Moscow is sending three large landing ships with marines aboard to a Russian naval facility in the Syrian port of Tartus, Russian news agencies quoted a source in the general staff as saying on Friday.
The source did not specify the goal of the mission, but Russia had earlier said it was preparing to send marines to Syria in case it needed to protect personnel and remove equipment from the naval maintenance facility.
Syria is Moscow's firmest foothold in the Middle East. It buys many of its arms from Russia. Tartus is the Russian navy's only permanent warm water port outside the former Soviet Union.Russia and China have three times blocked Western-backed UN Security Council resolutions on Syria that were meant to put more pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down.
Friday, August 3, 2012
In The News:
Russia Sends Navy Vessels, Marines To Syria Base
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Ahmadinejad: World Forces Must Annihilate Israel
This shouldn't be too surprising; after all he has said this many times before. Still - seeing it in print is always mildly shocking because it is such a sign of our times:
In a speech published on his website Thursday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the ultimate goal of world forces must be the annihilation of Israel.Speaking to ambassadors from Islamic countries ahead of 'Qods Day' ('Jerusalem Day'), an annual Iranian anti-Zionist event established in 1979 by Ayatollah Khomeini and which falls this year on August 17, Ahmadinejad said that a "horrible Zionist current" had been managing world affairs for "about 400 yearsAhmadinejad added that "liberating Palestine" would solve all the world's problems, although he did not elaborate on exactly how that might work.“Qods Day is not merely a strategic solution for the Palestinian problem, as it is to be viewed as a key for solving the world problems," he said.
He added: "Anyone who loves freedom and justice must strive for the annihilation of the Zionist regime in order to pave the way for world justice and freedom.”Ahmadinejad, who has called the Holocaust a myth, has previously called for Israel's annihilation, in a 2005 speech in which he used a Persian phrase that translates literally as "wiped off the page of time."
And this is precisely why Israel may have no option but to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities. Their very existence may depend on such action. If they do take military action, you can bet the MSM will never mention the threats and the rhetoric seen in the article above.
This tipping point is drawing closer and closer by the day.
In The News:
"If I Were Iranian, I'd Be Fearful Of The Next 12 Weeks
Former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy added to speculation of an impending Israeli military strike against Iran's nuclear program in a statement published by The New York Times Wednesday."If I were an Iranian, I would be very fearful of the next 12 weeks," Halevy said.Speculation in the media and in political circles about the timing of a potential attack on Iran has focused in recent weeks on whether it needs to happen over the summer, before the US elections, or if it can wait until afterward, maybe as far away as next spring.Earlier in the week, both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned that time was running out for sanctions and diplomacy to have an effect on Iran's nuclear ambitions. Both men made the statements during a visit to Israel by US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.
“We clearly have something to lose by this stretched time [during] which sanctions and diplomacy takes place, because the Iranians are moving forward, not just in enrichment,” Barak said.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak has informed US Defense Secy Leon Panetta that Israel will make its own decisions on how to deal with Iran.
The two men discussed the issue at a special reception held at the Defense Ministry's Kirya military base in Tel Aviv on Wednesday before taking a tour of an iron Dome installation in Ashkelon.
Barak told Panetta during their time together that Israel's government would decide for itself how it will deal with its own security issues – including the existential threat posed by the Iranian nuclear development program.Barak pointed out that while sanctions and diplomatic efforts might have some place in that equation, they are unlikely to have any real impact on preventing the Ayatollahs from continuing that program.
Such a threat cannot be ignored, least of all by Israel.
This report reveals the deep conflict between the U.S. and Israel regarding Iran:
Iran has ”yet to make the choice it needs to make, which is to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions,” White House spokesperson Jay Carney said in a press briefing aboard Air Force One Wednesday.
“We completely agree with the [Israeli] prime minister’s assessment that Iran has failed to make that choice and that is absolutely a disappointment,” added Carney, presenting a united front between the two countries as visiting Defense Secretary Leon Panetta completed a day of meetings with Israeli leaders.
But a Channel 2 news report said irritated American officials are telling Israel that it is overplaying its hand with its constant warnings about time running out on stopping Iran’s nuclear program and its threats to launch military action against IranThe message being conveyed by Obama Administration officials behind the scenes, the TV report said, is that the US knows what it is doing on Iran, and that while an Israeli strike could damage the Iranian program, an American strike, if deemed necessary, would finish it. Israel ought to stop talking about deadlines, and stop risk being perceived as meddling with domestic American politics ahead of November’s presidential elections.The Channel 2 report came hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at the outset of his meeting with Panetta, had blamed the West for failing to sufficiently impress upon the Iranians that they would not be allowed to attain a nuclear weapon.
