Antichrist Orders Prayer In Baghdad (Rev 13)

  Unified prayer held in Baghdad after violence
A unified prayer session held between Sunnis and Shiites in the capital Baghdad to confront sectarian strife. (File photo courtesy: @IraqPics)
Staff writer, Al Arabiya News
Friday, 15 May 2015
Iraqi Defense Minister Khaled al-Obaidi attended a unified prayer session held between Sunnis and Shiites in the capital Baghdad after unknown assailants attacked the Sunni endowment building in the Sunni district area of Adhamiyah.
The violence on Thursday killed four people in Adhamiyah after Shiite pilgrims – heading to the holy Shiite site on the other side of the Tigris river – passed through the area.
Unknown mobs set 17 houses and the religious endowment building on fire. Police sources told AFP that four people were burnt to death trapped inside their torched homes but medical sources said some of the victims had bullet wounds.
Police said “some elements infiltrated in the midst of the pilgrims heading to the shrine of Imam Musa Kadhim attacked a Sunni Waqf (endowment) building.”
But Iraqi officials warned that the violence was a plot to divide Iraqis with prominent Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr denouncing the “insolent” act as unrepresentative of Islam.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said “some are angered by the fact that Iraqis are united in facing terrorism, that’s why they tried to sow this discord.”
However, some people on social media derided the government blaming “infiltrators” after a 10:16 minute video surfaced online, showing voice and faces of some of the perpetrators.
“There are women there,” one said in one segment of the video, with another person later on said: “They’re Daeshis [belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria].”
One Twitter user wrote in reaction, “hundreds of infiltrators? Pillaging institutions, houses of civilians and under protection of security?” in reference to shots fired by police officers to maintain the situation.
One officer told AFP that the violence broke out after 2:00 am (1100 GMT) when members of the crowd spread a rumor that a suicide bomber was among them.
He said police fired shots in the air in an attempt to contain the panic but the violence only swelled because the crowd thought they were being shot at by Adhamiyah residents.
Meanwhile, in an interview with the local Al-Baghdadia News, Obaidi said a “small number of people” were behind the violence, adding that “Iraqi brotherhood” cannot be “destroyed by some infiltrators.”
Some arrests were made, however, no new information was made available.
Last Update: Friday, 15 May 2015 KSA 09:16 – GMT 06:16

Nebuchadnezzar Is Ready To Take The Bait

BARACK OBAMA, THE ANSWER TO AYATOLLAH KHAMENEI’S PRAYERS

POSTED ON MARCH 2, 2015 BY PAUL MIRENGOFF

Ray Takeyh, who served in the Obama administration focusing on Iran, has an illuminating piece on how Iran’s “Supreme Leader” is “patiently negotiating his way to a bomb.” Absent military intervention, Ayatollah Khamenei was always going to pursue his nuclear bomb. But it now looks like he will be able to pursue it in the most advantageous manner possible — with American cooperation. 

Takeyh explains:

After years of defiance, Khamenei seems to appreciate that his most advantageous path to nuclear arms is through an agreement. To continue to build up his atomic infrastructure without the protective umbrella of an agreement exposes Iran to economic sanctions and the possibility of military retribution. . . .

Unlike many of his Western interlocutors, Khamenei appreciates that his regime rests on shaky foundations and that the legitimacy of the Islamic revolution has long been forfeited. The task at hand was to find a way to forge ahead with a nuclear program while safeguarding the regime and its ideological verities.

It was a daunting task as long as the West viewed Khamenei’s negotiating position — an agreement of limited duration during which Iran could construct a vast nuclear infrastructure in exchange for a leaky inspection regime — with great skepticism. But then, along came President Obama, and the Ayatollah’s prayers were answered:

Washington conceded to Iran’s enrichment at home and agreed that eventually that enrichment capacity could be industrialized. The marathon negotiations since have seen Iran attempt to whittle down the remaining restrictions, while the United States tries to reclaim its battered red lines. 

For Khamenei, the most important concession that his negotiators have won is the idea of a sunset clause. Upon the expiration of that clause, there would be no legal limits on Iran’s nuclear ambitions. If the Islamic Republic wants to construct hundreds of thousands of sophisticated centrifuges, build numerous heavy-water reactors and sprinkle its mountains with enrichment installations, the Western powers will have no recourse.

What happens then?

Once Iran achieves that threshold nuclear status, there is no verification regime that is guaranteed to detect a sprint to a bomb. An industrial-size nuclear state has too many atomic resources, too many plants and too many scientists to be reliably restrained. 

Khamenei. . .can also be assured that technical violations of his commitments would not be firmly opposed. Once a deal is transacted, the most essential sanctions against Iran will evaporate. . .And as far as the use of force is concerned, the United States has negotiated arms-control compacts for at least five decades and has never used force to punish a state that has incrementally violated its treaty obligations. 

As the reaction to North Korea’s atomic provocations shows, the international community typically deals with such infractions through endless mediation. Once an agreement is signed, too many nations become invested in its perpetuation to risk a rupture.

Takeyh concludes that “Iran’s achievements today are a tribute to the genius of an unassuming midlevel cleric” who has “routinely entered negotiations with the weakest hand and emerged in the strongest position.” But Iran’s achievements are just as much a tribute to the egomania of a pretentious U.S. president who entered negotiations with the strongest hand and refused to play his best cards because he considered himself above the game, and imagined that there is bigger contest only he is able to perceive.