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JANUARY 24, 20141

THE TRUMPET WEEKLYTHE TRUMPET WEEKLYJ A N U A R Y 2 4 , 2 0 1 4

Iran: Who said anything about dismantling 3

U.S. fooled for the hundredth time? 4

Pay attention to the pope 5

Police forces now have grenade launchers 7

Cattle herd: 61-year low! 8

BY BRENT NAGTEGAAL

S A has agreed to gif billion o militaryaid to the Lebanese Army, effectively doubling thenational military budget o the small Mediterranean

country. Te deal, procured in conjunction with the Frenchgovernment at the turn o the year, will be completed underthe precondition that Lebanon must use the money to buyFrenchweapons systems and hardware exclusively.

Te generous gif rom Saudi Arabia comes at a criticaltime or Lebanon, as it aces increasingly violent spillover

into its borders rom the Syrian civil war to the north andeast. Te timing o the deal shows that the Saudis see Leba-non as an important actor in the Islamic battle sweepingthrough the region.

Internally, Lebanon is in tatters. en months afer theresignation o Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Lebanon stilldoesnt have a working government. More recently, tit-or-tat deadly exchanges between Hezbollah (the Iran-backed,

Saudi Arabias $3 BillionBid for Lebanon

see LEBANON page 12

Lebanese Army soldiers patrol a street in the

northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on Oct . 28, 2013.

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JANUARY 24, 20142THE TRUMPET WEEKLY

MIDDLE EAST

severe ramifications or the Lebanesearena, and also or the ragile state ocalm that exists between Israel andLebanon. In Lebanon, Hezbollah isbeing increasingly seen as a vulner-able group . It is also seen as a groupwhose leaders are unprotected. Tus,rom having been a national group andthe principal oundation o Lebanesepolitics, Hezbollah is becoming a mi-

litia fighting against other militias andthereby losing its status as the deendero Lebanon, as it always described itsel.

Even more important: Just asHezbollah waged its war against Israelat Lebanons expense, the eeling inLebanon is that Hezbollah is drag-ging Lebanon into a war or its owninterests, or those o Iran or Syria, butdefinitely not Lebanons.

I this eeling grows stronger,Hezbollah could attempt to restore

Hezbollah Is LeftUnprotectedHAARETZ | January 21

T attacks in a singlemonth, two in Beiruts southernsuburbs and one in the Bekaa ValleysHermel district, plus the assassinationin December o high-ranking Hezbol-

lah operative Hassan al-Laqis, are norandom trickling o the war in Syriainto Lebanese territory.

Tese attacks were aimed preciselyat a targetHezbollahand some othem were openly owned. A Sunnigroup known as the Free Sunnis oBaalbek Brigade, among whose de-mands are that Lebanon be cleansedo Hezbollah, took responsibility orthe killing o al-Laqis. Te Al-NusraFront, a radical Sunni group that

operates in Syria, said it was behind thecar bomb attack earlier this month.

Te ostensible reason or the attackswas retaliation or Hezbollahs activeinvolvement in the fighting in Syriaalongside the Syrian Army, and or itspart in the killing o Syrian civilians.

It is likely that the Syrian rebelgroups are trying to create a deterrentbalance by which Hezbollahs strong-

holds in Lebanon will know no peaceas long as Hezbollah fights in Syria. Butit is doubtul whether the rebel groupswill succeed in deterring Hezbollah,which is proficient at striking hard atits political rivals, since it has its eyeson a ar more important goal: the pro-tection o Assads regime and the pres-ervation o the three-way axis o powerwhose heads are in ehran, Damascusand Beiruts southern suburbs.

[]hese terror attacks could have

O beore the opening o an exhibit detailing

Jewish ties to the land o Israel, the United Na-tions Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization() postponed the event. Te sudden cancellation,and the pathetic reason or it, highlights some deeplyentrenched biaseswithin the organization. Te exhibit,which was set up and ready to open at s Parisheadquarters, was designed to portray , years o Jew-ish history. Just one day afer the invitations to the exhibitwere sent out, received a letter rom the na-tions o the Arab Group. Te groups president, AbdullahElmealmi, wrote, Te Arab group is deeply disturbedby the exhibition, which it condemns. Te mediacampaign accompanying the exhibition will inevitably

damage the peace talks, the incessant efforts o U.S. Sec-retary o State John Kerry and s neutrality. So itwas that Director General Irina Borokova announced onJanuary that the exhibits opening would be canceledindefinitely.

In a letter to the Wiesenthal Center, Borokova wrote that is deeply committed to the successul outcome othe peace process in order to achieve stability in the regionand we have a responsibility in ensuring that current e-orts in this regard are not endangered. can hidebehind its peace process excuse, but the truth is that thedecision is a typical UN display o anti-Semitism.

o say that the reason to cancel was or the sake o

the peace process is in itsel laughable. For one, there iscertainly no peace, and secondly, there is no process. Eveni is genuinely concerned with the state o thepeace process, why would it cancel the exhibit,angeringIsrael, and thereby jeopardizing the peace process urther?Why stonewall the project or so long, then allow it, onlyto postpone it indefinitely? Te only answer is because theUN has a history o pandering to the Arabs while ostraciz-ing the nationo Israel. According to UN Watch,the UNHuman Rights Council has criticized Israel on separateoccasions, in resolutions that grant effective impunity to

Hamas, Hezbollah and their state sponsors.

The UN Shows Its Anti-Israel BiasAgainCallum Wood | January 22

UNESCO shut down a Jewish exhibit after it

drew anger from the Arabic community.

MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
https://www.thetrumpet.com/article/11192.30852.0.0/world/terrorism/where-terrorists-learn-to-be-terroristshttps://www.thetrumpet.com/article/11192.30852.0.0/world/terrorism/where-terrorists-learn-to-be-terroristshttps://www.thetrumpet.com/article/11192.30852.0.0/world/terrorism/where-terrorists-learn-to-be-terroristshttps://www.thetrumpet.com/article/10702.29602.0.0/world/war/spillover-violence-in-lebanonhttps://www.thetrumpet.com/article/10702.29602.0.0/world/war/spillover-violence-in-lebanonhttps://www.thetrumpet.com/article/11307.19.0.0/world/united-nations/the-un-shows-its-anti-israel-bias-againhttps://www.thetrumpet.com/article/11307.19.0.0/world/united-nations/the-un-shows-its-anti-israel-bias-againhttps://www.thetrumpet.com/article/9244.8088.0.0/world/united-nations/israel-cuts-off-relations-with-un-human-rights-councilhttps://www.thetrumpet.com/article/9244.8088.0.0/world/united-nations/israel-cuts-off-relations-with-un-human-rights-councilhttps://www.thetrumpet.com/article/9244.8088.0.0/world/united-nations/israel-cuts-off-relations-with-un-human-rights-councilhttps://www.thetrumpet.com/article/9244.8088.0.0/world/united-nations/israel-cuts-off-relations-with-un-human-rights-councilhttps://www.thetrumpet.com/article/11307.19.0.0/world/united-nations/the-un-shows-its-anti-israel-bias-againhttps://www.thetrumpet.com/article/11307.19.0.0/world/united-nations/the-un-shows-its-anti-israel-bias-againhttps://www.thetrumpet.com/article/10702.29602.0.0/world/war/spillover-violence-in-lebanonhttps://www.thetrumpet.com/article/10702.29602.0.0/world/war/spillover-violence-in-lebanonhttps://www.thetrumpet.com/article/11192.30852.0.0/world/terrorism/where-terrorists-learn-to-be-terroristshttps://www.thetrumpet.com/article/11192.30852.0.0/world/terrorism/where-terrorists-learn-to-be-terroristshttps://www.thetrumpet.com/article/11192.30852.0.0/world/terrorism/where-terrorists-learn-to-be-terrorists

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its status as a national organiza-tion, Lebanons own flesh and blood,by taking the relatively easy path oattacking Israel. [S]uch an attackcould restore Hezbollahs crumblingstatus and power, in addition to the

important contribution that such anIsraeli attack could give Assad.

Irans NuclearStockpile May RiseREUTERS | January 22

A delay in Irans build-ing o a nuclear conversion plantsuggests its stockpile o low-enricheduranium () gas will grow or a

while longer, despite ehrans dealwith world powersto curb its disputedatomic activity.

It will be a problem i the acility isnot completed in the next ew months,Mark Fitzpatrick, director o the non-prolieration program at the Interna-tional Institute or Strategic Studies() think tank, said.

Although the immediate attentionis ocused on removing the stockpileo percent enriched uranium, it

is important not to orget about themuch larger stockpile o - percentenriched uranium, Fitzpatrick said.

Experts say Iran potentially hasenough or a ew nuclear weaponsi refined much urther. Limiting its

overall enrichment capacity is ex-pected be one o the thorniest issues inuture negotiations.

Reflecting Western concern alsoabout the lower-grade stockpile, theUnited States says Iran has undertakento not increase it so that it is not largerin hal a years time than it is now.

A senior U.S. administration offi-cial said Iran would convert all o thenewly enriched uranium into oxideand that the total remaining uraniumgas would be less than , kilograms

[, pounds].It had a stockpile o , kilograms

in Novemberexperts say this wouldbe enough to yield to bombsandis estimated to produce roughly kilograms [ pounds] per month,meaning the stockpile will grow bythat amount i there is no conver-sion to offset it. Te longer it takes tocomplete the plant, the more Iran willhave to process to meet the target bythe six-month deadline.

Iran Sends Warshipsto AtlanticABC NEWS | January 21

T

I warshipsset sai l ues-

day or the Atlantic Ocean on theirnavys first-ever mission there, state reported.

Te voyage comes amid an ongoingpush by Iran to demonstrate the abil-ity to project power across the MiddleEast and beyond.

Te report said that the destroyerSabalan and the logistic helicoptercarrier Khark will be dispatched on athree-month voyage.

Te warships will have task osecuring shipping routes as well as

training new personnel, the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Iransnavy chie Adm. Habibollah Sayyarias saying.

It said the ships, carrying some navy academy cadets or trainingalong with their regular crews, lefthe southern Iranian port o BandarAbbas. It did not mention any portso call.

Iran has regularly deployed war-shipsto the Gul o Aden off the

I F Minister Mohammad Javad Zari insist-ed Wednesday that the Obama administration mischar-acterizes concessions by his side in the six-month nucleardeal with Iran, telling in an exclusive interview that

we did not agree to dismantle anything.

Zari told Chie National Security CorrespondentJim Sciutto that terminology used by the White House todescribe the agreement differed rom the text agreed to byIran and the other countries in the talksthe United States,Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany.

Te White House version both underplays the conces-sions and overplays Iranian commitments under the agree-ment that took effect Monday, Zari said in Davos, Switzer-land, where he was attending the World Economic Forum.

As part o the accord, Iran was required to dilute itsstockpile o uranium that had been enriched to percent,well above the percent level needed or power generationbut still below the level or developing a nuclear weapon.

In addition, the deal mandated that Iran halt all enrich-ment above percent and dismantle the technical connec-tions required to enrich above percent, according to aWhite House act sheet issued in November afer the initial

agreement was reached.Zari accused the Obama administration o creating a

alse impression with such language.Te White House tries to portray it as basically a dis-

mantling o Irans nuclear program. Tat is the word they

use time and again, he said, urging Sciutto to read theactual text o the agreement. I you find a single, a singleword, that even closely resembles dismantling or could bedefined as dismantling in the entire text, then I would takeback my comment.

He repeated that we are not dismantling any centriug-es, were not dismantling any equipment, were simply notproducing, not enriching over percent.

In an interview with s Fareed Zakaria on Wednes-day, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani echoed Zarisstatement, saying the government will not destroy existingcentriuges.

Iranian officials have called the interim pact a victory

and said it ailed to halt the nations nuclear developmentprogram, while U.S. officials say the agreement essen-tially roze Irans nuclear program and rolled back somecapabilities.

Iranian Official: We Did Not Agree to Dismantle AnythingCNN | January 23
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eastern coast o Arica to fight piracy

and protect commercial ships.Te recent Iranian naval surge isalso a response to U.S. naval deploy-ment near the Islamic Republicscoasts in the Persian Gul. Te U.S.Navys th fleet is based in Bahrainacross the gul rom Iran.

