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theTRUMPETweekly

weating PAGE 2 germany PAGE 4 mexicoPAGE 6 britons PAGE 8 makers PA

A DIGEST OF SIGNIFICANT WORLD NEWS FROM THE PHILADELPHIA TRUMPETSTAFF FOR THE WEEK OF MARCH 27 - APRIL 2, 2011

Around 230,000 people

have been displaced

in Mexico as a result

of drug wars.

n the Middle East, it

eems Americas chief

foreign-policy goal

is to do whatever

is necessary

not to upset Iran.

Germany has dared to

go it alone for the first

time since 1949.

Today in America

are nearly twice a

people working f

government (22.5

than in all of manuf

(11.5 million

More than a third

of people planning to retire

in Britain this year will do

so with incomes below

the poverty line.

Welivein a world gone mad.Just look at whats happenedthis year alone. The collapse of

Tunisias government in mid-Januarytriggered a restorm of protest and

violence that is still burning across theMiddle East. In Egypt, the United Statesforced Hosni Mubarak out of power andhanded the nation over to the MuslimBrotherhooda radical transforma-tion theTrumpet.com has predicted for

nearly 20 years.In Libya, a headless coalition of Western nations has at-

tacked the forces of long-time dictator Muammar Qadha.This misguided venture essentially aligns the U.S. witha network of Libyan rebels that is infested with al Qaedaoperatives.

And al Qaedas response to President Obama? Thankyou very much. In their latest English-language propa-

ganda publication, calledInspire,one cleric writes, Ourmujahideen brothers in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and the restof the Muslim world will get a chance to breathe again afterthree decades of suffocation.

Of course, it is Iranthe number-one state sponsor ofterrorismthat stands to benet most from this rampantspread of radical Islam. Like al Qaedas leadership, themullahs are delighted by the U.S. support for uprisings inEgypt and Libya. With momentum clearly on its side, Iranis now using its proxies to provoke war with Israel and fuelprotests in Bahrain and Yemen, where it hopes to toppleregimes that have had a long history of supporting Ameri-can interests.

Irans only cause for concern, as Brad Macdonald wrote

about Thursday, is in Syria, where a popular uprisingthreatens the government of Bashar Al-AssadIrans part-ner in terror. To this point, Assad has managed to maintaincontrol of the unrest by using live ammunition to mowdown demonstrators in the streets.

Its probably the only revolution in the Middle East thatcould actually advance American interests. And so Ameri-ca, in keeping with its recent string of strategic losses, hasoffered its unwavering supportfor Assad. When asked

why America was backing the rebels in Libya, but not inSyria, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sundaythat Syria was different and that Bashar Al-Assad was a

reformer.

Outside of the Middle East, meanwhile, in January,Australia sustained its worst ooding in historya bibli-cal disaster, according to the leading daily in Brisbane. InFebruary, a devastating earthquake in New Zealand prettymuch wiped out the central district of Christchurch. A

quake of this ferocity is statistically estimated to strike justonce every thousandyears.

In March, another earthquake off the coast of Japantouched off one of the deadliest tsunamis in history, caus-ing tens of thousands of deaths and leaving the Fukushimapower plant teetering on the brink of full-scale nuclearmeltdown.

These recent disasters follow hard on the heels of arecord-breaking year of natural disasters in 2010. Last

year, there were more disaster-related deaths than anyother year on record. The Associated Press labeled it the

year the Earth struck back.And yeteven in the face of the realand frightfulpros-

pect of worldwarand these earthshaking jolts in different

places, followed by famine and pestilenceour peopleshave drifted into a deep slumber!

This week, during a YouTube interview, a journalistasked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the fol-lowing question: If you could ask one question of a worldleader, what would it be and to whom? Netanyahu said he

would ask Winston Churchill if anything different couldhave been done in order to awaken the world to the dangersof Nazism.

He speculated on how Churchill might have respondedto that question: Nahnothing could have been donedifferently, because ultimately theres such a thing as theslumber of democraciesthey have to be banged on thehead. Netanyahu then said, I feel that same frustration

now, because Ive been talking for 15 years about the dangerof Iranian nuclear terrorism, how they could control the

worlds oil supply, and how they threaten our country withobliteration and could do the same with others. You try,and you try, and you try, and I dont want to say that theresbeen no progressbut not the kind of mobilization that isrequired against something so great.

Without an understanding of Bible prophecy, it wouldbeeasy to get frustrated by the slumbering spirit that hasdrugged America and Britain. Look at how oblivious ourpeople are to the terrifying dangers just ahead of us. Here

we are at a time when Bible prophecies are being fullledsee WAKE UP page 10

STEPHEN FLURRY

COLUMNIST

i Hh t w Up!

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Middle east

PalestinianauthorityPresident Mahmoud Abbas has ramped upefforts to reconcile with Hamas. Abbas met with Hamas rivals inthe West Bank on Saturday, for the rst time in a year, after an-

nouncing the previous week that he is willing to go to the Gaza Strip tomeet with Hamas leaders and discuss Palestinian unity. One of his aides,

Azzam Ahmed, said Abbas would even be willing to pass up hundreds ofmillions of dollars in U.S. aid if it meant making a Palestinian unity deal.The momentum for Palestinian unity is part of a greater strategy in thePAs bid for international recognition, which may come before the UnitedNations General Assembly in September. The Fatah-led governmentrealizes that its case for statehood is weak unless it reconciles with itsPalestinian enemy. Palestinian unity, however, would soon put Hamas inthe Palestinian drivers seat in the West Banksomething the Trumpethas expected for years.

A feature-length documentary lm produced by a top adviser to Ira-nian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims that the current unrestin the Middle East is a signal that the Mahdior Islamic messiahisabout to appear. The lm was screened a few weeks ago by Ahmadine-

jads ofce and is soon to be distributed to Islamic audiences across the

Middle East. One of the signs of the Mahdis return, according to thenarrator in the lm, will be Ahmadinejad and Hezbollah leader HassanNasrallah leading Islamic armies to conquer Jerusalem. The leaders ofIran believe that the current violence and turmoil in the Middle Eastare signs of the imminent triumph of their version of Islam. This belief

will no doubt make Iran much bolder in its attempts to violently wrenchJerusalem away from Israeli control.

