While much of the recent headline news has continued to highlight the recent   
   assassination and death of Osama bin Laden -- which I now accept as fact,   
   due to a lot more information being made available to the general public --   
   there are other issues occurring in the Middle East which merit our   
   attention.   
      
   As you will no doubt already know, Syrian "president" Bashar al-Assad   
   continues to make the same foolish mistake as a number of other Middle   
   Eastern leaders. That is, he continues to brutally oppress and suppress his   
   own people. According to various news reports, since unrest began in Syria,   
   hundreds of Syrian citizens have been killed, and scores more have been   
   threatened, attacked, injured, or imprisoned.   
      
   Mr. Assad has obviously fallen under the delusion that, like his father --   
   Hafez al-Assad -- he can continue to rule the Syrian people through fear and   
   intimidation. If that means killed hundreds or thousands in order to make   
   his point -- as his father did with the 1982 Hama Massacre in which 10,000   
   to 40,000 civilians were killed -- so be it; at least Mr. Assad so seems to   
   think. He may be in for a shocking surprise one of these days soon.   
      
   In Yemen, the government forces of longtime "president" Ali Abdullah Saleh   
   continue to oppress and kill protesters throughout the Middle Eastern   
   nation. Despite the protests -- which have been ongoing for several months   
   now -- as well as defections by certain politicians, army officers and   
   tribal leaders who were formerly loyal to him, Mr. Saleh has still managed   
   to cling to power. In fact, last month he refused to sign a power-transfer   
   deal that was negotiated by members of the Gulf Cooperation Council.   
      
   In Libya, the government of Colonel Moammar el-Gaddafi likewise continues to   
   rely upon force in order to maintain control over the country; at least the   
   western half of the North African nation. It is also still engaged in its   
   public relations game with the mass media, as it tries to convince the world   
   that Gaddafi continues to be well-loved by his people, that the rebels are   
   nothing more than a bunch of drugged, al-Qaeda-inspired troublemakers, and   
   that NATO forces are killing many innocent Libyan civilians. Despite   
   continued -- albeit, fractured -- assistance and support from the NATO   
   alliance, the rebels' endeavors to defeat Gaddafi and take control of the   
   country have been slow and difficult.   
      
   There are also interesting -- and in my view, sinister -- developments   
   occurring in Egypt as well. As I have noted before, since the early days of   
   the January 25th Revolution in Egypt, I have felt a sense of mistrust   
   towards the Egyptian military; particularly after they chose to not attack   
   the civilian protesters, and then even seemed to side with them, which   
   ultimately resulted in the departure of Egyptian "president" Hosni Mubarak,   
   who slunk away to his mansion at Sharm el Sheikh on the Red Sea coast.   
      
   As you may know, because of the subtlety and deception of the Egyptian   
   military, many -- although not all -- of the Egyptian people came to trust   
   their good intentions, and believed that they truly wanted to steer Egypt   
   towards a civilian-led democratic government.   
      
   However, several months after the January 25th Revolution began, the   
   situation in Egypt is a lot more dismal than what many people had expected   
   it would be by this time. If the sensationalistic mass media is to believed,   
   it appears that Egypt may be on the verge of total anarchy. Crime and   
   sectarian violence are on the rise, while the civil authorities -- such as   
   the police -- appear to be taking little interest in quelling it.   
      
   While a variety of reasons have been set forth regarding why the civil   
   authorities have taken such an aloof attitude -- such as the police being   
   demoralized due to recent events in Egypt which saw the tables turned on   
   them -- upon reading the news, I immediately suspected that there was a   
   darker force at work here.   
      
   In other words, my inclination is to believe that the Egyptian military and   
   civil authorities are purposely allowing the crime and violence to continue   
   for now. As I have mentioned before, it is my belief that national   
   governments will sometimes intentionally create a problem, so that when the   
   people eventually become exasperated with it, the government can step in and   
   offer an unpopular solution which it had planned all along. The people just   
   need to be made desperate enough so that they will be willing to accept it,   
   even if they do grumble about it, and perhaps even lose some of their civil   
   rights in the process.   
      
   In short, my sense is that the Egyptian military is trying to teach the   
   Egyptian people a lesson; and that lesson is that democracy is not good for   
   them, and that they need a strong, central, military government which can   
   keep the situation under control.   
      
   Obviously, this is the same old "stability and security" card that Hosni   
   Mubarak played for some thirty years, and it worked quite well for him.   
   Mubarak stayed in power, Egypt received billions of dollars from the   
   American government, and the Egyptian military enjoyed power, prestige and   
   vast wealth.   
      
   This is the only form of government that the powers-that-be in Egypt   
   understand and want. What the people want doesn't really matter. The people   
   must simply be made to come to their senses, and realize that "papa   
   government" knows what is best for them; at least so thinks the Egyptian   
   military.   
      
   If I am right about this, it won't be long before we see the end result of   
   this devious plan. The situation in Egypt will deteriorate to such a degree,   
   that the people will just about beg the military to intervene and restore   
   peace and safety to the nation.   
      
   And to be honest, I still really wonder about Hosni Mubarak's true, current   
   status. Is he really out of the picture entirely?   
      
      
      
   Jeff Snyder, SysOp - Armageddon BBS  Visit us at endtimeprophecy.org port 23   
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------   
   Your Download Center 4 Mac BBS Software & Christian Files.  We Use Hermes II   
      
      
   --- Hermes Web Tosser 1.1   
    * Origin: Armageddon BBS -- Guam, Mariana Islands (1:345/3777.0)