Rising Tensions on Korean Peninsula Put Region at Risk

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When Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson traveled to Asia earlier this year, the principle objective was to reassure allies that the Trump administration would maintain the U.S. commitment to defend them.

Vice President Mike Pence will now reaffirm that message during his own trip, which comes amid increased fears of an imminent preemptive U.S. attack on North Korea in expectation of a possible nuclear test and/or missile launch.

Pence should explain to our allies the results of the administration’s recently completed North Korea policy review, as well as the results of the U.S.-China summit.

Indications are that the White House will prioritize restrengthening the U.S. military to offset degradations in capabilities incurred from budget cuts over the last several years. Deterrence and defense will also be increased through augmented ballistic missile capabilities.

The White House will also put a strong emphasis on pressuring North Korea, going beyond the timid incrementalism of half-hearted sanctions that President Barack Obama pursued.

While Washington will remain open to holding working-level diplomatic discussions with North Korean counterparts, that channel has already been shut by the North Koreans. Pyongyang shut the “New York Channel” last July, severing the last official communications link.

However, the Trump administration’s intent to more fully implement U.S. laws, including imposing secondary sanctions on Chinese violators, is now on hold pending actions from China to fulfill pledges it made regarding North Korea during the summit.

In the run-up to the summit, Trump vowed to act unilaterally to “solve” North Korea, saying, “If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will.” During the summit, Trump told the press, “We’ve had a long discussion already, and so far I’ve gotten nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

However, after the summit, Trump commented that Chinese President Xi Jinping had “explain[ed] thousands of years of history with Korea. Not that easy. In other words, not as simple as people would think” for China to exert pressure.

Trump assessed that Xi is “going to try very hard” on North Korea.

Trump should be aware that Beijing has frequently promised tougher action on North Korea—including more fully implementing required U.N. sanctions—only to underperform every time.

As such, any behind-the-scenes summit agreement that would delay the U.S. from fully enforcing its laws and increasing pressure on North Korea and its facilitators should have a short expiration date.

Trump enforced Obama’s 2012 red line by attacking a Syrian target responsible for chemical weapons attacks on civilians. But has he now drawn his own red line against North Korea developing an intercontinental ballistic missile?

The president and other senior officials have issued a series of ominous statements suggesting the U.S. could conduct a preemptive military attack on North Korean targets to prevent the regime from completing its quest to develop an ICBM that could threaten the United States with nuclear weapons.

The White House warned that Trump has put North Korea “clearly on notice” and may take “decisive and proportional” action as seen in the airstrikes on Syria.” A senior White House official warned that “the clock has now run out and all options are on the table.”

Tillerson commented that “the situation has intensified and has reached a certain level of threat that action has to be taken.”

National security adviser H.R. McMaster went further, stating that a nuclear-capable North Korea “is unacceptable [and] so, the president has asked us to be prepared to give him a full range of options to remove that threat to the American people and to our allies and partners in the region.”

The redeployment of an aircraft carrier strike group back to the Korean Peninsula heightened speculation about the White House’s plan of action.

If the Trump administration intends to increase sanctions pressure on North Korea while also removing the preemptive attack option from consideration, as some administration officials have privately commented, then the White House’s public statements appear to be out of sync with such a policy.

Moreover, North Korea is not Syria. Pyongyang is capable of a substantial military reprisal against South Korea and Japan using nuclear, chemical, biological, and conventional weapons, jeopardizing millions of citizens in those countries.

A U.S. attack against production or test facilities for North Korea’s nuclear or missile programs could trigger an all-out war with a nuclear-armed North Korea, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties.

Both South and North Korea have announced they would undertake preemptive military strikes on the other if they perceive signs of imminent hostilities.

With all sides leaning further forward on hair-trigger responses, there is greater danger of misinterpreting the other’s intentions, thus fueling tension, intensifying a perceived need to escalate, and raising the risk of miscalculation—including preemptive attack.

