Pope to unveil sainthood date for John Paul II, John XXIII

Google – AFP, 30 sep 2013

Pope Francis prays in front of the tomb of John XXIII in St Peter's basilica

in June 2013. (AFP/File, Andreas Solaro)

Vatican City — Pope Francis was on Monday set to announce the date that predecessors John Paul II and John XXIII will be made saints in a ceremony expected to draw hundreds of thousands of pilgrims.

The popular Polish pope John Paul and his Italian predecessor, two of modern-day Catholicism's most influential figures, will be canonised at a joint ceremony at the Vatican likely to take place on April 27, 2014.

The unprecedented double sainthood for two popes is seen by Vatican watchers as an attempt to breach a traditional left-right divide in the Church.

"John XXIII is generally a hero to the church's progressive wing while John Paul II is typically lionized by Catholic conservatives," said John Allen, Vatican expert for the US National Catholic Reporter.

John Paul II, who served as pontiff from 1978-2005,

 was credited with his first miracle just six months

 after his death, when a French nun said she

 had been cured, through prayer, of Parkinson's

 -- a disease he had also suffered from. (/AFP/File,

Eric Feferberg)

Allen said the decision could be interpreted as "a statement that any attempt to set them at odds is artificial, and that what they had in common is more fundamental than any perceived differences".

Sainthood normally requires two "confirmed" miracles, though Francis has approved the canonisation of John XXIII (1958-1963) -- with whom he shares a personal touch and reformist views -- based on just one.

John Paul II, who served as pontiff from 1978-2005, was credited with his first miracle just six months after his death, when a French nun said she had been cured, through prayer, of Parkinson?s -- a disease he had also suffered from.

His second miracle was reportedly carried out on a woman in Costa Rica, who said she was healed from a serious brain condition by praying for John Paul's intercession on the same day he was beatified in 2011.

The Polish pope was popular throughout his 27-year papacy and helped topple Communism -- although he alienated many with his conservative views and was blamed for hushing up paedophile priest scandals.

At his funeral in 2005, crowds of mourners cried "Santo Subito!" -- "Sainthood Now!" -- prompting the Vatican to speed up the path to sainthood, which normally begins five years after death.

Nicknamed "The Good Pope", John XXIII made his name by calling the historic Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) which overhauled the Church's rituals and doctrines, reached out to other faiths and raised the status of lay people.

Many compare the Italian pope, who died in 1963, with the current head of the Roman Catholic Church for their similar pastoral attitudes, humble, open manner and sense of humour.

Pope Francis promises to be a reformist pope,

 planning an overhaul of the Vatican bureaucracy

 and finances and promising a "poor Church

for the poor". (AFP/File, Andreas Solaro)

The reportedly miraculous healing of an Italian nun who had severe internal haemorrhages was attributed to John XXIII when he was beatified in 2000.

Francis is believed to have waived the need for a second miracle because his canonisation had been called for by the participants of the Second Vatican Council in 1965, who wanted to pay homage to the man who ushered the Church into modern times.

Francis also promises to be a reformist pope, planning an overhaul of the Vatican bureaucracy and finances and promising a "poor Church for the poor".

On Tuesday, he will begin three-day talks with an advisory board of eight cardinals he has appointed to help him clean up the troubled Roman Curia -- the intrigue-filled administration -- and improve communication between the Vatican and local churches.

Vatican experts say it is not clear whether details from the meetings will be made public, but liberal Catholics hope that the conciliatory tone adopted by Francis on many issues will translate into action.

Topics may include the role of women in the Church, whether priests should be able to marry, if Catholics who remarry should receive the Eucharist and the Church's position on homosexuality and gay clergy.

Related Articles:

Pope Francis sets out vision for more gay people and women in 'new' church


Pope Francis: Who am I to judge gay people?

Pope Francis' No. 2: Clerical celibacy is open to discussion


"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… I gave you a channelling years ago when Pope John Paul was alive. John Paul loved Mary, the mother. Had John Paul survived another 10 years, he would have done what the next Pope [The one after the current one, Benedict XVI] will do, and that is to bring women into the Church. This Pope you have now [Benedict XVI] won't be here long.* The next Pope will be the one who has to change the rules, should he survive. If he doesn't, it will be the one after that.

