Showing posts with label 2012. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Obviously, the Bengazi situation NEEDS clearing up. Susan Rice NEEDS to clarify "talking points".

2012_Benghazi_attack

Possible Poisoning

Al Qaeda weapons expert says U.S. ambassador to Libya killed by lethal injection.

BY: Bill Gertz

An al Qaeda terrorist stated in a recent online posting that U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens was killed by lethal injection after plans to kidnap him during the Sept. 11, 2012 terror attack in Benghazi went bad.

The veracity of the claim made by Abdallah Dhu-al-Bajadin, who was identified by U.S. officials as a known weapons experts for al Qaeda, could not be determined. However, U.S. officials have not dismissed the terrorist’s assertion.

An FBI spokeswoman indicated the bureau was aware of the claim but declined to comment because of the bureau’s ongoing investigation into the Benghazi attack.

“While there is a great deal of information in the media and on the Internet about the attack in Benghazi, the FBI is not in a position at this time to comment on anything specific with regard to the investigation,” Kathy Wright, the FBI spokeswoman, said.

A State Department spokesman also had no comment.

The FBI is investigating the death of Stevens, State Department information officer Sean Smith, and former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. They were killed in the attack U.S. officials say was carried out by an al Qaeda-linked group known as Ansar al Sharia.

A State Department Accountability Review Board report and an interim House Republican report on the attack gave no cause of death for Stevens, whose body was recovered by local Libyans in the early morning hours of Sept. 12.

The House report, “Interim Progress Report for the House Republican Conference,” said “Libyan doctors tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate Ambassador Stevens upon his arrival at the hospital.”

To date, no official cause of death for Stevens has been made public, although it was reported that a Libyan doctor who examined Stevens said he died from apparent smoke inhalation and related asphyxiation.

Video and photos of Stevens being handled by a mob in Benghazi were posted on the Internet. It is not clear from the images whether he was dead or alive at the time.

However, according to the March 14 posting on an al Qaeda-linked website, Abdallah Dhu-al-Bajadin, the al Qaeda weapons expert, stated that Stevens was given a lethal injection and that the injection was overlooked during the medical autopsy.

According to Dhu-al-Bajadin, “the plan was based on abduction and exchange of high-level prisoners.”

“However, the operation took another turn, for a reason God only knows, when one of the members of the jihadist cell improvised and followed Plan B,” he wrote on the prominent jihadist web forum Ansar al-Mujahideen Network.

Dhu-al-Bajadin’s claim of assassination also stated that it had been copied to the Ansar al-Mujahidin website from the closed and al Qaeda-accredited website Shumukh al-Islam. That site is only open to members and was initially posted by a member identified as Adnan Shukri for Dhu-al-Bajadin.

The reference to Shumukh al Islam has boosted the credibility of the claim among some U.S. intelligence analysts.

A western intelligence official said Dhu-al-Bajadin is a well-known jihadist weapons experts and a key figure behind a magazine called Al Qaeda Airlines.

According to this official, intelligence analysts believe that Dhu-al-Bajadin’s claim of assassination by lethal injection appears in part aimed at putting pressure on the U.S. government over its handling of the Benghazi attack.

The article did not say what substance was used in the lethal injection. It also stated that the State Department had come under criticism for not providing adequate security in Benghazi prior to the attack.

Dhu-al-Bajadin also said he had further details of the attack and the assassination but would not reveal them in the posting.

The Washington Free Beacon obtained a copy of the translation of Dhu-al-Bajadin’s posting in Arabic.

The article stated that use of lethal injection is done “more than one place in the human body that autopsy doctors ignore when they see that the symptoms are similar to another specific and common illness.”

“Anyone who studied the art of silent assassination that spies applied during the Cold War would easily identify these parts of the body,” he said.

Dhu-al-Bajadin also stated that he was discussing the assassination of Stevens’ death months later because “the cell” behind “the infiltrative and secret operation is now completely safe from intelligence bureaus.”

