Psalm 83 ... Preview Of A Coming Attraction
Ikvot ha'Mashiach

Perspective by Jack Kelley

Hezbollah says that Israel's disappearance after the next war is an established fact. Iran's President calls Israel a dirty microbe and a savage animal that will soon disappear in a flash. The commander in chief of Iran's army predicts that millions will soon receive the joyous news of Israel's destruction. Israel's chief of staff warns of a “tough ordeal” coming soon. Israels' ambassador asks the UN to condemn Iran. With all the rhetoric flying around the Middle East following the death of arch terrorist Imad Mughniyeh, a closer look at Psalm 83 could reveal some details of a coming attack against the Jewish state.


Psalm 83 was probably written some time after the reign of King Solomon but before Assyria's march through the Middle East, but the Bible contains no account of such a coordinated effort by all of Israel's neighbors to destroy them during that time. A partial fulfillment may be in view in 2 Chron. 20 when Moab, Ammon, and Edom invaded Judah during King Jehosophat's reign (872-848 BC) Interestingly, Jahaziel, a Levite who prophesied Judah's victory in that battle was a descendant of Asaph, who wrote Psalm 83. Applying one of his favorite tactics, the Lord set Israel's enemies against each other and they defeated themselves. Ezekiel 38:21 tells of a future use of this same tactic.



But as we'll see, the Battle of 2 Chron. 20 doesn't fully meet meet the requirements of Psalm 83, so on that basis we'll assume its fulfillment is still in the future, perhaps the very near future. If so, it could be the bridge between the current state of affairs in Israel and the conditions necessary for the Battle of Ezekiel 38. Let's find out.

Psalm 83

O God, do not keep silent; be not quiet, O God, be not still. See how your enemies are astir, how your foes rear their heads. With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish.

"Come," they say, "let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more."



With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you- the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagrites, Gebal, Ammon and Amalek, Philistia, with the people of Tyre. Even Assyria has joined them to lend strength to the descendants of Lot. (Ps. 83:1-8)



The language is out of today's headlines and the countries lined up against Israel inhabited the lands of Israel's current neighbors. Edom and the Ishmaelites were in land occupied by southern Jordan today while the territories of Moab and Ammon make up the rest of that country. (While the government of Jordan has a peace treaty with Israel, we should remember that some 70% of Jordan's population is "Palestinian" and in fact the country was formed to be the Palestinian home land.)



The Hagrites were part of Aram, whose capitol was Damascus in modern Syria. Gebal, also called Byblos, and Tyre can still be found in present day Lebanon. The Amalekites lived in Israel's southern desert and Philistia settled in Gaza on Israel's southern border. Assyria would conquer Aram shortly after Psalm 83 was written and the descendants of Lot is another way of saying Moab and Ammon, who were the sons of an incestuous union between Lot and his two daughters.



So here we have all of Israel's next door neighbors, all of them sworn to Israel's demise, all of them hopping mad over the death of their hero Imad Mughniyeh for which they blame Israel, and all of them being whipped into a frenzy by Iran.



Do to them as you did to Midian, as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon, who perished at Endor and became like refuse on the ground. Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna, who said, "Let us take possession of the pasturelands of God."



Make them like tumbleweed, O my God, like chaff before the wind. As fire consumes the forest or a flame sets the mountains ablaze, so pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your storm. Cover their faces with shame so that men will seek your name, O LORD. May they ever be ashamed and dismayed; may they perish in disgrace. Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD—that you alone are the Most High over all the earth. (Psalm 83:9-18)



Asaph, the Psalm's writer, can't resist telling the Lord exactly how he'd like Israel's enemies to be dealt with. In that sense he's just like you and me.



Midian was defeated by a vastly outnumbered force under the command of Gideon. It was another case of the Lord turning Israel's enemies against each other and defeating themselves. (Judges 7)


Jabin was a king of the Canaanites and Sisera was the commander of his army. The Lord lured the Canaanite army into a trap and the Israelites destroyed them.(Judges 4) The commander of Israel's army was named Barak, just like Israel's current defense Minister. Probably a coincidence.



Oreb, Zeeb Zebah, and Zalmunna were all leaders of the Midianite army defeated by Gideon.



Asaph's prayer was that Israel's current enemies will be just as soundly defeated as were the Midianites and the Canaanites, their armies scattered and their leaders executed.



Should this be the case, Israel will become larger, not smaller, with the contention over the ownership of Gaza, the West bank and the Golan put to an end. Israel will become stronger, not weaker, its military reputation restored and even enhanced. The divided land will be divided no more, and Jerusalem will remain a unified city. The controversial security fence will come down, since the borders on all three sides will be safe and the threat of terrorist attacks eliminated. 60 years of war will have finally ended. It will be the perfect opportunity for the enemy to bring about a false sense of security and turn Israel into a peaceful and unsuspecting people living in a land of unwalled villages.



Meanwhile, the Russians and Iranians, who will have fought this battle only by proxy, will study their defeat and learn from their mistakes, lying in wait for the next opportunity to strike. It won't be long in coming. You can almost hear the footsteps of the Messiah. 02-23-08

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

'Never again!' again?
Three years after the Allies had uncovered the full horror of the Holocaust, the United Nations convened a committee to draft a treaty aimed at preventing its reoccurrence anywhere in the world.
On Dec. 8, 1948, the U.N. General Assembly adopted the United Nations' "Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide."

Exactly one year later, on Dec. 8, 1949, Iran became a signatory to the Genocide Treaty and formally ratified the treaty Aug. 14, 1956.

Last year, the U.S. House of Representatives passed by a 411-2 margin the Rothman-Kirk Resolution calling on the U.N. to indict Iran for violating the Genocide Treaty.

Article 3© of the Genocide Treaty makes "Direct and public incitement to commit genocide" a punishable act under the Convention. And Article 4 says, "Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3 shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals."

Sadly, it appears that the only nation not protected under the 1948 Genocide Treaty is the nation whose tragedy prompted the Conventions in the first place. The one people against whom anyone can utter genocidal threats with impunity remains, as always, the Jewish people.

Hamas regularly incites genocide against Israel. The annihilation of Israel is not only part of its charter; it is the ONLY reason for the group's existence. Hamas not only "directly and publicly" incites genocide against Israel as a matter of routine; it actively participates in its pursuit.

Hezbollah exists specifically for the purpose of Israel's destruction. Hezbollah doesn't even try to hide behind the "Zionist entity" camouflage that is aimed at disguising the destruction of the Jewish people with the destruction of the political state of Israel.

Hezbollah's war is against the Jews, whether they be in Jerusalem or Buenos Aires.

Like Hamas, Hezbollah doesn't simply incite genocide, but actively participates in it. A Jew who falls into the hands of Hamas or Hezbollah is as good as dead, for no other reason than because he is a Jew.

Claiming their war is really against the "Zionist state of Israel" is a smokescreen. Hamas and Hezbollah don't kidnap and murder Israeli Arabs, even though they are also Israeli citizens. They kidnap and murder Jews – if they also happen to be Israeli, so much the better.

Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regularly incites genocide against Israel. He's called for it to be wiped from the map and promised that one day, Israel would "disappear" in a bright flash.

This week, in a speech broadcast on Iran's state TV, he thundered, "World powers have created a black and dirty microbe named the Zionist regime and have unleashed it like a savage animal on the nations of the region."

Addressing the death of the bloody terror chief Imad Mugniyeh, Ahmadinejad said, "They [the Jews] assassinate pure and pious people and then they celebrate it."

Ahmadinejad, Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas' Ismail Haniyeh are not merely rhetorical spokesman.

The Hezbollah and Hamas rockets that rain down on Israel are aimed at civilians, not military targets. The rocketeers are supplied and trained by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. None of this is being carried out in secret – Tehran doesn't even make a pretense of deniability.

In the 1920s, Adolf Hitler published his manifesto, "Mein Kampf," in which he outlined in precise detail his plan to initiate World War II, conquer adjoining nations for "lebensraum" (living space) and to eliminate the "mongrel races" – in particular, the Jews.

In the decades since World War II, historians have puzzled over how the world at that time could have failed to see the signs and to act. After all, the perpetrator telegraphed his intentions a decade in advance – and in writing.

In the end, they concluded that Hitler's evil was so unique, so depraved, so utterly over-the-top, that the world couldn't believe it was real. Despite all the blatant, clear warnings, they refused to believe their eyes until it was too late.

If the Lord were to delay His return, historians decades from now would wonder how this generation's leaders saw the same signs, and even with the added benefit of the historical lesson of Hitler's holocaust, they still "refused to believe the signs they saw were real."

They'll just once again shake their heads, sigh and remind themselves of George Bernard Shaw's oft repeated observation: "The one thing man learns from studying history is that man learns nothing from history." And once again they will vow, "Never again!" … again.

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

Last update - 12:45 23/02/2008


Hezbollah chief: We're preparing for war with Israel in coming months

By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent

Tags: Israel, Hezbollah

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Friday that operatives within Lebanon were preparing for a new war with Israel in the coming months.

Nasrallah, who made a speech in honor of the "Islamic Resistance Week," maintained that activists from his organization are ready for battle against the Israel Defense Forces and will fight the IDF soldiers "in every wadi" in ways they haven't fought in the past.

The leader of the Lebanon-based guerilla group spoke at a rally in front of thousands who came to honor Imad Mughniyah, Hezbollah's deputy secretary general, who was killed in a car bombing in Damascus on February 12. Nasrallah also spoke about the 1992 targeted killing of his predecessor, Abbas Moussawi.
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"No one can protect the entire Israeli home front from our missiles," he said. "If they think of entering the south, to any valley, any hill, I swear you [Israelis] will carry your tanks and soldiers and your entire army will collapse under the feet of Imad Mughniyah," Nasrallah said

"I swear to you Haj Imad, your blood will not go to waste," Nasrallah said.

