Hello Friends,

Americans stock up to be ready for end of the world – Paul Harris - www.guardian.co.uk

Recession and the constant threat of terrorist attacks have given new life to the ingrained survivalist instinct

Tess Pennington, 33, is a mother of three children, and lives in the sprawling outskirts of Houston, Texas. But she is not taking the happy safety of her suburban existence lightly.

Like a growing army of fellow Americans, Pennington is learning how to grow her own food, has stored emergency rations in her home and is taking courses on treating sickness with medicinal herbs.

"I feel safe and more secure. I have taken personal responsibility for the safety of myself and of my family," Pennington said. "We have decided to be prepared. There all kinds of disasters that can happen, natural and man-made."

Pennington is a "prepper", a growing social movement that has been dubbed Survivalism Lite. Preppers believe that it is better to be safe than sorry and that preparing for disaster – be it a hurricane or the end of civilization – makes sense.

Unlike the 1990s survivalists, preppers come from all backgrounds and live all over America. They are just as likely to be found in a suburb or downtown loft as a remote ranch in the mountains. Prepping networks, which have sprung up all over the country in the past few years, provide advice on how to prepare food reserves, how to grow crops in your garden, how to hunt and how to defend yourself. There are prepping books, online shops, radio shows, countless blogs, prepping courses and prepping conferences.

John Milandred runs a website called Pioneer Living, which is one of the main forums for discussing prepping. It provides a range of advice for those who just want to store extra food in case of a power cut, to those who want to embrace the "off the grid" lifestyle of America's western pioneers. "We get inquiries from people from all walks of life. We had a principal from a school asking us to talk to their children. We have doctors and firemen and lawyers," he said.

Milandred lives in Oklahoma and, should society collapse around him, he is well placed to flourish. Indeed, he might not notice that much. His house has a hand-dug well that gives him fresh water. He grows his own food. He has built an oven that needs neither gas nor electricity. He can hunt for meat. "If something happened, it really would not affect us," he said.

There are several reasons for the rise of prepping. The first is that, in the post-9/11 world, mass terror attacks have become a fear for many Americans. At a time when US diplomacy is focused on preventing Iran getting nuclear weapons and terror experts continue to warn of "dirty bombs" on American soil, it is no surprise that many Americans feel threatened. Added to that paranoia has come the recession. Suddenly, millions of Americans have been losing their jobs and their homes, reinforcing a feeling that society is not as stable as it once seemed.

Hollywood has caught on. A succession of films, such as 2012, The Road, The Book of Eli and Legion, have tapped into an American Zeitgeist that is worried about the end of civilization.

"Prepping masks a wide range of stances and ideologies. But the more people are prepared, the more they are likely to have an apocalyptic way of thinking," said Professor Barry Brummett, of the University of Texas-Austin.

Even government officials have accepted that the financial crisis posed a threat to social order. In recent testimony before Congress, treasury secretary Tim Geithner admitted that top-level talks had been held on whether the US could enforce law and order in the wake of a collapse of the financial system.

Certainly, Tom Martin agrees. He runs the American Preppers Network, which helps provide a wide range of resources. Martin, a truck driver who lives in Idaho, believes that more and more people will become preppers. "Millions of people now have the mindset that they want to be prepared for something, but don't know what to call it," he said.

That rings true with Pennington. In the 1990s, survivalism was the province of anti-government militiamen or loners in the woods. But preppers are more concerned with stocking up on food and water and relearning skills so that they can fend for themselves.

To that end, Pennington has set up a website called Ready Nutrition, which teaches basic food skills to prepare for a time when pre-packaged goods at a supermarket might not be available: "Prepping is not taboo, like survivalism. There is no negative connotation to it. We are not rednecks. In many ways, our ancestors were preppers. So were the Native Americans. It is just going back to being able to look after yourself."

Israel is accused of waging covert war across the Middle East - London Times
Israel is waging a covert assassination campaign across the Middle East in an effort to stop its key enemies co-ordinating their activities.

'If Mideast peace isn't realized now, it may never come' - Ha'aretz
If Israel and the Palestinians don't reach a peace agreement now, the opportunity to do so could be lost forever, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry said at U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar on Saturday.

Israel general doubts power to hit Iran atom sites - Reuters
Israel may lack the military means for successful preemptive strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, its former top general said on Saturday.

