Dave Letterman Secret Freemason Handsign Watch

03:02, 04:38, 04:46, 08:35

'Tipsy' version

00:16, 00:24, 01:00, 04:46, 05:00

Bro. Hugo Chavez Secret Masonic Signs at Bro. Barack Obama Book Gifting

00:38 (Hand on Shoulder)

00:41 (Attempted Grip)

00:44 (Hand on Thigh)

Bro. John McCain Secret Masonic Sign on Bro. Jay Leno's Tonight Show

00:07

Freemasonry and the Russian Revolution

Statue of Freemason Joseph Stalin

Bro. Joseph Stalin, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) 1924 - 1953.

Bro. G Beck talks to Congressman Ron Paul about the World Economy

Masonic Grand Entrance Watch

00:02 & 00:05, 02:31 & 02:34

Looks like the U.N. Headquarters in NY, NY but it could be
a E.U. or N.A.T.O. meeting, or any number of other chaos-out-of-order global & global gatherings really.

Keen eye Brother Glenn, keep em' coming...

Barack Obama Secret Freemason Handshake on Tonight Show

Brethren & Brethren Career Agency Watch

During the entrance, at 24:31, of his appearance on the March 19th NBC Tonight Show U.S. President and 'Prince Hall' Freemason Bro. Barack Obama exchanges a Masonic secret handshake with band leader Kevin Newbanks and moments later at 24:14 throws the coy Freemasonry secret recognition handsign employed by Sis. Sarah Palin & Sis. Laura Bush and more recently by Bro. Jay Leno.

At the end of the segment, at 00:07, while shaking Bro. Obama's hand Bro. Leno can be seen pressing the knuckle of Bro. Obama's index finger with his thumb, another secret Masonic 'Grip' method .

NBC hosted clip no longer working, clock times for this copy are different, masonic handshake/handsign 'events' still occur at entrance greetings and end of interview.

Jay Leno Secret Masonic Handsign Watch

Brethren & Brethren Career Agency Watch

At 00:56 of this clip of the March 16 NBC Tonight Show monologue Bro. Jay Leno coyly throws, ala Sis. Sarah Palin & Sis. Laura Bush style, a secret Freemasonry Recognition Handsign.

Bro. Obama is a scheduled guest for Thursday, March 19th.

Freemasons to hold open house

http://www.zanesvilletimesrecorder.com

March 12, 2009

MAILBAG

Krier, Thompson join Noon Rotary

Zanesville Noon Rotary welcomed Chawntilley Krier and Ben Thompson as new members. Krier is a graduate of Tri-Valley High School and Zane State College. She is employed by Williamson Insurance.

Thompson is a graduate of Rosecrans High School and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He is the president/CEO of Primary Aim LLC, operating five Wendy's Restaurants in the Zanesville area.

Freemasons to hold open house

On March 21, all 518 Ohio Masonic Lodges will open their doors for a public open house.

Frazeysburg Lodge 490, located at South State Street in Frazeysburg will hold its open house from 3 to 6 p.m. Anyone who would like to know more about Freemasonry or is just curious and would like a peek inside may attend. Members and their families are also invited to come share the day.

Freemasonry is the oldest and largest men's fraternity in the world. Thirteen signers of the Constitution and 14 presidents of the United States, including George Washington, were Freemasons. Today, there are more than 2 million Freemasons in North America alone, 110,000 0f which are Ohio Freemasons.

For more information, contact Robert Haines at 740-294-4154 or visit www.freemason.com.

Barack Obama a Freemason in Prince Hall Freemasonry say Message Board Masons

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread267286/pg2

Barack Obama is he a member ?

reply posted on 5-3-2007 @ 12:25 PM by PrinceHall06

Barack Obama is indeed a 32nd degree Prince Hall Mason. This however is not a secret society, unlike Masonry's detractors would have you believe, in as much as Masonic buildings are CLEARLY marked, members readliy identify themselves with rings, bumper stickers, and lapel pins, I would hardly call the Masonic Fraternal Order , a secret society.

---

reply posted on 5-3-2007 @ 01:27 PM by yeht

Sources??

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reply posted on 5-3-2007 @ 02:56 PM by PrinceHall06

My source is having sat in open Lodge with Brother Obama.

---

reply posted on 5-3-2007 @ 03:52 PM by SpeakerofTruth

No better proof than experience..Is there?

---

Masonic Pentagram not Satanic, just Pagan says California Freemason

Letter to the Editor

I read the article in the Nov. 8 Tehachapi News regarding sheriff’s deputies investigating a site in Old Towne that had allegedly been used as a site for satanic ritual. The reporter then goes on to describe the pentagram as a symbol used by other cultures or religions such as Freemasonry. That touched a nerve.