Continued U.S. threats could exacerbate the situation or lead to perceptions of Washington as a paper tiger. The uncertainty of U.S. actions, tensions on the Korean Peninsula, and the consequences of such military action are high—and rising. (For more from the author of “Rising Tensions on Korean Peninsula Put Region at Risk” please click HERE)

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The Mother of All Bombs the US Just Dropped on ISIS: What You Need to Know about MOAB (+video)

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The U.S. military just dropped the world’s largest non-nuclear bomb, the MOAB (officially, Massive Ordinance Air Blast, but better known by its nickname “Mother of All Bombs”), on an Islamic State terror stronghold in Afghanistan.

According to military officials, at 7:32 pm local time, the military dropped a GBU-43 bomb in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.

The 22,000-plus pound weapon was developed by the U.S. Air Force at the turn of the century, and has been described as arguably the most powerful non-nuclear ever made. It is the first time the weapon has ever been utilized on the battlefield, U.S. officials said Thursday.

The MOAB serves as a replacement to the Vietnam-era BLU-82 (also known as the “Daisy Cutter”). It is not intended to be used similar to a massive ordnance penetrator (commonly referred to as a “bunker buster”) to crack through heavily armored facilities. Instead, the MOAB is best utilized to target large surface areas (such as wooded areas or large swaths of terrain) that are out in the open.

“The strike was designed to minimize the risk to Afghan and U.S. Forces conducting clearing operations in the area while maximizing the destruction of ISIS-K fighters and facilities,” the statement said.

ISIS-K is short for ISIS-Khorasan, which references the branch of the Islamic State that has a presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

General John W. Nicholson, the commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, added:

“As ISIS-K’s losses have mounted they are using IEDs, bunkers and tunnels to thicken their defense … this is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against ISIS-K.”

The news comes following President Donald Trump’s announcement Wednesday that he is sending National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster to Afghanistan to evaluate the operations there. The president is contemplating whether to send more U.S. troops to the war-stricken country.

The strike took place on the birthday of Thomas Jefferson, who was the first American president to square off against Islamic radicals (the Barbary pirates). (For more from the author of “The Mother of All Bombs the US Just Dropped on ISIS: What You Need to Know about MOAB” please click HERE)

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New Turmoil in Middle East Makes Sisi-Trump Ties Even More Important

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Given the turmoil of the last few days, it’s fortunate that the presidents of Egypt and the U.S. have begun to reforge the strategic partnership that unraveled under President Barack Obama.

The horrific attacks on Christian churches in Egypt, a declaration of emergency rule, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s gas attack on innocent civilians have set a tense region further on edge. Bringing a measure of stability back is going to require the two leaders to work together.

It’s not surprising that Presidents Donald Trump and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi hit it off without even a round of golf. The two see the world in much the same way.

Both believe the Islamist threat from terrorists and subversive political movements is the top menace to regional stability. Both worry that unsettled states such as Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen will serve as hotbeds for terrorist activity.

Both are intolerant of state-sponsored terrorism as foreign policy as practiced by states such as Iran. Both find Russia’s meddling in the Middle East unhelpful. Both would like to see the Israel-Palestinian peace process get back on track. (Read more from “New Turmoil in Middle East Makes Sisi-Trump Ties Even More Important” HERE)

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UN Peacekeepers Caught Running Massive Child Sex Ring — Not One Person Jailed

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In a blow to victims of human trafficking worldwide, a massive child sex ring was exposed in Haiti — involving international ‘peacekeepers’ with the United Nations as well as other high-level officials from around the world — and no one is going to jail.

For years, UN peacekeepers, their high-level commanders, and other ‘personnel’ from around the globe came to Haiti for sex with boys and girls as young as 12.

“I did not even have breasts,” said a girl, known as V01 — Victim No, according to a report out of the Associated Press.

After Haiti’s downfall from a tropical paradise resort destination, hundreds of children were left homeless and many of them without parents. This easy prey then attracted the world’s most vile predators.

