MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Gavriel Queenann – “Newly acquired intelligence reports indicate several Arab countries in the Middle East are lobbying the US to strike Iran this year, Israel’s Channel 10 reported.

According to the report, which is said to be making its rounds in Britain’s political circles, Saudi Arabia wants the Obama administration to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities before the final withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

US president has vowed to close the door on American military involvement in Iraq by year’s end, but Riyadh is reportedly afraid Iran will use the American exit to take over the country.

Since 2008, officials in the Iraqi interim government have complained to Washington that both Iran and Saudi Arabia were, respectively, funding the Shiite and Sunni insurgencies that have plagued the country since the US-led invasion that toppled late dictator Sadam Hussein.

Security experts say Baghdad’s security forces are unprepared to confront the rival insurgencies that hold Iraq in their grip – and that Obama’s dogged drive to fulfill his campaign promise may have disastrous consequences both for the region and US interests.

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies have been locked in a strategic battle with Iran for hegemony over the Persian Gulf – and have accused Tehran of seeking to destabilize the region through its ‘Shiite Diaspora.’

Gulf Arab leaders have sought to exert pressure on Iran and its regional allies – most notably Syrian president Bashar al-Assad – by allying themselves with Western powers opposed to Tehran’s aggressive posture.

They have also joined western powers in targeting Iran’s nuclear program, which they see as targeting them first and foremost – rather than Israel, who Iran has threatened repeatedly with destruction.” Read more.

But wait! Who cares about what would happen if the suicidal death cult leadership of Iran acquired nuclear weapons to strike Israel, the United States and their allies.  It’s all about the economy, stupid …

U.S. Defense Secretary: Iran strike will hurt world economy – “U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned on the eve of talks with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak that a strike on Iran could harm the world economy, saying the U.S. focus was on diplomatic pressure and sanctions. ‘There are going to be economic consequences to that (an Iran strike), that could impact not just on our economy but the world economy,’ Panetta told reporters traveling with him on Thursday to Canada, where he will attend a security forum and hold bilateral talks with Barak.” Read more.

“They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our FREEDOM!!” Oh …

By Christopher Stephen – “Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) — Libyan gunmen broke into the Saif al-Nasr mosque in Tripoli early on Nov. 8, smashed open a wooden sarcophagus and removed the remains of Saif al-Nasr, a scholar who died 155 years ago, and a former imam, Hammad Zwai.

‘These bodies have been moved to a Muslim cemetery,’ announced graffiti on the walls, explaining the disapproval by some Islamists of the Sufi Muslim tradition of burying scholars and teachers in mosques to honor them.

Muslims pushing for a strict intepretation of Islamic law are jostling for power in the chaos that has gripped Libya since the ouster of Muammar Qaddafi, the third North African leader after those in Egypt and Tunisia to fall in the Arab Spring.

Last month protesters holding signs proclaiming ‘We Are Here to Purify the Honor of Tripoli’ forced the early closure of the capital’s first fashion show since Qaddafi’s 42-year rule in Tripoli ended in August.

‘I was scared; I wiped off my makeup and went home,’ said Jasmin Abdul Aziz, a 22-year-old student who was one of five models at the event and once paraded a $5,000 dress studded with diamonds in a Qaddafi-era fashion show. ‘Before, we would wear shorts in the streets. Now, look around you, nobody does.'” Read more.

Flashback: Al-Qaeda Plants Its Flag in Libya, ‘Whomever Speaks Ill of This Flag, We Will Cut Off His Tongue’ – “It was here at the courthouse in Benghazi where the first spark of the Libyan revolution ignited. It’s the symbolic seat of the revolution; post-Gaddafi Libya’s equivalent of Egypt’s Tahrir Square. And it was here, in the tumultuous months of civil war, that the ragtag rebel forces established their provisional government and primitive, yet effective, media center from which to tell foreign journalists about their ‘fight for freedom.’ But according to multiple eyewitnesses—myself included—one can now see both the Libyan rebel flag and the flag of al Qaeda fluttering atop Benghazi’s courthouse.” Read more.

Flashback: US Intelligence Report Says Libyan Jihadists Planning to Subvert Post-Gadhafi Gov’t and Create an Islamist State – “Jihadists among the Libyan rebels revealed plans last week on the Internet to subvert the post-Moammar Gadhafi government and create an Islamist state, according to U.S. intelligence agencies. U.S. officials said spy agencies are stepping up surveillance of Islamist-oriented elements among Libyan rebels. A government report circulated Tuesday said extremists were observed ‘strategizing’ on Internet forums about how to set up an Islamist state in Libya after the regime of Col. Gadhafi is defeated.” Read more.

By Jonathan Mitchell – “The Islamist politician likely to become Tunisia’s first democratically elected prime minister has alarmed liberals and secularists by claiming the arrival of the ‘sixth caliphate’, a controversial term for a Muslim empire.

Hamadi Jebeli, secretary-general of Ennahda, the moderate Islamist party which romped to victory in last month’s elections, told a rally in the city of Sousse: ‘My brothers, you are at a historic moment in a new cycle of civilisation, God willing. We are in sixth caliphate, God willing.’

Party officials, who have spent months insisting they wanted to pursue secular democratic politics rather than an international Islamist agenda, were forced on the defensive after his comments were posted on the internet.

But they may have scuppered the party’s hopes of forging a broad-based coalition. The left-of-centre secular Ettakatol, which came third in the vote, suspended talks with Ennahda over forming a government.

‘We thought we were going to build a second republic with our partner – not a sixth caliphate,’ Khemais Ksila, a senior member, said.

Mr Jebeli was imprisoned under the dictatorship of Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali for his Islamist beliefs. But since the country’s revolution in January, the party has argued it wants to work within a democratic political system along western lines.

The stance was enough to see them win 40 per cent of seats in parliament, more even than their supporters expected. But opponents say their moderate public statements hide a more radical agenda …” Read more.

Tunisia’s Islamist party showing signs of radical shift – “Many Tunisians loathed Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali’s dictatorship for its unchecked corruption and allergy to genuine democracy, but his toppled regime once stood out as an Arab state with a progressive approach to gender equality. Souad Abdelrahim, the sole female member of Ennahda not to wear a headscarf, last week sparked concern that the party might seek to curb women’s rights. She said single mothers were ‘inconceivable in an Arab Muslim state’ and added ‘they must marry’ in order to attain full rights… Ben Younes, who runs a Tunisian foreign policy journal, recalled Ennahda’s efforts to reassure moderates after the election, notably targeting potential investors and womens’ rights groups. ‘The more they reassure us, the more they worry us,’ he said.” Read more.

Flashback: Muslim Brotherhood Leader of Tunisia Calls for an End to Israel – “Arab media has reported an interview with Tunisian Muslim Brotherhood leader Rachid Ghannouchi in which he calls for and predicts the end of Israel… Ghannouchi maintains that altogether the Arab revolutions are positive for the Palestinians, and threaten to bring Israel to an end. He says that the Palestinian problem lies at the heart of the Nation [umma], and that all the land between the mosque in Mecca and Jerusalem represents the heart of the Islamic Nation…” Read more.

Well that wasn’t difficult to predict.  Here’s another one: Iran will not give the IAEA full access to any of their nuclear facilities …

By Chana Ya’ar – “The United Nations is hoping Iran will allow a high-level mission to inspect the country’s nuclear sites.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano said Thursday he wrote a letter on November 2 proposing an inspection team visit Tehran.

‘I wrote to Iran’s vice-president and president of the country’s Atomic Energy Organization, Dr. [Kausar] Abbasi… proposing to send a high-level team to Iran,’ Amano revealed Thursday in an address at the start of a two-meeting of the IAEA’s board of governors.

‘I hope a suitable date can be agreed upon soon. It is essential that any such mission should be well planned and that it should address the issues contained in my report,’ he continued.

‘I ask Iran to engage substantively with the agency without delay and provide the requested clarifications regarding possible military dimensions to its nuclear program.

‘I remain willing to engage in dialogue with Iran,’ he added.

In its latest report, the IAEA said last week that it was able to build an overall ‘credible’ impression that Iranian scientists were engaged in carrying out ‘activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device.’

