Malachi Smith's List: IRAN/PERSIA

• Aug 8, 2008
• Aug 8, 2008
• 'We'll neutralize S-300 if sold to Iran'
• By YAAKOV KATZ
• If Russia goes through with the sale of its most advanced anti-aircraft missile system to Iran, Israel will use an electronic warfare device now under development to neutralize it and as a result present Russia as vulnerable to air infiltrations, a top defense official has told The Jerusalem Post.
• The Russian system, called the S-300, is one of the most advanced multi-target anti-aircraft-missile systems in the world today and has a reported ability to track up to 100 targets simultaneously while engaging up to 12 at the same time.
• It has a range of about 200 kilometers and can hit targets at altitudes of 27,000 meters.
• While Russia has denied that it sold the system to Iran, Teheran claimed last year that Moscow was preparing to equip the Islamic Republic with S-300 systems.

•   <!-- It will play either video as first choice, or first image if there isn't an image -->             

   

         

  Russian S-300 missiles.  
• Iran already has TOR-M1 surface-to-air missiles from Russia.
• Mixed media reports have emerged recently regarding the possible delivery of the system to Iran.
• Two weeks ago Reuters quoted a senior Israeli official who said the system would be delivered to Iran by the end of the year.
• In response, the Pentagon released a statement rejecting the assessment and saying that the US did not believe Iran would get it in 2008.
• According to the Israeli defense official who spoke to the Post, "no one really knows yet if and when Iran will get the system."
• A top IAF officer also said this week that Israel needed to do "everything possible" to prevent the S-300 from reaching the region.
• "Russia will have to think real hard before delivering this system to Iran, which is possibly on the brink of conflict with either Israel or the US, since if the system is delivered, an EW [electronic warfare] system will likely be developed to neutralize it, and if that happens it would be catastrophic not only for Iran but also for Russia," the defense official said. 
• Neutralization of one of the main components of Russian air defense would be a blow to Russian national security as well as to defense exports.
• "No country will want to buy the system if it is proven to be ineffective," the official said. "For these reasons, Russia may not deliver it in the end to Iran."
• Also on Thursday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told an Italian paper that a nuclear Iran would be "dangerous to world order."
• "Either way, we need to keep every option open. If they provoke us, or they attack us, our army is prepared to attack and to succeed uncompromisingly," he asserted in an interview with the daily Corriere della Sera . "It's up to us to find the best way to get the best result with minimum damage," Barak added.
• Jerusalem Post staff contributed to this report.

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• Stirling
• Thursday, August 7, 2008
• Operation Brimstone ended only one week ago. This was the joint US/UK/French naval war games in the Atlantic Ocean preparing for a naval blockade of Iran and the likely resulting war in the Persian Gulf area.
• The massive war games included a US Navy supercarrier battle group, an US Navy expeditionary carrier battle group, a Royal Navy carrier battle group, a French nuclear hunter-killer submarine plus a large number of US Navy cruisers, destroyers and frigates playing the "enemy force".
• Carrier Strike Group Two
• The lead American ship in these war games, the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN71) and its Carrier Strike Group Two (CCSG-2) are now headed towards Iran along with the USS Ronald Reagon (CVN76) and its Carrier Strike Group Seven (CCSG-7) coming from Japan.
• They are joining two existing USN battle groups in the Gulf area: the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN72) with its Carrier Strike Group Nine (CCSG-9); and the USS Peleliu (LHA-5) with its expeditionary strike group.
• Likely also under way towards the Persian Gulf is the USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7) and its expeditionary strike group, the UK Royal Navy HMS Ark Royal (R07) carrier battle group, assorted French naval assets including the nuclear hunter-killer submarine Amethyste and French Naval Rafale fighter jets on-board the USS Theodore Roosevelt.
• These ships took part in the just completed Operation Brimstone.
• The build up of naval forces in the Gulf will be one of the largest multi-national naval armadas since the First and Second Gulf Wars.
• The intent is to create a US/EU naval blockade (which is an Act of War under international law) around Iran (with supporting air and land elements) to prevent the shipment of benzene and certain other refined oil products headed to Iranian ports.
• Iran has limited domestic oil refining capacity and imports 40% of its benzene. Cutting off benzene and other key products would cripple the Iranian economy.
• The neo-cons are counting on such a blockade launching a war with Iran.
• The US Naval forces being assembled include the following:
• Carrier Strike Group Nine
  USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN72) nuclear powered supercarrier
  with its Carrier Air Wing Two
• Destroyer Squadron Nine:
• USS Mobile Bay (CG53) guided missile cruiser
  USS Russell (DDG59) guided missile destroyer
  USS Momsen (DDG92) guided missile destroyer
  USS Shoup (DDG86) guided missile destroyer
  USS Ford (FFG54) guided missile frigate
  USS Ingraham (FFG61) guided missile frigate
  USS Rodney M. Davis (FFG60) guided missile frigate
  USS Curts (FFG38) guided missile frigate
  Plus one or more nuclear hunter-killer submarines
• Peleliu Expeditionary Strike Group
• USS Peleliu (LHA-5) a Tarawa-class amphibious assault carrier
  USS Pearl Harbor (LSD52) assult ship
  USS Dubuque (LPD8) assult ship/landing dock
  USS Cape St. George (CG71) guided missile cruiser
  USS Halsey (DDG97) guided missile destroyer
  USS Benfold (DDG65) guided missile destroyer
• USS Theodore Roosevelt (DVN71) nuclear powered supercarrier
  with its Carrier Air Wing Eight
• Destroyer Squadron 22
• USS Monterey (CG61) guided missile cruiser
  USS Mason (DDG87) guided missile destroyer
  USS Nitze (DDG94) guided missile destroyer
  USS Sullivans (DDG68) guided missile destroyer
• USS Springfield (SSN761) nuclear powered hunter-killer submarine
• IWO ESG ~ Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group
• USS Iwo Jima (LHD7) amphibious assault carrier
  with its Amphibious Squadron Four
  and with its 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit
• USS San Antonio (LPD17) assault ship
  USS Velia Gulf (CG72) guided missile cruiser
  USS Ramage (DDG61) guided missile destroyer
  USS Carter Hall (LSD50) assault ship
  USS Roosevelt (DDG80) guided missile destroyer
• USS Hartfore (SSN768) nuclear powered hunter-killer submarine
• Carrier Strike Group Seven
  USS Ronald Reagan (CVN76) nuclear powered supercarrier
  with its Carrier Air Wing 14
• Destroyer Squadron 7
• USS Chancellorsville (CG62) guided missile cruiser
  USS Howard (DDG83) guided missile destroyer
  USS Gridley (DDG101) guided missile destroyer
  USS Decatur (DDG73) guided missile destroyer
  USS Thach (FFG43) guided missile frigate
  USNS Rainier (T-AOE-7) fast combat support ship
• Also likely to join the battle armada:
• UK Royal Navy HMS Ark Royal Carrier Strike Group with assorted guided missile destroyers and frigates, nuclear hunter-killer submarines and support ships
• French Navy nuclear powered hunter-killer submarines (likely the Amethyste and perhaps others), plus French Naval Rafale fighter jets operating off of the USS Theodore Roosevelt as the French Carrier Charles de Gaulle is in dry dock, and assorted surface warships
• Various other US Navy warships and submarines and support ships.
• The following USN ships took part (as the "enemy" forces) in Operation Brimstone and several may join in:
• USS San Jacinto (CG56) guided missile cruiser

  • My youngest Marine was aboard this vessel for a while.
• USS Anzio (CG68) guided missile cruiser
  USS Normandy (CG60) guided missile cruiser
  USS Carney (DDG64) guided missile destroyer
  USS Oscar Austin (DDG79) guided missile destroyer
  USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG81) guided missile destroyer
  USS Carr (FFG52) guided missile frigate
• The USS Iwo Jima and USS Peleliu Expeditionary Strike Groups have USMC Harrier jump jets and an assortment of assault and attack helicopters.
• The Expeditionary Strike Groups have powerful USMC Expeditionary Units with amphibious armor and ground forces trained for operating in shallow waters and in seizures of land assets, such as Qeshm Island (a 50 mile long island off of Bandar Abbas in the Gulf of Hormuz and headquarters of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps).
• The large and very advanced nature of the US Naval warships is not only directed at Iran. There is a great fear that Russia and China may oppose the naval and air/land blockade of Iran.
• If Russian and perhaps Chinese naval warships escort commercial tankers to Iran in violation of the blockade it could be the most dangerous at-sea confrontation since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
• The US and allied Navies, by front loading a Naval blockade force with very powerful guided missile warships and strike carriers is attempting to have a force so powerful that Russia and China will not be tempted to mess with.
• This is a most serious game of military brinkmanship with major nuclear armed powers that have profound objections to the neo-con grand strategy and to western control of all of the Middle East's oil supply.
• The Russian Navy this spring sent a major battle fleet into the Mediterranean headed by the modern aircraft carrier the Admiral Kuznetsov and the flagship of its Black Sea Fleet, the Guided Missile Heavy Cruiser Moskva.
• This powerful fleet has at least 11 surface ships and unknown numbers of subs and can use the Russian naval facility at Syria's Tartous port for resupply.
• The Admiral Kuznetsov carries approximately 47 warplanes and 10 helicopters. The warplanes are mostly the powerful Su-33, a naval version (with mid-air refueling capability) of the Su-27 family.
• While the Su-33 is a very powerful warplane it lacks the power of the stealth USAF F-22. However, the Russians insist that they have developed a plasma based system that allows them to stealth any aircraft and a recent incident where Russian fighters were able to appear unannounced over a US Navy carrier battle group tends to confirm their claims.
• The Su-33 can be armed with the 3M82 Moskit sea-skimming missile (NATO code name SS-N-22 Sunburn) and the even more powerful P-800 Oniks (also named Yakhonts; NATO code name SS-N-26 Onyx). Both missiles are designed to kill US Navy supercarriers by getting past the cruiser/destroyer screen and the USN point-defense Phalanx system by using high supersonic speeds and violent end maneuvers.
• Russian subs currently use the underwater rocket VA-111 Shkval (Squall), which is fired from standard 533mm torpedo tubes and reaches a speed of 360kph (230mph) underwater. There is no effective countermeasures to this system and no western counterpart.
• A strategic diversion has been created for Russia. The Republic of Georgia, with US backing, is actively preparing for war on South Ossetia. The South Ossetia capital has been shelled and a large Georgian tank force has been heading towards the border.
• Russia has stated that it will not sit by and allow the Georgians to attack South Ossetia.
• The Russians are great chess players and this game may not turn out so well for the neo-cons.
• UPDATE 8 August 2008 ~ War has broken out between Georgia and South Ossetia. At least 10 Russian troops have been killed and 30 wounded and 2 Russian fighter jets downed. American Marines, a thousand of them, have recently been in Georgia training the Georgian military forces. Several European nations stopped Bush and others from allowing Georgia into NATO. Russia is moving a large military force with armor towards the area. This could get bad, and remember it is just a strategic diversion....but one that could have horrific effects.
• Kuwait has activated its "Emergency War Plan" as it and other Gulf nations prepare for the likelihood of a major regional war in the Middle East involving weapons of mass destruction.
• The two-ton elephant in the living room of the neo-con strategy is the advanced biowar (ABW) that Iran, and to a lessor extent Syria, has.
• This places the motherlands of the major neo-con nations (America, France, the United Kingdom), as well as Israel, in grave danger.
• When the Soviet Union fell the Iranians hired as many out-of-work former Soviet advanced biowar experts as possible. In the last 15 or so years they have helped to develop a truly world class ABW program utilizing recombination DNA genetic engineering technology to create a large number of man made killer viruses.
• This form of weapon system does not require high tech military delivery systems. The viruses are sub-microscopic and once seeded in a population use the population itself as vectors.
• Seeding can be done without notice in shopping malls, churches, and other public places. The only real defense to an advanced global strategic biowar attack is to lock down the population as rapidly as possible and let those infected die off.
• Unless the public gets it act together and forces the neo-cons to stop the march to yet another war in the Middle East we are apt to see a truly horrific nightmare unfold in OUR COUNTRIES.

