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Iranian Navy Commander: We Have The Right To Deploy Naval Vessels Near US Coastal Waters

11/09/2011 Leave a comment

“The commander of the Iranian Navy says Iran has the right to deploy naval vessels near US coastal waters according to international law.

On Tuesday, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said that international law permits all countries to send their naval ships to the open seas, and naval forces of the Islamic Republic are also allowed to sail in these waters, the Mehr news agency reported.

He went on to say that the Iranian Navy has the right to sail in waters near the coast of the United States because the coastal waters beyond the territorial waters of the country are regarded as the open sea.

He also spoke about the Jamaran destroyer, saying that it is currently on a patrol mission in the Bab-el-Mandeb strait between the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.

Last year, the Iranian Navy launched the Jamaran destroyer, with a displacement of around 1,420 tons and fitted with modern radar and other electronic warfare equipment.

The Jamaran can carry 120-140 personnel on board and is armed with a variety of surface-to-air missiles.

Earlier in the day, on its first international mission, the Jamaran foiled a pirate attack on an Iranian oil tanker in the southern part of the Red Sea off the coast of Hanish Al Kubra Island.” Source – PressTV.

Iran prepping for missile attack on Israel – “Iran has been preparing Palestinian terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon to retaliate in the case of Israeli strikes against Tehran’s nuclear sites, according to Egyptian security officials speaking to WND. The security officials said Tehran was convinced the Jewish state was going to attack its suspected nuclear sites in September, prompting Iran to hold joint military drills with Gazan jihad groups in August, including with Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Similar drills were held in August with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. Those drills were conducted by Iranian Revolutionary Guard members, the officials said. The exercises focused largely on coordinated missile onslaughts from both Gaza and Lebanon aimed at blanketing the Jewish [state].” Read more.

Ayatollah Khamenei Calls for an International Islamic Power-Bloc — The First Step in the Fulfillment of Ezekiel 38-39?

11/08/2011 2 comments

By Jack Smith

I direct you to a very interesting article that came through one of the blogs that I subscribe to. The article reports on a sermon given by Iran’s supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, to 2.5 million people on pilgrimage in Mecca (see also, http://www.kashmirtimes.com/news.aspx?ndid=20635). On this past Sunday, the Ayatollah called for the formation of an “international Islamic power-bloc” of all Muslims uniting against the non-Muslim world (specifically, “the West, the United States, and Zionism, which are weaker than ever before”). According to the Ayatollah, such a power-bloc “can change the destiny of the Islamic Ummah (nation),” and herald “a bright future accompanied with dignity and progress.”

It really doesn’t matter whether we label the Ayatollah’s call a “Revived Caliphate” or an “international Islamic power-bloc,” the point is that a Shia leader is calling for the uniting of all Muslims against the Infidels. This particular Shia leader is also the Ayatollah of Iran, the supreme spiritual leader, who “trumps” all other leaders in Iran, including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president. Iran is the one country in the world where we continually read of its nuclear aspirations as well as its intentions to destroy Israel. To Sunnis, the majority sect of Islam, to unite under the banner of Islam at the call of a Shia leader is highly improbable. Shias are considered “unbelievers” by most Sunni Muslims. The Iranian Ayatollah’s call to the Arab world (and all Muslims) is uniquely timed to take advantage of the confusion, chaos, and vacuum of leadership commonly referred to as the “Arab Spring.” The Ayatollah describes this time as critical, and one in which Muslims must “make the most of this opportunity. . . .” He states that Islamic countries that are now able to hold free elections (previously led by dictators) will inevitably follow the lead of Tunisia, and elect Islamist leaders, and new constitutions based on Sharia law.

The tenuous political climate now present in the Middle East beckons Muslims to follow the call of the strongest voice. This is the underlying reason for the Ayatollah’s call for the Islamic power-bloc at this specific time in human history while 2.5 million Muslims listened while on religious pilgrimage. The West is perceived to be at its weakest point, and so the prospects of success seem greater than any time in the last four centuries. Read more…

Iran: If Our Nuclear Progam is Attacked We Will Fight on the Streets of Tel Aviv and All Throughout Europe and the United States

11/08/2011 Leave a comment

I see.  So, if Iran is not permitted to obtain nuclear weapons to threaten Israel and the world, then Iran will launch an assault of Islamic terror in Israel and the world …

By Gavriel Queenann – “The head of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission said on Tuesday that Iran would start a ‘street war’ in Tel Aviv if its nuclear program was attacked.

‘Israel is not big enough to launch a military strike on Iran, but if it takes such a foolish decision, the Iranian military will fight with the Zionist soldiers in Tel Aviv streets… and will force them out of the Palestinian soil,’ Seyed Hossein Naqavi said.

Naqavi also warned, should Tehran’s nuclear program be attacked, the battlefield won’t be in Iran, but ‘the entirety of Europe and the US.’

‘Iranian forces will fight with the enemies with maximum might and power all throughout the European and US soil, if Iran comes under attack,’ he reiterated.

Naqavi also responded to reports Britain might strike Iran’s nuclear sites, saying ‘a look at the history reveals that the British regime has been using threat, intimidation, terror and colonialism all throughout the last 500 years.’

‘Now a country with such a long record of crimes and colonialist actions should know very well that the Islamic Republic enjoys a high military capability today,’ he added.

Naqavi’s remarks have become a part of Tehran’s mantra of threatening counter-strikes as international criticism of its nuclear aspirations continues to mount.

A recent indictment of two members of Iran’s foreign covert action Quds force by the United States for allegedly plotting the assassination of the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Washington has served to fuel efforts to isolate the Islamic Republic.” Read more.

Islamic Republic escalates rhetoric ahead of IAEA report – “A top commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard force threatened to kill ‘dozens’ of American military commanders, should the US kill any one of theirs. ‘You also should not forget that American commanders have plenty of presence and travel in the region. If you kill any of us, we will kill dozens of you,’ Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, chief of the Guards’ aerospace division, was quoted by Fars agency on Tuesday as saying. Earlier last week several American neoconservatives, including retired US Army general Jack Keane, urged the Obama administration to use covert action against Iran and target members of the Quds Force, the Guard’s special foreign actions unit.” Read more.

Iran Backs Islamic Jihad’s 8,000-Man ‘Death Lovers’ Army in Gaza

11/08/2011 Leave a comment

Proverbs 8:35-36: For he who finds Me finds life And obtains favor from the LORD. But he who sins against Me injures himself. All those who hate Me love death.

“Hamas’ rival Islamic Jihad has built an 8,000-man army supported by Iran and ‘ready for martyrdom or victory.’

‘Martyrdom is the more desirable,’ it says.

Its estimate of the number of terrorists trained for war against Israelis the first time Islamic Jihad has disclosed how many fighters it has.

‘We are proud and honored to say that the Islamic Republic of Iran gives us support and help,’ Abu Ahmed, the spokesman for Islamic Jihad’s al-Quds Brigades told Reuters in a rare interview.

He denied that its weapons come from Iran and refused to comment on whether its fighters were trained by Iranians. Israeli intelligence officials previously have said that Hamas and other terrorists often travel to Iran, where Revolutionary Guards teach them.

‘What I will say is that we have every right to turn to every source of power for help,’ said Abu Ahmed.

He told the interviewer that there is a demand from young people to join Islamic Jihad but that it ‘can’t accept everyone … It is a question of quality, not quantity.’

Concerning Israel’s successful targeting of Islamic Jihad terrorists last week, Abu Ahmed commented, ‘It is a good feeling to be under drone attack. When we chose the path of resistance, we opted either for martyrdom or victory. Martyrdom is the more desirable.’

Islamic Jihad has become more prominent by virtue of its not being in an official political role in Gaza, which officially is governed by Hamas.” Read more.