In Syria, President Bashar Al-Assad on Thurs-day nally outlined some steps toward reformin his country, including lifting emergency lawand granting rights to Kurds. The proposals

which are likely little more than token gesturesin any caseare unlikely to satisfy protestersdemanding an end to the regime. In a speech to

parliament the previous day, Assad remaineddeant, saying the public unrest was largelythe result of the plots that [have been] hatchedagainst our country. Sporadic anti-governmentdemonstrations have occurred throughout Syriasince late January. Two weeks ago, the unrest reached critical mass whengovernment security forces used live ammunition to disperse a crowd ofdemonstrators in Daraa, an impoverished city in southern Syria. This in-spired more angry Syrians to hit the streets in protest in cities across thecountry, including the capital, Damascus. Assad responded by dispatch-ing security and military forces throughout Syria, shutting down elec-tronic communications and getting tougher with protesters. Amid thecrackdowns, thousands have been arrested, hundreds injured and morethan 100 killed. To this point, Assad has managed to maintain control of

the unrest. He knows that he is of vital strategic importance to Iran andHezbollah and is condent both will continue to stand by his side. Bibleprophecy, however, reveals that a split between Iran and Syria will occur.

In Libya, Muammar Qadhas troops have regained some of theground taken by rebel forces since air strikes began. It is evident thatthe rebels are having trouble advancingeven with air supportin theface of any signicant resistance on the ground. Still, they were givenreason to cheer when Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa defectedto Britain on Wednesday, and Libyan Ambassador to the United Na-tions Ali Abdel-Salam al-Treki defected the following day. There havebeen no further high-level defections from the military, however, sinceFebruary, indicating that with the loyalty of the army Qadha may havethe support to hold on to power for some time.

BASHAR AL-ASSAD

THE TRUMPET WEEKLY April 2, 2011 2

MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

why i is bullwhenitcomes to Iransregional aspirations, 2011has gone splendidly forthe mullahs in Tehran. In

nearly each instance, theanti-government uprisingsthat have swept the MiddleEast and North Africa haveserved Irans ultimate goalof regional domination. There is one exceptioSyria.

Irans blood pressure rose this week whentension between Syrias anti-governmentprotesters and the regime of President Basha

Al-Assad peaked. In Middle East geopolitics,Syria is to Iran what Robin is to Batman: Iranfaithful, hardworking, generally submissiveaccomplice. The Assad regime is Irans most

important ally in the Middle East.The two work in cahoots on all levels. Syria

is the primary transit hub for weapons ow-ing from Iran to southern Lebanon, Gaza andIsrael. Beyond being a pack mule for Iranianartillery, Assad has forged himself as an extension, of Irans rogue nuclear weapons programStrategically, Syria is the most important staging ground for Islamic terrorism in the MiddlEast outside of Iran. It has been the predomi-nant launching pad for al Qaeda operatives enroute to Iraq, and Damascus is the primaryrefuge and meeting point for the likes of Hez-bollah, Hamas and sundry Palestinian terror

organizations.It is no surprise, then, that Iran has rushed

to Assads aid. Earlier this month, Syrian op-position reported that Iran had dispatchedhundreds of elite commandos from the IslamRevolutionary Guard Corps (irgc) to Syria. Inaddition to Iranian forces, Hezbollah opera-tives have also been sent to assist in curtail-ing the unrest. Citing opposition sources,the World Tribunereported recently that boththe irgcand Hezbollah are providing anti-rioarmored and air support for Assads militaryand security agencies.

For Iran, the Assad regime is an asset that

must be ardently defended!So far, the United States has been deter-

mined not to get entangled with the Syrianuprisings. Judging by precedent, America willlikely come down on the wrong side of history.In the Middle East, it seems Americas chiefforeign-policy goal is to do whatever is neces-sary notto upset Iran. In Egypt, Yemen andLibya, this meant supporting the ouster of theincumbent governments.

In the case of Syria, pleasing Iran wouldmean refrainingfrom doing anything thatmight destabilize the Assad regime.

BRAD MACDONALD| COLUMNIST

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THE TRUMPET WEEKLY April 2, 2011 3

ISRAEL TODAY| March 30

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Followingapurportedly pro-democracy revolution that many

hoped would bring Egypt even closer to the liberal West, the coun-try this week continued its slide in the other direction, into the

arms of Islamist regimes.Egypts new foreign minister, Nabil al-Arabi, told reporters in Cairo

on Tuesday that he intends to reestablish ties with the regime of Irani-an strongman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Islamic overseers. We

will turn over a new leaf with all states, including Iran, said al-Arabi.The minister said he was not yet sure if Egypt would be opening an

embassy in Tehran anytime soon, but was keen to begin promotingfriendly relations with the Islamic Republic.

Asked about Lebanons Hezbollah terrorist militia, which more orless runs that country, al-Arabi indicated he had no problem with thegroup, and would not oppose ofcial ties between Hezbollah and Egypt.

Hezbollah is part of Lebanons composition, and we see this as an inter-

nal matter, he said. If any party wishes to have ties with Egypt therewill be nothing preventing us from talking.

Both Iran and Hezbollah, which are allies, were rm opponents offormer Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whom the Islamists saw astoo friendly with America, Israel and the West in general.

europe

G

ermanchancellorAngela Merkels party, the Christian Demo-cratic Union (cdu), lost control of a pivotal state on Monday in anembarrassing electoral reversal that signals broad disapproval of

her leadership. For almost 60 years, the conservatives have maintainedcontrol of Baden-Wrttemberg, but concern over Japans nuclear cri-sis prompted voters there to provide enough support to the Green Partyto give it control of a state government for the rst time. Earlier thismonth, Merkel abruptly decided to abandon her previous pro-nuclearpolicy and close down seven of Germanys 17 nuclear reactor plants, butit was not enough to shift her back into the favor of the Baden-Wrttem-berg populace. Its a deep wound in the history of Baden-Wrttembergand also in the history of the cdu, Merkel told reporters on Monday.