More than 300 children have come forward in the last decade with these claims and only a tiny fraction of those accused have ever faced any form of accountability.

One of the reasons these sickos aren’t charged is because when it comes to keeping its peacekeepers in check, the UN passes the buck. So, as reports of sexual abuse and child exploitation pour in to the UN (2,000 over just the last 12 years), the countries sending troops either remain ignorant or deliberately refuse to hold these people accountable.

As the Free Thought Project reported earlier this year, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric explained how they pass the buck in situations like this.

“So obviously we’ll keep an eye on this. But as we’ve said, it is the responsibility of member states to fully investigate and hopefully prosecute crimes. The fight against impunity for these horrendous actions has to be a partnership between the UN and member states,” Dujarric said.
Given the nature of child sex trafficking and its ties to the elite, it is likely that these countries are covering it up as any investigation into these crimes would possibly expose those in positions of power.

According to the report in the AP:

The AP interviewed alleged victims, current and former U.N. officials and investigators and sought answers from 23 countries on the number of peacekeepers who faced such allegations and, what if anything, was done to investigate. With rare exceptions, few nations responded to repeated requests, while the names of those found guilty are kept confidential, making accountability impossible to determine.

The problem of sexual abuse and child exploitation among UN peacekeepers and their leaders has become so rampant that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was forced to address it last month.

“Let us declare in one voice: We will not tolerate anyone committing or condoning sexual exploitation and abuse. We will not let anyone cover up these crimes with the U.N. flag,” Guterres said.

However, as the AP points out, these words mean very little given the sheer length of the abuse and the same rhetoric being used repeatedly by the UN.

More than a decade ago, the United Nations commissioned a report that promised to do much the same thing, yet most of the reforms never materialized.

For a full two years after those promises were made, the children in Haiti were passed around from soldier to soldier. And in the years since, peacekeepers have been accused of sexual abuse the world over.

In one particularly grim case in Haiti, a teenage boy said he was gang-raped in 2011 by Uruguayan peacekeepers who filmed the alleged assault on a cellphone. Dozens of Haitian women also say they were raped, and dozens more had what is euphemistically called “survival sex” in a country where most people live on less than $2.50 a day, the AP found.

Mario Joseph, a Haitian lawyer is attempting to change this paradigm. For the past few years, Joseph has fought to get compensation for victims a deadly cholera strain linked to Nepalese peacekeepers that killed an estimated 10,000 people, according to the AP.

Now, he’s taken on the case of the Haitian child sex ring.

“Imagine if the U.N. was going to the United States and raping children and bringing cholera,” Joseph said in Port-au-Prince. “Human rights aren’t just for rich white people.”

U.S. Sen. Bob Corker is also attempting to force accountability among the UN.

“If I heard that a U.N. peacekeeping mission was coming near my home in Chattanooga,” he told AP, “I’d be on the first plane out of here to go back and protect my family.”

Peter Gallo, a former U.N. investigator familiar with the case, explained to the AP how the system is setup in such a way that it seemingly facilitates this abuse.

“It’s an indictment of how the whole U.N. system works,” Gallo told the AP.

In spite of the rampant and unchecked child rape, the United Nations maintains that they are still contributing to the stability in the region.

“I would not say we have achieved everything we set out to do, but we are engaged in a process of continuous improvement that any harmful effect on the local populations could be minimized, if not completely eradicated,” Atul Khare, the U.N.’s head of field support which oversees the conduct and discipline of peacekeepers, said.

However, the locals — who’ve endured nearly a decade of hell at the hands of the organization whose mission is ostensible peace — aren’t buying it.

“I’d like to see my attacker face to face and tell him how he has destroyed my life,” said 21-year-old Melida Joseph who was raped by a UN Peacekeeper. “They’ll look at this as one big joke,” she said. “As far as the U.N. goes, they came here to protect us, but all they’ve brought is destruction.” (For more from the author of “UN Peacekeepers Caught Running Massive Child Sex Ring — Not One Person Jailed” please click HERE)

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Saber-Rattling: Russia and Iran Express Rage at US Strikes in Syria

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The Russian and Iranian regimes are furious with America’s retaliatory strike against Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad following his use of weapons of mass destruction.

