Some Christian's Unfortunate Faith and Shallow Knowledge of God Will Help Covid-19 Spread in the USA

'The only time the church will close is when the Rapture is taking place': Florida pastor

Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne mocks coronavirus social distancing orders and says

his mass sermons will continue since his followers are 'revivalists, not pansies'

By ARIEL ZILBER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

A conservative evangelical pastor in Florida is defying calls to close his church so as to prevent the spread of coronavirus, saying that his sermons will go on since his congregants aren’t ‘pansies’ and that they should even shake hands.

‘We are not stopping anything, Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne told his followers during a sermon at River Tampa Church on Monday.

‘I've got news for you, this church will never close.

‘The only time the church will close is when the Rapture is taking place.

Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne told his followers in a Tampa church on Monday that taking social distancing precautions because of the coronavirus outbreak is for 'pansies'

Howard-Browne, who heads a Tampa-based ‘Bible school’ called Revival Ministries International, delivered a sermon at the River Tampa Church on Monday

‘This Bible school is open because we're raising up revivalists, not pansies.’

Howard-Browne heads a Tampa-based ‘Bible school’ called Revival Ministries International.

During the course of the sermon, the pastor, a South African-born US citizen who first came to the United States as a missionary in 1987, told his followers to greet one another, according to Newsweek.

‘Well I know they don't want us to do this, but just turn around and greet two, three people,’ he said.

‘Tell them you love them, Jesus loves them.’

Tell them to ignore their governments directives!!!?? Does anyone know the chapter and verse for that?

Florida, as of Monday, has reported four deaths from the novel coronavirus.

There have also been 155 confirmed cases of coronavirus reported in the state - a significant spike compared to figures over the weekend.

Some cities and counties have begun implementing bans on gatherings of more than 250 people.

But Howard-Browne doesn’t appear eager to heed any that might affect his church.

‘Listen, this has to be the safest place,’ he said during the sermon.

‘If you cannot be saved in church, you in serious trouble.’      

Astonishing! How cavalier with other people's lives, not just his congregation but their families, friends, neighbors, co-workers, store clerks, etc.

Last month, Howard-Browne bragged that he had plans to stop the coronavirus.

He said he would do to the pathogen what he did with the Zika virus, which was ‘cursed’ from Florida in the name of Jesus.

Howard-Browne pledged to ward off coronavirus and keep it from reaching the United States.

‘We are doing the same thing with the coronavirus,’ Howard-Browne said in a Periscope video posted on February 24.

‘We do not need it on these shores, and somebody said “Well, what about the rest of the world?”

‘I mean, I can't be responsible for every city, or whatever.’

As of Monday afternoon, the US has reported

more than 4,100 confirmed cases of coronavirus.

At least 73 people who were confirmed carriers of the virus have died

RHB's unfortunate faith doesn't seem to be working - perhaps he's not cursing hard enough

Howard-Browne is known for making outlandish statements.

In January, he made headlines when he said that Jesus should ‘beat the crap out of’ John Bolton, the former national security adviser who was critical of President Trump after he fired him over disagreements on foreign policy. 

Because that's just like Jesus, right?

He also led a prayer circle alongside his wife Adonica in the White House in 2017.  

Howard-Browne was part of a group invited to pray with Trump during a meeting with members of The Office of Public Liaison.

Howard-Browne, who is from South Africa but came to America in 1987 after a 'calling from God', described the moment as 'surreal' and 'humbling'. 

He wrote: 'I was asked by Pastor Paula White-Cain to pray over our 45th President - what a humbling moment standing in the Oval Office - laying hands and praying for our President - Supernatural Wisdom, Guidance and Protection - who could ever even imagine - wow - we are going to see another great spiritual awakening. 

Howard-Browne's teachings on the concept of 'holy laughter' - an outpouring of joy caused by the Holy Spirit - helped to inspire the Toronto Blessing, which many believe to be an instance of mass blessing which took place in 1994. 

True revivals lead people to repentance not laughter. Was the Toronto Blessing a movement of the Holy Spirit? I don't know; but it does not fit with anything I know about God, revivals, or the Bible.

I had the misfortune of seeing RHB at a fund-raiser service about 18 years ago. I was so impressed, I walked out in the middle of the service. He was there with Todd Bentley and others with Fresh Fire Ministries. Bentley has since been accused by an ex-protege of having a 'perverse sexual addiction' from which he doesn't seem to have been delivered many years later. 

I have complained about the lack of discernment in the  Christian church many times. It seems to me that working that closely with someone accused of raping young girls and homosexual relationships, that someone close to God would sense something.

Shincheonji Church

How many people will die because of RHB's lack of discernment? I'm beginning to suspect that God is cleaning up some of the blasphemy in His Name with this virus. The big church that was largely responsible for the dramatic Covid-19 attack on South Korea, the first major outbreak outside of China, was a church called The Shincheonji Church of Jesus. This massive church worships their leader, Lee, as the incarnation of Jesus Christ. To make that fit with the Bible, they have decided that the Bible is all written in code and only Lee can interpret it. 

This is an extremely dangerous cult. RHB's church is nothing like that, but then one has to wonder how much like Jesus Christ it is. Is this a witness of Him? It shouldn't take long to find out.

EX-TERRORIST LEADS INDONESIA’S CHRISTIAN CONVERT MOVEMENT

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife reporting from Jakarta.

JAKARTA, INDONESIA – The married-father-of-three has come a long way since he nearly blew up a Protestant church in Jakarta. Author Ahmad Quraisy, which isn’t his family name, was a commander of the feared Islamic State of Indonesia (NII), an Indonesian militant group. But the former Islamic terrorist now leads an underground movement in Indonesia converting Muslims to Christianity or, in his words, “personal faith in Christ.”

Quraisy, a 48-year-old humble man, told BosNewsLife that his movement has grown into some 7,000 members. “All of them are former Muslims. They meet in house churches across the country,” he revealed in an extensive interview. A BosNewsLife reporter met Quraisy, accompanied by his wife and an interpreter, in a secure separate room at a Jakarta restaurant. Leaving Islam remains a high-risk undertaking in what is the world’s largest Muslim nation. “But it was worth all the hardships we endured,” Quraisy stressed.

