21 New Numbers That Show That The Global Economy Is Absolutely Imploding - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

21 New Numbers That Show That The Global Economy Is Absolutely Imploding Posted: 16 Feb 2016  Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG After a series of stunning declines through the month of January and the first half of February, global financial markets seem to have found a patch of relative stability at least for the moment.  But that does not mean that the crisis is over.  On the contrary, all of the hard economic numbers that are coming in from around the world tell us that the global economy is coming apart at the seams.   This is especially true when you look at global trade numbers.  The amount of stuff that is being bought, sold and shipped around the planet is falling precipitously.  So don’t be fooled if stocks go up one day or down the next.  The truth is that we are in the early chapters of a brand new economic meltdown, and I believe that all of the signs indicate that it will continue to get worse in the months ahead.  The following are 21 new numbers that show that the global economy is absolutely imploding… #1 Chinese exports fell by 11.2 percent year over year in January. #2 Chinese imports were even worse in January.  On a year over year basis, they declined a whopping 18.8 percent. #3 It may be hard to believe, but Chinese imports have now plunged for 15 months in a row. #4 In India, exports were down 13.6 percent on a year over year basis in January. #5 In Japan, exports declined 8 percent in December on a year over year basis, while imports plummeted 18 percent. #6 For the sixth time in six years, Japanese GDP growth has gone negative. #7 In the United States, exports were down 7 percent on a year over year basis in December. #8 U.S. factory orders have fallen for 14 months in a row. #9 The Restaurant Performance Index in the United States has dropped to the lowest level that we have seen since 2008. #10 This month the Baltic Dry Index fell below 300 for the first time ever. #11 It is now cheaper to rent a 1,100 foot merchant vessel than it is to rent a Ferrari. #12 Orders for Class 8 trucks in the United States dropped by 48 percent on a year over year basis in January. #13 Due to a lack of demand for trucks, Daimler just laid off 1,250 U.S. workers. #14 Even though Saudi Arabia and Russia have agreed to freeze oil production at current levels, the price of U.S. oil has still fallen below 30 dollars a barrel. #15 It is being reported that 35 percent of all oil and gas companies around the world are at risk of falling into bankruptcy. #16 According to CNN, 67 oil and gas companies in the United States filed for bankruptcy during 2015. #17 The number of job cuts in the United States skyrocketed 218 percent during the month of January according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. #18 All over America, retail stores are shutting down at a stunning pace.  The following list of store closures comes from one of my previous articles… -Wal-Mart is closing 269 stores, including 154 inside the United States. -K-Mart is closing down more than two dozen stores over the next several months. -J.C. Penney will be permanently shutting down 47 more stores after closing a total of 40 stores in 2015. -Macy’s has decided that it needs to shutter 36 stores and lay off approximately 2,500 employees. -The Gap is in the process of closing 175 stores in North America. -Aeropostale is in the process of closing 84 stores all across America. -Finish Line has announced that 150 stores will be shutting down over the next few years. -Sears has shut down about 600 stores over the past year or so, but sales at the stores that remain open continue to fall precipitously. #19 The price of gold is enjoying its best quarterly performance in 30 years. #20 Global stocks have fallen into bear market territory, which means that about one-fifth of all global stock market wealth has already been wiped out. #21 Unfortunately for global central banks, they have pretty much run out of ammunition.  Since March 2008, central banks have cut interest rates 637 times and they have purchased a staggering 12.3 trillion dollars worth of assets.  There is not much more that they can do, and now the next great crisis is upon us. Without any outside influences, the global economy and the global financial system will continue to rapidly fall apart. But if we do have a major “black swan event” take place, that could cause the bottom to fall out at any moment. In particular, I am deeply concerned about the possibility that World War III could be sparked in the Middle East.  In an article that I published earlier today entitled “Turkey Is Asking The United States To Take Part In A Ground Invasion Of Syria“, I included a quote from Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu that reveals just how eager Turkey and Saudi Arabia are for war to begin… “Some countries like us, Saudi Arabia and some other Western European countries have said that a ground operation is necessary,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Reuters in an interview. However, this kind of action could not be left to regional powers alone. “To expect this only from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar is neither right nor realistic. If such an operation is to take place, it has to be carried out jointly, like the (coalition) air strikes,” he said. The Turks and the Saudis very much want the United States to take a leading role in any ground invasion of Syria, but the Obama administration is not likely to do that. So we shall see if the Turks and the Saudis are willing to go ahead without us.  Let us hope that they do not decide to invade Syria, because that could start the biggest war in the Middle East that any of us have ever seen. Unfortunately, Turkey is already attacking. Turkey has been shelling Kurdish and Syrian military positions in northern Syria for four days in a row even though the Obama administration has been urging them to stop. The first month and a half of 2016 has already been quite chaotic, and the stage is set for global events to greatly accelerate during the months ahead. Sadly, the mainstream media in the United States is largely ignoring the preparations for a ground invasion of Syria, and they keep telling us that the global economy is going to be just fine, so most ordinary Americans are going to be absolutely blindsided by what is about to happen.

