To uphold Second Amendment rights and prevent the United States from entering into the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty.
The U.N. Small Arms Treaty, which has been championed by the Obama Administration, would have effectively placed a global ban on the import and export of small firearms. The ban would have affected all private gun owners in the U.S., and had language that would have implemented an international gun registry on all private guns and ammo.
Astonishingly, 46 of our United States Senators were willing to give away our Constitutional rights to a foreign power.
Here are the 46 senators that voted to give your rights to the U.N.
Less than 24 hours after President Obama’s reelection, it looks like he may be making good on his promise to curb gun rights. According to Reuters, President Obama has backed the U.N.’s attempts to reopen the UN arms treaty talks which would control and regulate the sale of firearms at an international level.
The month-long talks at U.N. headquarters broke off last July after the Obama administration, in what now looks like was only done for political reelection purposes, decided to pull out of the draft treaty. But only hours after his reelection, the Obama administration signaled that they would be rejoining talks and threw their support behind the gun control measure.
The U.N. Small Arms Treaty would effectively place a global ban on the import and export of small firearms. This ban could affect all private gun owners and as we pointed out earlier in the years, right before talks were suspended, theproposed bill had language that would implement an international gun registry of all guns and ammo.
The new United Nations Arms Trade Treaty will be considered for finalization in March 2013, and just like wepointed out yesterday, more gun control measures are likely right around the corner. The timing of this announcement, a mere 12 hours after the results, should raise red flags for anyone who is concerned about gun rights over the next four years. In my opinion, this decision to reengage with the United Nation leaves little doubt that gun rights will come under attack over the next four years.
Not just Infowars.com, but many a political researcher and pundit took notice that Ron Paul’s farewell address to Congress was a historic and very important speech spelling out that our country is becoming a corrupt empire and that we’re becoming a tyranny of tyrannies.
The New York Times, LA Times, Fox News and many others all heeded his farewell address, something that doesn’t normally happen with a Congressman, as he eloquently laid out the fork in the road America has come to: liberty or tyranny.
I asked one of my great reporters and video editors, Jon Bowne, to just back everything Congressman Paul said up, but when we talk about something, we like to show news articles or video clips because so many are skeptical and in denial about the ravaged state of our liberties.
Originally we intended the piece to be just something for the Infowars Nightly News, but it quickly snowballed into a three week project as we did more and more research backing up everything he said.
So now this is essentially Ron Paul’s Farewell 2.0. It’s a film because his farewell address was about his life and about where this country is going and the choice we have. So it really is Ron Paul: The Film.
We struggled with the name for it: “Ron Paul’s Farewell Address Documented,” “Ron Paul’s Farewell Address Animated,” “Ron Paul’s Farewell Address Illustrated and Documented,” call it what you will.
We give you “Ron Paul: The Film,” because he condensed down his thirty plus years of fighting tyranny into this incredibly important and profound warning that if we don’t turn things around, we are in deep, deep trouble and are going to repeat history.
There is something very unsettling about the new 2012 Olympic mascot. If you are looking for yet another sign of the coming changes in 2012, I encourage you to read on.
The All-Seeing Eye, also known as the widget eye or 'Eye of Horus' comes from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. The Egyptians saw this symbol as a representation of their God, which they believed will bring about “Ordo ab Chao” or “Order out of Chaos”. The Freemasons later adopted this single eye symbol as did their extreme group of elitist counterparts know as The Secret Order of the Illuminati. It is a prevalent part of their artwork and architecture throughout the world, and a conscious reminder of their ultimate goals.
The Secret Order of the Illuminati is also and anti-religious organization which believes that our very existence revolves around a great architect of the universe. They believe this perceived God uses a carefully orchestrated system of precise weights, measurements and geometry to define balance, continuing life and ultimate power. The ancient Egyptians as well as the ancient Mayans also shared this belief as represented by their extraordinary ability to so accurately build their pyramids in harmony with the universe. As a result, the Illuminati also adopted the symbolism of the pyramid and use it as a form of initiation into their exclusive organization.
By CHRISTOPHER CHESTER and MARIA SANMINIATELLI 09/26/12
NEW YORK — After an hour of fielding questions about Syria, sanctions and nuclear weapons, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had enough. Now, he said, it was his turn to choose the topic – his "new order" which will inevitably replace the current era of what he called U.S. bullying.