It has also sent its warships to Syr-ian waters in recent years.

In , Iran said it aims to putwarships in international waters offthe U.S. coast within the next ewyears, and extend its reach as ar as

Antarctica.

TW I N B R I E F

n Russian trade to empower IranUpcoming nuclear negotiations arebeing threatened by an oil-or-goodsdeal between Russia and Iran. Te dealseverely undermines the current sanc-tions on Iranian oil, granting Iran ma-

jor pressure relie and strengtheningits negotiating position. In exchange

or undisclosed goods and equipment,

Iran will sell Russia an estimated, barrels o crude oil per day.Te deal emphasizes Russias oreignpolicy o constant opposition to West-ern policies, particularly in the MiddleEast. It also shows that while sanctionsdidhave Iran in a tight position, thenotion o now threatening Iran withmore sanctions may be utile. TeWest has repeatedly employed sanc-tions when dealing with Iran, but moreand more ofen, Iran is finding its wayaround them. Russian purchases o

, barrels o Iranian crude oil perday would increase Irans oil exports by percent and provide a major boostto its struggling economy. It would ne-gate many o the sanctions the U.S. andEurope have been using to keep Iran incheck. Te diplomatic implications areimmense. I Iran is earning an extra. billion per month by selling oil toRussia, it has much less to ear romU.S. and European sanctions. Sud-denly Iran isnt being orced into any

decisions at the negotiating table, and

can more readily afford to simply walkaway and accept the consequencesrom the West. Te benefits o the dealare obvious or Iran. But what does thedeal give Moscow? Strategically, Iran isRussias key ally in the Middle Eastandserves as the main counter to Ameri-can influence. Iran exports terrorists,unds coups, incites sectarian conflictsand zealously undermines the interestso America and its allies. Tis all playsinto Russias broader goals, which ithas held since the days o the Cold

War. Russias deal with Iran is designedto strengthen ehrans negotiatingposition, which in turn weakens its op-ponents, the United States and Europe.I the deal goes ahead, Iran will be arless concerned with the threat o loom-ing sanctions at the end o the currentsix-month deal. Te U.S. and Europemay soon find Iran more willing towalk away rom the negotiating table,or ace more pointless and rustratingdelay tactics.

R everyone laughed when U.S. PresidentGeorge W. Bush appeared unable to remember the end-ing o that saying: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool metwice, shame on me. Well nobody seems to be laughing, oreven noticing, that President Bushs successor is allowing

Americas enemies to ool him repeatedlyand that he isshowing no apparent shame at all.

ake just two recent events: First, Iran. Over the ever-extending holiday period, while parts o Americas oreignpolicy bureaucracy were still congratulating themselvesover the success o the Geneva talks process, Iran showednot only what it thinks o that process but what it has beenshowing in plain sight or years.

For instance, since the signing o the Geneva agreementehran has pushed ahead with its creation o a nuclearbomb as i the agreement had never happened and thiswas all just business as usual. Te Geneva deal included apromise rom the Iranians not to bring any new cen-

triuges into operation or six months. Yet in the periodsince the historic signing o that agreement, Iran hascontinued to build second and third generation centriugesto enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels. Indeed whilemost people in the West were still finishing up their dessert,the head o Irans Atomic Energy Organization, Ali AkbarSalehi, was boasting as much on Iranian state television.At the end o December he said, We have two types osecond-generation centriuges . We also have uture

generations [o centriuges] which are going through theirtests.

Te U.S. Department o State seemed to have no particu-lar response at all. But then to be air to U.S. Secretary oState John Kerry, it is possible that he was too busy being

ooled or the hundredth time over his other great oreignpolicy mission to notice he had been ooled or the ump-teenth time in a yearby the Iranians, too.

During the same period that the Iranians were ex-pressing their own particular intentions, it transpiredagain that the Palestinians were doing exactly the samething. In the last days o December, Fatah central commit-tee member Abbas Zaki had posted an interview on hisFacebook page which he had given to Syrian . In thatinterview, he makes the usual noises about the Palestin-ian Authority agreeing to a treaty with Israel iand onlyia Palestinian state can be established on the lines.

Mr. Zaki goes on to stress very clearly that the lines

are not the final borders which he is looking to. Both the Iranian and Palestinian statements occurred

within only a ew days over the holiday period. Yet the U.S.administration and its vast bureaucracy o wishul think-ers continue to be ooled. Afer being ooled a thousandor so times perhaps, there is no shame lef to be elt. Butor the rest o us there is only the remaining eeling that ithere were any laughter to be had in all this, it ran out sometime ago.

Middle East Peace Process: Americas Wishful ThinkersGATESTONE INSTITUTE | January 22
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JANUARY 24, 20145THE TRUMPET WEEKLYGIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

T - dont really need to listen to anybodys

advice. But it might be in their interest to give an audi-ence to Pope Francis, even i theyre not Catholic, dontbelieve in God or dont give two shekels about the poor.

Pope Francis, o course, is an advocate or the underdogwho has weighed in beore on economic matters, includingthe vast gap between the worlds rich and poor. And now,with bankers, s and other percenters gathering in Da-

vos, Switzerland, or the World Economic Forums annualglitzest, Francis has issued another message meant to drawattention to the economic crisis affecting the world thesepast ew years, as he describes it.

Te worlds wealthy, Francis says, have a precise respon-sibility toward others, particularly those who are most rail,

weak and vulnerable. Francis is hardly the first to highlight the growing prob-

lem o income inequality that grips the United States andmany other developed nations. But hes making shrewd useo his bully pulpit to highlight the issue as its becoming acasus bellior social activists.

Te popes appeal, or instance, came right on the heelso a report by the anti-poverty group Oxam that containedthis catchy statistic: Te richest people in the world con-trol more wealth than the bottom hal o the worlds entire

population, or roughly . billion people.

Te glitterati gathered at Davos may wonder what all theuss is about, since theres certainly no economic crisis ontheir doorstep. But they could ultimately suffer, in the waythe rich suffer, i the wealth gap continues to grow with noredress or the worlds needy.

