MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Josh Rogin – “The State Department has begun coordinating with Syria’s neighbors to prepare for the handling of President Bashar al-Assad’s extensive WMD assets if and when his regime collapses, The Cable has learned.

This week, the State Department sent a diplomatic demarche to Syria’s neighbors Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia, warning them about the possibility of Syria’s WMDs crossing their borders and offering U.S. government help in dealing with the problem, three Obama administration officials confirmed to The Cable. For concerned parties both inside and outside the U.S. government, the demarche signifies that the United States is increasingly developing plans to deal with the dangers of a post-Assad Syria — while simultaneously highlighting the lack of planning for how to directly bring about Assad’s downfall.

Syria is believed to have a substantial chemical weapons program, which includes mustard gas and sophisticated nerve agents, such as sarin gas, as well as biological weapons. Syria has also refused IAEA requests to make available facilities that were part of its nuclear weapons program and may still be in operation.

The State Department declined to provide access to any officials to discuss the private diplomatic communication on the record, such as the author of the demarche Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation Tom Countryman. In a meeting with reporters earlier this year, Countryman expressed confidence that the United States knows where Syria’s WMD stockpiles are, but warned that they could become a very serious security issue for Syria and the region going forward.” Read more.

Flashback: Hezbollah may be receiving weapons of mass destruction from Syria – “French newspaper Le Figaro reported on Saturday that Israel has asked Western countries to stop their diplomatic campaign against the Syrian regime for fear that the weapons of mass destruction of the Syrian regime will fall in the hands of Hezbollah and Hamas. The newspaper said the chief of military intelligence in the Israeli army, Major-General Aviv Kochavi has relayed the Israeli position during his visit to the United Nations headquarters in New York a few weeks ago. According to a French diplomat Kochavi warned that the Syrian arsenal of weapons will be directed at Israel if the regime of Bashar al-Assad falls.” Read more.

Flashback: Nasrallah: Next War with Israel Will Start in Tel Aviv, Says Hezbollah Has ‘Many Surprises’ That Will Change the Face of the Region in a Future War – “The next war with Israel will start in Tel Aviv, not on the northern border, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned on Friday, the Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper reported. ‘If Israel decided to wage a war against Lebanon, we will not only break the Israeli soldiers’ bones, we will smash them,’ Nasrallah was quoted as saying during a meeting with Hezbollah members. ‘The war would be waged without any red lines, and [Hezbollah] would in return commit to the new equations,’ Nasrallah said. ‘[Hezbollah] has many surprises that will change the face of the region,’ he added.” Read more.

Reuters – “PARIS – After months of reassuring secularist critics, Islamist politicians in Tunisia and Egypt have begun to lay down markers about how Muslim their states should be — and first signs show they want more religion than previously admitted.

Islamist parties swept the first free elections in both countries in recent months after campaigns that stressed their readiness to work with the secularists they struggled with in the Arab Spring revolts against decades-long dictatorships.

With political deadlines looming, the Tunisian coalition led by the reformist Islamist Ennahda party and the head of Egypt’s influential Muslim Brotherhood both made statements this week revealing a stronger emphasis on Islam in government.

Popular List, an Ennahda coalition member tasked with writing Tunisia’s new constitution, announced on Monday its draft called Islam ‘the principle source of legislation’ — a phrase denoting laws based on the sharia moral and legal code.

On Tuesday, Egyptian Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie said his group wanted a president with ‘an Islamic background.’ That term is vague, but not as vague as the conciliatory ‘consensus candidate’ talk heard from most parties until now.

Secularists in both countries warned voters against trusting the Islamists and these subtle changes could have come straight from a secularist playbook on how Islamists would gradually insert more religion into the political and legal systems.” Read more.

