USA prepares world to Third World War

A member of the Russian State Duma Yevgeny Fyodorov shared his vision of the current situation in the world with Pravda.Ru. He believes that the United States is preparing the grounds for starting World War III. Their plan is to combine all local conflicts together. The United States, when speaking about the fight against terrorism, in fact relies on extremism and terrorism.

Currently, the world is slipping into a complete destabilization that will inevitably end in a World War. This is precisely why many powers now are testing the ground. This is similar to the situation when the Soviet Union, fighting in Afghanistan, dealt not with the Mujahideen but with the Americans, Bin Laden and the American Stinger missiles.

This was an element of the global opposition and, in fact, a World War between the Soviet Union and the United States of America. The Soviet Union lost the war, was eliminated and enslaved.

The next part of the script is launching a global fire, unleashing a world war, uniting local conflicts into a single system of instability. For this we need to dramatically increase funding for terrorism.

We now see that the United States has dramatically increased the funding of terrorism around the world. The Americans will now act indiscriminately, that is, without consideration of whether they are giving to allies or not allies, friends or not friends.

Take, for example, the situation in Greece. Is Greece an enemy of America? But the Americans lowered its ratings and launched a European crisis.

Is Egypt an enemy of America? No. But the funding was provided, the "Orange Revolution" was organized, and now there are talks about a death sentence for the president of Egypt, who, in principle, was amicable towards the Americans. He was replaced by a more extremist oriented President, and not by accident.

That is, to implement the American idea, they will need a full rise of extremism in the world. The United States will continue with this plan. The growth and rise of extremism is part of the course towards World War III that the Americans need.

Pravda

Cops petrol bombed as Greeks fume at new 10 bln cuts call

Disney Spending 1 Billion Dollars On RFID Microchip Tracking For Park Guests

Brothers and sisters, day in and day out we use this cyber-pulpit to warn you of what is about to come upon the whole earth. The bible calls it the ‘time of Jacob’s trouble’, also known as the Great Tribulation. The bible tells us in the book of Revelation that an implant that will be forced on all people will control all buying, all selling, and all movement. We are watching that very system being constructed right before our eyes. We urge you to flee to Jesus, trust in Him, accept His Sacrifice as payment for your sins, and to flee the wrath which is to come before it’s too late.

“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” Matthew 24:21,22

ANAHEIM – Disney park visitors soon could wear wristbands to gain admission, get front-of-the-line passes and unlock hotel rooms under new technology that’s undergoing testing.


Guests who have been chosen to participate in a trial test of FastPass+ receive this package in the mail. It includes information about the system and RFID-encoded cards.

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts recently got permission from the Federal Communications Commission to try out high-tech wristbands, according to Disney’s application. The device, called a Magic Band, includes a radio-frequency-identification chip.


Disney is quietly introducing technology that could drastically alter visits to its parks through a long-term initiative called the Next Generation Experience, which could cost up to $1 billion, according to published reports.

Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, outlined in February 2011 potential upgrades during an Anaheim speech, saying visitors one day could reserve ride times and check into hotels from home.

Disney has declined to elaborate

“We regularly test ways to make our guests’ experience even better than it is today,” said Marilyn Waters, a spokeswoman for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, in a statement.


Disney was required to seek FCC permission because the wristbands use wireless technology.

Disney also recently sought three patents for wristbands that include the radio-frequency-identification, or RFID, tags that store personal information, according to documents filed with the U.S.

You are watching the door to YOUR freedoms shutting ever so slowly, but with great force of power and intent of movement. RFID tracking is being installed everywhere. There will soon be no hiding place…

Patent and Trademark Office.

Visitors to Walt Disney World in Florida have tested out similar technology.

For example, in a test, visitors got Fastpass cards with RFID chips that could be used at the airport to get front-of-the-line passes via a device there for rides later at the Florida parks.

Installation permits indicated that the Fastpass system could be ready as early as this fall, said R.A. Pedersen, author of The Epcot Explorer’s Encyclopedia Team, in an email.

