CHICAGO (AP) — Three men arrested earlier this week when police raided a Chicago apartment were being held Saturday on terrorismconspiracy charges, accused of trying to make Molotov cocktails ahead of the NATO summit.

Their attorney, Sarah Gelsomino, said the men are “absolutely in shock and have no idea where these charges are coming from.”

They were scheduled to be in court later Saturday for a bond hearing on charges of conspiracy to commit terrorism, possession of an explosive or incendiary device and providing material support for terrorism.

Six others arrested Wednesday in the South Side raid were released Friday without being charged.

Among the items seized by federal authorities was beer-making equipment, Gelsomino said.

Chicago police Lt. Kenneth Stoppa declined to elaborate on the case beyond confirming the charges against the three who were still in custody.

Police identified the men being held as Brian Church, 20, of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; Jared Chase, 24, of Keene, N.H.; and Brent Vincent Betterly, 24. A police spokesman gave Betterly’s hometown as Oakland Park, Mass., but no such town exists. There is an Oakland Park, Fla., that is near Fort Lauderdale.

The three came to Chicago in late April to take part in May Day protests, said activist Bill Vassilakis, who said he let them stay in his apartment.

He said Betterly was an industrial electrician and had volunteered to help wire service at The Plant, a former meatpacking facility that has been turned into a food incubator with the city’s backing.

Vassilakis said he thought the charges were unwarranted.

“All I can say about that is, if you knew Brent, you would find that to be the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever heard. He was the most stand-up guy that was staying with me. He and the other guys had done nothing but volunteer their time and energy,” he said.”

Authorities in Oakland Park, Fla., said Betterly and two other young men walked into a public high school last fall after a night of tequila drinking and took a swim in the pool, according to a report in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

They stole fire extinguishers from three school buses, discharged one and smashed a cafeteria window with another. The vandalism caused about $2,000 in damage, the newspaper said.

Betterly was charged with burglary, theft and criminal mischief.

Yahoo News has the full article

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 NATO weekend is officially here. Busloads of Occupiers, anarchists, communists, and other radicals have been arriving for the past few days in Chicago.
Events and “actions” began on Monday this week with 8 arrests that morning at the Obama campaign headquarters and continued that afternoon on the south side of Chicago at a protest organized by the Chicago Teachers Union and Occupy Chicago. That protest was against “corporate higher education” and, more specifically, over budget cuts to Dyett High School that led to the termination of an art teacher.

Actions continued Tuesday morning with a march demanding an end to detentions of illegal aliens, with a vigil supporting rights for illegal aliens and immigrant families. Tuesday night marked the beginning of a violent anarchist/occupy presence in Chicago, with a violent march on the city’s south side.

The march featured masked anarchists, communists, and occupiers chanting “f*ck the police,” which also happened to the name of the march (“FTP March”). Protesters harassed and taunted police, with support from some local residents, under the banner of ending police brutality, but there was some very vocal opposition from area neighbors who did not appreciate the presence of the protesters.

The event ended with protesters storming the Halsted L Station and attempting to illegally enter the city transit system. After Chicago Transit Authority officials halted the train, the protesters left and continued their romp through back alleys, knocking over garbage cans and using construction horses as well as dumpsters to create barricades, slowing the police down from following them.

More “actions” followed Wednesday throughout the day and concluded in the evening at the Wellington United Church of Christ, a member of the Chicago Coalition of Welcoming Churches, where Occupiers and radicals have been invited to use the church as a base for planning their actions. Buses began dropping off hundreds of protesters at the church Wednesday evening and were still arriving as of Friday afternoon.

“Spontaneous” protests and marches took place Thursday on Chicago’s north side, in Lincoln Park, near the church. Several hundred protesters took over Halsted St. as they did Tuesday, this time on the opposite end of the city. The protest was in response to the arrests of nine more Occupiers the previous night. Those arrests took place at the home of two Occupy Chicago activists over suspicion they were producing Molotov cocktails. The police claimed they found equipment inside used for that purpose; the occupiers denied it, claiming the equipment is used for brewing beer.

Today the National Nurses United held a large rally in Daley plaza downtown. There were about 2,000 in attendance. Nurses donned Robin Hood hats and watched a stage show mocking the leaders of the G-8. Bill Ayers was in attendance with his wife Bernadine Dohrn. The show was topped off with a performance by Tom Morello, the guitarist of rap-rock group Rage Against the Machine. Morello showed his solidarity with the nurses by wearing a red star sewn into his black shirt–a pretty expensive looking shirt, I might add.

During the protest I attempted to conduct several interviews. However, the Nurses Union–apparently worried about certain media being around–had given wrist bands to approved media to wear and instructed nurses not to speak to anyone that was not wearing one. When I inquired with the press relations personnel regarding this, and told her I was with Breitbart, she said they would not be doing any interviews with anyone from Breitbart, and then went over to her supervisor and informed him, “Breitbart is here.” Had you seen it, and you still may, you would laugh and probably imagine Andrew is having a laugh about it too.

Not so funny, however, is that these radical organizations like the National Nurses United are afraid to talk to media which they fear do not fully support their radical ambitions. The group chanted for a “Robin Hood Tax” and, of course, the latest in left-approved forms of taxation, an “international transactions tax.”

Following the nurses’ protest, the occupiers, anarchists and others marched through downtown Chicago, closing down State St. en route to the financial district. They continued past the banks chanting, “one, two, three, four, Chase Bank f*ck you,” with a few chants directed at other banks, including Bank of America. This march concluded with a sit-in on LaSalle St. in front of the Chicago Board of Trade/Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank.

The festivities of their so-called “Week Without Capitalism” are set to continue throughout the weekend as the NATO Summit culminates. There is a general assembly scheduled for Friday evening and marches scheduled for the rest of the weekend. I asked an occupier outside of the Wellington United Church this afternoon what we can expect and when we will see the biggest rally. He told me, “NATO… NATO… it all depends on how the police are…” He also said the largest contingent of radicals and occupiers are here from New York. He did not have an estimate of how many. However, he and a few of his friends have been all over the country at different “occupies” and are itching for the demonstrations to begin as the summit gets underway.

This is a copy of the full article provided by Breitbart…  Keep up the hard work!

Preparing for the Perfect Storm—A John Paul Jackson Resource -

(multimedia) On Friday, thousands of protesters have gathered in downtown Chicago leading up to a two-day NATO summit that is expected to draw even larger demonstrations. Many office buildings were closed as workers were warned to stay home. (May 18)

Over the weekend NATO protests in Chicago, Illinois are expected to bring the city to a standstill. The Chicago Police Department has spent over $1 million dollars to battle the protesters from across the world expected to descend on the Windy City. Anastasia Churkina brings us the latest from Chicago.

Preparing for the Perfect Storm—A John Paul Jackson Resource -

(multimedia)  (CBS News) The defense lawyer for George Zimmerman warned against judging his client just on the partial evidence released so far in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, saying that “looking at it piecemeal is what has caused some of the problems in the past with the case.”

Appearing Friday on “CBS This Morning,” attorney Mark O’Mara said the evidence released this week marks the beginning of his work on the case, helping focus him and his team on completing depositions and planning on appropriate pretrial motions, but also that part of the discovery evidence is still to be released.

CBS News has the full article

Preparing for the Perfect Storm—A John Paul Jackson Resource -

Ireland, seen as the eurozone’s “poster child” for implementing austerity, could require a second bailout, economists warned.

Preparing for the Perfect Storm—A John Paul Jackson Resource -

(multimedia) European politicians failed to see that the single currency’s existence is in peril, trying to blame the system’s failures on individual countries, Aditya Chakrabortty, lead economics writer for The Guardian newspaper, gives his perspective to RT.

Preparing for the Perfect Storm—A John Paul Jackson Resource -

(CNN) – About 4,700 asteroids are close enough and big enough to pose a risk to Earth, NASA estimated Wednesday after studying data beamed back from an orbiting telescope.

The figure — give or take 1,500 — is how many space rocks bigger than 100 meters (330 feet) across are believed to come within 5 million miles (8 million km) of Earth, or about 20 times farther away than the moon.

“It’s not something that people should panic about,” said Amy Mainzer, an astronomer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. “However, we are paying attention to the issue.”

NASA defines a potentially hazardous asteroid as one large enough to survive the intense heat generated by entry into the atmosphere and cause damage on a regional scale or worse. The figure released Wednesday is lower than a previous rough estimate had projected, but more are now thought to be in orbits inclined like Earth’s, making them more likely to cross its path.

Mainzer said asteroids in orbits pitched at a similar angle offer not only a hazard, but also an opportunity. They would be easier for spacecraft to reach.

“They’re a population of interest, and we want to keep an eye on them,” she said.

NASA says a 40-meter asteroid would strike the Earth with an impact comparable to a 3-megaton nuclear bomb. A 2-km asteroid striking Earth “would produce severe environmental damage on a global scale,” the space agency estimates, but an impact of that magnitude isn’t likely to occur more than twice per million years.

The estimate comes from infrared scans of the cosmos by the 16-inch WISE telescope, which was launched in December 2009. The instruments aboard the satellite allowed scientists to spot close-in asteroids by picking up the heat they emit, Mainzer said.

“It allows us to find the very dark asteroids, the ones that are more like a piece of coal and than shiny pavement,” she said. “We can also tell the difference between an asteroid that’s very large and very dark and a small one that’s very shiny.”

Mainzer said between 20% and 30% of the estimated 4,700 potentially hazardous objects have been discovered so far.

This is a copy of the full article provided by CNN

Preparing for the Perfect Storm—A John Paul Jackson Resource -

On May 9 President Obama finally openly voiced his support for gay marriage. Already he has falsely characterized opposition to abortion as a war on women, thus stating his support for abortion rights and further adding fire to his campaign to ignite gender and class warfare.

Evidence of suppression of Christian expression in the military grows. Under Obamacare, freedom of religion has been abridged in the requirement that our Catholic brethren provide employees with birth control coverage through their health insurance programs. The president’s “concession” requiring only the insurance companies to make that provision is no concession at all. The Catholic Church still pays for the service. It makes no difference that we Protestants do not share the Catholic conviction concerning birth control. It would be a mistake to assume that this requirement doesn’t touch us. If the Catholic conscience can be overridden in this case in violation of the constitutional separation of church and state, then other religious freedoms for the rest of us can be similarly abridged.

These are not simple differences of political opinion, but are rather issues of morality that matter deeply to God. As America’s moment of decision approaches, take note and remember these things, together with much that will yet be revealed in the course of the presidential campaign. Listen carefully to what the candidates and their surrogates say, note what is actually done by both of them and then vote according to your conscience.

Determine not to be swayed by personal charisma or lack of it. Look past political ads designed to inflame and pit one segment of the population against another. Modern political campaigns focus on exciting emotions with inflammatory sound bites and visceral graphics. Examine facts, therefore, not mere assertions, slanderous statements by either party about the other party or glowing statements of hope and promise. Most of us would have to admit that both parties have broken faith with the American people through promises never kept and values compromised.

Because of the overweening ambition of the candidates to get themselves elected, political campaigns inevitably breed dishonesty and distortions of fact. Neither presidential candidate is or will be immune to this, especially as election day draws nearer. This will be a hard-fought, bitter and deeply divisive campaign and whoever wins will do so by a narrow margin, leaving the country even more dangerously divided than before.

The prophetic warning: Know that the outcome of the 2012 election will have a significant effect on how much or how little time we in the body of Christ yet have to prepare for the very difficult days that must inevitably come. No matter who wins, America and the world are in serious trouble. The church must awaken spiritually, morally and biblically and we have a limited amount of time in which to do it. We must grow in numbers, in grace, in righteousness and in love in order to be ready to minister to those made desperate by the coming collapse. Neither presidential candidate has the power or the wisdom to prevent this. We are witnessing and will soon see the catastrophic collapse of a once great culture. The effect in human suffering will be enormous.

A shift in strategy: In light of this, we must shift our strategy from trying to call a once-Christian nation back to God and refocus our efforts to thinking of ourselves and our ministries as the early Christians did under Roman domination. The former leads to shrill cries of prophetic judgment against a people who once knew God and should still. The latter acknowledges that the culture has long since ceased to be Christian and determines to win the hearts of those under its influence through love, grace, demonstrations of miracle power and service. Fail to make this shift and we will find ourselves ever more marginalized and ineffective in the days to come.

The promise: For those who will receive it, a determined remnant is about to experience an unprecedented outpouring of the Holy Spirit that will prepare and propel us into these coming days as a people ready to shine as lighthouses of hope, healing and salvation in the midst of growing darkness. It is a season of equipping for signs and wonders, of character change in the deepest reaches of our hearts and lives, of learning the ways of God and of refusing compromise at any level. It is a time for awakening.

Preparing for the Perfect Storm—A John Paul Jackson Resource -

LOS ANGELES –  Sunrises and sunsets often dazzle, but they’ll have a special ring to them in a few days for people in the western United States and eastern Asia: The moon will slide across the sun, blocking everything but a blazing halo of light.

It’s been almost two decades since a “ring of fire” eclipse was visible in the continental United States. To celebrate the end of that drought, nearly three dozen national parks in the path of the eclipse will host viewing parties.

The solar spectacle is first seen in eastern Asia at dawn Monday, May 20, local time. Weather permitting, millions of early risers in southern China, northern Taiwan and southeast Japan will be able to catch the ring eclipse. Then it creeps across the Pacific with the western U.S. viewing the tail end.

The late day sun will transform into a glowing ring in southwest Oregon, Northern California, central Nevada, southern Utah, northern Arizona and New Mexico and finally the Texas Panhandle where it will occur at sunset on Sunday. For 3 1/2 hours, the eclipse follows an 8,500-mile path. Viewing, from beginning to end, lasts about two hours. The ring phenomenon lasts as long as 5 minutes depending on location.

A ring eclipse — technically called an annular solar eclipse — is not as dramatic as a total eclipse, when the disk of the sun is entirely blocked by the moon. As in a total solar eclipse, the moon crosses in front of the sun, but the moon is too far from Earth and appears too small in the sky to blot out the sun completely.

“A bright ring around the sun at mid-eclipse is still pretty cool,” Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory said in an email.

Asia is abuzz over the event. In Japan, cable cars will run early to give tourists an unobstructed view from the mountains. Ferries will make special trips so that others can enjoy the scene offshore. The Taipei Astronomical Museum will open its doors at dawn while Hong Kong’s Space Museum will set up solar-filtered telescopes outside its building on the Kowloon waterfront.

The last time this type of eclipse was seen in the U.S. was in 1994. This year’s solar show offers ringside seats at 33 national parks along the eclipse path including the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon. A partial eclipse can be viewed from another 125 national parks.

For die-hard sky gazers, six U.S. locations will see the moon cover about 95 percent of the sun’s diameter. They include the Petroglyph National Monument, Redwoods National Park, Lassen Volcanic National Park, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Zion National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
Fox News has the full article

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(Reuters) – A private door opens from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in central Jerusalem directly into a long, modestly furnished, half-paneled room decorated with modern paintings by Israeli artists and a copy of Israel’s 1948 declaration of independence. It contains little more than a long wooden table, brown leather chairs and a single old-fashioned white projector screen.

This inner sanctum at the end of a corridor between Netanyahu’s private room and the office of his top military adviser, is where one of the decade’s most momentous military decisions could soon be taken: to launch an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program.

Time for that decision is fast running out and the mood in Jerusalem is hardening.

Iran continues to enrich uranium in defiance of international pressure, saying it needs the fuel for its civilian nuclear program. The West is convinced that Tehran’s real objective is to build an atomic bomb – something which the Jewish state will never accept because its leaders consider a nuclear armed-Iran a threat to its very existence.

Adding to the international pressure, U.S. ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro said this week American military plans to strike Iran were “ready” and the option was “fully available”.

The central role Iran plays in Netanyahu’s deliberations is reflected in the huge map of the Middle East hanging by the door of his office. Israel lies on one edge, with Iran taking pride of place in the centre.

Experts say that within a few months, much of Iran’s nuclear program will have been moved deep underground beneath the Fordow mountain, making a successful military strike much more difficult.

LOCKDOWN

As the deadline for a decision draws nearer, the public pronouncements of Israel’s top officials and military have changed. After hawkish warnings about a possible strike earlier this year, their language of late has been more guarded and clues to their intentions more difficult to discern.

