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If this scenerio unfolds , america can not afford a green pea like Obama. In you heart ... in your guts , you know you have to vote ... for McCain (Washington, D.C., July 8, 2008) -- War clouds continue to build in the epicenter. Last month in Rome, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed that the United States and Israel would soon be "annihilated," language he had not used so explicitly since October 2005 when he promised to wipe Israel "off the map" and urged Muslims to "envision a world without the United States." This week, his regime authorized a...

UPDATED: War clouds continue to build in the epicenter. Last month in Rome, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed that the United States and Israel would soon be "annihilated," language he had not used so explicitly since October 2005 when he promised to wipe Israel "off the map" and urged Muslims to "envision a world without the United States." This week, his regime authorized a new series of Iranian war games. He ordered the digging of 320,000 graves to bury the enemies of Islam. He is calling for the unification of the Islamic world politically and economically, including the creation of...

TOKYO • (AFP)A senior Palestinian minister said yesterday that he was pinning his hopes on US presidential candidate Barack Obama, believing he would seal an elusive deal on creating a Palestinian state. The Palestinian Authority's planning minister Samir Abdullah told reporters on a visit to Tokyo he expected Obama to win the election in November and “look at the Palestinian question and try to do something about it.” “He promised that he will not wait until the end of his term to launch negotiations and he will make it happen from day one. I hope that he will fulfil his...

The next American president will inherit many foreign policy challenges, but surely one of the biggest will be the cold war. Yes, the next president is going to be a cold-war president — but this cold war is with Iran. That is the real umbrella story in the Middle East today — the struggle for influence across the region, with America and its Sunni Arab allies (and Israel) versus Iran, Syria and their non-state allies, Hamas and Hezbollah. As the May 11 editorial in the Iranian daily Kayhan put it, “In the power struggle in the Middle East, there are...

Most of us that were around in 2003 still remember the run up to the invasion of Iraq well. And, it seems the puzzle pieces are falling into place with Iran. First, there was the recent tough talk from Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen. Last week, there were Admiral Mullen’s comments: Late last week, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, pointed to the Qods Force for its “increasingly lethal and malign influence” in Iraq. Adm. Mullen added that evidence would be publicized in the coming days that newly made Iranian armaments are being smuggled into Iraq...

Hezbollah fighters, their guns blazing, seized control of west Beirut on Friday after three days of street battles with pro-government foes pushed Lebanon dangerously close to all-out civil war. The sectarian fighting had eased by early afternoon and the army and police moved across areas now in the hands of Iranian-backed Shiite opposition forces who routed Sunni militants loyal to the Western-backed government. "There are no clashes anymore because no one is standing in the way of the opposition forces," a security official said as convoys of gunmen firing celebratory shots into the air and flashing the victory sign took...

A former president has come under attack by Tehran’s leading conservative newspaper for comments that appeared to suggest that Iran was supporting insurgents in other countries. On Monday, the newspaper, Kayhan, accused Mohammad Khatami, the former president, of making remarks that were against Iran’s national interests. Mr. Khatami said in a speech on Friday that when the founder of the 1979 revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, talked about “exporting the revolution,” he meant making Iran a role model for other countries, not supporting sabotage operations in other countries. End of News Item

As American strikes on Shiite fighters in Baghdad have widened, Iran has suspended talks with the United States on Iraqi security, with the Iranian Foreign Ministry on Monday citing the continued offensive as the reason. The American forces have been responding to fire from Shiite militias in the Amel neighborhood in western Baghdad. In eastern Baghdad they hammered the nearby district of New Baghdad during the day and the Shiite section of Sadr City on Monday night. “The focus of discussions with the U.S. is Iraq’s security and stability,” said Mohammad Ali Hosseini, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry...

The commitment of forces in Iraq and Afghanistan by America would make it "a very significant challenge" to go to war on a third front with Iran, the top US military official has said. Adml Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, conceded that the US did not have a free hand to confront Iran, when questioned about Washington's response to the possibility of a nuclear attack on Israel by Tehran. "It would be a very significant challenge for the United States right now to get into a third conflict in that part of the world," he...

World powers very soon will present Iran with a revised package of incentives to give up its sensitive nuclear work, U.S. officials said on Monday, but expectations for a positive response are low. "I think this will move very quickly," said a senior U.S. official, when asked when the incentives package agreed on by major powers in London last Friday would be formally offered to the Iranians. Top government officials in China, Russia, the United States, France, Britain -- the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- and Germany are now reviewing the decision made in London and an...

Iran's top leader said his country would not bend to international pressure and give up its nuclear program, according to state television. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all state matters, said Iran would continue its nuclear program despite Western efforts to thwart it with sanctions. "No threat can hinder the Iranian nation from its path," he said. The UN Security Council has already imposed three sets of sanctions on Iran for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, an activity that has fueled suspicions Teheran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Iran claims its nuclear...

Iran told Britain not to cross any "red lines" when preparing incentives for the Islamic Republic aimed at ending a row with the West over Tehran's nuclear program, the Iranian foreign minister said on Saturday. World powers met in London on Friday and said they would offer new incentives to encourage Iran to halt nuclear work which the West fears is aimed at building atomic bombs. Iran refused the last such offer made in 2006 and officials have in the past described a demand that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment program as a "red line". They say it is Iran's...

The US and its allies are worried that the sanctions regime against Tehran is under threat from a possible new wave of European investment in Iran’s strategically important gas sector. Tehran has already concluded gas deals with Chinese and Malaysian companies – ending a protracted lull in investment in its energy sector – and has alarmed Washington by reaching an agreement with a Swiss group. The dilemma threatens to expose the limited US influence over foreign companies strategic decisions. Although Washington and its allies have convinced the United Nations Security Council to sign up to three sets of sanctions against...

A senior member of Iran's negotiating team with the United States on Iraqi security demanded a halt to US attacks in Iraq before any new round of talks with Washington, the Fars news agency reported on Saturday. "If US savage attacks against the Iraqi people are stopped, we will examine the US request for a fourth round of talks," the unnamed official said, quoted by Fars. Iran and the United States held three rounds of talks on Iraq last year despite mounting tensions over Tehran's nuclear programme. The talks have been stalled amid controversy over Iran's role in its conflict-torn...

A top cleric on Friday vowed that Iran would deal a knock-out blow to what he called maniacs in the United States and Israel if they ever attacked the Islamic republic. "If maniacs in Washington or Tel Aviv seek to take action, the Iranian nation will slap them so hard they will not get off the floor," hardline cleric Ahmad Khatami said in a Friday prayer sermon carried live on state radio. The Pentagon on Wednesday denied reports of new plans for military options against Iran, which is accused by the United States of seeking nuclear weapons, sponsoring terrorism and...

The Pentagon has ordered military commanders to develop new options for attacking Iran, CBS reported Tuesday, as a second US aircraft carrier steamed into the Persian Gulf. According to the report, the planning was being driven by what one officer called the "increasingly hostile role" Iran is playing in Iraq - smuggling weapons into Iraq for use against American troops. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that "what the Iranians are doing is killing American servicemen and -women inside Iraq." CBS said that US officials were also concerned by Iranian harassment of US ships in the Persian Gulf as well...

Iran complained to the United Nations on Wednesday about U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's comment the United States could "totally obliterate" Iran in retaliation for a nuclear strike against Israel. Iran's deputy ambassador to the United Nations sent a letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the president of the Security Council expressing Iran's condemnation of "such a provocative, unwarranted and irresponsible statement." Clinton made the remarks last week while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination. The New York senator said she wanted to make clear to Tehran what she was prepared to do if she becomes president in...

CIA Director Michael Hayden said Wednesday that Iranian policy, at the highest government level, is to help kill Americans in Iraq, the boldest pronouncement of Iranian involvement by a U.S. official to date. Hayden made the statement in response to a student question while delivering the Landon Lecture at Kansas State University. "It is my opinion, it is the policy of the Iranian government, approved to highest level of that government, to facilitate the killing of Americans in Iraq," Hayden said. "Just make sure there's clarity on that." In recent weeks, U.S. officials have ratcheted up their complaints that Iran...

Israel's Amos-3 telecommunications satellite was placed successfully into geostationary orbit on Monday aboard the inaugural flight of the Russian-Ukrainian Land Launch system, setting the stage for what satellite-fleet operators hope will be a lively competition between Land Launch -- affiliated with Sea Launch Co. of Long Beach, Calif. -- and Russian Soyuz rockets launched from Europe's equatorial spaceport. Amos-3's owner, Spacecom of Tel Aviv, confirmed that the 1,270-kilogram Amos-3 separated from Land Launch's Block DM upper stage about seven and one-half hours after launch following three Block DM ignition-and-coast sequences. Spacecom said the satellite had sent initial signals and that...

Hillary Clinton's threat to "obliterate" Iran, in an ABC interview broadcast just as the voters of Pennsylvania prepared to head to the polls this morning, doesn't appear to have been particularly well received by anyone other than the hard right, which is somewhat telling as to where the former first lady is pitching her policies - or at least campaign pledges - these days. While one assumes that her campaign must have known what she was planning, it too seemed a little taken aback at just how belligerent and absolute her language was: it spent a large part of last...

The consensus among Israel's political and military leaders as we near our 60th anniversary of independence is that modern Israel has never been as threatened as it is today. Given the wars of survival it had to fight in its first quarter century, that's a profoundly troubling assessment. Although Syria has all of Israel within missile range, Hizbullah has rearmed and the quantities of weaponry flowing into Gaza risk turning a major irritant into a grave concern, the key focus of potentially devastating confrontation is the Islamist regime in Iran - itself, of course, the key state player behind Hizbullah...

The United States has the combat power to strike Teheran if needed, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff warned Friday. He alleged Iran was ratcheting up its support for militias in Iraq by providing them with newly manufactured weapons and bringing them across the border to receive training from members of Teheran's Republican Guard. Mullen said the military is preparing to roll out evidence, including date stamps on newly found weapons caches, to prove that recently made Iranian weapons are flowing into Iraq at a steadily increasing rate. He would not detail the evidence, which...

The nation's top military officer said yesterday that the Pentagon is planning for "potential military courses of action" as one of several options against Iran, criticizing what he called the Tehran government's "increasingly lethal and malign influence" in Iraq. Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said a conflict with Iran would be "extremely stressing" but not impossible for U.S. forces, pointing to reserve capabilities in the Navy and Air Force. "It would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat capability," he said at a Pentagon news conference. Speaking of Iran's intentions, Mullen...

THE failure of diplomacy to stop Iran’s nuclear program became obvious this week, when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad revealed the installation of 6,000 new centrifuges at the country’s main uranium enrichment complex. His announcement was accompanied by the now customary assertion that outsiders can do nothing to stop Iran from fulfilling its nuclear destiny. Once, not so long ago, this kind of boast would elicit clear American declarations that Iran would never be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. Everything, President Bush would say ominously, is on the table. This time he has been quiet. I wish I believed that it is...

Assume for a moment: It's January, 2009, and Barack Obama has just been inaugurated as President of the United States. Ahmadi-Nejad explodes his first Bomb; he now has that itchy finger on the button as long as the mullahs stay in power. The Middle East goes wild --- with abject fear among the Saudis, and loud celebrations among terror supporters. The day of revenge against the Jews and the Crusaders has finally arrived. What would President Obama do? He has only two basic options. Option1:Stick with his electoral promises, fly to Tehran, and "talk to the mullahs." What will the...

President Bush and Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain expressed mounting impatience Thursday with Iran for proceeding with its nuclear enrichment work in defiance of the international community. Earlier, the prime minister met with the three presidential candidates, but he smilingly side-stepped a question about which he might feel more affinity for. While Tehran argues that its nuclear program is purely for civilian purposes, Mr. Bush told reporters that it “is, in my judgment, naïve” to think that the know-how that Iranians are developing could not be transferred to military efforts to produce an atomic weapon. Iranian leaders, he said,...

Iran is engaging in a proxy war with the United States in Iraq, adopting tactics similar to those it has used to back fighters in Lebanon, the United States ambassador to Iraq said Friday. The remarks by the ambassador, Ryan C. Crocker, reflected the sharper criticism of Iran by President Bush and his top deputies over the past week, as administration officials have sought to trace many of their troubles in Iraq to Iran. Mr. Crocker said in an interview that there had been no substantive change in Iranian behavior in Iraq, despite more than a year of talks between...

New satellite imagery exposed a site where Iran was developing long-range ballistic missiles, the Times of London reported Friday. According to the report, on February 4, Iran announced it had launched a "research rocket" as part of its space program. Experts have estimated since then, however, that the rocket launch was in fact a field test of Shihab-type ballistic missile. But four days after the launch another intriguing feature of the test became apparent: analysis of photographs taken by the Digital Globe QuickBird satellite indicated that the launch site of Kavoshgar 1, as the Shihab missile was dubbed by the...

The hours of congressional testimony, the speeches and the press conferences this week were all, nominally, about Iraq. But another, equally explosive question - what to do about Iran - loomed over the presentations by Army Gen. David Petraeus, the American military commander in Iraq, over U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and over U.S. strategy for the Middle East. Petraeus and Crocker, arguing that there has been progress in stabilizing Iraq since President Bush ordered a troop build-up there last year, fingered Iran's support for Shiite militias in Iraq, which they called "special groups," as the No. 1 threat...

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) -- A Mideast peace agreement will require "painful concessions" by Israelis and Palestinians who must work together to defeat those "committed to violence," Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday. After meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Cheney stressed the U.S. commitment to the creation of an independent Palestinian state, saying it was "long overdue." "Achieving that vision will require tremendous effort at the negotiating table and painful concessions on both sides," said Cheney, whose stop in Ramallah came just two months after President Bush's trip to the West Bank. Abbas, a moderate, controls the West Bank...

It’s not a script for the next science-fiction thriller, but renowned British scientist James Lovelock is giving human civilization less than 32 years before all hell breaks loose because of the effects of global warming. Lovelock said the impact of climate change is irreversible regardless of what mankind does. “By 2040, the world population of more than six billion will have been culled by floods, drought and famine,” Sarah Sands of The Daily Mail (U.K.) wrote in an article published on March 22. “The people of Southern Europe, as well as South-East Asia, will be fighting their way into countries...

Commentary by Daniel T. Zanoza, Executive Director, RFFM.org Are these the end times? Judeo-Christian Scripture tells us there will be signs and wonders at the end of the age, but I'm not sure the Bible had hard core politics in mind. Some may be shocked at the title I have given this piece. To be honest, it took me about ten seconds to decide whether asking the ultimate question would violate some kind of Christian ethic. Let's just say I wrote this column with my tongue almost firmly planted in cheek. The truth is, during the last six months, I...

(IsraelNN.com) "Jews! We have already dug your graves," declared Hamas official Mushir al-Masri at a half-million strong rally of support for Hamas in Gaza’s central square Saturday. Al-Masri said that Hamas was eager to combat the IDF in any upcoming conflict. “The enemy’s exit from Gaza will be nothing like its entrance,” he said. “Gaza will become a graveyard for its soldiers.” The Hamas official was joined by the terrorist group's top brass, some via teleconference, at a massive show of support for the Islamist movement that unequivocally broadcast a message of support for terrorism and the ongoing war with...

One madman with a gun can hold off a hundred cops. The difference is who is more willing to lose his life. Such is the situation between the Khomeini regime and those it has directly threatened. Beginning with Khomeini's rise to power after 1979, the regime has constantly threatened others, and celebrated its own readiness for martyrdom --- which it amply proved in the war with Saddam Hussein. Today Tehran's mortal enemies' list goes far beyond Israel to include Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, Jordan, Lebanon, France, Britain, and the United States. Yet Max Boot points out in the...

Iran tested a newly-developed ballistic missile on the day of the Annapolis conference, Channel 10 reported Wednesday. The Ashoura missile has a range of 2,000 kilometers and is capable of reaching Israel, US Army bases in the Middle East and eastern European cities, including Moscow, said the TV channel. According to the report, the new missile is an improvement on the existing Shihab-3 missile. The Ashoura uses solid fuel instead of the Shihab's liquid fuel, giving it a significantly faster launch sequence which is harder to detect. Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Mostafa Muhammad-Najjar had announced the development of the new...

Iran on Sunday remained defiant in the standoff over its nuclear programme after the latest talks with the European Union ended in failure and world powers agreed to step up moves for further sanctions. Foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said more UN Security Council sanctions would not deter Iran from pressing ahead with its nuclear drive, which the United States alleges is aimed at making an atomic weapon. "If these powers are trying to deprive Iran of its rights, then resolutions and sanctions will be fruitless," he told reporters. His comments came two days after the latest round of...

Egypt, Jordan, Palestinians try to win over skeptics before U.S. conference SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt - Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians sought Thursday to persuade skeptical Arab nations to attend a U.S.-sponsored Middle East peace conference, insisting it could open the door to a Palestinian state in the next year. Saudi Arabia and Syria remain the most important holdouts. Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak held a mini-summit with the leaders of Jordan and the Palestinians in this Red Sea resort, bringing together the strongest Arab supporters of next week’s conference in Annapolis, Md. Their meeting came ahead of a key gathering of...

Reversing the earlier-held American position that the Annapolis conference will deal exclusively with the Israeli-Palestinian issue, the US has sent out clear signals in recent days that if Syria wants, it can raise the Golan Heights issue at the meeting. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters Wednesday that other disputed issues could be raised at Annapolis, including the Golan Heights. Indeed, one of the three sessions to be held at the conference's plenary session on Tuesday will deal with "comprehensive peace." Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch said at a press briefing in Washington on Tuesday...

(IsraelNN.com) The Bush administration is putting pressure on the Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government to go beyond freeing 500 Arab terrorists and prisoners and halting building permits in Judea and Samaria. It now wants Israel to freeze all building, including units under construction in areas covered by previous understandings to be included as part of Israel after final borders are decided for the proposed new Arab state. American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has put her reputation on the line by planning a conference on the Middle East to be held in Annapolis, Maryland. However, most Arab nations still have...

Palestinians: We will not recognize Israel as a Jewish state at Annapolis Published: 11.11.07, 20:41 / Israel News The Palestinian negotiating team has rejected the option of referring to Israel as a Jewish state in the Annapolis Declaration. Jerusalem is worried that the Palestinians will renege on their commitment to fight terror after the conference. A meeting between the two negotiating teams set for Sunday evening was cancelled when the lead Palestinian negotiator, Former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala) was delayed at a military checkpoint on his way to Jerusalem. It now appears that the groups will meet...

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday assured the Palestinians that she aims to wrap up an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal in the remaining year of the Bush administration, offering a target date that falls just short of a formal deadline. The Palestinians had sought such a deadline, arguing that negotiations cannot be open-ended after more than a decade of failed attempts. Israel has rejected the idea, but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that he expected "real accomplishments" within Bush's term. In a joint news conference with Rice, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he had received "encouraging signs"...

(IsraelNN.com) Israel’s Chief Rabbis and the Chief Rabbi of Haifa have been invited to the White House for pre-Annapolis talks to explain the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount. Chief Rabbis Yonah Metzger and Shlomo Amar, as well as the Chief Rabbi of Haifa and Chairman of the Chief Rabbinate Communications Committee Rabbi She'ar-Yashuv Cohen departed Saturday evening for a series of meetings to clarify to US leaders that the Temple Mount is Judaism's holiest site. Ahead of the Annapolis Conference, the Bush administration is trying to gauge Israel’s “red lines” and examine the possibility of relinquishing the Temple Mount...

http://www.thekingiscoming.com/telecast/1516.asx

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday laid out his most specific demands for the borders of a future independent state, calling for a full Israeli withdrawal from all territories captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Abbas' claim comes as Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams are trying to hammer out a joint vision for a future peace deal in time for a U.S.-hosted conference next month. With Israel seeking to retain parts of the West Bank and east Jerusalem, Abbas' comments appeared to set the stage for tough negotiations, which are expected to include complicated arrangements such...

Tony and Susan Alamo were photographed with scores of their followers in 1974, at the height of their power. Today, Tony Alamo is back. Photo by Gilbert B. Weingourt/Zuma Press LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Clad in matching T-shirts with bejeweled cross logos, members of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries are once again saving souls on Hollywood Boulevard. Since the late 1960s, followers of notorious cult leader Tony Alamo have recruited and distributed literature on this star-studded sidewalk. On this sunny summer afternoon, they're handing out heavily footnoted, paranoid screeds proclaiming the end of the world is nigh and branding the U.S....

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice glossed over differences between Israel and the Palestinians about whether an upcoming peace conference will tackle the hardest issues in their six-decade conflict, saying Thursday the U.S.-sponsored session will be a serious push toward forming an independent Palestinian state. The Palestinians want the fall international conference to yield an outline for a peace deal, complete with timetable, while Israel wants a vaguer declaration of intent. "We need a meeting that advances the cause of a Palestinian state," Rice said following talks with Palestinian leaders in the West Bank.

Michael Moore Wannabe by: Bethany Stotts, September 13, 2007 The infamous far-left blogger, Max Blumenthal, perhaps best known for his harassment of Michelle Malkin at the 2007 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), has persevered in his online posting of pseudo-documentaries. Once again, Blumenthal has chosen the Christian Right as his target, seeking to expose what he describes as the “politically extreme, outrageous, or bizarre” events of the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) 2007 Washington-Israeli Summit. This reporter was also there and can fill in the part of the story that Blumenthal leaves out. In true Michael Moore fashion, Blumenthal deletes,...

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed Israel and the Palestinians on Thursday to talk about the key issues that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state. The most troublesome of these are the so-called final status matters -- the future of Jerusalem, the borders of a Palestinian state and the right of return for refugees. Israel is balking at such a broad commitment at this stage. But Rice noted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had said he was ready to discuss fundamental issues leading to a Palestinian state, though she gave no details....

      The more dangerous Israel’s position gets, the more its primary ally pressures it to retreat. Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stepped up the pressure on Israel when she stated, “The occupation of the West Bank will have to end,” attributing the demand to a recent speech by President George W. Bush. Rice was speaking with the U.S.-sponsored Arabic radio station Radio Sawa prior to her current Middle East tour. Arutz Sheva reported July 26, “By stating so clearly that ‘the occupation of the West Bank will have to end,’ Rice has set a...

TONY BLAIR is expected to inspect a prospective new home - known locally as a palace - when he travels to Jerusalem tomorrow on his first trip to the Middle East as a peace envoy. He is said to be keen to take over the one-time residence of the British High Commissioner for Palestine, with its ballroom and spectacular view of the golden dome of Al-Aqsa mosque. The house, built of Jerusalem stone in 1931, was once the pride of British diplomacy and occupies a commanding position in West Jerusalem on the inauspiciously named Hill of Evil Counsel, where Judas...