Monday, December 24, 2012

TO PREVENT ANOTHER SANDY HOOK, CHANGE THE AMERICAN GUN LAWS NOW.

The suggestion has now been put forth from several sources that the now infamous Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter, Adam Lanza, was operating under the influence of the Antidepressant drug Prozac. Furthermore, that there was some form of mind control at play; and that those were the real reasons why he committed those horrendous acts on that fateful day.

Prozac is a very dangerous drug. I was on Prozac at one stage of my life and the side effects are dreadful, to say the least. However, Prozac alone would cause the type of effects that has been the instance of the Elementary School Shootings.

What we have left in this instance is the possibility that he was under the influence of some form of mind control. The only form of mind control that could possibly come to mind would be hypnotism.

To suggest that there was a microchip implanted in his brain, and that, that was the real reason why he committed the acts that he did, is just too ridiculous to contemplate. He simply snapped and with the readily available supply of guns at his disposal, there was no impediment whatsoever to hold him back.

I have just watched a documentary online that alleges that it was possible to hypnotize an ordinary member of the public to assassinate a national treasure, (in the instance of Stephen Fry) in a packed theater without the subject remembering what he had just done. However, in the instances of such performances one must always look at what has just happened with an open and critical eye so as not to be deceived into believing something that is nothing much more than just another form of stage show or magic.


Showman Derren Brown
In this instance, what we were looking at was nothing more than quite a clever hoax perpetrated designed by the hypnotist Derren Brown for no other reason other than to make a lot of money.  

Definition
Hypnotism is an altered state of consciousness where the mind is relaxed, yet highly focused and suggestible. Hypnotism can occur in different stages of depth.

Suggestibility
According to a Mayo Clinic information sheet, it is possible that hypnotism makes a person's mind more suggestible than it is during normal conscious states. However, this does not mean that a hypnotized person loses control of his actions.

Obeying Commands
A hypnotized person may obey the commands of the hypnotist without hesitation. However, this is because of a state of lowered inhibitions (much like intoxication) and cannot be used in situations where the command runs contrary to the person's values or will.

Stage Shows and Myths
Many hypnotism-based stage shows involve hypnotizing volunteers, then asking them to perform strange or funny acts for the sake of entertaining audience members. Such shows give rise to myths about the power of hypnotism to brainwash people into obedience.

Hypnotism and Action
The Mayo Clinic states that while hypnotism cannot be used to make someone do something against his will, many people find it useful in helping themselves commit to actions they already favor, such as changing bad habits. It may work for people already highly motivated to change a behaviour.

Accordingly, what we are then looking at in the case of the elementary school shootings is the instance of someone who was of unstable mind and simply snapped. For those who then claim to be Christian to come forth with a million other excuses to pardon the actions of someone who was nothing much more than just a sick and deranged nut case, there is really no excuse at all.  

Those persons are just as responsible for what happened as the shooter himself for supporting the gun lobby, because that is exactly what they are doing by making excuses for the shooter.  Adam Lanz was someone who should have been in hospital a long time before he carried out the actions that he did.

Most importantly, there needs to be real and genuine reforms made to the American gun laws, (not excuses) to prevent a similar type of tragedy ever occurring again. Any contemplation about doing nothing at all relative to gun laws in no consideration at all.

WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONALIST; John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

The Illuminati Card Games are just that, a game!

Illuminati is a standalone card game made by Steve Jackson Games inspired by The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea.

The game has ominous secret societies competing with each other to control the world through sinister means, including legal, illegal, and even mystical. It was designed as a "tongue-in-cheek rather than serious" take on conspiracy theories.

It contains groups named similarly to real world organizations, such as the Society for Creative Anarchy and the Semiconscious Liberation Army. It can be played by two to eight players.

Depending on the number of players, a game can take between one and six hours.

The Illumanti Card Game is just what it claims to be, a game.

It is not a means by which the Illuminati are allegedly preparing the world for every dastardly and nasty deed they have in store for humanity.

It should not then be referred to in that context once an event such as 911 has taken place as being the Illuminati warning the world beforehand.

