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Israel Warns Time is Running out Before it Launches Strike on Iran

Kim Sengupta
The Independent
Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Ehud Barak
© Getty Images
Ehud Barak
Growing body of opinion suggests that Iranian response to an attack would be muted

Economic sanctions by the European Union and the United States can only be allowed a limited time period to prevent Iran from attempting to acquire a nuclear arsenal before a military strike must be contemplated, Israeli leaders have declared.

The tough public stance from Tel Aviv comes amid conflicting reports on the readiness of the Israeli military establishment to carry out an attack on Iran.

One account claims that Israel's security agencies have concluded that the turmoil predicted from a strike, and the likely response from Tehran, has been widely exaggerated. However, a senior British official told The Independent that the hierarchy of the intelligence service, Mossad, and the armed forces continued to have deep trepidation about conflict in the region.

Speaking at the Davos economic summit yesterday, the Israeli Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, yesterday warned that a situation could be rapidly reached when even "surgical" military action could not block the Tehran regime from getting the bomb. "We will know early enough whether the Iranians are ready to give up their nuclear weapons," following measures such as the recently announced EU oil embargo, he said.
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Chess

Asia Challenges US, Europe Over Iran

Garibov Konstantin
The Voice of Russia
Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© EPA
China, India and Turkey have warned that they won't support a ban on Iranian oil imports and will try and prevent the US from blocking Iranian oil supplies. Japan and South Korea are planning to follow suit. Europe introduced an embargo on Iran oil imports this week. The Voice of Russia's Konstantin Garibov reports.

The new package of sanctions against Tehran which was approved by EU foreign ministers on Monday provides for a gradual ban on the import of Iranian oil and oil products. The EU plans to stop purchasing oil from Iran by July 1st . Until recently, the main buyers of Iranian oil in Europe were Greece, Italy and Spain, who bought 600,000 barrels a day.

Europe decided to buy itself some time so that it could find alternatives to Iranian oil imports. Yevgeny Satanovsky of the Institute of the Middle East says:

"Europe will have no problems replacing Iranian oil with oil from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, or Kuwait. The Gulf Cooperation Council has already made it clear that it will recoup the losses."
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Document

Iran Finalizes Bill to Ban EU Oil Exports


Press TV
Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:42 UTC
Image
© unknown
Iranian lawmakers aim to ban all oil exports to European countries in response to the oil ban against Iran.
An Iranian lawmaker says the Majlis (parliament) Energy Committee has finalized a draft bill to stop the country's oil exports to EU member states in reaction to the bloc's recent decision to ban oil imports from Iran.

Nasser Soudani, deputy chairman of the committee, said on Saturday that the double-urgency bill for halting Iran oil exports to Europe had been finalized in four clauses.

"According to one of the main clauses, the Islamic Republic of Iran will halt all oil exports to European countries as long as they continue to ban oil imports from Iran," he added.

The lawmaker said the bill may undergo further modifications as some Iranian parliamentarians believe that oil exports to EU should be stopped for five years.

"Another clause obliges the government to forbid imports of all goods from countries which have imposed sanctions on our country," he added.
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Clock

Iran Says It Could Terminate European Oil Sales Next Week

Rick Gladstone
The New York Times
Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Iran
© ISNA
Escalating retaliatory threats over the West's nuclear sanctions, Iran warned on Friday that it could terminate oil sales to Europe as early as next week, and it bluntly advised Arab oil producers that any attempt by them to replace Iranian exports would be considered unfriendly.

The threats came as Iranian officials repeated their willingness to re-engage in negotiations with the Western powers over Iran's uranium enrichment program, although the prospects for such a resumption appeared to grow more uncertain. Iran also was preparing to play host this weekend to a team of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear monitor, which issued an incriminating report about Iran's uranium enrichment program two months ago.

That report elevated Western suspicions that Iran was laying the groundwork to build an atomic weapon despite Iran's repeated assertions that its uranium enrichment program is for peaceful ends.
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USA

US Plans for Perpetual War

Renee Parsons
Information Clearing House
Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Obama, Panetta
© unknown
Defense Secretary Panetta and President Obama
As an attack on Iran remains temporarily on the backburner and Syria, home to "US-identified" terrorist group Hamas, moves up the queue as the next target for military intervention, both are part of a larger strategy proposed to newly-elected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 1996.

The "Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm" suggested a "new approach to peace' premised on a 'clean break' from the Oslo peace process of the 1990's. Oslo would have withdrawn Israeli troops from the occupied territories while affirming Palestine's right of self-determination. Rather than pursuing a 'comprehensive peace' with the Arab world, Clean Break advocated an aggressive pre-emptive military strategy to destabilize Iraq and eliminate Saddam Hussein. In addition, Clean Break retained the 'right of hot pursuit' anywhere within the occupied territories and encouraged 'seizing the initiative' by "engaging" Hezbollah, Syria and Iran to trigger ultimate regime change.

