"It is not enough to know that there is a shadow government pulling the strings of the visible government- we must also act to expose it, and defeat it!"-Mark Matheny
Blood moons and eclipses are sensational, but have you heard about the 'Super Shemitah'? Best-selling author Jonathan Cahn explains The Mystery of the Shemitah, The Biblical Pattern Which Indicates That A Financial Collapse May Be Coming In 2015. Does a mystery that is 3,500 years old hold the key to what is going to happen to global financial markets in 2015?
Washington DC (CFAM) — A government report shows two international abortion advocacy groups received $128 million from USAID, a federal agency that distributes foreign aid.
One of them – International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) – works at the UN Its goal is to require countries to regard abortion as a right and include it in global poverty and health programs. The other, Population Council, works to make abortions widely available in developing countries where it is especially dangerous.
Both groups have origins in the eugenics movement.
U.S. law prohibits foreign aid paying for abortions. But under an executive order by President Obama, tax dollars can go to international groups that provide and promote abortion. While the money cannot be spent to do abortions, paying for items like overhead, advocacy and materials frees other money to be spent on abortions.
IPPF is an umbrella group for 152 affiliates worldwide. Last year it published a manual on pressuring countries to integrate “sexual and reproductive health and rights” – euphemisms for abortion and sexuality issues – into the UN’s new development goals. These goals will guide international and national priorities – and billions of dollars – for the next 15 years.
The manual tells advocates to lobby governments that do not support “certain sexual and reproductive health and rights issues” to “stay silent rather than speak out against them.” It endorses the notion that sexual rights “embrace the right to a safe and full sex life” — though admits there is no internationally agreed definition for the term.
Population Council, with a history in the population control movement, conducts research to make abortion widespread and available without access to medical professionals, particularly targeting poor women in developing countries.
When no pharmaceutical company in the U.S. would touch the French abortion pill RU-486, Population Council took ownership and applied for FDA approval. Abortion in a pill is seen as a way to avoid doctors and skirt laws regulating the procedure. Subsequently, over a dozen women – that were reported – died after taking the drug.
““Like a majority of the American people, I stand for life – born or unborn – and it is an affront to us when we see our hard-earned tax dollars going to groups that end innocent lives,” said Rep. Vicky Hartzler.
Over 70 congressmen requested the investigation by the General Accountability Office to determine how much federal money is given to six abortion advocacy groups: Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), Population Council, International Planned Parenthood Federation of America (IPPF), Guttmacher Institute, Advocates for Youth, and Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States
Some of the groups have tried to downplay their abortion provision and advocacy by characterizing it as only a part of what they do.
Two of the federal grant recipients – Planned Parenthood Federation of America (an IPPF affiliate) and Guttmacher Institute – donate to Ipas, an organization that does just one thing: provide abortion and promote access to it in developing countries. Ipas was founded to distribute abortion devices after Congress passed a ban on federal funding for overseas abortions.
“Simply put, under no circumstances should the federal government use taxpayer dollars to be an accessory to abortion,” said Rep. Diane Black.
Matheny's Note: Is another False Flag event in the making??
Islamic State radicals and their supporters have launched a Twitter campaign against Americans under the “WeWillBurnUSAgain” hashtag, referring to the 9/11 attacks, the SITE service, which monitors the online activity of extremist groups, warns.
“In a time of lone wolf attacks, and Americans and other Westerners pledging to the Islamic State, this kind of campaign should not be taken lightly,” SITE Director Rita Katz stressed on Friday.
In collaboration with Big Business and special interests, the Obama administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is plotting a new program to track Americans’ vaccination records, wage a massive propaganda campaign to “encourage” more inoculations, and foist more controversial vaccines on adults against their will. Federal bureaucrats and crony capitalists set to profit from the proposal claim the goal is to improve “public health,” and establishment media outlets have largely parroted that line so far. However, critics of the unconstitutional scheme, formally dubbed the “National Adult Immunization Plan” (NAIP), say the ultimate goal is to forcibly vaccinate all Americans and move toward a radical new healthcare paradigm in which medical “treatment” is delivered at gunpoint.