Tere have been popular backlashes beore against theexcesses o the wealthy, even when there was a plausiblecase that the pursuit o wealth itsel improved the lot othe unwealthyas many capitalists argue today. Te riseo robber baron industrialists in the late th century ac-companied terrific new innovations that helped everybody,such as long-distance railroads, household electricity, andmany time- and labor-saving inventions. But greed and

excess, whether real or perceived, also led to the institutiono the income tax, tougher ederal regulation on businessesand perhaps the greatest scourge ree-market capitalistscould ever imaginelabor unions.

Te wealthy have crony capitalism on their side. By somemeasures, American democracy these days is more captiveto the vested interests o a privileged ew than it has been indecades, thanks to increasingly porous campaign-financelaws and a lobbying climate in Washington that some crit-ics equate with legalized corruption.

Why Billionaires Should Listen to Pope FrancisTHE EXCHANGE | January 21

EUROPE

TW I N B R I E F

nEU to launch military mission toCentral African RepublicTe EU agreed to deploy a -strongorce to deend the main airport inthe Central Arican Republic, Janu-ary . Te deployment at BanguiAirport will allow the French troopscurrently stationed there to under-take other missions in the country.Te mission will wait until ithas received a mandate rom the UN

Security Council, but the EU hopesto deploy it by the end o February.While Germany agreed to allow themission to go ahead, it has ruled outsending its own troops. Rather thansupport French action in the CentralArican Republic, it is ocusing onbroadening its own presence in theregion, and is planning to increaseits orce in Mali. Despite the compe-tition between Germany and France,this new mission shows that Europe

continues to be

wary o radicalIslams pres-ence in NorthArica. Watchor Europe tocontinue toconront thatpresence. Formore aboutwhat is go-ing on here,see rumpet

editor in chie Gerald Flurrys articleWatch Algeria!

nSerbia begins EU membershipnegotiationsSerbian officials began negotiatingover its entry into the EuropeanUnion on January . Serbian PrimeMinister Ivica Dacic said that theday marked the most importantmoment or Serbia since the end oWorld War . He said that Serbiaaims to finish the negotiations by

. Dacic is right to herald theimportance o the moment. Germanypushed the Western world to go towar in order to breakup Yugoslaviaso that Europe could bring the stra-tegically important Balkans underits control. With Serbian officialsbeginning negotiations to join theEU, that process is almost complete.For more inormation read our reebooklet Germanys Conquest of theBalkans.

EU soldiers deployed to Chad
https://www.thetrumpet.com/article/10419.29709.153.0/europe/germany/watch-algeriahttps://www.thetrumpet.com/literature/1706/germanys-conquest-of-the-balkanshttps://www.thetrumpet.com/literature/1706/germanys-conquest-of-the-balkanshttps://www.thetrumpet.com/literature/1706/germanys-conquest-of-the-balkanshttps://www.thetrumpet.com/literature/1706/germanys-conquest-of-the-balkanshttps://www.thetrumpet.com/article/10419.29709.153.0/europe/germany/watch-algeria

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Russia and NorwayCompeteSTRATFOR | January 20

A geopolitical importanceo the Barents Sea region growsover time, so too will the potentialor economic disputes between theprimary players in the region, Norwayand Russia. Te stakes are highgiven the areas natural resources and

potential growth in maritime traffic,and tensions will likely grow as Russiatries to strengthen its influencein theregion.

European countries are heavilydependent on hydrocarbon importsto uel their economics. Resources inthe North Sea are being depleted, andthus access to the vast natural resourc-es arther north is gaining importance.U.S. Geological Survey estimatesrom suggest that percent o

the worlds undiscovered oil and percent o its natural gas reserves arelocated in the Arctic Circle. A signifi-cant percentage o those estimates isbelieved to be in the Barents region.Aside rom oil and natural gas, ironore, diamond, bauxite, nickel, goldand coal deposits are located in theregion.

Japan-China War of

Words Goes BallisticAmbrose Evans-Pritchard,

TELEGRAPH | January 24

A thinks Chinasdispute with Japan is subject torational calculation should have heardthe astonishing outburst a ew min-utes ago by Chinas oreign minister,Wang Yi.

We will never allow past aggressors

to overturn the verdict o history, hebegan. It went downhill rom there.

When asked what he thoughtabout the latest warning by Japansleader Shinzo Abe that the two coun-tries are like England and Germanyin , he exploded with barelycontained rage:

Why would he make such a state-ment? Japanese leaders like to rewritetheir history, but the Chinese peoplecannot orget episodes o history. Te

invasion o Manchuria in was aninamous chapter in Japans history. In, they instigated the Marco Polobridge incident beore launching anall-out onslaught on China.

Tirty-five million Chinese sol-diers and civilians were killed. Whowas the instigator? Who was thetroublemaker? It is all too clear.

He turned visceral over Mr. Abesrecent visit to the Yasukuni shrine inokyo: Even to this day the shrine

ASIA

R F Minister Sergei Lavrov used a press

conerence in Moscow on uesday to call on Euro-pean Union countries to rerain rom getting directlyinvolvedin a standoff between pro-European protest-ers and the government o Ukrainian President ViktorYanukovych.

We would preer that some o our European col-leagues rerained rom acting unceremoniously over theUkrainian crisis, when, without any kind o invitation,members o certain Euro-pean governments rush to theMaidan (independence square),take part in anti-governmentdemonstrations in a country

with which they have diplomat-ic relations, Lavrov said. It is

just distasteul.Afer a second consecutive

night o clashes between protest-ers and police, who had moved in to try to pull down bar-ricades, Lavrov also expressed the ear that the situation inKiev was threatening to escalate.

I personally believe that those calls or prudence thatthe opposition leadersVitali Klitschko in particularare making, they show that the situation is getting out o

control, he said.

Klitschko, a ormer world heavyweight boxing cham-pion turned politician, as well as other opposition leaders,have appeared unable to stop the violence. He has accusedthe government o paying thugs [to] engage in violence inan effort to delegitimize the protests.

Mondays clashes turned downtown Kyiv into whatwitnesses have described as a being akin to a war zone,with fireworks and stun grenades lighting up the night

sky as both demonstrators andpolice braved temperatures o

- degrees Celsius ( degreesFahrenheit).

