2006: The Year in Review
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2006: The Year in Review
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The Top 10 Stories in Review
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The following stories are the top prophetically significant stories covered by The Alpha-Omega Report for the year 2006. These stories were chosen with the help of assistant editor, Howard Harris, and some of our volunteer reporters who provided news coverage and assistance during the year.
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#1. The Covert Iranian Nuclear Weapons Program
This story is actually many sub-stories that developed during the year but all fit under the headline umbrella above. These stories include developments on the diplomatic scene as well as U.S. military movements related to sending a message to Iran, as well as the threats back and forth between Iran, Israel and the USA.
At this point, conventional wisdom still holds that Iran has not yet developed nuclear weapons. We do know that reports surfaced in the late summer that the Iranian development program suffered some technical setbacks in manufacturing key components necessary for enriching uranium, the necessary ingredient for the manufacture of a nuclear weapon.
Also included under this headline umbrella is the slight shift within the political framework of Iran's political leadership as a result of the December elections. It remains to be seen if this shift to slightly more moderate politicians at the local level will translate into a shift at the national level or not. Such a shift might have a bearing on Iranian responses in 2007 that could exacerbate the situation or defuse the nuclear-standoff situation.
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#2. The Lebanon-Gaza War with Israel
In June, military hostilities broke out between Israel and the Gaza Palestinians after a young, Israeli soldier was kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists. The ensuing Israeli military operation to rescue the soldier, Gilad Shalit soon flared into a full-scale military operation for the remainder of June and into July when Hezbollah forces on Israel's northern border launched a border raid that resulted in the capture of two more Israeli solders. That raid precipitated an Israeli military invasion of Lebanon in a conflict that lasted for a month until the U.S. and the UN arranged for an uneasy ceasefire agreement.
The results of the war were viewed by much of the world as a military-draw but a political defeat for Israel. Israel's armed forces suffered an embarrasing defeat in the sense that the Israeli military was unable to fully defeat the Hezbollah guerrilla army in pitched battles. This was due in part to major operational constraints placed upon the Israeli military by political forces and diplomatic factors in an attempt to abide by a more "civilized" form of warfare.
In other words, the Israeli military was forced to fight with one hand tied behind its back while its political leadership vacillated back and forth over what to do. The Israeli Defense Forces also had trouble relaying correct orders to commanders on the battlefield, creating further confusion and inneffectiveness on the battlefield.
The conclusion reached by the Arab world is that Israel's military power is not what it once was and a hope has sprung forth in the Arab community that perhaps someday soon, Israel's army, navy and air forces might be defeated in war.
Our A-O "insider sources" and other intelligence analysts at various think tanks reported that President Bush ordered a comprehenisve intelligence review and assessment of Israel as an ally in Foreign Policy implementation, because of numerous problems that emerged in communications between Israel and the US during the war.
It was also reported by many of these same sources that the U.S. and Israel had secretly plotted for an opportunity to create a military situation in the region that would entrap Iran into a military situation that would provide an excuse for either Israel or the United States or both to launch military airstrikes and perhaps commando operations against Iran's nuclear weapons development facilities.
The Lebanon war that resulted was thought to be such an excuse but the Israeli's were unable to trigger an Iranian panic response because the Hezbollah forces simply failed to buckle before world opinion and pressure turned so hostile to Israel's invasion that the project failed to provoke an Iranian response before the world pressure brought the conflict to a halt. As a result of this failure, our number three story of the year developed.
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#3. Bush Alters Approach To US-Israeli Relationship
After the Lebanon War ceasefire was reached, President Bush ordered a comprehensive review of America's relationship with Israel and Israel's capabilities and reliability as an ally. As we understand it from several insider sources, the Bush administration was quite upset with Israel's failure to draw Iran into the action to create a reasonable excuse for bombing Iran's nuclear facilities.
The White House and US intelligence agencies noted substantial problems within the Israel governmental structural system primarily involving massive corruption and ineptitude at the highest levels. It wasn't merely incompetence by people in charge, it was understood to be a problem of a structural nature in how decisions could be made in a timely manner in a unified approach. The President ordered the review completed by the end of September.
The conclusions that were reached prompted changes in America's relationship to Israel. No longer will the Bush administration count on Israel to be able to achieve complicated foreign policy objectives via military actions. The bottom line is that Israel cannot be counted on as a reliable ally, capable of achieving military objectives that execute foreign policy goals.