The controversial plot was cooked up and unveiled by the Obama HHS National Vaccine Advisory Committee during its February meeting. If approved by federal bureaucrats, the executive-branch assault would, among other elements, enlist private businesses, churches, and non-profit organizations in a nationwide campaign to prod Americans into accepting the Obama administration’s perpetually expanding list of “recommended” vaccines. The scheme would also offer doctors and other vaccine providers “incentives” — read taxpayer-funded bribes — to shred patient privacy and feed private medical information into state and federal databases to track those who refuse to comply.
SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!! News Mark matheny April 11, 2015
Pope Francis is pushing the agenda of "Climate Change" to the masses of his followers as well as to the world.
Although there is a ton of evidence to show that global warming and anthropogenic global warming is just an agenda to push for global carbon taxes, and to internationalize regulations under the United Nations in order to bring in a World Government, the Pope is still attempting to convince us to believe the nonsense.
As the world grapples with combating climate change, one world leader aiming to influence the outcome might come as a surprise.
Pope Francis.
The leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics not only says the world must try to protect against an environmental catastrophe regardless of its cause, but he is preparing the first ever papal letter to the church’s bishops focused on the environment.
He hopes it will encourage U.N. negotiators meeting in Paris in December to make courageous decisions about protecting the world from global warming, he told reporters traveling with him to the Philippines earlier this year.
“I don't know if (human activity) is the only cause, but mostly, in great part, it is man who has slapped nature in the face," he said in January before visiting with survivors of 2013’s Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded, according to federal weather experts. “We have in a sense taken over nature."
Pope Francis is exceptionally well regarded at the end of his first two years as pontiff, a tenure during which he has rejected ostentatious trappings of the Vatican, embraced the poor and criticized a church that he says has become obsessed with abortion, gay marriage and contraception. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released in March found that only 6 percent of Americans viewed him negatively, while 55 percent had positive feelings about him.
Now with his papal letter, or encyclical, he is expected to tie together the environment, development and concern for the poor. It will be published over the summer, in time for the U.N. General Assembly’s discussion on sustainable development in September and the Climate Change Conference meeting on reducing global warming in Paris in December.
Some scholars at Catholic universities hope that given Francis' popularity, Americans will pay close attention to what he says in the encyclical and during his visit to the United States in September, when he will address Congress and the United Nations.
This agenda is not for the preservation of earth, but for the enslavement of humanity. Check out the video below for more details on Agenda 21. Technocracy is essentially the end goal of Agenda 21.
In August of 2014, military helicopters flew low over residential neighborhoods of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, engaged in a series of night-time training exercises. The exercises involved the Naval Warfare Development Group - a "special forces" component of the U.S. Navy - and were aimed at enhancing urban combat tactics.
Just as they had two years earlier, military personnel had come to the Twin Cities to conduct counter-terrorism training operations in an urban environment. And just as before, those operations commenced with little advance notice to the public.
Follow-up to 2012 exercise
Records obtained from the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) by Public Record Media (PRM) indicate that, in many ways, the 2014 training was built upon foundations laid two years earlier. Correspondence between the U.S. Navy and the MPD involved many of the same figures who participated in the 2012 operation - most centrally, those tasked to the Minneapolis SWAT unit.
An April, 2014 e-mail from MPD's Jonathan Kingsbury to SWAT Commander Robert Skoro references the upcoming military exercise, and notes that "it is very similar to the August 2012 event." Kingsbury also states that the operation "has been briefed and approved by the Mayor's office … and is being hosted by the SWAT officers of the Minneapolis Police Department."
As referenced by Kingsbury, the 2014 exercises had been solicited by the U.S. military via a letterdelivered to Minneapolis mayor Betsy Hodges. The letter requested the Mayor's support for "low-intensity urban tactical training" by special forces personnel who are "constantly refining tactics to learn how to most effectively engage the enemy while ensuring the safety of non-combatants."