Why Iran’s Top Leaders Believe That the End of Days Has Come

11/07/2011 Leave a comment

By Joel C. Rosenberg – “Why would Iran authorize a major terrorist operation on American soil? Skeptics say the much-discussed ‘foiled’ Iranian plot makes no sense. We will know soon enough if the Feds have sufficient evidence related to this specific plot. But Iranian leaders may, in fact, have a motive to accelerate direct attacks on the U.S.: Shia Islamic eschatology, or ‘End Times’ theology.

Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are convinced that the End of Days has come. They believe the Shia messiah known as the ‘Twelfth Imam’ or the ‘Mahdi’ will appear soon to establish a global Islamic kingdom known as the caliphate.

What’s more, they believe the way to hasten the coming of the Twelfth Imam is to annihilate Israel (which they call the ‘Little Satan’), and the United States (which they call the ‘Great Satan’). We should not, therefore, be surprised that Iran is probing for weaknesses in American intelligence and homeland security.

Khamenei told Iranians in July 2010 that he personally met with the Twelfth Imam. He also claimed to be the personal representative of the Mahdi on earth, and said all Muslims must ‘obey him.’ Meanwhile, Western intelligence agencies say he continues to work with Ahmadinejad and the Iranian military to develop nuclear warheads and the ballistic missiles to deliver them.

Much of the media has focused on Iran’s threats to wipe Israel ‘off the map.’ But journalists have generally ignored the fact that the Iranian regime is equally determined to destroy the United States.

On October 26, 2005, for example, Ahmadinejad said, ‘God willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism.’

On June 2, 2008, Ahmadinejad said, ‘Today, the time for the fall of the satanic power of the United States has come, and the countdown to the annihilation of the emperor of power and wealth has started.’

Iran’s leaders actually believe that the destruction of the U.S. is foreordained, just as the Soviet Union’s implosion was predetermined. They see U.S. economic weakness as a sign that the end of America is near.” Read more.

Iran: Ayatollah Khamenei Calls for World’s Muslim Nations to Form an International Islamic Power Bloc – “Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has called on the world’s Muslim nations to form an international Islamic power bloc… Ayatollah Khamenei said such global developments ‘can change the destiny of the Islamic Ummah (nation)’ and herald ‘a bright future accompanied with dignity and progress.’ ‘Today, the West, the United States and Zionism are weaker than ever before,’ the Leader pointed out… The leader described the present era as a ‘new chapter’ in the history of the Islamic world …” Read more.

Iran: Ayatollah Khamenei Calls for World’s Muslim Nations to Form an International Islamic Power Bloc

11/06/2011 Leave a comment

Hmmm, ten nations sounds like a nice round number.  Here are some of them that would be happy to oblige …

“TEHRAN, Nov 5 (Agencies): Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has called on the world’s Muslim nations to form an international Islamic power bloc.

Referring to the popular uprisings in the Arab world and the recent anti-capitalism movement across the world in his message to Hajj Pilgrims in 2011, Ayatollah Khamenei called on the Muslim world to ‘make the most of this opportunity for the formation of an international Islamic power-bloc.’

Ayatollah Khamenei said such global developments ‘can change the destiny of the Islamic Ummah (nation)’ and herald ‘a bright future accompanied with dignity and progress.’

‘Today, the West, the United States and Zionism are weaker than ever before,’ the Leader pointed out.

The message was addressed to more than 2.5 million pilgrims from around the globe who converged in the vast plains of Mount Arafat in Saudi Arabia to perform a ritual of the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

The leader described the present era as a ‘new chapter’ in the history of the Islamic world in which ‘a young generation has emerged from the heart of these nations.’

Islam has become the guiding principle of popular movements despite the efforts of secular rulers to curtail the influence of religion in the Muslim countries, Ayatollah Khamenei added.

Ayatollah Khamenei pointed to the victory of Islamic Ennahda Party in Tunisia’s recent elections and noted, ‘Without doubt, free elections in any Islamic country will result in nothing but what happened in Tunisia.'” Read more.