World War III Approaches: Saudi Arabia And Turkey Drop Hints That An Invasion Of Syria Is Imminent - MICHAEL SNYDER THE ECONOMIC COLLPASE

World War III Approaches: Saudi Arabia And Turkey Drop Hints That An Invasion Of Syria Is Imminent Posted: 15 Feb 2016   MICHAEL SNYDER  THE ECONOMIC COLLPASE As you read this article, Turkish forces are massing along the border with Syria, and the largest “military exercises” in the history of the Middle East are being held in northern Saudi Arabia.  The Saudis are publicly warning that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “will be removed by force” if a political solution cannot be found, and Turkey is claiming that it may have to establish a “safe zone” in northern Syria “for humanitarian purposes”.   Saudi Arabia, Turkey and their Sunni allies have poured massive amounts of money and arms into the conflict in Syria, and now that their Sunni insurgents are on the verge of total defeat, they are trying to come up with a way to justify going in there and doing the job themselves. For the Saudis, their focus is on trying to convince everyone that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is an extremely dangerous dictator that must be removed at all costs.  The following comes from the London Independent… Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will be removed by force if the peace process fails, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister has said. “Bashar al-Assad will leave – have no doubt about it,” Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told CNN. “He will either leave by a political process or he will be removed by force.” Saudi Arabia has sent troops and fighter jets to a Turkish military base ahead of a possible ground invasion of Syria. So precisely who will be doing the “removing” if force is necessary? Are the Saudis ready to send in ground troops? Apparently they are.  Just consider what Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told CNN… Saudi Foreign Minister Jubeir made clear that his country’s troops would not go it alone. “I can tell you that there is some serious discussion going on with regards to looking at a ground component in Syria, because there has to be a possibility of taking and holding ground, that one cannot do from the air.” “We are saying we will participate within the U.S.-led coalition, should this coalition decide to send ground troops into Syria, that we are prepared to send special forces with those troops.” But if the Saudis try to take Damascus and remove Assad by force, the Syrians and their allies will certainly fight back.  That means that the Saudis will be fighting Hezbollah, the Iranians and the Russians. Needless to say, Saudi Arabia is going to need a lot of help to do that. So that may explain why Saudi Arabia has organized the largest “military exercise” in the history of the Middle East.  CNN finally reported on this gigantic gathering of military forces in northern Saudi Arabia earlier today… Saudi Arabia launched a massive military exercise that will include troops from 20 nations, state media reported Monday. The drill, dubbed North Thunder, involves Arab and Muslim countries, according to the Saudi Press Agency. It’s taking place in King Khalid Military City in northeastern Saudi Arabia. The news agency did not provide much information on what the exercise entails but called it “the largest in the region’s history.” The agency said it will involve air, sea and land forces. This is the list of nations that are reportedly participating in these “exercises” so far… -Saudi Arabia -Jordan -Bahrain -Senegal -Oman -Qatar -United Arab Emirates -Sudan -Kuwait -the Maldives -Morocco -Pakistan -Chad -Tunisia -Comoro Islands -Djibouti -Malaysia -Egypt -Mauritania -Mauritius As I discussed yesterday, 350,000 soldiers, 20,000 tanks, 2,450 warplanes and 460 military helicopters are reportedly gathering for these “military exercises”. To me, that seems to be a great deal of overkill if the goal is just “training”. Here is more about these “exercises” from RT… The Saudi state agency made the announcement on Sunday, adding that participating troops will begin arriving in “the next few hours.” The oil-rich nation described the exercises as “the largest and most important” military drills in the region’s history. The so-called “Northern Thunder” exercise will take place in the north of the country and will include air, sea and land forces. SPA said that it will show that Riyadh and its allies “stand united in confronting all challenges and preserving peace and stability in the region.” So are these forces massing for a ground invasion of Syria? We shall see. In the end, we probably won’t have to wait too long before we find out the answer. Meanwhile, Turkish officials continue to assert that they may have to establish a “safe zone” for refugees in northern Syria.  