"We will defend ourselves the way we choose, at the time we choose, in the place we choose... With our will and bravery we will defend ourselves and our blood," he proclaimed.

At time of his death, Mughniyah was the commander of Hezbollah's guerrilla army. He had been on the United States' most wanted list and was hunted by Israeli intelligence for two decades for his role in a string of kidnappings, hijackings and attacks against Western and Israeli targets that killed hundreds in the 1980s and early 1990s. Though many accused Israel of the assassination, Israel denies any involvement.

"Destroying Israel is an inevitable outcome, a historic law, a divine doctrine," Nasrallah said. "When Israel won't have an army it won't survive, and that's what I said about Mughniyah's blood leading to the elimination of Israel."

He maintained that Hezbollah is waging an "open war" with Israel, emphasizing that "the war is open since 1948, before I was born."

Nasrallah said that Syria is responsible for investigating Mughniyah's assasination, and updating the Shiite organization with its findings.

He maintained that the investigation strengthened his view that Israel stood behind the assassination, praising Mughniyah's involvement in the kidnapping of Israeli businessman Elhanan Tennenbaum and forcing Israel to leave Lebanon in the year 2000.

Israel flights taking extra precautions due to Hezbollah hijacking threats
Israel is requiring that passengers on all incoming flights be confined to their seats in the half-hour before landing as part of heightened precautions against hijacking, aviation security sources said on Friday.

They said the Transport Ministry order, issued to local and foreign airlines on Wednesday, cited threats by Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas to avenge the February 12 assassination of their operations chief by waging "open war" against Israel.

"Our new policy is that planes lock their flight-deck doors and activate the 'please fasten seat belts' signs when 290 kilometers away from Israel," one Israeli security source said.

"It's a precaution against hijackers storming the cockpit in the final approach, given the current terrorist threat level," the source said, adding that previously it was up to the airlines to decide when to ask passengers to remain seated.

The Transport Ministry had no immediate comment.

The new Israeli aviation security standards may remain in force even if Hezbollah's threats of reprisals are not being borne out and the recent alert level is lowered, sources said.

Israel last year began requiring that all pilots who fly to its airports use the Security Code System (SCS), a local invention designed to ensure any plane commandeered for an al Qaida-style ramming attack is spotted and intercepted in time.

On most flights, which approach Israel from the west, pilots equipped with the SCS must enter a personalized, technologically secured code when 290 kilometers out, so that air traffic controllers in Tel Aviv know the cockpit is in the right hands.

Aviation experts have suggested that hijackers could wait for SCS compliance to have been established before striking. Keeping passengers seated until landing would help diminish such a threat, an Israeli security source said.

"The new regulations are definitely linked to our introduction of the SCS," the source said.

Since the al Qaida attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States has instituted mandatory pre-landing seating regulations for flights to some of its airports. There are also U.S. rules against incoming passengers congregating in plane aisles.

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

Hezbollah accuses Israel of seeking war By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer
Fri Feb 22, 5:05 PM ET



BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hezbollah accused Israel on Friday of trying to start a new war with the militant Islamic group by assassinating a top commander, and warned it would be a battle the Jewish state would lose.

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Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said last week's killing of Imad Mughniyeh in a car bombing in Syria was a "pre-emptive" strike meant to set the stage for more assassinations of the Lebanon-based group's top officials.

"The Israelis are definitely threatening a war," Nasrallah told tens of thousands gathered in southern Beirut for a memorial for Mughniyeh and two other Hezbollah leaders killed in the 1980s and 1990s.

"We consider Hajj Imad's assassination as a pre-emptive operation, not merely an act of revenge," the Shiite cleric said, using a title of respect for the slain commander reserved for Muslims who complete a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.

Israel has denied involvement in the Feb. 12 car bombing. But Nasrallah said Hezbollah's investigation into the killing has "increased our conviction of Israeli responsibility."

Nasrallah repeated earlier threats to retaliate for Mughniyeh's death, and also said Hezbollah would strike Israel with dozens of rockets if it attacked the guerrilla group in Lebanon as it did in 2006. Hezbollah is "ready for a confrontation," he said.

"We will not allow the enemy to persist in killing our commanders. We will choose the place and time to retaliate," Nasrallah said by video link to his supporters, who responded with cheers and bursts of gunfire.

Israel's "army and its tanks will be destroyed in the south, and Israel will be without an army and then it will be no more," he said.

Nasrallah threatened Israel after last week's bombing with an "open war," sparking criticism and fears at home and abroad. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait issued travel advisories to their citizens in Lebanon, and two French cultural centers were closed in the country this week.

Hezbollah's leader assured foreigners in Lebanon, however, that they were not a target. "Our enemy is Israel, and our revenge is against Israel," he said.

Israel already increased security at Israeli diplomatic offices and Jewish institutions abroad.

It also ordered all incoming airline passengers to be seated half an hour before landing — to give flight crews more time to spot suspicious passengers and to make it harder for hijackers to take over a plane, Transport Ministry spokeswoman Ora Salomon said Friday.

"The directive to all airlines is to be more alert and more careful," Salomon said.

Mughniyeh gained notoriety during Lebanon's civil war in the 1980s for attacks on American interests and for kidnapping foreigners in Lebanon.

Nasrallah disclosed Friday that Mughniyeh also led a 2000 operation on the border with Israel that resulted in the capture of two Israeli soldiers. The soldiers were killed in the attack, and their bodies were later exchanged for Lebanese and Arab guerrillas held by Israel.

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

I call upon the leader of my Nation,
Netherlands, to honor the Lion in its national Emblem,
which is Blessed by God.

REMEMBER your own birth, small nation!
Did you not smite thy oppressor
300 years exactly before Israel was born?
Like David, you fought your Goliath.

Small nation, great in Grace
You know the suffering, you are steadfast.
Small nation, great in Water
You know your decree: Je Maintaindrai.
You know what it means: I will hold the balance.

Now then, small nation, rise up, Lion of Old.
Be my Cherub, I will rise GODS Throne.
Rejoice! You are chosen to be part of Gods Footstool,
your FOUNDATION.
Make thy voice be heard in the Ship, Skipper of old.
Once more sail the nations of earth,
Stand fast, the Eagle above.

Now is the time to dispense thy shield
Patriot of Israel.

Nation of Netherlands, DO YOU HEAR?
The time is up, AWAKE NOW.

Jan-Pieter Balkenende, do you hear me?
I am talking to you.
Do not fear delusion, I saw you say a famous word:
"What is politics, if you do not have the faith?"
Now then, come and stand with God
Your word will be kept!

If you do not want to keep it:
within two months you will see me
at your very doorstep to remind you.
Out of the blue I appear, and here will be my sign for you:
The whole nation will ask thee:
Where is my nation?

Word from God through me, a humble servant

This letter is also sent to the Dutch Parlaiment,
to see if Time can be quickened.
Dutch Parlaiment is in recess until February 25th, next Monday.

Iran vows reprisals against any new UN sanctions by Hiedeh Farmani
Sat Feb 23, 3:09 PM ET



TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran vowed on Saturday to retaliate if the UN Security Council imposes new sanctions after the latest UN atomic agency report on its nuclear activities spoke of progress.

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And ahead of a meeting of major powers on Monday to discuss a new draft package of sanctions, Iranian leaders insisted that more UN resolutions would be pointless and without legal basis.

"They could spend 100 years passing resolutions but it wouldn't change anything," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in an interview with state television.

"We have prepared plans if they continue. Any country that leads the way, European or non-European, must know that we will take firm reprisals," Ahmadinejad said.

He insisted it was "in the interest" of the world's major powers to change their attitude towards Iran, adding that Iran was "not joking."

He dubbed the report by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as a "historic victory of Iran in its greatest confrontation with the oppressive powers since the Islamic revolution" of 1979.

Javad Vaidi, deputy head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said that "if the Security Council wants to issue a resolution it will be legally and technically baseless," ISNA news agency reported.

The UN watchdog said it had made "quite good progress" in its long-running probe into Iran's contested nuclear drive, but that Tehran was still defying UN demands to halt uranium enrichment.

The IAEA's report on Friday came amid a new push by Western powers for a third package of UN Security Council sanctions against Tehran, which diplomats in New York said could be agreed as early as next week.

The UN agency said it was still not in a position to determine the "full nature of Iran's nuclear programme" which the West fears could be cover for a drive to make nuclear weapons.

The UN ambassadors of Britain and France have formally introduced to the Security Council the draft of a new resolution imposing fresh sanctions.

The draft would impose a travel ban on officials involved in Tehran's nuclear and missile programmes and inspections of shipments to and from Iran if there are suspicions they may contain prohibited goods.

The draft text also calls "upon states to exercise vigilance in entering into new commitments for public-provided financial support for trade with Iran, including the granting of export credits, guarantees or insurance to their nationals involved in such trade."

Washington plans to host talks in the US capital on Monday with diplomats of the six powers -- the five veto-wielding Security Council permanent members plus Germany -- to review the draft.

But Iran's government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham said it was "illegal and unjustifiable to keep Iran's nuclear case at the Security Council," vowing that "it will not affect the country's will" to pursue its nuclear programme.

Iran is already under two sets of UN Security Council sanctions for its failure to heed repeated Security Council ultimatums to suspend uranium enrichment.

It insists that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty it has a right to make enriched fuel to meet its population's growing energy needs.

The IAEA said nearly all of the key issues agreed in the so-called "work plan" drawn up by the UN watchdog and Tehran last autumn had been resolved.

