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Syria’s Wrong Choice Happiness will One Day bring Sadness!

August 27, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

The path chosen by Syria is leading toward a showdown in the Middle East, and the clock is ticking.

Please read Archive Special Prophecy Update Number 161C before reading the excellent article from MSNBC which follows it.

SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 161C

March 5, 2004

Syria Makes a Very Bad Choice

I have always believed and taught that the most likely part of the old Roman Empire, which would foster the rise of the Antichrist, would be Syria. Syria has been hanging suspended between two choices: (1) Turn toward the United States in order to avoid sanctions, and to gain support from the western world in a war on terror, or, (2) Turn toward Iran to make an alliance and continue to give support to all the terrorist groups. On February 28 Syria apparently made its choice. The Iranian Defense Minister, Admiral Ali Shamkhani, came to Damascus and signed a new military pact with the Syrian Defense Minister, General Mustufa Tias. I believe this is a clear sign that President Assad has made his choice to put his trust in an Iran-Syria Axis to protect his administration from a coup by terrorist groups in his own country. President Assad has been active recently in communications with Washington to see what they would give him in the way of security if he should choose to give up sponsoring the many terrorist group offices in Syria, and Hizbollah in Lebanon. Really, he did not have much of a choice. Had he turned pro-west and resisted the terrorist groups, his regime would have been overthrown in a matter of weeks.

Syria’s new military pact with Iran likely contains an Iranian promise to invest in additional long range Scud-C missiles, now in mass production at Syria’s underground missile facility near Hamah, which is somewhat ironic in that the northern extent of Israel’s territory, after it defeats Syria at the end of the tribulation period, will extend to Hamah. The biblical name for Hamah is Hamath.

Ezekiel 47:17 – And the border from the sea shall be Hazar-enan, the border of Damascus, and the north northward, and the border of Hamath. And this is the north side.

Genesis 15:18 – In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

Ezekiel 47:19 – And the south side southward, from Tamar even to the waters of strife in Kadesh, the river to the great sea.

And this is the south side southward.

If you want to envision the size of the Abrahamic Land Grant promised to the descendants of Abraham through Jacob (Israel), then go southwest from the southernmost tip of the Gaza Strip along the coastline of the Mediterranean 35 miles and place a point on the shoreline. Then draw a line directly east from that point until you hit the Euphrates River of Iraq. That is the southern border of the land God promised to the seed of Abraham through his grandson, the man whom God renamed Israel, the man Jacob, the son of Isaac, the promised seed God gave through Sarah. The northern border of the l and grant may be visualized by finding Hamah or Hama in north central Syria,

and then drawing an east-west line through it, which ends on the Mediterranean to the west, and on the Euphrates River to the east. This is the northern border of Abraham’s God given Land Grant. As you can see, this is a very large tract of land, 95 percent of which is occupied by descendants of Abraham through Ishmael’s twelve sons, the six sons of Abraham by Keturah, and Moab and Ammon, the two sons of Abraham’s nephew Lot by his own daughters. They are identified generally as Arabs, and some 95 percent of them are of the Islamic faith. Since they believe that the promises of God come through Abraham’s son Ishmael through Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s handmaiden, you can see the basic reason for the hatred between Arabs and Jews that has only intensified with the passage of the centuries (See Prophecy Updates 67 and 68 in the Archives).

I am confident that the new military pact will undoubtedly transfer the information necessary for the manufacture of the advanced Shihab-3 missile in Syria, as well as the financing for greater production of long-range artillery and ammunition.

The United States and Europe wanted Syria to follow Libya’s lead, but Bashar Assad was really in no political position to do so without being overthrown by the terrorist elements in his own country. There were four things the United States wanted Syria to give up.

(1) Scrap your long-range missile program.

(2) Scrap your WMD program.

(3) Drive all the terrorist groups out of Syria.

(4) Stop supporting Hizbollah in Lebanon.

