The U.S. is retrofitting its B-2 Stealth bombers with massive bunker-buster bombs - a move that could be a prelude to an attack on Iran and its nuclear facilities.
Iran has refused to comply with international demands that it stop its nuclear weapons programs.
Dig on the Temple Mount YouTube.com, July 11, 2007
For Jerusalem, Shared Sovereignty
By Hady Amr and Joel H. Samuels
Special to washingtonpost.com's Think Tank Town
Saturday, July 21, 2007
From Iraq, to Kosovo to Lebanon to Israel and Palestine, the United States and the broader international community find ourselves struggling to find solutions for ethnic/religious conflict for control over territory. Despite recent setbacks, President Bush's July 16th call for an autumn international peace conference on Israel and Palestine underlines both the importance -- and the possibility -- of a solution.
Central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has always been finding a solution for Jerusalem -- and the holy city remains both the symbol and the cornerstone of the conflict between Israel and the Muslim world. It is also a symbol of America's failure in the Middle East, and a lynchpin to winning the "war of ideas" with the Muslim world.
Current nuclear threat worse than during Cold War - U.S. expert -1 Russian News & Information Agency, July, 21, 2007
WASHINGTON, July 19 (RIA Novosti) - The risks of an accidental nuclear war have increased since the Cold War as Russia's early warning capability has deteriorated, a former U.S. defense official said.
William J. Perry, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and co-Director of the Preventive Defense Project at Stanford University, said in a congressional testimony Wednesday that "the danger of nuclear war occurring by accident" still existed.
"Both American and Russian missiles remain in a launch-on-warning mode," Perry, who served as U.S. defense secretary in 1994-97, said. "And the inherent danger of this status is aggravated by the fact that the Russian warning system has deteriorated since the ending of the Cold War." Peres calls for direct talks with Syria if it wants a 'real' peace
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent, July 19, 2007
President Shimon Peres called Thursday for direct negotiations with Syria if its stated desire for peace talks is genuine, at a meeting with China's special envoy to the Middle East.
"If Syria wants real peace, there is no substitute for direct negotiations between it and Israel, to be held at a meeting between leaders which will signify mutual recognition," Peres told Chinese envoy Sun Bigan at his official residence in Jerusalem.
Widespread 'Twilight Zone' Detected Around Clouds NASA News Archive, May 3, 2007
There seems to be something new under the sun -- in the sky, specifically -- that could complicate scientists' efforts to get a fix on how much the world will warm in the future. Greenhouse gases are not the only things in the air that influence the temperature of our atmosphere. Clouds and small airborne particles called aerosols also play an important and complicated role. And now a new ingredient has been discovered: an extensive and previously unseen �twilight zone� of particles that represents a gradual transition from cloud droplets to dry particles.
Chertoff's 'Gut Feeling' Could Be a Nuclear Detonation NewsMax; Paul L. Williams, Ph.D., Monday, July 16, 2007
Adding more fuel to the mounting fears, FBI Director Robert Mueller confirmed to NewsMax that al-Qaida intends to detonate a nuclear device that would kill millions of Americans. He said that the threat is so real he lies awake at night thinking about the effects of such an attack.
U.S. threatened with more isolation
TOM RAUM
Associated Press, Posted on Fri, Jul. 21, 2006
WASHINGTON - President Bush's uncompromising support for Israel in its battle with Hezbollah, a stance now backed by Congress, is threatening to isolate the United States even further from the international community.
It is also putting the administration at odds with fragile democratic governments in the Middle East that it is simultaneously trying to prop up, and sowing increasing anger across the Arab world.
The democratically elected prime ministers of both Iraq and Lebanon have been among the most vocal critics of U.S. policy in the 10-day Israeli bombardment of Lebanon.
Some foreign policy analysts question whether Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice can make much headway on her trip to the region early next week - especially given U.S. rejection of international calls for a cease-fire and refusal to talk to key players such as Hezbollah or its Iranian and Syrian sponsors.
"You don't just negotiate with your friends. Sometimes you negotiate with your enemies, or at least your adversaries," said Sandy Berger, former national security adviser in the Clinton White House. "We negotiated with the Soviet Union for 50 years."
Both the first President Bush and President Clinton met directly with then-Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in efforts to advance Mideast peace prospects.
But the current Bush administration is adamant in resisting any direct contact with Syrian President Bashar Assad, son of the former president, or with Hezbollah leaders.
"The track record stinks" in terms of what both former Presidents Bush and Clinton achieved in their meetings with Assad's father, White House press secretary Tony Snow said. And Rice told reporters on Friday, "Syria knows what it needs to do, and Hezbollah is the source of the problem."
