The Cardinal Crisis -> Mundane Outlook: Greece Erupts In Chaos After Austerity Vote > Syrian Government Sheds The Blood Of Its People > Protests Rage Across Europe & Middle East > And, The Pistis Sophia: Jesus Christ On The Fate Of Murderers

The Cardinal Crisis

Uranus square Pluto draws closer: Riots engulfed Athens, Greece after lawmakers voted yes on harsh austerity measures that demand Greece to be solvent and remain within the European Union. Major clashes began on Sunday, February 12, 2012 after more than 100,000+ Greeks marched on parliament to rally against the drastic cuts - which will cut one in five Greek civil service jobs and slashes minimum wages by more than a fifth. Multiple buildings were set on fire, including a movie theater, banks and town offices. Looters smashed dozens of shops in the worst riots in years. Dozens of police officers and many demonstrators were injured.

Greece Erupts In Chaos After Austerity Vote

Plus,

Syrian Government Sheds The Blood Of Its People

This disturbing image of a 2-year-old child shot who was in the head by Syrian government forces was given to CNN's Anderson Cooper to show the world the truth of what is happening on the streets of Syria.

And,

Protests Rage Across Europe & Middle East

Anti-government protesters in Bahrain stage a massive rally on February 10, 2012 to celebrate the anniversary of last year's protests.

Featuring,

The Pistis Sophia:

Jesus Christ On The Fate Of Murderers

Global Astrology

By

Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.S

Θεόδωρος 

Peace & Goodwill To Humanity

Praise & All Glory Be To The Immortal God

"... During this astrological supputation, harmonized with the Holy Scriptures, the persecution of the Ecclesiastical folk will have its origin in the power of the Kings of 'Aquilon'  [the North] united with the Easterners. This persecution will last for eleven years, or somewhat less, for then the chief King of 'Aquilon' will fall.

Thereupon the same thing will occur in the South, where for the space of three years the Church people will be persecuted even more fiercely through the Apostatic seduction of one who will hold all the absolute power in the Church militant. 

The holy people of the Immortal God, the observer of His Law, will be persecuted fiercely and such will be their affliction that the blood of the true Ecclesiastics will flow everywhere." 

- Michel Nostradamus, mundane Astrolog.S

In this second February 2012 edition of Global Astrology we take a special focus on the world situation as the global economic crisis threatens the geopolitical stability of nations. My Feb. 3rd edition of Global Astrology can be found here.

This is a hard hitting edition of Global Astrology.

In my astrological forecasting work I often am forced to see things that I do not want to see. The world, in short, is full of evil which demands that good men and women fight the good fight or suffer in the process.

When this 'world,' as it has been made by men - is destroyed by the Immortal God - those who have permitted evil to exist throughout the ages will find themselves in perdition - without the support of their groups and organizations.

Believe me when I tell you that they will be very far away from salvation, as the Immortal God shall not hear their cries, nor their pleas, nor the gnashing of their teeth.

The first of seven (7) exact Uranus squares to Pluto will begin officially in June 2012. My forecast on the global effects of the Uranus-Pluto squares have been highlighted repeatedly in previous editions of Global Astrology.

My mundane forecasts for the Twenty-Tens clearly reveals a decade full of conflicts and contradictions amid major generational change - worldwide.

Economic crisis, social instability, geopolitical change, fears, generational dysfunction, lies, widespread corruption and rampant greed of the past 30 years have brought us a world obviously spinning more out of control.

How people regain control over the international mad hatters that presume superiority where there is none among them - shows us that to reject the foolishness of fools is indeed a very wise choice.

In this edition, we take a broad view of the mass dissatisfaction and protests that rage in Europe and the Middle East.

We look to Syria, as the government there sheds the blood of its own people. 

We return to the gnosis of the Pistis Sophia and prophetic warnings of Jesus Christ on the fate of murderers.

We also see the effects of the Cardinal Crisis over the pre-revolutionary nation of Greece.

My mundane forecasts since 2006 warned of the coming economic crisis and geopolitical consequences of the baby boomer generation breaking the intergenerational contract. Few listened because most people are educated to 'now-cast' with uninformed opinions - rather than to forecast confidently by astronomical means. 


These mundane warnings were re-issued on Global Astrology in 2008, 2009 and 2010 - just as the outer planets relative to the Earth formed into their cardinal configurations. 


Now, as the cardinal crisis world transits increase their vibrations heading into the spring and summer seasons in the northern hemisphere - we will witness even more geopolitical changes that will prove my mundane forecasts that we are living in an historic global era.

The Cardinal Crisis

Protests Rage Across Europe & Middle East

Demonstrators braved freezing temperatures in Romania to protest against ACTA in Bucharest on Saturday, February 11, 2012
Image: Radu Sigheti/Reuters

By Eleazar David Meléndez

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in several nations the weekend of February 10-12, 2012 demanding political & social justice, economic opportunity and a change to the status quo.

Demonstrators - who powered the Arab Spring, the worldwide 'Occupy' protests and the anti-austerity marches of the American and European autumn and winter - have used that February 2012 weekend to take over the streets of Portugal, Belgium, Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria - setting the mood for a veritable winter of discontent.

Greece, Portugal & Belgium

A huge surge of people heeded a call from Greece's two main labor unions to march against a second set of austerity measures being contemplated by the country's political leadership. 

