The following articles are compiled by:

Leo Wong

Leo@WatchmenWatching.com

 

 

Soldier: Army ordered me not to tell truth about Tillman

Source: CNN.com

 

April 25, 2007 -- The last soldier to see Army Ranger Pat Tillman alive, Spc. Bryan O'Neal, told lawmakers that he was warned by superiors not to divulge -- especially to the Tillman family -- that a fellow soldier killed Tillman.

 

O'Neal particularly wanted to tell fellow soldier Kevin Tillman, who was in the convoy traveling behind his brother at the time of the 2004 incident in Afghanistan.

 

"I wanted right off the bat to let the family know what had happened, especially Kevin, because I worked with him in a platoon and I knew that he and the family all needed to know what had happened," O'Neal testified. "I was quite appalled that when I was actually able to speak with Kevin, I was ordered not to tell him."

 

Asked who gave him the order, O'Neal replied that it came from his battalion commander, then-Lt. Col. Jeff Bailey.

 

"He basically just said ... 'Do not let Kevin know, that he's probably in a bad place knowing his brother's dead,' " O'Neal told House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman. "And he made it known I would get in trouble, sir, if I spoke with Kevin on it being fratricide."

 

The military instead released a "manufactured narrative" detailing how Pat Tillman died leading a courageous counterattack in an Afghan mountain pass, Kevin Tillman told the committee. (Watch Kevin Tillman accuse the military of lying )

 

Also Tuesday, former Pfc. Jessica Lynch told the House panel that the military lied about her capture.

 

Lynch testified that after her vehicle was attacked in Iraq in March 2003, she suffered a mangled spinal column, broken arm, crushed foot, shattered femur and even a sexual assault.

 

But it only added insult to injury, literally, when she returned to her parents' home in West Virginia, which "was under siege by media all repeating the story of the little girl 'Rambo' from the hills of West Virginia who went down fighting," Lynch said.

 

"It was not true," she said before gently chiding the military. "The truth is always more heroic than the hype."

 

Waxman, D-California, said the military "invented" tales about Tillman and Lynch.

 

"The bare minimum we owe our soldiers and their families is the truth," Waxman said. "That didn't happen for two of the most famous soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars."

 

Comments:  The U.S. military has a life of its own.  It doesn’t like the fact that it has to report to a civilian commander, i.e. the U.S. president.  I would wager that even President Bush wasn’t aware of the truth behind the Tillman and Lynch cases.  I can’t say that about former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.  Remember that memorable scene in the movie “Independence Day” when the U.S. president was given a tour of a “never revealed before” Area 51 by his defense secretary and military staff?  The president with a panned facial expression asked, “Why wasn’t I told about this?”

 

Lies and cover-ups are notorious tactics used by the Pentagon to suppress the truth.  What’s wrong with telling the truth and nothing but the truth?  Tillman killed by an American GI?  Sure, that’s a tragedy and an embarrassment and would be the butt of jokes in Osama bin Laden’s camp and in the Islamic world, but accidents do happen even to the best of militaries. It’s commendable that there are people who won’t comply with gag orders and keep quiet.  There’s no honor in receiving a medal of bravery when it’s based on falsehoods and coercion.  The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have prophetic implications (I believe that the riddance of Saddam Hussein, the war in Iraq, and the eventual partitioning of that country with a portion given to Iran for Iran giving up its nuclear program is the end game) and it was God who got the U.S. embroiled in these two Muslim countries.  America is being exposed as a nation embroiled in lies and deception. How the mighty have fallen.

 

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Scientists find most Earth-like planet yet

Source: CNN.com

 

April 25, 2007 -- European astronomers have found the most Earth-like planet outside our solar system, and here's what it might be like to live there:

 

The "sun" wouldn't burn brightly. It would hang close, large and red in the sky, glowing faintly like a charcoal ember. And it probably would never set if you lived on the sunny side of the planet.

 

You could have a birthday party every 13 days because that's how fast this new planet circles its sun-like star. But watch the cake -- you'd weigh a whole lot more than you do on Earth.

