Coming Soon - War with Iran?

Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff

Re: Coming Soon - War with Iran?

Postby Ben D » Sat Mar 17, 2012 12:17 am

Astute observation Simulist, fwiw, I have done a lot of study and reflection over the years on biblical prophecy, and that's exactly what it's about...imho... :thumbsup
There is That which was not born, nor created, nor evolved. If it were not so, there would never be any refuge from being born, or created, or evolving. That is the end of suffering. That is God**.

** or Nirvana, Allah, Brahman, Tao, etc...
User avatar
Ben D
 
Posts: 2005
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2007 8:10 pm
Location: Australia
Blog: View Blog (3)

Re: Coming Soon - War with Iran?

Postby Ben D » Sat Mar 17, 2012 10:33 pm

Gunboat diplomacy: America launches Persian Gulf surge

RT Published: 18 March, 2012,

Washington is planning to deploy even more ships, subs and choppers to the Persian Gulf despite the fact that it already stations aircraft carriers in the region. This was confirmed by Chief of Naval Operations Jonathan W. Greenert.

Speaking during a Friday breakfast in Washington, Greenert told reporters about the bold plans to deploy more patrol boats, minesweepers, Sea Stallion helicopters and drone subs – all keeping an eye on Iran, which is clearly uncomfortable with being surrounded by the warships of a hostile country.

While Greenert had already announced plans to up the number of minesweepers in the region to eight on Wednesday, his latest statements shine a light on the Navy’s long-term perspective.

First of all, Greenert talked about deploying five more patrol boats equipped with Gatling guns and close-range missiles capable of hitting Iranian shores from four miles away.
“It’s like being in an alley with a rifle and maybe what you need is a sawed-off shotgun,” he said, talking about the Gatling guns.

Secondly, the Navy is planning on sending torpedoes that can compensate for the “turbidity” and “particulate” drags of the Gulf waters, as Greenert put it.

Thirdly, Drone minesweeping submarines, or as Greenert called them “some underwater unmanned neutralization autonomous units.”

And finally, more aircraft carriers, though this is still to be discussed with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

All these new vessels will arrive equipped the latest infrared and electro-optical visibility systems to help navigate through the foggy Gulf even at night. In the meantime, BAE Systems, one of the Pentagon's military contractors, is working on a new Gatling/laser gun mashup. While Greenert said nothing on equipping the patrol boats in question with these guns, Iran had earlier promised to block the Strait of Hormuz, which is used to transport about a fifth of the world’s oil, in retaliation against sanctions imposed by the US and the EU with the intention of forcing Iran to quit its nuclear program.

In January, General Michael Dempsey, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed that Iran has the capability to block the Strait of Hormuz for a certain period of time, and that the US must be prepared to reopen it by force.

Greenert openly admitted that America’s naval presence in the region is already superior to Iran's. So why deploy so much weaponry and equipment to region? Are Obama and his military advisors already covertly thinking about a military solution to the Iranian crisis? Or is it just the implementation of Dempsey’s call for preparedness?

With the Pentagon asking for an additional $100 million to beef up its military presence in the Persian Gulf, it seems like the US is increasingly leaning towards military action. Although President Obama did insist on using sanctions and diplomacy to force Tehran to quit its controversial nuclear program, he admitted that “no options are off the table.”
There is That which was not born, nor created, nor evolved. If it were not so, there would never be any refuge from being born, or created, or evolving. That is the end of suffering. That is God**.

** or Nirvana, Allah, Brahman, Tao, etc...
User avatar
Ben D
 
Posts: 2005
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2007 8:10 pm
Location: Australia
Blog: View Blog (3)

Re: Coming Soon - War with Iran?

Postby Grizzly » Sat Mar 17, 2012 11:40 pm

Re: Gunboat Diplomacy

One would think after 12 goddamn years of war that the American people would rise up and say no to this shit with gas prices rising and the economy still in the shitter. And not just the dirty hippies either.
“The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it.”

― Joseph mengele
User avatar
Grizzly
 
Posts: 4909
Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2011 4:15 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Coming Soon - War with Iran?

Postby Nordic » Sun Mar 18, 2012 1:04 am

Yeah. If they pull the trigger on this one, it's really "enough is enough" time. It will destroy the economy anyway, at least for almost all of US, so we should just drop what we're doing, go to Washington, and take over OUR buildings and throw these Domestic Enemies outta there, into jail where they belong, and finally take the country back.

