Tens of thousands of Israeli troops in surprise Golan drill. Khamenei: No bending to the West

Sweet.  Armageddon Days are here again!  Debka:

Reservists drafted at no notice, Air Force, Central Command and other IDF units were flown to Israel’s northern Golan border early Wednesday, Sept. 19, for a surprise exercise called by Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz under the codename “National Asset.”


The official IDF announcement tried to downplay its importance, describing it as a “planned, routine event.” However, debkafile’s military sources say the war game is the biggest the IDF has conducted in the eight years since the second Lebanon war on Hizballah in 2006, with tens of thousands of soldiers and senior officers, including the artillery and the air force taking part.

Over the last weekend, witnesses reported heavy traffic of convoys of tank and APC carriers and military vehicles with emergency store markings heading north, just days after the IDF completed a large-scale war game on Israel’s Syrian and Lebanese borders simulating a Hizballah attack.

Since early September, therefore, the Israeli Defense Forces have been in the midst of preparations which have the appearance of readiness for a real war rather than an exercise. Those preparations peaked Wednesday under a codename which signified its goal: the defense of national assets.

Another sign of an impending conflict was provided by US diplomats who Monday began destroying classified documents and sensitive equipment at the Beirut embassy. As Islamist anti-US violence raged across Arab and Muslim countries, the State Department said this was a precautionary measure, without naming any specific threat. The trashing of embassy documents usually signifies preparations to evacuate an US embassy at short notice. It would be imperative in a war situation to keep them out of Hizballah hands.

The official IDF announcement described the exercise as focusing on fire power under the command of chief Artillery Commander, Brig. Gen. Ro’i Riftin and due to end Wednesday night. The rapid deployment of military strength on this scale for a live-fire drill is required practice for an army facing the onset of war aggression.

In the Persian Gulf, the US is leading 25 West European and Arab nations in a gigantic 12-day war game in the Straits of Hormuz which began Sunday, Sept 16. It includes a large-scale minesweeping drill to simulate the breaching of the Strait of Hormuz against Iranian efforts to block oil passage through the strategic waterway. The exercise - entirely by simulated measures - will also drill operations for destroying Iranian naval, air and missile bases in the Persian Gulf area and countering Iranian speedboats aiming to sabotage naval vessels and oil tankers.

Among the participants are the UK, France, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The United States has deployed three aircraft carriers with aerial strike forces. Military sources estimate that when the war game ends on Sept 27, these forces will not disperse but stay on hand in the event of Israel attacking Iran’s nuclear program.

As the exhibition of colossal Western might got underway opposite Iranian shores, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted on his official website as saying: Iran will never bend to Western pressure The Islamic Republic, he told a military audience, "makes its decisions solely based on the interests of its people and the country, even if all of the world's powers get angry at its decisions."

It "does not accept the demands of any superpower," he added.
The Ayatollah also accused "Western and Zionist media" of fabricating reports on the biting effects of economic sanctions, hinting that the Iranian economy was not suffering.

Here's some music to listen to while you eat your stockpile of canned goods.  Ladies and Gentlemen, The The:

Middle East Rumors

Interesting little thread from Lunatic Outpost.  Real time rumors, speculation, propaganda, and some genuine nuggets of information all included here.  Please remember the truth is always not only the first casualty of war, but also of the pre-war run up..  Please exercise discretion when reading!

Syria Shoots Down Turkish Jet; Ratchets Regional Tension Way Up..

The crisis in Syria just got decidedly hotter.  Syria says it shot down Turkish air force jet   NDTV.  Excerpts:

Ankara, Turkey: Syria said Friday it shot down a Turkish military plane that entered Syrian air space, and Turkey vowed to "determinedly take necessary steps" in response.  It was the most clear and dramatic escalation in tensions between the two countries, which used to be allies before the Syrian revolt began in March 2011. Turkey has become one of the strongest critics of the Syrian regime's brutal response to the country's uprising.  Late Friday, Syria's state-run news agency, SANA, said the military spotted an "unidentified aerial target" that was flying at a low altitude and at a high speed.
"The Syrian anti-air defenses counteracted with anti-aircraft artillery, hitting it directly," SANA said. "The target turned out to be a Turkish military plane that entered Syrian airspace and was dealt with according to laws observed in such cases."   Turkey issued a statement Friday night following a two-hour security meeting led by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying Syrian forces downed the plane and that the two Turkish pilots remain missing.
It said Turkey "will determinedly take necessary steps" in response, without saying what those actions would be.  "Following the evaluation of data provided by our related institutions and the findings of the joint search and rescue efforts with Syria, it is understood that our plane was downed by Syria," the statement said, without providing other details.  Relations between Turkey and Syria were already tense before the downing of the F4 plane on Friday.


Turkey has joined nations such as the U.S. in saying that Syrian President Bashar Assad should step down because of the regime's brutal suppression of the uprising in his country. Turkey also has set up refugee camps on its border for more than 32,000 Syrians who have fled the fighting.  Syria and Turkey have expelled each other's ambassadors and Syria has accused Turkey of supporting Syrian opposition and even allowing Syrian rebels to operate out of Turkish soil. Turkey strongly denies the allegations.

Syria now takes the lead in the category "Global Flashpoint/Global War."  Also, could Syria and Turkey actually be geo-political "frenemies?"

Hurry Up, Kids; World War 3 Is On! If You Miss The First Five Minutes, You're Gonna Be Confused!

So far, its all quiet on the Western MSM front (Red Alert!  Tom Brady said something scandalous!), but the tension has definitely ramped up between Greece and Israel and Turkey(and consequently, Russia, the U.S., and China..). 

The reasons vary, but combine for some potentially deadly inertia.  Turkey is angry because of Israel's actions concerning the Freedom Flotilla earlier this year.  Israel is pissed because Turkey supports political reform in Middle Eastern countries involved in 2011's Arab Spring, reforms that will further isolate Israel, and the Israelis are also mad that   Turkey downgraded their diplomatic status.  So now Israel has started hanging out with Turkish enemies the Greeks, the Armenians AND the Kurds.  This all pretty intense, seeing how these two nations(Israel and Turkey) were strong allies only months ago..

And now, the Greeks and the Turks are at odds of Turkey's oil exploration in the Mediterranean.  Due to the activation of existing defense pacts, if hostilities escalate, Israel and Greece (and Russia!) will be on one side, Turkey, Iran, and the United States will be on the other.  Uh-Oh!  And to really send the whole situation into Defcon 1 land, China might end up siding with Turkey, Iran, and the U.S.  Overlapping diplomatic and defense pacts are awesome!  And they'll probably insure our complete involvement, confusion, and ultimately, destruction! 

And please, bear in mind, my explanation is terribly simplistic, not factoring in other alliances with nation-states (Syria, Lebanon..), political factions(Hezbollah, PKK), escalating tensions between Palestinians and Israelis, Palestine's lobbying for U.N. Statehood status, and rich, western countries sticking their ass in this ever-growing potential apocalypse..  And the fact these people have hated each other for a millennia.. 

Imagine a tangled ball of Christmas lights the size of your house.  Untangle it.  Oh yeah; it's electrified.  That's kinda what we're dealing with, here..

It's a good thing this will be on television, or I'd be worried that it's all real!

The Game in Syria

Or:  Why Assad Isn't Going Anywhere..  From Information Clearing House.  Bottom Line/Excerpts:

The situation in Libya, for example, should not be taken as a measure of anything significant when it comes to a country like Syria. The departure of Libyan leader Moammar Qadhafi will not leave a dramatic regional political vacuum, while the departure of Assad and his government will have significant repercussions in neighboring countries, whether it’s Iraq, or Lebanon, or elsewhere. So far, Washington is offering tacit support for Assad, despite the news flashes that one might hear from time to time. The U.S. is not in a position to take the risky move of choosing sides, and is aware that Assad’s government, in its own way, offers the kind of “security” that Washington and other foreign capitals are anxious to see.

The most important lesson from this week is that the Arab peoples who are engaging in courageous public protests should focus on the internal requirements of their actions. They should not wage on the outside world to help them, because history has shown that only interests, and nothing else, guide such policies.

