The Iran Attack Plan

[SHTF2010]

America Secretly Plans For War With Iran
May 26, 2010

According to the New York Times, America is secretly carrying out contingency planning for war with Iran. That was just part of its report on an expansion of US clandestine military activity recently authorised in the region. The timing of the story, and the leak it was based on, is intriguing.

The report, which has been stood up in off the record briefings by senior defence officials, claims top US commander in the region, General Petraeus, has ordered a ‘broad expansion’ of secret activity in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen among other countries.

It authorises special operations in both friendly and hostile nations. But of most interest here of course is what it means for American operations in Iran.

In particular, the New York Times reports, the order "permits reconnaissance that could pave the way for possible military strikes in Iran if tensions over its nuclear ambitions escalate’.

And it claims the directive ‘appears to authorize specific operations in Iran, most likely to gather intelligence about the country's nuclear program or identify dissident groups that might be useful for a future military offensive’ against Iran.

Officials emphasise that diplomatic and economic sanctions are the only methods currently being employed but say ‘detailed war plans’ must be drawn up ‘in the event that President Obama ever authorises a strike’.

In one sense you would not expect anything else, but as the Jerusalem Post reports one anonymous Israeli official as saying, this is ‘the first time that the public is getting word of practical preparations of military activity’.

It comes at a crucial time. The West is trying to turn the diplomatic screws on Iran, rejecting its recent deal with Brazil and Turkey, and pressing for strong sanctions with teeth.

The report tells us what we are told often. All options remain on the table. But that has become such a well worn phrase. This report spells things out far more effectively.

It may have just been another piece of great journalism from the New York Times or a deliberately timed leak. One way or another the revelation and the briefing that’s followed it gives Teheran and the region plenty to think about.

http://blogs.news.sky.com/middleeastblog/Post:5339839b-2695-4b07-b94a-7f234652b665

[SHTF2010]

US spies to prepare for anti-nuclear strike against Iran
May 26, 2010

TEAMS of American special forces have been authorised to conduct spying missions intended to pave the way for a military strike on Iran in case President Obama orders one, US government sources have confirmed .

The military units would penetrate Iranian territory to reconnoitre potential nuclear targets and make contact with friendly dissident groups, according to a secret directive written by General David Petraeus, the existence of which was disclosed for the first time yesterday.

The directive authorises an expansion in the use of US special forces throughout the Middle East, US officials said. However, it is the possibility of American troops operating covertly inside Iran that has the greatest potential to destabilise regional security.

General Petraeus, the most senior American commander in the Middle East and Central Asia, relied on special forces to ensure the success of the US troop surge in Iraq in 2007. His order to increase the use of Delta Force, Navy Seal and Army Ranger units for intelligence gathering and combat missions could jeopardise US relations with allies in the region while intensifying a long-running turf war between US military intelligence and the CIA.

The seven-page document, seen by The New York Times, remained classified yesterday, though it was written in September. Since then US military specialists working with Yemeni armed forces have killed 6 out of 15 leaders of al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula. The raids followed reports linking the group to the murder of 13 Americans at Fort Hood, Texas, and the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Northwest Airlines jet.

Sending special forces into Iran would be controversial but one of the missions of US Special Operations Command, headed by Admiral Eric Olson, is to conduct reconnaissance in any country deemed to pose a threat. A Pentagon spokesman acknowledged to The Times that individual commanders have authority to conduct intelligence operations as they see fit.

General Petraeus is a member of the Pentagon high command whose tasks include drawing up plans to destroy Iran's nuclear infrastructure.

Such plans "are always going to be under serious consideration," Anthony Cordesman, of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said, "because you are dealing with a serious threat".

The Times

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/us-spies-to-prepare-for-anti-nuclear-strike-against-iran/story-e6frg6so-1225871484586

[SHTF2010]

US has decided on confrontation
May 27, 2010

Feeding off American public opinion, Congress is pressuring the Obama administration to go after Iran

It is slowly becoming clear that immense domestic pressure from Congress is forcing the Obama administration to confront Iran. There may still be a few supporters of constructive engagement hiding somewhere in the cupboards of the White House and State Department, but their voices have been swamped by the wave of opinion calling for tough action.

It also suits Barack Obama's strategy managers that he can be seen to be acting tough on Iran, while he moves ahead with his multilateral agenda in other areas. By giving in and agreeing to confront Iran, he has outflanked his Republican opposition, which cannot paint him as a Democrat weakling. The way Obama is talking to Iran is designed to appeal to the former neo-cons and other right-wingers, and is in stark contrast to the engaged way that he is re-fashioning how the world manages its nuclear threat in redrafting the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and how he is working with all sorts of groups to achieve consensus on how to move forward on climate change.

Despite following the same outline that the US administration offered Iran, the country's recent deal with Brazil and Turkey has been totally ignored by those who shape foreign policy in Congress, and the administration does not see any political gain from fighting this perception. The Turkey-Brazil deal is being treated as though it never happened, and the debates in Congress refuse to recognise it. The possibility of South-South success where the American superpower has failed is not being considered in the slightest. Instead, the discussions are totally focused on not allowing the US Security Council to delay action.

The assumption is that sanctions and confrontation must happen, and this is being pushed by those who want this course of action. The current effort in Congress is focused on a bill that will impose legal sanctions on companies doing business with Iran, but this will be delayed a few weeks to allow Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to try and make progress on a new round of multilateral sanctions in the UN Security Council. Clinton announced last week that the United States had agreed on the language required for a sanction resolution with the five permanent Security Council members and Germany.

But this will not stop Congress from pushing its bill and forcing the administration to act. "We are going to hold off for a few weeks on moving the bill finally because we want to get that Security Council resolution and see what the European Union does at their June 16 meeting," said Howard Berman, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman, on Tuesday as reported in CQ Today. "We would have moved already this week if it weren't for the deal the United States struck in the United Nations," said Berman. The delay is certain to be condemned in both chambers of Congress by the determined supporters of action against Iran. The legislation has already been passed by large bipartisan majorities in both chambers, but needs to be merged into one bill that can be presented for presidential approval.

Limited patience

Berman expects Congress members will understand the desire to wait a bit longer, but he is clear that the legislature will act before the summer, and will not be prepared to wait around forever for UN action. "If it doesn't play out quickly, we're going ahead," he said. "We're doing this before the July 4th recess."

This bill will land the US in all sorts of problems internationally, as it may impose a tough sanctions regime on companies that work in Iran's energy sector. This means the Americans may be required to impose sanctions on companies that are not American but have done business in Iran, and want to work in America or with American companies. This kind of secondary sanctioning is very difficult to impose fairly on all companies, and inevitably leads to all sorts of confusion in the markets. It seems very unlikely that America would impose sanctions on a major Chinese oil company, for example, which might want to supply gasoline to Iran, and also do business with American oil majors.

The impracticality of making such a sanctions bill work is not stopping the Israeli lobby in Washington from supporting it wholeheartedly. The Israelis have prioritised action against Iran and they are actively pushing Congressmen to support sanctions. They want confrontation with Iran, and they look forward to benefiting from the greatly increased tension in the Middle East that such action will lead to.

This desire for action is also something that the US administration and military are working on, to the alarm of many in the Middle East. The New York Times this week published an important article showing not only how Obama has failed to roll back covert anti-Iranian programmes he inherited from Bush, but how General David Petraeus has signed into effect a dramatic intensification of America's covert war against the Islamic Republic. This military plan is linked to the plan for sanctions, and points to the desire for confrontation with Iran, regardless of its actions.

http://gulfnews.com/opinions/editorials/us-has-decided-on-confrontation-1.632774

[SHTF2010]

New Turkish warning as Israel plans to stop Gaza aid ships
Thursday, 27 May 2010

International activists reaffirmed its efforts to break three-year Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip despite Israeli plans it will stop a convoy of aid ships.

Turkey renewed its call for calm to Israel that already revealed its plans to halt international aid convoy to the Gaza Strip that has been under years of siege.

International activists on Thursday reaffirmed its efforts to break three-year Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip despite Israeli threats it will stop a convoy of aid ships.

Israeli naval commandos have held drills as part of plans to block the humanitarian aid convoy.

Eight ships, including four cargo vessels and a Turkish passenger ferry carrying 600 people, were heading towards Gaza on the sliver of desert territory, home to 1.5 million Palestinians.

"We are planning on going. This is not going to stop us. The boats are already on their way," said Greta Berlin, a spokeswoman for the Free Gaza Movement.

The boats would converge at a meeting point in international waters east of Cyprus, probably late on Friday, and then head across the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea towards Gaza, Berlin told Reuters.

"Israel refuses to let anything into Gaza to help rebuild the society they blew to smithereens," said Berlin.

“We will resist non-violently, but this is going to be a PR nightmare for Israel,� she said.

"Israeli plan to stop aid ships"

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev calls "cheap political stunt", staying defiant to international pressure to end its siege, which what human rights activists call "genocide".

An Israeli military source said on Wednesday that Israel's navy was ready to prevent the Turkish-led convoy of ships.

"In accordance with the directions of the Israeli government, the Israel Defence Forces and the Israeli Navy are preparing to prevent the flotilla from reaching the Gaza shore," the military source said.

The source said naval forces had held a number of exercises to prepare to enforce the sea blockade.

Activists faced arrest and deportation, and their cargo would be confiscated for possible transfer by Israel to Gaza, Israeli military officials said.

"See you again in Gaza"

However, Turkish foreign ministry spokesman rejected Israeli accusations, saying "this is not a political show."

Turkish human rights organisation or IHH has chartered one passenger ferry and is one of the organisers.

"We don't want new tensions in the region...Problems can be avoided if this aid package is seen as humanitarian aid," Foreign Ministry spokesman Burak Ozugergin said.

Bulent Yildirim, President of IHH, said that they will not leave the fate of the flotilla in hands of Israel.

Yildirim said, in a statement, that despite Israeli threats and attempts to stop the campaign, activists from over 50 countries have joined the flotilla. Today, we are sailing off. May Allah be with us through our journey. We will see you again in Gaza�.

Mattias Gadelda, from Sweden, who bought a cargo ship to join the flotilla also stated that he is ashamed of the hypocrisy of Europe and Sweden.

Dimitris, who joined the flotilla from Greece on behalf of Ship to Gaza movement, in his speech, said, "We all know that governments, intellectuals and artists are here with us to support this cause. We are carrying out a public diplomacy attempt here. We are demanding a free Mediterranean and a free Palestine.�

Muhammed Sawalha, Head of the International Committee For Ending The Siege, said “This is an altruistic movement. We are ready to deal with the consequences. We are not intimidated by Israel.�

Activists from Vatican, Malaysia, Indonesia, Algeria, Kuwait, Pakistan, Palestine, Yemen and Belgium also put stress on their determination about going to Palestine, in their speeches.

http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=59123

[SHTF2010]

the war drum propaganda is a-banging


Syria has 1,000 ballistic missiles zeroed on Israeli targets
May 26, 2010

A colossal Iran-funded and directed armament program has enabled Syria to field 1,000 ballistic missiles and Hizballah 1,000 rockets - all pointed at specific Israeli military and civilian locations, including the densely populated conurbation around Tel Aviv, debkafile's military sources reveal. Syria has smuggled most of its stock of liquid-fuel powered ballistic missiles over to Hizballah in Lebanon, while its own production lines have been working day and night for five months to upgrade its stock solid fuel-propelled missiles, so improving their accuracy. North Korean military engineers and technicians are employed on those production lines.

According to Western military sources, a command center for coordinating a missile offensive against military and civilian targets in Israel has been operating at Syrian general staff headquarters in Damascus since early March with the help of Iranian, Syrian, Hizballah and Hamas liaison officers.

The command center, operating under direct Iranian command, was formally established at a gala banquet attended by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Syrian President Bashar Assad, and Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Damascus on February 25. Its primary mission was defined as "target unification" - military lingo for interaction at the command level to make sure that Tehran, Damascus, Beirut and Gaza do not send short-range missiles flying toward the same Israeli target at the same time.

Each of the four has been assigned one of four Israeli sectors and given specialist training in its features.

The new joint command gave Hizballah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah the confidence to sneer at Israel's five-day, countrywide home front missile defense exercise, which ends Thursday, May 27.

In a speech on Tuesday, May 25, he said: 'Israel wants to reassure its people and make them feel strong and properly prepared to stand up to all possible war situations. But this assurance is false. So carry on with your drills," he said, "but when the rockets start falling on the occupied territories, we'll soon see how much good they are."

The command center's central strategy, say our military sources, is to eliminate the Israel Air Force's edge by releasing a simultaneous deluge of missiles and rockets from hundreds of stationary and mobile launching sites in remote parts of Syria, Lebanon, Iran and the Gaza Strip.

Most of the projectiles in the Syrian, Hizballah and Hamas arsenals are propelled by liquid fuel and therefore take 50 minutes to 1 hour to load and loose at assigned targets. During this time gap, they are vulnerable to air attack. As a bridging device, western intelligence sources believe the joint command in Damascus plans to attack Israel with synchronized missile fire from Iran and Syria during the time Israeli warplanes are hammering, say, Hizballah batteries in Lebanon.

The thinking in Tehran and Damascus is that the Israeli Air Force will find it hard to tackle three or four fronts simultaneously.

Tehran and Damascus are therefore building air shields around their missile bases and launching sites, for which purpose Assad asked Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to speed up the delivery of the advanced Russian Pantsir anti-aircraft missiles when the latter visited Damascus on May.
Medvedev promised to accede to this request.

debkafile's military sources recall that the same Russian Pantsir missiles were ineffective in preventing the September 2007 air strike, by which Israel destroyed the North Korean plutonium reactor financed by Tehran at Al-Azur in northern Syria.

http://www.debka.com/article/8808/

[undgrd]

Thanks for posting this! You're the right man for this job!

[Gangsta99]

We can only hope Syria has the balls to follow through.

[Ponce]

Let's do it and get it over with.........the bully of the block is the US because I don't see anyone from the Arab world invading the US.

WE ARE THE BICH OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL............PERIOD.

[Quantum]

Behold, your Negroid "president" large and in charge!

Aiming to ignite a conflict in the Persian Gulf!

Aiming to ignite a conflict on the Korean Peninsula!

Aiming to destroy the Gulf of Mexico through inaction!

[General of Darkness]

Canadian Guerrilla has always been the man with this info. Attacking Iran only benefits Israel and zionists. We are truly living in evil times.

[Buddha]

Behold, your Negroid "president" large and in charge!

Aiming to ignite a conflict in the Persian Gulf!

Aiming to ignite a conflict on the Korean Peninsula!

Aiming to destroy the Gulf of Mexico through inaction!




How was the previous white president any different?

[Buddha]

Let's do it and get it over with.........the bully of the block is the US because I don't see anyone from the Arab world invading the US.

WE ARE THE BICH OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL............PERIOD.


If we were not so much at Israels beckon call, then non of this would matter. None of the Muslim states would have a problem with us but we do Israel's zionist dirty work, so they DO have a huge problem with us.

[SHTF2010]

and i believe EVERYTHING from Haaretz

UN report: Iran, Syria receiving North Korea nuclear technology
28.05.10

Report says Pyongyang continue to provide missiles, components to Iran as well as aiding Syria's nuclear despite UN sanctions.

North Korea is exporting nuclear and ballistic missile technology and using multiple intermediaries, shell companies and overseas criminal networks to circumvent U.N. sanctions, UN experts said in a report obtained by The Associated Press.

The seven-member panel monitoring the implementation of sanctions against North Korea said its research indicates that Pyongyang is involved in banned nuclear and ballistic activities in Iran, Syria and Myanmar. It called for further study of these suspected activities and urged all countries to try to prevent them.


The 47-page report, obtained late Thursday by AP, and a lengthy annex document sanctions violations reported by U.N. member states, including four cases involving arms exports and two seizures of luxury goods by Italy - two yachts and high-end recording and video equipment. The report also details the broad range of techniques that North Korea is using to try to evade sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council after its two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

Council diplomats discussed the report by the experts from Britain, Japan, the United States, France, South Korea, Russia and China at a closed-door meeting on Thursday.

Its release happened to coincide with heightened tensions between North Korea and South Korea over the March sinking of a South Korean navy ship which killed 46 sailors. The council is waiting for South Korea to decide what action it wants the U.N.'s most powerful body to take in response to the sinking, which a multinational investigation determined was caused by a North Korean torpedo.

The panel of experts said there is general agreement that the UN embargoes on nuclear and ballistic missile related items and technology, on arms exports and imports except light weapons, and on luxury goods, are having an impact.

But it said the list of eight entities and five individuals currently subject to an asset freeze and travel ban seriously understates those known to be engaged in banned activities and called for additional names to be added. It noted that North Korea moved quickly to have other companies take over activities of the eight banned entities.

The experts said an analysis of the four North Korean attempts to illegally export arms revealed that Pyongyang used "a number of masking techniques" to avoid sanctions. They include providing false descriptions and mislabeling of the contents of shipping containers, falsifying the manifest and information about the origin and destination of the goods, "and use of multiple layers of intermediaries, shell companies, and financial institutions," the panel said.

It noted that a chartered jet intercepted in Thailand in December carrying 35 tons of conventional weapons including surface-to-air missiles from North Korea was owned by a company in the United Arab Emirates, registered in Georgia, leased to a shell company registered in New Zealand and then chartered to another shell company registered in Hong Kong - which may have been an attempt to mask its destination.

North Korea is also concealing arms exports by shipping components in kits for assembly overseas, the experts said.

As one example, the panel said it learned after North Korean military equipment was seized at Durban harbor in South Africa that scores of technicians from the North had gone to the Republic of Congo, where the equipment was to have been assembled.
The experts called for "extra vigilance" at the first overseas port handling North Korean cargo and close monitoring of airplanes flying from the North, saying Pyongyang is believed to use air cargo "to handle high valued and sensitive arms exports."

While North Korea maintains a wide network of trade offices which do legitimate business as well as most of the country's illicit trade and covert acquisitions, the panel said Pyongyang "has also established links with overseas criminal networks to carry out these activities, including the transportation and distribution of illicit and smuggled cargoes."

This may also include goods related to weapons of mass destruction and arms, it added.

Under council resolutions, all countries are required to submit reports on what they are doing to implement sanctions but as of April 30 the panel said it had still not heard from 112 of the 192 U.N. member states � including 51 in Africa, 28 in Asia, and 25 in Latin America and the Caribbean.

While no country reported on nuclear or ballistic missile-related imports or exports from North Korea since the second sanctions resolution was adopted last June, the panel said it reviewed several U.S. and French government assessments, reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency, research papers and media reports indicating Pyongyang's continuing involvement in such activities.

These reports indicate North Korea "has continued to provide missiles, components, and technology to certain countries including Iran and Syria ... (and) has provided assistance for a nuclear program in Syria, including the design and construction of a thermal reactor at Dair Alzour," the panel said.

Syria denied the allegations in a letter to the IAEA, but the UN nuclear agency is still trying to obtain reports on the site and its activities, the panel said.
The experts said they are also looking into "suspicious activity in Myanmar," including activities of Namchongang Trading, one of the companies subject to UN sanctions, and reports that Japan in June 2009 arrested three individuals for attempting to illegally export a magnetometer � which measures magnetic fields � to Myanmar via Malaysia allegedly under the direction of a company known to be associated with illicit procurement for North Korea's nuclear and military programs. The company was not identified.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/un-report-iran-syria-receiving-north-korea-nuclear-technology-1.292758

[SHTF2010]

Why is Israel afraid of a few boats?


Hundreds of activists are on their way to the blockaded Gaza strip via a "flotilla" of boats carrying humanitarian and reconstruction supplies, which are badly lacking in the impoverished Palestinian territory.

Israel has promised to intercept the good-willed boats and arrest and deport the activists. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has exerted great effort in the past few days to convince onlookers to this confrontation on the high seas that the activists carrying humanitarian goods are terrorist sympathizers, and that everything is just fine and dandy in the Gaza Strip. The ministry has portrayed Israel (the country enforcing the blockade of Gaza's ports) as a benevolent victim, who despite the threat from Gaza's Hamas government is still caring for the civilian population.

There comes a point when an oppressive regime's propaganda crosses a threshold from mere lies to utter lunacy so extreme, in fact, that objective onlookers find it almost comical. This point came yesterday when the Government Press Office disseminated a link to a Gaza restaurant which appears to be luxurious. So what Israel is essentially saying is: "There you have it. There is a website for a restaurant with cloth napkins in Gaza. How can there be any problems?"

The reality is, of course, that the situation in Gaza is very dire. A slew of reports from human rights organizations attest to the hardships faced by most Palestinians in Gaza. In the densely populated strip where 80% of the population are refugees, a similar percentage relies on international aid organizations for daily sustenance. That number was only ten percent a decade ago. That's how bad things have become. Malnutrition in children has reached ten percent and critical medicines are not available, according to the World Health Organization.

But no one is starving to death in Gaza–at least not suddenly. A tunnel industry has evolved and become the main supplier for most goods. That's all part of the plan. Israel seeks to squeeze the strip to the point of near catastrophe, bad enough to make people suffer, but just short of having to take responsibility for it. It's a form of torture kind of like water-boarding under the Bush administration: the objective is to bring the subject to the edge and break his will, but not kill him (lest they be charged with murder). But just because Gaza's civilian population has managed to keep its collective head above water doesn't mean things should be this way.

Like life in most prisons, if you "know a guy," anything is available for a price. Generators, for example, are in high demand because of the shortages of electricity. The shortages are due to the destruction of Gaza's only power plant in 2006 by Israeli jets. Since then, Israel has never permitted the full reconstruction of the power plant, forcing perpetual dependence of Gaza on Israel and Egypt, who take an eye-dropper approach to supplying Gaza with electricity. But even though generators smuggled through Gaza's tunnels provide some light, there is also a dark and often unheard downside that comes with them: explosions and fires. Several reports in the past few years of civilians being killed or maimed from overworked and exploding generators have become common. These are just some of the siege-related causalities we do not hear about.

The 10,000 tons of supplies aboard the Gaza aid ships are a drop in the bucket for what Gaza really needs. Israel's spokesmen have pointed out that they have permitted the entry of supplies in the past and argued that the aid boats are unnecessary. The reality is that aid which Israel does permit into Gaza is purchased by Palestinians, vetted and often rejected or held up for months. Israel has calculated the precise minimum necessary caloric intake for Palestinians in Gaza, and has often rejected things like pasta, lentils and coffee. So it's easy to understand why international humanitarian organizations and the activists aboard the aid boats are not about to trust the welfare of Gaza's civilians to Israel's benevolence.

The aid boats will have a far greater impact, however, than the 10,000 tons of aid they are bringing to Gaza. The aid boats compel us to have this discussion, a discussion that Israel desperately wants to avoid at a time when its international reputation has never been lower.

Hundreds of unarmed civilians carrying humanitarian aid are approaching a blockaded piece of land where 1.5 million civilians suffer from a life of uncertainty and despair, and Israel is going to stop them. While much of the focus on the Israeli-Palestinian issue has been on the settlements, the failed peace process and the long-awaited restart of talks about talks, Gaza has been forgotten. To their credit, the few hundred non-violent activists-turned-sailors have found a way to maximize their power as individuals to force one of the world's most powerful regimes into a corner. Whether the boats make it to Gaza or not, this is a tremendous victory for civil society in international affairs.

Headlines and stories covering this confrontation at sea will shift the focus back to Gaza, even if only for a few hours. For Israel, Gaza is the tortured and famished step-child it locks in the basement when visitors arrive, and the activists on these boats seek to expose what Israel is doing in the strip: imposing a draconian siege to collectively punish civilians for political aims.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=287771

[SHTF2010]

Report: Israel to deploy nuclear submarines off Iran coast
30.05.10


Sunday Times quotes IDF official saying the 3 German-made long range submarines will gather intelligence, act as deterrent and potentially land Mossad agents.

Israel is to deploy three submarines equipped with nuclear cruise missiles in the Persian Gulf, the Sunday Times reported on Sunday.

According to the Times report, one submarine had been sent over Israeli fears that ballistic missiles developed by Iran, and in the possession of Syria and Hezbollah, could be used to hit strategic sites within Israel, such as air bases and missile launchers.


Dolphin, Tekuma, and Leviathan, all German-made Dolphin class submarines of the 7th navy Flotilla, have been reported as frequenting the Gulf in the past, however, according to the Sunday Times report, this new deployment is meant to ensure a permanent naval presence near the Iranian coastline.

A flotilla officer told the Times that the deployed submarines were meant to act as a deterrent, gather intelligence and potentially to land Mossad agents.

"We're a solid base for collecting sensitive information, as we can stay for a long time in one place," the officer said.

The flotilla's commander, identified only as "Colonel O," was quoted by the Times as saying that the submarine force was "an underwater assault force. We’re operating deep and far, very far, from our borders."

The submarines could be used if Iran continues its program to produce a nuclear bomb. "The 1,500km range of the submarines’ cruise missiles can reach any target in Iran," a navy officer told the Times.

Apparently responding to the reported Israeli activity, an Iranian admiral told the Times: "Anyone who wishes to do an evil act in the Persian Gulf will receive a forceful response from us."

Last July, defense sources reported that an Israeli submarine had sailed the Suez Canal to the Red Sea last month, describing the unusual maneuver as a show of strategic reach in the face of Iran.

Israel has long kept its three Dolphin-class submarines, which are widely assumed to carry nuclear missiles, away from Suez so as not to expose them to the gaze of Egyptian harbormasters.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/report-israel-to-deploy-nuclear-submarines-off-iran-coast-1.293005

[SHTF2010]

How 'Iran' and 'Aryan' are connected
30.05.10


Thinking about Iran and the Bomb the other day (what newspaper reader doesn’t?), it struck me as a curious coincidence that, for the second time in some of our lifetimes, Jews are being threatened with mass destruction in the name of the same ancient Indo-European word.

This is because “Iran� and “Aryan� are connected. The first ultimately derives from Old Persian arya or ariya, a term designating the Indo-European-speaking people of Persia, and is identical with Sanskrit arya � that is, the Indo-European-speaking people of northern India. Since Old Persian and Sanskrit (which is the mother of such modern Indian languages as Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi and Bengali) are closely related, having been the languages spoken in antiquity by the easternmost branch of the Indo-European linguistic stock, it is not surprising that the speakers of both should have used the same word for themselves.

“Aryan,� on the other hand, is a modern European coinage, strongly tinged by racialist linguistic theories and constructions of history that gained currency in mid-19th-century Europe. Not all these theories were overtly racist in the sense of proposing the innate superiority of any one group of mankind over the others. All did assume, however, a close correlation among race, language, mentality and culture, and all ascribed fundamentally different outlooks and values to the members of different linguistic families. Because Sanskrit was once erroneously considered to be the oldest Indo-European language, arya was widely taken to be the original Indo-European word for Indo-Europeans, and “Aryan� and “Indo-European� became synonymous.

Yet as the 19th century progressed, linguists discarded the notion that Sanskrit was any older than Latin, Greek, Old Germanic, Old Slavic or any of the other “second-generation� offspring of a “proto-Indo-European� parent language that no longer existed. Looking for the original homeland of this proto-speech, scholars now argued that it must have been somewhere in Northern or Eastern Europe. Adopted by such openly racist proponents of Nordic or European racial superiority as Arthur de Gobineau and Houston Stewart Chamberlain, this belief became the core of racist ideologies that held, first, that the Indo-European-speaking or Aryan peoples of the world represented a higher form of human development than the speakers of other languages, such as Semitic ones, and second, that the “purest� Aryans were to be found in the blond-haired, blue-eyed inhabitants of Germany and Scandinavia, where the Aryan racial type first hailed from and in which it had remained the least diluted. Joined to the totalitarian politics of the 20th century, such “Aryanism� became part and parcel of Nazi thought, providing a pseudo-scientific basis for a genocidal anti-Semitism.

Today, we know that, from a strictly scholarly point of view, all this is nonsense. Racial and linguistic families are two quite different things and tend to overlap, at best, only partially; the original Indo-European speakers came, in all likelihood, not from Northern or Eastern Europe, but from either the Anatolian plateau of Turkey or just north of the Black Sea, and arya was never a pan-Indo-European word and had currency only among the ancestors of today’s Iranians and northern Indians, who, thousands of years ago, spread eastward and southward into Asia in successive waves at the same time that other Indo-European speakers were spreading westward and northward into Europe. If an original “Aryan� type ever existed, it was almost certainly not blond haired and blue eyed.

The one thing that has survived all this scholarly debunking is the notion of an Indo-European family of languages in itself. Such a family does indeed exist, and includes all the languages of contemporary Europe, with the exception of Finnish, Lapp, Estonian, Hungarian and Basque, plus Kurdish, Iranian, the various Pashto languages of Afghanistan, the Urdu languages of Pakistan and northwestern India, and the Hindi languages of northern India. Although to the linguistically untrained eye and ear, most of these languages do not look or sound anything like one another, clear traces of their common prehistoric origins remain in their vocabulary and grammar. Thus, for instance, if we look at the word for “mother� in various Indo-European tongues, we find Mutter in modern German, madre in modern Spanish, mathair in modern Gaelic, mat’ in modern Russian, metera in modern Greek, mayr in modern Armenian, madder in modern Persian, etc. Clearly, all these go back to the same proto-Indo-European word.

Why the speakers of ancient Indo-European languages were so successful that today their descendants populate a vast part of the globe is debatable: Theories range from their having been fierce warriors who overran their non-Indo-European-speaking neighbors to their having been peaceable farmers whose superior agricultural skills enabled them to prosper and expand. One thing that is certain is that they never had a common identity or thought of themselves as belonging to a single family. “Aryanism� is a strictly modern, anti-democratic political ideology, as are the politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It’s perhaps not such a coincidence, after all, that both have had it in for the Jews.

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/how-iran-and-aryan-are-connected-1.293071

[SHTF2010]

this could be an interesting week in the middle east

after the Israeli attack on the Free Gaza flotilla

[SHTF2010]

Lebanon, Syria warns of regional war by Israeli attack
June 01, 2010

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Monday that Israel's attack on a flotilla of aid bound for Gaza threatens to ignite a war in the region.

more . . .

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90854/7007157.html


Holy Sweet Lord, Turkey has announced they will send another flotilla to Gaza�escorted by the Turkish Navy!
2010 May 31


http://www.ianwelsh.net/holy-sweet-lord-turkey-has-announced-they-will-send-another-flotilla-to-gaza%E2%80%94escorted-by-the-turkish-navy/

[DMac]

U.S. general says Afghan insurgents trained in Iran (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100530/tpl-uk-afghanistan-iran-81f3b62.html)

Sunday, May 30 12:35 pm

Afghan insurgents are being trained inside Iran and given weapons to fight security forces, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces said on Sunday, joining a rising drumbeat of criticism of Iran's role in the country.

General Stanley McChrystal said coalition forces were working to stop Iran from giving material help to the Taliban who have stepped up the campaign to force foreign forces out of Afghanistan in a nine-year conflict.

"The training that we have seen occurs inside Iran with fighters moving inside Iran," he said at a news conference in response to a question on Iran's influence. "The weapons that we have received come from Iran into Afghanistan."

The United States, battling a Taliban insurgency at its worst, has frequently accused Iran of providing some assistance to insurgents in Afghanistan, although Washington says it has not been nearly as important a factor as in Iraq, Iran's other neighbour, where U.S. troops are waging war.

In March, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said there had been a significant shipment of Iranian arms to fighters in the southern province of Kandahar.

U.S. forces are preparing for an offensive in Kandahar, the spiritual capital of the Taliban, this summer in what is seen a turning point in the war to force the insurgents to the negotiating table for a settlement of the conflict.

Iran denies supporting militant groups opposed to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government, and says it has a stake in the security of the neighbouring state.

Tehran's economic influence in Afghanistan has grown rapidly in recent years, especially in the West, where cross-border trade is brisk. A dialect of Iran's Farsi language is one of two state languages in Afghanistan, and Iran hosted millions of Afghan refugees during decades of conflict.

McChrystal said Iran, as a neighbour, had natural interests in Afghanistan and to a certain extent the assistance and interaction it provided was healthy. "There is however clear evidence of Iranian activity, in some cases of providing weapons and training to the Taliban that is inappropriate," he said.

Iran backed the Northern Alliance in the war against the Sunni Muslim Taliban in the 1990s, but security analysts said Tehran's intelligence services could be helping elements in the Taliban as a tool against the United States.

[SHTF2010]

pro-zionist article


The Clouds of War Are Gathering in the Middle East
June 02, 2010

Things in Middle East are quickly spiraling out of control. The Palestinians want to import weapons from Iran, to stockpile for the next war with Israel, but are prevented from doing so by the Israeli naval blockade. They realize they can’t stop the Israelis militarily, so they’ve turned to the world court of public opinion.

So, the Palestinians set a trap for Israel and they sailed right into it. Israeli SEALs boarded a ship in a Turkish flotilla supposedly carrying humanitarian supplies and were promptly knifed and clubbed by the so-called “peace activists� aboard. They didn’t use guns, but knives and steel pipes – which look harmless in the after-action photos. So does their cargo of the teddy bears,diapers and wheelchairs.

But not so the Israeli SEALs, who killed nine of the ship’s passengers in the melee. The UN moved speedily to condemn Israel. So did Turkey, Israel’s onetime ally in the region, which has now turned its sights to a bigger role in the Muslim world. So far President Obama has been neutral, condemning "violence" in general.

But the Palestinians have inched one step closer in their ultimate goal -- to separate the White House from Israel and then provoke a war. They’ll settle for the U.S. remaining neutral in the Arab-Israeli disputes; so far they’re close.

What happens when the next "peace flotilla" leaves Turkey bound for Gaza? Will the Israelis seize and search it? Will it end in more violence and condemnations of Israel? Or will Israel ultimately be forced to bow to world public opinion and end its blockade? Will Obama move from neutrality to condemnation?

The next few ships to challenge the blockade will likely be filled with more children’s toys and baby formula. But once the blockade is broken, those ships will be filled with missiles, weapons and ammunition bound for Hezbollah and Hamas.

But this isn’t really about Israel and the Palestinians. It’s about Iran and nuclear weapons and the Obama’s credibility in the region. After assuring the Israelis for the last year that they’re going to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons program with diplomacy and sanctions, they’ve privately resigned themselves to a nuclear Iran, saying Team Obama can contain it. They figure to force an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal that will turn the tide in the Middle East away from conflict.

The plan makes no sense to anyone other than Team Obama. The Iranians don’t want it, the Israelis don’t believe it, and the Palestinians are itching for another fight. Meanwhile the President keeps making those eloquent speeches that increasingly nobody believes. And the clouds of war are gathering.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/06/02/kt-mcfarland-israel-turkey/

[osoab]

Iran Revolutionary Guards Targeted in UN Sanctions (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=amtgqOUJpEWQ&pos=9)


By Bill Varner

June 8 (Bloomberg) -- Companies controlled by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, a bank and a top official of the nation’s atomic energy agency are targets of proposed United Nations sanctions set for a Security Council vote tomorrow.

Javad Rahiqi, who heads a branch of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, is the only individual on lists that include 40 companies and government agencies cited in a text that will be taken up by the 15 nations on the council. The UN restrictions are aimed at blocking Iran’s ability to develop nuclear arms and pressuring the country to join international talks.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Quito, Ecuador, that Iran is facing its “most significant sanctions� ever adopted by the UN’s principal policy-making panel. Her national-security counterpart, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, said passage of the resolution would open the way for even tougher restrictions.

“One of the many benefits of the resolution is that it will provide a legal platform for individual nations to then take individual actions that go well beyond the resolution itself,� Gates said today in London. “I believe a number of nations are prepared to act pretty promptly.�

The lists form three annexes to the main text of the resolution, which calls for freezing the foreign assets of the companies and agencies and barring Rahiqi from traveling outside Iran. The targets include 15 entities “owned, controlled or acting on behalf� of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, an arm of the Iranian military with extensive business interests.

Manufacturer, Ministry

Also cited are three companies the resolution says are related to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines and 22 companies it says are involved in nuclear and ballistic missile activities. The companies include the Armament Industries Group, identified as a small-arms manufacturer, and the Ministry of Defense Logistics Export, which the measure says sells Iranian- made weapons “to customers around the world.�

The resolution also targets the Malaysia-based First East Export Bank, which is “owned or controlled� by Bank Mellat, named in previous sanctions. Mellat has “facilitated� hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions linked to Iranian nuclear defense and missile entities, according to the measure obtained by Bloomberg News from Security Council diplomats who asked not to be identified.

Mellat received a license from Malaysian authorities in late 2008 to set up First East Export Bank in Labuan, Malaysia, according to a U.S. Treasury Department statement in November. Treasury has barred U.S. transactions with the bank.

Bank Dropped

The Export Development Bank of Iran, which was included on a list as late as yesterday, was dropped from the final version.

The annexes were the focus of Security Council bargaining after the May 18 release of parameters for what will be the fourth sanctions measure aimed at Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

The UN resolution would bar Iran from investing in uranium mining or construction of new enrichment facilities. It would ban sales to Iran of tanks, armored combat vehicles, artillery, fighter jets, attack helicopters, warships or missiles.

Nations would be asked to prohibit the licensing of Iranian banks on their territory or the opening of bank branches in Iran if there is reason to suspect a connection to nuclear activities. Financial transactions, including those related to insurance and re-insurance, would be barred if they might have a nuclear purpose.

Cargo Intercepts

Nations are urged to intercept and inspect any cargo by air or sea suspected of containing banned materials that would contribute to Iran’s nuclear or missile programs. Bunkering services, such as refueling as sea, are prohibited for Iranian- owned or contracted vessels suspected of carrying such goods.

The text “encourages� the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency to continue talks with Iran aimed at “measures to build confidence� in its intentions. It takes note of the effort by Brazil and Turkey to reach an agreement with Iran under which half of its enriched uranium would be swapped for fuel in a form that can only be used in Tehran’s medical-research reactor.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, attending a regional conference in Istanbul today, said he is ready to discuss Iran’s nuclear program and sanctions one-on-one with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “if necessary.�

The Iranian leader last month criticized Russia’s support for the U.S.-sponsored sanctions in the UN Security Council as an “unacceptable stand.� Ahmadinejad has relied on the Kremlin for boosting his image in the past, traveling to Russia after his disputed re-election a year ago and feting Putin at a Tehran summit in 2007.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Varner at the United Nations at wvarner@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 8, 2010 18:01 EDT

[MNeagle]

Iran Sanctions Resolution Approved in UN Security Council Vote

By Bill Varner

June 9 (Bloomberg) -- The United Nations Security Council voted to impose new sanctions on Iran that restrict financial transactions, tighten an arms embargo and authorize the seizure of cargo linked to its nuclear or missile programs.

The 15-nation Security Council voted 12 to 2, with one abstention, to adopt a resolution that freezes the assets of 40 companies, banks and government agencies, and bars the foreign travel of Javad Rahiqi, head of a branch of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. Turkey and Brazil voted against the measure, and Lebanon abstained from the vote.

The new round of sanctions is aimed at blocking Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons and pressuring the country to join international talks. Iran says its nuclear development work is intended for energy production.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aAUwLBJYMOV0&pos=9

[SHTF2010]

Russia: Iran sanctions won't affect sale of S-300 missiles (http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/russia-iran-sanctions-won-t-affect-sale-of-s-300-missiles-1.295321)
10.06.10

[kregener]

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s167/Kregener/War/PlantoAttackIran.gif

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s167/Kregener/War/IraqHardPlace.jpg

[SHTF2010]

Saudi Arabia gives Israel clear skies to attack Iranian nuclear sites

June 12, 2010


“The Saudis have given their permission for the Israelis to pass over and they will look the other way,� said a US defence source in the area. “They have already done tests to make sure their own jets aren’t scrambled and no one gets shot down. This has all been done with the agreement of the [US] State Department.�

more . . .

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7148555.ece

[Defender]

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s167/Kregener/War/IraqHardPlace.jpg

"Where is Iran?" for $5,000.

[DMac]

Good article by Michael Chossudovsky:

UN "Green Light" for a Pre-emptive US-Israel Attack on Iran? Security Council Resolution Transforms Iran into a "Sitting Duck" (http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19670)

snip


Resolution 1929 (June 9, 2010):

“7. Decides that Iran shall not acquire an interest in any commercial activity in another State involving uranium mining, production or use of nuclear materials and technology as listed in INFCIRC/254/Rev.9/Part 1, in particular uranium-enrichment and reprocessing activities, all heavy-water activities or technology-related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, and further decides that all States shall prohibit such investment in territories under their jurisdiction by Iran, its nationals, and entities incorporated in Iran or subject to its jurisdiction, or by persons or entities acting on their behalf or at their direction, or by entities owned or controlled by them;

“8. Decides that all States shall prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer to Iran, from or through their territories or by their nationals or individuals subject to their jurisdiction, or using their flag vessels or aircraft, and whether or not originating in their territories, of any battle tanks, armoured combat vehicles, large calibre artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles or missile systems .... , decides further that all States shall prevent the provision to Iran by their nationals or from or through their territories of technical training, financial resources or services, advice, other services or assistance related to the supply, sale, transfer, provision, manufacture, maintenance or use of such arms and related materiel, and, in this context, calls upon all States to exercise vigilance and restraint over the supply, sale, transfer, provision, manufacture and use of all other arms and related materiel;" (Security Council Imposes Additional Sanctions on Iran, Voting 12 in Favour to 2 Against, with 1 Abstention, Includes complete text of UNSC Resolution 1929, UN News, June 9, 2010, emphasis added, )

Russia signed off on this - so much for those missile systems being delivered to Iran from Russia.

Another good snip:


What this latest resolution suggests is that Washington and its NATO allies not only control the UN Security Council, they ultimately also call the shots on foreign policy in Moscow and Beijing.

This Security Council resolution should dispel the myth of competing super powers. Both China and Russia are an appendage of the New World Order.

[SHTF2010]

US: Iran could fire 'hundreds' of missiles at Europe
2010-06-18

WASHINGTON - US intelligence has shown Iran could launch an attack against Europe with "scores or hundreds" of missiles, prompting major changes to US missile defenses , Pentagon chief Robert Gates said on Thursday.

President Barack Obama in September cited a mounting danger from Iran's arsenal of short and medium-range missiles when he announced an overhaul of US missile defense plans.

The new program, called the "phased adaptive approach," uses sea and land-based interceptors to protect NATO allies in the region, instead of mainly larger weapons designed to counter long-range missiles.

"One of the elements of the intelligence that contributed to the decision on the phased adaptive array was the realization that if Iran were actually to launch a missile attack on Europe, it wouldn't be just one or two missiles or a handful," Gates told a senate hearing.

"It would more likely be a salvo kind of attack, where you would be dealing potentially with scores or even hundreds of missiles."

Top US generals have said the new anti-missile system was meant to guard against a potential salvo of missiles from states such as Iran or North Korea.

Gates made the comment when asked by Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss if he supported deploying improved missile defenses, including plans for an upgraded SM-3 missile by 2020, even if Russia objected.

Gates said he backed the 10-year plan, despite possible resistance from Moscow, saying the new missile defenses "would give us the ability to protect our troops, our bases, our facilities and our allies in Europe."

Gates, along with other top deputies in the Obama administration, appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee to argue for ratification of a new nuclear arms control treaty with Russia, trying to reassure Republican lawmakers the agreement posed no threat to the missile defense program.

Medvedev criticizes US, EU sanctions against Iran

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday criticized separate US and European sanctions against Iran, telling a newspaper that the big powers should "act collectively" and not unilaterally.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Medvedev said it "would have been impossible" a couple of years ago for Russia to support tough UN Security Council sanctions over Iran's nuclear program, as it did last week.

He said the United States had nothing to lose by imposing additional sanctions because, unlike Russia and China, it has no ties with Tehran. He also expressed concern that the extra sanctions will hurt the Iranian people.

"We didn't agree to this when we discussed the joint resolution at the UN," Medvedev told the newspaper. "We should act collectively. If we do, we will have the desired result."

In Moscow, deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said Thursday that Russia is disappointed by the new US and EU unilateral measures against Iran, warning the moves could affect cooperation in the nuclear crisis.

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=39629


a war propaganda article that mentions Iran's missiles

but no mention of Israel

? ? ? ?

[Gypsybiker45]

US: Iran could fire 'hundreds' of missiles at Europe
2010-06-18

WASHINGTON - US intelligence has shown Iran could launch an attack against Europe with "scores or hundreds" of missiles, prompting major changes to US missile defenses , Pentagon chief Robert Gates said on Thursday.

President Barack Obama in September cited a mounting danger from Iran's arsenal of short and medium-range missiles when he announced an overhaul of US missile defense plans.

The new program, called the "phased adaptive approach," uses sea and land-based interceptors to protect NATO allies in the region, instead of mainly larger weapons designed to counter long-range missiles.

"One of the elements of the intelligence that contributed to the decision on the phased adaptive array was the realization that if Iran were actually to launch a missile attack on Europe, it wouldn't be just one or two missiles or a handful," Gates told a senate hearing.

"It would more likely be a salvo kind of attack, where you would be dealing potentially with scores or even hundreds of missiles."

Top US generals have said the new anti-missile system was meant to guard against a potential salvo of missiles from states such as Iran or North Korea.

Gates made the comment when asked by Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss if he supported deploying improved missile defenses, including plans for an upgraded SM-3 missile by 2020, even if Russia objected.

Gates said he backed the 10-year plan, despite possible resistance from Moscow, saying the new missile defenses "would give us the ability to protect our troops, our bases, our facilities and our allies in Europe."

Gates, along with other top deputies in the Obama administration, appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee to argue for ratification of a new nuclear arms control treaty with Russia, trying to reassure Republican lawmakers the agreement posed no threat to the missile defense program.

Medvedev criticizes US, EU sanctions against Iran

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday criticized separate US and European sanctions against Iran, telling a newspaper that the big powers should "act collectively" and not unilaterally.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Medvedev said it "would have been impossible" a couple of years ago for Russia to support tough UN Security Council sanctions over Iran's nuclear program, as it did last week.

He said the United States had nothing to lose by imposing additional sanctions because, unlike Russia and China, it has no ties with Tehran. He also expressed concern that the extra sanctions will hurt the Iranian people.

"We didn't agree to this when we discussed the joint resolution at the UN," Medvedev told the newspaper. "We should act collectively. If we do, we will have the desired result."

In Moscow, deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said Thursday that Russia is disappointed by the new US and EU unilateral measures against Iran, warning the moves could affect cooperation in the nuclear crisis.

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=39629


a war propaganda article that mentions Iran's missiles

but no mention of Israel

? ? ? ?




and this means what? Russia and a bunch of the "Stans" have missiles too, no one mentions them either.

[JohnQPublic]

Obama Administration Knew About Deepwater Horizon 35,000 Feet Well Bore, Green-Lighted And Fast-Tracked Project (http://gold-silver.us/forum/gulf-oil-disaster/obama-administration-knew-about-deepwater-horizon-35-000-feet-well-bore-green-l/msg67462/#msg67462)

"...According to the Wayne Madsen Report (WMR) sources within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Pentagon and Interior and Energy Departments told the Obama Administration that the newly-discovered estimated 3-4 billion barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico would cover America's oil needs for up to eight months if there was a military attack on Iran that resulted in the bottling up of the Strait of Hormuz to oil tanker traffic, resulting in a cut-off of oil to the United States from the Persian Gulf.

Obama, Salazar, Chu, and Gates green-lighted the risky Macondo drilling operation from the outset, according to WMR's government sources.

WMR learned that BP was able to have several safety checks waved because of the high-level interest by the White House and Pentagon in tapping the Gulf of Mexico bonanza find in order to plan a military attack on Iran without having to be concerned about an oil and natural gas shortage from the Persian Gulf after an outbreak of hostilities with Iran..."

[DMac]

Barak: Gaza is an Iranian military base (http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=179112)

snip

Gaza still presents a serious threat to the safety of Israeli civilians, Defense Minister Ehud Barak reminded the Socialist International Council at the United Nations in New York.

“For Israel, the Gaza Strip today is an Iranian military base three kilometers from the closest Israeli city [Sderot], and 60 kilometers from Tel Aviv. Hamas governs the Gaza Strip forcefully, and cruelly suppresses its political opponents," said Barak.

[JohnQPublic]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IQDMqs0xA0&feature=player_embedded

[Plastic]

That was awesome!!

[JohnQPublic]

That was awesome!!


The man sure speaks his mind! Quite different than the chicken hawks running things here.

[DMac]

Very important article regarding the Straits of Hormuz

No attack on Iran until this is done (http://bostonwealth.blogspot.com/2010/05/no-attack-on-iran-until-this-is-done.html)


Iran attack coming to a screen near you in early 2011

[Buddha]

Excellent vid John Q.! the caller sounds like most that I know, a bunch of arm chair generals that find it interesting to hurt others that we don't know about half way across the world for not doing what the U.S. tells them to. Either that, or it's people that know nothing other then the supposed fact that Iran is getting "a bunch of nukes" and we need to stop them because obviously they will immediately wipe Israel off of the map because they hate Jews just for being Jewish and nuke us because they hate us for our freedom.

I hope to God that this whole Iran thing just goes away some how, but I know that it wont. TPTB wont let it go away, for it is necessary for them.

[kregener]

War is a racket.

[JohnQPublic]

Very important article regarding the Straits of Hormuz

No attack on Iran until this is done (http://bostonwealth.blogspot.com/2010/05/no-attack-on-iran-until-this-is-done.html)


Iran attack coming to a screen near you in early 2011


Certainly ties in with this earlier post (http://gold-silver.us/forum/wars-rumors-of-war-conflicts-provocations/the-iran-attack-plan/msg67464/#msg67464).