The key authors of that document, American neo-cons Richard Perle, David Wurmser and Douglas Feith (who Gen. Tommy Franks called the 'f... stupidest guy on the face of the earth" ie Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack, pg 281), soon found themselves influential national security positions within a receptive Bush Administration from which to proselytize their recommendations.
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Die

Is Sarkozy About to Throw in the Towel?

John Lichfield
The Independent
Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Sarkozy
© Getty Images
President Nicolas Sarkozy will be fighting for his political life when he makes a live appearance on French TV tonight. Some senior figures within his own party fear that he has already lost all chance of winning the two-round presidential election in April and May. There is speculation - possibly rooted in wishful thinking - that Mr Sarkozy may soon be tempted to throw in the towel and allow another senior centre-right politician to run in his place.

Sources within his centre-right party insist that the President will make no dramatic statements tonight. He will not say that he is pulling out of the race. Nor will he declare - yet - that he is a candidate for another five-year presidential term. His TV address to the nation will be purely presidential, they insist: announcing a programme of "urgent" and "revolutionary" reforms to make the struggling French economy more competitive. This will include a controversial plan to shift part of the high pay-roll tax burden on French employers to a higher rate of VAT.

But the tone and contents of Mr Sarkozy's address will be closely watched by supporters, and rivals, within his centre-right party, the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP). The President upset some of his supporters last week with off-the-record comments in which he said that he would give up politics if he lost the election.
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War Whore

Pentagon Seeks Mightier Bomb vs. Iran

Adam Entous And Julian E. Barnes
Wall Street Journal
Sat, 28 Jan 2012 20:53 UTC
A crew loaded a 'bunker buster
© Defense Threat Reduction Agency / Associated Press
A crew loaded a 'bunker buster' at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico in 2007; the military hopes to make the bomb more powerful.
Pentagon war planners have concluded that their largest conventional bomb isn't yet capable of destroying Iran's most heavily fortified underground facilities, and are stepping up efforts to make it more powerful, according to U.S. officials briefed on the plan.

The 30,000-pound "bunker-buster" bomb, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, was specifically designed to take out the hardened fortifications built by Iran and North Korea to cloak their nuclear programs.

But initial tests indicated that the bomb, as currently configured, wouldn't be capable of destroying some of Iran's facilities, either because of their depth or because Tehran has added new fortifications to protect them.

Doubts about the MOP's effectiveness prompted the Pentagon this month to secretly submit a request to Congress for funding to enhance the bomb's ability to penetrate deeper into rock, concrete and steel before exploding, the officials said.

The push to boost the power of the MOP is part of stepped-up contingency planning for a possible strike against Iran's nuclear program, say U.S. officials.
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Stormtrooper

Doctors Without Borders says it halts work in Libyan city's prisons because of torture

Rami Al-Shaheibi & Sarah El Deeb
Newser.com
Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:51 UTC
Image

The crimes being committed by the US/NATO's agents in Libya are so heinous, anyone who can leave the country is doing so.
Medical group halts work in Libyan city's prisons

Doctors Without Borders has suspended its work in prisons in the Libyan city of Misrata because it said torture was so rampant that some detainees were brought for care only to make them fit for further interrogation, the group said Thursday.

The announcement was compounded by a statement from Amnesty International saying it has recorded widespread prisoner abuse in other cities as well, leading to the death of several inmates.

The allegations, which come more than three months after former leader Moammar Gadhafi was captured and killed, were an embarrassment to the governing National Transitional Council, which is struggling to establish its authority in the divided nation.

Doctors Without Borders said that since August, its medical teams have treated 115 people in Misrata who bore torture-related wounds, including cigarette burns, heavy bruising, bone fractures, tissue burns from electric shocks and kidney failure from beatings. Two detainees died after being interrogated, the group's general director said.
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Vader

Torture and Abuse in Libya

Stephen Lendman
sjlendman.blogspot.com
Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:40 UTC
Image

Born in the USA... CIA and MI6-trained Libyan rebels are torturing ordinary Libyan civilians en masse. Once protected by Ghaddafi, now even Western aid groups are fleeing the hell unleashed by their governments in Libya.
NATO's alleged "responsibility to protect" was subterfuge. Months of terror bombings left Libya a charnel house.

Africa's most developed country was ravaged. Tens of thousands were killed, multiples more injured, and millions left on their own sink or swim.

When is war not war? It's when mass killing and destruction are called the right thing. It's also when terrorizing and traumatizing an entire population goes unaddressed.

Add horrific torture to other crimes and abuses, according to Amnesty International (AI), Doctors Without Borders, and Human Rights Watch (HRW).
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Stormtrooper

Russia Must Be Ready for Space, Cyber Wars


RIA Novosti
Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:51 UTC
Image
© RIA Novosti. Alexandr Utkin
Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Nikolai Makarov
Russia must be ready for wars in space and in networks, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Nikolai Makarov said on Saturday.

"As you see, warfare center has moved to aerospace and information spheres, including cyber security, from traditional war theatres on land and sea. Concepts of network-centric war have made great progress," Makarov told an Academy of Military Sciences meeting. "We appraise how ... this question is being solved in Western leading countries."
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