Demonstrators held their

ground afer police attemptedto disperse a camp set up weeksago in the city center early onuesday, as a new law banningalmost all orms [o] protest

came into orce. Some demonstrators tossed fire bombsand rocks at the police, who responded with stun grenades,tear gas and rubber bullets.

Tis came just hours afer President Yanukovych warnedthat the ongoing violence in the capital could engul theentire country.

Russia Tells Europeans Not to Interfere in UkraineDEUTSCHE WELLE | January 21

A more dictatorial Russian government is coming fast .

That power will be able to challenge Europe when

nobody else can, including the U.S. The Europeans still

remember how violent Russia was in World War II, and

Russia is a close neighbor with massive piles of nuclearweapons. The Russian election is triggering a fear that

will hasten the uniting of the European Union.

Gerald Flurry, Trumpet,January 2004
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still advocates that past aggressionwas justified, that the Pacific War wasin sel deense. It calls war criminalsheroes, even today.

How can a leader put flowers ona shrine that violates internationalprinciples in this way? Japans ClassA criminals were likes the Nazis. Can

you imagine a European leader layinga wreath at a Nazi memorial?

On the Diaoyu-Senkaku islandsthe Sarajevo hot spot in the EastChina Seahe claimed that okyo ig-nored warnings rom Beijing that anymove to nationalize the islands wouldbe a grave escalation: Tey broke thestatus quo. We had no choice but tomove.

I dont wish to take sides in thisdispute but it is a sobering to listen tothis rom Chinas leading diplomat, an

official who might normally try to playthings down.

As readers know, I have been writ-ing about this parallel or a long time.China is exploiting incidents to testthe willingness o the United Statesto stand behind its treaty alliancewith Japan, just as Kaiser Wilhelmprovoked spats to test Englandswillingness to stand behind its ententewith France. It was a sel-reinorcing

process beore , and it is sel-rein-orcing now. All it takes to produce acatalyst is some damn ool thing inthe Balkans to borrow a term.

Yet it is not just a calculated policyby Chinas Communist Party, a stir-ring up o revanchiste nationalism toreplace the dead ideology o Mao-

ism. Emotions are also running outo control, and Mr. Abe is o course ared-flag or a bull.

Listening to the raw passion in thevoices o Shinzo Abe and Wang Yiover the last hours, I think there isan astonishing level [o] complacencyabout the worlds most dangerousault line.

TW I N B R I E F

nBangkok under state of

emergencyTe Tai government has declared atwo-month state o emergency in thecapital city o Bangkok afer protestsresulted in nine deaths and hundredso injuries, reports on January said.Te protesters, who are ca lling or thegovernment to resign, have besiegedstate acilities and orced the primeminister to relocate outside the capi-tal city. Te governments emergency

decree has al lowed authorities to cen-sor media, detain suspects withoutcharge, impose curews, close offportions o Bangkok and breakuppolitical groupings o five people ormore. U.S. policymakers are watch-ing the unrest anxiouslyTailandis Americas oldest ally in the region,

and Bangkoks surge o revolt comesat the very moment when Washing-ton is striving to boost its influencein Asia to counter Chinas rise. I theunrest continues to swell, it couldlead to a coup that pushes Tailandaway rom the U.S. camp. Such anoutcome would equate to a victory orBeijing.

nChina gearing up to begin patrolsin South China SeaBeijing announced on January

that it would begin regular civilianpatrols o the disputed South ChinaSea, reports by the Voice of Americasaid. A patrol vessel based in theParcel Islands will start patrolling thewaters, which are claimed by Chinaand our other nations in the region.Chinas increasing belligerence overits claims to the South China Seais exacerbating regional tensionsthroughout Asia.

ANGLO-AMERICA

Militarization Worriesin Civil LibertariansTHE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE | January 19

U H Patrol Lt. AlexLepley imagines a scenario wherea man has barricaded himsel, fired

a gun at police officers and placedbystanders in peril.

Enter s new mine-resistantambush protected vehicle, orshort. Or at least thats what the U.S.Army called it.

Te U.S. Department o Deenserecently gave a surplus to thehighway patrol. Te law enorce-ment agency plans to use it to carrytroopers to dangerous crime scenesand to keep those troopers sae while

protecting civilians. Te is not the only gif

Utah law enorcement agencies havereceived rom the military. In thetwo-year period beginning in October, Utah police received , rifles,according to records the Deense De-partment provided to Te ribune.

Utah police also received ourgrenade launchers, .-caliber pis-tols and a handul o magazines andweapon accessories.

Te Deense Department has pro-vided the weaponry and equipmentthrough what it calls the Program.As o an April audit, Utah policepossessed . million o weapons andother military gear received throughthe program.

While theres no available

documentation that anyone in Utahhas been shot or killed with weaponsrom the Program, civil libertar-ians have taken note and are voicingconcern over what they call the mili-tarization o local police.

Connor Boyack, president o theLibertas Institute o Utah, said hes

concerned the program gives Utah po-lice a financial incentive to use more

violent tactics than they otherwisemight in an era when crime and policeofficer deaths are declining.

Te data Ive seen is that the riskis decreasing, and yet the tools o de-ense are gearing up, Boyack said.

Te sheriffs and police chies whosubscribe to the program say they aretrying to protect the public and theirofficers.
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JANUARY 24, 20148THE TRUMPET WEEKLYRICHARD TINKER/CPC/NOAA/NWS/NCEP

I extreme drought in the western hal o the countrykeeps going, the ood supply problems that we are experi-encing right now are only going to be the tip o the iceberg.

Te size o the U.S. cattle herd has dropped to a -yearlow, and organic ood shortages are being reported all over

the nation. []he biggest threat to the U.S. ood supply is the extraor-

dinary drought which has had a relentless grip on the west-ern hal o the country. I you check out the U.S. DroughtMonitor [see below], you can see that drought conditionscurrently stretch rom Caliornia all the way to the heart oexas. In act, the worst drought in the history o the state oCaliornia is happening right now. And considering the actthat the rest o the nation is extremely dependent on pro-duce grown in Caliornia and cattle raised in the westernhal o the U.S., this should be o great concern to all o us.

