Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Will Hizballah Fight for Assad or Fend Off An Israeli Attack?
Mar 29th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Hizballah’s four-tier hierarchy has shelved a plan to glorify General Secretary, Hassan Nasrallah, with the grand title of “Supreme Guide” – just one notch below Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s handle of Supreme Spiritual Leader of Iran. This was supposed to have been part of a structural reform program presented to Hizballah’s 10^th General Congress.
But no date has been set for this event because the Lebanese Shiite organization is wholly preoccupied with the conundrum of how to respond to a US-Israeli-NATO invasion of Syria – an event no one in the Shiite terrorist movement dared broach until very recently.
However, in the last couple of weeks, the Syrian war has spilled over into Lebanon in more ways than one: Najib Mikati has stepped down as Lebanon’s prime minister over Hizballah’s partisanship for Syria’s Bashar Assad; the Lebanese army has stopped functioning; clashes rage in Tripoli in the north and the Syrian Air Force has bombed rebel bases inside Lebanon.
The country’s 1.8 million Shiites, Hizballah’s power base, have found their voices and are clamoring for answers about what awaits them when Assad and his Alawite regime in Damascus, their insurance policy for many years, is swept off the Middle East map.
Now and again, whispers are heard criticizing the Shiite leaders of Hizballah for going overboard in their unreserved support for Assad and so placing the movement’s very survival in jeopardy.

One Arab Revolt door after another shut in Hizballah’s face

This would not be the first knock Hizballah sustained in its attempts to capitalize on the Arab Revolt after it erupted in December 2010.
In NATO’s Libya campaign, the Lebanese Shiite group first scrambled to carve out for itself and Iran a base of operations among Islamist opposition militias. Dominated by radical Sunni elements, the Libyan militias rejected Hizballah, only affording its agents a foothold in the smuggling network which flogged the contents of Qaddafi’s arsenals for big money.
Hizballah also failed to win a place in post-Mubarak Egypt after cozying up to the Muslim Brotherhood through its ties with the Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Its most ambitious operation in Bahrain turned into its biggest fiasco.
In the years 2011-2012, Tehran assigned Hizballah the task of whipping the Shiite protest movement up into a revolt for overthrowing Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa and stirring up the two million Saudi Shiites next door into an insurgency against the royal throne in Riyadh.
This was to have been the crowning Shiite endeavor of the Arab Spring.
Hizballah and its security apparatus threw all its resources into this operation. The Shiite dissidents were given exhaustive training in guerrilla warfare and a Hizballah officer was attached to each group of 100-200 Shiite demonstrators.
They failed because Saudi Arabia stepped in to save the Bahraini throne with massive intelligence assistance and finally tanks which crushed the Shiite uprising.
The onset of the Syrian uprising in March 2011 and Hizballah’s expanding role in defending Bashar Assad overshadowed its comedown in Bahrain, although the guerrilla training local Shiites gained will no doubt surface in some future Persian Gulf crisis.

Hizballah is damned whether it obeys or flouts Tehran

A Western invasion of Syria and its potential for deposing Assad presents Hizballah with the prospect of its most agonizing debacle yet at the hands of its worst enemies, Israel and the United States, whom he has sworn to destroy.
Western, Arab and Israeli intelligence circles see only three options for Hizballah – all equally disastrous:
1. The most inconceivable would be for Hizballah to flout orders from Tehran - for instance, an order for full mobilization against the multiple Western attack on their key ally, the Syrian ruler.
Hassan Nasrallah’s loyalty to Iran is beyond question but, at least once in the past, he ventured to disobey an Iranian directive: In 2006, he overrode Tehran’s objections and, after abducting a group of Israeli soldiers, rained rockets down on Israeli towns, so sparking the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War.
But if he dares disobey Tehran in 2013, he has much more to lose because sections of his armed forces now defer directly to Tehran and they could break ranks or even stage a putsch to overthrow him as leader.
2. DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military sources don’t expect Tehran to gamble with Hizballah’s very existence by making the organization throw all its resources behind Assad’s army when it fights off an invasion.

Will Israel use the Syrian war to finish Hizballah off?

There are indications instead that the Shiite group is preparing to appropriate sectors of the Lebanese-Syrian border and hold the door open for fleeing Syrian troops to move in and continue to fight from Lebanon. Certain sectors are already seen being fenced off.
Iran and Hizballah appear to be planning to act on the principle that for every piece of land Assad loses in Syria, he will be compensated with a replacement of territory in Lebanon. This principle is designed to deter Washington and Jerusalem from expanding the Syrian campaign into Lebanon.
3. It is not known whether Israel will make do with a limited operation against Syrian chemical and biological weapons, or use the opportunity for an offensive to vanquish Hizaballah and demolish its massive stores of weapons.
Tehran, Damascus and Beirut are treating this possibility as highly realistic.

U.S., NATO, Israel, Turkey and Jordan Gird Up for Syria Operation
Mar 29th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

US President Barack Obama was hardly out the door of the Middle East March 23 when preparations for a US-led multinational operation to liquidate Syria’s chemical weapons went into top gear. Before leaving, he removed one last obstacle to the operation by patching up the three-year feud between Binyamin Netanyahu and Tayyip Erdogan and hauling them back into military cooperation. Jordan’s King Abdullah was then lifted aboard.
Across the ocean, US and European commanders were lining up for action. On March 22, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel presided over the US Central Command changing-of-command ceremony which inducted Gen. Lloyd J. Austin, III, as incoming USCENTCOM chief and OC of the Syrian operation.
It took place at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, henceforth overall headquarters of the coming operation in Syria.
Conspicuously present at the ceremony were Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint US Chiefs of Staff; Gen. James. F. Amos, Commandant of the Marine Corps; Gen. John F. Kelly, commander of US Southern Command; Adm. William H. McRaven, commander of the US Special Operations Command; and assorted NATO officials and defense chiefs from USCENTCOM coalition countries.

This time the US will lead from the front

Whereas the Obama administration famously “led from behind” in NATO’s war for toppling Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi two years ago, leaving overall command to the British, Italian, German and French generals in Brussels, this time, American generals will be running the war from Tampa, Florida. So the Obama administration will be leading from the front.
NATO headquarters in Brussels and the US command centers in Europe are assigned support roles as logistical centers and bases for the reserves held ready in case the Syrian theater sends offshoots into other Middle East countries and beyond, to West European or Caspian countries.
Another major difference from the Libyan campaign is that regime change in Damascus is not its declared goal – only Syria’s chemical and biological weapons.
In this exclusive report, DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military and intelligence sources reveal for the first time the main points agreed for the forthcoming Syria campaign between President Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Jordan's Abdullah and the Turkish Prime Minister.
1. The circumstances compelling direct and immediate US-Israeli-Jordanian-Turkish military intervention in Syria were defined. Covered at this stage was the use of chemical and biological weapons by the Syrian army or by the rebels, their transfer to Syrian army field units or their falling into the hands of terrorist organizations.
“Terrorist organizations” were also defined: On the one hand, the Lebanese Shiite Hizballah and the Allawite “Shabiha” – civilian militiamen loyal to the Assad clan and his Ba’ath party, who were recently augmented by Iraqi Shiite fighters; and, on the other, Islamist rebel forces led by Al Qaeda’s Syrian arm, the Jabhat al-Nusra Brigades.

The use of chemical weapons – a trigger in its broadest definition

2. Our sources point out that the Obama administration may not stick to these strict definitions – for instance, in the case of credible intelligence that an imminent broad-scale chemical assault was in the offing inside Syria and across its borders. A direct, pre-emptive strike might then be ordered from Washington to save tens of thousands of Syrian, Israeli, Turkish or Jordanian lives.
3. The US president has slashed the estimated figures of US combat manpower required for intervention in Syria: A year ago, US military planners estimated it would take 75,000 troops to capture the Syrian chemical and biological arsenals.
Last week, Obama decided to allot 12,000 troops for the first stage of the military operation, spearheaded by a first wave of 3,000 US commandos. The same number of Israeli, Jordanian and Turkish commandos would be fielded, augmented by the 2,000 Syrian rebels training for months in Jordan with US, Czech and Polish chemical warfare experts.
In addition to this round total of 8,000 fighting men, air force and navy personnel, missile interceptor teams and drone operators would be taking part in the operation.
Many Western military experts say that these figures are not sustainable and the Obama administration would soon be forced to put more US troops on the ground after the operation was underway.

A five-point scenario agreed with Israel, Turkey, Jordan

4. The first-wave units going into Syria are to be joined in the second wave by additional NATO armies: Britain, France, Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic are to provide special forces and/or the units trained in chemical and biological warfare held ready for this contingency for nearly a year. More NATO nations, especially Germany, will come in later if warranted by the campaign’s expansion.
5. During Obama's talks in Jerusalem and Amman and Secretary of State John Kerry's discussions in Ankara, agreement was reached on five points:
- How to dispose of the dangerous chemical and biological substances after their capture;
- The assignment of zones of operation among US, Israel, Turkish and Jordanian forces, subject to US command in Tampa, Florida, and the NATO command, whose headquarters will be temporarily relocated from Brussels to Turkey;
- The joint command centers the US established in Turkey, Jordan and Israel at the end of last summer, for coordinating their operations against Syria’s chemical arsenals, will switch to switch to operational mode;
The success of the entire operation depends on those local command centers achieving smooth synchronization from the word go.

Four epic landmark features

In many respects, the Syrian military campaign promises to break a historical military mold as remarkably as did the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Suffice to single out four landmark features:
a) For the first time in Middle East annals, American and Israeli forces will fight shoulder to shoulder on sovereign Arab territory.
b) Never before has the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) joined an Arab army (from Jordan) or a Muslim army (from Turkey) in combat in an Arab country.
c). US, Arab and Muslim forces will be fighting together for the first time under the NATO umbrella.
Points a) and b) were made possible by President Obama’s success in achieving the prime strategic objective of his Middle East trip last week, which was to bury the hatchet between Ankara and Jerusalem and pave the way for their return to military cooperation.
d) The projected US-Israeli-Jordanian-Turkish military operation on Syrian soil would send a strong warning signal from Washington to Tehran about what is in store for Iran’s leaders if, by the end of 2013 or early 2014, they continue to resist a diplomatic resolution of their nuclear controversy. It puts on them on notice to reach terms either directly with the US or within the forum of the five Security Council members plus Germany.

Let the Headlines Speak
Mar 29th, 2013
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Madagascar suffers its worst plague of locust in more than half a century
A severe plague of locusts has landed in about half of Madagascar, threatening crops and creating concern over food shortages. According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the billions of insects could cause hunger for 60 percent of the country's population.  

Allah Finds a Home in a German Cathedral
The Muslims killed the weak and the elderly and reduced the others to slavery. When the carnage came to an end, Sultan Mehmed II ordered an Islamic scholar to declare that there was no God but Allah and Mohammed was his Prophet. The ancient church was then converted into a mosque; hundreds of other churches in Constantinople and other places suffered the same fate. Today in Europe we are witnessing the same process of conversion, but there is no bloodbath nor ceremony. It is a voluntary and sterile process of conversion. It is enough to sign a piece of paper in front of a notary and Europe turns to Islam.  

Astonishing speed China censors information on the internet: 30% is deleted within half an hour, and 5% is deleted within FIVE minutes of appearing on
Thirty per cent of online posts which are deemed inappropriate on China's equivalent of Twitter are deleted within half an hour, according to new research. Computer scientists Jed Crandall and Dan Wallach conducted the study on how quickly censorship on Sina Weibo can work.  

Why Did the Virgin Mary Choose RUSSIA? Earth-Shaking Promises from Heaven about Russia
The vision of the angel about to strike the world, she said, explained Our Lady's chilling words, "various nations will be annihilated." Sr. Lucia added this warning: "If we have not yet seen the complete fulfillment of the final part of this prophecy, we are going toward it with great strides."  

Brewing trouble: Christian group urges stock dump over Starbucks gay marriage support
Offended by the decision of Starbucks chief Howard Schultz to support gay marriage, a Christian organization is seconding the CEO’s demand that Christian shareholders sell their stock in the ubiquitous coffee chain. “Christians and pro-family groups across the United States have contributed significantly to the economic success of Starbucks,” said American Family Association President Tim Wildmon in a statement. “However, we can certainly honor Mr. Shultz’s request to take our business elsewhere.”  

Gold Reaches ‘Inflexion Point’ as ETFs Suffer Record Outflows
"What we're seeing at the moment is probably that we're at an inflexion point, where there's been some profit-taking in gold," Nik Bienkowski, co-chief executive of Boost ETP, which tracks the physical price of gold, told CNBC on Thursday. "With improving sentiment in the equity markets, perhaps some that were over-invested in gold have sold part of their gold portfolio and invested in equities."  

Facebook bans Gandhi quote as part of revisionist history purge
The quote reads: "Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest." - Mohandas Gandhi, an Autobiography, page 446. This historical quote was apparently too much for Facebook's censors to bear.  

Obama uses executive power to move gun control agenda forward   -   The president has used his executive powers to bolster the national background check system...and create a million-dollar ad campaign aimed at safe gun ownership. The executive steps will give federal law enforcement..access to more data about guns and their owners, help keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill, and lay the groundwork for future legislative efforts.  

North Korea tensions: Russia's Lavrov fears 'spiral'
Russia has warned of tensions in North Korea slipping out of control, after Pyongyang said it was placing its missile units on stand-by. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the situation could slip "toward the spiral of a vicious circle". Kim Jong-un made the missile order after talks responding to US stealth bomber flights over the Korean peninsula, state news agency KCNA said.  

Mass rally in Pyongyang in support of Kim Jong Un
Thousands of North Koreans have turned out for a mass rally at the main square in Pyongyang in support of their leader's call to arms. Chanting "Death to the U.S. imperialists" and "Sweep away the U.S. aggressors," soldiers and students marched through Kim Il Sung Square in downtown Pyongyang on Friday during a 90-minute rally.  

Mortar shells strike Damascus, killing at least 10
Mortar shells crashed into an outdoor cafe at Damascus University on Thursday, killing at least 10 students in the deadliest of a rising number of mortar attacks in the heart of the Syrian capital.  

Cyprus capital controls 'may last a month'
Restrictions on cash withdrawals, money transfers and the movement of cash in and out of Cyprus could remain in place for a month, the foreign minister says. Ioannis Kasoulides said capital controls would be lifted gradually, appearing to contradict earlier estimates that curbs would end in days. He spoke at the end of a first day of operations in almost two weeks for the country's crisis-hit banks.  

