Birth Pangs of Matthew 24, Jan. 08 2007

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Poll: Americans See Gloom, Doom in 2007
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Dec 31, 7:12 AM (ET)

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE

WASHINGTON (AP) - Another terrorist attack, a warmer planet, death and destruction from a natural disaster. These are among Americans' grim predictions for the United States in 2007.

But on a brighter note, only a minority of people think the U.S. will go to war with Iran or North Korea over the countries' nuclear ambitions. An overwhelming majority thinks Congress will raise the federal minimum wage. A third sees hope for a cure to cancer.

These are among the findings of an Associated Press-AOL News poll that asked Americans to gaze into their crystal balls and contemplate what 2007 holds for the country.

Six in 10 people think the U.S. will be the victim of another terrorist attack next year, more than five years after the Sept. 11 assault on New York and Washington. An identical percentage think it is likely that bad guys will unleash a biological or nuclear weapon elsewhere in the world.

There is plenty of gloom to accompany all of that doom.

Seventy percent of Americans predict another major natural disaster within the United States and an equal percentage expect worsening global warming. Fewer than one-third of people, or 29 percent, think it is likely that the U.S. will withdraw its troops from Iraq.

Among other predictions for the U.S. in 2007:

_Slightly more than one-third, or 35 percent, of Americans predict the military draft will be reinstated.

_One in four, 25 percent, anticipates the second coming of Jesus Christ.

The telephone poll of 1,000 adults was conducted Dec. 12-14 by Ipsos, an international polling firm. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus three percentage points.

Poll: Americans See Gloom, Doom in 2007

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Palestinian terror cells seek to acquire Katyusha technology
Yaakov Katz, THE JERUSALEM POST    Jan. 8, 2007

A number Palestinian terror cell members have recently left the Gaza Strip and traveled abroad to learn how to manufacture and effectively launch short-range Katyusha rockets, high-ranking defense officials told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

According to the officials, the new rockets, with an estimated range of over 35 kilometers, could reach the southern cities of Kiryat Gat, Netivot and Ofakim.

A senior IDF officer said the terrorists who traveled abroad were those responsible for the development and firing of Kassam rockets at the western Negev. The terrorists have decided, the officer said, to begin using Katyusha rockets against Israel, since the Kassam has exhausted itself technologically.

"The Kassam cannot be further upgraded, and the Palestinians need a new weapon," the officer said. "The cells have traveled abroad to learn about the Katyusha rocket and how to manufacture it back in the Gaza Strip."

While the officer refrained from revealing the cell members' destination, Hamas terrorists have been known to travel to Lebanon and Iran for training with Hizbullah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

While the Kassam has been the IDF's current and immediate focus, a high-ranking defense official said Monday that it was necessary to begin preparing for the possibility that the Palestinian terror organizations in the Gaza Strip would also soon obtain rockets with even longer ranges than that of the Katyusha.

Palestinian terrorists in Gaza are also known to have a small quantity of old Soviet-era Grad-type Katyusha rockets, some of which have been fired at Israel - although without reaching their maximum range of close to 30 kilometers. During the war in Lebanon, close to 4,000 rockets - mostly short-range Katyushas - landed in northern Israel.

As a result of the new intelligence, the Home Front Command has stopped formulating protection and defense plans based on the Kassam threat, and has updated all of its databases and now runs simulations and tests protective measures against the larger Katyusha rocket.

In May, the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for a Katyusha rocket attack on the Gaza-belt community of Netiv Ha'asara.

Unlike the homemade, short-range Kassam rockets frequently launched at Israel, Islamic Jihad said the Grad version of the Katyusha was 2.8 meters long, weighed 66 kilograms and had a caliber of 122 mm. It carried a 17-kilogram warhead, the group said, and had a range of 18 to 30 kilometers.

Palestinian terror cells seek to acquire Katyusha technology

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Khamenei: Iran will never abandon nuke works

In his first public appearance since rumors spread that he had died, Islamic Republic’s supreme leader says Tehran would never yield to international pressure to deprive it of its right to nuclear technology

Reuters
Published: 01.08.07, 13:44

Iran’s highest authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Monday Tehran would never yield to international pressure to deprive it of its right to nuclear technology, state radio said.

“The Iranian nation surely will not abandon its right and Iranian officials have no right to deprive the nation of its right,” Khamenei was quoted as saying on the occasion of the Shiite Muslim feast of Eid al-Ghadir.

Khamenei, who was shown on television, was making his first public appearance since rumors appeared on Web sites on Thursday that he had died. Iran last week denied the reports.

Khamenei has final say on all state matters in the Islamic Republic, including Iran’s nuclear standoff with the West.

The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Dec. 23 to impose sanctions on Iran’s trade in sensitive nuclear materials and technology in an attempt to stop uranium enrichment work that could produce material that could be used in bombs.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called the resolution a “Piece of torn paper” and has vowed to press ahead with Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.

The West fears Iran may be pursuing nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian program.

Khamenei: Iran will never abandon nuke works

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Israel rejects report it may attack Iran

Sun Jan 7, 3:22 PM ET

LONDON - A British newspaper reported Sunday that Israeli pilots were training to strike targets in Iran with low-yield nuclear weapons, but Israel swiftly denied the report and analysts expressed doubts about its reliability.

Citing unidentified Israeli military sources, The Sunday Times said the proposals drawn up in Israel involved using so-called "bunker-buster" nuclear weapons to attack nuclear facilities at three sites south of the Iranian capital.

Israel has never confirmed it has nuclear weapons, although the Jewish state is widely believed to possess a significant stockpile.

Iran says its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes like generating electricity.

The Sunday Times reported that Israeli military officials believed Iran could produce enough enriched uranium to build nuclear weapons within two years, and the newspaper said Israeli pilots had made flights to the British colony of Gibraltar to train for the 2,000-mile round trip to the Iranian targets.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office declined to comment on the report. "We don't respond to publications in The Sunday Times," said spokeswoman Miri Eisin.

However Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev denied the report, saying: "if diplomacy succeeds, the problem can be solved peaceably."

The United States and its allies suspect Tehran of secretly trying to produce atomic weapons there.

Some view Israeli officials' occasional implied threats as a means of pressuring the world community to take action, building on the recent United Nations Security Council decision to impose some economic sanctions on Tehran for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.

Some analysts viewed Sunday's report as another element of delicate diplomacy.

"I refuse to believe that anyone here would consider using nuclear weapons against Iran," Reuven Pedatzur, a prominent defense analyst and columnist for the Israeli daily Haaretz, told the AP. "It is possible that this was a leak done on purpose, as deterrence, to say: 'Someone better hold us back, before we do something crazy.'"

Ephraim Kam — a former senior intelligence official now at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Strategic Studies — also suggested the report should not be taken literally. "No reliable source would ever speak about this, certainly not to the Sunday Times," he said.

Israel rejects report it may attack Iran