Last week, President Trump ordered a missile strike on the Syrian base that was reportedly used to launch a chemical weapons attack against an opposition stronghold in the city of Idlib. On Thursday, Trump launched 60 Tomahawk missiles at the base to retaliate against Assad killing of dozen of innocents men, women, and children earlier that week.

Russia and Iran, which are allied with Assad, condemned the military action, and threatened to retaliate if the U.S. “crosses the red lines” again.

Iranian dictator Ali Khamenei slammed the strikes, pushing the conspiracy that the U.S. apparently created the Islamic State terror group.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who presides over the world’s foremost state-sponsor of terrorism, condemned what he called “flagrant U.S. aggression,” and said the strike on the airbase in Syria “benefitted terrorism.” Rouhani also alleged that the Syrian opposition was behind the chemical attacks, not the Assad dictatorship.

“Previous US officials created ISIS, and the current ones are strengthening ISIS or groups like them; however, the danger these terrorist groups present will backfire on Americans,” he said.

Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin teamed up with Rouhani for an additional memo that claimed the strike was “a violation of international law.”

Another statement sent by the “joint command” of Russia and Iran threatened military action against the United States.

“The United States crossed red lines by attacking Syria, from now on we will respond to anyone, including America if it attacks Syria and crosses the red lines,” the statement said. “America knows very well our ability and capabilities to respond well to them … we will respond without taking into consideration any reaction and consequences.”

Russia and Iran have long sided with the Assad regime over opposition forces. Both countries have ground troops in the country fending off threats to Assad. Iran’s Hezbollah proxy is also heavily militarily engaged in the country on the side of the Syrian dictatorship.

Russia and Iran are largely responsible for escalating the complete devastation and chaos in Syria. The two nations have propped up a man who has been responsible for the vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of deaths during the Syrian civil war. Without their help, there’s likely no possibility that Assad would have been able to stay in power.

Russia and Iran’s tough talk should be taken with a grain of salt. The two countries combined have a military that is vastly inferior to that of the United States. It is certainly not in their interests to use kinetic action against America. To attack the United States military, even if framed as a “retaliatory” strike, would draw the two U.S. adversaries into a conflict that would undoubtedly threaten the stability of both authoritarian regimes. (For more from the author of “Saber-Rattling: Russia and Iran Express Rage at US Strikes in Syria” please click HERE)

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How Soros Used US Tax Dollars to Consolidate Power in Colombia

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In a recent letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, six U.S. Senators asked for an investigation into whether the United States Agency for International Development was promoting the Open Society Foundations’ left-wing policies abroad.

State Department career officials gave the senators the runaround, but if Tillerson does launch the probe, he need look no further than Colombia.

That South American country offers plenty of evidence that U.S. tax dollars are indeed being used to advance George Soros’ agenda—all under the banner of “peace.”

In November 2016, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signed a “peace agreement” with the Marxist narco-terrorist group FARC. Though Colombians had earlier rejected the deal in a plebiscite, Santos and the Congress—which his party controls—found a loophole to ratify it, placing it above the Constitution.

The effect of this is that Santos now virtually rules by decree, answering only to an oversight commission—a junta comprised of three terrorists, three Santos cronies, and a few foreign observers.

The separation of powers has been abolished and a new peace tribunal, known as the Jurisdiccion Especial para la Paz has replaced the nation’s courts.

This act to circumvent Colombia’s Constitution was supported by many outside interests, including Scandinavian countries and the Nobel Committee, which awarded Santos the Peace Prize.

Also supportive was the Obama administration—partly through USAID—and Soros-backed nongovernmental organizations, which jointly helped launder the image, atrocities, and fortune of the world’s leading cocaine cartel.

