Bartholomew's Notes

Part One

The earthquake in Japan continues to evoke moralistic and scaremongering commentary from various religious figures. In South Korea, David Yonggi-Cho (a member of the international neo-Pentecostal “A-list”) has used to opportunity to note Japan’s “idol worship, atheism, and materialism”, while Glenn Beck’s “End-Times Prophet” Joel Richardson has knocked off a pseudo-geological screed for WorldNetDaily in which he tells us about “astounding statistics that were brought to my attention last year by my friend, Pastor Cecil Boswell, from Nashville, Tenn.” These statistics supposedly prove that earthquakes are increasing in frequency as we approach the last days – a popular standby of doom-mongers, but not actually true.

The most blatantly irresponsible fearmongering, though, has come from Rick Joyner, a big-name evangelist who has links with Gen. Jerry Boykin and various neo-Pentecostal leaders (Hat tip: Sarah Posner). Joyner warns that the earthquake in Japan presages the collapse of America and a bigger earthquake on the west coast of the USA:

…It’s all unfolding right now… Now, one of the scenarios or the scenario that we saw was America would swing to the left. There would be an economic collapse. Anarchy, terrible, terrible, anarchy for a period of time, for a short period of time, like less than two months, and then swing way to the right, and the worst kind of tyranny would take over…. People would want any kind of order rather than the chaos and disorder and all that had happened because of the economic collapse.…

Another factor here I want to bring up right now, I think Bob started prophesising, Bob Jones, I first heard him say it 22 years ago – 22 is 11-11, I’ve talked about that – was that the real beginning of some things would start with a major earthquake in Japan. A lot of other details… part of that revelation too was an atomic mushroom cloud, I don’t know what’s going on with those reactors over there, but you know things are unfolding right now, they really are. Some other prophetic voices that I think have a good track record, even in the last year or so, have started saying that something was going to happen in Japan that would cause them to call in their bonds, their American debt, the debt you know, that they had purchased so much of American debt. They were going to need it for rebuilding Japan, and that would cause the collapse here…

…The next two years are going to be the most critical I think in our history… Another thing Bob saw, several of us saw the same earthquake happen in California that was a warning shot across the bow of California. The very details that we saw happened in the last major earthquake…and many of us had seen a much bigger one coming to the West coast, California. But it would not come – Bob had this part – it would not come until the Japanese earthquake…. I believe our whole northwest… It’s inevitable.

Bob Jones was one of the “Kansas City Prophets” (he is not to be confused with Bob Jones of Bob Jones University fame), and both he and Joyner have perennially predicted earthquakes; here’s Joyner in 1998:

Bob Jones and Jim Bakker both feel that the things we mentioned in the tape are very imminent, and I concur that the emphasis of the Spirit seems to have changed from warning that unless we repent these things will happen, to prepare for them, they are coming. However, I do not know of anyone who has been given a sure timing, and I personally feel that we may have several more years, which is a short time! Regardless of how much time we may have, we do not have any time to waste.

Do we think that it is time for believers to move out of Southern California? Bob Jones has warned some people that it is time to leave Southern California. I have told people to seek the Lord and leave only if He directs them to. However, I have been told that the time is soon coming when I will have to begin telling people that they should only stay if they hear from the Lord to stay.

…First, there are many cities and regions that are about to experience God’s judgements. However, I do not believe that the judgement coming to the Los Angeles area has as much to do with the degree of evil as it does the ability to project it and send it around the world. No other city in our time has caused more people to stumble than Los Angeles, mostly for what has come out of Hollywood. This will not continue much longer, either because of repentance, or because of destruction.

No mention of Japan there. Joyner expounded on the numerological significance of the number 11 at the start of this year, spurred on by the date of 1 Jan 2011:

The question I may be asked more than any other is what 11-11 means. Whether seeing it repeatedly on their clocks or in other ways, many people have been receiving this for years. New Year’s Day was 1/1/11 or 1-1-11. This usually speaks of a second chance, which is the message ofI saiah 11:11 because it is here that God promises to restore Israel to their land a second time.

How this relates to earthquakes remains mysterious.

Part Two

Joyner’s new sermon also has a bizarre discussion of his association with Eugene K. Bird (Gene Bird), a former commandant of Spandau prison who later became a businessman in Berlin. In the 1960s, Bird had used his position to interview Rudolf Hess and to write a book about him, in contravention to military regulations. Joyner apparently later became friends with Bird, and this is relevant because “the same demonic evil principalities that had overtaken Germany” are “going to attempt to take over the United States” following the Japan earthquake and coming economic collapse.

Bird, Joyner explains, originally hated Germans, until he saw the devastation caused by Soviet soldiers in Berlin. Stalin had made an order:

…the army that gets to the Reichstag first, plants the Soviet flag on the Reichstag, would be given the reward of three days to do anything they wanted to the German people who are left. Anything. Torture them, kill them, rape them. Whatever they wanted to do… The Russian soldiers were just turned loose on the population.

Soviet rape atrocities in Berlin and elsewhere were highlighted in Anthony Beevor’s book Berlin: The Downfall of 1945. A 2002 report about the book in the Telegraph notes that:

Stalin and his commanders condoned or even justified rape, not only against Germans but also their allies in Hungary, Romania and Croatia. When the Yugoslav Communist Milovan Djilas protested to Stalin, the dictator exploded: “Can’t he understand it if a soldier who has crossed thousands of kilometres through blood and fire and death has fun with a woman or takes some trifle?”

However, Beevor’s book makes no mention of a special three-day dispensation given to whichever army group got to the Reichstag first.

Back to Joyner:

Bird was also instrumental in helping to lead von Schirach, who was the head of the Hitler youth, Albert Speer, who was supposedly the greatest architect and engineer – they said his genius prolonged the war up to two years – and Rudolf Hess all met the Lord. We’re going to know them in heaven. I mean, if that isn’t redemption, if that isn’t restoration……He was almost universally recognised as possibly the top authority on Nazi Germany.

…He introduced me to some of the famous old Nazis. Even the colonel, if you saw the movie, when Hitler and Eva Braun killed themselves, how the one-armed colonel went in, picked up the pistol they’d shot themselves with, and had their bodies burned. That colonel was still alive until a few years ago, still had the gun Hitler killed himself with. And, we were out there at Hitler’s bunker one time. Here’s the guy who had them buried – and, their bodies burned and then buried. And then, unfortunately, typical of Nazis, then they killed the ones that did that, who buried them, so nobody would know, and he said the Russians never found their bodies… He showed us where they were buried. If you knew, it is one of the most remarkable stories. I’m not going to say here because this programme goes everywhere, but I know where they’re buried.

