ISIS Was Created By US

Daesh Owes Its Existence to US 'Philosophy of Dominance' Which Led to Iraq War

Sputnik
© 1st Lt. Daniel Johnson / dvidshub.net
War Crime? American Forces Caught Using White Phosphorus Munitions in Iraq
In an interview with Sputnik, filmmaker Jacques Charmelot said that the 2003 takeover of Iraq by the United States ultimately resulted in the emergence of the terrorist group currently known as Daesh, the self-proclaimed caliphate alternately known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.
Charmelot, who worked as a journalist in the Middle East, the Balkans and Africa, is also known for directing the documentary 'Irak, une veritable imposture' (Iraq, real imposture).

According to him, Washington's intervention in Iraq was based on a false pretext and driven by its perpetrators' personal financial ambitions.

"The intervention was certainly a mistake for the Americans, who suffered losses in Iraq, but it was not a mistake for those who capitalized on the three or five trillion dollars that was spent [on the Iraq War]," he said.

In this vein, he pointed the finger at the neo-conservatives, whom he described as "a group of ideologists who have been the pivot element of American power since the end of the Cold War."

"They believe that the disappearance of (America's) main rival meant that the US became the first and only world power and that [its might] should be used for effectively protecting American interests across the world," Charmelot said.

In his opinion, "the philosophy of dominance" related to the US's fight against terrorism and the proliferation of weapons which resulted in the protracted war.

"The US decided to fight countries that were involved with nuclear technology, in what would finally lead to a confrontation with Iraq or with Iran, which are seen as enemies. This fight against nuclear proliferation along with the US fight against terrorism which started in 2011 helped the neoconservatives to draw the country into a permanent war," according to him.

"As far as the US's interference in Iraq is concerned, it contributed considerably to the emergence of the extremist militants, called the Islamic State today and al-Qaeda yesterday. These extremists will long be the main actors in the Middle East's geopolitical game," he concluded.

Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has said that Washington is deploying an additional 615 soldiers to allegedly support Iraq's military in retaking the Daesh-held northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

Six Years Later: Is Iraq Free From US Campaign of Endless War?
According to Carter, the soldiers in the new deployment will serve in roles the US Defense Department describes as advice, assist, logistics and intelligence.
In July, Carter sent 560 US soldiers, mostly engineers and support personnel, to rebuild Iraq's al-Asad Airbase and the Qayyarah Airbase, which were heavily damaged by US-led coalition artillery and aircraft fire during operations to dislodge Daesh terrorists.

The United States currently has about 5,200 military personnel in Iraq.

Mosul, one of the largest cities in Iraq, along with a number of other northern and western Iraqi towns and cities, were seized in 2014 during a Daesh offensive which saw the execution of hundreds of captured Iraqi soldiers. Daesh has been condemned by Russia, the United States and other nations.

ISIS To Increase Attacks In Europe

EU police agency warns ISIS may increase attacks in Europe

By Mike Corder The Associated Press

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The number of people killed in attacks by extremists throughout Europe soared in 2015 from a year earlier, the European Union police agency reported Wednesday as it warned the Islamic State group may “put more emphasis on operations abroad” as a Western military alliance puts it under pressure in Syria and Iraq.

The Europol report painted a worrying picture of an EU assailed by Islamic extremist threats that are unlikely to recede any time soon. It warned that Syrian asylum-seekers could be targeted and swiftly radicalized by IS recruiters while a new generation of fighters is being raised in IS territory in Syria and Iraq.

The report also stated that IS appears to favour attacks against soft targets because they “instil more fear in the general public.”

That threat was horrifically underscored by the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice, France, that left 84 people dead.

In a move that underscored the swiftly evolving nature of the extremist threat, Europol also issued a separate statement on recent attacks in Nice, Germany and the United States, saying they “highlight the operational difficulties in detecting and disrupting lone actor attacks.”
The report was published on the day that senior government officials from the international coalition against IS were due to meet in Washington, D.C., to discuss their campaign.

Compiling data from EU member states, Europol said that in 2015, 151 people died – up from four the previous year – and more than 360 were injured as a result of terrorist attacks in the bloc. All but one of the fatalities was the result of Jihadi attacks, Europol said.

Six EU Member States faced a total of 211 failed, foiled or completed terrorist attacks from Jihad groups and other extremists. Law enforcement officials arrested 1,077 people for terrorism-related offences.

The report also documented other extremist groups active in the EU including separatists in Spain and Northern Ireland and extreme right-wing groups.

It warned of a potential new wave of fanatics as a result of children of “foreign terrorist fighters living with their parents in IS-held territory.

“IS has often shown that they train these minors to become the next generation of foreign terrorist fighters, which may pose a future security threat,” the report said.

While Europol said there was no concrete evidence of foreign fighters systematically sneaking into Europe among the huge flow of refugees in 2015 there is a “real and imminent danger” that members of the Sunni Muslim refugee community will “become vulnerable to radicalization once in Europe, and … be specifically targeted by Islamist extremist recruiters.”

The Hague-based police agency also reported that extremists are increasingly adept at using the internet and social media to spread propaganda, raise funds, potentially carry out cyberattacks and finance their operations by soliciting donations in closed forums and websites and even exploiting crowdfunding sites.

This Was The First Seal Of War (Revelation 6)

British Inquiry Finds Iraq War Lacked Legal Justification

JAISAL NOOR, TRNN: A British inquiry into the Iraq war strongly criticized former Prime Minister Tony Blair and his government on Wednesday for joining the U.S.-led invasion without a satisfactory legal basis or proper planning.

The long-awaited inquiry report stopped short of saying military action was illegal, a stance that is certain to disappoint Blair’s many critics.

JOHN CHILCOT: The party has not expressed a view on whether military action was legal. That could, of course, only be resolved by a properly constituted and internationally recognized court. We have, however, concluded that the circumstances in which it was decided that there was a legal basis for UK military action were far from satisfactory.

NOOR: The report said there was no imminent threat from Saddam in March 2003, and the chaos in Iraq and the region which followed should also have been foreseen.

CHILCOT: Mr Blair presented Iraq’s past current and future capabilities as evidence of the severity of the potential threat from Iraq’s WMD. He said that at some point in the future that threat would become a reality. The judgments about Iraq’s capabilities in that statement and in the dossier published the same day were presented with a certainty that was not justified.

NOOR: The invasion and subsequent instability in Iraq had, by 2009, according to the most conservative estimates resulted in the deaths of at least 150,000 Iraqis, mostly civilians, and displaced more than a million.

CHILCOT: Blair told the inquiry that the difficulties encountered in Iraq after the invasion could not have been known in advance. We do not agree that hindsight is required.

NOOR: Outside, Stop the War Coalition campaigners read out the names of Iraqis and British soldiers who had died in the war.

