France

The Internet Erupts With Speculation About Who Started The Notre Dame Cathedral Fire

The entire world was absolutely shocked by the massive fire that engulfed the Notre Dame cathedral on Monday. We are being told that the structure of the cathedral has been saved, but according to CNN the “entire wooden interior of Notre Dame Cathedral has been lost”. Now that the initial shock of the fire has subsided, the Internet is buzzing with speculation about the origin of the fire. In the end, there are only two options. Either this was an accident, or someone intentionally started the fire. And if the fire was intentionally started, obviously someone had a motive for doing so.

Time columnist Christopher J. Hale set off a firestorm of speculation when he tweeted that a friend who works at the cathedral told him “cathedral staff said the fire was intentionally set”…

Hale deleted the tweet just a few minutes later.

Was he lying about what he had been told?

Coming from a professional journalist, that doesn’t seem likely.

Instead, it is much more likely that Hale quickly figured out that he said something that he wasn’t supposed to say.

A YouTube video that purportedly contains audio of Muslims celebrating the fire at the Notre Dame cathedral has also sparked a lot of speculation. But at this point there doesn’t appear to be any way to verify the authenticity of the video.

But what we do know is that all of this comes at a time when churches all over France are being attacked.

On March 17th, the second largest church in France erupted in flames, and police later ruled that it was not an accident…

While Notre Dame is undoubtedly the most well-known landmark to be affected, Paris’ second largest church, Saint-Sulpice, briefly burst into flames on March 17, the fire damaging doors and stained glass windows on the building’s exterior. Police later reported that the incident had not been an accident.

Overall, a dozen Catholic churches were either set on fire or greatly vandalized during one seven day stretch last month…

A dozen Catholic churches have been desecrated across France over the period of one week in an egregious case of anti-Christian vandalism.

The recent spate of church profanations has puzzled both police and ecclesiastical leaders, who have mostly remained silent as the violations have spread up and down France.

Last Sunday, marauders set fire to the church of Saint-Sulpice — one of Paris’ largest and most important churches — shortly after the twelve-o’clock Mass.

And some of the vandalism that was reported during that seven day period was deeply, deeply disturbing…

In Nimes (department of the Gard), near the border with Spain, the church of Notre-Dame des Enfants was desecrated in a particularly odious way, with vandals painting a cross with human excrement, looting the main altar and the tabernacle, and stealing the consecrated hosts, which were discovered later among piles of garbage.

Likewise, the church of Notre-Dame in Dijon, in the east of the country, suffered the sacking of the high altar and the hosts were also taken from the tabernacle, scattered on the ground, and trampled.

Could it be possible that there is a connection between those attacks and the fire that just erupted at the Notre Dame cathedral?

That is a question that any decent investigator would be asking at this point.

We also know that anti-Christian and anti-Semitic attacks are on the rise in France. Just check out these numbers…

The number of anti-Semitic attacks (541) rose 74 percent from 2017-2018 while anti-Muslim attacks numbered just 100, the lowest since 2010.

Meanwhile in the same period, there were 1063 anti-Christian attacks, a slight increase on the previous year.

Needless to say, radical Islamists are responsible for most of the attacks against Christians and Jews, and the number of Muslims living in the Paris area has greatly increased in recent years…

According to reports, the number of Jews fleeing France for their safety has dramatically increased since 2000.

In one Paris suburb alone – Seine-Saint-Denis – 40 percent of the population is Muslim while 400,000 illegal immigrants also live there.

But in this politically-correct era, we aren’t supposed to talk about attacks against Christians, and this is especially true if those attacks are conducted by radical Islamists.

On Monday, even anchors at Fox News had apparently been instructed that any speculation about who started the Notre Dame cathedral fire must be immediately shut down. These days there is very little difference between Fox News and the other major news networks, and that is very unfortunate.

On another note, I also find it very interesting that at one point on Monday a YouTube algorithm linked the fire at the Notre Dame cathedral with the 9/11 attacks…

A YouTube feature designed to combat misinformation offered some of its own during a major news event Monday: It linked the fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral to the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The company blamed the mixup on its algorithms. It removed the links on all Notre Dame fire posts after the issue was flagged.

In this day and age, the “spin” is often more important than the actual events themselves.

In the coming days, a tremendous effort will be made to get us to feel a certain way about the Notre Dame cathedral fire.

But what would be so wrong with allowing us to think for ourselves and allowing us to come to our own conclusions?

The Internet was one of the last bastions for global free speech, but now the heavy hand of censorship is descending, and our ability to freely discuss global events is eroding a little bit more with each passing day.

Get Prepared NowAbout the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.

“Open-Air Urinals” Have Been Installed All Over Paris, And People Are Outraged…

(Stuff) The stench of urine in the streets has long been one of the annoyances of life in hr French city of Paris, but new urinals that expose users to public view have shocked many residents.

The French often joke about being less “prudish” than Britons, but even permissive Parisians have taken exception to open urinals installed on pavements with nothing to screen users from passers-by.

France Wins The World Cup – Massive Riots Immediately Begin In Paris As A Result (Video)

France won the World Cup with a resounding 4-2 victory over Croatia on Sunday.  If you have not seen the highlights yet, you can view them right here…

Unfortunately, a World Cup victory inevitably meant that we would see massive riots in Paris, and as you can see below, they are getting quite ugly…

Immigrant Suburb Of Nantes, France Rocked By Massive Riots

200 riot police were needed to quell chaos in an immigrant suburb of Nantes, France as youths set cars on fire and torched a shopping center.

The riots were sparked by police shooting dead a 22-year-old man, identified by Le Monde as Aboubakar F.

Cars were set ablaze while rioters in Dervallières set fire to the local town hall and house of justice and law.

Meanwhile, in the Breil neighborhood of the city, enraged demonstrators threw molotov cocktails at police and set a shopping center on fire.

Local police chief Jean-Christophe Bertrand later said that the 22-year-old man was shot after he physically attacked police officers after refusing to comply with orders to let them search his vehicle.

Firefighters were able to extinguish the flames by 3am and no arrests were made.

According to the London Times, the riots took place in “a district of housing estates with largely immigrant populations.”

France has been rocked by numerous riots down the years as it struggles to integrate migrants who have become ghettoized and ostracized from society. (Prison Planet)

The Globalists Strike Back With A Major Push Toward A Cashless Society

Their agenda may be on the rocks in the United States at the moment, but that doesn’t mean that the globalists are giving up. In fact, a major push toward a cashless society is being made in the European Union right now. Last May we learned that the 500 euro note is being completely eliminated, and just a few weeks ago the European Commission released a new “Action Plan” which instructs member states to explore “potential upper limits to cash payments”. In the name of “fighting terrorism”, this “Action Plan” discusses the benefits of “prohibitions for cash payments above a specific threshold” and it says that those prohibitions should include “virtual currencies (such as BitCoin) and prepaid instruments (such as pre-paid credit cards) when they are used anonymously.”

This new document does not mention what an appropriate threshold would be for member states, but we do know that Spain already bans certain cash transactions above 2,500 euros, and Italy and France already ban cash transactions above 1,000 euros.

This is a perfect way to transition to a cashless society without creating too much of an uproar. By setting a maximum legal level for cash transactions and slowly lowering it, in effect you can slowly but surely phase cash out without people understanding what is happening.

And there are many places in Europe where it is very difficult to even use cash at this point. In Sweden, many banks no longer take or give out cash, and approximately 95 percent of all retail transactions are entirely cashless. So even though Sweden has not officially banned cash, using cash is no longer practical in most situations. In fact, many tourists are shocked to find out that they cannot even pay bus fare with cash.

So most of Europe is already moving in this direction, and now this new Action Plan is intended to accelerate the transition toward a cashless society. The public is being told that these measures are being taken to fight money laundering and terrorism, but of course that is only a small part of the truth. The following comes from the Anti-Media…

The European Action Plan doesn’t mention a specific dollar amount for restrictions, but as expected, their reasoning for the move is to thwart money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Border checks between countries have already been bolstered to help implement these new standards on hard assets. Although these end goals are plausible, there are other clear motivations for governments to target paper money that aren’t as noble.

In a truly cashless society, governments would be able to track where everybody is and what everybody is doing all the time. And in order to have access to the cashless system, people would have to comply with whatever requirements governments wanted to impose on their helpless populations. The potential for tyranny that this would create would be off the charts, but very few people seem greatly alarmed by the move toward a cashless system all over the globe.

Even in the United States there are calls for a cashless system. For example, the former chief economist for the IMF wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal not too long ago in which he recommended the elimination of the $100 bill…

“There is little debate among law-enforcement agencies that paper currency, especially large notes such as the U.S. $100 bill, facilitates crime: racketeering, extortion, money laundering, drug and human trafficking, the corruption of public officials, not to mention terrorism. There are substitutes for cash—cryptocurrencies, uncut diamonds, gold coins, prepaid cards—but for many kinds of criminal transactions, cash is still king. It delivers absolute anonymity, portability, liquidity and near-universal acceptance.”

Over in Asia restrictions are being put on cash as well. Legendary investor Jim Rogers commented on what is currently happening in India during one recent podcast…

The time will come when you won’t be able to buy a cup of coffee without being traced, warns investment guru Jim Rogers. To control people, governments will increasingly seek to hunt down cash spending, he adds.

“Governments are always looking out for themselves first, and it’s the same old thing that has been going on for hundreds of years. The Indians recently did the same thing. They withdrew 86 percent of the currency in circulation, and they have now made it illegal to spend more than, I think it’s about $4,000 in any cash transaction. In France you cannot use more than, I think it’s a €1,000,” said Rogers in an interview with MacroVoices Podcast.

