World War 3 Could Very Easily Turn into The Very First Nuclear War in The Middle East - By Michael Snyder - http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/world-war-3-could-very-easily-turn-into-the-very-first-nuclear-war-in-the-middle-east
Saudi Arabia already has nukes, Iran probably does, and the Russians are one of the two great nuclear powers on the entire planet. So if Saudi Arabia, Turkey and their Sunni allies do decide to conduct a full-blown ground invasion of Syria, could someone ultimately decide to use nuclear weapons when their backs get pushed up against a wall? As you read this article, there are thousands of military vehicles and hundreds of thousands of troops massed along the southern border of Turkey and the northern border of Saudi Arabia. If the command is given and those forces start streaming toward Damascus, it is inevitable that the Syrians, the Iranians, Hezbollah and the Russians would fight back. It would literally be the start of World War 3, and the Saudis and the Turks are trying very hard to convince the United States to be involved. But the truth is that we don't want any part of this conflict, because it could very easily become the very first nuclear war in the history of the Middle East.
Perhaps you didn't know that the Saudis already have nukes. Of course the official position is that they don't, but it is a fact that they were the ones that funded the development of Pakistan's nuclear program. It is an open secret that the Saudis have the bomb, but nobody is really supposed to talk about it.
That is why it was so alarming what Saudi political analyst Dahham Al-'Anzi told RT just recently...
Earlier this week a Saudi political analyst told RT's Arab network the kingdom has a nuclear weapon.
Dahham Al-'Anzi made the claim while saying Saudi Arabia is engaged in an effort to "minimize the Iranian threat in the Levant and Syria."
Although Saudi Arabia has officially denied it has a nuclear weapons program and has publicly stated it opposes nuclear weapons in the Middle East, it has funded a military nuclear program and received scientific assistance from the United States and Pakistan.
You can watch video of this exchange right here...
WATCH: https://youtu.be/yXuJkVPRjNI
If you don't want to believe him, perhaps you will believe the former director of the CIA counter-terrorism operations center. He told Fox Business that everyone in the intelligence world knows the Saudis have nukes...
WATCH: https://youtu.be/qt3trHKqdiM
If the fur started flying in Syria and Russia and Iran decided to start bombing Saudi airbases, would Saudi Arabia resort to using their nukes?
Let's hope not.
In the event of a massive ground invasion by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and their allies, it is actually more likely that Russia may decide to be the first one to use nukes. An invasion force of hundreds of thousands of troops would vastly outnumber the relatively small Russian force that is already inside Syria, and so the Russians may feel that the only way that they can keep the Sunni powers out of Damascus is to use tactical nukes.
Russia has more tactical nukes that anyone else in the world by far, and there are some reports that indicate that Russia may be prepared to use them in Syria. For example, former Associated Press reporter Robert Parry, the author of America's Stolen Narrative, says that a source has told him that the Russians have already warned Turkey that this could potentially happen...
If Turkey (with hundreds of thousands of troops massed near the Syrian border) and Saudi Arabia (with its sophisticated air force) follow through on threats and intervene militarily to save their rebel clients, who include Al Qaeda's Nusra Front, from a powerful Russian-backed Syrian government offensive, then Russia will have to decide what to do to protect its 20,000 or so military personnel inside Syria.
A source close to Russian President Vladimir Putin told me that the Russians have warned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Moscow is prepared to use tactical nuclear weapons if necessary to save their troops in the face of a Turkish-Saudi onslaught. Since Turkey is a member of NATO, any such conflict could quickly escalate into a full-scale nuclear confrontation.
Given Erdogan's megalomania or mental instability and the aggressiveness and inexperience of Saudi Prince Mohammad bin Salman (defense minister and son of King Salman), the only person who probably can stop a Turkish-Saudi invasion is President Obama. But I'm told that he has been unwilling to flatly prohibit such an intervention, though he has sought to calm Erdogan down and made clear that the U.S. military would not join the invasion.
Are you starting to understand how serious this is?
With all of the talk of a potential invasion in recent days, the Russians are on high alert and are rapidly preparing for a direct conflict with both Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The following comes from Infowars...
Still, the Russians are taking no chances and they have put all their forces into high alert. They have very publicly dispatched a Tu-214r - her most advanced ISR (Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance) aircraft. You can think of the Tu-214R as an "AWACS for the ground", the kind of aircraft you use to monitor a major ground battle (the regular Russian A-50Ms are already monitoring the Syrian airspace). In southern Russia, the Aerospace forces have organized large-scale exercises involving a large number of aircraft which would be used in a war against Turkey: SU-34s. The Airborne Forces are ready. The naval task forces off the Syrian coast is being augmented. The delivery of weapons has accelerated. The bottom line is simple and obvious: the Russians are not making any threats - they are preparing for war. In fact, by now they are ready.
In addition, it is important to remember that it is quite likely that the Iranians have nuclear weapons as well.
Of course the U.S. government and the Iranian government both insist that Iran does not have nukes, but many of those in the know insist otherwise.
For instance, you may want to consider what retired U.S. Army Major General Paul Vallely and U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Dennis B. Haney are saying. The following comes from an article that was authored by Jerome Corsi of WND...
In a joint statement, Vallely and Haney say an accumulation of available evidence shows a coalition of Russia, China and North Korea have assisted Iran since 1979 in achieving a nuclear weapon, despite sanctions, under the guise of a domestic nuclear energy program.
Vallely explained to WND that he and Haney have taken a systematic approach to evaluating each component needed to deliver a nuclear weapon, from the development and testing of a ballistic missile system, to the design of a nuclear weapons warhead, to the development of the weapons-grade uranium needed to produce a bomb.
"To come to our conclusion that Iran is a nuclear weapons power right now, we supplemented publicly available research, plus information from intelligence sources, including Iranian resistance groups such as the National Council of Resistance of IRAN, NCRI," Vallely explained.
I happen to agree with Vallely and Haney. I cannot prove it, but all of the intel that I have received indicates that Iran already has nukes.
Hopefully I will not be proven accurate any time soon.
