Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

U.S., Israeli Officials Close to Agreeing on Timeline for Action on Iran
Aug 29th, 2013
Daily NewsJpost
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

For over a decade, the United States, Israel and independent scientific experts have largely disagreed over just how long Iran has until it becomes capable of building its own nuclear weapons.

That debate is over.

US and Israeli officials now discuss granting Iran a period of months – less than half a year – to change course before considering diplomacy exhausted and resorting to alternative measures.

According to officials, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s speech at the UN General Assembly next month will be treated as an inflection point, though not a deadline, by both governments. The reason is that virtually all of the choice dictating timelines in this slow-motion nuclear crisis – finally nearing its peak – lies squarely with Iran’s government.

Drawing lines in the sand and calling them timelines oversimplifies a very complex problem: there are multiple avenues Iran can take to become a definitive nuclear state. And as the summer draws to a close, Iran’s leaders are accelerating down virtually every one of those available paths.

If Iran’s leaders decided tomorrow to “break out” toward a bomb, they would be able to produce enough highly enriched uranium required for a nuclear weapon in just one to two months. And with the installation of 3,000 new, advanced IR2m centrifuges at the underground Natanz facility, that timeline will soon become more like eight to 10 days – too short for International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors, who are overseeing Iran’s active and declared facilities, to detect an enrichment breakout.

“Even if they are caught in one or two weeks’ time, it takes time for the IAEA to react,” Olli Heinonen, former deputy director-general for safeguards at the IAEA, now with the Belfer Center at Harvard, told The Jerusalem Post.

That determination does not account for the real possibility of existing clandestine facilities. US officials are just as concerned about what they don’t know as they are about what they do. “Our assessment is that if they were to move to highly enriched uranium... the most likely scenario is they would do that covertly,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Senate Armed Services Committee in April.

It’s an assessment that Hienonen agrees with.

“All countries with nuclear programs work in high secrecy,” Heinonen said, “so there are probably multiple unknowns.”

David Albright, founder and president of the NGO Institute for Science and International Security, told the Post that he has heard of no evidence to suggest another facility besides Natanz exists, except for the fact that Iran has, in the recent past, explicitly stated its desire to build one.

“Clearly, breakout at a dedicated, declared enrichment site is only rational if you feel you can get enough weapons-grade uranium before the sites are destroyed,” Albright said.

Uranium enrichment has long been at the core of concerns over Iran’s program for Western military and intelligence officials. At this point, Iran has stockpiled enough low-enriched uranium to make up to six atomic bombs. The US has identified up to 20 high-value targets directly tied to the uranium program spread across Iran’s vast territory, not including military and government assets that would be on a long list of targets should President Barack Obama choose to order a military strike.

“If I take all the 3.5- and 20-percent [low-enriched] material, and I have a secret plant to enrich it to highly enriched uranium, then all the material they have can be converted to roughly six nuclear weapons,” said Greg Jones, a senior researcher at the Non-Proliferation Policy Education Center.

Iran’s centrifuges are relatively resistant to a military strike, with 52 parallel cascades running through Natanz alone. The whereabouts and extent of their spare centrifuge stockpiles, and their centrifuge manufacturing plants, are not known with high confidence, Jones said.

“There are multiple red lines. If you assume they’ve built a clandestine facility that isn’t running, the Iranians only need 94 kilograms,” Jones added.

Theoretically, Iran’s new IR2m centrifuges – made with carbon fiber and rare miraging steel, likely smuggled through China – enrich uranium three to five times more efficiently than the model Iran predominantly uses, the IR1.

“Either intelligence officials knew the [IR2ms] were coming and they didn’t want to say anything, or it came as a surprise,” said Heinonen. “But we really don’t know how many they have. They could have 6,000.”

Parallel to the enrichment program, Iran must successfully weaponize the product. The US believes that process could add substantial time to Iran’s pursuit.

“I think it’s a vast overestimation that they can complete the weaponization aspects right after completing the enrichment process,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, director of the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Program at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “The simultaneity of the explosions is quite a difficult task to master. North Korea’s first attempt produced a fizzle.”

