Jordan's king says it's `somewhat ludicrous' to intervene in Iraq while Israeli-Pal conflict rages

Jordan's king says it's `somewhat ludicrous' to intervene in Iraq while Israeli-Palestinian conflict rages
WILLIAM C. MANN, Associated Press Writer
Sunday, July 28, 2002
©2002 Associated Press

Jordan's King Abdullah II finds "somewhat ludicrous" the idea of intervention in Iraq while the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has the Middle East in turmoil.

Also, despite speculation in Washington and elsewhere, the United States is not sending troops into Jordan to prepare for an invasion of Iraq to oust President Saddam Hussein, Abdullah said Sunday.

"That has not happened, and I don't think will ever happen," Abdullah said on CNN's "Late Edition."

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Joseph Biden, who plans hearings this week about Iraq, said he does not expect imminent military action.

Abdullah, who meets President Bush in Washington on Thursday, said he will not talk with Bush about any plans to attack Iraq. Rather, the king will try to advance the idea of an international conference to find a solution to Israel's bitter, decades-long confrontation with the Palestinians. He also will explain to Bush the humanitarian crisis facing the Palestinians.

"The problem is, trying to take on the question of Iraq with the lack of positive movement on the Israeli-Palestinian, Israeli-Arab track seems, at this point, somewhat ludicrous," the king said.

Bush and other administration officials have talked openly of waging a war against Iraq with the single purpose of achieving a "regime change" by removing President Saddam Hussein. Bush accuses Saddam of supporting terrorists and trying to amass weapons of mass destruction in violation of commitments he made after losing the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

The United States has invited six Iraqi opposition groups to Washington next month for talks about the country's future.

The New York Times reported this month that administration planners planned to launch airstrikes and commando raids from Jordan against neighboring Iraq once Bush gave the word to go. Jordan immediately denied it, even escorting journalists on a tour of a desert air base to knock down it was being upgraded to serve the Americans.

Biden, D-Del., disagreed with Abdullah's assertion that dialogue would be a better solution in Iraq than violence. "Dialogue with Saddam is useless," Biden said.

He said, however, that "absent serious provocation by Iraq," he does not expect military action at least before November.

On Wednesday, Biden opens committee hearings that he said are not aimed at causing trouble with the White House.

"This is just beginning to raise the issue, what's at stake here, what's the nature of the threat when we go in, and if we go in?" Biden said. "Will it require tens of thousands of troops to be there for three, four, five years? These are questions the American public has a right to have some knowledge about."

As he has previously, Biden said Bush should do nothing before he lays out to Congress his rationale for striking, explains his post-Saddam plans for Iraq and wins congressional support.

* Palestinians have the right to decide their own leaders. "I think it's unfortunate when we get into the cycle of, as outsiders, trying to decide who should be the leaders of other people's countries," he said. In demanding democratic change within the Palestinian Authority, Bush decreed that Yasser Arafat was unfit to continue as the authority's leader.

* Said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict "has definitely delayed and hampered the international struggle against extremism" by making it politically impossible for Arabs to participate actively.

Speaking of signs...

Daniel 9

24 "Seventy `sevens´ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.
25 "Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven `sevens,´ and sixty-two `sevens.´ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.
26 After the sixty-two `sevens,´ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.

"Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven `sevens,´ and sixty-two `sevens.´

Restore Jerusalem / seven sevens...

On This Day
January 23, 1950, The Israeli Knesset approved a resolution proclaiming Jerusalem the capital of Israel ...
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/010123onthisday.html

***

Now fast forward 49 years [or seven 'sevens'] to January 23, 1999...

***

GOTCHA! The Big One That Didn't Get Away
Robotic telescope captures visible light from a powerful gamma-ray burst

Jan 27, 1999: For the first time, scientists have witnessed the visible light emitted at the same time as a gamma-ray burst, a mysterious explosion in the far reaches of the universe…

…This particular burst had the power of nearly ten million billion suns, and the light grew so bright that anyone gazing at the night sky could have seen it using only a pair of binoculars. The chances were slim, however, that someone would be looking at that exact point in the sky at 4:47 a.m. EST, on Jan. 23. But thanks to the use of two satellites, a unique ground-based telescope, and the Internet, scientists around the world were able to pinpoint the location of the burst, and to monitor it from start to finish…

… Feb 10, 1999: Two weeks ago one of the most powerful cosmic explosions ever recorded bathed the earth in gamma rays. The gamma-ray burst -- called GRB990123 -- was so intense that its visible light could have been seen through common binoculars. Since then the optical counterpart to GRB990123 has faded until it is 4 million times dimmer that it was during its peak…

…Never before have scientists been able to watch the visible light during a gamma-ray burst. Ever since the bursts were first discovered in 1967, scientists have been eager to gather more data about these elusive, cataclysmic explosions.

Links at:

Autopsy of a Cosmic Explosion - scientists analyze what occurs during a gamma-ray burst.
http://science.msfc.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast26mar99_1.htm

***

ABCNEWS.com : Gamma-Ray Burst Amazes ... WASHINGTON, March 25 — The first gamma-ray burst that astronomers got to watch "live" was the biggest explosion ever seen, second only to the Big Bang that ...
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/gammaburst990325.html

***

Who stepped up to the plate in January of 1999?

January 22, 1999 King Hussein drops heir
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_260000/260875.stm

January 25, 1999 Hussein names son as heir
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_262000/262604.stm

Febuary 7, 1999 Abdullah sworn in
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle%5Feast/newsid%5F274000/274302.stm

Feb 10, 1999: Yesterday astronomers released a new Hubble photograph of the gamma-ray burst's fading optical counterpart. The relic fireball appears to be embedded in a faint, irregular galaxy.
http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast10feb99_1.htm

The Ruler

5057 nagiyd {naw-gheed'} or nagid {naw-gheed'}
from 05046; TWOT - 1289b; n m

AV - ruler 20, prince 9, captain 6, leader 4, governor 3, nobles 1, excellent things 1; 44

1) leader, ruler, captain, prince
1a) ruler, prince
1b) prince-overseer
1c) ruler (in other capacities)
1d) princely things

Daniel 8

23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. 24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.

25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand. 26 And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days.

27 And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king's business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.

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