Since thousands of refugees are continually pouring their direction, they claim that they have no other choice but to go in and take control of the situation. In fact, Turkey has already established several very large refugee camps on the Syrian side of the border… Some 100,000 Syrian refugees are being looked after in camps inside Syria close to the Turkish border, including 35,000 who this month fled a Russian-backed regime offensive in northern Aleppo province, a top Turkish official said Friday. Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan, whose country has come under increasing pressure to open its border to people fleeing the violence, said the refugees were being accommodated in nine camps just across the border with Syria. But make no mistake – this is not just about helping refugees. The truth is that ISIS has been using Turkey as a home base for years, and hundreds of millions of dollars of ISIS oil has been shipped into Turkey where it has then been sold to the rest of the world.  Barack Obama knows about all of this, and yet he has refused to do anything to stop it. At this point the cooperation between ISIS and Turkey has become so obvious that even CNN is admitting that ISIS militants are being resupplied from Turkey… To the east of Aleppo, Kurdish forces are, with American support, eyeing the remaining ISIS strongholds along the Turkish border — Jarablus and Manbij. The U.S. wants ISIS out, to remove its access to resupply of materiel and fighters from Turkey. Meanwhile, Turkey, America’s NATO ally that is engaged in a brutal but often unseen war with the Kurds’ allies in Turkey’s southeast, doesn’t want the Kurds to advance, and may stop at nothing to prevent that. Fortunately, the Russian bombing campaign has pretty much put an end to the endless parade of ISIS oil trucks that were entering Turkey, and now the primary supply line to Sunni militants in the strategically important city of Aleppo is about to be cut off. The corridor that runs through the city of Azaz is vitally important, and the Prime Minister of Turkey recently insisted that the Turkish government “will not allow Azaz to fall”… Turkey shelled YPG positions for a third straight day on Monday to try to stop its fighters seizing Azaz, just 8 km from the border. Ankara fears the Kurdish militia, backed by Russia, is trying to secure the last stretch of around 100 km along the Syrian border not already under its control. “We will not allow Azaz to fall,” Davutoglu told reporters on his plane on the way to Ukraine. “If they approach again they will see the harshest reaction,” he said. Unfortunately for the Turkish government, it appears that Azaz is already slipping away from the militants.  The following was reported by an Iranian news source… Ankara is likely to take action to counter the Syrian military and allied groups on choking up a supply link on which militants relied to get weapons and logistics. Syrian troops and Lebanon’s Hezbollah fighters have retaken the town of Azaz, located to the northwest of Aleppo, prompting Saudi Arabia and Turkey to hint at deployment of ground forces to the region. Asked if Ankara might act to reverse the gains, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (seen below) said on Friday, “Wait for the next few days and you will have the answer,” Turkish paper Hurriyet reported. Wait for the next few days and you will have the answer? That sounds rather ominous. Like I said yesterday, I don’t think that I have ever seen a scenario which was more likely to lead to World War III than the one that we are watching play out right now. Do Saudi Arabia and Turkey actually expect to waltz into Syria and start taking territory without a response from the Syrians, Hezbollah, the Iranians and the Russians? And if fighting does break out, how is the United States possibly going to stay out of it? The truth is that Saudi Arabia and Turkey would never invade Syria in the first place without the express approval of the Obama administration. The next couple of weeks are key.  If we can get into early March without an invasion, by that time Saudi Arabia and Turkey may have missed their window.  The troops gathered for the massive military exercise in northern Saudi Arabia will start to go home, and by then the Sunni militants remaining in Aleppo will probably be pretty much completely defeated. But will Saudi Arabia and Turkey really be willing to walk away after pouring so much time, effort and money into the conflict in Syria?  They had dreamed of turning Syria into a full-blown Sunni nation, and if they give up now Syria will end up being dominated by Iran and Hezbollah.  It will be a result that is far worse than if they never tried to overthrow Assad in the first place. So my gut feeling is telling me that Saudi Arabia, Turkey and their Sunni allies are not done in Syria.  But their obsession with that country threatens to plunge us into World War III, and if that happens the consequences will be felt by every man, woman and child on the entire planet.

