APRIL 1, 2016

U.S. President Barack Obama delivers a speech in Havana on March 22.

President Obama:
Capitalist or Communist,
Just Decide What Works
nicholas kamm/afp/getty images

Andrew Miiller | March 29

Town Hall in Buenos Aires, the U.S. president advised:

nited States President Barack Obama stoked controversy March 23 when he suggested to an audience of Argentine youth that they shouldnt get caught up in ideological disputes between capitalism and communism. Instead, he urged the
next generation of Argentine leaders to pursue a mixed economy
that uses bits of Communist theory and bits of capitalist theory.
During his speech at a Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative

So often in the past theres been a sharp division between

left and right, between capitalist and Communist or socialist. And especially in the Americas, thats been a big debate,
right? And I mean, those are interesting intellectual
arguments, but I think for your generation, you should be

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Trumpet Weekly | April 1, 2016

utopian thought. Generally speaking, they believe that 99 percent of humanity is basically good, yet they are being restrained
by a corrupt upper class. If the 99 percent can overthrow their
oppressors, the reasoning goes, then out of their goodness they
can establish a government that will abolish poverty, racism, sexism and income inequality. To accomplish this, you do not need
to limit government and maximize personal responsibility and
freedom. You need to maximize government. You need an administrative state.
When confronted with truth about the astronomically high
death tolls of past socialist movements, most utopians respond
that the movement failed because a corrupt dictator hijacked the
system. But is it possible that they are simply wrong about human
nature?
Dictators will always try to hijack governmentsthat is,
until the day all human beings develop righteous character. And
because that righteousness comes only from God, and Gods Kingdom on Earth is not yet, humanity is much better off having a constitutional system of checks and balances that prevents the concentration of power in the hands of the state. Such a system may
occasionally restrain the state from doing some good things, but
it also protects people from the tyrannical excesses of an out-ofcontrol government run by carnal men.
As President Obama suggested in Argentina, he may be in
the process of using socialist theory to circumvent and supercede Americas traditional constitutionally limited government
and its system of checks and balances and separation of powers.
This isnt necessarily happening because the president has sinister intentions; it is happening because the human heart, cut off
from Gods Spirit, is deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked. Once the federal government has the power to regulate
the educational system, the health-care system and the private
sector, the only guarantee of liberty is the off chance of a benevolent leader.
President Obamas description of a nation with a state-run
educational system, a state-run health-care sector and a state-supervised private sector doesnt fit Adam Smith-style capitalism
or Karl Marx-style communism. It describes the mixed socialist
market economy of a Chinese-style authoritarian bureaucracy.

practical and just choose from what works. You dont have
to worry about whether it neatly fits into socialist theory or
capitalist theoryyou should just decide what works.
President Obama further elaborated on what he meant by saying that Cubas Communist system under dictator Ral Castro has
made great progress in providing all citizens with free access to
basic education and health care. He said the Cubans should be
congratulated for this huge achievement. He then added that
he believed the most successful economies are rooted in a market-based system, so an ideal economy should have a private sector subject to community (i.e. government) oversight.
Two days before his speech in Argentina, President Obama
held a press conference alongside Ral Castro in Havana. During
the press conference, Mr. Obama promised he would never try to
impose American ideals on the Cuban people. Instead, he hoped
America and Cuba could learn from each others example on
human rights.
During the press conference, President Obama said he agreed
with Castro that government-provided education, government-provided health care and government-provided pensions
are human rights. As President Obama nears the end of his second term, he is becoming more honest about his radical worldview.
According to one Gallup poll, 38 percent of Americans think
the Obama administration needs to do more to solve the countrys problems, as opposed to 55 percent who think the government is too involved in peoples lives already. Many of those in
favor of more government intervention may bristle a bit when
they hear President Obama speak positively of communism. Yet
when it comes to problems in their lives, they still think that the
answer is the federal government.
The reason for this state of affairs? Americas public schools
no longer teach the rationale the Founding Fathers used to limit
the power of the federal government in the first place!
Americas founders were realists. They understood that
human nature was evil, so they sought to devise a system of
checks and balances that would keep power out of the hands of
a single branch of government, or worse yet, a single individual.
The worlds socialist and Marxist movements are rooted in

MIDDLE EAST
SIXTY-ONE MORE PRISONERS GRANTED CLEMENCY BY PRESIDENT OBAMA;
PLUS, AN INTERVIEW WITH GUTTENBERG | MARCH 31
OBAMA ASSAILS NEWS MEDIA FOR SHALLOW REPORTING AND CANADA SEEKS
TO REWARD LAZINESS | MARCH 30
A WEEKS WORTH OF UNSPEAKABLE ACTS OF RADICAL ISLAMIC TERRORISM |
MARCH 29
WHERE DONALD TRUMP AGREES WITH BARACK OBAMA | MARCH 28

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Trumpet Weekly | April 1, 2016

Turkey Turns to Lebanon

WE TALKED ABOUT THIS

brigades. Another option is to open a new front in northern

Lebanon, where local Salafist groups and thousands of desperate Syrian refugees could be engaged in the fight. Such
a move would directly threaten Assads Alawite heartland
in Tartus and Homs, as well as the main road to Damascus.
Regime forces would be outflanked, and Hezbollahs lines
of communication, reinforcement and supply between
Lebanon and Syria could be cut off.

pportunistic Turkey has meddled in the Arab Spring

over the years, particularly in Egypt and in Syria. In Syria,
it has aided rebel movements fighting against President Bashar
Assad.
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (jcpa) noted a new
development in Turkish meddling in the Middle East:
It now appears that in its efforts to destabilize Assad,
Turkey may have chosen to take advantage of the already
boiling situation in Lebanon between Hezbollah and its
Sunni opponents and try to provoke a renewed civil war
in Lebanon. Sending weapons to radical Sunni Islamists in
northern Lebanon is but the tip of the iceberg and much
remains to be seen on the ground before reaching such a
conclusion. However, if this proves to be right, then, by
doing so, the Turks would have created two new fronts: one
that would attack the Latakia region from the south moving
northwards and the other one that would generate civil war
in Lebanon between Sunnis and Shiites, a situation that
would force Hezbollah to withdraw its troops from Syria
and return home to fight. By doing so, the Syrian regime
would be deprived of some of its best troops and weakened, thus allowing the rebels assisted by Turkey to initiate
renewed offensives in order to take back territory they have
lost since the beginning of October 2015.

