Bartholomew's Notes

Talk to Action has an interesting article by Rachel Tabachnick about World Evangelical Zionists and Worldwide Biblical Zionists, two organisations affiliation with World Likud:

In January, 2007, Christian Zionist Joel Bell became director of the World Evangelical Zionists (WEZ), the evangelical department of World Likud.  Bell states that in June of 2007 the “Jewish Zionist Congress and other Zionist organizations began supporting WEZ’s affiliation. This launched Biblical Zionists activities together with Governmental Institutions.”

A joint Board of Governors Conference with WEZ and World Likud leaders was held in Texas in July 2007, and a new organization was launched in November under the under the name Worldwide Biblical Zionists.  [World Likud Chair Daniel] Danon and Bell were joined as keynote speakers at the Texas conference by Sagiv Assulin of Likud, and Christian Zionist William Koenig, former White House correspondent in the George W. Bush administration.  Morton Klein of ZOA was also listed as a speaker in the promotional materials including this flash presentation.  Other guest speakers listed in the promotional material were Keith and Jodie Anderson. Jodie Anderson heads the Battalion of Deborah, an organization which works with the Knesset’s Christian Allies Caucus and has, according to Public Research Associates’ RightWeb, received funds from Irving Moskowitz.

I’ve blogged on the Christian Allies Caucus and the Battalion of Deborah here, and on Moskowitz here. It should be clarified that Koenig (whom I blogged here) runs his own news service, and it was in this capacity that he was a “White House correspondent”- he was not part of the Bush administration.

According Bell’s profile:

Joel Bell the Founder and President of WBZ resides in Israel with his wife Pamela. In 1991 they began an intense study of the Hebrew scriptures to understand their covenant roll [sic] with Israel.

Joel has received dreams and visions from HaShem about the restoration of the whole house of Israel.

…Joel started young in the real estate and construction business. He was very successful and found the favor of Elohim in his business ventures. By the age of 35, his net worth exceeded $2 million.

Even though he was a successful businessman in the United States, he knew that the scriptures were clear to build up Zion and to serve the Jewish people.

After they made Aliyah in 2003, Joel and Pamela stood with the Jewish people in Gush Katif during the expulsion in 2005.

There is nothing to suggest that either of the Bells are of Jewish heritage themselves, so how they have come to “make Aliyah” is unexplained. He runs a news show, entitled Frontline Israel.

Rachel notes that Worldwide Biblical Zionists tells us it is developing a “pre-military academy”

for Biblical Zionists to come to Israel and experience a 1 year training course with experienced IDF military teachers.

The classes are designed to teach you the basics and discipline. Classes will be taught in English. Attend the courses that will teach you miliatary commands, strategic initiative, anti-terrorist tactics, and more.

One interesting aspect of WBZ is that it has made links with a growing movement called the “Ephramites”, a belief which combines Christian Zionism with a form of British Israelism. The difference is that while British Israelites take the view that they are the “true Israelites”, Ephramites argue for a “Two House” perspective: Jews and Ephramites are both genetic descendants of ancient Israel, respectively Judah and Joseph, and both have a claim to land in Israel and the West Bank. Of course, this is completely unsustainable from a historical persective, and Ephramites’ confidence in their lineage is based on internal spiritual assurance rather than any actual evidence – I’ve blogged them here and here. Further, although their beliefs give a Messianic role to Jesus, they reject the name of “Christian” – which is fair enough, as the movement’s theology has very little in common with historic Christianity. The WBZ website has only a couple of passing references to “Jesus” or “Yeshua”, and there are none at all on the “World Evangelical Zionist” website. The term “Biblical Zionist”, rather than “Christian Zionist”, is perhaps of significance in relation to this.

According to an Ephramite leader named Eddie Chumney:

…In talking with Joel and Sagiv while in Israel, it was agreed that we needed to establish a partnership with Ephraimites in the USA and around the world linking them to the welcoming hand of Judah in the land of Israel to begin what would hopefully be the beginning of the ‘footsteps’ of bringing together Ephraim and Judah by the Messiah of Israel. It was decided that the name of this entity to seek to accomplish this task would be called, “Worldwide Biblical Zionists.” WBZ would be a nonprofit organization based in Israel which those ministries, leaders and individuals who supported the effort to unite Ephraim and Judah in the land of Israel would seek to support.

