Monday 28 January 2013

World's highest resolution video surveillance platform by DARPA



DARPA’s big eye: 1.8-gigapixel camera for air surveillance unveiled

(RT.com)

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is an agency of the US Department of Defense, has finally revealed details of their next-generation eye in the sky - the ARGUS-IS. The super high-resolution photo system is expected to be attached to drones and used for precision guided air surveillance.



The so called "Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance - Imaging System" (ARGUS-IS) is described as one of the highest-resolution surveillance systems in the world.
© Image by BAE Systems

It uses four lenses with stabilizers and 368 photo matrixes, five megapixels each. The system allows a high-res picture to be taken of objects as small as 15 centimeters across from an altitude of up to six kilometers. The system is also able to view approximately 25 square kilometers of terrain at a time and track moving objects with up to 65 simultaneous windows.

With such capabilities, experts believe that six drones equipped with the camera would make it possible for the US to keep an eye on the entirety of Washington DC, while - for the sake of comparison - four such cameras would provide a complete surveillance of Paris.

At speed of 12 images per second the ARGUS-IS creates 600 gigabytes of data. During one day of operation the system would collect about six petabytes of information. As a drone cannot carry enough equipment to process such data torrents, the images would most likely be sent to two processing subsystems: one in the air and the other located on the ground.

However, it would be functionally impossible to send all of ARGUS' data to the ground. That's where DARPA's persistics system comes in; this records information according to points of interest. Only essential information is sent to the control room on the ground for storage and later review. The technology weblog ExtremeTech says to make this happen DARPA will need a wireless device able to transmit 100Gb of data per second.

The ARGUS-IS first came to public attention about three years ago. Speculation became fact at the beginning of this year in a documentary showing video footage of the imaging system in action, although the camera itself remained shrouded in mystery for security reasons.

The footage revealed that the high-resolution camera can spot details like a bird flying around a building and the color of a person's clothes. But it's not able to reveal facial features. Still, experts say that drones could be sent at a lower altitude to create the right angle to record someone's face.

What was not revealed by the documentary was the future implementations of the ARGUS-IS - or if it's already been used by the US military.

Routine ultrasound testing not proven safe for pregnant women



(NaturalNews) It is common for a pregnant woman to undergo several routine ultrasounds during her 40-week pregnancy. What many don't know, and despite what popular medical and government websites state, ultrasound scans have never been proven safe for pregnant women or babies and aren't recommended for routine use and non-high risk pregnancies.

An ultrasound is a diagnostic scan that emits ultra-high-frequency sound waves at tissues or bones. As the echo waves return to the machine, a picture is created. In the 1970s it was thought that ultrasounds were safe for pregnant women because of the very low scanning intensities; however, since 1993 the FDA has allowed high-output machines to scan babies at eight times the tolerable level without conducting any epidemiological studies. In addition, each scan heats surrounding tissues and bones up to six degrees higher than the maximum determined level of safety and can cause cavitation, where gas pockets in tissues and body fluid collapse. This can lead to a disruption in cell function and permeability, bleeding, and can have adverse effects on early fetal development.

Ultrasound studies done on animals have shown cell abnormalities to several generations, brain hemorrhages, lung damage, slow locomotor and learning abilities that worsened with longer exposure, and neuronal migration abnormalities consistent with autism and dyslexia in humans. Mice exposed to 600 minutes of ultrasound survived no longer than ten days.

Despite convincing evidence in animals that ultrasounds are dangerous, few studies have been conducted on humans, most of which are from other countries who limit ultrasound use. These studies have shown the following adverse effects including preterm labor, miscarriage, low birth weight, poorer birth condition, perinatal death, dyslexia, inner ear damage, and delayed speech development. An Australian randomized Doppler study involving high-risk mothers found more fetal distress in labor and lower APGAR scores at birth. Another Australian study showed that babies given five or more ultrasounds during pregnancy were 30 percent more likely to develop intrauterine growth retardation consistent with the findings in animal studies.

The American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine advises patients to make an informed decision concerning possible adverse risks. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecology recommends scans only for specific reasons, and along with the FDA, discourages the use of ultrasounds for non-medical purposes. A review in the U.S Journal of Epidemiology suggests that continued research is needed to evaluate the potential adverse effects of ultrasound exposure in pregnancy. Unfortunately, women are led to believe that ultrasounds are harmless and properly studied. This is clearly not the case.