Continue reading article

Freemasonry and the Media

by Paul Fisher, Author of Behind the Lodge Door

Masonry obviously wields enormous influence in world media. Historian Mildred Headings said Masons influenced at least 47 periodicals throughout France, off and on, during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.

In the United States, in 1920, the Scottish Rite established a news service for 'furnishing accurate and gratuitous information to newspapers.

In 1924, the Grand Commander informed the Brethren: "Through the activities of our state organizations, the New Age Magazine, our clip service and News bureau, we are stimulating the public interest and furnishing much valuable material to speakers and writers, and thereby can reasonably claim much credit" for the growing interest in favor of compulsory education by the state.

Continue reading remainder of article

Freemasonry & the U.S. Supreme Court

Paul Fisher author of Behind the Lodge Door provides some background on the subject for a video produced by a Knights of Columbus Chapter.



Continue to Parts 2 - 5 of Video

Masonic Election (Admission) Notice

Came across this Lodge notice posted on the Liberal Mormon Blog, it was from the Freemason Applicant's Prospective Lodge Secretary, with his full name and signature, home, business and cell telephone numbers (that I have now removed). I find the use of the word 'elected' quite illuminating. Manipulative Flattery. Cultish Love Bombing. Wrap the member in a cocoon. Your New Brother. Your New Sister. Your New Masonic Family. You were in darkness but now you have the light. You are special. You are chosen. You are Elect and Elects Lead. Go forth in zeal Brother annointed. It goes a ways towards explaining some of the psychology behind the huge number of Masons who swarm into political life and government.

Also a day after linking to the six month old post the 'Mormon Liberal' removed the image and 'asked' that I remove the link to his blog. The Mormon Church doesn't approve of Freemasonry, does it? Even though the founder Freemason Joseph Smith ripped off Secret Masonic Ritual for the Mormon Temple's Secret 'Endowment' Ceremony, telling folks it had come from 'the Angel Moroni' and 'the Golden Plates' he found by dowsing and digging.

Freemasonry Leadership.

http://theliberalmormon.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html

ATTENTION : FREEMASONRY WATCH.ORG

I know you have somehow linked my blog post that I was accepted into my local lodge on your lame website. Please remove it and stop sending people here to look at my blog. I am asking nicely.

---

Update 28.12.08

The Liberal Mormon Blogger has started a thread on a Mormon Board frequented by apparent Mormon Masons about his blog being linked to by Freemasonry Watch.

http://www.mormonapologetics.org/index.php?showtopic=40370

---

Update 31.12.08

I guess Brethren since I replaced the original direct link to your Bro.'s blog with this post you are now technically unlinked, or unblacklisted as he 'Masonicly' put it...

Obama's First Press Conference as President-Elect, Masonic Recognition Hand Signs

Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel 00:04
Vice President-Elect Joe Biden 00:23

Winston Churchill Quit Freemasonry Says Churchill Society

R.A.H.Morrow Esq
The Grand Secretary
United Lodge of England
Freemason's Hall
Gt Queen Street
London

Dear Mr Morrow

Thank you for at last replying to our letter dated 19th February 2004. We are much distressed that our original letter of February 19th has led to this deeply unhappy state of affairs.

To digress for a moment.

Last year we e mailed the librarian at Freemason Hall asking to see a copy of Churchill's resignation letter from the Freemasons. She replied that Freemasons Hall library had no records of Churchill's membership and it would have been unlikely for them to have been kept as he was little known at the youthful age he joined.

You now produce the Freemasons Members Journal No 3 dated 2002, the cover page of which is a blatant piece of cheap PR hack work using a life size image of Churchill's face in the late 1940's with him wearing a homburg hat and with the specious title: WINSTON CHURCHILL Public Statesman Private Mason.

The art work for this cover page was deliberately done to create the impression that Churchill was a Freemason in the 1930's and on through the war, when in fact he had publicly resigned from the Freemasons long before the First World War. The photograph of Churchill is one taken during the war and his homburg had clearly gives a fashion date from 1938 onwards.

The inclusion of Churchill's date of birth and death so prominently on your web site is again - we suspect - meant to imply that he was a lifelong freemason.

Both inferences are deliberately dishonest.

Continue Reading Article

Pres. Czech Rep.: Climate Change a Vehicle For Global Government Advocates

Financial Post
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/e9df7200-19c7-11dc-99c5-000b5df10621.html

Global warming: truth or propaganda?

June 13 2007

Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic, argues in the Financial Times that ambitious environmentalism is the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity.

