Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Will Churches be Forced to Perform Same - Sex 'Weddings'?
Jun 17th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

In 1989 Denmark became the first country to offer civil unions for same-sex couples. In 2012 “Homosexual couples in Denmark … won the right to get married in any church they choose, even though nearly one-third of the country’s priests have said they will refuse to carry out the ceremonies.” In 2013 a gay couple in England sued the Anglican Church for the right to “marry” in the church of their choice.

Could this be coming to a church near you right here in America?

Not too long ago, very few of us would have believed that Americans would embrace same-sex “marriage” or that People magazine would celebrate the “wedding” of Ellen DeGeneres and her female partner. (This took place in 2008.)

Even fewer of us would have believed that professing Christian denominations would embrace same-sex “marriage” and that the Episcopalian Church would ordain a practicing, “married” homosexual as a bishop. (I’m speaking, of course, of the now retired Bishop Eugene Robinson.)

Even fewer still would have believed that Christians would be prosecuted by the state for refusing to participate in same-sex “weddings,” as in baking cakes or providing floral arrangements or taking pictures for these ceremonies. Today this is happening across the country, with the encouragement of Attorney General Eric Holder and the backing of higher courts.

In light of all this, is it really so far-fetched to imagine that the day could come when churches in America would be required to perform same-sex “marriages” or face serious penalties, beginning with the loss of their tax-exempt status?

Last August, the Christian Institute in England announced that a millionaire homosexual couple “launched a legal challenge to the right of churches to opt out of gay weddings.”

As explained by Barrie Drewitt-Barlow, one of the two homosexual men, “We’ve launched a challenge to the government’s decision to allow some religious groups to opt out of marrying same-sex couples.

“We feel we have the right as parishioners in our village to utilize the church we attend to get married.”

He added, “The only way forward for us now is to make a challenge in the courts against the church.

“It is a shame that we are forced to take Christians into a court to get them to recognize us.”

What is striking about their lawsuit is that in July 2013, England and Wales legalized same-sex “marriage,” and there were plenty of churches that would have gladly performed the ceremony for this couple.

But, as pointed out by Greg Campbell on the Tea Party News Network, “Barrie Drewitt-Barlow and his partner Tony, rather than request a ceremony from a church that would recognize their union, have opted to take the church they regularly attend to court in order to force them to officiate the wedding.”

As Campbell noted, “As Western culture debates the recognition of same-sex marriages, religious groups who stand opposed to gay marriage are routinely steamrolled by governments who have decidedly picked a side in this debate.”

Precisely so.

And so, in Denmark, a homosexual couple can go to any state church and demand that the clergy perform their “wedding” ceremony (the vast majority of Danes belong to the Lutheran Church, which is the state church, even though only a small percentage of Danes are actively involved in the church).

This is what gay activists mean by “tolerance.”

Things have gotten to the point that, throughout our country, Christian attorneys are working day and night to get laws passed that will exempt churches from having to perform same-sex “marriage” ceremonies. They can see the handwriting on the wall. In fact, that handwriting is practically shouting at us to get our attention.

Will we recognize what is taking place before our eyes, or will we stick our heads in the sand and ignore this very real threat to our religious liberties?

Already in 2012, the superintendent of schools in Miami-Dade County, Florida, tried to evict a Southern Baptist church from one of its school buildings after the pastor, Jack Hakimian, preached biblically based messages on homosexuality and same-sex “marriage.” 

According to reports, “the school district rents space after hours to 90 different religious groups, collecting $630,000 a year,” yet it sought to evict Hakimian’s church for holding to biblical standards of sexuality and marriage.

The district was forced to back down after being threatened with legal action by Liberty Counsel, but this is just a foretaste of what we can expect.

After all, if religious opposition to same-sex “marriage” is no different than religious opposition to interracial marriage – or so the argument goes – then the day could easily come when churches and denominations that oppose the radical redefining of marriage will be put in the same class as the KKK. 

The truth be told, gay activists have been shamelessly comparing conservative Christians to the KKK (and Nazis!) for years now. Why should we expect them to change their strategy when it has worked so well and duped so many?

The ACLU is currently pouring millions of dollars into lawsuits opposing the rights of businesses to oppose same-sex “marriage,” claiming that while “Religious freedom is a fundamental right … we as a nation have rejected efforts to invoke religion to justify discrimination in the marketplace, and there’s no reason to turn back the clock now.” 

At the same time, the ACLU claims that there is a distinction between houses of worship and businesses and between clergy and business owners. The former, they argue, do not have to participate in same-sex “weddings” and the like. The latter do as part of their service to the general public.

The obvious question is how long this fragile distinction will stand, especially as anti-”homophobia” hysteria spreads through the country.

Let us learn from the example of Denmark and England, and let us stand all the more boldly for our religious freedoms, both in the marketplace and in the church. 

Surrender in one area will surely lead to surrender in the next.

Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/June17/173.html#lVggPQQ0xOYv5DM1.99

U.S. Customs and Border Protection to Open Biometric Test Facility
Jun 17th, 2014
Daily NewsBiometric Update
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced it will open its test facility for biometric identification technology in Landover, Maryland at the end of the month.

CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske revealed details of the center, which will test devices that record biometric information from travelers exiting the US, in his presentation at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

According to a presentation by CBP executive director Colleen Manaher back in February 2014, the facility would test a range of biometric devices in a mock airport environment then narrow them down to the two best performing devices.

Kerlikowske said a biometric entry/exit program is an “extremely important” component of overall border security, adding that the facility’s experiments with biometrics will advance CPB’s greater plans for a more comprehensive biometric entry/exit system for the country.

The agency assumed some of the responsibilities for developing the biometric exit technology following last year’s decision by the Department of Homeland Security to divide CBP’s U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology biometric data collection and analysis program among CBP, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and a new Office of Biometric Identity Management.

The biometric data collection and analysis program gathered fingerprints from foreign visitors that were then compared with information from terrorist databases.

Once the biometric entry/exit program is established and put into use, it will work towards preventing visa overstays.

According to Rawlson King, lead researcher for the Biometrics Research Group, the implementation of a biometric exit program in the U.S. is a hot topic of debate at the moment.