In doing so, Joel asked me to be the ‘International Director’ of Worldwide Biblical Zionists. Joel also asked me to be on the board of WBZ when it was formed

In my excitement for the vision of WBZ to partner with Judah in the land of Israel to ‘build up Zion’ and that Judah would partner with Ephraim to help unite the whole house of Israel, I recommended that Hebraic Heritage Ministries introduce Joel and Sagiv and the vision of WBZ to Ephraimite leaders in the USA at a special meeting to be held in Portland, Oregon in July 2008. Furthermore, Hebraic Heritage Ministries pledged to try to arrange meetings across the USA and Canada to promote the vision of WBZ.

Through my personal contacts, I was able to arrange meetings for Joel and Sagiv to speak and promote WBZ in Waco, TX; Phoenix, AZ; Denver, CO; Nashville, TN; Canton, OH; Tampa, FL; Ocala, FL; Cocoa, FL; Houston, TX; Chicago, IL and Sedley, Canada from July 2008 – August 2008.

One of the US directors of WBZ is a certain Ben Ehrhardt. Rachel draws attention to a November 2008 message by one of his associates:

We have just returned from a 12 day tour of Israel sponsored by World Wide Biblical Zionists and an extra week of meeting other key leaders. Ben and I and our spouses along with about 60 other Ephramites, who love brother Judah and the Land, attended this tour and fact finding trip. Ben and I attended this event to witness the hearts of Joel and Pamela Bell founders of WBZ, to see for ourselves if Yahweh is beginning to open the doors for Ephraim to come home, and to demonstrate our love and willingness to stand with our brother Judah.

…Yahweh is establishing leaders with integrity in the Likud and other coalition parties that are beginning to understand who Ephraim is and are willing to work toward bringing Ephraim home! Seeing this with our own eyes was astonishing and exciting. Specifically, on November 16 at the World Wide Biblical Zionists inauguration ceremony, some top Likud party members attended and addressed the approximately 300 attendees. Those speaking to us were Ayoob Kara, Ullie Edelstein, Gideon Saar, and Sagiv Assulin.

Assulin was apparently after donations; a message from him is appended:

There is one thing that you can do that will REALLY give me the advantage as I go forward to WIN a seat in the Knesset to help represent you as a people who want to live in Israel and build Zion – Please GO TO MY WEBSITE AND DONATE…

I make this appeal humbly knowing that you work hard to earn your living. ANYTHING you can do to help support my campaign is very appreciated! The primary electoral vote is December 8th. If you can please make your donations before that date it would be most helpful. This is a small window of opportunity for you to really make a difference and help change Israel’s direction.

My heart is to see Judah and Ephraim join here in the land and see the hand of HaShem do great and mighty things.

However, Bell and Chumney have fallen out, and Chumney’s piece goes on to explain how disputes over money and accountability, along with other “red flags”, led him to sever the relationship and withdraw his endorsement.

And Assulin, meanwhile, has linked up with another Ephramite leader, named Don Esposito – a right-wing Israeli blog called The Key to Redemption, run by someone who dislikes these links, has more about that here.

UPDATE: As an aside, an interesting comment from John Glick:

Its interesting to note that Ronn Torossian is Benny Hinn’s publicist. Torossian used to be President of Betar, a Zionist movement of Jabotinsky and the head of World Likud, Danny Danon just spoke in his office. Torossian was mentioned on Niteline by Benny Hinn this week.

Torossian does indeed represent both Danon and Hinn, and he has a background with Betar. Hinn was interviewed by ABC just two days ago; Torossian’s off-camera interjections against the drift of the interview actually dramatize the encounter, and they are not welcomed by Hinn, who assures “Ronn” that he is happy to proceed. Torossian’s PR firm is 5WPR, which also handles John Hagee and which I blogged on last year here.

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Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD. – Leviticus 19:28

(Hat tip: Get Religion)

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Back in August, the Nigeria Weekend Pioneer carried a story about Edet Nwanakwo, a boy who had been disfigured with acid by his own father after being denounced as a wizard by a pastor at a prayer service. The report can be seen in pdf form here, along with a very grim photograph. The report describes him as being 9 years old, although later accounts give his age as 17. After lingering in hospital for some weeks, Nwanakwo died towards the end of September. Sam Ikpe-Itauma of the Child’s Right and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN) in Akwa Ibom State reported:

His sin is the acceptance to an invitation to attend a prayer meeting with a church in Urban [var. spelling “Oban” – RB], near Calabar, Cross River State Nigeria. “When I arrived the church, people were clapping and dancing. I prayed God to bless me and our family including my father; soon the pastor came, turning around, holding my head ‘Do you know that you are a witch?’ he asked me. I told him no, I am not a witch…” ‘He told me that I must confess or he will beat me, even as he slapped me immediately. He handed over a bottle of olive oil to me to be drinking at home. I was annoyed, and went and told my father so that he will arrest the pastor with police.’

To his chagrin, his father merely told him that if he were a witch he would be cast out of the house. That was an understatement. After four days his father told him that they would travel home to see their relatives. The little lad was so elated by this offer. Did Nwanakwo and his father come back truly?

He told CRARN team who visited him at the [University of Uyo Teaching Hospital] in August that his father called a cyclist and whispered to him. They mounted on the bike and moved to a particular road that was bushy up to a distance where there were no houses and stopped there. His father took him inside the bush and pretended that he wanted to ease himself, while the cyclist waited. “He brought out a gallon from a sack bag and forced me on the ground, pressing my legs with his knees, he forced my mouth opened and poured acid into it. I cried and pleaded with him that I am his son; he shouted and called me a wizard and devil. He poured the acid on my face, head and body and ran away. Somebody came and took me to the police.” He said with a clear as is using a wireless microphone

Looking at Nwanakwo’s photograph, the acid burns are very glaring. The boy, who lost his mother four years ago, said he wants justice to prevail. “Even in my grave I want my father and Pastor King of Mount Zion Light House, Urban to be arrested and brought to book.” The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of UUTH, Prof. Emmanuel Ekanem was contacted to know what measure has been taken to ensure that justice is done. “The Head of the Corporate Affairs Unit (UUTH) has contacted the Divisional Police Officer of Ikono LGA who said that his men have been drafted to investigate the matter …” the CMD had responded briefly.

The story has now been picked up by the Associated Press, and is being reproduced widely in US newspapers and elsewhere:

Nwanaokwo said he knew the pastor who accused him only as Pastor King. Mount Zion Lighthouse in Nigeria at first confirmed that a Pastor King worked for them, then denied that they knew any such person.

Bishop A.D. Ayakndue, the head of the church in Nigeria, said pastors were encouraged to pray about witchcraft, but not to abuse children.

“We pray over that problem (of witchcraft) very powerfully,” he said. “But we can never hurt a child.”

The Nigerian church is a branch of a Californian church by the same name. But the California church says it lost touch with its Nigerian offshoots several years ago.

”I had no idea,” said church elder Carrie King by phone from Tracy, Calif. ”I knew people believed in witchcraft over there but we believe in the power of prayer, not physically harming people.”

The AP report goes into further detail about the wider context of children being accused of witchcraft in Nigeria – a subject that has received considerable scrutiny over the past year, since a UK Channel 4 documentary on the subject last November. I’ve blogged on the issue a number of times.

The defunct association with the American church is confirmed by Rosalind Hackett in her book Religion in Calabar: the religious life and history of a Nigerian town (page 102), which tells us that the Nigerian church split away from a denomination called the the Apostolic Church:

Before long the new spiritual church had affiliated with a religious organization in Oakland, California – the Mount Zion Light House Full Gospel Church, and amended its name accordingly to reflect the affiliation. It was not possible to ascertain how this affiliation came about, partly because the relationship is no longer active.

In fact, the affiliation seems to have come about through a group called Federated Pentecostal Churches International, which has a website here. And although the link with the Calabar-based church is defunct, there is still an active link with a “Bishop A.B.U. Akpabio – Nigeria”; this is Bishop Abu Akpabio, who runs a Mount Zion Lighthouse church in Lagos, which in turn is affiliated with “House of Prayer for all Nations, USA”.

The AP report adds that the Mount Zion Light House is part of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, which seems keen to dodge responsibility; according to its president:

”We have grown so much in the past few years we cannot keep an eye on everybody,” he explained.

But [Gary] Foxcroft, the head of Stepping Stones, said if the organization was able to collect membership fees, it could also police its members better. He had already written to the organization twice to alert it to the abuse, he said.

Indeed. And isn’t it time some of the A-list neo-Pentecostal revivalists from the west who enjoy influence in Africa – such as Benny Hinn and Reinhard Bonnke – also speak out?

Name variations: Mt. Zion Light House Full Gospel Church; Mt. Zion Lighthouse Full Gospel Church

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Joseph Farah’s feud with CAIR co ntinues to escalate, with a new title from WND Books prompting a media scramble. As WND reported on Wednesday (Rep links added):

As revealed in a new book detailing the operation and its findings, the Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, is not the beneficent Muslim civil-rights group it claims to be. Indisputable evidence now shows CAIR and other “mainstream” Islamic groups are acting as fronts for a well-funded conspiracy of the Muslim Brotherhood – the parent of al-Qaida and Hamas – to infiltrate and destroy the American system… “Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That’s Conspiring to Islamize America,” a WND Books publication by counter-terrorism investigator P. David Gaubatz and “Infiltration” author Paul Sperry, documents CAIR’s ultimate purpose to transform the United States into an Islamic nation under the authority of the Quran.

…With evidence from “Muslim Mafia” in hand, U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., co-founder of the Congressional Anti-Terror Caucus, and other members of Congress – including Reps. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., and Paul Broun, R-Ga. – plan to hold a press conference today in Washington calling for an investigation and an end to political lobbying by front groups such as CAIR.

“Now we have proof – from the secret documents that this investigative team has uncovered, coupled with the ones recently declassified by the FBI – that [radical Islamists] agents living among us have a plan in place, and they are successfully carrying out that subversive plan,” Myrick writes in the foreword to “Muslim Mafia.”

As well as the three named Republicans, also present was Trent Franks, who recently declared that Obama does “insane things” because he is “an enemy of humanity”.

The book is just the latest of Farah’s publicity stunts, although it seems to have been his most successful. Last year WND Books published a book by Joel Richardson (of “Muslim Antichrist” fame) called Why We Left Islam, which Farah predicted would lead to riots across the Muslim world. Instead, all he got was a snarky comment from CAIR’s Ibrahim Hooper about WND‘s anti-Muslim position and referencing its publication of a 2001 article by Sperry about dropping pigs’ blood from areoplanes over Afghanistan. Farah complained this last point was untrue, and that by making the claim CAIR had in effect issued a death threat against him (in fact, Sperry had advocated threatening to put blood in Afghanistan’s water supply, which Farah dismissed as merely “satire”). Farah also encouraged readers to donate to Michael Savage’s anti-climatic copyright lawsuit against CAIR.

The book has brought considerable scrutiny to Gaubatz, who  as championed by Melanie Phillips in 2007. I’ve blogged him before regarding his absurd “Mapping Shari’a” project and his role in the new “Stop Islamization of America” organisation; Glenn Greenwald notes a history of overheated rhetoric:

He previously called Obama a “crack head” and wrote that “a vote for Hussein Obama is a vote for Sharia Law.”

And as for Gaubatz’s own site (see here):

The entire site is filled with the most extreme and repugnant anti-Muslim paranoia imaginable, claiming that “CAIR represents the ideology of terrorist groups”; warning that “CAIR places ‘insiders’ into Congressional offices in order to push the CAIR and Islamic terrorist agendas“; displaying a photograph of Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim-American elected to Congress, with this caption:  “One of your leading elected officials (supporter of CAIR) with researcher Chris Gaubatz.  How much information do we have on Carson and Congressman Keith Ellison?; and warning that “Young Muslim children are being taught across America to engage in violence against non Muslims and Muslims who do not uphold Sharia law.”

Gaubatz links this to a socialist conspiracy, and he claims that the media suppress details of Obama’s past drug use because of their own drug use. Media Matters has more in the same vein.

According to WND, Gaubatz had his son grow a beard and pretend to be a Muslim in order to infiltrate CAIR and smuggle out “12,000 pages” of documents. Of course, the fact that Gaubatz is a nutjob does not necessarily preclude the possibility that something devastating about the organisation has been turned up, but the signs are not encouraging: much of the material on WND about the book rakes over old controversies long in the public domain, and the centre-piece – which the four House Republicans are milking to death – is simply an unremarkable memo about lobbying strategy. Daniel Pipes, meanwhile, is trying to hype the book at the Jerusalem Post, but while he assures us that it “contains too much new information to summarize in small compass”, the only revelations he gives us are that CAIR has allegedly exaggerated its membership base and that it gets funding from Saudi Arabia and Dubai.