It had been hoped that a cease-fire could be negotiated that would at least temporarily defuse tensions in Syria. Unfortunately, it does not look like the shooting is going to stop, and this is going to put immense pressure on both Saudi Arabia and Turkey to do something to rescue the radical Sunni militants that are on the verge of defeat. The Saudis, the Turks and their allies have poured enormous amounts of money and resources into this war over the past five years, and now they are faced with the choice of either accepting defeat or directly intervening in this conflict themselves.
But in order to conduct a full-fledged ground invasion, they are going to need justification for doing so. There are some that are suggesting that we could soon see a false flag attack that would provide that justification, so that is something to watch out for.
I can't remember a time when our planet has been so close to World War 3 potentially beginning.
And if it does break out, I believe that it is quite likely that nuclear weapons will be used.
The Specter of a World War - By Matt Ward -
http://www.raptureready.com/soap2/ward47.html
Are Saudi Arabia and Turkey planning to invade Syria?
This is the single most important question of today. It is much more important than the machinations of the upcoming presidential elections in America, more important than the turmoil embracing the European Union as a result of mass migration, more important even than the impending worldwide economic collapse.
Right now, whether Saudi Arabia and Turkey are planning a joint invasion of Syria is the single most important question of our time.
The reason for this is that if Saudi Arabia and Turkey do decide to invade Syria, Vladimir Putin has let it be known that he would use tactical nuclear weapons against Turkey to stop them. Vladimir Putin does not make this kind of threat idly.
A steadily building antagonism between Russian and Turkey in Syria has existed for a number of months. It is not an exaggeration to say that a proxy war between Turkey and Russia is already well underway.
Almost two weeks ago the Syrian military air base of Minagh, some six kilometers from the Turkish border was seized by Kurdish forces heavily backed by Russian air power. There they attempted to dig in, until Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan launched a two-hour artillery bombardment of the base from within Turkey. This Turkish bombardment was an indirect attack on Russian forces and is an example of the deadly tit-for-tat being played out between these two powers.
Vladimir Putin is waiting for the right opportunity to settle accounts with Turkey for the shooting down of a Russian fighter plane on November 24th. The question is whether Putin will feel the need to react and strike back now or wait until later. In this context the Turkish artillery bombardment was a highly calculated risk from the Turkish president.
Russian-Turkish relations are extremely volatile, they rest on a knife edge.
Then comes news that has rocked the Middle East to its core. Turkey and Saudi Arabia seem to be massing huge numbers of troops on their respective borders to Syria. Saudi Arabia and Turkey have both dismissed any talk of an invasion with the explanation of it being merely an internal military exercise. If this is so, it would be the largest military exercise in the history of the Middle East.
At the same time the Saudi's are warning that Bashir al-Assad will "be removed by force," if necessary. Turkey is also suddenly claiming that it may be necessary for them to establish a "safe zone" in northern Syria, strictly for "humanitarian reasons." All the while their troops are building up on their respective borders in huge numbers.
Saudi Arabia and Turkey have both invested significant amounts of money backing Sunni groups in the Syrian civil war. These same groups now stand on the edge of total defeat. Despite this fact, Saudi Arabia remains just as resolute that Assad will be removed from power.
The Saudi Foreign Minister, Jubeir, even went so far as to say that if necessary Saudi forces will cooperate in a ground invasion to "hold ground...that one cannot...from the air."
If this comes to pass, and Saudi Arabia do invade Syria alongside Turkey, with a view to proactively removing Assad from power in Damascus, then Saudi Arabia and Turkey will be fighting directly against elements of the Syrian army who would still defend Assad. These elements of the Syrian army would be backed and bolstered by Hezbollah, who are backed by Iran, who are in turn backed by Russia.
Effectively the Syrian civil war could morph from an internal conflict between transnational actors into an international hot war between nation states. Iran and Russia would be on one side and Turkey and Saudi Arabia on the other.
The huge danger at this point is that any outright clash between Turkey and Russia would allow Turkey to invoke the NATO charter, demanding allied protection against Russian "aggression," thereby sucking America, Britain, France and all NATO members directly into a confrontation with Russia.
This, by definition, would be another world war. At the very least it would be the most dangerous point of international diplomacy since the Cuban Missile Crisis of the 1960s.
Tensions between Russia and the West are already heightened. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev last week claimed that Russia and the West are in the grips of "...a new cold war." Outspoken Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, has gone even further claiming that a third world war is actually already underway, "...I call this struggle a third world war by other means."
Syria stands on the brink. Nation states are greedily snatching up land for themselves and the competing interests that are driving them are increasingly drawing nations into open, outright conflict. As this is read today, the air forces of twelve separate nations are in combat over the skies of this one single country.
The world is sleep walking into a new world war. While people are watching the outcomes of presidential debates, primaries and caucuses, chaos in Europe and just trying to cope with the day to day issues of everyday life, anarchy is breaking loose in Syria, anarchy that may engulf the entire region, or beyond.
The Syrian landscape is moving and shifting rapidly. Syria may provide the spark for a lager conflagration that is yet to come, one that has the potential to drag all nations down into the abyss.
With so many end times Bible prophecies seemingly on the brink of fulfillment, the events that are occurring now on a daily basis can only lead us to conclude that the end of this age approaches rapidly.
Time is short. Keep looking up.
False Flags to Be Used to Justify a Massive Ground Invasion of Syria? - By Michael Snyder - http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/false-flags-to-be-used-to-justify-a-massive-ground-invasion-of-syria
Throughout history, governments have staged attacks on their own people in order to place the blame on their enemies. These kinds of attacks are known as "false flags", and they are often used to justify military action. As I will explain below, it appears that we may have just seen a "false flag" attack in Turkey. The Turks needed justification for bombarding the Kurds in northern Syria, and right on cue there was a "terror attack" in Ankara. During the weeks to come, will we see more "false flag" attacks that will be used to justify a full-blown ground invasion of Syria?
If you are not familiar with this concept, the following is how Wikipedia defines a "false flag"...
The contemporary term false flag describes covert operations that are designed to deceive in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by entities, groups, or nations other than those who actually planned and executed them.
The bomb attacks that killed 28 people in Ankara last week may have been an example of just such an attack. It is entirely possible that the PKK or the Syrian Kurds could have been responsible for the bombing. However, to me it seems at least as likely that the Turkish government set up this attack in order to blame the Kurds.