As with the 2012 exercises, it appears that plans were made to provide cross-training exercises for Minneapolis police officers. "Hopefully," Kingsbury's states in his e-mail, "we will have the opportunity to get some of our folks into the game like we did last time."
Low-profile sought
Throughout the MPD documents, repeated references are made to the Navy's desire to keep the profile of the event as discreet as possible. A January, 2014 e-mail from MPD Deputy Chief Edie Frizell characterizes the training mission in just those terms. "This is a highly respected and security sensitive effort," Frizell writes. "The training was conducted in 2012 in Minneapolis with little or no fanfare - that is the way they want it."
Frizell's message states that strict security protocols extended even to the Navy's initial, written solicitation. Frizell recounts that the Navy's letter was hand delivered, and that face-to-face planning conversations were required "because of the sensitivity of the training."
The Navy's letter to Mayor Hodges expands on the security concerns surrounding the exercise, and explicitly requests that advance notice of the event be limited. "Due to the sensitivities of this training," the letter states, "we respectfully request that any information pertaining to this training be excluded from automatic public release."
Documents written seven months later - just prior to the the training itself - indicate that the Navy's wishes appear to have been adhered to by the MPD. An e-mail from Jonathan Kingsbury to Robert Skoro notes that a memo on the exercise had been disseminated to precinct commanders, but that it did not contain "much info."
Training schedule
Messages traded among MPD personnel indicate that police were directly involved in portions of the Navy operation, and also provided perimeter security at the various training sites.
The presence of low-flying, black helicopters was the most obvious sign to the public that military training was underway, but records show that Naval exercises had already been occurring a week previous to this. Naval forces had commenced ground operations on August 11th, independent of aerial support. Helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft arrived on August 17th, and the "full mission profile" of combined air-ground operations ran from August 18 to 21.
A closing ceremony for the exercises was held at the Air National Guard museum on August 21st, just prior to the commencement of the final exercise. An unidentified federal official notified MPD personnel that the event was a closed ceremony, but that "DOD specifically invited all of you to attend." Chief Harteau's administrative assistant replied that her schedule was not open at that time, but that the Chief "sent her best."
In the last year alone we have added 2.1 million Americans to the “not in the labor force” category. This mysterious category continues to grow and is having a field day with the employment data. It is hard to ignore this number because it represents a large portion of our population that is simply not counted in the labor force data. You have older Americans in this category but you also have a large number of people wanting work and simply not being able to find it. You also have many relenting and taking up work in the low wage segment of our economy. The unemployment rate would have you believe that this is a fantastic recovery but in March alone we added 277,000 to the not in the labor force category while only 126,000 jobs were created. It is becoming more apparent there will be a strain on the one-third of Americans supporting the other two-thirds.
Non-working America
There seems to be this selective blindness to this group. The narrative that tries to explain this growth away is that older Americans are simply retiring. This is more myth than fact. First, retirement assumes that many older Americans have the means to retire. The reality is, half of older Americans on Social Security would be in poverty if it were not for that monthly check. Many older Americans are working into old age because they have to. Another segment is the group of people meandering in college. Most are there to gain an education and grow. Many are there going into deep debt with a degree that will probably yield very little in the marketplace.
We have some significant structural issues to confront here. Take a look at this growth:
93.2 million Americans are now not in the labor force. In the last year alone we’ve added 2.1 million to this category. This is a staggering amount to an already large group. What makes it more difficult is that you have a larger burden of production being placed on those in the private sector. One-third of Americans are supporting two-thirds of the population:
“Those in the private workforce are basically keeping things rolling for the rest. Now in this category of non-workers you have retirees and children but a big number is coming from people that should be working if this was truly some broad based recovery.”
The recovery is selective at best. It has helped the rentier class do better by juicing up the stock market and punishing savers. Wall Street has done a great job of crowding out the housing market making rents and home prices higher just because of the easy money policy used to bail out banks. But how has this helped the overall economy? You have most jobs coming in the low wage service sector and income growth is stagnant.