Pakistani city of Peshawar hit by deadly blast
A suicide attack in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar has left at least six people dead, officials say. The bombing targeted a convoy of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, local media reported.  

North Korea pushes up state of missile site readiness: report
Increased activities involving vehicles and troops at North Korea's mid- and long-range missile units have been detected by South Korea's military, Yonhap news agency said on Friday, just hours after the North's leader ordered rocket units to be ready to attack U.S. bases.

Let the Headlines Speak
Mar 29th, 2013
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Manchin says he's working to get another Senate vote on gun background check
West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin said Sunday he’s not finished with his effort to expand background checks for gun buyers, despite the proposal’s defeat and other key senators appearing to now move beyond the issue.

Last Pieces of New World Trade Center Are Rising
One World Trade Center already is New York's tallest building. And when the last pieces of its spire rise to the roof — weather permitting — the 104-floor skyscraper that replaces the fallen twin towers will be just feet from becoming the highest in the Western Hemisphere.

Obama: Pass My Budget or Suffer More 'Pain'
In his weekly address, Pres. Obama threatened Americans with more sequester "pain" if they don't convince Congress to pass his budget.

Iraq suspends Al Jazeera, other networks for ‘promoting violence’
Iraq has suspended Qatar-based Al Jazeera and nine other satellite TV channels from broadcast, citing "unprofessional reporting” that generated inter-ethnic strife in the war-torn country.

Lawmakers call for stronger U.S. action in Syria
Republican lawmakers are pressing for U.S. intervention in Syria's civil war, while Democrats call for increased aid but do not rule out military action. "If we keep this hands-off approach to Syria -- this indecisive action toward Syria, kind of not knowing what we're going to do next -- we're going to have a war with Iran because Iran's going to take our inaction in Syria as meaning we're not serious about their nuclear weapons program,"

Jew hatred at UN schools
Information has recently come to light which suggests peace with Israel is not what they seek. In fact, their desire appears to be anything but.

CHANCE OF FLARES
NOAA forecasters estimate a 25% chance of M-class solar flares today. The likely source would be sunspot AR1731, which is almost directly facing Earth.

Atlantic Ocean Off Northeast Warmest in 150 Years
A deviation in average temperature by more than a degree is uncommon; this increase, from the average of 54.3 degrees F. over past 30 years to 57.2 degrees F. in the second half of last year is the highest jump measured. It is also an amount of warming not seen in any other ocean.

2013: the year of the comet – new comet discovery announced
Comet TENAGRA: Cbet nr. 3478, issued on 2013, April 19, announces the discovery of a apparently asteroidal object...

Deadly earthquakes strike around the world
A series of deadly earthquakes have struck many countries around the world, including China, Mexico, and Iran, in the last few weeks resulting in hundreds of injuries and deaths.

Americans fear government more than terror
According to a pair of recent polls, for the first time since the 9/11 terrorist hijackings, Americans are more fearful their government will abuse constitutional liberties than fail to keep its citizens safe. Even in the wake of the April 15 Boston Marathon bombing...the polls suggest Americans are hesitant to give up any further freedoms in exchange for increased “security.”

Small Earthquake Recorded in Southern Oklahoma
The USGS says a magnitude 3.3 quake was recorded at 10:06 p.m. Saturday near Dickson -- about 15 miles east of Ardmore in Carter County. The area is about 95 miles south of Oklahoma City. The USGS says no damage was reported.

Mad cow infected blood 'to kill 1,000’
Government experts believe there is still a risk of people contracting variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) through blood transfusions, as about 30,000 Britons are likely to be carrying the brain-wasting illness in a dormant form — double the previous estimate. ...Mr Dobson, the former Labour Health Secretary, said “everything humanly possible should be done to develop a blood test”.

Taliban marks start of 'monumental' spring offensive with deadly attack
It didn’t take long. Within hours of announcing the start of its annual spring offensive, the Taliban in Afghanistan claimed responsibility for an early-morning attack in the eastern part of the country that killed at least three police officers. "In addition to suicide bombings, insurgents warned of coordinating ‘insider’ attacks against ‘foreign transgressors’," the Taliban said in a statement on Sunday.

Russian Scientists: ‘We Could Face Cooling Period For 200-250 Years’
‘We could be in for a cooling period that lasts 200-250 years. The period of low solar activity could start in 2030-2040.’ Global warming which has been the subject of so many discussions in recent years, may give way to global cooling. According to scientists from the Pulkovo Observatory in St.Petersburg, solar activity is waning, so the average yearly temperature will begin to decline as well.

US health leader warns of human-to-human H7N9 bird flu
There is no evidence that the deadly H7N9 bird flu has yet spread between humans in China but health authorities must be ready for the virus to mutate at any time, a top US virologist has warned. ...National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said officials in China had studied more than 1,000 close contacts of confirmed cases and not found any evidence of human-to-human transmission.

