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Moved by the Assad regime's rapid advance, the Obama administration could decide this week to approve lethal aid for the beleaguered Syrian rebels and will weigh the merits of a less likely move to send in U.S. air power to enforce a no-fly zone over the civil war-wracked nation, officials told The Associated Press Sunday. White House meetings are planned over the coming days, as Syrian President Bashar Assad's government forces are apparently poised for an attack on the key city of Homs, which could cut off Syria's armed opposition from the south of the country. As many as 5,000...

A top Russian diplomat confirmed that Moscow will provide Syria with state-of-the art air defense missiles to prevent foreign intervention in the country. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov wouldn't say whether Russia has shipped any of the long-range S-300 air defense missile systems, but added that Moscow isn't going to abandon the deal despite strong Western and Israeli criticism. Ryabkov said the deal helps restrain some "hot heads" considering a military intervention in Syria. Russia has been the key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime, protecting it from the United Nations sanctions and providing it with weapons despite the...

President Shimon Peres held out hopes Wednesday of seeing the Middle East draw inspiration from the European Union by one day turning a region long at war into one at peace. Praising Europe for overcoming 1,000 years of conflict in six short decades as he visited EU headquarters, Peres said, "You have the gift of a united hope even if you have a divided economic situation." "I hope the time will come when the Middle East will become a peaceful united region like you," he added. Peres, on an eight-day tour to Brussels, Paris and Strasbourg, said he believed there...

A Liberal Democrat MP in Britain faces expulsion from the party for saying Jews had not learned from the murder of six million in the Holocaust in their treatment of Palestinian Authority Arabs, the Daily Mail reports. David Ward, MP for Bradford East, wrote on his own website that he was “saddened” that Jews “could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians…on a daily basis.” “Having visited Auschwitz twice – once with my family and once with local schools – I am saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution...

A retired Soviet lieutenant colonel whose self-control prevented a nuclear war from being triggered by a long-classified accident in 1983 was named on Friday a recipient of a German anti-war prize. Stanislav Petrov, 73, won the fourth Dresden-Preis (Dresden Prize), which comes complete with a check for 25,000 euro ($32,000), prize organizers said on their website, Friendsofdresden-deutschland.com. The prize is to be bestowed at a ceremony in Dresden on Feb. 17, the anniversary of the Dresden bombing in 1945, the organizers said. Ironically for a military officer, Petrov shot to fame for ignoring his direct responsibilities. The officer served at...

Iran could launch a pre-emptive strike if Israel prepares to attack it, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander told broadcaster Al-Alam on Sunday, a day after his boss warned that conflict was inevitable. Should Israel and Iran engage militarily, "nothing is predictable... and it will turn into World War III," Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh told Iran's Arabic-language television network. Hajizadeh, who is in charge of Revolutionary Guards missile systems, said: "In circumstances in which they (the Israelis) have prepared everything for an attack, it is possible that we will make a pre-emptive attack. But we do not see this at...

... Water Cannon On Anti-Japan Protesters Yesterday we described that anti-Japan sentiment across China was spreading like wildfire with some even suggesting it is time to declare war on Japan (see picture) in retaliation for the unprecedented shift in Japan's status quo vis-a-vis the Senkaku Islands. Today it has gotten even worse. From Reuters: "Chinese police used pepper spray, tear gas and water cannon to break up an anti-Japan protest in southern China on Sunday as demonstrators took to the streets in scores of cities across the country in a long-running row over a group of disputed islands. The protests...

March 1981, and inside 10 Downing Street, Margaret Thatcher is confronting the most terrible dilemma any British Prime Minister has ever faced. The news could hardly be worse. Across Britain, tens of thousands of terrified people are streaming out of the major cities. Looting is widespread, while every day brings bomb attacks at railway stations and RAF bases. Abroad, the Red Army has sliced through the West’s defences, using chemical weapons to punch through Nato’s front lines. Yugoslavia has fallen, and West Germany and Norway are on the verge of succumbing. After four days of Russian air raids, killing hundreds...

n less than sixty minutes, the tiny nation of Iran could easily defeat two of the mightiest military powers in the world if they are allowed to engage in a first strike opportunity against both of those nations. This is not some far-fetched idea as U.S. and Israeli military planners are keenly aware of the implications of an Iranian attack which catches both nations off guard. The problem is not one of strategy or ability by either nation. The military units of both nations could easily defeat the Iranians in a nuclear or conventional war. However, Iran is not a...

