Reading through Revelation – Chapter 12, Part 2 – And there was war in Heaven

Laser scans reveal Templar secrets under the city of Acre — The Templar Knight

A team from National Geographic led by Dr Albert Lin has uncovered a series of tunnels under the modern Israeli city of Akko – known as Acre 800 years ago – that were built by the Knights Templar. MUST WATCH: Catch me as King Henry VIII on ITV The team also established the location of…

via Laser scans reveal Templar secrets under the city of Acre — The Templar Knight

+Fantastic Historical Lecture On Templar’s Knights+

Mysterious Stories of Castle Ponferrada: Knights Templar, the Camino de Santiago and the lost Sword of Jacques de Molay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FbdJLWKd4U

 

Every pilgrim who is traveling along the French route of the Camino de Santiago, going to Santiago de Compostela, will pass through the Ponferrada in the Spanish section. Most of them have no idea that centuries ago along the same route passed the legendary Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Templar Order.

Did they travel in their famous armors? I don’t think so. It is more likely that they wore comfortable clothes, similarly to other pilgrims of their times. Just imagine, the famous Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Templar Order, traveling from France to Santiago de Compostela, located in the northwestern part of Spain. The journey was long and perhaps took a few weeks depending on the physical condition of the pilgrim. However, at the end of the route was waiting the majestic Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. The primary reason to make this pilgrimage…

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The Christian Kingdom Of Jerusalem

 

 

Christianity In 500 AD, BEFORE ISLAM

 

 

KNIGHTFALL

Series Premiere Wed Dec 6 at 10/9c

http://www.history.com/shows/knightfall

 

Jacques DeMolay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, cursed a king and a pope as he burned at the stake — launching an undying myth

Posted on October 13, 2017 Updated

SEVEN hundred years ago, a dying knight uttered a curse as the flames of the pyre he was tied to lapped at his feet. Those words continue to haunt us even now.

That knight was Jacques de Molay.

He was the Grand Master of the Order of the Poor Knights of the Temple of Solomon, generally known as the Knights Templar.

A fraction more than two centuries after the Knights of Order of the Temple of Solomon had been founded amid the rubble of Jerusalem to defend the Holy Land, it would now be ended by flame in the heart of Paris.

Betrayed by a king he trusted and a pope he was sworn to obey, in his final hours DeMolay fought fervently against the false charges which had destroyed his international network of Christian warriors.

His dying curse was powerful. And effective.

S’en vendra en brief temps meschie / Let evil swiftly befall

Sus celz qui nous dampnent a tort; / Those who have wrongly condemned us;

Diex en vengera nostre mort. / God will avenge our death.

Pope Clement V, complicit by design or cowardice, was dead 33 days later — from a severe bout of dysentery brought about by advanced bowel cancer.

King Philip IV of France, who had been happy to kill and defame Christendom’s defenders for their wealth and land, died within eight months. This time it was a hunting accident.

It was the final act in a power play that makes the schemes of Game of Thrones seem like mere schoolyard squabbles.

De Molay, oddly, lives on.

A contemporary source tells of a group of monks secretly swimming to his funeral pyre on an island in Paris’ River Seine to gather up the old man’s bones as holy relics. His name has echoed through history ever since.

The idea of the Order of the Temple itself refused to die.

Though formally disbanded and its assets nominally handed over to their arch rivals — the Knights Hospitaller — there were few untouched enclaves of Templars who changed their name to escape retribution.

But the black-and-white banner of the Poor Knights would rise time and again throughout history by the oppressed and those seeking association with secrets, occult and mystery.

And, as the likes of The DaVinci Code, Game of Thrones and Ivanhoe attest, it’s an idea that resonates even now.

SIGNED, SEALED — AND DELIVERED?

De Molay’s last stand was something of a surprise.

The supreme commander of more than 2000 knights, sergeants and attendants had put up a pitiful performance after the sudden arrest of his brethren on Friday, October 13, 1307. It was a date that would go down in infamy for its ill fortune.

It had been an extraordinary operation: King Philip’s sheriffs all through France had been secretly notified to conduct the coordinated arrests that same night. Once hauled forward to face trumped up charges of heresy, sodomy and sedition, the stunned church seemed powerless to defend its own. Torture did the rest, quickly extracting confessions for the most heinous of crimes — heresy.

But by 1314 the scandal had died down. The arrest and accusations against the Templars was old news. The fate of its members — and its wealth — seemed little more than a formality.

A papal commission of inquiry was appointed to pass final judgment on four of the Templar’s most senior commanders. Two of the inquisitors were considered “royal” men — being close associates of King Philip “the Fair”. The third cardinal was one of Pope Clement’s closest friends.