I feel confident it was a choice Bashar Assad simply could not make. Iran and Syria are of the same mind on these four issues. Had Syria chosen to do those four things, it would have cut Iran’s flow of weaponry and the movement of terrorists to Hizbollah. Syria was left without any military backup with the fall of Iraq, so Assad has chosen to shore up and expand its existing ties with Iran, and create new military ties with them for a joint defense against the west. The strong showing by the radical Shiite hardliners in Iran’s elections last month was a strong element that Assad considered in making his choice. Iranian Shiites will continue to have a direct pipeline via Damascus airport for massive shipments of military hardware to the large Hizbollah terrorist army, which it has supported in southern Lebanon for years, as have the Syrians.

Rest assured that Israel has three very definite targets on its mind for the possibility of future air strikes, namely, the Syrian underground and surface facilities near Hamah, the Iranian nuclear complex centered ten miles south of Bushehr, and selected weapons supply depots in southern Lebanon (See Prophecy Update 160A). By no stretch of the imagination will Iraq remain a democracy any great length of time after the election of a new government. It will take less than two years after Iraqi elections for most of Iraq to become an Islamic Republic.

And, when it does, there will be a military Islamic union stretching from Iran to Lebanon through Iraq and Syria.

Contrary to today’s popular belief, the antichrist will not come out of Europe, but out of the area that includes Syria, Lebanon, and northern Iraq (See Special Prophecy Update 74B and Whole Numbered Prophecy Updates 62 to 69).

And, contrary to today’s popular belief, the 10 toes of Daniel’s statue and the 10 horns on his fourth beast, which are the same 10 nations that will make up the coalition of nations that attack Israel in the last days, will not come out of Europe, but out of the southern half of the old Roman Empire, which included lands from Morocco to Iran, and as far north as Turkey (See Prophecy Updates 54 and 78).

Daniel 2:42 – And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

Daniel 7:24 – And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.

Revelation 17:12,13 – And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. [13] These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

As a former USAF Military Synoptic Analyst with the NSA, I can attest that the following article by Lt. Colonel Rick Francona is On Target.

Begin MSNBC Article

Syria and Iran need to rethink their choices

Francona: Both countries must become responsive to diplomacy

MILITARY ANALYSIS

By Lt.

Col. Rick Francona

Military analyst

MSNBC

Updated: 5:13 p.m. CT Aug 23, 2007

A quick glance at the map of the Middle East and the changes in the geopolitical landscape since the events of September 11, 2001, shows that Iran and Syria have been almost surrounded by states now friendly to the United States and the West.

However, Iraq sits in between these two pariah – like state allies.

Both are involved in the support, either tacit or outright, of groups killing American troops.

Last week, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki visited the Islamic Republic of Iran, where he met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. While this meeting was taking place, American forces were chasing members of Iranian elite special operations units in Iraq. They are suspected of funding, training and equipping Shia militias who have American blood on their hands. Not a week later, al-Maliki shows up in Damascus to meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

For al-Maliki, it may have been a somewhat of a reunion, after he was sentenced to death by Saddam Hussein in 1980, al-Maliki sought refuge in Iran and later Syria, so he has history with both regimes.

Just as Ahmadinejad denied any involvement with militias in Iraq, al-Assad claimed that he was doing all he could to stop the flow of men and weapons across the Syrian border into Iraq. He claimed that the border was porous and impossible to completely control.

I will take exception to the Syrian president’s claims. I served in Syria as a military attaché and it was my job to be aware of the security situation in the country. I made numerous trips to the Iraq border area although it was difficult to get anywhere near it without the consent of the Syrian government. Regardless of al-Assad’s claims, Syria is a police state in which virtually everything that happens there is done with regime knowledge and acquiescence. The very thought that al-Qaida recruits or arms are entering Syria and crossing into Iraq without the knowledge and approval of the Syrian government — and that means al-Assad himself — is ludicrous.

