Russia "Dupes" United Nations and President Obama on Iranian Scheme

Iran wins six-power legitimacy for uranium enrichment - contrary to UN resolutions

DEBKAfile Special Report

October 5, 2009, 5:41 PM (GMT+02:00)
Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov

If Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov is to be believed, Iran came out of its first diplomatic engagement with the big powers flushed with success. Not only has Tehran gained international legitimacy for its enriched uranium program - contrary to UN Security Council resolutions - but third-nation help is on tap for reaching a higher grade of enrichment.

Monday, Oct. 5, Lavrov let the cat out of the bag when he said in Vienna that an agreement reached between Tehran and six world powers last week for Russia to help enrich uranium for an Iranian reactor had yet to be finalized.

He said experts would meet soon to implement the plan, after the IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei stated in Tehran Sunday that the experts would meet in Vienna Oct. 19 to discuss the deal for Russia to take some of Iran's processed uranium and enrich it further.

The Russian minister referred to "an Iranian reactor," whereas the IAEA chief spoke of enriched uranium to be reprocessed abroad "for use as medical isotopes." Visitors are shown around a small medical reactor in Tehran to demonstrate that its nuclear program is innocuous although Western intelligence believes it to be a link in Iran's covert plutonium bomb project.

The plan to be cleared in Vienna is for the transfer of Iran's stock of uranium enriched to 3-5 percent to Russia where it would be further reprocessed to 19.75 percent. Former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton explained Monday that this level "is barely under the 20 percent definition of weapons-grade" uranium.

None of the representatives of the big powers attending last Thursday's meeting with the Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili last Thursday, Oct. 1, revealed that Russia's helping hand would effectively jump-start Iran to cover the distance to 90 percent enrichment in no more than a week or two.

The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi was perfectly correct when he said there has been no change in his government's "nuclear stance" as a result of the Geneva conference. Not only has Iran not given an inch, but it is presenting the conference and the IAEA chief's visit as "Western acknowledgement of its right to pursue civil nuclear technology including enrichment."

The harsh sanctions hanging over Iran's head have melted away. Indeed, Tehran is effectively off the hook of past sanctions which punished it for pursuing a banned enrichment program.

Furthermore, Moscow will boost enriched uranium stocks four to fivefold.

If the Vienna meeting on Oct. 19 approves this arrangement, it will cut the ground from under any US or Israeli demands for further UN sanctions. It is therefore hard to understand why the Israeli government headed by Binyamin Netanyahu has not spoken up in protest against a deal which shortens Iran's road to a nuclear weapon.

Iran buids weapons arsenal while hiding behind "nuclear" issues.

The Other Ticking Clock in Iran

Forget about Iran's nukes for the moment. The real crisis is its drive for advanced surface-to-air missiles.

BY CHRISTIAN CARYL | OCTOBER 2, 2009

The recent revelations about Iran's nuclear program -- centering on an enrichment facility buried in a mountain near the holy city of Qom -- have almost certainly intensified the sense of urgency among policymakers in Jerusalem. Even though the news has triggered a new round of high-stakes diplomacy (including an unusual bilateral meeting between Americans and Iranians), you can bet that Israeli military planning for an attack on the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities has moved into overdrive. Yet there's another ticking clock the Israelis are worried about that hasn't been in the headlines quite so much.

For years now, Tehran has been working hard to acquire sophisticated Russian antiaircraft missiles that would make it far tougher for Israeli planes to stage a successful attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. One Israeli lawmaker, Zeev Elkin, even warned last week that delivering the missiles could even speed up the timing of an Israeli air raid. "I hope Moscow understands that the deliveries will at least speed up such events, if not trigger them," Elkin told the Russian daily Kommersant. Experts estimate that a working Iranian nuclear weapon is still probably at least a year away, depending on a host of contingencies. But the Russian missiles, which just might ensure that Iran's nuclear installations can be protected from attack, could be delivered at any time. So it's easy to understand why, right now, Israeli minds seem to be focused on the more urgent of these two ticking clocks.

