ISIS Terrorists may now be Operating in a Mexico Border Town Waiting to Enter the US, Intelligence Sources Say

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ISIS Terrorists may now be Operating in a Mexico Border Town Waiting to Enter the US, Intelligence Sources Say

High-level intelligence officials and federal law enforcement are saying that terrorist attacks might be “imminent” for Texas cities and towns located near the U.S.-Mexico border as it’s believed the jihadists are already operating in a Mexican border town.

The unnamed officials told Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, that there’s good reason to believe Islamic State terrorists are operating in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez, and are planning to use the border to gain entry into the U.S. to carry out their attacks.

Juarez is located just over 8 miles from El Paso, and is a hotbed for violent and narcotic crimes and has been linked to the Islamic militant group, Hezbollah, in previous years. Officials claim that Islamic State jihadists might be setting up shop in Juarez, and plan to attack using car bombs and other vehicle-born improvised explosive devices.

The Judicial Watch report states: “Intelligence officials have picked up radio talk and chatter indicating that the terrorist groups are going to ‘carry out an attack on the border,’ according to one JW source. ‘It’s coming very soon,’ according to this high-level source, who clearly identified the groups planning the plots as ‘ISIS and al-Qaeda.'”

According to the report, an official said the threat of an attack is so likely that the commanding general at Ft. Bliss, the U.S. Army Base in El Paso, is being briefed on security measures.
Iraq (Photo: Reuters/Wolfgang Rattay)

A Kurd of the ethnic minority of Yazidis holds up a placard reading “Stop IS” during a demonstration in Bielefeld, Aug. 9, 2014. Some 10,000 ethnic Kurds of the Yazidis sect, who practice an ancient faith related to Zoroastrianism, protested in the western German city on Saturday against Islamic State militants, who are surging across northern Iraq near the Kurdistan borders in their drive to eradicate unbelievers such as Christians and Yazidis.
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Fox News reported Friday that Texas Department of Public Safety released a three-page bulletin that warned Islamic State terrorists have studied and are “expressing an increased interest” in crossing over the border to carry out attacks. The Texas Department of Public Safety came to this conclusion through monitoring Twitter accounts that are believed to be linked to Islamic State jihadists.

The bulletin states: “A review of ISIS social media messaging during the week ending Aug. 26 shows that militants are expressing an increased interest in the notion that they could clandestinely infiltrate the southwest border of the U.S., for terror attack.”

An anonymous federal law enforcement official told The Blaze that there has been a long-standing concern about terrorist groups taking advantage of the border.

“Chatter has certainly increased and there’s a need to be vigilant,” the official told The Blaze. “Al-Qaeda and groups like ISIL have been vocal about the southern border. ISIL is making direct threats now and the situation is changed.”

During President Barack Obama’s press conference Thursday he said the U.S. doesn’t have a concrete plan to combat ISIS.

“I think what I’ve seen in some of the news reports suggest that folks are getting a little further ahead of where we’re at than what we currently are,” Obama asserted.

Michael Scheuer, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer, told Fox News that it would be naive to think that Islamic State jihadists would not use the U.S. southern border to their advantage to gain an entry point into the country.

“You’d have to be silly not to take an advantage of that opportunity. You can say many things about the Islamists, but silly they are not,” Scheuer said. “They may be brutal, but they are not dumb. We are the dumb ones.”

As reported by The Christian Post, Texas Governor Rick Perry said last month that it’s a “real possibility” Islamic State terrorists have already used the border to cross into the country due to lack of border security.

“Because of the condition of the border from the standpoint of it not being secured and us not knowing who is penetrating across: individuals from ISIS or other terrorist states. And, I think it is a very real possibility that they have already used that,” Perry told attendees at a Heritage Foundation panel on border security.

Scheuer added that it’s pretty common to see people from Asia and the Middle East use the U.S.-Mexico border to gain access into the country.

“We are confidently sure that every month a number of Arabs or Pakistanis come across the border illegally in the south,” Scheuer told Fox News.

Original Photo by Christian Post

Atheist Poll Claims Over One-third of Americans Want ‘Under God’ Removed From Pledge of Allegiance

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Atheist Poll Claims Over One-third of Americans Want ‘Under God’ Removed From Pledge of Allegiance

A secular organization has released a poll which states that over a third of Americans support removing the phrase “Under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance.

The American Humanist Association released on Tuesday a study done for their organization by The Seidewitz Group indicating that 34 percent of Americans support removing the phrase.