Naturally, the outcome was a foregone conclusion.

It was to be a public show trial, carefully scripted and conducted under the watchful eye of King Philip’s city guard and most loyal followers and performed on scaffolding erected in front of the famous Notre Dame cathedral.

But something inside de Molay had changed.

The seven years of torture and imprisonment had not weakened his spirit. It had reinforced it.

In fact, the Grand Master had been held in solitary confinement the dungeon of his own Paris fortress for the previous four years. Now in his 70s, de Molay’s body must have been wracked by injury, malnutrition and lack of sunlight.

Stepping out into the warm light and seeing his brothers-in-arms again after so long must have ignited his spirit in a way it had never been before.

He and his colleagues — Geoffroi de Charney, Hughes de Pairaud and Goeffroi de Gonneville — were dressed in their Order’s iconic white robes emblazoned with the blood-red cross and paraded in front of the crowd.

It was intended to be their final humiliation.

LAST ACT OF DEFIANCE

The people of Paris were expecting a show. A performance. A tragedy.

They got what they wanted — but not the anticipated script.

The day, March 18, 1314, started well. The full list of charges was read out to the crowd: Heresy. Homosexuality. Corruption.

All were reminded that the Templar commanders — including de Molay — had long since confessed to these most awful of crimes.

It was time to pass sentence. As the senior cardinal began to read from a decree announcing that the three Templar leaders would face perpetual imprisonment, he was unexpectedly interrupted.

By de Molay.

The Grand Master who had seemingly confessed so easily to such serious sin seven years earlier — and who had refused to speak out during the show trials which followed — finally found his voice.

He demanded to be heard.

He asserted his innocence, and that of his colleagues. He accused the king and pope of false accusations and of rigging the trials.

The crowd was shocked.

They knew what this meant.

An unexpected spectacle: A burning at the stake.

Such was the fate of all confessed heretics who renounced their crimes.

But the performance was not yet over.

De Molay’s old colleague under the searing sun of the Holy Land, Geoffroi de Charney, suddenly took up the battle cry.

Both launched into a forceful defence of their innocence and a blistering attack on those who sought to steal their land, their power, and their honour.

They harangued the esteemed cardinals for their complicity. They emphatically denied the allegations and pointedly revoked every aspect of their prior confessions.

De Molay and de Charney knew the consequences.

So did the remaining two Templar officials — de Pairaud and de Gonneville. Both cowered into the background, abandoning their superiors to their last stand.

The cardinals were stunned. They quickly fled the uproarious scene.

The king’s men knew what to do. Such a revocation of guilt meant the Grand Master and the Preceptor of Normandy had voided the protection of the Church and were now under royal jurisdiction.

They dragged the two Templars away.

FINAL OUTRAGE

King Philip heard of the outburst within minutes. His extravagant new palace was just a few hundred meters up the road.

It was too much for the troubled king to tolerate. His family was torn by scandal — the wives of his three sons all having been found guilty of adultery only months earlier. Any other such challenge to his flagging authority and reputation needed to be stamped upon, and quickly.

He summoned an immediate session of his royal council.

Nominally it was to discuss and pass judgment upon the two relapsed heretics. In reality it was most likely a shouting session.

The verdict was arbitrary anyway.

King Philip gave the two Templars what they wanted.

He immediately issued his decree: Jacques de Molay and Geoffroi de Charney were to be burnt at the stake that very evening, at the hour of Vespers.

The place of execution was ordered to be a small sandbank at the foot of the island in the middle of medieval Paris which formed the seat of royal and religious power.

It sat in full view of the island’s royal gardens and palace, and of the Monastery of St Augustine on the opposite bank of the River Seine.

Meanwhile, the Templars Hughes de Pairaud and Goeffroi de Gonneville had been whisked away by church officials to serve their sentences of life imprisonment. Both would die prolonged, miserable deaths.

BURNING RIGHTEOUSNESS

De Molay and De Charney were bundled through the seething crowds filling Paris’ streets. Word of their fate had spread. Nobody wanted to miss the show.

It was the end of an era. All knew this.

All wanted to see how this suddenly courageous Grand Master faced his death.

Chroniclers from the time tell of how de Molay willingly cast off his clothes and walked up to the pyre dressed only in his undershirt. Some say he asked to be tied to the stake with his hands free so he could pray.

All paint a picture of a calm and determined man, content with his fate.

As the flames took hold, they seem to have only ignited anger within the old knight.

The Chronicler of Paris wrote:

Seignors, dis il, sachiez, sans tere, / Sirs, he said, know, without any doubt

Que touz celz qui nous sont contrere / That all those who are against us

Por nous en arront a souffrir. / For us will have to suffer.