The system in question is the S-300 -- actually something of a catchall term because the name covers several systems of varying ages and levels of effectiveness. The S-300 is essentially the Russian equivalent of the American Patriot: quick-reaction missiles designed to defend large areas of airspace against incoming airplanes and ballistic missiles. Although the S-300 has never been tested under combat conditions, military experts have a high opinion of its capabilities -- especially those of the more recent variants like the PMU-2 Favorit (known in the West as the SA-20B), which can track 100 targets while engaging up to 12. It can hit targets as far as 120 miles away. "It's a high-technology weapon," said Siemon Wezeman of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks arms shipments around the world. "It has an impact which is not restricted to just two or three square kilometers. It's a major thing."

Russia apparently first offered the Iranians the chance to buy S-300s in 2005, but then pulled back on the deal due to diplomatic controversies surrounding Iran's nuclear programs. In 2007, Tehran signed a contract to buy several S-300 batteries -- or so at least it would seem. Confusion about the actual state of the deal has swirled ever since. Anatoly Isaikin, director of Russia's state arms export company, confirmed in September of last year that the two countries were negotiating a sale. In April of this year Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mehdi Safari visited Moscow to push things along and declared, "There are no problems with this contract." Yet so far none of the system appears to have been delivered to the Iranians.

The Israelis don't seem reassured. For months they've been lobbying Moscow to hold off on delivering the missiles. Israel's Russian-speaking foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, visited the Kremlin in June, and the missile deal figured large in his discussions with Russian officials. President Shimon Peres turned up in Russia in August to drive home the point. In September, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also set off for talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. First item on the agenda: S-300s. (Netanyahu at first told the press he was headed somewhere else, but the cover story soon fell through, igniting considerable controversy back at home.)

Why are the Israelis so worked up? Simple. Just consider the air raid -- dubbed "Operation Orchard" -- staged by Israel on a suspected nuclear facility in Syria in September 2007. (U.S. and Israeli officials contend that the Syrian installation was built with help from the North Koreans.) The Syrian air defenses consisted largely of the same missiles the Iranians have now -- Russian-made Tor M1s (known by NATO as SA-15s). But they didn't leave a scratch on the attackers. The Israelis successfully befuddled the Syrian radars and didn't lose a single plane; the Syrian target was completely wiped out. The raid has been described as a "dress rehearsal" for a possible attack on Iranian sites.

The whole affair might have worked out rather differently had the Syrians been equipped with S-300s -- and the Israelis know it. The Russians boast that, in stark contrast to the Patriot, the S-300 actually hits warheads rather than missile bodies. (It is well remembered in the missile business that most Iraqi Scuds that were intercepted by Patriots during the first Gulf War made it to their targets anyway.) The Russians also claim that the powerful radars of their latest generation of air-defense missiles can even cope with stealth aircraft. "It's long range; it's high altitude; it's fast," said John Pike, founder of defense industry Web site GlobalSecurity.org.

"At minimum the S-300 would force the Israelis to take extensive countermeasures, like using aircraft with jammers, aircraft with anti-radiation missiles, drones with decoys -- this whole three-ring circus that you would need to get past it."

Small wonder that many observers think Israel would go to considerable lengths to prevent a shipment of the high-tech missiles. Earlier this year an Israeli hand was immediately suspected in the peculiar case of the Arctic Sea, the cargo ship that was mysteriously hijacked in the Baltic Sea this summer and then disappeared from view for several weeks until the Russian Navy finally caught up with it off the coast of Cape Verde. Rumor had it that the ship, which had made a stop in the Russian port of Kaliningrad before setting out on its voyage, was carrying S-300 parts (perhaps illicitly obtained by organized criminals) to Iran. Perhaps the Mossad was behind the hijacking?