Any suggestion in that area should not be treated with any real seriousness at all.

There are yet other sections of Freemasonry that stand over and above the Illumanti.

Accordingly, the Illuminati are not at the top of heap when it comes to designing world wars, or even choosing whom their Antichrist is going to be and when they intend to bring him forth.

Those in the Illuminati may number into the thousands but those who are in the top rungs of the world government may number but a scant few.

Those who designed to game must have had some insider knowledge relative to the plans of the Illuminati but that still does not prove that those who designed the game were Illuminati, and any such suggestion contrary to that should be treated with disdain and genuine scepticism.

WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONALIST; John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical.

Monday, December 17, 2012

The Connecticut Shootings - Now the Whole World Asks WHY?

Concurrently there are masses and masses of information floating around the internet and other places relative to the vile and indecent acts Adam Lanza as he set out to slaughter and butcher some twenty innocent children and six adults at Sandy Hook a Connecticut elementary school.

Adam Lanza
My immediate reaction upon hearing the news was the same as the rest of the world of shock, horror and revulsion. In fact, even 24 hours after the event it still takes some dealing with in terms of why someone would want to go out and slaughter so many innocent children and adults for no-good reason at all.

The first point that I made to the good wife upon hearing the news was that it would have to take someone of an unsound mind to even contemplate such actions, let alone deliberately set out and carry through with any thoughts that he may have held in that direction.

However as time went by and the whole world watched this tragedy unfold we all realized that what was appearing on our television screens was not a movie but was real and had actually taken place.

We have all watched these types of events unfold before, but this time it was so evil that words fail to describe what the whole world was seeing unfold.  Instead of the victims being adults what this sick and deranged individual had actually set out to do was to slaughter innocents, small children, or babies, because that is what most of them were, nothing much more than babes in arms.

This time the situation was completely different. What he had actually done by killing small children was to cross over the line into a completely different world. In doing so, he has set a precedent to take humankind somewhere that no one has ever dared go before.

In addition, as far as I can see for that there is never going to be any forgiveness, not in this life or the next. As that is the case, then the only final destination that I can see for Adam Lanza is eternal damnation, as much as it regrets me to have to make a statement such at that.

However, in the case of the victims of this tragedy there is the certainty that they have all gone to paradise. It is certainly the instance that they have all been saved from any further suffering or tragedy that this world could have dished out to them in the future. 

If there is anything that is good at all that has come out of this catastrophe, it is that one fact alone. That is the only point in the positive when it comes to analysing what is otherwise one of the saddest days in the entire history of the USA   

A brief history of that dreadful day
Adam Lanza of Newtown, Connecticut was a child of the suburbs and a child of divorce who at age 20 still lived with his mother.

This morning he appears to have started his day by shooting his mother Nancy in the face, and then drove her car to nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School, armed with two handguns and a semi-automatic rifle.

There, before turning his gun on himself, he shot and killed 20 children, who President Obama later described as "beautiful little kids" between five and 10 years of age. Six adults were also killed at the school. Nancy Lanza was found dead in her home.

A relative told ABC News that Adam was "obviously not well."

Family friends in Newtown also described the young man as troubled and described Nancy as rigid. "[Adam] was not connected with the other kids," said Barbara Frey, who also said he was "a little bit different ... Kind of repressed."

State and federal authorities believe his mother may have once worked at the elementary school where Adam went on his deadly rampage, although she was not a teacher, according to relatives, perhaps a volunteer.

Nancy and her husband Peter, Adam's father, divorced in 2009. When they first filed for divorce in 2008, a judge ordered that they participate in a "parenting education program."

Peter Lanza, who drove to northern New Jersey to talk to police and the FBI, is a vice president at GE Capital and had been a partner at global accounting giant Ernst & Young.

Adam's older brother Ryan Lanza, 24, has worked at Ernst & Young for four years, apparently following in his father's footsteps and carving out a solid niche in the tax practice. He too was interviewed by the FBI. Neither he nor his father is under any suspicion.