A new round of taxes, public service cuts, and pension reforms - as well as a slashing of the country's minimum wage - was being negotiated between Greece's ruling coalition and various international actors as preconditions for a €130 billion bailout the country is trying to secure. 

An earlier round of austerity cuts is widely blamed for causing a deep recession in the Greece; which has seen their official unemployment spike to an amazing 20.9 percent. 

Images of bloody confrontations between demonstrators and police have been pouring out of Athens since Friday, Feb. 10, 2012. The violence appeared to reach a boiling point Sunday - when protesters attempted to overrun the national Parliament. 

[More on Greece in this edition of Global Astrology]

Similar, if much more staid, anti-austerity protests also took place over the weekend in Portugal and Belgium.

Firefighters in Belgium spray police officers with water in freezing temperatures during anti-austerity protests organized by Belgium's Fireman's Union on Friday, February 10, 2012.
Image: Yves Herman/Reuters

Syria

Demonstrators at a protest against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.

Image: Reuters

Even as the country's military indiscriminately bombs certain cities; demonstrators took to the streets of Syria, demanding the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad. 

As is common in the Muslim world, public actions began following Friday prayers and have continued all weekend. Demonstrations in solidarity have been staged elsewhere around the world in the past 48 hours, with public support coming from Cairo, Beirut, Tunis, London and Palestine.

[We examine events in Syria as well in this edition of Global Astrology.]

Egypt, Bahrain & Yemen

In Egypt protesters staged solidarity protests against Syrian President al-Assad on Sunday, February 12, 2012. Earlier that weekend, Egyptians denounced their own military government.
Image: Suhaib Salem/Reuters

Public demands for the military government to hand over the reins of power intensified in Egypt over the weekend; with people confronting soldiers in Cairo with further strikes expected in the coming weeks. 

Anti-government protesters in the southern city of Aden, Yemen
Image: Reuters

Protests in Bahrain and Yemen, which have been rocked by street actions since awakenings in the Middle East last year; reflected the idiosyncracies of the politics in those countries.

Protests in the police state of Bahrain were marked by confrontations with officers patrolled the streets of Bahrain the weekend of Feb. 11-12, 2012 following a week of protests

Meanwhile, demonstrations in Yemen - where the government has effectively ceded control of huge swaths of the country - were somewhat chaotic.

Britain, Romania, Bulgaria, Germany, Poland & Holland

Marchers in London gathered outside the British Music House in defiance to ACTA

Demonstrations against the multi-national Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) took to the streets of  Europe over February 10-12, 2012.

The ACTA treaty is a cause célèbre of the global 'Occupy' and 'Anonymous' movements. Previous protests were witnessed earlier in February across Eastern Europe, particularly in the Czech Republic and Slovenia. 

Opponents believe the international agreement will curtail certain basic freedoms in order to benefit multi-national corporations and could lead to online censorship. 

Thousands of people took part in co-ordinated protests across Europe in opposition to the controversial anti-piracy agreement. Significant marches were held in Germany, Poland and the Netherlands against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta).

Around 200 protesters gathered in central London outside the offices of rights holder representative groups.

Demonstrators argued that ACTA will limit freedom of speech online.

However the agreement's supporters insist it will not alter existing laws, and will instead provide protection for content creators in the face of increasing levels of online piracy.

The treaty has to date been signed by 22 EU members, including the UK, but has yet to be ratified by the European Parliament. A debate is due to take place in June.

On Friday, Feb. 10, 2012 Germany delayed signing the agreement in order to, a spokesman said, "give us time to carry out further discussions".

Saturday's London demonstration was supported by the Open Rights Group, a vocal opponent to the treaty. The group's executive director, Jim Killock, argued that Germany's stance shows ACTA negotiations were carried out "in secret" by EU "bureaucrats"

"Three member states in Europe are now looking like they don't want to sign," he told the BBC. "That shows that politicians are only really starting to look at this now. All of a sudden, the whole thing is breaking down."

Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have already delayed the process after significant pressure from mostly young people.

"The point today is to say ACTA is undemocratic," Mr. Killock added.

"It's lacked scrutiny, it's setting up dangerous new pressures to censor the internet to remove users and put pressure on [Internet Service Providers] to start policing for copyright."

More demonstrations were held in other cities, including Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The anti-ACTA movement has also been widely adopted by members of the 'Anonymous' activist collective, which claimed responsibility for putting high-profile government websites out of action, including that of the Polish prime minister.

Speaking at the London protest Loz Kaye, leader of the Pirate Party UK, dismissed worries that aligning closely with Anonymous - whose members carry out various radical activities online - was harmful to their cause.

"What we've seen is a whole wave of people coming out on the streets right across Europe," he told the BBC.

"Some people have been called extreme, but equally, Amnesty International, Médecins Sans Frontières have spoken out. Even The Economist, which is hardly radical, has described the treaty as potentially draconian."

Romania's protests were an extension of a series of public demonstrations underway in the country, which began in mid-January 2012 spurred on by Romania's struggling economy and a controversial health reform law.

~

Now, onto Greece - a country that I continue to say is on the verge of revolution.

The Cardinal Crisis

Greece Erupts In Chaos After Austerity Vote

A Greek police officer throws a stone back at demonstrators in the wake of widespread protests in Athens, Greece on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2012.

Image: Yiorgos Karahalis/Reuters

By Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.S

The American trends forecaster Gerald Celente has a saying, "When people lose everything and have nothing else to lose - they lose it."

Nowhere is this truer than for the nation of Greece.

The opening salvo of the second phase of what I call the 'Cardinal Crisis' has begun with Greece on the verge of an all-out revolution.

What is happening in Greece is truly a microcosm of what faces other nations in the wake of rampant economic, financial and political corruption of an generation sucking the very life out of the global economy -all because they fear getting old.

As the earth enters into this second powerful phase of the Cardinal Crisis years - here in 2012 - we will witness the global stakes rising steadily toward its third critical phase, which will occur by the year 2014.

On Sunday, February 12, 2012 the Greek parliament approved a deep austerity bill in order to gain what amounts to a second round of European Union and International Monetary Fund bailout money to avoid a national bankruptcy. 


This, as historic buildings and banks were burned in Athens with mass demonstrations spreading throughout the country.

Greek leaders grit their teeth as they hotly debated the forced austerity that orders more deep cuts in spending in return for a bailout of $172 billion or €130 billion Euros. The Greek Parliament was scheduled to vote on the plan Sunday, Feb. 12, 2011.

When Sunday came, this was the result: out of the 300 members of the Greek Parliament 199 voted Yes, 74 voted No - with five legislators voting 'present' and 22 absent.

The "yes" vote by the parliament on the austerity plan written by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF - demands deeper austerity measures in exchange for the bailout money. 

The troika also forced Greeks to accept 'conditions' for sealing a deal where private creditors will take voluntary losses of up to 70 percent of Greek debt.

In response, the Socialists expelled 22 of their lawmakers and the Conservatives expelled 21. This respectively reduced majority in the 300-seat parliament from 236 to 193.

You did not need to be Einstein to predict the reaction on the street.

Fierce protests and battles with police were reported in six other Greek cities, the worst of it in central Volos where the town hall and a tax office were set on fire, police said.

Major clashes broke out after more than 100,000+ protesters marched to parliament to rally against the drastic cuts - which will axe one in five civil service jobs and slash the Greek minimum wage by more than a fifth.

At least 45+ businesses were damaged by fire, including several historic buildings, movie theaters, banks and a cafeteria. This is the worst riot damage in Athens in years. Fifty police officers were injured and at least 70 protesters were reportedly hospitalized. Sixth-seven suspected rioters were arrested and a further 70 detained.

The atmosphere inside the Greek Parliament was tense - to say the least.

Giorgos Mavrikos, a deputy of Greece's Communist Party, prepares to hurl his copy of Greece's thick austerity bill directly at Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos during raucous debate in Parliament in Athens on Sunday, February 12, 2012. 
Image: Pantelis Saitas/European Press

Greek television reported Feb. 12 that violence was even reported on the Greek islands of Corfu and Crete; including the city of Thessaloniki and towns and villages in central Greece.

Some businesses reportedly were looted in Athens, where police said at least 34 buildings were set ablaze. 

Bank buildings were also reported to have been burned with huge riots witnessed in Thessaloniki and Patra.

Greek caretaker prime minister Lucus Papademos denounced the protests, saying that "vandalism, violence and destruction have no place in a democratic country and won't be tolerated," he said to parliament as it prepared to vote on a new 130 billion Euro 'bailout.'

Papademos told lawmakers before they voted that they would be gravely mistaken if they rejected the EU/IMF package that demands deep wage, pension and job cuts, saying it would threaten Greece's place in the European mainstream.

"It would be a huge historical injustice if the country from which European culture sprang," Papademos said, "reached bankruptcy and was led, due to one more mistake, to national isolation and national despair."

Two women protect themselves from tear gas outside the Greek Parliament

Panayiotis Tzamaros/Reuters

It is clear that Papademos does not have the support of the Greek people. People may forget that Papademos is a technocrat who was not voted into the prime minister's office by the Greek people, but was installed as an unelected prime minister in order to force Greece to what the EMU and the IMF want to see done. 

Greece burns because of rampant corruption and stupidity from a generation of baby boomer international financiers, American banks, European and U.S. politicians and their economists who seek to drain the life out of the nation that spawned western democracy.

Greece has been on the path toward a full blown revolution according to my astrological calculations. 

The chaos outside parliament showed just how difficult it will be to implement austerity measures in the real world. 

Reuters reported that one of its photographers saw buildings in Athens engulfed in flames amid huge plumes of smoke from other burning structures seen in the night sky.

A cinema burns out of control in Athens, Greece on Sunday night, Feb. 12, 2012

"We are facing destruction. Our country, our home, has become ripe for burning, the centre of Athens is in flames. We cannot allow populism to burn our country down," conservative lawmaker Costis Hatzidakis told parliament.

Speaking in Parliament during the daylong debate, the leader of the conservative New Democracy Antonis Samaras, said failure to pass the austerity measures would have been “a step into the void.”

The conservative leader who may becomes the next Greek prime minister, reiterated his calls for early elections after the debt swap deal was finalized: 

“With our vote today, we pave the way for immediate elections which will be liberating for society and stabilizing for democracy,” he said, adding that snap polls should be held in early April 2012 at the latest.

The air outside parliament in Athens' Syntagma Square was rife with thick streams of tear gas as Greek police fought running battles with Greeks who smashed marble balustrades, threw stones and hurled petrol bombs.

Image: Simela Pantzartzi/European Press 

On Sunday night, terrified Greeks and tourists ran from the rock-strewn streets and clouds of stinging gas; fleeing the streets to hotel lobbies for shelter as lines of riot police filled the streets. 

The New York Times reported that protesters also directed their anger at Germany, the strongest EU nation - that has consistently argued for a tough austerity package on Greece. 

What is most disturbing is that the European Union is using the problems of Greece to hide the EU's widespread troubles within its own economic and political institutions. 

The transits of the Cardinal Crisis will continue to force Europe's issues to the surface despite attempts to 'isolate' the economic crisis in countries like Greece.

Here are the arguments for and against Greece's austerity - 

The EU, IMF and international creditors say that Greece is trapped in a lose/lose predicament as the nation must deepen austerity plans started in 2010( under a Mercury retrograde) that will throw many more people out of work. 

Or it must default on its debts. That means abandoning Europe's single currency.

"The choice we face is one of sacrifice or even greater sacrifice - on a scale that cannot be compared," according to Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos who had a thick copy of the austerity plan thrown at him in parliament on Feb. 12, 2012.

The cons are to impose deep spending cuts in exchange for the bailout.

Greece needs the bailout to make a $19.1 billion (€14.5 billion) bond payment that is due by March 20, 2012. Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos warned that "a disorderly default would cast our country into a catastrophic adventure."

Papademos said the austerity plan would help lift Greece out of recession next year. But world transits clearly show that this is not written in stone. In fact, austerity could in fact make things that much worse in light of the astrological configurations.

In addition to a $172 billion bailout, Greece is said to be negotiating a deal that roughly reduce the $264 billion in debt that private creditors say is owed to them. 

Under that arrangement, about $132 billion would then be shaved off Greece's national debt and then the country would receive more favorable repayment terms, according to the creditors, but even that is not written in stone.

Bondholders say that by selling companies and exposing professionals like architects and pharmacists to more competition while imposing many other reforms are designed to make Greece's economy "more efficient in the long run."

Even with the austerity plan in place, the International Monetary Fund estimates it will be 2020 by the time Greece can shrink its debt load to a sustainable level.

The negative effects, of course means that the deep rounds of increasing austerity are counterproductive because it slow the economy and reduces tax revenue. The Greek government says it acknowledges the austerity plan would cause Greece's economy to shrink 4 percent to 5 percent in 2012. 

Without austerity, the economy would contract just 2.8 percent. While the austerity plan includes lowering minimum wages by a whopping 22 percent and firing 15,000 government workers this year.

But, as of early 2012, austerity has done nothing to reduce Greece's debt burden.

In fact, Greek government debt as a percentage of the Greek economy actually grew after it began imposing austerity - to nearly 160 percent between July-September 2011 from 139 percent a year earlier.

"The whole plan was a losing proposition," says Dimitri Papadimitriou, president of the Levy Economics Institute and professor at Bard College. 

Austerity is causing widespread hardship and inflaming social tensions. 

Papdimitriou worries that Greek society is "disintegrating" under the strain: "Poverty has been increasing, homeless rates have been increasing."

So have crime and suicides.

A Greek Default Better Than Austerity?

A Greek default on its debt would immediately ease the great strains on Greece's finances. This would surely cause the nation to head in the direction of leaving the Euro currency in my view.

Dropping the euro would leave Greece with a much cheaper currency - the Drachma. That would instantly power up Greece's economy by making Greek products less expensive worldwide. So this easily would give Greece's exporters a competitive edge.

For instance, back in the decade of the 1990s, Canada used its weak currency to expand its exports and grow out of high levels of government debt, according to Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Center for European Reform in London. But as long as Greece is tied to the Euro currency it lacks that option.

According to economist Bernard Baumohl, he says that the great economic and financial pressures will eventually drive Greece to drop the euro currency.

And he says that would be for the best.

"What is worse for Europe - to have this matter linger on and on? With European citizens having to continue to bail out Greece and Portugal? Or to face the reality that these countries should not have joined the Euro in the first place?"

Exit The Euro?

Dropping the Euro currency would throw Greece's banking system into chaos say other economists. 

Lenders would immediately panic over the prospect of being not being repaid in Euros but in Drachmas. 

So adopting a suddenly much weaker currency may ignite rampant Greek inflation, because prices of imported goods would soar.

International investors would then be reluctant to lend to Greece's government, its companies or its banks. 

They say that the freeze in credit would cause an economic depression - worse than what Greece is suffering now. 

Economists at UBS estimated that Greece's economy would shrink by up to 50 percent if it left the the Euro.

The pain would also likely spread as European banks absorbed losses on their own loans to Greece. 

This worst-case scenario - a disaster like that which followed Lehman Brothers' collapse in the United States in September 2008 - would mean that banks would be fearful to lend to each other resulting in widespread credit squeeze.

Some economists say that what they would like to see European governments produce is a rescue package which pairs government cuts and reforms with economic aid designed to spur growth in Greece.

"When you have over 20 percent unemployment, you need to do something," the economist Papadimitriou says. He wants Europe to propose something like the U.S. plan that rescued an Europe after the Second World War.

"You need something similar to the Marshall Plan," Papadimitriou says.

Germany Forces Greece's Hand?

According to German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, Greece's promises on austerity measures are no longer good enough because so many vows have been broken and the country that has been a "bottomless pit" has to dramatically change its ways, he said.