The wristbands also could be used for annual passes or multi-day tickets. The devices eventually could solve the problem at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim of unofficial ticket agencies selling multi-day passes by the day – a practice that violates Disney’s policy.

But Suzi Brown, a Disneyland Resort spokeswoman, said Disney is working on a quicker technological solution. source – Orange County Register

Now the end begins

Iran developing long-range drones

Nearly two weeks after Israel shot down what is widely thought to be an Iranian-made drone over its airspace, Tehran on Wednesday announced the development of medium- and long-range drones capable of making the journey to Israel.

Manouchehr Manteqi, the managing director of the Iranian Aviation Industries Organization, told Fars News that Tehran has “a series of designs and achievements” for drones with ranges as great as 2,000 kilometers.

The long-range drones would be unveiled within two or three years, he told the semi-official Iranian news agency.

At their closest point, Israel and Iran are just shy of 1,000 kilometers apart.

On October 6, Israel downed a drone over the Yatir forest in the northern Negev. Lebanese militant group Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the UAV, saying it was built using parts from Iran.

The Iranian military currently employs 15 different types of drones for intelligence, attack, and aerial defense roles. Earlier this month the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ aerospace division, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, claimed that the Iranian armed forces had already developed a UAV that can fly 2,000 kilometers and can carry “bombs and missiles.”

Manteqi told the paper that “class two” and “class three” drones that Iran was developing were capable of flying at 30,000 feet for 15 hours and 50,000 feet for 24 hours, respectively. He gave no indication of what role — intelligence or attack — the drones would have, or what size payload the UAVs would be able to carry.

The American Global Hawk UAV, by comparison, has an operational range of 14,000 kilometers and a flight time of 28 hours, according to the US Air Force. The Israeli Aerospace Industries Eitan has a range in excess of 7,400 kilometers and an estimated flight time of 70 hours.

Israeli UAV expert Tal Inbar told The Times of Israel last week that Iran is at least 20 years behind the cutting edge of drone technology.

The Times of Israel

Dragon Flood Manufacturing Consent

Joseph Herrin



With the technological advances of the 20th century; radio, television, and the Internet, the global elite have found new methods of guiding the populace. By controlling the media, a relatively small number of unknown, and unseen, men and women are able to shape nationalistic views, deceive the masses, and manipulate mankind into embracing whatever actions they desire. Although violence and forceful coercion are still tools of an elite to gain the consent of men and women, to an increasing extent the puppet masters of mankind have found that the crowd can be controlled by controlling the “human climate.” Philip Lesly, a long time advocate of the use of propaganda by an elite to control the masses, began a bi-monthly publication years ago called Managing the Human Climate. It is of benefit to consider what is meant by this expression.

The word climate is defined as “the prevailing attitudes, standards, or environmental conditions of a group, period, or place.” A moneyed elite found it possible to control the climate in which attitudes are formed, and actions are birthed. By control of the media and the governments of nations, they are well positioned to not only set the agenda for public discussion, but to define the limits of that discussion. They dictate the conversation and choose the subjects of public debate.

In 1983, 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the U.S. At the time, Ben Bagdikian was called “alarmist” for pointing this out in his book, The Media Monopoly. In his 4th edition, published in 1992, he wrote “in the U.S., fewer than two dozen of these extraordinary creatures own and operate 90% of the mass media” — controlling almost all of America’s newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, books, records, movies, videos, wire services and photo agencies. He predicted then that eventually this number would fall to about half a dozen companies. This was greeted with skepticism at the time. When the 6th edition of The Media Monopoly was published in 2000, the number had fallen to six. Since then, there have been more mergers and the scope has expanded to include new media like the Internet market.

In 2004, Bagdikian’s revised and expanded book, The New Media Monopoly, shows that only 5 huge corporations — Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch’s News Corporation, Bertelsmann of Germany, and Viacom (formerly CBS) — now control most of the media industry in the U.S..
[Source: http://www.corporations.org/media/]

Oftentimes the chief actors in Satan’s plans resort to boasting about their plans and methods. They do not fear the outrage of the masses, nor the consequences of Christian’s discovering their methods, for they know that the world and a worldly church is sound asleep. The prophet Isaiah recorded God’s perspective of His people.