The reason why this is taking place all over the planet is because this is a global agenda.

The globalists ultimately plan to completely eliminate cash, and this will give them an unprecedented level of control over humanity.

One thing that many fear may someday be implemented is some form of microchip identification system. In order to access the cashless grid, you would need your “ID chip” so that the system could positively identify you, but of course there are millions of people around the world that do not intend to get chipped under any circumstances.

In the old days, you would be labeled a “conspiracy theorist” just for suggesting that they may try to chip all of us one day, but in 2017 things have completely changed.

Just look at what is happening in Nevada. A bill has been introduced in the state senate that would outlaw the “forced microchipping of people”…

State Sen. Becky Harris said a bill to prohibit forced microchipping of people is not as far-fetched as it might seem, because it happens in some places around the world.

Senate Bill 109 would make it a Class C felony to require someone to be implanted with a radio frequency identifier, such as microchips placed in pets.

The idea for the bill came from a constituent, the Las Vegas Republican said.

If that sounds very strange to you, then you may not know that companies all around the globe are already starting to explore this type of technology. For instance, a company in Belgium called NewFusion has actually begun to microchip their employees…

In a move that could be lifted straight from science fiction, workers at a Belgian marketing firm are being offered the chance to have microchips implanted in their bodies.

The chips contain personal information and provide access to the company’s IT systems and headquarters, replacing existing ID cards.

The controversial devices raise questions about personal security and safety, including whether they may allow the movements of people with implants to be tracked.

Technology like this often starts off being “voluntary”, but then after enough people willingly accept it the transition to “mandatory” is not too difficult.

We live at one of the most critical moments in all of human history, and the globalists are certainly not going to lay down and die just because Donald Trump won the election.

The U.S. represents less than five percent of the population of the planet, and in most of the world the agenda of the globalists is on track and is rapidly advancing.

The globalists want a unified one world economy, a unified one world religion and a unified one world government. The election of Donald Trump was a blow to the globalists, but it has also made them more dangerous, more ruthless and more determined than ever before.

And in case you think that using the term “globalists” is a bit strange, the truth is that even the New York Times is using it to describe the global elite and their global agenda.

We are in a life or death battle for the future of our society, and the globalists are never going to give up until they get what they want. So now is not a time for complacency, because the very future of our country is at stake.

(Originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog)

Eurozone debt crisis 2.0: French election and Greece ‘toxic cocktail’ sparks market fears

Panic over upcoming French elections and the Greek debt crisis can be seen in debt markets, with borrowing costs for the two countries spiking over the past week.

There are further concerns about German and Dutch elections, as well as Italy’s ongoing bank problems.

The rising popularity of anti-Brussels candidate Marine Le Pen in France is particularly pertinent, as investors fear populists in the country could follow in the path of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump to score a win.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Paris Erupts In Violence: Many streets are NO-GO ZONES as five suburbs in flames

POLICE in Paris are struggling to cope with the fall out from a plague of riots which have kicked off in the city’s northern suburbs.

Five large areas have been reduced to no go areas for the past five nights as masked men cause mayhem on the streets.

Now there are fears the fall out from allegations of police brutality could spread all over the country as unrest in the city grows.

Residents have been on lockdown as armed police tried to tackle the rioters who have caused millions of pounds of damage.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Five Anti-Israel Offenses In Paris ‘Peace’ Summit Final Declaration

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Instead of convening a summit on the ongoing civil war in Syria, or the migrant crisis threatening Europe, or the rampant anti-Semitism plaguing its own country, France on Sunday held a convention attended by over 70 nations to affirm the international community’s commitment to creating a Palestinian state.

At the end of the farcical display, and with neither Israel nor the Palestinian Authority in attendance, the Paris summit representatives released a brief concluding declaration unanimously agreed to after negotiations between the countries.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

70 Nations Gathered In Paris Unanimously Call For The Creation Of A Palestinian State

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On Sunday, the 70 nations that gathered in Paris for a conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict unanimously agreed to call for the creation of a Palestinian state.  The joint declaration that was issued at the conclusion of the conference also endorsed UN Security Council Resolution 2334 which was adopted on December 23rd and the six principles that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry laid out in his 71 minute speech on December 28th.  If you would like to read the final draft of the joint declaration, you can do so right here.  The good news is that this conference did not immediately recognize a Palestinian state, nor does it appear that additional action will be taken at the UN Security Council before Donald Trump is inaugurated on Friday.

It had been feared that this conference may attempt to impose some sort of a solution on the Israelis and the Palestinians, but that didn’t come to pass.  Instead, the conference participants agreed to work toward “a negotiated solution with two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security“.

So the global community has clearly reaffirmed their commitment to a Palestinian state, but the outcome of this conference was not nearly as bad for Israel as many had been anticipating.

On Tuesday, the UN Security Council will meet to further discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but the Jerusalem Post is reporting that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has promised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that there will not be any more UN Security Council resolutions regarding Israel before Trump takes office…

Israeli sources said Kerry called Netanyahu from the conference to brief him on the efforts the US was taking there to soften the language of the final statement.

According to the sources, Netanyahu told Kerry that damage had already been done to Israel by the anti-settlement resolution that the US allowed to pass in the Security Council last month, and that no more harm should be allowed to be caused from the Paris summit.

Kerry assured Netanyahu that there would be no follow-up to the Paris conference in the Security Council, according to the sources.

Even though that bullet has been dodged, we should still acknowledge that what just happened in Paris, France was extremely significant.

It seems a very odd coincidence that exactly 70 nations gathered in Paris.  It could have easily been 69 nations or 71 nations, but instead it was precisely 70.

According to Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, the author of The Harbinger and The Book of Mysteries, the number 70 represents all the nations of the world in ancient Jewish tradition…

“It is interesting to note that the rabbis spoke of the world consisting of 70 nations,” he observed. “This is linked to the 70 sacrifices offered in the Feast of Tabernacles. So now to have the nations of the world, specifically 70 nations, gather together over the issue of Jerusalem, is most striking. One could say that the 70 nations are a representation of all nations, and coming together clearly set against the word of God which clearly ordains that Jerusalem is given by God to only one nation – Israel.

“As to the Abrahamic Covenant, that what a nation does to Israel will be done to that nation, what America under Obama did to Israel at the United Nations – namely abandon it – was significant,” he said.

Without a doubt, all of the largest and most powerful countries were represented at the conference.  So what we just witnessed in Paris was essentially the whole world coming together to decide what should be done with the land of Israel.

And by unanimously agreeing that the land of Israel should be divided and that a Palestinian state should be created, these global leaders are in great danger of literally cursing the entire planet.

Just a few weeks ago, I wrote an entire article about how those that bless Israel will be blessed and those that curse Israel will be cursed.  I would venture to say that now the entire world is on the wrong side of that equation as a result of this conference in Paris.

The good news for the U.S. is that Barack Obama is on his way out the door and Donald Trump is about to become president.

In a previous article I detailed 10 specific steps that Trump should immediately take to try to reverse the curse that Obama has put on America.  One of the steps that I recommended was moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and this is something that Trump’s team is actively talking about.

However, other global leaders are warning Trump not to do this.  For example, on Sunday French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told the press that such a move would have “very serious consequences”…

A “stubborn” proposal by President-elect Donald Trump to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem would involve “very serious consequences” and damage efforts for peace in the Middle East, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Sunday.

And of course the Palestinians are threatening widespread violence if the U.S. embassy is moved to Jerusalem, but meanwhile the Palestinians have no problem opening up new embassies of their own.  In fact, on Saturday the Palestinians just opened up a brand new embassy at the Vatican.

Donald Trump may never have anticipated this, but the truth is that the relationship between the United States and Israel is likely to be one of the defining issues of his presidency.

Allowing UN Security Council Resolution 2334 to pass without a veto was the worst decision that Barack Obama made during his entire time in the White House, and it represented the greatest betrayal of Israel in the history of the United States.

In just a few days, Donald Trump will have an opportunity to begin repairing the immense damage that was done by that resolution, and it sounds like he wants to have a very positive relationship with Israel.

But it can’t just be words.  Politicians have a habit of telling us what we want to hear, and now Donald Trump will get his chance to show the world that he is not just another typical politician.

My hope is that Donald Trump will truly be a friend to Israel in both word and deed, because that is what is desperately needed at this moment in history.

About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The Most Important News. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

The 70 Nations That Will Meet In Paris On January 15th Are Going To Publicly Commit To Dividing The Land Of Israel

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A draft of the summary statement that will be released at the conclusion of the 70 nation conference in Paris on Sunday has been leaked.  As you will see below, this communique is going to call for the division of the land of Israel, for the establishment of a Palestinian state, for the 1967 borders to serve as the basis for final negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and for the condemnation of any officials that refuse to support a two state solution.  Of course this comes on the heels of UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which many believe represented America’s greatest betrayal of Israel.  Israeli government officials are publicly warning that there is a possibility that the principles agreed upon at this conference may form the basis for another Security Council resolution before January 20th, and this is something that we should all be watching for very closely.

Haaretz exclusively obtained a copy of a draft of the summary statement that will be released following the conference on Sunday, and you can read it for yourself right here.  Reportedly, there was a major meeting of diplomats last Friday, and the latest draft reflects feedback that was received from those diplomats during that meeting…

Last Friday, there was a meeting of senior diplomats from the dozens of Western and Arab countries that will attend the conference. The French delegate, Pierre Vimont, presented them with the first draft of the conference’s summary communiqué and asked for comments.