Security forces clash with radical Islamists in Tunisian town – “Police in a Tunisian town used tear gas on Thursday to break up a crowd of about 200 hardline Islamists, armed with sticks, swords and petrol bombs, who set fire to a police station, witnesses told Reuters. ‘The security forces are chasing about 200 Salafists armed with swords and sticks after an exchange of petrol bombs and tear gas,’ resident Omar Inoubli told Reuters by telephone from Jandouba, about 160 km (99 miles) west of the capital. ‘These groups set fire to a police station …. (They) are broadcasting recordings through the loudspeakers of mosques calling for jihad (holy war).'” Read more.

I don’t think the victim card is gonna work. At least not this time …

By EDDIE WRENN – “A ‘terrorist sympathiser’ linked to a notorious airline bomb plot is claiming he was unfairly sacked as a British Airways baggage handler because of his religion.

Counter terrorist police found an apparent plan to groom Shahzada Khan to place a package on a plane bound for America.

During an investigation into Rajib Karim, who was jailed for 30 years last March for plotting to place a bomb on an airplane heading to America, police discovered emails between Karim and Khan, as well as emails between Karim and hate-preacher Anwar al-Awlaki.

Cracking the heavily-encrypted emails, police suspected Karim and al-Awlaki were grooming Khan to help them smuggle a bomb onto an American-bound plane.

When police checked Khan’s computer, they discovered speeches by Osama Bin Laden and al-Awlaki, the tribunal heard.

There were also clips of ‘martyrdom’ and explosions interspersed with an image of a BA executive clubcard.

A PDF file was being downloaded when officers arrived at Khan’s home in Slough, which described America as: ‘The land of shame, crime, vile, filth and evil.'” Read more.

Zechariah 12:2-3, “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah [and] against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.”

By Rachel Hirshfeld – “An attempt is being made by the BDS movement to have a ‘Global March to Jerusalem’ on March 30, to coincide with the so-called ‘Palestinian Land Day,’ in a repeat of the failed Naqba Day attempt last year.

‘The concept behind it is to have a million people marching on Israel’s borders from all the surrounding countries – Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt,’ CiF Watch reported.

The BDS movement declares, ‘Commemorating Land Day, the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) invites people of conscience around the world to unite for a BDS Global Day of Action on 30 March 2012 in solidarity with the Palestinian people’s struggle for freedom, justice and equality and for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel.’

The project’s official website says:

‘The march will confirm that the policies and practices of the racist Zionist state of Israel against Jerusalem and its people are a crime not only against Palestinians but against all humanity.’

The CiF Watch reported that the ‘results are therefore likely to be grave…The leaders of the ‘Global March to Jerusalem’ are very much aware of [its] links to proscribed terrorist groups, and yet its endorsers include a rather predictable list of organizations and US and other nationals, including a UN employee and a former British MP.’

Israel, like any other sovereign country, cannot permit any type of attack on its borders, threatening its right to self-defense and autonomy as an independent state.” Read more.

Hamas Leader Announces Global March to Jerusalem (Video):

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“Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz announced on Thursday that Turkey will purchase 100 Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets from the US. Responding to a parliamentary question from Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) member İsmet Büyükataman on whether Turkey will stick to its plan to buy F-35s, Yılmaz said, ‘We are not currently considering abandoning the purchase of the planes,’ in a written statement.

He said Turkey will buy 100 F-35 jets from the US at a cost of $16 billion. Two of the planes have been initially ordered for delivery in 2015. Turkey announced in March 2011 that the planned purchase of fighter jets from the US was put on hold because the Pentagon refused to share the source code used in the software designed for the aircraft, as well as the codes that might be used to externally activate the planes.

The purchase comes as part of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program, an international program consisting of partnerships between a number of countries. Turkey is expected to purchase 100 F-35 jets as part of the project, worth $16 billion.” Read more.

Flashback: Turkey set to sign military pact with Egypt after cutting frayed ties with Israel – “A military and economic alliance with Egypt is set to be signed by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The deal should be clinched when Erdogan visits Cairo next Monday – the first such visit paid by a Turkish prime minister in 15 years. The alliance is not intended as ‘revenge’ against Israel; Erdogan’s intention is to extend Turkey’s influence to areas it has not reached in past decades.” Read more.

