February 26, 2012 – DAMASCUS – The State Department has begun coordinating with Syria’s neighbors to prepare for the handling of President Bashar al-Assad’s extensive weapons of mass destruction if and when his regime collapses, The Cable has learned. This week, the State Department sent a diplomatic demarche to Syria’s neighbors Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia, warning them about the possibility of Syria’s WMDs crossing their borders and offering U.S. government help in dealing with the problem, three Obama administration officials confirmed to The Cable. For concerned parties both inside and outside the U.S. government, the demarche signifies that the United States is increasingly developing plans to deal with the dangers of a post-Assad Syria — while simultaneously highlighting the lack of planning for how to directly bring about Assad’s downfall. Syria is believed to have a substantial chemical weapons program, which includes mustard gas and sophisticated nerve agents, such as sarin gas, as well as biological weapons. Syria has also refused IAEA requests to make available facilities that were part of its nuclear weapons program and may still be in operation. The State Department declined to provide access to any officials to discuss the private diplomatic communication on the record, such as the author of the demarche Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation Tom Countryman. In a meeting with reporters earlier this year, Countryman expressed confidence that the United States knows where Syria’s WMD stockpiles are, but warned that they could become a very serious security issue for Syria and the region going forward. “We have ideas as to the quantity and we have ideas as to where they are,” Countryman said. “We wish some of the neighbors of Syria to be on the lookout… When you get a change of regime in Syria, it matters what are the conditions — chaotic or orderly.” Today, in response to inquiries from The Cable, a State Department official offered the following statement: “The U.S. and our allies are monitoring Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile. These weapons’ presence in Syria undermines peace and security in the Middle East, and we have long called on the Syrian government to destroy its chemicals weapons arsenal and join the Chemical Weapons Convention,” the State Department official said. “We believe Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile remains under Syrian government control, and we will continue to work closely with like-minded countries to prevent proliferation of Syria’s chemical weapons program.” –Wired

February 25, 2012 – TEHRAN – Iran has warned Israel against mounting an attack on its nuclear facilities amid rising international tension over its uranium enrichment program. General Ahmad Vahidi issued a statement warning Israel that an attack would lead to the collapse of the Jewish state. The warning on Iran’s state-run Press TV website came after a UN report said Iran had tripled its production rate of enriched uranium over the past three months. The confidential report to member states, seen by the Guardian, also states that Iran is refusing to co-operate with an investigation into evidence that the country may have worked on designing a bomb. Meanwhile diplomatic experts have warned that a pre-emptive attack on Iran’s nuclear sites by Israel could draw the US into a new Middle East conflict. “Israel can commence a war with Iran, but it may well take U.S. involvement to conclude it,” said Karim Sadjadpour, a Middle East specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Iran’s warning follows increasingly tough rhetoric from Israel about the need to halt Iran’s nuclear development. Israeli officials believe a pre-emptive strike must happen before the summer because Tehran is moving more of its nuclear installations underground. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) found that much of the increased production of uranium, enriched to the level of 20%, had taken place at an underground site known as Fordow.

 Tehran has said it needs the material for its research reactor, which produces medical isotopes, but western governments argue that its stock of enriched uranium brings it significantly closer to weapons-grade fissile material. The IAEA inspectors also found that Iran had stepped up the installation of centrifuges at its main uranium enrichment plant in Natanz. Over the past three months, 2,600 new centrifuges have been brought into operation, spinning uranium gas. The report found that Iran had now produced nearly five and a half metric tonnes of low enriched uranium – enriched to about 3.5% – and about 109kg of uranium enriched to 20%. If enriched further, to more than 90% purity, the total stockpile would be more than enough to make four nuclear warheads. Iran says it has no intention of making weapons, and the report may not be enough for western countries, led by the US, the UK and France, to persuade Russia and China to take part in an escalation of sanctions. The Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, said the focus on the nuclear program was a cover for western attempts to oust the clerical regime in Tehran. But Israel worries that Iran could soon enter a “zone of immunity” in which enough of its nuclear materials are beyond the reach of Israeli air power that it cannot be stopped, or can be stopped only by superior American firepower. If Israel’s American-made strike planes managed to penetrate Iranian air space and bomb Iran’s main nuclear facilities, some of which are underground, then Iran would be expected to retaliate. –Guardian