The jcpa also noted the political tension that now exists
between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies. It added:
According to one Sunni politician in Lebanon, Saudi
Arabia was courting Syrian refugees in Lebanon with the
goal of establishing an anti-Hezbollah Sunni militia. The
politician said Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman sees Sunni Syrian refugees with military training
as a way to harass Hezbollah, and he may be using Saudi
philanthropic organizations that provide aid to refugee
camps as a way to court potential militia recruits.
The pro-Hezbollah media in Lebanon chose also to
accuse Turkey and Saudi Arabia directly of destabilizing
Lebanon as part and parcel of a greater scheme to bring
down the Alawite regime in Syria.
The Syria-Russia-Iran-Hezbollah alliance is fighting proxy wars
with the Turkey-Saudi Arabia-Qatar alliance. The jcpa concluded
that appearances show that both rival alliances are looking for the
possible game changer in Syria, which might turn out to be frail,
paralyzed and divided Lebanon. Such an outcome would not only
endanger Israel, it would threaten Syria and lead to the congealing
of the Middle Eastern alliances prophesied in the Bible.

The jcpa then quoted French Prof. Fabrice Balanche, a specialist on Syrias political geography. Balanche wrote:
Turkey and Saudi Arabia may not remain passive in the
face of major Russian-Iranian progress in Syria. For example, they could set up a new rebel umbrella group similar to
Jaysh al-Fatah and/or send antiaircraft missiles to certain

The Islamic States Next Targets: German Chancellery, Bonn Airport

outside the structure. The headline reads: Germany is a

battlefield.
Germany joined the U.S.-led airstrike campaign against
Islamic State in Syria last year, though limiting its role to
reconnaissance and refueling missions, after the jihadist
group killed 130 people in shooting and bombing attacks in
Paris.
A third graphic featured a [German Tornado] military jet
against the backdrop of a mountainous area juxtaposed
with the bloodied faces of women and childrenapparently meant to represent civilians who Islamic State says
have been killed by air strikes on areas it controls. The caption under this image says: Will you continue to grieve or

he Islamic State is calling on German Muslims to execute Brussels-style attacks on Chancellor Angela Merkels
offices and the Cologne-Bonn airport. The terrorist group
released images of its targets on the Internet and urged Muslims
to unleash violence on the enemy of Allah.
About those potential target images, Reuters wrote,
One of the disseminated Islamic State images features a
militant in combat fatigues standing in a field and gazing at
Cologne-Bonn airport with a caption reading: What your
brothers in Belgium were able to do, you can do too.
Another shows the German chancellery building in Berlin on fire with an Islamic State fighter and a tank standing

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will you finally act?

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg condemned Europes leadership

for not acting decisively enough against radical Islam. The more
Europe (and especially Germany) is a focus of Islamic terrorism,
the closer it gets to fight backand fulfill the prophecy in Daniel 11:40.

It is clear that Germany is the focus of international terrorism and that attacks could happen, said a spokeswoman of Germanys bka federal police. But former German Defense Minister

Irans Future Is in Missiles Not TalksKhamenei

The Times reported,

s the world debates the full legality of Irans recent

test of ballistic missiles, Iran continues to defend its controversial missile program. [I]ts the time of both missiles and dialogue, said supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But the missiles, he said, are more important than the dialogue.
The Times of Israel quoted Khamenei as saying, That they
say the future of the world is one of negotiation and not one of
missiles, if that is said out of ignorance, well it is ignorance, but if
its said knowingly, it is treason. He added, If the Islamic establishment seeks technology and negotiations but lacks defensive
power, it will have to back down in the face of any petty country
that threatens [Iran].
Observers say Khameneis comments were directed to both
the international community and Iranian reformists who are
pro-negotiations.
On Monday, Iran announced that it will continue developing
and testing ballistic missiles, despite sanctions from the United
States. The U.S. blacklisted two Iranian companies on March 24
for their involvement in Irans missile program. President Hassan
Rouhani said Irans missile program was a strategic policy. A commander of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said, Even if
they build a wall around Iran, our missile program will not stop.

Under a UN Security Council resolution passed alongside the nuclear deal, the country is forbidden from developing weapons that can carry nuclear weapons.
That would seem to include ballistic missiles, including
two which were tested earlier this month with the words
Israel must be wiped off the Earth emblazoned on one,
according to the U.S. and other Western powers.
On Tuesday, the U.S., France, Britain and Germany and
three allies called for a United Nations Security Council
meeting to formulate an appropriate response to Irans
recent ballistic missile tests, which they say were carried
out in defiance of a UN resolution and to threaten Israel.
The letter called the launches destabilizing and provocative and says the Shahab-3 medium-range ballistic missile and Qiam-1 short-range ballistic missile that were fired
are inherently capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
Trumpet executive editor Stephen Flurry wrote about this
subject and where Irans continued belligerence is leading in his
article Iran Goes Ballistic.