Isaiah 42:18-20
Hear, you deaf! And look, you blind, that you may see. Who is blind but My servant, or so deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is so blind as he that is at peace with Me, or so blind as the servant of Yahweh? You have seen many things, but you do not observe them; Your ears are open, but none hears.

Satan has been so successful in mesmerizing the masses, in distracting the church with many vain pursuits, that he has little fear of the body of Christ waking up to discover the ways in which they have been controlled and manipulated. Satan is a master of deceit, and he has taught his disciples the principles by which they can control the mass of men and women.

One of the pioneers of modern propaganda in western culture was Edward Bernays. Bernays was greatly impressed by the teaching of his uncle Sigmund Freud and was responsible for having Freud’s writings published in America. Bernays saw in the subconscious psyche of mankind an opportunity to persuade, influence, and ultimately control the masses without their being aware of what was being done to them. Edward Bernays did not seek to hide this power over the people. Rather, he boasted about it. He was actively engaged in seeking corporate clients who would hire him to manipulate public opinion. Therefore, he did quite a job in selling his scientific wizardry to those who wished to cause people to act and think in specific ways. Bernays wrote a number of books on the use of propaganda.

If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it? The recent practice of propaganda has proved that it is possible...
[Source: Propaganda, Edward Bernays]

The propagandist rules. The propagandized do whatever he would have them to do, exactly as he tells them to do, and without knowing it.
[Source: Introduction to Propaganda, Mark Crispin Miller]

Bernays as a young man was hired by the CPI, the government propaganda organization that was created by President Woodrow Wilson to persuade Americans to fully support the United State’s involvement in World War I. After the war he used the same principles during peace time to crystallize public opinion for corporate clients. Bernays did not describe his work as a propagandist, for the term had gained negative connotations during the War. Instead, he described himself as a “Public Relations” professional.

Bernays made it clear that Public Relations is not the same as advertising. Bernays seldom ever took out ads in the papers. One of his methods for altering public opinion was to fabricate a news event and tip off reporters as to when it would occur. The newspapers would write about the event as if it was a spontaneous occurrence, and Bernays would have key phrases and buzz words already prepared to guide the public’s perception of the event.

An example of how Bernay’s operated is observed in his work for the American Tobacco Company. In 1928 George Washington Hill, the president of ATC realized that there was a huge untapped segment of the public to whom cigarettes could potentially be sold. This segment was women. At the time it was considered taboo for women to smoke. This social stigma decreased the market potential for cigarettes in half. Hill hired Bernays to overcome this public censorship of women smoking.

Bernays consulted with an American psychoanalyst to discover what cigarettes actually represented to women. A.A. Brill was the man Bernays consulted. Brill told him that a woman saw cigarettes as a symbol of male prowess. Cigarettes were associated with masculine power and authority. Bernays was encouraged to play upon this association by enticing women to smoke by appealing to their innate desire to be equal to men.

Bernays hired ten New York debutantes to carry cigarettes hidden in their clothes during the Easter Parade in New York. At a predetermined moment they were all to pull out their cigarettes and light them as they marched along in the parade. Bernays notified some members of the press that this was going to occur, and they were ready with cameras to photograph the women as they lit and smoked their cigarettes in public. Bernays cunningly described the cigarettes as “torches of freedom,” playing on the woman’s desire to be equal to man, and able to do whatever man could do in public.




Woman with Torch of Freedom in Her Hand

This event received significant press, and instantly cigarettes became a symbol of liberation for women. The success of this public relations stunt is observed in the percentage of women who smoke.