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• Today: Sunday August 17, 2008
• Ahmadinejad prays for advent of Lord of Time
• Tehran, August 14, IRNA
• President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday prayed for reappearance of the Lord of Time (May God Hasten His Advent).

  • "Lord of Time"...Interesting title here. I need to research the Greek word "cosmos/kosmos", "aeon" and age. If my theory and calculations are correct: it may be that Ahmadinejad has correctly identified his "Mahdi" (Islamic "savior) as Satan himself...Lucifer; "god of this world"; ruler of this present age; and since God..(the one and true God) is a God of Eternity..."from everlasting to everlasting..Alpha and Omega"...this Mahdi of the Shia seems to be what we Christians and some Jews know as the Antichrist.
• Ahmadinejad, who is well interested to propagate the philosophy of Mahdaviat, a belief in reappearance of Imam Mahdi (May God Hasten His Advent) cherished by Shia Muslims, elaborated on the philosophy in the Fourth International Seminar on Mahdaviat Doctrine.
• He said that the philosophy of Mahdaviat has focused on virtue of mankind and accomplishment of humanity.

  • Man centered...humanistic
• He said that the modern world is in dire need of justice promised by reappearance of Imam Mahdi.

  • Yes...to cast off the restraints of Christianity and the true Godly; overthrow the precense of God on earth via his true Church; throw wide open the doors, gateways and vortices to the nether regions; release those wicked supernatural spirits and fallen angels from their prisons and their chains of darkness and unleash them onto the earth for that final showdown between Satan and God...all of this, quite typically, is right in keeping with Islamic "theology." The Evil must punish and destroy the Righteous in order that wickedness may rule.
• Muslims believe that Imam Mahdi (May God Hasten His Reappearance) will bring justice to humanity by his advent.
• Ahmadinejad said that nobody is satisfied with the current situation in the world, owing to the chaos emanated from brutal acts of illegitimate governments.

  • Appeal to and for a NWO...
• Turning to Iraq as a pattern for crimes perpetrated by the present rulers, he noted that criminals have assaulted the civilized country under the pretext of fighting weapons of mass destruction, but they continue with occupation, in the war-torn country although the dictatorship has gone.
• Ahmadinejad said that the ambition of establishing the fake Zionist regime had roots in a historical desire by western powers to dominate the Muslim nations in the Middle East.
• "The UN Security Council, which is tasked with creating tranquility in the world, has turned into means for fomenting differences in nations and paving the way for the occupying and looting powers," he said.
• He said that the bullying powers misuse the international community and organizations to press ahead with their own illegal agenda.

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• Military help for Georgia is a 'declaration of war', says Moscow in extraordinary warning to the West
• 27.08.08
• Moscow has issued an extraordinary warning to the West that military assistance to Georgia for use against South Ossetia or Abkhazia would be viewed as a "declaration of war" by Russia.

  • Russia here is counting on threats and intimidation to cause the usual "piss in the pants" of the usual "incontinent" Western European countries in the hope of dividing the U.S. and her nominal "allies" of NATO. Russia is taking a gamble here that intimidation and Europe's generations' old decadence and cowardice will create an obstacle to the plans of the U.S. to stand militarily on Russia's borders. And if the gamble does not work? What then, Ruskies? Russia may be strong..She may be stronger than she was in the 1990s but in sophisticated weaponry and technology she cannot yet strike at the American homeland. That may change one day...SO...if war with the Ruskies is inevitable; then better now than later. Let's hit Russia with everything we've got and hit her hard and unrelentingly. A smoldering, smoking black crater where the Bolsheviks use to reign, swagger and bluff..would be no more. Then..THEN..Iran? Syria? What then, Venezuela? Cuba? You all were saying????
• The extreme rhetoric from the Kremlin's envoy to NATO came as President Dmitry Medvedev stressed he will make a military response to US missile defence installations in eastern Europe, sending new shudders across countries whose people were once blighted by the Iron Curtain.
•  

  Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (right) meets with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin - the 'real architect' of the Georgia conflict - and the Security Council (unseen) in Sochi yesterday
• The incendiary warning on Western military involvement in Georgia - where NATO nations have long played a role in training and equipping the small state - came in an interview with Dmitry Rogozin, a former nationalist politician who is now ambassador to the North Atlantic Alliance.
• "If NATO suddenly takes military actions against Abkhazia and South Ossetia, acting solely in support of Tbilisi, this will mean a declaration of war on Russia," he stated. 
• Yesterday likened the current world crisis to the fevered atmosphere before the start of the First World War.
• Rogozin said he did not believe the crisis would descend to war between the West and Russia.

  • Of course he doesn't...What he and his Bolshevik lords in the capital of "Western Mongolia" are counting on is enough bluff, enough scare to cause a case of chronic diarrhea in every single European, from the Bay of Biscay to the Danube.
• But his use of such intemperate language will be seen as dowsing a fire with petrol.
•  

  The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Dallas at Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi today, carrying what the U.S. says is humanitarian aid
• Top military figure Colonel General Leonid Ivashov, president of the Academy of Geopolitical Studies in Moscow, alleged that the US and NATO had been arming Georgia as a dress rehearsal for a future military operation in Iran.

  • Hmmm..So it is about Iran after all? I thought as much, teo weeks ago.
• "We are close to a serious conflict - U.S. and NATO preparations on a strategic scale are ongoing. In the operation the West conducted on Georgian soil against Russia - South Ossetians were the victims or hostages of it - we can see a rehearsal for an attack on Iran." 
• He claimed Washington was fine tuning a new type of warfare and that the threat of an attack on Iran was growing by the day bringing "chaos and instability" in its wake.
• With the real architect of the worsening Georgian conflict - prime minister Vladimir Putin - remaining in the background, Medvedev followed up on Rogozin's broadside with a threat to use the Russian military machine to respond to the deployment of the American anti-missile defence system in Poland and the Czech republic.  
• Poland agreed this month to place ten interceptor missiles on its territory, and Moscow has already hinted it would become a nuclear target for Russia in the event of conflict.   
• "These missiles are close to our borders and constitute a threat to us," Medvedev told Al-Jazeera television. "This will create additional tension and we will have to respond to it in some way, naturally using military means." 

• The Russian president said that offering NATO membership to Georgia and Ukraine, two former Soviet republics, would only aggravate the situation.

   

  Moscow has consistently expressed its opposition to the U.S. missile shield, saying it threatens its national security.
• The U.S. claims the shield is designed to thwart missile attacks by what it calls "rogue states," including Iran.
• Meanwhile, Russia - seen by the West as flouting international law - today demanded NATO abide by an obscure agreement signed before the Second World War limiting its warships in the Black Sea.
• "In light of the build-up of NATO naval forces in the Black Sea, our fleet has also taken on the task of monitoring their activities," said hawkish deputy head of Russia's general staff, Anatoly Nogovitsyn.
• The Montreux Convention, as it is called, sets a weight restriction of 45,000 tonnes on the number of warships that countries outside the Black Sea region can deploy in the basin.
• "Can NATO indefinitely build up its forces and means there? It turns out it cannot," said Nogovitsyn.
• NATO has said it is undertaking pre-arranged exercises in the Black Sea involving US, German, Spanish and Polish ships. Two other US warships sailed to Georgian waters with humanitarian aid.
• Georgia is poised to sever diplomatic relations with Russia, or reduce them to a bare minimum. 
• "We will drastically cut our diplomatic ties with Russia," said a top official. 
• 

  Russian ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin
• Russia sought Chinese backing for its action - but the Communist regime in Beijing appeared reluctant to offer support, instead issuing a statement saying it was "concerned" about recent developments.  

  • The Biblical "Kings of the East"
• NATO called for Russia to reverse its decision on recognition for the two enclaves, both Georgian under international law.
• But the new 'president' of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoyty, called for Russian military bases on his territory.

• French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner warned today that an marauding Russian bear could trample over other ex-Soviet states.

   

  "That is very dangerous," he said, pointing at Ukraine and Moldova.

