Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Putin Choreographs G20 Summit in Russia to Isolate Obama on Syria
Sep 6th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

There was never much hope that the 20 most influential national leaders in the world meeting  in the Russian town of St. Petersburg on Sept 5-6 would occasion a thaw in the icy relations between the American and Russian presidents and some sort of accord for stopping the bloodshed in Syria.

In his opening statement, Thursday, Sept. 5, Vladimir Putin announced an open-ended discussion would start over a working dinner and go on into the small hours of Friday. The Russian leader was clearly setting the stage for a showdown with the US president, having loaded the dice in Moscow’s favor with the opposition of most of the Asian and European leaders to US military intervention in Syria. The only exceptions were French President Francois Hollande and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Tense eyes were trained on the G20 venue as Thursday night wore on to see the upshot of this weighty conference, which started out with the two parties solidly entrenched in their positions – the US president determined to exercise military force against the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons against its people, and the Russian president equally determined to oppose it.

But even if Putin manages to isolate Obama diplomatically by carrying a majority motion against US military intervention, he will still have to face up to the failure of his policy to stop the United States carrying out its second military offensive against an Arab nation in two years, after the 2011 Libya campaign.
As for Obama, the longer a decision to go forward in Syria drags out, the greater the pressure by lawmakers in Congress, whose votes he needs, and military imperatives, to embark on a broader operation against Syria than the narrow missile assault he first contemplated.

Had he wished to stick to his original plan, he should have instantly fired off a number of Tomahawks at the Syrian forces as soon as they gassed the eastern outskirts of Damascus on Aug. 21. Instead, he let ten days go by before suddenly deciding on Aug. 31, to put the operation on ice for congressional authorization.

Had he acted expeditiously, the whole issue of US military intervention in Syria would have been behind him by the time he reached the summit in Russia.
The American assault will now have to be expanded and revised to cover widely-dispersed targets distributed across large areas in view of the following developments:
1. The Syrian government has scattered the chemical units responsible for the atrocity, along with its chemical stocks in dozens of hideouts across the country to minimize damage.

2. The recommendation by Chairman of the Joint US Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, cited by President Obama to justify the delay in the offensive – it could take place “tomorrow, in a week or a month” – hasn’t held water.
The chief of US naval operations, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, commented Thursday that the four US destroyers off the coast of Syria are “fully ready” for “a vast spectrum of operations, including launching Tomahawk cruise missiles at targets in Syria and protecting themselves in the event of retaliation.”
And indeed, the Senate Armed Forces committee, in backing US military force in Syria, gave the president up to 90 days to finish the job.
3. The certainty voiced by some US intelligence sources that they can locate the hideouts of Syrian chemical units and weapons overstates the capabilities of even the most sophisticated spy technology at their disposal.
4.  Not just the Russian leader, but Syria’s Bashar Assad and Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have bought enough time to set up military, intelligence and political ambushes for the Americans, and will be ready to pounce when the US operation goes forward.
As the G20 summiteers took their seats in St. Petersburg, three Russian warships passed through the Bosporus in their way to the Mediterranean.
debkafile’s military sources identitied them as the SSV-201 intelligence ship Priazovye and two landing craft, the Minsk and the Novocherkassk, which carry 200 marines and 10 amphibious tanks.

All three leaders have issued a constant stream of threats to deter Washington from striking Syria: 
a)  They could supply Syria with highly-advanced arms capable of catching US forces by surprise;

b)  Russia and China could transfer advanced cyber warfare measures to Damascus via Tehran, which Iranian cyber experts could operate in Syria and Lebanon.
c)  The Russian president has indicated that if the Americans attack Syria, he might sell Iran super-weapons on the premise that the strike on Syria would be the precursor to a US attack on Iran’s nuclear program. 

5.  The basic presumption in Washington and Jerusalem at the outset of the US plan to use military force in Syria last month was that Hizballah would stay out of it. In the interim, the Lebanese Shiite militia has begun mobilizing for defending Syria and for cross-border reprisals against Israel from Syria and Lebanon.
Thursday night, Iran’s National Security Council inner group held a secret meeting in Khamenei’s inner sanctum on the ramifications of the forthcoming US action against Syria.
debkafile’s Iranian sources report that Revolutionary Guards commanders spoke out in favor of activating the mutual defense treaty binding Iran and Syria. 
President Hassan Rouhani objected. In his view, Tehran must continue to issue vague and general statements without showing its hand on military action against the US. He warned that a vast American military and naval force was piling up in the region and Iran must beware of provoking a military response in which it would be quickly bested.