The targeting of women in tobacco advertising led to higher rates of smoking among women. In 1923 women only purchased 5% of cigarettes sold, in 1929 it increased to 12%, in 1935 the percentage of cigarettes purchased by women was 18.1%, this percentage peaked in 1965 at 33.3% and remained at this level until 1977.
[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torches_of_Freedom]

Observed in this example is the basic pattern used by a global elite today to shape the public opinion of the masses. News events are staged, and interpretations of the events are pre-planned in order to guide the populace to the conclusions that the invisible government desires. Bernays has noted in his books that Democracy requires the employment of propaganda that a ruling elite (who alone know what is best for mankind) might be able to rule without the masses understanding that they are being controlled and manipulated.

As civilization has become more complex, and as the need for invisible government has been increasingly demonstrated, the technical means have been invented and developed by which opinion may be regimented...

The minority has discovered a powerful help in influencing majorities. It has been found possible so to mold the mind of the masses that they will throw their newly gained strength in the desired direction.
[Source: Propaganda, Edward Bernays]




Edward Bernays

The same process employed by Bernays on behalf of the American Tobacco Company is utilized thousands of times every week by the invisible government to guide the masses in the desired direction. In the previous chapter we read of the government inventing, or fostering, atrocities such as the sinking of the Lusitania and the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, in order to move the masses to support the schemes of the minority. There are very few who ever discern the invisible hand guiding their actions and shaping their opinions. To repeat a statement penned by Bernays,

We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes are formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. These invisible governors are a heroic elite, who coolly keep it together, thereby “organizing chaos,” as God did in the Beginning. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.

Do you sense the pride in this statement? Bernays is comparing the actions of these unseen manipulators to those of God when He brought order out of chaos. Satan is the ultimate mastermind behind such policies and practices. His disciples have learned his ways and have no compunction about deliberately deceiving and misleading the masses. After all, they reason, they alone know what is really good and necessary for mankind.

Brothers and sisters, what I would have you to discern is that YOUR MIND has been molded, and YOUR ACTIONS guided, by this invisible government under the rule of Satan, and you have very often not perceived what was occurring. Only by becoming aware of the subtlety of the adversary can the Christian avoid the snare set before him.

In the year 1928 when Bernays wrote the book Propaganda, he wrote of the pervasiveness of “news” stories that were created to shape public perception of events.

Page one of the New York Times on the day these paragraphs are written contains eight important news stories. Four of them, one-half, are propaganda. The casual reader accepts them as accounts of spontaneous happenings. But are they?
[Source: Ibid]

Bernays proceeds to give four of the headlines from the nation’s leading newspaper, and he demonstrates that each story is propaganda. He details who originated the stories, and what effect each story was to produce upon public opinion. In the intervening years the percentage of canned news stories has only increased. America, and the world, is being inundated with a flood of fabricated news whose express aim is to shape public opinion and guide the masses.

Modern propaganda is a consistent, enduring effort to create and shape events to influence the relations of the public to an enterprise, idea, or group...

The important thing is that it is universal and continuous; and in its sum total it is regimenting the public mind every bit as much as an army regiments the bodies of its soldiers.
[Source: Ibid]

Consider what is expressed in this last statement. Even as the military dictates the actions of soldiers, telling them when to go to bed, when to rise, when to eat, when to work, how to salute, how to march in formation, etc., controlling the minute details of a soldier’s life, so too the minds of men and women are being regimented with the same level of control. Like puppets on a string, the mass of mankind moves to the motions of an unseen hand.

Speaking of the success of the government CPI propaganda in World War I, Bernays states:

At the same time, the manipulators of patriotic opinion made use of the mental cliches and the emotional habits of the public to produce mass reactions against the alleged atrocities, the terror, and the tyranny of the enemy.

Edward Bernays is describing here the government’s manipulation of the people. This sets the whole scheme of Democracy on its head. Instead of “government of the people, for the people, by the people,” it has become a government of a small elite who fool the people into believing they are making autonomous decisions, never realizing that they are being manipulated. Bernays had a true “insider’s” perspective into the machinations of government. Stuart Ewen in his book PR! A Social History of Spin, describes a visit he paid to Bernays at his home.