Source: http://freebeacon.com/possible-poisoning/

Ansar al-Sharia (Libya) (English: Partisans of Islamic Law) is an Islamist militia group advocating the implementation of strict Sharia law across Libya.

On September 11, 2012, the United States Department of State Operations Center advised the White House Situation Room and other U.S. security units that Ansar al-Sharia was claiming responsibility for the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi that had just occurred.^[13] Witnesses said they saw vehicles with the group's logo at the scene of the assault and that fighters there acknowledged at the time that they belonged to Ansar al-Sharia.^[10] Witnesses also said they saw Ahmed Abu Khattala, a commander of Ansar al-Sharia, leading the embassy attack, a claim Mr. Khattala denied.^[14] According tolongwarjournal.org, the group issued a statement asserting that it "didn't participate as a sole entity," and that the attack "was a spontaneous popular uprising" to an anti-Islam film.^[15]

On 21 September 2012, after massive anti-militia protests in Benghazi which largely blamed Ansar al-Sharia for the attack, hundreds of protesters stormed the militia headquarters, pulled down flags of the militia and torched a vehicle inside the base.^[16] Afterwards, crowds swelled to several thousand strong and breached into Ansar al-Sharia military base where militants retreated before the civilians got to the base and led a pro ansar sharia peaceful protest. Another compound was taken later that night. Elements of Libyan National Army and Libyan police came to the support of the civilians the rioters later took over control of the bases of different brigades such as Martyrs of 17 February and The first Libyan Shield.^[17]

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansar_al-Sharia_(Libya)

Susan Rice's Benghazi sacrifice pushes Obama confidante to greater heights

Secretary of state may have been the more prestigious job, but core of US foreign policy lies with the national security adviser

Susan Rice will replace US national security adviser Tom Donilon. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The redemption of Susan Rice, President Obama's next national security adviser, advances a recent institutional trend in US foreign policy: jobs that don't require Senate approval are often more powerful than the ones that do.

Rice, the close Obama confidante and United Nations ambassador, became congressional Republicans' scapegoat in the Benghazi affairafter she incorrectly told TV chat shows that the deadly September assault on the US consulate resulted from a protest over a YouTube video. Rice cautioned her statement that the facts were not fully known at the time of her appearances, but the damage was done. The resulting scandal prevented Rice from becoming Obama's second-term secretary of state.

It ended up benefiting her. Later on Wednesday, Obama will announce that Rice will replace national security adviser Tom Donilon. The job may not have been Rice's first choice, but it is the more powerful one.

At the White House, where the national security adviser works, Rice will command no budgets and run no agency. But she will be responsible for something more central to US foreign and national-security policies: co-ordinating the interaction between the various cabinet agencies to forge an unified agenda – and acting as the chief proxy on foreign policy for the president of the United States.

The national security adviser is not formally more powerful than every department in the US foreign policy apparatus. He or she cannot order troops into battle; cannot manage budgets that eclipse those of domestic agencies; cannot release malicious software that ends up damaging the sensitive equipment of foreign adversaries. But the national security adviser channels the wishes of the president at the meetings where such decisions are reached. In the Obama administration, like the Bush administration before it, the White House is the place where US foreign policy comes into existence.

The national security adviser also has a crucial advantage over his or her colleagues who run cabinet agencies and departments. The Senate has no influence over the appointment. He or she cannot be blocked from reaching the job, nor can presidential opponents in the Senate turn his or her confirmation hearings into high-profile forums to attack the administration, as occurred with defense secretary Chuck Hagel. Nor, absent truly exceptional circumstances, does the national security adviser have to testify to Congress about his or her performance on the job.

Perhaps most ironically for Rice's situation, the rise of the national security adviser has eclipsed the role of secretary of state. Over the years, the national security adviser, and even his or her staff, has increasingly played a large diplomatic role, a trend begun when Henry Kissinger occupied both national security adviser and secretary of state jobs simultaneously. Foreign leaders and their aides can wonder whether the secretary of state speaks with the president's voice: Colin Powell, for instance, was famously out of sync with the foreign policy of President George W Bush. No foreign capital has that worry about the national security adviser.

