Published: 03/24/08, 12:09 AM
Whose Armageddon? Yours or Mine?
by Emanuel A. Winston

An ancient War of Civilizations.


At this moment, a War of Civilizations is in violent motion. One side (Islam) is ready to fight full out, using all their human resources. Men, women, children are on all the enemies’ front lines. This side is willing to put up all its human collateral to be killed, while causing all the human collateral damage of its adversaries.


This is where we hear the useless admonition: "We can’t sink to their level." Since war is inhuman and brutal on
We must absolutely (as it were) sink to their level - or die.
its face, we must absolutely (as it were) sink to their level - or die.


We see this in stark reality as Islam moves with its zealous intention to conquer the world, to create a Global Caliphate for Islam at whatever cost to themselves and everyone else. We, the Free West, on the other hand, are playing by so-called rules of civilized engagement of warfare - and thereby losing badly.


For example, we Americans instruct Israel to restrain herself as missiles rain down, on the average of one every four hours. The Muslim Arab Palestinians have launched 8,000 rockets against Israel's civilians in the past eight years, since the start of the Second Intifada on September 29, 2000 - the Rosh HaShanah War. On schools, homes, nursery schools, stores, playgrounds - which undercuts the will of the people to successfully fight a necessary, defensive, aggressive war to win. These "hits" are accompanied by sincere pledges of annihilation that must be believed.


Israel selectively targets a few dozen leaders, but, overall, it’s fighting a whole population, another civilization, and losing.


Unfortunately, what may be referred to as "civilization" is a throwback to the era where entire nations and everyone in them were part of that war. Front-Rear were all one, in any way they contributed. When 9/11 occurred, New York and the entire United States were considered a viable target and the damage was supposed to be collateral.


When bombs go off in Spain, England, Scotland, Algeria, Iraq, Israel it is because it is an ancient War of Civilizations - brought forward to twenty-aught-eight (2008) and beyond. The rules of today’s restrained engagement, however, do not apply for Islam’s side of the equation. In a clash of civilizations, one side must clearly win or lose. The losing side must submit to the power of the other, with the hope that they will be treated fairly. Islam is fighting to win, while we in the Free West (especially America and Israel) are in a "restrained" mode, too willing to accept losses.


History of the past can be instructive. America did not enslave Germany or Japan after World War II. The history of Arab-Muslim conquest, however, meant slavery, forced conversion, oppressive taxes called jizya in Arabic, humiliation of the vanquished.


So, we are returning full circle to where there is no homefront immune from the effects of war. Israel cannot have her population bombed with impunity while the world expects the population centers of her enemies to remain sacrosanct, untouched.


There is an American saying: "Good losers are losers." France, England, Netherlands, Spain, Scotland - all seem to have similarly accepted the road to being "good losers." We observe President George W. Bush backing away, seemingly willing to replace the fields of stars on the American flag with the crescent moon symbol and the single star of Islam. This president might be acting like a loser. The winner will probably be either a tyrannical ruler or a benevolent ruler.


Make a Choice: Live or Die!
One last kicker. If the Free West’s adversaries get away with defeating and demolishing Israel, then any of the
We are returning full circle to where there is no homefront immune from the effects of war.
other Free West’s countries will be next, consecutive or coincidental. So, it is in everyone’s best interest (if they are not Muslims) to protect the tiny Jewish State - in their own best interests.


The old ways of war had a certain symmetry. There were winners and losers, conclusively - with no half-way measures. It all came down to whole populations accepting their fate. Islam has challenged the Judeo-Christian ethos all over the planet. They have both motivation and a head start.


Our choice is accepting the blowing up of our families or the blowing up of theirs. A bad choice but, if you didn’t start Armageddon, why die with your pride intact, following rules of acceptable national suicide?


Better to fight short, brutal wars than to slowly bleed to death by wars of a thousand cuts - especially for the small nation of Israel.
17 Adar Bet 5768 / 24 March 08
.......................................................benny

Al-Qaeda number two calls for strike against US, Israel
24/03/2008 04:32 WASHINGTON, March 24 (AFP)

The second-ranking leader of Al-Qaeda, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, called for new strikes against Jewish and American interests in a new radio address monitored here.

"Muslims, today is your day. Strike the interests of the Jews, the Americans, and all of those who participated in the attack on the Muslims," Zawahiri said in an audio speech issued by Al-Qaeda's As-Sahab information network and monitored here by SITE Intelligence Group,

Zawahiri urged the faithful to "monitor the targets, collect the money, bring the equipment, plan accurately, and then -- while depending on Allah -- storm, seeking martyrdom and paradise."

http://www.africasia.com/services/ne...4vg7ld 45.php

Developing...
.....................................................benny

Mar 24, 2008 13:13 | Updated Mar 24, 2008 13:16
Egypt to sign nuclear pact with Russia
By THE MEDIA LINE NEWS AGENCY
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Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak heads for Russia on Monday where he is expected to get assurances of Russian assistance to build a nuclear facility.


Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Photo: AP
A bilateral nuclear power deal was outlined last week and is expected to be signed during the visit.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu Al-Gheit said the pact would enable Egypt to tap into Russia's extensive experience in the field of nuclear energy.

The deal could allow Russia to participate in a tender to build nuclear reactors in Egypt.

RELATED
The Media Line News Agency

The pact coincides with international efforts to pressure Iran into abandoning its nuclear program. Iran insists its program is for civilian purposes of manufacturing energy, but Western countries are concerned Teheran is covertly making an atomic bomb.

The technologies for creating nuclear energy and nuclear bombs are similar and involve many dual-usage elements and substances.

Egypt is one of several Middle Eastern countries seeking a nuclear program. Cairo wants to revive its atomic energy program, which was aborted in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, when the dangers of such a program became apparent.

Other countries in the Middle East and North Africa region seeking nuclear programs include Jordan, Yemen, Morocco, Algeria, the Gulf countries and possibly Syria.

All the nuclear newcomers in the region, including Iran, claim their programs have peaceful purposes. But there are concerns that these countries are not only seeking new energy sources, but also wish to maintain a strategic balance in the region against Iran and against Israel's alleged atomic weapons program.

Israel maintains an official policy of ambiguity regarding its nuclear capabilities.

Russia is seen as a global leader in nuclear know-how and is helping Iran build some of its nuclear power plants, including the plant in Bushehr.

Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates has decided to set up a nuclear agency to assess and develop its nuclear energy program. The UAE signed an agreement with France in January to help develop the program.

Under the agreement, the UAE will not enrich uranium but will import the key substance from a "trusted foreign source," according to the Emirati news agency WAM.
....................................................benny

Barak: Israel’s army and intelligence poised for instant response to Hizballah attack
March 24, 2008, 1:42 PM (GMT+02:00)


First publication of recent Imad Mughniyeh photo surveying Israel from Syrian Mt. Hermon
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak decided to place the armed forces on guard in view of indications that Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah may seriously intend making good on his threat of “open war” against Israel, whom he accuses of the Feb. 12 killing of Imad Mughniyeh.

Barak said Monday, March 24, Hizballah’s revenge threats are not to be taken lightly: “We must all be vigilant in the near future. But we’ll overcome that too.”

The Israeli Air Force, according to our sources, has prepared two command and control airplanes which are capable of transporting command centers and special forces from place to place and reacting to terrorist attacks far from Israel.

The Magen David Adom service nationwide has placed on standby double its usual complement of ambulances and medical teams.

According to our military sources, Barak latest directives Monday, March 24, signify his change of mind about the prospect of a Hizballah revenge attack. The earlier presumption that the Lebanese terrorists would hold their fire up until the Arab League summit convening in Damascus on March 29-30 has been abandoned to meet fast-moving events across Israel’s northern border.

1. Syria last week pushed the fighting strength of Palestinian terrorist groups under its shared control with Iran – an estimated 3,000-strong – across the border into the Lebanese Beqaa Valley.

It was initially supposed that these groups had been removed from their Damascus bases to get them out of the way of the Arab summit. But they have since been observed taking up battle positions and the delivery of large quantities of brand new weapons and ammunition.

2. Syria has also speeded up its arms shipments to Hizballah - notably, as DEBKAfile revealed two days ago, anti-aircraft weapons.

3. Apparently for back-up, Syria has massed armored divisions along its Lebanese border.

Israel’s military chiefs now read these moves as meaning that Hizballah, the new Palestinian deployment and the Syrian back-up forces are set to launch a military strike against targets in Israel and bracing for Israeli retaliation.

Israel’s defense chiefs do not count out Hizballah embarking on a number of coordinated terrorist operations over several hours or even days, synchronized with cross-border attacks on targets inside Israel.

The terrorist strikes may well be large-scale, multiple-casualty and directed at an overseas Israeli or Jewish target. The head of the terror center in the prime minister’s office referred incautiously last week to Hizballah’s hopes of Israel having to fly home “40 or 50 coffins,” a goal which Israel is determined to prevent - hence the Air Force’s command and control planes on the ready for rapid take-off to the scene of an attack. They are fitted out and manned for a wide range of contingencies, including rescue operations on foreign soil, requiring the local government’s approval.

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

Jerusalem Watchman « ‘Our god is greater than yours’
Guaranteed: Their end Posted on Friday 21 March 2008
For the nation and kingdom which will not serve you shall perish, And those nations shall be utterly ruined. (Isaiah 60:12)

Chief Rabbi of London Jonathan Sacks told a special Internet rally held in solidarity with the citizens of rocket-ravaged Sderot Thursday that Purim has a message for Israel’s enemies:

They will suffer “the fate of Haman.”

This, the rabbi said, has been “throughout history, the fate of individuals and nations who try to destroy the Jewish people; that - in the end - they destroy themselves.”

On my laptop screen I have a poster bearing the following two-column list under the heading: “Civilizations, nations and empires that have tried to destroy the Jewish people.”

The left-hand column bears the following names:

Ancient Egypt, Philistines, Assyrian Empire, Babylonian Empire, Persian Empire, Greek Empire, Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, Crusaders, Spanish Empire, Nazi Germany, Soviet Union, and Iran.

In the right-hand column, across from each nation name except for the last, is the single word, “Gone.”

