Corrie Ten Boom: The Tribulation of the Saints (1974)

The world is deathly ill.  It is dying.

The Great Physician has already signed the death certificate. Yet there is still a great work for Christians to do. They are to be streams of living water, channels of mercy to those who are still in the world. It is possible for them to do this because they are overcomers.

Christians are ambassadors for Christ. They are representatives from Heaven to this dying world. And because of our presence here, things will change.

My sister, Betsy, and I were in the Nazi concentration camp at Ravensbruck because we committed the crime of loving Jews. Seven hundred of us from Holland, France, Russia, Poland and Belgium were herded into a room built for two hundred. As far as I knew, Betsy and I were the only two representatives of Heaven in that room.

We may have been the Lord’s only representatives in that place of hatred, yet because of our presence there, things changed. Jesus said, “In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”  We too, are to be overcomers—bringing the light of Jesus into a world filled with darkness and hate.

Sometimes I get frightened as I read the Bible, and as I look in this world and see all of the tribulation and persecution promised by the Bible coming true. Now I can tell you, though, if you too are afraid, that I have just read the last pages.  I can now come to shouting “Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” for I have found where it is written that Jesus said,

“He that overcometh shall inherit all things:  and I will be His God, and he shall be My son.” This is the future and hope of this world. Not that the world will survive – but that we shall be overcomers in the midst of a dying world

Betsy and I, in the concentration camp, prayed that God would heal Betsy who was so weak and sick. “Yes, the Lord will heal me,”, Betsy said with confidence.  She died the next day and I could not understand it. They laid her thin body on the concrete floor along with all the other corpses of the women who died that day.

It was hard for me to understand, to believe that God had a purpose for all that. Yet because of Betsy’s death, today I am traveling all over the world telling people about Jesus.

There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that the Christians will be able to escape all this.

These are the false teachers that Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days. Most of them have little knowledge of what is already going on across the world. I have been in countries where the saints are already suffering terrible persecution.

In China, the Christians were told, “Don’t worry, before the tribulation comes you will be translated – raptured.” Then came a terrible persecution.

Millions of Christians were tortured to death. Later I heard a Bishop from China say, sadly, “We have failed. We should have made the people strong for persecution rather than telling them Jesus would come first. Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution, how to stand when the tribulation comes – to stand and not faint.”
I feel I have a divine mandate to go and tell the people of this world that it is possible to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in training for the tribulation, but more than sixty percent of the Body of Christ across the world has already entered into the tribulation. There is no way to escape it. We are next.

Since I have already gone through prison for Jesus’ sake, and since I met the Bishop in China, now every time I read a good Bible text I think, “Hey, I can use that in the time of tribulation.” Then I write it down and learn it by heart.

When I was in the concentration camp, a camp where only twenty percent of the women came out alive, we tried to cheer each other up by saying, “Nothing could be any worse than today.”  But we would find the next day was even worse.  During this time a Bible verse that I had committed to memory gave me great hope and joy. “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you; on their part evil is spoken of, but on your part He is glorified.” (I Peter 3:14) I found myself saying, “Hallelujah!  Because I am suffering, Jesus is glorified!”

In America, the churches sing, “Let the congregation escape tribulation”, but in China  and Africa the tribulation has already arrived. This last year alone more than two hundred thousand Christians were martyred in Africa. Now things like that never get into the newspapers because they cause bad political relations. But I know. I have been there. We need to think about that when we sit down in our nice houses with our nice clothes to eat our steak dinners.  Many, many members of the Body of Christ are being tortured to death at this very moment, yet we continue right on as though we are all going to escape the tribulation.

Several years ago I was in Africa in a nation where a new government had come into power. The first night I was there some of the Christians were commanded to come to the police station to register. When they arrived they were arrested and that same night they were executed. The next day the same thing happened with other Christians. The third day it was the same. All the Christians in the district were being systematically murdered.

The fourth day I was to speak in a little church. The people came, but they were filled with fear and tension. All during the service they were looking at each other, their eyes asking, “Will this one I am sitting beside be the next one killed? Will I be the next one?”