That's why it was Donilon, and not secretary of state John Kerry, who negotiated the upcoming California meeting of Obama and Chinese president Xi Jinping. It is also why former White House counter-terrorism chief John Brennan was Obama's chosen manager of the sensitive relationship with Yemen, increasingly a centerpiece of his shadow wars against al-Qaida. In Washington, as in foreign capitals, secretary of state is the more prestigious job, a vestige of an era when grand strategy began and was managed out of Foggy Bottom. But that era has largely passed: US foreign policy begins at the White House, and its most powerful implementer is the Defense Department, whose budget is an order of magnitude larger than the State Department's.

Speaking of Brennan, he was another example of the trend Rice continues. In 2008, Obama wanted to appoint Brennan, a close campaign aide, as his first CIA director. But liberal critics – including now-Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald – highlighted statements that Brennan made on television shows that seemed to excuse CIA torture. Brennan withdrew his nomination before the Senate could consider it and opposition could coalesce – and Obama instead appointed him to a broad portfolio in the White House designing, co-ordinating and managing intelligence, counter-terrorism and homeland-security policies. Brennan presided over the drone strikes that have come to define Obama's counter-terrorism efforts, even selecting targets to kill – an extraordinary power for a position unaccountable to the legislature.

This institutional shift in foreign policy and national security undermines the very reason why the constitution granted the Senate an "advise and consent" role over cabinet appointments. The idea, and long-standing American tradition, is to allow the people, through their elected legislative representatives, a measure of influence over the foreign policies conducted in their name – an area where the president's institutional powers are often at their apex. But entrenched partisan acrimony has convinced presidents of both parties that the easier course is to circumvent the Senate and vest power in their relatively unaccountable staffs.

AP source: Donilon resigns as security adviser

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Jun 5, 7:28 AM (ET)By JULIE PACE

(AP) U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice speaks at a news conference after the U.N. Security Council held...
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WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama's top national security adviser Tom Donilon is resigning and will be replaced by U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, marking a significant shakeup to the White House foreign policy team.

A White House official confirmed the personnel changes Wednesday morning ahead of a planned announcement by the president later in the day.

Donilon has been a key foreign policy adviser to Obama since he first took office. But the 58-year-old had been expected to depart sometime this year, with Rice seen as the likely candidate to replace him.

Rice, a close Obama confidante, came under withering criticism from Republicans as part of the investigations into the deadly attack on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya. Rice, relying on talking points from the intelligence community, said in television interviews that the attacks were likely spontaneous, which was later proven incorrect.

Obama considered nominating Rice as his second-term secretary of state, but she withdrew amid the GOP criticism, saying she didn't want her confirmation fight to be a distraction for the White House.

Her new post as national security adviser does not require Senate confirmation.

The White House official said Donilon is expected to stay on the job until early July, after Obama wraps up two overseas trips and a summit later this week with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The official insisted on anonymity in order to discuss the personnel changes before they were publicly announced.

Source: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20130605/DA6NI1LG0.html

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

James Holmes Pleas Insanity In Colorado Theater Massacre Trial

Judge accepts insanity plea in Colorado theater massacre trial

Published June 04, 2013

Associated Press

CENTENNIAL, Colo. – A judge on Tuesday accepted James' Holmes plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, setting the stage for a lengthy mental evaluation of the Colorado theater shooting suspect.

Holmes is accused of opening fire in a packed Denver-area movie theater last summer, killing 12 people and injuring 70. He is charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

The mental evaluation could take months.

Holmes' lawyers repeatedly have said he is mentally ill, but they delayed the insanity plea while arguing state laws were unconstitutional. They said the laws could hobble the defense if Holmes' case should ever reach the phase where the jury decides if he should be executed.

The judge rejected that argument last week.

Hundreds of people were watching a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" at the Aurora theater when the shooting occurred July 20.

The dead included a Navy veteran who threw himself in front of his friends to shield them, an aspiring sports journalist who had survived a mall shooting just two months earlier, and a 6-year-old girl.

