Global SITREP A3-18: SYRIA

A convoy of U.S. Army Stryker M1126 combat vehicles on-the-move in northern Syria

Update 18 January 2018: Speaking at Stanford University yesterday, U.S. SECSTATE Rex Tillerson confirmed what is stated below - U.S. troops are staying put in Syria, primarily as a hedge against Iranian military expansion within Syria. He also made clear that the U.S. is not willing to give up to the Al-Assad regime the territory that the CJTF-OIR Coalition forces have under their military control in northern and eastern Syria. SECSTATE Tillerson made clear that this policy is guarding against the error made by the Obama Administration through unilateral U.S. withdrawal from Iraq in 2010-2011. 

Is it now a fact that U.S. forces have secured all of Syria east of the Euphrates River. The prophetic implications for what happens in Syria to the west of the Euphrates River are blatantly obvious to the astute student of Bible prophecy, especially with respect to Israel (all the land to the Euphrates).

Anyone can plainly see this places the U.S. in theater conflict with the interests of the Al-Assad regime, militarily supported by Russia, Iran/Hezbollah and other pro-regime militias, as well as Turkey which stands opposed to Kurdish autonomy. The geographical map of what was, is and will be Syria is being redrawn by this new American anti-Assad policy. American defense of Israel against Iran is also a cold, hard, crystal clear fact.

Speaking of Turkey, a recent news item revealed that Turkey and Sudan have an agreement to turn over a small Sudanese island on their Red Sea coast to Turkey for re-development as a gateway into the Arabian peninsula. This island's redeveloped utility will be more fully realized as a probable invasion staging ground into southern Israel for the Ezekiel 38/39 prophetic fulfillment.

12 January 2018: It's on! To dispense with all manner of diplomatic speak, it's on in Syria. The US, Israel and allies versus Iran, Russia, Syria and, perhaps for the moment, Turkey standing against the two in accord with its own interests in Syria. 

A report on The Hill published yesterday afternoon confirms reports appearing in several foreign media, the gist of which is that the US has reversed its stance from an agreed upon strategic withdrawal of US forces from Syria (following the eradication of Islamic State forces) in the face of a blatant continuation of Iranian military aggression in the country. The strategic reversal applies to not only Iranian moves in Syria, but also its overt control of Iraq. We're not wiping out Islamic State just so that Iran can walk in and take over all the territory from its border with Iraq to the Mediterranean Sea. Not gonna happen. Period.

Earlier this week, both the US and Israel detected the Iranian transfer of "game changing" military hardware into the Syrian theater of operation. Such hardware is utterly unnecessary with Islamic State having been nearly eradicated. Such hardware was easily identifiable as destined for use against Israel. Accordingly, the US promptly green-lighted the Israeli annihilation of every ounce of that military equipment. Israel completed that specific mission on Tuesday of this past week. Message sent. Israel used both strike aircraft and surface-to-surface missiles in three distinct waves following as many battle damage assessments to ensure the total annihilation of the Iranian equipment.

Now that "it's on" the watch for military developments in Syria will have to be 24/7. The next update will be in the form of a SYRIA Part II SITREP.


9 January 2018: It appears the attack discussed below was more high-tech than anyone, including Russia, suspected. It appears now that the 82mm mortars (Weight = 7 lb. 2 oz. or 3.23kg) were not fired from a 2B9M Vasilek mortar-gun, but were transported undetected by a flight of semi-autonomous combat drones programmed to fly to specific GPS (Global Positioning System) coordinates. The correct nomenclature for combat drones such as these pending a more precise identification is UCAV (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle).

Intact and lightly damaged "bombs" recovered from enemy UCAVs at Hmeimim Air Base

Example of a captured Islamic State UCAV

On Friday, 6 January 2018 a swarm of 13 UCAVs flew into the area of Russia's Hmeimim Air Base and Tartus Naval Base on the Syrian Mediterranean Sea coast from somewhere in opposition-controlled territory in northwestern Syria. According to multiple reports Russian counter-UCAV systems overpowered and took effective control of six drones while Russian Pantsir-S1 (30mm auto-cannon) close range anti-air defenses shot down the other seven drones. 



Islamic State forces have demonstrated the technological capability for UCAV utilization on Syrian battlefields. In fact the specific type of UCAVs used in these attacks are known by US military intelligence to have been used by Islamic State forces These attacks have occurred in sharp contrast to Russian President Vladimir Putin's declaration of victory over anti-Assad forces at Hmeimim Air Base on 11 December 2017.

Eschatology Today data-mining of information has determined that these UCAVs are commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS). COTS UCAVs have been utilized by all sides in the Syrian-Iraqi conflict. Islamic State, Hezbollah, Ahrar al-Sham and the governments of Iraq, Syria and Iran have all deployed UCAVs. The UCAV bombs seen in the image above do bear a striking resemblance to those used by Islamic State UCAV strikes conducted in March 2017 in Raqqa and Aleppo. 