BosNewsLife agreed to cite only the publicly available name he uses in his self-published books due to security concerns. His remarkable journey to embracing the Christian faith began in the late 1990s. “I had become radicalized after the economic crisis. As a young commanding officer of the NII, I blamed Christians. One day, I took a bag with a time bomb to a Protestant church in the Indonesian capital. I was ready to set it off and kill many people. But then I heard the pastor telling the faithful that they should love their enemies and those who persecute them,” he recalled.

“I never saw that Christian love before in my life. I became convinced that I should not carry out my destructive plan.” He declines to say the exact name of the Church to avoid more repercussions from NII or other Muslim hardlines. “After I returned the bag with the bomb, the NII leadership got furious. I was put one month in detention.”

STRANGE VISIONS

Soon after his decision not to kill Christians, he started to see visions from the Lord, he explained. “It was in early 2000 that I met Jesus Christ in a miraculous way for the first time. Eventually, in 2001, I became a Christian.”

Quraisy believes Christ healed him from illness through visions and miracles. “I was suffering from typhus that knocked me down for a long time. One day I saw a person in white robes and glowing light saying: ‘Get up and get healed.’ I did not know it was Jesus, who healed me. But according to my old Islamic belief, a person can have a spiritual being as a teacher that accompanies you everywhere.”

He said Jesus Christ returned five months later. “He touched my head. I was shaking and became hot in my whole body. I still didn’t realize that this spiritual being was Jesus.” Quraisy claimed that demons left his home. “The next morning after He appeared to me, neighbors said they saw a being looking like a dragon wrecking in the courtyard of my house. Next week my neighbors saw hairy men in hunting apparel there. A week later, they saw a being appearing as a tiger.”

After what he called “black magic” left his life, he started “searching for the Light.” Quraisy opened a Bible that he borrowed from a Christian neighbor. “When I started to understand it, a great wind came into my room, and there was a bright light,” he remembered. “It was amazing because all the doors and windows were shut.

I was fully awake and sober when someone came, touched me, and brought me to another place. I later understood it was the work of Jesus Christ. He took me to a dessert that looked like a kingdom. A fellow with a big red eye and a sword was guarding that.”

He said the strange guard appearing in his vision led him into a “very bright” noisy place. “When I knocked on the door, someone opened. When I asked whether I could come in, that person said I had to wait while he looked up my name in a big book.”

The news wasn’t right. “The person told me that my name was not in the book. And then the guard with the red-eye brought me into a long dark alley. He said: ‘This is the place where you belong.’ It was a place full of torture.”

EXPERIENCING HELL

Quraisy said it was hell. “Because of Islam, I understood that in hell, people are burned alive. In this vision, I saw people being burned all the time.”

The vision, he expressed, also showed him a chained Islamic leader facing torture. But there were also religious Christians who had not accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior enduring hardships, Quraisy stressed. “I decided to go back to the bright room.” He suggested that the room symbolized Heaven. “The person who was standing in front of the bright room said it was not yet my time. But he added: “One day, you will be able to enter.”

In too many churches there is not enough emphasis on the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our personal lives. We must each accept Him completely as Lord before we are ready to spend Eternity with Him. IMHO.

The visions, Bible studies, and talks with Christians eventually made him think that Christ had been looking for him. He said he accepted Him as Lord and Savior in 2001. “It was an answer to my prayers,” said his wife. She was a Muslim who had already become a Christian. “My husband didn’t know. I had been praying for him in secret,” she told BosNewsLife. “I was praying that one day he would find Christ too.”

But then the problems began. They were removed from the mansion of Quraisy’s father. “He was outraged that I had left Islam and had become a Christian,” the author recalled.

Quraisy and his young wife and two small children were forced to live on the streets. “Two months, we lived in a bus station, because we had nowhere to go.” But fellow believers learned about their predicament. To them, Quraisy had become like the Biblical Paul, who first persecuted the Church before becoming an apostle. “But to my family, I was a traitor. They took away everything. But I told my father: ‘I don’t need your inheritance. I only need Christ.”

FACING TEMPTATIONS

That’s easier said than done, he admitted. “Sometimes, I was thinking of going back to Islam.” But, he said, he withstood these temptations. The couple tried to work hard to make a living. “My wife worked in an Indian restaurant. I took up all kinds of odd jobs. It was a huge difference in my previous life as an NII officer. At that time, we were rich and had nothing to worry about. Now we had to think about how to feed ourselves and our two children who were just three and four years old.”

They eventually moved to a small room with a filthy floor. “We lived on handouts from neighbors and friends from whom we received food and other supplies.” But Christ remained faithful, he noted. And what started as a seemingly hopeless undertaking, grew into a blessed work supported by thousands of former Muslims, Quraisy told BosNewsLife.

“In 2012 my then small group wanted to preach the Gospel. We went to pray to the Lord. Soon after, we began publishing my books and other materials. We decided to extend the movement and include discipleship training.”

With his success came church career opportunities. “I was even offered to have a congregation with a house and a car. But I turned the offer down. Because I want to focus on reaching the Muslim community for Christ.”

He said virtually all of his 7,000 members working underground are former Muslims. “They are all Christ-followers. We communicate through social media when organizing events in our many house churches. The smallest house church has about 20 members; the biggest contains hundreds of people of the same village.”

With his movement continuing to grow, he hopes one day to have one “large congregation full of people with a Muslim background.” High on his wishlist is a training center specialized in Bible study and discipleship. “This way they can go back and help their families and friends grow in the faith.”

There is more to this fascinating story. Please go to BosNewsLife to read the rest.

This Week's Global Terrorism Stories 20-11 > Nigeria, Germany, S. Arabia, J&K, Pakistan, Mali, USA, Austria, Syria

350 Nigerian Christians killed in first 2 months of 2020

..

Genocide being ignored by the western world

By Samuel Smith, CP Reporter| 

Christians in Nigeria take part in funeral festivities in April 2019. | Intersociety

A Nigerian civil society organization claims that no fewer than 350 Christians have been killed across the West African country since the start of 2020 and estimates that about 11,500 Christians have been killed since 2015. 

