US BRACES FOR CYBER ATTACK

1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS. 2-Quake jolts northwestern Pakistan. 3-Storm, mudslides kill 198 in Philippines. 4-Winter storm gives way to destructive winds. 5-US snowstorm shuts down Chicago airport; half a million lose power. 6-Floods in East Africa said to kill 250. 7-US dollar plunges to a 14-year low. 8-Stocks negative as economic data has investors fearing for soft landing scenario. 9-Britain planned to cut off Nile. 10-Surprise: Oil Woes In Iran. 10-Abbas, Rice call for Mideast truce to extend to West Bank. 11-Japan able to develop nuclear weapons: foreign minister. 12-Blair to signal possible cuts to nuclear fleet. 13-World AIDS Day: debates over sexual abstinence, condoms. 14-Iran's nuclear ambitions seen similar to Holocaust. 15-Shekel Becomes Safe Haven for Dollars. 16-US braces for possible al-Qaeda cyber attack.

EARTHQUAKES

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)

Update time = Sat Dec 2 12:10 AM EDT

DEC 02,2006
MAP 3.0 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 4.4 SIMEULUE, INDONESIA
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 3.0 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.4 MOUNT ST. HELENS AREA, WASHINGTON
MAP 3.0 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA

DEC 01,2006
MAP 4.7 OFFSHORE BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR, MEXICO
MAP 2.5 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.1 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 4.0 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.6 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.0 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.9 NORTHERN COLOMBIA
MAP 3.4 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP 6.3 SUMBAWA REGION, INDONESIA
MAP 5.0 HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
MAP 2.8 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.6 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 PUERTO RICO
MAP 4.9 TONGA
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 6.3 NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
MAP 3.6 MONA PASSAGE, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Quake jolts northwestern Pakistan Fri Dec 1, 11:16 AM ET

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter Scale has jolted northwestern Pakistan, causing panic but no casualties or damage.Tremors were felt in Peshawar, the capital Islamabad and the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan at 6:12 pm (1312 GMT), a seismological department official said Friday.The earthquake's epicentre was located about 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of Peshawar in the Hindu Kush mountains, he said.Police and emergency rescue officials said there were no reports of deaths or injuries or of damage to property.However, panicked residents in Peshawar rushed out of homes and shops reciting verses from the Muslim holy book the Koran, witnesses said.A devastating 7.6-magnitude earthquake in northwestern Pakistan and Kashmir killed some 74,000 people and displaced 3.5 million in October last year.

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

Storm, mudslides kill 198 in Philippines By BULLIT MARQUEZ, Associated Press Writer DEC 01,06

GUINOBATAN, Philippines The ash and boulders had been building up since an eruption in July, high on the slopes of the Mayon volcano. Typhoon Durian's blasts of wind and drenching rain raked it all down in a deadly black wall of debris.For nearly three hours Thursday afternoon, mudslides ripped through Mayon's gullies, uprooting trees, flattening houses and engulfing people. Entire hamlets were swamped in Mayon, on northern Luzon island.Some 198 people were killed most in mudslides on Mayon and 260 were missing, the national Office of Civil Defense reported. Another 130 were injured.With power and phone lines down, it took until Friday morning, when the first flights managed to survey the area, for the scope of the devastation to emerge.The disaster covered almost every corner of this province rampaging floods, falling trees, damaged houses, said Fernando Gonzalez, governor of Albay province, the site of all but a few of the deaths.Pope Benedict XVI, saddened by the tragic loss of life, was praying for the victims, rescue workers and others providing assistance, the Vatican said.

Our rescue teams are overstretched rescuing people on rooftops, said Glen Rabonza, the Civil Defense head, after officials briefed President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on the disaster and the difficulties of getting to survivors stranded by seas of black mud.Bodies were wrapped in blankets and slung on bamboo poles to be carried to trucks, then covered with coconut leaves and transferred to makeshift morgues.It's terrible. We now call this place a black desert, Noel Rosal, mayor of Legazpi city, Albay province's capital, said after visiting one stricken village.Rosal said three of the five communities comprising the village of 1,400 people had been wiped out with only the roofs of several houses jutting out of the debris. He said people claimed some of the boulders were as big as cars and red hot, suggesting fresh lava from 8,077-foot Mayon.His own residence was under water that rose higher than a person in a flash flood.I was almost a goner. I had to swim, Rosal said.

Mayon, a popular tourist attraction because of its nearly perfect conical shape, is one of the Philippines 22 active volcanos. It erupted in July, depositing millions of tons of rocks and volcanic ash on its slopes, and has continued to rumble since then. Rains from succeeding typhoons may have loosened the materials.Villagers have lived with the threat of a Mayon eruption the most violent one killed more than 1,200 people in 1814 but say they never heard of debris being washed so far down or so violently.Typhoon Durian blasted ashore with gusts of up to 165 mph, running head-on into Mayon, 210 miles southeast of Manila on Luzon island.

When the water suddenly rose, we ran for our lives, said Lydia Buevos, 58, who returned with her husband and children Friday to see their hut gone. Holding a pair of rubber sandals the only possession she was able to save she said she lost three relatives to the storm.It happened very rapidly and many people did not expect this because they haven't experienced mud flows in those areas before, Gonzalez said. By the time they wanted to move, the rampaging mud flows were upon them.

The typhoon weakened Friday as it moved northward, with sustained winds of 94 mph and gusts of up to 116 mph as it headed toward the South China Sea.

