MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

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.

Zechariah 12:2-3, “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces …”

ABNA – “… Hezbollah Secretary General, Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, says that [Hezbollah] can turn lives of millions of Zionists into real hell.

Commemorating the International al-Quds [Jerusalem] day, Hezbollah held a ceremony in Beirut’s southern suburb … stressing that the resistance would defend the country against any Israeli attack, and would not wait for any permission to do so.

His eminence noted that the price of this attack would be very expensive to the extent that ‘we can talk about tens of thousands of killed.’ …

Sayyed Nasrallah stressed on the importance of making al-Quds the central cause…

His eminence said that the Israeli enemy has been working on judaizing al-Quds…

‘Zionists agree upon al-Quds and they are working on judaization of it, while the Arabs are not agreeing upon this cause,’ his eminence noted.

He said that the occupation has been building settlements and trying to force the Palestinians out of their land…

On the Israeli threats against Lebanon, the resistance leader was clear: the resistance can reach any target in the occupied territories and is able to change the phase of Israel.

‘We can turn the lives of millions of Zionists to a real hell and we can change the phase of Israel,’ Sayyed Nasrallah said.

‘I say to enemy: the war against Lebanon is very, very, very… expensive!'” Read more.

Flashback: Nasrallah: Hezbollah Already 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.

RT – “Eight people were killed and fifteen wounded by a suicide bombing in the Russian Republic of Ingushetia, according to reports by the country’s main law enforcement agency.

Both police and civilians were injured in the blast, according to the latest casualty figures.

The bombing targeted mourners at a funeral for a police officer killed in a shootout on Saturday.

The force of the explosive device was reportedly equivalent to ten kilograms of TNT, and was packed with shrapnel to increase the likelihood of casualties. Earlier reports suggested the force of the bomb was equivalent to three kilograms.

‘According to preliminary results, it was a suicide bomber who blew himself up at the mourning ceremony,’ RIA Novosti quoted the secretary of the Region’s Security Council as saying.

‘A head of a man whom nobody was able to identify was found several meters from the site of the bombing,’ Interfax news agency reported, quoting a source in the Republic’s police agency. ‘It may suggest the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber.'” Read more.

Flashback: Russia: Prominent Muslim Lawyer Promises To ‘Cover Russia In Blood’ and Turn Moscow Into ‘A Second Dead Sea’ If Sharia Law Is Not Implemented – “Police in the Russian capital said on Wednesday they will examine a video in which a prominent Muslim lawyer pledges to ‘cover Russia in blood’ if the authorities refuse to establish courts to implement Islamic law. ‘May be you are foreigners here, and this is our home. We will set our rules, whether you want this or not … Any attempts to stop this will result in blood. We will turn the city (Moscow) into a second dead sea,’ he was quoted as saying.” Read more.

Flashback: Russia: ‘Religion Of Peace’ Fighters Kill Imam For Preferring Peace – “A self-described guerrilla fighter urging strict adherence to Islamic law has claimed responsibility for the killing last month of one Muslim leader and the attempted murder of another, in Tatarstan, a region in central Russia that prides itself on a tradition of religious tolerance… He also warned of further violence against Muslim leaders who do not adhere to Shariah, the strict legal code of Islam based on the Koran.” Read more.

Flashback: Russian Radio Host Slash-Attacked For Criticizing Islam Over The Air, ‘You Are Allah’s Enemy!’ – “A radio host has been hospitalized after being cut 15 times by an unidentified criminal. Two weeks ago the journalist ventured to criticize the founder of Islam, the Prophet Mohammed, on air. Sergey Aslanyan, 46, was brought to Moscow’s hospital with numerous non-penetrating knife wounds to the chest, neck and arm… Aslanyan claimed that the attacker was shouting ‘you are Allah’s enemy!’ while slashing at the victim.” Read more.

Because the extreme Islamist organization called the Muslim Brotherhood isn’t extreme enough, yet …

By Elad Benari, INN – “Army of Islam, the Salafi terrorist organization suspected of being behind the terror attack in the Sinai last week, threatened on Wednesday that it would carry out mass suicide bombings in the heart of Cairo, in response to the Egyptian military’s operation against Islamic organizations in the Sinai.

‘No one will condemn the people of Sinai if they react with a car bomb in the heart of Cairo,’ the group, which advocates for running Gaza according to Islamic law, said in a statement posted on a Facebook page affiliated with it.

‘The Muslim Brotherhood has begun persecutions, led by the agent (Egyptian President Mohammed) Morsi,’ said the statement. ‘Things are moving rapidly. Washington tells Morsi it will help him defend Sinai … The United States is entering Sinai on the back of the Muslim Brotherhood.’

The organization attacked the Muslim Brotherhood rule in Egypt, accusing it of heresy and non-implementation of Sharia (Islamic law).

It also accused the Brotherhood for persecuting of the Mujahideen, as evidenced this week when a death sentence was imposed on 14 terrorists who carried out a string of terror attacks in the Sinai Peninsula.

The Army of Islam also called on the Egyptian public to provide moral and material assistance to its members who are persecuted by the authorities.” Read more.