According to Western diplomats, Vimont said France wants to reach a consensus among the participating states on a balanced statement that would stress the centrality of the two-state solution to the international community, but would take this month’s transfer of presidential power in the United States into account.

In many ways, the document very closely tracks the language of UN Security Council Resolution 2334.  Here are some of the things that really stood out to me in the draft…

-It makes a clear commitment to “two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security”.

-It insists that there must be an end to “the occupation that began in 1967”.

-It calls on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to publicly renew their commitment to a two state solution.

-It also calls on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to publicly renounce any of their officials that do not support a two state solution.

-It states that the 70 nations gathered in Paris only recognize the June 4th, 1967 borders, and that the only future changes to those borders they will recognize will come as the result of negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians.  And just like UN Security Council Resolution 2334, Jerusalem is specifically mentioned.  So according to this document, Israel does not own the Wailing Wall, the Temple Mount, a single inch of the West Bank or a single inch of East Jerusalem.

-The summary statement will also call on all countries to clearly distinguish between the State of Israel and territories that would belong to the Palestinians based upon the 1967 borders in all of their dealings.

Needless to say, this is a horribly anti-Israel document and the Israeli government is already strongly denouncing it.

At this point, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is most alarmed about the possibility that this summary statement could be used as the basis for another UN Security Council resolution just a few days later…

Netanyahu fears that the final communiqué of the Paris conference will be adopted next Monday by the EU foreign ministers’ council and the foreign ministers of the Quartet, and might also be the basis for another resolution at the Security Council, which is scheduled to convene next Tuesday for its monthly debate on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

“We find ourselves only a few days before the Paris conference and, only a few days later, a Security Council debate,” Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday. “We are making a great effort to prevent another Security Council resolution.”

By organizing this conference and trying to lead the way in the effort to divide the land of Israel, France is in danger of greatly cursing itself.

Recently I was asked why God cares so much about Israel.  Well, I think that a very basic illustration can help us to understand this better.

If you want to greatly anger any man, just go after his home and his family.  This will be true in just about any culture all across the globe.

Similarly, when the rest of the world attempts to divide the land of Israel and hurt the Jewish people, they are going after the family that Jesus was born into and the city where He will rule and reign for 1000 years after He comes back.

When Jesus was being crucified, Roman soldiers divided up his clothing, and that was a deeply disgraceful thing to do.

But now just before Jesus returns, the entire globe is trying to divide up His land and divide up the one city on the entire planet that He has identified as His city (Matthew 5:35).

Why are our leaders being so foolish?  In the Scriptures, God specifically warns us that in the last days He will judge the nations for dividing up His land.  This is what Joel chapter 3:1-2 says in the Modern English Version…

In those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. I will enter into judgment with them there regarding My people and My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; they have also divided up My land.

Those that bless Israel will be blessed, and those that curse Israel will be cursed.

And the 70 nations that are gathering in Paris, France on Sunday are literally in danger of cursing the entire planet.

Let us just pray that there will not be another UN Security Council resolution following this conference, because that would be absolutely disastrous for Israel, for the United States, and for the rest of the globe.

About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The Most Important News. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

French President Invites Netanyahu And Abbas To Participate In Paris Peace Summit In Two Weeks

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A senior Israeli official confirmed on Wednesday morning French press reports that French President Francois Hollande invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris in two weeks’ time.

The meeting would take place immediately after a Paris foreign ministers’ summit on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

French newspapers Le Monde and Le Figaro reported on Tuesday that Hollande would like to convene a meeting of foreign ministers in Paris on December 21 to deal with the stalemate in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, as part of the peace initiative France launched at the beginning of the year. The planned summit would be a continuation a foreign ministers’ meeting on the matter that took place in Paris in June.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

ISIS Has A New Focus: Killing Christians And Bombing Churches Wherever They Can Find Them

Skulls Murder - Public Domain

If you are a Christian, ISIS wants to kill you.  Our politicians keep telling us that our battle with ISIS is not a “religious war”, but to ISIS it most certainly is.  As you will see below, ISIS has a new focus.  They are very clear about the fact that they intend to kill as many “citizens of the cross” as they possibly can, and they plan to bomb churches wherever they can find them.  In a previous article, I explained how an entire church in the U.S. ended up on an ISIS kill list, and we just saw in France that they are willing to strike anywhere and at any time.  Religious targets now appear to be a top priority for ISIS, and that means that every church and every Christian in the western world needs to start thinking differently about security.

Let’s start by taking a look at what is happening in Africa.  Boko Haram’s brutality has made headlines all over the planet, and the infamous terror organization has pledged complete loyalty to ISIS at this point.  In the past, Boko Haram has hit both Christian and Muslim targets, but now the new leader of Boko Haram is promising to following ISIS guidelines and to focus primarily on bombing churches and killing Christians…

Earlier this month, a man named Abu Musab al-Barnawi announced that he had taken over the infamous Boko Haram organization. And his first message as Boko Haram’s leader was as clear as it was concise—on his watch, the group’s main focus will be killing Christians.

According to an interview published this month by the self-proclaimed Islamic State group (ISIS), al-Barnawi threatened to bomb churches and kill Christians, but will no longer attack places used by Muslims.

During the interview, Abu Musab al-Barnawi went on to say that his organization will be “booby-trapping and blowing up every church that we are able to reach, and killing all of those who we find from the citizens of the cross.”

There are millions upon millions of Christians in Nigeria and in other African nations where Boko Haram is active.  Let us hope and pray that Boko Haram is not able to carry out the types of attacks that they are now promising.

And of course it isn’t just in Africa that Christians need to be concerned.  The latest issue of the official ISIS magazine called “Dabiq” is urging Muslims in the western world to copy the recent church attack in France…

On the day he was announced as Boko Haram’s new leader, ISIS used the latest issue of Dabiq to paint Christianity as a “false” religion and Christians as “cross worshippers.” It encouraged Muslims to attack churches in a ways similar to the atrocity in France last month, where two men entered a Catholic church in small town Normandy, slit the throat of an 86-year-old priest, and gravely wounded a nun.

We need to understand that ISIS is not necessarily looking to hit political or military targets.

They are openly telling us that religious targets are now a priority, and they could literally strike anywhere in the entire country.

Thousands of American Christians have already been put on ISIS kill lists, and ISIS has already instructed their operatives to kill those that they can.  The following comes from an excellent article by Bethany Blankley…

According to a report recently made public, early this year, ISIS specifically identified 15,000 Christian Americans for death and instructed jihadists already in America to begin widespread murder.

The Kill List report comes in the wake of ISIS already publicly warning American and British Christians that “they were next.” British police last week publicly warned its 5.4 million Christians to be on alert and in some areas increased security.

And there have already been some very close calls.  In fact, if the authorities had not intervened in time earlier this year, a church up in Michigan could have been the scene of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history…

In February, Khial Abu-Rayyan, 21, of Dearborn Heights, Mich., was arrested after he told an undercover FBI agent he was preparing to “shoot up” a major church near his home on behalf of ISIS. A month earlier, the Rev. Roger Spradlin of Valley Baptist Church – one of the biggest congregations in Bakersfield, Calif. – told attendees that they had received a threat written in Arabic.

Today, churches all over America are hiring armed security guards and are holding self-defense classes.  When I was a child, I never would have imagined in my wildest dreams that someone would come in and start shooting during a church service, but times have changed.  To an Islamic terrorist, a church is a target that will bring you a lot of glory, and here in the western world we need to understand that.

And of course it isn’t just Islamic terror that we have to contend with these days.  Everywhere you look, traces of the Christian faith are being removed from public life and those that want to freely exercise their faith are being suppressed…

“There are children being prohibited from writing Merry Christmas to the soldiers, senior citizens being banned from praying over their meals in the Senior Center, the VA banning the mention of God in military funerals, numerous attempts to have veterans memorials torn down if they have any religious symbols, such as a cross, and I could go on and on,” said Liberty Institute Founder Kelly Shackleford.

As I was writing this article, my Internet suddenly went out.  One moment it was working, and then the next moment it was not.

In the same way, we need to realize that a single moment can change everything.  Even moments before the attacks, nobody suspected that anyone would strike the Pulse nightclub in Orlando or a sleepy little church in the French countryside.

But those attacks did happen, and without a doubt there will be even more horrific Islamic terror attacks here in the United States in the months and years to come.

We need to be vigilant, and we need to be on guard, because times have changed and there really are people out there that intend to kill us if they can.

*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and End Of The American Dream. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

U.S. Anger At Israel Could Result In A UN Security Council Resolution Establishing A Palestinian State

Barack Obama talks on the phone with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in the Oval Office - Public Domain

The Obama administration is absolutely furious with Israel.  At the end of July, the U.S. State Department issued a scathing press statement in which it publicly rebuked the government for Israel for “settlement activity” in East Jerusalem which the Obama administration considers to be “corrosive to the cause of peace”.  There has always been tension between the Netanyahu government and the Obama administration, but I don’t know if we have ever seen the State Department use such strong language to condemn Israeli activity.  Unfortunately, the rapid deterioration of the relationship between the United States and Israel could have some very serious implications for the entire region in the months ahead.  As you will see below, Newsweek is reporting that France is ready to make a renewed push for a UN Security Council resolution that would formally establish a Palestinian state, and this time around the Obama administration may be ready to go along with such a resolution.