Enough with the crooks and gangsters and father rapers and mother killers running the goddamn show.
"He who wounds the ecosphere literally wounds God" -- Philip K. Dick
Nordic
 
Posts: 14230
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 3:36 am
Location: California USA
Blog: View Blog (6)

Re: Coming Soon - War with Iran?

Postby seemslikeadream » Sun Mar 18, 2012 1:24 am

Gunboats, Super-Torpedoes, Sea-Bots: U.S. Navy Launches Huge Iran Surge
By Spencer Ackerman Email Author March 16, 2012 | 11:55 am |

The Navy practices a mock boarding operation on the U.S.S. Princeton in the Middle East, 2010. Photo: U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet
Sending more aircraft carriers to the waters near Iran, it turns out, was just the start. Yes, the U.S. currently has more seapower aimed at Iran in the Persian Gulf than in the fleets of most countries on Earth, Iran included. But that was just the Navy cracking its knuckles.

In the next few months, the Navy will double its minesweeper craft stationed in Bahrain, near Iran, from four to eight. Those ships will be crucial if Iran takes the drastic step of mining the Strait of Hormuz, one of the global energy supply’s most crucial waterways. Four more MH-53 “Sea Stallion” helicopters, another minesweeping tool, are also getting ready for Bahrain, to give the U.S. Fifth Fleet early warning for any strait mining.

Then the Navy will prepare to get closer to Iranian shores. Much closer. It’s got five close-action patrol boats in the Gulf right now. Once the Coast Guard returns three that the Navy loaned out, the Navy will have five other patrol craft in the United States. All those boats are getting retrofitted. With Gatling guns. And missiles.

Sure, the guns aboard the two aircraft carriers currently near Iran are the seapower equivalent of high-powered, long-range rifles. “But maybe what you need is like a sawed-off shotgun,” capable of doing massive damage from a closer distance, said Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the Navy’s senior officer. All 10 of those patrol boats, Greenert told reporters at a Friday breakfast in Washington, will get strapped with the Mk-38 Gatling Gun and should make it to the Gulf next year. (Though, alas, they won’t have the Gatling/laser gun mashup BAE Systems is working on.) They’ll also get close-range missiles that can hit Iranian shores from four miles away — the same kinds Navy SEALs use.


Consider it Teddy Roosevelt’s gunboat diplomacy for the 21st century. Over plates of greasy eggs and bacon, Greenert outlined a plan to give the U.S. what is almost certainly the biggest stick the Navy has ever had in the Gulf. The idea, which he didn’t make explicit, is to convince Iran to think long and hard before ever messing with either the U.S.’s Arab allies across the Gulf or disrupting a narrow transit point through which a fifth of the world’s energy supplies flow.

Add up the aircraft carriers, the Gatling-packing patrol craft, the Orions, the Sea Stallions and the minesweepers, and Greenert still isn’t finished with the surge. Then come the new, advanced torpedoes that can compensate for the “turpidity [and] particulate” drags of the Gulf waters. And the drone subs — or, as Greenert put it, “some underwater unmanned neutralization autonomous units” to help hunt mines. And every Navy ship that sails through the strait will come equipped with new, modular “infrared and electro-optical” visibility systems that clarify the foggy Gulf even at night. Extra spare parts and contractor crews will sustain the surge.

And if all that wasn’t enough, Greenert disclosed that he and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will soon ask themselves if the Navy needs to rotate more aircraft carriers to the Gulf. That decision, so important that it’s Panetta’s to make, will come “in the next few months.”

“I looked in every domain, undersea, surface and air,” Greenert said, “to make sure that we’re doing our best for the guys that are over there.”

Even with the prospect of an Israeli bombing campaign lingering overhead, the Navy has already proven it can get Iran to back off its bellicose rhetoric. Tehran hasn’t attacked the U.S. carriers, and it hasn’t mined the strait. Yet.

Greenert suggested that Iran’s naval forces are too sensible to actually challenge the vastly superior American force nearby. The regular Iranian navy is “professional, courteous [and] good mariners,” he said. Even the radical Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps isn’t “ramping up” in the Gulf and keeping its activities “normal.”

Perhaps true. And once the Navy’s surge forces all get into the Persian Gulf, the Iranian sea forces might not have any choice, if they want to continue existing. But if Iran’s pattern of miscalculation continues, then the larger Navy force nearby might be a provocation — and will have to end a fight quickly if it breaks out.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

Re: Coming Soon - War with Iran?