A question mark stands opposite “Iran.”

To this list I would add the names of all the Arab states, all Muslim nations, all communist countries.

I would also add the names of the states comprising the European Union, Eurasia, the members of the Non-Aligned Movement, Developed Countries and Developing Countries.

My country, South Africa must be there, as must the Czech Republic, my wife’s homeland.

And topping the list of every country that exists in the world today I would add the United States.

The future of every one of these nations is at stake; their fate - if they continue to stand against Israel - as assured as the fates of the mighty empires that have reigned supreme in ages past, only to remain no more.

Israel is the only nation who future existence is guaranteed by the Creator of the Universe.

What’s guaranteed for all those nations that come against the Jewish people, is their end.

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

Report: Hamas Implementing Halt to Rocket Attacks


(IsraelNN.com) Hamas has quietly implemented an unofficial "calm" with Israel and has ceased firing rockets on the Negev and Ashkelon, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Jareeda. It based its report on unnamed Hamas sources.

Senior Egyptian government officials have been negotiating with Hamas and with Israeli Defense Ministry advisor Amos Gilad on a cessation of attacks and Israeli counter terrorist operations. Sunday passed without any rocket attacks although IDF positions at the Gaza separation barrier were shelled with mortar fire.

American State Department Middle East envoy David Welch also was involved in the Egyptian talks although both the United States and Israel officially have said they would not talk with Hamas.

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

Mar 24, 2008 17:24 | Updated Mar 24, 2008 19:25
Nasrallah: Mughniyeh's killers must and will be punished
By JPOST.COM STAFF AND AP
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"The one who killed our commander must be punished. The killers must be punished and they will be punished, God willing," Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said Monday.




Professor Barry Rubin on likely Mughniyeh's assasins

In a televised address in Beirut to mark 40 days since the slaying of Hizbullah terror chief Imad Mughniyeh, Nasrallah drew cheers from the crowd saying, "We will choose the time, place and manner of punishment."

Mughniyeh was killed in a car bombing in Damascus, in February. Hizbullah and Iran have accused Israel of the assassination. Israel has denied involvement.

"We feel Mughniyeh's presence more than ever. Our brothers have found nothing but courage and our enemies have found nothing but fear of revenge," added the Hizbullah leader.

Nasrallah went on to say that Israel enters into battles "in order to kill women and children, to starve and to expel."

He also accused Israel and the US of controlling world media.


Nasrallah delivers a live speech through a screen in the southern suburb of Beirut.
Photo: AP
"The Israelis come with strong Western media outlets, unfortunately, even to the Arab world. We are witnessing unprecedented Zionist and American infiltration into all forms of media. They want to harm our consciousness. They want to force our surrender," he said.

Nasrallah asserted that a new Israeli war with Lebanon or Syria was unlikely, as was a US strike on Iran.

"It is not simple for America to launch a war on Iran, or for Israel to launch a war on Syria or Lebanon," Nasrallah continued.

Nasrallah added that the Jewish state's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 and Hizbullah's "victory" over Israel in 2006 mean that a new war is "no longer that simple."

"I want to remind you that an Israeli war is no longer a picnic. An Israeli war has become very costly because there is in Lebanon the strength, will and education of the resistance (Hizbullah) as well as the blood of the resistance's martyrs," he said, drawing cheers from the crowd, estimated at thousands, who gathered at a rebuilt complex destroyed during the 2006 war with Israel.
.................................................benny

General Ivashov calls for emergency session of UN Security Council to Ward off Looming US Aggression

By Webster G. Tarpley

Washington DC, March 25 --

The long awaited US military attack on Iran is now on track for the first week of April, specifically for 4 AM on April 6, the Good Friday opening of Easter weekend, writes the well-known Russian journalist Andrei Uglanov in the Moscow weekly “Argumenty Nedeli.” Uglanov cites Russian military experts close to the Russian General Staff for his account.

The attack is slated to last for twelve hours, according to Uglanov, lasting from 4 AM until 4 PM local time. Friday is a holiday in Iran. In the course of the attack, code named Operation Bite, about 20 targets are marked for bombing; the list includes uranium enrichment facilities, research centers, and laboratories.

The first reactor at the Bushehr nuclear plant, where Russian engineers are working, is supposed to be spared from destruction. The US attack plan reportedly calls for the Iranian air defense system to be degraded, for numerous Iranian warships to be sunk in the Persian Gulf, and the for the most important headquarters of the Iranian armed forces to be wiped out.

The attacks will be mounted from a number of bases, including the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Diego Garcia is currently home to B-52 bombers equipped with standoff missiles. Also participating in the air strikes will be US naval aviation from aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, as well as from those of the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. Additional cruise missiles will be fired from submarines in the Indian Ocean and off the coast of the Arabian peninsula. The goal is allegedly to set back Iran’s nuclear program by several years, writes Uglanov, whose article was re-issued by RIA-Novosti in various languages, but apparently not English, several days ago. The story is the top item on numerous Italian and German blogs, but so far appears to have been ignored by US websites.

Observers comment that this dispatch represents a high-level orchestrated leak from the Kremlin, in effect a war warning, which draws on the formidable resources of the Russian intelligence services, and which deserves to be taken with the utmost seriousness by pro-peace forces around the world.

Asked by RIA-Novosti to comment on the Uglanov report, retired Colonel General Leonid Ivashov confirmed its essential features in a March 21 interview: “I have no doubt that there will be an operation, or more precisely a violent action against Iran.” Ivashov, who has reportedly served at various times as an informal advisor to Putin, is currently the Vice President of the Moscow Academy for Geopolitical Sciences.

“We have drawn the unmistakable conclusion that this operation will take place,” said Ivashov. In his opinion, the US planning does not include a land operation: “ Most probably there will be no ground attack, but rather massive air attacks with the goal of annihilating Iran’s capacity for military resistance, the centers of administration, the key economic assets, and quite possibly the Iranian political leadership, or at least part of it,” he continued.

Ivashov noted that it was not to be excluded that the Pentagon would use smaller tactical nuclear weapons against targets of the Iranian nuclear industry. These attacks could paralyze everyday life, create panic in the population, and generally produce an atmosphere of chaos and uncertainty all over Iran, Ivashov told RIA-Novosti. “This will unleash a struggle for power inside Iran, and then there will be a peace delegation sent in to install a pro-American government in Teheran,” Ivashov continued. One of the US goals was, in his estimation, to burnish the image of the current Republican administration, who would now be able to boast that they had wiped out the Iranian nuclear program.

Among the other outcomes, General Ivashov pointed to a partition of Iran along the same lines as Iraq, and a subsequent carving up of the Near and Middle East into smaller regions. “This concept worked well for them in the Balkans and will now be applied to the greater Middle East,” he commented.

“Moscow must exert Russia’s influence by demanding an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council to deal with the current preparations for an illegal use of force against Iran and the destruction of the basis of the United Nations Charter,” said General Ivashov. “In this context Russia could cooperate with China, France and the non-permanent members of the Security Council. We need this kind of preventive action to ward off the use of force,” he concluded.


http://fr.rian.ru/world/20070319/62260006.html
http://fr.rian.ru/world/20070321/62387717.html
........................................................benny

this is too good to be true...more likely another mis calculation by the russians...i remember a documentary recently about the cold war...russia was conviced we were about to nuke them....they had a board with something like 200 pieces of evidence that we were going to nuke em...then, right at zero hr, one of their satelites showed missles being launched from the US!!!! of course it was a false reading by the satelite due to sun light i think they said///but the world was about 10 seconds from all out nukes.....my guess is this is more of the same from the russians...

still hope its true though....we need to wipe irans military out before they nuke Israel and give nukes to some terrorist group that can hit us or europe

Iran Fires Back at French President Sarkozy

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

An Iranian official said Saturday that there was “no value” in French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s statement that the Middle Eastern nation posed a threat to Europe’s security, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, March 21).

“The Islamic republic has always been a center of stability and peace-seeking in the region and its foreign policy is completely in line with international criteria,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini.

Sarkozy on Friday announced that France would reduce its nuclear arsenal to fewer than 300 warheads. He said, though, that his nation must maintain some level of deterrent in the face of increasing Iranian missile capabilities and remaining questions about the nature of its nuclear program (see related GSN story, today).

Iran has developed missiles with varying flight ranges (see GSN, Sept. 24, 2007). Its Shahab 3 ballistic missile is believed capable of reaching Israel and southern Europe, AFP reported.

“The Islamic republic intends to upgrade its capabilities,” Hosseini said. “But drawing a parallel between these progresses and possible threats is inappropriate and invalid” (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, March 22).

Russia, meanwhile, responded more positively to Sarkozy’s call for negotiations on a treaty to ban short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, RIA Novosti reported.

“We welcome proposals designed to strengthen international security,” according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. “Regarding the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, President Vladimir Putin proposed making obligations under it binding for all countries at a meeting with the U.S. defense and foreign secretaries” last October (see GSN, Oct. 12, 2007; RIA Novosti, March 21).

The U.S. State Department on Friday did not respond directly to the French president’s request that China and the United States ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the Associated Press reported. The two nuclear powers are among the nine nations that must ratify the pact for it to enter into force (see GSN, Feb. 26).

“I haven’t seen his comments, but the United States has not conducted a weapons test in a couple decades, as far as I know,” said spokesman Sean McCormack.

Chinese and U.S. ratification of the treaty would “put pressure on countries that have been building things that look like test sites, like the North Koreans or, indeed, the Iranians,” said French defense expert Francois Heisbourg.

Those two nations, along with nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan, could also face pressure should Sarkozy’s proposed short- and medium-rang missile pact ever come into existence, Heisbourg said. They would have to join the treaty or “pay a political price,” he said.

Heisbourg said upgrades to France’s fleet of military aircraft allowed the nation to reduce its nuclear arsenal, AP reported. The size of the stockpile has been estimated at nearly 350 strategic warheads, most of which are carried by submarine-launched ballistic missiles.

“When you have better planes taking over for older planes, you can afford to reduce the numbers,” Heisbourg said.