It was an age of superstition. While the sparks of the Renaissance were beginning to fly — particularly among the new universities of Paris — there was still a pervasive belief in the power of curses, prayer and prophecy.

The chroniclers tell of “how gently” de Molay met his execution.

To the silent crowd, this would have only added to the power of his final words.

De Charney, seeing the extraordinary manner in which his commander had died, declared he was proud to burn in the colours of his Order, and desired to do so with the same grace as his Grand Master.

The righteous piety in which the two knights were immolated was in stark contrast to the stories of cowardice, corruption and heresy the Paris crowd had been sold over so many years.

Their deaths invoked so much admiration among the crowd that it inspired centuries of doubt as to their guilt.

It also inspired the myths that seemingly will not die.

THE TEMPLAR CODE

It’s a story with stark relevance to the modern world.

The Templars were, in essence, an international corporation. A network of farms, estates, banks and markets which fed a bureaucracy full of infighting, divergent purposes and ambition under the helm of a single chief executive officer — in this case Jacques de Molay.

King Philip’s government was bankrupt. He’d squandered his wealth on a series of failed wars and expensive monuments to his ego. He needed cash. He needed income. He lusted for power.

The manner in which the hearts and minds of Europe’s pious public were played, how the legal system was manipulated and how the cowed Catholic Church capitulated still triggers fears of grand-scale, high-level conspiracy and corruption.

But the Templars themselves — as pious knights, as warrior-monks sworn to fight for their beliefs — reflect our fear for modern religious-inspired terrorism and the righteous claims of those who fight against it.

Add to the mix the charges of heresy, magic and conspiracy and you have a rich recipe few authors — and charlatans — can resist.

They’ve been linked to the Turin Shroud, the Holy Grail and the ‘hidden bloodline’ of Jesus Christ.

From Ivanhoe to Indiana Jones, Hellbound to Assassin’s Creed, Kingdom of Heaven to The DaVinci Code — the myth of the Templars all play a part.

And the name of the Order has been invoked by secret societies for centuries, seeking to draw upon the mystical might of the knights’ name.

It’s a power still present today: One of Mexico’s most powerful drug gangs has twisted the image, and the name — The Knights Templar Cartel — to suit their own anti-authoritarian needs.

But put aside the myth and the mayhem and you will find the real history of the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ of the Temple of Jerusalem to be fully fascinating in itself.

As the final hours of Jacques de Molay show: There is no need for embellishment.

in news.com.au

Islam – The Undeniable Truth – A quick lesson in the history of Islam – Brigitte Gabriel.

 

+ Christian Resistance Against Jihad Timeline +

The Struggle Of King Arthur And Mordred

The Struggle Of King Arthur And Mordred

Posted on May 2, 2016

The story of England’s heroic King Arthur and his arch enemy Mordred has been a popular tale since the medieval era. It has been told and retold and been the subject of paintings and films as well as a succession of books. There are many differences between the narratives. For instance, sometimes Mordred is depicted as Arthur’s illegitimate son from his half-sister, or he might be portrayed as the son of the King of the Orkneys. He is also sometimes described as a member of King Arthur’s court who rebelled against him. However, the conflict between these two warriors and Mordred’s death in battle with Arthur are subjects of general agreement.

From the British Isles the legend of Arthur was carried to the European Continent and later to other English speaking countries around the world. The popularity of the first name Arthur in so many countries can also be traced to the fame of this legendary hero monarch. Today it is going to be hard to find someone educated in one of these lands who has not heard of King Arthur and is also able to name a few other of the characters and places featured. Although parts of the story are so well-known, its history and significance are not so widely appreciated.

The Origins of the Legend

Historians continue to speculate if King Arthur, Mordred and the other scenes and players in the legend have any historical basis. For the most part the story is associated with fifth or sixth century Wales. If a prototype for Arthur did exist he might have been a Celtic chieftain rallying his forces to fight off the Saxon invaders. References have been found to figures that might have been the model for King Arthur in some of the scare writings that survive from the Saxon period in British history, but none of the associations made are conclusive. Two Medieval writers share the responsibility for publicising the tale and incorporating in it many of the elements familiar to us today.

In 1138 Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote a history of the Kings of Britain. Many allege that he drew more on his imagination than on any older records that had come to his notice. Others claim that some of what he wrote corresponds with information in earlier documents that have now come to light. Whatever the authenticity of his facts, Geoffrey introduced his readers to a King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, Merlin the Wizard and of course, King Arthur’s arch enemy Mordred. In this version of the tale King Arthur goes to fight against the Roman Empire in Gaul (France of today). The evil Mordred takes advantage of the opportunity to usurp Arthur’s throne and take Queen Guinevere as his wife. The news reached King Arthur on campaign. He returns to his kingdom and fights a fierce battle with Mordred at a place called Camlann, Mordred is killed but Arthur is mortally wounded.