He led me through a dark room off the landing. Its walls were covered with scores of framed black and white photographs, many of them inscribed. Wordlessly, yet eloquently, the pictures placed my ancient host close to the heartbeat of a century. Bernays on his way to the Paris Peace Conference, 1919. Bernays standing with Enrico Caruso. Bernays and Henry Ford. Bernays and Thomas Edison. Bernays and Dwight David Eisenhower. An inscribed photo portrait of his uncle, Freud, was also conspicuous. Bernays with the “great men” at the “great events” of the twentieth century.




Bernays and Eisnehower

Bernays wrote of the power a small group has in selecting even those candidates who will become President of the United States.

A presidential candidate may be “drafted” in response to “overwhelming popular demand,” but it is well known that his name may be decided upon by half a dozen men sitting around a table in a hotel room.
[Source: Propaganda, Edward Bernays]

Things have not changed much since the day in which the above statement was written. Much has been written about the Bilderberger Group in recent years. This group of extremely wealthy and powerful global persons derives their name from the hotel they met at for their first annual meeting. It is true that a small number of men and women still meet today in hotel rooms to determine who will be given the rule of the nations. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were whisked away during the midst of campaigning for the Presidential nomination of their party in 2008. Their sudden absence was the subject of much speculation. It became known that they were taken to attend the annual Bilderberger conference, at which it was determined that Obama would become President and Hillary Clinton Secretary of State. Those elected to public positions are acting as the pawns of the true powers that have placed them there.

There are invisible rulers who control the destinies of millions. It is not generally realized to what extent the words and actions of our most influential public men are dictated by shrewd persons operating behind the scenes.
[Source: Ibid]

As one reads the writings of men like Edward Bernays, Walter Lippman, Ivy G. Lee, and other pioneers of modern propaganda, it becomes evident just how pervasive the practice of manipulating public opinion has become. The following statement of Bernays, written in 1928, could have been written as a commentary on America’s current President.

Again, the objection is raised that propaganda is utilized to manufacture our leading political personalities. It is asked whether, in fact, the leader makes the propaganda, or whether propaganda makes the leader. There is a widespread impression that a good press agent can puff up a nobody into a great man.
[Source: Ibid]

Truly, there has seldom been a less accomplished man who was portrayed as a great statesman, than the current President. Many were astonished when after his election to the Presidency he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. There was no basis for the award. He had not brokered any peace agreements. He had no political history of accomplishment. All the awards and popular press he was receiving were part of a massive, organized plan to manufacture an image of a great man out of a nobody. The ruling elite chose Obama as a figurehead to accomplish their purposes. They manufactured a false history for his life, and the public by and large has accepted it due to the universal and continuous flood of propaganda that has attended his ascension to public office.

Although Obama is a willing instrument of men in carrying out the destruction of America as a wealthy nation of great liberty, he is not the one making decisions. Those who created his public image and arranged his election to the Presidency are the true powers behind the throne. As far back as 1928 Edward Bernays wrote:

The public actions of America’s chief executive are, if one chooses to put it that way, stage-managed.
[Source: Ibid]

Edward Bernays did not apologize for his views. He believed that it was right and necessary for an enlightened minority to guide the masses.

Ours must be a leadership democracy administered by the intelligent minority who know how to regiment and guide the masses. Is this government by propaganda?... It must be enlightened, expert propaganda through the creation of circumstances, through the high-spotting of significant events, and the dramatization of important issues.
[Source: Ibid]

Consider carefully what is declared here. An “intelligent minority,” a global elite, believe it is their right and duty to regiment human behavior. They accomplish this control of mankind through creating events and circumstances that will provide a context to move the masses in a particular direction. That which passes for spontaneous news events today are seldom spontaneous, or news. They are dramatizations played out on a world stage with the intent of manipulating mankind. The global elite need the masses to consent to their schemes leading to a one world government. They refer to the work of propagandizing the masses as “manufacturing consent.” By deceiving and manipulating the people, the consent of the nations is gained.

