’’ ’’ ’’‘‘ ‘‘ ‘‘‘‘ ‘‘

’’ ’’A new multitrillion

program is being cooked up in Washington and

Brussels.

You haven’t seen anything yet. It’s going

to get a lot worse.

It is remarkable how this gross inversion of the truth has become conventional wisdom.

I think this is going to be a baptism of fire for a

whole generation.

thetrumpetweeklypeace pAge 2 dangerous pAge 3 europe pAge 4 Leaders pAge 5 worse pAge 8

A dIgest of sIgnIfIcAnt World neWs from the PhiladelPhia TrumPeT stAff • for the Week of sept. 25-oct. 1, 2011

That’s how they do it in Russia.Here, the United States is

gearing up for an ugly presiden-tial election, and we have more than a year of pomp, theatrics, name-calling, mudslinging, attack ads and impossible promises to look forward to.

This past Saturday, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s prime minister and president, announced that they would save the Russians the

hassles of a truly free and fair election next year—and sim-ply switch jobs.

At the annual conference of the ruling United Russia party on Saturday, President Medvedev said he would not run for reelection in 2012, and proposed that Mr. Putin return to that office for a third term. Putin accepted the invitation, and proposed Medvedev’s candidacy as prime minister, which Medvedev accepted.

It’s all so convenient. Sure, technically these are just pro-posals—nothing formal. But, realistically, this is about as close to a lock for an election you can get outside of North Korea.

Mr. Putin actually revealed that all the way back in 2007, Medvedev, before becoming president, agreed to step down after serving only one term. “[W]e actually discussed this variant of events while we were first forming our comradely alliance,” Putin said on Saturday.

The idea that Putin the strongman was only Russia’s second-most-powerful leader was always a farce. He was president from 2000 to 2008, but the constitution blocked him from running for a third consecutive four-year term. He picked Medvedev to succeed him. That’s how they do it in Russia.

For the last four years, then, President Medvedev has been something of a puppet while Putin assumed the prime ministership and chaired United Russia. In this position, Putin has enjoyed enhanced control of the legislature. Unsurprisingly, an amendment was successfully pushed into the constitution that bumped presidential terms to six years. Thus, the path is now cleared for Mr. Putin to stay in the Kremlin for another 12 years.

Most people in the West shed no tears after the So-viet Union dissolved and Russia stumbled and bumbled through the 1990s. Vladimir Putin, by contrast, called the

ussr’s collapse the “greatest tragedy of the 20th century.” Like most of his countrymen, he views the 1990s as a decade of humiliation. When he took leadership of Russia in 2000, the shrewd ex-kgb agent aggressively went about setting things right again. And he made impressive gains.

During his two presidential terms, Putin wrestled a new brand of capitalism onto the Russian stage. In 1998, the country was bankrupt. During his eight years in the Krem-lin, Russia’s economy grew at an average of 7 to 8 percent per year, and its currency appreciated 20 percent in value.

President Putin streamlined his nation’s political architec-ture in order to amass his personal power. He created poli-cies whereby the Kremlin can prevent virtually whomever it pleases from participating in politics. He consolidated and nationalized his nation’s formidable energy resources and used them as foreign-policy weapons. He oversaw an oil-and-gas-driven economic revival that boosted Russia past Saudi Arabia in 2009 to become the world’s leading energy exporter.

Even with Medvedev in the presidency, Russia’s upward trajectory has continued. When nasa retired its space shuttles this summer, Russia gained a monopoly on station crew shuttle flights, a service that costs over $50 million per astronaut. Putin has rebuilt his country’s military, and just this month coaxed Ukraine into participating for the first time in a major military training drill jointly with Rus-sian and Belarusian forces.

However, there is an ugly underbelly to this success story. In the process of lifting Russia from its 1990s stagna-tion, Putin has brutally quashed an uprising in Chechnya, silenced most independent Russian media, opened the Nord Stream pipeline running into Germany and tighten-ing Moscow’s grip on Eastern Europe, attacked human rights organizations, and intimidated his rivals into silence. His government has been implicated in multiple seedy inci-dents: the poisoning of Ukraine’s pro-Western presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko before its 2004 elections; a broad-scale cyberattack against Estonia after it relocated a Soviet-era statue; the murder of journalist Anna Politkovs-kaya; the fatal poisoning of spy-turned-Putin-critic Alexan-der Litvinenko. In late 2009, Putin said the “reunification” of Georgia with Russia has “already been decided,” which many viewed as a call for restoration of Moscow’s control over Georgia. When the U.S. said it would build a missile shield in Eastern Europe, Russia threatened to bomb it.

Indeed, the truth is that whole populations are being betrayed by a

political class.

see russia page 10

Joel hilliker columnisT

How to win an election in russia

Middle eastn un security council discusses palestinian statehood: The United Nations Security Council met on Monday to begin informal talks on the Palestinian Authority’s application for statehood, which was sub-mitted Friday of last week by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The United States and UK oppose statehood, while Russia and France support it. Consultations are expected to continue for some weeks before the Council is ready to vote. Sky News correspondent Tim Marshall writes from Jerusalem that “The vote on the UN could be forced, triggering the U.S. veto, which in turn would very likely lead to violence in the West Bank and Israel—and possibly against U.S. interests in the wider region.”n Bahrain elections boycotted by shiites: Turnout was low in parliamentary elections held in the Gulf Arab state of Bahrain on September 24, with less than 20 percent of voters casting ballots after the Shiite majority boycotted the polls. The boycott came in response to the crushing of protests in the country earlier in the year by the ruling Sunni monarchy. The election had been called to fill the 18 parliament seats abandoned when Shiite lawmakers resigned in February in pro-test of the government crackdown on demonstrators. The ruling Sunnis accuse the Shiite-dominated protest movement and opposition groups of having a sectarian Shiite agenda and of acting in coordination with Iran. The result is a stalemate in Bahrain. Meanwhile, Shiite groups be-gan a new round of protests beginning September 1, which they plan to continue through October 2. Though martial law ended in the country in May, regular clashes between the two sides continue in Shiite areas. More violence is expected if political reforms aren’t undertaken by the monarchy. Bahrain is a battleground for the power struggle that is go-ing on between Iran and Saudi Arabia. As Stratfor reports, Gulf Coop-eration Council “states are worried that Shiite anti-government unrest could spread to other countries at a time when the coalition already feels vulnerable because of the impending U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. These states are looking for ways to counter an increasingly powerful Iran. Tehran has exercised its influence during the Bahraini unrest, and the leaders of several of Bahrain’s Shiite protest groups are linked either to the Iranian government or its clerical leadership” (September 23).n u.s. concern grows over terrorist activity in Libya: U.S. of-ficials are admitting that Islamic terrorism could be a problem in post-Qadhafi Libya, with counterterrorism and intelligence agencies recently producing classified papers detailing the strength, role and activities of Islamic militants in Libya. “It’s of concern that terrorists are going to take advantage of instability” in post-Qadhafi Libya, said one U.S. official. Bruce Riedel, a former senior cia analyst, said that there was particular concern that Islamic militants could use Libya as a base to spread their influence and weaponry into surrounding areas such as Al-geria and Egypt’s Sinai. Another concern is that, according to U.S. and nato experts, a “power vacuum” currently exists in Libya. In late August, the Open Source Center, a U.S. intelligence unit, reported that “in recent days, jihadists have been strategizing on extremist Web forums how to establish an Islamic state” in the post-Qadhafi era. “Many forum members, describing the fall of Tripoli as the initial phase of the battle for Libya, have urged Libyan mujahideen to prepare for the next stage of battle against the (National Transitional Council) and secularist reb-els to establish an Islamic state,” the center said. A further worry is that figures with a militant background could install themselves in the upper echelons of Libya’s new government. One such individual U.S. officials are watching is Abdel Hakim Belhadj, a former Islamic fighter in Libya and Afghanistan who now commands post-Qadhafi forces in Tripoli. Establishing a new government in Libya, however, is proving difficult. Differences between the Islamist and liberal factions of the rebel move-ment have prevented the formation of the interim government that was originally supposed to be concluded by September 18. “The problem in

The TrumPeT weekly October 1, 2011 • 2

Land without peacewhile diplomatically inconvenient for the West-ern powers, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s attempt to get the United Na-tions to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state has elicited widespread sympathy. … According to the accepted narrative, Middle East peace is made impossible by a hard-line Likud-led Israel that refuses to accept a Palestinian state and continues to build settlements.

It is remarkable how this gross inversion of the truth has become conventional wisdom. In fact, Benjamin Netanyahu brought his Likud-led co-alition to open recognition of a Palestinian state, thereby creating Israel’s first national consensus for a two-state solution. He is also the only prime minister to agree to a settlement freeze ….

To which Abbas responded by boycotting the talks for nine months, showing up in the 10th, then walking out when the freeze expired. Last week he reiterated that he will continue to boycott peace talks unless Israel gives up—in advance—claim to any territory beyond the 1967 lines. …

This is not just absurd. It violates every prior peace agreement. They all stipulate that such demands are to be the subject of negotiations, not their precondition.

Abbas unwaveringly insists on the so-called “right of return,” which would demographically destroy Israel by swamping it with millions of Arabs, thereby turning the world’s only Jewish state into the world’s 23rd Arab state. And he has repeatedly declared, as recently as last week in New York: “We shall not recognize a Jewish state.”

Nor is this new. It is perfectly consistent with the long history of Palestinian rejectionism. Consider:

● Camp David, 2000. At a U.S.-sponsored summit, Prime Minister Ehud Barak offers Yasser Arafat a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza—and, astonishingly, the previ-ously inconceivable division of Jerusalem. Arafat refuses. … Instead, within two months, he launches a savage terror war that kills a thou-sand Israelis.

● Taba, 2001. An even sweeter deal—the Clin-ton Parameters—is offered. Arafat walks away again.

● Israel, 2008. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert makes the ultimate capitulation to Palestinian demands—100 percent of the West Bank (with land swaps), Palestinian statehood, the division of Jerusalem with the Muslim parts becoming the capital of the new Palestine. And incred-ibly, he offers to turn over the city’s holy places, including the Western Wall—Judaism’s most sacred site … to an international body on which sit Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Did Abbas accept? Of course not. If he had, the conflict would be over and Palestine would already be a member of the United Nations.

charles krauThammer, naTional review online | september 29

The TrumPeT weekly October 1, 2011 • 3

Libya,” says Courcy’s Intelligence Brief, “is that the Islamists did un-doubtedly bear the brunt of the fighting, and now they want to have the premiership and a majority of cabinet ministers” (September 28).

TelegraPh | september 25

dumped in the Desert … Qadhafi’s Yellowcake stockpile

Sitting in row after row, each 15 long by 4 high, the blue barrels are as frightening as any remnant of the Qadhafi regime.

Some are marked radioactive, as were the open plastic bags alongside.

The powder they contain appears to be yellowcake uranium from neighboring Niger. Yet when they were discovered by advancing rebel forces last week, they were abandoned, in tumbledown warehouses protected only by a low wall.

Niger mines yellowcake under a strict security regime designed to en-sure none of it falls into the hands of illicit networks. But post-Qadhafi Libya affords little or no protection to this vast haul of material, which if refined to high levels of purity is the essential element of a nuclear bomb.

The Daily Telegraph reported last week that Iran, which is pursu-ing underground nuclear programs, had joined in the looting of Libyan weaponry. Despite the dangers, international atomic agencies and Libya’s rebels say it will take weeks to put safeguards in place.

There are at least 10,000 drums with a total capacity of two million liters, though most have not been opened and checked for their contents. They are being stored not far from the southern desert city of Sabha.

The International Atomic Energy Agency says it knew that Col. Muammar Qadhafi had stockpiled yellowcake uranium near Sabha—a relic of the years when he tried to develop nuclear weapons after ob-taining blueprints from the Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan. …

The United States previously said that Qadhafi’s yellowcake stocks were held at the town of Tajoura east of Tripoli and were “secure.” …

TelegraPh | september 22

Iran ‘steals surface-to-air Missiles From Libya’

Iran’s revolutionary Guards have stolen dozens of sophisticated Russian-made surface-to-air missiles from Libya and smuggled them across the border to neighboring Sudan, according to Western

intelligence reports. The weapons were seized by units attached to the Guards’ elite Quds

Force, which travelled to Libya from their base in southern Sudan. Acting on orders received from Revolutionary Guards commanders

in Iran, they took advantage of the chaos that engulfed Libya following the collapse of the regime of former dictator Col. Muammar Qadhafi to seize “significant quantities” of advanced weaponry, according to mili-tary intelligence officers in Libya.

They say the weapons stolen by Iran include sophisticated Russian-made SA-24 missiles that were sold to Libya in 2004. The missile can

The dangerous subversion of Germany’s democracy optimism over Europe’s “grand plan” to shore up emu was widely said to be the cause of yes-terday’s torrid rally on global markets ….

This is interesting, since Germany’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has given an iron-clad assurance to the Bundestag that no such plan exists and that Germany will not support any attempt to “leverage” the EU’s €440 billion bailout plan to €2 trillion, or any other sum.

All of this was out in the open and widely reported. Markets appear to be acting on the firm belief that he is lying to lawmakers, that there is indeed a secret plan, that it will be implemented once the inconvenience of the Bundestag’s vote on the efsf tomorrow is safely out of the way, and that German democracy is being cynically subverted.

The markets may or may not be right about this. Mr. Schäuble has a habit of promising one thing in Brussels and stating another in Berlin.

But it is surely an unhealthy state of affairs. One of the happiest achievements of the post-war era is the emergence of a free, flourishing and democratic Germany under the rule of law.

Carsten Schneider, finance spokesman for the Social Democrats, spoke for many last week, denouncing the shabby back-room dealings as a scandal. “A new multitrillion program is being cooked up in Washington and Brussels, while the wool is being pulled over the eyes of Bund-estag and German public. This is unacceptable.”

Indeed it is. …Otmar Issing, the ecb’s founding guru, has

gone even further in recent weeks, warning that the current course must ultimately provoke the

“resistance of the people” and perhaps civil wars.Dr. Issing is not a German nationalist. He is

open to the idea of an authentic union with … democratic principles.

What he opposes is the deformed halfway house that is now Europe, where supra-national bodies—accountable to no elected body and tak-ing decisions behind closed doors—are usurp-ing legislative primacy over tax and spending. …

As for the assurances of Mr. Schäuble, either he really is lying, in which case there will be

… most likely a massive political backlash that will change German politics profoundly.

Or he is not lying, in which case there is no plan to save the eurozone, and we there-fore face the mounting risk of a spiral into a banking crash, serial sovereign defaults, and a disorderly breakup of emu.

Not pretty.

ambrose evans-PriTchard,TelegraPh | september 28

shoot down aircraft flying at 11,000 feet ….Intelligence officials believe the missiles and other weapons seized

from Qadhafi’s abandoned arsenals were smuggled across the Libyan border to southern Sudan earlier this month where they are now believed to be held at a secret storage facility run by the Revolutionary Guards at al-Fashir, the capital of North Darfur. Some of the missiles are also reported to have been smuggled into Egypt.

The governments of Iran and Sudan recently signed a defense coop-eration pact, and hundreds of Revolutionary Guards are based in Sudan where they help to train the Sudanese military and help to support the Sudanese government’s campaign against rebel groups. The Guards also have a number of training camps that are used to train Islamist terror groups.

Intelligence officials now fear that the missiles and other weapons will fall into the hands of extremists and will be used to carry out terror attacks. …

Some military experts have sought to play down the importance of the surface-to-air missiles, arguing that militant groups lack the knowhow and the equipment to fire them. But this would not be an is-sue for the Revolutionary Guards, who have specialist training in firing such weapons. The fear now is that Iran will use the Libyan weapons to equip terror groups in the region.

“Iran is actively supporting a number of militant Islamist groups in Egypt, Gaza and southern Lebanon, so there is concern that these sophisticated weapons will fall into the hands of terror groups,” said a senior intelligence officer. “If the SA-24 missiles fall into the wrong hands then no civilian aircraft in the region will be safe from attack.”

American and European intelligence agencies have now launched a coordinated effort to track down the missing weapons in North Africa to make sure they cannot be used for a fresh wave of terrorist attacks against Western targets.

europen germany and america clash over debt crisis: German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has firmly rejected an American plan to tackle the euro crisis by using loans from the European Central Bank to expand the European Financial Stability Facility (efsf) from $440 billion to $2 trillion. Schäuble smacked the plan down, saying, “I don’t understand how anyone in the European Commission can have such a stupid idea.” U.S. President Barack Obama told a public meet-ing in California that the euro crisis is “scaring the world.” European leaders “are trying to take responsible actions but those actions haven’t been quite as quick as they need to be,” he said September 26. Schäuble dismissed his comments, saying: “It’s always much easier to give advice to others than to decide for yourself. I am well prepared to give advice to the U.S. government.” Schäuble’s tumid words were partly driven by the fact that the German parliament was due to vote on the expansion of the efsf’s powers on September 29. If members of parliament had thought the bailout mechanism was about to be expanded again, they may have voted no. Nonetheless, Schäuble’s put-down was bold, to say the least, especially considering that the U.S. is keeping Europe’s banks afloat. Then again, the U.S. is also being audacious—pushing Europe toward a strategy that is failing in America. n Barroso on collision course with Britain: The European Union needs to become an economic union with euro bonds, must speed up decision making and should introduce a financial transaction tax, Eu-ropean Commission President José Manuel Barroso said in his State of the Union speech September 28. “We are today faced with the greatest challenge our union has known in all its history,” he said. “I think this

The TrumPeT weekly October 1, 2011 • 4

you have to hand it to Pope Benedict. There’s not one group that has questioned his papacy which was not confronted and bluntly faced down by him in his numerous public state-ments in Germany.

The Catholic dissidents, the secularists, the lobbyists for a financial return for real or imagined sexual preda-tion, the homosexuals, pro-choicers, the Protestants, the Jews and the Islamists—Benedict xvi had a specific message for them all.

Very clearly the message was, I’m not moving. You move back to where you need to be in order to be fully under Rome’s wings.

Pope Benedict plainly implied that the Church’s problems are not because of Rome, but because of various groups either being resistant to Rome or straying away from its doorstep.

His repeated message during his four-day visit to his homeland was that the reason for all of the confusion evident within society today is that too many have strayed from the doctrinaire position of the pre-1960s church. His repeated call was for a new evangelization for Europe, especially its heartland in Germany, to lead a return of the masses to its tradition-al Holy Roman, non-secularized roots.

Much to the surprise of liberal pundits, the pope’s rigidity is being welcomed by many of the German public who hunger for affirmative leadership amid their coun-try’s greatest postwar political crisis.

Germany has heard and largely wel-comed the assertive call of the vicar of Rome to put real teeth back into its religion. Yet that is but half of the equation that is necessary to truly make Germany great in the eyes of its own peoples and of other nations.

Where is his opposite number? Where is the political leader who will have the force of personality and the power to lead this resurrected imperial power to its prophesied position of global dominance? And what will be the catalyst that brings him to the fore?

Pope Benedict has issued his crusading religious call to arms in Germany. We now await the trumpet call to arms of a power-ful political leader to bring things to a head in the seventh and final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire.

pope covers all Bases in germany

ron Fraser | columnist

is going to be a baptism of fire for a whole generation.” While most in Europe would support his calls for more integration, they are directly opposed to British government policy. Barroso announced that the Commission had adopted a proposal for a financial transaction tax (ftt). A British Treasury spokesman has already said the UK will “absolutely resist.” At the moment Britain can veto the proposal. But in his speech, Barroso said he wanted to get rid of that power. “A member state has the right not to move,” he said. “But not the right to block the moves of others.” “Today we have a union where it is the slowest member that dictates the speed of all the other member states,” he said. Britain is that slowest member. Barroso said the EU should consider changing the treaties to stop this. Barroso also said: “We need to complete our mon-etary union with an economic union. … We need to really integrate the euro area, we need to complete the monetary union with real economic union …. In the coming weeks, the Commission will … present a pro-posal for a single, coherent framework to deepen economic coordination and integration, particularly in the euro area.” Given the EU’s unpopu-larity in Britain, there is no way the UK could go down the road Barroso is heading. It is also clear that Barroso wants to leave Britain in the dust. As the Trumpet has said for years, a parting of the ways is inevitable. n Head of german high court calls for referendum: Germany cannot hand over any more powers to Europe without a referendum, the head of Germany’s Constitutional Court, Andreas Vosskuhle, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine. “The sovereignty of the German state is inviolate and anchored in perpetuity by basic law,” he said. The legisla-ture cannot abandon this sovereignty, even though it has the power to change the constitution, he told the newspaper. “There is little leeway left for giving up core powers to the EU,” he continued. “If one wants to go beyond this limit—which might be politically legitimate and desir-able—then Germany must give itself a new constitution. A referendum would be necessary. This cannot be done without the people.” The euro crisis could cause a constitutional crisis in Germany.

guardian | september 27

can the pope recapture europe?

The vatican is convinced that Europe must be re-evangelized, but can it overcome “grassroots relativism”?

On 21 September 2010, Benedict xvi officially declared that the West needed a “new evangelization.” This was news in itself. It was viewed as an admission of the weakness of the Catholic Church, and not a temporary one; and the acknowledgement that today’s Catholicism repre-sents a minority in Western countries, and a shrinking one. But in a more general perspective, this was a major “geo-religious” step for the pontiff.

The pope is convinced of the strategic relation between Christianity and Europe as its natural geographic and cultural ground for prosely-tism. And he wants this relation to be reasserted and improved. When, in June 2010, he announced his plans for a new ministry to revive religion, no details were given of its structure, content and goals. There was no secret: The Vatican knew it had to deal urgently with that prob-lem, but hadn’t yet figured out how to accomplish this mission. Benedict xvi just felt something very radical had to be done.

Now, a year after its establishment, the pontifical council for the pro-motion of the new evangelization represents a significant benchmark to measure the Vatican’s capability to regain some influence in what was once “its” Europe. Things are moving on in terms of the organization and mobilization of Catholicism in Europe. …

The TrumPeT weekly October 1, 2011 • 5

words, words, words. The world is “staring down the barrel,” says the prime minister

… Western economies are in a “dangerous phase,” says the head of the International Monetary Fund …

There must be “forceful action” to pull the eurozone back from the brink, says the president of the U.S. … The global economy has entered a “danger zone,” says the head of the World Bank ….

As the financial markets fluctuate wildly, from Toronto to Tokyo, nobody could dis-agree with a syllable of these apocalyptic pronouncements.

But how many businesses must go to the wall, how many livelihoods will be destroyed, before those with the power to act match deeds to their sonorous words?

By far the most frightening aspect of the crisis convulsing the West is the lack of urgency displayed by heads of government and the institutions set up to safeguard global financial stability.

It’s as if they believe that demanding force-ful action is the same thing as actually taking it.

In the eurozone, there have been endless summits to discuss the catastrophe gripping Greece—and now spreading to other, larger economies. Yet nothing ever comes of them ….

Everybody involved—whether Angela Merkel of Germany or Nicolas Sarkozy of France—can see the truth that Athens will nev-er be able to repay its debts. But rather than act upon that fact by arranging for an orderly default, they go on feeding more heroin to the junkie, hoping that if they shut their eyes to the agony it will end of its own accord. …

Most depressing of all, even mighty America is lumbered with a president in denial, whose only answer to his country’s stagnation is to spend yet more money. How miserably Barack Obama has let down the hopes of millions who believed there might be some substance behind his telegenic posturing.

Indeed, the truth is that whole populations are being betrayed by a political class (many of whom have never worked in the real world) which lacks the strong, visionary leadership to tell citizens that the postwar years of easy plenty for the West are over. …

Even with the disaster upon us, the politi-cal class behaves as if nothing untoward is happening. … What the West desperately needs is leadership with the courage to risk unpopularity ….

The hour has come. But where are the men?

where are the Leaders with the Vision to act?

daily mail | september 24

The first task … has been to recall that “do-it-yourself Catholicism” is not a solution to the crisis of the faith. … The Catholic recipe is to follow the pope’s teachings and those of the bishops’ conferences; and to re-unite a Catholic “army” disoriented and eroded by secularism, painfully hit by sex abuse scandals and the competition both from evangelical Christianity and Islam.

But how? … Today’s Europe seems the motherland not of a united Catholicism,

but of Catholics belonging to different national tribes. This may be a great opportunity, or a persistent handicap.

asian Typhoon in Manila causes worst flooding in decades: On Tuesday, Typhoon Nesat struck the Philippines, killing at least 21 people and leaving another 35 missing. The powerful storm sent waves the height of palm trees crashing over seawalls. The bulk of the deaths occurred in downtown Manila, which had already been soaked by heavy monsoon rains ahead of Nesat’s arrival. Municipal regions along Manila Bay reported that they were suffering their most severe flood-ing in decades. “It’s flooded everywhere. We don’t have a place to go for shelter,” said Ray Gonzales, one of thousands of residents stranded by the rapidly-rising floodwaters. Officials said that around 320,000 people in total were affected by the typhoon, with 73,000 still in evacuation centers and many others still stranded. The severe flood-ing occurred just one day after Manila held two-year commemoration ceremonies for the nearly 500 people killed during a 2009 cyclone that swept through the city. In the near term, the acceleration in natural disasters in Asia and beyond will continue to gain momentum.

asia Times | september 28

Taiwan, canary in the coal Mine

After the administration of United States President Barack Obama on September 21 announced its new $5.8 billion arms package for Taiwan, observers and officials across the Asia-Pacific scrambled

to evaluate the deal. Now the dust has settled, it’s understood that Taiwan didn’t get what

it wanted; namely, new F-16s. What the island will get instead is a very punchy upgrade of its existing ones. However, there is a major flaw. The whole job will take a decade to complete, and for the first refitted aircraft to be operational, at least half of that time period will pass.

To some commentators, this is a sign that Beijing dictates U.S. policies and that Washington begins letting its allies down. They say Obama’s halfhearted arms sale package sends a signal to countries in the region already frightened by an increasingly assertive China: They’d better hush up their own arms build-up. …

It is China’s constant diplomatic stance to oppose any U.S. arms sale to Taiwan. But reportedly in private the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (pla) might not be unhappy with it. For one thing, it could get its hand on U.S. military technology through spying on Taiwan. It could also present one more reason or excuse to demand more money to up-grade their own weaponry. …

Notwithstanding this assessment, next to China about all other

The TrumPeT weekly October 1, 2011 • 6

according to the Wall Street Journal, the Russian decision to take off the Medvedev mask and put Prime Minister Putin back into the top spot is causing headaches in Washington. There seems to be some concern that when President Good Cop switches places with Prime Minister Bad Cop, something important could change in Russian foreign policy. Some feel that Prime Minister Putin’s decision to take off the Medvedev mask and assume direct personal responsibility for the policies that all along he has controlled undercut the case for the reset in U.S.-Russia rela-tions.

We, like a great many members of the American public, have our doubts about the wisdom of some of our government officials. But we are genuinely pained if not greatly surprised to find that there are policymakers and legislators who were truly taken in by Kremlin sock pup-petry during the Medvedev years.

There is a good case for a businesslike U.S.-Russian relationship no matter who runs Russia. … There are also a number of areas in which our interests come into conflict. The U.S. does not want the Rus-sians to rebuild something like the Soviet Union by incorporating former Soviet republics into a tightly centralized sphere of influence. Nor do we like the idea that Russia could use its energy resources to detach Europe and especially Germany from the Atlantic alliance. …

American officials should stop senti-mentalizing our relationship with Russia. Russia is what it is, the logic of interna-tional politics is what it is, and Wash-ington’s job is to manage the situation in the light of American interests no matter what soundtrack the Kremlin is playing in any given month. …

reset regret?

walTer mead, american inTeresT | september 26

“russian elections have recently moved President vladimir Putin much closer to becoming a dictator. This strikes intense fear in europe. The europeans still remember how violent russia was in world war ii, and russia is a close neighbor with massive piles of nuclear weapons. … The russian election is triggering a fear that will hasten the uniting of the european union. The russian election will cause germany and other european nations to want a stronger leader. Throughout history, germany has often sought a strong leader. bible prophecy says it will do so again—for the last time!”

— gerald Flurry, Trumpet, January 2004.

countries in the region have been flocking to get their hands on ad-vanced weaponry. What Japan, Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thai-land, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia have in common is the fear of an ever stronger Chinese military on the one side and a U.S. government that begins bowing to Beijing’s interests on the other. …

[Jean Pierre Cabestan, professor and head of Hong Kong Baptist University’s Department of Government and International Studies] dis-missed the notion that U.S. arms sales to Taiwan could accelerate China’s military build-up and thus in turn those of China’s frightened neighbors.

“Taiwan is not anymore the main driver of the pla modernization and China’s defense budget. The U.S., Japan, the South China Sea, and more generally China’s will to power and hubris are. It is hard to make a case that U.S. arms sales to Taiwan are putting oil on fire,” he said, adding that China wants to become Asia’s first and most powerful military, and that Taiwan is just a minor hurdle in this race ….

adam segal, aTlanTic | september 30

Cyberspace Conflict With u.s. Very Likely

People’s tribune Magazine has a collection of twelve articles on cyber-space and cyber conflict by Chinese analysts at think tanks and aca-demic institutes. All of the articles are worth glancing at, but four …

do a particularly good job of illustrating what some Chinese analysts are saying about U.S.-China relations in cyberspace. The picture is not pretty. All see cyberspace as an emerging, critical area of competition and are notably pessimistic about the future. Conflict seems almost inevitable. …

The analysts tend to point to China as a victim—victim of cyberattacks and of pernicious claims from other countries that China could be behind any of the widely reported attacks on embassies, international organiza-tions, government agencies, or companies. Blaming the attacks on Mit-subishi Heavy on Chinese hackers? Clearly evidence of Cold War thinking and of Western countries’ concern over and distrust of China’s rise.

africa/latin aMerican surrounding somalia: In a sign that East Africa is becoming more radicalized, the United States is setting up two more bases for its Predator and Reaper drones. The Unmanned Aerial Vehicles will be used to keep an eye on Islamic terror groups in Somalia, Yemen, and Eritrea. Ethiopia especially appreciates any additional American mili-tary assistance in its effort to resist growing Islamic discontent. Most Ethiopians are Christians, but their Moslem minorities and Muslim neighbors, are stirring. Watch for greater unrest in this region, and for Islamic forces to exert growing influence.

anglo-aMerica n Texans evacuate fish from river as water dries up: Scientists scoured the bed of the drying Brazos River in west Texas last week in an attempt to rescue two species of rare minnows threatened by the ongoing drought. Record-setting temperatures and lack of rain has

The TrumPeT weekly October 1, 2011 • 7

it really is quite incredible. Last week, a convicted murderer, Troy Davis, was finally executed in the United States, and it seemed as though the entire British (and EU) Establishment arose to denounce the barbarism. Even Pope Benedict xvi ap-pealed for clemency.

Yet today, Iran is scheduled to hang a Christian pastor for “apostasy,” and the col-lective silence from our scurvy politicians, trappist churchmen and hypocritical media is positively deafening.

Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani was found guilty two years ago of “apostasy,” even though he was never a practising Muslim. His guilt was determined because he “has Muslim ancestry” (which is a kind of con-venient catch-all in a place like Iran), and he was sentenced to death. That sentence may be suspended if he renounce his faith. This week, in court, he has twice refused to recant. A third refusal today will result in his execution. …

As the years of imprisonment, torture and solitary confinement have failed to break this man’s faith, the Iranian authori-ties have tried to use his family against him. A year ago, Fatemah Pasindedih, his wife, was found guilty of apostasy. Her convic-tion was overturned on appeal, but the ef-fects of all this trauma upon their two sons is unimaginable. …

Iran has ancient Armenian and Assyrian churches, but Pastor Nadarkhani’s problem is that he is an Evangelical …. In Iran, Evan-gelicals are viewed as being “corrupt and deviant,” not least because they “spread.”

Of course, Pastor Nadarkhani is just one of thousands who face persecution for their religious beliefs in Iran, including leaders of the Baha’i community who are presently serving 20 years for practising their faith, and hundreds of Sufi Muslims who have been flogged in public.

But this story does not involve “apart-heid Israel” or the “barbaric United States.” It is simply about one Christian in Iran who wants to worship God in spirit and in truth, in accordance with [his beliefs]. The British media won’t care much for that. …

Please make your protests known. Perhaps a word of support from the foreign secretary? Or is he too busy condemning Is-rael? The prime minister? Too preoccupied with planning? The Archbishop of Canter-bury, perhaps? Oh, forget it.

Hanged in Iran for converting to christianity

cranmer | september 28

eliminated the flow of water in this portion of the Brazos River. Biolo-gists say such large fish rescues are rare, but will become more common if the drought persists. Weather-related disasters are increasing around the globe. Some “experts” say we’ve had a run of bad luck. Others insist the cause has something to do with global warming. God, however, says it is a sign that we are living in the very last days. n Teen murder suspect claims to be a vampire: An 18-year-old Florida girl who was arrested on Monday under charges of accessory to murder claims she is modern-day Dracula. Stephanie Pistey has been accused of luring 16-year-old Jacob Hendershot into a fatal trap. Although she denied allegations that she drank the blood of the vic-tim, she confirmed that she has drunk the blood of her fiancé. She also verified that all the people involved in the July murder were part of a vampire cult. As twisted and perverted entertainment becomes main-stream in America, a whole subculture is developing of people who actually consider themselves real vampires. God forbids us to consume blood (Leviticus 17:10; Acts 15:20). He condemns that practice along with occultism and witchcraft, both of which are part of vampire lore (Leviticus 19:26). As the American media continues to glorify these pa-gan practices, horrendous murders like this will become more common.n Britain mustn’t deport terrorist because of “human rights”: A terrorist jailed for assisting in an unsuccessful al Qaeda at-tack on three underground trains and a bus in London must be set free and cannot be deported to Eritrea, judges in Britain ruled, because he could face “inhumane treatment or punishment.” A combination of the European Convention on Human Rights and liberal judges is prevent-ing Britain from dealing effectively with the terrorist threat.

aaron Task, daily Ticker | september 30

“It’s Going to Get a Lot worse”

Weakness in leading economic indicators has become so perva-sive the Economic Cycle Research Institute now predicts a new recession is unavoidable.

“The vicious cycle is starting where lower sales, lower production, low-er employment and lower income [leads] back to lower sales,” co-founder Lakshman Achuthan declares ….

Whereas Achuthan said the jury is still out in late August, the weak-ness in leading economic indicators—and ecri uses a dozen for the U.S. alone, he notes—has become a “contagion” that is spreading like “wildfire.”

Although the recovery has been “subpar” by nearly every measure, Achuthan refutes the idea the economy never got out of recession in the first place. “Just because it looks and feels a certain way doesn’t mean it’s a recession,” he says. “You haven’t seen anything yet. It’s going to get a lot worse.”

It’s too soon to predict just how bad it’s going to get, but he expects another spike in unemployment and further expansion of the federal gov-ernment’s $1 trillion deficit. This forecast has huge ramifications for the 2012 election and the already struggling U.S. consumer and Achuthan says a “mild” recession is the best-case scenario.

By now you may be wondering what separates ecri’s recession call from the myriad other recession calls out there. First, ecri’s primary raison d’etre is predicting recession and recovery calls. Second, and more importantly, The Economist reports ecri has never issued a “false alarm” on a recession call, meaning many of the Chicken Littles cur-rently declaring “the sky is falling” might actually be right this time around.

The TrumPeT weekly October 1, 2011 • 8

the uk needs to pour billions more into defense spending to counter future threats if the country is to avoid “expensive and possibly catastrophic mistakes” caused by under-funding, a report warns.

One of the report’s authors said the Falkland Islands are a “plum ripe for the picking” should Argentina, with the sup-port of its ally China, choose to contest British claims to sovereignty. …

The UK is already on “thin ice” militar-ily, and in a weak position to defend its in-terests around the globe, it says. The report will hold weight because it has been com-piled by five grandees of defense, including Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Graydon, a former chief of the air staff, and General Sir Michael Rose, who was commander of UN forces in Bosnia in the early 1990s.

They call for an immediate reprioritiza-tion within government to bolster defense, and set out potential threats from differ-ent regions. …

[W]hile British forces had performed well in Libya, Vice Admiral Sir Jeremy Blackham, a former captain of the Ark Royal, said they had faced a “trivial enemy”. Even then, the campaign had only been successful because the U.S. had played a more significant role than is generally understood.

“The inconvenient truth is that [Libya] was only feasible [because] U.S. forces first destroyed Libya air defenses and then provided 75 percent of all air support mis-sions,” the report adds.

Blackburn said the U.S. was extremely concerned about UK defense cuts and how they had diminished the country’s capa-bilities. …

The report argues that it is illogical to cut defense spending just because future threats are hard to predict.

[Air Commodore Andrew Lambert] said that unless the UK invested more on defense, historians might look back and say: “Oh my …, how did these people not appreciate how bad things are going to be.” …

The report concludes: “It is now quite clear that the vital twin pillars of Britain’s security for the past 50 years, the special relationship with the U.S. and the continu-ation of an effective nato, can no longer be guaranteed unless Britain increases its defense capabilities substantially and soon.

guardian | september 27

Boost defense spending or Lose the Falklands

associaTed Press | september 30

climatologist says Texas drought could Last until 2020

The state climatologist for Texas says the record drought of 2011 could be only the beginning of a dry spell that could last until 2020.

State climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon tells the Austin American-Statesman says water planning is often based on standards set by the previous record drought of the 1950s, which lasted nearly 10

years. Nielsen-Gammon, who also is a Texas A&M professor of atmospheric sciences, says the present drought could be signifi-cantly longer-lasting than what has been planned for. …

Forecasters predict dry weather to last long-term beyond the next decade from the La Niña phenom-enon returning in 2012 to cool the surface waters of the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.

orange counTy regisTer | september 29

Foreclosure Bubble could Last 5 More Years

It will take three to five years for the California housing market to clear its backlog of defaulting homes that continue to be a drag on housing prices, the chief economist of the California Association of

Realtors has said during a recent conference call.“It depends on the area, but I would say three to five years,” car

economist Leslie Appleton-Young said.“Three (years) in areas where (foreclosures) haven’t been the major-

ity of the market. Closer to five in the inland areas, where I don’t think we’ve seen a lot of the supply that’s going to come through (has yet) come through,” she said. “You’ve got shadow inventory/negative equity homeowners that are still kind of in a holding pattern (in those areas).”

daily mail | september 28

Families Face squeeze Families are typically £728 a year worse off than 12 months ago, a

study showed yesterday.The decline—more severe than during the 2008 recession—

comes amid warnings that the cost of living squeeze is about to get worse. The monthly Asda Income Tracker claims “families have never had it so

“if you believe the bible, god challenges you to accept its assertion that he has power over the potent and destructive phenomena that are increasingly besieging our world. he can create them, and he can prevent them. … god uses the weather, including floods and tornadoes, to correct people! … we should consider the worsening weather trend a warning from god. biblical prophecy shows that we can expect this increasingly chaotic weather to get far, far worse very soon (see revelation 6:5-8; 8:4-12). The powerful natural forces are going to be unleashed upon a disobedient world to bring it to its knees in repentance.”

— theTrumpet.com may 4

The TrumPeT weekly October 1, 2011 • 9

“whatever the Fed does now is too little, too late,” said economist Nouriel Roubini on Thursday. There is noth-ing the government can do to stop another recession.

Sadly, the economic famine that grips the nation was completely avoidable. If those in charge only had the wisdom to learn from Joseph.

Pharaoh had had a dream of seven fat, healthy cows being eaten by seven scrawny, sickly cows. None of his wise men could tell him what the dream meant. But Joseph could. He told Pharaoh that Egypt would enjoy seven years of great abun-dance followed by seven years of famine. More importantly, he told Pharaoh what he should do: Save during the good years so the people would have food during the lean.

Unfortunately, our modern politicians and economic wise men have missed the whole point: You actually need to save for the lean years!

During America’s good years our lead-ers should have been telling the nation to stop borrowing and start saving. At the least, the government should have put its own house in order. But no. Even amid the best years of the last decade, not once did the government run a budget surplus. Instead, the Fed encouraged people to eat their grain—and not only that, but to bor-row food from their neighbors and other nations and eat that as well!

Now the famine is here, and the govern-ment is desperately trying to keep the economy going—resorting to all kinds of harebrained stimulus ideas that are actu-ally making matters worse.

Heeding Joseph’s advice would have avoided much of this mess. Had America promoted savings instead of spending, and hard work and thrift as opposed to imme-diate gratification and borrowing, a bubble wouldn’t have formed in the first place. And if for some reason disaster did strike, or if some unforeseeable event did occur, the nation would have abundant savings to fall back upon. Instead, America has an enormous pyramid of debt.

Pharaoh was smart enough to take Joseph’s advice. Egypt went into the crisis from a position of strength, and conse-quently emerged from it as a superpower. America is heading into this crisis from a position of virtual bankruptcy. Economic starvation is coming.

Joseph’s Solution

roberT morley | columnist

In short, Vladimir Putin has orchestrated a staggering and rapid return to international prominence and power for Russia—and in classic Russian authoritarian style. Russia was walloped by the global economic downturn shortly after Putin left the presidency, but it is recovering, and throwing its weight around at international conferences. It is expanding its armed forces. It is establishing military bases on the Black Sea. It is conducting naval exercises in Asia and Latin America. It is construct-ing new pipelines to pump its natural gas and oil into other nations. It is helping with Iran’s nuclear program. It is pushing back at nato expan-sion. It is working with Central Asian countries to undermine U.S. and European proposals to build oil and gas pipelines that bypass Russia. It is joining its voice with China’s in calls to undercut the U.S. dollar.

In response to the news of Putin’s return to the Kremlin, Europeans are having Cold War nightmares. They haven’t forgotten their bloody history with Russia, and deeply fear the return of the Soviet bear. Putin’s heavy-handed tactics recall that history. Europeans well know: That’s how they do it in Russia.

The Trumpet has long said that Russian democracy is a sham. When Medvedev assumed the presidency, we predicted that though Medvedev would keep the seat warm, Putin would return: “Putin has marshaled the return of Russia to great-power status, and he is not about to become hands-off,” we wrote on Nov. 12, 2008. “Bible prophecy shows that Russia’s resurgence will be a catalyst for the emergence of a unified European superstate—and subsequently contribute to an enormously destructive world war.”

Russia is still armed to the hilt with nuclear weapons. And now, to make matters worse, Europe is deeply dependent on Russian energy. This situation calls to mind an electrifying biblical prophecy. Back in 2003, Vladimir Putin secured tremendous personal power in national elections—power he has since expanded even further. At that time, our editor in chief pointed to this prophecy. In his January 2004 Trumpet cover story, “Russia Frightens Europe—and Fulfills Bible Prophecy,” he wrote, “The Russian election is triggering a fear that will hasten the uniting of the European Union. The Russian election will cause Germa-ny and other European nations to want a stronger leader. Throughout history, Germany has often sought a strong leader. Bible prophecy says it will do so again—for the last time!”

Read Mr. Flurry’s entire article to see how Europe’s fear over Rus-sia’s growing power is directly prophesied in the Bible. Those prophe-cies clearly describe how Russia’s resurgence will actually help ignite and draw together a European superstate—and subsequently contrib-ute to an enormously destructive world war. Our booklet Russia and China in Prophecy explains the whole picture.

The return of Russia as a fearsome totalitarian power was forecast in Scripture. We’re seeing it before our eyes.

tough,” with a 7.9 percent fall in average household discretionary spending. This means that after covering must-pay bills for food, heat, light,

and the mortgage or rent, the average family is left with just £162 a week for everything else.

The figures are a further blow to claims that the economy is in recov-ery and come at the same time as British supermarkets launch a vicious price war to capture customers’ diminishing spending …. The figures are the worst in the four-year history of the study, while the current cost-of-living squeeze is said to be the longest and deepest for at least 60 years. …

The Asda study found nine in ten of us say things are tougher now than they were this time last year. … “Family spending power has fallen sharply compared with a year ago. With the UK economy in a particularly pre-carious state at the moment, things could get worse before they get better.”

The TrumPeT weekly October 1, 2011 • 10

russia from page 1

in the prayer outline Jesus Christ gave in Matthew 6, He told His disciples to pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” Looking at the world around us, it is clear that God’s will is not being carried out here on Earth today.

God’s will, Herbert W. Armstrong wrote, “will not come for the whole world until the Kingdom of God does appear with the com-ing of Jesus Christ in supreme power and glory, as the King of kings and Lord of lords, ruling all nations in the Kingdom of God!” (co-worker letter, April 28, 1974).

How real is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to you?

The Bible’s first promise of a coming Sav-ior is in Genesis 3. God would allow Satan to “bruise” Christ’s “heel” in causing Him to be crucified. But Christ would bruise Satan’s head by rising from the dead and finally deposing the devil as ruler of the world (see 2 Corinthians 4:4).

Throughout the Old Testament numerous prophets and teachers of God prophesied of a future Messiah and King who would rule this Earth. One reason so many Jews rejected Jesus Christ at His first coming is because they could not understand that most of these Old Testament prophecies foretold Christ’s Second Coming!

In the New Testament, Luke 1:33 contin-ues with a similar theme, prophesying that Christ would reign on David’s throne forever. Jesus later told Pilate He was born to be King, but added that His Kingdom was not of this world. This is why Christ did not take over the reigns of that government at His first coming.

Prophecies like Mark 13 and Matthew 24 could not be viewed with any kind of positive or hopeful focus unless we see what it leads to—the return of Jesus Christ to this Earth!

“If I go,” Christ said in John 14, “I will come again.” That is an unbreakable prom-ise! In Revelation we find the same message, written several decades after Christ had come and gone (Revelation 11:15). Also read Revelation 19:6 and 22:7.

Whether in the writings of Moses, the book of Daniel, the New Testament gospels or the book of Revelation, the message about the Kingdom of God on Earth is consistent and repetitious. It is this world’s only sure hope. It’s why true Christians, when they pray, begin with this earnest, heartfelt peti-tion: Thy Kingdom come!

‘Thy Kingdom Come’

sTePhen Flurry | columnist