Continuing his hectic pace of media appearances and diplomatic meetings, Ahmadinejad presented an air of boredom when it came to the hot topic on everyone's mind – Iran's nuclear program and the possibility of impending war. Whether it was feigned or sincere, he said he would much rather be talking about his vision of what the next world order might be.
Conveniently, it would be an order in which the U.S. and the traditional powers play a smaller role and every country has equal standing (though the state of Israel, he often predicts, will soon become a historical footnote).
"God willing, a new order will come and will do away with ... everything that distances us," Ahmadinejad told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday, speaking through a translator. "All of the animosity, all of the lack of sincerity will come to an end. It will institute fairness and justice."
He said the world was losing patience with the current state of affairs.
"Now even elementary school kids throughout the world have understood that the United States government is following an international policy of bullying," he said. "I do believe the system of empires has reached the end of the road. The world can no longer see an emperor commanding it."
The interview was held on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly – Ahmadinejad's last as president of Iran. He was to address the assembly Wednesday morning.
He also discussed solutions for the Syrian civil war, dismissed the question of Iran's nuclear ambition and claimed that despite Western sanctions his country is better off than it was when he took office in 2005.
Earlier Tuesday, President Barack Obama warned Iran that time is running out to resolve the dispute over its nuclear program. In a speech to the General Assembly, Obama said the United States could not tolerate an Iran with atomic weapons.
(Yael Chanoff) People who get their information exclusively from mainstream media sources may be surprised at the lack of enthusiasm on the left for President Barack Obama in this crucial election. But that’s probably because they weren’t exposed to the full online furor sparked by Obama’s continuation of his predecessor’s overreaching approach to national security, such as signing the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, which allows the indefinite detention of those accused of supporting terrorism, even U.S. citizens.
We’ll never know how this year’s election would be different if the corporate media adequately covered the NDAA’s indefinite detention clause and many other recent attacks on civil liberties. What we can do is spread the word and support independent media sources that do cover these stories. That’s where Project Censored comes in.
Project Censored has been documenting inadequate media coverage of crucial stories since it began in 1967 at Sonoma State University. Each year, the group considers hundreds of news stories submitted by readers, evaluating their merits. Students search Lexis Nexis and other databases to see if the stories were underreported, and if so, the stories are fact-checked by professors and experts in relevant fields.
A panel of academics and journalists chooses the Top 25 stories and rates their significance. The project maintains a vast online database of underreported news stories that it has “validated” and publishes them in an annual book. Censored 2013: Dispatches from the Media Revolution will be released Oct. 30.
For the second year in row, Project Censored has grouped the Top 25 list into topical “clusters.” This year, categories include “Human cost of war and violence” and “Environment and health.” Project Censored Director Mickey Huff told us the idea was to show how various undercovered stories fit together into an alternative narrative, not to say that one story was more censored than another.
In May, while Project Censored was working on the list, another 2012 list was issued: the Fortune 500 list of the biggest corporations, whose influence peppers the Project Censored list in a variety of ways.
Consider this year’s top Fortune 500 company: ExxonMobil. The oil company pollutes everywhere it goes, yet most stories about its environmental devastation go underreported. Weapons manufacturers Lockheed Martin (58 on the Fortune list), General Dynamics (92), and Raytheon (117) are tied into stories about U.S. prisoners in slavery conditions manufacturing parts for their weapons and the underreported war crimes in Afghanistan and Libya.
These powerful corporations work together more than most people think. In the chapter exploring the “global 1 percent,” writers Peter Philips and Kimberly Soeiro explain how a small number of well-connected people control the majority of the world’s wealth. In it, they use Censored story number 6, “Small network of corporations run the global economy,” to describe how a network of transnational corporations are deeply interconnected, with 147 of them controlling 40 percent of the global economy’s total wealth.
For example, Philips and Soeiro write that in one such company, BlackRock Inc., “The 18 members of the board of directors are connected to a significant part of the world’s core financial assets. Their decisions can change empires, destroy currencies and impoverish millions.”
Another cluster of stories, “Women and Gender, Race and Ethnicity,” notes a pattern of underreporting stories that affect a range of marginalized groups. This broad category includes only three articles, and none are listed in the top 10. The stories reveal mistreatment of Palestinian women in Israeli prisons, including being denied medical care and shackled during childbirth, and the rape and sexual assault of women soldiers in the U.S. military. The third story in the category concerns an Alabama anti-immigration bill, H.B. 56, that caused immigrants to flee Alabama in such numbers that farmers felt a dire need to “help farms fill the gap and find sufficient labor.” So the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries approached the state’s Department of Corrections about making a deal where prisoners would replace the fleeing farm workers.