Khamenei did not wait for the G20 to reach conclusions. He issued a public statement saying: “We believe that the Americans are committing a folly and mistake in Syria and [they] will accordingly take the blow and definitely suffer.”

Obama on Verge of Historic Rebuke Over Syria
Sep 6th, 2013
Daily NewsNewsmax
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

President Barack Obama appears to be dangerously close to what would be an historic rebuke at the hands of Congress, if the current whip-count projections on the authorization to attack Syria continue to hold.

Pundits on both sides of the aisle say losing the high-stakes bid for congressional authorization would make Obama an instant lame-duck, and might well endanger his entire second-term agenda.

The resolution authorizing an attack on Syrian strongman Bashar Assad, as punishment for his use of chemical weapons against his own people, is still expected to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate.

But the real question mark all along has been whether the administration could muster enough support to get the attack resolution through the House. And there, the situation for the administration appears to be growing dimmer by the hour.

Various news organizations are contacting members of Congress to see where they stand on the attack authorization. While each outlet has different numbers, the ominous sign for the administration is that all of them show the "no" votes outpacing the "yes" votes by a more than a 3-1 margin.

Most alarming for the administration may be The Washington Post whip count.

The Post has contacted 371 of the 435 members of the House. Of those contacted, 204 representatives are against authorization or leaning against it. That compares to 24 members in favor and 143 members who are undecided, and 48 of the undecided representatives are Republicans.

Of the undecided members, the Post reports, many of them have yet to receive the administration’s intelligence briefing on the sarin gas attack in Syria. About 25 percent of those opposed to the authorization are Democrats, which means the resistance to the proposal is clearly bipartisan.

Of course, there's always the chance that last-minute lobbying by the administration will change the political calculus. But with an election year looming and both the Democratic and GOP bases opposed to further military excursions in the Middle East, the Obama administration appears to be in serious trouble.

Obama canceled a scheduled trip on Monday to California so he can remain in Washington to lobby legislators before the vote. There are indications he also may make a nationally televised address in a bid to rally public support.

The concern that Congress might balk at authorizing the attack, just as the House of Commons did in Britain, was precisely the reason several Obama aides argued strongly against the president’s surprise announcement on Saturday to ask Congress to OK his war plans against Syria.

On Thursday afternoon, as the whip counts were being tallied, the realization dawned in the nation’s capital that President Obama is perilously close to what would be an historic, humiliating international rebuke.

To date, no major military power or international organization has supported Obama’s stated intention to launch a cruise-missile barrage at Assad, the so-called "shot across the bow."

Aaron Blake and Sean Sullivan of The Washington Post reported the prospects for getting the measure through the House "are looking progressively dimmer for the Obama administration."

On Wednesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee sent the resolution to the full Senate chamber by a 10-7 vote. But by Thursday, there appeared to be a growing groundswell of opinion against the proposal.

On his radio program Thursday, Fox host Geraldo Rivera announced that he had changed his mind and will now oppose the initiation of any hostilities against Assad, saying, "I can’t support this decision to get involved in the Syrian civil war."

In an email statement to Newsmax, Rivera elaborated on his change of heart.

"If a punitive strike is called for in Syria," Rivera said in an email, "why wasn't a punitive strike called for in Libya after Ambassador Stevens and his three brave colleagues were killed last year in Benghazi?

"Assad committed a crime against humanity. It's the world's job to punish [him], not just ours."

The veteran newsman and commentator went on to predict that the resolution will fail.

"Congress will not approve this, and the president must not defy the obvious and growing opposition to this ill-advised and admittedly ill-defined act," he wrote. "Once a missile is lobbed, there is no such thing as a limited and measured result."

If Obama were to lose on the key congressional vote, the political repercussions would be profound.

Veteran pollster and columnist Matt Towery of Insider/Advantage Polling tells Newsmax that Obama’s support in the House looks so shaky right now it could even begin to cost him support in the Senate.

"I think the president is in extraordinarily deep trouble, as are the House leaders who put their necks out on this," Towery tells Newsmax.

He added that with the vote in the House scheduled soon after Congress returns to session on Sept. 9, the clock is already running out for Obama to recapture the momentum.

