Current Events
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Names translated from other languages may have different spelling, depending on the source. For example
Gadhafi may be translated "Gaddafi," etc.
See more recent articles: After January 1, 2013
Al Qaeda grows powerful in Syria as endgame nears
Dec. 20, 2012 - One reason Western powers are reluctant to support the rebels in Syria who are fighting to remove President Bashar
al-Assad is the rising influence of Al Qaeda there. The al-Nusra Front was designated a terrorist organization last week by the United States.
- Inside Syria, the group is exploiting a widening sectarian rift to recruit Sunnis who saw themselves as disenfranchised by Assad's
Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that dominates Syria's power and security structures.
Conservatives in Syria are concerned about the group because it wants to revive an Islamic Caliphate and impose Taliban-style rule.
- Source: NDTV
Assad’s deadly agenda: First, chemicals, next, Iskander 9K720
Dec. 19, 2012 - Hours after American, Dutch and German Patriot missiles landed in Turkey on Dec. 5, three Russian warships
entered Syria's Tartus port to deliver 24 "fearsome weapons" to Assad's forces. This "game changer" is the Iskander 9K720 cruise
missile system. The missiles were set up opposite Turkey, Jordan and Israel. All of them pointed at US military targets.
- The West and Israel have no answer for the Iskander’s hypersonic speed of more than 1.3 miles per second with a 280 mile-range and a
1,500-pound warhead which destroys targets with pinpoint accuracy. It is also nuclear-capable.
This is the escalation that Iran’s chief of staff Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi warned about on Dec. 15th when he said that placing
Patriot missiles in Turkey would cause a world war.
This is a very serious situation, and a breach of Russian President Vladimir Putin's promise to both George W. Bush and Barack Obama,
not to let the Iskander reach the hands of Syria or Iran. It is likely that these weapons will also be acquired by Iran. They would stop
or limit a preemptive strike by Israel against Iran's nuclear facilities.
- Source: DEBKAfile
- Other major developments in Syria:
- UN confirms Hezbollah fighting for Assad in Syria - Jerusalem Post
- Intel reveals Iran's payback for supporting Assad regime
For a year Iran has re-supplied Syria's military by commercial and unmarked airplanes. It is now known that they return to Iran loaded with
Russian S-300 missile defense systems. This will greatly affect Israel's military strategy. - Fox Video
U.S. to send troops, Patriot missiles to Turkey
Dec. 14, 2012 - Syria has been accused of using Scud missiles against rebels near the border of Turkey. The United States
is sending assistance to protect Turkey and the Incirlik U.S. Air force Base there.
- U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed the order while en route to Turkey to send two Patriot missile batteries and 400 U.S.
troops to operate them.
- Source: CNN
- Patriot missiles in Turkey threaten "world war:" Iran army chief - DEBKAfile
Alarm in Tehran and Moscow over Bushehr nuclear reactor’s near-explosion in mid-October
Dec. 1, 2012 - Information is just now coming to light that Iran conducted an emergency shut-down of its new Bushehr nuclear reactor
in October. Loose bolts were discovered under the fuel rods. This could have led to an explosion of the nuclear power plant. If it had exploded
it could have caused a million Iranian deaths and hundreds of thousands of radiation victims in the Persian Gulf emirates.
Informants in Moscow say that causes of the malfunction were being examined. Two possibilities are...
- 1. The bolts were deliberately unscrewed and dropped into the reactor vessel as an act of sabotage;
- 2. The Stuxnet virus which attacked Iran’s nuclear program two years ago was back and had tampered with the reactor’s computers.
During the crisis in October Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sent emergency teams trained to deal with nuclear disasters to Bushehr.
- Source: DEBKAfile
Baghdad moving allegiance from Washington to Moscow
Oct. 22, 2012 - Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, recently concluded a $4.2 billion dollar arms deal with Moscow that
includes some 30 Mi-28 attack helicopters and 42 Pantsir-S1 surface-to-air missile systems. It country may also acquire MiG-29 fighter
jets and armored vehicles from Russia. Al Maliki, a Shiite, is backed by Iran as well. He claims that the deal will not have an adverse
effect on relations with the West, but analystist see this as a lack of loyalty to the U.S.