Gitta Sereny’s famous biography of Speer, Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth, has a couple of fleeting references to Bird. He told her:

When I assumed my duties, it was easy enough to manage Schirach — I never trusted him, but he was agreeable enough; his English was better than mine. Hess was really difficult to talk to: ‘How are you?’ ‘Bad.’ ‘The weather?’ ‘Bad’…

However, there are no stories of the three Nazis being “led to the Lord” by Bird or by anyone else. And the notion that those who disposed of Hitler’s body were killed in turn is also nonsense: the key witnesses (such as Otto Guensche, Heinz Linge, Johan Rattenhuber, Hans Baur, and Harry Mengershausen) were still alive years after the war’s end.

The Times gave a bit of background to Bird’s book, The Loneliest Man in the World, last year:

The veteran Australian reporter Desmond Zwar has revealed how he helped to extract information from the Nazi while he was locked up alone in Spandau prison, West Berlin…

“I wrote out the questions for Hess, gave them to the US prison commandant Eugene Bird,” Mr Zwar says. “Bird would record Hess’s answers, I would have the tapes transcribed and translated, write them up and send the text back to him via Colonel Bird. Hess would then hide the paper in his underwear and read them in the prison garden.”

The resulting manuscript became a book under the name of Colonel Bird and it unleashed a furious response from the Western allies and from Moscow. Mr Zwar’s role in writing the book was quickly evident and US agents were sent to his house in Australia. Special Branch was dispatched to his London agent, George Greenfield.

According to Greenfield’s 1995 memoir, A Smattering of Monsters, Bird had a German wife and was fluent in the language. Greenfield describes him as “dark-haired, plump-faced, with a soft Sothern accent – a strange mixture of shrewdness and gullibility”. Perhaps that gullibility came to the fore when a neo-Pentecostal evangelist from California came knocking.

Joyner has used Bird’s name before; in 2009 he warned with thudding inevitability that

Bird often explained how the evil spirit of death that took over Germany gained entry through its health care system. Now it is easy to see what he was talking about in what is being proposed by the Obama Administration.

Part Three

Bird also introduced Joyner to a chivalric group:

I saw many parallels in the history of the Knights of Malta, who are also called the Order of St. John (OSJ), with what I had been shown prophetically in the vision I was given about the coming harvest and the struggle that much of the world was about to face.

…I began telling Col. Bird about my recent study of the interesting history of the Knights of Malta. To my surprise Col. Bird told me that he had recently been knighted by this Order, and that I too had been recommended for investiture by an Austrian baron. He also told me about a spiritual renewal that was taking place in the OSJ, and that some of this had come about because of my books which were being read by the knights.

About a week later I was standing in a Nuremberg hotel lobby with some friends, when one of them announced the entry of the Austrian baron who Col. Bird had just told me about. As this man approached, I asked Bobby Conner to tell me if he saw anything prophetic about this man. Bobby began to share with him a vision that he had just seen of a strange briefcase, and that he had just visited the office of Kurt Waldheim. The baron was astonished because he had just had a briefcase custom made like the one Bobby described for Kurt Waldheim, and had just come from giving it to him in his office (Kurt Waldheim was at that time the President of Austria, but Bobby did not know who he was). The Austrian baron was already a believer in the prophetic, but he said that he had not seen anything on quite this level. This began a series of events that made Kurt Waldheim a believer as well. This was important for a significant prophetic/diplomatic meeting with one of the most powerful Arab leaders in the Middle East which would take place at a later date. This was when I first realized how some of the knights of the OSJ were being used for amazing spiritual-diplomatic achievements that were in the interest of the kingdom of God. A number of very influential world leaders were presented straightforwardly with the gospel, as well as given important prophetic information which came to pass.

So, Kurt Waldheim became a neo-Pentecostal, too!

Bird’s obituary can be seen here; it tells us that

After leaving the U.S. army, Bird remained in Berlin, living in the city’s outlying Zehlendorf district and operating a family business. He leaves behind a widow and two daughters.

Alas, however, it seems that there is some confusion over which group Joyner joined; Charisma reported in 2001 (now reposted elsewhere):

Joyner has even written a book about the Knights of Malta, Courage That Changed the World, which features a photograph of the robed “grand master” of the order. In the book, Joyner compares the Knights to end-time Christians who will overcome the world’s evils through faith in Christ.

What Joyner didn’t realize when he wrote his book is that the group he joined has “no connection whatsoever with any legitimate order of chivalry of that name,” according to Guy Stair Sainty, historiographer of the priory in the United States of the Most Venerable Order of St. John.

In a letter of response to an inquiry about Joyner’s group, Sainty said the order Joyner has joined is not the original Knights of Malta but “one of more than 20 similar bodies which misuse the name of St. John [to distribute] invented titles…and worthless knighthoods.” Sainty added that individuals who join the legitimate Knights of Malta group must be Roman Catholic and have a bishop’s recommendation.

Of course, that’s just Sainty’s perspective; the group of which Joyner is a member calls itself “the Ecumenical Order” and states that

although the Knights, like the Christian Church, are split into many Orders, our Order is true to the original tradition.

Joyner is described as a “Deputy Member of the Supreme Council”, while Jerry Boykin is the “Grand Chancellor”. The “Prince Grand Master” is Nicholas F.S. Papanicolaou, who is also a board member of Rick Joyner’s “Oak Initiative”. According to Papanicolaou’s blurb there:

…He was vice president of the Onassis Organization in New York in 1973-1975, and then joined his family business interests in shipping and other investments. In 1983 he became controlling shareholder and co-Chairman of Aston Martin Lagonda in the United Kingdom, maker of the famous Aston Martin and Lagonda motor cars…

He is also a co-Founder and Co-Chairman of the World Public Forum “Dialogue of Civilizations”. The WPF brings together each year on the island of Rhodes, Greece some 700 important officials and representatives from more than sixty countries for four days of open and frank deliberations on cross-religious and cross-cultural issues.

I blogged on the “Dialogue of Civilizations”, noting Papanicolaou’s involvment, in 2006. It seems incongruous that someone interested in “cross-religious” issues would hook up with the likes of Joyner and Boykin; an Oak Initiative branch in Texas recently invited Boykin to talk about “The Islamization of America”, and the Initiative’s leadership is mostly made up of the dominionist Christian Right.  According to the Order’s website, at one time Joyner brought Papanicolaou onto “a special program on God TV”.

I blogged on the world of chivalric orders here.

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The Catholic News Agency is trying to tell us something:

The epicenter of the earthquake that caused a deadly March 11 tsunami is located near the site of an apparition in which Mary warned about a worldwide disaster that could afflict humanity.

…The city of Akita, which experienced fire damage and flooding along with many parts of northern Japan, is a place of veneration for Catholics.