As if the uranium track were not pressing enough, a new timeline has emerged that does not rely on US or Israeli intelligence assessing whether Iran’s leaders privately intend to break out with enrichment.

That is because, on this separate, equally daunting track, the Iranian government has already announced its plans.

Iran will begin fueling its plutonium nuclear reactor in Arak at the beginning of 2014, it told the IAEA this spring, with the stated goal of operating the reactor by July of next year. The worry over Arak isn’t that the plant will produce nuclear-grade plutonium immediately; it would likely take over a year for that. 

But once Arak goes “hot,” any bombing campaign would release radioactive material that could contaminate nearby towns – or perhaps Arak itself, a city with roughly the population of Washington, DC.

“The significance of it, of course, is that once it goes online, any bombing of it would create an environmental hazard that would make such an operation politically difficult,” Fitzpatrick said.

Bombing Arak before it goes hot, and not Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities, would likely result in Iran’s withdrawal from the UN Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Tehran would also expel IAEA safeguard inspectors. But Arak’s heavy water reactor would take several years to replace, experts agree.

“If the Arak reactor isn’t stopped, it creates a clock that highly motivates a military strike,” Albright said, adding, “I think they fully intend on fueling it.”

Arak is being watched extremely closely by the US and will be a chief negotiating point over the next several months. Rouhani could cast himself a genuine partner if he announces a halt to its fueling.

And yet, over the next six months, Iran could choose to delay the plant’s fueling for as long or as short as it likes. So long as its leaders retain the ability to move forward, the protracted conflict will continue; Iran will be able to fuel the facility without much notice unless there is a full dissembling or destruction of the plant.

“It’s the reason Israel bombed the Syrian and Iraqi reactors when they did,” Heinonen said. “Iran has chosen a hard line, and it’s because they have strength in the numbers on their side.”

“This will be very hard,” he added, “towards the end of the year.”

IAEA deputy director-general Herman Nackaerts declined to comment for this story. His office, however, pointed to the agency’s next report, due out in mid-September, noting that their findings on Iran often speak for themselves.

Salvation
Aug 29th, 2013
Daily NewsThe Bible
Categories: Bible Salvation;Commentary

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23).

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

Partial Israeli reserves call-up. US beefs up Qatar air base. Syria moves units into sheltered sites
Ahead of the US strike on Syria, the Israeli security cabinet in special session Wednesday, Aug. 28, ordered the partial mobilization of select, qualitative IDF reserve forces: Rocket, Air Force, missile interception, Home Defense command and intelligence units. Anti-missile Arrow, Patriot and Iron Dome systems were spread out more widely than ever before across the country. US and Syria wound up last military preparations for the US strike. Barring last-minute hold-ups, debkafile’s military sources report the American operation is scheduled to start Friday night, early Saturday Aug. 30-31.  

France: political solution the ultimate goal for Syria
French President Francois Hollande said on Thursday that Syria needed a political solution, but that could only happen if the international community could halt killings like last week's chemical attack and better support the opposition.  

Another bird flu outbreak reported in Italy
A chicken farm located between the Italian cities of Bologna and Ravenna is the site of a new outbreak of bird flu, authorities in central Italy said Wednesday. As a result of the discovery some 150,000 chickens will have to be destroyed, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.  

Europe warns Assad against attacking Israel
According to the officials, Assad realizes that a potential Western assault would be a response to his army's use of chemical weapons and not as a means to affect the current balance of power in Syria.  

Report: Russia to send two ships to east Mediterranean
Russia's Interfax news agency says anti-submarine vessel, missile cruiser will be sent in coming days because of 'well-known situation'; UN inspectors to leave Syria Saturday  

'A coward, a traitor, and a murderer': Fort Hood gunman sentenced to death
A court-martial jury of 13 retired military officers deliberated for just under two hours before they unanimously agreed on the maximum penalty of lethal injection. The sentence also included dismissing Hasan from the Army and stripping him of his military pay.  