“That doesn’t make us virtuous guys in itself, although of course it’s nicer to say the numbers are going down than the numbers are going up,” he added. “What does make us more virtuous than we were before is by saying ‘By the way, that means we’re going to have 300.’ And the meaning is, ‘Oh by the way, dear Chinese friends, you better tell us how many you’ve got’” (John Leicester, Associated Press/ABC News, March 21). http://abcnews.go.com/International/...ory?id=4494743
...............................................benny

Iranian Nuclear Threat Persists, Israel Says

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

Iran remains a threat to the Middle East and the international community, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday, urging him not to rule out any option for addressing Tehran’s suspected nuclear weapons ambitions, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, March 21).

Iran “is endangering the stability of the region and the entire world,” Barak told Cheney last night, according to a statement released by the defense minister’s office.

The vice president was expected to have breakfast today with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (Deb Riechmann, Associated Press/Charleston Daily Mail, March 24). Cheney traveled to Turkey today for a planned meeting with President Abdullah Gul and other officials, Agence France-Presse reported (Agence France-Presse/Google News, March 24). http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5...9xbcq_PRlYbelA
....................................................benny

TIME FOR MASSIVE PRAYER

Let us raise The Word of God as our Shield
Be perfectly calm as we turn to God
Hopeful that God will save us all
Pray so that time will quicken

Oh Mighty God our Creator
Never before was Creation in such peril
Forsake us not in this hour of need
God show us Your Might and Glory

Interlocked in prayer chains
Powered up by our determination
Amplified by our sheer multitude
Bursting through the darkness

Massive wave of Love rush forth
Change them all, devour darkness
Faith is for all yes for all
God is our Hope our only Hope

Barak: We must take Hezbollah's latest threats seriously

By Yossi Melman and Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondents

Tags: palestinians, israel

Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Monday said that recent threats by Hezbollah must be taken seriously, referring to intelligence warnings of attacks by the Lebanese guerilla group to avenge its slain deputy leader Imad Mughniyah.

Barak's comments came as Hezbollah was scheduled to hold a formal service to commemorate 40 days since Mughniyah's death to be attended by the organization's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who was expected to make a speech at the service.

Hezbollah has announced since then that it regarded Israel responsible for Mughniyah's death, although Jerusalem has denied any connection to the Damascus assassination.
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Barak added that the security establishment and the intelligence establishment are prepared and ready. "We are really in a more sensitive period and there are certain dangers, but we will get through them," he said.

Speaking at a site near Kiryat Gat, The defense minister also referred to the Yemini-sponsored reconciliation efforts between Fatah and Hamas.

"I don't think that anything happened in Yemen that demands a response from us. Our position toward Hamas is well known, we are not speaking with them and have no intention to speak with them - except through indirect contacts in connection to the kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit," Barak stated, speaking of the Israel Defense Forces abducted by Gaza militants in a cross-border raid in June 2006.

Barak also said Israel will begin making life easier for West Bank Palestinians but will not remove checkpoints in the immediate future. He said Israel is working on making crossing through checkpoints easier.

The defense minister pointed to new industrial zones he said Israel was facilitating, aimed at creating thousands of jobs for Palestinians.

Israel shifts stance on Hezbollah deal over abductees

Meanwhile, a source in the defense establishment recently told Haaretz. that Israel has lifted its opposition to a deal with Hezbollah involving the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for signs of life from abducted soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser,

This source and other officials told Haaretz that indirect negotiations for the release of the two Israel Defense Forces soldiers that the Shi'ite organization abducted in July 2006 did not bog down after the assassination of Mughniyah last month in Damascus.

On Friday, Hezbollah deputy secretary general Naim Qassem again accused Israel of culpability for Mughniyah's assassination in a speech to mark the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed. "We have clear proof, 100 percent, that cannot be doubted, that Israel is the head of the assassination," said Qassem.

The talks regarding Regev and Goldwasser, these sources said, are conducted by a German secret service official under United Nations auspices, but are yielding little progress.

Negotiations with Hamas for the release of Gilad Shalit, another IDF soldier captured in 2006, are not progressing, the sources added, citing internal differences within Hamas.

So far, Israel has said that it was categorically opposed to Hezbollah's demand to include Palestinian prisoners in any deal.

Official assessments allege that the two soldiers were "severely wounded" during the attack that ended with their abduction and the slaying of three other IDF troops. The official working assumption, however, is that the two soldiers are alive.

Hezbollah is refusing to release any sign of life from the two soldiers, preconditioning such a move on the release of Palestinian prisoners. Both sides are reportedly exchanging ideas for the deal, but the transaction is allegedly stuck because of intransigence on the part of Hezbollah's men vis-a-vis the demand to release Palestinians from Israeli prisons.

Turning to the negotiations for Shalit's release, the sources said the talks are being held up by exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshal. They said Israel has for the past 30 days been expecting to receive a list of prisoners whose release the organization said it is seeking.

Until earlier this month, the proposed agreement with Hamas for Shalit's
release was supposed to contain three main phases. During the first, Shalit was to be transferred to Egyptian custody, after which Israel was supposed to release 100 so-called "prominent prisoners," a group of Palestinian legislators from Hamas, as well as minors and women imprisoned in Israel.

In the second phase, Shalit was to be handed over to Israel and, at the same time, 350 Hamas prisoners were to be freed from prison. During the third part, which had no exact timeframe, Israel was to release 500 additional prisoners.

But the exact makeup of the list of prisoners whose release Hamas is demanding is, in the opinion of Israeli experts, the subject of an internal conflict within the organization.

The two sides in the conflict are reportedly Meshal and the exiled leadership in Syria on one hand, and the internal leadership within the Strip, headed by Ahmed Jabri from the organization's military wing, Iz al-Din al-Qassam. Talks with Hamas over the exchange are also conducted indirectly, through the mediation of Egyptian Intelligence Minister Omar Suleiman. Representing the Israeli side is Ofer Dekel.

The sources allege that the Egyptian agenda also serves to slow the talks down. Egypt, they explain, favors focusing on reaching a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, and only then addressing the deal for Shalit's release.


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

US deploys nuclear sub to Persian Gulf’



Iran rejects Sarkozy’s claim on missile threats

Monday, March 24, 2008
TEHRAN: An American nuclear submarine has crossed the Suez Canal to join the US fleet stationed in the Persian Gulf, Egyptian sources say.

Egyptian officials reported that the nuclear submarine crossed the canal along with a destroyer on Friday and Egyptian forces were put on high alert when the navy convoy was passing through the canal.

An American destroyer recently left the Persian Gulf, heading towards the Mediterranean Sea; earlier on Thursday, a US Navy rescue ship crossed the canal to enter the Red Sea.

The deployment comes as recent reports allege that US Vice President Dick Cheney is seeking to rally the support of Middle Eastern states for launching an attack on Iran.

This is while US officials deny that Cheney’s Mideast tour is linked to a possible military attack on Iran.

According to the latest reports, in recent months a major part of the US Navy has been deployed in and around the Persian Gulf.

Meanwhile, Iran on Sunday rejected French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s comments on the necessity to build a strong deterrent against new security threats posed by nuclear-armed Islamic states, a news agency reported.

Speaking on Friday at the launch of the fourth of France’s latest generation of nuclear-armed submarines, Sarkozy said Iran was “increasing the range of its missiles while serious suspicions weigh on its nuclear programme”.

But Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini insisted Iran was a source of peace and stability in the Middle East.

“Iran has upgraded its capabilities (and) drawing a parallel between these achievements and possible threats against other countries is inappropriate and invalid,” the students’ news agency ISNA quoted Hosseini as saying.

Iran, locked in a standoff with the West over its nuclear plans, had previously boasted it had missiles that could sink” big warships” in the Gulf, a region where US aircraft carriers and warships operate. Iran’s Shahab-3 missile, with a range of 2,000 km is capable of hitting Israel and US bases in the Gulf, Iranian officials say. Iran has refused to recognise Israel since the 1979 Islamic revolution toppled the US-backed Shah.

Tehran said in November it had built a new missile with a range of 2,000 km, a step analysts said could add more power to its conventional arsenal when tensions over its atomic plans are rising.

The West accuses Iran of trying to acquire nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian programme. Iran denies the charges, saying it only wants to generate electricity to meet the country’s booming demand.

The U.N. Security Council has imposed three sanctions resolutions against Iran following Tehran’s failure to suspend its nuclear activities, as demanded by the council.

Hosseini said Iran posed no threat to any country. “Iran’s foreign policy is in line with international regulations and laws,” he said.

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

Barak: Israel’s army and intelligence poised for instant response to Hizballah attack
March 24, 2008, 1:42 PM (GMT+02:00)


First publication of recent Imad Mughniyeh photo surveying Israel from Syrian Mt. Hermon
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak decided to place the armed forces on guard in view of indications that Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah may seriously intend making good on his threat of “open war” against Israel, whom he accuses of the Feb. 12 killing of Imad Mughniyeh.

Barak said Monday, March 24, Hizballah’s revenge threats are not to be taken lightly: “We must all be vigilant in the near future. But we’ll overcome that too.”

The Israeli Air Force, according to our sources, has prepared two command and control airplanes which are capable of transporting command centers and special forces from place to place and reacting to terrorist attacks far from Israel.

The Magen David Adom service nationwide has placed on standby double its usual complement of ambulances and medical teams.

According to our military sources, Barak latest directives Monday, March 24, signify his change of mind about the prospect of a Hizballah revenge attack. The earlier presumption that the Lebanese terrorists would hold their fire up until the Arab League summit convening in Damascus on March 29-30 has been abandoned to meet fast-moving events across Israel’s northern border.

1. Syria last week pushed the fighting strength of Palestinian terrorist groups under its shared control with Iran – an estimated 3,000-strong – across the border into the Lebanese Beqaa Valley.

It was initially supposed that these groups had been removed from their Damascus bases to get them out of the way of the Arab summit. But they have since been observed taking up battle positions and the delivery of large quantities of brand new weapons and ammunition.

2. Syria has also speeded up its arms shipments to Hizballah - notably, as DEBKAfile revealed two days ago, anti-aircraft weapons.