In 1973, the Virgin Mary was said to have predicted a number of future events – including natural disasters even more serious than Friday’s earthquake and tsunami – during three appearances to a Japanese religious sister, Sr. Agnes Sasagawa.

…”If men do not repent and better themselves, God the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity,” Mary reportedly told Sr. Agnes. “It will be a punishment greater than the (biblical) flood, such as never seen before.”

“Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful,” she said. “The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church, in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops.”

…Reports from Akita following Friday’s earthquake indicate that the city received significantly less damage than other parts of northern Japan, despite its proximity to the epicenter. However, residents did report power outages, burst pipes, and fires…

Clearly the author wants us to infer – without spelling it out – that the earthquake was hinted at in prophecy, and that Akita has received some special protection. This inference explains why various Catholic websites have been enthusiastically repasting the story.

So, before people get carried away (and particularly before it reaches Glenn Beck), it’s perhaps worth pointing out that Akita is in fact about 150 miles away from the earthquake’s epicentre, and is located on the coastline opposite to that which bore the brunt of the disaster. Further, the anonymous “reports” telling us that “the city received significantly less damage than other parts of northern Japan” are so vague as to be meaningless, especially as the article also concedes “fire damage and flooding”. No other news site has compared damage in Akita to damage in adjacent areas, so one wonders where this information has come from.

And as for the apparition’s warning, a prophecy about a future earthquake in Japan would have been so obvious to be laughable. But it’s clear that Sasagawa’s apparition refers to something else: in 1973, “fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity” was obviously meant to resonate with contemporary fears about nuclear war.

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A few days ago I blogged on a report in the Washington Monthly about some self-styled experts in terrorism who are currently advising law-enforcers in the USA. One of the individuals discussed was a certain Sam Kharoba, who has since stopped by with a comment. Here’s an extract:

Recently, the Washington Monthly published an article by two leftist liberal reporters attacking counter terrorism training efforts in the United States. The article is a testament of how liberal leftist reporters twist the truth to suit their agendas. It is very evident that these reporters; true motive is to attack law enforcement and counter terrorism efforts in the United States….

It is apparent from their twisted reporting that no matter what information or facts were presented to them, their true motive was to falsely paint law enforcement efforts as anti-Muslim and discriminating. For example, my statement regarding Muhammad followed a four hour instruction block detailing facts from the Qur’an (http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Quran/023-violence.htm), the Hadith (http://www.peacewithrealism.org/jihad/jihad03.htm) and Muhammad’s biography (http://www.faithfreedom.org/Articles/sira/18.htm) and (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aisha) to substantiate the statement. They did not report on these facts. My statement about Muslims lying is once again taken out of context. I explained the Muslim theological concepts of Taqiyya (http://www.answering-islam.org/Index/T/taqiyya.html) and Kitman (http://www.answering-islam.org/Index/L/lying.html) which clearly provide Muslims the right to lie to non-Muslims to protect Islam and Muslims. The statement regarding Muslims lying was addressed in the context of those Muslims who lie about true Islamic theology to non-Muslims and not a blanket statement regarding all Muslims as the reporters chose to portray…

I carefully distinguish and explain the words Islam and Muslims. Islam is a theological doctrine that contains violence; however, I stated many times that not all Muslims are radical. The reporters chose not to report on this distinction because it does not fit into their agenda.

So far, so confused. Who exactly are “those Muslims who lie about true Islamic theology”, if not moderate Muslims? And why are most of the references here to polemical anti-Islam websites rather than to serious sources? That in itself sets off alarm bells.

…The reporters slanted and distorted information in order to attack law enforcement. This report is a testament to the sad state of affairs of leftist media who will use any means to attack their opponents on the right. The law enforcement community must be doing something right since we have not been attacked in the past 9 ½ years with the exception of Major Hassan Nidal at Fort Hood… The reporters also ignored the recent report on radical Muslim activities in the United States “Shariah – the Threat To America”… The report clearly indicates the domestic threat but this was not reported on since it did fit their premeditated agenda.

I am left wondering who is more dangerous, the terrorists themselves or leftist liberal reporters…

This is playing to the gallery: the Washington Monthly report does not “attack law enforcement” or try to suggest there is no such thing as Islamic terrorism. What it does do, though, is highlight potential problems with the quality of training from self-styled “experts”.

Kharoba signs off by commending an article by “Major Joseph M. Bail, Jr. (ret.)”, a recently retired police officer from the City of Chester, Pennsylvania PD. His piece is entitled “Dispelling the Falsehoods of Washington Monthly Magazine: How the Liberal, Left Wing Media Lies To Destroy Our Mission and our Men”, and focuses for the most part on the magazine’s treatment of John Giduck. The Washington Monthly raised concerns about Giduck’s claims to have been trained in Russia; according to Bail:

…I have traveled to remarkable places around the world with John, and had experiences beyond anything I could have ever imagined as a police officer in the United States.  I have attended training that John and others at Archangel did, and have had the honor of doing training for them.

Bail explains that Giduck, while working on his master’s degree in St Petersburg, came into contact with “KGB Lt. Gen. and Director Anatoli Kurkov”, who was the husband of one of Giduck’s teachers. This led to training at “on a brand new compound of Vityaz on the Balashikha Army Base outside of Moscow”; the Washington Monthly came up a blank because they failed to ask the right people:

Igor Livits was a  sergeant on an elite Soviet military team that guarded its nuclear missile silos.  He says, “That is just naive for them to think they would be told anything by anyone in Russia.”

(Kurkov has himself been involved with law enforcement training in the USA; in 1996 the Rocky Mountain News reported he was “sharing his experiences with Colorado police.”)

Bail also has testimony from other Giduck associates:

Mike Rich worked for Archangel for years, and was one of the first people John started taking with him for training.  He is an instructor in Russian hand-to-hand combat systems, and holds a black belt…. “I was there when Col. Sergei Lisyuk, the commander of Vityaz and their version of a Medal of Honor Recipient, took his own sterling silver challenge coin out of his pocket, and his own beret off of his head, and presented them to John after getting through a particularly grueling program.

Yuri Ferdigalov was a GRU spetsnaz commando, severely wounded in the Nagorno-Karabakh war.  Now a contract consultant and instructor with Archangel he traveled to Beslan with John as the Beslan siege was happening, then spent three months there with him over three trips interviewing the spetsnaz who fought the battle out, FSB officials, other government agents and townspeople.  Yuri confirms that they spent a great deal of time with officers and commanders from Alpha, SOBR and Rus in addition to FSB [KGB] agents involved in the government’s operation. I can verify the same thing as I went with John and Yuri on their third and final trip.