“Nigeria has fully become a killing field of defenseless Christians,” the Anambra-based nongovernmental organization International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) said this week in a new special report, titled “Nigeria: A Killing Field Of Defenseless Christians.” 

“Available statistics have shown that between 11,500 and 12,000 Christian deaths were recorded in the past 57 months or since June 2015 when the present central government of Nigeria came on board. Out of this figure, Jihadist Fulani herdsmen accounted for 7,400 Christian deaths, Boko Haram 4,000 and the ‘Highway Bandits’ 150-200.”

The organization, which is headed by Christian criminologist Emeka Umeagbalasi, has monitored violence against Christians in Nigeria since 2010 through a team of criminologists, lawyers, journalists, security, and peace and conflict studies graduates.

Emeka Umeagbalasi, board chairman of the International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law in Nigeria, is seen in this undated photo. | (Photo: International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law)

Nigeria has been marred by violence in the last decade-plus due to the rise of extremist organizations in the northeast like Boko Haram and its splinter group, the Islamic State’s West Africa Province. 

In recent years, massacres carried out by radicalized Fulani herders against predominantly Christian farming villages in Nigeria’s Middle Belt have also driven communities from their homes.

Additionally, bandit gangs have been responsible for carrying out kidnappings along some major highways.

The United Nations estimates that about 2 million people have been internally displaced across Nigeria and 11 million people in need of assistance. An additional 550,000 are said to be displaced in neighboring countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger. 

“While 100 percent of the victims of Jihadist Herdsmen attacks across Nigeria are Christians, the estimated 4,000 Christians killed by Boko Haram were part of the estimated 6,000 [people in total] massacred by the sect since June 2015,” the report explains. 

Berlin police suspect political violence as SECOND car of AfD member torched in Germany within days

A trend of assaulting non-mainstream politicians over their views seems to be taking root in Germany, with a car owned by the head of the AfD party’s Berlin branch being set on fire in the second such incident in over a week.

Arsonists set ablaze a greyish Skoda belonging to Nicolaus Fest, provisional head of Alternative for Germany’s Berlin branch and member of the European Parliament, on Tuesday night. While the arson attack didn’t destroy the entire car, it badly damaged the engine and the front part of the vehicle.

The Berlin wing of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party believes the incident was due to their dissenting views. “The arsonists sit in the strategy-making back rooms of the traditional parties, in which new hate campaigns against the AfD are devised every day,” it tweeted, posting an image of the damaged car.

Berlin police have confirmed the incident and launched an investigation into the damage of property due to “a possible political motivation.”

Fest, who is also a member of the European Parliament for AfD, lashed out at the “left-wing violence,” adding that the other parties “cheer on leftist radical perpetrators behind such acts.”

The arson is only the latest in a string of attacks on AfD members. Last January, an explosive device was ignited near the party office in the eastern town of Doebeln. Later that month, an AfD state chairman was beaten unconscious in Bremen by masked assailants.

Earlier this month, the right-wing party’s chief’s car was also set on fire in Gablenz, Saxony, with police unable to find the perpetrators to this day.

Now we have far-left violence rising in Germany; far-right extremists began to emerge in numbers after 2015, as did the AfD. All of the above came out of the hair-brained move to throw open Germany's borders to Muslim migrants without any real screening. The majority were single, young men or boys, not families trying to escape the horrors of war. In Europe, these men congregate together and form gangs that rape and pillage with little consequence, and sell drugs, guns, anything that is not typical Germany. 

The government created this mess and has done little but to criticize and ostracize anyone who does want to do something about the rapidly deteriorating situation in German society. This is why these groups are rising, and they will continue to rise as long as the Government keeps treating the symptoms rather than the disease.

Hamas members denied access to lawyers in
Saudi 'terrorism court'

Palestinian group denounces prosecutions as 'unjust,' after 68 people are denied access to attorneys during mass trials

Relations between kingdom and Hamas have soured since election of US President Donald Trump (AFP)

By Adam Khalil in Gaza City, Gaza Strip

Dozens of Palestinians and Jordanians who were arrested in Saudi Arabia for their alleged ties with Hamas have been denied access to lawyers and charged in swift hearings in groups of five.

A source within the Hamas leadership told Middle East Eye on Thursday that chaos had ensued in Riyadh's "special terrorism court" when 68 Palestinian and Jordanian citizens faced trial on Sunday.

The kingdom's public prosecutor issued several charges against the detainees, including "joining a terrorist entity, financing a terrorist entity, and covering up information," in reference to the Palestinian group based in Gaza.

The source said that each the sessions was quick, with the detainees denied the opportunity to defend themselves and barred from accessing attorneys and having family visits.

Hossam Badran, a member of Hamas' political bureau, told MEE that the group had not undertaken any actions that might have jeopardised its relationship with the kingdom.

He said the charges against the accused were unjust, adding that the movement had exhausted every effort to try and resolve the situation.

'Unjust'

Hamas was established in 1987 and is generally viewed in the Arab world as a legitimate resistance movement against Israel’s occupation of Palestinians lands.

A number of its founders and close associates have lived in the kingdom where large donation campaigns were launched for the movement, some with official Saudi blessings.

But the kingdom's relationship with the Gaza-based faction appears to have soured since the election of US President Donald Trump, a staunch supporter of Israel.

In May 2017, during an Arab-American summit held in Riyadh, Trump called Hamas a terrorist group. About year later, in February 2018, Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir followed suit, a move Hamas denounced at the time as a dangerous precedent.

After Sunday's mass trials, Hamas issued a statement denouncing the proceedings as "unjust," saying it was closely following the situation.

"The Palestinians arrested by the Saudi state security police have committed no crime other than having the honour of defending Jerusalem and Al Aqsa Mosque," the statement said.

Saudi Prince bin Salmon is smart enough to know that it is to his advantage to keep relations with the USA and Israel warm. Both are enemies of Iran and Saudi Arabia needs help to curb the expansionism of Iran in the Middle East. This is a precedent for an Arab state to try Arabs for terrorism against Israel.

It's just weird! As the western world gets more antisemitic by the day, the Middle East is becoming friendlier.

'Political, not judicial'

Among those arrested was Muhammed al-Khoudary, 82, who managed Hamas' relationship with Saudi Arabia for about two decades.