The room was hot and stuffy with insects that came through the screenless windows and swirled around the naked bulbs over the bare wooden benches. I told them a story out of my childhood.

“When I was a little girl, “ I said, “I went to my father and said, “Daddy, I am afraid that I will never be strong enough to be a marty for Jesus Christ.” “Tell me,” said Father, “When you take a train trip to Amsterdam, when do I give you the money for the ticket? Three weeks before?”  “No, Daddy, you give me the money for the ticket just before we get on the train.” “That is right,” my father said, “and so it is with God’s strength. Our Father in Heaven knows when you will need the strength to be a martyr for Jesus Christ. He will supply all you need—just in time…”

My African friends were nodding and smiling. Suddenly a spirit of joy descended upon that church and the people began singing, “ In the sweet, by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore.”  Later that week, half the congregation of that church was executed.  I heard later that the other half was killed some months ago.

But I must tell you something. I was so happy that the Lord used me to encourage these people, for unlike many of their leaders, I had the word of God. I had been to the Bible and discovered that Jesus said He had not only overcome the world, but to all those who remained faithful to the end, He would give a crown of life.

How can we get ready for the persecution?

First we need to feed on the word of God, digest it, make it a part of our being.

This will mean disciplined Bible study each day as we not only memorize long passages of scripture, but put the principles to work in our lives.

Next we need to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Not just the Jesus of yesterday, the Jesus of History, but the life-changing Jesus of today who is still alive and sitting at the right hand of God.

We must be filled with the Holy Spirit.

This is no optional command of the Bible, it is absolutely necessary. Those earthly disciples could never have stood up under the persecution of the Jews and Romans had they not waited for Pentecost. Each of us needs our own personal Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We will never be able to stand in the tribulation without it.

In the coming persecution we must be ready to help each other and encourage each other.

But we must not wait until the tribulation comes before starting. The fruit of the Spirit should be the dominant force of every Christian’s life.

Many are fearful of the coming tribulation, they want to run.  I, too, and a little bit afraid when I think that after all my eighty years, including the horrible nazi concentration camp, that I might have to go through the tribulation also. But then I read the Bible and I am glad.

When I am weak, then I shall be strong, the Bible says. Betsy and I were prisoners for the Lord; we were so weak, but we got power because the Holy Spirit was on us.  That mighty inner strengthening of the Holy Spirit helped us through. No, you will not be strong in yourself when the tribulation comes. Rather, you will be strong in the power of Him who will not forsake you.  For seventy-six years I have known the Lord Jesus and not once has He ever left me, or let me down. Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him, for I know that to all who overcome, He shall give the crown of life. Hallelujah!

—Corrie Ten Boom-1974

Spain: The New Crisis in Euroland

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/spain-the-new-crisis-in-euroland-2002676.html

European leaders meet in Brussels today amid growing fears that Spain, Europe’s fifth-largest economy, is preparing to ask for a bailout which would dwarf the €110bn (£90bn) rescue plan for Greece.

The Spanish government yesterday dismissed reports that it was already in discussions with the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and the US Treasury for a rescue package worth up to €250bn.

Officials in Madrid, Brussels and Paris were forced to deny that a Spanish bailout – which would take the European debt and euro crisis into a potentially dangerous new phase – was on the Brussels summit agenda.

“Spain is a country that is solvent, solid and strong, with international credibility,” said its Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. The European Commission spokesman said: “I can firmly deny [that a Spanish rescue is under discussion]. I can say that that story is rubbish.”

Brussels diplomats have been at pains to send out feel-good signals ahead of a summit in which Europe’s leaders are supposed to take the first steps towards more disciplined and co-ordinated, control of national finances. Those reforms are meant to restore confidence in the euro and underpin the €750m EU and IMF safety-net, created last month for euroland countries that lose the confidence of the financial markets.