93.2 million Americans are not in the labor force, a record number that can’t be simply accounted for by retiring Americans. And keep in mind that many older Americans are going to rely heaving on Social Security and Medicare as healthcare costs rise. Where is the money going to come from? Many young workers are just trying to get by and shifting demographics are going to make this inverted pyramid a difficult task to carry forward.
Those not in the labor force is largely ignored by the press because it doesn’t show up in the headline unemployment rate. So what that we added 277,000 to this category last month alone? It is as if this group just disappears off the statistics chart every month. However having 93.2 million not in the labor force is a hard number to ignore.
AMARI AIR BASE, Estonia (AP) — Russia is so close that the F-16 fighter pilots can see it on the horizon as they swoop down over a training range in Estonia in the biggest ever show of U.S. air power in the Baltic countries.
The simulated bombs release smoke on impact, but the M-61 cannon fires live ammunition, rattling the aircraft with a deafening tremor and shattering targets on the ground.
The four-week drill is part of a string of non-stop exercises by U.S. land, sea and air forces in Europe — from Estonia in the north to Bulgaria in the south — scaled up since last year to reassure nervous NATO allies after Russia's military intervention in Ukraine. U.S. and Russian forces are now essentially back in a Cold War-style standoff, flexing their muscles along NATO's eastern flank.
The saber-rattling raises the specter that either side could misinterpret a move by the other, triggering a conflict between two powers with major nuclear arsenals despite a sharp reduction from the Cold War era.
"A dangerous game of military brinkmanship is now being played in Europe," said Ian Kearns, director of the European Leadership Network, a London-based think-tank. "If one commander or one pilot makes a mistake or a bad decision in this situation, we may have casualties and a high-stakes cycle of escalation that is difficult to stop."
Rabbi David of Lelov fasted and afflicted himself for his sins. For six years he fasted, and then for another six. Yet he was still not satisfied that he had achieved perfect atonement, but he did not know what else to do.So he traveled to Lizhensk to ask the holy Elimelekh what he still lacked. He arrived just before the Sabbath. That evening he went before the Rabbi with all the other disciples and reached out his hand for the rabbi's handshake. To his dismay, Elimelekh shook everyone's hand but his. "Surely he mistakes me for someone else," he thought. When the prayers were over, he approached the rabbi again, but again the rabbi snubbed him. All that night he wept. In the morning he decided to leave Lizhensk as soon as the Sabbath had ended. But when the third meal came, the time when Elimelekh spoke words of Torah, he could not resist peeking in at the window of the rabbi's house and listening in. "Some people think," he heard the rabbi say, "that by fasting six years and then another six years, they achieve perfection of the soul. Then they come to me so that I can supply the little they still lack. What they fail to see is that all their sacrifices and devotion only serve the idol of their own pride, not heaven. If they want to serve Ha Shem truly, they must turn away from the path they are now on and serve Ha Shem with a truthful heart." When Rabbi David heard Elimelekh's words, his heart trembled within his breast and he began to cry. At the conclusion of havdalah, he opened the door to Elimelekh's house and stood there, shaking with fear. Elimelekh ran up to him , embraced him and cried, "Welcome! A blessing upon your head!" When he saw this, Eleazar, Elimelekh's son, burst out, " Father, isn't this the same man whom you snubbed twice because you couldn't even stand the sight of him?" "Oh no!", replied Elimelekh with a broad smile. "That was somebody completely different. Don't you see that this is our own dear Rabbi David?" - Hasidic Tale
"When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom."
