RENO (Thomson Financial) - US President George W Bush warned today that letting Iran acquire atomic weapons risked putting the Middle East 'under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust.'

'Iran's active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust,' he told a veterans group here.

Bush's speech to the American Legion aimed to convince a war-weary US public that the war in Iraq was the central front in the fight against what he described as the Sunni Muslim extremism of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network and the Shiite extremism fuelled by Iran.

'Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere, and the United States is rallying friends and allies to isolate Iran's regime to impose economic sanctions. We will confront this danger before it is too late,' he said.

Tehran denies seeking nuclear weapons and says that its atomic programme means to provide civilian power.

http://www.abcmoney.co.uk/news/282007125141.htm
.....................................................benny

JPost.com » Iran » Article


Aug 28, 2007 17:26 | Updated Aug 28, 2007 17:26
Ahmadinejad says his country now a 'nuclear Iran'
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
TEHERAN, Iran
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated Tuesday that Teheran has achieved full proficiency in the nuclear fuel cycle and warned the West that dialogue and friendship - not threats - were the right way to deal with Iran.


Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks with media during a press conference in Teheran, Iran.
Photo: AP
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"Today, Iran is a nuclear Iran," Ahmadinejad told a press conference in Teheran. "That means, it fully possesses the whole nuclear fuel cycle."


Ahmadinejad, however, said his country was committed to a "peaceful path" in pursuing its controversial nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad's comments followed an announcement Monday by the International Atomic Energy Agency which said that Teheran was offering some cooperation in the agency's probe of an alleged secret uranium processing project linked by US intelligence to a nuclear arms program.

The IAEA has said that Teheran also outlined its timetable for providing other sensitive information sought by the Vienna, Austria-based UN watchdog in its investigation of over two decades of nuclear activity by the Islamic republic, most of it clandestine until revealed more than four years ago.

The US criticized the deal with the IAEA, saying the agreement won't save Iran from a third set of UN Security Council sanctions for refusing to halt uranium enrichment.

Some in the IAEA have suggested Washington may be trying to derail important progress in the Iranian nuclear negotiations, in a drive to impose new UN penalties.

At the presser in Teheran, Ahmadinejad said the US president was a "wicked, selfish and arrogant" leader who has abused the UN Security Council in a push to stop Iran's nuclear program.

Although the Iranian leader did not name George W. Bush, his remarks were clearly addressed to his US counterpart.

"You saw that your coercion ... was futile," Ahmadinejad said. "Some wicked and selfish leaders stood arrogantly behind the podium to say, 'we won't let them do this' ... You sold out your prestige and stood against a cultured nation... I recommend that you don't repeat this ugly behavior."

The US and its allies fear Teheran is using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to produce atomic weapons. Iran denies the charge, saying its program is solely geared toward generating electricity.

Uranium conversion is the chemical process that changes raw uranium into the gas fed into centrifuges and spun repeatedly to separate out isotopes. Low enriched uranium can be used to make energy - which Iran insists is its only goal. But highly enriched uranium is used to make nuclear weapons.


...............................................benny

Iran dismisses threat of US attack by Stuart Williams
Tue Aug 28, 12:08 PM ET



TEHRAN (AFP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Tuesday dismissed the chance of any US attack on Iran over its nuclear drive, saying a warning by his new French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy only showed his inexperience.

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Ahmadinejad said Iran was now cooperating so well with the UN atomic agency that the long-running investigation into its nuclear programme was now "closed" and further UN sanctions action against Tehran were improbable.

"There is no way a possibility of such an attack by the United States. Even if they take such a decision, they cannot implement it," Ahmadinejad told a news conference marked by his characteristic defiance.

The White House, however, has never ruled out attacking Iran and Sarkozy had said in a keynote foreign policy address on Monday that Iran risked being bombed if the crisis over its atomic drive was not solved through diplomacy.

"He only recently came to power and wants to find a place for himself in the world," Ahmadinejad told reporters of the French president.

"He is still inexperienced, meaning that maybe he does not really understand the meaning of his own words," he added.

Sarkozy had said that the threat of sanctions coupled with an offer of dialogue was the only way of avoiding a "catastrophic alternative: an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran."

However Ahmadinejad argued that an agreement last week between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meant the nuclear issue was on the right track and there was no need to fear further UN sanctions.

"Not one member of the IAEA has cooperated as well as Iran. So from our point of view, Iran's nuclear case is closed. Iran is a nuclear nation and has the nuclear fuel cycle," he said.

"We are going in the right direction (with the IAEA). I do not think that anyone will be able to interfere in this."

The deal reached between Iran and the IAEA last week sets out a detailed timetable for Tehran to answer outstanding questions about its atomic drive, which the United States charges is aimed at making nuclear weapons.

However the agreement does not tackle the key sticking point over whether Iran should suspend uranium enrichment activities and United States has dismissed the plan as having "real limitations".

Iran said on Tuesday that as part of its cooperation with the IAEA it has already cleared up questions about its experiments with plutonium, a potential atom bomb material.

The United States accuses Iran -- OPEC's number two oil producer and owner of the second largest proven gas reserves in the world -- of seeking to make nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian energy drive.

Iran insists that the drive is entirely peaceful and that its growing population will need nuclear power as fossil fuels start to run dry.

Tehran's refusal to suspend uranium enrichment -- a sensitive process that can be used both to make nuclear fuel and nuclear weapons -- has already seen it slapped with two sets of UN sanctions.

Diplomats in Vienna, where the IAEA is based, said the Iranian cooperation should stave off new UN sanctions this year but that Tehran must open up further if it wants to avoid punitive action in the longer term.

Ahmadinejad said that the cooperation between Iran and the IAEA had showed Western powers that using force to bring Tehran to heel would not work.

"The Iranian people are united, they believe in God, they believe in the reappearance of the Mahdi (the Shiite hidden imam)," he added, a day ahead of a public holiday in Iran to mark the imam's birth anniversary.

During his news conference, Ahmadinejad repeatedly invoked the strength of Iranian civilisation, religion and culture, saying this had ensured that Western threats had come to nothing.

"Our (nuclear) problem is solved. You will not be able to do anything against us... Being our enemy will not bring you anything except defeat," he said.

...............................................benny

IDF moves large-scale training from Golan to south
By JPOST.COM STAFF AND AP
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The IDF has decided that war with Syria is unlikely and was moving training forces out of the Golan Heights after months of cross-border tension, security officials said Wednesday.


A view of Old Kuneitra from the west. The Israel-Syria border passes just meters west of the town's edge.
Photo: Jonathan Beck


Pictures from a Golani Brigade drill in the Golan Heights, Summer 2007. Large scale exercises like this would be held in the Negev henceforth, in an effort to ease the tension with Damascus.
Photo: IDF [file]
The decision followed months of growing tensions along the frontier and concerns that the escalation could result in war. Over the summer, media reports of impending war alternated with announcements by Syrian and Israeli leaders that they had no interest in hostilities.


The officials said Syria's military has now reduced its war readiness, but offered no details because the exact steps taken by the Syrians are classified.

Israeli troops scheduled to hold maneuvers on the Golan Heights would now be moved away from the border to the country's south to further reduce friction, the officials said, and the army's war-readiness status on the Israel-Syria border is now considered over.

Speculation that Syria might initiate a war on the Golan was rooted in concerns Syria had been emboldened by Hizbullah's apparent success in the Second Lebanon War.

The militia, a Syrian proxy, ignited the war by attacking an Israeli border patrol, killing three soldiers and capturing two others. It managed to survive a month-long Israeli offensive during which it bombarded Israeli towns with thousands of rockets.

However, Hizbullah has lost approximately a quarter of its manpower during the war and much of its prestige in the Arab world: Where before the war, the Shi'ite organization was hailed across the Arab spectrum as a resistance organization, even from major Sunni players such as Saudi Arabia, the war eroded its status to becoming an exclusively Iranian agent; and Israel did not meet with sweeping condemnation from the Arab world as it did in its past conflicts. And in Lebanon, many Druze, Christian and even some Shi'ite residents, distanced themselves from a rogue terror organization that brought calamity to their country.

Additionally, the organization, that since the pullout from Lebanon in 2000 and until the war could patrol close to Israel's border carrying arms in the open, was now pushed north beyond the Litany river by UN resolution 1701.

While training brigades have moved from the Golan Heights to the south, Israel maintains vigilance along the Syrian border as a matter of course, and if need be, can mobilize units back north in a short time.

Israel took the heights in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed them as a strategic asset, after residents of the Galilee and Kinneret fishermen were the victims of intermittent firearm and mortar harrasment from Syria for years.

The two states haven't fought a war on the Golan since 1973. Syria demands that Israel return the heights in return for peace, but negotiations between the sides last broke down in 2000 over the extent of an Israeli withdrawal.
................................................benny

August 30, 2007
Is Turkey closer to Gog-Magog?
by Michael G. Mickey
(8-30-07)

A Time magazine article's title begs the following question: Is Turkey Facing an "Islamist" Future? A follow-up question from me would be whether Turkey is now one step closer to its Gog-Magog future.

The following are two excerpts from the Time article:


"Turkey today passed a political landmark when, for the first time in its history, a politician rooted in political Islam was elected President. Bringing four months of government turmoil to an end, Abdullah Gul won the post on the third round of balloting by the nation's parliament."
And...

"...Turkey's secularists remain deeply suspicious. Pointing to Gul and Erdogan's background as formerly hard-line Islamists, they argue that the AKP harbors a secret Islamist agenda. As President, Gul has the power to approve or veto legislation, and secularists fear that he will sign into law any bill passed by Erdogan's government without concern for the separation of religion and politics. They are also infuriated by the fact that his wife Hayrunnisa dons a headscarf - Islamic attire is restricted in government offices under laws that date back to Ataturk's reforms."
In Bible prophecy, Ezekiel 38-39, we see that Turkey will participate in a surprise attack on the nation of Israel that will see the presently secular nation clearly in allegiance with a number of Islamic nations. The list of nations, according to most biblical scholars, is as follows:

Magog - Most agree this is a reference to Russia.
Meshech - Most associate this with modern day Turkey, ancient Anatolia, but some say it refers to the Moscow area.
Tubal - Most associate this with modern day Turkey, ancient Anatolia.
Persia - modern Iran
Ethiopia
Libya
Gomer - eastern Europe or Turkey
Togarmah - southeastern Europe or Turkey
The answer to my question posed earlier, which was whether the election of Abdullah Gul brings Turkey one step closer to its Gog-Magog future, may well be yes as we look at current events through the lens of Bible prophecy.

