Damnascus? Even in typos even God is funnay.

Leak? Yes God has a sense of humor...

George Bush's Fourth War:

http://www.americanfreepress.net/htm..._plan_146.html
Ron Paul Affirms: Iran Attack Plan Has ‘Green Light’
By Steve Watson

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) has warned millions of radio listeners that the United States is heading into an illegal attack on Iran, stating his amazement at members of Congress who have openly voiced support for a criminal nuclear strike.

“If we do (attack) it is going to be a disaster,” the congressman told the Alex Jones radio show. “I was astounded to see on one of the networks the other day that the debate was not are we going to attack, but are we going to attack before or after the election?” Paul continued.

Paul recently voiced concern over House Congressional Resolution 362 which he has dubbed a “virtual Iran war resolution.”

“If that comes up it is demanding that the president [put in place] an absolute blockade of the entire country of Iran, and punish any country or any business group around the world if they trade with Iran,” Paul told listeners.

Experts have predicted gas will rise to $6 per gallon if the resolution passes. Paul believes that may happen anyway, just by anticipation.

“The frightening thing is they say they are taking no options off the table, even nuclear first strike,” Paul said. Paul believes from talking with his contacts in and around Congress that a strike on Iran has already been green-lighted.

“That is my sense because the Democratic leaders in the House are proposing no resistance whatsoever, Paul said. “We saw this when a supplemental bill came up and the president asked for $107 billion for the war, the Democrat leadership gave them $162 billion.

“It is still totally bewildering to me when I see men and women in the Congress that I know and like doing this just to get along. Most of them will say ‘I agree with you on all you say but the Iranians are bad people and they might attack us some day. . . . I hear members of Congress saying if we could only nuke them.’”

Ron Paul also spoke in detail about his new Campaign For Liberty Group and his views on the upcoming election.

This interview first appeared on www.infowars.net. Listen to the full interview at http://www.infowars.net/articles/jul...08RonPaul2.htm.
..........................................benny

Sorry, Benny. I hope it okay to post this here, but political fallout over Georgia continues to damage US Russian relations.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE48O4FM20080925

"Dangerous gulf" opens between Russia and West
Thu Sep 25, 2008 10:01am EDT

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The West's pillorying of Moscow over last month's invasion of Georgia has kindled a fierce Russian resentment that poses dangers for security in Europe and in trouble spots beyond.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice lectured Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov during a United Nations gathering in New York, telling him Russia was now isolated. Lavrov countered that his appointment book for the meeting had never been fuller.

Behind the studiedly gentle riposte lay a sense, echoed on the streets in Russia, that the West was not granting resurgent Russia the respect it feels it merits. Animosities ascribed in earlier times to ideological schism between communism and capitalism are proving hardier than many might have expected.

Russia's sense of grievance over the Georgian war stems from Western governments' unwillingness to acknowledge publicly what many say privately -- that Tbilisi started the conflict.

Adding insult to injury for the Russians is strong Western support for Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili -- loathed by Moscow -- and Western media coverage which has overwhelmingly favored Georgia during the conflict.

"Never in the past quarter century have Russia and the West differed so much over the interpretation of the same event," wrote political commentator Georgy Bovt in an opinion piece entitled "Divorce with the West" on the gazeta.ru news site.

"Never before has the behavior of Russia been presented in Western media in such a diametrically opposite way to the way that behavior is perceived in Russian public opinion."

Further stoking resentment is a string of recent Western moves seen as hostile by Moscow.

In Russian eyes, the West snubbed it by recognizing the independence of Kosovo, ignored its objections to a U.S. anti-missile system in eastern Europe, didn't listen to its criticism of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and broke a promise made to Moscow in the 1990s not to expand NATO to its borders.

Now Russia's patience has snapped.

RUSSIA LOST

Top diplomats stationed in Moscow privately despair over how, as one put it, "we have lost Russia completely over Georgia." Even normally pro-Western intellectuals and their own Russian embassy employees had turned against them.

"There's no one in this society who sees things our way," one senior Western diplomat commented.

"Russians are reacting to 18 years of condescension and being ignored by the West. They have had enough."

President Dmitry Medvedev summarized the changed public mood in his remarks at a meeting with Western analysts on September 12.

"I think for a vast majority of our citizens the events in the Caucasus means the loss of the remaining illusions of the period when Russia emerged as an independent state," he said referring to Russia's 1990s honeymoon with the West.

Russia's loss of trust in the West over Georgia could have serious consequences for peace in Europe, with neighboring Ukraine looming as the next potential battleground between a fearful and mistrustful West and an angry, emboldened Russia.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Jack Matlock criticized moves to draw Georgia and Ukraine into NATO, a policy that he said could split Ukraine. As long as the West followed this course, true strategic co-operation with Moscow was impossible.

"We are in a deep crisis," a second senior Moscow diplomat said. "We have embarked on a confrontation course which it is very difficult to pull back from."

The West seeks Russian co-operation in a host of security problems from Iran's nuclear program to Islamist militancy from the Caucasus to Afghanistan.

In an echo of Cold War posturing, Moscow has dispatched a flotilla of warships to America's backyard for joint maneuvers proposed by Venezuela's anti-American President Hugo Chavez. On a weightier issue, Moscow signaled it would not back any move for major powers to discuss Iran's nuclear program at the U.N.

Opinion polls show overwhelming popular support for President Dmitry Medvedev's decision to send troops into Georgia and a dramatic hardening of attitudes toward the West.

KREMLIN MEDIA CONTROL

A regular survey by the independent Levada Centre published this week showed Russians' views of relations with the United States plummeting by 40 points between July and September to their most negative level since polling began in 1997. There was a 29-point drop in support for relations with Europe.

"It's quite difficult to be pro-Western in the current situation," said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs, a Moscow-based foreign policy journal.

"The consensus is there in Russia that the West cannot be trusted."

At the same time, some Western media, drawing on Cold War stereotypes, have painted a picture of an aggressive and dangerous Russian bear on the prowl.

"I understand the value of investing in this place but my biggest problem is that back home, a lot of people watching CNN think this place is one notch above North Korea," said one frustrated U.S. fund manager visiting Moscow last week.

Andrew Somers, president of the American-Russian Chamber of Commerce, said a number of large U.S. corporations already active in Russia were putting big future investment projects on hold, partly because of the hostile media coverage.

"The image of Russia is very bad and some of the press coverage is way out of context," he said.

President Vladimir Putin, renown for his acid comments about the West, took a swipe at Western media coverage of the Georgian war at a meeting with the Western analysts on September 11.

"I was surprised by the power of the Western propaganda machine," he said. "I congratulate all who were involved in it. This was a wonderful job. But the result was bad and will always be bad because this was a dishonest and immoral work."