3. Apparently for back-up, Syria has massed armored divisions along its Lebanese border.

Israel’s military chiefs now read these moves as meaning that Hizballah, the new Palestinian deployment and the Syrian back-up forces are set to launch a military strike against targets in Israel and bracing for Israeli retaliation.

Israel’s defense chiefs do not count out Hizballah embarking on a number of coordinated terrorist operations over several hours or even days, synchronized with cross-border attacks on targets inside Israel.

The terrorist strikes may well be large-scale, multiple-casualty and directed at an overseas Israeli or Jewish target. The head of the terror center in the prime minister’s office referred incautiously last week to Hizballah’s hopes of Israel having to fly home “40 or 50 coffins,” a goal which Israel is determined to prevent - hence the Air Force’s command and control planes on the ready for rapid take-off to the scene of an attack. They are fitted out and manned for a wide range of contingencies, including rescue operations on foreign soil, requiring the local government’s approval.

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

Irans foreign policy is only in line with the big mouth and emptyhead of this Ah-Mad-(Man)-in-Jihad.
With all due respect, this fool even is forgiven, for he does not know what he does.
With no brain it is very hard to properly govern a country.

Barak: Israel’s army and intelligence poised for instant response to Hizballah attack
March 24, 2008, 1:42 PM (GMT+02:00)


First publication of recent Imad Mughniyeh photo surveying Israel from Syrian Mt. Hermon
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak decided to place the armed forces on guard in view of indications that Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah may seriously intend making good on his threat of “open war” against Israel, whom he accuses of the Feb. 12 killing of Imad Mughniyeh.

Barak said Monday, March 24, Hizballah’s revenge threats are not to be taken lightly: “We must all be vigilant in the near future. But we’ll overcome that too.”

The Israeli Air Force, according to our sources, has prepared two command and control airplanes which are capable of transporting command centers and special forces from place to place and reacting to terrorist attacks far from Israel.

The Magen David Adom service nationwide has placed on standby double its usual complement of ambulances and medical teams.

According to our military sources, Barak latest directives Monday, March 24, signify his change of mind about the prospect of a Hizballah revenge attack. The earlier presumption that the Lebanese terrorists would hold their fire up until the Arab League summit convening in Damascus on March 29-30 has been abandoned to meet fast-moving events across Israel’s northern border.

1. Syria last week pushed the fighting strength of Palestinian terrorist groups under its shared control with Iran – an estimated 3,000-strong – across the border into the Lebanese Beqaa Valley.

It was initially supposed that these groups had been removed from their Damascus bases to get them out of the way of the Arab summit. But they have since been observed taking up battle positions and the delivery of large quantities of brand new weapons and ammunition.

2. Syria has also speeded up its arms shipments to Hizballah - notably, as DEBKAfile revealed two days ago, anti-aircraft weapons.

3. Apparently for back-up, Syria has massed armored divisions along its Lebanese border.

Israel’s military chiefs now read these moves as meaning that Hizballah, the new Palestinian deployment and the Syrian back-up forces are set to launch a military strike against targets in Israel and bracing for Israeli retaliation.

Israel’s defense chiefs do not count out Hizballah embarking on a number of coordinated terrorist operations over several hours or even days, synchronized with cross-border attacks on targets inside Israel.

The terrorist strikes may well be large-scale, multiple-casualty and directed at an overseas Israeli or Jewish target. The head of the terror center in the prime minister’s office referred incautiously last week to Hizballah’s hopes of Israel having to fly home “40 or 50 coffins,” a goal which Israel is determined to prevent - hence the Air Force’s command and control planes on the ready for rapid take-off to the scene of an attack. They are fitted out and manned for a wide range of contingencies, including rescue operations on foreign soil, requiring the local government’s approval.

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

Last Updated: Monday, 24 March 2008, 15:21 GMT

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Iran 'behind Green Zone attack'

Gen Petraeus said he was surprised how Sunnis turned against al-Qaeda
The most senior US general in Iraq has said he has evidence that Iran was behind Sunday's bombardment of Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.
Gen David Petraeus told the BBC he thought Tehran had trained, equipped and funded insurgents who fired the barrage of mortars and rockets.

He said Iran was adding what he described as "lethal accelerants" to a very combustible mix.

There has as yet been no response from Iran to the accusations.

The rockets that were launched at the Green Zone yesterday, for example... were Iranian-provided, Iranian-made rockets

Gen David Petraeus


Interest in Iraq slumps
Troop toll 'no milestone'
In response to the news that 4,000 US military personnel have now been killed in Iraq, he said it showed how much the mission had cost but added that Americans were realistic about it.

He also said a great deal of progress had been made because of the "flipping" of communities - the decision by Sunni tribes to turn against al-Qaeda militants.

The extent of this had surprised even the US military, he said.

'Promises violated'

In an interview with BBC world affairs editor John Simpson, Gen Petraeus said violence in Iraq was being perpetuated by Iran's Quds Force, a branch of the Revolutionary Guards.


The attacks led to 15 civilian deaths
"The rockets that were launched at the Green Zone yesterday, for example... were Iranian-provided, Iranian-made rockets," he said, adding that the groups that fired them were funded and trained by the Quds Force.

"All of this in complete violation of promises made by President Ahmadinejad and the other most senior Iranian leaders to their Iraqi counterparts."

The barrage hit the Green Zone on Sunday morning. Some rockets missed their targets killing 15 Iraqi civilians.

Later in the day four US soldiers died when their patrol vehicle was blown up by a bomb in southern Baghdad, putting the total number of US fatalities above 4,000.

This and other bloodshed on Sunday came despite an overall reduction in violence since last June, when the US deployed an extra 30,000 troops for the surge.

Days earlier, Mr Bush marked the fifth anniversary of the invasion, saying that it had made the world a better place.


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

See God at work. Nice phrasing the "flipping of communities",
God is flipping hearts and minds all over the place.
And that is merely the warming up of God,
it is only the Beginning of what is ahead!

Thank You God, for responding to our call of need!

Peres: Israel won't make deal with Syria


Published: March 23, 2008 at 7:40 PM
Print story Email to a friend Font size:JERUSALEM, March 23 (UPI) -- Israel does not expect to reach an agreement with Syria about returning the Golan Heights, Israeli President Shimon Peres said Sunday.

"If the Golan is given back, it will boost Iran's influence in Lebanon and the territory will effectively be under Iranian-Syrian control," Peres said.

Vice President Dick Cheney cited U.S. concerns about Damascus giving arms to Hezbollah, The Jerusalem Post reported. Cheney met with Peres Sunday as part of is 10-day tour of the Mideast.

Cheney reportedly also said he believed Syrian President Bashar Assad was uninterested in conducting talks with Israel.

Peres told Cheney that Europe and the United States seemed to be paying little attention to the creation of ballistic missiles in Iran, the Post reported.

"Iran's only intentions of developing ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads are to destroy Israel and threaten the entire world," Pares said.

Cheney reportedly stressed that the United States planned to do its best to handle nuclear threats from Iran.
...................................................benny

Mar 24, 2008 17:24 | Updated Mar 25, 2008 4:01
'Syrian silence on Mughniyeh sign of tension with Hizbullah'
By HERB KEINON AND YAAKOV KATZ
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Syria's reticence in blaming Israel for killing arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh, despite Hizbullah's claims of having "100 percent proof" that Israel was involved, indicates that the issue is causing some friction between Syria and the Lebanese guerrilla group, according to assessments in Jerusalem.




Professor Barry Rubin on likely Mughniyeh's assasins

Last month, Syria announced that it was launching an investigation into Mughniyeh's assassination, but has so far not released any findings. This has raised eyebrows in Jerusalem, especially since Hizbullah's Deputy Secretary-General Naim Kassem categorically blamed Israel over the weekend for the February car-bombing.

According to these assessments, Kassem's speech would have been a good time for Damascus to come out with some evidence of alleged Israeli involvement - something that did not transpire.

Mughniyeh's widow has been quoted as suggesting Syrian involvement, and was quoted by an Italian wire service as saying that "the Syrian traitors assisted in killing my husband. The Syrians' refusal to allow Iranian investigators to probe the assassination proves their involvement in the murder of my husband in Damascus."

According to assessments in Jerusalem, Damascus's silence may be an indication that the investigation has revealed information that could be very embarrassing to Syria, such as the involvement of Syrian nationals in the assassination - even if they were not at all connected to the Assad government - or the involvement of agents from other Arab states.

If Syria has information linking the assassination to another Arab state, they would likely hold on to that information until after the Arab League summit in Damascus later this week, in order not to do anything to further weaken that conference, according to these assessments.


Nasrallah delivers a live speech through a screen in the southern suburb of Beirut.
Photo: AP
Meanwhile Monday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the defense establishment was preparing for the possibility that Hizbullah would attack Israel to avenge Mughniyeh's murder. He said that Israel was currently in a "sensitive period" but would overcome the risks.

"We cannot be lightheaded about the possibility of retaliation," Barak said during a tour Monday morning of a West Bank checkpoint. "The defense and intelligence establishments are gearing up, and it's a good idea for Israelis to keep their eyes open in the near future."

The 40 days of mourning for Mughniyeh ended on Saturday, and Israel has raised its level of alert worldwide - in embassies and Jewish institutions - out of fear that Hizbullah will avenge last month's assassination by striking a Jewish or Israeli target abroad.

Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah renewed his vow to retaliate for the death of Mughniyeh.

"The one who killed our commander must be punished. The killers must be punished, and they will be punished, God willing," Nasrallah said in a videotaped speech aired during a mass rally in Beirut on Monday to commemorate Mughniyeh. "We will choose the time, place and manner of punishment."

While the possibility for war is deemed low, the IDF beefed up its presence along the Lebanese border on Friday, and units were diverted there from training facilities and other operations.

Defense officials said that a likely attack by Hizbullah could be the targeting or kidnapping of an Israeli official while abroad.

"They will likely do something that will not lead to war but can be considered payback for killing Mughniyeh," one official speculated.

Nasrallah said the elimination of Israel was possible since following its withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 and its "defeat" in the 2006 summer war, the "myth" of its "invincible" army had been shattered.