What amazing and wondrous truths we find hidden within the Word of God that we can read the news of our world today and speculate with wonder and amazement how the events leading up to the visible, physical, bodily return of our Savior will play out. While there are pitfalls associated with speculating to the point of taking a dogmatic position as to how a particular prophecy will play out, which I strongly and emphatically caution all my readers against doing, whatever keeps us watching for Christ's surprise return to whisk away to be at His side is good for our souls, particularly in the ever-darkening times in which we live!

As we can see on most any day in the news of our world today, prophetic posturing leading us closer and closer to seeing Jesus Christ face-to-face is occurring on a regular basis and is, on many fronts, quickening! Therefore, Christians, join me this day in looking up for the return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

God bless you all.


...................................................benny

Aug 31, 2007 0:31 | Updated Aug 31, 2007 0:31
Analysis: Russia uses Syrian port to demonstrate its power in the Med
By ALEX KOGAN
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Russia is expanding its military presence in Syria, developing an advanced naval port at Tartus and providing Syria with sophisticated missile technology.


Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Photo: AP , AP


The story of Russia's return to Tartus, Syria's second most important Syrian port after Latakia, broke a year ago. It is Moscow's only foreign naval outpost situated outside the former Soviet Union.


In June 2006 Russian media reported that Moscow had begun dredging at Tartus with a possible eye to turning what was largely a logistical base into a full-fledged station for its Black Sea Fleet, soon to be redeployed from the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol. But Tartus is much more than just a new home for the fleet; it allows projection of Russian power into the entire eastern Mediterranean, and, by extension, a flexing of military might before Israel and the West.

Russian sources said the country's military planned to form a squadron to operate in the Mediterranean within three years, built around the Moskva missile cruiser.

In addition, several respected Russian newspapers have reported that Moscow planned to deploy an S-300PMU-2 Favorit air-defense system to protect the base, with the system being operated by Russian servicemen rather than by Syrian forces.

According to these reports, the system would provide air defense protection for a large part of Syria.

Moscow and Damascus have also reached an agreement to modernize Syria's anti-aircraft network by upgrading medium-range S-125 missile complexes that were sold to Syria in the 1980s.

Another instance of secret activity at the port came on March 9, 2005, when yet another Russian Black Sea Fleet vessel, the Azov, supposedly carrying machinery for rebuilding the moorage at the Tartus technical base and replacements for obsolete items in the base's storage, left for Syria.

When it arrived at the port, several suspicious meetings between local authorities and Russian Navy officers took place, Russian media reported.

Less than two months later, Syria test fired new Scud missiles. The Syrians launched one Scud B missile with a range of 300 kilometers, and two Scud D missiles with a range of 700 kilometers. It is tempting to suggest that technologies for these projectiles were among the "equipment" brought on board the Azov.

The Russians have not stopped at moving missiles in their attempt to make an impression in the region. On one occasion they sent fighter planes into Israeli airspace.

In January 1996, the Russian Navy aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov came very close to Israeli territorial waters. On January 27, it launched several advanced Su-33 fighters, the naval version of the Su-27. The jets ventured into Israeli air space near Haifa. IAF planes were scrambled to intercept, but a skirmish was avoided.

The incident was kept secret for six years and was only revealed in 2002 in an article in the Israel Air Force magazine.

According to the report, Russian planes entered Israel's airspace at least twice and several F-16 scrambled for an intercept mission after an intrusion alert was received
............................................benny

Will President Bush bomb Iran?

September 02, 2007
Telegraph
Tim Shipman in Washington
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...2/wiran102.xml

In a nondescript room, two blocks from the American Capitol building, a group of Bush administration staffers is gathered to consider the gravest threat their government has faced this century: the testing of a nuclear weapon by Iran.

The United States, no longer prepared to tolerate the risk that Iranian nuclear weapons will be used against Israel, or passed to terrorists, has already launched a bombing campaign to destroy known Iranian nuclear sites, air bases and air defence sites. Iran has retaliated by cutting off oil to America and its allies, blockading the Straits of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf bottleneck, and sanctioned an uprising by Shia militias in southern Iraq that has shut down 60 per cent of Iraq's oil exports.

The job of the officials from the Pentagon, the State Department, and the Departments of Homeland Security and Energy, who have gathered in an office just off Massachusetts Avenue, behind the rail terminus, Union Station, is to prevent a spike in oil prices that will pitch the world's economy into a catastrophic spin.

The good news is that this was a war game; for those who fear war with Iran, the less happy news is that the officials were real. The simulation, which took four months, was run by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank with close links to the White House. Its conclusions, drawn up last month and seen by The Sunday Telegraph, have been passed on to military and civilian planners charged with drawing up plans for confronting Iran.

News that elements of the American government are working in earnest on how to deal with the fallout of an attack on Iran come at a tense moment.

On Tuesday, President Bush dramatically stepped up his war of words with the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whom the US government accuses of overseeing a covert programme to develop nuclear weapons. In a speech to war veterans, Mr Bush said: "Iran's active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust."

He went on to condemn Iranian meddling in Iraq, where America increasingly blames the deaths of its soldiers on Iranian bombs and missiles. Mr Bush made clear that he had authorised military commanders to confront "Iran's murderous activities".

This was widely taken to mean that he is set on a confrontation with Iran that will culminate in a bombing campaign to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities, just as Israel bombed Saddam Hussein's Osirak reactor in 1981.

The president's intervention came just weeks after leaks from a White House meeting suggested that Vice-President Dick Cheney, who is understood to favour the use of force, has regained the upper hand over the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who both advocate diplomacy and sanctions to isolate Iran. Mr Cheney reacted with fury when the State Department suggested that negotiations might continue past January 2009, when Mr Bush leaves the White House.

So the question is: did Mr Bush last week set America inexorably on a path to the next war?

Washington officials, with close links to the Pentagon, the State Department and the National Security Council, say that the speech was designed as a threat not just to Iran, but to America's Western allies, along with Russia and China, who have been slow to support - or who have opposed - UN sanctions against Iran. James Phillips, a Middle East expert at the Heritage Foundation, who helped devise the war-game scenario, said: "It is simultaneously a shot across Iran's bows and an appeal for the international community to do more to stop or slow Iran's nuclear programme."

A former White House aide added: "If this creates in the Iranians' mind a state of fear such that they back off, that helps your diplomacy. Bush is a political poker player. To play poker, you have to know when to bluff."

Mr Bush had another reason for speaking out, too. With General David Petraeus due before Congress on September 11 to report on progress on his "surge" in Iraq, Mr Bush wanted to make the case that a withdrawal from Iraq would boost Iranian influence there - in the hope that this would increase domestic support for his policies.

In Teheran, Mr Ahmadinejad was also quick to make the Iraq connection, but as an impediment, not impetus, to American adventurism. "We have an expression in Farsi which says, 'Bring up the one that you have given birth to first, then go for another one'," he said. "Let them do what they started in Afghanistan and Iraq then think of other countries." He dismissed threats of military action as "more of a propaganda measure than factual".

But European observers, and some in the American government, believe that Mr Bush has resolved to "do something" about Iran before he leaves office. A State Department source said: "If we get closer to the end of this administration and we are not seeing suitably tough diplomatic action at the UN, and other members of the P5 [the five permanent members of the Security Council] are still resistant to anything amounting to more than a slap on the wrist to the Iranians, then people will start asking the question: how do we stop our legacy being a nuclear-armed Iran?"

Mr Bush's escalation of the rhetoric was deliberate. A former White House aide said that the reference to a "nuclear holocaust" was a precise attempt to bracket Mr Ahmadinejad's quest for nuclear weapons and stated desire to wipe Israel off the map with Hitler's destruction of the Jews.

"By using that word 'holocaust', Mr Bush has provided a moral reason to allow the Jewish state to do what it needs to do," said the former aide. "He is reinvoking the notion of 'never again'. If you believe that there could be another Holocaust, it becomes morally indefensible to stand back. It is a powerful and loaded term. Those people in Europe who believed that the neo-cons have gone away and shrunk under a rock had better wise up fast."

British and American military officials believe that Mr Bush's ideal scenario is to bring about regime change in Iran, whose mullahs humiliated the US government during the hostage crisis, 28 years ago. "Unless you live here, it is difficult to understand how much the hostage crisis - is burnt into the psyche of Washington," said a Western diplomat in Washington. "They were made to look weak and the people who did it are still in power."

There are credible reports that the US has stepped up clandestine activities in Iran over the past 18 months, using special forces to gather intelligence about military targets - nuclear infrastructure and air bases, and Revolutionary Guard command centres from which Iran could coordinate attacks in Iraq.

The Pentagon has made contact with a Kurdish group called the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, which has been conducting cross-border operations in Iran, and with Azeri and Baluchi tribesmen in northern and south-eastern Iran, who oppose the theocratic regime. By using military special forces, rather than the CIA, the administration does not have to sign a Presidential Finding, required for covert intelligence activity, or report to oversight committees in Congress.

Information on US targets has leaked from the Pentagon. B2 bombers and cruise missiles would strike up to 400 sites, only a few dozen of which are linked to the nuclear programme. B61-11 bunker-busting tactical nuclear weapons would be the ultimate weapon against the heavily fortified installations; first in the crosshairs would be the main centrifuge plant at Natanz, 200 miles south of Teheran.

A Pentagon source said: "We have a targeting list and there are plans, but then there are also plans for repelling an invasion from Canada. We don't know where everything is but we do know where enough is to cause them enough damage to set back the programme."

But there are grave doubts that bombing would work. Davoud Salhuddin, a US dissident and Muslim convert living in Iran, said: "The US will not have the ability to change the regime here. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has been preparing himself for a US attack for the past 30 years. If they attack Iran, the problem of terrorism that they are trying to solve will get 100 times bigger than it is now… Americans will not feel safe in their own homes."

The other problem is that the CIA, apparently, does not have enough intelligence to guarantee that the nuclear programme could be permanently crippled, and little way of knowing after the event how much time they have bought with a raid. International estimates of how long it would take Iran to get a bomb vary between a year and 10 years.

The latest polls show that just one in five Americans would support the bombing of Iran now, but about half would do so if their government considered it necessary: clearly a position from which Mr Bush could build a case for war. Three out of four voters want to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Just as crucially, US government officials say that the CIA has failed to come up with a "smoking gun" that would persuade the international community to back military action. Last autumn, the CIA told the White House that while it believes Iran is running a clandestine nuclear weapons programme, it does not have conclusive proof. Radioactivity detection devices placed near suspect facilities did not find the expected results. Stung by criticism of their performance over Saddam Hussein's weapons programmes, CIA bosses warned Mr Bush and Mr Cheney that this did not prove that Iran had successfully concealed the programme from inspectors.

The diplomatic case against Iran suffered another blow when the International Atomic Energy Agency last week gave an upbeat assessment of Iranian co-operation with weapons inspectors. It found that Iran continued to enrich uranium - necessary for a bomb, but also for civil nuclear power - in violation of UN Security Council demands, but at a slower rate than was expected.