Al-Assad’s other remarks are equally ludicrous. His prime minister, who is only a mouthpiece since no one serves or speaks without the consent of al-Assad, uttered the same refrain we have heard before claiming that the withdrawal of American forces is the solution to the problem. He demanded a timetable for that withdrawal. In reality, the withdrawal of American forces would give Syria and its primary ally, Iran, the roles of primary power brokers in Iraq. The timetable would tell the al-Qaida fighters in the west and the Shia militias in Baghdad and the south just how long they have to wait for victory.

Which country is calling the shots?

Does anyone think that al-Assad has come up with this on his own? The strategy for Syria’s position and demands was not formulated in Damascus; it was dictated in Tehran.

Iran is calling the shots here. Without Iranian support, the al-Assad regime would die on the vine. Of course, Syria has its value to Iran. Without access to Syria, Iran would be hard-pressed to support its clients -– Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza.

Al-Maliki’s visit to Damascus only bolsters Syria’s position. Al-Maliki coming as an apparent supplicant to al-Assad gives Syria, and by extension Iran, legitimacy as a power broker in the region. Al-Maliki also made the point that he was not visiting to deliver a message from the United States.

He was only visiting to speak to a fellow Arab leader. Granted, al-Maliki has to live in the neighborhood, but this gesture only convinces al-Assad he has the upper hand.

Al-Assad believes Syrian influence in the region is on the rise. It has been instrumental in resupplying Hezbollah; has regained much of its lost influence in Lebanon after being forced to pull out its troops after almost three decades; and now is being granted the status of a key player in what happens in Iraq.

Syria is part of the problem, not

the solution. Maybe it’s about time we spoke to Syria directly and frankly, it is one of the recommendations

of the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group. We have an embassy in Damascus, although the ambassador has been recalled since early 2005 in the aftermath of Syrian complicity in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minster Rafiiq al-Hariri.

I suggest we tell Syria the same thing we should be telling the Iranians: your actions are responsible for the deaths of American troops. If it continues, you will pay a price. Of course, if we say it, we have to mean it.

Does that sound like a threat? Well, in all my dealings with the Syrians, I have found that they understand threats – they’re not real responsive to diplomacy.

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DEBKAfile Exclusive is Fulfilling Archive Update Number 101A

August 26, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Begin Archive Special Prophecy Update Number 101A

SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 101A

January 6, 2003

Beware Syria, Iraq’s New Pal!

The title of this update “Beware Syria, Iraq’s New Pal,” was taken from an article by Richard Z.

Chesnoff in the New York Daily News. I have believed for the past 50 years that Israel’s main problem, in the latter days, would come from a coalition led by Syria. Mr. Chesnoff’s article is being used, not because I think he agrees with this consensus, but because he gives the best information I have seen, in a compact form, about the current activities of Syria in their growing friendship with Iraq. He is a veteran foreign correspondent who has been reporting from around the world for more than 35 years.

He is a two-time winner of the Overseas Press Club Award. He was formerly executive editor of the Newsweek International and senior correspondent at US News and World Report. He has interviewed every major leader from David Ben-Gurion of Israel to Muammar Qadhafi of Libya. (Archive Update 101 continued after New York Times Article)

The following extracts were taken directly from Mr. Chesnoff’s article of January 1, 2003 in the New York Daily News.

Begin New York News Article Extracts

“According to Mideast diplomatic sources I’ve spoken with while doing research for the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, Syria has brushed aside historic Baathist party rivalries with Iraq and instituted a flow of intelligence information to its counterparts in Baghdad.”

“Moreover, despite Syria’s current rotating membership on the Security Council, it has steadily violated the Council’s embargo on Iraq by pumping and globally marketing and average of 150,000 barrels of Iraqi oil per day.”

“Although Assad’s government claims it is putting Iraq’s share of all the profits on freeze, senior intelligence sources have evidence that all these contraband funds have been made available to Iraq at a staggering rate of about one billion a year. The money has been used to obtain weapons and desperately needed military parts through Syrian middlemen, which is another violation of the UN embargo.”