The pain from this loss wont go away in just one day. Well have to workfor a long time to overcome the pain from this defeat. There can beno doubt that the elections in Baden-Wrttemberg, like those in Ham-burg last month, reect signicant changes in the mood of the electoratein Germany. As Merkels Christian Democrats nurse the wounds they

sustained in Baden-Wrttemberg, we should watch for Germanys dis-satisfaction with its current leadership to intensify.

Silvio Berlusconi claimed that he is the most accused man in historyand the universe as he appeared in court on March 27 for the rst time ineight years. He has previously said: I am the Jesus Christ of politics. I ama patient victim, I put up with everyone, I sacrice myself for everyone,and claimed to be the best political leader in Europe and in the world,as well as absolutely the most persecuted by the judiciary in all of thehistory of the entire world. The billionaire media mogul and politicianis accused of underage prostitution, among other things. The trials couldcause Berlusconi to step down, but he has survived many scandals before.

A cyberattack on the European Parliaments networks was uncov-ered on March 24, and continued for several days. This is not a couple

ah il-H w iivlimgoingto make a prediction here that,unfortunately, Im sure is going to come true.

Any good analyst should be able to see this,yet few will, until it happens within the nexttwo years: The Egyptian revolution will makeanother Israel-Hamas war inevitable, with alot more of an international mess. And Ill goa step further: An incompetent and mistakenU.S. policy makes such a conict even morecertain. Why?

First, Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip,is a revolutionary Islamist movement whichgenuinely views itself as directed by God,considers Jews to be subhuman, believes thata willingness to court suicide and welcomedeath will ensure victory and is certain that it

is going to destroy Israel and then transformPalestinian society into an Islamic Garden ofEden.

Given this, there are only two ways tostop Hamas from waging war on Israel. Theshorter-term solution is deterrence throughstrength. The defeat Hamas suffered in the2008-2009 war forced it to retrench andbecome cautious for a while. The only longer-term solution is the overthrow of the Hamasregime in the Gaza Strip, with the maximumpossible destruction of the organization.

Events in Egypt, and U.S. policy, havedestroyed the shorter-term option, and made

the longer-term one impossible. With betterweapons, Hamas will go to war. Its only amatter of time.

Second, the Egyptian revolution removeda regime that dened the national interest ashaving an anti-Hamas policy. The Mubarakgovernment did not maintain sanctions andan (albeit imperfect) blockade of weapons forIsraels benet. It did so because it saw revo-lutionary Islamism as the main threat to thenation. This was not, as current U.S. ofcials

would have it, some cynically manipulatedmirage to justify dictatorship.

In addition to the direct threat of Hamas

subversion in cooperation with other Islamistgroups, the Mubarak government saw Hamasas part of a broader, Iran-led strategic threat.

A new government, whether radical national-ist, Islamist or liberal democratic, will havethe opposite view.

Its only a matter of time until Hamas onceagain launches a larger-scale assault on Israe

At that point, Israel will have to respond witha major counterattack on the Gaza Strip. This crisis is inevitable, though it might takea couple of years. Yet nobody outside Israelseesor wants to seewhats coming.

JERUSALEM POST, BARRY RUBIN | MARCH 27

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of teenage boys hacking into the [EU] institutions, an anonymous EUofcial said. This is the latest in a series of attacks on the EU. The Euro-pean Commission and the European External Action Service (the EUsforeign ministry) came under attack just two days earlier. In February,the French government came under cyberattack as someone searchedfor information about the G-20 summit held in Paris that month. Un-named internet sources have speculated that China was behind that at-tack as some of the les were directed to Chinese sites. Expect Europe

to respond by beeng up both its offensive and defensive cybersecurity.EU ofcials put off a decision to conclude plans for a future perma-

nent rescue mechanism for the eurozone at a meeting that concludedon March 25. Eurozone leaders agreed to expand the lending capacityof the European Financial Stability Facility (efsf),but the nal decision

wont come till June. In Finland, True Finns, a Euroskeptic party, is ontarget to come second in elections scheduled for April 17. Rather thanrisk fueling the anti-Europe re, the eurozone is waiting until the Fin-ish election is over before moving forward.

After following the Federal Reserves lead in matters of scal policyfor over a decade, the European Central Bank is poised to launch aseries of interest rate hikes before the U.S. central bank for the rsttime in its history. This decoupling of Fed and ecbpolicies shows thatthe eurozone now has the economic strength and political will to go it

alone if it feels the situation warrants it. I think we are in a new worldwhere global interest rate cycles are not initiated by the Fed, said JensSndergaard, senior European economist at Nomura. There has beena lot of import price ination pushing up euro area ination and alot of this is related to above-trend growth in Asia. Watch for Europeand Asia to grow in economic strength as America declines. Soon the

worlds reserve currency may be the euro.Members of the European Parliament offered to support amend-

ments in the Parliament in return for cash, according to an ongoingscandal. An investigation by theSunday Times found four meps intro-duced legislative changes in return for promises of money. On March 30,the Parliaments president gave permission for the EUs anti-fraud ofce,olaf, to conduct an investigation, but it still is not allowed to search mepsofces. It was also instructed not to conduct a criminal investigation.

Two of the implicated meps have resigned. The scandal illustrates cor-ruption that is rife within the EU, an undemocratic institution.

EU OBSERVER | March 29

eu P wll Ld Full Pll U

VaclavKlaus, the Czech Republics famously euroskeptic president, has launched an attack against a fresh EU target: the Euro-

plus-pact. The Brussels summit on 25 March was not aboutanything else but the further integration of Europe towards scal union, he wrote in an opinion piece in Czech daily newspaperPravoonMonday, referring to the meeting of EU premiers and presidents where23 out of the blocs 27 member states signed up to a pact that aims toboost European competitiveness. It was a radical reduction of thesovereignty of other EU countries.