Turkey had already been mercilessly shelling the Kurds in northern Syria anyway, and after the bombing in Ankara there is now a lot more support inside Turkey for further military action against the Kurds. The following comes from Reuters...
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu blamed a Syrian Kurdish militia fighter working with Kurdish militants inside Turkey for a suicide car bombing that killed 28 people in the capital Ankara, and he vowed retaliation in both Syria and Iraq.
A car laden with explosives detonated next to military buses as they waited at traffic lights near Turkey's armed forces' headquarters, parliament and government buildings in the administrative heart of Ankara late on Wednesday.
Davutoglu said the attack was clear evidence that the YPG, a Syrian Kurdish militia that has been supported by the United States in the fight against Islamic State in northern Syria, was a terrorist organization and that Turkey, a NATO member, expected cooperation from its allies in combating the group.
Prior to that attack, it would have been difficult for Turkey to justify sending troops into northern Syria to fight the Kurds. After all, the Syrian Kurds had not fired a single shot at Turkish forces even though Turkey relentlessly shelled Kurdish positions all last week.
But now the president of Turkey says that his nation has all the justification that it needs to do whatever it wants "to the terrorists"...
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country has the right to launch operations in Syria against "terrorist organizations," in remarks that could be viewed as a shot across the bow at Russian intervention.
"To fight the threats which it faces, Turkey has the right to launch any kind of operation, in Syria and wherever else the terrorist organizations are located," Erdogan said in a speech on Saturday, according to a Dogan news agency report cited by AFP.
Isn't that convenient?
Everyone knew that Turkey wanted to do something to stop the advance of the Kurds in northern Syria, and now this bombing in Ankara gives them the perfect excuse to take dramatic military action.
But a bombing blamed on the Kurds is not going to give Turkey, Saudi Arabia and their allies justification to launch a full-blown ground invasion of the entire country. In order for that to happen, more false flags will probably be necessary - especially if they want the United States to be involved.
Right now, the American people have very little interest in a way in Syria. But if there was some sort of major terror attack in this country that could be blamed on ISIS, that would do much to shift public opinion.
Of course since the Russians, the Iranians and Hezbollah are all already inside Syria helping the Assad regime fight the radical Sunni militants that are being backed by Saudi Arabia and Turkey, a full-blown ground invasion could very easily be the spark that begins World War 3. This would be true even if the United States did not participate in the ground invasion. The following comes from USA Today...
A war between Russia and Turkey would put the United States, and Europe, in an uncomfortable position. Since Turkey remains a NATO ally (though a shakier one than in the past), war between Turkey and Russia could easily suck us in. And if Turkey and Russia went to war while NATO stayed on the sidelines, the NATO alliance would be weakened. (Yes, the NATO treaty technically doesn't obligate us to support Turkey in a war that Turkey starts, but a reliance on such niceties wouldn't make NATO look stronger).
There had been hope that a cease-fire would bring some stability to the situation in Syria, but a series of suicide bombings by ISIS on Sunday has really put a damper on that...
The Islamic State asserted responsibility for bombings on Sunday that killed dozens of people in two Syrian government strongholds, casting a shadow over intensified diplomatic efforts to broker a cease-fire to the civil war.
At least three explosions struck a suburb south of the capital, Damascus, leaving 50 people dead near the Sayyida Zeinab shrine that is revered by Shiite Muslims, according to Syrian state television. The area is a high-profile target for extremist Sunni groups such as the Islamic State, which rejects Shiites as apostates.
Bombings earlier in the day also targeted the city of Homs, killing at least 34 people, according to the area's governor, Talal al-Barazi.
If the cease-fire had been successful, that would have lessened the urgency that Saudi Arabia and Turkey feel to get directly involved in the conflict.
But now that the cease-fire looks like it is not going to hold, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are going to feel more pressure to move in and rescue the radical Sunni militants that they have been backing for the last five years.
In order to do that, they are probably going to need some sort of "big event" which will give them justification in the eyes of the world to conduct a massive ground invasion of Syria.
So will that "big event" be some sort of a false flag attack?
We will just have to wait and see what happens...
Ya'alon: Israel preparing for possibility of war with Hamas - Ahiya Raved & Yoav Zitun -
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4769439,00.html
Defense minister says despite 'unprecedented quiet' on Gaza border, IDF knows Hamas is growing in power and rebuilding its tunnels, and Israel's security forces are readying to combat that.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said Monday Israel was preparing for the possibility of another war against Hamas in Gaza.
"We've been enjoying unprecedented quiet, Hamas hasn't fired one bullet," Ya'alon said aboard the USS Carney, an American destroyer, which is currently docking in Haifa while taking part in the joint American-Israeli military exercise Juniper Cobra.
"It's growing in power, we didn't think otherwise," he added. "Hamas is trying to arm itself with rockets but it's having difficulties importing (rockets) as it did before and it has to manufacture them. That is why they're conducting all of the tests of firing rockets into the sea. There is also a shortage of materials to manufacture rockets with and they're trying to improvise - and of course digging defensive and offensive tunnels, we are not fooling ourselves to think that they aren't."
"We've been preparing for the possibility that at some point a front will be opened in the south, and we'll have to deal with it," the defense minister continued. "We're not stagnate and we operate both with defensive and offensive measures."
US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, who hosted Ya'alon aboard the USS Carney, noted that Israel and the US have been "working together to develop technological measures to discover and destroy tunnels, and Congress has approved a special budget which led to progress in the development work."
"The USS Carney's participation in the drill is just another example for the very deep and very important ties between the United States and Israel. This is a drill dealing with defending the State of Israel from rockets and missiles," Shapiro continued.
Ya'alon also talked about Israel's freedom to act outside its borders, particularly in relation to the civil war raging in Syria. He stated Israel was only interested in defending itself. "We do not get involved in the conflicts in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen or other places, we just protect our interests. Both the US and Russia - who are both operating in Syria right now - know this, and our freedom of activity to protect our interests is being kept."
A defense official said Monday that "when we find a tunnel that crosses into Israel, everyone will know, the Palestinians as well."