Rick Joyner - Insight on Russia, China, Syria in the Middle East - 2016

Rick Joyner - Russia, China, Syria - 2016

Rick Joyner, MorningStar Ministries in Fort Mill, SC, was on the Jim Bakker Show in late 2015. He was quoted on The Jim Bakker Show, aired Jan. 4, 2016, for his prophetic words on the 

"5 Trends That Will Change The World In 2016"

Below are video shots taken from the show. You can see the full program, with Rick & Lori Bakker, and Rick Wiles, by clicking here: The Jim Bakker Show - aired 01.04.16

Steve Martin

Founder

Love For His People

Jim Bakker & Rick Wiles

Watch here: The Jim Bakker Show - aired 01.04.16

Rick Wiles - Jim Bakker Show - World in Turmoil - (Day 1) - with Rick Joyner quotes

Jim Bakker & Rick Wiles

Lori Bakker

 

Susan Wiles - Rick's wife
Jeremy Wiles - son 
(Flimmaker - "Conquering Series on Pornography Addiction in the Church")

Morningside Studios

Watch here: Jim Bakker Show - World in Turmoil - Rick Wiles (Day 1)

Rick Wiles: "World War III has already started."

Rick Joyner's Word Shared on the show
- Five Trends That Will Change The World In 2016

Rick Joyner - Five Trends That Will Change The World In 2016

Jim & Lori Bakker - Morningside location

Rick Wiles

Jim Bakker Show 2016 | Show# 2911 | Aired on January 4, 2016

Genesis
Jim Bakker Show © 2016 • Morningside Studios

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Evangelical Beliefs on Israel Match Prophetic Doomsday Scenarios By Rivkah Lambert Adler - BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

(Photo: Breaking Israel News)

Evangelical Beliefs on Israel Match Prophetic Doomsday Scenarios

By Rivkah Lambert Adler   December 20, 2015   BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

“Woe is to me for I have sojourned in Meshech; I dwelt among the tents of Kedar. For a long time, my soul dwelt with those who hate peace. I am peace, but when I speak, they are for war.” (Psalms 120:5-7)

A recent survey of Christian Evangelicals has them echoing Jewish prophecies, associating trouble in Israel and the rest of the Middle East with End Times.

Brookings Institute, a Washington DC-based think tank, recently released the results of their survey entitled  American Attitudes Toward the Middle East and Israel. Among the more noteworthy results of their survey are two findings related to Evangelical Christian beliefs about Israel and the End of Days.

