ISRAEL STRUCK NUCLEAR SITE IN SYRIA

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.

Torrential rains kill nine in Tunisia Sat Oct 13, 6:48 PM ET

TUNIS (AFP) - At least nine people died and eight others went missing Saturday in torrential rains that caused serious damage in and around the Tunisian capital, national radio reported. President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali gave instructions to ensure the situation is monitored in all affected regions and to bring necessary help and assistance to the victims in these exceptional climatic conditions, a presidential spokesman said.Torrential rains fell mainly on the north of the country on Saturday, filling formerly dry river beds known as wadis and causing them to overflow.The rains and subsequent flooding blocked traffic on many roads and isolated some towns.Rescue services arrived just in time to help several stricken people on the roads ... which kept losses down, said TAP news agency.Eight people died and eight went missing in the Sabalet Ben Ammar area, northwest of the capital on the road to the port city of Bizerte, while another person was killed in Tunis after his car was swept away.The president's office said that a ceremony marking the 44th anniversary of the withdrawal of French troops from Bizerte's naval base scheduled for Monday had been cancelled.

Haitian villagers hit by deadly flooding pick up the pieces by Clarens Renois Sat Oct 13, 3:01 PM ET

CABARET, Haiti (AFP) - Residents of flooded villages where at least 47 people were killed just north of Haiti's capital, on Saturday started to try to pick up the scattered pieces of their lives. After driving rains let loose raging floodwaters in this mountainous Caribbean nation, the poorest in the Americas, two more bodies found on Saturday took the toll up to at least 47 dead here, authorities said.

But the toll remained preliminary.

Desperate locals were still struggling to cope with staggering losses, even as the teeming capital was spared.We cannot count the dead; we are burying in boxes the bodies we are finding without being able to identify them, one official in hard-hit Bretelle said privately.Cabaret's justice of the peace Ferdinand Senatus said that he had not even seen what may have happened further up the hills.From what he had seen here, though, there are easily 20,000 people left homeless by these floods.Everything came down from above, said resident Welene Nelson, pointing up the mountainside where few trees or rocks can be seen.Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic to its east, faces regular flash-flooding during the rainy season. Deforestation, which heightens the risk of flooding, is rife here as in most rural towns as the poor collect every scrap of wood for cooking.

The water came down really strong from the mountains; it burst the river and swept into the houses in its path, said Nelson, exhausted after spending hours cleaning out what remains of her home.Civil protection authorities said thousands of families were displaced and hundreds of homes destroyed or damaged across the country. Roads were swamped and plantations wiped out.Farming has been particularly affected and many crops have been destroyed, Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime said.Raoul, a villager who spent years working in the United States and had outfitted his home with electrical generators and modern appliances, was another one of the victim. He could not even get out in an all-terrain vehicle; all the roads were cut off.Another neighbor, a teacher, showed a reporter inside her home, where she said waters rose a meter high, and everything was lost.Haiti is a country where most people face acute distress and desolation daily, even without their homes being swept away.In the aftermath of this tragedy, the Haitian government really has been nowhere to be seen on the ground though it has released funds to send food and beds to the stricken areas.They are simply leaving victims to their fate, argued an enraged Pierre-Eric Jean-Jacques under the morning sun.

There is a foreign army on our soil, he said, referring to the UN stabilization mission that was deployed after former president Jean Bertrand Aristide fled an uprising in February 2004. We should ask the UN mission to help transport government members in, and bring aid for victims to them wherever they are, he said, a few hours before Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis scheduled a fly-in visit by helicopter, a UN spokesman said. Now that retaining walls have fallen down (on the hillsides), the next rains will do even more damage, lamented Jacquelin, a local teenager who had harsh words for the lack of assistance from authorities. For now some refugees are staying at churches, or town schools further away, she said.

INIQUITY(great wickedness or injustice) ABOUNDING.

MATTHEW 24:12
12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

SCOFFERS MOCKING CHRISTS LITERAL 2ND COMING TO EARTH BODILY.