"[Ryan] is a tax guy and he is clean as a whistle," a source familiar with his work said.
Police had initially identified Ryan as the killer. Ryan sent out a series of Facebook posts saying it wasn't him and that he was at work all day. Video records as well as card swipes at Ernst & Young verified his statement that he had been at the office.

Two federal sources told ABC News that identification belonging to Ryan Lanza was found at the scene of the mass shooting. They say that identification may have led to the confusion by authorities during the first hours after the shooting. Neither Adam nor Ryan has any known criminal history.

A Sig Sauer handgun and a Glock handgun were used in the slayings and .223 shell casings – a round used in a semi-automatic military-style rifle -- were also found at the scene. Nancy Lanza had numerous weapons registered to her, including a Glock and a Sig Sauer. She also owned a Bushmaster rifle -- a semi-automatic carbine chambered for a .223 caliber round. However, federal authorities cannot confirm that the handguns or the rifle were the weapons recovered at the school.

Numerous relatives of the Lanzas in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, as well as multiple friends, are being interviewed by the FBI in an effort to put together a better picture of the gunman and any explanation for today's tragedy.

"I think the most important thing to point out with this kind of individual is that he did not snap this morning and decide to act out violently," said former FBI profiler Mary Ellen O'Toole. "These acts involve planning and thoughtfulness and strategizing in order to put the plan together so what may appear to be snap behavior is not that at all."

WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONALIST; John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Eye-Opening Revelations and Forbidden Knowledge About Israel, the Jews, Zionism, and the Rothschilds

By Texe Marrs

"And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea... And they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshiped the beast..."
— Revelation 13:1,4

It’s taken many years of exhaustive research. I have examined literally thousands of documents, manuscripts, and books—many quite rare and difficult to find. But finally, after years of fact-finding and burning of midnight oil, my newest book is here!

It’s title is Conspiracy of the Six-Pointed Star; perhaps more illuminating, however, is the book’s subtitle: Eye-Opening Revelations and Forbidden Knowledge About Israel, the Jews, Zionism, and the Rothschilds.

I invite you, my long-time friends of Power of Prophecy Ministries, to order one of the first copies of this incredible book. I am sure you won’t be disappointed. Like my recent volumes, Codex Magica, Mysterious Monuments, and Conspiracy World, this new work is huge and encyclopedic in scope. Almost all of the material is fresh and new. Some would say “shocking” as well. I also include a number of selected articles from my monthly newsletter that truly deserve reprinting.

I do not believe that anywhere, at any time, has a revealing book such as this come forth. Never before has the Judaic religion and Zionist conspiracy—thoroughly satanic and serpentine—been put under the microscope and examined with such clarity. Never before has there been such mind-boggling documentation of the crimes, plots, and schemes of many of the world’s most influential—and wealthy—Illuminati elitists.

Famous Men Illuminate Us on the Dangers
Evangelist Billy Graham, in private conversations with President Richard Nixon, spoke of the Jews’ “stranglehold” on America. He warned of the evil power held by the Jews of the “Synagogue of Satan.” The Communist founder Karl Marx, inspirer of the Rothschilds and of Barack Obama, admitted that the God of his fellow Jews is “Money” and their religion is “cash” and the “bill of credit.”

President Harry Truman, who once took a two million dollar bribe from the Jews, said that no-one can be more “selfish.” When the Jews have power, Truman cautioned, “neither Hitler nor Stalin has anything on them for cruelty or mistreatment to the underdog.”

Bobby Fischer, World Grand Chess Master, often called “the greatest genius on planet earth,” boldly proclaimed that, “America is totally under control of the Jews.”

“They’re just unbelievably wicked,” Fischer added, “they’re a criminal people.”

All of these men and more you will encounter in the incomparable Conspiracy of the Six-Pointed Star. Order it today and discover for yourself the amazing facts about the “culture-distorters,” as twentieth century philosopher Francis Parker Yockey called the Jews. You will also find in the book the grave words of Protestant reformer Martin Luther. Luther at first befriended the Jews but eventually, to his dismay, found out the horror that lies sunk within the Jewish mind. Luther reported that while Christians pray for and bless the Jews, they themselves harbor only the most despicable of intentions toward Gentiles. The Jews among us, said Luther, wish Gentiles and Christians the most abominable fate: “They steal and mutilate our children, poison our water, curse us, and thirst after our blood. They even call Jesus ‘the child of a whore.’”

