Bartholomew's Notes

Glenn Beck’s “end-times prophet” Joel Richardson has a new article at WorldNetDaily, explaining how turmoil in Libya will lead to the rise of the “Neo-Ottoman Caliphate”, as facilitated by Obama. Although he avoids theological discussion this time, Richardson famously believes that this new Caliphate is predicted in the Bible as the means by which the world’s Muslims will be brought under the control of a coming Islamic Anti-Christ:

The World Tribune has reported that Turkey has floated the idea of invading Libya to establish peace and stability in that nation. According to the report, the one stipulation however, as set forth by Prime Minister Erdogan, is that the European Union must immediately welcome Turkey into its warm embrace. And then comes the zinger: “The sources said the United States, particularly President Barack Obama, supported the Turkish proposal.” Bingo. President Obama is virtually rolling out the red carpet for the emerging Neo-Ottoman Caliphate…

Richardson’s close associate Walid Shoebat concurs, quoting the same World Tribune report and adding:

For years, I have said that some day Turkey will invade Libya. Daniel 11 tells us:

“He will gain control of the treasures of gold and silver and all the riches of Egypt with the Libyans and Nubians in submission.” (Daniel 11:43)

Turkey currently has its eye on Libya and is using Barack Hussein Obama to gain support for his invasion of Libya and he got it. Whether Turkey will invade or not is only a matter of time…

Various apocalyptically-minded websites have reposted this rumination.

Although the report cited by Shoebat and Richardson is billed as “special to the World Tribune“, the Tribune piece in turn credits the Middle East Newsline and it is essentially a cut-and-paste from an article there. This article is paywall-protected, but Middle East Newsline is unlikely to mind: the site is run by an Israel-based journalist named Steve Rodan, who is also the World Tribune’s Middle East editor.

Middle East Newsline’s information is purportedly from “diplomatic sources” and “a Western diplomat”. Along with details about Erdogan’s offer and Obama’s alleged support of it, we are also given information about a third president’s supposed reaction:

The sources said French President Nicolas Sarkozy opposed the Erdogan proposal despite U.S. pressure.

“What Sarkozy said is unprintable, but basically that the United States is not a member of the EU and cannot dictate who should be a member,” the diplomat said.

The fact that Obama and Sarkozy are at odds over Turkey’s membership of the EU is actually old news from 2009.

Alas, however, the claim that Turkey plans to invade Libya has been contradicted by other reports that cite actual people, as opposed to shadowy “sources”. Richardson  nevertheless is undeterred:

Thankfully, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet has followed up with a report that both Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Davutoglu have categorically ruled out such a Turkish-led invasion of Libya – but not before Obama had the opportunity to reflexively support such an idea.

In other words, the “sources” who revealed the “Turkish proposal” have turned out to have been wrong, but we should still believe the bit about Obama having “reflexively supported” the proposal that was never made.

Rodan writes for publications such as Jane’s Defence Weekly and the Jerusalem Post. World Tribune, meanwhile, was profiled by the New Yorker in 2003:

It is a Web site produced, more or less as a hobby, in Falls Church, Virginia… Its editor and publisher, Robert Morton, is an assistant managing editor at the Washington Times and a former “corporate editor” for News World Communications, the Times’ owner and the publishing arm of the Unification Church, led by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. (Morton and his wife, Choon Boon, are themselves followers of the Reverend Moon.)

…Morton said last week via e-mail that he founded the site as an experiment, back in 1998, while serving as a media fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank.

…it is part of a loose network of mostly conservative sites… whose dispatches sometimes serve as the journalistic equivalent of trial balloons: a story may not be based on knowable facts, but it nevertheless may occasionally turn out to be right.

Also:

…World Tribune.com, in concert with the subscription-driven weekly intelligence briefing Geostrategy-Direct.com (a partner site), has paid for itself.

World Tribune describes itself, alongside this partner site and a third site called East-Asia-Intel.com, as belonging to the “media division” of a private company called East West Services, Inc (or EWS, Inc). The website’s footer contains a strange detail:

Legal Counsel: Roy M. Cohn (1927-1986) Backup Paralegals: Hammer, Rude, Hussein, Nasty and Tong

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From the AP:

Soldiers backing Ivory Coast’s defiant leader mowed down women protesting his refusal to leave power in a hail of gunfire Thursday, killing at least six and shocking a nation where women’s marches have historically been used as a last resort against an unrestrained army.

