Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Signs and wonders



We asked for signs. The signs were sent. - Leonard Cohen

Afraid the time's too short today for writing, but time's getting shorter every day. I don't mean to get all John the Revelator about it, but as Juan Cole's written, "Tuesday was an apocalyptic day in Iraq."

The destruction of Samarra's Askariyah shrine marks a Biblical moment of provocation in Iraq's ersatz Civil War. And just in time, too, because there's a time-table to keep where "real men" want to go.

These must be hard times for soft-headed apologists of "benign" empire, who thought there could be something of worth even to the fiction of liberation and democracy; who believed that civil war would be the last thing sought by Western powers, which wanted peace and security rather than provocation and chaos.

The Samarra mosque contains the shrine of the Hidden Imam, the Mahdi, whom many Shiites believe is about to manifest himself. It's a belief shared and encouraged by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as well as Iraq's Muqtada all-Sadr. (The United States, of course, couldn't comfortably confront Iran so long as its presidency was held by the frustratingly reasonable Mohammad Khatami. In Ahmadinejad - who, like Bush, most probably won his office as well by election fraud - the US has a fine millenial foil.)

As Washington's Republican Guard must know, one advantage of cultivating a base which believes in the imminent end of the world is that the more catastrophic a regime's governance, the more encouraged its supporters become that they picked the right horseman for an apocalypse. Is all hell breaking loose? Great - all hell should break loose.

How short is our time, and how hot the coming hellfire? One more month, maybe, of this New Normal, before we tumble into the next circle. Consider this report published last Friday by Newropeans Magazine, via the RI forum, thanks to "seemslikeadream":

The Laboratoire européen d’Anticipation Politique Europe 2020, LEAP/E2020, now estimates to over 80% the probability that the week of March 20-26, 2006 will be the beginning of the most significant political crisis the world has known since the Fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, together with an economic and financial crisis of a scope comparable with that of 1929. This last week of March 2006 will be the turning-point of a number of critical developments, resulting in an acceleration of all the factors leading to a major crisis, disregard any American or Israeli military intervention against Iran. In case such an intervention is conducted, the probability of a major crisis to start rises up to 100%, according to LEAP/E2020.

An Alarm based on 2 verifiable events

The announcement of this crisis results from the analysis of decisions taken by the two key-actors of the main on-going international crisis, i.e. the United States and Iran:

- on the one hand there is the Iranian decision of opening the first oil bourse priced in Euros on March 20th, 2006 in Teheran, available to all oil producers of the region;

- on the other hand, there is the decision of the American Federal Reserve to stop publishing M3 figures (the most reliable indicator on the amount of dollars circulating in the world) from March 23, 2006 onward.

These two decisions constitute altogether the indicators, the causes and the consequences of the historical transition in progress between the order created after World War II and the new international equilibrium in gestation since the collapse of the USSR. Their magnitude as much as their simultaneity will catalyse all the tensions, weaknesses and imbalances accumulated since more than a decade throughout the international system.

...

LEAP/E2020 anticipate that these two non-official decisions will involve the United States and the world in a monetary, financial, and soon economic crisis without precedent on a planetary scale. The ‘monetarisation’ of the US debt is indeed a very technical term describing a catastrophically simple reality: the United States undertake not to refund their debt, or more exactly to refund it in "monkey currency". LEAP/E2020 also anticipate that the process will accelerate at the end of March, in coincidence with the launching of the Iranian Oil Bourse, which can only precipitate the sales of US Treasury Bonds by their non-American holders.


Perhaps it won't be March. It may be April, or May. But I can't think of a circumstance arising, short of a global religious and numinous event (and who knows - maybe just as ersatz), to prevent War with Iran.

Remember the story of Manhattan's talking fish? In March 2003, on the eve of the invasion of Iraq, a 20 lb carp began shouting in Hebrew about the end of the world. Where it was reported it was played for laughs - the lighter side of apocalypse. Naturally, because such a thing doesn't happen in the world most of us inhabit. And so it must not have happened.

Two fish-cutters, Nivelo, a Gentile who does not understand Hebrew, was so shocked at the sight of a fish talking in any language that he fell over. He ran into the front of the store screaming: 'It's the Devil! The Devil is here!' Then the shop owner heard it shouting warnings and commands too.

'It said "Tzaruch shemirah" and "Hasof bah",' he told the New York Times, 'which essentially means that everyone needs to account for themselves because the end is near.'


