By: Cliff Kincaid
Accuracy in Media
The 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi aren’t the only platform for Russian President Vladimir Putin to assert himself on the international stage. He is reportedly planning to preside over a major Moscow conference in September sponsored by the World Congress of Families, a pro-family coalition that includes several high-profile American conservative organizations.
Putin, who is recently divorced and is said to have a mistress, will present himself as a defender of the Christian faith and Christian values, in contrast to the decline and decadence of the West. He is counting on conservatives in attendance to ignore the fact that he was a Soviet KGB officer and ran its successor, the FSB. One of the main specialties of the Soviet/Russian intelligence services is propaganda and disinformation.
The event, to be partly financed by Putin crony Vladimir Yakunin, will be held in the Kremlin, the Duma (the Russian parliament), Lomonosov Moscow State University, and the Christ The Savior Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church.
One of Putin’s allies, Alexey Komov, made an appearance in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday at a National Press Club news conference and blamed Wall Street bankers for funding the communist Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917.
Komov, who is the Russian representative of the World Congress of Families (WCF) and helps handle “international relations” for the Russian Orthodox Church, declared that “Wall Street bankers” were among the “international professional forces of evil,” that had “introduced communism” and “imposed” it on Russia.
To some in the audience, the comments echoed incendiary claims on anti-Semitic websites that Jewish bankers were behind Russian communism.
In addition to this controversy, Komov seemed to accept claims advanced by the so-called 9/11 “truth” movement that hidden or mysterious forces, possibly linked to the U.S. government, were behind the September 11, 2001 al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on America.
Komov was pressed repeatedly on his backing of the Putin regime and its oppression of the Russian people. I personally presented him with a list of political prisoners being held in Russia and asked him to seek their release.
Trying to turn the tables on the questioners, he brought up such topics as:
- Racism in America
- Treatment of the American Indians
- Giving California to Mexico and Alaska back to Russia
- The alleged murders of witnesses to the JFK assassination
- The U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan
- “Political prisoners” in the U.S., such as the terrorists at Guantanamo Bay
- “Who did 9/11?”
In regard to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America, Komov said “I don’t know” who did it, adding, “I didn’t do the investigation.”
Al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the architect of the 9/11 attacks, is being held in U.S. military custody at Guantánamo Bay. But Komov claimed that these are “political prisoners,” comparable to the human rights activists being imprisoned in Russia today.
He declined to explain why there have been no government prosecutions of those behind the murders of journalists in Russia.
WCF executive director Larry Jacobs was also a speaker at the press conference, and disclosed that he is trying to finalize confirmations from members of the U.S. Congress who will be attending the Moscow summit.
But the involvement of conservatives may be in jeopardy when they learn, as Jacobs confirmed at the event, that Vladimir Yakunin, a close associate of Russian President Putin, is behind the Moscow conference.
The Economist has described Yakunin, who runs the railway monopoly in Russia, as “a former diplomat who served his country at the United Nations in New York and is believed to have held a high rank in the KGB.” Jessica Stein states directly in the Harvard Political Review that Yakunin is not only a member of Putin’s inner circle but a former KGB official.
The World Congress of Families describes itself as an international network of pro-family organizations, scholars, and leaders from more than 80 countries that seeks to restore the natural family as the fundamental social unit of society. Conservatives agree that its work has been very worthwhile on a global basis.
However, its Russian connection is raising eyebrows.
Komov insisted that “Russia’s not a communist country anymore” and that Putin and other Russian leaders have not only turned away from their communist past and involvement with the KGB, but are Bible-believing Christians today.
Although Putin created his own “United Russia” political party, Komov admitted that the Communist Party of Russia is still a significant force in the country and is the second most powerful political party in the Russian Duma. In fact, Putin has identified Communist Party head Gennady Zyuganov as one of Russia’s most influential politicians, and presented him with an early Soviet edition of the Communist Manifesto as a birthday gift.
Komov, who describes himself as an anti-communist, claimed that the Russian revolution in 1917 was the result of “international specialists,” saying, “Leon Trotsky landed in Russia from New York City with the financing of Wall Street bankers—200 people—they hardly spoke Russian. So there were international well-prepared professional revolutionaries who have overthrown the Czarist Russian regime and introduced communism.”