Flashback: US: Defense Department Authorizes Sale of 125 M1A1 Tanks and Other Weapons and Equipment to Egypt – “While everyone in Washington was concentrating on the debt crisis this week, the Obama administration attempted to slip through a questionable arms deal that requires serious scrutiny. Though it got little attention, the Defense Department officially notified Congress on Friday that it was authorizing the sale of 125 M1A1 tanks to Egypt as well as other weapons, equipment, parts, training and logistical support. While most of the military sales to Egypt have sailed through without objection in the more than 30 years since it signed a peace deal with Israel, this is the first such sale since the fall of the Mubarak regime earlier this year.” Read more.

Flashback: Turkey Installing New Military Tech That Will Allow Warplanes and Ships to Target Israel as the Enemy – “In yet another sign of the deterioration in Israel-Turkish ties, Turkey’s Star Gazete reported Tuesday that the military is installing new technology that will allow warplanes and ships to target Israeli vessels. Previously, Turkish planes, ships and submarines used American technology, which automatically classified Israeli equipment as ‘friendly.’ The new system, developed in Turkey, will allow the Turkish military to decide which targets to label as friendly. The switch was pioneered by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s regime.” Read more.

Flashback: Turkey: Israel No Longer A ‘Friend’, ‘It’s Time For Israel To Pay The Price’, Israeli Ambassador and Diplomats Expelled – “Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu announced on Friday that following Jerusalem’s adamant refusal to apologize over the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid, Ankara will be downgrading its diplomatic relations with Israel and suspending key military agreements. In a dramatic turn of events, Turkey announced that it was expelling Israeli Ambassador Gabby Levy from Ankara. Davutoglu said Turkey’s diplomatic representation in Israel would be further reduced to second-secretary level. In accordance, all lower Israeli diplomatic personnel above the second-secretary level have also been expelled.” Read more.

By Gil Ronen – “The wife of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, an Iranian nuclear scientist who was assassinated in Tehran in January, said Tuesday that her husband ‘sought the annihilation of the Zionist regime wholeheartedly,’ according to Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency.

“Mostafa’s ultimate goal was the annihilation of Israel,” the agency quoted Fatemeh Bolouri Kashani as saying Tuesday.

Bolouri Kashani also underlined that her spouse ‘loved any resistance figure in his life who was willing to fight the Zionist regime and supported the rights of the oppressed Palestinian nation.’

The report belies attempts by Iran to claim that its nuclear program is not military in nature.

Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan is described as ‘a chemistry professor and a deputy director of commerce at Natanz uranium enrichment facility.’

Fars says he was killed by Mossad agents, who used a method of attack similar to that used against Iranian nuclear scientist Massoud Ali Mohammadi in January 2010, as well as scientists Fereidoun Abbassi Davani and Majid Shahriari. Abbasi Davani survived the attack, but Shahriari died. Yet another Iranian scientist, Dariush Rezaeinejad, was assassinated by the same method in July of 2011.” Source – Arutz Sheva.

Formerly secret telexes offer window into Iran’s nuclear deceit – “The reason for the unusual purchase — 220 pounds of highly caustic fluorine gas — was never explained, but someone at Iran’s Sharif University was clearly anxious to collect. For months, the mysterious buyer bombarded a British supply company with telexes, demanding to know when his 45 canisters would arrive. ‘We have not received your reply,’ complained one telex, sent from the Tehran school’s purchasing department and written partly in broken English. ‘We are awaiting for hearing from you as soon as possible.’ But the telex, sent in 1992 and made public here for the first time, was not what it seemed. The real purchaser was not a university but a secretive research institute working for Iran’s military. The fluorine gas, investigators later concluded, was to be blended with uranium in a nuclear program that would remain hidden for 10 more years.” Read more.