Interesting developments in Iran:
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is planning an “extraordinary attack” on the political power of Iran’s clerics in an attempt to “separate mosque and state,” the Times of London reported.
Ahmadinejad, whose second and final presidential term ends in August, and his chief of staff and would-be-successor, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, intend to “effectively dismantle the theocratic structure of Iranian government that has stood since the revolution,” if Mashaei proves able to win the upcoming presidential election, Tuesday’s report said.
Mashaei, who is regarded as an opponent of the religious establishment, reportedly said during a recent planning meeting that he has “the deepest respect for the clerics, but they are not politicians. Their presence is damaging Iranian politics. Their role should be spiritual only. In the next four years we have an opportunity to change the constitution.” The quote was cited by an anonymous source who told the paper that Mashaei’s “implication was clear — he was endorsing a separation of mosque and state.”
Iranian rocket specialists are in the Gaza Strip, helping terrorist organizations develop their arsenal of projectiles, Palestinian security officials said Tuesday, hours after a rocket was fired at Israel for the first time in months.
Representatives of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard were helping Hamas, which rules the Strip, and the Islamic Jihad organization develop long-range rockets, the Hebrew news site Walla reported, citing the unnamed Palestinian officials. Israeli officials confirmed there was an Iranian presence in Gaza, adding it wasn’t the first time Iranian officials had entered the Strip, the report said.
On Thursday morning, an upgraded Fajr missile, with a range of 70 kilometers (over 40 miles), landed south of Ashkelon, breaking a truce between Israel and the terror groups in the Strip which had held since the end of Operation Pillar of Defense in November. In response to the rocket fire Tuesday, Israel temporarily curtailed operations at two Gaza border crossings.
Fatah’s military wing claimed responsibility for the attack, but Israeli reports said it was likely that Hamas — which controls Gaza — was also involved at some level.
In November, a senior Hamas official predicted that Iran would increase its military and economic aid to Gazan groups because of the victory his group claimed in Pillar of Defense, the eight-day confrontation with Israel.
“They give it to us in the name of Allah, without conditions, and I am a witness to this,” Mahmoud al-Zahar told reporters in Gaza at the time, adding, “It is our right to take money and weapons from Iran.”
Warnings from U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano that enemy nations are carrying out cyber attacks on the U.S. are on the rise.
The target? The U.S. electric infrastructure.
But that may not be the worst of it. Those same adversaries – China, Russia, Iran and North Korea – also incorporate in their military doctrine the use of a nuclear electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, attack as “part of a strategic operation that would basically ‘throw the kitchen sink’ at the United States,” according to Cynthia E. Ayers, who once was with the National Security Agency and currently is with the U.S. Army War College.
These countries, she said, will “hit us with everything – computer viruses, sabotage of critical communications nodes, kinetic strikes on key information systems and a nuclear EMP attack.”
“The last, an EMP, is their best chance to collapse our national power grid and take us down, perhaps permanently,” she said.
In recent months, U.S. banks, the Federal Reserve, oil and gas production companies, media outlets and U.S. Defense Department and National Nuclear Security Administration entities have reported what Ayers calls a “massive” number – “in the millions” – of cyber attacks daily
N. Korea's 'Hatred Of Christians' Puts 70,000 Believers In Prison
Persecution of Christians in North Korea shows no sign of abating under the country's new leader, Kim Jong-Un, according to a report by the worldwide ministry Open Doors.
"The fanatical regime, which rules the destitute country of 24 million people with a proverbial iron fist, has a special hatred for Christians," Jerry Dykstra of the California-based Open Doors USA noted. "North Korea is in a league of its own when it comes to persecution of Christians."
Dykstra's and other reports parallel incidents in North Korea chronicled in the U.S. State Department's religious freedom assessments.
Of an estimated 200,000 prisoners in North Korea, 70,000 of them are Christians, Open Doors reported. For the 11th consecutive year, North Korea tops Open Doors' list of the worst countries for its brutal treatment of believers.
North Korea is run like a giant religious cult, Dykstra wrote. He noted two ideologies that drive the regime: "Juche," which asserts that man is self-reliant, and "Kimilsungism," which is the worship of leaders.
Christianity is viewed as a Western-instigated threat to the regime, Dykstra wrote in an article which appeared on the Religion Today website Feb. 19.
Based on defectors, circumstantial evidence and international observers' reports, Dykstra has concluded that the situation for North Korean Christians is deteriorating rather than improving.
"Many North Koreans attempt to escape to neighboring China, and an informal network of Christians seek to provide practical assistance when they cross the border," Dykstra wrote. "However, the reach of Pyongyang extends even into China.
"Police officials follow the refugees over the border and hunt down and vigorously prosecute those who convert to Christianity while in China or those who attempt to bring Christian literature back to North Korea," he wrote.
North Koreans who return to their country are interrogated about whether they met any Christians in China and whether they visited a church in China, the Open Doors report said.
Recently a Christian was shot and killed while returning for Bible training in China, Dykstra wrote. An Open Doors worker reported, "He was very excited about his new faith and wanted to share the Gospel with his family. He wanted to come back to China to study the Bible more so he could explain the Christian faith better to his family."
Another Christian, who also had studied the Bible in China, died in a labor camp, Open Doors reported.