Putin Orders Massive Strike Against Saudi Arabia if syria attacked Russian Government outraged by Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultans terrorist threats
According to leaked information Putin became “enraged” after his early August meeting with Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan who warned that if Russia did not accept the defeat of Syria, Saudi Arabia would unleash Chechen terrorists under their control to cause mass death and chaos during the Winter Olympics scheduled to be held 7-23 February 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Putin was quoted as saying to officials afterwards WHO THE HELL DO THESE PEOPLE THINK THEY ARE DEALING WITH.  

RF, China walk out of UN SC meeting after US call for immediate action in Syria
The Russian and Chinese officials walked out of the U.N. Security Council meeting in New York on Wednesday, August 28, after U.S. Permanent Representative Samantha Power had called for an immediate action in Syria. The permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - Russia, Britain, China, the U.S. and France - had been invited to the closed meeting. An hour later the Russian and Chinese diplomats left the meeting and headed to the Security Council’s main conference room where debates on Haiti was taking place.  

Peres: We will respond with 'full force' to any Syrian attack
Israel will respond with "full force" to any Syrian counter-attack, President Shimon Peres warned Thursday morning, commenting on reports emerging from radical corners of the Arab world that have threatened Israel in retaliation if the West attacks Syria.  

Archbishop: Christians must repent for homophobia
Christian malice toward homosexuals and homosexuality is "totally wrong" and "demands repentance," Britain's archbishop of Canterbury told evangelical leaders.  

Obama should be stripped of his Nobel Peace prize if he starts Syria war
Papadopoulos added that the US and the West have no right to intervene in the affairs of another foreign state. “America and its allies are not the policemen of the world. America has no moral or legal right to attack an independent sovereign country,”  

IRAN: 'Thousands of missiles' to rain on Israel
Iran is threatening to launch a massive missile strike against Israel if the United States attacks Syria for using chemical weapons against its own people, which could touch off a full-blown war in the region. “The day of reckoning is near,” according to Hossein Shariatmadari, the chief editor of Keyhan newspaper, an outlet controlled by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.  

Iran has boosted nuclear capabilities, says IAEA
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says Tehran has now installed more than 1,000 advanced centrifuges at its Natanz enrichment plant. It comes as the IAEA says it will resume talks with Iran on 27 September - the first such negotiations since President Hassan Rouhani was elected.  

House speaker presses Obama for answers on Syria
House Speaker John Boehner called on President Barack Obama on Wednesday to deliver a specific rationale for using U.S. military force against Syria as a growing number of congressional Republicans and Democrats expressed concerns about war with a Mideast nation roiled by civil conflict.  

Ethiopia's Falash Mura repatriated to Israel
About 450 Ethiopians of Jewish descent have been repatriated to Israel, concluding an Israeli government-backed scheme to relocate the community. Their migration was "historic", Israel's Minister of Absorption Sofa Landver is quoted as saying. Many members of the Falash Mura community lived in poor conditions in northern Ethiopia.  

Iranian officials rush to Syria as drums of war beat louder
An Iranian delegation of senior parliamentarians is to visit Syria on Saturday in an effort to "study Syria's conditions" as Western powers rush to debate their next move to deter the use of chemical weapons, Fars News Agency, which claims to be independent but which is widely known to have close ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guards reported.  

As Syria strike looms, Israeli gas mask centers get extended opening hours
The Israel Defense Forces Home Front Command has extended the opening hours for gas mask distribution centers to cope with the massive demand of recent days, Army Radio reported Thursday. Anxious Israelis have flooded the centers, anticipating an attack on Israel in response to any strike by the US and its allies on Syria over the regime’s probable use of chemical weapons.  

Amid Syria tensions, Russia sends more warships to Mediterranean
Russia will send two ships to the east Mediterranean to strengthen its naval presence because of the "well-known situation" there, Interfax news agency said on Thursday referring to the Syria crisis. The agency quoted a source in the armed forces' general staff as saying an anti-submarine vessel and a missile cruiser would be sent in the coming days because the situation "required us to make some adjustments" in the naval force.  