Do you perceive this deception all around you? Are your eyes opened to perceive the hidden hand that guides events? Or do you still believe that America is a nation where the government serves the people? Are you so blinded by propaganda that you believe America can be changed by electing a Republican instead of a Democrat for President? Do you perceive that the candidates of both parties have been hand picked, and they are equally servants of an invisible government?

At this time of year with a national election looming, one can perceive the massive influence of the propaganda machine. Debates are held; candidates spar with one another; it is made to appear that they truly are antagonistic to one another and hold greatly divergent views on government. Yet all is subterfuge. All is deceit and lies created to keep the masses deceived, to persuade them that they actually have a choice, that the common man has the power to influence the course of the nation.

Tragically, Christians are giving their strength, thought, time, and money to a vain effort to effect political change. Christians are joining Tea Party movements, or are aligning themselves with a particular candidate or party. They believe they will make a difference. They wage war with carnal weapons. They do not perceive that the game is rigged. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity.

Satan’s power is great. He has the ability to deceive the nations. Nevertheless, the disciple of Christ need not be deceived. Christ admonished His disciples with the following words:

Matthew 10:16-17
"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men...” 

Joseph Herrin

One Week Until U.S. Has 3 Aircraft Carriers Facing Iran

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
October 18, 2012

In just one week, the United States will have three aircraft carriers facing Iran, the number usually regarded as sufficient for a state of war.



The latest Stratfor naval update map shows that the USS John C. Stennis has now arrived in the waters just outside Iran, joining the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. Although there were already two aircraft carriers in the region prior to Stennis’ arrival, the USS Enterprise left for a scheduled port visit in Naples, Italy.

“In a week or so, shore leave will be over and CVN will be back to join everyone else, at which point the US will finally have three aircraft carriers just off the Iranian coastline ready to rumble,” reports Zero Hedge.

In response to this build-up, along with exercises involving the US, UK and Middle Eastern countries focused around clearing mines in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran has launched a Tareq-901 submarine and a Sahand destroyer into the Gulf from the port of Bandar Abbas.

“At the same time, as stated on (Ayatollah) Khamenei’s official website, the Supreme Leader was visiting the northern coastal city of Nowshahr to observe naval cadets practice planting mines, rescuing hijacked ships, destroying enemy ships, and rapid deployment via helicopters,” reports OilPrice.com.

Earlier this week, German newspaper Der Spiegel reported that Iran may also be planning to disrupt shipping lanes in the Strait, through which around 40 per cent of the world’s oil passes, by intentionally causing a massive oil spill.

“The goal of the plan seems to be that of contaminating the strait so as to temporarily close the important shipping route for international oil tankers, thereby “punishing” the Arab countries that are hostile to Iran and forcing the West to join Iran in a large-scale cleanup operation — one that might require the temporary suspension of sanctions against Tehran,” states the report.

Iran later denied the claims, stating they illustrated how, “Western nations have been brought low and have resorted to making any allegation against us.”

It seems abundantly clear that if there is to be an “October surprise” which will decide the US presidential election one way or the other, it will involve Iran and it will happen within the next two weeks.

The likelihood of such an incident involving Iran was raised by an ABC News piece earlier this month which speculated that something could “occur in the days before the election” to swing the outcome and that it would probably involve Iran in one way or another, be it an attack on US interests or Obama or Romney cutting a deal with Tehran.

Last month, lobbyist Patrick Clawson stoked controversy when he urged the United States to stage or provoke an attack in order to create a manufactured casus belli for striking Iran.

Info Wars

Moody's downgrades world's oldest bank to 'junk'

Moody's credit rating agency on Thursday downgraded the world's oldest bank, Italy's Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, to "junk" status on worries government recapitalisation plans will prove insufficient.

The lowering of BMPS's rating by two notches to "Baaa3", a non-investment grade, reflects Moody's view that "there remains a material probability that the bank will need to seek further external support," the agency said.

Critically exposed to the eurozone debt crisis, in June BMPS was forced to accept a government bailout, borrowing roughly 1.5 billion euros ($1.87 billion) in order to pay off debt and shore up its capital.

