NightBlogger

Iran reports testing a new long-range surface-to-surface missile (Sejil) with a range of 1200 miles just days after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps tested another new missile, the Samen, near the Iraqi border. Meanwhile, a former Israeli military general claims “Israeli armed forces have the ‘right capabilities’ to launch a successful strike against Iran. “[A strike] is not the end of the game. Then, we should follow it up with a viable, sustainable military operation to target the facilities [serving] the regime’s interests, and not allow the regime to rehabilitate itself.”

NPR — Iran said it test-fired a new generation of surface-to-surface missile on Wednesday in preparation to defend itself against possible attack. The latest missile test followed speculation in recent months of possible U.S. or Israeli strikes against Tehran’s nuclear facilities, which the West suspects are being used for weapons production. U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, like outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush, has not ruled out military action although he has criticized the Bush administration for not pursuing more diplomacy and engagement with Tehran.

Washington said the test highlighted the need for a missile defense system it plans to base in Poland and the Czech Republic to counter threats from what it calls “rogue states”. Iranian Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said the Iranian-made surface-to-surface Sejil missile had “extremely high capabilities” and was only intended for defensive purposes. He said it had a range of close to 1,200 miles, almost as far as another Iranian missile, Shahab 3. That would enable it to reach Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf.

Oped news reports:…Rahm Emanuel may have active links to the Israeli Intelligence Service, Mossad…We certainly should not be surprised that Mossad wants to penetrate the White House, whether it is through Emanuel or someone else. Apparently they may have done so in the past to great advantage. To say the least, the FBI must be allowed to do a full background check on everyone, including Emanuel. No free passes on such a critical issue, the security of the President.

This is an excerpt from the Nov 6 Wayne Madsen Report:

November 6, 2008 — Obama faced with security problem at outset of transition process

WMR has learned from informed U.S. intelligence sources that prospective Barack Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has an active FBI counter-intelligence file maintained on him. Emanuel’s rise to the Chief of Staff position may pose a significant security problem for President-elect Obama if the FBI insists on conducting the full background security investigation normally required for senior White House officials. Questions about Emanuel’s links to the Israeli intelligence service, the Mossad, were allegedly so great that President Bill Clinton was forced to dismiss Emanuel from the White House staff in 1998….More

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Wikipedia: Madsen was a Senior Fellow of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.[1] He was a communications security analyst with the National Security Agency in the 1980s, and an intelligence officer in the US Navy. He has testified on numerous occasions before the US Congress. Madsen edits the Wayne Madsen Report, which he describes as following in the tradition of Drew Pearson’s and Jack Anderson’s famous “Washington Merry-Go-Round” syndicated column and columns by I.F. Stone. Madsen also hosts a radio show on the largely Internet-based radio station “We The People Radio Network” [2], broadcast every Tuesday from 7-9pm CST. Other hosts on the network include prominent members of the 9/11 Truth Movement including Alex Jones and Kevin Barrett.

Los Angeles Times, Washington Post News Service
Tehran: Iran’s highest authority lashed out against Israel on Friday with some of his harshest comments in recent memory about the Jewish state. Supreme leader Ali Khamenei, the black-turbaned ayatollah who is Iran’s top political and military figure, said his country’s hostility to Israel extended beyond the government to the Israeli people as well. In doing so, he brushed aside recent overtures by top Iranian officials to ordinary people in the Jewish state. Khamenei said Iran and Israel were on a “collision course,” a statement that could increase tensions in a Middle East already fearful of a conflict between the countries.

“Who are Israelis?” Khamenei told thousands of worshippers gathered for Friday prayers in downtown Tehran. “They are responsible for usurping houses, territory, farmlands and businesses. They are combatants at the disposal of Zionist operatives. A Muslim nation cannot remain indifferent vis-a-vis such people who are stooges at the service of the arch-foes of the Muslim world.” Iran and Israel are locked in a war of words. Israel accuses Iran of seeking nuclear weapons under the guise of a peaceful energy program and supporting anti-Israeli hardline groups in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. Iran’s leaders have repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel. More

MOSCOW (Reuters)
A military solution to the standoff over Iran’s nuclear ambitions is unacceptable and there is no need at the moment for new sanctions, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday. But Medvedev said Russia continued to support a diplomatic drive led by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana to offer Tehran a package of incentives in return for it reining in some of its nuclear activities. Western states are anxious that a rift between Moscow and the West over Russia’s intervention in Georgia may shatter the fragile international coalition that has been applying pressure on Iran over its nuclear program. “We should not take any unilateral steps. It is not acceptable to opt for a military scenario. It would be dangerous,” Medvedev told the Valdai Club, a panel of journalists and academics who specialize in Russia. More

September 5, 2008, 12:58 PM (GMT+02:00)
DEBKAfile Special Report
The raids were disclosed by UPI chief editor Arnaud de Borchgrave, who is also on the Washington Times staff, and picked up by the Iranian Fars news agency. The Russian raids of two Georgian airfields, which Tbilisi had allowed Israel to use for a potential strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, followed the Georgian offensive against South Ossetia on Aug. 7. Under the secret agreement with Georgia, the airfields had been earmarked for use by Israeli fighter-bombers taking off to strike Iran in return for training and arms supplies. DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources report that flying from S. Georgia over the Caspian Sea to Iran would sharply trim the distance to be spanned by Israeli fighter-bombers, reducing flying time to 3.5 hours.

Northern Iran and the Tehran region, where most of the nuclear facilities are concentrated, would be within range, with no need to request US permission to pass through Iraq air space. Russian Special Forces also raided other Israeli facilities in southern Georgia and captured Israeli spy drones, says the report. Israel was said to have used the two airfields to “conduct recon flights over southern Russia as well as into nearby Iran.” The US intelligence sources quoted by UPI reported that the Russian force also carried home other Israeli military equipment captured at the air bases.

Our sources say that if the Russians got hold of an Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle complete with sophisticated electronic reconnaissance equipment, they will have secured some of the IDF’s most secret devices for spying on Iran and Syria. When this happened before, Russian military engineers quickly dismantled the equipment, studied it and passed the technology on to Tehran and Damascus.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned Iran on Thursday it was taking a dangerous gamble in seeking to develop nuclear weapons because one day its arch-foe Israel could strike. Fears of an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities have risen since Israel staged an air force exercise in June which was reported to be a simulation of a strike against Iran. More

Source: Press TV
The Islamic Republic says a surprise attack on Iran is impossible as the country’s Armed Forces are fully prepared for all scenarios. The US and Israel have long threatened to launch military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities should the country continue with its uranium enrichment program. Iran has warned that the country’s Armed Forces have fully monitored the US army’s combat methods, its weaknesses and strong points, and are therefore fully capable of countering US tactics.

“We know the strategies the enemy might employ for a surprise attack and we have also readied special tactics of our own to give the enemy a surprise response far greater than they could ever imagine,” Deputy Army Commander Brigadier General Abdul-Rahim Mousavi said Saturday. Brig. Gen. Mousavi added that all the country’s military capabilities had not been unveiled yet and said Iran has ‘important’ defensive equipment, which will significantly impact the course of events in case of an attack. The commander cautioned that the enemy must learn to differentiate between ‘having the power to attack’ and ‘willing an attack.’

The remarks came after Israeli lawmaker Ephraim Sneh said the opportunity to find a non-military solution to halt Iran’s nuclear program would cease within 18 to 24 months, adding that Israel is preparing a contingency plan to attack Iran. The Islamic Republic, a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), says that diplomacy is the only practical approach for clarifying the civilian nature of its nuclear program. Iran, however, has warned that it would not hesitate to target the heart of Israel and 32 US bases in the region should the country come under attack.

(IsraelNN.com)
Israel’s leadership resolved, in top-level strategic discussions three months ago, to do whatever it takes to prevent Iran from having nuclear bombs. This is Maariv’s front-page headline on Friday. Maariv’s veteran political reporter Ben Caspit stops short of detailing the precise solution Israel will implement to put an end to Iran’s nuclear program, but writes, “Preparations for an Israeli military option intended to stop Iran’s nuclear program are underway.” The results of the series of highest-level discussions are thus clear: “The debate between those who believe in doing everything, including a military operation, to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb, and those who think we can live with Iranian nukes, has been settled.” Not only that, but “if the ayatollahs’ regime does not fall in the next year, if the Americans do not strike militarily, and if the international sanctions do not break the Iranian nuclear plan, Israel will have to act forcefully.” More

Haaretz.com
The United States and Israel have agreed on the deployment of high-powered, early-warning missile radars in the Negev desert, to be manned by U.S. military personnel. The radars, known as X-Band, will be linked to a U.S. satellite-based alert network. A spokesman for the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said the new system could double or even triple the missiles’ range of identification, which would be particularly useful should Iran launch an attack on Israel. Details of the deal, which caught the public’s attention at the end of July, were reported yesterday in the periodical Defense News, and were corroborated by senior U.S. and Israeli officials. More

The United States is in a huge foreign policy muddle in the Middle East. It wants to dominate and control Iran but requires the support of the world community to accomplish its aims. Diplomacy and sanctions require only a low level of support. On the other hand, to launch a military attack or green-light one by Israel, the United States needs far more backing. This support does not appear to exist, and recent U.S. foreign policy actions are eroding that support even further. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on August 13 that the United States refused to give the go-ahead to Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities in talks between Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Could it be that the Bush administration finally knows when it is licked?

Israeli officials acknowledge that it would be difficult to launch such an attack without approval from Russia, China, and India, something that the United States would have to lobby those nations to achieve. The chances at present are extremely slim that any of the three will acquiesce. U.S. condemnation of Russia’s military action to defend the breakaway region of South Ossetia, combined with the determination of the Bush administration to install missile systems in Poland and the Czech Republic, virtually guarantee that Russia will not do anything to help the United States foment more violence in its neighborhood.

Beijing owns much of the U.S. debt, continues to be one of Tehran’s largest trade partners, and is not about to be dictated to by Washington. India has defied the United States by entering into a pipeline deal with Iran. Exhaustive three-year nuclear treaty negotiations between the United States and India are utterly stalled. If the treaty is not presented to Congress in September, it will be dead. More

George Galloway talks to a caller about an impending attack on Iran.

Russia is making it abundantly clear that the US and NATO had both been warned to not push this NATO membership and arming of Georgia. What was the US response? Israel just kept pouring in weapons and preparing the Georgian military (and mercs and advisors) for this war, along with the US. You can bet that is why the KGB (FSB) was in Georgia to see what these greedy Zionist zhids and the US were up to. More

What’s at stake is what former National Security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski described in his 1997 book “The Grand Chessboard.” He called Eurasia the “center of world power extending from Germany and Poland in the East through Russia and China to the Pacific and including the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.” He continued: “The most immediate (US) task is to make certain that no state or combination of states gains the capacity to expel the United States from Eurasia or even to diminish significantly its decisive arbitration role.” Dominating that part of the world and its vast energy and other resources is Washington’s goal with NATO and Israel its principal tools to do it: More

To be sure, the diminishing ability of America to influence the course of international events is now on display for all the world to see. Many cite the strong Zionist influence over America’s foreign policy for this development. And this Zionist influence has not been lost on Vladimir Putin nor on the people he rules. Putin was critical of the Zionist prompted American invasion of Iraq in 2003, saying that the invasion could not be justified because it “did not have the backing of the international community.” And with regard to America’s threats against Iran in behalf of their Zionist client, the State of Israel, Putin made the following reproof to America after his October 2007 visit to Iran: More

War in the Caucasus is as much the product of an American imperial drive as local conflicts. It’s likely to be a taste of things to come

Seumas Milne
The outcome of six grim days of bloodshed in the Caucasus has triggered an outpouring of the most nauseating hypocrisy from western politicians and their captive media. As talking heads thundered against Russian imperialism and brutal disproportionality, US vice-president Dick Cheney, faithfully echoed by Gordon Brown and David Miliband, declared that “Russian aggression must not go unanswered”. George Bush denounced Russia for having “invaded a sovereign neighbouring state” and threatening “a democratic government”. Such an action, he insisted, “is unacceptable in the 21st century”. Could these by any chance be the leaders of the same governments that in 2003 invaded and occupied - along with Georgia, as luck would have it - the sovereign state of Iraq on a false pretext at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives? Or even the two governments that blocked a ceasefire in the summer of 2006 as Israel pulverised Lebanon’s infrastructure and killed more than a thousand civilians in retaliation for the capture or killing of five soldiers? More

The Israeli-Georgia connection is estimated to be worth $1 billion, according to a former Georgian ambassador to Israel. The Jewish state and private investors have provided military assistance and advisors to Georgia, where pipelines pump oil destined for Israel. A new pipeline is being built to bypass Russian territory. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Israeli companies in Georgia have begun evacuating their staff and that Israeli tourists are leaving for home. More

American News Project: Washington’s neocons are alive and well, advising both John McCain and President Bush. Now many are saying Bush should permit Israel to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities after Election Day before the new president takes office. ANP investigates as we chase down John Bolton, Bill Kristol and Frank Gaffney to see how far ahead these hawks are thinking. And a new report says the whole plan could backfire. See Video

ABC News
Obama told the caucus, according to an attendee, “Nobody said this to me directly but I get the feeling from my talks that if the sanctions don’t work Israel is going to strike Iran.” Others in the room recall this as well. The notion that Israel is preparing for such an action against Iran’s myriad nuclear facilities is not new, with conjecture heating up in May after an Israeli military exercise featuring 150 aircraft flying almost a thousand miles over the Mediterranean Sea in what was seen as a dress rehearsal for an air strike. More

Thinkprogress
CBS News reports, “Israel is building up its strike capabilities amid growing anxiety over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and appears confident that a military attack would cripple Tehran’s atomic program, even if it can’t destroy it.” The country has also “purchased 90 F-16I fighter planes that can carry enough fuel to reach Iran, and will receive 11 more by the end of next year.” According to the Times of London, President Bush has given an “‘amber light‘ to an Israeli plan to attack Iran’s main nuclear sites with long-range bombing sorties.”

Israel has entered the last phase of its war preparations against Iran. Recent resignation of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, a proponent of negotiations and concessions, and several other factors speak well for the imminent war. Israel’s recent creation of the US missile defense shield can be another addition on the list. The US administration also tries to use the Israeli forces to play a dirty trick on Russia. The resignation of the Israeli prime minister has become another reason to raise the subject of imminent war between Israel and Iran. Many Israeli politicians dislike Ehud Olmert’s views on the need to conduct negotiations with neighboring states, as well as his intention to discuss an opportunity to return Golan Heights to Syria.

There are other aspects which testify to a possible war in the nearest future. The USA is going to ship a radar station to Israel to track down missile launches. Furthermore, the United States intends to use the radar together with Israel . The USA will provide Israel with early missile launch prevention information, as well as technical and financial aid for the creation of the missile defense system. According to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the radar station will be deployed in Israel before the new US administration officially takes the White House in January 2009. The US administration believes that the radar station is required to defend Israel against Iranian missiles. It does not go about the deployment of interceptor missiles yet. Nevertheless, it is obvious that the distance to Iran is almost the same as the distance to Russia, which vehemently opposes the deployment of US missile system in Europe. More

RHINEBECK, NY 14 July 2008 — The “Panic of ‘08″ that we had predicted is “ON.” Only the blind can’t see it, the deaf don’t hear it and those in denial won’t admit it. America’s economy has taken a direct hit. The nation’s financial superstructure is collapsing. Those waiting for the “official word” and hesitating to take survival measures will go down with the sinking ship of state.

The Economic 9/11 that we had warned would “topple corporate giants” and “crush the man on the street” hit on Friday. (See “Economic 9/11,” Trend Alert, 12 November 2007; “Economic 9/11″ Top Trends 2008, Trends Journal, Winter 2008.) While an economic terror strike was long in the making and the devastation long predicted, the financial markets melted down and panic hit the Street on the news that the nation’s two largest mortgage finance companies, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, were on the brink of failing.

The dollar resumed its downward slide, gold sharply reversed its three month slump and oil rose to record highs on the threatening economic news and word that Israel was practicing bombing runs over Iraq in preparation to attack Iran. The Dow - before paring some of its losses on a late in the trading day rumor that the Fed would open its discount window to keep feeding Mac and Mae with needed cash to stay afloat - had fallen to a two year low on Friday.