The pact, along with other far-reaching measures endorsed by thesummit last Friday, intends to deliver ever closer economic gover-nance where the economic policies of each member state are coordi-nated centrally and supervised by Brussels.

The hair-shirt approach to scal policies contained in the pact are thequid pro quo demanded by Germany in particular in return for boosting

THE TRUMPET WEEKLY April 2, 2011 4

germanyhasdared to goit alone for the rst timesince 1949, exclaimed theBundeswehrs ex-Inspector

General Klaus Naumann.This once most senior mili-tary ofcer of Germanysmilitary forces was com-menting on the decision bythe German government to pull out of thenatocampaign in Libya.

The real key to understanding howsignicant the Libyan affair is to theprophesied rise of German leadershipof Europe and its future impact on theMiddle East is to comprehend just howhistoric is Germanys lone stand againstthe Western alliance.

For the rst time in postwar history,Germany has publicly taken a positioncontrary to virtually all of its major allies.The fallout of Berlins abstention fromcoalition operations in Libya could be farreaching (Deutsche Welle, March 25).Well, for a start, delete could be andsubstitute without doubt will be!

For the rst time since its defeat inWorld War ii, Germany has demonstratedthe condence to step out and thumb itsnose at its EU and natopartners and evenat the once mighty usa!

Germany has signaled that it is ready

to chart its own sovereign course in for-eign relations.

As German-Foreign-Policy.com com-ments, the German abstention in the UNSecurity Council vote on Libya showstwo things: On the one hand, it showsthat Berlin is no longer prepared to makeforeign-policy concessions to Europeanrivals, such as France. On the otherhand, it has become clear that Berlin isnot only prepared to go it alone at theEuropean levelas in the case of theinvasion of Iraq in 2003but also to go italone at the national level. This fact takes

on more signicance when it is taken intoaccount that, in Berlin, it is being repeat-edly discussed whether Germany wouldnot advance faster, further and bet-ter, alone than in the European Union(March 22).

Germanys singular stance on theLibyan affair is but the start of a newlycondent Germany beginning to show itsteeth in both European and internationalaffairs. The outcome is destined to beultimately fraught with future trauma ona hugely international scale.

gy gi al

RON FRASER| COLUMNIST

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the size of eurozone rescue funds. The Czech president accused EUleaders of using the economic crisis as an excuse to push for deeper inte-gration. A few years ago when these people managed to pass the LisbonTreatya European constitutionthey knew that at the time this prob-ably moved forward too fast and that there should now be a pause, hesaid. They even told me personally when trying to convince me to signup to the Lisbon Treaty that there would now be a pause [from furtherintegration moves] for an interval of at least 10 years.

By using the economic and nancial crisis of 2008-2009 and thesubsequent crisis of the euro in 2010still continuingit gave them a

wonderful excuse to get back to pushing forward with the further deep-ening of European integration.

Sooner or later, this will be followed by other developments, hewrote, saying that a European scal union, or efu as he terms it, willbe followed by an epu.Where an efuhas been agreed in Brussels an epuis the nal stagethe European Political Union.

asia

Around1,000bodies of victims from Japans March 11 earthquakeand tsunami have not been recovered within a 20-kilometer ra-dius surrounding the compromised Fuksuhima-1 reactor because

of radiation concerns, Japanese police said on Thursday. Authoritiessaid the corpses had been exposed to high levels of radiation afterdeath, and have not yet announced how they will be collected. Thematter is complicated because authorities do not want police, medi-cal personnel or families of the victims to risk exposure to radiationfrom the bodies. The death toll from the tandem of catastrophes hasreached 11,232, according to data provided by the Kyodo news agencyon Wednesday. Over 16,000 others are considered to be missing, andJapan is still shaking from regular aftershocks. Relief work continuesand the threat of major nuclear leaks remains.

The U.S. levied sanctions on Belorussian oil company Belarusneft

on Wednesday, saying the rm drew up a $500 million contract withIran back in 2007. Washington has outlawed such contacts with Iranbecause of Tehrans suspicious nuclear program, and this marks thesecond time Washington has imposed sanctions on a foreign com-pany for conducting business with Iran. Belarusneft will retain somelimited access to the U.S. market, but will not be allowed to take partin the U.S. governments tenders or be permitted to apply for Americanbank credits of more than $10 million. Washingtons sanctions againstBelarusneft and several other Belorussian companies stem from U.S.disapproval of Minsks policies, but U.S. Congressman Howard Bermanpointed out that, in the latest move, Washington imposed sanctions ona company that doesnt do any business in the U.S., so the sanction hasno more than symbolic impact. He cautioned that the U.S. is sendingIran a signal more of weakness than of strength, and were having no

impact on their economy.South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-

hwan visited China from Monday to Wednesdayto meet with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao aboutramping up economic and trade cooperation.During the meetings, Beijing reiterated its de-sire to restart the six-party talks, which involvethe two Koreas, China, Russia, Japan and theU.S. The discussions have been stalled sincelate 2008 because of North Koreas missile andnuclear tests. We can expect visits and meetingsbetween Asian powers to become more frequentand more signicant in the months ahead. KIM SUNG-HWAN

THE TRUMPET WEEKLY April 2, 2011 5

JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

gyDu nF-PlyDwithitsabstention in the UN Security Coun-cil vote on Libya, Germany has abandoned itsstrict alignment with the West, a basic tenetof German foreign policy for decades. ForeignMinister Guido Westerwelles new doctrine isdangerous one.

[W]hat will become of Germany when Imgone? Konrad Adenauer, West Germanys rchancellor, said 50 years ago. His overridinggoal was to keep Germany rmly anchored inthe West. He believed that integrating Ger-many in Europe and keeping it closely allied

with the United States was necessary to protethe Germans from themselves. Adenauer was

afraid that his compatriots might once again tempted to veer out and forge their own path.Until a few weeks ago, this fear seemed absurBut the situation has changed.