EDITOR’S CHOICE
Freedom, not climate, is at risk - Jun-13Mr Klaus writes that “global warming hysteria has become a prime example of the truth versus propaganda problem” and the issue “is more about social than natural sciences and more about man and his freedom than about tenths of a degree Celsius changes in average global temperature.”

Continue reading article

Masonic lodge membership is gravely sinful, Vatican official says

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/features/index.cfm?recnum=49651


Rome, Mar. 5, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Catholics who become members of Masonic lodges are guilty of serious sin, a Vatican official has confirmed.

Bishop Gianfranco Girotti, the regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary, told a Vatican Radio interviewer that membership in a Masonic lodge is not necessarily grounds for excommunication, but it is a grave matter.

Reacting to the story of Father Rosario Esposito, an Italian Paulist who recently announced his membership in a Masonic lodge, Bishop Girotti said that a 1983 statement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith remains in force today. That statement, signed by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, said: “The faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.”

Membership in the Masons, by Father Edward McNamara

ROME, 6 FEB. 2007 (ZENIT)
http://www.ewtn.com/library/Liturgy/zlitur161.htm

Membership in the Masons

Answered by Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.

Q: A member of the RCIA program was told by another member of the parish that if they were going to become Catholic they needed to terminate their involvement with the Masonic lodge before they could join. Is this still the case in the United States? — T.N., Howard City, Michigan

A: This question is more canonical than liturgical. The Church's position with respect to membership of Masonic lodges, even though canon law no longer explicitly mentions the Masons, has not substantially changed.

The new code states in Canon 1374: "A person who joins an association which plots against the Church is to be punished with a just penalty; however, a person who promotes or directs an association of this kind is to be punished with an interdict." An interdict is an ecclesiastical penalty that deprives the person of the right to celebrate or receive the sacraments but is less harsh than excommunication.

This text greatly simplified the former code which had specifically mentioned the Masons. This change led some Masons to think that the Church no longer banned Catholics from being Masons, since, among other things, in many countries membership at a lodge was merely social and had nothing to do with plotting against the Church.

In order to clarify the issue the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published a declaration on Nov. 26, 1983, shortly before the present Code of Canon Law came into effect. This declaration, signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, states:

"It has been asked whether there has been any change in the Church's decision in regard to Masonic associations since the new Code of Canon Law does not mention them expressly, unlike the previous Code.

"This Sacred Congregation is in a position to reply that this circumstance in due to an editorial criterion which was followed also in the case of other associations likewise unmentioned inasmuch as they are contained in wider categories.

"Therefore the Church's negative judgment in regard to Masonic association remains unchanged since their principles have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church and therefore membership in them remains forbidden. The faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.

"It is not within the competence of local ecclesiastical authorities to give a judgment on the nature of Masonic associations which would imply a derogation from what has been decided above, and this in line with the Declaration of this Sacred Congregation issued on 17 February 1981 (cf. AAS 73 1981 pp. 240-241; English language edition of L'Osservatore Romano, 9 March 1981).

"In an audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect, the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II approved and ordered the publication of this Declaration which had been decided in an ordinary meeting of this Sacred Congregation."

The congregation's judgment, therefore, was not so much based on whether the Masons as such or any specific group of Masons effectively plot against the Church today. This does not deny that some Masonic groups have historically combated the Church nor that even today, in some countries or at certain levels, the lodge remains at the forefront of those who oppose the Church's freedom of action.

Rather, the Vatican congregation above all stressed the incompatibility of some Masonic principles with those of the Catholic Church.

This incompatibility resides in some aspects of Masonic ritual, but more importantly in elements regarding the question of truth.

In its effort to bring together people of different provenances, Masonry requires that its members adhere to a minimal belief in a supreme architect of the universe and leave aside all other pretensions of truth, even revealed truth.

It is thus basically a relativistic doctrine, and no Catholic, nor indeed any convinced Christian, may ever adhere to a group that would require him, even as a mere intellectual exercise, to renounce the affirmation of such truths as Christ's divinity and the Trinitarian nature of God.

Of course, for many people active in Masonic lodges, the conversations and activities are more social in nature and rarely veer toward the realm of philosophical speculation. A Catholic, however, cannot ignore the fundamental principles behind an organization, no matter how innocuous its activities appear to be.

Jack Ruby and Freemasonry

What follows is a short interview of a Dallas Reporter contradicting the Warren Commission's Report on his testimony about Jack Ruby at Parklands Hospital. At minute 00:49 as Ruby is escorted into the courtroom for his Oswald Murder Arraignment he is directed by an escorting officer by a hand placed on his shoulder, a secret masonic recognition sign, towards two supporters sitting in the courtroom, upon which at minute 00:53 he exchanges 'funny' handshakes using a secret masonic 'grip'.