2 PETER 3:3-7
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
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.

JESUS RETURNS TO EARTH BODILY LIKE HE LEFT

ACTS 1:10-11
10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

Miller, the Jesus-Mocking BeerFri Oct 12, 3:00 AM ET

The Miller Lite people have a new ad featuring beer drinkers being instructed by a pro-sports-type commissioner in etiquette for the More Taste League. But the entity needing a More Taste lesson is the Miller Brewing Co. itself.Last year, Miller infuriated opponents of illegal immigration when the Chicago Tribune reported it paid $30,000 for a convention and newspaper ads publicizing a march of illegal-alien advocates to protest against Speaker Dennis Hastert's congressional office in Batavia, Ill. Consumers launched a national boycott. Apparently, Miller learned nothing. What the brewing giant has now done is far more offensive. Now, Miller has chosen to associate itself with an event mocking the Last Supper of Jesus, one of the most precious religious occasions for Christians.

The Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco touts itself as the crowning finale of the city's Leather Pride Week festivities. It's not something you'd bring the children to, although in San Francisco those standards don't necessarily apply. Media accounts showed that in some cases whole families attended — with the toddlers dressed in dog collars. It is the kind of raunchy event that gives that city its reputation for decadence. But what really offended was the promotional poster for the fair. Seated at and standing behind a long table, Last Supper-style, are a set of men and women in various stages of leather dress/undress, including a man wearing a black dog mask. Sex toys, including a big red fist, are strewn across the table. As a spokesman for Concerned Women explained, The bread and wine representing Christ's broken body and life-giving blood are replaced with sadomasochistic sex toys in this twisted version of Da Vinci's The Last Supper.Prominently on display in the left-hand corner of the ad — the Miller Lite sponsorship logo. Miller Brewing would like consumers to think of it as a wholesome, all-American product. Instead, they're in danger of becoming the Honk If You Hate Jesus beer. Miller Lite was the only national advertiser underneath this Christ-mocking image. When pressed by the Catholic League and other offended groups, Miller spokesman Julian Green gave the standard — which is to say, slippery — corporate answer. While Miller has supported the Folsom Street Fair for several years, a nod to the gay community, we take exception to the poster the organizing committee developed this year. If you think that was weak, try the next sentence: We understand some individuals may find the imagery offensive.Some individuals? There are over 225 million Christians in the United States. May be offended? It is a poster designed to insult them by blaspheming Jesus Christ. And after putting out that Pablum, Miller still refused to remove its Lite or Genuine Draft logos from adorning the event or the event's promotional Website.

Then the Catholic League noticed that the Miller-funded event would also mock the Last Supper through the queer nun group the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, which would also receive funds from the event. On their Website, the nun-mockers promised: No gastric craving will go unsatisfied, no bag of silver will go unspent, and no sin will go unforgiven. ... Don't be a Judas! Come, eat, drink and be Mary! Be sure to mention The Last Supper With The Sisters when you make your reservation.When the Catholic League complained to Miller about this, they were unimpressed, the League reported. The League has now called for a nationwide boycott of Miller beer. (Full disclosure: I am on the Advisory Board of the Catholic League and have endorsed the boycott.)

In turn, Miller announced it was conducting an immediate full-scale audit of its marketing and promotional procedures, which sounds like the company is being responsive, except again there was a dodge. The last line in this message underlined its lack of a moral spine: It is important to understand that the Folsom Street Fair does not target the general public in its communications. The fair itself and the organization's Website are only intended for the adult alternative lifestyle community.
Translation: We market to Christians in the mass media. We also apply our logo to ads trashing those same Christians in our niche marketing to the alternative lifestyle community. Anything for a buck. The Miller Brewing Co. has a Distributor Agreement, which reads in part, Distributor shall preserve and enhance the high quality image, reputation and goodwill of Miller and its products through (i) the appearance and attitude of Distributor personnel. What do you suppose would be the corporate response if one of its drivers got into a truck cross-dressed as a Catholic nun? Or strolled into the company lunchroom and proceeded to dump on the table an assortment of X-rated sex toys? In 2005, a Miller worker in Wisconsin was fired when he was photographed in the newspaper drinking a Budweiser. Now that, that was intolerable. L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center. CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.