Lebanon opens fire on IAF jets - Jerusalem Post
Lebanon says its army has opened fire on four Israeli warplanes that flew into Lebanese airspace.

US Vice President Biden to visit Israel - Ynet News
The Obama administration is concerned with the possibility of an Israeli strike on Iran, and is sending some of its top officials to try to calm the situation.

Israel is accused of waging covert war across the Middle East - Sheera Frenkel - www.timesonline.co.uk

Israel is waging a covert assassination campaign across the Middle East in an effort to stop its key enemies co-ordinating their activities.

Israeli agents have been targeting meetings between members of Hamas and the leadership of the militant Hezbollah group, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

They are also suspected of recent killings in Dubai, Damascus and Beirut. While Israel’s Mossad spy agency has been suspected of staging assassinations across the world since the 1970s, it does not officially acknowledge or admit its activities.

The current spate of killings began in December when a “tourist bus” carrying Iranian officials and Hamas members exploded outside Damascus. The official report by Syria claimed that a tyre had exploded but photographs surfaced showing the charred remains of the vehicle — prompting speculation that a much larger explosion had taken place.

Several weeks later a meeting between members of Hamas, which controls Gaza, and their counterparts from Hezbollah in its southern Beirut stronghold in Lebanon was also attacked, resulting in several deaths.

Hamas had sought to cover up the incidents because it was embarrassed, a senior Palestinian official in Ramallah told The Times.

“There has been growing co-operation between Gaza and Iran. Israel can read the writing on the wall and they know that with the help of Iran, the Hamas Government in Gaza will become stronger and will fight better.

“But Israel is overstepping their boundaries. Other countries don’t want to become a killing field for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Most recently, the top Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was killed in Dubai on January 19, 2010. He is believed to have been poisoned by a woman who visited his room at the Al Bustan Rotana Hotel in Dubai.

Israeli officials said that Mabhouh had been a key figure in procuring Iranian-made longer-range rockets for Hamas that could be fired at targets in central Israel.

The exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal has vowed revenge for Mabhouh’s death. He has also suggested that the current fighting between Hamas and Israel will become more regional. In an interview with the London-based al-Hayat newspaper, Mr Mashaal said that future wars with Israel would not be fought solely in the Gaza Strip.

Under the current Mossad chief, Meir Dagan, Israel is believed to have renewed efforts to kill high-level opponents. Only months after the former paratrooper assumed leadership of the intelligence service in October 2002, senior Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon began to be targeted. He was credited with ordering the killing of two relatively senior Hezbollah members who were killed in southern Beirut in July 2003 and August 2004.

More recently, Israel has been accused of planting a car bomb in Damascus that killed the top Hezbollah leader Imad Mughniyah in February 2008. The Israeli Cabinet minister Daniel Herschkowitz last week praised the Mossad chief as one of the agency’s most successful leaders.

When asked about Mossad’s involvement in the Dubai slaying, Eli Yishai, the Interior Minister, smiled and said: “All the security services make, thank God, great efforts to safeguard the security of the state of Israel.”

While some countries are questioning whether Israel isn’t taking credit to increase the reputation of its defense establishment, other moderate Arab States are now describing the assassinations as a “covert war” between Israel and Hamas.

Diplomats said they were aware that covert Israeli operations had increased. “We watch their comings and goings; we are aware that there is more activity both on our ground and other countries in the region,” said an Egyptian diplomat. “They are trying to embroil us all in their conflict.”

Tensions between Israel and Hamas have remained high, despite the relative quiet that has ensued since the end of Israel’s offensive in Gaza last winter. Israeli troops were placed on alert yesterday after intelligence suggested that Hamas planned to abduct soldiers. Israel said this week that it had foiled a kidnapping in December by arresting the Hamas operative Slaman Abu Atik on the Israeli-Gaza border. He planned to enter Israel via Egypt, said the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service.

Israelis warned to beware of Hezbollah attacks – www.news.yahoo.com

JERUSALEM – Israel's government is warning its citizens to beware of possible attacks when they travel abroad, singling out threats by the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

Two years ago, a prominent Hezbollah commander, Imad Mughniyeh, was killed in an explosion in Syria. Hezbollah blamed Israel and pledged revenge.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a fierce month long war in 2006.