I asked a USAID official last month whether USAID and the Open Society Foundations were coordinating in Colombia. He answered: “USAID is not funding any activities with Open Society in Colombia, directly or through any past or existing mechanism.”

But just scratching the surface of USAID activities tells a different story.

For example, Verdad Abierta, a web-based portal created by Teresa Ronderos, director of the Open Society Program on Independent Journalism, boasts on its website that it receives support from USAID.

Abierta has helped rewrite Colombia’s history, elevating terrorists to the same level as the legitimate police and military forces, and rebranding decades of massacres, kidnappings, child soldiering, and drug trafficking by a criminal syndicate as simply “50 years of armed conflict.”

Fundacion Ideas para la Paz, once led by peace negotiator Sergio Jaramillo, now a member of the oversight “junta,” is funded by the Open Society Foundations and has received more than $200,000 in U.S. tax dollars.

The left-wing news portal La Silla Vacia, another Open Society initiative, also boasts of being a USAID grantee. Its columnist, Rodrigo Uprimny, whose NGO DeJusticia also partners with USAID and Open Society, is considered one of the architects of the peace deal.

Former National Liberation Army terrorist Leon Valencia—Open Society collaborator and grantee—has received at least $1,000,000 in USAID funding through his NGOs Corporacion Nuevo Arco Iris and Paz y Reconciliacion, and left-wing news portal Las Dos Orillas, which he co-founded.

The list goes on. I’ve written in a separate piece about the long history of collaboration between Soros-funded NGOs and the U.S. State Department to undermine Colombia’s institutions, particularly through the work of Human Rights Watch.

While terrorists are rewarded with unelected seats in Congress and impunity, those who combated them will either confess to crimes they haven’t committed or go to jail.

This leads to Soros’ crowning achievement: Of the five commissioners chosen to select the judges for the new peace tribunal, three are key players in Soros’ network.

Diego Garcia-Sayan is chairman of Open Society’s Global Drug Policy Program, Juan E. Mendez is a 15-year veteran of Soros-funded Human Rights Watch, and Alvaro Gil-Robles collaborated with Open Society on the issue of Roma rights, eventually leading to the creation of the European Roma Institute—a joint initiative of the Open Society Foundations and the Council of Europe.

I recontacted USAID with follow-up questions regarding all the above. The press office declined to answer any of them, but a spokesperson did amend the original statement: “USAID is not funding any activities through Open Society in Colombia.”

Understanding the full scope of USAID and Open Society collaboration requires a government investigation. USAID‘s biggest contracts involve agreements with organizations that aren’t always transparent.

Take Chemonics. This USAID contractor received more than $20 million in 2015 alone. Some of that—USAID declined to say how much—went to formalizing relations between illegal miners in Segovia, Antioquia, and Gran Colombia Gold, the concession holder.

While the sustainability and benefits to the environment of the project are not clear (lawlessness in Segovia has intensified), certainly the company benefitted from a trained workforce not stealing its gold—albeit temporarily—courtesy of U.S. taxpayers.

One of the major shareholders of Gran Colombia Gold just happens to be Frank Giustra, a trustee of the Soros-funded International Crisis Group, along with Soros himself.

The six U.S. senators, then, are right to ask for a full accounting of USAID programs. Start with Colombia, where U.S. assistance should be for the purposes of maintaining and strengthening the gains from Plan Colombia. (For more from the author of “How Soros Used US Tax Dollars to Consolidate Power in Colombia” please click HERE)

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Anonymous US Official: Russia Knew Syrian Chemical Attack Was Coming

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The United States has concluded that Russia knew ahead of time that Syria would launch a chemical weapons attack last week, a senior U.S. official says.

The official offered circumstantial elements to back up his claim, but no concrete proof. And others in the Trump administration cautioned that final American determination had been made that Russia had advance knowledge of the attack, which killed more than 80 people and prompted retaliatory U.S. cruise missile strikes.

