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Bush threatens Iran with military action

2008-06-18T02:34:03Z

Bush threatens Iran with military action
Category: News and Politics

This article found online at:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20112.htm

Bush threatens Iran with military action

By Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor

17/06/08 "ICH" -- - George Bush has warned Iran that military action is still "on the table" if it fails to respond to tightening diplomatic pressure to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.

The EU is planning to announce the freezing of all overseas assets of the main bank in Iran. Sanctions are also to be tightened on gas and oil exports by Iran.

But the US President's remarks on the last leg of his "farewell tour" of Europe raised fears at Westminster that Mr Bush is determined to take action against Iran before he leaves office in January if the sanctions fail to force Tehran to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions.

Standing alongside the President after more than an hour of talks in Downing Street, Gordon Brown surprised EU council officials by announcing that the EU intends to intensify its sanctions on Iran, including freezing the billions of euros in overseas assets of the Melli Bank of Iran.

But Mr Bush left no doubt that the US is holding military action in reserve. Thanking Mr Brown for keeping together the European alliance "so that we can solve this problem diplomatically", Mr Bush said: "That is my first choice. The Iranians must understand that all options are on the table, however."

The EU foreign policy chief Xavier Solana delivered a more generous offer to the Iranian regime at the weekend and is now awaiting its reply. It includes help in developing civil nuclear power and extending economic assistance if Iran stops enriching uranium to produce weapons-grade plutonium. Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, promised to "carefully study the package".

EU council officials said tougher sanctions were not on the agenda when Mr Solana briefed his officials but Downing Street insisted sanctions were being prepared. It is likely they will be implemented next week.

Mr Brown said: "Our message to the Iranian people is you do not have to choose the path of confrontation. The latest round of talks with the Iranians took place over the weekend. We put our enhanced offer on the table including political and economic partnership including nuclear technology for civilian use.

"We await the Iranian response and will do everything to maintain the dialogue but we are also clear that if Iran continues to ignore UN resolutions and our offer of partnership, we have no choice but to intensify sanctions."

A spokesman for the Stop the War Coalition, which protested against Mr Bush's arrival at Downing Street on Sunday, said: "Bush has been travelling round Europe trying to secure support for sanctions and a possible future attack on Iran."

Mr Brown also announced that Britain is sending more troops to Afghanistan as the bodies of five soldiers killed in action last week were brought home. About 400 support staff are being withdrawn, but 630 more troops are being flown out.

Mr Brown is due to announce troop withdrawals from Basra before the summer recess of Parliament at the end of next month.

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"Hostile" Iran Sparks U.S. Attack Plan

2008-05-03T20:58:48Z

"Hostile" Iran Sparks U.S. Attack Plan
Category: News and Politics

"Hostile" Iran Sparks U.S. Attack Plan

Pentagon Wary Of Tehran's Expanding Nuclear Program And Support Of Iraqi Insurgents

(CBS) .. --> sphereit start -->A second American aircraft carrier steamed into the Persian Gulf on Tuesday as the Pentagon ordered military commanders to develop new options for attacking Iran. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports that the planning is being driven by what one officer called the "increasingly hostile role" Iran is playing in Iraq - smuggling weapons into Iraq for use against American troops.

"What the Iranians are doing is killing American servicemen and -women inside Iraq," said Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

U.S. officials are also concerned by Iranian harassment of U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf as well as Iran's still growing nuclear program. New pictures of Iran's uranium enrichment plant show the country's defense minister in the background, as if deliberately mocking a recent finding by U.S. intelligence that Iran had ceased work on a nuclear weapon.

No attacks are imminent and the last thing the Pentagon wants is another war, but Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen has warned Iran not to assume the U.S. military can't strike.

"I have reserve capability, in particular our Navy and our Air Force so it would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat capability," Mullen said.

Targets would include everything from the plants where weapons are made to the headquarters of the organization known as the Quds Force which directs operations in Iraq. Later this week Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is expected to confront the Iranians with evidence of their meddling and demand a halt.

If that doesn't produce results, the State Department has begun drafting an ultimatum that would tell the Iranians to knock it off - or else.

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Manufacturing Consent For An Attack On Iran

2008-04-14T12:36:33Z

Manufacturing Consent For An Attack On Iran
Category: News and Politics

Manufacturing Consent For An Attack On Iran

Iran Top Threat To Iraq, U.S. Says

Focus on Al-Qaeda Now Diminishing

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer

12/04/08 "Washington Post" -- -- -Last week's violence in Basra and Baghdad has convinced the Bush administration that actions by Iran, and not al-Qaeda, are the primary threat inside Iraq, and has sparked a broad reassessment of policy in the region, according to senior U.S. officials.