Hours after the markets closed on the East Coast, and with the nation gearing up for another summer weekend, most people were tuned out when IndyMac Bancorp officially went belly up at 3 PM PST. Had the news hit while Wall Street was in session that the second biggest bank failure in US history was under way, calamity would have ensued. Instead, the out-of-touch missed the news and the ever-hopeful believed Uncle Sam would save the day. More

TEHRAN - Iran’s president said that even before its enemies “get their hands on the trigger” the country’s military would “cut” them off, media said Sunday, in an escalating war of words that has stoked Middle East tension. The comments by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came a day after a senior Iranian official said Iran would strike Israel and U.S. bases in the region if the Islamic Republic was attacked over its disputed nuclear program. U.S. leaders have not ruled out military options if diplomacy fails to assuage fears about Iran’s nuclear activities, which Tehran says is only to produce electricity. More

Times Online
President George W Bush has told the Israeli government that he may be prepared to approve a future military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations with Tehran break down, according to a senior Pentagon official. Despite the opposition of his own generals and widespread scepticism that America is ready to risk the military, political and economic consequences of an airborne strike on Iran, the president has given an “amber light” to an Israeli plan to attack Iran’s main nuclear sites with long-range bombing sorties, the official told The Sunday Times.

“Amber means get on with your preparations, stand by for immediate attack and tell us when you’re ready,” the official said. But the Israelis have also been told that they can expect no help from American forces and will not be able to use US military bases in Iraq for logistical support. Nor is it certain that Bush’s amber light would ever turn to green without irrefutable evidence of lethal Iranian hostility. Tehran’s test launches of medium-range ballistic missiles last week were seen in Washington as provocative and poorly judged, but both the Pentagon and the CIA concluded that they did not represent an immediate threat of attack against Israeli or US targets. More

Israel’s defense minister has hinted at readiness to attack Iran, saying his country “proved in the past that it won’t hesitate to act when its vital security interests are at stake.” But Ehud Barak added “the reactions of (Israel’s) enemies need to be taken into consideration as well.” Tensions with Iran intensified after Tehran launched war games and long-range missile tests this week, warning Tel Aviv would be “set on fire” if Israel attacks Iran over its nuclear program. More

BBC News
The US has said it will not hesitate to defend its interests and those of its allies as Iran continues missile tests. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the US had increased its security in the region and Iran should not be “confused” about US capabilities. Iran has tested missiles, including one that could reach Israel, over the past two days. Meanwhile French energy giant Total has said it will not invest in Iran because it is too politically risky. Israel has responded to the missile tests by putting on display one of its aircraft that it says can spy on Iran. Rice said: “We take very strongly our obligation to defend our allies and we intend to do that. “In the Gulf area, the United States has enhanced its security capacity, its security presence and we are working closely with all our allies… to make [sure] they are capable of defending themselves.” More

OPEC would not be able to replace Iran’s oil production if supplies were halted in case of a war with Israel or the US, the oil cartel’s chief said today. “I hope there will be no attack on Iran. I hope that problem will be solved peacefully,” the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ secretary general Abdalla Salem El-Badri told a news conference in Vienna. “But if something were to happen it is impossible to replace the production of Iran.” Iran is OPEC’s second-largest oil producer with an output of about four million barrels per day. More

IRAN has warned it will “set fire” to Israel and US forces in response to any attack over its nuclear drive, as the world’s leading industrial powers told Tehran to freeze uranium enrichment. Leaders of the Group of Eight nations at a summit in Japan today urged Iran to fully comply with UN Security Council resolutions “in particular to suspend all enrichment-related activities”. They also urged Tehran to respond positively to a new package by six major powers aimed at bringing an end to the five-year-old nuclear standoff which has led to a string of sanctions against Iran. The United States and its top regional ally Israel have never ruled out military action against Iran over its nuclear drive, which the West fears could be aimed at building an atomic bomb. There has been concern a strike could be imminent after it emerged Israel had carried out manoeuvres in Greece that were effectively practice runs for a potential strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. More

Source: AFP News
Iran would launch attacks against Israel and the US navy in the Gulf as its first response against any American attack over its nuclear programme, an aide to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday, according to the Fars news agency.

The Iranian sentenced to death after being convicted of spying for Israel tells of his dealings with the Mossad in an interview with Iranian television on Monday. The spy, Ali Ashtari, detailed the demands made of him by his Mossad handlers, who he said took advantage of his occupation as a computer broker whose clientele included top Iranian military officials. More