But with revolutionary unrest around the world, and the rise of a mass movement that connects disparate issues together into a simple, powerful class analysis — the 99 percent versus the 1 percent paradigm popularized by Occupy Wall Street — this year’s Project Censored offers an element of hope.
It’s not easy to succeed at projects that resist corporate dominance, and when it does happen, the corporate media is sometimes reluctant to cover it. Number seven on the Top 25 list is the story of how the United Nations designated 2012 the International Year of the Cooperative, recognizing the rapid growth of co-op businesses, organizations that are part-owned by all members and whose revenue is shared equitably among members. One billion people worldwide now work in co-ops.
The Year of the Cooperative is not the only good-news story discussed by Project Censored this year. In Chapter 4, Yes! Magazine’s Sarah Van Gelder lists “12 ways the Occupy movement and other major trends have offered a foundation for a transformative future.” They include a renewed sense of “political self-respect” and fervor to organize in the United States, debunking of economic myths such as the “American dream,” and the blossoming of economic alternatives such as community land trusts, time banking and micro-energy installations.
As Dr. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed writes in the book’s foreword, “The majority of people now hold views about Western governments and the nature of power that would have made them social pariahs 10 or 20 years ago.”
Citing polls from the corporate media, Mosaddeq writes: “The majority are now skeptical of the Iraq War; the majority want an end to U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan; the majority resent the banks and financial sector, and blame them for the financial crisis; most people are now aware of environmental issues, more than ever before, and despite denialist confusion promulgated by fossil fuel industries, the majority in the United States and Britain are deeply concerned about global warming; most people are wary of conventional party politics and disillusioned with the mainstream parliamentary system.”
“In other words,” he writes, “there has been a massive popular shift in public opinion toward a progressive critique of the current political economic system.”
And ultimately, it’s the public — not the president and not the corporations—that will determine the future. There may be hope after all. Here’s Project Censored’s Top 10 list for 2013:
1. Signs of an emerging police state
President George W. Bush is remembered largely for his role in curbing civil liberties in the name of his “war on terror.” But it’s President Obama who signed the 2012 NDAA, including its clause allowing for indefinite detention without trial for terrorism suspects. Obama promised that “my administration will interpret them to avoid the constitutional conflict” — leaving us adrift if and when the next administration chooses to interpret them otherwise. Another law of concern is the National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order that Obama issued in March 2012. That order authorizes the president, “in the event of a potential threat to the security of the United States, to take actions necessary to ensure the availability of adequate resources and production capability, including services and critical technology, for national defense requirements.” The president is to be advised on this course of action by “the National Security Council and Homeland Security Council, in conjunction with the National Economic Council.” Journalist Chris Hedges, along with co-plaintiffs including Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg, won a case challenging the NDAA’s indefinite detention clause on Sept. 1, when a federal judge blocked its enforcement, but her ruling was overturned on Oct. 3, so the clause is back.
2. Oceans in peril
Big banks aren’t the only entities that our country has deemed “too big to fail.” But our oceans won’t be getting a bailout anytime soon, and their collapse could compromise life itself. In a haunting article highlighted by Project Censored, Mother Jones reporter Julia Whitty paints a tenuous seascape — overfished, acidified, warming — and describes how the destruction of the ocean’s complex ecosystems jeopardizes the entire planet, not just the 70 percent that is water. Whitty compares ocean acidification, caused by global warming, to acidification that was one of the causes of the “Great Dying,” a mass extinction 252 million years ago. Life on Earth took 30 million years to recover. In a more hopeful story, a study of 14 protected and 18 non-protected ecosystems in the Mediterranean Sea showed dangerous levels of biomass depletion. But it also showed that the marine reserves were well-enforced, with five to 10 times larger fish populations than in unprotected areas. This encourages establishment and maintenance of more reserves.
