THE UTILITY OF POLICE BRUTALITY IN
THE ELITE'S WAR AGAINST THE POOR
[Winnowing the Church of God]

There is a great and very pestilent effort today by the "religious establishment" of the evangelical church to portray the backdrop of the "end of the age" as a CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS or as a CLASH OF VALUES, and - most particularly - as a clash between Christianity and Islam and / or as one between Christianity and secularism (with a "New Age" twist); but it's not that at all, and neither does it have much to do with the occult (per se), or the Freemasons, or the so-called "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion," ad nauseum, ad infinitum.

It's NONE of these things; the backdrop or environment in which the "end of the age" plays itself out - the framework around which all the great events of the "latter years" revolve - is the oppression of the POOR by the RICH. (Rev. 6:6)

This, of course, is NOT what most well-to-do American Christians want to hear; but those who don't want to hear about it are grossly underestimating the lust for money in human hearts (they have to, they have so much of it), and the propensity that it has to corrupt. Dom Helder Camara of Brazil has written:

"I used to think, when I was a child, that Christ might have been exaggerating when He warned about the dangers of wealth. Today I know better. I know how ... (impossible) it is to be rich and still keep the milk of human kindness. Money (or the desire for money) has a dangerous way of putting scales on one’s eyes, a dangerous way of freezing people’s hands, eyes, lips and hearts."

The Bible calls money "FILTHY lucre" (cf., I Tim. 2:3, I Tim 3:8, Titus 1:7, I Pet. 5:2) and goes on to say:

"... the love of money is the root of ALL evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." (1 Tim. 6:10)

That's ALL evil; not some, but ALL! That certainly reduces all the other bugaboos that Christians worry about to secondary status. Moreover, the Bible goes on to warn:

"... they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in DESTRUCTION and PERDITION" (i.e., damnation; hell). (1 Tim. 6:9)

What's the Bible saying here? It's saying that if you desire wealth - if that's what you want, and you are an unbeliever - your desire for it will prevent you from finding Christ as your savior:

"... Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.

"And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a (sewing) needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." (Matt. 19:23-24)

And if you are saved, your desire for money will inevitably drown out Christ in your life and "choke the word of God" in your heart (Matt. 13:22). Indeed, Peter says that those Christians who desire wealth will inevitably find that insofar as their Christian life is concerned, they have become -

"... wells without water, clouds that are carried (about) with a tempest ..." (2 Pet. 2:17)

It's not without reason that Jesus said:

"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." (Matt. 6:24)

Pretty heavy! No equivocation here: IF A MAN LOVES MONEY HE WILL HATE GOD! - I know that's hard for American Christians to grasp, but that's what the New Testament says, and it says it in very unambiguous terms. And if that's the case, that really makes the elites of the Republican Party - THE VERY ELITES WITH WHOM THE LEADERS OF THE EVANGELICAL CHURCH WILL BE RUBBING SHOULDERS WITH THIS SUMMER AT THE REPUBLICAN PARTY CONVENTION IN NEW YORK CITY - "GOD-HATERS," all their protests to the contrary notwithstanding. [It is, after all, not without some justification that the Republican Party is known as the party of "Big Money."]

Moreover, not only are the elites "haters of God," they are also "haters of man" - an aristocracy of wealth that doesn't want anything to do with ordinary men and women, and who want to put as much distance between themselves and average people (especially the poor) as is humanly possible. That, of course, is - as historian Edward S. Herman points out - exactly what's been happening. [Please see our articles, "The Elites, Money, and the End of the Age" and "In Search of Babylon: What Does The Bible Say?"]

Indeed, Herman says that one of the many ironies of George Bush's American New World Order System is the way in which the elites increasingly meet in remote places out of the reach of their citizenry, like Qatar and Cancun, and how within each country larger and larger areas are blocked off to prevent protesters from getting within range of TV cameras and the media. In the same undemocratic mold, agreements like NAFTA are prepared in secret and without public participation, just as WTO decisions are made in non-public meetings by unelected (elite-controlled) bureaucrats. [Please see our article, "Lee Kyang: the Rich and the Poor! America and God."]

Moreover, this is no haphazard process of alienation: it is one that has been carefully designed by the rich to disconnect themselves from the poor, and to cruelly oppress and heartlessly subjugate them - and it is being pursued with a ruthless, unyielding efficiency. [Please see our article, "The Versailles Phenomenon."]

For example, in the United States this process has been carried out for years under the misleading name of the "War on Drugs," and has been aimed largely at minority communities and "white, trailer-park trash;" but it is now being expanded to encompass a broader cross-section of the American public under the rubric of the "War on Terror."

The truth of the matter is - despite their sometimes shrill protests to the contrary - the rich are simply not open to the "things of God," and so much so that when Jesus - "by whom all things were made ... and without him was not any thing made that was made ..." (John 1:3) - came into the world 2,000 years ago, He didn't much bother with the rich, but instead was born into the lowly home of a poor carpenter and made the downtrodden of the earth His friends. (Luke 2:7) Indeed, when Jesus announced Himself to the world and began His public ministry, He said:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because HE HATH ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR (To whom? - the poor, not the rich); he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, TO SET AT LIBERTY THEM THAT ARE BRUISED ..." (Luke 4:18)

Clearly, the great danger to the Gospel in all of this is as the American elites continue to separate themselves from ordinary people, they are dragging the church (with whom they have partnered) along with them, and in the process alienating it from the poor and dispossessed of the earth, the very people that Luke 4:18 (see above) says that Christ came to preach the Gospel to.

If you fail to grasp this dynamic that is being "played out" in the world today, you will - in your effort to understand what's occurring - be forever consigned to chasing phantoms and shadows (e.g., the Freemasons, the Illuminati, "new agers," etc.), stabbing at the air with a stick, and fruitlessly tilting at windmills like Don Quixote. The facts are as plain as the nose on your face, and you had better "wise up to them" because this new war (i.e., the "War on Terrorism") is coming directly at YOU, and by the time it is finished rolling over you, you may find that you have joined the blacks, Hispanics, and "white, trailer park trash" on the economic, social and even criminal "trash heap," or - WORSE - you may find that you've been co-opted by the "system."

INTRODUCTION

Every now and then a single, isolated event occurs that illuminates in a sudden, brilliant flash the "course of our age" - and it does so in a way that filters out the cacophony of ancillary sounds and images that attend our daily lives and are apt to obscure our view of where we as a society are really headed.

Such an event occurred when Mitchell Crooks - who was on vacation during the weekend of July 4th 2002 in Inglewood near downtown Los Angeles - heard a woman scream, "Don't resist." Crooks, who is white, grabbed his camera and ran outside his motel in time to catch on video tape the now infamous beating of Donovan Jackson, a black youth, by a GANG of Inglewood cops. His videotape clearly shows how the cops took the 16-year old Donovan and beat him mercilessly, and then brutally slammed the half-conscious young man onto the hood of a car and beat him some more.

THE COPS COME AFTER MITCHELL CROOKS

After Crooks realized that the cops had seen him videotaping the event, you can hear him say on the tape, "They're gonna come up and come after me now." Worried about turning the video over to the police, Crooks took the precaution of separating the tape from his camera and giving it to some other guests. Within minutes, SEVENTEEN armed sheriff deputies were combing through the motel looking for Crooks. And for what? - committing a crime? No! - for simply videotaping the police in the "routine course of their duties" in downtown Los Angeles. Obviously, the police didn't want the "general public" to know what those duties consisted of.

Crooks said, "Ninety percent of the people there knew I'd taped it, but no one said a word. We all knew that if they got it, it would be the end of it, it would disappear." Think about that! - that's quite an indictment against the crude methodologies of the L.A. police by average people in Inglewood - or maybe they're all wrong and the police (and the elites who protect them) are all right.

Is that what you think? - if you do, then you are a victim (like almost everyone else in the United States) of the pervasive and very wicked propaganda of the corporate media against the poor in this country as purveyed to average Americans in such TV programs as "Cops," "Most Wanted," "FBI Files;" etc. - the kind of propaganda that predisposes middle-class Americans to take the word of the few (the cops) against the many (the poor). This isn't a ringing endorsement for the assumptions that are supposed to underpin a democracy.

The cops didn't find the tape. And - much to the horror of the Los Angeles law enforcement and judicial communities - Crooks, with the help of other eyewitnesses to the event, made sure that the media got copies of it the next day. His footage was aired on all the major L.A. news broadcasts, and it was picked up nationally and even internationally. But in making sure that the media got a hold of his tape, Crooks of necessity was forced out of the shadows and into the open where the law enforcement community could at last "draw a bead on him."

TRUMPED UP CHARGES

The next day, while Crooks was being interviewed live on the radio, the Chief Deputy District Attorney of Los Angeles phoned in and said threateningly, "Mitchell, there's a grand jury subpoena out on you; I suggest you honor it? Show up at the Criminal Courts Building." Crooks, however, was under no obligation - absent a subpoena that had been PERSONALLY served on him (and absent a criminal indictment) - to volunteer to be interviewed by the grand jury. Crooks knew that by delivering himself up to the grand jury he would at the same time be delivering himself up to the "tender mercies" of the D.A. who controlled the grand jury. And then what?

Crooks didn't want to find out. He told his interviewer, "They're coming after me because I shot the video. I fear for my life." That kind of statement would, of course, sound like an absurd exaggeration to most white, middle-class Americans, but to the denizens of the underclass, it isn't - as the recent exposes of the TERROR TACTICS of the Ramparts Division of the L.A. Police Department clearly indicate.

Obviously, the subpoena "ruse" wasn't working, and the cops had to find another way of stopping Crooks; so - as Crooks made his way around Los Angeles being interviewed by the media - the cops busied themselves in a painstaking "warrants search" and found an old traffic violation (can you imagine, an old, very routine traffic violation?) and a BOGUS petty theft charge (alleging that Crooks was guilty of theft of his grandmother's property - charges that she repudiated) that they felt they could arrest him on and get him off the streets and away from the media. And that's exactly what they did. When Crooks arrived at CNN the next day for a nationwide interview that the network had arranged with him in advance, undercover cops jumped out of unmarked cars and arrested him when he tried to enter the station.

BEATEN UP AND JAILED

As they spirited him away in a SUV, Crooks' screams, "They're gonna kill me," could be clearly heard. Later that night he was treated for unspecified injuries at a hospital (he had plainly been beaten up by the cops), and the next day he was extradited to a remote, rural county in northern California (far from all the "action" in L.A.) to face the "trumped up" charges against him.

He was kept in custody for SIX MONTHS, locked down 23 HOURS A DAY, and allowed no mail and no contact with the outside. By the time he finally got out, the incident had largely "blown over." Later, in an interview on radio station KPFK after he had finally been released, Crooks said, "It's really scary to challenge the SYSTEM, and I knew that's what I was doing."

REALLY SCARY TO CHALLENGE THE SYSTEM

Really scary to challenge the system? You bet it is! - which is exactly what we in Antipas are doing. Make no mistake about it, when you challenge the system, you risk being treated by the "establishment" in precisely the same way that Crooks was treated.

Your past will be searched and scrutinized, and if there is anything there - and I mean anything - it will be used against you! And who doesn't have something he would prefer the public didn't know about? Only a fool would say that he doesn't, so you can be sure that by challenging the system, you will be attacked on a personal basis in a way that you never thought possible, and if there is nothing to dig up on you, it will be "manufactured."

