Day: October 12, 2016

The Iran Horn Grows Courtesy of Obama

By Post Editorial Board October 10, 2016 | 9:13pm
Iran’s banks weren’t even cut off from the US financial system over the nuclear issue — but over Tehran’s funding of terrorism, its regional aggression and so on.
Which makes another Treasury move even more squalid: It will now also let foreign firms and branches of US firms do business with Iranian groups like the Revolutionary Guard.
The Guard is the chief conduit for Tehran’s support of terrorism, tied to numerous plots, including one in DC aimed at a Saudi envoy. And it’s also a prime force helping Syria’s Bashar al-Assad massacre civilians in his bloody bid to keep power.
It was behind the kidnapping of US sailors in January, the serial harassment of US Navy ships and even last month’s arrest of another Iranian-American in Iran.
Yet the Obama Treasury is making it easier for the Revolutionary Guard to do business — as part of an official US drive to boost Iran’s economy in the name of preserving the nuclear deal.
This, when a Foundation for Defense of Democracies report last week noted much of Tehran’s windfall from the deal has gone to Iran’s military, including its nuclear and missile programs and its terror operations.
At least Team Obama has only three months left to shower more gifts on Iran. But what of the next president?
Donald Trump slams the Iran deal every chance he gets. Hillary Clinton promises to be tough in “enforcing” it, but publicly backs President Obama’s signature foreign-policy achievement. If she wins, let’s all hope this is another of those issues where her real position isn’t her public one.

East Coast Expecting The Sixth Seal (Revelation 6:12)

United States Fault Lines Map – Earthquakes could also happen in East Coast and in the Midwest Cites

Fault Lines US
Submitted by Nicole Wilson on January 22, 2010 – 3:07pm.
[BestSyndication News] Earthquakes are always a concern out in Alaska and in California, as it is full of fault lines that are continually shifting. There are some fault lines that are overdue to shift, especially the California San Andres fault line that runs through the mountain ranges and close to Wrightwood. But did you know there is a United States Fault Lines Map that illustrates great potentials for earthquakes outside of our state?
New Madrid Fault Line
The New Madrid Fault Line has records of over 4000 earthquake reports since 1974. This fault line is also called the New Madrid Seismic Zone and has potential to devastate the states of Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi. The biggest part of the New Madrid Fault Line sits in Missouri.
We often forget that this Midwestern fault line is there, but in 1811-1812 there was a series of earthquakes that shook with estimated magnitudes of 8.1 – 8.3, with several aftershocks of 6.0 magnitudes. Since those big ones, the largest earthquake that this fault line produced was in a 6.6-magnitude quake that happened on October 31, 1895. It’s epicenter was in Charleston, Missouri.The damage from these earthquakes were extensive, and there has been recent speculation by the scientific community that believe that this fault line might be shutting down and moving elsewhere. In an issue of Nature, scientist believe the current seismic activity at the New Madrid Fault line is only aftershocks from the earthquake back in 1811 and 1812.
Ramapo Fault Line
San Andreas Fault Line
The last few years Southern California has been preparing for the next big one with government sponsored Earthquake Drills. Scientist are predicting that the next big one with a magnitude of a 7.0 or higher for this fault line will happen any time, it could be now or 10 years from now. They believe the areas that are going to be hit the hardest are going to be Palm Springs and a number of other cities in San Bernardino, Riverside and Imperial counties in California, and Mexicali municipality in Baja California.
To learn more about earthquakes you can visit http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/

Antichrist Influencing the Iraqi Elections (Revelation 13)