Never before has Islamic State launched an attack against an airfield or aircraft as has occurred on 31 December 2017 and 6 January 2018. Russian aircraft have no armor and sit out in the open, so this makes them the most high-value targets there are in Syria, aside from a convoy of unarmored Syrian regime or Russian vehicles. Thus far explosive warheads are the weapon of choice, but it may be a matter of time before chemical, biological or radiological warheads make an appearance on the Syrian battlefield.

Damaged Russian Su-24 'Fencer' at Hmeimim Air Base

6 January 2018: There is no question that a mortar attack occurred on 31 December 2017 against the Russian Hmeimim Air Base in Syria. The image above confirms that damage was done to at least one Su-24 (NATO Name 'Fencer'). The image below confirms that the Su-24 with tail number 29 was recently parked, as is the norm, closely together in a neat row of other Fencers along the Hmeimim Air Base tarmac, with the munitions they carry also stored close by. 

Russian Mi-24 'Hind'

Incidentally, a Russian Mi-24 'Hind" flying tank chopper was apparently downed by hostile fire (Russia says no hostile fire was involved) on the same day, just 9 miles, and in the vicinity of Ain Ash Sharqiyeh (a mountainous region) in the direction of Hama from the Hmeimim Air Base. Both Russian aviators were killed. Not many media have noted what a bad day 31 December 2017 was for Russian military aviation in Syria on that day. Odd. Then again, for what its worth, the media are utterly obsessed with anything and everything in the Trumposphere, real or imagined.

Su-24 'Fencer' number 24 parked at Hmeimim Air Base

However, and all of the foregoing aside, what is now being questioned is not how many Russian combat aircraft sustained damage in the attack on Hmeimim, or how many Russian servicemen will killed during the attack (Russia's MoD admits 2 were killed; 8 wounded) but who was responsible for the attack. Normally the 'radical jihadists' claim their victories and achievements in the Syrian war, but not so this time. They've been oddly silent in making any claim, a claim Eschatology Today has patiently waited on over the past week. As of today, no one but those who fired their weapons upon Hmeimim knows for sure.

This attack on Hmeimim Air Base is now being questioned by Russia upon their Syrian hosts. Initially and publicly, Russia blamed the attack on ISIS militants armed and trained by the U.S. This was done without any proof put forward on the size or type of shells which impacted Hmeimim. No photos of ordnance fragments. Nothing. What is known is that the area the Mi-24 overflew is supposed to be 'friendly' territory, controlled by the regime or its Iranian militia allies. 

Now comes leaked word that a 1970s-era Russian (Warsaw Pact) weapon known as the 2B9M Vasilek gun/mortar was the weapon system used in the attack. The Vasilek, (i.e. Cornflower), is a vehicle-towed, automatic burst firing four-round clips, optically-sighted 82mm mortar. 

What this techno jargon means is that Hmeimim was attacked with a line-of-sight heavy weapon system that is in the inventory of Syrian Arab Army as well as having been taken as war booty by the Ansar al-Sham jihadist opposition forces. What this techno jargon also means is that the attacker was - at the very most - just 2.5 miles from Hmeimim Air Base. Ansar al-Sham mobile infantry using this weapon system just 2.5 miles from Russia's air bridge foothold in Syria? No wonder Moscow thinks the Syrian Arab Army was the attacker. It does not seem likely that Ansar al-Sham jihadists are driving around the Alawite stronghold of coastal Syria dressed as Syrian Arab Army soldiers with this weapon in tow. One thing is also for sure, "friendly fire" is never friendly.

What this should mean to Eschatology Today readers is that this lightly-reported attack, and the same day Mi-24 flying tank chopper shoot-down, have both occurred within the past week in the northwestern part of Syria where the literal interpretation of Jeremiah 49:23 has always been highlighted here as the location, the geographic point of origin, of a prophetic event which will turn the ongoing war in Syria upon its inglorious head. Such an event will be the driving impetus for the remainder of Jeremiah 49:24-27 and Isaiah 17 to come to their fulfillment. Always watching for news most folks never see, or would not understand fully if they did.

Syria will be a hotter place in 2018.

Global SITREP C4-17: The Syrian Situation Revisited Part VI

Iranian Routes to the Mediterranean Sea. Image: The New Yorker 09JUN17

Update 18 June 2017: It seems disinformation has clouded the tactical picture in southern Syria. The 13 June update last week (directly below) regarding the conquest of Dara'a by Syrian and Hezbollah forces was premature and overly optimistic. What had been thought to be reliable OSINT turns out to have been pro-regime news reported as fact by Western media sources.

In fact, Dara'a has not been conquered despite the Syrian Army and Hezbollah's best efforts to take the city behind a significant weeks-long bombardment which included the use of napalm barrel bombs. For all intents and purposes the city of Dara'a has been blasted into rubble, large structures appear to be mere shells of their former selves. 