Hezbollah: If Assad is Threatened, We will Hit Israel
Aug 29th, 2013
Daily NewsJpost
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Hezbollah said it would fire rockets at Israel if the West attacks Syria in an attempt to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.

However, if the strikes were limited, Hezbollah would probably not retaliate, according to sources close to the group quoted in a report on Wednesday in the LebaneseDaily Star.

“In the event of a qualitative [Western military] strike that aims to change the balance of power in Syria, Hezbollah will fight on various fronts,” the senior source said.

“However, if the Western attack is limited to certain targets in Syria, then, Hezbollah will not intervene,” said the source.

Prime Minister Wael al- Halqi on Wednesday warned against foreign military action against his country, asserting that Syria would become a “graveyard of invaders,” AFP reported.

Halqi accused Western powers of creating pretexts to attack the regime in Damascus, adding that Syria would “surprise the aggressors as it surprised them in” the Yom Kippur War in 1973, when Arab states launched a surprise attack on Israel.

The “colonialist threats” of foreign nations “do not terrorize us, because of the will and determination of the Syrian people, who will not accept being humiliated,” AFP quoted Halqi as saying on state television.

The Kuwaiti newspaper Al- Rai quoted sources close to Assad saying Syria would have nothing to lose if it were attacked, and would attack Israel. Assad has ordered the leaders of the Syrian military to prepare to respond in the form of intensive raids. Syria has its M-600 and Yakhont missiles ready, according to the report.

The sources said that unlike Iraq’s Scud missile attacks during the First Gulf War, Syria’s missiles were not more than 50 km. from the most sensitive points in Israel.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that US intervention in Syria would be “a disaster for the region,” the ISNA state news agency reported.

After supporting Arab uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa in 2011 as examples of what Khamenei called an “Islamic awakening,” Tehran has steadfastly supported Assad against a two-and-a-half-year-long rebellion.

“The intervention of supraregional and foreign powers in one country will have no result other than lighting a fire and increase the hatred people have for them,” the ISNA agency quoted Khamenei as saying. “This lighting of a fire is like a spark in a gunpowder magazine whose dimensions and consequences are unknown.

“Any intervention and warmongering will certainly harm those who start this fire,” Khamenei said. “If such an action is taken, the Americans will certainly be harmed just like in their interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Meanwhile, Assad’s forces appear to have evacuated most personnel from army and security command headquarters in central Damascus, in preparation for a Western military strike, residents and opposition sources said on Wednesday.

Army units stationed near the capital have confiscated several trailer trucks, apparently to transport heavy weaponry to alternative locations, though no significant movement of military hardware has been reported, possibly due to heavy fighting near major highways, one of the sources added.

Erdogan Leading Turkey Down Dangerous Path As He Denounces U.S., Israel
Aug 29th, 2013
Daily NewsJpost
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan chastised Washington for having denounced his claim, made last Tuesday, that Israel was behind the coup that deposed Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood- affiliated president, Mohamed Morsi.

“What is it to the White House that it should respond?” Erdogan said on Saturday. “It should not have mentioned it, it should not have reacted like this. As two members of NATO, that one ally shows this kind of approach to the other is not appropriate.”

The White House criticized Erdogan’s claim about Israel’s alleged involvement in the recent events in Egypt the same day he made it.

“We strongly condemn the statements that were made by Prime Minister Erdogan today,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters. “Suggesting that Israel is somehow responsible for recent events in Egypt is offensive, unsubstantiated and wrong.”

The White House’s reaction, the Turkish prime minister said, showed the “double standard of the world.”

“The White House should not have spoken about this,” he said.

“If there’s somebody to speak on this, it should have been Israel.”

Erdogan’s original statement, forcefully presented as a conspiracy theory involving French-Jewish philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, also triggered criticism of his political fitness to govern Turkey.

“Let’s be blunt: If Erdogan is a model, then he is a model for bigotry,” Michael Rubin, a resident scholar and expert on Turkey at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote on the website of Commentary.

“Turkey has an anti-Semitism problem, and it is personified by its leader.”

