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JERUSALEM COUNTDOWN

FRONTLINE

Chapter One

The final battle for Jerusalem is about to begin. Every day in the media you are watching the gathering storm over the State of Israel. The winds of war are once again about to sweep through the sacred city of Jerusalem. The world is about to discover the power of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Keeper of Israel, "who ... shall neither slumber nor sleep" (Ps. 121:4). His righteous fury will be evident in the defense of Israel.

As we begin the chapter, we are going to take a closer look at Iran, the enemy of Israel. Napoleon Bonaparte, the great conqueror of long ago, has been credited with instructing his armies, "Know your enemy!" I want you to know the evil strategies of destruction this enemy of Israel and the world has planned. We must be prepared to stop this evil enemy in its tracks. There isn't very much time to get it right-the stakes are high, and failure is not an option! Unless we prepare today, tomorrow could dawn with the horrors of an Iranian nuclear strike on Israel-or America.

In the fall of 2004, former prime minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and I sat in my office at Cornerstone Church discussing the geopoliticalrealities of the Middle East just moments before we were to walk out on the platform and celebrate our annual Night to Honor Israel before a live audience of five thousand Christians and Jews. Television cameras were ready to carry our message to ninety million homes and more than one hundred nations.

I asked the former prime minister where Iran was in its development of nuclear weapons. Mr. Netanyahu candidly admitted that during his administration Israeli intelligence had informed the United States intelligence community that Iran was working on medium- and long-range nuclear missiles that would be capable of hitting London, New York City, and Jerusalem.

Mr. Netanyahu continued with the shocking revelation that the U.S. intelligence community was very skeptical of the Israeli intelligence reports. Later, Israeli intelligence gave photographic proof to the U.S. intelligence community that Russian scientists who made nuclear weapons for the USSR during the Cold War and were now unemployed were helping Iran achieve its dream of developing nuclear weapons.

I responded in amazement, "Can anyone possibly imagine the massive global, economic, and political chaos if three long-range nuclear missiles simultaneously hit New York City and Wall Street, London, and Jerusalem? In one hour, worldwide economic collapse could be accomplished, and Western civilization would be crushed."

If Iran cannot develop the sophisticated delivery system to deliver the long-range nuclear missile, they and other rogue terrorist states certainly will have the capability of producing a dirty nuclear bomb that can be delivered in a suitcase.

Can anyone in their right mind actually believe that the Islamic fanatics presently in charge of the Iranian government would not, as soon as they are available, use these weapons on America, which they call "The Great Satan," and on Israel, the eternal object of fanatical Islamic hatred in the Middle East? The president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has boldly announced to the world via Fox News that he intends to share Iran's nuclear power to all Islamic nations.

Let's look at what the media around the world have discovered and then compare it to the shocking revelations my sources in Israel have told me.

On February 3, 2004, the Daily Telegraph of London, England splashed this headline:

Confession by the Father of Pakistan's Atomic Bomb: "I've Sold Nuclear Secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea"

The article written by Ahmed Rashid confirmed that "the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb has confessed to selling nuclear weapons secrets to some of the world's most notorious 'rogue states.'"

The article by Ahmed reported: "The admission that Abdul Qadeer Khan freely sold nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea confirms one of America's worst fears-that a close ally in the 'war on terrorism' has turned out to be the secret armourer of its worst foes."

The story continues, confirming the chilling fact that the seventy-year-old Mr. A. Q. Khan told investigators in an eleven-page confession that "he had provided the secrets to other Muslim countries ... so they could become nuclear powers and strengthen the Islamic world."

Officials said that Mr. Khan first began to transfer designs, drawings, and components for gas centrifuges to Iran between 1989 and 1991. There is clear evidence that Iran has been seeking to develop nuclear weapons for twenty years.

The Jerusalem Post bannered headline of August 5, 2003 bluntly stated:

Iran Can Produce Nuclear Bomb by 2005

The story confirmed that Iran will have the machinery and materials needed to make a nuclear bomb by 2004 and will have an operative nuclear weapons program by 2005.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Iran "has been engaged in a pattern of clandestine activity that has concealed weapons work from International Inspectors. Technology and scientists from Russia, China, North Korea and Pakistan have propelled Iran's nuclear program much closer to producing a bomb than Iraq ever was."

Israel is very aware of this looming threat of nuclear attack from Iran. In his book Countdown to Crisis, Kenneth Timmerman writes: "Israeli leaders have been warning that it won't be long. On January 24, 2005, Mossad director Meir Dagan told Israeli parliamentarians that 'by the end of 2005 the Iranians will reach the point of no return from the technological perspective of creating a uranium-enrichment capability.' Once you have that capability," he added, "you are home free."

Vice President Dick Cheney addressed the problem of this looming threat from Iran on Don Imus' radio show on January 20, just before the inauguration. "Iran is right at the top of the administration's list of world trouble spots," he said. If nothing was done about Iran's nuclear weapons program, there was concern that Israel "might well decide to act first" to destroy Iranian nuclear and missile sites and let others "worry about cleaning up the mess afterwards."

In the August 26, 2005, issue of Executive Intelligence Review, retired general Paul Vallely, head of the Military Committee of Frank Gaffney's Center for Security Policy and a member of the Iran Policy Committee, said, "We've got to bring the hammer down on Iran."

Vallely states: "We cannot let radical Islam and the Iranians destabilize the Middle East and the world ... I know the Israelis are prepared to take very decisive action militarily."

Remember that Israel bombed the nuclear reactor of Iraq in 1981, and the world press rose in unanimous condemnation of the Jewish State, accusing it of gunboat diplomacy. Time has proven Israel did the right thing for the world by destroying Saddam Hussein's ability to manufacture nuclear weapons. When America went to war in Iraq in 1992, during Desert Storm, our troops would have faced nuclear weapons that would have birthed the Battle of Armageddon.

April 13, 2005 the Associated Press released the headline:

Israel Shares Intel With U.S. on Iran Nukes

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pressed the U.S. to threaten Iran with international sanctions, warning Iran was quickly approaching a point of no return in its nuclear program. The White House said it agreed that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons "under a guise of a civilian program" but wants to continue the current diplomacy strategy to solve the problem.

The story continues with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Achronot quoting Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as telling Vice President Cheney: "Iran is very close to the point of no return."

Sharon believes the European effort to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions has been ineffective.

Now that France has failed to vote for the EU Constitution by a large margin, Europe appears weak and divided at a critical moment in history when the world is teetering on the brink of World War III.

A senior Israeli official traveling with Prime Minister Sharon, who were guests at the ranch of President Bush, said: "There has to be immediate action taken against Iran. There is a time limit because Iran will soon reach a technological point of no return. Beyond this point of technological no-return ... it will be too late."

In an interview with a defector from Iran's secretive nuclear establishment in Paris on July 13, 2005, Iran Focus, a nonprofit news service provider that focuses on events in Iran, Iraq, and the Middle East, asked this question: "How soon will they have the bomb?" The defector replied: "As a physicist with a lot of experience and contacts inside Iran's nuclear establishment, I have no doubt in my mind that the regime in Tehran is not far from the nuclear bomb.... The current leadership in Tehran sees nuclear weapons as an indispensable part of its strategy." When asked how the arrival of the new ultra-conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad changed things, he replied: "Now that you have at the head of the executive branch a former commander of the Revolutionary Guards with a track record as the one Ahmadinejad has, the nuclear weapons programme will receive a great boost."

In an article posted on the National Review Online on June 27, 2005, best-selling author Joel C. Rosenberg stated: "I just returned to Washington from two weeks in Israel and Jordan where I met with a number of high-level political, military, and intelligence officials. Across the board, they predicted Iran will reach the 'point of no return' by the beginning of next year. That is, by January 2006-if not before-Iran will finally have the technology, the know-how, and the trained nuclear scientists needed to produce highly enriched uranium."

My sources in Israel support this information. They tell me (April 2005) that Iran is in stage 5 and can have a bomb ready in twelve to eighteen months. That would make Iran's nuclear weapons ready by April 2006 unless international diplomacy prevails.

Iranian Response

Iran has threatened bloody retaliation if attacked, so the Pentagon's military planners are conducting war games to be prepared for any number of Iranian responses-from attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq to missile strikes on Israel to releasing the Al-Qaeda network to launch a terrorist attack on the United States.

Retired Air Force General Tom McInerney speculated, "I believe they could.... The real question is, will it be a nightmare scenario? Will it be nuclear?"

In a secret policy review, the Bush administration ordered the Pentagon to draft contingency plans for the use of nuclear weapons against at least seven countries, naming not only Russia and the "axis of evil" (Iran, Iraq, and North Korea), but also China, Libya, and Syria.

In addition, the U.S. Department of Defense has been told to prepare for the possibility that nuclear weapons may be required in some future Arab-Israeli crisis. It is to develop plans for using nuclear weapons to retaliate against chemical or biological attacks, as well as "surprising military developments" of an unspecified nature.