"Can Israel be eliminated? Yes and a thousand yeses, Israel can be eliminated," he said.

"I want to remind you that an Israeli war is no longer a picnic. An Israeli war has become very costly because there is in Lebanon the strength, will and education of the resistance as well as the blood of the resistance's martyrs," he said, drawing cheers from the crowd, who gathered at a rebuilt complex destroyed during the Second Lebanon War.

Nasrallah added that UN-mediated negotiations with Israel for a prisoner swap were continuing.

"Although the Israelis have killed the pillar of the resistance, we did not halt the negotiations on a prisoner exchange," he said, disclosing that meetings were recently held with UN mediators.

"We will not stop the negotiations ... because we want to achieve one of the aspirations of martyr Imad Mughniyeh, that is, to see our prisoner brothers free among their parents and loved ones," Nasrallah said.

AP contributed to this report.
...........................................benny

Mar 22, 2008 21:56 | Updated Mar 23, 2008 9:49
Just a Gulf apart
By DAVID HARRIS, THE MEDIA LINE NEWS AGENCY
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Even its name is controversial. It may be called the Persian Gulf on most maps, however, if you put it that way to an Arab, he will politely inform you that it is the Arab Gulf. The Media Line style guide rather diplomatically refers to it as "the Gulf" in order to avoid unnecessary quibbles with Persians and Arabs.


The Persian Gulf
Photo: Courtesy
That difference is symptomatic of the huge gulf that lies between Iran on the one hand and the nations just a hop, skip and jump away that comprise the Gulf Cooperation Council - the GCC.

If it were just about a name, the international community, led in this case by the United States, would not be quite so jittery every time the "G" word is mentioned on the news.

The GCC members - Saudi Arabia, and from north to south, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Oman - are right now extremely fearful that any Western strike against Iran will bring them into direct confrontation with their neighbor across the water. Senior politicians, diplomats and generals in Teheran have made it clear in recent months that an attack against Iranian interests will be met initially with a counter-strike aimed at the GCC states.

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The Media Line News Agency

The GCC is taking the Iranian threat so seriously it has decided to create a joint military that will coalesce troops from all six member states. The idea was first talked up publicly last year; now, top officers from the GCC nations have said they want the force to have attacking powers in addition to the defensive role originally mooted.

Given that any Western airborne or missile attack against Iran would be launched by American, Israeli, French or British forces (probably in that order of likelihood), it seems somewhat unfair that fellow Muslims should come under fire in a retaliatory operation.

So why would Iran want to attack so close to home?

One simple reason is that very proximity. It is far easier to launch a few missiles across the Gulf knowing your accuracy is pretty much guaranteed, rather than developing intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), costing billions in the hope they will hit their targets and can evade the multi-billion dollar defense systems installed by the US, Israel and other nations.

That having been said, Teheran is known to be developing longer-range missiles. Its Shihab models can reach much of Western Europe. However, the GCC is a much softer target, with far fewer defensive resources and, too be honest, far less likely to be defended by Western militaries in the event of an attack than Washington DC, London or Jerusalem.

There is a considerable international military presence in the GCC countries, US army, naval and air-force bases, in particular. All of these would prove to be far easier targets than the American mainland or Europe.

THEN THERE is the ideological reasoning. In recent years it has become clear to many that the main war in the Middle East is not between Arabs and Jews but rather among Muslims. The hatred displayed by Shi'ites for Sunnis and vice versa has led to fighting across the region. For example, if one looks at Yemen, which is attempting to become the seventh member of the GCC, the ongoing battle between the forces of the central government in 'Sana and the Al-Houthi rebels in the north is being fought across the sectarian divide.

The recent clampdown in Bahrain on opposition movements is a bid by the Sunni leadership to repress the Shi'ite majority. The same can be said of the treatment dished out by Teheran to its Sunni minority (and its Arabs).

Just because Iranians and Arabians believe in the Prophet Muhammad, that does not mean they do not have hatred for one another, built up over one-and-a-half millennia.

There is also modern ideology at play. The GCC is increasingly adopting a pro-Western stance, with an emirate like Dubai appearing increasingly like an American city with some of the French Riviera thrown in for good measure. American accents are heard not only in the boardrooms of Gulf companies but increasingly on the streets, as visitors pour into the increasingly decadent shopping malls. It is a lifestyle shunned by Teheran, even if many of the tourists and workers speak Persian.

Yet, with all that animosity and the threats, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is talking up cooperation with the Gulf states. He and his ministers are either hosting or visiting GCC leaders on a weekly basis and issuing statements about cooperation.

This strategy leaves the GCC in something of a quandary. On the one hand there are the warnings from Iran and the embrace from the West; on the other, Iran is still a fellow Muslim state, a neighbor and a large market and pool of relatively cheap labor.

No wonder then that US President George W. Bush spent more time in his recent regional trip focusing on the GCC states than he did on the Palestinians and Israelis.

And all of this without mentioning the black gold that is still so precious in the East, the West and, of course, in the Gulf.

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

Iran will only destruct itself, by the Hand of God, so there is no reason for panic.

http://baltimorechronicle.com/2008/032208Floyd.shtml

One Foot in the Grave: Iran Attack Nearer, More Likely Than Most Suspect

by Chris Floyd
Saturday, 22 March 2008 A very important, very disturbing -- and almost entirely overlooked -- piece appeared on Juan Cole's Informed Comment site this week. It was a guest column by William R. Polk, laying out, in copious and convincing detail, the evidence indicating that the United States will indeed launch a military strike against Iran, most probably before George W. Bush leaves office.

However, even if Bush does hold off for some reason, the processes that Polk describes will almost certainly lead the next president into war with Iran, especially as the three remaining major candidates have forcefully pledged to keep "all options, and I mean, all options on the table" (Polk quotes Barack Obama's bellicose formulation). And none of them are likely to have the political courage that Polk rightly says would be necessary to climb down from the highly aggressive posture that both parties have adopted toward Iran. Polk is no radical firebrand; indeed, he comes toting heavy Establishment lumber: White House service (under John Kennedy), top academic and institutional posts, weighty books on history and international affairs, etc. Yet he paints as stark a picture of the situation as the most implacable dissident.
One development that has arisen after the article was posted gives added credence to Polk's case. In recent days, both Bush and Dick Cheney have revived the scaremongering threat of an Iranian nuclear bomb that had seemed diffused by the NIE report earlier this year. Of course, that report -- in which America's myriad intelligence agencies declared their consensus view that Iran's nuclear weapons program is moribund -- was itself a more subtle piece of scaremongering. Because the report asserted -- without any credible evidence -- that Iran HAD been building a nuke until 2003. While the headlines focused on the overall conclusion, the Bush Administration made hay with that latter assertion: "See, we told you Iran has been building a nuclear weapon! We were right."
They weren't, of course, but this assertion was a propaganda weapon just waiting to be picked up: and now it has. Bush and Cheney refer to the NIE report as "proof" that Iran has been surreptitiously building nuclear weapons in the recent past -- and therefore could be secretly building them again right now. Cheney was very explicit about this during his recent tour of Iraq and other stops in the Middle East -- a trip that many have noted carries sinister echoes of a similar jaunt he made around the region just before the invasion of Iraq. As AP notes:
Vice President Dick Cheney retained his tough stance against Iran on Wednesday and said the U.S. is uncertain if Tehran has restarted the nuclear weaponization program that a U.S. intelligence report says it halted in 2003...Critics of the Bush administration said the report should dampen any campaign for a U.S. confrontation with Iran.
But Cheney that that while the NIE said Iran had a program to develop a nuclear warhead, it remains unclear if it has resumed that activity.
"What it (the NIE) says is that they have definitely had in the past a program to develop a nuclear warhead; that it would appear that they stopped that weaponization process in 2003. We don't know whether or not they've restarted," he said.

Bush too has been pushing this line, most recently in an interview with a government-funded Farsi-language radio station piping White House propaganda into Iran itself. As Dan Froomkin notes, Bush repeated the lie he has often told, asserting that Iran has "declared they want to have a nuclear weapon to destroy people." Iran has always declared the opposite, of course. Bush also echoed Cheney's provocative "mystficiation" about the current state of the alleged Iranian weapons program. As Bush put it: "They've hidden programs in the past and they may be hiding one now, who knows?"
As Polk points out, Bush has made pre-emptive war a cardinal tenet of the official U.S. national security policy, declaring that America "will not wait" for potential security threats to develop, but will "confront challenges earlier and more comprehensively, before they are allowed to mature...In all cases, we will seek to seize the initiative and dictate the tempo, timing, and direction of military operations."
Under such a policy, uncertainty about a potential threat actually becomes a spur to military action. Cheney has long been an evangelist for the "one-percent solution;" i.e., if there is even a one percent chance that some threat might prove true, you must act as if the danger is 100 percent certain to occur. This paranoid lunacy -- or shrewd marketing device to guarantee non-stop boodle from war profiteering -- is now the official governing philosophy of America's foreign policy.
You must read Polk's entire piece to get the full weight and impact of the facts he marshals. But below are a few pertinent excerpts:
The article [a piece in US News and World Report outlining "six signs that the U.S. may be headed for war in Iran"] curiously passes over in silence the much more impressive build-up of naval power in the Persian Gulf. As of the last report I have seen, a major part of the U.S. Navy is deployed in and around the Persian Gulf. The numbers are stunning and include not only a vast array of weapons, including nuclear weapons, cruise and other missiles and hundreds of aircraft but also “insertion” (invasion) forces and equipment. Even then, these already deployed forces amount to only a fraction of the total that could be brought to bear on Iran because aircraft, both bombers and troop and equipment transports, stationed far away in Central Asia, the Indian Ocean, Europe and even in America can be quickly employed .
Of course, deploying forces along Iran’s frontier does not necessarily mean using them. At least that is what the Administration says. However, as a historian and former participant in government, I believe that having troops and weapons on the spot makes their use more likely than not. Why is that?
It is because a massive build-up of forces inevitably creates the “climate” of war. Troops and the public, on both sides, come to accept its inevitability. Standing down is difficult and can entail loss of “face.” Consequently, political leaders usually are carried forward by the flow of events. Having taken steps 1, 2 and 3, they find taking step number 4 logical, even necessary. In short, momentum rather than policy begins to control action. As Barbara Tuchman showed in her study of the origins of the First World War, The Guns of August, even though none of the parties really wanted to go to war, none could stop the process. It was the fact that President Kennedy had been reading Tuchman’s book just before the Cuban Missile Crisis, I believe, that made him so intent on not being “hijacked by events.” His restraint was unusual. More common is a surrender to “sequence” as was shown by the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It would have taken a major reversal of policy – and considerable political bravery -- to halt either invasion once the massive build-up was in place. No such effort was made then. Will it be now? I think the odds are against it.