In Iraq, many laid the blame for the rise of ISIS and Iraq’s instability on the British and U.S. invasion. The Islamic State controls a large area of the country. Just this past weekend, Iraq experienced one of its bloodiest attacks as hundreds of people were either killed or injured in a massive car bomb attack in Karrada, a busy commercial district of Baghdad.

SALEH MUTLAQ: [Translated] The decision to invade Iraq was a complete failure, and the evidence to its failure is the result that we’ve reached today. Today the world is threatened by terrorism because Iraq became weak. The weakness of Iraq has led to the weakness of other Arab countries, and the countries in the region were invaded by terrorism after it invaded Iraq.

NOOR: Back in Britain, British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who spoke out against the invasion of Iraq, described it as an act of military aggression launched on a false pretext and a “catastrophe.”

JEREMY CORBYN: Frankly, it was an act of military aggression launched on a false pretext, as the inquiry accepts, and has long been regarded as illegal by the overwhelming weight of international legal opinion. By any measure, the invasion and occupation of Iraq has been, for many, a catastrophe.
Mr. Speaker, the decision to invade Iraq in 2003, on the basis of what the Chilcot report calls, and I quote, “flawed intelligence” about the weapons of mass destruction has had a far-reaching impact on us all. It’s led to a fundamental breakdown in trust in politics and in our institutions of government. The tragedy is that while the governing class got it so horrifically wrong, many people, many of our people, actually got it right.

There are huge lessons for every single one of us here today. We make decisions that have consequences that don’t just go on for the immediate years, they go on for decades and decades afterwards.

NOOR: Many, including Peter Kuznick, a professor of history and the director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University argue that people must be held accountable for violating international law.

PETER KUZNICK: It’s perhaps the most serious war crime. Perhaps the second-most serious war crime. The most serious war crime would be the use of nuclear weapons and threatening the annihilation of everybody on the planet. But beneath that, the most serious war crime is, is going to war unprovoked, against a country that is not threatening you, without any kind of international authorization. So yes, this is a war crime, and people can be held accountable as war criminals, and should be.

NOOR: For all our coverage of the Iraq war and its aftermath, go to TheRealNews.com. This is Jaisal Noor.

End

DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.

Another ISIS Attack Before The Dirty Bomb (Daniel 8)

People carry an injured man near the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant during an attack by unidentified gunmen in Dhaka’s high-security diplomatic district on July 2, 2016. © STR / AFP

Dhaka hostage standoff: At least 2 dead; ISIS claims responsibility

By Farid Ahmed, Catherine E. Shoichet and Steve Almasy, CNN

Updated 8:49 PM ET, Fri July 1, 2016

Hostage situation, attackers hit safest area in Bangladesh

Dhaka, Bangladesh (CNN)

Armed terrorists have been holding as many as 20 hostages at a cafe in a diplomatic zone of Bangladesh’s capital for more than eight hours. The standoff followed a gunbattle with police that left at least two senior officers dead and 40 people injured.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the terror attack, according to Amaq, an ISIS media branch, but some officials cast doubt on the claim.

As police exchanged fire with the gunmen, the attackers threw explosives at officers, a source at the scene said.

Here’s the latest:

• At about 8:30 p.m. local time Friday, gunmen attacked the Holey Artisan Bakery, a cafe popular with expats. After they entered the restaurant, they took the people inside hostage, cafe owner Sumon Reza told CNN. Reza said he managed to escape as six to eight gunmen entered. About 20 people, some of them foreigners, were in the restaurant.

• A police officer in charge of a nearby station was shot dead, Maruf Hasan of Dhaka Metropolitan Police said. A second officer died from gunshot wounds, Detective Police Deputy Commissioner Sheikh Nazmul Alam told CNN.

• Alam said 40 people were wounded, some by gunshots and others by shrapnel from explosive devices.

• Ataur Rahman, who was in his office about 200 meters from the restaurant, told CNN he went to the street as he heard a series of gunshots. “I thought it might be an attack somewhere nearby by local thugs.” He said people were racing for cover, saying gunmen were shouting “Allahu Akbar.”

• “We are trying to resolve this issue peacefully,” police official Gen. Benzir Ahmed told reporters.

• The Islamic State (ISIS) has claimed a number of past attacks in Bangladesh through its media affiliates, but the government has consistently denied any ISIS presence in the country. Other attacks have been claimed by local Islamist groups.

• Though there was the reported ISIS claim of responsibility, the U.S. State Department said that cannot yet be confirmed. Spokesman John Kirby said the State Department is assessing information.

• A U.S. official familiar with intelligence thinking told CNN’s Barbara Starr that based on past operations, it is more likely that al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent is conducting this attack — not ISIS. This is preliminary analysis — not a conclusion — based on the best information available. The official says AQIS has demonstrated a more capable presence in Dhaka over the past few months than ISIS, and so far, all of its attacks in Bangladesh have been in Dhaka.

• Witness Sharma Hussain told CNN that her cousin has four friends who are in the restaurant. Hussain said the hostages’ relatives have come to the scene but have received no word from their family members. Hussain said she heard the gunshots from her relatives’ home, about a five-minute walk from the restaurant.

She said the upscale neighborhood is very secure and residents are surprised an attack happened there. Many of the buildings sit behind walls, have gates in the driveway and security guard booths.

• Police are trying to find out the demands of the gunmen holding customers, an officer said. The gunmen had not made any demands.

• Lori Ann Walsh Imdad, an American teacher living in Dhaka, said she lives one block from the restaurant and she heard gunshots. At first there was a burst of gunfire; after that it was sporadic. There has not been any gunfire since, she said.

• Farzana Azim says she heard explosions outside her home. “We heard the first bomb blast at 8:30 in the evening,” Azim said. At first she thought it was the sound of a plane, but a few minutes later another blast echoed through the neighborhood of Gulshan. Within a half hour, the gunshots started, she said.

“I never thought something like this could happen. It is next to a small hospital. This is family-friendly restaurant. Everyone loves to go there,” the 49-year-old told CNN.

She said her husband and son had gone outside for the call to prayer and the attack happened shortly after that.

• Hussain said the restaurant is popular among young people, who would have packed the restaurant about the time of attack as they broke their fast for the day.

• Friday’s terror attack comes as the holy month of Ramadan, in which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, nears its end. Bangladesh is 89% Muslim, according to the CIA Factbook.

• The U.S. Embassy in Dhaka warned of the situation on Twitter, advising people to shelter in place and noting that a hostage situation had been reported. Later, the embassy advised it had accounted for all of the American citizens working under the chief of the mission authority.

• The embassy and many other diplomatic missions are less than 1.5 kilometers (.9 miles) from the cafe.