A local Fox News report titled Organic Food Short-age Hits U.S. has gotten quite a bit o attention. Ex-

perts say the primary reasons or the shortages are weatherand demand.

And without a doubt, demand or organic ood hasgrown sharply in recent years. More Americans than everhave become aware o how the modern American diet isslowly killing all o us, and they are seeking out alternatives.

Due to the tightness in supply and the increasing de-mand, prices or organic produce just continue to go up.Just consider the ollowing example . Personally, I wentto a local supermarket the other day and I started to reachor a package o organic strawberries but I stopped when Isaw that they were priced at .. I couldnt justiy paying

bucks or one package. I stil l remember getting them on

sale or . last year.Unortunately, this may only be just the beginning o

the price increases. Caliornia Gov. Jerry Brown has justdeclared a water emergency, and reservoirs throughout thestate have dropped to dangerously low levels.

Unless a miracle happens, there is simply not going tobe enough water to go around or the entire agriculture in-dustry. Te ollowing is an excerpt rom an e-mail rom anindustry insider that researcher Ray Gano recently sharedon his website: Harris arms has released a statementsaying they will leave about , acres allow this yearbecause the have decided to only deliver percent othe water allocation or . Lettuce is predicted to reacharound a head (i you can find it).

[Caliornia] produces percent o the artichokesgrown in the U.S., percent o asparagus, a fifh o cab-bage, two-thirds o carrots, hal o bell peppers, percento cauliflower, percent o broccoli, and percent o

celery. Leay greens? Caliornias got the market cornered: percent o the lea lettuce we consume, along with per-cent o Romaine lettuce and percent o resh spinach,come rom the big state on the lef side o the map. Calialso cranks a third o total resh tomatoes consumed in theU.S.and percent o ones destined or cans and otherprocessing purposes. As or ruit percent o lemonsand a quarter o oranges come rom there; its sunny climatemakes it perect or citrus, and lemons store relatively well.Ninety percent o avocados percent o peaches, per-cent o resh strawberries, and percent o resh plums .

Are you starting to understand how much trouble we

could be in i this drought does not end?

U.S. Cattle Herd Is at a 61-Year LowMichael Snyder, THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE | January 22
http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/

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What It Means toBe Born AgainTHE TRUMPET DAILY | January 23

STEPHEN FLURRY

Why is human lie so undervalued? At what point doeslie really begin? Tere is a specific purpose both physi-

cally and spiritually behind human reproduction.

ALSO SEE:

nGod Is a Family!

nGive Yourself Wholly to God

Click to Play

Te official National Drug ControlStrategy rom drug czar R. Gil Ker-likowske lists marijuana as one o the

our major drugs (cocaine, heroin,marijuana and methamphetamine).

Dont expect him to resign in angerabout how Obama is undercuttinghis work, however. Hes a short-timer

because Mr. Obama nominated himlast all to become the new Commis-sioner o U.S. Customs and BorderProtection.

So or now, perhaps until Ker-likowske is at his new job, anti-mari-

juana messages remain on the WhiteHouse website. As one page describesthings, conusing messages beingpresented by popular culture, media,proponents o medical marijuanaand political campaigns to legalize allmarijuana perpetuate the alse notion

that marijuana is harmless.Tey should add Mr. Obamas name

to the list o conusing messengerswho perpetuate alse notions. Exceptconusing messenger is too polite aterm. Outright hypocrite fits better.

Be on the lookout or the WhiteHouse to remove warnings o mari-juana use rom its website, suchas this gem: Te administrationsteadastly opposes legalization omarijuana and other drugs because

legalization would increase the avail-ability and use o il licit drugs, andpose significant health and saetyrisks to all Americans, particularlyyoung people.

It is impossible to reconcile thatpost with Mr. Obamas ailure toenorce ederal drug laws againstmarijuana, and with his statement toTe New Yorkerabout Colorados andWashingtons open violation o thoselaws, namely, its important or it togo orward.

Everyone in Colorado and Wash-ington who puffs up is breaking thelawederal law. And no law has aperect rate o arrest and prosecution.

Mr. Obama, however, tried to at-tribute it to class warare and racialbiasand in so doing voiced a myththat his own anti-drug people areshooting down.

As Mr. Obama stated: Middle-classkids dont get locked up or smokingpot and poor kids do.

Drug Czar ContradictsObama on Marijuana

WASHINGTON POST | January 21

P O latest claimsabout marijuana are contradictedby research and official positions othe Office o National Drug ControlPolicy, which is part o the WhiteHouse. And Mr. Obamas words haveanti-drug leaders worried about nega-tive repercussions among youth.

Mr. Obama claimed to Te NewYorkermagazine that marijuana is noworse than cigarettes or alcohol and

he promoted state efforts by Coloradoand Washington to legalize marijuana,which remains illegal under ederallaw.

Te National Drug Control Policysofficial stance, posted on the white-house.gov website, says the opposite oMr. Obama on all counts.

For example, as documented inagency reports, marijuana smoke hassignificantly more carcinogens thantobacco smoke.

And as reported by the govern-ments National Institute on DrugAbuse, adolescent use o marijuana

does something that alcohol does not;it causes permanent brain damage,including lowering o IQ.

axpayers have spent billions odollars warning about drugs, ofenabout marijuana, but these effortswere dramatically undercut by thepresidents comments.

Mr. Obama might as well haverolled that money into a joint andsmoked it on national television.

Te Drug-Free America Foundationresponded on its blog: His laissez-

aire attitude about legalization hasdrug policy and prevention expertsscratching their heads in conusionas to why the president will not giveclear guidance either he is seri-ously ill-inormed about the issue oris completely ignoring warnings romhis highly-esteemed advisers.

Te oundation called it an irre-sponsible move or such a person inthe most highly-regarded position inthis country.
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GET MORE DEPTHIf you find The Trumpet Weekly

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T government is at an all-time low, according to the PewResearch Centers most recent survey.Only percent o Americans trustthe government to do what is right,according to its October report. With

distrust so widespread there could bebig implications or social stability.But Pew ound an even more oreboding, and less report-ed on, indicator.