"The sense of urgency is about to be lost here," he said.

Democratic pollster and Fox News commentator Doug Schoen, a contributor to Newsmax magazine, says that everyone will lose if support for the resolution implodes.

"Obama will seek to blame the Republicans if he loses the vote on Syria, as he has with issue after issue, time after time. On this occasion," he said, "I believe the strategy will fail — if only because as the United States comes to look weaker and weaker, so too will President Obama."

The biggest losers in the battle, Towery says, may be House Leaders John Boehner and Eric Cantor, because they have voiced support for the measure.

"I don't think this will be a history-making failure on Obama's part, because I think his presidency is basically at a point where it is viewed as ineffective and pretty much at its end anyway. This may be the bow at the top of the package marking the ineffectiveness in the second term. But I don’t think this will be a new emblem of failure. I mean, we’re already there," Towery said.

But he added: "It would be very difficult for Boehner and Cantor to be re-elected to leadership of the House, with this sort of revolt on their hands."

He also called the division within the GOP between the leadership and the base "a harbinger of things to come."

"A Republican Party that is barely holding itself together at the seams in my opinion is splitting itself apart," Towery said. "In my opinion, that’s almost as big a story as a president who in his second term is proving to be almost completely ineffective."

Let the Headlines Speak
Sep 6th, 2013
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

‘Obama Blinked’: Why Israelis Are Concerned Obama’s Change of Heart on Syria Strike Will Embolden Iran and Other Foes
While Israel has said repeatedly it’s not a party to the Syria conflict, Israeli lawmakers and analysts are voicing concern that President Barack Obama’s hesitation in making a decision about a military strike and sticking with it is sending a loud and “dangerous” message to Iran.  

Arkansas Earthquake Today 2013 Hits Near Little Rock
USGS indicates to news that a 2.8 magnitude Arkansas earthquake began just after 4:57 pm local time today. The quake however had a shallow depth. USGS tells news that the quake started only three miles below ground level. As a result the quake had an impact neighboring communities.  

Intercepted Secret Order Reveals Iran’s Plot for Revenge If U.S. Attacks Syria
Iran has ordered militants in Iraq to attack the U.S. Embassy and other American interests in Baghdad if the Obama administration carries out a military strike against Syria, according to a secret order intercepted by U.S. officials.  

Syrian Strikes Would Battle-Test Chinese Radars
With the arrival of a Chinese navy ship to the Mediterranean sector facing Syria,on top of the western and Russian naval deployment to that sector, it’s becoming obvious that China will use this conflict to test its electronic and cyber warfare capacities (just like the U.S. plans to do), presumably in preparation for a future conflict with the US navy in the South China sea.  

Brutality of Syrian Rebels Posing Dilemma in West
The prisoners, seven in all, were captured Syrian soldiers. Five were trussed, their backs marked with red welts. They kept their faces pressed to the dirt as the rebels’ commander recited a bitter revolutionary verse. ...the commander, known as “the Uncle,” fired a bullet into the back of the first prisoner’s head. His gunmen followed suit, promptly killing all the men at their feet.  

Largest Volcano on Earth Lurks Beneath Pacific Ocean
The world's largest volcano lurks beneath the Pacific Ocean, researchers announced today (Sept. 5) in the journal Nature Geoscience. Called the Tamu Massif, the enormous mound dwarfs the previous record holder, Hawaii's Mauna Loa, and is only 25 percent smaller than Olympus Mons on Mars, the biggest volcano in Earth's solar system, said William Sager, lead study author and a geologist at the University of Houston.  

Russia gave UN 100-page report in July blaming Syrian rebels for Aleppo sarin attack Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/09/05/201268/rus
Russia says a deadly March sarin attack in an Aleppo suburb was carried out by Syrian rebels, not forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, and it has delivered a 100-page report laying out its evidence to the United Nations.  

Officials: U.S. Military May Train Syrian Rebels
The Obama administration is considering a plan to use U.S. military trainers to help increase the capabilities of the Syrian rebels, in a move that would greatly expand the current CIA training being done quietly in Jordan, U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Thursday. Any training would take place outside Syria, and one possible location would be Jordan.  

