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Today as I drove my Mom home from her dental appointment, we listened to Focus on the Family. All this week, FoF is focusing on "Radical Islam and the Family." I'd like to make a few observations. 1. Granted, we only caught the last fifteen minutes, but at no point was there any discussion of "the family and Islam," unless by this, one means something like, "Radical Islam wants to overthrow America and we should support the Iraq War." 2. Most, if not all, of the broadcast focused on Joel Rosenberg's bestseller Epicenter. 3. Consequently, we were treated to a...

Russian Navy eyes Syria bases to expand Mideast presence MOSCOW — Russia plans to expand its naval presence in the Middle East, starting in Syria. Officials said the Russian Navy has been pressing Moscow's allies to expand basing and anchoring rights. They said the navy has sought to establish a permanent naval presence that would include such countries as Algeria, Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen__ Full Text, Subscribers --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Israeli government is building a massive war bunker in the hills outside Jerusalem – a refuge for top government officials in the event of a biological, chemical or nuclear attack. The maze of tunnels and underground rooms is scheduled to be completed in the next year or two as fears of an attack from Iran intensify, the Baltimore Sun reported. Israel’s top intelligence officer told the Knesset last month that Iran could have a nuclear weapon by 2009, and Israelis increasingly fear that Tehran would seek to carry out Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s threat to "wipe Israel off the...

Learn what American attitudes toward current events and Bible prophecy are in this exclusive new poll.Are We Living in the Last Days? We asked: "Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: 'Events such as the rebirth of the State of Israel, wars and instability in the Middle East, recent earthquakes, and the tsunami in Asia are evidence that we are living in what the Bible calls the last days.'"* 42% of all Americans agree * 44% disagree * 14% say they don’t know Last Days—Gender* 50 percent of women agree; 37 percent disagree; * 14 percent don’t know...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The United States used Israel's attack on the Hizbollah militia in Lebanon as a prelude to "settling accounts" with Iran, Interfax news agency quoted a senior Russian diplomat as saying on Wednesday. Vladimir Trofimov, deputy head of the foreign ministry's Middle East department, was quoted making the comments the day before Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov begins a visit to the Middle East that will include Israel. "If we look at Israeli and U.S. plans, they aim at removing the Hizbollah factor ahead of the forthcoming U.S. settling of accounts with Iran," Interfax quoted Trofimov as saying....

Kazan(Russia), Aug 31: Officials and religious figures from Russia and more than a dozen Islamic countries kicked off a conference here that organizers said was aimed at deepening their dialogue and defending a "multipolar" world in the face of US power. "Values cannot be imposed by force," Mintimer Shaimiyev, President of Russia`s mainly Muslim republic of Tatarstan where the three-day conference was being held, said in an opening address to delegates. "The example of Iraq has shown that democracy can only be the result of internal development. Liberal values can`t be exported like cars. A multipolar world without a system...

US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld made his strongest public case for a plan, opposed by some in the US Congress and by Russia, to convert some Navy long-range missiles from a nuclear to a conventional role for potential use against terrorist targets anywhere in the world. Rumsfeld held talks Sunday with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, and they discussed the issue at a joint news conference. Opponents of the plan argue that it could create a situation in which a conventionally armed US Trident missile, launched from a submarine, would be mistaken for a nuclear launch, thus risking the...

Oracle Commentaries 7/22/2006 Urgent Intelligence Update UNCOVERED: RUSSIAN-SYRIAN-IRANIAN AXIS For students of Bible prophecy, even the title of this communiqué should set off alarm sirens. I just received some electrifying intelligence data. First, from the Debka-Net-Weekly’s briefing. And second, from some personal intelligence sources (I carefully guard) that confirm Debka’s report. Russia, Iran and Syria have entered a defense pact that is in the process of altered the balance of power in the entire Middle East. Russia’s part in the pact has been kept relatively secret for a long time. But the facts reveal a long steady Russian commitment...

The 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency delayed a vote on a landmark resolution on Iran's nuclear program today largely because of American opposition to a clause indirectly criticizing Israel's nuclear weapons status, according to several diplomats. The countries that sit on the decision-making council of the world's nuclear watchdog agency will meet again on Saturday. Several diplomats said that it was unlikely that the problem would derail passage of the resolution, which would report Iran's case to the United Nations Security Council for the first time and which enjoys the support of the United States, Russia, China,...

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - President George W. Bush vowed on Wednesday the United States will rise to Israel's defense if needed against Iran and denounced Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for "menacing talk" against Israel. In a Reuters interview aboard Air Force One en route to Nashville, Bush also said he saw a "very good chance" that the governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency will refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions. "I am concerned about a person that, one, tries to rewrite the history of the Holocaust, and two, has made it clear that his...

