Tick Tock Tick Tock Tick Tock

While everyone is busy worrying twittering blogging and fretting over who is the newest Anti-Mitt and most likely to beat Obama they are largely ignoring the very real threat of the next World War at our doorstep.

Ahmadinejad (and the Mullahs) rule with an iron fist, brook no dissent and have no qualms about brutally silencing those who oppose them.

And they believe they are invincible.

Nazi Germany.

They prop up their puppet ally al-Assad in Syria, although he, too, is expendable if he doesn't toe the line OR is no longer needed.

Mussolini's Italy.

And they would loive nothing better than to annex Lebanon, and have their Hezbollah goons in place to do so.

Sudetenland.

And they all want to eliminate the Jews and then America, establishing the Caliphate, regardless of the destruction it will bring on the world.

And the world is ignoring this. Or at least Americans seem to be.

I don;t know. Perhaps I had too much to drink last night or maybe not enough.

But from where I sit it may be 2012 but looks an awful lot like 1939.

AP:

Ahmadinejad: Iran to reveal new nuke achievements
By NASSER KARIMI
Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran will soon unveil "big new" nuclear achievements, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday while reiterating Tehran's readiness to revive talks with the West over the country's controversial nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad spoke at a rally in Tehran as tens of thousands of Iranians marked the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution that toppled the pro-Western monarchy and brought Islamic clerics to power.

Ahmadinejad did not elaborate on the upcoming announcement but insisted Iran would never give up its uranium enrichment, a process that makes material for reactors as well as weapons.

The West suspects Iran's nuclear program is aimed at producing atomic weapons, a charge Tehran denies, insisting it's geared for peaceful purposes only, such as energy production.

Four rounds of U.N. sanctions and recent tough financial penalties by the U.S. and the European Union have failed to get Iran to halt aspects of its atomic work that could provide a possible pathway to weapons production.

"Within the next few days the world will witness the inauguration of several big new achievements in the nuclear field," Ahmadinejad told the crowd in Tehran's famous Azadi, or Freedom, square.

Iran has said it is forced to manufacture nuclear fuel rods, which provide fuel for reactors, on its own since international sanctions ban it from buying them on foreign markets. In January, Iran said it had produced its first such fuel rod.

Apart from progress on the rods, the upcoming announcement could pertain to Iran's underground enrichment facility at Fordo or upgraded centrifuges, which are expected to be installed at the facility in the central town of Natanz. Iran has also said it would inaugurate the Russian-built nuclear power plant in the southern port of Bushehr in 2012.

Iran's unchecked pursuit of the nuclear program scuttled negotiations a year ago but Iranian officials last month proposed a return to the talks with the five permanent U.N. Security Council members plus Germany.

"Iran is ready for talks within the framework of equality and justice," Ahmadinejad repeated on said Saturday but warned that Tehran "will never enter talks if enemies behave arrogantly."

In the past, Iran has angered Western officials by appearing to buy time through opening talks and weighing proposals even while pressing ahead with the nuclear program.

Washington recently levied new penalties aimed at limiting Iran's ability to sell oil, which accounts for 80 percent of its foreign revenue, while the European Union adopted its own toughest measures yet on Iran, including an oil embargo and freeze of the country's central bank assets.

Israel is worried Iran could be on the brink of an atomic bomb and many Israeli officials believe sanctions only give Tehran time to move its nuclear program underground, out of reach of Israeli military strikes. The U.S. and its allies argue that Israel should hold off on any military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities to allow more time for sanctions to work.

Before Ahmadinejad spoke Saturday, visiting Hamas prime minister from Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, also addressed the crowd, congratulating Iranians on the 1979 anniversary and vowing that his militant Palestinian group would never recognize Iran's and Hamas' archenemy, Israel.

Also at the Tehran rally, Iran displayed a real-size model of the U.S. drone RQ-170 Sentinel, captured by Iran in December near the border with Afghanistan. Iran has touted the drone's capture as one of its successes against the West.

The state TV called the drone is a "symbol of power" of the Iranian armed forces "against the global arrogance" of the U.S.

The report broadcast footage of other rallies around Iran, saying millions participated in the anniversary celebrations, many under heavy snowfall.

AP:

APNewsBreak: Satellite spots tanks in Syrian city
By DAN ELLIOTT
Associated Press

LONGMONT, Colo. (AP) -- Satellite image provider DigitalGlobe Inc. released photos Friday that appear to show Syrian army tanks and other armored vehicles in the city of Homs.

DigitalGlobe said the images were taken late Friday morning Syrian time by the company's WorldView 2 satellite from about 480 miles above the Earth.

