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From the Publisher's Desk

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Comments for 7-9-7

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I would like to share with regular A-O readers two critical developments with The Alpha-Omega Report website.

#1. The Deteriorating Situation in the Mideast

#2. The Deteriorating Financial Situation For A-O

The situation in the Middle East has been touch and go now for the past year and a half as rumor after rumor sweeps through that region many of which have pointed to a full-scale regional war breaking out – “soon.” We did have a war flare up between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah last summer but it never blossomed into a full-scale regional war as many had thought and or anticipated. The reason there was no larger conflict, I think, was due primarily to the conclusions of key leaders in the West plus the leadership in Iran and Syria, all determining that they were not ready to implement a full-scale conflict. Instead, the Lebanon war became a “dress rehearsal” for a regional conflict. 

Regular A-O readers from last year will recall A-O’s coverage at the time of the Lebanon truce noting that key leaders, particularly in Israel, were noting that the truce was not the end of the conflict but merely an “intermission.” It now appears that the “intermission” is about over and another round of warfare seems imminent for this summer.

A-O has been tracking the news related to such a resumption of the war since last year’s truce began, but we’ve noted in recent months that the developments in the Mideast were pointing towards a renewed summertime conflict that would likely be far more encompassing that just a Hezbollah-Israel clash. This time, the warfare would be spread out to include at least Syria and more than likely Iraq, Iran, the United States and other western allies with troops in either Iraq or Lebanon.

In fact, the situation is such that hostilities may not be limited to just a regional war in the Middle East. It is entirely feasible that a regional war might quickly spread out and become a World War and it may involve some form of nuclear weapons. It may also include warfare within the continental United States waged in part by fanatical Muslim terrorists to be later supported by some of the general Muslim population in the United States as well as in Europe.

The stakes are exceedingly high at this point in time. I’m not saying that the current situation will devolve into a regional or world-wide conflict, but only that this is a real and valid possibility.

My own “intelligence sources” have been flashing war signals for the past 10 days or more. I had wondered if something might develop over the 4th of July American holiday period but surprisingly all remained relatively calm but there has been a lot of maneuvering behind the scenes, especially by Syria and Iran.

Today, July 9th has seen an explosion of news suggesting that some sort of conflict is about to begin, perhaps within the next 7 days. The date of July 16, 2007 stands out because that is the date the UN Security Council takes up the issue of non-compliance of the UN Security Council Resolution 1701 – which declared a truce in Lebanon, among other things including certain restrictions against any nation attempting to re-supply Hezbollah’s forces in Lebanon.

I have been contemplating the idea of moving The Alpha-Omega Report to a YELLOW ALERT status again, but I’m not so sure that such a move is warranted.

A Yellow Alert status means that A-O Breaking News coverage is separated into a special page just for news related to the reason for the Yellow Alert, in this case,  for news stories related to an imminent outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East. At this point, I’m not convinced that on Tuesday, or Wednesday, or any other day this week, there will be sufficient news stories to justify running a separate page for coverage under a Yellow Alert banner. So for now, A-O will remain at normal alert status but looking for the possibility of moving to Yellow Alert special coverage.

In the meantime, A-O Readers need to be aware that a Yellow Alert status may develop at any time in the next few days ahead. If so, I am hoping that A-O will be able to provide a special and unique service to A-O readers as it did for last year’s Lebanon War. Howver, A-O’s financial status is very precarious at the moment, which leads me to my second subject of this Publisher’s Statement.

The Alpha-Omega Report has been experiencing financial pressures for more than a year now because as the Publisher, I have not been able to fully finance and fund the publishing of the website due to a change in my own personal financial situation, due to a change in my own financial income levels. From 1998 until 2006, I covered the costs of the website out of my own pocket at a substantial price tag. I have been glad to do so.

Last year, however, saw a change in that situation and for the past year, A-O has been operating in large part due to donations from a few loyal, A-O readers. Unfortunately, only a few A-O readers helped defray the costs so that the remaining 99% of A-O readers could continue to benefit from the website’s continued existence. However, the situation has been simply too much of a burden on too few people and as a result, the donations have simply not been enough to meet the differences between my own support and the actual costs of keeping the website alive.

For this reason, I deemed it necessary to move the website to a paid subscriber-oriented format. This has turned out to be not as easy as I’d originally thought or expected due to certain technical considerations. In fact, until a few days ago, it seemed that moving to a subscriber system would not be feasible, at least not as originally thought. There have been new developments however and I am being told by my technical support team that there may yet be some workarounds that can be employed in the next few days.

These workarounds need to be implemented shortly because if not, I anticipate that the website will be forced to shut down within the next week or two and or perhaps even sooner. The financial status is rather “precarious” at this moment.

In regards to subscription issues, I am contemplating various subscription options depending on what workarounds can be developed in the next few days. I will tell you one thing that I do know of …

The Alpha-Omega Report will feature a new e-mail newsletter. It will be available on a monthly donation basis of $5.00 a month. It may be more often than once a week at times, and at other times perhaps longer, depending upon how the news development break or don’t break, particularly if a war breaks out in the Middle East.

Something else that I am also looking to implement are some added new features to the website including, hopefully, "radio-like" news coverage or news analysis posted as special sound files, in MP3 format. In some respects at least, the news analysis feature would be somewhat similar to Hal Lindsey’s “intelligence” report on his TV show, only without the video pictures. Frankly, I don’t think anyone wants to look at my ugly face while dispensing the news. Besides, I’m a former radio news reporter/anchor not a TV news anchor. For that reason, I’m hopeful that A-O readers will be able to benefit from special “audio” sound files that would be posted to the A-O website as warranted by news developments. Such a feature will be available for those who can donate a small amount of money to help defray the website costs of not only this service but the many other features and benefits that A-O can provide.

As I envision the new A-O structure, some sections of the website may be restricted to those folks who donate a small amount to every month to have access to restricted materials. Other portions of the website will be kept open – being subsidized by the small donations made hopefully by many A-O readers who can spare some loose change every month to keep A-O afloat not only for themselves but for others who can’t afford to donate anything.

Hopefully, I will know more on the status of these changes during the course of this week. As a result, between these changes and keeping up with the Mideast news developments, I’m going to be one, very busy fellow. I do have some assistance promised from at least one additional volunteer staffer who is planning to help out with providing additional news coverage behind the scenes. If there are any other A-O readers out there with some spare time and webmastering abilities to assist in gathering the news, please contact me at the Publisher’s mail box. See our A-O contact page for a direct link to email me.

In the meantime, bear with us as we go through some website changes and work to provide the best on-going news coverage of the significant prophetic developments transpiring in the Middle East.

 

Sincerely in Christ

Richard Coombes
Publisher
The Alpha-Omega Report

 

 

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