America has undergone a radical shif since the s.Back then, when Pew first began asking the question, trustin government was high and improving. In , an as-tounding percent o Americans trusted the government.Since then it has plummeted, and bounced, and plum-meted urther.

oday, more than our out o every five Americans donttrust the government. But as bad as mistrust or govern-ment is, Pew highlighted an even more disturbing trend.

Tirty percent o people polled said they are angry at theederal government. Tis too is a new record and is sharplyup rom the previous record high o percent in September.

ake a look around. Mistrust and anger are increasinglyevident.

You can see it in the rise o Bitcoin. People see the dollarplummeting in value and their savings being destroyed.People are turning to precious metals instead. Other virtu-al currencies besides Bitcoin are gaining in popularity too.

You can hear it in the voices o those trying to explainto their amilies why they can no longer afford to do thethings they used to: their healthcare premiums have goneup; college tuition is skyrocketing; their homes are worth araction o what they paid or them; ood prices keep rising;credit cards are maxed out; inflation-adjusted wages are

less than what they were a decade ago.And you can see it in the record gun sales. And the

rise o Doomsday Preppers and mil itias. People arearaid o each other. But worse, many are araid o anintrusive government that taps their phones, monitorstheir conversations, peeps on their Internet usage, readstheir email, tracks their financial transactions, spies onthem in their own homesand threatens to take awayconstitutionally-encoded rights. Meanwhile they seepolice orces bulking up with armored vehicles, gre-nade launchers, unmanned drones and other militaryequipment. Tey see the president allowing the andmilitary to drop bombs rom drones, killing Americans

in oreign countries without due processor any civilianor judicial oversight at all.

Tis country is about to tear itsel apart. And the one in-stitution that could prevent it is sadly the biggest cause or it.

Something is wrong with Americas government. Butdo you know what to do about it? Read our ree booklet

America Under Attack.It reveals the hidden cause o soci-etys deadly declineand exposes the attack rom within.

Follow Robert Morley: Twitter

Trust in Government Hits All-Time Low

ROBERT MORLEY

Obama Seeks to

Bypass CongressWASHINGTON FREE BEACON | January 21

T W House has been explor-ing ways to circumvent Congressand unilaterally lif sanctions onIran once a final nuclear agreementis reached, according to sources withknowledge o White House conver-sations and congressional insidersamiliar with its strategy.

Te issue o sanctions relie has be-

come one o the key sticking points inthe Iran debate, with lawmakers push-ing or increased economic penaltiesand the White House fighting to rollback regulations.

While many in Congress insist thatonly the legislative branch can legallyrepeal sanctions, senior White Houseofficials have been examining strategiesto skirt Congress, according to thoseamiliar with internal conversations.

Congressional insiders say that

the White House is worried Congress

will exert oversight o the deal anddemand tougher nuclear restrictionson ehran in exchange or sanctionsrelie.

op White House aides have beentalking about ways to do that [lif sanc-tions] without Congress and we haveno idea yet what that means, said onesenior congres-sional aide whoworks on sanc-tions. Teyrelooking or a way

to lif them byfiat, overrule U.S.law, drive over thesanctions, anddeclare that theyare lifed.

PresidentBarack Obamacould unilaterallyunravel sanctionsthrough sev-eral executive

channels, according to ormer govern-

ment officials and legal experts.Executive orders grant the presi-dent significant leverage in how sanc-tions are implemented, meaning thatObama could choose to stop enorcingmany o the laws on the books, ac-cording to government insiders.

Tose amiliar with the ins and
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W

comes to classical music and American culture,

the at lady hasnt just sung. Brnnhilde has packedher bags and moved to Boca Raton.Classical music has been circling the drain or years, o

course. Teres little doubt as to the causes: the fingernailgrip o old music in a culture that venerates the new ; or-mats like opera that are extraordinarily expensive to stage;and an audience that remains overwhelmingly old andwhite in an America thats increasingly neither. Dontorget the attacks on arts education, the Internet-drivendemocratization o cultural opinion, and the classical trap-pingsancy clothes, incomprehensible program notes,an omerta-caliber code o audience silencethat never sitquite right in the homeland o popular culture.

Even i every seat were filled, the vast majority o U.S.symphony orchestras stil l would ace significant peror-mance deficits.

Te holiday season typically provides a much-neededtransusion. But the most recent holidays came afer anautumn that Te New Yorkercalled the art orms mostsignificant crisis since the Great Recession. Looking at thetrend lines, its hard to hear anything other than a Requiem.

Lets start by ollowing the money. In , total clas-sical album sales actually rose by percent, according toNielsen. But thats hardly a robust recovery rom the percent decline the previous year.

What about the airwaves? Tere are only a handul o

commercial classical music stations lef in America. One othe last, in Santa Barbara, Cali., was put up or sale inOctober afer years o six-figure losses. Even public classi-cal radio is in trouble.

And some public classical stations have ditched the mu-sic. As [one] stations manager put it, [C]lassical radio isone o those things thats slowly going away.

Live orchestral music is essentially a charity case. ABloomberg story on the recent wave o orchestra bankrupt-cies (an unheard-o phenomenon outside o the U.S., saysFlanagan) notes that by , orchestras got more moneyrom donations than rom ticket sales. Te New York CityOpera, once hailed as the peoples opera, filed or bank-

ruptcy in October. I the people want opera, theyve got aunny way o showing it.

What about making music? In , . percent oAmerican adults reported perorming or practicing classi-cal music at least once in the previous year.

By , the number had dropped to percent (com-pared with, say, the percent o Americans who reportedthey created pottery, ceramics or jewelry.)

What about music education? [D]espite all the stud-ies that show the broad benefits o music education, manyschool systems will now have no music specialists servingelementary schools .

Classical Music in America Is DeadMark Vanhoenacker, SLATE | January 21

OTHER NEWS

How Jeremiah Enduredto the End

The Prophet Jeremiah suffered much persecution. Yet even in his

hardest trial, his love of Gods Word pushed him to endure. Is Gods

Word a fire in your bones?GERALD FLURRY

Click to Play

outs o sanctions enorcement saythat the White House has long beenlax with its enorcement o sanctionsregulations already on the books.

