Monthly Archives: March 2013

Santorum interviews Rosenberg on “Damascus Countdown.” Here’s the podcast.

March 13, 2013 By in Epicenter

damascuscountdown“The external threat to our country is a nuclear Iran, and there is nobody that is more prescient in his fictional novels that he’s written about what’s going to happen in the Middle East than Joel Rosenberg,” said former U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Rick Santorum on his radio show on Tuesday. “I hope he is wrong in this case, but his latest book is sort of what happens if all the things we’re worried about actually do happen. So I’m anxious to talk to him.”

Here’s a link to the podcast of the interview Santorum did with me on his Patriot Voices radio program. The Senator and I discussed Damascus Countdown and current trendlines in Israel, Iran and Syria. We also discussed the President’s upcoming trip to the epicenter. The interview begins at about 6:20 minutes into the podcast. It is followed by an interview the Senator did with Dr. James Dobson.

Damascus countdown: “How long will Assad last?” National Intelligence Director testifies on Syria, Iran, other threats. Here’s what he said.

March 13, 2013 By in Epicenter
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testifies before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on "Current and Projected National Security Threats to the United States" on Capitol Hill in Washington March 12, 2013. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testifies before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on “Current and Projected National Security Threats to the United States” on Capitol Hill in Washington March 12, 2013. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

“The question comes up, ‘How long will Assad last?'” said James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, in testimony before a Senate panel, according to a Reuters report. “And our standard answer is, ‘His days are numbered. We just don’t know the number.’ Our assessment is that he is very committed to hanging in there and sustaining his control of the regime.”

“Assad’s government is losing territory and experiencing shortages in manpower and logistics, Clapper said. But at the same time, there are ‘literally hundreds’ of cells of opposition fighters over which leaders are struggling to impose more centralized command and control….He added that Iran is doing what it can to prop up Assad’s government, through aid and training, despite being weakened by international sanctions seeking to keep Tehran from developing nuclear weapons capability. ‘Iran continues to be a destabilizing force in the region providing weapons and training to Syrian forces and standing up a militia force there to fight the Syrian opposition,’ Clapper said, with the goal of having at least a foothold in Syria even if Assad falls.”

“The erosion of the Syrian regime’s authority is accelerating, and the ‘increasingly beleaguered’ government, which has been unable to defeat insurgents with conventional weapons, might be prepared to use chemical weapons, the top U.S. intelligence official said Tuesday,” reports the Washington Post. “James R. Clapper, director of national intelligence, also noted that elements of Syria’s biological weapons program ‘may have advanced beyond the research and development stage,’ and that Syria possesses conventional and chemical weapons systems that ‘could be modified for biological agent delivery.'”

“The opposition is gaining in strength; it is gaining territory,” Clapper said in a prepared statement to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday. “At the same time, the regime is experiencing shortages in manpower and logistics.”

“The prolonged instability is also allowing al-Qaeda’s al-Nusrah Front affiliate to establish itself in Syria, according to Clapper, who described the group as ‘pretty astute’ in its ability to provide municipal services amid the broadening humanitarian crisis,” notes the Post. “Clapper was testifying Tuesday along with the heads of the CIA, the FBI and the Defense Intelligence Agency, among others, as part of the intelligence community’s annual assessment of worldwide threats. The hearing covered the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, cybersecurity threats, regional instability, climate change and competition for natural resources.”

“Clapper said the intelligence community does ‘not know if Iran will eventually decide to build nuclear weapons.’ He said there were ‘indications’ that sanctions were leading to a change in the approach of Iran’s leadership, specifically its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but he held back on specifics until the classified session. ‘We assess Iran is developing nuclear capabilities to enhance its security, prestige and regional influence and give it the ability to develop nuclear weapons, should a decision be made to do so,’ Clapper said. ‘Of particular note, Iran has made progress during the past year that better positions it to produce weapons-grade uranium (WGU) using its declared facilities and uranium stockpiles, should it choose to do so. Despite this progress, we assess Iran could not divert safeguarded material and produce a weapon-worth of WGU before this activity is discovered.'”

