A christian blog with a decidedly biblical perspective on the world and events around us. Look around, read, enjoy and feel free to comment. Interesting story, send us the info via our contact page. Subscribe by clicking here.
Subscribe to RSS
Dear readers, I’d like to share with you a secret. Every day I read and hear things by people who claim to be experts on the Middle East. I have read them on the land; I have read them on the sea; I have read them in the air.
And they will never surrender to reality. Here are the two main causes of error:
–They think the Middle East is just like the West so they can extrapolate from their own experience. When someone would say, “If I were Yasir Arafat, I’d….” My response would be: Stop right there. I must run out to the corner store and get a pack of cigarettes. I have never smoked a cigarette. And I kept on running. You are not Arafat or Khomeini or Saddam Hussein or whatever and unless you have some understanding of how they actually think–and not your own Western pragmatic interpretation of what they should think–there’s no sense in dicussing it.
–They think the Middle East is just what they’d like it to be. Peace? Easy. They have a plan. My response: I’d love to hear your plan but I’m all booked up to hear Middle East peace plans for the next three years. I’ll put you on the waiting list and get back to you. By the same token, they sometimes lie to make things seem better. You can’t criticize the Palestinian Authority–or the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Hizballah, the Turkish regime, etc.–even by telling the truth about it because that would damage the cause of “peace.” They don’t understand that not telling the truth is the best way to undermine any chance for peace, or any understanding of why there is no peace.
The Middle East is so strange in Western terms, so different, and having its own unique history and institutions that unless you are really aware of those differences please pick something else to be an expert on. Yet the previous statement–so taken for granted by previous generations of specialists–is something near heresy today in the West. Write a sentence like that and you can forget about getting an academic job or receiving tenure. You might even be attacked as an enemy of the people. In other words, error is institutionalized, which guarantees its prevalence.
And that brings me to a case in point that I have before me right now.
The Wafd is a “liberal” “moderate” Egyptian party, right? It is the biggest non-Islamist party in Egypt’s parliament with 7.6 percent (pretty pitiful, huh?) of the seats. So if you are a Western reporter, policymaker, or “expert” you would say that it is one of the great hopes—perhaps the greatest—for moderate liberal Egyptian democracy, right?
And the same people, of course, explain that revolutionary Islamism isn’t really a threat because they are really just all greedy people who’d rather have U.S. aid than Allah.
But how many “liberal” ”moderate” parties have had:
–A deadly shoot-out between two factions over control of their headquarters’ building?
–An alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood which might again be renewed.
–A deputy leader who explains that September 11 was a U.S.-Zionist plot; the Holocaust never happened; and Anne Frank was a phony?
–And now this article, courtesy of the party’s official newspaper, January 27, 2012. Thanks to MEMRI for catching and translating it. I’ll let you read the whole thing for yourself if you want but briefly the article charges that a small U.S. Navy Medical Research Unit in Cairo that conducts research on tropical and Third World diseases is in fact engaged in plotting to send:
“Medicines, pesticides, food products, and seeds [to Egypt], after these have been dangerously tampered with so as to harm the Egyptians’ health” and handling “biological weapons which, if deployed, could exterminate the entire Egyptian nation, or any other nation….”
“They can also manipulate these Egyptian genes, alter their traits, and deform them by means of American medicines or vaccines that are sold dirt cheap to the poor Egyptian people, along with crop seeds and food products…. “
It suggests that various disease epidemics in Egypt were caused by the United States and charges that the U.S. installation, “sees the Egyptian children as an opportunity to test new medicines,” turning the country’s children into lab rats and causing increases “in infertility, mental retardation, and disability among Egyptians born in recent years… as well as [instances of] impotence.”
And all this is done, “in accordance with America’s will, which has Israel standing forcefully behind it” to develop biological weapons for Israel against Egypt.
This one article is a rich source of knowledge about Egypt and the Arabic-speaking world not so much in terms of health issues but in terms of political and intellectual structures. Of course, there are the common conspiracy theories and the idea that the Zionists are everywhere but that’s only the beginning of the issue. Don’t be fooled into thinking that conspiracy theories are silly, funny, archaic ideas that don’t mean anything precisely because they are inaccurate.