…Professor Emeritus Walt Copley, Ph.D. destroys Stalcup and Craze’s intimation that John did not know the head of the KGB in St. Petersburg.  Dr. Copley is a retired Air Force officer who spent 22 years doing counter-espionage work for the U.S. military before earning his Ph.D. and becoming a college professor.

And as with Kharoba, the piece ends by suggesting that the journalists were in on a Muslim conspiracy:

One must ask the question of whether articles of this nature are attempting to point out the shortcomings of current terrorism training or is it the practice of  taqiyya (Islamic Principle of Lying for the Sake of Allah).

Also backing Giduck is thriller-writer Brad Thor; on Big Peace he writes that:

John Giduck, Sam Kharoba, retired Marine Lt. Col. Joe Bierly, and retired Army Major Richard Hughbank are being singled out and slandered in hopes that they will stop teaching our law enforcement officers how to identify terrorists and prevent terrorist attacks.  It is reckless, it is reprehensible, and it should not be tolerated.

For some reason neither Thor nor Bail mention Keith Flannigan, who was also discussed critically in the article. And even if the Washington Monthly has erred on the subject of Giduck’s links to the Russian military, a problem noted in the original article remains:

“The former military guys [working as trainers] are always looking at this thing from a battlefield perspective,” explains Jack Cloonan, a twenty-five-year veteran of the FBI who worked in the Osama bin Laden special unit from 1996 to 2002. “They are always looking at it as a U.S. military operation. But what does that have to do with sitting in the Bronx? Or trying to blend into society to carry out an attack? It’s just not related.”

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Newsweek recently had an article on some right-populist European politicians in Israel:

To the casual observer, the visiting Europeans at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial in the hills above Jerusalem, looked like any other foreign delegation….

But these were no ordinary travelers with Zionist sympathies. Rather, on this trip to Israel were a Belgian politician known for his contacts with SS veterans, an Austrian with neo-Nazi ties, and a Swede whose political party has deep roots in Swedish fascism…

The delegation formed part of a group called “European Counterjihad”, and the visit was described by Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff at the time:

Unlike most dignitaries who visit Yad Vashem, our delegation lay its wreath in the Valley of the Communities, which is a massive 2.5 acre monument literally dug out of natural bedrock.

According to Newsweek, officials at Yad Vashem were not aware of their presence. Newsweek notes the following participants:

Heinz-Christian Strache, head of the Austrian Freedom Party; Filip Dewinter, head of Belgium’s ultranationalist Vlaams Belang; René Stadtkewitz, founder of the German Freedom Party; and Kent Ekeroth, the international secretary for the Sweden Democrats, a populist anti-immigration party.

Sabaditsch-Wolff adds to this list of delegates Hilmar Kabas and Andreas Mölzer (both of the Austrian Freedom Party), and Marc Doll (of the German Freedom Party). A couple of political “colleagues” also appear in photographs, but are unnamed; a post on PI (in a post since deleted for some reason) further adds David Lasar (var. David Lazar), who is also with the Austrian Freedom Party.

The delegation met some Israeli politicians:

…The mayor of Ashkelon, Benny Vaknin… invited us to City Hall, where we had the opportunity to introduce ourselves and the members of the delegation.

Vaknin is pictured with Eliezer “Cheetah” Cohen, a National Union MK. This was followed by a trip to Ariel:

Following a tour of the university center, we were invited to meet the mayor of Ariel, Ron Nachman, who is also the city’s founder.

Further:

The Austrian MSM as well as the political Left (including official Austrian Jewry) have been unable to deal with Strache’s trip to Israel. Ariel Muzicant, the president of the Austrian Jewish community, has gone so far as to ask the Israeli ambassador to Austria for assurances that no Israeli politician meet with Strache and his delegation. Muzicant now has a problem: Not just a politician met him, but several, and he was also received by a close confidante of prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu, deputy minister Ayoub Kara.

In the Knesset the delegations held discussions with a prominent member of the Shas party, Rabbi [Nissim] Zeev, and met with Giora Fortis, the former military adviser to Israeli president Chaim Herzog, now press officer of the Knesset.

A visit to the small museum honoring Gush Katif, a former Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip, ended the 100-hour-long visit to Israel. Paul Weston and I were able to deliver our speeches, interrupted only by the arrival of Deputy Minister for Development of the Negev and Galilee, Ayoub Kara, who gave a short speech in which he supported the new European Right.

Newsweek adds the detail that the trip to Yad Vashem was arranged by a “right-wing Israeli businessman named Chaim Muehlstein” (var. Haim Muehlstein). Details of this person are scarce, although he was mentioned in a Die Spiegel article about Stadtkewitz in January:

…Stadtkewitz is headed for Copenhagen to attend the international conference of the Free Press Society, a group critical of Islam.

…Stadtkewitz is standing at the window, looking out at Copenhagen under a blanket of snow. A short man in a black suit taps him on the shoulder: Chaim Muehlstein from Israel.

“We are pinning our hopes on you, here in Europe,” says Muehlstein, “you and the other parties.”

Stadtkewitz smiles, looking inspired.

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With devastating scenes from Japan  and continuing uncertainty in the middle east, WorldNetDaily sees a chance to hawk some shoddy wares from the WND bookstore:

“The Final Prophecies”: This documentary examines the secrets of Middle Eastern prophecy and the shocking statistical evidence that suggests there is much more going on regarding past prophetic fulfillment than mere chance. Surprising new research reveals that prophetic events foretelling future devastating political, financial and environmental change on a global scale may be closer and more real than many believe…

The director is a certain Brent Miller Jr; as well as expounding on Biblical prophecy, he likes to warn us all about an upcoming magnetic polar shift, which was known “civilizations that came before us”. Moving on:

“Prophecy 101” by Chuck Missler: The Bible contains 8,362 predictive verses about 737 different matters and yet prophecy is one of the most neglected subjects in the church today…

“Apocalypse and the Endtimes”: There have always been catastrophes in the world… but never before have there been so many, so frequently! Earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, famine, disease and war… Are we simply experiencing the natural order of things, or are the signs we see all around us the warnings of the end times?…

That second one is from a certain David Priest; according to the blurb, among the “exclusive special features” is the “Connection Between the Great Pyramid, Nephilim and End Times”.

…”Islam and the Endtimes”: If you’re looking for a great teaching video series on the link between Islam and the endtimes, you can do no better than this one. Joel Richardson is the author of the best-selling “The Islamic Antichrist,” published by WND Books, and co-author with former Palestinian terrorist Walid Shoebat of “God’s War On Terror.”…

This one needs no introduction: Richardson has now been endorsed by Glenn Beck, and his Islamic Antichrist title (which carries a blurb from Robert Spencer) was recently a New York Times bestseller (number 31 in the “e-book non-fiction” section for the week of 6 March).

