MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu – “Iran is trying to cover its tracks at a nuclear testing site by removing traces of nuclear research, sources told the Associated Press.

The source from an unnamed country said intelligence officials noticed through satellite pictures that there had been an unusual amount of activity at the site, with the movement of a large number of vehicles.

‘Freight trucks, special haulage vehicles and cranes were seen entering and leaving… Some equipment and dangerous materials were removed from the site,’ the source told AP.

The activity was confirmed by sources in two other countries, whose officials did not reach the same conclusion that Tehran is trying to hide nuclear weapons research. All three countries noting the unusual activity are members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which declined to comment on the latest allegations.” Read more.

UN Report Revealed Iran’s Nuclear Materials Moving Underground – “Iran has begun to move its nuclear materials underground, further away from possible attack by Western powers, a new report by the United Nations has warned. The UN International Atomic Energy Agency said in its report earlier this week that Iran began moving materials to an underground facility for the ‘pursuit of sensitive atomic activities.’ Last month Iranian nuclear scientists moved low-enriched uranium (LEU) in a ‘large cylinder’ to the Fordow subterranean site. The information was included in the report, the IAEA’s most detailed document yet. The development further added to suspicions by Western intelligence agencies that Tehran is engaged in creating nuclear weapons of mass destruction…” Read more.

Iran, West in final stage of confrontation as a major Islamic union is being formed in the Middle East – “Senior Iranian lawmaker Parviz Sarvari says Iran has reached the final stage of its confrontation with the West and the US has suffered a major defeat from the Islamic Republic. The lawmaker, who is also member of Majlis National Security And Foreign Policy Committee, said US allies in the region have turned against it as a major Islamic union is being formed in the Middle East, Mehr News Agency reported on Saturday. ‘It is normal for the Americans to try to turn the unity of the Muslim Ummah into division in order to eliminate the existing capacities. This is why we believe the Islamic Awakening should expand every day and that Iran’s role as a source of inspiration for the Islamic Awakening is very important,’ he added.” Read more.

“(CNN) — At least 24 people were killed in cities across Syria during a government crackdown Saturday against those in opposition to President Bashar al-Assad, according to a U.K.-based human rights group.

Gunfire and explosions could be heard in the western Syrian city of Homs, as residents contended with fuel shortages and power outages throughout the day, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

CNN cannot independently confirm accounts from the ground in Syria because the government has not provided access to Western media.

Also Saturday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that al-Assad had passed the ‘point of no return — no way that he will resume his authority or legitimacy over his people.’

‘I think that the world response … these are real signals that there is acceleration toward the end of this regime,’ he said, citing the responses of the Arab League and Jordan.” Read more.

Assad: Syria will not bow down to pressure to end crackdown – “Syrian President Bashar Assad was quoted on Saturday as saying he would press on with a crackdown against anti-government unrest in his country despite increased pressure from the Arab League to end it. ‘The conflict will continue and the pressure to subjugate Syria will continue,’ he told Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper. ‘However, I assure you that Syria will not bow down and that it will continue to resist the pressure being imposed on it.'” Read more.

Hague To Meet Syrian Rebel Leaders In London – “Foreign Secretary William Hague is expected to meet with Syrian rebel leaders as Britain continues to pressure the regime of President Bashar Assad. Talks will take place in London on Monday with representatives of the Syrian National Council and the National Co-ordination Committee for Democratic Change after months of behind-the-scenes diplomatic contact… A spokeswoman said: ”We have been having regular contacts with a variety of figures in the Syrian opposition for several months. We are now intensifying these.'” Read more.

Report: Russia warships to enter Syria waters in bid to stem foreign intervention – “Russian warships are due to arrive at Syrian territorial waters, a Syrian news agency said on Thursday, indicating that the move represented a clear message to the West that Moscow would resist any foreign intervention in the country’s civil unrest. Also on Friday, a Syrian official said Damascus has agreed “in principle” to allow an Arab League observer mission into the country. But the official said Friday that Syria was still studying the details.” Read more.

By Gil Ronen – “British police arrested four Muslim men in Birmingham Tuesday for allegedly planning terror operations. They have since been charged with engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts contrary to section 5(1) of the Terrorism Act 2006, a police spokesman said.

The four were remanded in custody by a judge at Westminster Magistrates Court.

The defendants are Khobaib Hussain, Ishaaq Hussain and Shahid Kasam Khan, all aged 19, and Naweed Mahmood Ali, 24. They are accused of fundraising for terrorist purposes and of undergoing terrorist training in Pakistan.

They were arrested at their homes in the Sparkhill area of Birmingham by officers from the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit on Tuesday. According to Sky News, West Midlands Police said the arrests were pre-planned and were made by unarmed officers as part of a major ongoing investigation.

‘These charges are in connection with Operation Pitsford, a major counter terrorism investigation that has already seen eight people charged and appear in court,’ the police spokesman said.” Source – Arutz Sheva.

Europe: A hotbed of Islamic terrorism – “In the days after 9/11, shocked American intelligence authorities quickly surmised that Islamic terrorist networks in Europe — particularly Britain — need to be tackled head on. The fingerprints of Europe were all over the attacks on the Twin Towers: Zacarias Moussaoui, the only terrorist to be convicted for 9/11, was a Frenchman radicalised in a British university. Ten years on, Europe — home to 15 million Muslims — remains a continent on the edge. If Britain is widely considered to be the epicenter of European Islamic terrorism, it is because of its large Pakistani-origin population — more than a million and growing, including 431,000 born in Pakistan… ‘Islamist terrorist groups are changing in composition and leadership. Terrorist groups are becoming multi-national, command and control from outside the EU is decreasing and more lone actors with EU citizenship are involved in terrorist activities,’ said Europol in its 2011 ‘Terrorism Situation and Trend’ report. In 2010, there was a 50% rise in arrests in Europe for offences linked to Islamist terrorism, and there was a massive increase in the proportion of those arrested for planning attacks in the EU.” Read more.

By Gil Ronen – “Jews familiar with an ancient compilation of Aggadic exegesis called Yalkut Shimoni noticed in recent weeks that current tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia matches a prophecy it contains regarding the year in which the Messiah – the King who redeems Israel and the world – is to appear.

In particular, the recently revealed Iranian plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S. and subsequent reports that the Arab nations are pressuring the West to attack Iran, appear to fit the sequence of events predicted in the Yalkut Shimoni.

In to the part of the book dealing with the Book of Isaiah, the following passage appears:

“Rabbi Yitzchak said: ‘In the year in which the Messiah-King appears, all the nations of the world are provoking each other. The King of Persia provokes an Arab king and the Arab king turns to Aram for advice. And the King of Persia goes back and destroys the entire world. And all the nations of the world are in panic and distress and they fall upon their faces and are seized with pains like those of a woman giving birth, and Israel are in panic and distress and asking ‘where shall we go? Where shall we go?,’ and He says to them ‘my sons, do not fear; all that I have done, I have done only for you. Why are you afraid? Do not fear, your time of redemption has come, and the final redemption is not like the first redemption, because the first redemption was followed by sorrow and servitude under other kingdoms, but the final redemption is not followed by sorrow and servitude under other kingdoms.”

Persia is currently known as Iran, and an Arab king – or the Arab king – can be reasonably understood, in modern eyes, as referring to the king of [Saudi] Arabia, the Arab homeland.

This passage is relatively well-known and oft-quoted, and some modern versions of it substitute ‘Edom’ for ‘Aram.’ Ancient Jewish references to ‘Edom’ are nowadays generally seen as referring to Europe or the West. ‘Aram’ refers to a part of ancient Mesopotamia, roughly congruent to the northern part of modern Iraq and eastern Syria. The instability in precisely this area is reportedly what most concerns the Saudis, as a U.S. pullout from Iraq looms and Syria’s pro-Iranian regime teeters.” Read more.