U.S. - Iran Military Cooperation in Iraq Discussed
Jun 17th, 2014
Daily NewsDebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Swarm of Earthquakes in Alaska Puzzles Scientists
Jun 17th, 2014
Daily NewsABC News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

A moderate earthquake shook northwest Alaska on Monday, the fifth temblor of the same magnitude since April in an area with otherwise little activity, seismologists said.

The magnitude-5.7 quake struck at 4:01 a.m. Monday northeast of the village of Noatak, the Alaska Earthquake Center reported. As with other temblors in the earthquake swarm, the quake was felt in Noatak, an Inupiat Eskimo community of 560 people.

"It woke me up," said resident Alvin Ashby. "Some people slept through it."

People there aren't used to earthquakes, and these have some residents worried, said Ashby, who has lived in the community most of his life.

Before the swarm that began April 18, the last known quake of similar size in the area was a magnitude-5.5 quake that occurred in 1981, earthquake center seismologist Natasha Ruppert said.

The swarm of magnitude-5.7 quakes is connected to more than 300 smaller aftershocks, some with magnitudes in the high 3s, Ruppert said. The first quake and the others of that magnitude have been located in roughly the same area about 20 miles from Noatak. The community is 70 miles north of the Arctic Circle.

Monday's quake was preceded by one minute by a magnitude-4.2 foreshock and followed by at least 10 aftershocks.

Minor damage from the earthquakes includes cracks in walls in Noatak, but no injuries have been reported.

Ruppert said old seismic faults have been mapped in the area, but there are no known active faults, although that doesn't mean there aren't any. She said sometimes surface fault scars could be hidden by vegetation or glacial deposits.

"Obviously, since we are having all this earthquake activity, there must be some active faults in the area," Ruppert said.

Since the first of the swarms occurred, seismic sensors have been installed in Noatak and the regional hub town of Kotzebue, 55 miles south. Ruppert said the sensors help gather more accurate information about the earthquakes.

The series of earthquakes has scientists puzzled about activity that is considered very unusual in the area.

"At this point, we don't really understand the nature of these earthquakes," Ruppert said.

Ruppert said she doesn't believe there is any connection between the quakes and the Red Dog Mine, located about 35 miles north of Noatak.

"All mining activities are very near the surface," Ruppert said. "And all the earthquakes are miles below the surface."

Russia Raises Ukraine Aid Issue, UN Talks Drag on Syria Help
Jun 17th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Jerusalem Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Russia said on Monday that more than 100,000 people have fled across its border to escape violence in eastern Ukraine and signaled that it has been delivering humanitarian assistance to the region without Kiev's consent.

As UN Security Council members mull a draft resolution to approve cross-border aid access in Syria without government consent - where the UN says 9.3 million people need help - Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Moscow had found "ways and means" to get humanitarian help into neighboring Ukraine.

"There are people who come across the border, get Russian humanitarian assistance and bring it back to their families," he said after UN aid chief Valerie Amos briefed the Security Council behind closed doors on Ukraine at the request of Russia.

He said Russia attempted to work with Ukrainian authorities in delivering aid but they rejected the proposal "so we found ways and means in order to deliver humanitarian assistance to people in need."

Obama: U.S. Marines for Iraq
Jun 17th, 2014
Daily NewsDebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Obama Meets National Security Team on Rebel Threat to Iraq
Jun 17th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Jerusalem Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

President Barack Obama met with the full roster of his national security advisers on Monday to discuss the threat to Iraq from Sunni insurgents, the White House said on Monday.

"The President will continue to consult with his national security team in the days to come," the White House said, providing no further details.

The meeting included Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, Attorney General Eric Holder, and national security advisor Susan Rice. Also attending were UN Ambassador Samantha Power, CIA Director John Brennan, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey.

Obama Holds Consultation on Iraq
Jun 17th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

U.S. President Barack Obama met with the full roster of his national security advisers on Monday night, to discuss the threat to Iraq from Sunni insurgents.

The meeting included Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, Attorney General Eric Holder, and national security advisor Susan Rice. Also attending were U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power, CIA Director John Brennan, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey.

Obama Backpedals, Sends Troops to Iraq
Jun 17th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

President Barack Obama

Reuters

The US has sent in over 500 marines, dozens of helicopters, and the aircraft carrier George HW Bush into the Persian Gulf Tuesday, according to CNN.

According to the Guardian, around 170 of those forces have already arrived in Iraq, and another 100 soldiers will be on standby until needed. In addition, officials told Reuters Tuesday that the White House was considering sending a contingent of special forces to train and advise Iraqi troops, many of whom have fled their posts.

The numbers keep swelling in the Iraq crisis, with the US increasingly adding manpower - despite a commitment not to join the fray. 

Earlier this week, US President Barack Obama stated to Congress that he would only deploy "up to 275" men in Iraq, which is suffering from the lightning-fast advances of Islamist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). 

The statement follows an interview with US Secretary of State John Kerry with Yahoo! News Monday, where he admitted that the US was seriously considering airstrikes as a military option. 

"Well, they are not the whole answer but they may well be one of the options that are important to be able to stem the tide and stop the movement of people who are moving around in open convoys and trucks and terrorizing people," he said. "When you have people murdering, assassinating in these mass massacres, you have to stop that and you do what you need to do."

The move puzzled both the public and political analysts, after Obama stated just days earlier that the US would not be sending troops to Iraq.

"We will not be sending US troops back into combat in Iraq," Obama stated on the White House lawn Friday. "This is not solely, or even primarily, a military challenge."

On Thursday, Obama declared that short-term military actions will have to be taken in Iraq and said he is looking at "all options", but his spokesman later clarified the president did not intend to send ground troops to Iraq.

The move comes in the wake of the takeover of several Iraqi cities by ISIS, including Mosul and Tikrit.

Let the Headlines Speak
Jun 17th, 2014
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Not yet categorized

Read These Tweets About the ‘Inevitable’ Return of the ‘Caliphate’ — the Bigger Story Could Be Who Actually Wrote Them
“As I’ve said b4 inevitable that ‘Caliphate’ returns,” Mohamed Elibiary tweeted. “Choice only whether we support [European Union] like Muslim Union vision or not.” Elibiary, a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, was apparently responding to a question about the radical terror group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria that is sweeping through Iraq, the Washington Free Beacon reports.  