MANUFACTURED EVIDENCE: BOBBY SEALE
AND THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY

Evidence that's been "manufactured?" The police "manufacture" evidence? You doubt this happens in the real world? Well, for the sake of those who think that doesn't happen, it's perhaps necessary to digress a little to point out the facts of the matter, because it happens a lot, especially when the poor challenge the rich.

Take, for example, what happened to Bobby Seale and the Black Panther Party back in the 1960s; and remember here that what happened then is beginning to happen all over again - only this time in SPADES! As they say, "Same tune, second verse, should get better, but it only gets worse."

Also, as you read the following material, you should bear in mind that if you stay with Antipas, you must steel yourself for it to happen to you. It will happen! Believe me, you will be attacked! - and the attacks will come from both the RELIGIOUS establishment, as well as the POLITICAL establishment. It's not without reason that the Bible warns us:

"But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the ... (churches) ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them." (Mark 13:9)

In the late 1960s the Black Panther Party started a Free Breakfast program for children in Oakland, California. Concerned that the program would spread "anti-establishment" propaganda, the elites sicced the FBI on them. The FBI decided on a "preemptive strike," as George Bush and his cronies would call it today. The bureau produced a 24-page coloring book, making it appear as if it had been created by the Panthers. Intending to gut public support for the group, the book contained inflammatory pictures, some of which featured young black kids shooting pigs dressed up as policemen.

The FBI sent copies of the coloring book to the Panthers' white contributors and to businesses that supported the free breakfast program, such as Safeway and Jack-in-the-Box. When copies of the forgery reached the Panthers' national leadership, Bobby Seale destroyed it, saying it "did not correctly reflect the ideology of the Black Panther Party."

Nonetheless, the FBI ruse worked, and the Panther's sponsors withdrew from the program. For years and years afterwards copies of the "Black Panther Coloring Book" circulated in conservative circles and was accepted as "Gospel" - despite the heated denials from leaders in the Black Panther Party that the coloring book "was none of theirs." It wasn't until years later that the "Senate Committee on Intelligence Activities" chaired by the late Senator Frank Church of Idaho discovered that the coloring book had been a ruse invented by the FBI to discredit the Black Panther Party - but by then the ruse had done its "dirty work:" the coloring book had ignited a firestorm against the Black Panthers resulting in a spate of "cooked up" criminal prosecutions against the leaders of the party that landed most of them in jail. After the Church Committee revelations, many of the leaders of the Panthers were freed "on appeal," but only after they had spent years and years in prison and their reputations forever FIXED in the American public's mind as "cop killers."

MARTIN LUTHER KING

Then, of course, there's what the FBI did to Martin Luther King. In the late 1950s the government began spying on MLK because the elites had become convinced that King was a "frontman" for the Communist Party and his Civil Rights Crusade was nothing more than an instrument of communist subversion. Indeed, in a 1963 internal memo, counterintelligence specialist Charles D. Brennan stated that civil rights agitation represented a clear threat to "the established order" of the United States, and that "King is growing in stature daily as the leader among leaders of the Negro movement." COINTELPRO head William C. Sullivan responded in a letter,

"We must mark [King] now, if we have not before, as the most dangerous Negro in the future of the nation from the standpoint of communism, the Negro, and national security ... it may be unrealistic to limit [our actions against King] to legalistic proofs that would stand up in court or before Congressional Committees."

So, instead of sticking within the constraints of the law, THE FBI AIMED TO DISCREDIT KING BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY. Agents tapped his phone, bugged his rooms, trumpeted his supposed commie connections, and his sexual proclivities, and sicced the Internal Revenue Service on him.

When it was announced in 1964 that King would receive the Nobel Peace Prize, the FBI grew desperate. Hoping to prevent King from accepting the award, the Bureau mailed him an anonymous package containing an audio tape of King's alleged extra-marital affairs and a threatening letter. And what was the threat? In barely concealed language, King was told to commit suicide before the award ceremony or risk seeing his "filthy, abnormal fraudulent self" exposed to the nation.

Think about that for a minute! The absolute HORROR of it all. An official agency of the U.S. government - the FBI - suggesting to King that he should commit suicide! Fortunately, King ignored the FBI's advice. He accepted the award and lived for four more years until the elites finally had him gunned down in Memphis. [Again, we urge you to please read our article, "Now Is The Time To Do Something; It May Be Too Late Tomorrow" for the story of how and why the elites made war on Martin Luther King; please also see our articles, "MK-ULTRA: The Search for the Manchurian Candidate; A Study of the Mindset Behind Today's New World Order," and "Conspiracy Theories;" please also see our follow-up report on MK-Ultra entitled, MK-Ultra and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy - More Evidence."]

GETTING BACK TO JACKSON AND
THE COPS WHO BRUTALIZED HIM

IN CONTRAST TO WHAT HAPPENED TO CROOKS, THE COPS WHO BRUTALIZED JACKSON DID NOT SPEND A SINGLE DAY IN JAIL and have by now all "beaten" a very half-hearted, lackadaisical attempt to punish them - an attempt that seems to have been specifically designed by the L.A. District Attorney to fail.

This brings us to the point of the Donovan Jackson / Mitchell Crooks story - that is, what the real job of the police is today insofar as the poor are concerned: KEEP THE POOR BEATEN DOWN AND "IN LINE." TO THIS END, THE KIND OF NAKED POLICE SAVAGERY THAT WAS VISITED UPON DONOVAN JACKSON ON THE WEEKEND OF JULY 4, 2002 IS ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL TO THE WAY THE ELITES DEAL WITH THE "HUMAN TRASH" THEY HAVE BEEN CREATING OVER THE YEARS AS THEY SHIFT JOBS TO OVERSEAS SWEAT SHOPS THAT PAY THEIR LABORERS PENNIES A DAY WHILE AT THE SAME TIME THEY CREATE VAST POCKETS OF UNEMPLOYMENT IN THIS COUNTRY - unemployment that is not being honestly reported on by the government or the corporate media. [Please see our article, "Making Men Cogs in a Machine: The Reformation of the Bankruptcy Laws" for a discussion on the misleading way the government reports on unemployment.]

If once one grasps this fact, it is easy to see that the brutality that the police were inflicting on Donovan Jackson on the weekend of July 4, 2002 was no anomaly; it wasn't an aberration or a deviation from their normal way of doing things. It was "standard operating procedure" (SOP).

DEMONIZING THE POOR IN
ORDER TO BRUTALIZE THEM

All things being equal, one would think that this kind of police cruelty would shock ordinary Americans - most of whom don't understand what's really happening, and don't grasp the "UTILITY" (insofar as the elites are concerned) of police brutality against the poor.

Plainly, however, it doesn't shock them, and it doesn't do so because the elites have been extraordinarily successful over the years in DEMONIZING the poor as lazy ner-do-wells, drug addicts, crack-crazed moms, and welfare cheats who - to hear the elites tell it - possess an insatiable propensity for violence (in contrast, I suppose, to the elites' presumed inclination toward gentleness). [Please see our article on this subject, "Racism and Right-Wing Christianity" for a thorough and detailed discussion of the way the elites demonize the poor (especially minorities) in order to justify the violence they use against them, a discussion that revolves around Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray's horrid book, The Bell Curve.]

Unfortunately, great numbers of ordinary Americans - and, sadly, most Christian evangelicals - enthusiastically "buy into" this horrible and (insofar as the poor are concerned) very demeaning mindset, A MINDSET THAT MALICIOUSLY INSISTS THAT POVERTY RESULTS FROM PERSONAL FAILURE RATHER THAN WHAT IT REALLY RESULTS FROM: THE RUNAWAY GREED OF THE AMERICAN ELITES. And it is precisely because so many Americans believe this lie that the elites have been given license to expand their savagery against the poor in this country (and around the world) and cower them with ever increasing doses of brutality into accepting their status in life as the castoffs of the American New World Order System.

DON'T BUY THE ELITES' FALSEHOODS
ABOUT THE POOR AS LAZY "NER-DO-WELLS"

But you, dear brothers and sisters in Christ - you of all people - should understand (that is, if you read your Bible and believe it) that sin (and, ipso facto, the crime that results from our propensity toward sin) is not the exclusive domain of the poor. The Bible says that we -

"... are ALL gone out of the way ... there is NONE that doeth good, no, not one." (Rom. 3:12)

OR do you think that's not really the case? - that the possession of money somehow or other insulates us from our penchant toward sin. If you do, then you're not being biblical! - and you have NO right to call yourself an evangelical Christian! Indeed, the Bible suggests the exact opposite: that the possession of wealth increases one's appetite toward sin; again, the Scriptures say -

"... they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

"For the love of money is the root of ALL evil ..." (1 Tim. 6:9-10)

The fact of the matter is, there is as much cheating, stealing, drug-dealing, etc. that goes on in the neighborhoods of middle-class America as there is in the neighborhoods of the poor; but it's dealt with differently; when middle-class white kids are caught using or dealing drugs, the "powers that be" allow their parents to pretty much deal with it "under the table;" it rarely results in police involvement. Kids are shipped off to private clinics and treatment programs rather than to jail as poor kids are. It's the same thing when cars are stolen for "joy rides" in middle-class neighborhoods. And insofar as "broken homes" are concerned, there is certainly as much divorce in the families of the middle-class as there is in the families of the poor - but money covers it all up in these neighborhoods, while the poor lack the means to cover their failings and misdeeds.

THE REAL JOB OF TODAY'S POLICE FORCES:
COWER THE POOR AND KEEP THEM IN THEIR PLACE

Nonetheless, if it's the job of the police to uncover crime wherever it exists - if that's their real job - then one's ability to hide his crimes by using money shouldn't make any difference. Crime is crime - whether it's hidden or in the open. So why is it that crime (so-called) is pursued so relentlessly in the neighborhoods of the poor and not in the neighborhoods of the middle-class and the rich? Why is it that poor neighborhoods are subjected to random road blocks, and warrantless searches and seizures? Why is there so much police BRUTALITY in the neighborhoods of the poor rather than in the neighborhoods of the middle-class and the rich?

Again, the reason is that the BRUTALITY the police routinely employ against the poor has NOTHING TO DO WITH A LEGITIMATE LAW-ENFORCEMENT FUNCTION OF THE STATE, AND EVERYTHING TO DO WITH CLAMPING DOWN ON A RESTLESS POPULATION THAT IS DESPERATELY POOR AND ONE THAT THE ELITES FEAR IS ON THE VERGE OF "REVOLUTION" AGAINST THEM. Plainly, the tactics being used by the police in these areas are designed to intimidate the populations of the underclass, and "keep them groveling in their place" - i.e., to accept their lot in life as "human refuse."

TIT-FOR-TAT

This brings us back to why the Inglewood police who so ruthlessly beat up Donovan Jackson got off scott-free, and why Mitchell Crooks was jailed for exposing what the police had been up to - and that is this: IF THE ELITES EXPECT THE POLICE TO USE BRUTALITY IN SUPPRESSING THE POOR, THE POLICE HAVE THE "RIGHT" TO EXPECT THAT THE ELITES WILL PROTECT THEM IF THEY GET CAUGHT "DOING THEIR JOB." And this is exactly what happened insofar as the police who brutalized Jackson are concerned! It's the same kind of "tit-for-tat" that the elites use to protect their death squad functionaries in the Third World. The authorities used the trial not to punish the Inglewood cops caught beating up Jackson, but, in Mitchell's words, "to deflate the balloon of people's anger."