Abdul Majed, Muhammed al-Khoudary’s brother, who lives in the besieged Gaza Strip, described the trials as "comical and absurd." Abdul Majed told MEE that the Saudi indictment did not indicate what a "terrorist entity" is, or whether the entity was operating against the kingdom.

He said the accused would next appear in court on the 12th of Ramadan, which corresponds to 5 May.

Hamza Abu Shanab, a political analyst with close ties to Hamas, described the proceedings as "political, not judicial."

He said the majority of Palestinian and Jordanian detainees had lived in Saudi Arabia for many years, some of whom were born on its territory, and practiced charitable work with the knowledge and coordination of the Saudi authorities.

Last year, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor expressed deep concern for the cases of at least 11 Palestinians, arguing that there was "no legal basis for detaining these people without informing their families of their whereabouts by the Saudi authorities."

According to the monitor, the kingdom is holding thousands of prisoners, including many on political grounds, in Dhahban, where human rights activists say many are subjected to torture, humiliation and abuse.

J&K: Three terrorists affiliated with Hizbul Mujahideen
arrested in Kupwara district

In Jammu & Kashmir, police on a specific information busted a Hizbul Mujahideen terror module active in Kralpora area, northwest of Srinigar, of district Kupwara. Three terror associates affiliated with Hizbul Mujahideen, have been arrested.

They were having close contacts with terrorist commander Bashir Peer. The arrested associates have been identified as Aijaz Ahmad Payair, Mohd Altaf Payair and Abdul Rouf Malik.

These individuals were active in the area for the last eight months and were involved in various subversive activities and providing shelter and other logistic support to terrorists. The trio were also tasked with recruiting terrorists in kupwara district.

During the course of investigation arms, ammunition and other incriminating material was also recovered.

Case has been registered in Kralpora Police Station in this regard and further investigation in the matter has started.

Pakistani Army Training Terrorists in Camps Along Border - Reports

© AP Photo / Mohammad Sajjad

New Delhi (Sputnik): India has been accusing Pakistan of providing a safe haven for terrorist outfits. In February 2019, Jaish-e-Mohammed took responsibility for a suicide attack on a convoy of Indian troops that killed 40 individuals, heightening tensions between the two countries.

The Pakistani Army was found training 25 Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists near the Bhawani post in Jammu and Kashmir, according to intelligence sources.

The sources claimed that terrorists were being trained at a launch pad by JeM commander Abu Hamza, where eight Baloch Regiments of the Pakistani Army were posted.

After training, the terrorists were meant to go to India from the Rajouri, Poonch, and Jammu side of the border in six groups, the sources said.

India has been claiming that terror outfits active in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab were getting aid from Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed.

The reports of links between Jaish, Jammu and Kashmir-based Hizbul Mujahideen and Punjab-based Khalistani militants have been making the rounds for some time.

Khalistani militants are seeking to create a separate country "Khalistan" in the Punjab region as a homeland for Sikhs, while Hizbul Mujahideen is a Kashmiri militant group seeking independence for Kashmir from India.

Three terrorists killed in Nagrota in the Jammu region in an encounter on 31 January 2020, also had links with Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Khalistani militants in Punjab.

An overground worker arrested in the 31 January encounter had revealed that a group of terrorists associated with Jaish existed in Amritsar, a city in the Indian state of Punjab that shares a border with Pakistan.

Sherbrooke, QC, woman Édith Blais, abducted in Burkina Faso, found alive in Mali

Head of the United Nations mission in Mali said Blais

and her companion appear to have escaped

CBC News 

Édith Blais, centre, and Luca Tacchetto, left, meet with Canada's ambassador to Mali, Michael Elliott, after being found in Mali. (MINUSMA, the UN Mission in Mali)

A Canadian woman and her Italian travelling companion who were suspected to have been abducted in West Africa 15 months ago have been found.

Édith Blais, 34 of Sherbrooke, Que., and Luca Tacchetto 30, had been travelling by car in southwestern Burkina Faso, heading to Togo to do volunteer work, when they vanished around Dec. 15, 2018. They were last seen in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso in southwestern Burkino Faso.

The United Nations mission in Mali, MINUSMA, confirmed to CBC News that the pair is now free in neighbouring Mali.

Mahamat Saleh Annadif, the head of MINUSMA, said preliminary information suggested Blais and Tacchetto escaped their captors. A civilian vehicle then found them near Kidal and took them to a United Nations camp, he said.

Global Affairs Canada said it's aware of the report of their release.

François-Philippe Champagne (FPC) 🇨🇦✔

@FP_Champagne

I just spoke to Edith Blais and Luca Tacchetto. I can confirm they are safe. I would like to thank my counterpart from Mali @t_drame and the President @PresidenceMali, the @UN_MINUSMA and Burkina Faso for their cooperation.  We look forward to Edith returning home.

"We look forward to Édith being able to return to Canada and reunite with her family and loved ones," Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne said in a statement Saturday.

"The government of Canada will continue to engage Mali and Burkina Faso at the highest levels, and will work with international partners to pursue those responsible for this crime and bring them to justice."

Al-Qaeda and other militant groups have operated in northern Mali for more than a decade and have kidnapped a number of Western hostages, typically holding them until ransoms are paid.

Senior Liberal cabinet ministers met with Blais's family in Quebec's Eastern Townships region in January 2019 and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at the time he believed Blais was still alive.

Another Canadian, Kirk Woodman, was found dead in northern Burkina Faso in 2019, near the border with Mali and Niger. An executive with a Vancouver-based mining company, Woodman had been kidnapped a day earlier by gunmen as he worked on a gold mining project.

Whether they escaped or whether a ransom has been paid, we will have to wait and find out. Hopefully, both get home soon.

US woman sentenced to 13 years for using cryptocurrency

to fund ISIS

..

A New York woman sent over $150,000 to the Islamic State of Iraq

and al-Sham (ISIS). Much of that was in crypto.

By Mathew Di Salvo

A US woman was on Friday sentenced to 13 years in prison for sending over $150,000 to terrorist organization ISIS—much of it in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. 