Greenwald also notes a 2003 comment from Rep Myrick:

In remarks about domestic security threats, Rep. Sue Myrick of Charlotte said, “Look at who runs all the convenience stores across the country”. . .

Myrick’s comments came during a speech to the conservative Heritage Foundation last week about what she called Americans’ lack of readiness to deal with future terrorist attacks. During a question-and-answer session, she spoke about danger within the country.

“You know, and this can be misconstrued, but honest to goodness (husband) Ed and I for years, for 20 years, have been saying, ‘You know, look at who runs all the convenience stores across the country.’  Every little town you go into, you know?”…

Of course,  politicians often show a weakness for grabbing headlines by associating with self-promoting and self-styled “anti-terror” experts. But as Patrick Mercer MP knows, such media stunts can end in embarrassment.

The book has a website here.

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An independent Baptist church in Canton, North Carolina has managed to get widely reported around the interwebs by announcing a book burning for Halloween – the books in question including various translations of the Bible and works by well-known evangelicals and neo-Pentecostals, who are deemed to be heretical. The church concerned is the Amazing Grace Baptist Church, pastored by Marc Grizzard, and, according to reports, he has a congregation of fourteen members (from Wayback, it seems the church used to be based in Cumming, Georgia). The BaptistWebsite hosting service has either pulled the page or gone down due to excessive hits, but luckily there is still some material available from caches. It’s a typical window into the world of “Independent, Fundamental” Baptist Churches, a world away from slick megachurches, Charismatic showmanship, and the political strategies and savvy of Christian Right culture warriors – let alone the intellectual tradition within evangelicalsm. While easy to make fun of (à la Landover Baptist), such churches and their networks are often overlooked – except when they pull a stunt like announcing a book-burning.

From the site, we learn that:

We are not burning Bibles written in other languages that are based on the TR [=”Textus Receptus”] . We are not burning the Wycliffe, Tyndale, Geneva or other translations that are based on the TR.

We will be serving Bar-b-Que Chicken, fried chicken, and all the sides. 

Other events listed include: a Missionary Conference with Brother Travis Sharpe and a “Bible-making trailer” from Anchor Baptist Church in Brevard; a Revival, assisted by Tom Shook of Truth Baptist Church, Canton, NC; and, still to come, a one-year anniversary with Evangelist Harold Leake. The church also supports a couple of foreign missionaries: the Ambrocio Family in the Philippines (also supported by Springfield Bible Baptist Church) and Joseph Onikeku of Nigeria (links added):

I personally know of this family and their son James. I went to school with James while at Tennessee Temple University, we were room mates. When I first met James it was awful funny how we came to understand each other. I thought he talked funny, and he thought I talked fast. We became great friends real fast…Mr. Onikeku went to TTU when Dr. Lee Roberson was the President and Pastor of Highland Park Baptist Church. The Onikeku family and ministry believes just like Dr. Lee Roberson did when he was on this earth. He stands for the King James Bible, Jesus is the Son of God, and others doctrines that the Old TTU believed in…

Grizzard considers his late father McArthur Grizzard to have been “the World’s Greatest Preacher”, and the website includes a number of aphorisms; here’s one:

Sometimes after my daddy quoted a verse he would say, “I’m not quoting Ripley’s believe it or not; its God’s believe it or else, or else you wished you had.”

The site was also described by the website Stuff Fundies Like in June:

When you visit, be sure to check out page on “letters, thoughts and articles” on topics such as “sex, drugs, homosexuality, alcohol, smoking, immodesty, long hair-guys, short hair-girls, pants, mixed bathing, Judging, cursing, Science, etc.”

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From the Times of Zambia:

PENTECOSTAL Assemblies of God (PAOG) national overseer Harrison Sakala has urged the 18 civil society organisations to stop honking and other demonstrations against former President Chiluba’s acquittal because it is unconstitutional.

Bishop Sakala said using demonstrations or even rallies in pressing for an appeal against Dr Chiluba’s acquittal amounted to pressurising the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), which is illegal…

And the Independent Churches Of Zambia (ICOZ) has called for a complete stop to the demonstrations against Dr Chiluba’s acquittal.

ICOZ Board chairperson David Masupha said civil society organisations should learn to dialogue over matters affecting the nation than resorting to acts that would cause confusion in the country.