-Proverbs 11:2
We as believers in Ha Shem often feel as if we must somehow cleanse and perfect ourselves through our own efforts. In the story above, the rabbi devoted twelve years to fasting and afflicting himself, yet he still felt that there was something lacking within himself. It was only after being snubbed by Elimelekh, that he saw his pride keeping himself from truly serving Ha Shem. We can sometimes be like the Rabbi David, thinking that we can perform acts of devotion, whether it be fasting, afflicting ourselves, or even by attending service and helping with charities, etc. We then go to "Elimelekh" (which means - My G-d is King) and ask Him to supply the little that is still lacking..... This is indeed a boastful and proud way of seeing oneself, as if anything we can do would in anyway please Ha Shem, or perfect one's own being.
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthyrags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
-Isaiah 64:6
It is when we can come to the conclusion that it is Ha Shem who perfects our way, through His instruction, that we can be humble enough to ask Him to supply all that is lacking within us.
"But my El shall supplyall your need according to His riches in Kavode (glory) by Mashiakh Yahshua."
-Phillipians 4:19
It's not that we should neglect fasting, or assembling together, or even giving to charity etc., but we must not think that any of these things by our own merit are what makes us whole, or perfects us. Shle'akh Sha'ul taught :
"Let no man deceive himself. Ifanyman among you seemeth to bewise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may bewise."
-I Corinthians 3:18
If we are to be perfect before Ha Shem, then we must look to what is perfect that Ha Shem has given to us.
The law of YHWH is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of YHWH is sure, making wise the simple. -Psalm 19:7
Humility is something we must cultivate in our walk with The Holy One. Our Mashiakh is the perfect example:
"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Mashiakh Yahshua,who, though he was in the form of El, did not count equality with El a thing to be grasped,but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men."
-Phillipians 2:5-7
We must empty ourselves of the ways and desires of this world, and seek to fill ourselves with the things of Ha Shem. His Torah is what He desires for us. He has given instruction to us that we might be filled with joy and long life upon the earth, as well as in the Olawm Ha Bah (the world to come).
In Aikido, the first lesson I was taught as a student, was the lesson of "Ukemi", -"to fall". We had to learn first to take a fall. It was a very "humbling" experience to say the least.But in repeated falls, it built and toughened my body.
Relying on Ha Shem, and following His instruction (Torah) is the way to a great reward.
" The law of YHWH is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of YHWH is sure, making wise the simple.The statutes of YHWH are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of YHWH is pure, enlightening the eyes.The fear of YHWH is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of YHWH are true and righteous altogether.More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward."
-Psalm 19
Pride will stifle our walk with Ha Shem and bring many sorrows along the way:
And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
- Isaiah 13:11
"For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the prideoflife, is not of the Father, but is of the world."
-I John 2:16
May the Holy One Bless you and Keep you, In Mashiakh Yahshua,
Mark Matheny
SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!! News Mark Matheny April 7, 2015 We know that Obama's desire and role is to annihilate Israel. He is supporting all the Arab groups in the Middle East that are hell bent on the destruction of the State of Israel.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee decided to fly a Communist China flag right next to the American flag at the Washington State capitol to honor a visiting Chinese ambassador.
Inslee, a Democrat, ordered the Chinese flag be raised right between Old Glory and the state flag outside the capitol building in Olympia.
Some local patriots, however, were not pleased and took matters into their own hands.
With the help of a Washington State Trooper, several activists lowered the Chinese flag.
They said that flying the flag of Communist China at the same height as the stars and stripes was disrespectful.
The Guardian reports statistics on opium agriculture in Afghanistan:
“…the US counternarcotics mission in Afghanistan stands out: opiate production has climbed steadily over recent years to reach record-high levels last year.”
“Far from eradicating the deep-rooted opiate trade, US counternarcotics efforts have proven useless, according to a series of recent official inquiries. Other aspects of the billions that the US has poured into Afghanistan over the last 13 years of war have even contributed to the opium boom.”
“In December, the United Nations reported a 60% growth in Afghan land used for opium poppy cultivation since 2011, up to 209,000 hectares…”
“…the [UN] inspector general also noted that US reconstruction projects, particularly those devoted to ‘improved irrigation, roads, and agricultural assistance’ were probably leading to the explosion in opium cultivation.