He promised to supply an Internet link to a book to prove his claims.
The Russian Orthodox Church recently came under criticism for publishing a 2014 calendar in honor of Soviet mass murderer Joseph Stalin. Komov insisted the church was not directly involved in its publication.
However, scholar Keith Armes has observed that the Russian Orthodox Church “survived the collapse of the Communist system” and “is having difficulty maintaining its identity and credibility after seventy years of faithful service to the Communist Party.”
Former KGB officer Konstantin Preobrazhensky has called the church “Putin’s Espionage Church,” and devotes a major portion of his book, KGB/FSB’s New Trojan Horse, to its use by the Russian intelligence service.
The implication in the current context is that the World Congress of Families event in Moscow could become a vehicle for Russian authorities to exercise influence over American conservatives.
Nevertheless, Austin Ruse of the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute strongly supports the upcoming Moscow summit and told the press conference that he believes Russia is converting to Christianity under Putin.
The curious financial dealings of Vladimir Yakunin, an underwriter of the WCF Moscow event with close links to the hierarchy at the Russian Orthodox Church, are the subject of a recent report that AIM publicized on massive corruption within the Sochi Olympics.
The report, “Winter Olympics in the Sub-Tropics,” states that while Yakunin was working on various Sochi-related construction projects, he “began building his own property in the village of Akulinino” that includes an owners’ residence, apartments, a guest house, a servants’ quarters, a garage for 15 cars, sauna, swimming pool, and prayer room.
“According to the realtors’ appraisals, the value of the property is $75 million,” the report said. “Yakunin’s confirmed income for 2007, according to the newspaper Vedomosti, was $1.5 million. Thus, Yakunin’s legal income was clearly insufficient to build such a costly property and maintain it.”
The report says Yakunin is an old friend of Putin’s and a member of the “Troika of Champions” benefiting from the $50 billion that is being spent on the games. It says $30 billion of that total has been stolen by Putin and his allies.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies hosted a roundtable discussion on Vladimir Yakunin back in 2007, which described his relationship with Putin as follows: “Their acquaintance probably dates back to the 1980s under Gorbachev, when Yakunin was working with the U.N. and Putin [was] working with the KGB in Germany. In addition, both Putin and Yakunin lived in St. Petersburg from 1991 onward and it is likely they had considerable contact. Their relationship continues to be close to this day.”
Conference participants predicted Yakunin could one day succeed Putin as president of Russia.
Cliff Kincaid is the Director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism and can be contacted at [email protected]. View the complete archives from Cliff Kincaid.
Civilisation Hijacked
A book in two parts by Al Morris
Sub Title:
Rescuing Jesus From Christianity and The Human Spirit From Bondage.
Civilisation Hijacked illustrates the urgent need for a revolutionary social paradigm shift – a global reformation on humanity’s present theological, political, social and commercial value systems. It shows how the vision or worldview held by the majority of the world’s population has been manufactured to suit the aims and aspirations of a small number of powerful groups. It describes how the world, particularly the so-called civilized Western world, is being manipulated and used by the controlling bodies in the various religious, political and commercial corporate areas – naming and shaming them with details of who, why, when, where and how it originated How the power of persuasion has diluted, polluted and finally corrupted Western civilization’s now distorted values and worldview. This is glaringly illustrated by the present global political, social, commercial and theological mess that we have inherited at the expense of the billions of victims; the hungry, the homeless, the hopeless and helpless. To add insult to injury, we are asked by governments and those who are behind the wars and killing machinery, to contribute pennies to various charities to alleviate the human misery they have caused
Man’s inhumanity to man has become worse than that of animals, (no other living specie treats their own with such callous brutality. Historically becoming worse, as more efficient weapons of torture, death and destruction are developed. This work offers a plausible and pragmatic understanding of the causes for this behaviour and a practical solution. Creating a human environment where global conflict is minimized if not totally eliminated. Over time, this would change the very nature of humanity from that of the primitive instinct driven savage, to rational living Gods.