The core issue that is causing so much contention between the United States and Israel right now is the expansion of housing in areas of East Jerusalem where Jewish people already live.  The Netanyahu government doesn’t see anything wrong with this, but the Obama administration wants those areas of East Jerusalem to be handed over to the Palestinians as part of any peace deal.  So the fact that more Jewish homes could be built on land that the Obama administration believes will soon belong to the Palestinians is making them very angry.  The following is the entire press statement on this matter that was published on the official State Department website.  I have bolded certain areas for emphasis…

We are deeply concerned by reports today that the Government of Israel has published tenders for 323 units in East Jerusalem settlements.  This follows Monday’s announcement of plans for 770 units in the settlement of Gilo.

We strongly oppose settlement activity, which is corrosive to the cause of peace. These steps by Israeli authorities are the latest examples of what appears to be a steady acceleration of settlement activity that is systematically undermining the prospects for a two- state solution.

In just the past few weeks, we have seen reports of the advancement of plans for 531 units in Ma’ale Adumim, 19 in Har Homa, 120 in Ramot, and 30 in Pisgat Ze’ev; the advancement of a plan to retroactively legalize an outpost near Ramallah; and the issuance of tenders for 42 units in Kiryat Arba.

We are also concerned about recent increased demolitions of Palestinian structures in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which reportedly have left dozens of Palestinians homeless, including children.‎  More than 650 Palestinian structures have been demolished this year, with more Palestinian structures demolished in the West Bank and East Jerusalem thus far than in all of 2015.

As the recent Quartet Report highlighted, this is part of an ongoing process of land seizures, settlement expansion, legalizations of outposts, and denial of Palestinian development that risk entrenching a one-state reality of perpetual occupation and conflict.  We remain troubled that Israel continues this pattern of provocative and counterproductive action, which raises serious questions about Israel’s ultimate commitment to a peaceful, negotiated settlement with the Palestinians.

But in Israel, they see things very differently.  Thousands of Jewish people already lives in these areas, and the Netanyahu government has already stated that it has absolutely no intention of dividing the city of Jerusalem as part of any peace deal.  Israeli authorities were quite alarmed by this recent State Department press statement, and the Jerusalem Post went so far as to accuse the State Department of essentially siding with Palestinian terrorists…

But above all, in fixating on settlements, the State Department is deliberately turning a blind eye to the mortal danger of Islamic terrorism and the hatred of Jews that permeates Palestinian society. In so doing, the department is in fact giving a green light to the Palestinian leadership, media and administrative bodies that openly incite, encourage and support terrorism, violence and boycotts against Israel.

By the same token, the State Department is giving sanction to the EU and its constituent member states, as well as to the UN and its specialized agencies to exacerbate their hostile policies against Israel. By their logic, if the US State Department takes such a slanted and hostile position, they can now exacerbate their own hostility toward Israel.

Something appears to be very, very wrong within the State Department.

Neither side is going to back down, and in the weeks ahead this may be the impetus that causes the Obama administration to finally do something that it has long considered doing.  About this time last year, the French were ready to go ahead with a UN Security Council resolution that would have divided the land of Israel and set the parameters for a Palestinian state, but the Obama administration wouldn’t go along with it so the French backed down.

But now the French are ready to move forward again, and Newsweek is reporting that we may see something happen before the next U.S. president is sworn in…

The recent U.S. condemnation is anything but overstated; it is an indication of mounting global concern over the imminent extinction of the two state solution. In the next six months, until January 20, 2017, the window for saving it remains open, albeit narrowly.

In a courageous attempt to sustain the fumes of hope for the two state paradigm, the French government is driving an initiative to convene an international conference in 2016—a tent for organizing consensus toward a draft U.N. Security Council resolution to revive peace talks. If the conference can achieve the support of nine out of 15 Security Council members for its suggested draft-resolution, with the U.S. agreeing not to exercise its veto, the two state solution will be able to cling to its ninth life.

Barack Obama knows that he only has a few months left to make his mark in the Middle East, and a few months ago the Wall Street Journal reported that for the very first time the Obama administration was publicly admitting that a UN Security Council resolution that would divide the land of Israel was on the table…

The White House is working on plans for reviving long-stalled Middle East negotiations before President Barack Obama leaves office, including a possible United Nations Security Council resolution that would outline steps toward a deal between the Israelis and Palestinians, according to senior U.S. officials.

At this point, we don’t know if this will or will not happen by the time Obama leaves office.

But we do know that the French want this resolution to happen, and the only member of the Security Council that would be in a position to block it would be the United States.

So what will Obama do?

Only time will tell, but we will find out soon one way or the other, because Obama’s time in the White House is rapidly drawing to a close.

*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and End Of The American Dream. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

Islamic Terror Attacks And Mass Killings Are Becoming A Daily Event

Globe On Fire - Public Domain

Terror attacks and mass killings are happening so rapidly now that it is really difficult to keep up with them all. In fact, as you will see below, so far there have been several this week alone. This latest attack in France during which radical Islamic terrorists slit the throat of a Catholic priest was particularly disturbing. Just a few days ago I warned that churches in the western world would be targeted, and now it is happening. According to thereligionofpeace.com, there have been 1274 Islamic terror attacks in 2016. These attacks have been spread across 50 different nations, and as a result of these attacks more than 11,000 people have been killed and more than 14,000 people have been injured. When are we going to finally wake up and understand how serious this threat really is?

Very few people would have imagined that a sleepy Catholic church in France would be the target of an Islamic terror attack on Tuesday morning, but that is precisely what happened. The following description of the attack comes from the New York Times…

Mass was ending around 9:30 a.m. when two young men with knives burst in. They forced the auxiliary priest, the Rev. Jacques Hamel, 85, to kneel. When he resisted, they slit his throat. They held several worshipers and at least one nun hostage, while another nun escaped. Officers from a specialized police unit descended on the church. A short while later, officers shot the young men dead when they emerged from the church.

We have all seen images of ISIS slitting the throats of Christians in the Middle East, but now it is taking place in Europe.

As the terrorists emerged from the church, they reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” before being shot dead by the police.

ISIS has already taken responsibility for the attack and is referring to these two young men as “two soldiers of the Islamic State“. And France knew that one of them had tried to go to Syria to join ISIS twice, but still allowed him to roam free for at least part of the day…

One of a pair of ISIS knifemen who stormed a church in Normandy before slitting the throat of an elderly priest has been named as known terror threat Adel Kermiche.

The 19-year-old ‘ISIS soldier’ was being monitored with an electronic ankle tag after he was arrested for twice attempting to flee France to join the terror group in Syria.

Despite having been released early from prison, Keriche’s bail conditions allowed him to roam unsupervised between 8.30am and 12.30pm, leaving him free to murder the priest in the attack which was carried out between 9am and 11am.

This horrific attack in France came on the heels of a tremendous tragedy in Japan. Mass killings are fairly rare over there, and so virtually the entire Japanese nation is in shock at this point. The following comes from the Washington Post…

Early on Tuesday morning, a man identified as Satoshi Uematsu allegedly attacked a care home for disabled people in Sagamihara, about 35 miles west of Tokyo. Armed with three knives and tie cables, the assailant killed 19 people and wounded many before he drove to a police station and turned himself in.

And that mass killing in Japan came on the heels of a suicide bombing in Ansbach, Germany on Sunday…

The Syrian man who blew himself up outside a bar in Ansbach vowed the people of Germany “won’t be able to sleep peacefully anymore” in a video filmed before the attack.

Investigators said the suicide bomber, known only as Mohammad D., had declared loyalty to Islamic State in the recording – and announced “a revenge act against Germans because they are standing in the way of Islam”.

Further details have emerged about the 27-year-old, who injured 15 people – four of them seriously – when he detonated a backpack filled with explosives and shrapnel after being turned away from a music festival being attended by thousands of people.

Of course just prior to the suicide bombing in Ansbach, there were two other acts of terror in Germany that made headlines all over the globe…

The bombing has rattled the German public following a week of violence in southern Germany that began on July 18, when an immigrant teen, apparently also inspired by ISIS, stabbed passengers on a train in Wurzburg in Bavaria.

That was followed by a shooting spree Friday in which nine people were killed in the Bavarian state capital, Munich, before a Syrian asylum seeker killed a woman in Reutlingen, in the neighboring southern German state of Baden-Wurttemberg, on Sunday, hours ahead of the Ansbach attack.

Are you starting to get the point?

In the summer of 2016, it has been terror attack after terror attack and mass killing after mass killing.

And in this article I haven’t even mentioned Orlando, Dallas, Nice or Baton Rouge at all.

As I have written about extensively, we have entered a period of time when our world seems to be going crazy. The love of most people has grown cold, and we are being hammered with headlines about horrific acts of violence almost every single day now.

The terrorists are not just going after military and political targets. In fact, they seem to take glee in hitting us where we are most vulnerable.

Just recently, I wrote about how all the members of one particular church here in America ended up on an ISIS kill list. It appears that ISIS is collecting names from church directories and synagogue directories that they find on the Internet. So if you run a church or a synagogue you should take note of this.

Even bigger attacks than we have seen so far are coming. At some point Islamic terrorists will get their hands on chemical, biological and potentially even nuclear weapons, and they will not hesitate to use them.

Many of our politicians are promising to rid the world of these terrorists, but I don’t think that they even know what we are really dealing with or how to really fight this battle.