The U.S.-Israeli relationship has been altered in a subtle manner as a result of the review ordered by the White House. This change, while subtle may well have a major bearing on what happens to Israel in the future.
Already, the US been secretly negotiating with the Palestiian Authority for nationhood on terms that Israel would not accept without America practically twisting off Israel's arm.
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#4. The Iraq Commission (Baker Group) Report
Early in 2006, President Bush created a Presidential Commission to investigate and advise the White House on policy related to the conduct of the ongoing violence in Iraq, which is still essentially an American "protectorate" much like Puerto Rico or Guam.
The Commission was headed up by James Baker, Bush's father's key advisor during the elderly Bush's administration. Baker had also overseen the 2000 election results dispute in Florida. Do you remember the "hanging chads" controversy? Baker was the man who rescued and manipulated the Bush campaign's efforts into a final court victory that elevated Bush to final electoral victory.
Baker's appointment to head the commission was a project designed to rescue the Bush White House politically as well as to help create a Bush presidential "legacy" in regards to not only Iraq but the entire Middle East. The commission issued its final report on December 6th and recommended a pullout of most but not all US troops from Iraq within 2 years.
The report also called for a comprehensive peace process and conference not for just Iraq but for the entire Middle East, including the Israeli-Palestinian problem.
At this time, it is still unclear as to how much of the report, President Bush will implement. Tentative, back-channel diplomatic efforts have been launched and initial indications are that some nations involved responded positively, while others such as Syria were seemingly responsive but asking for too much in return at this time. The White House efforts on this point were feeble and the "old guard" efforts of the shadowy, Illuminist group working the diplomatic back-channels also failed to produce any concrete steps at this time, although efforts now seemed to be shifted over to the UN's new Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon to spearhead the efforts further.
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#5. Changes in Israeli Leadership
In December of 2005, Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon suffered a moderate stroke. After the New Year of 2006 began, Sharon suffered a massive follow-up stroke that has left him still clinging to life as a near-vegetable. This health change resulted in a change in Israel's leadership. Ehud Olmert, took over as the new Prime Minister. Olmert, like Sharon was reported to be an Illuminist politician working under the "moderate" political label in Israel.
Olmert took over temporary duties for 90 days before elections were called. Olmert won a narrow round of confidence from those elections and formed a shaky coalition government. By June, Olmert's government was plunged into a war in which Israel's foibles were exposed to the intelligence community.
It became obvious to U.S. intelligence, the State Department and the White House that Israel had serious political-governmental structural problems stemming in part from a bad design of governmental command-decision structure as well as immense political corruption.
Leadership under Olmert has continued throughout the rest of the year on shaky political ground, with Olmert's popularity barely showing a heartbeat within the Israeli electorate. Olmert and his government continue to reveal the extent of the corruption problems that now make Israel an unreliable co-partner in US foreign policy.
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#6. Hamas Wins Palestinian Elections
In February, the Palestinian Authority and its successor to Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas, conducted elections which saw Abbas and his Fatah party defeated by the more radical Hamas terrorist Political Party. The result of this electoral victory by Hamas has led to the point where by the end of 2006, the entire Palestinian movement had reached the state of nearly engaging in civil war.
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#7. Palestinians on Verge of Civil War
The internal fighitng for political power of the Palestinian government after the Gaza-Lebanon war finally reached the point in December of 2006 to near civil war. Just before the Christmas holiday, events escalated to the point of nearly all-out war between Hamas and Fatah. Egypt and Jordan have for the moment, temporarily cooled off the two sides, but an uneasy truce remains perilously in doubt.
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#8. Ban Ki-Moon Becomes UN Secretary-General
His selection just happens to parallel if not fulfill the Revelation 17:12-13 prophetic passage.However, this does not necessarily make him, "the Beast" as mentioned in that passage. Yet is does cause us to pay close attention to him and we highly recommend to you, our readers to also keep a close eye on this man. By the way, there are 2 beasts mentioned in Revelation, one the Antichrist and the other being the False Prophet. It is not clear from the Revelation 17 passage which beast is being referred to.