OVERVIEW
Worship of this ancient mythical god has produced distorted political and social systems. This is the foundation of today’s values and worldview among general populations of the so-called civilized world. Tradition (slow cultural conditioning) and the use of modern social engineering manufactured the world we have today. A world controlled by a few small powerful groups in the area of religion, politics and commerce. In the hands of unscrupulous people, fear and greed have been sown and cultivated individually and nationally, for wealth and power of their particular limited group rather than for the common good.
This book amply illustrates the political, social, commercial and theological mess that we have inherited as a consequence. The exclusivity of the three main stream religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam has brought the world to the brink of disaster. The only solution to this is through a particular style of Education already in use worldwide. Early intervention is vital.
Unlike Sam Harris’ “The End of Faith” And Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion”, this book does not destroy faith, but encourages and focuses it as a rational, experiential recognition of the individual and collective human spirit. This collective consciousness must be harnessed for the Herculean task of saving humanity from the fate of self inflicted annihilation.
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Creation God and Man
Since the time our ancient ancestors evolved enough to sit around their evening camp fires and ponder the vastness of the stars above them, the rhythm of the seasons, life and death, themselves, the other animals and plants around them, humankind has been struggling to come to terms with its existence. Although humans are beginning to understand their tremendous potential they also realized that there is so much that remains a mystery to them. The more they learn the more ‘horizon’ become visible and what is over that horizon, they have always speculated about. Since they are oblivious to what they don’t know, they have attributed all that is outside of their sphere of total understanding to some power greater than themselves. And of course it’s only natural and right to do that because the power of the universe that we grew to call the vastness of space and the forces of nature were infinitely larger and more powerful than their comprehension.
Earlier humans, even some today, attribute different phenomena to different deities or gods and hoped it would be beneficial to show obeisance to the apparent power of some god, just as they would to a more powerful human. Being a tribal animal, we have the need to follow a leader like a chief, a king or sooth-seer and at times many simultaneously. Overriding earthly leaders, incomprehensible natural events occurred. This created the idea that there was an invisible power or powers outside and stronger than themselves that even earthly leaders, defy at their peril. This was the first glimmer of recognition of the laws of nature. Idols, representing the source of whatever natural phenomenon they favoured or feared, were fashioned as a means by which, in their ignorance our ancestors hoped to influence or appease.
Over thousands of years, one style of religious belief evolved in the Middle East from this idol worship; that which we call Judaism today. This occurred about 5000 years ago and was practiced differently by different tribes influenced by their political, spiritual or tribal leaders of the time. From the tribes (of Israel) that followed the Judaic faith, Christianity developed two thousand years ago and evolved into the various sects and denominations that we see today. About six hundred years later a similar religion to the then practiced Judaism and Christianity, was started by the prophet Mohammed and now known as Islam.
All three believe and pray to the same one and only all powerful God.. Instead of this fact being a leveller for the three groups, it is a matter of huge political dissent and bitter conflict, now being played out on a global scale. We have these three groups of political and spiritual leaders today, manipulating and influencing even larger numbers of people in exactly the same way; committing the same barbarism, atrocities and crimes against one another. The only difference is, now, with the astronomical advancement of science and technology, we have much more efficient ways to kill, maim and destroy. With today’s expanded knowledge and intellect, it is crucial that we apply objective critical thought to where we came from, what we are doing and how did we get into this state of chaos.
In the hope of introducing some sanity into the existing human condition, it has become vitally important to recognize the methods used and consequences of the manipulation practiced by our political and religious leaders today. It is even more important, to know there is a way out of this condition that leads to peace and harmony with each other and nature. By comparison, the question of whether life on earth was created or evolved becomes irrelevant.
Creation:
Scientific and cosmological research has shown that the primary source of all existing matter and/or energy from the atom, to the universe and beyond. The Big Bang or whatever else we call the event or series of events, is on a completely different scale and a totally separate sphere of activity to the life forms that evolved on this particular speck of matter in the unimaginable vastness of space many billions of years later. Life on earth is simply a by product of these events and only related to it by the co-incidental environmental changes over that time span. This created the conditions that produced and supported life about 3.5 billion years ago, allowing a simple protein-like one celled bacterial organism to form and evolve. This slow process of development has resulted in the multitude of life forms and species that we see today with mankind being the most intellectually advanced in this continuing evolution.
