TODAY IS TUESDAY DEC. 4, 2007 - I HAVE DECIDED TO LEAVE THIS COMMENTARY UP FOR ANOTHER DAY BECAUSE ITS VITAL THAT YOU READ ALL OF IT. MOST AMERICANS ARE NOT TAKING THINGS SERIOUSLY, MOST DO NOT CARE BUT THEY WILL AND THEREFORE I AM PUTTING UP A LINK THAT I WANT YOU TO READ. I WILL ADD AS MUCH TO THIS COMMENTARY AS GOOGLE WILL ALLOW.
REMEMBER THE CLOCK IS TICKING AND THE US HAS SOLD OUT ISRAEL AND WHAT HAPPENS NOW, ITS ALL IN YOUR BIBLE. 1/3 of your Bible is prophecy.
AS THEY DE VALUE THE AMERICAN DOLLAR AND USE THAT AS AN EXCUSE TO GO TO THE AMERO, YOU WILL GET A PERCENTAGE OF WHAT THE DOLLAR USED TO BE WORTH. WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF GLOBALIZATION RUN BY THE MONEY MASTERS.
GO TO http://survivalacres.com/wordpress/?p=1048
GO TO http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2983714.ece
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Bush Drops Military Option, Tehran Slams Door on Diplomacy
DEBKAfile Special Report
December 3, 2007, 11:03 PM (GMT+02:00)
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| Ahmadinejad's good friend Saeed Jalili: "With me, you start over." |
In a radical about-face, White House officials suddenly “discovered” Monday, Dec. 3, that Iran had halted it nuclear weapons program four years ago, but has continued to enrich uranium and could have enough material to build a bomb between 2010 and 2015. This “discovery” appeared in the latest National Intelligence Estimate, together with the comment that Iran seems less determined to develop nuclear arms than previously believed and is more vulnerable to international pressure.
This finding caused astonishment and dismay in Israeli political and military circles, particularly in the light of the close Israel-US rapport over last week’s Annapolis conference on the Middle East and the close Olmert-Livni-Barak lineup behind the Bush vision of Palestinian statehood.
Monday, too, even the “moderate” Arab turnout at the Middle East conference proved to be an illusion when Saudi King Abdullah walked into the GCC conference hall in Doha hand in hand with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Iranian president was invited to the Gulf summit for the first time. The “moderate” Arab front against Iran, proudly presented by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and prime minister Ehud Olmert, melted away to nothing.
Presenting the NIE, Bush’s national security adviser Stephen Hadley said: “The estimate offers ground for hope that the problem can be solved diplomatically without the use of force, as the administration has being trying to do.”
DEBKAfile’s sources in Israel: In effect, Washington has taken the military option off the table at the very moment that Tehran’s Saeed Jalili slammed the door on diplomacy in the “disastrous” conversation he held with the European Union’s Javier Solana in London, Saturday, Dec. 1.
The Bush about-face, which leaves Israel high and dry against a regime committed to wipe the Jewish state off the map, may be designed to draw attention from the happy communion between the Saudi monarch and Iranian president in Doha and other policy debacles.
After years of foot-dragging, Tehran has decided it has nothing to fear from the US and so why bother with further engagement over its nuclear program? Deputy foreign minister Saeed Jalili, the dour official who took over negotiations from the urbane Ali Larijani, did not mince his words with the Solana. According to the New York Times , Ahmadinejad’s close ally said: ‘Everything in the past is past, and with me, you start over,’” He added: ‘None of your proposals has any standing.’”
When Solana said that he was under the assumption that there would be continuity in the talks, Mr. Jalili told him he was wrong
The French official described the meeting as “a disaster,” adding “Jalili essentially said: ‘Everything that Larijani has proposed is a dead letter and we have to start from zero.’”
The Iranian official is also quoted as saying: “There is no longer an Iranian nuclear problem,” and the only interlocutor recognized by Iran from now on would be the International Atomic Energy Agency, with whom he claimed Tehran had solved all its problems.
The London conversation took place as the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany met in Paris over the weekend to discuss a third sanctions resolution. The Chinese delegate agreed for the first time to join a sanctions motion, but the meeting was unable to agree on the nature of those penalties or the degree of their harshness.