Here are some of the implications:
–An American attempt to help Egypt (while also shielding itself from disease) is portrayed as a harmful and aggressive activity.
–The priority for the nation is to fight foreign conspiracies not to fix domestic shortcomings.
–Since internal problems are blamed on outsiders they are thus made impossible to solve. Science and modernity are viewed not as solutions but with suspicion as attempt to destroy one’s own society through imperialist takeover, social transformation, and atheism (or Christianity imposed on Islam).
–If Americans are so evil then it makes sense for people to become terrorists and to slay or drive out the horrible villains. Isn’t it reasonable to slay Americans in revenge or in self-defense? Now important Egyptians are also claiming that U.S. embassy officials are running over Egyptians with their cars (apparently U.S. embassy vehicles were stolen by criminals).
Together these four symptoms block progress, inflame hatred and extremism, and produce conflict. This is a common pattern in the Middle East whether aimed against Israel, the United States, or the West in general.
And guess what? Except for the last sentence of the third aspect, these are also the talking points of hegemonic Western leftism. It’s all there: the West is evil and wants to dominate; underdevelopment is not the result of traditional society and thinking but Western threat and conspiracy; fighting the West from outside and weakening it from inside are justified.
So, in short, the Islamists are not “moderate” and many of the alleged moderates are not moderate. Hence, the hope for moderation and real democracy is limited by the small numbers of those who hold them. We were told not so long ago that the young, social-media using kids who made Egypt’s revolution would dominate the country thereafter.
Question: What percentage of the vote in parliamentary elections did the young, social-media using kids who made Egypt’s revolution get?
Answer: 1.3 percent.
This article appears in a different form in the Jerusalem Post. I own the rights and I ask you to read this version and link to this site.
The New York Times has published an article considering an interesting and important question: Are Israeli leaders talking so openly about the possibility of preemptive strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities in order to pressure the West into taking more decisive economic and diplomatic steps to make a war with Iran ultimately unnecessary? Or are Israel’s leaders actually preparing the world — and their own people — for actual war. Worth reading.
“The Iranian government, through a website proxy, has laid out the legal and religious justification for the destruction of Israel and the slaughter of its people,” reports Reza Kahlili, a former Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps officer who became a double agent for the U.S. and is now a consultant to American intelligence agencies. “The doctrine includes wiping out Israeli assets and Jewish people worldwide. Calling Israel a danger to Islam, the conservative website Alef, with ties to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the opportunity must not be lost to remove ‘this corrupting material. It is a ‘jurisprudential justification’ to kill all the Jews and annihilate Israel, and in that, the Islamic government of Iran must take the helm.’ The article, written by Alireza Forghani, a conservative analyst and a strategy specialist in Khamenei’s camp, now is being run on most state-owned conservative sites, including the Revolutionary Guards’ Fars News Agency, showing that the regime endorses this doctrine…” To read the rest of this important article, please click here.
Israel has signed a contract with Germany for a sixth Dolphin-class submarine capable of being outfitted with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The Israeli Navy already fields three operational Dolphin subs. Another two are scheduled for delivery later this year. A sixth one will help strengthen Israel’s nuclear deterrent vis a vis Iran.
In strategic-arms parlance, this gives Israel a second-strike capability. The Dolphin subs effectively would be immune to a first-strike Iranian attack, leaving them available for nuclear retaliation. Theoretically, the German subs thus might stay the mullahs’ hands from assured atomic devastation of their own country.
Nuclear deterrence worked during the Cold War, when Washington and Moscow faced mutual assured destruction (MAD) should either have contemplated a first-strike nuclear attack on the other. But would it work this time with theocratic, fanatical zealots with their fingers on Iran’s nuclear buttons?
During the Cold War, neither side wanted to annihilate the other. This time, however, Iranian leaders deem elimination of the Jewish state an overriding objective. As Ali Rafsanjani, a former president of Iran and head of a powerful mullahs’ oversight panel, famously remarked: One Iranian nuke would be sufficient to destroy Israel, with minimal collateral damage to Muslims.