Japan PM Abe in Russia for talks on territorial row, energy
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is in Russia for the two nations' first top-level talks in a decade. Discussions are set to focus on energy deals and a territorial row unresolved since the end of World War II. Ahead of the visit, Mr Abe said he wanted to build "a trusted personal relationship" with President Vladimir Putin.

Parasite 'resistant to malaria drug artemisinin'
New drug-resistant strains of the parasite that causes malaria have been identified by scientists. Researchers found parasites in western Cambodia that are genetically different from other strains around the world. These organisms are able to withstand treatment by artemisinin - a frontline drug in the fight against malaria.

PM convenes security cabinet amid Syria concerns
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu convened his security cabinet Sunday for an in-depth discussion of the situation in Syria. The meeting was believed to be the first in-depth discussion on the matter by the new security cabinet since the new government was formed in mid-March, and reportedly dealt with different scenarios the country had to prepare for.

Syrian PM escapes Damascus bomb attack on his convoy
Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halki survived a bomb attack on his convoy in Damascus on Monday, state media and activists said, as rebels struck in the heart of President Bashar al-Assad's capital. The explosion shook the Mezze neighbourhood shortly after 9 a.m. (0600 GMT), sending a plume of thick black smoke into the sky, Internet footage posted by opposition activists showed.

Israel Supplants U.S. As World’s Largest Jewish Population Center, Passing Symbolic 6 Million Figure
Mar 29th, 2013
Daily NewsInternational Business Times
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

During Passover, the Jewish population of Israel has passed the symbolic 6 million mark – the same number of Jews who were believed to have been killed during the Nazi Holocaust – while the country’s total population is now 8 million.

srael now has the world’s largest community of Jews, replacing the U.S. (5.5 million, with 2 million in New York City alone), France (500,000, mostly in Paris) and Canada (380,000, primarily in Toronto).

Britain has 290,000 Jews, most of them concentrated in London.

According to the Interior Ministry, Israel’s non-Jewish population comprises about 1.6 million Arabs and 350,000 non-Arab Christians and others (mostly immigrants from the Soviet Union whose religion has not been listed or registered by the ministry).

Another half-million Israeli citizens live abroad, the Ynet newspaper reported.

However, a leading expert on demography warns that overall the world’s Jewish population is declining.

"In the world today there are 13,800,000 Jews," Professor Sergio Della Pergola, of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

"Israel has indeed experienced a growth in the number of Jews last year, but world Jewry outside Israel did not fare so well. On the contrary, world Jewry has experienced negative growth.”

Indeed, prior to 1939, the global Jewish population amounted to some 18 million.

Nonetheless, for Israel to reach and pass the 6 million figure is significant.

"Six million is absolutely a symbolic number but still most Jews live outside Israel," Tom Segev, an Israeli historian and author, told the Daily Telegraph.

"But within five, seven or 10 years, you might be able to say that most Jews in the world live inside Israel and it will be legitimate to use the cliché that for the first time in 2,000 years, the Jews are in Israel. Then the question will be, what do you do with the Zionist ideology?

Within Israel itself, an interesting pattern of migration is occurring – people are moving in huge numbers to Tel Aviv, the Mediterranean coastal city and economic and cultural capital.

Haaretz newspaper reported that by 2025, an estimated 80 percent of Israel’s population will live in the greater Tel Aviv area.

"The Israeli nation is congregating on the central plain, in the greater metropolitan Tel Aviv area," Arnon Soffer, professor emeritus of geography and environmental sciences at the University of Haifa, told the newspaper.

"There are many figures attesting to Jews leaving the Galilee [in northern Israel]. All the development towns in the periphery are emptying."

Iran and Russia Double Their Arms Airlifts for Syrian Army
Mar 29th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Four months ago, on Dec. 15, 2012, the Chairman of Iran's Armed Forces Chiefs of Staff Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi warned NATO that deploying Patriot missiles along Turkey's border with Syria could pave the way for “world war”.
“Every one of these Patriot missiles is a dark spot on the world map and is aimed at starting a world war. Yet unfortunately one by one, Western countries are approving deployment of Patriot missiles to Turkey’s border with Syria, while they are planning a world war which is very dangerous for the future of humanity and Europe itself,” Firouzabadi said at the time.
Such Iranian threats, often repeated since, have a similar ring to the rhetoric heard this week from North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un about “all-out war on America.”
As matters stand now, none of those threats may be realized.
A the same time, if President Barack Obama goes through with his plan to attack Syria over its chemical arsenal (see second article in this issue), the landscape could change radically: Four rulers, Kim, Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Syrian President Bashar Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin may get together to snatch the initiative from America and dictate the next turn of events.