For The Third Time, Judge Orders NSA To Stop Destroying Evidence
U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White’s ruling came at the request of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is in the midst of a case challenging NSA’s ability to surveil foreign citizen’s U.S.-based email and social media accounts. According to the EFF, the signals intelligence agency and the Department of Justice were knowingly destroying key evidence in the case by purposefully misinterpreting earlier preservation orders by multiple courts, multiple times.  

GOVERNMENT ARRESTING PEOPLE FOR ANTI-OBAMA FACEBOOK POSTS
The US Government is actively seeking those who criticize government, specifically Barack Obama, and arresting them without charging them. They are remanded to mental health institutions where they are given "training" on how to view the world. Most of the victims of the government's kidnapping scheme are veterans.  

'Wave of humanity': Border Patrol overwhelmed by flow of illegal immigrants
Thousands upon thousands of people from Central America exploiting the porous border of the Rio Grande Valley to enter the United States. “If we don't send the message that they can’t just come in and stay here, it's gonna continue, this wave of humanity,” said Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar.  

Tennessee National Guard holds earthquake response exercise
The Tennessee National Guard, in conjunction with the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) and the Tennessee State Guard, is working at locations throughout the state exercising plans laid out in the Tennessee National Guard Emergency Response Plan, which fully integrates with the statewide Tennessee Emergency Management Plan.  

Iraq conflict: Clashes on approaches to Baghdad
Iraqi government forces are engaged in heavy clashes with Sunni insurgents who have made major advances in the past week. Parts of the city of Baquba - just 60km (37 miles) from Baghdad - were briefly taken over by the rebels. Reports say 44 prisoners were killed during fighting at a police station in the city.  

BP to sign £11.8bn gas deal with China's CNOOC
BP is to sign a deal with China National Offshore Oil Corporation worth about $20bn (£11.8bn). The oil giant will supply its Chinese peer with liquefied natural gas (LNG), BP chief executive Bob Dudley said at a conference in Moscow. Mr Dudley said the deal would be signed in London.  

Deadly US tornadoes strike Nebraska
At least one person is dead and at least 19 are hurt after two massive tornadoes hit the US state of Nebraska. The town of Pilger, about 100 miles (160km) north-west of Omaha, with a population of 350 people, was devastated by the twisters. Jerry Weatherholt, county commissioner, said half the town is damaged.  

US deploys small force to Iraq, opens dialogue with Iran
The United States has deployed approximately 275 troops "equipped for combat" to Iraq, US President Barack Obama informed Congress on Monday night, to counter the growing threat of ISIS, a terrorist militia threatening the sovereignty of Iraq and Syria. 170 troops were deployed to protect the expansive US embassy Baghdad, with 100 more for airfield management, security, and logistics support, the Pentagon said.  

Nigeria: At Least 20 Killed in Suspected Nigeria Boko Haram Attack
Officials in Nigeria say more than 20 people were killed when gunmen believed to be Boko Haram militants attacked a village in the country's northeast. Residents in the town of Daku say gunmen surrounded the village market on Sunday and fired indiscriminately at people.  

UK to re-open Iran embassy says Hague
Foreign Secretary William Hague has said he intends to re-open Britain's Embassy in the Iranian capital Tehran. Mr Hague said the "circumstances were right" following an improvement in bilateral relations in recent months. Full diplomatic relations with Iran were suspended after attacks on the British embassy in Iran in 2011.  

Nebraska's Deadly Twin Tornadoes Devastate Pilger, Stanton
Rescuers scoured the debris of leveled homes in northeast Nebraska early Tuesday for people trapped under the rubble after deadly twin twisters wreaked havoc on farming communities.  

N. Korea cruise missile fuels proliferation concerns
A state propaganda film disseminated on social media sites, including YouTube, provides a very brief glimpse of the missile being launched from a naval vessel. Writing on the closely watched 38 North website of the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, arms control expert Jeffrey Lewis said the missile would mark "a new and potentially destabilising addition" to North Korea's military arsenal.  

Why ISIS gains in Iraq are reshaping Syrian regime's war strategy
With Islamic militants at the vanguard of what appears to be a general Sunni uprising against Baghdad’s Shiite-dominated government, the conflicts in Syria and Iraq are beginning to merge under the strains of sectarian and ethnic competition.  

Isis: the New Al Qaeda and Face of Militant Terror
Jun 17th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

Step aside Al Qaeda: the face and identity of global terrorism now seems to be taking on a new, dynamic, more powerful and revitalized form named The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria - otherwise commonly referred to as the ISIS. ISIS is reported to be a jihadist group active in Iraq and Syria, formed in April 2013 as an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). It has since been disavowed by al-Qaeda and considered to be a rival faction, but has still become one of the main jihadist groups fighting government forces in Syria and is making military gains in Iraq. 

The civil war in Syria has left a vacuum of authority in large tracts of the country, which fueled a resurgence of the ISIS group as it capitalized fully on Syria’s ensuing vulnerabilities. The leader and face of the organization is said to be Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, believed to have been born in Samarra, north of Baghdad in 1971. A BBC.com report states that he later joined the insurgency that erupted in Iraq soon after the 2003 US-led invasion. He then formed his own militant group in the Samarra and Diyala areas, where his family was from, before joining al Qaeda in Iraq. In 2010 he emerged as the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, one of the groups that later became ISIS. Abu Bakr al Baghdadi reportedly graduated to the top job at the age of 39, after Abu Omar al Baghdadi was killed in a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation. 

Baghdadi is regarded as a battlefield commander and tactician, which analysts say makes ISIS more attractive to young jihadists than al-Qaeda, led by Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Islamic theologian. Baghdadi is even being referred to now as the “new (Osama) Bin Laden”. Not much is known publicly about Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, but a biography posted on jihadist websites last year said he held a Ph.D. in Islamic studies from a university in the capital. The Iraqi government in January released a photograph of him that depicts an unsmiling bearded figure in a black suit. Al Baghdadi is known to have served four years in a U.S. prison camp for insurgents at Bucca in southern Iraq, during which time he is thought to have developed a network of contacts and honed his ideology. He was released in 2009. 

The Washington Post says of Baghdadi: “Several facts, however, are clear: Baghdadi leads the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. He is a shrewd strategist, a prolific fundraiser and a ruthless killer. The United States has a $10 million bounty on his head. He has thrown off the yoke of al-Qaeda command and just took his biggest prize yet in Mosul, an oil hub that sits at the vital intersection of Iraq, Turkey and Syria. And in just one year of grisly killing, he has in all likelihood surpassed even al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in international clout and prestige among Islamist militants.” 