Zoobia Shahnaz, of Long Island, New York, pleaded guilty in November 2018 for providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

The Department of Justice announced yesterday that Shahnaz sent over $150,000 to people and groups in Pakistan, China, and Turkey that were affiliated with ISIS. The money had been raised fraudulently—as part of her heist, Shahnaz used stolen credit cards to buy around $62,000 in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Shahnaz also planned to move to Syria to join ISIS and had researched the group online. Jihad-related propaganda—including a photo of a suicide belt and a night vision scope—was found at her home in Long Island, the Department of Justice said.

Shahnaz, who had previously worked as a lab technician in a Manhattan hospital, was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport on July 31, 2017 while attempting to board a flight to Turkey—a common entry point to Syria, according to the Department of Justice.

Terrorism's crypto habit

That cryptocurrency is used to fund terrorism is nothing new. As reported by Decrypt, a report released last year by the Washington, DC-based Middle Eastern Media Research Institute revealed that a number of terrorist groups—among them ISIS, Al-Qaida, Hamas, and Muslim Brotherhood—use messenger app Telegram to raise cryptocurrency and coordinate attacks.

In response to the growing threat, financial regulators worldwide have ramped countermeasures that prevent terrorists from using crypto to fundraise for campaigns.

The Financial Action Taskforce, the global standard-setter for measures against money laundering and terrorist financing, recommended that governments implement policies that require crypto companies to share information about customers between each other when processing transactions.

Perhaps ahead of the curve, terrorists aren't putting all their faith in crypto. For terrorists, cash is still king, according to a report released last year, since it’s easier to manage than crypto.

Hezbollah commander prosecuted in Austria for terror finance

Military leader lived 13 years in Austria, sending money to Lebanon

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL 

Hezbollah fighters put Lebanese and Hezbollah flags at Juroud Arsal, Syria-Lebanon border (photo credit: REUTERS)

BERLIN--Prosecutors in the Austrian state of Carinthia started a trial against an alleged Hezbollah commander who spent 13 years in the central European country while reportedly involved in terror finance.

The trial has triggered outrage, according to the Kronen mass circulation paper, because the Lebanese-born man is not awaiting trial in prison.

The Kronen wrote: ‘What seems strange is that the alleged terrorist is free and not in custody, “adding that "The public prosecutor has not made an application," the court said. The trial will formally start in early April.

The unnamed Hezbollah military leader has lived in Carinthia for 13 years. The authorities accused him of working for the Islamic Shi’ite militia Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The indictment states that the Hezbollah commander is a member of a terrorist organization and engaged in the finance of terrorism activities. He could face a ten-year prison sentence.

The paper said that a similar case involving an accused jihadi terrorist resulted in a late arrest. The Jerusalem Post has reported that the Hezbollah operatives who blew up an Israeli tour bus in Burgas, Bulgaria fled to Lebanon and the authorities in Beirut refused to extradite the accused terrorists. The Hezbollah men murdered five Israelis and their Bulgarian Muslim bus driver during the bus bomb attack in 2012.

In 2019, Peter Gridling, the director of the Austrian federal agency responsible for combating terrorism, said the biggest danger for Austria is Islamic terrorism.

Austria’s 2018 intelligence report, the most recent document on covering terror threats, lists Islamic terrorism but does not address the danger in specific terms. For example, the Iranian-sponsored Hezbollah organization is not listed. The US government under both the Obama and Trump presidencies have designated Iran the top state-sponsor of international terrorism.

Austria’s intelligence agency did not even mention the Islamic Republic of Iran in its report. Assadollah Assadi , a Vienn-based Iranian diplomat, was arrested in 2018 in connection with a plot to blow up an Iranian dissident event near Paris in 2018

Austria and the European Union have merely classified Hezbollah’s so-called “military wing” a terrorist entity. The USA, England, the Netherlands, the Arab League, Israel and a number of Latin American countries designated Hezbollah’s entire movement a terrorist organization.

Hezbollah’s leadership has declared itself a unified organization without political and military wings.

Germany’s Bundestag passed a December resolution urging the federal government to outlaw Hezbollah activities in the country.

390 schools opened in northern Syria’s Peace Spring area

BY DAILY SABAH

A girl in a school in northern Syria's Tal Abyad, which was cleared of terrorists with Operation Peace Spring in October 2019.

As a part of recovery efforts, 390 schools have been opened in northern Syria’s Peace Spring area which was cleared of YPG/PKK terrorists with a military operation in late 2019, Turkey’s National Defense Ministry said Saturday.

“Wounds opened by the YPG/PKK who took away the educational rights from Syrian children are finally being healed,” the ministry said in a video released on Twitter.

“In this context, 390 schools have now been opened by the #TurkishArmy in the #PeaceSpring area and 34,946 students are now attending school,” it added.

Since 2016, Turkey has conducted three successful operations in northern Syria against the YPG/PKK and Daesh – Operation Euphrates Shield in 2016-2017, Operation Olive Branch in 2018, and Operation Peace Spring.

Operation Peace Spring was launched on Oct. 9 to eliminate YPG terrorists from the area east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria in order to secure Turkey's borders, aid in the safe return of Syrian refugees and ensure Syria's territorial integrity.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including women and children. The YPG is the PKK's Syrian offshoot.

Focus on Coronavirus Shows Need for Climate Law, says EU Official

It was just a matter of time before climate agreements became law. This is a major step in the process to form one-world government. Climate seems like an innocuous way to begin, but once the precedent is set, look out; national authority will be surrendered to the central government

Frans Timmermans calls for bloc to legislate climate

so it does not lose track of net zero target

Jennifer Rankin in Brussels

The Guardian

Frans Timmermans and Ursula von der Leyen meet Greta Thunberg in Brussels on Wednesday.

Photograph: Isopix/Rex/Shutterstock

Tensions at the Greek-Turkish border and the coronavirus show why the European Union needs a climate law that binds member states to net zero emissions by 2050, the EU’s top official on climate action has said.

Frans Timmermans, a European commission vice-president who leads on the climate emergency, said the different crises facing Europe underscored the need for a climate law in order not to lose track of reducing emissions.

That's just whacky! One has nothing to do with the other, but Timmermans knows that in a crisis people will agree to almost anything, and so this is a great opportunity to further the One World Government - 1WG, movement, starting in the EU.

The long-awaited climate law unveiled on Wednesday is the centrepiece of the European Green Deal, a plan to transform Europe’s economy, promised by the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, within her first 100 days.

“It will be our compass for the next 30 years and it will guide us every step as we build a sustainable new growth model,” Von der Leyen said announcing the law.

Some political leaders have argued that the commission needs to focus on the protection of the EU’s external border, rather than the climate crisis – arguments that Timmermans rejected. “The focus this week should be completely on the happening in Syria, in Turkey and what is happening in Greece, should be on containing the coronavirus and solving it. That’s absolutely a priority,” he said. The climate law was “so important”, because “it allows you to focus on other things without losing track of what you need to do to reach climate neutrality”.

“Even if the Eye of Sauron is on something else for a bit, the trajectory to 2050 will be clear,” he said, in a reference to the dark forces in the Lord of the Rings. “Because we discipline ourselves with the climate law.”

Speaking to the Guardian and six other European newspapers shortly before the law was published, Timmermans said the proposal was revolutionary because all EU legislation would have to be in line with net zero emissions by the mid-century.

Even before the text was officially released, the climate activist Greta Thunberg and teenage school strike leaders across Europe gave a blistering verdict, accusing the commission of ignoring climate science.

Thunberg, who is meeting Von der Leyen, Timmermans and the rest of the commission’s top team, described the law as “surrender”. In an open letter, she said it failed to respect the goal of capping global heating at 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – an aspiration the EU signed up to in the 2015 Paris agreement.

She repeated that message at a meeting with MEPs on the European parliament’s environment committee on Wednesday. “In November 2019 the European parliament declared a climate and environment emergency,” she said. “You stated that yes, the house is actually burning, this was no false alarm, but then you went back inside, finished your dinner and watched your movie and went to bed without even calling the fire department.

“When your house is on fire you don’t wait a few more years to start putting it out, and yet this is what the commission are proposing today.”

Earlier at a private meeting with EU commissioners the teenage activist was told by Timmermans that the movement she started was the reason the European Green Deal and climate law exists.

New (4th) OPCW Whistleblower Slams ‘Abhorrent Mistreatment’ of Douma Investigators

A fourth OPCW whistleblower has emerged to defend the two veteran inspectors who challenged a cover-up of the chemical weapons probe in Douma, Syria. The new whistleblower lamented that other staffers have been “frightened into silence.” 

By Aaron Mate

The Grayzone

A new Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) whistleblower has surfaced in response to a malicious and factually flawed attack by OPCW leadership on two veteran inspectors who challenged the official story of an alleged chemical attack by the Syrian government in Douma. 

In a statement provided to The Grayzone, the new OPCW whistleblower described being “horrified” by the “abhorrent … mistreatment” of the inspectors. The new whistleblower also warned of a climate of intimidation designed to keep other staffers “frightened into silence.”

The official is now the fourth OPCW whistleblower to air serious concerns about the chemical watch dog’s Douma probe. The Grayzone has independently verified the official’s identity and status with the OPCW, and granted them anonymity to protect them from potential retaliation.

The first two whistleblowers – the inspectors – are veteran OPCW experts and team leaders who deployed to Syria in April 2018. A third staffer has dissented from the official version of events, but declined to make their views public out of fear that they and their family would be harmed.

The findings by the first two whistleblowing inspectors severely undermined allegations by Western nations and Syrian opposition groups that the Syrian government carried out a chemical attack in Douma.

However, OPCW leadership excluded their scientific work, re-wrote their initial report, and barred them from adding any further input to the investigation. The inspectors’ evidence and the high-level campaign to bury it came to light through a series of leaks that began in May 2019. OPCW leadership has retaliated against the two by falsely portrayed them as rogue actors with only minor roles in the investigation and incomplete information.

The statement by the new OPCW whistleblower forcefully defends the inspectors and denounces the campaign by organization leadership to destroy their reputations.

“The mistreatment of two highly regarded and accomplished professionals can only be described as abhorrent,” the OPCW official wrote. “I fully support their endeavours, in that it is for the greater good and not for personal gain or in the name of any political agenda. They are in fact trying to protect the integrity of the organisation which has been hijacked and brought into shameful disrepute.”

One of the two whistleblowing former inspectors has been identified publicly. He is Ian Henderson, a 12-year veteran of the organization and weapons expert. Henderson led on-the-ground inspections in Douma and conducted a detailed engineering study of gas cylinders found at the scene. He concluded that the cylinders were likely “manually placed” rather than being dropped by air – a finding that suggests the attack was staged on the ground by the militants who controlled Douma at the time.

The OPCW buried Henderson’s study and released a final report that echoed the version put forward by the US Department of State and British Foreign Ministry, strongly implying that the cylinders were dropped by the Syrian military.

The second inspector has not identified themself, and is known only as Inspector B. This person is a 16-year OPCW veteran who coordinated the OPCW team’s scientific and technical activities in Douma and was the chief author of the main report – until OPCW leaders seized control of the investigation and rewrote its findings.

In remarks last month, OPCW Director-General General Fernando Arias dismissed the pair’s scientific work as “erroneous, uninformed, and wrong,” and insisted that they “could not accept that their views were not backed by evidence.”

In letters published by The Grayzone, the inspectors rebutted Arias’ claims and argued, in B’s words, that they in fact “could never accept that a scientific investigation is not backed by science.”

The new OPCW whistleblower stood by the inspectors. “It is quite unbelievable that valid scientific concerns are being brazenly ignored in favour of a predetermined narrative,” they wrote. “The lack of transparency in an investigative process with such enormous ramifications is frightful.”

The official went on to suggest that fear of retaliation is preventing more OPCW officials from coming forward. “I am one of many who were stunned and frightened into silence by the reality how the organisation operates,” the official wrote. “The threat of personal harm is not an illusion, or else many others would have spoken out by now.” The official does not provide additional details.

Another OPCW veteran, who served in a senior role but no longer works at the organization, has also warned of severe threats to their security. In a letter published by The Grayzone, the former senior OPCW official expressed alarm about a cover-up of the Douma probe and of the intimidation of dissenting voices. The former official described their tenure at the OPCW as “the most stressful and unpleasant ones of my life,” and voiced concern that “they will not hesitate to do harm to me and my family.”

In their rebuttal letter to Arias, Inspector B complained that Arias’ public statements have left “so many obvious clues, that anyone within the Organisation (and among many delegations) would have no doubt as to [the whistleblower’s] identities. Such recklessness has created a serious safety concern.”

According to the inspectors, a delegation of US officials visited the OPCW to apply “unacceptable pressure” on the Douma team to place blame on the Syrian government for a chemical attack that might not have happened at all. 

Both Henderson and Inspector B have called on Arias to allow for a transparent, scientific hearing where all of the suppressed evidence and studies can be heard. In their statement, the new OPCW whistleblower echoed the inspectors’ demand.

“The lack of transparency in an investigative process with such enormous ramifications is frightful,” the official wrote. “The allegations of the two gentlemen urgently need to be thoroughly investigated and the functionality of the organisation restored.”

Full text of statement on Douma scandal from new OPCW whistleblower is available on the Grayzone

Religious Lunacy is Going to Kill People

FYI, I believe God heals and protects people from disease.
I don't believe we get to choose when He does so.
..
‘They have the blessings of God’

 Modi party official says those who offer ritual prayers won’t get infected with coronavirus

FILE PHOTOS: (L) Medics wearing protective gear examine a patient at a hospital in Kozhikode in the

southern state of Kerala, India; (R) Hindu women hold offerings during the religious festival of Chhath Puja,

in Ahmedabad, India. © Reuters / Stringer; Reuters / Amit Dave

A president of India’s ruling BJP party in the state of West Bengal has said that people who turn out for prayer during mass events are immune to the coronavirus, as they enjoy the protection of higher forces.

Dilip Ghosh, president of West Bengal’s branch of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appeared to brush off mounting concerns over the novel coronavirus after he took part in a Hindu prayer ritual known as “puja” in the city of Egra on Tuesday.

Look what is happening here... Thousands of people have come out to offer puja.

They are drinking water and using the same hands to have the Prasad

[food offered to a Hindu deity, consumed by worshipers]...

Nothing will happen, they have the blessings of the almighty.

Ghosh has dismissed the measures put in place to stop the outbreak around the globe, such as lockdowns and other restrictions of movement, arguing the traditional way of life in India would be incompatible with such policies.

“Mothers and sisters traveled a long distance after fasting to offer puja,” he said. “This is our culture and we see it everywhere in India. This is the identity of our country and we are progressing like this.”

The regional party chief also lamented the atmosphere of fear that has engulfed entire nations, arguing that waiting out the latest health scare in self-isolation is not befitting of people whose forefathers conquered space travel.

The entire world is scared of the coronavirus and millions are staying at home. Those who have conquered the whole world, reached the moon... they are scared of coming out of their homes.

So far, 50 cases of COVID-19 – a flu-like virus particularly menacing for the elderly and people with preexisting medical conditions – have been reported on Indian soil. That includes 34 Indians and 16 Italians – hailing from the Mediterranean nation that has emerged as an unlikely viral hotbed in Europe.

No deaths have resulted from the disease in India. In a bid to shield the public from the global outbreak, New Delhi rolled out a new spate of travel restrictions on Tuesday, barring entry to nationals from France, Germany and Spain, having suspended visas issued to the residents of China, South Korea, Iran, Japan and Italy earlier.

OMGoodness! If COVID19 takes hold in India, lookout! Worshiping of false gods will not help! The only good news here is that there are very few infected people in India, but such festivals in the next several weeks could be disastrous.

Pope tells priests in live-streamed Mass

to go out and meet coronavirus patients

..

He live-streamed the mass rather than deliver his sermon

from an open window onto St Peter's Square

By Yaron Steinbuch

St. Peter's Square, Vatican City

In a livestreamed Mass, Pope Francis on Tuesday urged Catholic priests to summon the courage to visit people sickened by the coronavirus amid Italy’s national lock-down due to the deadly illness.

“Let us pray to the Lord also for our priests, that they may have the courage to go out and go to the sick people bringing the strength of God’s word and the Eucharist and accompany the health workers and volunteers in this work that they are doing,” said the pontiff, who was alone at the Casa Santa Marta chapel in Vatican City.

Meanwhile, St. Peter’s Square was almost empty Tuesday with only a few dozen people strolling around, most of them without masks.

The Italian government on Monday extended restrictions on movement from the hard-hit northern regions to the rest of the country — affecting all 60 million inhabitants.

The restrictions, which involved checkpoints on roads and at railroad stations, are set to remain in place until April 3 in efforts to stem the spread of the coronavirus, which has claimed over 460 lives in the country. 

UPDATE: 827 as of Wednesday, March 11th.

More than 9,000 people have been diagnosed with the illness in Italy as of Tuesday.

More than 12,000 as of Wednesday!

The Vatican, a walled city-state in the heart of Rome, is respecting the lock-down and has imposed restrictions on movement and contact among personnel.

One person inside Vatican City has tested positive for the virus and five people who came into contact with that individual are under precautionary quarantine.

Two Years Later: The Skripal Case Is Weirder Than Ever

by Matthew Ehret
The Duran

While navigating through today’s propaganda-heavy world of misinformation, spin and outright creative writing which appears to have replaced conventional journalism, it is most important that two qualities are active in the mind of any truth-seeker. The first quality is the adherence to a strong top down perspective, both historic and global. This is vital in order to guide us as a sort of compass or North Star used by sailors navigating across the ocean. The second quality is a strong power of logic, memory and discernment of wheat vs. chaff to process the mountains of data that slaps us in the face from all directions like sand in a desert storm.

As the second anniversary of the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal has arrived, it is a useful time to take these qualities and revisit this bizarre moment of modern history which took place on a park bench in Salisbury UK and which led to one of the greatest frauds of the modern era derailing all attempts to repair relations between Russia and the west.

To do this, I decided to plunge myself into a new book called Skripal in Prison written by Moscow-based journalist John Helmer and published in February 2020.

This incredible little book, which features 26 chapters written between March 2018 to February 2020 originally published on the author’s site Dances with Bears, unveils an arsenal of intellectual bullets which Helmer skillfully uses to shoot holes into every inconsistency, contradiction and outright lie holding up the structure of the narrative that “there is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian State was culpable for the attempted murder of Mr. Skripal and his daughter”.  This line was asserted without a shred of actual evidence by Theresa May in the House of Commons on March 16, 2018 and in the months that followed, western nations were pressured to expel Russian diplomats (23 in Britain, 60 in the US, 33 across the EU), close down consulates (one Russian consulate in San Francisco and one American consulate in St Petersburg) and impose waves of sanctions against Russia.

Four months after the Skripals (and one unfortunate detective named Sgt. Nick Bailey) were released from British hospital care, two more figures were stricken with Novichok poisoning and taken to hospital on June 30 with one of them (Dawn Sturgess) dying 9 days later. This too was blamed immediately on Russia.

Helmer’s research systematically annihilates the official narratives with the craftsmanship of a legal attorney, taking the reader through several vital questions which shape the book’s composition as a whole, and which I shall lay out for you here:

Why have Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia fallen off the face of the Earth since their release from Salisbury hospital? It is known that one controlled video was recorded featuring Yulia speaking, and several short calls to family were made by Yulia and her father after their poisoning… but nothing more. Beyond the fact that it appears the Skripals were kept on an American military base in Gloucestershire for an indeterminate amount of time, Helmer points out “at the point in their recuperation when the two of them were beginning to be explicit in their public remarks about what had happened, their communications were cut off. Nothing more is known to this present day.”

Despite the fact that the UK Prime Minister asserted that a European Arrest Warrant was issued for the two Russians that were alleged to have carried out Putin’s malevolent will onto the poor Skripals- why were no such warrants ever registered in Interpol? Is it because such warrants actually require evidence?

Why did British Intelligence sanction the tearing down of big sections of Skripal’s home at 47 Christie Miller Road in Salisbury due to the apparent “dangers of deadly contaminants”, while only the door handle was tainted with Novichok? If the reasoning was due to health safety, then why were similar actions not taken to the Bourne Hill police station which Sgt. Bradley contaminated or the restaurant and pub which Sergei Skripal went to before his trip to the park … or the contaminated London hotel where the two Russian agents apparently stayed?

Since Novichok is an extremely fast acting substance, generally attacking the nervous system in minutes, how is it possible that the time separating the Skripals’ moment of contamination to the moment of losing consciousness on a park bench was over three hours?! How is this possible? Similarly how was it possible that Sgt. Bailey’s point of contamination at Skripal’s home occurred a full 12 hours before he felt the need to go to the hospital?

What the hell was up with the strange case of the two unfortunate victims of the July 2018 Novichok poisoning in Amesbury (9 miles from Salisbury)? Were Dawn Sturgess and her partner Charlie Rowley simply collateral damage in an MI6 effort to plug a missing hole in the narrative caused by a lack of any evidence of a device used to apply the nerve agent to the door handle in the first place? Why does Rowley (a known heroin addict) have no recollection where he found the perfume bottle filled with Novichok which he gifted to Sturgess on June 26? Why was the perfume bottle only found by authorities on Rowley’s kitchen counter two days after Sturgess died on July 9th even though a search for Novichok had been carried out at his apartment beginning with the couple’s admission into Salisbury hospital on June 30?

What was the role of the Ministry of Defense’s Porton Down chemical laboratories in this bizarre story? The lab itself was located just a few miles from the crime scene, and the first responder on the scene was an off-duty Colonel named Alison McCourt who happened to be shopping nearby and rushed to the scene. Helmer describes how Col. McCourt is head of nursing for the British Army and Senior Health Advisor which connects her closely to the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down which also happened to have held a major chemical warfare exercise named Toxic Dagger in the area just two weeks earlier. Are these things nothing but coincidences?

Porton Down labs which tested the Skripal blood samples and Novichok at the Skripal residence is part of the Ministry of Defense and to this day, no public admission of those samples’ existence at the labs has occurred. Requests by Helmer and others to receive confirmation of from the labs according to Freedom of Information laws have been denied outright on the grounds of “the public interest”. Why? Could it be because blood tests were never actually carried out? Helmer’s book probes this question deeply and the lack of evidence will shock you.

How about the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)? Since the OPCW ran parallel tests of the apparent blood samples of the Skripals as well as the later July victims Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley to get “matches” with the novichok traces in a perfume bottle and Skripal door handle, why has evidence of these samples not been made available? Also why was a British intelligence officer the only figure who oversaw the samples taken to the OPCW for verification? In fact, Helmer points out that the one Swiss contract laboratory (Spiez) associated with the OPCW has contradicted all British claims that any “match” exists between the Skripal samples and Novichok A-234 poisoning.

Finally, Helmer asks: Why were all OPCW Executive Council votes in regards to matters surrounding the Skripal case, taken in secret, and thus in conflict with its own charter and why was Russia denied the right to share in the investigation of the Novichok attack as guaranteed in Articles XIII and IX of the OPCW Chemical Weapons convention? Could that have something to do with the role of former OPCW Director General Ahmet Üzümcü, a Turkish NATO-phile, who Helmer notes “has also been a member of the NATO staff in charge of expanding NATO military operations to the Russian frontier, as well as NATO operations in Ukraine and Syria.” In 2019, Üzümcü was inducted into the Order of St Michael and St George by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the Empire.

Helmer goes onto make the point that the overarching dynamic shaping the events of the Skripal/Novichok affair are guided by the collapsing western empire which has been working tirelessly to surround Russia with a ballistic missile shield while sabotaging all efforts by genuine patriots in the west from establishing positive alliances with Russia.

Taking the opportunity of the second anniversary of the Skripal affair to read this book is not only a valuable exercise in logic but also key into the desperate and increasingly fear-driven mind of the London-centered deep state which is quickly losing its grip both on reality and the very influence it had spent generations putting in place.

Matthew Ehret is the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Patriot Review , a BRI Expert on Tactical talk, and has authored 3 volumes of ‘Untold History of Canada’ book series. In 2019 he co-founded the Montreal-based Rising Tide Foundation and can be reached at matt.ehret@tutamail.com