The bottom line is that nobody knows for sure if nuclear deterrence would work again. Which is why preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power is the pre-eminent moral imperative of our age. An exchange of nuclear attacks would be a global catastrophe affecting all of mankind.
In the meantime, Israel is prepared for any and all existential threats – acting where feasible in concert with the international community but, if necessary, on its own. Its growing Dolphin fleet is a timely reminder of what’s at stake. Containment might not work the second time around.
Leo Rennert is a former White House correspondent and Washington bureau chief of McClatchy Newspapers
As expected, President Assad’s chief enablers, Russia and China, vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have approved an Arab League plan to ostensibly end the fighting, although no one believes anything of the sort – not even the Arabs.
The veto and the mounting violence underlined the dynamics shaping what is proving to be the Arab world’s bloodiest revolt: diplomatic stalemate and failure as Syria plunges deeper into what many are already calling a civil war. Diplomats have lamented their lack of options in pressuring the Syrian government, and even some Syrian dissidents worry about what the growing confrontation will mean for a country reeling from bloodshed and hardship.
The veto is almost sure to embolden the government of President Bashar al-Assad, which brazenly carried out the assault on Homs on the day that the Security Council had planned to vote. It came, too, around the anniversary of its crackdown in 1982 on another Syrian city, Hama, by Mr. Assad’s father, Hafez, in which at least 10,000 people were killed in one of the bloodiest episodes in modern Arab history.
“It’s quite clear – this is a license to do more of the same and worse,” said Peter Harling, an expert on Syria at the International Crisis Group. “The regime will take it for granted that it can escalate further. We’re entering a new phase that will be far more violent still than what we’ve seen now.”
The Security Council voted 13 to 2 in favor of a resolution backing an Arab League peace plan for Syria, but passage was blocked by Russia and China, which opposed what they saw as a potential violation of Syria’s sovereignty. The support of those countries has proved crucial in bolstering the Syrian government’s confidence, despite an isolation more pronounced than any time since the Assad family seized power more than four decades ago.
The Arab League “peace plan” is totally dependent on Assad accepting the impossible – stepping down in favor of his vice president who would form a “coalition government” that would guide Syria into democratic elections.
But Russia and China fear the endgame; some kind of military intervention by the west that would eliminate their friend and business partner Assad. Russia especially has few friends like Assad in the region and losing him would be a major blow to Russian designs in the Middle East.
Since Assad is not going to run out of bullets anytime soon, and the opposition shows no sign that it is losing its determination to shed its blood for the cause, the violence will only escalate. And what is now a virtual civil and sectarian war will become all too real for the Syrian people.
The guerrilla movement’s increasing missile capacity is raising the Israeli state’s level of insecurity to dangerous new levels.
The Hezb’allah movement in Lebanon has been stepping up the intensity of its preparations for war with Israel in recent months, clearly unfazed by the strength of military projection its Israeli enemy could unleash on both Hezb’allah itself and the country Hezb’allah occupies.
The most recent reports exuding from the region suggest that the movement, fearing the eventual demise of its allied regime in neighboring Syria, has been busy helping itself to vast quantities of the most sophisticated military arsenals belonging to the Syrian Armed Forces.
Perhaps this explains why Meir Dagan, the former head of Israel’s dreaded secret service, Mossad, recently claimed that the politico-religious movement’s guerrilla arm had amassed missile power equal to that of almost 90 percent of countries in the world.
Although the accuracy of Dagan’s statement can never be substantiated, Hezb’allah has certainly made little secret over the last few months with regard to its determination to roundly confront Israel.
But for all the intermittent warnings of severe retaliation coming out of Tel-Aviv, Hezb’allah leaders seem content almost to scoff at the idea of any Israeli onslaught ever bearing fruit.
