapters in the Bible but this one is putting the icing on the cake.

All the world leaders are speaking a different language such as in the erection of the TOWER OF BABEL. They can and will no longer be able to communicate. G-D is about to teach this world and its big shot leaders a very important lesson, one that they will never forget. America has "NOT" won a major war since 1945 - its not because we have superb soldiers its because G-D has gone after the leaders who think they are so important and show no respect for G-D.

Our military is broken just as the mental capacity of its leaders to make honest and reasonable decisions. Lets look at the "UK" = they ruled the seas for about 400 years and now they are down to a 25 ship navy with one carrier. In my opinion this is all pre ordained by G-D. The leaders of the UK have sold them out as the leaders of the US have done the same, this is my interpretation of my Bible that I read every day.

The nation of Israel in my opinion is run by the "EREV RAV" which are traitors and have sold their people out. Its all because of human greed and dis obedience to the one and only G-D of this universe. G-D said he would harden the hearts and minds of the enemies of the Jews for dis obedience and he has done just that, and this is just the beginning of what is to come from G-D. I have a lot of family in Israel and I have very little respect for them because their G-D is money and they will pay dearly for this.

My one Grandfather was a very decent man, He was a Rabbi and is buried in Jerusalem and must be turning over in his grave as he sees what is going on. I personally believe that radical Muslims will be defeated soon by the "EU" and its military leader "GERMANY" - they will be the new superpower of the world because even now Germany has access to Frances arsenal. If things keep going on with us as it is we will no longer be able to be the policemen of the world, we should be taking care of our own country instead of telling the world how to live. THIS COUNTRY CAN NOT EXIST WITH OPEN BORDERS.

YOU CAN NOT MAKE A THEOCRACY INTO A DEMOCRACY.

When Ronald Reagan left office we had a 600 ship Navy - now we are down to about 300 ships and some are falling apart. The greatest ship builders in this world at this point in time are SOUTH KOREA, not the United States. Our Air Force has major problems as their winged air fighters are about 30 years old, but everyone is in it for the money who has an agenda. We can not even fix our military vehicles, this is kept quiet but the people we elected have money for bridges that go no where. Our poor soldiers are not even given the proper armor because the top people have other agendas.

I believe that there are a very select very holy Rabbi's in this world that see what is coming. I do not see that we can survive as a super power with the Tower of Babel politicians G-D has intentionally given us. Remember that without the TRUCKERS in this country there will be no more food for you. Its all in LEVITICUS CHAPTER 26.

In this coming election if indeed it is not called off there is no one that I have any confidence in voting for, if you will always follow the human greed of money you will find out what motivates these leaders and many of the people. The Viet Nam war was a money maker, the suppliers of war material made a fortune, remember what Gen. Eisenhower said, well it all came true. Its also coming true today with the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Who really knows what this next war agenda will be, only Gog from the land of Magog knows, read Ezekial Chapter 38 and 39.

There is no answer, as we have reached the point of no return. Only those that have provisions and have prepared for hard times will have a chance to survive, but survive for what, the world we knew is gone and we must hope that we do things right and the human greed is beyond belief, how much money does a person really need ?? NEXT TIME YOU SEE A FUNERAL PROCESSION LOOK FOR THE ARMORED CAR WITH THAT DEAD PERSONS MONEY AND VALUABLES. YOU CAN NOT TAKE IT WITH YOU.

When you die and get to the other side you will have to justify the life you led on this physical world, you can not hire an attorney or request mercy or any of that BS. They know your life review and you will go to the very place you deserve. THERE WILL BE NO APPEALS. I do not care how rich and powerful that you think you are when you meet the Arc Angels you will be at their mercy and they take their instructions from a much higher power. I have no fear because I have done what is right, I do not lie or steal or cheat or manipulate people for human greed. Get right with your maker before its too late.

We live in a physical world that is run by the clock and the calendar and time but the other side does not have any concept of time, that is why no one can relate time to coming events.

Look and see how Almighty G-D is tearing up this world with the weather and the seas - this is just the beginning of what is to come. The storms are intensifying and so is the lack of food and the diseases are getting worse and I could go on for days. I am not educated like most of you but I can see things most of you can not. I have not had a good healthy life but this is the deal I made coming into this world by my creator.

The people that were born rich and have never lived a true honest life according to the scriptures will never be in the very same place that I will be going. I will continue to write these commentaries as long as my neck holds out because its getting worse by the day.

