blog.Tribulationperiod.com

A Travesty of War – Killing of Allies!

October 4, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

The following report by Haaretz Correspondent Yossi Melman, from the Chicago Tribune, just happens to be true.

However, both the U.S. and Israel want it to be buried, and I think they are right in doing so. The old expression, “War is Hell,” certainly applies to the episode of the USS Liberty on June 8, 1967. Had they been my s ons or brothers

on the Liberty, I confess I would feel differently about what happened, but I wish they would stop opening old wounds. I retired from the USAF Branch of the National Security Agency at Fort George G.

Meade in 1971, and this is an old wound I would just like to forget.

The essence of what happened was this – We had asked the Israelis not to go deep into Syrian territory on their pre-emptive strike, but they knew we could pick up electronic chatter between tank commanders, which would reveal their intent to disregard our request, so the USS Liberty was attacked to prevent this from happening. I could tell you more, but this episode in history needs to be forgotten. To revive it now would harm relations between us, making great propaganda for the forces of Islam, and most of those living at that time in the military are dead.

Whatever the U.S. was going to do about this action of needless slaughter should have been accomplished in 1967 – Not more than 40 years after it occurred.

Begin Haaretz Article

Israeli communications said to prove IAF knew Liberty was U.S. ship

By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent

Oc tober 4, 2007

The Israel Air Force warplanes and Israel Navy warships that attacked the USS Liberty on June 8, 1967, at the height of the Six-Day War, were aware that the vessel was an American spy ship, according

to new testimony published Thursday in the Chicago Tribune.

The report stated that the U.S. National Security Agency – to which the intelligence gathering ship belonged – was able to intercept IAF communications according to which, at some stage, the pilots identified the ship as American but were nonetheless instructed to push ahead with the attack.

According to the report, some of the transcripts and intelligence information have disappeared, while the rest can be found in U.S. government archives.

Oliver Kirby, the NSA’s deputy director for operations at the time of the Liberty attack, is quoted by the Tribune as confirming the existence of the transcripts, saying he personally read them.

“They said, ‘We’ve got him in the zero,'” Kirby was quoted as saying, “whatever that meant – I guess the sights or something.

And then one of them said, ‘Can you see the flag?’ They said ‘Yes, it’s U.S, it’s U.S.’ They said it several times, so there wasn’t any doubt in anybody’s mind that they knew it.”

Kirby told the newspaper that the transcripts were “something that’s bothered me all my life.

I’m willing to swear on a stack of Bibles that we knew they knew.”

The report also states that then U.S. defense secretary Robert McNamara ordered jets that had been dispatched to assist the Liberty turned around.

The Tribune quotes J.Q. “Tony” Hart, then a chief petty officer assigned to a U.S. Navy relay station in Morocco that handled communications between Washington and the 6th Fleet, as saying that he listened in as McNamara said, “President [Lyndon] Johnson is not going to go to war or embarrass an American ally over a few sailors.”

McNamara, who is now 91, told the Tribune he has “absolutely no recollection of what I did that day,” except that “I have a memory that I didn’t know at the time what was going on.”

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mark Regev told the Tribune that the attack on the Liberty was “a tragic and terrible accident, a case of mistaken identity, for which Israel has officially apologized.”

The USS Liberty was came under attack, first by IAF jets and then some 15 minutes later by Israel Navy warships, while patrolling off the shores of El-Arish in the Sinai Peninsula. 34 American sailors perished in the attack, 26 of them in the naval assault.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by

the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.

We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. 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.

Can the World endure a Northern Tsardom and a Southern Caliphate?

October 4, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

A very interesting article from the Times-On-Line follows our lead-in article.

From this article, which follows our article on what I believe will be a great future southern Caliphate below what was once the mighty Soviet Union, it appears Russian President Putin is attempting to reestablish what will amount to a Russian Tsardom north of an Islamic Caliphate.

Having gone to military schools, lived among, worked with, and trained those of the Islamic faith as a much younger man, plus being familiar with prophecy since my youth, I have not only been waiting for many years for the true Messiah, Jesus Christ, but I have also been waiting for the arrival of the 12th Imam on the scene prior to the arrival of Jesus. I have long believed the 12th Imam Mahdi will be the 11th little horn of Daniel, and the beast of John’s Revelation.

I have long identified him as the leader of the 10 toes of Daniel’s great latter day empire of the descendants of the descendants of the twelve sons of Ishmael and the six sons of Keturah, all of them being the sons of Abraham. In all my books, the first written in the seventies, I have never swerved from identify

ing the ten toes as being Islamic nations.