Of note Dealy Plaza in addition to being the site of the murder of President John F. Kennedy is also the 'historic' site of the first Masonic Temple in Dallas, which was of course 'commemorated' with a memorial obelisk under the guidance of Texas Masonic Leadership. To date 45 years and counting the only visible 'commemoration' at the site of the assassination of the 35th President of the United States consists of a pair of x's spray painted in the middle of the road.

Freemason Disinformation Agent Debates Freemason Agent Provocateur

A Television Debate on Freemasonry that appeared on a live call-in Christian Program in Britain recently.

The Lodge the self-declared 'Member of the Swedenborg Church' Freemason belongs to, Quator Corronati, is a big deal in British Freemasonry. The oaths the heavily rehearsed agent disinformator claims were removed never were, they are what Freemasons term 'exemplified', which means the Master of the Lodge reads them in front of the initiate. Martin Short and some other U.K. authors exposed this little piece of masonic deception some years ago, and a ex-mason caller to the show reminds him. Mason One says he left the Anglican Church around 1988, which is about the timeframe when the recent Church of England investigation of Freemasonry began issuing highly critical public reports on the incompatibility of Christianity and Freemasonry. There is a Swedenborg 'Rite' in Freemasonry, an 'advanced' series of highly occultic degrees, which the author-editor never bothers mentioning, even though he has written about the subject, his debating partner 'misses' this point as well.

The Circumabulating Irreverend, the supposed masonic critic in this warped little play about 'The Most Popular Religion in the World Today', the description he actually gives for Freemasonry in an early 'rebuttal', seems to be primarily trying to introduce uncritical freemason occult teachings under a wrapping of christiany sounding 'universal' masonic religious concepts to the Christian Audience while simultaneously attempting to coyly discredit/mock 'Fundamentalist Christians' to Secular and Masonic audiences using a heavily rehearsed agent provacateur buffoon act. Bro. Irreverend thought he was being craftily clever but thanks to the intervention of the Holy Spirit was unable to contain his evilmason smirking thereby illuminating one of the more twisted junior police-state techniques/tricks of 'active' freemasonry.

The Christian Host of the Program is real though - and excellent.



There is Seven Parts to this, after each part plays you should be able to navigate through the image boxes above to find the next segment. Incidently my view that both of these debaters are Freemasons comes from years of watching Freemasonry do this act on a wide number of forums and boards. 'Mason' number two starts out fairly conventionally but then quickly starts inserting pro-masonic propaganda inside the guise of a criticism. In fact if you listen carefully you will notice that he never actually disagrees, questions, or interupts anything Mason One is putting forth, he just offers some Freemasonry 'criticism' from Masonic writings that is actually an introduction of another warm and fuzzy freemasonry concept that sounds 'christian' which, 'oddly' enough, is how Freemasonry recruits new members inside the Church. How they both ended up on the same program is pure Masonry, probably through a member they have gotten placed inside the production chain. This kind of elaborate subterfuge is what the Lodge excells at and is why they are able to dominate the party system so thoroughly. Masonry will try and place members where there is any potential for political activity - or Opposition; Church & Parish Councils, Issue and Civic asscoiations, 'left' or 'right' political parties. 'Associate always associate...'

Then Jesus asked him, "What is your name?"

"My name is Legion," he replied, "for we are many."

Co-Incidence Theory: The 2007 Australian T.V. Audio Loop Mystery

A repost of a story first linked to in 2007

http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2007/01/04/jesus-christ-help-us-all-lord/

On January 2nd, a major primetime television broadcast in Australia was interrupted by about 7 minutes (or 10, depending who you ask) of a bizarre audio loop. Our Australian correspondent on the ground, “astepoutside”, fills us in on the details:

It was a show about train disaster or something, then suddenly an audio loop that it says in the story was saying “Jesus Christ, one of the Navarines” started playing over and over again… for 6 minutes straight. The most surreal TV watchig experience i have ever had. The only thing is, I swear that it was saying “Jesus christ, god save us all now” when I head it..

The program was called “Mayday” or possibly “Mayday: Head On Collison.” Okay, here we go. “Mayday” is the name of a television series about disasters, also known as Air Emergency in the United States, and Air Crash Investigation in the rest of the world. Another source gives the synopsis for the “Head On Collision” episode as being:

“A calm trip through the Rocky Mountains ends in disaster when a VIA Rail train slams head-on into an enormous freight train; how did the two trains wind up on the same piece of track?; an inquiry makes shocking discoveries about freight train management.”

How did the two trains wind up on the same track indeed? How did audio from one program and video from another get broadcast together for such a long time on a major television station?

Official news reports on the subject are sketchy at best:

THE Seven Network has apologised to viewers after receiving complaints about a major technical glitch which interrupted a prime-time transmission tonight.