“The top of the government has gone into lockdown,” one official said. “Nobody is saying anything publicly. That in itself tells you a lot about where things stand.”

Last week Netanyahu pulled off a spectacular political surprise, creating a coalition of national unity and delaying elections which everyone believed were inevitable. The maneuver also led to speculation that the Israeli leader wanted a broad, strong government to lead a military campaign.

The inclusion of the Iranian-born former Israeli chief of staff and veteran soldier, Gen. Shaul Mofaz, in the coalition, fuelled that speculation – even though both Mofaz and Netanyahu deny that Iran was mentioned in the coalition negotiations.

“I think they have made a decision to attack,” said one senior Israeli figure with close ties to the leadership. “It is going to happen. The window of opportunity is before the U.S. presidential election in November. This way they will bounce the Americans into supporting them.”

Those close to Netanyahu are more cautious, saying no assumptions should be made about an attack on Iran – an attack with such potentially devastating consequences across the volatile Middle East that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas even went so far as to predict in an interview with Reuters last week that it would be “the end of the world”.

Israelis particularly fear retaliation from Iran’s proxy militias – the Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon and the Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip. Both are believed to possess large arsenals of rockets which could hit major Israeli towns and cities.

Hezbollah’s deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem told Reuters in February that an Israeli attack on Iran would set the whole Middle East ablaze “with no limit to the fires”. “Gone are the days when Israel decides to strike, and the people are silent,” he said.

The Israeli Prime Minister and his key allies repeat for public consumption the mantra that economic sanctions against Iran must be given time to work and that now is not the time to speak about military options.

Top officials explain the new coalition on purely domestic grounds, saying it was needed to tackle the thorny and divisive issue of pressing Orthodox Jews into military service – in other words, that its formation has much more to do with the agenda inside Israel than abroad.

BURIED NUCLEAR STATES

Diplomats are divided. “I think the Iran thing is a red herring,” said one senior Western envoy. “This is 98 percent about domestic politics”. Others are less convinced.

Mofaz himself refuses to speak about military action against Iran, even in the theoretical.

A military veteran with almost 40 years’ operational experience, whose office in the Israeli parliament displays a poster of Israeli warplanes flying low over the Auschwitz concentration camp, he scoffs at the idea that his Iranian descent gives him special influence on an Iran attack decision. He derides the idea any serious official in the know would talk to visiting journalists about such a sensitive military subject.

But behind the carefully evasive language of top officials, basic facts are clear. Time is running out. Iran’s nuclear program – regarded by Netanyahu as an existential threat to the state of Israel – will soon be buried deep enough underground to render an Israeli attack impossible. The Jewish state’s options are narrowing.

“I think they’ve gone into lockdown mode now,” the senior Western diplomat said. “Whatever happens next, whatever they decide, we will not find out until it happens.”

There are indeed those who see in Israeli posturing over Iran only bluff intended to press world powers into harsher sanctions and avoid war. Some military experts openly doubt how much damage Israel could inflict. The risk of a fiasco is big.

Perhaps the strongest clue as to Israel’s real intentions is to be found in Netanyahu’s private office, behind his desk. Officials say the Israeli premier was strongly influenced by his father, who died last month at the age of 102.

Benzion Netanyahu was a distinguished scholar of Jewish history and his strong sense of the past lives on in Benjamin, who laments to visitors that “most people’s sense of history goes back to breakfast time”.

On a shelf behind Netanyahu’s desk, along with pictures of his family, is a photograph of Winston Churchill. Netanyahu admires the British wartime premier because he saw the true dangers posed by Nazi Germany to the world at a time when many other politicians argued for appeasing Hitler.

The parallels with modern-day Iran are obvious and Netanyahu is explicit about the dangers he believes are posed by militant Islam: as he puts it, its convulsive power, its cult of death and its ideological zeal.

But Churchill, although eloquent on the dangers posed by the rise of Nazi Germany during the 1930s, ultimately failed to prevent Hitler’s ascent to power, the world war he unleashed or the Holocaust in which six million Jews were murdered.

Netanyahu, those who know him say, is determined to avoid going down in history as the man who shirked his opportunity to stop Iran going nuclear.

This is a copy of the full article provided by Reuters

Preparing for the Perfect Storm—A John Paul Jackson Resource -