Sunday Headlines:

Syria on the brink:

"Syria Rebels May Launch Catastrophic Assault"

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday Syria's opposition forces were growing more effective and the sooner the violence ended, the higher the chances of sparing the Syrian government from a "catastrophic assault."

It appeared clear that Clinton was referring to the possibility of Syrian rebels launching such an assault on state institutions -- a court and a broadcaster have been recent targets -- rather than to any outside intervention.

"There is no doubt that the opposition is getting more effective in their defense of themselves and in going on the offense against the Syrian military and the Syrian government's militias. So, the future .... should be abundantly clear to those who support the Assad regime," Clinton added.

Syria On The "Brink Of Catastrophe"

“There is still a chance to save the Syrian state from a catastrophic assault that would be very dangerous not only to Syria, but to the region,” said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Tokyo, Sunday, July 8. She did not elaborate, but stressed earlier, “… the opposition is getting more effective in defense of themselves and going on the offensive against the Syrian military.”

DEBKAfile’s military sources note that her over-the-top language comes at a pivotal moment in the Syrian conflict: The rebels are winning more and more territory and not only encircling Damascus but fighting inside the capital. To save itself, the Assad regime which still controls the army outside Damascus may in desperation open up its arsenals and deploy weapons of mass destruction in a bid to drive off the rebels while also spreading the flames to other parts of the region, including Israel.

Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have substantially stepped up the flow of munitions to the rebels. They are reaching combatants inside Syria as well as the trainees at Turkish military facilities.

Up until last month, the rebels were fighting primarily to sever a strategic strip of land from Idlib in the north to Deraa in the south in order to tie down the regime in Damascus and its Allawite loyalist forces in the west and center and cut it off from the rest of the country.

This goal has now been abandoned. Today, the anti-Assad forces are concentrating on a single objective: The regime’s overthrow.

Kofi Annan: International Community Has Failed Syria

Approaching totalitarianism:

Soros Promotes UN Control Over Gun Ownership

George Soros is financing the fight to give the United Nations control of your guns.

Through his Media Matters organization, Soros is dumping pro-UN gun control propaganda into the mainstream media to coincide with the United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty being held in New York July 2–27.

Constitutionalists will instantly notice a couple of red flags

Undaunted, however, Soros will continue to use his mouthpieces to promote the globalist agenda, including the incremental dismantling of the U.S. Constitution and the sovereignty it protects.

The current draft of the ATT mandates that the governments of member states petition the United Nations for approval of any contract to sell weapons to any nation where there exists a “substantial risk of a serious violation” of human rights.

While the end of reducing the abuse of human rights is laudable, the means to achieve that cannot lawfully include the requirement that the Congress of the United States ask for permission from the UN overlords before it passes a law, including one authorizing the sale of arms to another country. That is a direct assault on American legislative sovereignty, and an indirect attack on the sovereignty of the American people who elect the members of Congress who vote on such measures.

In the text of the ATT, the United Nations specifically calls for the passage of a legally binding instrument that will impose international standards for the ownership, trade, and transfer of weapons.

In order to avoid being labeled a “human rights abuser,” the United States (along with all member states) is ordered by the UN to comply with the ATT. To compel this compliance, the ATT empowers the UN to force Congress to:

• Enact internationally agreed licensing requirements for Americans

• Confiscate and destroy unauthorized firearms of Americans while allowing the U.S. government to keep theirs

• Ban the trade, sale, and private ownership of semi-automatic guns

• Create and mandate an international registry to organize an encompassing gun confiscation in America

On this point, in 2011, the UN’s General Assembly declared “that disarmament, arms control and non-proliferation are essential.” In other words, if world peace, the protection of human rights, and the disarming of violent regimes could be achieved through the confiscation of personal firearms, then so be it.

Sadly, officials of our own federal government, including President Obama, are pushing Congress to sign off on this treaty.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced that the Obama administration is working with the UN to lean on Congress to consent to the ATT.

Check out this last sentence - guaranteed to send chills up your spine:

George Soros, through his Media Matters outlet, promises that “U.S. gun owners have nothing to fear” from the ATT or from similar UN agreements to restrict the manufacture, transfer, and possession of firearms. The globalists’ only goal, they maintain, is “the maintenance of international peace and security.”

IRS: The "New Gestapo"

Gov. Paul LePage used his weekly radio address to blast President Obama's health care law and described the Internal Revenue Service as the "new Gestapo."