Death, Destruction and Extremism: Are Syrian Christians Doomed if Rebel Fighters Seize Control?
No one can deny that the situation in Syria is dire. Death and destruction are ever-present. And when terror and chaos emerge, minority groups often have much to fear. That’s especially true for Syria’s Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the nation’s population. Increasingly, they’re being caught in the crossfire between numerous Islamic groups.  

Russia Delivers 100-Page Report to U.N. Saying Syrian Rebels Behind Sarin Gas Attack in March
Russia has delivered a 100-page report to the United Nations that claims Syrian rebels are responsible for a sarin gas attack in March 2013 — an overlooked incident, it says, in the wake the alleged sarin attack in August that the United States and other nations say the Syrian government is behind, McClatchy news reports.  

‘Yes We Can…Kill People’: Anti-war Activists Protest As Obama Visits Sweden - (Video & Stunning Images)
Obama's visit to Sweden wasn't smooth sailing as hundreds of anti-war protesters held up signs and used Obama's own campaign slogan of "Yes We Can," but adding "Kill People, " to the end of the slogan to make their point. They also held up signs saying "I have a dream; I have a drone" and waved Syrian and Egyptian flags. Other signs had Obama's picture on it with the caption "This is how a terrorist looks like," then they lit it on fire.  

Insider Suggests Obama “Not Close” To House Votes On Syria
For those believing the Obama White House’s attempt to wage war against Syria and assist radical Islamists who wish to overthrow the Assad regime is nothing more than an attempt to save presidential face, the latest reports coming out of Congress should give you some measure of hope that common sense and an ear to public opinion might just prevail.  

Turkey Reinforces Syria Border as Erdogan Backs U.S. Attack
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has expressed a willingness to join any international coalition against Syria, yesterday vowed to respond to any attack from its southern neighbor. He spoke after Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mekdad was cited by the Wall Street Journal as saying that Syria will strike U.S. allies Israel, Jordan and Turkey if the Obama administration attacks his country over its alleged use of chemical weapons on Aug. 21.  

Syrian Woman Drops Bombshell On McCain At Town Hall Meeting- Audience Applauds (Video)
A Syrian woman confronts John McCain at an AZ town hall, dropping a bombshell on him that her 18 year old cousin was killed 10 days ago, in Syria at the hands of the U.S. backed rebels. She informs him she has more family over there and she begs him, literally, to not support the bombing of Syria and causing more bloodshed.  

Syria crisis: al-Qaeda seizes village that still speaks the ancient language of Christ
A branch of al-Qaeda fighting in the Syrian civil war has seized one of the few remaining villages where the original language of Christ is still spoken, residents say. Fighting raged through the picturesque mountain village of Maaloula, near Damascus, on Thursday, as the regime launched a counter-attack against the rebels.  

Iran Plots Revenge, U.S. Says
The U.S. has intercepted an order from Iran to militants in Iraq to attack the U.S. Embassy and other American interests in Baghdad in the event of a strike on Syria, officials said, amid an expanding array of reprisal threats across the region. ...While the U.S. has moved military resources in the region for a possible strike, it has other assets in the area that would be ready to respond to any reprisals by Syria, Iran or its allies.  

G20 'divided' on Syria as Power criticises Russia
World leaders meeting for the final day of the G20 summit in Russia remain divided over military action in Syria. Italian PM Enrico Letta said the splits in opinion were confirmed at Thursday's working dinner in St Petersburg. A spokesman for the Russian presidency said a US military strike on Syria would "drive another nail into the coffin of international law".  

Thirteen hospital patients in deadly brain disease scare
Thirteen hospital patients in the US states of Massachusetts and New Hampshire may have been exposed to a fatal brain disease, officials say. Authorities say potentially infected surgical equipment was used in procedures at two hospitals. They suspect a brain surgery patient had Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, which has proteins that can survive standard sterilisation measures.  

Snowden leaks: US and UK 'crack online encryption'
US and UK intelligence have reportedly cracked technology used to encrypt internet services such as online banking, medical records and email. Disclosures by leaker Edward Snowden allege the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the UK's GCHQ are hacking key online security protocols. The encryption techniques targeted are used by popular internet services such as Google, Facebook and Yahoo.  

Unreported NSA spy systems revealed
...Jacob Appelbaum, an American investigative reporter who accepted the German Whistle-blower Prize on the behalf of former NSA agent Edward Snowden...said he is aware of one NSA programme which specifically targets types of software to sweep up data from people who are not terrorists. Another system sends NSA agents into urban areas to penetrate people’s home wireless networks.  