Our universe and countless others yet to be discovered, are all subject to unpredictable random actions by some of its parts. Such as:
1). The existence of thousands of meteorites and asteroids that create a distinct possibility of instant extinction of human, if not ALL life on Earth.
2).Solar storms, eruptions on the surface of our Sun, the effects of which we are only now beginning to understand.
3).Volcanic activity beyond human control.
Some of these actions follow observable patterns that are a part of what we term the LAWS OF NATURE; with which scientists are involved in the continuing process of discovery and understanding.
God:
Humanity’s biggest mistake was to attribute that first event of creation to a God and assuming that this God has an on going concern For the day to day activities of all individual humans, plus the infinite number of other life forms. This was excusable considering our prehistoric
ignorance. What is not excusable but understandable, given what we have learned of human nature, is the exploitation of that ignorance by the few for their own purposes. However none of this relates to the primary cause event which we are led to believe by our three mainstream religious leaders, is the creation of everything by the God of Abraham and that this God has the emotional psyche‘ of humanity; with the love, hate, greed, ambition, revenge and all the other
human feelings and failings. In other words (man has made god in hisown image). The Jews, Christians and Moslems have come to believe and accept that an unknown invisible force, exclusively partial only to their true believers, operates in a similar fashion to the mind of man about 5,000yrs ago, namely, God.
In view of our accumulated scientific knowledge of nature, life and the universe today, this concept borders on insanity. We will explore minutely that which is the proclaimed origin of this present Judaic, Christian and Islamic religious belief?
Man:
Let’s first deal with Christianity: It began in the form of a reformation and revolutionary movement led by a Jew named Jesus, against the hierarchy of the established Judaic religion. The main reason behind the movement was that, the unacceptable and exclusive nature of this belief system, did not and could never bring about the type of world that would benefit the whole of humankind.
Jesus recognized this and tried to reform the obvious hypocrisy and greed practiced by the system’s so-called believers. For that, he was executed by the Roman political machine, at the behest of the Jewish religious manipulators. He posed a threat to both and was eliminated in the cruel manner used by the Romans of that period. Records were compiled from the various books, of the Torah, the Talmud and Christian Gospels under the direction of the Roman Emperor Constantine some 300 years after Jesus died. These are the books that comprise today’s Christian Bible and were originally written by men who were concerned for the welfare and moral standards of their fellow man. The Ten Commandments are an example of their concern and wisdom. Also the teachings of compassion, love and forgiveness taught by Jesus as portrayed in the books of the New Testament. Here I must emphasize the teachings of Jesus and not all the parts that were added by over zealous followers, anxious to impress gullible and superstitious people to create the impression that Jesus was God.
Who led us up this false path in the first place? Intentionally or unknowingly the small group of leaders of the tribes of the ancient Hebrews collaborated to harness a weapon to end all weapons; the collective human spirit. This was done by the use of Abraham and his encounter with God and fostered through their self generated anecdotal history, stories, rituals and practices effectively binding them together as one. The character of Abraham was given all the strength and frailties attached to any normal individual of the times and to whom everyone could relate. The promises that God made to Abraham also applied to them would be the birthright of their future generations. The recognition of the strength of their collective spirit, their unity of purpose, very quickly became obvious in their victories over their neighbouring tribes
The story of Abraham, the father of Judaism, was referred to briefly in chapter five. The following serves to further explain the nature of the origin of this mythical story. The elaborate life history is woven into the plot in order to give Abraham some semblance of credibility. The allegation is that the God of his imagination spoke to him and entered into a verbal contract with him. (Gen.12: 2-3).which eventually led to him and his progeny being given all the land between Egypt and the Euphrates River. The only condition required of Abraham to seal this covenant with God, was to perform a particular pagan sacrificial rite (Gen.15: 7-20.). When any individual or group makes a claim as important as this is it not appropriate to consider that there may be a chance it could be false? Then again it may be the truth. The normal procedure is to look at the background, the known history of the person or people in order to assess their character so that we have a reasonable idea if it is the truth.
