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Iran acts like it is dealing with a Toothless Old British Lion and a Paper American Tiger!

March 26, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

I do not believe Iran is ready for a major confrontation with the United States and Great Britain at this time, with American and British troops still in Iraq, and on Iran’s western border. But Iran is certainly anxious to make all the sects of the Islamic faith believe Great Britain is an old toothless lion, allied with an American paper tiger. So, unless Iran tries to push this latest challenge to the Brits and Yanks too far, it would seem it should end in the same manner as did the previous kidnapping of British troops by Iranian forces, without turning into a major war.

The stunning victory of Osama bin Laden, over the then great Soviet Union in Afghanistan, once again proved the difficulty of a foreign force winning a sustainable victory in a war against native guerilla forces.

It was this victory over a world power that caused the spirit of Jihad to come to life in the hearts of Persians and Arabs across the Middle East. Since that time Iran has done everything in its power to fan the flames and keep the spirit of Jihad burning. If Iran gets away with all of its rhetoric and sword rattling against nuclear world power, it will strongly influence even moderates to believe Islam can defeat Israel and the U.S.

The last such deliberate act by Iran did lead to the release of the Brits involved after four days. I believe this one is going to last a lot longer before they are finally released. Iran is playing with fire to build the Shiite love of Jihad into a sweeping desert sandstorm.

Begin Jerusalem Post Report

‘US sailors would have shot at Iranians’

JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST

March 26, 2007

A senior US officer in the Persian Gulf expressed surprise at how easily a team of Britsh sailors were taken captive by Iran on Friday, saying that US marines would have fired on the Iranian forces, the British newspaper The Independent reported on Monday.

“The unique US Navy rules of engagement say we not only have a right to self-defense but also an obligation to self-defense,” Lt.-Cmdr. Erik Horner, who has been working with the British task force in the region, told the newspaper.

“They [the British] had every right in my mind and every justification to defend themselves rather than allow themselves to be taken.

Our reaction was, ‘Why didn’t your guys defend themselves?'”

The group of 15 sailors was taken at gunpoint by Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Al Quds soldiers after “routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters,” according to a US statement issued after the incident on Friday.

Iran maintains that the sailors illegally entered Iranian waters.

The British government has been pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level. On the instructions of the British Foreign Secretary, the Iranian ambassador was summoned to the British Foreign Office. The British Government has demanded the immediate, unconditional and safe return of their people and equipment.

AP contributed to this report.

Begin Reuters Report

Iran: If U.S. starts war with us, it won’t be the one that finishes

By Reuters

March 26, 2007

A senior Iranian military official warned the United States against launching any attack on the Islamic Republic, a news agency reported on Monday, two days after the United Nations imposed new sanctions on Iran.

“If America starts a war against Iran, it won’t be the one who finishes it,” Morteza Saffari, naval forces commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.

“Our people will not even allow one American soldier to enter our country,” Saffari said.

International tension over Iran’s disputed nuclear program
has risen in recent days, sending oil and gold prices higher.

The West suspects Iran is seeking to make atom bombs, a charge Tehran denies.

Iran said on Sunday it would limit cooperation with the UN’s nuclear watchdog and vowed not to halt its atomic program “even for one second” after the Security Council voted to impose new arms and financial sanctions on Tehran.

On Friday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized 15 British navy personnel in the Gulf, sparking a diplomatic crisis.

The United States, which is leading efforts to isolate Iran over its nuclear ambitions, has said it prefers a diplomatic solution to the crisis but has not ruled out military options.

“We have the spirit of resistance and this is a factor to stop [them] Saffari said. “Our nation’s unity and martyrdom-seeking spirit with God’s help is always a guarantee for the Islamic Iran’s resistance.”

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Let’s not repeat the Vietnam Evacuation Chaos in Iraq!

March 26, 2007

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I am hoping against hope that our withdrawals from previous conflicts in the Far East and Middle East have sharpened our awareness of the great importance to plan long and hard for an orderly evacuation of American troops and logistics from Iraq, regardless of when it actually occurs.

Begin Baltimore Sun Article

Question of how to leave Iraq Looms!

By David Wood

Sun Reporter

Originally published March 20, 2007

WASHINGTON // Arguments for and against an American military withdrawal from Iraq will run deep and loud this week as Congress takes up the issue of when and how U.S. troops should be brought home.