OTHER KEY HEADLINES WORTH TRACKING:

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Hamas: ‘Declaration Of War’ If Obama Visits Temple Mount. How is Israel supposed to make peace in this environment?

March 12, 2013 By in Epicenter

TempleMount>> Boiling point: Palestinian violence spiking as Obama prepares to arrive

President Obama and world leaders continue to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to make peace with the Palestinian Authority (PA), as if Israel is the primary obstacle to peace in the Mideast. Yet the PA can’t even make peace within itself.

  • The territory the PA claims is deeply divided — not just geographically but politically.
  • Gaza is controlled by the Hamas terror organization which does not see itself under the rule of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen).
  • Hamas has fired thousands of rockets, mortars and missiles at Israeli civilians, while the PA has done nothing to stop them. 
  • The West Bank is ostensibly controlled by Abbas who is serving the eighth year of a four year term, and Abbas refuses to call new elections.
  • Abbas refuses to even recognize Israel a Jewish state.

Now Hamas is threatening to declare war on the U.S. if President Obama dares visit the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on his upcoming trip.

How exactly is Israel supposed to make peace with the PA in this environment?

“Hamas is warning that if President Obama visits the Temple Mount it would be a ‘declaration of war’ against the Islamic world,” reports AP and CBS News. “Israel National News reports the terror group made the threat during a protest march at the religious site following riots on Friday.”

“Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas spokesman, called for a third intifada if Obama visits the contested religious site in Jerusalem’s Old City between Israelis and Muslims,” AP notes. “Public Security Minister Yitzchak Aharonovich believes the warning will lead to violence flaring up in the region ahead of the president’s visit. ‘The Palestinians have not said the final word yet and we expect that there will be attempts to take advantage of the upcomingevents, like the visit by Barack Obama, in order to continue the violence,’ Aharonovich told Israel National News. White House officials have said Obama doesn’t plan on visiting the Temple Mount during his trip.”

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Israeli President Shimon Peres delivers historic, beautiful, brilliant speech to European leaders. Here’s the full text.

March 12, 2013 By in Epicenter
Israel's President Shimon Peres (L) thanks European Council President Hermen Van Rompuy during a joined news conference after a meeting at the EU Council. (photo credit: Reuters/Eric Vidal)

Israel’s President Shimon Peres (L) thanks European Council President Hermen Van Rompuy during a joined news conference after a meeting at the EU Council. (photo credit: Reuters/Eric Vidal)

“I stand here before you, burning memories in my heart, great hopes in my soul. I carry profound pain concerning the past. And look with confident eyes to the future.”

Israeli President Shimon Peres, 89, today addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg. It was powerful and personal and beautiful and brilliant. It was also historic. He spoke of being born and raised in Europe and having to leave before the Holocaust destroyed his family. He spoke of the deep and sordid historic enmity between Europe and the Jews, but also of how Europe changed after World War II and came to help Israel and the Jewish people.

“Peres’s speech was the first time a senior Israeli official addressed the European parliament in its current extended format with 754 members from 27 member states,” notes the Times of Israel. “In 1985, then-president Chaim Herzog spoke to the parliament in Strasbourg; at the time, the union had only 10 members.”

“The idea of the rebirth of Israel was born on European soil,” said Peres. “In the past thousand years, more Jews lived in Europe than in any other continent. Alas, more Jews were murdered in Europe in the last hundred years than in the preceding two thousand years. We experienced here the worst tragedy of our history. Here we dreamed an impossible rebirth. Six million, a third of our people, were murdered here by starvation, gas, rifles and fire. What remains from them is ashes. We shall not forget that the righteous among the nations carried candles of light in the darkness. They were small in number but great in heroism. Israel was born from the ashes at the end of the Second World War. If someone had stood up then and said that within three years a Jewish state would be created – he would have been considered a delirious visionary. But the dream became a reality.”