Later, viewing the attack in a larger context, Polk writes:
Thus, even short of a nuclear Armageddon, the “Long War” advocated by the Neoconservatives would spread misery, violence, starvation, disease and death. The “fabric” that holds societies together would be shredded so that a chaos even Hobbes could not have imagined would become common over much of the world. The worst affected would be the poor nations but even rich societies would be corrupted and crippled. Reacting over a generation or more to fear of terrorism and the emotional “blow-back” of war, they would lose faith in law, civil liberties, indeed civil society in general. Strong men would come to the fore proclaiming that survival justifies giving up the civic, cultural and material good life. Step by step along the path of the long war, we could fall into the nightmare George Orwell laid out in his novel 1984.
If this is even a remote and unlikely danger, and I believe it is far more than that, we would be foolish indeed not to try to find means to avoid taking any steps – of which war with Iran would be not a step but a leap -- toward it.

Again, the complex and detailed case Polk puts together should be read in full. But its overall message about a catastrophic and murderous war with Iran is unmistakable: the hour is much, much later than we think.
..................................................benny

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War Scenario

Preparing for missile war Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit

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Report: Iranian, Syrian missiles to pound Israel in next war

Secret report paints grim picture: Thousands of casualties, nationwide power outages
Itamar Eichner

Hundreds of dead, thousands of injured, missile barrages on central Israel, full paralysis at Ben-Gurion Airport, constantly bombed roads, nationwide power outages that last for long hours, and whole regions' water supply being cut off – this is what the next war could look like.



A secret report recently distributed among government ministries and local municipalities details various wartime scenarios. The report deals with very harsh possibilities, including some that are downright horrifying, formulated as part of the lessons drawn in the wake of the Second Lebanon War.



Notably, the document does not aim to predict future developments with certainty, but rather, only aims to serve as a guideline for civilian war preparations. The above assessment is characterized as a "severe reasonable scenario" – that is, it is not the gravest scenario, but also not the most favorable.



Air Force to be called upon to protect Israel's airspace (Photo: AP)



According to this scenario, the war will last for about a month and will include the participation of Syria (military operations on the Golan Heights front and the firing of many Scud missiles at the home front,) Lebanon (the firing of thousands of Hizbullah rockets at the Galilee and Haifa as well long-range missiles at central Israel,) and the Palestinian Authority (relatively limited conflict that would include short-range rockets fired from Gaza and the West Bank as well as terror attacks such as suicide bombings within Israel.)




Mass evacuation in case of chemical attack

According to this scenario, Iran will also get involved in the war, but will only fire a limited number of missiles rather than non-conventional weapons. In addition to missile barrages, the scenario includes aerial strikes on military and strategic targets, attacks on infrastructure facilities, and attempted abductions of civilians and soldiers.




Such hypothetical war, according to the assessment, will leave 100-230 civilians dead, and 1,900-3,200 Israelis wounded. However, should Israel be attacked with chemical weapons, the number of killed and wounded Israelis would skyrocket to 16,000.



Under such circumstances, as a result of missile damage, chemical contamination, and the razing of homes the State would have to evacuate as many as 227,000 Israelis from their homes. According to the assessment, about 100,000 people would seek to leave the country should such scenario materialize........................................benny

http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1463/135

Worried Yet? Saudis Prepare for "Sudden Nuclear Hazards" After Cheney Visit

Sunday, 23 March 2008

I. One Tick Closer to Midnight
Last Friday, Dick Cheney was in Saudi Arabia for high-level meetings with the Saudi king and his ministers. On Saturday, it was revealed that the Saudi Shura Council -- the elite group that implements the decisions of the autocratic inner circle -- is preparing "national plans to deal with any sudden nuclear and radioactive hazards that may affect the kingdom following experts' warnings of possible attacks on Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactors," one of the kingdom's leading newspapers, Okaz, reports. The German-based dpa news service relayed the paper's story.

Simple prudence -- or ominous timing? We noted here last week that an American attack on Iran was far more likely -- and more imminent -- than most people suspect. We pointed to the mountain of evidence for this case gathered by scholar William R. Polk, one of the top aides to John Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and to other indicators of impending war. The story by Okaz -- which would not have appeared in the tightly controlled dictatorship without approval from the top -- is yet another, very weighty piece of evidence laid in the scales toward a new, horrendous conflict.

We don't know what the Saudis told Cheney in private -- or even more to the point, what he told them. But the release of this story now, just after his departure, would seem to be a clear indication that the Saudis have good reason to fear a looming attack on Iran's nuclear sites and are actively preparing for it.

II. A Nuclear Epiphany in Iran?
And they certainly should be bracing themselves. A U.S. attack on Iran will come suddenly, and if it is indeed aimed at destroying Iran's nuclear capabilities -- a "threat" being talked up again with new urgency by both Cheney and Bush lately -- it has the potential for unimaginable consequences. As we noted here in a previous piece:

Twelve hours. One circuit of the sun from horizon to horizon, one course of the moon from dusk to dawn. What was once a natural measurement for the daily round of human life is now a doom-laden interval between the voicing of an autocrat's brutal whim and the infliction of mass annihilation halfway around the world.

Twelve hours is the maximum time necessary for American bombers to gear up and launch an unprovoked sneak attack – a Pearl Harbor in reverse – against Iran, the Washington Post reports. The plan for this "global strike," which includes a very viable "nuclear option," was approved months ago, and is now in operation. The planes are already on continuous alert, making "nuclear delivery" practice runs along the Iranian border, as Sy Hersh reports in the New Yorker, and waiting only for the signal from President George W. Bush to drop their payloads of conventional and nuclear weapons on some 400 targets spread throughout the condemned land.

And when this attack comes – either as a stand-alone "knock-out blow" or else as the precusor to a full-scale, regime-changing invasion, like the earlier aggression in Iraq – there will be no warning, no declaration of war, no hearings, no public debate. The already issued orders governing the operation put the decision solely in the hands of the president: he picks up the phone, he says, "Go" – and in twelve hours' time, up to a million Iranians could be dead.

This potential death toll is not pacificist hyperbole; it comes from a National Academy of Sciences study sponsored by the Pentagon itself, as The Progressive reports. (Although Bush's military brass like to peddle the public lie that "we don't do body counts" of the enemy, in reality, like all good businessmen they keep precise accounts of their production outputs: i.e., corpses.) The Pentagon's NAS study calibrated the kill-rate from "bunker-busting" tactical nukes used to take out underground facilities – such as those which house much of Iran's nuclear power program.

Another simulation by scientists, using Pentagon-devised software, was even more specific, measuring the aftermath of a "limited" nuclear attack on the main Iranian underground site in Esfahan, the magazine reports. This small expansion of the Pentagon franchise would result in stellar production figures: three million people killed by radiation in just two weeks, and 35 million people exposed to dangerous levels of cancer-causing radiation in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Bush has about 50 nuclear "earth-penetrating weapons" at his disposal, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Nor is the idea of a nuclear strike on Iran mere "liberal paranoia." Bush himself pointedly refused to take the nuclear option "off the table" this week. But what's more, Bush has made the use of nuclear weapons a centerpiece of his "National Security Strategy of the United States," issued last month, The Progressive notes. While reaffirming the criminal principle of "pre-emptive" attacks on perceived enemies which may or may not be threatening America with weapons they may or may not possess, Bush declared that "safe, credible and reliable nuclear forces continue to play a critical role" in the "offensive strike systems" that are now a key part of America's "deterrence."

In the depraved jargon of atomic warmongering, a "credible" nuclear force is one that can and will be used in the course of ordinary military operations. It is no longer to be regarded as a sacred taboo. This has long been the dream of the Pentagon's "nuclear priesthood" and its acolytes, going back to the days of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For decades, a strong faction within the American power structure has been afflicted with a perverted craving to unleash these weapons once more. An almost sexual frustration can be discerned in their laments as time and again, in crisis after crisis, their counsels for "going nuclear" were rejected – often at the very last moment. To justify their abberant desire, they have relentlessly demonized an ever-changing array of "enemies," painting each one as an imminent, overwhelming threat, led by "madmen" in thrall to pure evil, impervious to reason, fit only for destruction. Evidence for the "threat" is invariably exaggerated, manipulated, even manufactured; this ritual cycle has been enacted over and over, leading to many wars – but never to that ultimate, orgasmic release.

Now this paranoid sect has at last seized the commanding heights of American power...they have found a most eager disciple in the peevish dullard strutting in the Oval Office. Under their sinister tutelage, Bush has eviscerated 40 years' worth of arms control treaties; officially "normalized" the use of nuclear weapons, even against non-nuclear states; rewarded outlaw proliferators like India, Israel and Pakistan; and is now destroying the last and most effective restraint on the spread of nuclear weapons: the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The treaty guarantees its signatories – such as Iran – the right to establish nuclear power programs in exchange for rigorous international inspections. But Bush has arbitrarily decided that Iran – whose nuclear program undergone perhaps the most extensive inspection process in history – must end its lawful activities. Why? Because the country is led by "madmen" in thrall to pure evil, impervious to reason, who one day may or may not threaten America with weapons they may or may not have....

So the NPT is dead. As with the Geneva Conventions and the U.S. Constitution, it now means only what Bush says it means. Force of arms, not rule of law, is the new world order. The attack on Iran is coming...The obvious, murderous insanity of such a move in no way precludes its implementation by this gang – as their invasion of Iraq clearly shows.