Dara'a on 07JUN17. Image MEMO/Anadolu Agency)

I would speculate (actually, I expect) that the Dara'a campaign appears to be falling into an Aleppo-like grind where the the Syrian regime's offensive makes no headway resulting in the use of chemical weapons by the al-Assad regime in an attempt to break the stalemate. We all should understand what will result if this does occur as Dara'a lies just 9 miles from the Jordanian border.

Further west, at the Al-Tanf/Al-Walid border crossing, US-led CJTF-OIR forces have pushed forward approximately 45 miles northeast to the desert village of al-Zakf to establish a second base camp. Some patrols have reportedly been operating up to 60 miles north of the Jordanian-Iraqi-Syrian border triangle. On the Iraqi side of the border the Al-Walid crossing was fully secured this past week from Islamic State units by U.S. and Iraqi Army forces, permitting the deeper penetration into Islamic State, and blunting the Syria-Hezbollah advance into this region. 

U.S. HIMARS

The CJTF-OIR forward push was augmented this week with the arrival of at least two U.S.  M142 HIMARS, a highly accurate HIgh Mobility Artillery Rocket System riding on the back of a 6x6 all-terrain vehicle which deployed into Al-Tanf. The introduction of the HIMARS has caused great consternation for the Russians, as well as the Iranians. It places Syrian-Hezbollah and other Iranian-militia troops at risk of devastating strikes should they make further moves into the CJTF-OIR Area of Responsibility (AoR) in southern Syria. HIMARS enables CJTF-OIR forces to reach out and touch the enemy up to 180 miles away.

13 June 2017:  The situation along Syria's southern border has seen dramatic change in the past 24 hours. The city of Dara'a just north of the Jordanian border is now under the control of the Syrian 4th Division and Hezbollah. Syrian anti-regime fighters have reportedly retreated south into Jordan or east towards the CJTF-OIR base at the Al-Tanf/Al-Walid border crossing defended by US, UK, NATO and Jordanian SpecOps troops and air power.

Most other information of the past 48 hours about southern Syria is either disinformation or pure propaganda coming from Russian, Syrian, Iranian or their proxies. Further update coming...

11 June 2017: This past Tuesday, 6 June, coalition aircraft attacked a second convoy of Iranian, Hezbollah and Syrian armored vehicles and troops threatening the CJTF-OIR base at Al-Tanf. The convoy was stopped dead in its tracks, most of it destroyed. It is this region shaded gray in the above map and in detail in the below map where the Syrian war appears most likely, as has been started here previously, to be where a great clash continues to be on a steady simmer. 

On Friday, 9 June, as reported by The New Yorker, Iran-supported Shi'a militias reached the Syrian border from inside Iraq, and this is somewhat reflected in the above map. But the map has to be looked at closely. As you can see the primary route passes through Iraqi Kurdistan or Syrian Kurdistan. This hardly provides Iran clear passage from Iran to Lebanon, yet that is precisely what most media has been claiming, rather prematurely I might add. Iran does not control the major highways from its border to Lebanon.

The current eastern Syria war zone. ISW Graphic.

30 May 2017: Today, as reported by TASS, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the not-so-veiled threat of a possible Russian-US military confrontation in eastern Syria. This is the potential confrontation Eschatology Today has been warning about in this series of Syrian Situation SITREPs. Lavrov accused the US-led coalition of directly infringing on Syrian sovereignty and said "these issues need to be settled, which is what our military is currently engaged in."  

The Iranian's are buoyed by this open Russian support for the combat operations their forces are engaged in eastern Syria and in northwestern Iraq (Hashd al-Sha'abi Shi'a militia), and now it appears they are seeking to directly engage in combat against the forces of the US-led CJTF-OIR and NATO which joined the Coalition effort recently. Iran informed Russia yesterday during a meeting in Moscow it is ready to double the size of the force it currently has deployed in Syria. The Hashd al-Sha'abi militia is rapidly becoming known as the Iranian Hezbollah of Iraq. This Shi'a Iraqi militia, under direct orders form the IRGC in Tehran will almost certainly now invade eastern Syria. 

The US has been dropping leaflets specifically instructing the Iranian militias and Hezbollah to withdraw their forces from the Syrian border regions on the Golan and Israeli frontier, and from all along the Jordanian border as well as the Iraqi border. The warning states that any movement of these Iranian forces towards CJTF-OIR Coalition and/or NATO forces will be viewed as hostile movements and attacked accordingly. The Iranian directed confrontation with US CJTF-OIR allies, the Kurdish/Arab Syrian Democratic Forces, as well as the New Free Syrian Army is now only a matter of time. The literal fulfillment of Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49:23-27 will be the result of this imminent warfare. 

28 May 2017: Al Mayadin (a/k/a Al-Mayadeen) is a small town in eastern Syria's Euphrates River valley. It lies closer to the Iraqi border town of Al-Qaim than it does to the Islamic State's de facto capital of Ar-Raqqa. Just to the north lies Dier ez Zor (a/k/a Dayr az Zawr), one of the focal points in the war against Islamic State. 

CJTF-OIR coalition aircraft are claimed to have stuck Islamic State assets in Al Mayadin on Wednesday, 24 May. Other organizations say the airstrike was by the Syrian Arab Air Force (SAAF). Almost immediately the Syrian regime, their allies in Russia and Iran, and alleged moderate Arab media (Aljazeera) and left-of-center US media (CBS, et. al.) began whining about fourteen alleged civilian deaths as a result of the strike which they blame on the US-led Coalition. 

This is rather telling as all of these media are utterly silent when it comes to civilian deaths due to Russian and Syrian military airstrikes since Russia's intervention in September 2015. Russian airstrikes have been conducted since that time with what various observing groups have said is a "reckless disregard for human life" in Syria. A conservative estimate of civilian death due to Russian airstrikes would be in the neighborhood 5,000 men, women and children. A liberal assessment would be double that number.

Due to the fact that all of Syria and much or Iraq are active war zones, any number of civilian deaths are unavoidable no matter whose bombs are falling. However, attributing those deaths falsely or using them for political expedience is just as abhorrent as the pure evil intent and ethnic genocide being perpetrated by the Syrian regime and their Russian and Iranian allies. The fact is that airstrikes and artillery barrages in this region, both Syrian Regime and their allies and CJTF-OIR are occurring every day, often overlapping one another. Accurate accounting of who, what when is very probably near impossible for any one or group of organizations due to the intensity of the warfare.

The truly big news for this SITREP is that NATO announced that it had joined the US-led CJTF-OIR operations against Islamic State as the strike on Al-Mayadin was being heralded in the media on May 25th. Also the ground war around Raqqa and elsewhere in eastern Syria is entering what may be a final phase that will result in its liberation from and the annihilation of Islamic State forces. We need to prepare ourselves for a series of really horrific news reports when these areas long under IS control are liberated. The depravity of the Islamic State is as bad or worse than anything that's occurred thus far in either Iraq or Syria since 2003.

Global SITREP C3-17: Stage-Setting for the pre-70th Week Flood of Prophetic Fulfillment

President Trump at the Western Wall

24 May 2017: CJTF-OIR has attempted to place an embargo on news coming out of its control zone in the al-Tanf/al-Walid border crossing Area of Responsibility (AoR). The last item reported by Kurdish NRT news about 48 hours ago was that Norwegian special forces had taken control of securing the Syrian side of the border. Aside from that there have also been several propaganda reports from dubious Russian sources (Sputnik and RT) which are worthless and will never be repeated here. 

The New York Times published a report yesterday dateline from Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, but not surprisingly it reads as if it were not an American news agency but that of a Globalist Corporate News Entity, and that's par for the course. 

More recent is a Gulf News report which appeared this morning (24 May) and was updated as this update is being composed. The Gulf News report confirms the original 21 May portion of this SITREP that a "battle is brewing between the US-backed forces and Iran-backed troops over who will control a strategic section of the 599km Syrian-Iraqi border."   And "But Iranian-backed Shiite militias such as the Iraqi Hashed Shaabi and the Lebanese Hezbollah were deployed on May 6 to grab territory south of Al Bukamal, which is important to Iran as it is the only land route to Syria, Lebanon and ultimately, the Mediterranean Sea." This region is the northern portion of the corridor discussed below. This linked report is worth the time to read for the details it contains, further corroborating what is reported below and in SITREP C2-17 Part V.

21 May 2017:When U.S. President Trump arrived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia he personally began the process of cementing the pre-70th Week 'last days' military alliance we know from Ezekiel 38:13 as "Sheba, Dedan the merchants of Tarshish and all their young lions."  And to make no mistake, this Arab-Western military alliance has as its current primary military foe the Islamic Republic of Iran. But there's more, much more to see here in terms of a prophetic flood of fulfillment (Dan. 9:26c) and the real-world scenario which is currently the driving force for that fulfillment.

The battle which has just begun in southern Syria at the al-Tanf/al-Walid border crossing between Syria and Iraq and within 50 miles of the Jordanian-Iraq border crossing at Trebil is one in which Iranian generals have ignored Russian generals advice to avoid. Therefore, Iran is the driving force behind this battle being engaged against the western allies (Combind Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve or CJTF-OIR) because it is imperative to maintain its strategic Tehran-to-Beirut corridor. This corridor is a direct overland route from Tehran to Baghdad to Damascus to Beirut, a corridor which the Iranian mullahs eventually wish to terminate in Jerusalem. 

The Iranian Dream - Overland Corridor from Tehran to Beirut

Having Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) controlled territory to the north (de-facto Kurdistan) and to the south at the Syria-Iraq-Jordan border region poses a very high risk tactical threat to the Iranian's military ability to maintain this corridor. Therefore, in the view of Eschatology Today, the current battle is the first or preliminary military engagement of the Jeremiah 49:34-39 prophecy, as well as what has been discussed in the preceding SITREP C2-17 Part V and its role in the impending fulfillment of Isaiah 17.  

The Iranian's see this military threat in terms of the executive order President Trump gave to U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), and thus to NATO, to encircle the Islamic State's remaining territory and de-facto capital at Raqqa, Syria in order to cut off all jihadists escape routes and to "annihilate" the Islamic State (the remaining remnant of Saddam Hussein's military) once and for all. The wrench in this plan of action is the IRGC-Hezbollah militia force now pressing its attack on the Operation Inherent Resolve base of operations at al-Tanf. 

Following the meetings with the leaders of "Sheba and Dedan" President Trump will stop in Israel, and then move on the the NATO and "Ezekiel Summit" in Brussels, Belgium next week. Without any doubt updates will result from these meetings and ongoing ground warfare.                                                               

Global SITREP B6-16: Knowledge is Power

Jordan Border Crossing: Jabhat al-Nusra (Al Qaeda) In Control

7 April 2016: Some time ago I gave the readers of Eschatology Today a warning regarding acceptance of news reporting. The warning to the reader was that during wartime the truth will often be hidden by a bodyguard of outright lies or various levels of disinformation. The war continues and so does my warning. We need to be careful no matter where the information we receive comes from.

A case in point is the above image posted by DEBKAfile yesterday. It carried this opening sentence: "ISIS forces in southern Syria overran several Jordanian border crossings south of the Yarmouk River on Tuesday, April 5. This disastrous turn of events is illustrated by an exclusive picture obtained by debkafile of an ISIS fighter unfurling the organization’s flag at one of the crossings which sports a Jordanian flag."

Everything about this sentence is true except for the most important part - the identification of the terrorist group and flag in the image. As I privately informed the editors at DEBKAfile yesterday  afternoon (we are on the same side in this war, no?) that is NOT an ISIS terrorist waving the ISIS battle flag at an apparently abandoned Jordanian border crossing.  It is a Jabhat al-Nusra (JN) terrorist waving the Al-Qaeda-aligned Jabhat al-Nusra battle flag. 

There is no way on Earth that the astute and experienced editors at DEBKAfile made such a blatant error in the positive identification of an ISIS flag versus the Jabhat al-Nusra flag. It is something a 6-year old child with two minutes of instruction could correctly do with flash cards. 

So, the first question is: For what not-so-obvious political purpose or agenda would DEBKAfile deliberately publish a disinformational report for the whole world to see, and then create a narrative account of reactions to the image by the Israeli government and those of Jordan, the US, the Saudi and UAE military officers? Is the world to believe the military intelligence professionals working for these governments do not know the existent facts on the ground at the Jordanian border? Of course they do. So why the nonsense from DEBKAfile for John and Jane Q. Public to consume?

The second question is: If this photograph is accurate in its depiction, does it provide the first solid evidence that the forces of Islamic State and the jihadists of Al-Qaeda's brand have joined forces in the face of the ongoing Russian-Iranian-Hezbollah-Syrian military offensive, plus the U.S.led Coalition military operation? 

The third question is: If so, then why is this not the core subject of the DEBKAfile report? Why is it not the subject of Corporate News Media (in the U.S. that's ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, CNN and the lot) reporting? Buckle up, a completely unexpected Immelmann maneuver begins with the next sentence. 

DEBKAfile actually got the core issue correct. The Sunni jihadists of the self-declared Islamic State caliphate and the nebulous global jihadists under Al Qaeda's banner are not enemies - they're allies! They are allies in their primary jihad against the secular West, Christianity and Judaism, and secondarily against their enemies of the Russian-Syrian-Iranian axis. How do I know this? I read the stuff the corporate media have embargoed in their boardrooms because they are in agreement with the agenda being pursued by Western governments, led by our own.

Remember the good ol' days? The enemy was known and clearly identified. They were Communists who followed the rigid ideology of Communism. The US and our European and Pacific allies took this clear identification of the enemy and his ideology and crafted a warfighting doctrine with which to defeat the enemy. Ultimately the doctrine succeeded, at least with respect to the former-USSR. 

Now look at the enemy today. We know them as Islamists and their ideology is Islamism. And that's where the similarity ends because the US and our European and Pacific allies resolutely refuse to name Islamists as the enemy and Islamism as their ideology. From this point the failure escalates due to an abject refusal to use this knowledge to craft a warfighting doctrine with which to defeat this enemy. 