>> Peres: Iran is the greatest danger to world peace — the president, in a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, calls to label Hezbollah a terror organization.

The threats posed by Iran and Syria were major themes in the address, new existential threats no less dangerous than the European Holocaust. The Israeli leader “called on the international community Tuesday to limit Iran’s production of the long-range missiles that could deliver nuclear weapons, in addition to restricting the regime’s uranium enrichment program.” He also “appealed to the European Union to declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization,” noted the Times. “He said he opposed Western intervention in Syria, suggesting instead that the Arab League form a provisional government in Syria that would attempt to stop the bloodshed.”

“I believe that in addition to controlling the production of highly enriched uranium there is a need to control the means of delivery, to control the production of missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads,” Peres told the EU leaders. “Khamenei declared that religion prohibits the production and the use of nuclear arms. Why, then, does he build missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads?” Peres asked, referring to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader. He called the regime in Tehran the “greatest danger to peace in the world,” and urged the EU to condemn Iran’s human rights violations as they condemed Soviet violations during the Cold War.

Here is the full text of the Peres speech. I commend it to your attention.

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Iran puts five Christians on trial for their faith. Please pray for the persecuted Church in the Mideast.

March 12, 2013 By in Epicenter

“Five Iranian Christian converts who were detained late last year will reportedly begin trial in Iran’s Revolutionary Court this week, according to a human rights group following the case,” reports Fox News. “The five men were among seven arrested in October when security forces raided an underground house church in the city of Shiraz during a prayer session. They will be tried at the Revolutionary Court in Shiraz’s Fars Province on charges of disturbing public order, evangelizing, threatening national security and  engaging in Internet activity that threatens the government, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a religious persecution watchdog group.”

“Judging from recent cases, it is likely that, at the very least, those detained may face lengthy prison sentences,” said CSW spokesperson Kiri Kankhwende.

“According to Kankhwende, the crackdown against Christian converts and house churches parallels a general increase in repression against many, including  journalists, religious and cultural minorities and others as the government is  leading up to June’s presidential elections,” notes Fox News. “The five imprisoned men, Mohammad Roghangir, Surush Saraie, Eskandar Rezaie,  Shahin Lahooti and Massoud Rezaie are members of the Church of Iran  denomination, one of the country’s largest house church movements. ‘There has been a noticeable increase in the harassment, arrests, trials and imprisonments of converts to Christianity, particularly since the beginning of  2012,’ Kankhwende said. ‘Any movement that differs from or offers an alternative  to orthodox Shia Islam, and any persons who chooses to follow an alternative  belief system, are interpreted as a challenge to the very state itself.'”

“The underground church network has been rapidly growing in Iran as a place where converts from Islam to Christianity can pray as they are forbidden to attend services at formal churches. Alongside the growing network of home churches has been the increase in violent crackdowns and raids on these communities and arrests made on Christian  converts, among them the internationalized case of Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, held for almost three years on charges of apostasy and more recently American Pastor Saeed Abedini who is currently serving an eight-year sentence for  evangelizing and threatening national security. ‘House churches are growing because the converts have nowhere else to go,’ said Tiffany Barrans, international legal director at the American Center for  Law and Justice. ‘When you’re a convert to Christianity in Iran, you can’t go worship at the  church on the corner, because conversion is not acceptable. If they were allowed  to go to an official place of worship, there wouldn’t be a house church  movement,’ Barrans said.” [To read more, please click here]

Let’s be praying faithfully for these brothers and sisters in Christ, and for all persecuted believers in Iran and throughout the Middle East.

>> Preview of President Obama’s trip to Israel. What will be the key issues raised? Fox News interviews “Damascus Countdown” author.