- Source: WND
Gazprom bids highest for Leviathan partnership
Oct. 19, ,2012 - Russia's national gas company Gazprom submitted the highest offer in Israel's search for a partner in the development
of its Leviathan natural gas field.
- Although the Israelis, led by Delek Group's Yitzhak Tshuva, are enthusiastic about Gazprom because of its geopolitical power, Nobel
Energy prefers a Western partner, even at terms that are not as good as the terms offered by the Russian giant.
- Source: Globes - Israel
Headlines backing up millennia-old prophecies
Oct. 8, 2012 - At last weekend's “Understanding the Times” conference, hosted by Olive Tree Ministries, popular author and speaker
Mark Hitchcock spoke about world developments in the light of Ezekiel's prophecies. He explained a coming war against Israel by Russia, Iran, Libya, and Turkey.
“It’s as if today’s headlines were written 2,600 years ago,” Hitchcock said.
- He pointed to one prophecy he feels is nearing fulfillment. Known by those watching prophecy as the Gog-Magog war, the text of the
prophecy can be found in Ezekiel 38.
He pointed out that this portion of Ezekiel's prophecy comes just after the prediction in Ezekiel 37 that Israel would once again become
a nation.
- Source: WND
-
Iraq, Russia Sign Multi-Billion Dollar Arms Contracts - Voice of America
October Surprise: Obama Plans Major Airstrike on Libyan Targets
Oct. 5, 2012 -
- The New York Times reported yesterday that the Obama administration is preparing an operation to “kill or capture militants” involved
in the Benghazi attack resulting in the murder of our ambassador to Libya and three other Americans.
According to a Defense Department official, their advance planning calls for a “substantial air package.” This is thought to mean that
the attacks will include manned flights, not merely drones.
- Source: Breitbart.com
A new Cold War
Sept. 23,2012 - Lt. Gen Ion Mihai Pacepa is the highest-ranking Soviet bloc intelligence official ever to defect to the West.
He explains that the anti-American fervor in the Islamic world was purposely stimulated by the old Soviet Union, and is now reaching
its full divisive potential. He says,
- "In 1972, I had a breakfast with then-KGB chairman Yury Andropov in Moscow. The Kremlin, he told me, had decided to transform Arab
anti-Semitism into an anti-American doctrine for the whole Muslim world."
The Soviets produced literature that portrayed the United States as a war-mongering, Zionist country financed by Jewish money. Pacepa added
that Andropov made the point that one billion adversaries could cause far greater damage than could a mere 150 million.
- Source: -Ion Mihai Pacepa - WND
Al Qaeda affiliate, Islamist militia eyed in ‘coordinated’ consulate attack in Libya, sources say
Sept. 22, 2012 - Fox News intelligence sources say that last week's destruction of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya was
not a spontaneoous uprising but a coordinated attack by an Al Qaeda affiliate in North Africa and the Islamist militia Ansar Al-Sharia.
- About 100 attackers carried out the "coordinated assault,” intelligence sources said, further discrediting earlier Obama administration
claims that the deadly attack was a "spontaneous" outburst in response to an anti-Islam film.
They described two waves of attack, involving rocket-propelled grenades and mortar fire.
- Source: Fox
-
Libyan Islamist militia swept out of Benghazi bases - Reuters
Iran deploys Russian-made submarine in Gulf
Sept. 19, 2012 -
- Tehran has deployed one of its Russian-made submarines in the Persian Gulf, just days after the United States and more than
two dozen allies began naval exercises nearby, Iranian state television reported Tuesday.