Now I am the only one left in my immediate family, my Mother and My Father are gone. My Brother who was really not a good guy is now gone. My dawgs are gone except for LISA and shes now blind. I protect her with my life. So it now boils down to my wife and son and I have done the right thing as only G-D knows and I urge all of you to think about your lives and our way of life is changing because it pre ordained.

I think its about 3 minutes to midnight and you must get your survival supplies, you must have clean water and basic essentials, but what ever you do you must understand that owning a gun will help protect you from human vultures it will not help you with G-D.

Should you have any questions for me please email me through my website. Remember if you have food and no way to protect it you will become a victim.

Thanks for reading this long commentary.

Teddy

This image made from television courtesy KWTV/News 9 via CNN, shows a tornado moving through a section of Kingfisher County near Hennessey, Okla on Saturday May 24, 2008. (AP Photo/KWTV/News 9 via CNN)

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All right reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



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First documentary evidence Iran is into nuclear explosives, missile warhead design

May 27, 2008, 10:16 AM (GMT+02:00)

The International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna based its new and damning findings partly on 18 intelligence documents submitted by the United States, and now accuse Tehran of willful lack of cooperation. Iran dismissed the documents as forged or fabricated.

DEBKAfile reports that the documents came from materials contained in a laptop stolen from one of the heads of Iran’s nuclear program in Tehran in late 2006 by Iranian dissidents. It was passed to the CIA. Despite this evidence of an ongoing nuclear weapons program, sixteen US intelligence agencies, including the CIA, combined last year to announce this program was suspended in 2003.

Even the nuclear watchdog’s director Mohammed ElBaradei, who often meets the Iranians halfway, has concluded that Iran’s nuclear activities are of “serious concern” and require “substantial explanations.” which Tehran has refused to offer.

His latest report describes Iran’s installation of new IR-2 and IR-3 centrifuges for enriching uranium at the Natanz site as “significant” yet not communicated to his agency. IAEA inspectors on a visit in April were denied access to the sites where the centrifuges are manufactured and the scientists involved. Some, the report states, were produced by Iran’s “military” (a reference to the Revolutionary Guards corps which is in charge of Iran’s nuclear weapons industry).

An official connected to the watchdog disclosed that since December, the Iranians have processed close to 150 kilograms, double the amount produced in the same period 18 months ago.

The watchdog director’s report was released Monday, May 26, to the IAEA’s 35-member board of directors and the UN Security Council, and will be discussed by the board next week.

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Hirsch on CNBC: Peak oil problem "as massive as one can possibly imagine"

Robert Hirsch, author of Peaking of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation, and Risk Management (a.k.a. the Hirsch Report), appeared on CNBC this morning. He said flat out that new technologies and new drilling won't solve the peak oil problem, and that we should expect $12-15/gallon gasoline followed by rationing.

You can also watch the video at CNBC or read the transcript below the fold.

[Update 1:30p EDT] And here's a follow-up with T. Boone Pickens.

Transcription and bolding by Super G.

HOST: ...Dr. Hirsch is a senior energy advisor at Management Information Services and Dr. Hirsch, thank you for joining us this morning.

HIRSCH: My pleasure.

HOST: You know, we've been talking all morning long about energy prices. Watching crude oil prices touch above $127 for the first time overnight leads a lot of people to start wondering about peak oil and the peak oil theory. You've been writing about peak oil for some time, so did you see this coming?

HIRSCH: Yes we did. Not quite the way it's turned out, but this is not a surprise.

HOST: You say, "not quite the way it's turned out". What's happened that's different from what you were predicting?

HIRSCH: Well, I wasn't particularly predicting. I'm a student of this and have focused on what we do about the problem after it really hits. Peak oil--the idea is that it would hit a sharp peak and then production in the world would hit a sharp peak then drop off. And what's happened is that we hit plateau in world oil production, and that plateau has been ongoing since about the middle of 2004.

HOST: Dr. Hirsch, there are a lot of people when we talk about peak oil who say there are going to be technologies that are always developed. There will be new ways to get oil, whether it's from coal, whether it's from the oil shales, and they say that means we will never actually hit peak oil. What do you say to those people?

HIRSCH: They're incorrect, and the reason that they're incorrect is that they don't understand the magnitude of the problem and how long it's going to take to bring substitute liquid fuels on and to introduce energy efficiency on a massive scale. That's something that we analyzed and it takes decades. And the reason, simply, is that the magnitude of the problem is enormous.

