Global SITREP A10-17: News That's Not Being Widely Reported

Belarus President and Union State Chairman Alexander Lukashenko

22 February 2017: This eschatological item has been discussed here previously, but a new wrinkle has emerged which may well reflect something stated in Ezekiel's prophecy even more than in the past references. Ezekiel 38:4 and 39:2 both begin with the words I would paraphrase as "I will turn you around, put hooks in your jaws, bring you from the far north against the mountains of Israel." Clearly, Gog of Magog is busy with his army in the "far north" of his lands when this turning around with proverbial hooks in his jaws to strike southwards to Israel.

Russia is already deeply engaged in a war against independent Ukraine, having annexed Crimea and actively in the process of carving away more of the southern part of that country. In the Donetsk and Luhansk regions Ukrainian citizens of Russian extraction are being given Russian passports, with the thought being that Russian passport holders live on Russian territory; makes annexation that much simpler to accomplish. In addition, Russia is militarily threatening the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), former Soviet republics within the defunct Soviet Union which are now members of NATO, and the former members of the defunct Warsaw Pact alliance, from Poland to Romania. Here comes the new wrinkle.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union one of the first things to emerge was a new political entity known as the Union State. The Union State was intended (on paper at least) to become a true political union between Belarus (literally: Byelorus or White Russia) and the Russian Federation. But things never quite got that far. Belarusian nationalist aspirations following periods of rule by Poland and then intensive Russification under Soviet masters following WWII always had to take a back seat. And after WWII, with nearly a third of its native population having been killed and its infrastructure utterly devastated, the remnant Belarusians were easy picking for Moscow's Soviet Tsars, until recently.

The Union State: Belarus a tiny appendage west of the Russian Federation

Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarus president (to some Europe's last dictator) and the Chairman of the Union State Supreme Council, has been feeling his oats lately, and acting in ways that, all things considered, are downright independent minded of him. If there's such a thing as deja vu, then what occurred in Ukraine prior to the Russian invasion and annexation of Crimea two years ago just might be afoot in Ukraine's neighbor to the north - Belarus. The only question at the moment is when Russian Federation president Vladimir Putin will consider that Alexander Lukashenko has crossed his ill-defined "red line" and Russian military forces do to Belarus what they've done and continue to do to Ukraine.

One other tidbit has come to our attention. Since November 2012 the Defense Minister of the Russian Federation, and holder of the title General of the Army, has been Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu. Sergei Shoigu was born and raised in the Republic of Tuva, a southern Siberian land just east of Kazakhstan that most people outside of Russia have never heard of before. A land like all of those around it which were settled by the descendants of Noah's eldest son Japheth. The seven sons of Japheth (Genesis 10:2) were: Gomer, Magog, Madai,  Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras. The Tuvian people trace directly to the equally ancient Scythian people, with artifacts dating to 6th and 7th century Before Christ in central Tuva. The Tuvan language is as ancient as the people themselves; they have suddenly popped right out of Genesis 10.

In any case, it looks as if these kinds of real-world under-reported events make Ezekiel's "I will turn you around around" prophetic scenario all the more relevant these days and going forward. 

Breaking News Alert 05-17

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20 February 2017: U.S. Fifth Fleet commander Vice Admiral Kevin Donegan confirmed on Saturday the intelligence assessment that the 30 January 2016 attack on the Royal Saudi Navy frigate Al-Madinah was not a manned suicide watercraft attack, a la the USS Cole, but a new drone watercraft operated remotely from another nearby manned watercraft. The image above was taken from the Al-Madinah as the attacking drone approached its port side astern. Details linked from IHS Janes 360 and Defense News.

It is the Eschatology Today assessment that this newly identified drone watercraft was designed, manufactured and  is operated by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Navy deployed to Yemen. The attack drone appears to be a white-colored, high-speed catamaran design. There is nothing which links this drone watercraft to the Houthi rebels of Yemen, except that they are a Shi'a  jihadist proxy force supported by Tehran. Therefore to identify this weapon system as 'Houthi' is in error. It is an Iranian weapon system.

In Response to 'Operation Millennium Challenge by Matt Ward'

National Training Center, Ft. Irwin, CA MC02

19 February 2017: This morning I was directed (hat tip: Nora) to an article published on the Rapture Ready website 'Operation Millennium Challenge by Matt Ward'. The article discusses something I was intimately involved in, namely the Advanced Warfighting Experiment (AWE) known as Millennium Challenge 2002, or MC02. 