However, one crucial issue was still outstanding -- Iran's alleged work in missile and explosives experiments which could point to a possible military dimension to its nuclear ambitions.

The IAEA also complained that Iran had begun development of new generation centrifuges for uranium enrichment -- the process which can make nuclear fuel or, in highly extended form, the fissile core of an atomic bomb.

Israel, the sole if undeclared nuclear-armed state in the Middle East, meanwhile said it supports new sanctions on Iran which it views as its greatest threat.

"The fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency admits in its report that it was not able to determine the true nature of the Iranian nuclear programme is very serious," Israeli government spokesman Avi Pazner said.

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

Many words no action. What's new?

How about: let God heal instead of destroy? More honor for Creation? THAT IS GOD.

Nothing is new, except that God is stretching time to make you see.
And that is the biggest news I have heard in ages.

For if action means war, I prefer the words.

See:

"Iran vows reprisals against any new UN sanctions by Hiedeh Farmani"

Even the UN is not capable of solving the disputes. What do you do up there in that building? Make peace and if you can not come to an agreement, lay it at the Lords feet, as He told you to do.
This is too big for mankind, so therefore: GOD WHERE ARE YOU? COME HELP!

http://www.rapturealert.com/2008/022408twi.............benny

JPost.com » Iran » Article


Feb 24, 2008 0:26 | Updated Feb 24, 2008 12:59
Report: Iranian nuke within months
By REBECCA ANNA STOIL
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While a set of European-run simulations could indicate that Iran will be ready to build an atomic bomb sooner than anyone predicted, uranium enrichment is only one of three benchmarks the rogue nation will have to reach before it is ready to launch a nuclear attack against Tel Aviv, former National Security Council head Maj.-Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday.




Rice: There is a 'very strong case' for further sanctions against Iran

On Friday, Germany's Der Spiegel newspaper reported on a computer simulation run at the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Ispra, Italy, through which scientists modeled the uranium enrichment capabilities of centrifuges operating at Iran's Natanz nuclear facility.

The results of those tests were not reassuring - showing that even if the centrifuges were operating at a mere 25 percent efficiency, Iran would possess enough enriched uranium to create an atomic device by the end of 2010.

But if the efficiency were 100% - and even if Iran has not (as it is believed to have) made improvements on the Pakistani-style centrifuges it operates - a sufficient quantity of enriched uranium to build a nuclear device could be ready by the end of 2008.

RELATED
Ahmadinejad demands US 'apology'

But Eiland emphasized that enriched uranium was only one of three developments necessary for Iran to develop nuclear weapons. After the uranium was ready, he said, the material must be weaponized before it could be deployed. And after weaponization, Iran must have appropriate means of deployment.

Until 2003, both the US and Israel agree, Iran had a plant that dealt with weaponization, but it has since disappeared. As a result, the US intelligence assessment is that weaponization is not taking place - but Israel, said Eiland, believes that the absence of proof does not necessarily mean that no weaponization is underway at a clandestine location.


Iran's uranium enrichment facility in Natanz.
Photo: AP [file]
And, warned Eiland, even if no weaponization were currently under way using existing knowledge, it would only take Iran six to 12 months to weaponize the necessary amount of uranium once it was obtained.

Eiland said that as far as he knew - without taking into consideration the European simulation - Iran did not have a sufficient quantity of highly enriched uranium for weaponization.

The US National Intelligence Estimate report released in December 2007 claimed that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons development program and estimated that Iran would not develop a nuclear weapon before 2010.

Even the US report, however, did not deny that Iran was continuing to enrich uranium - a process that can be adapted for either civilian or military purposes.
...............................................benny

Iran Confirms New Nuclear Centrifuges

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

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran said Sunday that it has started using new centrifuges that can churn out enriched uranium at more than double the rate of the machines that now form the backbone of the Islamic nation's nuclear program.

The announcement was the first official confirmation by Tehran after diplomats with the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog reported earlier this month that Iran was using 10 of the new IR-2 centrifuges.

"We are (now) running a new generation of centrifuges," the official IRNA news agency quoted Javad Vaidi, deputy of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, as saying. No futher details were provided.

Meanwhile, a senior Iranian official on Sunday blamed the U.S. for Tehran's refusal to respond to an International Atomic Energy Agency probe into whether Iran tried to make nuclear weapons in the past. Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, Iran's chief delegate to the IAEA, claimed information provided by Washington and used by the U.N. agency was fake and it came to Tehran too late for a proper review.

The U.S. dismissed the complaint, saying Iran could have answered concerns about its nuclear program years ago.

Tehran insists its nuclear program is intended only to produce energy, but the U.S. and some of its allies suspect it could lead to the development of weapons.

Iran is already under two sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment. The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany have agreed on a draft resolution for a third set of sanctions.

The IAEA highlighted the "new-generation centrifuges" in its latest report on Iran released Friday, but did not provide details on their operation.

Earlier this month, diplomats accredited to the IAEA told The Associated Press that 10 IR-2 centrifuges had started processing small quantities of uranium hexafluoride gas in a process that can produce fuel for a nuclear reactor or fissile material for a weapon.

Ten centrifuges are too few to produce enriched uranium in the quantities needed for an industrial-scale energy or weapons program and far below the 3,000 older centrifuges in Iran's underground enrichment plant in the central town of Natanz.

Friday's IAEA report said many past questions about Iran's nuclear program had been resolved but highlighted Tehran's continued refusal to halt uranium enrichment, paving the way for another set of sanctions.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday the report vindicated Iran and called on the U.S. and its allies to apologize for accusing Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons. He also warned that Tehran would take unspecified "decisive reciprocal measures" against any country that imposed additional sanctions against Iran.

Most of the material shown to Iran by the IAEA in its investigation of the nation's alleged attempts to make nuclear arms came from Washington, though some was provided by U.S. allies, diplomats told The Associated Press. The agency shared it with Tehran only after the nations gave their permission.

But Soltanieh dismissed much of the material as false. In any case, he said, it came too late — three years after U.S. intelligence claimed it had material on a laptop computer smuggled out of Iran indicating that Tehran had been working on details of nuclear weapons. The data supposedly included missile trajectories and ideal altitudes for exploding warheads.

"They should have given it to us three years ago," Soltanieh said, suggesting Tehran would then have had a more substantive response.

Instead, he said, Iran did not get an offer for a review until mid-February. By that time, he said, the deadline for the conclusion of the IAEA investigation into Iran's nuclear past had passed and experts were already working on the agency's report.

"All of a sudden, the Americans notice this thing is going to be closed," he said, referring to the investigation. Suddenly, he added, "they have additional and new documents — these dirty games should be stopped immediately."

The United States denied being at fault.

"Iran did not need to wait for information to answer" the accusations coming from many sides that it was trying to make nuclear arms, said Gregory L. Schulte, the top U.S. delegate to the IAEA.

Soltanieh also acknowledged that his country's uranium enrichment program was experiencing "ups and downs." It appeared to be the first Iran admitted its enrichment activities were running into some difficulties.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i...DdsQwD8V0URNO0
..................................................benny

I got till half through and seen enough.

Just yesterday I was on a website and donated a free Bible to one of 200 million children who have not even had the chance to read the Word for themselves.
It broke my heart, I cried. Therefore I wrote to them (a bit moderated):

"If I was Pope I would sell the Vatican treasures and give it all to you. For clean healthy food, for clothes, for shelter and safety, for warmth and happiness. That you may live in peace and harmony, for you all humble me. I deserve nothing until the injustice is gone. I am trying to do my very best to help you all, but there is no end to these people that mess up and ruin the world. Only God Himself can do it, and pray my knuckles off to get Him here. I hung in with my fingernails like you do, and I promise, whatever it takes, I will do, to do it for you. Look up to HIM and help me call him? I am with you, so lets form a circle, hand in hand, and ask God?"

I prepared a couple of questions for the Pope tho, just in case.

Iran is hard hearing God. Or they are blind. Or both?
Someone know sign language or morse code? Or is that above Iran's intelligence?
Well, let us see if the next answer improves enlightenment..
At what frequency does such a centrifuge spin out of control?
Richter 6.6? Richter 8.5? I dunno.

A stretched hand is slapped once more. Just taking notes.
No further comment.

JPost.com » Israel » Article


Feb 24, 2008 9:42 | Updated Feb 25, 2008 11:33
Massive forces deploy along Gaza fence
By REBECCA ANNA STOIL
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In preparation for a large-scale Palestinian protest march planned for Gaza on Monday, security forces mobilized along the security fence Sunday night in an effort to head off a replay of last month's Rafah border-storming at the Erez or Kissufim crossings.


IDF soldiers patrol the area along the border between Israel and Gaza Strip, Monday.
Photo: AP
An artillery battery was moved to the Gaza border for the first time in months, and rules of engagement were reviewed as troops prepared for the demonstration Hamas is calling a "human chain."

A joint statement issued by the Foreign and Defense ministries blamed Hamas for fanning the flames and endangering Gazan civilians.

"Hamas, not for the first time, is orchestrating a premeditated effort to put civilians on the front line. Israel does not get involved in demonstrations that occur within the Gaza Strip, but Israel will defend itself and prevent incursions into its sovereign territory. Israel is working to prevent an escalation, but has made it absolutely clear that if there is an escalation, the responsibility will be entirely on Hamas's shoulders," the statement read.

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The IDF was unwilling to confirm or deny a Channel 2 news report saying soldiers would be instructed to fire at protesters' legs should they approach the security fence, in order to prevent a recurrence of what happened at the Gaza-Sinai border on January 23.

Hamas announced Sunday that it would mobilize the mass demonstration along the Salah-a-Din Route from Rafah on Gaza's Egyptian border to Beit Hanun in the north, to protest the continued embargo placed on the Strip. The protest is geared to attract more international attention than previous protests against the sanctions, due to its size and the photographic value of a chain stretching more than 60 kilometers along the entire length of the Gaza Strip.