Nivelo, a "devout Christian," reportedly still believes the carp was the Devil: "I don't believe any of this Jewish stuff. But I heard that fish talk."

A local resident noted, "Two men do not dream the same dream." I don't know about that. How many of us are there? And surely this can't be our waking lives.

We have the signs. Keep a sharp lookout for the wonders.

41 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jeff,

The militia of Moqtada Al-Sadr is called the 'Mahdi Army.' Interestingly enough, he's been touring the Middle East lately, and recently cut short a trip to Lebanon in order to respond to the bombing of that shrine.

Who benefits from all this? Who benefits from a fractured resistance to the occupation? Who gains a ready made excuse to stick around and 'maintain order?' This sounds like a Rumsfeld P2OG operation if I ever heard of one.

Remember the British SAS commandos caught impersonating Arabs and shooting at police in Basra last year? I'll bet those folks have improved their disguises considerably since then.

4:06 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Excerpt from "The Dawning of the New Sino-Russian Global Supremacy As the Sun Sets Over the American Empire" by Al Martin, 2-6-06:

"The deterioration of relationships between Iran, Western Europe, and United States has other ramifications. The Iranian oil bourse was never a reality anyway. And this finishes it.

For the Iranian oil bourse to work, the Iranians need the support of the Europeans -- not only the political support, but the oil market infrastructure the Europeans have, like LYMEX.

They needed the oil exchanges in Europe and delivery capabilities to make this thing work. And that becomes a lot less likely now.

Of course, this concept of pricing oil in euros was nonsense from Day One. Trichet, the ECB chief, has consistently told the Iranian government not to attempt to price oil in euros.

The euro market is not liquid or deep enough like the U.S. dollar market is.

You can’t go pricing a major commodity like oil in euros and expect to get other partners into the deal like the Iranians sought.

To gain influence in the Middle East, what the Iranians wanted was to have a viable oil trading and delivery mechanism, a viable alternative to the big Western markets--the NYMEX, LYMEX, ZYMEX, etc.

That’s what they wanted to develop, but, being a sanctioned country, they couldn’t use U.S. dollars.

The United States wouldn’t let them. And to try to control as much oil as they would like to control, the market for euros, simply put, is not a deep and liquid enough market.

They would have to come up with some new scheme.

Why do you think the Iranians were so attracted to the Saudi gold-backed dinar proposal? The Iranians were the first to sign onto it because they know themselves the pricing of large amounts of oil in euros isn’t possible. It is simply unfeasible.

Anyway, the Iranian oil bourse idea is conspiracy theory nonsense at its worst. It never had much a chance to get off the ground, and it has even less of a chance now..."

4:20 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ahmadinejad is sooo Michael Ledeen's sock puppet. Paranoid? Maybe. Do I have any proof of that? NOT A FUCKING SHRED. Nor do I expect that any will be forthcoming, as all the anti-war types will be fooled into defending Ahmadinejad as war fever ramps up, and it's obviously an idea that, if true, would imply a degree of manipulation and control of world events that even most paranoids wouldn't be prepared to accept. Sure it's all rigged, people are saying, but how? We can't know. Meanwhile the polls are showing that people are being conditioned to believe that "we" have to "do something" about Iran. Tick... tick... tick...

4:54 p.m.  
Blogger TonyForesta said...

The haunting convergence of events and forces of truly epic nature is accelerating rapidly, the friction is hot, and the signs are more apparent with each passing day.

What will come of all these wild conspiracy theories, high wierdness, apacolyptic revelations, and factbasedrealities remains an unsettling unknown, unknown, - but there is no denying the rushing covergence, or coagulation of energy and forces toward some moment of radical change, or some criticality event, from which the world as we know it will be forever changed.

US currency debt is a complex interpenetrating global issue that the most lofty economists and financiers cannot decipher.

What, how, why, when, where, who, - remain unknown unknowns, - but the underlying math is incontravertable - foreign nations own the bulk of American debt. If this debt were to ever be called, - the financial ramifications would cause a catastrophy of biblical proportions.

The fascist warmongers, profiteers, and incompetent chickenhawks in the Bush government do not operate by the rule of law, nor do they abide any guiding principle, or even reason or logic in the prosecution of the governments mephitic machinations and designs.