The Jews’ religion, Luther reluctantly concluded, “is worse than that of the heathen.”

They’re Working to Destroy and Crush Us
More recently, we see that the Jews, Israel, Judaism, and the Rothschilds are working incessantly to destroy Christianity, overthrow our Constitution, undermine our way of life, and rob us through their incalculably greedy Wall Street shenanigans. America is being put in a Communist vise and unmercifully crushed.

Do not think for a moment that this pitiful fate of a once great nation is due to unavoidable circumstance. The smackdown and bleeding of America is a deliberate and planned series of events. And Conspiracy of the Six-Pointed Star explains exactly who is behind this monstrous plot to savage and unravel America and throw us onto the dust heap of history.

As I disclose in Conspiracy of the Six-Pointed Star, the astonishing secret doctrine of the Jewish rabbis is that their coming Messiah is said to be a great Holy Serpent and Dragon. The rabbis boast that in the last days, this great beast will rise up from the bottomless pit (the sea of chaos) to conquer and vanquish the enemies of Zion. Is it not remarkable that in Revelation 13:1 the Apostle John gave us this striking prophecy: “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea.”

The Number 666 Discovered in the Six-Pointed Star
Please, take just a moment and cast an analytical eye at the cover of my new book, Conspiracy of the Six-Pointed Star. See the prophesied beast (the Red Dragon) rising up out of the sea of chaos? And make note of the “Star of David,” the symbol of the Jews and of Israel and Rothschild. Count the number of triangles on the Star. Count also the number of outer points of the Star and the number of lines of the hexagon within the Star. Do you not come up with the numbers “six-six-six”?

Now recall also that the Holy Bible forewarns, “Here is wisdom. Let Him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred, threescore, and six (666).”

“Let the Wise Understand”
John also wrote, “And I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit” (Revelation 9:1). Who is this “star,” and who is the “man” with the terrifying number 666?

You will find the answers in Conspiracy of the Six-Pointed Star. And when you do, I am confident that, like me, you will conclude, “Here is wisdom...” Indeed, this book will inspire and prepare you for some very tough days that lie ahead. The beast is fast rising , and when he leaps into action, the world as we know it will be at an end. Let the wise understand (Daniel 12:10).

WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONALIST; John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical.

The Jewish Peril - The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion

By Texe Marrs

Protocol No.5
A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished."
Protocol No. 6
"In order that the true meaning of things may not strike the Goyim (Gentiles) before the proper time, we will mask it..."

Hitler, too, is said to have been aware of the Protocols. History shows, in fact, that he sought to warn the world of the satanic evil the Protocols of Zion presented to humanity. Germany at the time had one of the world’s most effective intelligence services. Thus, the Nazi leader well knew of these manifestly black magical Protocols and how masterfully Lenin, Stalin and others had used them.

By the time Hitler rose to become Chancellor of Germany, the Jewish Communists—Lenin, Trotsky, Kaganovich, Yagoda and others—had already carried out the most diabolical and gruesome holocaust and series of death purges ever perpetrated on a suffering humanity.

Thousands of Gulag prison camps, mobile gas chambers, and blood-spattered police interrogation centers were in full operation throughout the Soviet Union. According to noted Russian researcher Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (author of The Gulag Archipelago), some sixty-six million men, women, and children were arrested, imprisoned, bludgeoned, tortured, and executed. Still, Lenin kept howling at associates: More...More blood...More terror. Do it! Now!

For over fifty years I have made it my life’s occupation to study the abomination that took place in Soviet Russia, followed by the lethal chaos and pain in Eastern Europe and Red China. The immensity of these brutal crimes cannot be overestimated. Any offenses committed by Hitler—and I do not paint over such offenses—were puny and minor compared to what took place in the Soviet Empire from 1917 to 1984.