As the US completes its final withdrawal from Iraq, American special forces troops have been diverted to positions in Jordan opposite a Syrian tank concentration building up across the kingdom’s northern border, DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources report. As of last Thursday, as of last Thursday Dec. 8, military convoys, air transports and helicopters have been lifting US troops across the border from Iraq. They have been deployed in position to ward off a possible Syrian invasion in the light of President Bashar Assad’s warning that he would set the entire Middle East on fire if the pressure on his...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-3xeP7NFRE&feature=share&fb_source=message

UPDATE: December 1, 2011; 10:00AM Amid the tensions in Iran and the destruction of a second nuclear facility (which is detailed in the original story below), we find it necessary to present our readers with an update made available via The Daily Crux and Zero Hedge, in which Major General Zhang Zhaozhong, a professor from the Chinese National Defense University, said China “will not hesitate to protect Iran even with a third World War.” Trillions of dollars in debt and regional energy resources are at play here. Perhaps this is the reason Iran is publicly downplaying the threat and the...

The Federal Emergency Management Agency may have enough money to last until the end of the week, raising the possibility that Congress could avert a government shutdown by end of the day on Friday, according to Senate officials familiar with the matter. FEMA officials have not yet commented on the matter, but three Senate officials told POLITICO that the agency signaled to Congress that its depleted funds could last through Thursday, and possibly Friday, which coincides with the end of the current fiscal year. FEMA was initially projected to run out of money as early as Tuesday.

An American credit downgrade. Europe in turmoil. Israel menaced by an Iran with nuclear ambitions. Mexican drug cartels run amok. Chinese ghost cities. With each passing day the news gets worse. To my amateur historian's eye, we seem to be drowning under the greatest flood of crisis, both international and domestic, since the 1930s. We all know how that ended. Will it be possible, in terrible 2010s, to resolve the world's problems without war? I'm not so certain. About a decade ago, The National Review's John Derbyshire wrote that the odds of us, or our children, dying in a "genuine...

China has warned in unequivocal terms that any attack on Pakistan would be construed as an attack on China. Beijing has advised Washington to respect Pakistan’s sovereignty and solidarity and this was formally conveyed to the United States at last week’s China-US strategic dialogue and economic talks.

CAIRO (AP) — Iran‘s first attempt in decades to send warships through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean on Europe’s — and NATO’s — southern flank could further destabilize the Middle East, a region already reeling from an unprecedented wave of anti-government rebellions.

If you "want to be hedged for complete disaster – World War III… you are better off in commodity-related investments", says Marc Faber in the latest issue of US financial paper Barron's. That might seem drastic. But Faber is convinced that China's rise, and its diminishing dependence on America, means that "eventually, we will have a war, big time".

The US has finally reached the breaking point to go to war with North Korea. The planning of war with North Korea is already in the works. After the most recent outburst from North Korea, China has asked to resume the 6 party talks. The US has refused to resume these talk, but is instead planning 3 party talks between the US, Japan, and South Korea in Washington. The news reports that these discussions are to be about how to diplomatically handle North Korea, but I wouldn't trust this after the most recent Wikileaks publishing.

BRITISH singer James Blunt said his refusal to obey orders from an American general helped avert an international incident, and a potential Third World War. The You’re Beautiful singer, a former captain in the Life Guards - the senior regiment of the British Army - said in an interview today he risked a court martial by countermanding an order from General Wesley Clark to attack Russian forces. Blunt, then 25, was in command of British troops ordered to take control of Pristina Airfield in Kosovo in June 1999, during the Balkan conflict. However, 200 Russian soldiers got there first, and...

WOULD APPRECIATE INPUTS WHICH DO NOT COMPROMISE OUR TROOPS OR PATRIOTIC CONCERNS . . . HOWEVER . . . . Many of us have relationships with folks who have occasion to observe fairly public indications of impending grand events. Given John Bolton's warnings . . . Given Russia's warnings . . . Given Cliff High's recently published new edition of his webbot pattern tracking software . . . Given a list of other such warnings . . . WWIII appears to be as close as 6 days or so from getting kicked off up to into November as a starting...

China Freaks Out The World By Announcing Restrictions On Export Of Metals Crucial For National Defense Joe Weisenthal Jun. 2, 2010, 10:11 PM China appears to be making moves that several folks had been fearing for some time: It is considering stricter limits on the export of so-called rare-earth metals. The metals, which are most abundant in China, are used in a range of high tech industries including green energy and defense, which is what most concerns the US government. Claiming that the mining of rare earths has been bad for the environment, the government is moving to restrict unauthorized...