After a decade and a half of dropping bombs and spending trillions of dollars fighting in the Middle East, the threat of Islamic terror is worse than ever. And even nations that were never heavily involved in the “war on terror” are seeing Islamic terror rise to unprecedented levels.

The blind are leading the blind, and meanwhile the terror attacks and the mass killings are just going to continue to get even worse.

*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and End Of The American Dream. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

Republican Convention To Get Hit Next? FBI And DHS Warn Of ‘Violence’ And ‘Terror’ At The RNC

Stop Terrorism Red Hand - Public Domain

After what just happened in Nice, France, officials are likely even more concerned about the potential for violence and terrorism at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland next week. Details are still coming in as I write this article, but what we know so far is that a 31-year-old Tunisian man plowed his truck into a huge crowd that was gathered along the waterfront for a fireworks display during Bastille Day celebrations in the French city of Nice, and he reportedly shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ at the police before they shot him dead. His rampage of death reportedly lasted for two kilometers before he was finally stopped, and dozens have been killed. This comes on the heels of the massacre of five police officers in Dallas, and that came not too long after the worst mass shooting in U.S. history in Orlando. Clearly we have entered a time when the usual rules don’t apply anymore. So will the Republican National Convention be the next target to get hit?

Both the Republican and the Democratic conventions have been designated as “National Special Security Events”. What this means is that the Secret Service will be running security at those venues. It is being projected that 50,000 people will attend the Republican convention, and in addition to that there will likely be tens of thousands of protesters.

So needless to say, this will represent a big, juicy target for anyone that wants to make some sort of a statement.

We have already seen tremendous violence at Trump rallies in recent months, and there is no reason to think that the Republican convention will be any different. The radical left dislikes Donald Trump with a passion, and many leftist organizations have already stated that they plan to show up in Cleveland in force.

As emotions run high, could something go terribly wrong?

On Thursday, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and FBI Director James Comey both told Congress that they are extremely concerned…

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers on Thursday that they were preparing their agencies for the possibility of violence, both from unruly demonstrators and terrorists, at the upcoming Republican and Democratic nominating conventions.

It is likely that we are going to see more security at these conventions than we have ever seen before. In fact, Johnson told Congress that DHS will be sending approximately 3,000 agents to each of the conventions…

“I am concerned about the prospect of demonstrations getting out of hand,” Johnson said. “I am concerned about the possibility of violence. We have, within DHS, some 3,000 personnel that will be dedicated to the security of the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National convention, each.”

And Comey told Congress that he is particular concerned about the potential for “domestic terrorism”…

Comey told the committee that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was monitoring the threat of violence at the conventions “very, very carefully.”

“Anytime there is a national spotlight on a political event in the United States, there is a risk that groups that aspire to do just that, engage in acts of domestic terrorism, will be attracted,” Comey said.

Of course the feds are not just sitting back and waiting for next week to roll around. As you read this article, they are actively “monitoring social media” and “tracking protest groups” in anticipation of what might happen…

Law enforcement agencies are monitoring social media posting and tracking protest groups such as Black Lives Matter, which have disrupted Trump rallies over the past several weeks. The Secret Service is even using its Twitter account to warn users about their commentary. The agency tweeted recently, “Watch what you say on Social Media!” with a link to a news story about how agents visited a man who joked about sending a bomb when Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were visiting his region.

For one, I am certainly glad that I am not going to be in Cleveland next week. The security is going to be absolutely suffocating, but no level of security can stop a deranged individual that is absolutely determined to kill people and that is not afraid to die. As we have seen, it only takes a few moments for a gunman to start mowing down those around him or for a crazed lunatic to plow a truck into a crowd of people.

And one thing we do know is that there will be lots of guns in Cleveland. Some of the protesters have already announced that they plan to bring guns with them, and many of those attending the convention will be bringing guns as well…

As the Republican convention in Cleveland approaches, several delegates from Pennsylvania who support Donald Trump say they are planning on bringing their guns with them to the GOP gathering. Why? They say they are worried about possible violent protest and even an attack from ISIS.

James Klein, a pro-Trump delegate from the Harrisburg area, notes that guns won’t be needed inside the convention hall and that delegates won’t be allowed to bring in weapons. “But,” he adds, “there’s the hotels. There’s going to be dinners.”

We may get a preview of coming attractions during the nationwide “Day of Rage” protests on Friday. There are supposed to be protests in more than 30 cities, and they have been much hyped. We shall see if they amount to anything or if they just fizzle out.

Regardless, it is clear that we have entered a time of increased violence. After what just happened in France, people all over the world are going to think twice before gathering for any sort of large public event. A huge crowd is an enticing target for any aspiring terrorist, and it is inevitable that we are going to see more attacks of this nature.

The era of the free and open society is ending. As the violence and terror get progressively worse, our liberties and freedoms will be increasingly restricted, and we will be told that this is for our own good.

Of course this has already been happening since 9/11, but now we have entered a time when this process is going to accelerate significantly.

*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and End Of The American Dream. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

The United States Of Europe: Germany And France Hatch A Plan To Create An EU Superstate

Europe Connections - Public Domain

If you believe that the Brexit vote is going to kill the idea of a “United States of Europe”, you might want to think again. In fact, it appears that the decision by the British people to leave the European Union is only going to accelerate the process of creating an EU superstate. As you will see below, one of the largest newspapers in the UK is reporting that the foreign ministers of France and Germany have drafted “a blueprint to effectively do away with individual member states”. So even though men like George Soros are warning that the eventual dissolution of the European Union is “practically irreversible” after the Brexit vote, the truth is that the globalists are not about to give up so easily.

For a very long time, advocates of increased European integration have dreamed of going all the way and creating a true “United States of Europe”, but Britain was always one of the stumbling blocks that stood in the way.

But now that Britain is out and there is great fear that the entire European project may be in jeopardy, there seems to be a rush to go for broke and try to complete the job of European integration. The Express is one of the biggest news organizations in the UK, and they are reporting that the foreign ministers of France and Germany already have a blueprint “to effectively do away with individual member states”…

The foreign ministers of France and Germany are due to reveal a blueprint to effectively do away with individual member states in what is being described as an “ultimatum”.

Under the radical proposals EU countries will lose the right to have their own army, criminal law, taxation system or central bank, with all those powers being transferred to Brussels.

Controversially member states would also lose what few controls they have left over their own borders, including the procedure for admitting and relocating refugees.

When I read that earlier today I was absolutely stunned.

Did they come up with this blueprint before the Brexit vote or after?

And do they plan to allow the citizens of individual nations to vote on any of this?

It is being reported that the following paragraph comes from the preamble to the document…

“Our countries share a common destiny and a common set of values that give rise to an even closer union between our citizens. We will therefore strive for a political union in Europe and invite the next Europeans to participate in this venture.”

Of course it would have been totally unrealistic to expect backers of European integration to go down without a fight. After all, what did we expect them to do – throw up their hands and admit that the British people are right and that the European Union is a failure?

No, that was never going to happen.

As I mentioned in the other article that I published today, the elite are going to make the British people pay for what they have done. The British pound has already been smashed, British stocks are getting pounded, and the UK economy is going to suffer greatly. In addition, the British people are being inundated by mainstream news stories telling them what a horrible mistake they made.

And as the crisis in Europe gets progressively worse, the “solution” that will be heralded by mainstream news organizations will be increased European integration. In fact, this is something that CNN is already promoting…

The elite are desperate to rescue a European project that is considered to be “dying” in the eyes of many. For example, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman just compared what is happening in Europe right now to the collapse of the Soviet Union…

The upheaval in the U.K. after its Brexit referendum in favor of leaving the European Union has similarities to the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman.

While it’s “unreasonable to draw direct parallels,” it’s obvious that the U.K. is going through a “turbulent, confusing and unpredictable period,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call Monday. Russia “has gone through the collapse of the Soviet Union and many generations clearly remember the period of the Soviet collapse, that period of uncertainty.”

So those that are in favor of European integration are in full damage control mode at this point. Just today, there was a report in the Daily Mail about how German Chancellor Angela Merkel is telling people that it is vital to keep any other members of the European Union from leaving…

Mrs Merkel said the EU needs to stop other countries following Britain out of the door amid market fears that the bloc is ‘no longer governable’ after Brexit.

The German Chancellor told her conservative party board in a conference call that it was necessary to prevent other European Union members going down the same path as Britain.

Merkel is also said to have revealed that international financial markets are concerned the EU is ‘no longer governable’ in the wake of Britain’s exit vote.

The elitists that run the EU don’t really care about the will of the people, and they will work very hard to prevent more referendums from being held. In an age of “democracy”, the EU is one of the most undemocratic political institutions in the entire western world. I know, because I studied EU law when I was in law school.

If you have any doubt about this, just check out this recent quote from European Parliament President Martin Schultz…

“The British have violated the rules. It is not the EU philosophy that the crowd can decide its fate“.

Say what?

In the short-term, it is entirely possible that we could see more nations leave the EU. I would watch Greece in particular.

But in the long-term, we will see a major push for more European integration. Germany and France will be at the core of this movement, and other European nations will join them.

The British people may not participate any time soon, but the dream of a United States of Europe is far from dead.

And if the advocates of increased European integration have their way, we will be seeing their dream become a reality sooner rather than later.

(Originally published on End of the American Dream)

The Stock Market Crash Of 2016: Stocks Have Already Crashed In 6 Of The World’s 8 Largest Economies

Network Earth Continents - Public Domain

Over the past 12 months, stock market investors around the planet have lost trillions of dollars. Since this time last June, stocks have crashed in 6 of the world’s 8 largest economies, and stocks in the other two are down as well. The charts that you are about to see are absolutely stunning, and they are clear evidence that a new global financial crisis has already begun. Of course it is true that we are still in the early chapters of this new crisis and that there is much, much more damage to be done, but let us not minimize the carnage that we have already witnessed.