As the story goes, Abraham was born in Ur a city of the Chaldeans in Babylonia and his father was a maker and vendor of the various idols that were worshiped in those times. So it was not strange for him to invent a God. The story line is that his family left Ur and settled in Haran. Abraham and Lot left Haran and finally came to Canaan where he claims that he again spoke with this particular God.
They were a nomadic people and as there was a famine in Canaan, they wandered down towards Egypt. In those days, it was not safe for a small group to travel. They were approaching Egypt, and because his wife Sarah was so beautiful, he became fearful that Egyptians would kill him and take her. He told her to say that she was his sister. Her beauty was brought to the notice of pharaoh who took her. (Gen.12: 14-16.) And Abraham got very rich from the arrangement.
Pharaoh eventually found out and kicked them out of Egypt together with Abraham’s ill-gotten gains. After returning to Canaan his nephew Lot was captured in a war between kings in the area. Abraham took 318 trained men from his household and went to his rescue, defeating his captors and capturing a great deal of goods and people. Then Melchizedek the King of Salem, who was the high priest of his Most High God, blessed Abraham. For which, Abraham gave him a tenth of the loot. GEN.14:18.
By this time Sarah had not born Abraham an heir, so he slept with one of his slave girls (Hagar) with the intention of producing an heir. She became pregnant and gave birth to Ishmael. After a short time they kicked out both her and her son Ishmael. Gen.21:8. Ishmael is the biblical character upon whom the Moslem religion was founded. This is the brief outline of the man’s character. He was a liar, a thief a pimp, and an adulterer. I believe the Abraham story is a myth. The tribal leaders who perpetuated it are to blame for the claim to all the land that belonged to the Canaanites, Kenites, kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaitites, Amorites, Canaanites, Gireshites, and the Jebusites, Midianites, Edomites and the Philistines. This includes in fact, most of the known world in those days. The Jewish tribes were aggressors that conquered, raped, pillaged and plundered their neighbours in the name of their god.
Moses, the mythical hero of the exodus story, is recorded as being a murderer and a liar. The Israelite slaves were thieves Ex. 12: 35-36. They stole gold from their Egyptian masters. (Where else would slaves get gold enough for the golden calf). And what does their Bible tell us of the early activities of Abraham’s people and their God? In Ps.137:7-9 God suggested that the children of the Edomites have their heads dashed against the rocks for what the Edomites had done to the Jews. Their God told Moses to take vengeance on the Midianites. Num. 31:1. His army obeyed and slew every adult male, spared the women and children and completely destroyed their cities and took all their cattle flocks and goods.Num.31:7. Moses was angry that they had spared the women and children, and he ordered all the male children be killed and told the Israelite men that they should take the virgins for themselves and kill the rest. Num. 2: 28. Prior to this, when the tribes of the exodus story were still wandering in the wilderness, Moses came down from the mountain with God’s Ten Commandments and found some of his flock worshiping a golden calf. While the chisel marks on the tablet with the commandment “thou shall not kill” would have been still hot on the stone, Moses and Aaron were instrumental in killing 3000 of their own people on the spot. Ex. 32: 25. These are only a few of the many barbaric atrocities recorded in the bible, committed either at the request of, or in the name of God. What a lovely God!!? That God I could not respect, let alone worship. This is the legacy that Abraham and/or the tribal leaders of Israel gave to the world. How long will it take for the rest of the world to wake up?
In previous chapters, I referred to a path to peace and harmony. This path is the enlightenment of the general populations of all nations, to the realization of the weight of baggage (or garbage) that has been thrust upon us. Until and unless this awakening process is made widely available and jealously protected throughout civilized society, humankind remains condemned to the never-ending cycle of social conflict and mutually destructive warfare in which we have been involved over the last 5000 years.
President Bush and the Israeli Zionists escalated this to the point of perpetual global conflict using fear and terror in the attempt to gain ultimate worldwide social subservience. Ask yourself, subservience to what? Today’s American way of life?