Roy Speckhardt, executive director for the American Humanist Association, told The Christian Post that the poll was done, in part, as a counter to a LifeWay Research Poll from last year.
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Speckhardt also told CP that he believes the unusually high percentage of individuals supporting the removal of the phrase was due to the study providing background on the pledge’s history.

“The numbers in support of retaining ‘under God’ that they were getting didn’t line up with what we were seeing in towns and cities across the country,” said Speckhardt.

“We thought it possible that the increased support for returning the pledge to its pre-Mcarthy Era form, might be higher if people learned about the origins of the 1953 addition of “under God” to the pledge. This survey showed the truth in that hypothesis.”

The AHA study was a six-question survey found online that was conducted on May 29 and had a sample space of 1,000 American adults.

For their questionnaire, the group told the survey takers that the phrase “under God” was absent from the Pledge of Allegiance up until the 1950s.

“During the Cold War, in 1954, the phrase ‘one nation indivisible’ was changed to read ‘one nation, under God, indivisible.’ Some people feel this phrase in our national pledge should focus on unity rather than religion,” read the information given to respondents.

The study’s findings noted that 21.4 percent of Christian respondents, 40.9 percent of respondents professing different faiths, and 62.7 percent of those professing no religious affiliation supported removal.

In April, LifeWay Research released the findings of a poll they conducted last September on what Americans felt about the phrase “under God” being in the Pledge of Allegiance.

For the LifeWay poll, 85 percent of respondents wanted “under God” to remain in the Pledge, 8 percent said it should be removed, and 6 percent said they did not know.

LifeWay’s sample space was 1,001 adults, who they interviewed over the telephone during a four-day period in September of last year.

“Most Americans have recited the pledge hundreds of times and are not inclined to memorize a different pledge,” said Scott McConnell, director of LifeWay Research, back in April.

“Changing it may just feel wrong. Most Americans say they believe in God or a higher being and feel comfortable having ‘under God’ in the pledge.”

From when it was first proposed in the 1950s, various polls on the position of “under God” in the pledge have produced supermajorities in favor of the phrase.

In 1953, a Gallup Poll found that 69 percent of Americans surveyed supported adding the phrase, 21 percent were opposed, and 10 percent held no opinion.

In 2002, an ABC News.com/Washington Post poll conducted via telephone of 1,024 adults nationwide, found that 89 percent of Americans felt the phrase should remain in the pledge.

They conducted the poll in response to a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling against the phrase earlier that year.

“The Ninth Circuit may differ, but an overwhelming majority of Americans pledge allegiance to the pledge,” reported Dalia Sussman of ABC News back in 2002.

“George W. Bush called the ruling ‘ridiculous’ and both houses of Congress passed resolutions condemning it.”

The American Humanist Association has stated that the poll has encouraged them to begin a “new campaign” on the topic beginning next Monday.

Speckhardt of AHA declined to give details to CP about what this “new campaign” will specifically do, but he did acknowledge that AHA is overseeing a lawsuit against the phrase in New Jersey.

Original Photo by Christian Post

Boko Haram declares Nigeria people Caliphate

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Boko Haram declares Nigeria people Caliphate

ABUJA (Worthy News)– In Gwoza, Abubakar Shekau — the leader of the Islamist Boko Haram — has declared an Islamic caliphate in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State, according to International Christian Concern.

Once a predominantly Christian town situated near Nigeria’s border with Cameroon, Gwoza was seized by Haram on August 5, prompting the massacre of up to 1,000 Christians after the Nigerian military mutinied and refused to try and retake the town.

For weeks, Haram has captured towns like Gwoza to encircle Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State that the Islamic insurgency apparently intends to take as well.

“Today, a once-predominantly Christian town in northeast Nigeria joined the Islamic caliphate at the expense of far too many Christians martyred, displaced, and terrorized at the hands of armed extremists,” said Cameron Thomas, ICC’s Regional Manager for Africa. “For years, Boko Haram has waged a campaign of terror against Christians, moderate Muslims, educators and students, and law enforcement and military personnel for the establishment of a separate Islamic state, which today they felt capable of declaring. Such a declaration should serve as rallying point for the international community to come together and lend its full support to the Nigerian state in its battle against Boko Haram and all other extreme ideologies plaguing the stability of not only that state, but the entire region.”

Since 2009, Haram has been waging a war to establish a separate Islamic state ruled by sharia. It is also responsible for the mass-abduction of more than 270 schoolgirls from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok.