No wonder then, that he has been separately described in various quarters, as the world’s “most powerful jihadi leader”, “The true heir to Osama bin Laden” and “the world’s most dangerous man”, among other similar titles of notoriety.

The precise size of the ISIS organization is unclear but it is thought to include thousands of fighters, including many foreign jihadists. Prof Peter Neumann of King's College London reportedly estimated that about 80% of Western fighters in Syria have joined the group. ISIS claims to have fighters from the UK, France, Germany and other European countries, as well as the US, the Arab world and the Caucasus. 

In terms of overall clout and potential impact, correspondents are quoted as saying that ISIS appears to be surpassing al-Qaeda as the world's most dangerous jihadist group, with CNN describing it as “the most dangerous militant group in the world.” A senior U.S. counterterrorism official reportedly told CNN this week that ISIS looks at Syria and Iraq as "one interchangeable battlefield, and its ability to shift resources and personnel across the border has measurably strengthened its position in both theaters." For western counterterrorism agencies, the ISIS combination of fanaticism and disciplined organization is the nightmare scenario. In the words of the Soufan Group (a political risk consultancy): "ISIS has become indisputably the most effective and ruthless terrorist organization in the world." 

U.S. counterterrorism officials said ISIS attacks show the degree to which Islamist militants have established a revolving door between Iraq and Syria, with fighters flowing easily between the two countries and fueling conflict in both. The Obama administration has also expressed concern about the fall of Mosul. The Wall Street Journal quoted the State Department as stating that ISIS "is not only a threat to the stability of Iraq, but a threat to the entire region." As is typical of jihadist groups, ISIS is also strictly Sharia (Islamic law) based and has reportedly begun to impose Sharia law in the towns it controls. Examples reported include boys and girls being separated at school, and women forced to wear the niqab or full veil in public. 

It however seems clear that professing Christians caught up between the fighting are being made to bear the full brunt of the ISIS attacks. Christian Headlines.com reports that bodies of Christian children and their parents litter the chaotic streets of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, as violent Muslim extremists have seized a terrorized city Iraqi Christians once considered their last safe refuge. 

Catholic Priest Najeeb Michaeel described the situations as “very critical and even apocalyptic”: “Most of the inhabitants of the city have already abandoned their houses and fled into the villages…many thousands of armed men from the Islamic Groups of Da’ash have attacked the city of Mosul for the last two days. They have assassinated adults and children. The bodies have been left in the streets and in the houses by the hundreds, without pity. What we are living and what we have seen over the last two days is horrible and catastrophic…Pray for us. I’m sorry that I can’t continue. They are not far from our convent. Don’t reply. We are now surrounded and threatened with death.” 

And according to Nina Shea of National Review: “The population, particularly its Christian community, has much to fear…the ruthlessness of ISIS, an offshoot of al-Qaida, has been legendary. Its beheadings, crucifixions, and other atrocities against Christians and everyone else who fails to conform to its vision of a caliphate have been on full display earlier this year, in Syria.” 

The BBC reports about 150,000 people have fled Mosul, population about 1.8 million."Mosul soon will be emptied of Christians," said a World Watch Monitor source. "This could be the last migration of Christians from Mosul. Christian families are terrified. An elderly woman and her adult daughter reported they were still in their house in Mosul. They posted on the Internet: "God, please save us and Mosul" and added that only they and one other Christian family were left in their neighborhood.

CNN.com and most news agencies and reports seem to agree that ISIS is trying to establish an Islamic caliphate, emirate or state, stretching across the region straddling Syria and Sunni areas of Iraq. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has thrived and mutated during the ongoing civil war in Syria and in the wake of the security vacuum that followed the final exit of American forces from Iraq. Now ISIS is seemingly achieving its ominous and forceful expansionist goals with relative ease, virtually unchecked: ISIS captured the city Falluja, 40 miles west of Baghdad, in January and currently controls large swathes of northern Iraq. Operations in Falluja and elsewhere in the western province of Anbar were strategically designed to draw Iraqi forces away from the north. ISIS is skilled at creating multiple attacks simultaneously in different areas, keeping the demoralized Iraqi army confused and off balance.

And with the latest seizure of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, and advances on others, the ISIS caliphate kingdom appears within reach. ISIS controls hundreds of square miles where state authority has evaporated. It ignores international borders and has a presence all the way from Syria's Mediterranean coast to south of Baghdad. 

Although the capture of Fallujah was disturbing, it was the ISIS conquest of Mosul in June that sent shockwaves around the world. The Islamist militants took control of Sunni Muslim-dominated Mosul after hundreds of its fighters overwhelmed government military forces in a lightening attack on Monday, forcing up to 500,000 people to flee the city and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to call a national state of emergency. According to the Wall Street Journal, Osama al Nujaifi, speaker of Iraqi parliament, said insurgents had seized not only Mosul, but the entire province of Nineveh, where the city of nearly two million people is located. "What happened in the past few days and what happened today is a complete occupation of the province of Nineveh," said Mr. Nujaifi,whose brother, Atheel, is governor of the province.

Mosul residents said they were shocked at the ease of the takeover by hundreds of rebels. The militants freed up to 1,000 inmates from Mosul's central prison, according to senior police officials. They are also in control of Mosul airport, local television stations and considerable amounts of US-supplied military hardware. Videos showed victorious insurgents waving black flags emblazoned with Islamic script—the standard brandished by al Qaeda militants world-wide.The New York Times  quoted James Jeffrey, a former United States ambassador to Iraq: “It’s a shock…it’s extremely serious. It’s far more serious than Falluja.”

Some analysts expect critical parts of the Iraqi oil infrastructure around Mosul to be among its future targets. 

Despite the extensiveness and ambition of its operations, ISIS is also well financed. Their revenue streams over time are reported to have included extortion methods such as demanding money from truck drivers and threatening to blow up businesses. Robbing banks and gold shops was another. The strategy appeared to be to use the income to help finance a growing stream of suicide attacks and assassinations calculated to poison the political atmosphere to ISIS’s advantage. It would also finance the recruitment of Sunni tribal fighters and spectacular prison raids that liberated hundreds of fighters, as well as attacks on police patrols and the assassination of officials.