In the advisory issued Sunday, the government tells Israelis to take precautions when they are abroad. These include avoiding most Islamic countries, rejecting tempting offers and unexpected gifts, turning down invitations to unexpected meetings and avoiding routines.

The government issued the advisory with the approach of the Passover holiday, a heavy travel period.

Israel on alert as Hizbullah troops move into Lebanon from Iran – www.worldtribune.com  

NICOSIA — The Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah has begun deployment of new combat units in preparation for a war with Israel.

Lebanese sources said Hizbullah plans to deploy thousands of combat troops trained in Iran and capable of a rapid invasion of Israel. They said many of the newly-trained troops would arrive from Iran in 2010 amid an alert for an attack by neighboring Israel.

Hizbullah and IRGC tactics were said to have been used by Yemeni Shi'ite rebels during their three-month war with Saudi Arabia. In November 2009, the Believing Youth, trained by Hizbullah, captured at least two Saudi villages near the Yemeni border and held them for nearly two months.

"The assessment was that Hizbullah can hold hostage thousands of people in Israel and sow panic within the military and government," the Lebanese source said.

"Hizbullah is preparing for all military possibilities," a Lebanese source said. "It is betting on containing the first strike of any Israeli aggression. Containment of the attack would bridge half of the path toward victory."

On Feb. 6, the source told the Saudi newspaper Okaz that Hizbullah facilities throughout Lebanon were placed on alert for an Israeli strike. The source said the alert was also issued to Hizbullah political leaders, including those who serve in the Lebanese parliament.

"We must be on permanent readiness," Hizbullah deputy secretary-general Naim Kassem said. "We don't know when or if there will be surprises."

The sources said Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has been training thousands of Hizbullah fighters to conduct special operations forces missions to complement missile and rocket strikes from Lebanon. They said Hizbullah has formed at least two brigades that could invade Israel in any war and capture border towns.

"These Hizbullah soldiers have already participated as combat units in recent exercises in Iran," another Lebanese source said. "They have become Hizbullah's special operations forces arm and have been equipped with boats and air assets."

The new combat brigades were launched by Hizbullah as part of lessons from the 2006 war with Israel. The sources said Iran and Hizbullah determined that the Lebanese militia required an offensive ground capability that could penetrate the 70-kilometer border with Israel.

Netanyahu's Russia visit to focus heavily on Iran - Aron Heller – www.news.yahoo.com

JERUSALEM – Israel's prime minister said Sunday he would press for "crippling sanctions" against Iran when he visits Moscow this week — a trip that comes as the Russians seem increasingly willing to heed such a call.

Benjamin Netanyahu will meet Russian leaders just days after Iran announced it would be enriching uranium to higher levels. That process could be used to build bombs if ramped up further and has fueled Israel's conviction that Iran wants to ultimately develop nuclear weapons.

"Israel believes that severe pressure should be imposed on Iran — and first and foremost very harsh sanctions, what the U.S. secretary of state called 'crippling sanctions,'" Netanyahu told his Cabinet ahead of his departure for Moscow later Sunday.

A Russian company is building Iran's first nuclear power plant, and Moscow traditionally has resisted new sanctions against Iran. But that could be changing. The chief of Russia's Security Council warned last week that the new enrichment plans show the suspicions about Iran's intentions are well-founded.

Israel considers Iran its greatest threat, citing Tehran's support for Arab militants, its president's repeated references to Israel's destruction and Iran's nuclear program. Iran insists it is not trying to make a nuclear weapon.

While Israel has said it hopes diplomacy will resolve the nuclear standoff, it has not ruled out military action. In 1981, Israeli warplanes destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor.

During Netanyahu's three-day trip, he is expected to urge Russia to abandon plans to sell advanced surface-to-air missiles to Tehran. Such missiles would make it much harder for Israel to take military action against Iran.

Iran has defied five U.N. Security Council resolutions — and three sets of U.N. sanctions — aimed at pressuring it to freeze enrichment, and has instead steadily expanded its program.

Russia, one of the five veto-wielding permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, has close military and economic ties with Iran and plays a crucial role in the debate over imposing additional sanctions. China, which relies on Iran for energy supplies, is the only other major power resisting further sanctions.

After four decades of Cold War animosity, ties between Moscow and Israel improved significantly after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Israel is also home to more than 1 million Soviet emigres.