We'll probably never know what really happened. The hijackers were taken into custody by the Russians and have since been held incommunicado. But the idea of Israeli involvement seems unlikely for many reasons (not least the sloppiness with which the hijacking was carried out). As Wezeman of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute points out, you don't really own the S-300 if you only have a few scavenged parts -- the whole weapon comprises a big package, including truck-mounted launchers and bulky radar units. Plus, he notes, the equipment is essentially useless without the necessary technical support and multiyear maintenance contracts, which will only come with a legally delivered system.

Some of the most intriguing maneuverings surrounding Iran's effort to beef up its air defenses are taking place in the public arena. Russian officials -- all the way up to President Medvedev himself -- have publicly stressed that Moscow is within its rights to sell S-300s to Tehran, arguing that the Iranians are entitled to any defensive systems they wish to own (and that this doesn't violate the U.N. embargo on supplying Iran with nuclear-related technology). Yet the fact that the Kremlin feels compelled to make the case suggests that the lobbying is having some effect. And not only from the Israelis. Some experts think the Barack Obama administration's cancellation of ballistic missile defense plans in Eastern Europe might have involved a countermove by Russia to back off from delivering S-300s to Tehran. Could that, perhaps, be connected with the recent news from Saudi Arabia? It turns out that the Saudis have been offering the Russians a better price for the sale of the S-300 to them instead of to the Iranians (whose nuclear aspirations are only slightly less disturbing to Riyadh than to Tel Aviv).

But the Russians have to be careful. The Chinese have apparently offered to sell the Iranians their own version of the S-300, a cheaper knockoff of the Russian original. Moscow doesn't want to lose its present favored position as the cheap weapons supplier to Iran, one of the few big arms markets left where Russia is an undisputed leader. Weapons sales are big business for Moscow tycoons. (Just to make things even more interesting, the company that makes the S-300 is run by ex-KGB man Viktor Ivanov, a major ally of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.)

Still, it's safe to assume that some skulduggery has already been taking place out of the public eye. The Israelis (and the Americans) must be keeping a close eye on every Russian cargo airplane that enters Iranian airspace, not to mention ships traveling between the two countries across the Caspian Sea. And given the tensions, it's easy to imagine that Israeli special forces are already hunkered down in the desert outside Natanz and Arak, keeping a close eye on everything that's happening in the surrounding countryside and getting ready to switch on their laser pointers when the time is ripe -- as they apparently did in the run-up to the 2007 raid in Syria. This story is far from over.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth ~ Jack Kelley

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.”  (Matt. 6:19-20)

 

US dollars are backed by the “full faith and credit” of the United States government, not by the approximately 147 million ounces of gold in Fort Knox, like they used to be.  (At $1,000 dollars per ounce that's $147 billion worth.  The last reliable estimates put the total dollars in circulation or on deposit at $8.3  trillion, so even if the dollar was backed by gold there's less than 2 cents worth of gold behind each one.)

So the value of a dollar is determined by how confident the rest of the world is in the stability of the US economy.  China holds the largest amount of dollars in reserve, about 2 trillion, and has about $800 billion more in bonds they hold.  China has let it be known that their confidence in the dollar has been shaken by the recent economic turmoil in the US.  Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia,  and others feel the same way.  And recently the UN has joined China and others in calling for a new, more stable currency to replace the dollar in world markets.  Rest assured, if these countries can find a way to replace the dollar they'll do so, and the value of the dollar will decline even more rapidly. 

They'll do this because they know the US has recently been flooding the market with money that isn't worth the paper it's printed on and sooner or later it will trigger an inflationary spiral that will further erode the dollar's value.  In the current round of Economic Summit meetings other nations are insisting that the US agree to stop spending (printing money) and start saving.  But they don't believe our government is willing to exercise the necessary restraint to make this action effective.  Therefore their choice is to do something and lose a little now or do nothing and lose a lot later. 

                   Meanwhile, Back At Home ...

