Intelligence Leaks about Iran

STRATFOR’s excellent commentary this week analyzed two related recent intelligence leaks about Iran… One was from the U.S. that Iran had progressed much further in their nuclear weapons program than originally thought (implying of course that the Bush intelligence machine let us down); and the other was from Israel that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's provided the Russians with a list of Russian scientists and engineers working on Iran's nuclear weapons program.

The presence of Russian nuclear weapons experts in Iran means that the Iranians have had the wherewithal to quickly develop nuclear weapons. The Russian involvement also means that effective sanctions against Iran are not possible and the leaks tell them that we know that.

STRATFOR’s conclusion about the timing of the leaks is that the Israelis must expect a resolution of the Iranian crisis in the very near future; this is the only reason they would have revealed their penetration of the Russian-Iranian system.

STRATFOR goes on to cite two possible outcomes from these developments. The first is that the Israelis and Americans are trying to get the Russians to realize they are facing a massive crisis in their relations with the West so that they’ll pull their nuke experts out of Iran and put real teeth into the sanctions. The hope is that this will cause the Iranians to abandon their nuclear weapons program. Given the momentum of these developments I’d say this is a weak hope.

The second possibility is that the Russians will continue to play the spoiler on sanctions while denying their support of the Iranians. STRATFOR believes that any military action on Iran would require U.S. participation to keep the Strait of Hormuz clear. The U.S. collaboration on the intelligence leaks would tend to reinforce that the U.S. will indeed join Israel in the military action. I also have come around to thinking this is likely so that President Obama can show the world that he is not a weak appeaser. This could also explain the president’s equivocating over putting more troops into Afghanistan; they may be needed elsewhere to counter an Iranian reaction.

STRATFOR concludes: “We have now moved from a view of Iran as a long-term threat to Iran as a much more immediate threat thanks to the Russians. [It appears as though the Russians and Iranians] have convinced themselves that Obama is unlikely to act because he is weak at home and already has too many issues to juggle. This is a case where a reputation for being conciliatory actually increases the chances for war.” I could not agree more!

Ezekiel 38-39 makes it clear that Russia (Magog) will invade the Mideast prior to the Messiah’s return. (Moscow is the only city-state which fits the description of being to the “far north” of Jerusalem; see Ezekiel 38:6, 38:15, 39:2) The collaboration of Russia with Iran (a.k.a. Persia) and the U.S./Israeli response to their belligerence will likely be the “hooks in the jaws” of Russia that brings them down into the Mideast (Ezekiel 38:4).

The fact that the U.S. is involved makes this country a likely target for the nuclear weapons that God allows to be used upon escalation of the coming Russian-Iranian-Israeli war. In Ezekiel 39:6 God said, “I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in security in the coastlands.” The United States certainly has a lot of coasts and we certainly think we live in safety.

I have often thought what better time for the Rapture of the Church than during a nuclear war. People will be so distracted; who will miss millions of Christians when millions more have died from a nuclear exchange? And what better environment would there be for the Antichrist to emerge with solutions to all the worlds problems.

We are getting closer every day to seeing the Lord face to face… Maranatha!