Now, al Baghdadi has a new strategy for generating resources: large-scale attacks aimed at capturing and holding territory. Ayham Kamel of the Eurasia Group, a U.S.-based consultancy, says that in the latest iteration of this strategy, ISIS will "use cash reserves from Mosul's banks, military equipment from seized military and police bases and the release of 2,500 fighters from local jails to bolster its military and financial capability."

This has worked perfectly for them so far: in seizing Mosul, ISIS has suddenly become “the richest terror group ever” after looting 500 billion Iraqi dinars - the equivalent of $429m (£256m) - from Mosul's central bank, according to the regional governor. Jack Moore, writing for the International Business Times reported: “Nineveh governor Atheel al-Nujaifi confirmed Kurdish television reports that ISIS militants had stolen millions from numerous banks across Mosul. A large quantity of gold bullion is also believed to have been stolen. Following the siege of the country's second city, the bounty collected by the group has left it richer than al-Qaeda itself and as wealthy as small nations such as Tonga, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands and the Falkland Islands.”

Part of ISIS strategy to maintain popular support is through trying to capture and channel the resentment of the Sunni street. In both Syria and Iraq, it is reportedly trying to win favor through “dawa” - organizing social welfare programs and even recreational activities for children, distributing food and fuel to the needy, and setting up clinics.

However its soft underbelly is proving to be its rivalry with Al Qaeda backed nemesis Al- Nusra, which is said to be making common cause with other groups in an anti-ISIS front led by Al Qaeda’s embattled and embittered Ayman al-Zawahiri. And by taking Mosul, which Iraq's Kurds see as in their sphere of interest, ISIS may invite greater cooperation between the Iraqi army and experienced Kurdish fighters.

Meanwhile in the U.S, the political fallout has begun: Following nine years of U.S.-led war, at a cost of thousands of lives and billions of dollars, the attacks touched off Republican criticism of the Obama administration's failure to negotiate a security agreement that would have allowed the U.S. to keep troops in the country beyond 2011. Pentagon officials said they don't view the attack as a dangerous turning point that requires urgent action.
Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Defense Department press secretary was quoted by the Wall Street Journal as saying: "But our efforts to help them with counterterrorism is not something that we turn off-and-on like a light switch….ultimately, this is for the Iraqi security forces and the Iraqi government to deal with”.

These comments seem to have been demonstrated by recent U.S reaction to threats within Iraq. As the threat from Sunni militants in western Iraq escalated last month, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is reported to have secretly asked the Obama administration to consider carrying out airstrikes against extremist staging areas, according to Iraqi and American officials quoted by the New York Times. But Iraq’s appeals for a military response have so far been rebuffed by the White House, which has been reluctant to open a new chapter in a conflict that President Obama has insisted was over when the United States withdrew the last of its forces from Iraq in 2011.

The rising insurgency in Iraq seemed likely to add to the foreign policy woes of the Obama administration, which has recently faced sharp criticism for its swap of five Taliban officers for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, and must now answer questions about the death of five Americans by friendly fire in Afghanistan on Monday night. Critics have long warned that America’s withdrawal of troops from Iraq, without leaving even a token force, invited an insurgent revival. The apparent role of the ISIS in Tuesday’s attack helps vindicate those critics, among them the former ambassador to Syria, Robert S. Ford, who has called for arming more moderate groups in the Syrian conflict.

Of a similar view is Kenneth M. Pollack, a former C.I.A. analyst and National Security Council official, who reportedly claimed that Iraqi officials at the highest level said they had unsuccessfully requested manned and unmanned U.S. airstrikes this year against ISIS camps in the Jazira desert. 

Meanwhile, apparently sensing that U.S military help would no longer be forthcoming, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki ordered a state of emergency for the entire country and called on friendly governments for help, without mentioning the United States specifically. As the Sunni insurgents have grown in strength, those requests have persisted. In a May 11 meeting with American diplomats and Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, the head of the Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East, Mr. Maliki said he would like the United States to provide Iraq with the ability to operate drones. But if the United States was not willing to do that, Mr. Maliki indicated he was prepared to allow the United States to carry out strikes using warplanes or drones.

On the local Iraqi front, some analysts said the scale of the disaster could force a rare agreement among the country's divided political groups."It's potentially driving all factions toward a government of national unity," said Michael Knights, an Iraq expert and researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "If you wanted a wake-up call, this is it." 

The rout in Mosul was a humiliating defeat for Iraq’s security forces, led by Prime Minister Maliki and his Shiite-dominated government, and equipped and trained by the United States at a cost of billions of dollars. As the New York Times  put it: “The Iraqi Army apparently crumbled in the face of the militant assault, as soldiers dropped their weapons, shed their uniforms for civilian clothes and blended in with the fleeing masses”.

The situation in Mosul continued to deteriorate. According to residents, by nightfall on Tuesday (11th June), the city was calm but there was no electricity, water supplies were running low and there was little fuel to run generators. The bodies of militants had been taken away for burial, but the corpses of security forces still lay in the streets.

That’s bad enough news for the Middle East, but perhaps Theodore Karasik of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis captures best in the Washington Post, the risk to the global community: “ISIS’s rise at the expense of Zawahiri’s movement signals that a new, more dangerous hybrid,based on state development by wrecking everything in its path is emerging from the Syrian terrorist incubator.Ultimately, ISIS seeks to create an Islamic state from where they would launch a global holy war. Perhaps that war is now beginning as Baghdadi’s ISIS eclipses Zawahiri’s al-Qaeda.”

It would seem that the ground for the next phase towards annihilating Israel, and attacking Christian and Western interests everywhere, is being prepared. ISIS appears to be evolving into the perfect global springboard from which jihadists can steal, kill and destroy in any place where ISIS or Sharia do not have full control.

Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/June17/172.html#CHPiRkmDh4j2rQCO.99

Iran, U.S. Discussed Disastrous Situation in Iraq - Iranian Official
Jun 17th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Jerusalem Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

 The United States and Iran discussed the disastrous situation in Iraq, but "no specific outcome was achieved," a senior Iranian official said on Monday.