The program, Mayday Head on Collision, which began airing at 7.30pm, was interrupted for several minutes by an audio track.

“It was an unfortunate technical error which was rectified as quickly as possible,” a Seven Network spokeswoman said.

“It only went to air in NSW and Victoria and the program resumed as soon as the error was corrected.”

The spokeswoman said the program’s vision went to air with different audio, which included the words “Jesus Christ”.

“It’s up to interpretation of exactly what was said, but we are working on ensuring it doesn’t happen again,” the spokeswoman said.

“We apologise to any viewers that were watching at the time.”

The other news item I have seen about this has slightly more information but is equally as dodgy:

A Seven spokesman said a technical glitch was responsible for the religious message being broadcast in Victoria and NSW.

The spokesman said the network was always “spreading the good word”, but not in a biblical sense.

“It was a technical glitch due to an audio problem with the tape,” he said.

“The line actually is ‘Jesus Christ one of the Navarines’ and this is from the documentary.

“It was not a prank, but one of those things that happen from time to time. The tape was stuck or something glitched between 7.35pm and 7.41pm, and we did everything we could to fix the problem as quickly as possible. Once everything was sorted, the program continued.”

However, thanks to the power and glory of YouTube, you can evaluate the audio track for yourself. In my opinion, they are quite clearly saying “Jesus Christ, help us all Lord” (with maybe a “fuck” at the end)

Also see this shorter clip from another person:

What’s interesting is that apparently the audio source has been most probably identified. And it just so happens to be another video available on YouTube:

Go to minute 2:07 of this video and compare the two.

So we have a number of questions to follow:

1. Why did this happen at all?


2. Why did it happen for so long?


3. Why did it happen where and when it happened?


4. Is there any particular significance which can be drawn out of this?


5. Why did news reports of this clearly misrepresent what was being said in the audio?


6. Is it possible other people actually heard different audio wherein Jesus being a “Navarine” (Nazarene?) was heard?


7. What’s with the connection to the “Halliburton Ambush Iraq” video on YouTube?

Very intriguing media mystery!

Yup

Co-Incidence Theory: Writer Claims To Have Discovered The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel in Afghanistan Pakistan Border Region

A repost of a story first linked to in 2007. It is interesting that Pakistan has long referred to the area where these Lost Tribes of Israel are said to be located, and now known as the Pashtun, as the Tribal Area's. There is also a documentary on this topic filmed in the region just before 9/11 and available on Youtube.

http://www.momentmag.com/Exclusive/2007/2007-04/200704-Taliban.html
April 2007

Scouting for stories in Afghanistan’s hinterlands, a Jewish American reporter and her Muslim Pashtun interpreter, discover they may have ancestors in common…

Is One of the Lost Tribes the Taliban?

Ilene R. Prusher

It was Seder night in Kabul, and the bread most afflicting me was the pile of nan—Afghan flatbread—that our cook kept placing on the table just before the guests were due to arrive. I repeatedly removed the offending plate and explained to the cook—already baffled by my trying to give him the week off—that there would be no bread served with this meal. He’d nod to show he understood, but a few minutes later, I’d find the same pile of nan back in its usual place.

I had planned for this Seder even before leaving home on the second of what would be many reporting trips to Afghanistan, tucking a box of matzah in my suitcase and wrapping two Haggadot inside my flak jacket. But celebrating the Jewish people’s liberation from slavery in Egypt was proving more complicated than just setting a proper table. My attempt to banish the nan and the cook’s determination to return it was just one of many challenges.

This was 2002, after all, in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, which until the U.S invasion only months earlier had been controlled by the fiercely repressive Islamist Taliban. Although driven from Kabul, the Taliban were hardly gone from the country and memories of their rigid rule—and their Ministry of Virtue and Vice—were fresh. A colleague who was co-hosting the Seder and I dared not reveal to our Afghani staff and guests—interpreters, drivers and guards—that they were actually helping us observe a Jewish holiday. Instead, we related the Passover story in metaphorical terms: Just as you here in Afghanistan are celebrating your freedom from the oppression of the Taliban and the terror of civil war, we commemorate the day of our freedom from slavery. This is a feast to show our love of liberty, our thanks to God.

The Afghanis ate it up—and reached for seconds of my charoset.

The only guest in on the secret was my guide and interpreter, Mashal, a member of Afghanistan’s prominent Pashtun people. Gentlemanly son of a judge, author of two books of Pashto poetry and master of four other languages, Mashal had been running an Internet café in Pakistan soon after 9/11 when a colleague of mine coaxed him into journalism.