Various arrests have already occured:

POLICE will continue arresting all those who deliberately try to destabilise the peace of the nation by honking in protest against the acquittal of former president Frederick Chiluba, Home Affairs Minister Lameck Mangani has said.

…On Friday, nine people including two Partriotic Front (PF) members of Parliament were arrested and detained for honking. The nine were charged with conduct likely to cause a breach of peace and unnecessary honking.

Chiluba was acquitted following a six-year corruption trial in August; he gave a statement thanking God while sitting in front of a large Israeli flag (Chiluba is a Christian Zionist), and the Lusaka Times noted

…a thanksgiving service dubbed ‘Thanksgiving Service for the Acquittal of the Former Republican President’ organised by the clergy from various Pentecostal churches in Lusaka yesterday…

Some Zambian Christians are sceptical, though:

Unless second republican President, Frederick Titus Chiluba repents for stealing money from this country, God will never forgive him of the sin, a Catholic Priest has prophesied.

Father Joseph Besa of Mpika urged Christians to love one another and work collectively in bringing people to salvation.

Father Besa observed that although President Chiluba was acquitted of having stolen US $500,000 by Magistrate Jones Chinyama, he needed to repent if he was to enter the kingdom of God .

“Even if President Frederick Chiluba was last week acquitted of stealing money, he needs to be penitent because God will never forgive him,” said the Priest…

When Chiluba became president, he was anointed with oil by the Anglican archbishop, and soon afterwards famously declared Zambia to be a “Christian nation”. He also enjoyed the support of American neo-Pentecostals; Christianity Today reported in 2001 that:

…according to The Post of Zambia, Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) president Paul Crouch is getting involved in the messy world of Zambian politics. Even more shocking, he’s apparently backing a third term for Zambia president Frederick Chiluba. The Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia, the Christian Council of Zambia, the Zambia (Roman Catholic) Episcopal Conference, and other religious leaders and organizations, and churches are organizing to oppose Chiluba’s bid—which would require a change to the country’s fledgling constitution. No matter to Crouch, who reportedly mentioned none of the concerns of Zambia’s church leadership when he told his viewers around the world to pray for Chiluba’s success. According to The Post of Zambia, here’s how it happened: President Chiluba himself contacted televangelist Benny Hinn for prayer, saying he “had great forces of opposition against his bid.” Hinn contacted Crouch, who also enlisted John Hagee in the prayers for Chiluba’s success over the citizens of Zambia.

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Conference also to discuss “Europe between America and China and the struggle in Europe between the streams of Freemasonry, Jesuitism and the Rose Cross… The impulse of 666 and 1998; the Etheric Christ Event”

An advert in the new Private Eye (1247, p. 35) leads us to the website of “AV3: The Alternative View“, an upcoming conference in Brighton featuring Lewes MP Norman Baker and Cynthia McKinney. Baker, famously, believes that David Kelly was murdered, while McKinney sympathises with (while not quite endorsing) Truther views and claims that 5000 prisoners were executed after the Katrina disaster.

There are some remarkable co-speakers; here’s a sample:

Leonid Sharashkin: “Anastasia (Greek: “resurrection”) was at the core of our ancestors’ understanding of Life. They knew there is no death, and saw in the universal cycle of birth, growth, maturity, death and re-birth a reflection of the Divine Thought. Their joyous culture was banned from our consciousness until now.

Greg Nikolettos: The presentation will showcase the global microchipping agenda tracing the first microchip back in time to the current ownership of the technology. Going back in history, parallels will be drawn to the Nazi regime to totally control the populace through information gathering and revealing the companies behind Hitler that still operate today…The presentation will also demonstrate how the Transhumanism movement is the modern day eugenics, repackaged and rebranded for a new generation.

Ian R Crane: Billions of dollars are being spent to convince humanity that the presence of the Human Race on Earth is the real threat to the species. The ultimate goal is to replace Six Billion Humans with 500 Million Super-Humans; a reduction of 90% (Ref: Georgia Guidestones).

Crane also rails against the “Enlilian Mafia”.

But best of all, step forward Terry Boardman:

Are the aims of the New World Order (NWO) in the 21st Century the acquisition of power and wealth by selfish elites, bent on enslavement of the masses and depopulation? Or is there perhaps a deeper meaning to the challenge the NWO presents to human freedom and evolution?