But there has been virtually no consideration of the costs and risks of a withdrawal, whether it comes soon under congressional deadline or later as a tactical military judgment.

Military officers and logistics experts, many speaking privately because

of the political sensitivity of the subject, said that chaos, confusion and casualties could mark the withdrawal of American troops, depending on how long the military has to plan for withdrawal and on the pace and scale of fighting in Iraq.

Under the best circumstances, lines of roughly 1,000 Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles, along with 20,000 Humvees and tens of thousands of trucks would snake south toward Kuwait, with helicopter gunships overhead and tanks guarding key intersections, a logistical nightmare that would last six months or longer.

An abrupt retreat could trigger widespread looting, especially of abandoned American military facilities and equipment, as U.S. troops depart. Similar fates have befallen abandoned British bases in southern Iraq.

A U.S. withdrawal could also alarm those Iraqis closely identified with the American war effort, sparking desperate efforts to get out.

Specialists who have studied the problem say streams of refugees could clog the roads, as troops fight their way out through swarms of insurgents, some specialists said.

Either way, once a withdrawal is announced and under way, it could be difficult for commanders to maintain morale and fighting spirit in their troops – both American and Iraqi.

“Once you start down this road, whether you are going to be able to set the pace of events with a rheostat strikes me as a pretty dicey proposition,” said Thomas Donnelly, a military specialist at the American Enterprise Institute, a policy think-tank in Washington. “Naturally, it would induce great caution among commanders.”

Once a pull-out is apparent, he added, “Who is going to take the risk of living in a police station in a Baghdad neighborhood?”

“At the end of the day, what we do will be shaped by the enemy, as in all wars,” said retired army Maj.

Gen. Robert H. Scales, a senior military strategist and author.

The measure at issue on Capitol Hill this week is a $124 billion package of legislation that would continue funding for the war for six months, but mandate a troop withdrawal beginning as early as December if certain benchmarks aren’t met. The legislation demands that a troop withdrawal be completed by August 2008.

Both foes and advocates of a quick withdrawal have described this complex operation in simple terms, as Bush did yesterday when he said it would be “tempting” to “pack up and go home.” Opponents of the war have campaigned on the slogan, “Bring the Troops Home Now.”

“This legislation for the first time sets a date for the responsible redeployment of American troops from Iraq,” House Majority Leader Steny

H. Hoyer of southern Maryland said yesterday. “It is past time – way past time – for a new direction in Iraq,” he said.

Bush, who said he had talked early yesterday with Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. ground commander in Iraq, as well as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, acknowledged that “prevailing in Iraq is not going to be easy.” But Bush insisted that the war, which over four years has killed 3,218 American troops and wounded 23,417, “can be won.

It will be won if we have the courage and resolve to see it through.”

The debate over an American withdrawal, which has seesawed through Congress without resolution for months, rides public opinion polls showing that a majority of Americans oppose keeping U.S. troops in Iraq.

Some politicians have argued for a complete pull-out. Others, including Democratic presidential contenders Sen. “>Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barrack Obama and GOP Sen. John E. Sununu of New Hampshire, argue for a “phased withdrawal” that would pull out combat brigades first, leaving in place the tens of thousands of U.S. military personnel serving with Iraqi units as trainers and advisers,

and supporting the Iraqi army with logistics, air cover, intelligence and medical treatment.

“I think the goal of withdrawing [all American] combat troops by the end of 2008 is very realistic and attainable,” Sununu told the New Hampshire Union-Leader in a story published Sunday.

“I think it would be foolish for anyone to predict a day when there would be zero” American troops in Iraq, the Union-Leader quoted him as saying in a phone interview from Baghdad.

Other proposals call for one or more U.S. combat brigades to be staged “over the horizon” in remote parts of Iraq or even across the border in Kuwait as “quick reaction forces.”

But military experts doubt the effectiveness of trying to withdraw only combat troops, citing the effect on the safety and morale

of these Americans left behind, particularly the small teams of advisers embedded with Iraqi units.

“I don’t think that advisory team in downtown Baghdad is going to want to go in without the knowledge that there is some firepower back there to help them out,” said Marine Lt. Col. Stephen Sklenka, who recently returned from service in Iraq.

Instead, some experts argue that with civil-war passions running deep and bitter in Iraq, only a delicate and gradual reduction of U.S. forces can minimize chances for a collapse. That means ensuring that Iraqi army and police units can take up responsibility as Americans depart.