EUROPE
ISLAMIC STATE IN EUROPE, VULNERABLE NUKES,
AUTHORITARIAN CHINA THREATENS JAPAN, AND MORE | APRIL 1
CAPITALISM OR COMMUNISM?, HOW DOCTORS DIE, SAVED FROM SCREENS
AND MORE | MARCH 30

The Danger of the Islamic State

WE TALKED ABOUT THIS

over the past week. In the wake of the Brussels attack, analysts, journalists and police departments are discovering that
the Islamic States penetration into Europe is far deeper than

he threat posed by the Islamic State is considerably

worse than what has been believed in the past, according to
a number of news articles published in prominent newspapers

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had traveled to Iraq and Syria were now the advance guard of the
next generation of global jihad. It continued:

previously thoughtwith several sources noting that the Islamic

State is a more dangerous enemy than even al Qaeda.
Terror Networks Web Sprawls Beyond Brussels and Paris
was the title of an article published by the Wall Street Journal on
March 28. A pan-European effort to crack the Islamic State network behind the Paris and Brussels attacks is yielding an unsettling
discoverya web of interlocking terror cells whose dimensions
authorities say they are still trying to grasp, it warned. Over the
weekend and toward the end of last week, authorities arrested several different men in different countries who all had connections to
those behind the Brussels and Paris attacks. The wsj wrote:

The men were to form classic sleeper cells and wait for
orders. isis leaders saw opportunity wherever it may arise,
but this new wave would place emphasis on wreaking havoc
in Italy, Belgium, France, Germany and the UK.
isis leaders believe that European societies are easily
weakened through savagery.
The Guardian goes on to quote one of the Islamic State members
saying: At the meeting, they talked about which societies would
crumble first and what that would mean. They thought big attacks
would lead to pressure on the European Union and even nato.
Spiegel Online also wrote about the Islamic States infiltration
of Europe, in an article titled Activating the Sleepers:Islamic
State Adopts a New Strategy in Europe, published on March
29. It describes the Islamic States track record of infiltrating its
enemies with agents who remain dormant for a long time before
striking. The people behind this terror are proving to be surprisingly farsighted, patient planners, and not rash actorsand this
applies in both Europe and Syria, it said. This is the new and
long underestimated side of [the Islamic State].
[The Islamic States] behavior is in many ways more like that
of a secret service than of animated fanatics, Spiegel reported. It
continued:

The string of arrests, which come on top of multiple

other detentions in recent months, suggests the terror
networks being pursued by European authorities spread
beyond Paris and Brussels.
A senior U.S. official said the array of arrests over the
weekend showed that the terror network had become very
sophisticated. Other officials said the arrests also have
revealed its sheer scale. There is a large number [of members], all across Europe, the official said.
Britains Guardian newspaper published similar warnings. In
an article titled How ISIS Laid Out Its Plans to Export Chaos to
Europe, published March 25, it wrote, Before the Paris attacks,
leaders of the terror group gathered to hear its new strategy:
spreading fear through European capitals.
In its article, the Guardian claims two Islamic State members
spoke to the newspaper about the groups plans. These members
said that nine days before the Paris attacks, Islamic State leaders
got together for a rare meeting, traveling under fear of air strikes
and attacks. The Guardian wrote:

Testimony from deserters suggests the terror organization began establishing sleeper cells in multiple European countries early on, in Turkey in particular. According to the former [Islamic State] fighters, they are made
up of men who arent on any watch lists. This enables [the
Islamic State] to elude the vulnerability suffered by many
based in Europenamely that they are known terrorists.

In what marked a critical phase in the groups evolution,

there was to be a new focus on exporting chaos toEurope,
the assembled men were told. And up to 200 militants were
in place across the Continent ready to receive orders.
Senior leaders said they were turning their focus to
European capitals and had dispatched foreign fighters back
to their homelands to prepare attack plans. And wait.

Spiegel went on describe previous failed attacks by Islamic

terrorists. It concluded:
Terrorism has become more professional since then.
[Islamic State] masterminds now build up sleeper cell networks from an early stage in order to attack without hindrance at any chosen moment. That they are doing so in
Syria is well documented. And that they are doing the same
in Europe is very probable.

They described how the group planned to retain power, even

if it was not capable of holding on to all of its territorial gains in
Syria:

Kamran Bokhari made similar points in a Geopolitical Futures

article titled Counterterrorism and Jihadist Capabilities, published March 30. [The Islamic State] and other such groups
should be treated like intelligence agencies who have to avoid
detection, he wrote. And since [the Islamic State] has established a state, it has more resources than similar groups like, al
Qaeda. He warned:

Instead, the group now had the capacity to take the fight
to the heart of its enemy. [T]he migrant route that had
ferried hundreds of thousands of Syrians and Iraqis fleeing
persecution had also allowed a small number of isis members to blend in and head back the other way.
In essence, isis had begun to prioritize controlling populations over geography. While it hadnt given up its grip on
the large swath of Iraq and Syria the original area it controlled was now less important than the faraway societies it
could influence.

In the case of [the Islamic State], it is not the usual paramilitary group engaged in acts of terrorism. It is staging
attacks in numerous countries from East Asia to the West
and at the same time controlling territory in the heart of
the Middle East. It is a terrorist organization as well as a

The article describes the return home of the groups own

members, a small number of the estimated 25,000 fighters who

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for [the Islamic State] to be able to simultaneously execute terror attacks across the world while being hunted by
a global dragnet means it has a very sophisticated intelligence apparatus.

state. Most observers have yet to recognize that [the Islamic

State] has amulti-divisional conventional military capability, which is why it is able to control and administer large
swathes of land in eastern Syria and western Iraq. Likewise,

Could Islamists Launch a Nuclear Attack From Belgium?

he walked his dog, International Business Times reported.