A State Department source said a new push would be made to advance the case for sanctions this autumn, but the hopes of progress were mixed. "The Russians and Chinese are still stonewalling, and the Europeans don't want to get involved," he said.

The one bright light for American hawks was a speech from the French President Nicolas Sarzoky, fast becoming Washington's favourite European, who, while ruling out French involvement in air strikes, did warn that Iran could face military action unless it abandoned the enrichment programme, presenting the world with a "catastrophic choice" between "an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran".

Complicating everything is President Bush's weak ratings in public opinion and on Capitol Hill, and the fact that some of his closest allies, including the political strategist Karl Rove and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, have jumped ship.

Only Congress has the power to declare war, and Mr Bush would need Congressional approval for military action against Iran within 60 days. Some think he might struggle to win that approval. "I don't think there is any real fight left in this White House. And no one in Congress wants to help them," said one Republican.

But critics fear that if Mr Bush cannot advocate confrontation with Iran, he might yet seek to provoke it. Joseph Cirincione, of the Centre for American Progress, accuses Mr Bush of "taunting Iran". He said: "Like the similar campaign for war with Iraq, this effort seems to be designed to find a casus belli, perhaps by provoking Iran into some action that could justify a military assault."

In the meantime, administration officials are studying the lessons of the recent war game, which was set up to devise a way of weathering an economic storm created by war with Iran. Computer modelling found that if Iran closed the Straits of Hormuz, it would nearly double the world price of oil, knock $161 billion off American GDP in a single quarter, cost one million jobs and slash disposable income by $260 billion a quarter.

The war gamers advocated deploying American oil reserves - good for 60 days - using military force to break the blockade (two US aircraft carrier groups and half of America's 277 warships are already stationed close to Iran), opening up oil development in Alaska, and ending import tariffs on ethanol fuel. If the government also subsidised fuel for poorer Americans, the war-gamers concluded, it would mitigate the financial consequences of a conflict.

The Heritage report concludes: "The results were impressive. The policy recommendations eliminated virtually all of the negative outcomes from the blockade."

James Carafano, a former lecturer at West Point, the American military academy, who led the war game, said: "It's not about making the case for war. I have yet to meet a government official who says: 'I've just come from a fierce debate about whether to bomb Iran'."

But in Teheran they are waiting. Abbas Abdi, one of the US embassy hostage takers in 1979, now a reformist political activist, said: "The style of the Americans is that they go forward with the political dialogues, get a couple of resolutions and then they wait to see what the circumstances are. They have no problems in attacking Iran, for sure."

Additional reporting by Kay Biouki in Teheran
...............................................benny

Iran's Choice

August 30, 2007
Times Leading Article
The Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/com...cle2351114.ece

Rarely has his message been as blunt. Denouncing support for terrorism, arming of Iraqi militias and attempts to place the Middle East “under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust”, President Bush accused Iran of threatening the security of nations everywhere. America, he insisted, would “confront this danger before it is too late”. Within hours of his tough message, US forces in Iraq had arrested eight Iranians, searched their luggage and confiscated their Iraqi escort’s weapons before releasing them. American commanders are taking no chances. They know that Iran is smuggling men and weapons into Iraq in huge quantities, arming not only Shia militias but also rival Sunni groups with the express aim of harassing and killing coalition troops.

Iran has made no secret of its malevolent intention to destabilise Iraq and fill the resulting vacuum. President Ahmadinejad boasted earlier this week that the Americans were on the run, and said that when they pulled out they would leave an opening for his forces. “Today you are prisoners in your own quagmire,” he said, demonstrating the hubris that, since the fall of Saddam Hussein, has increasingly marked Iranian behaviour. Some of his top advisers use language even more menacing: the US forces were now “hostages” in Iraq, and would be attacked if the US ordered any military action against Iran, one senior official recently told Western analysts.

Clearly, Iran now believes it can profit from confrontation, which hardliners around President Ahmadinejad appear to be actively seeking. For the past six months, Washington has warned Iran to stop supplying weapons to the insurgents in Iraq. The response has been not only a contemptuous denial but also the dispatch of Iranian Revolutionary Guards to other areas of confrontation. Iranian officials have also admitted that they are supplying weapons to the Taleban in Afghanistan – not because they support these Sunni extremists who were their deadly enemies when in power, but in order to prevent a US and Nato victory that would increase Western influence.

Iran would do well to listen not only to the words but also the tone of Mr Bush’s latest warning. Anger, exasperation and frustration at Iran’s failure to rein in its export of terrorism or to curb its push for a nuclear capability are changing the balance of the debate in Washington. Those who urge further United Nations sanctions, a search for a diplomatic solution and the isolation of Tehran’s hardliners can point to little success. Those who argue that Mr Bush must destroy Iran’s nuclear programme before he leaves office are being balanced by the intense concern in Israel and by Iran’s own arrogant behaviour.

If Iran is deaf to warnings from Washington, it should not ignore the tough new language in Europe. With unambiguous clarity, President Sarkozy said on Monday that a nuclear-armed Iran was unacceptable; unless the world reined in its programme, the only alternative was “an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran”. His language was aimed as much at Russia and China as Tehran. Both have posed as Iran’s friends and protectors to shield it from UN sanctions. Both should be realistic. Russia does not want another nuclear power on its southern flank. China is deeply worried about chaos in Afghanistan. It is time that it, too, confronted Iran.
__________________
....................................................benny

Bush Raises the Stakes Over Iran Bomb with Warning of 'Holocaust'

August 29, 2007
The Times
Tim Reid in Washington
http://timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/wo...cle2343791.ece

President Bush gave warning last night that Iran’s pursuit of the atomic bomb could lead to a nuclear holocaust in the Middle East, and promised to confront Tehran “before it is too late”. Mr Bush’s remarks, the starkest warning that he has made about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, came hours after President Ahmadinejad of Iran said that a power vacuum was imminent in Iraq and that Tehran was ready to fill it.

Mr Bush also talked for the first time of “two strains” of Islamic radicalism causing chaos in Iraq and the region: not only Sunni jihadists, about whom he has spoken often, but also “Shia extremism, supported and embodied by Iran’s Government”.

The comments displayed a new aggression towards Tehran, a day after President Sarkozy of France raised the prospect of airstrikes on Iran if the crisis over its nuclear ambitions could not be solved through diplomacy.
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Mr Bush said: “Iran’s pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust.

“Iran’s actions threaten the security of nations everywhere, and the United States is rallying friends and allies to isolate Iran’s regime to impose economic sanctions. We will confront this danger before it is too late,” he told war veterans in Nevada.

Mr Bush has said repeatedly that he wants the Iran nuclear standoff to be resolved diplomatically.

There is, however, still debate within his Administration over the possibility of launching airstrikes should Iran continue to develop its nuclear capability.

Mr Ahmadinejad, in a news conference in Tehran, again denied that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons, and dismissed any possibility of US military action against Iran. “Even if they were to decide to do so, they would be unable to carry it out,” he said.

He increased his provocation of Mr Bush, who accused Iran of arming insurgents with sophisticated roadside bombs that were killing US troops.

“The political power of the occupiers is collapsing rapidly,” Mr Ahmadinejad said. “Soon, we will see a huge power vacuum in the region. Of course, we are prepared to fill the gap.”

Although Mr Ahmadinejad revels in making provocative statements, his latest remarks will increase the fears in Washington and among its moderate Sunni allies in the region that an Iranian-dominated Iraq would trigger a regional war between Sunnis and Shias.

Mr Bush said that extremist forces would be emboldened if the US were driven out of Iraq, leaving Iran to pursue a nuclear weapon and set off an arms race.

“Iran could conclude that we were weak and could not stop them from gaining nuclear weapons,” Mr Bush said. On Iranian involvement in Iraq, he said: “I have authorised our military commanders in Iraq to confront Tehran’s murderous activities.”

Mr Bush’s speech was his second address on Iraq within a week and was part of a significant effort by the White House to prepare the ground for the progress report to Congress next month by General David Petraeus, the US ground commander.

General Petraeus is expected to ask for more time for the troop “surge” and Mr Bush still has enough votes on Capitol Hill to give it to him. The likelihood is that the current US troop levels in Iraq — about 160,000 — will remain until April. General Petraeus has signalled that he would then start to end the surge. However, the US is still likely to have about 130,000 troops in Iraq next summer.

Mr Bush told the American Legion Convention yesterday that he believed that the surge was working. He said that an agreement reached on Sunday by Sunni, Shia and Kurdish leaders in Baghdad to allow ex-Baathist members to get government jobs was evidence that political reconciliation was under way.

In reality, the agreement appeared to have achieved little because Iraq’s main Sunni leader said that it was too small an olive branch for him and his party to rejoin the Government of Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi President.
...................................................benny

Deadly Persian Provocations

Newsweek International
Reuel Marc Gerecht
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20429233/site/newsweek/

Sept. 3, 2007 issue - Two weeks ago, the bush administration announced it may designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization—the first time a foreign military body has received that label. Days later, a top U.S. general in Iraq accused Tehran of training Shiite militants inside the country. The moves came at an already precarious time in U.S.-Iran relations, and have greatly worried Washington's European allies, who see the steps as a prelude to war and fear they will make ongoing nuclear diplomacy with Tehran much more difficult.

Such fears are unfounded, however, and rest on several basic misunderstandings. For one thing, the terrorist label is nothing new, and thus will do little to change the current state of play. For another, Iran represents a much greater threat than Europe typically recognizes. It is not a status quo state that favors stability, as most pundits and governments portray it. Iran is, instead, a radical revolutionary force determined to sow chaos beyond its borders. Assuming that normal negotiations can bring it around is, therefore, a grave mistake. The mullahs don't want peace in Iraq—just the opposite. War may come, but not because negotiations break down. The likely trigger is an Iranian provocation.

Iran's bloody role in Iraq has yet to be widely acknowledged. But the clerical regime is killing U.S. soldiers there. Sophisticated Iranian explosive devices wielded by Shiite insurgents are producing ever-larger numbers of U.S. casualties. The brutal Mahdi Army of Moqtada al-Sadr is probably now responsible for about half of all U.S. combat deaths. Sadr, who visits Iran regularly, has developed close ties to the mullahs. And Iranian Revolutionary Guards have started training his henchmen inside Iraq. Tehran also continues to back the Shiite Badr Brigades, the military wing of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. This is increasing internecine violence in southern Iraq, where the feeble British presence has nearly collapsed. Bloody confrontations between the Mahdi and Badr gunmen are on the upswing.