Cars zigzagged on the road to the affected area to avoid uprooted trees and toppled utility posts Friday. Steel pylons had been bent down by the wind, and power cables lay scattered about like strands of spaghetti. With the sky surprisingly blue already, people dug foundations for new homes, hammering tin sheets onto leaking roofs and drying pillows, mattresses and clothes in the sun. Durian was the fourth super typhoon to hit the Philippines in as many months. In late September, Typhoon Xangsane left 230 people dead and missing in and around Manila. Typhoon Cimaron killed 19 people and injured 58 others last month, and earlier this month, Chebi sliced through the central Luzon region, killing one. About 20 typhoons and tropical storms hit the Philippines each year. Associated Press writers Oliver Teves, Teresa Cerojano and Jim Gomez contributed to this story from Manila.

Winter storm gives way to destructive winds J. Erdman, Sr. Meteorologist, The Weather Channel DEC 01,06

A fast-moving, but powerful winter storm blasted parts of the Midwest Thursday and Friday with snow, ice, and strong winds. Snowfall rates of 1-2in per hour, accompanied at times by lightning, blanketed parts of Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

Chicago's O'Hare Airport picked up around 6 inches of snow, although lighter amounts were measured near the lake. The heaviest snow in the Land of Lincoln fell in western and central parts of the state. Up to 18in of snow was reported, with even snowplows sliding into ditches. Up to 18in of snow also buried parts of the Show-Me state, with 16in at Columbia, and around 8in in the southeast Kansas City suburbs. Of bigger concern, an estimated 2.4 million customers were without power early on Friday in central and southern Illinois and Missouri, due to accumulated ice downing tree limbs and powerlines.

Some of these same areas ended up with several inches of snow on top of the ice. Icing was also reported early Friday in parts of Lower Michigan, with some limbs downed. Milwaukee was buried under 11 inches of snow, with blizzard conditions, at times. Around a foot of snow shut down a section of busy interstate 94 in the western Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha, with three plows running side-by-side to clear the freeway.

A whopping 16.5in of snow piled on Kenosha, Wisc. Significant accumulating snow should be finished in the Great Lakes this evening. On the storm's warm side, a widespread threat of damaging winds exists through the late evening hours in parts of the Northeast. The culprit was bands of rain and thunderstorms along and ahead of an advancing cold front bringing 60 to 90 mph winds just a few thousand feet aloft to the surface. Widespread tree damage was reported in the Cincinnati metro early today, and a squall line of strong storms downed numerous trees in western and central Pennsylvania in the early afternoon. Damage from winds not associated with thunderstorms was reported as far south as the north Georgia mountains.

The most serious wind-damage threat should be clear of the Northeast by early Saturday morning.

US snowstorm shuts down Chicago airport; half a million lose power DEC 01,06

CHICAGO (AFP) Thrashing winds and driving snow closed one of America's busiest airports and left half a million people without power as a fierce storm swept across the country.

With snow accompanied by a rare December thunderstorm, some 400 flights were grounded at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, as the city got six to 12 inches (15-30 centimeters) of snow overnight.Although carriers were hoping to resume their normal schedules after midday, the cancellations had a knock-on effect throughout the nation's aviation system, leaving travelers connecting through Chicago stranded at regional airports such as Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

We had hoped to be operating at 50 percent capacity by now, said American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner around noon central time, but the storm is not passing as quickly as we hoped, and it could be 5:00 pm (2300 GMT) before we are fully operational.A couple of mishaps overnight suggested the airlines were right to take precautions: a Fed Ex plane slid off a runway at O'Hare, leaving it stuck in the mud, while a Northwest Airlines cargo jet was hit by lightning as it was taxiing for departure about 5:40 am, said Wendy Abrams, spokeswoman for the Chicago department of aviation.

The arctic blast, which dumped up to a foot (30 centimeters) of snow in parts of the Midwest and the plains states, also caused flight delays at regional airports as airlines struggled to get heavy equipment onto the runways to de-ice aircraft stuck at the gates.We've got iced-up planes stuck at the gates and that means incoming planes are getting backed up on the runway, said Shirley Walls, spokeswoman for Lambert-St. Louis International Airport in St Louis, Missouri.In Illinois and Missouri, more than half a million consumers were left without power as ice snapped tree limbs and froze power lines. A spokesman for the St. Louis-based power company Ameren Corp. said it had hundreds of technicians working on emergency repairs but warned of lengthy outages.

Work will be continuing around the clock, said Scott Cisel, president of the company's Illinois operations, but with the ice and snow that are on the ground, conditions are extremely treacherous for our employees as well as our customers.
Across the region, the freezing rain and sleet that accompanied the snow made for slick and dangerous driving conditions on the region's highways.In Illinois, transport authorities dispatched more than 1,000 trucks to salt and plough the highways overnight. But the rush-hour commute brought reports of dozens of fender-benders and spinouts as motorists in the Chicago area struggled to get to work.The highways around Chicago are sloppy and wet but passable, but we're advising people to use public transport where possible, said Mike Claffey, spokesman for the Illinois department of transportation.The early winter storm, which was spawned after an Arctic cold front collided with warm moist air surging north from the Gulf of Mexico, brought traffic chaos to Kansas and Oklahoma late Thursday, prompting the governor of Kansas to declare a state of emergency for more than two dozen counties.
Authorities in Oklahoma meanwhile called out the National Guard in that state to help stranded motorists.

Floods in East Africa said to kill 250 By MALKHADIR M. MUHUMED, Associated Press Writer Fri Dec 1, 11:39 AM ET

NAIROBI, Kenya - About 250 people have been killed and 100,000 have lost their homes as catastrophic floods ravaged East Africa, aid workers said Friday as rains continued to pound the impoverished region. Floods have hit Kenya, Somalia, Rwanda and Ethiopia, affecting more than 1.8 million people, according to the U.N. refugee agency. Weather experts warn that the punishing rains could continue through December in a region where a long drought has left the soil so dry it is unable to absorb the deluge.

Disease from poor sanitation is also taking its toll as submerged villages remain cut off and trucks laden with food and medicine are unable to reach survivors, according to the U.N. food agency.East Africa is one of the poorest regions in the world where most people live on less than $1 a day. It is home to more than 200 million people and regularly sees droughts and famine.

The U.N. is expected to launch an appeal Dec. 5 for an extra $17 million for flood victims. The organization already has received $10 million to help.Some 41 people have been killed in Kenya and more than 700,000 people are affected, the Kenyan Red Cross said.

The Health Ministry recently issued a cholera alert, the U.N added.In neighboring Somalia, the death toll rose to 116 after 20 people died in the north of the country in an outbreak of diarrhea, the U.N. said. Some 15 people died in floods in Rwanda, officials said.More than 80 people have died in Ethiopia, while 361,000 people have been affected in the southeast of the country.

HOARDING OF GOLD AND SILVER

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

US dollar plunges to a 14-year low
By Ambrose Evans Pritchard ,8:58 pm DEC 01,06

Sterling has surged to the highest level against the dollar since Britain crashed out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992, leading the currency pack as investor-flight from US assets gathered pace.

Bernanke: issued inflation warnings

The US greenback was pummelled on exchange markets across the world, tumbling against the euro and yen on nagging fears that America's housing slump will spread to the rest of the economy.Yields on 10-year US Treasury bonds slid to 4.47pc yesterday, a sign that investors are battening down the hatches for possible recession next year. The US bond markets have ignored inflation warnings this week by Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke, picking up instead on his comments that the housing crash could be worse than feared.The pound smashed through resistance – it rocketed 3.5 cents in a 15-hour period to touch $1.9697. While the moves were dollar-driven, the pound led the charge after Nationwide Building Society reported a 1.4pc rise in house prices in November. Traders are eyeing the symbolic barrier of $2 last seen in the final days of the ERM.

Lord Lamont, Britain's Chancellor at that time, said the current surge bares no resemblance to 1992 when the UK economy was in the grip of a housing bust. The whole ERM bloc was floating up against the dollar because of Germany, so we were pulled along too, he said.He warned the dollar's relentless slide was becoming a major risk to the global financial system. My own fear is that the dollar might collapse. People are worried that the Chinese will stop financing the US deficits since it's likely they already have more dollars than they want, he said.Lord Lamont said there was a risk of a further 20pc fall, with the full strain falling on Europe.

The Asian currencies need to revalue but they're hardly moving, especially the renmimbi, he said.A clutch of weak US data over recent days point to possible rate cuts as soon as this spring, eroding the yield advantage that has kept the dollar aloft, despite a current account deficit of 6.5pc of GDP.

Yesterday's news included a jump in jobless claims and a shock fall in the Chicago purchasing managers index to 49.9 in

November, below contraction level. It followed an 8.3pc plunge in industrial orders. The futures markets are now pricing in a 45pc chance of a US rate cut by March.Sterling has jumped almost eight cents in the last week alone, crowning a spectacular year in which it has emerged as the favourite currency of world central banks and petro-dollar sheikhdoms.Mervyn King, the Bank of England's Governor, said British companies exporting to the US could face difficulties but insisted that the economy as a whole could cope, given the more modest rise in sterling against a basket of currencies.It takes up to two years for currency shifts to feed through an economy, so the full impact of sterling's 15pc rise against the dollar this year could hit industry just as the credit boom is turning down.

Stocks negative as economic data has investors fearing for soft landing scenario Friday, December 1, 2006 4:03 PM ET,Canadian Press: MALCOLM MORRISON

TORONTO (CP) Negative data on the U.S. manufacturing sector helped send the Toronto stock market lower after two days of record high closes.

New York markets were also down sharply after a key survey showed manufacturing unexpectedly contracted in November for the first time in more than three years.The Telstar I satellite, a Bell System project, was the first active communications satellite to orbit Earth. It was launched on July 10, 1962. From the ubiquitous technology made possible by Bell Labs invention of the transistor and laser to its scientists helping prove how the universe began, the lab has greatly influenced technology and culture. (AP Photo/Alcatel Lucent) The Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index registered 49.5 in November, down from October's reading of 51.2, raising concerns that the flagging U.S. economy won't be able to achieve a soft landing.

This manufacturing number indicates a definite slowdown. This is happening quickly, more quickly than I think people were expecting, said Chyanne Fyckes, chief investment manager at Stone Asset Management.

So I'm still in the hard-landing camp.Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index was down 50.02 points to 12,702.36 as investors also took in November jobless data showing a slight rise in the unemployment rate.The Canadian dollar was down 0.16 of a cent to 87.39 cents US as Statistics Canada reported that the November unemployment rate drifted one-10th of a point higher to 6.3 per cent while the economy created 22,000 part-time jobs.Just over 18,000 full-time jobs were lost during the month.The TSX Venture Exchange inched up 7.7 points to 2,839.18.The Dow Jones industrials fell 99.1 points to 12,121.87.The Nasdaq composite index declined 32.88 points to 2,398.89 while the S&P 500 index gave back 10.15 points to 1,390.5.November's ISM index came in below the average analyst expectation for a reading of 52.

The ISM report was one of two worrisome economic reports Friday. The U.S. Commerce Department said construction activity in October plummeted by the largest amount since 2001, and home building fell for the seventh month in a row.All TSX sectors were negative save for slightly positive showings in the health care and mining sectors.The gold sector was the biggest percentage decliner, down 1.5 per cent, as the February bullion contract on the Nymex faded $2.30 to US$650.60 an ounce.Goldcorp Inc.

(TSX:G) fell 88 cents to $34.83.The information-technology sector was down 1.4 per cent, as shares in Mosaid Technologies Inc.

(TSX:MSD) fell $1.23 to C$26.51 after the Ottawa semiconductor company lowered its earnings guidance for its 2007 financial year.

The company also reported a second-quarter profit of $4.7 million, ahead of analyst estimates.Nortel Networks (TSX:NT) stock was down 75 cents to $23.65 as the company's share consolidation took effect Friday in a one-for-10 scheme. The move was aimed at reducing the telecom equipment maker's shares from 4.3 billion to about 433 million.

The telecom sector also weighted on the Toronto market, down one per cent with Telus Corp. (TSX:T) down 68 cents to $55.34.

The TSX energy sector drifted 0.15 per cent lower as the January crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange changed direction to move 16 cents higher to US$63.29 cents on top of other sharp prices increases this week as winter weather moved into the U.S.The price drop came despite a comment from OPEC's president that the oil cartel is likely to trim production further and the amount will be decided at a meeting scheduled for Nigeria's capital this month.Petro-Canada was down 55 cents to $50.94.

In other news:

-Units in E.D. Smith Income Fund (TSX:JAM.UN) tumbled 16.8 per cent to $5.70 after it said distributions may have to be cut as the payout ratio for 2006 will top 100 per cent of distributable cash, instead of its target of 95 per cent.
-The Montreal Exchange says it will go public early next spring, but will list its shares without an initial offering. The Montreal Exchange, though a junior market, is Canada's oldest exchange and a leader in complex derivative investments.
-Axcan Pharma Inc. (TSX:AXP) grew its fourth-quarter revenue by 7.9 per cent to US$72.3 million but saw its profit for the period fall to US$8.3 million due to the impact of discontinuing one of its programs. Its shares were 21 cents lower to $16.72.
-Shares in Le Chateau Inc. (TSX:CTU.A) jumped 14.9 per cent to $57.45 as the trendy clothing retailer said it is rewarding its shareholders by raising its regular quarterly dividend by 50 per cent and paying a special $3 per share dividend to stockholders after its third-quarter profit rose to $8.4 million.
-The Wall Street Journal says billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian has sold his entire remaining investment in General Motors Corp.

(NYSE:GM) - 28 million shares - at US$29.95 a share, a transaction worth more than US$800 million. Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. said last week it was reducing its stake to 7.4 per cent from 9.9 per cent.GM shares added seven cents to US$29.29.The Canadian Press.

Britain planned to cut off Nile DEC 01,06
Britain wanted to control the key trade route

Britain drew up plans to cut the flow of the River Nile to Egypt to force President Gamal Abdel Nasser to give up the Suez Canal in 1956, files reveal. Military officials believed they could harm agriculture and cut communications by reducing the flow of water, newly-released documents show. The plan was outlined to Prime Minister Anthony Eden six weeks before British and French forces invaded Egypt.But it was abandoned because of fears it would trigger a violent backlash. Under the plan, Britain would have used a dam in Uganda to reduce water levels in the White Nile by seven-eighths. But planners realised that the scheme would take months to work, and could also harm other states such as Kenya and Uganda. One British official noted that the plan, while unworkable, could still be useful. It might be possible to spread the word among the more illiterate Egyptians that 'unless Nasser climbs down, Britain will cut off the Nile, Cabinet official John Hunt was revealed to have said.

No legal justification

The Suez crisis was triggered in July 1956 when the Egyptian president nationalised the Suez Canal, a vital trading route from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. Britain and France joined forces with Israel and the three nations attacked in October 1956 in a bid to regain control of the canal, but US and UN pressure forced a withdrawal. The documents, released to the National Archives in Kew, also show the prime minister was urged to conceal the fact that his attorney-general had warned that the invasion was illegal.

At the time, UK lawmakers were claiming that the action was legal. But Attorney General Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller father of current MI5 head Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller wrote a strong letter challenging this.

I am unable to devise any argument which could purport to justify in international law either our demand that she [Egypt]... should withdraw her forces from a part of her own territory which she is engaged in defending, or the threat to occupy her territory by armed forces should she fail to accede that demand, he wrote. Then-Cabinet Secretary Sir Norman Brooks told the prime minister that he should not raise the issue of the war's legality in future speeches. The Suez crisis damaged Sir Anthony's reputation and led to his resignation in 1957.

MUSLIM NATIONS

EZEKIEL 38:1-12
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW)and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

EZEKIEL 39:1-8
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.

JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

Surprise: Oil Woes In Iran
Flagging output from its vast reserves could diminish Tehran's influence
by Stanley Reed DEC 01,06

Few countries can match Iran in its ability to generate angst among Westerners. It appears determined to become a nuclear power. Tehran's Islamic leaders aid radical groups across the Middle East. And as the U.S. gets bogged down in Iraq, Iran's influence in the region is on the rise, fueled in large part by its vast energy wealth.Yet Iran has a surprising weakness: Its oil and gas industry, the lifeblood of its economy, is showing serious signs of distress. As domestic energy consumption skyrockets, Iran is struggling to produce enough oil and gas for export. Unless Tehran overhauls its policies, its primary source of revenue and the basis of its
geopolitical muscle could start to wane. Within a decade, says Saad Rahim, an analyst at Washington consultancy PFC Energy, Iran's net crude exports could fall to zero.That's not to say Iran doesn't have abundant resources. The country's 137 billion barrels of oil reserves are second only to Saudi Arabia's, and its supply of gas trails only Russia's, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy. Getting it all out of the ground, though, is another matter. Iran has been producing just 3.9 million barrels of oil a day this year, 5% below its OPEC quota, because of delays in new projects and a shortage of technical skills. By contrast, in 1974, five years before the Islamic Revolution, Iran pumped 6.1 million barrels daily.

The situation could get even tougher for the National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC), which is responsible for all of Iran's output. Without substantial upgrades in facilities, production at Iran's core fields, several of which date from the 1920s, could go into a precipitous decline. In September, Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh suggested that with no new investment, output from Iran's fields would fall by about 13% a year, roughly twice the rate that outside oil experts had expected. NIOC is likely to find that even maintaining the status quo is a mounting challenge, says PFC Energy's Rahim.

STATE HANDOUTS

Iran's looming crisis is the result of years of neglect and underinvestment. As in other oil-producing countries such as Venezuela and Mexico, the government treats the oil industry as a cash cow, milking its revenues for social programs. It allocates only $3 billion a year for investment, less than a third of what's needed to get production growing again.Compounding the pressure are policies that encourage profligate energy use. Gasoline prices are set at 35 cents a gallon, which has helped fuel 10%-plus annual growth in consumption, PFC Energy figures. The national thirst for gasoline far outstrips domestic refining capacity, so Iran will import about $5 billion in gasoline this year, or about 40% of its needs. The government is planning a $16 billion refinery building program to boost capacity by 60%. But unless Iran raises fuel prices, the new plants will just mean more consumption.An oil squeeze could spell trouble for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The populist leader has won backing at home through generous handouts. Ahmadinejad has ratcheted up public spending this year by 21%, to $213 billion, on everything from aid to rural areas to housing loans for newlyweds. He has also promised some $16 billion in outlays from a special $30 billion fund set up to tide Iranians through future hard times. Without a healthy oil sector, Iran's social spending could bust the national budget--and reignite inflation.

Iran badly needs fresh foreign investment to shore up the oil industry. Tehran has attracted some $20 billion in funding for oil and gas projects since 1995 from overseas companies including Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD), France's Total (TOT), and Norway's Statoil. But new investment has largely dried up in recent years because of lingering worries about the risk of war with the U.S. and disenchantment with Iran's tightfisted terms.Outsiders are offered contracts only to drill wells--rather than operate fields--and get just a small share of profits from output.

For instance, Italian oil giant ENI (ENI), a fixture in Iran since 1957, produces about 35,000 barrels per day but doesn't expect to get any bigger. Unless international sanctions are imposed on Iran and the Italian government directs ENI to abide by them, we are committed to staying, says ENI Chief Executive Paolo Scaroni. However, in order to increase our presence there, contractual terms for oil companies need to change.Endless haggling and delays have set back some of Iran's biggest oil initiatives. One top priority had been the Azagedan field in southern Iran, which is expected eventually to produce 260,000 barrels a day. But in October, Tehran scrapped a $2 billion contract, agreed to in 2004, with Japan's Inpex to develop the project. And Shell's $800 million Soroush/Nowrooz project in the Persian Gulf has been plagued by cost overruns and technical glitches. In January, meanwhile, Statoil wrote down the entire $329 million book value of its South Pars project because of productivity and quality problems with a local contractor.

GLACIAL PACE

It's not just oil that Iran is failing to exploit. The glacial pace of negotiations is also making it fall behind neighboring Qatar in exploiting the huge offshore gas field that the two countries share. While Qatar has signed up the likes of ExxonMobil (XOM) and Shell to develop the site, Iran's talks with Total and Shell have progressed far more slowly. Iran is now a net importer of gas, a situation not expected to reverse before 2010.Foreign energy companies are lobbying the Iranians to change. Executives say they would like longer contracts, which would give them more control and might boost returns. But progress is slow as many Iranian officials are reluctant to give foreigners terms that might be judged too favorable. There are indications of movement, but how far and how deep it goes is anyone's guess, an oil executive says.Can Iran fix its energy conundrum? Some experts are betting Tehran will get its act together sooner rather than later. Iran was able to boost production from 1.2 million barrels a day during the 1980-88 war with Iraq to nearly 4 million barrels with almost no foreign help, notes Bijan Khajepour, chairman of Tehran's Atieh Bahar Consulting, which advises oil companies. He thinks Iran should be able to sustain current production for the next decade. Even so, if Tehran doesn't face up to the woes of its oil industry, Iran may find itself in the unusual position of sharing the West's angst over growing dependence on imported oil.with Babak Pirouz in Tehran Reed is London bureau chief for BusinessWeek.

ISRAELS TROUBLE

JEREMIAH 30:7
7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;(ISRAEL) but he shall be saved out of it.

DANIEL 12:1,4
1 And at that time shall Michael(ISRAELS WAR ANGEL) stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people:(ISRAEL) and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation(May 14,48) even to that same
time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro,(WORLD TRAVEL,IMMIGRATION) and knowledge shall be increased.(COMPUTERS,CHIP IMPLANTS ETC)

Thursday November 30, 10:55 PM
Abbas, Rice call for Mideast truce to extend to West Bank

JERICHO, West Bank (AFP) Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have called for a fledgling Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to be extended.We talked about the truce that has taken effect in the Gaza Strip and we hope it will be extended to the West Bank, Abbas told a joint news conference with Rice in the West Bank oasis town of Jericho Thursday.Under the terms of the ceasefire, which came into effect on Sunday in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian armed groups agreed to halt rocket fire against the Jewish state in exchange for an Israeli troop withdrawal from the territory.Rice also said that the United States hoped for a comprehensive ceasefire following talks focused on shoring up the five-day truce.Washington's top diplomat also praised the moderate Palestinian leader for his role in bringing about the five-day ceasfire in the Gaza Strip and for

trying to create a Palestinian unity government with radical Islamists Hamas.Thank you also for the efforts you have made to bring about the ceasefire that is now in effect in Gaza and that we hope will be consolidated so that it can be extended because we would hope in time for a comprehensive ceasefire.

WW3 THE 3 WAVES THAT MARCH TO ISRAEL

DANIEL 11:40-45
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south( EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) and the king of the north (RUSSIA AND MUSLIM HORDES OF EZEK 38+39) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.(JORDAN)
42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA 2ND WAVE OF WW3) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)
45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

The Third and Final Wave of WW3 is when all Nations march to Jerusalem, but JESUS bodily returns to earth and destroys them,sets up his KINGDOM OF RULE FOR 1000 YEARS THEN FOREVER.

2ND WAVE CHINA AND KINGS OF THE EAST MARCH TO ISRAEL

REVELATION 16:12
12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.(THIS IS THE ATATURK DAM IN TURKEY,THEY CROSS OVER).

DANIEL 11:44 (2ND WAVE OF WW3)
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)

REVELATION 9:12-18
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.(IRAQ-SYRIA)
15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.(1/3 Earths Population die in WW 3 2ND WAVE)
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand:(200 MILLION MAN ARMY FROM CHINA AND THE KINGS OF THE EAST) and I heard the number of them.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)

TAKE NOTICE IN THESE SCRIPTURES IT SAYS CHINA AND THE KINGS OF THE EAST (JAPAN, N & S KOREA ETC)

Japan able to develop nuclear weapons: foreign minister Thu Nov 30, 10:46 AM ET

TOKYO (AFP) Japan has the ability to produce nuclear weapons but chooses not to, its foreign minister said amid debate on breaking the nuclear taboo after neighboring North Korea tested an atomic bomb. We have the technology to develop nuclear weapons, Taro Aso, Japan's outspoken foreign minister, told a parliamentary committee.But this doesn't mean we will immediately create nuclear weapons to possess them, Aso added.Aso has been at the forefront of pushing for Japan the only country to have been attacked with atomic bombs to debate the nuclear option.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has ruled out even discussing building nuclear weapons, but the issue has caused concern in neighboring countries.Experts have long believed Japan has the knowhow to develop nuclear weapons quickly, in part because it relies on nuclear technology for nearly a third of its energy needs.

Technologically speaking, we have the capability to develop atom bombs and we have the ability to launch satellites with rockets. We also have plutonium, under the supervision of the IAEA, or International Atomic Energy Agency, Aso said.Aso met later in the day with IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who is visiting Japan in part for talks on North Korea's nuclear program.Aso was responding to a question by the opposition, which has called on Abe to sack the foreign minister to show his commitment against nuclear weapons.Aso reiterated the government's view that Japan has the right to nuclear weapons despite its pacifist constitution, which was imposed by the United States after World War II.From a purely theoretical viewpoint, possession of a necessary minimum of nuclear weapons for the purpose of self-defense is not banned under the current constitution, Aso said.

Japan is particularly concerned about North Korea, which launched a missile over Japan's main island in 1998. The communist regime tested its first atomic bomb on October 9.Under a 1967 policy, Japan refuses the production, possession or presence of nuclear weapons on its soil.US nuclear bombs obliterated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the closing days of World War II, killing more than 210,000 people.

Blair to signal possible cuts to nuclear fleet: FT DEC 01,06

LONDON (AFP) Prime Minister Tony Blair is prepared to concede on cuts to Britain's nuclear deterrent when his government publishes plans on the ageing missile system's future, the Financial Times said.

The business daily said that, as expected, Blair would commission a straight submarine-based replacement for the US-built Trident weapons system when the plans are announced on Monday.But he will say that the number of Royal Navy Vanguard-class submarines that carry the missiles could be reduced from the current four to three and that Britain will cut the 200 nuclear warheads stockpiled.Blair will not give specific figures for the potential warhead reductions and not make a firm commitment to reducing the size of the nuclear fleet, the FT said without quoting sources.A decision on cutting the number of submarines could be taken at a later date while such a reduction in vessels and warheads could reduce the costs of replacing the whole system, the newspaper said Blair will argue.

Blair faces a fight from within his governing Labour Party on Trident, which will become obsolete in the mid-2020s and potentially cost up to 25 billion pounds (37 billion euros, 46 billion dollars) to replace.Scrapping nuclear weapons and atomic power were key pledges of left-wing Labour, particularly throughout the 1980s, but the policy was dropped when Blair became party leader in 1994 and took the party to the centre ground.

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain and International Development Secretary Hilary Benn are reportedly against Trident and about 120 backbench Labour lawmakers have lobbied the prime minister to rethink.The plans will be published after a cabinet meeting on Monday and government members have already been briefed in detail by Defence Secretary Des Browne and Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, Blair's office said Thursday.Lawmakers are expected to vote on the matter in the new year.

DISEASES

REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

World AIDS Day: debates over sexual abstinence, condoms Fri Dec 1, 7:54 PM ET

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) Two controversies flared on World AIDS Day as the United States and South Africa backed sexual abstinence to avoid infection and British leader Tony Blair castigated religious bans on condoms. US President George W. Bush joined other world leaders in renewing vows to combat the disease, which has claimed more than 25 million lives in 25 years and for which a cure and vaccine remain dismayingly elusive.The pandemic of HIV/AIDS can be defeated, and the United States is willing to take the lead in that fight, he said.Bush spelled out Washington's role funding AIDS drugs in poor countries, but also emphasized promoting abstinence.That tactic is derided by many AIDS activists as moralizing and unworkable, even potentially dangerous. These campaigners plead instead for sex education and availability of condoms.

Fighting AIDS includes the ABC approach, encouraging abstinence, being faithful and using condoms, with abstinence as the only sure way to avoid the sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS, said Bush.

South Africa used World AIDS Day to announce a new national AIDS plan: to halve by 2011 the rate of new HIV infections, notably by encouraging teenagers aged 14-17 to delay the initiation of sex.The future course of the epidemic hinges in many respects on the behavior young people adopt and maintain, according to the plan, launched by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.South Africa is second only to India in the number of HIV infections.

In a country of 47 million, 5.5 million South Africans live with AIDS or the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes it.In Britain, meanwhile, Prime Minister Tony Blair hit out at religious bans on condoms, saying if all the churches and religious organizations were facing up to reality, it would be better.The danger is, if we have a sort of blanket ban coming from religious hierarchy saying it's wrong to do it, then you discourage people from doing it in circumstances where they need to protect their own lives, he said.Blair made the remarks as the Vatican is considering a 100-page report on condoms that has been requested by Pope Benedict XVI.

Since AIDS was first discovered 25 years ago in a small group of US gay men, it has killed at least 25 million people and nearly 40 million people today have HIV/AIDS, according to the UN agency UNAIDS.Despite billions of dollars poured into research, there is neither a cure nor a vaccine.The distribution of drugs that curb HIV, transforming a killer disease into a manageable one, is only now reaching a higher gear in Africa, where nearly two-thirds of infected people live.In Guinea-Bissau, thousands of students demonstrated for free HIV treatment in a country where 88 percent of people live on less than a dollar a day.However, Africa showed some encouraging signs, with an apparent decline in adult prevalence in several countries, the World Health Organization said Friday.In Geneva, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said Friday the pandemic would take a growing toll on the workforce in the years to come. In 2005, 3.4 million people of working age died of AIDS, a toll likely to reach 4.5 million by 2020, it said.

Twenty-five years into AIDS, nations rich and poor still think about the pandemic from an emergency perspective of quick fixes and short-term goals, UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot said in a commentary published by the Financial Times. Asian countries, where the AIDS situation varies widely, vowed on Friday to step up their action. China resolved to promote condom use among its homosexuals, amid data showing only one Chinese gay in five uses them regularly.Prevention efforts among gays will be key to the country's AIDS control, said Wu Zunyou of the Chinese Disease Prevent and Control Center. In India, which has 5.7 million infected people, protestors demanded low-cost treatment for people in the later stages of the illness, while in neighboring Bangladesh, a rally outside parliament in Dhaka drew a crowd of thousands. In Bangkok, a condom carnival promoted safe-sex with dart-throwing to pop condom balloons and races to blow up condoms. Despite extensive efforts, the stigma attached to the disease often stymies treatment, said Brazil's health minister.

Prejudice can be more aggressive than the threat of disease, Agenor Alvares said. That is why we are promoting this campaign. In New York, where the disease is more closely tied to intravenous drug users, handing out clean needles, offering free AIDS tests and treatment for drug addiction have proved effective. Over the past five years in New York City HIV diagnoses are down one-third and AIDS deaths are down by one-fifth, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. The theme of this year's World's AIDS Day is accountability. Accountability ... requires every president and prime minister, every parliamentarian and politician, to decide and declare that AIDS stops with me, said UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

WORLD TERRORISM

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

2 PETER 2:5
5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

2 PETER 3:7
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men

LEVITICUS 26:16
16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you( sudden) terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

ISAIAH 33:1,18-19 Woe to thee that spoilest,(destroys) and thou wast not spoiled;(destroyed) and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil,(destroy) thou shalt be spoiled;(destroyed) and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.
18 Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?
19 Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand.

JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

Iran's nuclear ambitions seen similar to Holocaust
By Abraham Rabinovich,THE WASHINGTON TIMES,November 30, 2006

JERUSALEM /Iran's reported drive to make an atomic bomb has become an existential threat to Israel that some Israelis are likening to the Holocaust especially with the United States appearing to back away from confrontation with Tehran. The alarmists include Aharon Appelfeld, a leading Israeli author who as a child survived the Nazi killing of 6 million Jews.For the first time since I'm in the country, I feel that we face a real existential danger, Mr. Appelfeld said.The memory of the Holocaust is a central element in Israel's collective consciousness, a memory made more acute by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's denial that the Holocaust happened.It's 1938, said former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Iran is Germany, racing to arm itself with atomic bombs.Addressing a Jewish audience in Los Angeles this month, Mr. Netanyahu added his voice to a growing sense of alarm in Israel about Iran's seemingly inexorable march toward nuclear capability. In his address, Mr. Netanyahu referred to Mr. Ahmadinejad's repeated calls for wiping Israel off the map.Believe him and stop him, Mr. Netanyahu said in the speech. This is what we must do. Everything pales before it.

Israel has half assumed, half hoped that if international pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear development fails, the United States would in the end use military force.In recent weeks, however, a war-weary Washington seems to be backing away from a confrontation.In a meeting with French President Jacques Chirac, President Bush said that he would understand if Israel chose to attack Iran's nuclear installations.To Israelis, that sounded like he would prefer it over an American attack. There was likewise little comfort from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's remark that the U.S. lacked sufficient intelligence on Iran's nuclear facilities to
carry out a strike at this time.

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wrote recently that military action by the United States is extremely improbable in the final two years of a presidency facing a hostile Congress.He, too, raised the possibility of a unilateral Israeli air strike. Israel has apparently long been preparing such a strike. It acquired a large fleet of F-16 and F-15 warplanes and held intensive training exercises in anticipation of a confrontation with Iran.The appointment last year of former air force commander Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz as chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was widely seen as preparing for that confrontation in which the air force would play a central role.It has become increasingly clear in recent years, however, that an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would be infinitely more difficult than the successful attack on Iraq's nuclear reactor by Israeli planes in 1981.Tehran learned the lessons of that attack and scattered its facilities at scores of sites, burying many of them deep underground and defending them with modern Russian anti-aircraft missiles.

Analysts have suggested that only a superpower like the United States could mount the massive and sustained attack that would be necessary to do substantial damage by boring ever deeper into the underground sites with bunker-buster bombs on repeated
runs.

Even then, some analysts say, an attack might succeed only in delaying the program by a few years.If Israel undertook the task alone, it would face not onlyuncertainty about the results of the air campaign but also the certainty of fierce Iranian retaliation, beginning with their long-range missiles and perhaps including attacks on Israeli targets around the world. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert continues to hope for an international initiative.The big countries have to lead and we have to push them, he said. However, there is a realization in Jerusalem that there may be no one to push. Deputy Israeli Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said: I am aware of all of the possible repercussions of a pre-emptive Israeli military action against Iran and consider it a last resort. But the last resort is sometimes the only resort.

Shekel Becomes Safe Haven for Dollars
By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu (INN)

Four years ago, a dollar cost five shekels and everyone hoarded greenbacks. Today a dollar costs 4.24 shekels, leaving many American olim wishing they had put their money where their feet are. American olim, the Hebrew word for immigrants, who held on to their dollar bills the past three years will have lost 15 percent of their money if they convert the dollars to shekels today.The dollar traded Friday morning as low as 4.233 shekels, the lowest it has been for five years.

The year-long long and steady strengthening of the shekel symbolizes the new Israel, an economy of near-zero inflation, a robust economy and a growing reputation among the international financial community as one of the most stable economies in the world.The stronger shekel is a boon for renters and buyers because the long-time trust in the dollar steered Israelis to quote everything in dollars. A $500 a month apartment costs five percent less in shekels than it did six months ago. Today, businessmen and consumers see the other side of the coin and the shekel is becoming the more common base for transactions.The past, of course, is no guarantee of the future, and many financial advisors think the shekel is overvalued. One financial web site wrote on Friday, While we in the beginning of the year where quite bullish on shekel we are now increasingly of the view that the shekel will weaken.

Their analysis is based on the prediction that the American interest rate will rise, contrary to most expectations that it will drop in early 2007. One of the advantages of the shekel is that the interest rate in Israel has been the same or even higher than that of the dollar, attracting foreigners to invest in the Israel currency and earn a higher income.Another factor working against the dollar is the increasing flight from the American currency throughout the world. The shekel's strength has been aided by the dollar's weakness, whereas the shekel continues to lose value against the Euro.Israel today is a far cry from the days of 500 per cent a year inflation of the 1980s, when shop owners marked up their prices every day.Sweeping economic reforms and changes in the financial policy have turned the Israeli economy around. The most flattering result was this year's $4 billion buy-out of the Iscar metal working company by American billionaire Warren Buffet. He bought the Galilee-based community only months before the Hizbullah terrorist war broke out.

The ability of the economy to absorb the shock of the war and return to a growth rate of more than four percent is another sign to investors that the shekel is the best place to put money.

The constant instability of the Middle East has had virtually no effect on the shekel or the economy, and the government even has massed an enormous and little publicized budget surplus of more than $2 billion. American President George W. Bush recently asked Prime Minister Ehud Olmert how Israel manages to avoid deficits, which two years ago were a constant and growing concern.The government has made windfall profits from the tax on fuel, which has soared in the past year until it peaked in the late summer. Every time fuel pump prices were raised, the government's take rose proportionately.Another large source of the surplus has been a drastic cut in outlays for child stipends following the sweeping reforms initiated by former Likud Finance Minister Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu. The child support benefits for years have been a way to support a needed rise in the Jewish population. However, in the past few years it has been used by Arab families, especially in the Bedouin community, to fund their lifestyle of polygamy, which often results in dozens of children per family.

US braces for possible al-Qaeda cyber attack
December 1, 2006

The US government has warned US private financial services of an al-Qaeda call for a cyber attack against US online stock trading and banking websites beginning on Friday, officials said today.The officials - a person familiar with the warning and a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security - said the Islamic militant group aimed to penetrate and destroy the databases of the US stock market and banking websites.Homeland Security said it had no evidence to corroborate the threat but had issued the warning out of an abundance of caution. The department said in a statement that the threat was for all of December.There is no information to corroborate this aspirational threat. As a routine matter and out of an abundance of caution, US-CERT issued the situational awareness report to industry stakeholders, said Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke.US-CERT is the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team. The US government said the threat was to avenge the holding of suspected terrorists at the US prison in Guantanamo.Reuters