The senior official said Monday that a drone operated by Russians was flying over a hospital as victims of the attack were rushing to get treatment. Hours after the drone left, a Russian-made fighter jet bombed the hospital in what American officials believe was an attempt to cover up the usage of chemical weapons. (Read more from “Anonymous US Official: Russia Knew Syrian Chemical Attack Was Coming” HERE)

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Religious Liberty Increasingly Under Threat in India Amid Surge of Hindu Nationalism

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Last week on April 5, a mob of Hindu vigilantes beat a man to death for transporting cattle in northern India.

Cows are sacred in the Hindu religion, but India is a multicultural country with many non-Hindu citizens.

This incident, along with the recent appointment of Hindu nationalist priest Yogi Adityanath as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh on March 19, raises concerns about the state of religious liberty in Uttar Pradesh.

Uttar Pradesh, home to approximately 220 million people, is the most populous state in India. It is also one of the poorest states in India, with three out of 10 people living in poverty within the state.

While Uttar Pradesh is predominantly Hindu, about one-fifth of its population is Muslim, and it also has smaller populations of Christians and other religious minorities. Due to its population and diversity, Uttar Pradesh is viewed as one of the most important electoral states in India.

Since his recent appointment, Adityanath has largely followed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s platform of targeting corruption and thus far avoided anti-Muslim or inflammatory rhetoric. However, Adityanath’s Hindu nationalist tendencies and previous statements regarding religious minorities is a cause for concern.

In one of his more famous comments, Adityanath accused Muslim men of conducting a “Love Jihad” campaign by converting Hindu women to Islam.

In response, he has called for Hindus to convert 100 Muslim women to Hinduism for every one Hindu woman converted. Even more concerning, he also said for every Hindu man killed, 100 Muslim men should be killed.

These comments become even more troubling when coupled with Adityanath’s arrest record. According to his election affidavit, he admitted to charges of attempted murder and defiling a religious site, in addition to several other charges relating to religious activity.

He also advocated building a Hindu temple on the site of an old, 16th-century mosque. This would be particularly inflammatory because the mosque was torn down in 1992 by Hindu nationalists and the ensuing riots killed about 2,000 people.

Since his appointment, Adityanath has cracked down on the slaughter and transport of cattle within Uttar Pradesh, demonstrating a willingness to act on his rhetoric.

Cows are a key source of meat for the Muslim and non-Hindu residents of Uttar Pradesh, and the crackdown has inflamed tensions between the Hindu and Muslim populations. The recent attack on the man transporting cattle is a perfect example of the danger this tension poses.

India is constitutionally a secular country, with religious liberty enshrined as a main tenet. This is an important consideration for a pluralistic society with a diverse population.

The international community should continue to closely monitor the state of religious freedom in India. Adityanath’s appointment comes amid a deterioration in religious liberty in India.

But it is in Modi’s interest to take a stand for religious freedom for people of all faiths. This shouldn’t be an afterthought. Rather, it should be a core tenet of Modi’s pro-freedom and pro-economic liberalization agenda. (For more from the author of “Religious Liberty Increasingly Under Threat in India Amid Surge of Hindu Nationalism” please click HERE)

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Not Just Syria: 5 Huge News Stories to Keep an Eye on Amid the Madness

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The world’s eyes and ears have once again turned toward Syria following last week’s chemical weapons attack and U.S. President Donald Trump’s subsequent airstrikes on the Assad government. Mainstream media, independent media, and social media platforms are fixing fierce attention on the ongoing developments.

These events undoubtedly deserve widespread, ongoing scrutiny. From the United States government’s lack of evidence that the Syrian government was behind the chemical attack to the media’s complicity in driving a pro-war narrative and president Trump’s hypocrisy in bombing Syria — after criticizing former president Barack Obama for doing the same thing — further critical analysis of the recent airstrikes is vital.