But security forces are concerned that the protesters - or organizers - will not be satisfied with the symbolic imagery and might try to make good on threats issued by a Hamas leader last month that the Erez crossing would become the next Rafah.

In a worst-case scenario, Hamas activists could motivate the crowds to storm the Gaza security fence, particularly at "weak spots" where Israeli communities or army bases abut the strip. Areas such as the Erez crossing, Kissufim, Nahal Oz and Netiv Ha'asara are considered to be particularly at risk.

IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi held a situation assessment with officers on Sunday night, including representatives of the Home Front Command, to finalize preparations for Monday's IDF response.

Israel Police chief Insp.-Gen. David Cohen also held a late-night assessment, in which police decided to raise the national alert level. Some 6,500 police officers, one senior officer said, would be deployed to the Southern District on Monday morning to maintain order.

While some Hamas officials have denied organizing an attempt to breach the border, others have hinted that such a human surge - involving women and children - might in fact occur.

"The next time Gazan residents protest the ongoing siege, they will do so on the border with Israel, and not on the border with Egypt," Israel Radio quoted one senior Hamas official as saying on Sunday.

Over the weekend, the IDF was already rushing large forces to the Gaza border in anticipation of civilian unrest after gasoline supplies in the territory ran out on Saturday for all but emergency service vehicles.

Immigration Absorption Minister Ya'acov Edri (Kadima) said Sunday that the government was ready for any scenario resulting from Palestinians trying to breach the border crossings.

Also Sunday, an all-day IDF operation in the southern Gaza Strip, near the defunct Dahiniye airstrip, bore fruit in the afternoon, when Givati infantry, Armored Corps units and combat engineers uncovered five tunnels used to smuggle arms from Sinai into Gaza. In the course of the operation, 50 Palestinians were detained for questioning on suspicion of involvement in a terrorist organization.

Six Kassams were fired Sunday at the Negev.

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

Iran's great missile leap
By James T. Hackett
February 25, 2008
Leave it to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the erratic president of Iran, to antagonize his few international supporters. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his yes-men spent months attacking the U.S. plan to put missile defenses in Europe, claiming there was no missile threat from Iran. But now the Iranian leader has hosted a TV spectacular showing the world Iran is indeed developing long-range missiles.


On Feb. 4, Mr. Ahmadinejad participated in a TV show of the opening of a new space center, personally issuing the order to launch a missile into space from a site in the Semnan Desert southeast of Tehran. The modified Shahab-3B medium-range missile was described as a prototype of a space launch vehicle Iran will soon use to put its first domestically produced satellite into orbit. Iranian officials claim the satellite, called Omid-1, is ready to go and could be launched into space this summer, or even as early as June.


Mr. Ahmadinejad said it was a three-stage rocket, that the first stage came back by parachute, the second came down after 300 seconds and the third "was sent toward orbit." Others reported that the rocket went to an altitude of 70 to 100 miles. Iran's defense minister said a goal of the space program was to produce and orbit remote sensing (spy) satellites. An Iranian regime using reconnaissance satellites to target its ballistic missiles would increase the danger to Israel and U.S. bases in the Middle East.


But the main significance of a three-stage rocket capable of putting a satellite in orbit is that it also could send a warhead thousands of miles to any target in Europe. If modified with strap-on boosters or other additional thrust, such a rocket could be an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching North America. That is why North Korea's 1998 launch of a 3-stage Taepodong missile, which it also claimed was for launching satellites, generated so much concern.


Just last month, Lt. Gen. Henry Obering, head of the Missile Defense Agency, said a missile defense is needed in Europe because Iran is "developing missiles today at an accelerated pace." He said Iran was the third most active country in the world, after Russia and China, in flight-testing ballistic missiles, and that Tehran is developing missiles that can reach far beyond what it needs to hit targets in the region.


Moscow understands that Tehran is undermining its arguments against the need for missile defenses in Europe. Col. Gen. Viktor Yesin, former chief of staff of Russia's Strategic Missile Force, said the Iranian launch showed that Iran could produce liquid fuel rocket engines to create ballistic missiles with a range of 2,500 miles or more. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reportedly told the press, "We do not approve of Iran's actions in constantly demonstrating its intentions to develop its rocket sector and in continuing to enrich uranium."


Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said Tehran's actions "provoke concern" and raise "suspicions" about its claim not to be building a nuclear weapon, since a long-range rocket is a key component of any nation's nuclear weapons capability. If that capability is combined with a nuclear warhead, Iran would be the first Muslim nation with a global nuclear reach.


With his arguments against the planned missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic in shreds and his foreign minister deploring Tehran's continued development of missiles and nuclear fuel, one would expect Mr. Putin to cool his rhetoric against missile defenses and support stronger sanctions against Iran. In fact, just a few weeks ago Foreign Minister Lavrov did agree at a Berlin conference of world nuclear powers to increase travel and financial sanctions on Iranian officials.
But Moscow continues to oppose the more stringent trade and economic sanctions on Iran favored by Washington. And in the run-up to next month's presidential election, Mr. Putin has been especially belligerent toward the West, threatening to target Russian missiles on Poland, the Czech Republic and Ukraine.



Despite Tehran's continuing enrichment of uranium in defiance of the United Nations and its public display of modified multi-stage missiles, Moscow as yet appears unwilling to compromise on missile defenses in Europe. The only course is to pursue final agreements with our Polish and Czech allies, coordinate with NATO, and begin work on the sites in Europe. This year, Congress should support the president's request for funds for this purpose in the fiscal 2009 budget...............................................benny

Does this Iranian guy get out much? Send this guy on a holiday please, he needs serious rest.
Did the moon get to him? I feel so sorry for him, so sick and such a heavy office.

Report: Hizbullah Planning Attack On Israel In March

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

http://www.thememriblog.org/blog_personal/en/5696.htm

The Kuwaiti daily Al-Watan has quoted a report by top Western sources that, according to reliable intelligence information, Hizbullah has begun planning a large-scale attack on Israel in retaliation for its assassination of senior Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniya.

According to the report, the attack is being planned in coordination with Syria and Iran, and is to take place before the Arab summit next month.

It was also reported that there would be a simultaneous military escalation by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other Palestinian organizations in Gaza, with the aim of changing the priorities of the leaders of the Arab countries.

Source: Al-Watan, Kuwait, February 25, 2008
.................................................benny

lol they really are running out of time...
see their hurry? Good! They expose themselves by greater hurry and panic, then collect the tares and bind them first.

JPost.com » Iran » Article


Feb 26, 2008 19:45 | Updated Feb 26, 2008 22:51
PM: N. Korea, Iran working together
By JPOST.COM STAFF AND AP
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North Korea and Iran are working together on the development of long-range missiles, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in Tokyo Tuesday, warning that the countries are threatening the stability of Asian and Middle Eastern countries.




Olmert doubts deal feasible in 2008

During a meeting with Japanese Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Olmert said that Iran stood at the head of the axis of evil. Olmert presented to Ishiba intelligence information on North Korea's involvement with the Islamic Republic, specifically its distribution of its nuclear know-how and its expertise in the production of long-range missiles.

Earlier Tuesday, Olmert said that a peace deal with the Palestinians wouldn't necessarily be concluded by the end-year target that he and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas set.

Olmert, speaking to a business forum in Japan, said, however, that his government was "absolutely determined" to end the decades-long conflict with the Palestinians.

"The desire is to make an agreement within the year 2008," he told business leaders in Tokyo. "I'm not sure we will be able to achieve it, and certainly not to implement it in the year 2008."

Despite his skepticism on the timing, Olmert said his government would make every effort to settle its long-standing differences with the Palestinians, leading to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.


Olmert meets with Japanese Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Tokyo.
Photo: AP
"We are absolutely determined to make a giant step forward so that we will be able to conclude once and for all this historic conflict between the Palestinian people and the people of Israel," he said.
..............................................benny

Will there be a March mega-attack on Israel?
by Michael G. Mickey
(2-26-08)

Israel National News is reporting that a Kuwaiti newspapers is quoting "top Western sources" as saying reliable intelligence information indicates Hezbollah is planning a "large-scale attack on Israel in retaliation for its [alleged] assassination of senior Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniya."

Hezbollah, according to INN, is planning this attack in cooperation with both Iran and Syria. Not only that, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups may be planning to intensify their efforts to strike at Israel to aid in the effort.

It seems we are perpetually standing in the doorway for prophetic fulfillment to occur in the troubled Middle East which may, among other things, see Damascus taken from being a city and left a ruinous heap in fulfillment of Isaiah 17:1, paving the way for conditions in Israel to become what Bible prophecy indicates they will be like when yet another bold end times attack on the nation of Israel will occur - the prophesied battle of Gog-Magog foretold in Ezekiel 38-39.

No pun intended but we can only dodge the bullet so many times where these predictions of an explosive outbreak of immense bloodshed taking place in and around the Holy Land is concerned. Why? Because the Bible tells us these things must come to pass prior to the return of Jesus Christ and the armies of heaven at Armageddon.