In a interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, Schaeuble said it was up to Greece whether the country can stay in the European Union as part of its efforts to restore its competitiveness.

"The promises from Greece aren't enough for us anymore," the German finance minister said. "With a new austerity programme they are going to first have to implement parts of the old program and save."

Schaeuble pointed out that German opinion polls show a majority of Germans are willing to help Greece. 

"But it's important to say that it cannot be a bottomless pit. That's why the Greeks have to finally close that pit. And then we can put something in there. At least people are now starting to realize it won't work with a bottomless pit."

Schaeuble said Greece would be supported "one way or another" but warned the country needed to do its homework on improving its competitiveness and hinted it might have to leave the euro zone to do that.

"Greece needs to do its own homework to become competitive -- whether that happens in conjunction with a new rescue program or by another route that we actually don't want to take..."

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble

When asked if that meant that Greece would leave the euro zone for that, Schaeuble said:

"That is all in the hands of the Greeks themselves. But even in the event (Greece leaves the euro zone), which almost no one assumes will happen, they will still remain part of Europe."

Schaeuble said Germany, the euro zone's paymaster, wants to prevent that.

"We're happy to help but we shouldn't give others the feeling that they don't have work hard themselves. 

Every country is responsible for itself." He added that the rescue efforts for Greece are turning out to be more difficult than efforts associated with German reunification in 1990.

"The reason is the realization that there is a need for change, and change dramatically, still needs to develop further with a lot of people in Greece," said Schaeuble, who was a key government architect of German reunification.

Schaeuble added that there was quite a difference between Greece and other euro zone stragglers.

"The Greeks are a special case... The Portuguese government is doing a decent job," he said, adding that Portugal's problem is that the country needs more economic growth. "Our goal is to help give Greece a future by making it fit and competitive so that the people there have their chances," he said. "But the path is going to be difficult."

Contrast Schaeuble's views with the sentiment on the streets of Athens.

“We have fought several times for liberation, but this slavery is worse than any other,” said Greek citizen Stella Papafagou, 82, pulling down a surgical mask she wore over her mouth to keep out the tear gas being fired by the police to push back protesters from Parliament. 

“This is worse than the 1940s,” she said, referring to Germany's Nazi occupation.

“This time the government is following the Germans’ orders,” she said. “I would prefer to die with dignity than with my head bent down.”

Her granddaughter Elina, a 25-year-old employee at a marketing company, said she was still living with her parents and grandmother as she could not afford to move out on a monthly wage of 600 euros, or $790, which she fears will be slashed. 

She said she had all but abandoned her hopes to become a journalist.

“The worst thing though is that we can’t have dreams for the future. They have killed our hope,” she said pointing in the direction of Parliament.

Natalia Stefanou, a 45-year-old shoe shop employee, said she had not been paid since September and feared she would lose her job soon.

“It’s not me I’m worried about though, I’ve got two children, aged 14 and 15, what kind of country are we going to leave them?” she said. 

Asked if the austerity bill would pass, she said she was sure it would. “They’ll find 151 traitors,” she said, referring to the majority required to push the measures into law.

Makis Barbarossos, 37, an insurance salesman, said he had lost faith in Greek politicians.

“They’re all sold out in there; they should be punished,” he said, waving a cigarette in the direction of the Parliament building. 

“We should put them all in small, unheated apartments with 300 a month euro pensions and see if they can live like that. Can they live how they’re asking us to live?” 

Asked what the solution was, his answer was blunt - “Three hundred nooses,” he said, referring to the 300 members of Greek Parliament.

~

[Editor's note: The following item contains disturbing images. Discretion is strongly advised]

We head now to the Middle East, where a ruthless bloody campaign rages in the country of Syria. 


As the geopolitics between China, Russia and the West beckons to stop, delay or forestall what is called 'outside interference' - the fact of the matter is that Syria is killing its own people - men, women and children - to keep a minority family political regime in power.

The Cardinal Crisis

The murders of innocents in Syria continue to mount. The latest estimate is over 5,400+ dead, with an entire family killed in the city of Homs pictured above.

Image: channel4.com

Syrian Government Sheds The Blood Of Its Own People

By Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.S

If there is any proof of what kind of evil operates in this world, other than looking at what is being forced on the people of Greece and other nations - check out what has been going down in the nation of Syria for months.

The violence in Syria is getting much worse and it is spreading.

It was reported on Feb. 12, 2012 that unknown gunmen have assassinated a top army general in Damascus, according to Syria's state-run news agency. It is allegedly the first killing of a high military officer in the Syrian capital since the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began in March 2011.

The killing of Brigadier General Issa al Khouli in the Syrian capital came as shells once again rained down on the city of Homs - epicenter of the uprising against Assad's regime. Of course, the paradox of geopolitical underpinnings of what is happening in North Africa and the Muslim world uprisings were also planned out years in advance according to some.

General al-Khouli was a doctor and chief of a military hospital in Damascus. The attack indicates that violence in Syria is reaching the tightly controlled capital, which has been relatively quiet compared to other cities.

Assad's crackdown of the uprising has killed more than 5,400+ people, according to United Nations figures.

[Viewer Direction is Advised]

Homs, Syria: A man named Bayada Safwan Madlom killed by Assad's forces

The Battle For Homs, Syria

The embattled Syrian city of Homs remained under siege in February 2012 with sporadic tank shells ripping into contested neighborhoods as residents cowered at home with medical supplies dwindling, according to reports out of the city by residents.