The Impending War by Ari Bussel I can feel the war with my fingertips. Quite how bad will it be I do not know; only time will tell. The approaching day of reckoning is upon us; the build-up is almost complete. Following, there will be peace that will last many generations. To achieve such peace however, a fatal blow must be dealt. The players will align themselves; preliminary moves have already begun. Iran, Russia and China may be one block, although this may change in time. Israel, the USA and Europe will inevitably be the other, although not as much...

USUALLY, there is a familiar cycle to Korea crises. Like a street gang showing off its power to run amok in a well-heeled neighborhood, the North Koreans launch a missile over Japan or set off a nuclear test or stage an attack — as strong evidence indicates they did in March, when a South Korean warship was torpedoed. Expressions of outrage follow. So do vows that this time, the North Koreans will pay a steep price. SNIP The White House betting is that the latest crisis, stemming from the March attack, will also abate without much escalation. But there is...

This is a link to the original Japanese story just now.Rather sketchy and breaking, but will synopsize main points into English as thus:There is the large Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea for manufacturing products, which is just across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) from the truce village of Panmunjom, jointly run by North and South Korea. You can clearly see this development from overlook vantage points on hills located around Panmunjom. There are a number of South Korean managers and employers there on-site as we speak. At this time, they are apparantly not free to leave.N. Korea is threatening to...

Three German-built Israeli submarines equipped with nuclear cruise missiles are to be deployed in the Gulf near the Iranian coastline. The first has been sent in response to Israeli fears that ballistic missiles developed by Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, a political and military organisation in Lebanon, could hit sites in Israel, including air bases and missile launchers. The submarines of Flotilla 7 — Dolphin, Tekuma and Leviathan — have visited the Gulf before. But the decision has now been taken to ensure a permanent presence of at least one of the vessels. The flotilla’s commander, identified only as “Colonel O”,...

German historians are divided over the significance of a massive Communist-era bunker in the former East Germany. Was it to be used as a command post in the event of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe? Researchers now believe Europe was closer to the nuclear abyss than was previously believed. snip . . . During the first 90 minutes, this ground assault would have been accompanied by a hail of conventional and nuclear warheads aimed at thousands of predetermined targets.

The international community is standing by as Iran goes nuclear. STAND by for some bad news. No, I mean really bad news. The world is not going to apply crippling sanctions to Iran. Even if it did, Iran would not be deterred from developing nuclear weapons. The only way that Iran can be significantly delayed in its pursuit of nuclear weapons is through an Israeli air strike on its nuclear facilities. I think the chances of an Israeli attack are somewhat less than 50-50. Even with an air strike, the likelihood is you would delay rather than prevent Iran getting...

A visionary from the Philippines, Duke Puntalangit,  warns that the Fatima chastisements will begin this year 2010.  According to the visionary, the Middle East crisis will eventually result into an all out war in that region, afterwhich,  a revolution originating from Russia, will engulf Europe.  This series of events will cause chaos and bloodshed in all major cities in Europe, the global economy will plunge deeper, consequently giving the window of opportunity for Russia and China to execute militarily against Europe and the US.   Puntalangit warns that mankind has entered a point of no return and that the chastisements...

Based on hints, feints, public pronouncements, and off the record commentary, the administration's stance toward Iran is coming into focus. Without any question, military action against Iran is off the agenda. The Obama administration will do nothing to prevent the further enrichment of uranium by Iran's mullahs, notwithstanding who is elected in that nation's upcoming vote. The negotiations with Iran are based on the premise that Iran can produce as much enriched uranium as it wants as long as a nuclear bomb isn't manufactured. In other words, Obama seeks a "Japanese solution," the conditions for a bomb without actually making...

If we don't rise up and stop this Joker now, we will be in a depression, close to famine and at war with China, Russia, Syria & Iran by 2012. The Axis of Evil is going to wait for the Cap n Trade to cause our agriculture sector to grow for fuel or not at all and then China (through Venezuela), after it stops importing to the US, will force Brazil (Third Largest Exporter in the World) & Other Central/South American Countries to stop exporting to the US (20% of total distribution). The damage of removing Farm Subsidies coupled with...

Sample Chapter from Nostradamus Code Book interpreting the quatrains. Elite group controls global economy; worldwide depression planned (Century VI, Quatrain 41) The Elite families made their influence and fortunes in the banking and commodities industries, such as gold, oil, copper, tins, etc. This is much like the colonial barons associated with the European world empires who started their families' fortunes exploiting the materials of the Third World nations. The Elite manipulate the economy to cause the unemployment or inflation rates to rise or fall at their whim. They have affected everyone's life. They are "pulling the strings" behind the scenes...