But even as skepticism toward these events should remain heightened, so should awareness of countless other major developments. Here are five to follow:

1. Trump Appoints Pharmaceutical Consultant to Head the FDA — This week, the president appointed Scott Gottlieb, a pharmaceutical industry insider who has served the boards of multiple pharmaceutical companies, to chair the Food and Drug Administration. Gottlieb currently still works as a consultant for GlaxoSmithKline. He has received $414,000 from GSK, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Valeant Pharmaceuticals. He has also received tens of thousands of dollars in speaking fees from pharmaceutical companies like Merck and Mikart, as well as other corporations — including Goldman Sachs. He has taken several trips through Washington’s revolving door, with brief stints at the FDA mixed in with multiple positions consulting pharmaceutical companies. Trump’s pick follows in the footsteps of Barack Obama, who also appointed a pharmaceutical industry insider to chair the FDA.

2. U.S. Military announces it will deploy 1,500 more troops to Afghanistan this year — The U.S. Army announced last Friday it would send 1,500 Alaska-based troops to Afghanistan as part of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, an extension of Operation Enduring Freedom, the 13-year war in Afghanistan. The 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division was set to be downsized in 2015, but the Army’s most recent decision nullifies that plan. The Army said the coming deployment is part of a regular rotation but also said it is a response to “emerging mission requirements.”

The Army also activated 1,500 troops last December for Freedom’s Sentinel, suggesting the latest deployment amounts to the continuation of a seemingly endless war in the violence-ravaged country — regardless of who is president

3. WikiLeaks reveals CIA tactics to implant malware in Windows-based computers — On Friday, WikiLeaks continued the release of its Vault7 Series, documents it claims to have hacked from the CIA that detail the extent of the agency’s overreach. Ars Technica reported:

Friday’s installment includes 27 documents related to ‘Grasshopper,’ the codename for a set of software tools used to build customized malware for Windows-based computers. The Grasshopper framework provides building blocks that can be combined in unique ways to suit the requirements of a given surveillance or intelligence operation.

The leaks also included the CIA’s tactics for bypassing anti-virus protection and its use of bank-fraud malware called Carberp. “Once the Carberp source code was leaked in 2013, security experts warned it was akin to ‘handing a bazooka to a child,’” Ars Technica noted.

The leaks follow previous revelations that documented the extent of the CIA’s surveillance abilities, including its capacity to hack into iOs and Android operating systems. Those leaks also revealed the U.S. government was actively working to undermine the security of U.S. tech companies.

The same agency taking it upon itself to hack into private networks has also spent $1 billion annually arming radical rebels in Syria, some of whom have been implicated in the 2013 chemical attack former President Barack Obama used to justify his attempt to bomb the war-torn nation.

4. Tensions between the United States and North Korea continue to escalate — As Trump bombs Syria, the situation on the east Asian peninsula looks like it could devolve into violence, as well. The U.S. is accusing North Korea of aggression over its development of missiles and nuclear weapons — two technologies the U.S. also has at its disposal. However, unlike the United States, North Korea has never used missiles or nuclear weapons against another country. NBC News has reported that the U.S. may move its own nuclear weapons into South Korea as a deterrent to the North. All the hype about North Korean “aggression” should be taken with a grain of salt considering the country hasn’t officially attacked another country outside of Korea ever.

5. Tensions escalate in the South China Sea after Trump meets with Chinese president — Trump was physically meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping while the Tomahawk missiles began dropping on Syria. We cannot discount the possibility that Trump may have been trying to send China a message of military strength and unpredictability.

The U.S. and China have been on a collision course as China has sought to assert itself defensively in the South China Sea. China has constructed and militarized artificial islands, while the U.S. has positioned its navy for a confrontation in the region. U.S. allies like Japan and the Philippines are locked in a perpetual chess match with China as the powers seek to stake their territorial claims to resources in the China Sea.

China is also North Korea’s closest ally and is viewed as the only entity capable of externally controlling the North. At the time of this article’s publication, China is in the process of moving 150,000 troops to its border with North Korea in preparation for a possible U.S. intervention and the subsequent fallout from it.