Al Monitor
BAGHDAD, Iraq — After demanding a change to the Independent High Electoral Commission, Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr insisted on changes to the electoral law itself before his widely popular movement participates in the upcoming elections. The Civil Democratic Alliance is also calling for change, as it believes replacing the current electoral law is an important step toward ending the traditional sectarian blocs.
No major changes have been made to the electoral law since 2004, when the lists system was established. In 2010, Iraq was split into 18 constituencies, the number of provinces. In 2014 the Saint Lego electoral system was adopted, allowing votes to go to a chosen candidate’s list. In this system, if a specific candidate does not win, a vote for him would then be counted for the candidate next in line on his list.
The main disadvantage to the current law is that if the candidates exceed the electoral threshold (the number of votes necessary to win in each constituency), then the surplus votes are distributed among the rest of the candidates from the same list. This is how some candidates made it into the parliament and local councils despite receiving few votes, while others reaped hundreds or thousands of votes but failed to reach the electoral threshold.
Meanwhile, the Sadrist movement has yet to present a new proposal for a electoral law or indicate the changes it wants to see in the current one.
Al-Monitor contacted the spokesperson of the Sadrist movement’s political bureau, Jawad al-Jabouri, who explained, “The Sadrist movement’s leadership has formed a committee of legal experts to study the required amendment to the electoral law and several drafts are now up for discussion.” He added, “But the foundation of a new electoral law would be additional constituencies, direct individual voting or fully open lists.”
Jabouri said, “There should be more than 18 constituencies for the elections to be truly reflective of the Iraqi people and for the parliament to represent all the regions in the country. However, we are currently considering whether the constituencies should be divided according to the number of citizens or according to the number of voters in each constituency.”
Article 49 of the Iraqi Constitution stipulates, “The Council of Representatives shall consist of a number of members, at a ratio of one seat per 100,000 Iraqi persons representing the entire Iraqi people.” According to the Ministry of Planning’s data on the population of Iraq, there must be 351 seats, but the electoral law only provides for 328.
On Sept. 28, Sadr addressed a letter to the head of the Shiite National Alliance — Iraq’s largest parliamentary bloc — Ammar al-Hakim, in which he listed 14 conditions for the Sadrist movement-affiliated Ahrar bloc to remain part of the alliance. One of these conditions was changing the electoral law.
The same day, Hakim responded that he agrees on most of the conditions, meaning that changing the electoral law is almost certain, but so far, he has offered no clear vision of what the new law might look like.
Salem al-Musilmawi, a parliament member for the National Alliance, told Al-Monitor, “The National Alliance has agreed to spades Sadr’s conditions and does not object to amending the electoral law, especially since local elections will be held by the beginning of next year.” He noted, “Amending the law should be done following an agreement between all political parties and the new version should be fair and reflective of the Iraqi people’s aspirations.”
Notably, Sadr’s allies from the Civil Democratic Alliance who have declared their support of Sadr’s conditions have a different vision when it comes to the electoral law.
Jassem Hilfi, a Civil Democratic Alliance leader and members of the committee to coordinate the protests in Baghdad, told Al-Monitor that although the Sadrist movement’s political bureau wants to increase the number of constituencies, “The Civil Democratic Alliance wants a law by virtue of which Iraq would be a single constituency with fully open lists, and the law should adopt the largest remained method when it comes to distributing votes to the candidates.” He added, “Multiple constituencies scatter votes and do not guarantee proportional representation.”
Hilfi said, “The Civil Democratic Alliance will discuss with the Sadrist movement the possibility of presenting a joint draft for the new electoral law and work hand-in-hand on passing it, in order to put an end to the current unjust law that was enacted to benefit only the large blocs.”
Mekdad Sharifi, a member of the Independent High Electoral Commission, told Al-Monitor that the commission will need three to four months to prepare for the elections should a new electoral law be approved. “Preparing for any election is bound to a certain timetable. For instance, there is a specific period to update the voter lists, another for logistics and another to train the commission’s members to operate under the new law, and so on,” he explained, pointing out the need “for the parliament to take all of this into consideration if it wants to amend the electoral law.”
Accordingly, any delay in changing the electoral law over differing positions would most likely result in postponing the local elections scheduled for April. Some blocs, such as al-Mowaten, headed by Ammar Hakim and al-Wataniya, headed by Iyad Alawi, have demanded the local elections be merged with the general elections in 2018 to minimize expenses and allow the participation of cities currently occupied by the Islamic State, while Sadr has threatened to boycott the upcoming elections if the electoral law is not changed and the commission is not replaced.