Original photo by worthy news

How a paralysed man came to realise that life is worth living

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How a paralysed man came to realise that life is worth living

I happened to listen to the World Service programme, “Heart and Soul” in the early hours of the morning this last Saturday, on the very topical subject “To Die with Dignity”. The interviewer, John Laurenson, tried to provide balance, as these kinds of programmes always do, by interviewing those on both sides of the debate. Inevitably, certain people, identified as Belgian Catholics (euthanasia is now legal in Belgium), had becomes advocates of euthanasia and saw nothing wrong with it. One person, explaining why it did not contravene the Biblical injunction “Thou shalt not kill”, said it was just like the “coup de grace” on the battlefield; an interesting notion.

But for me the most riveting interviewee came halfway through the programme, when I was drifting back to sleep: a chap called Count Philippe Pozzo di Borgo (from an ancient Corsican aristocratic family, apparently) came on air and raised the debate to a completely different level. He had become tetraplegic in 1993 following a paragliding accident and initially had wanted to kill himself. Somehow he managed to dislodge all the tubes plugged into him, but failed to die. When his wife died of cancer a couple of years later he was again very depressed: “You want to stop living” he said in his heavily-accented English. Had French law allowed euthanasia he would not be here, he admitted.

What had changed his life was his (painfully acquired) new understanding of St Paul’s words, “When I am weak, then I am strong”, which he described as “a lovely message for everyone”. Giving no indication that he was a conventionally religious man – indeed, he stated “You don’t have to be religious to believe what Christ says” – Count Philippe had come to see that Christianity alone paid attention to “the small, the fragile, the weak”. It was through his own weakness that he experienced the revelation that one can live “with great depths and relationships” even if immobile from the neck down.

This seems an almost mystical understanding. After all, it is what characterises the saints – their total self-abandonment to God and trust in him, despite their own weaknesses. For the rest of us, such radical dependency on God is something we struggle with all our life. For the Count, instead of becoming bitter and remaining determined to die, it was a moving and complete reversal of all the values he had lived in his previous 42 years. He told the interviewer that when you are physically helpless “it doesn’t mean everything is wrong” – that’s what comes of believing in “the tyranny of normality and productivity”. Instead, he asserted, “our condition is to be weak, not the other way round.”

In what could be described as a spiritual journey, the Count had come to see that “the place in the shadow of death” where he found himself, was a place “where the light falls most brightly” – the place where the soul lives “even when the brain isn’t functioning”. You could spend years in prayer and spiritual exercises without ever coming to understand Christ’s teaching on self-surrender. Count Pozzo di Borgo, about whose life an award-winning film, Untouchable was made in 2011 (and which I am now keen to see), has come to live it in practice. Needless to say, it was impossible to go back to sleep after listening to this extraordinary man. Talk about triumph of the human spirit: he needs to be wheeled in to the House of Lords the next time the Lords debate another proposed bill by Lord Falconer on euthanasia.

Original Photo by Catholic Herald

Pope: Iraq’s persecuted Christians are courageous witnesses of Christ

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Pope: Iraq’s persecuted Christians are courageous witnesses of Christ

Iraqi Christians are true and courageous witnesses of Christ’s message of hope, forgiveness and love, Pope Francis has said.

“The Church suffers with you and is proud of you, proud to have children like you,” he said on Wednesday during his weekly general audience in St Peter’s Square, in a greeting to Arabic-speaking pilgrims, especially those from Iraq.

The Pope spoke in Italian, with Arabic translation, telling the pilgrims that the Church is a mother who knows how to help her children most in need, “pick up the child who falls, heal the sick, seek the lost, wake up the sleeping, and also defend her defenseless and persecuted children.”

The Pope said he wanted to assure Iraqis, and all those helpless and persecuted, of his closeness. “You are in the Church’s heart,” he said, as he asked God to bless and protect them.

The Church is proud of those who persevere through such hardship, he said, because “you are the strength and real and authentic witness of her message of salvation, forgiveness and love. I embrace you all, all of you.”

The Pope’s words to Iraqis came after a catechesis on the maternal nature of the church.

“We are not orphans! We have a mother” in the Church and in Mary, he said.

“The birth of Jesus from the womb of Mary, in fact, is the prelude to the rebirth of every Christian in the womb of the Church,” he added.

Original Photo by catholic herald

Cameron is not ruling out military action in Islamic State

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Cameron is not ruling out military action in Islamic State

David Cameron has said he is not ruling out military action to combat the Islamic State (IS) in northern Iraq and Syria.

The prime minister, speaking ahead of a Nato summit in Wales, also restated the Government’s policy not to pay ransoms in the the light of threats made by IS to the life of a British hostage after the murders of James Foley and Steven Sotloff. The family of the 44-year-old aid worker has asked the media to refrain from identifying him.

Mr Cameron said he was “personally supervising” efforts to secure the man’s release.

Speaking to the BBC about the possibility of taking part in military action against IS, Mr Cameron said: “I certainly don’t rule anything out. We should pursue our national interests. The most important thing to consider is that we mustn’t see this as something where you have a Western intervention over the heads of neighbouring states and leaving others to pick up the pieces.”

In another interview with Good Morning Britain, he added: “”We need to show real resolve and determination, we need to use every power and everything in our armoury with our allies, with those on the ground, to make sure we do everything we can to squeeze this dreadful organisation our of existence.”

On the issue of the paying of ransoms to IS, Mr Cameron told the BBC said he was sure that the Government’s policy to not pay them was the right one.

“I know that this is difficult for families when they are the victims of these terrorists – but I’m absolutely convinced from what I’ve seen that this terrorist organisation, and indeed others around the world, have made tens of millions of dollars from these ransoms – and they spend that money on arming themselves, on kidnapping more people and on plotting terrorist outrages, including in our own country,” he said.

Original photo by catholic herald

Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s Cause is postponed

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Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s Cause is postponed

The highly publicised Cause for the sainthood of an American archbishop has been halted indefinitely, the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, announced yesterday.

Although the beatification of the televangelist Archbishop Fulton Sheen was expected as early as next year, the Diocese said in their statement that the process had been suspended indefinitely following discussions with the Vatican.

The statement read: “The process to verify a possible miracle attributed to Sheen had been going extremely well, and only awaited a vote of the Cardinals and the approval of the Holy Father. There was every indication that a possible date for beatification in Peoria would have been scheduled for as early as the coming year.

“The Holy See expected that the remains of Venerable Sheen would be moved to Peoria where official inspection would be made and first class relics be taken. Subsequently, the Archdiocese of New York denied Bishop Jenky’s request to move the body to Peoria. After further discussion with Rome, it was decided that the Sheen Cause would now have to be relegated to the Congregation’s historic archive.”

Archbishop Sheen’s Cause excelled after doctors failed to explain how a still born baby boy came back to life after his mother prayed to the archbishop, who died in 1979.

The full statement from the Diocese of Peroria is below:

It is with immense sadness that the Most Reverend Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, Bishop of Peoria and President of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation, announced today that the Cause for Sheen’s beatification and canonization has for the foreseeable future been suspended.

The process to verify a possible miracle attributed to Sheen had been going extremely well, and only awaited a vote of the Cardinals and the approval of the Holy Father. There was every indication that a possible date for beatification in Peoria would have been scheduled for as early as the coming year.

The Holy See expected that the remains of Venerable Sheen would be moved to Peoria where official inspection would be made and first class relics be taken. Subsequently, the Archdiocese of New York denied Bishop Jenky’s request to move the body to Peoria. After further discussion with Rome, it was decided that the Sheen Cause would now have to be relegated to the Congregation’s historic archive.

Countless supporters especially from the local church in Central Illinois have given their time, treasure and talent for this good work with the clear understanding that the body of Venerable Sheen would return to the Diocese. Bishop Jenky was personally assured on several occasions by the Archdiocese of New York that the transfer of the body would take place at the appropriate time. New York’s change of mind took place as the work on behalf of the Cause had reached a significant stage.

Bishop Jenky is what is technically called the “actor” of the Sheen Cause. The Diocese of Peoria and the Sheen Foundation have prayed and labored for this good work for the last twelve years.

The Bishop is heartbroken not only for his flock in Peoria but also for the many supporters of the Sheen Cause from throughout the world who have so generously supported Peoria’s efforts. It should be noted, however, that saints are always made by God not by man. Efforts for many causes have sometimes taken decades or even centuries. Bishop Jenky urges that those who support the Sheen Cause continue their prayers that God’s will be made manifest.

No further comment will be released at this time.