Matthew 24:6: And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
.....................................................benny

Feb 25, 2008 20:44 | Updated Feb 26, 2008 9:13
Our World: Iran's game of grand strategy
By CAROLINE GLICK
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Sunday thousands of IDF and police forces began streaming to the border with Gaza. In a massive show of force, they successfully deterred Gazans from participating in Hamas's first attempt to assault the border with Israel on Monday morning.
Israel's successful response to Hamas's provocation stemmed from the IDF's understanding of the doctrinal source of Hamas's call for tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians to approach the border together.
Just before Israel's precipitous withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000, Hizbullah launched a similar attack on a South Lebanese Army base at Taibe. Back then, Hizbullah organized a crowd of thousands which marched on the base and threatened to overrun it. Not wishing to kill civilians, SLA forces abandoned their post. The move precipitated the collapse of the SLA's lines throughout South Lebanon.
All of Hamas's moves today - from its mortar and missile campaign against Israel, to its use of mass protests, to its weapons buildup, to its political and military humiliation and hamstringing of Fatah, to its tactical doctrines - have Hizbullah written all over them. And when you say Hizbullah - you say Iran.
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Any lingering doubts about Hizbullah's intimate connection to the regime in Teheran were dispelled in the aftermath of Imad Mughniyeh's assassination in Damascus this month. The same Hizbullah leaders who for years had denied any connection to Mughniyeh and even denied that he existed - suddenly bemoaned the death of their operational commander. The same Iran which denied any connection to Mughniyeh, sent its foreign minister to his funeral in Beirut. The near identical vitriol calling for Israel's annihilation and likening the Jewish people to pestilence flowing from the mouth of Iranian Supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah expose the simple, self-evident truth that a thousand denials sought to hide: Hizbullah is an Iranian organization.
IN THE WEST, public discussion of Iran is compartmentalized. Most discussion of Iran is focused on its nuclear weapons program. And Iran's nuclear weapons program is presented as separate from its other strategic policies in the region. This compartmentalization of the West's treatment of Iran is the result of the US's misdiagnosis of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs ahead of the 2003 invasion of that country. And while it is understandable, it is also self-defeating and dangerous because the danger posed by Iran's nuclear weapons program, and the obvious intentions of Iran's nuclear efforts can only be fully understood when seen in the context of the war that Iran is waging against the US, Israel and the West through its regional policies.
The linkage between Iran's nuclear program and its other strategic policies in the Middle East was made clear in July 2006. Then, as the G-8 met in Russia and was poised to develop a joint policy for preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, Iran ordered Hizbullah to attack Israel, kidnap soldiers and so precipitate war.
That is, as the world powers were scope-locked on Iran's nuclear weapons program, to divert international attention away from that program at a critical juncture, Iran ordered its proxy to go to war with Israel. Rather than understand the ploy, by and large the international media, and with it, the international policy community completely ignored the connection between Iran's regional policies and its nuclear program. Consequently, in the discussions leading up to the war's inconclusive conclusion, no attention was paid to how the war's outcome would affect either Iran's willingness to set aside its nuclear program or the developments in other Iranian sponsored battlefields in Iraq, the Palestinian Authority, and Afghanistan. The Israel-Hizbullah war's impact on Iran's escalating domination of Syria was similarly not taken into consideration at the time or since.
IN AN attempt to break through the post-Iraq invasion compartmentalization of Western discourse on Iran, the American Enterprise Institute published a 68-page report last week that sets out Iran's actions in Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, Iraq and Afghanistan. Authored by Frederick Kagan, Kimberly Kagan and Danielle Pletka, the report, "Iranian Influence in the Levant, Iraq and Afghanistan," shows in copiously documented detail how Iran is strengthening its regional posture at the West's expense not only through military actions but also through economic, cultural and infrastructure projects that build bilateral and multilateral relationships with states and terror groups based on dependency on Teheran.
In November 2006, Syria's parliamentary speaker Mahmoud al Abrash said, "Damascus considers consultation and cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran as a major rule and principle of its foreign policy." The report's authors explain that since Syrian President Bashar Assad replaced his father as the country's leader in 1999, Iran has worked steadily to transform its relationship with Syria from a strategic partnership between two equals to a master-vassal relationship.
Assad has allowed the Syrian economy to become dependent on Iranian investment. Iranian cultural domination of Syria is similarly rising as Iran builds cultural, religious and educational institutions throughout the country. At the same time, Iran has essentially asserted control over the Syrian military and Assad has allowed Iran's Revolutionary Guards not only to operate throughout the country, but to open training bases outside Damascus. As the authors' conclude, "Th[e] growing economic interdependence (with Iran at the center of the dependency network) and the increase in military aid from Iran to Syria risk reducing Damascus to a vassal state that is so tied economically and militarily to its more powerful patron that disobedience may become unthinkable."
SOME ANALYSES of Hizbullah's position in Lebanon in the aftermath of the 2006 war with Israel argue that its decision to go to war weakened its popularity in Lebanon. The destruction caused to Lebanese infrastructure by IDF operations made many Lebanese who had previously supported Hizbullah turn against the organization they believed sacrificed Lebanon's well-being to advance Iran's interests.
While Hizbullah may have suffered some political setbacks as a result of the war, its determined fighting then and Iran's open support for its rearmament since have successfully intimidated its foes in Lebanon. Hizbullah today, acting openly as Iran's agent, has paralyzed Lebanon's political system by blocking the election of a president for three months.

Iran's sponsorship of Palestinian terror groups is longstanding. Islamic Jihad was established by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in 1988. Hamas leaders have been trained in IRG camps in Iran since the early 1990s. After Israel temporarily deported 415 Hamas leaders to Lebanon in 1992, the operational connection between Hizbullah, Iran and Hamas deepened. And of course, IRG officers received their first terror training at PLO camps in Lebanon in the early 1970s.

AHEAD OF the January 2006 Palestinian elections, Hamas together with Hizbullah and Iran decided to transform Hamas into a Hizbullah-like political and military force in Palestinian society. As the AEI report notes, since Hamas's electoral victory, it has received some $400 million from Iran. Thousand of Hamas fighters have undergone advanced military training in Iran and IRG and Hizbullah trainers are also active in Gaza. The report's authors explain that Iran's economic assistance to Hamas is not simply aimed at enabling military operations against Israel. Rather, "as in Lebanon, Iran appears to be insinuating itself into the social and economic fabric of the Palestinian areas, making itself an indispensable ally."

IN IRAQ, both through Hizbullah proxies and through its own IRG command structure, Iran has set out not only to sponsor both the Sunni and Shi'ite insurgency, it has also worked to destabilize the Iraqi government while engendering Iraqi dependence on Iranian economic ties and fragmenting Iraqi society.

The report documents that not only is Iran financing, training and arming the Shi'ite militias, it is also sponsoring elements of al-Qaida in Iraq and the Sunni Ansar al Islam group. In al-Qaida dominated areas in Baghdad for instance, 15-20 percent of improvised explosive devices were made in Iran. The report concludes, "There can be no question that Iran is actively supporting multiple insurgent and terror groups in Iraq, that its efforts began even before the American invasion, that Iranian elements have included the provision of direct support in the form of weapons and advisers, and that they have been involved in the growth of a solid relationship between Lebanese Hizbullah and Iraqi Shi'ite militias."

AS THE report notes, Iran's multilevel policies aimed at promoting dependence on Teheran play out in Afghanistan as well. In 2007 alone, Iran made low-cost but vital infrastructure investments in Western Afghanistan that worked to economically tie the region to Iran and cut it off from Kabul. It destabilized the Karzai government by forcibly removing more than 100,000 Afghan migrant workers from Iran in a three month period and so fomented the resignation of two Afghan cabinet ministers. It gave sufficient military support to the Taliban at critical junctures to sow Western demoralization and military instability. And it topped off its efforts with information operations aimed at alienating the Afghan people from the West and engendering sympathy with Iran.

What the report shows is that Iran engages in a concerted, multilevel policy of containing, deterring and defeating America, Israel, the West and moderate Muslims throughout the region. At the same time, by refusing to acknowledge the comprehensive or well-considered nature of Iran's strategic policies, the US, Israel and the West bar themselves from constructing a similarly well thought out, comprehensive strategy for containing, deterring and defeating Iran. And as deterrence theory shows, when both sides of a struggle are not equally aware of what is happening, the chances of full-blown war rise.

ISRAEL WAS right to mass its forces along the border with Gaza on Monday. But that was just one small battle in a long war. As one Iran analyst in Washington recently noted, "Iran is playing chess and we're playing backgammon. We have to understand the game they're playing."

The AEI report provides the factual basis for understanding the game. It is the responsibility of policymakers and political leaders to use that understanding to construct a comprehensive policy towards Iran before it is too late. .........................................................................benny

Last update - 10:18 26/02/2008


The goal: Annihilating Israel

By Yoel Marcus

Tags: israel, jewish state

Israel is the only member of the United Nations that is being openly threatened with destruction - not just as a country but as a Jewish state. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who never loses an opportunity to sow hatred against the Jews, is busy drumming up support for the annihilation of Israel with remarks like, "Israel is a dried-out rotten tree that can be knocked down in one storm," "The countdown has begun for the destruction of Israel," and "It is very doubtful that the Holocaust happened, but if it did, why should the Middle East have to pay the price?"

The president of Iran has a mouth like a sewer. Even the UN secretary-general says he is shocked. Maybe he is, but how come neither he nor the Security Council has issued a word of condemnation? The world doesn't remember, or maybe it never sunk in, that Hitler also started out with hatred of the Jews. He rose to power on the back of this hatred, and brought upon us a world war that killed 50 million people on four continents.

Ahmadinejad, like the wily salesman in a Persian bazaar, has managed to dupe the UN agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency into believing that Iran's nuclear research is for peaceful purposes only and not for building a bomb. He has recruited the aid of South Africa, Indonesia, Vietnam, Libya and other Israel-loving countries to save himself from sanctions. Without the votes of China and Russia in the Security Council, for example, Iran will come out as pure and untouched as the driven snow.
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Even worse, Iran is getting help from these supposedly respectable countries and reputable international companies to obtain the materials he needs for nukes and missiles. From time to time, the president can't resist putting these long-range missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads on parade, just so everybody can see what's what.