However, it is proving hard to shake off persistent market fears about Spain, which, if it needed a lifeline, would swallow up a large part of the emergency fund. Worryingly for the EU, the doubts about Spain – whether real or driven by speculation – are eerily similar to the gradual seeping away of confidence that sent Greece into a financial death spiral in March and April. The Spanish government’s cost of borrowing hit a new record yesterday. The interest rate gap, or spread, between 10-year Spanish bonds and their German equivalents, rose by more than 0.10 of a point to 2.23 percentage points.

A senior Spanish banker, Francisco Gonzalez, chairman of the BBVA financial services group, confirmed that foreign private banks were now refusing to provide liquidity to their Spanish counterparts. “Financial markets have withdrawn their confidence in our country,” he said. “For most Spanish companies and entities, international capital markets are closed.”

As a result, the European Central Bank is said to have provided record amounts of liquidity to Spanish banks in recent days. The closure of bank-to-bank credit to Spanish institutions recalls to some market commentators the ripple of crisis through the global financial system after the fall of Lehman Brothers in the Autumn of 2008.

The IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is expected in Madrid tomorrow to see Mr Zapatero – but brushed off speculation of a crisis. “It’s a working visit,” he told reporters in Paris. “I am in France [today] – are there such rumours about France?”

Fears over Spain’s finances checked the recovery of the euro on money markets yesterday. The single currency lost much of the gains it had made in the past seven days.

One of the proposals on the table at the Brussels summit is public “stress tests” to force banks to reveal the state of their books. The Spanish government offered yesterday to open the books of its own private banks unilaterally to prove that they were sound.

Today’s summit in Brussels was intended to be a time for the EU leaders to catch their breath and discuss ways of restoring the euro’s long-term credibility. The threatened Spanish crisis may blow all that out of the water.

Despite an apparent rapprochement between Paris and Berlin this week, President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel remain deeply divided on how to prevent the currency and debt crisis from dumping Europe back into recession. Mr Sarkozy has agreed to drop his proposals for new institutional machinery for a political “government” of the euro by its 16 member states. Ms Merkel prefers to talk of a vague “governance” of the euro, and European state spending, by all 27 EU governments.

More fundamentally, Paris is deeply concerned that the austerity plans announced by Berlin last week could – on top of budget cuts in other countries – plunge Europe into crisis.

The French fears were echoed yesterday by the billionaire investor, George Soros, who warned that Europe would almost certainly face a recession next year which might generate “social unrest” and the kind of populist nationalism seen in the 1930s. “That’s the real danger of the present situation – that by imposing fiscal discipline at a time of insufficient demand and a weak banking system… you are actually… setting in motion a downward spiral,” he said.

The collapse of Spain’s housing boom has helped fuel a deep downturn which has sent unemployment spiralling to 20 per cent, the second worst in the EU. Mr Zapatero introduced a range of measures last month, including spending cuts of €15bn over two years and reductions in public sector wages and spending. Unions have called a general strike over labour reforms.

Defying sanctions, Iran plans more atomic reactors

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – Defying week-old U.N. sanctions over its nuclear program, Iran promised to expand its atomic research Wednesday as its president vowed to punish the West and force it to “sit at the negotiating table like a polite child” before agreeing to further talks.

Tehran, which insists its nuclear work is peaceful, said it will build four new reactors for atomic medical research. The U.S. and some of its allies believe Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, and the Islamic Republic’s plans to expand research could encourage calls in the West for more economic pressure against the country.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran will not make “one iota of concessions.” He said he will soon announce new conditions for talks with the West, but first he wants to punish world powers for imposing sanctions.

“You showed bad temper, reneged on your promise and again resorted to devilish manners,” he said of those powers. “We set conditions (for talks) so that, God willing, you’ll be punished a bit and sit at the negotiating table like a polite child,” he told a crowd during a visit to the central Iranian town of Shahr-e-Kord. His speech was broadcast live on state TV.

The Obama administration took its first step in implementing new sanctions Wednesday, leveling penalties against additional individuals and institutions it says are helping Iran develop its nuclear and missile programs and evade international sanctions.

