In The News:

As we approach the Tribulation:

Global Surveillance: The Public Must Fight For Its Right To Privacy

[Unfortunately any such efforts will be unsuccessful, as it's way too late to change course, and the antichrist will use the surveillance for his evil intent]

The term, "information superhighway" has always been insufficient to describe the Internet. In reality, the Web is a global communication space containing the private information of a large part of the population of every developed country. If someone were able to train an all-seeing eye onto the Internet, the blackmail potential would be almost limitless

It is precisely this all-seeing eye that the British intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the American National Security Agency (NSA) have developed under the name Tempora. An appropriate real-world metaphor for the program might be something like this: In every room of every house and every apartment, cameras and microphones are installed, every letter is opened and copied, every telephone tapped. Everything that happens is recorded and can be accessed as needed.

It sounds preposterous, but it is frighteningly close to the reality that was unveiled by the Guardian on Friday. Together, the GCHQ and NSA monitor Internet traffic by tapping directly into the data stream sent through fiber-optic cables. They are able to copy and cache this data, to be sifted through later as needed.

Those behind this disgraceful program have not even bothered to deny what they are up to. The British spy agency has said it will not be commenting on the program -- but said that whatever they do is in the service of the fight against terrorism and subject to strict legal controls. The NSA has been making this same argument since the Prism program was unveiled earlier this month. What we're doing, they say, is for a good cause. It's all regulated, and we're only looking at the information collected when we deem it necessary.
But that's all just pretence.

It therefore seems odd that the reactions in the Anglo-Saxon world have been so restrained. Sure, the Guardian, as well as the Washington Post, have reported in detail about the programs. Yet in the political sphere, it was mainly a few German politicians voicing their outrage.
And for good reason. The fact that the Americans and the British -- it is yet to be revealed who else participated -- have granted themselves this enormous power, without ever informing their own people, is a scandal of historic proportions. To the initiated, all the recent public debate about data retention, Internet privacy and the practices of Facebook and Google must have been downright amusing. The state, as it turns out, knew everything all along.
That was precisely the goal, according to the head of the NSA, Lieutenant General Keith Alexander. "Why can't we collect all the signals all the time?" he asked in an internal document acquired by the Guardian. "Sounds like a good summer project for Menwith," he continued, referring to a GCHQ/NSA facility at Menwith Hill in northern England.

'The World Is Now Headed Into A Depression'

Today one of the top economists in the world told King World News that despite bounces, stocks will continue to crater and he has positioned his clients short for a collapse in global markets.  Michael Pento, founder of Pento Portfolio Strategies, also warned that central planners now have the world headed into a depression

Escalation in the Middle East:

Iran's Secret Port

A logistics base for handling tanks, missile systems, self-propelled artillery and other heavy weaponry bound for Syria and Hizballah is secretly under construction in a section of Port Sudan which Omar al Bashir has leased to Tehran

As a safeguard against an Israeli strike, the new Iranian facility abuts directly on Port Sudan's oil exporting installations, through which South Sudan, Israel’s ally, exports its oil, the new republic’s only source of revenue which also pays for its purchases of Israeli arms.

To give the military port a civilian aspect and suggest that Iranian warships no longer visit the port, Tehran has switched to commercial cargo vessels and oil tankers for delivering weapons for its Syrian and Hizballah allies through Port Sudan.

Still, Western intelligence sources watching the work are certain that the new Iranian facility is a military port in every sense of the word. It is similar to the Russian naval base built at the Syrian port of Tartus, except for being twice as large and capable of accommodating Iran’s largest war ships as well as submarines. Tehran is taking advantage of the strong military and intelligence ties it has developed with Sudan’s ruler Bashir for streamlining the weapons supply route to its embattled allies.

The Iranian section of the port has a fence with watchtowers and will soon acquire air defense systems. It is guarded by Revolutionary Guards sentries wearing civilian clothes and Sudanese soldiers.

The new facility will enable Iran to transfer larger shipments of heavier weapons than the air corridor used until now to drop military equipment for the Syrian and Hizballah armies. The light and medium hardware will continue to be delivered by air, but the sea route for the heavy stuff will be cut in half by the large weapons depot the Iranians are building at the Sudanese Red Sea port.
This will make it possible to ship items to their destination from the Red Sea through Suez and on to the Mediterranean to meet needs arising urgently from war crises in Syria or potential conflicts with Israel.

Palestinian Terrorists Open Fire On Israeli Bus

Palestinian Arab terrorists opened fire on an Israeli public bus in Samaria on Tuesday morning.

The attack occurred just south of the Palestinian Authority-controlled town of Nablus (biblical Shechem). There were no injuries reported in the shooting.

A large Israeli army force entered the area to search for the perpetrators, but by press time no arrests had been made.

Investigators found at least one bullet lodged in the side of the bus.

Stone throwing, firebomb and even shooting attacks against Jewish motorists in Judea and Samaria are an almost daily occurrence.

The Return Of Nazi-Style Anti-Semitism

No one is under the illusion that anti-Semitism died after the Nazi Holocaust. But for decades following that dark chapter, it was certainly taboo to openly express anti-Semitic positions or demonstrate anti-Semitic behavior.

It would seem with the escalation in anti-Semitic incidents in the West of late that what was once taboo is again socially acceptable, at least to enough of a degree for anti-Semites to once again openly peddle their particular brand of hate.

A recent incident in Antwerp, Belgium is demonstrative of this phenomenon.

Last month, a local Jewish woman and her Israeli girlfriend (the two are in an homosexual relationship) were assaulted by neighbors after daring to openly identify themselves as Jews by placing a mezuzah on the door of their apartment.

Belgian Jewish magazine Joods Actueel reported that at first, the assailants confined themselves to banging on the walls and shouting "stinking Jews." But that didn't last long, and the anti-Semites' appetite soon led them to breaking down the apartment door and beating the local Jewish woman to the point that she required hospitalization for 15 days.

As the Jewish woman was being taken away by an ambulance, she reportedly saw the responding police officers joking and laughing with the unrepentant assailants.

One of the chief enablers of this renewed wave of anti-Semitism has been has been the rise of anti-Israel sentiment, or anti-Zionism. Conveniently cloaked as "legitimate" criticism of the State of Israel, anti-Zionism in fact takes aim at the hopes and dreams the Jewish people harbored for thousands of years as they suffered in foreign lands. In essence, it says that the Jews deserve, at best, persecution and exile.

Netanyahu Agrees To Kerry Peace Talk Terms

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to a series of concessions proposed by US Secretary of State John Kerry with the aim of kick starting peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, according to Israeli media.

Netanyahu will reportedly set free 120 Palestinian terrorists jailed prior to the signing of the "Oslo" peace accords in 1993. The Palestinian insist that because these men carried out their crimes prior to the signing of any agreements, they must be viewed as prisoners of war, not criminals, despite their attempts to mass murder Jewish men, women and children.

Of course, the Palestinian regime also insists that terrorists jailed after the signing of the peace agreements are, in fact, not terrorists either, since they merely killed Jews who were "occupying" their land.

Netanyahu is also said to be ready to halt all Jewish construction outside of major settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria, the so-called "West Bank" that the Palestinians claim for their future state. Israeli officials have already acknowledged that a de facto construction freeze is in place.

The goal of these concessions is to give Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas something he can present as a "victory" in order to entice him back to the negotiating table.

According to Palestinian reports, it was only partly successful.

While Abbas is reportedly ready to drop his preconditions for renewing talks, he will only do so temporarily. In essence, according to Palestinian media reports, Abbas will come to the negotiating table with the intent of blackmailing Netanyahu.

If Netanyahu fails to make a proposal that meets all Arab demands right away, Abbas has threatened to again turn to the United Nations to unilaterally recognize an independent Palestinian state.

Despite what many in the region recognize as the same old intractable positions, Kerry is hailing the deal as a historic opportunity and is expected back in the region shortly.