(fuse burning..)

US intensifying secret campaign of Yemen airstrikes

I think we're going in the wrong direction, here..  From MSNBC..

The Obama administration has intensified the American covert war in Yemen, exploiting a growing power vacuum in the country to strike at militant suspects with armed drones and fighter jets, according to American officials.



The acceleration of the American campaign in recent weeks comes amid a violent conflict in Yemen that has left the government in Sana, a United States ally, struggling to cling to power. Yemeni troops that had been battling militants linked to Al Qaeda in the south have been pulled back to the capital, and American officials see the strikes as one of the few options to keep the militants from consolidating power.

On Friday, American jets killed Abu Ali al-Harithi, a midlevel Qaeda operative, and several other militant suspects in a strike in southern Yemen. According to witnesses, four civilians were also killed in the airstrike. Weeks earlier, drone aircraft fired missiles aimed at Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical American-born cleric who the United States government has tried to kill for more than a year. Mr. Awlaki survived.

Hundreds of Palestinians cross reopened Gaza-Egypt border

Huge development.

Egypt has opened its border with Gaza, letting Palestinians leave the blockaded territory, in a move seen as indicating a more supportive policy since February's revolution.
..
The crossing will open for eight hours a day, six days a week. In the four years since Hamas took control of Gaza, 18 months after winning elections, and Israel imposed a stringent blockade, the Rafah border has opened intermittently and only students, businessmen and people needing medical treatment have been allowed through.
..
All other border crossings are with Israel, which has tightly controlled the movement of people and goods. Despite easing the blockade almost a year ago, Israel continues to proscribe certain goods, such as construction materials, from entering Gaza and blocks nearly all exports. Rafah will not be open to commercial traffic.


Israel's government has expressed concern that the reopening of the border will lead to the shipment of weapons and militants into Gaza and is also alarmed at the prospect of closer ties between the new Egyptian government and Gaza. Former president Hosni Mubarak, who was forced out in February's revolution, was seen as an ally of Israel. The new government last month brokered a reconciliation deal between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas, including an agreement to open the border.

"People are happy Rafah is open, they say it's the first step towards breaking the siege of Gaza," said local journalist Hazem Balousha. "They see it as a result of the Egyptian revolution and reconciliation."

This should be interesting.  Rafah is open, and Palestinians have an opening.  What happens now?  Looks like it's everyone's next move..

In Other Middle Eastern/North African News..

Yemen on agenda as PM lands in Oman  Psst..  Yemen.  You're freaking England out.  PM David Cameron's talking to Oman behind your back..

The threat of terrorism from an unstable Yemen will be high on the agenda for Prime Minister David Cameron as he ends a four-day Middle East tour in neighbouring Oman.
..
Mr Cameron met with Omani Sultan Qaboos Bin Said last night in part to thank the country for its key logistical role as a "bridge" for UK armed forces deploying to Afghanistan.

Yemen leader defiant; Oman officials booted

Yemen's besieged president defiantly rejected a proposal Saturday to leave office early and possibly end weeks of protests and bloodshed, while Oman's ruler pushed out three more top-level officials in attempts to quell widening demands for economic reforms and justice for the killing of a demonstrator.

Turkish Defense Exports To Mideast Unaffected By Revolts 

Just when Turkey’s local industry thought it caught a niche in several Middle Eastern markets, the region began to shake with popular revolts, but Ankara's export planners say "it is business as usual."

A senior procurement official dealing with exports of Turkish-made systems mostly to Middle Eastern and eastern markets said that previous contracts would not be affected by the revolts in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

"Egypt is a market and partner with previously signed contracts. Tunisia and Libya were prospective markets. They still are for the longer term. As the dust settles we will roll up our sleeves to help the (Turkish) industry for new contracts," he told Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review Thursday.