Sources:

Buckley, Sara. "gentle birth, gentle mothering." A Doctor's Guide to Natural Childbirth and Gentle Early Parenting Choices.

Jago GR, Henderson J, Whittingham TA, and Mitchell G. "A comparison of AIUM/NEMA thermal indices with calculated temperature rises for a simple third-trimester pregnancy tissue model." Ultrasound in Med. & Biol. 1999;25(4):623-628

Barnett SB, Maulik D. "Guidelines and recommendations for safe use of Doppler ultrasound in perinatal applications." Journal of Maternal Fetal Medicine. Apr 2001;10(2):75-84.

Liebeskind D, Bases R, Elequin F, et al. "Diagnostic Ultrasound: effects on the DNA and growth patterns of animal cells." Radiology. Apr 1979;131(1):177-184.

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. ACOG Practice Bulletin No. 58. "Ultrasonography in pregnancy." Obstet Gynecol. Dec 2004; 104(6):1449-1458.

Journal of Ultrasound Medicine. Feb 2000;19(2):97-108, 154-168, p 107.

Henderson J,. et al. "A survey of the acoustic outputs of diagnostic ultrasound equipment in current clinical use." Ultrasound in Med. & Biol. 1995;21(5):699-705

http://www.isrrt.org

http://www.fda.gov

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/038833_ultrasound_pregnant_women_testing.html#ixzz2JED55Vlu

The Concordat with Nazi Germany


The following documentation has been collected by A Phil-for-an-ill Blog.

What is a Concordat?

In general, a concordat means an agreement, or union of wills, on some matter. [...] A concordat is a law, ecclesiastical and civil, made for a certain country in regard to matters which in some way concern both Church and State, a law, moreover, possessing the force of a treaty entered into by both the ecclesiastical and civil power and to a certain extent binding upon both. [...] The purpose of a concordat is to terminate, or to avert, dissension between the Church and the civil powersNew Advent (Online Catholic Encyclopedia)
In 1933, Nazi Germany agreed to sign into law its Reichskonkordat with the Papacy:

Mr. Joseph Rovan, Catholic writer, comments on the diplomatic agreement between the Vatican and the nazi Reich on the 8th of July 1933:
“The Concordat brought to the national-socialist government, considered nearly everywhere to be made up of usurpers, if not brigands, the seal of an agreement with the oldest international power (the Vatican). In a way, it was the equivalent of a diploma of international honorability“.
(Le catholicisme politique en Allemagne, Paris 1956, p.231, Ed. du Seuil).
Edmond Paris – The Secret History of the Jesuits

Front page of the Nazi publication, Der Stuermer. Contrary to Pope John Paul II’s remarks when he spoke at Yad Vashem, the Nazis were not “Godless.” This headline from the infamously antisemitic Nazi periodical, Der Stuermer, reads, “Declaration of the Higher Clergy. So spoke Jesus Christ: You hypocrites who do not see the beam in your own eyes.” (from Matthew 7:3-5) The cartoon depicts a group of Hitler Youth. The caption reads, “We youth step happily forward facing the sun... With our faith we drive the devil from the land.” The devil in question was, of course, the Jews. (emperors-clothes.com)
When you see a cross..." Above is a page from the Nazi children's book, Der Giftpilz (The Poisonous Mushroom). The caption reads, "When you see a cross, remember the gruesome murder of the Jews on Golgotha..." (emperors-clothes.com)
“The Reichskonkordat effectively removed the Catholic Church from any continued role of opposition to Hitler. More than that, as Hitler told his cabinet on July 14, it established a context that would be ‘especially significant in the urgent struggle against international Jewry.’ The deep well of Catholic antisemitism would be tapped, to run as freely as any stream of hate in Germany. The positive side of the long-standing ambivalence, which had again and again been the source of impulses to protect Jews, would now be eliminated, allowing the negative side to metastasize.” emperors-clothes.com 
“The German Catholic Church has rescinded its ban on joining the Nazi Party. The Catholic Centre party has dissolved itself. [And Articles 31 and 32 prevent any revival of this democratic Catholic party which had opposed the Nazis.] In the Reichskonkordat, the Vatican has promised that German Bishops and their subordinates will be obedient to and honour the Nazi state (Article 16). It has promised that German Catholic educators will teach children patriotic love for the Nazi state (Article 21). It has requested and received the Nazi dictatorship’s promise to enforce internal Church decisions (Article 10). Cardinal Bertram of Breslau has called on Catholics to avoid all subversive or illegal (by Nazi definition) activities. 
“How should you respond to the Nazi’s new nightmare state? Doesn’t the Catholic Church teach you to view Church officials as exemplary? Shouldn’t they be emulated? Isn’t the Pope’s word law, and didn’t the Pope sign the Reichskonkordat, an agreement with the Nazi dictatorship, that [in Article 16 contains this pledge for new bishops]: 
‘In the performance of my spiritual office and in my solicitude for the welfare and the interests of the German Reich, I will endeavour to avoid all detrimental acts which might endanger it.'"
concordatwatch.eu
Michael Cardinal Von Faulhaber
Cardinal Faulhaber, who helped negotiate the concordat with Hitler (and who ordained the present pope), assessed its international impact in a 1937 sermon:

“At a time when the heads of the major nations in the world faced the new Germany with cool reserve and considerable suspicion, the Catholic Church, the greatest moral power on earth, through the Concordat expressed its confidence in the new German government.“


- Guenter Lewy, The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany concordatwatch.eu


Fritz Hirschberger, a Holocaust surivivor, painted a Nazi officer and a faceless Cardinal (Pacelli) standing on the body of a Jewish prisoner. He titled it "The Concordat".
The following articles of the Reichskonkordat are of special relevance:

Article 5

In the exercise of their clerical activities the clergy enjoy the protection of the state in the same way as state officials. The state will proceed, in accordance with the general provisions of civil law, against any insult to their person or to their clerical capacity, as well as against any interference with the duties of their office and, if necessary, will provide official protection. concordatwatch.eu

Article 16

Before bishops take possession of their dioceses they are to take an oath of loyalty either to the Reich governor of the state (Land) concerned or to the President of the Reich respectively, according to the following formula:
“Before God and on the Holy Gospels I swear and promise, as becomes a bishop, loyalty to the German Reich and to the State (Land) of . . . I swear and promise to honour the legally constituted government and to cause the clergy of my diocese to honour it. With dutiful concern for the welfare and the interests of the German state, in the performance of the ecclesiastical office entrusted to me, I will endeavor to prevent everything injurious which might threaten it." concordatwatch.eu
In anticipation of a possible war Germany may become involved in:

Article 27

For the German army pastoral care outside the realm of ordinary jurisdiction is conceded for its Catholic officers, officials and men, as well as for their families.

The administration of such pastoral care for the army is the duty of thearmy bishop. His Church appointment is to be made by the Holy See after contact has been made with the Reich Government in order, with its agreement, to select a suitable person.

The Church appointment of military chaplains and other military clergy will be made by the army bishop after prior consultation with the appropriate authorities of the Reich. He may appoint only such chaplains as receive permission from their diocesan bishop to undertake military pastoral work, together with a certificate of suitability. Military chaplains have the rights of parish priests with regard to the troops and other army personnel assigned to them.

Detailed regulations for the organisation of pastoral work by chaplains will be supplied by an Apostolic Brief. Regulations for the legal aspects in terms of officials will be drawn up by the Reich Government.
concordatwatch.eu


And then we have the less known Secret Supplement belonging to the articles:

Secret Supplement

In case of a change in the present German armed forces in the sense of the introduction of universal conscription, the induction of priests and other members of the regular clergy and the orders into military service will, with the understanding of the Holy See, be arranged within the framework of approximately the following guiding ideas:

a) Students of philosophy and theology at Church institutions who are preparing themselves for the priesthood are to be freed from military service and the preparatory drills for it, except in the case of a general mobilisation.

b) In the case of a general mobilization clerics who are employed in the diocese administration or the military chaplaincy are freed from reporting for duty. This applies to ordinaries, members of the ordinariate, provosts of seminaries and Church residences for seminarians, professors at the seminaries, parish priests, curates, rectors, coadjucators and the clerics who provide a church with worship services on a continuing basis.

c) The remaining clerics, insofar as they are considered suitable, are to join the armed forces of the state in order to devote themselves to pastoral care for the troops under the Church jurisdiction of the military bishops, if they are not inducted into the medical unit.

d) The remaining clergy in sacris or members of orders, who are not yet priests are to be assigned to the medical unit. The same shall apply when possible to the candidates for the priesthood mentioned in a) who have not yet taken their final vows.
concordatwatch.eu

Note that this Secret Supplement together with Article 27, seems to be counter to the restrictions imposed by the Versailles Treaty on Germany. It can be rightfully deduced that the people responsible for drafting up the Reichkonkordat were anticipating Germany to become embroiled in a new future war.
Fra. Bernhard Vaughan, S.J.