February 25, 2012 – PAKISTAN – ISLAMABAD (AP) — With a police officer wounded and the presidential palace breached, the Pakistani capital has launched a fresh offensive against a uniquely feared enemy in the Muslim country – the city’s ever expanding population of wild boar. Each night, packs of the hairy beasts emerge from Islamabad’s river beds, parks and scrubland to rifle through the overflowing rubbish bins of its mostly wealthy residents and growing number of restaurants. City authorities are laying poison and have announced free hunting permits to cull the wild pigs’ numbers. But to make sure residents don’t get caught in the crossfire, they only allow shotguns. There have been few takers. Hunters are wary of getting arrested by the police, or even worse – getting mistaken for a terrorist. The animals can weigh up to 180 to 220 pounds (80 kilograms to 100 kilograms) and have razor sharp teeth. Adult males come armed with upward curving tusks. While they scurry off at the site of humans, they charge when cornered, alarmed or wounded and are a major cause of traffic accidents in the city. The latest chapter of man versus hog played out in a city center police station last week. “Someone shouted ‘watch your back’ but before I could look round the animal had hit me,” said Sajjad Hussain, who was on duty when the animal slipped in past the high, razor wire-topped blast walls after guards opened the gates to let in a car. Hussain had a gash in his stomach that required eight stitches and is on medical leave. The meat of wild boar is prized in many countries, but has no value in Pakistan because its consumption is forbidden under Islam. The country’s often persecuted and tiny Christian and Hindu populations don’t keep pigs or eat wild boar either. That has helped ensure the animals thrive. -Dawn

2008 file video

February 25, 2012

Book Quote: “Islamic terror cells strikes in the West versus drone warfare raining down death from the skies over Islamic fundamentalist terrorist safe havens in the Middle East. At some point, the contest of wills will reach a dangerous irrevocable flashpoint and the War on Terror, which has defined a decade, will morph in an ideological global clash of cultures. When this clash of civilizations ensues; the world will come dangerously close to being engulfed in a global nuclear firestorm…the cross, the sun symbol, and the Islamic moon are in conflict. The skies of our future look perilous, stormy, and are pregnant with the menacing threat of an ensuing apocalypse.” –The Extinction Protocol, pp. 452, 453

February 24, 2012 – Borneo, MALAYSIA - Volcanic mud has been spewing at least twice to three times more actively than normal since last week. This has created an overflow of the sulphuric substance that has spread over an area as big as a football field. Apart from excited guests at the nearby Tabin Wildlife Resort, the number of wild animals, too, appears to have increased at the mud pool. Volcanic mud is believed to contain curative properties with iodine, bromine, calcium and magnesium. According to Wikipedia, since the mud solution has no significant toxic substance, it is used as a curative agent for mud baths at spas. Mud baths have existed for thousands of years and can now be found in high-end spas in many countries of the world. The mineral-rich pool serves as a salt lick for animals at the Tabin Wildlife Reserve, including endangered species such as the Sumatran rhino and the pygmy elephants. On a normal day, mud would continuously spew from within the pool and dry up in a day or two once it spills over. Last week, however, according to a wildlife ranger who declined to be named, it was rather active judging by the overflow. “Earlier last week, we saw it to be more active and when we returned a few days later, the mud had flowed over a big area,” he said, adding that people and animals had suddenly started coming to the reserve in droves. Nestled amid 120,500ha of dipterocarp rainforest and tropical plants, some of which are rich in medicinal and therapeutic values, the reserve is a popular haunt for bird watchers and wildlife enthusiasts. Besides the rhinoceroses and elephants, it is also home to the clouded leopard, sambar deer, exotic wild birds and the orangutan. –Strait Times

February 24, 2012

Seismic tremors increasing: On Friday, February 24^th, 2012, a 4.3 magnitude earthquake, the strongest in the swarm series thus far, struck the region near the volcano. On January 24, 2012, the volcano was rattled by a 4.7 maganitude earthquake. Clearly, Kilauea is entering a more violent phase of eruptions. Like El Hierro in the Canary Islands, like Italy’s Mt. Etna, and Icleand’s volcanic fields, the planet’s magma plumes are seen an inordinate rise in activity- a sign of more trouble to come. We began sounding the warnings back in December of 2011, when  a profuse lava flow from Kīlauea breached the West Ka‘ili‘ili ocean for the first time in 4 years. A scientist then warned the volcano was capable of very violent eruptions. Meanwhile, the earthquake swarm continues.  -The Extinction Protocol

February 23, 2012 – MEXICO – A 5.0 magnitude earthquake rattled the ocean floor 101 km off the coast of Chiapas Mexico. Tension is building along this region of the Cocos tectonic plate, which borders the Caribbean Plate on the East and the Nazca Plate to the South. As the earthquake was 60 km in depth, there were no tsunami or damage reports issued for the region. –The Extinction Protocol