As all this suggests, the widespread belief (shared by the Iraq Study Group, among many others) that Iran wants stability in Iraq is wrong. To understand Iran's true nature, remember Lebanon. During the civil war in the early 1980s, the clerics in Tehran backed a variety of Lebanese Shiites before settling on the most radical of these groups, Hizbullah. Since then, Hizbullah has partnered with Tehran in conducting terrorist operations overseas, as well as destabilizing Lebanon and threatening Israel. If Iran gains commensurate influence in Iraq now, it can be expected to have a similar effect.

Unfortunately, that's likely to happen unless the United States finds more effective ways to counter Tehran. The U.S. State Department has labeled clerical Iran a state sponsor of terrorism for years now, so targeting a specific institution—the Revolutionary Guards—merely adds an appealing note of precision: the Guards have long given aid to a varied list of terrorists, including, quite possibly, Al Qaeda. They are the principal bearers of Iran's revolutionary torch and responsible for a wide range of activities including commercial and industrial enterprises and the country's nuclear-weapons program.

Simply singling out the Guards won't change much. It is unlikely to provoke a significant Iranian response, or to make U.S. allies any more serious about sanctions. The Europeans remain hesitant—and the Russians, Chinese and Indians unwilling—to really coerce Tehran. America's unilateral efforts, particularly its use of the international financial system to block Iran's access to dollars and credit, have proved more successful than many thought possible. But without greater international support, they probably won't force Tehran to moderate its behavior. The Europeans, who are among Iran's largest trading partners, must agree to biting measures—something these states, which are as addicted to noncoercive diplomacy as they are to commerce, seem unlikely to do. In the meantime, the diplomatic process over Iran's nukes will crawl forward or stagnate but is unlikely to lead to war.

Washington can try to exercise soft power—through sanctions, resolutions, diplomatic isolation and rougher rhetoric. But the Islamic Republic, especially its radical president and praetorian guard, are accomplished practitioners of hard power. They are unlikely to be overwhelmed by moderate tactics. Instead, they seem set to continue killing Americans in Iraq, waiting to see if and when the United States gives up and run for the exits.

Gerecht, a former Middle East specialist at the CIA, is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of "The Islamic Paradox."

Sept. 3, 2007 issue
.................................................benny

September 2, 2007
Jordan's King: More EU Involvement Needed
by Michael G. Mickey
(9-2-07)

Prophetic posturing is taking place on many fronts as those of us watching for the return of Jesus Christ for His Church realize. Today is no different.

An EUBusiness.com headline proclaims: Jordan king urges greater EU role for Mideast peace. Need I remind my readers how long I've been saying that, sooner or later, my suspicion has been that the European Union would begin to play a larger role in the resolution of the seemingly never-ending Israeli-Palestinian crisis which, supposedly, will bring an everlasting peace to the Middle East. (Don't hold your breath on that one, folks, as we know what Bible prophecy says!)

The EuBusiness.com article opens as follows:



Jordan's King Abdullah II called for the European Union to bridge differences between Israel and the Palestinians ahead of a US-sponsored peace conference in talks on Sunday with visiting Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi.

"King Abdullah II and Prodi stressed the importance of increased efforts by the European Union to support peace in the Middle East and bring back the Palestinians and the Israelis to the negotiations table," a palace statement said.

"It is necessary to bring closer the points of view between the Palestinians and Israelis in light of US President George W. Bush's call for an international peace conference for the Middle East," the king was quoted as saying.
Not only do we see activity of interest where prophetic posturing is concerned within the story linked above, Javier Solana, foreign policy chief of the European Union, is on the ground in the Middle East as I write this commentary, as we see in the following excerpt from a European Jewish Press article:

Solana will have talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders ahead of several important gatherings later this year, including the informal meeting of EU Foreign Ministers on 9 September in Portugal, the Quartet meeting in New York next month and the international Mideast peace conference to be convened in November at the initiative of US president George Bush.
There is so much we could discuss of interest in these two articles that I could write pages on it!

Many people suspect that Jordan's King Abdullah is going to play a prominent role in peace coming to the Middle East and the advent of Antichrist.

Many others suspect that Italy's 'Roman prodigy', which is what many have indicated to me is what Romano Prodi's name literally means, is going to be a key player in the advent of the Antichrist occurring.

The number of people who suspect that Javier Solana may be the Antichrist in the making is staggering, most likely because of the diplomatic role he holds within the revived Roman empire of Bible prophecy.

As for me, while I find it interesting that we see these key players so many love to imply to me will ultimately be revealed to be the Antichrist talking about Middle East peace, what I find interesting isn't any of them personally.

What I find intriguing beyond belief is that all of them are helping set the stage for the advent of Antichrist to occur, regardless of who ultimately confirms a seven-year covenant of peace in the Middle East!

The WHO, from my perspective, doesn't matter; the WHAT is where our focus needs to be!

WHAT Bible prophecy tells us is that a prince (or leader) of Roman descent is going to confirm (or make strong) a seven-year covenant of peace in the Middle East. (Daniel 9:26-27)

The confirmation of a Middle East peace covenant will mark the onset of the Tribulation Period - a terrible time of judgment upon mankind which will be preceded by the Rapture of the Church, an event that is going to occur at a moment when many, even in the Body of Christ, will have no idea it was even coming!

A glimpse at the prophesied Antichrist

The Antichrist, we know from Bible prophecy, is going to, ultimately at the very least, head a revived Roman empire that will become the last empire to rule the world before the visible, physical, bodily return of Jesus Christ to earth at the Battle of Armageddon. The empire (kingdom) he will head will "be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces." (Daniel 7:23)

The Antichrist's road to global domination will begin with the confirmation of Middle East peace and will ultimately, as we see in Revelation 13:7, see him hold great power "over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations."

The Antichrist will eventually become so influential and beloved that he will evolve into an object of worship - to the point that virtually no one will dare step into his path of conquest, even when he opens "his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven." (Revelation 13:6)

All those who oppose the Antichrist during his reign, particularly those who bow their knee to God, will be hated by him and will be overcome by him - for a time. This is a great reason, in my estimation, to make things right with Jesus Christ today (if you haven't already done so) to avoid being left behind to see the horrors that are assuredly going to come if we are the appointed generation that will see the Tribulation Period begin. Based on many prophetic signs appearing in the world around us, I believe we are that generation.

I can find no reason whatsoever to believe anything other than we are rapidly approaching the Rapture of the Church. If we're not, for any reason, chronologically headed toward the Rapture, we seem to be moving toward that event conditionally at warp speed!

Now for the disclaimers:


I may be proven to have incorrectly surmised that a leader originally from within the European Union will initially confirm the covenant of peace foretold by the prophet Daniel even though this seems logical to me given the fact he will ultimately lead it.
No one will, on this side of the Rapture of the Church, know the identity of the Antichrist so it is pointless for those of us who truly believe in a pretribulation Rapture of the Church to try and guess his identity. We need to remember that the first seal judgment will send the Antichrist on his appointed ride. This will only occur when the restraining influence of the Holy Ghost is withdrawn - the Holy Ghost who dwells inside every saint presently residing upon the earth!
The purpose of this commentary is to highlight WHAT is taking place that could be setting the stage for the advent of the Antichrist to occur, not to highlight Antichrist suspects. (No comments on the blog pinning the tail on the Antichrist please.)
There is no guarantee that these present developments, though well worth watching, will lead to a seven-year covenant of peace coming to the Middle East in fulfillment of Daniel 9:27. Like many other times when it seemed that progress was forthcoming, things may fall through due to the turbulent nature of the Middle East. Even so, we can't possibly go wrong in keeping a vigilant watch for the Lord to return for us at any moment, particularly in perilous times such as these.
The bottom line? Stay informed of events that present opportunities for Middle East peace to be achieved, as well as the advent of Antichrist. Stay at the ready, Christians! Wherever we see the possibility that the Tribulation Period could begin soon, we see the possibility that we could be going home to be with the Lord even sooner!

November will be here before you know it and you never know what may be in the works concerning fulfillment of God's prophetic plan so keep looking up and praying for the peace of Jerusalem!

The end times drama continues...


............................................benny

Poll: 71% of Israelis want U.S. to strike Iran if talks fail

By Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent

Fully 71 percent of Israelis believe that the United States should launch a military attack on Iran if diplomatic efforts fail to halt Tehran's nuclear program, according to a new poll.

The survey, commissioned by Bar-Ilan University's BESA Center and the Anti-Defamation League, found that 59 percent of Israelis still believe the war in Iraq was justified, while 36 percent take the opposite view.

Some 65 percent believe that the United States is a loyal ally of Israel, with only 11 percent saying the opposite. A slightly higher proportion, 73 percent, described U.S. President George W. Bush as friendly. Forty-eight percent attributed U.S. support for Israel to strategic considerations, while 30 percent credited American Jewry and 17 percent cited shared values and a shared democratic tradition.




Advertisement

Regarding America's importance to Israel, there was near consensus: 91 percent said that close relations with the U.S. are vital to Israel's security. Some 51 percent of respondents predicted that the U.S. will ultimately impose an agreement on Israel and the Palestinians, while 43 percent disagreed.

In addition, 52 percent of respondents described American Jewish support of Israel as "sufficient," while 33 percent did not. About half of all Israelis believe that American Jewry is in danger of disappearing due to assimilation, the poll found.
.................................................benny

Iran warns against U.N. resolution

Published: Sept 2, 2007 at 1:12 PM
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_New...solution/5874/

TEHRAN, Sept 2 (UPI) -- An Iranian official says his country may reconsider cooperating with the United Nations nuclear watchdog if the organization imposes sanctions.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said Sunday that Tehran's cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency may be compromised if a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for sanctions against Iran is passed, RIA Novosti reported Sunday.

"Our cooperation with the agency will continue, and if a new resolution is adopted by the U.N. Security Council, we will reconsider our cooperation with the agency and will think of other options," Hosseini said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said earlier Sunday that Iran's nuclear achievements represented a challenge to hegemonic powers, Iranian Press TV reported.

He said the country is now operating 3,000 centrifuges and new units are being installed every week.

"The hegemonic powers supposed that the Iranian nation would sit back if they pass resolutions against the country, but Iran made another nuclear breakthrough after each resolution," Ahmadinejad said in Tehran at the inauguration ceremony of the 10th National Congress of the Students Islamic Community.
..............................................benny

Today's Situation
FROM RUSSIA WITH WAR, August 30, 2007
The Israeli media focused on two fronts on Thursday, with Syria and the Palestinian Authority grabbing the headlines in most of the newspapers.

Maariv leads with a report that accuses of Russia of being behind recent tensions between Israel and Syria, after officials in Moscow told the Syrian leadership that Israel was preparing for war.