A staggering 73 percent of Evangelical respondents say that world events would turn against Israel the closer we get to End Times. In addition, 79 percent of Evangelicals believe that the unfolding violence across the Middle East is a sign that the End Times are near. These two findings are consistent with beliefs based in Biblical prophecy and rabbinic teachings.

In the Biblical Books of the Prophets, there are two scenarios regarding the War of Gog and Magog and the End of Days, one from Ezekiel and one from Zechariah.

In his book The Ishmaelite Exile, Rabbi Yechiel Weitzman confirms that Ezekiel’s prophecy is the more pleasant of the two. Weitzman explains that Ezekiel prophesied that the war of Gog and Magog will be fought outside of Israel. “According to the prophecy of Yechezkel (Ezekiel), the Jewish nation will not be involved at all in the war of Gog, for it will take place only in the mountains of the north,” he writes.

The darker prophecy comes from Zechariah and describes an End of Days war fought in Jerusalem:

“And I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to wage war; and the city shall be captured, and the houses shall be plundered, and the women shall be ravished, and half the city shall go forth into exile-and the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.” (Zechariah 14:2)

Islamic terror occurring in Israel and across the Middle East – the specific violence that Evangelical Christians believe are a marker of the End of Days as revealed in the survey- was also hinted at by King David in the Book of Psalms.

“Woe is to me for I have sojourned in Meshech; I dwelt among the tents of Kedar. For a long time, my soul dwelt with those who hate peace. I am peace, but when I speak, they are for war.” (Psalms 120:5-7)

Sometimes, as in the above quote, the Bible refers to Ishmael using the name Kedar. Literally, Kedar was a son of Yishmael.

“And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael by their names, according to their births: the firstborn of Ishmael was Nebaioth, and Kedar and Adbe’el and Mibsam.” (Genesis 25:13)

Much later, troubling times for Israel at the End of Days was predicted by Rabbi Israel Meir HaKohen Kagan, born in 1839 and popularly known as the Chofetz Chaim. The Chofetz Chaim passed away in 1933, before Word War II, the establishment of the State of Israel and the ascendancy of Islamic terrorism. Nevertheless, he described the time before the arrival of the Messiah as one in which the Jewish people will endure difficulties that will occur in incredibly quick succession.

According to a translation by Weitzman, the Chofetz Chaim stated: “Before the coming of Moshiach (Messiah), Hashem (God) will act in a hurried manner so wondrous that even all who are wise of heart will be unable to fathom it. The troubles and persecutions [of the Jewish people] will follow each other so closely that there will be no space between them. Just as for an expectant woman who is about to give birth, the closer she comes to the moment of birth, the more intense her contractions and her pain, and this is the most reliable indication that the birth is nearing, so too, the wheels of the era will turn faster at the time of the birth pangs of Moshiach.”

There are those, like the prophet Ezekiel, who believe that it is still possible for God to bring the redemption with pleasantness and mercy. At the same time, like the Evangelical Christians surveyed by the Brookings Institute, the prophecies of Zechariah, King David and the Chofetz Chaim warn of a darker scenario.

(Photo: Brookings Institute)

Rabbi Pinchas Winston, international lecture, prolific author and End of Days expert, explained to Breaking Israel News that history certainly seems to be playing out a less merciful end game.

“End-of-Days scenarios have been around since the beginning of days. To many, Doomsday Sayers have seemed out of touch with reality. However, with the direction history seems to be going, and quite involuntarily, it seems more like reality is getting in touch with the Doomsdayers,” he said.

“Even mainstream media has begun mentioning the unmentionable: World War III, and all of a sudden the End-of-Days scenarios are becoming common culture for all peoples.”