“The Syrians have done nothing to change their long standing policy of state support for terrorist organizations. Ten of the worst Palestinian extremist groups remain headquartered in Damascus, and are regularly given Syrian backing and funds. Additionally, Syria actively supports the terrorist group Hizbollah based in southern Lebanon, and Damascus has played host to a number of members of Osama Bin Laden’s family, having its own links to Al Qaeda.”

“U.S. intelligence officials recently confirmed information I published in March indicating that Al Qaeda operatives who had fled into Iran from Afghanistan had been transported from Tehran to Damascus and then transferred overnight to Lebanon, where little takes place without the knowledge and permission of Syria. Lebanon subsequently announced it had expelled many of the Al Qaeda fugitives, but intelligence sources in Beirut believe that groups of Bin Laden’s senior underlings are presently hiding in southern Lebanon.”

End of extracts taken from the article by Richard Z. Chesnoff in the New York Daily News.

Continue Archive Update 101A, Issued January 6, 2003

What follows does not reflect the opinion or viewpoint of the New York Daily News or Mr. Chesnoff.

In hundreds of Updates, over the past two years, I have warned that the real danger that Israel faces is not from Europe, Russia, or China, nor is it

from the west, the south, or the east. The real danger will come out of the north from Syria, which formed the major landmass of the Assyrian Empire when Isaiah and Micah wrote their prophecies.

(See Prophecy Updates 66, 67, and 68 in our Archives.)

Micah 5:5-7 – And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men. [6] And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from t

he Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders. [7] And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.

End of Archive Update Number 101A, January 6, 2003A

Begin DEBKAfile Exclusive, August 25, 2007

DEBKAfile Exclusive: Assad is willing to talk to Olmert without involving Washington – but not to abandon absolute commitment to Tehran

August 25, 2007, 2:05 PM (GMT+02:00)

This double message was brought to Jerusalem last week by Edward P. Djerejian from unpublicized meetings he held in Damascus with president Bashar Assad and Syrian military and intelligence chiefs.

This former US ambassador to Israel and Syria reported that Assad is willing to drop his prior conditions for talks with Israel regarding parallel dialogue with Washington

and US participation in the peace process. But the Syrian ruler is also utterly committed to the diplomatic and military policies of his senior partner, Tehran.

Damping down any optimism in Jerusalem, Djerejian, a co-author of the Baker Report on Iraq, warned Assad will not go back on his commitment to Tehran, even if a diplomatic breakthrough leads to improved relations with Washington and talks with Jerusalem.

The former diplomat and old friend of the Assad dynasty put it this way: President Hafez Assad, Bashar’s father, set the tone of the Syrian-Iranian alliance. Today, Damascus dances to the music written in Tehran.

The Syrian president sent a second message to Washington and Jerusalem via Djerejian: Damascus and the Lebanese Hizballah are not inseparable.

They coordinate political and military policies, but Assad is not bound by Hassan Nasrallah’s political and military decisions and is free to follow his own path.

In contrast, DEBKAfile’s sources stress, the Olmert government’s peace expectations of Syria must factor in Assad’s staunch dedication to Iran’s lead on Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq. His call for peace talks with Israel is well attuned to Tehran’s objective of engaging Washington in direct dialogue on its nuclear program and Iraq, provided that diplomacy does not shift the fundamental positions of either party.

Syrian rulers have not aped Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s calls for Israel’s annihilation. But nei ther have

they take exception to this sentiment, whether publicly or in closed conversations with the US veteran diplomat this month. Djerjian was impressed by the pride Assad and his aides displayed in the robustness of their relationship with Tehran. They were completely confident they had opted for the winning side in the Middle East instead of the United States and Israel who they regard as the losing camp.

End Debkafile Exclusive

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Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better!

August 26, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

In the history of m an he has always looked for

an ultimate weapon,

anything which would allow him to destroy his enemies with a bare minimum of harm to himself.

There have been many great ultimate weapons developed after the discovery of gunpowder and the first cannons, but from World War II to the present there seem to have been more appearing than at any time in history.