(Please read Archive Prophecy Update Numbers 125B. 121C, 78, 74B, and 54 at: http://www.tribulationperiuod.com/ under the heading of “Prophecy Updates.”)

As I have written in many Archive Prophecy Updates and Blogs, in Genesis Ishmael is called a “wild” man as Abraham’s descendant. The Hebrew word translated “wild” is donkey, a wild ass, which has long been manifested by the inability of Islamic nations to get along with each other or any other nation for very long. So, one of the things I did not know, when I wrote my first book, was how in heavens name you could ever get clay and iron to come together, and hold long enough to form a temporary latter day empire. It would be as difficult as trying to keep a herd of wild asses together in a wilderness with no fences.

Daniel 2:41-43 – And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. [41] And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. [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.

[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.

I knew that God would put it into their hearts to come together, but I did not understand the instrument he would use to being their hearts together into the unholy union of Jewish and infidel destruction.

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. [17] For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.

It fin ally

all came together for me with the rise of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, where he was successful in driving out the Soviet army by Islamic Jihad guerilla warfare. The 9/11 attack left no doubt that the world’s future was headed for the rise of Islamic fanaticism, which is the instrument that is uniting the 10 toes, the 10 horns, in a common united cause, namely, the destruction of Israel, and other infidel nations that do not honor their Prophet Muhammad and Allah.

There is no question in my mind that Islamic Jihad is the spirit of the antichrist. All that Islam masses need is for a man to show up who they will accept as the 12th Imam, and they will unite as surrendered souls to follow him to the death.

We have gotten a taste of the fever of Islamic Jihad fanaticism in the French Riots, and the devoted religious extremism over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad has triggered riots, burnings, and deaths across Europe and the Middle East in many of the countries and states. It is this religious Islamic fever that will unite all Arabs under the banner of the 12th Imam when he arises. If you think what seems to the West to be isolated extremism, from the lips and actions of the current Iranian President, is just a microscopic cult belief, you are quite wrong. The Shiites are the most zealous of the Muslims in their devotion to the 12th Imam, but the Sunni also have their own version of him, as do virtually all of the branches of the Muslim faith. I know this by my association with Islamic believers from many countries.

I hope you will have time to look back in our Archive Prophecy Updates at Number 165B, “The Coming Messiah of Islamic Tradition,” April 1, 2004, for more information on the 12th Imam.

Begin Article from THE TIMES ON LINE

PUTIN’S BID FOR TSARDOM

Russia’s President decides to continue in office as prime Minister

October 2, 2007

President Putin’s announcement that he would like to become prime minister is a coup de th�âtrefor which this shrewd political operator is justly famous. For months speculation over his future has obsessed Russia. He has insisted repeatedly that, after he leaves office in March, he wants to continue serving his country in some capacity.

How he would do so has always been unclear, however. Would he take the job as head of Gazprom, the vast state energy monopoly that is so vital to Russia’s future? Would he revitalise the job of National Security Adviser? Or would he become a roving ambassador, holding no official post but exercising influence behind the scenes as Deng Xiaoping did in China?

In a recent convers

ation with The Times and other Western reporters and academics, Mr Putin made it very clear that he had no intention of leaving the political scene. He made it equally plain that he would not change the Constitution, but would retire, as required, in March.

He did not rule out returning as president in 2012 – though tried to downplay this scenario. But he insisted Russia must still have a strong president, as its parties were still too undeveloped to play the role they do in Western democracies.

His remarks suggested an impossible contradiction. How could any successor be a strong president if Mr Putin was still very much in the political arena? Speculation within Russia has been increased by his unexpected reshuffle of the Government, three months before parliamentary elections, and the appointment of the elderly and relatively unknown Viktor Zubkov as Prime Minister. Mr Putin insisted this was to ensure that all the Government kept working properly until the final day. Most Russians assumed, however, that Mr Putin was either grooming Mr Zubkov as a future, pliable president – or that he was deliberately keeping in play the two deputy prime ministers and likely contenders for the top job, Sergei Ivanov and Dmitry Medvedev, so as not to make a preference known that would inevitably make him a lame duck president.

Mr Putin had already dismissed the idea of becoming prime minister himself.

Several things, however, may have changed his mind. The first is that the pressure on him to make an announcement has become intense. And it is increasingly clear that there is no other job that would give him the power and properly defined responsibility that he craves. Secondly, with popularity ratings running at about 80 per cent, there is a danger that his supporters and those who have enriched themselves during his reign will be so fearful of change that they stage a crisis to force a change in the Constitution and Mr Putin’ s continuation in office.