World War III Draws Closer As Russia Accuses Turkey Of Being ‘Secret Allies’ With ISIS - Michael Synder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

World War III Draws Closer As Russia Accuses Turkey Of Being ‘Secret Allies’ With ISIS

Nov 2015 Michael Synder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

Are Russia and Turkey on the verge of going to war?  In remarks that were almost entirely ignored by the western media, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the Turkish government of being “secret allies” with ISIS on Friday.  And on Monday, the Russians announced that they would be attempting to seal the border between Syria and Turkey, and we also learned that the Russians have been rushing heavy artillery units into Syria.  As tensions between Russia and Turkey continue to escalate, could we be in danger of seeing World War III erupt in the Middle East?

The Russians have clearly become convinced that Turkey is at the core of the problems in Syria, and that is why the Russians now plan to completely seal Syria’s border with Turkey.  Lavrov seems to think that this will represent a giant step toward defeating terror groups such as ISIS…

“We are convinced that by blocking the border we will in many respects solve the tasks to eradicate terrorism on Syrian soil.”

And the Russians are right about this.  ISIS militants use Turkey as a home base, and it has been documented that Turkey has been “training ISIS militants, funneling weapons to them, buying their oil, and tending to their wounded in Turkish hospitals”.

It was already common knowledge that Turkey was doing all of these things, but now the Russian government is publicly accusing the Turkish government of being “secret allies” with ISIS.  When Lavrov chose to use these words on Friday, he knew exactly what he was saying…

“We think it highly cynical when some of the countries speak about their commitment to the corresponding United Nations Security Council resolutions and declare themselves members of anti-terrorist coalitions but in reality are playing a game where terrorists are allocated the role of secret allies,” Lavrov stressed. “We have more and more questions about Ankara’s real plans and the degree of its readiness to exterminate terrorism, in particular in Syria, and its commitment to the normalization of the situation in Syria.”

So why would Turkey want to be allies with ISIS?

Well, first of all the Turkish government hates the Assad regime in Syria and would love to see it eliminated.
Secondly, ISIS has been selling hundreds of millions of dollars worth of stolen oil in Turkey, and it has been alleged that the Turkish president’s own family is involved.

This was all supposed to be on the down low, but now the Russians are extremely angry and they are airing this dirty laundry for all the world to see.  On Monday, Vladimir Putin said that his government had “received additional information” that ISIS is shipping oil to Turkey on an “industrial scale”…

Russia has received additional intelligence confirming that oil from deposits controlled by Islamic State is moved through Turkey on an industrial scale, said Vladimir Putin. President Recep Erdogan said he will resign if this is confirmed.
Moscow has grounds to suspect that the Su-24 was downed by Turkish jets on November 24 to secure illegal oil deliveries from Syria to Turkey, he said speaking on the sidelines of the climate change summit in Paris on Monday.
“At the moment we have received additional information confirming that that oil from the deposits controlled by Islamic State militants enters Turkish territory on industrial scale,” he said.
“We have every reason to believe that the decision to down our plane was guided by a desire to ensure security of this oil’s delivery routes to ports where they are shipped in tankers,” Putin said.

And of course it isn’t just the Russians that are making these claims.

Mowaffak al Rubaie is a former member of the Iraqi Governing Council, and he says that sales of ISIS oil in Turkey have amounted to approximately 100 million dollars a month…

“In the last eight months ISIS has managed to sell … $800 million dollars worth of oil on the black market of Turkey. This is Iraqi oil and Syrian oil, carried by trucks from Iraq, from Syria through the borders to Turkey and sold …[at] less than 50 percent of the international oil price,” Mowaffak al Rubaie said in an interview with RT.
“Now this either get consumed inside, the crude is refined on Turkish territory by the Turkish refineries, and sold in the Turkish market. Or it goes to Jihan and then in the pipelines from Jihan to the Mediterranean and sold to the international market.”
“Money and dollars generated by selling Iraqi and Syrian oil on the Turkish black market  is like the oxygen supply to ISIS and it’s operation,” he added. “Once you cut the oxygen then ISIS will suffocate.”

You can’t sell 100 million dollars of stolen oil a month without the U.S. government knowing about it.
That means that Barack Obama has been fully aware of what has been going on, and he hasn’t told the American people the truth.