Terry’s new presentation will detail various aspects of the esoteric dimension of the 21st century including:

• humanity’s ‘crossing of the threshold’ in 1899 in relation to the millennium and 2012;
• humanity’s global ‘coming of age’ in the 21st century; the connection between the New World Order and the incarnation of ‘Ahriman’;
• Europe between America and China and the struggle in Europe between the streams of Freemasonry, Jesuitism and the Rose Cross;
• The New World Order and ‘the Age of Michael’; and
• The impulse of 666 and 1998; the Etheric Christ Event

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From Dave Osler:

LONGSTANDING readers may remember that I am facing libel action from Tower Hamlets Tory activist Johanna Kaschke – as featured in the YouTube clip above – following a post about her on this blog in 2007. She is also suing two other Labour Party members, Alex Hilton and John Gray, over related issues.

Alex, of course, is prospective parliamentary candidate for Chelsea & Fulham, surely an easy peasy Labour gain in the current political climate. Bankruptcy, which will result for all three of us if Ms Kaschkde prevails, will disqualify him from becoming an MP.

I spent all day yesterday in the High Court, listening to Alex’s appeal that an application for summary judgement be upheld, and I’m just about to head off for a second helping. His case is being argued on a point of law, rather than the underlying merits of the matter. The ruling will probably come about lunch time.

Meanwhile, I’m on for a four-day jury trial, which will cost the taxpayers tens of thousands of pounds, and is set to commence on November 23. ‘Overtly Tory’ blogger Iain Dale has agreed in principle to appear as an expert witness on my behalf, which should underline that this is more than simply a party political spat.

…Interestingly, the jury will also be asked to rule on whether or not it is libellous to call somebody ‘one cherry short of a Schwarzwalderkirschtorte’. Not my words, but those of a reader, left in the comments box. If I lose on that point, the consequences for internet freedom of speech are clearly considerable.

In the USA, that last point would be dismissed as meaningless abuse, and in 2007 the High Court in London ruled in another case that some defamatory comments in should not be taken seriously if they are “little more than abusive or likely to be understood as jokes”.

However, and more seriously, if the court considers that Osler and the other defendants are liable for a comment left by someone else, then everyone who blogs in the UK will have to consider moderating comments, or turning off the comments feature altogether. It’s one thing if a blogger refuses to remove a truly libellous comment – and if a court order is made to reveal the IP or other details of a commentator then of course the blogger must either comply or face the consequences – but at the moment we’re in an alarming situation. It doesn’t matter if the comment is removed quickly, or if nobody much saw the comment. And what if the comment appears on a defunct blog that the owner (or the owner’s next of kin, if he or she has died) no longer monitors? I had a nasty scare over a comment a few years ago, so I now remove comments that are probably OK but not worth a battle over.

I previously blogged on Kaschke here and here.

(Hat tip: Harry’s Place)

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BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme has a piece on the English Defence League – see here at 31.40. There’s a very short contribution from me at 35.50.

Meanwhile, YouTube has a number of videos of yesterday’s EDL protest in Manchester; this channel has several bits of footage taken from within the march.

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Four days after the Sun ran its notorious “Terror Target Sugar” front-page splash, the following article appeared in the People:

As with the Alan Sugar article, the evidence that Madonna faced a terror threat in relation to Gaza was culled from postings to a Muslim discussion forum:

On the notorious Islambase site, a Palestinian terror leader says: “If I meet these whores I will have the honor to be the first one to cut the head off Madonna if they will keep spreading their satanic culture against Islam.”

The vile threat was made by Muhammad Abdel-Al, leader of the Popular Resistance Committees – a fringe group of Palestinian militia who have launched thousands of rocket attacks on Israel.

 Another misspelt rant on Islambase says: “What can be done to stop kuffars like maddona supporting the killing in Gaza?”

On another site called Ummah a fanatic naming himself Hammed10 writes: “Madonna is a disgrace.

“She insults us with her slutty behaviour and then she insults us further with her love of the Jewish kuffar non-Muslims.

“Some brothers were talking about what to do about this the other day on another site. I don’t want to say too much on here. But you can pm me send a private message.”

Unity at Ministry of Truth points out that the comment by Abdel-Al is actually a 2007 quote, given to WorldNetDaily‘s Aaron Klein in response to a question about how he would run America, and was not connected to any particular new development concerning Gaza. However, Unity has also dug much deeper and discovered that the postings to the two Muslim forums are deeply suspicious. In particular:

In all, Hammed10 made only five posts on Ummah’s forum, all on this one thread and all from an account that had been registered on the same day that this thread appeared (9th January).