'Israel is becoming increasingly convinced that diplomatic and defense officials in Moscow passed messages to the Syrian leadership, in which they claimed to have knowledge of Israeli plans for war. The Syrians took these reports seriously, and were very concerned by them - despite the fact that other international sources were passing contradictory messages, which tried to reassure Damascus that Israel had no intention of attacking.'

According to the report, Israeli officials are unable to explain why Russia would want to inflame tensions between Israel and Syria, but one possible explanation is linked to the fact that Russia is Syria's primary sources of arms.

Responding to the report later on Thursday, Amos Gilad - head of the Defense Ministry's political division - told Army Radio that Russia was guilty of stoking tensions between Israel and Syria.

'During a certain period, the Russians acted in such a manner that the Syrians thought Israel wanted to engage in a war against their country,' Gilad said. 'The Russians then stopped their incitement following explanations that were communicated to them, according to which Syria had no intention of attacking Israel, and Israel did not aim to take the initiative in a war against Syria. This allowed a calming of tensions,' he added.

There was no immediate comment from Russian officials.

In the meantime, The Jerusalem Post reports on its front page on Thursday that, contrary to various news reports, senior defense officials denied Wednesday that the IDF had not reduced its level of forces on the Golan Heights.

The officials noted, however, that 'certain messages' had been received by both Israel and Syria indicating that neither was interested in going to war.

Earlier Wednesday, several news outlets reported the IDF had decided to transfer its forces training on the Golan Heights to bases in southern Israel, in an effort to reduce tensions with Syria.

According to sources in the Northern Command, however, the IDF is maintaining a high-level of alert along the border with Syria and is not withdrawing forces from the North. The sources said, however, that recent diplomatic developments had allowed for a slight reduction in the tensions between Jerusalem and Damascus.

Haaretz, meanwhile, dedicates its lead story to a new plan by U.S. security coordinator in the territories, General Keith Dayton, which calls for the deployment of five new Palestinian battalions throughout the West Bank. The plan, the aim of which is to bolster Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, requires the approval of Israel if arms and equipment are to be transferred for the new force, political sources in Jerusalem said Wednesday. The plan, still in its early development, is likely to call for the staged creation of the force, with relatively small units undergoing the necessary training.

All of the newspapers report on the death Wednesday of three Palestinian children who were killed when the IDF fired at a Qassam launcher in the northern Gaza Strip. According to the army, soldiers spotted figures handling rocket launchers near Beit Hanun, and attacked them from the ground. The army expressed its regret over the deaths, and condemned Hamas' use of children for terrorist purposed. Chief Palestinian negotiators Saeb Erekat condemned the killings, saying that they would 'feed the fire' of conflict.

In its lead story, The Jerusalem Post reports that President Abbas has appointed a special adviser on Jerusalem affairs, which it interprets as an indication that Israel and the PA are now readying to grapple in earnest with the issue of the city's status.

According to the paper's sources, the decision was taken ahead of November's U.S.-sponsored Middle East peace conference, where Israel and the Palestinians are expected to focus on 'fundamental' issues like Jerusalem, the borders of the future Palestinian state and the problem of the Palestinian refugees.

Finally, Yedioth Ahronoth previews an extensive interview with former defense minister Amir Peretz, due to be published in full on Friday, in which the defeated Labor leader describes his decision to accept the defense portfolio as 'the biggest mistake of my life.' Peretz also uses the opportunity to blast his political colleagues and rival: he says that Olmert's vacuity worries him; that Ehud Barak humiliates people; that Shaul Mofaz did not do enough to prepare the army for the Second Lebanon War; and that Benjamin Ben-Eliezer betrayed him.



..........................................benny

http://rapturealert.blogspot.com/2007/08/hes-alive.html benny

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DEBKAfile Exclusive: Major shakeup in elite Revolutionary Guards executed by supreme ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Sept 1 takes Iran a step closer to war

September 2, 2007, 11:19 PM (GMT+02:00)


Supreme ruler Ali Khamenei and new Revolutionary Guards chief Gen. Jaafari review IRGC Shihab missiles


In a special decree, Khamenei suddenly sacked Gen. Rahim Safavi and appointed Gen. Mohammad-Ali (Aziz) Jaafari, commander of missile forces, in his place as Revolutionary Guards chief.

Safavi was kicked upstairs as special security adviser to supreme ruler.

DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources disclose: Two years ago, Khamenei entrusted Jaafari, then commander of the corps’ ground forces, with charting a war strategy for the IRGC, the bulwark of the regime, to meet a foreign attack on Iran. His formal task was to set up the corps’ “center for strategy,” which would be given “unlimited national resources in case of a foreign military confrontation.

The new center was mandated to “draw up the new strategy and the necessary changes to ensure rapid an efficient transformation of the country’s civilian infrastructure and resources to military footing under the control of the IRGC.”

Our sources that Khamenei has now assigned his most trusted adviser in the elite corps with taking supreme command of the IRGC and carrying out the strategy he developed. This appointment takes Iran a step closer to armed conflict.

DEBKAfile’s sources note that the Revolutionary Guards bear responsibility for Iran’s national nuclear and missile programs. Last month, Washington indicated its intention to designate the IRGC as a global terrorist organization.


...........................................benny

Ahmadinejad: Iran will fill Iraq vacuum when US leaves

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Printer-friendly version By Stan Goodenough
August 29, 2007

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is positioning his country to fill the space that will be left when the United States pulls its forces out of Iraq - as the Democrat-controlled Senate and Congress are determined to do.

The megalomaniac in Tehran believes the situation will then be ripe for Iran to dramatically extend and entrench its influence in the Middle East.

Addressing journalists Tuesday, Ahmadinejad said the region is "witnessing the collapse of the occupiers of Iraq and we will soon have a power vacuum in that country."

Never fear, he added quickly, soothingly, disingenuously: "In cooperation with neighboring countries, such as Saudi Arabia, we would be prepared to fill this power vacuum for the sake of aiding the Iraqi government and people."

Saudi Arabia is far from being an ally of Tehran's, and has in fact expressed its concerned opposition to the Iranian quest for regional supremacy.

The Desert Kingdom, as it is known, is a United States' ally and the State Department has worked for decades to help keep the country "moderate" – among other things by supplying Jeddah with multi-billions of dollars worth of the most sophisticated US-made weaponry.

While Iran's official religion is Shi'a Islam, only 10 to 15 percent of Saudi Arabians are Shi'ites. The majority adhere to Wahabism - a theological interpretation within Islam.

Unlike the other Middle Eastern Muslim states, Iran is not Arab but Persian.

It is on course to becoming the number one regional superpower as it defiantly pursues a nuclear development program with its eye on acquiring an "A-Bomb for Allah."

Ahmadinejad jeered at what he believes is America's impotence to confront Iran and crush its nuclear ambitions.

"There is in no way the possibility of such an attack by the United States. Even if they take such a decision they cannot implement it [as] they have to solve the question of Iraq and Afghanistan," he said.

"Politicians do not deal with imaginary things. They deal with reality and this is propaganda. This (an attack) is not on the agenda of US officials and it cannot be."

With Iraq firmly in its orbit, Iran will be able to powerfully resist diplomatic pressure and even the threat of military action as it will work to divide western nations so dependent on Middle Eastern oil.

Already the world's second-largest oil-holder, Tehran would dramatically enhance its influence should Iraq - which has the third largest reserves of conventional oil in the world - come under its sway.

All told, the Middle East holds two-thirds of the planet's oil reserves. Whoever reigns supreme here will be an almost unassailable force.

Ahmadinejad's latest threats come three months after Jerusalem-based International Christian Zionist Center director Jan Willem van der Hoeven flew to the United States to lobby against a US forces withdrawal from Iraq.

If Washington pulls its troops out, Iran will rush in, Van der Hoeven warned Senators and Congressmen, both Republicans and Democrats, in their offices on Capitol Hill.

The consequences would be catastrophic for United States Middle East policies aimed at strengthening the "moderate" Muslim bloc of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait etc, and would put Europe at the mercy of an Iranian oil boycott, the veteran Christian Zionist leader warned.

..................................................benny

10 Indications that the U.S. is Planning Military Action Against Iran

New America Media, News Analysis,
Omid Memarian ,
Posted: Sep 02, 2007
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news...6 07666bb743a

Editor’s note: The Bush administration appears to have rejected the Baker-Hamilton Commission’s recommendations for a diplomatic offensive towards Iran. Instead, key indicators suggest that Bush is preparing to expand the war on terror by attacking Iran writes Omid Memarian. Memarian is an Iranian journalist and blogger and Peace Fellow at the UC Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism.

The United States is headed toward a serious confrontation with the Iran’s hardliner government. The administration is positioning itself for battle by shifting the focus of its dispute from Iran’s nuclear program to winning the “War on Terror.” What may ignite the fire is the possible labeling of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps(IRGC) as a ‘terrorist group’ by U.S. officials.

Despite all its challenges in stabilizing Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. has its eye on Iran: It has tried to mobilize Iranian opposition, pressure the UN Security Council members to adopt economic sanctions against Iran, marginalize Iran in the region by inflaming/exacerbating the anti-Iranian sentiment, expand its military presence in the Persian Gulf, and encourage an arms race in the region. And, of course, the only way to seal a grand bargain with Iran for this administration is through military action versus diplomatic negotiation.



There are 10 indications that the U.S. is planning to pursue military action against Iran:

1. Ignoring Iran’s proposed ‘Grand Bargain’ of 2003: Prior to Ahmadinejad’s presidency – when the reformist, pro-West, moderate president, Mohammad Khatami was in power - the Iranian government sent a secret letter through the Swiss Embassy, proposing various compromises from stalling nuclear developments to stopping support for Hamas and Hezbollah. The Bush administration refused the offer, which undermined the moderate government in Iran and led to the emergence of fundamentalists in Tehran. The U.S. seemed to have a different plan for Iran, which did not call for diplomatic negotiations.

2. Allocating 75 million dollars for ‘promoting Democracy in Iran’: Although this move seems to favor democracy, many Iranians in Iran and abroad believe that this policy is designed to create social and political unrest rather than to promote democratic movements. It has actually done more harm than good; it has become an excuse for the hardliners to target activists and suppress civil movements by accusing them of operating with western ‘dirty money.’ The money has never gone to any Iranian institutes, press, civil society organizations or NGOs inside the country. Rather it has been distributed to opposition groups who are not even connected with the current society in Iran.

3. Supporting terrorist groups like ‘Jondollah’ in Iran’s Eastern Provinces: The U.S. is supporting ‘Jondollah’, a group who is notorious among Iranians worldwide, for being a terrorist organization. They have been successful in destabilizing Iran’s Eastern provinces, hence weakening the government’s central authority. The U.S. support of Jondollah was uncovered by the media, and this information has further ruined the U.S.’s reputation - even among critics of Ahmadinejad’s government.

