The following articles are compiled by:

Rick Allinson

Rick@WatchmenWatching.com

  

 

Iran's Dangerous Nuke Game: Why Israel Might Rush to Strike
Source: FSM
 

04 January 2008 – Iran turned up the heat this week on still-simmering concerns about its atomic aspirations. It crowed that its 1,000-megawatt Bushehr nuclear power plant would be "online" as early as this spring, putting in place another important building block of its nuclear program.

 

That sort of news can't help but rattle the steadiest of nerves, no matter what the (narrowly focused) US National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's nuclear-weapons program said about the current state of affairs.

 

Seemingly not swayed one iota by the NIE's conclusions, you have to wonder if Israel - the country most threatened by an Iranian nuclear (weapons) breakout - might take matters into its own hands.

 

It has done so twice before - and the time may be here again.

 

In a 1981 dawn raid lasting less than 90 seconds, Israeli Defense Force fighters attacked the nearly completed 40-megawatt Iraqi Osirak nuclear-reactor complex, setting back Saddam's ability to produce fissile material for nukes.

 And again last September, the IDF allegedly struck a nascent Syrian nuclear program, which possibly was benefiting from outside help, in a preventive air strike that may have also been meant as a warning to Iran of unpleasant things to come.

 

But why strike now?

 

Well, within about a year of Bushehr becoming operational, some of its spent nuclear fuel could be stripped of enough plutonium to produce a handful of nuclear weapons if the rods aren't returned to their owner/provider, Russia.

 

Because the production of fissile material is the long pole in the nuclear-weapons tent, the diversion of material at Bushehr is potentially as big a problem as the 3,000 centrifuges that Iran has whirring at supersonic speeds, enriching uranium.

 

Attacking Bushehr - like Osirak - before it comes online would not only stop it from being used to produce bomb material, but would also prevent radiation from the reactor being spewed into the atmosphere after a strike.   

 

 

Israel to brief George Bush on options for Iran strike
Source: Times Online
 

06 January 2008 – ISRAELI security officials are to brief President George W Bush on their latest intelligence about Iran’s nuclear programme - and how it could be destroyed - when he begins a tour of the Middle East in Jerusalem this week.

Ehud Barak, the defence minister, is said to want to convince him that an Israeli military strike against uranium enrichment facilities in Iran would be feasible if diplomatic efforts failed to halt nuclear operations. A range of military options has been prepared.

Last month it was revealed that the US National Intelligence Estimate report, drawing together information from 16 agencies, had concluded that Iran stopped a secret nuclear weapon programme in 2003.

Israeli intelligence is understood to agree that the project was halted around the time of America’s invasion of Iraq, but has “rock solid” information that it has since started up again.

While security officials are reluctant to reveal all their intelligence, fearing that leaks could jeopardise the element of surprise in any future attack, they are expected to present the president with fresh details of Iran’s enrichment of uranium - which could be used for civil or military purposes - and the development of missiles that could carry nuclear warheads.

In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot this weekend, Bush argued that in spite of the US intelligence assessment, Iran still posed a threat.

“I read the intelligence report carefully,” Bush said. “In essence, what the report said was that Iran had a secret plan to develop nuclear weapons.

“I’m saying that a state which adopted a nontransparent policy and had a secret plan for developing nuclear weapons could easily develop an alternative plan for the same purpose. So to conclude from the intelligence report that there is no Iranian plan to develop nuclear weapons will be only a partial truth.”

Israeli security officials believe the only way to prevent uranium enrichment to military grade is to destroy Iranian installations. Many Israelis are eager to know whether America would give their country the green light to attack, as it did last September when Israel struck a mysterious nuclear site in Syria.  

 

Comments: Update; as I mentioned before, I think the Iranian situation will be the number one issue in 2008. Israel is running against the clock and they know that their time to react is short. If Israel takes action against Iranian Bushehr nuclear power plant this year and most likely within the next 6 months, the outcome will have global consequences. I also believe that this crisis will result in significant biblical and prophetic events that will propel the world into the final few years before Jesus returns. The top article is saying that the Bushehr nuclear power plant would be online" as early as this spring, other reports say no later than the summer. In any case the situation is dire for Israel and as I said in the last report this is why I think President Bush is visiting Israel this week and to get the latest updates on what the options are. The next 3 months will be critical and maybe the last window of opportunity to act before it is too late. Keep an eye on the Bush visit to Israel.

 

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CAUSE FOR HOPE: SMALL STEPS TOWARD BIG CHANGES
Source: Yahoo

 

04 January 2008 – If someone were to suggest that "good news" for this New Year might be found at the opening just before Christmas of the border between Slubice in Poland and Frankfurt an der Oder in Germany, you might think he was more than a little balmy.

 

First of all, where ARE these places? Second, of what possible importance are two small historic cities in Central Europe? We don't even know how to pronounce them! And don't we have enough awful things happening in the world -- Benazir Bhutto's tragic assassination, wars going on ceaselessly from Iraq to Afghanistan, poverty increasing as populations explode -- to assure us that the world is one terrible place?

 

Let us step back for a moment and look at the world anew for 2008. Instead of dwelling on the tragedies, let us look at some hopeful new developments in this treacherous old world.

 

Slubice and Frankfurt (not to be confused with the larger Frankfurt am Main in southern Germany), happen to fall right in the center of the Polish-German border that has been the dark passageway for wars, invasions and wanton destruction ever since the Middle Ages. The cities changed hands innumerable times between warring nationalities, from the Teutonic Knights in the Middle Ages to Hitler and Stalin in our times. Never did the twain meet, much less greet.

 

But this holiday season, Dec. 21 to be exact, all of that mangled history suddenly changed. Thanks to the collapse of the Soviet empire and to years of work by the European Union to bring the former countries of Eastern Europe into the borderless zone by adopting the common visa, asylum and external border procedures required for membership, you can now walk from Slubice to Frankfurt without so much as a "by your leave."

 

Indeed, when all the formalities are completed soon, it will be possible to drive from Lisbon in westernmost "European" Portugal to Tallinn in easternmost "European" Estonia without a passport or identity card. Yes, that was "all" that happened in that new borderless world this Christmas.

 

But the really odd thing about this historic event is that it occurred with relatively little notice -- an article here, a mention there. It occurred, moreover, with no problems on the ground. People on both sides of this once-intractable border simply accept the new relationship as a given -- but it was, in truth, not merely inevitable.

 

It is an achievement that has been worked out in the gradual but persistent, step-by-step coming together and development of the E.U. since the anti-war postwar world of the 1950s. As E.U. foreign secretary Javier Solana has told me in interviews over the years as this new unity progressed, the development of the E.U. will "abolish war within Europe within our lifetimes."

 

 

Comments: New change in Europe might be a cause for hope and a step towards big changes but in reality this new European Union is anything but hope for its citizens. The bible tells us that this emerging and growing empire know as the European Union is none other that the fourth beast spoken of in Daniel 7:7 and will be dreadful and terrible. To some people this new Europe will bring new peace and abolish war but the bible tells us that this is what they will say about this new beast. There is no hope in this new Europe (for what it is). The bible tells us that there is only one hope in Jesus and one everlasting kingdom.

 

Da 7:7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.

Re 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

 

Da 7:27 And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.

 

 

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Keep watching (Matt 24:42)!

 

Until next time,

Shalom!

 

 

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