WARSAW (AFP)--The presidents of five ex-communist countries will travel to Georgia to back Georgia in its war with Russia, a senior aide to Poland's President Lech Kaczynski told AFP Monday.

Russia says Ukraine helping Georgia MOSCOW, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Russia accused Ukraine on Saturday of encouraging Georgia to carry out "ethnic cleansing" in the separatist region of South Ossetia by providing arms, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. "The Ukrainian government, which has been enthusiastically arming Georgian troops from top to bottom, was in fact encouraging Georgia to attack and carry out ethnic cleansing in South Ossetia," the ministry said in a statement on its website www.mid.ru.

1,500 Reported Killed in Georgia Battle August 9, 2008 GORI, Georgia — Russia and the former Soviet republic of Georgia veered closer to all-out war on Saturday as Russia moved parts of its Black Sea fleet toward Georgia’s coast and intensified air attacks on Georgia, striking two apartment buildings in the city of Gori and clogging roads out of the area with fleeing refugees. Russia acknowledged that Georgian forces had shot down two Russian warplanes, while a senior Georgian official said the Georgians had destroyed 10 Russian jets. Russian armored vehicles continued to stream into South Ossetia, the pro-Russian region...

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf is on record stating his ambitions to make his country a modern and secular state modeled on the Turkish republic under Kemal Ataturk. Ironically, even as that goal appears mind bogglingly unachievable for Pakistan, recent events will conspire to push Turkey in the direction of Pakistan; into becoming a breeding ground for a new class of Islamic militants. The transition of Turkey into a new front for Saudi interests will follow typical ideological, strategic and political trends... It is no mere coincidence that the Saudis need a functioning Sunni army to counter the likely expansionism of...

Hackers are deluging web users with malware-laden spam claiming that World War III has started following a US invasion of Iran. Security experts warned today that spam emails with subject lines including 'Third World War has begun', '20000 US Soldiers in Iran' and 'US Army crossed Iran's borders' have been intercepted. The emails contain links to a malicious webpage that displays what appears to be a video player showing the mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion. Text on the page reads: 'Just now US Army's Delta Force and US Air Force have invaded Iran. 'Approximately 20000 soldiers crossed the border...

Four days after his controversial “Face the Nation” appearance, retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark is taking a break from the presidential campaign — but many Democratic insiders think he has already been crossed off the list of Barack Obama’s potential running mates. Sunday morning on CBS News, Clark argued that John McCain’s military experience — and his years as a prisoner of war — in no way qualified him to be president. Following his appearance, one prominent liberal blog, apparently seeing the genie as out of the bottle, launched into a considerably harsher attacks on McCain’s service headlined “Honestly, besides...

McCain says only World War III would justify draft 25 Jun 2008 00:47:58 GMT Source: Reuters - Only World War III would prompt Republican presidential candidate John McCain to bring back the military draft, McCain said on Tuesday. Many Americans are fearful the U.S. government will be forced to reinstitute the draft given the prolonged Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Asked about that possibility by a potential voter in Florida during a telephone "town hall meeting," McCain said: "I don't know what would make a draft happen unless we were in an all-out World War III." The United States ended its...

There’s always the watershed moment. That moment that guarantees war in the future and it becomes just a matter of time before it happens. No war is ever caused by the obvious act that triggers it. The Sarajevo bullet fired on June 28, 1914 didn’t cause World War I. Hitler invading Poland on September 1, 1939 didn’t cause World War II. Because wars are about taking care of “unfinished business”, we are faced with the prospect of a third world war. If that comes, the independence of Kosovo will be the watershed moment. Pandora’s box, despite all the warnings issued,...

(IsraelNN.com) US President George W. Bush said a nuclear Iran would mean World War III. Israeli newscasts featured Gog & Magog maps of the likely alignment of nations in that potential conflict. Channel 2 and Channel 10 TV showed the world map, sketching the basic alignment of the two opposing axes in a coming world war, in a manner evoking associations of the Gog and Magog prophecy for many viewers. The prophecy of Gog and Magog refers to a great world war centered on the Holy Land and Jerusalem and first appears in the book of Yechezkel (Ezekiel). On one...

Stanislav Petrov, a lieutenant-colonel in the military intelligence section of the Soviet Union's secret service, reluctantly eased himself into the commander's seat in the underground early warning bunker south of Moscow. It should have been his night off but another officer had gone sick and he had been summoned at the last minute. Before him were screens showing photographs of underground missile silos in the Midwest prairies of America, relayed from spy satellites in the sky. He and his men watched and listened on headphones for any sign of movement - anything unusual that might suggest the U.S. was launching...

