WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 29 THROUGH OCTOBER 5
Israel's Netanyahu Warns White House About Iran's New Game Plan Sept. 30….(AP) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is taking an unpopular message to the White House and the United Nations this week: Don't be fooled by Tehran's new leadership. Netanyahu contends Iran is using conciliatory gestures as a smoke screen to conceal an unabated march toward a nuclear bomb. He will deliver those strong words of caution, and fresh intelligence, in an attempt to persuade the US to maintain tough economic sanctions and not allow the Islamic republic to develop a bomb or even move closer to becoming a nuclear threshold state. With the White House cautiously optimistic about its dialogue with Iran, Monday's meeting between Netanyahu and President Barack Obama could be tense. "I will tell the truth in the face of the sweet talk and the onslaught of smiles," Netanyahu said before boarding his flight to the US on Sunday. "Telling the truth today is vital for the security and peace of the world and, of course, it is vital for the security of the state of Israel." Israeli leaders watched with great dismay what they derisively call the "smiley campaign" by Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani, last week. Rouhani delivered a conciliatory speech at the United Nations in which he repeated Iran's official position that it has no intention of building a nuclear weapon and declared his readiness for new negotiations with the West. Capping off the visit, Rouhani and Obama held a 15-minute phone call as the Iranian leader was traveling to the airport. By the end of the call, the first conversation between the nation's leaders in 34 years, Obama was suggesting that a breakthrough on the nuclear issue could portend even deeper ties between the US and Iran. US and European diplomats hailed a "very significant shift" in Iran's attitude and tone. For Netanyahu, such sentiments are nothing short of a nightmare. For years, he has warned that Iran is steadily marching toward development of nuclear weapons, an assessment that is widely shared by the West because of Iran's continued enrichment of uranium and its run-ins with international nuclear inspectors. The Israeli prime minister contends Rouhani's outreach is a ploy to ease international sanctions and buy time. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Israel considers a nuclear-armed Iran an unacceptable threat, given repeated Iranian assertions that the Jewish state should not exist. Israel has a long list of other grievances against Iran, citing its support for hostile Arab militant groups, its development of long-range missiles and alleged Iranian involvement in attacks on Israeli targets in Europe and Asia. Netanyahu says the new Iranian leader must be judged on his actions, not his words. In the meantime, he says sanctions and other international pressure, including the threat of military action, must be increased. He has likened Iran to North Korea, which used the guise of international negotiations to secretly develop a nuclear weapon. Netanyahu appears to enjoy widespread domestic support for his tough approach. Israel's Channel 10 TV released the results of a poll Sunday night showing that 78 percent of respondents don't believe Iran wants to resolve the nuclear problem. Fifty-nine percent said they do not think the US will reach an agreement with Iran, while just 29 percent said they expect a resolution. The station did not say how many people were questioned or provide a margin of error. Zalman Shoval, a former Israeli ambassador to the US who now serves as an adviser to Netanyahu, said the prime minister would present Obama with "some very hard facts" based on intelligence showing that Iranian behavior has not changed. Similarly, in his speech at the UN, "he will make it very clear that Israel and the world at large should continue to be on guard," he said. Obama will seek to assure his Israeli counterpart that if the US reaches a deal with Iran, it will ultimately advance Israel's security interests by resolving the nuclear issue without the need for military intervention.
Militant Muslims Keep Murdering Christians in Nigeria Sept. 30….(Fox News) Islamic terrorists dressed in Nigerian military uniforms assaulted a college inside the country Sunday, gunning down dozens of students as they slept in their dorms and shot others trying to flee, witnesses say. "They started gathering students into groups outside, then they opened fire and killed one group and then moved onto the next group and killed them. It was so terrible," one surviving student, who would only give his first name of Idris, told Reuters. As many as 50 students may have been killed in the attack, which began at about 1 a.m. in rural Gujba, Provost Molima Idi Mato of Yobe State College of Agriculture, told The Associated Press. "They attacked our students while they were sleeping in their hostels, they opened fire at them," he said. The extremists also torched classrooms. Nigeria State Police Commissioner Sanusi Rufai told Reuters that he suspected that the terrorist group Boko Haram was behind the attack, but declined to elaborate. Boko Haram is aiming to establish an Islamic state in northern Nigeria and has intensified attacks on civilians in revenge for a Nigerian military offensive against the group. Northeastern Nigeria is under a military state of emergency to battle an Islamic uprising prosecuted by Boko Haram militants who have killed more than 1,700 people since 2010 in their quest to install an Islamic state, though half the country's 160 million citizens are Christian. Also Thursday, police said suspected Islamic militants killed a pastor, his son and a village head and torched their Christian church in Dorawa, about 100 kilometers from Damaturu. They said the gunmen used explosives to set fire to the church and five homes. The attacks come as Nigeria prepares to celebrate 52 years of independence from Britain on Tuesday and amid political jockeying in the run up to presidential elections next year with many northern Muslim politicians saying they do not want another term for Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, who is from the predominantly Christian south.
Moscow, Iran and Syria Plotting Against Israeli Defense EstablishmentSept. 30….(DEBKA) Western military sources predict an upsurge of tension this week along Israel’s borders with Syria and Lebanon. Moscow, Tehran and Damascus may be planning to embarrass Binyamin Netanyahu when he sits down with President Barack Obama at the White house Monday, Sept. 30, and addresses the UN General Assembly the next day, Oct. 1. They see an opportunity to push Israel further out in the cold after the Obama administration’s brush-off in his rush to pursue relations with Tehran. Israel is seen as hitting a weak streak as a result of Washington’s cold shoulder and its own lack of military impetus as Netanyahu arrives in America to present Israel’s case to the US President and the international community. Those sources therefore predict that Russian, Iranian and Syrian strategists may be planning to goad Israel into an ill-judged and badly-timed military response at this moment. They can then fit the Netanyahu government into the frame of the neighborhood warmonger and disrupter of the hopeful US-Russian partnership for solving the Iranian and Syrian chemical weapons issues by diplomacy. All that needs to be done is to place a shipment of advanced or chemical weapons on the road from Syria to Hizballah in Lebanon to draw forth an Israeli air strike and start a blaze in a highly explosive sector. The world would then turn round and say that Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani was correct when he defamed Israel in New York last week as the sole cause of Middle East wars in the last 40 years, without encountering a single dissenting voice in America, and the only nation in possession of weapons of mass destruction. Debkafile’s sources report that, although President Obama stated last Friday, Sept. 27, that he informed America’s allies, including Israel, of his landmark phone call to Rouhani, the truth is that he has kept Jerusalem in the dark on the contacts he initiated on the Iranian and Syrian issues, although Israel is most vitally affected. The US-Russian deal for the dismantling of Syria’s chemical arsenal was sprung on Jerusalem from Geneva on Sept. 14 without warning, as were the Washington-Tehran exchanges and understandings on Iran’s nuclear program. Saturday, Sept. 28, US Secretary John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov repeated their Geneva duo performance by announcing that the UN Security Council had unanimously adopted Resolution 2118 requiring the elimination of Syria’s chemical stockpile. All 15 Council members present appreciated that the motion was toothless after the US and Russia had agreed to omit penalties for non-compliance. The text said: “No party in Syria should use, develop, produce, acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer chemical weapons.” This wording strongly recalls Security Council Resolution 1701 which was enacted seven years ago and banned any transfer of weapons to Hizballah as the aggressor in the Second Lebanese war against Israel. This ban was never upheld. In fact, the flow of Iranian and Syrian arms shipments to Hizballah increased from that day on, providing the Shiite terrorist organization with one of the most powerful advanced rocket arsenals in the Arab world. Even before its enactment, Resolution 2112 was already heading for its first prevarications Friday with two separate steps by Washington and Moscow: 1. Two weeks after Kerry’s thunderous rhetoric on the size and threat to the region of the Syrian chemical stockpile, considered the third largest in the world, US officials including the State Department told the media that since most of the stocks are “unweaponized” and exist in liquid precursors, the entire arsenal could be neutralized in a shorter period than thought, about nine months. Debkafile’s sources point out that this factoid has been known for months. It doesn’t address the real difficulties of locating the stocks Bashar Assad has hidden or transferred, or the difficulty of inspectors reaching them in areas under combat. At present, UN experts are not even free to move around Damascus without coming under fire. 2. Lavrov reiterated Saturday that the new resolution absolutely rules out the use of force or any application of Chapter 7 of the UN Charter. Any possible use of force in the future under Chapter 7 would require a new resolution, he said. Moscow has offered to provide troops to “guard workers and facilities.” The message is that if any foreign troops are to be allowed in Syria, they can only be Russian. As for the “transfer of chemical weapons,” which is barred under the new resolution, suspicions by Western intelligence that Syrian plans to sneak part of its arsenal to Hizballah in Lebanon, or has done so already, apparently reached Beirut. Friday, President Michel Suleiman hastened to declare: “Syria’s chemical weapons have not been smuggled to Lebanon and there is no evidence of their presence in the country.”
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 22 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 28
Focus on Jerusalem Prophecy FootnoteSept. 28….(FOJ) While it may seem like the great “Syrian Crisis of 2013” has passed away into a forgotten dark corner, still the mass murder of Christians continues in Syria, as well as the multi-pronged terrorist civil war within Islam. The Syrian component has in fact led to an empowerment of Russia in the Middle East with its client states of Syria and Iran. (Ezekiel 38 portrays Russia as their Guard) Beyond that reality, Obama’s former “red line” has been turned into a formula for enabling Iran to not only acquire nuclear weapons, but to shift the world’s entire preoccupation with these type weapons to Israel. Amazing is it not? It should not catch prophecy-alert Christians by surprise that these geo-political events take such turns and twists. We know that the eventual “ten kings of Daniel” of the Last Days will fashion a Global superstructure for a world to be controlled by the Antichrist. We also know that the final structure of that Global Government will wield world-wide control over not only the economy, religion, and politics, but also the world’s military armaments. For this reason, we should expect a sophisticated international effort to place all nuclear (WMD’s) under a mandated umbrella of authority. For it is after such a united confederation is empowered, that the Antichrist will arise, and the world will think it has finally achieved universal peace. But the Bible says: (I Thes 5:2-4 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.) It will be of utmost importance to continue to watch the Syrian dynamic, and the building world emphasis on nuclear disarmament, especially as it focuses on Israel. But be cautioned, any alliances of this type between the East, (China) West, (US / Europe) and North (Russia) and with each regions coalition of allies will be handled masterfully and deceitfully by the coming Antichrist. (Daniel 8:25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.) Israel is being cleverly played geo-politically into an indefensible corner, as if it was a giant game of chess, and ultimately, checkmate!
Obama Negotiates With Iranian President, Says Nuclear Deal Possible(President Obama is willing to discuss issues with
America’s enemies, Sept. 28….(Fox news) President Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani thawed a three-decade freeze in relations between their two countries Friday, speaking by phone in the first conversation between an American and Iranian president since 1979. The president revealed Friday afternoon that the two leaders had spoken. He said he believes the two countries can reach a “comprehensive solution” on Iran’s nuclear program, and said he and Rouhani had both directed their diplomats to pursue an agreement. "I do believe there is a basis for a resolution," he said. The call is sure to rankle some US lawmakers, as well as Israeli leaders, cautious about engaging the new Iranian president too quickly. The conversation also came amid a bruising battle on Capitol Hill over the budget, stoking complaints that Obama is ignoring Republicans while engaging America's adversaries. Kevin Smith, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, tweeted: "Obama negotiates with Iran, Putin but not Congress." Why not? House Majority Leader Eric Cantor expressed skepticism about Obama’s claim that Rouhani represented “new leadership” in Iran, saying in a statement, “Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei remains the true ruler in Tehran, and we are only fooling ourselves when we suggest otherwise.” The Obama phone call comes after Secretary of State John Kerry met Thursday in New York with his Iranian counterpart on the sidelines of the United Nations session. The White House had apparently floated the possibility of Obama meeting, casually, with Rouhani in New York, but US officials said the Iranians nixed the idea. Senior administration officials said Friday that the Iranians later opened up to the possibility of a phone call between the two leaders. They said the call lasted roughly 15 minutes, and was cordial in tone. President Obama’s conversation came hours after Rouhani, wrapping up a trip to the US, called the United States a "great" nation, a sharp reversal from his predecessors that buoyed hopes that the two governments can stop the escalation of tensions. "I want it to be the case that this trip will be a first step, and a beginning for better and constructive relations with countries of the world as well as a first step for a better relationship between the two great nations of Iran and the United States of America," Rouhani told a news conference at a hotel near UN headquarters. The countries' disagreements are grave and plentiful. Relations have experienced few ups and countless downs since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and subsequent hostage crisis at the US Embassy in Tehran.
Obama Appeasement of Iran Kills Israel’s Military Option Against Nuclear Iran or Chemical Syria Sept. 28….(DEBKA) Thursday, Sept.26, will go down in Israel’s history as the day it lost its freedom to use force either against the Iranian nuclear threat hanging over its head or Syria’s chemical capacity, at least, so long as Barack Obama is president of the United States. During that time, the Iranian-Syrian-Hizballah axis, backed by active weapons of mass destruction, is safe to grow and do its worst. Ovations for the disarming strains of Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani’s serenade to the West and plaudits for the pragmatism of its Foreign Minister Mohammed Zarif flowed out of every window of UN Center in New York this week. Secretary of State John Kerry, who took part in the highest-level face to face encounter with an Iranian counterpart in more than 30 years, did say that sanctions would not be removed until Tehran produced a transparent and systematic plan for dismantling its nuclear program. But then, in an interview to CBS TV, he backpedaled. Permission for international inspectors to visit the Fordo underground enrichment facility would suffice for the easing of sanctions starting in three months’ time. By these words, the US pushed back Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s first demand to shutter Fordo and its equipment for enriching uranium to near-weapons grade, which he reiterated at this week’s Israeli cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. To Tehran, Kerry therefore held out the promise of a short deadline for starting to wind sanctions down, this coming December. Tehran’s primary objective is therefore within reach, the easing for sanctions without having to rescind any part of its nuclear aspirations, called “nuclear rights” in Iranian parlance. The foreign ministers of the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany, meeting Thursday with Zarif, arranged to resume formal nuclear negotiations next month in Geneva. In another chamber of the UN building, the Americans were busy climbing all the way down from the military threat Barack Obama briefly brandished against Bashar Assad’s use of chemical weapons eons ago, on August 31, before he killed it by passing the decision to the US Congress. Any suggestion of force against Assad was finally buried at the UN Security Council Thursday, when the United States accepted a formal motion requiring Syria to comply with the international ban on chemical weapons, while yielding to Moscow’s insistence on dropping the penalty for non-compliance incorporated in the original US-British-French draft. The message relayed to Tehran from both wings of UN headquarters was that it was fully shielded henceforth by a Russian veto and US complaisance against the oft-vaunted “credible military option” waved by Washington. Iran and its close ally, the Syrian ruler Assad, aree both now safe from military retribution, from the United States and Israel alike, and could develop or even use their weapons of mass destruction with impunity. Israel’s Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz, who was on the spot, could do little but repeat his government’s demands of Tehran to anyone who would listen, shouted down by the flood of conciliation pouring out for the new Iranian president. There was no escaping the conclusion that the Netanyahu government’s policy, if that is what it could be called, for preventing a nuclear-armed Iran is in tatters.
Iran has, instead of facing world pressure to disarm its nuclear program, managed to turn the spotlight on Israel, requiring the world to denuclearize the entire Middle East and force Israel to join the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty. Given the atmosphere prevailing in the world body these days, it is not surprising that the speech delivered to the assembly by the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas was rated moderate, even when he called the establishment of the State of Israel a “historic, unprecedented injustice which has befallen the Palestinian people in al-Nakba of 1948” and demand redress. This perversion of the UN's historic action to create a Jewish state could only go down as moderate in a climate given over wholly under John Kerry’s lead to appeasing the world’s most belligerent nations and forces, so long as they made the right diplomatic noises.
Assad: We Could Blind Israel in an InstantSept. 28….(Jerusalem Post) Hezbollah newspaper Al-Akhbar reports remarks; Assad says Syria no longer needs chemical weapons to deter Israel. “We now possess deterrent weapons that are more important and more sophisticated than chemical weapons,” Syrian President Bashar Assad told visitors to his palace in Damascus on Thursday. He emphasized that he had no need for chemical weapons. According to the report, which was carried by Hezbollah’s paper Al-Akhbar, Assad said this was because the situation in Syria “has never been better,” as “we created chemical weapons in the ’80s as a deterrent against Israel’s nuclear arsenal. Today, it is no longer a weapon of deterrence. We have weapons that are more important and more sophisticated to challenge Israel, which we can blind in an instant.” “In Syria there are thousands of tons of chemical weapons that have become a burden to us since their destruction costs a great deal of money and could take years to destroy. They also create environmental challenges and others that would need solving. So UN inspectors should just come and take them,” Assad said. “Getting rid of the chemical weapons is not the goal of the United States and their allies, and they never have been,” he said. “They wanted to change the balance of power and to protect Israel. “We turned the tables and sent to the ball into their court. This move embarrassed them in front of the American public, in Europe and even in front of the US government,” he said. Assad praised the “unprecedented collaboration with Russia,” and added that “we have an agreement with Russia that they will intervene, in a big way, if Syria is attacked.”
Rouhani Calls on Israel to Sign Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty 'Without Delay' (In American TV interviews, Rouhani calls establishment of Israel a crime) Sept. 28….(Jerusalem Post) Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday denounced the proliferation, use and stockpiling of nuclear weapons in his first extensive speech on the issue since assuming office. Calling for a “nuclear-free zone” in the Middle East, Rouhani told the UN High level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament that Israel was the only country in the region that had not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and requested that it do so “without delay.” “Almost four decades of international efforts to establish nuclear weapons-free zones have regrettably failed,” he said. “Urgent, practical steps toward the establishment of such a zone are necessary. The international community has to redouble efforts in support of the establishment of this zone.” The developed world focuses on preventing states without nuclear weapons from acquiring them, Rouhani said, but the international community should also focus on disarming countries that have stockpiled hundreds or thousands of them since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. “Nonproliferation derives its legitimacy from the larger objective of nuclear disarmament,” he said, calling for a “high-level” conference within five years geared toward the “complete elimination” of the greatest weapons. In a veiled reference to a Russian-brokered deal that is to rid Syria of its massive chemical weapons stockpile, Rouhani said “all weapons of mass destruction” should be eliminated in the Middle East. While the Prime Minister's Office had no direct response on Thursday night to Rouhani’s call for a nuclear free zone in the region, this is an idea that is constantly aired in international forums dealing with proliferation issues. Ten days ago Shaul Chorev, the head of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, addressed the matter in Geneva at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s general conference meeting in Geneva. Summing up the government’s position on the idea, Chorev said, “Israel believes that the gloomy regional realities, together with the notorious reputation of some of the regimes in the Middle East, mandate a prudent and gradual security and arms control process. More so when it comes to an initiative to establish the region as a WMD-free zone, an idea that has never been attempted elsewhere, even in the most peaceful regions of the world.” A WMD-free zone was a goal attainable at the end of a process that brings about a change in attitudes toward Israel, not at the beginning of that process, Chorev said. “Lasting peaceful relations, reconciliation, good neighborliness, open borders and trust among the regional parties” would be “key milestones in the route to a joint regional endeavor to create a mutually verifiable zone, free of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery.” Progress toward that goal “cannot be made without a fundamental change in regional conditions, not the least, without a significant transformation in the attitude of states in the region toward Israel,” he said. Rouhani made his first speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday afternoon, opening with the words “in the name of God” in aggressive remarks that chastised the West for making war in the region, while floating the prospect of a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff. The speech was a resounding defense of the governing model of the Islamic Republic and a forceful rebuke of its detractors, with references to the “mistaken” policies of the United States, which has sanctioned Iran punishingly for continuing to enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels. Rouhani said that all nuclear programs must be peaceful in nature and that any military element to such a program in Iran would contradict its religious convictions. But he reaffirmed his government’s position that nuclear energy was Iran’s inalienable right, as were the qualities of life being deprived of ordinary Iranians by “unjust” Western sanctions that are “intrinsically inhumane.” “Sanctions, beyond any and all rhetoric, create belligerence, warmongering and human suffering,” he said. Rouhani called for “immediate, time-bound, results-oriented” negotiations in “full transparency,” as the US and Israel continue to point to the clock on Iran’s uranium program and voice skepticism of its recent “charm offensive,” as one senior State Department official referred to Iran’s Monday overtures. Rouhani said that his election to the presidency represented a rare “peaceful transfer of executive power” in a tumultuous region, “the realization of democracy consistent with religion.” He called Iran an anchor of peace in the ocean of instability that is the Middle East. “The age of zero-sum games is over,” he said, echoing US President Barack Obama‘s speech earlier in the day. Rouhani said Iran wanted peace with the West and the rest of the world and called the fear of Iran an “imaginary threat.” “Faith-phobic, Islamophobic, Shia-phobic and Iran-phobic discourses” have reached “dangerous proportions,” Rouhani told the UN General Assembly, labeling such speech as “xenophobia.” “My country has been a harbinger of just peace and comprehensive security,” he said. Hours earlier, Obama laid out his own policy toward Iran and the Middle East as a whole, reiterating the threat of military force to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability. But Rouhani said that “nuclear knowledge had already been domesticated” in Iran, and that its program was too far along to be disrupted by military force. He said Iran was ready to work bilaterally with responsible actors, hours after denying an offer of a bilateral encounter with Obama by the US government. “We indicated that the two leaders could have had a discussion on the margins if the opportunity presented itself,” a senior administration official said. “The Iranians got back to us; it was clear that it was too complicated for them to do that at this time, given their own dynamic back home.” Mocking the philosophy of American exceptionalism, Rouhani said that the perception of superiority was unhealthy for the region. He directly and harshly criticized coercive economic and military policies as doomed and unproductive, and went through various US military operations as examples, including its support of Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, the Gulf War and Afghanistan. “Efforts to deprive regional players of their natural domains of action, containment policies, regime change from outside and efforts at redrawing political borders and frontiers is extremely dangerous and provocative,” Rouhani charged. While he did not mention Israel or refer to “the Zionist state,” as his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, did repeatedly throughout his tenure as president, Rouhani called the plight of the Palestinian people “nothing less than structural violence.” Despite a plea for peace through talks and not strength, the speech surprised many as more combative than expected from the perceived moderate, who won the Iranian election this year by a large margin. When pressed by interviewers the Iranian president to recognize the Holocaust. While he acknowledged the mass killing of Jews at the hands of Nazis and condemned all such crimes against humanity, he said that the historic event could not be used to justify the founding of a Jewish state in the Middle East, which he also called “a crime.” “This does not mean that, on the other hand, you can say, well, the Nazis committed crimes against, you know, a certain group,” and “now, therefore, they must usurp the land of another group and occupy it. This, too, is an act that should be condemned, in our view,” Rouhani told Amanpour. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued a statement following Rouhani’s speech on Tuesday, saying that, “as expected,” it was “a cynical speech that was full of hypocrisy.” “Rouhani spoke of human rights, even as Iranian forces are participating in the large-scale slaughter of innocent civilians in Syria,” he said. “He condemned terrorism, even as the Iranian regime is using terrorism in dozens of countries around the world. He spoke of a nuclear program for civilian purposes, even as an IAEA report determines that the program has military dimensions, and when any rational person understands that Iran, one of the most oil-rich nations, is not investing capital in ballistic missiles and underground nuclear facilities in order to produce electricity.” Netanyahu, slated to address the UN General Assembly on Monday and to focus on the Iranian nuclear issue, said Rouhani’s speech lacked any “practical proposal” to stop Iran’s military nuclear program and “any commitment to fulfill UN Security Council decisions.” Tehran’s strategy was to “talk and play for time” to advance its nuclear program, a strategy Rouhani deployed a decade ago when he was Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, he said. “The international community must test Iran not by its words but by its actions,” he said. Netanyahu said he instructed the Israeli delegation to absent itself from Rouhani’s speech. “As the prime minister of Israel, the state of the Jewish people, I could not allow the Israeli delegation to be part of a cynical public relations ploy by a regime that denies the Holocaust and calls for our destruction,” he said.
Israel Celebrates Gift of God's WordSept. 28….(Israel Today) From Eilat in the south to Kiryat Shemona in the north, Israelis on Thursday marked Simchat Torah, the annual rejoicing in the giving of God’s Word to their ancestors. The festival brings to a conclusion the biblical High Holy Days that began with Rosh Hashanah and ran through the recently concluded Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot. It is fitting that the High Holy Days end in a day of rejoicing over the Torah, the cornerstone of God’s Word. In the five Books of Moses, God revealed His will and determination for the nation of Israel. This special day is celebrated with parades in which Torah scrolls are lifted up and read aloud for all to hear. The highlight of the Simchat Torah service is the reading of the final annual Torah portion, and a return to the very first chapter of Genesis to start the whole Bible-reading cycle over again. Simchat Torah is also celebrated by Messianic and Christian congregations across Israel, though with a slightly different tone, for we also rejoice in the fact that Yeshua the Messiah has fulfilled the Torah: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17)
Laos Christians Threatened with Eviction Unless they Recant Faith Sept. 27….(Christianity Today) Christian converts in Savannakhet Province in Laos are facing eviction from their village if they refuse to renounce their Christian beliefs, according to reports from the human rights organisation Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF). At a village meeting on 21 September, the Huay Village authorities in Atsaphangthong District ruled that the converts to Protestant Christianity must recant or face expulsion. The authorities accused the Christians of conducting corporate worship in their homes. The Christian villagers have rejected the order, claiming that their right to freedom of religion or belief is guaranteed under Laos’ constitution. Last month, a group of fifty Christian converts in Borikan (sometimes known as Bolikanh) District, Bolikhamsai Province were given a similar ultimatum. HRWLRF reports that the Nongdaeng Village authorities summoned representatives of the eleven families to an official meeting on 30 August, where the authorities ordered them to reconvert to their “traditional” (animist) religion. The village authorities accused the families of believing in the religion of a “foreign Western power” destructive to the Lao nation. Information received by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) indicates that this is a common charge levelled at Christian converts. The Christians were given three days to abide by the order but they refused, insisting that Laos’ constitution protects their right to freedom of religion or belief. CSW Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said, “Sadly, the forced eviction of Christians in Laos is not a new problem. However, these cases suggest that Christians in the country are increasingly aware of their rights under the constitution, and are beginning to evoke these rights in clashes with the authorities. As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Laos has an obligation to protect the right to freedom of religion or belief. We call on the government to uphold this right and protect religious minorities from violations by both state and non-state actors”.
In Muslim World, It is Open Season on ChristiansSept. 27….(Fox News) Attacks on Christians and other minorities in the Muslim-majority world are increasing and an already terrible situation is worsening. The most recent attack was Sunday in Peshawar in Pakistan, where the historic All Saints Church was attacked by two suicide bombers, an attack for which the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility. The explosions were triggered to cause the maximum number of deaths and maimings. This comes against the background of one of the most under-reported stories in the world, al-Shabab’s systematic effort to kill every Christian Somali that they can, even those in Kenya, on the grounds that they are converts from Islam. Like the Taliban, they try to identify their opponents by religion. Even leaving aside the attacks on minorities in Syria and Iraq, and the massive killings in Nigeria, Christians in Egypt have recently suffered what my colleague Sam Tadros regards as the worst violence since 1321, under the Mamluks. On August 14-16 over a hundred Christian sites were attacked by followers of ousted President Morsi: forty-two churches were utterly razed. In the south of Egypt, the town of Delga was occupied by Muslim Brotherhood supporters for 34 days and its Christian population brutalized. The situation is so serious that English historian Tom Holland fears that we are now seeing the extinction of Christianity and other minority faiths from the Middle East. Meanwhile, our politicians are largely silent, while extolling the virtues of Islam.
'Christians Are The No. 1 Target of Extremists and Bigots'Sept. 27….(WND) In Pakistan, a suicide bomber kills 75 people at a Christian church. In Kenya, terrorists chase Muslims out of a shopping mall, then start killing Christians, especially those who could not give them the name of Muhammad’s mother. In Egypt, Muslims abduct Christians from their homes and businesses and kill them. In Syria, Christian villagers are told to convert to Islam or they will be executed. Is there a pattern here? “I think Christians have clearly become the No. 1 target of extremists and bigots and totalitarians across the globe,” David Brog, executive director of the Christians United For Israel, told WND in an interview. His organization is trying to convince Congress to create an office for a special envoy for the freedom of religious minorities in the Middle East. The plan already has passed the House of Representatives, which has approved the idea in the past. Now it is heading to the US Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid previously has overseen its death. “Every day that passes is another day of despair and death for Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East.” Brog calls the situation that has developed in recent years both a “human rights tragedy of the first order” and a “humanitarian emergency of the first order.” All across northern Africa and the Middle East, Christians are facing daily persecution and death. Huge populations of Christians who once lived in Iraq are scattered and gone. Christians in Iran face constant monitoring by the government and penalties for meeting. Egyptian Christians are attacked by Muslim mobs. The list goes on, analysts say. On this issue, Brog said, “The silence of the West is overwhelming. “The first order of business is to end the silence,” he told WND. “We have every reason to believe if more people k now, they are Christians, fellow believers, I think they’d be outraged and end the silence.” The development of an envoy to address persecution religious minorities is a first step, he said, that would bring the problem into focus and that will lead to more pressure to fix the egregious situations. The bombings, shootings, the gas, this persecution should anger Americans,” he said. “Every American should demand that any government that tolerates, lot alone promotes, this should pay a penalty.” He said there does appear to be some focus already, especially following last weekend’s Kenya mall terror in which Christians were singled out and killed, and the bombing at a Christian church in Pakistan. “But it’s tragic that it’s taking more Christian blood being spilled for people to wake up and pay attention. The volume of blood has gotten large enough no one can ignore it anymore,” he said. The US, which was founded with a strong Christian influence, always has had great compassion for fighting disease, hunger, poverty and other social problems, he said. But he said it’s time Christians start making sure Christians are protected. “If I am not for me, who will be?” he wondered. “If Christians don’t stand up for Christians, who will?” The US House overwhelming supported the plan for a “Special Envoy to Promote Religious Freedom of Religious Minorities in the near East and South Central Asia” with bipartisan support. “Rep. Frank Wolf’s tireless advocacy on behalf of this issue is inspiring. I’m very grateful to him and his staff, and to the thousands of CUFI activists who went to Congress and lobbied on this legislation during our most recent Washington Summit,” said CUFI founder and chairman Pastor John Hagee. “Now the Senate must act. We recognize that Washington is often divided, but on this issue members of the House set aside their differences and came together to stand with our Christian brothers and sisters in the Middle East. In the coming weeks CUFI will work to ensure the upper chamber does the same,” he said. CUFI is the largest pro-Israel organization in the United States and one of the leading Christian grassroots movements in the world.
Deal Reached on UN Resolution on Syria Weapons?Sept. 27….(AP) The five permanent members of the deeply divided UN Security Council reached agreement Thursday on a resolution to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons, a major step in taking the most controversial weapon off the battlefield of the world's deadliest current conflict. Senior US, Russian, British and French diplomats confirmed the agreement, which also includes China. The full 15-member Security Council met behind closed doors Thursday night, and Britain's UN Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said he would introduce the text there. A vote on the resolution still depends on how the full council responds to the draft, and on how soon an international group that oversees the global treaty on chemical weapons can adopt a plan for securing and destroying Syria's stockpile. Diplomats said the earliest the Security Council could vote would be late Friday. Both Lyall Grant and a senior US State Department official described the draft resolution as "binding and enforceable." But the draft resolution, seen by The Associated Press, makes clear that there is no trigger for enforcement measures if Syria fails to comply. Instead, it states that the Security Council will "impose measures under Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter," which will require a second resolution. Chapter 7 allows for military and nonmilitary actions to promote peace and security. Russia, Syria's most powerful ally, had opposed any reference to it. US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held hastily scheduled talks Thursday afternoon to resolve several last-minute disputes on the text. The Security Council has long been paralyzed in dealing with the 2 1/2-year Syrian conflict, which has killed more than 100,000 people and spilled over the country's borders, because of differences between Russia and China, who back President Bashar Assad's government, and the US, Britain and France, who support the opposition. Russia and China have vetoed three Western-backed resolutions aimed at pressuring Assad to end the violence. The recent flurry of diplomatic activity followed the Aug. 21 poison gas attack that killed hundreds of civilians in a Damascus suburb, and by President Barack Obama's threat of US strikes in retaliation. After Kerry said Assad could avert US military action by turning over "every single bit of his chemical weapons" to international control within a week, Russia quickly agreed. Kerry and Lavrov signed an agreement in Geneva on Sept. 13 to put Syria's chemical weapons under international control for later destruction, and Assad's government accepted. Tough negotiations, primarily between Russia and the United States, followed on how Syria's stockpile would be destroyed. While the Security Council considers the draft resolution, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the Hague-based body that will be in charge of securing and destroying the stockpile, was working on its own document to set out its exact duties. The UN resolution will include the text of the OPCW's declaration and make it legally binding, so the OPCW must act first. The OPCW said Thursday it was optimistic it could quickly schedule a meeting of its 41-nation executive council to approve its plan. Russia's Lavrov said the draft resolution follows the language of the US-Russia agreement reached in Geneva. That agreement did not have an automatic Chapter 7 trigger for enforcement, meaning, as France's UN Ambassador Gerard Araud confirmed Thursday, that a second resolution will be needed if Syria violates the resolution's provisions. The draft resolution for the first time would make a determination that "use of chemical weapons anywhere constitutes a threat to international peace and security." It would ban Syria from possessing chemical weapons and condemn "in the strongest terms" the use of chemical weapons in the Aug. 21 attack, and any other use. It also would ban any country from obtaining chemical weapons or the technology or equipment to produce them from Syria. The draft authorizes the UN to send an advance team to assist the OPCW's activities in Syria. It asks Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to submit recommendations to the Security Council within 10 days of the resolution's adoption on the UN role in eliminating Syria's chemical weapons program. The council would review compliance with the OPCW's plans within 30 days, and every month after that. Some Western countries had wanted the draft to demand that the perpetrators of chemical weapons attacks be referred to the International Criminal Court to be prosecuted for war crimes. Diplomats said this was discussed but Russia objected. As a result, the draft says only that the Security Council "expresses its strong conviction that those individuals responsible for the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic should be held accountable." The draft resolution is much stronger on the call for a political transition in Syria. It endorses the roadmap for a political transition adopted last year in Geneva by key nations and calls for an international conference to be convened "as soon as possible" to implement it. It calls on "all Syrian parties to engage seriously and constructively" at a new Geneva conference and be committed "to the achievement of stability and reconciliation." The roadmap for a political transition ends with elections, but there has been no agreement on how to implement it, which would require Assad to relinquish power at some point.
Christians Part of Huge Jerusalem March Turnout Sept. 26….(Israel Today) Over 60,000 people took part in the annual Jerusalem March held each year during the biblical festival of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles. The turnout was nearly double the 32,000 that participated in the event last year. Israelis from all over the country ascended to Jerusalem for the march, as did thousands of Evangelical Christians from all over the world. The Christian delegations are always the most colorful part of the march, which winds through the streets of downtown Jerusalem, ending at the walls of the historic Old City. Israelis are fascinated by the demonstration of support by the Christians, and announcers along the route of the march always make a point of singling out these foreign visitors both in order to express their thanks and to make fellow Israelis aware of what is happening. For the Christians, participation in the march is a precursor to the fulfillment of Zechariah 14:16-21, which foretells a time when all those remaining from the nations will be required to "go up to Jerusalem" during Sukkot.
Killing Born Babies No Different Than Abortion?Sept. 26….(In The Days) Parents should be allowed to have their newborn babies killed because they are “morally irrelevant” and ending their lives is no different to abortion, a group of medical ethicists linked to Oxford University has argued. he article, published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, says newborn babies are not “actual persons” and do not have a “moral right to life”. The academics also argue that parents should be able to have their baby killed if it turns out to be disabled when it is born. The journal’s editor, Prof Julian Savulescu, director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, said the article’s authors had received death threats since publishing the article. He said those who made abusive and threatening posts about the study were “fanatics opposed to the very values of a liberal society”. The article, entitled “After-birth abortion: Why should the baby live?”, was written by two of Prof Savulescu’s former associates, Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva. They argued: “The moral status of an infant is equivalent to that of a fetus in the sense that both lack those properties that justify the attribution of a right to life to an individual.” Rather than being “actual persons”, newborns were “potential persons”. They explained: “Both a fetus and a newborn certainly are human beings and potential persons, but neither is a ‘person’ in the sense of ‘subject of a moral right to life’. “We take ‘person’ to mean an individual who is capable of attributing to her own existence some (at least) basic value such that being deprived of this existence represents a loss to her.” As such they argued it was “not possible to damage a newborn by preventing her from developing the potentiality to become a person in the morally relevant sense”. The authors therefore concluded that “what we call ‘after-birth abortion’ (killing a newborn) should be permissible in all the cases where abortion is, including cases where the newborn is not disabled”. They also argued that parents should be able to have the baby killed if it turned out to be disabled without their knowing before birth, for example citing that “only the 64 per cent of Down’s syndrome cases” in Europe are diagnosed by prenatal testing. Once such children were born there was “no choice for the parents but to keep the child”, they wrote. “To bring up such children might be an unbearable burden on the family and on society as a whole, when the state economically provides for their care.” However, they did not argue that some baby killings were more justifiable than others, their fundamental point was that, morally, there was no difference to abortion as already practiced. They preferred to use the phrase “after-birth abortion” rather than “infanticide” to “emphasize that the moral status of the individual killed is comparable with that of a fetus”.
Iran: Rouhani Says Israel Must Declare Its Nuclear BombsSept. 26….(AP) Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani called Thursday for Israel to put its suspected nuclear arms under international control ahead of a landmark meeting between foreign ministers from Iran and western nations. Rouhani also said he believed a deal could be made on his country's nuclear drive within three to six months. The Iranian president spoke at a UN nuclear disarmament conference ahead of a meeting between Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Mohammad Zarif with US Secretary of State John Kerry and ministers from Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia. The meeting was to discuss western accusations that Iran seeks a nuclear bomb capability. It will also be one of the highest level Iran-US encounters since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. At the UN conference, Rouhani said Israel should join the Non-Proliferation Treaty which aims to contain the spread of nuclear weapons. Israel has never declared a nuclear bomb but is widely suspected to have several. Rouhani, speaking as current leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, highlighted the failure of attempts to organize a Middle East nuclear free zone. "Israel, the only non-party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty in this region, should join thereto without any further delay," Rouhani told the meeting. He said that "all nuclear activities in the region" would then be subject to International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards. Iran is in conflict with the UN's atomic watchdog which says it has still not given definitive proof that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. "No nation should possess nuclear weapons, since there are no right hands for these wrong weapons," Rouhani told an audience including UN leader Ban Ki-moon. Rouhani told the Washington Post he wants a quick accord to end western accusations that Iran is seeking a nuclear bomb. He said he has the full backing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to broker a deal. "The only way forward is for a timeline to be inserted into the negotiations that's short, and wrap it up," said Rouhani who is attending the UN General Assembly in New York. "That is a decision of my government, that short is necessary to settle the nuclear file," he said. "If it's three months, that would be Iran's choice, if it's six months, that's still good. It's a question of months not years." The international powers made a new proposal to Tehran this year, before Rouhani's election, believed to offer some relief from international sanctions that have crippled Iran's economy in return for a scaling back of its uranium enrichment. "There's a sense that we never actually got a firm response or a detailed response to that," a senior US official said. For his part Zarif said on his Twitter account from New York: "We have a historic opportunity to resolve the nuclear issue," if world powers adjust to the "new Iranian approach." The United States sought a meeting between President Barack Obama and Rouhani on the sidelines of the UN assembly. But Iran said it was too difficult. In remarks published Thursday by Iran's official news agency IRNA, Zarif said a meeting between the two presidents "would have been a good beginning." "A meeting is not an end in itself, nor is it ruled out. President Rouhani has no problem in principle" with meeting Obama, he said. He called Obama's remarks at the United Nations "more moderate" than in the past, adding: "If that is the basis of a new political will to solve misunderstandings and ease Iranian concerns, this would be more important than a meeting." Obama and Rouhani both stressed their willingness to try to resolve the nuclear issue. Rouhani said Iran poses "absolutely no threat to the world," and condemned the international sanctions against his country. Noting that Rouhani has said Iran will "never" build a nuclear bomb, Obama said there was a basis for "a meaningful agreement." But he stressed: "To succeed, conciliatory words will have to be matched by actions that are transparent and verifiable" on the nuclear program.
Obama at UN: End Occupation of West Bank(Obama supports Israel as ‘Jewish state,’ but sympathizes with Arabs over ‘indignities of occupation.’)
Sept. 24....(Arutz) United States President Barack Obama lauded Israeli and Palestinian Authority leaders in a speech Tuesday at the United Nations. Obama spoke in support of the ongoing Israel-PA peace talks, and said he was glad to see that more young Israelis recognize that “the occupation of the West Bank” cannot continue. Young Arabs in Ramallah are “understandably cynical” regarding the talks and frustrated at “the daily indignities of occupation,” he said. The “West Bank” is the term American and other international leaders use to refer to Judea and Samaria (Shomron). The territories were settled by both Jews and Arabs until 1948, when Jordan won control of the area in a war with the fledgling Jewish state. Israel won the territory back 19 years later, in 1967, and an estimated 600,000 Israeli Jews currently live in the region. Estimates of the number of Palestinian Authority Arabs in the region range from 1.5 million to 2.4 million. The PA has claimed the area as Arab territory, to be used to establish a PA-led Arab state of “Palestine.” PA leaders term Jews living in the region “settlers” and insist that all Jews be forced to leave. Allowing the PA to create the Arab state it seeks is the only way to peace, Obama declared. “Friends of Israel, including the United States, must realize that Israel’s security… depends on the realization of the Palestinian state,” he said. “Arab states must realize that security will only be realized through a two-state solution,” he added. Peace between Israel and the PA “will be a powerful tool to defeat extremists throughout the region,” he said. World Sometimes Called to ActObama also addressed instability in Egypt and Syria. He hinted at a continued willingness to back military intervention in Syria over the use of chemical weapons. Sometimes, he said, violence against civilians becomes so bad “that the international community will be called upon to act.”
Imprisoned Iranian Pastor Reportedly Leads ‘Over 30 People to Christ’Sept. 24….(The Blaze) Pastor Saeed Abedini, an American citizen imprisoned in Iran on charges that he was evangelizing in the Islamic country, has been jailed for nearly one year in the notorious Evin Prison. On Thursday, a world-wide prayer vigil will be held to commemorate this tragic anniversary. Despite his plight, which includes intense pain, suffering and mistreatment, Abedini’s wife, Naghmeh, recently revealed an intriguing fact during an address she delivered at Liberty University, a tidbit that will likely enrage Iranian officials: The detained Christian has reportedly “led over 30 people to Christ.” Naghmeh told students at the college that her husband has bravely stood for his faith while in prison, even risking his freedom, his health, and his life, to do so. “They’ve told him many times that they would free him and allow him to return to our family, the kids and I, if he would deny his Christian faith, and he’s stood strong in that prison,” she said. “He’s led many, many, over 30 people to Christ in that prison.” If Abedini is, indeed, converting his fellow prisoners to Christianity, it’s likely that Iranian officials would be less-than-content to learn of this development. Naghmeh also told the Liberty University audience that he has been tortured and abused, as captors have told him that returning to Islam is paramount. Despite the odds being stacked against him, and taking into account his poor health, Abedini continues to remain strong. In a letter that was sent to his wife earlier this year, he shared some of the physical and mental abuse he has sustained while in captivity. According to the text, the pastor has been denied medical treatment because of his faith as well.
Syria’s Christians Being ExterminatedSept. 24….(The Blaze) While many were fixated on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent letter to the American people, another letter from another Russian leader, this one directly addressed to the US president, was missed. On September 10, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill issued a letter addressed to “His Excellency Mr. Barack Obama, President, United States.” Whether one wishes to interpret this communiqué as a product of politics or sincerity, it accurately highlights the plight of Syria’s Christians, especially in the broader context of a larger civilizational struggle. I repost major portions of the letter below, interspersed with my observations for added context: Your Excellency, Dear Mr. President, The tragic events in Syria have raised anxiety and caused pain in the Russian Orthodox Church. We receive information about the situation there not from the news reports but from living evidence coming to us from religious figures, ordinary believers and our compatriots living in that country. This is an important point: the “news reports” evaluated by the Russian church are from “living evidence coming to us from religious figures, ordinary believers and our compatriots living in that country.” The fact is, outside of America’s biased mainstream media, the evidence concerning what is going on in Syria, namely, that Islamic militants are committing human rights atrocities, including possibly the chemical attacks in question is overwhelming. Countless eyewitness testimonies, videos, pictures all those things that rarely make it to the US mainstream media, make this abundantly clear. Ask the average Syrian about the current turmoil engulfing their land, and I have, as have numerous Russian Orthodox representatives in communion with Syria’s ancient Christian community, as noted by Kirill, and few have any illusions as to its nature: an authoritarian, but secular, Bashar al-Assad vs. radical Islamists and jihadis. Naturally most Syrians choose Assad. Only in America, and to a lesser extent Western Europe, is the myth of “freedom fighters” trying to “liberate” Syria still being peddled. Syria today has become an arena of the armed conflict. Engaged in it are foreign mercenaries and militants linked with international terrorist centres. The war has become an everyday golgotha for millions of civilians. To be sure, one of the most obvious indicators that this is no “civil war” in the name of “liberty” is the fact that the majority, up to 95 percent, of those fighting Assad are not even Syrian, but rather al-Qaeda linked jihadis, from Chechnya to the Philippines, trying to form an Islamic emirate in Syria as they did in the 1980s-90s in Afghanistan. Back then, foreign jihadis like Saudi Osama bin Laden and Egyptian Ayman Zawahiri, again, also supported by the US, traveled to Afghanistan, “liberated” it from the USSR, and then gave us 9/11 in return a decade later. We were deeply alarmed to learn about the plans of the US army to strike the territory of Syria. Undoubtedly, it will bring ever greater sufferings to the Syrian people, first of all, to the civilian population. An external military intervention may result in the radical forces coming to power in Syria who will not be able and will not wish to ensure inter-confessional accord in the Syrian society. US military intervention would undoubtedly lead to even more human rights abuses, first and foremost at the hands of al-Qaeda jihadis, who in fact are on record vowing to slaughter Christians after the US intervenes and overthrows Assad; Obama just waived a US law prohibiting the banning of terrorist organizations simply to arm and ultimately help them realize their ambitions. Our special concern is for the fate of the Christian population of Syria, which in that case will come under the threat of total extermination or banishment. It has already happened in the regions of the country seized by militants. An attempt made by the armed groups of the Syrian opposition to seize the town of Ma‘loula whose residents are predominantly Christians has become a new confirmation of our concerns. The militants keep shelling the town in which ancient Christian monasteries are located the sites of special veneration by the faithful all over the world. All absolutely true, especially “the threat of total extermination or banishment,” which has been the case wherever and whenever US-backed Islamists come to power: · Afghanistan: Under US auspices, the supposedly “moderate” Hamid Karzai government still upholds the apostasy law, persecuting those who seek to convert to Christianity, making them just as intolerant as the Taliban, and, under US auspices, destroyed the nation’s last Christian church. · Iraq: After the US “liberated” the nation from Saddam Hussein, the “chemical-weapon-using-tyrant,” sound familiar? Christians are still being terrorized into extinction, with more than half leaving their homeland. · Libya: Since US backed terrorists came to power, giving American the Benghazi consulate attack on the anniversary of 9/11, the tiny Christian community there has been persecuted, including bombed churches and threatened nuns, things unprecedented under the “tyrant” Moammar Gaddafi. · Egypt: After coming to power, the Obama administration’s Muslim Brotherhood allies enforced draconian blasphemy codes against Christians and are currently destroying countless churches and in some regions forcing Christians to pay jizya. · Syria: Atrocities against Christians by the US-backed jihadis know no bounds, such as the recent gang rape and slaughter of a 15-year-old Christian girl by the US-supported “freedom fighters.” And now in Ma‘loula, Christians are being forced to choose between converting to Islam or dying and other atrocities. The Christian hierarchs of Aleppo, Metropolitans Paul and John Ibrahim, have been held captive by militants since April 22. Nothing is known about their fate despite of the fact that a number of religious figures appealed to the leaders of their states to help to release them. Indeed, here is yet another example of the nature of the people the US government is supporting. Paul and John Ibrahim were traveling in Syria doing “humanitarian work” when their driver was killed and they were kidnapped. Maybe John McCain can phone his al-Qaeda kidnapping allies and ask them to release them? At any rate, there is no end to the amount of Christians who have been kidnapped and/or slaughtered by the jihadis in Syria. I am deeply convinced that the countries which belong to the Christian civilization bear a special responsibility for the fate of Christians in the Middle East.
Tens of Thousands Attend Priestly Blessing in JerusalemSept. 24….(Times of Israel) The semiannual mass priestly benediction service, or Birkat Kohanim, took place Sunday morning at the Western Wall. Tens of thousands of Jewish worshippers crowded the plaza to receive the blessing from the Kohanim, descendants of Aaron who make up the priestly caste. Both new chief rabbis, David Lau and Yitzhak Yosef, participated as well. Hundreds of security personnel were on hand. The words of the blessing, found in Numbers, Chapter 6, are considered by some to be among the most ancient in the Torah. “And the Lord spoke unto Moses saying: Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying: Thus you shall bless the children of Israel. Say unto them: ‘The Lord bless thee, and keep thee; The Lord make His face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto Thee; The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.’ So shall they put My name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.” The tradition of holding a mass event at the Western Wall began after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, an initiative of a local Hasidic rabbi, Menachem Mendel Gefner. It is usually held on the second of Sukkot’s intermediate days, in order to allow Jews visiting Israel from abroad to participate, since they treat the first intermediate day as a Sabbath-like holiday. This year, however, the second intermediate day was on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, so it was moved to Sunday, or the third intermediate day.
Moscow Wins Obama Red Line Deal on Syrian Chemical Disarmament. (Assad gets to keep his WMD) Sept. 23….(DEBKA) Russian leaders finally picked apart the Kerry-Lavrov understanding for Syria’s chemical disarmament, less than a week after it was unveiled in Geneva last Saturday. Thursday, Sept. 19, they slapped down a string of coordinated obstructions. One knockout blow came from President Vladimir Putin, who commented dryly that he could not be 100 percent certain that the plan for the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons would succeed. “But everything we have seen so far in recent days gives us confidence that this will happen. I hope so,” he said. To dispel that hope, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu followed up with a denial of any plans to destroy the Syrian chemical stocks on Russian soil. Then, in an interview to Fox News, Syrian President Bashar Assad, in sync with Moscow, asked mockingly: “It [the destruction of poison chemicals] is very detrimental to the environment. If the American administration is ready to pay this money and take the responsibility of bringing toxic materials to the United States, why don’t they do it?” Since Russia and the US are the only countries with the industrial-scale capacity to destroy chemical munitions, and their import is banned under US law, Assad’s chemical arsenal is safe. In fact, Germany alone has offered to send a small number of chemical experts to Syria, No one else is ready to oversee the complicated dismantling and removal of an estimated 1,000 tons of dangerously poisonous materials, pay for the operation or accept the materials on its soil. US Secretary of State John Kerry, seeing his understanding with Sergey Lavrov slipping away, made a desperate attempt to save it. He called a news conference at the State Department Thursday to declare that it was essential the deal be enforced with a binding resolution and that the UN Security Council act on it next week, when the UN General Assembly holds its annual meeting in New York. Kerry did not indicate how the US administration would react if the deal fell through or whether the US military option would be revived. But it was already clear that his deal with Lavrov was going nowhere, even to the few Obama sympathizers who had hailed the president for finally managing to get Moscow on board for a solution of the Syrian war and the removal of Assad’s chemical arsenal. The Syrian ruler calmly told Fox meanwhile that his government was willing to get rid of its chemical weapons but it would be a very complicated operation that would take about a year or more and cost around $1 billion. After analyzing his comments, Western intelligence experts told debkafile they had reached two conclusions: 1. That Assad drew a distinction between his operational chemical arsenal and the stockpiles of those weapons. He is apparently willing to let the first category go, but determined to keep the stocks.2. His manner was confident verging on cocky, showing he felt certain that he would not be deprived of his chemical capabilities for coming out on top of the Syrian civil war.He had no qualms about denying his forces were responsible for the Aug. 21 attack on districts east of Damascus, fully backed by the perseverance of Russian officials in pinning the blame on the rebels.As excerpts of his Fox interview were aired, Assad received Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov in Damascus at the head of a large Russian delegation of military and intelligence officers. He used the occasion to complain that he was caught in a cruel vice between al Qaeda and US pressure and expressed the hope that Moscow would be able to “draw a new map of global balance.” As the Kerry-Lavrov deal falls apart, it turns out to have been less an agreement and more a loose compilation of limited understandings on the Syrian chemical question, which left unresolved sharp, fundamental disagreements between Washington on Moscow on how it should be handled, particularly at the UN Security Council.None of this has stopped President Obama from selling the proposition to the American public and the world that the US-Russian accord for the disposal of Syria’s chemical weapons was a triumphant breakthrough for his administration’s diplomacy, which opened the door to an agreement for resolving the Iranian nuclear issue as well.
UN Votes Down Arab Push to Condemn Israeli Nuclear Policy(Arab League move, blocked by 51-43 votes in Vienna, comes amid pressure on Israel to detail, relinquish its alleged WMD’s) Sept. 23….(Times of Israel) The United Nations nuclear watchdog on Friday narrowly voted down an Arab League resolution to single out Israel for criticism over its alleged nuclear arsenal. The bid, against which the US spoke obut this week, reflects mounting frustration in the Arab world over the deferment of an international conference on the banning of atomic arms in the region, Reuters reported Friday. The International Atomic Energy Agency rejected the initiative by a vote of 51 to 43 at its annual meeting in Vienna. 32 nations abstained. Had the resolution been passed by the IAEA, Israel would have been called upon to sign on to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and submit to agency scrutiny of its nuclear facilities. After the vote, Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin congratulated ministry employees and the Prime Minister’s Office, who worked incessantly in recent days to make sure the resolution would fail. “I am glad that common sense prevailed and that the nations of the world rejected the proposal, which was designed to attack Israel, ” he said, adding, “The whole world must understand that the main task before the IAEA and the international community is to stop the Iranian nuclear program.” Ambassador Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy, who heads the Arab League group at the IAEA, was quoted as saying Friday that the vote would show the world that “Israel is not playing a constructive role.” The Arab initiative was part of mounting international pressure on Israel to relinquish, or at least admit to possessing, weapons of mass destruction. The heightened interest in the Jewish state’s alleged nuclear, chemical and biological weapons comes amid indications from Iran that it’s ready to show flexibility in nuclear talks, and in the wake of a Russian-brokered deal that would see Syrian President Bashar Assad’s chemical weapons shipped off and eventually destroyed. A similar version of the resolution was narrowly passed four years ago at the IAEA, but its implementation was postponed due to pressure from Western governments. In 2011 and 2012, Arab member states refrained from pushing the initiative fearing it would harm attempts to convene an international conference to rid the Middle East of WMD’s. On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Assad’s decision to amass chemical weapons was “in response to Israel’s nuclear capabilities” and that “Israel has technological superiority and doesn’t need nuclear weapons.” According to a report in the September/October issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Israel possesses a stockpile of 80 nuclear warheads, all of which were produced by 2004, when Israel froze all production. Israel’s nuclear program has long been shrouded in secrecy, with the country maintaining a policy of ambiguity while refusing to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Previous estimates have put the number of warheads in Israel’s possession at up to 400. According to foreign reports, Israel’s military has the capacity to deliver a nuclear payload via a variety of methods, including ballistic missiles, aircraft, and submarine-launched cruise missiles.
Christian Pilgrims Visiting Israel for Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) Sept. 23….(JNS) More than 5,000 Christian pilgrims from 100 countries will visit Israel this week as part of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem’s (ICEJ) Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) celebration. The festival begins Sept. 20 at the Oasis Hotel in Ein Gedi on the Dead Sea and will continue for the reminder of Sukkot at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center. The weeklong celebration is expected to generate more than $16 million in revenue, and is the largest annual tourist event to Israel. “We are thrilled that thousands of Christians from all over the world will be arriving in Jerusalem this week to take part in our annual Feast gathering, despite the recent tensions in the region over the Syrian conflict,” Dr. Jürgen Bühler, the ICEJ’s executive director, said in a statement. “Their visit to Jerusalem is a timely message of solidarity with the people of Israel.” Founded in 1980, the ICEJ is one of the largest pro-Israel Christian organizations in the world with branches in more than 140 countries.
Suicide Attack at Church in Pakistan Kills Dozens Sept. 23….(New York Times) A suicide attack on a historic Christian church in northwestern Pakistan killed at least 78 people on Sunday in one of the deadliest attacks on the Christian minority in Pakistan in years. The attack occurred as worshipers left All Saints Church in the old quarter of the regional capital, Peshawar, after a service on Sunday morning. Up to 600 people had attended the service and were leaving to receive free food being distributed on the lawn outside when two explosions ripped through the crowd. “As soon as the service finished and the food was being distributed, all of a sudden we heard one explosion, followed by another,” said Azim Ghori, a witness. Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan, who arrived in Peshawar on Sunday evening, said that 78 people had been killed, including 34 women and 7 children. Shafqat Malik, a senior official of the bomb disposal squad, said in an interview that forensic examination of the evidence collected from the church confirmed that two suicide bombers had carried out the attack. “Each bomber carried six kilograms of explosives,” Mr. Malik said.
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 15 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 21
Netanyahu warns world against Iranian 'charm offensive' Sept. 18….( ICEJ News) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the Cabinet on Sunday morning regarding what he called the Islamic Republic's "charm offensive" to throw the world off its guard about Iran's renegade nuclear program. "The way to stop Iran's nuclear program requires four steps: Halting all uranium enrichment; removing all enriched uranium; closing [the uranium enrichment facility at] Qom; and stopping the plutonium track," Netanyahu said. "Only a combination of these four steps will constitute an actual stopping of the nuclear program, and until all four of these measures are achieved, the pressure on Iran must be increased and not relaxed, and certainly not eased."
UN REPORT CAST HEAVY SUSPICION ON ASSAD REGIME IN SYRIA Russia says too early to 'jump to conclusions' Sept. 18….( ICEJ News) A UN team sent to Syria to investigate the circumstances surrounding the 21 August chemical weapons attack in a suburb of Damascus released its report on Monday. Although the report didn’t specify which side was responsible for the attack, the evidence cited strongly indicated that the Assad regime was responsible for the attack. Immediately after the report’s release, different interpretations were presented by the Foreign Ministries of Russia, France and the US. The report found ample evidence of sarin gas in blood and urine samples taken from people wounded in the attack, as well as rocket impact sites and debris. UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon called the use of poison gas a “war crime and grave violation of the 1925 Protocol” on chemical weapons, the “most significant confirmed use of chemical weapons against civilians since Saddam Hussein used them in Halabja [Iraq] in 1988, and the worst use of weapons of mass destruction in the 21st century” adding that “the international community has a responsibility to ensure the chemical weapons will never be used again as an instrument of warfare…those responsible should be brought to justice as soon as possible.” Russian UN envoy Vitaly Churkin dismissed assertions by Western governments that the evidence clearly showed the regime was responsible for the attack saying "we need to not jump to any conclusions.” Elsewhere, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov asserted, without revealing what he was referring to, that "we have very serious grounds to believe that this was a provocation." However, many analysts agreed that the evidence presented by the UN report compels them to believe the regime was responsible for the attack. Regime officials responded to the position taken by Western governments on the UN report by accusing them of trying to scuttle Russian efforts at peacemaking and impose their will on the Syrian people.
SUPERPOWERS REACH AGREEMENT ON WAY FORWARD IN SYRIA Sept.
16….( ICEJ News) US and Russian officials finalized a plan over the weekend for
the accounting and destruction of the chemical weapons arsenel possesed by
Syria’s Assad regime and removing the threat of US strikes. Regime officials
gleefully declared it a “victory” for them at the hands of their allies in
Moscow. Within hours of the announcment, regime forces launched a large
offensive against rebel held neighborhoods of Damascus and other cities using
conventional weapons. Meanwhile, rumors are running rampant about the transfer
by the regime of chemical weapons to third parties to avoid inspections. "Helping Syrians would mean stopping the bloodshed," a rebel
supporter in Damascus told Reuters. Sept.
14….(Times of Israel) Israelis prepared for the holiest day of the Jewish
calendar on Friday when the entire country grinds almost to a halt for Yom
Kippur, Judaism’s Day of Atonement. Jews traditionally spend the solemn day
fasting and asking God for forgiveness at intense prayer services in synagogues.
It caps a 10-day period of soul-searching that began with Rosh Hashanah, the
Jewish new year holiday. Some 500,000 people have participated in slihot prayers
at the Western Wall since the beginning of the month of Elul. Throughout the
month of Elul and especially in the days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur,
tens of thousands came to the site, individually, as families or as part of an
organized group, to recite the traditional prayers said at this time of year.
“This dramatic spectacle of the masses of the Jewish people thronging to the
Western Wall is an impressive testimony and is an honor for the people of Israel
and demonstrates its affinity to its traditions and inheritance and to the
remnant of our Temple,” said Rabbi Rabinowitz. (Yom Kippur
or the Day of Atonement is the most solemn and important holy day of the Jewish
calendar. In the Old Testament, the Day of Atonement was the day the High Priest
made an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the people. This act of atonement
brought reconciliation between the people and God. After the blood sacrifice was
offered to the Lord, a goat was released into the wilderness to symbolically
carry away the sins of the people. This "scapegoat" was never to return. The
observance of the Day of Atonement is recorded in the Old Testament book of
Leviticus 16:8-34; 23:27-32.) In Israel,
the country virtually shuts down for Yom Kippur. Businesses, restaurants and
offices close, and TV and radio stations go silent. Airports close and buses and
trains stop running. Highways and roads become eerily quiet, devoid of vehicles.
Yom Kippur is unique in Israel because it touches almost the entire country. A
high portion of the secular population observes the fast, and even those who
don’t fast tend to refrain from eating in public, and quietly watch movies or
rest at home. This year,
the holiday marks 40 years to the 1973 Arab-Israel War, which Israelis call the
Yom Kippur War because of the surprise attack launched by the Egyptian and
Syrian armies against Israel that year. The war is etched deep in Israel’s
collective psyche due to the heavy losses sustained in the fighting and because
of the country’s lack of preparedness. For Israelis, it is one of the most
traumatic events in their history. Personal accounts of Israelis who
participated in that war or who were scarred by its occurrence filled newspapers
and talk shows ahead of this year’s holiday. The holiday
also comes amid the crisis over reports of chemical weapons use in neighboring
Syria’s civil war. Israel is warily watching as the international community
decides how to respond to the use of the deadly munitions that allegedly killed
hundreds near Damascus last month. Washington and its allies say the Syrian
regime of President Bashar Assad fired warheads in the Aug. 21 attack with a
nerve agent, most likely sarin. Israel has said it doesn’t want to get involved
in the fighting but has also warned it will not tolerate chemical weapons
reaching violent groups sworn to its destruction, such as the Iranian backed
Lebanese Hezbollah group or the al-Qaida affiliates fighting in Syria against
the regime. For devout
Jews, Yom Kippur is the most solemn day on the calendar where according to
tradition, God weighs people’s deeds and decides their fate for the next year.
On Thursday night, thousands of Jews attended pre Yom Kippur prayers in
Jerusalem at the Western Wall, a remnant of the biblical Jewish Temple compound
and the holiest site where Jews can pray. Kerry's
Russian Counterpart Mocks Him
(FOJ)
It’s a sad state of affairs when a foreign leader has to tell our
arrogant, egotistical political maniacs to get over themselves and
shut up. Mr. Kerry, like so many of our self-anointed leaders just
don’t know how to be a straight talker. Sept. 14….(Washington Examiner)
Secretary of State John Kerry's negotiations with the Russian Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov got off to a rocky start Thursday, with the Russian mocking Kerry
right at the outset. "They got off to a really bad start yesterday, partly
because of the Putin op-ed and mostly because Kerry in the opening remarks spoke
at length, and I mean at great length, compared to the unprepared few welcoming
comments from the Russian counterpart. "And then the Russian minister said at
the end, very tartly, 'Sometimes diplomacy demands silence.'" President Putin, America Is
Exceptional Sept.
14….(Rand Paul) A recent op-ed by Russian President Vladimir Putin has
prompted me to respond. While his position that the Syrian conflict can and
should be settled through a political and diplomatic solution is correct,
virtually everything else in his writing should be taken to task. So I shall. I
begin with Mr. Putin’s disagreement regarding the exceptionalism of the United
States of America. I could not more strongly disagree with him. While he is
correct that God created every human being as an equal in His eyes, clearly the
results of each of our efforts on this earth, individually and collectively, are
not equal. America’s
exceptionalism is rooted in our founding documents and values. From the rights
granted by our creator, but guaranteed by our Constitution. We should not shy
away from saying so, especially when our actions are in keeping with this
exceptional founding. So while I welcome the engagement of the Russians, and the
dialogue Mr. Putin this week attempted to begin with our country, I remain to be
convinced of the details. And I respond to him directly with the statement that
yes, American is indeed exceptional. Our history has proved it so. While we all
share the same Creator, we do not all share the same richness of history
regarding human rights, freedom and democracy. There has been in the past 200
years a city on the hill that has shone brighter than all others. We will not be
ashamed of that. May God allow us to continue to model this example to the world
in these difficult times. Sept. 14….(The
Telegraph) In an audio message released on Friday, two days after the
anniversary of September 11th, Ayman al-Zawahiri said America was not a “mythic
power” and that it could be defeated even through small-scale strikes by “one
brother or a few of the brothers”. “We should bleed America economically by
provoking it to continue in its massive expenditure on its security, for the
weak point of America is its economy, which has already begun to stagger due to
the military and security expenditure,” he said, according to site, a jihadist
monitoring group. “America is not a mythic power and the Americans, after all,
are humans who can be defeated, felled and punished.” Zawahiri
urged the Islamic world to “abandon the dollar and replace it with a currency of
other countries that are not taking part in the aggression against us”. He also
said that Muslims should refuse to buy goods from America and its allies, as
such spending only helped to fund US military action in Muslim lands. As well as
mounting small, “disparate” assaults, Zawahiri urged fellow members of his
extremist group to “watch and wait” and seize any opportunity to conduct a large
strike against the US, similar to the 9/11 attack that killed almost 3000
people. Assad Tells Obama to Stop Arming
Rebels, or no Deal FOJ Note:
Mr. Assads also demands that Israel be forced to surrender its unconventional
weaponry. The Syrian Crisis has morphed and twisted itself into an international
forum to check all weapons of mass destruction under a Global power apparatus,
with disarming such chiefly focused on Israel. Sept. 13….(The Examiner) President
Obama must promise not to arm rebel forces or Syrian dictator Bashar Assad will
not hand over his chemical weapons, the embattled leader told a Russian state
media outlet today while demanding that Israel also surrender its nuclear
arsenal. “When we come to see that the US genuinely stands for stability in our
region, stops threatening us with military intervention and stops supplying
terrorists with weapons, then we will consider it possible to finalize all
necessary procedures and they will become legitimate and acceptable for Syria,"
Assad told RIA News. Obama asked
Congress to postpone a vote authorizing use of military force in Syria after
Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to broker a deal whereby the US would
not attack the Assad regime if he surrendered his chemical weapons.
Assad said that the Middle East won't have peace until
Israel also surrenders its weapons of mass destruction. “If we
really want stability in the Middle East, all the countries in the region must
honor the agreements. And the first country to do so is Israel because it
possesses nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, all types of weapons of mass
destruction.” Sept.
13….(Israel Today) While US leaders continue pushing for war against the
Syrian government, “Al-Qaeda-linked rebels,” reports AP, “launched an assault on
a regime-held Christian mountain village in the densely populated west of Syria
and new clashes erupted near the capital, Damascus. In the attack on the village
of Maaloula, rebels commandeered a mountaintop hotel and nearby caves and
shelled the community below, said a nun, speaking by phone from a convent in the
village. She spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.” Arabic news
agency Al Hadath gives more information concerning this latest terror attack on
Syria’s Christians, specifically how the al-Qaeda linked rebels “terrorized the
Christians, threatening to be avenged on them after the triumph of the
revolution.” Thus al-Qaeda terrorists eagerly await US assistance against the
Syrian government, so they can subjugate if not slaughter Syria’s Christians,
secularists, and non-Muslims, even as the Obama administration tries to justify
war on Syria by absurdly evoking the “human rights” of Syrians on the one hand,
and lying about al-Qaeda’s presence in Syria on the other. Pope Francis Assures Atheists: You Don’t
Have to Believe in God to Go to Heaven Sept. 13….(The Independent ) In
comments likely to enhance his progressive reputation, Pope Francis has written
a long, open letter to the founder of La Repubblica newspaper, Eugenio Scalfari,
stating that non-believers would be forgiven by God if they followed their
consciences. Responding to a list of questions published in the paper by Mr.
Scalfari, who is not a Roman Catholic, Francis wrote: “You ask me if the God of
the Christians forgives those who don’t believe and who don’t seek the faith. I
start by saying, and this is the fundamental thing, that God’s mercy has no
limits if you go to him with a sincere and contrite heart. The issue for those
who do not believe in God is to obey their conscience. “Sin, even for those who
have no faith, exists when people disobey their conscience.” Robert
Mickens, the Vatican correspondent for the Catholic journal The Tablet, said the
pontiff’s comments were further evidence of his attempts to shake off the
Catholic Church’s fusty image, reinforced by his extremely conservative
predecessor Benedict XVI. “Francis is a still a conservative,” said Mr. Mickens.
“But what this is all about is him seeking to have a more meaningful dialogue
with the world.” In a welcoming response to the letter, Mr. Scalfari said the
Pope’s comments were “further evidence of his ability and desire to overcome
barriers in dialogue with all”. In July, Francis signaled a more progressive
attitude on sexuality, asking: “If someone is gay and is looking for the Lord,
who am I to judge him?” FOJ Note:
I wonder what Jesus Christ would say about these
statements from the Pope. Jesus said, “No man comes to the Father, except by
me,” and “I am the door for the sheep” and “there is salvation in none other.”
To minimize the effectual price paid by Jesus Christ death on the Cross, or to
tolerate and teach other ideologies on the entry into Heaven is Anti-Christian.
It is making a mockery of the Gospel! Thus the Pope himself is not on the pathway to Heaven! Russia 'Will Renew Offer to Supply
S-300s to Iran' Sept. 12….(AFP) Russian President
Vladimir Putin will offer to supply Iran S-300 air defence missile systems as
well as build a second reactor at the Bushehr nuclear plant, the Kommersant
business daily reported Wednesday. Putin will renew an old offer to supply Iran
with five of the sophisticated ground-to-air missile systems at a meeting with
Iranian President Hassan Rowhani on Friday, Kommersant said, quoting a souce
close to the Kremlin. Putin is set
to meet Rowhani at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization held
in Kyrgyzstan on Friday. Russia in 2007 signed a contract to deliver five of the
advanced ground-to-air weapons, which can take out aircraft or guided missiles,
to Iran at a cost of $800 million. In 2010, then-president Dmitry
Medvedev cancelled the contract after coming under strong US and Israeli
pressure not to go ahead with the sale of the weapons system, drawing vehement
protests from Tehran. The source told Kommersant that Russia's offer would
depend on Iran's withdrawing a $4 billion lawsuit that it has lodged at an
international court in Geneva against Russia's arms export agency. Kommersant
wrote that Putin would offer to supply Tehran with a modified export version of
the S-300 systems called S-300VM Antey-2500. Russia has
urged the West to soften sanctions against Iran after the election of Rowhani, a
centrist cleric, in June. The source also said that Putin was ready to sign a
deal with Iran on building a second reactor for the Bushehr nuclear plant. The
source said the deal was not "particularly profitable from an economic point of
view, but was rather political." Russia completed the construction of Bushehr,
which is Iran's only functioning nuclear power station, despite protests from
Israel and the United States. Iran is at
loggerheads with world powers over its controversial nuclear program, which the
Western powers and Israel suspect is aimed at making a bomb despite repeated
denials by Tehran. Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to Kommersant that
Putin and Rowhani were expected to discuss "working together in the nuclear
energy sphere" and "questions of military technical cooperation" in talks at the
summit in Bishkek. Iran
Threatens Widespread Retaliation Against US Sept.
12….(Daily Caller) Iran is ramping up its threats to the United States even
as the American effort against Iranian client state Syria has ground to a crawl.
President Obama made his case to the American people and the world community
Tuesday night that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad must not be allowed to escape
the consequences of using chemical weapons on civilians as the two-year-long
Syrian civil war drags on. Iran, a
staunch ally of the Assad regime, is warning that any military action against
Syria will cause a military and terrorist reaction on US targets and allies.
Iran says it won’t sit idly by if the US attacks Syria. For now, Obama said in
an East Room address Tuesday night, he will delay any proposal to Congress
authorizing a punitive strike if diplomatic efforts result in Syria agreeing to
verifiable destruction of its chemical weapons cache. Obama warned that to not
act against Syrian atrocities would give the green light to Iran to develop
nuclear weapons and terrorists to use chemical weapons. But if
diplomacy fails, unintended consequences could result from a US assault. Obama
and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both should know that all options
are on the table, including the destruction of Haifa and Tel Aviv, should the US
attack Syria, Iran has declared. That blunt warning came in Mashregh News, the
Islamic Republic’s official media outlet run by the Revolutionary Guards
intelligence unit, in an alarming commentary last week. Sept. 12….(RT)
Russia’s Moskva missile cruiser, dubbed a “carrier-killer” by NATO, has
passed through the Straits of Gibraltar and is now heading toward the eastern
Mediterranean to assume command of the Russian naval force there. The Russian
Navy said in a statement that the Moskva cruiser passed through the Straits of
Gibraltar on September 10. “The Black Sea flagship entered the Russian Navy's
area of responsibility in the Mediterranean at 11:00 pm Moscow time yesterday,"
the agency reported a military source as saying. The missile-carrying cruiser is
expected to join its final destination in eastern Mediterranean on September 15
or 16. Upon arrival,
the command of the Russian Navy unit in the Mediterranean, currently stationed
onboard the Admiral Panteleyev anti-submarine ship, will be relocated to the
Moskva. The missile cruiser, initially known to Western naval intelligence as
“Slava” (Glory), was launched in 1979 and entered service in 1983. It was later
renamed the “Moskva” in 1995. Designed to be carrier-killers, the cruisers of
Class 1164 are equipped with 16 anti-ship launchers P-1000 Vulkan, or Volcano
(SS-N-12 Sandbox anti-ship missiles, according to NATO classification). Another
two vessels, the landing ship Nikolay Filchenkov and the guard ship Smetlivy,
will join the Russian naval unit later. They will be pass through the Bosporus
and Dardanelles straits by September 12-14 and will then head to the eastern
Mediterranean. The recent
deployments are aimed at “complex monitoring” of the situation around Syria,
military sources told Interfax earlier. Russia’s standing naval force in the
Mediterranean now involves landing craft carriers “Aleksandr Shabalin,” “Admiral
Nevelskoy,” “Peresvet,” “Novocherkassk” and “Minsk” of Russia’s Black and Baltic
Sea Fleets, as well as escort vessel “Neustrashimy,” and the anti-submarine ship
“Admiral Panteleyev.” Sept. 12….(Arutz)
As the US government pushes for peace talks between Israel and the
Palestinian Authority (PA), a recently-released poll by the Pew Research Center
suggests that the Obama administration's apparent optimism over the prospects
for peace may be somewhat misplaced. In a survey held across 11 different
nationalities with large Muslim populations, Muslim respondents were asked about
their views on "Islamic extremism." n one question, those interviewed were asked
whether they believed that suicide bombings can ever be justified, and were
asked to select from one of the following options: "Never," "Rarely," "Sometimes,"
"Often" and "Don't Know." A sizable
majority (62%) of respondents from the "Palestinian Territories" (referring to
Palestinian Authority-controlled Judea and Samaria, and Hamas-run Gaza) answered
that suicide bombings were at least sometimes justified, nearly double that of
the second-largest body of support (Lebanon, 33%). Muslims from
the "Palestinian Territories" were also way ahead of the pack when it came to
the percentage of respondents who felt that suicide bombings were "often"
justified: a whopping 37%. In comparison, the next highest percentage of
respondents who answered the same was in Senegal, at a mere 11%. The country
with the greatest opposition to suicide bombings was Pakistan, where Al Qaeda
and Taliban coordinated attacks have almost exclusively targeted other Muslims,
from members of minority sects to political opponents. Despite
widespread support for suicide bombings, presumably against Israel, by Muslims
in Judea, Samaria and Gaza; 64% still said that they were "concerned" about
Islamic extremism, indicating that much of that support comes from the more
secular camp aligned with factions considered more "moderate" by western
countries, such as Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party. Fatah-affiliated terrorists
carried out scores of suicide bombings during the "Second Intifada" between 2001
and 2006. The results
should not be surprising given the widespread campaigns of incitement by both
Hamas and Palestinian Authority, according to Itamar Marcus, director of
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), an NGO which monitors incitement in the
Palestinian media. "The Palestinian Authority, through its religious
establishments, has been presenting the killing of Jews as an Islamic imperative
for many years," Marcus said, speaking to Arutz Sheva. "Just last year the
Palestinian Authority-appointed Mufti of Jerusalem quoted the Hadith [Islamic
teaching] which was quoted throughout the intifada period, saying that the end
of days will only come when the Muslims kill the Jews. "The constant
brainwashing of Palestinians by their leadership, that killing Jews in the name
of Islam is a duty, has clearly influenced them." Marcus also
lamented the fact that, in his view, many media commentators and political
leaders turn a blind eye to religious incitement by the PA. "People do not give
enough attention to the phenomenon of incitement to religious hatred," he said.
"The continued teaching that Allah wants Jews to be killed... leaves us with a
situation where Israel's neighbors, the Palestinians, believe they have a
religious obligation to kill Jews. "This is one of the most significant parts of
the conflict, and it is completely ignored by the political establishment," he
says, urging world leaders to "look around the region" to see why it is "a
massive mistake" to ignore religious hatred as a factor in fueling conflict. Sept. 12….(DEBKA) Iran, and not
just Russia and Syria, is taking advantage of President Barack Obama’s decision
to refrain from military force against Syria to collect a shower of diplomatic
and political dividends. The new Iranian president Hassan Rouhani announced
Tuesday that the coming meeting of the General Assembly opening in New York
later this month “may prove the perfect setting to reignite talks about the
nation’s nuclear program.“ The US Treasury Department accordingly lifted a
string of sanctions restricting humanitarian and athletic exchanges between US
and Iranian NGO’s and environmental projects, as a counter-gesture of good will. Washington
was not put off when that comment proved to be an exercise in image-burnishing
for the benefit of the West. That same day, the Iranian president declared his
country would not give up “one iota of its nuclear capabilities.” Debkafile’s
Iranian sources disclose that the posturing on all sides provided the façade for
the secret exchange of messages between Washington, Tehran, Moscow and Damascus.
They focused first on a Russian pledge to bring Assad’s chemical arsenal under
international control and destroyed. This was followed by Tehran consenting to
engage in direct dialogue with Washington when the next UN General Assembly
session opens in New York on September 23. Rouhani, who
has consistently refused to enter into direct talks with Washington on his
government’s nuclear program, said Friday, Sept. 6: “Initial steps in the future
of nuclear talks may be taken in New York and then these talks will be pursued
by the Group 5 + 1.” Debkafile: For President Obama, the two issues, the
disposal of Syria’s chemical weapons and resolution of the nuclear controversy
with Iran - were closely interwoven in his quiet exchanges with Vladimir Putin,
which emphasized the diplomatic, non-military route. The
Russian leader appears to have assured Obama that an agreed formula for defusing
the Syrian chemical weapons issue without military force would provide the key
to progress in nuclear talks with Iran. Our Iranian sources report that
Tehran was in on all stages of the discreet Obama-Putin discussions on Syria:
High-ranking Iranian officials were present in Damascus and Moscow throughout,
and points of agreement were brought to Tehran for approval. Full details of how
this four-handed game was conducted and details of the deals struck between the
US, Russia and Iran, will be revealed later. FOJ Note:
Oh well, Is this why President Obama wants to support
the Rebels and get rid of Assad? And where is his anger about this activity? And
why doesn’t he want to eradicate the Rebels for their atrocities against
Christians in Syria? I guess it will take another RED LINE for that! Sept. 12….(Brietbart)
The Syrian village of Maaloula has been taken over by Syrian rebels associated
with al Qaeda, who have stormed the Christian center and offered local
Christians a choice: conversion or death. A resident of the town said the rebels
shouted “Allahu Akhbar” as they moved through the village, and proceeded to
assault Christian homes and churches. “They shot and killed people,” he said. “I
heard gunshots and then I saw three bodies lying in the middle of a street in
the old quarters of the village. Where is President Obama to see what has
befallen us?” Another witness stated, “I saw the militants grabbing five
villagers and threatening them and saying, ‘Either you convert to Islam, or you
will be beheaded.’” The village
is located just 25 miles from Damascus, and sites within the village are
dedicated as United Nations world heritage sites. Residents still speak Aramaic,
the language of Jesus. The rebels who took over the city are associated with the
al Nusra Front, an al Qaeda-associated Islamist group. Obama’s Red-Lines, No Lines, Redrawn
Lines Policy Looks Foolish Sept. 11….(FOJ) President Obama, in
an address to the nation on Syria, said Tuesday that while he had resisted calls
for military action in the country’s civil war, the situation “profoundly
changed” after the Assad regime “gassed to death” hundreds of people last month.
The president addressed the nation a little more than a week after declaring he
would seek congressional support for a military strike on Syria, in response to
a chemical weapons attack on Aug. 21. But the environment changed rapidly over
the past two days, forcing Obama to recalibrate his approach and walk back his
“red line” threats, while still leaving open the door to military action. He is
now expected to call for a pause in congressional consideration of the use of
force. The game-changer came after Secretary
of State John Kerry at first casually floated the idea of Syria turning over its
chemical weapons to avert a strike. The Russians then swiftly adopted the off
the cuff idea as a formal proposal, which Syrian government officials now say
they will accept, forcing the Obama Administration to give it a chance. The
foolishness of Obama/Kerry in handling American foreign policy has made America
look weak, stupid, waffling, and incoherrant. It has also strengthened the hand
and influence of Mr. Putin in the entire Middle East. But on the dark side, it
has angered the multi-pronged terror-infested coalition of Rebels fighting Assad
in Syria. (I personally believe that Mr. Assad did not perpetrate the infamous
chemical attacks, but rather the terror links in the Rebel forces seeking to
gain aid from the US. No telling what they might do now.) In the long term,
for prophetic importance, the whole crisis has moved the power-structure of
the world’ nations to seek Global controls over non-conventional weapons, which
is a major geo-political component aiding the rise of the future Antichrist. In
the interim, perhaps the much anticipated and much debated “Damascus
scenario” of Isaiah 17 may have been pushed down the road. Then again,
one event might lead to the other!
US Foreign Policy is in Shambles, &
Stumbles Into Situations Sept. 11….(Washington Post) Russia
and Syria embraced Secretary of State John F. Kerry’s suggestion Monday that the
Syrian government could avert a US attack by placing its chemical weapons under
international control, upending the Obama administration’s efforts to sharpen
its case for military action. US officials said Kerry’s comment, made in
response to a question at a news conference in London, was not intended to be a
diplomatic opening. But Kerry’s Russian and Syrian counterparts quickly followed
up, and the idea drew immediate interest internationally and from top Democrats
in Washington. By the end of
the day, President Obama conceded that the idea of monitoring and ultimately
destroying Syria’s arsenal “could potentially be a significant breakthrough.”
The Senate postponed a vote scheduled for Wednesday on whether to back a
proposed punitive strike. “I think you have to take it with a grain of salt,
initially,” Obama said in an interview with NBC that was among several he gave
Monday in pursuit of public backing for a military strike in response to an
alleged Aug. 21 gas attack on Syrian civilians. “We are going to run this to
ground,” Obama said. “We’re going to make sure that we see how serious these
proposals are.” The timing of
the new proposal was awkward and its apparent genesis perhaps more so. It began
when Kerry was asked early Monday whether Assad could avoid a US attack. “Sure.
He could turn over every bit of his weapons to the international community
within the next week, without delay,” Kerry responded with a shrug. “But he
isn’t about to.” As Kerry flew back to Washington to help lobby lawmakers, he
received a midair call from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who said he
had heard the secretary’s remarks and was about to make a public announcement.
The statement in Moscow came before Kerry landed. “We are calling on the Syrian
authorities to not only agree on putting chemical weapons storages under
international control but also for its further destruction and then joining the
Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons,” Lavrov said, adding, “We
have passed our offer to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem and hope to
receive a fast and positive answer.” Moualem, who
was in Moscow meeting with Lavrov, followed with a statement that his government
“welcomes Russia’s initiative, based on the Syrian government’s care about the
lives of our people and security of our country.” Although Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad denies having a stockpile of the widely banned weapons, the idea
of international control also quickly gained traction among diplomats and at
least some senior Democrats whose support Obama seeks for a show of force. The Russian
announcement was met with approval by international backers and critics of a US
strike. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who has said a US attack on Syria
would be illegal without UN approval, signaled support, as did British Prime
Minister David Cameron. Gen. Salim
Idriss, chief of staff of the rebel Free Syrian Army, described the Syrian
government’s acceptance of the Russian proposal as a “new lie” aimed at heading
off intervention. Israel: Proposed Syrian WMD Compromise
Could Serve as Template for Iran Sept.
11….(Jerusalem Post) Syria’s readiness to consider relinquishing its
stockpiles of chemical weapons in hopes of evading punitive strikes by the US
military should serve as a template for the international community’s strategy
in confronting a nuclear-driven Iran, diplomatic sources said on Tuesday.
Israeli officials are closely monitoring the latest diplomatic developments on
the Syrian front, according to Israel Radio. Officials in Jerusalem told Israel
Radio on Tuesday that while they were skeptical of Syria’s willingness to hand
over its chemical weapons stockpile in hopes of warding off a US military
assault, the very proposal is proof that a real, credible military threat “gets
the job done.” “When the Americans deploy their warships in the Mediterranean,
the Syrians get scared and say they are ready to consider placing their arsenal
of unconventional weapons under international inspection, and perhaps even
giving up those weapons altogether,” a source told Israel Radio. “Iran, too,
will change its approach on the issue of its nuclear program if there will be a
real, credible threat against it,” the source said. Washington, however, appears to be
holding out hope that it can solve the Iranian impasse through diplomacy. US
President Barack Obama is eager to “turn a new page” in his government’s
relations with Iran and its newly installed president, Hassan Rouhani, it was
revealed on Tuesday. According to the London-based pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat,
Obama communicated his message to the Tehran regime through an emissary, the
ruler of Oman, Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said. Washington has called on Iran to
move beyond rhetoric take practical steps which demonstrate its willingness to
improve ties with the West, according to Al-Hayat. Rouhani vowed that Tehran
“will not give up one iota” of its nuclear rights, the Mehr news agency reported
on Tuesday. Sept. 11….(AP)
The Associated Press ran a skeptical piece Sunday about the Obama
administration's public case for military intervention in Syria in response to a
reported Aug. 21 chemical attack. The AP's Zeina Karam and Kimberly Dozier wrote
that "the US government insists it has the intelligence to prove it, but the
public has yet to see a single piece of concrete evidence produced by US
intelligence, no satellite imagery, no transcripts of Syrian military
communications, connecting the government of President Bashar Assad to the
alleged chemical weapons attack last month that killed hundreds of people." The
Obama administration has released videos to make its case, but the AP noted that
its requests for additional evidence the government claims to possess have been
denied. (Russia steps up supplies as part of deal
for regime to place its WMD stockpiles under supervision) Sept. 11….(Times of Israel) Russia
is stepping up weapons supplies to Syria’s President Bashar Assad, to help him
prevail in the civil war, as part of the arrangements under which the Assad
regime has agreed in principle to have its chemical weapons stockpiles placed
under international supervision, Israel television reported on Tuesday night.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, determined to ensure that his ally Assad not
face a punitive US-led strike following Damascus’s alleged use of chemical
weapons in an August 21 attack that the US says killed over 1,400 Syrians,
essentially ordered Assad to submit to international oversight of his chemical
weapons stocks, the report said. In return, Putin promised bolstered
conventional weapons shipments, “some of which are already on their way” to
Syria from the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. The TV report did not
specify which weaponry Putin is supplying to Assad, but noted that the Syrian
regime needs more fighter planes for use to quash rebel forces, spare parts for
tanks, and all kinds of other military equipment to replenish stocks depleted
during the two-and-a-half years of fighting. Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid
Moallem, who has been in Moscow this week, was quoted Tuesday saying Syria would
indeed open all relevant sites to UN inspectors, would not produce chemical
weapons, and would sign all relevant treaties. “We fully support Russia’s
initiative concerning chemical weapons in Syria, and we are ready to cooperate.
As a part of the plan, we intend to join the Chemical Weapons Convention,” he
said in an interview with the Lebanon-based Al-Maydeen TV. “We are ready to
fulfill our obligations in compliance with this treaty, including through the
provision of information about our chemical weapons. We will open our storage
sites, and cease production. We are ready to open these facilities to Russia,
other countries and the United Nations.” “We intend to give up chemical weapons
altogether,” he added. West Foolish for Pushing Democracy
in Mideast Sept. 11….(Israel Today) Israeli
Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon on Sunday ridiculed America and other Western
powers for continuing to cling to the myth that Western-style democracy will
ever truly take hold in the Islamic Middle East. Speaking at the annual security
conference at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya,
Ya'alon explained that in a region where far too many value death over life,
the moral base upon which Western democracy must be built is lacking. Western, and in particular American,
policy in this regard reeks of "ignorance, naivete, wishful thinking, and, no
less important, patronization," added the defense minister. But from the Spanish
conquistadors to the British Empire to global American economic influence,
Western powers have long sought to impose their way of governance on regions
where it doesn't necessarily fit. This is nothing new. What is astonishing, in Ya'alon's
assessment, is that today's Western leaders can look at the turmoil that has
come in the wake of the supposedly pro-democracy "Arab Spring" and still pretend
that birthing a Palestinian state will result in a stable, free and genuinely
democratic entity. Ya'alon stated: "One of the most incredible things in a
period when the notion of the nation state is collapsing before our eyes is that
there are those who are trying to advance, in one way or another, the founding
of yet another nation-state, even as it remains unclear how the people of Jenin
are connected to the people of Hebron, and uncertain that there is a common
denominator between those in Judea and Samaria and those in Gaza." Syria Crisis: The View From Israel Sept. 11….(Israel Today) Does an
American military strike in Syria even make sense? That is what is currently
being debated in Israel. The situation would be far more simple had US President
Barack Obama not publicly threatened American intervention if Syrian dictator
Bashar Assad crossed the red line of using chemical weapons. At the political
level, it appears as if Israel and the Jewish Lobby in America are not only
supportive of, but actively pushing Obama toward military action. By contrast,
European countries are taking a more cautious approach to the situation, citing
the mistakes that were made in Iraq and Afghanistan. On the other hand, Washington feels an
obligation to keep its word to Israel, just as the Russians provide Syria with
cover. "If we do nothing, we make ourselves implausible to Israel," warned US
Senator Robert Mendez. Jerusalem does not want war with Syria, but without an
American response, the US will lose important points in its deterrence strategy
in the Middle East. Washington, however, fears that a military strike now could
lead to a regional war. Further complicating the issue is that the Syrian
rebels are not, from an Israeli perspective, any better than the Assad regime.
Other revolutions across the Middle East in recent years have brought anything
but stability. So, both Washington and Jerusalem fear that Assad's fall will not
necessarily lead to an optimal outcome. Even if some say Assad must go, defense
experts in Jerusalem are warning Israel not to get too visibly involved so as to
avoid being accused of luring America into a new war, and thereby providing a
pretext for Syrian attacks on the Jewish state. Meanwhile, Russian President
Vladimir Putin is increasingly inserting his nation into the whole affair for
strategic reasons. Moscow and Damascus forged a close relationship 50 years
ago when the current Syrian dictator's father, Hafez al-Assad, came to power at
the time of the Soviet Union. As Russia enters today's fray, the Arab media is
speaking of a new Cold War between Russia and America centered on the Syrian
conflict. Moscow has established itself as a
superpower in the Middle East, if nowhere else, and is intent on maintaining
that position at any price. That policy encourages the so-called "axis of
evil" comprised of Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, while at the same time weakening
the position of America, which gambled all its political cards in Iraq and
Afghanistan and now fear further perceived failure in Syria. Arab newspapers across the region are
poking fun at what they see as Obama's cowardly approach to Syria. This is
especially evident in daily political cartoons (pictured above is a cartoon from
the Jordanian newspaper Al-Arab Al-Yum, with caption reading: Obama is an
unsuccessful fisherman in the Arab Middle East). But the situation is no
laughing matter for Israel. What is known is that Syria has a massive chemical
weapons arsenal. What is also known is that someone in Syria has used those
weapons against their own people, and so will certainly not hesitate to use them
against the hated "Zionist entity." Sunni-Shia Split the Mideast’s New
Great Divide “And he will be a wild man; his hand
will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell
in the presence of all his brethren.” Genesis 16:12 Sept. 11….(In The Days) Half of
Muslim believers in the Middle East and North Africa say religious conflict is a
major problem for their countries. How did it come to this? Some answers lie in
the distant beginnings of Islam. In the not-so-distant past, the doomsday
scenario was a cataclysmic “clash of civilizations” between Muslims and the
secular West. But the Arab Spring has brought a seismic
shift in the sectarian landscape. With civil war and political chaos rippling
through the region, the deadly divide now runs through the Muslim world itself. In Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain and Iraq,
Sunni and Shia Muslims are struggling for power while religious intolerance
rises violently in Egypt. Meanwhile, the Sunni Gulf States are fighting proxy
battles with Shia Iran for supremacy in the region, with Syria as ground zero.
The Syrian war has revived a centuries-old conflict. The schism in the faith
opened when the Prophet Mohammed died in 632AD: he left no will or designated
male heir. Shiites opted for his cousin and son-in-law, Ali, as his anointed
successor. Sunnis believed his friend and father-in-law, Abu Bakr, was a better
qualified candidate. Bitterness and bloodshed followed. The seal was set on the
sectarian split. Martyrdom and sacrifice run deep in
the Shia faith, along with a sense of injustice. Many Shiites believe that there
were 12 Imams, and that the 12th vanished, but would eventually reappear and
bring justice to the Earth. While Shiites believe their leaders, the ayatollahs,
are representatives of God on Earth, Sunnis focus on the teachings of the
Prophet. For centuries the religious practices have diverged, each side accusing
the other of heresy or extremism. However, Muslims managed to avoid the
massive decades-long battles of Christianity, and have managed, however
uneasily, to coexist and intermarry. Outside the Middle East only a minority are
concerned with sectarian strife, according to the recent Pew poll. In the Arab
countries, that may now be changing. But even before the Arab Spring, the
US-led invasion of Iraq touched off an explosion that blew apart the relative
calm that had prevailed between the region’s Sunni majority and Shia minority
under dictatorial regimes. “The war in Iraq institutionalized sectarianism,”
says Baghdad-born Abbas Ali of Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In an effort
to re-balance power in a Shia-majority country that had been dominated by Saddam
Hussein’s largely Sunni regime, the American occupation stripped power from
Sunnis, along with the livelihoods of many who had held bureaucratic and
middle-class jobs. The explosion of sectarian violence that followed the
invasion polarized Iraq and caused the death of tens of thousands of people in
attacks that are ongoing today. But the rise to power of Iraqi
Shiites, and their links with co-religionists in Iran, also shifted the
geopolitics of the region. In the Muslim world, Sunnis make up about 80 per cent
of believers. Among the Middle East and North Africa’s 315 million Muslims they
are a significant majority, except for Iran, Iraq, tiny Bahrain and Lebanon. But
in spite of their strength in numbers, Sunnis have feared Iranian-engineered
Shia expansionism. Many saw the Shia victory in Iraq as a tipping point. King Abdullah of Jordan first sounded
the alarm in the Sunni Middle East by warning of a “Shiite crescent” that would
draw in governments and factions from Iran to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and the
Persian Gulf. The volume rose as economic powerhouse Saudi Arabia added its
voice to growing fears across the region. Anxiety was boosted by economic as
well as religious issues: the struggle for oil transit and markets. But the Arab
Spring changed the geopolitical landscape yet again, letting loose old and new
hostilities. In Egypt, where close to 90 per cent
of the population is Sunni, and Shias a negligible presence, the Christians who
make up 5-10 per cent of the population have been savagely attacked and their
churches destroyed. But Shias were also assaulted and some killed in mob
violence. The war in Syria, with a Shia-linked
Alawite regime battling for survival against mainly Sunni rebels, sent out new
shocks in the turbulent region. Across the Arab world, says Abdo, the Shia power
moment “has now been eclipsed by a growing Sunni bid for ascendency in both the
religious and political realms.” The Syrian civil war, she says, has given the
Gulf rulers a reason to repress their own Shia populations, and to detract from
the legitimate grievances of opposition members. Syrian President Bashar Assad
provided the opportunity for Sunni-led governments to say ‘look what the Shia
are doing to Sunnis.’” A dangerous turning point arrived when
the leader of the Lebanese Shia faction Hezbollah, backed by Iran, admitted
publicly that he was sending fighters to Syria. It is now seen as a defender of
Shia Islam in the region, confirming the suspicions of Sunnis who see Iran’s
hand everywhere. But Sunni militancy has also been rising alarmingly, as Gulf
money backs radical foreign groups who have streamed over the border to Syria..
The most vocal of the Middle Eastern radicals are Salafists, fundamentalist
Sunnis who believe in strict adherence to the Prophet’s teachings and habits,
and denigrate those who disagree as non-Muslims. They officially oppose
violence, but a minority have carried out violent attacks on their religious
foes. In Egypt, hardline cleric Mahmoud
Shaaban called for the deaths of leading opposition figures. Some members of
North African al Qaeda groups are also Salafists. But even the Muslim
Brotherhood, a more moderate faction, has hardened its rhetoric. In Qatar,
Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf al Qaradawi condemned Alawites as “infidels”
and called for Sunnis “who have the ability and training to kill” to join the
rebels fighting the Assad regime. “Some of the Sunni clerics have taken the war
inside the mosque and framed it in sectarian terms,” says Abdo. The prospect of radicalization is most
worrying in Lebanon. A car bomb recently killed 30 people in Hezbollah’s
heartland of southern Beirut. Earlier, a similar attack wounded more than 50
people. There have been deadly gunfights between Alawites and Sunnis in Tripoli.
Lebanese people once again live in fear that the devastating civil war that laid
waste to the small country for 15 years will return. Syrian spillover seems less
perilous in Jordan, whose Sunni majority is almost absolute, though its already
divided population is rapidly being overwhelmed by Syrian refugees, including
opposition members who could be targets for Syrian revenge. There are also worries that political
instability could be contagious. Neighboring Turkey, which has accepted nearly
500,000 Syrian refugees, was torn by protests against its Islamist government.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s crackdown opened new wounds. The anxiety is
especially palpable in Turkey’s lush southeastern border province of Hatay.
“Ankara increasingly displays a Sunni stance in line with other Sunni axis
powers such as Saudia Arabia and Qatar,” local journalist Tamer Yazar told The
Guardian. “People in Hatay perceive this as taking sides in this sectarian
conflict.” Farther from the conflict, the majority Shia population of Bahrain is
struggling for rights under a royalist Sunni government backed by hardline Saudi
Arabia. What lies ahead for Muslims in the
Arab lands is uncertain. And although religion is only a factor in the struggle
for power that surfaced when dictatorships sank, it is one of the most potent.
“The people in power are finding sectarianism an instrument for maintaining
power,” says Ali, adding that “things are not getting better, but worse.” The
historic hostilities ratcheted up by dictators and militants to divide the Arab
countries may doom the future of the region, as well as its legendary past,
which is disappearing into ruins. Putin: US Must Call off Attacks on
Syria Sept. 11….(RT) Russian President
Vladimir Putin said that Syria’s chemical arms handover will only work if the US
and its allies renounce the use of force against Damascus. "Of course, all of
this will only mean anything if the United States and other nations supporting
it tell us that they're giving up their plan to use force against Syria. You
can’t really ask Syria, or any other country, to disarm unilaterally while
military action against it is being contemplated," President Putin said on
Tuesday. President Putin said that the matter
of bringing Syria’s chemical weapons under international control has long been a
subject of discussion by experts and politicians. Putin confirmed that he and
President Barack Obama had “indeed discussed” such a possibility on the
sidelines of the G20 summit in St. Petersburg last week. It was agreed, Putin
said, “to instruct Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov to work together and see if they can achieve some progress in this
regard." President Putin’s comments came shortly after the Syrian government
said it would agree to place its chemical weapons arsenal under international
control. Fatah Declares War over Temple
Mount: Sept. 11….(Arutz)
While Fatah head and
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas negotiates with Israel for the
creation of a PA state, Fatah’s armed branch, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, has
declared war. The Brigade issued a statement Tuesday announcing that it would
give the “green light” to terrorist attacks targeting Israelis beginning on
Friday. The reason given for the planned
resumption of open hostilities was Jewish visits to the Temple Mount, which the
group termed, “The invasion of the compound by hordes of settlers, and the harm
to [Muslim] worshipers, with no intervention from the international community.”
Tensions have been high on the Temple Mount in recent weeks, with many Jewish
visitors to the holy site reporting harassment and violence at the hands of
groups of Muslims. The Temple Mount is the holiest place on earth according to
Judaism. The site is currently run by the Muslim Wakf. Jews are allowed to visit
only during limited hours, and are forbidden to pray on the Mount. Muslim leaders have denounced Jewish
visits to the Temple Mount, which is also the site of the Al Aqsa Mosque, and
have accused Israel and Jews of attempting to harm the mosque. PA leaders,
including Abbas himself, have made similar claims, insisting that Jews have no
ties to the holy site and that Israel is secretly plotting to replace the mosque
with a Jewish Temple. Obama Promised Putin Not to Strike
Syria Sept. 11….(DEBKA) President Barack Obama’s
two climb-downs on a US strike against Syria over its use of chemical weapons
are turning out to be part of a deal which he forged secretly with Russian
President Vladimir Putin. Obama is presenting it as a US-Russian accord for
stripping Bashar Assad of his chemical arsenal, while Putin is using it as an
expedient for saving the Assad regime in Damascus. Both are ready to sacrifice
the Syrian rebel movement to their détente. Debkafile’s intelligence sources
disclose that Moscow is pushing for more than a US pledge to back off using
force against Syria, demanding that Washington also refrain from diplomatic
action against the Assad regime. Washington warned it would not fall for
“stalling tactics.” Moscow balked, insisting on a
declaration, not a binding resolution, in support of international control for
the chemical stockpiles, and no sanctions for violations. China and Iran backed
the Russian motion. Addressing a Russian TV Arab broadcast Tuesday, Putin said
he had urged Syria to hand over its chemical weapons for them to be destroyed.
He added that the handover plan would only work if the US renounced the use of
force. Our sources disclose that in another
part of his deal with the Russian president, Obama did not object to Moscow
providing the Syrian army with a fresh supply of advanced weapons in substantial
quantities to compensate Assad for giving up his chemical arsenal. Friday, Sept. Moscow announced that the
Nikolai Filchenko landing craft heading for the eastern Mediterranean would stop
off at the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk to pick up a “special cargo” for
Syria. This vessel, say our sources, was to carry the first shipment of the
fresh arms supplies Moscow was sending Bashar Assad. Sept. 9….(AP)
Syrian President Bashar Assad is warning the US of repercussions if it
launches a military strike against him. "You should expect everything," Assad
said in an interview, while denying that his troops used chemical weapons. "If
you strike somewhere, you have to expect the repercussions somewhere else," he
said. In the interview aired Monday on "CBS This Morning," Assad said the
evidence about chemical weapons that Kerry is presenting amounts to a "big lie"
that resembles the case for war in Iraq that Secretary of State Colin Powell
made to the United Nations over a decade ago. Assad also
suggested the rebels fighting his government might be responsible for the
alleged gas attack in the Damascus suburbs. Asked whether he was making a threat
of direct military retaliation to any US attack, Assad was vague, saying at one
point, "I am not fortune teller to tell you what's going to happen." "It's not
only the government (that's) the only player in this region," he said. "You have
different parties. You have different factions. You have different ideology. You
have everything in this region now. So you have to expect that." In still
another interview Assad warned that the US would "pay the price" for any strike
against Syria. He told US broadcaster PBS that strikes would increase
instability and lead to the spread of terrorism in the region. He said there was
absolutely "no evidence" that government forces had used chemical weapons
against their own people. n his interview with PBS, the Syrian president said
the Middle East was "on the brink of explosion". "You're going to pay the price
if you're not wise with dealing with terrorists. There are going to be
repercussions," he said. "You should expect everything. The government is not
the only player in this region. You have different parties, different factions,
different ideologies. You have everything in this decision now." Mr. Assad did
not explain whether his comment was a threat that Syrian-backed groups such as
Hezbollah would launch retaliation, or a warning that strikes would bolster
al-Qaeda-linked groups. Mr. Assad calls the rebels "terrorists" and has often
insisted that they are linked to al-Qaeda. Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, after talks with his Syrian counterpart Walid
al-Muallem in Moscow, painted a dark picture of the consequences of US-led
military action and insisted the regime was still ready for talks. In a sign of
the closeness of the relationship between Moscow and Damascus, Muallem passed on
Assad's personal thanks to Russian President Vladimir Putin for his support in
arguing against military action at the G20 summit in Saint Petersburg. "All the
more, politicians share our estimation that a military solution will lead to an
outburst of terrorism both in Syria and in neighboring countries," Lavrov said
after the talks. (Moscow to
urge Syria to 'place chemical weapons under international control) Sept. 9….(YNET) The Russian foreign
minister said Moscow will push Syria to place its chemical weapons under
international control. After talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem
in Moscow, Sergei Lavrov called on Syria to "place the chemical weapons under
international control and then have them destroyed.” Sergey Lavrov said Monday
that if such a move would help avert a possible US strike on Syria, Russia will
start work "immediately" to persuade Syria to relinquish control over its
chemical arsenals. According to him such a plan would help "avoid military
strikes" that are being considered by the United States and its allies. Lavrov
said he had already passed the proposal to al-Moallem in Moscow and hoped for a
"quick and positive answer" from Syria. He added that Syria was ready for "full
cooperation with Russia to remove any pretext for aggression." Neither
minister, however, offered any evidence to back their claim of rebel involvement
in the chemical attack. Lavrov said that Russia will continue to promote a
peaceful settlement and may try to convene a gathering of all Syrian opposition
figures to join in negotiations. He added that a US attack on Syria would deal a
fatal blow to peace efforts. Lavrov wouldn't say how Russia could respond to a
possible US attack on Syria, saying that "we wouldn't like to proceed from a
negative scenario and would primarily take efforts to prevent a military
intervention." FOJ Note:
The Syrian crisis may have only reached a point serving the eventuality whereby
weapons of mass destruction are internationally placed under a Global Authority.
The infamous destruction of Damascus may or may not happen during the current
crisis, but in any event, that prophecy will eventually occur.
Prophecy students need to remember, the ten kings of Revelation
17 select the eventual Antichrist (G8+) and that He has universal control of
such weapons. (Rev 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power
unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the
beast? who is able to make war with him) Sept. 9….(Fox
News) The Palestinian Authority is doling out millions of dollars in cash grants
to convicted terrorists recently released from Israeli prisons in a program
announced the same day as the PA accepted $148 million in the latest round of US
aid. The authority announced Aug. 18 it would disburse $15 million in so-called
“Dignified Life Grants” to more than 5,000 prisoners who had served more than
five years in Israeli lockups, but had been recently released as a show of good
faith by the Jewish state to bolster the Middle East peace process, according to
Palestinian Media Watch. The announcement came on the same day the State
Department’s Michael Ratney, consulate general of the US in Jerusalem, signed
off on $148 million in aid to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority, currently
in the throes of a budget crisis. Although the
US funnels about $400 million per year in aid to the authority, none of the
money, by law, is supposed to go to terrorists or former terrorists. Critics say
there is no way to separate money from US taxpayers and the funds which go to
the former prisoners. “We have a lot of funding that goes to the PA that is
fungible and co-mingled and there is a lot of concern the money is going to
radical causes and extremist issues,” Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for
research at the bipartisan think tank, Foundation for Defense of Democracy, told
FoxNews.com. “There are many problematic questions concerning the way the
Palestinian Authority disperses funds and especially those coming from the US.
This is not unique. We’ve seen in the past, monies allocated from the PA’s
budget to the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, which is a designated terrorist
organization, and all of this points to a troubling trend whereby the US has
tried to get a handle on financing within the PA.” In August,
The Associated Press reported that Israel published the names of 26 men to be
freed before the latest peace talks between the Jewish State and the P.A. In
all, 104 prisoners have been slated for release in four phases over a period of
nine months that the US has set aside for negotiations. But their freedom is
reportedly contingent on progress in the talks. It’s not clear who exactly has
applied for the “Dignified Life Grants,” although Palestinian Media Watch
reports that prisoners released from Israeli prisons swarmed the PA’s Ministry
of Prisoners' Affairs office in Gaza following the grants’ announcement. And among
those Israel was slated to release was Mustafa al-Haj, convicted of killing an
American-born settler hiking in the West Bank in 1989. “It’s not certain our
specific dollars are finding their way into terrorists’ or former terrorists’
pockets but, at the least it’s freeing funds for the PA to do these types of
things,” Jim Phillips, Middle East analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a
Washington, DC-based conservative think tank, told FoxNews.com. “The
Palestinians will argue this money is not fungible, but the fact that they are
making these grants is a sign to me that the PA has plenty of money and maybe
the US should be scaling back its aid to the organization.” Andrea
Lafferty, president of the Traditional Values Coalition, a national conservative
organization, turned up the rhetorical heat a few degrees further, telling
FoxNews.com, “The Israelis were wrong to release these murderers and Obama is
wrong to pay them a bonus for their evil actions. No good can come with any
cooperation with the Palestinian Authority. “These are repeat, serial
terrorists and murderers that we have been funding. And the more we learn about
the twisted foreign policy of the Obama Administration, the better we understand
why the president is so inept to handle any issue foreign or domestic.” (Major oil,
gas interests run through Middle East nation) Sept. 9….(WND) Is
the reported willingness of Arab Gulf states to fund a US military campaign in
Syria really about major oil and gas interests that run through the country? The
potential for trillions of dollars of energy revenue in deals that snake through
Syrian territory may be a motivating factor for the US, Russia, Turkey and Arab
states in the current Syria crisis. Syria is a key energy transit route to
Europe. A number of countries appear to be seeking dominance of the energy
market that runs through Syria. In a hearing earlier this week, Secretary of
State John Kerry said Arab counties have offered to pay for any US military
intervention in Syria. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., asked for an estimated
amount the Arabs might contribute. Kerry replied that they offered to pay for a
full invasion. “In fact, some of them have said that if the United States is
prepared to go do the whole thing the way we’ve done it previously in other
places, they’ll carry that cost,” Kerry said. “That’s how dedicated they are at
this. That’s not in the cards, and nobody’s talking about it, but they’re
talking in serious ways about getting this done.” Unmentioned
are major gas and oil deals that could impact the economies of Qatar, Turkey and
Saudi Arabia enormously. In 2011, Syria announced it had discovered a promising
gas field in the city of Homs, which would later see some of the fiercest
battles between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and the rebels. Oil
Minister Sufian Allawi told the state-run SANA news agency that the first wells
“were in the Homs governorate and the flow rate is 400,000 cubic meters per
day.” “The discovery opens new perspectives in the region of Qalamun, and the
Syrian company will continue its drilling,” said Allawi. Beside the
prospect of its own gas field, Syria is also one of the most strategic locations
for natural gas pipelines to flow to Europe. Qatar, home to the world’s largest
gas field along with Iran, has proposed a gas pipeline from the Gulf to Turkey
that would traverse Syria to the Mediterranean, with the gas then being shipped
to Europe. However, Assad in 2009 refused to go along with the plan, instead
inking deals with Russia and Iran. Syria is site
of the proposed construction of a massive underground gas pipeline that, if
completed, could drastically undercut the strategic energy power of US ally
Qatar and also would cut Turkey out of the pipeline flow. Dubbed the “Islamic
pipeline,” the project may ultimately favor Russia and Iran against
Western energy interests. Set to open in 2016, Iran, Iraq and Syria signed a
deal in 2010 to construct the 3,480-mile natural gas pipeline connecting Iran’s
South Pars field to European customers. Iranian
Deputy Oil Minister Javad Oji announced the pipeline would ultimately have the
capacity to pump 3.9 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. He told Iran’s
official Mehr News Agency the route would “pass through Iran, Iraq, Syria, the
southern Lebanon territories and also through the Mediterranean basin,” with
a refinery and infrastructure to be built in Damascus. A key portion of the
Islamic pipeline is concentrated on the Syrian ports, which would export
directly to Europe out of the Eastern Mediterranean. Russia has
reportedly built up its naval presence along the major Syrian ports of Latakia
and Tartus. The Islamic pipeline is viewed as a major threat to Turkey, which
has long desired to become the main bridge for natural gas and oil between the
East and the West. Turkey, however, is a key player in the Nabucco natural
gas pipeline, which is being constructed to transit natural gas to Europe from
the Central Asia and Caspian regions. The pipeline is set to traverse
Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, and end in Austria.
Turkey has been a key supporter of the rebels fighting Assad’s regime, while
Qatar has reportedly been supplied arms and training to the rebels. If Assad can
be deposed, Turkey and Qatar would like the Nabucco pipeline to run through
Syria. Perhaps in a
bid to wean Russia off of the Islamic pipeline, Saudi Arabia last month
presented a plan to Moscow in which Russia would reject Syria’s president in
return for a huge arms deal and a pledge to boost Russian influence in the Arab
world. Agence France-Presse reported President Vladimir Putin refused the
plan in a meeting with Saudi Arabia’s intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin
Sultan. Bandar reportedly proposed that Saudi Arabia buy $15 billion of weapons
from Russia and invest “considerably in the country,” according to AFP.
Demonstrating that oil interests are clearly at play, AFP reported: “The
Saudi prince also reassured Putin that ‘whatever regime comes after’ Assad, it
will be ‘completely’ in the Saudis’ hands and will not sign any agreement
allowing any Gulf country to transport its gas across Syria to Europe and
compete with Russian gas exports.” Sept. 9….(WND)
Former US intelligence analysts claim current intelligence analysts have told
them Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was not responsible for the Aug. 21
poison gas attack on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, which killed 1,429
people, of whom more than 400 where children. They claim the “growing body of
evidence” reveals the incident was a pre-planned provocation by the Syrian
opposition and its Saudi and Turkish supporters. “The aim is reported to have
been to create the kind of incident that would bring the United States into the
war,” one former US intelligence analysts said. The analysts referred to a
meeting a week before the Aug. 21 incident in which opposition military
commanders ordered preparations for an “imminent escalation” due to a
“war-changing development” that would be followed by the “US-led bombing of
Syria.” In addition,
the former US analysts said that Israel welcomed limited US military action but
not so much that it would strengthen rebel groups, which are “increasingly
dominated by Sunni jihadis.” In claiming that the Aug. 21 chemical weapons
incident was a provocation of the Syrian opposition, the former U.S. analysts
said that the growing body of evidence came mostly from sources affiliated with
the Syrian opposition and its supporters. They said that these reports revealed
that canisters containing chemical agents were brought into a suburb of
Damascus, where they were then opened. “We are unaware of any reliable evidence
that a Syrian military rocket capable of carrying a chemical agent was fired
into the area,” the analysts said. “In fact, we are aware of no reliable
physical evidence to support the claim that this was a result of a strike by a
Syrian military unit with expertise in chemical weapons. “In addition, we have
learned that on August 13-14, 2013, Western-sponsored opposition forces in
Turkey started advance preparations for a major, irregular military surge,” the
analysts said. “Initial meetings between senior opposition military commanders
and Qatari, Turkish and US intelligence officials took place at the converted
Turkish military garrison in Antakya, Hatay Province, now used as the command
center and headquarters of the Free Syrian Army and their foreign sponsors.” The analysts
claimed that senior opposition commanders who came from Istanbul pre-briefed the
regional commanders on an “imminent escalation in the fighting due to ‘a
war-changing development,’ which, in turn, would lead to a US-led bombing of
Syria.” The analysts said that the opposition leaders then were ordered to
prepare their forces to “exploit the US bombing” and march into Damascus to
remove the al-Assad government. The Obama
administration refuses to admit that the Syrian opposition possesses or has the
capability of delivering chemical weapons. As WND recently reported, a
100-page report on an investigation turned over to the UN by Russia concludes
that the Syrian rebels, not the Syrian government, used the nerve agent Sarin in
an attack in the Syrian city of Aleppo last March. Sources familiar with the
content of the documentation said that deadly Sarin gas was manufactured in a
Sunni-controlled region of Iraq and then transported to Turkey for use by the
Syrian opposition, whose ranks have swelled with members of al-Qaida-affiliated
groups. The documentation is said to have pointed specifically to a Saddam-era
general working under the outlawed Iraqi Ba’ath party leader, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri.
Al-Douri was a top aide to Saddam Hussein before he was deposed as president. The general,
Adnan al-Dulaimi, then supplied the Sarin to Ba’ath-affiliated foreign fighters
of the Sunni and Saudi Arabian-backed Jabhat al-Nusra Front in Aleppo, with
Turkey’s cooperation through the Turkish town of Antakya in Hatay Province. Sept. 9….(CBS) In
an interview with Charlie Rose in Damascus Sunday, Syrian President Bashar Assad
denied he had anything to do with last month's chemical weapons attack that
killed thousands of Syrians, but would not confirm or deny his regime has
chemical weapons, Rose said on CBS' "Face The Nation." The
interview, Assad's first with an American television network in nearly two
years, is scheduled to air on "The Charlie Rose Show" on PBS Monday, the same
day President Barack Obama is scheduled to sit down with six different
television networks, including PBS, to make his case to for a US strike against
Syria. According to
CBS News president David Rhodes, Rose interviewed Assad in Damascus and then
traveled to Beirut where he spoke with CBS' Bob Schieffer by phone. According to
Rose, Assad again suggested Syrian rebels may have had something to do with the
Aug. 21 attack on the Syrian people. He denied he knew there was a chemical
attack, Rose said, and added that there is not enough evidence to make a
conclusion judgment. Assad, he said, told him there is "no evidence I used
chemical weapons against my own people." In a statement to Yahoo News, National
Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan scoffed at Assad's comments. "It
doesn’t surprise us that someone who would kill thousands of his own people,
including hundreds of children with poison gas, would also lie about it," Meehan
said. Earlier
Sunday, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough warned that if Congress
refuses to back the president's plan, it would send a bad signal to the rest of
the Middle East. "Everybody agrees that on August 21st, Assad used chemical
weapons against his own people," McDonough said on ABC's "This Week With George
Stephanopoulos." "So the question facing Congress this week is a very simple
one, should there be consequences for his having used gases, chemical weapons,
to kill more than 1,000 of his own people, including more than 400 children?" he
continued. "The answer to that question will be followed closely in Tehran, the
answer to that question will be followed closely in Damascus, the answer to that
question will be followed very closely by members of Lebanese Hezbollah. So this
is a big, big question and a big week for Congress to address that, uh, very
fundamental national security issue." FOJ Note:
So Assad says that he didn’t do it. Kerry says he did, Obama says he did. Putin
says Assad didn’t do it. Whom do we believe? Do we trust Mr. Kerry, a known liar
from his Viet Nam days? Do we trust Mr. Obama, a known liar about many things,
not to mention his birthplace and his religion? Do we trust Assad or Putin?
They’re just as trustworthy as Kerry and Obama, in my opinion. (In Europe,
Kerry says world facing ‘Munich moment’ versus Assad) Sept. 9….(Times
of Israel) President Barack Obama faces a high-stakes week of trying to convince
a skeptical Congress and a war-weary American public to back a military strike
against Syria. His administration came under more pressure Saturday from
European officials to delay possible action until UN inspectors report their
findings about an August 21 chemical attack that Obama blames on Syrian
President Bashar Assad’s government. Invoking the
European policy of appeasement toward Nazi Germany in the lead-up to World War
II, Kerry said the international community was facing a “Munich moment” in
Syria. “This is the time to pursue a targeted and limited but clear and
effective response that holds dictators like Bashar Assad responsible for the
atrocities which they commit,” he said. President
Obama will address the nation Tuesday night from the White House to make his
case for military action. On Wednesday, the first showdown Senate vote is likely
over a resolution authorizing the “limited and specified use” of US armed forces
against Syria for no more than 90 days and barring American ground troops from
combat. A final vote in the 100-member chamber is expected at week’s end. A vote
in the House of Representatives is likely the week of September 16. The dirty
little not-so-secret behind President Obama’s much-lobbied-for, illegal and
strategically incompetent war against Syria is that it’s not about Syria at all.
It’s about Iran, and Israel. And it has been from the start. By “the start,”
I mean 2011, when the Obama administration gradually became convinced that it
could deal Iran a mortal blow by toppling President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, a
secular, Baathist strongman who is, despite all, an ally of Iran’s. Since then,
taking Iran down a peg has been the driving force behind Obama’s Syria
policy.Not coincidentally, the White House plans to scare members of Congress
into supporting the ill-conceived war plan by waving the Iranian flag in their
faces. President
Obama acknowledged that the US public mostly opposes a strike and that he may
not persuade a majority of Americans. But without a martial response, he said, a
fundamental global prohibition against chemical weapons use could unravel,
emboldening other leaders with such weapons at their disposal and making the
world more dangerous for years to come. Meanwhile, the
speaker of Russia's national legislature said Friday that a plan to send a
parliamentary delegation to Washington to try and convince US lawmakers that a
unilateral military intervention in Syria would be unwarranted and
counterproductive had been cancelled. Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed
the delegation meetings to Obama in Russia. In light of Obama’s rebuttal,
Russia's government-linked news agencies quoted senior military officials as
saying two more of the country's warships were headed for the Mediterranean,
near Syria's western coast. The RIA-Novosti agency said two ships from Russia's
Black Sea Fleet, the frigate Smetlivyi and the landing ship Nicholai Filchenkov,
an electronic surveillance vessel, were ready to head to the region, according
to a high-ranking source in the defense ministry. Russian news agencies said at
the end of August that the navy was dispatching an anti-submarine ship and a
missile cruiser to the Mediterranean. Russia has a military base on Syria's west
coast at Tartus, and has been slowly increasing its naval presence in the
region, along with the US, in recent weeks. FOJ Note:
Some suggest that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel would
prefer that Obama enforce his red line on chemical weapons use, because he would
like to see proof that Obama believes in the red lines he draws. From
Netanyahu’s perspective, Israel isn’t unduly threatened by Assad. Syria
constitutes a dangerous, but ultimately manageable, threat. Netanyahu believes,
of course, that Iran, Syria’s primary sponsor, poses an existential threat to
his country, and so would like the Iranians to understand very clearly that
Obama’s red lines are, in fact, very red. Obama Offers Assad A Secret Deal:
Leave Sept. 9….(WND) On the eve of a critical
Capitol Hill discussion on Syria and two days before his address to the nation,
President Obama has offered Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a way out of any US
bombing campaign. Informed Middle Eastern intelligence officials tell WND the US
passed a message to Assad through Russia offering a deal that would ensure
against US military action if the Syrian leader agrees to the following terms:
· Serious political reforms that will result in free
and fair presidential elections.
· Assad will not be allowed to run in future
presidential elections and agrees to step down from power.
· An international committee will supervise control
of Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal.
·
The international community, with US participation,
will help rebuild the Syrian army and security services to guarantee
participation from all factions of the population. The model for this
reorganization is the so-called Dayton plan that has been overseeing the
restructuring of the Palestinian Authority security organizations and militias. The Middle
Eastern security officials told WND that Russia has already objected to the term
that bars Assad from running in future presidential elections. The security
officials further stated the US believes Assad will likely reject the deal.
The officials said Russian, North Korean and Iranian experts continue to prepare
Syria’s military and missile arsenal for the possibility of war, including the
contingency of firing missiles at Israel, Jordan and Turkey. As WND first reported, Iranian and
North Korean experts are directing an operations room for the Syrian army ahead
of a possible showdown with Western powers, according to informed Middle Eastern
security officials. The Iranians and North Koreans, based inside Syria, are
focusing their efforts on ensuring the viability of Syria’s air defense systems
while maintaining the embattled country’s vast missile arsenal, the officials
said. The officials said Iran has gone so far as to pledge soldiers to Syria if
such mercenaries are needed in a confrontation. Russian military experts are
also participating in the preparation efforts by advising the Syrian army, but
Moscow has not met the expectations of Assad’s regime regarding the extent of
their involvement, the officials said. The Middle
Eastern security officials further told WND they have information Iran failed to
convince the Hamas command in the Gaza Strip to fire rockets into the Jewish
state in the event of a Western attack on Syria. The officials believe that if a
Western attack against Damascus is surgical and is carried out without the goal
of regime change, the Syrians may not retaliate against Israel. Sept. 9…..(New York Times)
Secretary of
State John Kerry said Sunday that Saudi Arabia had agreed to support military
intervention in Syria. At a news conference on the sidebar of a meeting with
Arab League foreign ministers, Mr. Kerry noted that he had received Saudi
assurances of support for what he called “the strike.” Qatar’s foreign minister,
Khalid Al Attiya, who joined Mr. Kerry at the news conference, stopped short of
explicitly endorsing a military strike but said his nation would back foreign
intervention. Mr. Attiya said supporters of the President Bashar al-Assad of
Syria had already intervened in the conflict, an allusion to Iran and Hezbollah.
He called on “all countries to intervene to protect the Syrian people” and said
that Qatar was looking at what it could provide to help safeguard the Syrian
population. Saudi Arabia
and Qatar were among the first backers of the Syrian opposition that is fighting
Assad and provided weapons for the rebels. (Saudi Arabia is even insistent
upon paying for the attacks in light of the fact that America is bankrupt)
Mr. Kerry has been at the forefront of the Obama administration’s efforts to
build international support for airstrikes against the Syrian government. The
attached picture shows John Kerry consorting with his Arab League paymasters.
America is loaning its own armed forces out for hire, to accomplish the policies
of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Emirates. Syrian People Don’t Want American
Intervention Sept. 7….(Israel Today) The entire world
is counting the minutes until September 9th when the US Congress is expected to
reconvene in order to decide the fate of Syria, either banning or approving a US
strike against Syrian government targets, following an alleged chemical attack
that killed more than a thousand people. Israel Today
spoke to Yelena Gromova, a Russian journalist residing in Damascus, who presents
another angle to the complicated Syrian saga. US claims about an alleged
chemical attack seem suspicious. At the same time, even the supporters of
Syria’s President Bashar Al Assad (like Iran) acknowledge the fact. Who should
people believe? The attack did take place. But it wasn’t carried out by the
party that the US and its allies are trying to accuse. On the first day of
the attack, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aleksander Lukashevich,
announced that according to the information possessed by the Russian authorities
“in the early morning of August 21st a makeshift rocket was launched from the
areas occupied by the militant rebel forces.” Anyone who
doesn’t want to speculate on the subject knows that the chemical attack was
carried out by the rebels. Other claims are no more than deceitful accusations
aimed at discrediting the Syrian authorities. Those countries who are now
blaming Syria have always actively supported those Islamist militants. This
makes them partners in crime and therefore they should be held responsible for
the blood of all those victims, including children. It looks as
if Russia is not going to interfere in the US-Syria conflict. This is despite
the fact that Russia is one of Syria’s main allies. What’s going on? Did Russia
get scared understanding that it's incapable of facing the US military? Of
course, it could have acted more vigorously like the Soviet Union did at the
time of the Cuban missile crisis [of 1962]. But Russia provides Syria with
serious diplomatic assistance. The mere fact that no American bombs have
landed on Syrian soil so far is primarily Russia’s doing. Russian diplomats
might be thinking that it’s better not to provoke Washington right now [in order
not to trigger an escalation of tensions], but if the war does eventually erupt,
I am convinced that Russia will be able to find the necessary leverage to stop
it. Knowing the
psychology of the Syrian people, what do you think the West can expect from them
in the event of an attack? Is Syrian going to turn into another Afghanistan? The
majority of the Syrian people are not scared. You can hear many Syrians saying:
“We’ve been living in war conditions for the past two years, what else can scare
us?” Furthermore, if before there were some people who believed in the righteous
cause of the so-called opposition, the situation has now changed. No longer
do people believe in the good intentions of the US government or the
"opposition," which calls for foreign attacks on its own country. Syrians don't
want the same outcome for their country as what happened in Iraq, and they
loathe those who support western aggression against the Syrian government. Some experts
claim that Russia and the US are attempting to split Syria into smaller states (Alawite,
Christian, etc.). How realistic are these claims? Syrians do not want the split.
Even the Kurds, who generally supported the idea of separation, are now speaking
against it. Of course, Western powers are interested in splitting Syria as they
remain loyal to the old Roman tactics of "divide and conquer." But the Syrians
say: “We have been living together for our entire lives. We are one people”.
It’s worth mentioning that during Syria’s struggle against French colonialism,
France offered to divide Syria into states based on sectarian differences,
creating Alawite, Druze and Sunni federations, while giving Lebanon to the
Christians. Yet, the leaders of anti-colonial struggle opposed the idea and
called on the people to join forces to fight for a united and free Syria. The
representative of Syria in the League of Nations, who was a Christian, rejected
claims that the presence of French forces on Syrian territory would protect
Christians and announced that Christians and Muslims were one people. Syrians
are brought up on these values and they will do their best to prevent a split
from happening. How many
people actually support President Assad and who are these rebels? When I first
came to Syria in 2011 I saw tremendous rallies in support of Assad and his
government. In 2014, Syria is expected to hold presidential elections. If the
opposition was so sure of the people's backing, it would have proposed its
candidacy and would have used political methods to obtain power, especially
given the fact that the new reforms allow that. But the point is that they are
afraid of elections. Their only way to assume power is with the help of American
military might. The rebels neglect basic ethical principles, and call on
Obama to stage a war against the Syrian people. You can imagine what they
will do if they assume power. Look at Libya, where everyone fights everyone.
Syrians have to do anything it takes to prevent the Libyan scenario evolving in
their country. Sept. 7….(AP)
Pope Francis has written a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, host of
the G-20 summit that President Obama is attending, urging world leaders to
oppose a military intervention in Syria. “To the leaders present, to each and
every one, I make a heartfelt appeal for them to help find ways to overcome the
conflicting positions and to lay aside the futile pursuit of a military
solution,” the Pope urged. “Rather, let there be a renewed commitment to seek,
with courage and determination, a peaceful solution through dialogue and
negotiation of the parties, unanimously supported by the international
community.” The move is
the latest in a series of efforts by the Holy See to prevent military action in
the already civil-war torn region. On Sunday, the Pope declared in his Angelus
teaching that Saturday Sept. 7 would be an day of fasting and prayer for peace
in Syria. The prayer rally will take place in St. Peter’s Square from 7 p.m. to
midnight, on the vigil of the birth of Mary, the Queen of Peace. “Let us ask
Mary to help us to respond to violence, to conflict and to war, with the power
of dialogue, reconciliation and love,” the Pope asked people around the world.
“She is our mother: may she help us to find peace; all of us are her children!” Sept. 7….(DEBKA)
The US Friday, Sept. 6, ordered the withdrawal of non-emergency workers and
their families from the embassy in Beirut and the consulate general in Adana,
southeast Turkey, and warned Americans against traveling to those areas amid
looming threats to their security. The State Department posted these advisories
after an unscheduled 20-minute one-on-one meeting between Presidents Barack and
Obama and Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20 at St. Petersburg. No
information was released on results of their conversation, but the staff
withdrawals from Beirut and Turkey pointed to the two leaders remaining at
loggerheads as much as before amid a mounting buildup of Russian naval might
around Syria. Moscow
announced earlier that the Nikolai Filchenkov landing ship was on its way to the
Mediterranean, stressing that it would first put in at Novorossisk port on the
Black Sea to pick up “a special cargo.” This cargo was widely identified
as advanced Russian S-300 interceptors for warding off a US attack on Syria. Any American
assault will now have to be expanded and revised to cover widely-dispersed
targets distributed across large areas in view of the following developments: 1. The Syrian
government has scattered the chemical units responsible for the atrocity,
along with its chemical stocks in dozens of hideouts across the country to
minimize damage. 2. The recommendation by Chairman of the
Joint US Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, cited by President Obama to
justify the delay in the offensive, it could take place “tomorrow, in a week or
a month,” hasn’t held water. The chief of US naval operations, Adm. Jonathan
Greenert, commented Thursday that the four US destroyers off the coast of Syria
are “fully ready” for “a vast spectrum of operations, including launching
Tomahawk cruise missiles at targets in Syria and protecting themselves in the
event of retaliation.” And indeed, the Senate Armed Forces committee, in backing
US military force in Syria, gave the president up to 90 days to finish the job. 3. The certainty
voiced by some US intelligence sources that they can locate the hideouts of
Syrian chemical units and weapons overstates the capabilities of even the most
sophisticated spy technology at their disposal. 4. Not just the
Russian leader, but Syria’s Bashar Assad and Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have
bought enough time to set up military, intelligence and political ambushes for
the Americans, and will be ready to pounce when the US operation goes forward. As the G20
summiteers took their seats in St. Petersburg, three Russian warships passed
through the Bosporus in their way to the Mediterranean. Debkafile’s military
sources identified them as the SSV-201 intelligence ship Priazovye and two
landing craft, the Minsk and the Novocherkassk, which carry 200 marines and 10
amphibious tanks. All three leaders have issued a constant stream of threats to
deter Washington from striking Syria: a) They could
supply Syria with highly-advanced arms capable of catching US forces by
surprise; b) Russia and
China could transfer advanced cyber warfare measures to Damascus via Tehran,
which Iranian cyber experts could operate in Syria and Lebanon. c) The
Russian president has indicated that if the Americans attack Syria, he might
sell Iran super-weapons on the premise that the strike on Syria would be the
precursor to a US attack on Iran’s nuclear program. 5. The basic presumption in Washington
and Jerusalem at the outset of the US plan to use military force in Syria last
month was that Hizballah would stay out of it. In the interim, the Lebanese
Shiite militia has begun mobilizing for defending Syria and for cross-border
reprisals against Israel from Syria and Lebanon. Thursday night, Iran’s National
Security Council inner group held a secret meeting in Khamenei’s inner sanctum
on the ramifications of the forthcoming US action against Syria. Debkafile’s
Iranian sources report that Revolutionary Guards commanders spoke out in favor
of activating the mutual defense treaty binding Iran and Syria. Sept. 7….(NBC)
As debate grows over the extremism of some armed factions battling to overthrow
Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, an incendiary illustration on the
Facebook page of one such group leaves little doubt where its leaders envision
the uprising ending, with masked Islamic fighters marching through Washington,
DC, as the US Capitol burns in the background. The image is one of eight photos
posted on the official Facebook page of the “Al-Aqsa Islamic Brigades,” a small
armed Sunni rebel faction fighting with the Free Syrian Army, the main umbrella
military organization of the opposition forces. Two other photos posted on the
group’s page feature the widely recognized black flag of the al Qaeda in Iraq
terrorist group, which operates freely in Syria. Evan
Kohlmann, a senior partner with the security firm Flashpoint Intelligence and an
NBC consultant on terrorism, who discovered the image on Facebook and provided
it to NBC News’ investigative unit, said Al-Aqsa has not been designated as a
terrorist group by the United States. But he noted that it fights alongside
another Free Syrian Army force, the Tawhid Brigade, that has been linked to
Jabhat al-Nusra, one of two rebel factions labeled terrorist groups by the US
government. "As a group that claims affiliation to the generally pro-Western
Free Syrian Army, it is difficult to reconcile the fact that it has plastered
such a lurid anti-American image as the banner on its own official Facebook
page," Kohlmann said. "It raises the unfortunate but inescapable fact that not
every group within the Free Syrian Army is closely aligned with US interests in
the region." Such murky
alliances and rivalries within the Free Syrian Army help explain the skepticism
that greeted US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday when he told members
of the House Foreign Affairs Committee that “bad guys,” Islamic extremists,
constitute “maybe 15 to 25 percent” of the opposition forces. Several lawmakers
questioned Kerry’s assertion and a senior military official told NBC News that
actual percentage is “way higher than that.” Defense officials estimate that al
Qaeda and related extremists groups now constitute “more than 50 percent” of the
rebel force, which is made up of at least 70 different factions, “and it’s
growing by the day,” according to the official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity. While details
of the Al-Aqsa Islamic Brigades leadership and goals are unclear, Kohlmann said,
the group makes no secret of its Islamist orientation and general antipathy for
the West. He noted, that in late February, the group issued a report lambasting
“the role of Western Crusader intelligence in the Syrian revolution." Despite
the group's anti-Western philosophy, al-Aqsa announced that the group was
aligning itself with The Tawhid Brigade and the Free Syrian Army, the umbrella
group that the US is working with. Sept. 7….(CNN) No one can deny that the
situation in Syria is dire. Death and destruction are ever-present. And when
terror and chaos emerge, minority groups often have much to fear. That’s
especially true for Syria’s Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the
nation’s population. Increasingly, they’re being caught in the crossfire between
numerous Islamic groups. In a recent
report, CNN provided a recap of the many religious sects that have a stake in
the current Syria crisis. With the vast majority of the Middle East being
Islamic in both governance and personal faith allegiance, being a non-Muslim in
the region can be difficult. That in mind,
the rebels, who are generally Sunnis, see Christians as supporters of President
Bashar al-Assad and his government (Assad’s government is part of the Alawite
sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam), the Associated Press reports. And that
raises the question: If Syrian rebels take control of the country, does that
mean doom for the nation’s Christians? Assad’s regime has been brutal in its
handling of protests, but its treatment of Christians has surprisingly been seen
as fair by some. Rebels, however, haven’t been as polite. Under Assad,
Christians had more rights than in many Middle Eastern countries, with the
freedom to worship and run schools and churches. Their rights were limited
however. The Syrian constitution says the president must be Muslim, for example. According to
UN reports, rebel fighters have targeted Christian communities, shooting up
factories and detonating car bombs in Christian neighborhoods. In addition, many
Christians, in Syria and in the United States fear the fate of Christians should
Sunni fundamentalists take power in Syria. Sept.
7….(Jerusalem Post) Hezbollah is preparing to defend Damascus from an invasion
by the Syrian rebels following a possible US strike, as well as preparing for
retaliation against Israel if the situation in the area calls for it, Lebanese
sources told Saudi newspaper Okaz on Thursday. The sources told the paper that
the Shi'ite organization recruited 10,000 fighters, who were tasked to defend
the Syrian capital in the event the Syrian army fails to thwart attacks on it
from both the rebels and the United States. An attack on Israel, however, will
only take place "after receiving a specific order [to do so] from Iran," the
sources told Okaz. The sources added that Hezbollah has intentionally remained
silent in recent days because "the organization's leadership understood right
from the start that a military strike on Damascus is inevitable." Lebanese
newspaper Al-Akhbar reported on Tuesday that Hezbollah “called on all its
officers and members to man their positions” ahead of the planned US strike on
Syria. Hezbollah fighters have left their regular positions and checkpoints in
southern Beirut, turning off their mobile phones so that they could not be
traced, according to the witnesses. The head of the anti-Hezbollah movement Al-Mustaqbal
("Future") expressed doubt of Hezbollah's ability to respond to the impending
military strike. "The masters of Hezbollah in Syria and Iran cannot respond,"
Moyin Marabi said. "So a criminal sect that acts as a militia and gets its
instructions from its masters surely cannot respond either." FOJ
Note: Mr. Putin
is dead-on accurate in his appraisal of Mr. Kerry. Mr. Kerry is a bonafide liar.
Albeit, Mr. Putin is not exactly honest either. In fact, most all the parties
involved in the present day political climate are notorious for lying, cheating
and deceiving. (Russian president claims US secretary of
state denied Islamist terrorist group’s presence among rebels fighting Assad) Sept. 6….(Times of Israel) Russian
President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called US Secretary of State John Kerry a
liar, claiming he had denied that al-Qaeda was fighting with the Syrian
opposition in that country’s civil war. Speaking to his human rights council,
Putin recalled watching a congressional debate where Kerry was asked about
al-Qaeda. Putin said he had denied that it was operating in Syria, even though
he was aware of the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra group. Putin said:
“This was very unpleasant and surprising for me. We talk to them (the Americans)
and we assume they are decent people, but he is lying and he knows that he is
lying. This is sad.” It was unclear exactly what Putin was referencing, but
Kerry was asked Tuesday while testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee if the Syrian opposition had become more infiltrated by al-Qaeda.
Kerry responded that that was “basically incorrect” and that the opposition has
“increasingly become more defined by its moderation.” When asked if a strike
would make al-Nusra and other extremist forces stronger, Kerry responded, “No, I
don’t believe you do (make them stronger). As a matter of fact, I think you
actually make the opposition stronger. And the opposition is getting stronger by
the day now.” In testimony
Wednesday, Kerry said that he didn’t agree that “a majority (of the opposition)
are al-Qaeda and the bad guys.” Extremists amount to 15 to 25 percent of the
opposition, he said, including al-Nusra and many other groups that are “fighting
each other, even now.” Putin also repeated Russia’s position that any use of
military force against Syria without the approval of the UN Security Council
would be an act of aggression. FOJ Note:
On September 5, Al Qaeda-linked Syrian rebels began waging their second day
of war against Christians. Yet these rebels are the same forces US Senator John
McCain has demanded the US support and they are also those with whom the United
States will at least tacitly ally if President Obama launches a strike against
Bashar al-Assad's regime. Yet Secretary of State John Kerry told members of
Congress, "I just don't believe that the rebels connected with Al Qaeda are bad
guys.” Sept. 6….(AP)
Al-Qaida-linked rebels launched an assault Wednesday on a regime-held Christian
village in the densely populated west of Syria and new clashes erupted near the
capital, Damascus, part of a brutal battle of attrition each side believes it
can win despite more than two years of deadlock. As the world
focused on possible US military action against Syria, rebels commandeered a
mountaintop hotel in the village of Maaloula and shelled the community below,
said a nun, speaking by phone from a convent in the village. She spoke on
condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. The dawn assault on the
predominantly Christian village of Maaloula was carried out by rebels from the
al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra group, according to a Syrian government official
and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-regime group. At the start
of the attack, an al-Nusra fighter blew himself up at a regime checkpoint at the
entrance to the village, said the Observatory, which collects information from a
network of anti-regime activists. The suicide attack was followed by fighting
between the rebels and regime forces, the Observatory and a nun in the village
said. Eventually, the rebels seized the checkpoint, disabled two tanks and an
armored personnel carrier and killed eight regime soldiers in fighting, the
British-based group said. The nun said the rebels took over the Safir hotel atop
a mountain overlooking the village and fired shells at it from there. “It’s a
war. It has been going from 6 a.m. in the morning,” she said. Some 80 people
from the village took refuge in the convent, which houses 13 nuns and 27
orphans, she said. A Syrian government official confirmed the assault and said
the military was trying to repel the rebels. He spoke on condition of anonymity
because he was not authorized to give official statements. Maaloula, a
mountain village some 40 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Damascus, is home to
about 2,000 residents, some of whom still speak a version of Aramaic, the
ancient language of biblical times believed to have been spoken by Jesus. The
four-decade iron rule of the Assad clan over Syria has long rested on support
from the country’s ethnic and religious minorities, including Christians, Shiite
Muslims and Kurds. The Assad family and key regime figures are Alawites,
followers of an offshoot of Shiite Islam, while most rebels and their supporters
are Sunni Muslims. Sept. 6….(Newsmax)
Russia says a deadly March sarin attack in an Aleppo suburb was carried out
by Syrian rebels, not forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, and it has
delivered a 100-page report laying out its evidence to the United Nations. A
statement posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry website late Wednesday said the
report included detailed scientific analysis of samples that Russian technicians
collected at the site of the alleged attack, Khan al Asal in northern Syria. The
attack killed 26 people. A UN spokesman, Farhan Haq, confirmed that Russia
delivered the report in July. The report
itself was not released. But the statement drew a pointed comparison between
what it said was the scientific detail of the report and the far shorter
intelligence summaries that the United States, Britain and France have released
to justify their assertion that the Syrian government launched chemical weapons
against Damascus suburbs on Aug. 21. The longest of those summaries, by the
French, ran nine pages. Each relies primarily on circumstantial evidence to make
its case, and they disagree with one another on some details, including the
number of people who died in the attack. The Russian
statement warned the United States and its allies not to conduct a military
strike against Syria until the United Nations had completed a similarly detailed
scientific study into the Aug. 21 attack. It charged that what it called the
current “hysteria” about a possible military strike in the West was similar to
the false claims and poor intelligence that preceded the US invasion of Iraq in
2003. Russia said its investigation of the March 19 incident was conducted under
strict protocols established by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical
Weapons, the international agency that governs adherence to treaties prohibiting
the use of chemical weapons. It said samples that Russian technicians had
collected had been sent to OPCW-certified laboratories in Russia. “The Russian
report is specific,” the ministry statement said. “It is a scientific and
technical document.” The Russian statement said Russian officials had broken the
Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons’ code of silence on such
probes only because Western nations appear to be “preparing the ground for
military action” in retaliation for the Aug. 21 incident. A UN team
spent four days late last month investigating the Aug. 21 incident. The samples
it collected from the site and alleged victims of the attack are currently being
examined at the chemical weapons organization’s labs in Europe. UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the United States to delay any strike
until after the results of that investigation are known. But US officials have
dismissed the UN probe, saying it won’t tell them anything they don’t already
know. White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said US officials were unmoved by
the Russian report and held the Assad government responsible for both the Khan
al Asal attack in March and the Aug. 21 attack outside Damascus. Sept. 6….(CBSDC/AP)
A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman warned any military intervention in Syria
would create a nuclear disaster. “If a warhead, by design or by chance, were to
hit the Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MSNR) near Damascus, the consequences
could be catastrophic,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich
stated, according to Russia Today. Lukashevich
said if a military strike were launched without seeking approval from the United
Nations Security Council that new suffering for other countries of the Middle
East and North Africa would occur. He added that the region could be at risk of
“contamination by highly enriched uranium and it would no longer be possible to
account for nuclear material, its safety and control.”He urged the United
Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to complete a risk evaluation
carrying out “an analysis of the risks linked to possible American strikes on
the MNSR and other facilities in Syria.” Sept. 6….(OSNET)
The entire Arab Spring movement, an ambitious disruptive project waged with
foolhardy ambitions by the Globalist power structure, has turned on itself.
Finally, it has moved to Syria. Syria is about the last gasp for the
Petro-dollar, the emergence of energy pipeline geopolitics, the rise of the Nat
Gas Co-op, the new dominance of Russian Gazprom, the eclipse of OPEC, the fall
of the house of Saud, and a grand adjustment process in global commerce and
banking. Syria is
about a lot of things, most of which are volatile, and many unsolvable. To be
sure, the naval port of Tartus is valuable for the Russian Military, always
eager to wrest a seaport. Like Lebanon, Syria is a hotbed stronghold for
Hezbollah, never to be taken lightly. They are mortal enemies to Israel, whose
nations have exchanged covert violence for years. Syria might have tight
relations with the Shiites of Iran, even some in Iraq. However, Syria
represents the crossroads of many important shifting geopolitical roadways that
pertain to the global financial structure and commercial systems. Syria is
the tipping point for a Grand Global Paradigm Shift. It is the last stand for
the Anglo Banker world. Syria will not go easily into the Russian camp, into the
Gazprom fold, into the European energy market sphere. For if it does, the
entire US dollar system of commerce and the US Treasury Bond system of reserves
management will fall by the wayside and open a new era with Eastern
dominance. But the Western powers cannot stop it. Clouds of whatever type, do
not halt pipeline flow, nor pipeline geopolitics. Syria stands
at the door to the emergence of the Eastern Alliance, the new dominant energy
pipelines, a new payment system detached from the US dollar and Anglo banks.
Syria stands at the door, which controls some incremental European energy
supply. Syria stands at the door to Gold Trade Settlement, with a transition
step that brings more importance to commodity backed currencies and proper valid
systems for trade. Syria means the pipelines strangle the US dollar. Syria means
the end of the US system of IOU coupons that pollute the global banking system.
Syria means the status quo is coming to an abrupt end. Syria represents a clash
of East versus West, which has more commercial and bank significance than
anything reported by the lapdog press. Notice the direct line from Iran through
Iraq to Syria. The Natgas of Iran reaches the Mediterranean Sea through Syria. Syria is the
end port for what is called the Shiite Gas Pipeline. It begins in Iran and ends
at the Mediterranean seaport in Syria. It was designed to terminate at a Shiite
friendly nation. Ironically, Qatar is fighting against the Syrian Assad
loyalists, but the Qatari natural gas will be directed into the same pipeline.
In the last year, a giant Persian Gulf gas discovery was made in a joint
Iran-Qatar project. Syria is about the last gasp for the Petro-Dollar. It
represents a climax in Energy Pipeline Politics. Quietly for the last 15 to 20
years, Russia has been building crude oil pipelines and natural gas pipelines
from the Mother Russian lands to points in Europe and China and the Former
Soviet Republics. They have been constructing modern LNG gas port facilities.
They have been forging contracts to supply energy to countless nations. The
US-led plans have been more interference than constructive. They have
consistently attempted to obstruct, rather than to build with some justification
of common benefit. The US news
networks cannot tell why or how Syria is important relative to the US Dollar.
Most Americans cannot define money, let alone conceive of a Petro-Dollar defacto
standard. They do not comprehend the global banking system having practices as
an extension of Saudi crude oil sales in US Dollars. They remember nothing of
the Kissinger Arab Oil Surplus Recycle Pact into US Treasury Bonds and US big
bank stocks. The focus should be on Pipelines and the closely related
geopolitics. The focus should be on the eclipse of OPEC. Clearly
heading out is OPEC and its influence. The dirty secret for ten years has been
the depletion and decline in Saudi oil reserves. And the Saudi OPEC core is
precisely the foundation to the Petro-Dollar and the justification for global
banking systems being based in US Treasury Bonds, and one of the main
reasons that America is placating the Saudi-Gulf nations. Coming on strong is
the Nat Gas Coop led by Gazprom, of Russia. And Syria is the last line of
defense for the US Dollar and the exalted position of OPEC. Syria is the
potential recognized debut of the new Nat Gas Coop. (Russian president says it is too early to
say what Russia will do but does not exclude supporting a UN resolution)
Sept.
5….(The Guardian) Vladimir Putin said Russia may approve military operation
in Syria if Damascus is proven to have carried out chemical weapons attacks and
UN authorizes it. Vladimir Putin warned the US against launching military
action in Syria, stating that Russia has "plans" on how it would react if such a
scenario unfolded. The Russian president's comments came as Barack Obama for
the first time portrayed his plans for US military action as part of a broader
strategy to topple Bashar al-Assad, as the White House's campaign to win over
skeptics in Congress gained momentum. In an
interview with Associated Press and Russia's state Channel 1 television, Putin
said it was too early to talk about what Russia would do if the US attacked
Syria but added: "We have our ideas about what we will do and how we will do it
in case the situation develops toward the use of force or otherwise.
We have our plans too." At the same time
he said Russia did not exclude supporting a UN resolution on punitive military
strikes if it were proved that Damascus used poison gas on its own people. But
he described the idea that Syrian government forces would use chemical weapons
at a time when he said they were in the ascendancy and knowing the potential
repercussions as absurd. Given his comments, and the fact that Russia has
protected Syria from punitive action at the UN Security Council before, his
suggestion that Russia might support a resolution on strikes is unlikely to be
given much credence in the US. Russia later dispatched a missile cruiser to the
eastern Mediterranean, which will arrive in about 10 days. The ship, Moskva,
will take over operations from a naval unit in the region that Moscow says is
needed to protect national interests. It will be joined by a destroyer from
Russia's Baltic Fleet and a frigate from the Black Sea Fleet. Putin said on
Tuesday that Moscow had provided some components of the S-300 air defense
missile system to Syria but has frozen further shipments. He warned: "If we see
that steps are taken that violate the existing international norms, we shall
think how we should act in the future, in particular regarding supplies of such
sensitive weapons to certain regions of the world." The statement could be a
veiled threat to revive a contract for the delivery of the S-300s to Iran, which
Russia cancelled a few years ago under strong US and Israeli pressure. In
Washington, key members of Congress swung behind the administration on Tuesday.
At the senate foreign relations committee, Kerry and the defense secretary,
Chuck Hagel, were pressed hard to clarify the role of ground forces, but got an
otherwise sympathetic reception. In the evening, details emerged of the
committee's revisions to the White House's proposals for a military
authorization. They set a window limited to 60 days for military action, during
which Obama could order the limited, tailored strikes he has foreshadowed, while
allowing for a single 30-day extension subject to conditions. The president
has long spoken of the US desire to see Assad step down, but this was the first
time he has linked that policy objective to his threatened military strikes
against Syria. It follows pressure on Monday, from senators John McCain and
Lindsey Graham, to make such a goal more explicit. The apparent change of
emphasis appeared to resolve some of the political deadlock on Capitol Hill, as
House speaker John Boehner and a series of other Republican leaders announced
they would back the president's call for military authorization from Congress.
The endorsement of GOP leaders could be important in winning over the
Republican-controlled House, where Obama has failed to win any support since his
re-election in November. But even the Republican leadership has struggled to
control Tea Party radicals in the House, and an anti-interventionist wing in the
Senate led by Rand Paul remains a substantial challenge for the White House. Sept.
5….(Washington Post) As his administration tries to rally support in
Congress for military strikes in Syria, President Obama will begin a high-stakes
trip to Sweden and Russia on Wednesday that could show whether the United States
has broad international backing for action. At the Group
of 20 summit in St. Petersburg, the strife in Syria and uncertainty about
Obama’s plans are likely to overshadow an agenda focused on economic issues.
Privately, Obama will try to persuade world leaders to support US-led action in
Syria, putting him at odds with the summit’s host, Russian President Vladimir
Putin, a key ally of the Syrian regime who will press his case against strikes.
Obama’s visit comes as the US-Russia relationship deteriorates over
disagreements about Syria, Russia’s new law targeting “homosexual propaganda”
and the country’s protection of Edward Snowden, a former National Security
Agency contractor who leaked highly classified documents about US surveillance
programs. Obama had
planned to meet privately with Putin in Moscow ahead of the G-20 summit but
called off the meeting after Russia granted asylum to Snowden. No bilateral
meeting between the two leaders has been announced for the visit, although a US
official said they will “have many opportunities to engage.” Anders Aslund, a
Russia specialist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said
there are major risks for Obama in attending the summit. “I think that this will
be really a trap that President Obama is getting into for no good reason,”
Aslund said. “When there is an event like this, the Russians are in charge. The
host is always in charge, and there’s nothing that President Obama can
accomplish in St. Petersburg. He has no support for Syria there. He will only
get beaten up over it.” Obama is
planning to meet with French President Francois Hollande and Chinese President
Xi Jinping, US officials said. Experts said it will be difficult for him to gain
support on Syria as long as the scope of possible strikes or whether Congress
will authorize them remains uncertain. Putin has given Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad’s government critical military and economic support throughout the
country’s bloody civil war. He has spoken out against a US-led strike in
retaliation for the Assad regime’s alleged use of chemical weapons to kill
hundreds of civilians. Russian officials said Putin expects to take advantage of
the G-20 summit to discuss Syria with other world leaders, among them, Xi, who
on Tuesday was touring the former Soviet republics of Central Asia and plans a
bilateral meeting in St. Petersburg with Putin. (Terrorist group says if Syria is attacked
by American forces, it will launch surface-to-surface rockets at Israel from
Homs, in Syrian territory, to "keep Lebanon out of the war) Sept.
5….(Israel Hayom) The Lebanon-based terrorist organization Hezbollah has
vowed to retaliate against Israel from Syrian territory should the United States
attack Syria over the latter country's use of chemical weapons, a Hezbollah
source told Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai on Monday. Following a
US attack on Syria, Hezbollah would launch rockets at Israel from the Syrian
city of Homs to "keep Lebanon out of the war," according to one source who
coordinates activities between the Syrian army and the Shiite terrorist group.
"Hezbollah controls 8,000 square kilometers [about 3,100 square miles] near Homs
and won't hesitate to engage in a response by launching surface-to-surface
missiles from within Syria," the source told Al Rai. Homs is
located some 322 kilometers (200 miles) from Haifa in northern Israel. Hezbollah
openly entered the Syrian civil war over the summer on Syrian President Bashar
Assad's side, fighting in key positions and tipping the balance in Assad's favor
along the Lebanese border and in the Golan region. Sept.
5….(Washington Post) Secretary of State John Kerry said at Wednesday’s
hearing that Arab counties have offered to pay for the entirety of unseating
President Bashar al-Assad if the United States took the lead militarily. “With
respect to Arab countries offering to bear costs and to assess, the answer is
profoundly yes,” Kerry said. “They have. That offer is on the table.” Asked by
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) about how much those countries would
contribute, Kerry said they have offered to pay for all of a full invasion. “In
fact, some of them have said that if the United States is prepared to go do the
whole thing the way we’ve done it previously in other places, they’ll carry that
cost,” Kerry said. “That’s how dedicated they are at this. That’s not in the
cards, and nobody’s talking about it, but they’re talking in serious ways about
getting this done.
FOJ Note: Just as I
suspected, President Obama is using the military of America to fight Saudi
Arabia’s battles. This is an act of treason and a total betrayal to the American
people, not to mention our armed forces. America doesn’t loan its military
out to do the dirty work of other nations!
America should stay out of Syria! Sept. 4….(Christian Post) A victory
for Syria's "Islamic rebels" and an overthrow of President Assad would endanger
Syrian Christians, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) asserted on NBC's Meet the Press
Sunday, speaking out against US military intervention in Syria. "I think the
Islamic rebels winning is a bad idea for the Christians. All of a sudden we'll
have another Islamic state where Christians are persecuted," said Rand. Rand Paul's
comments come weeks after Egyptian Coptic Christians were subject to an intense
wave of violence directed at them by Islamist extremist groups scapegoating them
for the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood's President Mohammed Morsi. Four
people were killed and over 60 churches damaged or destroyed in violence
targeted at Coptic Christians for their support of the movement that saw Morsi
taken out of power. Christians
make up 10 percent of Syria's population and have expressed concern and fear
since the Arab Spring protests began in 2011. Like many other Christian
minorities in the Middle East countries like Egypt, Libya and Iraq, Syrian
Christians often protected themselves by striking deals with the government,
said Tamara Alrifai, the Human Rights Watch Advocacy and Communications Director
for the Middle East and North Africa Division. When these
governments and their autocratic rulers were overthrown, Christians were not
only left without the protection of the government, but in some instances became
targets themselves for working with and at times supporting the former powers.
Even though Syrian President Bashir Al-Assad is still in power, Syrian
Christians have already been subjected to attacks by rebels in the country. On
June 27, a suicide bombing by Islamist rebels in the Christian neighborhood of
Damascus killed four people. In July, an Italian priest, who had spent most of
his life in Damascus, disappeared. Currently, Al Qaeda-affiliated rebels are
suspected in his killing. Sept. 4….(By
Paul McGuire) The whole world is reacting to President Obama’s decision for
America to attack Syria over an alleged chemical attack because Assad’s forces
had been accused of using chemical weapons several times in the last year,
including the August 21st attack in the suburbs of Damascus. However, a number
of news analysts such as Pat Buchanan and Ron Paul have called this a “False
Flag” attack. The Pentagon is moving a sixth warship armed with cruise missiles
to the eastern Mediterranean Sea, giving the US more firepower for a possible
attack on Syria in response to alleged use of chemical weapons, a US defense
official said. According to reports, the guided-missile destroyer Stout will
soon join four other missile-carrying US destroyers within range of Syria. Each
destroyer can carry up to 90 cruise missiles which have a range of nearly 1,000
miles. Whether they will acknowledge it in public or not, the international
community and the United Nations look to the American Empire to supply its
massive military force to solve international conflicts. What is
happening in Syria will not only affect America, Russia, Great Britain, China,
Syria, Iran, and Israel. It will affect the entire world because Syria,
controlling major oil assets off its coast, occupies a critical position in the
global oil economy. It is possible for oil prices to go through the roof, and
that would send a tsunami across the global economy. There have been reports put
out by big banks like SocGen and Goldman Sachs that oil could soar to $150 a
barrel if the Syrian conflict goes hot and draws in Russia and China. According
to an article by Steve Quayle in his, “V-The Guerrilla Economist Updates,” “The
trouble for Syria began with two things. First the discovery of natural gas in
the Mediterranean right off the coast of Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Read that
list again, especially Lebanon and Syria. Is the picture becoming clearer? This
discovery took place about a decade ago but the thing is that there already
exists in the Middle East a Liquid Natural Gas Producing power house. This is
the tiny nation of Qatar.” Quayle
continues, “Now here is where you need to put your thinking caps on. Qatar is
floating in LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) it has over 77 Billion Tonnes in Reserve
and that is with a moratorium in place. The problem is that Qatar would love to
sell its LNG to the EU and the hot Mediterranean markets. The problem for Qatar
in achieving this is their regional big brother Saudi Arabia. The Saudis have
already said "NO" to an overland pipe cutting across the Land of Saud.” The
Qatar/Syria region has vast reserves of natural gas. Russia has a deal with
Syria that allows it to sell this Natural Gas and Oil to Europe.” Russia now
controls the oil coming out of Syria and being sold throughout Europe and China.
However, there appears to be a battle for the control of that oil. The Nabucco
Agreement was signed by a handful of European nations and Turkey back in 2009.
It was an agreement to run a natural gas pipeline across Turkey into Austria,
bypassing Russia again with Qatar in the mix as a supplier to a feeder pipeline
via the proposed Arab pipeline from Libya to Egypt to Nabucco (is the picture
getting clearer?). The problem with all of this is that a Russian backed
Syria stands in the way. Qatar would
love to sell its LNG to the EU and the hot Mediterranean markets. The problem
for Qatar in achieving this is Saudi Arabia. The only solution for Qatar if it
wants to sell its oil is to cut a deal with the US. Recently Exxon Mobile and
Qatar Petroleum International have made a $10 Billion deal that allows Exxon
Mobile to sell natural gas through a port in Texas to the UK and Mediterranean
markets. Qatar stands to make a lot of money and the only thing standing in the
way of their aspirations is Syria. The US plays
into this in that it has vast wells of natural gas, in fact the largest known
supply in the world. There is a reason why natural gas prices have been
suppressed for so long in the US. This is to set the stage for US involvement in
the Natural Gas market in Europe while smashing the monopoly that the Russians
have enjoyed for so long. What appears to be a conflict with Syria is really
a conflict between the US and Russia! The main cities of turmoil and
conflict in Syria right now are Damascus, Homs, and Aleppo. These are the same
cities that the proposed gas pipelines happen to run through. Qatar is the
biggest financier of the Syrian uprising, having spent over $3 billion so far on
the conflict. The other side of the story is Saudi Arabia, which finances
anti-Assad groups in Syria. The Saudis do not want to be marginalized by Qatar;
thus they too want to topple Assad and implant their own puppet government, one
that would sign off on a pipeline deal and charge Qatar for running their pipes
through to Nabucco. With the strong possibility of the
strike from America happening, there is massive fear in the market and oil
prices are surging. Now the end game is to cut Russia's lock on natural gas and
oil that it supplies to Europe. If this connection is cut in any way, it will
bring severe consequences to the Russian economy as well as Russia's natural gas
company Gazprom. There are
two opposing factions in Syria. On one side you have the Qatari backed
Muslim Brotherhood and its subsidiaries that have very close ties with the Emir
of Qatar. On the other side you have the Saudi backed Wahhabi AL-Qaeda and its
subsidiaries. These groups commit atrocities, like the cannibalism of the
Wahabis and the "Brotherhood" slaughtering Christians. What the international
bankers are not telling the American people is that the US economy is in reality
crumbling and being propped up by the Federal Reserve printing money from
nothing which they call Quantitive Easing. Using the pretense of spreading love
and democracy throughout the Middle East, the US has already seized control of
six Arab nations. For Russia,
Syria is more than just the location of a strategic port in the gas rich Middle
East; it is an essential strategic area. Russia is now forced to draw a very
hard line in the sand lest they lose the entire European market to Middle
Eastern and Caspian Energy interests. Syria is in the heart of Eurasia and
historically, the empire that controls Eurasia controls the world. Russia cannot
allow that; this is why they are putting their military assets in place. China,
one of the world’s super powers, cannot have its natural gas flow interrupted as
well, and China has sided with the Russians when it comes to Syria. If Obama
attacks Syria, some analysts believe Vladimir Putin is prepared to strike Saudi
Arabia. This could stop the flow of oil from the Middle East. Obama Plans
Gay Rights Push in Russia Sept. 4….(Newsmax)
With tensions between the United States and Russia already strained to the
breaking point, President Barack Obama is preparing to press Russian President
Vladimir Putin even more by meeting with Russian gay rights groups and human
rights activists during this week's trip to St. Petersburg for the G-20 summit. According to
BuzzFeed, rights groups, including Coming Out, a St. Petersburg-based LGBT
group, have been invited to meet with Obama on Thursday. Human rights activists
Lev Ponomarev and Lyudmila Alexeyeva, and legal aid non-governmental
organization director Pavel Chikov have also been invited. BuzzFeed also
reported that the LGBT Network was also invited to the meeting at the St.
Petersburg Crowne Plaza Hotel, along with Golos, a Russian election monitoring
group that had received U.S. aid but was forced to disband earlier this summer
under a new Russian "foreign agents" law. The meetings are scheduled during a
trip that has already been billed as highly controversial, given the two
nations' opposite positions on Syria and Putin's recent decision to allow former
National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden to remain in Russia for at
least a year, despite U.S. efforts to take him into custody for leaking top
secret information on NSA data collection programs. Obama and Putin
had been scheduled to hold a one-on-one meeting during the G-20 summit, but
Obama canceled that meeting after Snowden was granted temporary asylum in
Russia. The meeting with the human rights groups is not the first time President
Obama has met with Russian opposition activists. He last met with
non-governmental organizations representing various groups in 2009. But
Thursday's meeting comes as the Russian government is cracking down on human
rights groups, which it has accused of being in the pay of the US government,
BuzzFeed reports. It also comes in
the wake of Russia passing a new anti-LGBT law, which prohibits the promotion or
display of "untraditional sexual relations." When Obama was asked about the law
during an appearance last month on the NBC's "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno,
he replied that he has "no patience for countries that try to treat gays or
lesbians or transgender persons in ways that intimidate them or are harmful to
them." Sept. 4….(YNET)
President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he was confident that Congress would
vote in favor of US military action in Syria and said the United States had a
broader plan to help rebels defeat President Bashar Assad's forces. During a
meeting with congressional leaders at the White House, Mr. Obama called for a
prompt vote on Capitol Hill and reiterated that the US plan would be limited in
scope and not repeat the long US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "What we are
envisioning is something limited. It is something proportional. It will degrade
Assad's capabilities," Obama said. "At the same time we have a broader strategy
that will allow us to upgrade the capabilities of the opposition," he said.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi also said they will support Obama because
the US has a compelling national security interest to prevent the use of weapons
of mass destruction. Pelosi stressed that Americans need to hear more of the
intelligence to be convinced that a strike is necessary. “I’m hopeful that the
American people are persuaded,” she said. “This is behavior outside the circle
of civilized human behavior and we must respond,” she argued as she left the
West Wing. Republican House
Speaker John Boehner emerged from a White House meeting and told reporters:
“This is something that the United States, as a country, needs to do.
Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob
Menendez, D-NJ, are crafting a resolution narrower than the broad measure the
administration first proposed on Saturday. Secretary of State John Kerry,
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey also
attended the meeting, and gave their ringing endorsements. As part of Obama and
his aides' push to convince a skeptical Congress of the merits of attacking
Syria, the White House intends on using the Israel angle to sway politicians:
Iran and Hezbollah would be emboldened if Congress does not approve the strike. US Senator John McCain said on Monday
that a vote by the US Congress against President Barack Obama's proposal for
using military force in Syria would be catastrophic. Meanwhile,
today Assad continued to challenge Obama and said it would have made no sense to
use chemical weapons in an area where his troops were also fighting. "Those who
make accusations must show evidence. We have challenged the United States and
France to come up with a single piece of proof. Obama and Hollande have been
incapable of doing so," said Assad. Sept.
4….(Times of Israel) Russian President Vladimir Putin is the only person who
can now avert a US strike on the regime of President Bashar Assad, a respected
former head of the Israeli army’s Military Intelligence hierarchy said Friday,
speaking immediately after US Secretary of State John Kerry set out America’s
evidence of Assad’s use of chemical weapons. Gen. (ret.) Amos Yadlin, the former
IDF Military Intelligence chief, also said that President Bashar Assad has spent
the past few days moving sensitive military equipment to schools and
universities, and taking all precautions to ensure he and his regime survive an
anticipated limited US-led strike. Were Putin to
offer to take Assad’s chemical weapons out of Syria, said Yadlin in an Israeli
Channel 2 news interview, “that would be an offer that could stop the attack.”
It would be a “genuine achievement” for President Barack Obama to have ensured
the clearing out of Assad’s capacity, and that would justify holding fire, said
Yadlin. For Putin, such a deal would also keep the US from acting militarily in
a state with which Russia is closely allied. “Any other reason for the Obama
administration to now abandon a resort to force would destroy the credibility”
of the US internationally, Yadlin said. “Because if he cannot act against Syria,
what does that say to Iran” as it closes in on a nuclear weapons capability?
Unfortunately, however, said Yadlin, America’s public indication that it is
planning only a limited strike would make Assad disinclined for any such deal.
Assad has utilized the past few days to ensure that the “narrow” strike Obama is
publicly contemplating will do minimal damage to him and his regime. If the US
indeed fires an anticipated 50 or so Tomahawk missiles, “Assad will come out of
his bunker, smiling that he’s survived this.” Only if it
was clear to Assad that the US was ready to fire 250 or 300 missiles, and leave
Assad without an air force, and with no chemical weapons industry, reducing his
advantages in the civil war and drastically weakening his prospects of survival,
might such a deal be potentially appealing, Yadlin said. * FOJ Note:
Ironically, President Obama and President Putin could meet in Russia this
week, and negotiate some private secret deal amongst themselves, so that both
can look smarter and stronger. Sept. 4….(Arutz)
Former Security Council head says Netanyahu planned to hit Iran, but Obama
asked him not to. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu planned airstrikes targeting
Iran’s nuclear program, but called them off following a request from United
States President Barack Obama, General (res.) Giora Eiland has reportedly
revealed. The Mida website quoted statements reportedly made by Eiland, the
former head of the National Security Council, in a closed conference on defense. According to
Eiland, “The Prime Minister thought that we had reached the point where a
decision had to be made on Iran, and he planned an attack.” “In principle,
Israel does not need American authorization for military action, unless the
Americans demand unequivocally that we refrain from an action,” he continued.
That is what happened in this case, he said. Netanyahu presented his plan to
American leaders, and was told that it was not acceptable to them. This led him
to shelve the plan. According to
the report, Eiland threw his support behind Netanyahu’s original plan. Israel
still must decide how to deal with Iran, he said, “now with less time, when the
decision is between bad and worse.” Mida reported that Eiland confirmed his
statements in an interview with the site. In the interview, Eiland clarified
what he said regarding American vetoes on Israeli missions. “Israel can act for
itself regarding many, many issues. When it comes to building in Jerusalem, or
strikes in Gaza, or other issues pertaining to our region, we don’t need to ask
the Americans, even if they don’t like it,” he explained. “However, if the
matter pertains to American interests, we cannot go against their opinions,” he
stated. (Putin maintains staunch support for Assad
as Mideast becomes stage for global struggle between Russia, US. 'If Syria
falls, entire pro-Russia axis falls) Sept. 3….(YNET)
Russia continues to insist that there is no conclusive proof that President
Bashar Assad used chemical weapons that killed some 1,400 civilians earlier this
month; an attack that has sparked worldwide condemnation and crossed the
“red-line” US President Barack Obama personally drew a year ago, prompting the
military contingency plans pending Congressional approval. “If there truly is
top secret information available, the veil should be lifted. This is a question
of war and peace. To continue this game of secrecy is simply inappropriate,” the
television network Russia Today quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as
saying. “What our American, British and French partners have shown us before,
as well as now, does not convince us at all. There are no supporting facts,
there is only repetitive talk in the vein of 'we know for sure.' And when we ask
for further clarification, we receive the following response: 'You are aware
that this is classified information, therefore we cannot show it to you.' So
there are still no facts." Over the
weekend, Secretary of State John Kerry said the US is convinced that Assad used
sarin nerve gas, the first time the US has named the chemical agent they believe
was involved. Lavrov’s comments are just the latest point-counterpoint between
American and Russian leaders over events in Syria. Moscow has become Syria’s
most outspoken ally and weapons supplier as well as the loudest voice against
any potential American attack. “Russia is sticking to its guns,” James Nixey,
head of the Russia and Eurasia program at Chatham House, a London-based think
tank, told The Media Line. “The weakening of the European position because of
the vote in the British parliament (against an attack) and President Obama’s
delay has emboldened the Russian position and made them more determined in the
rightness of their cause.” The Syrian
issue has become the latest battleground between the United States and Russia.
Russia has allied itself with Syria, Iran and its Lebanon-based proxy Hezbollah
against the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Qatar. It is an attempt, some
analysts say, for Russia to continue to remain relevant in today’s world. “The
Middle East is the stage for the rest of the world in the global struggle,” Tzvi
Magen, an expert on Russia at the Institute for National and Strategic Studies (INSS)
at Tel Aviv University, told The Media Line. “If Syria falls, the entire
pro-Russia axis falls and Russia will have no power in the entire region.” There
are also practical considerations. Russia has a naval facility in the Syrian
port of Tartus – the only one outside of the former Soviet Union, which is used
for repair and replenishment for the Soviet fleet in the region. Perhaps more
important, Russia has been Syria’s primary source of arms, having provided,
among other armament, advanced fighter jets and sophisticated anti-ship cruise
missiles called Yakhonts. In July, an Israeli air strike targeted a warehouse
near the port city of Latakia where the Yakhonts were believed to be stored.
Tensions between the US and Russia escalated after Russia offered former
American spy agency contractor Edward Snowden temporary asylum. Obama cancelled
a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that was scheduled to be held in
advance of this week’s G-20 meeting in St. Petersburg, where one of the main
issues on the agenda will be Syria. Russia would
like to see a diplomatic solution rather than a military one. Tzvi Magen of the
INSS says Russia wants an international conference that would lead to an interim
government made up of both Assad supporters and rebels that would lay the
groundwork for elections. That, however, seems unlikely. Assad himself is
unrepentant, threatening to respond to “any external aggression.” Some analysts
predict that the US will launch a limited strike on Syria’s chemical weapons
capability but is not pressing for regime change. They estimate that as long as
Assad remains in power, Russian opposition will not go beyond angry words. Syrian
President challenges the world to provide proof that his regime attacked
civilians with chemical weapons. Sept. 3….(Arutz)
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad challenged the United States and France on
Monday to produce proof that his regime attacked civilians with poison gas,
warning in an interview that any military strikes against Syria would risk
triggering a regional war. "The Middle East is a powder keg, and today the flame
is coming very near. We cannot talk merely about the Syrian response, but about
what might take place after the first strike. But nobody knows what will happen.
Everyone will lose control of the situation when the powder keg explodes. Chaos
and extremism will spread. There is a risk of regional war," Assad told the
French newspaper Le Figaro. He dismissed the findings from both the United
States and France, which have both said they have proof that his regime was
behind an August 21 chemical attack near Damascus, which the US said killed more
than 1,400 people. "It is for those who are making the accusations to provide
the proof. We have challenged the United States and France to put forward a
single proof. Obama and Hollande have been unable to do so, even to their own
people,” said Assad. “I'm not at all suggesting that the Syrian army does or
does not possess such weapons. Let's suppose that our army wishes to use WMD: is
it really going to do so in an area where it is actually present and where
soldiers have been wounded by these weapons, as the UN inspectors found during
their visit to the hospital where they were being treated? Where is the logic in
that?" he said. On Monday,
French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault shared intelligence with lawmakers which
he said proves the chemical attack on 21 August came from government forces. The
dossier shared with the French parliament reportedly includes satellite images
showing a large offensive on the Damascus neighborhood of Ghouta coming from
government controlled areas to the east and west of the area held by rebel
forces. On Sunday, US
Secretary of State John Kerry said that the administration had new evidence that
sarin gas was used in the chemical attack. "We know that the regime ordered this
attack," he said. "We know they prepared for it. We know where the rockets came
from. We know where they landed. We know the damage that was done afterwards."
There has been pressure on President Barack Obama to respond to the chemical
attack by striking in Syria. The United States has delayed its military strike
on Syria for now, with Obama announcing on Saturday that he plans to wait for
Congress' approval before deciding whether to intervene in Syria. Three Reasons Russia Backs Assad So
Staunchly
Sept. 2….(Reuters) Russia's
President Vladimir Putin (R) and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad shake hands as
they meet in Moscow's Kremlin December 19, 2006. Over the course of the 29-month Syrian
conflict, Russia has provided the regime of Bashar al-Assad with supplies
including guns, grenades, tank parts, fighter jets, advanced anti-ship cruise
missiles, long-range air defense missiles, military officers as advisors,
diplomatic cover, and lots of cash. So why does the Kremlin back Assad so
staunchly? There are three primary reasons, as illustrated by this report from
Krishnadev Calamur of NPR. 1) Strategic:
Syria's port of Tartus hosts the only remaining international military base
outside of the former Soviet Union. 2) Financial: As
of June 2012, Russia’s economic interests in Syria total approximately $20
billion, about $5 billion of which are weapons sales. 3) Philosophical:
Andranik Migranyan, director of the New York-based Institute for Democracy and
Cooperation, a nongovernmental organization funded by private Russian donors
that is considered close to the leadership in Moscow, told NPR's Robert Siegel:
"Russia's position is very easy to understand." "First, Russia is against any
regime change from outside of Syria or any other country because according to
Russia, any attempt to change the regimes, they are ended up in a chaos and
results are quite opposite what were the intentions," Migranyan said. "This was
proved in Iraq after the invasions of Americans over there. This was proved in
Libya. This was proved in Egypt. And Russia is against principally this regime
changes." (FOJ Note:
Remember the infamous picture of President Obama bowing
to the Saudi King? That answers the question why Obama so eagerly wants to bring
down Assad. He owes his allegiance to the King of Mecca.)
Sept. 2..(Reuters) Arab states on Sunday urged the international community to take
action against the Syrian government over a chemical gas attack that killed
hundreds of civilians. The final resolution passed by an Arab League meeting in
Cairo urged the United Nations and international community to "take the
deterrent and necessary measures against the culprits of this crime that the
Syrian regime bears responsibility for". The League foreign ministers also said
those responsible for the attack should face trial, as other "war criminals"
have. Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said condemnation of Syria over the
poison gas attack, which US officials say killed 1,429 people, was not enough.
He said opposing international action on the grounds that it was "foreign
intervention" was no longer acceptable. "Any opposition to any international
action would only encourage Damascus to move forward with committing its crimes
and using all weapons of mass destruction," said Faisal. "The time has come to
call on the world community to bear its responsibility and take the deterrent
measure that puts a halt to the tragedy." The United
States had seemed to be gearing up for a strike against President Bashar
al-Assad's forces over an August 21 poison gas attack, but is now seeking
Congressional approval first. President Barack Obama's decision to delay
military action to seek Congressional support could delay a strike by at least
10 days, if it comes at all. The Arab League resolution promised to "present all
forms of support" to help the Syrian people to defend themselves. Syria's
neighbors Lebanon and Iraq, as well as Algeria, all declined to back the text,
as they have done with similar resolutions in the past. Syria itself is
suspended from the League. The meeting
highlighted divisions between Saudi Arabia and Egypt over how to approach the
Syrian crisis. Egypt, which has been promised $5 billion by Saudi Arabia to
bolster its dwindling reserves since the army overthrew Islamist president
Mohamed Mursi, had said it was opposed to foreign military intervention in
Syria, but did not vote against the resolution. Sept.
2….(Reuters) Less than three months after Vladimir Putin was cast as a
pariah over Syria at the last big meeting of world leaders, the Russian
president has glimpsed a chance to turn the tables on Barack Obama. The US
president's dilemma over a military response to an alleged poison gas attack in
Syria means Obama is the one who is under more pressure going into a G20 summit
in St Petersburg on Thursday and Friday. Obama stepped back from the brink on
Saturday, delaying any imminent strike to seek approval from the US Congress.
Yet at a G8 summit in Northern Ireland in June, Putin was isolated over his
backing for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and scowled his way through talks
with Obama, who later likened him to a "bored kid in the back of the classroom".
Putin has ignored the jibe and stood his ground over Assad, dismissing Obama's
allegations that Syrian government forces carried out a chemical weapons attack
on August 21. Buoyed by
growing pressure on the US, French and British leaders over Syria, the former
KGB spy has also now hit back in comments referring ironically to Obama as a
Nobel Peace laureate and portraying US global policy as a failure. "We need to
remember what's happened in the last decade, the number of times the United
States has initiated armed conflicts in various parts of the world. Has it
solved a single problem?" Putin asked reporters on Saturday; "Afghanistan, Iraq
where is the peace there, there is no democracy, which our partners allegedly
sought," he said during a tour of Russia's far east. Denying as
"utter nonsense" the idea that Assad's forces would use chemical weapons when
they were winning the civil war, Putin looked steely and confident. After months
of pressure to abandon Assad, he is sending a message to the West that he is
ready to do battle over Syria in St Petersburg and sees an opportunity to
portray the United States as the bad boy on the block. "Of course the G20 is not
a formal legal authority. It's not a substitute for the UN Security Council, it
can't take decisions on the use of force. But it's a good platform to discuss
the problem. Why not take advantage of this?" he said. "Is it in the United
States' interests once again to destroy the international security system, the
fundamentals of international law? Will it strengthen the United States'
international standing? Hardly," he said. There was an element of grandstanding
in Putin's first public comments on the dispute over the poison gas which killed
hundreds of people in areas held by Syrian rebels. One of his aims is to deflect
criticism at this week's meeting of the 20 developed and emerging powers,
including all five permanent members of the Security Council, at which Syria is
likely to overshadow talks on the global economy. Putin also
seems intent on taking a swipe at Obama, who pulled out of a Russia-US summit
that was planned for this week after Moscow defied Washington by granting former
US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden a year's asylum. Putin still risks
facing criticism over a law banning "gay propaganda" at the summit, and is
accused abroad of clamping down on the opposition to reassert his authority
following the biggest protests since he was first elected president in 2000. But
the tension over possible military strikes on Syria has ensured Obama has been
the focus of world attention, rather than Putin, in the run-up to the G20 -
which will consider issues such as economic growth, unemployment and financial
regulation. There has
been no repeat of the sentiment expressed by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen
Harper on the eve of the G8 summit. Upset by Russia's position on Syria, he said
the G8 group of industrialized countries was in reality the "G7 plus one". Any
hopes in the West that Russia would shift stance because of the use of chemical
weapons now look to have been frustrated. Russian officials have reiterated that
Moscow, an important arms supplier to Assad, has the right to deliver such
weapons and that their sale does not break international law. Moscow, which has
blocked earlier efforts at the United Nations Security Council to condemn Assad
and tighten sanctions on his government, has also made clear it is not about to
support moves against Damascus at the United Nations. Putin says
the attack may have been a provocation by rebels fighting Assad, intended to
hasten US military intervention, and has used criticism of Washington over Syria
to whip up anti-American sentiment and shore up support among Russian voters.
"From Russian officials and certainly the Russian media, there continue to be
allegations that the United States has an agenda focused on regime change (in
Syria), that the United States is driving tumult in the Middle East for its own
ends," a senior US administration official in Washington said. "There is also a
cynical element where anti-Americanism has been successful to rally public
opinion." Putin, in
fact, seems emboldened as Obama's problems pile up and some of his allies face
difficulties over Syria. British Prime Minister David Cameron is under pressure
after parliament refused to back military action and Obama's decision to seek
Congress' approval for strikes has put French President Francois Hollande under
pressure to let deputies have a say. Putin said the British parliamentary vote
last Thursday was a sign that even people in countries closely allied to the
United States were drawing conclusions from what he depicted as Washington's
foreign policy mistakes. "Even there, there are people who are guided by
national interests and common sense, people who value their sovereignty," Putin
said. Any prospect of "shaming" Putin into a change of tack over Syria is also
increasingly seen abroad as unlikely to work. "I don't get the sense that Russia
is overly concerned about its international image in this regard," said the
senior US administration official. "It takes pride in being independent, Russia
is not timid or bashful when it comes to Syria support." Sept. 2…(FOJ) The highly complex prophetic “Burden
of Damascus” (Isaiah 17:1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is
taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.) and the
timely ripening “Burden of Egypt” (Isaiah 19:1-2 The burden of Egypt.
Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the
idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt
in the midst of it. And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians:)
continue to dominate world headlines. FOJ continues to monitor the geo-political
upheaval surrounding Damascus. As things currently stand, the highly volatile
dynamics at play here are still unfolding. President Obama seems to be
backtracking on an immediate attack on Syria, in lieu of an upcoming meeting
with the Global governing apparatus of the G20, and stern warnings from Mr.
Putin of Russia. While, no one can forecast the day of the Rapture,
watchful and alert Christians can ascertain the season for the Lord’s return.
And we are definitely deep into that season. All the prophetic pieces and
players are in place for the quick and sudden culmination of the things God has
ordained for the Last Days! (Luke 21:36
Watch ye therefore, and pray always,
that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to
pass, and to stand before the Son of man.) Sept. 2….(AP)
One of al Qaeda-linked most militant affiliates has called on
Egyptians to take up arms against their army, saying a bloody crackdown on
Islamist protesters showed peaceful methods were futile, according to an
Internet statement posted on Saturday. Scores of Egyptian security forces have
been killed in a series of attacks by suspected Islamist militants, mostly in
Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, since Islamist President Mohamed Mursi was deposed last
month. Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood renounced violence decades ago and denies any
links with militants, including those in Sinai who have gained strength since
President Hosni Mubarak was forced to step down in 2011. "There is nothing more
right in God's religion (Islam) than those who speak of the infidelity, reneging
on Islam and abandonment of religion, and call for the necessity to fight these
armies, foremost of which is the Egyptian army," said Abu Mohammed al-Adnani,
spokesman for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), according to the
Arabic recording. "The Egyptian army is part and a mere copy of these armies
which are seeking in a deadly effort to prevent God's laws from being adopted
and trying hard to consecrate the principles of secularism and man-made laws,"
he said. Mounting insecurity in Sinai worries the United States because the area
is next to Israel and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, as well as the Suez Canal. Sept. 2….(AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected the American evidence
that Syrian forces used chemical weapons, calling the suggestion "utter
nonsense." "While the Syrian army is on the offensive, saying that it is the
Syrian government that used chemical weapons is utter nonsense," Putin told
journalists in Vladivostok, according to Russia's Interfax news agency. He urged
the United States to present its evidence to the UN Security Council and
cautioned President Obama about the consequences of getting involved. "I would
like to address Obama as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate: before using force in
Syria, it would be good to think about future casualties," he said. On Friday, the Obama administration published evidence it says proves the
Syrian military was responsible for the attack near Damascus two weeks ago.
Secretary of State John Kerry said the attack killed 1,492 people, including
hundreds of children. On Saturday, the US Ambassador in Moscow Michael McFaul
presented that evidence to Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Rybakov. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Rybakov urged the United States
not to use the incident to justify increasing military pressure on the Assad
government. He said Russia would regard Western intervention as "a flagrant
violation of international law." Putin said he thinks the chemical attack was a
"provocation" by Assad's opponents who wished to draw the United States and
other powers into the conflict. "Common sense speaks for itself: the Syrian
government forces are on the offensive, and they have encircled insurgents in
some regions, and it would be utter stupidity to give up a trump card to those
who have been regularly calling for military intervention. It defies any logic,
especially on the day when UN monitors came there," he told reporters. Putin
said he believes Western intervention is only aimed at helping the rebels, which
he suggested have recently lost ground to government forces. "There is only
one solution: to strike for them. If this happens, this would be extremely sad,"
Putin said. Putin said he thinks the G20 summit, which Russia will host next week in St
Petersburg, "is a good forum for discussing the Syria problem, so why not take
advantage of this?" He also praised the British vote not to join in any strike,
saying it shows there are people with "common sense there." "The British
parliament's decision on Syria is an absolute surprise to me. It shows that
there are people guided by common sense there," he said. Putin also said Russia
was willing to take part in any international efforts to prevent the use of
chemical weapons. Sep. 2….(Infowars) Syrian rebels in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta have admitted
to Associated Press correspondent Dale Gavlak that they were responsible for
last week’s chemical weapons incident which western powers have blamed on Bashar
Al-Assad’s forces, revealing that the casualties were the result of an accident
caused by rebels mishandling chemical weapons provided to them by Saudi Arabia.
From numerous interviews with doctors, Ghouta residents, rebel fighters and
their families,.many believe that certain rebels received chemical weapons via
the Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and were responsible for
carrying out the deadly gas attack,” writes Gavlak. Rebels told Gavlak that they were not properly trained on how to handle the
chemical weapons or even told what they were. It appears as though the weapons
were initially supposed to be given to the Al-Qaeda offshoot Jabhat al-Nusra.
“We were very curious about these arms. And unfortunately, some of the fighters
handled the weapons improperly and set off the explosions,” one militant named
‘J’ told Gavlak. His claims are echoed by another female fighter named ‘K’, who
told Gavlak, “They didn’t tell us what these arms were or how to use them. We
didn’t know they were chemical weapons. We never imagined they were chemical
weapons.” Abu Abdel-Moneim, the father of an opposition rebel, also told Gavlak, “My
son came to me two weeks ago asking what I thought the weapons were that he had
been asked to carry,” describing them as having a “tube-like structure” while
others were like a “huge gas bottle.” The father names the Saudi militant who
provided the weapons as Abu Ayesha. According to Abdel-Moneim, the weapons
exploded inside a tunnel, killing 12 rebels. “More than a dozen rebels
interviewed reported that their salaries came from the Saudi government,” writes
Gavlak. If accurate, this story could completely derail the
United States’ rush to attack Syria, which has been founded on the “undeniable”
justification that Assad was behind the chemical weapons attack. Dale Gavlak’s
credibility is very impressive. He has been a Middle East correspondent for the
Associated Press for two decades and has also worked for National Public Radio
(NPR) and written articles for BBC News. The website on which the story
originally appeared, Mint Press is a legitimate media organization based in
Minnesota. The Minnesota Post did a profile on them last year. Saudi Arabia’s alleged role in providing rebels, whom they have
vehemently backed at every turn, with chemical weapons, is no surprise given the
revelations earlier this week that the Saudis threatened Russia with terror
attacks at next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi unless they abandoned support
for the Syrian President. “I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter
Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games
are controlled by us,” Prince Bandar allegedly told Vladimir Putin, the
Telegraph reports. The Obama administration has presented its intelligence findings in an
effort prove that Assad’s forces were behind last week’s attack, despite
American officials admitting to the New York Times that there is no “smoking
gun” that directly links President Assad to the attack. US intelligence
officials also told the Associated Press that the intelligence proving Assad’s
culpability is “no slam dunk.” As we reported earlier this week,
intercepted intelligence revealed that the Syrian Defense Ministry was making
“panicked” phone calls to Syria’s chemical weapons department demanding answers
in the hours after the attack, suggesting that it was not ordered by Assad’s
forces.
|