There it a large struggle within the Church, even right now, and great dissention, for it knows that it is not giving what humanity wants. The doctrine is not current to the puzzles of life. The answer will be to create a better balance between the feminine and masculine, and the new Pope, or the one after that, will try to allow women to be in the higher echelon of the Church structure to assist the priests.

It will be suggested to let women participate in services, doing things women did not do before. This graduates them within church law to an equality with priests, but doesn't actually let them become priests just yet. However, don't be surprised if this begins in another way, and instead gives priests the ability to marry. This will bring the feminine into the church in other ways. It will eventually happen and has to happen. If it does not, it will be the end of the Catholic Church, for humanity will not sustain a spiritual belief system that is out of balance with the love of God and also out of balance with intuitive Human awareness.  …”

"THE RECALIBRATION OF BELIEF"– Aug 18, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

Turkey snubs NATO allies to buy missile defense system from China

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2013-09-29

Launchers for China's FD-2000 missiles. (Internet photo)

Turkey's Defense Industry Executive Committee has chosen the Chinese-built FD-2000, the export version of the HQ-9 surface-to-air missile, as its new air defense system under a contract worth US$4 billion on Sept. 26, reports our sister newspaper Want Daily.

The choice was made from a list of missile systems including the US Patriot, Russian S-400 and the French SAMP-T. One of the major allies of the United States in the Middle East, Turkey will become the first NATO member to introduce a Chinese air defense system for its military. Turkey considered that medium-to-long-range missiles such as the FD-2000 are more suitable than the short-range Patriot for preventing ballistic missiles and aircraft from Syria striking the country's interior.

The FD-2000 is able to intercept 16 targets at once at a range of 200 kilometers while the range of Patriot missiles is only 160 kilometers, according to Li Jie, a Chinese military analyst. Facing the prospect that Syria's civil war could cross into Turkish territory, the Patriot surface-to-air missiles deployed by other NATO members to the country's border regions are evidently considered insufficient, yet the purchase of the FD-2000 may create tensions between Turkey and its NATO allies.

NATO will not allow the two air defense systems to be used in combination by the Turkish military in order to prevent the possibility that China could steal critical intelligence regarding the Patriot system. This is also the primary reason the United States had warned Turkey not to buy any weapons system from country that is not a NATO member.

Hunger-striking jailed Pussy Riot member moved to hospital

Google – AFP, Anna Smolchenko (AFP), 29 Sep 2013

"Pussy Riot" punk Nadezhda Tolokonnikova waits in the defendant's cage at

a courthouse in Zubova Polyana, on April 26, 2013 (AFP/File, Maksim Blinov)

Moscow — Jailed hunger-striking Pussy Riot punk band member, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who is refusing food in protest over what she has called murder threats and "slave labour conditions," was on Sunday moved to a hospital, an official said.

An officer on duty at the hospital No 21 in the village of Barashevo in the Mordovia region said that Tolokonnikova, who entered her seventh day of hunger strike on Sunday, was moved earlier in the day.

"Doctors accepted her," Major Sergei Shalin told AFP by phone. The hospital is part of the prison system but is located outside Tolokonnikova's penal colony.

Tolokonnikova's husband, activist Pyotr Verzilov, said several sources among prison employees and inmates had told him his wife had been moved from prison.

"We are now outside the hospital," he told AFP, adding he would seek a meeting with his wife.

Mordovia's prison administration later released a statement, confirming Tolokonnikova had agreed to be moved to the hospital so that her health could be monitored.

Earlier Sunday, Verzilov issued an open letter addressed to the head of the Federal Service for the Execution of Punishment which oversees prisons, complaining that Tolokonnikova had been held incommunicado for more than 60 hours.

Tolokonnikova went on a hunger strike on Monday, releasing an open letter in which she described harrowing conditions at her prison.

Female inmates have to work for up to 17 hours, sleep four hours and endure repeated abuse, she claimed. Tolokonnikova also complained of what she said were death threats from the prison's deputy chief over her complaints.

On the fifth day of her hunger strike Friday, Tolokonnikova was moved to the medical unit of her penal colony after her health worsened.

Verzilov's Voina (War) art group described her condition at the time as "terrible."

Tolokonnikova said she would refuse food until she's transferred to another prison.

The 23-year-old mother of a young daughter is serving a two-year sentence for a punk protest against President Vladimir Putin in a Moscow church last year.

Observers have said that the unrepentant activist was deliberately sent to Mordovia -- notorious for its network of Soviet-era Gulag prison camps -- in a bid to break her will.

The open letter came after the counterculture activist had over the past year sought to come to terms with her imprisonment, sharing philosophy books with her fellow inmates and learning to sew police uniforms.

Pressure began to build when she tried to stand up for prisoners' rights, her defence said.

She claimed several prisoners were forced to sew in the workshop naked as punishment for working slowly.

A system of collective punishment and a culture of violence saw prison staff encouraging inmates to beat up rule-breakers.

'The icy breath of the Gulag'

Tolokonnikova's lawyer Irina Khrunova, speaking to opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta in an interview released on Saturday, said HIV patients were forced to work on a par with healthy prisoners, noting prison administration had pitted Tolokonnikova against other inmates.

"She had porridge poured over her head in a canteen," Khrunova said. "It's difficult to imagine what you feel when you stand alone with 500 people against you, and everyone wants you dead."

Tolokonnikova's hunger strike and letter drew fresh attention to routine prisoner abuse in Russia. Prison management denies the charges.

Political analyst Alexander Golts said Tolokonnikova's description of the "monstrous detention conditions" shocked many in Russia.

"This is an icy breath of the Gulag," he wrote on the opposition online portal ej.ru.

"Hundreds of today's inmates, the tens of thousands who have already gone through this hell take all these tortures in stride. They are not trying to protest, are not trying to punish their tormentors. They have been crushed."

Tolokonnikova and the other jailed Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina are scheduled for release in March.

Alyokhina has also repeatedly complained about prisoner rights abuses in her prison colony in the Perm region.

President Putin has called the women's sentence correct and repeatedly defended the tough verdict from criticism by Western leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and celebrities like Madonna.

Related Article:

Pussy Riot punk on hunger strike over prison 'death threats'

Greece arrests neo-Nazi party leader in crackdown

Google – AFP, 28 Sep 2013

Supporters of the extreme far-right Golden Dawn party protest in solidarity with

 the party's arrested lawmakers outside the police headquarters in Athens on

September 28, 2013 (AFP Photo, Angelos Tzorzinis)

Athens — Greek police on Saturday cracked down on the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, arresting its founding leader and four other members in parliament, following the murder of a leftist musician allegedly by a party activist.

The arrests came a day after Golden Dawn threatened to pull its lawmakers out of parliament, a move that could trigger a political crisis in the recession-hit country.

In dawn raids, Greek anti-terror police arrested Nikos Michaloliakos, who founded the party in 1980, along with party spokesman and MP Ilias Kassidiairis and three other lawmakers, police said.

The charges against them included belonging to a "criminal organisation", and for some of the suspects also assault and murder, according to a source in the justice ministry.

Nikolaos Michaloliakos, leader of Greek

 far-right party Golden Dawn, speaks at a

 press conference in Athens on May 6,

2012 (AFP/File, Louisa Gouliamaki)

Golden Dawn faced a crackdown after a self-confessed neo-Nazi allegedly fatally stabbed popular hip-hop musician Pavlos Fyssas, 34, on September 18, a killing that sparked nationwide protests.

About a dozen party members, including two police officers, in the Athens area were also being questioned in the ongoing police operation which is expected to lead to more arrests, police and judicial sources said.

The police sweep came after Greece's supreme court, which has been charged with investigating the far-right group, issued arrest warrants for some 30 members.

Golden Dawn Saturday urged its followers to demonstrate against what it called an "illegal decision" and several hundred faithful had gathered in front of the police station where the suspects are being held.

Amid a sea of Greek flags, the protesters chanted the party's slogan, "Blood, honour, Golden Dawn", watched over by anti-riot police.

"Golden Dawn is still there, it will not retreat. You can't put its ideas in prison, we will fight to the end," Artemis Matheopoulos, a party MP, told AFP.

The party currently has 18 lawmakers in parliament and prior to the musician's murder was the third most popular political grouping in the country.

Supporters of the extreme far-right Golden

 Dawn party protest in solidarity with the

 party's arrested lawmakers outside the police

 headquarters in Athens on September 28,

2013 (AFP, ANGELOS TZORTZINIS)

"This government is determined not to allow the descendants of the Nazis to poison our social life, to commit crimes, terrorise and undermine the foundations of the country that gave birth to democracy," Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras warned in a televised address a day after the killing.

Any trial would be 'fair'

Greece's justice minister Charalambos Athanassious said Saturday that if the arrested party members are prosecuted, "the trial will be fair... our democracy is strong."

Those arrested are expected to appear before a magistrate later Saturday or on Sunday.

Golden Dawn leader Michaloliakos has threatened to pull the group's deputies out of parliament, a move that would prompt by-elections in 15 regions around the country.

"We will exhaust any means within our legal constitutional rights to defend our political honour," Michaloliakos told reporters late on Thursday.

"If the country enters a cycle of instability, it is those who demonise Golden Dawn who will be responsible, not (us)," he said.

By-elections could hurt Samaras's coalition government, which has a slim majority of 155 MPs in the 300-seat parliament, and could cast into doubt Greece's ability to fulfil its obligations to creditors on multi-billion-euro bailouts.

Protesters hold a banner featuring a

 picture of murdered anti-fascist musician

 Pavlos Fyssas, reading: "Pavlos lives,

 crack the fascists", at a demonstration

 in Athens on September 25, 2013 (AFP/

File, Louisa Gouliamaki)

Formerly on the fringe of Greek politics, Golden Dawn's popularity has skyrocketed as it tapped into widespread anger over unpopular reforms in a country that is currently slogging through its sixth year of recession and where unemployment among the youth stands at a staggering 60 percent.

It went from 19,000 votes a few years ago to over 426,000 in June 2012 elections after pledging to "scour the country" clean of illegal immigrants.

The party, whose leader has denied the Holocaust, has sent black-clad squads to smash market stalls owned by migrants, held torch-lit rallies lambasting political opponents as "traitors" and "thieves", and organised food donations exclusively for ethnic Greeks.

It has also been blamed for a series of brutal attacks on migrants and political opponents, though it strenuously denies any responsibility and claims to be the victim of slander.

"We are rejoicing that the anti-fascist and anti-racist movement has forced the prime minister to make some arrests," said human rights group Keerfa, adding that the politicians have "for too long protected the action of neo-Nazis."

IPCC climate report: six things we've learned

The IPCC's long-awaited fifth assessment report says it is 'extremely likely' that humanity is to blame for global warming. What else can we learn from the report?

theguardian.com, Adam Vaughan, Friday 27 September 2013

Nearly dried-up area of the Jialing River, China. The IPCC report warns we

 are likely to surpass rises of 2C by 2100, beyond which dangerous consequences

 including drought, floods and storms are expected. Photograph: Diego Azubel/

epa/Corbis

• Scientists are more certain than ever that humanity is to blame for rising temperatures. The head of the United Nations' World Meteorological Organisation, Michel Jarraud, said "it is extremely likely that changes in our climate system in the past half century are due to human influence." The report says: "Human influence on the climate system is clear. This is evident from the increasing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, positive radiative forcing, observed warming, and understanding of the climate system."

• Concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have increased to levels that are unprecedented in at least 800,000 years. The burning of fossil fuels is the main reason behind a 40% increase in CO2 concentrations since the industrial revolution.

• We're likely to surpass rises of 2C by 2100, the threshold of warming that governments have pledged to hold temperatures to, and beyond which dangerous consequences including drought, floods and storms are expected. "What is very clear is we are not" on the path to keeping temperatures below 2C, said Thomas Stocker, one of the co-chairs of today's report. Global temperatures are likely to rise by 0.3C to 4.8C by the end of the century, the report said.

• Sea level rises are coming. "Global mean sea level will continue to rise during the 21st century," says today's report, by a further 26-82cm by 2100, but Stocker said "there is no consensus in the scientific community over very high sea level rises".

• Scientists said claims that the rate of temperature rises in the last 15 years has slowed did not affect the big picture, and temperatures are going up in the long-term. Climate trends "should not be calculated for periods of less than 30 years," said Stocker.

• The amount of carbon the world can burn without heading for dangerous levels of warming is far less than the amount of fossil fuels left in the ground. "The IPCC carbon budget to stay below 2C is 800-880 gigatonnes of carbon (GTC). 531 GTC had already been emitted by 2011. So we have 350 GTC left, which is much less than the carbon stored in fossil fuel reserves," notes our correspondent Fiona Harvey.

Related Articles:

IPCC Headline Statements from the Summary for Policymakers

Arctic ice melt slows down: NASA

Warming 'pause' gives thought for scientists, sceptics

THE RELATIONSHIP TO GAIA - April 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

New Mini Ice Age

"The weather you have today, and all the alarming attributes of it, is a scenario of what was scheduled to happen on Earth anyway. I review again that the weather changes you are seeing prophesied by myself, 21 years ago, are not a surprise. The changes are not caused by the pollutants you put in the air. You call it global warming and that's a nice phrase, and perhaps that will get you to put less pollutants in the air – a very good thing. But what you are seeing in the weather shift today was not caused by Humans putting things into the air. It would have happened anyway in about 300 years."

"We've called this process the water cycle, since it's all about water, not about air. The water is the predominant attribute of Gaia and of the weather cycle you're seeing. More predominant is the temperature of it. The cycle is ice to water and water to ice, and has been repeated on this planet over and over and over. It is not new. It is not exceptional. It is not frightening. But it's a cycle that modern humanity has not seen before, and it's a long cycle that is beyond the life span of a Human Being. Therefore, it tends to be overlooked or not seen at all !"

"In the days of the Lemurians, the water level of the Pacific Ocean was almost 400 feet lower, and that's only 50,000 years ago. [Kryon invites science to check this out – the water level at that time.] That was a water cycle working, and the reason it was lower was due to so much of the water being stored as ice. Today you're going through another water cycle that will eventually lead to cooling. The last one was in the 1400s."

"Science sees that at about 1650. As mentioned, they are so slow there is no remembrance that a Human has of them except in past writings and in the rings of the trees. The time span of the changes is so great that environmental record keeping does not exist in the form that it does today. But you can still look at the rings of the trees and at the striations of the rocks and can generally figure out that a few hundred years ago, you had a mini-ice age. Now you're going to have another one." 

“2011 and Beyond” - What you are seeing, and why - Jan 16, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Text version)

“… So now we've refreshed that which we have said before, a review. You are in the middle of a cycle that will bring cooling to the planet. It is not a heat cycle, but rather a cooling cycle. But it always starts with a short heat cycle. It has been here before. It will come again. It is a long cycle - one generation plus five years. That's how long it's going to last. It starts with the melting of the ice caps, which is far more than any of you have seen in your lifetime or those of your ancestors. It is a cycle whose repetition is thousands of years long, but one that has not yet been recorded to the books of Human record. But it's definitely been recorded in the cores of the ice and in the rings of the trees.

Thousands of years old, it is, and it happens in a cyclical way. It's about water. It starts with that which is the melting of the ice caps to a particular degree, which has a profound effect on the planet in all ways. You can't have that happen without seeing life change as well as Gaia change and you've seeing it already. What happens when you take that which is heavy on the poles [ice] and you melt it? It then becomes cold water added to that which is a very, very gentle and finite balance of temperature in the seas of the planet (1). The first thing that happens is a redistribution of the weight of water on the thin crust of the earth from ice at the poles to new water in the seas. The results become earthquakes and volcanoes, and you're seeing them, aren't you? You are having earthquakes in places that are not supposed to have earthquakes. Volcanoes are coming to life in a way that you've not seen before on a regular basis. There will be more. Expect them.

Is it too much to ask of a Human Being that if you live by a volcano that you know might erupt, maybe you ought to move? Yet there will be those who say, "It hasn't erupted in my lifetime or my parents' lifetime or my grandparents' lifetime; therefore, it won't." You may have a surprise, for all things are changing. That is what is happening to Gaia. ….“

"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa,Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism, Higgs Boson), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)

"...The Weather...

My partner has been "against the grain" in the past years, giving you what I have channelled about the weather. Is it global warming? No. Is it going to get better? No. This is a two-generation cycle. There will continue to be earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and storms. This is a recalibration of life in the ocean, and humanity must go through this in any way they can. This is a cycle, a known and expected one, but since you haven't gone through it in modern times, it's not well understood yet. ..."

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…  4 - Energy (again)

The natural resources of the planet are finite and will not support the continuation of what you've been doing. We've been saying this for a decade. Watch for increased science and increased funding for alternate ways of creating electricity (finally). Watch for the very companies who have the most to lose being the ones who fund it. It is the beginning of a full realization that a change of thinking is at hand. You can take things from Gaia that are energy, instead of physical resources. We speak yet again about geothermal, about tidal, about wind. Again, we plead with you not to over-engineer this. For one of the things that Human Beings do in a technological age is to over-engineer simple things. Look at nuclear - the most over-engineered and expensive steam engine in existence!

Your current ideas of capturing energy from tidal and wave motion don't have to be technical marvels. Think paddle wheel on a pier with waves, which will create energy in both directions [waves coming and going] tied to a generator that can power dozens of neighborhoods, not full cities. Think simple and decentralize the idea of utilities. The same goes for wind and geothermal. Think of utilities for groups of homes in a cluster. You won't have a grid failure if there is no grid. This is the way of the future, and you'll be more inclined to have it sooner than later if you do this, and it won't cost as much….”

MoD study sets out how to sell wars to the public

Exclusive: Families angry at proposal to lower profile of repatriation ceremonies

The Guardian, Ben Quinn, Thursday 26 September 2013

A British soldier in Afghanistan. An MoD document written in November 2012
 discusses how public reaction to casualties can be influenced.
Photograph: Reuters

The armed forces should seek to make British involvement in future wars more palatable to the public by reducing the public profile of repatriation ceremonies for casualties, according to a Ministry of Defence unit that formulates strategy.

Other suggestions made by the MoD thinktank in a discussion paper examining how to assuage "casualty averse" public opinion include the greater use of mercenaries and unmanned vehicles, as well as the SAS and other special forces, because it says losses sustained by the elite soldiers do not have the same impact on the public and press.

The document, written in November 2012 and obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act, discusses how public reaction to casualties can be influenced and recommends that the armed forces should have "a clear and constant information campaign in order to influence the major areas of press and public opinion".

It says that to support such a campaign the MoD should consider a number of steps, one of which would be to "reduce the profile of the repatriation ceremonies" – an apparent reference to the processions of hearses carrying coffins draped in the union flag that were driven through towns near RAF bases where bodies were brought back.

For four years up to 2011, 345 servicemen killed in action were brought back to RAF Lyneham and driven through Royal Wootton Bassett, in Wiltshire, in front of crowds of mourners. Since then, bodies have been repatriated via RAF Brize Norton, in Oxfordshire, with hearses driven through nearby Carterton.

The MoD's suggestion received a scathing reaction from some families of dead military personnel. Deborah Allbutt, whose husband Stephen was killed in a friendly fire incident in Iraq in 2003, described the proposals for repatriation ceremonies as "brushing the deaths under the carpet".

She said: "They are fighting and giving their lives. Why should they be hidden away? It would be absolutely disgraceful." Allbutt, with others, gained a landmark ruling this year that relatives of killed or injured soldiers can seek damages under human rights legislation.

The paper, by the MoD's development, concepts and doctrine centre (DCDC), recommends taking steps to "reduce public sensitivity to the penalties inherent in military operations" and says the ministry should "inculcate an attitude that service may involve sacrifice and that such risks are knowingly and willingly undertaken as a matter of professional judgment".

The paper amounts to what could be considered a prescient analysis of why the British public and MPs were so reluctant to support an attack on Syria. It also says that in any conflict the MoD should ensure that the reason for going to war is "clearly explained to the public".

The eight-page paper argues that the military may have come to wrongly believe that the public, and as a result the government, has become more "risk averse" on the basis of recent campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"However, this assertion is based on recent, post-2000 experience and we are in danger of learning false lessons concerning the public's attitude to military operations," the paper, which has no named author, adds.

"Historically, once the public are convinced that they have a stake in the conflict they are prepared to endorse military risks and will accept casualties as the necessary consequence of the use of military force."

To back this up, it cites "robust" public support for earlier conflicts – the Falklands war and operations in Northern Ireland between 1969 and 2007. "In those cases where the public is unconvinced of the relevance of the campaign to their wellbeing they are not prepared to condone military risk and are acutely sensitive to the level of casualties incurred.

"Neither the action in Iraq nor the operations in Afghanistan have enjoyed public support and we are in danger of learning a false lesson from the experience of the last 10 years."

The report adds: "The public have become better informed and our opponents more sophisticated in the exploitation of the sources of information with the net result that convincing the nation of the need to run military risks has become more difficult but no less essential."

Among other suggestions that could contend with worries about casualty numbers, the DCDC recommends a major investment in "autonomous systems for unmanned vehicles", cyber-operations and the increased use of mercenaries, referred to as "contractors".

Noting that the growth of private security companies has proceeded at a spectacular rate during the past 10 years, it adds: "Neither the media nor the public in the west appear to identify with contractors in the way that they do with their military personnel. Thus casualties from within the contractorised force are more acceptable in pursuit of military ends than those from among our own forces."

Investing in greater numbers of special forces is also recommended. The paper suggests: "The public appear to have a more robust attitude to SF [special forces] losses." In a reference to a May 1982 helicopter crash, it says: "The loss of 19 SAS soldiers in a single aircraft accident during the Falklands campaign did not arouse any significant comment."

An MoD spokesman said: "It is entirely right that we publicly honour those who have made the ultimate sacrifice and there are no plans to change the way in which repatriation ceremonies are conducted. A key purpose of the development, concepts and doctrine centre is to produce research which tests and challenges established doctrine and its papers are designed to stimulate internal debate, not outline government policy or positions. To represent this paper as policy or a potential shift of policy is misleading."

Christopher Dandeker, a professor of military sociology at King's College London, said that the issues raised in the paper were timely as the public had recently shown that they were unconvinced by what political elites wanted to do in relation to the use of force in Syria. It also made sense that the military would pay greater attention to the role of military families, who were becoming "a more politically active, questioning independent stakeholder in the military community".

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"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…  8 - The End of War

The last one is the best. For thousands of years on this planet, Human Beings have warred with each other. If you take a look at the reasons they warred with each other, you will quickly see there aren't any good ones - land, resources, greed. Those are not reasons. That is a description of old energy. Those are not reasons. Reasons would be perhaps defense against an aggressor. But what if there is no longer the consciousness of the aggressor?

When I appeared in my partner's life more than 20 years ago, I said to him privately that the first messages we're going to give will be unbelievable. There would be laughter. We told him that Human nature and consciousness itself would change, and that the seeds of peace would be planted and there would come a time where there is no more war. Indeed, the laughter was great because humans look at history and they see patterns based on an absolute energy called Human Nature. "Impossible! There always has to be war. There always has been. Therefore, there always will be." This is you, in a box, in a black and white potential, where you can only see the black and white of what is and the black and white of what has been. You have no idea the shades of color that are there in your consciousness and the beauty of the love of God.

North Korea is on the edge of change, as we told you it might be. What did this require? The death of the old energy, and I want you to watch this take place. The advisors of the young leader are going to do their best to pull him back into an old energy. This free choice of his will be far different than his father, for he sees some color. Watch for these things. They'll take longer than you want, but it is the beginning of the beginning.

You'll see a fresh unification of South America sooner than not, for what is going to take place potentially this year in Venezuela. You'll see Iran changing. We have no clock. These are the potentials. These can change with free choice. These are not prophecies. This is a reality shift, dear ones, so number eight becomes the propensity not to war again. This is what Humans are going to want. This is what governments are going to want. There is a wisdom factor that will begin to happen on the planet that is grander than what you think is possible. For when you look at government, what do you think about? You see dysfunction, and there is an axiom that says the more people that try to do something together, the worse it gets. It all settles to the lowest common denominator. I'm telling you even those things are going to become old energy concepts. Instead, you're going to watch wisdom become the top potential.

I have no clock. I cannot tell you when. I can just tell you it is in the works, and there will be the seeds of it for you to observe soon - right now, in every single of the eight categories I showed you.

There are those who will say, "Well, Kryon, you're doing a lot more predictions than you used to." I want to tell you what's going on, dear one. I am not predicting anything. I am just telling you what's already there in the potential soup of your reality. That's what Humans are doing on this planet, and for those who believe this communication, you should breathe a sigh of relief and say, "It's about time." ….”

Germany indicts 93-year-old alleged former Auschwitz guard

Hans Lipschis, arrested in May, has been charged as an accessory to 10,500 Nazi-era murders.

Haaretz, DPA, Sep. 26, 2013

An undated image shows the main gate of the Nazi concentration camp
Auschwitz in Poland. Writing over the gate reads: 'Arbeit macht frei'
(Work Sets You Free). Photo by AP

A former Auschwitz death camp guard, Hans Lipschis, has been indicted as an accessory to 10,500 Nazi-era murders, prosecutors in Germany said Thursday.

Lithuanian-born Lipschis, 93, who was expelled from the United States in 1982 for not declaring his wartime activities to immigration authorities, was arrested in May near Stuttgart.

Germany has lowered the bar for such prosecutions since the conviction in 2011 of the late Ukraine-born John Demjanjuk for being an accessory to the murder of more than 28,000 Jews in the Sobibor death camp.

No one remembered seeing him there but a Munich court ruled his presence, proved by personnel documents, sufficed to convict him.

Germany's national prosecutor for Nazi war crimes said that the more accommodating attitude from the courts meant about 30 former guards living in Germany, most over 90, could now be put on trial.

Prosecutors said he had made no statement to them in response to the allegations.

Lipschis has told newspaper reporters he was only a cook at the death camp.

The next step is for a state court at Ellwangen, where Lipschis has his home, to accept the case and if it does, to set a trial date.

This month, a court at Hagen, Germany is trying a 92-year-old former member of the Waffen SS, Dutch-born Siert Bruins, as an accomplice to the murder of a member of the Dutch Resistance in 1944.

The indictment said Lipschis did guard duty at Auschwitz, set up by the Nazis in occupied Poland, between 1941 and 1943 and "supported the operations of the camp and thus its extermination activity."

It said 12 trainloads with thousands of Jews arrived at the camp while he worked there, and often those who were too sick to work were immediately separated and sent to gas chambers to be killed.

After the war, Lipschis lived in Germany until 1956, then moved to Chicago. He was stripped of his new U.S. citizenship in the 1980s and flown back to Germany.

Germany's long delay in charging men like Lipschis has been attributed to a 1969 decision by the German supreme court that an Auschwitz accused could only be convicted as an accessory to murder if his individual guilt was proven.

In the Demjanjuk case, that obstacle was avoided by arguing that death camps were kept running by their staff as a whole, regardless of whether individuals worked in gas chambers or the kitchens.