On Thursday, Derniere Heure reported that the suicide
bombers who set off explosives that killed 31 people were
originally targeting a nuclear site, but a series of arrests of
suspect militants, including suspected Paris attacker Salah
Abdeslam, forced them to speed up their plans.

he Islamic State may be trying to carry out a nuclear

attack. The New York Times reported that the group had video
footage of a top official at one of Belgiums power plants. In Belgium Fears Nuclear Plants Are Vulnerable, published March 25,
it wrote:
The revelation of the video surveillance footage was the
first evidence that the Islamic State has a focused interest
in nuclear material. But Belgiums nuclear facilities have
long had a worrying track record of breaches, prompting
warnings from Washington and other foreign capitals.
In 2012, two employees at the nuclear plant in Doel quit
to join jihadists in Syria and eventually transferred their
allegiances to the Islamic State.
At the same plant where these jihadists once worked,
an individual who has yet to be identified walked into the
reactor No. 4 in 2014, turned a valve, and drained 65,000
liters of oil used to lubricate the turbines. The ensuing friction nearly overheated the machinery, forcing it to be shut
down. The damage was so severe that the reactor was out of
commission for five months.
Investigators are now looking into possible links
between that case and terrorist groups, although they caution that it could also have been the work of an insider with
a workplace grudge. What is clear is that the act was meant
to sow dangerous havocand that the plants security systems can be breached.
Prof. [Matthew] Bunn of Harvard noted that the Islamic
State has an apocalyptic ideology and believes there is going
to be a final war with the United States, expects to win that
war and would need very powerful weapons to do so.
And if they ever did turn to nuclear weapons, he added,
they have more people, more money and more territory
under their control and more ability to recruit experts
globally than al Qaeda at its best ever had.

On March 29, Jeffrey Lewis brought up an even more disturbing scenario in his Foreign Policy article titled Belgiums Failed
State Is Guarding Americas Nuclear Weapons.
Washingtons traditional nuclear strategy isnt keeping
Europe safeits putting everyone at risk of apocalyptic terrorism, he warned. He noted the fear that Islamic State terrorists
could rob a nuclear power station and build a dirty bomb. But,
he wrote, If you were a Belgian terrorist, why settle for a dirty
bomb, when you have the option of stealing an honest-to-goodness nuclear bomb? He continued:
The United States forward deploys about 180 B61
nuclear bombs at bases in Europeincluding a small number at a Belgian air base known as Kleine Brogel, about an
hour outside of Brussels.
The security of these nuclear weapons is terrible.
In January 2010, a group of protesters who call themselves Bombspotters entered Kleine Brogel.
Apparently the plan was to hang around on the tarmac
of the runway and get arrested. But no one came to arrest
them. So they wandered aroundfor either 40 minutes
or an hour, the accounts differbefore walking through
an open gate into an area with hardened aircraft shelters
for the bases F-16s. Eventually, as the hippies continued to
wander around the shelters, security arrived.
The security force was one moderately annoyed-looking Belgian guy with a riflean unloaded rifle.
The protesters were briefly detained but not for long.
Not to worry, the Belgians assured their American partners, the activists werent anywhere near the shelters with
nuclear weapons.
So, a few months later, the activists entered the base
again. They helpfully sent me a little note. This time, they
not only got inside the proper area, but they also got inside
one of the shelters.
Security never showed up. Apparently, the base commander found out about the incursion when the rest of us
didwhen the activists posted a video on YouTube a day or
so later.
The base had a lax security culture that makes anything
possible. Who is to say what other security breaches
might be possible? ...

Meanwhile, on March 26, the Washington Times wrote about

another concerning incident related to a power plant. In Guard
at Belgian Nuclear Plant Shot Dead; His Security Badge Was Stolen, it wrote:
Just two days after terrorists attacked the Brussels airport and subway system, a security guard for a Belgian
nuclear facility was murdered, and his security access
badge was stolen, Belgian media reported Saturday.
The security guards badge was deactivated as soon as it
was discovered it was stolen, according to French newspaper Derniere Heure.
He was shot dead in the Charleroi region of Belgium as

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havent been back to Kleine Brogel in a few years. But thats

because theyve been breaking into other locations. And,
a couple of years ago, there was yet another incursion, by
another group of activists, at Volkel Air Base in the Netherlands. Security still stinks, as far as I can tell.

In recent years, as public criticism over its mishandling

of nuclear weapons has grown louder, the Air Force has
invested substantially in improving security at U.S. sites
hosting nuclear weapons in Europe. But money doesnt
solve security culture. Its true that the Bombspotters

Come Back KT!

Germany taking on more responsibility. Do you see us as problem

solver in this region?
Of course we have to deal with the mess of the refugee crisis, he replied, but at the same, time I think the region is looking
more and more at us right now. Ironically, because of the refugee crisis and the fact that we brought them all in, we have a huge
credibility in Shiite circles. Germany could therefore do more
here in that regard.
Handelsblatt asked: Many in the United States are asking Germany to take on more responsibility. They often mean we could
engage more with our troops. Do you think we should and we can
deliver more? After explaining that Germany already does a lot
more than it gets credit for, Guttenberg replied, Still, would I like
to see more? Yes. Would I like to see more coherence in our movements? Yes.
Guttenberg also warned that the rise of populists in Europe
and America will lead us to question whether our beloved and
so important and still growing democratic system is as stable as
we would like it to be, or whether we need to look at it from a new
creative point of view.
During the interview, he artfully dodged any questions of a
return to German politics. When asked, Do you think you will
get a call? Maybe from Munich? he replied, Maybe from someone inviting me to a soccer game? I would love to attend.
If this weeks poll is to be believed, he will probably be invited
back for something much more important than football. For
more information on why the Trumpet has been watching Guttenberg, read A Strong German Leader Is Imminent.