Hamas Defiant Over Israeli Crackdown
Jun 17th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Hamas terrorists (file)

Flash 90

Mere hours after the Knesset Security Cabinet decided to give the internal security minister a freer hand to harshen conditions for jailed Hamas terrorists, the Gaza-based terrorist organization released an official statement in response.

"We've experienced attacks like this from Israel in the past, but we stood through them. The Hamas movement is not a movement of dozens, hundreds or thousands, but instead is a full stream. Arresting hundreds of our sons won't stop us, won't change our path and won't separate us from our obligations to our Palestinian people," Hamas wrote in the statement.

Hamas has been charged with Israel as being responsible for the kidnapping of three teenage students last Thursday; IDF and security forces continue the intensive search to bring the youths home. Over 200 Hamas terrorists have been arrested so far, in an effort to crackdown on the terror group's infrastructure in Judea and Samaria.

"The (Hamas) movement called on the Palestinian public in Hevron and in general to continue supporting the administrative prisoners hunger-striking in the prisons of the occupation, and not to let the occupation hide the topic," wrote Hamas.

The statement refers to 80 Arab terrorists who were hospitalized after refusing to eat for nearly two months. Israel has presented a controversial bill to force-feed them.

Likewise, Hamas called on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to free all Hamas prisoners, saying "we call for the unification of all the parties to stand against the Zionist attack and to defend the unity."

The PA and Hamas have had a sort of falling out over the kidnapping, with the PA celebrating it even while distancing itself from Hamas and reportedly threatening to break the unity pact over the Hamas abduction. Hamas for its part has condemned the PA for allegedly cooperating with Israel in the search.

The statement was signed with the following words: "freedom to the prisoners, jihad to us - victory or a martyr's death. Hamas movement, Hevron region."

IDF efforts have largely focused on the Hevron region in their search, given that a cell phone signal of one of the abducted teens was located from the Hevron region last Friday right after the kidnapping.

Government Union Wants 'Duck Dynasty' Fans Fired
Jun 17th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

A union representing federal employees at Eglin Air Force base in Florida is demanding that two senior management officials be removed from their posts because they put decals on their personal trucks supporting Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson.

Alan Cooper, the executive vice president of the local chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees, said one of the officials also displayed the “I Support Phil” decals in his office last month and offered them to subordinates.

“The BUE (bargaining union employee) was clearly offended and disgusted that a senior management official would display the decal on their pod,” read an email Cooper wrote.

“We took offense,” Cooper told me in a telephone interview. “These two particular individuals have a great amount of influence over individuals who may be gay, who may be African-American – and we have a concern they should not be in a position to exert that influence when it comes to promotions.”

In an email that was sent to union members, Cooper said the Duck Dynasty decal may be a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“Phil Robertson has made disparaging remarks against a vast array of people, which created a firestorm in the media in the recent past,” Cooper wrote.

He was referring to comments Robertson made in GQ magazine last year about homosexuality and his personal observations about the pre-Civil Rights era. A&E briefly suspended Robertson from his popular reality television show. But the network reversed its decision after they were overwhelmed by supporters of the program. I write about how Robertson and his family were viciously attacked by the media and militant gay rights organizations in my new book, “God Less America.”

Cooper told me he wants the two civilian managers at the Air Force base removed from their positions.

“I don’t know how long these individuals harbored these views – could they have impacted employment opportunities for folks that have been disparaged by the likes of a Phil Robertson,” he said.

Regardless, he wants the Duck Dynasty fans dealt with, noting “it’s definitely 100 percent inappropriate for an organization that espouses a zero tolerance policy” to condone such activity.

“If it’s zero tolerance, it’s zero tolerance for everybody,” he said, referring to the military’s anti-discrimination policies.

I spoke with one of the individuals being targeted by the government union. He asked that I not disclose his name. He rejected the accusations that he was a racist or homophobe because he supports Duck Dynasty.

“My intent was not to offend anybody,” the individual told me. “My intent was to support the show and to show support for his Christian values.”

The individual told me he was especially upset after union workers took photographs of his truck and his license plate and emailed the images to other union members. That email was reportedly sent to hundreds and hundreds of personnel.

“I see the email that went out accusing me and my boss of being racist,” he said. “That couldn’t be farther from the truth.”

“I’m pro-family,” he said. “I’m pro-life. I don’t have a problem with anybody who doesn’t agree with me.”

He said he has absolutely no plans to remove the decal from his truck.

“I’m not taking it off,” he said. “If they want to make me retire early that’s what I’ll do. But I’m not backing down.”

The civilian worker told me it’s a First Amendment issue. He said there are plenty of vehicles on the military base that are plastered with all sorts of stickers.

“I disagree with 90 percent of what our Commander in Chief believes in, but I’m not asking anyone to take (an Obama decal) off their vehicle,” he said. “It’s a freedom of speech issue.”

And that’s exactly what the Air Force believes it is. They investigated the claims made by the union and determined that the two civilian workers were well within their rights to support Duck Dynasty.

“Brigadier General Dave Harris is not taking any action against the individual as the display of such a bumper sticker is considered legally protected speech under the First Amendment,” said Andy Bourland, director of public affairs at the military base.

Bourland also told me they looked into the incident involving the decals in the worker’s office. They also decided not to take action in that incident.

Eli Craft is a member of the union and he told me he is furious at how union leadership handled the incident.

“It was extremely, extremely upsetting,” he said. “The community we live in is a very faith-based community. For someone to say this individual was offensive and if you support him you can’t manage or lead a diverse work place – it blew my mind.”

Craft had nothing but praise for the two managers. He said they are long time veterans of the military and volunteer in the community.

“They are Christians – that’s how they live their lives,” he said.”

And around the Florida panhandle, Craft said there are plenty of Duck Dynasty fans.

“Heck yeah,” he said. “The Duck Dynasty folks represent a lot of the folks who hunt and fish and who are Christians in the panhandle. That family and that program represent a way of life we see here.”

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said the government union wants to shut down free speech.

“Could you imagine if someone demanded someone take an Obama bumper sticker off because President Obama is intolerant to orthodox Christian views?” Perkins asked. “Where does this stop?”

He said their attack on the two Duck Dynasty fans is an example of the Left’s intimidation and intolerance.

“They do not want anyone to have a choice to express themselves in a way that counters their own viewpoint and that’s very dangerous to our republic,” Perkins said. “This goes back to the underlying emphasis and goal – not to debate the merits of whether someone is right or not. It’s to shut down the debate. End of story. No discussion.”