Fiery pileup kills 3 near Los Angeles By MICHAEL R. BLOOD, Associated Press Writer OCT 14,07

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. - Firefighters finished removing charred debris Sunday from a freeway tunnel where three people died in a fiery, 29-vehicle pileup that could keep a major interstate shut down for days. Investigators determined 28 commercial vehicles and one passenger vehicle were involved in the crash late Friday that killed three people and injured at least 10, Deputy Fire Chief John Tripp said. The search of the debris ended Sunday morning and confirmed no more fatalities.With the large numbers of vehicles trapped inside the tunnel, there was a potential for a greater number of critical injuries, let alone fatalities, Tripp said.

Officials hope to reopen the southbound lanes of the closed freeway by Tuesday morning, but they have been hampered by concern about how many repairs will have to be made for the tunnel to be safe.Our goal is to get the roadway open as quickly as possible, said Will Kempton, director of the California Department of Transportation.At least five big rigs burst into flames that spread to other vehicles and burned a full day after the crash on a rainy Friday night. At the height of the fire, flames shot out of both ends of the 550-foot-long tunnel, rising as high as 100 feet, firefighters said.About 300 firefighters were fighting the fire early Saturday, and the intense heat caused concrete to crack and melt, sending chucks falling onto a road below. Small fires lingered even as debris was being removed Saturday afternoon.

The bodies of two crash victims were found early Saturday and a third was found later in the day, authorities said. The dead were two adult males and one child, Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Jason Hurd said Sunday.The bodies of one man and the child were in the cab of a truck hauling cantaloupe, which appeared to have hit a pillar outside the tunnel, a fire official told The Associated Press on condition his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak about the crash.The other body was found in a truck about 12 feet short of the tunnel's exit, said the official.
The exact ages of the victims were unknown. County coroner's investigator Kelly Yagerlener said it could be several days before the names of the dead were released.

The pileup in the southbound truck tunnel of Interstate 5 began about 11 p.m. Friday when two big rigs collided on the rain-slickened highway, about 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.
There was an accident in front of me. I come to a stop and then they just start hitting me, one right after another, trucker Tony Brazil told reporters at the crash site.A couple drivers come over the top of the truck and (said), Get out of here, let's get out of here, so I got my wallet and my phone and I was able to squeeze between that truck there and the wall, Brazil said.

The cause of the crash is being investigated.

The pileup snarled traffic for miles in all directions as motorists had to navigate neighborhood streets and mountain roads to get around the wreck. Traveling 100 yards on one street just down the hill from the crash took an hour.Interstate 5 is a key route connecting Southern and Northern California, as well as a major commuter link between Los Angeles and its northern suburbs.
The tunnel, built in the 1970s, and its mix of curves and darkness has long been regarded by truckers as one of the most dangerous areas of the freeway. There's kind of a blind spot, so if you boogie around the bend too fast and there's somebody stopped in the tunnel, it'll be boom-boom-boom, Arthur Johnson, 45, of Buckeye, Ariz., told the Los Angeles Times. Truck driver Fausto Angelino said he's been driving that stretch of road for 23 years.
I hold my breath every time, he said. The stretch of freeway carries about 225,000 vehicles a day. Associated Press Writer Jacob Adelman contributed to this report from Los Angeles.

Obstacles slow Rice's Mideast diplomacy By The Associated Press OCT 14,07

TALKS: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice opened an intense round of Mideast shuttle diplomacy Sunday.

DISAGREEMENT: Israelis and Palestinians are at bitter odds over the outline of an agreement that would be presented at a planned peace conference next month.

SPECIFICS: Israel is pressing for a vaguely worded document that would give it more room to maneuver, but the Palestinians want a detailed preliminary agreement.