The Iran- and Syria-backed movement is already believed to be in possession of a substantial number of Iranian-made Fajr, Fateh, and Zelzal rockets, with estimated ranges of between 75 and 200 kilometers. This is in addition to several dozen purported M600 surface-to-surface missiles from Syria — each of whose warheads carries half a ton of high explosives.
Although no accurate estimates of the number of missiles Hezb’allah possesses can be substantiated, it is believed to be in excess of 50,000 according to U.S. and Israeli estimates. If that is true, it means that Israel could be showered with around 500 missiles, some with guided systems, for every day it fights the Lebanese movement.
This means that almost every city and major town in Israel could be hit with around three times as many projectiles as they were in the 2006 war, where missiles at a rate of around 200 per day were exploding indiscriminately in the mainly northern part of the Jewish state.
The scenario of this armed non-state actor having the capability to fire at will upon the 7 million people of Israel, with the precision to hit any town or city it chooses, is no doubt inherent in every single Israeli calculation when it comes to readying war plans designed to deal with Israel’s most imminent neighboring menace.
And the wily old veteran experts of Israel’s formidable military and defense apparatus are well-aware of why Hezb’allah has been incessantly acquiring an advanced missile capability.
In a live address via video link last year, Hezb’allah’s secretary general all but spoon-fed audiences with the details. He stated that “most of the Israeli population is on a coastal line…after Haifa through to Southern Tel-Aviv, 10 kilometres or 15 kilometres[.] … [I]n that specific part we have the oil wells, we have the factories, we have the population centres, we have the institutions … everything is in that specific area[.]”
In other words, should Israel (in the event of an escalation) think it can hit Lebanon unimpeded, Hezb’allah can now return the gesture. Not only is civilian and state infrastructure now at risk, but just weeks later, in another address, Hezb’allah’s secretary general threatened to strike ships (civilian or otherwise) which headed towards Israel’s coast.
The Israeli establishment must have understood the message loud and clear: belligerent reprisals, be they under the logic of self-defence, will now have a new dimension.
Perhaps this explains the constant war drills, saber-rattling, increased drone and reconnaissance flights, and ever-constant attempts to covertly infiltrate the secretive military apparatus of the politico-religious movement.
As Syria teeters on the brink, Israel seems quietly confident that a desperate Damascus regime will not undertake the suicidal task of initiating a war with Israel in order to distract attention from Syria’s internal opposition — despite rumors of replenishing the missile stocks of Hezb’allah. The Syrians are just too weak and disunited; an attack on Israel is just too remote to be taken seriously.
But it’s the tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, and their ability to unleash Hezb’allah as a first-strike window of opportunity, which are weighing heavily on the minds of Israeli policymakers.
An attack on Iran, even if limited to crippling that country’s nuclear infrastructure, will no doubt embolden Hezb’allah for ideological, political, and strategic reasons to launch a first-strike missile barrage of its own.
In that situation, Israel’s likely response must be seriously game-theorized by Hezb’allah planners.
To strike out unilaterally at one of the most powerful military forces in the world — and a nuclear-armed state on top of that — may on face value be foolish, if not suicidal.
Israel is an extraordinarily strong country, united by violence against it. The thinking that multiple missile attacks would be enough to make Israelis cower in fear and retreat into surrender seems implausible.
But even as both sides takes steps to reduce the risk of sliding into conflict, the potential of Hezb’allah’s long-range rockets and missiles hitting Israel at its most precious, and militarily most sensitive, locales will remain in place so long as each side remains committed to the violent opposition of the other’s right to exist.
Mohammad I. Aslam is a Ph.D. candidate in political science in the Department of Middle-East & Mediterranean Studies and a teaching assistant in the Department of Theology & Religion, King’s College London.
One of the mainstream media’s favorite doomsday scenarios for Israel is its supposed isolation on the world stage. According to this narrative, Israel is on a path to becoming the black sheep of the international community. The most common assumption is that Israel is turning itself into a pariah state, with fewer friends across the globe, because it somehow isn’t willing to give Palestinians their due.
A closer look at Israel’s interaction with countries near and far, as well as with international institutions, belies any such foreboding picture. Far from being isolated, Israel increasingly is acknowledged as a world player in view of its social, economic, financial and diplomatic achievements in the last 64 years.