Evidence of an increase in Iranian weapons, training and direction for the Shiite militias that battled U.S. and Iraqi security forces in those two cities has fixed new U.S. attention on what Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates yesterday called Tehran's "malign" influence, the officials said.

The intensified focus on Iran coincides with diminished emphasis on al-Qaeda in Iraq as the leading justification for an ongoing U.S. military presence in Iraq.

In congressional hearings this week, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus said the U.S. military has driven al-Qaeda from Baghdad, Anbar province and central Iraq, and he depicted the group as now largely concentrated in a reduced territory around the northern city of Mosul.

During their Washington visit, Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker barely mentioned al-Qaeda in Iraq but spoke extensively of Iran.

With "al-Qaeda in retreat and disarray" in Iraq, said one official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record, "we see other obstacles that were under the waterline more clearly. . . . The Iranian-armed militias are now the biggest threat to internal order."

Partly in response to advice from Petraeus and Crocker, the administration has initiated an interagency assessment of what is known about Iranian activities and intentions, how to combat them and how to capitalize on them. The review stems from an internal conclusion, following last week's fighting, that the administration lacked a comprehensive understanding and a sophisticated approach.

President Bush reiterated yesterday that if Iran continues to help militias in Iraq, "then we'll deal with them," saying in an interview with ABC News that "we're learning more about their habits and learning more about their routes" for infiltrating or sending equipment.

But he also reaffirmed that he has no desire to go to war with Tehran. Saying that his job is to "solve these issues diplomatically," Bush suggested heightened interest in reaching a solution with other countries. "You can't solve these problems unilaterally. You're going to need a multilateral forum."

Iran has long been seen as a spoiler in Iraq, with such strong ties to all of the major Shiite political and militia groups, including that of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, that other Arab countries have begun to regard Iraq as almost a client state of Iran.

The recent fighting in Basra, which began when Maliki launched a military offensive against the Mahdi Army militia of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, revealed a threat and an opportunity, officials said.

U.S. military officials said that much of the plentiful, high quality weaponry the militia used in Basra and in rocket attacks against the Green Zone in Baghdad, where the U.S. Embassy and much of the Iraqi government are located, was recently manufactured in Iran. At the same time, the militia's improved targeting and tactics indicated stepped-up Iranian training.

Interrogations of four leaders of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force captured in Iraq in December 2006 and January 2007 have also bolstered U.S. conclusions that portions of Sadr's militia are directed from Tehran.

Despite earlier indications that Iranian backing for Iraqi armed groups and the flow of Iranian arms have waned, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said yesterday that "this action in Basra was very convincing that indeed they haven't." Basra "gave us much more insight into their involvement in many activities."

Gates, who appeared with Mullen at a Pentagon news conference, said of Iran: "We are going to be as aggressive as we possibly can be inside Iraq in trying to counter their efforts." Iraqi security operations in Basra, he said, have been "a real eye-opener" for Maliki's government.

Petraeus told Congress that Maliki had launched the offensive hastily and with inadequate preparation, leading to a standoff and the need to call in U.S. air support. During the first days of the Basra operation, U.S. officials were sharply critical of Maliki's timing and performance; some worried that the attack against Sadr forces was less an offensive against what he called "criminals" in Basra than it was an attempt to win political advantage over a rival Shiite group before upcoming elections.

Iran's brokering of a tentative cease-fire among Shiite political groups and the militia in Tehran added to U.S. consternation.

"The importance of Iranian influence in facilitating the discussion between different political factions was of significant importance," Petraeus told Pentagon reporters yesterday. Administration officials worried that Iran appeared in control of events in Iraq, while the United States seemed weak and uninformed.

But more recently, U.S. officials have seen a possible advantage in the situation. Maliki's willingness to go after fellow Shiites attracted support from other political groups in Iraq, including Sunnis and Kurds, that have long been suspicious of his sectarian leanings. It also gave Washington a talking point to use with Sunni Arab governments in the region that have shunned him. "It's an opportunity to make him look better inside Iraq and to make a better argument to the Arabs," an official said.

The administration has long tried in vain to build Arab diplomatic and economic support for the Iraqi government. But the Arabs, led by Saudi Arabia, consider Shiite Iran a competitor for regional dominance and have rejected Maliki as "a stooge for Tehran," as one U.S. official called him.