3. U.S. deaths from Fukushima
A plume of toxic fallout floated to the U.S. after Japan’s tragic Fukushima nuclear disaster on March 11, 2011. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found radiation levels in air, water and milk that were hundreds of times higher than normal across the United States. One month later, the EPA announced that radiation levels had declined, and they would cease testing. But after making a Freedom of Information Act request, journalist Lucas Hixson published emails revealing that on March 24, 2011, the task of collecting nuclear data had been handed off from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to the Nuclear Energy Institute, a nuclear industry lobbying group. And in one study that got little attention, scientists Joseph Mangano and Jeanette Sherman found that in the period following the Fukushima meltdowns, 14,000 more deaths than average were reported in the U.S., mostly among infants. Later, Mangono and Sherman updated the number to 22,000.
4. FBI agents responsible for terrorist plots
We know that FBI agents go into communities such as mosques, both undercover and in the guise of building relationships, quietly gathering information about individuals. This is part of an approach to finding what the FBI now considers the most likely kind of terrorists, “lone wolves.” Its strategy: “seeking to identify those disgruntled few who might participate in a plot given the means and the opportunity. And then, in case after case, the government provides the plot, the means, and the opportunity,” writes Mother Jones journalist Trevor Aaronsen. The publication, along with the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California-Berkeley, examined the results of this strategy, 508 cases classified as terrorism-related that have come before the U.S. Department of Justice since the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001. In 243 of these cases, an informant was involved; in 49 cases, an informant actually led the plot. And “with three exceptions, all of the high-profile domestic terror plots of the last decade were actually FBI stings.”
5. Federal Reserve loaned trillions to major banks
The Federal Reserve, the U.S.’s quasi-private central bank, was audited for the first time in its history this year. The audit report states, “From late 2007 through mid-2010, Reserve Banks provided more than a trillion dollars … in emergency loans to the financial sector to address strains in credit markets and to avert failures of individual institutions believed to be a threat to the stability of the financial system.” These loans had significantly less interest and fewer conditions than the high-profile TARP bailouts, and were rife with conflicts of interest. Some examples: the CEO of JP Morgan Chase served as a board member of the New York Federal Reserve at the same time that his bank received more than $390 billion in financial assistance from the Fed. William Dudley, who is now the New York Federal Reserve president, was granted a conflict of interest waiver to let him keep investments in AIG and General Electric at the same time the companies were given bailout funds. The audit was restricted to Federal Reserve lending during the financial crisis. On July 25, 2012, a bill to audit the Fed again, with fewer limitations, authored by Rep. Ron Paul, passed the House of Representatives. H.R. 459 was expected to die in the Senate, but the movement behind Paul and his calls to hold the Fed accountable, or abolish it altogether, seem to be growing.
6. Small network of corporations run the global economy
Reporting on a study by researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute in Zurich didn’t make the rounds nearly enough, according to Censored 2013. They found that, of 43,060 transnational companies, 147 control 40 percent of total global wealth. The researchers also built a model visually demonstrating how the connections between companies — what it calls the “super entity” — works. Some have criticized the study, saying control of assets doesn’t equate to ownership. True, but as we clearly saw in the 2008 financial collapse, corporations are capable of mismanaging assets in their control to the detriment of their actual owners. And a largely unregulated super entity like this is vulnerable to global collapse.
7. The International Year of Cooperative
Can something really be censored when it’s straight from the United Nations? According to Project Censored evaluators, the corporate media underreported the U.N. declaring 2012 to be the International Year of the Cooperative, based on the co-op business model’s stunning growth. The U.N. found that, in 2012, 1 billion people worldwide are co-op member-owners, or one in five adults over age 15. The largest is Spain’s Mondragon Corporation, with more than 80,000 member-owners. The U.N. predicts that by 2025, worker-owned co-ops will be the world’s fastest growing business model. Worker-owned cooperatives provide for equitable distribution of wealth, genuine connection to the workplace, and, just maybe, a brighter future for our planet.
8. NATO war crimes in Libya
In January 2012, the BBC “revealed” how British Special Forces agents joined and “blended in” with rebels in Libya to help topple dictator Muammar Gadaffi, a story that alternative media sources had reported a year earlier. NATO admits to bombing a pipe factory in the Libyan city of Brega that was key to the water supply system that brought tap water to 70 percent of Libyans, saying that Gadaffi was storing weapons in the factory. In Censored 2013, writer James F. Tracy makes the point that historical relations between the U.S. and Libya were left out of mainstream news coverage of the NATO campaign; “background knowledge and historical context confirming Al-Qaeda and Western involvement in the destabilization of the Gadaffi regime are also essential for making sense of corporate news narratives depicting the Libyan operation as a popular ‘uprising.’”