At the same time experts in this country believe that unemployment will remain high for another year or so.  They believe that many more homes, perhaps more than a million, will soon enter foreclosure.  They know that the commercial real estate and credit card markets are still in trouble and could trigger another recession, even before we're out of this one. Lately, I've been seeing more references to “recession part 2” in financial commentaries as a possibility for 2010.  

It's also been reported that a new phenomenon, called Strategic Default or “walkaway”, has come on the financial scene.  It involves home owners with good credit scores who are often current on their payments deciding to just walk away from their mortgage obligations.  They do this because they don't believe they'll ever get back to an equity position in their home.  According to the LA Times there were over 580,000 cases nationwide last year, more than double 2007's total, and current indications are that this number is continuing to grow. (In California where the once booming market has gone bust, walkaways were 68 times higher in 2008 than in 2005.)   

Because of all this uncertainty, some people look at converting their cash into other currencies, like Euros or Yen, to protect themselves against the possibility of the dollar's sudden demise,  but quickly realize those currencies are just as volatile. 

Still others enter the gold and silver markets, not understanding that this is just a place to temporarily park assets until the economy improves.  You can't spend the coins you buy.  No matter how much the gold in your five dollar gold piece is worth, your neighborhood grocer is only going to give you five buck's worth of food for it. You have to find a buyer who'll give you paper money for your gold before you can spend it.  If the economy never rebounds, you might be out of luck. 

According to Bible prophecy the world will get to a point one day where people will labor all day just to make enough money to buy their food for the day. (Rev. 6:6)  There won't be any left over for rent, utilities, car payments, or anything else. This won't happen because food is so scarce, but because money will be worth so little.  Therefore, trying to save up enough to get you through those times is an exercise in futility. In periods of run away inflation, savers are penalized by the consistent decline in the value of their savings.

For example, it takes 12 of today's dollars to equal the purchasing power one dollar had at the end of WW2, and over that time annual inflation averaged less than 4% per year.  The dollar's purchasing power could erode that significantly in a matter of months during a period of runaway inflation.         

But my purpose here is not to present a seminar on economics.  It's to introduce the only investment strategy that can protect you against catastrophic loss if the bottom falls out from under us.  It involves exchanging earthly dollars that, have steadily declined in value in both good times and bad, for Kingdom dollars that cannot decline in value, or be lost or stolen.

There are two goals in this strategy.  The first is to comfortably survive the coming hard times in what's left of this life (Surviving), and the second is to create wealth for the next one (Thriving).  You can do both starting today.

                   Goal 1. Surviving

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matt. 6:25,33)

A couple of years ago, I started warning people to either voluntarily change the way they live or wait till they're forced to change involuntarily. Since then many have been forced to significantly adjust their lifestyles, and many more are teetering on the brink.  Yet I don't hear stories of churches filling up with people seeking after the Lord's righteousness. 

If you survived the first round of financial turmoil unscathed, don't think you'll automatically be immune to the next one. I truly believe that the Lord is allowing every source of security to be systematically stripped from us until only He is left.  Make it easy on yourself.  Take the first step now.  Seek His kingdom and His righteousness and begin to feel the burden of worry lifting from your back, and the smile returning to your face, as you let Him take responsibility for your well being. The Lord is the only one capable of carrying us through the difficulties yet to come.    

                   Goal 2. Thriving

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. (1 Cor. 9:6,8)

Waiting for the Lord to bless you before you start investing in His work is like waiting for a stove to give you heat before throwing in some wood.  Sowing always precedes reaping, so start where you are.   Recall how grateful you are that the Lord has saved you, and where you'd be heading had He not done so.  Then express your gratitude by investing in His work.  You don't have to look around for an area of need.  Just find a place where it's obvious the Lord is already working and pitch in. Give gratefully and generously according to your ability.  And remember, every time you do you're exchanging earthly dollars for Kingdom dollars.