…”The Feasts of the Lord”: Would you like to know the specific day on the Hebrew calendar year that Jesus will return? It may sound hard to believe – and even contrary to teachings you’ve heard from the Bible. But don’t form a judgment until you explore Pastor Mark Biltz’s video teachings on the relevance to every believer of the feasts of Leviticus 23.

I blogged on Biltz here.

…”The Amazing Claims of Bible Prophecy” by Mark Hitchcock… This book takes a fascinating look at one of the most important aspects of Bible prophecy: It confirms the divine origin and complete reliability of God’s Word.

Hitchcock also updates older apocalyptic paperbacks after they have gone out of date – see here.

…”Isralestine” by Bill Salus…. This book unveils significant Bible prophecy that has eluded the discernment of today’s great scholars.

Blogged that one here. Next, back to Hitchcock:

“2012, the Bible and the End of the World” by Mark Hitchcock: What should Christians make of the rapidly spreading speculations that the world will end on December 21, 2012?

Followed by:

…”Can America Survive?” by John Hagee: The famed pastor offers 10 signs that we are living in the “terminal generation.”

Hagee, who rails against the Illuminati and the New World Order, was famously repudiated by John McCain after a sermon came to light in which Hagee described Hitler as having been sent by God as a “hunter” to persuade Jews to emigrate to Israel. Next:

“Are These the Last Days” by Greg Laurie: As we look at the instability in our world, the turmoil and the threat of terrorism, we can’t help but ask, “Are we living in the last days”?

Laurie is pastor of the Harvest Christian Fellowship in California, and from his website it appears he’s already milking the earthquake:

But back to WND:

…”The Israel Omen”: “The Israel Omen” is a breakthrough in Bible prophecy identifying for the first time that the “four horns” prophecy, warned of long ago, is unfolding in our day with it a dire warning for mankind…. in April of 2010 President Obama announced his intention to bring together the “four horns” in another effort to “scatter” the land, just as the prophecy warned against.

That one’s from David Brennan; “since 1992 he has studied Bible prophecy as it is related to current international political issues”. And there’s still more:

“Prophecies for the Era of Muslim Terror: A Torah Perspective on World Events” by Rabbi Menachem Kohen: This is an unusual book – with a far different perspective than the rest.

“It’s the End of the World as We Know It and I Feel Fine”: Jim Fletcher offers a unique take on the unfolding of Bible prophecy before our eyes.

“Judgment Day: Islam, Israel and the Nations: Dave Hunt is a Bible scholar who cannot be ignored.

And last but not least:

“Apocalypse Soon” by Patrick Heron: You can know history before it happens in this easy to read account of God’s warning to mankind.

Heron also brought us The Nephilim and the Pyramid of the Apocalypse, which I discussed here.

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From the Guardian:

The US government is being accused of pumping millions of dollars into unregulated training schemes for local police officers and other law enforcers that give a distorted, dangerous and inflammatory picture of the Muslim faith.

Political Research Associates, a Massachusetts-based progressive thinktank, spent nine months investigating the burgeoning industry of counter-terrorism training. It concluded that in seminars and conferences across America, police, transit and other law-enforcement officers were being given an ideologically skewed impression of Islam that impugned the entire religion, presenting it as inherently violent and sympathetic to terrorism.

The report, by Thomas Cincotta comes in the wake of articles in the Washington Post and the Washington Monthly, and the full text can be seen here (I get cited on page two). It focuses on three outfits, two which have also featured on this blog: these are the International Counter-Terrorism Officers Association (ICTOA), Security Solutions International (SSI), and the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies (CI Centre). Various individuals feature in the report, but one particularly extravagant figure sticks out both for PRA and the Guardian; Walid Shoebat:

Shoebat is a convert to Christianity, having formerly been a Muslim with links to the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. In his presentation, called The Jihad Mindset and How to Defeat It: Why We Want to Kill You, he accused Muslim men of raping women, children and young boys. “They are paedophiles!” he shouted.

According to the report, Shoebat went on: “The Muslim beheads with a smile. You can see it on YouTube, on TV; the Afghan child trained to execute Christians. You say that Islam is a peaceful religion? Why? It hates the west.”

He also said: “Islam is a revolution and is intent to destroy all other systems. They want to expand, like Nazism.”

Shoebat also believes that Obama is a secret Muslim working for al-Qaeda, promoting abortion in order to weaken the USA, and he promotes the increasingly popular (thanks to Glenn Beck) idea that the Bible predicts the coming of a Muslim anti-Christ. Of all the figures who have jumped on the “anti-jihad” bandwagon, he’s clearly the weakest link in terms of credibility.

However, the SSI’s Henry Morgenstern has responded to the PRA report:

“We have a very good reputation training law enforcers. We are not a kooky organisation.” He said of the report’s authors: “These people are out to weaken the anti-terrorism effort and it’s clearly politically motivated.”

He added: “You cannot whitewash radical Islam – they really do cut people’s heads off, they do carry out honour killings, so we are trying to show law enforcers that this is what they are up against. We are not saying that all Muslims chop people’s heads off.”

This kind of bluster is a familiar refrain: rather than deal with the sloppy and inflammatory opportunism which passes for so much anti-terror “expertise”, it’s easier simply to suggest that those who point out the problem must be “politically motivated” or perhaps in league with extremists. Of course PRA isn’t saying that there are no dangerous Islamic extremists – just that those who purport to be experts in the subject ought to be subjected to some critical scrutiny. And that’s not something which Morgenstern seems very keen on; Cincotta writes that:

Requests to observe trainings by SSI and CI Centre were rejected. One of our investigators was refused entry to SSI’s Boston program, “The Islamic Jihadist Threat” in May 2009 on grounds that the event was restricted to law enforcement officials. Henry Morgenstern, President of SSI, has defended the exclusion of non-law enforcement personnel from SSI’s seminar, raising concerns about transparency and public accountability.

In relation to ICTOA, Cincotta discusses those who attended Shoebat’s speech:

One conference participant from the Southern Nevada Fusion Center told a PRA investigator in attendance that Shoebat’s presentation was “spot on.” The staffer continued, saying that government officials should be saying the same things as Shoebat, but they will not due to fear of “political correctness.”

The predominantly male audience also included George D. Little, Director of the Institute for Criminal Justice Studies at Texas State University, who responded by saying, “I’m confounded. I’m not sure what the answer is. I served twenty years for the United Nations and now I’m at Texas State University. Maybe it is to kill them.”

Audience members included Alabama Fusion Center analyst Sean P. Collins, representatives from Nevada area Fusion Centers (Carson City), Henley-Putnam University, U.S. Marines, and U.S. Army, California Highway Patrol, San Diego Police Department and San Diego Sheriff’s Office. PRA’s investigator also noted that in attendance was Sandra Manderson, superintendent, New Zealand Police Attaché to the USA, Canada, and South America.