Kuwait awaits protests but is no stranger to upheaval

Kuwait has the Gulf's most powerful parliament, and opposition lawmakers already have taken bold shots at the ruling emir's inner circle, including two no-confidence motions since December 2009 that nearly brought down the prime minister. The plan now is to take demands for a political overhaul to the streets.
..
Libya and Yemen are all-or-nothing fights to bring down the leadership. Oman seemingly has cooled after an angry start — with protesters staging sit-ins to push for more jobs while being careful not to speak ill of the lute-playing sultan who has ruled for 40 years. Bahrain's protests tap into deep-rooted claims of discrimination by the majority Shiites against the Sunni monarchy.

The rumblings in Saudi Arabia — where protesters have called for a show of force Friday — seek even small breaks in the absolute control in the ruling House of Saud.
..
Kuwait joins the protest roster with quite a bit of experience. Its opposition bloc in parliament — a mix of Islamists and reformists — has gone toe-to-toe for years with the hand-picked government of the emir, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, over allegations that include financial mismanagement and attempts to roll back political freedoms. The dissident lawmakers draw heavily from the desert provinces outside Kuwait City, where many feel cut out of oil wealth.

The most significant change this week could be adding pro-reform youth groups into the fray. At a strategy meeting last week, some organizers of new youth-oriented factions — including one called Kafi, or Enough, in Arabic — pledged to occupy a main square in Kuwait City to copy the round-the-clock stand by demonstrators in Bahrain's Pearl Square.

This is Western Africa,  but it's relevant..  Ivory Coast 'forgotten emergency'

Chals Wontewe, Oxfam's Country Director in Liberia said: "This could become Africa's latest forgotten crisis. Thousands of civilians are fleeing for their lives yet the international community is failing to respond adequately. The world risks being seriously unprepared for the escalating crisis in West Africa.

"For more than three months now the people of Ivory Coast have been living with the threat of violence, intimidation, economic collapse and sexual assault. The situation is now deteriorating rapidly and urgent action is needed to avert a humanitarian crisis. The conditions for refugees and communities hosting them in Liberia are extremely worrying. People are in dire need of the very basics - clean water, food and shelter."

Tensions ignited in Ivory Coast following the contested presidential election in November 2010 and has resulted in months of instability and a steep increase in violent clashes in the past week. As well as rising political and military tensions, many banks remain closed, prices of basic goods are rocketing and more than 500,000 people have lost their jobs.

It' on..  Rebel violence, looting continue to spread in Ivory Coast

Rebels opposed to the strongman Laurent Gbagbo seized a town near the Liberian border yesterday, a rebel spokesman said, in a further sign of Ivory Coast’s possible slide toward civil war.

A top commander of Gbagbo-allied forces in the west, near the border, declined to comment, but the head of a leading civil society organization in the region confirmed that the town of Toulepleu had fallen to the rebels, extending an advance in which they have taken several small towns on the Liberian frontier in the past 10 days.

A weeklong campaign of looting and burning in Abidjan aimed at the homes of ministers allied with Gbagbo’s rival, Alassane Ouattara, continued yesterday, underscoring the growing lawlessness in this sprawling economic capital.

Ouattara won a presidential election in November, according to most of the international community, but Gbagbo refused to step aside. The standoff prevailing here since then has taken an increasingly violent turn.     

Mid-East Uprising: Libya Edition

"Libya on the brink."

It's clear Qadafi's regime won't go quietly, and it seems like the tide is turning.. Moammar Gadhafi's son warns of civil war in Libya if father's leadership not recognized Excerpts:

After anti-government unrest spread to the Libyan capital and protesters seized military bases and weapons Sunday, Moammar Gadhafi’s son went on state television to proclaim that his father remained in charge with the army’s backing and would “fight until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet.”
Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, in the regime’s first comments on the six days of demonstrations, warned the protesters that they risked igniting a civil war in which Libya’s oil wealth “will be burned.”
The speech followed a fierce crackdown by security forces who fired on thousands of demonstrators and funeral marchers in the eastern city of Benghazi in a bloody cycle of violence that killed 60 people on Sunday alone, according to a doctor in one city hospital. Since the six days of unrest began, more than 200 people have been killed, according to medical officials, human rights groups and exiled dissidents.
..
Although the elder Gadhafi did not appear, his son has often been put forward as the regime’s face of reform.
..
Protesters had seized some military bases, tanks and other weapons, he said, blaming Islamists, the media, thugs, drunks and drug abusers, foreigners — including Egyptians and Tunisians. (It's amazing the feats drug users are capable of, huh?)
He also admitted that the unrest had spread to Tripoli, with people firing in central Green Square before fleeing.
The rebellion by Libyans frustrated with Gadhafi’s more than 40 years of authoritarian rule has spread to more than a half-dozen eastern cities — but also to Tripoli, where secret police were heavily deployed on the streets of the city of 2 million.
And:
In other setbacks for Gadhafi’s regime, a major tribe in Libya was reported to have turned against him and Libya’s representative to the Arab League said he resigned his post to protest the government’s decision to fire on defiant demonstrators in Benghazi, the second-largest city.
Khaled Abu Bakr, a resident of Sabratha, an ancient Roman city to the west, said protesters besieged the local security headquarters, driving out police and setting it on fire. Abu Bakr said residents are in charge, have set up neighborhood committees to secure their city.
The Internet has been largely shut down, residents can no longer make international calls from land lines and journalists cannot work freely, but eyewitness reports trickling out of the country suggested that protesters were fighting back more forcefully against the Middle East’s longest-serving leader.
“We are not afraid. We won’t turn back,” said a teacher who identified herself only as Omneya. ..“If we don’t continue, this vile man would crush us with his tanks and bulldozers. If we don’t, we won’t ever be free,” she said.

The Renaissance of the Arab World?

It's never good when your country's diplomats resign in disgust..

And finally, is global unrest starting to effect China?

Iranian warships pass through Suez Canal

Nothing's exploded yet, but Israel certainly isn't happy.. Since Reuters regards every word from all their articles as sacred and every other news organization is too lazy to write their own damn version of events, no excerpts are forthcoming. Summary: Iranian State TV said the ships are already through the canal and headed towards a port in Syria. Iranian ships through the Suez? Not since 1979, baby.. Israel's freaked out and will bitch about it for weeks to come.

Diplomatic tensions in the region just ticked upward.. Satisfied, Reuters?

Bahrain Massacre: The World Bears Witness In Horror And Disgust..

When Bahrain's al-Khalifa royal family is overthrown, I hope the trial is broadcast internationally. Their response to their people's peaceful demonstrations have sealed their fate, and their subjects have shown more courage than the royal family could ever muster. Bahrain protesters didn't run away. They faced the bullets head-on. Excerpts, doubling as future testimony at the World Court:

"Massacre – it's a massacre," the doctors were shouting. Three dead. Four dead. One man was carried past me on a stretcher in the emergency room, blood spurting on to the floor from a massive bullet wound in his thigh.
A few feet away, six nurses were fighting for the life of a pale-faced, bearded man with blood oozing out of his chest. "I have to take him to theatre now," a doctor screamed. "There is no time – he's dying!"
..
Eyewitness testimony from a hospital orderly at the demonstration..
"We decided to walk to the hospital because we knew there was a demonstration. Some of us were carrying tree branches as a token of peace which we wanted to give to the soldiers near the square, and we were shouting 'peace, peace. There was no provocation – nothing against the government. Then suddenly the soldiers started shooting. One was firing a machine gun from the top of a personnel carrier. There were police but they just left as the soldiers shot at us. But you know, the people in Bahrain have changed. They didn't want to run away. They faced the bullets with their bodies."
..
The demonstration at the hospital had already drawn thousands of Shia protesters – including hundreds of doctors and nurses from all over Manama, still in their white gowns – to demand the resignation of the Bahraini Minister of Health, Faisal Mohamed al-Homor, for refusing to allow ambulances to fetch the dead and injured from Thursday morning's police attack on the Pearl Square demonstrators.

But their fury turned to near-hysteria when the first wounded were brought in yesterday. Up to 100 doctors crowded into the emergency rooms, shouting and cursing their King and their government as paramedics fought to push trolleys loaded with the latest victims through screaming crowds.
..
Five ambulances sent to the street – yesterday's victims were shot down opposite a fire station close to Pearl Square – were stopped by the army. Moments later, the hospital discovered that all their mobile phones had been switched off. Inside the hospital was a doctor, Sadeq al-Aberi, who was himself badly hurt by the police when he went to help the wounded on Thursday morning.
..
Why has the royal family of Bahrain allowed its soldiers to open fire at peaceful demonstrators? To turn on Bahraini civilians with live fire within 24 hours of the earlier killings seems like an act of lunacy.

But the heavy hand of Saudi Arabia may not be far away. The Saudis are fearful that the demonstrations in Manama and the towns of Bahrain will light equally provocative fires in the east of their kingdom, where a substantial Shia minority lives around Dhahran and other towns close to the Kuwaiti border. Their desire to see the Shia of Bahrain crushed as quickly as possible was made very clear at Thursday's Gulf summit here, with all the sheikhs and princes agreeing that there would be no Egyptian-style revolution in a kingdom which has a Shia majority of perhaps 70 per cent and a small Sunni minority which includes the royal family.
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And the stakes here are high. This is the first serious insurrection in the wealthy Gulf states – more dangerous to the Saudis than the Islamists who took over the centre of Mecca more than 30 years ago – and Bahrain's al-Khalifa family realise just how fraught the coming days will be for them. A source which has always proved reliable over many years told me that late on Wednesday night, a member of the al-Khalifa family – said to be the Crown Prince – held a series of telephone conversations with a prominent Shia cleric, the Wifaq Shia party leader, Ali Salman, who was camping in Pearl Square. The Prince apparently offered a series of reforms and government changes which he thought the cleric had approved. But the demonstrators stayed in the square. They demanded the dissolution of parliament. Then came the police.
..
A doctor who gave his name as Hussein stopped me leaving the emergency room because he wanted to explain his anger. "The Israelis do this sort of thing to the Palestinians – but these are Arabs shooting at Arabs,".. "This is the Bahraini government doing this to their own people. I was in Egypt two weeks ago, working at the Qasr el-Aini hospital – but things are much more fucked up here."

The Shia make up 70% of Bahrain's population, controlled by the Sunni Royal Family. As you can see by this 2009 article, Shia dominated Iran has an affinity for Shia-majority-but-ruled-by-minority-Sunni Bahrain. Now that Iran has ships cruising the Suez Canal, is it beyond the scope of possibility that Iran might come to the aid of the Bahrainis and do a little ass kickin' on the Bahraini military, if the opportunity arises? How would the Saudis' react to such provocation, or more accurately, how quickly would this crisis escalate to a regional inferno? Note: Bahrain is also home to America's 5th Fleet, so the U.S. is involved with this uprising whether we like it or not. "On the one hand, Bahrain is a flash point between the United States and Iran," he told CNN. On the other, it's "a flash point between Saudi Arabia and Iran."

The potential for more bloodshed is almost assured. It's really a matter of how this plays out, and how the three outside interests proceed. This very well could be the country that turns this regional unrest into something much, much bigger. And the actions of the bloodthirsty thugs who(for now) rule Bahrain have inflamed their people and won't be forgotten.

Oppressive Regimes To People: If Everyone Else Was Overthrowing Their Governments, Would You?

To which Algeria and Yemen reply: Why, yes! At the moment, Algerian protests have been stifled by the police, but the desperation is just as palpable as it was in Egypt.

''They can't kill us because we are already dead,'' said jobless Bilal Boudamous, 29. ''At 30 we are unemployed, we live with our parents, and we have no future.''

Algerians didn't really buy the token concessions from their government, so the regime shut down Facebook and the Internet, and gave the hackneyed Ike Turner response: If things turn violent, it's all your fault. Damn it baby, you made me hurt you..

Meanwhile, in Yemen, the dynamic seems to be playing out a bit differently. For now, the protests are still smaller, but the clashes between pro and anti-government protesters are already marred by violence, as both sides(not counting the police) are fighting with sticks and knives.

Also, 23 million Yemenis are hooked on Qat, so demonstrations fizzle out by the afternoon so everyone can get high. It'll be interesting to see if The People can give up the HappyHappy for a few weeks in order to rid themselves of a soul crushing regime. We shall see.