The fact that the reactors, the centrifuges, the uranium-enriching facilities and other nuclear-related research centers are scattered underground in a variety of locations proves that Iran has learned something from Israel's bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981. We are on the top of their list, not only as a target but even more so, as a threat and an obstacle.

On more than one occasion, secret envoys have been sent to reassure Israel that Ahmadinejad is not omnipotent. Yes, he is the president, but his "rebbes," the real rulers of Iran, would chop off his hands before letting him get near the launch button.

According to Prof. Itamar Rabinovich, a former ambassador to the United States, Israel has reason to be worried. Not only because the president of Iran is openly pushing for its destruction, but because he is peddling his hate to Islamic fundamentalists everywhere.

In Rabinovich's opinion, Israel doesn't have too many options for dealing with the Iranian president's threats. It could submit a complaint to the international court in the Hague, which can take years, and by that time, Ahmadinejad will be in an old folks' home. It could also demand that the Security Council issue a condemnation or call for Iran's nuclear program to be forcibly stopped. The trouble is that in a forum like the Security Council, Israel is liable to lose.

Another possibility is for Israel to get parliamentarians of European Union countries to convince their governments to stop selling bomb-making materials to Iran. But the most important thing of all is to make the U.S. Congress understand the dangers that loom over its sane allies in the region. From what we are hearing these days, the next American president is not going to be as friendly or involved in the war on Islamic extremism as George W. Bush.

From some corners, Israel is being reassured that the threats to destroy it are all talk. This is not the opinion of Prof. Bernard Lewis, who advises that the Iranian threats be taken very seriously, because there is an apocalyptic Shia sect out there liable to wake up and do something to hasten the arrival of its messiah, Imam al-Mahdi. It is no coincidence that Hassan Nasrallah is also prophesying the coming destruction of Israel based on such messianic beliefs.

Even if Ahmadinejad doesn't use the bomb - if he ever gets his hands on one - there is no question that this threat looming over our heads is liable to undermine the whole concept of Israel being the only safe haven for the Jewish people. Under the circumstances, it is important for Israel to avoid collective punishment of the population of Gaza, lest it lose international support for its efforts to block the Iranian nuclear program.

Without making light of the power of the Israeli Air Force and its excellent pilots, this is not something we should be doing on our own. Israel needs the cooperation, consent and support of the United States and the European Union in order to defend itself.
..................................................benny

Ahmadinejad's Eschatological Expectations
Written by Jerry Robinson
Originally Posted on 9/25/2007

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The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called the Holocaust "a myth" and says Israel should be "wiped off the map," was scheduled to arrive in New York Sunday night. His visit, which involves a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, comes at a time when political tensions between Iran and the U.S. are escalating. The U.S. government has officially labeled Iran as a terrorist-sponsoring state and has recently demonstrated that the regime has been covertly supplying Iraqi insurgents with weapons.

Ahmadinejad claims to be a devout Muslim and a family man and even runs his own blog (click here to view.) However, he has become one of the West’s primary potential targets due to his renegade efforts to produce weapons-grade uranium while issuing belligerent threats of destroying Israel. Before he left Tehran for New York on Sunday, Ahmadinejad told Iran's state-run media that he believes Americans want to hear his side of the story. He indicated that he would be interested in attending Ground Zero in New York City to: 1) To pay his respects to those who lost their lives and 2) to set the record straight by telling the real story of what transpired that September day in 2001.

"The United States is a big and important country with a population of 300 million. Due to certain issues, the American people in the past years have been denied correct and clear information about global developments and are eager to hear different opinions," Ahmadinejad was quoted by IRNA as saying. Regardless of his eccentricities, Ahmadinejad’s ideology is what makes him a very dangerous man. His eschatological expectations, which I have written about in a previous book entitled The Mythic Roots of Iran’s anti-Semitic Rhetoric, are what most people continue to overlook. Ahmadinejad subscribes to a strange Islamic eschatological belief of a coming Islamic savior, known as the 12th Imam (al-Mahdi,) who will lead the entire world into an ultimate Islamic justice once he emerges. According to this eschatology, the Islamic religion will reign supreme, under the rule of the Mahdi, over all of the earth and Allah will be exalted as the only true God. It is Ahmadinejad’s sincere belief that this final prophet of Allah could arise and begin his Islamic conquest at any time. Ahmadinejad has stated on numerous occasions that the Mahdi may possibly emerge during the next couple of years. Therefore, he is doing all he can to prepare the way for this final prophet of Allah.

Interestingly, JRMI believes that we will soon witness a staggering shift in economic and political power from the United States to parts of Europe and the Middle East. The Bible is clearly Israel-centric and Mideast-centric (not U.S.-centric) in its eschatological passages. In fact, a power shift has already begun as the European Union has been ascending in global prestige since its recent economic formation. In addition, Middle Eastern countries are quickly forming alliances which will lead to a consolidation, and concentration, of Islamic power, possibly in our lifetimes.

All of that to say that we are in for a wild ride over the next several months and years as the ancient prophecies of the Bible appear to be nearing fulfillment. It is time to evangelize the lost like as never before. Christ is coming and He is coming soon!

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

Report: Israel warned Syria over Hezbollah


By Published: 02/21/2008


Israel reportedly warned Syria last week that it would step up attacks against Hezbollah and Hamas.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, during a visit to Ankara last week, asked his Turkish interlocutors to urge Syria to scale back its ties with Hezbollah, the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat reported Font size:
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Thursday.

According to the report, Barak made clear that Israel had the Lebanese guerrilla group in its sights and also planned to widen military operations in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Barak's trip to Turkey coincided with the assassination in Damascus of Imad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah's
terrorist chief. Hezbollah blamed Israel, though Israel denied involvement.

Barak had declined to comment on the killing. Though he confirmed that he had discussed Hezbollah and Hamas with his Turkish hosts, Barak did not elaborate on what, if any, messages had been passed along.


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

Waiting for a US-Iran handshake
Iran's diplomatic elite believe that the time has come to lead the region.
By Iason Athanasiadis
from the February 27, 2008 edition
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Tehran, Iran - Alireza is an unassuming 20-something Iranian. He works as a producer for Iran's state broadcaster. But he is no ordinary Islamic Republic civil servant.
Alireza returned to Iran two years ago, after growing up in New York and studying at an elite Canadian university. His bilingual ability in English and Farsi, fluent Arabic, and good government connections will serve him well in the evolving Islamic Republic of the 21st century.
He is, ultimately, a symbolic face of Iran's diplomatic future. And if Iran's growing regional clout compels Washington years from now to offer Tehran allied status, Alireza could quite possibly be part of the handshake that confirms the deal.
Sitting in a plush traditional restaurant in Tehran's upscale Vanak Square one rainy afternoon last month, Alireza, who preferred that his last name not be published, reflected on Iran's regional rise.
Iranian military speedboats had recently come within firing range of US warships in the Persian Gulf, nearly provoking an international incident. The Pentagon backed down after reports of early combative rhetoric and revealed that the Iranian Navy had not threatened to "blow up" the US ships as originally claimed.
Senior Iranian military officials viewed the incident as a tactical victory that enabled them to project their power in the Persian Gulf. Beyond the diplomatic accolade of rhetorically outmaneuvering Washington, many Iranian military strategists were elated by their performance in close proximity to US warships, feeling it vindicated their asymmetrical "swarming" strategy whereby dozens of speedboats surround larger, heavily armored boats.
"We're battling might with slight," Alireza said, conveying the euphoria felt in higher ranks.
Iran's diplomatic elites assert that the time has come for their country to lead the region. With oil receipts at a record high, the Middle East's third most advanced military after Israel and Turkey, and unique geopolitical positioning between the energy hotbeds of the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea, Shiite-led Iran is at its strategic strongest in 30 years.
At the launching of an Iranian rocket this month, President Ahmadinejad even ventured to say, "We need to have an active and influential presence in space."
What was briefly dubbed the Sunni Axis, designed to counteract the Shiite Crescent, has collapsed in an outbreak of diplomatic overtures by Sunni-majority states Saudi Arabia and Egypt toward Iran. Mr. Ahmadinejad will make his first visit to Iraq in March.
Meanwhile, in the living rooms of Cairo and Riyadh, the Iranian president's popularity is swelling because he is the only regional leader who dares put into words what ordinary Egyptians and Saudis feel about Washington's policy in their region.

In Tehran, a common reading of December's US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) is that it stems from a desperate Bush coming to terms with the knowledge that no external pressure, whether political, economic, or military, can contain Iran.

According to this perspective, the NIE presented the Bush administration with a convenient, face-saving mechanism allowing it to abandon its attempts to marshal a fragmenting international alliance against Iran, and deferred responsibility for solving the Iranian nuclear conundrum to the next administration.

But despite enjoying the promise of Iran's direction, the Islamic Republic's culture of cronyism bothers Alireza, who says he largely leads a modest life and avoids northern Tehran's lavish parties.

He tells me that what propels him out of bed every morning is anticipation of the day when Washington recognizes Tehran as an ally in the region. "When the deal is finally signed between America and Iran, the deal that delineates the region's future, I want to be in that room – and not as a bystander, either. I want to have worked hard to bring it about," he said.

Iran is no longer the chaotic, postrevolutionary Khomeinist state of the 1980s. With reconstruction following the Iran-Iraq war largely completed, Iran's political elites are following a nationalist policy that aims at regional dominance. Despite the messianic rhetoric of the Khomeini era, Iran's foreign-policy concerns are pragmatic and largely similar to the ones that preoccupied the country during Iran's Shah era.