"The number of trained North Korean spies inside China is growing," Dykstra wrote. "They are attempting to track down human rights activists and Christians helping North Koreans refugees."
Amid such hardships, the faith of North Korean believers is strong, Dykstra wrote. Open Doors obtained a letter from an underground church leader who noted, "No matter what circumstances we face, we stand firm in the mighty hands of God, and we will continue to march strongly towards the eternal kingdom."
EU Labels Jerusalem Construction 'Deliberate And Provocative'
I wonder how they label the rocket fire coming into Gaza?
The European Union is targeting Jewish construction in Jerusalem, calling it “systematic, deliberate and provocative.” Building projects in the eastern portion of Israel’s capital city are part of a strategy aimed at preventing the holy city from being divided and used as the capital for two states, the EU’s “Jerusalem Report 2012" claims.
Jewish construction in sections of the city restored to the capital and annexed following the 1967 Six Day War is seen by the EU as “the biggest single threat to the two-state solution,” according to the report seen by AFP on Wednesday.
The report, authored by EU heads of mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah, flagged construction in the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Har Homa, Gilo and Givat HaMatos as being “the most significant and problematic plans.”
All three were referred to as “settlements” rather than the neighborhoods of the city that they are.
“The construction of these three settlements is part of a political strategy aiming at making it impossible for Jerusalem to become the capital of two states,” the report warned. “If the current pace of settlement activity on Jerusalem’s southern flank persists, an effective buffer between east Jerusalem and Bethlehem may be in place by the end of 2013, thus making the realization of a viable two-state solutioninordinately more difficult, if not impossible.”
Persecution of Christians in North Korea shows no sign of abating under the country's new leader, Kim Jong-Un, according to a report by the worldwide ministry Open Doors.
"The fanatical regime, which rules the destitute country of 24 million people with a proverbial iron fist, has a special hatred for Christians," Jerry Dykstra of the California-based Open Doors USA noted. "North Korea is in a league of its own when it comes to persecution of Christians."
Dykstra's and other reports parallel incidents in North Korea chronicled in the U.S. State Department's religious freedom assessments.
Of an estimated 200,000 prisoners in North Korea, 70,000 of them are Christians, Open Doors reported. For the 11th consecutive year, North Korea tops Open Doors' list of the worst countries for its brutal treatment of believers.
North Korea is run like a giant religious cult, Dykstra wrote. He noted two ideologies that drive the regime: "Juche," which asserts that man is self-reliant, and "Kimilsungism," which is the worship of leaders.
Christianity is viewed as a Western-instigated threat to the regime, Dykstra wrote in an article which appeared on the Religion Today website Feb. 19.
Based on defectors, circumstantial evidence and international observers' reports, Dykstra has concluded that the situation for North Korean Christians is deteriorating rather than improving.
"Many North Koreans attempt to escape to neighboring China, and an informal network of Christians seek to provide practical assistance when they cross the border," Dykstra wrote. "However, the reach of Pyongyang extends even into China.
"Police officials follow the refugees over the border and hunt down and vigorously prosecute those who convert to Christianity while in China or those who attempt to bring Christian literature back to North Korea," he wrote.
North Koreans who return to their country are interrogated about whether they met any Christians in China and whether they visited a church in China, the Open Doors report said.
Recently a Christian was shot and killed while returning for Bible training in China, Dykstra wrote. An Open Doors worker reported, "He was very excited about his new faith and wanted to share the Gospel with his family. He wanted to come back to China to study the Bible more so he could explain the Christian faith better to his family."
Another Christian, who also had studied the Bible in China, died in a labor camp, Open Doors reported.
"The number of trained North Korean spies inside China is growing," Dykstra wrote. "They are attempting to track down human rights activists and Christians helping North Koreans refugees."
Amid such hardships, the faith of North Korean believers is strong, Dykstra wrote. Open Doors obtained a letter from an underground church leader who noted, "No matter what circumstances we face, we stand firm in the mighty hands of God, and we will continue to march strongly towards the eternal kingdom."
EU Labels Jerusalem Construction 'Deliberate And Provocative'
I wonder how they label the rocket fire coming into Gaza?
The European Union is targeting Jewish construction in Jerusalem, calling it “systematic, deliberate and provocative.” Building projects in the eastern portion of Israel’s capital city are part of a strategy aimed at preventing the holy city from being divided and used as the capital for two states, the EU’s “Jerusalem Report 2012" claims.
Jewish construction in sections of the city restored to the capital and annexed following the 1967 Six Day War is seen by the EU as “the biggest single threat to the two-state solution,” according to the report seen by AFP on Wednesday.
The report, authored by EU heads of mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah, flagged construction in the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Har Homa, Gilo and Givat HaMatos as being “the most significant and problematic plans.”
All three were referred to as “settlements” rather than the neighborhoods of the city that they are.
“The construction of these three settlements is part of a political strategy aiming at making it impossible for Jerusalem to become the capital of two states,” the report warned. “If the current pace of settlement activity on Jerusalem’s southern flank persists, an effective buffer between east Jerusalem and Bethlehem may be in place by the end of 2013, thus making the realization of a viable two-state solutioninordinately more difficult, if not impossible.”
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