“Nobody dares venture into the streets,” said a 65-year-old man named Mohamed, describing in a phone interview the blast of tank shells and the rat-tat-tat of machine guns as all he heard, even though his home is not close to the worst fighting.

With Homs sealed off by the Syrian military, activists relied on cellphone videos uploaded to YouTube to distribute images of the government offensive. 

Short video clips showed streets cluttered with rubble from damaged buildings, houses collapsed on their owners and a bloody flow of victims either being treated in makeshift clinics or prepared for burial.

The images, impossible to verify independently, left the hellish image of a city devoid of people but plagued by random eruptions of fiery, black smoke. 

They were punctuated with cries of “Bashar is a dog!” or “Bashar is a tyrant!” - referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad

Under such extreme conditions, with bodies believed trapped under the rubble, activist organizations’ estimates of the day’s death toll in Homs ranged from about 50 to more than 100.

Reaching Homs by any telephone proved difficult. Most of the attention was focused on the neighborhood of Baba Amr, which is home to a fervent contingent of activists, but it was hardly alone.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in Britain, put the death toll in the city of Homs at 52, with 20 more dead elsewhere. But it noted that communication with Homs was particularly difficult.

Those people who could be reached described the toll as mounting steadily in tandem with the shelling all day long, the Syrian Observatory said.

Although the Local Coordination Committees put the toll in Homs at 110, with about 20 more elsewhere in Syria, it noted that it could not fully document the deaths “due to the intense shelling.”

Some Homs residents were clearly distraught. 

A man dressed in a smock who appeared to be a doctor pointed to five small bloody and dusty children lying on a gurney and demanded that the world react. 

As he grew more animated in his appeal, he thrust one child toward the camera, prompting a burst of wailing.

The statement from the Local Coordinating Committees said that the siege by government forces around Homs had prevented the entry of medicine or food, that heating oil was in short supply and that water, electricity and communications were also often cut.

“I don’t hear any sirens or ambulances, just explosions and gunfire,” said Mohamed, reached by telephone, who added that he had bought a stock of bread last week out of fear that a siege was imminent.

A Syrian doctor from Homs, reached by telephone in Britain, said he had managed to contact colleagues in the city who described the medical supply situation as dire.

Homs is short of antibiotics, bandages, surgical instruments, drugs for anesthesia, oxygen and adrenaline for heart attack victims, said Dr. Hamza, using only his first name, like many Syrians, fearing reprisals.

“It is a full siege there, impossible to send any kind of medical aid,” he said. “It’s also impossible for doctors and nurses to move from one hospital to another because of the shelling.”

A report issued by the international aid organization Doctors Without Borders, which said it had been barred from the country, described the government as trying to deny medical treatment to its opponents. 

“Hospitals must be protected areas, where wounded patients are treated without discrimination,” the report said.

It said major traumas were extremely difficult to treat and described medical workers operating clandestine treatment centers as hampered by basic needs like blood, which could be obtained only through central facilities controlled by the Ministry of Defense.

In the official version of events, the government-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported that two members of the security forces were killed in Homs while eight others killed earlier either there or elsewhere were buried in Damascus and Latakia.

In terms of the violence in Homs, the government news service said, “Armed terrorist groups booby-trapped several buildings, alleys and streets in the city and detonated a number of explosive devices.” It also said the groups tried to barricade streets, burned tires, looted stores and burglarized cars.

Escape from the city is said to be hard, even for a young active-duty soldier trying to go visit his family elsewhere in Syria. He used side roads to get out. “It was a tough drive,” he said, declining to be identified. “The army was spread out, stationed at different spots along the road.”

The soldier said he stuck to office assignments, but those who were assigned to Homs and refused to fire were usually hauled off to the notorious Tadmor prison outside Damascus for at least three months.

Another Homs resident managed to escape two days ago all the way to the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli with his wife and 9-year-old daughter. “I feel like I have a new lease on life after we survived this fierce campaign,” said the man, a restaurant worker who declined to give his name.

In the battered Khaldiyeh neighborhood, the man said, the 16 residents of the building where he lived used to divide up into two inner rooms so that not all of them would be killed if a shell or a rocket hit one room.

The long back route to Lebanon cost $500 instead of the usual $50, and they probably made it only because they had an Alawite driver — from the same religious sect as the president — who could talk his way past the myriad checkpoints run by the security services who are mostly from the Alawite sect, he said.

“The image stuck in my mind from fleeing my hometown is the thugs who were attacking like hungry dogs and the residents who cannot leave their homes,” he said. “They are ready to sacrifice their property, not their souls, but they don’t know where to flee.”

Syrian schoolboys are dragged from school and hauled off by Syrian Security Forces - depicted in the video below:

AFP media reported that, the Arab League on Sunday, February 12, 2012 said that it had agreed to open contacts with Syria's opposition and ask the United Nations to form a joint peacekeeping force to the nation. Those moves were swiftly denounced by Syria.

In Lebanon meanwhile, refugees from the Syrian city of Homs, besieged by President Bashar al-Assad's troops, gave graphic accounts of what they endured.

Arab League diplomats "will open channels of communication with the Syrian opposition and offer full political and financial support, urging (the opposition) to unify its ranks," said a League statement.