In the late medieval period Thomas Malory published a revised and comprehensive version of the Arthur stories, entitled “The Death of Arthur” (Le Morte d’Arthur). The publication of this work coincided with the introduction of the printing press. Malory’s work became one of the first books printed in England and standardised many aspects of the Arthur legend, for example, the idea of Arthur and his knights sitting at the Round Table dates from this publication. The bitter enmity between Arthur and Mordred continues to form a key part of the story but in a key change from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s narrative Queen Guinevere remain loyal to King Arthur.

Why have these tales survived the years?

The fact that the reader of this article is likely to be familiar with tales of Arthur and Mordred is a testimony to their enduring power. Yet they are more than simple stories. The Arthur tales have contributed culturally to the shaping of Britain’s identity. Over all these years they continue to serve a useful purpose. People are attracted by the idea that there was once an age when chivalrous knights rode about the British countryside fighting treacherous enemies like Mordred, or even supernatural dragons and other monsters. During World War Two, tales of Arthur’s bravery against the country’s enemies provided a rallying point for resistance to German aggression. Today the interest is probably largely of an escapist nature. Regardless of whether or not there is a basis in history, it seems that tales of Arthur and Mordred still serve a purpose in our hi-tech age.

By: Jane Richardson in newhistorian.com

St. Bernard of Clairvaux and the Crusade

Renovation Works Reveal Medieval Hospital Remains in York

Renovations at the York Theatre Royal have brought to life remains from what is considered to have been the largest hospital in northern England in the Middle Ages. Researchers from the York Archaeology Trust were surprised by the well preserved state of the remains, as it was believed that whatever remained from St Leonard’s Hospital had been crushed beneath the floor of the theatre, which underwent a replacement at the beginning of the twentieth century, soon after the discovery of several column plinths and the foundations for the rib-vaulted ground floor of a building.

The discovery of the plinths and foundations was made by George Benson, a historian and archaeologist, Culture 24 details, but were believed to have been destroyed, until in 1989 a research team unearthed two bays of a rib-vaulted roof at the site. However, it remained uncertain whether anything else had survived over the centuries, especially since…

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The Knights Templar Declared an Army of God

On the 13th January 1128, Pope Honorius declared the Knights Templar to be an army of God, providing official papal sanction to the military order. Works of fiction, speculative history and conspiracy theories about the Order have since generated a cloud of intrigue and mystery, with modern myths defining the Knights Templar as much as historical reality.

The Order was founded in 1118, in the aftermath of the First Crusade (1095-99). Following the success a number of ‘Crusader States’ were established in the Middle East, centred around Jerusalem, and pilgrims from Western Europe began to venture into the Holy Land. A weakened military presence in the region however, meant that the hold on these newly captured territories was precarious, and Christian pilgrims were frequently attacked by Muslim raiders.

A group of French Knights, led by Hugues de Payns, vowed to protect Christian pilgrims, and created a religious community towards that…

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Acre is hungry for another crusade, this time against urban decay

The northern city’s rich heritage is blighted by neglect, casting a shadow on its many gems, including the Turkish bath, Crusader citadel and knights’ dining hall.

Acre is a dreamy, ancient Mediterranean seaside resort. It goes back millennia, which you can see on the spot.

“There are very few cities like Acre – it has a lot of history, a mixture of religions and unusual sites that you can weave a good story around,” says Kawas, manager of the new hostel at the entrance to Acre’s Old City.But Acre is, in many respects, a place that has failed to realize its enormous tourism potential.

In 2001, Acre and Masada became the first two places in Israel to be declared UNESCO World Heritage sites. But there is no comparison today between the number of visitors to Masada – which for several years running has topped the list of the most visited…

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A History Of The Knights Templar – August 15 – The Origins

This Day in History / August 15

Posted on August 15, 2015

On this day in 1096, the armies of the First Crusade officially set out for the Holy Land. They were responding to Pope Urban II’s call the previous November for people of the faith to travel to Jerusalem and liberate the Church of the Holy Sepulchre from the Muslims. The pope chose August 15 because it is the date of the Feast of the Assumption.

His armies were preceded by the so-called People’s Crusade, which was organized several months earlier by the itinerant preacher Peter the Hermit and decimated by the Seljuks in Anatolia before ever making it to Jerusalem.