Its latest integration (not isolation) in the company of other important global players is its newly won membership in the executive committee of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
Yes, we all know about the anti-Israel bias of most UN institutions. Yet, with support from the Western bloc – the U.S., Australia, Japan, Holland, among others – Israel is now at the policy-making apex of one of the more credible UN branches, with its $1 billion budget to generate important health and welfare programs, as well as initiatives on empowerment of women, in the developing world.
UNDP has earned its credibility spurs in the last couple of decades with an annual report card on living standards among UN member nations – drafted without favoritism or bias.
In the latest UNDP report, Israel ranked 17th – ahead of Belgium, Austria and France. And Israel was 20 spots ahead of the first Arab country – oil-rich Qatar in 37th place. Saudi Arabia was a distant 56th.
In welcoming Israel into their executive committee, UNDP members pointed to its technological and agricultural know-how – a clear asset for UNDP’s mission in the developing world. Israel also was recognized as a sterling model for empowerment of women – an agenda it expects to incorporate in its work for the UNDP.
Accession to the top policy-making rungs of the UNDP is not an isolated occurrence. Last year, Israel was elected to membership in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) – a Paris-based grouping of some of the world’s most important financial heavy-hitters, like Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Britain and the U.S.
With its OECD and UNDP memberships, Israel is hardly isolated. Nor can it be so categorized in view of its growing trade ties with India and China, or its robust $2 billion import-export relationship with Turkey – notwithstanding all the anti-Israel bluster of Prime Minister Erdogan. Under the media radar, Israel also retains close ties with Turkey’s defense establishment, including weapons procurement.
Israel successfully overcame Erdogan’s fulmination by developing new ties with nearby Greece and Cyprus – especially as partners in development and exploitation of recently discovered natural gas deposits in the eastern Mediterranean.
And while Israel’s relations with the U.S. have often been problematic under the Obama administration, both sides have nurtured a solid partnership on security matters.
Also, Israel has gained new respect on the world stage with its sterling economic performance during the worst financial downturn since the Great Depression. While much of Europe and the U.S. sank into a steep recession, Israel turned in solid economic growth, with a current 5.6 percent unemployment rate that is the envy of friends and foes alike.
All these developments underscore Israel’s rising global integration. “Isolation” is a more apt description for its biggest enemies, like Syria or Iran. In the wake of the Arab Spring, some of the new revolutionary regimes – whether in Egypt or Tunisia – appear reluctant to engage in direct confrontations with the Jewish state. Their propaganda often belies their actions.
Yes, Israel is not without enemies, especially Iran with its nuclear weapons program and its outsourcing of terrorism to Hezbollah and Hamas, but isolated it isn’t.
Leo Rennert is a former White House correspondent and Washington bureau chief of McClatchy Newspapers
The trouble with the Palestinian Authority (PA) is that while in the Western mass media it is virtually always portrayed as moderate the PA simply doesn’t act that way. Its contrary behavior involves not keeping its commitments, daily incitement to kill Israelis and destroy Israel in its institutions, and refusal to negotiate seriously.
Above all, it means refusing to make peace in the context of a two-state solution. Among other things, it rejects the idea off a peace treaty ending the conflict–a pretty remarkable stance–or resettling its people within the state of Palestine but insisting many should go to Israel to live–a pretty remarkable stance for what’s supposed to be a nationalist movement.
But then there are the symbolic things that persuade Israelis not to trust the PA with their future fate, even if Israel must deal with the PA and even save it from being overthrown by Hamas.
To put it in one sentence; there is nothing the PA won’t do in terms of justifying the murder of Israelis as a heroic deed that should be considered. Here is a case so extreme—publicized by the praiseworthy Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) that it should reverberate internationally, making people understand the true reason why this conflict cannot be settled. Oh, and it immediately follows PMW’s revelation that the highest-ranking, PA-appointed Palestinian Muslim cleric called for genocide against the Jews.