In general, there have been three major waves of financial panic over the past 12 months. Late last August we saw the biggest financial shaking since the financial crisis of 2008, then in January and February there was an even bigger shaking, and now a third “wave” has begun in June. Not all areas around the globe have been affected equally by each wave, but without a doubt this new financial crisis is a global phenomenon.

The charts that I am about to show you come from Trading Economics. It is an absolutely indispensable website that is packed full of useful data, and I encourage everyone to check it out.

Let’s talk about China first. The Chinese economy is the second largest on the entire planet, and since this time last year Chinese stocks are down an astounding 40 percent…

Chinese Stocks

As things have started to unravel in China, the Chinese have been selling off U.S. debt and U.S. stocks like crazy. The following comes from Bloomberg…

For the past year, Chinese selling of Treasuries has vexed investors and served as a gauge of the health of the world’s second-largest economy.

The People’s Bank of China, owner of the world’s biggest foreign-exchange reserves, burnt through 20 percent of its war chest since 2014, dumping about $250 billion of U.S. government debt and using the funds to support the yuan and stem capital outflows.

While China’s sales of Treasuries have slowed, its holdings of U.S. equities are now showing steep declines.

Unfortunately for China, their economy just continues to slow down, and George Soros is so alarmed by this and a potential “Brexit” that he has been selling off stocks and buying enormous amounts of gold in anticipation of an even bigger global downturn.

Japan has the third largest economy in the world, and over the past year Japanese stocks are down a total of 26 percent from the peak…

Japan Stocks

Personally, I have been extremely alarmed by what has been happening in Japan lately. Japanese stocks were down almost 500 points last night, and overall the Nikkei is down a whopping 1,800 points so far in June.

Of course the Japanese economy as a whole is essentially a basket case at this point. For a detailed analysis of this, please see my previous article entitled “Watch Japan – For All Is Not Well In The Land Of The Rising Sun“.

Germany has the fourth largest economy in the world, and over the past year their stocks have fallen 19 percent from the peak of the market…

German Stocks

The key thing to watch for in Germany are serious troubles at their biggest bank. I wrote a long article about the slow-motion implosion of Deutsche Bank last month, and just this week Deutsche Bank stock hit an all-time low.

The fifth largest economy on the planet belongs to the United Kingdom, and since last June their stocks have fallen about 13 percent…

British Stocks

One week from today, the “Brexit” vote will be held in the UK, and if they vote to leave the EU that could have very serious economic and financial implications for them and for the rest of Europe as well. For an in-depth look at this, please see my previous article entitled “June 23, 2016: The Brexit Vote Could Change EVERYTHING And Plunge Europe Into Financial Chaos“.

France has the sixth largest economy in the world, and over the past year French stocks are down 20 percent from the peak of the market…

French Stocks

The French economy is really struggling these days, and we have not heard much about it in the U.S. media, but there have been tremendous riots in major cities in France in recent weeks.

The seventh largest economy on our planet belongs to India. Even though India is facing some very serious economic problems, their stocks are doing okay for the moment. Even though stocks in India are down over the past 12 months, we have not seen a major financial crisis over there just yet.

But there is definitely a major crisis in the eighth largest economy in the world. Italian stocks are down a staggering 32 percent from the peak of the market. That means approximately a third of all stock market wealth in Italy is already gone…

Italian Stocks

Earlier this year, I wrote about the horrifying collapse of the Italian banking system that has greatly accelerated since the start of 2016. It looks like virtually all of their big banks will ultimately need to be bailed out, and this threatens to become a far bigger crisis than the crisis in Greece ever was.

And let us not leave off the ninth largest economy in the world. Not too long ago, CNN ran an article entitled “Brazil: Economic collapse worse than feared“. So not only are they admitting that the ninth largest economy on the globe is collapsing, they are also admitting that it is even worse than what the experts had anticipated.

So did I leave anyone off the list?

Ah yes, I haven’t even addressed what has been going on in the United States yet.

U.S. stocks did crash last August, but then they recovered.

Then they crashed again in January, but then they recovered again.

Now U.S. stocks have been taking another tumble here in June, but we are being assured that there is nothing to worry about.

Meanwhile, the underlying numbers for the U.S. economy just continue to get worse and worse and worse. If you have any doubt about this, please see the article that I posted yesterday entitled “15 Facts About The Imploding U.S. Economy That The Mainstream Media Doesn’t Want You To See“.

Hopefully this article will clear a lot of things up. In this piece, I have presented undeniable evidence that a new global financial crisis has begun over the past 12 months. We have not seen global stock declines of this nature since the great financial crisis of 2008, but much worse is still to come.

I would love to be wrong about that last part.

It would be wonderful if the worst was now behind us and good times for the global financial system were ahead.

Unfortunately, every single indicator that I am watching is telling me just the opposite.

*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

Why Are Thousands Of Millionaires Fleeing Chicago And Other Major Cities Around The World?

The Elite Fleeing - Public Domain

The elite are fleeing major cities around the globe at a staggering rate. In fact, the Chicago Tribune is reporting that approximately 3,000 millionaires left the city of Chicago alone during 2015. The same study discussed in that Chicago Tribune article found that 7,000 millionaires left Paris, France last year. So why is this happening? Why are thousands of millionaires suddenly packing up and moving away from the big cities? Could it be possible that they have many of the same concerns that “preppers” do about what is coming?

For quite a while, I have been writing about how the elite have been preparing for the coming collapse. But I had no idea that literally thousands of them are packing up and permanently leaving our major cities. As I mentioned above, the Chicago Tribune is reporting that about 3,000 of them left the city of Chicago alone during the previous calendar year…

Millionaires are leaving Chicago more than any other city in the United States on a net basis, according to a new report.

About 3,000 individuals with net assets of $1 million or more, not including their primary residence, moved from the city last year, with many citing rising racial tensions and worries about crime as factors in the decision, according to research firm New World Wealth.

But of course this is not just happening in Chicago, nor is it just an American phenomenon.

Actually, the two cities that lost the most millionaires last year are both located over in Europe…

Paris saw the largest exodus.

The French city lost 7,000, or 6 percent, of its millionaires, followed by Rome, which lost 5,000, or 7 percent.

It is true that some of these millionaires are moving for tax reasons, but many others are quite concerned that humanity is hurtling toward a deeply apocalyptic future, and they want to get prepared for what is about to happen while they still have time.

In eastern Germany, one company known as “Vivos” has spent an enormous amount of money converting an underground facility built by the Soviets during the Cold War into the largest private shelter on the planet. It is called “Europa One”, and it is being billed as an ultra-luxury survival bunker for the elite.

The following comes from their official website…

Located in the heart of Europe is one of the most fortified and massive underground survival shelters on Earth, deep below a limestone mountain. Built by the Soviets during the Cold War, this shelter was a fortress for military equipment and munitions. Now privately owned, this 76 acre above and below ground hardened facility is capable of withstanding a substantial close range nuclear blast, a direct airliner crash, biological and chemical agents, massive shock waves, earthquakes, electro-magnetic pulses, and virtually any armed attack.

This irreplaceable complex is now being re-tasked as Vivos Europa One, becoming the world’s largest and most fortified underground shelter for long-term, uncompromising protection of high net worth individuals, their families, and most precious assets when no other above-ground exfiltration solution will suffice.

The complex includes over 21,108 square meters (227,904 square feet) of secured, blast proof living areas; and, an additional 4,079 square meters (43,906 square feet) of above-ground office, apartments, warehouse buildings, and its own train depot. Collectively there are over 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) of continuous tunnel chambers.

An RT report that was posted on YouTube right here contains some stunning visuals from the inside of this facility. Personally, I was quite stunned when I saw the extent of their preparations for the first time…

This is something that I could go on and on about, but I won’t. If you are interested in reading more, please see my previous article entitled “Superyacht Getaway Subs And Luxury Bomb Shelters: The Elite Are The Most Paranoid Preppers Of All“.

As I was preparing for this article, I remembered something that Zero Hedge just reported that I think relates to this subject. It turns out that “the smart money” has been net sellers of U.S. stocks for 11 weeks in a row…

Last week, during which the S&P 500 was down 1.2%, BofAML clients were net sellers of US equities for the 11th consecutive week. Net sales of $1.7bn were smaller than in the prior week, but all three client groups (hedge funds, institutional clients, private clients) remained net sellers, led by institutional clients.

So why are the elite dumping stocks like crazy right now?

Don’t they realize that the stock market has been going up?

Could it be possible that they have information that the rest of us do not?

Most people have absolutely no idea how vulnerable our society truly is, or how very easy it would be to plunge the general population into a state of utter chaos.

That is why I am so glad that Mike Norris (the son of Chuck Norris) is coming out with his new movie entitled “AmeriGEDDON”. This film imagines a time when a global terror organization disables the U.S. power grid and martial law is instituted. Rioting, looting and civil unrest break out, and the government moves in to disarm the citizens and “restore order”. You can watch the official trailer for this new film right here…

Could we actually witness such a scenario in our future?

Well, I don’t expect to see anything like this next month, but in my new book I explain why I believe that America is heading for a future that is even more apocalyptic than the one portrayed in “AmeriGEDDON”.