The list includes a bank; 22 petroleum, energy and insurance companies; two individuals and four organizations that are part of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps; and five front companies and more than 90 ships that Iran’s national maritime carrier has been using to try to evade sanctions. Some are based in Iran, while others are based in countries including Britain, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Germany.

“In the coming weeks we will continue to increase the financial pressure on Iran,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said. “We will continue to target Iran’s support for terrorist organizations.”

Geithner said at a White House news conference that the administration expects other countries to announce new penalties of their own against Iran soon.

The European Union is expected to announce additional steps Thursday. EU foreign ministers agreed earlier this week to consider tighter sanctions for Iran’s refusal to halt uranium enrichment.

U.S. lawmakers also could press for additional embargoes after last week’s U.N. Security Council sanctions – which were backed by Iranian allies Russia and China.

Iran is just one of the unpredictable foes whose nuclear ambitions are challenging the Obama administration.

North Korea, which already has nuclear weapons, warned on Wednesday that ongoing tension over the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship could trigger nuclear war. A team of international investigators concluded that the ship was torn apart March 26 by a North Korean torpedo, an allegation the secretive North strongly denies.

North’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper called the sinking a “minor accidental incident” in a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, but said it could “trigger an all-out war and develop into a nuclear war.” It called on the Security Council to impartially handle an investigation into the sinking.

South Korea’s military dismissed North Korea’s nuclear warning as “routine rhetoric” but said it was closely watching the North Korean military.

Iran has rebuffed a United Nations-drafted plan to suspend uranium enrichment and swap its stockpiles of low-enriched uranium for fuel rods. An alternative plan backed by Turkey and Brazil includes the uranium-for-rods exchange, but does not mandate a halt to Iran’s ability to make its own nuclear fuel.

Ahmadinejad’s caustic words for world powers reflect Iran’s anger over the U.N.’s latest sanctions. Iran apparently didn’t expect allies Russia and China to support such sanctions at a time it had made concessions over the terms of the suggested nuclear fuel swap.

Iran’s parliament speaker Ali Larijani said lawmakers back the government’s push to enrich uranium at a higher level since earlier this year as a response to “bullying countries.”

Iran currently enriches uranium up to 20 percent levels – far short of the 95 percent plus enriched uranium needed for an atomic weapon, but well above the 3.5 percent level needed to fuel a reactor to produce electricity. Iran has justified its decision to go to higher enrichment by saying it needed to create fuel for a research reactor producing medical isotopes.

Iran’s nuclear chief said there are plans to build four new medical research reactors, including one “more powerful” than the main facility, an aging 5-megawatt U.S.-made research reactor operating in Tehran.

The reactor Iran says it is designing will be similar to the U.S.-made reactor, but it has released few other details. It and any additional reactors will need 20 percent enriched uranium, as does the U.S.-made model.

Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted by state TV’s website as saying the new research reactor is for radioactive isotopes for medical needs of patients in Iran and abroad.

“Designing the reactor will be completed by the year end and two years will be needed to construct it. … Our plan is to build four reactors in four corners of the country so that, given the short life of nuclear medicine, all patients will get the products throughout Iran,” the website quoted him as saying.

Salehi also said Iran possesses technology to produce fuel rods for such reactors and the first should be ready sometime next spring.

The announcements reflect Iran’s confusing response to the U.N. sanctions.

Ahmadinejad has countered with insults and dismissive remarks, but also claims the door is open for dialogue on the nuclear standoff. The huge obstacle, however, is that the talks must be on Iran’s terms.

Ahmadinejad also attacked the U.S., saying Iran needs to save Americans from “their undemocratic and bullying government.” He charged that the U.S. government controls what newspapers print and that its people cannot hold rallies opposing government policies.

Ahmadinejad was reacting to an invitation by the European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili to discuss the nuclear issue.

In another sign that tensions remain high, the British ambassador to Tehran was summoned to Iran’s Foreign Ministry over allegations of British ties to terrorist activities in the country, according to reports by the semiofficial Mehr news agency and state-run Press TV late Wednesday.