Postby alloneword » Sun Mar 18, 2012 7:35 am

eyeno wrote:U.S.S. Enterprise Aircraft Carrier Just left port on its LAST seven month voyage before being moth balled for eternity. Wonder how long it will last at sea before it becomes a mothball?


ninakat - 4th Feb wrote:


I guess desertion isn't much of an option in the Navy.

:|
User avatar
alloneword
 
Posts: 902
Joined: Mon Jan 22, 2007 9:19 am
Location: UK
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Coming Soon - War with Iran?

Postby DrVolin » Sun Mar 18, 2012 10:20 pm

Combined with the CV situation, this is not good at all: http://presstv.com/detail/232193.html

Given the current deployments, the Americans are looking at a spring and early summer with all carriers out at sea, and a fall and next winter with only 2 out on each coast. So if something is going to happen, it needs to happen in the next couple of months or so.
all these dreams are swept aside
By bloody hands of the hypnotized
Who carry the cross of homicide
And history bears the scars of our civil wars

--Guns and Roses
DrVolin
 
Posts: 1544
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:19 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Coming Soon - War with Iran?

Postby vanlose kid » Mon Mar 19, 2012 8:38 am

been keeping an eye on this the past few days (first two mil-related incidents) thinking Gladio, but the emphasis shifted today, so here:

Terror attack? At least four shot dead at Jewish school in Toulouse, France

Brunon Martin / AP

Police officers and firefighters gather at the site of a shooting outside a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, Monday.
By msnbc.com staff, NBC News and news services

Updated at 7.10 a.m ET: At least four people, including three children and a rabbi, were shot dead by a gunman at a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, on Monday, officials said.

The killings – described as “a vision of horror” by a parent of a child at the school – happened just days after three French soldiers were shot dead in two separate incidents in the area and a French government minister noted “similarities” between the incidents.

Paris prosecutors said in a statement Monday that they were opening anti-terrorism investigations into all three incidents.


The shooter fled the private Ozar Hatorah school -- located in Jolimont district of Toulouse -- on a black scooter, NBC News reported, citing Le Figaro newspaper; other reports described the vehicle as a motorbike. Several other people were injured, two of them seriously, Reuters said.

French media said that security was being tightened at all Jewish schools in the country.

A rabbi at the school, identified as Rahamim Sabag, told Israel's channel two television that the dead were a 30-year old rabbi who taught at the school, the rabbi's five-year-old son and two eight-year old children, one of them the daughter of the school's principal, Reuters reported.

'I did not find my son'
Parents who witnessed the incident -- that happened shortly before 8 a.m. local time (3 a.m. ET), as children were being dropped off at the school -- described the scene.

"I saw two people dead in front of the school, an adult and a child ... Inside, it was a vision of horror, the bodies of two small children,'' a distraught father whose child attends the school told RTL radio, Reuters reported.

“I did not find my son, apparently he fled when he saw what happened. How can they attack something as sacred as a school, attack children only sixty centimeters (about two feet) tall?'' he added.

"It was terrible ... It felt like it lasted a long time," Charles Ben Semoun, a parent of a child at the school, told i-tele television, the Bloomberg news service said on its website.

NBC News, citing France's Le Monde newspaper, reported that the gunman had two weapons. Witnesses said the shooter opened fire from the scooter, but this gun jammed. The gunman then left the scooter and ran into the school yard and started shooting with another weapon, the witnesses added.

Monday's shootings come days after three soldiers were killed in two separate shootings in the same area by a man who also escaped from the scene by scooter, Reuters reported.

French TV station BFM said that the gun used in the attack at the school was of the same caliber as that used in the soldiers' shootings.

'Horrible attack'
French Interior Minister Claude Gueant, who reportedly broke off a visit to another part of France to go to Toulouse, said that "one can't fail to notice the similarities between the attacks on our troops in Toulouse and in (the nearby town of) Montauban and then this horrible attack on children this morning," according to a Sky News report.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was also on his way to Toulouse Monday, NBC News said, citing local media reports.

France's chief rabbi, Gilles Bernheim, said he was "horrified" by the incident, according to BFM's website (in French).

Israel's foreign ministry also expressed dismay.

"We are horrified by this attack and we trust the French authorities to shed full light on this tragedy and bring the perpetrators of these murders to justice," Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told the AFP news agency.

Investigators said Friday that the murders of two French paratroopers in southwest France Thursday were linked to the killing of another soldier in Toulouse at the previous weekend, after they discovered the same weapon was used in both crimes.