By abstaining in the United Nations SecuritCouncil vote on the resolution to impose a no-zone over Libya, the government has given up

what had been a cross-party consensus on German security policy. Until now, Germany wascommitted to siding with America and France

The ofcial explanation is an excuse:Germany doesnt want to take part in a waragainst Libya . If Germany had voted in favoof a no-y zone, joining the military mission

would have been unavoidable . But such anautomatic link between voting yes and takingpart doesnt exist. Germany could have voicedits quite justied misgivings and still sided

with the other Western nations. That would nhave forced it to commit German forces to themilitary operation.

In fact, much more is at stake than the quetion of a German military contribution. Chancellor Angela Merkel and Westerwelle havecalled central principles of German foreignpolicy into question. This will have conse-quences. Germanys westward integration

wasnt just the obsession of Adenauer, a Rhin

lander. It was a response to the fundamentalproblem of Europes balance of power.

What was to become of this restless nationin the center of Europe that had spent its his-tory shifting between east and west, that for slong entertained a special awareness of its historical role and that started two world wars?

That makes it so alarming when Westerwelproclaims Germanys UN abstention as thebirth of a new foreign-policy doctrine. In thefuture, Germany wants to cherry-pick its ownpartners in the world. The principle of If indoubt, stick with the West no longer applies.

DER SPIEGEL | March 29

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TELEGRAPH | March 29

Jp L r sv r

Thecoreat reactor two of the Fukushima plant may have melted

onto a concrete oor, according to experts, running the risk ofradioactive gases being released into the surrounding area.

Richard Lahey, who was a head of reactor safety research at GeneralElectric when the company installed the units at Fukushima, said theworkers, who have been pumping water into the three reactors in anattempt to keep the fuel rods from melting, appeared to have lost therace to save the reactor.

The indications we have suggest that the core has melted throughthe bottom of the pressure vessel in unit two, and at least some of it isdown on the oor of the drywell, he told a newspaper. I hope I am

wrong, but that is certainly what the evidence is pointing towards.Naoto Kan, Japans prime minister, yesterday declared a state of

maximum alert as the country battled to overcome the combined9.0-magnitude earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident.

From now on, we will continue to handle it in a state of maximumalert, he said. Mr. Kans comments came after the Tokyo Electric PowerCompany (Tepco) conrmed that plutonium had been detected, forthe rst time, in two out of ve soil samples. Tepco said the levels of plu-tonium were not harmful to human health, but experts said the discov-ery suggested the reactors containment mechanism had been breached.

Plutonium is a substance thats emitted when the temperature is high,and its also heavy and so does not leak out easily, said Hidehiko Nishi-

yama, deputy director of Japans Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.So if plutonium has emerged from the reactor, that tells us somethingabout the damage to the fuel. And if it has breached the original contain-ment system, it underlines the gravity and seriousness of this accident.

Japans government is facing pressure to widen the current evacua-tion zone, which currently extends to 12 miles. There are fears that tens

of thousands of residents ordered to leave the area may never be able toreturn, due to the contamination.

africa/latin aMerica

AformerSouthAfrican rugby player was accused this week ofmurdering at least three people with an axe after his daughter

was gang-raped. Over a period of at least four evenings last week,the former Blue Bulls player is said to have stalked one of the impover-ished townships near his home and launched axe-attacks, apparently atrandom, at men returning home from work. He allegedly told a group of

witnesses that he would kill 100 men if he could. Since the end of theapartheid regime in 1994, the South African murder rate has skyrock-eted from 5,100 to an astounding 43,000 people per year. One quarterof South African women can expect to be raped at least once in theirlifetime. Sadly, South Africa has reverted to a nation without law.

Pope Benedict xvicalled this week for greater Roman Catholic effortsto protect traditional family values in Latin America. In a message tobishops meeting from March 28 to April 1 in Bogot, Colombia, the popesaid no effort should be spared in defending marriage as an institutionfounded on the indissoluble union of a man and a woman, in whichhuman life is welcomed and protected from its very beginning. To thisend, he said, it was necessary to strengthen the churchs evangelizationefforts. The Vatican already has deep roots entrenched throughout Latin

THE TRUMPET WEEKLY April 2, 2011 6

mx Duw r oaround230,000 people have beendisplaced in Mexico as a result of drug

wars, with half of these believed to

have taken refuge in the United States,according to a study by the InternalDisplacement Monitoring Center (idmc)published Saturday. The report providesanother sobering indication of the scopeand severity of Mexicos intensifyingdrug wars.

The report notes that an estimatedhalf of those displaced crossed the bor-der into the United States, which wouldleave about 115,000 people internallydisplaced, and it says that a primaryreason so many have been affected isbecause of the indiscriminate nature of

Mexicos drug violence.Mexicos drug business is gigantic,

generating $30 to $50 billion each year,which is up to 5 percent of the nations$1 trillion gross domestic product. Thebloody competition between cartels forthese massive prots has resulted inmore than 35,000 deaths since Decem-ber 2006, when Mexican President Fe-lipe Calderon began an offensive againstdrug gangs. The situation in Mexico wastreacherous back in 2006, and has onlydeteriorated since Calderons campaignbegan, with 50,000 soldiers as well as

policemen involved.Mexican ofcials glibly claim that the

vast majority of the 35,000 dead weredrug smugglers, but veteran Americanreporter Charles Bowden has called thisclaim preposterous. Most of them arenobodies. Theyre men, women, kids,poor people in barrios, Bowden said.

Bowden says that the Mexican andAmerican governments and mediaclaim to be engaged in a war ondrugs,

but actually the war is fordrugs. Thepolice and the military ght for theirshare of the prots, he said. And it

is this rampant, indiscriminate andunstoppable type of carnage that isdriving many Mexicans from theirhomes.

Americans dont want to admit thatthe real problem of the drug war is rightunder their noses, embodied by theU.S.s demand for drugs. Drug cartelsand the pandemic devastation theybreed are only symptoms of Americasdisease: moral decline. Americas lustfor drugs creates the demand that keepsthese cartels aoat.

THETRUMPET.COM,

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America and it is looking to extend them. The day is soon coming whenRomes control over both European and Latin American affairs willextend far beyond pastoral programs on family rights.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chvez arrived in Buenos Aires, Argenti-na, last Tuesday to receive a prize for promoting popular communication.