Mehr said the call comes in the wake of Iran’s arrests of a number of militants in the country. It identified the group as “hypocrites,” a term Iran uses to describe the armed opposition People’s Mujahedeen, and said Iran was demanding a British government investigation.

Turkey closes airspace to Israel Air Force, Jerusalem declares IHH terrorists

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report June 17, 2010, 11:32 AM (GMT+02:00)

Turkey launched a plan Wednesday night (June 16) to campaign on all fronts for a worldwide boycott of Israel and decided to introduce sanctions leading to the severance of bilateral relations. Its pretext was the absence of a formal apology from Jerusalem for the naval commando raid on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara (“Blue Marmara”), which left 8 activists dead, and its rejection of an international inquiry of the incident.

In Washington, early Thursday morning (June 17), Democratic and Republican members of Congress announced at a press conference that there would be price to pay if Ankara continued its hate campaign against Israel and tight ties with Tehran.

Rep. Mike Pence, the third-highest ranking Republican, said: “There will be a cost if Turkeystays on its present heading of growing closer to Iran and more antagonistic to the state ofIsrael.” Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel called Turkey’s actions “disgraceful.”

DEBKAfile’s sources in Washington note that while the House and the Senate are getting ready for an active response against Turkey for its deteriorating relations with Israel, the Obama administration is standing still, possibly tied down by friendship with the two contestants in Jerusalem and Ankara. The president may also be influenced by some of his closest aides, who are sympathetic to the policies pursued by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and support his aspirations in the Middle East and in the Muslim world.
The most prominent member of the pro-Erdogan faction ion the White House is the president’s personal adviser on Muslim affairs, Dalia Mogahed, who does not share the conviction that the Turkish aid society, the IHH, is in fact a terrorist organization, as Israeldeclared Thursday, June 17 – although more than one European terrorist expert is of that opinion.
The way this declaration was aired by the Netanyahu government was harshly criticized byIsrael’s security and intelligence sources as too hesitant and uncertain to attract notice,DEBKAfile’s sources in Jerusalem report. It was not sourced to any defense ministry official and only appeared in a low spot on a local Channel 2 TV news bulletin.

“If Israel accuses an organization of terrorism, it should do so loud and clear,” they said. “We must offer the kind of proof that reverberates strongly around the world. Instead, the information was released almost by stealth and therefore ignored by the international media.”
In fact, DEBKAfile’s intelligence and counter-terror sources stress the inconspicuous news item was pretty sensational. By listing as terrorists the IHH (Insani Yardim Vakfi), a key component of Erdogan’s pro-Islamic AKK government’s support system, Israel henceforth defines the group as a target for Israel’s covert and military operations and exposes its leaders to retaliation for continuing violence against Israel and its interests.
IHH activists were responsible for the violence aboard the Turkish ship leading the blockade-busting flotilla on May 31. Wednesday, IHH headquarters in Istanbul scheduled the launch of an even bigger flotilla for Gaza some time in July. Its new designation empowers Israel’s covert agencies and navy to go for its members and ships – at sea and in Turkish ports.

Still hesitant, Israel has started hitting back at Turkey by escalating its military and intelligence responses to Erdogan’s provocations.

The day before, the level of confrontation was ramped up by several notches in Ankara, when the Turkish Defense Industry Implementation Committee – SSIK, in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Erdogan, decided to freeze 16 security and military agreements signed withIsrael.

They include permission for Israel warplanes to use Turkish airspace and apply to intelligence-sharing arrangements and cooperation in combating terrorism and suspend the longstanding, close military and intelligence cooperation between Turkey and Israel.
The two erstwhile allies are left glaring at each other as antagonists, just one step short of declared enemies.