9. Prison slavery in the U.S.
On its website, the UNICOR manufacturing corporation proudly proclaims that its products are “made in America.” That’s true, but they’re made in places in the U.S. where labor laws don’t apply, with workers often paid just 23 cents an hour to be exposed to toxic materials with no legal recourse. These places are U.S. prisons. Slavery conditions in prisons aren’t exactly news. It’s literally written into the Constitution; the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, outlaws “slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” But the articles highlighted by Project Censored this year reveal the current state of prison slavery industries, and its ties to war. The majority of products manufactured by inmates are contracted to the Department of Defense. Inmates make complex parts for missile systems, battleship anti-aircraft guns and landmine sweepers, as well as night-vision goggles, body army and camouflage uniforms. Of course, this is happening in the context of record high imprisonment in the U.S., where grossly disproportionate numbers of African Americans and Latinos are imprisoned, and can’t vote even after they’re freed. As psychologist Elliot D. Cohen puts it in this year’s book: “This system of slavery, like that which existed in this country before the Civil War, is also racist, as more than 60 percent of U.S. prisoners are people of color.”
10. H.R. 347 criminalizes protest
H.R. 347, sometimes called the “criminalizing protest” or “anti-Occupy” bill, made some headlines. But concerned lawyers and other citizens worry that it could have disastrous effects for the First Amendment right to protest. Officially called the Federal Restricted Grounds Improvement Act, the law makes it a felony to “knowingly” enter a zone restricted under the law, or engage in “disorderly or disruptive” conduct in or near the zones. The restricted zones include anywhere the Secret Service may be — places such as the White House, areas hosting events deemed “National Special Security Events,” or anywhere visited by the president, vice president and their immediate families; former presidents, vice presidents and certain family members; certain foreign dignitaries; major presidential and vice presidential candidates (within 120 days of an election); and other individuals as designated by a presidential executive order. These people could be anywhere, and NSSEs have notoriously included the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, Super Bowls and the Academy Awards. So far, it seems the only time H.R. 347 has kicked in is with George Clooney’s high-profile arrest outside the Sudanese embassy. Clooney ultimately was not detained without trial — information that would be almost impossible to censor — but what about the rest of us who exist outside of the mainstream media’s spotlight?
THERE IS SOOOO MUCH MORE AT THIS WEBSITE THAT YOU MUST CHECK IT OUT!!!
1. Russia (Magog) will not agree with the United Nations to impose any sanctions against Syria.
2. The Syrian regime has a massive arsenal of chemical weapons at its disposal. This is a threat for the whole region.
3. We are practically watching a video about what is written in the bible.
GOG AND MAGOG IDENTIFIED...
" The word of the LORD came to me: "Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal; prophesy against him and say: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. I will turn you around, put hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your whole army--your horses, your horsemen fully armed, and a great horde with large and small shields, all of them brandishing their swords. Ezekiel 38:1-4
SEE MORE BELOW...
State Department official says 'something' could 'collapse' in Syria soon
Published July 18, 2012
FoxNews.com
Obama administration officials are closely monitoring the intensifying violence in Syria, with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warning the situation is "spinning out of control" and one State Department official claiming social media trends indicate "something will collapse" in a matter of hours.
Following a bomb attack that left several Syrian regime officials dead, a State Department source forwarded to Fox News a comment from another State colleague monitoring social media in the region.
"Tweet trends on #Damascus indicate something will collapse in #Syria next 36 hours," the message said. "Looks a lot like Tripoli did a year ago."
The note was a reference to the atmosphere in Libya's capital before Muammar Qaddafi's regime was overthrown, and Qaddafi was captured and killed.
It's unclear whether Damascus has entered such a period, but the capital saw an unprecedented attack Wednesday on Bashar Assad's regime, when a bomb ripped through a high-level security meeting and killed at least three officials.
Syrian TV confirmed the deaths of Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha, 65, a former army general and the most senior government official to be killed in the rebels' battle to oust Assad; Gen. Assef Shawkat, the deputy defense minister who is married to Assad's elder sister; and Hassan Turkmani, a former defense minister who died of wounds suffered in the attack.
Also wounded were Interior Minister Mohammed Shaar and Maj. Gen. Hisham Ikhtiar, who heads the National Security Department. State TV said both were in stable condition.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, speaking alongside British Defense Minister Philip Hammond on Wednesday, said the escalating violence indicates that the rebels feel emboldened and that the government of Assad is suffering "probably some fragmentation around the edges" as it struggles to keep a grip on power.