The bank has also said it would reduce its workforce by 4,600 people by 2015.




France 24

Largest US-Israel missile defense drill to kick off

US military forces have begun arriving in Israel to take part in the largest joint missile defense exercise of its kind, which will begin next week.

One thousand American soldiers will arrive on Israeli territory and a further 2,000 US troops in Europe and the United States will take part via remote defense computing systems.

An equal number of Israeli soldiers will be involved.

During the drill, named Austere Challenge 12, Israeli air defense systems, such as the Iron Dome anti-rocket shield and Arrow 2 anti-ballistic missile batteries, will be deployed, as well as US and Israeli Patriot batteries. American naval ships carrying the Aegis combat system, which can intercept missiles, will take part, and at least one US Navy ship will dock at Haifa.

The IDF and the US military’s European Command will set up missile defense batteries across Israel. Most of the drill will involve computer simulations of incoming rockets, though in the last stage, a Patriot will be fired at a mock enemy projectile.

“Anyone can take away any message they want from this,” said the IDF’s Brig.-Gen. Nitzan Nuriel, who is heading the Israeli side of the exercise. “The fact that we are working together is a strong message by itself.”

Nuriel defined a successful program as “the interception of all incoming missiles to reduce damage to Israeli infrastructure.”

US Air Force Lt.-Gen. Craig Franklin – the senior American officer in Israel for the exercise – said Washington will be spending $30 million on the drill. Nuriel said Israel would be spending the same amount.

“This is a defensive exercise for missile-defense capabilities in Israel,” Franklin said. He stressed that the drill had no relation to any real world events. “It’s not there to send a message, but to prove a defensive missile capability for Israel,” Franklin said.

All threats to the Israeli home front would be included in scenarios, from long and short-range ballistic missiles to rockets and mortars, he added.

“It’s to prove defense interoperability between our two nations.”

Nuriel said scenarios would include missile attacks from multiple fronts involving more than one salvo per day.

“We need [the soldiers] to work at a high tempo, to prepare them for real scenarios if they are coming,” he said.

Nuriel confirmed that the air defense forces would also practice dealing with the threat of a hostile drone, such as the one sent by Hezbollah into Israeli airspace earlier this month.

A senior Israeli defense source added that the scenarios took “near and far threats” into consideration.

“When we look at the cooperation among our enemies, we understand that our national home front has turned into a target. A joint drill significantly strengthens our operational capabilities,” the source said.

“We welcome our American partners to Israel,” he added.

Throughout the exercise, military traffic on the country’s roads will be greater than usual, and some disruptions could occur to civilian traffic due to army convoys.

Earlier this week, Air Force chief Maj.-Gen. Amir Eshel appointed a new head to the Air Defense Command this week.

Brig.-Gen. Shahar Shohat replaced Brig.-Gen. Doron Gavish after the latter completed his term as head of the force.

“The combination of new regimes and terror organizations armed with advanced weaponry, which were once reserved for militaries alone, creates a threat to the heart of our state and way of life,” Eshel warned during the ceremony.

“The Air Defense Command has a vital role in all of the components that make up [our] security concept – defense capabilities together with attack components enable victory,” he said.

Gavish noted that Israeli air defenses intercepted 109 enemy rockets fired at southern Israel from the Gaza Strip in recent years.

“This is a first-time operational achievement on a global scale,” he said.

Jerusalem Post

Israel will be destroyed if Iran is attacked

Israel will "definitely" face fierce retaliation if it attacks Iranian nuclear sites, the acting commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard warned Thursday.

The remarks by Gen. Hossein Salami appear to be part of Iranian efforts to portray any strike against it as the trigger for a regional conflict that could draw in Iranian proxies, such as Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group, on Israel's borders.

Iran's suspect nuclear program has topped the international agenda and pressures on Tehran are mounting.