Soooooo.... Hi ho, hi ho, its' off to neverendingwar and armagedon we go!!!

Should a messianic figure doffing a Blue Turban emerge proclaiming a jihad against the great satan - it will be time to head for the hill, and make your peace with the creator.

Get locked, cocked, and ready to rock, because possibility of all hell breaking loose on this earth is more real than not.

5:19 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anyone know if LEAP/E2020 has a good record at predictions? I checked out their site; they've been around since 1998 but I can't find anything to ascertain how good they are at what they do.

7:40 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, the end certainly is f*cking nigh when fish speak Hebrew or fish appear with "God" written in Arabic. Believe now?

Interesting that both "wonders" involve fish, a traditional symbol for Christianity. Do you think, perhaps, that the confluence of wonders directed at the three major Western religions might mean something?

7:54 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

In case you're inclined to ignore apocalyptic warnings from aquatic creatures, and cling to faith that the current middle eastern crisis will resolve itself back down to the low-level hum to which we're accustomed, you might want to check out this ever-so-slightly longer timeline that takes us to the same apocalyptic endpoint, with perhaps a whimper instead of a bang.

8:00 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The fish is not exlcusively a Christian symbol--read Tim Powers "Declare" (a great book), in which he makes liberal use of the stories from the 1001 nights of Scheherezade (sp?). "O fish, art thou constant to the old covenant?" is a line that figures prominently in his story of the collision between the djinn, their human allies in the Soviet Union, and the British players of this version of the Great Game.

8:11 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

As printed in The Washington Post, p. A26
Monday, February 18, 1974

Following is the full text of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's essay ``Live Not By Lies.'' It is perhaps the last thing he wrote on his native soil [before the collapse of the Soviet Union] and circulated among Moscow's intellectuals [at that time]. The essay is dated Feb. 12, the day that secret police broke into his apartment and arrested him. The next day he was exiled to West Germany.

At one time we dared not even to whisper. Now we write and read samizdat, and sometimes when we gather in the smoking room at the Science Institute we complain frankly to one another: What kind of tricks are they playing on us, and where are they dragging us? gratuitous boasting of cosmic achievements while there is poverty and destruction at home. Propping up remote, uncivilized regimes. Fanning up civil war. And we recklessly fostered Mao Tse-tung at our expense-- and it will be we who are sent to war against him, and will have to go. Is there any way out? And they put on trial anybody they want and they put sane people in asylums--always they, and we are powerless.

Things have almost reached rock bottom. A universal spiritual death has already touched us all, and physical death will soon flare up and consume us both and our children--but as before we still smile in a cowardly way and mumble without tounges tied. But what can we do to stop it? We haven't the strength?

We have been so hopelessly dehumanized that for today's modest ration of food we are willing to abandon all our principles, our souls, and all the efforts of our predecessors and all opportunities for our descendants--but just don't disturb our fragile existence. We lack staunchness, pride and enthusiasm. We don't even fear universal nuclear death, and we don't fear a third world war. We have already taken refuge in the crevices. We just fear acts of civil courage.

We fear only to lag behind the herd and to take a step alone-and suddenly find ourselves without white bread, without heating gas and without a Moscow registration.
...

8:57 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Anonymous said...

Excerpt from "The Dawning of the New Sino-Russian Global Supremacy As the Sun Sets Over the American Empire" by Al Martin, 2-6-06."

This is incorrect. The Iranian Oil Bourse is indeed a reality, and the Iranians CAN force (although Europe will willingly cooperate because that is part of their long-term economic agenda) their oil customers to pay in Euros. Even a small percentage of U.S. Dollars OFF the world market will be catastrophic for the U.S.

Make no mistake, and plan accordingly, this is NO conspiracy theory! Oil is the "gold" that anchors the U.S. currency.

And by the way, Jeff, the Counterpunch article you site early in your post is interesting, except for one small problem.... The author, M.Shahid Alam, assumes the existence of Al-Quaida which reveals his political afilliation and beliefs, and detracts from the article's overall insight.

We all know now that there exists no such group... and never did.