Ankara nonetheless left a narrow opening – whether to appease the military for its loss of a valued strategic partner or to tempt Israeli leaders to continue to delude themselves thatTurkey is not a write-off.
Thursday morning, in a briefing to Turkish journalists, sources close to the Turkish prime minister and the SSK exhibited a very long list of the Israeli and Turkish military projects they had cancelled, including the purchase of advanced Israeli Arrow anti-missile missiles. However, Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul commented: “Despite the fact that the decision on the shelving of military agreements had been left to the command of the Foreign Ministry, it would not be proper for the ruling administration to decide on the actions of military companies in both countries.”

By this remark, the Turkish defense minister left a small gap for the Turkish government to review each contract separately and to decide whether to implement or revoke it depending on the needs of the Turkish army.

Israeli Navy braces for next flotillas

By YAAKOV KATZ 15/06/2010

Commander: We’ll assume provocateurs on board; Iran ships on way.

The navy will operate under the assumption that groups of provocateurs are aboard any future ships that try to break the Israel-imposed sea blockade on the Gaza Strip, Deputy Commander of the Navy Rear-Admiral Rani Ben-Yehuda told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

Two Iranian cargo ships carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza will leave next week, and one of them will be sailing via Istanbul, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported on Monday. Another flotilla is also expected to soon leave Lebanon for the Gaza Strip.

The announcement quoted Muhammad Ali Nouraee, an aid official, who said one load of cargo will be sent to Turkey, and then shipped to Gaza from Istanbul, while the other will leave from the port of Khorramshahr.

‘Intelligence does not indicate weapons on board’

Ben-Yehuda said that while Israel did not have intelligence indicating that the Iranian ships were carrying weaponry, he said that the navy’s assumption would be that provocateurs are onboard.

“I recommend that humanitarian activists who are planning on participating in these new flotillas think very hard because they cannot know who is on these ships,” he said. “We believe that there will be groups that will try to cause provocations and repeat what happened on the Marmara.”

‘There are growing signs dozens had terror ties’

In a wide-ranging interview that will appear in Friday’s Frontlines section, Ben-Yehuda defended the Navy commando raid on the Mavi Marmara Turkish passenger ship two weeks ago, which ended with nine dead passengers, all of whom, according to the IDF, were hired mercenaries.

“There are growing signs and proof that there were dozens of people on the ship who had connections with terrorist organizations from around the region and the world,” Ben-Yehuda told the Post. “Some of them were even known to us from past incidents they were involved in.”

Ben-Yehuda said that the nine passengers killed were all Turkish and members of the violent group that attacked the navy commandos from the Navy’s Shayetet 13 (“Flotilla 13”).

The outcome of the operation, Ben-Yehuda said, was not what the Navy had anticipated.

“We expected light resistance but never expected to meet a group of terrorists,” he said, adding however that in the final analysis the operation could be deemed a success.

“No innocent people were killed, only the terrorists,” he said. “When you go into a building that terrorists have taken over and you kill the terrorists, this is also a success.”

In addition, three Iranian parliamentarians are planning to visit Gaza via Egypt, Iranian news agencies reported Monday.

Lawmaker Mahmoud Ahmadi Bighash was quoted as saying that he and two other members of the Majlis, the Iranian parliament, would travel to Gaza by way of Egypt later this week.

Bighash said that some 200 of the 290 Iranian MPs had wanted to make the visit, but the three-man team would go instead. He said the Egyptians had expressed a willingness to allow the Iranians to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing.

Iranian MP Mahmoud Ahmadi-Biqash said on Sunday that the Egyptian government has agreed to issue visas to 70 Iranian parliamentarians who have registered to travel to the Gaza Strip.

Soros: European Recession Inevitable

(Reuters) – Europe faces almost inevitable recession next year and years of stagnation as policymakers’ response to the euro zone crisis causes a downward spiral, billionaire U.S. investor George Soros said on Tuesday.

Flaws built into the euro from the start had become acute, Soros told a seminar, warning that the euro crisis could have the potential to destroy the 27-nation European Union.

The euro’s lack of a correction mechanism or of a provision for countries to leave it could be a fatal weakness, he said.

