MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Con Coughlin, The Telegraph – “According to Western intelligence officials, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave the order to the elite Quds Force unit following a recent emergency meeting of Iran’s National Security Council in Tehran held to discuss a specially-commissioned report into the implications for Iran of the Assad regime’s overthrow.

Damascus is Iran’s most important regional ally, and the survival of the Assad regime is regarded as vital to sustaining the Iranian-backed Hizbollah militia which controls southern Lebanon.

The report, which was personally commissioned by Mr Khamenei, concluded that Iran’s national interests were being threatened by a combination of the U.N. sanctions imposed over Iran’s nuclear programme and the West’s continuing support for Syrian opposition groups attempting to overthrow the Syrian government.

Intelligence officials say the report concludes that Iran ‘cannot be passive’ to the new threats posed to its national security, and warns that Western support for Syrian opposition groups was placing Iran’s “resistance alliance” in jeopardy, and could seriously disrupt Iran’s access to Hizbollah in Lebanon.

It advised that the Iranian regime should demonstrate to the West that there were ‘red lines’ over what it would accept in Syria, and that a warning should be sent to ‘America, the Zionists, Britain, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and others that they cannot act with impunity in Syria and elsewhere in the region.’

Mr Khamenei responded by issuing a directive to Qassem Suleimani, the Quds Force commander, to intensify attacks against the West and its allies around the world.” Read more.

Flashback: US Federal Judge: Al Qaeda, Taliban, Iran And Hizbullah Should Pay $6 Billion In Damages For Supporting 9/11 Attacks – “A federal magistrate judge has ruled that al Qaeda, the Taliban, Iran and Hizbullah should pay more than $6 billion in damages to the families of victims killed on September 11, 2001, CNN reported… Federal Magistrate Judge Frank Maas made the ruling Monday, after federal Judge George Daniels decided last year that the terrorist groups and the Iranian regime were liable because of their support for the attacks…” Read more.

Flashback: A Significant Number Of Hezbollah Sympathizers And Terror Cells Are At Work In The US – “A preliminary report issued by the U. S. House Committee on Homeland Security estimates that there could be ‘hundreds, maybe even thousands’ of Hezbollah agents operating in the United States and specifically in New York City. The report issued following last month’s hearings says that the exact number of operatives is hard to determine. ‘Pinning down a reliable estimate of the number of Hezbollah operatives who now reside inside the U.S. is difficult because of their operational security expertise,’ the report states.” Read more.

By Stewart Bell, National Post – “In the video he shot inside his hut in the mountains of Dagestan last winter, William Plotnikov narrated as he panned from the black flag of jihad to three bearded rebels and their assault rifles.

Then he turned the camera on himself.

‘I ask Allah that the next season he’ll give us the opportunity to kill as many kafirs [non-believers] as we can, just to shred them to pieces,’ William said. ‘Allah is almighty.’

Watching the clip on the computer in his apartment north of Toronto last week, Vitaly Plotnikov looked both heartbroken and perplexed. It was hard for him to accept that this was his son.

‘It’s just like a different person to me,’ he said.

Russian security forces announced last month that they had killed William, a 23-year-old Canadian, during a gun battle in Dagestan. Since then, the Canadian government has been trying to verify the Russians’ account.

But in an interview with the National Post, Mr. Plotnikov confirmed William’s death and spoke for the first time about his son’s rapid transformation from Toronto teenager and champion boxer to Muslim convert and jihadist fighter.

What seemed to amaze Mr. Plotnikov most was how fast it all happened. His son only became interested in Islam in 2009, he said. Within a year, he had left Canada and by July he was dead. He had gone from convert to martyr in less than three years…

‘How can the mind of a person be changed in such a short period of time?’ …” Read more.

By Ron Friedman and AP, The Times of Israel – “Amid increasing talk of a possible Israeli strike on its nuclear facilities, Iran has begun construction of a new, state-of-the-art, anti-aircraft missile base.

The new base, located near the city of Abadeh, in southern Iran, will cost $300 million, be home to 6,000 personnel, and host seven battalions, Iran’s Fars news agency reported Tuesday.

The Deputy Commander of the Khatam ol-Anbia Air Defense Base, Mohammad Hosseini, said the base, the largest of its kind in Iran, will also include one of the most important military training centers in the country.

Last month, a senior Iranian air defense commander asserted that all Iranian air defense units and systems are fully prepared to repel possible enemy air raids.

Also on Tuesday, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled an upgraded version of a short-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile just weeks after it was test-fired, Iranian state media reported.

At the ceremony unveiling the Fateh-110, or Conqueror, Ahmadinejad told a group of defense officials that Iran wants to advance its defense technology ‘not in an aggressive context, but as a deterrence.’…

The official IRNA news agency reported Tuesday that the new version of Fateh-110 has a quicker launch capability, a longer life and can be used in adverse weather conditions, but gave no other details. The missile has been in service in Iran over the past decade.” Read more.