Iran has dismissed the report as ‘baseless.’

The report included detailed evidence such as the transfer underground of low-enriched uranium in large containers, a bus-sized steel container visible by satellite for explosives testing and weapons design work – including how to arm a Shahab-3 missile with a nuclear warhead.

The Shahab-3 has a range long enough to reach the State of Israel, which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has for years threatened to ‘wipe off the map.'” Source – Arutz Sheva.

Pentagon Receives Massive Bunker-Busting Bombs, Denies Targeting Iran – “Pentagon officials are speaking publicly about the military’s new 30,000-pound massive ordnance penetrator, or MOP, known now as the biggest ‘bunker-busting bomb’ in the world. The Air Force has already received an undisclosed number of these bombs from Boeing, all designed to fit exclusively with the B-2 and B-52 bombers. ‘It gives us a far greater capability to reach and destroy an enemy’s weapons of mass destruction that are located in well protected underground facilities… to a magnitude far greater than we have now,’ Pentagon Spokesman Capt. John Kirby said at a briefing Wednesday.” Read more.

By Gavriel Queenann – “Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani dismissed reports that a blast at an Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) base near Tehran on Saturday was related to the Islamic Republic’s nuclear or ballistic missile programs.

‘The enemies,’ Larijani said, using Iranian diplomatic code for Israel, ‘Instead of showing the realities of the incident have concocted stories about it.’

Larijani’s remarks were made at a ceremony to memorialize the 17 Republican Guards killed in Saturday’s blast at the IRGC depot in the village of Bidgoneh, some 40 kilometers to the West of Tehran.

Among those killed in the blast was General Hassan Tehrani Moqaddam, who was described as the chief architect of Iran’s missile program. The IRGC has vowed to continue Moqaddam’s ‘path.’

Despite Moqaddam’s death, Laranjani sought to downplay the importance of reports about the incident, saying, ‘They continue their animosity with or without the occurrence of such incidents.'” Read more.

Iranian General: Explosion at military base ‘temporarily stopped’ weapons research program to be used against Israel – “A blast at a military base in Iran happened while the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) were working on a weapon research program to be used against Israel, Iran’s armed forces chief of staff said Wednesday. Saturday’s explosion at a military base near Tehran killed 17 IRGC members. ‘The incident happened during a research program which could have become a severe punch on Israeli regime’s mouth,’ General Hassan Firouzabadi said. ISNA news agency quoted the general as saying that due to the incident ‘the program was only temporarily stopped but would resume again soon.'” Read more.

“BEIRUT — Army defectors ambushed dozens of Syrian troops and regime forces gunned down civilians during one of the bloodiest days of the 8-month-old uprising, which appeared Tuesday to be spiraling out of President Bashar Assad’s control.

Up to 90 people were killed in a gruesome wave of violence Monday, activists said. The extent of the bloodshed only came to light Tuesday, in part because corpses lying in the streets did not reach the morgue until daylight.

As the bloodshed spiked, Assad’s former allies were turning on him in rapid succession — a sign of profound impatience with a leader who has failed to stem months of unrest that could explode into a regional conflagration.

Turkey, Jordan and the 22-member Arab League all signaled they were fed up with Assad’s response to the uprising and were ready to pressure him to go.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday he no longer has confidence in the government led by Assad, a 46-year-old eye doctor who inherited power from his father 11 years ago.

‘No regime can survive by killing or jailing,’ said Erdogan, who cultivated close ties with Assad before the uprising began in March. ‘No one can build a future over the blood of the oppressed.'” Read more.

Syria: Arab League sets deadline to end ‘repression’ – “The Arab League has given Syria three days to ‘stop the bloody repression’ of protesters and allow in teams of observers. Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim al-Thani said Syria faced sanctions if it did not co-operate. At a meeting of the Arab League in Morocco, he said diplomatic efforts were ‘close to the end of the road’. As the meeting took place, angry crowds in Damascus attacked the embassies of Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. Morocco responded by recalling its ambassador to Syria, AFP news agency reported. Hours earlier – in another sign of Syria’s increasing international isolation – France also said it was withdrawing its ambassador.” Read more.