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. (1 Cor. 9:10)

Soon you'll see other areas where you could help and you'll find you have an increased ability as well.  Where at first you only had a dollar to invest, you'll see you now have two. Fight the tendency to hold some back and increase your giving instead, always with an attitude of gratitude.  The main thing to remember here is that giving with the expectation of receiving isn't being generous, it's being greedy.  (That's the first fatal flaw in the so-called prosperity gospel.)

You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. (1 Cor. 9:11)

Most people worry that they'll never be able to afford giving even 10% to the Lord.  But people who follow this strategy in good faith eventually find themselves giving 30-40% and still have more than enough for themselves.  If you work for a salary, it's hard to imagine how this could work.  But remember all money comes from the Lord, regardless of who signs your paycheck, and He has an  unlimited amount.  Show him you can be a good steward with what He's giving you now and you'll get an increase, because He promised that those who are faithful with a little will be given more.  But for those who are not, even the little they have will be taken away from them. The evidence is all around us.

The first half of 1 cor. 9:11 is so exciting to us that we forget the second half.  Yes, we can be made rich in every way, but it's so we can be generous on every occasion. And that's prosperity gospel's second fatal flaw.  Wealth is not a gift to be wasted on indulgences for our personal benefit, it's a trust to be administered for the benefit of others.  Spending money we don't have on things we don't need is neither an expression of gratitude nor a demonstration of generosity.  On the contrary, it's evidence that if the Lord gave us more money, we'd just become greedier. 

Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  (Lamentations 3:22-23)

No matter how far upside down you are financially, you're not beyond the Lord's help.  The very day you determine in your heart to abandon your self indulgent ways and begin to express your gratitude and demonstrate your generosity, He'll go to work with you to help make the future different. 

And remember, generosity is not a number, it's a state of mind.  It's not how much you invest in His work that matters so much as the motive in your heart while you're doing it.  Remember the widow's mite? (Luke 21:1-3)

“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." (Luke 6:38)

The bottom line is that this investment strategy pays better than any other you can find.  And it's also unbeatable for overall security.  The Lord's bank can't fail, inflation will never erode your earnings, and nothing can ever cause the value of your investment to decline.  Also, we can see from the examples I've cited that your returns are payable both in this world and in the next.  What other investment do you know of that can promise that?

And talk about safe.  The value of Kingdom dollars is backed by the full faith and credit of the Almighty Himself. The value of earthly dollars is only backed by the full faith and credit of the US government.  Are you OK with that? 

"Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." (Luke 12:15)

The only condition the Lord imposes on this strategy is that we stop conforming to the patterns of this world and allow our minds to be transformed where it comes to our relationship with Him. (Romans 12:1-2)  That means we start giving Him the final say in determining the direction of our lives, and   expressing our gratitude for what He's done for us by becoming a channel through which He can bless the world around us.  When we do, we'll discover that we feel more gratitude, demonstrate more generosity, and in turn experience greater returns.  We can't lose.  Selah 09-26-09

The Spirit of God Commentary One: Searching for the Answer ~ Chuck Smith

Searching for the Answer

I spent much of my childhood and adolescent years trying to prove I was normal even though I didn’t go to
movies or dances. In the Pentecostal church I attended, movies and dancing were considered horrible sins.

Since I couldn’t join my friends in their worldly activities, I asked them to attend church with me, for we were
constantly being exhorted to witness for Christ by bringing friends to church.

The problem was that almost every Sunday the pastor would warn of the evils of Hollywood,
dancing, drinking, and smoking. He used to say, “If God wanted man to smoke, He would have put a chimney on top of his head.” Besides this, the service was always interrupted by two or three “messages in tongues” and interpretations.

Many times as I was seated with my unsaved friends that I had brought to church, Mrs. Newman would start
breathing funny. I had learned that this was the prelude to her speaking in tongues, so I would quickly pray, “Oh, God, please don’t speak in tongues today; my friends won’t understand.”