To be fair, the public mood over the war in Russia is not totally spontaneous. Russia's Kremlin-controlled television channels have worked hard to keep popular wrath high.

Images of destroyed houses and dead civilians in South Ossetia dominated television screens. Newsmakers denounced "Georgian Nazism" and condemned the West which backed Tbilisi.

One unintended result of the media war: Western criticism of Russia's generally Kremlin-friendly media will now fall on deaf ears. Many feel the Western press is as biased as their own.

Coming to a head.

Ezekiel 38-39 not far down the road.

When USA badly stumbles or takes a major shot

[lke terrorist nuke or other catastrophe]

then Russia will be emboldened.

Hezbollah declares S. Lebanon a no fly zone

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

While we were busy looking inwards the hezzies (and syrians, for that matter) were busy shifting gears on the impending ME war.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Ne...sh.aspx/153781

Hizbullah Declares No-Fly Zones


(IsraelNN.com) Hizbullah has repeatedly demanded recently that the Lebanese Army's aircraft refrain from flying over specified areas of southern Lebanon, according to German magazine Der Spiegel.

The letters sent to the Lebanese Army were reportedly phrased in "a threatening tone" and caused great anger among the Lebanese Army's top officers.

***

If you haven't been following the news, and who could blame you with all the internal business lately, the Syrians have 25,000+ troops on the North Lebanese borders, including tanks, etc. and now the Hezbollah are declaring a no fly zone although the Israelis have flown there nearly daily for a year or more.

Well, what did we expect? The world to stop being insane while we adjusted our settings?

....................................................benny

Israel warns Hezbollah of destruction
Web posted at: 10/4/2008 1:50:17
Source ::: Reuters

jerusalem • Israel would use "disproportionate" force to destroy Lebanese villages from which Hezbollah guerrillas fired rockets at its cities in any future war, an Israeli general said in remarks published yesterday.

"What happened in the Dahiya quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on," said Gadi Eisenkot, head of the army's northern division.

Dahiya was a Hezbollah stronghold that Israel flattened in sustained air raids during a 34-day war with the Shia group two years ago.

"We will apply disproportionate force on it (village) and cause great damage and destruction there. From our standpoint, these are not civilian villages, they are military bases," Eisenkot told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. "This is not a recommendation. This is a plan. And it has been approved," Eisenkot added.

Some 1,200 Lebanese and 159 Israelis were killed during the war, which was sparked by a Hezbollah cross-border attack against an Israeli army patrol.

The army's failure to halt daily barrages of rockets against Israeli cities during the war prompted a wave of criticism of military commanders as well as calls on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to resign over his handling of the conflict.

Israel accused Hezbollah of firing rockets from civilian homes in southern Lebanon during the war, a claim echoed by human rights groups who also accused Israel of using excessive force that claimed the lives of civilians.

Eisenkot said Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria, had significantly improved its rocket fire capability since the end of the war two years ago.

He rejected accusations that Israel was violating a UN-brokered ceasefire by sending aircraft on reconnaissance flights over Lebanon, saying the aerial missions were necessary given that Iran and Syria continue to arm Hezbollah in breach of the UN truce.

"Hezbollah is building capabilities against us that contravene the agreement signed by the Lebanese government at the end of the war," said Eisenkot. "Therefore there is legitimacy to continue the flights over southern Lebanon and over Lebanon in general."


http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Dis...8100415017.xml
...........................................benny

Syria: IAEA Can't Visit Military Sites
Oct. 3….(Jerusalem Post) Syria pledged Friday to cooperate with a UN probe of allegations it had a hidden nuclear program that could be harnessed to make weapons but said its military sites would remain off limits, a condition that could hamstring the investigations. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear monitor, already visited Syria in June to examine a site bombed last year by Israel. The US says the site was a nearly finished plutonium-producing reactor. But diplomats familiar with the issue say requests for further visits that would include on-site inspections of three other locations allegedly linked to the reactor were turned down by Syria after the initial trip. Syria argued that to allow access would compromise the country's military secrets. "We would like to underline that my government is cooperating with the agency in full transparency," Ibrahim Othman, the head of Syria's nuclear program, told a 145-nation IAEA meeting. "However, this cooperation will not be in any way at the expense of disclosing our military sites or causing a threat to our national security." Any refusal by Syria to permit visits to the suspected sites could spell the end of the IAEA's investigation. Initial results of environmental samples taken at the bombed site by IAEA experts have shown no nuclear link. But that was anticipated, US intelligence said the Syrians had not yet introduced radioactive material into the facility and the Damascus spent months cleaning up the site and encasing it in concrete before allowing the IAEA to visit. Othman on Friday also challenged Israel to throw open its nuclear facilities to the IAEA. Arab nations repeatedly make that demand of Israel, which is widely believed to have nuclear arms but has a "no comment" policy on the issue. The meeting, the IAEA's general conference, is expected to formally touch on the issue before it ends Saturday, likely by voting on two resolutions critical of Israel for refusing to join the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and open its program to IAEA inspection. Another volatile topic, Syria's bid for a seat on the decision-making board of the IAEA, was defused Friday, when Syria decided to withdraw and cede the position to Afghanistan, the US-backed candidate from the Middle East South Asian region.

........................................benny

Russian live missile fire air exercise near Alaska

DEBKAfile Special Report

October 4, 2008

Not since 1984, just before the fall of the Soviet Union, has Russia ventured to launch dozens of nuclear bombers for an exercise in which Tu-95 Bear bombers will fire live cruise missiles. Exercise Stability 2008 will take place Oct.-6-12 over sub-Arctic Russia uncomfortably close to the US state of Alaska, and Belarus.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the exercise is part of a month-long war game described by Russian air force spokesman Col. Vladimir Drik as “practicing the strategic deployment of the armed forces including the nuclear triad.”

As part of the exercise, our sources reported exclusively on Oct. 1, that Russian ships armed with nuclear missiles will dock at Syrian ports Oct. 8, on the eve of Yom Kippur, before continuing to the Caribbean for joint maneuvers with Venezuela.

More than 60,000 troops and 1.500 tanks and APCs, as well as land-based and submarine-launched nuclear missiles, were tested in the first phase of the war games.

(“Nuclear triad” refers to three tiers of a national nuclear arsenal, usually strategic bombers armed with bombs or missiles, land-based missiles and ballistic missile submarines. These weapons must have a first- or second-strike capability.)

Col. Drik stressed that the Tu-95 and Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers will “carry their maximum combat payload and fire all the cruise missiles on board.” Also taking part in the air force exercise are Tu-22M3 Backfire strategic bombers, air superiority fighters, interceptors and aerial tankers.

The locations of the war games were deliberately chosen to underline three messages from Moscow to Washington:

1. Russian leaders are willing to brandish their nuclear strength in America’s face - to the north (Arctic) and south (Caribbean) – to challenge America’s position as the world’s No. 1 superpower.