Two uniformed French soldiers were shot dead and a third seriously injured by a masked gunman Thursday as they tried to withdraw money from a cash machine in Montauban, close to the barracks of the 17th paratroop regiment.

In the first shooting, a 30-year-old soldier in civilian clothes was shot dead in Toulouse.

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20 ... use-france


*

edit:

French prosecutor: 4 killed in school shooting
Associated PressAssociated Press – 2 hrs 44 mins ago

TOULOUSE, France (AP) — A French prosecutor says a gunman opened fire in front of a Jewish school in the southwest French city of Toulouse on Monday, killing four people including a father and his two sons, and another child.

Prosecutor Michel Valet says the 30-year-old man and his 3-year-old and 6-year-old sons were killed in the shooting just before school started.

He said another child, between 8 and 10 years old, was also killed, and a 17-year-old seriously injured.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

TOULOUSE, France (AP) — A gunman has opened fire in front of a Jewish school in a southwest French city killing several people, the Toulouse prosecutor said Monday.

Michel Valet told The Associated Press that there were "several dead" in the morning incident at the school in Toulouse. He said it was unclear whether the victims were children. French media have reported up to three dead, including two children. but this could not immediately be independently confirmed.

The shooter drove away on a scooter, a national police official in Paris said. The official did not wish to be named in line with departmental rules.

Police cordoned off the private Ozar Hathora school in the northeast of Toulouse. Some two hours after the shooting children were still in the school.

President Nicolas Sarkozy called the shootings an "abominable drama and a "frightening tragedy."

Sarkozy was heading to the site Monday along with by Richard Prasquier, the president of CRIF, the umbrella group representing Jewish organizations, the president's office and CRIF said. The Education Minister Luc Chatel also accompanied the group.

The shooting occurred about 8:10 a.m. — just ahead of the start of classes in most schools — in the same area where a gunman on a motorbike opened fire on three uniformed paratroopers at a bank machine Thursday, killing two and critically wounding the other.

The attack in the town of Montauban occurred not far from the soldiers' barracks. Four days earlier, a gunman on a motorbike shot and killed another paratrooper in Toulouse, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) away.


A police official warned Monday that it was too early to draw solid links between the attacks

"We're in a heated atmosphere. It's premature for this or that hypothesis to try to establish a direct link," Didier Martinez, regional secretary of the SGP Police union, said on BFM-TV.

Authorities said at the time of the earlier shootings that forensic analysis had shown that the same weapon was used in the Montauban and Toulouse attacks.

http://news.yahoo.com/french-prosecutor ... 38887.html


*
"Teach them to think. Work against the government." – Wittgenstein.
User avatar
vanlose kid
 
Posts: 3182
Joined: Wed Oct 17, 2007 7:44 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Coming Soon - War with Iran?

Postby DrVolin » Mon Mar 19, 2012 9:44 pm

Is decomissioning Enterprise as expensive as de-asbestosing the twin towers?
all these dreams are swept aside
By bloody hands of the hypnotized
Who carry the cross of homicide
And history bears the scars of our civil wars

--Guns and Roses
DrVolin
 
Posts: 1544
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:19 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Coming Soon - War with Iran?

Postby DrVolin » Tue Mar 20, 2012 8:01 am

vanlose kid wrote:been keeping an eye on this the past few days (first two mil-related incidents) thinking Gladio, but the emphasis shifted today, so here:



This is starting to look a little bit like Breivik. And Breivik looks little bit like Gladio.
all these dreams are swept aside
By bloody hands of the hypnotized
Who carry the cross of homicide
And history bears the scars of our civil wars

--Guns and Roses
DrVolin
 
Posts: 1544
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:19 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Coming Soon - War with Iran?

Postby Ben D » Mon Mar 26, 2012 8:13 pm

Good luck with that Iran....

Shell to Iran: About that $1B, we're working on it

By Richard Mably and Peg Mackey

Reuters 3/25/2012

Royal Dutch Shell is struggling to pay off $1 billion that it owes Iran for crude oil because European Union and U.S. financial sanctions now make it almost impossible to process payments, industry sources said.

Four sources said the oil major owes a large sum to the National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) for deliveries of crude, with one putting the figure at close to $1 billion. A debt of that size would equate to roughly four large tanker loads of Iranian crude or about 8 million barrels.

"Shell is working hard to figure out a way to pay NIOC," said an industry source, who requested anonymity. "It's very sensitive and very difficult. They want to stay on good terms with Iran, while abiding by sanctions." A Shell spokesman declined to comment.