The nuclear sectarians have waited decades for this moment. Such a chance may never come again. Will they let it pass, when with just a word, in just twelve hours, they can see their god rising in a pillar of fire over persia?.......................................................benny

Exclusive: Top Hamas missile expert in group released by Egypt
March 25, 2008, 11:00 AM (GMT+02:00)

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that a number of Hamas terror heavyweights were included in the last batch Egypt released of 124 operatives captured in Sinai after Hamas smashed through the border wall earlier this year. Among them were Nafez Abu Najj, Hamas’ director of missile production, Saber Darimali, commander of its leaders’ guard unit, and at least two deputy heads of Hamas intelligence. Their return to Gaza was a concession made by Cairo to the Palestinian jihadists amid negotiations in which Israel is an indirect partner, despite its denials.

Officers of Israel’s southern command voiced dismay and astonishment at the failure of prime minister Ehud Olmert, defense minister Ehud Barak and chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi to intercede and prevent the return to the fray of the hard core of Hamas’ command echelon. They fear that the Israeli civilian communities within range of Gazan missiles will pay dear for this slackness.

The 124 Hamas operatives were picked up by Egyptian security officers in Sinai on their way back from big purchasing expeditions for missile and arms for smuggling into the Gaza Strip along with Hamas fighters back from training in Iran and Syria.

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

Nasrallah, Still in Hiding: "We'll Get Israel"

by Hillel Fendel


(IsraelNN.com) Israel continues to be attacked or threatened on three fronts: Rockets from Gaza, rock attacks in Samaria, and warnings of vengeance from Hizbullah.

Trouble from Gaza
Palestinian terrorists in Gaza fired five mortar shells early this afternoon (Tuesday) and three Kassam rockets this morning, hitting open areas in the western Negev. Another Kassam was fired last night, as well as at least one mortar shell. No damage or casualties were caused. Earlier this morning, Palestinian terrorists fired at an IDF patrol near the northern Gaza border fence. The soldiers returned fire; no injuries were reported. Also on the Gaza border, a bomb was detonated as an IDF patrol passed by on Monday; no one was hurt.

Grenades and Rocks in Shomron
In northern Samaria (Shomron), an Arab was found to be carrying two homemade grenades. He aroused the suspicion of IDF soldiers when he arrived at a checkpoint near Shechem; they checked him and found the weapons. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, who plans to arrive in the region at the end of this week, has been consistent in demanding that Israel remove many of these checkpoints.

Near Karnei Shomron, an Israeli vehicle was stoned on Monday afternoon, and two Molotov cocktails were thrown at another car on Tuesday morning. No one was hurt. Rock throwing incidents against Israeli cars and buses have increased in recent weeks in the northern Shomron, Kiryat Arba-Hevron region, and even in the Galilee.

IDF forces arrested seven wanted terrorists over the night in Judea and Samaria.

Hizbullah Chief Threatens While Hiding
Meanwhile, Hizbullah chieftain Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah continues to hide for fear of Israeli reprisals - yet threatens Israel with revenge attacks for the recent assassination of Imad Mughniyeh. In a recorded video speech in honor of the 40th day after the assassination, Nasrallah said, "Can Israel be erased? Yes! 1,000 times yes! ... We will get back at Israel for the killing at a time and place of our choosing" - language often used by Israeli officials.

Despite this, Nasrallah said that negotiations for the release of kidnapped IDF reservists Elad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, in exchange for hundreds of Arab terrorist prisoners, would continue. At least one of the two is believed to be dead, but Hizbullah refuses to divulge any information about them. The kidnapping of the soldiers in July 2006, which kicked off the Second Lebanon War, was apparently organized by Mughniyeh.

Not only has Israel denied killing Mughniyeh, many indications point to Syrian organization involvement. Even his widow originally blamed Syria, though she later backtracked.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Monday that Hizbullah's threats should not be taken lightly.



Mughniyeh's Blood-Filled History
Mughniyeh, Hizbullah's #2 man, masterminded nearly all of Hizbullah’s terror attacks, and paid for it twice: He was forced to live in hiding for many years, yet in the end was finally murdered nevertheless. He organized the kidnapping/killing of IDF soldiers Benny Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar Souad in 2001, and was also behind the 1994 attack on the Jewish-Argentine Mutual Association (AMIA) Community Center in Buenos Aires, in which 85 people were murdered and 300 others wounded.

Mughniyeh was on the US government’s Most Wanted List for having organized a carbomb attack on a US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 in which 241 American military personnel were killed. He was also indicted in the US for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA flight; many of the passengers were held hostage for two weeks at the Beirut airport and in which a US Navy diver was killed.

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

Only cowards hide, but than again: whats new?

Nasrallah, ye be surprised what Gods gets and whom.
Open your Moslim Fried Chicken and eat your own flesh while you still can.

Only to accept Jesus as our Lord, brings Salvation, for it is written.
The lies in the false book of Quran are identified and proven and will be witnessed before God.

Then after that ye receive your so called 77 blow up dolls till eternity.

Cheney: Iran seeks weapons-grade uranium enrichment Tue Mar 25, 10:02 AM ET



WASHINGTON (AFP) - Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday said Iran was developing a uranium enrichment program for military purposes.

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"Obviously, they're ... heavily involved in trying to develop nuclear weapons enrichment, the enrichment of uranium to weapons grade levels," Cheney said in an interview with ABC television transcribed by the White House.

Cheney, however, did not mention on what he based his accusation.

The United States and its European allies have led efforts to pressure Iran into freezing its disputed uranium enrichment work, a process that can be used both to make nuclear fuel and the core of an atomic bomb.

Tehran insists its program is peaceful.

The UN Security Council recently imposed a third set of sanctions against Iran over its refusal to halt its nuclear activities.

Washington has stepped up pressure to halt Tehran's uranium enrichment program ever since a US intelligence report in December said Iran did have, in effect, a covert nuclear weapons program but that it was stopped in 2003.

The report, which the White House interpreted as confirming its suspicions about Iran's secret ambition, increased skepticism over Washington's warnings that began after the Iraq war did not yield the weapons of mass destruction the US had predicted.

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

Medvedev warns on Nato expansion

Mr Medvedev has pledged to continue Vladimir Putin's policies
The incoming Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, has said his country is not happy about the prospect of Ukraine and Georgia joining Nato.
Speaking in an interview with the Financial Times of London, he said such a move could affect European security.

Mr Medvedev said no country would be happy about a military bloc to which it did not belong approaching its borders.

Asked about recent troubled relations with the UK, he said he was open to restoring full co-operation.

Mr Medvedev is succeeding Vladimir Putin after winning a landslide victory in the presidential election earlier this month.

He has pledged to continue the policies of Mr Putin, who is expected to become his prime minister.

Security concerns

The issue of admitting Georgia and Ukraine - both former Soviet republics - is expected to be discussed at a Nato summit in Bucharest on 2-4 April.

"We are not happy about the situation around Georgia and Ukraine," Mr Medvedev said.

"We consider that it is extremely troublesome for the existing structure of European security.

"No state can be pleased about having representatives of a military bloc to which it does not belong coming close to its borders."

In a separate development, direct flights between Russia and Georgia are expected to resume on Tuesday, 18 months after Moscow suspended them in a row over alleged spying.

A Georgian passenger plane will fly from Tbilisi to Moscow, returning later in the day.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, a US-educated lawyer, swept to power after street protests in 2003, dubbed the "Rose Revolution". He favours closer ties with the West and has accused Russian politicians of interfering in Georgia's affairs.

Ukraine's Orange Revolution in 2004 swept away a pro-Russian government and replaced it with one that looks to the West for support and now wants to join Nato. But President Viktor Yushchenko has been engaged in a long-running power struggle with Viktor Yanukovych, a former prime minister whose supporters are generally more pro-Russian.
...............................................benny

World is against us, as usual


Our leaders' tendency to focus on threats leads to missed opportunities

Gavri Bargil Published: 03.26.08, 01:20 / Israel Opinion




In the framework of the regular annual ritual, we saw the publication of the yearly intelligence assessment. Unsurprisingly, this assessment is starker and more threatening than the one that came before it. Iran? Approaching the production of nuclear weapons. Hamas? Preparing for escalation. Syria? Looking for revenge for the attack on its reactor and Mugniyah killing, and its missiles cover Israel's entire territory. Israeli Arabs? Increasingly radicalizing.



The bottom line: We are threatened by terrible dangers on all fronts. Only the West is not aiming missiles at us for the time being.



The reactions to the intelligence assessment have also become part of a regular ritual. Ministers are sent to television studios in order to explain how worrisome the situation is; senior officers submit proposals for boosting the defense budget; rightist speakers issue announcements urging the government to take action (military action of course, what else?)



Our intelligence bodies are very strict about identifying dangers and describing them as an understandable lesson from the Yom Kippur War trauma, and for good reason. Israel indeed faces a harsh geopolitical reality and genuine threats. Yet what should we do about them? Is greater panic the recipe for addressing the threats or is it a recipe for taking advantage of the dangers in order to advance a one-dimensional security agenda?



Had we invested a small part of the energy directed to identifying and describing dangers to identifying and describing opportunities, things would look a little different. We are all familiar with the rockets threatening Sderot and Gaza-region residents. There is no need for further descriptions. Yet the calm that lasted a few days, until the IDF's assassination operation in Bethlehem, proved that the lull also has a chance, even through indirect dialogue.



The polls show that the majority of the public backs a ceasefire with Hamas and realizes that this is an opportunity for a temporary solution at least, yet interested political elements are determined to prove that force and more forces are the only required response for the threat. It is regrettable that the foreign minister of all people, who is supposed to be the one to advance a diplomatic alternative, was so quick to adopt an inflexible stance in this case.



Distorted picture

The Syrian president repeatedly says in interviews to international media outlets that he is interested in open negotiations with the State of Israel. Doesn't this opportunity sound more promising, in the face of the Syrian missile deployment, than another war with Damascus? And while intelligence and army officials appear in every opportunity in order to describe the Syrian threat, there is no official body that would present credible and to-the-point information regarding Syria's aspirations for peace.