Jeffrey Goldberg, a commentator who writes extensively on the Middle East, declared: “It’s time to call Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan what he is: a semi-unhinged bigot.”

To continue with the notion of Erdogan’s questionable mental health, his behavior has apparently spilled over into harming his country’s foreign policy.

“Turkey’s decision to flirt with Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood, support Islamist rebels in Syria, throw the strategic relation with Israel to the dogs, and increase tensions over Cyprus are all backfiring,” according to Emanuele Ottolenghi, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

On Saturday, after Erdogan responded to the US criticism, Twitter was abuzz.

Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, tweeted: “Erdogan is increasingly unhinged. Is this really what Turks – a serious, sober people – want in their leader?” Roger L. Simon, a cofounder of the news and opinion website PJ Media, asked why the Turkish people had voted for this “bozo,” adding: “Besides being a bigot, #Erdogan seems to be a real nitwit.”

Egypt: Schools, Churches and Orphanages Burnt to Erase All Traces of a Christian Presence
Aug 29th, 2013
Daily Newsasianews.it
Categories: Today's Headlines;Persecution

With at least 20 attacks against churches, Christian schools and orphanages, Minya Governorate is the part of ​​Egypt where Islamists struck with greatest violence and brutality.

“The Islamists”, one resident said, “burnt and destroyed everything. Their goal was to erase all the traces of a Christian presence; even the orphanages were looted and destroyed.”

After storming the Prince Tadros el-Shatbi Church, the armed Islamic extremists turned their attention to two homes for disadvantaged children located near the parish church, residents said.

They stole church offerings, clothes, and children’s games before torching the entire building. The fire lasted over 5 hours.

“Fortunately,” the source said, “the children were taken to safety before the arrival of the Islamists.”

Like other Christians sites, the two homes that housed hundreds of orphans are now a pile of rubble.

The criminals did not only destroy the two orphanages but also the homes of some families working for the orphanages as well as a nearby art gallery that sold objects and artefacts made by orphans to raise money.

Shurkri Huzayn, 40, is the orphanage guard. He, too, grew up as an orphan at the facility. He witnessed the Salafist attack.

“What kind of people are they? Even unbelievers would not attack an orphanage,” he said.

Islamists raged particularly against anything that symbolised the Christianity and modernity, including computers.

After they left the building, the terrorists burnt nearby shops and schools, such as the St Joseph Coptic School, which is run by nuns, a pharmacy and a restaurant. Anti-Christian graffiti were sprayed on the walls along a road.

A few days after the massacre, the guard said that Copts wrote a message on the wall of the orphanage in response to the militants’ insults that read, “Despite of what you did, we ask God to forgive you,” and “God exists.”

According to a teacher at St Joseph, the attack will have a major impact on Christians’ daily life.

“The teachers,” she noted, “do not know when the school year will start. The school is open to Christians and Muslims and has taught hundreds of children from rural areas, many of whom were housed in the two orphanages.”

Are You on the List? - 72 Types of Americans That are Considered “Potential Terrorists”
Aug 29th, 2013
Daily Newsthetruthwins.com
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Are you a conservative, a libertarian, a Christian or a gun owner? 

Are you opposed to abortion, globalism, Communism, illegal immigration, the United Nations or the New World Order? 

Do you believe in conspiracy theories, do you believe that we are living in the “end times” or do you ever visit alternative news websites (such as this one)? 

If you answered yes to any of those questions, you are a “potential terrorist” according to official U.S. government documents. 

At one time, the term “terrorist” was used very narrowly. The government applied that label to people like Osama bin Laden and other Islamic jihadists. But now the Obama administration is removing all references to Islam from terror training materials, and instead the term “terrorist” is being applied to large groups of American citizens. 

And if you are a “terrorist”, that means that you have no rights and the government can treat you just like it treats the terrorists that are being held at Guantanamo Bay. So if you belong to a group of people that is now being referred to as “potential terrorists”, please don’t take it as a joke. 

The first step to persecuting any group of people is to demonize them. And right now large groups of peaceful, law-abiding citizens are being ruthlessly demonized.