But Moscow's positions on Iran and arms sales to Syria have strained ties, as did Israeli weapons sales to Georgia, which Russia briefly invaded in 2008 in support of pro-Russia secessionists. Israel has since scaled back its weapons sales to Georgia.

This will be Netanyahu's first official visit to Moscow, though Israeli media reported that he made a secret visit in September.

According to various Israeli media reports, the prime minister either pushed the Russians to halt arms sales to Iran, warned of an impending strike against Iranian nuclear facilities or discussed the disappearance of a Russian-crewed freighter.

Netanyahu said Sunday he would also solicit Russian support for advancing stalled Mideast peacemaking.

Moscow has repeatedly stated its desire to host a Mideast peace conference and to involve Gaza's Islamic militant Hamas leaders, an idea strongly opposed by Israel and the U.S.

Last week, Hamas' supreme leader visited Moscow and met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Israel, which considers Hamas to be a terrorist group, protested the visit.

Clinton: US, others working on new Iran measures - Robert Burns – www.news.yahoo.com

DOHA, Qatar – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has told an international conference that Iran has left the world little choice but to take harsher action to contain its nuclear program.

Clinton tells the U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha (DOH'-hah), Qatar (GUH'-tur), that Iran has not lived up to its nuclear obligations.

She also says Iran has rebuffed U.S. and international efforts to engage in serious negotiations on the nuclear issue.

As a result, Clinton said in her speech Sunday, the U.S. and others are working on "new measures" to try to persuade Iran to change its course.

The United States and some of its allies suspect Tehran is using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to build nuclear weapons. Tehran denies the charge and says it only has peaceful intentions.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton launched a quick visit to two Persian Gulf allies Sunday as part of a broad effort to shore up support for a tougher stand against Iran's nuclear program.

Her stops in Qatar and in Saudi Arabia coincide with a string of diplomatic and military contacts in the Middle East, including a Sunday visit to Egypt by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Clinton's top three deputies — James Steinberg, Jacob Lew and William Burns — were expected in the region in coming days, as was Gen. David Petraeus, chief of U.S. Central Command with responsibility for U.S. military operations across the Middle East.

Their agenda is not focused exclusively on Iran. There also is an American push for closer cooperation in Yemen against al-Qaida, a move toward bolstering diplomatic relations with Syria and efforts to get Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations back on track.

Clinton's trip follows closely on the Iranian president's claim that his country had produced its first batch of uranium enriched to a higher level. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also insisted on Thursday that Iran had no intention of building nuclear weapons, yet would not be bullied by the West into curtailing its nuclear program — a reference to new U.S. financial penalties imposed a day earlier.

At a news conference before her speech to the U.S.-Islamic World Forum, Clinton criticized Iran's defiance and said Tehran would not succeed in overcoming international opposition to it nuclear ambitions.

"We do not believe Iran should be a nuclear weapons power," she said.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden expressed confidence that the U.N. would agree to tougher penalties.

"We have the support of everyone from Russia to Europe. And I believe we'll get the support of China to continue to impose sanctions on Iran to isolate them, to make it clear that in fact they cannot move forward. The progress that Iran has made on the nuclear front is greatly exaggerated in my view," he told NBC's "Meet the Press," from Canada, where he was attending the Olympics.

President Barack Obama has said that work to broaden economic sanctions in the U.N. Security Council is moving along quickly, but he has given no specific timeline. China, one of five permanent members of the Security Council, has close economic ties to Iran and can block a resolution by itself.

"We need to work on China a little bit more," added Obama's national security adviser, James Jones. "But China wants to be seen as a responsible global influence in this. On this issue, they can't, they cannot be nonsupportive," he told "Fox News Sunday."

The United States and some of its allies suspect Tehran is using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to build nuclear weapons but Tehran denies the charge, saying it has only has peaceful intentions.

After an overnight flight from Washington, Clinton went directly into a series of high-level meetings in the Qatari capital ahead of her evening speech. In the address, she was expected to elaborate on President Barack Obama's call for a new level of engagement with the Muslim world.

Obama addressed the forum by video on Saturday, announcing that he is appointing a special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

In Cairo, Mullen met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and said afterward that Iran is a key challenge to the security of the Middle East. He accused Tehran of spreading its radical influence in Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen and Iraq, and said the U.S. would work through the Security Council to seek new sanctions.

