Zawahiri (al Qaeda #2) videotape surfaces

Top al-Qaida Figure Ayman Al-Zawahri Urges Support for Iraqi Insurgents in Video

CAIRO, Egypt - No. 2 al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri praised insurgents in Iraq, particularly Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and called on all Muslims to support them in a video posted Thursday on the Internet.

The video was dated with an Islamic month corresponding to November 2005 and al-Zawahri mentions an Oct. 23 earthquake that hit Pakistan and Afghanistan. But it appeared to be the first time the 28-minute video has been made public.

It was not clear why the video was not released soon after the date it was allegedly filmed. . .

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/771495.html

Last update - 22:25 07/10/2006

Assad: Syrian military preparing for war with Israel
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent

The Syrian military is preparing for war with Israel, Syria's President Bashar Assad told the Quwaiti newspaper Al-Anba on Saturday.

In an interview widely quoted by Syrian news agencies, Assad said Israel could attack Syria "at any moment."

"We must remain ready at all times," said Assad. "We have begun preparations within the framework of our options."

Assad also said he believes Israel has abandonded the peace process.

The Prime Minister's Office refused to comment on Assad's remarks. According to a security source, IDF troops in the Golan Heights have remained on high alert since the end of the Lebanon war.

According to the source, Defence Minister Amir Peretz instructed the forces last Thursday to remain on high alert. "Assad's declarations do not change the situation," said the source.

In recent months, including prior to the Lebanon war, Syria has been saying it is willing to act militarily in order to retake the Golan Heights. Since the Lebanon war, Assad has warned that Syria's patience is running out due to the lack of a viable option for regaining the heights through the peace process.

At the same time, Assad has said on several occasions that he is interested in progress in the peace process with Israel.

Assad further stated in the interview Saturday that roughly 80 percent of the issues dividing Israel and Syria have been resolved, leaving only "the easiest of issues [to resolve]."

He reiterated his claim that negotiations would not last more than six months, and that the entire process, including the implementation of the agreement, would not last more than two years.

"This is assuming that the other side, Israel, is genuine in the peace process," said Assad.

Nonetheless, Assad said "sometimes the final percent puts an end to the entire process."

Assad added that a new framework for the talks is needed, arguing that the traditional mediator, the United States, is too closely allied with Israel.

The Syrian president also addressed calls within Israel to renew the negotiations with Damascus, calling them a "virtual peace movement emananting from internal considerations."

Syrian information minister: Israel must recognize Palestinian right of return

Syrian Information Minister Muhsen Bilal also said Saturday that his country is preparing for war with Israel, but added that Syria is interested in peace.

Bilal made the comments in an interview broadcast on Al-Jazeera.

"Syria is taking into account the possibility that Israel will embark on a military adventure in against Syria," said Bilal. "We are preparing for every possibility."

According to Bilal, Israel intended to "crush Hezbollah" and impose its control in Lebanon, but failed to do so.

"The crisis which Israel finds itself in today, following its failure in Lebanon, could lead it to attack Syria," said Bilal. "We always emphasized our lack of faith in Israeli governments, and this is especially true of the current government."

"Syria is preparing for every possibility and every Israeli intention to attack it," said Bilal. "This is natural, as Israel can not be trusted at all."

Bilal added that Syria is interested in peace with Israel, saying it was Israel that was responsible for the collapse of peace talks between the two nations in the year 2000.

Bilal presented the Syrian principles for peace with Israel. He said any agreement must be based on UN decisions calling for an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, southern Lebanon, the Palestinian territories and the recognition of the right of return of Palestinian refugees to Israel.

This is a relatively hard-line position, in which Syria is conditioning peace with Israel on an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians and recognition of the right of return.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3312025,00.html

Assad: Syria preparing for Israeli attack

Syrian president says, in interview, nation is worried about Israeli aggression, preparing itself for attack 'at any minute'

Roee Nahmias

Syrian President Bashar Assad said that his nation is ready for war with Israel. In an interview with Kuwaiti newspaper al-Anba, he was asked whether, pursuant to the war in Lebanon, Syria was prepared against Israeli attacks and would be prepared to wage war.

In response, the president replied: "During the aggression against Lebanon, there was vast pressure from among the population to fight against Israel and liberate the Golan. Many people made suggestions to this effect, directly and informally."

According to Assad, his nation is expecting an Israeli attack: "As far was we're concerned, the prospect for peace is unrelated to the changing circumstances and constitutes a basic principle, but, at the same time, we are preparing for an Israeli attack at any minute. We all know that Israel is military strong and backed by the US."

"Ever since Ariel Sharon came to power, Israel has given up on the peace process. Sharon's election was a sign that Israel had comprehensively given up on the peace process and the US government only strengthened this trend. Therefore, naturally, our expectation is that there will not be peace and perhaps will be war," said the president.

"What does it mean to be in a state neither of peace or war?" he asked. "Either war or peace. Period. This is why we have to prepare, to the best of our ability."

Assad addressed Lebanese complaints regarding arms smuggling from Syria to Hizbullah-controlled areas in Lebanon.

"When you speak of smuggling, you must understand that it is bidirectional smuggling, not smuggling only from one side to the other. Goods arrive from every direction. Anyone who needs arms goes to a place where he can buy arms. The smuggling comes from Iraq, Lebanon and all over the place. It cannot be stopped," he said.

Earlier statements

In September, the president said that he didn't discount the possibility that war would break out in the region: "This option is possible, because Israel is looking for a way out from the crisis it is in through a new adventure, by which it will restore its security."

Assad estimated that Israel may attack Syria under the pretext that it is aiding Iran, but declared that "Syria will resist, will stand strong and will never give in."

Tuesday, President Assad said that he believes that peace with Israel could be achieved within six months – if negotiations begin where they last left off.

In an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais, the Syrian president said: "Our vision regarding peace stated that no more than two years should pass since we set out for the Madrid conference (and until the negotiations are completed)… if we want to renew talks from the same point we stopped, then the talks need six months."

Two weeks earlier - in response to a question of whether he supports Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's cry to eliminate Israel - Assad told German magazine Der Spiegel that Syria wanted peace with Israel, "not to see it destroyed."

"But my personal opinion, my hopes for peace, could one day change. And if this hope disappears, then war may really be the only solution," he added.

Regarding Israel's recent war with Hizbullah, Assad told Der Speigel that it would be impossible to prevent arms from reaching the militant organization due to its strong public support.

"As long as public support for Hizbullah is as high as it today ... then this is 'mission impossible'. The majority sees resistance against Israel as legitimate. I advise the Europeans -- don't waste your time. Get to the root of the problem."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1159193385797&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Israel: Syrian fears of attack unfounded

Hilary Leila Krieger, THE JERUSALEM POST Oct. 6, 2006

Government officials said Saturday that Israel had no intention of attacking Syria, despite Syrian President Bashar Assad's statements that his country was prepared for an Israeli offensive to start "at any moment."

"Israel has no hostile intentions toward Syria," said one senior Jerusalem source. "We have no plans to initiate conflict."

He called Assad's comments "disturbing" and noted that the IDF units stationed in the North had remained at the same "high level of readiness" since the outbreak of the war in Lebanon although the fighting had halted.

In an interview with the Kuwaiti daily Al-Anba over the weekend, Assad said, "We are preparing for an Israeli attack at any moment" and said Israel had given up on the peace process even though most of the issues between the two countries had been resolved.

Assad has alternated between bellicose declarations and calls for peace in the weeks following the Lebanon war.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak also warned in a weekend interview of the possibility of regional war.

"The Middle East is on the verge of exploding," Mubarak told an Egyptian army journal in a story marking 33 years since the Yom Kippur War.

He urged Palestinians to put aside their differences and enter peace talks for their own good, suggesting that the fighting between Hamas and Fatah could spark a larger conflict.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev declined to comment on Assad's remarks and said he was unfamiliar with the Mubarak interview.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/10/08/wnkorea08.xml

N Korea's bomb 'would kill 200,000'
By Sergey Soukhorukov in Pyongyang
(Filed: 08/10/2006)

The nuclear weapon that North Korea intends to detonate in an underground test is big enough to kill up to 200,000 people were it ever to be used against a city such as Seoul or Tokyo, Russian military experts have revealed.

They say that the weapon, with the same 20-kiloton yield as the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, is about 10ft long and weighs four tons. It is too big to fit on to any missile Kim Jong Il's regime currently possesses but if it were detonated above ground it could destroy everything within five square miles.

Speculation has mounted that North Korea may conduct its first nuclear test as early as today after it confirmed last week that it intended to press ahead.

But Russian military officials in Pyongyang say they have received information that North Korea intends to give the US up to three months to lift financial sanctions imposed last year and to begin negotiations before carrying out its threat. "If Americans don't start bilateral dialogue with Pyongyang and lift sanctions, then Kim Jong-il is expected to give the order to carry on with the test, most likely in the second half of December or early January," one official said.

North Korea's determination to carry out an underground nuclear test was first revealed last month in The Sunday Telegraph after the communist country's secretive leader spelt out his intentions at a meeting with Russian and Chinese diplomats. On Friday the United Nations Security Council unanimously agreed to press Pyongyang to drop its plans, which it describes as "a clear threat to international peace and security".

The Russians dismissed reports that the tests would take place this weekend. "Normally, if Pyongyang makes an important and provocative announcement, it tries to heat up the tension to the maximum point, and then suddenly falls silent for a long time," one analyst said. "It needs to carefully monitor the situation, watch the reaction of the rest of the world and weigh all the pros and cons again. I would say that carrying out a nuclear test any time soon is not to North Korea's advantage."

The Russian analysis appeared to be supported yesterday by a renewed call from North Korea for the US to withdraw its forces from South Korea. "The ongoing 'reorganisation' of the US forces in South Korea is part of the arms build-up and a prelude to a war of aggression against the DPRK," the North Korean news agency KCNA reported, quoting from a statement by the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland.

The Russians believe the test, if it happens, is likely to be carried out in a horizontal tunnel more than a mile below ground at Kilju, in North Hamgyon province, in the north-east of the country where US military satellites have detected recent activity.

Chinese officials in Pynogyang agreed that a test was imminent and said it might come earlier than the Russian prediction, possibly later this month or in November.

Although the prospect of a North Korean nuclear weapon is a matter of great concern among its neighbours, the country's scientists still have a long way to go to match the sophistication of modern devices.

The announcement of North Korea's plans has raised tensions in the region and South Korean troops fired warning shots yesterday after North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the border.

"Baghdad Bob meet Pyongyang Pete"

http://atimes.com/atimes/Korea/HJ06Dg01.html

Kim's message: War is coming to US soil
By Kim Myong Chol ("Unofficial" spokesman of Kim Jong-il and North Korea.)

The Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea announced on October 3 that the DPRK planned to conduct a nuclear test. The Foreign Ministry stated that the planned nuclear test was in response to the grave situation created by the US, where "the supreme national security interests of the DPRK are at stake with the Korean nation standing at the crossroads of life and death".

The nuclear test, once conducted, will have far-reaching implications for the Koreas and the rest of the world. It carries five messages.

The first message is that Kim Jong-il is the greatest of the peerless national heroes Korea has ever produced. Kim is unique in that he is the first to equip Korea with sufficient military capability to take the war all the way to the continental US. Under his leadership the DPRK has become a nuclear-weapons state with intercontinental means of delivery. Kim is certainly in the process of achieving the long-elusive goal of neutralizing the American intervention in Korean affairs and bringing together North and South Korea under the umbrella of a confederated state.

Unlike all the previous wars Korea fought, a next war will be better called the American War or the DPRK-US War because the main theater will be the continental US, with major cities transformed into towering infernos. The DPRK is now the fourth-most powerful nuclear weapons state just after the US, Russia, and China.

The DPRK has all types of nuclear bombs and warheads, atomic, hydrogen and neutron, and the means of delivery, short-range, medium-range and long-range, putting the whole of the continental US within effective range. The Korean People's Army also is capable of knocking hostile satellites out of action.

All the past Korean heroes let the Land of Morning Calm be reduced to smoking ruins as the wars were fought on its soil, even though they repelled the invaders. One of the two major aspirations of the Korean people has been the buildup of military capability enough to turn enemy land into the war theater. Kim has splendidly achieved this aspiration.

The other has been the neutralization and phasing out of the American presence in Korea before the two Koreas come together as a reunified state. When President George W Bush agreed on the 2009 transfer of wartime operational control over South Korean forces to the South Korean president, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld signaled the withdrawal of US troops with combat troops relocated from the front line to bases behind Seoul.

The title "the greatest iron-willed, brilliant commander" is reserved for Kim Jong-il, who has led tiny North Korea to acquire the most coveted membership of the elite nuclear club, braving all the nuclear war threats, sanctions and isolation efforts on the part of the US. It is little short of a miracle that the leader has outmaneuvered and outpowered the Bush administration against heavy odds.

Kim is adding to the glory of Koguryo and Dankun Korea, vindicating the military-first policy inspired by tamul (the Koguryo term for standing up to a major power, valuing the pride of being descendants of Dankun Korea, developing newer weapons, restoring lost land and settling old scores with foreign invaders).

Revealing are headlines of New York Times articles. One op-ed on February 9, 2005, by Nicholas Kristof is headlined "Bush Bites His Tongue". The article says: "There are two words the Bush administration doesn't want you to think about: North Korea. That's because the most dangerous failure of US policy these days is in North Korea. President Bush has been startlingly passive as North Korea has begun churning out nuclear weapons like hot cakes."

One article dated February 13, 2005, by B R Myers is "Stranger Than Fiction". He writes: "To North Korea, diplomacy is another form of war. Under the leadership of Kim Jong-il, the Foreign Ministry has bullied the United Nations into submission and outwitted the United States into providing food aid - all the while developing a formidable nuclear arsenal. This is, of course, the hardline view of North Korea that prevails in some quarters in Washington. Yet it is also the official North Korean view of North Korea."

The February 20, 2005. article by David Sanger is headlined "America Loses Bite," with a senior Bush administration official quoted as saying, "It's counterproductive to draw a red line for North Korea because they will only view it as a challenge." The article notes: "In North Korea's case, red lines may be what Kim Jong-il sees in his rear-view mirror."

In his September 9, 2006, address to the 4th Global Strategic Review of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, Mitchell Reiss offered a remarkable observation:

"Perhaps the least-noted and most astonishing aspect of the entire diplomatic process involving North Korea during the past few years has been the almost complete inability of four of the world's strongest military and economic powers, including three nuclear weapons states and three members of the UN Security Council - the United States, China and Russia and Japan - to shape the strategic environment in Northeast Asia.

"They have proven thoroughly incapable of preventing an impoverished, dysfunctional country of only 23 million people from consistently endangering the peace and stability of the world's most economically dynamic region. This has been nothing less than a collective failure."

The December 29, 2002, Washington Post article by Michael Dobbs says: "US officials note that North Korea's action has been condemned by most of its neighbors and potential big-power patrons, such as China and Russia, Japan and South Korea. Such logic is unconvincing to many experts on North Korea. They contend that Kim is trying to set up a situation in which he wins, whatever happens."

The second point is that a nuclear test will be a legitimate exercise of North Korea's sovereign right in supreme national-security interests of the country. The sole reason for the development of nuclear weapons is more than 50 years of direct exposure to naked nuclear threats and sanctions from the US. The Kim administration seeks to commit nuclear weapons to actual use against the US in case of war, never to use them as a tool of negotiations.

It is sheer illusion to think that sanctions and isolation will stop North Korea from the planned nuclear test. US hostility, threats and sanctions are the very engines that have propelled the development of nuclear weapons. Absent US hostility, nuclear blackmailing, sanctions, threats of isolation and regime change, the Kim administration would never have thought at all of acquiring nuclear deterrence.

What makes North Korea unique among those states Bush lumped together as the "axis of evil" is that only it has been subjected to US nuclear threats and sanctions and singled out as a prime target of nuclear preemption. The US refuses to end the state of war with North Korea while keeping combat-ready nuclear-attack forces ready in bases in Japan and South Korea. North Korea is not host to any foreign military bases. The US is engaged in ceaseless nuclear-attack exercises in and around Japan and South Korea.

The US, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France, India, Pakistan and Israel conducted numerous nuclear detonation experiments in legitimate exercise of their sovereignty. There is no international convention or treaty that prohibits North Korea from conducting underground nuclear tests. No country is allowed to infringe on the sovereignty of North Korea in material breach of Chapter 2 of the UN charter, unless they are prepared to risk triggering nuclear war with North Korea.

The third message is that the nuclear-armed North Korea will be a major boon to China and Russia. Nuclear-armed, the two countries are friendless in case of war with the US. The US has nuclear-armed allies, such as the UK and France. The Americans have a network of military bases around the two countries, while they have none. The presence of a mighty nuclear weapons state in Korea should be most welcome to Russia and China.

The People's Republic of China has every reason to welcome a nuclear-armed North Korea, whatever it may say in public. The nuclear deterrence of North Korea is a major factor in reducing US military pressure on China on the question of the independence of Taiwan.

The fourth point is that the North Korea government of Kim does not care at all whether Japan goes nuclear, or that South Korea and Australia follow suit. In the first place, those countries are practically nuclear-armed because they are under the nuclear umbrella of the US and house American nuclear bases and because Tokyo's military spending is 10 times that of Pyongyang's and Seoul's defense budget is five times that of Pyongyang's. It is too obvious that they are capable of acquiring nuclear weapons at short notice.

The factor that has prevented them from developing their own nuclear weapons is political pressure from the US, not because North Korea was only conventionally armed. The US has insisted that they should be under the nuclear umbrella and buy expensive high-tech weapons from them.

Their becoming nuclear powers will signal that the US is no longer a reliable cop. At long last de-Americanization of the US allies and neutralization of the US in the rest of the world will be set into motion. This is one of the reasons why the Kim administration has every reason to secretly welcome the nuclear arming of junior US allies.

The main enemy to North Korea is the US, the sole surviving superpower in the world. Acquisition of hundreds of nuclear weapons by Japan and South Korea will not have any serious impact on the total balance of nuclear power. Japan and South Korea have too much to lose in a nuclear war with North Korea, while North Korea has little.

It is important to note that the nuclear weapons and long-range means of delivery are not aimed at South Korea and will be common property shared with South Korea under a confederated government.

The fifth and last point is a long, overdue farewell to the nuclear non-proliferation regime, with the Bush administration standing in the dock as prime defendant accused of sabotaging nuclear non-proliferation. Had the Americans been steadfast in upholding the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty by reducing their nuclear weapons and respecting the sovereignty and independence of the non-nuclear states, North Korea would not have felt any need to defend itself with nuclear weapons.

A nuclear test by North Korea will go a long way toward emboldening anti-American states around the world to acquire nuclear weapons. There is a long line of candidate states.

It is important to note that the North Korean Foreign Ministry pledges to faithfully implement its international commitment in the field of nuclear non-proliferation as a responsible nuclear-weapons state and to prohibit nuclear transfer.

Kim Myong-chol is author of a number of books and papers in Korean, Japanese and English on North Korea. He is executive director of the Center for Korean-American Peace. He has a PhD from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's Academy of Social Sciences and is often called an "unofficial" spokesman of Kim Jong-il and North Korea.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/07/1046826533281.html

Pyongyang: We'll put a torch to New York
By Shane Green, Herald Correspondent in Tokyo
March 8 2003

North Korea would launch a ballistic missile attack on the United States if Washington made a pre-emptive strike against the communist state's nuclear facility, the man described as Pyongyang's "unofficial spokesman" claimed yesterday.

Kim Myong-chol, who has links to the Stalinist regime, told reporters in Tokyo that a US strike on the nuclear facility at Yongbyon "means nuclear war".

"If American forces carry out a pre-emptive strike on the Yongbyon facility, North Korea will immediately target, carry the war to the US mainland," he said, adding that New York, Washington and Chicago would be "aflame".

A pre-emptive strike on Yongbyon is one of the strategic options in the crisis over North Korea's nuclear arms program. The US has deployed 24 long-range bombers to the Pacific base of Guam capable of launching such a strike.

Mr Kim, who has written a text studied by North Korean military leaders, predicted North Korea would restart its reprocessing plant to make weapons-grade plutonium this month.

A nuclear weapon would be produced by the end of next month, with another five by the end of the year, he said. This was on top of a suspected nuclear arsenal of 100 weapons.

The ultimate aim of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il, was the "neutralisation of the American factor" in the region, Mr Kim said.

This would be achieved by striking a non-aggression pact with the US or becoming an "official" nuclear power, thereby making the US nuclear umbrella in the region irrelevant. "Both ways, Kim Jong-il is a winner," Mr Kim said.

"By the end of the year, I predict Bush will be in Pyongyang suing for peace," Mr Kim said. While his comments are extreme, they match the heated and belligerent rhetoric of North Korea, which has previously warned of nuclear war and turning the cities of its enemies into a "sea of ashes".

The Bush Administration yesterday made renewed calls on China and other countries in the region to help broker a solution to the crisis. In his live televised press conference, Mr Bush said North Korea's nuclear program was a regional issue.

"I say 'regional' because there's a lot of countries that have got a direct stake into whether or not North Korea has nuclear weapons," Mr Bush said. "We've got a stake as to whether North Korea has nuclear weapons. China clearly has a stake as to whether or not North Korea has a nuclear weapon."

The Bush Administration is pushing for multilateral talks with North Korea but the communist state wants direct talks with Washington.

In the meantime, diplomatic activity is continuing behind the scenes. "We have a number of diplomatic initiatives under way - some of them very, very quietly under way - to see if we cannot get a multilateral dialogue started," the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, told a US Senate Committee.

Yesterday the US also flagged the possible withdrawal of its 37,000 troops from South Korea, part of the rethink of a deployment in place since the end of the Korean War in 1953.

The US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said the US was consulting with South Korea and he suspected "we'll end up making some adjustments there".

"Whether the forces come home or whether they will move further south of the [Korean] peninsula or whether to some neighbouring area are the kinds of things that are being sorted out," he said at a "town hall" meeting in Germany.

10/19/06 = Night of Destiny
10/23/06 = End of Ramadan

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1694213/replies?c=796

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1694213/replies?c=732

"Night of Destiny" is in "one week"

Lailat al-Qadr (Night of Destiny) is roughly a week from today (October 19, 2006). There are always different dates observed by different Muslim groups, but they all fall in the last 10 days of Ramadan (the next 10 days).

Kim Myong-Chol (the designated DPRK "unofficial spokesman") told a South Korean newspaper today that "everything will be settled in a week" and again threatened NYC and DC.

It is worth remembering that during the last crisis that North Korea triggered while we were preparing for Iraq in late 2002/early 2003 (when they declared the covert uranium program, expelled the UN monitors, and reprocessed the "frozen" plutonium), the rhetoric went off the charts and Kim went underground for two months in expectation of war.

They used a term at that time that is not usual for them - - "Holy War".

Literally thousands of Mideast terrorists passed through the training camps run by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s . . . concurrent with the time the Iranian President was a commander in the Revolutionary Guards, and specifically, the international unit responsible for coordination with various terrorist organizations in such training camps as those located (at the time) in the Bekaa, Libya and North Korea.

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/01/13/nkorea.analysis/

Phrases like "sea of fire", "thousand-fold revenge" and "holy war" (surprising, perhaps, from such an ardently Stalinist state) would hardly seem to indicate a regime actively seeking to be at peace with the world.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A4026-2003Jan16

In the very midst of these talks, North Korea withdrew from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The next day, it got bolder and threatened to resume testing and exporting missiles, and, just to emphasize who is dictating terms to whom, North Korea threatened "holy war," a true innovation for an officially atheist country.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,75549,00.html

The isolated regime's bellicose rhetoric reached a new pitch in the past week, when North Korea escalated its nuclear standoff with Washington, warning of a "Third World War," "a sea of fire" and a "holy war" against the United States.

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52417

(I do not like WND, but the English translation of the original Chosun article is not yet posted)

Thursday, October 12, 2006

NUCLEAR WAR-FEAR
North Korea threatens
New York, Washington
South checks out reports of plans
for second nuclear test in 2-3 days

Posted: October 12, 2006
11:37 a.m. Eastern (snipped)

WASHINGTON – As reports circulated of a second imminent nuclear test, a high-ranking North Korean official who is called the unofficial spokesman for Kim Jong-il issued a not-so-veiled threat to the United States today in an interview with South Korean radio.

"Everything will be settled in a week," said Kim Myong-chol on KBS Radio. "That is, whether we, Korean people, will remain as we are now, or lose, or New York will lose, or Washington, D.C., will lose, it will all be settled once and for all."

The report was carried in Chosun Ilbo, a Korean-language newspaper in the south. . .

http://www.time.com/time/columnist/printout/0,8816,187541,00.html

Saturday, Dec. 08, 2001
Why the FBI Sweats Through Ramadan
Islam's 'Night of Power' is a red-letter day for Al Qaeda
By ELAINE SHANNON

Al Qaeda's 'Night of Power'?

