Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Russian Forces Take Syrian Chemical, Biological Weapons Under Control
Dec 22nd, 2012
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The chemical warfare threat looming over Syria’s civil war and its neighbors has taken an epic turn with the announcement by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Saturday, Dec. 22, that “the Syrian government has “consolidated its chemical weapons in one or two locations amid a rebel onslaught and they are under control for the time being.”
He added that Russia, “which has military advisers training Syria’s military, has kept close watch over its chemical arsenal.”
debkafile’s military and intelligence sources report: The Russian foreign minister’s statement was a message to Washington that the transfer of Syria’s weapons of mass destruction to one or two protected sites was under Russian control. This had removed the danger of them falling into the hands of the al Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra ,which had come ominously close Friday, Dec. 21, when the Islamists spearheaded a Syrian rebel assault for the capture of the al-Safira military complex and Bashar Assad’s chemical and biological stores.

Lavrov did not go into detail about how this arsenal was removed and to which locations. But his reference to “Russian military advisers training Syria’s military” clearly indicated that Russian forces were directly involved in removing the WMD out of the reach of the Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists.
His assertion that they were “under control” indicated that Russia was also involved in safeguarding them.

debkafile’s Moscow sources add: Russia’s military intervention in the Syrian civil war achieved four objectives:

1. The prevention of Western or Israel military action for seizing control of Syria’s chemical and biological weapons arsenals;

2. The prevention of Western military intervention in the civil war behind the forces dedicated to the removal of Bashar Assad. The Russian military is now engaged in the dual mission of guarding his WMD arsenal and his regime;
3. The Russian military presence in Syria delivers a heavy swipe to the rebels;
4. Russia’s intervention and military presence have laid the groundwork for Moscow and Washington to work out an accord that will bring Syria’s civil war to an end.

debkafile reported Friday, Dec. 21:

The Syrian Air Force is again firing Scud missiles, this time to stem the general offensive Syrian opposition forces, including jihadis, launched Friday, Dec. 21, to capture the Syrian army’s military-industrial complex at al Safira and the big chemical and biological weapons store adjoining the facility. It is there, that Scud D missiles stand ready for launching, loaded with chemical weapons.

Rebel forces are converging on Al Safira from the east, the west and the south. Among them are brigades of the Jabhat al-Nusra which the US has designated part of al Qaeda in Iraq.
debkafile military sources report extremely heavy fighting. The rebels have reached points 1-2 kilometers from the perimeter walls of the Al Safira chemical weapons stores and are being pounded by Syrian warplanes and assault helicopters as well as Scuds, in a desperate effort to halt their advance.

Success in seizing control of those stores would re-tilt the balance of the war in their favor and bring President Bashar Assad face to face with a decision on whether to broach the perilous dimension of chemical warfare on the rebels or even against NATO or US targets outside Syria.
A prime factor in his decision would be the information received in Moscow and Tehran – and almost certainly passed on to the Syrian ruler – that taking part in the offensive are rebels who underwent training in recent weeks in northern Jordan by US, Czech and Polish officers in tactics for seizing chemical or biological caches and dismantling them.

Russian and Iranian intelligence watchers suspect that elements from all three armies as well as Jordan are present in the rebel assault force, in order to be on the spot when the weapons of mass destruction are captured and appropriate them to forces under NATO command. They must beat Jabhat al-Nusra’s fighting brigades to this target, although at this moment, the jihadis are ahead of the race.
The battle for al Safira has brought US and NATO into direct intervention in Syrian hostilities. Western intelligence services estimate that even if Assad removed some of the banned weapons from this complex, large quantities remain and must be prevented from reaching the wrong hands.

Let the Headlines Speak
Dec 22nd, 2012
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Syrian civil war at stalemate, Assad won't go: Russia
Syria's civil war has reached stalemate and international efforts to persuade President Bashar al-Assad to quit will fail, Russia's FM Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday.-"Listen, no one is going to win this war," he told reporters aboard a gov't plane en route to Moscow from the Russia-EU summit in Brussels. "Assad is not going anywhere, no matter what anyone says, be it China or Russia."

Russia: Syrian chemical weapons 'under control'
Russian FM Sergei Lavrov said in comments cleared for release on Saturday that Syria's chemical weapons had been concentrated in one or two areas and were "under control" for the time being. Lavrov said the biggest threat from Syria's chemical weapons was that they could fall into the hands of rebel forces. "Currently the (Syrian) gov't is doing all it can to secure (chemical weapons), according to intelligence data we have and the West has," he said.

US and Russia back bid to find end to Syrian war
Lakhdar Brahimi, the United nations special envoy to Syria, is reportedly planning to fly from Cairo to Damascus to present a deal to the Syrian president. The plan would create a transitional government made up of regime and opposition figures, according to diplomatic sources.

New York Gov: Gun Confiscation and Forced Buy-back an Option
New York governor Andrew Cuomo says the state of New York is serious about gun confiscation. The Democrat and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development told an Albany radio station he plans to propose a package of draconian legislation during his State of the State address next month. “I don’t think legitimate sportsmen are going to say, ‘I need an assault weapon to go hunting,’” Cuomo said, according to the New York Times.

Trojan-horse therapy 'completely eliminates' cancer in mice
An experimental "Trojan-horse" cancer therapy has completely eliminated prostate cancer in experiments on mice, according to UK researchers. The team hid cancer killing viruses inside the immune system in order to sneak them into a tumour. Once inside, a study in the journal Cancer Research showed, tens of thousands of viruses were released to kill the cancerous cells.

John Kerry nominated as next US secretary of state
US President Barack Obama has nominated Senator John Kerry to succeed Hillary Clinton as his next secretary of state. Mr Obama said Mr Kerry's "entire life" prepared him for the role, and praised him for the "respect and confidence" he has earned from world leaders. Mr Kerry ran as Democratic presidential candidate in 2004 and is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Tougher EU sanctions against Iran come into force
Rigorous new sanctions against Iran's banking, shipping and industrial sectors took effect on Saturday, as part of the European Union's effort to force Tehran to scale back its nuclear program. The sanctions, agreed in October, entered EU law with their publication in the European Union's Official Journal on Saturday.

Mob in Pakistan kills man accused of burning Quran
Police say a mob in southern Pakistan has beaten to death a Muslim man accused of burning a copy of Islam's holy book, and then set his body afire. The country's harsh blasphemy laws allow anyone found guilty of insulting Islam to be sentenced to death, but people also sometimes take such matters into their own hands.

Iran defense minister says NATO missiles harm Turkey security
The installation of Patriot anti-missile batteries sent by NATO members to bolster Turkey's defenses against a possible missile attack from Syria will only harm Turkey's security, Iran's defense minister was quoted as saying on Saturday.

Four dead, three police hurt in Pennsylvania shootings
A man with a pistol fatally shot three people on Friday in rural western Pennsylvania, one of them in a church, before he was killed in a shootout with state troopers as he tried to flee in a pickup truck, authorities said.

NKorea says it has detained a US citizen
North Korea said Friday that an American citizen has been detained after confessing to unspecified crimes, confirming news reports about his arrest at a time when Pyongyang is facing criticism from Washington for launching a long-range rocket last week.

Syria military 'continuing to fire Scud-type missiles'
Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says Syrian government forces are continuing to fire short-range ballistic missiles at rebel fighters. A Nato source told the Reuters news agency that surveillance had detected multiple launches of "Scud-type missiles" on Thursday morning. Mr Rasmussen said it was the "act of a desperate regime approaching collapse".

Authorities: 3 set deadly Ind. blast for insurance
Three people charged in a gas explosion that devastated an Indianapolis neighborhood deliberately set up the deadly blast to collect a big insurance payout, authorities said Friday.

Egypt holds second stage of vote on draft constitution
Egyptians have begun voting in a second stage of a constitutional referendum that has sparked weeks of unrest. Opponents of President Mohammed Morsi have held protests against the draft, saying it favours the Islamists now in power and betrays the revolution which overthrew Hosni Mubarak last year. Mr Morsi's supporters say the constitution will secure democracy.

Egypt and the Death of the 'Arab Spring'
Dec 22nd, 2012
Daily Newsfrontpagemag - Robert Spencer
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Nearly two years after the "Arab Spring" began in Egypt, the nation's Muslim Brotherhood president has arrogated to himself dictatorial powers, and is ramming through a new constitution that will effectively extinguish the last vestiges of Egyptian democracy and establish Egypt as a Sharia state. Just as I said back in January 2011, when the uprisings against Mubarak began, for the people in Egypt who had real power to affect change, the "Arab Spring" was never about democracy and pluralism, despite the ululations of the Western press; it was always about imposing Islamic law upon Egypt. And now, with the new constitution, here we are.

The Associated Press reported that the draft constitution "largely reflects the conservative vision of the Islamists, with articles that rights activists, liberals and Christians fear will lead to restrictions on the rights of women and minorities and civil liberties in general." They have every reason to fear, for the constitution reflects in numerous particulars Sharia restrictions on their rights.

AP reports that the constitution's wording "could give Islamists the tool for insisting on stricter implementation of rulings of Shariah," and that "a new article states that Egypt's most respected Islamic institution, Al-Azhar, must be consulted on any matters related to Shariah, a measure critics fear will lead to oversight of legislation by clerics."

Al-Azhar is the foremost exponent of Sunni orthodoxy. Its characterization of what constitutes that orthodoxy carries immense weight in the Islamic world. It hews to age-old formulations of Islamic law mandating second-class dhimmi status for non-Muslims, institutionalized discrimination against women, and sharp restrictions on the freedom of speech, particularly in regard to Islam. Al-Azhar's having a role in the government of Egypt and its administration of Sharia spells the end of any remaining freedom in Egyptian society.

Notably, the constitution omits an article banning slavery. While it may not at first glance seem necessary for a constitution drafted in 2012 to contain such a ban, in Islamic countries this is still an issue. Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly observed several years that in neighboring Sudan, "slavery, sanctioned by religious zealots, ravaged the southern parts of the country and much of the west as well."

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have noted the problem of Islamic slavery. In light of this, for the Egyptian constitution not to ban it bodes ill.

And that is by no means all. According to AP, "the draft contains no article specifically establishing equality between men and women because of disputes over the phrasing. However, it maintains that a woman must balance her duties toward family and outside work, suggesting that she can be held accountable if her public role conflicts with her family duties. No such article is mentioned for men."

The implications for women's rights are as obvious as they are unsurprising in light of Sharia's reduction of women to the status of virtual slaves of men, little more than commodities.