God bless George Will

George Will takes down Billy Graham's star a notch in this retrospective:

Billy Graham: Neither prophet nor theologian
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/02/21/george-will-billy-graham-neither-prophet-nor-theologian/

One may well agree that some of the sentiments expressed in Mr. Will's column cannot be brushed off as meaningless -- but even so who among us would like to have his entire career assessed by a few less-than-noble incidents? Even the best among us is on some days just plain dumb. Even born-again persons make mistakes. How can they not? They are only human, meaning that their human nature is at work, perhaps on some days even quenching the Spirit.

Surely Mr. Will would not like to be remembered principally for the covert cash payoffs he took from Conrad Black

https://fair.org/take-action/action-alerts/are-george-wills-conflicts-none-of-your-business/

or his oft-reported secret doings at the Bilderberg meetings, where one of the aims is to groom favored politicians and journalists who are expected to promote Rockefeller-Kissinger globalism over against "fundamentalist"-backed nationalism. (The Bilderberg organization does not list Mr. Will as a participant.)

While one may accept that Dr. Graham was far from a professional theologian, the evangelist did do what he meant to do: preach, in plain language, the gospel of salvation via Jesus Christ. Was he called to be a theologian or a political commentator? Probably not. Yet, one would be hard put to claim that Dr. Graham was not called to evangelize.

After all, men with the gifts of the Apostle Paul are not minted every day. Yet, should we not be thankful for every laborer in the fields of the Lord. The harvest is great but the laborers are few.

Now as to the very serious charge of anti-Semitism leveled by Mr. Will, we should put things in perspective. Dr. Graham may have thought that the non-Christian beliefs of some Jews bred an amorality that led to some undesirable results. Yet, more importantly, Dr. Graham clearly believed what he preached: that all have fallen short of the glory of God and are in desperate need of God's loving forgiveness.

And, twisting the knife, Mr. Will pours scorn on William Randolph Hearst's influence in igniting Billy Graham's spectacular career, noting that Mr. Hearst was hardly an exemplar of Christian virtue. It is as if Mr. Will has never read his Bible, in which the grace and Providence of God toward those who trust him may well be effected via worldly authorities. Consider the prophet Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar, or Joseph and Pharaoh. Surely Dr. Graham saw Hearst's intervention as God's mysterious grace.

Turning to another of Mr. Will's criticisms: Did some of those who publicly turned to Jesus do so for shallow emotional reasons rather than to satisfy their yearning and need for God's forgiveness and love? Quite possibly. In the parable of the seed sown in rich soil and shallow soil, Jesus himself speaks of the different results of the broadcasting of the seed. The seed takes root in one mind but in another is torn out at the first sign of trouble. In another, the budding word is snarled and choked by worldly business.

How wonderful it would be that even one soul -- one human being's inner core -- was saved via Dr. Graham's influence! Has Mr. Will ever lifted a finger to help save one soul? Or has he been overly mindful of his disdain for "cheap grace"? One may wonder whether Mr. Will rejoices at the thought of the Savior's mission of mercy, whether, that is, his heart shouts "Hallelujah!" when he thinks of the many perishing souls saved and welcomed into the arms of the Lord.

God bless George Will.

'Crisis actor' videos yanked off internet

I have not followed the story of the Parkland school massacre. But, on noticing that one of the witnesses had denied being a "crisis actor," I went to view the YouTube videos that had stirred the fuss.

I tried various means of reaching them, but they were all unavailable. Yet, I was treated to a barrage of videos ready to "debunk" the censored videos, along with mainstream media videos targeting the conspiracy ideas. Somewhere I read that the videos had been pulled.

Well, I was annoyed that I was not permitted to judge the content for myself. I was expected to accept filtered versions of these contrarian views and points. Others were to do the thinking for me and convey the "consensus" judgment. Well, thank you very much, but I prefer the American way myself.

Oh, not all conspiracy stuff was yanked. The remaining material struck me as either slippery disinformation of some nebulous origin or just plain silly speculation. Still, I have seen in the past that keen citizen observers often pick up important points that big league media have swept right past.

No razor sharp wit was at hand in the videos I sampled. I can't say whether the relevant videos made any useful points.

Probers were barred from 9/11 site
amid media-gov't news blackout

In 2002, a reporter noticed that a plume of smoke shot upward from the site of a World Trade Center building about a minute after a jetliner(?) struck a trade center tower. What caused that blast and the crater that was left after the smaller building collapsed? he asks. The tower itself had not fallen when the smaller building, No. 6, ejected the plume. Had it been chunks of the tower falling onto Building 6, why would there have been such official and media reticence about the event? In fact, why was there never an officially acknowledged investigation of the destruction of Building 6, considering the highly publicized investigations of the collapses of Buildings 1, 2 and 7?
The public was left to guess at the cause. Google on Feb. 14, 2018, shows no official statement referring to the collapse of this building.

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The 2002 piece below, written by a much harried and maligned reporter, has been lightly edited for journalistic reasons. The unedited article may be found at
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Document:What_Caused_the_WTC_6_Crater

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By CHRISTOPHER BOLLYN
Before the smoke had cleared from around the stricken South Tower, a mysterious explosion shot 550 feet into the air above the U.S. Customs House at 6 World Trade Center. This unexplained blast at the Customs House has never been investigated or reported in the mainstream media.

Despite the fact that the horrible events of September 11 occurred in broad daylight and were widely photographed, significant aspects of the attacks have been completely suppressed by a media blackout. A massive explosion, witnessed by millions of television viewers on CNN, evidently devastated WTC 6, the eight-story U.S. Customs House, although no national newspaper or media outlet has said a word about it.

