Eaten by the Bear

The body of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko is reportedly so radioactive that British medical examiners are afraid to conduct his autopsy and the health care professionals who treated him are being tested for radiation poisoning.

According to Litvinenko's spokesperson after his death, he was killed by a 'tiny nuclear bomb' inside his body. That is a pretty good analogy, as it turns out.

Traces of Polonium 210 were found at Litvinenko's home and at two other London locations he visited on the day he fell ill. That led doctors to look for it in Litvinenko's body. Its presence was detected by a post-mortem urinalysis, leading to the radioactive cross-contamination fears expressed by his physicians.

And this is where it gets interesting. Although there are industrial uses for polonium-210, it is only used commercially in tiny quantities.

To obtain enough polonium-210 to kill a man, one would have to have access to a nuclear reactor, meaning it had to be a state-sponsored assassination.

The list of nations who have nuclear reactors narrows the field considerably. Especially since polonium 210 is carefully tracked and any quantity, no matter how tiny, would not escape notice. Except by the nation who supplied it.

Adding up motive, opportunity and means, there is only one viable suspect -- Russia. Litvinenko named Vladimir Putin personally as his killer from beyond the grave in a statement read aloud by his spokesman after his death.

Litvinenko worked for the KGB and its successor, the FSB. In 1998, he publicly accused his superiors of ordering him to kill tycoon, Boris Berezovsky, and spent nine months in jail from 1999 on charges of abuse of office. He was later acquitted and in 2000 sought asylum in Britain.

Had Putin wanted Litvinenko dead, which seems likely, there are many other ways he could have had him 'liquidated' -- to use the old Cold War term.

If his death were the only objective, Litvinenko could have been killed in a staged traffic accident, shot by a mugger, stabbed by a junkie, run over by a streetcar, the list of possible 'accidents' that the Russian FSB could have chosen from is virtually endless.

Instead, Putin ordered the hit on Litvinenko using a substance that was virtually an official signature. And Litvinenko didn't just die; he literally melted from in the inside out in a long, drawn-out and excruciatingly painful death.

It is hard to imagine a more miserable demise.

Putin was sending an unmistakable message to Russian dissidents living abroad: "If you reveal Russian secrets, we won't just kill you, we'll overkill you."

What is intriguing is that Putin thought sending the message in the manner he did was worth the considerable risk it posed to Russia's international reputation.

What is Putin hiding that could be worse than the ramifications of a state-sponsored murder on foreign soil pointing directly to his door?

Kremlin enemies have been dropping lie flies of late; the former head of security for the Chechen President, a former guerrilla turned FSB agent, was shot dead by Russian police.

That killing was linked to the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya, an investigative journalist preparing to publish a series of stories about Chechnya, on October 7.

Here's where the spy vs spy stuff apparently comes together. Until he was poisoned, Livinenko was investigating Putin's involvement in the murder of Anna Politkovskaya -- bringing things full circle back to Chechnya.

Russia is conducting a vicious war against Muslim Chechen separatists. Much of the Islamic Chechen rebels' supplies flow into the region from Iran. The Chechen separatists are Islamic allies of Tehran.

That should make Moscow the ideological enemy of Iran under the same principle that makes Washington's support of Israel an Islamic target. Despite all that, Russian relations with Iran couldn't be warmer. Moscow is supplying Iran with nuclear materials as well as building nuclear reactors all over the country.

And now Russia has begun delivering the first of 29 Tor-M1 missiles it sold to the Iranians in a deal worth $700 million. The Tor-M1 is regarded as the most highly advanced missile of its kind in the world.

It is capable of simultaneously destroying two targets traveling up to 450 mph in any weather, day or night. It is equipped with jam-resistant radar with electronic beam control, which feeds azimuth, elevation and automatic threat evaluation data on up to 48 targets to a digital fire-control computer.

Here's what all that means in plain English. Once they are fully deployed, Iran’s nuclear installations will be virtually invulnerable to American or Israeli air attack.

That creates a window of about six months to act.

Assessment:

Whatever Putin has up his sleeve, the trail flows through Chechnya to Tehran and back again, and anybody who gets too close to it ends up dead.

It is SO important that Putin made a point of using Livinenko's murder as a warning, even at the risk of exposing his direct involvement.

Add that together with Putin's decision to deliver the Tor-M1's in defiance of a personal, face-to-face request by President Bush at the Hanoi summit, and it is clear that future battle lines are already being drawn up.

Iran has promised to annihilate Israel. Moscow is not only providing them with the means to do so, it is providing them with a protective umbrella to ensure they accomplish their goal. Putin knows that an Iranian attack against Israel would provoke a massive counterstrike against Tehran by either Israel or America.

It is almost like he is preparing a 'Hail Mary' play against the United States.

While America is focused on its outgoing nuclear response against Iran, Moscow would have a window of opportunity to launch a sneak nuclear attack aimed at wiping out most of America's remaining missile capabilities.

It would be a major gamble for Russia, but once nuclear missiles start flying in any direction, anybody who has one is going to try and lob it into America. By the time America gets around to Russia, Putin is evidently gambling Russia could survive a degraded US response.

But the lynchpin is Israel. For the scenario to unfold in Putin's favor, the first target has to be Israel, and the attack can't begin from Russian soil. America's first response must be against Iran and whatever other nuclear nutcases (North Korea, Pakistan) that take the chance to unload their arsenals on the Great Satan.

Admittedly, I am speculating a good bit on the details, but it is almost a foregone conclusion that something along these lines is already in motion. The Islamic world, financed and instigated largely by Iran, is seething for a direct military confrontation with Israel and the Great Satan.

Russia sees an opportunity to exploit the coming conflict, eliminating its only major military rival in the process, and hopefully, without getting nuked in return.

The price, from Moscow's perspective, is the destruction of Israel, a price Moscow is willing to pay. Indeed, Russia has already bought chips in the game.

Has anybody else noticed that Ezekiel's scenario is almost complete? Ezekiel foretold the rise of a grand alliance between Gog and Magog (modern Russia and its Islamic republics) and Persia, (modern Iran) together with the Mediterranean Islamic world, that would launch a sneak attack against Israel in the last days.

There is virtually no Islamic state that would stand in opposition and probable that most, if not all, would join in what would appear to be a certain victory against the hated 'Zionist occupiers.'

According to Ezekiel, however, Israel is not destroyed. The invasion is stopped on the mountains of the West Bank in a miraculous battle that involves 'pestilence and blood' and 'an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire and brimstone.' (Ezekiel 38:22)

Radioactive rain, giant hailstones that form in the stratosphere when the evaporated water cools, re-forms, and freezes, and 'fire and brimstone' -- all are byproducts of a nuclear explosion.

The prophet Joel, describing the same battle, says it involves, "blood, fire and pillars of smoke." (Joel 2:30)

Let's summarize the prophecy: Ezekiel named Russia, Iran, the extremist Islamic world, and predicted a sneak attack on Israel resulting in what is clearly a nuclear war. Ezekiel said this war would occur "in the latter years."

Ezekiel made his prophecy well AFTER the destruction of Israel in antiquity and 2,500 years BEFORE Israel was reborn 'in a day' on May 14, 1948, as prophesied by the Prophet Isaiah.

"Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children." (Isaiah 66:8)

By itself, that is an amazing proof of Bible prophecy. Apart from the inspiration of God, how could the prophets know there would EVER be an Israel, let alone pinpoint when?

Now, let's summarize the news: Iran is developing nuclear weapons and has sworn to annihilate Israel in "a flash". Russia has returned to its Cold War status with the US, and is actively helping Iran both develop nuclear weapons and is supplying them with the means to protect them.

Russia's Tor-M1 missiles give Israel and America less than six months to act.

Israel is preparing for a coming war with Iran. And Israel is already at war with most of the Mediterranean Islamic world.

What is missing from the news is any cogent plan by the United States to stop Iran from going nuclear or even any mention of a six-month window of opportunity.

And what is missing from Ezekiel's prophecy is any mention of a Western superpower resembling the United States.

"But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you BY THE WORD OF THE LORD, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (1st Thessalonians 4:13-17)

The Bible is true and the signs are all there. What terrifies the world is, to the Christian, proof positive that God is still on the Throne, and that He knows what He is doing. All He asks of us is to trust Him.

I wish I could say with absolute certainty that the Rapture occurs before anything bad happens. But the only certainty I can find in Scripture is that the Rapture occurs before the man of sin is revealed.

Still, Paul was inspired to conclude this passage with the hopeful message, "Wherefore, COMFORT one another with these words." (1st Thessalonians 4:18)

I'll trust Him on that.

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