A few days before the Seder, I found myself in an unexpected conversation with Mashal. He and I were on one of our long car trips through the ragged slate-gray Afghan hinterlands, scouting stories about Al Qaeda’s evasion of U.S. forces and local warlords who were besting America’s plans for the region. Somewhere between Khost and Kabul, Mashal raised a subject I had considered best to avoid in these precincts.

“I, I, I want to find out more about the Jews,” he said from the front seat, craning his neck to talk to me as we bounced over the rocky road like hot popcorn kernels. I didn’t respond; instead, I continued to stare out the window at the packed-mud buildings dotting the remote landscape, careful as ever to avoid direct eye contact with the men we passed. “Because I believe that they are related to us,” Mashal continued, “and that maybe we, we were once Jews.”

“What?” I asked, as if I hadn’t quite heard him, buying more time to think. I knew there were peoples, from remote pockets of Africa to the far corners of East Asia, who believe they are descended from the Israelites. I had not, though, heard this mentioned in regard to the Pashtuns, who claim a proud martial history in Central Asia that long predates Islam. Also called Pakhtuns or Pathans, they are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, whose populace also includes other Muslim groups like the Hazaras, Tajiks and Uzbeks. More notoriously, Pashtuns make up the ranks of the Taliban.

Was I to believe that the likes of Mullah Omar—the Taliban luminary who ordered public executions and floggings, made burka-wearing law, and gave succor to Osama bin Laden—possessed even a molecule of Jewish ancestry?

“Once Jews?” I finally replied, turning to him and pulling up my ever-slipping head scarf. “What do you mean?”

“We have all kinds of traditions that no other Muslims have,” he said, “like Saturday was the rest day. And many of the words in our language are not related to any other language in the region. And I, I think maybe that’s because they are from Hebrew!” Mashal punctuated that last word with a pleasing emphasis. His love of poetry had a way of seeping into the sweet rhythms of his speech.

“Well, if there’s something you want to know, I might be able to help,” I said, half-shocked to hear myself utter these words to an Afghan. “I’m Jewish.”

“Really?” He was exuberant. “You?” Our driver turned to ask what had caused this sudden burst of enthusiasm, but Mashal dismissed him with a shake of the head and a vague smile. Lowering his tone a notch, he said, “Wow. That’s great. I want to ask you a lot of questions.”

Mashal’s discretion confirmed my instinct that I could trust him. Still, such confidence was not to be given lightly. This was hardly two months after the murder of Daniel Pearl in neighboring Pakistan, an event that shook many intrepid reporters to the core. Suddenly, to not hide one’s religious identity seemed reckless. Like the thousands of landmines still embedded in Afghanistan’s parched landscape, Jewishness could be hazardous to your survival.

Later that day, I gingerly walked over one such landmine-strewn plain of cracked earth, dry and gritty as nan. At regular intervals, we had driven past gaggles of bright fabric flapping flirtatiously in the wind. Tied to thin wooden poles in the ground, they looked from afar like sails attached to the masts of sunken schooners trying to catch the breeze and move on. Mashal said they marked graves, but I couldn’t see how that could be.

I asked our driver to stop so I could take a photograph. He shrugged and obliged, telling me to watch my step. As I neared the poles, my feet crunching the dirt beneath me, I could see that Mashal had been right. The flapping fabrics were head scarves from women who had buried loved ones here, colorful signs of remembrance for those they mourned.

Up close, I found something even more surprising: stones scattered on nearly every grave. A memory from early childhood rushed through my head—one hand in my mother’s, the other reaching down to place a pebble on my grandfather’s tombstone. I returned to the car in wonderment, retracing my footsteps as I’d learned to do in a land as rich in mines as more fortunate countries are in coffee beans.

I asked Mashal what the story was: Why the stones on the graves? This was a peculiar Pashtun way of marking a visit to the deceased, he said.

“But that’s what Jews do,” I told him quietly. In all my travels, I had never come across another people who preferred pebbles over flowers on a loved one’s grave.

“Really?” Mashal said, surprised, “I thought only we, we Pashtuns did that.”

Less than an hour later, we passed through a typically poor village on the road back toward Kabul. Paint markings on some of the buildings caught my eye. They resembled five-branch menorahs. I asked Mashal what they were.

“Oh, we call it nars,” he replied. “People in the countryside put this up to mark a celebration, such as a birth or wedding.”

“Do all the peoples in Afghanistan do that, or just the Pashtuns?” Iasked.

“This is only for the Pashtuns,” he said.

It seemed uncanny. Menorah…nars. They sounded as if they shared the same root. And unlike the Star of David, which did not originate with the Jews, the menorah symbol had never belonged to another people.