Top Iran Official: If Israel Attacks, It Will Bring About Its Own ‘Annihilation’ – “An Israeli attack on Iran will lead to Israel’s ‘annihilation,’ a senior Iranian official told the country’s state-run TV station Press TV on Monday, ahead of the Non-Aligned Movement summit due to take place in Tehran later this month. The comment, by former head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Mohsen Rezaei, came after, last week, the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s air force said that a possible Israeli airstrike against his country’s nuclear facilities is ‘welcome’ because it would give Iran a reason to retaliate and ‘get rid of’ the Jewish state ‘forever.'” Read more.

By F. Michael Maloof – “WASHINGTON – Analysts say because Israel now believes diplomacy has failed to halt Iran’s nuclear program and the Jewish state’s very survival is at stake, Israelis have not ruled out a Jericho III missile launch to detonate a single electromagnetic pulse warhead at high altitude over central Iran…

Given that Iranian sites may be hardened against a conventional military attack, several Israeli and foreign sources believe that Israel has a nuclear device to create an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, that would produce little radiation on the ground but could knock out all of Iran’s electronics.

Israel also is assessed to be able to launch nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles from its German-supplied Dolphin electric submarines that could carry a one-kiloton or more device and explode over Iran, effectively neutralizing all of Iran’s electronics.

This would include Iran’s command and control capabilities and its ability to launch ballistic missiles in retaliation to a pre-emptive Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear sites, which Western intelligence has assessed is a cover to make nuclear weapons.

Sources say that an Israeli EMP attack also would effectively halt Iran’s ability to launch its forces to block the Strait of Hormuz, which the Islamic republic has threatened to do if it is attacked, along with targeting a number of U.S. military facilities in the region, as well as Israel.

An electromagnetic pulse occurs following a nuclear weapon exploded at a high altitude, creating a very strong electrical field that can overwhelm all electronics, knocking out or seriously damaging any electronic devices connected to power sources or antennas, including communications equipment, computers, electrical appliances, automobile and aircraft ignitions systems. Experts say it also can adversely affect a person’s implanted heart pacemaker device…

Another scenario discussed among some Israeli leaders is the detonation of an EMP over the entire Middle East, including Israel, whose military infrastructure has been hardened against such attacks. This would allow Israel to fly its jets directly to Iran without concerns about detection. Though it would also turn out the lights in Israel, sources there say the Jewish state could bring power back for civilians in a matter of days. A detonation at an altitude of up to 250 miles not only would affect all electronics in Iran but could damage electrical systems from the Middle East and much of Europe, these experts add. Such an EMP event also would dramatically affect all U.S. military facilities in the region.

An EMP attack on the United States, for example, from a 30-kiloton nuclear weapon exploded at an altitude of 62 miles, or 100 kilometers, effectively would knock out 70 percent of electrical systems up to a thousand miles in every direction. A similar explosion at a higher altitude of some 250 miles would virtually affect all electronics from Boston to Los Angeles and from Chicago to New Orleans, according to experts.

Consequently, a detonation limited to Iran would have to be at a much lower altitude to avoid such far-ranging effects on the electronics in the region and beyond.” Read more.

The Times of Israel – “Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‘is determined to attack Iran before the US elections,’ Israel’s Channel 10 News claimed on Monday night, and Israel is now ‘closer than ever’ to a strike designed to thwart Iran’s nuclear drive.

The TV station’s military reporter Alon Ben-David, who earlier this year was given extensive access to the Israel Air Force as it trained for a possible attack, reported that, since upgraded sanctions against Iran have failed to force a suspension of the Iranian nuclear program in the past two months, ‘from the prime minister’s point of view, the time for action is getting ever closer.’

Asked by the news anchor in the Hebrew-language TV report how close Israel now was to ‘a decision and perhaps an attack,’ Ben-David said: ‘It appears that we are closer than ever.’

He said it seemed that Netanyahu was not waiting for a much-discussed possible meeting with US President Barack Obama, after the UN General Assembly gathering in New York late next month — indeed, ‘it’s not clear that there’ll be a meeting.’ In any case, said Ben-David, ‘I doubt Obama could say anything that would convince Netanyahu to delay a possible attack.’

The report added that Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak believe Obama would have no choice but to give backing for an Israeli attack before the US presidential elections in November.” Read more.

Israeli defense officials consult with Rabbi Ovadia Yosef over Iran strike – “Senior defense officials have recently been visiting the ultra-Orthodox Shas party’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, to discuss a possible Israeli attack on Iran. Some want the 91-year-old rabbi to support it, others to oppose it. At least one visit, in which the rabbi was briefed on Iran’s nuclear program, came at the behest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu … Yosef said in his weekly sermon: ‘You know what situation we’re in, there are evil people, Iran, about to destroy us. … We must pray before [the almighty] with all our heart.'” Read more.

Flashback: Will 2012 See The Beginning of Gog-Magog? – “In Israel, we find ourselves in foreboding circumstances today, in Spring 2011. The State of Israel seems to have lost a major measure of its support in the non-Jewish world and is being stampeded into abandoning large parts of the Land of Israel to the tender mercies of sworn enemies who have no peaceful intentions at all – the Palestinians. These are Arabs who constitute a ‘national entity’ invented recently of whole cloth and which never existed in world history. Their wish is to destroy the State of Israel and kill as many Jews as possible in the process… The Palestinian enemy fully expects this scenario to materialize and so, steadfastly refuses to negotiate… Let us consult Jewish sources to see if there are hints as to upcoming events.” Read more.