Pressuring Hizbollah key in Mideast crisis: Bush Reuters Saturday, July 22, 2006; 10:19 AM
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - The United States will urge Middle East leaders to help boost pressure on Hizbollah as a means of solving the crisis in southern Lebanon, President George W. Bush said on Saturday.
Intense fighting between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas has prompted growing international calls for an immediate ceasefire.
The Bush administration has rejected that approach and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who leaves on Sunday for a trip to the region, said she would focus instead on finding a sustainable end to the violence.
Previewing Rice's trip in his weekly radio address, Bush said she would "make it clear that resolving the crisis demands confronting the terrorist group that launched the attacks and the nations that support it."
Bush cited the role of Iran and Syria in providing help to Hizbollah.
"Their actions threaten the entire Middle East and stand in the way of resolving the current crisis and bringing lasting peace to this troubled region," said Bush, who is spending the weekend at his Crawford ranch.
Rice is to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories and join Arab officials, including some from Lebanon, at an international conference on the crisis in Rome.
Lebanon Seeks Help From Vatican By the NewsMax.com Staff
For the story behind the story... Thursday, July 20, 2006 10:43 a.m. EDT
Lebanon turned Wednesday to the Vatican for help in pressing for a cease-fire in the Middle East, dispatching the son of assassinated premier Rafik Hariri to meet with the Holy See's secretary of state.
Vatican officials said Cardinal Angelo Sodano met Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian majority in Lebanon's parliament whose father's assassination last year led to massive protests that drove Syria out of Lebanon.
Hariri was scheduled to meet Italian Premier Romano Prodi and Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema on Thursday. Italy has been playing the role of what Prodi calls a "facilitator" in efforts to defuse the crisis.
The Vatican-affiliated news agency Asia News reported Wednesday that Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora had telephoned Sodano a day earlier to seek the Vatican's help in pressing for a cease-fire.
Cardinal Exhorts U.N. to Make Peace in Middle East Zenit.org Date: 2006-07-18
ROME, JULY 18, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace is calling on the United Nations to promote dialogue and peace in the Middle East.
Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino urged the "international community, and the United Nations in particular," to "promote dialogue and peace" and affirm the state of law in the region.
Six days ago, the present crisis between Israel and Lebanon was added to the already complex situation in the Middle East.
International community
Cardinal Martino told Vatican Radio today that the Catholic Church is following closely the evolution of this spiral of violence. "As His Holiness Benedict XVI underlined in Sunday's Angelus," "the extension of the warlike actions in the Middle East cause great concern, in particular for the fate of the civilian population."
"The situation is complex and difficult to decipher, so much so as to threaten the peace and security not only of the region, but of the whole world," he said.
"At the same time, however, and with determination, in such a scenario of violence and cruel opposition, both the terrorist acts of some, as well as the military reprisals of others must be repudiated, given that both constitute a violation of law and of the most basic principles of justice."
Cardinal Martino, who was the Holy See's permanent observer to the United Nations for more than 25 years, said that "without delay, and before the conflict degenerates assuming even more difficult dimensions to manage, the international community and the United Nations are called to promote dialogue and peace between the opposing parties and the affirmation of a state of law in the area."
Gingrich Says World War III Has Begun By the NewsMax.com Staff
For the story behind the story...Sunday, July 16, 2006 3:56 p.m. EDT
World War III has begun, and the nation�s leadership is failing to deal with this reality, former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich concludes.
Appearing on NBC�s "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert Sunday, Gingrich explained that "today is not the fifth day of the war, it�s the 58th year of the effort by those who want to destroy Israel. As Ahmadinejad, the head of Iran, says, he wants to defeat the Americans and eliminate Israel from the face of the earth. So we should not see this event in isolation. There is an . . . Iran/Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas alliance trying to destroy Israel.�
"The Israelis withdrew from Gaza to create the circumstance of peace. The Israelis withdrew from south Lebanon to create the circumstance of peace,� Gingrich continued. "They now have a thousand missiles fired from Gaza, they�ve had hundreds of missiles fired from south Lebanon. You clearly have Iranian involvement. There are at least 400 Iranian guards in south Lebanon. Apparently it was an Iranian missile fired by Iranians which hit an Israeli warship yesterday. The United States should be saying to Syria and Iran, 'South Lebanon is going to be cleared out. We are for Israel and the Lebanese government breaking the back of Hezbollah, getting rid of all 10,000 to 13,000 missiles, and we will decisively stop any effort by Syria and Iran to intervene.'�
Gingrich says the current crisis facing Israel is part of a larger world war that involved the United States.