The bombing was the harshest blow to the government's inner circle in the 16-month uprising.
Hammond and Panetta both stressed the urgency of finding a political solution that results in Assad's exit.
"The violence there has only gotten worse, and the loss of lives has only increased," Panetta said, "which tells us that this is a situation that is rapidly spinning out of control." He said that is all the more reason for the international community to bring "maximum pressure" on Assad to step down and permit a stable transfer of power.
Though a U.N. Security Council vote was scheduled Wednesday afternoon on a new resolution that would impose sanctions on Syria's government, that vote was postponed at envoy Kofi Annan's request.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration slapped financial sanctions on a huge swath of top members in Assad's government, targeting the prime minister and 28 other cabinet ministers and senior officials.
The Treasury Department announced the sanctions on Wednesday, hours after top Syrian officials were killed in the explosion in Damascus.
It has been in the making, as consistently predicted in this blog, and now it is finally happening. The Sunni uprising against the Alawite-dominated regime of Bashar Assad is fast approaching the point of decision. The battles are taking place in the capital Damascus, and the reports, while some may be somewhat exaggerated, are very clear: the rebels of the Free Syria Army are fighting in the very center of the city, are about to be, or already are in control of some of the headquarters of the once feared intelligence organizations, and it is all taking place minutes away from the presidential palace. By some accounts, the palace is without residents, as Bashar and his immediate family have already moved to the Alawite Mountains, something that was also predicted in this blog.
The fall of Damascus, once happening, will not be a nice event to watch on TV. Many nights of long knives will follow, and the violence will be of proportions unknown hitherto in the modern Middle East. Historians will compare the bloodbath to another watershed in the long history of the great city of Damascus, once one of the jewels of the great Islamic civilization. It was in the end of September 1918, and the Ottoman Empire was about to surrender to the Allies. The plan of the British officers who led the Arab Revolt was to make sure that the bedouins loyal to the Hashimite family entered Damascus first and accepted the surrender of the Ottoman governor; but things did not work out that way and a British unit led by a medium-level officer entered Damascus first, and the Ottoman governor surrendered to them. The transfer of power was described as "dignified," but nothing will be "dignified" in Damascus in the next days/weeks/months.
The revenge taken by the victorious rebels will be on a huge scale, so the main questions to be asked now are about the coming days, and what can be done to mitigate the inevitable mayhem. First, we need to mention the people that are likely to suffer most. That being those Alawites who somehow failed to flee back to the mountains; members of the Ba'th party, including Sunnis, who maintained their loyalty to the party on the expense of their communal solidarity; members of the business community, who were very slow to change sides; and members of the Christian community, particularly from Bab Touma, the famous Christian quarter, whose history goes back to the early days of Christianity.
The Christians, though not all of them, have refrained from joining the uprising, believing that the Alawite-dominated regime will be their wall of defense against Sunni domination. Christian rank and file may have joined the opposition, but the clergy, by and large, maintained its loyalty to the regime. The Christian press in Lebanon conducted a lively debate about the issue of Christian loyalty to Assad, and one of the dominant themes was the fear that many Syrian Christians are in danger of being subjected to a long spell of Sunni Winter.
In 1861, Bab Touma experienced a massacre of huge proportions, when thousands were slaughtered. Hopefully, this will not be the case this time. Shi'ite mosques and shrines in Damascus will also be in the line of fire, and altogether it will not be safe for Shi'ites, whether Iranian or Lebanese, to stay in Damascus when the chaos will reign supreme. Two other communities, the Kurds and the Druze, who inhabit large neighborhoods in Damascus, may be spared the wrath of the victorious rebels, and at any rate, unlike the Christians, these are communities which in the past knew how to defend themselves.
And chaos it will be, with the hope that it will not last for too long, and will be under control as soon as possible. The political leadership of the rebels, the Syrian National Council, lacks the power to dominate the situation in Damascus, and it seems more likely that the force more capable of exerting any sort of central authority will be the Free Syria Army, which is not a coherent body but rather a loose coalition of local militias. So, they too may not be able to do the job. The chaos in Damascus may not be that much different than that which prevailed in Beirut in 1975-6. The collapse of the regime will unleash a welter of old conflicts, hatreds and loyalties, which were all subjugated for decades under the yoke of the oppressive regime and will now come to the open.
