The Kingdom Come

(MSNBC) — Saudia Arabia would move quickly to acquire nuclear weapons if Iran successfully tests an atomic bomb, according to a report.

Citing an unidentified Saudi Arabian source, the Times newspaper in the U.K. (which operates behind a paywall) said that the kingdom would seek to buy ready-made warheads and also begin its own program to enrich weapons-grade uranium.

The paper suggested that Pakistan was the country most likely to supply Saudi Arabia with weapons, saying Western officials were convinced there was an understanding between the countries to do so if the security situation in the Persian Gulf gets worse. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have denied such an arrangement exists.

(LOS ANGELES TIMES) — The U.S. State Department has issued an updated travel warning for tourists planning to visit Mexico, adding information on drug violence on a state-by-state and city-by-city basis.

The new, more detailed warning comes in response to concerns expressed by Mexico tourism officials, who worried that previous travel warnings scared off U.S. tourists by generalized about the threat of crime violence in Mexico.

“The Mexico Tourism Board has long advocated for travel advisories which abide by three key tenets: context, clarity and specificity,” said Rodolfo Lopez-Negrete, chief operating officer for the Mexico Tourism Board. “The revised U.S. State Department travel advisory regarding Mexico adheres to these principles and should serve as model for the rest of the world.”

(AP) FRANKFURT, Germany — An Islamic extremist who killed two U.S. airmen bound for Afghanistan at Frankfurt airport last year and injured two others was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison on Friday.

The state court in Frankfurt convicted 22-year-old Arid Uka of two counts of murder. It also found him guilty of three counts of attempted murder and serious bodily harm for wounding two other servicemen and taking aim at a third before his 9 mm pistol jammed.

Uka, an ethnic Albanian from Kosovo, killed Senior Airman Nicholas J. Alden, 25, from South Carolina, and Airman 1st Class Zachary R. Cuddeback, 21, from Virginia in the March 2 attack on the Afghanistan-bound servicemen as they were boarding a bus at the airport.

(NEWSCORE) ROME — The Vatican moved quickly Friday to dismiss newspaper reports of a plot to kill the pope.

“These are clearly ramblings, which are not at all taken seriously. This is madness,” Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, said in a hurriedly-released statement.

Italian media went into a frenzy Thursday night after Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano published a front-page account of a note sent to Benedict XVI by retired Colombian Cardinal Castrillon, Sky Italia TG24 reported.

The note, written in German, tells of an alleged conversation in which the Archbishop of Palermo, Cardinal Romeo, during a visit to China, claimed the pope was in great danger and an attack was feared within 12 months. Romeo also apparently named the pope’s probable successor as Cardinal Scola, the current Archbishop of Milan.

Editor’s Note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, the premium online newsletter published by the founder of WND. Subscriptions are $99 a year or, for monthly trials, just $9.95 per month for credit card users, and provide instant access for the complete reports.

WASHINGTON – Informed sources say that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is to pay a “surprise” visit to Iran soon, and he may be carrying a message from U.S. President Barack Obama, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

Al-Maliki is close to the Iranian government and is seen as a conduit in addition to the Swiss channel to convey messages to Tehran. Because the United States and Iran lack formal diplomatic relations, they use the Swiss Embassy in Tehran to convey any messages. While there is no official indication of the content of any message from the U.S. president, it is possible that al-Maliki may be taking word about wanting to pursue talks between the U.S. and Iran.

It largely was due to Iran’s influence and Iranian-backed Shi’ites in the government that prompted al-Maliki to reject U.S. appeals to extend the Status of Forces Agreement beyond last December’s deadline. Those U.S. forces that were in Iraq toward the end of last year then were sent to neighboring Kuwait, which also raised questions on the limits imposed in the U.S.-Kuwaiti Status of Forces agreement.

Al-Maliki will be looking to Iran for increased infrastructure reconstruction assistance and for military training against the rising Sunni insurgents who are being joined by al-Qaida and backed by Sunni Saudi Arabia. Despite all this, the U.S. still is seriously considering selling some 36 F-16s to the Iraqi government, with the hope of maintaining some semblance of U.S. military presence in Iraq.

Keep in touch with the most important breaking news stories about critical developments around the globe with Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence news source edited and published by the founder of WND.

For the complete report and full immediate access to Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, subscribe now.

President Obama cannot effectively handle the growing crisis in Syria because of his unwillingness to address Iran’s central role, charged former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton in an interview today with talk-radio host Michael Savage.

Bolton told Savage that the administration’s Syria policy fell apart last weekend when Russia and China vetoed a U.S.-backed Security Council resolution condemning Bashar al-Assad’s crackdowns on his people “that wouldn’t have done anything other than satisfy the need for some sort of rhetorical statement.”