“You don’t want to see U.S. or Iraqi capabilities plummet precipitously,” said Nora Bensahel, senior political scientist and military expert at the Rand Corp., a nonprofit research center.

“A gradual withdrawal would minimize the incentive for the adversary to increase the violence.”

Last summer, in a development that caught the eye of U.S. military planners, armed looters ransacked two military bases in southern Iraq hours after British forces had pulled out.

The United States has built several military compounds in Iraq complete with fast-food outlets, supermarkets, gyms, vast mess halls and chapels with stained glass windows.

Several bases have vast storage and maintenance depots and airfields that are beyond the capability of Iraq’ s pre

sent military to operate, logistics officers said.

The fate of these facilities is unclear. The last time the United States undertook a massive military withdrawal was at the end of the Vietnam War, where the redeployment of troops and equipment

was accomplished in a series of phased movements between 1970 and 1972. That experience provides a grim lesson.

By 1972, according to an internal Army report, depots in South Vietnam “were swamped” with gear abandoned by evacuating units, and more than 2,500 vehicles, 60,000 small arms as well as helicopters, artillery, boats and ammunition were turned over to the South Vietnam military.

“The South Vietnamese had a tendency to plunder their own nest, and many U.S. bases being evacuated were stripped by South Vietnamese soldiers,” according to the report, from the files of the U.S. Army Center of Military History.

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Jordan’s Covert Hamas Support will help to earn it a By-Pass at Jihad Attack Time!

March 25, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Daniel 11:41 – He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.

The ancient boil of conflict between the descendants of Jacob, Ishmael, and the six sons of Keturah, with all its internal blend of impurities, is finally coming to a head in the Middle East.

A future false peace hudna truce will be shattered suddenly by a rapid blitzkrieg attack from the north by Syria. In league with Syria will be Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, Turkey, Morocco, and the PA.

Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran will move rapidly southward through the “glorious land” of Israel like a fast moving thunderstorm, bypassing the land where the people of Moab, Ammon, and Edom were settled when Daniel wrote his prophecies in about 600 B.C. The descendants of Edom (Jacob’s brother), and Ammon and Moab (the sons of Lot), as found on every published map for this time period, were settled immediately to the southeast, east, and northeast of the Dead Sea, precisely in the country we know as Jordan today.

Hence, we can know that the antichrist will bypass Jordan as he moves south through Israel.

Why would he bypass Jordan? Jordan has no strategic, political, or economic advantage to offer him, but the Suez Canal and Egypt do, so he will head southwest toward that area after having driven the woman Israel into the Negev Wilderness south of Beersheva.

Revelation 12:6 – And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

Daniel 11:42 – He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

Begin DEBKAfile Report

DEBKAfile Exclusive: Israel-Jordan tensions flare over discovery of king’s covert support for hard-line Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal

March 22, 2007, 11:45 AM (GMT+02:00)

Israeli officials and army chiefs were taken aback by an intelligence report summing up two years of research, which exposed Jordan’s King Abdullah, Israel’s partner in peace and the war on terror, as being secretly in league with the Damascus-based radical Khaled Meshaal.

A high-placed Israeli source commented: “All these years Israel was guided by the knowledge that Meshaal was sponsored by Damascus and more recently Tehran. We now learn the entire Hamas leadership also enjoyed the patronage of the Hashemite court in Amman. It has been a real shock.”

It also catches Israel in a diplomatic crisis with both its Arab peace partners a week before the Arab summit in Riyadh.

Cairo claims Israel’s responsibility for hundreds of Egyptian troop deaths was exposed in an Israeli TV documentary.

The Jordanian-Hamas connection came to light during Israel’s information-gathering on the stages leading up to the formation of the Palestinian Fatah-Hamas government. The rancor spilled out into acerbic exchanges between Jerusalem and Amman.

March 16, prime minister Ehud Olmert said a precipitate US withdrawal from Iraq would jeopardize and may even bring down the regime in Amman. The king riposted that Olmert had better to deal with the shaky situation of his own government than with Jordanian affairs.

On March 20, parliament in Amman condemned Olmert’s words, maintaining, “The Hashemite regime in Jordan, which has not been at any time a fragile country or lacked the attributes of a state, will remain a strong homeland, unaffected by skepticism of developments in the region.”

The dispute casts a long shadow on Israel-Jordanian collaboration in the war on Islamist terror, DEBKAfile’s counter-terror reports.

US president’s security coordinator Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, joined by the British and Canadians, is organizing a Jordanian-Palestinian military force to prop up Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah in relation to Hamas.

Tuesday, March 20, the American general reported to Congress in Washington that Hamas commands a well-trained army which is bigger and equipped by Iran with superior weaponry to Abbas’ security forces.

This was the first time an American military officer has made such an assessment of relative Fatah-Hamas strength.

The compilers of the Israeli intelligence report question the consistency of Jordan on the one hand contributing to a military force supposed to bolster Palestinian moderates while at the same time backing Hamas. They also ask, according to DEBKAfile’s sources, if Jordan can be relied on to select non-Hamas members for the Palestinian unit designed to offset Hamas’ military strength. Were Hamas infiltrators weeded out

? And can Jordanian officials be trusted not to leak the force’s secrets to Hamas?

The ties between the royal house and Hamas, according to Israeli intelligence researchers, have always been managed by Muslim Brotherhood leaders close to the throne.

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Israel and All their Enemies are preparing for War!

March 25, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Luke 21:24 – And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

In AD 70 this prophecy was fulfilled and, except for a very brief period of limited freedom under Bar Kochba, some 62 years later, Israel did not have to prepare for war against the enemies around her until the last half of the nineteen forties. She has had to stay on constant alert since that time, and has experienced several wars.

Christianity has settled into complacency regarding the Second Advent of Christ and most of Judaism has, or is, turning more and more secular concerning the coming of their Messiah. The following Scriptures are more appropriate now than at any time since the modern industrial revolution began.

II Peter 3:1-4 – This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: [2] That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: [3] Knowing this first, that there shall come IN THE LAST DAYS scoffers, walking after their own lusts, [4] And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

II Peter 3:8,9 – But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. [9] The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

I Thessalonians 5:3-6 – For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. [4] But ye, brethren, are not in darkness,

that that day should overtake you as a thief. [5] Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

[6] Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

Isaiah 66:15,16 – For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.

[16] For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many.

More and more believers are becoming inclined to think Christ’s return may not even occur in this century, and there is a growing falling away from the Biblical instructions God left as to how he wanted mankind to worship him.

The March Articles, which follow, are from a variety of sources, and give a good overview of a Middle East scenario that is not going to show anything except a very brief period of false peace, just before all their great preparations for the final war are completed. My guesstimate is that it could begin as early as 2008, or as late as 2012, but the winds of war in the Middle East will eventually blow into a whirlwind.

Begin Haaretz Article

Ashkenazi: IDF needs years to become satisfactorily prepared

By Aluf Been and Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondents

March 22, 2007

Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi warned the security cabinet Wednesday that the Israel Defense Forces would need time to reach the necessary level of preparedness.

“Do not think the army will be ready in three months,” Ashkenazi told the security cabinet during the meeting. A team of senior IDF officers briefed the ministers on the lessons of the Second Lebanon War.

Ashkenazi said several years would be needed.

Preference would be given to forces likely to participate in dangerous operations.

He told the security cabinet that when he took over as chief of staff, he considered interfering with the IDF’s in-house investigations into its problems and performance during the war, and said he decided not to do so. Dan Halutz was chief of staff during the war.

The head of the General Staff’s doctrine and training department, Brigadier General Danny Biton, presented the security cabinet with the main findings of more than 20 IDF in-house investigations since the war.

The ministers commended the army on its openness in exposing shortcomings. “We are dealing with the debriefing of the army, irrespective of the Winograd Committee,” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said. “It is no replacement for the lessons that we must learn regarding the political-military connection, and the translation of government decisions into military objectives.”

“We always say it is necessary to move the fight onto enemy territory as quickly as possible,” Olmert added. “But, when you are faced with ballistic missiles and indirect fire, even when you have penetrated enemy territory to a certain point, the enemy can still fire missiles. The question is how to apply this principle to the contemporary battlefield.”

Begin Toronto Star Article

Hizbullah Preparing for the Next Round of War

Andrew Mills

March 12, 2007

Hizbullah forces have returned to the mountains north of the Litani River, beyond the jurisdiction of UN soldiers stationed in southern Lebanon, to build a new line of attack. “We know that they’re here,” says Hafez Kirwan, 42, leader of the Druze village of As-Srairi, 20 km. north of the Israeli border.

During last summer’s war between Israel and Hizbullah, its fighters used the thick underbrush of these mountainsides as cover to fire missiles into Israel. Locals say those fighters are back, in greater numbers, moving more frequently and, everyone suspects, stockpiling more weapons than ever before.

Hizbullah says it has spent the last seven months preparing for another major battle with Israel by regrouping and amassing some 33,000 missiles.

“We are completing our preparedness for a greater and more dangerous stage,” Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address last month. (Toronto Star)

Begin Tehran Times Article

Iran, Syria sign defense cooperation protocol

March 13, 2007

TEHRAN (FNA) — Tehran and Damascus Monday took a further step in expansion and deepening of their defense ties by endorsing a new protocol on defense cooperation.

The document was signed at the end of the second round of talks in Damascus between Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Mostafa-Mohammad Najjar and his Syrian counterpart Lieutenant General Hassan Ali Turkmani.

Development and consolidation of defense and military ties, efforts to base regional security on local actors and continued exchange of views and consultations to secure the two countries’ interests are among the pivotal points stressed in the protocol.

Najjar, leading a senior military delegation, arrived in Damascus on Friday evening on an official visit to Syria.

During his three-day trip, the Iranian minister attended talks with senior Syrian officials, including President Bashar al-Assad and Defense Minister Hassan Ali Turkmani, and discussed bilateral relations and important

regional and international issues.

Najjar also paid visits to some military and industrial centers in Syria

Begin YNet News Article

At this rate, we’ll lose the next war

Reservist goes to training exercises, tells about experience with disorganized headquarters, apathetic commanders

Oded Shalev

March 11, 2007

“Th is i

s an enlistment exercise. You have eight hours to get to the base,” said a voice on the phone Monday afternoon. Immediately the phone tree to friends from the reserve unit was activated; no one thought of blowing off the training exercise. After the Lebanon war, we all knew reserve unit training is important. Or is it?

A few hours after the call, two friends and I headed for the headquarters up north. When we arrived on base, we saw that the mess was already in full swing.

“Get a kitbag and a weapon,” I was told.

“The bag holds your emergency gear.

Check that everything is inside.” When I did, I discovered equipment that looked as if it had been used by Jewish fighters during the War of Independence.

We brought this up later with our battalion commander who said, “This is the last time you’ll see such outdated equipment. Next time you’ll have new supplies.” Needless to say, I had heard the same sentence from his predecessor, in 1998.

The training exercises were amusing, if you ignored the fact that their purpose was to prepare us to implement similar maneuvers in the event of a real crisis. Sirens and artillery fire could be heard, but, for us, the exercise boiled down to hiding behind a military truck.

When military inspectors arrived they were baffled to see soldiers disoriented. Perhaps this was because no one had actually taken pains to brief us about the training exercise prior to starting it.

The planners of the exercise also seemed to have forgotten to take into account the need for soldiers to rest. Beds only arrived at three in the morning.

“It is regrettable, you are right,” the commander said, in response to soldiers standing in the freezing cold.

At five in the morning, after barely any sleep, we returned to the exercise, where the commander of the anti-aircraft division apologized for passing on erroneous information.

If this training exercise was meant to serve the purpose of preparing soldiers for the eventuality of war, then blunders like these are a travesty and endanger the lives of reservists who dropped everything and came when they were called.

We have become used to the old equipment and the miscommunication between reservists and standing army soldiers. But we cannot come to terms with the mistreatment of reservists, an attitude that borders abandon, which was one of the main blunders of last summer’s war against Hizbullah.

If, God forbid, war breaks out tomorrow, the situation will be very bad. At this rate, we will not win it.

Begin YNet News Article

Syria Seeking New Russian Warplanes

Aryeh Egozi (Ynet News)

Syria has approached Moscow with a request to purchase new Sukhoi 30 fighter aircraft as part of Damascus’ drive to upgrade its army.

The Sukhoi 30 has been compared with the U.S.-made F15 E Super Eagle.

Begin DEBKAfile Article

DEBKAfile Exclusive: Hamas recycles Gush Katif rubble to fortify 50 sq. km of war bunkers on Gaza Strip-Egyptian border

March 5, 2007, 11:24 AM (GMT+02:00)

Beneath the Rafah-Philadelphi border region between Gaza and Egyptian Sinai, the Palestinian Hamas has built a vast underground stronghold. A separate series of secret tunnels snakes under another Gaza border into western Israel.

Senior Israeli military sources describe the Rafah-Philadelphi warren as spreading over 50 sq. km. It consists of a net of multipurpose, well-furnished tunnels, designed by Syrian and Hizballah army engineers for combat against tanks and armored infantry and equipped with thousands of the latest anti-tank missiles. It takes Hamas two and a half weeks to excavate one kilometer under ground.

“They should never have been allowed to build this fortress. We should have stopped it long ago,” said one high officer.

DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose that Israel’s heads of government and military knew what was going on, but did not raise a finger to stop the construction of Hamas’ buried stronghold. Neither did any responsible official or officer question Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s decision to abstain from military action to knock it out before its completion.

Rather than feeding the Palestinian population, Hamas is sinking every incoming cent in its war preparations.

“We are no longer looking at dirt trenches that cave in but military bunkers in every sense, modeled on the ones used by Hizballah in southern Lebanon last summer. Destroying this monster facility or putting it out of action at this point will mean heavy casualties.”

Composed of narrow subterranean tunnels that link the broader passages connecting Gaza and Sinai,

the Hamas facility provides passage for troop reinforcements and ordnance supplies. Their walls are made of reinforced concrete that can withstand shelling and bombs. Ceilings and walls are lined with concrete debris taken from the ruins of Gush Katif, the Israeli community whose homes the Israeli army tore down during the pullback from the Gaza Strip in 2005.

Hundreds of laborers employed by Hamas have hauled 30,000 blocks and chunks of concrete from the rubble of Ganei Tal for lining the walls of their bunkers. The Hamas fortress has installed the water pipe system of Netzarim and Netzer Sereni.

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Who shall live when God does this in the Latter Day?

March 24, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

The ships of foreign nations from many shores are crowding the waters

of the Middle East in numbers that rival World War II. The prophetic ingredients are coming together on land, on the seas, and in the air of the Middle East for the beginning of the final series of events ending the Age of the Gentiles, which I am guesstimating will start at some point in time between 2008 and 2012.

Numbers 24:12-14,23,24 – And Balaam said unto Balak, Spake I not also to thy messengers which thou sentest unto me, saying, [13] If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord, to do either good or bad of mine own mind; but what the Lord saith, that will I speak? [14] And now, behold, I go unto my people: come therefore, and I will advertise thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter day. [23] And he took up his parable, and said, Alas, who shall live when God doeth this! [24] And ships shall come from the coast of Chittim, and shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, and he also shall perish for ever.

Begin DEBKAfile Article 1

DEBKAfile reports: High alert at US and UK bases, Middle East armies on the ready lest Iran’s seizure of 15 British seamen Friday is only first Iranian reprisal action

March 24, 2007, 1:08 PM (GMT+02:00)

Our military sources report that Middle East and Persian Gulf nations as well as the US and UK are bracing for further Iranian marine, air or terrorist operations in Iraq and other places in reprisal for the sanctions measure before the UN Security Council in New York. On the ready too are the Saudi armed forces and some Israeli air and naval units.

According to Iranian sources the 15 British Royal navy seamen and marines which an Iranian warship seized with their commando craft Friday, March 23, have been taken to Tehran to explain their “aggressive action.”

London insists the UK marines routinely inspecting merchant vessels for smuggled goods were on the Iraqi side of the divided Shat al Arb waterway which flows into the Persian Gulf. Tehran accuses them of entering Iranian waters.

DEBKAfile’s military sources say the incident was but a pretext. According to incoming intelligence, Tehran plans to release a series of reprisals after sanctions are approved in New York Saturday evening, March 24.

The Islamic Republic is also cautioning its Gulf neighbors Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, whose foreign ministers meet visiting US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice in Assuan Saturday morning, not to cooperate with Washington’s regional policies and to stay neutral in the US-Iran dispute.

President Mahmoud Admadinejad’s last-minute cancellation of his appearance before the Security Council is further indication that Tehran gave up on diplomatic maneuvers for pre-empting the sanctions resolution and, assuming their approval was not preventable, turned instead to ramping up military tensions.

Thursday, DEBKAfile reported exclusively a rendezvous Wednesday between the French nuclear carrier Charles de Gaulle and its task force with the USS John C.

Stennis in the Arabian Sea Wednesday for joint missions in the global war on terror.

The next day, Iran launched a new naval war game in the Persian Gulf. Just before the British sailors were seized, UK commanders in Basra accused Iran of being behind 90% of the violence in S.

Iraq and paying out $250 to anyone willing to attack British troops.

Amid rising tensions in the strategic Gulf waters, DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose the American-French rendezvous was timed to coincide with the UN Security Council session Wednesday to debate expanded sanctions against Iran for continuing its banned uranium enrichment program.

The Iranians were bowled over by the appearance of the Charles de Gaulle opposite their southern coast, having assumed that Paris took issue with Washington’s tough stand on their nuclear activities and was seeking improved relations with Tehran.

However, Western military circles explain that the French president Jacques Chirac decided before he leaves office in May to repair the bad impression he left in early February when he urged the world – and Israel in particular – to learn to live with “an Iranian nuclear bomb or two.”

Rafale fighter-bombers on the French carrier’s decks will fly missions over Afghanistan alongside US warplanes.

Its arrival raises to four the number of Western aircraft carriers cruising within striking distance of Iran, including the USS Eisenhower and USS Boxer.

The Charles de Gaulle is accompanied by French Task Force 473, which consists of five warships: the FNS Cassard guided missile destroyer, the FNS Tourville anti-submarine frigate, the FNS Dupleix destroyer adapted for escorting oil tankers and the FNS Marne, a command and supply vessel. Captain of the French task force is Rear Adm. Xavier Magne. Commander of the American flotilla is Rear Adm. Kevin Quinn.

End Jerusalem Post Article 1

The following is an excerpt from Archive Prophecy Update Number 51, dated January 8, 2002

Begin Excerpt from Archive Prophecy Update Number 51

Prophecy Update Number 50 closed with the antichrist located in Cairo, Egypt, which has been his capital for more than three years. He will supposedly have fulfilled the desire of what most nations say they want, that is, he will have brought stability to the Middle East. However, between the third and fourth year of his rule, something will cause him to quickly head for Jerusalem. We closed Update 50 by saying, “Lord willing, In Prophecy Update Number 51, we will discuss what causes him to head for Jerusalem.”

Daniel 11:44,45 – But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. [45] And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

Please bear in mind that Daniel does not bring him out of the Egypt he has conquered until verse 44, and that he heads back for the glorious holy mountain, which is the middle hill of the three hills upon which the eastern part of the city of Jerusalem rests. It is better known as the Mount of Moriah, where the first three temples sat, and is located between two seas, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Dead Sea. Before the mighty former Soviet Union of Joseph Stalin arose, some identified this troubling news out of the north as being about Attila the Hun, after him it was about the German Kaiser of WW1, then about Hitler of WW2, and so forth and so on. Before the great communist revolution of Mao brought forth the present huge sleeping giant of Red China, some identified the troubling news out of the east as being about Genghis Khan, the great Mongol conqueror from the east.

But modern day expositors generally now tend to make it news concerning Russia in the north and China in the east. I do not believe it is either. When Daniel wrote his book, it was written to the people of his day.

So it is important to consider what they knew to be immediately to the north and to the east of Egypt. But before we discuss what was, and still is, immediately north of Egypt, and what was, and still is, immediately east of Egypt, let me advise you why I do not believe it involves Russia or China. Get out a world map and measure how far it is from Cairo to the borders of China and Russia.

The population of Russia today is more than 150 million, and the population of China is more than 1 billion, 300 million. Do you really think he is going to take them on? And are they not supposed to join forces with him at the final battle of Armageddon? If he were, it would be rank insanity to return to Jerusalem to take them on! And, besides all that, the land we know as China and Russia, for all practical purposes, was perhaps mentioned only in fables in Daniel’s day. Do you really think he will “go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly make away many” from two distant, vast, countries with a combined population of almost one and one-half billion?

So what is immediately north of Egypt? What touches its northern border

? The Mediterranean Sea! And what land is immediately east of Egypt? What touches its eastern border? The Negev! And what could possibly be in the Mediterranean Sea that would trouble him? The U.S. Fleet! And what could possibly be in the Negev that would trouble him? Between 1.7 and 1.9 million Israelis! The U.S. Navy & Marine Corps publish periodical “TRANSITIONS” of “All the Ships at Sea.” You will find it amazing how many vessels we routinely have on scheduled patrols in the Mediterranean Sea. We keep a carrier constantly on station patrolling that section of the Mediterranean immediately south of Turkey and north of Egypt. The carriers USS Enterprise and the USS Theodore Roosevelt have often relieved each other on this permanent patrol station, along with other carriers. There is also a report issued periodically on marine units deployed on the many ships that patrol the seas of the Middle East from the Mediterranean through the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean and up into the Persian Gulf. It is simply called “All the Marines Deployed.” The U.S. Marines and IDF have been conducting joint operations in the Negev off and on for some 25 years.

So the antichrist has had Israel bottled up in the Negev for more than three years at this future point in time. I believe the news he hears is simply this: the U.S. Marines and IDF are planning to close his rear flank back to the country from which he originally came, Syria. He will have left a strip heavily fortified across Gaza and the northern Sinai, but he will begin to have reservations about the ability of his troops to hold it.

He will then head back for Jerusalem to finally do what he wishes he had previously done, that is, to end the Jewish problem.

He will “go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.” He will super fortify the northeast Sinai and Gaza Strip, and head northeast to Jerusalem to prepare for the destruction of Israel in the Negev. In Prophecy Update Number 52, Lord willing, I will define his palace, the tabernacles, and the nations involved.

End Excerpt from Prophecy Archive Number 51

If one goes back over the events in the Middle East since the summer war between Israel and Hizbullah, it is easy to see that the United States has been easing a lot of naval air power into the waters of the Middle East. I have covered the reason for this in several previous BLOGS we have issued since last July.

The last BLOG in our Archives was issued on January 5, and was titled, “President preparing for Contingencies.” It gives the reasons for, and the probable uses of, an ever increasing naval force in the waters of the Middle East.

What follows are a series of article about the carrier battle forces that have been coming into the Middle East since January 7.

Article 2

DEBKAfile Exclusive: Three US Norfolk-based amphibious assault ships set out for Persian Gulf Saturday

January 7, 2007, 11:33 PM (GMT+02:00)

They are part of the USS Bataan Strike group carrying 2,000 Marines and equipped to insert forces ashore by helicopter, landing craft and amphibious vehicles. The Baatan is equipped with helicopters and fast hovercraft capable of landing thousands of Marines on beaches and providing the landing with cover. The Shreveport, known as the Super Gator, combines the logistical-intelligence support of a command ship with the assault capabilities of combat loaded marines. It is designed for extended amphibious operations.

The USS Oak Hill is designed to assist distressed vessels.

DEBKAfile’s military sources add that another three warships are due to sail out of Norfolk for the Gulf this week with marine personnel aboard. This will bring to more than 20,000 the complement of sailors, marines and pilots either heading for the Gulf region like the USS John C. Stennis strike group,

or already present like the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the USS Boxer.

The deployment of the USS John C.

Stennis strike group, announced last week, was billed as “a warning to Syria and Iran.”

Article 3

Two US aircraft carrier groups plus a Patriot air defense missile battalion planned for the Middle East – the Pentagon

January 12, 2007, 7:42 PM (GMT+02:00)

The US military spokesman said the carrier USS John C. Stennis will join the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower strike group. Both will be deployed in the Persian Gulf for a period of months. The second carrier will not just be showing force, but be actively involved in combat operations and providing air support across the region.” US-Iranian tensions are mounting over Washington’s charges of Iran’s disruptive interference in Iraq, which were spelled out by President George W.

Bush Wednesday. US forces detained six Iranian nationals in two raids in Irbil, northern Iraq Thursday.

Article 4

At least 16 US F-16 fighter craft arrive in S. Turkish Incirlink base for the first time in three years

January 12, 2007, 11:08 PM (GMT+02:00)

According to local Cihan News Agency, the F-16s were accompanied by an early warning system AWACS airplane and tanker airplanes from an American base in Germany. An official at the US embassy in Ankara said the planes had arrived for joint exercises with the Turkish military

Article 5

Two Carrier Battle Groups in Middle East before Spring

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

January 16, 2007

US bringing second aircraft carrier to Mideast

Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST

January 16, 2007

A second US aircraft carrier will arrive in the Middle East in about a month, a US Navy official said Tuesday, the first time since the US-led Iraq invasion in 2003 that the United States will have two carrier battle groups in the region.

The increase in US forces is a show of strength by Washington in the face of Iran’s growing regional assertiveness and a perception among US adversaries that the United States is vulnerable in Iraq, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday.

The USS John C. Stennis is scheduled to sail Tuesday from its homeport of Bremerton, Washington.

End Article 5

Every thing seems to be slipping into place on land, sea, and in the air of the Middle East, and my guesstimate continues to be that at some point in time between 2008 and 2012 Israel will be attacked from the north by a confederation of Islamic nations.

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