Israel has threatened to strike Iran's nuclear facilities if Tehran doesn't stop uranium enrichment - a process that can be a pathway to nuclear arms. The West and its allies fear Iran's ambitions mask a pursuit of atomic weapons, a charge Tehran denies, saying its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes such as power generation and cancer treatment.

Salami was quoted by the semi-official ISNA news agency as saying Iran has prepared for "global battles."

"An attack by the Zionist regime would be an opportunity to destroy that regime," he said, speaking of Israel. "Their defense mechanism is not planned for big and long wars. Their threats are only psychological and if they cross the limit or act upon those threats, [Israel] will definitely be destroyed."

Salami spoke on the sidelines of urban combat drills in Tehran by some 15,000 paramilitary fighters known as Basiji, who are controlled by the Revolutionary Guard.

The exercises were dubbed "Ila Beit ol Moqaddas," or Toward the Holy City, meaning Jerusalem. The war games include drills on defending against mock air raids and other threats.

"We have prepared our security and defense infrastructures for global and big battles," Salami said. "There is no failure in our defense system."

He also reiterated statements by other Iranian officials who this week insisted that Iran can ride out Western economic pressures aimed at reining in the uranium enrichment.

"The Iranian nation will overcome the enemies' threats in the economic field," Salami said. "This is a battle. The Iranian nation will impose its will on its enemies."

The 27-member European Union on Monday banned imports of Iranian natural gas and imposed other restrictions on trade and financial dealings. The measures are in line with the West's two-pronged strategy that includes a mix of sanctions and diplomacy to try to force a halt to Tehran's uranium enrichment.

Previous Western sanctions have targeted Iran's critical oil exports and access to international banking networks.

Haaretz

Russian S-400s relocated near Turkey. Hizballah shifts units, rockets into Syria

Hizballah has begun depleting line of rockets and fighting units it has facing Israel from the Litani River of South Lebanon and moving them to the Syrian front line at Homs to strengthen Assad’s forces, DEBKAfile's military sources reveal. Hizballah’s forward line against Israel is still in place among the southernmost Shiite villages, but a part of their artillery back-up is gone and, for the first time, Hizballah’s ground-to-ground rockets are moving in an eastward direction into Syria. This is a striking reversal of the usual direction taken by Hizballah hardware which, for years, headed from east to west to reach Lebanon from Iran and Syria.

This step attests to the scope, fury and determination of the Syrian army’s current land and air offensive against the rebels.

It also means that Hizballah has no fear of Israeli retaliation for the infiltration of an Iranian stealth drone from Lebanon into its air space on Saturday, Oct. 6 - even after HIzballah leader Hassan Nasrallah promised more unmanned interlopers would intrude on Israel’s skies.

Tuesday, Oct. 16, America’s UN Ambassador Susan Rice told a Security Council meeting on the Middle East that Nasrallah’s fighters were now part of “Assad’s killing machine.” Hizballah’s leaders, she said, continue to plot with Iran new measures “for propping up a murderous and desperate dictator.”

The Assad regime has found succor in another, more powerful quarter: Moscow has announced the deployment starting Wednesday, Oct. 17, of advanced S-400 interceptor missile batteries in Russia's southern military region opposite Turkey.

Russian military spokesman Col. Igor Gorbul described those missiles as “targeting Turkey” against its involvement in NATO’s missile shield program. He emphasized that the S-400s are capable of destroying all types of airplanes, as well as ultra-stratospheric and ballistic missiles.

DEBKAfile's military sources say that, beside the issue of the NATO missile defense system to which Russia is firmly opposed, Moscow is relaying a double warning to Ankara on two additional scores:

One, that any more interceptions of Syria-bound aircraft coming from Russia after the incident of Oct. 10 would bring forth a Russian military response; and two, that Moscow will not tolerate aerial intrusion in the Syrian conflict by Turkey or any other NATO member. This warning was directed specifically against the imposition of a no-fly zone over Syria which Turkey is in the process of enforcing.
Col. Gorbul said the Russian army would finish relocating the S-400 interceptors in their new positions by the end of the year.

DEBKA file

Weapons of Mass Distraction