Thirdly, his wish, real or assumed, to build up the party system and turn United Russia into something more than just a vehicle to bolster his power meant that he would have to declare his intentions before the party holds its extraordinary congress this month to decide who to head its list for the Duma elections.

The effect will be to reverse the power balance between the president and prime minister.

It underlines the weakness of Russia’s democracy and constitution, which must still bend to the dominant personality.

Russians have lauded the economic benefits of a Putin presidency, but may well have cause to regret his impact on a still-emerging democratic system.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner.

We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site

is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. 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.

“RUSSIA, RUSSIA, AND RUSSIA”

October 3, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

The ingredients are coming in place for Russia to come down for a piece of control of the oil pie at the last great battle of Armageddon, when the Arab nations will attack to finally eliminate the Israeli remnant forever, after she has been in the Negev for some three and one-half years. I think it likely that the initial attack by the ten Islamic nation, which drives Israel into the Negev, where she will remain for some three and one-half years, is likely to occur at some point in time between 2010 and the end of 2014, with the final battle of Armageddon occurring at the end of the three and one-half years.

Begin Article from International Herald Tribune

POLITICUS

October 1, 2007

By John Vinocur

ASSESSING RUSSIA’S PLANS WITH A RARE FORTITUDE

MORA, Sweden

The nervous-making answer is “Russia, Russia and Russia.” As for the question, up here in a cautious but less complacent Nordic world, it no longer takes an oafish outlander to ask it in public:
What’s my country’s biggest security challenge?

Rattling off the R-word three times in succession – get it, get it, get it

? – Jyri Hakamies, the defense minister of Finland, broke last month with his country’s traditionally monumental circumspection in avoiding talk that might discomfort its huge and recurrently assertive neighbor.

For a marker showing how much Russia has become a locus of trouble in Europe’s mind, and the effect of its retreat from post Soviet-era hopes that it would become a country of democratic inklings and moderate ambitions, the Finn’s assessment stands out like a watchtower in a birch forest.

While President George

W. Bush ducks America’s head, letting Russia run interference for Iran in the UN Security Council, or run around the council with a veto threat to block approval of Kosovo’s independence, a remarkable gauge of Russia’s new reality is coming from countries living close enough by to feel its potential for intimidation.

In Oslo, a leaked report to local media last week from the chief of the country’s armed forces contemplates a situation in which Russia’s drive for oil, gas and fishery resources would challenge Norway – without much help to be expected from NATO in the event of “serious conflict.”

General Sverre Diesen was quoted as saying that no danger of war existed, “but there are gray zones.”

In Sweden, the conservative government’s defense minister has quit, complaining its planned cuts in defense spending were intolerable.

I asked a Swedish security expert, who favors Sweden abandoning neutrality for NATO membership, to evaluate developments like 18 incursions over the last five months by Russian bombers into Norwegian air space (requiring Norwegian jet fighters to respond), and Moscow’s new claims to territorial rights in the Arctic alongside those of Denmark, Norway, Canada and the United States.

He hunted for a balanced-sounding reply.

This was it: “We’re in a new era of geopolitics. You can’t pretend otherwise.”

But the Finnish defense minister reached for another register in a speech in Washington in September.

By European standards of accommodating Russia – over the weekend, The New York Times reported that the Bush administration’s agreement to delay pressing for new UN sanctions against Iran was “a concession” to Germany as well

as Russia and China – Hakamies offered a bold, no-illusions approach.

He asked himself rhetorically what Finland’s security situation was really like in what’s normally considered one of the world’s safe corners. His answer:

“The three main security challenges for Finland today are Russia, Russia and Russia. And not only for Finland, but for all of us.

“According to the Russian world view,” Hakamies said, “military force is a key element in how it conducts its international relations.”

While it would be foolish and mistaken to conclude that Russia will threaten Finland, he said, “we who have the responsibility for Finland’s national defense have to draw certain conclusions.”

Ah, conclusions. Hakamies was offering one in calling Russia out by name. And three times, to good effect.

This is uncomfortable, non-instinctive stuff in a country like Finland with so much of its complex Cold War history spent avoiding displeasing Russia.

It was so unconventional that the prime minister chided Hakamies for his “unsuccessful” choice of words.

Not accidentally, Hakamies also gave wide berth to anything sounding like the current mantra, which says that Russia needs respect and to be washed of all its past humiliations.

He didn’t say it, of course, but the fact is that in cash terms these days, the West gives Russia all the respect it can handle, while its humiliations are mostly of its own making.