Prosecutors say Holmes spent months buying weapons, ammunition and materials for explosives and scouted the theater in advance. He donned police-style body armor, tossed a gas canister into the seats and opened fire, they say.

The insanity plea is widely seen as Holmes' best chance of avoiding execution, and possibly his only chance, given the weight of the evidence against him.

But his lawyers delayed it for weeks, saying Colorado's laws on the insanity plea and the death penalty could work in combination to violate his constitutional rights.

The laws state that if Holmes does not cooperate with doctors conducting a mandatory mental evaluation, he would lose the right to call expert witnesses to testify about his sanity during the penalty phase of his trial. Defense lawyers argued that is an unconstitutional restriction on his right to build a defense. They also contended the law doesn't define cooperation.

Judge Carlos Samour Jr. rejected those arguments last week and said the laws are constitutional.

The next step is an evaluation of Holmes by state doctors to determine whether he was insane at the time of the shootings. That could take months.

Colorado law defines insanity as the inability to distinguish right from wrong caused by a diseased or defective mind.

If jurors find Holmes not guilty by reason of insanity, he would be committed indefinitely to the state mental hospital. He could eventually be released if doctors find his sanity has been restored, but that is considered unlikely.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Obituary. Born 1776. Died 2012.

FROM TIME-TO-TIME I RECEIVE SOME PRETTY INTERESTING EMAILS. THIS IS ONE THAT I THINK YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN READING. I CANNOT VOUCH FOR EVERY BIT OF THIS BEING THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH BECAUSE I HAVE NOT RESEARCHED THESE FACTOIDS. FEEL FREE TO RESEARCH THIS AND LET ME KNOW IF YOU FIND ANY OF THIS AS UNTRUE...

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In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior: "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship."

"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage."

The Obituary follows:

Born 1776, Died 2012
It doesn't hurt to read this several times.
Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law in

St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning

the last Presidential election:

Number of States won by: Obama: 19 Romney: 29
Square miles of land won by: Obama: 580,000 Romney: 2,427,000

Population of counties won by: Obama: 127 million Romney: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Obama: 13.2 Romney: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory

Romney won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens

of the country.

Obama territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in low

income tenements and living off various forms of government

welfare..."

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the

"complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of

democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population

already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase.

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million

criminal invaders called illegals - and they vote - then we can say

goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years.

If you are in favor of this, then by all means, delete this message.

If you are not, then pass this along to help everyone realize just how

much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our

freedom..

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Mayan Friday, December 21, 2012...Is It The End? What Do You Think?

my theory...

their ideas..............................................................................................................................

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Mysticism, Internet fuel Maya 'Armageddon' fears

A view to the end: Tourists climb the Maya pyramid of Nohoch Mul at the archaeological site of Coba. IMAGE

1 day ago By Gabriel Stargardter of Reuters

Mass hysteria in a Russian prison, a Chinese man building survival pods for doomsday and UFO lovers seeking refuge with aliens in a French mountain village are just some of the reports that have sprung up in the final countdown to December 21.

CHICHEN ITZA, Mexico – A few words by an American scholar, a crumbling Mexican monument and the love of a good yarn were all it took to spawn the belief that the world could end on Friday.

December 21 marks the end of an age in a 5,125 year-old Mayan calendar, an event that is variously interpreted as the end of days, the start of a new era or just a good excuse for a party.

Thousands of New Age mystics, spiritual adventurers and canny businessmen are converging on ancient ruins in southern Mexico and Guatemala to find out what will happen.

"No one knows what it will look like on the other side," said Michael DiMartino, 46, a long-haired American who is organizing one of the biggest December 21 celebrations at the Maya temple site of Chichen Itza on the Yucatan peninsula.

It is not the world but "the way we perceive it" that will end, said DiMartino, who pledged his event at ground zero for 2012 acolytes will be a "distilling down of various perspectives into a unified intention for positive transformation, evolution and co-creation of a new way of being."

A mash-up of academic speculation and existential angst seasoned with elements from several world religions, the 2012 phenomenon has been fueled by Hollywood movies and computer games, and relentlessly disseminated by Internet doom-mongers.