Iran's leaders, whether secular or theocratic, follow national-interest goals that aim to guarantee their economic and political dominance over geopolitical chokepoints such as the Strait of Hormuz, the Caspian Sea gateway into Central Asia, the eastern flanks of Afghanistan and Pakistani Balochistan, and the strategic Mediterranean-Mesopotamian corridor of Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.

These goals have been helped along by the American-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, which removed anti-Tehran regimes that had stymied the expansion of Iranian economic and political influence.

During three years spent traveling throughout Iran, I witnessed long phalanxes of trucks transporting Iranian goods along the impeccable highways connecting the northeastern Iranian city of Mashad with Afghanistan's westernmost city, Herat, as well as at the two land-crossings into southern Iraq.

With Iranian influence growing throughout the region, and America faltering after so many foreign-policy debacles, Iran is hungrily eyeing the prize of regional dominance. Alireza could well be one of the officials who end up negotiating the future of the region with Washington.

• Iason Athanasiadis is a 2008 Nieman fellow currently writing a book on the third generation of the Iranian Revolution titled, "Children of the Revolution: Khomeini's Unintended Legacy." ...........................................................................benny

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TRAIL OF TERROR
Israel a 'filthy black germ,' claims Iran's Ahmadinejad
It was 'set loose like a wild beast' to let others have their way with Middle East

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Posted: February 26, 2008
9:40 pm Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily



Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appearing at "The World Without Zionism" conference Oct. 26, 2005

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who says "scholars" have every right to question the existence of the Holocaust, now has described Israel as a "filthy black germ" that was set loose on the Middle East by those who wanted to "use it as a pretext" to have their way.

And he warned those who oppose Iran's pursuit of nuclear power he no longer will "joke" about the issue. "We consider the [nuclear] issue a done deal," he said.

The comments were captured on video and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute, an independent, non-profit organization that monitors and reports on developments in the Middle East.

Ahmadinejad took over his role as Iran's leader in 2005 after serving in the Revolutionary Guards and in other leadership posts. His insistence on continuing a program to pursue nuclear power, as well as his support for militant organizations in Iraq and other Mideast countries, have put him at odds with many leaders in the U.S.

He's also steadfastly opposed Israel's right to exist, and has urged Iranians to prepare for the coming of an Islamic messiah, the Mahdi, by turning the country into an advanced Islamic society and by avoiding the corruption and excesses of the West.

(Story continues below)


As WND reported, some fear a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic could trigger the kind of global conflagration Ahmadinejad envisions will set the stage for the end of the world.

His newest comments were from two appearances he made on Feb. 20, and Feb. 24, according to MEMRI.

"Take a look at our region," Ahmadinejad said. "They have created a filthy black germ, known as the Zionist regime, in order to set it loose on the peoples of the region, like a wild beast, and in order to use it as a pretext to impose their policy on the peoples of the region."

He accused Israel of being "so devoid of human qualities that in full view of billions of people, they threaten to carry out assassinations. They assassinate devout and patriotic believers, and then they hold celebrations. You saw what they did to the brave son of Lebanon [Imad Mughniyah], who stood up to the brutal Zionist invasion into the land of Lebanon, and who humiliated the Zionists."

He said his nation's pursuit of a nuclear program is "a done deal."

"The enemy not only wanted to prevent us from producing a bomb, from producing [nuclear] fuel, from enriching uranium, and from achieving advanced technologies. Even though all these things are of great importance, and today's enemies of humanity are very anxious that the Iranian people will accomplish them one day, they are even more anxious because the Iranian people are steadfast in their nobility, in their grandeur, and in their defense of the human and divine honor and sanctity of the Iranian people," he said.

He warned that the nation is ready to respond to those interests who oppose Iran's advance into the nuclear world.

"If they decide to keep this up, we have a response already prepared, and any country that takes action [by imposing sanctions] will see that the Iranian people will act differently toward it. They should know that we will act differently, whether it is a European country or not. If they take any action, whether by putting a freeze on finances or products, they should know that we have prepared firm action against this. We will not joke around with any of them," he said.

He also forecast that the "superpowers of arrogance" would be dragged "off their thrones."

The real situation is that critics are not yet familiar with the Iranian people, he said.

"They are not yet familiar with the strength and greatness of the Iranian people. That is why they make mistakes time and again," he said.

The solution, however, is simple as Ahmadinejad sees it.

"They must apologize to us," he said. "They have delayed our progress for four or five …. for two and a half years. They have stopped our scientific development in important nuclear matters. They owe us. They must compensate us."

MEMRI also has posted a series of videos on Ahmadinejad's speeches and commentary.

WND previously reported when Ahmadinejad claimed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks already have been used as an excuse to attack and kill "hundreds of thousands" of people.

He asked for, but was denied, permission to visit the downtown New York City location where terrorists hit the World Trade Center towers, bringing them to the ground and killing almost 3,000 people.

"Why did such an incident take place? We need to get to the root causes," he said. "We don't want them to turn this incident, in 20 years' time, into another false idol like the Holocaust, which they would use as a pretext to kill peoples, and to prevent anybody from opening this box and examining what really happened in this incident.

He continued, "They might turn 9/11 into something sacred, and whoever does not accept it would be considered an infidel, whereas whoever accepts it would have to accept all the ensuing crimes.

WND also has reported on claims by an adviser to Ahmadinejad that Adolph Hitler was Jewish, was working for powerful Jews and wanted to create a new Jewish state.

Mohammad Ali Ramin has made statements Hitler acted in cooperation with Britain, since the latter shared Hitler's desire to force the Jews out of Europe and into a new Jewish state.....................................................................................
.................................benny

NUCLEAR WAR-FEAR
Nuke agency says Iran continuing weapons work
Ahmadinejad remains defiant, demands apology and compensation

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Posted: February 26, 2008
7:23 pm Eastern


By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2008 WorldNetDaily


International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamad ElBaradei has begun circulating to the agency's 35-member policymaking board of governors the latest report on Iran's nuclear program, documenting continuing IAEA concerns Iran is currently pursuing a nuclear weapons program.

Iran reacted defiantly.

Addressing Iran's Assembly of Experts, the nation's top cleric, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei yesterday gave a clear endorsement to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by praising him for making progress with Iran's nuclear program.

Khamenei's public support of Ahmadinejad came on the eve of the nation's planned March parliamentary elections, sending a signal that Ahmadinejad continues to enjoy the blessing of Iran's religious leadership.

(Story continues below)


The IAEA report issued last Friday directly contradicts a Dec. 2007 National Intelligence Estimate report claiming Iran had stopped its nuclear weapons program in 2003.

According to the IAEA, Iran has failed to clarify whether or not alleged nuclear weaponization studies currently are being conducted or have been conducted in the recent past.

Also unclear, according to the IAEA report, is the exact scope and nature of Iran's enrichment program.

On Sunday, Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tehran will not halt its uranium enrichment activities while affirming that the policy of UN sanctions being pursued by the United States is "doomed to fail."

At the same time, Russia now has completed delivering the enriched uranium needed by Iran to activate the Russian-built nuclear power plant in Iran's southern port city of Bushehr.

According to the Associated Press, on Jan. 28, Irina Yesipova, a spokeswoman for Russia’s state Atomstroiexport company in charge of building Iran's nuclear plant, said the eighth and final shipment of 9.5 tons of uranium fuel had been delivered to Iran overnight.

Russia has delivered more than 132 tons of uranium fuel to Iran since Dec. 17.

The Israel Foreign Affairs Ministry's response to the IAEA report charged "The IAEA report concludes that Iran is involved in activities key to the development of a nuclear weapons program."

"The report reiterates and validates the concerns voiced by Israel and the international community that Iran continues to strive for a nuclear weapon," said the written statement issued by Israel's Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Israel News reported Foreign Affairs Minister Tzipi Livni has instructed Israeli embassies around the world to continue making the case for tightening sanctions against Iran.

On Monday, the Bush administration pressed for a prompt vote on a new set of sanctions against Iran.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported the U.S. Treasury Department has begun gathering evidence to demonstrate that the central bank of Iran, known as Bank Markazi, is helping other Iranian institutions elude U.S. economic sanctions by handling dollar transactions for blacklisted companies.

Ever defiant, Ahmadinejad told a national Iranian television audience "If they want to continue with that path of sanctions, we will not be harmed. They can issue resolutions for 100 years."

In the televised address, Ahmadinejad called on the U.S. to "apologize and pay compensation for their mistakes" in imposing sanctions in the first place.

Iran continues to insist their nuclear program is dedicated exclusively to peaceful purposes, not toward building weapons.

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

Iran should have a nuclear weapon by 2010, says Israel’s military intelligence chief
February 26, 2008, 6:40 PM (GMT+02:00)


AMAN chief Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin
This estimate was put before the Knesset foreign affairs and security committee by Israel’s military intelligence AMAN chief, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, in his briefing Tuesday, Feb. 26.

He also predicted that Hizballah would time its reprisals for the 40th day of mourning for its military commander Imad Mughniyeh – that is March 22-23, forty days after he was blown up in Damascus. The Lebanese Shiite terrorists, Gen. Yadlin warned, was also planning to kidnap another Israeli soldier.

In the month since Hamas flattened Gaza’s border wall for free Palestinian access to Egyptian Sinai, scores of al Qaeda operatives have used the opportunity to steal into the Gaza Strip, he reported, along with large numbers of Palestinian terrorists returning from special courses in Iran and Syria. There, they acquired special skills in the fabrication of explosive devices and missiles. Among them too were trained snipers, of the type which have begun plaguing Israel farmers tilling their fields close to the Gaza border.

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

http://www.reuters.com/article/world...080227?sp=true


Russia warns Iran over nuclear program

Wed Feb 27, 2008 2:09pm EST

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia toughened its stance towards Iran on Wednesday, threatening to back further United Nations sanctions over Tehran's nuclear program unless it halted uranium enrichment in the next few days.

