Insanity: North Korea Puts Strategic Rocket Units On Combat-Ready Status, Preps For Strikes Against US Mainland And Hawaii

North Korea: Not Too Bright

By Mark Willacy, ABC News – “North Korea has put its strategic rocket units on combat-ready status, with orders to prepare for possible strikes against the United States mainland and Hawaii.

But many analysts doubt that Pyongyang even has the capability to hit the US.

The North Korean regime is enraged that the US has recently flown B-52 bombers over the Korean Peninsula, and has accused Washington of preparing an invasion.

In response, the North Korean army command has ordered all artillery troops and strategic rocket units to be ready for combat.

A statement from the Korean People’s Army supreme command ordered rocket units to be prepared to attack ‘all US military bases in the Asia-Pacific region, including the US mainland, Hawaii and Guam’.

Despite its successful long-range rocket launch in December, most experts believe North Korea is years from developing a genuine inter-continental ballistic missile that could strike the continental United States.

Hawaii and Guam would also be outside the range of its medium-range missiles, which would be capable, however, of striking US military bases in South Korea and Japan.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has spent the past few weeks touring frontline military units, monitoring live fire artillery drills and making inflammatory speeches about wiping out the enemy.

Sabre-rattling and displays of brinkmanship are nothing new in the region, but there are concerns that the current situation is so volatile that one accidental step could escalate into serious conflict.” Read more.

North Korea Says It Has Cut Last Military Hotline with South Korea – “Raising tensions with South Korea yet again, North Korea cut its last military hotline with Seoul on Wednesday, saying there was no need to continue military communications between the countries in a situation ‘where a war may break out at any moment.’… The link cut Wednesday had been essential in operating the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation: an industrial complex in the North that employs hundreds of workers from the South.” Read more.

North Korea Giant Distraction Designed to Pull American Resources Away from Middle East? – “In any good con there’s at least two conspirators. Someone may be used to create a diversion; a distraction of sorts to draw prying eyes away from the real action. This scenario is certainly something to consider when analyzing the dynamics unfolding on the world scene. North Korea has no hope of winning a battle against even one American submarine let alone the entire US military. But do they really plan on it or are they simply part of a slight of hand trick being played by their Persian buddies?” Read more.

Flashback: Iran Ready To Expand Ties ‘In All Arenas’ With North Korea – “Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi said that the Islamic republic is ready to expand bilateral relations with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in all arenas, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Monday. Salehi made the remarks when meeting with his DPRK counterpart, Pak Ui-chun, here on Sunday.” Read more.

Mainstream Media Celebrate Turning Culture Against Nation’s Judeo-Christian Heritage

Matthew 24:27, “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”

By Cliff Kincaid, World Tribune – “On the eve of Tuesday’s ‘March for Marriage’ in Washington and Supreme Court consideration of court cases on homosexual rights, more evidence of the media bias driving the campaign to change America’s culture and Judeo-Christian foundations has emerged.

Speaking at a ‘gay journalists’ event in New York City last Thursday night, Natalie Morales of the NBC Today Show declared, ‘Many of us here in this room — the media — we are responsible for opening the world’s eyes to these issues and the stories that have brought about such change. When you think 18 years ago when this organization was founded — think of where the country was back then. And now, 50 percent — according to the Pew poll that we talked about on the news today — support gay marriage, and…some other polls put that number even higher. [This] reflects a change in attitudes in this country.’

This was not just an event where journalists ‘came out of the closet’ for homosexual rights; it was a fundraiser for the cause. Our media paid big money to participate as sponsors and hosts.

My associate Peter LaBarbera and I covered the homosexual rights fundraiser, held in New York City under the auspices of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA), and saw first-hand that it was a ‘who’s who’ of media stars from every major news organization in the U.S. They also included Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie of NBC, Gayle King of CBS News, Christine Romans of CNN, Amy Robach of ABC News, and Amanda Drury of CNBC.

The really big star of the evening was Natalie Morales of NBC’s Today Show, who told LaBarbera in a brief interview, ‘I think what’s happening here is this is a new civil rights movement… And I believe that they should be allowed to get married and love equally.’

In her remarks to the gathering, she joked about getting a lesbian kiss. ‘Now I have to say I’m a little flustered because on my way in here I was actually in the ladies room, and making out with a woman,’ she said at the start of her remarks.” Read more.