Robert Bast, a New Zealander living in Melbourne who wrote a book called "Survive 2012" on how to cope with the possible catastrophe, believes the Maya may have sent out a warning.

"The most likely thing for me is a solar storm, but that's not going to kill you straight away. It's more of a long term disaster," said Bast, 47, noting a flu pandemic could also strike the planet. "I feel the world isn't as safe as we think it is. The last couple of generations have had it very cozy."

When dawn breaks on Friday, according to the Maya Long Count calendar, it marks the end of the 13th bak'tun – an epoch lasting some 400 years – and the beginning of the 14th.

This fact would probably have languished in academic obscurity had not a young Maya expert named Michael Coe written in the 1960s that to the ancient Mesoamerican culture the date could herald an "Armageddon" to cleanse humanity.

Since then, the cult of 2012 has snowballed.

Among the sun-bleached pyramids, shaded mangroves and deep cenotes of the Maya heartland, there are hopes December 21 will bring a spiritual re-birth.

Nobody seems quite sure what to expect on Friday, but this has not stopped people getting their hopes up.

"This is the Arab Spring of the spiritual movement," said Geoffrey Ocean Dreyer, a 52-year-old U.S. musician wearing a sombrero and Mardi Gras beads. "We're going to create world peace. We're going to Jerusalem and we're going to rebuild Solomon's temple."

ANXIETY ATTACKS

The words of Coe, a highly respected Maya scholar, were published in 1966 at the height of the Cold War, stirring fears in a world haunted by the prospect of nuclear holocaust.

Coe could not be reached for comment for this article, but friends and academics who know him insist he never meant to inspire a vision of apocalypse when he committed them to paper.

Stephen Houston, a Maya expert at Brown University in Rhode Island and student of Coe's, said too much has been read into the end of the 13th bak'tun, which was little more than a "dull mathematical declaration" used to bracket dates.

"I see it all as an expression of present day anxiety and not much more than that," Houston said.

Few remaining inscriptions refer to the event, and the best known one is part of a monument recovered from a Maya site in Tabasco state called Tortuguero – much of which was torn down in the 1960s to make way for the construction of a cement factory.

Still, the mix of religion, ancient inscriptions and media-driven speculation about impending doom remains potent.

"I got an email the other day from a mother who was contemplating taking her own life, because she didn't know what was really going to happen, she didn't want her children to live through this ordeal," said David Stuart, a Maya expert at the University of Texas. "We can dismiss it as a kooky idea, which it is, but they're still ideas and they still have power."

U.S. space agency NASA has sought to allay fears of impending catastrophe, noting that "our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012."

Nothing has given the 2012 theories more oxygen in the run-up to the big day than the Internet, noted John Hoopes, a Maya anthropologist at the University of Kansas.

"Computers come straight out of the same people who were smoking pot and protesting at Berkeley and Stanford," he said, referring to U.S. student movements in the 1960s.

"This Maya calendar stuff has been part of hacktivism lore for 40 years, since the beginning, and with every significant change in computer technology, it's gotten another boost."

Many of those gathering in Chichen Itza praised the Internet as a discussion forum and organizing tool for New Age events.

"We don't need leaders now we have the Internet," said Muggy Burton, 66, who had traveled to Mexico from Canada with her 15-year-old, blue-haired granddaughter, Talis Hardy.

The two, who communicate with each other by whistling, plan to live in Mexico for six months, according to Burton, who is going to homeschool Hardy. "It's the end of the world for her, and the beginning of a new one," she added.

MAYA SKEPTICS

Mexico's federal government is not officially marking the phenomenon, but the country's tourism agency has launched a "Mundo Maya 2012" website with a countdown to December 21.

Up to 200,000 people are expected to descend on Chichen Itza alone for the night of December 20.

Among modern descendants of the Maya, the idea it could all come to an end on Friday generally raises a wry smile. But they are happy to play along if it makes money.