2. Russia is powerful and rich enough to rise above the shockwaves rocking the world’s financial markets while carrying on developing its military muscle and expanding its spheres of influence.

3. By docking at the Syrian port of Tartus, the Peter the Great nuclear missile cruiser is Moscow’s marker on the Mediterranean to betoken the end of US Sixth Fleet’s sway. Last week, the Russian Navy united its Black Sea and Mediterranean fleet commands.

Friday, Oct. 3, Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Russian Security Council, announced that

20,000 kilometers of the Russian border passes through the Arctic. Moscow therefore claims 18 percent of its territory and is preparing a plan to implement this policy.

Laying down an earlier marker, the Russian nuclear powered submarine Ryazan docked at the Kamchatka Peninsula Sept. 30, after completing a one-month voyage under the Arctic Ocean without surfacing. The Project 667BDR Delta III class strategic nuclear submarine with a crew of 130 is armed with sixteen R-29RM (SS-N-23 Skiff) ballistic missiles with a range of 8,000 km.

Russian Navy Commander Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky welcoming the Ryazan’s arrival said: “The navy continues to play an important role in safeguarding Russia’s maritime economic and research activity throughout the world, including in the Arctic.”

Laying down these markers and challenges is clearly the prelude for Moscow’s presentation of political demands and an enhanced role as global player.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that, for now, Russia’s air and naval strength does not match America’s military might. However, although Russian president Dmitry Medvedev stated emphatically last week that there is no cold war or any other war with America, Moscow’s actions tell a different story.

In addition to their demonstrations of air and naval strength, the Russians have more than doubled their military spending on armaments – especially to upgrade and modernize their navy.

...............................................benny

Stern US warning to Syria not to invade Northern Lebanon
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

October 2, 2008, 10:25 PM (GMT+02:00)


Syrian commandos poised on Lebanese border
Washington accompanied this warning to Damascus, DEBKAfile has learned, with its first explicit threat of military intervention to aid Lebanon should Syria go through with its planned incursion of the North.

DEBKAfile first revealed the concentration of 10,000 Syrian troops on the Lebanese border on Sept. 20 and again on Sept. 27.

Click HERE

The warning, according to our sources, was delivered on Sept. 28 by secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to the Syrian foreign minister Walid Mualem whom she invited for an urgent meeting in New York. The day after they met, Mualem was handed a second warning by undersecretary of state David Welch, who specified precisely whic Syrian movements the US government would deem crossing the Lebanese border.

The harsh words from the top two American diplomats left the Syrian minister with little option but to promise there would be no Syrian incursion. However, in a number of subsequent interviews, Mualem claimed his talks with the two American officials focused on Washington’s support for the indirect talks between Jerusalem and Damascus, a tale made of whole cloth.

In the week since Washington warned Damascus off, nothing has changed in the Syrian military deployment on the Lebanese, our military sources confirm.

Syrian officials talking to Western diplomats are now maintaining that Islamic extremists are setting up an emirate in northern Lebanon which will jeopardize the stability of the entire region. Since Damascus has been warned off interfering in Lebanon by Washington, it cannot take responsibility for the consequences.

Syria’s determination to occupy the northern region of Tripoli is not lost on the Lebanese. The highest ranking Salafi authority in Lebanon, Dai al-Islam Shahhal, warned this week against an incursion by the Syrian army into north Lebanon, saying it would open 'the gates of hell and lead to what is similar to Iraq and its misery."

..........................................benny

Boy, this is the longest trend I have ever seen...three years, wow....I wonder do they....oh never mind.

Iran Soon to Have Atom Bomb Capability
Oct. 3….(DEBKA) Iran is on its way to mastering technology that would enable it to build atomic bombs, International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei said to the German Sueddeutsche Zeitung Friday. Asked if Iran was on the way to “virtual” nuclear-weapons power status, ElBaradei replied: “That is correct,” but added: Tehran could not “break out” to a bomb as long as IAEA monitors remained at nuclear sites. DEBKAfile notes that the inspectors are restricted to a few declared sites, whereas US satellites have caught covert facilities hidden from the oversight of the nuclear watchdog where suspected weapons activity is underway. Only last week, ElBaradei himself complained of Tehran’s stonewalling and non-cooperation with the inspections.

...............................................benny

Oct 5, 2008 18:39 | Updated Oct 5, 2008 18:42
Livni: We dream of peace but our legs are rooted in reality
By JPOST.COM STAFF
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Foreign Minister and Kadima leader Tzipi Livni on Sunday pledged to push forward with the process initiated at Annapolis in November 2007 and strive towards peace with the Palestinians, as well as with Israel's neighbors to the north, Syria and Lebanon and the whole of the Arab world.

"Annapolis will continue; we will continue to promote negotiations with the Palestinians," Livni said at the Foreign Ministry Conference on Policy and Strategy in what was her first diplomatic speech since winning the Kadima primary - and the president's go-ahead to form a new government - last month.

"Israel wishes to arrive at peace with all of her neighbors," Livni continued, "the Palestinians, Syria, Lebanon and the Arab nations. We have proven our willingness not only by embarking on diplomatic processes but by evacuating Gaza."

The foreign minister emphasized, however, that despite its peaceful intentions Israel would not mismanage the negotiations process in the hope of arriving at a deal. "We have the responsibility to conduct the process properly," she said, asserting that "Israel is dreaming of peace, but its legs are firmly rooted in a complex reality."

The Kadima leader then addressed the threat from the Islamic Republic. "The Iranian ideology exists regardless of what transpires here, and it should be considered as such," she said. "Iran is not only Israel's problem, and not only a problem for the region or its neighbors, it is an international problem and that is how it we should examine it. The world must know that the war against Iran is common and even if we win one battle the ideology in Iran will remain unchanged."

Alluding to heated demands posed by various Knesset during recent negotiations over the formation of a future Kadima coalition, Livni asserted that "There is not reason to change financial policy because economic policy cannot be linked to the political situation."



"We must maintian financial stability and in order to safeguard [the economy] we must also preserve the political balance; we must achieve political stability qickly," Livni continued. "Therefore, we are in need of a government that will maintain stabiliy, a government that will trnascend partisan demands."

Despite the global crisis and the influences of the market economy, Livni concluded, "the Israeli economy is strong and its resilience is apparent."

................................................benny

France urges Israel not to attack Iran
Sun Oct 5, 2008 10:49am EDT Email | Print | Share| Reprints | Single Page | Recommend (1) [-] Text [+]
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Trading will never be the same.JERUSALEM (Reuters) - French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has urged Israel not to launch a military strike against Iran's nuclear program, an Israeli newspaper reported on Sunday

Kouchner, in the region for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, urged the Jewish state to continue to support Western-backed sanctions and dialogue to press Iran to halt its atomic project, the Haaretz daily said.