First, they moved the trial out of the predominantly African-American/poor-white-trash community of Inglewood into the nearby South Bay, an upper middle-class L.A. neighborhood with a reputation for being unfriendly to anybody who isn't "loaded" financially. Then, during the trial, the prosecution didn't even call Crooks or any of the 20 other eyewitnesses to the beating. And their "use-of-force expert" was a L.A. County Sheriff's Department commander who expressed empathy for the cops and testified that he thought the cops should never have been charged in the first place. In other words, prosecutors used an "expert" who directly undermined their case. What this clearly indicates is that the D.A.'s effort was one that had been PURPOSEFULLY designed to fail.

This is exactly what happens in government prosecutions of death squad functionaries in Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Colombia, etc. Like Bogota / like south-central L.A.! - there's not a penny's worth of difference! The elites' methodologies are remarkably the same all around the world.

USING DRUGS TO "PROGRAM"
THE POOR AS "HUMAN TRASH"

And now we come to something that most white, middle-class Christians will find difficult to believe - although the facts of the matter are plain enough to see for anyone who really wants to see them, so that - as Jesus said - "Having ears to hear, they hear not, and eyes to see, they see not." (cf. Mark 8:18).

What we are talking about here is a crime so ENORMOUS in its impact and reach, and so MALICIOUS and HATEFUL in its intent that it fairly boggles the mind and dwarfs anything that Hitler, Stalin, and Mao ever dreamed up: THE INTRODUCTION BY THE ELITE AND THEIR AGENCIES (LACKEYS) - i.e., THE FBI, THE CIA, etc. - OF CHEAP DRUGS INTO THE NEIGHBORHOODS OF THE UNDERCLASS IN ORDER TO INSURE THAT THE ASSIGNMENT OF THE POOR AS "HUMAN TRASH" WOULD BE A PERMANENT ONE, AND TO "FIX" IN THE MINDS OF MIDDLE-CLASS AMERICANS THE PICTURE OF THE POOR AS FRENZIED DEMONIACS THAT MUST BE SUBJECTED TO THE UTMOST BRUTALITY IN ORDER TO KEEP THEM CAGED LIKE ANIMALS WITHIN THE BOUNDS OF WHAT THE ELITES CALL "CIVILIZED" BEHAVIOR - for the underclass, that means cowering in chains at the elite's feet. [We URGE you to please see our article, "The Drug Epidemic, Viruses, Ebola, and Aids;" please also read the material that Gary Webb of the San Jose Mercury News developed on this subject for his series "Dark Alliance."]

The heartlessness of it all! It gives one some idea of the madness and insanity that has taken root in the hearts and souls of the rich. The truth is, DRUG ADDICTION HAS KILLED MORE PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY THAN ALL THE PEOPLE THAT WERE KILLED BY HITLER IN THE OVENS OF AUSCHWITZ, SOBIBOR, TREBLINKA, DACAU, ETC. Eee GADS, IN ALL OF HUMAN HISTORY I CAN THINK OF NO WORSE CRIME THAN THIS. NOTHING JUSTIFIES IT: NOT THE WAR AGAINST COMMUNISM, NOT THE WAR AGAINST THE CONTRAS, NOT ANYTHING! AND THESE ARE THE PEOPLE - i.e., THE ELITES - WITH WHOM THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT IN THE UNITED STATES HAS ALLIED ITSELF? YES! - THESE ARE THE PEOPLE!

What utter cruelty these people have involved themselves in! Think about it for a moment! It's as if someone had injected you with a contagious pathogen, and then used the fact that you were now diseased to justify killing you off to prevent the further spread of the disease. That's justice? - well, that's what the so-called "War on Drugs" is all about! - which is really not a "War on Drugs," but a war against the poor. [Please see our articles on the U.S. government's involvement in the drug trade, "A Short History of U.S. Involvement in the Drug Trade," "A Story Concerning the Drug Lords the United States Has Allied Itself With In Kosovo," "The Caucasus Mountains, Gog, Magog and Chevron Oil," "The Elite's Explanation of What's Happening in Kosovo," and "Kosovo and America: What's Going On?"]

Listen to me here: THIS IS NO SMALL THING! - INFLICTING THE SCOURGE OF DRUG ADDICTION ON THE POOR IN ORDER TO JUSTIFY BRUTALIZING THEM. There will be a special place in hell for the people responsible!

The truth of the matter is, the lust for money has deranged the American elite and made MONSTERS out of them all - freakish FIENDS capable of anything, EVEN THIS GREAT CRIME!

THE MONEYED-LIFE

And make no mistake about it! - it's the lust for money that is driving the elites here. Not anything else! Money is what incites the elites to their frenzied criminality! The late Professor C. Wright Mills of Columbia University has written,

"The pursuit of the moneyed-life is ... (the elite's) commanding value, in relation to which the influence of other values has declined, so ... (that they have) easily become MORALLY RUTHLESS in its pursuit ..."

"(They have) narrowed the meaning of 'success' to big money and in these terms condemn failure as the chief vice, raising money to the plane of absolute value."

The Bible wasn't kidding around when it said:

"... the love of money is the root of ALL evil ..." (1 Tim. 6:10)

And now one can begin to understand why Mills said that the men and women who compose the American elite are not the kind of people any HONORABLE man should want to pattern his life after.

Mills wrote:

"The American elite is NOT composed of ... men (and women) whose conduct and character constitute models for American imitation and aspiration ... (This) is no set of men with whom members of the mass public can rightfully and gladly identify ..."

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?

And who exactly are some of the leaders of today's American elite? Well, one can get some idea as to who they are by scrutinizing the "goings on" at this year's meeting of the Kappa Beta Phi (not Phi Beta Kappa) "fraternity" at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City. Alan Greenberg, former chief executive of Bear Stearns was there; as was Richard Grasso, former head of the New York Stock Exchange; Kenneth G. Langone, chairman of the exchange's compensation committee; Martin Lipton, a founding partner of Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, the powerful Wall Street law firm; David H. Komansky, the former chairman and chief executive officer of Merrill Lynch; Sanford I. Weill, the chairman of Citigroup; Laurence D. Fink, the chief executive of Black Rock, the investment management company; Thomas G. Maheras, the head of the fixed income group at Citigroup; Leslie Goldwasser, a top bonds executive at Bear Stearns; J. Ira Harris, a former senior partner and mergers and acquisitions banker at Lazard Freres; Lawrence Zicklin, the retired chief executive of Neuberger Berman, the asset management company and so forth and so on.

And what were they all doing? - making fun of Eliot Spitzer, the courageous New York Attorney General who began a series of investigations into fraudulent Wall Street trading practices, and who helped expose Richard Grasso's obscene $151 million compensation package (from a semi-public agency, which - after all - is what the New York Stock Exchange is) that led to Grasso's resignation last summer. [Grasso is an especially invidious individual; please see more on Grasso - particularly his half-crazed effort to "buy-off" the FARC in Colombia in the interests of Wall Street - in our article, "Colombia: America's New Vietnam - & Your Sons and Daughters Will Be the Ones to Fight It - All in the Name of Christ." Indeed, Grasso is so PAST ALL FEELING and so jaded toward average people that he thinks anybody can be "bought off" - even the FARC.]

One of the highlights of the evening at the St. Regis was when Diana L. Taylor, who was accompanied to the party by Mayor Blomberg, a former hot-shot salesman at Soloman Brothers, donned mock prison garb and ran through a series of songs and skits lampooning Wall Street's many scandals - scandals that have cheated millions and millions of ordinary Americans out of their life savings. It was all just a laugh to them. Interestingly enough, Taylor is the New York banking superintendent. Her presence there made a joke out of what she is supposed to be charged with doing: watching out for the welfare of average people. It's all such a lark to the elites, and gives credence to the notion that ordinary people possess their money ONLY at the elite's sufferance. Mills writes:

"These are men and women who have transcended the ordinary environments of ordinary people; by their decisions they set up and break down the destinies of others ..."

What do they care about average people; they don't! As Mills says, they "break down the destinies of others" without even bating an eye. Whole communities - sometimes even whole nations - live or die at their whim; they are selfish, mean-spirited wretches whose souls are twisted and gnarled with GREED, and who worship money as a god -

"Having ... (their) understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

"Who being PAST FEELING have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with GREEDINESS." (Eph. 4:18-19)

A VICIOUS GROUP OF DEGENERATE SCOUNDRELS

What an insolent, vicious little group these people are - parading around as they do in such an open and bold display of their wealth while making a mockery of average people. Truly, as Mills says, "The American elite is NOT composed of ... men (and women) whose conduct and character (should) constitute models for American imitation and aspiration ..." Hideous REPROBATES - ALL OF THEM. There is no humanity left in any of them. These are the people about whom the Bible says run around like banshees -

"Professing themselves to be wise, they (have) become FOOLS,

"And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a REPROBATE mind ...

"Being filled with all unrighteousness ... wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,

"Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things ...

"... implacable, unmerciful:

"Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." (Rom. 1:22, 28-32)

Yes! - as Mills says, these people are not "... men (and women) with whom members of the ... public can rightfully and gladly IDENTIFY ..."

Nonetheless, these are EXACTLY the people with whom the leadership of the church has IDENTIFIED itself in the Republican Party - Christian leaders like Paul Crouch, Jack Hayford, Charles Stanley, D. James Kennedy, Tim LaHaye, the late John Wimber, Juan Carlos Ortiz, C. Peter Wagner, Beverley LaHaye, Ern Baxter, Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Chuck Colson, David Yonggi Cho, Robert Stearns, Mike Bickle, Reuven Doron, Che Ahn, Frank Hammond, Cindy Jacobs, Bill Hamon, John Eckhardt, Bobbie Byerly, Dutch Sheets, Jim Goll, John Paul Jackson, James Ryle, Frank Damazio, Ed Silvoso, Carlos Annacondia, Claudio Freidzon, Roger Mitchell, Ted Haggart, Paul Cain, Chuck Pierce, Rick Joyner, Kingsley Fletcher, Jim Laffoon, Barbara Wentroble, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

ALL THESE LEADERS - EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM - ARE SLAVISH DEVOTEES OF THE "GREEN GOSPEL" AND FERVENTLY BELIEVE THAT A "LIFE OF VIRTUE" WILL RESULT IN FINANCIAL SUCCESS. [Please see our article, "Strange Bedfellows: The Religious Right and the Secular Right;" please also see our articles, Capitalism and Christianity," and the "Deceitfulness of Riches and the Marxist Paradigm."]

These Christian leaders (so-called) are the very people about whom Jesus said:

"... woe unto you ... HYPOCRITES! FOR YE SHUT UP THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN AGAINST MEN: FOR YE NEITHER GO IN YOURSELVES, NEITHER SUFFER YE THEM THAT ARE ENTERING TO GO IN.

"Woe unto you ... HYPOCRITES! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater DAMNATION.

"Woe unto you ... HYPOCRITES! FOR YE COMPASS SEA AND LAND TO MAKE ONE PROSELYTE, AND WHEN HE IS MADE, YE MAKE HIM TWOFOLD MORE THE CHILD OF HELL THAN YOURSELVES." (Matt. 23:13-15)

NATHANIEL "SKIP" JONES

These Christian leaders (again, so-called) think that if a man dresses up in an expensive three-piece business suit that he is "okay with God," as if the clothes make the man; as a result, they think nothing of identifying themselves with the elite's social, economic and police polices - policies THAT TREAT THE POOR WITH LESS RESPECT THAN ANIMALS WHO HAVE RUN AMUCK. And that's exactly what they do: treat the poor like animals.

You don't think so? Well, consider how the police treated Nathaniel "Skip" Jones who recently ran afoul of the police in a poor neighborhood in Cincinnati (and bear in mind that what happened to Jones - like what happened to Donovan Jackson - was no anomaly). He was brutally beaten to death by the police on November 30, 2003.

Nathaniel was killed in a White Castle parking lot where he was set upon while he was sleeping by police and mercilessly bludgeoned to death. The police claim to have a video showing that Jones attacked them, but 96 seconds of the video were stripped from the video tape, and police say they don't know what happened to it. EYE WITNESSES claim that the missing video shows that the police assaulted Jones without provocation and / or warning, and Jones did nothing more than fight back.

Monica Williams from the Coalition for a Just Cincinnati, which has led a boycott of downtown businesses since the killing a year earlier of another police murder victim, Timothy Thomas, said:

"HAD NATHANIEL BEEN A BLACK BEAR INSTEAD OF A BLACK MAN, HE'D BE ALIVE TODAY. They would have contained him, they would have tranquilized him, they would have taken him someplace safe. Being a black man in this city, in the eyes of the police, Nathaniel had zero value whatsoever.

"Case in point, we had a cow a year ago that was running amuck in this city. She charged police officers, she crossed highways, she placed lives in danger. They didn't shoot her one time ... We have a young man who was doing absolutely nothing wrong, and he lost his life. And now Police Chief Streicher said yesterday the video will be used within 10 years as a training video to train officers to take down suspects."

Again, as in the case of Donovan Jackson, after promising to "investigate" the incident, Cincinnati authorities did nothing and put the six officers responsible for the beating (and the killing) back on duty ("tit-for-tat," remember). A black resident who witnessed the incident said,

"After the fact, they going to put the cops back on the street to show us, 'YOU ALL ARE NOTHING, YOU DON'T HAVE A VOICE, NO ONE GOING TO LISTEN TO YOU ALL. WE WILL DO IT AGAIN."

I AM AFRAID

Tiffany, a friend of Nathaniel, said,

"I am the mother of a 24-year-old black man - and I am afraid for his life whenever he goes out. And that's serious. If he is ever in a situation where the police are around or called - it could be an innocent situation - it could escalate to where it would cost him his life. And that's what I am afraid of. When he leaves, I pray that he never has an encounter with the Cincinnati police. Not even to ask for directions. We tell our kids to speak respectfully, keep your hands out in the open. But it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter."

Natasha says,

"Terrorism happens in Cincinnati against black people every single day. There is more black people in jail than anyone else, more arrests done. For simple misdemeanors. On any single day there are 25 to 30 black men arrested for ... jaywalking."

And so it goes all over the country: for instance, in Chicago's ghettos, police pound on poor people's doors in the middle of the night. If you open it a crack they push their way in. There is no search warrant. They pull the poor out of their houses and interrogate them. When the poor speak up for themselves or ask what is happening, the police tell them to shut up. The cops threaten jail or even worse. Poor people are routinely picked up off the street by the police and charged with petty offenses. Records are kept; many are thrown into jail with little recourse. One-strike evictions from public housing hang over the people's heads. One wrong move, be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and you and your family are out on the streets. This is what's happening all over America in the neighborhoods of the underclass. The name of the game here is not legitimate law-enforcement, but INTIMIDATION! As Natasha said in Cincinnati,

"Terrorism happens ... against black people EVERY single day. There is more black people in jail than anyone else, more arrests done. For simple misdemeanors. On any single day there are 25 to 30 black men arrested for ... jaywalking."

And as Natasha's friend said:

"After the fact, they going to put the cops back on the street to show us, 'YOU ALL ARE NOTHING, YOU DON'T HAVE A VOICE, NO ONE GOING TO LISTEN TO YOU ALL. WE WILL DO IT AGAIN."

The question that fairly begs to be asked here is, WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHAT'S GOING ON HERE AND WHAT'S HAPPENING IN BAGHDAD WHEN THE MAN-HUNTERS OF TASK FORCE 121 GO LOOKING FOR VICTIMS? The answer is, there isn't much difference. [Please see our article, "The Power of Self-Sacrifice: Taking Up Your Cross and Following Him," for a detailed description of this unit's activities in Iraq."]

THE NAME OF THE GAME

The name of the game is INTIMIDATION! IT'S A GAME BORROWED FROM THE TACTICS THE ELITES HAVE BEEN USING FOR YEARS IN THE THIRD WORLD TO COWER THOSE POPULATIONS INTO SUBMISSION - populations that the elites view as nothing more than "commodities" to be used up and discarded; "throw-aways" to be worked to death in virtual "slave-labor" factories for pennies a day and then cast off as "human trash" the way the I.G. Farben Company in Nazi Germany did to the Jews in Auschwitz-Birkenau; the way the British elites did to indigenous workers in India, Kenya, Malaysia, etc.; and the way the old Planter Aristocracy did to black slaves in the ante-bellum South. [Please see our articles, "The Third World as a Model for the New World Order," and "The American Empire and the New Global Elite."]

YOU THINK YOU ARE IMMUNE?

You think that you're immune from all this. You're not black; you're not Hispanic; you're not poor, white trash; you don't live in a trailer park. Well, let me tell you, YOU'RE NOT IMMUNE! The elites are coming after you. So long as there is money to be had, they want it; and if you possess any, you are a target of their concupiscence and lust. The greed and avarice that drive Nike, Liz Claiborne, DKNY, etc. to use what amounts to "slave-labor" in their overseas sweat shops, that drives Enron, Global Crossing, etc. to "cook the books" and steal from their investors, and drives Martha Stewart to "inside trade" ImClone stock are not anomalous.

You're surprised that the elites are targeting you? You don't have that much money? Well, if you're surprised, you still don't understand how the elites view the matter of money: MONEY IS THEIRS BY DIVINE RIGHT, AND IF YOU POSSESS ANY, YOU CAN POSSESS IT ONLY AT THEIR SUFFERANCE - AND ONLY IF YOU ARE WILLING TO BE A BROWN-NOSER. IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BROWN-NOSE THE ELITES, IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE THEIR TOADY, IF YOU REFUSE TO BE A SYCOPHANT TO THEIR DESIRES, YOU MUST SURRENDER YOUR MONEY AND BE WILLING TO BE CONSIGNED TO THE FRINGES OF SOCIETY AS "HUMAN TRASH." This is exactly how people like Alan Greenberg, Richard Grasso, Kenneth Langone, Martin Lipton, David Komansky, Sanford Weill, Laurence Fink, Thomas Maheras, Leslie Goldwasser, Ira Harris, Lawrence Zicklin, Diana Taylor and all the others who gathered at the St. Regis Hotel a few weeks ago view things. They really do! - AND THESE ARE THE KIND OF PEOPLE WHO CONTROL THE AMERICAN NEW WORLD ORDER SYSTEM.

Listen to me here, dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, if you want to hold on to a shred of dignity as a human being, and - as a result - you refuse to be reduced to the status of a boot-licker to the elites, THERE SIMPLY IS NO PLACE FOR YOU IN THE AMERICAN NEW WORLD ORDER SYSTEM, fulfilling the grim lyric on the lips of the ghostly specter astride the Black Horse of the Apocalypse:

"A measure of wheat for a penny [literally - denarius, a Greek coin which represented a WHOLE DAY’S wage in the ancient world], and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine." (Rev. 6:6)

[As we have indicated before, the meaning of this is that the condition of the poor at the "end of the age" will be reduced to such that a poor man will have to labor a whole day simply to buy a loaf of bread or three measures of barley. But the second part of the saying ("... and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine ...") means that the poverty of these days will not extend to those SYCOPHANTS and "TOADIES" who ally themselves with the American New World Order System and assist it in plundering the world - only the rich in the ancient world could afford oil and wine!]

THERE IS A PROPHETIC IMPERATIVE AT WORK HERE

THERE IS A PROPHETIC IMPERATIVE AT WORK HERE! - and there is no escape from it. It will grind relentlessly on until at last it has run its course. That IMPERATIVE relates directly to your willingness or unwillingness to be "marked" as a boot-licker to the elites - i.e., to the American New World Order System. How you adjust to this IMPERATIVE will "manifest" the real nature of your Christianity: whether it is REAL, or whether it is FAKE!

The fact of the matter is, THE CHURCH IS GOING TO BE WINNOWED AS EACH OF US DECIDES WHAT OUR RELATIONSHIP IS GOING TO BE WITH THE AMERICAN NEW WORLD ORDER SYSTEM! The truth is, what we today call the Church is surely a mixture of wheat and tares - good seed and bad seed. In a day when it has become so popular - even fashionable - to be referred to as "born-again" that political figures [whom the Bible calls the basest or lowest of people (Daniel 4:17)] refer to themselves as "born-again" to get votes, there certainly can be no doubt concerning this matter. [Please see our article, "George Bush, The Promise Keepers, And The Principles Of Messianic Leadership."]

THE WINNOWING OF GOD

Yes, there is a WINNOWING coming! John the Baptist, speaking prophetically, said of it:

"I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me (i.e., in the "end of days") is mightier than I ...

"His WINNOWING fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff [tares] with unquenchable fire." (Matthew 3:11-12)

John the Baptist was a forerunner, a precursor to Jesus. His work was a work of separation - to separate the HYPOCRITE from the BELIEVER, the wheat from the chaff, the Pharisees and the Sadducees from those in Israel who genuinely longed for the Messiah. And this is precisely what is about to occur insofar as the coming distress of the church is concerned - to which John specifically pointed in this prophecy. [We URGE you, if you have not already, to read chapter IV of the Antipas Papers, "The Great Escape: Misconceptions Concerning the Rapture" - and we URGE you to take your time and study this matter carefully. We ask you to do so because what Tim LaHaye and others like him are teaching concerning the Rapture is NONSENSE, and if you "buy in" to the "Secret Rapture Theory" of the church, you will be UTTERLY unprepared for what is about to occur.]

The work of tribulation - in the first instance - is a work directed NOT at separating the atheist from the believer, or the idolater from those who worship God [idolaters and atheists are people who obviously and openly are not Christian], or any other such thing; but rather it is a work SPECIFICALLY directed at separating those who claim to be Christian [out of convention or advantage] from those who truly are. And this is precisely the work of tribulation in the Parable of the Sower: to separate the believer from the hypocrite. Jesus said:

"The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.

"But while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat, and went away.

"And the servants of the landowner came and said to him, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?

"And he said to them, An enemy has done this! And the servants said to him, Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?

"But he said, No; lest while you are gathering up the tares, you may root up the wheat with them.

"Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.

"Then He left the multitudes, and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.

"And He answered and said, The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one;

"And the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels.

"Therefore just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age.

"And will cast them into the furnace of fire; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

"Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear." (Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43) [Once again, we URGE you to read chapter IV of the Antipas Papers, "The Great Escape: Misconceptions Concerning the Rapture."]

SEPARATING THE GOOD SEED FROM THE BAD SEED

Now in connection with the parable above, it is interesting to note how the harvest was carried out in the ancient world and how the wheat [the good seed] was separated from the tares and the chaff [the bad seed]. BOTH WERE HARVESTED TOGETHER! Then through a process of WINNOWING, the wheat was separated from the tares and the chaff. [Please see Chapter XI of the Antipas Papers, "Tribulation and Judgment."]

The process of WINNOWING was accomplished in this manner: first, the harvest was crushed and spread out on a large floor; then workers took shovels and threw the harvest into the air by the shovel-full. The tares and chaff, being lighter than the kernels of wheat, were blown away by the wind, usually into another bin, while the kernels of wheat, being heavier, fell again to the threshing floor. In this way the wheat was separated from the tares and the chaff.

The chaff and tares, being good for nothing, were then gathered together and burned, while the wheat was gathered up, bundled and stored in the barn. The purpose of the entire process is quite simple: to separate, and by separating to MANIFEST or DISCLOSE, or REVEAL (cf. Romans 8:19) the wheat from the tares and the chaff. And that's precisely what the "time of trouble" we are all about to enter will do: it is designed to WINNOW us; to separate the wheat from the chaff; the believer from the hypocrite.

THE TRIBULATION AS A PROFOUND WORK OF
TRANSFORMATION IN THE BELIEVER’S HEART

Yes, tribulation SEPARATES, but there is another more sublime work of tribulation; and this work is not a separating work, but a purifying work directed not at the hypocrite, but at the believer. This work elevates, ennobles, glorifies, and transforms the believer. Paul says:

"... but we also EXULT in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;

"And perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;

"And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us." (Romans 5:3-5)

Indeed, tribulation is the gate through which all true believers must pass into the kingdom of heaven; transformation is impossible without it. The Bible says:

"And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch,

"Strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, ‘WE MUST THROUGH MANY TRIBULATIONS ENTER THE KINGDOM OF GOD'." (Acts 14:21-22)

TRIBULATION: GOD’S WAY OF
MANIFESTING HIS GLORY IN THE SAINTS

The Bible says:

"There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job, and that man was BLAMELESS, UPRIGHT, fearing God, and turning away from evil.

"Now there was a day when the sons of God [angles] came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.

"And the Lord said to Satan, ‘From where do you come’? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it’.

"And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a BLAMELESS, UPRIGHT man, fearing God and turning away from evil’.

"Then Satan answered the Lord, ‘Does Job fear God for nothing? [Why shouldn’t he respect you since you take care of him so well?]

"‘Hast Thou not made a hedge about him [haven’t you put a wall around him to protect him from me?] and his house [his family] and all that he has, on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.

"‘But put forth Thy hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse Thee to Thy face’." [but take away the wall and let me at him, and he will hate you]

"The Lord said to Satan, ‘BEHOLD, ALL THAT HE HAS IS IN YOUR POWER ...’" (Job 1:1, 6-12)

Why does God allow his servants to suffer? Why does God allow Satan access to them? Why does God allow tribulation to enter their lives? Many in today’s Church, of course, deny that God does - but this is obviously not what the Scriptures say. But these same people would retort that God only allows suffering when there is sin - and, apparently, this is what Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, Job’s, friends said about Job during his sufferings: that Job was suffering because there was "hidden sin" in Job’s life, and that this was the only reason that God would allow such suffering in one of his servants. But God was greatly angered by such thinking:

"And it came about after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, ‘My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has.

"‘Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to My servant Job, and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves, and My servant Job will pray for you. For I will accept him so that I may not do with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has’." (Job 42:7-8)

GOD’S PURPOSE IN TRIBULATION: TO MANIFEST &
DISPLAY HIS OWN GLORY IN THE SAINTS

GOD WAS GLORIFIED IN JOB!! Satan had said that Job loved God only because of the "things" God bestowed upon him. What a terrible thing to say. IT'S THE CURSE OF WEALTH.

How does a rich man ever know that he is truly loved? The sad truth is, he doesn’t so long as he retains his wealth. But should he lose it, then he will find out. Great crowds of people followed Jesus so long as he fed them and healed them of their diseases. But when tribulation arose because of the Word He spoke, the crowds disappeared.

Oh, to be loved because of who you are, and not just because of the "things" you have! This is the love that God desires from those who follow Him. It is the love that Ruth gave to Naomi, and this even after Naomi had asked Ruth to depart from her because she [Naomi] had nothing further to give Ruth - she no longer possessed any "things" with which to "purchase" Ruth’s love:

"But Ruth said, ‘Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.

"‘Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me’." (Ruth 1:16-17)

THE LORD IS LOOKING FOR SUCH TO FOLLOW HIM - THOSE WHO WILL FOLLOW HIM LONG AFTER THE "THINGS" ARE GONE, THE CROWDS HAVE LEFT, THE POPULARITY FADED; WHEN THE CLOTHES ARE TATTERED AND TORN, THERE IS NO FOOD ON THE TABLE, AND PERSECUTION RAGES ALL AROUND. THESE ARE THE TRUE FOLLOWERS OF JESUS. These are the disciples who can say with the prophet Habakkuk:

"Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock be cut off from the fold, And there be no heard in the stalls -

"YET I WILL REJOICE IN THE LORD, I WILL JOY IN THE GOD OF MY SALVATION." (Habakkuk 3:17-18)

It is in this kind of love that the TRUE Church will be "revealed," "disclosed," "manifested" (Romans 8:19)! It is this kind of love which will expose the hypocrites for what they really are. It is this kind of love which will separate the wheat from the tares. AND IT IS ONLY IN TRIBULATION THAT THIS LOVE IS TRULY REVEALED.

AND SO WINNOWING OF GOD BEGINS

AND SO, AS WE SAID, THE WINNOWING OF GOD BEGINS, AND IT WILL CERTAINLY TAKE HOLD ON YOU. There is no way of escape from it. How you adjust to this imperative will "reveal" the real nature of your Christianity. And MONEY - and how you view money - will play a crucial part in what happens to you. (cf. Rev. 13:17) The question then is, Where do you stand with regard to the matter of money? How important is it and the things that it can buy in YOUR life. And remember here, it's not what you say that counts, but what you do.

The fact is, as the elites continue to tighten their grip on the American economy, people will begin to discover that the only way they can participate meaningfully in the economy any longer is as a sycophant to the elites. IF YOU ARE UNWILLING TO BE A BROWN-NOSER TO THE ELITES, IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE THEIR BOOT-LICKER, IF YOU REFUSE TO BE A FLUNKY TO THEIR DESIRES, YOU WILL FIND THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO SURRENDER YOUR PLACE IN THE ECONOMY, AND BE WILLING TO BE CONSIGNED TO THE FRINGES OF SOCIETY AS "HUMAN TRASH." YOU WILL DISCOVER THAT THERE SIMPLY IS NO "WORK" FOR YOU IN THE AMERICAN NEW WORLD ORDER SYSTEM OTHER THAN, PERHAPS, AS A DAY-LABORER. If, on the other hand, you "give up" and surrender yourself as a flunky to the elites, you will find that that is tantamount to giving up your Christianity.

The choice before you is God OR mammon - and there is NO middle ground between the two of them. Again, it's not without reason that Jesus said,

"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." (Matt. 6:24)

THE WAR ON TERRORISM: SEPARATING
THE WHEAT FROM THE CHAFF

You still think that you can hide from this process? - that you can "secret" yourself in some "hidden-away" job in a company like Bechtel Corporation, Halliburton, Colgate-Palmolive, Swift and Company, ADM, Union Carbide, etc. and no one will be the wiser? And from the safety of your "hidden-away" job - and quite anonymously - you can discreetly speak out against what the elites are doing in impoverishing American workers (and others all over the world).

Well, you're mistaken! The elites will not tolerate that; they will brook no opposition; they will ferret you out and crush you - THAT'S WHAT THE "WAR ON TERRORISM" IS ALL ABOUT!

The "War on Terrorism" is nothing more than an euphemism for a war on all those who oppose the elites and - ipso facto - George Bush's American New World Order System. WHAT IT AIMS TO DO IS DO TO THOSE IN THE MIDDLE-CLASS WHO OPPOSE THE ELITES WHAT THE WAR ON DRUGS HAS DONE TO THE BLACK COMMUNITY - AND THE GROUNDWORK NECESSARY TO FACILITATE THIS ATTACK IS BEING METICULOUSLY ATTENDED TO - ALL UNDER THE RUBRIC OF THE "WAR ON TERRORISM."

And attack they will: the elites have no choice in this matter; after all, their rapacious economic policies can only engender rage, AND THAT RAGE MUST BE CONTROLLED.

UNMASKING THE WAR ON TERRORISM

You doubt all this? You do? - well back up a little, take a long, hard look at the USA Patriot Act and other similar legislation, then ask yourself, who is the real target of the so-called "War on Terrorism?" Al Qaeda or YOU?

For example, consider what local police forces have been doing: using the "War on Terrorism" as an excuse, police forces throughout the nation have been expanding their "intelligence units."

Case in point: the Maryland State Police has expanded its "intelligence unit" FIVE FOLD since the attack of 9/11, and - according to Robert Dreyfuss, a contributing editor of the Nation Magazine - what's happening in Maryland is indicative of what's happening all across the nation. [Please see our article, "The Events of September 11, 2001: What's Going on?"]

Dreyfuss writes:

"From New York to Chicago, from Florida to California, police departments are creating and strengthening intelligence units and anti-terrorism squads ... Some of the momentum is coming from police departments ... and some of it is coming from the Feds, in an effort to create 'a seamless web' ... uniting local law enforcement, the FBI and the U.S. intelligence community."

Dreyfuss continues:

"(And) ... ALL THIS IS OCCURRING IN THE COMPLETE ABSENCE OF ANY ACTUAL TERRORIST ACTIVITY.

"In Maryland, FBI and police officials could not identify even one recorded incident of terrorism in the state. And the same is true elsewhere. Chicago, for instance, which is in the process of substantially relaxing restrictions on police surveillance activity, has experienced zero incidents of terrorism ..."

WHAT'S GOING ON?

What's going on then? Who are the police really targeting? David Mitchell, superintendent of the Maryland State Police, says that they are "targeting" EVERY DISSIDENT GROUP THEY COME ACROSS, building files and creating dossiers. Mitchell reports:

"We read their literature, we interview people who've attended their rallies. A lot of stuff we collect, IT'S OFF THE INTERNET."

Mitchell went on to say that when necessary, his police INFILTRATE ORGANIZATIONS AND DEVELOP INFORMANTS INSIDE THEM. When Dreyfuss interviewed Mitchell, it was only a week or so before a major protest in Washington against the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Mitchell said:

"We'll have troops down there. We know there's a history of groups that are hell-bent on violence, and we've got some intelligence activity going on there ... We're keeping our ear to the ground."

AL QAEDA IS NOT THE TARGET OF
THE "WAR ON TERRORISM:" YOU ARE

Now think about what Mitchell said here. Was he "targeting" Al Qaeda-type groups? No! - plainly, he was "targeting" domestic groups, and not just any so-called domestic group like the KKK, BUT GROUPS THAT ARE SPECIFICALLY ARRAYED AGAINST GEORGE BUSH'S AMERICAN NEW WORLD ORDER SYSTEM - the kind of groups that were demonstrating against the IMF in the spring of 2002 in Washington D.C.; the same kind of groups that demonstrated against the WTO in Cancun recently. [Please see our article, "We Are All Being Played for Suckers;" also, we URGE you, if you have not already, to read our article on the WTO demonstration in Cancun, "Lee Kyang: The Rich and the Poor! America and God;" please also see our article, "The WTO and the Masses."]

And it's not just Antipas that thinks "ordinary" citizens are being targeted; THAT'S EVEN WHAT THE STAID NEW YORK TIMES THINKS AS WELL. INDEED, ACCORDING TO SEVERAL INTERVIEWS AND A CONFIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM OBTAINED BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE FBI HAS COLLECTED EXTENSIVE INFORMATION ON THE TACTICS, TRAINING AND ORGANIZATION OF ANTI-WAR AND ANTI-GLOBALIST DEMONSTRATORS, AND HAS ALSO ADVISED LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS TO REPORT ANY SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY AT PROTESTS TO ITS COUNTER-TERRORISM SQUADS. Now, please carefully note to whom local law enforcement officials are reporting this information: to the FBI's counter-TERRORISM unit. Obviously, then, anti-globalists and anti-war demonstrators are being treated as terrorists.

What's that say about Antipas? - we were at the IMF demonstrations in Washington in 2002. Are we a "domestic terrorist group" now? Is that what we are going to be called for protesting against the obscene alliance the leaders of the church have made with the American New World Order System? [Please see our article, "A Woman Riding a Beast Going forth Conquering and to Conquer."]

Yes! - and it's going to happen to YOU too, unless you decide to crawl into a corner somewhere and say nothing. But by crawling into that corner and saying nothing you will have been - whether you realize it or not - WINNOWED by God. And why is that? - because as disciples of Christ we cannot stand aside and allow His name to be linked by the leaders of our church to the inhumanity of the elites. If we fail to protest this, how will it be possible any longer for us to call ourselves Christians? We will have become TRAITORS to the name of Christ.

225,000 SEPARATE INDIVIDUAL TARGETS

And believe me here: the attack the elites are launching against their enemies is all-encompassing; no one is being left off their "enemies list." Anyone and everyone who has ever spoken out against them and their policies is being targeted - and, as Dreyfuss suggests, all the law enforcement agencies of the country are being enlisted in this attack. For example, in order to induce the cooperation of local law enforcement in domestic spying, the federal government has pledged billions of dollars in extra spending. Each state is being asked to conduct a county-by-county assessment of potential terrorist groups in order to qualify for the federal largesse. In each city and county, the police and sheriff's department is being required to identify at least fifteen groups or individuals as "targets" or "potential threat elements" (PTEs). The Justice Department has said that they really don't care what is motivating each PTE, it could be "political, RELIGIOUS, racial, environmental, or special interest."

There are 17,000 separate jurisdictions involved in the PTE program, which translates into at least 255,000 individual "targets." And that's the least amount of "targets." If tiny jurisdictions like Winnamuca, Nevada and Bishop, California have to come up with fifteen "targets," one can only imagine what a jurisdiction like Chicago, New York, Houston, L.A. etc. will come up with. Undoubtedly, the "target" list runs into the millions and millions.

Eee gads! Given these numbers, there certainly is a good chance that Antipas is one of these "targets" (and, as a result, YOU are too), especially when one considers the expansive way in which the government interprets the word "terrorist" to mean anyone who speaks out against George Bush's American New World Order System, or anyone who - according to the New York Times - is involved in "suspicious activity at protests." The question fairly begs to be asked. What is suspicious activity? - carrying a sign reading, "The Religious Right and the Business Right: An Alliance Made in Hell?"

Very obviously - none of this has anything to do with Al Qaeda! AGAIN, THE WAR ON TERRORISM IS JUST A RUSE THE ELITES ARE USING TO DO TO WHITE, MIDDLE-CLASS AMERICANS WHO OPPOSE THEM WHAT THEY HAVE BEEN DOING FOR YEARS TO BLACK DISSIDENTS UNDER THE RUBRIC OF THE "WAR ON DRUGS:" LOCK THEM UP AND THROW AWAY THE KEYS; and it's coming straight at YOU (if you protest what the government is up to, and - again - you MUST if you want to continue calling yourself a Christian) replete with all the paraphernalia that the black neighborhoods are so familiar: constant police surveillance, police sweeps, police break-ins of private residences, road blocks designed to harass and intimidate, traffic stops using made-up pretexts in order to run a warrant search, etc., etc. You still don't see it? - well, let me enlighten you further on this matter.

MAKING TRAVEL A PRIVILEGE
RATHER THAN A RIGHT

One of the most effective tools in controlling a population in a Police-State is the ability of the police to impede a citizen's ability to freely move about, and to subject him constantly to questions and background checks. Those of you who have ever visited one of America's Third World client-states know what I'm talking about here - like Colombia, Peru, etc. Roadblocks are everywhere! The police are forever asking you for your personal papers and your I.D. And if you stand around long enough at a roadblock - which is not a very smart thing to do - you will every now and then see someone pulled out of a car or a bus, roughly interrogated, and sometimes hauled away to who knows where.

Of course, all this has been going on for sometime now in the neighborhoods of the poor - and I know what I'm speaking about here: I live in a very poor neighborhood in Sacramento, and I cannot begin to tell you how often I have been stopped at "police roadblocks" to undergo a "warrants check" on the flimsiest of technicalities (defective tail light, mud on a license plate - anything will do including looking at the police cross-eyed), and now all this is being expanded to the middle-class. That's what the new screening system for airline passengers is all about - AND IT MAKES WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING IN THE THIRD WORLD AND IN THE NEIGHBORHOODS OF THE POOR LOOK "STONE-AGE" IN COMPARISON.

For example, take what Jamie Chapman of the WSWS news agency has discovered: the TSA (the U.S. Transportation Security Agency) recently gave the go-ahead for a new screening system at U.S. airports: the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening program, known as CAPPS 2. The CAPPS 2 system involves a two-stage process for determining who will be subjected to additional security checks at airports, and who will be denied the right to fly. Denied the right to fly? WOW! Chapman writes:

"CAPPS 2 REPRESENTS A MAJOR BUILDUP OF THE POLICE-STATE APPARATUS THAT THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION HAS BEEN DEVELOPING UNDER THE GUISE OF THE "WAR ON TERROR." TURNING AIRPORTS INTO INTERNAL CHECKPOINTS, SIMILAR TO ROADBLOCKS, IT CREATES A BLANKET SYSTEM FOR MONITORING AND CONTROLLING THE COMINGS AND GOINGS OF CITIZENS AND NON-CITIZENS."

And what Chapman says is true: the TSA is setting up what amounts to be an internal passport system just like the one the old Soviet Union had. They don't call it that, of course, but it has the same effect. If you are a "good communist" you can travel about freely; if you are not, you can't. TRAVEL BECOMES A PRIVILEGE RATHER THAN A RIGHT - A PRIVILEGE THAT THE GOVERNMENT DOLLS OUT TO ITS SYCOPHANTS AND TOADIES, AND DENIES TO THOSE WHO AREN'T TOEING THE PARTY-LINE.

ASSIGNING A NUMERICAL VALUE TO ALL TRAVELERS

As described by Chapman, stage one of the new CAPPS 2 system has the airlines turn over each passenger's reservation data, including name, address, telephone number, and even travel itinerary to the government, which will now also require airlines to obtain the passenger's date of birth when he makes a reservation. The data is given in turn to a private contractor, who checks it against large databases developed commercially from public records and other sources such as credit bureaus and marketing lists. Social Security numbers are added to the passenger data from these records.

The contractor assigns a numerical value to each traveler, designed to rate the likelihood that he is the person he says he is. The rating is passed back to the TSA, which then cross-checks the information against federal "do-not-fly" lists. Up until now the government has claimed that only suspected terrorists were tracked. Now, however, the TSA has expanded the list to include supposedly violent criminals. The TSA has not said whether a conviction or simply an arrest will earn someone a place on the list, nor exactly what crimes are considered violent.

This expansion of the list has the effect of making the detention of a passenger seem more routine and even justified. Anyone targeted, either mistakenly or strictly for their political activities, will be even more isolated as they are being led away, since they will be assumed to be a common criminal. A common criminal? - think how embarrassed people will be - YOU for instance! - being pulled out of line and taken away. And remember here, under CAPPS 2 you're being pulled out of line not so much as the result of a so-called "random search," but because you don't score high enough on the CAPPS 2. And what was the reason for that? What will your friends be thinking?

GOOD TOADIES BECOME
"TRUSTED TRAVELERS"

Hand in hand with CAPPS 2 will come another program for "trusted travelers" under which "good toadies" and "trusted sycophants" of the state can submit their personal data - possible to include a fingerprint and retina scan - in advance to the TSA, which will issue them an identity card that automatically earns them "green status" when they check in. Chapman says,

"This creation of a preferred class of travelers will automatically throw greater suspicion on those who have not obtained the special ID (i.e., the "green pass"), adding to the pressure for people to participate. One would expect that soon the identity card would be used in other business sectors - perhaps to check into a hotel - as well."

Wow! - a "Green Card" - kind of like having a gold or platinum Visa card: something that says, "I'm better than the rest of you. I don't have to stand in line like the peons." One can only imagine the brown-nosing that will go on to get one of those! - and the concomitant embarrassment that will accrue to those who don't qualify for such a card!

WHAT WILL CHRISTIANS DO?

What will Christians do then, especially when so much "face" is involved? What will they do when their business associates are passed through the security gates at an airport because they possess "green passes" and they don't? The pressure on Christians at this point to cave into the system, compromise their faith, and obtain a "green pass" will be overwhelming. And, moreover, the pressure to break off any relationship with a brother or sister in the Lord who has the courage to stand up against the system will be enormous; after all, to continue in such a relationship with a person like that could not help but jeopardize one's "green status." And then what? [And, again, remember here, we're not talking about some kind of imaginary Orwellian program to be implemented sometime in the obscure future, but one that is being implemented right now! Indeed, Chapman says THAT THE PROGRAM IS EXPECTED TO BE FULLY IMPLEMENTED BY THIS SUMMER.]

FORCING THE AIRLINES TO COMPLY

In the works for over a year, the implementation of CAPPS 2 has been delayed because of passenger resistance to turning their personal information over to the government. When Delta Airlines initially agreed to submit its passenger data to use in testing the system, opponents of the plan set up a web site promoting a boycott, and Delta withdrew. Then in September, when JetBlue Airways acknowledged releasing 1.5 million passenger records to a military contractor, angry passengers filed a class action lawsuit over the violation of their privacy.

Northwest Airlines, the fourth-largest U.S. carrier, has now admitted that it secretly provided the government with three months of confidential passenger data for use in a security project for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Ames Research Center. The reservation data covered the period from October to December 2001, when close to 11 million people traveled on the airline. As recently as September 23, 2003, Northwest denied that it had turned over the information, but last week admitted it had done so. The lying never seems to end.

To overcome public opposition to providing such data to the government, the TSA has indicated it will order all airlines to uniformly turn over the requested information. In the meantime, it will conduct tests using data that European airlines have agreed to provide, despite concerns about violations of European Union privacy rules - AND THAT'S PRECISELY WHAT ALL THE FUSS WAS ABOUT A FEW WEEKS AGO WHEN BRITISH FLIGHTS OUT OF LONDON'S HEATHROW AIRPORT AND FRENCH FLIGHTS OUT OF PARIS' CHARLES DEGAULLE AIRPORT WERE CANCELED.