Ehud Barak: Iran Will be ‘Unstoppable’ in One Year – “In another of several interviews he has given this past week on the Iranian issue, Defense Minister Ehud Barak is hinting that in time is running out to stop Iran from achieving nuclear capability. In an interview to CNN’s ‘Fareed Zakaria GPS’, which will air on Sunday and of which an advanced transcript was released on Saturday, Barak says that Iran is less than a year away from becoming unstoppable in its goal to produce a nuclear weapon. When asked by the host whether Israel is going to attack Iran, Barak says, ‘I don’t think that that is a subject for public discussion. But I can tell you that the IAEA report has a sobering impact on many in the world…and people understand that the time has come…'” Read more.

Flashback: Israel National News: 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. Prime Minister Netanyahu is being pushed into formulating a plan of further concessions, beyond those already granted… The Palestinian enemy fully expects this scenario to materialize and so, steadfastly refuses to negotiate. Since the ‘World’, lead by US President Barack Hussein Obama whose father was a practicing Moslem, does not punish them in any way for not negotiating, they feel vindicated in this assessment.” Read more.

By KIM SENGUPTA and CATRINA STEWART – “Britain has formally opened talks with the Syrian opposition movement as international pressure continues to mount against the beleaguered regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Frances Guy, a former ambassador to Lebanon, met members of the exiled opposition in Paris yesterday. The Foreign Secretary, William Hague, is to meet members of the Syrian opposition in London next week when they will also hold talks with senior officials in Downing Street.

Although the UK, along with other Western states like France – which appealed to the United Nations yesterday to impose tougher sanctions – has been in informal contact with the opposition for the last three months, the progression of the working relationship opens up the prospect of the rebels eventually being recognised as the country’s representatives and supplanting the Assad regime.

The West’s Libyan mission started in a similar fashion with the country’s revolutionaries, but senior diplomatic sources warned against drawing parallels. ‘This is not about recognition of them as the government – that is not the case,’ said a senior diplomatic source. ‘The difference with the Libyan situation was that the Libyan National Transitional Council controlled swathes of the country. We are asking the Syrian opposition to present a coherent set of policies and organise themselves.’ The Syrian National Council and the National Co-ordination Committee for Democratic Change are among the groups whose leaders have been involved in the talks.” Read more.

Syrian army defectors attack intelligence base near Damascus – “Syrian army defectors have attacked a string of military bases near Damascus, including an intelligence complex on the outskirts of the capital, in the first such reported assault on a major security facility in the eight-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. Members of the Free Syrian Army fired shoulder-mounted rockets and machine guns at the compound run by Air Force Intelligence in Harasta, a suburb of the capital. A gunfight ensued and helicopters circled the area. The attack appeared to mark an escalation in armed confrontations between government and opposition forces instead of clashes involving street protesters.” Read more.

The “moderate and non-violent” Muslim Brotherhood — the group from which Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri began as activists — are now threatening violence. Who woulda thunk it? …

“Cairo (AsiaNews) – Thousands of supporters of Islamist parties rallied today in Tahrir Square to protest against excessive power wielded by the military. Led by the Muslim Brotherhood, the demonstration saw pro-democracy parties stay away. Although they too are against the military, they also oppose Islamist parties’ strong-arm tactics. The latter object to plans that would make the military the guardian of ‘constitutional legitimacy’, and thus give them a final say on the 28 November elections. Unless the proposed constitutional change is not shelved, Islamists say they would escalate their campaign.

‘The Muslim Brotherhood are provocateurs,’ said Fr Rafic Greiche, spokesman of the Egyptian catholic Church. ‘They are using these demonstrations to flex their muscle vis-à-vis the military and the nation. However, they are also showing their truer, most intransigent face, which they have cloaked so far under a veneer of moderate Islamic political activism. This could play in favour of pro-democracy parties who have Egypt’s interests at heart, and are not just vying for power.’

Public opinion polls indicate that the Muslim Brotherhood is leading among voters, especially in country’s poorest region, with about 30 per cent. Their camp includes some of the most intransigent and radical Islamic groups like Salafis who are the main instigators of anti-Christian violence.