 

You might be able to keep your current wardrobe. The temperature in this alien setting will likely be a lot like Earth's -- not too hot, not too cold.

 

And that "just right" temperature is one key reason astronomers think this planet could conceivably house life outside our solar system. It's also as close to Earth-sized as telescopes have ever spotted. Both elements make it the first potentially habitable planet besides Earth or Mars.

 

Astronomers who announced the discovery of the new planet Tuesday say this puts them closer to answering the cosmic question: Are we alone?

 

"It's a significant step on the way to finding possible life in the universe," said University of Geneva astronomer Michel Mayor, one of 11 European scientists on the team that found the new body. "It's a nice discovery. We still have a lot of questions."

 

Comments:  Genesis 2:[18] And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.  Are there other life forms way out there in the cosmos?  There may be plant and animal life, but probably no intelligent humanoids.  I believe, like others, that God created man for Earth only and that Jesus died once for sins.  He didn’t die for humanoids on other planets.

 

Why is mankind spending billions of dollars searching outer space for intelligent life?  Isn’t God’s help meet (woman) good enough for him?  Isn’t an eternity to be spent with Jesus in the New Jerusalem sufficient?  Oh, I forgot that the vast majority of people do not have a saving faith in Jesus Christ and are under Satan’s control.  Satan (as Lucifer) wants to supplant God and he deceives the unsaved scientists into thinking that intelligent life does exist on other planets in order to refute creationism.  The so called Big Bang theory (yes, it’s only a theory) happened on Earth some billions of years ago and it’s mathematically conceivable that it also happened on other worlds.  If space aliens would somehow home into our radio signals and respond, there goes the credibility of one God and creationism.  But, so far, there has been a deafening silence in space.

 

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IDF: No alternative for the security fence

Source: Jerusalem Post

 

April 25, 2007 -- Despite protests by Green groups and orders by Defense Minister Amir Peretz to come up with "technological alternatives," the IDF, a senior officer told The Jerusalem Post over the weekend, has decided there is no choice but to construct a physical structure along the 30 kilometres of the security barrier that run through the Judean Desert.

 

In January, Peretz ordered that construction in the area be suspended after environmentalists and settlers argued the barrier would scar the landscape, harm wildlife and disrupt the ecosystem.

 

The route runs 30 km from Metzadot Yehuda (Beit Yatir) to Nahal Tavor. Peretz's decision followed a request by a number of Knesset members.

 

But senior officers in the Central Command told the Post there was "no alternative to a physical barrier" and that the only way to stop terrorist infiltrations from the south was to erect a fence. Deputy OC Central Command Brig.-Gen. Kobi Barak is in charge of the construction and is scheduled to present a new plan to Peretz for approval in the coming weeks.

 

Comments:  Ezekiel 38:[11] And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates. The security fence must stay, for now at least.  Israel won’t be tearing it down anytime soon.  In fact, more construction is being planned.  It will be the Antichrist who will order Israel to bring down the wall just like former U.S. President Ronald Reagan urged Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.  Physical barriers are effective deterrence to terrorism.  Israel’s fence has saved an untold number of her citizens.  Sure, there are other ways to circumvent the fence and get into Israel proper and set off suicide bombs, but the main routes are being safeguarded by the tall concrete barriers.

 

“Fences make good neighbors” they say.  However, in the Middle East, a security barrier says much about the animosity and mistrust the Israelis and the Arabs have for each other.  If peace is to be heralded in the Middle East, trust and good intentions must prevail.  As such, Israel will have to depend on an outside military force to safeguard her security. The security fence must come down and it will.

 

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Comptroller accuses PM Olmert of 'corruption' in new report

Source: Jerusalem Post

 

April 25, 2007 -- State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss on Wednesday informed the attorney-general that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert may have been guilty of criminal behavior by taking an active part in an Investment Center decision to provide a $10 million grant to a company represented by his close friend, former partner and personal lawyer, Uriel Messer.