4. Supporting opposition groups in Northern Iraq: The administration is supporting armed opposition groups such as the PJAK in northern Iraq. These groups claim that they are fighting for federalism and disintegration of Iran’s Kurdish provinces. However, these groups have no legitimacy among the Kurdish population, let alone the Iranian people.

5. Gathering international community support against Iran: The U.S. has mobilized the EU countries, and even China and Russia, to isolate Iran by cutting their economic ties with governmental and private companies. Additionally, two recent sanctions by the United Nations Security Council against Iran have applied further economic pressure on the Islamic government.

6. Stationing three aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf: Three U.S. aircraft carriers have been stationed in the Persian Gulf in the last year: the Nimitz, a nuclear-powered carrier, John C. Stennis Strike Group, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, a relief carrier. Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 this is the strongest U.S. military presence in the region in terms of scale, number, or advanced technology.

7. Inviting Iran’s neighbor to an arms race: The U.S. proposed a $20 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, followed by a promise to provide $30 billion worth of arms to Israel. Ihud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister, confirmed this arms deal by stating, “We understand the need of the United States to support the Arab moderate states, and there is a need for a united front between the U.S. and us regarding Iran.”

8. Shifting of the U.S. foreign policy doctrine: The administration is shifting its problem with Iran from a ‘nuclear issue’ to one of ‘War on Terror.’ Therefore, regardless of the results of Iran- EU negotiations, Iran will be accused of terror activities in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine or any country U.S. is facing opposition in. While the international community is very reluctant to let the U.S. confront Iran because of its nuclear program, the administration feels free to confront Iran using the country’s alleged support of terrorism in the Middle East.

9. Labeling the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) a ‘Terrorist Organization’: U.S. officials have announced that the administration is going to declare that the IRGC, is a terrorist group. The IRGC is a part of Iran’s army and in labeling them a terrorist organization, the U.S. is labeling the entire government a terrorist state. Hence paving the way to declare any form of military action against the in the name of “War on Terror.”

10. Political frustration and the 2008 election: For many neo-cons in Washington, a new war, even an air strike, would divert the attention from U.S. failure in Iraq. It would boost their support, as many Americans opt for maintaining status quo in the middle of war.

The Bush administration follows a rule that has succeeded in numerous occasions: Make a story you want people to believe, repeat the message over and over, feed the media so they can beat Americans over the head with the info, and eventually everyone will believe it. It worked with WMD in Iraq, and now it seems to be Iran’s turn - the Islamic government is the root of all evil, from nuclear proliferation to supporting insurgents who are killing the U.S. soldiers. The administration seems to have its story set, true or not, and is enforcing its own conclusion – despite the dire consequences.
..............................................benny

Iran Defiant On Two Fronts, One Of Them Nuclear

2007-09-02 22:52:35 (42 minutes ago)
Posted By: Intellpuke
http://freeinternetpress.com/story.php?sid=13416

Iran’s leaders issued dual, defiant statements on Sunday, with the president announcing that the nation had 3,000 active centrifuges to enrich uranium and the top ayatollah appointing a new Islamic Revolutionary Guards commander who once advocated military force against students.

The pairing of the messages, just days after the United Nations' top nuclear official said Iran was striking conciliatory poses, appeared intended to reaffirm the country’s refusal to back down to pressure from the United States over its nuclear program and its role in Iraq, political analysts in Iran said. And it came as the Bush administration was celebrating progress in its talks with North Korea to shut down that country’s nuclear programs.

Indeed, the timing and tone of Iran’s declarations may be more politically significant than their content, particularly in the case of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's announcement that Iran had finally reached its stated goal of developing 3,000 centrifuges.

Many technical experts have expressed skepticism over Iran’s periodic claims of enrichment breakthroughs, saying the assertions often turn out to be exaggerated.

That seemed to be the case again on Sunday, though nuclear experts said that even if Ahmadinejad was overreaching, it would be only a matter of time before the boast became true. The most recent report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), released Thursday, said Iran had 1,968 centrifuges enriching uranium at its main Natanz plant, 328 in testing, and 328 in assembly - for a total of 2,624. The report noted that the assessment was accurate as of Aug. 19, or two weeks ago.

The goal of 3,000 centrifuges is significant to nuclear experts: they say that if Iran could spin that many centrifuges nonstop for a year, it could make enough highly enriched uranium for a single atom bomb.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the atomic energy agency director general, said in an interview last week that Iran seemed to be intentionally slowing its progress in an effort to strike a conciliatory note as the United Nations Security Council demanded it stop the nuclear work completely. “My gut feeling,” he said, “is that it’s primarily for political reasons.”

Still, Ahmadinejad’s new claim was a direct challenge to that notion, and to efforts by the United States and European countries to impose harsher sanctions against Iran. “The West thought the Iranian nation would give in after just a resolution, but now we have taken another step in the nuclear progress and launched more than 3,000 centrifuge machines, installing a new cascade every week,” state television quoted the president as saying.

The White House warned that a new round of sanctions was likely in the wake of Iran’s refusal to cooperate. “This kind of announcement is inconsistent with Iran’s recent comments on cooperation with the I.A.E.A.,” said a spokesman, Robert W. Saliterman.

The coinciding message about the change at the top of the Revolutionary Guards, made by the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,had distinct ramifications for the United States as well.

There have been reports that the Bush administration is considering declaring the Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization, opening the way to further economic sanctions against Iran because the Guards are involved in nearly every aspect of the state-controlled economy. (Last week, a senior administration official involved in the internal debate said the designation may instead be limited to the Quds Force, which the United States accuses of being particularly active in Iraq.)

The Revolutionary Guards are also believed to be deeply involved in the country’s nuclear program, and any action against it or the Quds Force is perceived in Washington as a way of stepping up pressure on Iran’s nuclear aspirations as well.

Iran still rejects Western accusations that it is seeking nuclear weapons, insisting that its program is solely for peaceful purposes. And it has reached agreement with the atomic energy agency finally to answer questions about many years of past nuclear activities that have fueled suspicions that it has been secretly trying to develop a weapons program.

But that agreement was dismissed by the United States as a half step that ignored Washington and Europe’s primary demand: that Iran stop enrichment.

Iran’s statements, in addition to ratcheting up defiance of international pressure, had distinct domestic political overtones as well, analysts said. “He has to feed his domestic clientele,” one European diplomat who works with the atomic agency said Sunday.

In Tehran, Saeed Leylaz, a political analyst and former government official, said, “What is important is the spirit that dominates the system, and that has not changed.”

The news of the change at the top of the Revolutionary Guards, in particular, was greeted with surprise and keen interest by Iranians.

Ayatollah Khamenei announced that Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, who had led the force for a decade, would be replaced by Brig. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari.

The Guards, which has about 200,000 members, controls a huge empire that has a stake in every significant corner of Iran’s economy and its civil system of governance. Ahmadinejad was a member of the Guards during the 1980 to 1988 war with Iraq, and he has placed dozens of former members in leadership positions around the country and in the central government in Tehran.

The Guards are, by design, the most economic and politically independent body in the country, outside of the supreme leader’s office. General Jafari has an established record of support for the theocratic system of government, and its hard-line policies.

In 1999, he showed a willingness to use the guard’s military force to quell student riots. In a letter to Mohammad Khatami, then the president, he wrote, “We have reached the end of our rope and can no longer tolerate it if the situation is not confronted.”
__________________
..........................................benny

Ahmadinejad steps up war of words with US over nuclear aims

Sarah Knapton
Monday September 3, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2161394,00.html

Iran said yesterday an important goal had been reached in its quest for uranium enrichment, raising fears that it could have enough nuclear material for an atomic bomb within a year.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted by state television as saying that despite UN economic sanctions, Iran had "taken another step in the nuclear progress and launched more than 3,000 centrifuge machines". The number of centrifuges - critical in building a nuclear bomb - is significantly higher than recent estimations by the International Atomic Energy Agency, leading to speculation that Iran may be exaggerating its capabilities for propaganda purposes.


Tehran said in April that it was operating 3,000 centrifuges but the IAEA found that only 328 centrifuges were active at the underground Natanz enrichment facility in central Iran. Last week inspectors said the enrichment programme had slowed and the country was now cooperating. Findings also suggested that Iran had produced only negligible amounts of nuclear fuel with its centrifuges, far below the level usable for nuclear warheads.

But yesterday's announcement looks set to fuel growing tensions with Washington and its EU allies. Last week President George Bush claimed that Iran's nuclear agenda would put the Middle East under the shadow of "nuclear holocaust".

Iran has faced economic sanctions and three UN resolutions for refusing to cooperate with IAEA inspectors and curtail its nuclear plans. Further sanctions are possible when the UN security council meets this month .

Western experts say 3,000 centrifuges running smoothly for long periods at supersonic speeds could make enough enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb in about a year.
....................................................benny

Sept 3

Mother Russia's Middle East Meddling

In recent days, there have been two shocking revelations in the news that details Russia's involvement with Israel that runs from its Soviet days to the present. Beforehand, everyone just thought Russia was an arms supplier to Israel's foes for purely financial reasons. We now know it has been playing a more sinister role.

Gideon Remez and Isabella Ginor, in their book, Foxbats over Dimona, say that the Soviet Union deliberately engineered the 1967 war to create the conditions in which Israel's nuclear program could be destroyed. The chief spokesman of the Russian Air Force, Col. Aleksandr V. Drobyshevsky, has confirmed in writing for the first time that it was Soviet pilots, in the USSR's most-advanced MiG-25 "Foxbat" aircraft, who flew highly-provocative sorties over Israel's nuclear facility at Dimona in May 1967, just prior to the Six Day War.

Soviet nuclear-missile submarines were said to have been poised off Israel's shore, ready to strike back in case Israel already had a nuclear device and sought to use it. The Soviets were also said to have geared up for a naval landing on Israel's beaches.

The other shocking disclosure involves Russia's current Middle East activity. Israeli intelligence has discovered that Russia has been trying to promote war between Israel and Syria. Gen. Amos Gilad (ret.), head of the Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Military Bureau, said in an Army Radio interview, "At a certain time, the Russians caused the Syrians to believe that Israel was preparing for war.” The general noted that recent messages sent by Israel to Moscow have caused the Russians to cease their activity, thus easing the tensions in the region.

Syria is said to have more than 1,000 Russian military advisers currently stationed in that nation. The Syrian government has recently purchased a number of weapon systems from Russia.

These two events may solve a long-standing mystery from the first Lebanon war. When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 to stop PLO terrorists from attacking Israel's northern border, the IDF discovered a huge cache of Soviet-made weapons. The amount of arms was so large it took the Israeli army nearly a year to haul it back to Israel. The quantity of weapons was more than ten times what the PLO could ever need.