One madman with a gun can hold off a hundred cops. The difference is who is more willing to lose his life. Such is the situation between the Khomeini regime and those it has directly threatened. Beginning with Khomeini's rise to power after 1979, the regime has constantly threatened others, and celebrated its own readiness for martyrdom --- which it amply proved in the war with Saddam Hussein. Today Tehran's mortal enemies' list goes far beyond Israel to include Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, Jordan, Lebanon, France, Britain, and the United States. Yet Max Boot points out in the...

Disputes holding up the completion by Russia of Iran's first nuclear power station at Bushehr have been resolved, the head of Russian state contractor Atomstroiexport said Thursday. "The difficulties with the Iranian client are resolved and we have an agreement on the timetable for construction. I will give more details at the end of December," said Atomstroiexport head Sergei Shmatko. "We absolutely plan to build Bushehr." Bushehr is at the heart of Iran's controversial nuclear plans, which Teheran says only involve power generation, but which Israel, the United States and some European countries believe includes a military component. However, Shmatko...

Iran tested a newly-developed ballistic missile on the day of the Annapolis conference, Channel 10 reported Wednesday. The Ashoura missile has a range of 2,000 kilometers and is capable of reaching Israel, US Army bases in the Middle East and eastern European cities, including Moscow, said the TV channel. According to the report, the new missile is an improvement on the existing Shihab-3 missile. The Ashoura uses solid fuel instead of the Shihab's liquid fuel, giving it a significantly faster launch sequence which is harder to detect. Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Mostafa Muhammad-Najjar had announced the development of the new...

The rhetoric of U.S. and Arab officials over their divergent policies toward Iran has become curiously more heated since the release last week of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's nuclear ambitions. This is odd. The NIE claim that Iran's nuclear weapons program was suspended four years ago should have been, in Arab eyes, a signal that the prospect of a U.S. airstrike against Iran was off the table, and business That has not been the way the Americans see it. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has been attending a security conference in Bahrain, the Gulf headquarters of the...

HAVANA - Fidel Castro wrote Tuesday that President Bush is threatening the world with nuclear war and famine — an attack on Washington a day before the White House was to announce new plans to draw Cuba away from communism. "The danger of a massive world famine is aggravated by Mr. Bush's recent initiative to transform foods into fuel," Castro wrote in Cuban news media, referring to U.S. support for using corn and other food crops to produce gasoline substitutes. The brief essay titled "Bush, Hunger and Death" also alleged that Bush "threatens humanity with World War III, this time...

If people had known how close we came to World War III that day there would have been mass panic. That is how a very senior British ministerial source recently characterized Israel’s September raid on what was apparently a Syrian nuclear installation. Whether matters were quite that grave is an open question. Yet it does seem clear that the full story of the Israeli raid has not been told, nor its full significance recognized. Now two key members of Congress have raised an alarm about this event, thereby throwing our nuclear agreement with North Korea into question. Briefings Peter Hoekstra...

Axis Of Evil: Those who counsel us not to provoke Iran forget the lessons of history. Churchill didn't cause World War II; the appeasers of Nazi Germany did. And peace is an event, not a "process." It's sad when a major newspaper suggests we should fear Vice President Dick Cheney more than Iran's loony leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But that's what the Los Angeles Times did in a weekend editorial. It opined that Cheney's "desire to bomb Iranian nuclear sites and Revolutionary Guard targets" was "backfiring, causing it to escalate its anti-American activities instead of backing off." Besides, we are told,...

Bush warns Putin over 'World War Three' By Matthew Moore and Adrian Blomfield Last Updated: 6:10pm BST 17/10/2007 George W Bush, the US president, today warned that world leaders risk helping bring about "World War Three" unless they do more to prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons. David Blair: No warmth or trust behind the handshake Leader: Vladimir Putin in Teheran In remarks timed to coincide with Russian president Vladimir Putin's visit to Teheran, Mr Bush said the Islamic republic must remain isolated until it drops its nuclear ambitions. New best friends: Vladimir Putin and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after their meeting in...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush warned on Wednesday a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to World War III as he tried to shore up international opposition to Tehran amid Russian skepticism over its nuclear ambitions. Bush was speaking a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has resisted Western pressure to toughen his stance over Iran's nuclear program, made clear on a visit to Tehran that Russia would not accept any military action against Iran. At a White House news conference, Bush expressed hope Putin would brief him on his talks in Tehran and said he would ask...