9:30 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This post freaked me out, when I saw it this weekend at GLP! After watching the webbot results for the last year or so, I recently subscribed to the febuary run. The bots are predicting a major context change in late March early April. The schronicity of this report and the webbot run is amazing. This was done weeks before the french article came out. The scenario described in the french paper is only one of some possible scenarios that could happen in that time period. I think its the most likely, but there are some other possibilities. Hold on for the ride, it only gets worse! You might think about minimizing risk for your investments during this time period. I have.

some public info from halfpasthuman
Part 2: Meta Data - Global Antibodies Waaaay Up*

Bushista - Shared Anxiety*

Context Creation - Descriptor Set, Small worm in the skull *

Terra - Essential Restoration

Part 2: Conclusion - Three Waves Increasing*

www.urbansurvival.com
March to March

It looks like I'm not the only one looking forward to the period around the end of March for a global context shift in the flow of news. Although Cliff, at www.halfpasthuman.com (creator of the forward looking linguistic shift analysis "web bots") thinks I'm too "event oriented," the evidence continues to pile up that the end of March will be one of those phenomenal turning points. For example, I read this morning how a group out of Europe figures that there's an 80% chance that we'll face an economic meltdown plus a global political crisis to grow out of the showdown with Iran.


While the showdown is only a "potential event" at this time, the reports that Iran has reached some rudimentary agreement with Russia on reprocessing, is probably premature. Stalling for time comes to mind.



It will be one heck of an eclipse this year on the 29th....

9:31 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm of the opinion that we won't predict when the shit will hit the fan. It may not happen in our lifetimes, unfortunately for us, this looks not to be the case.

11:13 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

to anonymous 4:20:

Al Martin,huh?

Heard him on a local talk radio show a few years back. He was talking about how the Pentagon's anti-aircraft defense screen had to be intentionally turned off for that plane to get through on 911.

At one point, a right wing fella called & began questioning his claim about the anti-aircraft defense shield.

Martin was a bit indignant but he eventually told the guy that it was there in the NTSB's report about the 911 plane crash.

Having nothing better to do, I checked his source &, low & behold, there was nothing there.

Again, having nothing better to do, I called Mr. Martin & outed his shitty sourcing. Again, he was indignant, but he insisted he read it there & maybe it was scrubbed, etc.

Heard him again about 6 months later repeating the same story,only this time his source was different &, upon checking, equally non-existent.

He tends to send up a lot of hot air balloons, but I wonder if all are as easily punctured as the tiny one I concentrated on.

Just a friendly warning.

1:13 a.m.  
Blogger DhiRAj SinGh said...

This is from my recent post 'The SACK of Iraq'

"THE TV was breaking news. Bombs were going off on our screen. It was 2003. We were in Iraq. Homeless. Away from people we knew well. We were watching tanks and men in camouflage take over a country already in ruins.

Live.

We were like warriors in a mad videogame"

And this is some more from 'An American Cross': "The Americans had arrived at a bad time. The war was their cross. Made in America, from the strongest Texan teak. They had voted for the war, in a funny Rainbow way."

I think it finds resonance with what you've written. Good job!!

2:25 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anonymous One,man I hope they are keepen a closer eye on the other big gold dome,Temple Mount,ground zero.I wonder if they have the ashes of the red heifer ready yet? I'm afraid they laid to many traps for us to back out now,all bets are now off.The coming mind fuck,will catch sleeping masses blind side.Always remember,out of chaos comes order,just beware of the makers of chaos,be strong,later.

6:44 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't know about apocalypses -- but the order of the world has already changed, and this Dubai Ports World business is one sign of it.

China is the new leading power (with India nipping at its heels.) The old Silk Route is being cranked up to bring Chinese exports down to the Arabian Sea, and Middle Eastern oil and natural gas back to China. The US is completely out of the loop and can't think of anything better to do than suck up to Dubai in hopes of keeping at least a toehold in the action.

As one example, China is building a huge new port facility for Pakistan at a place called Gwadar, which lies at the western end of Pakistan's coast, just outside the Straits of Hormuz. It is intended to be a major terminus for that revived Silk Route -- as well as the basis of a significant military presence in the region. The US is apparently worried sick over it but not saying anything in public. Dubai Ports World just got the contract to run the port operations.

As another, in trying to find out more about Dubai last night, I came upon the name of Youssef M. Ibrahim. I don't know much about him, except that the notes at the end of one article say, "Youssef F. Ibrahim is Managing Director of the Dubai-based Strategic Energy Investment Group. Before his current position, he served as senior Middle East correspondent for the New York Times and Energy Editor of the Wall Street Journal for 26 years, and was a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York."