[McTeer says we should drill more.]

HOST: Dr. Hirsch, what do you say to that--the idea that we should be drilling in places like ANWR and drilling offshore. Would that solve this problem of a plateau in oil production?

HIRSCH: There's no single thing that's going to solve this problem because it's as massive as one can possibly imagine. And the prices that we're paying at the pump today I think are going to be the good old days because others who watch this very closely forecast that we are going to be hitting $12 and $15 per gallon. And then, after that, when world oil production goes into decline, we're going to talk about rationing. In other words, not only are we going to be paying high prices and have considerable economic problems, in addition to that, we're not going to be able to get the fuel when we want it.


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Why You Must Watch Europe

May 26, 2008 | From theTrumpet.com

We can’t allow events in the Middle East to distract us from what’s unfolding in Europe.

Events in the Middle East dominate global headlines. There is no doubt these events threaten global peace and warrant our attention. But we must realize that there is an even greater trend we should be watching. In many ways, the Middle East is a sideshow compared to this ominous threat.

We must watch Europe now more than ever. Too many people, particularly in the global news media, are allowing circumstances in the Middle East to distract them from what is stirring in Europe. Are you aware that Europe is beginning to react strongly to events unfolding in the Middle East? It is realizing that it must rise to meet Iran and its radical Islamist henchmen.

Anyone who knows history should see how events in the Middle East will jolt Europe. Already Europe is getting more and more involved in Middle East events. European troops were mobilized in response to the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Most of the troops that moved into Lebanon to keep the peace were European: Italy sent in ground troops, Germany sent in soldiers and a naval force. These two nations largely comprise what has been known, since a.d. 554, as the Holy Roman Empire.

Europe is also beginning to play a more prominent role in the Israel-Palestinian peace process. The Jewish state is increasingly looking to Europe for assistance and direction. EU troops are policing the Gaza-Egypt border. And Israel is growing especially fond of Germany.

The Holy Roman Empire is rising out of the events unfolding in the Middle East!

As Europe steps up its political and military presence in the Middle East, the world celebrates the idea of their bringing peace to the region. People, in the news media and in general, believe European forces will protect Israel and protect Jerusalem. The Trumpet sees things differently. Why? Because the Bible reveals the opposite.

Jerusalem is going to be the main point of conflict between Europe and Iran. Historically, that city has always been the focal point. We must watch Jerusalem!

The Bible tells us that, very soon, the Europeans are going to destroy Jerusalem—if the Jews in Israel don’t listen to God’s message. (You can read about these events in my booklet Jerusalem in Prophecy.)

The fact that Germany and other European nations want to become more involved in the Middle East, particularly in the Israel-Palestinian peace process, shows a dramatic shift taking place. American influence in the Middle East is shrinking, and European influence is increasing. For some time, Europe has been growing more engaged in Israel’s peace process with the Arabs.

Watch for Europe to become more involved with Israel, especially Jerusalem. This rising Holy Roman Empire has already taken over the Balkans (explained in my free booklet The Rising Beast)—and now it has its steely eyes set on Jerusalem!

Iran and its radical henchmen are bent on thrusting the Middle East into crisis. Jerusalem is surrounded by Islamist enemies. Now Europe, including Germany, is becoming a chief ally of the Jewish state. Germany is becoming a global leader and chief peacekeeper.

We must remember the history of Germany and the rest of Europe. World War ii, which Germany started, was so terrible that Western leaders from both sides of the Atlantic spoke out strongly to assure people Germany would never rise up to strike again. President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill issued this joint statement in 1945: “It is our inflexible purpose to destroy German militarism and Nazism, and to ensure that Germany will never again be able to disturb the peace of the world. We are determined to disarm and disband all German armed forces, break up for all time the German general staff that has repeatedly contrived the resurgence of German militarism.”

Have we forgotten that history? Has France forgotten that it was invaded by Germany four times in a hundred years? Have we forgotten that Germany caused World Wars i and ii? It appears we have—because the Bible says it is Germany that will start World War iii!

Revelation 13 and 17 speak extensively about the beastly power that will rise out of Europe in this end time. We must watch how events in the Middle East facilitate the rise of this European superstate. Iran’s pushiness and the rise of Islam are driving Germany, along with the rest of Europe, to embrace its history.