The FBI has decided to stop sending out threat warnings to put the nation on the alert — "How could we be on higher alert than we are?" says one agent. But privately, the agency remains intensely worried about Al Qaeda schemes poised to erupt like fireworks around the sacred moment of Al-Qadr, the Night of Power, when Mohammed received the first words of the Koran from Allah. The precise date of the Night of Power, or Night of Destiny, changes from year to year, but it is celebrated during the last ten days of the Muslim holy month or Ramadan, which is due to end around Dec. 14. Analysts have concluded that Al Qaeda followers plotted at least three acts of terror around the Night of Power in the 1999-2000 season. All were interdicted. This year, says a federal official "we're kind of sweating it out through the end of Ramadan."

http://www.debka.com/article_print.php?aid=1220

Khamenei Brandishes a Kalashnikov at US and Israel
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis

October 15, 2006, 4:29 PM (GMT+02:00)

(snipped)

The powerful spectacle of Iran’s be-turbaned supreme ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei clutching an automatic rifle, displayed exclusively by DEBKAfile, drew on the belligerent imagery of Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein. The Iranian media suppressed this particular shot in its coverage of his sermon at Tehran University Oct. 13, the third Friday of Ramadan. But the AK 47 toted by the ruler of the world’s foremost sponsor of terrorism was not missed by the political and military leaders in his audience and accentuated his war message.

DEBKAfile’s Tehran sources reveal that the Iran’s leaders took three fateful steps ahead of Khamenei’s performance:

1. They pointed up the tradition initiated by the father of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of marking the last Friday of Ramadan as International al Qods Day - “Jerusalem Liberation Day.”

2. Khamenei’s aides leaked word that his decision to hold the sermon of Oct. 13 was prompted by his discovery that the USS Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group was heading for the Persian Gulf and would be deployed in operational mode opposite Iran’s shores by Oct. 21.

3. In Beirut, Iran’s surrogate Hizballah announced the cancellation of its annual military parade on al Qods day, i.e. Oct. 20.

Military circles in the United States and Israel interpret these steps as meaning that Iran will be standing by in battle positions the day before the Eisenhower reaches its destination. DEBKAfile and DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s military sources have been reporting since late August that Iran’s political and military leaders have resolved not to wait passively for an American attack but to go instead for a pre-emptive strike against US forces in the Persian Gulf and Iraq, as well as targeting Israel.

On October 7, DEBKAfile reported: Tehran and Damascus are gearing up for a pre-emptive attack on Israel to ward off a US strike on Iran’s nuclear sites – whether from Lebanon, or Golan, using Hamas to launch an offensive from Gaza, or a combination thereof. The Bush administration would then have to divide its attention and military might among three warfronts simultaneously.

DEBKAfile and DEBKA-Net-Weekly have exhaustively covered the Iranian Blow of Zolfaqar military exercise ongoing in the Persian Gulf from August and its military’s high war preparedness, as well the US naval, air and marine concentrations due to complete their deployment opposite Iran’s shores by the end of this month.

Khamenei devoted much of his sermon to the Lebanon war waged between Israel and Hizballah in July and August. “The war isn’t finished,” he said. “And the losers will certainly not remain idle. These evil forces are already hard at work to remedy their defeat and Islamic nations need to remain vigilant and ready to react with determination against any other potential attack.” . . .

The Iranian ruler laid great stress on "International Qods Day” as the day of “resistance” for the entire Islamic Umma against “the oppression and injustice observed by the Zionists and their supporters."

DEBKAfile’s Iran and Islamic sources note that the Kalashnikov in the supreme ruler’s hand spoke louder than his bellicose rhetoric.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1154696,00.html?promoid=rss_top

"Bush, do you know where I am?" Zawahiri taunts in his broadcast, in which he appears thin but relaxed, sitting without his customary Kalashnikov rifle in front of a curtain of black. He responds to his own question, saying, "I am among the Muslim masses." He could be speaking figuratively, meaning that while circumstances require him to lay low, he enjoys popular support. But he could well be speaking literally, in effect bragging that despite the relentless manhunt, he is able to move around in Muslim circles, "enjoying God's blessing."

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