Now, twice in one week, a PA television host praised Hakim Awad, the murderer of the Fogel family who, last March, carried out the bloody slaughter of an unarmed father, mother, and three children (11 years, 4 years, and 2 months, respectively) in their home. The program held him up as a good role model for Palestinians.
There are hundreds of such events–you can visit the PMW site to read about them and see them on video–yet the Western mass media, not to mention governments, never take this incitement seriously even though it violates many agreements made by the PA.
Meeting with Porter Goss several years ago while working on a documentary on the Middle East.
Washington, foreign capitals, and the media are suddenly abuzz this week with rumors of impending war between Israel and Iran.
Senior U.S. and Israeli officials are speaking with rare candor about the growing possibility of Israeli airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities. A major New York Times Sunday magazine story this week indicates the Israelis are readying to hit Iran in 2012. A Washington Poststory now reports that U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believes the Israelis are considering massive airstrikes against Iran as early as April, May or June of this year. At Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany this morning, Panetta wouldn’t back away from the Post report, effectively confirming the story. Since October, the administration has been pressuring Israel not to even consider such strikes. The fact that Panetta is talking openly about an Israeli first strike suggest the White House is deeply worried the epicenter is about to be engulfed in war.
Is the handwriting on the wall? Is war imminent? I believe the concerns are very valid and that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are, in fact, finalizing their war plans and their civil defense preparations. They may not have made a final decision, but they see the U.S. or international community moving too slowly and indecisively. They fear Iran will have operable nuclear weapons by the end of the year, and even though Iran may not yet be able to attack those to high-speed ballistic missiles — yet being the operative word — they fear a second Holocaust if they don’t act soon.
That said, not everyone is convinced an Israeli-Iranian war will break out this year? This week, I had a long lunch with former CIA Director Porter Goss. We discussed the rising tensions in the epicenter, where they might lead, and the Shia End Times theology driving the current regime in Tehran. Goss and I first met several years ago when I was doing research on Mideast issues. I was surprised but intrigued to learn that he had read Epicenter several times and become curious about Bible prophecy and its relevance to current events. He recently read The Twelfth Imam and The Tehran Initiative. While he and I don’t see completely eye to eye on how fast events are moving, I deeply respect his wisdom, experience and analysis and wanted to share his vantage point with you.
Q: How do you assess the likelihood of war between Israel and Iran in 2012?
GOSS: The regime in Tehran has already declared they want to push Israel into the sea. Most observers agree that present Iranian leadership lacks the capability, but not the intent to destroy Israel. Despite the open hostility and the behind-the-scenes maneuvers being conducted by both sides, I believe it unlikely open warfare will break out in 2012. I would look for increasing provocation, more intense covert action, extended psychological warfare and heightened international attention about nuclear proliferation.
Q: How serious a threat do you regard a nuclear-armed Iran to U.S. national security, aside from Israeli security?
GOSS: I rate a nuclear weapon capability in the hands of the present Iranian regime in the top four or five national security concerns of the United States. Principally, providing radical extremist terrorists and state-sponsored terrorist organizations like Hezbollah access to weapons of mass destruction constitutes a clear and present danger. It is a game-changer for our country which we will have to address forcefully and timely. Secondly, opening the gateway to nuclear proliferation follows on the heels of a Persian nuke. Other countries in a region already seething with instability and despair will look to their own safety by acquiring nukes; continuing U.S. hesitation to forcefully address the Iranian situation will be a boon to illegal proliferation activity.
Q: Given all you know about the Iranian regime, do you believe they could be effectively contained, or deterred from using a nuclear weapon? And how much do you worry about the Shia eschatology espoused by Khamenei and Ahmadinejad?