The vetoes caught the administration “completely unaware,” said Bolton, who is serving as an adviser to Republican Gov. Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.

“At this point they don’t really know what they are doing; they were so stunned by the vetoes that they’re still recovering,” Bolton said of the Obama administration.

You’ve always known that “Liberalism is a Mental Disorder”: Get Savage Solutions

Bolton explained that the political conflict in Syria is very different than the upheaval in the other Arab countries caught up in the so called “Arab Spring” revolutions over the past year.

The big difference, he said, is the Iranian mullah-led Shia regime’s active support of the Assads’ Basque party dictatorship.

“Syria is part of Iran’s influence in the region, and the Iranians will shed a lot of Syrian blood to keep the Assad family dictatorship in place,” Bolton said.

Even if Obama were inclined to act in Syria, Bolton said, “the only sensible way to look at it is in the larger picture of Iran’s role there.”

“And I just don’t think – to be frank about it – I don’t think Obama is up to dealing with that challenge.”

Savage asked Bolton what he would do if he were to become secretary of state under a Romney administration.

Explaining that he was giving his personal views, not the views of the Romney campaign, Bolton said that regime change in Syria and Iran should have been U.S. policy for some time.

He pointed out that the civil war in Syria now is a proxy contest for a larger struggle in the region that encompasses Islam as a whole, between the Persian Shia and the Arab Sunni factions.

Undoubtedly, he said, Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations will arm the opposition in Syria.

But at the moment, Barack Obama is the occupant of the White House, he said, “and I don’t think this president is prepared to take Iran on.”

Bolton said he thinks the Obama administration has no intention of taking military action to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons.

He noted that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta essentially admitted recently that Iran is on the verge of gaining nuclear weapons capability, possibly within a year.

“I think it could well be less than that,” Bolton said.

The administration’s Plan B, then, he said, appears to be: We don’t like a nuclear Iran, but we can contain and deter it.

“Personally, I think that’s a very dangerous and foolish position,” Bolton said.

The U.S. position effectively leaves the job to Israel.

“They’ve got to make the extraordinarily difficult and risky decision whether they’re going to use military force in preemptive self-defense,” Bolton said.

He pointed out that Israel has destroyed nuclear facilities “in the hands of sworn enemies” twice before, in Iraq in 1981 and in Syria in 2007.

Savage asked whether Saudi Arabia would support an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear capability.

“Most Arab countries don’t want Iran to have nuclear weapons any more than Israel does,” Bolton said. “They may condemn Israel publicly, but in private they will be applauding.”

He noted that the Saudis believe the U.S. is too weak to accomplish the task, “so that leaves them, paradoxically, to rely on Israel.”

Turning to Iraq, Bolton said the administration of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki essentially is doing the bidding of Iran when it comes to regional policy.

It’s one reason, he said, why it was a mistake for the U.S. to withdraw troops from Iraq.

“The Savage Nation” airs live Monday through Friday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern. It can be heard online through stations such as KSTE in Sacramento.

(VOA NEWS) — In recent months, Israeli leaders have stepped up their rhetoric about Iran’s nuclear capabilities and increasingly are warning that Israel might attack Iranian nuclear installations to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon. Lately they are warning that such an attack could come this year. This is sparking widespread debate in Israel, where memories are still vivid of missile attacks on the country two decades ago during the Iraq war.

Lawyer Moshe Meiron, 86, sits in the living room of his house in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan. He was deputy mayor of the town when Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, under attack by a coalition of Western and Arab states because of his invasion of Kuwait, 21 years ago launched Scud missiles against Israel.

Meiron recalls the night after a siren alert when he was huddled with his wife in a safe room, wearing gas masks. A missile struck their car parked in the driveway nine meters away.

“Everything, five or six villas, were completely destroyed,” Meiron said. “All the cars were burned up. And it’s a miracle that we are here alive, my wife and I.”

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton discusses three critical hot spots in the Middle East.

Bolton tells WND the Obama administration spent all of its efforts on Syria trying to get sanctions approved at the U.N. and now it doesn’t really have a strategy moving forward.

“I think they’re scrambling now. I think the administration is completely at sea as to what to do.”

Bolton explains why the instability in Syria is very different than what we encountered in Libya.

“It’s very much in Iran’s interest to keep the Assad regime in power, it’s part of their arc of influence and they’re prepared to shed a lot of Syrian blood to keep the regime in power.”

He also discusses Iran’s contradictory statements of wanting to discuss its nuclear program with the international community in one breath and calling for the extermination of every Jew within two years just days later.

We’ll also ask Bolton about the differences between the U.S. and Israel over how to confront an unrepentant Iran. And Bolton suggests the instability in Egypt is what you get by throwing a longtime ally under the bus – as he alleges the U.S. did to Hosni Mubarak last year.