Townhall Cartoons – Glenn McCoy 8-30-2012

 Notice their bird has a hood too!

 

AND NOW, BIG SMILE…

 

 

By Jerry Holbert – August 30, 2012

 

Wednesday Night Grand Slam – from Townhall.com

Guy Benson
Political Editor, Townhall.com

GOP Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan delivered exceptionally strong remarks in Tampa tonight, capping off an incredible hour of nationally-televised speeches from Republican headliners. The construction and tone of Ryan’s address was masterful. He was serious, earnest, likeable — and he took apart President Obama’s record with great skill and relish. The Congressman opened with a stark assessment of the dismal campaign President Obama has been forced to run, due to his failed record in office:

A tremendously well-crafted address, delivered more than adequately by a man who’s not especially accustomed to prepared remarks and teleprompters — as his introductory speech demonstrated. It was at once an optimistic ode to a brighter American future and a scathing indictment of the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. His speech planted a giant exclamation point at the end of a memorable and extremely effective 10pm hour. Some credit is due to Mike Huckabee, who pulled the audience out of its relative slumber with an energetic and funny speech, promoting his one-time foe as the man to defeat the president. Huck has a light touch, and he used it to set the table for the big three. Up next was Condoleezza Rice, whose true tour de force threatened to overshadow the speakers who followed her. The audience enveloped her with respect and admiration, interrupting her remarks with applause frequently. Her speech was visionary and forward-looking. It was sober. It never directly criticized the president, but delivered several blows with a velvet glove. Her final anecdote of growing up in the segregated South and relying on hard work and integrity to eventually become US Secretary of State was goosebumps-inducing. Gov. Susana Martinez also performed with charm and aplomb, speaking with an ease and genuineness that filled the hall. Her story about discovering she was a conservative was a highlight. She said she turned to her husband after a lengthy political discussion and said, “I’ll be damned. We’re Republicans!” It brought the house down. The Romney campaign must be absolutely ecstatic with how Wednesday evening unfolded. Thursday night holds the final hurdle to a successful campaign: The message from the man himself. Governor Romney will enjoy the biggest stage and largest political audience of his life. Stay tuned.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2012/08/30/the_gops_wednesday_night_grand_slam

CIA BOOK REVIEW ………..Verified!

CIA book review. For the historical record…

As President George W. Bush’s top speech writer, Marc Thiessen was provided unique access to the CIA program used in interrogating top Al Qaeda terrorists, including the mastermind of the 9/11 attack, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad (KSM).

Now, his riveting new book, “Courting Disaster”, How the CIA Kept America Safe (Regnery), has been published.

Here is an excerpt from “Courting Disaster”:

“Just before dawn on March 1, 2003, two dozen heavily armed Pakistani tactical assault forces move in and surround a safe house in Rawalpindi . A few hours earlier they had received a text message from an informant inside the house. It read: “I am withKSM.”

Bursting in, they find the disheveled mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in his bedroom. He is taken into custody. In the safe house, they find a treasure trove of computers, documents, cell phones and other valuable “pocket litter.”

Once in custody, KSM is defiant. He refuses to answer questions, informing his captors that he will tell them everything when he gets to America and sees his lawyer. But KSM is not taken to America to see a lawyer Instead he is taken to a secret CIA “black site” in an undisclosed location.

Upon arrival, KSM finds himself in the complete control of Americans. He does not know where he is, how long he will be there, or what his fate will be.

Despite his circumstances, KSM still refuses to talk. He spews contempt at his interrogators, telling them Americans are weak, lack resilience, and are unable to do what is necessary to prevent the terrorists from succeeding in their goals. He has trained to resist interrogation. When he is asked for information about future attacks, he tells his questioners scornfully: “Soon, you will know.”

It becomes clear he will not reveal the information using traditional interrogation techniques. So he undergoes a series of “enhanced interrogation techniques” approved for use only on the most high-value detainees. The techniques include waterboarding.