Original Photo by Catholic Herald

Obama now has a global strategy – but not for ISIS

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Obama now has a global strategy – but not for ISIS

Ebola runs rampant, Ukraine and Iraq are torn by war, America is being warned of an imminent ISIS

attack and natural disasters abound while the Obama administration’s key aid agency expands “inclusion” strategies for lesbian, “gay,” bisexual and transgender persons.

The increased application of the LGBT-inclusion philosophy will help to transform agency hiring practices as well as the delivery of worldwide assistance programs, according to a procurement document WND located via routine database research.

The USAID Special Initiatives & Development Partners Division on behalf of the agency’s Office of Civil Rights and Diversity, or OCRD, awarded a sole-source, no-bid purchase order to communications-services provider Aptive Resources for LGBT-specific training.

As WND reported, USAID has criticized “conservative gender norms related to sexuality” and denounced “strong normative preference for heterosexuality” in foreign nations.

Such resistance to the administration’s LGBT agenda is viewed as a chief impediment to achieving U.S. policy goals.

USAID Administrator Ravi Shah recently said it is up to the U.S. to take action against legal restrictions against LGBT populations in 70 nations.

“We have to be the ones that stand up for those that are marginalized and for those that are not benefiting from their legal and social systems protecting their individual human rights,” Shah said at the unveiling of USAID’s “LGBT Vision for Action” plan in July.

“And in doing so, we have the best chance of ending extreme poverty, of supporting efforts to reduce hunger and suffering, of improving health and adequate nutrition.”

The LGBT inclusion plan will help govern various agency policies, including its National Action Plan on Women, Peace, Security; its Democracy, Human Rights and Governance Strategy; and even its climate change policy.
– See more at: http://www.mychristiandaily.com/index.php/uk/162-world/usa-canada/news-item-1-usa-canada/11867-obama-finally-has-a-global-strategy-but-not-for-isis#sthash.KRFVTc0i.dpuf

Original Photo by my christian daily

Nancy Writebol Praises God with Surviving Ebola

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Nancy Writebol Praises God with Surviving Ebola

Nancy Writebol, the second American missionary to contract Ebola while in Liberia, said Wednesday she’s thankful to be alive.

After nearly one month of battling the deadly virus, the 59-year-old nurse spoke publicly for the first time about her illness, saying she’s getting stronger with each passing day.

Writebol credits God for her recovery. She, along with fellow missionary Dr. Kent Brantly, was treated at Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital before being released in August.

“I wondered at times whether I would live or die,” Writebol said in a press conference. “His presence really was with me — and I knew that, I could sense it. … I am so thankful for His mercy and His grace.”

***Our CBN News team is down in North Carolina at the press conference and will be speaking one-on-one with Nancy Writebol and her husband David. Stay tuned for mor

Meanwhile, another American doctor from Boston has fallen ill with the virus. The 51-year-old ob-gyn often traveled to Liberia during the past 20 years to treat patients there.

He said he suspects he contracted the virus from a patient with masked symptoms.

He went to Liberia after two other doctors got sick. There are no plans currently for him to come back to the United States for now, and there no more ZMapp serum doses, used to treat Brantly and Writebol, anywhere in the world.

Still, the doctor is said to be in good condition.

So far, the West African Ebola outbreak has killed more than 1,500 people in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

Original Photo by Daily Mail

Christians Need to Know 5 Things about the American Captives in North Korea

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Christians Need to Know 5 Things about the American Captives in North Korea

Three Americans are being held captive in North Korea. During a recent interview with CNN, Kenneth Bae, Matthew Todd Miller and Jeffrey Edward Fowle pleaded for U.S. intervention in setting them free.

The North Korean government accuses all three Americans of various forms of anti-government activity.

1. What is Known About Kenneth Bae?

Bea is an American-Korean missionary affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. In 2012, Bea was sentenced to 15-years of hard labor of “hostile acts” against North Korea.

“I do believe that (a) special envoy need to come in order to resolve the situation I am in right now,” Bae said during the CNN interview.

Born in South Korea and a naturalized U.S. citizen, Bae was leading a Christian tour group from China when he was arrested near the city of Yanji along the northeastern coast.

Facing a myriad of health problems, Bea was hospitalized several months ago, but has since been released back to the labor camp. Bae is the longest held American in North Korea since the Korean War and the only captive to be sent to the nations labor camp.

2. What is Known About Matthew Todd Miller?

Matthew Todd Miller is the second of three Americans being detained for “rash behavior” by the North Korean government.