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• Sep 4, 2008
• Iran and the left in Latin America
• By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
• Bolivian President Evo Morales is in Tehran this week, ushering in a new   chapter in his country's economic and strategic cooperation with the Islamic   Republic of Iran, which has promised a hefty investment in Bolivia's energy   sector and other joint ventures,

  • And standing behind all of them and this activity is...Russia
  Add Sticky Note
• some involving other Latin and Central   American countries, such as Venezuela and Nicaragua, not to overlook Cuba.
• In a joint communique, Morales and President Mahmud Ahmadinejad have signed off   on the need for "concrete political steps against every type of imperialism",   while also condemning the intervention of the United Nations Security Council   in Iran's nuclear program as "lacking any legal or technical justification".
• Bolivia may be a poor country, but it is strategically located and represents   an important ally for Iran that can act as a catalyst in
• enhancing Iran's growing cooperation with other Latin nations, especially those   considered leftist or populist.
• In his visit to Bolivia last year, Ahmadinejad promised that Iran would make a   US$1 billion investment in Bolivia's underdeveloped oil and gas sector and the   two sides are now much closer in turning this into reality.
• Certainly, Morales'   decision to set aside any hesitation and fully support Iran's position in the   current nuclear standoff goes a long way in cementing Iran-Bolivia friendship.
• From Tehran's vantage point, an indirect benefit of Morales' visit is that it   impresses on Moscow the services that Tehran can render in strengthening   Moscow's anti-unipolarism credo, which was spelled out by President Dmitry   Medvedev in his major foreign policy speech last week.

  • As I said: behind all of this looms Russia
  Add Sticky Note
• Tapping into Cold War   lexicon, Medvedev openly mentioned Russia's intention to pursue a "sphere of   influence" in politics and made a point of mentioning "not only with   neighbors".
• As various Russian experts, including at the Russian Center for Strategic   Studies, have pointed out, Russia in the aftermath of the Georgia crisis is now   inclined to strengthen its ties with countries such as Iran and Venezuela.
• In   light of the Georgia visit this week by US Vice President Dick Cheney, reviled   by Premier Vladimir Putin as directly responsible for triggering the Georgia   crisis for election purposes, the growing rift between the US and Russia   simultaneously represents an opportunity for Tehran both to neutralize UN   Security Council efforts to impose tighter sanctions on Iran over the nuclear   program and explore further, and more meaningful, strategic cooperation with   Russia and the Latin left vis-a-vis the common threat of US unipolarism.
• On balance, the post-Cold War record of US unipolarism has been less than   desirable.
• There are many examples of blatant interventionism, bullying and   war-mongering that have risked world peace.
• And now with both the US   presidential candidates, Democratic Senator Barack Obama and Republican John   McCain, sold on the notion of maintaining the US's pre-eminence in global   politics, we must expect continuity with the pattern of post-Cold War policies   having the upper hand, albeit with new nuances if Obama wins.
• Foreign policy advisors of Ahmadinejad are openly counting on Iran's new   relations with Latin America as one of the net gains of his presidency.
• In   fact, the new level of cooperation between Iran and Bolivia and other Latin and   Central American countries is a timely, further confirmation of the strategic   vision and outlook that they have brought to the government, compared with the   Mohammad Khatami government that pushed the arch of detente with the West   almost to the exclusion of all else.
• Ahmadinejad's foreign policy team is now busy contemplating the next moves now   that the Russians are putting to the backburner their hesitations for closer   relations with countries labeled "rogue" by the West.
• "As far as Iran is concerned the recent summit of the Shanghai Cooperation   Organization [SCO] in Dushanbe was a success because China and Russia agreed to   expand the role and input of observer nations at the SCO, and that includes   Iran," a Tehran political analyst told Asia Times Online.
• As a result, Iran is   today one small leap shy of fully joining the SCO, and membership is only a   matter of time as far as Tehran is concerned.
• Clearly, the windfalls from the Georgia crisis for Iran are multiplying and   Iran's deft Latin diplomacy is meant to add to the new dynamism for   geopolitical and geostrategic cooperation with Russia (and China).
• As a middle   power (and not a "tiny one" as derided by Obama recently), Iran as a result of   its active global diplomacy in the Non-Aligned Movement has a rather   disproportionate global influence that far outweighs its paltry contribution to   global economy (less than 1%),

  • Only because Russia is Iran's guarantor and protector. Without Russia, Iran would still be a squabbling country on the Gulf. She is Russia's shield and facade for moving into the areas of vital U.S. interests and ultimately America's national security.
  Add Sticky Note
• and is well-positioned and predisposed to   bandwagoning with a new global anti-hegemonic front.
• Using its petrodollars to solidify its networks, Iran has already entered into   several economic agreements with Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba; should   Ahmadinejad win re-election next year, his second term will likely deepen these   ties even further.
• At the same time, the prospect of closer Iran-Russia relations directly impacts   Washington's thinking about Iran, given White House's reluctance to consent to   a new round of US-Iran dialogue on Iraq's security and or to take Iran's   serious misgivings about a US-Iraq security agreement into consideration.
• Put simply, ignoring Iran is not an option for Washington any longer as Iran   can effectively act as Moscow's junior partner sowing the threads of organic   connection to the Latin (and indeed world's) leftist or populist governments.

  • Once more, as I stated: a front
  Add Sticky Note
• The more organic, or multi-faceted, such ties, the more value and importance   attached to Iran by the key SCO nations, Russia and China,
• which can be seen in   the visit of Bolivia's president -
• Iran's diplomacy performs both regionally   and globally. 
  
• At this stage it is unclear if China actually favors such a new development, or   if Russia is resolved toward this line, since Moscow appears intent on a   measure of damage control with the West in the midst of these upheavals, and   certainly cooperation with the West on Iran's nuclear program can have the   protean value of healing some wounds.
• Kaveh L Afrasiabi, PhD, is the author of After Khomeini: New   Directions in Iran's Foreign Policy (Westview Press) and co-author of   "Negotiating Iran's Nuclear Populism", Brown Journal of World Affairs, Volume   XII, Issue 2, Summer 2005, with Mustafa Kibaroglu. He also wrote "Keeping   Iran's nuclear potential latent", Harvard International Review, and is author   of   Iran's Nuclear Program: Debating Facts Versus Fiction. For his   Wikipedia entry, click here.

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• The Iran War - How
    It Will Begin
• By The Earl of Stirling 

  9-6-8
• I have served as a consultant to three very high tech  aerospace firms. My specialty is conceptualizing advanced warfare especially  as it relates to new cutting edge advanced weapon systems.
• What I see unfolding  with a war on Iran is the most frightening set of circumstances I have  ever seen; and I have been involved in advanced theoretical weaponry strategy  and design for over 20 years.
• The war may be started by Israel, or by the  United States, or by a NATO/EU/US embargo, or by some 'false flag' attack.  What matters is that it will begin; and where it will take the world.
• Sometime in the weeks to months ahead, there will be  a war launched against Iran.
• Regardless if the war begins with a limited number of  air strikes against Iranian military and nuclear targets, or if an all-out  several thousand target attack begins from day one the probabilities of  the war becoming a major regional war within 48 hours are 90% or higher.
• The Iranians will simply not allow Israeli and/or American  military forces to attack its territory without a major response.
• Any significant  counter-attack on Israel and/or American regional bases will trigger a  much greater counter-response.
• The Iranians have equipped and paid for, and trained,  a massive unguided rocket and guided missile force in Lebanon (the largest  such force in human history).
• These missiles are in-place as a MAD force  (a MAD ~ mutually assured destruction ~ force is one that is a doomsday  force; established to prevent the use of overwhelming military force by  allowing a return "punch" of overwhelming military destructive  force upon one's enemy).
• The total number of missiles and rockets in Lebanon  are variously estimated at between 40,000 and 110,000. While many are unguided  Katyusha rockets, many are longer ranged guided missiles. All are operated  by Hezbollah Special Forces launch teams.
• The Hezbollah Special Forces are in-effect a highly trained  and well-equipped Iranian commando force of at least a Brigade in size.
• They man and protect a large number of mostly unguided and rather crude  rockets, generally Katyusha 122mm artillery rockets with a 19 mile/30km  range and capable of delivering approximately 66 pounds/30kg of warheads.
• Additionally, Hezbollah are known to possess a considerable number of more  advanced and longer range missiles. During the 2006 war Hezbollah fired  approximately 4,000 rockets (95% of which were Katyshas) all utilizing  only "dumb" high explosive warheads.
• Some Iranian build and supplied  Fajr-3 and Ra'ad 1 liquid-fueled missiles were also fired. It is believed  that the larger and longer range missiles are directly under the control  of Syrian and Iranian officers.
• The combination of short to medium range rockets and  guided missiles in Lebanon, and the longer range guided missiles in Syria,  the smaller number of rockets and missiles in the West Bank and Gaza, and  the longer range guided missiles in Iran present a massive throw weight  of warheads aimed at Israel. 

    
• The 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah War (called the Second Lebanon  War in Israel) was an attempt by Israel at eliminating the MAD counter-force  in Lebanon.
• It was an attempt that failed. The Syrians had purchased (and  supplied to Hezbollah) a large number of very nasty, relatively low cost  Russian AT-14 Kornet solid fuel anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) and the  Iranian trained Hezbollah commandos dug in massive numbers of concrete  bunkers and firing positions.
• After over 50 Merkava main battle tanks were  hit, and the high tech American made warplanes and pinpoint weapons proved  ineffective, the handwriting was on the wall.
• Either use neutron bombs  or lose a large number of Israeli solders to remove the Hezbollah threat;  or declare peace and walk away for the time being ~ the Israelis chose  the latter.
• It now appears that Israel has given up on the idea of  a ground assault to remove the many rocket and missile launchers in Lebanon.  A senior Israeli general has resigned with the complaint that the Army  is not training sufficiently to fight in Lebanon.
• The alternative is the  use of FAE (fuel air explosive) technology weapons and neutron bombs (a  type of nuclear weapon that produces a higher short term radiological output  and less blast output than normal nuclear weapons).
• Any use of such WMD by the Israeli Army on the Hezbollah  forces in Lebanon will likely automatically trigger the use of WMD warheads  on whatever rockets/missiles remain operational (if their use has not already  been authorized due to the nature and scope of Israeli and/or American  attacks on Iran).
• The bottom line of this is that Israel will face a truly  massive number of rockets and missiles from Lebanon with radiological,  chemical, biological and FAE weapons of mass destruction warheads.
• Additionally,  a sizable number of such weapons/warheads will be fired from Gaza and the  West Bank.
• The Syrians will be using larger more accurate guided missiles  to shower WMD upon Israel as will the Iranians.
• To counter this, the Israelis  will be using their Green Pine Radar system and a combination of Israeli  and American anti-missile missiles. They will have good success in knocking  down many incoming missiles but the sheer number of incoming weapons will  totally overload all defensive measures.
• Large parts of Israel will be contaminated with radiation  with extremely long half-lives (many tens of thousands of years in some  cases), with a mix of chemical, FAE, and biological nightmares thrown in  for good measure.
• Total deaths will amount to one-third to one-half of  the Israeli population with a large additional number being injured.
• The Israeli response will be the nuclear annihilation  of Syria, Iran, and parts of Lebanon with many tens of millions killed.

  • Some say..(and I am not certain of the accuracy) that Bible prophecy predicts a future destruction of Damascus.
  Add Sticky Note
• Expect to see every city of any size destroyed.
• There will be insufficient  people left in Syria, Iran, and large parts of Lebanon to even bury the  dead. Radiation will spread around the world from the nuclear bombs.
• Iranian sleeper teams in North America and western Europe  will begin to "seed" the populations of these areas with a number  (perhaps in the several dozens) of different man made killer viruses.

  • SCENARIO: Iranian "sleeper" teams in North America spread biological agents..
  Add Sticky Note
• People  in movie theaters, churches, synagogues, shopping malls, subway stations,  airports, etc., will be exposed without anyone knowing it at the time,  to these advanced biowar viruses.
• About nine to ten days later the computer  reporting systems in the western countries will begin to report back strange  illnesses. That will trigger a host of measures to contain the advanced  biowar viruses but it will simply be too late to prevent a massive outbreak  of horrific illnesses.
• International travel and trade will effectively  stop.
• People will be ordered to stay home from work and school with only  critical job holders being allowed on the streets.
• Hospitals will be overcome  with sick and dying people of all ages. The medical community will be among  the first to die off. Where temporary hospitals are established in school  gyms and other areas, the cross infection of several different genetically  engineered viruses will ensure 100% morality of everyone in the temporary  hospitals.
• In the event that the neo-con nations have sought to  expand the Georgia war by new attacks on Russian forces or by creating  some naval incident in the Black Sea the probabilities of an quick expansion  into a all-out Third World War involving Russian and NATO nuclear weapons  will be at approximately 50%.
• Even without a global total war being initiated,  Russia is apt to "sweep" the Black Sea of NATO ships with considerable  loss of life on both sides.
• The world will be in the worst economic depression in  history as global trade will be halted for at least several months due  to fears of the spread of the various advanced biowar viruses.
• If Israel  releases the Arab specific designer advanced biowar viruses, that many  claim she has, the Saudis are apt to fire their Chinese IRBMs (intermediate  range ballistic missiles) and send their very well equipped air force against  Israel with the small number of nuclear weapons that they possess (they  have funded the Pakistani nuclear weapon program and have several Pakistani  made nuclear devices).
• Of course, what is left of the Israeli forces will  respond with additional nuclear attacks, this time on Saudi Arabia and  other Arab nations for good measure.
• In North America and western Europe the total number  of civilians, after two months of advanced biowar illnesses, is apt to  be at least a third of the population ~ a total death count of well over  200 million persons.
• Despite the best efforts of all nations, the man engineered  super killer mutant viruses will spread throughout the world causing total  numbers of perhaps a billion or more to die.
• The after effect of all of this may well lead to even  more war as the non-neo-con nations will be so incensed at the massive  lost of life of their citizens that total global war may be unstoppable. 

    

  Stirling

45 more annotations...

• Bush Policy Translates
    Into Military Disaster
• Operation Brimstone -
    The Bluff Of The Century
• By Brian Harring 

  9-6-8
• Taken completely off-guard by the speed of the Russian  counteroffensive in South Ossetia and shocked when he realized the implications  of the total inability of the United States to support the anti-Russian  government they jobbed into place in Georgia, Bush and his neo-con advisors  hit on another plan that they felt would boost America's image as a great  military world power.
• Joint Task Force Exercise (JTFEX) 08-4 'Operation Brimstone'  commenced on July 21 in North Carolina and off the Eastern US Atlantic  coast from Virginia to Florida.
• Of significance was the participation of  British, French, Brazilian and Italian naval forces as part of a multinational  US naval exercise specifically directed against Iran by Presidential Order
• This vast naval and air armarmada consists of more than  40 naval units, including carriers, warships and submarines, some of the  last nuclear-armed, is in opposition to the Iranian Islamic Republic,  a concentration last seen just before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003
• Four US aircraft carriers and strike forces are, or will  be, positioned in the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea and the Red Sea.
• The backbone of Operation Brimstone are the USS Theodore  Roosevelt, USS Ronald Reagan. USS Abraham Lincoln,  and the USS Peleliu  Strike Group. The US has also sent to the Middle East, the Iwo Jima Expeditionary  Strike Group
• With accompanying frigates and submarines, some 40 war  ships will be in a state of readiness, in the region and/or or directly  off the Iranian coastline.
• In addition to these 40-odd war ships, there are some  36 US and allied war vessels operating under USCentcom as part of a Combined  Maritime Force (CMF) involved in Maritime Security
• US Central Command  (CENTCOM) under the command of General Petraeus, coordinates out of Bahrain,  the Maritime Security Operations (MSO) in Middle East waters ( Gulf of  Aden, Gulf of Oman, Arabian Sea, Red Sea and Indian Ocean).
• Although the American media has agreed not to publish  any information on this task force, the Russians, and others, have. Now,  the entire composition of this huge armada is known to many and the political  motives for it are also known.
• In essence, George Bush and his Israeli neocon "advisors"  are livid that their puppet state of Georgia was invaded by the Russians,  after Georgia, with American assistance and certainy, full foreknowledge,  invaded one of their provinces that was trying to join Russia.
• The subsequent  debacle highlighted by U.S. media film clips of burning or wrecked Georgian  tanks (falsely indentified by American media sources as Russian) and reports  of the panic stricken flight of the US -trained Georgian army enraged both  Bush and his Israeli allies.
• It has become well-known that the Israelis  were planning to attack Iran from two air bases in Georgia but the unexpected  rout of the Georgian army forced them to rapidly flee the country, leaving  their intelligence drones and trucks full of top secret papers behind for  the Russians to capture.

  • Allegations that Israeli air force was planning on using Georgian air bases for an attack on Iran...
  Add Sticky Note
• Naturally, none of this was ever reported in the  American media.
• Though there was no realistic way that either Bush or  his neocon manipulators could put a good face on this collapse of their  plans, nevertheless, they both have tried.
• Bush has threatened Russia with  international shame and desirion but his hoped-for "strong response"  by NATO was a dismal failure.
• NATO might be able to fight a war,  with a reasonable chance of success, against Andorra but none of the original  members of NATO have even the slightest desire to engage in warfare with  Russia. They have muttered softly and done nothing.

  • These NATO countries outside of the U.S. are about as useful as tits on a boar hog!
  Add Sticky Note
• Enraged by NATO's inaction, Bush has decided to show  Russia, and Israel (with massive American helpas usual) his is to be taken  seriously, which he no longer is, and convince Iran that they will no longer  tolerate being thwarted, frustrated and, even worse, ignorerd.
• Bush and  the lunatic Cheney hit on the moronic idea of establishing a partial naval  blockade of Iran in the Persian Gulf to deny Iran imports of benzene and  other refined oil products. 

    
• The plan, which has been leaked, both from Washington  and Isreali sources, is that beause Iran imports at least 40% of its refined  fuel products from Gulf neighbors, will retaliate for the embargo by shutting  the Strait of Hormuz oil route chokepoint, in which case the US naval and  air force stand ready to reopen the Strait and fight back any Iranian attempt  to break through the blockade.
• An Iranian attack on the massive armada  would then be used as an excuse to obliterate Tehran and areas where Israel  claims that "atomic weapons" are being produced.
• From intercepted diplomatic messages, it is very clear  that Israel views these huge forces as back-up for a possible Israeli military  attack on Iran's nuclear installations.
• The Israelis are hysterical because of the failure of  their Georgian adventures and the Bush people are too obsessed with losing  face to realize that by sending a huge, lumbering task force into the Persian  Gulf, they have put their ships, the security of Israel and the entire  fighting capabilities of the U.S. Navy at serious risk.
• The frantic planners of this nonsense do not seem to  realize that that there is only a narrow navigible channel in the Persian  Gulf allowing the deep draft super tankers to pass through. At the choke-point  of the Hormuz Strait, the blockage of this specific area would seal in  the American task force and leave it entirely at the mercy of batteries  of Surface-to-Surface Russian missiles, sold by that country to Iran,
• [but  in fact, manned by Russian specialists].
• If the Straits of Hormuz are blocked,  not only will the entire taskforce be trapped but no Gulf oil can get out  to the waiting world markets.
• The Iranian/Russian plans to block these  vital straits in the case of attack have had years in which to be polished,  and given their nature, would be impossible to either halt or neutralize.
• If Iran is attacked by either the United States or the  Israeli Air Force, there will be retaliation by the Iranians.
• Iranian leaders  have made it clear repeatedly that an attack on Iran by the Israeli Air  Force will be regarded as an attack by the United States.
• The potential  consequences of Bush's ill-thought and unhinged actions could very well  ignite a major war, and since any kind of diplomacy on the part of the  Bush administration is non-existent, such a war is by no means impossible  to contemplate
• If the Israeli Air Force attacks Iran, this will create  an instant unified resistance movement by Muslims throughout the Middle  East.
• This will include Sunni Muslims.
• The hatred of the Israelis by Muslims  in the region is so intense that even though the Israeli Air Force attacks  at Shi'ite nation, Sunni leaders will not be in a position to publicly  justify such an attack. They would risk a revolution in their own countries  if they did this.
• The best that the Israelis could expect would be silent  neutrality.

  • SEE: Ezekiel 38 & 39
  Add Sticky Note
• Retaliation on the part of Iran will be expected by all Muslim  nations in the Middle East. The Russian weapons that most concern Israeli  officials are the S-300 surface-to-air missile and the Iskander-E, a surface-to-surface  missile with a reported maximum range of 170 miles.
• Iskander (NATO reporting  name SS-26 Stone) is a short range, solid fuel propelled, theater quasiballistic  missile system produced in Russia The launching equipment is mobile, easy  to disperse from satellite observation and capable of quick response.
• In essence, the trapped U.S. fleet would be like ducks  in a bathtub and the potential damage to our naval units would be catastrophic. 