Either God wasn’t hearing me or Mrs. Newman wasn’t listening to God, because she would stand up, shaking all over, and deliver God’s message for the day in a loud, high-pitched voice. I would die inside as my friends giggled beside me. I hoped they weren’t committing the unpardonable sin.

I was always tense after the service as I waited for my friends to ask the inevitable question, “What was that?” I had a hard time explaining it because I didn’t fully understand it myself.

As a child I couldn’t help but wonder about these “messages in tongues” that I heard. Sometimes a short message was followed by a long interpretation or else a long message was followed by a short interpretation. At other times I would notice repeated phrases in the message in tongues and wonder why there weren’t correspondingly repeated phrases in the interpretations.

T h e M o u n t i n g Q u e s t i o n s

There were other things that bothered me about the church I attended. I wondered why, if we were the most spiritual church in town and had the most power, the other churches had so many more members. I was told that most people were looking for an easy way to heaven, and that the other churches were larger because they told the people what they wanted to hear. If our church did that, it would be full too—of people bound for hell.

Another problem I had with our church was its lack of love.

I knew that the fruit of the Spirit is love, so I couldn’t understand why there were so many church splits.
It seemed that there were always some members who wanted to get rid of the pastor and others who supported him. People left our church so often that, if all the former members of the church returned, we would have had the largest church in town!

Somehow, leaving our church was tantamount to leaving the Lord. Those who had left had surely backslidden in their search for an easier way to heaven. However, I often found myself wishing I could go to the Community Church or the Presbyterian Church. Then on Sunday night I would feel convicted for my desire to “backslide,” and I would go forward to the altar and get “saved” again.

I tried to prove that I was normal by excelling in school. I worked to be the smartest kid in the class, the fastest runner in the school, and the one who could hit the ball farther than anyone else. Unfortunately, most of the other kids in my Sunday school class tried to prove they were normal by smoking, drinking, and running around with the tough gangs at school.

Very few of them remained in Sunday school past junior high. Through the grace of God, and with deeply committed parents, I somehow survived.

T h e R e s u l t s o f M y Q u e s t

As strange as it may seem, I am convinced today that the dead orthodoxy of many churches could be enhanced by the gifts of the Holy Spirit in operation within the body.

Not the unscriptural excesses I observed as a child, but the gifts exercised in a solid, scriptural way, with the Word of God as the final authority guiding our faith and practice. With this in mind, I began a search of the Scriptures for a sound, balanced approach to the Holy Spirit and His work in the church today.

There must be a middle position between the Pentecostals, with their overemphasis on experience, and the fundamentalists, who, in their quest to be right, in too many cases have become dead right. The results
of my quest are recorded in part in this book, which I pray that God might use to lead you into the fullness of the Spirit-filled life.

Charisma is a beautiful, natural anointing of God’s Spirit upon a person’s life, enabling him or her to do the work of God. It is that special dynamic of God’s Spirit by which a person seems to radiate God’s glory and love.

Charismania is an endeavor in the flesh to simulate charisma.

It is any effort to do the work of the Spirit in the energies or abilities of the flesh—the old, selfish nature of a person.

It is a spiritual hype that substitutes perspiration for inspiration.

It is the use of the genius, energy and gimmicks of man as a substitute for the wisdom and ability of God. It can be demonstrated in such widely divergent forms as planning and strategy sessions, devising programs for church growth, raising funds for the church budget, or wild and disorderly outbursts in tongues that disrupt the Sunday morning message. Whatever lacks a sound biblical basis and demonstrates a lack of trust in the Holy Spirit to accomplish His purposes in the church apart from the devices and abilities of man is the work of the flesh.

T h e  B a l a n c e d  P o s i t i o n

This book will seek to present a scripturally balanced position between the detractors who say, “The devil makes them do it” and the fanatics who say, “The Holy Spirit made me do it.” It will also show who the Holy Spirit is and will describe His proper work in the world, the church, and the life of the believer.

We do not ask you to blindly accept all the premises, but we encourage you to search the Scriptures to see if
these things are so. “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).