Argentine opposition gures are already branding the choice of Chvezfor this reward as the worst attack on press freedom since the end of

Argentinas military dictatorship. This prize was awarded to Chvez de-

spite his longstanding record of rescinding the licenses of media sourceshostile to his regime. Yet, Chvez is a key regional ally of ArgentinianPresident Cristina Fernndez. Argentina is adopting more and more of

Venezuelas anti-democratic, anti-American outlook on the world.

anglo-aMerica

UnitedstatesPresident Barack Obama gave a speech to the nationthis Monday to dene Americas objectives in the war againstMuammar Qadhas Libyan regime. This speech, however, was

not nearly as revealing as statements made in London the next evening

by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. At a meeting with diplomats from30 countries, Clinton raised the possibility of arming Libyas anti-Qad-ha rebels. After raising this possibility, she admitted that she reallyhad no idea as to what organizations where behind the rebels. Actually,there are strong indications that al Qaeda is backing many of the rebelsthe Obama administration is also supporting. On a per capita basis, nocountry has sent more Islamic extremists into Iraq to kill Americansthan Libyaand almost all of these extremists came from easternLibya, the center of the anti-Qadha rebellion. The result of this warwill undoubtedly be the same as the result of Americas attack againstSaddam Hussein: The ruling regime will be weakened to the point

where Islamic radicals and Iranian subversives are free to start workingfreely.

Over 250,000 protesters marched in London on March 26 in Brit-

ains biggest protest since the Iraq war, with violent elements causingthousands of pounds worth of damage. Both the peaceful and violentprotesters shared the same target: the rich. The have notsbeing jeal-ous of the havesis not new, but the rage against the rich is surgingin Britain. Violent protesters targeted the Ritza symbol of opulentlivingand the shops around it, smashing windows and throwing paint.The protest, titled March for the Alternative was aimed at promot-ing an alternative in which rich individuals and big companies have topay all their tax, that the banks pay a Robin Hood tax. The focus wason making the rich pay. The protesters were encouraged and supported

by the Labor Party, with its new party leader, Ed Miliband, addressingthe march. As London Mayor Boris Johnson eloquently points out, theLabor Party chose to join in the rich-bashing, despite the fact it has saidit would have enacted many of the same cuts that the current govern-

ment has. The British tax and welfare system have created a situationwhere a lot of people get a lot of money from the government. Now, asthe coalition moves slightly in the direction of austerity, they have comeout on the streets, angry, demanding the rich pay for the benets or

jobs they feel entitled to. But, in reality, Britain isnt cutting its debts.The debts are getting bigger, albeit at a slightly slower rate. That meansthese problems are not over. The cuts will continue, and so will theprotests and division.

The last publicly traded British port operator, Forth Ports, was soldfor 754 million to Arcus Infrastructure Partners, a fund managerfocusing on European infrastructure, on March 22. Forth Ports ownsTilbory Ports, which it describes as Londons major port, as well asseveral Scottish ports. Alex Brummer describes the signicance of the

THE TRUMPET WEEKLY April 2, 2011 7

i dontwant to start a market panichere. But its safe to say that much ofWashington nds the low, low yieldson treasurieswhich represent themarkets serene condence that theU.S. can handle its debtsa littlebafing. Senior government ofcialshave told me they think treasuries areprobably a bit overpriced, which is abit like the executives of GE privatelywondering why investors are so surethey wont go bankrupt. The investorsmight be right, but its not comforting

to hear. Well gure it out somehow. We

always do. But our low borrowing costsare an advantage we want to preservefor as long as possible. That meanskeeping the market from realizing thatpartisan polarization mixed with ourweird legislative system makes insaneoutcomes possible.

This is why a shutdown would be sodangerous. A last-minute deal tells themarket that America is a country thatdithers and anguishes but eventuallymakes the necessary decisions to avert

terrible outcomes. A shutdown saysthat our political system is so dysfunc-tional that it cannot be trusted.

Asger Lau Andersen, David DreyerLassen and Lasse Holbll WesthNielsen have looked into how themarket treats late budget decisions instates . The answer is:

Markets punish late budgetsmuch more harshly if they occur dur-ing times of scal stress.

I think itd be fair to characterize thisas a time of scal stress, dont you?

The irony of this is that if the market

comes to believe our debt is too largefor our political system to pay back,theyll become more skittish about buy-ing government debt, and thatll sendinterest rates higher and the economylower. But if we have a series of shut-downs while we argue over how muchto cut and how fast, our paralysis willconvince the market we cant get ouract together in time to pay off our debtsand theyll send interest rates skyrock-eting anyway. Well have caused exactlywhat we sought to prevent.

wh shud,h gvculd L hm tu

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sale in theDaily Mail. As a great maritime and trading nation, Brit-ain ought to treasure the ports that have been built up over centuriesaround our shores, he writes. Yet despite their vital importance to oureconomic and military security, barely a murmur of protest has beenheard as the great publicly quoted companies that own them have beensold to foreign-based rms one by one. At a time when other mari-time nations such as China and the United Arab Emirates are jealouslyguarding their own trading hubs and snapping up ports across the

worldfrom Sri Lanka to AfricaBritain has effectively sold off thenations family silver (March 23). Britain had already sold Heathrow

Airport and four of its six biggest energy companies, and lost control ofthe next generation of its nuclear power stations. Britains willingnessto give up its strategic assets makes it vulnerable. For more information,see our April 2010 Trumpet article Surrendering the Lock and Key ofthe Kingdom.

The amount of money Britain contributed to the EU nearly doubledin 2010, according to an article published in theDaily Telegraph onMarch 31. In 2009, Britain paid 5.3 billion, which jumped to 9.2billion the following year, said the article, citing data from the Ofceof National Statistics. The article claimed that former Prime MinisterTony Blairs decision to reduce the rebate Britain received from Europe,and the fact that the pound is now weaker than the euro, have caused

this increase. Each taxpayer is now paying 300 annually to Europe.This is yet another cause for the EU to be unpopular in Britain.