While reclaiming Jerusalem was the pope’s nominal goal, he was also responding to an appeal for help from Alexios I Komnenos, the Byzantine emperor in Constantinople, who too was fighting off Seljuk Muslims from the east. Only on June 7, 1099, the pope’s Crusaders, led by Raymond of Toulouse, Robert of Normandy and Tancred, arrived in Jerusalem, which the Fatimids of Egypt had by then wrested from Seljuk control. After a siege of more than a month, the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem on July 15. Their new Kingdom of Jerusalem lasted until it was routed – almost completely – by Saladin in 1187. The Crusades continued until early in the 14th century.

in Haaretz

 

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What really happened to the Knights Templar?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z-72gEsurI

A talk with Michael Haag, author of ‘The Templars: The History and the Myth.’ Why did they disappear? Blame it on the king of France, Haag says.

By Nick Owchar

The Templars were an elite taskforce — consider them the Green Berets of the Middle Ages. They were known for their service to the pope, their fierce determination to wrest Jerusalem from the enemy, their great wealth and, like many groups, their secrecy.

For a group so secret, though, they’ve received an incredible amount of attention both in the years BDB (before Dan Brown) and ever since.

Michael Haag, who has occasionally contributed to our pages, decided to weigh in and settle the misinformation bandied about by various recent books with his own, “The Templars: The History & the Myth” (Harper: 384 pp., $15.99 paper). He shared some of his revelations with the Siren’s Call during a recent conversation.

The…

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…Darkness Is Coming

The Crusades

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVe87NVVGvY Non nobis domine non nobis sed nomini tuo da gloriam The Latin text derives from Psalm 113:9 (according to the Vulgate numbering), which corresponds to Psalm 115:1 in the King James Version. It reads, Not to us, not to us, O Lord, But to thy name give glory.

NORWAY TO BE JUDENREIN, AS 800 JEWS PREPARE THEMSELVES TO LEAVE……..

NORWAY TO BE JUDENREIN, AS 800 JEWS PREPARE THEMSELVES TO LEAVE……..

I’m not sure about the time table and the numbers here, but the dark news continuously coming from Norway, and trend that they have been setting (importing massive numbers of immigrants who hold anti-Semitic views), is worrisome enough to give the story some leeway.  If I hear more about the story from other sources, I’ll update this post.

(They Did Leave, Norway IS Judenrein 13.09.2014) Wil.

 

Udo Ulfkotte 08.2012

Norway is expected to”Judenrein” ( free of Jews) in a few weeks. The last 819 Jews remaining in Norway currently are expected to leave soon because of the growing anti-Semitism in Norway.This will make Norway the first European nation that has no Jews living in it. The same trend is found in other European countries of a dropping Jewish population.

Especially with the terror attack on Israelis in Bulgaria, the sense is inescapeable that Jews in Europe are under attack. In February 2012, the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten reported on the exodus of Jewsfrom the country. Anne Sender, president of the Jewish Religious Community in Norway noted at the time that “Many immigrants bring with them anti-Semitism from their countries of origin.

The disgrace is that no one opposes them in this country. “It is the wave of Muslim immigration wave in Europe Europe that has revived anti-Semitism. A similar trend to that ofNorway is emerging in the neighboring country of Sweden – and in all EU countries. There are Muslims all over who promote In France it began. Not a day goes by without there attacks on Jews by Muslims. The newspapers barely over, there are too many cases. In just the first five months of 2012 there were 268 attacks on Jews in France. France is now a deeply anti-Semitic country. The Socialist government is taking under President Hollande nothing to protect the Jews – to the contrary. The many Muslims are an important group of voters. And they are under the protection of the Socialists. On 5 July 2012 was a 17-year-old Jew near Toulouse by two Muslim North Africans in a train nearly trampled to death because of his hanging on a Star of David necklace. The police did not even take up the complaint. Jews in France are now openly encouraged to leave the country.hostility o Jews. Kopp News Service is one of the few news outlets to address this issue openly.

 

 

http://tundratabloids.com/2012/08/norway-to-be-judenrein-as-800-jews-prepare-themselves-to-leave.html

 

Agent : Morten Storm

“Man Who Worked Both Sides Of Radical Muslim Fence Describes Being A Fanatic,” CBSLocal.com, September 11, 2014 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – This being the 9/11 anniversary, and with the President laying out a plan to get ISIS last night, here’s the story of one man who knows what jihadis are thinking, because he was one.

