On December 23, 1999, in a landmark decision of 1,100 pages, Pakistan's Supreme Court declared that interest charges by banks are contrary to Islam, and told the Pakistani government to set up and interest-free economy by 2001. "In order to bring the present financial system in conformity with islamic law, it has to be subjected to radical changes," the decision said. The Supreme Court directed the government to set up a committee within a month to transform Pakistan's existing financial system."
The charging of interest, known as riba, is clearly condemned in the Koran, the holy book of the Moslems. It is not only condemned in the Koran, but also in the Bible of the Christians and the Torah of the Jews. But on this point, it seems that the Moslems are taking this condemnation more seriously than Christians. Since 1979, several Islamic nations have set up banks that charge no interest on either current or deposit accounts. They invest in business, and pay a share of any profit to their depositors. This is not the social Credit system implemented in its entirety yet but, at least, it is an attempt at putting the banking system in keeping with moral laws. On this point, all the Christians should be inspired by this example. (Setting up an interest-free economy is not an utopia, and one does not even a 1,100-page decision to explain it. Louis Even explains it all in his two 32-page brochures on Social Credit, which can be ordered from our office.)
Imagine a global spying network that can eavesdrop on every single phone call, fax or e-mail, anywhere on the planet. It sounds like science-fiction, but it is true. This network, code named "Echelon", is led by the United States and includes Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It was set up at the beginning of the Cold War in 1947 and gradually grew to include a network of surveillance-interception stations spread across the globe. Its existence was only recently confirmed by the US Government through the declassification of secret documents of the US National Security Agency (NSA).
The network works with 120 satellites, and radar stations all over the globe, linked directly to the headquarters of the US National Security Agency at Fort Mead in Maryland. The power of this network is astounding. Every international telephone call, fax, e-mail, or radio transmission can be listened to by powerful computers capable of voice recognition. They home in on a long list of key words, or patterns of messages. They are (officially) looking for evidence of international crime, like terrorism.
Scottish journalist Duncan Campbell has spent much of his life investigating Echelon. In a report commissioned by the European Parliament released February 23, he produced evidence that the NSA snooped on phone calls from the French firm bidding for a contract in Brazil. They passed the information on to an American competitor, which won the $6-billion contract. "We have every reason to be shocked at the fact that this form of espionage, which has been going on for a number of years, has not prompted any official protest," European Parliament Speaker Nicole Fontaine said.
The Jan. 19, 2000 issue of the "Toronto Star" reported the story of three teenagers who were arrested after the stolen car they were driving was stopped by remote control through the use of a computer chip inside the car. Vehicle-tracking devices are commonly installed in luxury cars as well as rental vehicles. When the car is stolen, the company tracks "the car via satellite, and the remote control system can turn off the car's engine and lock the doors, trapping the thief in the vehicle. In this case, the monitoring company had informed police officers that there was no need to attempt to stop the vehicle because the company had the capabilities to disable the vehicle once it reached a safe location to do so (like coming to a stop at an intersection).
In its last throne speech, October 23, 1999, the Ontario Government of Premier Mike Harris announced that it planned to introduce, during their current mandate, a new smart card that would replace drivers' licence, health cards, birth certificates and hunting and fishing licences, and would also be used for access to government programs, in order to "improve efficiency and prevent fraud." This is part of a world-wide plan to impose an electronic ID smart card to every individual, without which you won't be able to get a job, travel, have access to your bank account or government services, etc. And the plan is to replace this card with a chip implanted under the skin of people, the "Mark of the Beast" (Rev. 13), without which "no one will be able to sell nor buy."
On May 13, 1997, US Patent # 5,629,678 was granted for a "personal tracking and recovery system," consisting of a miniature digital transceiver (or microchip) - implantable in humans under the skin - with a built-in, electromechanical power supply and actuation system. These features enable the device to remain implanted and functional for years without maintenance. This microchip, the size of one fourth of a grain of rice, sends and receives data and can be continuously tracked by Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) technology, the same technology used in new cars.
On December 10, 1999, Applied Digital Solutions (ADS), a company based in Palm Beach, Florida and focused on electronic commerce, announced it had acquired the patent rights to this technology, which they call "Digital Angel". ADS chairman Richard Sullivan says his company plans to complete a working prototype by the end of 2000, and believe the potential global market for this device, in all of its applications, could exceed $100 billion. According to him, this chip could be used to track lost or abducted people, identify people for security (replace ID cards), hold financial and medical information, and even alert a monitoring facility if it detects a medical emergency (like irregular heart rate) on its wearer. Sullivan wouldn't say how much ADS paid for the patent, only that he bought it from a Boston-area group of inventors.
Next September 3, Pope John Paul II will beatify in Rome two Popes, John XXIII, who opened Vatican II, and Pius IX, who started Vatican I, a century earlier, in order to show that one must not oppose one Council to the other.