"I know that in Israel, and the Israeli army, there are those who are preparing for a military solution or an attack" aimed at halting the Iranian program, Kouchner told the paper in an interview.

"In my opinion that's not the solution," he said, adding that the possibility of Iran achieving a nuclear weapon was also "absolutely unacceptable."

Kouchner called the risk of an Israeli strike on Iran a "danger." He said Tehran was aware Israel had said it would not wait until Iran could produce a nuclear bomb.

He said the West should pursue "talk, talk and more talk," including further sanctions to persuade Iran to stop its nuclear program. Tehran denies seeking to build an atomic bomb, saying it only wants to generate electricity.

"I don't think the alternative is to bomb first," Kouchner said.

Kouchner said France believed Iran may be able to produce one atomic weapon within two to four years.

Tehran last month rejected a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding it halt its nuclear enrichment work.

Israel, widely believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear power, sees Iran's nuclear program as a security threat, citing remarks by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calling for the Jewish state's demise.



..........................................benny

Israel: 3-6 Months to Hit Iran’s Nukes if Moscow Sells Tehran S-300 System
Oct. 7….(DEBKA) Russian military experts calculate that the window for an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities will shrink to 3-6 months if Moscow sells Iran (and Syria) the sophisticated S-300 system for guarding those sites against air, missile or cruise missile attack. DEBKAfile’s Moscow sources report that Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert failed in the key missions of his Moscow trip to persuade Russian leaders to discuss Tehran’s nuclear weapons program and to refrain from selling this advanced weapon to Iran and Syria. President Dmitiry Medvedev’s bureau issued a noncommittal statement Tuesday, Oct. 7, saying that his talks with Olmert were “an exchange of opinion on threats, including terrorism and nonproliferation.” The word “nuclear” was avoided. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, who the prime minister met Monday, trotted out the standard Russia claim that Moscow had no definite information that Iran is developing a nuclear weapon and is against tougher sanctions. Prime minister Vladimir Putin was unable to see him. Moscow’s mainstream media came out Tuesday with a rerun of the statement made on Sept. 17 by Anatoly Isaikin, director of the Russian arms exports agency Rosoboronexport, that his firm is in advanced negotiations with Tehran for the sale of the S-300 missiles. However, on Monday, the same firm disowned knowledge of these missiles having been shipped to Iran, although negotiations for their sale were not mentioned. Konstantin Makiyenko, from the center for strategic and technological analysis think tank in the Russian capital, said these utterances put Israel on notice to stop selling arms to Georgia and training its army. Moscow does not conceal its intention of selling S-300 missiles to Syria. A Russian military expert commented: “Our warships if based in Syrian ports will need to be encircled by missile batteries capable of guarding them against air and missile attack.” According to Russian experts, the system is capable of pinpointing 100 targets and simultaneously intercepting 12 at a distance of 120 km. Our Russian sources made a point of stressing that Moscow is not subject to embargoes on its foreign arms sales or any international restrictions on supplying defensive weapons to other nations.

.................................................benny

dodges questions on S-300 defense sale to Iran
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

October 9, 2008, 8:25 PM (GMT+02:00)


Russian S-300 would make Iran's nuclear sites nearly inviolable
Asked if Russia had promised Israel prime minister Ehud Olmert not to deliver S-300 systems to Iran, the foreign ministry spokesman in Moscow said Thursday, Oct. 9: "We have already repeatedly stated at the very highest political levels that we do not intend to deliver those types of arms to countries which are located in troubled regions." He carefully avoided mentioning Iran or Syria.

DEBKAfile reported earlier: Russian military experts calculate that the window for an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities will shrink to 3-6 months if Moscow sells Iran (and Syria) the sophisticated S-300 system for guarding those sites against air, missile or cruise missile attack.

DEBKAfile’s Moscow sources report that Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert failed in the key missions of his Moscow trip to persuade Russian leaders to discuss Tehran’s nuclear weapons program and to refrain from selling this advanced weapon to Iran and Syria.

Moscow’s mainstream media came out Tuesday with a rerun of the statement made on Sept. 17 by Anatoly Isaikin, director of the Russian arms exports agency Rosoboronexport, that his firm is in advanced negotiations with Tehran for the sale of the S-300 missiles. However, on Monday, the same firm disowned knowledge of these missiles having been shipped to Iran, although negotiations for their sale were not mentioned.

Konstantin Makiyenko, from the center for strategic and technological analysis think tank in the Russian capital, said these dodgy utterances put Israel on notice to stop selling arms to Georgia and training its army. Moscow does not conceal its intention of selling S-300 missiles to Syria. A Russian military expert commented: “Our warships if based in Syrian ports will need to be encircled by missile batteries capable of guarding them against air and missile attack.”

According to Russian experts, the system is capable of pinpointing 100 targets and simultaneously intercepting 12 at a distance of 120 km.

Our Russian sources made a point of stressing that Moscow is not subject to embargoes on its foreign arms sales or any international restrictions on supplying defensive weapons to other nations.

...................................................benny

October 12, 2008

Warning signs of an Israeli strike on IranDavid Owen
Some key decision makers in Israel fear that unless they attack Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities in the next few months, while George W Bush is still president, there will not be another period when they can rely on the United States as being anywhere near as supportive in the aftermath of a unilateral attack.

In the past 40 years there have been few occasions when I have been more concerned about a specific conflict escalating to involve, economically, the whole world. We are watching a disinformation exercise involving a number of intelligence services. Reality is becoming ever harder to disentangle.

Last month a story in The Guardian claimed that on May 14 Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, in a meeting with Bush, had asked for a green light to attack Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities. We were told that Bush refused. He believed Iran would see the United States as being behind any such assault and Americans would come under renewed attack in Iraq and Afghanistan. Shipping in the Gulf would be vulnerable. We were told that the source of the story was a European head of government and “his” officials – as if to exclude Angela Merkel and Germany. It is, however, improbable that Israel abandoned its option to take unilateral action.

Three weeks later the Israeli military conducted an exercise over the Mediterranean to demonstrate to the United States as well as Iran that it could attack. More recently there have been a number of stories raising concern about what is happening in Iran. One said Iran’s first nuclear electricity generating plant would go critical in December and thereafter any air attack would become impossible since it would trigger a nuclear explosion. Then we were told that a US radar system had been deployed in Israel with US personnel to strengthen Israel’s defence against Iranian airstrikes. There was also an interview with Olmert where he dismissed as “megalomania” any thought that Israel should attack Iran. He appeared to be trying to disrupt the Israeli coalition negotiations.

Finally, on Friday, The New York Times revealed that in February an IAEA inspector had talked of experiments in Iran that were “not consistent with any application other than the development of a nuclear weapon”. Iran denied the claim.

Before the Israeli negotiations got under way, Ehud Barak, the Labour leader, spoke first to Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the Likud opposition party, rather than to Tzipi Livni, the newly elected leader of Kadima. This indicated that Barak was interested in an all-party coalition, presumably believing that a Palestinian settlement is not yet achievable and that Israel needs maximum unity to deal with a world transfixed by the economic crisis and resigned to Iran becoming a nuclear weapon state.

If Israel were to attack Iran, one Iranian response would be to block the Strait of Hormuz. On September 16 Iran said its Revolutionary Guards would defend the Gulf waters. In the narrow strait just one oil tanker sunk would halt shipping for months. Insurance cover would be refused and owners would fear the risks of sailing even if the US navy cleared mines.

The Revolutionary Guards are committed to a war against Israel and prepared, in the process, to take on the rest of the world. They have good equipment and operate from the land, sea and air. They will be suicide soldiers, seamen and airmen. If Iran is attacked, Russia and China will supply it with arms.

The circumstances surrounding Georgia’s decision to attack South Ossetia are worth remembering. The Georgian president was advised by Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, not to attack but there were powerful voices in Washington that, by a nod and a wink, were encouraging action, so the Georgian government felt confident in going ahead.

Following an Israeli attack and Iranian countermeasures, the American military would be bound to follow Bush’s orders. The president-designate or, if before the election, the two candidates, would be wary of criticising him. It is imperative that voices are raised in America and Europe to warn Israel off unilateral action against Iran. The experience of Georgia has given an amber, if not a green, light to Israel and only Bush can switch that to red.

Bush’s legacy would be best served by taking dramatic diplomatic action to prevent a war with Iran. He should publicly warn Israel that the United States will use its air power to prevent it bombing Iran, while announcing that he is sending Rice to Tehran to start negotiating a grand bargain whereby all sanctions would be lifted if Iran forgoes the nuclear weapons option. He could indicate that the negotiations would not continue indefinitely, but they would give his successor, as president, time to consider all the options, military and economic. It would also allow time for Israel either to negotiate a coalition to last until 2010 or to hold elections. It would replace the present multilateral negotiations, which are stalled with Russia and China unwilling to move on strong economic sanctions. Above all, it would be a last act of real statesmanship from Bush who is otherwise destined to end his term a miserable failure.

David Owen was foreign secretary from 1977 to 1979

..................................................benny

http://www.rapturealert.com/2008/101208symptoms5.asp

..............................................benny

Large-scale Iranian Air force exercise simulates attack on Israel
DEBKAfile Special Report

October 15, 2008, 11:06 PM (GMT+02:00)


Iranian Air force in maneuver
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the drill beginning Thursday, Oct. 16 in northern Iran, is Tehran’s rejoinder to Israel’s big aerial maneuver last June.

Then, more than 100 Israeli fighter-bombers went through their paces over the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas, roughly the same distance from Israel as Iran.

Tehran’s media claim the exercise will test its air force’s ability to fly to Israel and back without refueling.

The exercise will also test the US-made FBX-T band anti-missile radar system delivered in September and installed at the IAF Nevatim air base in the Negev. The Iranians say they will be practicing their “state-of-the-art military equipment and flight tactics,” meaning an attempt to jam US and Israeli electronics and radar.

According to Iranian media, the entire range of Iran's fighter fleet will take part, including US-made F-4, F-5, F-7 and F-14 fighters and domestic Saegheh fighters. Mid-air refueling will be provided by Boeing 707 aerial tankers.

In mid-August, Iran's Air Force chief, Brigadier General Ahmad Miqani, maintained that its antiquated fighter jet fleet had been overhauled and upgraded to fly distances of 3,000 kilometers without refueling. That would be more than double the distance between Iran and Israel.

That is why Tabriz, in Azerbaijan, at the northwestern corner of Iran, was picked as the starting point of the exercise. The official communiqué said the planes would be flying from air fields in Tehran, Isfahan, Tabriz and Hamadan and Dezful.

Our military sources say that this means that the entire maneuver will take place over Iran and not venture out its air space. The planes will have to fly to Tabriz from bases in the south near the Pakistan border in order to replicate the more than 1,200 km distance between Iran and Israel.

The Iranian Air force also aims at deploying more than 100 warplanes for the exercise, matching the number Israel used in its maneuver four months ago.

Tehran has timed this large-scale drill for just three weeks before the US presidential election on Nov. 4, in response to speculation rife in the West that Israel may use the window between the US election and the swearing-in of the new president in January for an attack on Iran’s nuclear installations.

The Iranians aim to show they have a first and second strike capability - not just with ballistic missiles but also by aerial attack.

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The So-Called Israeli Occupied West Bank
Oct. 14….(Stan Goodenough) The Land of Israel is the biblical, historic and exclusive homeland of the Jewish people. It is Israel’s country. Although swallowed and made part of other empires through the ages, it has never been the national homeland of any other people. At the heart of the Land of Israel lie the mountains of Israel, known since ancient days as Samaria and Judea. Today all who reject Jewish ownership of, and sovereignty over, these lands call them the “West Bank” or, more particularly, the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank.” In all of history the land has only been known as “the West Bank” for 19 brief years. But the name has stuck - and has been successfully employed to deaden awareness and resistance from Bible-believing people. This land constitutes the bulk of what the world wants to give to the Arabs for the creation of a Palestinian state. For decades, the small nation of Israel has been under relentless international pressure to surrender it. Today, as 2008 and the second Bush administration are coming to a close, it increasingly looks like this land will indeed be taken from the Jews to appease the Arabs. And this as Jews and Christians look largely disinterestedly on. Jewish and Christian readers, let me tell you a little about this “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank.” The “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank” is the very cradle of Jewish civilization.

In the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank” Israel’s founding fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, lie buried.

Their wives lie with them or, as in the case of Jacob’s wife Rachel, in Bethlehem, in the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank.” Rachel’s Joseph is also buried in the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank” - in Shechem. It was on the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank” that Abraham stood when God told him to look to the north, to the south, to the east and to the west, promising that all the land he could see would be given to his descendants, “forever.” Jacob was traveling through the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank” when he lay down to sleep, and dreamed of a staircase reaching into heaven, with angels descending and ascending as God spoke from on high saying: Jacob, the land on which you are lying is the land I am giving to you and your descendants after you as an everlasting possession. That place is called Bethel, or Beit El. It is in the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank.” Joshua, Moses’ successor and that great Israeli conqueror is buried in the Mountains of Ephraim, in the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank.” For close on 400 years the nation of Israel worshiped God in the Tabernacle at Shiloh, in the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank.” Gideon was threshing wheat in Ophrah, in the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank” when the Angel of the Lord called him to judge the Israelites. Other judges, including the famous Deborah, lived in the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank.” Ruth met Boaz, who wooed and married her in the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank.” Their grandson, the Shepherd King David, was born in Bethlehem, in the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank.” For the first seven-and-a-half years of his reign he ruled in Hevron - or Hebron - in the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank.”

Ancient Jerusalem, which David then established as the capital of his kingdom, is in the heart of the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank.” The heart of Jerusalem is the Temple Mount. Site of Solomon’s splendid first Temple and the Exiles-rebuilt second Temple, it is in the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank.” And here, in the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank” God’s shekinah glory rested visibly on the only place the Almighty calls “holy.”

Is it clear yet? Can it possibly be any more so? Indeed it is clear. Those who do not see it simply don’t want to.

I want to tell you something, dear Christians and Jews. The roots of Am Yisrael (the nation of Israel) are planted deeply and irremovably in the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank.” Judea and Samaria is the cradle of Jewish nationhood. Permitting these territories to be given to another people (who, as every historian must testify, have never had a national homeland there or anywhere else) is to allow the Jews’ roots to be cut off. This nation - which has survived two millennia of dispersion precisely because its roots have been in these lands, and because their hope never died of one day returning to that land as their ancient prophets repeatedly reminded them they would - will not survive the severing of those roots. Cut the Jewish people off from the place where they began and they will be left withering, then rendered extinct. No nation can live without its roots. Neither can any faith. Christianity cannot survive without Israel. The gentiles nations have rejected the Jews’ claim to these lands; have rejected their historic ties and and insist on treating Israel as a modern-day, 60-year-old democracy, and nothing more. In so doing, they have rejected Israel’s God. All who worship the God of Israel must oppose them, or join them in opposing Him.

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Swords and Shields: Russia shields Syria

Russian naval forces can deter or disrupt Israeli naval or air assets deployed in wartime against Syria or Hezbollah in Lebanon.
by Ariel Cohen
Washington (UPI) Oct 16, 2008
Until Russia can revitalize its naval forces to a much larger degree, its deployments to the Mediterranean contribute more to symbolic and diplomatic activity than being a viable military counterweight to NATO in the region. Yet the Black Sea Fleet in the Med is a significant show of force and a diplomatic irritant and a potential threat to shipping in the Suez Canal and to America's ally Israel.
The increased Russian naval presence in the region means that the Kremlin is seeking to cultivate Syria as a close regional ally, and is looking to secure additional bases for the Black Sea Fleet besides its current base in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol.

In addition, Russia would also be able to deploy electronic intelligence-gathering ships that could then improve its monitoring capabilities against NATO forces and Syria's ability to monitor NATO and Israeli transmissions, expanding the previous naval intelligence engagement during the Balkan wars.

Finally, Russian naval forces could deter or disrupt Israeli naval or air assets deployed in wartime against Syria or Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Syria is pursuing new arms deals with Russia, including the purchase of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29 M2, MiG-31, the latest Sukhoi Su-30 version -- Flanker, Tor-M1 air defense systems, AT-14 antitank missiles, upgrades for Syria's aging T-62, T-72 and T-80 Main Battle Tanks, SA-5 Gammon anti-aircraft missile systems, and upgrading Syria's existing S-125 Air Defense systems to the Pechora-2A.

Iran is also involved in supporting Damascus. In 2007 alone Iran reportedly financed Syrian purchases of Russian arms to the tune of $1 billion. Iran and Syria, which have had a mutual defense treaty since 2004, train and equip Hezbollah, the biggest terrorist organization in the Middle East. Russia is cultivating both states as allies and as customers for Russian arms.

What is particularly disturbing is that the Russian layered air defenses, both short-range TOR and long-range S-300 anti-aircraft systems, are capable of providing the defensive envelope to the mysterious Syrian nuclear research activities, as well as to the significant chemical weapons arsenal deliverable by Damascus' short-range ballistic missiles, such as Syrian-produced SCUD-C and SCUD-D and, potentially, Russian-made Iskander-E -- NATO designation SS-X-26.

Damascus has also acquired Pantsir-C1 air defense systems, which represent the current state of the art in Russian military air defense technology, but no deal has yet been reached. According to sources in Moscow, Russia is likely to equip Syria's Tartus naval base with S-300PMU-2 Favorit ballistic missiles and a radar system more sophisticated than Syria's current capabilities.

During the Cold War era, the Soviet Union boasted a global naval power projection capability with yearly naval maneuvers in the Caribbean and the North Fleet naval brigade in Conakry, Guinea, and Luanda, Angola.

The 8th Operational Squadron of the Pacific Fleet had supply bases in Aden and Socotra in Yemen and Dahlak in Eritrea, and in Berbera in Somalia. After the five-day Aug. 8-Aug. 12 war in the former Soviet republic of Georgia in the Caucasus, the Russian Black Sea Fleet is planning to deploy in Abkhazia, at the ports of Ochamchira and Sukhumi.

For Moscow today, Tartus is only the first step in the long road to a renewed global naval presence.

(Ariel Cohen, Ph.D., is a Washington author and expert on geopolitics and energy security. Lajos Szaszdi, Ph.D., and Nicholas Lippolis contributed to this article.)


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http://adirondackdailyenterprise.com...8&showlayout=0



Top international military officials meet in Adirondacks
By PETER CROWLEY, Enterprise Managing Editor POSTED: October 18, 2008
Email: "Top international military officials meet in Adirondacks"
*To: <--TO Email REQUIRED!
*From: <--FROM Email REQUIRED!


Article Photos
Men in military uniforms work around a Boeing 757 airplane with “United States of America” printed on its fuselage, parked at the Adirondack Regional Airport in Lake Clear Friday.
(Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)
SARANAC LAKE - Powerful generals and admirals from some of the most powerful nations on Earth are reportedly meeting somewhere in the local area this weekend after flying into the Adirondack Regional Airport in Lake Clear on Friday.

Among the passengers of a large Boeing 757 airplane with "United States of America" printed on its fuselage were top members of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and their counterparts from France, Germany and another country, possibly Great Britain, according to Barry DeFuria, a town of Harrietstown councilman and Airport Committee member who was there when the plane landed. A top military delegation from Italy flew in on a separate Falcon airplane, DeFuria said.

Town Supervisor Larry Miller, also on the Airport Committee, was also there and confirmed which nations' officials were on which planes, but he said he did not know what kind of officials they were or where they were going from the airport. He said he and DeFuria had to get security clearances to be present and that soldiers were guarding the 757 around the clock at the airport.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff is the leadership council of the U.S. military, comprised of the top general or admiral of each branch of the armed services. Its current chairman is Admiral Michael Mullen.
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US intelligence: Iran will be able to build first nuclear bomb by February 2009
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

October 21, 2008, 8:46 PM (GMT+02:00)

US intelligence’s amended estimate, that Iran will be ready to build its first bomb just one month after the next US president is sworn in, is disclosed by DEBKAfile’s Washington sources as having been relayed as a guideline to the Middle East teams of both presidential candidates, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama.