Mashal and I raised our eyebrows and looked at each other. In the weeks that followed, we were to come across further peculiarities of Pashtun customs that would ring familiar. There is the tradition among many rural women, for instance, of lighting candles on a Friday. They then hide them in a basket—perhaps to conceal their glow from censorious mullahs. There are wedding customs: Some Afghans marry under a cloth that is similar to the chuppa. Another Afghan cloth, the uniquely Pashtun shoulder drape for men that doubles as a ritual prayer mat, is called a tolia; Both its name and function, I told Mashal, reminded me of tallit.

From then on, Mashal and I made a point of paying visits to Afghanistan’s Jewish sites: Gardez, where it’s rumored that a Jewish warrior named Gabur built an ancient fortress; Ghazni Province, where Pashtuns make pilgrimages to the tomb of a “Jewish saint” called Zikria; and Balkh Province, an ancestral area and possible cradle of Pashtun culture that once boasted a large Jewish population that disappeared long before the country’s other Jewish communities in Herat and Kabul dwindled after 1948 and died out in the 1970s. Mashal thought the Pashtuns might have acquired their name from Balkh pronounced pakh-tu by most Afghans.

There are several stories about how the Pashtun people—spread throughout Afghanistan, Pakistan and India—came by their Jewish roots. Many Pashtun, Mashal pointed out, believe themselves to be descended from a legendary figure named Qais Abdu Rashid, who might have been from one of the Israelite tribes. Another theory is that Pashtuns are descended from Pithon, a tribal descendant mentioned in First Chronicles, 8:35.

Curiosity piqued, I spoke to experts and consulted every book I could find on Afghanistan and the lost tribes. It seems Mashal and I were far from the first to wonder. One can find Muslim and Jewish references from the 13th to the 18th centuries attesting to the presence of lost tribes of Israel in the Pashtun territories in Afghanistan and Pakistan. These include the 1612 classic called Makhzan-i-Afghani, which was translated into English in the early 19th century as History of the Afghans.

Hardly a contemporary academic or journalistic work—from Sir Olef Caroe’s The Pathans of 50 years ago to the most recent histories of Afghanistan—fails to mention it. British colonial official Mountstuart Elphinstone, writing in the early 19th century, compared Pashtu to Hebrew in his book, The Kingdom of Caubul. Israel’s second president, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, believed in the Jewish lineage of the Pashtuns, as did Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan. Once, when asked about his ancestors, Shah claimed that the royal family descended from the Tribe of Benjamin.

Jews I spoke with who had grown up in Afghanistan also immediately identified with Pashtun-Jewish links. Their parents or grandparents, they would tell me, had always said, that of all Afghan peoples, they could expect Pashtuns to treat them well on account of their shared heritage. In Jerusalem, I met with Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, founder of Amishav (“My People Returns”), a group that brings supposed descendants of the lost tribes—such as the B’nei Menashe in India and the Shin-lung in Burma—to Israel. He flipped to the map on the back cover of his book, The Tribes of Israel, and with his finger traced for me the tribes’ putative path from Palestine into Iran, eastward across Afghanistan, and eventually into India and China.

Avichail’s claims brought to mind other intriguing details that Mashal had mentioned like some of the provisions of the complex Pashtun code of ethics, pashtunwali, which have no apparent connection to Islam and are not shared by other peoples of the region. These include exacting standards for hospitality and the requirement that a man marry his brother’s widow—a stipulation also found in the Torah.

Recently, I had a long phone conversation about Pashtun origins with Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi, an Indian historian on a research fellowship this year at Tel Aviv University. He’s been studying Muslim groups in India that have traditions of Israelite descent. In one—a Pashtun tribe called the Bani Yisrael—everyone shares the last name of Yisraeli. According to Aafreedi, they believe that they are the descendants of a Jewish sahabi (“friend” in Arabic) of the Prophet Mohammed.

“Why do they claim Israelite origins, if there is nothing to support it?” he asked me. “Why do they take it seriously, and why are there others who take them seriously?”

Tudor Parfitt, a British professor of Jewish studies and author of The Lost Tribes of Israel, subjects the lost tribe theory to an unforgiving academic light apparent in his recent book’s subtitle: The History of a Myth. Parfitt argues that the last traces of the 10 northern tribes, who were exiled into Assyria and forced to assimilate, are Hebrew names recorded in Assyrian army documents from the 7th century. He has concluded that this is where the history of the lost tribes ends, and the myth of the lost tribes begins.

A perfectly reasonable explanation for the cultural overlap, according to naysayers, is that large numbers of Jews lived and traveled in the lands that are now Afghanistan well before the arrival of Islam. As far back as the 7th century, Chinese travel writer Hsuan Tsang noted a large number of Jewish communities there. Eventually, most converted to Islam.