As the world falls apart—as the Middle East becomes crippled with serious crises—as American leadership declines—European leaders are seeing the need for strong action! They are recognizing problems, then looking at their own history and saying, We need to revive our roots.

That is the message Pope John Paul ii brought. He worked feverishly to revive the Holy Roman Empire. Early in his pontificate, in Spain, on Nov. 9, 1982, he said, “[I]t can be said that the European identity is not understandable without Christianity and that precisely in Christianity are found those common roots by which the Continent has seen its civilization mature: its culture, its dynamism, its activity, its capacity for constructive expansion in other continents as well; in a word, all that makes up its glory.”

But what exactly are those roots? Charlemagne, the forefather of the Holy Roman Empire, waded through seas of blood to convert people to his empire and to Roman Catholicism. During the Inquisition, over 50 million innocent people were killed in the name of “Christianity!” And you can add many millions more as victims of the Holy Roman Empire. Those “origins” and “roots” and that “history” to which John Paul ii referred caused many millions of people to die!

Pope Benedict has been repeating that same message: Discover your origins, revive your roots. When he visited his native Bavaria in September 2006, according to the Christian Science Monitor, his message was, “Europe needs to rethink the thesis that secularism and economic progress go hand in hand” (Sept. 15, 2006). He is urging Europeans to reject secularism and embrace religion.

And Europeans are listening. Roman Catholicism is taking on a new life in Europe. In Germany, the decline in church attendance has stopped; in one state, the number of young churchgoers is rising.

Politicians are also supporting the pope’s movement. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is trying to insert a reference to Europe’s Christian heritage—clearly, a Catholic heritage—into the EU constitution. This is coming from the leader of a nation with more theologians in office than any other Western nation.

At the same time, Muslim boldness is stirring a new strength and vigor within the Vatican. You might remember in 2006 when Pope Benedict xvi made some comments in Germany that confronted the issue of Islam and its violent tendencies. When Muslims responded by becoming violent, many prominent Europeans got behind the pope in support of what he had said. Radical Islam wants a fight, and don’t expect the Vatican to back away!

When the pope begins to confront Islamists, the world should be alarmed. The Vatican knows its next great adversary is Islamism. This Middle Eastern power is rising and becoming a serious threat. But for the Catholic Church to confront Islam is to bring the specter of the Crusades to life once again!

We must understand the Holy Roman Empire and the Crusades to understand the Catholic passion for Jerusalem. The Catholics have a long history of spilling blood over Jerusalem.

Notice this prophecy in Daniel 11:40: “And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.”

Iran leads this “king of the south” (request our free booklet The King of the South). The Iranians are really pushing these days. That is what recent events in the Middle East have been—the war in Lebanon, the terrorist activity in the Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula and West Bank. Iran is pushing its weight around! And it will continue to push until somebody stops it.

Somebody will stop it! Note in the above scripture that the “king of the north” responds to this push from the king of the south. Even now we are seeing this king of the north, this European superpower, react to the push from the king of the south. This trend is about to rapidly intensify.

Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon says the word push in Daniel 11:40 means to strike or to push with a horn; it is used of horned animals, or of a victor who prostrates nations before him. It also means to wage war. Push is a violent word.

Notice what the Bible prophesies will be this empire’s first action after it is victorious over the king of the south: “He shall enter also into the glorious land [the Holy Land, Jerusalem], and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon” (verse 41). The Holy Roman Empire will “enter” into the Holy Land. The Hebrew indicates this will be a peaceful entry—not forced. That means the Jews will probably invite them in—even as they are already doing—but then will suffer a spectacular double-cross!

Just 20 years ago, nobody could have even imagined two world powers coming out of the Middle East and Europe. But everybody should be able to see these two great powers today. Germany is once again becoming the center of a growing European superpower. It is the largest and greatest economy in Europe, and it’s now showing strong signs of emerging from its economic troubles. Germany is the number-one exporter in the world. Watch for it to increasingly dominate European economics from its position at the crossroads of the Continent.

There is no excuse for America and Britain not knowing the truth. God has been sending His message in power for over 70 years! They have rejected it repeatedly. That is why they now must suffer so intensely.

But there is good news! Finally, after God is able to get their attention, our peoples will become teachable. God promises to lead them to peace, full joy and abundance.

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Oil Shortages: Here They Come

By Robert Morley

Russia is the world’s second-largest oil exporter. But something ominous is happening: Its oil production fell for each of the first three months of this year. Russia is now pumping less than it was last year.