The report goes on to discuss ICTOA’s alternative Fort Hood commemoration event, which featured Shoebat, Robert Spencer, and Jerry Boykin, and which I blogged on here.

Regarding SSI:

SSI’s seminars for peace officers include courses that train professionals to secure maritime facilities and respond to mass casualty incidents like disasters and school shootings, as well as courses and seminars that evince a pronounced ideological agenda, notably courses on “The Islamic Jihadist Threat,” “Jihad 2.0,” and a conference entitled, “Allah in America.” During a course on “Middle Eastern Culture and Terrorism,” instructors devote time to teach police about alleged Islamic conspiracies like the “Legal Wing of Jihad in America.” SSI’s go-to “expert” on Islam, Long Beach Police Department Detective Ebrahim Ashabi, augmented his teaching with videos of terrorists beheading a hostage at a 2009 keynote address at TREXPO West, a conference sponsored by Police magazine. SSI officials claim their courses “stress that racial, ethnic, or religious profiling is wrong but also poor counter terrorism technique.” SSI claims to teach first responders to protect all Americans, and maintains that they train to avoid ethnic and racial stereotypes. Morgenstern defended Ashabi’s actions at the conference, saying “[Ashabi’s] presenting a very coherent program. Unfortunately, you know, the members of CAIR do not like the fact that he’s showing Americans being beheaded and issues like this which are very fundamental to understanding the threat.”

…SSI also organized an “Allah in America Day” as part of its 3rd Annual Gulf Coast Terrorism Prevention Conference, sponsored by the Sarasota Sheriff’s Office, with “Allah” supplanting “Islamic Jihadism” as the named threat in this 2008 conference. “Allah in America” featured speaker Andrew Whitehead, whose group, Anti-CAIR, claims that “the Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR, is a clear and present danger to our Constitution and our way of life.”

As for the SSI’s Counter Terrorist magazine:

Articles like “U.S. Prison Recruitment for Jihad” —a piece by M. Zuhdi Jasser and Raphael Shore, founder of the Clarion Fund, a nonprofit organization “that aims to alert Americans about the real threat of Radical Islam”—reinforce an image of Muslims as menacing militant fundamentalists.

The CI Centre, meanwhile, has apparently threatened PRA with legal action (remember, it’s only “lawfare” if Muslim groups do it), although PRA has pressed on nevertheless:

CI Centre is operated by its finance manager and president, David G. Major, who founded the company in 1997. It is a subsidiary of David G. Major Associates, Inc. (DGMA), which does business as CI Centre. DGMA’s website describes Major’s background in senior intelligence and security circles…

CI Centre is a corporate member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), a conservative organization founded in 1975 by CIA officer David Atlee Phillips; Major sits on its Board

…The main themes evident in presentations by CI Centre trainers Walid Phares, Stephen Coughlin, Tawfik Hamid, and Clare Lopez, as well as in articles or books by these individuals, raise serious concerns about the content of the CI Centre’s instruction to public servants.

…According to Islam 101 by Gregory Davis—a book recommended by CI Centre to participants of this course —taqiyya, or religious deception, is “systematic lying to the infidel.”…  Davis projects a conspiracist view of a secret war in which Muslims are either bent on destruction of the West or ignorant of the evils or obligations of their faith.

The CI Centre operates a training academy where counterterrorism professionals can learn fromprominent faculty members, such as Walid Phares, a contributor to Christian Broadcast News and Fox News… and Clare Lopez, a retired Central Intelligence Agency officer, currently a principal of the Iran Policy Committee, a hard line militaristic group in Washington calling for regime change in Iran.

There’s also a discussion of the CI Centre’s “Spy Cruise”, which I discussed here.

The report then follows with some profiles; some of the individuals covered have featured on this blog previously. There are two ICTOA “guest speakers”, Mark A. Gabriel and Walid Shoebat; two SSI “experts”, Dave Gaubatz and Detective Ebrahim Ashabi; and five “CI Centre Faculty”, Walid Phares, Clare M. Lopez, Tawfik Hamid, Stephen Coughlin, and Nonie Darwish.

Meanwhile, the PRA report has drawn hostile fire from a strange semi-anonymous website (it appears to have links with these characters) called Security Industry News Today:

…the left-wing loony Political Research Associates, composed mainly of former writers of High Times – a marijuana advocacy publication – relies solely on CAIR for its assessment of patriotic US companies involved in helping to protect the USA.

…It’s a shame that some Americans feel it necessary to defend Al Qaeda by attacking US based training companies – who offer professional tactical, technical and procedural training to US first responders – with baseless accusations.

SSI will be taking legal action through several high powered Washington attorneys to clear their name and help to elucidate the connection between CAIR, the Huffington Post and terrorists.

A previous report from the site, dating from December, quotes a certain Emmanuel Stern (of “Machaseh Security Service”):

…Stern said he is personally investigating allegations that the writers in question are working together as a network to smear the work of ICTOA, SSI and CI Centre, three among other private intelligence and counterterrorism organizations attacked in recent blogs.

“We are digging deep”, Stern said, “And I think when the dust settles we’ll find clear evidence that these bloggers are working in an organized effort to conduct nothing short of a smear campaign.”

…And this will somehow prove that it’s a good idea for counter-terror training to be in hands of the likes of Walid Shoebat.

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From a recent speech by Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough:

Thank you, Imam Magid, for your very kind introduction and welcome. I know that President Obama was very grateful that you led the prayer at last summer’s Iftar dinner at the White House–which, as the President noted, is a tradition stretching back more than two centuries to when Thomas Jefferson hosted the first Iftar at the White House…

Obama’s comments were as follows:

The first Muslim ambassador to the United States, from Tunisia, was hosted by President Jefferson, who arranged a sunset dinner for his guest because it was Ramadan — making it the first known iftar at the White House, more than 200 years ago.

Both comments have infuriated conservatives, who have suddenly affected to dislike the practice of history being spun for political convenience.

Here’s the main primary source, John Quincy Adams’ diary entry for 9 December 1805:

I dined at the President’s, in company with the Tunisian Ambassador and his two secretaries. By the invitation, dinner was to have been on the table precisely at sunset — it being in the midst of  Ramadan, during which the Turks fast while the sun is above  the horizon. He did not arrive until half an hour after sunset, and, immediately after greeting the President and the company, proposed to retire and smoke his pipe. The President requested him to smoke it there, which he accordingly did, taking at the same time snuff deeply scented with otto of roses. We then went to dinner, where he freely partook of the dishes on the table without enquiring into the cookery. Mrs. Randolph the President’s daughter, and her daughter, were the only ladies there, and immediately after they returned to the drawing-room after dinner the ambassador followed them to smoke his pipe again. His secretaries remained after him just long enough to take each a glass of wine, which they did not venture to do in his presence.

Obama’s version is a bit of a stretch, but reasonable: the ambassador (Sidi Soliman Mellimelni, or Mellimelli) would have regarded the meal as his Iftar, and his American hosts had understood and accomodated his religious requirements. On the other hand, though, alcohol was served to other guests. The notion that the incident formed the beginning of a “tradition” can’t be taken seriously, though.

Back in 2009, I noted the claim that Jefferson owned a Koran “it so that he could know his enemy, so he could confront them, know them, kill them.” This blog had a nice debunking:

We do not know for certain why he purchased it… The only substantial scholarly treatment of this specific topic that I’m aware of is Kevin Hayes’ 2004 article in Early American Literature, “How Thomas Jefferson Read the Qur’an.”  Hayes suggests that Jefferson’s primary motivation in purchasing the Qur’an was his interest in it as a legal text.  This seems highly plausible to me.  What does not seem plausible is that, 21 years before he encountered a representative of an Islamic country in a professional capacity, he 1) decided that he considered Muslims his “enemy” and 2) conceived of a need to study their main religious text so as to be better equipped for conflict with them.

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The latest from Tim Ireland:

I was producing/administrating Boris Johnson’s weblog at the time Anne Milton’s activists were smearing an opponent as a paedophile, but I went out of my way to avoid jeopardising the all-too-rare example of a Conservative MP subjecting themselves to a little public scrutiny…

Hell, I even bit my tongue when Boris jovially referenced Anne Milton during a meeting and described the relevant dispute as a “personal disagreement”.

…I’ve often wondered how things would have turned out if I used my position to press the point with Boris Johnson at the time, and now I’ve got a pretty good idea because, as the following correspondence reveals, someone else took it up with Boris Johnson at the time (after his public endorsement of Anne Milton) and he took no discernable action.

I blogged on the background to this last month: the smear had been made on an anonymous blog, but Tim Ireland worked out where it had come from and attempted to alert Milton and the Conservative Party to the evidence. However, his efforts were not appreciated: Jonathan Lord, MP for Woking and at that time Chairman of the Guildford Conservative Association, declined to act on the grounds that the target of the “paedophile” smear had not himself complained, that no criminal law had been broken, and because Tim had contacted him by email rather than on paper.

Tim has now published correspondence sent by a second person on the subject of the two activists, dating from 2007. Here’s this person’s message to Boris Johnson:

Dear Boris,

I was present at your appearence at the University of Surrey Students’ Union – thank you for making the short journey from London. As someone interested in politics – though certainly not of your colour – it was refreshing to see that you attracted plenty of people.

I’m afraid I have to take exception with your comments about Anne Milton. She is far from being a wonderful MP ‘fighting crime on the streets’. She’s is both ineffective and profoundly dishonest. Two Conservative local activists, who will be standing in the local elections, and who were sitting in the front row at your appearence, have been involved in dirty campaign involving the setting up of a libellous blog to spread viscious rumours about a political opponent [snip]. This has been exposed by Tim Ireland – the person who built your weblog – and David Cameron’s office has been made aware. You can read the details at Tim’s site by following the links in this article: [link snipped] Anne Milton has known about this campaign for a substantial amount of time and, by not reacting to it, she has provided her tacit support to such revolting measures. Today, you provided the bumbling yet ever-so-lovable face of the Tory party and you clearly captivated the students – this is no doubt due to your affable nature. It is also incredibly dangerous. Dirty campaigns such as this one, which are supported by your MPs and even your leadership, show that the Conservative party is still insidious to its core. It truly deserves the ‘nasty party’ label. I’m disappointed that you extended your support to Anne Milton today, though I appreciate that you were probably unaware of what has been going on in Guildford. If, as I hope you do, you find this repulsive, then please have a word in David Cameron’s ear and get him to make it clear that such actions won’t be tolerated.

Thanks,

Xxxxx Xxxxxxxxxxxx

The author of the above never got beyond a curt acknowledgement from Johnson’s office, even though, according to Tim, the complaint did reach Johnson’s personal attention. However, he was contacted by Anne Milton’s office, and advised to contact Jonathan Lord. This was the eventual response received:

Dear Xx Xxxxxxxxx,

I have double-checked your first email.

You call Anne Milton MP “profoundly dishonest”, and you refer us to a blog that is antagonistic to Anne Milton MP and Guildford Conservatives.

If you have a complaint that you wish to be taken seriously then I require it in writing, and with any supporting evidence in writing. I therefore refer you to my previous email.

I am sure that there is a return address (of your parents, of a friend, of your place of study or your workplace) to which any reply of our Association could be directed.

Our email correspondence on this matter is now at an end.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Jonathan Lord
Chairman, G.C.A.

As Tim revealed last month, he recently had a chance to raise the matter with Lord in person: Lord explained “off the record” that he had had stern words with the two activists in private, but no more than that. This was because they were themselves standing as candidates in a council election and he didn’t “want to give succour” to political opponents by removing two individuals clearly unsuited to any role in public life.

Perhaps this kind of shabby way of dealing with things is par for the course in politics, but if so it’s a pretty grim state of affairs. As ever, Tim’s complaint about the two activists was backed up with evidence which anyone could verify independently – Tim’s supposed “antagonistic” attitude is neither here nor there. And the demand that a complaint must come via paper rather than email is simply an insult.

It seems that in politics, when a complaint comes in, the first question asked is: “Can we ignore it?” If the answer is “No”, the next question is: “Can we deflect it?” – either by fobbing off the complainant or attempting to discredit the complaint. Only as a last resort will someone reluctantly consider: “Shall we actually try to uphold some decent standards in public life?” And then – if we’re really lucky – someone just might have a quiet word with someone.

It should also be remembered that in 2005 Anne Milton addressed Tim’s critical interest in her campaign by suggesting that it was a form of stalking – an accusation which has since been used by others as a convenient way to deflect attention (see here).

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The New York Times catches up with Irenaeus (var. Irineos), the ousted Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem who has spent the last three years confined to an apartment in the Patriarchate’s compound:

…Irenaeus, 71, refuses to leave the apartment because, he says, he has no guarantee that he will be allowed to return. Until this is no longer in question, he says, communicating by fax and employing the majestic plural, “in essence, they compel us to remain within our cell.”

Daniel Robbins, a Jerusalem lawyer who is representing Irenaeus… said, “Nothing here is self-imposed.”

…”The fact that he has decided to lock himself up in the apartment is his prerogative,” said Nadir Mughrabi, an adviser to the patriarchate. “Nobody is asking him to leave.”