"It's a psychic epidemic," said Miguel Coral, 56, a cigar salesman in Merida, a colonial town and capital of Yucatan state. "It's all about business, but that's fine. It helps our country. I think it's excellent we've exported this idea."

Nearby, workers built a pyramid of spray-painted polystyrene blocks for the opening of the town's Maya festival.

"If people who believe in this joke want to come, let them," said Jose May, a Merida tourism official of Maya descent. "Nobody here believes that. Those people were sold an idea."

Hazy rumors have helped feed the sense of anticipation.

A few hours' drive south of Merida in the remote Maya town of Xul, which means "the end," media reports began circulating as early as 2008 that a group of Italians were readying themselves for impending doom by building apocalypse-proof bunkers.

Today, the settlement dubbed the "end of the world resort" is open for business as "Eco Spa Las Aguilas."

"There's no truth in it," said deputy manager Andrea Podesta, 45, referring to speculation it was a cult.

"Some people came here, took some hidden photos, and published some very unpleasant articles about us," he added, noting the glistening new spa was booked up well into 2013.

Inside, a group of elderly Italians, mostly dressed in white, were watching the path of an asteroid on a giant screen. A black-and-white image of Christ's face hung from the wall and a large stone statue of a robed woman greeted visitors.

Whatever lies in store for the planet, even Maya academics who have fought to play down the hype surrounding the passing of another 24 hours feel there could still be some surprises.

"I think there may be some mischief on December 21 because the whole world is watching," said Hoopes in Kansas, citing rumors hacktivist group Anonymous was planning a stunt. "It's a very fertile opportunity for a tremendous prank."

Source: http://news.msn.com/pop-culture/mysticism-internet-fuel-maya-armageddon-fears?ocid=ansnews11

Mayan apocalypse mania grips Russia

Officials try to calm fears as Russians buy up emergency supplies before the Mayan calendar runs out on Friday

Miriam Elder in Moscow

guardian.co.uk, Monday 17 December 2012 09.40 EST

The Chechen president, Ramzan Kadyrov, told people via his website that it was useless to buy candles before the Mayan apocalypse. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The apocalypse is surely near when Ramzan Kadyrov emerges as the voice of reason.

The ruthless leader of Chechnya is among dozens of Russians officials, priests, doctors and psychiatrists aiming to calm an anxious populace frantically preparing for the end of the world later this week.

"People are buying candles saying the end of the world is coming," Kadyrov said in comments published on his official website last week. "Does no one realise that once the end of the world comes, candles won't help them?"

For more than a month, Russians around the country have been buying up candles and matches, salt and torches in an effort to outsmart the apocalypse some believe will come when the Mayan calendar runs out on Friday.

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Mayan apocalypse? Doomsday? Asteroid? How the world will end

By John Brandon

Published December 17, 2012

FoxNews.com

Wondering what could cause the Mayan Apocalypse? Just look up at the stars.

For years, conspiracy theorists, numerologists, and armchair prophets have predicted the end of the world will take place on December 21, 2012. They point to several apocalyptic events: a long-period comet hurtling toward Earth, or a massive solar storm that causes complete power grid failure.

And they take the stories seriously. Rob Skelton, who runs Survive2012.com and has studied a possible Mayan doomsday event for 15 years, says there is a reason to be concerned. For the long-period comet, he admits we would normally have spotted one by now -- unless it had gone dark and lost its reflective ice. For the solar storms, he says the Mayans could have found a pattern in low-latitude auroras and predicted a coming disaster.

“Both are only predictable via periods of observation longer than the modern scientific era,” he told FoxNews.com. “All I’ve done is find a reason why it could happen this December.”

According to Skelton, a solar storm could wreak havoc in the U.S., knocking out the power grid for months. The U.S. relies on the grid to keep nuclear power plants safe, run factories, and communicate between fire and police forces. Without this key infrastructure, there will be mass pandemonium and destruction, he said.

But will these events happen on December 21? That’s extremely unlikely, says one NASA scientist.

“This is purely an Internet phenomena,” said David Morrison, an astrobiologist at NASA. Comets that cause destruction on Earth are extremely rare – they could happen once every 500 million years.