“Exterminate the [German Lutheran] Hun rats!” {6} Bernard Vaughan, 1915; English Jesuit; Advisor to King George V; Advisor to President Theodore Roosevelt; Advisor to President William H. Taft; Advisor to James Cardinal Gibbons; quoted in Eric Jon Phelps’ – Vatican Assassins III (page 1015)
Hermann Rauschning


" ‘I learnt most of all from the Jesuit Order‘, Hitler told me. ‘So far, there has been nothing more imposing on earth than the hierarchical organization of the Catholic Church. A good part of that organization I have transported direct to my own party...” Hermann Rauschning quoting Hitler, Edmond Paris – The Vatican Against Europe (p 252-253)

Himmler, head of the occult SS elite troops
Heinrich Himmler - Reichsführer-SS

Sunday 27 January 2013

On the Kinship between the Catholic Church and Adolf Hitler


The following documentation has been collected by A Phil-for-an-ill Blog.
This appendix serves to present evidence showing the link between the Papacy and Nazi Germany. Although the Roman Church used to be more overt about its collaboration with the Nazis, today it is of course a no no to be associated in any promotional way with an empire as despicable and sinister as Nazi Germany. However the available evidence leaves little room for controversy. For example, the existence of a concordat closed between Nazi Germany and the Papacy (the Reichskonkordat) cannot be refuted.
“The hegemony of Protestant Prussia had to be prevented and as the Reich was to dominate Europe—to avert the Germans’ federalism—a Reich had to be reconstituted in which the Catholics would be masters” Edmond Paris – The Secret History of the Jesuits
“Thus the Catholic Church is more secure than ever. It can be predicted that, as passing phenomena vanish away, she willremain as a beacon light amid these vanishing elements, attracting blind adherents in ever-increasing numbers.” Adolf Hitler quoted in Leo Lehmann’s – Behind the Dictators, p26.
“It was of interest to me that the Pope said to me on this occasion that Germany must become the sword of the Catholic Church. I remarked that the old Roman Empire of the German nation no longer existed, and that conditions had changed. Buthe stuck to his words.” Kaiser Wilhelm II on Pope Leo XIII, quoted in Leo Lehmann’s – Behind the Dictators p22
Another well informed person, the mainspring of the pact between the Holy See and Berlin and the pope’s secret chamberlain, Franz von Papen, was even more explicit: “The Third Reich is the first world power which not only acknowledges but also puts into practice the high principles of the papacy”. Robert d’Harcourt of the French Academy: “Franz von Papen, l’homme a tout faire” L’Aube, 3rd of October 1946) Edmond Paris – The Secret History of the Jesuits

But let us see, first, how an especially “authorised” personality, Franco, Knight of the Order of Christ, expressly confirmed the collusion between the Vatican and the nazis. According to “Reforme”, this is what the press of the Spanish dictator (Franco) published on the 3rd of May 1945, the day of Hitler’s death:
“Adolf Hitler, son of the Catholic Church, died while defending Christianity. It is therefore understandable that words cannot be found to lament over his death, when so many were found to exalt his life. Over his mortal remains stands his victorious moral figure. With the palm of the martyr, God gives Hitler the laurels of Victory”
“Reforme”, 21st of July 1945; Edmond Paris – The Secret History of the Jesuits


In the February 29, 1929 edition of the Völkischer Beobachter (official newspaper of the Nazi Party), Adolf Hitler published an article on the new Lateran Treaty between Mussolini’s fascist government and the Vatican. According to Hitler, this treaty should demonstrate to the world that not only are fascism and Christianity not polar opposites, but that they are in fact close kin which should be working together:
“The fact that the Curia is now making its peace with Fascism shows that the Vatican trusts the new political realities far more than did the former liberal democracy with which it could not come to terms.

…The fact that the Catholic Church has come to an agreement with Fascist Italy …proves beyond doubt that the Fascist world of ideas is closer to Christianity than those of Jewish liberalism or even atheistic Marxism, to which the so-called Catholic Center Party sees itself so closely bound, to the detriment of Christianity today and our German people.”