This is by all appearances someone with a strong lean towards the US and American-style democracy. And yet this particular article -- written two years ago and titled, "US-Mideast oil ties undergo rapid change" -- is all about how the American era has passed:

It may be worthwhile for both the Arabs and Iranians, who together possess two thirds of the world's proven oil reserves, to take advantage of this new international power line-up. Make friends with China and India. Oil is power.

Arab and Iranians must understand that America needs them a lot more than they need America. They are, for the first time in decades, in a position to change the rules of the oil game. For one thing, they can demand that the price of oil be set in euros instead of American dollars. . . .

Make new friends through trade, take all your eggs out of the American basket, and then use them to put pressure on America, instead of having America put pressure on you. Oil is such a strategic commodity - you can play its importance to your advantage.

America invaded Iraq for oil. It has failed, as we see everyday, to control Iraq, let alone pump oil out of it. There is a lesson here to be learnt about the "limits" of American power.

It is equally important to appreciate the importance of the rising Chinese giant to the Gulf region. Points to remember about China are that it is: A major nuclear power; a permanent member of the Security Council; a super economic and political power that can stare America straight in the eyes, without blinking.

Finally, China is a country with thousands of years of civilisation. It is as wise as it is strong. Strategic Arab planners must start establishing long lasting trade and industrial ties with China.


The real question at the moment isn't what's going to happen. It's what's already happened over the last five years while Bush was keeping us all distracted. Currently, we're like the guy in the gag saying "Ya, you missed me" -- until his head falls off.

9:09 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jeff, well done.

I’ve tried to push the first thought I had about this attack to the back of my mind. I can’t keep it there. The resonance the destruction of a golden dome has for a whole bunch of people is …I don’t know…Great, and not good at all.

9:54 a.m.  
Blogger Wolfmoonlady said...

I'm not much of an astrologer but a friend of mine who is sent me this article a couple of weeks ago:

The Dramatic Solar Eclipse of March 29

While astronomers and sky watchers around the world are enthusiastically packing their bags to view the total Solar Eclipse this coming March 29, astrologers might anticipate it with a bit more alarm. According to traditional interpretations, a Solar Eclipse in Aries foretells war. And the Lord of this eclipse, Mars, is found at 21º Gemini, the exact same location as the U.S. natal Mars.

When the eclipse chart is set for Washington D.C. at 5:16 am, Mars is found near the foundation of the horoscope, while Pluto is passing overhead. The Mars-Pluto opposition and its association with military conflict becomes the dominant vibration by virtue of its angularity over the nation's capital. In addition, Pluto is extraordinarily potent here since it's simultaneously turning retrograde while conjunct the Galactic Center.

The action around March 29 might have global significance* since the eclipse degree hits critical points on many world leaders' and national horoscopes. For example, the eclipse lands on China's Sun, Hamas's Mars, Turkey's Mars, the UK's Ascendant (1801 chart), Israel's Twelfth House Neptune, the U.S. Mars/Pluto midpoint, Jimmy Carter's Sun, Bill Clinton's Mars-Ascendant, and Pope Benedict's Midheaven.

One likely hotspot was foreshadowed last week during President Bush's State of the Union address. At the time, transiting Uranus was exactly opposite his Mars, an extremely attack-oriented combination. While he personally was not attacked, he did single out Iran as an immediate threat. As it happens, the eclipse takes place only three degrees from Iran 's Sun, while the Mars-Pluto opposition squares Iran 's Mars, all of which is a powerfully dynamic, volatile mix.

FWIW.

12:08 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Interesting how the Shia apocalypticism of Ahmadinejad and others parallels the Christian dispensationalism of Scoffield, Hal Lindsey, and---George Bush. Look it up. The book "Messiahs" by John Hogue (most famous for his works on Nostradamus) is a good place to start on this comparative escahtology.

As for Ahmadinejad being Ledeen's sock puppet: Well, he certainly could play Crazy Middle Eastern Dictator in a CHuck Norris film. Maybe he's really from central casting!

12:16 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Washington Post finally catching up to Jeff two and a half months later.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/21/AR2006022101850_pf.html

Tomorrow's headline "GOP Achievers officially change party name from Grand Old Party to Perverted Luciferian Freakshow"

1:05 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Keep a look out for signs, hmm? How about this:
Violence After Mosque Attack Kills 111
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060223/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_060223160141;_ylt=As0d4nnxE97WtX1WLFPsJW1X6GMA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
The number seems to stand out a bit...