He noted that the "level of preparedness of their tunnels is not like what it was before Protective Edge. They can't smuggle (weapons), and the Iranian axis - which used to be their main source for contraband - has dried out. Since Klos C, there hasn't been an attempt to smuggle arms from Iran."
Nuclear Deal in Place, Iran Is Testing New Missiles and Doubling Down in Syria
Tehran is wagering the Obama administration is so committed to the nuclear pact that it will look the other way.
During festivities this month marking the anniversary of Iran's 1979 revolution, officials publicly displayed a mock-up of the country's latest rocket, the Simorgh. Designed to launch a satellite into space, it bears a striking resemblance to the rocket North Korea just used for its own satellite launch, reinforcing concerns that Tehran is working with Pyongyang to develop advanced ballistic missiles capable of hitting Israel and parts of Europe.
Iran's unabashed pursuit of missile technology is the latest example of how the country is asserting itself in the aftermath of the landmark nuclear deal that Tehran signed in July with the United States and five other major powers. While U.S. officials say Iran has so far abided by the nuclear accord, Tehran in recent months has been flouting separate international restrictions on ballistic missiles and arms imports while expanding its support for militants in the region.
Iran has recently conducted two ballistic missile tests despite a U.N. ban and appears poised to launch its new Simorgh rocket. Western intelligence agencies fear Iran is working its way to building an intercontinental ballistic missile, which could eventually be outfitted with an atomic warhead - if Tehran were to opt out of the nuclear agreement.
And across the region, Iran is waging war through proxies and even its own military units to shore up the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, undermine Israel, and support Shiite Houthis against Saudi-backed forces in Yemen. Working with Russian warplanes, Iran's special forces - along with fighters from the Lebanese Hezbollah militia - have helped the Assad regime clear out rebels from strategically important territories like the long contested districts around the city of Aleppo.
The moves are raising concerns in Middle Eastern capitals and in the U.S. Congress, including among some of President Barack Obama's fellow Democrats who backed the nuclear agreement but are worried the administration could cede too much ground to Tehran.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), who voted in favor of the nuclear deal, said he wanted to see the agreement succeed but that it was time to get "tougher" with Iran. "We're going to have to be clear that we're not going to tolerate their bad behavior, and we're willing to punish Iran," Coons told Foreign Policy.
Coons and some Democratic lawmakers took a significant political risk in endorsing the nuclear accord, which was opposed by every Republican member of Congress as well as by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other Jewish groups. The support from Democrats followed an elaborate lobbying campaign by the White House, with senior officials offering repeated assurances that the administration would adopt a strict line on Iran's activities that fall outside the accord.
Now those Democrats "are questioning whether the administration has their backs," said one Senate Democratic staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
White House officials say they will remain vigilant against any actions taken by Iran that threaten its neighbors. Even with the nuclear agreement in place, "which ensures that our partners will not be faced with an Iran armed with a nuclear weapon, we're still going to confront Iran's destabilizing activities," said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
But while Congress is pushing the administration to take steps to check Iran, Secretary of State John Kerry appealed to lawmakers on Thursday to hold off for the moment on renewing the long-standing Iran Sanctions Act - which maintains a broad range of financial and other penalties on Tehran that are unrelated to the nuclear program.
"I wouldn't advise that for a number of reasons," Kerry told the House Foreign Affairs Committee, saying Congress should wait to see how Iran complies with the nuclear agreement and that sanctions could quickly be adopted if Tehran violated the deal.
Both Kerry and James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, told lawmakers Thursday that Iran has fulfilled its commitments under the agreement so far, though the implementation of the deal is still at an early stage. Experts say the acid test will come later when international inspectors ask Tehran for access to sensitive sites with possible links to Iran's military.
In the meantime, Coons and some lawmakers are urging the United States and other major powers to prepare contingency plans for more minor violations of the nuclear agreement that would not be serious enough to trigger a resumption of international economic sanctions. These plans could involve unilateral penalties by the United States or measures coordinated with European governments.
"We need to have an agreed-upon menu of options that shows we won't tolerate excursions outside of the limits on the deal," Coons said in an interview with FP.
The nuclear agreement imposed an array of limits on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions, freeing up to $100 billion in frozen assets. In the final stage of negotiations, the United States and other powers bowed to Tehran's demand to ease the terms of the embargoes on arms purchases and ballistic missile development, which were imposed to penalize Iran over its nuclear work. The arms embargo is due to expire in five years, and the ballistic missile restrictions will run out in eight years - pending Iran's compliance with the nuclear accord.
But Russia, which was one of the parties to the deal, has since announced plans to sell sophisticated S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Iran, as well as Sukhoi Su-30SM fighter jets. Iran has long sought the S-300 missiles, which have a range of about 100 miles and could make it much more difficult for Israeli or U.S. aircraft to stage an air attack on Iran's nuclear sites. The missile sale does not violate the terms of the U.N. arms embargo that is still in place, but the proposed deal for Sukhoi warplanes would broach the ban.
The United States also maintains sanctions on Iran over its human rights record and as a "state sponsor of terrorism," a designation dating back to the 1980s. In 2011, Obama issued an executive order introducing new sanctions on a high-ranking Iranian paramilitary group and other entities linked to the repression of Syrians. In the months since the nuclear deal was unveiled, Iran has bolstered its military presence in Syria with the deployment of additional special forces units along with Tehran-backed proxies from Hezbollah and other Shiite foreign fighters. The Iranian allies are paying a steep price: A new report from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy estimates that Hezbollah has lost at least 865 fighters in Syria between Sept. 30, 2012, and Feb. 16, 2016.
Iran raised alarms in Washington recently after test-firing a rocket in the Persian Gulf within 1,500 yards of a U.S. aircraft carrier and after capturing 10 U.S. Navy sailors whose vessels had strayed into Iranian waters. Iran released the sailors promptly after a flurry of phone calls between Kerry and his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif. But before the sailors were freed, Iran released embarrassing video footage of the boat crews kneeling with their hands behind their heads, images of one sailor crying, and an interview with one officer who apologized for the navigation mishap.
Those aren't the only incidents raising hackles in Washington. Iran carried out a ballistic missile test last October and another in November, despite a U.N. prohibition. The United States imposed sanctions over the tests in January, but the move was delayed while Washington negotiated the release of Americans detained in Iran in exchange for Iranians held in the United States.