The question of conclusions really goes beyond the Nordic world to its friends in bigger countries.

But who among them, like Hakamies and General Diesen of Norway, will talk straight on Russia, recognizing, as the Finn did, that the hard-edged Russian notion of the great game is “is back, and it is back in force”?

Not George Bush. In spite of warnings from places like the State Department that Russia seeks to weaken and humiliate the United States, he does not seem willing to add his relationship with Vladimir Putin to the pile of his failed judgments.

Nicolas Sarkozy? In a little more than a week, the French president is scheduled to go Moscow to meet with Putin. It’s reasonable to hope that they will hear each other out, and that Sarkozy, who wants France to lead Europe, can continue to talk to and about Russia with the frankness that has made him a man apart.

There are encouraging signs.

Sarkozy, in the last weeks, appears to be going after one of the basic untruths in the Russian position protecting Iran. It is Moscow’s persistence in saying it has no evidence that the mullahs’ nuclear program has anything other than peaceful intent.

This is the fib that allows Russia, as Iran’s nuclear supplier, the freedom of diplomatic maneuver to delay and play dumb on Tehran’s behalf.

Nobody in the West has tried explicitly to dismantle the Russian bluff.

But that’s the essence of Sarkozy’s asserting the truth when he says, “Iran is trying to get a nuclear bomb,” and that “all the experts from everywhere in world agree that the Iranians are working on nuclear arms.”

In pointing this out twice – a presidential spokesman took care of a third repetition – Sarkozy might as well have been saying to Putin, give the West and

the world the respect of talking honestly.

That matters – on Iran, on agreeing to a charter governing energy supply that would assure Russia’s customers of security, on discussing the Kremlin’s attempt to push old Soviet neighborhoods back into silence or renewed spheres of Russian influence.

If he takes it, Sarkozy will find a wide international constituency for this approach.

Even in Europe’s once-comfy north.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner.

We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.

We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. 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.

NORTH KORE A IS

A SEA OF DARKNESS!

“Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld famously kept a satellite photograph of the Korean Peninsula in his office at the Pentagon.

The picture was taken at night and showed a brightly illuminated South Korea under a sea of darkness where the North

was known to be. Only the city of Pyongyang gave off a faint glow.

” (Quote from Article which follows our heading)

October 3, 2007

http://www.tribulationeriod.com/

The United States in making agreements with North Korea is sailing on a sea of darkness, riding its raging waves, which eventually must foam out their own shame.

The North Korean nation is led by a government composed of the children of darkness – To believe they will keep their word is madness.

Jude 13 – Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

Begin Article from the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page

REVIEW & OUTLOOK

Nuclear Secrets

A strange kind of nonproliferation in North Korea.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007 12:01 a.m.

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld famously kept a satellite photograph of the Korean Peninsula in his office at the Pentagon. The picture was taken at night and showed a brightly illuminated South Korea under a sea of darkness where the North was known to be. Only the city of Pyongyang gave off a faint glow.

The photo could serve as a metaphor for the six-party nuclear- disarmament talks,

which keep getting murkier when they should be opening more to world scrutiny. They adjourned Sunday without the agreement the diplomats were promising, though with a draft plan the parties are taking home to their superiors for comment and whose details remain secret.

Granted, diplomacy requires some confidentiality, but transparency and verification are crucial to disarmament, especially when dealing with a regime like Kim Jong Il’s. The February 13 six-party accord called for Pyongyang to deliver a comprehensive accounting of its nuclear program and arsenal within 60 days. We’re still waiting.

Transparency is all the more essential given recent news reports about likely North Korean nuclear proliferation in Syria. Washington says the main goal of the six-party talks is to prevent proliferation, and North Korea promised to cease and desist. Yet Pyongyang seems to have been caught in the act in Syria only months after making that promise. The Israelis were worried enough to risk a confrontation with Syria by bombing the site, not to mention flying over Turkish air space. Notably, the Turks didn’t object.

Syrian President Bashar Assad finally got around to confirming the air raid in an interview with the BBC yesterday, claiming the Israelis hit an “unused military building.” North Korea had publicly denounced the bombing even before anyone had mentioned its involvement, and its chief nuclear negotiator last week referred to those who suspect a Pyongyang-Damascus connection as “lunatics.” This is protesting a little too much.

President Bush dodged three questions on the issue two weeks ago, except to warn North Korea one more time not to proliferate, which sounds suspiciously like a confirmation. Meanwhile on September 21, the Washington Post quoted government sources as saying that “Israel shared intelligence with President Bush this summer indicating that North Korean nuclear personnel were in Syria.”