Flashback: Iranian Video: The Islamic Messiah is Near — Israel Shall Be Destroyed – “New evidence has emerged that the Iranian government sees the current unrest in the Middle East as a signal that the Mahdi–or Islamic messiah–is about to appear. CBN News has obtained a never-before-seen video produced by the Iranian regime that says all the signs are moving into place — and that Iran will soon help usher in the end times. While the revolutionary movements gripping the Middle East have created uncertainty throughout the region, the video shows that the Iranian regime believes the chaos is divine proof that their ultimate victory is at hand.” Read more.

IAEA Says Foreign Expertise Has Brought Iran to Threshold of Nuclear Capability

11/06/2011 Leave a comment

By Joby Warrick – The Washington Post – “Intelligence provided to U.N. nuclear officials shows that Iran’s government has mastered the critical steps needed to build a nuclear weapon, receiving assistance from foreign scientists to overcome key technical hurdles, according to Western diplomats and nuclear experts briefed on the findings.

Documents and other records provide new details on the role played by a former Soviet weapons scientist who allegedly tutored Iranians over several years on building high-precision detonators of the kind used to trigger a nuclear chain reaction, the officials and experts said. Crucial technology linked to experts in Pakistan and North Korea also helped propel Iran to the threshold of nuclear capability, they added.

The officials, citing secret intelligence provided over several years to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the records reinforce concerns that Iran continued to conduct weapons-related research after 2003 — when, U.S. intelligence agencies believe, Iranian leaders halted such experiments in response to international and domestic pressures.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog is due to release a report this week laying out its findings on Iran’s efforts to obtain sensitive nuclear technology. Fears that Iran could quickly build an atomic bomb if it chooses to has fueled anti-Iran rhetoric and new threats of military strikes. Some U.S. arms-control groups have cautioned against what they fear could be an overreaction to the report, saying there is still time to persuade Iran to change its behavior.

Iranian officials expressed indifference about the report.

‘Let them publish and see what happens,’ said Iran’s foreign minister and former nuclear top official, Ali Akbar Salehi, the semiofficial Mehr News Agency reported Saturday.

Salehi said that the controversy over Iran’s nuclear program is ‘100 percent political’ and that the IAEA is ‘under pressure from foreign powers.’

‘Never really stopped’

Although the IAEA has chided Iran for years to come clean about a number of apparently weapons-related scientific projects, the new disclosures fill out the contours of an apparent secret research program that was more ambitious, more organized and more successful than commonly suspected. Beginning early in the last decade and apparently resuming — though at a more measured pace — after a pause in 2003, Iranian scientists worked concurrently across multiple disciplines to obtain key skills needed to make and test a nuclear weapon that could fit inside the country’s long-range missiles, said David Albright, a former IAEA official who has reviewed the intelligence files.

‘The program never really stopped,’ said Albright, president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security.” Read more.

US Marines Warned: Act More Muslim, Don’t Spit Towards Mecca

11/06/2011 Leave a comment

But wait, that’s not all.  They’re no longer permitted to urinate facing towards Mecca, either.  And it doesn’t matter which way the wind is blowing.  Unfortunately, Karzai still isn’t impressed.  I guess the only upside to this ridiculous politically correct brainlessness is the likelihood that a Muslim extremist or two are having difficulty strapping up their suicide vests or burying their IEDs from all the laughter …

By Diana West – “Uncle Sam is getting a little weird. Make that a lot weird. Having dumped hundreds of billions of dollars into a sinkhole called Afghanistan — populated by misogynistic, pederastic, tribalistic and religiously supremacist primitives — to no avail, he has hit on a new plan for winning those ever-elusive Afghan ‘hearts and minds.’

Uncle Sam has decided that the answer lies in the latrine with the U.S. Marine Corps. No kidding. When nature calls, Uncle Sam has decided he wants every U.S. Marine equipped with a map and compass, or some other way of knowing direction. This is to ensure that no U.S. Marine in Afghanistan urinates in the direction of Mecca ever again.

Now, there’s a winning strategy.

It’s still OK, of course, to spread baksheesh (payola) indiscriminately, chase jihadis into twisting mountain gorges, clear any road laced with improvised explosives – blow up, even, and bleed all over the place. Just make sure your sense of direction is sharp when it really counts.

Take spitting. According to an article in the North County Times, the word is: Ix-nay on itting-spay toward ecca-May, guys. If there’s a pinch between teeth and gum while you’re hiding out in a cold valley, figure out where Mecca is (2,000 miles away) before letting anything out of your mouth. Oh, and when it’s time to catch some shut-eye ‘when sharing a base with Afghan army troops’ – if you can sleep, given the frightening odds an Afghan National Army soldier might turn his gun on you – don’t, whatever you do, let your combat boots point toward you-know-where.” Read more.

The Problem With Islam – “It is difficult for Americans to comprehend the challenge to Western civilization from Islam and Islamist ideology. While our political leaders tell us constantly that we are not at war with Islam, the Obama administration will not acknowledge the fact that we are at war with Islamist ideology. In a slim new volume of four essays, ‘Islam in our Midst: the Challenge to our Christian Heritage,’ Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo examines the roots of Islamist ideology and finds little difference between them and Islam itself as it is currently preached in the Muslim mainstream. And therein lies the problem with Islam. ‘Politically correct approaches often present a sanitized view of Islam, ignoring its terrorist forms,’ Sookhdeo writes. The Obama administration has conscientiously excised words such as ‘Islamic terrorism,’ ‘Islamist terrorism’ and ‘jihad’ from the lexicon of its national security doctrine, ‘because they are deemed to anger Muslims and increase tensions with the wider Muslim world,’ Sookhdeo notes. This has only encouraged the Islamists…” Read more.

Flashback: White House Overlooks Christian Persecution While Pandering to Islam – “The Obama administration has been obsessed with Muslim outreach and recently tried to mend fences with the Jewish community. Given the state of the world, however, the White House ought to be focused on helping the world’s oppressed Christians. The United States has been wary to intervene in matters affecting Christians in the Middle East for fear of validating terrorist narratives that the West is engaged in a new crusade against Islam. The result of this passive policy has been to allow Islamic extremists increasingly to dominate the debate, often with tragic consequences.” Read more.

Kenya: Terrorists in Predominantly Muslim Town Toss Grenade Inside Pentecostal Church, Killing Two

11/06/2011 Leave a comment

“NAIROBI — Two people were killed in a grenade attack on a church in a town in eastern Kenya, police said Sunday, amid a spate of violence that has raised concerns for the country’s key tourism industry.

The attackers threw a grenade at a house inside a compound of the East African Pentecostal Church in Garissa late Saturday, killing two people living inside, locals said. Up to four others were injured in the attack.

‘They attacked people who reside in the church compound,’ said a worshipper. ‘Two people died and the others have been taken to hospital.’

National police deputy spokesman Charles Owino confirmed that two people had been killed and said a partially exploded landmine found elsewhere in town had been taken away by anti-terrorism police.

Asked who was responsible for the attacks, Owino noted that Garissa is a predominantly Muslim town and that the target was a church.

‘It could be (religious) rivalry. It could be Al Shebab sympathisers, you can’t rule it out. Anything is possible,’ he told AFP.” Read more.

Lebanon: Patriarch of the Maronite Christian Church Fears Arab Spring Extremism

11/06/2011 Leave a comment

“The head of Lebanon’s Maronite church said he feared for the fate of Christians in the Middle East if the Arab Spring brought ‘radical groups’ to power to replace autocratic leaders. Patriarch Beshara al-Rai, speaking in Baghdad during the first such visit by a Maronite patriarch, urged Christians not to leave the Middle East.

‘I support the spring when it is a spring, not when it is a winter,’ he told reporters. During his visit, he attended a ceremony marking the first anniversary of an al Qaeda attack which killed 52 people in a Baghdad church. ‘There should be changes in all Arab countries. Dictatorships cannot survive today, we need democracy, freedom of expression and freedom of belief and worship…(But) I fear radical groups might take power and (bring) extremist rule.’

He added: ‘We are with changes in Syria …and with reforms and human rights but we hope the price will not be the same as what happened in Iraq.’

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Christians have fled the country after years of sectarian conflict.

Attacks on Christians in Egypt after protests toppled Hosni Mubarak in February also highlight the dangers many Christians in Syria fear they will face if protests against President Bashar al-Assad bring him down. Church leaders in Syria say they support reforms but not the demands for a ‘regime change’ which they say could fragment Syria and give the upper hand possibly to Islamist groups that would deny them religious freedom.

Lebanon’s Maronite church leaders have had tense relations with Syria, and led calls for an end to Syrian military presence in Lebanon in 2005. But since protests erupted against Assad in March many said Christians enjoyed freedom of belief under Assad’s secular Baath Party.

Maronites, who have a presence in Lebanon, Syria and Cyprus, follow an Eastern rite of the Roman Catholic church and number around 900,000 in Lebanon. Many more Maronites, possibly up to three million, live outside the country. ‘We are against any (Christian) migration,’ Rai said. ‘We know that all the extremist and terrorist groups and foreign interference aim for this but we have to remain steadfast.'” Read more.

The Prospect of Christian Extinction on the Arab Street is Growing

11/06/2011 1 comment

By Massimo Franco – “This is what seems to have happened. The new ruling classes differ from one country to the other but they tend to have in common a stronger Islamic identity. Their more extremist factions push to punish Christian minorities for what is perceived as a double original sin: being allies of former hated regimes, and being ‘agents of western values’, although they have been living there for 2,000 years or so. The result is that the prospect of their extinction as a community is growing.

It has happened already in Iraq, due to the ‘Anglo-American war’ started in 2003. At that time, the number of Chaldeans, the Christian Iraqis, was between 800,000 and 1.4 million. In 2009-2010, it was estimated are between 400,000 and 500,000, and rapidly decreasing. Cairo’s violent repression shows a similar process is under way in Egypt as well, where they still represent roughly 10% of the population.

This represents a georeligious tragedy for the Vatican, which always tried to maintain a frustrating dialogue with Islamic authorities, and which right up to the end persisted in invoking a pacific coexistence in the area.

But it is also a geopolitical failure for the west, and paradoxically for Islam as well. Christian communities have been historically a bridge between western and Arab culture; and a factor of moderation and mutual understanding between the two worlds. Their dramatic decline signals the collapse of this symbolic bridge, and the growing strength of an ‘Arab street’ fed with consumerism but also with prejudices and a widespread hostile mood against Christians.” Read more.

And the ‘Arab Street’ isn’t just anti-Christian, either:

Nigeria: At Least 150 Killed After Islamists Launch Suicide Bombings and Gun Battles in North, Churches Burned in Christian Neighbourhood

11/06/2011 4 comments

Revelation 6:8a, “And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him …”

By Evelyn Lin – “At least 150 people were killed in a series of gun and bomb attacks in northern Nigeria on Saturday, the Islamist Boko Haram sect claimed.

The radical Islamic sect Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attacks, which included bombing a government building and gunning down over 63 people in the northern city of Damaturu, while another suicide attack in neighbouring Maiduguri town left for dead.

A spokesman for Boko Haram said the group is responsible for the series of overnight attacks.

President Goodluck Jonathan condemned the assaults which officials said included at least five suicide bomb blasts and ‘directed security agencies to ensure the arrest of perpetrators of these heinous acts,’ said a statement from his spokesman Reuben Abati.

As corpses piled up in the morgue, a rescue agency official told AFP the body count stood at 150.

The attackers bombed their targets then took on the security forces in gun battles in Damaturu. Residents said gunfire rang out for several hours across the city after the explosions.

‘It was a suicide bomb attack at one of our buildings. The attacker came in a Honda CRV and rammed into the building and explosives exploded,’ Lawal told AFP.

A journalist described scenes of chaos and destruction in Damaturu.

‘In fact, Damaturu is looking just like Libya… burnt cars and buildings.’ In a mainly Christian neighbourhood of Damaturu called Jerusalem, six churches were bombed in addition to a police station.” Read more.