For example, dozens of Salafis, hurling rocks and Molotov cocktails, yesterday disrupted the memorial service for the victims of the massacre of Christians of 9 October, traditionally held 40 days after death.

For four hours, the procession of 500 people was blocked on a road that leads from a Coptic neighbourhood to the square where Egyptian state TV is located. Eventually, mourners were able to leave but could not make it to site of the memorial service. The attack left 32 people injured, Copts but also police agents brought in to stop the violence.

‘Unfortunately, it is too early to know what will happen over the next few months or if, as some analysts predict, the Muslim Brotherhood will win the elections,’ Fr Greiche said.

Egypt, the clergyman added, is very different from Tunisia, Algeria or Libya where Muslim represent more than 90 per cent of the population, and Christians are few and usually foreign-born.

‘In our country, the Christian community is ancient and represents more than 10 per cent of the population, which is more than 8,000,000 people. Despite their divisions, Liberal parties are winning people over, especially the better educated,’ the clergyman explained.

Nevertheless, ‘The situation remains very critical. We must be ready for any scenario and support those who are willing to take a stand for their country.’ (S.C.)” Source – AsiaNews.

US Would Be ‘Satisfied’ With a Muslim Brotherhood Win in Egypt – “The United States would be ‘satisfied’ should free elections in Egypt produce a victory for the Muslim Brotherhood, AFP reported Friday according to the US’s special coordinator for transitions in the Middle East, William Taylor. Taylor said the US would judge elected parties in the Middle East based ‘on what they do, and not what they’re called,’ AFP quoted him as saying. He added that he did not meet with Brotherhood officials in his latest visit to Cairo, but would have had he been given the chance.” Read more.

“Current and former US intelligence officials estimate that any Israeli attack on nuclear sites in Iran would go far beyond airstrikes from F-15 and F-16 fighter jets and likely include electronic warfare against the Islamic Republic’s electric grid, Internet, cell phone network, and emergency frequencies for firemen and police officers.

The officials, who based their assessment on a US intelligence report published last summer, told the Daily Beast news website that Israel has been assembling a multibillion-dollar array of high-tech weapons that would allow it to jam, blind, and deafen Tehran’s defenses in the case of a pre-emptive aerial strike.

According to the officials, one of the weapons Israel has developed is capable of mimicking a maintenance cell phone signal that commands a cell network to ‘sleep,’ effectively stopping transmissions. The Israelis also have jammers capable of creating interference within Iran’s emergency frequencies for first responders, they told the Daily Beast.

The sources also said that in case of an attack on Iran, Israel would likely exploit a vulnerability that American officials detected two years ago in Iran’s big-city electric grids, which are not ‘air-gapped’—meaning they are connected to the Internet and therefore vulnerable to a Stuxnet-style cyberattack.

One source told the Daily Beast that Israel has the capability to bring a denial-of-service attack to nodes of Iran’s command and control system that rely on the Internet.

According to the report, the likely delivery method for the electronic elements of this attack would be a drone the size of a jumbo jet.

The Daily Beast said Israel had already employed some of the technology at its disposal during its alleged aerial attack on a Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007.” Read more.

Israel watches as world rejects Iran sanctions – “Israel watched the developments at the IAEA in Vienna on Thursday very closely, yet was unable to convince the world to implement crippling sanctions on Iran that would convince it to jettison its military nuclear program. Defense Minister Ehud Barak, in an interview in the morning from Canada with Israel Radio, said Jerusalem was engaged in an ‘intensive world struggle to enlist world leaders’ to support sanctions. ‘Our goal is to ensure that as a result of the recent IAEA report there are practical actions and steps taken to stop Iran.’ That report, issued last week, said Iran was working to develop a nuclear-weapon design and was conducting extensive research and tests for those weapons. On Thursday, a resolution was agreed upon in Vienna by the five permanent members of the Security Council, plus Germany, to slam Iran for its defiance, but stopped short of sending the matter back to the UN Security Council for another round of sanctions.” Read more.