MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Barak Ravid, Amos Harel, Zvi Zrahiya and Jonathan Lis – “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are trying to muster a majority in the cabinet in favor of military action against Iran, a senior Israeli official has said. According to the official, there is a ‘small advantage’ in the cabinet for the opponents of such an attack.

Netanyahu and Barak recently persuaded Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who previously objected to attacking Iran, to support such a move.

Although more than a million Israelis have had to seek shelter during a week of rockets raining down on the south, political leaders have diverted their attention to arguing over a possible war with Iran. Leading ministers were publicly dropping hints on Tuesday that Israeli could attack Iran, although a member of the forum of eight senior ministers said no such decision had been taken.

Senior ministers and diplomats said the International Atomic Energy Agency’s report, due to be released on November 8, will have a decisive effect on the decisions Israel makes.” Read more.

Israel Test Fires Missile That Can Hit Iran – “Israel successfully test-fired on Wednesday a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and striking Iran, fanning a public debate over whether the country’s leaders are agitating for a military attack on Tehran’s atomic facilities… An Israeli defense official told The Associated Press that the military tested a “rocket propulsion system” in an exercise planned long ago. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of security restrictions, and declined to give further information. Further information about the test was censored by the military. Foreign reports, however, said the military test-fired a long-range Jericho missile — capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and striking Iran.” Read more.

Iran warns Israeli strike will meet ‘harsh punishment’ – “Iran’s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Hassan Fairouz Abadi commented Wednesday on reported Israeli threats to strike Iran and warned that Tehran would retaliate with a ‘surprising punishment’ if Israel pursued such a ‘mistake.’ ‘Even though the likelihood for such an attack is low, we see the threat as a serious threat and are on full alert,’ Abadi told Iran’s Fars news agency. Speaking on the sidelines of an Iranian defense conference, he added that ‘America knows that a Zionist military strike in Iran would cause it major damages in addition to the damages caused to this regime.’ He further warned the US against striking in Syria, as NATO forces have done in Libya, saying: ‘The military regime in Damascus is at the forefront of our dealings with the occupying Zionist regime… The Libyan model will not intimidate Syria. If they strike there will be a Muslim uprising that would leave nothing of the Americans or the Zionist regime.'” Read more.

I understand Captain, it makes me wanna vent some frustration, too.  These hidden, clandestine weapons programs are intended primarily for one enemy.  Its capital starts with a “J”, ends with an “M”, and the “USA” stands somewhere in between …

“UN investigators have identified a previously unknown complex in Syria that bolsters suspicions that the Syrian government worked with A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb, to acquire technology that could be used to make nuclear arms.

The buildings in northwest Syria closely match the design of a uranium enrichment plant provided to Libya when Moammar Gaddafi was trying to build nuclear weapons under Khan’s guidance, officials told The Associated Press.

The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency also has obtained correspondence between Khan and a Syrian government official, Muhidin Issa, who proposed scientific cooperation and a visit to Khan’s laboratories following Pakistan’s successful nuclear test in 1998.

The complex, in the city of Al-Hasakah, now appears to be a cotton-spinning plant, and investigators have found no sign that it was ever used for nuclear production. But given that Israeli warplanes destroyed a suspected plutonium production reactor in Syria in 2007, the unlikely coincidence in design suggests that Syria may have been pursuing two routes to an atomic bomb: uranium as well as plutonium.

Details of the Syria-Khan connection were provided to the AP by a senior diplomat with knowledge of IAEA investigations and a former UN investigator. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The Syrian government did not respond to a request for comment. It has repeatedly denied pursuing nuclear weapons but also has stymied an investigation into the site bombed by Israel. It has not responded to an IAEA request to visit the Al-Hasakah complex, the officials said.” Read more.

Syria’s Assad warns of ‘earthquake’ if west intervenes – “Western powers risk causing an “earthquake” across the Middle East if they intervene in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad said, after protesters called for foreign protection from a crackdown in which 3,000 people have been killed. Assad’s warning came ahead of Syrian government talks with the Arab League on Sunday aimed at starting a dialogue between the government and opposition and ending violence that has escalated across Syria in recent days… ‘Syria is the hub now in this region. It is the fault line, and if you play with the ground you will cause an earthquake.'” Read more.

“TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran’s supreme leader on Sunday hailed the coming withdrawal of troops from neighboring Iraq as a ‘golden’ victory.

President Barack Obama plans to withdraw his 40,000 troops from Iraq by the end of the year after negotiations on keeping some forces there failed, a move some politicians say could give Tehran more room to assert its influence.

‘The uniform stance of all tribes and religions in Iraq over America’s pressure to get legal immunity for its occupying servicemen, and ultimately the coercion of America to exit Iraq, constitute a golden page in that country’s history,’ Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said after a meeting with Iraqi Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani, the ISNA news agency reported.

The troops are leaving more than eight years after a U.S.-led invasion toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Tehran welcomed the fall of Saddam, a secular Sunni Muslim who took majority Shi’ite Iraq into a bloody 1980-88 war with Iran, but has always criticized U.S. military intervention.

While it has been rebuilding ties with post-Saddam Iraq, Iran’s relations with the United States have worsened. Washington has warned Tehran not to underestimate its large military presence in other nearby countries.” Read more.

U.S. Planning Troop Buildup in Gulf After Exit From Iraq – “The Obama administration plans to bolster the American military presence in the Persian Gulf after it withdraws the remaining troops from Iraq this year, according to officials and diplomats. That repositioning could include new combat forces in Kuwait able to respond to a collapse of security in Iraq or a military confrontation with Iran. The plans, under discussion for months, gained new urgency after President Obama’s announcement this month that the last American soldiers would be brought home from Iraq by the end of December. Ending the eight-year war was a central pledge of his presidential campaign, but American military officers and diplomats, as well as officials of several countries in the region, worry that the withdrawal could leave instability or worse in its wake.” Read more.