[MAGNES]

SHTF2010
Good thread, many of us appreciate your threads even though we don't comment.

Reminds me of the glory days of gim we had thick threads like this with minimum comments and many contributions.



Obama Administration Knew About Deepwater Horizon 35,000 Feet Well Bore, Green-Lighted And Fast-Tracked Project (http://gold-silver.us/forum/gulf-oil-disaster/obama-administration-knew-about-deepwater-horizon-35-000-feet-well-bore-green-l/msg67462/#msg67462)

"...According to the Wayne Madsen Report (WMR) sources within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Pentagon and Interior and Energy Departments told the Obama Administration that the newly-discovered estimated 3-4 billion barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico would cover America's oil needs for up to eight months if there was a military attack on Iran that resulted in the bottling up of the Strait of Hormuz to oil tanker traffic, resulting in a cut-off of oil to the United States from the Persian Gulf.

Obama, Salazar, Chu, and Gates green-lighted the risky Macondo drilling operation from the outset, according to WMR's government sources.

WMR learned that BP was able to have several safety checks waved because of the high-level interest by the White House and Pentagon in tapping the Gulf of Mexico bonanza find in order to plan a military attack on Iran without having to be concerned about an oil and natural gas shortage from the Persian Gulf after an outbreak of hostilities with Iran..."


This fits, interesting that BP has a very bad brutal history, involving Iran as well.

The oil and bank cartels are the same families at the top, Rothchild and Rockefeller.

The create the problems and in an endless chain offer solutions upon failures.
But they always gain something.

The excuse now is regulatory failure even though this whole thing looks staged.

BP was leader in "cap and trade" lobby for one, they gain profits, oil is off line,
one of the reasons why they did Iraq, just to name 2 things among many that
show knowledge of what was coming, all bankster partners involved, all coincidence, lol .

[JohnQPublic]

Magnes:

I also believe there are strong "royal" connections with BP.

[DMac]

Magnes:

I also believe there are strong "royal" connections with BP.


No doubt about it.

Imperial Playground: The Story of Iran in Recent History
(http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6976)

[SHTF2010]

The Arab Flotilla To Gaza, Now Scheduled For Wednesday, June 30
June 25, 2010

Yasser Kashlak, a Syrian of Palestinian decent, businessman, and chairman of Lebanese Institute of International Studies heads the international group Free Palestine Movement that is organizing the trip. American delegation to join international humanitarian effort to break the siege of Gaza

Twenty-two American citizens will be among the more than two hundred persons who will be sailing aboard the Arab flotilla to Gaza, now scheduled for Wednesday, June 30 .

more . . .


linky (http://www.politicaltheatrics.net/2010/06/the-arab-flotilla-to-gaza-now-scheduled-for-wednesday-june-30/)

[SHTF2010]

OP-ED

THE COMING IRAN WAR (http://lataan.blogspot.com/2010/06/coming-iran-war.html)
Thursday, June 24, 2010

Last week twelve US warships and at least one Israeli warship passed through the Suez Canal on their way to the Red Sea. Included among the US fleet is the aircraft carrier, USS Harry S Truman. Today we learn that the Israeli Air Force have set up base at a Saudi airfield near Tabuk in north-west Saudi Arabia despite earlier denials from the Saudi government that it had given the Israelis permission to use its airspace to attack Iran. We also learn that American and possibly Israel forces are also gathering at bases in Azerbaijan at the north-west border of Iran.

While Israel’s war against Iran has absolutely nothing to do with Iran’s nuclear weapons program – Iran doesn’t have one and the Israelis and the US are fully aware of that – Israel and the US will need to launch any attack against Iran by first attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities in order to maintain the illusion that the casus belli for the war is, indeed, Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Since many of Iran’s nuclear facilities are in the north-west corner of the country, it should not be surprising that Azerbaijan be used by Israel and the US as a springboard to launch their attack against Iran. However, once the initial attack has been launched, US and Israeli air forces will then likely concentrate on pounding Iranian political and defence institutions for the purpose forcing Iran to capitulate and sue for a peace through the UN which the US will conditionally concede to providing Iran rids itself of President Ahmadinejad and gives up its nuclear program.

But, while the attack on Iran will be seen by the world as the main event, the real purpose for the war will be happening on Israel’s doorstep.

At the same time as Iran is being attacked, Israel, using the excuse of pre-empting retaliation for attacking Iran, will attack both Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza and then move to occupy south Lebanon up the Litani River and the Gaza Strip. Israel will also likely fully occupy the West Bank.

This is the scenario that the US and Israel would prefer to see happen; a quick overwhelming move against all of Israel and America’s enemies that concludes with the defeat of the Iranian regime and, thus, regime change, together with the demise of Hezbollah and Hamas. This then will give the Israelis a free hand in creating a Greater Israel that ultimately includes the Gaza Strip, south Lebanon up to the Litani River, the West Bank and the Golan Heights. It will also provide the US with an even stronger ally in the Middle East and also a neutered enemy.

But can it work the way the Israelis and the US plan?

Invasion of Iran by the US is out of the question, (though the insertion of some special forces is highly likely in order to co-ordinate air strikes). Iran is a vast country that is some three times larger than Iraq. The US, considering its current ground troop commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan would not be able to effectively invade Iran. It would have to rely on an overwhelming aerial bombing campaign in order to prevail.

The instant any attack is launched against Iran, or Hezbollah or Hamas, there will likely be instant retaliation against Israel by at least Hezbollah and possibly Hamas. Both entities would, by this stage, realise that this fight will be to the finish. The fighting therefore will be intense and fearsome and there will be many casualties – mostly, of course, civilians. In a worst case scenario, depending on the intensity of the bombardment of Israel by Hezbollah, Israel may threaten the use of nuclear weapons against Lebanon unless Hezbollah cease their rocket attacks against Israel. Likewise, if Iran retaliates with a rocket attack against Israel, both the US and Israel may threaten the use of nuclear weapons against Iran. In the very worst case scenario, if Iran or Hezbollah used chemical or biological weapons, Israel and /or the US would actually use nuclear weapons with little or no warning in retaliation.

Whatever happens, a war against Iran will have devastating consequences one way or the other and for all sides.

It’s time for the peoples of the world to stand up and be heard before it is too late.

[JohnQPublic]

USS Carrier Harry Truman Now Officially Just Off Iran, As Israel Allegedly Plotting An Imminent Tehran Raid (http://www.zerohedge.com/article/uss-carrier-harry-truman-now-officially-just-iran-israel-allegedly-plotting-imminent-tehran-)
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 06/27/2010 12:50 -0500

Iran Israel Turkey


As we first reported last week, in an article that was met with much original skepticism, the Pentagon has now confirmed that a fleet of 12 warships has passed the Suez Canal, and is now likely awaiting orders to support the escalation in the Persian Gulf. The attached image from Stratfor shows the latest positioning of US aircraft carrier groups as of June 23: the USS Harry Truman (CVN-75) is now right next to USS Eisenhower (CVN 69), both of which are waiting patiently just off Iran.

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/Naval_Update_06_23_10_800.jpg

As for the catalyst the two carriers may be anticipating, we provide the following update from the Gulf Daily News where we read that Israel may be on the verge of an attack of Iran, with an incursion originating from military bases in Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Israel is massing warplanes in the Caucasus for an attack on Iran, it was revealed yesterday.

Preparations are underway to launch the military attack from Azerbaijan and Georgia, reports our sister paper Akhbar Al Khaleej, quoting military sources.

Israel was, in fact, training pilots in Turkey to launch the strike and was smuggling planes into Georgia using Turkish airspace, they said.

However, Turkey was unaware of Israel's intention of transferring the planes to Georgia, the sources said.

The unexpected crisis between Israel and Turkey following an Israeli commando raid on an aid flotilla bound for Gaza Strip hit Israeli calculations.

Azerbaijan-based intelligence units, working under the cover of technicians, trainers and consultants, have helped with the preparations, the sources said.

Military equipment, mostly supplied by the US, was transported to a Georgian port via the Black Sea.

Georgian coastguard and Israeli controllers are co-operating to hide the operations from Russian vessels, said the sources.

They point out that according to Israel, it will not be in a position to launch a strike on Iran without using bases in Georgia and Azerbaijan due to the limited capabilities of its nuclear submarines stationed near the Iranian coast.

Meanwhile, Iran's Press TV reported that a very large contingent of US ground forces had massed in Azerbaijan, near the Iranian border. The independent Azerbaijani news website Trend confirmed the report.

Those reports came just days after the Pentagon confirmed that an unusually large fleet of US warships had indeed passed through Egypt's Suez Canal en route to the Gulf. At least one Israeli warship reportedly joined the American armada.

Press TV also quoted Iranian Revolultionary Guard Brigadier General Mehdi Moini as saying that the country's forces are mobilised and ready to face Israelli and American "misadventures" near its borders.

* Iran last night said it has cancelled plans to send an aid ship to the Gaza Strip as Israel "had sent a letter to the UN saying that the presence of Iranian and Lebanese ships in the Gaza area will be considered a declaration of war on that regime and it will confront it," Irna said.


We caution readers to take this news with a grain of salt as the Gulf Daily News' sister publication, Akhbar Al Khaleej, has a slightly less than stellar credibility rating. Then again, this is what some, Breaking News Online most notably, said about last week's carrier news, urging readers to ignore it.

[DMac]

Medvedev: Iran close to nuclear weapon - Iran "is far from behaving in the best way".

Russia warns Iran near nuclear weapons potential (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100712/wl_mideast_afp/irannuclearpoliticsrussia_20100712151507)

[gunDriller]

the Republicans are echoing the "attack iran" stance.

my guess is, Obama's re-election may hinge upon him appeasing the violent sadists in American culture and attacking Iran. it would build support in the Jewish community and he would probably retain most of his support in the African American community.

as far as attacking Iran making him a traitor - i don't think he cares. Israel wants the US to attack Iran & Obama wants to score brownie points with the Israel "Amen" choir, pseudo-Christians and Jews alike.

[SHTF2010]

Vice PM: Strike on Iran could be necessary
30.05.11


Vice Prime Minister and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon says the civilized world must take joint action to avert the Iranian nuclear threat, including a pre-emptive strike if necessary

more . . .

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/vice-pm-strike-on-iran-could-be-necessary-1.365018

[DMac]

Irate Germany Summons Iranian Ambassador After Angela Merkel Plane Denied Access Over Iran Airspace For Two Hours (http://www.zerohedge.com/article/irate-germany-summons-iranian-ambassador-after-angela-merkel-plane-denied-access-over-iran-a)

t appears that even a Stuxnet-crippled Iran can strike back. As the WSJ reports (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303745304576357131305923332.html), "Germany summoned the Iranian ambassador in Berlin Tuesday after Iran temporarily blocked a plane carrying German Chancellor Angela Merkel from entering its airspace" in what has the making of a major diplomatic scandal. Merkel, along with a large German delegation was en route to India for an official visit, and had expected to get an uncontested green light to fly in Tehran-controlled skies, when the permission was granted... for over two hours. NDTV has more (http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/angela-merkels-plane-was-denied-permission-to-fly-over-irans-airspace-109184): "In an incident that could have serious diplomatic consequences, Iran temporarily refused to allow German Chancellor Angela Merkel's plane to enter its airspace on Tuesday. The plane reportedly had to circle over Turkey for two hours before being given permission to enter. The government aircraft was denied overflight rights in the early hours of Tuesday. The exact reason for the denial of overflight rights is unclear. But before the plane left Berlin on Monday evening, it was reportedly given permission by Iranian authorities. Germany along with the US and its other allies in NATO has long been at loggerheads with Iran essentially over its nuclear arms policy and alleged support to terror." Who could have possibly conceived that a country ostracized by the global community can possibly strike back. All we can say is that Air Force One better fly the friendly skies when it travels over the Middle East going forward or else it may be forced to discover just how efficient its flare and chaff Electronic Counter Measures truly are...

[SHTF2010]

IDF chief: Israel faces growing range of threats, from 'knife to nuclear'
31.05.11

IDF chief Gantz says Israel's defense establishment needs a higher budget to contend with the changes in the Middle East and spectrum of threats from a single terror attack to Iran's atomic developments.

more . . .

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/idf-chief-israel-faces-growing-range-of-threats-from-knife-to-nuclear-1.365145

***************************

golly gee, i wonder where the money for a higher budget is coming from ?

[Book]

Iran should stop all oil production for a few months "to clean the pipes".

:D

[SHTF2010]

Obama's new security staff may approve attack on Iran

Obama has chosen the summer of 2011, about a year before the election season warms up in 2012, to refresh his national security staff, a move that may have serious repercussions on Israel.


The conclusion is that between the end of June and Gates' retirement, and the end of September and Mullen's retirement, the danger that Netanyahu and Barak will aim at a surprise in Iran is especially great, especially since this would divert attention from the Palestinian issue

more . . .

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/obama-s-new-security-staff-may-approve-attack-on-iran-1.365251

[DMac]

Iran should stop all oil production for a few months "to clean the pipes".

:D


Iran's GDP would collapse if they stopped exporting energy. Energy makes up 30% of their GDP.

[Canadian-guerilla]

Ex-CIA officer: Israel likely to attack Iran in September
07/16/2011

Israel will probably attack Iran in September, a former CIA officer who spent 21 years in the Middle East, including in Lebanon and Syria, has told a Los Angeles radio show.

While Robert Baer didn’t reveal the sources behind his prediction, he referred to former Mossad chief Meir Dagan’s warnings of an Israeli attack on Iran as “no bluff.”

more . . .

http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=229605

[osoab]

Iran plugs first nuclear power plant into grid (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-rt-us-iran-nuclear-bushehrtre7830hq-20110904,0,7348974.story)



TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's first nuclear power plant has finally begun to provide electricity to the national grid, official media reported on Sunday, a long-delayed milestone in the nuclear ambitions of a country the West fears is covertly try to develop atomic bombs.

"The Atomic Energy Agency announced that atomic electricity from Bushehr power plant joined the national grid with a power of around 60 megawatts on Saturday at 2329 (1859 GMT)," the official news agency IRNA reported.

The start-up will come as a relief to Tehran after many years of delays and false starts at the plant it hopes will show the world it has joined the nuclear club despite sanctions imposed in an attempt to curb its disputed nuclear progress.

The $1-billion, 1,000-megawatt Bushehr plant will be formally inaugurated on September 12, by which time it will be operating at 40 percent capacity, Hamid-Khadem Qaemi, spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), told the state-controlled Arabic language TV station al-Alam.

The AEOI was not immediately available to comment.

The plant on the Gulf coast is the first of what Iran says will become a network of nuclear facilities that will reduce its reliance on its abundant fossil fuels and is a showpiece of what it says is a purely peaceful atomic programme.

Bushehr's start-up comes with Russia pushing to revive talks between global powers and Iran about its separate uranium enrichment work, seen abroad as a potential proliferation threat since highly refined uranium fuels atomic bombs.

Iran says it is enriching uranium only to lower levels suitable for power plant fuel or medical and agricultural uses.

But it has also started shifting its most sensitive enrichment operations to a mountain bunker that would be better protected against a possible pre-emptive U.S. or Israeli military strike.

FANFARE

Started by Germany's Siemens in the 1970s before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Bushehr project was taken over by Russian engineers in the 1990s. Delays fueled speculation Moscow was using the project as a diplomatic lever over Iran.

Nuclear fuel rods were transported into the reactor building amid great media fanfare more than a year ago, but were not loaded into the reactor until later in 2010 and even then had to be removed due to technical problems.

As recently as last month Iran told U.N. inspectors it had temporarily shut down the Bushehr reactor for technical reasons and, separately, a special said the plant was still a long way from joining the grid.

But analysts were not entirely surprised by Sunday's news.

"They have been doing the tests on it for some time. It is certainly no surprise that they are doing it around now," said Malcolm Grimston, a nuclear expert at London's Chatham House.

"It is a milestone in the sense that it is their first full scale power reactor but it doesn't change any of the major arguments (about Iran's wider nuclear programme)," he said.

London-based nuclear proliferation expert Mark Fitzpatrick said: "So many announcements have been made about imminent plans to connect Bushehr to the grid that it's hardly newsworthy now that it has actually happened."

On the fact that Bushehr was only running at 6 percent capacity, he said: "They are wise, of course, to take it slow. Bushehr has had too many problems for the operators to risk nuclear safety by trying to meet artificial political deadlines."

Experts say firing up the Bushehr plant will not bring Iran any closer to building a nuclear bomb because Russia will supply the enriched uranium for the reactor and repatriate spent fuel that could be reprocessed into weapons-grade plutonium.