Radio Host: LGBT Rights Make Christians ‘Second-Class Citizens’ – “People are, people are very concerned about, about culture and about values and where things are going in this country. What concerns me, though, Sandy, is the vitriol coming from those who support gay marriage… there seems to be this opinion on the other side that says, you know what, you and I don’t deserve the same rights. You know, it’s as if we’re second-class citizens now because we support the traditional, Biblical definition of marriage, or perhaps we are pro-life, and that means we’re somehow second-class citizens who don’t deserve to be in the public marketplace of ideas.” Read more.

Tanzania: Rise Of Islam Fueling Attacks And New Threats Against Christians, ‘There Is Definitely A Concern About What’s Going To Happen’

MNN – “A sudden spike in violence targeting Christians in Tanzania has finally given way to a threat.

Todd Nettleton, a spokesman for the Voice of the Martyrs USA, explains, ‘There have been threats made regarding Easter. That is one concern.’

Another threat is a recent propaganda campaign. ‘There are leaflets, apparently, being circulated saying that Christians should respond with violence, and they should come back and attack the Muslims in retaliation for these attacks that have happened on Christians. So there really is the potential for a lot of upheaval this Holy week, as we head into Easter Sunday.’

Christians are calling for prayers and for peace and reconciliation in the wake of the violence. Over the last four months, a handful of attacks against church leaders in Tanzania have left believers in the Eastern African nation concerned over the future of religious freedom.

Nettleton attributes some of that to an alarming shift. ‘Some of that is the rise of radical Islam within the country. There is some evidence of links between radical Muslims in Tanzania–particularly on the island of Zanzibar, and al Shabaab in Somalia.’ In fact, wherever Islamic militants appear to be bent on wiping out all Christians, there have been corresponding upticks in attacks on churches, leaders, death threats and murders.

More recently, Nettleton adds, ‘We’re seeing more persecution in Tanzania than we’ve seen in past years, and that really has brought it [Tanzania] to the attention of others who monitor religious freedom and persecution around the world.’ That’s born out in the Open Doors World Watch List for 2013. It’s a compilation of the 50 countries most noted for the persecution of Christians. Tanzania, never having been on the list before, ranks 24th now.

The situation begs the question of whether or not these are isolated events or symptoms of a larger issue. Believers are concerned and wary, says Nettleton. ‘One of my coworkers was in Tanzania last week to encourage and meet with persecuted Christians–Christians who have already faced persecution. There is definitely a concern about what’s going to happen.'” Read more.

Flashback: Tanzania: Christians Increasingly Worried As Islamism Spreads At Alarming Rate, Seeks To Impose Sharia Law Upon All – “Islamisation is increasing at an alarming rate in Tanzania, according to a bishop from the country. Bishop Bernadin Mfumbusa of Kondoa warned that religious freedom and other civil liberties were under threat from intolerant radical Muslim influences sweeping in from countries neighbouring the east African nation… ‘We see more and more itinerant preachers from Saudi Arabia and Sudan entering this country – and Muslims are increasingly making political demands.’” Read more.

Denmark: Muslim Brothers Imprisoned For Plotting To ‘Assemble A Whole Group [To] Go To Europe And Murder Everything’

For peaceful purposes …

The Copenhagen Post – “The two Danish-Somali brothers who were accused of financing terror and training for terrorist acts last month were found guilty today in Aarhus.

The brothers, aged 19 and 24, were each handed prison sentences of three and a half years by presiding judge Poul Holm, who put emphasis on a number of phone conversations between the 24-year-old brother, who was in Somalia between November 2011 and March 2012, and the 19-year-old in Aarhus.

On sound recordings from the conversations, the older brother said that he would ‘assemble a whole group [to] go to Europe and murder everything’. The judge and all the jury members, aside from one, found that the brothers were training for terror purposes.

The Aarhus case was unusual as it was the first time individuals were convicted of receiving training and preparing for a terror attack while in a foreign-based terror training camp.

The two brothers were also charged with providing financial support to al-Shabaab – which is considered a terrorist organisation by several European countries, the US, Canada and Australia – but were found not guilty on that charge.