His resistance is described by one senior American official as “superhuman.” Eventually, however, the techniques work, and KSM becomes cooperative-for reasons that will be described later in this book.

He begins telling his CIA de-briefers about active al Qaeda plots to launch attacks against the United States and other Western targets. He holds classes for CIA officials, using a chalkboard to draw a picture of al Qaeda’s operating structure, financing, communications, and logistics. He identifies al Qaeda travel routes and safe havens, and helps intelligence officers make sense of documents and computer records seized in terrorist raids. He identifies voices in intercepted telephone calls, and helps officials understand the meaning of coded terrorist communications. He provides information that helps our intelligence community capture other high-ranking terrorists, KSM’s questioning, and that of other captured terrorists, produces more than 6,000 intelligence reports, which are shared across the intelligence community, as well as with our allies across the world.

In one of these reports, KSM describes in detail the revisions he made to his failed 1994-1995 plan known as the “Bojinka plot” to blow up a dozen airplanes carrying some 4,000 passengers over the Pacific Ocean .

Years later, an observant CIA officer notices the activities of a cell being followed by British authorities appear to match KSM’s description of his plans for aBojinka-style attack.

In an operation that involves unprecedented intelligence cooperation between our countries, British officials proceed to unravel the plot.

On the night of Aug. 9, 2006 they launch a series of raids in a northeast London suburb that lead to the arrest of two dozen al Qaeda terrorist suspects. They find a USB thumb-drive in the pocket of one of the men with security details for Heathrow airport, and information on seven Trans-Atlantic flights that were scheduled to take off within hours of each other:

*United Airlines Flight 931 to San Francisco departing at 2:15 p.m.;

*Air Canada Flight 849 to Toronto departing at 3:00 p.m.;

*Air Canada Flight 865 to Montreal departing at 3:15 p.m.;

*United Airlines Flight 959 to Chicago departing at 3:40 p.m.;

*United Airlines Flight 925 to Washington departing at 4:20 p.m.;

*American Airlines Flight 131 to New York departing at 4:35 p.m.;

*American Airlines Flight 91 to Chicago departing at 4:50 p.m.

They seize bomb-making equipment and hydrogen peroxide to make liquid explosives. And they find the chilling martyrdom videos the suicide bombers had prepared.”

Today, if you asked an average person on the street what they know about the 2006 airlines plot, most would not be able to tell you much.

Few Americans are aware of the fact al Qaeda had planned to mark the fifth anniversary of 9/11 with an attack of similar scope and magnitude.

And still fewer realize the terrorists’ true intentions in this plot were uncovered thanks to critical information obtained through the interrogation of the man who conceived it: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

This is only one of the many attacks stopped with the help of the CIA interrogation program established by the Bush Administration in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Editor’s Note: For other foiled terrorist plots, see page 9 of “Courting Disaster.”

In addition to helping break up these specific terrorist cells and plots, CIA questioning provided our intelligence community with an unparalleled body of information about al Qaeda Until the program was temporarily suspended in 2006, intelligence officials say, well over half of the information our government had about al Qaeda-how it operates, how it moves money, how it communicates, how it recruits operatives, how it picks targets, how it plans and carries out attacks-came from the interrogation of terrorists in CIA custody.

Former CIA Director George Tenet has declared: “I know this program has saved lives. I know we’ve disrupted plots. I know this program alone is worth more than what the FBI, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Agency put together have been able to tell us.”

Former CIA Director Mike Hayden has said: “The facts of the case are that the use of these techniques against these terrorists made us safer. It really did work..”

Even Barack Obama’s Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, has acknowledged: “High-value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qaeda organization that was attacking this country.”

Leon Panetta, Obama’s CIA Director, has said: “Important information was gathered from these detainees. It provided information that was acted upon.”

And John Brennan, Obama’s Homeland Security Advisor, when asked in an interview if enhanced-interrogation techniques were necessary to keep America safe, replied : “Would the U.S. be handicapped if the CIA was not, in fact, able to carry out these types of detention and debriefing activities? I would say yes.”

On Jan. 22, 2009, President Obama issued Executive Order 13491, closing the CIA program and directing that, henceforth, all interrogations by U.S. personnel must follow the techniques contained in the Army Field Manual.

The morning of the announcement, Mike Hayden was still in his post as CIA Director, He called White House Counsel Greg Craig and told him bluntly: “You didn’t ask, but this is the CIA officially nonconcurring”. The president went ahead anyway, over ruling the objections of the agency.

A few months later, on April 16, 2009, President Obama ordered the release of four Justice Department memos that described in detail the techniques used to interrogate KSM and other high-value terrorists. This time, not just Hayden (who was now retired) but five CIA directors -including Obama’s own director, Leon Panetta — objected. George Tenet called to urge against the memos’ release. So did Porter Goss. So did John Deutch. Hayden says: “You had CIA directors in a continuous unbroken stream to 1995 calling saying, ‘Don’t do this.’”

In addition to objections from the men who led the agency for a collective 14 years, the President also heard objections from the agency’s covert field operatives. A few weeks earlier, Panetta had arranged for the eight top officials of the Clandestine Service to meet with the President. It was highly unusual for these clandestine officers to visit the Oval Office, and they used the opportunity to warn the President that releasing the memos would put agency operatives at risk. The President reportedly listened respectfully-and then ignored their advice.

With these actions, Barack Obama arguably did more damage to America ‘s national security in his first 100 days of office than any President in American history.

Constitutionality – The Establishment clause; Atheism discussed.

Establishment Clause

• Overview
• Resources

The First Amendment’s Establishment Clause prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion.” This clause not only forbids the government from establishing an official religion, but also prohibits government actions that unduly favor one religion over another. It also prohibits the government from unduly preferring religion over non-religion, or non-religion over religion.

Although some government action implicating religion is permissible, and indeed unavoidable, it is not clear just how much the Establishment Clause tolerates. In the past, the Supreme Court has permitted religious invocations to open legislative session, government funding of bussing and textbooks for private religious schools, and efforts by school districts to arrange schedules to accommodate students’ extra-curricular religious education programs. The Court has ruled against some overtly religious displays at courthouses, state funding supplementing teacher salaries at religious schools, and some overly religious holiday decorations on public land.

One point of contention regarding the Establishment Clause is how to frame government actions that implicate religion. Framing questions often arise in the context of permanent religious monuments on public land. Although it is reasonably clear that cities cannot install new religious monuments, there is fierce debate over whether existing monuments should be removed. When the Supreme Court recently considered this issue in Van Orden v. Perry, 545 U.S. 677 (2005), and McCreary County v. ACLU, 545 U.S. 844 (2005), it did not articulate a clear general standard for deciding these types of cases. The Court revisited this issue in Salazar v. Buono (08-472), a case considering the constitutionality of a large white Christian cross erected by members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars on federal land in the Mojave Desert. While five justices concluded that a federal judge erred in barring a congressionally ordered land transfer which would place the memorial on private land, there was no majority reasoning as to why. Three Justices held that the goal of avoiding governmental endorsement of religion does not require the destruction of religious symbols in the private realm, while Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas concluded that the plaintiff lacked standing to bring this complaint.

 http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/establishment_clause

Definition from Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary

Contained in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, this clause prohibits the government from establishing an official religion. It also prohibits the government from preferring one religion over another, preferring religion over nonreligion, or vice versa.

http://topics.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment   (Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute)

Definition provided by Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary.

August 19, 2010, 5:27 pm

 

The separation of church and state -

Mt Soledad Cross

The establishment clause is rather plain about intent.

Designed to not establish a state religion, and  prohibits the government from unduly preferring religion over non-religion, or non-religion over religion.

So why should a memorial, erected by veterans, ”Constitutionality”  be put to question merely because it’s on federal land? 

We’re not a nation of Atheists, though that fraction of the population is no longer small. Wikipedia, a secular entity, has an article on “Demographics of atheism” which I note had categorized the results:

(see article  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_atheism)

As such, topics such as the sower and the seed, and tares, were, of course, not addressed, though this excerpt was noteworthy:

The Canadian Ipsos Reid poll released September 12, 2011 entitled “Canadians Split On Whether Religion Does More Harm in the World than Good,” sampled 1,129 Canadian adults and came up 30% who do not believe in a god.  Interestingly, the same poll found that 33% of respondents who identified themselves as Catholics and 28% Protestants said they didn’t believe in a god.  Italics my emphasis – “X”

This of course, to those who believe, shows the percentage of tares among the above religious groups. Moreover, their numbers seem to be increasing, not just in Canada, but worldwide.

 Another excerpt, on the U.S. :

USA

A 2004 BBC poll showed the number of people in the US who don’t believe in a god to be about 9%.^[11] A 2008 Gallup poll showed that a smaller 6% of the US population believed that no god or universal spirit exists.^[36] The most recent ARIS report, released March 9, 2009, found in 2008, 34.2 million Americans (15.0%) claim no religion, of which 1.6% explicitly describes itself as atheist (0.7%) or agnostic (0.9%), nearly double the previous 2001 ARIS survey figure of 0.9%.^[37] The highest occurrence of “nones”, according to the 2008 ARIS report, reside in Vermont, with 34% surveyed.^[38] According to a study conducted by Gallup in May 2010, 16% of Americans declared they have no religious affiliation. ^[39]

The latest statistics show that a lack of religious identity increased in every US state between 1990 and 2008.^[40] However less than 2% of the U.S. population describes itself as atheist.^[41]

Hmmm… I still maintain that if we were “80% Christian”, we would NOT be facing the current situation, both in leadership and finance.  Remember, Apostacy is among the last of prophecies that must occur before our redemption; it is now widespread.

 Our system of government is USELESS without a MORAL public. An amoral public elects amoral leaders…

James McHenry  Signer of the Constitution

[P]ublic utility pleads most forcibly for the general distribution of the Holy Scriptures. The doctrine they preach, the obligations they impose, the punishment they threaten, the rewards they promise, the stamp and image of divinity they bear, which produces a conviction of their truths, can alone secure to society, order and peace, and to our courts of justice and constitutions of government, purity, stability and usefulness. In vain, without the Bible, we increase penal laws and draw entrenchments around our institutions. Bibles are strong entrenchments. Where they abound, men cannot pursue wicked courses, and at the same time enjoy quiet conscience.(Source: Bernard C. Steiner, One Hundred and Ten Years of Bible Society Work in Maryland, 1810-1920 (Maryland Bible Society, 1921), p. 14.)

WND EXCLUSIVE – Rock legend slams Obama for ‘bulls—’ spending

‘You know what? I don’t like where you’re putting the dollars’

 by Drew ZahnEmail | Archive

Drew Zahn is a former pastor who cut his editing teeth as a member of the award-winning staff of Leadership, Christianity Today’s professional journal for church leaders.

“I play the h— out of a freaking guitar,” says Rickey Medlock of the legendary rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, but he’s none too happy with paying “the h—” out of his wallet for Washington’s wasteful spending.

“I pay a lot in taxes,” Medlock told WND in an exclusive interview. “Why can’t I stand up and say, ‘You know what? I don’t like the way the money is being spent? I don’t like where you’re putting the dollars now?’

“We’re over 16 trillion in debt that my tax dollars are going to pay for, my 21-year-old daughter is going to pay for, and she’s soon to graduate college. Is she going to be able to get a job? I don’t know,” he continued, “but she’s going to have to pay that money back; her kids are going to have to pay that money back. It’s got to stop someplace! We can’t keep spending the money that we don’t have.”

Medlock and his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bandmates, best known for the Southern rock hits “Freebird” and “Sweet Home Alabama,” have been thrust into the news lately, as Lynyrd Skynyrd is performing in Tampa this weekend at a fundraiser for the veterans group Citizens Helping Heroes as part of the festivities surrounding the Republican National Convention.

Never shy to mix pointed lyrics into their tunes, Lynyrd Skynyrd is also celebrating the release of their new album, “Last of a Dyin’ Breed,” including the politically charged songs “Something to Live For” and “Nothing Comes Easy.”

“Paycheck’s going down, prices are going up, takes most of my money just to fill my pickup truck,” sings the band in “Nothing Comes Easy.” “Let’s put back the pieces to this broken promised land. All this crazy spending, I don’t understand.”

The song continues, “Politicians preaching, but it don’t ever change. Same old lines and bulls—, might as well flush it all down the drain.”

Medlock told WND it doesn’t take an expert economist to see D.C.’s spending is wildly out of control.

“I’m not a lawyer, I’m not a tax expert. I’m a rock and roll musician,” Medlock said. “I play the h— out of a freaking guitar, but even I can see what monies come in, and I see what I pay out, and it freaks me out sometimes. And then to know that in a large sort of way, my tax dollars go for things they shouldn’t go for – all I’m saying is we need to figure this out.”

Medlock warned, however, not to read too much into his group’s performance at the RNC. Even though Politico reports Lynyrd Skynyrd lead singer Johnny Van Zant has vocally backed GOP candidates and supports Republican Mitt Romney’s presidential bid, Medlock told WND the band is a mix of political viewpoints, held together by some good old, Southern common sense.

“We have in our band left wing people, we have a couple Democrats, we have several Republicans, we even have a libertarian. We’re kind of a mixed bag,” Medlock said. “And all of us can come together – we might be backstage, and a couple of us get together and talk about what’s going on – we don’t beat each other over the head and say, ‘I’m right and you’re wrong.’

“If we can do it as a group, as a rock group,” Medlock asked, “why the h— can’t Congress do it?”

Medlock returned to the song “Nothing Comes Easy” as an example of what Washington, D.C., is missing by playing politics instead of forging solid economic policy.

“‘Nothing Comes Easy’ – it doesn’t come easy, because you have people in the trenches every day trying to feed their families and trying to make it through, month to month,” Medlock told WND, “and people are standing up and saying, ‘Where is all our money going? What is it being spent on? Why do we see wasteful spending?’

“I’m 62 years old. I’ve been working and paying taxes and paying in to Social Security since I was about 14 or 15 years old,” he continued. “When I get ready to fall back a little bit – I worked my a– off my whole life – am I going to be able to get some of that money back? Or is the government – and I’m talking about both parties, I’m not talking about just one party – are they going to make it where all of a sudden I can’t get something back in return?

“And you know what, man? Everybody, even my own band mates, they talk about the current administration,” Medlock said. “I don’t know, I’ve got nothing against the president, I don’t know the man … but I’ve got what my eyes are telling me, I’ve got what my pocketbook is telling me. The deal is, I just want to see it great for everybody.”

Van Zant was even more pointed in criticizing Obama.

“His whole platform was change, change. Well, very little has changed, I know, for the people that are our fans,” Van Zant told Politico. “As far as I’m concerned, I’ve heard the president go, ‘We’re asking the rich to take a little bit more in taxes.’ Well, that’s not asking, that’s telling.”

Medlock told WND he wasn’t too thrilled with Obama’s insistence on raising taxes either.

“When he talks about ‘paying your fair share,’ it was very publicized in the beginning that some of Obama’s incoming cabinet members, they owed two and three years of back taxes,” Medlock said. “Well, OK then, pay your fair share.

“We’ve got people who have worked hard and built up their wealth, and they have paid taxes,” Medlock said, “and maybe they have figured out loopholes that attorneys have been using for 20, 30, 40 years now, but what’s with all of a sudden saying, ‘The rich man is not paying his share of taxes?’

“Wealthy people, they’re the ones who actually have money to create a business, for people to get a job and go and make a living,” Medlock said. “Do I think they need to pay their fair share? Yes, but if you want to argue about it, fix the loopholes that are there already.”

To Medlock, those thoughts are just common sense, not political posturing. In fact, he scolded the press for painting the group as partisan, simply because they’re performing during the RNC.

“This is what gets me sometimes about the press,” Medlock told WND. “We were asked to play for Citizens Helping Heroes, a wounded warriors group. Had Citizens Helping Heroes asked us to play at the Democratic National Convention, we’d have played there. It doesn’t matter to us where we get asked to play for the troops, their families, veterans – we’re going there to be there for the wounded warriors. That’s why we’re showing up.

“Hey, it looks like we might even have a freaking hurricane coming,” Medlock said. “But guess what? Lynyrd Skynyrd is still going to show up and let the warriors know we’re there for them.”

In the end, Medlock insisted, Lynyrd Skynyrd backs the hard-working people of America and isn’t afraid to give Democrats or Republicans an earful if they tear those people down.

“When we write songs, we try to appeal to everybody,” Medlock told WND. “We try to reach out, not only to the left or to the right, but to the middle, wherever. Those songs you are talking about, that’s just our way of expressing what we believe.

“‘Give Us Something to Live For’ is basically saying, ‘Give us something great in this country. Let this country stand great and stand tall and be an example for other countries,’” he continued. “I don’t know if a Southern rock band has all the answers, but I do know one thing: I think a band like Lynyrd Skynyrd has a lot of courage for speaking what we believe.”

Recall my blog “You have no privacy?”

Is your smartphone donating to Obama’s campaign?

Your smartphone isn’t just smart – it’s clever … if the wrong people get control of it.

And some of those wrong people could have you bankrolling a politician’s campaign that you oppose – and you wouldn’t know it until you got your monthly bill.

Yes, there’s an app for that!

Read the latest now on WND.com.

PAN Admin’s blog: Will Obama Give Us WWIII If Re-Elected?

Admin II

Posted by Michael CHILDS, Admin II on August 23, 2012 at 11:09am in Patriot Action Alerts

Send Message  

Some of the clearest analysis of the dynamics unfolding in the Middle East you will ever hear. Listen to Jeff Kuhner explain with stunning clarity what we should expect in the coming six months. Listen to this audio now!

But the Jesus Christ accepting-God Chasing Believers Knows what will really happen in the Middle East with Israel (God’s Land). So whenever it begins Israel will be victorious. That’s God’s promise.

Listen to Kuhner tell exactly who Obama is. It’s great.

Jeffrey T. Kuhner speaking the TRUTH part 1 Note the date!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MBk4Xn6QIk

part II:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19_fEQwWguY

Visit his website; find it in my ACTION GROUPS list. “X”

Arming the Government Against Americans – Tea Party Nation « Gds44s Blog

 

via Arming the Government Against Americans – Tea Party Nation « Gds44s Blog.

Iran has this warning for ‘secret’ U.S. bases Related item – Ayatollah: We will burn Tel Aviv ‘into ashes’

WND EXCLUSIVE

Iran warns secret U.S. bases will be hit

‘Should Israel attack, those will be targets’

Published: 1 day ago

by Reza KahliliEmail | Archive

Reza Kahlili served in CIA Directorate of Operations, as a spy in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, counterterrorism expert; currently serves on the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, an advisory board authorized by Congress. He is the author of the award winning book “A Time to Betray” and regularly appears in national and international media as an expert on Iran and counterterrorism in the Middle East.

Subscribe to author feed

Ben Gurion Airport

Six American military bases in Israel will be destroyed by Iranian missiles should Israel attack Iranian nuclear facilities, the Islamic regime is warning the United States.

“America has several secret military bases in different areas of the occupied Palestinian territory (Israel) at which it houses ammunition, smart bombs, missiles and other military armaments,” Basij News, the official outlet of the Iranian Basij forces, reported Tuesday, quoting an Iranian diplomat in an interview with the Arabian media outlet Al Moheet.

“Also, a 500-bed hospital is located in one of these bases. … Should Israel attack Iran, then surely those bases will become the targets for Iranian missiles.”

The unnamed diplomat said one of the bases is in the western part of the city of Herzliya, another is within Ben Gurion Airport, and other bases are inside the Israeli Air Force bases of Ovda and Nevatim. The diplomat said the value of the U.S. military armaments at these bases exceeds $1 billion.

“American military bases in the occupied territories are considered secret and most of them are underground,” the diplomat said. “These bases are known by codes ‘Base 51,’ which houses ammunition, ‘Base 53,’ which is located in an Israeli Air Force base, ‘Base 54′ is a hospital close to Tel Aviv used in emergency situations, and bases ’55′ and ’56′ are used as ammunition and armaments reserves,” he said.

The diplomat said another base is in the West Bank, built by a German company to house American armaments.

The Basij report said Israel provides security and military support for the estimated 150 American military supervisors at the bases.

As reported by the Washington Times last December, the Revolutionary Guards had warned that any U.S. involvement in an attack on Iran would result in a missile attack on all U.S. bases in the region and terrorist attacks on U.S. interests worldwide, including in America. However, the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had earlier announced that should America stay out of any conflict with Iran, it will be safe.

The Basij report, however, directly warns America that even should it not militarily support an attack by Israel, its military bases within the Jewish state will be targeted.

Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi described Israel’s Jewish community as “vulnerable.” Fars News Agency quoted the special adviser to the supreme leader as saying, “The Zionists are living in such international conditions that if they intend to launch an attack against Iran, one million Jews will flee Israel in the first one or two weeks. Jews are very vulnerable there.”

Safavi, the former chief commander of the Revolutionary Guards, last week had said, “All signs in the region point to the disintegration of the superfluous fake Zionist regime and its removal from the face of the geography of the region,” according to Sepah News, the Guards media outlet.

In analyzing the Arab Spring, Safavi said, “Without a doubt, the north African region and southwestern Asia are in a historic political path that will affect geopolitics – meaning that the governments of dictators and monarchs dependent on big powers are being changed where people are empowered and in control of their own political destiny.”

Safavi said the United States spent billions of dollars on the nine-year Iraq war and suffered 5,000 deaths and many more injured but failed to put in place in Baghdad an anti-Iran government it liked.

In Afghanistan, he said, after a decade of fighting, America and its allies face the same fate as the Soviet Union’s Red Army in the 1980s and will be forced to flee.

“America’s support of Israel will increase the hatred by the Islamic nations and it will be costly for the Americans,” Safavi said. “The path of Allah promises Muslims victory over the infidel Zionists.”

Reza Kahlili translated this Iranian video about Islamic prophecies of a coming messiah and the destruction of Israel:

 

---

Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for a former CIA operative in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the author of the award-winning book, A Time to Betray. He is a senior Fellow with EMPact America, a member of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security.

WND EXCLUSIVE

Ayatollah: We will burn Tel Aviv ‘into ashes’

‘The shout of ‘Death to Israel’ was loud and clear among the people’

Published: 4 days ago

 

If Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear facilities, Tel Aviv – Israel’s second-most-populated city – will burn to ashes, senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami warned yesterday.

The threat was the latest in a series of verbal assaults that began last week when the supreme leader of the Islamic regime, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a speech to Iranian researchers and academics, said the world was on the verge of major political and social changes, with Islam playing a leading role.

Then on International Quds Day, every regime official from the supreme leader and president to military commanders openly called for the annihilation of Israel.

Quds Day is an annual event that began after the Islamic Revolution of 1979 in Iran. The founder of the revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, assigned the last Friday of the month of Ramadan as the day to support the Palestinians and damn the Israelis, stating that the movement would have two goals: the freedom of Palestine and destruction of Israel.

On this year’s Quds Day, Khamenei said, “Light of hope will shine on the Palestinians, and this Islamic land will certainly be returned to the Palestinian nation, and the superfluous and fake Zionist regime will disappear from the landscape of geography.”

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, calling Israel’s existence “an insult to all humanity,” said, “The Zionist regime and the Zionists are a cancerous tumor. … The nations of the region will soon finish off the usurper Zionists in the Palestinian land. … With the grace of God and help of the nations, in the new Middle East there will be no trace of the Americans and Zionists.”

The chief commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Jafari, stated that Iran is at the helm of worldwide enmity against Israel. Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi called “Beitol Moghadas” (Jerusalem) an inseparable part of the world of Islam that will soon return to the Muslims.

As the Washington Times reported last week, the Revolutionary Guards warned that the terrorist groups Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad have been armed with chemical, microbial and other weapons of mass destruction and that once the order is given, they will attack Tel Aviv. It also hinted at a nuclear attack on Israel.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Naarallah warned last week that his forces have the capability to inflict “tens of thousands of Israeli deaths.”

Ayatollah Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts, went further and told reporters, “They have seen our missiles with a range of 2,000 kilometers in the Islamic Republic’s exercises, and in case of an attack, Tel Aviv will turn into ashes.

“The world has seen that the Islamic Iran is committed with its goal to free Beitol Moghadas and that all the pressures exerted on Iran have not changed that one bit,” Khatami said. “On the Quds Day held in France, Russia and other countries, the shout of ‘Death to Israel’ was loud and clear among the people. This shows the claim by America, that the world is against Iran, is specific to those countries that are servants of America; however, the freedom lovers of the world are on the side of Iran and glorify and bow to Iran.”

Khatami said the “Quran states that in facing the Zionists, one must use force.”

“God willing, soon the removal of Israel from the world will come together for the Muslims,” he said.

News reports from inside Iran indicate that Ahmadinejad will attend the 67th session of the U.N. General Assembly next month in New York and that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has arranged a dinner at which President Obama will be joined by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad’s office has denied the dinner report.

Keeping tabs on the other side… Let’s not lose this race!

A Chuck Schumer Ad. Akin needs to win. (and engage brain before putting tongue in gear)

Todd Akin — the Republican Senate candidate from Missouri whose remarks about “legitimate rape” have created a firestorm this week — is in this race to win.

While his own party has been begging him to get out so they can find someone who will beat my friend Claire McCaskill, Akin has defied them, and his campaign is stronger than ever. He’s already raised hundreds of thousands of dollars off his offensive and medically bogus remarks.

This November, all eyes will be on Missouri to see whether Republicans will pay for their extreme positions on women’s issues and reproductive rights.

I’ve asked supporters to contribute to Claire McCaskill before, but I hope it’s clear now why her race is so urgent.

Contribute $25 or more to Claire McCaskill today to help her defeat “legitimate rape” candidate Todd Akin in the Missouri Senate race.

Republicans haven’t just been begging Akin to get out of the race, they’ve been outright threatening him.

But don’t believe it.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee and Karl Rove’s shady outside spending group have told Akin they won’t support him — but they have NOT cancelled the ad time they’ve reserved on Missouri TV this fall.

That means they’re still keeping an eye on this race. If it stays close, they’ll be right there to help Akin, just like always. That’s because they’ll stop at nothing to take the Senate majority back from Democrats.

We can’t wait to see what they do. We need to support Claire now.

Don’t wait. Help Claire McCaskill defeat Todd Akin by contributing $25 or more now.

I’ve often said that in intense races in the Senate, the voters get a glimpse of the soul of each person running, who they are, what makes them tick. This is that moment in Missouri, and we need to help Claire win.

Thank you for your support,

Chuck Schumer