For now – the jobs of the two Duck Dynasty fans are safe. It’s unclear at this point what the union’s next step might be. But they should heed this warning. I’m going to be keeping my eye on the American Government Employees Union. And should they try to retaliate against these brave Americans, it’ll be on like Donkey Kong. And that’s a fact, Jack.

Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/June17/174.html#taJoSv6wIloWjW5z.99

Google will Now be Able to Zoom in to Within One Meter Nearly Anywhere on Earth
Jun 17th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

Getting a bird’s-eye view can often provide game-changing perspective, and now Google has secured a new level of high-ground imagery with their latest acquisition.

Google confirmed their $500 million purchase Tuesday of satellite company SkyBox, a company known for its “sub-meter” imaging capabilities thanks in part to their 26 mini-satellites currently orbiting the earth.

TheBlaze first highlighted SkyBox in early March, as they upped the game for commercial options to monitor what’s happening down on Earth from space with their remote sensing capabilities and 90-second high-definition videos. The company pitches to a wide variety of consumers, from people who want to monitor crop health on a massive farm to humanitarian aid mission directors and global businesses seeking proprietary data.

Now, Google plans to use these mini-satellites to keep its Google Maps up to date. In the future, the web giant says it has plans to use the satellites to improve worldwide access to the Internet.

“Over time, we also hope that Skybox’s team and technology will be able to help improve Internet access and disaster relief — areas Google has long been interested in,” Google said.

But, as Wired reported, Google has an ability to transform mass quantities of unstructured data into revenue-generating insights. With this new, unprecedented stream of aerial imagery at its fingertips, Google could create an entirely new categories of insights into the workings of economies, nations and nature itself.

Those already distrustful of Google for its email-tracking reputation (among other privacy concerns) will have their suspicions heightened now that the ubiquitous company will now have the ability to watch people who aren’t their customers.

So why did Google want SkyBox? Simply put: the 5-year-old company has figured out how to bend physics to their will and master the art of satellite-based imagery:

Taking quality pictures from space is hard. Imagine a camera more than 600 kilometers away from its target, moving at over 7 kilometers per second, trying to see an object less than 1 meter in size. At this distance, the law of diffraction limits the smallest ground object that can be imaged through a telescope based on the diameter of that telescope. Using sophisticated, proprietary manufacturing techniques, our telescopes are able to approach the limits dictated by the laws of physics – enabling higher quality imagery than ever seen before in similarly sized optics.

The SkyBox team reinforced the information sharing theme in their deal announcement.

“Skybox and Google share more than just a zip code. We both believe in making information (especially accurate geospatial information) accessible and useful. And to do this, we’re both willing to tackle problems head on — whether it’s building cars that drive themselves or designing our own satellites from scratch,” the company said on its website.

“We’ve built and launched the world’s smallest high­-resolution imaging satellite, which collects beautiful and useful images and video every day,” SkyBox said. “We have built an incredible team and empowered them to push the state­-of­-the-­art in imaging to new heights. The time is right to join a company who can challenge us to think even bigger and bolder, and who can support us in accelerating our ambitious vision.”

Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/June17/175.html#Lpy2ygrsIi4VhJL5.99

Egypts PM Mehleb Sworn in As Head of New Government
Jun 17th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Jerusalem Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Egyptian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb was sworn in as head of a new government on Tuesday, in a ceremony overseen by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Mehleb's cabinet, including newly appointed Investment Minister Ashraf Salman and International Cooperation Minister Naglaa El Ahwany, was due to take the oath shortly afterwards.

Most other key economic and security ministers kept their jobs in Mehleb's limited reshuffle, which came after the president re-appointed the premier last week following his presidential inauguration.

As Robotics Advances, Worries of Killer Robots Rise
Jun 17th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Upshot
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Credit The New York Times

From driverless cars to delivery drones, a new generation of robots is about to revolutionize the way people work, drive and shop. But there is one area where robots are already entrenched and spreading fast: the industrial sector, especially manufacturing and storage.

Robots have long toiled alongside workers in factories and warehouses, where they load boxes with items ordered online, drill and weld car parts, or move food from one conveyor belt to the next.

Now many experts worry about the dangers that robots pose to the humans who work alongside them.

Robots have caused at least 33 workplace deaths and injuries in the United States in the last 30 years, according to data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. That may not sound like many, but the number may well understate the perils ahead.

Unlike today’s robots, which generally work in cages, the next generation will have much more autonomy and freedom to move on their own.

“In order for robots to work more productively, they must escape from their cages and be able to work alongside people,” said Kent Massey, the director of advanced programs at HDT Robotics. “To achieve this goal safely, robots must become more like people. They must have eyes and a sense of touch, as well as the intelligence to use those senses.”

5 - Year-olds Taught to Celebrate Queer Pride
Jun 17th, 2014
Daily NewsWND
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

 

Parent Carrie Kessler at Glenview Elementary Family Pride event

An elementary school in Oakland, California, topped off its school year with a “Pride Day” celebrating all types of families, including those in which the parents consider themselves to be lesbian, “gay,” bisexual, transgender or queer.

Principal Chelsea Toller opened the June 5 assembly with an auditorium full of students in kindergarten through fifth grade by saying, “This morning we are so lucky to be celebrating our first Glenview Elementary Family Pride celebration.”

Toller said she was finishing her first year at Glenview Elementary and “was thinking about how much I’ve learned this year.”

A 26-minute video of the event was posted on YouTube but was removed within hours after conservatives began posting comments expressing their outrage that a public, tax-funded school was introducing such controversial content to students as young as five years old.

Toller said she had learned three things during the school year that she wanted to share with her students.

“The first thing I learned is we are a very, very diverse school,” she said. “We have people that look different. We have people that live with different kinds of families, we have people who have different-colored skin, who talk different or speak other languages, and we have people who are in wheelchairs.”

Toller then compared those differences with people “who have two moms and two dads or four moms or one mom or one grandma. We have all different kinds of families at our school, and that’s one thing I’ve loved that I’ve learned about our school.

“And the other thing I’ve learned about our school is we’re really respectful. We are all very kind to each other even if we’re different, especially if we’re different,” she said.