    

  http://tbrnews.org/Archives/a2872.htm

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• Strong quake hits southern Iran near oil port
• 10 Sep 2008 13:15:32 GMT 

    <!--   <span class="newstime">10 Sep 2008 13:15:32 GMT</span> ## for search indexer, do not remove  --> 

  Source: Reuters
• By Edmund Blair
• TEHRAN, Sept 10 (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake struck southern Iran on Wednesday near Bandar Abbas, site of a major Iranian oil refinery, killing at least three people and injuring 22, officials said.
• The U.S. Geological Service said the quake's magnitude was 6.1 and it struck at 1100 GMT about 53 km (33 miles) west-southwest of Bandar Abbas at a depth of 34.6 miles (55 km).
• Yasser Hazbavi, the head of Hormuzgan province's disaster headquarters, told Reuters at least three people were killed and 22 injured. Iranian state television quoted a Red Crescent official as saying rescue workers were searching for casualties.
• It said 15 people were injured on Qeshm, an island in the southern Gulf close to where the tremor struck.

  • Is someone practicing for war? It is rumored and from good sources that several nations have the capability of inducing geological events such as earthquakes. Quake occured in southern region of Persian Gulf...near where the large U.S. armada of naval ships are operating in a marked build up.
  Add Sticky Note
• Iranian reports variously described the quake as 6.0 and 7.5 on the Richter scale.
• "So far, no damage has been reported from the 6.0 Richter scale earthquake which occurred at 3.30 p.m (1100 GMT) for 30 seconds," ISNA news agency reported, quoting a local official.
• The agency later said the quake cut power on Qeshm.
• Magnitude 6 quakes are capable of causing severe damage.
• Iran is the world's fourth largest oil exporter and an industry official told Reuters last month that Bandar Abbas was processing 320,000 barrels per day of crude.
• Bandar Abbas is a major Iranian port with oil installations including a refinery
• PANIC
• An Interior Ministry official told Reuters the quake was centred on Bander-e Khamir in the south of the country. "It might have damaged old parts of the place," the official said.
• State radio reported people ran panicking into the streets.
• A resident of Qeshm island told Reuters he had heard that some homes in villages around the area had been damaged. He had not heard of major damage in big urban areas.
• Residents in the United Arab Emirates, across the Gulf from Iran, reported feeling a slight tremor. Bankers and office workers evacuated buildings in Dubai, eyewitnesses said.
• A number of seismological fault lines cross Iran. In 2003, about 31,000 people were killed when a tremor struck the historic city of Bam, 1,000 km (600 miles) southeast of Tehran.
• In March 2006, a magnitude 6.0 quake with aftershocks struck the same province of Hormuzgan in southern Iran, causing only minor damage.
• In 2005, a 5.9 on the Richter scale quake hit Qeshm island in the Gulf, killing 10 and injuring 50 people.

19 more annotations...

• September 12, 2008, 9:50
• US to invade Iran any day now?
• A few weeks ago the Russian newspaper Izvestia, a well-known and authoritive daily published nationwide and abroad, came forward with something that would have been looked upon as a conspiracy theory if published by a tabloid.
• The paper suggested that by attacking South Ossetia, the Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili had badly damaged a planned U.S. military operation against Iran.
• In the newspaper's opinion Georgia was supposed to play the role of another "unsinkable aircraft carrier" for the U.S., i.e. an operational and tactical base for U.S.
   aircraft that would be making bombing raids into Iran. Something akin to what Thailand was in the Vietnam war.
• Thailand certainly benefited from the arrangement, and Georgia would have too, insists the paper, if its President hadn't put his ambitions above the US national interest and ended up beaten, disarmed, chewing on his neckties and totally incapable of providing whatever the U.S. needs from him.
• That's why, according to Izvestia in yet another article on the matter, the U.S. response to the Russian retaliation was harsh in words but very mild in action.
• The latest on the issue suggests that Mikhail Saakashvili may be replaced any day now by direct order from Washington.
• Having read the story in Izvestia I decided to try to figure out the extent of improbability and impossibility of the assumptions.
• As I was doing that, I remembered that early in August CNN had started showing U.S. generals who cried for more troops and hardware for Afghanistan which, in their opinion, was rapidly becoming a more intensive conflict than Iraq.
• Shortly after that, a phone call came from a college friend who had just come back from Kandahar in Afghanistan, where he had seen American battle tanks being unloaded from a Ukrainian-registered Antonov-124 "Ruslan", the heaviest and largest cargo airplane in the world.

  • Amrican battle tanks being unloaded in August from Ukrainian-registered Antonov-124 "Ruslan", the heaviest and largest cargo plane in the world.
  Add Sticky Note
• The friend asked if I had any idea what tanks would be good for in Afghanistan, and I said I didn't.
• It's an established fact from the Soviet war in Afghanistan that tanks are no good for most of the country's mountainous territory. They are good for flatlands, and the main body of flat land in the region is right across the border in Iran.

  • American battle tanks were meant for Iran?
  Add Sticky Note
• Later in August there was another bit of unofficial information from a Russian military source: more than a thousand American tanks and armored vehicles had been shipped to Eastern Afghanistan by Ukrainian "Ruslans" flying in three to five shipments a day, and more flights were expected.

  • More than 1000 American tanks and armored vehicles shipped to Eastern Afghanistan...? Could these, considering this past week's (Sept 12, 2008) news of cross border raids by American troops into Pakistan, be intended for Pakistan?
  Add Sticky Note
• Somehow all this, together with the series of articles in Izvestia, the information that all U.S. troops in Afghanistan are going to be reassigned and regrouped under unified command, the arrival of NATO naval ships in the Black Sea, the appointment of a man used to command troops in a combat environment as the new commander of the US Central Command and other bits and pieces.
• To my total astonishment, when they all fell together the Izvestia story started looking slightly more credible than before.
• Today the U.S. media reported that there had been a leak from the Pentagon about a secret Presidential order in which President Bush authorized his military (most of which is currently on Afghan soil) to conduct operations in Pakistan without the necessity for informing the Pakistani government.
• The U.S. military in Afghanistan - or shall we say in the whole region neighboring Iran - is getting a freer hand by the day. And it is getting more and more hardware to play with.
• Of course it's quite clear now that Georgia has lost its immediate potential as a nearby airfield, but after all, the aircraft carriers in the Gulf are not so far away.
• Believe me I'm not saying that the U.S. is going to start an all-out war against Iran tomorrow. But aren't there indications that it may happen the day after tomorrow, a month from now, or on any date before the official handover of Presidency in the U.S.? Or, as some suggest, before the election?
• I'm just asking the questions. But there are some people, like those working for Izvestia, for instance, who answer them with a "yes".
   
   Evgeny Belenkiy, RT.

19 more annotations...

• Bush Agrees To
    War On Iran
• By Lord Stirling
    9-15-8
• As the World Focuses on the Imploding Global Economy  Bush Agrees to War on Iran
• As the global economic collapse moves into mid-phase  two events have largely escaped the public's attention.

  • Prophetic...: David Wilkerson wrote of this years ago and not only the scorners outside the Christian community but even some Christians themselves either laughed at him or ignored the warnings.
  Add Sticky Note
• The first event: The Telegraph (of London) reported on  the 12th of September that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)  nuclear experts now believe that 50 to 60 tons of uranium have "gone  missing" from the Iranian uranium enrichment plant at Isfahan.
• The  uranium removed was in gas form ~ UF6. This is sufficient, if enriched  to weapons grade level, to produce five to six atom bombs.
• The second event: The United States has agreed to sell  to Israel 1,000 of the very advanced bunker buster GBU-39 bombs.
• This is  a major development as the Bush Administration had denied previous recent  Israeli requests for large numbers of this weapon system.
• The GBU-39 has  a stand off range of 110 km and uses pop-out wings with extremely accurate  fire and forget technology. It is capable of penetrating 90 cm of streel  reinforced concrete.
• The combination of these two events indicates that the  Isreali Government has succeeded in its request that America allow it to  attack Iranian nuclear facilities.
• The large amount of "missing UF6"  was the fianl straw that allowed Israeli war leaders to convince Bush to  'green light' the coming Middle Eastern War with Iran, Syria and Lebanon.

  • The catalyst
  Add Sticky Note
• The GBU-39s will be used extensively in attacks on Iranian targets, as  well as on Syrian and Hezbollah high value targets in both Syria and Lebanon.
• I  have been expecting former Israeli Prime Minister, and super war hawk,  Benyamin Netanyahu to make a well timed major move. Current Israeli Prime  Minister Ehud Olmert is about to resign due to his ongoing criminal troubles.  Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz are in  a tight battle to win the vote on Wednesday as Kadima Party Chairman, with  the right to attempt to form a new government.
• The Israeli political landscape is about to change.
• However, it appears that  Bibi Netanyahu has put together a deal with Labor Party leader, former  PM and current Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and the ultra-religious Shas  Party to form a government with Bibi as Prime Minister in a few days time.
• Count on Bibi Netanyahu lighting a blowtorch in the dry  kindling that is the Middle East.
• There is a real technical question if the GBU-39 can  destroy all of the key known or suspected Iranian nuclear sites, as well  as key sites in Lebanon and Syria. The hardest sites are very well protected.
• Some experts think that several dozen to a hundred plus GBU-39s targeted  at the same spot can take out even the deepest/most harden site; others  say that a micro or mini nuke will be required.
• The Israeli and American war planners may be counting  on all sides refraining from the use of WMD. Rather like Saddam held back  his 29 WMD armed (chemical and anthrax) Scud-type guided missiles during  the First Gulf War and like Hezbollah did during the Second Lebanon War  in 2006. If this is the strategy it is one very, very, massive risk to  all involved.
• An effective attack on the Iranian nuclear program and  likely hidden sites will require a massive number of air strikes over the  Iranian land mass.
• Iran will respond with missile attacks from its territory  on Israel and with rocket and missile attacks from Lebanon and Gaza and  the West Bank.
• Israel has tried very hard to convince Syria to part company  with Iran but has had little success. Syria has a large number of guided  missiles that can reach virtually all parts of Isreal.
• While the American supplied Israeli weapons, and the  Isreali produced guided missiles, are highly accurate the Iranian/Syrian  guided missiles are not so accurate (and the many tens of thousands of  unguided rockets in Lebanon and Guza/West Bank are notoriously inaccurate).
• This means that Israeli civilians will be hit hard if only non-WMD warheads  are used.
• The temptation for Israel to hit back at Iranian and Syrian population  centers will be very high. If it happens the cycle of escalation and counter-escalation  will likely get out of control; and this is assuming that major efforts  will be made to avoid mutual use of WMD in the first place.
• Israel has most likely over 600 nuclear warheads from  micro nukes to high mega tonnage hydrogen bombs, as well as advanced biological  weapons, chemical weapons, radiological weapons, and fuel air explosive  based weapons.
• The Iranian/Syrian side has radiological weapons, fuel air  weapons, chemical weapons, advanced biological weapons, and maybe a crude  nuclear device or two (doubtful but a remote possibility).
• The Iranians have made it clear that they will close  the Gulf to oil shipping in the event of a war. Americans have just had  a taste of $5/gallon gasoline with Hurrican Ike.
• A general Middle East  War could bring $10/per gallon gas prices to America.
• The world's economy,  already headed to a global depression, will be thrust into the worst depression  in human history. 