The information prompted the assertion by Democratic vice presidential nominee Joseph Biden in Seattle Sunday, Oct. 19: “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy.”

McCain retorted Tuesday, Oct. 21: “America does not need a president that needs to be tested. I’ve been tested. I was aboard the Enterprise off the coast of Cuba. I’ve been there.”)

DEBKAfile’s military sources cite the new US timeline: By late January, 2009, Iran will have accumulated enough low-grade enriched uranium (up to 5%) for its “break-out” to weapons grade (90%) material within a short time. For this, the Iranians have achieved the necessary technology. In February, they can move on to start building their first nuclear bomb.

US intelligence believes Tehran has the personnel, plans and diagrams for a bomb and has been running experiments to this end for the past two years. The UN International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna last week asked Tehran to clarify recent complex experiments they conducted in detonating nuclear materials for a weapon, but received no answer.

The same US evaluation adds that the Iranian leadership is holding off its go-ahead to start building the bomb until the last minute so as to ward off international pressure to stop at the red line.

This development together with the galloping global economic crisis will force the incoming US president to go straight into decision-making without pause on Day One in the Oval Office. He will have to determine which urgent measures can serve best for keeping a nuclear bomb out of the Islamic republic’s hands - diplomatic or military – and how to proceed if those measures fail.

His knowledge of the challenge colored Sen. Biden’s additional words in Seattle: “Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

Israel’s political and military leaders also face a tough dilemma that can no longer be put off of whether to strike Iran’s nuclear installations militarily in the next three months between US presidencies before the last window closes, or take a chance on coordination with the next president.

Waiting for the “international community” to do the job of stopping Iran, as urged by governments headed by Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert - and strongly advocated Tzipi Livni, foreign minister and would-be prime minister - has been a washout. Iran stands defiantly on the threshold of a nuclear weapon.

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Russians, Syrians Discuss Missile Shield – for Tartus Port
Oct. 21….(DEBKA) The Russian-Syrian discussions in progress in both their capitals cover the disposition of air defense S-300PMU-2 and Iskander-E missiles, to be deployed initially around Syria’s Mediterranean ports where Moscow is building naval bases. DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources reveal that these two high-powered items have not been excluded from the big Russian-Syrian arms deal under discussion, despite appeals from Washington and Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, who made a special trip to Moscow for this purpose earlier this month. As soon as he flew home, the foreign ministry spokesman in Moscow maintained ambiguously on Oct. 9 that Russia would not supply air defense systems to “volatile regions.” He said such decisions are based on regional security issues and “the need to maintain a balance of forces” in the region. This was taken to mean that if weapons delivered to Israel were seen by Moscow as upsetting “the balance of forces,” Moscow would think again about withholding the S-300 and Iskander-E missiles. Our Moscow sources disclose that the Russians now view the supply of the advanced American FBX-T anti-missile radar system to Israel in September and its deployment in the Negev base of Nevatim as a balance-breaker. In the broader context of its contest with Washington, the Kremlin regards the US radar system installed in the Negev to be an integral part of the US missile shield deployed in the face of Russian protests in Poland and the Czech Republic. Moscow has already indicated it may hit back by moving nuclear-armed Iskander-E missiles to the Baltic opposite the US batteries deployed in East Europe. Positioning missile systems at Syrian ports would be part of Russia’s overall military payback for the array of US missile and radar installations in Europe and the Middle East. Therefore, DEBKAfile’s military sources report, the Kremlin may decide against handing the missiles to the Syrian army but prefer to install them to guard the Mediterranean naval bases Russians are building at the Syrian ports of Tartus and Latakia. Another option would be to outfit the Russian warships to be anchored in Syria ports with S-300 missiles, which are already part of the weapons array of the Peter the Greatt missile cruiser, which carried out maneuvers in the Mediterranean last week. In either case, Russian fingers would be on the controls of these batteries in the early stages of delivery. At the same time, the big Russian arms deal in negotiation would substantially boost and upgrade Damascus’ war armory with some pretty impressive hardware, all paid for by Tehran:

1. Mig-29 M2 fighter-bombers

2. Mig-31 fighter-bombers.

3. Su-30 Flanker bombers.

4. Mobile Tor-M1 air defense missiles, like the ones sold to Iran. Iran and Syria are obviously integrating their air and missile defense systems with Russian hardware, further facilitating Moscow’s military expansion in the Middle East.

5. Pantsir-C air defense missiles.

6. Extensive Russian upgrades of Syria’s antiquated T-62, T-72 and T-80 tanks.

7. Upgrades of Syrian SA-5 Gammon, S-125 and Pechora-2A missiles.

8. Advanced ATM anti-tank missiles.

Last year, too, Iran forked out for Syria’s Russian arms acquisitions. While some Israeli leaders, including president Shimon Peres, predicted that falling oil prices would inhibit the two radical allies’ arms shopping plans, our military sources note this paradox: Iran has scarcely been affected by the international financial crisis because international sanctions have long isolated its financial system from international banking and taught the Islamic republic to live with an economy on the ropes
...........................................benny

Libya seeks Russian arms


Interfax quotes Russian arms source, says OPEC member may buy more than $2 billion in weapons, including surface-to-air missiles

Reuters Published: 10.21.08, 07:55 / Israel News




Libya may agree to buy more than $2 billion worth of Russian weapons during a visit by Muammar Gaddafi to Moscow this month, Interfax news agency reported on Monday, citing an unidentified source in Russia's arms industry.



"An agreement on concluding a major set of arms contracts for more than $2 billion could be reached during the visit of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to Moscow," Interfax quoted the source as saying.



The source said Gaddafi's visit to Moscow was planned for the end of October. Both the Libyan embassy in Moscow and Russia's state arms exporter declined immediate comment.

Libya in action

Libya blocks condemnation of Jerusalem attack / Reuters

US accuses Libya of preventing Security Council from condemning as deadly assault on yeshiva as 'terror attack'; Tripoli calls for 'balanced action'
Full Story





Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later said Moscow was preparing for the Gaddafi visit and that the final details of the trip would be announced soon, Interfax reported.



Russian warships visited Libya this month, signalling a warming of ties between Tripoli and Moscow, which supported Libya during the Soviet era.



Libya is interested in buying surface-to-air missile systems such as the S-300, TOR-M1 and Buk, as well as several fighter aircraft, dozens of helicopters and about 50 tanks, Interfax quoted the source as saying.



Russia is also preparing contracts to upgrade Libya's Soviet-era weapons, the agency said.



Libya wants Moscow to write off $4.5 billion in debts it owes to Russia in exchange for the purchases, Interfax said. Many Soviet-era debts are difficult to price because they were set in Soviet roubles.