“’[A]ffordable deep-well technology turned 200,000 hectares of desert in southwestern Afghanistan into arable land over the past decade,’ the inspector general found, concluding that ‘much of this newly arable land is dedicated to opium cultivation’.”
Who’s kidding who?
In Colombia, the US government proved it could eradicate coca and opium-poppy growing fields. One of the solutions was an herbicide called Roundup. You may have heard of it.
But in Afghanistan, the US just didn’t remember that. It skipped their mind. Oops.
Suddenly, the Afghanistan mission became one of good will. Mustn’t upset the farmers. In Colombia, upsetting the farmers was perfectly all right.
When you can lessen a problem but choose not to, you want the problem to persist. It’s simple.
And at that point, the problem becomes an opportunity—it always was.
The air is frigid and the wind is howling as Air Force Col. Frank Flores lifts a pair of foot-long binoculars and studies a hazy dot about 50 miles west across the Bering Strait. "That's the mainland there," he shouts above the gusts. It's Siberia, part of Russia, on the Asian mainland. Named for an old mining camp, Tin City is a tiny Air Force installation atop an ice-shrouded coastal mountain 50 miles below the Arctic Circle, far from any road or even trees. The Pentagon took over the remote site decades ago and built a long-range radar station to help detect a surprise attack from the Soviet Union. At least from this frozen perch, America's closest point to Vladimir Putin's Russia, the Cold War is turning warm again. U.S. F-22 fighter jets scrambled about 10 times last year — twice as often as in 2013 — to monitor and photograph Russian Tu-95 "Bear" bombers and MiG-31 fighter jets that flew over the Bering Sea without communicating with U.S. air controllers or turning on radio transponders, which emit identifying signals. The Russian flights are in international airspace, and it's unclear whether they are testing U.S. defenses, patrolling the area or simply projecting a newly assertive Moscow's global power. "They're obviously messaging us," said Flores, a former Olympic swimmer who is in charge of Tin City and 14 other radar stations scattered along the vast Alaskan coast. "We still don't know their intent." Read the entire article
Learning to speak Chinese may be a really good investment.
In 2009, billionaire financier and establishment powerbroker George Soros called for the communist regime ruling mainland China to “own” what he referred to as the “New World Order.” In 2015, it has become clear that Beijing is stepping up to the plate as its agents infiltrate the full architecture of existing “global governance” institutions,even while adding their own totalitarian-minded tentaclesto it. And despite the effort to portray near-bankrupt Western governments as helpless and confused spectators in the whole process, the globalist European and American establishment’s fingerprints are all over the rise of the Chinese Communist autocrats, and the accompanying decline of the West.
Among other concerns expressed by analysts and officials is the fact that operatives for the ruthless Chinese dictatorship are quietly burrowing their way to the top of existing so-called “global governance” institutions. Multiple United Nations agencies, for example, are now under the leadership of Beijing’s agents — not to mention Communist China seizing control in 1971 over a veto-wielding seat on the UN Security Council, which purports to have the ability to deploy UN military forces under various guises. Despite its unparalleled record of mass-murder, persecution, and tyranny, Beijing even has a seat on the widely ridiculed UN “Human Rights” Council.
Two weeks ago we noticed something quite “persuasive”: ahead of the culmination of the March 31 April 2 Iran nuclear negotiations, the US had dispatched a huge naval presence to the Persian Gulf as part of “Eagle Resolve” a military exercise held in plain view of the Iranian coastline. The massive operation would consist of tactical exercises from the US Army, Marines, and various other military branches “with simulated portions of the exercise based on a fictional adversary.” Just in case the intention of this wargame was not clear, a CENTCOM official was quick to point out that “the exercise is not intended as a signal to Iran.” Iran quickly got the “non-signal” message and a few days later agreed to a preemptive agreement with John Kerry which has since been revealed, is anything but a “nuclear deal.”