1:31 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

tell me, what muslim, who takes his faith very seriously, would destroy a mosque in the way that this shiite one was? none

this is complete psy-ops warfare. this event will probably be seen as the beginning of the end for iraq.

as the manufactured civil war rages on, they can say how its also destabilizing iran and syria too.

guess what happens then?

3:22 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes, about 111. I strongly suspect they post the numbers when the numbers are 'significant'. The "official counts" are usually liquid, and never perfectly certain. The first casualty posting I saw on the morning of the London bombing was 33.

3:32 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

We, our world, our universe are part of a complex web of cause and effect. Always has been.

In darkness, your pupils dilate. Mosquitoes taxis down an airborne CO2 gradient to find your blood. Pepsi and Coke saturate our culture for generations, so we buy Pepsi and Coke.

Ping - pong - ping .. cause - effect ..

And I, for one, want to keep my wits about me. I don't want to lose my head over looming global change. I don't want to lose control (Jeff I hope I am not infringing on your emphatic use of italics : )) of my head, to be more precise.

Yes, no doubt that these changes are going to be potentially, well, don't want to say catastrophic, better to say deadly to many, harmful to even more. Dramatic. Fundamental. Big.

Take your pick, there are many, a couple of big ones touched upon by Jeff here in this post. Never mind the many variations of cultural and social changes that feedback into all of the others.

How about Global climate change. Big. Very Big.

There are other human created 'issues' GNR (as described by Ray Kurzweil: genetic, nanotech and robotics). Possibly the biggest of all, that trumps them all.

But none are apocalytic. None ends life.

Asteroids - nope, couldn't extinguish life.

Past global climate change? - Nein. Complex living organisms advanced nonetheless.

Nothing has yet stopped life once it has begun in our Earth's experience. Even if the sun were snuffed out, its entirely plausible that something would live off geothermal and chemical energy instead.

So, what about it?

We need to keep our heads on, or as I said, more precisely, not let our heads be turned. Resist the meme. Fight the mind viruses that are foist upon you.

Do not make decisions based on the fact that the end is nigh!

This post and apocalyptic content reminds me of the so-called Jerusalem Quartet books written by Edward Whittemore, former CIA operative, between 1974 and 1987. Whittemore (1933–1995) lived and worked (ostensibly, as usual, for the CIA) in the Middle East for a good part of his adult life.

Whittemore's stories have a cast of fantastic characters who live unusually long lifetimes. One in particular, a Jerusulem antiquities dealer who claims to be 1000's of years old and to have seen the comings and goings of empires, war, disease, religious strife. The description, by another character who lives through of the sacking of Smyrna is haunting. For all of this calamity, Jerusalem, Smyrna, and the feeble antiquities dealer continue on.

I mention Whittemore because insinuates the Middle East as a metaphor for life - change and evolution, brutal and abrupt - but life continues regardless. What is happening today is more of that.

Interestingly, that Whittemore, being a CIA operative, actually may have had a hand in creating some of the current reality is ironic, given the apocalyptic way the situation is often received.

Then again, maybe Whittemore's books are an attempt to provide hope, to himself more than others, to convince himself that that his covert actions and their effects were not contributing to apocalype.

But I doubt apocalypse comes.

http://www.oldearthbooks.com/whittemore.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Whittemore

3:43 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks Starroute for the educational info on Dubai.
Very interesting.

And thanks to whoever for the NoI - motherplanes fantasy info. "3 bombs each"? Very amusing.

3:53 p.m.  
Blogger Jeff Wells said...

Riverbend today:

We woke up this morning to news that men wearing Iraqi security uniforms walked in and detonated explosives, damaging the mosque almost beyond repair. It’s heart-breaking and terrifying. There has been gunfire all over Baghdad since morning. The streets near our neighborhood were eerily empty and calm but there was a tension that had us all sitting on edge. We heard about problems in areas like Baladiyat where there was some rioting and vandalism, etc. and several mosques in Baghdad were attacked. I think what has everyone most disturbed is the fact that the reaction was so swift, like it was just waiting to happen.

All morning we’ve been hearing/watching both Shia and Sunni religious figures speak out against the explosions and emphasise that this is what is wanted by the enemies of Iraq- this is what they would like to achieve- divide and conquer. Extreme Shia are blaming extreme Sunnis and Iraq seems to be falling apart at the seams under foreign occupiers and local fanatics.