At the time, several prophecy commentators wondered if the weaponry may have been shipped there to be used by the Soviet military in some future invasion. Israel may have prevented the Gog War by its incursion into Lebanon.

Russia's involvement in the planning or the instigation of military conflict against Israel is a huge boom for Bible prophecy. For a long time, there was always a blank spot for why Gog would invade Israeli. The Book of Ezekiel says that Gog will seek to gain a “great spoil.”

Israel has fought a series of wars that mostly ended in humiliation for Israeli’s Arab neighbors. Those losses were also a severe blow to the Russians, who were the primary arms supplier to the Arbas. Revenge might be the main motivation for why Russia is continuing to supporting Israel's foes. It also might be the “great spoil” that Russia seeks in the Gog invasion.

Russia has invested a lot into Syria's military. It has even established naval bases in the Syrian ports of Tartus and Latakia. One can easily imagine what Moscow's reaction would be if a war would erupt that leads to Damascus' sudden destruction. It could be the hook in the jaw that draws Gog south.

"I will turn you around and put hooks into your jaws to lead you out to your destruction. I will mobilize your troops and cavalry and make you a vast and mighty horde, all fully armed" (NLT Ezek. 38:4).

-- Todd

...............................................benny

WAR - Bruce Beach - Days of September

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well - our dance card
is certainly full this month.
Most of my readers
won't understand that expression.
In more gentle days
dances were much more formal
and girls had a printed card
that fellows would stand in line
to ask her for a dance early in the evening - and all the dances were scheduled.

The more popular girls of course
had their cards fill up -
while some others were lucky
to get one or two requests
although real gentlemen
didn't permit wall flowers
to be completely ignored.
Numerous strategies there -
lost upon today's crowd.

But back to September.
Yep, a very busy month in store -
and if you don't think the lines are long you should check the border crossings.

I am writing this on -
September 3rd.
In 1894, the first Monday in September
was declared Labor Day
by U.S. President Grover Cleveland.

This Labor Day
Bush is doing a dance in Iraq -
on a surprise visit there.

September 4
The first big dance begins tomorrow
and is called Malabar 07 which is India's the largest ever multi-nation Naval Armada.
Participating are the USS Nimitz
and Kittyhawk groups
with Indian Aircraft carrier,
Japan, Australia etc.

Further down the coast -
although not a formal part of the exercise will be the USS Enterprise, and France's aircraft carrier.

Sept. 4-9 Malabar is a five day exercise.

September 8-9 APEC -
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
will be in Sydney
and Bush is on that dance card also.

September 9 - Sunday
first 2007 NFL season games.

September 10th,
beginning of New Moon

September 11 -
The first anniversary of 2001
that occurs on the same combination
of a Tuesday and a new moon.
There will also be a partial solar eclipse.
Big day for what are called the 9/11 'Truthers'.

Sep 11, 1931 -
To throw in a Muslim date -
because Muslims like to commemorate dates also - this is the anniversary of the Martyrdom of Omar Al-Mukhtar.
Italians will be watching this one.

September 12 - Gen. David Petraeus,
to testify to Congress
about progress in the war.
This has been long awaited -
and is supposed to be a biggie -
but news has been so bad -
that it is now being played down.

The first day of the Feast of Trumpets
or Rosh Hashana
actually starts at dark on the 12th.

September 13 - Rosh Hashanah
(the Jewish New Year)

September 13 - Start of Ramadan
This is an unusual combination
to occur on the same day.
I can find no historical note
of that ever happening before.

The Big N.Y. investment banks annual reports Sept 11- Goldman Sachs...
Sept 12-Lehman Bros...
Sept 13- Bear Sterns...
Reports will have been all been all week long with the big BS on the 13th.
By the names one would think it another
big Jewish tradition.

September 14 to 17 in Chennai
The seventh edition of CONNECT 2007,
an ICT event promoted by the Tamil Nadu government So far as I can tell this is a non-event so far as effecting the world destiny - but you can see how far afield I go to try to find events to fill every date.

Sep 16-17, 1982 -
Sabra and Shatilla camps were massacred
at which over two thousand Muslims were killed.

Sept. 18th a Tuesday
is the big Federal Reserve Meeting
the Financial Markets are watching for - but the expected announcement about interest rates - may not occur until the next day-

Sept 18 - is also the FOMC
Federal Open Markets Committee
(think PPT meeting)

September 18 -
62nd session of UN General Assembly starts - which leads up to Iran decision actions but key point on these are in the on-going Security Council.

Wed 9/19...
probable date of the FED announcement.

Sep 20, 717 A.D - Start of the Caliphate of Omar Ibn Abd Al- Aziz.
Think of the Ummayyads and the
Muslim conquering of Narbonne, France
in 919 A.D.
France is still having trouble with the Muslims - but most of my readers won't be able to look upon this from a Muslim perspective.

Sept. 21st is Fall Equinox.
A big day for sun watchers,
and the end of Summer
or more accurately -
the official beginning of fall.

Sept. 22 is Yom Kippur

Sept. 23 in New York UN chief Ban Ki-moon will host a meeting of the four major powers pressing for peace in the Middle East and in the evening they will meet with the Arab League.

September 24th - 25th
Once again presently blank dates
on my calendar
other than hundreds of birthdays -
long lists of historical events for these dates - or scheduled sports and entertainment events.
I spend several hours searching
for what I consider to be important
upcoming events.

Sept. 26 is the first day of Sukkot,
so it is a pretty full month
over in Israel.
It is also the anniversary of Sep 26, 2000 - the Al-Aqsa uprising which started when Sharon entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque with the protection of the Israeli army.
Some mark it as the beginning
of the current troubles there.

Sept 28th and 29th.
Still nothing important
in my paradigm
appearing for those dates.
But don't bet on it.
Things can happen all at once
and September certainly holds great portent for all sorts of things to be set off.

Sept 30 - Hedge fund redemption date
(Think massive Derivative overhang)

------------
My personal calendar for September
is almost equally full -
but I won't bother you with that.

Hopefully lots of people will show up
to help with Ark Two -
but at the moment it appears that
the doctor's committee meeting will be postponed until October - when we have several big activities planned.

At the moment the press at Ark Two
is about the intercom system.
You can look at:

http://tinyurl.com/23ywrd

If you have any help to offer -
please write to me at:

DawnSayer@webpal.org

-----------
Well,
Beach presses on
and
Bush presses on -
but most of all
it seems to be that
Ahmadijihad is pressing on.

He says that all 3,000 centrifuges
are now in full production.
THIS has been a line in the sand.
Of course -
there have been MANY lines in the sand.
When one line has been crossed -
it has just been rubbed out -
and another drawn.

Googling back to find what the view
USED TO BE
I found the following:

"If one assumes that an implosion-type weapon uses 20 kg of HEU, then 1,300 centrifuges could produce the requisite HEU in about 14 months"

That from -
Richard L. Garwin,
From Foreign Affairs,
March/April 2005

http://tinyurl.com/2hv2su

Ergo, 3000 centrifuges would
create sufficient bomb material in
less than 7 months -
and since some of them have been running for a year or more - then there should be sufficient in three to four months - if there is not ALREADY!

Be assured that the bomb design
is complete -
not just the design but the instrument - just sitting there waiting for the material.

Okay -
so an unproven weapon
is an unproven weapon,
but they don't have to prove the theory.
The US did that over a half century ago
at Alamogordo.

Then the US tested its first two prototypes - Little Boy on Hiroshima and Fat Boy on Nagasaki.
Iran would like to test its two prototypes on Tel Aviv and Haifa (Washington, London, New York, Paris and elsewhere - being out of reach).

Back to France -
and its Muslim troubles.
(You have to have been conquered
by the Muslims once -
to really appreciate that -
historically.)

"French president Nicolas Sarkozy said a nuclear-armed Iran would be unacceptable"

Wouldn't you know it -
my link no longer works.

Anyway -
that is France's position
and quite broadly and loudly
and repeatedly stated in the MSM this week that is Bush's position.

It is also Israel's position in spades,
and it may surprise some to know
it is also the strongly held position
of most Arab countries.

So -
since talk hasn't worked -
I suspect that they are looking at alternatives.

One alternative is that
in addition to all the ships
being there for
Malabar 07
the USS Kearsarge Expeditionary Strike Group has taken up position opposite the Lebanese coast

http://tinyurl.com/yuz6sr

Many threads -
seemingly unrelated -
may be coming together in September.

Australia, Japan and India
at Malabar
the Kearsarge in Lebanon for the elections, the stock market settlements and fallout from the Derivatives, the Congressional hearings on Iraq - and dozens of other political / economic / military events / activities that I could throw into the mix.

But where and when it will all lead -
still only God knows -
but I do think Bush is preparing
for something -
and I can tell you -
that Beach is preparing for something.

The fall leaves are starting to turn
up here in Canada -
and we will next week
start our fall preparations.

Wife wishes for me to gather
truck loads of leaves
for her gardens -
and to get manure from the horse barns.
Friends have said that they will come
to help make the compost piles
for next year.
It is a lot for an eighty year old gal - but we figure our time is short.

So many activities -
so much to do.
If you figure your time is also short -
and are willing to come help -
we will welcome you.

Peace and love,
Bruce
DawnSayer@webpal.org

...............................................benny

INTL - Iran will outsmart West on nuclear issue: Khamenei

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pledged on Monday that Iran would never yield to Western pressure over its nuclear programme, and it would outsmart "drunken and arrogant" Western opponents in the standoff.
The renewed expression of defiance from Iran's undisputed number one came after US President George W. Bush said last week that allowing Tehran's nuclear drive to continue unabated could spark a "nuclear holocaust."

"The Iranian nation has withstood and it will withstand intimidation. It will never bow to any intimidation in the nuclear issue and in other matters," state broadcasting quoted Khamenei as telling a group of elite students.

"Iran will defeat these drunken and arrogant powers using its artful and wise ways," he added.

Washington accuses Tehran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons -- an allegation vehemently denied by the Islamic republic -- and has never ruled out taking military action against it.

"Iran's active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust," Bush said on August 28.

Khamenei slammed Bush's latest verbal attack, calling it "hateful, arrogant and violent."

The sharpening rhetoric between the two arch-foes comes amid renewed cooperation between Iran and the UN atomic energy agency to answer outstanding questions on the nature of Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

While the Vienna-based watchdog has described the agreement with Tehran as a significant step forward, Washington has expressed serious reservations that it does not go far enough.

In any case, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general Mohamed ElBaradei was quoted as telling Der Spiegel on Saturday that the agreement could be Iran's "last chance" to resolve the crisis.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, reaffirmed his view that the IAEA deal meant that Iran's nuclear case was "closed" and there was no danger of it facing military action.