[...] During the same speech, Hitler further criticizes Germany’s Catholic Center Party for maintaining its support for democracy:

“By trying to preach that democracy is still in the best interests of German Catholics, the Center Party …is placing itself in stark contradiction to the spirit of the treaty signed today by the Holy See.”
atheism.about.com

For their part, the best theological pens were busy demonstrating the similarity between the Catholic and Nazi doctrines. And, for that work, the sons of Loyola were the busiest. As an example, let us see how Michaele Schmaus, Jesuit theologian, presented to the public a series of studies on this subject:
“Empire and Church” is a series of writings which should help the building up of the Third Reich as it unites a national-socialist state to Catholic-christianity… The national-socialist movement is the most vigorous and massive protest against the spirit of the 19th and 20th centuries… A compromise between the Catholic faith and liberal thinking is impossible… Nothing is more contrary to Catholicism than democracy…
The reawakened meaning of “strict authority” opens up again the way to the real interpretation of ecclesiastical authority… The mistrust of liberty is founded on the Catholic doctrine of original sin… The national-socialist Commandments and those of the Catholic Church have the same aim…”
“Begegnungen zwichen Katholischen Christentum und nazional-sozialitischer Weltanchaunung”, by Michaele Schmaus, professor at the Faculty of Theology of Munich. (Aschendorf, Munster 1933). Edmond Paris – The Secret History of the Jesuits

“Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler and most members of the party’s “old guard” were Catholics”, wrote M. Frederic Hoffet. “It was not by accident that, because of its chiefs’ religion, the National-socialist government was the most Catholic Germany ever had… This kinship between National-socialism and Catholicism is most striking if we study closely the propaganda methods and the interior organisation of the party. On that subject, nothing is more instructive than Joseph Goebbel’s works. He had been brought up in a Jesuit collegeand was a seminarist before devoting himself to literature and politics…
Every page, every line of his writings recall the teaching of his masters; so he stresses obedience… the contempt for truth… “Some lies are as useful as bread!” he proclaimed by virtue of a moral relativism extracted from Ignatius of Loyola’s writings…” Frederic Hoffet: “L’lmperialisme protestant” (Flammarion, Paris 1948, pp.172 ss.) Edmond Paris – The Secret History of the Jesuits

A Cardinal marches with the German Nazis (Source: A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen.) There is a dispute as to whether the high-ranking Catholic clergyman marching between rows of SA men at a Nazi rally in Munich, pictured above, is Munich’s Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber or papal nuncio Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo.

Nazi-Fascism is but the outcome of events in which the Catholic Church has played a decisive role for centuries. He says that National Socialism is the “fulfilment of destiny,” and goes on to say:
“It was born originally out of the most profound tendencies of the epoch, of which it is the crowning act. Undoubtedly, we now have the right to speak of an essential transformation, of the birth of a veritable new era, the accomplishments of which will remain, A new epoch has opened which will serve religion and the Church, and which will be extraordinarily well armed to carry on the fight against atheism.“
This, and much more, is quoted by Bishop Hudal to prove thefundamental identity of the aims and purposes of Catholicism and Nazi-Socialism. The Catholic bishops in the United States cannot afford to be as frank in supporting Nazi-Fascist ideology in this country. They cannot but admit, however, that their fellow-bishops in Nazi-Fascist countries have been correct in their analysis of the benefits which this anti-liberal and anti-democratic ideology will bring to the organization of Roman Catholicism.

Leo Lehmann – Behind the Dictators p34-35. (1942)

The Jesuits had preached their Crusade for over fifty years. Their chosen vessel was now the master of the Third Reich. Imbibed with hatred for Jews, Prussian Lutherans, English Anglicans, Dutch Reformed and Slavic Orthodox peoples, the Papal Crusade would begin in 1939. Under the banner of the sauvastika (used by Freemasonic Kipling on title pages of his works, its right-handed “crampons” denoting the autumnal sun), “Operation Barbarossa” (named after the German Emperor leading the Pope’s Third Crusade) would be unleashed against Rome’s hated rival, the Slavic Orthodox Peoples. Like Frederick I, Hitler would in fact be the Holy Roman Emperor, King of Germany and King of Italy. That Crusade against the Orthodox would be commenced from two fronts: Hitler would be the “hammer,” aided by Islam, and Stalin would be the “sickle,” aided by the Jesuitruled, pro-communist US and UK. When finished the Crusader would turn on Germany fulfilling his purpose of destroying apostate Protestant Prussia! The Burden of Guilt: A Short History of Germany, 1914-1945, Hannah Yogt, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1964). (taken from Eric Jon Phelps - Vatican Assassins III, page 1008)