"The Saudis appear to feel that the current Iraqi government is pretty much in thrall to Iran," said a State Department official involved in Middle East policy. The administration's hope, "in the wake of Maliki's decisions on Basra," the official said, "is that the Saudis will take a step back and take another look."

In a news conference Thursday, Crocker dismissed Arab concerns about a recent visit to Baghdad by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "It's not the fact of the Ahmadinejad visit, but the absence of visits by other neighbors that it's important to focus on. There hasn't been a single visit, even by an Arab cabinet minister, to Baghdad. As Iraq grapples with the challenges Iran is posing, it could certainly do with some Arab support."

After consultations with Crocker and Petraeus this week, Bush cut short their Washington visit and dispatched them to Riyadh. During a luncheon at The Washington Post, Crocker said that at a White House meeting Thursday morning, they "reviewed where we are in Iraq."

The message to the Saudis, he said, "is going to be . . . it is time, more than time, for the Arab states to step forward and engage constructively with Iraq. Get their embassies open, get ambassadors on the ground, consider visits, implement debt relief, treat Iraq like the country it is, which is a central part of the Arab world."

Staff writers Peter Baker and Ann Scott Tyson contributed to this report.

© 2008 The Washington Post Company

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Iran’s Wheat Fungus: Coincidence or Biological Warfare?

2008-04-06T22:25:53Z

Iran’s Wheat Fungus: Coincidence or Biological Warfare?
Category: News and Politics

Iran’s Wheat Fungus: Coincidence or Biological Warfare?

.. --> sphereit start -->

Kurt Nimmo
Truth News
March 30, 2008

Global Research reports:

A dangerous new fungus with the ability to destroy entire wheat fields has been detected in Iran, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported today.

The wheat stem rust, whose spores are carried by wind across continents, was previously found in East Africa and Yemen and has moved to Iran, which said that laboratory tests have confirmed its presence in some localities in Broujerd and Hamedan in the country’s west.

Up to 80 per cent of all Asian and African wheat varieties are susceptible to the fungus, and major wheat-producing nations to Iran’s east – such as Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan – should be on high alert, FAO warned.

"The fungus is spreading rapidly and could seriously lower wheat production in countries at direct risk," said Shivaji Pandey, Director of FAO’s Plant Production and Protection Division.

He urged the control of the rust’s spread to lower the risk to countries already impacted by high food prices.

Iran has said that it will bolster its research capacity to tackle the new fungus and develop wheat varieties that are rust-resistant.

Called Ug99, the disease first surfaced in Uganda and subsequently spread to Kenya and Ethiopia, with both countries experiencing serious crop yield losses due to a serious rust epidemic last year. Also in 2007, FAO confirmed that a more virulent strain was found in Yemen.

Sure, maybe it was carried by the wind — and maybe the fungus was introduced by man. Not so much a conspiracy theory when history is taken into account. For instance, back in 1977, the San Francisco Chronicle reported the CIA dispatched "anti-Castro terrorists" to introduce "African swine fever virus into Cuba in 1971…. Six weeks later an outbreak of the disease forced the slaughter of 500,000 pigs to prevent a nationwide animal epidemic." It was so scary that the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization labeled the outbreak the "most alarming event" of 1971.

It wouldn’t be an isolated event. Earlier operatives introduced a disease infecting Cuban sea-turtles, coffee crops, and sugar. In fact, Cuba’s sugar crop was the economic target of choice. In 1977, cane smut mysteriously appeared in Pilón, eastern Cuba. The disease had never been known in Cuba. In 1978, sugar cane rust infected a new variety of cane imported from Barbados and as a result 1.35 million tons of sugar was lost.

Bovine skin disease, haemorrhagic dengue fever affecting 350,000 people, and the introduction of haemorraghic conjunctivitis, these are just a few of the plagues that have afflicted Cuba since the United States declared a covert war on the country.

During his trial in New York for the assassination of Cuba’s UN ambassador, Eduardo Arocena, leader of the Cuban-exile militant group OMEGA-7, testified that in the latter part of 1980 a ship traveled from Florida to Cuba with "a mission to carry some germs to introduce them in Cuba to be used against the Soviets and against the Cuban economy, to begin what was called chemical war." (See William Blum, Killing Hope: U. S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II.)

Is it possible the United States introduced the wheat fungus in Iran? Considering Iran is the numero uno neocon target and prominent neocons tell us Bush will attack the country before he leaves office, it is more than coincidental a debilitating crop disease has suddenly appeared. It also serves notice the attack will be his year, as it is easier to kill somebody when he is down.