early half of Germans want former Defense Minister

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg to return to politicswith
many of them wanting him to take the top job. In an article titled
Germans Want Guttenberg Back, published March 30, Die Welt
wrote (Trumpet translation):
Five years after the affair of his doctoral thesis,
Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is almost as popular as he ever
was before. According to one new Forsa poll, the majority of Germans would like to see the former economic and
defense minister back in politics. Forty-eight percent of
respondents would welcome Guttenbergs return, 38 percent are against it, 14 percent have no opinion.
But the survey, which was requested by the magazine
Frau im Spiegel, revealed even more: Accordingly, 36 percent of the Guttenberg supporters even see him as a candidate for chancellor. Based on all respondents, this would
make 17 percent. Men especially trust that the csu politician can take the government position.
Publicist and adviser Gertrud Hhler also does not
consider this outlandish. Angela Merkel is still in office,
because there is no decent successor in the cdu, she told
the magazine. Maybe the union should consider whether
the csu is the next candidate for chancellor.
Also this week Handelsblatt published an interview in English
that it held jointly with Guttenberg and former U.S. Secretary
of State Madeleine Albright, Complex Answers for a Complex
World. Handelsblatt asked Guttenberg, Earlier we talked about

TW IN BRIEF

igrant arrivals to Greece increase: Arrivals of refugees

and migrants to Greece from Turkey rose sharply on
Wednesday, just over a week since the European Union and Turkey struck a deal intended to cut off the flow. Greek authorities recorded 766 new arrivals between Tuesday morning and
Wednesday morning, up from 192 the previous day. Under the
deal, migrants and refugees who arrive in Greece will be sent
back once they have been registered and their individual asylum
claim processed. The returns are to begin April 4.

Under the proposed law, migrants would have to learn German and
be seeking work or they would be deported after three years. The
draft for the law is planned for May.

elgians celebrated Brussels attacks: Celebrations broke

out on the streets in several places around Belgium in the
days following the Brussels attacks, Belgiums vice prime minister said Wednesday. While speaking at a forum in the Netherlands
titled Terrorism, Israel and International Law, the vice prime minister admitted that his country has a jihadist problem. The problem, however, has received very little media attention. When
Paris terrorist Salah Abdeslam was arrested in Belgium, around
200 young people in the area spontaneously began throwing bottles and stones at police. A former prime minister of the Flemish
Region in Belgium said, [I]t is regrettable that we saw nothing of
these images on national television news. Belgium is Europes

erman law to deport migrants if not integrating: A German

interior minister belonging to Angela Merkels conservative
party said on Monday that he plans to create a new law that will
require refugees to integrate into society, or else lose their permanent right of residence. The minister told German newspapers that
he did not want any more ghettos being set up around the country.

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Trumpet Weekly | April 1, 2016

biggest per-capita source of jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq.

Intelligence services have flagged 451 Belgian citizens as jihadists.

ASIA

Rule of the Sea: China Pushes Boundaries

Callum Wood | March 28

its bullying tactics.

Similar problems exist between China and other nations that
share the waters of the South China Sea.
Many issues have stemmed from China creating its controversial redline through the South China Sea, claiming more than
90 percent of the region as its own. This has led to an increasing
number of run-ins and disputes with Chinas neighbors.
China has taken control of numerous reefs and small islands
throughout the South China Seasome are important military
locations and others are important fisheries.
The latest run-in between Indonesia and China shows how
Beijing is using its coastguard to pushin some cases, quite literallyits rivals out of the region.
Expect such incidents to continue as China wrestles for
broader control. So far the incidents have been defused with
angry discussions and condemnations, but it may not last. China
is set on increasing its claim to and presence in the South China
Sea. With Beijing now placing weapons on its man-made islands,
it is clear which direction China is heading.
The attack on the Indonesian vessel reflects Chinas desire for
dominance and shows the aggressive action it uses to get it. For
more on the militarization, bullying and incursions of Beijing in the
South China Sea, read How the World Changed in 2015 in Asia.

t 10 p.m. Saturday night, an Indonesian special task force

intercepted a Chinese fishing boat at the southern end of the
South China Sea. The event took place within Indonesias 200mile exclusive economic zone off the Natuna Islands, which are
far from mainland China.
Onboard the Chinese vessel were nine crewmen, all of whom
were taken into custody by the lightly armed Indonesian force. The
Indonesian vessel, with the compounded Chinese vessel in tow,
began the trip back to an Indonesian base in the Natuna Islands.
At midnight, however, as the two ships reached Indonesias
territorial waters, they were intercepted by a third party.
A Chinese coastguard vessel, which had been following the
Indonesian ship, moved to intercept. It rammed the Chinese fishing boat, sending a clear warning to the Indonesians.
To prevent anything else occurring, the Indonesian authorities let go of the Chinese boat and then left towards Natuna, still
with the eight fishermen and captain on board, said Arrmanatha
Nasir, a spokesman for the Indonesian Foreign Ministry.
According to China, the Chinese fishing vessel was in traditional Chinese fishing grounds, and the intercepting coastguard
ship didnt enter Indonesian territory.
Chinas blatant violations of international boundaries
whether or not it happened in this caseare well known, as are

China: Japans New Military Law Threatens Peace in Pacific

restraints of Article 9 of the supreme law over the use of

force and the exercise of the right to collective self-defense
and vowed to proactively contribute to regional and international peace and stability.
It is for sure that the security laws will not follow the
countrys pacifist Constitution to ensure and enhance
Japans security but will only serve to endanger the Japanese publics right to live in peace and, more importantly,
pose a severe challenge to peace in the Asia-Pacific region,
which is already vulnerable.
In the Asia-Pacific region, the security laws are not the
right remedy to resolve any problems facing Japan since
some issues require Japan to reflect on itself over history
so as to enhance ties and trust with its neighboring countries, and Japan also needs the cooperation of the international community.
And it is more dangerous that, for Japan, the Abe administration is trying to demonize the countrys closest neighbors so that the historical revisionists that comprise the
leaders coterie have an excuse to jeopardize the postwar
order and remilitarize Japan.

he Chinese leadership accused Japanese Prime Minister

Shinzo Abe of threatening peace in the Pacific region. The
accusation came on Tuesday after Tokyo passed controversial
laws that let Japanese soldiers fight on foreign soil for the first
time since World War ii.
The Guardian explained the Japanese military laws on March 29:
The security laws, which were passed last September
after chaotic scenes in parliament, reinterpret the countrys pacifist Constitution to enable Japan to exercise collective self-defenseor coming to the aid of the U.S. and
other alliesin overseas conflicts. The legislation [is] the
biggest shift in Japans defense posture since its wartime
defeat in August 1945 .

Chinas state-run Xinhua news agency published a commentary the same day that was highly critical of the Japanese laws,
and referred to Abe as a warlord:
[B]y reinterpreting the countrys war-renouncing
Constitution, the warlord prime minister shook off the

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Trumpet Weekly | April 1, 2016

was foolish enough to allow history to repeat itself, as history has already confirmed that such echoes of aggression
will likely not end well for Japan.

Looking back through history, the current chapter being

manipulated by the Japanese prime minister has a German version in the 1930s when the Weimar Constitution
was trampled on, and Nazi Germany ruthlessly stormed
Europe thereafter. Imperial Japan, at that time, occupied
the Korean Peninsula and northeast part of China and prepared for widening its aggressive onslaught to the Asia-Pacific region.
Let the future annals of Japans history not read that it

With the Japanese military once again on the march, and

with such powers as China and Russia becoming ever bolder,
the scene could soon be set for dark chapters of history to repeat
themselves.

Russians Are Now Drinking Less, Living Longer

The president asked, Have they started drinking less?

referring to the population on the whole and men in particular. Skvotsova said that it was a factor as the mortality rate among the working-age population decreased by
4.5 percent on average. Skvortsova said that the decrease
in the mortality rate was due to healthy lifestyle changes,
adecrease insmoking andalcohol consumption, as well as
many other factors.
The minister highlighted that the continued reduction
of smoking and alcohol consumption offered great potential for further decreasing mortality and that the Ministry
of Health was working in this area.

he people of Russia have often been viewed by Westerners as hard drinkers who live difficult lives and often die
before their time. But an article in Russia Beyond the Headlines
says these trends are reversing, and Russians are drinking less
and living longer.
Russians life expectancy has increased to just over 71.2
years, said Russian Minister of Health Veronika Skvortsova,
during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin on March
9. Meanwhile, she noted that the general aging of the population continues with every fourth person in the country
being older than 60.
Maternal mortality has also dropped by over 11 percent.
According to the Ministry of Health, Russians life expectancy has increased to just over 71.2 years, and much of the
increase was observed among men.

If the lifestyle of Russians continues to become healthier,

pushing this demographic shift forward, the nations economy is
likely to reap substantial benefits.

TW IN BRIEF
whereabouts of all 16 people are now unknown. On March 30,
reports emerged showing that the Communist Party is reaching beyond its borders to silence criticism. Two exiles residing in
Germany said Chinese authorities have abducted their relatives
in China, as a means of applying pressure on them. The abductions appear related to the publication of the letter calling for Xis
resignation. Experts say the crackdown on free speech within
China is intensifying, an indication of rising authoritarianism.

WE TALKED ABOUT THIS

uthoritarian China silences Xis critics: Sixteen Chinese

citizens are mysteriously missing after the news outlet they
all worked for published an anonymous letter calling for President Xi Jingping to resign. The bbc reported on March 25 that
the outlets senior manager, senior editor and four other employees were detained by police. Ten other individuals employed
in a related technology company were also taken away. The

ANGLO-AMERICA

Destroying Islamic Terrorism

Gerald Flurry,
The Key of David | April 1

The Islamic State attacks on the European Union and NATO headquarters will lead to the rise of a European strongman prophesied to destroy Islamic terrorism.

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Trumpet Weekly | April 1, 2016

Americas Junk-in-the-Trunk Economy

Robert Morley | March 31

merica has too much junk in the trunk. Thats the assessment of Standard and Poors credit rating agency. Their average rating on United States corporate debt just sagged to almost a
15-year low. According to the agency, America faces a debt diet that
many companies will not survive. And guess who is to blame?
We believe corporate default rates could increase over the
next few years, warn S&P credit analysts Jacob Crooks and David
Tesher.
Seven years of binging on cheap, high-calorie, nutrient-deficient debtprovided by the Federal Reservehas left corporate
America bloated, sickly and desperately addicted.
These companies need ever increasing amounts of debt to
liveyet they are so overweight that any small rise in interest
rates, or tightening of credit restrictions, could kill them. This is
the danger Standard and Poors is warning about. These companies are walking heart attacks waiting to happen.
Yet strangely, with the Dow Jones stock index near its all-time
high, it seems as if these companies are the picture of health. Economic analyst Tony Sagami explains:

addicted to it. It is the high-fructose corn syrup that is in practically every food you eat. It is the sweetener in your Oscar Mayer hot
dogs and Campbells vegetable soup. The secret ingredient in your
Sara Lee Heart Healthy Whole Grain Bread. And the worlds central banks are the Archer Daniels Midlands, the Cargills and the
Corn Products Internationals that are pumping out ever increasing
amounts of refined high-grade into the economic food stream.
Thus the markets hang on to every word from the worlds
sugar pushers. More sugar, the markets go up. Less sugar, they go
down. Thats what happened on Tuesday. Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen gave a speech at the Economic Club of New
York and the markets soared. Yahoo Finance explains:

In the good old days, investment professionals used to

focus on boring numbers like days sales outstanding, operating margins, cost of goods sold, accounts payable, and
paid in capital.
Today, however, what passes for analysis is the dissection of every syllable that comes out of Janet Yellen and
Mario Draghis mouth. I never thought Id see the day on
Wall Street when linguistics was more important than things
like revenues and profits.

Yellen said the economic outlook is deteriorating. So the Dow

Jones, the nasdaq and the S&P 500 all soared from red into the
green.
Not following that logic? Dont be so organic. Bad news is actually good news. It means the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates
lower for longer. Maybe the Fed will even give the economy another
sugar buzz via extra quantitative easing. At the least, it means the
debt binge can continue for a little longer. So buy stocks.
All the while, everyone knows that if you eat too much sugar
eventually complications result. Your teeth rot. Your breath turns
sour. Blood pressure rises. Diabetes sets in, etc. Before you know
it, you are wondering why you didnt buy more life insurance.
America is bloated with debt, and it is not just weighing us
downit is going to kill us. Our junk-in-the-trunk economy is
headed for a coronary.
Follow Robert Morley

The good doctor sounded cautious about moving toward

the next increase for the Fed funds rate. That, my friends, is
the bottom line. She seemed to acknowledge that economic
conditions are somewhat sloppier than she thought just a
few months ago (surprise, surprise) and also cited global
economic worries as headwinds.

Why do linguistics matter more than fundamentals today?

Simple: The single most important factor affecting a companys
revenue, profits and hence valuation is
Debt.
It is a debt junkies world, where everyone, everywhere, is

Britain Sacrifices Steel Industry to Buy Friendship with China

WE TALKED ABOUT THIS

What we know is that the British government has for

the last three years been blocking efforts by the EU to equip
itself with the sort of anti-dumping weaponry used by
Washington to confront China.

ritain is poised to lose steel production capacitythe

primary hallmark of an industrial economy. The Telegraphs
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reported on March 30 that in an effort
to curry friendship with China, Britain was sacrificing its steel
industry.

Britain is trying to cloak its actions under the pursuit of free

trade. Lower steel prices are better for consumers, says Osborne.
But are there greater concerns than just lowest price?

Britains special relationship with China is becoming

more expensive by the day. It now threatens to destroy the
British steel industry, a foundation pillar of our manufacturing economy.
It is hard to pin down the exact moment when George
Osbornes love affair with China turned into a Faustian Pact.

The UK view is that punitive tariffs merely hurt your

own consumers, so you shoot yourself in the foot.
While Washington has slapped penalties of 267 percent

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Trumpet Weekly | April 1, 2016

And China continues to expand productionto capture market

sharedespite falling prices. How can it expand unprofitable production? Simple: The Chinese government simply subsidizes it.

on Chinese cold-rolled steel, the EU peashooter has so far

managed just 13 percent.
Redcar has already paid the price for this ultra-free
trade ideology, and Port Talbot is about to follow. There will
eventually be little left if the current drift in trade policy is
allowed to continue.

The fact remains that China is still adding extra capacity, albeit of a greener kind than the dirty micro-mills of the
smog bowl.
The giant state producer Sinosteelwith $16 billion of
debtswas rescued from bankruptcy in October. [Swiss
global financial services company] ubs estimates that the
100 biggest steel producers in China lost $11 billion in the
first 10 months of last year. The state plugged the hole.
China is not a market economy. It has chosen a dumping strategy that is ravaging European industry. says
Edouard Martin, a French mep leading the revolt.

According to Evans-Pritchard, Britain has cut a troubling deal

with China. Britain sacrifices its steel industry in return for Chinas economic help.
So while Britain de-industrializes, China has become the
worlds leader in the production of steelwhich in case you have
forgotten, is one of the most important war-making materials
on Earth. In fact, China now produces so much steel that just its
excess capacity is twice Europes total production.

Evans-Pritchard warned that if something doesnt change,

Europe would be finished as an industrial and military region. It
would be civilizational suicide.

Chinas share of global steel output has risen from 10

percent to 50 percent over the last decade. It has installed
capacity of 1.2 billion tons a year that it can never hope to
absorb as the construction boom deflates.
On oecd [Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development] estimates, it has built up 400 million tons
of excess capacity, twice the EUs entire steel production.
Chinas unwanted steel is finding its way systematically
into Europe, greased by export subsidies, tax breaks, cheap
state credit, and the panoply of measures used by a mercantilist power to rig global trade.
China has captured 45 percent of the UK market for high
fatigue rebar steel, from near zero four years ago. The price
of hot rolled steel in Europe has fallen to $369 a ton from an
average of $650 from 2009 to 2013.

The steel crisis has in any case gone too far. It was possible to look [the] other way when China destroyed the European solar industrywith pirated German technology.
There was a larger prize to think about. Steel is another
matter. It is strategic.
We may have to face the unpleasant truth that free trade
has its limits. Even Adam Smith conceded that you cannot
disarm yourself entirely against a mercantilist power. He
meant 18th-century France, of course.
This is the moment we have long feared. Chinas investment-led growth model has created a monster that is now
too big for the international system.
The excess capacity is staggering and is likely to flood our
economies with a fresh wave of deflation in the next global
downturn, perhaps next year, or in 2018 if we are lucky.
Protectionism is the dog that never barked after the
Lehman crisis. Bark it will.

Meanwhile, other European countries are taking drastic measures to try and preserve their industry.
Germany shelters its energy-intensive industries by
cross-subsidies under its Energiewende. The UK left its
steel mills to face the full shock of green taxes, until a partial rebate was agreed in December.

Chicago Now Paying Price of Anti-Police Rhetoric and Black Lives Matter

represented the worst first quarter of a year since 136

homicides in 1999, according to the data.
Shootings have jumped by comparable numbers as well.
As of Wednesday, at least 727 people had been shot in Chicago so far this year, a 73 percent rise from 422 a year earlier, according to a Tribune analysis of department data.
Worse yet, that jump follows two consecutive years in
which shootings rose by double digits, the analysis found.
Homicides also rose by about 12.5 percent last year over 2014.

vidence is rolling in that the anti-police rhetoric following the Baltimore riots is resulting in more inner city violence as police backed off in fear of the racism label. Violence is
heading off the charts in Chicago. The city is Off to Deadliest
Start in Nearly Two Decades, reported the Chicago Tribune on
March 31.
As the first quarter of 2016 nears an end, violence in Chicago has reached levels unseen in years, putting the city on
course to top 500 homicides for only the second time since
2008.
As of 6 a.m. Wednesday, homicides totaled 135, a 71 percent jump over the 79 killings in the same year-earlier
period, official police department statistics show. That

And in case you think there is a bias against reporting positive

news. The Tribune reports:
If there was any hopeful sign in the numbers, it would be

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Trumpet Weekly | April 1, 2016

before, officers said, but also increased their anxiety about

being second-guessed on whom theyve stopped.
The result was that officers made 6,818 arrests in January,
a 32 percent drop from nearly 10,000 arrests a year earlier.
The number of street stops also has plummeted, with 9,044
investigatory stop reports issued in January, a fraction of the
61,330 contact cards that police issued during January 2015.

that for most of March, homicides rose citywide by a more

modest 25 percent from the same year-earlier period.
So there you have it: Chicago is now so broken that a 25 percent increase in homicides is reported as a positive sign.
New police interim Superintendent Eddie Johnson blamed
gang violence and the proliferation of guns. But according to the
Tribune, there is a far greater reason violence is upthe police
are no longer going after the criminals. Why? you ask.

But dont worry, the American Civil Liberties Union says that
no empirical evidence exists that would suggest the low police
activity has led to a rise in violence. Instead, some analysts blame
the weather as temperatures in Chicago over the first three
months have been milder and snowfall below normal. Warmer
weather makes people kill each otherdidnt you know?
According to Chicago inner city preacher Ira Acree, the bigger
cause of the violence is fragmented families, a poor school system, and proliferation of guns. Dont expect much media or political attention to focus on the broken families.

In February, the Tribune reported a precipitous drop

in morale among Chicago police, citing interviews with
numerous officers. They told the newspaper the McDonald
shooting had made them less aggressive on the street out of
fear that doing even basic police work would get them into
trouble. Criminals were taking advantage of their passive
approach, they said.
The police department on January 1 also began requiring that cops fill out detailed reports every time they make a
street stop as part of a new state law and a landmark agreement worked out with the American Civil Liberties Union.
The changethe result of concerns over racial profiling
has not only kept officers busy with paperwork longer than

Its a crisis here in Chicago, he said about the disturbing level of violence so early in the year. Unless something
radical transpires in our city, theres going to be a bloodbath this summer.

TW IN BRIEF

r. Obama hosts nuclear summit: President Barack Obama

hosted his fourth nuclear security summit on Thursday
and Friday in Washington. Absent from the summit were Russia,
Iran and North Koreasome of the most prominent and hostile
nuclear powers. At the first summit in 2009, Mr. Obama outlined
his vision of a world without nuclear weapons. Other nations
have refused to cooperate with his utopian ideal. Unstable countries like Pakistan and India have not given up their nuclear
stockpiles despite fighting four wars. North Korea claimed to
have tested a hydrogen bomb in January. That same month, the
U.S. and allies lifted sanctions on Iran, which has already violated
the nuclear agreement several times. Even the Islamic State has
been plotting to obtain nuclear material.

million square miles. Argentine President Mauricio Macri celebrated the decision as very significant in advancing Argentinas
claim of the British-ruled Falkland Islands. Observers said the
UN decision will likely justify more Argentine fishing and oil drilling in the region, increasing tensions over the islands. Argentine
Secretary of Exterior Relations Carlos Foradori confirmed those
concerns when he said, We have wealth that we do not even
know about yet. However, the findings of the UN have no bearing on Britains ownership of the Falkland Islands or the status
of the ocean bed around it. The clcs is a UN scientific body that
exists only to verify a nations claims about its geography. According to the clcs website, its recommendations and actions shall
not prejudice matters relating to the delimitation of boundaries between states. It has already stated that a final determination of Argentinas maritime territory cannot be made until the
Falklands dispute is settled. Argentina lost a brief, bloody 1982
war with Britain after Argentine troops seized the South Atlantic archipelago.

rgentina awarded sovereignty of the Falklands? On Monday, the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (clcs) unanimously endorsed Argentinas request
to expand it maritime territory by 35 percentan additional 0.66

The Most Important Book Since the Bible

Stephen Flurry, Trumpet Daily | April 1

Follow Stephen Flurry

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Trumpet Weekly | April 1, 2016