Early next week, Iran will likely test its Simorgh rocket. That space-launch vehicle is named for a "mythical bird of Persia, so old it has seen the destruction of the Universe three times over," as Brenda Rosen writes in The Mythical Creatures Bible. "An immense creature the shape of a peacock with spectacular plumage, it has the claws of a lion and is large enough to carry off an elephant or whale."
If successful, its launch would represent a major achievement for a missile program that has made remarkable strides in recent years with the help of North Korea. Satellite imagery obtained by scholars at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey shows Iran preparing a launch site, and the country has issued a notice to airline pilots that it will conduct a launch between March 1 and 2.
That launch will inevitably be met with international condemnation, even if the rocket is for the peaceful purpose of putting a satellite in space. Experts who have analyzed the Simorgh rocket say it is explicitly designed for space launches, but Iran will gain data and experience from the launch that will be useful in developing longer-range rockets.
When North Korea put a satellite into space earlier this month, it did so with a rocket that appeared to be what it calls an Unha, which is roughly the same size - and uses the same engines in places - as the Simorgh. Both of the missiles' first stages use engines from a North Korean medium-range missile, the No-Dong. The Simorgh and Unha also both use a Cold War-era steering engine from a Soviet submarine-launched ballistic missile, the SS-N-6. It is unclear exactly how Iran obtained these engines, but it is likely they were supplied by North Korea, which had, in turn, obtained them in the 1990s from Russia, according to Michael Elleman, a consulting senior fellow for regional security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Missile cooperation between Iran and North Korea began during the Iran-Iraq War, when Tehran found itself desperate for a ballistic missile capable of striking Iraqi targets far beyond the front lines. Iran first turned to Libya and Syria, purchasing limited quantities of Scud missiles. It eventually turned to North Korea for help. Pyongyang, in turn, supplied Iran with large numbers of Scud missiles, laying the basis for more than two decades of cooperation that will culminate with the likely launch of the Simorgh.
As with all things concerning North Korea, the full extent of cooperation between Tehran and Pyongyang remains shrouded in mystery. But last month, the U.S. Treasury Department revealed that "Iranian missile technicians" from Iran's liquid-fueled missile manufacturing group had traveled to Pyongyang "within the past several years" in order "to work on an 80-ton rocket booster being developed by the North Korean government."
The U.S. government has refused to provide additional details on that booster, and arms control experts have puzzled over the revelation, which was contained in a sanctions designation on 11 entities and individuals associated with the country's ballistic missile program. Elleman said that booster could be part of the Unha. But David Wright, co-director of the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said an 80-ton booster would be too large for the North Korean rocket.
Still, Wright agreed that the allegations leveled at North Korea and Iran by the U.S. government - and the shared characteristics and components of their space-launch vehicles - point to a clear conclusion. "Iran and North Korea are working collaboratively to solve the developmental challenges of putting things into space," Wright said.
While North Korea supplied Iran with the basis for its missile program in the 1980s and 1990s, there's reason to believe Tehran has now far surpassed Pyongyang. The Simorgh is larger and more powerful than the Unha, and Elleman said Iran now has better design and engineering capacities than North Korea. "A number of folks who follow this would say that the student has passed the teacher," Elleman said.
Weapons of Mass Terror - By Hal Lindsey - http://www.hallindsey.com/hlr-2-24-2016/
For the last few months, Iraq has been urgently searching for radioactive material stolen in that country late last year. Officials there fear that it has fallen into the hands of ISIS. An Iraqi environment ministry memo calls the missing material "highly dangerous."
Reuters reported, "The material, stored in a protective case the size of a laptop computer, went missing in November from a storage facility near the southern city of Basra belonging to U.S. oilfield services company Weatherford."
Weatherford uses a process called industrial gamma radiography to test for flaws in materials used for oil and gas pipelines. Because the stolen radioactive substance was inside a case the size of a laptop computer, it's small enough to be smuggled anywhere.
The radioactive material would not be used for an atomic bomb. They would use it to build a "dirty bomb." That is a conventional explosive laced with radioactive material that would contaminate an area, kill those close by, and potentially cause cancer in others. It can render an area uninhabitable.
A dirty bomb is purely a weapon of terror. It's low-tech, easy to make, devastating in its effect, and is considered a weapon of mass destruction. Such material has been "lost" before, and many security analysts worry that ISIS is building up a significant supply in hopes of launching a large radiological attack somewhere in the world.
Radical Islamic terrorists are scouring the globe for every kind of WMD - nuclear, chemical, radiological, and biological.
Over the weekend, authorities in Morocco arrested members of an ISIS cell who were in the late planning stages of a chemical weapons attack in that country. During the raid, Morocco's Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations found several jars of a chemical fertilizer that contains sulfur, and releases a fatal gas when heated.
Several news accounts mention, but don't elaborate, on a comment made by M. Elarji, a member of Morocco's risk management team. Elarji said the raid also uncovered "further chemicals which can create the tetanus toxin."
Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop, said in a speech last year, "Apart from some crude and small scale endeavors, the conventional wisdom has been that the terrorist intention to acquire and weaponize chemical agents has been largely aspirational.... The use of chlorine by Daesh (the Arabic term for ISIS), and its recruitment of highly technically trained professionals, including from the west, have revealed far more serious efforts in chemical weapons development."
According to Wolfgang Rudischhauser, the Director of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Non-Proliferation Centre NATO, "ISIS actually has already acquired the knowledge, and in some cases the human expertise, that would allow it to use CBRN materials as weapons of terror." (CBRN stands for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear.)
The New York Times reported this week that Belgian police found surveillance footage of a Belgian nuclear official in the home of Mohamed Bakkali, recently arrested on terrorism charges. They believe Bakkali helped plan the Paris attacks last November. His terror cell was apparently planning to abduct the nuclear official and force him to provide nuclear material to help them build a dirty bomb.
The proliferation of radioactive material in various industries is making it significantly easier for terrorists to come by. Jim Walsh of M.I.T.'s Security Studies Program said, "The world is flooded with highly radioactive material."
