The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest
Vol: 48 Issue: 3 - Saturday, September 03, 2005
Visions of Apocalypse?
The devastation of the Gulf Coast, as bad as it is, is nothing compared to the damage that would be inflicted by a nuclear weapon. Except a nuclear attack doesn't provide a forty-eight hour evacuation notice and a hurricane doesn't irradiate ground zero until it is uninhabitable for two hundred years.
The effect of a single bomb would depend on its power, and where it exploded -- high in the air or at ground level -- and whether in a densely populated and built-up area like a city or in open country like an attack on a missile silo.
The nuclear bombs available to the great military powers of the world (China, France, Israel, Russia, United Kingdom, United States) range in power from several megatons down to a few kilotons (and some even smaller).
A "megaton" is the explosive power of one million tons of TNT. A "kiloton" is the power of one thousand tons of TNT. Bombs likely to be available to terrorist organizations or governments other than the great military powers would be in the 10- to 100-kiloton range.
Bombs made by amateurs might not explode with the full power they were designed for. But when one is talking about a nuclear explosion, it doesn't really make a lot of difference if a ten kiloton bomb only yields half its potential. Written out as a number, the explosive power of a five kiloton detonation is the equivalent of 10,000,000,000 pounds of TNT!
The United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran has pumped enough enriched uranium gas to make a nuclear weapon in the weeks since it restarted the enrichment process in defiance of the international community.
"The agency is not yet in a position to clarify some important outstanding issues after 2 1/2 years of intensive inspections and investigation," said the confidential document obtained by The Associated Press.
"Given Iran's past concealment efforts over many years, such transparency efforts should ... include access to individuals, documentation related to procurement ... certain military-owned workshops and research and development locations," the report said, in a list of perceived Iranian failings.
The report, prepared by IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei, said Iran had produced about 6,800 kilograms of uranium hexafluoride, the gaseous feedstock that is spun by centrifuge into enriched uranium. Depending on the level of enrichment, that substance can be used either as a source of power or as the core of nuclear weapons.
The report said that in late August, Iran also informed the IAEA that it would move its tons of raw uranium feedstock needed for conversion into hardened bomb-proof bunkers that are believed capable of withstanding existing 'bunker-buster' munitions of both the United States and Israel.
The report also restated findings that Tehran DID conduct activities related to plutonium separation for years longer recently than it originally disclosed.
It also said Tehran continued denying access to IAEA experts at both Lavizan-Shian near Tehran, where the agency believed Iran has stored equipment that could be used both for peaceful and nuclear weapons-related purposes, and Parchin, the site of alleged experiments linked to nuclear weapons.
Assessment:
For all these reasons and more, the government of Israel is extremely concerned at the prospect of a nuclear Iran with missiles that can strike any target in Israel.
Complicating the issue is Moscow's involvement, which has crossed the line from reckless over to criminal in its willingness to help Tehran's mad mullah leadership unlock Pandora's Box.
Russia also recently trained a group of senior Iranian nuclear scientists and has installed a mobile anti-missile system to protect Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor, with similar systems allegedly in the works for other Iranian nuclear facilities, including a facility in central Iran.
Top Iranian officials have repeatedly warned they would use nuclear missiles to threaten the Jewish state. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has many times stated he would "vaporize the Zionist entity" if Iran obtained a nuclear bomb.
In response to the growing Iranian threat, a panel of foreign policy and military experts delivered to Sharon last year a series of recommendations entitled "Project Daniel: Israel's Strategic Future" regarding Israeli pre-emptive action.
Project Daniel recommends that with Tehran now developing the infrastructure that could allow the country to go nuclear, the United States or Israel should strike preemptively against Iran's nuclear installations if the diplomatic track fails.
Project Daniel urges Israel to strike Iran's nuclear facilities using covert operations, conventional weaponry. It also urges targeting Iran's leaders for assassination.
Last May, WorldNetDaily quoted Project Daniel chair Professor Louis Renes Beres who said then that the Project Daniel report was receiving wide circulation in high-level military circles in Israel and the United States.
"Decision-makers at the very highest levels of government in Jerusalem and Washington as well as NATO have been briefed on Project Daniel. Sharon last month carried our urgent message directly to President Bush," says Professor Beres.
"The group suggests strongly and unequivocally that conventional Israeli preemption against selected enemy nuclear infrastructures now in development be executed as early as possible and – wherever possible – in collaboration with the United States. Where America may be unable or unwilling to act proactively against these infrastructures, it is essential that Israel be able and willing to act alone. . . Vastly more vulnerable to catastrophic first-strike aggressions than the United States, Israel must deal now with existential harms in every available fashion."
The Project Daniel report is brutally chilling: "To meet its ultimate deterrence objectives – that is, to deter the most overwhelmingly destructive enemy first-strikes, Israel must seek and achieve a visible second-strike capability to target approximately 15 enemy cities. Ranges would be to cities in Libya and Iran, and recognizable nuclear bomb yields would be at a level sufficient to fully compromise the aggressor's viability as a functioning state," says the report.
And with its nuclear arsenal still in the production pipeline, Tehran has turned to chemical and biological weapons to establish an immediate deterrent ability. Iran continues to develop and upgrade its existing Chemical Warfare infrastructure, according to an intelligence report from military. com.
Tehran currently manufactures weapons for blister, blood and choking agents, and it is conducting research on nerve agents. Iran's stockpile of chemical weapons is believed to include nerve and blister agents. Iran stockpiles several thousand tons of sulfur, mustard, phosgene, and cyanide agents.
Iran's production capacity is 1,000 tons a year from its production facilities at Damghan, some 180 miles east of Tehran. A thousand tons a year, broken down, works out to about THREE TONS PER DAY.
Its biological weapons program is in what might be called an advanced research and development phase. Since Iran has excellent pharmaceutical capability and highly qualified, trained scientists and the necessary infrastructure in place, it is believed to already have produced pilot quantities of usable biological agents.
And, even though Iran doesn't really need outside assistance, Russia has been supplying both information and personnel, the report says.
Notes military.com, "So what we have is a frightened Iran, surrounded by perceived potentially belligerent neighbors, with sufficient chemical and biological agents to cause a lot of mayhem and death, and with an incipient nuclear capability that could be brought on line at almost any moment. This situation is real and immediate. It won't go away, and with time can only grow worse."
Here's how it all ties together. According to the prophet Ezekiel, Iran is the leading actor against Israel during the Gog-Magog War.
Ezekiel begins by outlining Russia's reluctant role in the invasion, noting that because God intends to judge Russia on the mountains of Israel for her crimes, Russia, however reluctantly, will find itself drawn into leading the invasion as if it had a 'hook in its jaws'.
"And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, 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: (Ezekiel 38:3-4)
It rather goes without saying that Russia's involvement in Iran's huge weapons of mass destruction arsenal means an Israeli preemptive strike on Iran will inflict many Russian casualties as well.
Not to mention destroying one of Moscow's most productive cash cows. It is unlikely that Moscow would take kindly to it, and, given the right set of circumstances, could well be drawn into a joint retaliation plan against Israel.
Ezekiel notes that the principle invaders, after Russia, are, "Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them" (38:5)
Think about this for a moment. Twenty-five hundred years after the fact, Israel is contemplating a military strike against Iran (Persia until the 1920's) which just so happens to be crawling with Russian technicians, military personnel, scientists, etc., all busily working away on what are, from Moscow's perspective, Russian military facilities on foreign soil.
Think about what a spectacular fulfillment of prophecy this really is.
For example, twenty-five hundred years from now, what will America be called? Will it exist? Where? Will it be at peace?
No? Name three of America's enemies, twenty-five hundred years from now, and outline the global alliances as they will exist then.
Ezekiel not only did EXACTLY that -- and more -- but he got it EXACTLY right. Note that the authors of the Daniel Project Report recommended targeting cities in both Iran AND Libya in any nuclear retaliatory response.
In Ezekiel's day, Libya and Ethiopia encompassed most of modern North Africa, all the way to the coast of Somalia. Targeting Libya for a nuclear strike would enrage, not just Libya, but the entire North African region.
There is some question among Bible scholars regarding the timing of the Gog Magog War. Some place it somewhere around the mid-point in the Tribulation. Others put it close to the end of the Tribulation. Still others see it occurring BEFORE the Tribulation Period begins.
Personally, I favor the latter view. The Tribulation Period, according to Daniel and the prophets, is of seven years' duration. Ezekiel says it will take Israel seven full years just to clean up and rebuild after the destruction and carnage left behind by the destruction of the Gog-Magog invasion force on the mountains of Israel. (Ezekiel 39:9)
That seems to indicate (to me) that the Gog-Magog invasion takes place before the start of the Tribulation Period. Having placed it on this side of the Tribulation Period, there is no Scriptural argument that places it after the Rapture either, meaningthat, the Gog-Magog War could take place BEFORE the Rapture. That's from the spiritual perspective.
From the natural perspective, by which I mean the daily newspapers, an Israeli preemptive strike against Iran is inevitable, unless Iran abandons its nuclear program -- something it has vowed NOT to do.
"And when these things BEGIN TO COME TO PASS, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." (Luke 21:28)
Tick . . Tick. . .Tick
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