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The Lekarev Report - March 10, 2008

2008-03-10T21:50:10Z

The Lekarev Report - March 10, 2008
Category: News and Politics

Dear friends,

I believe that everything happening with Iran and Isreal lately is very important concerning the future of everyone living on this planet. [if you don't live on this planet you're in luck you can go home - LOL]

Anyway, I get The Lekarev Report in my email and I wanted to share todays report because of the importance of the content.

Live Love - but stay informed

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The Lekarev Report

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3 Adar II 5768

March 10, 2008

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Shalom

Arise for our help, and redeem us for Thy mercy's sake.

Psalm 44:26

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Gaza Operations Continue

Defense Minister Ehud Olmert declared today that the military operations in the Gaza Strip will continue.

During a visit to the Tel Hashomer recruitment base, Barak stated that "whoever thinks that this is the end of the story and that there's already a truce is wrong. We haven't finished anything and the important trials are still ahead."

The minister noted that the defense establishment's goal was to stop the rocket fire at Israel and all the terror emanating from Gaza, while dramatically reducing weapon smuggling into the Strip. There will be no consideration of a ceasefire until then, he said.

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Olmert to Mayors: Imagine Terror in Your City ..

"Imagine what would happen in your city if a terror attack such as [the one in Merkaz Harav Yeshiva on Thursday] would have been carried out," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert asked hundreds of mayors from across the world during a Twin City conference at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem.

"Despite terrorism and despite the pain we are not relinquishing the monumental task of making another dramatic step that can bring us closer to building the foundations for true peace between Israel and the Palestinians," Olmert said.

The prime minister also made mention of his turbulent years as mayor of Jerusalem during the height of the second intifada, which "were years of incessant work against dozens of murderous terror attacks in the streets of the city."

"Last Thursday a terrorist infiltrated Mercaz Harav yeshiva and fired indiscriminately while the students were engaged in final preparations for a party commemorating the beginning of the month of Adar, during which we are to engage in much merriment," Olmert said. "Sadly, he realized his malicious intentions and killed eight young scholars in cold blood."

"Imagine for a moment what would happen in your city if a similar terror attack occurred, God forbid," he told the mayors. "Ask yourselves, if eight boys from your city were brutally murdered, what would you do? What would you tell your residents?"

"Who would not be afraid of a situation where his city was threatened by rockets," Olmert continued. "Who would no want to react when faced with such a threat? We have never stopped struggling for our lives. The intention of terror organizations by shooting Kassams is identical to that of the terrorist last Thursday - to make our lives unbearable."

"They wish to run us off the path to peace, but there is no chance that they'll succeed," he said.

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Iran Makes Israeli Leaders Targets

The poster pictured here has been hung around Tehran and other parts of Iran and under the caption in English and Arabic which says "Israel must be wiped off the map" are photos of three Israeli leaders targeted for assassination.

In an unprecedented ceremony which took place on Sunday in Tehran, a price was put on the heads of the top ranking Israeli security officials as revenge for the asassination of Hizbollah's no.2 chief and arch terrorist Imad Mugniyah last month.

The Iranian news agency IRNA quoted an announcement from a radical organization called the "Islamic Student Justice Seekers" in which the group made clear its reasoning for the move.

"Following the increase in crimes by the Zionist regime in occupied Palestine and in the Gaza Strip, and in wake of the assassination that this regime carried out abroad of senior members of the resistance front, a ceremony will be held today to set a financial prize for the killing of the organizers of these acts."

According to the organization's announcement, the financial prizes are to be given to those who take out the three most senior members of the Israeli security establishment: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Mossad Chief Meir Dagan and Head of Military Intelligence Amos Yaron.

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Terrorist's Body Held by Israel

Israeli Police have refused to hand over the body of mass murderer Ala Abu Dheim for burial. Dheim, an Arab Israeli citizen who slaughtered eight yeshiva students last week, was shot and killed during the attack by an armed student and an off-duty IDF officer who was nearby.

His funeral was scheduled for today, but authorities will not return his body until the family commits to holding a small funeral, thereby preventing a pro-Jihad procession which could turn violent. Large numbers of Arabs have turned up at the mourning tent erected by his family, giving cause for concern that a public funeral in east Jerusalem could easily turn into riots and violence.

The Palestinian Authority daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, under control of Mahmoud Abbas, our so-called "peace partner", ran a front page picture of Abu Dheim calling him a shahid (Holy martyr).