They would also "ask the UN Security Council to issue a decision on the formation of a joint UN-Arab peacekeeping force to oversee the implementation of a ceasefire."

After marathon talks in Cairo, the 22-member bloc announced a formal end of its own observer mission to Syria, suspended last month because of an upsurge in violence.

Only Algeria and Lebanon expressed reservations about the resolution, an Arab League official said.

Syria's ambassador to Cairo denounced the League moves.

"The Syrian Arab Republic categorically rejects the decisions of the Arab League," which "reflects the hysteria of these governments" after failing to get foreign intervention at the UN Security Council, Yusef Ahmed said in a statement.

Burhan Ghalioun, leader of the opposition umbrella grouping the Syrian National Council, told Al-Jazeera television he welcomed the moves as "a first step" towards the fall of the regime.

On the ground, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that at least 39 civilians had been killed on Sunday, many in a relentless assault by President Bashar al-Assad's forces on the central protest city of Homs.

Most died in Baba Amr, a rebel stronghold armed forces have targeted for more than a week, killing at least 500 people.

The Observatory also reported fierce clashes on the northern edge of nearby Rastan, where a woman was killed when a rocket hit her home.

Elsewhere, snipers killed a child in Daraa, cradle of the 11-month uprising against Assad's regime.

As the military pressed its onslaught on Homs, refugees who had fled the city across the border to Lebanon told of the horrors they had witnessed.

"The army of Bashar al-Assad destroyed our homes," Abu Ibrahim told AFP.

"Before, we were bombarded by mortars or rocket-propelled grenades, but now they are using tanks and helicopters."

Ibrahim said his 10-year-old daughter Nada had refused food since seeing dead bodies littering the streets of the besieged city.

The Syrian Arab Red Crescent and International Committee of the Red Cross said their "volunteers are distributing food, medical supplies, blankets, and hygiene consumables to thousands of people" in Homs.

"The population, particularly the wounded and sick, are bearing the brunt of the violence," the ICRC's Marianne Gasser said in a statement.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon had broached the idea of a joint Arab-UN mission this month as he bemoaned the Security Council's failure to agree a resolution on Syria in the face of Chinese and Russian opposition.

The Arab League has already put forward a plan for Assad to transfer power to his deputy and for a government of national unity to be formed ahead of elections.

On Sunday, Syrian government newspaper Ath-Thawra accused Arab nations of being in the pay of Western powers, accusations echoed by Damascus's ambassador to Cairo.

The League's decision to back the opposition and call for joint UN-Arab peacekeepers showed it was "hostage to the governments of (certain) Arab countries headed by Qatar and Saudi Arabia," working in collaboration with the West, Ahmed said.

Arab and western states will launch a bid at the UN General Assembly this week to put pressure on Assad after Saudi Arabia and Qatar drew up a resolution backing the League plan to end the crackdown.

The move follows the Russian and Chinese veto of virtually the same resolution in the Security Council eight days ago. Moscow and Beijing are expected to oppose the new text.

However, no one can veto resolutions in the 193-nation General Assembly, which carry less weight.

The United States and its allies are bringing "pressure to bear" on Syria, said White House chief of Staff Jacob Lew. "Since August, we have been bringing pressure to bear," Lew told Fox News.

"There's a lot of pressure being brought to bear and I think that it's been effective and it will be effective. This regime will come to an end," Lew added.

Syrian state television on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2012 showed an official funeral for the 28 people authorities say were killed in twin car bombs in the northern city of Aleppo on Friday, Feb. 10, 2012.

The deputy foreign minister accused Arab and Western countries, which he did not name, of supporting the "terrorists" who carried out the attacks.

Damascus frequently blames foreign-backed "armed terrorist gangs" for the violence.

The rebel Free Syrian Army had accused the regime of launching the Aleppo attacks "to steer attention away from what it is doing in Homs, Zabadani and elsewhere."

A U.S. media report citing unnamed American officials said Al-Qaeda's Iraqi branch was likely to have carried out the bombings, along with attacks in Damascus in December and January.

Human rights groups say more than 6,000 people have died since protests began in Syria in March last year, inspired by similar movements in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

Syrian Atrocities Continue as The United States Offers Diplomacy

By Danielle Sherrill

American Live Wire

In mid-March, 2011, the Syrian wave of unrest took to the streets when residents of a small southern city began a protest of the torture of students that dared to put up anti-government graffiti. The Syrian government’s response was swift and heavy-handed, but regardless, the protests spread.

President Bashir, a British military trained doctor who inherited the Syrian regime, a harsh dictatorship, from his father, Hafez al-Assad, attempted to appear to be in support of reform at first, but still had harsh dictatorial rule at heart. Hafez al-Assad was the “president dictator” of Syria for 30 years. 

During his rule, Hafez al-Assad was responsible for ordering the Hama massacre of 1982, which has been described as “the single deadliest act by any Arab government against its own people in the modern Middle East”; as well as others such as the Tadmor Prison massacre, the Siege of Aleppo, Tel al-Zaatar massacre and the October 13 massacre. 

Additionally, Human Rights groups have detailed thousands of extrajudicial executions he committed against opponents of his regime.

Like father, like son?

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad (L) receives a copy of the new draft constitution from the head of the National Committee charged with drafting a new constitution for the Syrian Arab Republic, Judge Mathhar al-Anbri, during a meeting with the Committee's members in Damascus, Syria on February 12, 2012.