Everywhere you turn, our world is becoming increasingly unstable. Economic collapse has already gripped some areas of the planet, there is tremendous geopolitical instability in the Middle East, Islamic terror is on the rise, there have been outbursts of civil unrest all around the world, and just this week we have seen a series of very alarming earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Many people believe that we are entering a period of time when an unprecedented confluence of events will combine to create a “perfect storm” which will shake the world to the core.

And it isn’t just “preppers” that feel this way. As you have just seen, thousands of millionaires are so concerned about changing conditions that they are fleeing the major cities.

So before you dismiss all of this apocalyptic talk as “nonsense”, perhaps you may want to consider what the elite may know that you do not.

*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

(Originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog)

More Islamic Terror Coming: ISIS Has Sent 400 Trained Fighters Into Europe To Conduct Terror Attacks

Skull Smiling - Public Domain

The recent attacks in Paris and in Brussels were just the tip of the iceberg of a massive wave of Islamic terror that is soon coming to Europe. As you will see below, the Associated Press is reporting that ISIS has specially trained “at least 400 attackers” and has already sent them into Europe with specific instructions to conduct terror operations. So Barack Obama may not think that we have anything to be concerned about, but the facts on the ground tell us a completely different story. Thanks to Europe’s openness to “war refugees” from Syria, it is very easy for radical jihadists to get into countries such as France, Belgium and Germany. And once they are on European soil, there are plenty of other disgruntled Islamic refugees that they can recruit to their cause. Europe stands on the precipice of the greatest terror crisis that it has ever known, and the attacks that are coming next are likely to be far more deadly than anything we have seen so far.

As I mentioned above, the Associated Press is reporting that ISIS has already sent “at least 400” trained fighters into Europe for the purpose of conducting terror attacks…

Security officials have told The Associated Press that the Islamic State group has trained at least 400 attackers and sent them into Europe for terror attacks.

The network of interlocking, agile and semiautonomous cells shows the reach of the extremist group in Europe even as it loses ground in Syria. The officials, including European and Iraqi intelligence officials and a French lawmaker who follows the jihadi networks, describe camps designed specifically to train for attacks against the West.

And just in case you were tempted to think that this threat was not real, you may want to consider what happened in France on Thursday.

According to NBC News, police in Paris were able to foil a terror attack that was in “the advanced stages” of planning…

Raids in northwest Paris have foiled a terrorist attack, French officials said late Thursday.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve gave a press conference in Paris announcing there was an operation underway in Argenteuil, a commune in the northwest suburbs of Paris.

One man was arrested Thursday morning Cazeneuve said, adding that the operation thwarted a potential attack. Police were raiding his home again later Thursday evening.

The suspect was a French national who was in “the advanced stages” of a terror plot, the minister said, calling it a “major arrest.”

Of course much of the rest of the world is already solidly in the grip of Islamic terror. The number of people killed by Islamic terror attacks has been increasing year after year, but the western media only seems to get excited when an attack happens in North America or Europe.

I came across the following tweet earlier today, and it makes this point perfectly…

For instance, did you even hear about the horrific Islamic terror attack that happened in the Ivory Coast earlier this month? Gunmen opened fire on a very crowded beach in a key resort area on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the bloodshed. The following comes from the New York Times…

Gunmen opened fire on picnickers and swimmers enjoying a perfect day at three beach resort hotels near the Ivory Coast’s capital on Sunday, killing 16 people and leaving bodies strewn across the bloodstained sand. It was the third major attack in West Africa since November, and verified fears that the spread of terrorism across the region was far from over.

The attack, on the first sunny Sunday in weeks, took place in Grand-Bassam, a popular palm tree-lined getaway for Ivorians and foreigners. Fourteen civilians and two members of the country’s special forces were killed, as well as six gunmen, according to a spokeswoman for the president.

So why do we get so bent out of shape when there is an attack in France or Belgium, but not when there is an attack in the Ivory Coast?

And what does that say about us?

As ISIS and other Islamic terror groups conduct more attacks in North America and Europe, the pressure to conduct military action in the Middle East is going to become very intense. For a long time I have been warning about the potential for World War III to erupt in Syria, and U.S. troops are already taking on a more prominent role in Iraq.

In fact, the International Business Times is reporting that U.S. marines are now “on the front line” in the fight against the Islamic State…

The Islamic State group is trying to retake control of the oil fields it lost two years ago in the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan by launching rockets at Kurdish and Iraqi soldiers. In an attempt to earn back the massive amount of cash it used to fund its international terrorism in 2014, the group has focused its resources on attacking Makhmur, a city just 75 miles miles from the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. So far, the group, also known as ISIS, has succeeded in outgunning the Iraqi forces in the city, but a new contingent of American Marines might change the outcome on the ground.

“Several weeks ago, thousands of Iraqi troops began occupying a tactical assembly area in Makhmur. This is part of the force generation associated with the liberation of Mosul,” Col. Steve Warren, spokesman for the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, said in a press briefing this week. Mosul is the de facto ISIS headquarters in Iraq. “These Iraqi forces, along with their coalition advisers, require force protection,” Warren said. “So we constructed a small fire base to do just that.”

The U.S. Marines in Iraq are on the front line and have been tasked with protecting Iraqi units in Makhmur — a scenario President Barack Obama wanted to avoid as long as possible during his time in office.

And what happens when ISIS or another terror group is able to set off a chemical, biological or nuclear weapon in a major western city?

That would change the world literally overnight.

As I have been warning, most people have no idea how incredibly fragile our society truly is. Humanity has created weapons that are frighteningly powerful, and it is only a matter of time before terrorists acquire these weapons and begin using them.

The free and open society that we are all enjoying today is on borrowed time.

All it is going to take is the detonation of a single weapon of mass destruction in a major western city and everything will change.

(Originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog)

The President Of France Wants Eurozone Members To Transfer Their Sovereignty To A United States Of Europe

Europa Statue EU Headquarters Brussels

The President of France has come up with a very creative way of solving the European debt crisis. On Sunday, a piece authored by French President Francois Hollande suggested that the ultimate solution to the problems currently plaguing Europe would be for every member of the eurozone to transfer all of their sovereignty to a newly created federal government. In other words, it would essentially be a “United States of Europe”. This federal government would have a prime minister, a parliament, a federal budget and a federal treasury. Presumably, the current national governments in Europe would continue to function much like state governments in the U.S. do. In the end, there may be some benefits to such a union – particularly for the weaker members of the eurozone. But at what cost would those benefits come?

When I first learned that French President Francois Hollande had proposed that the members of the eurozone should create their own version of a federal government, I was quite stunned. But I shouldn’t have been surprised. For the global elite, the answer to just about any problem is more centralization. The following comes from a Bloomberg article that was posted on Sunday…

French President Francois Hollande said that the 19 countries using the euro need their own government complete with a budget and parliament to cooperate better and overcome the Greek crisis.

“Circumstances are leading us to accelerate,” Hollande said in an opinion piece published by the Journal du Dimanche on Sunday. “What threatens us is not too much Europe, but a lack of it.”

So precisely what would “more Europe” look like?

Hollande envisions a central government that has both a parliament and a federal budget…

“I have proposed taking up Jacques Delors’ idea about euro government, with the addition of a specific budget and a parliament to ensure democratic control,” Hollande said.

His remarks touched on what analysts have seen as a major flaw in the euro.

Under the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht, countries which share a common currency must obey rules on borrowing and deficit spending.

But the Greek crisis saw one of the 19 eurozone members notch up successive worsening deficits and amass a mountain of debt. The problems were only addressed by bailouts from the European institutions and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Critics say the problem stems from a lack of centralised control over national fiscal policies, which today are jealously guarded areas of sovereignty.

In addition, this eurozone government would have its own prime minister. In essence, he would be the European version of the president of the United States. The following comes from the Independent…

There would be a eurozone government with its own prime minister, the officials said. This government would have its own budget – separate from the EU budget – to aid and invest in more fragile countries, It would try to harmonise corporation and pay-roll taxes to ensure fair competition in the eurozone.

Of course Hollande is not the only one calling for more centralization. Last month, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem proposed a plan that would create a shared European treasury…

Draghi called for the creation of a shared treasury within 10 years in a joint proposal with politicians including European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem last month.

I don’t anticipate that we will see any of these things implemented immediately.

However, what is important is the fact that this is where the European elite plan to take Europe. And when the next great European financial crisis erupts, these proposals will be offered as the “solutions” necessary to end the crisis.

During times of emergency, the elite are often able to push things through that they would never be able to accomplish under normal circumstances. At the moment, it would be extremely difficult to get everyone to agree to a full-blown “United States of Europe”. But if things were to start spinning wildly out of control and people were suddenly desperately clamoring for solutions, the environment would be quite different.

What that time arrives, the key will be to get Germany and France to agree on what a “United States of Europe” should look like. If Germany and France can agree, it is inevitable that most of the other members of the eurozone would ultimately fall in line.

One potential hurdle for the creation of this new government would be the euro. The current treaty agreements concerning the euro are quite complicated and quite restrictive. If Germany and France decided that they did want to create a “United States of Europe”, they might have to create an entirely new currency in order to accomplish that.

I know that sounds kind of crazy right now, but at one time the concept of “the euro” sounded really crazy too.

For the moment, the debt crisis in Europe just continues to get even worse. Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Belgium and France are all drowning in debt. Whether or not we see a “Grexit” in the short-term, I fully expect that European bond yields will continue to rise and European stocks will take quite a tumble in the months ahead.