Below is a list of 72 types of Americans that are considered to be “extremists” and “potential terrorists” in official U.S. government documents. As you can see, this list covers most of the country…

1. Those that talk about “individual liberties”

2. Those that advocate for states’ rights

3. Those that want “to make the world a better place”

4. “The colonists who sought to free themselves from British rule”

5. Those that are interested in “defeating the Communists”

6. Those that believe “that the interests of one’s own nation are separate from the interests of other nations or the common interest of all nations”

7. Anyone that holds a “political ideology that considers the state to be unnecessary, harmful,or undesirable”

8. Anyone that possesses an “intolerance toward other religions”

9. Those that “take action to fight against the exploitation of the environment and/or animals”

10. “Anti-Gay”

11. “Anti-Immigrant”

12. “Anti-Muslim”

13. “The Patriot Movement”

14. “Opposition to equal rights for gays and lesbians”

15. Members of the Family Research Council

16. Members of the American Family Association

17. Those that believe that Mexico, Canada and the United States “are secretly planning to merge into a European Union-like entity that will be known as the ‘North American Union’”

18. Members of the American Border Patrol/American Patrol

19. Members of the Federation for American Immigration Reform

20. Members of the Tennessee Freedom Coalition

21. Members of the Christian Action Network

22. Anyone that is “opposed to the New World Order”

23. Anyone that is engaged in “conspiracy theorizing”

24. Anyone that is opposed to Agenda 21

25. Anyone that is concerned about FEMA camps

26. Anyone that “fears impending gun control or weapons confiscations”

27. The militia movement

28. The sovereign citizen movement

29. Those that “don’t think they should have to pay taxes”

30. Anyone that “complains about bias”

31. Anyone that “believes in government conspiracies to the point of paranoia”

32. Anyone that “is frustrated with mainstream ideologies”

33. Anyone that “visits extremist websites/blogs”

34. Anyone that “establishes website/blog to display extremist views”

35. Anyone that “attends rallies for extremist causes”

36. Anyone that “exhibits extreme religious intolerance”

37. Anyone that “is personally connected with a grievance”

38. Anyone that “suddenly acquires weapons”

39. Anyone that “organizes protests inspired by extremist ideology”

40. “Militia or unorganized militia”

41. “General right-wing extremist”

42. Citizens that have “bumper stickers” that are patriotic or anti-U.N.

43. Those that refer to an “Army of God”

44. Those that are “fiercely nationalistic (as opposed to universal and international in orientation)”

45. Those that are “anti-global”

46. Those that are “suspicious of centralized federal authority”

47. Those that are “reverent of individual liberty”

48. Those that “believe in conspiracy theories”

49. Those that have “a belief that one’s personal and/or national ‘way of life’ is under attack”

50. Those that possess “a belief in the need to be prepared for an attack either by participating in paramilitary preparations and training or survivalism”

51. Those that would “impose strict religious tenets or laws on society (fundamentalists)”

52. Those that would “insert religion into the political sphere”

53. Anyone that would “seek to politicize religion”

54. Those that have “supported political movements for autonomy”

55. Anyone that is “anti-abortion”

56. Anyone that is “anti-Catholic”

57. Anyone that is “anti-nuclear”

58. “Rightwing extremists”

59. “Returning veterans”

60. Those concerned about “illegal immigration”

61. Those that “believe in the right to bear arms”

62. Anyone that is engaged in “ammunition stockpiling”

63. Anyone that exhibits “fear of Communist regimes”

64. “Anti-abortion activists”

65. Those that are against illegal immigration

66. Those that talk about “the New World Order” in a “derogatory” manner

67. Those that have a negative view of the United Nations

68. Those that are opposed “to the collection of federal income taxes”

69. Those that supported former presidential candidates Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin and Bob Barr

70. Those that display the Gadsden Flag (“Don’t Tread On Me”)

71. Those that believe in “end times” prophecies

72. Evangelical Christians

The groups of people in the list above are considered “problems” that need to be dealt with. In some of the documents referenced above, members of the military are specifically warned not to have anything to do with such groups.