According to the Korea Central News Agency, the 24-year-old Bakersfield, California resident was arrested April 10 for seeking asylum. Inverting his name, KCNA claims Miller tore up his tourist visa while attempting to enter the country.

“A relevant organ of the DPRK put in custody American Miller Matthew Todd, 24, on April 10 for his rash behavior in the course of going through formalities for entry into the DPRK to tour it,” the KCNA said.

Miller told CNN that he wouldn’t know his exact charges until he goes to trial.

“I prepared to violate the law of the DPRK before coming here and I deliberately committed my crime,” said Miller. “I have already admitted my guilt and apologized to the government of the DPRK.”

3. What is Known About Jeffrey Edward Fowle?

Jeffrey Edward Fowle lives on a small farm in West Carrollton, Ohio with his wife, Tatyana, and three children, Alex, 13; Chris, 11; and Stephanie, 9.

The 56-year-old entered North Korea April 29 on a tourist visa. From Miamisburg, Ohio, Fowle was taken into custody for leaving a Bible in a hotel room.

During the interview with CNN reporter Will Ripley, Fowle said, “It’s been very good so far, and I hope and pray that it continues, while I’m here two more days or two more decades.”

“You guys should convey my desperate situation,” he said. “I’ve got a wife and three elementary school-aged kids that depend on me for support.”

Fowle works for the city of Moraine.

According to WHIO TV, City Manager Dave Hicks claims the city of Moraine needs Fowle to return soon or face termination.

“We’re going to have to do something with that pretty soon,” he said. “At some point, we can’t let this go on forever.”

Hicks suggest the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which Foyle belongs, establish a pension to support his family.

“He’s there because he chose to go there,” Hicks told WHIO. “Everyone’s accountable for the decisions we make.”

4. What is the North Korean Agenda?

Following the attacks of Sept. 11 and later North Korea’s nuclear test in October 2006, Security Council members imposed sanctions on Pyongyang, the capital of DPRK.

Some maintain the imprisoned Americans could be a ploy by the North Korean government in an attempt to loosen sanctions against the nation’s drive to develop long-range missiles. Yet others contend North Korea’s warheads aren’t advanced enough to reach the US homeland.

Bruce Klingner. senior research fellow for Northeast Asia at the Heritage Foundation, argues North Korea deserves more attention that the administration has given.

“North Korea has likely made greater progress than perceived—if not already achieved—warhead miniaturization, the ability to place nuclear weapons on its short-range missiles, and a preliminary ability to reach the United States,” wrote Klingner. “As such, the United States and its allies face a greater threat today than is widely construed.”

Klingner warns that North Korea is as much a nuclear threat as Iran.

“Washington should no longer hold some sanctions in abeyance, to be rolled out after the next North Korean violation or provocation. There will be little change until North Korea feels pain and China feels concern over the consequences of Pyongyang’s actions and its own obstructionism.”

5. Has Washington Responded?

In news reports earlier this summer, Bea expressed that he feels abandoned.

“Bae said he had heard that the U.S. government is doing everything it can for his release but feels disappointment that there has been no sign of resolution when he is approaching two years in his stay in (the North) and that he feels abandoned by the U.S. government,” according to the Choson Sinbo newspaper.

In late August, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) informed the United States that it had rescinded its invitation for Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues Ambassador Robert King to travel to Pyongyang August 30-31 on a humanitarian mission focused on securing the release of U.S. citizen Kenneth Bae.

“We are surprised and disappointed by North Korea’s decision,” said Marie Harf, deputy spokesperson of the U.S. Department of State.

Harf maintains the State Department has sought clarification from the DPRK about its decision and have made every effort so that Ambassador King’s trip could continue as planned or take place at a later date.

“We remain gravely concerned about Mr. Bae’s health and we continue to urge the DPRK authorities to grant Mr. Bae special amnesty and immediate release on humanitarian grounds.”

Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, contends the three Americans are being used to broker a deal with the U.S.

“They’re sending a signal, saying, ‘We’re ready to bargain for the three hostages,'” Richardson told CNN.

Russ Jones is co-founder of Christian News Service, a content creation and news distribution firm. He’s also a media consultant to a number of cause oriented campaigns and organizations. Russ has been a guest on such programs as the Mike Gallagher Show, the Dennis Prager Show, Bill Martinez Live and Sandy Rios in the Morning. He holds degrees from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a master’s degree from St. Paul School of Theology. He is married to Jackie and together they have four children.

Original Photo by christian headlines

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