China, Russia, France, Great Britain, and the United States crank out new major and minor weapons of varying destructive power constantly, and while they are doing it they crank out weapons that can knock out the weapons they have created. I have watched this vicious never ending cycle of terror for more than 60 years. It is now awakening with a vengeance among the Big Five, both for security and attack, but the major force behind it is the root of all evil, which causes men and nations to seek strategic power through the accumulation of more and more money.

There cannot be a solution to the basic problem of man’s carnality until Jesus Christ returns.

I have watched the philosophy of this generation of diplomats on a path of insanity, believing that if we help the “bad guys” develop a prosperous economy, to the extent they have all that we have, they will become “good guys.” The basic carnal nature of all men is the idolatrous nature of covetousness, which is the craving desire to add more on top of the pile he already has, no matter how tall it grows. He worships the God of this world’s favorite drawing card, which is mammon, and it becomes the idol of his life he worships and loves as his god.

I Timothy 6:10 – For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Colossians 3:5b,6 – And covetousness, which is idolatry: [6] For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:

I Thessalonians 5:9 – For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

Exodus 20:3 – Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Luke 16:13 – No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.

Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

The Jerusalem Post Article, which follows, is an example of the weapon, anti-weapon, new weapon, new anti-weapon, etc, etc, etc., which will never end until Messiah comes to end the final battle of Armageddon.

Begin Jerusalem Post Article

Fearing Syrian missile onslaught, IDF boosts Arrow defenses in North

Yaakov Katz, THE JERUSALEM POST

August 23, 2007

Predicting that Israel’s future wars will be characterized by unprecedented missile barrages, the IDF has decided to modify its missile defense doctrine and has changed its deployment of the Arrow missile in northern Israel, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The changes to the Air Defense Forces’ doctrine have been made over recent months amid rising and falling concerns over war with Syria, and as a result of lessons learned from the Second Lebanon War, during which some 4,000 missiles and rockets pounded the North.

“Our assumption is that the next war will be characterized by missile onslaughts, and lots of them,” a high-ranking officer told the Post. “We can tell from the way our ‘neighbors’ are training that this is what they are planning and that we can expect a repeat of what happened during the Second Lebanon War.”

Until now, the Arrow has been deployed in the Palmahim Air Force Base, as well as at an undisclosed site in northern Israel. The “thin deployment,” as it was called, was implemented when the Arrow became fully operational in 2000 and when the doctrine was still based on the threat of Saddam Hussein’s Scud missiles from the first Gulf War.

Defense officials claim that the Arrow missile is capable of intercepting all of the operational ballistic missiles in Iran and Syria.

Following this past summer’s war and the recognition that the next war will involve Syrian and Iranian missile barrages, the Air Defense Forces decided to adopt a “wide deployment” for its Arrow missile batteries.

Ahead of a possible conflict with Syria and Iran, the Air Defense Forces are also conducting an increased number of joint exercises with the United States Armed Forces, in an effort to increase coordination between the two countries and to prepare for the possibility that Washington will send US missile defense systems to Israel if and when they are needed.

The Defense Ministry recently submitted a request to the Pentagon to receive information on two American-made missile defense systems – the Terminal High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) and the Aegis.

The idea, a top officer explained, was to prepare infrastructure for the possibility that the American systems would be purchased by Israel or be deployed here during the time of war. In March, US Army officers from the European Command (EUCOM) were in Israel for the Juniper Cobra exercise, held every two years, during which Israel and the US run missile defense simulations.

“Our objective is to create the infrastructure and ensure that the Arrow will be interoperable with other systems,” the officer explained, adding that this objective took up a large portion of the Air Defense Forces’ training time.

To better prepare troops for potential barrages of missiles in a future conflict, head of the Air Defense Forces Brig.-Gen. Daniel Milo has brought in former officers who served on Patriot batteries during the First Gulf War to address young troops, sharing their experiences of intercepting missiles.

“We need to prepare them mentally for the barrages,” explained the officer.