TELEGRAPH | March 30

a thd f b r Pvy

Morethana third of people planning to retire in Britain this

year will do so with incomes below the poverty line, according

to new research. It showed 35 percent of people will retire thisyear with an annual income of less than 14,000, the amount requiredto stave off poverty.

It is an increase from 32 percent on the previous year, with womenthe worst hit, the study by insurer Prudential found. A total of 40 per-cent of women are expected to retire this year on less than that amountcompared to 30 percent of men.

Vince Smith-Hughes, head of business development at Prudential,said: Increasing numbers of those planning to retire will face toughnancial decisions. Start saving as much as you can as early as you canshould help to secure the retirement income you want and need.

DAILY MAIL| March 29

eu cu rul ah L

Rulingsbythe European human rights court are the law of theland in Britain, Englands most senior judge declared yesterday.Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge said that the Human Rights Act

meant British judges must follow the decisions set down in Strasbourg,no more and no less.

His intervention came at a time of high tension between Westmin-

THE TRUMPET WEEKLY April 2, 2011 8

rp spdH Pu U.s. DFl shpeuropesbasKetcase economies are inagony as they attempt to get their nan-

cial houses in order. In Greece, Irelandand Portugal, government spending isgetting whacked, wages and pension costsare coming down and retirement agesare going up. There is a lesson here forcountries with rising debt loads. If youallow your nances to spin out of control

year after year, last-minute efforts toreverse the damage stand a good chanceof failing. United States take note.

The common view in North America isthat the 27-country European Union is ahopeless mess that will collapse under the

weight of bailout loans to an ever length-

ening list of burnt-out deadbeats. Intruth, some of the EU countries are thriv-ing (German exports are on re; Swedenis expected to post a budget surplus),some are holding their own (France, Aus-tria) and a few small peripheral econo-mies are falling apart (you know who). Butoverall, the picture is not tragic. Every EUcountry is coaxing its budget decit down,if not its overall public debt.

The eurozone has at least admitted thatspending a lot more than you earn is un-sustainable. Not so the United States. Forgraphic and painful evidence, look at the

mother of all PowerPoint presentationsthe nearly 500-page USA Inc. reportprepared last month by Mary Meeker, theformer Morgan Stanley analyst who wasdubbed Queen of the Net in the mid-1990s, when she predicted that the WorldWide Web would take over the planet.

Her picture is compelling, and notpretty. U.S. spending is going from theexcessive to the obscene. She calculatesthat USA Inc.s cash ow (the differ-ence between governments cash intakeand outow) was negative $1.3-trillion(U.S.) last year, equivalent to $11,000 per

household. Cash ow has been nega-tive for nine consecutive years, totaling$4.8-trillion.

Incredibly, the United States has donelittle to close the yawning gap betweenexpenditures and revenue. The Obamaadministration recently approved a two-

year extension to the Bush-era tax cuts.This is not just unsustainable; it is mad-ness. While the United States watches theeurozones debt woes with a mixture ofamusement and alarm, it might considerthat it too is heading off a cliff.

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ster and the court in Strasbourg over the right of prisoners to vote. Lastmonth MPs voted overwhelmingly to reject the demand by Europeanhuman rights judges that prisoners should have the vote, insisting thatit is a matter for Parliament.

[H]e said judges have no choice but to follow the instructions of Eu-ropean courts because Labors 1998 Human Rights Act made Europeanhuman rights rules part of British law.

The words human rights are sometimes described in language

which might suggest they stand not for the noblest ideals, but, usingpolite language, as woolly nonsense, he said. But he added that theEuropean human rights convention and decisions by the EUs Luxem-bourg-based Court of Justice must be applied whether we judges in theUnited Kingdom agree with them or not.

The Strasbourg judges have given Britain until August to obey theirruling that prisoners should have the vote.

DAILY MAIL| March 28

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oly 90 mu whth chld

WorKingmothersin the U.S. spend just an hour and a half withtheir children each dayincluding weekends. It means theycould be spending even less time with their children during the

week, snatching only a few minutes after a long day at work .According to the report, American working mothers spend one hour

and 34 minutes on primary childcare each day, including feedingtheir children, helping them with homework and changing diapers.

Thats an hour less than stay-at-home mothers, who t in more than2 hours with their youngsters every day. The gures come from a

new study by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Devel-opment, which compiled data from 21 leading industrialized nationsbetween 1998 and 2009.

They still do far better than working fathers, who averaged just 40minutes caring for their youngsters. And even stay-at-home fathers onlymanaged 51 minutesless than working mothers.

USA TODAY| March 31

wl-m ceo bll s

exp iU

.s. consumersface serious ination in the months ahead forclothing, food and other products, the head of Wal-Marts U.S.operations warned Wednesday. The worlds largest retailer is

working with suppliers to minimize the effect of cost increases andbelieves its low-cost business model will position it better than itscompetitors.

Still, ination is going to be serious, Wal-Mart U.S. ceoBill Simonsaid during a meeting with USA Todays editorial board. Were seeingcost increases starting to come through at a pretty rapid rate. Along

with steep increases in raw material costs, John Long, a retail strategistat Kurt Salmon, says labor costs in China and fuel costs for transpor-

THE TRUMPET WEEKLY April 2, 2011 9

ifyouwant to understand better why so

many statesfrom New York to Wiscon-sin to Californiaare teetering on thebrink of bankruptcy, consider this de-pressing statistic: Today in America thereare nearly twice as many people workingfor the government (22.5 million) than inall of manufacturing (11.5 million). This isan almost exact reversal of the situationin 1960, when there were 15 million work-ers in manufacturing and 8.7 million col-lecting a paycheck from the government.

It gets worse. More Americans workfor the government than work in con-struction, farming, shing, forestry,

manufacturing, mining and utilitiescombined. We have moved decisivelyfrom a nation of makers to a nation oftakers. Nearly half of the $2.2 trillion costof state and local governments is the $1trillion-a-year tab for pay and benets ofstate and local employees. Is it any won-der that so many states and cities cannotpay their bills?