The United States, Britain and France are pushing to impose new punitive measures on Iran, which they suspect of seeking to acquire a nuclear weapon.

Russia's U.N. envoy Vitaly Churkin said Moscow could back a sanctions resolution the Western powers have drafted and which they want to discuss in the U.N. Security Council this week.

"If Iran in the next few days does not stop the enrichment activities of its heavy water project then yes, Russia ... has taken upon itself certain commitments... to support the resolution that has been drafted in the past month," Churkin told reporters via a video link from New York.

The Security Council has demanded Iran halt uranium enrichment, the part of its nuclear program that most worries the West because the process can potentially be used to make material for bombs.

Iran has refused to halt the work. It says it is seeking to master nuclear technology so it can make fuel for a planned network of nuclear power plants and save its huge oil and gas reserves for export.

France and Britain have submitted a third sanctions resolution against Iran calling for measures including asset freezes and mandatory travel bans for specific Iranian officials.

It also expands the list of Iranian officials and companies targeted by the sanctions. Earlier rounds of sanctions were imposed in December 2006 and March 2007.

Russia, which has strong ties to Iran's energy industry, has previously been reluctant to impose more U.N. sanctions on Iran.

Though it agreed on the outline of the sanctions resolution last month in Berlin, some Western diplomats had expressed concern Russia might try to weaken the resolution out of pique over the West's recognition of Kosovo.

In Vienna, the chief U.S. envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran's dismissal of intelligence indicating it tested technology relevant to nuclear bombs could trigger a resolution by the nuclear watchdog's governors to put further pressure on Iran.

"We haven't made a decision on a resolution but it could be an effective way to convey this message," Gregory Schulte told Reuters in an interview.

Iran has denounced the intelligence, which came mainly from a laptop spirited out of Iran in 2004 and handed to Washington, as baseless and fabricated.

INCENTIVES?

Major powers are also discussing possible new moves to draw Iran into negotiations over its nuclear program, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana confirmed on Wednesday.

"It's been a debate of the political directors of the six countries," Solana told Reuters on the margins of a conference in Brussels, when asked about the possibility of new steps involving incentives to Tehran.

He was referring to the five permanent Security Council members -- the United States, China, Russia, France and Britain -- plus Germany.

Political directors from the six met in Washington on Monday when they agreed to move ahead soon on the additional sanctions.

U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the political directors were examining how a 2006 incentives offer could be presented in a way Iran would find attractive.

That offer included talks with the United States on any subject if Tehran suspended uranium enrichment; airline parts for civilian planes and dropping objections to entry to the World Trade Organisation.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Wednesday it was not inevitable that Iran would produce a nuclear bomb. Israel regards Iran's nuclear program as a threat to its existence.

"I think there is time," said Olmert, asked by reporters during a visit to Japan whether Iran could be stopped from achieving nuclear weapons capability.

"The time is not unlimited but it is defined by more than months," added Olmert, whose country is widely believed to have the only nuclear arsenal in the Middle East.

(Additional reporting by Mark John in Brussels, Tova Cohen in Tokyo and Mark Heinrich in Vienna; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
.........................................................benny

Iranian Rocket Built in Nine Months, President Says

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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday that his nation needed only nine months and no guidance from other nations to build a research rocket launched this month, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Feb. 4).

“Iranian space engineers built the research rocket in nine months,” Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. “The rocket was not a reproduction of a foreign one.”

The rocket launch raised international concerns about Iran’s progress in creating a system it could use to deliver nuclear warheads, but analysts have expressed skepticism about Iran’s past technological boasts.

It is “feasible” that Iranian technicians built the rocket in nine months if they began with some preassembled components, said analyst John Pike, head of GlobalSecurity.org. He added that Iran had “worked very closely with Pakistan and North Korea for many years” even if it did not directly reproduce a model from an outside source.

Tehran has said it plans to launch satellites into space for research, communication and security purposes. Iranian officials said they hope to launch four Internet and telecommunications satellites by 2010 (Nasser Karimi, Associated Press/Google News, Feb. 26).
.....................................................benny

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...cle%2FShowFull




JPost.com » Israel » Article


Feb 27, 2008 9:20 | Updated Feb 27, 2008 23:10
IAF attacks Haniyeh's office; some 25 locals wounded





IAF aircraft struck the empty office of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and nearby premises of his Interior Ministry Wednesday night, hours after rocket attacks from Gaza killed a student at Sapir College in Sderot.


Palestinian men gather around the wreckage of a car that gunmen managed to flee after an IAF missile strike near Khan Younis, Wednesday.
Photo: AP

Slideshow: Gaza violence Hamas security officials said missiles fired from helicopters hit the buildings, sited in downtown residential neighborhoods, wounding around 25 local residents and two Hamas security guards patrolling on the street. The IDF had no immediate comment.

Shortly after the Kassam rocket attack that killed Roni Yehieh, 47, the Israeli Air Force attacked targets in the northern Gaza Strip, Wednesday. Palestinians claimed that three children were killed and another twelve civilians wounded. The military acknowledged that it had hit targets in the Strip.

Earlier Wednesday, an IAF aircraft targeted a Kassam launching crew in the northern Gaza Strip, killing one terrorist.

The army announced that it had targeted the terrorists minutes after they fired a barrage of Kassam rockets at the Sderot area, causing the death of a student at Sapir College.

Earlier, an IAF air strike in northern Gaza killed two people. Palestinian officials said one of the dead was a civilian farm worker. There were no further details on the casualties. The army confirmed that it had carried out an air strike.

Also Wednesday, an IAF air strike against a minivan in southern Gaza killed five Hamas gunmen, Wednesday, including a senior rocket engineer and a regional rocket squad commander, the group said.

Two other gunmen were wounded in the attack, Hamas said, as the vehicle drove on Gaza's coastal road near Khan Yunis, on its way to a Hamas training base.

Minutes after the first explosion, another missile struck a car nearby. Witnesses said the gunmen had abandoned that vehicle for the minivan shortly before the strike. There were no casualties in the second attack.

The IDF confirmed the attack, saying it had been conducted in cooperation with the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and was targeting gunmen. It gave no further details.

Meanwhile in the West Bank, a Palestinian fugitive was killed, another was critically wounded and two others were lightly wounded when special police forces fired at them in Nablus.

Security forces said they had fired at five Tanzim operatives after they tried to escape arrest. The four who were wounded were evacuated to hospital by the forces, while the fifth was arrested. The army said the group was planning an attack against Israeli targets, Israel Radio reported.

In an earlier incident, Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip claimed that an Islamic Jihad operative was killed by the IAF Tuesday overnight. According to the report, the man was killed when aircraft fired at a group of Islamic Jihad men at an observation post.

The army denied involvement, saying a man had approached the Gaza-Israel border fence late Wednesday and that soldiers had seen an explosion, likely caused by explosives he was carrying.

Two other men were reportedly injured in that incident.

The army said it had arrested 17 Palestinian fugitives in the West Bank Tuesday overnight. The suspects were being interrogated by security forces. Soldiers also confiscated three Molotov cocktails from Palestinians near Jericho.
.....................................................benny

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_7682095.htm

Reports: Russia to support only economic sanction against Iran


www.chinaview.cn 2008-02-27 23:18:52

MOSCOW, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Russia will support only economic sanctions against Iran, the Itar-Tass news agency reported on Wednesday, citing Russia's permanent representative to the United Nations as saying.

Iran is facing growing pressure from the United Nations Security Council as the world body looks set to consider a new draft resolution later this week containing stronger sanctions against Tehran regarding its nuclear program.


Editor: Yan Liang
...................................................benny

Iran 'number one world power': Ahmadinejad

Feb 28 05:54 AM US/Eastern
26 Comments




View larger image

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared on Thursday that Iran was the world's "number one" power, as he launched a bitter new assault on domestic critics he accused of siding with the enemy.
"Everybody has understood that Iran is the number one power in the world," Ahmadinejad said in a speech to families who lost loved ones in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

"Today the name of Iran means a firm punch in the teeth of the powerful and it puts them in their place," he added in the address broadcast live on state television.

Ahmadinejad's comments come amid renewed Western efforts on the UN Security Council to agree a third package of sanctions against Tehran over its refusal to suspend sensitive nuclear activities.

They also came a day after former top nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani launched an unprecedented attack on Ahmadinejad's foreign policy, accusing him of using "coarse slogans and grandstanding".

"You can see how some people here... try to materialise the plans of the enemies and by showing that Iran is small and the enemy is big," added Ahmadinejad.

"These are the people who put the enemies of humanity in the place of God," said the deeply religious president.

He also told the families of the "martyrs" of the war that their loss was not in vain as the message of the Islamic revolution of 1979 that ousted the pro-US shah was spreading all over the world.

"Today the message of your revolution is being heard in South America, East Asia, in the heart of Europe and even in the United States itself," he said.

Ahmadinejad said he talked with people everywhere he travelled in the world and "it is like I am in district 17 in Tehran", referring to the low-income area in the south of the Iranian capital where he was giving his speech.

Ahmadinejad is due to travel to Iraq on Sunday in the first visit by a president of the Islamic republic to its western neighbour.

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

A first positive step from the Bear. Wow. I never thought I would see this day. Why always drag your feet Russia? Pull out of Iran now. It is beneficial.




Be like brothers to each other. Gorbatsjov would have taken a brotherly stand. But although slow, Putin is changing a little step for the better.



Gods patience with Iran is wearing thin. With reluctance pondering a second Bam but then in Teheran? Iran, SIT DOWN. CHANGE AND REPENT.