Russian Nuclear Horn Moves West (Daniel 7)

Russia moves Iskander nuclear missiles to Kaliningrad as UK deploys troops to Poland | World | News | Daily Express Vladimir PutinGETTY Moscow has confirmed the army is moving the nuclear-capable Iskander-M missiles into Kaliningrad Moscow has confirmed the army is moving the nuclear-capable Iskander-M missiles into Kaliningrad – bordering Poland and Lithuania. At the same time, 650 British troops are being deployed to eastern Europe to repel Russia’s expanding dominance in the region. The Kremlin said in a statement they were being stationed in the Russian enclave “as part of military training of the Russian armed forces”. Mr Putin’s actions will also increase pressure on NATO members to increase their contributions to European defences. Lithuania, neighbouring Kaliningrad and a member of NATO, has said the government will protest to Moscow, while Germany and Poland are also expected to react angrily to the missile deployment, particularly as the Iskander can hit targets 450 miles away, putting the German capital Berlin in range. NATO is readying a fast-reaction force of several thousands troops in the east of Europe alongside Britain’s commitment to an additional 650 soldiers. Around 500 will be based in Estonia while 150 will be stationed in Estonia. Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon warned on Sunday the world was seeing “a much more aggressive Russia”. He said: “We hoped Russia would become a partner to us in the West, but clearly Russia has decided to be a competitor. “They said that right at the beginning they were going to come in and help us fight Daesh [Islamic State], they haven’t done that. “They’ve been helping (Syrian president Bashar) Assad bomb his own people, they’ve been flexing their muscles in the Black Sea, they’ve been militarising in Crimea, we’ve seen this pressure on the Baltic states, and they’ve tried to interfere in elections – they even tried to interfere on the Dutch referendum on the Ukraine association agreement.” Kaliningrad, which is separate from the Russian mainland and on the Baltic Sea, houses dozens of warships, submarines, land troops, a naval brigade and two military airbases. Commanders fear that in a conflict Russia’s significant military buildup in the area could hinder attempts by NATO to reach the Baltic states and north-eastern Poland. Express.co.uk revealed earlier this year how a 40-mile stretch of land in north-east Poland could be the achilles heel in Europe’s border which Russia could exploit to launch an invasion. The Suwalki Gap – measuring just 40-miles wide – is the only link between Poland and the Baltic states. But the area is surrounded by the Russian province of Kaliningrad to the north and Kremlin-friendly Belarus to the south. NATO commanders have expressed concerns if Moscow’s forces seized the thin slither of land, the three Baltic states – Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia – would be left isolated and helpless to a Russian invasion.

Obama Pays Off Iran (Ezekiel 17)

140731_600Fact-Check: Yes, the Nuclear Deal Hands ‘$150 Billion’ Over to Iran Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused “extremist lobbies” in the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia of stirring up animosity towards Iran to prevent it from reaping the benefits of a landmark nuclear deal During the opening statements on Sunday night’s presidential debate, Republican nominee Donald Trump described the Iran nuclear deal as a “one-sided transaction” that would result in $150 billion returning to the coffers of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Fact-Check: MOSTLY TRUE “When I look at the Iran deal and how bad a deal it is for us, it’s a one-sided transaction where we’re giving back $150 billion to a terrorist state – really, the number one terrorist state,” Trump told the audience, responding to a question from the audience. “We’ve made them a strong country from, really, a very weak country just three years ago.” Trump has made this claim regarding the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), as the Iran nuclear deal is officially known, and received some criticism for it. Fact-checking websites such as Politifact have argued that Trump’s claim is false because “the money is already Iran’s to begin with,” but not denied that this amount of money would return to the control of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei thanks to the deal. The New York Times has argued that the $150 billion estimate is a fabrication by “congressional Republicans” far from the real amount of money Iran would once again control. As Algemeiner, citing Omri Ceren of the Israel Project, notes, the twelve-figure estimate of the money the deal would return to Iranian control came from President Barack Obama, not Republicans. President Obama said in an interview that Iran “has $150 billion parked outside the country,” arguing that not all of its funds under sanctions will be unfrozen immediately because “unwinding the existing restraints… takes a certain amount of time.” This money does not include a separate $1.7 billion payment to the government of Iran, allegedly to atone for an arms sales agreement that never went through after the 1979 Islamic revolution. The U.S. government handed over that money the same day that Iran released several American citizens imprisoned on dubious charges. Both President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, who played a major role in brokering the Iran nuclear deal, have admitted that the Iranian regime will likely use the money to fund terrorism, particularly activity by the Shiite terrorist organization Hezbollah.