The above image was taken by myself upon my arrival at NTC Ft. Irwin in April 2002 for the final MC02 planning conference. I did not depart NTC Ft. Irwin until September of that year, which was followed by my deployment to Operation Iraqi Freedom shortly thereafter. One could say I became very 'desert qualified' during this warfighting exercise not far from Death Valley. My arrival a couple months later at CFLCC and the assembly cabals in northern Kuwait was as if I had returned home to the high desert of California.

The issues I have with the above referenced article are that they are contrary to what I recall. First and foremost, MC02 was a Congressional mandated exercise for America's newly digitized military capabilities which was a follow-on to AWE exercises which took place at Ft. Polk in southern Louisiana prior to the act of war which occurred on September 11, 2001. At that time we believed Saddam had been a key cog in the Al Qaeda terrorist plot; we knew that several of the key 9/11 hijackers had trained on a static commercial aircraft located at Salman Pak, Iraq terrorist training center. On 9 April 2003 the United States Army's 3rd Infantry Division found some evidence of the Saddam regime role during a dynamic forced entry into Baghdad.

Saddam, 9/11/2001 and the 3rd Infantry Division discovery

Secondly, as an exercise MC02 was stopped and re-started with regularity. It was not war, it was, again, an advanced warfighting experiment, the largest at that point in U.S. military history. The exercise covered an area across the entire breadth of the continental United States, from from the parking lot behind XVIIIth Airborne Corps HQ, Ft. Bragg, NC to the ground combat "box" at NTC Ft. Irwin, CA. The number of aspects involved in MC02 fills volumes of recorded data, and it under no circumstances be boiled down to win-lose, or you cheated and I'm taking my ball and going home. That is simply nonsense. That's not how warfare occur and is resolved, or not, in the real-world.

Thirdly, contrary to the Rapture Ready article's view that the exercise was "an utter failure" and that it has "gone down in infamy as a lesson in how not to fight a rogue, terrorist nation," the true result of MC02 was proven during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Execution Phase I. Iraq was exactly the rogue terrorist nation envisioned in MC02; the early entry of U.S. and Coalition forces into the preparatory bivouacs (cabals) of northern Kuwait (Camp New Jersey, Camp New York, Camp Pennsylvania, etc.) were already underway as the exercise was executing in July-August 2002. 

The anti-war left-of-center media was already predicting doom, just as they had done in the previous war to liberate Kuwait from Saddam's regime. This meant the extremely secular politics involved in naysaying MC02 were well-advanced even before the exercise began. Those politics played themselves out in Washington DC, and are also quite evident in this article. Only the facts of overwhelming success of the ground combat mission objectives against Saddam's Iraqi forces are the proper point to address in hindsight. MC02 made the overwhelming 'mission complete' success of OIF-I possible.

Finally, a US military exercise which occurred with the technology and fighting forces of 15 years ago has very little if any bearing on the prospect of Coalition warfare against the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2017, or beyond. MC02 merely envisioned hypothetical one-on-one warfighting in 2007, or five years afterwards. War against the Islamic Republic in the near future is a zebra of entirely different stripes, and with high likelihood bears a very close resemblance to the the prophet Ezekiel's "Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, and all their young lions" in Ezekiel 38:13, in essence a Sunni-Western alliance we can already see in the current run-up to tackling the Islamic State, and the coalition warfare against Iran's Shi'a Houthi proxies in Yemen.

In my opinion, no article or Christian discussion on the potential for warfare against Iran can be considered complete without a thorough exegesis of Jeremiah 49:34-39. Most unfortunately Jeremiah's prophecy is something the Rapture ready article did not even attempt to discus. I would recommend the author to visit Eschatology Today where there are several archived articles and their updates dating from 2010 to the present regarding Jeremiah's prophecy.

Marana'tha!

Global SITREP A9-17: The Syrian Situation Revisited

Russian SS-26 "Stone" Ballistic Missile Launchers at Hmeimim Air Base, Syria

16 February 2017: This month one year ago Eschatology Today reported in Global SITREP A8-16 about the Russian deployment of Iskander (NATO Name: SS-26 "Stone") short-range ballistic missile systems into Syria. The deployment of these ballistic missile systems was to Hmeimim Air Base in coastal Latakia province.