“We need to train with the systems to make sure that they are operational and to prepare the soldiers for the possibility that they will be facing dozens of missiles heading toward Israel.”

A newer model of the Arrow missile – called the Arrow 3 – is currently under development, and when operational will serve as a higher altitude interception system than the Arrow missile currently in IAF service. In addition, the IAF plans to invest millions of dollars in upgrading its Patriot missile system to be able to accommodate the advanced PAC-3, which will serve as a third layer of defense at altitudes lower than those covered by the two Arrow systems.

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THE BEGINNING OF SORROWS

August 25, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

I first began to keep up with Pestilence in the seventies following my keeping up with famines and earthquakes at a much earlier time.

Everything is on track for the tribulation period to rear its ugly head, and my guesstimate is that is likely to begin at some point in time between 2008 and the end of 2012. It is a GUESS, no more and no less.

PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO READ ARCHIVE PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 19 BEFORE READING THE CURRENT ARTICLE FROM THE KHALEEJ TIMES.

PROPHECY UPDATE 19 – ISSUED IN MARCH 2001

For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences (loimos), and earthquakes, in divers places. [8] All these are the beginning of sorrows (odin). (Matthew 24:7,8)

In Prophecy Update Number 18 we conducted a lengthy discussion of why earthquakes, famine, and pestilence were, just before Jesus returns, according to the word “odin,” supposed to follow the pattern of birth pangs a woman suffers in child bearing.

We demonstrated that, for the first time in history, when Israel became a nation, worldwide earthquakes were following such a pattern. But what about Matthew’s “pestilence?” Is it following the pattern of a woman’s birth travail for the first time since Jesus prophesied it would? Absolutely! The basic root meaning of the word “loimos,” translated “pestilence,” is simply “any deadly infectious disorder.” Many plagues have passed through mankind since the fall, but none have generated a massive epidemic that was continuously accelerating over a long period of time. These “loimos” have never been able to follow the pattern of a woman’s birth pains for very long on a worldwide basis. Cholera, small pox, typhoid, bubonic plague, and so on, have appeared in short spurts like false labor, but none has ever maintained a persistent, ever increasing, epidemic characteristic with seemingly no end. But now, for the first time, we have a “loimos,” a deadly infectious disorder, that has portrayed these characteristics from its inception. The HIV virus is the first to perfectly match the pattern of a woman’s birth pangs, and it will continue to do so until the travail of the woman Israel ends,

and the Son she rejected arrives. HIV is a virus that has swept across the globe like wildfire. HIV cases worldwide increased from a trace in 1980 to more than 5 million in 1985, to more than 10 million in 1990, to more than 20 million in 1995, and to a whopping 35 million in 2000. AIDS, the dreadful blossom of HIV, was first reported in a British sailor, who died in England in 1959. HIV has hardest hit Africa up to this point, but it is poised to spread into Asia and the former Soviet Union as an ever-increasing storm. And, in truth, medical researchers seem no closer to fining a cure than they were twenty years ago.

Are there other “loimos” infections that have also started to demonstrate the patterns of a woman’s birth pangs? Yes! The World Health Organization (WHO) fears that tuberculosis may kill 30 million worldwide during the next decade.

The emergence of drug-resistant strains, and the spread of HIV have both hampered efforts by health agencies to slow the renewed spread of the consumptive illness. Another sort of “loimos” is malaria, which is on the rise around the world, and once curative treatments are losing their effect. It is a pestilence of global dimensions, and new strains are evolving that scientists fear will be untreatable.

But what about all the microbes generating all this pestilence, this “loimos,” these deadly infectious disorders, what are they doing, how are

they behaving? Are they doing something that will make the pestilences continue to act like a woman’s birth pangs through the tribulation period

? Yes! A leading national magazine cover, back in the last century, carried the bold print title: “REVENGE OF THE KILLER MICROBES – ARE WE LOSING THE WAR AGAINST INFECTIOUS DISEASES?” Tuft’s Levy answered the question in Newsweek Magazine by stating: “The rise of drug-resistant germs is unparalleled in recorded biologic history.” Because of this contributing factor, pestilence will become more and more widespread in its acceleration until the second advent of Christ.