The IRS description was a reference to a provision in the Affordable Care Act that requires Americans not insured by their employers or Medicaid to buy health insurance or pay an annual penalty when filing their tax returns.

LePage said the court decision has "made America less free."

"We the people have been told there is no choice," he said. "You must buy health insurance or pay the new Gestapo -- the IRS."

The Tax Man Cometh To Police You

The Supreme Court's decision to uphold most of President Barak Obama's health care law will come home to roost for most taxpayers in about 2½ years, when they'll have to start providing proof on their tax returns that they have health insurance.

That scenario puts the Internal Revenue Service at the center of the debate, renewing questions about whether the agency is capable of policing the health care decisions of millions of people in the United States while also collecting the taxes needed to run the federal government.

The changes will require new regulations, forms and publications, new computer programs and a big new outreach program to explain it all to taxpayers and tax professionals. Businesses that don't claim an exemption will have to prove they offer health insurance to employees.

Those who don't get qualified health insurance will be required to pay the penalty — or tax — starting for the 2014 tax year, unless they are exempt because of low income, religious beliefs, or because they are members of American Indian tribes.

The penalty will be fully phased in by 2016, when it will be $695 for each uninsured adult or 2.5 percent of family income, whichever is greater, up to $12,500. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that 4 million people will pay the penalty that year.

IRA To Hire Thousands Of New Agents To Enforce Obamacare

The Collapsing U.S. Economy

In a recent column, “Can The World Survive Washington’s Hubris,” I promised to examine whether the US economy will collapse before Washington in its pursuit of world hegemony brings us into military confrontation with Russia and China. This is likely to be an ongoing subject on this site, so this column will not be the final word.

The annual US budget deficit is adding to the accumulated debt at about $1.5 trillion per
year with no prospect of declining. The financial system is broken and requires ongoing bailouts. The economy is busted and has been unable to create high-paying jobs, indeed any jobs. Despite years of population growth, payroll employment as of mid-2012 is the same as in 2005 and substantially below 2008. Yet, the government and financial presstitute media tell us that we have a recovery.

Washington, which flicked its middle finger to international law and to its own law and Constitution with its arrogance and gratuitous and illegal wars and with its assertion of the right to murder its own citizens and those of its allies, such as Pakistan, has made the United States a pariah state.

Washington is becoming an isolated and despised element of the world community. Washington has purchased Europe, Canada, Australia, the former Soviet state of Georgia (and almost Ukraine), and Columbia, and continues its effort to purchase the entire world, but sentiment is turning against the rising Gestapo state that has shown itself to be lawless, ruthless, and indifferent, even hostile, to human life and human rights.

Euro Crisis Fall-Out Is Global

Fears over the global economy intensified yesterday as the escalating crisis in the eurozone took its toll on the rest of the world.

The International Monetary Fund said the situation has deteriorated in Europe and America as well as in emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil.

Miss Lagarde said: ‘The outlook has, regrettably, become more worrisome. Many indicators of economic activity – investment, employment, manufacturing – have deteriorated.

‘And not just in Europe or the United States. Also in key emerging markets: Brazil, China, India. For make no mistake: this is a global crisis. This crisis does not recognise borders. This crisis is knocking at all our doors. No one is immune.’

Much of this can be attributed to the eurozone debt crisis, which is clearly having a growing impact on business sentiment around the world.’

Also see:

Appeal To Court To Stop Temple Mount Desecration

An appeal has been filed with the High Court for the immediate suspension of Muslim work on the Foundation Stone, the holiest place on the Temple Mount, the holiest Jewish site in the world.

The Makor Rishon newspaper revealed last week that the Muslim Waqf, which has been given authority over the Temple Mount by the Israeli government, has violated all previous bonds of propriety and erected scaffolding on the Rock itself, known in Hebrew as the Even HaShtia (pronounced EH-ven HaShtee-AH).

The Islamic Waqf has desecrated “the heart of the heart of the Temple Mount and has damaged the sensitivities of the Jewish People,” the petition stated.

The Waqf is carrying out renovations in the Dome of the Rock mosque, which was built over the Foundation Stone.

The Stone is considered the place where Adam, Noah and Abraham carried out their sacrifices, and it is the spot where the Jewish High Priest (Kohen Gadol) entered the Holy of Holies just once a year, on Yom Kippur.