Their first main effort was to employ Black Pope Vladimir (Wlodimir) Ledochowski’s strategy of bringing the Catholic nations of central and eastern Europe together into a pan-German federation. To head the federation, Ledochowski required a charismatic leader charged with subduing the communistic Soviet Union on the east, Protestant Prussia, Protestant Great Britain, and republican France on the west,Ledochowski chose the Catholic militarist Adolph Hitler, who told Bishop Bernind of Osnabruch in 1936 that:
There was [no] fundamental difference between National Socialism and the Catholic Church. Had not the church, he argued, looked upon Jews as parasites and shut them into ghettos? “I am only doing,” he boasted, “what the church has done for fifteen hundred years, only more effectively.” Hitler’s Pope – The Secret History of Pius XII, by John Cornwell.
continuingcounterreformation.blogsp…edochowski.html

Above, Cardinal Secretary of State, Eugenio Pacelli (later to become Pope Pius XII) signs the Concordat between Nazi Germany and the Vatican at a formal ceremony in Rome on 20 July 1933. Nazi Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen sits at the left, Pacelli in the middle, and the Rudolf Buttmann sits at the right. The Concordat effectively legitimized Hitler and the Nazi government to the eyes of Catholicism, Christianity, and the world.

NEXT: The Jesuit Hand in Nazi Germany


The Relationship between the Roman Church and National Socialism

The following documentation has been collected by A Phil-for-an-ill Blog.


Nazi Celebration for Catholic Bishop Konrad Praysing
“Germany must become the sword of the Catholic Church.” – Kaiser Wilhelm II quoting Pope Leo XIII, Leo Lehmann’s – Behind the Dictators p22 
“Thus the Catholic Church is more secure than ever. [...] she will remain as a beacon light.” – Adolf Hitler, Leo Lehmann’s – Behind the Dictators, p26. 
“The Third Reich is the first power which not only recognizes, but puts into practice, the high principles of the Papacy.” — Avro Manhattan quoting Vice Chancellor Von Papen, Bill Hugh’s – Secret Terrorists, chapter 7 
“The national-socialist Commandments and those of the Catholic Church have the same aim.” Edmond Paris – The Secret History of the Jesuits (p 164) 
“I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so.” – Adolf Hitler, John Toland “Adolf Hitler” p.507 
“Practically every right-wing dictator of the period had been born and brought up a Catholic – notably Hitler, Franco, Petain, Mussolini, Pavelic, and Tiso (who was a Catholic priest).” – John Cornwell – Hitler’s Pope (1999; p. 280)









NEXT: On the Kinship between the Catholic Church and Adolf Hitler

God Of Croats Documentary

Warning: very graphic video.



Source.

THE VATICAN'S HOLOCAUST is not a misnomer, an accusation, and even less a speculation. It is an historical fact. Rabid nationalism and religious dogmatism were its two main ingredients. During the existence of Croatia as an independent Catholic State, over 700,000 men, women and children perished. Many were executed, tortured, died of starvation, buried alive, or were burned to death. Hundreds were forced to become Catholic. Catholic padres ran concentration camps; Catholic priests were officers of the military corps which committed such atrocities. 700,000 in a total population of a few million, proportionally, would be as if one-third of the USA population had been exterminated by a Catholic militia (Avro Manhattan).

The srbosjek ("Serb cutter"), a special knife worn over the hand that was used by the Ustaše for the quick slaughter of inmates, notably in the Jasenovac concentration camp in the Nazi puppet Independent State of Croatia.
The Croatian Holocaust
This is the "hidden Holocaust" which, though well-known to scholars, is rarely, mentioned elsewhere, presumably because of the active involvement of the Catholic Church, which used the terror to win an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 new converts. The current lawsuit is on behalf of three groups of victims in the Croatian Holocaust: the Serbs, who were obliged to wear blue armbands marked with a "P" for Orthodox (Pravoslavac), the Jews, who had to wear the Star of David, and the Roma (whose extermination by the Nazis is called the Porajmos). The suit no longer involves the means by which the funds were obtained, only their disposal. However, no serious historian disputes the claimants' account of the origin of the "victim gold":

Serbs, Jews, and the Roma were slaughtered in their villages after unspeakable tortures or burned alive in their churches. Those that were not murdered were expelled to Serbia proper after being despoiled of all their property or forcibly converted to the Roman Catholic faith by Franciscan and Roman Catholic clergy. Many were used as slave labourers. The remaining people were taken to concentration camps where the majority perished.

The Führer (Poglavnik) Pavelic in the military boots beloved of fascist leaders
is surrounded by Franciscans. "Upon the establishment of the Ustasha Regime[led by Pavelic] individual Franciscan priests deserted their vocations and incited attacks on Serb and Roma settlements, tortured, killed and expropriated their victims in dozens of villages in Croatia and Bosnia. [...] OFM [the Franciscans] did not actively seek out and punish most priests associated with the Ustasha during the Second World War despite knowledge of their activities."
And the Vatican did nothing.

From stolen gold and money, the Vatican enabled Nazis to escape to Argentina, buy so-call "ratlines".
Pope John Paul ll declared Aloysius Stepinac beatified in 1998.

During World War II, on 6 April 1941, Yugoslavia was invaded by Nazi Germany, who established the Ustaše-led Independent State of Croatia. As archbishop of the puppet state's capital, Stepinac had close associations with the Ustaše leaders during the Nazi occupation, had issued proclamations celebrating the NDH, and welcomed the Ustaše leaders. Also, he was a military vicar and a deputy of "parliament" of the so-called Independent State of Croatia.

Despite opposition of the international community, the Vatican and Germany were the first to recognize the independence of Croatia, 1991-2. The historical revisionism triumphed in the Balkans.
In August 1995, Croatia expelled the remaining Serbs. The second part of the Ustasha's plan for resolving the Serbian question was fulfilled.

How the Vatican built a secret property empire using Mussolini's millions

Papacy used offshore tax havens to create £500m international portfolio, featuring real estate in UK, France and Switzerland

David Leigh, Jean François Tanda and Jessica Benhamou
The Guardian, Monday 21 January 2013 15.23 EST


Behind Pope Benedict XVI is a porfolio of property that includes commercial premises on London's New Bond Street.
Photograph: Alessandra Benedetti/Corbis

Few passing London tourists would ever guess that the premises of Bulgari, the upmarket jewellers in New Bond Street, had anything to do with the pope. Nor indeed the nearby headquarters of the wealthy investment bank Altium Capital, on the corner of St James's Square and Pall Mall.

But these office blocks in one of London's most expensive districts are part of a surprising secret commercial property empire owned by the Vatican.

Behind a disguised offshore company structure, the church's international portfolio has been built up over the years, using cash originally handed over by Mussolini in return for papal recognition of the Italian fascist regime in 1929.

Since then the international value of Mussolini's nest-egg has mounted until it now exceeds £500m. In 2006, at the height of the recent property bubble, the Vatican spent £15m of those funds to buy 30 St James's Square. Other UK properties are at 168 New Bond Street and in the city of Coventry. It also owns blocks of flats in Paris and Switzerland.

The surprising aspect for some will be the lengths to which the Vatican has gone to preserve secrecy about the Mussolini millions. The St James's Square office block was bought by a company called British Grolux Investments Ltd, which also holds the other UK properties. Published registers at Companies House do not disclose the company's true ownership, nor make any mention of the Vatican.

Instead, they list two nominee shareholders, both prominent Catholic bankers: John Varley, recently chief executive of Barclays Bank, and Robin Herbert, formerly of the Leopold Joseph merchant bank. Letters were sent from the Guardian to each of them asking whom they act for. They went unanswered. British company law allows the true beneficial ownership of companies to be concealed behind nominees in this way.

The company secretary, John Jenkins, a Reading accountant, was equally uninformative. He told us the firm was owned by a trust but refused to identify it on grounds of confidentiality. He told us after taking instructions: "I confirm that I am not authorised by my client to provide any information."

Research in old archives, however, reveals more of the truth. Companies House files disclose that British Grolux Investments inherited its entire property portfolio after a reorganisation in 1999 from two predecessor companies called British Grolux Ltd and Cheylesmore Estates. The shares of those firms were in turn held by a company based at the address of the JP Morgan bank in New York. Ultimate control is recorded as being exercised by a Swiss company, Profima SA.

British wartime records from the National Archives in Kew complete the picture. They confirm Profima SA as the Vatican's own holding company, accused at the time of "engaging in activities contrary to Allied interests". Files from officials at Britain's Ministry of Economic Warfare at the end of the war criticised the pope's financier, Bernardino Nogara, who controlled the investment of more than £50m cash from the Mussolini windfall.

Nogara's "shady activities" were detailed in intercepted 1945 cable traffic from the Vatican to a contact in Geneva, according to the British, who discussed whether to blacklist Profima as a result. "Nogara, a Roman lawyer, is the Vatican financial agent and Profima SA in Lausanne is the Swiss holding company for certain Vatican interests." They believed Nogara was trying to transfer shares of two Vatican-owned French property firms to the Swiss company, to prevent the French government blacklisting them as enemy assets.