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'There are no objects out there that will impact the Earth.'

- David Morrison, an astrobiologist at NASA

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Mysterious objects have been known to strike planets in the past. In 1994, a series of comets struck Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. Most scientists agree that solar storms are relatively common events and can cause electrical disruptions. And comets do tend to be harder to track in our solar system until they pass by the sun. But nothing like that is imminent, Morrison said.

“There are no objects out there that will impact the Earth,” he told FoxNews.com.

As for the massive solar storms, Morrison says they do happen. “The power does go out, and that’s not a nice thing and it means people are not happy. But that doesn’t kill millions.” In most cases, even with a major outage, it can take weeks at most, not month, to regain power, he said.

“Solar storms are relatively common events,” agreed Chris De Pree, a professor at Agnes Scott College and author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Astronomy. “Other than disrupting communications and putting on a great boreal light show, the long term effects would probably not be great.”

NASA operates the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) to track comets and asteroids, and also runs the Spaceguard Survey, a ten-year project intended to track near-Earth objects in our solar system. There are no hidden secrets, De Pree said: NASA publishes the report online

About those comets? Morrison says comets are well-known to have dark surfaces. NASA still tracks them, as well as asteroids – which are “dark as a lump of coal.”

Morrison is most skeptical about the Mayan predictions. “There is nothing special about that date,” he said. “The Mayans never predicted anything will happen. There are thousands of people who run Web sites and make YouTube videos about catastrophes who are not scientists.”

He says the Mayan calendar works a bit like our own calendar: When you reach the end, you flip over a page and start a new calendar. What will the doomsday predictors turn to next? That’s hard to say, but history has shown that there will be yet another catastrophic event to worry about.

“Claims about the end of the world are a time-honored way to sell things,” De Pree said.

China Arrests 500 Over Mayan Apocalypse Rumors

DOOMSDAY SCENARIO CITED AS MOTIVE FOR SCHOOL STABBING SUSPECT

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 17, 2012 9:21 AM CST

(NEWSER) – In the US, we mostly laugh off the Mayan-predicted apocalypse that will probably eradicate us all in a few days. But in China, it's serious business. Authorities there have now arrested more than 500 members of the banned Christian "Almighty God" cult for allegedly spreading doomsday prophesies, the AP reports. Police also seized leaflets, DVDs, books, and other materials warning of the impending apocalypse. The cult believes that the "sun will not shine and electricity will not work for three days beginning on December 21," the state-runXinhua news service reported.

Then again, perhaps China has good reason to try to clamp down on the rumors; according to another report, such prophesies were a motivating factor in the knife attack on 23 children at an elementary school on Friday. The suspected slasher, identified as Min Yongjun, "had been strongly psychologically affected by rumors of the upcoming end of the world," Xinhua reported. If you are similarly being psychologically affected, we urge you to calm down and read this or this.

How the world's Mayan apocalypse believers are waiting for the end

Around the world, believers are preparing for Doomsday this Friday - and restaurants are offering 'End of the World' specials.

Around the world, believers are preparing for Doomsday this Friday - with a senior Chechen politician saying, "Candles won't help you," to a panicky populace.

In China, dozens of believers have been arrested, and DVDs of 'apocalyptic propanda' seized.

Hotels near a Serbian mountain have seen hundreds of booking requests from believers who think a buried UFO might save them from doom on Friday.

In America, 'doomsday preppers' have fled to underground shelters - while TGI Friday is offering a 'Rib Eye to End All Rib-Eyes' as part of a special 'End of the World' menu.

In Britain, of course, most people have kept calm - with the AA advising motorists to allow extra time for their journeys as the end of the world approaches.

Here's how countries around the world have prepared for 'the end'.

China
The ‘Mayan apocalypse’ poses a serious danger in China – where 100 believers have been arrested for spreading rumours about the ‘end’ this Friday.

The state-run Xinhua News Agency said police arrested 101 believers and confiscated leaflets, DVDs and other apocalyptic propaganda in eight provinces across the country.