At the birth of American independence there were great philosophers, statesmen and ethical social leaders with foresight and integrity. Abraham Lincoln George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and the like, were the midwives that brought forth the healthy infant society and nurtured the young American dream. However history has overseen its gradual dilution, pollution and finally the total corruption of their grand dreams to the extent that it is now in the order of a nightmare!
THE AUTHOR’S BRIEF BIOGRAPHY:
His parents and family background is Middle Eastern (Sephardic) Jewish. They were from a small village in Mesopotamia, between Baghdad and Basra on the Tigress River. The village is known as Al-Azair and is the Tomb of Ezra, (Judge and Scribe in the Torah and Old Testament). It is a holy site for Christian, Muslim and Jews, accommodating pilgrims of the three faiths. The family, were for generations, the caretakers and administrators of the Tomb, until 1948 when the Jews were banished from Iraq, and now dispersed in Israel, America and Australia. He is a grandson of the last Jewish caretaker of the Tomb. Born in Shanghai, and came to Australia as a babe-in-arms in 1925. Among his early childhood memories was his fascination of his father’s remarkable religious knowledge and ability to recite the five books of the Torah in Aramaic memorised from the first to last word (year after year) until the age of thirteen. After about five years living in Australia isolated from his extended family, his father became disenchanted with Judaism, and became an atheist.
Albert’s real education began on leaving school and starting his working life at the age of fourteen. Two years and forty jobs later, having never been sacked, always seeking improvement, he finally found his niche` in marine engineering. This involved a five year apprenticeship with three nights per week at college and working on the mechanical repair of ships in Sydney Harbour – from the Queen Mary1, to battleships, navel torpedo boats and cargo ships. In between studying for exams, and reading, his sport and recreational activities included a surf life saving club, with week-end beach patrol each summer. In winter, playing Rugby League Football in district competition and enjoyed camping and hunting trips with mates, in the natural bushland around Sydney.
In 1945 after the war, he worked his way around Australia in a variety of activities and professions, learning from all people, hoboes, to academics and ended up on a Government Fisheries survey ship the “MV Fairwind. Spending the next two unforgettable years as engineer around the coastline of Papua New Guinea and adjacent Islands in the South Pacific, trading with various local inhabitants, diving and spear fishing on the coral reefs. At twenty-five, returned home, married, built his own house, started a family and an engineering construction business in partnership with a friend. As business demand grew and equipment was scarce, they designed and built eight mobile cranes over the next fifteen years, pioneering the development of hydraulics in construction machinery. After five years, structured the business around each having three Months annual vacation..
With a caravan, a wife and two children, had many adventure packed trips. Among the most notable were, buying a mine and digging for opals in Lightning Ridge, buying a fifty foot prawn boat and trawling banana prawns in the Gulf of Carpentaria and marooning themselves for a month on an uninhabited island on the Great Barrier Reef, in between, enjoying other activities such as surfing, spear-fishing, sailing, hang-gliding and in retirement lawn bowls. After selling his engineering business thirty-five years on, he entered into a partnership with a young man in the motorcycle spare parts business. Purchasing used motorcycles and spare parts in Japan and retailing them in Sydney. After three successful years in the motorcycle business, accepted an offer from a cousin in the USA, to manage his China production of fashion garments. Sold his share of the bike business and moved to Hong Kong. Involving trips to many cities in China, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. However, after three years, missing family life, they returned home. They have two daughters, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren and emerged, blessed with good health and a well nourished intellect in the area of philosophy, theology and humanity. Having travelled extensively, read widely and searched deeply into nature and the human spirit, this book encapsulates the causes, effects and a cure for the ravages of war and economic, social, and religious conflicts.
(Author’s note)Exclusivity and the extremist elements of the three main stream religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam have largely contributed to our present chaotic condition. If these problems are allowed to persist, then the life we have inherited may be no more than a terminal disease. On my Journey, the secular spiritual experiences in my life have been uplifting and awe-inspiring. I invite you to enter this realm and help change
the world.
Published March 2010 through iUniverse in : Perfect bound soft cover
Also : E-Book
Published : March 2010
Pages : 248
ISBN : 9781440182419
E-Book Price : $6.00
Perfect Bound Soft-cover(B/W) PRICE : $19.95 (+ postage)