In fact, on close examination of the full thread, it transpires that, but for a single comment at the very end of the thread by ‘Ibn Sina’, all the comments on this thread that were critical of Madonna, including Hammed10’s comment, came from new accounts that had been registered on same day that the thread appeared… Email and IP address information… indicates that all four of these accounts, which were all registered on 9 January, all supplied false email addresses and made use of anonymity services/software to conceal their real IP address and, therefore, their location and the internet service provider they were using.

Unity then casts an eye over Paul Ray’s blog – on the same day, Ray posted that he was also under threat from extremists on Ummah. Unity notes:

There is no evidence to show that that comment was ever posted on Ummah.com’s forums prior to its appearance on Ray’s blog. However, within a few hours of Ray posting that article, a link to it was posted to the forum at Ummah,com, along with its full text,  using the username ‘aljih’. Once again, this was a newly registered account and the post relating to Ray’s article was this users first and only post on the forum. However, what makes this user of particular interest is the fact that their one and only post was made from the same IP address that had been used, earlier, by Umm_765, one of the would-be agent provocateurs on the Madonna thread.

Unity’s discussion of the evidence goes into much further detail. He goes on to note that the People journalist responsible for the Madonna story, Daniel Jones, received an email from Patrick Mercer MP’s office in March offering him information derived from Glen Jenvey, who was responsible for the fake Alan Sugar story. Remarkably, this was after Jenvey’s faking had been brought to public attention by Tim Ireland of Bloggerheads and had featured both in the Guardian and Private Eye.

Unity also notes interest in Islambase from our old friend Dominic Wightman. There is no suggestion here that Wightman was involved in planting bogus messages on this site, although he certainly did post a fake document on-line somewhere else in an attempt to deceive Tim and me into writing about someone against whom he has a grudge (this is not a matter of argument: he has admitted to it, justifying his actions as some kind of undercover action  against us as “lefties”). Patrick Mercer has distanced himself from Jenvey – indeed, he has gone so far as to suggest that his office never worked with Jenvey, which is manifestly untrue. However, he has not yet said anything publicly about Dominic Wightman, whom he also endorsed and with whom he posed for a photograph outside New Scotland Yard. It should be noted that Wightman has recently berated Tim and me for getting information on IP addresses from Ummah.com – he believes that it is a sign of a “Red Black Alliance” of Muslim extremists and leftwingers. Clearly, this is an avenue of research that he’s keen to discourage.

Unity also gives link to a January 2008 article on Wightman’s Westminster Journal website, that is of particular interest to me. Here’s an extract:

The residue of the now banned British-based radical Islamist groups, Al Muhajiroun, the Saved Sect and Al Ghurabaa currently use the website Islambase to congregate when Omar Bakri’s cyber mosque on Paltalk is closed. The site is full of “fake jihadi” chatter and members’ whimsical sighing about their brothers (and some sisters) who are now locked up in jail.

The site was part of a December 2007 investigation by a team of Russian hackers, who entered several extremist Islamist sites around the world. Using their manipulated version of eBlaster they recorded the key strokes of certain users of these extremist sites for up to several days. Those users who clicked on the Russians’ links and entered the websites at certain times fell into their clever traps.

… Islambase’s Hamza… shows himself to be the least likely pure Islamist…After seventeen minutes on Strangeland, he goes for something even more hardcore on a site called Puretna. Clicking on “TNAFlix full length streaming porn movies for free!!!”

In the same month that this was published, a one-post only blog was created by someone going  by the name “James Osposol”, and with the username “Rosposol”. “Rosposol”, interestingly, is a word used in the official email addresses of Russian embassies. The site, now removed, pasted in a chunk of material from my blog, and added the intro:

“Hi, I’m Bartholomew and you can find me doing what i do best here…”

This was followed with a link to a pornographic video on TNAFlix, featuring an actor who perhaps could look a bit like me. More recently, another attack blog has made fun of a supposed physical similarity between myself and the vicar from Dad’s Army. However, Wightman has assured me that he had nothing to do with the “Osposol” blog. The name of “James Osposol” was brought to my attention by investigators at Spinwatch, who found the name in correspondence relating to VIGIL [UPDATE: And for those curious about the video, I’ve captured a safe-for-work screenshot of the actor’s face here] .

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