"With the help of God and the resistance of the supreme leader and the nation of Iran, we think that the nuclear case is closed," Ahmadinejad told a meeting of Non-Aligned Movement countries in Tehran on Monday.

In a speech the day earlier he sought to justify his confidence that the United States would not attack Iran, saying the proof comes from his mathematical skills as an engineer and his faith in God.

He said he told people who believed otherwise: "I am an engineer and I am a master in calculation and tabulation.

"I draw up tables. For hours, I write out different hypotheses. I reject, I reason. I reason with planning and I make a conclusion. They cannot make problems for Iran."

Ahmadinejad has long expressed pride in his academic prowess. He has a PhD in transport engineering and planning from Tehran's Science and Technology University and is the author of several scientific papers.

The deeply religious president said his second reason was: "I believe in what God says.

"God says that those who walk in the path of righteousness will be victorious. What reason can you have for believing God will not keep this promise?"

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has already warned that Iran risks being bombed if the nuclear crisis is not resolved. But Ahmadinejad brushed off the comments which he said were due to his French counterpart's inexperience.

http://www.spacewar.com/2006/070903123450.pbqy4s29.html
...........................................benny

September 3, 2007
Time for The Palestinians to Reap?
by Michael G. Mickey
(9-3-07)

The developments of the last few days have had my head spinning as I continue to examine current events in light of Bible prophecy.

As I commented on a few days ago, Jordan's King Abdullah and Italy's Romano Prodi met recently, the end result of which saw Abdullah calling for the revived Roman empire of Bible prophecy, the European Union, to take a greater role in peacemaking in the Middle East.

This is very reminiscent, as everyone who reads my website regularly knows, of a theory of mine I've touched on many times in the past - the likelihood that the European Union will eventually take a more prominent role in peacemaking efforts, particularly if the advent of the Antichrist is in the works. Lo and behold, as we continue drawing closer to an international peace conference scheduled to occur at some point in November, the cry for the EU to step up to the plate as a leading influence is being sounded!

Not only do we see that taking place, EUObserver.com is reporting that ministers from the 27-nation European Union and its 16 neighbors are today gathering in Brussels for a first ever meeting of the group designed to give a "new impetus" to a policy of "mutual cooperation" we commonly hear referred to as the European Neighbourhood Policy or ENP.

The EUObserver article says the following of the ENP:


The European Neighbourhood Policy, tailored to create a ring of peaceful and economically advanced states around the EU's borders, covers 16 countries – Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia and Ukraine.

Each state is offered a privileged relationship, including the chance to integrate into the EU's 500-million-strong internal market on condition they commit to democracy and reforms in a wide range of fields.
What interesting timing on that meeting taking place, huh? I can't imagine a better time, if we are truly headed toward the Rapture of the Church and the advent of the Antichrist, for the EU to be getting everyone, both within and near its ever-increasing borders, on the same page.

Many have peddled the idea to me on numerous occasions that the ENP, renewed for another seven-year budgetary cycle of the European Union on 1-1-07, could be the confirmed covenant of Antichrist, placing us inside the Tribulation Period - a theory I have never bought into in the slightest. What we're seeing occur now, however, is in line with the belief I have long held that the ENP could, hypothetically, play a role in bringing about the peace covenant the Antichrist will eventually confirm, subsequently bringing the promise of "peace and safety" to both Israel and the Jewish state's enemies.

What the ENP does is encourage cooperation among nations in the region. It also affords those who play by the EU's rules an opportunity to "integrate into the EU's 500-million-strong internal market", which is a cash cow to say the least.

As we look at the list of the EU's 16 neighbors who stand to gain monetarily from cooperating with one another (as well as with the EU), we see Israel and the Palestinian Authority listed - the latter apparently already considered a nation in the eyes of the revived Roman empire. No surprise there as we look at Bible prophecy, in my opinion.

Lastly, as I additionally made reference to in recent days, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana is in the Middle East where he is making rounds among all the key players in the region one would need to get behind a peace effort in order to make it successful.

Yesterday, as reported by Ynetnews.com, Solana made a most interesting comment I simply must share with my readers in light of how many times I have shown that the phrase "peace and security" is synonymous with the phrase "peace and safety" of 1st Thessalonians 5:3.

Solana, according to the article, said "it is time for the Palestinian people to reap the fruits of security and peace."

1st Thessalonians 5:3: For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

Conclusion
We are presently in the midst of a near-maddening flurry of diplomatic activity that seems, from what I'm reading, seasoned with just enough hopefulness on the part of the international community that we could well be on the verge of something big taking place in the not-too-distant future. If we're blessed, perhaps that big event will be our redemption!

If that's the case, it won't be long until the international community's highly-held hopes of "peace and security" coming to the troubled Middle East will be briefly realized. Very briefly as we look at 1st Thessalonians 5:3!

Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus!..........................benny

The IDF plan / Wanting it all - right now

By Amos Harel
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/900453.html

The only difference in the way the Israel Defense Forces is presenting its new multi-year procurement program, code-named Tefen, is that there is no talk of a "window of opportunity" for something positive to occur. The situation in the region is bad, and very likely only to worsen. The Iranian nuclear weapon is nearly here, and other threats - Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas - are known. As such, the IDF is not even bothering to pay lip service to cuts (as it did in the past): Its message is precisely the opposite.

The difficulty is being able to provide answers to the variety of types of threats, which are also pressuring the army to become more versatile.


This means, capable of conducting asymmetric warfare - against guerrilla forces or terrorists and missiles, but also symmetrical warfare against conventional armies. It also means being able to deal with nuclear weapons and long-distance ballistic missiles, but also international terrorism.

A great part of Tefen is influenced by the results of the war in Lebanon. The IDF solution is more advanced tanks, more defensive suites against anti-tank missiles, hundreds of heavy and wheeled armored carriers.

All in all, this adds up to billions. This comes at the expense of the air force, even if this is not said too loudly. The plan calls for one squadron of stealth-capable F-35 Strike Fighters, and possibly another in the future.

In general, the IDF is being optimistic in wanting everything now. It may have to compromise on a number of items.

Everyone at the General Staff knows that governments are affected by public opinion.

None of the plans will work without manpower. Tefen allocates NIS 100 million each year to keep the best career officers in the army.

An interesting development is the focus on defending the home front. For the first time in the IDF, they are talking about defense, in parallel with the holy trinity of deterence, early warning and victory.
...............................................benny

Austrian chancellor, in Israel: Iran must stop enrichment of uranium

By The Associated Press

Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, on a visit to Israel, said on Monday that Iran must not only slow down its uranium enrichment activities, but stop it completely.

Gusenbauer spoke during a reception ceremony held by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem. The chancellor also said that "we have to track closely the sanctions on Iran, and even move beyond them."

Olmert called on his Austrian counterpart to expand the sanctions on Iran, to support negotiations with Israel and the Palestinian Authority and to refrain from holding contacts with terror organizations.



Advertisement

Iran's president announced Sunday that his country is now running 3,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium for its controversial nuclear program - a long-sought Iranian goal - just days after the UN nuclear watchdog put the number lower, at close to 2,000.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's announcement on state-run media was at odds with an International Atomic Energy Association report issued last Thursday saying the Iranian enrichment program had slowed and the country was now cooperating with its investigators.

The claim of renewed progress could add further momentum to efforts by Western nations to slap a third round of UN sanctions on the Islamic Republic for its continued efforts to enrich uranium.

"The West thought the Iranian nation would give in after just a resolution, but now we have taken another step in the nuclear progress and launched more than 3,000 centrifuge machines, installing a new cascade every week," Ahmadinejad told a group of students in remarks carried by the state television Web site.

Iran previously announced operating 3,000 centrifuges in April, but the IAEA said at the time that Iran had only 328 centrifuges going at its underground Natanz enrichment facility in central Iran.

In the latest report, drawn up by IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei, the organization put the number of centrifuges enriching uranium in Natanz at close to 2,000 with another 650 being tested.

The 2,000 figure is an increase of a few hundred of the machines over May, when the IAEA last reported on Iran. Still, the rate of expansion is much slower than a few months ago, when the country was assembling close to 200 centrifuges every two weeks.

"The recent report by the UN nuclear watchdog agrees with Iran's approach and the dispute over Iran's nuclear case has ended," Ahmadinejad said. The IAEA report noted an increased willingness by the Iranians to answer questions after years of stonewalling and was seen as putting the brakes on the push for new sanctions.

The UN Security Council has so far passed two sets of sanctions targeting Iranian individuals and businesses involved in the country's nuclear and missile programs. The resolutions also ordered countries to stop supplying Iran with materials and technology for these programs.

UN officials have suggested that Iran had slowed its program and increased its cooperation with the agency investigators to avert the new sanctions.

The report said that Iran continued to produce only negligible amounts of nuclear fuel with its centrifuges, far below the level usable for nuclear warheads.

The president's announcements appeared to mark a shift away from that strategy.

Iran's ultimate stated goal for the Natanz facility, the only site now open to full IAEA monitoring, is to run 54,000 centrifuges - enough for dozens of nuclear weapons a year.

Uranium gas, spun in linked centrifuges, can result in either low-enriched fuel suitable to generate power, or the weapons-grade material that forms the fissile core of nuclear warheads.

The U.S. claims Iran is secretly trying to develop atomic weapons. But Iran insists it wants to master the technology only to meet future power needs and argues it is entitled to enrich under a Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty provision giving all pact members the right to develop peaceful programs.
...............................................benny

JPost.com » Israel » Article


Sep 4, 2007 0:55 | Updated Sep 4, 2007 0:55
Gov't officials: Islamic Jihad to bear brunt of IDF response to Kassams
By HERB KEINON
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Islamic Jihad will likely bear the brunt of Israel's military response to the Kassam rockets that hit the western Negev on the second day of the school year, including one that slammed into a day care center's courtyard, government officials said Monday night.


IDF tanks on the northern border.
Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski
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Islamic Jihad was responsible for all nine of the Kassam attacks, the officials said. The rockets were timed to hit when parents were taking their children to school, defense officials said.


Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned that Israel would not "live with the situation and carry on as usual."

Olmert, at a press conference with visiting Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, said the IDF and security services had standing orders "to destroy every rocket launcher and hit everyone who is involved in the rocket fire."

While Islamic Jihad fired the rockets, they did benefit from logistical assistance from Hamas, Defense Ministry officials said, and the Islamist group was doing nothing to stop the attacks.

Other government officials said Hamas's political wing opposed attacks at this time, while the organization's military wing wanted to see them continue.

Olmert spoke with Defense Minister Ehud Barak in the morning, after the attacks, but did not convene any emergency consultations in the evening on the situation.

The prime minister said the Palestinians had paid a