Earlier in the war, in 1943, the British accused Nogara of similar "dirty work", by shifting Italian bank shares into Profima's hands in order to "whitewash" them and present the bank as being controlled by Swiss neutrals. This was described as "manipulation" of Vatican finances to serve "extraneous political ends".

The Mussolini money was dramatically important to the Vatican's finances. John Pollard, a Cambridge historian, says in Money and the Rise of the Modern Papacy: "The papacy was now financially secure. It would never be poor again."

From the outset, Nogara was innovative in investing the cash. In 1931 records show he founded an offshore company in Luxembourg to hold the continental European property assets he was buying. It was called Groupement Financier Luxembourgeois, hence Grolux. Luxembourg was one of the first countries to set up tax-haven company structures in 1929. The UK end, called British Grolux, was incorporated the following year.

When war broke out, with the prospect of a German invasion, the Luxembourg operation and ostensible control of the British Grolux operation were moved to the US and to neutral Switzerland.

The Mussolini investments in Britain are currently controlled, along with its other European holdings and a currency trading arm, by a papal official in Rome, Paolo Mennini, who is in effect the pope's merchant banker. Mennini heads a special unit inside the Vatican called the extraordinary division of APSA – Amministrazione del Patrimonio della Sede Apostolica – which handles the so-called "patrimony of the Holy See".

According to a report last year from the Council of Europe, which surveyed the Vatican's financial controls, the assets of Mennini's special unit now exceed €680m (£570m).

While secrecy about the Fascist origins of the papacy's wealth might have been understandable in wartime, what is less clear is why the Vatican subsequently continued to maintain secrecy about its holdings in Britain, even after its financial structure was reorganised in 1999.
The Guardian asked the Vatican's representative in London, the papal nuncio, archbishop Antonio Mennini, why the papacy continued with such secrecy over the identity of its property investments in London. We also asked what the pope spent the income on. True to its tradition of silence on the subject, the Roman Catholic church's spokesman said that the nuncio had no comment.


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Wolves in sheep's clothing foiled in plot to kill Shepherd

By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent.

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ANKARA, TURKEY (Worthy News)– Two wolves who infiltrated a Turkish congregation were among more than a dozen suspects arrested as police foiled a plot to assassinate the pastor.

The plot to kill Pastor Emre Karaali of the Izmit Protestant Church was thwarted by Turkish counter-terrorism units that arrested 14 suspects who planned to attack Christians during a series of evangelical meetings in January, according to Barnabas Aid.

Two of those arrested had been attending Izmit for more than a year in order to become close to the pastor and his wife; maps of the Karaali home and his church were discovered in searches of the suspects' homes.

A Human Rights Violations Report by the Association of Protestant Churches listed at least ten incidents involving Christians last year; in one such incident, a pastor in Istanbul was beaten outside his church by a group of youths shouting: “This is a Muslim neighborhood; no church is allowed.”

Formerly a secular state, Islamism is now returning to Turkey, a country where Christians — who comprise less than 0.1 percent of the population — now endure severe discrimination and unreasonable restrictions.

Sunday 20 January 2013

Coconut Oil To Combat Tooth Decay

Story at-a-glance:
  • Coconut oil is a powerful inhibitor of a large variety of pathogenic organisms, from viruses to bacteria to protozoa, largely due to its naturally high lauric acid content
  • Researchers in Ireland found that coconut oil treated with enzymes, in a process similar to digestion, strongly inhibits Streptococcus bacteria, which are common inhabitants in your mouth that can lead to plaque buildup, cavities, and gum disease
  • Although a healthful diet (low in sugar, grains, and processed foods, and high in fermented vegetables, whole foods, and grass-fed meats) can improve your dental health, you may still experience problems with plaque
  • Pathogenic oral bacteria and their toxins can harm more than just your mouth when they circulate through your bloodstream—they can potentially cause secondary infections and chronic inflammation throughout your body
  • Two additional strategies may help reduce plaque buildup: consuming naturally fermented vegetables daily, and the use of a technique called oil pulling; over the last year, these two strategies have radially improved my own long-standing plaque problem
See the complete article here for more tips on dental hygiene.


Dr. Mercola discusses a cheap simple oral health technique that could prevent that dreaded trip to the dentist: