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Khobar Towers Saudia Arabia

World Trade Center, NYC

Kenya and Tanzania Embassies

Oklahoma City Bombing

Let me remind you again, as I do in various of my Endtime articles, that as Christians who are knowledgeable of the Biblical prophecies, we should not be deceived by these plastic overtures of peace; because the Scriptures plainly tell us that the current volatile situation will eventually deteriorate into bloody full-scale military conflict, as the Jews and the Arabs continue to fight over the ownership of Jerusalem, Israel's right to exist, and the fate of the Palestinian Arabs. Consider again the words of the Prophet Daniel who clearly describes for us the deceit which fuels Middle Eastern politics. Whether or not the following verse applies directly to Barak and Arafat remains to be seen. My current feelings are that it does not, but I could be wrong:

"And both these kings' hearts shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table; but it shall not prosper: for yet the end shall be at the time appointed."


For a more in-depth look at this topic, please refer to my many Endtime articles such as 'O Israel, Why Will Ye Die?'. One thing is quite apparent at this current time; the Jews have no intention of giving up any part of Jerusalem, which they claim as their undivided eternal capital; and the Palestinians will likewise not be content until they have secured at least half of the city to serve as the capital of a Palestinian State. As proof of my statement, consider the following report which was issued by Israel Wire on August the 19th, 1999:

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The Palestinians are planning to claim 6,000 buildings in western Jerusalem under the final-status arrangements. So said the Jerusalem representative in the Palestinian legislative council, Hattam Eid. Among the buildings is the Ministry of Industry and Trade, headed by Ran Cohen of Meretz. Eid said that the Palestinians are making great efforts, including obtaining papers from Syria and Jordan, to prove their ownership of the buildings.

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So as you can see, both sides involved in the Middle East quagmire, are firmly entrenched in their positions, and are leaving very little room for flexibility and compromise; and this can only result in an eventual war of catastrophic proportions, which will draw in other nations which have strategic interests in the Middle East. As the Prophet Isaiah wrote so long ago, Jerusalem is indeed becoming a burdensome stone for the nations of the world:

"And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it."


Even as I write this, the Arab/Muslim nations of the Middle East continue to prepare for this coming decisive war, even though they continue to speak peace with their mouths, as is exemplified by the resumption of the Syrian-Israeli peace talks. All of the primary players, such as Iran, Iraq and Syria, are currently engaged in a mad race to perfect their weapons of mass destruction, for the day when they will make Israel burn. Consider the following recent reports from the Jerusalem Post and CNN. It is so clear that while they talk of peace, they prepare for war. Peace based on military strength and mistrust is doomed to eventual failure from the start:

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Barak Wins Knesset OK For Israeli-Syrian Talks

CNN -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak will travel to Wednesday's peace talks with Syria, backed by support from Israel's parliament, swayed by his call for "painful" sacrifice. "If we miss this time," Barak told Israel's Knesset on Monday, "this might lead to bloodshed, God forbid. The condition is the Syrian delegation to the talks will be equipped with the same degree of determination and good will that we are taking with us. Peace is a joint interest," he said.

. . .

Syria Says Accord With Israel May Be 'Few Months' Away

DAMASCUS, Syria (CNN) - A peace accord with Israel could be reached within a few months, Syria's Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa said Sunday, an opinion expressed as well by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

"I am so optimistic to say that a few months could be enough to reach a peace agreement," al-Sharaa said in Damascus after a meeting with Egypt's foreign minister ahead of peace talks set to resume this week in Washington.

"I think this is a very important moment in the history of the peace process," al-Sharaa said in Syria's first official comment on the talks.

Soon after the talks with Syria were announced, Barak said he thinks an accord could be reached. He also he expected the talks with Syria would lead to new peace talks with Lebanon as well.

"It's possible within a matter of months, to achieve peace with both countries," Barak said.

. . .

Jerusalem Post -- Syria is sparing no expense in developing a new longer-range, surface-to-surface missile that will put all of Israel in range, Israeli sources said. The new missile, a derivative of the Scud C, is expected to be ready in six months to a year. The missile program tops Syria's military priorities, and Damascus is receiving close aid from Iran to develop the rockets. Once deployed, the missiles could be tipped with non-conventional warheads and would be able to strike at Israel from deep inside Syrian territory.

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As further proof that the Lord's words concerning 'wars and rumours of wars' occurring in the Endtime are indeed coming to pass before our very eyes, please note that in addition to the previously-mentioned wars, conflicts and stiff verbal confrontations, we often hear of military coups and civilian uprisings occurring in such places as the volatile countries of Central and South America, and of violent, and oft times bloody, religious conflicts in such places as Indonesia and Northern Ireland, and of deadly tribal wars in the nations of Africa, in which thousands upon thousands of people are brutally slain, and of bilateral border problems between such nations and entities as Ethiopia and Eritrea, Israel and Lebanon, India and Kashmir, China and Tibet, Indonesia and East Timor, etc.

It seems that in our current time, the world is literally filled with dangerous hotspots which may erupt into bloody violence at any given moment. Consider some of the recent reports regarding the civil unrest and violent bloodshed which plagued East Timor, where on August 30th of this year, the Timorese people voted for independence from Indonesia. This violence, which was largely carried out by militias and rogue government forces which are loyal to the government in Jakarta, became so severe, and so brutal, that Indonesian ex-president, B. J. Habibie, was finally forced to yield to world pressure, and permitted the U.N., which is quickly becoming the world's police force, to send in peacekeeping troops in order to restore order, as well as to protect the Timorese from further massacre by pro-government forces. Since their arrival, these forces, which are comprised primarily of Australian and British troops, have had some encounters with the pro-Indonesian militias, which have resulted in some casualties:

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Peacekeepers from the international force in East Timor killed three members of a pro-Indonesian militia in a new skirmish Saturday along the border with Indonesian-controlled West Timor. The peacekeepers. a patrol made up of British and Australian troops, encountered the militia about 15 kilometers (10 miles) west of the frontier. It was the latest and most violent encounter along the border between West and East Timor, which voted for independence from Indonesia in an August 30 referendum.

. . .

Pro-Jakarta militiamen said they were ready to kill members of a U.N. force heading for East Timor Friday as the top bishop still in the territory warned of a new wave of massacres . . . Despite a relative calm in Dili, Red Cross officials said fresh blood on the streets showed that attacks by pro-Jakarta forces had not stopped. Smoke still hung over the city as the United Nations sent its first airdrops of urgent aid. The violence, launched by the militias and some elements of the military, was triggered by last month's ballot favoring independence from Indonesia. Thousands are thought to have been killed since the August 30 vote.

. . .

Indonesia faced world anger Friday over the massacres in East Timor and reports from the territory gave harrowing accounts of fresh suffering at the isolated U.N. compound in the devastated town of Dili. East Timorese and independent experts say thousands have probably died in the last few days in violence blamed on the Indonesian military. The U.N. compound in the East Timor capital Dili, a refuge for terrified civilians, was under pressure from pro-Jakarta militiamen who threatened to throw grenades over the wall into the complex, a journalist in the town said. Marie Colvin of London's Sunday Times reported from Dili that militiamen were still terrorizing the population . . .

. . .

The United Nations evacuated its besieged compound in the East Timorese provincial capital on Friday, as thousands of East Timorese refugees, forced into West Timor by pro-Indonesian militias, described widespread massacres and arson attacks in their smoldering homeland. Hundreds of U.N. staff, including mission head Ian Martin, boarded a plane for Australia on Friday morning, leaving behind a skeleton crew to continue working to help East Timor's transition to independence.

. . .

East Timor's embattled capital Dili continued to burn Wednesday in the latest wave of militia violence, as emergency talks got under way in Jakarta with U.N. representatives. Up to a third of the East Timor population has been forced out of the territory in an attempt by the militias to wreck last week's referendum, which overwhelmingly favored independence from Indonesia.

. . .

Indonesia's military chief held crisis talks on Sunday as pro-Indonesia militiamen rampaged unchallenged and East Timor descended into chaos. General Wiranto flew in as part of a hastily organized crisis team of ministers. As they landed in Dili, the East Timorese capital, dozens of terrified and crying Indonesians were running the other way to get on military flights and escape the violence unleashed after East Timor rejected Jakarta's rule.

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With the independence of East Timor now assured due to the presence of U.N. troops on the island, as well as to the fact that the government of ex-president BJ Habibie finally ratified the same, this development has provided impetus for the people of other provinces who also desire independence from Jakarta's rule. As a result of a highly-publicized banking scandal, and his poor handling of the East Timor situation, Habibie was ousted from office by a presidential election on October 20, 1999. Assuming his role as president is a fifty-nine year old, half-blind Muslim cleric by the name of Abdurrahman Wahid. Assisting the president is vice president Megawati Sukarnoputri, who is the daughter of Indonesia's first president and dictator, Sukarno.

No sooner had Mr. Wahid, (affectionately known as Gus Dur), assumed office, that the people of the far province of Aceh, which is located on the northern extreme of the island of Sumatra, went to the streets to publicly manifest their own demands for independence from Jakarta; however, neither the new president, nor the powerful military, are about to lose another province, as occurred with East Timor. Following are several recent reports from CNN news:

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Indonesian President Says Aceh Will Not Be Allowed To Secede

President Abdurrahman Wahid says his government will never allow restive Aceh province, where separatist sentiment has grown in recent weeks, to split from Indonesia. "Any attempt to separate Aceh from Indonesia is an act that cannot be tolerated," Wahid told a panel of senior legislators who summoned him on Wednesday to explain his policies.

. . .

Thousands Flee Aceh, Fearing Violence Before Proposed Referendum

Thousands of people fearing potential anti-Jakarta violence ahead of the proposed referendum for Aceh are fleeing the restive province, as guerrillas prepare to fight for independence. Some people have withdrawn their savings from banks and transportation out of Aceh is booked solid for two weeks, residents and local newspapers reported on Tuesday.

. . .

Indonesia Military To Head Off Aceh Independence Vote

Warning against the potential disintegration of the world's fourth most-populous nation, Indonesia's politically powerful military plans to head off an independence vote in Aceh. "A referendum on autonomy is fine," chief armed forces spokesman Maj.Gen. Sudrajat said on Tuesday. "But a referendum on independence -- no, because it will lead to a Balkanization process."

. . .

Rebel Chief Demands Independence From Indonesia

A separatist rebel chief on Tuesday dismissed President Abdurraham Wahid's enticements to keep Aceh province a part of Indonesia, vowing to continue an armed struggle until the oil-rich province attains full independence. Despite criticism from members of his government and the military, Wahid on Tuesday again voiced support for a referendum in Aceh. He sweetened the pot to keep Aceh part of the archipelago nation by offering it autonomy and 75 percent of the province's revenues.

. . .

Tensions In Aceh Prompt Wahid To Cut Short Asian Tour

Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid will cut short his tour of Southeast Asia and return to Jakarta on Tuesday, in part because of a separatist movement in the province of Aceh. Hundreds of thousands of marchers have demanded an immediate vote on independence for Aceh, a region rich in oil and mineral resources. "One of the reasons is the events developing in Aceh," a presidential source said Tuesday.

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With independence now securely gained by the East Timorese, and the citizens of Aceh now aiming to achieve the same goal, it isn't surprising to see that people of the eastern province of Irian Jaya have also been affected by the spirit of freedom which is currently sweeping across Indonesia. Truly, it appears that this vast island-chain nation may be in the process of being broken up. During the first week of December, 1999, CNN reported the following:

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Separatists Raise Flag In Indonesia's Irian Jaya

Tens of thousands of people participated in the raising of a separatist flag and demanded independence from Indonesia during a peaceful demonstration on Wednesday in the capital of Irian Jaya province.

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Besides these major wars and bloody confrontations between the various nations of the world, and these oft times violent protests for independence, during the past several decades, terrorist bomb strikes have also reared their ugly head in just about every major region of the Earth. As an example, sixteen years ago, on October the 23rd, 1983, a tanker truck filled with deadly explosives, and driven by a suicidal terrorist, crashed into the U.S. Marine barracks located in Beirut, Lebanon. As a result of that attack, two hundred and forty-one marines lost their lives, and another eighty were also wounded. On the very same day, another terrorist attack was launched against the French military quarters as well; and fifty-six lives were claimed in that terrible incident.

A little more than five years later, on the fateful evening of December 21, 1988, Pan Am flight number 103, bound for New York City from London's Heathrow Airport, became the next major terrorist target. About an hour after takeoff, while flying over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, the plane exploded in mid-air. It was later determined that the deadly explosion resulted from a bomb which had been concealed in a passenger's transistor radio. That attack claimed a total of two hundred seventy victims from some twenty-two different nations. Two hundred and fifty-nine of the victims were in the plane itself, while eleven more died on the ground when part of the plane's fuselage plowed into a housing project in Lockerbie. Just recently, Libya finally released to the West, the persons who are claimed to have been responsible for the deadly attack; and reparations are still being sought for, for the families of the victims.

It was just under five years later, that the world again witnessed the dangerous reality of terrorism. On the 26th day of February, 1993, a 1,200-pound bomb exploded in the subterranean garage of the 110-story towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. That attack resulted in the death of six American citizens, and in over one thousand persons being wounded. Mohammed A. Salameh, 30, Nidal Ayyad, 30, Mahmoud Abouhalima, 37, and Ahmad Mohammad Ajaj, 31, were convicted in 1994, and each received a life sentence plus 240 years. In January 1998, the alleged mastermind of the plot, 25-year-old Ramzi Yousef, who had been captured in Pakistan in 1995, also received a 240-year sentence. Three months later, in April of 1998, 26-year-old Eyad Ismoil, who was captured in Jordan in 1995, and who is accused of having driven the van which carried the bomb, also received the same sentence.

Two years later, on November 13, 1995, terrorists struck once again when a car-bomb exploded in a U.S. military headquarters building in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia. That attack resulted in the death of six civilians of American and Saudi Arabian nationality, as well as in dozens of other persons being injured. Following is a CNN news clip from that time period:

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An apparent car-bomb explosion outside a U.S. training facility in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Monday killed six people, including five Americans, and injured about 60 others. Thirty-four of the wounded were Americans; one of the Americans killed was an enlisted U.S. soldier. The other four were civilians.

The explosions -- two, about five minutes apart -- ripped the front facade off a building where nearly 400 Americans train the Saudi National Guard to use weapons bought from the U.S.

Authorities believe a bomb was concealed in a van parked near a ground-floor snack bar where both Americans and Saudis were having lunch.

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Not even a year later, on June 25, 1996, Saudi Arabia once again became the scene for yet another deadly terrorist attack against American military forces. On that fateful day, a fuel tanker truck laden with as much as 5,000 pounds of explosives, exploded outside of the perimeter fence of the al-Khobar Towers; a foreign housing project located on the King Abdul Aziz Air Base in Dhahran. The explosion all but destroyed one building and blasted a crater thirty-five feet deep and eighty-five feet across. That attack resulted in the death of nineteen Americans, and over three hundred other persons being injured according to the Saudi government.

Tragically, the Saudi Arabian attacks would not be the last. On August 7, 1998, the world was once again shocked when two simultaneous terrorist attacks were launched against the American embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. It has been reported that a total of two hundred and thirty-four lives were lost due to these pre-meditated attacks, and nearly five thousand people were injured, making them the third most deadly attacks since the attack in Lebanon fifteen years earlier, and the Lockerbie attack ten years before. Following are several excerpts from the Associated Press, released several days after the attacks:

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Death Toll At 234; More Arrests Made

NAIROBI, Kenya - Investigators began piecing together evidence from two bomb-shattered U.S. embassies Tuesday as rescuers pulled bodies from the rubble in Nairobi, pushing the death count in the twin attacks to 234. Police made more arrests in Tanzania. No one has been pulled alive from the wreckage since Saturday, the day after the blasts. The stench of rotting flesh seeped from the heaped concrete and steel in Nairobi Tuesday.

The nearly simultaneous bombings in Kenya and Tanzania claimed at least 234 lives - including 12 Americans - and injured nearly 5,000. Kenya's National Disaster Operation Center said Tuesday 220 people were confirmed killed in Nairobi. Ten Africans died in the bombing in Tanzania.

----- End of Quotes -----

Returning to more recent events, the explosions scattered throughout Russia are not the only terrorist bombing attacks which have been carried out during recent months. America's Cable News Network, (CNN), also reported the following attacks as well in Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Israel and in the so-called 'recently-liberated' Kosovo:

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Sri Lankan President Calls For Calm After Assassination Attempt

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- President Chandrika Kumaratunga has survived an assassination attempt and is appealing for calm in Sri Lanka after two suicide bombings left 21 people dead and 150 people -- including herself -- wounded.

The first bomb exploded near Colombo's town hall just as Kumaratunga had finished addressing a People's Alliance campaign rally supporting her re-election.

Shortly after the blast, a second suicide bomber struck at a gathering of the main opposition party, the United National Party in Ja-Ela, a Colombo suburb.

The bombing is similar to a 1994 attack against a Sri Lankan presidential candidate of the UNP. The candidate and 51 others were killed in a bomb blast at an election rally.

A year earlier, Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa was killed in an explosion during a May Day rally. Both attacks were blamed on LTTE.

. . .

Bombs Kill 7 In Pakistan

Militant supporters of deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif claimed responsibility Sunday for a bomb explosion that killed seven people in Lahore, the capital of Pakistan's eastern Punjab province. Two children were among the dead. Another 17 people were hospitalized, police said. In a statement faxed to Pakistani newspapers, an organization calling itself the Al-Nawaz group said it had triggered the bomb to protest the military coup that ousted Sharif.

. . .

Powerful Truck Bomb Shatters Taliban Headquarters

A powerful truck bomb exploded near the home of the leader of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement, killing seven people, Taliban officials said Wednesday. The explosion, shortly after 10 p.m. local time Tuesday in southern Kandahar, shattered windows and doors and sent frightened residents scurrying for cover. The truck was parked three houses away from Mullah Mohammed Omar's home, said Taliban spokesman Abdul Hai Muttmain, who was contacted on satellite telephone in Kandahar.

. . .

Blasts Rock 3 Yemen Cities

A car bomb exploded in the Yemeni capital of San'a Saturday, killing several people and injured many others, officials said. A number of embassies and diplomatic residences were damaged in the early morning blast outside a supermarket in the Hadda area. However, no diplomatic personnel were injured in the explosion, which came hours after two bombs went off in southern Yemen. No injuries were reported there.

. . .

Israel: Explosions Won't Derail Renewed Peace Process

The government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak signaled Sunday that peace efforts with the Palestinians would go forward despite suspected car bomb blasts in two northern Israeli towns that killed at least three people. Police suspect terrorism was the motive for nearly simultaneous blasts in the Sea of Galilee town of Tiberias and the port city of Haifa Sunday. The explosions came just hours after Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat signed a revamped land-for-security accord.

. . .

Explosions Rock American Sector Of Kosovo

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia -- Several explosions ripped through the American sector of eastern Kosovo, killing two people and injuring four, including one critically, NATO said on Wednesday.

Eight to 10 blasts occurred late Tuesday near Donja Budriga village, three miles south of Gnjilane, according to Pfc. William Patterson of the U.S. military press office at Camp Bondsteel. He did not say whether the victims were Serbs or ethnic Albanians.

The explosions occurred one day after Russian soldiers patrolling in the American sector shot and killed three Serbs after they disregarded orders to stop beating two wounded Albanians and instead opened fire on the peacekeepers.

Those incidents have raised tensions in Kosovo before the scheduled September 19 demilitarization of the Kosovo Liberation Army, whose attacks against Serbs triggered the 18-month crackdown that led to the 78-day NATO bombing campaign.

. . .

Kosovo Blast Damages Monument To Ethnic Harmony

A bomb rocked Kosovo's capital early Saturday and damaged a monument symbolizing former Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito's ideal of ethnic harmony among his people, NATO-led KFOR peacekeepers said. The explosion, which occurred at 3:22 a.m. (0122 GMT) in central Pristina, rattled windows and woke people across the city. It badly damaged the base of the reinforced concrete monument, which local residents said was erected in 1961. There was no immediate indication who was responsible.

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As we have now seen through some of the previous reports, civilian uprisings by Islamic militants who seek liberation from their oppressive governments is a worldwide scourge at this present time. Thousands upon thousands have died as a result of these violent clashes between government forces and the Islamic fundamentalists. Consider the following alarming excerpts from a report released by the Associated Press in January of 1998:

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Algerian Authorities Provide First Death Toll In Six Years: 26,536

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) -- Algeria's prime minister provided the first official death toll in six years of violence today, saying 26,536 people have been killed -- a figure about three times lower than most media estimates.

Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, addressing lawmakers in a session that lasted until 4 a.m., also said 21,000 people have been injured since the start of an Islamic insurgency in 1992. Acts of violence have left 5,000 people handicapped, he said.

The death toll provided by the chief of government, running from 1992 through 1997, includes security forces but does not include those killed since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan Dec. 30. The media estimates some 2,000 people have died since then -- far more than government estimates.

Algerian authorities have maintained a policy of silence over casualties since the start of the insurgency. They only occasionally acknowledge attacks and consistently provide figures far lower than those cited in the nation's newspapers or by hospital sources.

The Associated Press uses a death toll estimate of about 75,000. Some put the figure as high as 120,000.

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As we continue this series in part four, we will turn our attention to some of the evils which have plagued American society in recent years; in particular, the violent acts being committed by outraged American citizens, plus the shootings which have occurred in the Public School System. In addition to this, we will discuss the topics of families divided by Christ, the dangers of anger rage and wrath, defining nations and kingdoms, the exactness of the Lord's prophecy, no peace for the roaring waves of the wicked, the causes of wars and personal conflicts, the possible true meaning of Jesus' prophecy, and finally, earthquakes in the Old Testament. Once again, I trust that you will join me. We still have a lot of ground to cover.

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