John Kerry Reveals Arab Countries Have Offered to Pay America to Carry Out Full - Scale Invasion of Sy
Sep 6th, 2013
Daily NewsMailonline
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Secretary of State John Kerry said during a hearing Wednesday in the House of Representatives that counties in the Arab world have offered to foot the entire bill for a U.S. military mission that destroys the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.

‘With respect to Arab countries offering to bear costs and to assist, the answer is profoundly yes,’ Kerry said. ‘They have. That offer is on the table.’

Kerry, with a cadre of anti-war activists sitting behind him and holding red-painted hands aloft in protest, declined to name the countries that have proposed opening their purses.

Florida Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen had asked Kerry to comment on the expenses related to carrying out attacks on Syria if Congress were to authorize them.

Following through on a use-of-force resolution, she said, ‘could potentially cost … billions.’

But Kerry said other nations that see Assad as a destabilizing force in the region have proposed to cover the costs.

As for ‘the details of the offer, and the proposal on the table,’ Ros-Lehtinen asked Kerry, ‘what are the figures we are talking about?

‘We don’t know what action we [will be] engaged in right now,’ Kerry replied, ‘but they have been quite significant. I mean, very significant.’

‘In fact, some of them have said that if the U.S. is prepared to go do the whole thing, the way we’ve done it previously in other places, they’ll carry that cost. That’s how dedicated they are to this.’

G20 Summit Opens in Russia With Two Setbacks for Obama
Sep 6th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

President Barack Obama was greeted on arrival at the St. Petersburg G20 summit Thursday with a warm handshake from Vladimir Putin and an exchange of joking comments about the fine weather. Opening the summit, Putin said the overriding issue, Syria, would be discussed over dinner. The US president had just heard the European Union delegation state that Syrian crisis must only be solved by diplomatic means. Thenb, too, President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil cancelled her planned trip to Washington inangry response to the revelation by Edward Snowdon that US intelligence had eavesdropped on her calls. Obama has scheduled a meeting on the summit sidelines with French President Francois Holland who remains committed to backing US military action against the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons.

Dempsey Outlines Strike Goals, Potential Retaliation
Sep 6th, 2013
Daily NewsThe Washington Free Beacon
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress on Wednesday that Syria could conduct cyber attacks in retaliation for U.S. military strikes and that U.S. forces are prepared for regional retaliation that could include Hezbollah terrorism.

During a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee examining whether Congress should approve President Obama’s plan for military strikes on Syria, Dempsey discussed aspects of military planning for attacks on Syria, including some of the military’s concerns about retaliatory attacks.

Dempsey testified before Congress along with Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on the second day of debate on a resolution authorizing the use of military force on Syria.

The four-star general said one possible form of retaliation could be Syrian cyber attacks.

Syria also could conduct long-range rocket attacks on neighbors or against U.S. facilities in the region. Syrian surrogates for the Assad regime, including Lebanon’s terrorist group Hezbollah, also might attack a U.S. embassy, Dempsey said.

“There’s actions he could probably seek to achieve in cyber,” Dempsey said. “And we are alert to all of the possibilities and are mitigating strategies in the way we’ve positioned ourselves in the region.”

He did not elaborate.

A group called the Syrian Electronic Army was blamed for recent cyber attacks on the New York Times and the Onion.

It is not known if the group is linked to the regime of Syrian leader Bashar al Assad, who is facing the prospect of U.S. military action for unleashing deadly nerve gas attacks on opposition forces near Damascus Aug. 21. An estimated 1,400 people were killed in the attacks that the U.S. government says was ordered by the Assad regime.

Dempsey said the military is reaching out to U.S. friends and allies in the region to coordinate the future strikes.

“We’re reaching out to them and some will support us directly, and some indirectly with basing and overflight,” he said.

France’s military, along with Turkish forces, are said to be prepared to join in military strikes, either directly or through supporting roles.

On the goal of military strikes, Dempsey said: “The mission given to me was to prepare options to attack, to deter and degrade. And that would mean targets directly linked to the control of chemical weapons but without exposing those chemical weapons to a loss of security.”

Other targets include “means of delivery”—rockets, artillery, mortar and missiles as well as air defenses, long-range missile and rockets that are used to protect chemical weapons or in some cases delivery them, Dempsey said.