    

  • Again: prophetic
  Add Sticky Note
• The Iranians are also apt to hit American targets in  the Middle East.
• In any case, any closing of the Gulf will bring a massive  American and allied response making the Middle East War a likley global  one as massive US/allied air attacks and naval attacks plummet Iran well  beyond what Israel began.
• If Iran feels that its population is seruously in danger  or that its existance as a nation state is at risk, she is apt to use her  strategic MAD (mutually assured destruction) force WMD (weapons of mass  destruction) on the west and Israel.
• These weapons are DNA recombination,  genetically engineered, advanced biological weapons; man-made viruses that  are designed to spread throughtout North America and western Europe using  humans as vectors ~ viruses that have never existed before and for which  we humans have NO DEFENSE.

  • Book of Revelation
  Add Sticky Note
• Iran began an advanced biowar program years  ago using out-of-work former Soviet advanced biowar experts, and currently  has a world-class advanced biowar program.
• Throw Russia and China into this mix and you have World  War Three.

  • And you have the prophetic End Time scenario
  Add Sticky Note

34 more annotations...

• Aryans & Achaemenids
    (c. 1500 B.C. - 330 B.C.)
• Afghanistan History
• A pastoral, cityless, people led by heroic warriors riding two-horsed chariots came out of the north to shatter the great Cities of the Indus Valley.
• In the sacerdotal writings of the Vedic Aryans, the Rigveda, we read of the Kubha (Kabul) River and know of their passage through Afghanistan sometime around 1500 B.C.
• In the related Persian hymns of the Avesta, we read of Bakhdi (Balkh) "the beautiful, crowned with banners" and of Zarathustra Spitama (Zoroaster), the great politico-religious leader who lived in Balkh sometime between 1000 and 600 B.C.
• The Aryans found the northern plains ideal for their flocks of sheep and goats.
• Many settled here and prospered. As the years passed, however, the various Aryan tribes frequently fought among themselves, encouraging the subjugated indigenous tribes to rise in revolt.
• Predatory raids by bands of horse-riding nomads from across the Oxus added to the turmoil. Keeping the Aryan herdsmen from their grazing lands, the nomads demanded, and began to receive, tribute for grazing rights.
• Aryan independence seemed doomed. It was then that Zoroaster came forth to exhort the people to unite, in the name of the god Ahuramazda.
• Victorious, Zoroaster then advised his followers to develop agriculture in addition to herding if they wished to remain inde-pendent and grow strong. The fertile plains of Bactria blossomed and the land prospered.
• Successive waves of Aryan migrations from Trans-Oxiana, find-ing the Afghan area occupied by the Vedic Aryans, moved west, onto the Iranian Plateau, where they evolved from a semi-nomadic state into an extensive empire which eventually stretched from the borders of Greece to the Indus River.
• The Achaemenid Kings conquered in the name of Ahuramazda and Zoroastrianism was their religion.
• Achaemenid campaigns into the Afghan area were undertaken by Darius I (522-486 B.C.), builder of the famous palaces of Susa and Persepolis, and are recorded on his tombstone.
• To facilitate trade, an imperial highway passed through Afghanistan, along virtually the same route modern highway builders have but re-cently paved.
• The excavations at Shahr-i-Kona, the old city of Kandahar, undertaken by the British Institute of Afghan Studies in 1974 (D. Whitehouse) and 1975 (A. McNicoll) indicate that by 500 B.C. Kandahar had replaced Mundigak as the major city of the south.
• In the north, Soviet excavations at a series of mounds given the general designation of (A)ltyn, not far from the Dashli group above Balkh, revealed a large principal administrative town and a monumental private residence in the Achaemenid style with a central court dominated by a pool or fountain.
• Outside the re- sidence there was a large columned courtyard divided into two equal sections by a line of rooms possibly used for public audiences by some grandee or noble.
• There is evidence of a great conflagra-tion which burned the wooden superstructure of the portico sur-rounding these courtyards. Curiously, it seems to have been set just about the time of Alexander of Macedon's sojourn in northern Afghanistan. (V. Sariandi, 1972)

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•  

   

   

  Mystery ... craft streaks through cloud

• By VINCE SOODIN 
• Published: 06 Oct 2009
• A UFO streaks through the sky in this astonishing video of the Iranians test  firing a controversial missile.
• The mystery object zooms unseen through Iran's airspace —  before splitting a cloud in two as the film focuses in on the soaring  rocket.
• A UFO expert today described the unknown craft — which appears to be  tracking the weapon — as "phenomenal".
• Iran launched two short-range missiles last Saturday — angering the  West and Israel.
• A US report on Fox News revealed the UFO in footage of the second launch.

• The video shows the Shahab-3 rocket soaring into the sky.  

   But after 38 seconds a nearby cloud is mysteriously torn in two by a flying  object travelling at speed.  
• Nick Pope, a respected former UFO analyst for the Ministry of Defence,  examined the remarkable footage.
• He hinted that whatever ripped through the cloud was not man made.
• He said: "One theory is that it's a secret American drone. At any time there  are prototype aircraft and drones being operated that won't be shown in  public for years.
• "Stealth aircraft flew for many years before their existence was acknowledged.
• "But the speed and acceleration seems phenomenal. I'm not convinced we've got  anything capable of such manoeuvres."

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• Ahmadinejad’s Apocalyptic Ambitions
• We ignore them at our own peril.
• October 8, 2009
    Brad Macdonald
    The Trumpet
• During an interview with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently, msnbc’s Ann Curry confronted the Iranian president with a provocative question about his spiritual beliefs.
• “In your speeches, you pray for God to hasten the arrival of the hidden imam, the Muslim messiah,” stated Curry. “What is your relationship with the hidden imam, and how soon do you think before the second coming?”
• Ahmadinejad’s response, delivered rather nonchalantly, was non-specific and concocted to appeal to his American audience. “Yes, that’s true,” he replied. “I prayed for the arrival of the 12th imam. … When the imam arrives, all [the world’s problems] will be resolved. And a prayer for the owner of the age is nothing but a wish for justice and brotherly love to prevail around the world.”
• Unconvinced, Curry pushed further: “You’ve said that you believe that his arrival, the apocalypse, would happen in your own lifetime. What do you believe that you should do to hasten his arrival?”
• That was all it took. Deflated, Curry apologized, and backed away from the issue. “Forgive me … forgive me,” she pleaded, before allowing Ahmadinejad to conclude the segment with a slick sales pitch on the virtues of the 12th imam.
• “I have never said such a thing,” Ahmadinejad retorted.
• If Curry had pushed the issue further, she might have shed some much-needed light on what is arguably the most underrated story in the ongoing saga with Iran: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s quest to create the apocalyptic conditions he believes will surround the return of the 12 imam.
• Despite Curry’s capitulation, msnbc’s inquiry into Ahmadinejad’s spiritual underpinnings was refreshing, unique and extremely relevant.
• The belief of a returning Mahdi, or 12th imam, is a defining doctrine within the most populous group of Shiites (known as Ithna Ashari, or “Twelvers”), to which Ahmadinejad belongs.
• Iran’s president—who wishes for the extermination of the Jewish state and is gunning for a nuclear arsenal—is a staunch adherent to the mahdaviat, which is “belief in and efforts to prepare for the Mahdi,” according to the Encyclopaedia of Islam.
• Ahmadinejad has stated that the main mission of the Islamic revolution “is to pave the way for the reappearance of the 12th imam, the Mahdi.”
• Twelvers believe the 12th imam will emerge from hiding when the world has fallen into chaos and civil strife.
• “Ahmadinejad speaks of the return of the 12th imam in many of his speeches,” warned Rick Santorum recently.
• “To the consternation of the ayatollahs, he has even said the Mahdi has communicated with him personally” (emphasis mine throughout).
• Commenting on what makes Iran’s leader a radical Twelver, Santorum noted Ahmadinejad’s consistent predictions about the return of the Mahdi, and, more ominously, Ahmadinejad’s conviction that “it is within his power to call the Mahdi back from his occultation.”
• When it comes to the Mahdi’s return, Ahmadinejad is the opposite of the seemingly nonchalant believer he sold himself as during his interview with Curry.
• In 2004, as mayor of Tehran, he instructed the city council to build a grand avenue to prepare for the Mahdi.
• Once he became president, he allocated $17 million for a blue-tiled mosque in Jamkaran, south of the capital, that is closely associated with the mahdaviat.
• Ahmadinejad’s belief in the Mahdi’s return has been a driving force behind his politics over the past four years.
• “From redressing the gulf between rich and poor in Iran, to challenging the United States and Israel and enhancing Iran’s power with nuclear programs,” Scott Peterson wrote, “every issue is designed to lay the foundation for the Mahdi’s return.”
• In a speech before the United Nations in September 2005, the Iranian president concluded his address to world leaders with a prayer for the Mahdi’s appearance: “O mighty Lord, I pray to you hasten the emergence of your last repository, the promised one, that perfect and pure human being, the one that will fill this world with justice and peace.”
• According to Ahmadinejad, it was no ordinary prayer.
• When he returned to Iran, the Iranian president boasted about it to supporters: “One of our group told me that when I started to say ‘In the name of God the almighty and merciful,’ he saw a light around me, and I was placed inside this aura. I felt it myself. I felt the atmosphere suddenly change, and for those 27 or 28 minutes, the leaders of the world did not blink. … [T]hey were rapt. It seemed as if a hand was holding them there and had opened their eyes to receive the message from the Islamic Republic.”
• Peterson wrote that Ahmadinjad’s “presidential obsession with the mahdaviat yields a certitude that leaves little room for compromise.”
• Is there a better way to describe the present state of Iranian foreign policy?
• Ahmadinejad does not base his political decisions on what is best for his nation—he makes decisions based on his radical religious beliefs.
• And these beliefs tell him that he must facilitate the return of the Mahdi by challenging America and the West and strengthening Islamic power on the world scene.