…Nearly 400 people have been killed in the west African country, including 32 in the last 24 hours, almost all of them men who had voted for opposition leader Alassane Ouattara, according to U.N. figures and combined with deaths confirmed by The Associated Press.

Last week, [Laurent] Gbagbo’s security forces entered the Abobo neighborhood and began shelling it with mortars, a shocking escalation indicating the army is willing to use war-grade weapons on its citizens. Before that, the bodies seen by reporters had bullet wounds where the point of impact was marked by a single stain of blood. Since the escalation, the bodies seen by reporters have arrived at the morgue in body bags dripping with blood.

…Gbagbo, a former history teacher, has refused to cede power, even though U.N.-certified results showed he had lost the race by half-a-million votes….

We look forward to how Pat Robertson’s CBN will report on all this. Back in January, I noted that CBN had conducted a softball interview with Gbagbo, which the station boasted had been “broadcast on Ivorian National Television”. The interview gave the Gbagbo a platform to discourse on his Christian faith, and CBN’s Gary Lane – aware of his brief to present Gbagbo as a Christian bulwark against Islam – didn’t spoil the mood by asking about Gbagbo’s polygamy or other awkward subjects. A follow-up segment on CBN suggested that Gbagbo had lost the election only because of “fraud” engineered by Saudi Arabia and “Muslims in France”.

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An announcement from Gary Foxcroft of Stepping Stones Nigeria concerning the Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network, a Nigerian organisation which runs a hostel for children who have suffered abuse as a result of witchcraft allegations:

As a valued supporter of Stepping Stones Nigeria, and in the spirit of openness and honesty, I have taken the decision to inform you of some unfortunate news. It is with great sadness in my heart that I need to inform you of the termination of the partnership between Stepping Stones Nigeria and our Nigerian partner agency- the Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN). This decision, which has not been taken lightly, was unanimously made by me and the SSN Board of Trustees on 17thFebruary. Out of gratitude and respect we then decided you should know this news as we felt that it may be important to you.

…Recently Stepping Stones Nigeria was deeply concerned to receive a number of  unproven but  very serious allegations regarding the conduct of one of CRARN’s senior staff members. In line with our child protection policy and Memorandum of Understanding SSN immediately demanded the suspension and removal of this staff member whilst an independent investigation took place to determine the truth behind the allegations. When it became clear that CRARN would not promptly and effectively comply with our requests the SSN Board of Trustees moved quickly to terminate the partnership with immediate effect. We regret this action has had to be taken; however we must ensure that all of our partners adhere to the highest standards of child protection, accountability and transparency…

The full statement can be seen here. NEXT has further details:

…the Director of Stepping Stones Nigeria, Gary Foxcroft, said that the recent allegations against the CRARN staff member and the organization’s failure to take appropriate action to enable an independent investigation to take place necessitated the termination of the partnership. “Stepping Stones Nigeria has invested significant effort and resources into our work with CRARN over the last 5 years… We are in no way prejudging the outcome of this situation, but we feel that swift action is required,” he said. “As Director of SSN (Stepping Stones Nigeria), I have no hesitation in giving this decision my full backing… We will now look forward to strengthening our existing partnerships and develop new ones to help more children in the Niger Delta access their rights and realise their full potential.”

…CRARN said that it appealed to officials of Stepping Stones Nigeria, who wanted to invite European Union human right lawyers for an investigation, to consider their memorandum of understanding before inviting any third party since it is a matter to concerns children.

CRARN does not explain why the plan to bring in an outside investigator should be unreasonable. Instead, it claims that SSN had planned to terminate the relationship before the allegation was made:

Bassey Ukang, CRARN’s administrative officer, said that plans by the UK group to sever ties with them had been hatched over a month ago according to a letter they received inviting them to a meeting in Ghana where one of the key agenda was the termination of the partnership. “CRARN actually did not buy this idea given the huge amount of money made on the heads of Akwa Ibom children, mostly those from the CRARN centre,” he said. “While trying to negotiate that, they came up with uncanny sorts of allegations which they claim involved some key staff and want those staff to relocate to an unknown place in Abuja while their phones and laptop confiscated….”

Ukang also hints at legal action.

This news will of course delight certain powerful local evangelists who are keen to discredit anyone who speaks out against the idea of child-witches, as well as politicians and journalists who wish to downplay the consequences of child-witch stigmatisation. However, SSN has clearly made the right decision: we all know from bitter experience that any organisation which has access to children must remain extremely vigilant of unsuitable adults who might seek to involve themselves in its work. Attempting to gloss over a problem now would lead only to disaster – and tragedy – later.

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