What was not reported at that time were three important facts which were unknown at that time. One, the Iskander SS-26 "Stone" is a nuclear-capable ballistic missile. Two, the Russian government made a deal with the Syrian government which allows it to deploy anywhere into the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic any weaponry, ammunition (including nuclear), or materials necessary for the security of its military forces. And Three, the Hmeimim Air Base will be operated by the Russian Air Force under the terms of a 49-year lease, and the Russian naval base at Tartus will be expanded and modernized under another similar lease.

ISI reconnaissance imaging of Hmeimim AB Iskander missile launches DEC16/JAN17

 

What is also clear at this time is that the Iskander ballistic missiles are not in Syria as static displays intended to impress, but have been put to use in a conventional warhead (most likely cluster munitions) configuration against identified targets of the Islamic State (IS) in either Dier Ez-Zor and/or Raqqa. According to Israel Space Imaging (ISI) reconnaissance imagery (click on the image above to zoom in) Iskander missiles were launched against these IS targets in December 2016 and late January 2017. There will likely be additional launches against important IS targets.

What does all this mean in terms of the prophetic content of Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49:23-27? 

I believe it means, as discussed previously on this blog, that both of these near-term fulfillment prophecies indicate some as yet unknown catastrophe will have to occur to nullify the current Russian military presence in Syria. The prophecy of Ezekiel 38:15 tells us this about the invaders: "you will come from your place out of the far north." The "far north" strongly indicates the invaders will not be coming from Israel's next door neighbor Syria. A 49-year lease means that the Russian military presence will continue to 2064 at the minimum. Isaiah 17:1-3 foretells of the demise of the city Damascus as well as the ruling kingdom and remnant of Syria ('Aram). These prophecies are true, therefore some great series of events must take place to eradicate the present paradigm in Syria.

Breaking News Alert 04-17

🔺 15 February 2017: A couple of items actually.

1. President Trump and Special MidEast Envoy Jared Kushner will meet today in the White House with Israel PM Bibi Netanyahu. This meeting will set the tone if not the entire United States-Israel agenda for the foreseeable future. Settlements, the US Embassy and direct Israeli-PA negotiations with Kushner acting as the good offices mediator are probably key issues for the discussions.

2. Do your best to ignore the media frenzy regarding Trump and Putin or US and Russia issues. Most of what comes from the corporate media is openly hostile disinformation (i.e. Fake News) because since January 20th the Trump Administration has given them a well-deserved cold shoulder since they adopted the openly hostile adversary role many months ago.  Recommended exceptions to most corporate media reporting are the highly reliable Washington Free Beacon, The Independent (UK), and FoxNews.

Global SITREP A8-17: Obfuscation and Illusion

14 February 2017: No matter where one looks at the present time, if one looks with clear eyes and truth in their heart one will see all manner of obfuscation and illusion masking the true realities of the situation on planet Earth. Honestly, it has been this way for a very long time, but now the obfuscations and illusory are to be found everywhere.  This, for the umpteenth time in the history of Eschatology Today, is the product of a global media which has become expert in presenting all manner of extraneous information, disinformation, distraction and just plain lies in lieu of real world facts.

As a prime example, has anyone seen in-depth reporting on the terrorist acts which have occurred recently in Hamburg, Germany? Fact: In the past month there have been three terrorist attacks, I would call these terrorist "dry runs," on public institutions in which the agent of choice has been a toxic gas. 

January 11, 2017 a toxic gas is pumped through the fresh air ventilation system into a gymnasium making nearly three dozen students ill and blinding them at the Luisen-Gymnasium Bergedorf middle school in Reinbeker Weg, Hamburg, a third of them are hospitalized, and the entire school evacuated. The image above is from the scene of this attack. According to the German paper Bild the next day, January 12, in the secure area where hand baggage is checked at Hamburg International Airport an attack occurs with the same toxic gas pumped through ventilation ducts causing emergency respiratory injury to 68 people; causing a total evacuation and shutting down all flight operations. Image directly below. The day prior, an unmarked, unattended suspicious bottle of liquid, its top sealed with orange tape and in a type of aluminum foil bag was discovered in the airport parking garage, image second below. The bottle did not contain an explosive, but the true contents were not publicly divulged either.

On the same day there was also a report about an identical type of toxic gas attack at the Hamburg train station. In all three instances the official word was the toxic agent was a type of pepper spray. It could just as easily have been any number of more lethal agents. But that's not the real point. A middle school full of innocent student, and airport and a train depot were targeted in dry run operations within hours of each other. 