US, Israeli troops may meet Iranian combatants in Syria

If Patriot missile batteries were enough to provoke an Iranian threat of “world war,” how much more forceful would Tehran’s response be to an invasion of Syria by the US, NATO and the Israeli army?
Indeed, the US military and IDF would be ranged not just against the Syrian army but for the first time against its backers, Iranian Revolutionary Guardsmen and al Qods Brigades units.
In that sense, the Syrian operation might become the starting-point for a US-Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear program – an eventuality which has not been lost on Tehran. According to DEBKA-Net-Weekly's Iranian and intelligence sources, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has put his staff to work on plans for this eventuality.
Our military and intelligence sources report that, on Saturday, March 23, right after President Obama flew home from visits to Israel and Jordan, Moscow and Tehran doubled and even tripled their air and ground deliveries of war materiel to Syria.
Western intelligence monitors currently register between five and eight daily landings of Iranian military cargo planes. Iranian aircraft have until now kept to Syrian Air Force bases in Damascus, Aleppo and Palmeira. Now they are landing at airports and makeshift airstrips as close as possible to the battlefields where Syrian units are engaged in combat with rebel fighters.
This novelty in Middle East warfare offers a variety of tactical advantages:

Iranian transports land arms near Syrian battlefields

It saves the Syrian army having to transport the weapons delivered by Iranian airlift through blocked roads under rebel attack. The Syrian fighting unit for whom the shipment is destined can pick it up directly from a nearby air strip and so bypass such obstacles as a shortage of trucks and the red tape that even a savage civil war has not vanquished.
2. Strategic collaboration between the Syrian army and Tehran is tightened and streamlined. The commanders of Syrian divisions, brigades or battalions can hand the lists of their arms and equipment shortages to the general staff in Damascus and be sure replenishments will be dropped by air from Iran within 24 to 48 hours.
Iran, already deeply involved in the Syrian conflict, gains the additional option of building up the arsenals of Syrian army divisions for a mission beyond taking on the rebels, namely, facing up to a US-Israeli invasion.
US Secretary of State John Kerry tried on Sunday, March 24, to snap a key link in the Iranian-Syrian air corridor by persuading Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to at least slow down the rate of Iranian planes flying through Iraqi airspace to Syria.
Maliki turned him down.

Tehran and Moscow in close tandem in support of Assad

3. Tehran is not alone in massively stepping up the volume and frequency of its arms deliveries to Assad’s army. So too has Moscow. Russian cargo planes have also developed a more versatile map of landing sites for their arms shipments.
Their close partnership in supplying Assad with arms leads to two conclusions:
One: that Moscow and Tehran have intensified their military cooperation in support of Assad and his army; and two: that they would work even more closely together to thwart a foreign intervention that placed the Syrian regime in peril.
In public speeches and private conversations with Russian military and secret service chiefs, Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly pledged not to permit US and NATO to carry out a second Libyan adventure in Syria.
He has put all his personal and political prestige on the line for this commitment.

DHS Threatening War With American People, Warns Retired U.S. Army Captain
Mar 29th, 2013
Daily NewsNatural News.com
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The Department of Homeland Security's recent acquisitions of nearly two billion rounds of ammunition, 7,000 assault weapons and 2,700 mine-resistant, ambush protected vehicles constitutes a "bold threat of war" against American citizens, according to a retired U.S. Army captain who has growing concerns about the purchases.

"It is with gravest concern that I write to you today concerning the recent appropriation of weapons by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that can only be understood as a bold threat of war by that agency, and the Obama administration, against the citizens of the United States of America," Terry M. Hestilow, an Afghanistan veteran, wrote in a letter posted on his Facebook page he says he sent recently to Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

Referring to the ominous purchases - which DHS officials have attempted to downplay, Hestilow labeled them "a tyrannical threat against the Constitution" and a deliberate attempt to defund the Department of Defense.

Remember - Obama himself brought up the concept of a 'powerful civilian national security force'

The decorated vet asked Cornyn to honor his oath of office to his constituents and the Constitution to "demand in clear terms that the Administration cannot ignore, that the Department of Homeland Security immediately surrender their newly appropriated weapons of war to the Department of Defense..."

"Significant is the fact that at the same time the Obama administration is arming his DHS for war within the limits of the United States against the People of the United States in accordance with his 2008 campaign speech claiming," as candidate Barack Obama in 2008

We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've gotta (sic) have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded [as the United States military]...

"Further," he writes, "since the DHS has assumed a position in the Administration to enforce the tyrannical acts of this president against the People of the United States against the limits of the United States Constitution, it remains for the United States Congress to exercise its limiting power in the balancing of powers established by our founding fathers, to disestablish and dissolve the DHS as soon as possible."

Hestilow called the DHS purchases a "glaring threat of war against our nation's citizens," and actions he says "can only be understood as a tyrannical threat against the Constitution of the United States of America."

If the situation is not resolved, Hestilow wrote to Cornyn, "the peace loving citizens who have sworn to defend the United States Constitution 'against all enemies, both foreign and domestic' are left no option except to prepare to defend themselves, and the U.S. Constitution, against this Administration's 'coup' against the People and the foundations of liberty fought for and defended for the past 238 years. We have no choice if we honor our oaths."

Others are also seeking answers

As his motivation for writing, Hestilow cites the rise of Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler in the early 1930s.