UN peacekeepers prove blessing for south Lebanon economy by Lamia Radi OCT 14,07

TYRE, Lebanon (AFP) - Traders in Tyre's bustling souk say UN peacekeepers have brought baraka and a dose of good fortune to south Lebanon, making up at least in part for the ravages of last year's Israel-Hezbollah war. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has spent millions of dollars on food and housing, while employing hundreds of locals in the region where they are deployed to keep Israeli troops and the Shiite militants apart.The UNIFIL is a baraka (blessing), our business depends on them, said Ali Zeidan, a souvenir store owner.All these products are aimed at them, he said, pointing to a wooden dish encrusted with mother of pearl and adorned with the Lebanese flag as well as those of the 28 other nations contributing troops to the force.

He also has on offer portable nargilehs, or water pipes, in tinted glass with the countries' names in gilded arabesque writing.The market was frozen, but it is vibrant now, he said, adding that the Italians (the largest contingent) are the most generous; they have even learned to haggle.Following the July-August 2006 war which devastated the region, the UN Security Council boosted the number of UNIFIL troops to 13,500 -- from only 2,000 -- in south Lebanon, where the force has been deployed since 1978.The Lebanese army has since deployed up to the border with Israel for the first time in decades, and UNIFIL has reported no major incident between Hezbollah guerrillas and Israel.However, extra security measures were adopted during a deadly 15-week battle in northern Lebanon between Islamist militants and the Lebanese army that ended on September 2.The Spanish contingent of UNIFIL was targeted in a June 24 car bombing that cost six lives and was praised by Al-Qaeda.Amid an easing in tensions on the ground, 40 percent of the 90 million dollars (64,000 million euros) allocated to purchasing in 2006-2007 has been spent locally, UNIFIL's spokeswoman Yasmina Bouziane told AFP.

The troops, who themselves have spent 36 million dollars this year, buy fuel, food, mineral water, construction material, stationery and office supplies from local businesses, as well as souvenirs and pirated DVDs.UNIFIL employs about 600 local people. But the number could reach 4,000 if we consider those directly hired by each contingent, Bouziane said of interpreters, cashiers, drivers, mechanics, engineers, cleaners and secretaries.Even if each soldier spends a dollar a day it will bring in 13,000 dollars.
The region is also hosting hundreds of UNIFIL civilian personnel, some with their families, and foreign humanitarian workers such as demining experts and the Red Cross, who rent housing, buy food and send their children to school.The considerable funds available to UNIFIL and humanitarian organisations have created an economic effervescence prompting Beirut's big businesses to open branches in the south, said a manager of Banque Libano-Francaise, Antoine Hadid, in the port city of Tyre.

Financial transactions have increased by 40 percent since 2006 in the south compared to only six percent in Beirut, and seven banks have opened branches in Bint Jbeil, 125 kilometres (almost 80 miles) south of Beirut, Hadid said.The corniche seafront in Tyre is dotted with restaurants and cafes, including international chains. The monthly rent is set at 1,000 dollars for a cafe and 4,000 dollars for a restaurant, they would not open if they lost money, hotel owner Raymond Salha said. His 13-room family-run hotel overlooking the sea is usually booked up by UNIFIL's civil personnel families. I do not take advantage of their presence; I have not changed the rates: 60 dollars a night for a double room, including breakfast, he said. In a cell phone store, Fuad Hegazi is translating from Arabic to Portuguese for a high-ranking UNIFIL official. I have worked with them for eight months, and I have earned 2,500 dollars a month compared to the 500 dollars I would be paid by a Lebanese employer, said 30-year-old Hegazi, who also speaks Spanish, English, and Romanian. Things have started to look up for local carpenter Mounir too, who may take out a loan to refurbish three apartments which he rents out to UNIFIL's civilian personnel. The rents have ramped up, a three-room apartment that was 600 dollars a month in May is now worth 800 to 1,000 dollars, he said.

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.

Putin to visit Iran amid nuclear tension By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer Sun Oct 14, 11:02 AM ET

MOSCOW - When President Vladimir Putin visits Tehran this week, he will be closely watched for any sign he has moved closer to launching the nuclear reactor Russia is building for Iran. Russia has resisted the U.S. push for stronger sanctions against Tehran and strongly warned Washington against using force in its standoff with Iran over its nuclear program. But Moscow's position is carefully hedged. It has delayed completing the plant, Iran's first, and is urging the country to comply with international controls on its nuclear activities.Any show of support for Iran, such as a pledge by Putin to quickly complete the power plant, could embolden Iran and further cloud Russia's relations with the West.Putin bluntly spelled out his disagreements with Washington on Wednesday, saying he saw no objective data to prove Western claims that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons. And at talks Friday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, he ridiculed U.S. plans for a missile defense system in eastern Europe, supposedly to stop an Iranian attack.

His bluntness appeared to shock Rice and Gates.

Putin's visit, during which he will meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and attend Tuesday's summit of Caspian Sea nations, is a first. No Kremlin leader has traveled to Iran since Josef Stalin in 1943, for a wartime summit with Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.Putin's trip is important for Iran even if it yields no agreements. It's a break in international isolation, a chance to show that Iran is an important country, said Alexander Pikayev, a leading expert on Iran with Russia's Institute for World Economy and International relations.But it will highlight a reality sometimes overlooked by a world focused on the West's confrontation with Iran: that the Kremlin also has its problems with the Islamic republic.Although Russia has shielded Iran from harsher sanctions in the U.N. Security Council, its relations with Tehran have been hurt by disputes over the $1 billion deal to build the nuclear plant. Russia warned earlier this year that the plant in the port of Bushehr wouldn't be launched this fall as planned — the latest in a series of delays — because Iran was slow in making payments. It has also delayed the shipment of uranium fuel for the plant.

Anxious to ease Western doubts — and possibly its own — about Iran's intentions, the Kremlin made Tehran sign a deal several years ago to return the fuel to Russia after its use so it cannot be used in weapons.Iranian officials deny being late with payments and accuse the Kremlin of yielding to Western pressure. Iran has started its own enrichment program, saying it wants to produce fuel by itself — an effort that has heightened international suspicions. Iran insists that its program is meant purely to generate electricity.Low-enriched uranium is used to fuel nuclear power plants. Highly enriched uranium can be used to build nuclear weapons.The upshot is a slew of mutual suspicions, says Fyodor Lukyanov, the editor of Russia in Global Affairs magazine.Tehran views Russia as an unreliable partner that uses Iran in its game with the West, he told The Associated Press. Iran has been very difficult to deal with and the Kremlin has felt strong irritation about it.Putin's Tehran trip has repeatedly been postponed, as has the launch of the nuclear plant.Moscow has said fuel delivery will start six months before the plant goes on line, but it keeps delaying the launch date, citing the payment dispute.Some analysts think Putin may use the summit to pledge to complete the plant next year.

It requires political will to turn the launch key at Bushehr, and there is no reason to think that Russia lacks it, said Vladimir Orlov, the head of PIR Center, a think tank specializing in nuclear issues. Other analysts predict Russia's balancing act will continue, to avoid angering either Iran or the West. Moscow has said repeatedly it doesn't want a nuclear-armed Iran, and has urged Tehran to freeze uranium enrichment and answer international inspectors' queries about its nuclear program. Vyacheslav Kantor, a Russian businessman who is president of the European Jewish Congress, said the Kremlin is bent on preventing Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. We feel the intentions are very strong and positive, he said, voicing hope that Putin could persuade Tehran to meet international demands. Meanwhile, senior diplomats of the U.N. Security Council's five veto-wielding permanent members, joined by Germany, are giving Iran until November to show a positive response to questions about its nuclear program or face tougher sanctions. Permanent members Russia and China agreed to two previous sanctions resolutions but have cold-shouldered the effort by the U.S., Britain and France to impose harsher measures.
If Putin's trip to Iran doesn't yield answers to where the Kremlin is headed on the Iranian nuclear issue, next month's dealings at the U.N. may fill in some of the blanks.

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

October 14, 2007
Israel Struck a Nuclear Project in Syria, Analysts Say
By DAVID E. SANGER and MARK MAZZETTI

WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 — Israel’s air attack on Syria last month was directed against a site that Israeli and American intelligence analysts judged was a partly constructed nuclear reactor, apparently modeled on one North Korea has used to create its stockpile of nuclear weapons fuel, according to American and foreign officials with access to the intelligence reports.The description of the target addresses one of the central mysteries surrounding the Sept. 6 attack, and suggests that Israel carried out the raid to demonstrate its determination to snuff out even a nascent nuclear project in a neighboring state. The Bush administration was divided at the time about the wisdom of Israel’s strike, American officials said, and some senior policy makers still regard the attack as premature.

The attack on the reactor project has echoes of an Israeli raid more than a quarter century ago, in 1981, when Israel destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq shortly before it was to have begun operating. That attack was officially condemned by the Reagan administration, though Israelis consider it among their military’s finest moments. In the weeks before the Iraq war, Bush administration officials said they believed that the attack set back Iraq’s nuclear ambitions by many years. By contrast, the facility that the Israelis struck in Syria appears to have been much further from completion, the American and foreign officials said. They said it would have been years before the Syrians could have used the reactor to produce the spent nuclear fuel that could, through a series of additional steps, be reprocessed into bomb-grade plutonium. Many details remain unclear, most notably how much progress the Syrians had made in construction before the Israelis struck, the role of any assistance provided by North Korea, and whether the Syrians could make a plausible case that the reactor was intended to produce electricity. In Washington and Israel, information about the raid has been wrapped in extraordinary secrecy and restricted to just a handful of officials, while the Israeli press has been prohibited from publishing information about the attack.

The New York Times reported this week that a debate had begun within the Bush administration about whether the information secretly cited by Israel to justify its attack should be interpreted by the United States as reason to toughen its approach to Syria and North Korea. In later interviews, officials made clear that the disagreements within the administration began this summer, as a debate about whether an Israeli attack on the incomplete reactor was warranted then.The officials did not say that the administration had ultimately opposed the Israeli strike, but that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates were particularly concerned about the ramifications of a pre-emptive strike in the absence of an urgent threat.There wasn’t a lot of debate about the evidence, said one American official familiar with the intense discussions over the summer between Washington and the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel. “There was a lot of debate about how to respond to it.Even though it has signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Syria would not have been obligated to declare the existence of a reactor during the early phases of construction. It would have also had the legal right to complete construction of the reactor, as long as its purpose was to generate electricity. In his only public comment on the raid, Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, acknowledged this month that Israeli jets dropped bombs on a building that he said was related to the military but which he insisted was not used.

A senior Israeli official, while declining to speak about the specific nature of the target, said the strike was intended to re-establish the credibility of our deterrent power, signaling that Israel meant to send a message to the Syrians that even the potential for a nuclear weapons program would not be permitted. But several American officials said the strike may also have been intended by Israel as a signal to Iran and its nuclear aspirations. Neither Iran nor any Arab government except for Syria has criticized the Israeli raid, suggesting that Israel is not the only country that would be disturbed by a nuclear Syria. North Korea did issue a protest. The target of the Israeli raid and the American debate about the Syrian project were described by government officials and nongovernment experts interviewed in recent weeks in the United States and the Middle East. All insisted on anonymity because of rules that prohibit discussing classified information. The officials who described the target of the attack included some on each side of the debate about whether a partly constructed Syrian nuclear reactor should be seen as an urgent concern, as well as some who described themselves as neutral on the question. The White House press secretary, Dana Perino, said Saturday that the administration would have no comment on the intelligence issues surrounding the Israeli strike. Israel has also refused to comment.Nuclear reactors can be used for both peaceful and non-peaceful purposes. A reactor’s spent fuel can be reprocessed to extract plutonium, one of two paths to building a nuclear weapon. The other path — enriching uranium in centrifuges — is the method that Iran is accused of pursuing with an intent to build a weapon of its own.Syria is known to have only one nuclear reactor, a small one built for research purposes. But in the past decade, Syria has several times sought unsuccessfully to buy one, first from Argentina, then from Russia. On those occasions, Israel reacted strongly but did not threaten military action. Earlier this year, Mr. Assad spoke publicly in general terms about Syria’s desire to develop nuclear power, but his government did not announce a plan to build a new reactor.

The Gulf Cooperation Council, a group of Persian Gulf states, has also called for an expansion of nuclear power in the Middle East for energy purposes, but many experts have interpreted that statement as a response to Iran’s nuclear program. They have warned that the region may be poised for a wave of proliferation. Israel is believed to be the only nuclear-armed nation in the region.The partly constructed Syrian reactor was detected earlier this year by satellite photographs, according to American officials. They suggested that the facility had been brought to American attention by the Israelis, but would not discuss why American spy agencies seemed to have missed the early phases of construction.North Korea has long provided assistance to Syria on a ballistic missile program, but any assistance toward the construction of the reactor would have been the first clear evidence of ties between the two countries on a nuclear program. North Korea has successfully used its five-megawatt reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear complex to reprocess nuclear fuel into bomb-grade material, a model that some American and Israeli officials believe Syria may have been trying to replicate. The North conducted a partly successful test of a nuclear device a year ago, prompting renewed fears that the desperately poor country might seek to sell its nuclear technology. President Bush issued a specific warning to the North on Oct. 9, 2006, just hours after the test, noting that it was leading proliferator of missile technology, including transfers to Iran and Syria. He went on to warn that the transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to states or non-state entities would be considered a grave threat to the United States, and we would hold North Korea fully accountable.While Bush administration officials have made clear in recent weeks that the target of the Israeli raid was linked to North Korea in some way, Mr. Bush has not repeated his warning since the attack. In fact, the administration has said very little about the country’s suspected role in the Syria case, apparently for fear of upending negotiations now under way in which North Korea has pledged to begin disabling its nuclear facilities.

While the partly constructed Syrian reactor appears to be based on North Korea’s design, the American and foreign officials would not say whether they believed the North Koreans sold or gave the plans to the Syrians, or whether the North’s own experts were there at the time of the attack. It is possible, some officials said, that the transfer of the technology occurred several years ago.According to two senior administration officials, the subject was raised when the United States, North Korea and four other nations met in Beijing earlier this month.Behind closed doors, however, Vice President Dick Cheney and other hawkish members of the administration have made the case that the same intelligence that prompted Israel to attack should lead the United States to reconsider delicate negotiations with North Korea over ending its nuclear program, as well as America’s diplomatic strategy toward Syria, which has been invited to join Middle East peace talks in Annapolis, Md., next month.Mr. Cheney in particular, officials say, has also cited the indications that North Korea aided Syria to question the Bush administration’s agreement to supply the North with large amounts of fuel oil. During Mr. Bush’s first term, Mr. Cheney was among the advocates of a strategy to squeeze the North Korean government in hopes that it would collapse, and the administration cut off oil shipments set up under an agreement between North Korea and the Clinton administration, saying the North had cheated on that accord. The new shipments, agreed to last February, are linked to North Korea’s carrying through on its pledge to disable its nuclear facilities by the end of the year. Nonetheless, Mr. Bush has approved going ahead with that agreement, even after he was aware of the Syrian program.Nuclear experts say that North Korea’s main reactor, while small by international standards, is big enough to produce roughly one bomb’s worth of plutonium a year. In an interview, Dr. Siegfried S. Hecker of Stanford University, a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, said building a reactor based on North Korea’s design might take from three to six years. Reporting was contributed by William J. Broad in New York, Helene Cooper in Washington and Steven Erlanger in Jerusalem.