I hope Secretary Rice sees that front page, as well as many Congressmen. The US Congress made it illegal to give money to terrorist organizations:

"[The Secretary of State] shall terminate assistance to any individual, entity which she has determined to be involved in or advocating terrorist activity." Congress further legislated that "none of the [U.S.] assistance under the West Bank and Gaza Program may be made available for the purpose of recognizing or otherwise honoring individuals who commit, or have committed acts of terrorism" (2008 Foreign Operations Bill).

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Palestinian "Human Shields"

The Foreign Ministry released today a series of photographs that show how Hamas and other Palestinian Authority terrorists use civilians as human shields during their attacks on Israel.

The ministry launched a campaign several months ago to counter the general anti-Israel tone of international media coverage and the resulting negative image of the Jewish State around the world.

"The purpose of the [Hamas terrorists conducting their activities among a] civilian presence was to have them serve as human shields, exploiting the fact that the IDF avoids harming Palestinian [Arab] civilians," explains the ministry on its website.

The photographs clearly show terrorists launching rockets from civilian areas, using private family homes to hide weapons and putting explosive 'factories' in residential homes, thus deliberately making Gaza civilians human shields for terrorism.

In several instances, Hamas media recruited children to form a human shield on the roofs of terrorists' homes and apartment buildings in order to protect the structures from an anticipated IDF air strike right after Hamas attacked Jewish civilians in southern Israel.

In the photo above, a crowd of Palestinian civilians stands on the roof of a home in which explosives are manufactured in order to prevent the IDF from striking the house. Below is the link to others:

Use of Human Shields in Gaza

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Northern Borders on High Alert

The intelligence report submitted to the Israeli cabinet yesterday, Sunday, March 9, predicted grave dangers to Israeli security in the coming year. More troubling, however, is the deep concern of increased terrorism during the rest of this month. What has prompted this deeper concern at the moment?

1. At the Arab League summit in Damascus February 29th, Syria made known that the situation in Lebanon is to be on the proverbial "back burner" for now and all attention should be focused on Gaza.

Israeli intelligence has warned that in the interim Hamas and Jihad Islami would make every effort to ignite the Gaza front in order to unite the Arab rulers behind a dramatic Arab resolution in support of the Palestinian Islamists. This tactic would transfer the Gaza issue's center of gravity from Cairo, which is brokering a Hamas-Israel ceasefire deal, to the more radical Damascus regime.

Hamas keeps on stalling talks in Cairo and raising its demands. Amos Gilead, security adviser in Israel's defense ministry, who traveled to Cairo Sunday to try and break the deadlock, came back empty-handed. Gilead's assessment included a warning that Hamas is poised to generate a flare-up of rocket attacks the moment it suits Syria and Iran.

2. The second issue of deep concern is that the coming Arab League summit will for the first time host an Iranian head of state. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be seated beside Syrian president Bashar Assad as guest of honor to parade the Tehran-Damascus axis' pre-eminent role in Arab Middle East affairs, with Iran setting the pace.

This prospect has raised military "blood pressures" across the entire Middle East.

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak suddenly declared this morning, that Israel continues to be responsible for the Gaza Strip after its pull-out and its status in both Gaza and the West Bank is that of an occupation force. In an interview, he endorsed the Hamas line which called on Israel to halt military operations not only in Gaza but also on the West Bank. This, despite the fact that just weeks ago, Mubarak was furious with Hamas when they breached the border fence with his country.

Over the weekend, the US navy built up its deployment opposite the Lebanese coast with the USS Ross guided missile destroer and the USS Philippine Sea cruiser.

Syria responded by placing its air and naval bases, where too Russian warships are docked, on a state of preparedness.

Israel's new national intelligence report affirms that the United States' declining role in the region has left a vacuum for radical elements to fill. Its authors, the chiefs of military intelligence, the Mossad, Shin Bet and the foreign ministry's intelligence unit, warned of the heightened threat from missiles in the arsenals of a future nuclear-armed Iran (within two years) and Syrian. A Hizballah attack and a stronger Hamas were also in prospect.

In the coming two weeks, Syria, Iran, Hizballah and Hamas will be further tightening the military and terrorist loop around Israel - to the north, the south, and among Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, at the expense of Israel's deterrent strength.

According to military sources, including but not limited to Debkafile, Hizballah is completing its preparations for revenge on Israel, whom it accuses of killing its military commander Imad Mughniyeh last month. The latest estimate is that the Shiite terrorists will strike on the border and/or inside Israel, rather than hit overseas targets.

The Israeli government has some very serious issues on the table at the moment. Will they face the reality or continue down the unrealistic path of recent weeks and months?

Pray for the peace - and protection - of Jerusalem - and all of Israel,

Blessings and shalom to all of you,

Leah

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