Morten Storm, a 6’1 red-haired Dane, converted to Islam, became more radicalized while studying in Yemen and made preparations to fight in Somalia. He describes that world of black and white:

“You just hate. As a jihadist, as a person who strictly follows the literal interpretation of the Koran, and it is about the world being split up to being correct and wrong. You are in the camp of the believers and against the camp of the disbelievers, the camp of God and the camp of Satan.”

Storm experienced a crisis of faith, enough so that he became a double agent for Western intelligence, scary, one-mistake-and-you’re-dead duty that proved so valuable that he’s now featured in a display at the International Spy Museum in DC.

He also left Islam and keeps his head down because he knows his former jihadi allies would love to take it from him.

– See more at: http://pamelageller.com/2014/09/ex-muslim-just-hate-jihadist-person-strictly-follows-literal-interpretation-koran.html/#sthash.b68GEmRU.dpuf

 

 

Dane: I worked for radicals, then CIA

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — After converting to Islam, a former member of a Danish motorcycle gang travels to Yemen to study the Quran and soon comes in contact with radical preachers waging holy war against the West.

On the verge of becoming a jihadist, he abruptly abandons his faith and embarks on a dangerous undercover mission to help Western intelligence agencies capture or kill terrorists.

Morten Storm, 37, claims he worked for six years as an informant for the CIA, Britain‘s MI5 and MI6 and Denmark‘s security service, PET. All declined to comment for this article.

“Could they just say ‘he never worked for us’? Sometimes silence is also information,” Storm told AP in Copenhagen. “I know this is true, I know what I have done.”

Storm’s unlikely story, told in a new book and an interview with The Associated Press, has the drama and intrigue of a “Homeland” episode. But the burly, red-bearded Dane insists his tale isn’t fiction.

Storm said he decided to reveal his secret-agent life to the media — he first spoke to a Danish newspaper in October — because he felt betrayed by his agent runners.

In particular, he was upset that he wasn’t given credit for the airstrike that killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a senior al-Qaida figure, in Yemen in 2011.

Storm claims the CIA won’t admit that his work helped them track down the U.S.-born cleric, accused of having inspired the 2009 shootings in Fort Hood, Texas, and the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a jetliner approaching Detroit the same year.

He also claims to have played a role in a series of well-documented anti-terror operations in the past six years by infiltrating extremist mosques in Britain and militant groups in Somalia. He said he often met his handlers in exotic locations and provided a photograph of one such rendezvous with purported PET agents, at a geothermal spa in Iceland.

Another photograph shows a suitcase packed with cash — $250,000 he claims to have received from the CIA for an undercover operation to track down al-Awlaki though that effort ultimately failed.

Bob Ayers, a former U.S. intelligence officer, cast doubt on Storm’s claims.

“Just because he claims to have worked for these agencies doesn’t mean he was on anyone’s payroll, as he almost certainly would not get clearance,” said Ayers, who now lives in London. “It is also doubtful that he would have been one of Awlaki’s trusted insiders. The only thing less trustworthy than an enemy agent is an enemy agent who has turned.”

Storm says he provided information that led to the 2007 arrest in Britain of Hassan Tabbak, a Syrian-born man sentenced to seven years in prison for trying to make bombs in preparation for terrorist attacks.

In his book, “Storm, the Danish agent in al-Qaida,” he also says he was involved in an operation targeting Saleh Nabhan, a senior al-Qaida operative killed by Navy SEALs in a helicopter attack inside Somalia in 2010. The book is set for release Monday in Denmark, but Storm gave the AP an advance copy.

The most elaborate operation involved al-Awlaki. In 2009, Storm said, the reclusive cleric asked for his help to find a European wife. Storm made contact on Facebook with a Muslim convert from Croatia named Aminah, who was fascinated with al-Awlaki. Storm said he helped carry encrypted video messages between the soon-to-be spouses on a flash drive, before they decided to meet in Yemen. He provided those video clips to AP.

A tracking device was placed in Aminah’s suitcase, but the plan failed when she was told to transfer her belongings to a plastic bag upon arrival in Yemen, Storm said.

However, Storm was sent back to Yemen, he said, supplying various items through a courier to al-Awlaki, who still didn’t suspect he was being double-crossed. The Dane believes his work eventually helped the CIA pinpoint al-Awlaki’s position.

The Americans “had to crawl back to the Danish intelligence to beg them if I would travel back to Yemen and try to recreate or reestablish the contact, the communication with Anwar,” Storm said. “Within four weeks, the contact was up again.”

Storm, who hails from Korsoer, 75 miles southwest of Copenhagen, has past convictions for bar fights, violence, cigarette smuggling and petty theft stretching back to his early teens. He was a prospective member of the Bandidos bicycle gang before a Muslim jail mate convinced him to convert to Islam in 1997.