These and a host of other directives, including calls for developing bunker-busting mini-nukes and nuclear weapons that reduce collateral damage, are contained in a still classified document called the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) that was delivered to Congress.

Israeli Air Force General Maps Out How to Attack Reactors in Iran

Former IAI chief Major General (ret) Eitan Ben-Eliahu has already mapped out the aerial penetration routes for an international attack on Iran. He has also reviewed the suitable armaments to use in such an attack-all this, of course, should the political efforts fail.

Ben-Eliahu addressed a conference on Iran's nuclear program, held at the Strategic Dialogue Center at the Netanya Academic College in April 2005. In his lecture, Ben-Eliahu noted that this issue does not concern Israel alone, as "the political and military response must be carried out with international cooperation and coordination."

The former IAI chief reviewed possible ways to attack Iran, noting: "Contrary to the 1981 bombardment of the reactor in Iraq, which was localized and benefited from total surprise, an aerial operation against Iran is an extremely complex task requiring a wide range of means."

Among other things, Ben-Eliahu spoke of the possibility of an international attack on Iran using cruise missiles, similar to the U.S. attack on Iraq in 1998. The Americans have bombers, some of them stealth aircraft, capable of bombing Iran with precision weapons at little danger to themselves.

The optimal weapon, according to Ben-Eliahu, would be the American GBU 28 bomb, capable of deep ground penetration.

Ben-Eliahu told the Israeli press that he had referred to a possible attack on Iran as an expert on air power, and not as a former Air Force commander, and that his words should therefore not be perceived as part of an Air Force plan. "I spoke of military force based on a coalition, not of the Israel Air Force."

Iran has its own interpretation of the comments made by the former IAI chief. In a clear and unambiguous message, Iranian Chief of Staff Muhammad Salimi stated: "We will deal seriously with all threats (made by) the Israelis and the Americans. The people behind these threats are playing with fire. We warn them against becoming involved in a war of aggression against US."

Iran, the Bomb, and Israel

On April 17, 2005, Netanya Academic College in Israel conducted the conference at the Strategic Dialogue Center with the topic being, "Multinuclear Middle East-Iran, the Bomb, and Israel."

One of the highlights of this very important conference was a telephone interview between Ronen Bergman, a journalist with Yediot Achronot newspaper, and Dr. Manouchehr Ganji, former Iranian Scientist Minister under the shah of Iran before the Islamic Republic of Iran overthrew the shah.

The telephone interview is as follows:

Ronen Bergman: "So Dr. Ganji, how far is the Islamic Republic of Iran from obtaining its ... first nuclear weapon?"

Dr. Manouchehr Ganji: "I really don't think they are very far from obtaining it. They are working very hard secretly, and they have got the infrastructure-so far everybody knows about seven of the centers. So I would give them maximum ... maximum in my opinion is going to be about two years."

Bergman: "Two years from building its first bomb?"

Dr. Ganji: "Yes."

Bergman: "Some of the speakers today in this interesting conference had wondered about the motivation of the Islamic Republic in obtaining such a capability. How would you describe this motivation?"

Dr. Ganji: "Well first and foremost, the outcome of the past twenty-six years rule by the clerics in Iran is their general belief that there is no Islamic alternative to the society, and the Iranians have found out they want to present an Islamic alternative, but the Iranian people have found out that there is no Islamic alternative to the society's economic, political, and social problems. In Iran today there is the general feeling that the whole pretense to Islamic rule is a big lie, and the tide of public opinion has turned strongly in favor of secularism, even among the top government technocrats, official and high up.

"The clerical regime continues to dabble defiantly in the direction of both terrorism and nuclear arms and long-range missiles. To survive, intelligence regarding the regime's efforts to develop nuclear weapons and long-range missiles abound. By now it is a known fact that ever since the 1980s the mullahs have been after the acquisition of long-range missiles and weapons of mass destruction, which include chemical, biological, and nuclear long-range missiles. "The regime's top people consider it would make their regime invincible, forcing the United States and others to deal with them on their terms. It's known that North Koreans, Russians, former Soviet States nuclear scientists, nautical engineers, and others have been working in Iran to make its dream come true. With the position of the bomb, the leadership thinks that they can act crazy by blackmailing and deterring the U.S. and its allies and prolonging the life of the regime. Of course, Israel they consider to be the target number one, the so-called Liberation of Islam."

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from JERUSALEM COUNTDOWN by John Hagee Copyright © 2006 by John Hagee. Excerpted by permission.
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