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The nation’s top military commander painted a dark picture Tuesday of future U.S. defense capabilities clouded by shrinking Pentagon budgets and adversaries’ technological advances that he said would erode American battlefield superiority. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provided his sobering views as part of the Quadrennial Defense Review, a congressionally mandated evaluation of U.S. military strength issued every four years. Dempsey predicted that it would become increasingly difficult to balance the competing demands of protecting allies abroad, securing Americans at home and deterring future wars. “The smaller and less capable military outlined in...

Iran "will investigate how it was exposed, will stop smuggling to Gaza for months" after exposure, source adds. At any given time, Israel's defense establishment is monitoring Iranian arms smuggling and terror-financing networks, a security source revealed on Thursday, a day after the Israel Navy intercepted an Iranian attempt to smuggle powerful rockets to the Gaza Strip on a commercial ship off the coast of Sudan. Currently, IDF Military Intelligence is managing investigations "no less significant" than the Iranian attempt to bring Syrian-made M-302 rockets to Gaza, the source added, describing the covert investigations as part of a far wider...

months before atrocity -- as disturbing video emerges of jihad flag on wall of her homeThe widow of Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev cozies up to the terrorist’s mother on a trip to see her in her homeland months before the marathon massacre, in an exclusive photograph obtained by MailOnline. In the family photo captioned Kyrgyzstan 2013, Katherine Russell, 24, is holding the daughter she had with Tsarnaev, who was killed during a shootout with police days after he and his brother Dhzokhar allegedly detonated two pressure cooker bombs along the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15. The...

Joint Subcommittee Hearing: Iran’s Support for Terrorism Worldwide Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa 2172 House Rayburn Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Mar 4, 2014 10:00am

The grainy footage shows the Klos C, labeled as Panamanian but carrying Syrian missiles and warheads on a Tehran-built ship, being surrounded by Israeli forces as it floats along the Red Sea. Earlier Wednesday, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon revealed that the ship had embarked from Bandar Abbas, Iran and was en route to Port Sudan.

US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki confirmed on Wednesday that "the Israeli government interdicted a shipment of illicit Iranian arms," adding that the US was ready to act before Israel made its move. "The White House directed the Department of Defense to monitor the vessel," Psaki said, adding that the US prepared to take "unilateral steps" to stop the shipment. Israel volunteered to handle the ship itself, she added. The transfer of arms would amount to a violation of UN Security Council resolutions, Psaki noted. The Israel Navy intercepted an Iranian arms smuggling ship carrying dozens of long-range rockets to...

The United States intelligence services and military worked with Israel to track the Iranian ship carrying missiles to Gaza, which was apprehended Wednesday, according to AFP. White House spokesman Jay Carney said Washington started to work with Israel through intelligence and military channels and at the national security advisor level as soon as it knew the shipment was on the move. President Barack Obama also directed the US military to work out contingencies in case it became necessary to intercept the vessel, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One. "Throughout this time our intelligence and military...

(Reuters) - The Israeli navy seized a ship in the Red Sea on Wednesday that was carrying dozens of advanced Iranian-supplied rockets made in Syria and intended for Palestinian guerrillas in the Gaza Strip, the military said. The disclosure came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in the United States to press his case for tougher international action against Iran over its disputed nuclear program and support for Islamist guerrilla groups. The Panamanian-flagged cargo vessel Klos C was boarded in international waters without resistance from its 17-strong crew in a "complex, covert operation", military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner told...

BREAKING: Israeli Navy Captures Iranian Boat Loaded With Syrian Missiles Destined for Gaza (VIDEO) MARCH 5, 2014 8:53 AM 9 COMMENTS Benny Gantz Ram Rothberg Israeli Navy KLOSCIran Gaza KLOSC Shayetet 13Israeli navy commandos KLOSC arms shipM-302 missile Iran Gaza StripM-302 missile Second Lebanon WarMoti Almoz Israeli Navy KLOSC Iran Israeli Naval commandos on Wednesday intercepted an Iranian ship in the Red Sea weighed down with missiles that was en route to the Gaza Strip, the IDF said in a statement. The boat, named KLOSC, was stopped by the elite naval commando unit Shayetet 13 as it was heading to...

In the same week that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intercepted a Gaza-bound shipment of Syrian missiles from Iran, President Barack Obama is asking Congress to reduce U.S. funding for Israel's missile defense programs by $200 million, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

An Iranian parliamentary team has embarked on a six-day trip to Cuba and Venezuela despite attempts by the US to disrupt the visits by denying its airspace to the Russian plane carrying the lawmakers.

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian state media say government forces are advancing in battle and tightening their grip on the last rebel stronghold near the border with Lebanon. The SANA news agency said on Tuesday that troops have made significant gains in the battle for the opposition-held town of Yabroud. It cites a field commander in the mountainous Qalamoun region along Syria's border with Lebanon who says President Bashar Assad's forces captured several hills and strategic positions on the town's outskirts. Backed by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, Syrian troops have been on the offensive in Qalamoun since December, trying to sever a...

The national airline of the United Arab Emirates, Etihad Airways, which annually receives hundreds of thousands of dollars from the US government, has left one of America’s staunchest allies from its official travel-route map, according to a Monday report in the New York Post. […] The Emirati airline refuses to provide transport to Israeli passengers, as Israeli passport holders are not permitted entry into the country because the Gulf nation does not recognize the Jewish State. …

An Egyptian court decided on Tuesday to ban all activities of Palestinian Hamas movement and confiscate its headquarters in Cairo, state-run Ahram website reported. A lawsuit was filed against the movement to ban its activities and designate it as a terrorist group, after the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last July. Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood and is well known for its support to the group, from which Morsi hails. More than 60 members of the group are facing trial on jailbreak charges, along with Morsi and top leaders of Brotherhood. They are accused of facilitating...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://www.frontpagemag.com - Obama Claims Terrorist Dictator is Israel’s Best Chance for PeacePosted By Daniel Greenfield On March 3, 2014 @ 12:37 pm In The Point | 11 Comments This comes from the Jeffrey Goldberg interview with Obama which hits all the same old notes.If Israel doesn’t make a deal with Abbas, it will be more isolated than ever and Obama won’t be able to “protect� it. Settlement growth is out of control, Obama claims, when it’s barely a blip on the radar.Obama criticizes Israel, but not the Palestinian Authority. Instead he praises Abbas. Obama made...

The Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Russia’s parliament, Mikhail Margelov, said on Monday that his country expects all economic sanctions against Iran to be removed immediately, Israeli daily Ma’ariv reported. “There have been important developments. President Hassan Rouhani has openly declared that Iran has no intention to develop an atomic bomb,” Margelov said. ”Furthermore, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has issued a decree that prohibits the building of a bomb, calling it ‘a sin.’ ” As a result of these public statements, Marglov concluded, “The conditions have now been met to justify the full lifting of sanctions on...

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was surprised by a forthright expression of support for the Jewish state from Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting last month in Moscow, Israeli daily Ma’ariv reported on Friday. Netanyahu had flown to meet the Russian leader in a last minute effort to prevent an interim nuclear deal between Iran and world powers from being signed. During the meeting, Netanyahu asked Putin to withhold support for the convening of a Nuclear Non Proliferation Conference the stated purpose of which would be to rid the entire Middle East of nuclear weapons, according to the report....

A Jihad Watch reader attended the Georgetown University presentation on “Islamophobia” last week and kindly sent in this report. I wrote about this presentation here before it happened, saying that it would not be a true academic inquiry, amassing the facts and training the student to make an informed judgment, but an exercise in propaganda, attempting to manipulate attendees into holding certain opinions and skewing the presentation to ensure that those opinions would be the only ones anyone could come away with. This report shows that that was indeed what it was, with professors Daniel Varisco and John Esposito openly...

FOR FIVE YEARS, President Obama has led a foreign policy based more on how he thinks the world should operate than on reality. It was a world in which “the tide of war is receding” and the United States could, without much risk, radically reduce the size of its armed forces.

When Barack Obama was running for President, many of us had doubts about his commitment to Israel. Even though he claimed to support them with no reservations, we were not so sure of his real intentions. This is what he said when he was bidding for the White House, claiming Israel's security was non-negotiable and sacrosanct. He has repeatedly reiterated that statement throughout his first term and into his second. Again, many of us wondered if his actions would ever match his rhetoric. My friends, that day has finally came, but not in the way American Jews or their fellow...

...Obama will take time on Monday for potentially testy talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seeking to nudge him forward in Middle East peace efforts and ease his suspicions about diplomacy with Iran. With time running out for a framework Israeli-Palestinian deal to salvage a troubled U.S.-brokered peace process, Obama and Netanyahu sparred in public comments in the run-up to a meeting that comes at a critical juncture for the president's second-term foreign policy agenda.

In an extraordinary—and I don’t use the word in a complimentary way—interview with Jeffrey Goldberg of Bloomberg, President Obama follows his secretary of state in warning Israel and its leader that a failure to “make peace” now with the Palestinians will have terrible consequences. Israel is “more isolated internationally,” and will become more so; there will be more Palestinians and Israeli Arabs as time goes on, not fewer, so Israel had better move now; and not to move now is to create the conditions for a “permanent Israeli occupation of the West Bank….there comes a point when you cannot manage...

Ahead of meeting with Netanyahu, president says unprecedented ‘aggressive settlement construction’ detrimental to peace process Israel can expect to face international isolation and possible sanctions from countries and companies across the world if Benjamin Netanyahu fails to endorse a framework agreement with the Palestinians, US President Barack Obama cautioned on Sunday ahead of a meeting with the Israeli prime minister. In an interview with Bloomberg, Obama stressed that time was running out for Israel to achieve a peace deal, and added that he believed Netanyahu had the capacity to rally Israel’s citizens behind an agreement. But if Netanyahu “does not...

ORANGE PARK, FLA. — The death of a Navy commander found in a room at the Astoria Hotel on Feb. 12 was ruled a homicide, the Orange Park Police Department announced Wednesday. The Jacksonville Medical Examiner's Office made the ruling on Feb. 13 in the death of Cmdr. Alphonso Doss, 44, of Pensacola, according to the release from the OPPD. Doss' manner of death is not being released at this time while the OPPD and the Clay County Sheriff's Office investigate. Doss reported to Naval Education and Training Command in Nov. 2011, according to the Navy. While in Jacksonville, he...

The recent violence and political upheaval in Syria put the spotlight on the strong alliance the Assad government has with the Islamic Republic of Iran. No sooner than protesters threatened to topple the regime of Bashar Al-Assad, did Iran step up its defense of its Syrian ally both in words and in actions. This left many observers to wonder why Iran reacted so strongly to the possibility of Assad's demise, when it has not done so during the downfall of Gaddafi or Mubarak in Libya and Egypt. To understand why, and to determine the best course of action for the...

In a Wednesday interview with Andrea Mitchell, Secretary of State John Kerry resisted Mitchell's assertion that "genocide" was taking place in Syria: QUESTION: I want to ask you about Syria. For three years, we have watched horrific pictures. You spoke of this when you were a senator. Obviously, now you’ve got the lead role on it. Horrible pictures. I looked at video of a child weeping over his mother’s body after a barrel bomb was dropped on her and other civilians by the regime. Just today, this picture on the wires from Yarmouk, from the refugee camp in southern Damascus....

Ed Miliband is personally to blame for the crisis in Ukraine, senior Conservatives claimed last night. Allies to David Cameron and George Osborne made the extraordinary claim after Russian president Vladimir Putin authorised military action within the country. There is a "Direct link between Miliband's cynical vote against Syria motion & Russia's actions on Ukraine," Treasury minister and close aide to the chancellor, Sajid Javid tweeted, adding that this made the Labour leader "Completely unfit to lead Britain". He was joined by planning minister and close ally to the prime minister, Nick Boles who said that Miliband's "weakness" had caused...

WASHINGTON -- As Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flies to Washington - due to arrive on Sunday (March 2), to prepare for talks with President Barack Obama at the White House on Monday - it's clear that there are several points of friction between Israel and the United States. The two countries are allies, but their leaders often differ on the details of key issues: Israel's peace talks with the Palestinians, America's nuclear talks with Iran, how to approach political turmoil in Egypt, what might be done to limit Syria's horrible civil war, and a broader issue of whether the...

<p>Los Angeles gang members have joined the fray in Syria. The gang-bangers are reportedly fighting alongside the regime forces.</p> <p>MEMRI posted the transcript.</p> <p>A video-clip recently posted on the Internet shows two Armenian Power gang members from Los Angeles fighting in Syria. One of them, Wino Ayee Peeyakan, also posted a picture of himself in Hizbullah garb on his Facebook page.</p>

Leaders of other countries don’t respect President Barack Obama, said 53 percent of respondents in Gallup’s annual World Affairs poll, conducted Feb. 3-6. That only 53 percent of Americans think this is an indictment of the news media’s coverage of foreign affairs. --SNIP-- The key elements of his foreign policy were to be a “reset” of relations with Russia, and outreach to Muslims. His Russian policy has been a total failure. But it hasn’t backfired as much as has Mr. Obama’s “outreach” to Muslims. Because he so often has “led from behind,” blustered and retreated, our enemies don’t fear our...

At least 33 people are dead and 130 injured after a group of knife-wielding men hacked their way through innocent people at one of China's busiest railway stations. Distressing photos circulating online showed bodies, pools of blood and abandoned luggage scattered across the terminal floor at Kunming Railway Station in Yunnan province. Authorities described the incident at about 9.20pm local time (1.20pm GMT) as an 'organised, premeditated, violent terrorist attack' in which at least 10 people stabbed commuters outside the station terminal before moving inside. The death toll stands at 29 bystanders and four attackers who were shot dead by...