All the above bodes ill, surely in the short term, and the challenge facing the Syrian opposition, and even more so, the external powers which support them, be it the U.S. or Saudi Arabia or Turkey, will be to use whatever leverage they have in order to prevent the worst possible scenario. Can they do it? They should try, and hopefully there are contingency plans on hand, but the chances of it happening quickly are not too high.
Under these circumstances, the innocent citizens of Damascus are going to suffer. They will rejoice with the final departure of the regime from the city, but they will be subjected to unpleasant situations which will tax to the limit their resilience and endurance.
What role does Islam play in the world? Moreover, what is the outcome of Islam? These questions continue to come to mind to those who see the conflict between Islam and the West rise. One cannot help but see the conflicts all around the world, and see the role Islam plays.
For example, in Europe we see the conflict in Kosovo, in Russia there are the Chechens who are at war with Russia. In Iraq, we see the battle between Sunnis and Shiites, along with forces from the United States and Europe. India has a border with Pakistan, both nuclear countries, there are constant rumblings of war, between these nations. Israel in 2006 had a war with Hezbollah, a Shiite group in Lebanon, supported by Iran and Syria. Iran threatens to destroy the Jewish State, and wants to build a nuclear arsenal.
On top of all these openly national conflicts, we have the threat of Islamic terrorism, which affects Muslim countries as well Western countries. Where is this conflict headed? For those who study Bible prophecy, the conflict in the Middle East is no mystery, the final battle according to the Bible, Armageddon, is located in Israel.
The miracle of the nation of Israel cannot be under estimated, if one tries to understand these conflicts around the world, and their conclusion. Ezekiel, 2600-years ago, along with the other prophets of the Bible, foretold of a national rebirth of Israel, gathered from the nations (Ezekiel 36-37). Ezekiel followed this by describing a confederation of nations who would attack a reborn, nation assembled out of the nations in Ezekiel 38 and 39. This event is known in the Bible as the battle of Gog and Magog.
The battle of Gog and Magog is an event, which plays a prominent role in Islamic, Jewish and Christian eschatology.
Although the scenarios have different results, all three faiths see Gog and Magog as a major event. Now just what are Gog and Magog is the subject of this paper.
What is the battle of Gog and Magog?
In short, the battle Gog and Magog is war in the latter days (Last days) when a confederacy of nations attack Israel, which has been restored in the last days. These nations, which attack Israel in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39, include nations, which are Muslim and have a clear animosity to Israel. Along with these Muslims nations, a northern kingdom, called Gog and Magog, which many identify, as the land Russia, will ally itself with Muslim nations, to oppose Israel in the last days.
This confederacy of nations comes against Israel, God, who through Ezekiel foretells the event, defeats them. This conflict establishes Israel and restores them to the land in preparation of their redemption. The conflict also reminds the world, why Israel went into captivity for the last two-thousand years.(Ezekiel 39:28).
The timing of this event, and what follows is an issue of debate by those who study Bible prophecy. The battle of Gog and Magog is a seminal event in scripture. It is the transition to the time, known as the Day of the Lord, the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, the Tribulation Period. Scripture reveals the details to those who take the Bible literally.
...
Gog invades in the later day
The armies are enemies of a restored Israel, in the latter years, gathered from the nations of the world and placed back in the land of Israel. (See Ezekiel 36-37) Israel is described as a land of un-walled villages; the invasion comes from the “far north” and is part of an evil plan against Israel.
7 "Prepare yourself and be ready, you and all your companies that are gathered about you; and be a guard for them.
8 "After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely.
9 "You will ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples with you."
10 'Thus says the Lord God: "On that day it shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will make an evil plan:
11 "You will say, 'I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates'
12 to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land.
13 "Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, and all their young lions will say to you, 'Have you come to take plunder? Have you gathered your army to take booty, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder?' " '
14 "Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, 'Thus says the Lord God: "On that day when My people Israel dwell safely, will you not know it?
15 "Then you will come from your place out of the far north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army.
16 "You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the land. It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me, when I am hallowed in you, O Gog, before their eyes." Ezekiel 38:7-16
The prophets foretold of Gog and Magog
In the end, the Lord will be magnified in the earth, as the prophets of the Bible (Ezekiel)
are given credit for revealing the event (vs. 17). God Himself will destroy the armies, through an earthquake, flooding rain, hailstones, fire and brimstone. The armies will also turn on one another and God will be glorified
in that day.
