WORLD WAR III: Countdown To Armageddon - United States Deploys Ground-Based Missile Interceptors As North Korea Steps Up Threats; North Korea Fires Missiles Into The Sea Of Japan; North Korea Under Massive Cyber Attack; President Obama Intimates US To Strike Iran In A Year If Diplomacy Fails; Israel Claims That Iran Has Force Of 50,000 In Syria And That Assad Is Ready To Use Chemical Weapons; Russia Warships Dock In Beirut Port Awaiting Departure To Syria!

March 15, 2015 - UNITED STATES - The U.S. is deploying 14 new ground-based missile interceptors in Alaska to counter renewed nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Friday. 

The new interceptors will be based at Fort Greely, an Army launch site about 100 miles southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska, and are projected to be fully deployed by 2017, Hagel said. The additions will bring the U.S.-based ground interceptor deployment from 30 to 44, including four that are based in California.
That will boost U.S. missile defense capability by 50 percent and "make clear to the world that the United States stands firm against aggression," he said in a briefing at the Pentagon.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Friday, March 14,
that 14 new ground-based missile interceptors would be
in place by 2014. Win McNamee / Getty Images.

The announcement comes as North Korea has been making bellicose threats to void the armistice that ended the Korean War and launch a nuclear attack on the U.S. The U.S. and South Korea began annual military drillsthis week despite the North Korean threats. 

Hagel said the U.S. would also shift some "resources," which he didn't specify, from the delayed Aegis anti-missile program in Europe to U.S.-based defenses, saying the Aegis program was "lagging" because of reduced congressional funding. And he reiteratedpreviously announced plans to add a second U.S. anti-ballistic missile radar installation in Japan.


WATCH: North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is trying to prove his strength, causing experts to worry that Pyongyang's threats could get out of control. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports. 

Taking all of the moves together, "we will be able to add protection against missiles from Iran sooner while also proving protection against the threat from North Korea," he said.  Even before the announcement, Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., a member of the Armed Services Committee, criticized the news, saying it was too little and too late.  "I applaud the Obama administration's decision, but it shouldn't have taken the predictable saber-rattling from North Korea to bring this about," Ayotte said in a statement Friday.   Pointing to Iran's nuclear program, Ayotte called on the Obama administration to "move expeditiously to construct an East Coast missile defense site."  "Americans living in the Eastern United States should have the same level of missile defense protection as those in the West," she said. - NBC News.

North Korea Fires Missiles Into Sea Of Japan.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with his generals.

The United States is set to bolster its missile defences in the face of growing threats from North Korea which sparked outrage today by firing missiles into the sea of Japan.  The controversial move comes in response to recent aggression from the pariah state led by tyrant dictator Kim Jong-un  Earlier today the communist nation caused international anger when it reportedly fired short-range missiles close to Japan.  Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel is expected to reveal tonight the deployment of 14 ground based missile interceptors on the US West Coast.  

The move will also involve the re-opening of a missile field in Alaska, and some based in California.  It would take two years for all of the systems to come online.  Today's short-range missiles launches into the sea of Japan are the latest in a string of aggressive acts by Kim Jong-un and is sure to further escalate tensions in the region.  And although no one is thought to have been killed the missile firing has enraged the international community.  It comes just a week after Kim Jong-un vowed to launch a nuclear strike on the US and a month after they conducted secret underground nuclear tests, causing a huge earthquake.  The missiles used in this firing are presumed to be the KN-02 short-range type, which have a reach of about 75 miles.  Details were apparently leaked to a South Korean news agency by a source within the South’s military.  They said: “The launch was seen as testing its capability for short-range missiles.  “It seemed to be conducted on a military-unit level, not at a national level.”  This would apparently indicate that the launch was not ordered by Kim Jong Un directly.  - The Sun. 

North Korea Under Massive Cyber Attack.

North Korea has fallen victim to a massive cyber attack since Wednesday morning, a senior South Korean government official said. He added Seoul is trying to find out who is behind it.  "Internet resources of the country have come under a powerful hacker attack from abroad," Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency, which has a branch in Pyongyang, reported on Wednesday night. The country's websites apparently all went offline until late Thursday afternoon.  They included propaganda outlets like the Rodong Sinmun, the KCNA news agency and Naenara, which are blocked in South Korea.  An expert at a government-funded think tank in Seoul said it is unlikely that an attack on this scale was launched by an individual hacker since all websites with North Korea-based servers were affected and the attack lasted for two days.  The official insisted the South Korean government has nothing to do with it.  "It's inconceivable that the Internet network of the North has been under hacker attack for such a long period of time," said Ryu Dong-ryeol at the Police Science Institute. "It's likely that the regime has staged the incident itself as a way out of its current international impasse." - CHOSUN.

Obama Intimates US To Strike Iran In A Year If Diplomacy Fails.