The possibility of terrorists obtaining or building dirty bombs highlights yet another flaw in the Iran nuclear deal. In Iran, scientists create the deadly radioactive material used in dirty bombs, and they do it with the U.S. government's seal of approval. Even if they were to abide by the agreement and not actually build nuclear bombs, they can still manufacture boatloads of radioactive material.
And Iran remains the number one terrorist state in the world.
Iran might just give such material to terrorists as a way of hurting the Big Satan (America) or the Little Satan (Israel). Also, in an environment where it's normal to shout "Death to America" at religious services, it's far more likely that individuals in key positions would look the other way or even actively participate in the terrorist theft of nuclear materials.
Even in the unlikely scenario that Iran never builds an actual atomic or hydrogen bomb, the nuclear deal leaves that nation with the capability to make dirty bombs to their hearts' content.
The problem with terrorists and terror-sponsoring nations is that they seem to feel no compunction about using any weapon at their disposal, apparently including WMDs. ISIS has already used chemical weapons on the battlefield against both the Kurds, and Iraqi forces.
From the outset, ISIS leaders have publicly said that they were trying to obtain or build all kinds of weapons of mass destruction. They have successfully recruited prized scientists in those fields, and they have large cash reserves if they want to buy the ready-made versions of such weapons.
As Arutz Sheva points out, "ISIS does not display any degree of morality or fear of consequences."
9-11 shook the world economy, and the terrorists only used airplanes. With WMDs in their hands, radical Islamists could do untold damage across the world.
Netanyahu phones Putin for clarifications on the South Syrian ceasefire - http://www.debka.com/article/25254/Netanyahu-phones-Putin-for-clarifications-on-the-South-Syrian-ceasefire
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu phoned President Vladimir Putin Wednesday Feb. 24, to find out how the partial Syrian ceasefire due to go into effect Saturday Feb. 27 will affect Israel's northern border security. According to the Kremlin statement, "The two leaders discussed the Middle East and reached agreement to hold a number of high-level contact meetings."
Agreement was also reached on "a range of contact [meetings] on the high and highest level, taking into consideration the 25tyh anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries," the communiqu� went on to say.
The language and content of this communiqu� struck debkafile's diplomatic sources as oddly off the point compared with statements that came after past conversations.
It is hard to believe that the Russian President, while deeply immersed in tense exchanges with President Barack Obama and Iran's Hassan Rouhani for tying up the ends of the approaching Syrian ceasefire, would give his attention to the celebration of a historic event.
The words did however convey the impression that the Russian leader was making an effort to calm Israel's apprehensions about the coming stage of the Syrian crisis.
According to our sources, Netanyahu put in the call to Putin when he learned that the Russian and American presidents had agreed to get the partial ceasefire started in southern Syria, namely on the front closest to the borders of Israel and Jordan.
Israeli and Jordanian military officials have been trying to get a picture of how these arrangements would work and affect their national security, but Washington and Moscow are similarly tightlipped on information. This is also the reaction the Israeli Foreign Ministry's Director General Dore Gold found when he called on Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Feb. 18. The minister was polite but avoided direct answers to questions.
Israel is most deeply troubled by the possibility that Syrian army, Iranian and Hezbollah forces currently in offensive momentum in South Syria will exploit the cessation of hostilities to advance towards its Golan border with hostile intent.
With only three days to go before the truce goes into effect, Israel has still not received any clear answers about whether the Russian air force will continue to strike Syrian rebel elements deemed "terrorists" unabated in close proximity to its northern borders.
US officials have tried in the last 24 hours to assuage Israel's concerns, but they are no more forthcoming with clear information than the Russians.
Netanyahu therefore picked up the phone to the Russian president, with whom he maintains a friendly dialogue, to find out what was ahead in the wake of the truce and to ask for guarantees that Syrian, Iranian and Hezbollah forces would not permitted to take advantage of the lull to gain ground.
The prime minister also asked Putin about the huge $14bn arms deal in negotiation with Tehran.
He is most unlikely to have been appeased by the bone the Russian president threw him about a joint celebration of an anniversary. The record is not assuring. In early January, Putin promised Netanyahu that he would make sure that Hizballah forces would not be part of the Russian-backed Syrian army offensive in the South. But then, on Jan. 27, a large Hezbollah force entered the southern town of Daraa and Russian air strikes drew ever closer to the Israeli border, until explosions could be heard in Israel from a distance of no more than a few hundred meters.
Did someone cross Israel's red line? - Ron Ben-Yishai - http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4768013,00.html
Analysis: Despite denials by the Assad regime and Hezbollah, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which reported on an Israeli airstrike in Syria, is considered reliable. As in the past, the reason for this strike could have been due to advanced weapons making their way to Hezbollah. So why aren't the Russians responding?
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which reported Wednesday night on an alleged Israeli strike south of Damascus, is usually a reliable source of information on the subject of Syria. Although the organization is based in London, it has people on the ground all over Syria who are skilled at collecting information, and have been reporting on military and humanitarian activities throughout the five years of the civil war. Therefore, there has been a rush in the international media to highlight the attack which the organization attributes to Israel.
It is well known that Israel has a set policy regarding the northern front, and with it, three red lines.
1.Israel will not allow an attack on or within its sovereign territory.
2.Israel will not allow the transfer of weapons which will give Hezbollah and Syria a strategic advantage over the IDF.
3.Israel will not allow the transfer of chemical weapons to Hezbollah.
Since there was no attack on or within the sovereign territory of Israel, and since Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles have mostly been destroyed, it is safe to assume that if Israel indeed carried out the strike, it was done in order to stop the transfer of advanced strategic weapons systems from Syria to Hezbollah, or from Iran, through Syria, to Hezbollah.
Over the last few years, the Syrians and the Iranians have been trying to transfer two types of weapons systems to Hezbollah. The first are precision ground-to-ground rockets and missiles, with warheads capable of holding hundreds of pounds of TNT, which are specifically designed to target strategic locations in Israel - like the ammonia plant in Haifa which Nasrallah mentioned in his speech.
The second type are surface-to-air missiles that could limit the abilities of the Israeli Air Force's missions in Lebanon and Syria against missiles and rockets that could be used against Israel - if and when. The Air Force's ability to attack high profile targets in large numbers is essential to prevent destruction and the loss of Israeli life, and it will also prevent the paralysis of essential facilities - such as power stations - during a war with Hezbollah.