From the posture adopted by Jalili in London, it is clear that Iran is no longer willing to heed international pressure for halting its drive for nuclear arms – especially since the Bush administration is clearly short of backing from the “moderate” Arab front.
In these circumstances, the White House has opted for minimizing the Iranian nuclear arms threat rather than confronting it.
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Its not often that I can actually sit down and write my own commentary as it takes me hours but this is very necessary at this point in time.
You must consolidate your choice of calibers now as the price of ammunition is sky rocketing daily and it will eventually effect handloading components. Most of these factories that manufacture handguns actually are told what direction to go by marketing geniuses that know your hot button. They know what will sell and that is why they keep coming out with new calibers.
When I was a kid in Brooklyn most all shootings were done using a 38 special cartridge using a lead 158 grain bullet and it put a great many people on ice. The kids used to joke around and answer phones by saying CITY MORGUE - YOU STAB EM WE SLAB EM.
In todays world of decisions you must face logical reality as most of us can not afford very much of anything any more. In my situation, I am in a very dangerous situation as the world knows what I do. I must first of all be careful not to use a caliber that would penetrate walls and hurt any kids across the street or a person walking by innocently.
I worry a great deal about the loss of hearing so that alone limits my caliber choice. Even though one of my favorite calibers is a 41 magnum, I just can not use one because of the loud report. I do not want my big Shepherd to lose her hearing and that is a major concern of mine. Therefore I have elected to stay with technologically advanced bullets in 9mm or 38 special that are all +P+ rated.
Trying to use a 12 gauge shotgun or an AR15 in the house is out of the question for me. My wife and my Dawg and myself will be deaf. Using a 45 acp is too loud in a small room and I think a good rifle to select is the Ruger PC-9 carbine which is still made as Ruger has discontinued the PC-4 in 40SW caliber. These Ruger Carbines use pistol magazines and they are a good option.
My handgun of choice is a Glock 19 or a Glock 17 in which I can use Corbon Powerball or Corbon DPX ammunition. I also like the new Federal Expandable full metal jacket that is available in 105 gr. or 124 gr. in a +P Police type load. I am not one to find fault with the shape and looks of a handgun that works every time and I can change an extractor in 30 seconds, you try that with a SA "XD" = impossible.
I must look at things from a realistic viewpoint, I do not live in a fantasy world of BS and nonsense. I consider the best two revolvers made today to be the Ruger SP101 and the Ruger GP100 - there is no way I would ever buy any current production SW product of any kind. This is the real deal of reality, just go to the SW website and check out their BAR B Q Grills and mens cologne and billard cues and chinese clothing and chines knives, and the list goes on.
As for the new Ruger Mark III pistol, in my opinion it is not as good as the older Mark II and I deeply regret having sold mine years ago. Whether you have a MK I or MK II or MK III or the 22/45 - they all use a different magazine so you are screwed again. PLEASE DO NOT BELIEVE THE BS THAT YOU READ ON FORUMS OR IN PUBLICATIONS. NO ONE TALKS BAD ABOUT HIGH DOLLAR ADVERTISERS.
YOU GET THE TRUTH FROM ME - I HAVE NO AGENDA AND I HAVE NO ADVERTISERS - MY SOUL IS "NOT" FOR SALE...
Having established the 2 calibers that I have now selected which are the 9mm and the 38 special +P, we now must have a 22 caliber rimfire rifle. This is very important for you and me, there are many good ones but the most reliable is the Ruger 10/22 and after market parts are readily available. If you want a Marlin or a Savage or a Remington, they all work, pick what you like but do not wait, do it now. This is not a high dollar investment.
If you select semi autos you must have extra magazines and if you select a revolver you must have speed loaders like the HKS models. I like the Crimson Trace laser Grips for the SP101 or and older "J" frame. These laser grips project a very bright laser in red, I would never buy a green laser because of all the greenage around my house. You must think in reality as I believe the clock is ticking and our entire destiny is unfolding.
I like knives of all kinds but I especially like Cold Steel for sharpness but the downside is that they can not be opened by me that easily with one hand. The Benchmade Griptillian is a first class knife for the money with an axis lock and it opens easily with either hand and they use 154 cm steel. This is an excellent knife for the money.
You can never rely on one of anything, for what ever reason if you can always buy two of everything. I trained with knives in my youth for years and I have always had well made knives when I could afford one.
I no longer install night sights on my own personal weapons as I do better using either the X/S big dot front sight or I just paint the front sight using Fluorescent yellow enamel and then sealing it with clear epoxy. If an altercation occurs in my case it will be very close and my first choice will be my knife, if I can not use a blade I will use either a 9mm or a 38 special.
I never believed in double taps in the same hole because I always felt it was better and more effective to put one center mass and then go up high and then low to the groin - now to me thats instant trauma. My only intent would always be for protection of life and property.
Worst case conditions that I see all the time are guns that are filthy and sadly Law Enforcement people are some of the worst at maintaining a clean weapon. A filthy handgun could cost you your life. You must learn to clean it and maintain it. People just do not listen as a general rule until its too late, remember the clock is ticking.
KEEP YOUR GUN CLEAN YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT.
TO BE CONTINUED.
I Have thought about this commentary over night as to how to finish it and here is the only truth I can come up with. Any selection of your weapons and accessories must depend on not only where you live and your family members but your life style. Having a first class bolt action 308 winchester caliber rifle with a high power scope and living in a congested sub division does you very limited good for quick survival.
On the other hand having at least 3 Glock 17 pistols in the hands of all members of your family will be more practical but you must make sure they understand safety and more safety and have shot them and know what to expect. Another good selection is the Beretta 92fs in 9mm, these hand guns must be kept clean and I recommend the use of MILITEC metal conditioner and then wipe it dry and there will still be a film of MILITEC on all parts. This is no time to experiment, use something that I know works well.
All family members should have a FOX 40 Whistle or a STORM Whistle on their person at all times as how long can you yell for help, no one will come but these whistles have a decible rating of 120 and can be purchased from Amazon.com or do a google search for them, do it now.
All family members must have a walkie talkie as made by MIDLAND RADIO. This is a must for survival. Try and get sets with 5 watts of power.
All family members should have a LARGE can of MACE PEPPER SPRAY GEL. This is very hot and nasty stuff and will ruin some ones day. Do a google search and you can find a place to buy this "GEL" - do not buy the liquid.
I know I touched on knives but a person can not have enough knives. When I was young in Florida the Collins Machete was used all the time after a hurricane to cut brances in the street. Now I know that Cold Steel offers a Machete that is very reasonably priced, all households should have one.
Unless you plan ahead now it will be too late as most every item in your local food store travels 1500 miles in order to get there. In some rural locations its much farther and the stores will be bone dry in 24 hours. NEVER throw away an empty plastic jug, fill it with water and put it away some where in your house or apartment, do it now.
Flash lights are very inportant, the latest advancement in flashlights that I know about is made by FENIX using a "CREE" bulb that has a 50,000 hour bulb and most models that FENIX sell come with about 6 mode settings and one of these settings is a strobe setting and they average anywhere from 160 lumens to 225 lumens. THAT IS A LOT OF LIGHT.
The average price for a fenix flashlight is about $65.00 compared to the top rated BLACKHAWK GLADIUS FLASHLIGHT which has a strobe effect at 90 lumens and retails for about $240.00
I do not believe that any other company including SUREFIRE have a strobe setting, which is what you want because that alone will stop an attacker in seconds.
If you were to buy 3 Fenix flashlight which are top rated it would still be cheaper than the Blackhawk Gladius and the top of the line Surefire. I am telling you the truth. Another good flashlight is the STREAMLIGHT 4AA with 7 "LED" bulbs for general applications around your house. It uses 4 regular alkaline "AA" batteries. It runs about 155 hours on one set of 4 batteries and it has those 7 lifetime LED bulbs. Cost is about $30.00
You can not fire high caliber weapons in your house without risking loss of hearing and penetrating walls and hurting innocent people so get that in your head. All family members should have ear protection of their own anyway.
For sharpening knives think practical. The fastest and best way I have found to sharpen a knife in 30 seconds is to use a 2 inch by 6 inch diamond plate made by EZE-LAP. You do not need water or oil and use a medium grit like 400. You need a blade with an edge that has a bite to it so it will not crumble under hard use, having a razor edge is not what we want for super hard use as the very fine edge will crumble. You are to use a 20 degree angle on each stroke while sharpening the blade and you go from rear to point on both sides.
NEVER rely on one knife, Never rely on one handgun, always think to purchase at least two or more of the same. Everthing I have written is my opinion only and is to help you. Tell no one what you own and separate your personal equipment, be careful what you say on forums that are read world wide.
I sincerely hope some of my thoughts have helped you. Buy extra pet food and always keep your BIBLE with you. Pray to your G-D.
"MORE THINGS ARE ACHIEVED THROUGH PRAYER THAN THIS WORLD DREAMS OF"
Teddy
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| DEBKAfile Reports: Bush administration washes its hands of confrontation with Tehran over its nuclear weapons program. Israel is left to face the threat alone. December 3, 2007, 9:59 PM (GMT+02:00) In a radical about-face, the White House suddenly “discovered” Monday, Dec. 3, that Iran had halted it nuclear weapons program four years ago, but has continued to enrich uranium and could have enough material to build a bomb between 2010 and 2015. This discovery appeared in the latest National Intelligence Estimate with the comment that Iran seems less determined to develop nuclear arms than previous believed and more vulnerable to international pressure. Bush’s national security adviser Stephen Hadley said: “The estimate offers ground for hope that the problem can be solved diplomatically without the use of force, as the administration has being trying to do.” DEBKAfile’s sources in Israel: In effect Washington has taken the military option off the table at the very moment that Tehran’s Said Jalili slammed the door on diplomacy in a “disastrous” conversation with the EU’s Javier Solana. | ||
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One Answer to Hollow-Tip Bans
Defense Tech infrequent contributor and resident ballistics expert David Woroner busted out an interesting first-person analysis of a bullet that could answer soldiers’ call for more stopping power.
As our readers might remember, we reported two weeks ago that a Center for Naval Analyses study obtained by DT found of all the suggested improvements for America’s standard-issued sidearm and carbine, soldiers surveyed said they want a more deadly weapon or round.
CNA pointed out that one answer is off the table: hollow point ammo.
But Woroner took a first-hand look at a type of round that could answer a politics vs. lethality dilemma…
From Dave (it’s a longish entry, but I think you’ll find it worth the read):
Known as the Federal EFMJ for “expanding full metal jacket” the round would appear to be a gift from above to the soldier on the ground. It is fully jacketed, yet expands like a hollow point upon impact.
The basic concept was developed by projectile whiz Tom Burzynski and Larry Head, lead ammo designer for Federal applied some of his magic to bring this bullet to fruition.
So what makes this round so different and special?
Well first of all it is a “full metal jacketed bullet” - this means there is no “cup” at the front as with most hollow points. Standard hollow points work by taking advantage of fluid dynamics - the fluid being the liquid or blood in a target.
While stopping many a fight and still not a bad choice at all, I personally have seen many hollow points “stay intact” - or not expand. The culprit for this has usually been, believe it or not, clothing. When the “cup” or hollow of the bullet is passing through clothing, especially winter type clothing the hollow point can end up filled as it cuts through the material thus preventing expansion.
What’s also pretty cool about the EFMJ bullet is that because it’s fully jacketed, it feeds flawlessly. Anyone who’s spent some time shooting hollow-point ammo has experienced the hollow “lip” catching on the feed ramp of the weapon – forcing an operator to execute “stoppage drills” in the middle of a gunfight.
Besides overcoming the feeding issue, the EFMJ works unlike a typical hollow point on impact. Think for a minute about firing at a target through drywall with a standard hollow point? Nine times out of ten the hollow point will fill up with the powdery drywall.
Now enter the EFMJ. It works by having a piece of encased lead with a tiny nylon/rubber plug. When it strikes its target, it cannot fill up at the front since it’s encased. Instead, it begins to (for lack of a better word) “smush up” the entire round. How it begins its expansion so diametrically opposed to a standard hollow point and its reliance on fluid hydraulics is that the EFMJ operates solely on impact/kinetic input to the front of the bullet.
Part of the manufacturing process of the EFMJ includes creating “cuts” or striations on the inside of the encasing copper. When the bullet impacts, it begins its expansion by impact/blunt force with the “cuts” splitting and allowing the rubber component to continue to flatten. By then it would have entered its target.
Another test I did was to shoot it through plies of standard drywall and it worked great. It penetrated, started its deformation as well. So when it struck the target behind the wall, the bullet was still full of energy, yet almost fully expanded.
Shooting through two pieces of drywall yielded the same result, except it was obvious there was a slight drop off in connecting kinetic energy. You want to be able to shoot through drywall and plywood and still hit something, but you don’t want it going down the block and kill granny sitting out knitting on her front porch.
The penetration I got was very consistent with current kinetic impact understanding and that gave me even more reason to trust this round. To put it quite simply it is harder to shoot through a piece of glass then it is drywall because the glass is more molecularly compact than the drywall.
So when I shot 9mm and 45cal. rounds through each, I was pleasantly surprised to find that although the rounds did penetrate the glass, the expanded as advertised. Having my caliper in back pocket told me that the 9mm expanded to .51 inches and the 45 cal. to .64 inches (all rounds being caught by foam and soft rubber) those numbers are an average for multiple shots on glass. The 9mm in my opinion in straight up head to head performance came out ahead of the .45, I’m sure only because of the higher velocity of the 9mm round.
On the drywall, I found more expansion but not by much, 9mm to .58 and the .45cal to .67 which for either surface, and the energy carried still after impact was surely enough to penetrate a solid 9-10 inches.
It would be super to see our troops carrying the EFMJ in their Beretta, Colt, Kimber, etc. The next thing Federal needs to do is create the same technology in the 5.56 (.223) round, I would be very interested to see the results of that test.
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End of Days
E-mail me: Click on "View My Complete Profile" or try dovbearbarleib@gmail.com. For Most Recent Post: Click on "End of Days" immediately above.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
A Gathering of Seventy Wolves
The Annapolis charade has come and gone. Dozens of nations came this week to divide Yerushalayim in two. Along with this they have hope in their hearts to impoverish and make homeless one hundred to two hundred thousand Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria. Gog W. Bush is on a mission. As the leader of this plot to keep the Saudi royal family happy and pumping lots of oil, G-d has allowed him to literally explode Gog UMagog in our faces. The gematriah (numerical value) of Gog UMagog is 70, the total number of national/language spinoffs of Hebrew to span out of the Tower of Bavel. It represents the combined will of Mankind in their vain attempt to defy the Almighty. In their minds and in the mind of Armilus (Olmert) and Armolgus (Peres), Yerushalayim belongs to Mankind to do with it what it wishes. From Zecharia 14 we see that the Creator has other plans. The prophet very specifically says that there will be a plague that will go out against those nations that dare to divide Yerushalayim. This week the trap has been set, and forty or fifty nations have flung themselves after the bait.You may ask, "Are there not supposed to be seventy nations that gather against Yerushalayim." This is where the math becomes tricky. Apparently there are forty or fifty nations that want to play ball with Gog. There are another twenty or thirty nations that will reject all compromises with the American king of Edom in exchange for economic largess. These nations are in Iran's (Persia's) corner. They cannot be bought. It is with them that Gog will need to fight his final war. According to the prophets and the medrashim, it is precisely that war that begins the process of our redemption.
It is truly history's crowning moment that these nations have gathered in Annapolis to proudly spit at G-d's plan for his treasured nation. Let the plagues begin
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(Getty Images)
On Tuesday, theTrumpet.com wrote, “Whatever the outcome of Annapolis, the months prior to the conference have already revealed a dangerous erosion of U.S. support for Israel. … The strain on U.S.-Israeli relations has never been greater.” On Friday, the New York Sun reported,
In an unusual move, America’s U.N. mission yesterday circulated a proposal to the Security Council supporting agreements reached at Annapolis between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs—before the text had been examined closely by Jerusalem, America’s closest Middle Eastern ally.After closed-door consultations among the council’s 15 members, diplomats from China and the only Arab member, Qatar—and some Palestinian Arabs—expressed support for the American proposal. But while the American ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, hailed the council members’ backing, his Israeli colleague, Dan Gillerman, said he knew “very little” about the proposed resolution.
For years, America had raised the ire of Arabs and their U.N. supporters, vetoing and otherwise preventing anti-Israeli resolutions at the Security Council. But even in cases when resolutions on the Israeli-Arab dispute passed, at times to Israel’s discontent, Washington and Jerusalem officials had closely consulted on them beforehand, as did American and Israeli diplomats at the United Nations. By contrast, yesterday’s council consultations took place at the same time that Mr. Gillerman carried a speech several doors down, at the General Assembly halls, commemorating the anniversary of the November 29, 1947, assembly resolution that partitioned British-held Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state.
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FROM THE PHIADELPHIA CHURCH OF G-D
THE UNITED STATES AND BRITAIN IN PROPHECY - Page 183
You Can Escape This Punishment!
God warns us through prophecy that our sins are fast increasing. And now the day of reckoning is here! The foreign sword always has attacked us. In this fearful, awesome atomic age, World War III will start with nuclear devastation unleashed on London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburgh, without warning! God help our nations to wake up before it’s too late!
Yes, we are God’s chosen people Israel! Think what that means! Chosen, not for favors while we defy our God, but chosen for service we have failed to perform.
We should shout for joy at the discovery of our true identity—and we should be brought to repent—and to turn to God—and to get back of this crusade by radio and by printed word to warn our people, and to call upon God in real heartrending prayer for divine deliverance.
The sevenfold intensity of punishment now soon to come upon the American and British peoples is simply the prophesied Great Tribulation! It will be the most frightfully intense punishment, and time of trouble, ever suffered by any people!
........................................................................................................................................................................The Hammer and Tongs behind the Hugs of Annapolis
DEBKAfile Special Report
December 1, 2007, 12:31 PM (GMT+02:00)
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No one at UN headquarters in New York remembers a case of a draft resolution being abruptly withdrawn hours before a UN Security Council session was scheduled to approve it. This is what happened to a US draft that would have endorsed President Bush’s announcement three days earlier at the Annapolis Middle East conference of Israeli and Palestinian consent to work toward a settlement of their conflict before the end of 2008.
The Council had been called into closed session Thursday night, Nov. 30 to endorse the Annapolis declaration. The text was buried hastily in an undignified scramble by the Bush administration after two days of sharp words between the White House and prime minister Ehud Olmert and his threat not to turn up for talks with the Palestinians.
This incident led also to the first real falling-out between President George W. Bush and his secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. He blamed her for seeking to bolster the Annapolis declaration by Security Council endorsement, thereby exposing the hyped-up event to the world as a charade and his own declaration as too flimsy to stand up.
The head of the Israeli mission, Danny Gillerman, denied being fully briefed on the American text - a diplomatic figure of speech which applies equally to the situation of the Israeli delegation at the Middle East conference in Annapolis and since. But as soon as the Israeli ambassador heard that Khalilzad had obtained the consent of the five permanent members of the Security Council to a closed session for approving the US draft, he urgently alerted Olmert and Livni in Jerusalem.
Gillerman warned them that a closed session means that neither Israel nor the Palestinians would be present or given a hearing. And that was not the only undesirable aspect:
1. The Arab side, which is represented by Qatar, would use the opportunity to augment the Annapolis declaration with additional clauses detrimental to Israel, and possibly win US assent.
2. Security Council endorsement would obligate Israel and the Palestinians to bring negotiations to a conclusion by the end of 2008, less than a year hence, as demanded by Saudi Arabia. Either side could face being found in violation of a UN resolution.
3. The Security Council would become the overseer of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process with authority to reconvene and weigh up progress. In other words, the bilateral Israel-Palestinian conflict would be relegated to international authority. Israel has always resisted this since the odds in the world body are traditionally weighted against the Jewish state.
Ambassador Gillerman alerted the Israeli prime minister and foreign minister to the short distance from UN sponsorship of the process to the dispatch of international troops to the region as a buffer between Israel’s counter-terror forces and the Palestinian terrorists ruling the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
In the Israeli ambassador’s opinion, the US initiative to bring the world body in as a party to the Annapolis declaration originated with Secretary Rice. She sought to punish Israel for not following her lead at the conference. He pointed out that the application to the UN directly contravened Rice’s own accords with the Israeli foreign minister.
Gillerman’s heads-up to Jerusalem sparked an urgent series of phone calls between the prime minister’s office and the White House. Olmert made no bones about threatening to pull out of the entire diplomatic track charted at Annapolis if the Security Council were to be brought in over its head.
After 36 hours of hammer and tongs, US ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, was instructed to call off the Council session and withdraw the text.
But recriminations on the American side for an unprecedented loss of face were just as bitter.
The White House accused state department officials of egging Rice on to circumvent the agreements Bush and Olmert had concluded and running off half-cocked to the world body in a manner which left the administration red-faced.
Khalilzad was urgently recalled to Washington. When State Department officials pushed the blame for the shambles on him, accusing him of drafting the Security Council resolution without consulting the secretary of state, the US ambassador’s aides shot back with a strong denial.
This incident also brought to the surface the frustrations experienced by Israel’s delegation to the Annapolis conference, DEBKAfile’s political sources report.
US officials consistently neglected to inform Olmert or foreign and defense ministers Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak of steps pre-coordinated with the Palestinians and Arab ministers, presenting them as accomplished facts. When Israeli leaders flew out of Washington Wednesday night, Nov. 28, none had yet been informed that the White House had named Ret. Gen. James Jones to chair the “US-Israel-Palestinian mechanism” accompanying the Palestinian-Israel talks. When they read about it in the media, Olmert protested the general's role, and it was downgraded to liaison officer.
Neither did the Americans bother to inform Israel about consultations with the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov for a follow-up conference in Moscow at the beginning of 2008. There, Israel will be required to agree to the return of the Golan to Syria.
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DEBKAfile Reports: US Gulf armada built up again amid preparations for third round of Security Council sanctions against Iran
December 2, 2007, 6:34 PM (GMT+02:00)
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| ScanEagle drone - a noiseless spycraft aboard the Truman strike group |
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that a third aircraft carrier, the USS Harry S. Truman , arrived in the Central Command area over the weekend to join the USS Enterprise and USS Nimitz . All three head mighty strike groups of assorted warships, aircraft, marine forces, amphibious craft and nuclear submarines. Our sources interpret the new build-up as signifying US preparedness for a possible military confrontation with Iran.
The Truman strike group under the command of Rear Adm. Bill Gortney is equipped with the most advanced electronics in the fleet for coordinating offensive and defensive operations in a major war.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that, last week, on its way to the Gulf arena, an element of the Truman group, the guided missile destroyer USS Oscar Austin , ran tests on the ScanEagle unmanned aerial vehicle. This UAV’s primary mission is to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support for the Truman group.
It is the first time a UAV has been employed in this way by a US multi-mission naval group and, should hostilities break out with Iran, this drone would make war history. ScanEagle flies up to 10,000 feet, clicking electro-optical or infrared cameras 20 hours of the day and night. It is completely noiseless.
Another key element of the Truman group is the huge floating supply depot USNS Artic . While keeping up with the speed of the carrier group, the Artic can take on from shuttle ships and redistribute to the rest of the group more than 177,000 barrels of oil, 2,150 tons of ammunition, and hundreds of tons of stores. The ten-vessel Truman group also includes a British destroyer, the HMS Manchester .
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that in response to the focus the Iranian navy is now placing on submarine warfare, the USS Enterprise group carried out a comprehensive anti-sub exercise in the northern Arabian Sea in mid-November. While the Enterprise operates mainly in the Afghanistan war arena, it can reach the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman within hours if called.
The Security Council is expected to approve before the end of the year harsh sanctions against Iran for flouting its resolutions on uranium enrichment and its clandestine military nuclear program. The US-led force massed close to Iran’s shores is poised to support these sanctions as well as react in the event of Tehran lashing out in the Gulf, Iraq, Lebanon or other fronts manned by its terrorist proxies.
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