I believe that we are right on the verge of a very significant European financial crisis. In particular, keep on eye on the big banks. Just like in the United States, the “too big to fail” banks in Europe are massively overleveraged and are tremendously exposed to derivatives.

In fact, the bank with the most exposure to derivatives on the entire planet is Deutsche Bank. It has been reported that Deutsche Bank has a whopping 75 trillion dollars worth of exposure to derivatives, their co-CEOs were recently forced to resign, and there are all sorts of rumblings about troubles going on behind the scenes at the bank.

What do you think would happen if the biggest and most important bank in Germany suddenly became the next Lehman Brothers?

That is something to think about.

Meanwhile, the euro continues to fall. For a long time, I have been repeating my prediction that the euro would fall to parity with the U.S. dollar.

One year ago, the EUR/USD was sitting at 1.35.

Today, it has come all the way down to 1.08.

There will be more ups and downs, but we are almost there.

A time of great chaos is coming to Europe, and the eurozone will be deeply shaken.

But whether or not there is a break up of the eurozone in the short-term, in the long-term the goal of the European elite is even more integration and even more centralization.

So even though there will be significant bumps in the road, I fully expect to see the “United States of Europe” that French President Francois Hollande has proposed.

Do you agree?

What do you think the future holds for Europe?

Please feel free to join the discussion by posting a comment below…

(Originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog)

French police seize woman at home of ‘ISIS fanatic’ who beheaded his boss and scrawled Arabic writing on the severed head

Terrorism - Public Domain

Four people are in custody in connection to a beheading and explosion at a gas factory in south-eastern France – and police are still searching buildings for evidence.

Heavily armed police investigating this morning’s brutal terror attack in France have removed a woman and child from the home of Yassine Salhi – the suspected Islamist accused of beheading his boss and trying to blow up the American-owned gas factory.

He was known to factory personnel because he came in regularly for deliveries, Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said.

Police swooped on the apartment building in Saint-Priest, in the suburbs of the city of Lyon, just hours after the 30-year-old delivery driver was arrested on suspicion of writing Arabic slogans on his employer’s severed head and hanging it on a fence outside the nearby headquarters of Air Products.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Forget Grexit, “Madame Frexit” Says France Is Next: French Presidential Frontrunner Wants Out Of “Failed” Euro

France - Photo by TUBS

There has been some confusion why Germany and the Eurozone are so strict in negotiating with France and unwilling to concede even to the smallest of what they deem as outlandish Greek demands. The reason is not so much whether Spain or even Italy, both countries with soaring unemployment, a lost generation and a sweeping movement against “austerity”, follow with comparable demands should Europe concede to Tsipras, but France, where the frontrunner for the next president, the National Front’s Marine Le Pen, has just warned that not only is a Grexit inevitable, but that France would follow shortly.

Here it is worth reminding that one of the biggest European concerns with Greece is not so much its resolute attitude toward Greek demands which Europe can easily squash and force a regime change by cutting off ELA to Greek banks forcing a prompt and violent coup d’etat, but dealing with political parties who promise anything and everything just to be elected, in the process pushing aside Europe’s preferred technocrats who will do the bidding of Brussels without the smallest objection.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Slain Paris Terrorist Claims He Was Working For ISIS In Posthumous Video, Explains Reasons For Attack

France - Photo by TUBS

Two days after the dramatic and tragic events from Friday, Amedy Coulibaly, who in coordination with the two brothers who attacked a satirical newspaper and said they were affiliated with al-Qaeda, killed four hostages at a Paris supermarket Friday before he was slain by police appeared in a new posthumous video released on Sunday, on which he pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group and explained the planning and the reasoning behind the attacks that sowed terror across France.

According to WaPo “the video pointed to the dangers, long anticipated by law enforcement, posed by the expanding allure of the group that has conquered vast areas of Iraq and Syria over the past two years, even as al-Qaeda continues to pursue its own agenda of staging attacks against the West. The video offered no evidence, however, that Coulibaly had been in contact with the Islamic State before his assault on the supermarket, which may represent another example of the “lone wolf” attacks that the Islamic State has inspired, analysts said.”

As Breaking 911 adds, “filmed over several days and edited after the attacks, the video shows Amedy Coulibaly displaying a small arsenal of weapons, doing pushups and pullups in a drab courtyard and, in broken Arabic, giving fealty to IS militants. The video appeared Sunday on militant websites, and two men who dealt drugs with Coulibaly confirmed his identify to The Associated Press.”

(Read the rest of the story here…)

THREE TERRORISTS AND FOUR HOSTAGES DEAD: Bloody end to French sieges as commandos storm kosher deli and printing firm where magazine assassins and policewoman’s killer were holed up

Je_suis_Charlie - Joachim Roncin’s Twitter

Three Islamic jihadists were dead tonight after special forces brought an end to more than two days of slaughter which have left at least 17 dead and spread terror across France.

Said and Cherif Kouachi, the brothers who had assassinated 12 people at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, died in a blaze of gunfire at a printworks near Paris where they had been holed up with one hostage, who survived.

Moments later, dozens of commandos stormed a Jewish grocery 25 miles away in east Paris where accomplice Amedey Coulibaly was threatening to kill 15 terrified captives, including women and children.

In an earlier phone call to a journalist, Coulibaly confirmed that he was in contact with the Kouachis and the attacks had been ‘synchronised’. He said he had sworn allegiance to Islamic State in Iraq and had targeted the shop because ‘it was Jewish’.

The 32-year-old, responsible for the death of a woman police officer on Thursday, was also ‘neutralised’ in the assault. But his 27-year-old girlfriend Hayat Boumeddiene – described as ‘armed and dangerous’ is on the run.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Terrorists Fired RPG Inside Charlie Hebdo Office

RPG - Vitaly V. Kuzmin on Flickr

The terrorists who attacked Charlie Hebdo staff fired a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) inside the magazine’s office, according to a high-level military source in France associated with the French National Police.

At least one RPG was detonated inside the Charlie Hedbo building, the source said, confirming previous reports by the Daily Mail and other news outlets suggesting a RPG was used in the attack which led to the deaths of 12 people.

French National Police kept quiet about the RPG to keep from scaring the public and it also explains why they released very few images from inside the office.

The police killed the two suspects in the attack Friday after the suspects took hostages at a kosher supermarket in Paris.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

France: Raids kill 3 suspects, including 2 wanted in Charlie Hebdo attack

France - Photo by TUBS

A pair of dramatic raids Friday in France led to the killing of three terrorists — one suspected in the fatal shooting of a policewoman, the other two in the massacre at the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine — and to the freeing of at least some of those they were holding hostage.

The French government’s work is not over. There’s still a lot of healing to do, a lot of questions to answer about how to prevent future attacks, and the pursuit of a woman wanted in the policewoman’s shooting.

Still, as Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said, “The nation is relieved tonight.”

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Third French Police Officer Killed As Terror Suspects Reportedly Spotted

arc de triomphe in Paris - Public Domain

The manhunt for two men suspected in the massacre at a satirical newspaper’s Paris headquarters appeared to be honing in on its targets northeast of the French capital Thursday.

There were reports that the French-Algerian brothers, Cherif Kouachi, 32, and Said Kouachi, 34, wanted in the Charlie Hebdo attack, might have been traced to Crepy-en-Valois, a town northeast of Paris, but an Interior Ministry official denied the suspects were cornered there.

Police were also seen searching homes in the village of Corcy, near the town of Longpont, further to the east but in the same region as Crepy-en-Valois. Most of the police activity reported Thursday was along or near to a highway running northeast from central Paris, the N2.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Thousands rally in France in support of terror attack victims

Paris Skyline - Public Domain

In Paris, crowds of people swarmed into the Place de la Republique that lies barely a kilometre (half a mile) from the scene of the bloodbath that has shocked France.

At least 20,000 people also gathered in the French cities of Lyon and Toulouse, police said, after 12 people were killed by heavily armed gunmen screaming “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest).

Demonstrators wore black stickers marked “Je suis Charlie” (I am Charlie),a slogan aimed at showing solidarity with the victims of the deadliest attack in France in decades.

Others waved banners with slogans such as “Press freedom has no price” and “Charb mort libre” (Charb died free), a reference to the newspaper’s slain editor-in-chief Stephane Charbonnier.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Massive hunt underway for gunmen in Paris terror attack

Bloody Handprint

Three masked gunmen shouting Islamic phrases stormed the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo Wednesday, killing 12 people, including the editorial director and four cartoonists whose work included controversial drawings of the prophet Mohammed.

The gunmen, wearing hoods and armed with Kalashnikov automatic rifles, killed a receptionist to gain entrance to the offices in central Paris, then opened fire on a second-floor editorial meeting, killing 10 people, including eight journalists, prosecutor Francois Molins told reporters. A police officer was killed during their getaway.

Eight others were injured in the noon-time attack, including four who were in serious condition.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

12 Dead In Islamic Terror Attack In Paris

France - Photo by TUBS

Hooded, black-clad gunmen burst into the office of provocative French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday, killing 12 — an attack that could be a game changer, given that the terrorists appeared well-armed, well-coordinated and, since they escaped onto the streets of Paris, capable of striking again.

While Europe is no stranger to militant Islamist terrorism in the age of al Qaeda and now ISIS, this was no “lone wolf” attack involving one person as has happened in the past. The assailants concealed their identities and seemed very organized, right down to their getaway.

The fact they remained at large Tuesday night means another bloodbath could happen at any time, whether or not the Charlie Hebdo attackers belonged to a larger group.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

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