It is the Air Force's responsibility to prepare for such scenarios. Hezbollah wants to mitigate this, and it is therefore trying to get its hands on the most advanced surface-to-air missiles it can. These types of systems are manufactured in Russia, and Vladimir Putin has been providing them in abundance - like the SA17 and SA22, which can take down a plane from a range of tens of kilometers, and at different altitudes.
What is most important to note about these SAM systems is that they are very mobile, and they can operate autonomously. These systems are easily camouflaged, and can be put in places that make it difficult for Israeli intelligence to spot. They can also pop up in unexpected places in a short amount of time, thereby making their destruction difficult, and endangering the Israeli Air Force's freedom of operation.
That is why, according to foreign reports, Israel targeted several shipments of these missiles in the past, which Syria bought from the Russians and was sending to Hezbollah. Several older SAM systems, such as the SA-8 surface-to-air missile system, did, however, manage to make their way to Hezbollah.
Recently, Russia deployed S-400 SAM systems to Syria, which are able to shoot down airplanes from a range of more than 100 kilometers, and at different altitutdes. The Russians deployed these batteries to Syria as a threat to Turkey after Ankara shot down one of their planes, but they haven't given these systems to the Syrian army. However, there is still the slight possibility that these missiles will fall into Hezbollah's hands, maybe behind the Russians' backs.
Why didn't Syria intervene?
If the Israeli Air Force did indeed attack south of Damascus, as reported by foreign sources, the question arises as to how is it possible with the Russian Air Force in the area, operating in unison with the regime in Damascus?
Russia attacks ground targets in Syria from the air in order to help the Assad regime in its fight against the rebels. As far as we know, the agreements between Russia and Syria and Iran do not include defending Syrian airspace from any kind of infiltration.
It is safe to assume that while the attack was taking place, there were no Russian Air Force jets in the sky in that area. Regardless of the attacks, the Israeli Air Force has the capability, weapons, rockets, missiles, and different types of cruise missiles which can carry out an attack on Syrian territory without the need to enter Syrian air space. "Strikes from afar" are the preferred method of air-to-ground fighting.
In addition to that, there is a coordination mechanism in place between the Russian forces operation in Syria and the IDF. If there was a risk of conflict or collision, this mechanism is supposed to neutralize it.
Between Syria and East Jerusalem
If indeed Israel struck in Syria, then why are the parties involved, such as the Syrian military spokesperson and Hezbollah TV station Al-Manar, denying it happened? The IDF's Spokesman's Office also did not confirm or deny it, and keeps quiet.
This silence has become common practice in order to mitigate a conflict which none of the sides are interested in. The "area of denial" gives Syria and Hezbollah the option not to respond. Israel also has no interest in provoking a response from Syria and Hezbollah, and therefore keep quiet as well.
There is another issue worth noting: IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot's speech to high school students, in which he said that their soldiers should not empty an entire magazine of bullets into a Palestinian girl attempting to attack someone with scissors. The two examples are talking about using military force, and in the two examples - at least, from what the sound of the IDF chief's comments - the use of force must be done proportionally and professionally.
The Syrian organization alleges that Israel shot three missiles that hit what the Syrians were possibly trying to send to Hezbollah. Three missiles, no more, that have a good chance of getting the job done. That is exactly the reason why the soldier who is standing in front of a teenage Palestinian girl holding scissors doesn't need to empty a full magazine into her to stop her. It is enough to hit her with the butt of his rifle.
The use of force requires restraint, proportionality, and professionalism, as the IDF allegedly demonstrated in Syria and is supposed to demonstrate in Jerusalem and Ramla.
Russia air strikes seal Jebel Druze against attack and refugees - http://www.debka.com/article/25248/Russia-air-strikes-seal-Jebel-Druze-against-attack-and-refugees
While Syrian war reporting focused over the weekend on the battles around Aleppo and along the Turkish border in the north, Russia since Saturday, Feb. 20 has ramped up its air bombardment of southern cities and towns, especially Daraa and Nawa. Thousands of fleeing rebels with their families and other civilians have meanwhile been turned away from the locked Jordanian border and are heading towards the Golan opposite the Israeli border.
The heaviest Russian air strikes seen hitherto in Syria have two strategic goals.
1. To retake the key southern town of Daraa from rebel hands and restore it to Syrian President Bashar Assad's full control.
2. To crush rebel resistance in the South and force them to accept surrender, collapse or escape in the direction of the Jordanian or Israeli borders.
The intense Russian sorties are opening the door to Syrian, Iranian and Hezbollah forces to move into the South and reach the Israeli borders. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sent Dr. Dore Gold to Moscow last week as his special emissary to explain how this affected Israel's security. But he was unable to persuade the Russians to scale down their attacks in this sensitive border region.
Those attacks have a third goal, which is to encircle the Jebel Druze region with a "shield of fire" as protection for this ethnic minority of 750,000, most which inhabit mountain villages.
This unusual operation, the first of its kind in the Syrian war, has three objectives:
A. To shield the Druzes villages against ISIS attack from the east, namely Deir az-Zour.
B. To shut the door against fleeing rebels seeking sanctuary in the Druze enclave.
C. To show other Syrian minorities, especially the Kurds in the north, the great advantage of allying themselves with Moscow. Word of Russian protection of the Druzes has undoubtedly spread to Syria's other minorities.
As for the rebels and refugees, Jordanian troops moved into the border crossings evacuated by Syrian rebels and closed the last crossing at Ramtha.
The exodus from southern Syria is now heading towards the Golan on Israel's doorstep.
Israel has imposed a media blackout on this development. However, debkafile's sources warn that it will soon be impossible to keep it dark. Within a few days, many thousands of Syrian refugees will be massing at Israel's Ein Zivan gate opposite Quneitra. Like Turkey and Jordan, Israel will have to supply large numbers of distressed Syrian refugees with tents, food, water and medicines.
