The A-O Intelligence Digest

5-21-13

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Summit Bust

Prior to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's emergency meeting on Tuesday with Russian President Putin, the Israeli government's key officials came to a dramatic, conclusive agreement regarding policy for dealing with Syria, - IF - Russia proceeded with its delivery and set-up of the S-300 air defense systems in Syria.

The Israeli government reserves the right:

1. To attack the S-300 systems even if Russian personnel are present and killed.

2. To launch pre-emptive strikes on Syria as needed to prevent further transfer of WMDs to Hezbollah or other terror groups.

If Assad attempts any retaliation either directly or through proxy Palestinian or Hezbollah forces, Israel reserves the right:

1. To destroy the Syrian government and any proxy forces involved.

2. Hunt down and kill Assad and his family

IF Russia attempts to retaliate for any S-300 attacks by taking military action against Israel, Israel reserves the right:

1. To respond in kind.

2. If military escalations continued with Russia, Israel is fully prepared to use whatever weapons are available at its disposal against Russia.

The latter threat is a veiled reference to Israel's inventory of nuclear weapons, reportedly totaling somewhere around 400 warheads.

Putin Responds

During his meeting with Israeli PM Netanyahu, Putin warned the Israeli leader that Israel was heading for war with Syria and Russia. Putin left open the possibility of Russian combat forces beyond the mere trainer-technicians manning the new S-300 batteries that were already being unloaded in Syria as the two men spoke.

Netanyahu had brought along his top expert on chemical weapons with evidence to prove Syria was preparing to cross the "red line" and distribute those weapons to Hezbollah. Also, during the meeting, the Russian leader received news that the USS Kearsarge, an amphibious carrier had docked in the southern Israeli port city of Eilat on the Red Sea. The ship carries a compliment of 1,800 US Marines along with a special consignment of 20 V-22 Ofsprey helicopters which had been promised by Secretary of Defense Hagel during his April visit.

The amphibious group will remain on station in the area, fully within range and capable of responding to any crisis in the Syrian theater. This move is to guard against any aggression by Syria-Hezbollah-Iran against Israel or Jordan. Putin viewed the move with distrust.

The Israeli Prime Minister informed the Russian President that Israel would continue to strike any Syrian attempts to transfer arms to Hezbollah. He further stated that any Syrian retaliation would be met by Israeli escalation to the point that Israel would destroy Syria's military capability leaving Assad alone to contend with rebel forces. Putin responded by saying he doubted Israel could accomplish such a feat.

Afterwards, the Russian leader appeared to remain confident that Israel was incapable of carrying out its threats against Assad when Russia would do whatever is necessary to protect Assad. Netanyahu and his team flew back home, the consensus among the group was that Putin had decided to put Israel to the test and will permit Assad to supply Hezbollah with advanced weapons, including chemical weapons. It was perceived that Putin is practically begging for a fight.

On Wednesday, Syrian mortar fire fell on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights. There was no damage or injuries but Netanyahu's government interpreted the action to mean that Assad figures he has a free hand now to go on the offensive against Israel. Israel responded late Wednesday evening to the event by issuing a strong warning to Assad that if he retaliated against any Israeli air strikes, Israel would remove him from power. This warning was further strengthened by an "off-the-record" interview by an Israeli official with the New York Times which was even more strongly worded. Within a few hours, rockets from a Palestinian splinter group landed on the Golan Heights. Tel Aviv interpreted this as Assad's answer to the Israeli warning, using the Palestinians as a proxy force.

Netanyahu and his cabinet respond to the rocket incident by blinking. More than likely this was due to new moves by Russia. As the Israeli government contemplated a military response, Russian warships from the Russian Pacific Fleet traversed the Suez Canal moving into Mediterranean waters to join other Russian warships that had already arrived from the Russian Northern Fleet. Suddenly, Russia has the dominant naval presence in the Mediterranean Sea with at least 12 warships guarding Syria.

Under President Obama's orders, the US Navy has been pulled from the Mideast region and the Mediterranean. The U.S. has no aircraft carrier battle groups in the Mediterranean, however, the USS Kearsarge ( amphibious landing carrier) is conducting a port call at the southern Israeli port city of Eilat along the Red Sea in the Gulf of Aqaba. Even so, there is no real U.S. naval presence to counter the Russian fleet in the Mediterranean. This is due, in part to deliberate White House efforts to diminish US power under the excuse of federal budget sequestration limits, particularly with regards to the USS Truman and USS Bush. Aside from the USS Eisenhower's position outside of the Persian Gulf, the US Navy has the USS Nimitz in the general vicinity of North Korea. Every other carrier is in port to "save money."

In addition to Russia's naval activities, the Russians have also shipped sophisticated anti-ship missiles known as the Yakhont to Syria. These missiles pose a major threat to any size warship including aircraft carriers and a special threat to Israel's small surface warships.

These latest moves by Russia, along with the arrival of Russia's vaunted S-300 air defense systems has in large measure forced Israeli officials to give second and third thoughts to initiating further military action against targets in Syria and or Lebanon. The reality is that Russia is essentially tying Israel's hands leaving Israel with few, if any, options. Israel's only real option to take as many defensive steps as possible for self-protection.



Warnings Fly

Last week, an Israeli official confirmed that a dramatic and unprecedented message to this effect had been conveyed to Damascus, Channel 2 news reported.

The report said that Israel’s position to this effect also came up during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s emergency meeting in Russia on Tuesday with President Vladimir Putin, during which Netanyahu also told Putin of Israel’s profound opposition to Russia’s sale of sophisticated S-300 missile defense batteries to Assad.

The warning came hours after mortar shells hit the Mount Hermon area for the first time in the two-year Syrian civil war, and as Arabic newspapers reported talk of Hezbollah opening “a new front” against Israel on the Golan Heights.

Syria vowed last week to respond “immediately and harshly” to any further Israeli airstrikes, after Israel carried out two early morning attacks earlier this month on weapons consignments being stored in and around Damascus en route from Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The shipments contained highly sophisticated Fateh-110 missiles.

Confirmation of Israel’s warning to Assad came soon after the New York Times quoted an Israeli official issuing the same threat. The New York Times said Israel was “considering further military strikes on Syria to stop the transfer of advanced weapons to Islamic militants,” and that an unnamed Israeli official had contacted the paper to warn: “Israel is determined to continue to prevent the transfer of advanced weapons to Hezbollah. The transfer of such weapons to Hezbollah will destabilize and endanger the entire region. If Syrian President Assad reacts by attacking Israel, or tries to strike Israel through his terrorist proxies, he will risk forfeiting his regime, for Israel will retaliate.”

“Israel will continue its policy of interdicting attempts to strengthen Hezbollah, but will not intercede in the Syrian civil war as long as Assad desists from direct or indirect attacks against Israel.”

The New York Times report speculated that Israel “could be trying to restrain Syria’s behavior without undertaking further military action, or alerting the international community to another strike. That would ratchet up the tension in an already fraught situation in Syria, where a civil war has been raging for more than two years.”

Channel 2 on Wednesday night showed satellite images of what it said was a surgical strike, reportedly carried out by Israel at Damascus airport to target the Iranian missile consignments. It showed before and after pictures of specific buildings that had been blown up, while neighboring buildings remained intact. Israel has not formally confirmed either of this month’s attacks.

Channel 2 said Netanyahu had made clear to Putin — as he also had in recent conversations with US President Barack Obama and the Chinese leadership — that Israel would hold to its “red lines” as related to Syria, which included preventing the transfer of sophisticated weaponry to Hezbollah and other rogue organizations. source – Times Of Israel.  LINK.

Historical Reminder:

Amidst all the warnings being issued this past week, Israel issued "closed door" earnest warnings (on a smaller scale) earlier this year, before 3 different air strikes on Syria.

It is believed this latest warning indicates Israel is prepared to carry out additional strikes in the very near future.

It is also indicative that Israel is "done" with Obama - at precisely the moment Obama's political future hits a brick wall with scandal after scandal. Another tell-tale indication that perhaps the puppet-masters are circumventing Obama to push forward their world agenda for a Mideast War, sooner, rather than later.

White House Scandals Are Impacting Mideast Developments

The scandals now breaking in Washington concerning the Obama Administration are eerily similar to Watergate in the spring of 1973.

Within 6 months of the Watergate scandal breaking, we had the Yom Kippur War of 1973.

We seem to be following an eerily similar pattern now, 40 years later. Don't be surprised if military action breaks out in the next 72 hours.

Stay tuned. Developing...

Hezbollah Commander Boasts of Coming War

Over the weekend, a ranking Hezbollah commander boasted that Hezbollah is making final preparations for an invasion of Israel.

The unidentified commander gave an interview to a Kuwaiti newspaper, boasting that Syria had already given Hezbollah a number of different high-tech advanced weapons, including Russian Pantsyr mobile air defense systems as well as SAM-5 anti-air missiles and anti-tank Kornet missiles. The Hezbollah commander also hinted that some of the new Yakhont anti-ship missiles given to Syria by Russia will soon make their way to Hezbollah. Other regional experts believe that one S-300 mobile air defense battery will also be given to Hezbollah.

How soon, Hezbollah will be given orders to attack Israel is an unknown but there are indications it could be just a matter of weeks or at most, months away.

Syria's Assad About To Test Israel Again

According to late-breaking intelligence reports from the Mideast, the Syrian Army, along with Hezbollah and Iranian forces have been conducting a 3-week blitzkrieg against the Syrian rebel's primary stronghold in northwestern Syria. Over the weekend, the blitzkrieg has pushed the rebels back towards Turkey. This latest victory opens up a major highway between Syria and Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon. Opening up this route will enable Assad to transfer high-tech weapons and missiles to Hezbollah mountain warehouses in Lebanon with little recourse by Israel.

Assad's forces have decided that the best way to transfer high tech weapons to Hezbollah is to dissassemble the weapons into non-descript packages and ship them out via ordinary vehicles. Such an approach prevents Israel from distinguishing between military and civilian shipments and thus successful transfers of weapons being brought in by Iran. Iranian techs can then help re-assemble high-tech weapons inside mountain caves that are hidden from Israel. It is just a matter of time, before Hezbollah is equipped with new, high-tech weapons that could be a match for Israel's military.

With such an operation, we suspect that Iran and Hezbollah will try to avoid any premature confrontation with Israel, until the weapons transfers are completed and the weapons re-assembled and deployed.

Iran Prepares Terror Campaign Against USA

Intelligence sources report that contacts within Iran are reporting that the regime in Tehran has formed a coalition of different terrorist groups to conduct terror operations inside the continental United States. This coalition would be used simultaneously with hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel.

One expert on Iranian affairs says that the Iran officials have concocted 3 imminent terror operations to be conducted within the U.S. to scare the American public into giving up support for Israel and thus changing American foreign policy in the Mideast that would abandon Israel. This might well explain Jeremiah 51, verses 1 and 2 which we have speculated in the past as involving Iranian terrorists operating within the USA homeland.

If all of this is true, and if an Iranian terror campaign is implemented inside the USA, then we may well see prophetic events unfolding it short order, including the Rapture and the fiery one-hour destruction of Babylon-America.

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Late Mainstream Media Reporting

Now On War Potential in Mideast

LA Times - LINK

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