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While the United States starts possibly another war against a sovereign country under Trump’s leadership, it’s important to pay attention to other, equally concerning events unfolding in the U.S. and around the world. While the media and politicians heap praise on Trump for bombing a new country and anti-war marchers take to the streets, we must inform ourselves now and take action before further U.S.-sanctioned carnage engulfs the world and before domestic corruption usurps our rights and freedoms at home. (For more from the author of “Not Just Syria: 5 Huge News Stories to Keep an Eye on Amid the Madness” please click HERE)

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The Palm Sunday Attacks in Egypt Are Horrid, but They Too Will Fail

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Once again, the holiest week of the Christian calendar has begun with an attack on the Body of Christ in the form of two bomb blasts at Palm Sunday events in Egypt. One of the more striking images shows the blood of the martyrs splattered across the floor of a Coptic Church.

Currently, the death toll stands at 49, according to Egyptian state media reports. 18 people were killed in a blast in Alexandria, while at least 27 were killed and 78 injured in an explosion in a church in the northern city of Tanta.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, issuing a statement in Arabic in its wake, saying: “The Crusaders and their apostate followers must be aware that the bill between us and them is very large, and they will be paying it like a river of blood from their sons, if God is willing.”

These actions ought to fill all people of good will with sorrow and righteous anger for the souls taken from this world. The blood of the innocents has once again been spilled, and this injustice cries out to God.

This, like other attempts to attack Christians as they worship, is as quixotic as it is detestable; If there ever were a thought that could be described as being on the “wrong side of history,” it is the idea that somehow martyrdom will somehow weaken the Christian faith.

Of course, this isn’t happening in a vacuum. Christian persecution is on the rise on the global stage and now three quarters of the world’s population lives without the fundamental human freedom to believe, according to European Union Special Envoy Jan Figel in October on the International Day of Freedom of Religion or Belief.

“Therefore, those who believe that humanity should prevail can, and should do, much more for freedom of religion,” Figel told Premier Christian Radio last year. “We are witnesses of a systematic and mass murder, martyrdom and persecution on several territories.”

Even a casual observer of global headlines cannot deny that these new Egyptian martyrs are not alone.

However, regardless of what engine of persecution brings torment or what form it takes, we all suffer together when the dictates of the human conscience are trod underfoot.

What’s puzzling is what these oppressors plan to achieve with attacks like these. Their motivation has to be either rooted in arrogance or ignorance. Do the attackers believe that these attempts will prove more successful than the two thousand years of even worse persecution? Are these two IEDs more potent that the persecutions of Nero and Diocletian? Do they believe themselves more ferocious than the communists, fascists, and countless others that came before them in the 20th century alone?

Last year, when a similar blast in Pakistan carried out by similarly barbaric actors punctuated the news of Easter weekend, I referenced the masterful portrayal of Monsignor O’Flaherty in the 1983 film, “The Scarlet and the Black.” These words seem just as poignant now as they were then – perhaps even more.

When confronting SS officer Herbert Kappler in the dead of night in the ruins of the Roman Coliseum, O’Flaherty give the Nazi operative a quick history lesson:

Kappler: There will be a new order in Europe. We are evacuating Rome now, but that means nothing. We’ll be back. The Third Reich is the future.

O’Flaherty: How many murderous dictators have taught that kind of rubbish? Just look around you, Kappler. You’re standing where your ancient friends used to entertain themselves, watching lions tear the Christians to pieces. But the Church is still here. A lot of broken stones like these, in a few years that’s all that’ll be left of your ‘Third Reich.’

Time proved the good Monsignor right. Kappler’s murderous ideology and all those like him now sit smoldering on the ash heap of history; in time, the same will be true for the thugs who detonated those bombs in Egypt over the weekend.

The Church, however, will be just fine – just as She always has been. (For more from the author of “The Palm Sunday Attacks in Egypt Are Horrid, but They Too Will Fail” please click HERE)

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