Thursday, December 18, 2014

NEWS BRIEFS: DECEMBER 18, 2014


Current Events And Commentaries
“And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come,
he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.”
~ Jesus
Luke 12:39

WND
America’s Independent News Network - “A Free Press for a Free People”

Does This Explain Obama’s Deal With Cuba?
Another nation quietly struck agreement
with communist regime in July

By Aaron Klein — While outspoken critics view President Obama’s announcement of renewed diplomatic ties with Havana as rewarding a dictatorship, the White House move may have more to do with checking Russia’s growing influence in Cuba, located just 90 miles from the U.S. coast.

On Wednesday, Obama announced the restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba, including the goal of reopening a U.S. Embassy in Havana that had been closed for 50 years.

The U.S. will ease travel restrictions on Cuba and will make it easier for Americans doing business in the country.

The State Department has been ordered to review Cuba’s status as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Russia responded to the U.S. move with public praise. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov called Obama’s decision a “step in the right direction.”

However, the Russians must be concerned Obama is responding to Moscow’s recent muscle-flexing in Cuba.

In July, the London Guardian reported Russia had quietly struck a deal with Cuba to reopen the Lourdes military base, a Soviet-era spy base and military facility that was the USSR’s largest foreign base during the Cold War. The Soviets reportedly used the base to intercept American radio and telephone communications.

Some have seen the base’s reopening as largely symbolic, since spy methods now rely more on satellites and technology that can be deployed from anywhere.

The Guardian quoted Moscow-based defense analyst Pavel Felgenhauer downplaying the reopening of the base as a “PR move” to show Washington the “middle finger.” Still, he allowed the base could be utilized for corporate espionage, explaining “because when individuals chatter they’re not always so attentive of secure lines.”

Robert Jervis, professor of international politics at Columbia University, warned Russia could use the base to provide information to communist allies such as Venezuela and Bolivia.

There is no mistaking the base reopening combined with other recent Russian moves toward Cuba pose a challenge to the U.S.

It may in part help explain why, as part of the new rapprochement, Obama is eager to open a U.S. embassy on Cuban soil. The facility will clearly help establish a U.S. presence to check Russia in the country.

In August, Putin paid a visit to Cuba, where the Russian strongman reportedly forgave 90 percent of Cuba’s unpaid Soviet-era debts, which totaled $32 billion.

He also reportedly signed industry, energy and trade deals with Cuba that includes a search for oil in Cuban waters.

Stephen Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies at Princeton University, saw Putin’s trip to Cuba as “a reply to Obama’s notion that Russia could be isolated, by saying, ‘Hey, here we are back 90 miles off your shore with a big greeting, and we’re going back into economic business here.’”

According to media reports, Putin utilized a Latin American tour in August to sign numerous military agreements to place Russian global positioning stations in not only Cuba but also Argentina and Brazil.

In February 2013, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev reportedly signed a deal with Cuba to lease eight the country Russian jets.

In a move undoubtedly watched closely by the Pentagon, in April 2013 Russian Military Chief of Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov reportedly toured key Cuban military and intelligence site.

Four months later, a spokesman for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet told reporters the fleet’s flagship, the Russian guided-missile warship Moskva, would tour the coast of Cuba and Central and South American ports.

In February, it was reported another Russian warship, the Viktor Leonov CCB-175, had docked in Cuba.

With additional research by Joshua Klein....

DEMOCRAT Senator With Cuban Ancestry On Obama’s Deal:
‘I Think it Stinks!’

By Matthew Burke, TPNN — Democrat U.S. Senator Robert Menendez from New Jersey blasted Obama’s normalization of relations with the brutal communist Castro regime in Cuba following the announcement. Menendez, normally a rubber stamp for the dictatorial Obama, and the outgoing Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, is one of three Latinos in the Senate who is also of Cuban ancestry, along with Republicans Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. “I think it stinks,” Menendez, a son of Cuban immigrants said. “I think it’s wrong. I am deeply disappointed in the president,” he said in disgust....

Barack Obama Is MELTING DOWN!!!

CleanTV: Family-Friendly Television and Video On Demand
Barack Obama is melting down. Desperate to leave a positive legacy, he is beside himself and grasping at straws. With popularity polls at an all time low and virtually no one approving of how he is doing his job, he is doing an end run around the U.S. Constitution by ram-rodding through executive orders and executive actions to implement his policies.

But even this is failing as the courts are blocking his attempt at slam-dunking illegal amnesty of illegal immigrants.

Sony Cancels Release Of ‘The Interview’ After Cyber Attack

Newsmax — Sony Pictures has canceled the release of a comedy on the fictional assassination of North Korea's leader, in what appears to be an unprecedented victory for Pyongyang and its abilities to wage cyber-warfare. Hackers who said they were incensed by the film attacked Sony Corp last month, leaking documents that drew global headlines and distributing unreleased films on the Internet. Washington may soon officially announce that the North Korean government was behind the attack, a U.S. government source said....

The Real Reason The U.S. Is Targeting Russia

Alternative Media Television with Christopher Greene
‘Hard-hitting and in your face!’

Islamic State Mocks US With Photoshopped Santa Held Hostage
The image isn’t just dark humor. It’s part of the group’s supremacist worldview
that seeks the forced extinction of all contrary beliefs.

By Ryan Mauro, The Clarion Project — Islamic State members and supporters online are distributing a photoshopped image of Santa Claus being held hostage by the group. The dark humor and heavy sarcasm of Islamic State (ISIS) supporters define its aggressive social media campaigns that position the group as the “cool” successor to the out-of-style Al-Qaeda. It is unconfirmed if the original source was created by an Islamic State member/supporter, though an intelligence source involved in monitoring extremist online activity believes it was. Nonetheless, Islamic State supporters have happily been posting it and using it to mock the U.S. and Christmas....

Military Planes Caught Dumping Mysterious
Fibers: Lab Tests Confirm “Metals”
 photo 121814AJ.jpg

Alex Jones’ Infowars
Marie Snow and her friend Cori Gunnels knew they stumbled across something sinister when they saw what appeared to be 50 to 60-foot long “raindrops”, “solid” in nature, falling from the sky in clusters, after three military aircraft flew overhead.

The New Holocaust Has Started
And The Doors Of Europe And United States Are Closing

By Keith Davies, Shoebat Foundation — As ISIS, the Taliban, Boka Haram, Al Shabab, the Muslim Brotherhood and other Muslim terror groups are murdering people by the thousands each week, Europe is closing its doors and trying to change the rules of asylum. The USA and Canada are also ambivalent to the crisis of this silent Holocaust. History is repeating itself, the West who have allowed the fundamentalist Muslims take over with their weak and stupid policies, which have strengthened the evil ones, while weakening the moderating forces in the Middle East. Now they abrogate their humanity by closing the door to desperate people who are under the yoke of Islam. The History of the 1930s and 40s is now repeating itself to the nth degree, which includes a media that ignores the issue of persecution, a state department that is as evil as it was in World War 2, when it deliberately prevented Jewish refugees from coming to the USA as well as the appeasement of Islam, like we appeased Hitler and the Nazis....

Obama’s Iran Policy

» Cartoonist: Michael Ramirez is the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist for Investors Business Daily. Please contact your local newspaper editor if you want to see Michael Ramirez’s cartoons in your hometown paper.

Jesus Privately Briefing His Inner Circle of Disciples
Regarding The Last Days
And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. ~ Matthew 24:3-14