We are moving into a very dangerous time in American history. You can now be considered a “potential terrorist” just because of your religious or political beliefs. Free speech is becoming a thing of the past, and we are rapidly becoming an Orwellian society that is the exact opposite of what our founding fathers intended.

Please pray for the United States of America. We definitely need it.

America’s Impending Defeat in Syria
Aug 29th, 2013
Daily NewsBarry Rubin
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

22 Reasons Why Starting World War 3 in the Middle East is a Really Bad Idea
Aug 29th, 2013
Daily NewsMichael Snyder
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

While most of the country is obsessing over Miley Cyrus, the Obama administration is preparing a military attack against Syria which has the potential of starting World War 3. In fact, it is being reported that cruise missile strikes could begin "as early as Thursday". The Obama administration is pledging that the strikes will be "limited", but what happens when the Syrians fight back? What happens if they sink a U.S. naval vessel or they have agents start hitting targets inside the United States? Then we would have a full-blown war on our hands. And what happens if the Syrians decide to retaliate by hitting Israel? If Syrian missiles start raining down on Tel Aviv, Israel will be extremely tempted to absolutely flatten Damascus, and they are more than capable of doing precisely that. And of course Hezbollah and Iran are not likely to just sit idly by as their close ally Syria is battered into oblivion. We are looking at a scenario where the entire Middle East could be set aflame, and that might only be just the beginning. Russia and China are sternly warning the U.S. government not to get involved in Syria, and by starting a war with Syria we will do an extraordinary amount of damage to our relationships with those two global superpowers. Could this be the beginning of a chain of events that could eventually lead to a massive global conflict with Russia and China on one side and the United States on the other? Of course it will not happen immediately, but I fear that what is happening now is setting the stage for some really bad things. The following are 22 reasons why starting World War 3 in the Middle East is a really bad idea...

#1 The American people are overwhelmingly against going to war with Syria...

Americans strongly oppose U.S. intervention in Syria's civil war and believe Washington should stay out of the conflict even if reports that Syria's government used deadly chemicals to attack civilians are confirmed, a Reuters/Ipsos poll says.

About 60 percent of Americans surveyed said the United States should not intervene in Syria's civil war, while just 9 percent thought President Barack Obama should act.

#2 At this point, a war in Syria is even more unpopular with the American people than Congress is.

#3 The Obama administration has not gotten approval to go to war with Syria from Congress as the U.S. Constitution requires.

#4 The United States does not have the approval of the United Nations to attack Syria and it is not going to be getting it.

#5 Syria has said that it will use "all means available" to defend itself if the United States attacks. Would that include terror attacks in the United States itself?

#6 Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem made the following statement on Tuesday...

"We have two options: either to surrender, or to defend ourselves with the means at our disposal. The second choice is the best: we will defend ourselves"

#7 Russia has just sent their most advanced anti-ship missiles to Syria. What do you think would happen if images of sinking U.S. naval vessels were to come flashing across our television screens?

#8 When the United States attacks Syria, there is a very good chance that Syria will attack Israel. Just check out what one Syrian official said recently...

A member of the Syrian Ba'ath national council Halef al-Muftah, until recently the Syrian propaganda minister's aide, said on Monday that Damascus views Israel as "behind the aggression and therefore it will come under fire" should Syria be attacked by the United States.

In an interview for the American radio station Sawa in Arabic, President Bashar Assad's fellow party member said: "We have strategic weapons and we can retaliate. Essentially, the strategic weapons are aimed at Israel."

Al-Muftah stressed that the US's threats will not influence the Syrain regime and added that "If the US or Israel err through aggression and exploit the chemical issue, the region will go up in endless flames, affecting not only the area's security, but the world's."

#9 If Syria attacks Israel, the consequences could be absolutely catastrophic. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is promising that any attack will be responded to "forcefully"...

"We are not a party to this civil war in Syria but if we identify any attempt to attack us we will respond and we will respond forcefully"

#10 Hezbollah will likely do whatever it can to fight for the survival of the Assad regime. That could include striking targets inside both the United States and Israel.