“Right now the Iranian regime believes that the international community does not have the will to stop its nuclear program,” Netanyahu said. “This must change, and it must change quickly, because time to resolve this issue peacefully is running out.”
I suggested during our conference call yesterday that the only friend the Muslim Brotherhood has in high places is Barack Obama. I didn't mean that facetiously. |
Turkey's application to join the SIno-Russian Shanghai Cooperation Organization following Prime Minister Erdogan's July 19 pilgrimage to Russia is a diplomatic humiliation for the United States, and of the first order. Just when Washington is demanding that Russia withdraw support for the Assad regime in Syria, and when Turkey is the linch-pin for American logistics in support of the Syrian opposition, Erdogan has proposed in effect to joint the Russian-Chinese club (without being compelled to hand in his NATO credentials). As AL Monitor wrote July 19: |
The fact is that the Muslim Brotherhood and its various offshoots represent a threat to everyone in the region:
|
But the Obama administration (and establishment Republicans like John McCain) insist that America must support democratically-elected Islamist governments. That is deeply misguided. The Muslim Brotherhood is about as democratic as the Nazi Party, which also won a plebiscite confirming Adolf Hitler as leader of Germany. Tribal countries with high illiteracy rates are not a benchmark for democratic decision-making. |
It appears that the Russians, the Turks and the Saudis will keep Syria at a low boil, making it difficult for either side to fully impose its will on the other, and impossible for a Sunni Islamist regime to emerge. What is remarkable, though, is the success of Russian diplomacy: despite all of the Obama administration's courtship, the Erdogan government has decided to signal its dependence on Moscow in the most visible (and, for Washington) humiliating way possible. It may be that the Turks were compelled to apply for membership in the SCO by the utter fecklessness and stupidity of American policy, both of the administration and of the Senate leadership. As long as the United States declares its support for the humbug of Muslim democracy in Egypt and Syria, the rest of the world will treat us as hapless lunatics and go about the business of securing their own interests without us. |
Dan Cathy could have saved his company, Chick-Fil-A, a lot of trouble. All he had to do was keep his views about family to himself.
Instead, he answered a question honestly. In a recent media interview, the company’s president and COO said what he believes and why he believes it. But his politically incorrect views are intolerable, judging from the anger of many on the left, including several big-city officials who are dead-set against his views.Now, spirited debates about controversial topics are an American tradition. But it didn’t stop there. The politicians began threatening to block Chick-Fil-A’s plans to expand in their cities.At this point, we’ve moved well beyond debate. It’s a free-speech issue now.
These officials did not merely express an opposite point of view. They threatened to use their political power to punish a man, and those who work for him, for saying something they disagree with. The message this sent is crystal-clear -- and chilling: Conform to the “accepted” view, or else.“We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles,” Cathy added in the interview that led to the controversy.
After hearing the way he’s been treated since then, you have to wonder: Do we, in fact, live in such a country anymore?
Let's say that you own a business. And let's say that as a person of faith, you decide to use the profits from that business to support, at least in some small part, traditional marriage. Now let's say that your political opponents find your position stunning and launch a boycott against your business.
So far, no harm, no foul. It may be irritating that your political opponents choose to make your personal political predilections the basis of a crushing economic attack. But it's their right.
But now let's say your political opponents are in government. And let's say they use the power of their office to shut down your business — not because you violated any law or broke any regulation, but because they don't like your position on traditional marriage.
This would be fascism.This is the difference between free speech and fascism. It's one thing for people to choose not to engage in business with people with whom they disagree. That's often nasty and extreme, but it's certainly within First Amendment territory.
It's another thing entirely for the government to step in to punish people who disagree with liberal policies, simply because they disagree with liberal policies. That's fascistic. It's deeply dangerous. And it's becoming the ugly new attitude of the Democratic Party elite.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Tipping Point? U.S. To Openly Support Syrian Rebels
Although its being billed as a "secret order" - the fact that almost every news outlet is carrying the story confirms that there is no secret about this order. More importantly, we must remember Assad's promise to attack Israel if there is any foreign intervention in Syria's affairs.
US President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing US support for rebels seeking to depose Syrian President Bashar Assad and his government, US sources familiar with the matter said...known as an intelligence "finding," broadly permits the CIA and other US agencies to provide support that could help the rebels oust Assad.This and other developments signal a shift toward growing, albeit still circumscribed, support for Assad's armed opponents - a shift that intensified following last month's failure of the UN Security Council to agree on tougher sanctions against the Damascus government.A US government source acknowledged that under provisions of the presidential finding, the United States was collaborating with a secret command center operated by Turkey and its allies.This "nerve center" is in Adana, a city in southern Turkey about 60 miles (100 km) from the Syrian border, which is also home to Incirlik, a US air base where U.S. military and intelligence agencies maintain a substantial presence.On Tuesday, NBC News reported that the Free Syrian Army had obtained nearly two dozen surface-to-air missiles, weapons that could be used against Assad's helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Syrian government armed forces have employed such air power more extensively in recent days.Separately from the president's secret order, the Obama administration has stated publicly that it is providing some backing for Assad's opponents.
Iran’s support for terrorism and the activities of its proxy Hezbollah it at its highest level in more than a decade, according to a top US official."We are increasingly concerned about Iran’s support for terrorism and Hezbollah’s activities as they’ve both stepped up their level of terrorist plotting over the past year,” said Daniel Benjamin, the State Department’s coordinator for counterterrorism, in releasing the 2011 US report on global terror Tuesday. “[They] are engaging in their most active and aggressive campaigns since the 1990s.”Benjamin characterized Iran as “the preeminent state sponsor of terrorism in the world,” and said the US was “deeply concerned” about Iran undertaking violent activities directly through its Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force.
Time is running out for the international community to halt Iran's nuclear programme by peaceful means, the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, told US defence secretary Leon Panetta in Jerusalem on Wednesday.Sanctions, diplomacy and declarations of a willingness to take military action as a last resort had not yet convinced the Iranians to stop their programme, he said. "However forceful our statements, they have not convinced Iran that we are serious about stopping them. Right now the Iranian regime believes that the international community does not have the will to stop its nuclear programme."Netanyahu said earlier that although sanctions were hurting the Iranian economy, such measures had "yet to move its nuclear programme even a millimetre backwards".The question of whether Israel will unilaterally strike against Iran's nuclear sites in the coming months has returned to the fore after a period of relatively dampened speculation. There have also been fresh reports of a split between the Israeli political and security establishments over the merits of early unilateral action, following open opposition to such a move from former security chiefs.
Inching Closer To War: Iran In War Preparations?
As with yesterday's news, we need to take this with a 'grain of salt', but the evidence is beginning to mount that this could be real:
On July 27, just before Friday prayers, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei summoned top Iranian military chiefs for what he called “their last war council.”
“We’ll be at war within weeks,” he told the gatheringPresent were Defense Minister General Ahmad Vahidi, Khamenei’s military adviser General Yahya Rahim-Safavi, Armed Forces Chief Major General Seyed Hassan Firuzabadi, Revolutionary Guards Corps commander General Mohammad Ali Jafari and Al Qods Brigades chief General Qassem Soleimani. The commanders of the air force, the navy and ground forces were also there.Each of the participants was tapped to report on the readiness of his branch or sector for shouldering its contingency mission.While retaliation had been exhaustively drilled in regular military exercises in the past year, Khamenei ordered the biggest fortification project in Iran’s history to save its nuclear program from even the mightiest of America’s super-weapons. Rocks are being gathered from afar, piled on key nuclear installations, covered with many tons of poured concrete and finally plated with steel.Turning to retaliation, the war council endorsed a battery of paybacks for potential US and/or Israeli pre-emptive strikes against its nuclear program.They would start by announcing enhanced uranium enrichment up to 60 percent - that is close to weapons grade.
Oft-tested ballistic missiles, Shehab-3, would be loosed against Israel, Saudi Arabia and American Middle East and Gulf military installations.Hizballah in Lebanon and Hamas and Jihad Islami in Gaza stand ready to pitch in against Israel with attacks from the north and the southwest.Saudi oil export terminals would be blown up and mines sown in the Strait of Hormuz to impede the export of one-fifth of the world’s oil.
Khamenei put before his war council a timeline of weeks for the coming conflict – September or October.
US, Israeli, Saudi and Iranian war preparations are on fast forward, as the coming issue ofDEBKA-Net-Weekly discloses in detail next Friday. All their leaders face agonizing decisions in the weeks ahead. US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is on a tour of inspection to make sure US Middle East military forces are ready for an operation against Iran. Its timeline is now pared down to weeks because Iran's ongoing mega-fortifications threaten to make its nuclear facilities indestructible - even by American super-weapons.
But what are Muslim Brotherhood leaders saying behind closed doors? If countless prior reportshaven’t made that clear, here is another example.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) recently released a clip of Kamal Helbawy, a former spokesperson for the Muslim Brotherhood, saying it is only a matter of time before America is “brought to its knees.”
“This is no difficult task for Allah,” he added.
Helbawy says:
These criminals, with the administration, their system, and their institutions – the Pentagon, the White House, the CIA, Homeland Security, the FBI, and others…
They are all criminals, planning the killing of people, young and old, planning to kill the revolutions in their cradle. They deceive all parties.
They have defended that criminal and plundering state of Israel.
We should not fear America or whoever is behind America. We fear none but Allah.
If we use the capabilities at our disposal properly, America will be brought to its knees, and will be defeated like the Soviets in Afghanistan.
This is no difficult task for Allah.
last week the two most senior correspondents in the White House press room – Connie Lawn of USA Radio Network and WND’s Les Kinsolving – asked Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, to answer whether the Obama administration considered Jerusalem or Tel Aviv to be the capital of Israel – only to be refused a coherent answer.Over the weekend, however, according to an Associated Press report, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney stood on Israeli soil and openly declared Jerusalem to be the nation’s capital.Even the Olympics have been caught up in the controversy, when it was discovered the British Broadcasting Corporations’ website covering the games listed Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, while not listing a capital city for Israel at all. As WND reported, the website was amended after Israeli protest, but still only lists Jerusalem as Israel’s “seat of government,” while explaining that “most foreign embassies are in Tel Aviv.”“We cannot accept those who deny our history, our sovereignty, and our right to determine our own capital,” said Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat. “Irrespective of the BBC’s political agenda, Jerusalem is, was, and always will be the capital of Israel.”The controversy over the nation’s capital exists because many Jews, as well as many of Israel’s supporters around the world, have long understood that Jerusalem is more that just the capital of the country, but the heart and soul of the Jewish people’s understanding of returning to the land of their forefathers.For many of the Jewish faith, this steadfast refusal to recognize Jerusalem is nothing less than a slap in the face to their culture and a symbolic undermining of their national sovereignty.In the following video, Gimpel and Abramowitz display dramatically the heart of the Jewish cry to rebuild Jerusalem and call the U.S. State Department’s refusal to recognize the capital city “a tragedy.”
MK Zevulun Orlev of the Jewish Home party has called for massive reforms, including new Basic Laws, in order to establish a Third Temple in Jerusalem.In an article (PDF) published in advance of the fast of Tisha B’Av in the weekly Hebrew journal Olam Katan, entitled “Internal and Legislative Reform,” Orlev wrote that the Temple must be rebuilt in Jerusalem and that “fundamental changes” to Israeli society and government were necessary in order to realize the success of the project.To forestall appeals to the High Court of Justice, Orlev advocated the legislation of a new Basic Law that would guarantee funding and manpower and protect the Third Temple from prosecution.
“The law will also protect the [Third Temple] project from accusations of discrimination, inequality of women in the Temple service, and animal cruelty in the offering of sacrifices,” Orlev continued.
The Obama White House and the Palestinian Authority this week expressed dissatisfaction, frustration and anger over Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney's very public recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.In an address to Israeli leaders and international donors in Jerusalem on Sunday, Romney clearly identified the city as "the capital of Israel."It was a stark break from US presidential policy dating back over 15 years, and an indication that should he win the White House in November, Romney will finally approve a 1995 congressional decision to move America's embassy to Jerusalem.The current American administration was not amused.
"Some people are scratching their heads a bit" over Romney's remarks, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters, noting that the Republican candidate is defying a position "that’s been held by previous administrations, both Democratic and Republican. So if Mr. Romney disagrees with that position, he’s also disagreeing with the position that was taken by Presidents like Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan."
The Palestinians were far more vehement in their rejection of Romney's remarks.
"Even if this statement is within the US election campaign, it is unacceptable and we completely reject it. The US election campaign should never be at the expense of the Palestinians,” chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told the BBC. “Romney is rewarding occupation, settlement and extremism in the region with such declarations."
Despite the archaeologically-backed Jewish historical connection to Jerusalem, and the extensively documented fact that Jerusalem was Israel's ancient capital, the Palestinian Arabs now claim the city as their own, and insist that its eastern half be made devoid of Jews.
For the second time in two days, hundreds of millions of people across India have been plunged into darkness when its electrical grids collapsed. This is a warning of what could occur here in America.
“So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.”—Barack Obama
In a war one of the first targets are the power plants in order to deny the energy a nation requires to function. Obama declared war on coal during the 2008 campaign and few were paying attention. In 1985 coal accounted for 57 percent of all power generated in the U.S. By 2011, it was down to 42 percent.A July 28 Daily Caller headline reported that a “Record number of coal-fired generators to be shut down in 2012.” Based on an analysis of the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the article noted that “coal plant operators are planning to retire 175 coal-fired generators, or 8.5 percent of the total coal-fired capacity in the United States.”“A record-high 57 generators will shut down in 2012, representing 9 gigawatts of electrical capacity, according to the EIA. In 2015, nearly 10 gigawatts of capacity from 6l coal-fired generators will be retired…the scope of this new planned shutdown is unprecedented.”
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