Prophetic Times

WEEKLY WORLD NEWS UPDATE

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA

15 MARCH 2003

TOP MILITARY OFFICIAL PREDICTS EU MERGE WITH NATO

Mar 12, 2003 euobserver.com The European pillar in NATO and European security and defense policy (ESDP) will be merged, according to Gustav Hägglund, chairman of the Military Committee of the European Union. Speaking at the University of Helsinki, the European Union's highest military official added that if Finland does not decide in favor of NATO membership by the end of this decade it really makes no difference. By that time EU security and defense policy and the European pillar in NATO will all be the same.

Mr Hägglund expressed deep concern about America neglecting the importance of NATO and Europe. He referred to the new security strategy presented by US President, George Bush, in September which barely mentioned NATO and Europe. "The new goal for Europe is to maintain the relevance of NATO in American security thinking", Mr Hägglund said.

The Finns are in the middle of a heated debate over whether to join NATO and give up their traditional neutrality. This could end up being decided by referendum.

EGYPT’S AL AZHAR CALLS FOR JIHAD AGAINST U.S.

Mar 12, 2003 The Middle East Newsline reports: "The most prominent Sunni Muslim seminary, sponsored by the Egyptian government, has called for holy war against the United States and its allies. The Cairo-based Al Azhar seminary issued a ruling on Monday that called on Muslims to wage a 'jihad,' or holy war against the United States and allied forces that participate in the war against Iraq. The seminary said all Muslims are required by their religion to join the jihad once the United States attacks Baghdad. The communiqué referred to the United States as the crusader.

'The jihad against the crusader forces is a commandment on all Muslims should the foreign forces begin hostilities,'

Al Azhar's Supreme Council said in the ruling.

The communiqué was the most explicit call by Al Azhar for Muslims to attack U.S. interests throughout the Middle East. For months, Al Azhar and its spiritual leader, Mohammed Sid Tantawi, had remained silent on the issue of a Muslim response to a U.S. war against Iraq…"

SADDAM READY TO KILL IRAQIS

Mar 12, 2003 The Washington Times reports: "Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is planning attacks on his own people in the event of a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and his top operative, a general nicknamed 'Chemical Ali,' has been put in charge of southern Iraq to quell any civilian uprisings, U.S. officials say.

The Pentagon is communicating with Iraqi military commanders, both through leaflet drops and private e-mails, to discourage them from carrying out Saddam's orders. The Iraqis also will be given instructions on how to surrender.

'They are being communicated with privately at the present time,' Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon. 'They will be communicated with in a more public way. And they will receive instructions so that they can behave in a way that will be seen and understood as being nonthreatening.'

U.S. military officials say there are increasing indications that Saddam will kill his own people and blame the atrocities on invading American forces. Bush administration officials reported last week that Saddam was planning to dress Iraqi forces in coalition uniforms and order them to kill innocents.

Mr. Rumsfeld suggested yesterday that Saddam is considering shelling civilians with deadly chemical weapons, as he did in 1988, killing up to 100,000 Kurds in northern Iraq…"

SOLDIER'S CHILLING WARNING

Mar 11, 2003 SkyNews.com reports: "An Iraqi defector has told Sky News that Saddam Hussein will use chemical weapons if the country is invaded. His warning comes amid revelations Saddam Hussein may be planning to use pilotless drone planes to spray British and US troops with anthrax and sarin gas if they attack.

In an exclusive interview, the officer with Saddam's elite Republican Guard, said the use of chemical weapons by Iraq was '100% guaranteed'.

The 26-year-old soldier defected 10 days ago near the city of Sulaymaniyah in Northern Iraq. He is being guarded in a safe house and is said to have provided valuable intelligence to authorities.

'A chemical attack is guaranteed,' he warned. 'We have been fully provided with complete protection gear, gas masks, first aid kit, injections.'

In the 1991 war, Saddam Hussein deployed his chemical weapons but they were not used.

'We are sure about the chemical bombardment,' said the defector, whose identity is being protected. 'In the last stage, he will use it as a last resort.'…"

REPORT: IRAN HAS 'EXTREMELY ADVANCED' NUCLEAR PROGRAM

Mar 10, 2003 CNN reports: "According to a Time magazine report, Iran has a nuclear program that is far more advanced than has been previously disclosed. Citing unnamed diplomatic sources, Time says U.N. weapons inspectors have discovered that Iran's uranium-enrichment facility is 'extremely advanced,' to the point that it violates the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty [NPT].

On a visit last month to Iran, Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, visited the facility designed to enrich uranium that Iran is building near Natanz.

But diplomatic sources quoted by Time say he found the plant much further advanced than previously believed. The sources say work on the plant is 'extremely advanced,' involves hundreds of gas centrifuges ready to produce enriched uranium and 'the parts for a thousand others ready to be assembled.'

Iran has confirmed that two facilities, the one in Natanz and another near Arak, are indeed nuclear plants, but it says the country's nuclear program is aimed at building nuclear power plants.

'Iranian experts have acquired the knowledge for civilian application of the nuclear technology,' President Mohammed Khatami said in February. The Iranian leader added that nations have a right to do so.

Sources told Time that the IAEA, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, found that Iran has added uranium to some centrifuges as a test -- in 'blatant violation' of the NPT, to which Iran is a signatory.

'If Iran were found to have an operating centrifuge, it would be a direct violation [of the treaty] and is something that would need immediately to be referred to the United Nations Security Council for action,' Jon Wolfstahl of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace was quoted as saying in the article…"

IRAQ TRANSPORTS WMD TO SYRIAN, TURKISH BORDERS

Mar 7, 2003 The Middle East Newsline reports: "Iraq is said to have transported chemical and biological weapons to the borders with Syria and Turkey.

U.S. officials said an Iraqi intelligence unit was spotted transporting the nonconventional weapons about six weeks ago from facilities in Baghdad to the Syrian and Turkish borders. They said the transfer of the weapons appeared to be part of an effort to conceal them from United Nations inspectors and spare them from any expected U.S. attack.

'We know that in late January, the Iraqi Intelligence Service transported chemical and biological agents to areas far away from Baghdad, near the Syrian and Turkish borders, in order to conceal them,' U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Wednesday. 'And they have concealed them from the prying eyes of inspectors.'

In an address to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, Powell did not identify or say how many BW and CW weapons were transferred by Iraq. But Powell and other officials said Iraq is believed to have produced such agents as anthrax, VX and botulinum toxin…"

Compiled by L. Jim Tuck, Pastor
ljtuc@msn.com
UCGIA, Oakland, San Jose, Santa Rosa & Stockton, California