#11 Iran's closest ally is Syria. Will Iran sit idly by as their closest ally is removed from the chessboard?

#12 Starting a war with Syria will cause significant damage to our relationship with Russia. On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said that the West is acting like a "monkey with a hand grenade".

#13 Starting a war with Syria will cause significant damage to our relationship with China. And what will happen if the Chinese decide to start dumping the massive amount of U.S. debt that it is holding? Interest rates would absolutely skyrocket and we would rapidly be facing a nightmare scenario.

#14 Dr. Jerome Corsi and Walid Shoebat have compiled some startling evidence that it was actually the Syrian rebels that the U.S. is supporting that were responsible for the chemical weapons attack that is being used as justification to go to war with Syria...

With the assistance of former PLO member and native Arabic-speaker Walid Shoebat, WND has assembled evidence from various Middle Eastern sources that cast doubt on Obama administration claims the Assad government is responsible for last week’s attack.

You can examine the evidence for yourself right here.

#15 As Pat Buchanan recently noted, it would have made absolutely no sense for the Assad regime to use chemical weapons on defenseless women and children. The only people who would benefit from such an attack would be the rebels...

The basic question that needs to be asked about this horrific attack on civilians, which appears to be gas related, is: Cui bono?

To whose benefit would the use of nerve gas on Syrian women and children redound? Certainly not Assad’s, as we can see from the furor and threats against him that the use of gas has produced.

The sole beneficiary of this apparent use of poison gas against civilians in rebel-held territory appears to be the rebels, who have long sought to have us come in and fight their war.

#16 If the Saudis really want to topple the Assad regime, they should do it themselves. They should not expect the United States to do their dirty work for them.

#17 A former commander of U.S. Central Command has said that a U.S. attack on Syria would result in "a full-throated, very, very serious war".

#18 A war in the Middle East will be bad for the financial markets. The Dow was down about 170 points today and concern about war with Syria was the primary reason.

#19 A war in the Middle East will cause the price of oil to go up. On Tuesday, the price of U.S. oil rose to about $109 a barrel.

#20 There is no way in the world that the U.S. government should be backing the Syrian rebels. As I discussed a few days ago, the rebels have pledged loyalty to al-Qaeda, they have beheaded numerous Christians and they have massacred entire Christian villages. If the U.S. government helps these lunatics take power in Syria it will be a complete and utter disaster.

#21 A lot of innocent civilians inside Syria will end up getting killed. Already, a lot of Syrians are expressing concern about what "foreign intervention" will mean for them and their families...

"I've always been a supporter of foreign intervention, but now that it seems like a reality, I've been worrying that my family could be hurt or killed," said one woman, Zaina, who opposes Assad. "I'm afraid of a military strike now."

"The big fear is that they'll make the same mistakes they made in Libya and Iraq," said Ziyad, a man in his 50s. "They'll hit civilian targets, and then they'll cry that it was by mistake, but we'll get killed in the thousands."

#22 If the U.S. government insists on going to war with Syria without the approval of the American people, the U.S. Congress or the United Nations, we are going to lose a lot of friends and a lot of credibility around the globe. It truly is a sad day when Russia looks like "the good guys" and we look like "the bad guys".

What good could possibly come out of getting involved in Syria? As I wrote about the other day, the "rebels" that Obama is backing are rabidly anti-Christian, rabidly anti-Israel and rabidly anti-western. If they take control of Syria, that nation will be far more unstable and far more of a hotbed for terrorism than it is now.

And the downside of getting involved in Syria is absolutely enormous. Syria, Iran and Hezbollah all have agents inside this country, and if they decide to start blowing stuff up that will wake up the American people to the horror of war really quick. And by attacking Syria, the United States could cause a major regional war to erupt in the Middle East which could eventually lead to World War 3.

I don't know about you, but I think that starting World War 3 in the Middle East is a really bad idea.

Let us hope that cooler heads prevail before things spin totally out of control.