Forget the NCAA college basketball tournaments. If you want some real March Madness, turn your attention to the Middle East! Yes, there’s money, nukes, deadlines, back-door deals, elections, the Holocaust, and even prophecies of WW III and the antichrist. What more could you ask for?

Anyway, on February 28, 2006 Lisa Guliani and I appeared on Frank Whalen’s Frankly Speaking radio show on RBN, and he started reeling off a series of events which were set to transpire in March, 2006. Whalen has been on top of these Mid-East machinations for months (probably better than anyone in the alternative media), and when historians look back at this era, they’ll establish that the times we’re living through right now may be some of the most monumental of the early 21st century.

Here’s what is happening:

March 1, 2006: Israel sets a deadline for a “diplomatic resolution” with Iran in regard to their “nuclear crisis.” I’m not certain who made Israel the determinant of such deadlines, or who gave them authority to be the Middle East’s governing body; but nonetheless, this crucial date has come and gone without Iran backing down.

March 1, 2006: At 12:00 noon, Syria – one of the nations now included in the neo-cons’ infamous ‘axis of evil’ – replaced the U.S. dollar with the euro for all monetary transactions, including exports, imports, and service contracts. This currency switch is vitally important, for we all know by now that the real reason why U.S. forces invaded Iraq. It wasn’t due to WMD’s, terrorism, oil, Saddam Hussein, al Qaeda, 9-11, or the desire to spread ‘freedom and democracy’; but instead because Saddam Hussein dumped the greenback in favor of the euro.

The reason Syria elected to make this move is best conveyed by their Prime Minister Mohammed Naji al-Otari, who said that it was done to “avoid any complications in the event the U.S. imposed sanctions on Syria.”

The ramifications of this transaction are enormous. According to Dr. Duraid Durgham, head of Syria’s state-run Commercial Bank, “We’re talking about billions of dollars.”

What these officials are obviously safeguarding against is the freezing of their assets as they’re transferred from European banks which have dealings with U.S. monetary institutions. This type of preemptive move was one that Saddam Hussein didn’t make, and as a result all of his oil contracts were shredded by the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) after Baghdad’s invasion. The Real Reason Why We Invaded Iraq

Lastly, people should keep their eyes open for any new “staged” developments in the assassination of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister, Rafik al-Hariri. Although Syria has been blamed for this murder, government officials in Damascus deny any involvement, and President Bashar al-Assad has thus far refused to be interrogated or bullied by the U.N.

But what if the subterfuge extends much further in this car-bombing assassination of al-Hariri, with the finger of blame leading to Israel, the Mossad, and U.S. neo-con operatives? Al-Hariri’s former consultant, Mustafa al-Naser, told the Iranian News Agency that Israeli intelligence was behind the murder because it was:

               aimed at creating political tension in Lebanon … Beyond doubt, the peace, stability, and                high level security prevailing in Lebanon in recent years, in creation of which all Lebanese                groups play a harmonious role, is in direct contrast with Israel`s political intentions for the                region, and above that with the illegitimate nature of that usurper regime … Israel seeks                the continuation of its existence in creation of constant tension in the region, and                that was the reason why Tel Aviv imposed many years of civil war, and over a decade of                occupation and instability against our nation

Also, the following link is beneficial in getting a better perspective than the one provided by the largely Zionist-operated mainstream corporate press:

Assassination of Lebanon’s Prime Minister

March 3-5, 2006: Russian President Vladimir Putin invited democratically-elected Hamas political leaders to his country for a three-day summit. This development triggered outrage among officials from the U.S., European Union, Israel, and the United Nations. One of the reasons is that Russia doesn’t officially deem Hamas a terrorist organization despite the fact that they openly call for the destruction of Israel (as does Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad).

Israeli Cabinet Minister Meir Sheetrit has called Russia’s meeting with Hamas a “stab in the back,” while Viktor Kremenyuk, Deputy Director of the USA-Canada Institute in Moscow, has stated, “The fact that Putin is not united with the U.S. on this issue but, on the contrary, is against what the United States would have preferred, of course represents a blow to the United States position.”

The word I’m hearing from various individuals in the alternative media is that what we’re seeing is a power shift away from the DC-London-Tel Aviv triad toward an axis of Russia, China, Venezuela, Iran, and Syria. If so, this type of dynamic is sure to produce many sparks. And although reports are still filtering out of Russia in regard to their meeting with Hamas, leader Khaled Meshall was openly critical of Israel on March 3, 2006: “There is a problem, not with the position of Hamas but with that of Israel. They have practically refused the 'road map'.”

Last but not least, we need to realize that Hamas was actually a creation of Israel. This fact is not only brought up in The Michael Collins Piper Reader (Israel and Islamic Fundamentalism), but a must-read article by Justin Raimondo: Hamas, Son of Israel: The Israelis Birthed and Nurtured Their Islamist Nemesis. Once you read these two pieces, you’ll realize how nefarious Israel really is at the skull-duggery business.

Wednesday: Part Two