- Source: Yahoo
-
UK Joins Persian Gulf Naval War Games amid Iran-Israel Tensions -
Three British warships joins 30-nation minesweep exercise, seen by military analysts as warning to Tehran to toe the line
- International Business Times
Assault on U.S. consulate in Benghazi leaves 4 dead, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens
Sept. 12, 2012 - The U.S. Ambassador to Libya was killed yesterday [9/11 !!] by an angry mob of Libyan protestors. Abassador J. Christopher Stevens
and three others were killed.
- Wanis al-Sharef, a Libyan Interior Ministry official in Benghazi, said the four Americans were killed when the angry mob,
which gathered to protest a U.S.-made film that ridicules Islam's Prophet Muhammad, fired guns and burned down the U.S.
consulate in Benghazi.
President Obama issued a written statement in which he said, "I strongly condemn the outrageous attack on our diplomatic facility in Benghazi."
- Source: CBS News
-
Islamists Storm US Egyptian Embassy, US Apologizes - Breitbart
-
Egyptians angry at film scale U.S. embassy walls - Reuters
-
The Movie So Offensive That Egyptians Just Stormed the U.S. Embassy Over It - The Atlantic
-
Romney calls Obama administration response to Libya attacks ‘disgraceful’ - Washington Post
-
Libya: The Slaying of the U.S. Ambassador Highlights the Country’s Post-Gaddafi Struggles - Time
Russia warns against attacking Iran over nuclear fears
Sept. 6, 2012 - Interfax quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warning Israel and the United States
that a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities would be "harmful, literally disastrous for regional stability."
- "We, as before, see no signs that there is a military dimension to Iran's nuclear program. No signs," Interfax quoted Ryabkov
- Russia's point man for diplomacy on Iran's nuclear program - as saying.
- Source: Reuters
Russia to attend Iranian conference on Syria crisis
Aug. 9, 2012 - Russia plans to have its ambassador to Iran, Levan Dzhagaryan, attend a hastily-called conference about the Syria
crisis on Thursday. Russia's foreign ministry said,
- "Naturally, we intend to firmly pursue our line [calling for] an immediate end to bloodshed and the suffering of the civilian population,
as well as for achieving a peaceful resolution in the interest of all Syrians through a broad political dialogue."
Russia and China have blocked three Western-backed United Nations Security Council resolutions that would have threatened the Syrian
government with sanctions.
- Source: Haaretz
-
Iran hosts Syria talks, calls for national dialogue - 29-nation emergency conference excludes western nations - Google
Radical Islam rises in U.S. ally Ethiopia
July 25, 2012 -
- Clashes between Islamic protesters and riot police over the weekend in Ethiopia have raised fears that Muslims are becoming increasingly
radical in a predominantly Christian country that has been a key U.S. ally in combating terrorism in the Horn of Africa.
The government is concerned about infiltration by extremists from Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Somalia who are promoting Salafism and Wahhabism.
- Source: Washington Post
Moscow trying to cope with Islam
July 23, 2012 - Russian President Vladimir Putin is making concessions to Chechnya and other Islamic republics under Russia's control.
Chechnya has been the scene of two uprisings against Russia in the past in an effort to establish an independent Islamic state.
- Separately, Salafists, who are the more radical form of Sunnis backed by Saudi Arabia, have sought to establish a Caucasus Emirate and
separate the republics which are predominantly Islamic from the main part of the country of Russia.
Russia is trying to improve its image in the Muslim world by being more tolerant of Islamization in the region. As a start, they are going
to allow public broadcasting on television and on the Internet of Islamic teaching and prayer.
Russian republics that are predominantly Islamic include Chechneya, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachevo-Cherkessia and North Ossetia.
At present Muslims comprise some 14 percent of the entire Russian population, but they could become a majority in Russia by 2050.
- Source: F. Michael Maloof - WND
Israel’s Undersea Gas Bonanza May Spur Mideastern Strife
June 17, 2012 - Once dependent on other countries to supply its energy needs, Israel now controls large underwater gas
fields in the Mediterranean Sea. The Tamar field, about 50 miles off the Israeli coast, has an estimated 8.3 trillion cubic feet of gas, and the
Leviathan field is estimated to hold 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. And now it is thought that the Levant Basin, off the coast of Syria,
Lebanon, Israel and the Gaza Strip may have 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil, 122 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas and 5
billion barrels of natural gas liquids.