On Monday Clinton is scheduled to travel to Saudi Arabia — first to the capital, Riyadh, and then on Tuesday to the Red Sea city of Jeddah.

It is Clinton's first visit to Qatar and Saudi Arabia as secretary of state. She delayed her departure from Washington by one day after her husband, former President Bill Clinton, was hospitalized in New York on Thursday for a heart procedure.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar, both situated across the Persian Gulf from Iran, are concerned about Iran's nuclear ambitions. They are seen by the Obama administration as an important part of a regional effort to persuade the Iranians that it is in their economic interest to give up their uranium enrichment program as called for in a series of Security Council resolutions that Iran has ignored.

The State Department's top Middle East policy officer, Jeffrey Feltman, who was accompanying Clinton, told reporters on the flight from Washington that Iran would figure prominently in Clinton's discussions in both Qatar and in Saudi Arabia.

Feltman said the U.S. believes the two Gulf allies, as well as other countries in the region, can help "sharpen the question for Iran" as to whether it is better off continuing to seek higher-enriched uranium that is closer to weapons grade or halt the program.

"We would expect them (Gulf allies) to use their relationship in ways that can help increase the pressure that Iran feels," Feltman said.
___________________________________________________________________

Sanctions alone won't stop Iran's nuclear work - By Emily Landau – www.haaretz.com   

Iran raised the extent of its defiance of the world when it began enriching uranium to a level approaching 20 percent. In the West, there is wide agreement that this step is bringing Iran closer to having a nuclear bomb. And as with every instance in which Iran takes such a step, or when information is revealed regarding the military nature of its nuclear program, the world is easily shocked and the call goes out for more decisive action. In practice, however, these are just hollow words.

U.S. President Barack Obama took office against the backdrop of intensified disclosure of military nuclear activities in Iran. At the end of September, when the enrichment facility that was built near the Iranian city of Qom was disclosed, Obama enlisted support from French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He expressed his insistence that the situation was serious, and that if Iran did not alter its path there would be consequences. But there weren't.

And in October, when the deal to enrich uranium outside Iran was presented, Tehran was initially given a two-week extension and was then given until the end of the year. American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that the United States would not wait forever. In the meantime, however, the U.S. is waiting.

The end of the year, the deadline that Obama set for evaluating diplomatic progress on Iran, also came and went. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that nothing has been accomplished, and it has been clear that the essential next step will involve imposing sanctions. In January, however, with China in the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council, it was said that it was necessary to wait until February, when France would assume the post.

February has arrived, but the Chinese are still opposed to sanctions and the Iranians are enriching their uranium to a higher level. Obama's response is that he has had it and the time has come for sanctions and immediately - which means within a few weeks, perhaps by the end of March. In March, however, Gabon will assume the presidency of the Security Council, and it is not certain that Iran is at the top of its agenda. And there are still the problems with the Chinese.

And if we assume that ultimately there will be sanctions, so what? The involvement with sanctions, who's for and who's against, when, why and to what extent, deflects from the primary problem - the absence of an American strategy for tough negotiations with Iran. Even more serious, however, is that there are worrying signs that the Obama administration is beginning to resign itself not only to the fact that Iran will continue to enrich uranium, but also to recognition that the Islamic republic could ultimately build a nuclear bomb.

When you begin to reconcile with a specific reality, you stop trying to change it. And then we hear more about the need to deter and contain Iran than about stopping it, about a nuclear umbrella for America's allies in the Persian Gulf instead of a firm negotiating strategy against Iran. And sanctions alone won't stop Iran.

The role of sanctions and other pressure, such as credible military threats, is to convince Iran that time is not on its side and it would be better to seriously negotiate with the West. Only then will the diplomatic work of American-Iranian negotiations begin, with a goal of an arrangement that would eliminate the Iranian nuclear threat.

There is no sign that the Obama administration intends to mobilize the necessary political muscle to lead such a process. An additional decision on ineffective sanctions will apparently satisfy the U.S. So, we tried.

The weakness that Obama is showing toward Iran has implications for America's global leadership role. Israel must speak to the Americans about this, and instead of focusing on sanctions, should try to determine if and how the U.S. intends to lead a comprehensive process leading to a solution. Without genuine American determination, there is no prospect of preventing the Iranians from developing nuclear weapons.

 See you in 6 weeks!