No one went to work today as the streets were mostly closed. The situation isn’t good at all. I don’t think I remember things being this tense- everyone is just watching and waiting quietly. There’s so much talk of civil war and yet, with the people I know- Sunnis and Shia alike- I can hardly believe it is a possibility. Educated, sophisticated Iraqis are horrified with the idea of turning against each other, and even not-so-educated Iraqis seem very aware that this is a small part of a bigger, more ominous plan.

4:01 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes Jeff, an unusually bad convergence seems set for late March.

But don't lose it, please.

No talking fish, okay?

9:38 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jeff:
Your thread contribution immediately above partially addressed what I had been wondering about. That was, what do the Iraqi people in general really think is going on with the continual violence, attacks and atrocities? What do they make of it? Who do they believe is behind it? Are Shiites and Sunnis really so virulently fratricidal that the violence is all just taken for granted as being genuine grass-roots intra-Muslim hate? Whom would they suspect most? The Neocon / Zionist alliance? Their neighboring Persian nemesis? "The Base"?
The comment in your contribution was encouraging, because it indicates the general population is trying to hang on to reason. The problem is that this ongoing 'terror' campaign is very much like a large scale ritual abuse that is deliberately intended to cause the victim to dissociate from reason. Man, talk about "psy-ops". And to some extent, is it not meant to affect the world at large?

Nevertheless, "... even not-so-educated Iraqis seem very aware that this is a small part of a bigger, more ominous plan."

The next question, is what could/should they be doing about it? Is there anything the people of Iraq can do? It would seem not. So far, they seem to be taking it all stoically.

Of one thing I am certain. The perpetrators themselves are insane. And evil. They are also probably highly intelligent, and egotistical, and therefore narcissitic. Therefore, they are extremely self-deluded. We know they are. We do not know precisely whom they are, but we know basically what they are, and what they want. And yet, I am coming to wonder if the establishing of a NWO is really their prime motive. Could it not be an excuse? An excuse for what they really just enjoy - which is to kill, to rob, and to destroy.

I hark back to what is written in Genesis chapter 6:

6:11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

6:12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

6:13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

And cross-ref to Matthew 24:

24:37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

24:38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,

24:39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

And then this from Luke 21:

21:34 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.

21:35 For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.

21:36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

And finally, from the Revelation chap. 11, (if you might bear a reference from John the revelator):

11:18 And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

Another quote, appropriate to the title of this post, from 2 Thessalonians 2:

2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

2:9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and SIGNS AND LYING WONDERS,

2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

For all of us, it is time to keep in mind the parting advice from Det. Will Dormer in "Insomnia":
"Don't lose your way"

11:02 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Saint Sarah's Day is May 24th

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Sarah

2:20 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The problem is that this ongoing 'terror' campaign is very much like a large scale ritual abuse that is deliberately intended to cause the victim to dissociate from reason.

yep.

Man, talk about "psy-ops". And to some extent, is it not meant to affect the world at large?

you answered your own question, above. yes, its the point.

Of one thing I am certain. The perpetrators themselves are insane. And evil. They are also probably highly intelligent, and egotistical, and therefore narcissitic. Therefore, they are extremely self-deluded. We know they are. We do not know precisely whom they are, but we know basically what they are, and what they want. And yet, I am coming to wonder if the establishing of a NWO is really their prime motive. Could it not be an excuse? An excuse for what they really just enjoy - which is to kill, to rob, and to destroy.

the NWO is the system they use to do what they enjoy.

2:53 p.m.  
Blogger Civic Center said...

On James Wolcott's "Vanity Fair" blog site, he links to a really interesting article written by somebody in Iraq telling a very different story about how the "Muslim Civil War" meme is completely different in the West than it is in Iraq. Check it out.

http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/dispatches/000365.php#more

12:34 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Typical, isn't it? You find a 'rare catch' with something to say, and before it can finish a sentence, the bastards go ahead and butcher it!? That's the bit I find just as incredible as whether the event was objectively true. It might have been the 'second coming' or something. It might have made a good president or prime minister (a very welcome and entertaining change). Humankind in the year 4012 might be debating on a book called The Babel and whether the fish realy existed on the one hand whilst others believe it was the true messiah.

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