This is the reason why this war in many military and intelligence circles, which was fully engaged long before many of us realized that out enemy was at war with us, is known as "The Long War." Without the requisite definition of an enemy and his ideology upon which a warfighting doctrine must be crafted this war will be endless. A perpetual and perfectly good global crisis which those wielding power have no intention of allowing to go to waste.

Remember the "Global War on Terrorism"?  My how the political establishment wailed when this nomenclature was done away with, never mind the fact that no nation has ever successfully waged war against a tactic. Terrorism is not an enemy, it is a tactic used by the enemy. And the recent media headlines across Europe and the US were absolutely predictable: "Terror Attacks San Bernardino" and "Terror Attacks Paris" and "Terror Attacks Brussels."  Terror did not attack anyone or any city. Islamists executing their ideological Islamism attacked the US and French Marines in Beirut in 1983, and every cold-blooded Islamic assault since then to include San Bernardino, Paris, Brussels, Madrid, London, New York City, Washington, D.C. and Shanksville, PA, just to name a handful.

Why isn't this the real news then? Why propagate falsehood for the public to consume. You see where I am coming from, and where I am going. People are being conditioned to believe the lie. Any lie.  Any lie the regime in power wants the public to believe will be accepted because the public has been pre-conditioned to believe it. Heaven help those who reject the lie, whatever it is. And it took me all of four days to attempt to make some kind coherent sense of this and express it here.

I'm not going to hold my breath on this, but there is just the slightest chance the Islamic State-Al Qaeda alliance might become public knowledge through the global corporate media. I hold out this slim chance because I have seen in the past day or so news from Arab-language media where some exceptionally brave Muslim journalists have actually called out Islam as being responsible for the unending wave of global terror. Muslims usually don't call out other Muslims or cite Islamism as the cause of cold-blooded carnage and live long to tell about it. Chances are they'll be assassinated or beheaded, or worse, but it is a faint glimmer of a chance that will likely evaporate with a new wave of jihadist assaults in Rome, London, New York or WhoKnowsWhere. 

Marana'tha Lord, Marana'tha!

Is the Islamic State in a town Near You? (And the Truth About the Levant)

Updated and Revised 17 November 2015: (Originally post date: 14 November) I have selected this post as the most appropriate to update in light of the Islamic State assault on Paris, France last night. This Islamic State assault in downtown Paris, the capital city of France, occurred within a very few hours of U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama falsely declaring on ABC-TVs Good Morning America program that "we have contained them." 

Clearly no one on planet earth is more capable of habitually eclipsing the blatant stupidity of Neville Chamberlain than this American president. This president and his minions have also invited tens of thousands of Islamic State jihadists coming out of Syria into America's cities and rural towns. Moreover, Obama and his Congressional and Administrative toadies and lackeys have done this because they care about America's national security as much they care about each and every individual 'you' out there. When the Islamic jihadist carnage erupts in America again how will you thank them for it?

I would like to note that in all of the live coverage I channel surfed to watch over the past 12 hours  (CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, FoxNews, ABC, CBS and NBC), not once were the words "Islamic terrorism" mentioned by any of the dozens of on-air talking heads and their subject matter experts. Was there was an iota of doubt about the Islamic nature of the jihadists who were mowing down people at random with AK assault rifles, grenades and homicide vests shouting "allahu akhbar" throughout their rampage, or is it just plain verboten for TV anchors and their invited guests to use that phrase? Obviously it is the phrase "Islamic terrorism" which is forbidden by the government because it is politically incorrect language. Political correctness is killing us just as much as the jihadists are.

To his credit Francois Hollande, the far left Socialist and atheist President of France, refers to this assault as an "act of war." He is precisely correct, albeit very late in the conduct of this war which has been in progress worldwide since the early 1990s. Also to his credit he did not follow the lead of former U.S. President George W. Bush to make the nonsensical declaration of a "war on terror" (one does not declare war on a tactic, but on an enemy), but we'll have to wait and see exactly who the French President identifies as the perpetrator of this "act of war" and how he responds to it, and if any other Western leaders follow his lead.

Meanwhile, if you see something that is not normal - report it to local law enforcement in order to potentially save the lives of family members, neighbors and fellow citizens. There is a war going on and we're all in the middle of the battlefield with the combatants. 

Additional Data (Updated)

As of 4 PM EDT on 14 November 2015 the following information has become known:

The first group of 10,000 Muslim "refugees" the Obama Administration wanted to settle in the US during October in arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana on the 3rd of October. The overwhelming majority of these Muslim "refugees" are young men of military age, there is hardly a single woman or child among them. (see image below which is illustrative of the refugees flooding into Europe and the US). At a cost of $16,000 each these "refugees" will be distributed to 180 pre-selected American cities and towns in Louisiana and elsewhere in CONUS. The governors of nearly half of all US states, in the wake of the Paris assaults by Islamic State have balked on accepting any of them without thorough vetting through background checks. 