Libya was seen as a rogue state by Washington until it agreed to give up a weapons of mass destruction programme. Last month U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Gaddafi in Tripoli, the first such visit in 55 years.



Libya wants to expand ties with Russia, which it sees as a counterbalance to US influence in the Mediterranean.

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Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, while still Russian president, visited Libya in April to strengthen energy ties with the OPEC member and discuss the possibility of Russian cooperation in building an atomic power plant in Libya.



Putin said at the time that Libya was also seeking to buy Russian weapons.

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Hijacked Iranian Ship Contained 'Dirty Bomb' for Israel

by Hana Levi Julian
www.israelnationalnews.com


(IsraelNN.com) Web blogs all over the Internet are continuing to buzz about an Iranian ship that was hijacked last August by Somali pirates and which Russian sources warned contained a dirty bomb intended for Israel.



The hijacking passed largely unnoticed in the mainstream media, save a brief mention in the news on August 22 that reported that three vessels – Iranian, Japanese and German – and their 57 crew members were hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden near Somalia. Several pirates died after they forced open part of the cargo.



The waterway connects the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Somalia, host to the longest coastline in Africa (1,880 miles), is an international piracy and terrorist hotspot. Foreign vessels are often seized by pirates in the area, who hold the ships and their crews for ransom.



According to its manifest, the MV Iran Devant had departed Nanjing, China on July 28 and was headed to Rotterdam to deliver 42,500 tons of iron ore and "industrial products" to an unidentified "German client." But the Iranian bulk carrier with 29 crew members, owned and operated by the U.S.-sanctioned Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), was apparently transporting cargo considerably more significant than the average contraband.



The 40 pirates, armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) brought the ship to Eyl, a fishing village in northeastern Somalia, according to numerous bloggers. There a larger contingent of pirates took control of the vessel – 50 on board and 50 patrolling on the beach.



Initial attempts to inspect the ship's seven cargo containers failed. The pirates could not break into the holds and the crew swore they did not have access codes to the locks. The captain and engineer of the vessel evaded answering questions about the contents of the holds, despite threats by the pirates to blow up the ship. They first said the containers held crude oil, but then changed the story to say there were "minerals" in the holds.



When at last the pirates succeeded in opening one of the containers, they allegedly discovered packets of what they later reported to be "a powdery fine sandy soil." The pirates who had any exposure to the powder were reportedly struck down by illness and within days began to exhibit strange symptoms, including skin burns and hair loss. Sixteen of them died. Andrew Mwangura, director of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Program, was quoted by the South Africa Sunday Times in a September 28 interview, "There is something very wrong about that ship."



The vessel was released by the pirates on October 10, announced the IRISL public relations office, "after seven weeks of negotiations with Somali pirates." All 29 members of the crew were reported safe. Iran criticized world powers for its indifference toward the lack of security in international waters. IRISL, which is run by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, added in its statement that the vessel was sailing towards international waters and it is not clear where the ship has gone since the report.



Russian Intelligence: Ship Was a Dirty Bomb Sent to Israel

U.S. and Israeli intelligence officials maintained a tight-lipped silence on the alleged incident. However, Russian intelligence sources reportedly said the ship was "an enormous floating dirty bomb, intending to detonate after exiting the Suez Canal at the eastern end of the Mediterranean and in proximity to the coastal cities of Israel.



"The entire cargo of radioactive sand," said the Russian sources, " [was] obtained by Iran from China (the latter buys desperately needed oil from the former) and sealed in containers which, when the charges on the ship are set off after the crew took to the boats, will be blasted high into the air where prevailing winds will push the highly dangerous and radioactive cloud ashore."



Several military web blogs have noted that had the ship's crew succeeded in reaching Israel's coastal waters with their deadly cargo, it would have been quite easy to escape the vessel in small boats and then detonate explosives on the vessel. The radioactive powder, which would have been blown into the air, would have been carried by the wind straight to Israel.



'Logically Not Reliable, But Nothing Impossible in the Middle East'

Dr. Ephraim Kam, deputy director of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), told Israel National News that the entire incident could easily have been a fiction -- or not. "Nothing is impossible in this region," said Kam, an IDF Colonel (res.) and former deputy director of the Research Division in the IDF's Military Intelligence, "but logically [the report] doesn't seem to be very reliable."



The reason, he said, is that such an attack on Israel would cost the Iranians dearly -- and he said they know it.



"First of all, because it could fail, and this would be the worst thing for them. I think that if at all, the timing is very bad for them, while they are trying to acquire their own nuclear weapons, when there is international pressure on them on that issue… It could give Israel the best excuse to attack their nuclear facilities.



"Also, if such an operation is successful, the outcome could be an Israeli strategic attack against the Iranians, which could be very costly for the Islamic Republic. Since the Iranians believe that Israel does have a nuclear arsenal, they have to take into account that Israel would respond by nuclear attack," he pointed out.



"If it is true, this incident could give Israel the best pretext to attack an Iranian nuclear site," said Kam. "Rationally, I tend to think it is no more than a good story."



Israeli government officials could not be reached for comment.



........................................................benny

Iran Nukes: Too Deep to Hit

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Western intelligence experts believe that Iran's nuclear facilities are so deep underground that it would be difficult for Israel to wipe them out, or even significantly damage them, with a quick airstrike. In order to deal a serious setback to Iran's nuclear program, at least four key sites inside Iran would have to be hit, said one Western official, who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive information.

The facilities, however, are located in tunnels fortified by barriers more than 60 feet thick. According to this official and other U.S. experts, Israel does not possess conventional weapons capable of knocking out the facilities. Breaking through the thick shell would require, at minimum, several bunker-buster bombs striking precisely the same spot. "These targets would be very hard to destroy," said former U.N. nuclear expert David Albright. Theoretically, Israel could do a lot more damage with a nuclear strike. But U.S. and other Western experts say there is no reason to believe the Israelis will abandon their policy against shooting first with nukes.

U.S. and allied efforts to keep tabs on Iranian nukes suffered a blow recently because of a "spy vs. spy" mixup in Germany. For more than 10 years, according to two Western counterproliferation officials, the BND (Germany's equivalent of the CIA) employed an Iranian-Canadian informant known by the code name "Sinbad." Sinbad peddled technology to the Iranians, and, in turn, brought the BND high-quality Iranian government documents, including what Germany's Der Spiegel magazine described as pictures of tunnel-digging machinery and briefing papers on nuclear delivery systems.

But the espionage operation recently ran aground when German Customs officers, unaware of Sinbad's role as a spy, busted him for illegal missile-technology shipments to Iran. Sinbad had concealed extracurricular schemes from the BND, and the spy agency had no power to stop the investigation. One of the counterproliferation officials said that Sinbad's arrest was a significant setback to espionage efforts against Iran's nuclear program.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/165667
............................................benny