In effect, the Europeans were being told "SUBMIT" or don't fly to the United States. There was never any terrorist threat, as the government cryptically suggested to the media; that was just for public consumption. The Americans were playing a game of "hardball" with the Europeans, and the Europeans knew it. It was infuriating! But there was nothing they could do - flights in and out of the United States are the most lucrative in the world, and the Europeans simply cannot afford to be cut out of this market. So they submitted. When "hardball" is the game, the Europeans don't have a chance with the Americans. The Europeans can win only when the Americans let them win. They just simply don't have the muscle to oppose the Americans. [Please see our article, "Europe vs. America."]

Once the Europeans fall into line, then the government can begin working on the American airlines: "Look, the Europeans are doing it - and their privacy rules are much more stringent than ours - so you can safely do it as well."

"RED" RATINGS

No definite information is being released on the specific criteria established for assigning a "red" or "yellow" rating. In addition to being an extensive identity check, the stage one numerical rating incorporates an assessment of whether the traveler is "rooted in the community." Does this mean that someone without a long credit or shopping history will be considered a high risk, which means anyone who uses cash rather than credit or debit cards? Now stop and think about the implications of that for those of you who think you can outsmart the government by using only cash - USE CASH ONLY AND YOU RISK BEING ASSIGNED A "YELLOW" OR "RED" RATING FOR NOT BEING "ROOTED IN THE COMMUNITY." Then go ahead and try traveling around the country and see how far you get.

Will those who recently moved be more likely to be denied the right to travel than those who have not? How this is determined remains secret, supposedly to prevent terrorists from figuring out how to "work" the system.

Such secrecy invites abuse - and, in fact, IT HAS BEEN SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED TO ACCOMMODATE ABUSE! The government can "target" political opponents to be put in the "red" category without having to make any accounting for the action. Someone who finds himself banned from travel has no recourse. In truly KAFKAESQUE fashion, he cannot find out how his name got on the "do-not-fly" list, nor how he would be able to get it removed. He may suspect the reason why he is on the "do-not-fly" list, but he cannot know for sure. The TSA claims it will have an ombudsman to whom those who feel they have been erroneously subjected to restrictions can complain, but there is no indication as to what authority the ombudsman will actually have. [Please see our article, "Now Is The Time To Do Something; It May Be Too Late Tomorrow" for an ominous explanation of "Kafkaesque."]

TSA spokesmen expect that the new system will reduce the number of passengers subjected to additional searches from the current 14 percent to as low as 5 percent. However, the computerized background and criminal record checks are expected to significantly increase the number of people who are denied permission to fly. And be clear here, your association with Antipas is not going to help you in the years to come. If you have ever spoken out against the government, if you have ever attended an anti-globalist rally, if you have ever demonstrated against any of the institutions of the American New World Order System - the IMF, the World Bank, or the WTO - expect that someday soon you will receive a "yellow" or "red" rating.

Speaking specifically concerning CAPPS 2, Nat Hentoff of the Village Voice writes:

"(CAPPS 2) ... is not the innocuous, though annoying, collection of information done by telemarketers and other so-called solicitors that is used to deluge our postal boxes and computer accounts with targeted junk mail. This is a compilation of private information, from various sources, that you may not want collected and distributed without you knowledge or consent ... Once this coloring scheme (i.e., green, yellow and red) is in place, why limit it to airline passengers? To maximize homeland security, the government could extend this system to railroad depots, bus stations and beyond.

CARS, BRIDGES, TUNNELS, AND TOLLWAYS

And Hentoff is right! - if turning airports into "internal security checkpoints" is REAL now, can establishing checkpoints for private cars passing through bridges, tunnels, and expressway toll booths be far behind? Those who have earned a "green rating" will, no doubt, be issued an electronic pass; all others will have to stop and submit to a "search" to get through - analogous to the search at airports for those passengers having a "yellow rating."

At this point, if you have a "red rating," you might as well push your car over a cliff and start "hoofing" it. So much for those Christians who think they can wait around until the last moment to flee. How are they going to get out of the United States, or even travel from city to city? Walk? - all the way to the Canadian border from Memphis, Sacramento, St. Louis, Columbus, etc.?

Again, as Chapman says, there is a direct parallel between what happened in the old Soviet Union and the East Bloc to what is happening today in the United States. The government is imposing internal travel restrictions on the American people, and in doing so, it is essentially following the Soviet textbook. That's what Hentoff thinks too! He writes:

Once a computer system is developed, by its very nature, it's child's play to share its results across a broad range of groups, in this case, government agencies. We would then be constantly screened through a network of government checkpoints, which, ironically, is an image often ominously mocked in American movies as part of a Communist or fascist nation's modus operandi."

Hentoff continues:

"In his new book, Terrorism, Freedom, and Security: Winning Without War, Harvard Law School professor Philip Heymann, a former deputy U.S. attorney general, warns about the coming of a NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE STATE 'where information about citizens is gathered extremely broadly and the activities of the intelligence agencies are unconstrained'."

Hentoff says that we are almost there! - and God help all those who oppose George Bush's American New World Order System when we finally arrive.

GO TO A DEMONSTRATION; GET A
BEATING; AND GET A "RED RATING"

Moreover, it's not just travel restrictions - ala the old Soviet Union - but demonstrations and the "right of assembly" that are under attack by the elites as well, again, using the "War on Terrorism" as the mechanism to do so. Indeed, the police and the FBI are flooding demonstrations with "agents" taking pictures of demonstrators and ADDING THEM TO THEIR DATA BASES - THE SAME DATA BASES THAT THE GOVERNMENT IS INTENDING TO USE TO ESTABLISH WHO AMONG THE POPULATION WILL BE ISSUED "GREEN RATINGS" FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF TRAVEL, AND WHO WILL BE ISSUED "RED RATINGS."

And believe me, the government is clamping down on demonstrators and protesters with great violence and brutality. It's like nothing experienced by protesters in the past - not even during the 1960s. Jeremy Scahill, a producer and correspondent for the nationally syndicated radio and TV program "Democracy Now!" (www.democracynow.org) describes the police violence in Miami:

"We were loading our video equipment into the trunk of our car when a fleet of ... cops sped up and formed a semi-circle around us. The lead cop was Miami police chief John Timoney, the former police commissioner of Philadelphia. Timoney has a reputation for BRUTALITY and HATRED of protesters of any kind. He calls them 'punks', 'knuckleheads', and a whole slew of expletives. He coordinated the brutal police response to the mass protests at the Republican National Convention. [And Antipas was there complete with our sign, 'THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT AND THE BUSINESS RIGHT: AN ALLIANCE MADE IN HELL'] ..."

ALL THE LYING THAT GOES ON! WILL IT EVER END?

Scahill said that Timoney continued to harass them for some time, and then with a flurry left with his gang of paramilitaries. Scahill continued:

"... on the news (that night), Chief Timoney spoke (to the TV audience) in sober tones about the tear gas that demonstrators fired at his officers. No that is not a typo. Timoney said the protesters were the ones launching the tear gas ..."

What a bold-faced liar Timoney is! How casually he lies here! - and that very casualness gives evidence as to how pervasive lying has become in America's police forces. Stop and think about what Timoney said here! The protesters had fired tear gas at the police? That's nonsense! The police are the only ones who had tear gas. What does Timoney take the citizens of Miami for? - Fools? Yes! - that's EXACTLY what he takes them for!

Sadly, the very culture that the police are a part of in the United States - like the police forces in America's client-states - encourages lying and dishonesty at a very fundamental level. One becomes inured to it: charged as the police are to uphold the rule of law and help citizens on the one hand, and brutalize the poor on the other, they lie to themselves about what they are doing in order to bridge the two contradictory worlds they bestride, and that lying manifests itself in how they conduct their "official" lives. This may shock most middle-class Americans, but it certainly doesn't shock the denizens of the underclass. They are lied to and lied about by the police all the time.

That's what happened with Donovan Jackson and that's what happened with Nathaniel Jones: THINK OF ALL THE MASSIVE AMOUNT OF LYING THAT MUST HAVE GONE ON TO COVER UP WHAT BOTH THE L.A. POLICE AND THE CINCINNATI POLICE HAD DONE. More than seventeen cops were involved in L.A. - cops who had plainly seen what had happened, but who lied about it; and the same thing is true for Cincinnati. All these cops knew they were lying. But they did so anyway, and probably justified it in their minds by believing that they were "SERVING THE GREATER GOOD" - kind of the way the SS did at Auschwitz. And this happens over and over and over again in the neighborhoods of the poor, and this is why the police are so disliked in those neighborhoods - not because the poor are animals, as the mainline media portrays the situation on TV shows like "Cops."

THE MIAMI POLICE: A PARAMILITARY GROUP

Scahill continues,

"... After the Miami protests, no one should call what Timoney runs in Miami a police force. IT'S A PARAMILITARY GROUP (like the kind one would expect to find in Colombia) - thousands of soldiers, dressed in Khaki uniforms with full black body armor and gas masks, marching in unison through the streets, banging batons against their shields, chanting, 'back ... back ... back'. There were armored personnel carriers and helicopters.

"The forces fired indiscriminately into crowds of unarmed protesters. Scores of people were hit with skin-piercing rubber bullets; thousands were gassed with an array of chemicals. On several occasions, police fired loud concussion grenades into the crowds. Police shocked people with electric tazers. Demonstrators were shot in the back as they retreated. One young person's apparent crime was holding his fingers in a peace sign in front of the troops. They shot him multiple times, including once in the stomach at point blank range.

"My colleagues and I spent several days in the streets, going from conflict to conflict. We saw no attempts by any protesters to attack a business or a corporation ... Even the Black Bloc youth, who have a reputation for wanting to smash everything up, were incredibly restrained and focused ..."

This is incredible! These are the kind of police tactics one would expect to see in a dictatorship - and it has made MONSTERS out of those charged with carrying out these tactics: that's what one of our readers - a former police officer in the New York Police Department (NYPD) - wrote to us before resigning from that force. He knew what he was becoming, and he found that he couldn't reconcile his Christianity with what he was really charged to do: INTIMIDATE and BRUTALIZE the poor in the interests of the elites - people like Alan Greenberg, Richard Grasso, Kenneth Langone, etc. INTIMIDATE and BRUTALIZE - this certainly is what was happening in Miami.

THE METHODICAL USE OF FORCE BY THE POLICE

Scahill goes on, describing one of many episodes of police violence:

"The police methodically marched in a long column directly at the ... protesters who believed they had a right to protest. They fired indiscriminately at the crowds. One person had a part of her ear blown off. Another was shot in the forehead. I got shot twice, once in the back, another time in the leg. John Hamilton from the Workers Independent News Service, was hit in the neck by a pepper-spray pellet - a small ball that explodes into a white powder. After a few moments, he began complaining that his neck was burning from the powder. We doused him in water, but the burning continued. When I tried to ask the police what the powder was, they told me to 'mind myself'.

"Eventually, the police forced the dissipating group of protesters into one of the poorest sections of Miami, surrounding them on all sides. We stood there in the streets with the eerie feeling of a high-noon showdown. Except that there were hundreds of them with guns and dozens of us with cameras and banners. They fired gas and rubber bullets at us as they moved in. All of us realized we had nothing to do but run. We scattered down side streets and alleys, ducking as we fled. Eventually, we made it out.

"The next day, we went to a midday rally outside the Dade County Jail where more than 150 people were being held prisoner. It was a peaceful assembly of about 300 people. The crowd sang 'We all live in a failed democracy' to the tune of 'We all live in a yellow Submarine'. They chanted, 'Free the Prisoners, Not Free trade' and 'Take off your riot gear, there ain't no riot here'.

"Representatives of the protesters met with the police officials at the scene. The activists said they would agree to remain in a parking lot across the street from the jail if the police would call off the swelling presence of the riot police. They reached an agreement, or so the police said. As the demonstration continued, the numbers of fully armed troops grew. They announced that people had three minutes to disperse from the 'unlawful assembly'. Even though the police violated their agreement, the protesters complied. A group of five activists led by Puppetista David Solnit informed the police they would not leave. The police began arresting them. But that was not enough. The police then attacked the dispersing crowd, chasing about 30 people into a corner. They shoved them to the ground and beat them. They gassed them at close range ..."

THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS
LIKE TODAY IN AMERICA

Scahill concludes:

"THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE - THOUSANDS OF SOLDIERS, CALLING THEMSELVES POLICE, DEPLOYED IN U.S. CITIES TO PROTECT THE POWER BROKERS FROM THE MASSES. (PARAMILITARIES) ... LIKE JOHN TIMONEY ROAM FROM CITY TO CITY ORGANIZING MILITIAS TO HUNT THE (SO-CALLED) DANGEROUS RADICALS WHO THREATEN GOOD ORDER."

[NOTE: It isn't as if there can be any question as to what really happened in Miami - "Independent Media" has documented on film EVERYTHING that occurred (please contact "Independent Media, Miami" or the "Workers Independent News Service;" please also see Bill Moyer's website on www.pbs.org for a video of what happened). The "mainline media" simply did not report on any of this. What happened in Miami was "off-limits" to the corporate media; it was largely ignored - as if ignoring it would make it all go away.]

JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG

This is just the tip of the iceberg on what's going on today. Where will it all end? - ESPECIALLY IN LIGHT OF CHIEF JUSTICE RHENQUIST'S COMMENT THE OTHER DAY THAT MANY OF THE "RIGHTS" THAT ORDINARY AMERICANS THINK THEY HAVE ARE NOT REALLY GUARANTEED TO THEM BY THE CONSTITUTION! Wow! - what does Rhenquist mean by that?

And we've only been talking about the government's efforts to suppress street demonstrators, impose travel restrictions, and reconfigure and expand police intelligence units. But a lot more than just that is going on.

For instance, How many of you know about the government's plan to operate a "Phoenix Program" in the United States? [Please see our articles, "The Death Squads: Bringing in the Kingdom of God through Terror, Torture, and Death" and "Christian Evangelicals and the Death Squads: Oh What a Tangled Web We Are Weaving for Ourselves."]

Well, according to Douglas Valentine, who has written extensively on the Phoenix Program, they exist. In an article entitled "Phoenix And The Anatomy Of Terror" Valentine alleges that the government is in the process of setting up a "counter-terrorist" program as an integral part of Governor Tom Ridge's "Department of Homeland Security." If that is true, than God help us all.

AN AMERICAN
PHOENIX PROGRAM

The program that the government is setting up will be run very much in the same way that Phoenix was run in South Vietnam. Phoenix consisted of a massive "gulag" of secret interrogation centers and "holding facilities throughout South Vietnam's 44 provinces. Four regional centers were also built, and a National Interrogation Center (NIC) was established in Saigon which I visited on many occasions as an intelligence officer attached to the ill-famed 525th Intelligence Group.

The author - S.R. Shearer - as an intelligence officer at the Phoenix training center in Vung Tau, South Vietnam. In 1969 and 1970 the author became peripherally involved in the Phoenix Program in Vietnam as an intelligence officer attached to the infamous 525th Intelligence Group.

The program was run essentially by a cadre of "secret police" advised by the CIA and American military intelligence officers. Informants were recruited in every district, village, and hamlet in Vietnam. On the basis of an accusation made by a single anonymous informant, a VC suspect or sympathizer could be arrested and detained indefinitely. They were held until they confessed (often under torture); and then they were sent to Stalinist internal security tribunals (like the one at Guantanamo) for "further disposition." [And it should be noted in this connection that hundreds of "holding facilities" are being set up all over the country now - that is NOT just a rumor, that's a fact (more about that in a later article).]

Valentine says that like the Phoenix Program, the government will establish field offices in the 50 states and all of America's major cities. In order to achieve its elusive goal of "internal security," the Department of Homeland Security, like Phoenix, will need to extend its informant nets throughout the country - all this in addition to what local police forces are doing.

Inevitably, EVERY town will probably be required to form a committee which will be comprised of citizens that the Department of Homeland Security has deemed "politically reliable." The job of these committees will be to process reports by "concerned citizens" (i.e., informants) about the activities of "suspected citizens." Perhaps once a week these reports will be forwarded to the Department of Homeland Security Committee at the county level. The county committee will review the reports and send the most urgent ones to the state committee. At each level, the reports will be filtered through an ideological filter, AND EVENTUALLY THERE WILL COME A TIME WHEN ALL THOSE WHO DO DON'T MAKE IT THROUGH THE "FILTERING PROCESS" WILL RECEIVE A KNOCK ON THEIR DOOR LATE AT NIGHT, AND THEY WILL BE "DISAPPEARED."

YOU'RE EITHER "FOR US" OR "AGAINST US"

What makes such a system especially dangerous is that Attorney General John Ashcroft has vowed to "arrest and detain any suspected terrorist who has violated the law," and has further promised "airtight surveillance" of them - but has yet to define what a "suspected terrorist" is. This is what happened in Vietnam too. There was never any consensus about the definition of a VC sympathizer - WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE CAPPS 2 PROGRAM WHERE, ACCORDING TO JAMIE CHAPMAN, THE CRITERIA THAT CAPPS 2 IS USING TO DEFINE WHO GETS A "GREEN" PASS, AND WHO ARE ISSUED "YELLOW" AND "RED" PASSES IS LEFT PURPOSEFULLY VAGUE.

The definition of who is and who is not a "suspected terrorist" is tacitly understood by the security forces as a person who is either "for us" or "against us." Moreover, it isn't enough to be just "for us" in a passive sense; one has to be actively "against them." So the definition of a "terrorist suspect" is deliberately left open, paving the way for political repression.

NEW POLICE POWERS

This is to say nothing about all the other new "Police-State powers" the government has arrogated unto itself recently, such as the new and massive increase of government surveillance; the "militarization of the police;" the "right" of the government to wiretap a phone, monitor email and Internet usage, search a home or business, and seize documents all without a warrant; the government's new "right" to arrest people without charges and hold them indefinitely (i.e., the "right" to "disappear" people); the increasing effort by the government to blur the wall between the police functions of the state and its intelligence functions, and so forth and so on. [Please see our article, "The Birth of a Christian Police State," "Ashcroft: Making a List of Dissenters," and "John Ashcroft, Theodore Olson and the New National Security State."]

WHAT DOES ANY OF THIS
HAVE TO DO WITH AL QAEDA?

Now, come on! - what does any of this have to do with Al Qaeda? Nothing at all! What it has to do with is controlling the population as more and more Americans families slip out of the middle-class and descend into poverty as the "cast-offs" of the American New World Order System.

Again, what the elites aim at is controlling that portion of the American population their greed and avarice have ruined: the anti-globalists, those who protest the elite's ruinous economic policies at the anti-WTO, anti-IMF, anti-World Bank, anti-FTAA demonstrations all over the world - and the "War on Terror" is the ruse they use to hide behind in order to justify BRUTALIZING the populations they are seeking to control.

THESE ARE THE TACTICS THE
U.S. USES IN THE THIRD WORLD

Scahill says,

"This is what democracy looks like today (in the United States)."

Historian Edward S. Herman agrees; he writes:

"Just as the United States trained Latin American military and police in methods of fighting against 'populism' (citizen protest) in their countries ... so a large, well-trained, and ruthless police is needed in the home country as it pushes a (ruinous economic) ... agenda that is contrary to the interests of the vast majority."

Again, what's happening here is - as growing numbers of American workers are DISGORGED from the economy as "human trash" - serious, internal dissent is beginning to materialize against the elites, and not just in the neighborhoods of the poor, but in white, middle-class neighborhoods as well and on college campuses across the country.

Unfortunately, what this swelling dissent is doing is prodding the elites to HURRY ALONG their construction of an internal Police-State in order to cower into submission those the economy has DISGORGED, and force them to accept their lot as "human trash."

And the tactics that the elites are using here in this country are EXACTLY the same Police-State tactics the elites use to force the poor in their client states to accept a similar fate. If it works in Lagos, in Buenos Aires, in Mexico City, in Bogota, etc., why not in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Houston, etc.

In other words, what the elites are doing is imposing on the citizens of this country the same kind of ruthless dictatorship that they have imposed on America's client-state populations abroad in order to force, as Herman puts it -

"... THE MASSES TO SERVE THEIR MASTERS QUIETLY AND WITHOUT PROTEST."

THERE IS NO WAY THIS
OPPRESSION CAN BE STOPPED

Now in all of this, one should understand something: THERE IS NO WAY THIS OPPRESSION CAN BE STOPPED. No matter what happens in the coming election, it will continue, even if Bush loses and Kerry is elected.

The very real fact of the matter is, we live in a SHAM DEMOCRACY, and all Kerry is, is BUSH-LITE. KERRY IS COMMITTED TO THE AMERICAN NEW WORLD ORDER SYSTEM EVERY BIT AS MUCH AS BUSH IS. Both Kerry and Bush recognize the fact that there is simply no way any longer that the United States can pull back from its New World Order System. Things have advanced too far for that. The fact is, American corporations are too "invested" in the Third World to ever get out now. According to Pete Dolack, the difference between Bush and Kerry insofar as the American New World Order System is concerned is tactical, not strategic. Bush believes that the way to rule is through the use of the naked fist; to continually attack; to extract the maximum at all times with no mercy. Kerry, on the other hand, prefers timely conciliatory gestures.

Kerry thinks that you can't continually press down on people. If you make client-state populations and workers in the United States too desperate, they will eventually fight back, feeling they have nothing to lose. Therefore, it's better to push when and where you can, but also be prepared to make concessions at other points as a safety valve. Sometimes you only have to give a little. At rare times major concessions have to be given to keep the "empire" intact.

Besides, over time you can always take your concessions back. Better to give up something when you must to release pent-up pressures and to give working people in the United States - as well as the Europeans and America's client-state populations - the illusion that the American New World Order System works for them too. After all, concessions are never forever. Once the upsurge in street-level protest dissipates, you can always start taking the concessions back.

WHAT COUNTS TO BOTH BUSH AND KERRY IS KEEPING
THE AMERICAN NEW WORLD ORDER SYSTEM INTACT

What counts to the "leading lights" of the Republican and Democratic Parties are not social issues - i.e., abortion, the flag, gay marriage, the pledge of allegiance, religion, etc. (they might count to the "plebes" in both parties, but not to Kerry or Bush); TO POLITICOS LIKE BUSH AND KERRY, THE CULTURE WAR IS USEFUL ONLY INSOFAR AS IT OBSCURES WHAT BOTH BUSH AND KERRY SEE AS IMPORTANT: THE PRESERVATION AND EXPANSION OF THE AMERICAN NEW WORLD ORDER SYSTEM. So the empire w