The state prosecutor, Torben Thygesen, had argued that the brothers intended to carry out a terror act at a later time.” Read more.

Flashback: Denmark: Muslim Gangs Terrorize Copenhagen Courthouse, ‘With Islam Comes Fear, And With Fear Comes Power’ – “More than 140 Muslim gang members were arrested in Denmark after they tried to raid a courthouse where two fellow Muslims are being tried for attempted murder. The Muslims — all members of criminal street gangs that have taken over large parts of Danish towns and cities — were wearing masks and bullet-proof vests … Police used batons and pepper spray to fend off the gang members, who were armed with an arsenal of 20 different types of weapons …” Read more.

Flashback: Denmark: City Officials Ban Israeli Flags At Local ‘Diversity Festival’ Celebrating Different Countries To Avoid Offending Muslims – “A city hall request that the Israeli flag not be displayed at a street festival intended to promote diversity has Jewish community leaders wondering what ‘diversity’ really means to some city leaders… Organisers said they feared clashes between Jewish, Muslim and leftist groups if the Israeli flag was displayed.” Read more.

Flashback: Denmark: Muslim Mob Goes On Terror Rampage Through Copenhagen Hospital – “It is a very dark, but little known, underside to the multicultural nightmare that western European societies are fast becoming… The trouble apparently began earlier that evening between rival immigrant groups when two members of one group drove up to the other’s Eid al-Fitr celebration that was being held in a shopping center parking lot… The hospital invasion was so barbarous and disturbing to the Danish public that a ‘shocked’ Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt was compelled to comment on it, calling it ‘serious criminal behavior’ at a news conference.” Read more.

Men Running, Women Pleading For God’s Mercy, Children Screaming Out Of Fear: ‘Cleansing’ In Iraq Of Christians Continues Unabated

Matthew 10:22, “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”

By Juliana Taimoorazy, Morning Star News – “Men running, women pleading for God’s mercy, children screaming out of fear, older women trapped under rubble and thick dust rising in the air. This has been a recurring scene in Iraqi cities for close to a decade.

Since June 26, 2004, Assyrian (also known as Chaldean and Syriac) churches have come under attack more than 80 times. The most widely publicized assault came on Oct. 31, 2010, when Islamic terrorists wearing suicide vests invaded Our Lady of Salvation Syriac Catholic Church in Baghdad during mass, shot two priests and then blew themselves up. When it was over, 62 people were killed and 78 injured.

For many people in the United States, news of this attack was their first exposure to the Assyrian people, whose history dates back to 4750 B.C. in Mesopotamia. According to Biblical tradition, they are the direct descendants of Shem, the Son of Noah. The Assyrians, whose language evolved from Akkadian to Aramaic, built the first cities and invented agriculture; river-fed irrigation systems and establishment of the first library were among many other Assyrian inventions that have shaped our world history.

Ancient Assyria, with Nineveh (today’s Mosul) as its capital city, was once a feared kingdom from western Persia into eastern Egypt. Since the fall of Nineveh in 612 B.C. to this day, however, Assyrians have faced repeated ethno-religious cleansing in the Middle East.

Having come to Christ through the disciples Thomas, Thaddeus and Bartholomew in the first century A.D., Assyrians realized a new enemy was on the horizon as Islam spread throughout the region after 622 A.D. The first Islamic attack was perpetrated against them in 650 A.D., when many monks were killed along the Byzantine border. The Assyrians have since suffered attacks on a regular basis, generation after generation. After Ottoman Turkey’s systematic killing of 750,000 Assyrians, 1.5 million Armenians and over 500,000 Greeks in the early 20th century, many Assyrians ended up in refugee camps.

Since the ouster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Iraqi-Assyrian Christians have endured vicious criminal acts by Islamist extremists. Systematic ethno-religious cleansing in Iraq began in 2003, when Christian families received threatening letters offering three options: convert to Islam, pay the jizya (a form of protection tax paid by non-Muslims) or leave their homes, empty-handed.

As families started to receive the letters, terrorists began systematically abducting and killing Christian clergy. To date, there have been hundreds of Christians who have been kidnapped and murdered because of their Assyrian ethnicity and their Christian faith. These acts have driven approximately 1 million people out of their homeland, where their ancestors had lived for thousands of years.” Read more.