Then there’s the not-so-little matter of North Korea’s continuing missile proliferation. Last week the State Department’s Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation announced new sanctions against a North Korean company for spreading missile technology. The company–Korean Mining and Development Corp., or Komid–is a long-time offender. The U.S. Treasury last year called it “Pyongyang’s premier arms dealer and main exporter of goods and weapons related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons.”

The new State Department finding reads: “A determination has been made that a North Korean entity has engaged in activities that require the imposition of measures pursuant to the Arms Export Control Act, as amended, and the Export Administration Act of 1979 . . .” Since little happens in North Korea without the regime knowing, this is evidence that Kim is still in the proliferation business.

The new U.S. sanctions were announced last Wednesday, the day before the six-party talks resumed in Beijing. Yet on Friday, the U.S. responded as if nothing had happened, by promising to send $25 million in fuel oil to North Korea. Beijing has pledged a similar amount, and China and South Korea have already delivered initial shipments. In return, North Korea is promising to deliver by year-end the account of its nuclear activities it was supposed to present in April.

U.S. negotiator Chris Hill says things are going great.

As do the South Koreans, who issued a press release yesterday referring to the “upbeat mood” of the disarmament talks. President Roh Moo-hyun, accompanied by a 300-member entourage, heads North today for a three-day PR extravaganza with Comrade Kim, and who-knows-what goodies he will leave behind.

The last time a South Korean president made the pilgrimage to Pyongyang, in 2000, it later emerged that South Korea had paid $500 million for the honor.

All of this is a far cry from the nuclear disarmament model set by Libya’s Moammer Gadhafi in the wake of Saddam Hussein’s ouster in 2003. Libya abandoned its nuclear program up front, inviting U.S. investigators to see the hardware and haul it back to Tennessee; it was rewarded only after the disarmament was verified.

For North Korea, the U.S. is winking at evidence of further proliferation, while offering more diplomatic bribes–all in the cause of getting Pyongyang to repeat promises it has already failed to honor.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site

is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. 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.

Part Two of the Great Fantasy of the Ultimate Weapon!

October 2, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Please consult Part One in our previous Blog! The Israeli air strike against Russian made detection and destruction systems is a good example of the principle of the fantasy of the ultimate weapon, which will eventually end at the final great battle of Armageddon.

Revelation 16:16 – And he ga thered

them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

Joel 3:9-17 – Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: [10] Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. [11] Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord.

[12] Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. [13] Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. [14] Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. [15] The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.

[16] The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. [17] So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.

Isaiah 2:4 – And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against

nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Begin Jerusalem Post Article

US, Russia dominate arms sales to developing countries

Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST

October 1, 2007

The United States and Russia dominate the trade in arms sales to

developing countries, controlling over half of the global market between them, according to a report by US congressional researchers.

The report found that orders for arms by developing countries fell between 2005 and 2006 by 13 percent to $40.3 billion (€28.3 billion), according to an annual report by the Congressional Research Service, a part of

the Library of Congress.

But the researchers attributed the decline to efforts by the some countries to integrate into their arsenals new weapons systems purchased in massive deals in earlier years.

The major West European suppliers

, France, Britain, Germany and Italy, posted a significant decline in global market share from over 34% of sales to developing countries in 2005 to just over 19% in 2006. The report said that those Western European countries have been gradually losing market share, but shot up the tables for a few years due to a small number of large deals.

In 2006, the United States agreed to $10.3 billion (€7.24 billion) in sales to developing countries, over 35% of the market, followed by Russia, at $8.1 billion (€5.69 billion). During a four year period ending in 2006, the two countries were responsible for over 56% of all deals.

Military rivals Pakistan and India topped the list as buyers, followed by Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

More than 70% of all US deals in that period were with the Middle East, the report found.

Russia has maintained its Cold War commercial ties to India and China as the biggest supplier

of arms, while the United States continues to be Pakistan’s biggest supplier.

The report found that Russia has been trying to expand its client list, particularly to Southeast Asia and Latin America.

In 2006, Russia concluded billions of dollars in deals for tanks, fighter planes and other weapons with Venezuela, after abandoning the Latin market following the Cold War.

The report said that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has sought to displace US influence in the region, has made clear that he wants more deals with Russia, drawing concern from Washington.

“There is a concern that such purchases could stimulate other states in the region to seek comparable weapons systems as a counterweight to Chavez’s military buildup,” the report said.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner.

We are mak ing such material available

in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. 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.