Te financial pressure has alwaysbeen about closing loopholes andidentiying new ones to close, Schan-zer added. I you stop that process o

constant gardening, you leave a back-door open. Te president has a loto leverage when it comes to sanctionsand could effectively turn a blind eyeto Iranian inractions.

In the case o Iran, such an ap-proach could allow Washingtonto reach a nuclear accord withoutCongress having to vote on rescind-ing, even temporarily or conditionally,certain sanctions, Clawson wrote.

No matter how stiff and ar-reachingsanctions may be as embodied in U.S.

law, they would have less bite i theadministration stopped enorcingthem.
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JANUARY 24 201412THE TRUMPET WEEKLY

Shiite terrorist group and dominant military orce in Leba-non) and the numerous Sunni actions o northern Lebanon(aligned with al Qaeda and Saudi Arabia) have destabilizedthe already ractured country. As Waleed Aly wrote recentlyin the Sydney Morning Herald,Lebanon has become not somuch a country as a theater or regional politics.

On the surace, bolstering the Lebanese armed orces

with billion o military aid could be seen as having astabilizing effect on the country. However, in reality, thisSaudi gif is a clear sign urther upheaval is on the way orLebanon.

Tree geopolitical realities can be distilled rom thismove by Saudi Arabia.

Firstly, the deal reveals that Saudi Arabia views Lebanonas an important strategic asset in its proxy war againstIran.

Historically, Lebanon is Irans baby. As a staging groundor wars with Israel, Iran firmly entrenched its terroristproxy Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Under the reinso Syrian President Bashar Assad, Iran has used Syrian

territory as a conduit to send arms into southern Lebanon,creating an armed orce that rivals most small countries.

However, since the outbreak o the war in Syria, andincreasingly over the past year, Iran has sent Hezbollahfighters across the border to bolster Assads orces withinSyria. Hezbollah has tried to walk the tightrope by accept-ing the orders o its paymaster in Iran while not compro-mising its image back home. In the past, many Lebaneseaccepted Hezbollahs pseudo military dominance as itclaimed to be necessary to counter Israels massive mili-tary might to the south. However, the longer Hezbollahfights in Syria, the more it is viewed by the Lebanese

public as Irans lapdog rather than a protector o Lebaneseinterests at home.Te act that Hezbollah continues to fight in Syria, even

afer huge losses (some estimate more than a thousandfighters), shows how powerul Irans hold is over the group.For Iran, it is a higher priority to protect Syrias proxystatus under President Assad than to worry about Hezbol-lahs image in Lebanon. Without the Syrian land bridge orIranian arms shipments, it is likely that Hezbollah couldnot maintain its dominance anyhow.

As noted by Matthew Levitt, author o Hezbollah:Te Global Footprint of Lebanons Party of God, oday,Hezbollah is bogged down in Syria, where it has taken

significant losses, but it has also gone all-in on the side othe Assad regime, to the extent that it sees its own survivalwrapped up in the survival o the Assad regime.

With Hezbollah heavily distracted in Syria or thedistant uture, the Saudis are attempting to bolster theLebanese military to not only counter Hezbollah romwithin, but also to remove Hezbollahs legitimacy as theonly protector o Lebanon rom Israel.

No doubt Iran recognizes what Saudi Arabia is doing,but there is not much it can do about it. Certainly, the actthat Saudi Arabia is giving this money indicates that, in itsopinion, those armaments will not all into the hands o

Hezbollah, but rather will give the Lebanese Army the abil-ity to disarm Hezbollah.

Secondly, Saudi Arabia no longer views the United Statesas a worthwhile partner in its Middle East policy.

While this point has already been thoroughly made bythe rumpetand confirmed most recently by the UnitedStatess weak approach to Irans nuclear ambitions evi-denced by the outcome o the Geneva conerencethe

Saudis are no longer looking to include the unreliable U.S.in any Middle East deals.

According to Benny Avni writing or the New York Post,For decades, the Saudis have urnished their own militaryalmost exclusively with U.S. arms. But the French are muchmore proactive than America these days in the Mideastand Arican theaters, so the Saudis trust them to assurethat the weapons will go to the right cause.

On Friday, January , the United States went intodamage control by sending Deputy Assistant Secretary oDeense or Middle East Policy Mathew Spense to reas-sure Lebanese President Michel Suleiman that the U.S. willcontinue aiding the army o Lebanon to ulfill its national

role in preserving the countrys civil peace and stability.He did not, however, show up with a billion check in hisback pocket.

Tirdly, Saudi Arabia is looking, instead, to Europe as areliable partner.

Reporting on the deal, Sami Nader oAl Monitorwrote,Te amount is the highest ever to the army, but the mostalluring aspect o the initiative is not limited to the allo-cated sum. In act, rarely has the Lebanese state receivedany donations. Rather, the bigger surprise is the emergingSaudi-French partnership, which constitutes a turning pointin the Middle East(emphasis added).

With the United States no longer guaranteeing theprotection o moderate Arab states against Irans reachor power, Middle East nations are scrambling to shore upallies. Saudi Arabias choice to limit the arms supplier toFrance shows the Saudis are looking to Europe as a viablepartner.

Staff at the rumpet, guided by biblical prophecy, havewatched or years or this change o direction. A prophecyin Psalm describes how a conglomerate o Middle Eastnations, including Saudi Arabia and Lebanon(biblical Ge-bal), orm an alliance with a German-led Europe to standup to Irans aggression. Until now, it was difficult to seehow Lebanon would break away rom Irans hold, given the

supremacy o Hezbollah within the country.However, with the announcement o the billion deal

between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, which uses Europeanarms, the Psalm alliance is orming beore our eyes.

While it may take time or the billion to effect changewithin Lebanons military, the act that Saudi Arabia iswilling to invest in Lebanon as the next battleront inits proxy war against Iran illustrates its belie that it canweaken and possibly turn Lebanon into an ally.

Read A Mysterious Prophecy by rumpeteditor inchie Gerald Flurry to guide you in watching the completeulfillment o Psalm .

LEBANON from page 1

COVER JOSEPH EID/AFP/GETTY IM AGES
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