One need not be a professor of strategy in order to realize that removing Syria from the cycle of war against Israel and disconnecting the passage from Iran to Hizbullah would dramatically improve Israel's condition on the northern border, and in fact serve to break up the fundamentalist axis threatening Israel. However, the various strategists know how to describe the threats of a growing Hizbullah while ignoring the possibility of weakening it through such a diplomatic move.



Abba Eban once said that the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Yet the conditioned reflex of Israel's security and political leaders to focus time and again on strategic threats and blatantly ignore diplomatic opportunities leads us down the same path.

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Strategic intelligence assessments are important, but they must be accompanied by a relevant discussion of the strategic opportunities faced by the State of Israel in a manner that would enable us to take advantage of them in order to improve our diplomatic-security reality. Bodies that only describe threats and hide opportunities from the public are not doing their job, are presenting the public with a distorted picture, and do not allow it to take rational decisions regarding the appropriate path to be taken by the state.



The prime minister should meet the challenge presented by the Syrian president and invite him to engage in direct talks. This is the proper and required response if we wish to address the security challenges posed by the strategic assessment – so that after the next war, you won't say that nobody told you. ....................................benny

Hizbullah’s indirect war


Hizbullah uses smugglers to flood Israel with drugs, acquire intelligence

Alex Fishman Published: 03.25.08, 10:12 / Israel Opinion




This is not just an espionage affair. In Hizbullah’s written war doctrine this is referred to as the “indirect war.”



Drugs for Info

IDF soldier suspected of disclosing information to Hizbullah / Ahiya Raved

Indictment to be filed against non-commissioned officer suspected of disclosing sensitive information to Hizbullah terrorists in south Lebanon as part of drug-smuggling operation
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In other words: The way to bring down the State of Israel not through fire and slaughter, but rather, by flooding Israeli society with drugs. This is not paranoia. This Hizbullah strategy is well known in Israel for two decades at least.



In the past, the indirect war included another area: Forging foreign currency, and particularly dollars, for the purpose of distributing it in Israel and using it to acquire weapons in the West. The forgeries were of relatively poor quality and therefore they died away. The drugs, on the other hand, are a matter of stable and ancient tradition on this front that has been enabling several clans to make a living for hundreds of years now.



Hizbullah took over the smuggling rings and routes and enlisted the drugs for the purpose of its “indirect war” on Israel.



It is no coincidence that the person orchestrating this project from Beirut is a former Arab-Israeli, senior Hizbullah figure Kais Obeid. He started his career as a drug dealer in Israel who escaped to Lebanon. He was also the man who managed to lay the trap for former captive Elchanan Tannenbaum through a scheme that involved drug deals.



It is for good reason that Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah adopted Obeid’s ideas and turned them into a part of the organization’s operational doctrine. This effort is profitable, it pushes Israel into a black market economy, and it poisons Israelis. In any case, Nasrallah perceives Israel to be a rotten and weak society whose days are numbered. Flood it with drugs, and it will be lost in the drug-induced high.



And so, for years now Hizbullah has maintained poppy fields in Lebanon’s Beqaa region and producing opium and heroin in labs. Nasrallah also has business connections with drug cartels in South America, where some of the organization’s funds come from.



Hizbullah members themselves do not deal with drug smuggling directly. They take advantage of existing rings. Therefore, anyone who gets close to drugs in Lebanon knows that it is operating under Hizbullah’s patronage. Initially, about 15 years ago, the dealers required passage permits from Hizbullah, which controlled the roads. Today we are talking about operational ties in the full sense of the word. By the way, this is why the IDF fires at drug smugglers as if they were terrorists.



Rift is deepening
In order to improve the drug smuggling into Israel, drug dealers from Lebanon recruited Israeli collaborators, mostly non-Jews. Some of them serve in the army and the clans they come from are related to the drug trade; and the road from drugs to treason and espionage is short. For example, before the IDF withdrew from Lebanon, Arab Israelis assisted Hizbullah members in hiding weapons inside Israeli territory. The weapons awaited infiltrators who were supposed to come into Israel in order to carry out terror attacks (as was the case in the Metzuba attack in 2003.)



In fact, almost every year we see one kind of such drug-related espionage ring or another being uncovered, along with the involvement of Arab Israelis. This time around the story is apparently more severe than the previous one, because several Arabs are suspected of involvement. The information handed over to Hizbullah is not necessarily strategic, yet Hizbullah doesn’t look for such information. It seeks information that would expose vulnerable points in the system so that it can carry out a terror attack or abduction.



To that end, even traitors who are not motivated by fundamentalist ideological zeal, but rather, by greed, are effective enough.



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In the wake of the latest affair, the IDF Northern Command engaged in a process of self-examination in relation to the non-Jewish career officers operating in this sector. This is apparently not enough. After all, it is impossible for soldiers to be operating on the border without being able to trust their non-commissioned officer and fearing that he will sell them out to the enemy. This rift with Israel’s minority groups is deepening, and goes beyond the confines of the Northern Command and IDF..................................................benny

The Middle East’s Gathering Storm

By P. David Hornik
FrontPageMagazine.com | 3/26/2008

U.S. vice-president Richard Cheney and Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert met twice in Jerusalem this week in talks described as “shrouded in mystery.” The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office didn’t even issue a statement; Olmert’s spokesman only said that Cheney and Olmert “discussed a range of issues, including the peace process, terrorism and threats to regional security.”


“Threats to regional security”—sounds a lot like Iran. One hopes the two leaders’ talks had enough seriousness to offset Cheney’s standard inanities in his joint Ramallah press conference with Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday.


At that event Cheney said that terrorism and rockets kill not only innocent civilians but also “the legitimate hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people,” that the U.S. remained “strongly committed” to creating a Palestinian state that was “long overdue,” and that this would require “painful concessions on both sides.”


It was disappointing to hear Cheney imply that terrorism and rockets are malign foreign entities that somehow invade the Palestinian people and frustrate their hopes, and that the upshot of the Palestinians’ record particularly over the past 15 years—the latest installment being 84% of Palestinians approving the recent massacre of mostly teenage boys in a Jerusalem yeshiva—is not only unwavering U.S. commitment to sovereignty for this society but even impatience for this “long overdue” outcome.


It was also unclear what further “painful concessions” might be appropriate for Israel apart from the sacrifice of strategic land already leading to drastically increased terrorism and threats in what remains of its territory.


But if, as a loyal member of the administration of George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice, Cheney arguably had no choice but to spout the requisite nonsense in the Palestinian sphere, there is good reason to think his behind-closed-doors parleys with Olmert were more reality-oriented.


It wasn’t only Gen. David Petraeus saying on Monday that Iran was behind the rocket-and-mortar barrage on Baghdad’s Green Zone on Sunday. Also on Monday Israel ’s ynet publicized what it called “A secret report recently distributed among [Israeli] government ministries and local municipalities detail[ing] various wartime scenarios”—including how bad these could be even if Iran took part only by firing conventional missiles.


The report, according to ynet, envisages a war lasting about a month in which Israel would be bombarded from all sides— Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, plus Iran firing “a limited number of missiles rather than non-conventional weapons.” That would leave about 100-230 civilians dead and 1900-3200 wounded, along with “constantly bombed roads, nationwide power outages that last for long hours, and whole regions’ water supply being cut off.”


If, though, Israel was hit with chemical weapons as well, the estimated results would be a lot worse with 16,000 civilians killed and wounded, the state having to evacuate as many as 227,000 from their homes, and about 100,000 people asking to leave the country.


The report indicates that the Israeli authorities are at last waking up to the implications of years of territorial withdrawal and, mainly, passivity—strongly encouraged by U.S. administrations with their bipartisan obsession with the “peace process” and downsizing Israel —in the face of Israel’s growing encirclement by the Iranian-led axis that also includes Syria, Lebanon-based Hezbollah, and Gaza-based Hamas. The report also reflects how dangerous the situation has become even without Iranian nuclearization.


But that process is continuing whether or not it is included in a theoretical report, and yet another ramification is Egypt and Russia ’s imminent signing of a nuclear cooperation agreement.


Russia, which has almost finished building Iran ’s first nuclear plant in Bushehr, is eager to keep extending its influence in the Middle East and the Russian daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta says “Moscow particularly hopes that Cairo will return to buying Russian arms.” Egypt, for its part, joins fellow Arab countries Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, the UAE, Yemen, Morocco, Libya, and Jordan in having expressed interest in nuclearization over the past year as part of a chain reaction set off by Iran’s march toward the bomb.


A renewed Iranian-backed escalation in Iraq, Israeli preparation for grim war scenarios, and the beginnings of all-out Middle Eastern nuclearization are just the latest offshoots of the unchecked advance of Iranian power. The question is whether, as the hour grows late, a lame-duck Bush administration and a feckless Olmert government—as well as other Western actors supposedly in the same camp—can still muster the will to do something about it.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
P. David Hornik is a freelance writer and translator living in Tel Aviv. He blogs at http://pdavidhornik.typepad.com/. He can be reached at pdavidh2001@yahoo.com. ..............................benny

Last update - 07:11 26/03/2008


Mubarak: Gaza tension brings Iran threat closer

By Barak Ravid, Yoav Stern and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondents

Tags: Israel, Hosni Mubarak, Gaza

"The situation that has developed in the Gaza Strip in recent months has led to Egypt in practice having a border with Iran," Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told a senior European diplomat about three weeks ago.

According to Haaretz's source, who requested anonymity, Mubarak told the diplomat he was concerned over Iran's growing influence in the region. He also compared the situation in Lebanon to that in Gaza, saying that "in both places, the problems and the crises stem from the growing influence of Iran."

Israeli government officials have repeatedly said that Hamas' breach of the Gaza-Egypt border in January sparked a significant change in Egypt's approach to the situation in Gaza, and Cairo is now taking problems such as arms smuggling over this border much more seriously. This process was bolstered after Hamas fired an Iranian Grad rocket at Ashkelon, which Egypt viewed as proof of Iran's penetration of the Strip.
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The political crisis in Lebanon is also worrying Mubarak, who told the European diplomat that he was pessimistic about the chances