Storm said he later spent time with radical Islamists in Britain and Yemen, married a woman from Morocco and named their first son Osama after al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

He wanted to join Islamist militants fighting in Somalia in 2006 but they rebuffed him. Storm said his anger at that rejection turned to doubts about his religion. Soon he had a complete change of heart, he said, and offered his services to PET agents, who put him in touch with their U.S. and British counterparts.

Storm said his relations with the CIA turned sour after he was told that al-Awlaki was killed in a separate operation. In a meeting at a seaside hotel in Denmark, he secretly recorded a conversation about the issue with a man he claims is a CIA officer.

The man Storm identified as Michael said in a recording given to the AP that the U.S. leadership — even President Barack Obama — were thankful for Storm’s efforts, but added that “there were a number of other projects” to track down al-Awlaki. Michael said it was like in a soccer game when several players are in a position to a score.

“The other guy could pass it to you, but he didn’t. He took the shot, he scores,” Michael said. “That’s what happened.”

Storm wasn’t satisfied with that explanation.

After spilling his secrets, Storm says he believes he’s now become a potential target not only for al-Qaida, but the CIA.

“I think that when a person potentially could become a liability, it is what is easiest for intelligence services to get rid of their agents and especially people like me,” Storm told AP.

He offered no firm evidence to suggest the CIA, or any other agency, had plans to hurt him.

Storm said he now lives at a secret address in Britain.

“I don’t regret anything. All I wanted was to fight terrorism and I ended up being the bad guy,” he said. “Everyone has won but me. I am happy I was able to save human lives, but obviously I am paying the price for this now.”

http://news.msn.com/world/dane-i-worked-for-radicals-then-cia

http://www.itv.com/thismorning/hot-topics/meet-the-undercover-terrorist-morten-storm

 

https://swissdefenceleague.wordpress.com/2083-a-european-declaration-of-independence-summary/

 

 

 

 

Hildegard of Bingen, Visionary

 

“Listen: there was once a king sitting on his throne. Around Him stood great and wonderfully beautiful columns ornamented with ivory, bearing the banners of the king with great honor. Then it pleased the king to raise a small feather from the ground, and he commanded it to fly. The feather flew, not because of anything in itself but because the air bore it along. Thus am I, a feather on the breath of God.”

Hildegard of Bingen   

The Benedictine Abbess, Hildegard of Bingen, is remembered as a musician, a poet, a scientist, and a preacher. She is also remembered as a woman who performed the works of mercy. Poor, elderly women were offered shelter and care as permanent guests in the abbey she led. Many people found medical care within her abbey’s walls.

Since her death late in the twelfth century, she has been honored as a saint. But her formal status within the church calendar has only been regularized in this century. On 7 October 2012, Pope Benedict XVI named her a Doctor of the Church. So Hildegard never went through the formal process of canonization. In this case vox populi, vox Dei, the voice of the people is the voice of God. The church ratified what its people have known for centuries.

Hildegard knew God in many ways, including through the gifts of nature. She wrote of the Virgin as “Mary, the bequeather/seed-source of God.” Hildegard writes, “Your flesh held joy, like grass upon which dew falls, pouring its life-green into it.”

She writes of God’s Word in all creation,

“No creature has meaning
without the Word of God.
God’s Word is in all creation, visible and invisible.
The Word is living, being,
Spirit, all verdant
all creativity.
This Word flashes out in
every creature.
This is how the spirit is in
the flesh — the Word is indivisible from God.”

If you want to read more of Hildegard’s writings, consider one of these books: Symphonia: A critical edition of the Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum translated by B.J.Newman, Scivias / Hildegard of Bingen translated by Columba Hart and Jane Bishop (The Classics of Western spirituality), Women in Praise of the Sacred; edited by Jane Hirshfield, Teachings of the Christian Mystics; edited by Andrew Harvey

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_of_Bingen

 

Hildegard of Bingen has been called by her admirers “one of the most important figures in the history of the Middle Ages,” and “the greatest woman of her time.” Her time was the 1100’s (she was born in 1098), the century of Eleanor of Aquitaine, of Peter Abelard and Bernard of Clairvaux, of the rise of the great universities and the building of Chartres cathedral. She was the daughter of a knight, and when she was eight years old she went to the Benedictine monastery at Mount St Disibode to be educated. The monastery was in the Celtic tradition, and housed both men and women (in separate quarters). When Hildegard was eighteen, she became a nun. Twenty years later, she was made the head of the female community at the monastery. Within the next four years, she had a series of visions, and devoted the ten years from 1140 to 1150 to writing them down, describing them (this included drawing pictures of what she had seen), and commenting on their interpretation and significance. During this period, Pope Eugenius III sent a commission to inquire into her work. The commission found her teaching orthodox and her insights authentic, and reported so to the Pope, who sent her a letter of approval. (He was probably encouraged to do so by his friend and former teacher, Bernard of Clairvaux.) She wrote back urging the Pope to work harder for reform of the Church.