Per a report by WVUE and Channel 10 of New Orleans dated 3 November and which was updated on 14 November: 

"...some have argued against the U.S. accepting Syrian refugees, fearing terrorists might slip through the cracks. We turned to former New Orleans FBI chief and anti-terrorism expert Jim Bernazzani for insight on whether that's a legitimate concern. Before coming to New Orleans, Bernazzani worked to ramp up the nation's anti-terror strategies after 911.

"If I was in charge of ISIL, logistically I'd take advantage of this situation and put my people in, into the United States," Bernazzani said. "Now with that said, the FBI is on top of this big time with our Joint Terrorism Task Force and we have what's called a Terrorist Screening Center that these individuals will be run through."

But make no mistake, not every refugee seeking admission to the U.S. would face such scrutiny.

"It's going to be the 18- to 45-year-old male for the most part," he said. "It's a percentage game. It's not fail-safe, but it's a percentage game."

An atypical image of arriving Syrian "refugees"

Even without these new jihadists being settled among us, the FBI currently has more than 1,000 active anti-Islamic State investigations ongoing from sea to shining sea through local area Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) intelligence fusion centers. The are a reported 4,000 combat trained Islamic State terrorists embedded among the tens thousands flooding into Europe and the US. At least two of the Paris assault team were trained by Islamic State and maintained communication with their higher headquarters in Syria until the day of the attack according to a New York Times report of 15 November. According to a (must read) ARS Technica report of 16 November, those communications were encrypted thanks to the American traitor Edward Snowden.

In the online Islamic Social media, they not only claimed responsibility for last nights military assault on Paris, France, but also identified that they will soon launch similar attacks in the capital cities of the USA, Italy and the UK. Note this also. Following the earlier Charlie Hebdo massacre French President Hollande stood up a 7,000-man special operations team that was to canvas Islamic "no-go zones" (majority Muslim urban areas) around the country to locate and neutralize "radical Islamists" before they could strike again. Nice job, Francois, and good luck with your declaration of war against... who?

Finally, these clowns at the top of the leadership of the West think 'climate change' is the greatest threat we face. Let's see if they cancel the big conference scheduled to occur... wait for it.... in Paris, France from 30 November through 11 December.

10 September 2014: The answer to this post's question is yes, based upon polling data of American citizens conducted recently. We nearly all believe that IS terrorists are already here in the USA. Well, if you live in Houston, Texas it's not a polling data issue based upon an unsubstantiated belief, it is a fact. 

Above is an image of an Islamic State terrorist leaning on a counter at Jason's Deli in Houston. The IS jihadist logo is circled in red on the right shoulder of the jihadists covering Islamic robe. The Houston Police Department was called to investigate this male suspect. What they found in short order was an Islamic State jihadist wearing body armor underneath his  appropriately black Islamic State robe.

Once the robe was removed the Houston Police discovered the body armor, also festooned with the Islamic State logo as seen in the above image of this terrorist in custody in the rear seat of a Houston PD cruiser. They thing about this is that is occurred last Friday, 5 September. Did any of you living in the US outside of Houston hear about this in any media report? I don;t expect we'll hear anything about it from the POTUS Obama in his speech tonight, although it's a virtually certainty that he's aware of it.

And tomorrow is the 13th Anniversary of 9/11/01.  Feelin' secure are we America?

Obama's big lie in his speech last night.

"ISIL is not Islamic."  

What are Sunni jihadists if not Islamic? Are they Buddhists? Hindus? Sikhs? Jews? Are they Presbyterians or Methodists; Lutherans or Roman Catholics?  The utterly absurd lie from the current President of the United States of America that the Sunni Muslim political entity known as the Islamic State is not Islamic flies in the face of all rational thought and reality of the world-at-large. This statement is, for Obama's own intents, purposes and agenda, a form of Islamic al-taqiyya; it is recognized as such.

Here's another whopper spoken last night.

"It [this "military action"] will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil."

America's finest, our elite Special Forces soldiers, have already been on the foreign soil of Iraq and Syria. This was confirmed weeks ago by Pentagon spokesman RAdm. John Kirby, and broadcast on all major American television stations and print media, such as CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, FoxNews, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today to name just a few who covered the story. This report in the Jerusalem Post from a couple days ago is a good follow-up.

What is it about a sitting American president that he has to offer up bald-faced lies to the American people in a nationally televised speech on the eve of 9/11 concerning renewed long-term war against Islamic jihadists? Does he really think we are that stupid?

Everything I ever needed to know about Islam I learned on 9/11. 

11 September 2014: In case no one has noticed, Obama's masterful and just announced "no boots on the ground" plan to join many nations into a anti-Islamic State warfighting coalition in Syria has taken flight just as his last threat of almost exactly two years ago to bomb Assad's forces took off like a lead balloon. 