Germany had imposed its criteria on how a 750 billion euro (674 billion pounds) euro zone rescue mechanism should be used and was imposing its own standards — a trade surplus and a high savings rate — on the rest of Europe, Soros said.

“But you can’t be a creditor country, a surplus country, without somebody being in deficit,” he said.

“That’s the real danger of the present situation — that by imposing fiscal discipline at a time of insufficient demand and a weak banking system, by wanting to have a balanced budget you are actually … setting in motion a downward spiral,” he said.

Germany would do relatively well because the decline in the euro had boosted its economy, he told the seminar on the euro zone crisis organised by two thinktanks, the European Council on Foreign Relations and the Centre for European Reform.

“Germany is going to smell like roses but (the rest of) Europe is going to be pushed into a downward spiral, stagnation lasting many years and possibly worse than that,” he said.

“In other words, I think a recession next year is almost inevitable given the current policies,” Soros said, later clarifying that he meant a recession in Europe as a whole.

WARNS OF SOCIAL UNREST

“If there is no exit, (it) is liable to give rise to social unrest and, if you follow the line, social unrest can give rise to demand for law and order and (sow the) seeds of what happened in the inter-war period,” he said.

Political will to forge a common fiscal policy in Europe was absent and since Europe was liable to move backwards if it did not advance, “the crisis of the euro could actually have the potential of destroying the European Union,” he said.

European banks had bought large amounts of the sovereign bonds of weaker euro zone countries for a tiny interest rate differential, Soros said.

“That’s one of the reasons why the banks are so over-leveraged and why the German and the French banks own Spanish bonds,” he said.

“Now … they have a loss on their balance sheets which is not recognised and it reduces the credibility of those banks so the banking system is in serious trouble,” he said.

“The commercial paper market, for instance, in America is now refusing to lend to European banks so there is even a funding crisis and the ECB (European Central Bank) has to step in and the banks are unwilling to lend to each other,” he said.

(Editing by Chizu Nomiyama.)

For information about the influence of George Soros over Barack Obama, click here.

Obama Seeking “Internet Kill Switch”

Declan McCullagh, CNET.com on June 15th, 2010 (2 days ago)

A new US Senate Bill would grant the President far-reaching emergency powers to seize control of, or even shut down, portions of the internet.

The legislation says that companies such as broadband providers, search engines or software firms that the US Government selects “shall immediately comply with any emergency measure or action developed” by the Department of Homeland Security. Anyone failing to comply would be fined.

That emergency authority would allow the Federal Government to “preserve those networks and assets and our country and protect our people,” Joe Lieberman, the primary sponsor of the measure and the chairmanof the Homeland Security committee, told reporters on Thursday. Lieberman is an independent senator from Connecticut who meets with the Democrats.

Due to there being few limits on the US President’s emergency power, which can be renewed indefinitely, the densely worded 197-page Bill (PDF) is likely to encounter stiff opposition.

TechAmerica, probably the largest US technology lobby group, said it was concerned about “unintended consequences that would result from the legislation’s regulatory approach” and “the potential for absolute power”. And the Center for Democracy and Technology publicly worried that the Lieberman Bill’s emergency powers “include authority to shut down or limit internet traffic on private systems.”

The idea of an internet “kill switch” that the President could flip is not new. A draft Senate proposal that ZDNet Australia‘s sister site CNET obtained in August allowed the White House to “declare a cybersecurity emergency”, and another from Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) would have explicitly given the government the power to “order the disconnection” of certain networks or websites.

On Thursday, both senators lauded Lieberman’s Bill, which is formally titled Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, or PCNAA. Rockefeller said “I commend” the drafters of the PCNAA. Collins went further, signing up at a co-sponsor and saying at a press conference that “we cannot afford to wait for a cyber 9/11 before our government realises the importance of protecting our cyber resources”.

Under PCNAA, the Federal Government’s power to force private companies to comply with emergency decrees would become unusually broad. Any company on a list created by Homeland Security that also “relies on” the internet, the telephone system or any other component of the US “information infrastructure” would be subject to command by a new National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications (NCCC) that would be created inside Homeland Security.

