WASHINGTON TIMES.com (AP): Vienna, Austria - "A-BOMB INTENT FOUND IN BLACK-MARKET PAPER" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "A document obtained by Iran on the nuclear black market serves no other purpose than to make an atomic bomb, the International Atomic Energy Agency said yesterday.") (February 1, 2006) (Read More...)
GUARDIAN.co.uk: "UN ALERT AS NUCLEAR PLANS GO MISSING Blueprints Disclosing Key Steps to Build a Bomb Feared Up For Sale" by Ian Traynor in Vienna (ARTICE SNIPPET: "Inspectors at the UN's nuclear authority, the International Atomic Energy Agency, have been investigating the worst nuclear smuggling racket ever uncovered, headed by the Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. The operation was discovered two years ago to be selling sensitive nuclear technology to Libya and Iran. A senior official said several sets of blueprints for uranium centrifuges - the so-called P-1 and more advanced P-2 systems which were peddled by the Khan network - have gone missing. (June 9, 2005) (Read More...)
Fatalists in positions of power are hazardous to themselves and those around them. They think that the world revolves around them and that they are "destined" to do whatever it is they just feel like doing. Now imagine one of those guys with nukes.
What, is he being hidden in hell?
The Iranian President needs a good old fashoned beat down.
What about the fatwa against the creation, stockpiling, or use, of nuclear weapons, by the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei?
[The Mahdi’s] return will be preceded by cosmic chaos, war, bloodshed and pestilence. After this cataclysmic confrontation between the forces of good and evil, the Mahdi will lead the world to an era of universal peace.
I have seen this so many times now in connection with Ahmadinejad and the Shi’ite Twelvers. I don’t know who started it. Probably either some out-of-touch professor who teaches “Introdcution to Islam” or somebody opened the Encyclopedia Brittanica or something and copied out their definition of Shi'a.
But that statement reveals just how far the Western media (and probably our governmental leaders too) are from understanding the current situation regarding Iran.
In this essay, de Borchgrave says it is “later than we think” because he fears Ahmadinejad will use a nuclear weapon to hasten "the creation of chaos on Earth." Therefore, de Borchgrave says, Pres. Bush should “sit down with ‘axis of evil’ Iran to find out if the MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) doctrine ... could still be made to work.”
What de Borchgrave is clueless about is the Signs of Qiyama and what many imams -- both Shi’ite and Sunni -- have been saying for the past few decades.
It’s not that the Mahdi will appear after some unimaginable chaos. The Muslims believe the Mahdi will appear during a period of very imaginable strife and perceived Muslim powerlessness.
In other words: these imams have been saying that the very existence of the United States as a world power is “proof” that these are the End Times and that the Mahdi will soon appear.
[Aside: For Shi’ites the Mahdi is the 12th imam, who has been hiding from danger for several hundred years. For Sunnis, the Mahdi will be a person who will become Caliph of a world-wide Muslim state.]
These imams have been saying that the Signs of Qiyama are being fulfilled on the front page of the daily newspaper -- therefore the appearance of the Mahdi is immanent. Even a fanatic like Ahmadinejad would have absolutely no need to add any additional chaos to the situation.
Mr. de Borchgrave is also wrong when he writes as if the “Mahdi” is expected to merely be some charismatic Muslim leader who will rule with justice and peace. That is absolutely the wrong way for a Westerner to perceive the situation.
According to the Hadith, the Mahdi is someone who is predestined to kill all the infidels so that they are wiped off the face of the earth. Any non-Muslims left convert to Islam and submit to shari’a law.
The Mahdi is predestined to kill the Dajjal -- the greatest evil ever to scourge the planet. For the last few decades, many imams have been busy interpretting the Hadith to “prove” that the Dajjal is a metaphor for Western Culture and Western Political and Economic Dominance.
Therefore this immanent Mahdi is predestined to destroy Western Civilization and anyone partaking of it.
It’s not that he will try to defeat the West, but that they believe Allah has guaranteed that he will defeat the West -- that it’s a done deal that every infidel will be killed and the survivors will convert. It’s not a question of “if” but only “when.”
Those jihadists who are fighting now are just starting the fight that this expected Mahdi will finish. Some imams are interpretting the hadith that the Mahdi may simply be a metaphor for the collective jihadists.
So it’s really “later than Mr. de Borchgrave thinks.” There is no reason why a millennialist like Iran’s Ahmadinejad should be deterred by the philosophy of MADD that worked surprisingly well with the Soviet Union.
The Soviets, for all their faults, lived in the same Reality that we do. Ahmadinejad and the jihadists do not.
See my FR Homepage and my Links page for more information.
Persia will unite with Gog and Magog( Russia)
in an attempt to destroy Israel.
All of the Muslim world will join them coming
to remove G-d's Chosen people from G-d's Land.
b'shem Y'shua
When you see that truth has died and people of truth have disappeared,
and you see that injustice prevails through the land;
and scripture has become despised and things are introduced into it that are not in it and it is turned towards men's desires;
and you see the people of error having mastery over the people of truth;
and you see evil out in the open and the doers of evil are not prevented nor do they excuse themselves;
and you see moral depravity openly manifest and men being content with men and women satisfied by woman;
and you see the believer silent, his word not being accepted;
and you see the sinful lying and he is not refuted nor does his deceit redound upon him;
and you see the lowly despising the great;
and you see the wombs cut open;
and you see he who boasts of moral depravity is laughed at and is not spurned;
and you see young men being handed over like women and women cohabiting with women and their numbers increasing;
and you see men spending their wealth on things other than pious deeds and no one opposes or hinders them;
and you see the onlooker turn his back on the efforts of the believer;
and you see one person molesting his neighbor and no one prevents it;
and you see the unbeliever joyful because he does not see gladness in the believer when he sees corruption in the world;
and you see alcoholic drinks being drunk openly...
and you see women occupying places in the assemblies just as men do and usury is carried out openly and adultery is praised...
and you see the forbidden things made legal and the legal things forbidden;
and you see that religion becomes a matter of opinion and scripture and its laws fall into disuse;
and you see the leaders drawing close to the unbelievers and away from good people;
and you see the leaders corrupt in their rule;...
and you see men eating what their wives have obtained as a result of their immorality and knowing this and persisting in it;...
and you see places of entertainment appearing which no one who passes them forbids them and no one is bold enough to put an end to them;
and you see a worshiper only praying in order that the people may see him;
and you see the experts in religious law devoting themselves to things other than religion, seeking the world and leadership;
and you see the people living together like animals;
and you see the pulpit from which fear of God is enjoined but the speaker does not act in the manner he has enjoined others to act;...
and when you see the tokens of truth that I have taught, then be aware [of the advent of the Mahdi] and seek salvation from God."
-- The Sixth Imam Jafar As-Sadiq (as)
Yes, it is standard boilerplate for any apocalyptic literature. But the imams compare stuff like this to the daily newspaper, and "prove" to their ummah (congregation) that the United States and our allies "must" be the Dajjal which the coming Mahdi will soon destroy -- and they can help by joining the jihad.
Foward-thinking people had better find a way to remove this one from the scene.
New York City is slated for destruction by the Mullah's forthcoming nukes.
And then millions of Iranians will needlessly die in a nuclear counterstrike.
Do you shoot a lunatic driving a schoolbus over a cliff, even though some children may get hurt when you shoot? We have to go in, soon.
Is that like the Seattle Twelfth Man?
"the apocalypse" as I understand it is the final battle between good and evil.
Good knows it is good and evil knows it is evil in this battle case of muslims vs christians (now 5,000 years old) both side believe they are good. They believe each other is evil so, one is lying to the other or lying to themselves or, this cannot be the apocalypse.
It could however be one heck of a battle.
From the article ...
President Bush says all options are on the table. But the military option is probably the one the "twelvers" would look forward to. Some Washington think tank strategists argue if Iran's Dr. Strangelove attacked Israel with a nuclear weapon, five Iranian cities would be vaporized next day.
It might behoove the United States to sit down with "axis of evil" Iran to find out if the MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) doctrine that kept the Soviet Union and the U.S. at peace for a half-century could still be made to work.
In any event, one would have to be irredeemably myopic not to see that Iran has an active nuclear weapons program. The only question is how far this secret program is from delivering a usable weapon and fitting it in the nose cone of a Shahab-3 missile with the range to reach Israel. The Israeli Air Force will be "overhead" Iran long before.
Can't hold a candle to the 12th man. The Corps may not be amused. And they have been known to set off with Artillery to amuse themselves.
More like the next hour or less. Possibly more than 5 cities too. Unless the Israelis were saving assets for its nearer neighbors, who would likely try to take advantage of the situation.
Complicating the situation for any would be attacker is that Israel also has Arrow anti-IRBM missiles. They've been tested and they work. So the Iranian wild man could launch his attack, have all of his birds blown out of near space before they get close to their targets, and then suffer their slice of the Samson Option. All pain no gain. But still not likely to defer someone trying to bring on the 12th Iman.