Investment bank usb predicts a 1 percent drop in Russia’s oil production this year. One percent might not sound like much, but when global markets are as tight as they are, and when you produce 9.77 million barrels per day, that’s a big deal.

If there is a supply crunch on the horizon, America is in serious trouble.

Look at America’s oil needs. The U.S. currently consumes 21 million barrels of oil per day. Twenty-one million barrels laid end to end would stretch from Los Angeles to Moscow and back, and halfway back again. America consumes that much every day!

Of those 21 million barrels, America produces only 5 million domestically. The rest has to be imported. So America is tremendously dependent on imported oil. And according to some estimates, 85 percent of global oil supplies are found in countries not especially friendly to the United States.

And the domestic drill bit isn’t going to be able to fix things. As oil prices have soared over $100 per barrel, oil companies in the U.S. have doubled the number of wells drilled per year—and still production is dropping. Hundreds of thousands of old wells are each producing a little less oil each day, and new production isn’t getting close to covering the drop-off.

Despite popular opinion, opening up the Alaska Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (anwr) and other off-limit areas to drilling isn’t a magic bullet either. These areas may temporarily provide a source of oil, but will ultimately be just a drop in the bucket of what is needed. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates with 95 percent probability that anwr holds 5.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil. At current consumption levels, that would last 271 days.

The big problem for America and the rest of the world is that additional oil is getting much harder to come by. Oil production isn’t only falling in America, it is falling just about everywhere—Kuwait, Britain’s North Sea, Mexico’s giant Cantarell field (which Energy and Oil says is “simply crashing”). In fact, 54 of the top 65 oil-producing countries have declining production rates. Make that 55 counting Russia.

Still, millions of Americans, Canadians and Britons remain oblivious to the fact that their lives are about to radically change. Many think they have seen it all before during the oil rationing and embargoes in the 1970s, that soon oil prices will fall, that $2-a-gallon gasoline will return.

Today’s looming oil crisis is very different than that of the 1970s. Back then it was because certain opec members purposefully stopped selling oil, and then Iran and Iraq went to war, that prices were driven sky high. This time it is growing demand from 2 billion Asians and stagnating global oil production. There may be short-term pullbacks, but the long-term price trend will most likely be up.

There are those who see it coming.

In March, Edward Lazear, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, said America should “have been thinking about all of this 10 to 15 years ago when it comes to alternatives or new exploration, and we weren’t.” He implied that today’s efforts are too little, too late.

Also in March, Assistant Energy Secretary Alexander Karsner said, “The places where oil can be found and extracted and brought to bear in the world are decreasing. It will get harder, and demand will outstrip supply for probably the rest of my lifetime.”

Actions speak louder than words. Despite America already possessing the world’s largest strategic petroleum reserve and filling it to over 96 percent capacity (a record 701 million barrels of oil), and despite record-high oil prices and calls from all three presidential candidates to stop filling it, the current administration continues to buy oil and pursue plans to double the reserve capacity to 1.5 billion barrels. Clearly, someone realizes oil shortages are coming.

U.S. military leaders know oil shortages and higher fuel prices are on the way: They are now using $225-per-barrel oil in their planning projections. Congress has directed the Navy to use nuclear power for all future large surface combatant ships. The Air Force is looking for alternate fuel sources to fly its jets. The Army is examining the fuel efficiency of ground combat vehicles.

Globally, the competition for resources will continue to heat up. China, India, Japan and the European Union are massive oil importers, and their needs are growing. Most of Russia’s oil currently goes to Europe. If that supply starts to diminish, Europe will need to seek additional oil elsewhere. Our March 2006 article “The Battleground” (available online at theTrumpet.com) explains where Europe will get the oil it needs.

“The battle for global resources has already begun,” says commodity analyst Kevin Kerr. “[T]he borders are being drawn and the players are suiting up.”

Resource scarcity will have major implications for our way of life and society. At first we will see a general trend of rising prices—for everything from gasoline and fertilizer to plastic bags, as will anything that is trucked to market. Eventually we can expect cities to be gutted and suburbs abandoned as people are no longer able to afford the commute.

More than any country in the world, America relies on oil. Change is on the way. America’s days as a superpower are ending. Its over-reliance on imported oil is just one of the contributing factors. For information on the fundamental reason America is losing its superpower status, request a free copy of The United States and Britain in Prophecy.

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