Islamic and NATO allies alike have spun on their heels and are at a full warp factor 10 gallop away from any military adventure bearing evidence of lame duck U.S. President Obama's fingerprints on it. The Sunni Muslim nations in particular want nothing to do with aligning their ground pounding military forces with kufr (infidel) Roman forces against the Sunni Islamic State because their Sunni populations would probably revolt instantaneously at such a prospect. On the other side, the Alawites and Shi'a would love nothing more than America and NATO allies joining with regional Sunni regimes to kill Sunni jihadists of the Islamic State and thereby ensuring an Iranian Shi'a Twelver hegemony from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean Sea.

The Sunni Muslims have their eschatological beliefs too, as we all should be well aware by now, and such a scheme as Obama and Kerry and their fellow liberal allies in Congress have concocted against the newly declared Islamic Caliphate would fall smack dab into the middle of a particularly serious one with a Mahdi-like and generous Caliph figure having emerged in the desert of Iraq who is very much benefiting the Sunnis there against their Shi'a oppressors.

The most ridiculous and inherently dangerous thing Obama wants to do is embed American special forces into the Shi'a dominated Iraqi Army. This is proof positive that Obama is an incompetent Commander-In-Chief and has learned nothing from the Green-on-Blue murders of NATO troops in Afghanistan, the most recent of which occurred on 5 August in the murder of an American commander's commander, someone I had the privilege of knowing personally albeit briefly, American Major General Harold Greene. I imagine Obama will be playing golf instead of attending their funerals in the future. 

12 September 2014: I know this is absolutely not the type of information being broadcast by cable TV or other online media sources, but it is one of the reasons why you come to the Eschatology Today blog: you want the straight-up truth of what's really going on in a fallen world that's barreling along at breakneck speed because the driver believes he is transporting a woman in full pregnancy delivery mode to the nearest emergency room. 

So, I have been asked, does any of the above posted material have linkage to a corresponding prophetic Bible verse? 

No, net exactly. And, yes, it does!

What it has is what occurs to me to me to be a foreshadowing of what the real Antichrist will be doing in the Middle East and the "Levant" in the near future. I think what we're seeing closely approximates the prophetic words the angel Gabriel spoke to Daniel about what will occur in the "Levant."

However, before I get to chapter and verse I want to mention something about the "Levant." Very recently both prophecy authors and lecturers Bill Salus and Terry James each presented me something related to Obama's use of the word Levant, and which Obama is very fond of using as in ISIL, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. It also occurred to me (Thank you, Lord!) that I should present the same response I gave those two dear Brothers-in-Christ to you as well. Here goes...

"I am not sure if Obama is using ISIL as some sort of code phrase (as some suggest) to include the desired absorption of Israel into an Islamic Khalifa, but I do know that it's not a phrase that Islamists use as it is distinctly Western, as in "Roman," terminology.  Why would Islamists use the language of the kufr (western Roman infidels) to identify their state? They wouldn't and they don't.

The Levant is an ancient European word, originally born of the language of the Romans (the Language of the Latii, a/k/a Latin) that over time worked its way into other Romance languages such as French and Spanish, and eventually English. Levant has been a word used for hundreds of years by those western seafaring peoples the Bible refers to as "the merchants of Tarshish."

The Levantine Sea

In its common usage Levant referred to those regions east of Italy where the sun rose over the Eastern Mediterranean Sea Basin, a/k/a the Levantine Sea (between Turkey, Cyprus and the Egyptian coast).  Also, the proper noun Levantine was used to refer to Europeans living in that region of the Middle East since the time of the Crusades.

The Levant as a geographic area includes the southern Turkish province of Hatay, Aram Syria to the Euphrates River, western Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, western Saudi Arabia, the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula and northeastern Egypt to the Nile River.

It would be far more correct to say that use of the word Levant refers specifically to the future geographic status of a greater Israel in fulfillment of the Lord's Covenant with Abraham found in Genesis 15:18-21.

"On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying:

'To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates— the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.'”

In other words, and this is very important prophetically, the Levant is the whole extent of ancient Canaan as defined by Genesis 15:18-21 making these lands one and the same as the Abrahamic Covenant lands of Israel."

So now, what did the angel Gabriel tell the prophet Daniel would happen in this same region?  In Daniel 11:40-45 Gabriel said that Antichrist would be at war here, waging a military campaign and running through these currently Islamic nations like a hot knife through butter. 

This entire chapter and the specifically cited passage above details and intertwines a very, very fine line between the precursor Antichrist of 168-67 BC (the Macedonian-Greek King of the Seleucid Empire, Antiochus IV Epiphanes) with the real Antichrist this world is nearly prepared to receive in his own name. However, the dichotomy between what Obama has threatened to do and threatens yet again to do (as a supposed leader of Western nations) and what the Antichrist actually will do in military invasion of the Levant are laid bare for all to see by the Word of God.