Franklin Graham: 'World Is Unraveling from Middle East to North Korea, Jesus Is Coming' - By Stoyan Zaimov - http://www.christianpost.com/news/franklin-graham-world-unraveling-middle-east-north-korea-sign-jesus-is-coming-158153/
Evangelical preacher the Rev. Franklin Graham has said that international news headlines indicate the world is unraveling, and urged people to trust Jesus Christ, who is going to one day "wipe the slate clean."
"While the United States is focused on its own politics, the world is unraveling. The danger signals are everywhere. Beheadings, rapes, murders, bombings are taking place every day across North Africa through the Middle East, all the way to the borders of India," Graham wrote Thursday on his Facebook page.
"The U.S. military is deploying fighter aircraft to Finland to counter Russia's moves in that region; China is deploying missiles on an artificial island they have built in the south China sea over the objections of the international community; and North Korea has successfully test fired a long-range missile that has the potential of eventually reaching America with a nuclear bomb," he noted of some of the international news developments in recent times.
The son of famous evangelist Billy Graham, who heads Christian relief organization Samaritan's Purse, said that all of the global political and economic instability shows that the only hope for the world is "Almighty God."
"One day He is going to wipe the slate clean and 'create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind,' (Isaiah 65:17). For those who have trusted His Son Jesus Christ by faith, there is an eternal future with Him to look forward to," he continued.
Graham has been outspoken about world issues, such as the ongoing persecution and genocide of Christians in the Middle East at the hands of the Islamic State terror group, and has urged President Obama to recognize the severity of the issue.
"Mass murder, crucifixions, beheadings, enslavement, rape, destruction of churches, theft of lands and wealth, and forcible conversion to Islam - all are horrors that Christians in the Middle East are experiencing," Graham said back in December, insisting that Obama officially recognize the treatment of Christians as a genocide.
"ISIS doesn't want to co-exist with Christians - it wants to eliminate them," he added. "This is genocide against Christians, and their lives do matter."
Graham has been highly vocal about the 2016 presidential elections as well.
While Graham has not endorsed a candidate, he has warned Christians that they might "lose this country" unless they get out and vote.
"America is being stripped of biblical heritage," Graham said last week while speaking at the State House in Columbia, South Carolina, encouraging believers to "vote for candidates who stand for biblical truth and biblical principles, and are willing to live them."
"I want to get to as many Christians as I can to vote in the next election," he added, speaking of his Decision America Tour.
"Our country is going in the wrong direction. And I think some of the politicians that are running have tapped into the anger and the frustration in this country. And I want Christians to know that their vote does count and we've taken God out of government, schools and everything else and we need to get God back into it," Graham insisted.
Shoigu in Tehran to rescue Putin's plan from Assad's Iranian-backed obstructionism - http://www.debka.com/article/25250/Shoigu-in-Tehran-to-rescue-Putin's-plan-from-Assad's-Iranian-backed-obstructionism
President Vladimir Putin this week mounted a rescue operation to unsnarl his blueprint for a solution of the Syrian crisis from the blockage placed in its path by none other than Bashar Assad. The Syrian ruler won't hear of Moscow's proposals for ending the war, or even the cessation of hostilities approved last week in Munich by the 17-member Syria Support Group.
debkafile reports that the strains between Moscow and Damascus this week have blown back onto the working relations between the Russian, Syrian and Iranian military commands running the war in Syria.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, referring to the lack of progress toward a ceasefire during a visit to Amman Sunday, Feb. 21, pointed mainly at the Syrian opposition. Its High Negotiations Committee insists first on an end to the sieges, a halt on Russian bombardment and the inclusion of the jihadist Nusra Front in the ceasefire.
But, according to our sources, the main monkey wrench has been thrown into the mix by Assad.
When Putin discovered that the Syrian ruler had won the secret backing of Tehran in h is refusal, he decided to send the supreme commander of the Russian campaign in Syria, Defense Minister Gen. Sergei Shoigu, to Tehran Sunday, Feb. 21, with a personal message for President Hassan Rouhani.
Gen. Shoigu laid before Rouhani the extent to which Russian intervention had turned the tide of the Syrian war in favor of the regime, and the great advantages of a political resolution that would end the conflict in a way that enhanced Russian and Iranian influence in the region to the maximum.
The Russian general stressed that at the end of the proposed political process, Assad would be required to step down. This concurrence was incorporated in the Putin-Obama deal for working together to solve the Syrian crisis.
But Rouhani was unmoved, according to the statement he issued at the end of the interview.
"The crisis in Syria can only be solved through political negotiation and respect for the rights of the country's government and people, who are those taking the final decision regarding its future," he said.
This was taken in Moscow as Iran's rejection of at least one element of the Putin plan - imposing a solution on Assad - but not the plan in its entirety. This qualified response was meant to nudge Moscow closer to Teheran and Moscow and pull away from Washington.
The Shoigu mission therefore did not lessen the strains between Russia, Iran and Assad - at least for now, according to debkafile's sources.
Although all the parties concerned agree that the war must be ended by political means, those means are the subject of controversy between Moscow and its allies. The Russians are seeking a staged advance towards the final goal by first scaling down military operations, the while gradually refocusing their efforts on political and diplomatic arrangements.
But Syrian and Iranian leaders want to keep the focus on the military course.
Moscow wants the Assad regime to make concessions for paving the way to a cease-fire, and to accept a transitional government taking over in Damascus with representation for the opposition. The Syrian dictator would then gradually transfer his powers to the stand-ins as they assume responsibility for the various branches of government.
But both Assad and Tehran are adamantly opposed to a transitional government being installed - or any other political steps being pursued - before the rebel forces are totally defeated in non-stop military operations - first in the north and then in the south.
Neither the Syrian ruler nor Iran show any sign of relenting, or appreciating that the dramatic progress achieved in the past month by Syrian army, Iranian and Hizballah forces were down to Russian military support and especially its air campaign against their enemies. They feel safe in their intransigence because they assume that Putin can't afford to abruptly pull his military support from under their feet to make them bow to his demands.
After five months in which Moscow and the Russian air force have provided the Iranian leadership and Assad with signal victories on the ground, President Putin has been brought up short by the same Iranian-Syrian negative obstructionism, that has defied every effort to end the brutal five-year war, which has cost 470,000 lives, left 1.9 million injured, displaced half the country's population of 23 million and left a Syria ravaged beyond recognition.
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