• Charles Krauthammer summed it up perhaps the best. He wrote back in 2005:
                                                                                                                                                                       

   

  So a Holocaust-denying, virulently anti-Semitic, aspiring genocidist, on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons of the apocalypse, believes that the end is not only near but nearer than the next American presidential election. … This kind of man would have, to put it gently, less inhibition about starting Armageddon than a normal person.
• Middle East expert Daniel Pipes says Ahmadinejad’s religious fervor and unbending commitment to the return of the 12th imam ranks him among the most dangerous leaders in history.
• “The most dangerous leaders in modern history are those (such as Hitler) equipped with a totalitarian ideology and a mystical belief in their own mission. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fulfills both these criteria ….”
• Instead of apologizing, then backpedaling, Ann Curry, armed with all the evidence proving Ahmadinejad’s devotion to his 12th imam, ought to have prodded Ahmadinejad further on this issue. msnbc, rather than burying the snippets of its interview on its website, ought to have produced a full-length report on Ahmadinejad’s apocalyptic beliefs, and then aired it on prime-time television. Why?
• Because by providing an honest glimpse into the mind of Iran’s president, it could have helped America, including those inside the Beltway, uncover a fundamental reason for the United States’ ongoing failure to deal with Iran.
• It could have helped America realize that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad listens to his Mahdi, not Western leaders—not Barack Obama.
• And what is the Mahdi supposedly telling his earthly minion?
• He’s telling him to shun peace, and work toward creating the apocalyptic conditions needed to usher in his return.
• http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=6628.5096.0.0

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• Silencing the Saber-Rattling: How the American Empire Threatens the Potential Iranian Counter-Revolution
• - by Paul David Collins, July 4th, 2009
• John Loftus proved to be a treasure chest of information over the Middle East during an interview with this writer on March 21, 2009.
• In little over an hour, the former Justice Department prosecutor and former Army intelligence officer addressed the issues of postwar Nazi activity, the September 11 attacks, and fanaticism in the Arab world. The most fascinating information Loftus shared, however, concerns Iran.
• The Central Eurasian Islamic Republic has been a hot topic for many observers of the international political landscape ever since Bush II referred to it as part of an “axis of evil” during his January 29, 2002 State of the Union speech.
• That speech helped create an absolutely schizophrenic political climate filled with saber-rattling and war-fever that has held sway for the last seven years.
• During that period of time, rumors of an invasion of Iran have periodically surfaced, causing people in both America and Iran to oscillate between anxiety and sighs of relief.
• Former CIA case officer Robert Baer has referred to Iran as “the third rail of American foreign policy in the world” (Interview: Robert Baer).
• It is the country that every administration has dared not touch since 1979. With Iran on the verge of possessing a nuclear power program, however, avoidance may no longer be an option.
• What will be Iran’s fate? For Loftus, the tide of history will soon make an invasion of Iran completely unnecessary.
• “I believe the government will eventually collapse and Iran will return to democracy,” Loftus told this writer. “The clock will turn back to the way things were before the 1953 coup.”

• Of course, this statement raised an eyebrow. “Do you mean to say another Mossadegh will rise,” I asked.

   

  “Yes,” Loftus responded. (Loftus)
• For many years now, Iran has put up a strong front that made Loftus’ words hard to swallow.
• The Islamic republic sees itself as a revived Persian Empire, and it has gained a considerable amount of regional influence. A 2008 poll conducted by the University of Maryland found that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the second most admired leader across the Arab world (“Nasrallah most admired Arab leader”).
• The only leader to outshine Ahmadinejad in the poll was Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Iranian proxy Hezbollah (ibid). Needless to say, regional support for Iran is strong.
• Underneath the tough exterior, however, hides several serious problems that have begun to boil over.
• Problems began to appear in the middle of the 1990s when a 1996 census revealed that Iran’s fertility rates “were less than one-half of the figure obtained from the previous census” (Mehryar and Aghajanian). A large-scale survey conducted in 2000 was less promising in its findings. That survey found “that total fertility rates of Iranian couples had dropped to 2.0” (ibid).
• The survey also found that 14 of the 28 provinces surveyed were well below the 2.1 replacement level (ibid).
• A 2006 census was probably the most dismal. Of the 30 major provinces in Iran, 27 provinces “would seem to have reached below replacement fertility, with TFR [total fertility rates] values ranging from 1.15 to 1.95” (ibid). The data presented by the 2006 census indicated that “over 80% of the population of Iran belong to provinces with clearly below replacement fertility rate” (ibid).

• Can Iran rely on young people of marrying age to rectify the baby dearth? According to writer Azadeh Moaveni, the answer is “no.” In a June 9, 2009 Time magazine article, Moaveni stated:

   

   

  By official estimates, there are currently 13 million to 15 million Iranians of marrying age; to keep that figure steady, Iran should be registering about 1.65 million marriages each year. The real figure is closer to half of that. (Moaveni)
• Why has the number of marriages dropped so drastically? According to Moaveni, economic conditions in Iran do not make marriage feasible.
• Inflation hit a whopping 25.9 percent in February 2009 (“Iran inflation hits 25.9%: Reports”). While that figure is lower than the September 2008 of 29 percent, it was still high enough to cause concern for Iran’s central bank chief Mahmoud Bahmani, who promised to slash inflation by almost 4 percent before the end of the Iranian year on March 20 (ibid).
• In early June 2009 there were some signs of improvement, with inflation falling to 23. 6 percent (“Iran inflation falls below 24 percent”). The number is still far too high, however, to accommodate a new couple desiring to start a family.
• The Iranian president’s election rivals, such as reformist candidate Mehdi Karroubi, capitalized on the poor economic environment and blamed Ahmedinejad for encouraging inflation (ibid). Was Karroubi and the rest of the opposition way off the mark with their accusation?
• The inflation drop was also far too little, too late for Ahmedinejad’s political health.
• Again, Iran views itself as a revival of the Persian Empire, and Ahmedinejad certainly holds imperialist aspirations. In the quest for empire, Ahmedinejad has initiated several reckless expansionary economic policies.
• One of the results of this policy was Ahmedinejad’s proposed budget in January 2009 of 282.7 billion dollars with a deficit forecast of 44 billion dollars (“Iran inflation hits 25.9: Reports”). Can any country long stand such an orgiastic spending spree?
• Gholamhossein Nozari, Iran’s current Oil Minister, predicted oil prices “will hover at the $40 mark in 2009” (Avro). This prompted Nozari’s ministry to tell the government “to set the price of oil at that amount in its upcoming 2009-2010 budget” (ibid).
• Probably one of the most serious problems currently facing Iran is low crude oil prices.
• According to Samuel R. Avro, these low prices “could eventually bring out the disgust of the Iranian public against the current regime which may then lead to destabilization and perhaps a halt to their nuclear program” (ibid).
• Bush’s CIA Director Michael Hayden also expressed this opinion, stating that Iran’s low oil prices “removes a buffer that will cause the natural stressors in Iranian society to become more pronounced” (ibid).

  • Oil prices have now begun to climb again as I am reading this (October 2009)
  Add Sticky Note
• While the problems facing Iran are lamentable, they did set the stage for self-correction to occur in the Islamic Republic. The situation is beginning to right itself as more and more Iranians conclude that the country’s leadership lacks the ability and the desire to solve the problems.
• People began expressing their dissatisfaction with the current regime shortly after Iran’s tenth presidential election on June 12, 2009. The next day, opponents of Ahmedinejad took to the streets and began protesting, some violently (Johnson and Murphy).
• As we shall see, some of these protestors may have been part of an organized destabilization campaign. That being said, the number of people in the streets was far too high for everyone to be surrogates of Western intelligence agencies, a contention some of the more extreme conspiracists seem to be pushing. The crowds included many sincere Iranian citizens with legitimate grievances.
• It’s important to note that many of the activists made the mistake of elevating Ahmedinejad’s main rival, Mir Hossein Mousavi, into a hero from which they derive inspiration.
• Behind Mousavi’s emergent messianic mystique hides a terrorist and criminal who is no better than Ahmedinejad.
• During his time as Iran’s prime minister in the 1980s, Mousavi was the supervisor of a terrorist campaign against the West that included the infamous attacks on the U.S. embassy and Marine Corps barracks in Beirut (Stein).
• According to former CIA case officer Robert Baer, Mousavi “oversaw an office that ran operatives abroad, from Lebanon to Kuwait to Iraq” (ibid). Baer places Mousavi in direct contact with Imad Mughniyah, the individual responsible for conducting the Beirut attack (ibid).
• Retired Navy Admiral and “father” of the Navy SEAL’s Red Cell counter-terror unit James “Ace” Lyons has also identified Mousavi as the mastermind behind the 1988 truck bomb attack on the U.S. Navy’s Fleet Center in Naples, Italy (ibid). That terrorist action resulted in the deaths of five people (ibid).
• Given his criminal and terrorist background, it’s obvious that Mousavi represents the status quo in Iran, not change.
• Still it is important to note that Mousavi was able to build an impressive support base by presenting himself as a reformer and running on a reformist platform. These seems to indicate that many Iranians desire positive change and are now willing to express that desire.
• A counter-revolution that will reverse the effects of the 1979 Iranian Revolution seems to be in the embryonic stage right now.
• If an American destabilization campaign were to be detected or exposed, internal contention would disappear and the people would again be galvanized behind Ahmadinejad. This potentiality is very real. Unfortunately, the American Empire’s interventionist spirit is alive and well and evidence suggests that it may be at work in Iran.
• Only one thing could reverse that trend: interference and intrusion on the part of the American Empire.
• In May 2007, intelligence sources revealed to the UK Telegraph that President George W. Bush had given the CIA “approval to launch covert ‘black’ operations to achieve regime change in Iran” (Shipman).
• This approval, according to the Telegraph, appeared in a “non-lethal presidential finding” and authorized “CIA plans for a propaganda and disinformation campaign intended to destabilize, and eventually topple, the theocratic rule of the mullahs” (ibid). The presidential directive also endorsed the supply of communications equipment to opposition groups in Iran (ibid). This equipment would allow such groups to network with one another and coordinate destabilization plans more effectively (ibid).
• On the positive, the directive prohibited the CIA from using lethal force (ibid). This can be interpreted to mean that Bush was moving away from the influence of Vice President Richard Cheney and his neoconservative allies who favor a military strike (ibid).
• The Telegraph’s revelations carried both negative and positive implications.
• However, the revelations had also shown that the President had not abandoned interventionist policies that could instigate hostilities with Iran.
• Obama’s handlers among the power elite seemed to prefer attempting to recruit Iran to fight the American Empire’s other enemies. Imperial recruitment, euphemistically referred to as “diplomacy,” was heavily promoted in the early days of the Obama Administration.
• When power traded hands from Bush to Obama, the approach to dealing with Iran seemed to change.
• Perhaps the current administration believes that destabilization efforts will lead to a weakened Iran that is more willing to deal.