The community of nuns at Mount St. Disibode was growing rapidly, and they did not have adequate room. Hildegard accordingly moved her nuns to a location near Bingen, and founded a monastery for them completely independent of the double monastery they had left. She oversaw its construction, which included such features (not routine in her day) as water pumped in through pipes. The abbot they had left opposed their departure, and the resulting tensions took a long time to heal.

Hildegard travelled throughout southern Germany and into Switzerland and as far as Paris, preaching. Her sermons deeply moved the hearers, and she was asked to provide written copies. In the last year of her life, she was briefly in trouble because she provided Christian burial for a young man who had been excommunicated. Her defense was that he had repented on his deathbed, and received the sacraments. Her convent was subjected to an interdict, but she protested eloquently, and the interdict was revoked. She died on 17 September 1179. Her surviving works include more than a hundred letters to emperors and popes, bishops, nuns, and nobility. (Many persons of all classes wrote to her, asking for advice, and one biographer calls her “the Dear Abby of the twelfth century.”) She wrote 72 songs including a play set to music. Musical notation had only shortly before developed to the point where her music was recorded in a way that we can read today. Accordingly, some of her work is now available on compact disk, and presumably sounds the way she intended. My former room-mate, a non-Christian and a professional musician, is an enthusiastic admirer of her work and considers her a musical genius. Certainly her compositional style is like nothing else we have from the twelfth century. The play set to music is called the Ordo Virtutum and show us a human soul who listens to the Virtues, turns aside to follow the Devil, and finally returns to the Virtues, having found that following the Devil does not make one happy.

She left us about seventy poems and nine books. Two of them are books of medical and pharmaceutical advice, dealing with the workings of the human body and the properties of various herbs. (These books are based on her observations and those of others, not on her visions.) I am told that some modern researchers are now checking her statements in the hope of finding some medicinal properties of some plant that has been overlooked till now by modern medicine. She also wrote a commentary on the Gospels and another on the Athanasian Creed. Much of her work has recently been translated into English, part in series like Classics of Western Spirituality, and part in other collections or separately. If your university library or bookstore cannot help you, try a Christian bookstore. If they do not have it, try a trendy (feminist, New Age, ecology) bookstore.

But her major works are three books on theology: Scivias (“Know the paths!”), Liber Vitae Meritorum (on ethics), and De Operatione Dei. They deal (or at least the first and third do) with the material of her visions. The visions, as she describes them, are often enigmatic but deeply moving, and many who have studied them believe that they have learned something from the visions that is not easily put into words. On the other hand, we have the recent best-seller, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat, by Oliver Sacks, Professor of Clinical Neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and author of Migraine and various other books. Professor Sacks is concerned with the relation of the brain to the mind, and ways in which the phsical state of the nervous system can affect our ways of perceiving reality. He views the pictures in Hildegard’s books of what she saw in her visions, and says, “The style of the pictures is a clear indication that the seer suffered regularly from migraine attacks. Migraine sufferers tend to see things in this manner.” And indeed, it is true that Hildegard suffered throughout her life from painful attacks of what may have been migraine. Professor Sacks hastens to add that this has nothing to do with whether her visions are authentic insights into the nature of God and His relation to the Universe.

Hildegard has undergone a remarkable rise in popularity in the last thirty years, since many readers have found in her visions, or read into them, themes that seem to speak to many modern concerns. For example:

Although she would have rejected much of the rhetoric of women’s liberation, she never hesitated to say what she thought needed to be said, or to do what she thought needed to be done, simply because she was a woman. When Pope or Emperor needed a rebuke, she rebuked them.

Her writings bring science, art, and religion together. She is deeply involved in all three, and looks to each for insights that will enrich her understanding of the others.

Her use of parable and metaphor, of symbols, visual imagery, and non-verbal means to communicate makes her work reach out to many who are totally deaf to more standard approaches. In particular, non-Western peoples are often accustomed to expressing their views of the world in visionary language, and find that Hildegard’s use of similar language to express a Christian view of reality produces instant rapport, if not necessarily instant agreement.

Hildegard wrote and spoke extensively about social justice, about freeing the downtrodden, about the duty of seeing to it that every human being, made in the image of God, has the opportunity to develop and use the talents that God has given him, and to realize his God-given potential. This strikes a chord today.