US President Barack Obama is interviewed on Channel 2 News,
Thursday, March 14 (photo credit: image capture Channel 2)

Iran can produce a nuclear weapon in just over a year and diplomatic efforts have just less than that to halt Iran’s drive to the bomb, US President Barack Obama said Thursday, intimating that should diplomatic efforts fail this year or early next year, America will be forced to carry out military action against Iran.  Contrary to statements by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the moment of truth concerning Iran’s nuclear program was spring 2013, Obama said that the US estimates that Iran can produce a bomb only in about a year given its current rate of progress. “There is a window, not an infinite period of time, a window of time where we can resolve this diplomatically,” Obama said. ”Right now we think that it would take over a year or so for Iran to actually develop a nuclear weapon, but we obviously don’t want to cut it too close.”  Speaking in an interview on Israel’s Channel 2, ahead of his three-day visit to Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories next week, Obama emphasized that he has been “crystal clear” that a nuclear-armed Iran was a “red line,” and that the US was committed to preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon with which it could threaten Israel or trigger a regional arms race.  Though he said he prefers a diplomatic resolution to the international standoff with Iran over its unsanctioned nuclear program, Obama said that strikes on Iranian military targets remain on the table.  “If we can resolve it diplomatically, that’s a more lasting solution,” Obama said, but added: “When I that say all options are on the table, all options are on the table. And the US obviously has significant capabilities.”  “We’ve set up the toughest sanctions ever; it’s having a significant effect… on Iran’s economy, but that has an impact in terms of how they think about both the costs and benefits of pursuing a nuclear program,” the president said.  “They’re not yet at the point, I think, where they’ve made a fundamental decision to get right with the international community and the IAEA and the UN resolutions that they’ve been violating, but I do think that they’re recognizing that there’s a severe cost for them to continue down the path that they’re on, and that there’s a door open.” - Times of Israel.

Iran Has Force Of 50,000 In Syria, Claims Israel.

Maj Gen Kochavi said Iran’s nuclear programme
had been slowed but not sufficiently

Major General Aviv Kochavi said Tehran had provided the funds for the army which had then been trained by Hizbollah, the Lebanese Shiite group which is a close ally of the Islamic regime. It planned to expand the force to 100,000 men, he said.  Speaking at the annual Inter-Disciplinary Conference in Herzliya, Maj Gen Kochavi said Iran and Hizbollah had supported Mr Assad in the two-year civil war that has cost an estimated 70,000 because they were fearful of losing a strategic ally. But they were developing contingency plans for the day when he would fall from power.  “The damages of the imminent fall of Syria are very high for both Iran and Hezbollah,” he said.  “Iran is losing a sole ally in the region surrounding Israel. It will lose the ability to transfer weaponry through Syria to Hizbollah.  "Iran and Hizbollah are also preparing for the day after Assad’s fall, when they will use this army to protect their assets and interest in Syria.” - Telegraph.

Israel Intelligence Chief Claims That Assad Is Ready To Use Chemical Weapons.

IDF Home Front Command soldiers take part in a 2011
defense drill simulating a chemical attack
(photo credit: Gili Yaari/Flash 90)

Israel’s military intelligence chief on Thursday said Syria’s embattled president, Bashar Assad, is preparing to use chemical weapons.  Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi told a security conference in the coastal town of Herzliya that Assad is stepping up his offensive against rebels trying to oust him. He claimed Assad is making advanced preparations to use chemical weapons, but has not yet given the order to deploy them. He did not disclose information about why he thinks Assad is preparing to use them.  Kochavi spoke for the better part of an hour, detailing the effects on Israel of the transformation of the Middle East in recent years.  Kochavi said that across the region, a lack of water, a rising demand for energy and an increasing difficulty in providing food for civilians, coupled with rising religious extremism and the overthrow of the long-enduring dictatorships, have thrown the region into profound tumult, creating “a completely different Middle East.”  The four primary Muslim powers in the region — Turkey, Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia — are all governed by religious rule, and Israel, “for the first time in decades,” faces strife on four of its borders — Syria, Lebanon, Sinai and Gaza.  Increasingly, continued Kochavi, the Islamist groups on Israel’s borders were veering away from global jihad and toward “local jihad.”  In Syria, the air force is flying 40-50 sorties per day against civilians. The price of bread has gone up sevenfold over the past year. Oil production is down 40 percent. The army is able to draft only 20 percent of each recruited class. Some 45,000 troops have defected. Morale is low, the structure of command is weak, the troops are scattered. Finally, 11 of 17 border crossings are currently in rebel hands.  “Syria as a whole state no longer exists,” Kochavi claimed.  Israel has long expressed concerns that Assad’s stockpile of chemical weapons could end up in the hands of groups hostile to Israel like Hezbollah or al-Qaeda-inspired organizations.  Israel has kept out of Syria’s civil war, but it is concerned that violence could spill over the border into northern Israel. - Times of Israel.

Russia Warships Dock In Beirut Port Awaiting Departure To Syria.

Three Russia warships docked on Thursday in Beirut Port, and al-Mayadeen television reported that they will stay in Lebanese waters for three days before departing to Syria.  "The warships carry 700 soldiers and are planning to stay in Mediterranean waters for three days,” al-Mayadeen said, adding that they will then sail to the Syrian port of Tartus.  Russia's emergencies ministry on Tuesday had airlifted 103 Russians and citizens of former Soviet republics from Syria amid continuing violence in the strife-torn country and on February 19, Syrian authorities announced that it will send four ships to the Mediterranean, in anticipation of a possible evacuation of Russia expats in the country.  Moscow has airlifted small groups of its citizens from Syria on at least two prior occasions.  Russia has vetoed three rounds of U.N. Security Council sanctions against President Bashar Assad and has said that the Syrian strongman must be taken at his word when he says he has no intention to quit.  It is one of the only bakers of the government in Syria, where the U.N. says more than 70,000 people have been killed in an uprising launched two years ago. - Naharnet.

Original post @ http://thecelestialconvergence.blogspot.hk/2013/03/world-war-iii-countdown-to-armageddon.html