Meghan L. O’Sullivan, a professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government warns,
- There is also a real threat that these gas discoveries could serve as a spur for conflict rather than economic growth... Exploration
continues, and it could be only a matter of time before a field is discovered straddling contested boundaries.
- Source: Bloomberg
Gog, Magog and Vladimir Putin
June 15, 2012 - View this portion of "Stakelbeck on Terror" featuring Bill Koenig and Bill Salus.
- Source: WND
The Magog Persia Alliance
June 9, 2012 - This update from Jack Kelly shows that the Syrian crisis is bringing the key players of Ezekiel 38 and 39
into a closer alliance. Read how Russia, Iran, and Syria are being forced into a "contact group" by world pressure, including the United Nations,
to stop the bloodshed in Syria. All of this has a profound effect on Israel, and could easily lead to the predicted war of Gog and Magog.
-
- Source: Grace Thru Faith
Putin sends warning to U.S., NATO in Victory Day speech at Red Square
May 10, 2012 - Remembering Russia's defeat of Nazi Germany, and the end of World War II, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned
the United States and NATO about involvement in Syria and Iran even though no specific countries were mentioned.
- "President Putin made it quite clear who is nursing aggressive plans in the world today," Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the nationalist
Liberal Democratic Party ... said in an interview after the speech. "It is the United States and NATO without any doubt."
- Source: Jewish World Review
Russia warns on missile defence deal with Nato and US
May 3, 2012 - Talks are failing between NATO and Russia about a controversial plans for a missile defence system based in Central Europe.
The Russian defense minister Gen Nikolai Makarov said, "A decision to use destructive force pre-emptively will be taken if the situation worsens."
- Source: BBC
Moscow deploys advanced SA-21 Growler missiles in rebuff to Obama
April 26, 2012 - Russia has reacted to plans for NATO’s missile defense system by deploying a third battery of anti-missiles
at its Baltic Fleet base in Kaliningrad, near Poland and Lithuania. The other two batteries are in Russia’s Far East.
- SA-21 Growler is a highly sophisticated, long- to medium-range surface-to-air missile system capable of intercepting and destroying targets
within a range of 250 miles and an altitude of more than 18 miles.
- Source: World News Tribune
Evidence Grows that Israel is Set for War, But What If Russia Intervenes? Joel Rosenberg
Best-selling author Joel C. Rosenberg recounts evidence that Israel may attack Iran soon, but brings up the question of what would happen if Russia intervenes.
He cited a New York Times story over the weekend that Russia's Vladimir Putin needs to drive oil prices higher (an average of $150/barrel)
for the next few years in order to keep his lavish campaign promises. It would help his cause to encourage or foment more tensions in the
Middle East.
- Putin is already moving Russian forces into Syria. He’s also actively preparing to build a new regional political/military/economic
alliance he calls the “Eurasian Union.”
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Rosenberg asks what would happen if Russia signed a mutual defense treaty with Iran, so that an attack against Iran would also be
an attack against Russia? What if Russia went even further and persuaded Iran to dismantle it's nuclear program, then led the U.N. to
call for a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East. Israel would be under pressure to dismantle its own nuclear program, possibly leading
to the fulfillment of the prophecies of Ezekiel 38-39 and the “War of Gog and Magog.”
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- Source: Joel C. Rosenberg's blog
Russia: Attack on Tehran is Attack on Moscow
Jan. 16, 2012 -
- “Iran is our neighbor,” Russia's outgoing ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, told reporters in Brussels. “And if Iran is involved in
any military action, it’s a direct threat to our security.”
The writer of the article opines that this threat heightens the prospect of World War III in the event of a
military strike on Iran.
- Source: Israel National News
- See: Former National Security Adviser Hadley: Chance of US-Iran Conflict 'Very High' in Prophecy Central's new Iran section.