The European Union toughened financial sanctions and placed a ban on Iranian oil imports on January 23, but gave companies until July 1 to wind down their existing business.

With daily contract volumes of 100,000 barrels, Shell ranked as Iran's second biggest corporate client — along with France's Total — behind Turkey's Tupras.

Shell CEO Peter Voser said on March 7 the company would take its final deliveries of Iranian crude "within a matter of weeks".
Rigorous U.S. and European financial measures, aimed at punishing Iran for its nuclear program have already come into force, making it increasingly difficult to pay for and ship crude from Iran, say oil executives.

"There are big frustrations with the payment route — the U.S. pressure is really working," said a senior oil source. "It's now nearly impossible to use the banking system."

Such financial restrictions were in part behind Total's decision to stop purchasing Iranian crude at the end of last year, industry sources say. Total also bought about 100,000 barrels per day from Tehran.

Industry sources say some of Iran's big customers may have been using the Dubai-based Noor Islamic Bank to channel payments to Iran. It is not known whether Shell was processing payments via Noor Islamic Bank.

Diplomats say the bank bowed to pressure from Washington and cut ties with Iranian banks in the United Arab Emirates at the end of last year.

Given the outstanding amount owed in the face of sanctions, senior oil executives say the only way forward is for Shell to ask the British government to help settle the account with Iran.

An approach was made by Shell, sources say, but the company was rebuffed.
There is That which was not born, nor created, nor evolved. If it were not so, there would never be any refuge from being born, or created, or evolving. That is the end of suffering. That is God**.

** or Nirvana, Allah, Brahman, Tao, etc...
User avatar
Ben D
 
Posts: 2005
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2007 8:10 pm
Location: Australia
Blog: View Blog (3)

Re: Coming Soon - War with Iran?

Postby AlicetheKurious » Tue Mar 27, 2012 3:54 pm

Ben D wrote:Given the outstanding amount owed in the face of sanctions, senior oil executives say the only way forward is for Shell to ask the British government to help settle the account with Iran.

An approach was made by Shell, sources say, but the company was rebuffed.


This is so poorly written it's hard to believe it's the work of a professional. Is Shell trying to get the British government to pay, in part or in whole, for the oil that Shell received? Or is Shell proposing to give the money to the British government, who would then pay Iran? If it's the latter, is there any law that would prevent the British government from doing so? Also, all those passive verbs are giving me hives. If I was the editor, I'd have fired that reporter's ass. The editors at Reuters should be ashamed of themselves: there are simply too many genuinely competent writers who are unemployed.
"If you're not careful the newspapers will have you hating the oppressed and loving the people doing the oppressing." - Malcolm X
User avatar
AlicetheKurious
 
Posts: 5348
Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 11:20 am
Location: Egypt
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Coming Soon - War with Iran?

Postby Ben D » Wed Mar 28, 2012 9:13 pm

US gears up for land operation in Persian Gulf?

RT Published: 28 March, 2012, 18:40

The US is sending an amphibious assault group and a couple of thousand US Marines to the Persian Gulf. With another US carrier making its way to Iran’s doorstep, US military still insist that this is a “regularly scheduled deployment”.

Image
A helicopter flies near US ship Iwo Jima (AFP Photo / Johan Ordones)

The Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group is comprised of amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima, amphibious transport dock USS New York, and amphibious dock landing ship USS Gunston Hall. It is also reinforced with an atomic submarine and a marine helicopter squadron.

The group, which is “a versatile sea-based force that can be tailored to a variety of missions,” left port on Tuesday and is heading to the Gulf, the US Navy says.

Over 2,000 US Marines are to come on board Iwo Jima when the group makes a stop in North Carolina.
Many of those marines are veterans of ground combat in Iraq and Afghanistan making their first shipboard deployment, dailypress.com points out.

The US already has an amphibious group with an expeditionary marine unit in the Gulf region. The Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group was deployed there in January, after Iran’s threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial route that allows the delivery of around 20 per cent of the world's oil.

Iran has repeatedly reiterated this threat over the last six month, while the US and its NATO partners kept increasing their naval presence in the region.

The US is aware that Iran has enough resources to mine the strait within a relatively short period of time. General Michael Dempsey, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said earlier that the US must be prepared to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by force.
In March, the US sent another four minesweepers to join those already deployed there, bringing the overall number in the region to eight.