 

The letter to Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz came in the wake of a 30-page report released on the same day entitled "Conflict of Interests on the Part of the Minister of Commerce and Industry." The decision to provide the grant to the company represented by Messer was made under the previous government, when Olmert served as minister of commerce and industry.

 

In response to the state comptroller's report, Olmert said, "he acted in accordance with his public responsibilities and prevented a great injustice which could have been caused to an entrepreneur whose only request was to build a factory in Dimona. Former Supreme Court President Meir Shamgar ruled in favor of the entrepreneur and the feet-dragging of the Investment Center led to a situation in which the entrepreneur's application was not handled."

 

Olmert added that he had no relations with the entrepreneur and that his acquaintanceship with Messer could not prevent him from fulfilling his professional duties as minister. He said he had "no doubt that this 'affair,' like all the others under investigation by the comptroller will end in nothing and evaporate like foam on water."

 

Comments:  Ecclesiastes 6:[1] There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men.  Like Ariel Sharon before him, PM Ehud Olmert is being accused of wrongdoing.  In Israel’s political climate, such charges have in the past turned the accused into Teflon men.  They didn’t stick and soon after, the whole corruption allegations disappeared like dew in the afternoon heat.  Corruption in politics is so common these days that cynical citizens just sigh and ask “So, what’s new?”

 

What this says about Israel is that God had regathered His people back in the land albeit in unbelief.  He is fulfilling His promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and not because the Jews deserve any of His blessings.  Not only are they spiritually blind, but their leaders are as evil and self serving as all the Gentile nations of this world.  It’s human nature to look out for self, to take advantage of things when the situation arises, to deny any impropriety, and to deflect blame onto others.  Israel’s leaders are no different.  What matters is the citizens’ confidence or lack of it in the political system at this most perilous time in Israel’s modern history when Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran are set to pounce on tiny Israel.  Evil corrupt leaders demoralize the citizens and embolden the enemies.

 

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Toledo area churches going to extremes for youth 

Source: toledoblade.com

 

April 25, 2007 -- They’re coming to northwest Ohio from Australia, Europe, the Pacific Islands, and throughout the United States to play hip-hop and heavy-metal music, perform skateboard and skate tricks, smash bricks, and sway along to tropical dance routines.

 

More than 125 extreme-sports athletes, musicians, and dancers from a dozen countries are involved in the largest evangelistic campaign this area has seen since Billy Sunday pitched a tent in Toledo for six weeks in 1911.

 

Known as Impact World Tour, the program is rolling through the region with 40 events in 17 locations over four weeks.

 

Comments:  There’s a saying, “The end justifies the means”.  In this article, whatever it takes to reach the lost young people with the Gospel is cool.  But, with God, the methods used are important also.  He would not like us employing worldly or disputable ways.  The glory of His Son Jesus is at stake.  Anything that could bring disrepute to the Holy name of Jesus is frowned upon.  In the old days, preachers simply opened the Bible and read the Word to the listeners and prayed that the Holy Spirit would use the scriptures to awaken the conscience of the unsaved.  Later, preachers with a flair for the dramatics like Billy Sunday would bellow the Good News to passer-bys at the street corners.  More recently, TV evangelists such as Jimmy Swaggart and John Hagee deploy overheads and videos to expound their messages.  Call it progress (keeping up with the times) or what have you, these methods are used in a reverent manner.

 

The means used by these Toledo Ohio churches appeal to the young people’s fascination with things considered cool and “in”.  Not all, but some are questionable for they cater to the flesh.  It seems to suggest that the power of the Holy Spirit isn’t enough and has to be augmented by things of this world.  There’s no differentiation between traditional preaching and modern day “in vogue” methods.  Christians ought to be different and not be identified with the world in language and in deed.  How else would the lost and perishing distinguish the two?  Yes, the Holy Spirit can use any technique to convict sinners, but somehow, one can’t help but be concerned about some of the way out new fangled methods being used.

 

 

 

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Keep watching (Matt 24:42)!

 

Until next time,

Shalom!

 

 

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