- Iran, Russia Ink Security Agreement - Fars News Agency
Tehran blast kills nuclear scientist
Jan. 11, 2012 - Another nuclear scientist has been killed by a bomb placed on his car by a motorcyclist in Iran. The mysterious event
took place in the capital city of Tehran. The victim was Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, 32, "an oil professor at Tehran's technical university
and nuclear scientist."
- A city official blamed Israel for the attack, similar to attacks on nuclear scientists just over a year ago.
- Source: YNet News
-
US denies killing Iran nuclear scientist with magnetic bomb - MSNBC
-
Killings, blasts, computer worms: The covert war on Iran - YNet News
- -
Ex-adviser: Obama ready to strike to stop Iran
Jan. 10, 2011 - Dennis Ross, who served two years on Obama’s National Security, said,
- Obama has “made it very clear” that he regards a nuclear-armed Iran as so great a threat to international security that “the Iranians
should never think that there’s a reluctance to use the force” to stop them.
A day earlier Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told CBS News’s “Face the Nation” that a decision by Iran to develop nuclear weapon would cross a
red line, precipitating a US strike. In addition, General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the same audience that
he has is planning and positioning assets to be ready if ordered to take military action.
- Source: Jerusalem Post
- Iran plans one-kiloton underground nuclear test in 2012 - DEBKAfile
Iran to Launch Nuclear Work in Bunker in 'Near Future'
Jan. 8, ,2012 - Iran sends a political signal that it will not agree with pressure to stop enriching uranium. Instead, they will move
their uranium enrichment facility in the "near future" to a location deep inside a mountain.
- Iran has said for months that it is preparing to move its highest-grade uranium refinement work to Fordow, a facility near the Shi'ite Muslim
holy city of Qom in central Iran, from its main enrichment plant at Natanz.
Iran still claims that its nuclear program is only for the purpose of generating power and for medical purposes. Western powers believe that
Iran also wants to produce nuclear weapons.
- Source: NewsMax
- Gulf states brace for unwanted US-Iran war
- Space Daily
Report: Russian naval force arrives at Syria port in 'show of solidarity'
Jan. 8, ,2012 - While Syria continues to kill protestors and the Arab League meets to discuss censure of the government, Russia
has sent a large naval fleet of ships, led by an aircraft carrier, to the port of Tartus as a "show of friendship" between the nations.
- Source: Haaretz
Thousands of US troops deploying to Israel
Jan. 5, 2012 - The US is sending troops to Israel to conduct the largest-ever joint missile drill by the two countries, and perhaps
to prepare for the possibility of war with Iran. Last year's UN report on Iran's nuclear program developments and threats from Iran to close
the Strait of Homuz might cause an all-out war to occur sooner than thought.
- Without much media attention, thousands of American troops are being deployed to Israel, and Iranian officials believe that this is the
latest and most blatant warning that the US will soon be attacking Tehran.
- Source: RT
- President Obama Outlines a New Global Military Strategy - White House
- 'US deploys troops in Israel for Iran war' - PressTV
-
Former CIA Chief: Iran 'Single Greatest Destabilizing' Force in 2012 - Fox
- Saudis, Gulf states on war alert for early US-Iran clash - DEBKAFILE
-
Report: Israel could take out Iran’s nuclear infrastructure ‘in two days’ - World Tribune
- 'Attacks on Iran won't be allowed from Turkey' - Jerusalem Post
- U.S. to Iran: Warships to remain in Persian Gulf - USA Today
The Islamist Winter: New Report Suggests Extremist Views Winning in Libya
Jan. 5, 2012 - Abd al-Hakim Belhadj, one of the most powerful militia commanders in Libya, has become head of the Tripoli
Military Council.
- Belhadj is reported to be a former emir of an al Qaeda affiliate known as the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group or LIFG. Founded in
1995 to set up an Islamic state or emirate inside Libya, it waged jihad against the regime of former Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi.
- Source: Fox
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