Flashback: Muslim Cleric In Iraq Issues New Fatwa To All Iraqi Christians: Choose Islam Or Be Killed – “An Advent of light and shadow for Iraq’s Christians, who are celebrating the reopening of the cathedral of Baghdad but at the same time subjected to new – and heavy – threats from a radical Shiite Muslim leader. From studies of a television broadcaster based in Egypt, an Iraqi Ayatollah launches a fatwa against the religious minority on the eve of Christmas: ‘Conversion to Islam or death.’… Labeling them as ‘polytheists’ and ‘friends of the Zionists’, the extremist leader stressed that they must choose ‘or Islam or death,’ while ‘their women and girls may legitimately be regarded wives of Muslims.’” Read more.

Flashback: Iraq: Islamic Extremists Want to Eliminate Christians From Country – “Ongoing violence against Christians in Iraq has produced an accelerated exodus of believers recently and numbering in the hundreds of thousands over the last 10 years, said Open Doors USA officials… ‘At the beginning of the summer, Open Doors estimated the number of Christians remaining in Iraq at 345,000. However, the number decreases every month,’ officials stated. ‘It is an estimation; some even think there are less Christians left in the country than that,’ another Open Doors member said.” Read more.

Muslim Persecution Of Christians: January, 2013

Matthew 10:22, “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”

By Raymond Ibrahim, Gatestone Institute – “The year 2013 began with reports indicating that wherever Christians live side by side with large numbers of Muslims, the Christians are under attack. As one report said, ‘Africa, where Christianity spread fastest during the past century, now is the region where oppression of Christians is spreading fastest.’ Whether in Kenya, Nigeria, Mali, Somalia, Sudan, or Tanzania—attacks on Christians are as frequent as they are graphic.

As for the Middle East, the cradle of Christianity, a new study by the Pew Forum finds that ‘just 0.6 percent of the world’s 2.2 billion Christians now live in the Middle East and North Africa. Christians make up only 4% of the region’s inhabitants, drastically down from 20% a century ago, and marking the smallest regional Christian minority in the world. Fully 93% of the region is Muslim and 1.6% is Jewish.’

How Christianity has been all but eradicated from the region where it was born is made clear in yet another report on the Middle East’s largest Christian minority, Egypt’s Christian Copts. Due to a ‘climate of fear and uncertainty,’ Christian families are leaving Egypt in large numbers. Along with regular church attacks, the situation has gotten to the point that, according to one Coptic priest, ‘Salafis meet Christian girls in the street and order them to cover their hair. Sometimes they hit them when they refuse.’ Another congregation leader said ‘With the new [Sharia-heavy] constitution, the new laws that are expected, and the majority in parliament I don’t believe we can be treated on an equal basis.’

Elsewhere, Christians are not allowed to flee. In eastern Syria, for example, 25,000 Christians, including Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholics, Chaldeans and Armenians, were prevented from fleeing due to a number of roadblocks set up by armed Islamic militia groups, who deliberately target Christians for robbery and kidnapping-for-ransom—then often slaughtering their victims.

Categorized by theme, January’s batch of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and in country alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity:

Church Attacks

Egypt: Reminiscent of the 2011 New Year’s Eve church bombing in Alexandria, which left over 23 Christians dead, a car packed with explosives was discovered by a Coptic church celebrating Christmas [which is in January] and was neutralized before it could detonate. As patrols seized the explosives-packed car, another car with masked men in it sped away. Separately, hundreds of Muslims chanting Islamic slogans in the village of Fanous destroyed a social services building belonging to a Coptic Church. Security forces arrived only after the building had been completely destroyed. According to the AINA report, the social services building ‘had all the necessary government permits; it had a reception hall on the first floor and a kindergarten on the second. But the Muslims insisted that it would become a church. Mosques in surrounding areas had earlier called on Muslims, through their megaphones, to go and help their Muslim brethren in Fanous, because Christians were ‘building a church.’ Hundreds of other Muslim protesters rioted outside yet another church in Upper Egypt; on claims that a Christian man had sexually assaulted a 6-year-old girl, they threw stones at the building. Four stores owned by Copts were torched. Police are investigating the accusations against the merchant.

Nigeria: A total of 30 Christians were slaughtered in two separate attacks carried out by armed men ahead of the