…Irenaeus was elected in 2001 as the patriarch of Jerusalem, normally a position for life. He was removed four years later amid allegations of shady property deals. Among other things, he was accused of selling long-term leases on prime properties owned by the patriarchate inside the Old City — in territory that Israel annexed after the 1967 war, but where the Palestinians and most of the world do not recognize Israeli sovereignty — to foreign companies acting as fronts for a Jewish settlers group.

…Elias Khoury, a Greek Orthodox lawyer in Jerusalem, was one of three members of a committee appointed by the Palestinian Authority to investigate the land deals. The commission concluded that Irenaeus had been misled and was the victim of a conspiracy, Mr. Khoury said

…Irenaeus… placed sole responsibility for his situation on Theophilos, his nemesis, “to whom ecclesiastical history will ascribe the name traitor!”

As I blogged at the time (here, here, and here), Irenaeus claimed that the deal with the Israeli settlers had been made without his knowledge by his treasurer Nicholas Papadimas, who reportedly fled to South America and has not been heard of since. Theophilos initially agreed to cancel the sale, which meant that Israel continued to back Irenaeus; the Times notes that

Irenaeus enjoyed 24-hour protection from the Israeli police, and with it free movement, until Israel finally recognized Theophilos’s election in the spring of 2007.

Small-talk with his Israeli guards may have been strained, given that in 2001 Irenaeus had written to Yasser Arafat conveying his “disgust and disrespect… for the descendants of the crucifiers”.

However, Theophilus did not in fact rescind the land deal, leading to a breach with Atallah Hanna, the Bishop of Sebastia and the highest-ranking Palestinian in the church; many Palestinian Christians are fed up with Greek control of the church, and Hanna reportedly had his eye on the Patriarchate himself. Hanna is an articulate defender of Palestinian rights, and he is sometimes incorrectly described in reports as “Archbishop of Jerusalem”. However, there is reason to regard him with some scepticism: in 2003 (before he became bishop) reports appeared which quoted him as supporting suicide bombing, leading to censure from Irenaeus. Hanna complained that the accusations were part of a “crusade” against him by people close to the Patriarch, but given that the quotes appeared in sympathetic Arab and Muslim media outlets this explanation remains mysterious. The following year, Hanna baptised Israel Shamir, now notorious for his anti-Jewish ramblings and controversial for his role “representing Wikileaks in Russia and Belarus”.

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The Observer reports on the Gaddafi International Charity & Development Foundation:

The ruling body of the London School of Economics was so concerned about the university’s burgeoning links to the Gaddafi regime that in 2009 it quietly forced one of its professors to stand down from a foundation run by the dictator’s son.

… [David] Held was appointed to its board along with luminaries including Giulio Andreotti, the former prime minister of Italy, Nobel prizewinner Professor Richard J Roberts, and the Rev Dr Chung Hwan Kwak, chairman of the Universal Peace Federation, an offshoot of the Unification Church founded by Sun Myung Moon.

Members of the board also include Jose de Venecia, former House Speaker of the Philippines Parliament. De Venecia has long-standing close links with the Universal Peace Federation (UPF), and in 2008 he cited Rev Moon as the inspiration for his efforts to promote a proposed UN “Interfaith Council” (including support for a Saudi-led initiative on the issue).

In  December 2007, de Venecia presented Saif Gaddafi with a Congressional Medal of Achievement; the Manila Bulletin reported:

De Venecia cited the various significant roles Saif has played, including humanitarian activities and support of the peace process in Mindanao.

“You are one of the outstanding young leaders recognized in the international community,” De Venecia said as he bestowed the award on Saif in ceremonies witnessed by guests who included members of the House of Representatives and the diplomatic corps.

The award was given by De Venecia to Libyan Leader Col. Muammar Al-Qadhafi in Tripoli, Libya in 2003.

…A special guest at the occasion was Dr. Martin Luther King III, who runs the Center for Non-Violent Social Change founded by his martyred father, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

A few days previously, Martin Luther King III had spoken at a UPF Global Peace Festival, alongside Rev Moon’s son Hyun Jin Moon; I blogged this event here. The following month, a piece appeared on the Unification Church’s website entitled “The Gentleness of Change in Libya“. The author was the Church’s appointed female “national messiah” for Libya, Mihoko Hamasaka. She wrote:

On our visits to Libya, we had the chance to meet representatives of their Committee on Education, as well as leaders of the Revolutionary Committee, to whom we testified to True Parents’ movement…

During this period also, Libya suspended its terrorist activities, destroyed its weapons of mass destruction and publicly recommended to North Korea that it also abandon such weapons. When the Philippines presented a resolution to set up a religious council at the UN, in line with True Parents’ direction, Libya voted for it.

…Colonel Gadhafi is planning to bequeath the next administration of the country to his son, Mr. Saif Al-Islam Al-Gadhafi. The younger Gadhafi happened to be visiting the Philippines recently, on invitation from the government, at the time that Hyun-jin nim was holding the Global Peace Festival I there. Through an introduction by the Philippines Government, Mr. Saif Gadhafi, seen as the second-generation leader of the future Libya, was able to meet Hyun-jin nim in Manila! We are deeply grateful that such developments were able to take place, as a blessing also from Heung-jin nim in the spirit world.

Returning to the Gaddafi foundation, the Observer goes on to note that

While ostensibly a charity, the foundation seemed to be chiefly a vehicle for promoting Saif Gaddafi’s autocratic views. Its latest minutes are effectively an attack by Gaddafi on press reports suggesting he was engaged in a power struggle with his brothers and lived in an expensive house in London.

Those minutes can be seen here; Saif Gaddafi stated that

I want to make clear that I am not formally involved in the work of the Libyan executive branch, and should not be presumed to agree with all of its policies.

The minutes go on to record that

Having received these clarification from the Chairman the Board sincerely hopes that these clarifications will set the record straight about the various incorrect assertions directed toward the Foundation’s Chairman in preceding months.

Since then, though,some members of the board have had second thoughts. According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, de Venecia has written to Gaddafi senior:

De Venecia wrote mainly in light of his personal relationship with the Libyan leader, and as a board member of the Gadhafi International Charity and Development Foundation, along with other prominent civic and public leaders around the world.

“I must tell you that a good number of the directors consider resigning from the Foundation because of the horrific violence that the media report as taking place in your country,” wrote the former speaker.

***

Another Moon-Gaddafi link is Curt Weldon, who in 2004 was a Republican Congressman and one of six Congressional Co-Chairs who attended Rev Moon’s bizarre “Coronation” as the world’s “King of Peace” at the Dirksen Senate Buildingin Washington DC. John Gorenfeld noted

Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., whose office maintained he did not attend the event until I provided photographs of him there — spoke beside a photograph of himself pinning an American flag on Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy,

Hmm…

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