Fears have been voiced over potential safety problems for Bushehr which, like Fukushima, the site of Japan's devastating nuclear melt-down, is in a major earthquake zone, albeit not one at risk of a tsunami.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog (IAEA) has urged Iran to join the 1996 Convention on Nuclear Safety, a treaty designed to improve safeguards after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. An IAEA official said Iran would be the only country operating a nuclear power plant not to belong to the convention.

(Additional reporting Parisa Hafezi and by Fredrik Dahl in Vienna; Writing by Robin Pomeroy; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

[Canadian-guerilla]

U.S. Quietly Supplies Israel With Bunker-Busting Bombs
September 23, 2011

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has quietly supplied Israel with bombs capable of destroying buried targets, like terrorists’ arms caches or perhaps sites in Iran suspected of being part of that nation’s nuclear weapons program, American officials said Friday

more . . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/24/world/us-quietly-supplies-israel-with-bunker-busting-bombs.html?src=twrhp

[osoab]

France threatens military action against Iran (http://rt.com/news/military-strike-iran-france-567/)




The French envoy to the UN has warned Iran that it risks a military strike if it continues pursuing its nuclear program.

"If we don't succeed today to reach a negotiation with the Iranians, there is a strong risk of military action," Ambassador Gerard Araud said on Tuesday during a panel discussion at the UN’s New York headquarters, AFP reported.

The strike, he said, "would be a very complicated operation. It would have disastrous consequences in the region… all the Arab countries are extremely worried about what is happening."

Last Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called on Iran to "freeze the production of centrifuges," saying that such a step would prevent fresh sanctions against it.

“In response we will abstain from imposing more sanctions, both at the UN Security Council and unilaterally,” the diplomat said in a CNN interview.

On Tuesday, Mr. Lavrov stressed the need to find a diplomatic solution to the issue.

“We don’t see any alternative to a political and diplomatic solution and taking concrete steps towards renewing of talks,” he said in an address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Earlier this month, the UN nuclear watchdog published a report on developments after Teheran allowed an inspector to enter some of its nuclear facilities which had previously been closed. Moscow believes that Iran’s latest moves show positive changes in its attitude to the UN’s control of its nuclear program, which the international community should encourage.

On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi called on the European Union to resume nuclear talks with Tehran.

"There have been new developments with regard to Iran's nuclear issue and also other issues," Salehi said in a meeting with EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Earlier this month, former US Vice President Dick Cheney said he believed Israel would attack Iran to prevent it from achieving nuclear weapons capacity.

Cheney told Newsmax TV that "Iran represents an existential threat and [the Israelis] will do whatever they have to do to guarantee their survival and their security.”

So are the Frenchies taking the lead now? Distraction from the real players?

[Canadian-guerilla]

Israel warned over lone strike against Iran
October 5, 2011

THERE are growing fears that Israel's increasing isolation in the region has led it to consider a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, prompting a flurry of diplomatic activity and a public warning against any unilateral action from a former Mossad chief.

This week's visit by US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta is seen by some as a sign that America is deeply concerned Israel could abandon the international sanctions regime against Iran and ''go it alone''.

more . . .

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/israel-warned-over-lone-strike-against-iran-20111005-1l9l0.html?

[Buddha]

Israel warned over lone strike against Iran
October 5, 2011

THERE are growing fears that Israel's increasing isolation in the region has led it to consider a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, prompting a flurry of diplomatic activity and a public warning against any unilateral action [B]from a former Mossad chief.


By way of deception, thou shall do war.

[Canadian-guerilla]

Kessler: Bomb Iran Now for Washington Terror Plot
Tuesday, 11 Oct 2011

The Iranian plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador and blow up the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington is a clear act of war says former Rep. Pete Hoekstra and Newsmax chief Washington correspondent Ronald Kessler — with Kessler adding the plot should be answered with a U.S attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.

more . . .

http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/kessler-iran-saudi-israel/2011/10/11/id/414037

[osoab]

Kessler: Bomb Iran Now for Washington Terror Plot
Tuesday, 11 Oct 2011

The Iranian plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador and blow up the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington is a clear act of war says former Rep. Pete Hoekstra and Newsmax chief Washington correspondent Ronald Kessler — with Kessler adding the plot should be answered with a U.S attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.

more . . .

http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/kessler-iran-saudi-israel/2011/10/11/id/414037

Damn that is one complete piece of proganda. Comparing Ahmadinejad to Hitler is one heck of a stretch. Sheep will eat it up.

[Canadian-guerilla]

i can't believe they're still pushing this bullshit

*******************

Analysis: Iran is trying to start a war
October 19, 2011

The news that Iran plotted to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington DC by bombing a crowded restaurant is shocking - even more shocking if one factors in the stated intention to blow up the Israeli and Saudi embassies as well in the future.

more . . .

http://www.thejc.com/news/world-news/56642/analysis-iran-trying-start-a-war?

[osoab]

Iran: the damning nuclear evidence (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/8866022/Iran-the-damning-nuclear-evidence.html)



Iran is attempting to engineer and test nuclear weapons at a series of banned production sites in defiance of United Nations sanctions, according to a report to be released next week.

The research by the UN’s watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, will add a substantial layer to seven years of investigations that is likely to inflame tensions in the Middle East.

Yukiya Amano, the organisation’s director-general, is unlikely to draw a definitive conclusion that Iran is making nuclear weapons, but according to Western diplomats the facts will make any other conclusion implausible.

They believe the IAEA has substantiated evidence from intelligence reports, interviews with Iranian scientists and on-the-ground inspections that Iran (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran) is carrying out a nuclear weapons programme in parallel to its civilian energy goals.

The agency will sound the alarm over Iranian scientists’ work to develop a ballistic missile warhead capable of carrying a nuclear device. It has already uncovered evidence that Iran has been carrying out research into triggers for nuclear weapons.

Inspectors have also questioned Iranian scientists on simulation programmes that they believe are designed to design and test a potential weapon.

“This is the product of a vast amount of work by the IAEA which will show the level of evidence they’ve accumulated and make clear a number of supplementary indications they have uncovered,” said a Western diplomat. “It makes an inescapable case that Iran has ambitions to militarise the uranium it has been enriching at its production facilities.”
Another official said: “The Iranians have been very evasive, and quite clever about it at times. It’s been difficult to discover the smoking gun. But this will be more detailed than before. The director-general will point to black holes in the Iranians’ explanations. It will undoubtedly increase the pressure.”

The Armed forces are conducting contingency planning for a potential attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities amid concerns of a resurgent nuclear programme, sources have said.

Any such attack would be planned as a back-up to US action, providing air support, reconnaissance, and submarine missile strikes.

Ministry of Defence planners say there is a “shortening window of opportunity” as the Iranians re-enforce their nuclear production facilities which are dug into mountaintops.

However America has been reluctant to take action to end the resurgent Iranian nuclear programme and the plans may well stay on the shelf.

“We have contingency plans on everything,” a senior military source said.
“It doesn’t mean anything will come of it but at least someone is thinking about this sort of thing.

The source added: “You have got to get there early enough – once they are dig into the ground, it gets much more difficult.”

Last month, the Obama administration began pressing the UN inspectorate to release more of its classified information on Iran. It was moved to act by the revelation of an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Washington, while diplomatic attention generally was able to return its focus to Iran with the conclusion of Nato’s involvement in Libya.

The Iranians, despite a fourth round of UN sanctions last year and further punitive measures from the European Union and the US, have remained defiant.
Hopes that the Stuxnet computer virus attack by Western powers on Iran’s nuclear technology would prove crippling have faded. The virus succeeded in crippling a number of Iranian centrifuges but analysts now think the effects have worn off and production of highly enriched uranium has accelerated again.

The IAEA will provide indications that enriched uranium production is moving from the long-established Natanz facility to Fordow, an underground plant that is regarded by Iran as bomb-proof near the holy city of Qom. Iran has produced more than 70kg of 20 per cent enriched uranium and would easily increase its output if production shifts to the mountain plant. Scientists say that 20 per cent enriched uranium can be refined to the 90 per cent weapons grade level without design changes in the production lines.

The report is likely to provide further ammunition to the case of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, for pre-emptive military action.

The risks are huge, and have so far deterred even some of the most conservative members of his coalition, as well as military and intelligence chiefs.

It would probably prompt retaliation by Iranian-sponsored groups Hezbollah and Hamas, oil prices could soar, Jews across the world could face terrorist attacks and the clerical regime in Tehran could be emboldened.

But the fear of allowing a country whose president repeatedly has called for Israel’s annihilation to build a nuclear bomb yesterday led Israel to test a long-range ballistic missile easily capable of reaching Iran. The test came just hours after Mr Netanyahu was reported to have stepped up pressure on his cabinet to back military strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Indicating that a rapid reassessment of policy was under way, Israeli newspapers suggested that an attack could take place either before the onset of winter or in the summer of next year.

The dramatic disclosures came as the Israeli defence ministry confirmed that it had fired “a rocket propulsion system” from its Palmach airbase after a white streak was spotted in the skies above the centre of the country early yesterday.
The ministry, which insisted that the launch had been long planned, censored further details. But Western experts concluded that Israel had fired a Jericho-3 ballistic missile, which is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and could form a component of any attack on Iran.

It also emerged that Israel’s air force simulated a long-range attack at a Nato base in Sardinia last week.

The exercise, which was not initially disclosed in Israel, included an air-to-air refuelling component. Potential targets in Iran lie between 950 and 1,400 miles from Israel’s borders. Any mission to destroy them would would require aerial refuelling.

[Canadian-guerilla]

Iran 'is ready for war': Tehran vows to retaliate if Israel and the West attack nuclear plants
3rd November 2011

Iran ratcheted up tensions in the Middle East yesterday when its foreign minister declared the country was ‘ready for war’ with Israel and the West.

In inflammatory remarks certain to fuel uncertainty in the volatile region, Ali Akbar Salehi warned that Tehran would ‘not hesitate’ to retaliate if attacked.

more . . .

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2057210/Iran-ready-war-Tehran-vows-retaliate-Israel-West-attack-nuclear-plants.html

[osoab]

Iran will release 100 documents implicating U.S. in terrorist acts: Leader (http://www.tehrantimes.com/index.php/component/content/article/4179)


TEHRAN - Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has said that Iran has one hundred indisputable documents that prove the United States’ involvement in terrorist actions and assassination plots in Iran and the region and will release them to the public.

The Leader made the remarks during a meeting with thousands of students in Tehran on Wednesday, ahead of the 13th of Aban.


The 13th of Aban in the Iranian calendar, which corresponds to November 4, is Iran’s national day of struggle against the global arrogance (imperialist powers) and the anniversary of the university students’ seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, which was called the Den of Spies, in 1979. It is also the anniversary of the exile of the late Imam Khomeini, the Founder of the Islamic Republic, in 1964.


“We have one hundred indisputable documents that show the role of the United States in directing assassinations and terrorists in Iran and the region. We will discredit the U.S. and the self-proclaimed supporters of human rights and the campaign against terrorism before the world,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.


In reference to the U.S. claim that Iran had plotted to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Washington, he said, “The U.S. government, amid growing problems and at the climax of the widespread and popular Wall Street movement, tried to accuse the Islamic Republic of Iran of being involved in a meaningless, irrational, and wrong terrorist action through fabricating a ridiculous scenario.


“But all rational individuals and experts in the world rejected the allegation after reflecting upon this ridiculous scenario.”


Such a scenario was fabricated in order to pressure the Islamic Republic and deflect attention from the protests on Wall Street, he noted.


“They are seeking to accuse the most respectable combatant elements of the Islamic Republic of Iran, while today the U.S. is a major terrorist in the world,” he stated.


In addition, he said that uprisings against Western liberal democracy in the U.S. and other countries are a sign of the collapse of the capitalist system.


The U.S. and other Western governments might be able to put down some protests, “but this fire cannot be put out,” he stated.


Commenting on regional developments, the Leader said that the U.S. is facing defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, and North Africa and has no option other than leaving the region.


“Nations in the world and the region clearly observed the United States’ hypocritical approach to developments in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya,” he said.


When I first read the headline, I was thinking that Iran was upping the ante.

After reading that blundering piece, I have to wonder if some sort of translation issue occurred at minimum.

I don't understand what the reference to facing defeat is about. Is that reinforcement for the rest of the Persians?

[Dogman]

Rumblings on the news today that Israel may attack Iran very soon. Both by aircraft and ballistic missiles. Going after Iran's nuke sites.

[osoab]

An inside look at the base where Iran is developing nuclear weapons (http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/an-inside-look-at-the-base-where-iran-is-developing-nuclear-weapons-1.393920)




UN nuclear watchdog to release report on activities this week; Iran has carried out experiments in the final stage for developing nuclear weapons including explosions and computer simulations of explosions.

Iran is pursuing its nuclear weapons program at the Parchin military base about 30 kilometers from Tehran, diplomatic sources in Vienna say. The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to release a report this week on Iran's nuclear activities.

According to recent leaks, Iran has carried out experiments in the final, critical stage for developing nuclear weapons - weaponization. This includes explosions and computer simulations of explosions. The Associated Press and other media outlets have reported that satellite photos of the site reveal a bus-sized container for conducting experiments.

Parchin serves as a base for research and development of missile weaponry and explosive material. It also has hundreds of structures and a number of fortified tunnels and bunkers for carrying out explosive experiments.

As far back as eight years ago, U.S. intelligence sources received information indicating that the bunkers would also be suitable to develop nuclear weapons. According to that information, Iran conducted experiments there to examine its capacity to simulate a nuclear explosion.

The Iranians rejected an IAEA request to visit Parchin, saying that IAEA rules permitted the organization's member states to deny such visits to military bases. Now, eight years later, the site is again suspected as a location for covert military nuclear activity.

Sources say that this time around, the IAEA report will contain clearer language on military aspects of the Iranian nuclear program. The report is in the final drafting stages and will need the approval of the IAEA's director general, Yukiya Amano.

According to information leaked to the media, the report will include a 12-page appendix with details including documents and satellite photos that support the contention that, in violation of its international obligations, Iran is covertly developing nuclear weapons.

The report is also expected to detail Iranian's progress on uranium enrichment at its Natanz facility and state that the Islamic Republic still refuses to disclose information on various aspects of its atomic program. This in turn arouses suspicions that Iran is hiding information and is indeed developing nuclear weapons.

Previous IAEA reports have said Iran already has four and a half tons of uranium at Natanz that are enriched at 3.5 percent. If such a quantity is enriched to 90 percent, something Iran has the capacity for, it will be enough to produce fissile material for four or five nuclear bombs.

The report is expected to state that Iran has also begun to install centrifuges at a facility near Qom that is built underground to shield the site from an air attack.
Both the Natanz and Qom sites, however, are subject to regular visits by IAEA inspectors. Any decision on moving to the final stage in a nuclear weapons program would largely be up to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with the assistance of two military advisers.

In any event, diplomats say it is unlikely the IAEA's governing board will condemn Iran when it meets on November 17 and 18. It might take months to convince China and Russia to support a board resolution that could be the first step toward additional UN sanctions, they say.

[osoab]

No-fly zone over Iraq set to expire, opening shortest route from Israel to Iran (http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/no-fly-zone-over-iraq-set-to-expire-opening-shortest-route-from-israel-to-iran-1.393918)



A key clause in a U.S. military agreement creating a no-fly zone over Iraq is set to run out at the end of the year. The clause, inserted in the agreement following Iranian pressure on Iraq's Shi'ite prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, was apparently a way to thwart an Israeli air attack on Iran.

The agreement between the United States and Iraq, signed in November 2008, is due to run out at the end of this year when U.S. forces withdraw from Iraq under the timetable set by President Barack Obama (although thousands of advisers will remain ).

Clause 27 of the agreement states that, if asked, the United States must thwart threats to Iraq's sovereignty and not let its land, territorial waters or airspace be used for attacks on other countries.

The clause has special significance considering the increased speculation in recent days that Israel might attack Iran's nuclear sites. It is unclear to what extent the United States will be obligated under the clause after its forces leave Iraq. In any case, the obligation will certainly not be as binding as it is now.

The shortest air route from Israel to Iran is over Iraq.

In September 2007, when, according to foreign sources, the Israel Air Force attacked nuclear sites in northern Syria, the planes reportedly jettisoned detachable fuel tanks over Turkey on their way back.

The reports embarrassed Ankara, which asked Israel for clarifications.

Considering the current troubled relations between Israel and Turkey, it is very doubtful that in an attack on Iran, Israel could use Turkish air space.

[Canadian-guerilla]

To bomb or not to bomb: Would Israel follow Begin’s Doctrine?
Monday, 07 November 2011

Menachem Begin did not pull his punches. In 1981, as work neared completion on an Iraqi nuclear reactor that Israel believed would produce plutonium for warheads, the Israeli prime minister dispatched eight F-16 bombers to destroy the plant. Begin later said that the raid was proof his country would “under no circumstances allow the enemy to develop weapons of mass-destruction against our people.”

The event defined a strategy that became known as the “Begin Doctrine” and is best summed up by the phrase “the best defense is forceful preemption.”

more . . .

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/11/07/175883.html


**************

i think bibi imayahoo may use the " Begin Doctrine " and claim israel's history of self defense

[Canadian-guerilla]

Russia issues stark warning against attack on Iran
updated 23 minutes ago

Russia and Iran warned the West against a military strike on the Islamic Republic Monday, saying an attack targeting its nuclear program would lead to civilian casualties and create new threats to global security.

The separate remarks by foreign ministers Sergei Lavrov of Russia and Ali Akbar Salehi of Iran coincided with speculation about a potential Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear sites ahead of the release of a U.N. watchdog report expected to cast more light on suspected military aspects to Iran's nuclear activity.

"This would be a very serious mistake fraught with unpredictable consequences," Lavrov told a news conference in Moscow when asked about reports that Israel was preparing for a possible pre-emptive military strike.

more . . .

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45187774/#.TrgS0kb5zGs

[Dogman]

If Israel does attack Iran, I think all the Russian bear will do , is bellow/grumble and cut farts, and nothing more!

Getting into another conflict the Russian people is the last thing they want.

[letter_factory]

Iran attack plan: let stupid christian goy filth slaves die for their zionist masters under the guise of spreading freedom and democracy.

[VX1]

There is quite a foreboding in the air. Heavy propaganda in the ZOG news the past couple of days, like this one saying Iran will soon have nuclear WMDs (flashback to Iraq):


Ahead of the report's release, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned that his nation would consider every option in countering Iran's bomb-making capabilities.

"Israel does not want a confrontation, but if it happens, the state of Israel will not be destroyed and there will not be 10,000 dead and not even 500 dead in any possible scenario," Barak said Tuesday on Israel Radio.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/08/world/meast/iran-nuclear/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Read the comments to the story, and you see most are longer dupes to this propaganda. Then you have AIPAC trying to make it illegal to even attempt diplomacy with Iran. The slip of Obama saying he has to deal with Netanyahu "every day". Plus this strange emergency test they’re conducting tomorrow. My job even sent out a message that said not to be alarmed, because “the test may not look like a test”. Flashback to the tests conducted around 9/11.

I must purposefully be vague, but I’m involved with global financial settlement for the airlines. We’ve just been instructed to drop everything and immediately take Iranian Air out of the system and prevent it from being used in conjunction with any itinerary. This is highly out of the ordinary.

It feels as if it is two minutes to midnight.

[MNeagle]

curious indeed vx1

[Dogman]

For the last week the background noise on this has been getting louder, and getting more and more play time in the media. So methinks its real. The question will be who will be the actors, Israel for sure with our backing, question will be how much backing?

There are several states over there that want too see Iran get slapped down, how open will they be and what help? Other than look the other way when it happens.

One thing for very sure, something will go down over there. The question is how dam big will it be?

[VX1]

One thing for very sure, something will go down over there. The question is how dam big will it be?

I guess that depends on how big the FF incident is that initiates it. Remember just a number of weeks ago, they were ready pushing for all-out war, only on the premise that some Mexican drug pushers said an Iranian-American used car salesman wanted to kill a Saudi ambassador. If ZOG agents are able to blow up one of our military barracks in Iraq or Afghanistan and blame it on Iran, for example, it will be game-on quickly. That's the most plausible scenario I see at this point. The ZOG knows that would be easy to pull off, and of course, no evidence necessary. Makes me sick how close checkmate is for the Roths-child of Satan.

[PatColo]

An interview which you won't see on Western ZSM,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_XFHK35bfU&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_XFHK35bfU&feature=player_embedded

Interview with James Morris, editor of America-hijacked.com
Wed Nov 9, 2011 8:20AM GMT presstv.com

Israeli President Shimon Peres has recently threatened that an attack against Iran was becoming “more and more likely.”


Press TV has conducted an interview with James Morris, editor of America-hijacked.com, to discuss the issue.


Press TV: This will be the largest and most significant joint exercise, what will be the outcome of such a war-mongering move?


Morris: Thank you for having me back on Press TV. My website is actually America-hijacked.com and I very much appreciate Press TV mentioning it on the air in such dangerous times. I think the outcome can be catastrophic; we might be talking about a potential Armageddon situation if the rogue state of Israel initiates a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities when Israel sits there with 200 to 400 nuclear weapons and it will not even let the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspect those weapons.


So what you have in America is a pro-Israel lobby here, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), that John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt discuss in their excellent book The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy and AIPAC has been pushing for an attack or a war with Iran for quite some time now and you also have the neo-conservatives — which my good friend Dr. Stephen J. Sniegoski discussed in his The Transparent Cabal book and I think we could be on the brink of war; I know the US military is very concerned about it, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta had made at least one trip to Israel, in two weeks he’d met with the Israelis twice; you had the head of the UK military meeting with the Israelis, I believe his name is Richards, … he is a military commander there and I think we could be on the brink of war.


Now what is incredible about this is why doesn’t the US, my country, … I have also got a British passport as well… why don’t we talk about what Israel is doing with regard to all those nuclear weapons and how Israel had threatened European capitals. If you look at the background of this, Israeli military researcher historian Martin van Creveld had actually threatened the European cities with annihilation with those 200 to 400 nuclear weapons that Israel reportedly has.


So why do we have to have another war for Israel in the Middle East? If you go to my America-hijacked.com blog that we mentioned here, you have the former FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley on a recent radio show with my good friend Phil Turney USS Liberty survivor, Phil Turney … and she said that the ploy by Israel here could be to attack Iran and draw the US into a war against Iran, of course, for Israel while the US troops are still in Iraq.


Now let me also conclude here, President Obama has been disingenuous when he says that he is pulling out US troops from Iraq. They are not going pulled back completely from the Middle East; they are going across the way into Kuwait to keep an eye on Iran and those troops could easily be mobilized for any war with Iran. Again, let’s just hope that this is just psy-ops, trying to get stronger sanctions against Iran from Russia and China but when you have these ongoing war games and the rhetoric coming out of Israel and from the US AIPAC-neo-con-influenced government, who knows what is possible. I say prepare for war and I don’t want Americans and Brits die as a result of it and Iranians too.


Press TV: Mr. Morris, in your opinion, would you say that the US is planning to use Israel as their proxy, because the American people back home will not tolerate another foreign invasion?


Morris: Well, what I am saying here is that Israel basically uses America as its proxy. I do not believe in what Noam Chomsky says with regard to the US using Israel as its proxy in the Middle East. Again if you look at the Walt and Mearshiemer’s The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy book and former Republican Congressman Paul Findley’s They dare to Speak Out book, it is clearly shown how Israel uses America as its proxy through the Congress which AIPAC has so much influence on, and also the neoconservatives on the Republican Party.


So what I am saying is that the US here really does not tell Israel what to do. Israel is calling the shots and they know that Obama doesn’t really want to go to war with Iran but if Israel strikes Iran first and draws the US into it with all our troops still in the region, all the US troops still in the region, and I just saw a report recently that I think there is like at least one carrier task force that is still in the region with thirty warships. These could all be mobilized in a war with Iran and what I am also very concerned about is what about relations with Pakistan.


You have that arch-neoconservative Max Boot who has been pushing for escalated military action in Pakistan and we saw from my email exchanges with General [David] Petraeus last year which the US media didn’t cover either that he was actually advising General Petraeus to take a harsher line in Afghanistan.


I think these neoconservatives, these Zionist Israel first neoconservatives are trying to get us into a much wider war in the Middle East with AIPAC, the pro-Israeli lobby, the neoconservatives are the up pressure in that lobby and it could result in the next world war if Russia and China get involved. We are in very dangerous times here. The world has to wake to what the Zionists are doing in America and in Britain, in the UK as well, and we have got to rise up against it before it is too late, too.


Press TV: What do you think the US rhetoric is? What is the American citizens’ feeling on if this plan goes into war like you said?
Morris: Let me give you an example. Americans don’t know the pro-Israel biased US media, American media; you have got Wolf Blitzer at CNN who is a former AIPAC newsletter editor. You see him basically leading the charge with this anti-Iran warmongering rhetoric going back to this apparently bogus scheme to assassinate the Saudi ambassador.


That was just incredible. I think the FBI Director [Robert] Mueller said it was like a scene out of a Hollywood script as if Iran is going to go and do that using Mexican drug cartels. That is obviously coming from the neoconservative pro-Israel lobby. I believe you had Maidhc or Mark O Cathail on your show of thepassionateattachment.com blog and he had an article out ‘Path to Persia’ and he talks about how the Zionists’ Brookings Institution had said that you had to have a fabricated incident to get the American public to go along with the war with Iran. Lo and behold, a few years after that, whenever that paper was written, you have the scheme with a Saudi ambassador who is about to be assassinated by the Iranians and the neoconservative pro-Israel biased Zionists-occupied the news media in America is pushing that. Back to your question, Americans don’t know!
MN/MSK/HJL
READ FULL STORY HERE (http://presstv.com/detail/209128.html)

[PatColo]

another you won't see on western ZSM, and get this: Journalists censure UK over censorship of Iranian network (http://theuglytruth.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/journalists-censure-uk-over-censorship-of-iranian-network/)

US spending American dollars on Israel


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD8ZaxAHmS0


Uploaded by PressTVGlobalNews (http://www.youtube.com/user/PressTVGlobalNews) on Nov 8, 2011
A Vietnam War veteran says that economically-ailing United States has unconditionally pursued Israeli interests in the Middle East region.

An exclusive interview with Phil Tourney, author, Vietnam War veteran and USS Liberty survivor

[PatColo]

Michael Scheuer: Washington is fighting an enemy that doesn't exist



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C29cWY58eg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C29cWY58eg

Uploaded by RTAmerica (http://www.youtube.com/user/RTAmerica) on Nov 9, 2011
Iran has been under fire for allegedly building up a nuclear enrichment program which they claim are false. The International Atomic Energy Agency released a report that has got Western powers ready to go to war with Iran. But is Iran having the potential to create a nuclear weapon the real issue or is there a much larger issue? Michael Scheuer, ex-CIA agent, gives us some insight.

[Canadian-guerilla]

Netanyahu's day of reckoning is nearing
27.11.11

Two legal processes in the area of public law threaten to rock Israel's political establishment, maybe even bringing down the government. But Netanyahu is not helpless: He could always bomb Iran.

more . . .

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/netanyahu-s-day-of-reckoning-is-nearing-1.397940

[DMac]

‘US builds hospitals in Georgia, readies for war with Iran’ (http://rt.com/politics/us-georgia-iran-war-441/)


The United States is sponsoring the construction of facilities in Georgia on the threshold of a military conflict in Iran, a member of Georgian opposition movement Public Assembly, Elizbar Javelidze has stated.

According to the academician, that explains why President Mikhail Saakashvili is roaming the republic opening new hospitals in its regions.

“These are 20-bed hospitals…It’s an American project. A big war between the US and Iran is beginning in the Persian Gulf. $5 billion was allocated for the construction of these 20-bed military hospitals,” Javelidze said in an interview with Georgian paper Kviris Kronika (News of the Week), as cited by Newsgeorgia website.

The opposition member stated that the construction is mainly paid from the American pocket.

In addition, airports are being briskly built in Georgia and there are talks of constructing a port for underwater vessels in Kulevi on the eastern Black Sea coast in Georgia.

Javelidze believes that it is all linked to the deployment of US military bases on the Georgian soil. Lazika – one of Saakashvili’s mega-projects, a new city that will be built from a scratch – will be “an American military town”. According to the politician, “a secret airdrome” has already been erected in the town of Marneuli, southern Georgia.

The opposition member wondered who would protect Georgia in case if Iran fires its missiles against US military facilities on the territory of the Caucasian state.

All in all, about 30 new hospitals and medical centers were opened in the former Soviet republic in December last year. The plan is to build over a hundred more.

As for Lazika, the Georgian president announced his ambitious idea to build a second-largest city in Georgia, its western economic and trade center, at the end of 2011. According to the plan – which was slammed by his opponents and many analysts – Saakashvili’s dream-town will become home to at least half a million people within a decade.

[DMac]

Personally I think the attack begins when 5-7 "coalition" aircraft carriers are in position.

UK’s HMS Daring: A moving target for Iran (http://www.presstv.ir/detail/220152.html)

Thousands Of US Troops To Arrive In Israel This Week (http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28618)



Accompanied by a US aircraft carrier, 9,000 US troops including airmen, missile interceptor teams, marines, technicians and intelligence officers are scheduled to land in Israel in the coming weeks. Many will stay up to the end of the year as part of the US-Israeli Army deployment in readiness for a military engagement with Iran, aiming at a synchronized military front against Iran.

US Third Air Force Lt. Gen. Frank Gorenc commented in his visit two weeks ago that the coming action is more a "deployment" than an "exercise,”. The joint force will now be in place ready for a decision to attack Iran's nuclear installations or any combat emergency.

After Tehran had released a bulletin about another Iranian naval exercise at the Strait of Hormuz in February, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and the two army chiefs, US Gen. Martin Dempsey and Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz decided to announce the coming of the force on Thursday night, Jan. 5.

During his visit to Washington, British Defense Minister, Phillip Hammond, confirmed that Britain stands ready to strike Iran if the Strait of Hormuz is closed.

Tehran stage military’s maneuvers every few days to assure the Iranians that it is prepared to defend the country against an American or Israeli strike on its national nuclear program.

The joint US-Israeli drill is going to test several Israeli and US air defense systems against incoming missiles will also practice intercepting missiles and rockets coming in from Syria, Hezbollah Party in Lebanon, and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

[Book]

Iran only has two choices now:

1) Sit and politely watch their entire oil export income end.

2) Launch every missile they have now to end everyone else's oil export income.

Either way they are gonna get bombed.

[Canadian-guerilla]

Iran only has two choices now:

1) Sit and politely watch their entire oil export income end.

2) Launch every missile they have now to end everyone else's oil export income.

Either way they are gonna get bombed.

Iran has already stated that when the time comes, it's ALL OR NOTHING

i don't think there will be many missiles left for a second volly

[DMac]

Interesting read:

Hostage To False Flag Terror: The Link Between The October Surprise And The September Surprise (http://disquietreservations.blogspot.com/2012/01/hostage-to-false-flag-terror-link.html)


intro


Former CIA counter-terrorism specialist Philip Giraldi gives a picture of "What War With Iran Might Look Like," concluding that, "A minor engagement between American and Iranian forces in the Persian Gulf," will ignite World War III.

We must ask ourselves: how did we get here? Is World War III a product of destiny, or is it by design? Establishing the truth of history is essential if we want to avert World War III that could be triggered at any moment in the Persian Gulf if Iran is attacked.

[keehah]

http://whale.to/b/additi82.jpg
http://underboss.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/irans-nuclear-escapade/

This map will help demystify Iran’s motives. (Each star represents a U.S. military base.) If Iran had military bases in Canada, Mexico, battleships in the Pacific, Atlantic and in the Gulf of Mexico – How would the US react? Roll over and play dead?

The 1,000 US military bases in about 130 countries is bankrupting this nation, not protecting “American interests” – they are not my interests yet my taxes continue pay for them. They are threatening global security not enhancing it. Free and peaceful trade with countries as Ron Paul proposes is a much better way to prosperity and peace….not “liberation” with carpet bombs and then shoving “democracy” down their throats.

[JohnQPublic]

Nuclear inspectors in Iran (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/72115.html)

TEHRAN, Iran - U.N. nuclear inspectors began a critical mission to Iran on Sunday to probe allegations of a secret atomic weapons program amid escalating Western economic pressures and warnings about safeguarding Gulf oil shipments from possible Iranian blockades.
The findings from the three-day visit could greatly influence the direction and urgency of U.S.-led efforts to rein in Iran’s ability to enrich uranium - which Washington and allies fear could eventually produce weapons-grade material. Iran has declined to abandon its enrichment labs, but claims it only seeks to fuel reactors for energy and medical research...


Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/72115.html#ixzz1ksNkYswy

[Buddha]

Israel to strike Iran within months: US
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/israel-to-strike-iran-within-months-us/story-e6frg6so-1226262224232

The prospect of war in the Middle East emerged after Washington Post columnist David Ignatius reported that Defence Secretary Leon Panetta saw "a strong likelihood" that Israel would strike Iran as early as April. Ignatius appears to have written the report after a background briefing in Brussels with Mr Panetta.
Mr Panetta was asked yesterday to confirm whether this was his view, and he said he was not disputing it, but then added: "What I think and what I view, I consider that to be an area that belongs to me and nobody else."
The growing likelihood of an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities was echoed by a range of Israeli officials, including Defence Minister Ehud Barak.