Iran & Syria to top agenda when Obama & Putin meet in June

March 11, 2013 By in Epicenter

The eyes of world leaders are on riveted the threats posed by a nuclear Iran and an imploding Syria. I wish that was just the stuff of fiction, but I’m afraid it’s all too real. As we have noted, the threats posed by Iran and Syria will top the agenda when President Obama visits Israel later this month. In June, Iran and Syria will top the agenda when the President meets with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, as well.

To me, the interesting questions are these: What is the Russian leader planning to do about these two countries in 2013? Does he have a new policy towards either or both that he is planning to unveil? Putin seems to be keeping an unusually low profile so far this year. What does he have up his sleeve?

“President Barack Obama has phoned Russian President Vladimir Putin, welcoming Russian cooperation on international efforts to confront Iran’s nuclear ambitions,” reports the Associated Press. “The White House says the two men also discussed the ongoing violence in Syria, a topic that still divides Washington and Moscow. The White House says Putin and Obama agreed to hold their own meeting in June on the sidelines of the upcoming meeting of leading industrial nations in Northern Ireland. Obama also told Putin he looked forward to visiting St. Petersburg for the meeting of leading rich and developing nations in September. The White House says Putin and Obama welcome ‘substantive and constructive consultations’ by Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov over a political transition in Syria.”

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WOR-NYC radio interview: Rosenberg’s latest tome remains eerily prophetic on rising tensions between Israel, Iran and Syria

March 11, 2013 By in Epicenter

WOR>> Israeli Defense Minister: Syria falling apart before our eyes

“Joel Rosenberg, political strategist and author of Damascus Countdown, discussed the latest Middle East tensions and the premise of his  latest book with WOR’s John Gambling this morning,” notes the New York City radio station on its blog. “‘What if an American president miscalculates with regards to Iran’s nuclear  program?’ Rosenberg says about the premise of Damascus Countdown. ‘What  if he believes you can stop Iran’s nuclear weapons bid by diplomacy, by sanctions, by covert operations — and we always thought those three would  suffice — but what if he’s wrong?'”

To listen to the podcast of this interview, which took place Monday morning, please click here.

Other stories I’m tracking:

Preview of President Obama’s trip to Israel. What will be the key issues raised? Fox News interviews “Damascus Countdown” author.

March 11, 2013 By in Epicenter
Fox News interview about Iran-North Korea nuclear connection and President Obama's trip to Israel.

Fox News interview about Iran-North Korea nuclear connection and President Obama’s trip to Israel.

UPDATE: President Obama met on Monday with Arab-American leaders to discuss his upcoming trip to Israel. Last week, he met with Jewish-American leaders on the same subject. Is he laying the groundwork for big new policy changes, or just trying to “re-set” relations?

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With tensions mounting in the Middle East, President Obama is heading to Israel soon — March 20-22 — for his first state visit to the epicenter. He will also visit Jordan and meet with Palestinian leaders.

Prime Minister Netanyahu appears set to finalize his new government in the next few days. Top three items on the President’s agenda to discuss with the Israeli leadership:

  1. How to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons given that diplomacy, sanctions and covert ops aren’t working sufficiently
  2. How to handle the implosion of Syria and the risk of chemical and biological weapons being used, or captured by rogue elements
  3. How best to move forward with the Israeli-Palestinian peace process

In that context, Fox News Channel anchor Shannon Bream interviewed me yesterday to discuss the growing nuclear connection between Iran and North Korea, the changing Obama administration tone on the Iran threat, and how these will factor into the President’s trip to Jerusalem, Ramallah and Amman.

“Bestselling author Joel Rosenberg is out with a brand new book, Damascus Countdown, that looks at some of the frightening possibilities,” said Bream. “Congratulations on the new book, it is truly one of those page-turners, cannot-put-it-down kind of books, as I think all of your books are. Now you write fiction and non-fiction books. This happens to be fiction, but so close to reality, and a lot of the work that you do is based on current events.” At the close, she said, “Joel Rosenberg, fantastic new book. All the best with it. But people, don’t start there. Get the first one [The Twelfth Imam] and work your way through it. It’s really great.”