The U.S. and the Reverend Sung Myung Moon, promoted the selection of South Korea's Foreign Minister, Ban Ki-Moon to become the next UN Secretary-General. Interestingly, Ki-Moon was promoted for the position by the Reverend Sung Myung Moon who claims to be the replacement Messiah for the failed ministry of Jesus Christ. Moon was even crowned as King-Messiah by a handful of US lawmakers in the US Capitol in 2004. See link here and here.
Ki-Moon was nominated for the position on 10-9-06 by the 10 ambassadors of the UN Security council who are temporary appointees holding the 10 temporary seats on the UN Security Council. The remaining 5 permanent members are not permitted to nominate or vote on any candidate, thus only 10 "basileis" voted for Ban Ki-Moon. "Basileis" is the Greek word in Revelation 17:12 translated as "kings" by the KJV, but the word means either "kings" and/or a representative/ambassador of the "king." In this passage the text notes these "basieis" have only temporary authority for one hour and they vote power to the "beast." By the way, the term "beast" in the Greek is the word "theyrion" which connotes the idea of smallness. It is also a term used for the Sphynx of Egypt and other Sphynx statues. The meeting took 1 hour at which time the vote was taken.
Now, the nomination by these 10 "basielis" took place on 10-9-2006 and Ban Ki-Moon was officially elected unanimously by the entire UN General Assembly in a voice vote on October 13th (Friday, the 13th) which convened at 3:06 pm EST or 2106 hours GMT. This was on the 699th year anniversary date of the date the Knights Templar (forerunner of the Illuminati) was declared heretical by the French King and members were arrested and property seized and the group preparing the advancement of the Antichrist was temporarily sidetracked from its mission and went underground.
For more on the possible prophetic significance of Ban Ki-Moon as UN Secretary-General - see our A-O special report - link here.
Now, you may ask, if this is so significant and might be the Beast of Revelation 17:12-13, why rank this as the 8th most significant event of 2006?
The answer, lies in part that we cannot know for sure. He may be a forerunner. Perhaps his successor will be named in similar manner, however we do find the timing of Ki-moon's selection and election in conjunction with the Knights Templar and the fact that it happened on a Friday, the 13th and thus very occultic to be more than a little intriguing, yet we're reluctant to step out on a limb.
Morever, we note this 8th position in our survey as appropriate in part because the prophecy itself notes that the "Beast" is the eighth (see verse 11) and of the seven that goes into perdition. (perdition is the Grek word "apollian" and means literally, "the destruction."
SO, perhaps it is appropriate the this development is ranked 8th on the list?
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#9. Iraq Plunges Into Full-Scale Sectarian (civil war) Strife
In February, sectarian violence between the 2 main sects of Islam residing within Iraq blew up into major conflict with the bombing of numerous "holy" sites of Islam within the nation of Iraq.
The violence has since ebbed and flowed throughout the course of the year. The violence was masterminded by Al Qaeda's main commander in the Iraqi war theater, al Zarqawi who had been coaxing the sectarian strife since shortly after the US destroyed the Iraqi army and sent Saddam Hussein into hiding.
Zarqawi was later killed in June by US forces and the severity of the violence eased somewhat. Had Zarqawi eluded death, who knows what further carnage he might have masterminded in the remaining six months of the year. As it turned out, the violence intensified again in the last three months of the year.
This heightened strife during 2006 has led to a crisis-like condition in the Bush administration's policy for Iraq. It cost Bush's Republican party, control of Congress. Bush is now contemplating what new strategy should be employed to create a final "victory" in Iraq.
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#10. North Korea Goes Nuclear
On July 4th, North Korea launched a test of several new missiles some of which have the range to reach Hawaii. That event triggered a short-term crisis for the Bush administration that would prove to be a prelude to North Korea exploding its first but small nuclear test weapon. This development occured at a time when the Bush administration was focusing on Iran's nuclear program and attempting to intimidate Iran with a show of UN Naval power in the region, as Bush contemplated military action against Iran's nuclear facilities. The North Korean incident helped force Bush to reconsider any premature military moves against Iran.
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Editor's Note:
Unlike previous years, 2006, as we saw it, saw the top ten news stories and developements as all being Geo-politically oriented. We did not have any other types of events make the top ten, such as we had in previous years, such as weather or geological, or astronomical events. However, the major x-class solar flares of December, 2006 may be an ominous sign of greater solar problems to come in the near future.