"One needs only to look to the rise of Adolf Hitler, and his associated DHS organizations, the SA and the SS, of 1932-1934, to see the outcome of allowing an agency of government this kind of control over the free citizens of a nation," he wrote. "The people of Germany could not have imagined, until it was too late, the danger of allowing a tyrant this kind of power. We must not be so naive as to think it will not happen to us as well if we remain passive toward this power grab by the Marxist Obama administration!"

Hestilow's letter comes amid news of a brand-new request by DHS for an additional 360,000 rounds of .40 caliber hollow point ammunition, bringing the huge department's recent orders more than two billion rounds, to be supplied over the next four-five years.

Hestilow is not the only one seeking answers.

"The extraordinary level of ammunition purchases made by Homeland Security seems to have, in states such as my own, created an extreme shortage of ammunition to the point where many gun owners are unable to purchase any," Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., and 15 other lawmakers wrote in a separate letter, asking DHS why the department is filing purchase requests for so much ammo so quickly.

CDC: 110,197,000 Venereal Infections in U.S.; Nation Creating New Stis Faster Than New Jobs
Mar 29th, 2013
Daily NewsCNSNews.com
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary;Moral Decline

According to new data released by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 19.7 million new venereal infections in the United States in 2008, bringing the total number of existing sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the U.S. at that time to 110,197,000.

The 19.7 million new STIs in 2008 vastly outpaced the new jobs and college graduates created in the United States that year or any other year on record, according to government data. The competition was not close.

The STI study referenced by the CDC estimated that 50 percent of the new infections in 2008 occurred among people in the 15-to-24 age bracket. In fact, of the 19,738,800 total new STIs in the United States in 2008, 9,782,650 were among Americans in the 15-to-24 age bracket.

By contrast, there were 1,524,092 bachelor’s degrees awarded in the United States in the 2007-2008 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That means the total number of new STIs in 2008 outpaced the total number of new bachelor’s degrees by nearly 13 to 1, and the number of new STIs among Americans in the 15-to-24 age bracket outnumbered new bachelor’s degrees by more than 6 to 1.

While the CDC estimates that there were 19.7 million new STIs in the United States in 2008, data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that the total number of people employed in the country actually declined by 2.9 million during that year.

The CDC said the new venereal infections contracted each year cost the nation about $16 billion.

“CDC’s new estimates show that there are about 20 million new infections in the United States each year, costing the American healthcare system nearly $16 billion in direct medical costs alone,” said a CDC fact sheet.

Assad Issues Two Loyal Army Divisions With Protective Gear for Chemical War
Mar 29th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

It has just been reported from Western intelligence sources monitoring Syrian field units and satellite images that the two elite Syrian army divisions safeguarding the Assad regime were issued Thursday, March 28 with protective gear for chemical warfare.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly's intelligence sources names them as the 4^th Division, which is the Syrian Republican Guard and is commanded by Bashar Assad's younger brother Maher Assad, and the 3^rd Armored Division.
The 4^th Division is deployed in and around Damascus to defend the Syrian capital, the president and government institutions. The 3^rd Division controls a 45-kilometer patch of central Syria between Damascus and the northern town of Homs.
Officers and troops of the two divisions were outfitted with gas masks and protective suits for continuous combat under conditions of chemical and biological contamination. They were told to stay suited up at all times until further orders.
According to our sources, tank crews were ordered to check the chemical and biological filtering systems in their T-72 tanks every two hours, keeping them ready to function on the instant at zero notice.
In the last few hours, Israel has bolstered its military medical teams along the Syrian border.
The US, NATO, Israeli, Turkish and Jordanian agencies keeping an eye on the unfolding Syrian scene offer five explanations for the Assad regime’s action:

Russian exercise – a hands-off Syria warning to the West

1. Assad has decided to break the deadlock in the war with a first-strike chemical assault on the rebels, before the US, NATO, Israel, Turkey and Jordan are ready to go with their projected operation for seizing his unconventional arms arsenals. The way for this operation was prepared by US President Barack Obama during his talks last week with Israeli, Turkish and Jordanian leaders.
(See the next articles on Obama’s discussions with Israeli and Jordan leaders and Adm. James Stavridis’s Plan B for Assad’s ouster.)
2. Moscow apparently tipped him off that this Western-Arab-Israeli offensive may be imminent.
This is borne out by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order Thursday to his armed forces to stage a sizeable military exercise in the Black Sea region. The order was given without prior notice on the Russian leader’s way home from an international summit in South Africa before he even landed home in Moscow.
It was evidently a fast reflex reaction to the appeal Assad addressed to that summit Wednesday for help against a Western attack, and was meant as a Russian hands-off Syria warning to US and NATO.
3. Intelligence reaching Damascus that a chemical weapons cache hidden in Iraq has been smuggled across the border to the al Qaeda-linked Syrian group Jabhat al-Nusra for use against the Syrian military. Their use will also usher in the rise of a separate Al Qaeda emirate in Syria, brother to AQAP-Al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula, and AQIM-Al Qaeda in the Maghreb.

Assad regime’s legitimacy under fire at Doha summit

4. By handing out chemical warfare gear to the 3^rd and 4^th Divisions, the Syrian ruler is also signaling the US and Israel that their invasion of Syria carries the risk of a broad chemical offensive by Assad’s forces against civilian as well as military targets.
5. Assad has caught onto the conspiracy for a coup d’etat hatched against him by Western and Arab intelligence services. They are believed to be in touch with certain Syrian generals for them and their units to cross over and join the forces advancing on Damascus when the time comes.
By handing out chemical warfare gear to his two most loyal military divisions, Assad is warning would-be plotters amongst his own generals that he will not hesitate to mark them out for chemical attack.
6. The Syrian ruler and public have treated the seating of an opposition figure in the Syrian seat at this week’s Arab League summit in Doha – without even waiting for the Syrian opposition and rebel factions to agree on a common representative – as a deadly assault on the Assad regime’s legitimacy.
It has galvanized Assad and his army into an all-out effort for a quick and victorious end to the civil war – even if this is only achievable by dint of chemical weapons.

Al Qaeda Strengthens Grip on Jordanian - Israeli Border
Mar 29th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Further advance were made by Syrian al Qaeda’s Jabhat al-Nusra Friday for controlling the Syrian-Israeli-Jordanian border junction with the capture of the small town of Dael southeast of Deraa. The Nusra’s Al Musanna Brigade pounced on Dael from Sham Al-Jawla which they occupied earlier this week, thereby establishing positions facing the Golan and the Jordanian border.

Admiral Stavridis Would Get Rid of Assad Without U.S. Boots on Syrian Soil
Mar 29th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The war scenario drawn up for the US-Israeli-Jordanian-Turkish invasion of Syria addresses a single objective: liquidating Syria’s chemical arsenals. There is no reference to the overthrow of President Bashar Assad and his regime.
The war plan proposed by US Navy Adm. James G. Stavridis, Commander of the US European Command and NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, would rectify this omission.
In this respect, it departs significantly from the White House-Pentagon blueprint which President Barack Obama cleared with America’s Israeli, Jordanian and Turkish allies in the region during his Middle East visit last week.
The second major difference from the American perspective is that, whereas the plan for neutralizing the Syrian chemical and biological threat calls for direct US military intervention in Syria, the Stavridis Plan would focus on ousting Assad from power – without putting American boots on Syrian soil.
This plan has acquired a strong lobbyist in Sen. John McCain-R. Ariz. who has been urging more aggressive US action in Syria, including US air attacks, ”to stop the killing in Syria and force Bashar Assad out of power.”
Last week, on Tuesday, March 19, the admiral, due to retire soon as NATO commander, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee that a number of NATO nations were looking at various military operations for breaking the two-year Syrian deadlock and assisting opposition forces, including imposing a no-fly zone, providing military assistance to the rebels and arms embargoes.

A more aggressive US posture urged

A more proactive posture by the US and its allies could help break the stalemate in Syria and bring the regime down, in the view of Adm. Stavridis.
“We are prepared if called upon to be engaged as we were in Libya," he said.
During an exchange with Sen. McCain, Stavridis explained that the NATO Patriot missiles now deployed in Turkey ostensibly for the sake of defending Turkish airspace have the capability also to attack the Syrian air force in that country's air space and that any such NATO operation would be a ''powerful disincentive'' for its pilots.
Within individual member countries, he continued, "There's a great deal of discussion" about lethal support to Syria, no-fly zones, arms embargoes and more, which “have not yet come into NATO as an overall NATO-type approach."
DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military and Washington sources say that in the parts of his testimony that were not made public - and especially in private conversations with high-ranking administration officials such as US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel - Stavridis provided the following high points for his Plan B:
1. Most of the NATO forces for invading Syria would come from the Turkish military. They would be assisted by small special ground contingents from Britain, France, Holland, Poland and the Czech Republic. American troops would not be there.
2. US back-up would come in the form of missile strikes launched from the sea and from bases in Europe. US air force units based in Turkey would provide air cover for the Turkish and European units invading Syria from Turkey.

Push Assad’s forces into Damascus – and smash them

3. Israeli, Jordanian and Syrian rebel special forces, trained by US instructors in tactics for seizing Syrian chemical and biological arsenals, would meanwhile go into action. They would also engage the Syrian army units loyal to Assad which block the rebel advance on Damascus.
4. The NATO-led war effort would focus on a major push to force pro-Assad forces into retreating from northern Syria and unroll them like a carpet toward the south and central Syria, fetching up in Damascus.
5. This maneuver would trap Assad, the heads of his regime and his military commanders in one place, the capital, and place them under siege.
6. At that point, the invading arms would launch an all-out offensive to capture the city and finally remove Bashar Assad from power.
This Stavridis plan has gathered substantial support in Washington and NATO. Sections of it may even be grafted onto the basic Obama administration’s assault plan for Syria.