Here are the questions we discussed during the interview:

  • “How serious is the threat of a nuclear attack on the United States from North Korea, with that country threatening to turn Washington into a ‘sea of flame’? The U.N. has slapped new sanctions on North Korea again, but is that enough?
  • “How real is the connection between Iran and North Korea?”
  • “There is united concern across the international community about both of these different nations [Iran and North Korea] having this technology. Again we hear another round of sanctions and more disapproval….Does that work with either of these nations?”
  • “So with the language — the shift in tone that we’ve heard [from the Obama administration] about the window closing — and from Netanyahu about the ‘red line,’ what happens when we get to the red line, or to the window closing? What’s next?”

Here’s the video of the full interview. It runs about 4 minutes (and is preceded by a brief ad).

Key stories to track on the President’s upcoming trip to Israel, and the Iran-NK connections:

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Video: In meeting with Palestinian leader, Chavez urged 12th Imam to “come sooner”

March 11, 2013 By in Epicenter

chavez-mahdi“Late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who [recently] died of cancer, urged the Shiite Muslims’ 12th Imam, Mahdi, to return to Earth sooner than prophesied,  as revealed in a video released by Rajanews, a media outlet of Iran’s ruling  Islamic regime,” reports Iranian-born political analyst Reza Kahlili. “Shiites believe Mahdi, the last Islamic messiah, will only come back to Earth  after a great conflagration engulfs the Middle East, setting the stage for global Armageddon. When Mahdi returns, Shiites believe, Jesus Christ will be at his side. Chavez was a Catholic.”

“In the video,” notes Kahlili, “which is not dated, but appears to have been captured during a  signing of agreements at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Nov. 27,  2009, Chavez told his audience ‘Quds (Jerusalem) is a holy place for all of us Christians. I spoke with (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad about the day that Islam’s Quran says both (Mahdi and Christ) will return. Jesus, holding  hands with the 12th Imam, Mahdi.…Then peace will come upon the world. I tell Christ and Mahdi to come sooner, rush now, come sooner…because we witness the threats posed to the world, my God!”

Chavez made the comments during a meeting with Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

In my current novel series — The Twelfth Imam, The Tehran Initiative, and Damascus Countdown — I consider what the world would look like if the so-called Shia messiah known as the Twelfth Imam were to come to earth, and Iran were to build an arsenal of nuclear weapons, and an American President pressured Israel not to launch a preemptive strike against Iran, but Israel does anyway. Damascus Countdown, released last week, specifically imagines the implications of an Israeli attack and an Iranian retaliation, and the possibility that Syria could get drawn into such a war also, with catastrophic consequences.

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Ahmadinejad: Chavez Will Return With Jesus and The Twelfth Imam

March 11, 2013 By in Epicenter

Lest there be any doubt how deeply Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is longing for the soon-coming for the one he believes is the Shia messiah, it is worth noting the Iranian leader invoked the Twelfth Imam after the death of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

“Hugo Chavez is already being touted as a martyr and a messiah by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who equated the now deceased Venezuelan leader to Jesus and Shiite Islam’s 12th imam…saying, ‘I have no doubt that he will return, along with the righteous Jesus and the perfect human,'” reports The Algemeiner. “Ahmadinejad also reiterated claims made by Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro that Chavez died of a ‘suspect illness’ but didn’t go as far as Maduro had in equating Chavez’s death to that of late Palestinian Liberation Organization Chairman Yassir Arafat, who some believe died by poisoning at the hands of Israel. A cabinet meeting chaired by the president declared Wednesday a day of mourning in Iran, the state television website said. During Chavez’s tenure Venezuela became increasingly close with the Islamic Republic with Chavez making 13 visits to Iran between 1999 and his death on Tuesday. Ahmadinejad has made six visits to Venezuela since 2005.”

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