Jewish state's sabres are rattling (http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/no-bluffing-jewish-states-sabres-are-rattling/story-e6frg6ux-1226262228724)

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has a lot on his mind these days.

"If sanctions don't achieve the desired goal of stopping (Iran's) military nuclear program there will be a need to consider taking action," Mr Barak said. "A nuclear Iran will be more complicated to deal with, more dangerous and more costly in blood than if it were stopped today."
Israel's vice-premier, Moshe Ya'alon, rejected suggestions that because many of Iran's facilities were underground they were not able to be hit. "From my military experience, human beings will know how to penetrate any installation protected by other human beings," he said. "Ultimately, all the facilities can be hit."
Mr Ya'alon was in the US last week for discussions on Iran's nuclear program, as was Tamir Pardo, the head of Israel's intelligence service, Mossad.
Israel's greatest concern is that Iran will start to enrich uranium to weapons-grade level, which is 90 per cent, but in an underground facility that Israeli bunker-busting missiles will be incapable of reaching. At this point only the US, which has more penetrating bunker-busters, would be able to reach and damage the most deeply buried Iranian facilities.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has indicated his reluctance to leave Israel's fate dependent solely on US action.
The US intelligence community has stated that Iran is yet to decide whether to build a bomb. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told a Senate committee hearing this week that the first sign of such a decision would be Iran's progress in enriching uranium to the 90 per cent grade. Iranian scientists have successfully enriched uranium to a 20 per cent level. Israel has said it is not prepared to wait for this decision.
Ignatius wrote: "Panetta believes there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June - before Iran enters what Israelis described as a 'zone of immunity' to commence building a nuclear bomb."
Mr Panetta and President Barack Obama had cautioned Israel that the US opposed an attack believing that it would derail an increasingly successful international economic sanctions program, but that the White House had yet to decide how the US would respond if Israel did attack.
He said Israel believed a strike could be "limited and contained" and that Israel would bomb the uranium-enrichment facility at Natanz and other targets.
Iran, Ignatius wrote, would retaliate but Israel doubted it would be an overwhelming barrage, with rockets from Hezbollah in Lebanon. One estimate by the Netanyahu government said Israel might have to "absorb" 500 casualties.
Iran has repeatedly insisted its program is for civilian purposes, but enrichment is required to only 3 per cent for such purposes.
A week ago the EU agreed to ban all imports of Iranian oil from July. The EU imports about 20 per cent of Iran's oil exports.
British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg yesterday expressed concern about a possible military option.
"Of course I worry that there will be a military conflict and that certain countries might seek to take matters into their own hands," he told Britain's The House magazine.
While in Israel there appears strong support for a military strike, there are also prominent voices of dissent.
Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan is leading these voices, warning against any such action for fear of its consequences.
Over the past two years US officials have asked Israel not to take any such action while US combat troops remained in Iraq. The US combat mission ended last year.
Meanwhile, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported yesterday that Iran had launched an observation satellite into space.


Five hundred casualties. OK. I also saw this on the world news last night as I was getting my weekly propoganda shot. They were saying April, May, or June. They always say that it is months away, but I'm thinking that it will happen soon. Panetta was also on 60 minutes Sunday, they were "profiling" him, making him look like an average guy. Every time I glimpse the propoganda box it's Iran, Iran, Iran. More so than I can remember. They are really ramping this up.

[osoab]

Bombers target Israeli diplomats in India, Georgia (http://www.stltoday.com/news/world/bombers-target-israeli-diplomats-in-india-georgia/article_4b42df15-f1a4-550c-85ec-23d1d0a50fd4.html)



Israel blamed Iran on Monday for bomb attacks on its diplomats' cars in India and Georgia, heightening concerns that the Jewish state was moving closer to striking its archenemy.
rest at link.

[D sciple]

This seems pretty doomish doesn't it.

[letter_factory]

Israel attacked itself in India, Georgia (http://www.stltoday.com/news/world/bombers-target-israeli-diplomats-in-india-georgia/article_4b42df15-f1a4-550c-85ec-23d1d0a50fd4.html)



rest at link.
ftfy

[osoab]

I know we have to consider the source on this story.
U.S. military told to prepare for Iran ops (http://www.wnd.com/2012/02/u-s-military-told-to-prepare-for-iran-ops/)


Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta believes that Israel could attack Iran in an April-to-June time frame, and there apparently has been a decision made for the U.S. to help in an assault on the radical Islamic nation’s nuclear facilities.

rest at link.

Now watch this senate armed services committee talk between Lindsey Graham and Leon Panetta. They talk about Iran right at the beginning. Listening to whole the thing, the end is not as flashy though. Definitely keep listening till you hear about the "Happy Valentines Day" to China. Basically Panetta says that we need to "do everything we can" to keep Iran from any sort of nuclear weapon.

Damn Graham is such a fuckstick.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuxBpW-dx5Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuxBpW-dx5Q

[Silver Rocket Bitches!]

This will be such a hellish war. This will be nothing like the conflicts we are currently engaged in.

[D sciple]

someone get the wetnaps, we 'bout to get pinched off like a loaf...

[osoab]

Senators submit resolution authorizing use of force against Iran.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV1sk9mSJEY


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV1sk9mSJEY

They start off with Joe Lieberman giving his remarks. Then they talk to the former ambassador to izzy while he is in izzy.

ambassador dickface spouts all the propaganda against Iran.

[osoab]

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/pictures/picture-5.jpg (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)
Iran Stops Oil Sales To British, French Companies (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/iran-stops-oil-sales-british-french-companies)

The geopolitical game theory escalates once again, as Iran, which four days ago halted exports (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/iran-cuts-crude-exports-six-european-countries)to peripheral European countries took it up a notch, and has as of this morning halted sales to British and French companies. Reuters reports: "Iran has stopped selling crude to British and French companies, the oil ministry said on Sunday, in a retaliatory measure against fresh EU sanctions on the Islamic state's lifeblood, oil. "Exporting crude to British and French companies has been stopped ... we will sell our oil to new customers," spokesman Alireza Nikzad was quoted as saying by the ministry of petroleum website." Here is the actual statement from MOP.ir (http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fa&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mop.ir%2FPortal%2FHome%2FShowPa ge.aspx%3FObject%3DNEWS%26ID%3Dad6d0f1c-42d4-43b1-b2ee-e1c088dda396%26WebPartID%3D4ec6c46d-9f05-4498-905f-9a78a747c1b8%26CategoryID%3Db37c877a-1ec5-4ae5-90a0-a36ed666ca3c). As a reminder, on January 27 we said how Iran was about to "Turn Embargo Tables: To Pass Law Halting All Crude Exports To Europe (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/iran-turns-embargo-table-pass-law-halting-all-crude-exports-europe)." And so it has - now, the relentless media campaign about China isolating Iran in response to American demands has to be respun: recall that in early February Reuters told us that (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/06/china-iran-oil-idUSL4E8D65CW20120206)"China will halve its crude oil imports from Iran in March compared to average monthly purchases a year ago, as a dispute over payments and prices stretches into a third month, oil industry sources involved in the deals said on Monday." Apparently that may not have been the case, as there is no way Iran would have escalated as far as it has unless it had replacement buyers of one third of its crude. Incidentally, this is just as we predicted in "A Very Different Take On The "Iran Barters Gold For Food" Story (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/very-different-take-iran-barters-food-story)." The end result of this senseless gambit by the west: Europe has less oil, the Saudi fable that it has endless excess suplies is about the be seriously tested, China has just expanded a key crude supply route, and Russia is grinning through it all as Brent prices are about to spike. Iran didn't invent chess for nothing.

[Canadian-guerilla]

US officials: Israeli attack on Iran requires 100 planes
02.20.12

An Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear sites would be a highly complex operation and would require at least 100 planes, the New York Times quoted American defense officials and military analysts close to the Pentagon as saying.

According to the officials, whose assessment was published by the newspaper on Monday, Israeli jets would have to refuel in the air en route, fight off Iran’s air defenses and attack multiple underground sites simultaneously.

blah blah filler blah

Military analysts told NYT that should the US get involved — or decide to strike on its own —the Pentagon had the ability to launch big strikes with bombers, stealth aircraft and cruise missiles, followed up by drones that could carry out damage assessments to help direct further strikes.

"Unlike Israel, the United States has plenty of refueling capability. Bombers could fly from Al Udeid air base in Qatar, Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean or bases in Britain and the United States," according to the report.

General Deptula said, "There’s only one superpower in the world that can carry this off. Israel’s great on a selective strike here and there.”


http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4192055,00.html

[EE_]

You guys just keep focussing on a phony Iran strike while the US/Israel takes down Syria.
Why does there need to be an iran strike, when the plan is working so perfectly?
Iran is being crushed by sanctions and threats...their government will collapse soon enough.
The good news is, they will get a shiny new Rothschild central bank and a new dictator to boot.

[osoab]

You guys just keep focussing on a phony Iran strike while the US/Israel takes down Syria.
Why does there need to be an iran strike, when the plan is working so perfectly?
Iran is being crushed by sanctions and threats...their government will collapse soon enough.
The good news is, they will get a shiny new Rothschild central bank and a new dictator to boot.


Ummmm, I'll take "Because it is the Iran Attack Plan thread?" for $200 Alex.

[EE_]

Ummmm, I'll take "Because it is the Iran Attack Plan thread?" for $200 Alex.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwKItYuel4g

[osoab]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwKItYuel4g

Just ribbing ya EE.

Now, if you can stand listening to a computer generated voice for about a minute and a half...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BRItO4rRFlw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BRItO4rRFlw

[osoab]

Israel Deploying ‘Iron Dome’ in Tel Aviv (http://cryptogon.com/?p=27653)

[osoab]

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/pictures/picture-5.jpg (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)
Iran Holds Air Defense Drills As IAEA Says Iran Blocks Access To Key Nuclear Site (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/iran-holds-air-defense-drills-iaea-says-iran-blocks-access-key-nuclear-site)

[osoab]

BREAKING NEWS: Israel backing down from Iran threats (http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29451)


Israel is backing down from her threats to bomb Iran.

In a scathing loss of face for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, diplomatic sources in Israel have revealed that President Shimon Peres will meet privately with President Obama at the White House before - repeat before Netanyahu.

High level sources in Israel have just leaked a sanitized version of the President's plan to the Israeli press. But, there is much more to the story. In his meeting at the White House, Peres will inform Obama that Netanyahu has performed poorly in his handling of the Iran nuclear crisis and that bellicose statements from the Prime Minister's cabinet have been both self-intimidating and self-destructive.

Then after meeting with Peres, Obama will address AIPAC and finally meet with Netanyahu to counsel him on the sad fact of the self-inflicted damage to the diplomatic credibility of his right-wing government. More on the diplomatic kabuki in due course.

According to a report in Haaretz, by Yossi Verter (February 22, 2012), entitled
Peres to tell Obama Israel should not strike Iran soon (http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/peres-to-tell-obama-israel-should-not-strike-iran-soon-officials-say-1.414212),
"officials say President reportedly feels recent threats by Israeli spokesmen are unnecessary warmongering, believes Iran issue should be handled by superpowers. ...
President Shimon Peres is expected to tell U.S. President Barack Obama early next month that he does not believe Israel should attack Iran in the near future.
...
Peres told officials that there is no point in what he called the "unceasing self-intimidation" being voiced by senior Israeli spokesmen. This is what he intends to tell Obama.

Peres has told officials that the recent threats by Israel are unnecessary warmongering and that Israel should leave the Iran issue to the superpowers, first and foremost the United States.

Peres leaves for the United States on Tuesday, and the following Sunday he is to meet with Obama in Washington on the sidelines of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference.

Peres' meeting with the U.S. president will take place a day before Netanyahu meets with Obama. Netanyahu will arrive in Washington after a visit to Canada.
...

When Obama meets with Netanyahu, he will already know what Peres thinks - information he will use in his meeting with Netanyahu.
Peres is expected to tell Obama that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is still the best Palestinian partner with whom to reach a peace agreement.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in an interview yesterday that Israel will not bow to U.S. and Russian pressure in deciding whether to attack Iran.

Speaking on Channel 2, Lieberman rebuffed suggestions that warnings against striking Iran would affect Israeli decision making, saying the decision "is not their business."
Michael Carmichael is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Michael Carmichael (http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=listByAuthor&authorFirst=Michael&authorName=Carmichael)

[osoab]

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/pictures/picture-5.jpg (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)
Israel To Keep US In The Dark Before Launching Pre-emptive Iran Attack (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/israel-keep-us-dark-launching-pre-emptive-iran-attack)

[osoab]

The article is more about McCafferey, but the thoughts on Iran are relevant. It is also a pretty damning article on NBC.


Gen. McCaffrey privately briefs NBC execs on war with Iran (http://www.salon.com/2012/02/28/gen_mccaffrey_privately_briefs_nbc_execs_on_war_wi th_iran/singleton/)






(updated below – Update II [Wed: response from NBC] – Update III [Wed.])
In 2009, The New York Times‘ David Barstow won the Pulitzer Prize (http://www.pulitzer.org/citation/2009-Investigative-Reporting) for his two (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/us/20generals.html)-part (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/washington/30general.html?pagewanted=all) series on the use by television networks of retired Generals posing as objective “analysts” at exactly the same time they were participating — unbeknownst to viewers — in a Pentagon propaganda program. Many were also plagued by undisclosed conflicts of interest whereby they had financial stakes in many of the policies they were pushing on-air. One of the prime offenders was Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who was not only a member of the Pentagon’s propaganda program, but also, according to Barstow’s second stand-alone article (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/washington/30general.html?pagewanted=all), had his own “Military-Industrial-Media Complex,” deeply invested in many of the very war policies he pushed and advocated while posing as an NBC “analyst”:
Through seven years of war an exclusive club has quietly flourished at the intersection of network news and wartime commerce. Its members, mostly retired generals, have had a foot in both camps as influential network military analysts and defense industry rainmakers. It is a deeply opaque world, a place of privileged access to senior government officials, where war commentary can fit hand in glove with undisclosed commercial interests and network executives are sometimes oblivious to possible conflicts of interest.
Few illustrate the submerged complexities of this world better than Barry McCaffrey. . . . General McCaffrey has immersed himself in businesses that have grown with the fight against terrorism. . . .
Many retired officers hold a perch in the world of military contracting, but General McCaffrey is among a select few who also command platforms in the news media and as government advisers on military matters. These overlapping roles offer them an array of opportunities to advance policy goals as well as business objectives. But with their business ties left undisclosed, it can be difficult for policy makers and the public to fully understand their interests.
On NBC and in other public forums, General McCaffrey has consistently advocated wartime policies and spending priorities that are in line with his corporate interests. But those interests are not described to NBC’s viewers. He is held out as a dispassionate expert, not someone who helps companies win contracts related to the wars he discusses on television.
Despite Barstow’s Pulitzer, neither Brian Williams nor anyone else at NBC News ever mentioned any of these groundbreaking stories (http://www.salon.com/2009/04/21/pulitzer/singleton/) to their viewers (even as Williams reported on (http://mediamatters.org/research/200904210002?f=h_latest) other Pulitzer awards that year); the controversy over the Pentagon propaganda program was simply suppressed (http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/04/22/analysts/index.html). And NBC continued to feature (http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/11/30/mccaffrey/index.html) those same ex-Generals as “analysts” — including McCaffrey — as though the whole thing never happened.
Apparently, not only does NBC continue to present McCaffrey to its viewers as some sort of objective analyst, but NBC News executives use him as some kind of private consultant and briefer on the news. On January 12, 2012, McCaffrey presented a seminar to roughly 20 NBC executives and producers — including NBC News President Steve Capus — entitled “Iran, Nukes & Oil: The Gulf Confrontation.” We’ve obtained the Power Point document McCaffrey prepared and distributed (http://media.salon.com/2012/02/Scan0011.pdf) for his presentation, and in it, he all but predicts war with Iran within the next 90 days: one that is likely to be started by them. The first page of the breathlessly hawkish document is entitled “Iran & the Gulf: Creeping Toward War,” and the first sentence excitedly proclaims (click to enlarge):

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Z6Q2V4J-q4s/T01boOk6sAI/AAAAAAAAAyM/XFWPBMFA4UM/s640/mccaffrey.png (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Z6Q2V4J-q4s/T01boOk6sAI/AAAAAAAAAyM/XFWPBMFA4UM/s1600/mccaffrey.png)
Most of the report emphasizes the likelihood that Iran — not the U.S. — will act aggressively and trigger a war:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EcBlWG2AbUs/T01cHxgA1BI/AAAAAAAAAyY/uNNj-WPxEXQ/s640/mcaffrey.png (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EcBlWG2AbUs/T01cHxgA1BI/AAAAAAAAAyY/uNNj-WPxEXQ/s1600/mcaffrey.png)
He adds: “We should not view the Iranian rhetoric as empty threats. They are likely to further escalate. There is great opportunity for miscalculation on their part. . . . They will not under any circumstances actually be deterred from going nuclear. They will achieve initial nuclear capability within 36 months.” About a war with Iran, he says: “Israel would welcome such a confrontation. They have an existential threat to their survival looming in their very near future.” Among his conclusions:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--GKPBXcoCcc/T01eY6L7CMI/AAAAAAAAAyk/Bu0oq7Yiv8M/s640/mccaffrey1.png (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--GKPBXcoCcc/T01eY6L7CMI/AAAAAAAAAyk/Bu0oq7Yiv8M/s1600/mccaffrey1.png)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-la2feeF1mIU/T01et23Mg2I/AAAAAAAAAyw/V62CqZd-0hI/s640/mccaffrey2.png (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-la2feeF1mIU/T01et23Mg2I/AAAAAAAAAyw/V62CqZd-0hI/s1600/mccaffrey2.png)
The last page of his presentation pointedly notes what he called “The American People: A Crisis of Confidence in Institutions.” The accompanying chart showed that 78% of Americans have faith in the military — by far the most admired institution in America — but near the bottom was “television news,” with 28%.
While McCaffrey’s office failed to return several calls seeking comment — I was particularly interested to know whether any of his ample consulting clients would benefit from a war with Iran — Lauren Kapp, an NBC News spokeswoman, confirmed the existence of this meeting. She said: “We regularly host editorial board meetings with our editorial board staff,” and besides McCaffrey: “we have heard from top ranking current and former US Government officials” (she also says that they once heard from an Iranian ambassador to the U.N.). She added:
We are exhaustive in our conversation with people from various perspectives and expertise when we over a story of this magnitude. And we are confident in the level and breadth of the conversations we are having with representatives from all viewpoints.
Council for foreign relations, etc….
Not just current and former U.S. government officials and Generals, but also members of the “Council for foreign relations” (http://www.cfr.org/experts/middle-east-israel-human-rights/elliott-abrams/b1567): the diversity of viewpoints is staggering.
It is interesting to see the sources on whom NBC News executives rely to develop their understanding of the world, and it’s even more interesting to learn what they’re being told about that. The reason Barstow won a Pulitzer Prize for his two stories is because it revealed the merger between the the American media and the military establishment, many of whose members have all sorts of vested interests in Endless War. This meeting and document provides a nice glimpse for how this process continues to function.

UPDATE: Among the many attributes one might attribute to McCaffrey and his report, incoherence is near the top of the list. He does, as I noted, make statements suggesting imminent military conflict, including his claim that “there is a significant probability of Iranian escalation in the coming 90 days” and “they are likely to further escalate,” along with the title of his first page: “Creeping toward war.” But as several emailers point out, he also tacks onto the end of the discussion on the first page the assessment of “15% probability of major military action in the coming 90 days.” The document is devoted to making military conflict appear quite likely, though he places a relatively low percentage on “major military action in the coming 90 days.”
McCaffrey also purports to compare the military capabilities of Iran and Israel, though Juan Cole this morning has much more illuminating data in that regard (http://www.juancole.com/2012/02/israel-iran-military-comparison.html).

UPDATE II: The Huffington Post has an article (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/29/nbc-news-mccaffrey-allegations_n_1310605.html?1330535811&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008) with this headline — “NBC News Fires Back At Glenn Greenwald’s McCaffrey Report” — which publishes the full statement issued by NBC in response to this story. Let’s examine it piece by piece, beginning with the first line:
The Salon piece is a woefully inaccurate, ignorant, insulting depiction of our editorial process.
That’s quite an ambitious set of accusations to prove. I’m looking forward to reading about all of the “woefully inaccurate” and “ignorant” aspects of my article (I’ll agree with the adjective “insulting,” though that’s simply the by-product of my describing NBC’s conduct). I will note that after a link to this article was sent by Salon to NBC spokesperson Lauren Kapp, she replied by email and complained about only one claimed inaccuracy: the inconsequential inclusion of the word “board” in her quote, which was immediately corrected (“She said: ‘We regularly host editorial board meetings with our editorial board staff’”). If the piece were rife with substantive inaccuracies, one would have expected her to identify them, or at least one; but perhaps they’re in NBC’s newest response. It continues:
Mr. Greenwald has stumbled upon a defining journalistic and organizational tool that differentiates us as a global news organization: our longstanding tradition of editorial board meetings with leading analysts and news makers. He chose to write the piece while not personally having one conversation with anyone from this news organization, so to critique how we do our reporting is quite ironic.
The claim that I did not “personally have one conversation” with anyone from NBC is disingenuous in the extreme. I worked on the reporting for this article with my Salon colleague Jefferson Morley. In addition to doing the work to write this, I took responsibility to try to get comment from Gen. McCaffrey’s office, while Jeff worked on getting comment from NBC. All of his communications with NBC were in the form of emails between him and Kapp, all of which were sent to me as they took place. I worked with him on the follow-up questions, and I quoted or otherwise included the entirety of Kapp’s responses to Jeff’s questions in this article. NBC knows all of this yet tries to imply, deceitfully, that I did not get its input in writing this. Then:
We listen to and value the views of retired Four-Star General Barry McCaffrey. He presented his thoughts on Iran in a recent editorial board meeting at NBC News. As have several senior officials from countries throughout the Middle East that represent vastly different world views. In similar sessions, we have received the views of current and former US government officials. We have been afforded the views of Israeli and other foreign governmental officials. We have heard from non-governmental organizations, respected journalists and opinion leaders.
NBC “listens to and values the views of” Gen. McCaffrey despite his ample conflicts of interest and other undisclosed commercial activities which David Barstow won a Pulitzer Prize for documenting, and in this case, those views are absurdly alarmist and fear-mongering. Without identifying from whom else they heard, it’s impossible to assess the validity of NBC’s claim that they invite to their editorial meetings those with “vastly different world views” when it comes to Iran, but suffice to say, both Kapp’s original response (which I quoted in the original article) and this latest one from NBC make clear that it is composed largely of government and military officials and the supporting Foreign Policy Community venues which exist to support them. That’s why it’s utterly unsurprising that NBC has produced junk propagandistic war-drum-beating like this (http://www.salon.com/2012/02/14/us_media_takes_the_lead_on_iran/singleton/) about the Iranian Threat.
Note that NBC does not claim that any part of my discussion of its involvement in the Pentagon propaganda program — including the suppression by Brian Williams and the rest of its news division of all discussion of that huge story — is inaccurate. Nor does it dispute any of the facts I conveyed about McCaffrey. Indeed, despite its opening flurry of accusations, NBC does not even purport to identify a single inaccuracy in any thing I reported. Replies like this one — that are long on screeching invective and short on any identified inaccuracies — do more to bolster the validity of the original article than anything else could.

UPDATE III: TPM has a good article on this matter (http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/02/prospect_of_war_with_iran_sees_salon_reporter_do_b attle_with_nbc.php) which emphasizes why it is so imperative to aggressively scrutinize media behavior on Iran.

[osoab]

Short article from Bruce Kasting on Iran and Izzy.

On Israel and Iran (http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-09-01/israel-and-iran)



http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lP-55MSJAo8/T09mpKsHY2I/AAAAAAAADXQ/5yIiRbFqPK4/s200/map.png

[osoab]

Israel shelves Iran military option (http://www.wnd.com/2012/03/israel-shelves-iran-military-option/)


From wnd, so there could be an angle here.

[osoab]

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/pictures/picture-5.jpg (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)
Obama Promises Bunker Busters To Israel If Netanyahu Delays Iran Invasion Until After US Elections (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/obama-promises-bunker-busters-israel-if-netanyahu-delays-iran-invasion-until-after-us-elections)

[osoab]

Obama Denies Trying To Bribe Israel In Exchange For Iran Bombing Delay (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/obama-denies-trying-bribe-israel-exchange-iran-bombing-delay)

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/pictures/picture-5.jpg (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)
Submitted by Tyler Durden (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden) on 03/08/2012 17:54 -0500

[osoab]

A couple of articles from ZH in the last few days.

I couldn't find the SWIFT thread we had. I wanted to post the first one in that thread. I think Sparky started that one.

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/pictures/picture-5.jpg (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)
With The Enterprise Just 4 Days Away From Arrival, A SWIFT Cut Off Of Iran (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/enterprise-just-4-days-away-arrival-swift-cut-iran)


http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/pictures/picture-5.jpg (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)
Russia Discloses The Iran Ultimatum: Cooperate Or Be Invaded By Year End (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/russia-discloses-iran-ultimatum-cooperate-or-be-invaded-year-end)


In what can only be seen as raising the rhetoric bar on the timing, scale, and seriousness of the Iran 'situation', Kommersant (http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/1891811)is reporting that "Tehran has one last chance" as US Secretary of State Clinton asks her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to relay the message to Iranian leaders. If this 'last chance' is wasted an attack will happen in months as diplomats noted that the probability of an Israel/US attack on Iran is now a specific 'when' instead of an indefinite 'if'. The sentiment is best summarized by a quote from inside the meeting "The invasion will happen before year’s end. The Israelis are de facto blackmailing Obama. They’ve put him in this interesting position – either he supports the war or loses the support of the Jewish lobby". Russian diplomats, as Russia Today (http://rt.com/news/iran-last-chance-war-517/) points out, criticized the 'last chance' rhetoric as unprofessional suggesting "those tempted to use military force should restrain themselves - a war will not solve any problems, but create a million new ones."

[osoab]

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/pictures/picture-5.jpg (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)
Brent At $126 As Israel Security Cabinet Votes 8 To 6 To Attack Iran (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/brent-126-israel-cabinet-votes-8-6-attack-iran)

[Audry1977]

ïî÷åì íûí÷å ðåêëàìà íà gold-silver.us ?

[Canadian-guerilla]

Iran warns of military response over islands

Iran is prepared to take military action over the islands of Abu Musa and Greater and Lesser Tunbs if peaceful negotiations fail, the commander of the country's ground forces said yesterday

more . . .

http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/iran-warns-of-military-response-over-islands?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Strait_of_Hormuz.jpg

[osoab]

There hasn't been a post since 420 on this thread. Damn. What have we been smoking?


Peres to Putin: Israel knows Russia will prevent Iran from getting nuclear arms (http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/peres-to-putin-israel-knows-russia-will-prevent-iran-from-getting-nuclear-arms.premium-1.443872)



Speaking at Jerusalem state dinner, Russian president says no action should be taken in the region without considering the ultimate consequences.

Israel knows that Russia will prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, President Shimon Peres said on Monday, during a state reception for Russian President Vladimir Putin at the President's Residence in Jerusalem.

The full text is available for Haaretz subscribers.

Think the full text is in google archives?

[DMac]

This article might have been based on the Haaretz text:

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/12457590-israel-believes-russia-wont-support-nuclear-iran

[osoab]

edit pic I posted wasn't what I thought it was. still looking.

edit here we go.

Putin visits Western Wall


(http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4247378,00.html)
Putin arrived at the Old City at 1:30 am, saying that he did not want to miss out on visiting the two holy sites, which have a "special feeling."


http://www.ynetnews.com/PicServer3/2012/06/26/4006445/7_wa.jpg

http://www.ynetnews.com/PicServer3/2012/06/26/4006435/1_wa.jpg

[osoab]

X marks the spot: Spy ring and warships encircle Iran (http://www.rt.com/news/iran-us-radar-drills-386/)



http://www.rt.com/files/news/iran-us-radar-drills-386/desert-radars-negev-x-band.n.jpg
The X-band radars that the United States has installed in Israel’s Negev desert (AFP Photo/David Buimovitch)


The Pentagon is quickly tightening its ring of forces around Iran. As a recent report reveals a radar belt around the Persian country is almost complete, the biggest ever naval drills, involving up to 20 nations, are to take place in the Gulf waters.

*The US military have asked for $12.2 million from Congress to build an AN/TPY-2 type radar station in Qatar. The construction is due be finished by the end of this month, The Wall Street Journal reports, quoting US officials.

Similar radars, commonly known as X-band, are also located in Turkey and Israel’s desert of Negev. The detector in Qatar would complete the backbone of a system designed to protect Israel and Europe from Iranian ballistic missiles, say the WSJ sources. The shield would pinpoint missile launches from the north, west and south of the Persian country.

There are also ambitions to deploy a THAAD (the army's first Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) missile-interceptor system to the region in the coming months. This independent detector may be hosted by the United Arab Emirates and, as the project sponsors say, together with X-Band will provide “an extra layer of defense.”

"There's an effort to get it up and running as soon as possible," a senior US defense official told the newspaper. "But it's not like there's some rush to be ready for imminent conflict."

Twenty nations to participate in Hormuz threat drills

Not satisfied with a ring of radar bases almost entirely encircling Iran, the US appears to be seeking to shatter the country’s morale as well. On Tuesday the US military is expected to announce the biggest-ever naval drills to be held in the Persian Gulf.

Twenty nations are to take part in the exercises scheduled for September 16-27, US media reports say. The US and its allies will focus on detecting and destroying mines with ships, helicopters and underwater drones in the Persian Gulf and other locations in the region.

The maneuvers are designed to counter Tehran’s threats to block the oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and thus cut off a fifth of the world’s crude exports in retaliation for international sanctions.

To boost its defenses even further, the US has dispatched the aircraft carrier USS John Stennis to the Persian Gulf four months ahead of the schedule, says NBC News. Stennis is expected to reach the waters in four weeks. Its deployment period was also doubled to 8 months.

The US says it wants two aircraft carriers to navigate the area at the same time. The USS Abraham Lincoln supercarrier left the Persian Gulf, which hosts the US Fifth Fleet base in Bahrain, on Monday. The waters are currently patrolled by the Enterprise and Eisenhower carriers.

rest at link

[cheka.]

daddy, are we there yet?

another psyop -- this one going for decades

[cheka.]

so much for that never-ending-but always-pending war with iran. russia is the now playing that role. the crown gets in bed with the terrible terrists..

http://seekingalpha.com/news/3212136-iran-sells-fuel-condensate-bp-official-says

Iran sells fuel condensate to BP, official says

Oct 3 2016, 17:17 ET | About: BP p.l.c. (BP) | By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor [Contact this editor with comments or a news tip]

Iran has sold fuel condensate to BP and an unnamed company for the first time since last year’s nuclear deal, according to Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency.

The director of international affairs at the National Iranian Oil Co. reportedly said a cargo of 1M barrels of condensate, based on a spot contract, was delivered to BP, and that Iran also is negotiating to sell crude oil to British companies.

In June, Royal Dutch Shell bought its first consignment of crude from Iran since sanctions were lifted in January under the deal that curbed Iran’s uranium enrichment program.

[osoab]

Canadian Guerrilla hasn't been around in awhile.

[monty]

Canadian Guerrilla hasn't been around in awhile.

nor mick silver

[C.Martel]

edit pic I posted wasn't what I thought it was. still looking.

edit here we go.

Putin visits Western Wall


(http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4247378,00.html)


http://www.ynetnews.com/PicServer3/2012/06/26/4006445/7_wa.jpg

http://www.ynetnews.com/PicServer3/2012/06/26/4006435/1_wa.jpg

Putin visiting the wall of the temple in Jerusalem is like visiting Sodom and Gomorrah to honor gay "rights"... no, actually, it is much much worse.

Bush 41 destroyed Iraq for the Jew. Clinton was given a pass. Bush 43 destroyed Afghanistan and Iraq for the Jew. Obama destroyed Libya and Syria for the Jew. Will Trump work with the Russians and take away from the Jew sacrifice and give Syria back to Assad? Will he surround himself with neocons, scrap the Iran deal, and follow Wilson's campaign slogan, "He Kept Us Out Of War", but a few months after the election, enter into a war with Iran?

Is Trump like Hitler (the Judeo-Masonic West set up WWII), a paid stooge for the elites to create wars for Jews?


But one aspect of his first campaign was decidedly different: [Trump] declined to pursue a nativist appeal. In fact, he repeatedly accused Buchanan of racism, calling him a "neo-Nazi" and "Hitler lover" with "prehistoric" views allied with the "lunatic fringe," citing his support from former Ku Klux Klan member David Duke. He told Meet the Press that Buchanan "doesn't like the blacks, he doesn't like the gays." His book reported that "Buchanan has written too many inflammatory, outrageous, and controversial things" and "has systematically bashed Blacks, Mexicans, and Gays." Buchanan's 2000 general election campaign indeed focused on opposition to immigration and support for English under the banner of "America First."
http://www.vox.com/polyarchy/2016/4/7/11368658/trump-nativism-buchanan

Maybe Trump is a pupil of Pat Buchanan after 2000, though I doubt it.