Moscow: Russia's fifth-generation fighter plane will be ready in 2007, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force Vladimir Mikhailov said Tuesday. "Work to build the fifth-generation plane is going according to schedule," he said. Mikhailov said, however, that the project had encountered some financial problems after civilian aircraft were produced using the money allocated in the budget for the fighter planes. "Clearly, the development of aviation technology will depend on specific military and economic conditions, determining the progress of reform in the Russian armed forces and the country's aircraft construction industry. However, Russia will continue to be a leading aircraft-building power,"...

Russian FM Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday sanctions are not the best and only solution. DEBKAfile adds: Moscow is muscle-flexing ahead of EU-Russian negotiations due to take place with Iran over a formula for Iranian nuclear enrichment in Russia, mediated by Chancellor Angela Merkel and accepted for study by Tehran. When the talks yield a proposal, it will be brought before Washington. The Kremlin is saying the threat of UN sanctions is counter-productive if the next round of diplomacy is to succeed. The five permanent UN Security Council members meeting in London failed to agree on a referral of the Iranian...

Iranian President Mahmoud's Ahmadinejad's mystical pre-occupation with the coming of a Shiite Islamic messiah figure – the Mahdi – is raising concerns that a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic could trigger the kind of global conflagration he envisions will set the stage for the end of the world. While Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been making headlines lately by questioning whether the Holocaust actually happened, by suggesting Israel should be moved to Europe and by demanding the Jewish state be wiped off the face of the earth, his apocalyptic religious zealotry has received less attention. In a videotaped meeting with Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli in Tehran,...

Let’s face it, the only thing Russia is doing to control Iran’s nuclear ambitions is to have a slick PR campaign that spouts disinformation about the entire sordid affair in the hope that no one notices its support of the mad mullahs. A report from the AP via The Washington Times, says that Javad Vaidi, Iran’s nuclear negotiator is considering a Russian proposal to have a joint fuel enrichment program in Russia to supposedly ensure that no fuel is diverted to make weapons. This proposal means nothing. Earlier, I reported that the Novosibirsk nuclear fuel fabrication facility in Siberia was...

Moscow told Iran on Saturday it remained ready to build a joint venture plant to enrich uranium in Russia, just days after an EU diplomat said Tehran had dismissed the compromise plan at talks in Vienna. The plan, which would allow Tehran to establish a civilian nuclear energy programme but transfer enrichment to Russia, is aimed at ending a stalemate between Iran and the West over Tehran's nuclear programmes. "The Russian embassy in Tehran gave to the Iranian side an official note saying that the previous Russian proposal of the creation ... of a joint Russian-Iranian company to enrich uranium...

Lest you get carried away with the recent good news from Iraq, consider what's happening next door in Iran. The wild pronouncements of the new Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have gotten sporadic press ever since he called for Israel to be wiped off the map. He subsequently amended himself to say that Israel should simply be extirpated from the Middle East map and moved to some German or Austrian province. Perhaps near the site of an old extermination camp? Except that there were no such camps, indeed no Holocaust at all, says Ahmadinejad. Nothing but "myth," a "legend" that was...

"I want to remind those who are on the other side, those who allegedly defend Islam, that the Russian Federation has always been the most consistent, loyal and staunch advocate of Islam," Putin said. "Russia was and remains the best partner of Islamic states," he said.

Don't get us mixed up Ahmadinejad is not, REPEAT not, the epitome of Iranian people's aspiration and their logic December 16, 2005 iranian.com There are countries of the world about which the world cannot afford to be ignorant. Iran is one such country and though the International community is slow in realising, it will have to be as informed and uncluttered in the their judgement about Iran as they are about France say. They would have to because Iran matters a lot and I am not saying that as an Iranian patriot but as an informed observer. It is precisely...

Posted 05-Dec-2005 04:44 Related stories: Coastal & Littoral, Contracts - Awards, Issues - International, Middle East - Other, Missiles - Surface-Air, Other Corporation, Radars, Russia, Surface Ships - Combat Also on this day: 05-Dec-2005 » ORD_SAM_SA-15_Radar.jpg Tor M-1 (click to view full) Novosti in Russia and western media outlets like Reuters are reporting that Russia will sell about 30 Tor M-1 (SA-15 Gauntlet) surface-to-air missile systems. Greece had bought 21 of the systems and had the right to another 29, but scrapped the deal in the late 1990s. Those missiles will now find their way to Iran, where they will...

MORE NEWS FROM IRAN Speaking of Islamic dictatorships, the president of Iran is once again speaking his mind. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday that he doubted the Holocaust took place and that Israel should be moved to Europe. That's at least a step up from wanting to destroy it. Kofi Annan condemned the statements, which may be a first. This in addition to the cancellation of his trip to Tehran after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he wanted to wipe Israel off the map. Now given Iran's desire to get rid of Israel, and that regime's previous call for the destruction of the...