The unexplained blast occurred between the burning North Tower and the 47-story Salomon Brothers Building, known as WTC 7, immediately after United Airlines Flight 175 smashed into the South Tower, at about 9:03 a.m. The explosion at WTC 6 was shown later on CNN, but because the blast was not broadcast as it happened there has been some confusion about when it occurred. The large amount of smoke seen cascading around the South Tower in the video led some observers to mistake the blast for a dust cloud from the subsequent collapse of the tower.

Timing confirmed
I contacted CNN to determine exactly when the footage was filmed. CNN's Public Affairs department confirmed that the explosion shown in the footage occurred immediately after the second plane crashed into the South Tower. When asked if the footage was taken at 9:04 a.m., the CNN archivist, who could not give his last name, said, "That's correct." When asked if CNN could offer any explanation about what might have caused the blast that clearly reached 550 feet, soaring higher than the 47-story WTC 7 in the foreground, the archivist said, "We can't figure it out."

A spokesman for the U.S. Export-Import Bank, which had an office with four employees on the sixth floor of the Customs House, confirmed the time of the explosion and said the employees had survived and been relocated to another location in the city.

The affected space between WTC 7 and the North Tower was occupied by the eight-story U.S. Customs House building, also known as WTC 6. Primarily, the building housed the offices of some 760 employees of the Treasury Department's U.S. Customs Service. A number of other federal agencies reportedly had offices in the building, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the departments of Commerce, Agriculture and Labor. One private company, Eastco Building Services Inc., reportedly leased space in the building.

Some 800 workers from WTC 6 were safely evacuated within 12 minutes of the first plane hitting the North Tower at about 8:46 a.m., according to Stephen Barr's Washington Post article, "Knowing the Drill Saved Lives at New York's Customs House." Barr's Sept. 18, 2001, piece is the only known article published about WTC 6. The Barr story does not mention the explosion that apparently devastated the building just minutes after the workers had escaped with their lives.

Avoiding the subject
Although the Customs House apparently exploded at 9:04 a.m., the government-sponsored investigation was steered away from looking into the details of what had happened. The Federal Emergency Management Agency funded an investigation by the American Society of Civil Engineers. But, investigators were reportedly blocked from the building by an order from New York City's Dept. of Design and Construction. Kenneth Holden is department commissioner, having been appointed by the former mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, in December 1999.

Regarding the investigation of World Trade Center buildings 4, 5, and 6, FEMA's "Building Performance" report says, "WTC 5 was the only building accessible for observation," but it adds, "The observations, findings, and recommendations are assumed to be applicable to all three buildings." A spokesman for FEMA told me that because Building 6 had been adjudged by the city design commission as being in "very dangerous" condition, there was "no data collection" from that structure. Dr. Gene Corley, one of the engineers who led the investigation, told me that concerns about loose gold bullion and cash prevented investigators from entering WTC 4.

The FEMA report says, "The buildings [4,5,6] responded as expected to the impact loadings." Although the report says, "most of the central part of WTC 6 suffered collapse on all floors" it adds, "damage was consistent with the observed impact load." The Customs House had a huge crater in its center.

'Interesting photos'
I contacted Corley about the CNN photos. Corley said he had not seen the photos before and said, "These are interesting photos." Corley, like others, thought the damage at WTC 6 was caused by the collapse of the North Tower. Yet, not one of the experts contacted could recall having seen the CNN footage. A spokesman for the Customs Service said, "It did not blow up. When the tower collapsed, it caved in."

Also see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_World_Trade_Center#/media/File:WTC_Area_With_Building_Numbers_50dpi.png

Bibi corruption case renews 9/11 suspicions

Benjamin Netanyahu's indictment on corruption charges is likely to refuel concerns among 9/11 critics that a group within the Israeli government was behind the attacks, which, as Netanyahu has bluntly asserted, benefited Israeli foreign policy.

A Wikispooks page, with input from Christopher Bollyn, who has leveled such charges, makes a circumstantial case pointing to Israeli involvement in the attacks and what critics call a coverup.

wikispooks.com/wiki/9-11/Israel_did_it

On Sept. 12, 2001, a New York Times reporter related this exchange:

Asked tonight what the attack meant for relations between the United States and Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister, replied, ''It's very good.'' Then he edited himself: ''Well, not very good, but it will generate immediate sympathy.'' He predicted that the attack would ''strengthen the bond between our two peoples, because we've experienced terror over so many decades, but the United States has now experienced a massive hemorrhaging of terror.''

Meanwhile, the Times said,

In an appearance late tonight, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon repeatedly placed Israel on the same ground as the United States, calling the assault an attack on ''our common values'' and declaring, ''I believe together we can defeat these forces of evil.''
Uzi Landau, Israel's minister for public security, said that the government had never imagined an assault of this size, let alone had its intelligence network gleaned any warning of its approach. He sounded astounded. ''We had a number of different scenarios for large terrorist attack,'' he said in a telephone interview tonight. ''But this particular concerted offensiveagainst the United States, targeting the World Trade buildings, at the same time hitting Washington -- this we didn't consider.''

Also see
https://www.haaretz.com/1.4970678

News flash: Political spying unveiled

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In bid to spy on Trump camp,

FBI hid Clinton clout
behind dirty dossier

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Bureau relied heavily on politically inspired file
to justify warrants issued by intelligence court

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Declassified House memo also charges that feds,
in warrant applications, cited a Yahoo news report
that was based on a leak from Clinton's spook

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Transcript of memo
https://intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/memo_and_white_house_letter.pdf