GOSS: The critical question for Israel – and the United States – is the rationality of the current regime in Iran. Is their misplaced radicalism so great that they will accept certain destruction if they first strike with the Persian nuke? Notwithstanding the passionate and hateful rhetoric of Khamenei, Ahmadinejad, the Assembly of Experts and others, I assess they would probably use the nuclear capability for bargaining leverage rather than first strike, at least for the near future. Khamenei’s actions seem to add up to self-survival rather than martyrdom by nuclear vaporization. That makes me think he rationally utilizes “irrationality” as a useful negotiating weapon. The references to the Twelfth Imam fit nicely into the regime’s pattern of keeping Iran watchers off balance. Khamenei is deadly serious about maintaining power on earth. Hopefully, Ahmadinejad does not realize he is expendable before he is expended . Otherwise, he might be tempted by martyrdom.
Q: Thanks, Porter. I really appreciate your insights. God bless you.
Online video message on “America In A Troubled World: What Does The Future Hold,” looking at several prophecies, including Luke 12:54 -56 and Ezekiel 38-39 at the “Inside the Middle East Conference” at the Moody Bible Church
The U.S. intelligence community believes that Iran is prepared to launch terrorist attacks inside the United States in response to perceived threats from America and its allies, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Senate Tuesday morning in an open hearing.
In prepared testimony given to the U.S. Select Committee on Intelligence, Clapper stated than an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the United States shows a shift in Tehran’s strategy towards a willingness to plot and conduct attacks within the U.S.
Director Clapper said, according to the Washington Post, that Iran’s disrupted alleged assassination plot:
“shows that some Iranian officials — probably including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived U.S. actions that threaten the regime.”
Clapper added that “We are also concerned about Iranian plotting against U.S. or allied interests overseas.”
The spy chief’s concerns come amidst increased saber rattling from Iran with regard to the Strait of Hormuz, and tightening U.S. sanctions aimed at curbing the Iranian nuclear program.
Clapper’s testimony regarding the threat from Iran was delivered as part of the U.S. intelligence community’s annual overview of the primary national security challenges facing the United States. His testimony also singled out cyber-related threats, and the weakened but persistent threat Al Qaeda and its affiliates pose to the U.S.
viagra and hearing loss Ed Treatment Natural Female use of viagra female version of viagra 761.
erectile dysfunction vacuums Cialis Dysfunction Erectile Levitra how to get viagra
herbal remedy for erectile dysfunction; Erectile Dysfunction Psychological Zocor erectile dysfunction zoloft erectile dysfunction 147.
robin williams viagra Viagra Spray "explore advances in male impotence treatments"
viagra perscription online Natural Remedy Erectile Dysfunction male hormone dhea impotence levels
will ferrell erectile dysfunction Viagra Perscription Online ed treatment with ginko
erectile dysfunction pills evaluated; On Viagra "non prescription viagra"
cialis viagra How To Buy Viagramale impotence age
Cigarette smoking and erectile dysfunction cigarette smoking causing male impotence 395. Impotence Viagra The latest treatment for ed topical ed treatment 237.
most effective ed treatment! Viagra 50 Mg actos erectile dysfunction
l dopa for male impotence! Buy Cheap Viagra erectile dysfunction and pravastatin;
male impotence pumps vacu Holistic Ed Treatment cost of viagra
female forcing male sexual impotence; Male Impotence Brochure actos erectile dysfunction
accounting treatment for sr ed Water Ed Treatment Male impotence due to surgery male impotence enema 629.
lamictal erectile dysfunction! Accounting Treatment Sr Ed Ias "buy viagra online"
problems with viagra, Viagra Cheap erectile dysfunction link suggest
"non prescription viagra" Viagra Uk viagra times;
viagra soft tabs? Ed Treatments erectile dysfunction ed treatment
u 3312 viagra cialis Male Impotence Advice yohimbie bark and male impotence
facts male impotence psychological effects
lexapro erectile dysfunction,
erectile dysfunction paypal, Zetia And Erectile Dysfunction straighttalk net erectile dysfunction review
male impotence and solutions? Make Your Own Viagra newest transdermal treatment for ed
tricor erectile dysfunction Hebal Ed Treatmenterectile dysfunction exercise
Viagra and alternatives viagra and blood pressure 767. How To Make Viagra how to take viagra
cialis medication erectile dysfunction Erectile Dysfunction Pills accupril and erectile dysfunction
Subscribe to RSS