Whatever the arguments for and against, many Pashtuns—my friend and colleague Mashal among them—remain convinced they are related to the Jews, or at least deeply curious to learn whether they truly are. Their belief has some interesting ramifications: In the ever-shifting power struggles among ethnic groups in this part of the world, the Israelite card is used both for and against the Pashtuns. Pakistanis in particular disparage the Pashtuns as Jews, while some Pashtuns use the possibility of Israelite heritage as evidence of having legitimate, ancient roots in the region. For the religious-minded, a connection to Judaism is proof of having been monotheistic even before the arrival of Islam. And unlike other groups that may or may not be descended from lost tribes, the issue isn’t about to get swept up into Israeli migration politics: the Pashtuns have no interest in emigrating to Israel.

At my nan-less Seder this year, I will recall how Jews, as the descendents of the Israelites, have probably wandered more than any other people. Deuteronomy 10:22 tells us that, before slavery, “Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy people, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.” Where those stars shine today is anyone’s guess.

Ilene R. Prusher is a staff writer for The Christian Science Monitor, and is the Boston-based newspaper’s Jerusalem bureau chief. She has spent the last decade reporting from countries throughout the Middle East, East Asia and Africa. Her articles have also appeared in publications such as the The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The New Republic and The Jerusalem Report.

Barack Obama & Prince Hall Freemasonry

From a March 28, 2008 Post on the Democratic Party Website Blog

http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/MichaelsBlog/CcS9

Re: Moreover/Obama Muslim? Not Muslim Prince Hall Mason!!!

Mar 28th 2008 at 3:35 pm EDT

By LITTLE DINE' FOR RECALL ON COLUMBUS DAY

There is not one shred of evidence that he is Muslim. Grandpa told me that Barack Obama is a 32nd degree Prince Hall Mason, and goodstanding member of Royal Arch Masons,and Nights Templary.

Reverend Jesse Jackson is a 33rd degree Mason.

Reverend Jermiah Wright is also a 32nd degree mason. There are many very colorful high profile people that are Prince Hall Masons, to include Louis Farrakahn. I just can not understand why Louis Farakahn has been accepted as a high degree Mason, if he is totally contrary to most of the requirements and precepts for acceptability as a Mason in most of the Masonic Orders of the Nation and the International Masonic Orders known as Universal Masons..

The Prince Hall Masons belived to be of the Afro American Community are extremely prolific in the United States. There is a memebership of over 300,000, not including the Prince Hall Eastern Star Mason auxiliary composed by women only. Women can not be Masons.

There are hundreds of auxiliary orgs. that are under Prince Hall Masonry which is composed by huge numbers of members that could not rate accepted as masons due to requirements that were very scrutinized as to their background checks.

Reverend Al Sharpton being one a major activist in said organizations and member there of along with a huge number of Obama supporters and people in his campaign staffing....

Grandpa told me that Prince Hall Masonry is not exclusively for Blacks, he told me that a select group of people that are not of black heritage, but yet not anglo european caucasian, are Prince Hall Masons.

Grandpa is very learned on Masonoic Orders and high profile individuals that belong to many Masonic Theosophic Orders both Universal as well as international and Universal Masons Brotherhoods.

The enlightenment grandpa gave me on the subject makes me wonder if his control and knowledge of several languages and the inside intricacate trappings as to function of the Orders, might be related to the possibilty of him being of the masonic Universal Massons Orders.

However I guess that If and when he wants me to know he will clarify this to me. I do know for a fact he wears a peculiar ring with an eagle emblem and a diamond in the middle of the eagle in a triangular shape . The Eagle has its wings pointing downwards, and it is engraved on the sides with greek Character letters. The ring is really beautifull, made of Platinum and Yellow gold. He has different jewlry and rings which I thought were class rings.

Does anybody know what the Eagle ring might stand for?

I have never asked grandpa about it.

Peace to all here little Dine'

Palin's Freemason Recognition Sign Use

Some may have noticed Sarah Palin repeatedly placing one or both of her hands briefly on her thigh. This is a Masonic Recognition Sign. Here is a BBC Clip of one of her 'grand' entrances.

First Lady Laura Bush has been using this one also, here is a clip at 26:03 during Pope Benedicts arrival at the White House Lawn reception this summer and during the Andrews Airforce Base arrival at minute 33:22 of this clip . If you wish you can start the same clip from minute 28:19 and watch the head of Pope Benedicts Security repeatedly make Masonic Signs like the variety in the picture below of Sarah Palin and First Dude.



You may also observe both of these secret masonic recognition signs in official portraits of Lodge Officers and Grand Lodge Grand Masters on Masonic websites and compare them to line drawings in Duncans or other Masonic Ritual Work Books.