Never mind that Germany has been over run with the same kind of "refugees" infiltrated by jihadi terrorists that President Trump is attempting to have vetted at our borders (i.e. airports like JFK International in New York City) but has been blocked due to a U.S. Constitution and U.S. Code ignoring ruling of the far left U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. You didn't get this from our corporate American media, but you got it here on this blog. Remember it for future reference.

Global SITREP A7-17: The Covenant of Democratic Nations

The angel Gabriel and Daniel - 70 Weeks Prophecy

UPDATED 8 February 2016: In John 5:43 Jesus was speaking truth to the Jews who sought to kill Him, when He informed them of an ultimate truth: "I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive."  If I have referred to this verse once here, I have referred to it more than a dozen times as Jesus' prophesying to the Jews about their future acceptance of the Antichrist as an impostor of Himself. Here we have Jesus, born a Jew, speaking to the Jews who want to kill Him. He is making a direct comparison of His coming, standing before them in the flesh, with respect to the future coming of an impostor, also a Jew.  In the 70th Week a great many of the Jews in Israel will, for approximately the first 42 months, receive Antichrist believing him to be their expected Moshiach ben David.

The angel Gabriel also prophesied this to Daniel, which we read in Daniel 8:23-26. But Daniel did not understand this prophecy, it caused him to faint and he was sick for days, yet eventually going about his duties thereafter for Babylonian King Belshazzar. Within a year Belshazzar is overthrown and his kingdom overtaken by the Kingdom of the Medes and Persians, and it is in the first year of Darius, the son of Xerxes, that Daniel tells us he understood Jeremiah's prophecy about the 70 years of desolations of Jerusalem. And after fervent supplications and prayer to the LORD God Daniel again is visited by the angel Gabriel who has come to give him understanding of the previous vision. Gabriel goes beyond this and delivers the incredible 70 Week prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27.

In verse 27 Gabriel informs that the prince of the people who would destroy the city and in the sanctuary (fulfilled by Rome in 70 AD) would begin his short reign by confirming a covenant among many for one week of seven years. To circle back for one moment, this prince is the one Jesus said would come in his own name and be accepted by the Jews...as a messiah, or Moshiach ben David, the impostor of Jesus Christ. So, what we get from all of this is that this impostor, this false Christ, this Antichrist, is a Jew who comes from the West.

In these last days, and given the vitriol that Israel suffers ad nauseum year after year from the Israel-hating United Nations, what would the chances be that Israel will accept a great leader from the U.N. as their Moshiach ben David and accept a seven-year covenant as confirmed by him?  I would think the chances of that happening are quite possibly two-fold: slim and none. 

If my thinking on this is correct, then this future "Roman" prince will have to come from among Israel's friends, allies actually, and to be accepted by Jews as being Moshiach ben David in the flesh he would have to be genetically a son of Judah. Interestingly enough, since the U.N. Security Council voted Resolution 2334 into existence as international law that denies Israel its sovereignty, a movement began within days of that now infamous vote to fix that which is clearly broken and unacceptable any longer as a democratic institution.

That movement, (hat tip to Gail H.) is being referred to as a "Covenant of Democratic Nations."  An article titled "Replacing the UN with the Covenant of Democratic Nations" was written by Edwin Black  was published the The Times of Israel on Monday 30 January.  And here is the Home Page for the new organization with everything anyone would want to know about it. It's worth keeping an eye on this developing from within the United States Congress, and considering President Trump's rhetoric about defunding the United Nations of American tax dollars. The published Declaration of Principles.pdf is well worth your attention also.

Update 10 February 2017: Adjacent to the above effort is another coming from within the Trump Administration itself, and which places the prominent role of "Special Envoy to the Middle East" squarely upon the shoulders of President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Jared Kushner, as most folks know by now, is an Orthodox Jew. 

The effort Kushner now believes has high potential is one that Benjamin Netanyahu also has high hopes of seeing bear fruit, and involves "a regional framework", a regional covenant in other words, under US auspices that joins together Israel, and Sunni Arab nations such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and perhaps Jordan, as leverage to bring the Palestinian Authority to the negotiation table - without preconditions - to resolve differences and seek the ever elusive final peace agreement. PM Netanyahu will meet with the Trump Administration next week and there is no doubt this effort will be moved forward. 

Today's issue of Israel National News (Arutz Sheva) has an article with a few more details: "Will Arab Nations be part of Trump's Solution for Peace?"  

Global SITREP A6-17: The U.S. Warning Order to Iran

6 February 2017: (Updated 7 FEB)The SITREP is a follow-on to most of what has been posted here in recent days, and especially to SITREP C8-16: Iran Crossing the Rubicon, which is itself a now 8-year long compilation of everything written for Eschatology Today that is related to Iran and the literal fulfillment of Jeremiah 49:34-39. 