  • As in the bombing of and deaths just a few days ago (week of October 22, 2009) of Iranian high military commanders
  Add Sticky Note
• There is evidence, however, that destabilization efforts have continued.
• Perhaps the administration has just grown frustrated with trying to reach out to a stubborn and skeptical nation. Whatever the case may be, aspects of the 2009 Iranian election fallout suggests the invisible hand of the American Empire at play.
• On Saturday, June 20, 2009, Iran’s security apparatus reportedly discovered and arrested a large contingent of rioters in Tehran who were members of the Mujahideen-e-Khalq organization, or MEK (“Iran finds US-backed MKO fingermarks in riots”).
• Iranian security officials claimed that the MEK members “confessed that they were extensively trained in Iraq’s camp Ashraf to create post-election mayhem in the country” (ibid). The MEK members were also allegedly receiving instruction from the dissident group’s command post in Britain (ibid).
• On the same day that the MEK rioters were arrested, the group’s leader Maryam Rajavis gave her official endorsement to election protestors and even went so far as to declare the MEK the real election victors (ibid).
• Was the MEK acting as a surrogate of the American Empire?

  • SEE: Recent (October 2009) bombing of an Iranian military HQ with the deaths of several top military commanders
  Add Sticky Note
• In July of 2008, respected journalist Seymour Hersh was told by a Pentagon consultant that the MEK might receive covert funds from the United States in order to help destabilize Iran (Hersh).
• The Iranian dissident group has received arms and intelligence from Western intelligence groups in recent years and possesses an enduring relationship with the CIA and Special Operations communities in spite of its inclusion on the State Department’s terrorist list for more than a decade (ibid).
• If MEK participation in the riots and protests prove to be a genuine example of American interference, it could threaten the chance of a successful counter-revolution.
• Left to its own devices, Iran’s ruling establishment will commit political suicide.
• The Iranian people have simply lost too much confidence in the president, the mullahs, and the government’s way of doing things for the last three decades. American interventionism can not contribute one iota to the current regime’s trip on history’s exit ramp.
• If anything, black ops, destabilization campaigns, and ridiculous cloak and dagger schemes and conspiracies to “liberate” Iran will give the current regime a new lease on life.
• The American Empire is providing Iran’s ruling establishment with an existential threat that justifies its political survival. Iranians are starting to wake up and see Ahmadinejad for the mentally unstable tyrant he is.
• American meddling in Iranian affairs, however, would lend itself to a public relations spin that would portray Ahmadinejad as a populist hero doing battle with the “Great Satan.” Interference would destroy the receptivity of the Iranian people to change and lead to more hostility.
• These oligarchical Hegelian activists need a world full of bogeymen, fanatics, and dictatorial strongmen to maintain history’s march toward a new world order.
• Perhaps a perpetually hostile and dangerous Iran is exactly what many among the power elite crave.
• At least one member of the neoconservative faction of the elite, Daniel Pipes, has expressed such sentiments.
• During a June 3, 2009 meeting held by the neoconservative Heritage Foundation, Pipes stated that if he were to participate in Iran’s election, he would, “with due hesitance,” vote for Ahmadinejad because the current Iranian president is “an enemy who’s forthright and obvious, who wakes people up with his outlandish statements” (“New Thinking for Old Problems: The Challenges of Middle East Peacemaking in the Shadow of the Iranian Threat”).
• The dialectical climate proposed by Pipes will not lead to what the neoconservative Francis Fukuyama called “The End of History,” but it may lead to what Jesus Christ called “the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:8).
• While Iran is certainly not the juggernaut the neoconservatives have portrayed it as, the overstretched American Empire is in no condition to tackle a third war.
• The Lord has designed the universe to take out its own garbage. It does not require the American Empire acting as its waste management surrogate.
• Is there any meaningful contribution America can make to Iran’s nascent counter-revolution?
• America can aid the Iranians by helping itself. It can dismantle its bloated and overstretched empire and return to its constitutional roots as a democratic republic.
• Such a move would send a clear message to Iran. In effect, America will be saying, “We tried empire and it bankrupted us economically and morally. It’s weakened our military and left us in a weakened state. For the sake of your own country, don’t explore this imperial road further.”
• There is a good chance Iran would follow America’s example. Then, and only then, will the saber-rattling finally be silenced.

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• Iraqi Troops Mass Along Iran Border
• US Envoy Declares Iraq 'Not Going to Be Pushed Around by Iran'
• by Jason Ditz,   December 19, 2009
• Tensions are rising at the Eastern Maysan oil field, which straddles the border between Iran and Iraq, and Iraqi forces have massed at a “staging area” just outside the field, awaiting orders.
• The situation started yesterday when Iraq’s Deputy Foreign Minister claimed 11 Iranian soldiers had “invaded” the nation and occupied one of the abandoned oil wells.
• US officials say they approve of Iraq’s escalation of the as yet unclear situation,
• and Ambassador Chris Hill declared that it “speaks to the overall view here that they are not going to be pushed around by Iran.”
• Iran said reports of its invasion were misleading, adding that the field’s ownership is “disputed and now it is neglected by both sides.”
• They added that the well in question lies “exactly on the border between Iraq and Iran.”

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• US: Iraq not 'pushed around' by Iran
• US praises speedy Iraqi reaction to oil well dispute, worries over Iran's influence

• ANNE GEARAN and LARA JAKES
  AP News

   

  Dec 19, 2009 07:56 EST
• Iraq is "not going to be pushed around" by Iran, the top U.S. diplomat in Iraq said Saturday following an Iranian takeover of an oil well along the two nations' disputed border.

  • Big Bro: "Yeah..That's right..You gone take that off them, Iraq? Huh? Yah need to show'em you ain't no wimp and Iran ain't gone be run'n this playground. We is..uh..er..I..I mean, we is.
  Add Sticky Note
• U.S. officials said they approved of Iraq's speedy defense of its sovereignty amid ongoing concerns over Iran's influence on its Mideast neighbor.
• "It does speak to the overall view here that they are not going to be pushed around by Iran," U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Chris Hill told reporters.
• Iranian forces earlier this week crossed into Iraq, seizing an oil well just over the border in the southern Maysan province. The takeover — which included planting an Iranian flag on the well — was met by protests from Baghdad.
• It served as a dramatic display of the sometimes tense relations between the wary allies.
• Iraqi authorities on Saturday prevented media representatives from visiting the area at the al-Fakkah oil field, located about 200 miles (about 320 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad.
• Top Iraqi national security officials said the well was clearly in Iraqi territory and demanded that the Iranians leave immediately.
• High-level diplomatic talks between Iraq and Iran are continuing, said Iraqi deputy foreign minister Labid Abbawi.
• "The situation this morning is the same: the Iranians have not withdrawn from the well," Abbawi told The Associated Press. "We are still sticking to our position in demanding an immediate withdrawal of Iranian forces from the oil well."
• Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Rahmin Mehmanparast denied that Tehran had seized the oil well and sought only to reduce tensions between the neighbors, accusing foreign media of spreading false news to "disrupt good relations" between Tehran and Baghdad.
• "Diplomatic and technical mechanisms" were the way to deal with the issue, said Hasan Kazemi Qomi, the ambassador to Iraq, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency.
• Army Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, told reporters that the Iranian forces had withdrawn from the oil well as of Saturday morning. But an oil worker at the field said five Iranians remain inside the well, and the Iranian flag still flew above it.
• The worker, who did not want to be identified for fear of retribution, said Iranian troops were watching the well from a hillside on Iran's side of the border.
• An Iraqi Interior Ministry official, meanwhile, said Iraqi troops and border guards have moved to a staging ground about a kilometer from the well, awaiting orders.
• The official, who was at the scene, was not authorized to discuss the situation with the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.
• It was not clear as well what kind of Iranian forces had been at the well. An Iraqi official and an eyewitness described them as soldiers. The Iraqi government spokesman described them only as an armed Iranians.
• Earlier Saturday, the top American military official said the oil well takeover appeared to be the latest example of Iran flexing its influence over Iraq and other Mideast nations.
• However, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen called it an issue for the Iraqi government to settle, and said there were no plans by the United States to intervene.
• Once bitter enemies, Iraq and Iran settled into a more positive, if still uneasy, relationship after a Shiite-led government came to power following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
• "I continue to worry about the influence of Iran," Mullen, in Iraq for a two-day visit with U.S. and Iraqi authorities, said at a news conference in Baghdad.
• "I still think it's important that Iran have a constructive, positive influence in this region and globally. And there are just too many examples where that is not the case."
• Odierno also said Iran continues to fund and train fighters in Iraq, as well as send weapons and equipment over the border — although less frequently now than in the past.
• Analysts said it was too early to say whether the incident would mushroom into greater tension but said it could raise concerns with oil companies looking to invest in Iraq.

  • Yep..useful in kicking off another major conflageration in the area and one that would useful to Israel (and/or the U.S.) in striking Iran's nuclear facilities.
  Add Sticky Note
• Oil prices rose slightly after news of the incident.

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