17 'Thus says the Lord God: "Are you he of whom I have spoken in former days by My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied for years in those days that I would bring you against them?
18 "And it will come to pass at the same time, when Gog comes against the land of Israel," says the Lord God, "that My fury will show in My face.
19 "For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath I have spoken: 'Surely in that day there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel,
20 'so that the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all creeping things that creep on the earth, and all men who are on the face of the earth shall shake at My presence. The mountains shall be thrown down, the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.'
21 "I will call for a sword against Gog throughout all My mountains," says the Lord God. "Every man's sword will be against his brother.
22 "And I will bring him to judgment with pestilence and bloodshed; I will rain down on him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
23 "Thus I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the Lord." ' Ezekiel 38:1-23
God loves the people of the world, many of whom are deceived with a burning rage against the descendents of Israel and the Bible. In the war of Gog, God’s word spoken through the Biblical prophets takes central stage, as the armies of Islam are destroyed. Moreover, Israel is freed from the Islamic threat, which has existed for the last 60-years.
Israel uses the remains burns the weapons of Gog for seven-years
Following the defeat of Islam and Russia, Israel uses the weapons left in the land for the next seven-years. The seven-year period clearly indicates this event occurs before the tribulation, since the tribulation itself is seven years.
7 "So I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel, and I will not let them profane My holy name anymore. Then the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.
8 "Surely it is coming, and it shall be done," says the Lord God. "This is the day of which I have spoken.
9 "Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and bucklers, the bows and arrows, the javelins and spears; and they will make fires with them for seven years. Ezekiel 39:7-9
What happens to Islam and the Muslim people following Gog and Magog
What happens to the Muslim nations, we can gather from other scriptures in the Bible. We know the Antichrist, the last world leader before the return of Christ, makes a peace treaty. This agreement or Covenant is for seven-years, but only last
3.5 before it is broken.
At the start of this covenant, Israel is deceived by the Antichrist, who later turns on the Jewish people, proclaiming himself god, demanding the world worship him. Prior to this however, the antichrist tries to unify the world, under a single religion.
With Islam defeated as a force, he will begin to persecute all those who refuse to submit to his plans.
The nations on the earth will have a clear choice, having witnessed the destruction of the Islamic alliance; the world will be forced to choose between the God of Israel or a false world leader, who will force the earth to worship him.
21 "I will set My glory among the nations; all the nations shall see My judgment which I have executed, and My hand which I have laid on them.
22 "So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day forward.
23 "The Gentiles shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they were unfaithful to Me, therefore I hid My face from them. I gave them into the hand of their enemies, and they all fell by the sword.
24 "According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I have dealt with them, and hidden My face from them." '
25 "Therefore thus says the Lord God: 'Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name
26 after they have borne their shame, and all their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, when they dwelt safely in their own land and no one made them afraid.
27 'When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and I am hallowed in them in the sight of many nations,
28 'then they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who sent them into captivity among the nations, but also brought them back to their land, and left none of them captive any longer.
29 'And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,' says the Lord God." Ezekiel 39:21-29
The Antichrist, along with the world’s religious leader, the false prophet, force the whole world, to submit to the Antichrist who proclaims himself god. Muslim’s freed from Islam will have an opportunity to choose the Messiah, Jesus Christ as their savior.
They who know Jesus, during the tribulation will be killed for their, they however will find their way into Heaven, and attain eternal life (Revelation 6:9-11).
The U.N. Small Arms Treaty, which has been championed by the Obama Administration, would have effectively placed a global ban on the import and export of small firearms. The ban would have affected all private gun owners in the U.S., and had language that would have implemented an international gun registry on all private guns and ammo.
The month-long talks at U.N. headquarters broke off last July after the Obama administration, in what now looks like was only done for political reelection purposes, decided to pull out of the draft treaty. But only hours after his reelection, the Obama administration signaled that they would be rejoining talks and threw their support behind the gun control measure.
What role does Islam play in the world? Moreover, what is the outcome of Islam? These questions continue to come to mind to those who see the conflict between Islam and the West rise. One cannot help but see the conflicts all around the world, and see the role Islam plays. 
Although the scenarios have different results, all three faiths see Gog and Magog as a major event. Now just what are Gog and Magog is the subject of this paper.
In the end, the Lord will be magnified in the earth, as the prophets of the Bible (Ezekiel)