If you're paying attention to the news today you know the President Trump visited McDill AFB in Tampa, Florida. This base is the home of both USCENTCOM (United States Central Command) and USSOCOM (United States Special Operations Command) which are the primary warfighting commands involved in the global war against Islamic jihadism.  President Trump, C-JCS General Joseph Dunford and NATSEC Advisor Michael Flynn were briefed by the commanding generals and the staff of both commands. Trump also had lunch with our troops, and from what I hear they gave their new CInC an exceptionally robust greeting upon his arrival. 

It is also no accident that today's CENTCOM/SOCOM visit comes one week after the United States put the Islamic Republic of Iran "on notice" regarding its breach of the JCPOA nuclear accord by recent test launching of ballistic and cruise missiles. 

Perhaps more importantly for our due consideration is that word has leaked that a multinational military coalition to deal with Iran has all but closed ranks around the objective.  Led by the United States, this military coalition reportedly includes the UK, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and... wait for it... Israel.  Very similar information as posted here was discussed during last night's Hannity program on FoxNews with special guest Lt.Col. (USMC Ret.) Oliver North. 

There are also unconfirmed reports of deployment warning orders being issued to one or more U.S. rapid reaction airborne and ground combat brigades. Updates as received. Warning orders usually precede operational execution orders. These developments will take several weeks to a few months to fully mature.

Global SITREP A5-17: From Russia to Iran With Love

Iranian Soumar Nuclear-Capable Cruise Missile

2 February 2017: Almost exactly twelve years ago (February 2005) I became aware of a 2001 nuclear weapons smuggling conspiracy that occurred between Ukraine, the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Through OSINT research I learned the smuggling involved the theft of 12 nuclear-capable Raduga KH-55SM cruise missiles by Russian/Ukrainian military intelligence operatives, and their transfer through a now long deceased (murdered) arms merchant by the name of Sarfraz Haider and his company, SH Heritage Holdings Ltd., in Cyprus to an IRGC front company, Satak Co, Ltd. Some analysts even maintain that four 200kT nuclear devices were also part of the smuggling conspiracy.

In 2015, after 10 full years of reverse engineering efforts, the Iranian's first launched their new and upgraded cruise missile which they branded as the Soumar. The Soumar is a virtual twin of the KH-55SM designed and built by the former Soviet Union to carry a 200kT nuclear warhead to its target 1,800 miles distant at a speed of approximately 500 miles per hour and under 300 feet in terrain following or sea-skimming altitude. No knowledgeable officer of the US government has ever had any illusions about the purpose of the Iranian Soumar nuclear-capable cruise missile - it is to directly and openly challenge the United States of America at a range of 1,600 to 1,800 miles. Note: Obama made his disastrous JCPOA nuclear deal with the Iranian mullahs, which they have also yet to fully ratify, after the very first Soumar nuclear-capable cruise missile had been successfully tested.

Fast forward to last Sunday. For about the 12th time since the JCPOA nuclear accord the Iranian's successfully launched a medium range nuclear-capable ballistic missile in a provocation that is forbidden according to the terms of the nuclear agreement and UNSC R-2231. Remember, as we recently learned, UNSC resolutions are supposed to be regarded as international law. Or maybe that's only when the UNSC resolutions apply to Israel? Nevertheless, within 48 hours of that Iranian ballistic missile test the Trump Administration put Iran on "official notice."  Iran's response within hours of that "official notice" was to successfully test another Soumar nuclear-capable cruise missile.

Notice one more time the 1,600 to 1,800 mile range of this cruise missile, and realize that an Iranian commercial freighter crossing the Atlantic Ocean enroute to Venezuela, or Cuba, could potentially strike an American east coast city with one of these cruise missiles with almost no warning. And everybody knows Iran's military likes to shoot volleys of missiles all at once, as if they were arrows. 

Two weeks into his new administration and President Donald Trump has a really serious problem to resolve. Make no mistake, this is a problem that economic sanctions will have no chance of mitigating in the slightest, never mind that there is also a near iron-clad certainty that Iran has transferred the Soumar nuclear-capable cruise missile to North Korea and their miniaturized nuclear warhead arsenal.

If there ever was a time for Jeremiah 49:34-39 to come to its fulfillment, I'd have to say that we're also really, really close to that time as well.