Hezbollah, Iran Prepare Campaign Of Islamic Terror … Inside America

By MICHAEL CARL – “Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is alive and well in the U.S. and the country’s law enforcement officials ignore them at their peril, according to former U. S. Air Force officer Steven O’Hern.

O’Hern says that the Revolutionary Guard, long an influential factor in the radical Islamic regime in Iran, does most of its surveillance and intelligence gathering through its proxy force, Hezbollah, considered by many to be a terror group.

‘In the United States, the Revolutionary Guard uses more than one approach. Hezbollah operatives and sympathizers are present in large numbers in many parts of the United States and actively conduct reconnaissance missions that develop information, photographs, and diagrams of federal buildings, and infrastructure targets,’ O’Hern said.

‘Those targets include such things as water utilities or electrical substations, and other potential targets to give the Guard the ability to quickly order a terrorist strike in our homeland,’ O’Hern said.

He explains that the Revolutionary Guard is working through Shi’a mosques around the United States as well as the nation’s Lebanese immigrant communities.

WND previously reported that a former Iranian official who has knowledge of Iran’s terror network estimated there are more than 40,000 of the regime’s security, intelligence and propaganda forces in the West, largely in friendly South American nations.

And WND has reported that Muslims are using mosques, including some in the United States, as terror command centers.

It is the Guards’ intelligence office that runs financing, recruiting and other strategies through Islamic centers and mosques, including some in New York and Ohio.

And as early as several months ago, the Guard threatened to bring its war to the shores of the United States.

O’Hern, who has written ‘Iran’s Revolutionary Guard,’ about the issue, said the primary mission of the Iran Revolutionary Guard and its Hezbollah proxy is to weaken the U. S. national security.

‘In the United States, the Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah have a long-term mission of gathering intelligence on homeland targets and maintaining the capability to

Fast & Furious On Steroids: Weapons Sent To Libyan Rebels With U.S. Approval ‘Fell’ Into Islamist Hands

Oops. And if there’s “no evidence” that these weapons were linked to the attack in Benghazi that killed US Ambassador Stevens, then why did the Obama Administration try so adamantly to blame it on a months-old poorly made anti-Mohammed film? …

By JAMES RISEN, MARK MAZZETTI and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT, The New York Times – “WASHINGTON — The Obama administration secretly gave its blessing to arms shipments to Libyan rebels from Qatar last year, but American officials later grew alarmed as evidence grew that Qatar was turning some of the weapons over to Islamic militants, according to United States officials and foreign diplomats.

No evidence has emerged linking the weapons provided by the Qataris during the uprising against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi to the attack that killed four Americans at the United States diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, in September.

But in the months before, the Obama administration clearly was worried about the consequences of its hidden hand in helping arm Libyan militants, concerns that have not previously been reported. The weapons and money from Qatar strengthened militant groups in Libya, allowing them to become a destabilizing force since the fall of the Qaddafi government.

The experience in Libya has taken on new urgency as the administration considers whether to play a direct role in arming rebels in Syria, where weapons are flowing in from other countries.

The Obama administration did not initially raise objections when Qatar began shipping arms to opposition groups in Syria, even if it did not offer encouragement, according to current and former administration officials. But they said the United States has growing concerns that, just as in Libya, the Qataris are equipping some of the wrong militants.

The United States, which had only small numbers of C.I.A. officers on the ground in Libya during the tumult of the rebellion, provided little oversight of the arms shipments. Within weeks of endorsing Qatar’s plan to send weapons there in spring 2011, the White House began receiving reports that they were going to Islamic militant groups. They were ‘more antidemocratic, more hard-line, closer to an extreme version of Islam’ than the main rebel alliance in Libya, said a former Defense Department official.” Read more.

Flashback: Islamist Rebels In Syria May Be Using American-Provided Weapons To Slaughter Christians – “As if ‘Benghazi-gate’ was not sufficiently horrific, in a cruel twist of fate, American-backed Islamic insurgents in Syria are now thought to be using their CIA-supplied weaponry to kill Christians. Video footage of a November first attack posted on YouTube shows members of the ‘Free Syrian Army’ executing 28 men that were initially claimed in French Press reports to be members of the Syrian army. However, the President of the US-based, Christian relief group, the Religious Freedom Coalition, William Murray, claims to have positively identified at least two of the victims as belonging to the Syrian counterpart of his relief ministry, a claim supported by an independent human rights activist.” Read more.

Worst Fears Confirmed: Syria’s Chemical Weapons Now Locked And Loaded, Military Awaits Assad’s Orders

By Jim Miklaszewski and M. Alex Johnson, NBC News – “The Syrian military is prepared to use chemical weapons against its own people and is awaiting final orders from President Bashar Assad, U.S. officials told NBC News on Wednesday.

The military has loaded the precursor chemicals for sarin, a deadly nerve gas, into aerial bombs that could be dropped onto the Syrian people from dozens of fighter-bombers, the officials said.

As recently as Tuesday, officials had said there was as yet no evidence that the process of mixing the ‘precursor’ chemicals had begun. But Wednesday, they said their worst fears had been confirmed: The nerve agents were locked and loaded inside the bombs.

Sarin is an extraordinarily lethal agent. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s forces killed 5,000 Kurds with a single sarin attack on Halabja in 1988.

U.S. officials stressed that as of now, the sarin bombs hadn’t been loaded onto planes and that Assad hadn’t issued a final order to use them. But if he does, one of the officials said, ‘there’s little the outside world can do to stop it.’

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reiterated U.S. warnings to Assad not to use chemical weapons, saying he would be crossing ‘a red line’ if he did so.

Speaking Wednesday at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Clinton said the Syrian government was on the brink of collapse, raising the prospect that ‘an increasingly desperate Assad regime’ might turn to chemical weapons or that the banned weapons could fall into other hands.

‘Ultimately, what we should be thinking about is a political transition in Syria and one that should start as soon as possible,’ Clinton said. ‘We believe their fall is inevitable. It is just a question of how many people have to die before that occurs.'” Read more.

Israel: ‘We’re Watching Syrian Chemical Weapons Closely’ – “Israel has said on several occasions in the past that it would take military action if necessary to prevent Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons from falling into the hands of Hezbollah or other terror groups. After US President Barack Obama and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned Assad against using chemical weapons on Monday and Tuesday respectively, Netanyahu said Tuesday, ‘We are monitoring closely, along with the international community, the events in Syria with regard to the chemical weapons stockpiles.'” Read more.

Algeria: Christian Faces Five Years In Prison For Sharing Faith With Muslim

Matthew 5:11-12a, “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great [is] your reward in heaven …”

By Jeremy Reynalds, ASSIST News Service – “ISTANBUL (ANS) — Accusers who say an Algerian Christian insulted Islam provided no evidence to a judge hearing the Christian’s appeal of his original sentence.

According to a story by Open Doors News, Karim Siaghi, a Christian convert, was sentenced in May 2011 to five years in prison and fined 200,000 Algerian Dinars, or about U.S. $2,500, even though prosecutors had brought no evidence or witnesses before the court.

More than a year later, in mid-November, Siaghi’s appeal hearing was held in the coastal city of Oran, in the northwest of Algeria. It was the first time he had faced his accuser in court.

Open Doors News said authorities arrested Siaghi in April 2011 after he allegedly gave a CD about Christianity to a Muslim. Siaghi had gone to a phone store to buy airtime minutes for his cell phone, and the clerk there initiated a conversation about religion.

Unhappy with Siaghi’s non-Muslim answers, the clerk tried to force him to worship the Prophet and to recite the Muslim shahada, ‘There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet.’

When Siaghi refused and said he was a Christian, Open Doors News said the clerk filed a complaint that the convert had belittled the Prophet. Lacking additional witnesses, charges were brought against him.

Open Doors News said the clerk had allegedly seen Siaghi give a CD to someone, but never appeared in court to testify about that. Siaghi’s lawyer said there was no evidence of the charges.

Local Algerians as well as international observers were dismayed when the judge handed down the sentence. The prosecutor had reportedly sought a two-year sentence and a fine of 50,000 Algerian dinars, or about U.S. $690.

Open Doors News said experts on Algeria’s treatment of Christians say that Algerian courts customarily have preferred to delay deciding in favor of Christians, so as not to aggravate local Muslim feelings. They say judges also have been slow to pronounce final verdicts in order to keep from provoking international criticism over religious freedom.” Read more.

Flashback: Algeria Demands UN To Impose Limits On Freedom Of Speech And Expression‚ Protect Islam And Mohammed – “Algeria demanded new efforts yesterday to limit freedom of expression to prevent denigrating attacks on Islam, appealing to the United Nations to take a lead as nations engaged in new debate on the tensions between free speech and religious tolerance. In an address to the General Assembly, Algeria’s foreign minister Mourad Medelci called for global action … his call follows similar demands at the General Assembly from scores of leaders in the Muslim world who want new laws to ban insults against Islam.” Read more.

Wounded, Cornered: Syrian Regime Eyes Possible Asylum To Latin America As Russia Hints It May Be Ready To See Assad Go

It is becoming increasingly clear that Bashar al-Assad has become a wounded, cornered animal. But be wary. This is when they’re predictably unpredictable …  

By Dashiell Bennett, The Atlantic Wire – “Vladimir Putin (who is alive and well!) met with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan yesterday and reportedly signaled that Russia may be willing to push for a new plan to peacefully remove Bashar al-Assad from power in Syria. If the rumors turn out to true it would be a major shift in the diplomatic stance of Russia, which has long argued that other nations should not be interfering in Syrian politics and has helped blocked several U.N. Security Council resolutions that would have taken actions against Assad’s regime. (Though we have been down this road before.)

The hard part, of course, is getting either side to agree to it. The Russian plan would allegedly involve Assad handing power to his vice-president Farouq al-Sharaa, a result that most of the Syrian opposition finds unacceptable. They sense that Assad’s entire regime will soon be toppled—and the fact that such a deal would even be discussed suggests that Russia senses it too. If they’ve come this far, rebel commanders likely feel there’s no reason to share power with a government that will soon collapse anyway, and be even more heavily indebted to the Russians.

As for Assad, he seems resigned to the fact that one way or another he will die in Syria. He’s said as much publicly and a Russian source tells The New York Times that diplomats from Moscow who met with Assad recently described him as ‘a man who has lost all hope of victory or escape.’ If he tried to flee into exile, he might even be killed by his own people. That makes him more dangerous than ever, which explains the sudden urgency by the United States to ensure he doesn’t decide to unleash his chemical weapons.” Read more.

Could The Assad Regime Be Crumbling In Syria? – “Syria’s regime is showing signs that it is weakening, according to reports from newspapers in the United Kingdom and Israel. Syrian President Bashar Assad has sought asylum for himself, his family, and associates in Latin America if his regime falls and he is forced to flee Damascus, reported Haaretz, an Israeli daily paper. The report indicates that nation’s deputy foreign minister met with leaders in Cuba, Ecuador, and Venezuela, and brought personal letters from Assad to local leaders.” Read more.

Report: Assad’s Chemical Weapons Units Head Out Of Damascus Toward Aleppo – “As NATO in Brussels gave the go-ahead Tuesday night, Dec. 4, for the deployment of Patriot surface-to-air missiles to protect Turkey against Syrian missiles, DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources reported that convoys of the Syrian army’s chemical weapons units headed out of Damascus under cover of dark and turned north up the road to Aleppo. Their destination is not yet known. The convoys were ferrying self-propelled cannons for firing shells loaded with poisonous sarin gas.” Read more.