Begin Khaleej Times Online – News – THE WORLD Article

Infectious diseases spreading faster than ever: UN

(Reuters)

23 August 2007

GENEVA – Infectious diseases are emerging more quickly and spreading faster around the globe than ever and becoming increasingly difficult to treat, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said

on Thursday.

With billions of people moving around the planet every year, the U.N. agency said in its annual World Health Report: “An outbreak or epidemic in one part of the world is only a few hours away from becoming an imminent threat somewhere else.”

WHO director-general Margaret Chan said mass travel could facilitate the rapid spread of infectious diseases.

“No country can shield itself from invasion by a pathogen incubating in an airline passenger or an insect hiding in a cargo hold,” Chan told reporters.

The U.N. agency warned that there was a good possibility of another major scourge like AIDS, SARS or Ebola fever with the potential of killing millions appearing in the coming years.

“Infectious diseases are now spreading geographically much faster than at any time in history,” the WHO said.

It said it was vital to keep watch for new threats like the emergence in 2003 of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which spread from China to 30 countries and killed 800 people.

“It would be extremely naive and complacent to assume that there will not be another disease like AIDS, another Ebola, or another SARS, sooner or later,” the report warned.

Since the 1970s, the WHO said, new threats have been identified at an “unprecedented rate” of one or more every year, meaning that nearly 40 diseases exist today which were unknown just over a generation ago.

Over the last five years alone, WHO experts had verified more than 1,100 epidemics of different diseases.

It was there fore vital

for countries to share in formation

on outbreaks so risks can be assessed and mitigated, Chan said.

Monitoring vital

The report called for renewed efforts to monitor, prevent and control epidemic-prone illnesses such as cholera, yellow fever and meningococcal diseases.

International assistance may be required to help health workers in poorer countries identify and contain outbreaks of emerging viral diseases such as Ebola and Marburg haemorrhagic fever, the WHO said.

It warned global efforts to control infectious diseases had been “seriously jeopardised” by widespread drug resistance, a consequence of poor medical treatment and misuse ofantibiotics.

This is a particular problem with tuberculosis. Extensively drug-resistant (XDR-TB) strains of the contagious respiratory ailment have emerged worldwide.

Although the H5N1 bird flu virus has not mutated into a form that passes easily between humans, as many scientists had feared, the next influenza pandemic was “likely to be of an avian variety” and could affect some 1.5 billion people.

Chan noted that the last influenza pandemic was in 1968 and had killed about 1 million people. “We have learned from previous pandemics that even the mildest pandemic causes too many premature deaths.

We don’t want to see that,” she said.

She urged countries affected by human cases of bird flu, including Indonesia, to continue sharing virus samples, deemed crucial to tracking the virus and to developing a pandemic vaccine.

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Another Two of Daniel’s Ten Islamic Toes are Wiggling into Place!

August 25, 2007

http://www.tribulation

I have long contended, against some objection, that when the 10 toes of Daniel’s great statue in the second chapter of his book attacked Israel, Iraq and Turkey would be among them.

It certainly appears, based on events in Iraq and Turkey that this is going to be the case. Even if the military brass were to pull off a coup, this time a revolution would break out in Turkey.

A return to an Islamic government is in the cards for Turkey, and Abdullah Gul will attempt to bring it in.

Please read Archive Special Prophecy Update 176B before reading Boston Globe Article

Special Prophecy Update Number 176B

June 16, 2004

Ten Toes Are Beginning to Wiggle

Daniel 2:42-44 – And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. [43] And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

[44] And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.