One of the reasons for his silence could be the fact that the president of Turkey’s own son has been involved.  Just check out what Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said just the other day…

“All of the oil was delivered to a company that belongs to the son of Recep [Tayyip] Erdogan.This is why Turkey became anxious when Russia began delivering airstrikes against the IS infrastructure and destroyed more than 500 trucks with oil already. This really got on Erdogan and his company’s nerves. They’re importing not only oil, but wheat and historic artefacts as well.”

For much more on all of this, please see my previous article entitled “The Biggest Obama Scandal? He Knows That Turkey Is Buying Oil From ISIS And He Is Doing Nothing To Stop It“.

Previously, the Russians had promised not to commit ground forces in Syria, but now that appears to be changing.
According to Debka, the Russians have already deployed three battalions of 2S19 Msta-S self-propelled howitzers at this point…

First, a body of three battalions of 2S19 Msta-S self-propelled howitzers was deployed at Khmeimin and has already started pounding rebel lines and command centers in the area. This heavy artillery system, capable of firing 152mm bombs at a rapid pace, is a veteran of Russia’s former campaigns against Islamic terrorist groups, especially in the Russian war against Islamic rebels in Chechnya in the 1990s.

In addition to the 2S19 Msta-S self-propelled howitzers, the Russians have also brought in TOS-1 220mm multiple rocket launchers…

Another heavy weapons system that Russia brought to Syria in recent days is the TOS-1 220mm multiple rocket launcher. This system, which is mounted on the chassis of a T-72 tank, has been deployed near the embattled Syrian cities of Hama and Homs.

With each passing day, we seem to be inching ever closer to the start of World War III.

And it is important to keep in mind that if war does break out, Turkey is a member of NATO, and so the U.S. would be obligated by treaty to help defend the Turks.

So let’s keep a close eye on what is happening in the Middle East, because it could end up having tremendous implications for all of us.

The Bizarre Explanation For Why The U.S. Has Avoided Bombing ISIS Oil Wells Posted - Michael Snyder, THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

The Bizarre Explanation For Why The U.S. Has Avoided Bombing ISIS Oil Wells

Posted: 29 Nov 2015 Michael Snyder, THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

Why hasn’t the U.S. bombed the oil wells that ISIS controls into oblivion by now?  Would you believe that it is because the Obama administration “didn’t want to do environmental damage”?  Former Deputy Director of the CIA Michael Morell has publicly admitted that we have purposely avoided damaging the main source of income for ISIS, and his explanation for why we were doing this is utterly bizarre. 

But at this point what could the Obama administration say that would actually make sense?  Everyone now knows that ISIS has been making hundreds of millions of dollars selling oil in Turkey, and that this has been done with the full knowledge and complicity of the Obama White House.  This is potentially the biggest scandal of the entire Obama presidency, and yet so far the Republicans have not jumped on it.

If you or I even gave five bucks to ISIS, we would be arrested and hauled off to Guantanamo Bay.  And yet Barack Obama is allowing ISIS to funnel massive quantities of oil through our NATO ally Turkey, and he is not doing anything to stop this from happening.  It is a betrayal of the American people that is so vast that it is hard to put into words.

By now, virtually everyone on the entire planet knows exactly what is going on.  For example, Iraq’s former National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie shared the following on his Facebook page on Saturday…

“First and foremost, the Turks help the militants sell stolen Iraqi and Syrian oil for $20 a barrel, which is half the market price.”