Every state in America today exceptfor twoIndiana and Wisconsinhasmore government workers on the payrollthan people manufacturing industrialgoods. Consider California, which has the

highest budget decit in the history ofthe states. The not-so Golden State nowhas an incredible 2.4 million governmentemployeestwice as many as peopleat work in manufacturing. New Jerseyhas just under two-and-a-half as manygovernment employees as manufacturers.Floridas ratio is more than 3 to 1. So isNew Yorks.

Even Michigan, at one time the autocapital of the world, and Pennsylvania,once the steel capital, have more govern-ment bureaucrats than people makingthings. The leaders in government hiring

are Wyoming and New Mexico, which havehired more than six government workersfor every manufacturing worker.

Dont expect a reversal of this trendanytime soon. Surveys of college gradu-ates are nding that more and moreof our top minds want to work for thegovernment.

President Obama says we have to re-tool our economy to win the future. Theonly way to do that is to grow the econo-my that makes things, not the sector thattakes things.

wv b n f t,n m

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tation are weighing heavily on retailers. He predicts prices will startincreasing at all retailers in June.

Every single retailer has and is paying more for the items they sell,and retailers will be passing some of these costs along, Long says.

Except for fuel costs, U.S. consumers havent seen much in the way ofination for almost a decade, so a broad-based increase in prices will beunprecedented in recent memory.

The scenario hits Wal-Mart as it is trying to return to the low across-

the-board prices it became famous for.

almost by the week,and our peoples are soundly asleep!Weve been trumpeting these prophecies for over two decades, fol-

lowing in the footsteps of Herbert W. Armstrong, who prophesiedbefore us for more than 50 years. And now that many of these veryprophecies are being fullled, one would think our mail bins would beburied under piles of requests; that our phone lines would light up likeLas Vegas; that our Web trafc would crash the servers.

Instead, its more like a steady trickle of interestone from a city,

two from a family, as the Prophet Jeremiah said. Gods work is still get-ting done. His warning message of loveis still going out to this world.

But the support for that worldwide work is coming from such a tinygroup of dedicated families.

Most do not make time for Christ or His good news message of thesoon-coming Kingdom of God. They are too busy attending to the caresof this world. As the Apostle Paul said about the perilous times of these

last days, men would love themselvesandpleasure-seekingmorethangod(2 Timothy 3:1-4). This doesnt apply to every single individual, ofcoursebut it certainly describes our society in general.

Amid all the Bible prophecies being fullled before our eyes, the factthat most people have blindfolded themselves to what is really happen-ing in this world is, in itself, apropheticsignthatwearenearingthereturnofJesuschrist!

Notice what Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:2: For yourselves knowperfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. Thismeans that Jesus Christ will intervene in the affairs of men at a time

when most people least expect it!Phillips translates part of verse 3 as saying, Catastrophe will sweep

down upon them as suddenly and inescapably as birth pangs to a preg-nant woman. All this happens when most people are lulled to sleep byillusions of peace and security. For they that sleep sleep in the night;and they that be drunken are drunken in the night (verse 7).

But to the rare individualwho sees the great evil of this sin-drenched world, drunk on the pagan customs and traditions of men,and who is willing to forsake the ways of man and to turn to God inrepentance, faith and obedience to His laws, summarized by the TenCommandments, God offers a superabundant supply of love and mercy,

life-changing revelation and truth and the only sure hope there is foranyindividualas well as for this dying world!

Knowing the times we are living in, as Paul beseeched the brethrenin Rome, nowitishightimeto awake out of sleep:for now is our salva-tion nearerthan when we believed (Romans 13:11).

Now is the time to pour our hearts and energies into the studyof Gods Word, to fervently seek God and His direction in our dailyprayers and to faithfully abide by His commandments in our day-to-dayliving.

Look at this world! Look at the obsessive interest and boundlessenergy it has in pursuing the ways of sin.

Cant we put some time-consuming, energetic devotion into our loveand service to God and His great work?

THE TRUMPET WEEK LY April 2, 2011 10

WAKE UPfrom page 1

spiKingthepunch bowl atan Alcoholics Anonymousparty is about as mean atrick a person could play.

It is, however, guaranteedto energize things up a lot.This is exactly what BenBernanke did to the econo-my. He poured cheap debtinto a debt addicted economy to stimulateit. But now that the money is almost gone,this is one party that is about to turn ugly.

In June, Federal Reserve Chairman BenBernanke is scheduled to end the Fedssecond round of quantitative easing. Thisis the program by which the Federal Re-serve is creating $600 billion out of thinair to lend to the government.More than

one thirdof every dollar the government isborrowing is money printed up out of atby the Fed.

And debt-addicted America needs toborrow a lot of moneyat least $1.6 tril-lion this year, according to the most recentestimates.

Free money, like debt, is intoxicating.It can produce temporary feel-goods, butthey never last. Then when all the alcoholis gone, all of a sudden reality arrivesand with it one massive headache. Willthe stock market crash? Will the bankingsystem freeze up? Will the world end?

The unknowns are legion. That iswhat happens when authorities engage inunprecedented meddling. No one knowsexactly what will end up getting broken.

Pimco, the largest bond investor in theworld, thinks it will be the governmentbond market. For virtually all of the fundshistory, its largest investments have beenU.S. treasuries. But earlier this month, thefund announced it had done somethingunprecedentedit sold all its government-related debtfrom its agship fund.

Thats right: every single bond, bill andnote. It now owns nada, zip, zero. It has

gone cold turkey. That is how much faiththe biggest lender in the world holds in theUnited States of America.

In June, when the Fed stops buying,it will be D-day for treasuries, says BillGross, the co-founder and chief invest-ment ofcer of Pimco. Expect a crash.

Sudden withdrawal could send theeconomy spiraling. The dollar will plum-met. Retirement savings will be lost.Gasoline, natural gas and food prices willskyrocket. The worst hangover ever willhave arrived.

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ROBERT MORLEY | COLUMNIST