ISIS or al Qaeda?

CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen said he is unaware of an ISIS claim of responsibility that has been proven wrong.

Bergen said he had talked to a counterterrorism official who thought ISIS was to blame for the attack, and that was before the media arm made its announcement. The official said al Qaeda typically doesn’t conduct operations with teams this large.

Philip Mudd, a former CIA counterterrorism official and a CNN analyst, agreed with Bergen that ISIS doesn’t issue false claims. He said he thinks they were quick to take credit for the attack before al Qaeda could.

“As they compete, they want to get out there in a place like Bangladesh right away before al Qaeda says anything and they say this is us,” Mudd said.

ISIS and al Qaeda want to expand their presence around the world, Bergen said. That includes taking homegrown terror groups and making them affiliates.

Country has endured wave of killings

The attack came on the same day a Hindu priest was hacked to death at his temple in Bangladesh’s southwestern district of Jhenaidah, police said.

That incident was the latest in a wave of killings across Bangladesh of secular bloggers, academics and religious minorities such as Hindus, Christians, Buddhists and Sufi Muslims — despite a nationwide government crackdown and the arrest of more than 14,000 people.

The government launched an anti-militant drive across the Muslim-majority nation last month to stamp out the murders, but many of those detained are believed to be ordinary criminals and not Islamic extremists.

Home to almost 150 million Muslims, the country until recently had avoided the kind of radicalism plaguing others parts of the world. But that’s changing as the attacks seem designed to silence those to dare to criticize Islam.

One high-profile killing was the murder of Bangladeshi-American writer Avijit Roy in 2014 that occurred right outside Dhaka’s annual book fair. In April, a well-known LGBT activist and his friend were murdered.

The trend has sparked debate about the involvement of ISIS.

ISIS Strikes Again (Daniel 8:4)

20 Hostages Killed in Bangladesh Restaurant Attack, ISIS Claims Responsibility

• By David Caplan
• EMILY SHAPIRO

Jul 2, 2016, 4:05 AM ET

AP

Twenty hostages were killed by militants who stormed an upscale restaurant in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka during a 10-hour siege, the Bangladeshi government announced Saturday morning.
U.S. citizens in the city were warned by the State Department to “remain vigilant” following the terror attack.

The breakdown of the victims’ nationalities was unknown. But the restaurant, Holey Artisan Bakery, is located in Dhaka’s diplomatic quarter and is popular with foreigners. Japan said seven of its citizens were unaccounted for.

At least six attackers were killed by Bangladeshi paramilitary troops who mounted rescue operations. One of the attackers was arrested.

The commandos also rescued 13 hostages.

Bangladesh Brig. Gen. Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said troops recovered explosive devices and sharp weapons from the scene.

About 35 people were taken hostage, including about 20 foreigners, when militants stormed Holey Artisan Bakery Friday night.

“We have gunned down at least six terrorists and the main building is cleared but the operation is still going on,” the commanding officer of Bangladeshi commandos, Lt. Col. Tuhin Mohammad Masud, told The AP three hours after the commandos launched the rescue operation.
Masud said the rescued include a Japanese, who was injured, and two Sri Lankans. Earlier, police said two hostages of Argentine and Bangladeshi descent have been rescued.
Masud said there are casualties, but did not provide details of the injuries.

Mahmud Hossain Opu/Getty Images

Bangladeshi security officers stand guard near a restaurant that has been attacked by unidentified gunmen in the early hours of July 2, 2016, in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina described the siege as a terrorist attack. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack.

“Anyone who believes in religion cannot do such an act,” Hasina said. “They do not have any religion, their only religion is terrorism.” The attack occurred during the Ramadan holy month.
Restaurant staffer Sumon Reza, who escaped, told The AP the attackers chanted “Allahu Akbar” (God is Great) as they entered the restaurant, initially opening fire with blanks.
Rezaul Karim, the father of a Bangladeshi businessman who was rescued along with his family, told the AP the attackers did not harm any hostage who could recite verses from the Islamic holy book, Quran.
Karim said his son told him that the attackers “did not hit people who could recite verses from the Quran. The others were tortured,” he said.
Gunfire could be heard as Bangladesh forces moved in Saturday morning to end the standoff in the country’s capital.
A man who witnessed the attack told ABC News he could hear the gunshots from his balcony.
Fayad Munain, who lives two streets away from the cafe where the attack occurred, said a cafe waiter told reporters that there were about six to eight gunmen who were all in their late 20s, Munain said. The waiter described the men as unshaven and said they fired three shots into the air before a “huge explosion.”
Munain said he heard the explosion live and then about 5 seconds later on live television. He is an American with dual citizenship and is in Bangladesh visiting family, he said.
A Twitter post circulated by Amaq, an ISIS media outlet, said that ISIS “commandos” attacked “a restaurant frequented by foreigners in the city of Dhaka.”
U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby could not confirm that ISIS was responsible for the attack.
The Associated Press, citing local media and a witness who escaped, said as many as nine gunmen stormed a restaurant. The gunmen took hostages and exchanged gunfire with security officials.

AP Photo

Security personnel is taken for medical attention after a group of gunmen attacked a restaurant popular with foreigners in a diplomatic zone of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, Bangladesh, July 1, 2016. more +

Kirby said in a statement, “Our embassy in Dhaka has confirmed 100 percent accountability of all official American personnel with no injuries reported. We are working with the local authorities to determine if any U.S. citizens and locally–employed staff were affected.”

 

“We join with the people of Bangladesh in expressing our outrage at this brutal act of terrorism and offer our condolences to the friends and families of the victims, including Bangladeshi law enforcement officials who have been killed or injured responding to the attack,” Kirby said. “We are in ongoing contact with the Government of Bangladesh as the situation continues to unfold. We have offered our assistance in their efforts to bring to justice those responsible for these attacks and to combat terrorism and violent extremism.”

A White House official said President Barack Obama was briefed on the attack by his chief counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco. The president asked to be kept informed as the situation develops, said the official.

Too Little Too Late (Ezekiel 17)

Obama: World must prevent ISIS ‘dirty bombs’

Obama hosted more than 50 world leaders for his fourth and final summit focused on efforts to lock down atomic materials to guard against nuclear terrorism. (Video screenshot: White House)

 

Reuters, Washington Sunday, 3 April 2016

 

US President Barack Obama urged world leaders on Friday to do more to safeguard vulnerable nuclear facilities to prevent “madmen” from groups like ISIS from getting their hands on an atomic weapon or a radioactive “dirty bomb.”

Speaking at a nuclear security summit in Washington, Obama said the world faced a persistent and evolving threat of nuclear terrorism despite progress in reducing such risks. “We cannot be complacent,” he said.

Obama said no group had succeeded in obtaining bomb materials but that al-Qaeda had long sought them, and he cited actions by ISIS militants behind recent attacks in Paris and Brussels that raised similar concerns.

“There is no doubt that if these madmen ever got their hands on a nuclear bomb or nuclear material, they would certainly use it to kill as many innocent people as possible,” he said. “It would change our world.”

Obama hosted more than 50 world leaders for his fourth and final summit focused on efforts to lock down atomic materials to guard against nuclear terrorism, which he called “one of the greatest threats to global security” in the 21st century.

Obama has less than 10 months left in office to follow through on one of his signature foreign policy initiatives. While gains have been made, arms-control advocates say the diplomatic process – which Obama conceived and championed – has lost momentum and could slow further once he leaves the White House in January.

‘Dirty bomb’ threat

Deadly bomb attacks in Brussels last month have fueled concern that ISIS could eventually target nuclear plants, steal material and develop radioactive dirty bombs. Militants were found to have videotaped the daily routine of a senior manager of a Belgian nuclear plant, Obama said.

Obama said the required 102 countries have now ratified an amendment to a nuclear security treaty that would tighten protections against nuclear theft and smuggling. “We have measurably reduced the risks,” he said.

But he acknowledged that with roughly 2,000 tons of nuclear material stored around the world, “not all of this is properly secured.”

Cameron Prophesies of the Dirty Bomb in London (Daniel 8:3)

Cameron warns ISIS could use drones to spray nuclear material over Western cities

Published April 02, 2016

FoxNews.com

March 23, 2016: Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron leaves 10 Downing Street for Prime Minister Questions at the Houses of Parliament in London. (AP)

Britain Prime Minister David Cameron warned Western leaders Friday the Islamic State plans to use drones to spray nuclear material over Western cities.

The UK Daily Telegraph reported that there is growing concerns among world leaders that extremists are looking to buy commercial drones to launch a dirty bomb attack over major metropolitan cities, which could kill thousands.

Cameron warned the dangers of ISIS getting hold of nuclear material were “only too real.” He met with leaders from the U.S. , France and China to plan out a reaction response to such an attack, the newspaper reported.

US officials reportedly fear that extremists could steal radioactive material from a medical facility and sold through the “dark web.” Cameron said he would deploy counterterrorism police and the UK Border Force while British leaders hold a Cobra meeting.

“We have already seen (ISIS) trying to look at whether they can get their hands on low-level crop-using-type drones,” one British official told The Telegraph.

The Islamic State is believed to have seized about 90 pounds of low-grade uranium from Mosul University in Iraq after capturing the city in 2014. However, it might cause more panic than actual harm. Cameron told reporters at the nuclear summit in Washington that concerns of a nuclear attack were real.

“So many summits are about dealing with things that have already gone wrong. This is a summit about something we are trying to prevent,” Cameron added.

Cameron said at the summit that Britain plans to hire 1,000 more armed police and deploy counterterrorism units in cities outside London to help counter any possible attack.

The Islamic Bomb (Revelation 15)

Wahhabis of Mass Destruction: The Doomsday Scenario of an Islamic Nuclear Arms Race

Posted by

Sarie M. Khalid

5 hours ago

Iran does not need nuclear warheads to project its power in the Arab world. The existence and instability fomented by Hezbollah in Lebanon, the deployment of Qods forces in Syria, the Shiite militias attached to Iraq’s army, the Houthis in Yemen and the Bahraini Hezbollah prove that. Iran has intervened with its Revolutionary Guards Corps in the Lebanese, Yemeni, Iraqi and Syrian civil wars, an interventionism with roots deeper than the Islamic Revolution of 1979: the last Shah of Iran sent combat troops to neighboring Oman to help the Sultan’s army defeat Marxist-Leninist Dhofari secessionists in the 1970s.

Yet a nuclear Iran is the “Armageddon scenario” for a Saudi Arabia that sees revolutionary Iran as a threat to its “regime legitimacy” as the natural leader of the Islamic world. Yet any multipolar nuclear balance of terror in the Middle East would be unstable. There are no hotlines between Qom, Jerusalem and Riyadh, as existed between the superpowers of the Cold War. Nuclear deterrence in the Middle East can easily break down due to political miscalculation. Can the world really expect cold rationality while far-right ideologies, such as those espoused by Iran’s zealous clerical rulers or Binyamin Netanyahu’s xenophobic Likud in Israel, hold sway? Anyone who claims that predicting such actors’ responses under conditions of existential national crisis would be easy is sadly misguided. A multipolar region populated by nuclear powers would present us with a dangerously unstable nuclear balance of terror, one imposed by Israel and Iran against the backdrop of a crumbling post-Ottoman Arab state system. Even the ‘rational’ US and USSR came to the brink of nuclear war over Cuba in October 1962, and again during the Ramadan War of 1973.
If the accord reached last year breaks down and Iran does obtain an atomic weapon, what we will witness is the development of a tripolar arch of nuclear instability in the Middle East, with Israel, Iran and Saudi Arabia playing the role of nuclear powers (the latter obtaining a weapon via its client state Pakistan, as some believe it has already tried to do). Egypt and Turkey would not stand idly by and would probably be tempted to defy Washington and develop nuclear capabilities.

Communications protocols, verification regimes, high-tech satellite surveillance and strict bureaucratic hierarchies – Khrushchev-style – moderated the brinksmanship of the Cold War. These do not exist in the secretive oligarchies overseen by the Supreme Leader and the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. If the future of peace in the Middle East is dependent on “rationality” and “restraint” in Jerusalem, Tehran and Riyadh, then world peace will have come to rest on an alarmingly fragile and wobbly foundation.

Both Israel and Iran formally deny having nuclear weapons, though the former’s possession of nukes was all but confirmed by the Pentagon last year. These powers have very flawed and limited intelligence on each other’s intentions, command-and-control systems, decision-making protocols, capabilities or operational nuclear doctrines. Saudi Arabia/Pakistan can only add another dimension of dangerous “nuclear ambiguity”. As long as Israel was the sole nuclear power in the region, deterrence was stable. A nuclear trio in the Middle East means a region with a highly unstable system of nuclear deterrence. Nuclear proliferation in the Middle East must be prevented at all costs, posing as it does a genuine threat to world peace. A world where megalomaniac dictators like Muammar Gaddafi could aspire to nuclear weapons or the Pakistani military built a clandestine “Islamic bomb” is not a world where proliferation risk can ever be minimized.

“Buying the bomb” was a strategy used by both Libya and Saudi Arabia with Pakistan the prospective supplier, while Syria’s Assad regime turned to North Korea for assistance. However, a Saudi-Pakistani nuclear transaction would have to be carried out with extraordinary secrecy in order to evade the constant threat of Western retaliation, be it in the form of economic sanctions or interceptions and sabotage by Mossad or the CIA. Discovery of such a deal between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan could result in economic sanctions which would destroy Saudi Arabia’s oil export reliant economy, which is already suffering from low energy prices. One would think that a House of Saud obsessed with the calculus of regime survival would view this as an unacceptable risk, but if there is one thing we know about the Middle East it is that we know very little at all.

Obama States The Obvious (Ezekiel 17)

 
Nuclear Terrorist Attack Would ‘change our world’, Says Obama

DONALDHAMM

He said world leaders and other participants at the conference had expressed concerns about Trump’s comments during private conversations with him at the summit meeting, which gathered more than 50 world leaders to discuss ways to reduce the threat of a nuclear attack, whether from the leakage of nuclear fuel or the theft of a bomb by a terrorist group.

“There’s still a great deal of nuclear and radioactive material around the world that needs to be secured”, he said pointing to growing plutonium stockpiles and “expanding” nuclear arsenals that include small tactical nuclear weapons “in some countries”.

“The person who made the statements doesn’t know much about foreign policy, or nuclear policy, or the Korean Peninsula, or the world, generally”, Obama said.

But while no terrorists has yet gained possession of a “dirty bomb” made of radioactive materials, Obama said, such terrorists pose a persistent and evolving threat.

The cycle of nuclear security summits was launched in April 2010 by President Obama. And the USA and Japan announced they had finished removing hundreds of pounds of weapons-grade material from a Japanese research reactor, and they pledged to do the same at another.

But critics say the deal merely delays Iran’s nuclear progress – and doesn’t end it for good.
“We will have to see how willing China is to fully implement the sanctions but thus far, there’s evidence – conflicting and incomplete but nevertheless credible – that Beijing today is doing more than it has ever done to enforce United Nations sanctions”, the expert, now a managing director for business consultancy Bower Group Asia, said.

He also affirmed Vietnam’s commitment to continue contributing to facilitating the application of peacful nuclear technology, including ensuring security for nuclear power development.

The rare summit among leaders of South Korea, the United States and Japan has left a critical question unanswered: Whether North Korea will change its course in the face of mounting pressure.
In a speech delivered at the opening meeting of the fourth Nuclear Security Summit, Xi said China has been committed to stepping up its own nuclear security while advancing global cooperation.
Some of the world leaders who attended a White House summit dinner Thursday were from countries that have been directly impacted by terrorist attacks.

It was a major achievement for the Obama administration that hails it as a milestone in the effort to curb nuclear proliferation.

It said Kerry, during his conversation with Doval, indicated that India and the U.S. have begun conversations about Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme and Kerry also praised India’s “responsible stewardship” of its nuclear weapons.

He has also said he is open to using nuclear weapons to settle a conflict in Europe.

That’s why we’ve been leading a global effort to secure the world’s nuclear materials.

In Pakistan alone, Central Intelligence Agency drones strikes have killed almost 2,400 people since 2004, according to a report by the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Morocco, which is among the few Arab and African countries taking part in this worldwide event, plays an important role in the process of nuclear security summits.

The Nuclear Terrorist Threat (Daniel 8:4)

NUCLEAR THREAT A GROWING MENACE SAY WORLD LEADERS

Nuclear Terrorism

The following article is entirely the opinion of Plutarc Sicat and does not reflect the views of the Inquisitr.

APRIL 3, 2016


Plutarc Sicat

As world leaders converge in Washington to discuss the growing nuclear threat, North Korea fires a missile on April 1. The April Fool’s missile launch begs the question, how effective is the world’s nuclear deterrence? If a country like North Korea were to answer the question, the answer would be: Nuclear deterrence is about launching a nuclear warhead in the air order to let all know that the state is capable of preempting an attack.

Or at least, this is what the North Korean ambassador to the United Nations, So Se Pyong, said when asked why the April Fool’s missile was launched, as quoted by CBS News.

“If the United States continues (drills with the South), then we have to make the countermeasures also, as I told you. So, we have to develop and we have to make more deterrence, nuclear deterrence.”

It is probable that the Nuclear Security Summit might not be held again once US President Barack Obama leaves office. Still, the summit is a lasting legacy that the Obama administration leaves to its successor. Asia One reports:

“World leaders at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington have reaffirmed their commitment to countering nuclear terrorism and proliferation, with the budding nuclear ambitions of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant group topping the list of concerns.”

Asia One said that, during the summit, 50 nations highlighted the nuclear threat “as one of the greatest challenges to international security and pledged to co-operate to combat it.” At the same time, the represented nations underscored the most critical aspect of the nuclear threat as follows:
“More work remains to be done to prevent non-state actors from obtaining nuclear and other radioactive materials, which could be used for malicious purposes.”

In response to this aspect of the nuclear threat, President Obama had this to say to the 49 world leaders present: “There is no doubt that if these madmen ever got their hands on a nuclear bomb or nuclear material, they most certainly would use it to kill as many innocent people as possible.”
Obama was referring to ISIS and the nuclear threat the terrorist group poses. The American president, along with the rest of the participants to the Nuclear Security Summit, is apparently not as concerned or perturbed by the nuclear threat posed by North Korea. The US President also took the opportunity to underscore the important role that two countries play in helping manage the world’s combined total of nuclear stockpile in a prudent manner.

As The Express Tribune reports: “Obama on Friday urged Pakistan and India to scale down the nuclear threat in the subcontinent.”

The nuclear warheads of Pakistan could become the world’s third biggest stockpile, the report added. Such position puts the United States and Russia at the first and second ranks, respectively. As the summit ends with the solemn pledge by nations to remain ever vigilant to countering nuclear proliferation, questions remain regarding how the North Korean nuclear threat will be dealt with.
As it is, more displays of nuclear audacity can only be expected from the country, as it vows to respond to any form of provocation in a manner that resembles an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. However, as the North Korean ambassador to the UN says, the country’s missile launches are but a natural response to the US-backed military exercises in the region. So as the bigger picture looks, when it comes to the question of who the real bully of nuclear threat actually is, the whole issue remains obscured.

Despite the efforts of the world to address important security concerns in a concerted fashion, it is apparent that the North Korean issue will stay on as a question of which came first, the chicken or the egg. Nevertheless, the recent achievements of the summit of world leaders to address the nuclear threat are commendable.

Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/2957113/nuclear-threat-a-growing-menace-say-world-leaders/#zKQ6ayt8r3gkYDo7.99

The Third Nuclear Horn Could Supply ISIS (Daniel 8:4)

Pakistan’s nuclear weapons stockpile could be STOLEN by ISIS terrorists

PAKISTAN’S nuclear weapons arsenal could fall into the hands of terrorist groups unless the volatile South Asian state bolsters security at strategic military bases, a high-ranking US official has warned.

By Tom Batchelor

 

PUBLISHED: 12:00, Fri, Apr 1, 2016 | UPDATED: 12:34, Fri, Apr 1, 2016

Pakistan is now being urged to beef up security around its nuclear bases

 

The country has been developing a new stockpile of smaller battlefield weapons aimed at repelling threats from neighbouring India, which holds a larger, conventional nuclear arsenal.

But Pakistan is now being urged to beef up security around its nuclear bunkers amid increasingly bold threats from Islamic State to buy or steal atomic weapons or the material with which to make them.

The warning comes as world leaders meet for the Nuclear Security Summit, which for the first time will include a simulated nuclear terrorist attack.

Worryingly, Pakistan’s prime minister Nawaz Sharif is not among the 50 presidents and prime ministers gathered in Washington today for the two-day meeting.

Rose Gottemoeller, the US under- secretary of state for arms control and international security, said: “We have made our concerns known and we will continue to press them about what we consider to be the destabilising aspects of their battlefield nuclear weapons programme.”

The event, hosted by Barack Obama, comes in the wake of last week’s Brussels massacre.

ISIS fanatics linked to those bombings are thought to have been plotting an attack on one of Belgium’s nuclear power plants after police found lengthy video footage revealing the country’s top nuclear official was being surveilled.

Western nations have been scrambling to improve their security procedures since the rise of rogue organisations such as ISIS, which has expressed an ambition to obtain a dirty bomb.

Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser in the US, added: “We’ve seen over the years that different terrorist organisations have ambitions related to acquiring nuclear weapons.

“That’s why the summit process is so important, because different countries have different levels of security at their facilities or in terms of how they are handling nuclear materials.”

The country has been developing a new stockpile of smaller battlefield weapons

A surface-to-surface missile test in Pakistan

Express.co.uk reported last summer how ISIS was preparing a new push to seize territory in the province of Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.

The area is widely-known to be the centre of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme, with controversial underground testing of atomic explosive devices in the 1990s.

Middle East terror experts warned at the time that the extremist group could be close to obtaining a ‘dirty’ bomb.

Afzal Ashraf, a former senior officer in the RAF, said Pakistan was “the most likely place” for ISIS to obtain a nuclear explosive.

He argued that the organisation, which has declared a ‘caliphate’ in Iraq and Syria after gaining vast swathes of territory, was now enjoying “success in getting support” in a region at the heart of Pakistan’s nuclear programme.

In 1998, Pakistan exploded five underground nuclear devices in mountains in the Balochistan region as part of an arms race with neighbouring India.

A map of the region

The country remains outside both the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

Its growing nuclear arsenal raises the risk that the deadly weapons or the ingredients used to construct them – enriched uranium or plutonium – could fall into the hands of ISIS.

Dr Ashraf, who worked as a counterterrorism strategist for the US army in Iraq, told Express.co.uk: “Balochistan is a province where the Pakistanis do their nuclear tests, and presumably have some of their nuclear facilities, and maybe even some of their nuclear weapons.

“It may be a coincidence but their expansion into that particular part of Pakistan is worrying.”

Pakistan is known to have around 120 warheads, with a missile range of 2,750km (1,700miles), making it capable of striking targets in India, Russia and the Middle East.

In March, the country successfully tested new ballistic missiles capable of carrying a nuclear bomb.

Were a bomb to obtained by ISIS, it could have the potential to reach the eastern edge of Europe, including Turkey.

However, Dr Natasha Underhill, an expert on terrorism in the Middle East at Nottingham Trent University, said the risk of ISIS obtaining nuclear weapons remained “low” for the time being.

Nuclear weapons require careful storage and Dr Underhill said the group would not be able to adequately house a bomb, nor know how to use it.

She said: “Terrorism is about fear and the promotion of fear and for now the use of suicide bombers, beheadings and graphic public displays of brutality suit how the organisation wants to portray itself – as a leader of the new caliphate and one that has strict adherence to Islamic law.”

UK Prepares For Dirty Bomb In London (Daniel 8:4)

SAS prepare for radioactive dirty bomb in London amid fears of ‘spectacular’ ISIS attack

COUNTER-TERRORISM chiefs have been told to prepare for up to 10 simultaneous attacks amid fears of an Islamic State “spectacular”.

By John Ingham

PUBLISHED: 04:39, Wed, Mar 23, 2016 | UPDATED: 07:37, Wed, Mar 23, 2016

GETTY

 

The SAS are preparing to deal with 10 ISIS terror attacks which happen at once

Specialist troops are also training to tackle a dirty bomb laced with radioactive particles, deadly chemicals or biological agents on the crowded streets of the capital.

 

And the National Crime Agency has been ordered to crack down on firearms to head off the threat posed by British-born jihadis returning from Syria.

Last year’s November 13 attacks in Paris saw a gang kill 130 by carrying out attacks on three separate targets in one evening.The terrorists, including ISIS veterans who had fought in Syria, split into three groups.One cell botched its suicide bomb attacks on the Stade de France during the France v Germany football international, another shot up roadside restaurants while a third massacred 89 at a heavy metal concert at the Bataclan venue.

 A British minister said: “We used to plan for three simultaneous attacks but Paris has shown that you need to be ready for more than that. We are ready if someone tries with seven, eight, nine, 10.”

GETTY

The July 7 bombings left 56 people dead in the capital in 2005

Army regiments outside London are already on standby to help the SAS and police cope with a multiple target attack.The army’s counterterrorist bomb disposal unit is also creating a team at Didcot barracks, Oxfordshire, to tackle a dirty bomb.

IG

Experts fear of a ‘spectacular’ ISIS attack on the streets of London

Wed, December 2, 2015

Met Police terrorist training exercise in London

In recent months London has seen at least two major counter-terrorism exercises including the SAS dealing with mock home-made bombs containing the ingredients of weapons of mass destructionLast November’s Strategic Defence and Security Review said the Armed Forces could deploy up to 10,000 troops in support of police in the event of a Paris attack – though being able to mount an operation on that scale may be a few years away.

GETTY

Metropolitan Police while training for a terror attack in London

Their roles could range from sealing off areas under attack to helping in manhunts.Late last year David Cameron has said the security services had foiled seven IS plots against the UK in the past 12 months. But the security services are working round the clock to ensure no terrorists get through.

London: Waiting For The Dirty Bomb (Daniel 8:4)London: Waiting For The Dirty Bomb (Daniel 8:4)

ISIS claims to have developed dirty bomb – reports

Published time: 2 Dec, 2014 13:10

Reuters / Stringer / Reuters

 

So-called Islamic State militants claim to have developed a crude nuclear weapon using materials seized from Mosul University, Iraq. A British extremist boasted of the damage the dirty bomb would do if detonated in Iraq, UK media reports.One of the militants bragging about the device online was Hamayun Tariq, fighting under the nom de guerre of Muslim-al-Britani, the Daily Mirror reports. Britani, a Briton who claims to be a bomb expert, tweeted:

“O by the way, Islamic State does have a dirty bomb. We found some radioactive material from Mosul University.”

He continued: “We’ll find out what dirty bombs are and what they do. We’ll also discuss what might happen if one actually went off in a public area.”

IS has confirmed that we have acquired a dirty bomb from radioactive material from Mosul Uni! Mashallah #ISpic.twitter.com/PI2ctDMBrQ
— Shahada For Allah (@MaitreVee) November 25, 2014

In another somewhat confused message he said a dirty bomb “would be terribly destructive if it went off In LONDON becuz [sic] it would be more of a disruptive than a destructive weapon.”

Another militant replied that such an attack would likely ramp us Western involvement, adding “Allah knows best.”

Reports that the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) had stolen uranium compounds from Mosul University first came out over the summer. Writing to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on July 8, Iraqi UN Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim said that 88 pounds of uranium used for scientific research at Mosul University had been looted.

Two days later, a spokesperson for the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the material was “low grade” and “would not present a significant safety, security or nuclear proliferation risk.”

A dirty bomb is a mix of explosives, such as dynamite, with radioactive powder or pellets. When the dynamite or other explosives are set off, the blast carries radioactive material into the surrounding area.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC), the radioactive materials used in a dirty bomb “would probably not create enough radiation exposure to cause immediate serious illness, except to those people who are very close to the blast site.”

They noted, however, that “the radioactive dust and smoke spread farther away could be dangerous to health if it is inhaled.”

Due to the difficulty of transporting any such material, if the militants actually attempt to construct a dirty bomb, they would likely attempt to detonate it in Iraq or Syria.

On Monday a high-ranking UK security source told the Sunday Express that an “alive and real” Muslim terrorist bomb plot was in the works for the holiday season.

“We’ve been told that five planes are being targeted in a high profile hit before Christmas,” the source told the paper. “They’ve been waiting for the big one.”

London Prepares For ISIS Dirty Bomb (Daniel 8:4)

 
London Has Fallen: SAS braced for ISIS terror attack with radioactive bombs and poison gas

SPECIAL forces are on standby for an ISIS mass casualty super-strike on London involving explosions, radiation, chemical warfare and a deadly plague.

By Patrick Knox / Published 20th March 2016

Thousands – if not tens of thousands – could die and many more injured in the worst ever attack on British soil since the Nazi terror bombings of World War 2.

Army regiments are ready at a moment’s notice to flood the capital’s streets as back up for SAS and police amid fears the number of spots targeted at the same time will be in DOUBLE FIGURES.
Counter-terrorist bomb disposal teams are preparing to deal with explosives that could unleash poison gas or cancer causing radiation.

But most feared are weapons that could spread deadly and highly infectious viruses that could bring back nightmarish scenes last seen in London during the Great Plague – just over 450 years ago.
“We used to plan for three simultaneous attacks but Paris last November has shown you need to be ready for more than that” UK Government minister

Meanwhile, the National Crime Agency has been ordered to launch a massive crackdown on illegal guns and arms dealers.

Airports and docks are being extra vigilant for weapon smugglers and terrorists entering with false passports.

A minister familiar with the proposal told The Sunday Times: “We used to plan for three simultaneous attacks but Paris last November has shown you need to be ready for more than that.
“We are ready if someone tries with seven, eight, nine, ten.”

The Islamic Horns of Prophecy (Daniel 8)

Islamic ‘NATO’: Strategic repercussions for India

Saudi Arabia, Pakistan working on ‘NATO-like’ military alliance of Islamic countries

Abhishek G Bhaya

Gulf regional power Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan are working on a proposal to form a ‘NATO-like’ military alliance of Islamic countries, British newspaper The Independent reported on 15 March citing a report on Pakistani TV channel Dunya News a day earlier.

While the report credited Saudi Arabia to be the brain behind the initiative, it said Pakistan had been entrusted to develop the framework for the proposed military alliance of 34 Muslim majority nations.
“The Kingdom [of Saudi Arabia] has requested Pakistan to lead the initiative. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have agreed to continue consultations on the proposal. This remains uncertain whether the proposed alliance will be a further upgradation of the already established 34-nation alliance or a different initiative altogether,” said the Dunya News report.

The development gains significance as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is poised to visit Saudi Arabia early next month with maritime security and increasing military cooperation placed high on the agenda.

Reports suggest India will be taking diplomatic steps to ensure greater cooperation in the Middle East with its latest plan to hold joint naval and military exercises with Saudi Arabia.

Let us explore the factors that led to the emergence of this proposed Islamic ‘NATO’ and the strategic repercussions of this regional coalition for India.

‘Northern Thunder’

The genesis of an Islamic ‘NATO’ alliance appeared to have emerged during the recently-held war games in Hafr al Batin region of Saudi Arabia, the closing ceremony of which was attended by Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Shareef and Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Shareef.

Billed as the region’s biggest-ever military exercise, the 12-Day ‘Northern Thunder’ manoeuvres, which concluded on 10 March, saw participation from over 20 nations from the Middle East, Africa and Asia. These included: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Jordan, Senegal, Sudan, Maldives, Morocco, Pakistan, Chad, Tunisia, Comoro Islands, Djibouti, Malaysia, Egypt, Mauritania, and Mauritius.

It is important to note that in December 2015, Saudi Arabia announced a military alliance of 34 Muslim nations (all Sunni-majority) including Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey. The Islamic Military Alliance was envisioned with the mission to fight terrorism in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan. The command centre of the 34-nation military bloc was planned to be based in Riyadh.

Pakistan, at that time, had reacted with surprise saying its consent was not taken for the alliance, but later Islamabad welcomed the initiative and confirmed its participation in the ‘anti-terror’ alliance.
The ‘Northern Thunder’ war games were the first collective show of strength for this newly-formed alliance which saw over 350,000 troops, 2,500 warplanes, 20,000 tanks and 450 helicopters in action. The subsequent proposal of an Islamic ‘NATO’ appears to be a logical extension of this new military coalition.

Target Iran?

While both Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have asserted that the proposed alliance would not be against any particular country but would combat terrorism and threats coming from extremist groups like Islamic State; the composition of mainly Sunni-majority nations makes it amply clear that the Saudi-led coalition is a consolidation of forces against the regional Shiite rival Iran.

Riyadh cut diplomatic ties with Tehran earlier this year after mobs ransacked Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran following the execution of a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric.

Saudi Arabia and Iran are engaged in proxy wars in Syria and Yemen where they are backing opposing sides. Riyadh is also concerned about a resurgent Iran, which is increasingly asserting itself in the region post its nuclear deal with the world powers that ended the sanctions against Tehran.

Iran does not seem to shy away from a belligerent display of its military prowess every now and then, as was evident again in its latest series of ballistic missile tests last week and also by its audacious detention of US Navy sailors in January just before the nuclear deal was implemented.

Seen from the perspective of Saudi Arabia and its allies, the Tehran regime has gone beyond its periphery, posing a serious threat to the stability of the region. This has made the Sunni bloc try to overcome its divisions and forge a common front that can deal with the Iranian threat.

The Russian factor

Also, Russia’s military intervention in Syria and its close alliance with the Iran-led Shiite troika (including Syria and Iraq) seems to have prompted the major Sunni countries in the region to form such a military alliance.

On the other hand, after Turkey downed the Russian military plane, the wedge between the two countries reached a serious point. It can be reasonably said that Russian military intervention in the Middle East has sowed the seed of this counter-alliance to deal with the emerging situation.

Weakening US influence in the Middle East has also contributed to the emergence of this alliance. With this new Islamic Military Alliance, the regional players will have more vital roles in Middle East affairs. Countries like Turkey and Egypt have long been supporters of regional solutions to regional problems.

The formation of this broad-based alliance is certainly aimed at checking Iran’s regional aspirations and stall increasing Russian influence that run contrary to the interests of Riyadh and its friends.

Bulwark against India

With Pakistan playing a leading role in the formation of this Islamic ‘NATO’, it wouldn’t be out of place to imagine that Islamabad would eventually use the alliance as a bulwark against India.

Just like the NATO was founded as an alliance against the erstwhile Soviet Union and eventually encircle and target Russia, Pakistan – with its India-centric foreign policy – is bound to lead the alliance into an anti-India trajectory.

Although India has strategic ties with several Muslim countries – including Saudi Arabia, UAE and Oman – that are, or may become, part of this coalition; in the event of a future conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours, these member countries would be bound by the principle of collective defence (as in NATO), wherein an attack against one ally is considered as an attack against all allies.

A military alliance on doorsteps, in all likelihood, will trigger a dangerous arms race and a realignment of forces in the region. Countries like Russia, Iran and India that may feel targeted by the Islamic ‘NATO’ alliance may eventually be compelled to form their own coalition as a strategic counterweight.

It will be interesting to see what line Israel takes.

Impact on Indo-Saudi ties

Meanwhile, the current ties between India and Saudi Arabia are on the upswing. In 2014, the two countries signed an MoU on defence cooperation, which allows exchange of defence-related information, military training and education as well as cooperation in areas varying from hydrography and security to logistics.

According to reports, the Indian Army has also agreed to hold joint military exercises with the Royal Saudi Land Force. In fact, there are talks of India establishing a mountain warfare training school to help Riyadh improve their offensive and defensive capabilities. These issues are expected to come up for discussion during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit next month.

Acknowledging India’s growing status as a major power in the region, Saudi Arabia has allowed New Delhi to carry out hydrographic surveys off the Saudi coastline. Such surveys, which facilitate the operation of submarines, had until now been outsourced only to the US.

Modi must candidly share India’s concerns about the proposed military alliance during his talks with Saudi officials. Only time will tell what impact will the Islamic ‘NATO’ have on the robust bilateral relations between India and Saudi Arabia.

Intelligence Suggests ISIS Has A Dirty Bomb (Dan 8:7)

 

ISIS has a ‘dirty’ nuke? Intelligence says they have enough radioactive material

June 12, 2015
10:55 PM MST Facebook Twitter More Comment

ISIS may have a nuclear weapon. According to Australian intelligence sources, the militant group that has sown such violence in eastern Syria and northwestern Iraq in their stated purpose of bringing about a worldwide caliphate have seized enough radioactive material to effectively build a “dirty” nuclear bomb.

The Independent reported June 10 that ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) has seized enough radioactive material during their reign of terror in the Levant to have the capacity to potentially construct a large and devastating “dirty” bomb. Australian intelligence reports state that the material, which was taken from government facilities captured by ISIS in the past several months, constitutes enough for the militant group to possibly put together their very own WMD (Weapon of Mass Destruction).

And with the first anniversary of the declaration of the caliphate and the Islamic religious holiday of Ramadan imminent, there are those that believe that ISIS will be especially active in the next few months. There is also concern that ISIS, in the capture of hospitals and government facilities, may also turn to weaponizing biological and chemical materials. “Isis is likely to begin and end Ramadan with attempted spectacular military offensive actions in Iraq and Syria,” The Independent quoted from a report from the US-based Institute for the Study of War.

Julie Bishop, Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, spoke with The Australian about the growing concerns (which are shared by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — NATO), stating that “the insurgents did not just clear out the cash from local banks” when they began fighting for their extremist goals and taking over territory. It has become such a worrisome topic that Bishop spoke about it at the recent meeting of the Australia Group, a 40-nation conference that exists to rid the world of chemical weapons.

Needless to say, the rest of the civilized world would prefer that ISIS never gain enough radioactive material for a “dirty” bomb (or biological and/or chemical material, for that matter). Given that the extremist Islamic organization has shown itself completely insensitive and intolerant to people of other religious sects within and without Islam, it undoubtedly goes without saying that Australian intelligence (and NATO) have developed scenarios of worst-case intensity in regard to the eventuality that ISIS build and use a WMD of some sort.

Besides, ISIS has made it clear that declared its ambition to develop WMDs. In fact, the militants did so in the most recent edition of its propaganda magazine Dabiq (via a separate The Independent article), noting that they could hypothetically purchase a nuclear bomb from Pakistan.

But if one should think that talk of WMDs in the hands of ISIS might be nothing but a psychological scare tactic on the part of the militant group or an alarmist viewpoint taken by Western nations, it should be noted that Indian defense officials have previously warned about the possibility of ISIS gaining a nuclear weapon. Indian officials reported that religious extremists might possibly acquire a nuclear weapon from Pakistan.

Islamic State has proved to be tenacious in its ability to take and hold parts of Syria and Iraq. While some military and foreign affairs experts believe a wait-and-see approach is still called for, others that fear that the ISIS brand of religious extremism could become too entrenched if left to its own propagandist and militant ends.

In a show that the United States is taking the ISIS threat a bit more seriously, President Barack Obama recently ordered an extra 450 military advisers to Iraq to combat the militants. According to CNN, there are currently about 3,050 U.S. forces in Iraq. Most (about 2,250 troops) are deployed in support of Iraqi security forces. Some 450 are engaged in training Iraqi troops and another 200 act as advisers.