This Kingdom and its Lamb King, who Daniel’s people rejected at his First Appearance, will soon return for his Second Appearance to bring in his Kingdom as its Lion King of Judah. I have always believed these ten toes would indeed arise out the territory once controlled by the two legs to which they were attached, namely, the southern flank of the old Roman Empire. The two legs of Daniel’s statue, during the time of

their existence as an empire, stretched their long toes into the nations now identified as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, Lebanon, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. Soon there will be a new state, which will emerge among the ten, namely the new Palestinian state that is likely to come out of all the confusion in Israel.

I believe these 11 nations will be directly involved in the coming Jihad against Israel. I believe the 10 toes found in chapter 2 of Daniel are 10 of the 11 horns found in chapter 7 of Daniel, and that the “little horn” of Daniel 7 comes out of Syria or its immediate surrounding area.

Daniel 7:24-27 – And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from t

he first, and he shall subdue three kings.

[25] And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. [26] But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. [27] And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.

Begin Boston Globe Article

Turkey’s Gul set to clinch presidency next week

By Paul de Bendern

August 23, 2007

ANKARA (Reuters) – Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul looks set to become Turkey’s president next week, completing the Islamist-rooted AK Party’s capture of all key posts in the country despite strong opposition from army generals.

European Union-applicant Turkey has been mired in political turmoil since April when the ruling AK Party first nominated Gul, a respected diplomat, as their candidate.

“His election as president is as good as guaranteed. Next week (August 28) he will get the sufficient number of votes and will be sworn in with lightening speed on the same evening,” wrote Mehmet Ali Birand, a leading Turkish columnist.

Turkey’s army, which has ousted four governments since 1960, and the powerful secular elite have opposed Gul because of his Islamist past and the fact his wife wears the Muslim headscarf, seen by secularists as a provocative symbol of religion.

The country of 74 million people is predominantly Muslim but is governed by a secular constitution. The AK Party is accused of seeking to undermine a separation of Mosque and state dating back to the foundation of the republic after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The party denies the charges.

The secular elite — which includes the powerful army generals, judges,

the heads of universities and other officials — derailed a first presidential election in April, a move which sparked early parliamentary polls. That election was handsomely won by the centre-right pro-business AK Party on July 22.

A newly elected chamber has begun another round of voting to pick between Gul and two other candidates to replace staunchly secular incumbent Ahmet Necdet Sezer.

Parliament failed to elect Gul in the first vote on August 20. It will hold a second on August 24, but Gul is unlikely to be elected until the third round on August 28, when he needs a only simple majority. The AK Party holds 341 of the 550 seats.

If he wins as expected, it would be the first time in modern Turkey’s history the post would go to a former Islamist.
In Turkey, the government holds most power but the president can veto laws and appointments of officials, and name judges. The post carries great moral weight because it was first held by the country’ s revered

secular founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

“WALKING A TIGHTROPE”

Secularists shudder at the thought of a leader with an Islamist past becoming president and commander in chief of NATO’s second largest member army.

Gul says people should judge him for his record in office, where he helped win EU accession talks status and improved Turkey’s human rights record. He has pledged to be a president for all Turks and says he will cut ties with his party.

The army and secularists will closely watch his performance and whether his wife wears the headscarf at official events. The garment is banned in public offices and universities and is not traditionally worn at Cankaya presidential palace receptions.

His behavior as president may also be a lightening rod in the debate between Turks who want to keep religion out of public life and a growing, more religiously minded middle class who have prospered under the AK Party and want a relaxation of curbs on religious symbols and expressions.

“Gul will have to juggle between two hostile sides … He will literally be walking a tightrope,” Birand wrote.

Few expect the army to intervene directly after public statements earlier this year appear to have backfired and helped secure more votes for the AK Party in parliamentary elections.

Events are also being closely watched in Europe and the Middle East, given Turkey’s strategic role in a volatile region.

“If the military intervenes, the message to the Muslim world will be clear: democracy is a dead end,” Anwar Ibrahim, a senior Malaysian opposition figure, told the daily Today’s Zaman.

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For more detailed information go to:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.

You may use material originated by this site. However, if you wish to use any quoted copyrighted material from this site, which did not originate at this site, for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner from which we extracted it.