Image: handout photograph released by Syria's national news agency SANA

In April 2011, Bashir lifted the state of emergency that had been in place for 10 years, yet his troops stormed peaceful cities and opened fire on protesters. The protesters have remained, and Bashir’s promises of reform are seen as a ruse, not to be believed. 

 The crackdown dragged on while members of the Syrian Army began to defect in the thousands. These soldiers have joined with Syria’s citizen protesters to fight the government, in what is called a prelude to a Syrian civil war. Soon after, a government in exile was formed, named the Syrian National Council.

Adding to the turmoil are Syria’s ethnic divisions. The Syrian “elites,” including President Assad, his family and the majority of the military, belong to the Alawite sect, which is a minority in Syria, as Syria mostly consists of Sunni’s. 

President Bashir has tried to condemn the citizen protests as foreign-born military plots against him. At the same time, he cannot make any moves against his Allawite supporters, who support him completely. His Allawite support comes from the police force, the military and his business supporters.

Syria’s close neighbors such as Turkey and Jordan, and even the Arab League, have condemned the violence in Syria.

Syria was expelled from the Arab League after agreeing to peace - then the Syrian government intensified attacks on its citizens with more violence, kidnappings, torture and murder.

 The Arab League's “observers” were allowed into the country December 2011, but their presence did nothing to stop the violence. In fact, by January 2012, the Arab League issued a proposal for President Assad to relinquish his power to a deputy and begin negotiations with protesters.

That proposal was rejected.

The West and Arab countries attempted, in February 2012, to press Syria into a resolution through the United Nations. That resolution was vetoed by China and Russia with Russia still upset about the West’s intervention in Libya. 

With Russia’s support, President Bashir became emboldened and recklessly carried out a bloody assault on the citizens of the city of Homs – on the very day the U.N. Security Council planned to vote.

Now, the U.N. has stopped their attempts to tally up the murders in Syria after the official number of 5,400 dead was surpassed in January 2012. The U.N. states that the deaths are too difficult to confirm accurately.

 Since the January tally, the death toll has mounted, with hundreds said to be have been killed in the attack on Homs alone. Estimates of the number of detainees run from 15,000 to over 40,000 people.

The U.S. and the West are said to not want to “interfere” since Syria is so close to Iran. In fact, reports assert that intervention in Syria will only escalate the number of deaths, as in Libya. 

 Before the West intervened, deaths in Libya were at around 1,000-2,000. After intervention, the number of deaths were estimated to be 10 times the number of deaths before the intervention.

So, does the U.S. continue to condemn torture and murder without action? 

The America I know would do no such thing. Every day, we watch the numbers of dead mothers, fathers and children rise. That is not acceptable. Rhetoric is not acceptable. It’s time to act.

 With every nameless death, a part of our humanity dies.

Here is just one of thousands of videos below (one of the few that doesn’t show actual torture and murder) where a Syrian mother pleads with the Syrian Army to save a child from being taken away to be tortured and killed:

It’s time for action, not talk.

As a London Times editorial stated,“Western governments cannot forever limit their involvement to declarations of impotent fury by foreign ministers.

Eventually they must do more.”

~

The Pistis Sophia:

Jesus Christ On The Fate Of Murderers

By Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.S

The science of Astrology is wholly concerned with the fate of humanity. 

The origins of Astrology are based on the fundamental spiritual laws that govern our physical existence.  My tutor, the astronomer Charles Jayne, taught me as a boy that our physical universe is a reflection of what is happening spiritually. 

In these years of the Cardinal Crisis, it is my assessment that we have entered another important historic age. 

This particular age, seen by astrological means, is transitional, and points to the mental, emotional, and spiritual mutation of humanity itself.

To understand this requires knowledge, or what the Greeks called 'gnosis' - and so, in light of the evils being perpetuated on this earth, we return again to the discourses of the Lord Jesus Christ, who outlines the fate of murderers.

Mary said: 

"Woe, woe, unto sinners!"

Salome answered and said: 

"My Lord Jesus, a murderer who has never committed any sin but murdering, if he comes out of the body, what is his chastisement?

Jesus answered and said: 

"A murderer who has never committed any sin but murdering, if his time is completed through the sphere [Earth] that he comes out of the body, the receivers of Yaldabaōth come and lead his soul out of the body and bind it by its feet to a great demon with a horse's face, and he spends three days circling round with it in the world. 

Thereafter, they lead it into the regions of the cold and of the snow and they take vengeance on it there three years and six months. 

Thereafter they lead it down into the chaos before Yaldabaōth and his forty-and-nine demons, and every one of his demons scourges it another three years and six months. 

Thereafter they lead it down into the chaos before Persephonē and take vengeance on it with her chastisements another three years and six months. 

Thereafter, they carry it on to the way of the Midst, and every one of the rulers of the way of the Midst takes vengeance on it with the chastisements of its regions another three years and six months. 

Thereafter they lead it unto the Virgin of Light [The Holy Spirit] who judges the righteous and the sinners, that she may judge it. 

And when the sphere turns itself, she commands that it shall be cast into the outer darkness until the time when the darkness of the midst shall be upraised; it [the soul] will be destroyed and dissolved.

This is the chastisement of the murderer."

- Jesus Christ, The Books Of The Savior, Chapter 145, The Pistis Sophia