Russia, flush with new-found wealth from oil exports, expands its military reach and political influence abroad. A war-weary America slashes defense spending and retreats from the world. The president embarks on a massive government-subsidized program to develop alternative energy to replace fossil fuels. Pundits cluck about America in retreat, and point to the rise of an Asian economic superpower. That’s the world circa 1976, but it sounds like quotes ripped from today’s headlines. History has a way of repeating itself, or to quote the great Yogi Bera, it’s déjà vu all over again. The Obama administration is looking a lot...

The Anti-Defamation League, one of the US's most powerful Jewish organizations known for its advocacy on behalf of Israel, criticized Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday for comments he made in Munich regarding the negative consequences that Israel can expect if efforts to achieve a two-state solution break down. In a letter to Kerry, ADL chief Abe Foxman said that while he appreciated Kerry's efforts to move the peace process forward, the remarks about Israel's likely ostracism in the event that no deal is reached will only spur the pro-boycott elements and the Palestinians to become further entrenched in...

Jerusalem Arabs set ablaze a police station next to the Lions’ Gate in the capital’s Old City on Wednesday. Aryeh King, nationalist Jerusalem city councilman and member of the municipality’s Emergency and Security Committee, was present at the scene of the attack and managed to document it. According to King, instead of stopping the attackers, police officers fled the scene. “Unfortunately the prime minister is instructing the authorities to avoid eastern Jerusalem, and these are the results,” charged King. …

Christian leaders in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, captured by an organization formerly affiliated with al-Qaeda, have signed a submission document this week banning them from practicing Christianity in public in return for protection by their Islamist rulers. The document, dated Sunday and disseminated through Islamist Twitter accounts, states that the Christian community in the province of Raqqa, captured last March by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), was recently given three options: to convert to Islam; to remain Christian but pledge submission to Islam; or to “face the sword.” They opted for the second of...

Click the link for an interesting 3 minute video interview.

President Goodluck vowed yesterday that security forces in the country would adopt whatever means to totally end the sourge of terrorism and other gory activities of the Boko Haram sect. The president, LEADERSHIP gathered, had on Tuesday morning shed tears when he got the news of the gruesome killings of about 43 students in Yobe State before issuing a statement in which he opened verbal fire on the insurgents. He spoke in a live broadcast last night on national television and radio to mark the nation’s centenary celebrations, which kick off today at the International Conference Centre by 9am. LEADERSHIP...

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas left a two-day meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris last week fuming over Kerry’s proposals for a framework accord between Israel and the Palestinians, according to a Palestinian report. The top American diplomat reportedly offered for Abbas to form a Palestinian capital in the neighborhood of Beit Hanina, not all of East Jerusalem, as the Palestinians have demanded. Kerry also suggested that Israel keep 10 settlement blocs as part of any territorial exchange, according to Al Quds, the most widely read Palestinian daily, on Wednesday. The Jordan Valley would not be...

Remarks made by Iranian foreign minister signal Tehran won't agree to dismantle atomic facilities in talks with world powers on final settlement of decade-old dispute over its nuclear activity.By ReutersNEW DELHI - Iran is willing to address international concerns about its atomic activities but will keep its nuclear program "intact", not close it down, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday. His remarks signaled that Tehran will not agree to dismantle any of its atomic facilities in talks with six world powers on a final settlement of the decade-old dispute over its nuclear activity. Related: Those negotiations got under...

Half as many Americans view Iran as the United States’ greatest enemy today as did two years ago. As a result, China now edges out Iran and North Korea atop the list. After the top three countries, 9% of Americans mention Russia, 7% name Iraq, 5% Afghanistan, and 3% Syria. Gallup first asked this open-ended question in 2001, and opinions have shifted over that time. In the 2001 survey—10 years after the Persian Gulf War but before the 2003 Iraq war began—Americans named Iraq as the greatest U.S. enemy by a large margin. …

SNIPPET: "Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg is among four people who have been arrested on suspicion of Syria-related terrorism offences, police have said. Mr Begg, 45, who was held by the US authorities for almost three years, was arrested earlier with two other men and a woman in the West Midlands. He was detained on suspicion of attending a terrorist training camp and facilitating terrorism overseas." SNIPPET: "Mr Begg was arrested in Hall Green in Birmingham. The other people arrested - a 36-year-old man from Shirley, a 44-year-old woman and her son, 20, both from Sparkhill - are being...

The Pakistani government is on the verge of launching a major military offensive in the North Waziristan tribal region following a series of brutal Taliban attacks in recent weeks and the apparent failure of peace talks with the militants, according to a senior Pakistani official. “It could be any day,” said the official, who added that military plans have been shared with top U.S. officials who have long urged an offensive. Planning for the operation comes amid a Pakistan-requested pause in U.S. drone strikes now entering its third month — the longest period without an attack in more than two...

February 25, 2014 Gowdy Slams Rice Benghazi Interview: ‘I Get Tougher Questions in the Bojangles Drive-Thru’ Bridget Johnson Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) blasted Meet the Press host David Gregory for throwing softball questions at National Security Advisor Susan Rice on Benghazi, saying: “I get tougher questions in the Bojangles drive-thru than he asked her.�Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press for the first time since her 2012 post-Benghazi round on the Sunday shows, Rice was asked by Gregory if she had any regrets about that appearance and whether she felt that it cost her the secretary of State job.Rice was also...

— A stone wall is being constructed these days to separate the Meir Kahane municipal park in Kiryat Arba from the gravesite of Baruch Goldstein, as though to blot out the haunting memory of the worst act of Jewish terrorism in Israeli history on its twentieth anniversary. It was just past dawn on the festival day of Purim, February 25, 1994, when a bearded man wearing military uniform with the rank of captain walked into “Yitzhak Hall” in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. For Muslims, it was the holy month of Ramadan, and some 800 worshipers were in...

In its annual survey of American Jewry published last October, the American Jewish Committee found that 75 percent of American Jews agree with the statement, “The goal of the Arabs is not a peaceful two-state agreement with Israel, but rather the destruction of Israel.” And yet, American Jews supported the establishment of a Palestinian state 50% to 47%. Next week over 10,000 predominantly Jewish American supporters of Israel will gather in Washington at AIPAC’s annual policy conference. Given their high commitment to Israel, probably most of those gathered belong to the 47% of American Jews who opposed Palestinian statehood. Yet...

Western sources: Israel Air Force hits SS-21 batteries, first attack in Syrian war on nuclear-capable missiles Western military and intelligence sources report that Israeli Air Force strikes in Lebanon and Syria overnight Monday, Feb. 24 came on the heels of the first use in the three-year Syrian war of a Russian-made nuclear-capable Tochka (Point) surface missile - NATO-coded SS-21 Scarab - which carries a 480-kilo warhead with a range of 70 km. These missiles were fired earlier Monday in the Syrian-Hizballah battle for Yabroud. There was no information about the effect of the Israeli strikes.

Terrorist supporter Susan ‘Medea’ Benjamin spoke sympathetically of al Qaeda terrorists in a speech to a leftist group in Miami, Florida last week. Benjamin, co-founder of the leftist front group Code Pink, spoke on February 18th to a gathering of fellow leftists at Florida International University according to a report by the leftist site FightBack!News. “Medea Benjamin spoke about her travels to American-created war zones and areas being targeted by U.S. drones. She described tragic encounters with families of those murdered by American drones in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia – including the mother of three sons who were all targeted...

DAMATURU, NIGERIA – Suspected Islamic militants killed dozens of students in a pre-dawn attack Tuesday on a northeast Nigerian college, survivors said, setting ablaze a locked hostel and shooting and slitting the throats of those who escaped through windows. Some were burned alive. Adamu Garba said he and other teachers who ran away through the bush estimate 40 students died in the assault that began around 2 a.m. Tuesday at the Federal Government College at Buni Yadi. It is a co-ed school about 45 miles south of Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state, and difficult to communicate with because extremists...

Wednesday marked the 69th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima – one of the worst battles of World War II. Across the nation many remembered this day from 69 years ago. In Newington, Connecticut, a memorial was recently built and is the only flag raising memorial built by survivors of the Battle of Iwo Jima. The flag flown at the memorial is historically correct with 48 stars. There is also sand from Iwo Jima beaches in the concrete base. The memorial also includes inscriptions of the names of 100 men from Connecticut who died during the battle. The 69th...

Jordan’s King Abdullah II rejected on Sunday the notion that his country was an “alternative homeland” for Palestinian Arabs, the state news agency Petra reports. “Jordan is Jordan and Palestine is Palestine and nothing but that, not the in the past or the future,” King Abdullah was quoted as having said in a meeting with the Prime Minister, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the Lower House. “We know how this issue has been surfacing since 15 years, or even more, where things start in the spring by the same group, who tense the Jordanian society, and...