Stephen Wood, director of DigitalGlobe's analysis center, said the photos show tanks, armored personnel carriers and other armored vehicles in the southern part of the city, some of them near apartment buildings.

The satellite images show an increase in the level of army activity in and around Homs from the previous 24 hours, Wood said.

Fighting in Homs has reportedly killed hundreds of people over the past week from bombardments followed by soldiers' advances. The battle there is part of the Syrian government's attempts to suppress an 11-month-old uprising against the rule of President Bashar Assad.

Wood said no battle damage was visible in the photos taken Friday, but previous images captured by the company's satellites did show the effects of fighting.

Homs looks deserted, with very few cars on the streets in the satellite photos, he said.

DigitalGlobe company has been gathering satellite photos of Syria since mid-2011, he said.

Cloud cover over Syria in recent days has left few opportunities for satellite photography, and the images captured Friday are hazy because of moisture in the atmosphere, Wood said.

The images were taken the day that two suicide bombers attacked security compounds in the Syrian city of Aleppo, killing 28 people, according to Syrian government officials. Troops and security forces fired on anti-regime protesters as they left mosques after Friday prayers nationwide.

DigitalGlobe is based in Longmont, Colo., and sells satellite imagery and analysis to clients that include the U.S. military, emergency response agencies and private companies.

The company has three orbiting satellites, and a fourth is under construction.

BBC:

Clashes in Tripoli, Lebanon over Syria unrest

At least one person has been killed in the Lebanese city of Tripoli in clashes between supporters and opponents of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, security officials say.

At least 12 people were injured, as the two sides fired guns and rocket-propelled grenades at each other.

The violence erupted after Friday prayers and continued overnight.

Tensions in the northern port city have mounted since the beginning of the uprising in Syria last March.

Residents said the RPGs were fired from the Sunni Muslim district of Bab al-Tabbana towards the Alawite district of Jabal Muhsin on Friday.

Footage by Reuters TV also showed gunmen taking cover on street corners and firing volleys of automatic gunfire.

Lebanese troops were later deployed in both districts, the army said in a statement.

It added that several soldiers were among the injured.

Tripoli is dominated by Sunni Muslims, who support the anti-Assad uprising in Syria.

Mr Assad is an Alawite, and members of the minority sect - an offshoot of Shia Islam - occupy key positions in the Syrian government and security forces.

Syria's majority Sunni community has been at the forefront of the revolt against the president and borne the brunt of the state's crackdown, which human rights groups say has left more than 7,000 people dead.

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Lest you think I've slipped a cog and are one of those people who think Iran wouldn't and couldn't even try to take on, let alone defeat, the United States, consider this scenario from John Galt:

How Iran could Win a War against Israel and the United States in One Hour
by John Galt

February 6, 2012 05:00 ET

In less than sixty minutes, the tiny nation of Iran could easily defeat two of the mightiest military powers in the world if they are allowed to engage in a first strike opportunity against both of those nations. This is not some far-fetched idea as U.S. and Israeli military planners are keenly aware of the implications of an Iranian attack which catches both nations off guard. The problem is not one of strategy or ability by either nation. The military units of both nations could easily defeat the Iranians in a nuclear or conventional war. However, Iran is not a conventional nation-state nor is the modern concept applicable to the confrontation which is coming.

IF Iran were to attack, it would be the ultimate one shot “use it or lose it” approach to all strategic, conventional, and non-conventional forces. Syria would not have any notification of the coming attack and the countries which were to be exposed to collateral damage, Iraq and Jordan, would receive only the warning provided by U.S. military forward air controllers with little choice but to stand down or engage a fellow Islamic nation in combat.

Iran’s first strike against Israel would be a combined effort designed to overwhelm the air defense systems of the IAF and create mass confusion. Odds are they would use every available missile launcher, and being conservative, we’ll say that’s 500 inside of Iran with an additional 1,100 plus inside of Lebanon, to fire an overwhelming volley at Israel. In addition, every available fighter aircraft capable of supersonic flight would be launched on a suicide mission trailing the initial missile attack. This initial volley would set the IAF and IDF on their heels along with creating massive panic in the United States defense establishment knowing the retaliatory strike package the tiny nation would launch. The defense systems might intercept 60% of all of the incoming if they were precise and of course, lucky as hell. The impacting conventional and non-conventional warheads would trigger a devastating response which would obliterate the entire nation of Iran however. That strike might be construed as a defeat for the “nation” of Iran but the attack would not end with just the Israel versus Iran aspect of the conflict.

Since the early 1980′s the Islamic Republic of Iran has been infiltrating the United States using a series of faux defectors, college students obtaining access through third party nations, and as highlighted by Fox News own Geraldo Rivera in July of 2002, via Mexico using the coyote network of smugglers. These infiltrators did not come to the United States to learn the historical aspects of American constitutional law nor our theories of engineering, although some did engage in education programs about nuclear physics, civil engineering, and advanced electronic technologies. This group of long time “students” and infiltrators are not here to assist or help our nation.

At the moment the Iranian attack is announced in the West, these sleeper cells will activate with a series of per-determined targets. Imagine the following happening while news reports of Israeli cities being hit:

- An eighty year old woman at a bus stop being beheaded with a machete by a crazy man screaming “God is Great” in Farsi then attacking dozens of other people standing by the area with his blade and a handgun.

- A six year old little girl is standing in front of a store in a shopping mall and is suddenly shot in the back of the head by a man who then shoots dozens of others after the horror of the initial shock wears off and action is taken by authorities against him.

- A man screaming “God is Great” in Farsi uses his car to run a bus load of children off of a large hill causing it to roll over and burst into flames.

- A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest kills the driver and hijacks a gasoline tanker which he drives into a crowded grocery store and detonates.

Crazy talk? No, not really, this is the worst case scenario for U.S. security apparatus. I submit to my readers to consider the following idea. The U.S. has designed a patchwork security system which could handle one, two, maybe even a dozen attacks simultaneously. But if over one thousand were to occur, the best that could be expected before serious casualties and damage were inflicted is at best a forty to fifty percent interception rate. Thus if the Israelis were overwhelmed, the U.S. would be also. That sets the stage for the defeat of both nations, and sadly a period of darkness that will take the world decades to recover from.

Militarily, the nation of Iran would cease to exist. The Iranian people would suffer, at a minimum, a 70% loss rate. The impact would be equally as devastating for the nation of Lebanon which effectively be eradicated from existence along with many cities inside of Syria and much of the Arab world becoming uninhabitable should the Samson Option be triggered, which in this scenario it would. The United States would become a militarized state overnight. Europe would become a basket case. And the Arab street would galvanize behind the eradication of the Israeli state, the removal of the “great Satan” and the largest victory of Islam over the West since the last of the Crusaders. The Islamic world would sing the praise of the sacrifice of the Persian people plus those ancillary nations impacted by the Jewish retaliatory attack.

Meanwhile, there are those who would invoke the Biblical implications of such a conflict. The United States would immediately be seen as a slumbering, bumbling, club footed nation unable to respond against an unseen enemy other than engaging in Wilsonian tactics of isolating Muslims in prison and at the same time destroying the Constitutional rights of American citizens who had nothing to do with the initial wave of attacks or fears of a secondary action. There are many who call this a delusional nightmare, but there is some historical logic behind this horrific scenario.

First, the Russians and Chinese would see an immediate strategic shift in power placing their nations in total control of the world from a strategic perspective. The Russians would instantly replace OPEC and the Middle Eastern oil cartel as the safest and most secure provider of crude oil in the world which would exceed two hundred dollars per barrel at that point in time. China would seize full control of Far Eastern affairs as the United States would be forced to contract its sphere of influence to the Western Hemisphere and no further at that point in time. The nations of South America would disengage in any meaningful strategic relationships with the U.S. thus driving them to Africa, Asia, and the newly Russian dominated European Union nations.

Second, and more importantly, the re-establishment of the greater Islamic caliphate would be completed almost immediately. The Persians would have zero influence over the creation or rule of the new Pan-Islamic territorial region. However, the consequences of this new geopolitical grouping will not be recognized by the world for at least a year. The now extinct nation of Iran would be honored and recognized for their act of martyrdom in the Islamic world thus giving the Shiites and the radical Islamic movement great credibility in the world, especially in fringe Islamic nations like Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and throughout Central Africa. Saudi Arabia and the associated Gulf states would immediately become subservient to the radicals as there would be no common enemy, aka, Israel, to unify their citizens against. Hence a demand for recognition of the re-established Caliphate would become the demand of the street.

Lastly, the destruction of freedom and economic disruption in the United States guarantees a period of renewed U.S. isolationism versus the globalist policies of the post World War II period. While that might well be viewed as a positive by many inside the American sphere and externally, the resulting darkness that would descend on the nations of the world will be a resumption of the Dark Ages of humanity instead of a new world order as designed by the bankers and politicians who envisioned “their” era of of domination after the establishment of the League of Nations. The nation-state of Iran will be defeated immediately, however the memory of the Islamic martyrs of Persia will be viewed as a victory in the centuries old war of Islam versus the West.