Explosions Rocking Tehran Spark Warning of a ‘Big Event’, Iranian General: ‘Expect Shocking Explosions in Tel Aviv and Other Cities’

By Reza Kahlili – “On Nov. 12, two massive blasts at a nearby town rocked Tehran, the Iranian capital, and may have been an attempt to assassinate the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had been scheduled to be there at the time of the explosions. Now Israel and the West must be prepared for possible Iranian retaliation.

After the explosions, Iranians found themselves wondering whether Israel had attacked. The recent report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Iran’s nuclear weapons program and the warnings of military action by Israeli officials have alarmed Iranians about the threat of war.

The simultaneous explosions, which hit the Iranian Revolutionary Guards base 28 miles west of Tehran, not only shook the surrounding area but were heard and felt throughout Tehran, even breaking car and building windows.

Revolutionary Guards officials soon announced that the explosions occurred at one of their ammunition depots while ammunition was being moved and claimed at first that 15 people were killed.

Iran’s state-owned media rapidly changed the story multiple times on the number of fatalities and the cause of the incidents, but they all ruled out a plot and stated that the explosions had nothing to do with Iran’s nuclear program. Then they announced that Brig. Gen. Hassan Tehrani Moghadam, the “architect of Iran’s missile program,” was one of those killed.

The shock was palpable among the Iranian leaders, and soon sources within Iran revealed that the number of casualties was well over 100. It was also reported that right after the explosions, tanks and armored vehicles mobilized in and around Tehran and in other provinces.

Ayatollah Khamenei attended the funeral of those killed and best described the severity of the incident: ‘The bloody incident, which resulted in the martyrdom of some of our best, including the superior commander and scientist Hassan Moghadam, is truly bitter and sad.’

Although Iranian officials claimed the explosions were accidental, their statements later indicated that the incidents were more of a complex and calculated covert operation right out of a James Bond movie.

One explosion ‘set back the manufacture of the [Guards’] researched product only for two weeks, which could be a punch in the mouth of the global arrogance [forces of imperialism] and the occupying [Zionists],’ said Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi, the chairman of Iran’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In referring to Israel, Revolutionary Guards Gen. Masoud Jazayeri said the Zionist regime should expect shocking explosions in Tel Aviv and other cities. Iran obviously is blaming the explosions on Israel. What is interesting is that a little more than a week later, a similar explosion occurred at a weapons depot of the terrorist group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

But most revealing was the statement reflected on the Revolutionary Guards’ media outlet, Javan Online, by Mehdi Taeb, the head of the Ammar Garrison and one of the most fanatical figures in the Islamic regime. He stated that ‘a big event will take place after the martyrdom of Hassan Moghadam.’ He added that the deceased general was working on a project that, despite his absence, will soon come together and result in this ‘big event.’

‘Iran Prepping al-Qaida for Large-Scale Attacks’

By Aaron Klein – “JERUSALEM – In response to any future Israeli military strike on its nuclear sites, Iran has been training al-Qaida elements in the Egyptian Sinai desert on how to coordinate retaliatory attacks, a senior Egyptian security official told WND.

The al-Qaida attacks are meant to target both Israeli and Egyptian installations, the security official said, as part of an Iranian plot to widen any Israeli-Iranian conflict to involve other countries.

The Egyptian official said there is also information Iran has been working with Islamic Salafist groups in Jordan that are allied with al-Qaida.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards helped to train al-Qaida elements in the Sinai and Gaza Strip to carry out large-scale attacks, including missile attacks, cross-border incursions, suicide bombings and explosions targeting infrastructure, such as oil and gas pipelines, the official said.

Any Iranian cooperation with al-Qaida would underscore the dangers of Tehran obtaining nuclear weapons. The country has a history of using terrorist proxies, most notably Hezbollah in Lebanon, to carry out its bidding.

Some analysts have raised fears of terrorists obtaining a nuclear device from a nation state and using the weapon for maximum damage. The deployment [of] a nuclear electromagnetic pulse, or EMP attack, for example, could collapse the U.S. national electric grid and other critical infrastructures affecting tens of millions of civilians.” Read more.

Iranian EMP Nuke Attack Over the US: ‘Two-Thirds of the American Population Would Perish From Starvation, Disease, and Societal Collapse’ Within One Year – “Pentagon estimates show that Iran could have missiles capable of reaching the East Coast of the United States by the year 2015. If the Iranians acquire a nuclear bomb, they might be able to cripple their ‘Great Satan’ even sooner through an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, attack off America’s coastline. ‘Within a year of an EMP event, at least two-thirds of the American population would perish from starvation, disease, and societal collapse. It’s a high-tech means of killing people the old fashioned way,’ Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, president of EMPact America, explained.” Read more.

Flashback: Iran’s Link to Al-Qaeda: The 9-11 Commission’s Evidence – “The following are excerpts from the 9/11 Commission Report, an unclassified version of which was released to the public on July 22, 2004. The commission interviewed more than 1,000 people in ten countries and conducted an unprecedented review of U.S. intelligence. Among its findings, excerpted below, was evidence of a significant and continuing relationship between al-Qaeda and the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Read more.

‘Devastating Outcomes Worldwide’: Germany Warned of ‘Crisis of Apocalyptic Proportions’ If It Doesn’t Act Now to Save Euro

Is it me, or is panic over the debt mess in Europe really starting to ratchet up? …

By Quentin Peel in Berlin, Jan Cienski in Warsaw and Norma Cohen – “Germany is the only country in Europe that can act to save the eurozone and the wider European Union from ‘a crisis of apocalyptic proportions’, the Polish foreign minister warned on Monday in a passionate call for more drastic action to prevent the collapse of the European monetary union.

The extraordinary appeal by Radoslaw Sikorski, delivered in the shadow of the Brandenburg Gate in the German capital, came as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development called on European leaders to provide ‘credible and large enough firepower’ to halt the sell-off in the eurozone sovereign debt market, or risk a severe recession.

The OECD’s comments came as the organisation slashed its half-yearly forecasts for growth in the world’s richest countries, warning that economic activity in Europe would grind to a near-halt.” Read more.

OECD: euro collapse would have ‘highly devastating outcomes’ worldwide – “The collapse of the euro could send the world’s advanced economies into a severe recession, dragging emerging markets with them into the mire, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warned on Monday… Pier Carlo Padoan, OECD chief economist, made plain in the body’s latest six-monthly economic outlook that the greatest threat to global economic health comes from the eurozone rather than from the tax-and-spend gridlock in the US Congress. In his introduction to the report he said: ‘Recent contagion to countries thought to have relatively solid public finances could massively escalate economic disruption if not addressed.’ In a devastating critique of eurozone leaders’ hesitancy and dilatoriness, he said: ‘The scenario so far is that Europe’s leaders have been behind the curve. We believe this could be very serious.'” Read more.

Britain Now Planning On Belief That Euro Collapse is Now Just a Matter of Time, Foreign Office Warns to Prepare for Riots and Social Unrest – “As the Italian government struggled to borrow and Spain considered seeking an international bail-out, British ministers privately warned that the break-up of the euro, once almost unthinkable, is now increasingly plausible. Diplomats are preparing to help Britons abroad through a banking collapse and even riots arising from the debt crisis. The Treasury confirmed earlier this month that contingency planning for a collapse is now under way.” Read more.

Arab Spring Spares Region’s Royals

Is this further evidence that the stage is being set for the fulfillment of Bible prophecy? …

Daniel 11:40-43, “At the time of the end the king of the South will engage him in battle, and the king of the North will storm out against him with chariots and cavalry and a great fleet of ships. He will invade many countries and sweep through them like a flood. He will also invade the Beautiful Land. Many countries will fall, but Edom, Moab and the leaders of Ammon will be delivered from his hand. He will extend his power over many countries; Egypt will not escape. He will gain control of the treasures of gold and silver and all the riches of Egypt, with the Libyans and Nubians in submission.”

By DAVID ROSENBERG – “The contrasts couldn’t be any more stark.

In a space of five days, voters in the Gulf emirate of Oman quietly went to the polls to elect members to the country’s Shoura Council, a quasi-legislature that the country’s absolute ruler has promised will be granted more power, while in Libya another autocrat, Muammar Gaddafi was dragged out of a drainpipe where he had sought refugee to be pummeled and killed by rebels, the denouement to a bloody six-month civil war.

Gaddafi is the third Arab leader to lose his job in the 11 months since the Arab Spring erupted while a fourth, Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh, announced Wednesday that he was ready to step down. The fate of another, Syria’s Bashar Assad, hangs in the balance. But other leaders faced unrest in the early days of the Arab Spring only to turn back the popular tide.

Besides Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said Said, King Muhammed VI of Morocco has also succeeded in containing unrest as has King Abdullah of Jordan. At the outset of the Arab Spring, all looked ripe for revolution and experienced varying levels of unrest, but 11 months later all four leaders are still standing.

It pays to be a dynast rather than a dictator, or the son of a dictator. None of the region’s many royals has been toppled and only one – Bahrain’s Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Khalifa – has faced a serious challenge to his rule. All four autocrats to fall, as well as a fifth most likely to succumb, were dictators who made pretensions to democratic rule with rigged elections. Among non-royals, only Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has succeeded in restoring quiet.

The staying power of kings could be due to early-childhood training in statecraft or a traditional deference on the part of people to royalty, but Ibrahim Saif, a resident scholar at the Carnegie International Endowment for Peace suggests it is because royals rely more on their paternal image than on fear to maintain their rule.

‘They are more responsive to the demands of the street. Historically they have been more tolerant,’ Saif told The Media Line in a telephone interview from Beirut. ‘If you compare the monarchy in Jordan, for instance, to the regimes in Syria or Egypt, they try to respond to the demands of the people, like quality of education, social conditions.’

The kingdom of Jordan scores 0.698 on the United Nations Human Development Index (the highest score is a 1.0), compared with 0.632 for the neighboring dictatorship of Syria. Oman scores a higher 0.705. Morocco is a much lower 0.582, but over the last decades its score has jumped by 14.8 percent. Politically, the monarchies are also relatively liberal.

Morocco is one of the few Arab countries to enjoy a ‘partly free’ designation by Freedom House. In 2010, the human rights organization categorized Jordan and Oman as ‘not free,’ but they scored higher on political rights and civil liberties than Tunisia, Syria or Libya.” Read more.

Report: Explosion Rocks Iran City of Isfahan, Home to Key Nuclear Facility

By Yossi Melman and Reuters – “An explosion rocked the western Iranian city of Isfahan on Monday, the semi-official Fars news agency reported, adding that the blast was heard in several parts of the city.

According to reports, frightened residents called the fire department after the blast, forcing the city authorities to admit there had been an explosion.

Speaking with Fars news agency, Isfahan’s deputy mayor confirmed the reports and said the authorities are investigating the matter. However, after the incident was reported in Israel, the report was taken off the Fars website.

It seems that city authorities and the Iranian government were embarrassed by the reports of a blasts, releasing contradictory versions of the alleged events. One example is a statement given by the same deputy mayor to the Mehr news agency, saying he had no reports of an explosion.

Another confirmation came from the head of the city’s judiciary, who said an explosion-like sound was heard. Meanwhile, the Mehr news agency reported there has been a blast at a petrol station near the city. Another report pointed to a training accident.

The reported incident occurred about two weeks after Gen. Hasan Tehrani Moghaddam was killed together with 20 other Guard members Nov. 12 at a military site outside Bidganeh village, 40 kilometers southwest of Tehran.” Read more.

Flashback: Iranian General: Explosion at military base ‘temporarily stopped’ weapons research program to be used against Israel – “A blast at a military base in Iran happened while the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) were working on a weapon research program to be used against Israel, Iran’s armed forces chief of staff said Wednesday. Saturday’s explosion at a military base near Tehran killed 17 IRGC members. ‘The incident happened during a research program which could have become a severe punch on Israeli regime’s mouth,’ General Hassan Firouzabadi said. ISNA news agency quoted the general as saying that due to the incident ‘the program was only temporarily stopped but would resume again soon.’” Read more.  Apparently, the November 12th explosion completely destroyed a missile site.

Flashback: Lebanon: Explosion Rocks Secret Hizbullah Weapons Warehouse – “A secret Hizbullah terrorist warehouse exploded overnight near the coastal city of Tyre, located in southern Lebanon not far from Israel’s northern border, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Beirut. The blast occurred in an area under the control of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Nevertheless, Hizbullah forces have prevented security personnel from reaching the site, making it impossible to obtain any information about what actually happened.” Read more.

The Eurozone Really Has Only Days to Avoid a Violent Collapse

By Wolfgang Münchau – “In virtually all the debates about the eurozone I have been engaged in, someone usually makes the point that it is only when things get bad enough, the politicians finally act – eurobond, debt monetisation, quantitative easing, whatever. I am not so sure. The argument ignores the problem of acute collective action.

Last week, the crisis reached a new qualitative stage. With the spectacular flop of the German bond auction and the alarming rise in short-term rates in Spain and Italy, the government bond market across the eurozone has ceased to function.

The banking sector, too, is broken. Important parts of the eurozone economy are cut off from credit. The eurozone is now subject to a run by global investors, and a quiet bank run among its citizens.

This massive erosion of trust has also destroyed the main plank of the rescue strategy. The European Financial Stability Facility derives its firepower from the guarantees of its shareholders. As the crisis has spread to France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Austria, the EFSF itself is affected by the contagious spread of the disease. Unless something very drastic happens, the eurozone could break up very soon.” Read more.

The Eurozone Has 10 Days At Most – “If you’re looking for some good Euro-scare meat, look no further than this column from the FT’s Wolfgang Münchau. The basic gist: No really, now we’re getting into endgame. Why now? Because the increase in core yields, the failure of that German bund auction, and the increase in Spanish and Italian short-term yields, as well as the tightening of money for the banks, means it’s all almost over unless Europe immediately cooks up some kind of ECB-backed/Eurobond/fiscal union concoction. ‘I am hearing that there are exploratory talks about a compromise package comprising those three elements. If the European summit could reach a deal on December 9, its next scheduled meeting, the eurozone will survive. If not, it risks a violent collapse.'” Read more.

Italy Is Closer To Collapse Than Anyone Realized, And So Is The World – “Some stories in the European press (La Stampa – Zero Hedge link) suggest that Italy is working on a very big loan package from the IMF. I have no doubt that there are ongoing discussions. There have to be. Either someone puts a finger in the dike or Italy goes tapioca. That thought is difficult for me to fathom. How could we be so close to the brink? At this point there is zero possibility that Italy can refinance any portion of its $300b of 2012 maturing debt. If there is anyone at the table who still thinks that Italy can pull off a miracle, they are wrong.” Read more.

Britain: Christian Mother ‘Forced Out of Heathrow Job After Hate Campaign by Muslim Fundamentalists’

A peaceful, hard-working Christian is fired because she complained about being harassed by fundamentalist Muslims.  But extremists — who hate the West, openly support terrorism and have no qualms about declaring their intentions to force ‘infidel’ Westerners to convert to Islam — are treated like royalty and still allowed to work at a major international airport, of all places.  I should be surprised, but I’m not.  I can only imagine what it’ll take for the powers that be in Britain and elsewhere to tackle the real root of the problem that is gleefully destroying Western civilization…

By Craig Mackenzie – “A worker who claims she was the victim of a race-hate campaign by fundamentalist Muslims because of her Christian beliefs has launched a landmark case against her former employers.

Nouhad Halawi, a saleswoman at Heathrow Airport’s World Duty Free shop, said she and other Christian staff were systematically harassed by Muslims.

She alleged the intimidation included:

• Bullying a friend at the airport for wearing crosses.
• Muslims telling her she would go to hell if she didn’t convert.
• A Muslim colleague insisting she read the Koran. And;
• That Jews were responsible for the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Mrs Halawi lost her job at the perfume counter in Terminal 3 in July after 13 years when she spoke out about bullying by a small group of ‘extremist’ Muslims at the airport.

The mother-of-two had been the subject of a complaint by an Islamic colleague but when she raised her own concerns as a Christian, she said she was the one who was dismissed.

Her case for unfair dismissal is being supported by the Christian Legal Centre, who believe it raises important legal issues over whether Muslims and Christians are treated differently by employers.

Mrs Halawi, 47, who came to Britain from Lebanon in 1977, said: ‘I have been sacked on the basis of unsubstantiated complaints.

‘There is now great fear amongst my former colleagues that the same could happen to them if one of the Muslims turns on them.

‘This is supposed to be a Christian country, but the law seems to be on the side of the Muslims.’

She says that she had always got on well with her Muslim colleagues,but the atmosphere changed with a growing number of employees promoting ‘fundamentalist Islam’.

Mrs Halawi told the Sunday Telegraph: ‘One man brought in the Koran to work and insisted I read it and another brought in Islamic leaflets and handed them out to other employees.

‘They said that 9/11 served the Americans right and that they hated the West, but that they had come here because they want to convert people to Islam.” Read more.

Report: Extreme Weather Driving Up Food Prices

By Mike De Souza – “Extreme weather events caused by climate change are endangering global food supplies and driving up prices for consumers worldwide, says new research released Sunday by the humanitarian group, Oxfam.

In a briefing note prepared for media, Oxfam highlighted a pattern of events in 2010 such as wild fires in Russia, and extreme weather in other crop-producing nations with a spike in wheat prices on the global market.

‘When (the price of food) just spikes in a question of months, that tends to be related to particular events with crop production and we saw with the case of wheat,’ said Mark Fried, a policy coordinator for Oxfam Canada, noting that other factors such as rising oil prices also have an impact on the international food market.

Oxfam’s briefing note also said that the recent drought in the Horn and East Africa dealt a severe blow to over 13 million people, with some crops doubling or tripling in price last July.

‘When a weather event drives local or regional price spikes, poor people often face a double shock of having to cope with higher food prices at a time when the direct effects of the weather may have also depleted their assets i.e. their homes or crops destroyed; crops and livestock sold or gone,’ said the briefing note.

‘This toxic mix of higher prices and lower purchasing power has driven many people into crisis in the Horn and East Africa.’

Fried said the Canadian government must ensure that its existing pledge for ‘fast-start’ financing in developing countries offers at least half of its funds for adaptation to help these regions cope.” Read more.