The third thing she said she learned was that the school loved to have fun, and so she wanted to “celebrate all of the different kinds of families and people who are in our school.”

She then turned the assembly over to Carrie Kessler, a parent of two children at Glenview, to talk about “this awesome flag that’s behind us, this beautiful flag.”

Kessler explained the meaning of the LGBTQ flag to the students.

“I’m really excited about today. I’m excited that it’s June. Pride Month,” Kessler told the children. “Anybody recognize this flag? This flag is not that old. This flag is the symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer pride. And this flag was created by a San Francisco artist by the name of Gilbert Baker in 1978. It’s a symbol of pride for the LGBTQ unity, and it is flown very proudly as a symbol of pride and freedom for members of that community.”

She then explained what each color on the flag symbolized. Red represents life, orange is for healing, yellow is for sunlight, green symbolizes nature, blue is serenity and violet represents spirit.

“So now you know,” Kessler told the children.

She then introduced to the kids a “gay” men’s choir.

“I’m really, really excited. We are honored today to have very special guests, who are going to come up and sing for all of us today,” Kessler said. “Please give a warm welcome to the Oakland-East Bay Gay Men’s Chorus.”

The children clapped, and then the all-male choir led them in a sing-along under the direction of Stephanie Lynne Smith, a lesbian who has a long history with the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses, whose mission is to “support GLBT choruses as we change the world through song,” according to its website.

In the first song, “I Sing Out,” the homosexual men sang of their desire to find love and understanding “but instead I hear ‘an eye for an eye.’”

The Gay Men’s Choir was followed by another mother, Sherri, who displayed the words to a poem by Audre Lorde, a self-described radical feminist lesbian.

“These are very famous words,” she said, that “encouraged people to be who they are.”

Sherri then directed the children to read the poem aloud: “Who I am is what fulfills me and what fulfills the vision I have of a world.”

“Awesome,” Sherri said. She then asked the children for their interpretations of Lorde’s poem.

“I think this means ‘who I am,’ as like, ‘I’m proud of who I am,’” said one boy.

“That’s right. And just to add to that, love who you are … be happy with who you are even if it means being different from everyone else, it doesn’t really matter. Because loving who you are, being true to who you are, that’s what you’re going to share with the world, and the world will appreciate that,” Sherri said.

Children were then shown a video called “A Family Is a Family.”

The video showed a series of young children speaking about their families.

“What is your family?” one child asks.

“It can be two moms, two dads or one mom,” answers a small boy who appears no more than four or five years old, as men sing softly in the background, “So many combinations, so many combinations.”

“It doesn’t matter if you have two moms. It doesn’t matter if you have two dads,” says another girl in the video. “A family is a family.”

One boy in the video said he felt “lucky” to have just one parent.

“If you just have one parent and you get in trouble, only one person gets mad at you, and only one person nags at you,” the boy reasoned. “So I think I’m pretty lucky.”

A girl then appears in the video with two men. “My dads are gay, and gay means where two men or two women love each other,” the girl explains. “It’s sort of just like having a mom and dad who love each other; it’s just that it’s a man and a man, or a woman and a woman.”

‘Only a few complaints’

Toller referred all questions by WND to Troy Flint, public relations director for Oakland Unified School District.

Flint said Glenview parents were notified ahead of time via email and on the school’s website of the event, including a synopsis of its content.

He said the idea to hold the assembly would have come from the school.

“We do have some district-wide policies protecting gay rights and the rights of transgender populations, but decisions on specific programs would depend on that specific school,” Flint said.

He said the Family Pride Day event, held in conjunction with “gay” pride month, was included in the school newsletter that was emailed to parents twice before June 5.

“I’m not aware of any complaints at Glenview. Some parents elect to keep their students home, but that’s a decision that is made according to their individual consciences,” Flint said.

He said there have been a “handful” of complaints in the past when schools in Oakland hold such events.

“There have been a few, but only a handful, no widespread protests,” he said.

Glenview Elementary also brought in homosexual activist Gayle Pitman on June 5 to give a reading of her new children’s book, “This Day in June.” She touts the book on her Facebook page as “teaching the values of love and acceptance.” Pitman, a professor of psychology at Sacramento City College “with expertise in clinical psychology and the psychology of women and gender,” writes children’s books about LGBT issues, according to her Facebook biography.

Some Catholic and pro-family websites criticized Glenview Elementary’s Pride Day as not appropriate for a public school and certainly not “age appropriate” for grade-school children to have gay, bisexual and transgender lifestyles presented as equal with traditional marriage.

Catholic.com’s “Catholic Answers Forum” posted the video with a link to another article on MassResistance.com titled, “How schools are pushing transgenderism to children. More radical and aggressive than ever.”

“It doesn’t happen by accident,” the article stated. “The homosexual-transgender movement is working hard to indoctrinate schoolchildren that ‘transgenderism’ and cross-dressing are normal and just another way of becoming ‘who you really are.’”

California and Massachusetts are leading the way in this regard.

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a controversial bill into law in August 2013 allowing the state’s public-school students to choose which bathrooms they use, boys or girls, and whether they participate in boy or girl sports.

The law would cover the state’s 6.2 million elementary and high-school kids.

Supporters said the law would help cut down on bullying against transgender students.

GLSEN applies the pressure

The Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network is at the forefront of lobbying public schools for greater access to students and pushing for wider acceptance of LGBTQ issues. The group is the nation’s largest “gay” and transgender activist organization working inside schools in all 50 states, “championing LGTB issues in K-12 education,” according to a copy of its spring conference program obtained by WND. The conference was held April 5 in Boston.

The group’s agenda is pushed through “student led efforts” and includes encouraging students and teachers to “come out” openly as homosexual, transgender or bisexual, teaching them how to establish “gay” student associations in middle schools and high schools while broaching the topic with students as early as kindergarten.

Workshop 3.1 of the conference, listed in the official program, was titled “Starting a Middle School GSA: A Sustainable, Grassroots Approach,” followed by a summary of the workshop as “Practical advice and encouragement for students, staff, parents and community members who would like to establish a sustainable GSA in their local middle school.

The conference also included workshops to examine “strategies for introducing vital LGBT inclusive history curriculum into schools.”

Workshop 3.2 was on the topic “Queering the Classroom: Providing a Safe Learning Environment for All.” The full program for the event can be read by clicking here.