Until Russia started bombing the living daylights out of them, an endless parade of trucks carrying ISIS oil would go back and forth over the Turkish border completely unmolested.  Following the downing of a Russian SU-24 bomber by Turkey in an area where many of these trucks travel, Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to publicly air this dirty laundry.  Just check out what he told reporters following a meeting with French President Francois Hollande last week…

Commercial-scale oil smuggling from Islamic State controlled territory into Turkey must be stopped, Putin said after meeting Hollande in Moscow.
“Vehicles, carrying oil, lined up in a chain going beyond the horizon,” said Putin, reminding the press that the scale of the issue was discussed at the G20 summit in Antalya earlier this month, where the Russian leader demonstrated reconnaissance footage taken by Russian pilots.
The views resemble a “living oil pipe” stretched from ISIS and rebel controlled areas of Syria into Turkey, the Russian President stressed. “Day and night they are going to Turkey. Trucks always go there loaded, and back from there – empty.”
“We are talking about a commercial-scale supply of oil from the occupied Syrian territories seized by terrorists. It is from these areas [that oil comes from], and not with any others. And we can see it from the air, where these vehicles are going,” Putin said.

If the Russians could see all of this, the U.S. military could see it too.  In fact, we have far better surveillance capabilities than the Russians do.

So why didn’t Obama put an end to this?

Well, as I mentioned above, former Deputy Director of the CIA Michael Morell told PBS that the Obama administration didn’t want “to create environmental damage”, and he insists that the oil wells are “infrastructure that’s going to be necessary to support the people when ISIS isn’t there anymore”.  The following comes from the Daily Caller…

Appearing on PBS’s “Charlie Rose” on Tuesday, Rose pointed out that before the terrorist attacks in Paris, the U.S. had not bombed ISIS-controlled oil tankers.
Morell explained, “Prior to Paris, there seemed to be a judgment that … look, we don’t want to destroy these oil tankers because that’s infrastructure that’s going to be necessary to support the people when ISIS isn’t there anymore, and it’s going to create environmental damage. And we didn’t go after oil wells — actually hitting oil wells that ISIS controls because we didn’t want to do environmental damage and we didn’t want to destroy that infrastructure, right.”

In case you think that this is some sort of a joke, you can watch video of Morell making these comments on PBS below…



After the horrific terror attacks in Paris, the Obama administration finally was shamed into bombing a few of these oil trucks.  But 45 minutes before the U.S. military bombed them, they dropped leaflets telling the truck drivers to “get out of your trucks now and run away from them”.



What kind of “war on terror” are we running?

Why in the world would we want to warn the terrorists to get away from their trucks?

Meanwhile, things between Russia and Turkey continue to get even more tense.  The Russians have slapped severe economic sanctions on the Turks, they have shut down all channels of communication with Turkey’s military, and they are bombing every Turkish vehicle that they can find inside Syria.  The following comes from a report that was put out by Debka…

In the last two days, Putin has been found saying one thing and doing another: Although he declared that Russia would not go to war with Turkey for “stabbing it in the back”, debkafile’s military and intelligence sources report that since Wednesday night, Nov. 25, Russian heavy bombers and warplanes have been hitting every Turkish vehicle moving or stationary inside Syria.
They bombed the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, located on the Turkey-Syria frontier, as well trailers and tractors parked in an area belonging to the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation, on the Syrian side of the border.

As I wrote about the other day, it has been documented that our NATO ally Turkey has been “training ISIS militants, funneling weapons to them, buying their oil, and tending to their wounded in Turkish hospitals”.  Now, heavy bombing by the Russians threatens to cut off those links…

In addition to punishing the Turkish leader, Russia’s massive military operations in Syria aim to degrade the rebel groups fighting the Assad regime. Heavy bombing sorties this week on the Syrian-Turkish border are cutting off tens of thousands of rebels from their only source of fresh supplies of weapons, ammo, food and fighters, leaving them without a line of retreat and nowhere to send their wounded.

At this point, Russia and Turkey are very close to a state of war.

But as a member of NATO, the United States is obligated to help protect Turkey if a full-blown shooting war does break out.

We are closer to World War III than we have been in decades, and yet most Americans are still completely and totally oblivious to what is taking place.

Hopefully cooler heads will prevail, because things over in the Middle East threaten to spiral completely and totally out of control.