The only obvious limitation on the NCCC’s emergency power is one paragraph in the Lieberman Bill that appears to have grown out of the Bush-era flap over wiretapping without a warrant. That limitation says that the NCCC cannot order broadband providers or other companies to “conduct surveillance” of Americans unless it’s otherwise legally authorised.

Lieberman said on Thursday that enactment of his Bill needed to be a top congressional priority. “For all of its ‘user-friendly’ allure, the internet can also be a dangerous place with electronic pipelines that run directly into everything from our personal bank accounts to key infrastructure to government and industrial secrets,” he said. “Our economic security, national security and public safety are now all at risk from new kinds of enemies — cyber-warriors, cyber-spies, cyber-terrorists and cyber-criminals.”

A new cybersecurity bureaucracy

Lieberman’s proposal would form a powerful and extensive new Homeland Security bureaucracy around the NCCC, including “no less” than two deputy directors, and liaison officers to the Defense Department, Justice Department, Commerce Department, and the Director of National Intelligence. (How much the NCCC director’s duties would overlap with those of the existing assistant secretary for infrastructure protection is not clear.)

The NCCC also would be granted the power to monitor the “security status” of private sector websites, broadband providers and other internet components. Lieberman’s legislation requires the NCCC to provide “situational awareness of the security status” of the portions of the internet that are inside the United States — and also those portions in other countries that, if disrupted, could cause significant harm.

Selected private companies would be required to participate in “information sharing” with the Feds. They must “certify in writing to the director” of the NCCC whether they have “developed and implemented” federally approved security measures, which could be anything from encryption to physical security mechanisms, or programming techniques that have been “approved by the director”. The NCCC director can “issue an order” in cases of non-compliance.

The prospect of a vast new cybersecurity bureaucracy with power to command the private sector worries some privacy advocates. “This is a plan for an auto-immune reaction,” says Jim Harper, director of information studies at the libertarian Cato Institute. “When something goes wrong, the government will attack our infrastructure and make society weaker.”

To sweeten the deal for industry groups, Lieberman has included a tantalising offer absent from earlier drafts: immunity from civil lawsuits. If a software company’s programming error costs customers billions, or a broadband provider intentionally cuts off its customers in response to a federal command, neither would be liable.

If there’s an “incident related to a cyber vulnerability” after the President has declared an emergency and the affected company has followed federal standards, plaintiffs’ lawyers cannot collect damages for economic harm. And if the harm is caused by an emergency order from the Feds, not only does the possibility of damages virtually disappear, but the US Treasury will even pick up the private company’s tab.

Another sweetener: a new White House office would be charged with forcing federal agencies to take cybersecurity more seriously, with the power to jeopardise their budgets if they fail to comply. The likely effect would be to increase government agencies’ demand for security products.

Tom Gann, McAfee’s vice president for government relations, stopped short of criticising the Lieberman Bill, calling it a “very important piece of legislation”.

McAfee is paying attention to “a number of provisions of the Bill that could use work,” Gann said, and “we’ve certainly put some focus on the emergency provisions.”

Ed Schultz (MSNBC) Calls for Obama to be a “Dictator”

Egyptian minister: Obama told me he is a Muslim (via News that matters)

Once again, the US media misses what should be a major story. Why do we take anything they say seriously?

Obama told me he is still a Muslim, who supports the Muslim agenda. This was a statement by Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit on Nile-TV. It was made on the «Round table show». This is the statement recorded: Adul Gheit … Read More

via News that matters

More than 100 earthquakes rattle California-Mexico border region after magnitude 5.7 temblor; more expected

Check out this article.  Jesus said that earthquakes will be a sign of the end times:

Matthew 24:7 – ““For nation will rise against nation, and kingdomagainst kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.”

It seems that 100 earthquakes over the course of a few hours would be something that Believers should be aware of.

More than 100 earthquakes rattle California-Mexico border region after magnitude 5.7 temblor; more expected.