How did these Communist spiritual predators and ancestors of Barack Obama, Lord Rothschild, George Soros, Nancy Pelosi, Ben Bernanke and today’s Wall Street bankers do it? How were they able to grip scores of nations by the throat and yank out the jugular vein of tens of millions of innocent people? I am convinced it was because Lenin, Stalin and the others were well-grounded in the Protocols of Zion.

The Protocols Were Their “Bible”—Pure Babylon

This was their “Bible,” their operating manual. Its prescriptions had emerged from centuries of meticulous research and experimentation. Its conclusions had been tested by the Rothschilds, the Warburgs, by Marx and Hegel. Never had a manual of discourse so perfectly meshed with the labyrinth rules and laws set forth in the rabbis’ Talmud. The Protocols were Pure Babylon, authored by human devils inspired by Beelzebub, Azazel, and all the other demons from the bottomless pit of the Jews abyss of Abaddon.

Seeing as I did the vast significance of the Protocols of Zion, I knew I must make them available to as large an audience as possible. Let me be clear. The Protocols of Zion is the most banned book in the world. The tyrants and killers do not want you to read this incredible volume. They are the book burners, the censors, the would-be despots of humanity who intend to herd you, me, and all of humanity into the cattle pen of slavery and humiliation. The Protocols is their blueprint, their roadmap.

The Protocols have been outlawed in nation after nation so that today, it is extremely difficult to obtain a copy. But necessity of survival and freedom of speech dictate that this book be made available to all who seek truth. That is why I have chosen to publish this latest edition, complete with my new Foreword.

Is This Not the Devil’s Doing?
Please, read the Protocols and decide for yourself. Is this not the Devil’s doing? More than that, ask yourself these momentous questions:

Will the global conspirators use these same repugnantly wicked Protocols of Zion that so viciously devastated human hopes and brought such horrific tragedy in past decades to unleash the fury of an entirely new and even more bloody assault on human beings in this, our present-day era?

Is America, in this year, 2012, destined to replay and repeat this sad, torturous history as Satan’s Zionist, Communist agents once again crank up their funeral engines of death and ignite with demonic passions their long pent-up, jack-booted Red Terror?

It is, indeed, wisely said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. And so it is that the hoofbeats of the horsemen of the Apocalypse can already be heard not too far off in the distance. Prepare for their coming. Get ready. Study the profoundly revealing Holy Bible’s book of Revelation; then carefully, very carefully, read and become forewarned of the Devil’s stratagems and plan as revealed in the Protocols of Zion.

Always remember: It is the prudent man, steeped in the incomparable Word of God, but keenly aware of the Devil’s crafty devices, who will remain safe and secure as mankind passes through the coming days of deception and despair.

WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONALIST; John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Book Review: The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin

Book Cover
So remarkable has been the rise and rise of Vladimir Putin in Russian politics, and so brutal has his reign been to maintain power, that there has never been a more likely contender for the Beast of Revelation to have appeared on the world scene for quite a long time. It is a small wonder that there are those out there who would choose to label the man in question for what he is - a dictator of types. Even though there is not usually a time when I would choose to give someone a free kick for a book and support any book that person may have written, because of the accuracy of "The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin" this is one of those rare occasions. As there has been times when I may have thought that Putin was as I have suggested above that he might be, that alone is reason enough for publishing this book review by Nadir Hassan at this BlogSpot. However, in doing so there is still no way that I am being suggestive of Putin being the Antichrist when the facts of the matter speak for themselves.
 
Reviewed by Nadir Hassan
The remarkable and sudden rise of Vladimir Putin to the zenith of Russian politics from a place of obscurity will ring a bell for Pakistanis. Here was a man chosen by the embattled Boris Yeltsin not because of his political nous or sparkling charisma; rather the complete opposite was the case. Putin was dull, grey and seen as an obedient yes-man who would protect those who had elevated him. Instead, he embarked on an orgy of violence and score-settling. It took only the merest hint of dissent for Putin to lash out, often violently and sometimes through cooked-up trials, at his former patrons. The parallels with Generals Ziaul Haq and Pervez Musharraf are quite eerie and speak to the natural human tendency to be corrupted by absolute power.

Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen, in her brave and valuable portrait of the less seemly aspects of Putin in The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin, posits that the man he has become in power is the man he was all along. Growing up in a one-bedroom apartment with his family, a place that would be his home till his mid-twenties, Putin was a thug from the start. He sought fights as a kid and personal enrichment as a KGB employee. His first KGB posting in Dresden was notable only for his desire to accumulate material goods, snatched from benefactors without so much as a thank you.

Gessen also dismantles the self-created myth of Putin as the dashing young spy fighting the good fight during the Cold War. According to her, he was little more than an office drone, gathering information no one wanted and writing reports that would never be read. Gessen also believes that Putin, while fiercely nationalistic, had no particular attachment to the Communist cause. Thus, in her opinion, Putin could play a secret role in supporting the hardliners in their 1991 coup attempt, distance himself from the aspiring coup-makers once their failure was guaranteed and then align himself with the non-Communist politician Anatoly Sobchak in Leningrad.

Of the incredibly risky reporting Gessen has undertaken, none is as impressive as her investigation into the $90 million Putin siphoned off while serving under Sobchak. She tracks down a woman who had looked into this matter and then fled to an almost uninhabited town after being threatened by Putin’s regime. The scheme goes something like this: with Leningrad facing a severe food shortage, Putin was responsible for selling raw materials to Germany in exchange for food. Nearly $100 million in raw materials was sold but almost no food arrived. Putin, as it transpired, purposely prepared legal documents for the import/export that were so flawed they would have no standing in court.

Peering behind the image of Putin as a nationalist who has brought prosperity to Russia, in The Man Without a Face, Gessen exposes a web of criminality and gangsterism that can all be traced back to Putin. She writes in painstaking detail about the various ways in which he took over the largest companies in Russia, simply arresting his opponents on fraudulent charges or intimidating them into leaving the country and abandoning their businesses.

Then there is the pile of corpses. The victims include journalists Anna Politkovskaya and Yuri Shchekochikhin, former patron-turned-critic Sobchak and secret service defector Alexander Litvinenko. Gessen goes a step further and accuses Putin of masterminding a string of terrorist attacks which were then used to brutally subjugate the Chechen people, including apartment bombings and the Moscow Theatre hostage situation of 2002. Given the diminished life expectancy of Putin critics, collecting all these theories in one book testifies even further to the courage of Gessen, who has lived in Moscow since 1991.

Gessen is equally scathing in her assessment of Putin’s rapacious appetite for wealth. She estimates that his fortune may be as high as $40 billion. One anecdote in particular illustrates her claim that Putin is motivated by a need to take what belongs to others. During a meeting with the owner of American football team, Putin was shown a Super Bowl ring that had 124 diamonds. He looked at it keenly and then simply pocketed it. After a few days of controversy, the man simply had to say that he had intended to give the ring to Putin just to diffuse a potentially fraught international situation.

So thorough is Gessen in her indictment of Putin as an evil force and so courageous is her willingness to do this freely, it seems a bit churlish to point out a couple of inadequacies in her book. Still, it is a bit jarring just how willing Gessen is to excuse the Russian people, who after all have consistently returned Putin to office, for tolerating and even supporting Putin. She overlooks the fact that Russia under Putin enjoyed a robust economic boom, sparked primarily by record-high oil prices and that this in itself could explain why a blind eye has been turned to Putin’s kleptocratic and murderous regime.

The other jarring moment is the epilogue to the book. After 250 pages of unremitting gloom, Gessen suddenly turns naively optimistic. She writes of a few protests that started to take place in 2011 and begins predicting Putin’s downfall. Gessen starts believing in the power of Facebook status updates and the white ribbons that come to symbolise opposition to Putin. Just a few short months after these protests, however, Putin’s grip on power does not seem to have loosened a bit. This is something anyone could have figured out just by reading the rest of Gessen’s book. That she does not do so, shows just how strong her hatred of Putin really is and just how badly she wants to believe that his rule may soon come to an end.

WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONALIST; John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical.