Damascus Countdown: Iran & Syria Vow Retaliation After Israeli Airstrike — Is Something More Catastrophic Coming?

By Joel C. Rosenberg – “What will be next?

As the implosion of Syria continues unabated, Israeli officials are increasingly worried that weapons of mass destruction positioned on Syrian soil will be used against the Jewish state. Or that they will fall into the hands of anti-Israeli forces. Or be handed over to anti-Israeli forces. Prime Minister Netanyahu and the IDF top brass are also deeply concerned about Iran’s efforts to use the chaos in Syria to divert international attention away from stopping Tehran’s nuclear weapons program. As I’ve written before on this blog — and explore in more detail in my forthcoming geopolitical thriller, Damascus Countdown — the corridor between Tel Aviv, Damascus and Tehran is the most dangerous corridor on the planet at the moment. Iran is getting closer to building The Persian Bomb. More than 40,000 people have been slaughtered inside Syria. The world is not taking decisive action to stop any of this. And there is a growing fear in the region that a countdown may have begun to something even more catastrophic happening in the not-too-distant future. I pray that it doesn’t. But governments are increasingly on edge, and for good reason.

Here’s a snapshot of the latest developments in the last 48 hours:

‘Israel bombed a suspected shipment of antiaircraft missiles in Syria on Wednesday, according to regional and U.S. officials, in its most ambitious strike inside its neighbor’s territory in nearly two chaotic years of civil war there,’ reports the Wall Street Journal. ‘The early-morning strike in a border area west of Damascus targeted a convoy of trucks carrying Russian-made SA-17 missiles to Hezbollah, the anti-Israel Shiite militant and political group in Lebanon, according to a Western official briefed on the raid.’

‘Syria maintained that the accounts of a strike on an arms convoy near the country’s border with Lebanon were wrong. Instead, Syria’s military said, Israeli jets had attacked a military facility near Damascus,’ the Journal reports. ‘‘Israeli warplanes violated our airspace at dawn today and directly struck one of the scientific research centers responsible for elevating resistance and self-defense capabilities in the area of Jamraya in the Damascus countryside,’ Syria’s military said in a statement carried by the official Sana news agency. The attack killed two workers and injured five others, it said, and ’caused significant material damage and the destruction of the complex’ and an adjacent parking lot. Syrian activists say the Jamraya site is in a mountainous area of military facilities and training camps located on a heavily guarded road just off the main Damascus-Beirut highway. Later Wednesday, a U.S. official said the accounts of two targets—a convoy of weapons, and a military site—weren’t mutually exclusive. The U.S. believes Israeli warplanes bombed a Hezbollah-bound convoy of antiaircraft missiles, U.S. officials said. The vehicles may have been close to a military facility, they said, cautioning their information remained incomplete.’

Meanwhile, ‘Iran threatened that a reported Israeli strike in Syria would have

Pakistan: Christians Held At Gunpoint And Threatened With Death, ‘You Are Christian Insects … We Will Burn Your Houses And Church’

Pakistan Christian Post – “Today dated 27 January 2013, Mr. Shamoun Patras with some other Christians of Phool Nagar came to LEAD’s office and told to Chief of LEAD Mr. Sardar Mushtaq Gill the incidence that happened with Patras, his family and other Christians of the area.

Mr. Patras is working as stitch operator in a Factory, on Eid-Ul-Muladul Nabi he was on holiday and he was at home with his family members. Some Muslims men, who are drug sellers, passing in front of his door at near about 5:30 PM evening .They opened fire at his door and when he came out from his house to see what happened. He was also fired at by them and he ran away from the site for saving his life.

Mr. Patras told this incident to other Christians. Some Christians thought that they should tell the other respectable Muslims and their parents so that they would stop them to doing such dangerous activities. Mr. Patras along with some other Christians went to some respectable Muslims, those Muslims again opened fire at all of them and made them forced to stand in a row. They also threatened that if any one of you would submit any application against them in police station, they will kill him. They also threatened by saying ‘you are Christians insects and have no power to do anything against us’, and ‘you are slaves and trivial and tiny before us’ and ‘we will burn your houses and church’ told Mr. Patras.

Some other Christians told that they were under threats and pressure of such drug sellers. They also told that they always remained under pressure and fear that how their honor and belonging would be saved from such dangerous persons.

‘There were already many criminal cases against them and they did not care about such cases and what will be benefit if I will submit an application in Police station against them’ told Mr. Patras. He also added that he was worried about his new generation. Some Christians told that such incidences often happened with them and they had no way how to avoid from such things. They also told that they were not safe in Pakistan and their honors and belongings were also not safe.” Read more.

Flashback: ‘Worrisome’: The Role of Drug Trafficking in Promoting and Financing Today’s Global Terrorism – “Speaking at a recent conference in Istanbul, ‘The Role of Drug Trafficking in Promoting and Financing Today’s Global Terrorism,’ jointly organized by Turkey, the United States and Colombia, UNODC Senior Terrorism Prevention Officer Irka Kuleshnyk said that ‘While it is difficult to establish how widely terrorist groups are involved in the illicit drug trade, or the breadth and nature of cooperation between these two criminal groups, the magnitude of the numbers involved make the relationship worrisome.’ According to the UNODC’s World Drug Report 2007, the total potential value of Afghanistan’s 2006 opium harvest accruiing to farmers, laboratory owners and Afghan traffickers reached about $US3.1 billion.” Read more.

Colorado: Outrage As High School Recites Pledge Of Allegiance In Arabic Saying ‘One Nation Under Allah’

Here’s an update on yesterday’s news out of Rocky Mountain High. What wasn’t pointed out is that in order to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic, students must use “Allah” in place of “God.” Although the word “Allah” can also mean “God” in Arabic in a generic sense, the insinuation of its usage is loud and clear and creates America into one nation under the god of Islam, not one nation under the Judeo-Christian God of the founding fathers …

By James Nye, Mail Online – “Fury is brewing at Rocky Mountain High School, in Colorado, after a multicultural student group were encouraged to recite the Pledge of Allegiance over the loudspeaker in Arabic – replacing ‘one nation under God’ with ‘one nation under Allah’.

Following Monday’s pledge, Principal Tom Lopez has been inundated with complaints from outraged parents concerned that saying the Pledge in any language other than English is unpatriotic.

Standing by his controversial decision, Principal Lopez has said that despite the irate telephone calls and emails, he is not in any way or form trying to push an Islamic agenda at the Fort Collins school.

‘These students love this country,’ said Lopez to Fox News.

‘They were not being un-American in trying to do this. They believed they were accentuating the meaning of the words as spoken regularly in English.’

At the school, the Pledge of Allegiance is recited once a week and on Monday, a member of the Cultural Arms Club at Rocky Mountain High School read out an Arabic version.

The pupils sought the permission of Principal Lopez, who previously had allowed the Pledge to be read out in French and Spanish.

However, the backlash began from students hours after the recital and has continued through the week as angry parents have waded into the controversy…

The issue for some parents and pupils at the school is that in an Arabic translation of the Pledge of Allegiance, ‘one nation under God’ is replaced with ‘one nation under Allah’.

‘Obviously in Arabic, you would use the word Allah, but Christian Arabs would use the word Allah,’ said Ibrahim Hooper, of the Council on American Islamic Relations.

‘It’s not necessarily specific to Islam and Muslims.’

Principal Lopez has borne the brunt of the criticism of the decision to allow the recital – and some have gone as far as to label him as a traitor…

Other parents have accused him of ‘pushing a Muslim Brotherhood agenda – to push Islam into the school.'” Read more.

Flashback: Islamic Religious Authority: The Name “Allah” Belongs Only To Muslims, Denotes The Muslim God – “Perak Mufti Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria today told non-Muslims who insist on using the word ‘Allah’ to refer to their Gods to convert to Islam if they refused to accept that the word belongs only to Muslims… ‘Christians should not interfere with Islam, they’d be better off taking care of their own religion. If they want to use Allah, convert into Islam.’ … Datuk Dr Ismail Ibrahim was reported as saying that non-Muslims should stop demanding to use the word ‘Allah’ as the Arabic word is fundamental to Islamic belief and therefore exclusive to Muslims… ‘The name ALLAH is still something basic and fundamental to Islam. The name Allah … is not equal with the name Tuhan, God, Lord and so on in the usage of other religions,’ he was quoted as saying … In recent years, the Christian and Muslim religious communities have been engaged in a tug-of-war over the word ‘Allah’, with the latter group arguing that its use should be exclusive to them on the grounds that Islam is monotheistic and the word ‘Allah’ denotes the Muslim God.” Read more.