So as the world awaits the outcome of next Iran “deadline”- the June 30 conclusion of the finalization of the Iran deal – the US is already hedging its bets. According to the WSJ, the Pentagon has “upgraded and tested the largest bunker-buster bomb in the U.S. arsenal, senior U.S. officials said, readying a weapon that could destroy or disable Iran’s most heavily fortified nuclear facilities should a nuclear deal fall apart and the White House decide to take military action.”
It turns out as the Nobel peace prize winner and his henchmen were talking peace, the Pentagon is actively preparing for war:
Even while the Obama administration was pursuing a diplomatic agreement with Iran to rein in its nuclear program, the Pentagon was readying the improvements to one of its most destructive conventional weapons, including electronic countermeasures to prevent an adversary from jamming its guidance systems.
“The Pentagon continues to be focused on being able to provide military options for Iran if needed,” a senior U.S. official said. “We have not taken our eyes off the ball.”
As noted previously, U.S. officials are unsure whether the terms of a final accord can be reached before a June 30 deadline. “Officials said major gaps remained over the technical details as well as implementation, and it is unclear if the U.S. Congress will pass legislation challenging the White House’s terms.”
So, just to make sure there is no negotiating stumbling blocks on behalf of Tehran, the US is doing its best to “negotiate” with a gun to Iran’s head. Or, as the case may be, a Massive Ordnance Penetrator, aka MOP.
A brief history of the GBU-57:
This is what the GBU-57 MOP looks like to scale:
Here is the MOP locked and loaded:
How the MOP is said to work:
Back in 2012, the WSJ reported that the previous iteration of the 30,000-pound (13,607 kg) bunker buster wasn’t powerful enough to destroy some fortified Iranian nuclear facilities. So work began to upgrade the bomb’s design and guidance systems. That upgrade is now complete.
The Pentagon declined to comment on any improvements to the so-called Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or MOP.
“The United States military prepares for a broad range of potential threats to include developing munitions designed to address deeply buried and hardened facilities,” said Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.
The redesigned bunker-buster is clearly intended to be unleashed on Iran’s mountainous research facilities in a worst case scenario:
The Pentagon designed the bunker buster with heavily fortified sites—including Iran’s Fordow installation—in mind. Fordow is built into a mountain to protect the facility from U.S. or Israeli airstrikes.
To destroy or disable the underground facilities, the Pentagon envisages guiding two or more of the bunker busters to the same impact point, in sequence, extending the weapon’s burrowing power, the officials said.
The MOP is so strong, the WSJ compares its destructive force to a nuclear weapon:
Those upgraded electronic countermeasures, combined with improvements to the weapon’s guidance systems, will allow the weapon to be targeted with a precision previously possible only for far smaller guided bombs in the U.S. arsenal, the officials said. Steering two or more massive ordnance penetrators to a single entry point would have a devastating effect never before seen by a nonnuclear weapon, the officials said.
The White House has repeatedly said that Mr. Obama will need to look at other options if the nuclear talks break down. “If you say all options are on the table, you have to have something on the table that’s credible,” a senior U.S. official said.
What remains unknown is whether Israel is also in possession of the MOP, because while theatrical politics at the top echelons of power suggest a breakdown in US-Israel relations, it is behind the scenes where the real action takes place:
The U.S. has balked at providing its biggest bunker buster bomb to Israel, but Pentagon officials have shared details about its capabilities with their Israeli counterparts, and has shown them videos of the weapon hitting a target during testing.
In one of those videos, which was described by U.S. officials who have viewed it, a massive ordnance penetrator is seen dropping in slow motion toward a large “X” marking the target at an undisclosed test site.
The video then cuts to an image showing an underground bunker buried beneath the “X” and depicts the site’s destruction.
In other words, US officials are just waiting for the right Israeli offer.
As for the question whether the MOP will be actually used, which is basically a question whether the Iran “deal” will fall apart over the next three months, ask Boeing - the maker of the GBU-57 MOP – which stands to benefit (or lose) the most from any war (or lack thereof) with Iran.
And just to make sure the outcome is one in which the most blood is shed…