Two US aircraft carrier battle groups, headed by the USS Carl Vinson and USS Abraham Lincoln, are patrolling the waters around the strait. Another carrier, USS Enterprise, is expected to join them next month.
There is That which was not born, nor created, nor evolved. If it were not so, there would never be any refuge from being born, or created, or evolving. That is the end of suffering. That is God**.

** or Nirvana, Allah, Brahman, Tao, etc...
User avatar
Ben D
 
Posts: 2005
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2007 8:10 pm
Location: Australia
Blog: View Blog (3)

Re: Coming Soon - War with Iran?

Postby crikkett » Thu Mar 29, 2012 12:55 pm

DrVolin wrote:Is decomissioning Enterprise as expensive as de-asbestosing the twin towers?

Ominous. I thought it was that their exoskeleton had to be replaced.

5,000 people live on a carrier.
crikkett
 
Posts: 2206
Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2007 12:03 pm
Blog: View Blog (5)

Re: Coming Soon - War with Iran?

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Mar 29, 2012 8:05 pm

Israelis Suspect Obama Media Leaks to Prevent Strike on Iran

JERUSALEM – Two reports today about Iran’s nuclear program and the possibility of an Israeli military strike have analysts in Israel accusing the Obama administration leaking information to pressure Israel not to bomb Iran and for Iran to reach a compromise in upcoming nuclear talks.
The first report in Foreign Policy quotes anonymous American officials saying that Israel has been given access to airbases by Iran’s northern neighbor Azerbaijan from which Israel could launch air strikes or at least drones and search and rescue aircraft.
The second report from Bloomberg, based on a leaked congressional report, said that Iran’s nuclear facilities are so dispersed that it is “unclear what the ultimate effect of a strike would be…” A strike could delay Iran as little as six months, a former official told the researchers.
“It seems like a big campaign to prevent Israel from attacking,” analyst Yoel Guzansky at the Institute for National Security Studies told ABC News. “I think the [Obama] administration is really worried Jerusalem will attack and attack soon. They’re trying hard to prevent it in so many ways.”
The Foreign Policy report by Mark Perry quotes an intelligence officer saying, “We’re watching what Iran does closely…But we’re now watching what Israel is doing in Azerbaijan. And we’re not happy about it.”
If true, the deal with Azerbaijan “totally changes the whole picture,” says Guzansky, making it far easier for Israel to strike faster and harder, rather than having to fly 2,200 miles to Iran and back over Iraqi airspace.
Thursday’s reports come a week after the results of a classified war game was leaked to the New York Times which predicted that an Israeli strike could lead to a wider regional war and result in hundreds of American deaths. In a column this afternoon titled “Obama Betraying Israel?” longtime defense commentator Ron Ben-Yishai at Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper angrily denounced the leaks as a “targeted assassination campaign.”
“In recent weeks the administration shifted from persuasion efforts vis-à-vis decision-makers and Israel’s public opinion to a practical, targeted assassination of potential Israeli operations in Iran,” Ben-Yishai writes. “The campaign’s aims are fully operational: To make it more difficult for Israeli decision-makers to order the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] to carry out a strike, and what’s even graver, to erode the IDF’s capacity to launch such strike with minimal casualties.”
Ben-Yishai says much of the information in the reports has either been published or is simply wrong, but in the case of the Bloomberg report on American knowledge of Iran’s nuclear facilities, “instead of forcing the Iranians to piece together all the assessments themselves, the Congress report offers them everything in one place.”
The reports pressure both Israel and Iran, fellow Yedioth columnist and military analyst Alex Fishman told ABC News, but he doesn’t buy into the theory that Azerbaijan will be a base for potential Israeli operations.
“I don’t believe that there’s news behind this story because it doesn’t make sense. It’s very romantic, very John le Carre, but less practical,” he says, explaining that the airstrips as they are now are far too basic for a “huge wing of airplanes.”
The report’s purpose is “to show the Iranians that something is going on, to make them much more suspicious, much more nervous. You need this pressure in order to put them in a lower position when negotiations start.”
Iran has agreed to international nuclear talks next month, negotiations that the U.S. hopes will help avert a conflict but that Israel dismisses as a stalling tactic by Iran. Asked whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sees the reports as pressure from the Obama administration, an Israeli official indicated that they fall into the very category of “loose talk” of war that President Obama recently criticized.
“When we [Netanyahu's office] were in Washington [in early March], President Obama called publicly for people to tone down the rhetoric,” said the official. “The prime minister has called on ministers not to talk. We agree with Obama that loose talk is not doing anyone any favors.”
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

PreviousNext

Return to General Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 167 guests