Nearly half of those detained are reported to be members of the group Almighty God, which is also called Eastern Lightning.

The group preaches that Jesus has reappeared as a woman in central China and has been accused of kidnapping and beating Christians to force conversions.

Russia
In Russia, fears over the 'Mayan apocalypse' prompted government minister Vladimir Puchkov to issue a statement saying that he had used "methods of monitoring planet Earth" to determine that the planet was not at risk.

Other politicians have been less reassuring.

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said on his website, ""People are buying candles saying the end of the world is coming. Does no one realise that once the end of the world comes, candles won't help them?"

In the northern town of Chelyabinsk, believers have built a Mayan archway out of ice.

Other towns reported panic buying of essential supplies. The mining town of Novokuznetsk saw 60 tonnes of salt bought in one week as believers laid in supplies.

Serbia
Hundreds of doomsday believers have flocked to a 'mystical' mountain in Serbia where an alien pyramid supposedly lies buried.

Mount Rtanj, in the Carpathians, supposedly contains alien relics with a special power that will preserve people on Doomsday.

Local hotels have seen hundreds of booking requests.

"In one day we had 500 people trying to book rooms. People want to bring their whole families," hotel manager Obrad Blecic told The Telegraph.

France
The village of Bugarach, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, has become a focus for Doomsday believers - some of whom think the village will be the only part of Earth to survive.

Believers think that UFOs will rescue people from the impending apocalypse.

The local mayor has said that 100 gendarmes will seal the town from 19-23 December to keep out Doomsday cultists.

Mayor Jean-Pierre Lord said,"My message is very simple. I am telling people don't come here to Bugarach for a simple reason there will be nothing to see here. So I insist don't come here - there will mainly be the police here," he said.

Britain
Britons have largely 'kept calm and carried on' - although some 'Doomsday preppers' are ready for the worst.

British sci fi author Edward O'Toole is so convinced disaster is inevitable that he has already moved to Slovakia to prepare for the end.

He says, “I think there will be a new Dark Age and I want my children to have a good chance of survival.”

Other organisations have kept a stiff upper lip.

The London Fire Brigade spokesman advised: "Fit a smoke alarm on each level of your home, then at least you might stand a chance of knowing that the end of the world is nigh ahead of those who don't.

"If you survive the apocalypse you'll be alerted to a fire more quickly should one ever break out."

The AA said: "Before heading off, take time to do the basic checks on your car and allow extra time for your journey.”

Mexico
Ethnic Mayans themselves are largely uninterested in the so-called ‘prophecy’.

The 800,000 Mayans who live in Mexico’s Yucatan area have been immune to the hysteria – but it has inspired some Mayans to take an interest in traditional beliefs.

“The Western belief in the end date ‘long count calendar’ has inspired a resurgence in interest in the Mayans’ own traditional beliefs in Mexico and Guatemala,” said Andrew Wilson, a University of Derby academic who studied the phenomenon.

Self-styled ‘Mayan Elder’ Hunbatz Men has written extensively about the calendar, and about how the Mayans had eight separate calendars – many extending far beyond the so-called ‘end date.’

Men, and other Mayans, do not predict the world will end on December 21.

America

The American government released a statement reassuring its citizens, saying "The Maya celebrated the end of every calendar cycle, they did not consider them as predictions of a global catastrophe."

'Doomsday preppers' in America are ready for apocalypse - but hotels and restaurant chains are also prepared.

T.G.I Friday's has an 'end of the world' special called "Last Friday" in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, Tampa and Washington D.C.

The "End-of-the-World" Menu offers a Mayan Margarita, the Last First Bite appetizer, the Rib-Eye to End All Rib-Eyes entree and Final Countdown dessert.

NASA has an entire website devoted to debunking the so-called 'Mayan Apocalypse' - particularly claims that a 'rogue planet' wil collide with Earth.

The space agency claims that scientists would have been tracking any such object for at least a decade, saying, “The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth.

source: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/mayan-apocalypse-2012--how-the-world-s-believers-are-preparing-for-the-end-135520325.html