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ISRAEL +
US PREPARE TO ATTACK IRAN
GOAL IS FORCING CAPITULATION
OR
RISKING REGIONAL WAR
"There could be very, very
serious ramifications
in the wake of what's
happened with this air
strike by the Israelis in
Syrian territory."
Brent Sadler,
CNN
.
“It could be a race who presses the button
first (to strike Iran) – us or the Americans”.
Israeli Mossad
Official
MID-EAST REALITIES -
www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 6 October 2003: Before the Israelis bombed Syria for
the first time in decades, MER warned over the past weekend that
General Sharon - and what is essentially another
military-Mossad government in Israel - was trying hard to provoke an
"excuse" for a new regional war; much as has been done before, most
recently in 1982 when Sharon, then Defense Minister, cleverly orchestrated
the invasion of Lebanon in an attempt to install a 'new regime' in that
country.
Indeed, it was that war which
then led to the Hezbollah, the Intifada, Hamas, and the now-escalating
phenomena of 'suicide bombers'...not to mention the effects Sharon's
militarist and expansionist policies have had on events taking place in
Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and throughout the region.
Now Sharon and his warrior Generals are
attempting to twist world affairs in a way that will allow them, always of
course in intimate coordination with the US, to force Syria into fuller
capitulation and to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities if the Iranians refuse
compliance.
At this historical moment the
Arabs are exceedingly weak, confused, co-opted and impotent.
This is the result not only of decades of Israeli and U.S. policies to
create just such a state of affairs, but of the gross incompetence and
corruption of the key Arab regimes in Cairo, Riyadh, Damascus and
Amman. All combined 'Arab world' military and economic
power is but a small fraction of that of today's Israel backed by its
superpower patron. As for pollitical power, overall the Arabs
are treated with contempt and scorn by their enemies, and with pity and
jokes by their friends.
It is Iran which
Israel now has in the cross-hairs. Taking out Iran's growing
military capabilities, especially its nuclear and missiles facilities, is
at the top of the Israeli agenda and that of its many top-level fellow
travelers in the American Pentagon and White House National Security
Council. Indeed, a number of times in the past year, even in
public, Ariel Sharon has telegraphed his blatant warnings - far more so in
secret no doubt. Just before the American invasion/occupation of
Iraq - and after holding numerous private meetings in Washington with
President Bush and senior US officials - Sharon himself said quite
clearly: "Right after Iraq must come Iran".
Now, with American forces occupying the heart
of the Arab world, with most Arab regimes either infiltrated, co-opted, or
cowering, the final stage is being set. Sharon will continue to do
all he can to provoke more attacks against Israel's increasingly brutal
occupation and then, when the political and 'public opionion' moment is
right, Israel will strike - of course with considerable US help no matter
what is said in public.
The first article that follows, dateline Washington, is not fully on
target. After all this is hardly the 'first time', though it may
very well prove to be the most significant time.
Israel had hoped the US could either topple
the current Iranian regime, or somehow force an end to its nuclear
programs. Having failed, including no doubt numerous CIA and Mossad
operations, the option of military force is now more on the table than
ever before. This is especially the case as the betting is the
'world community' will protest but not take any significant anti-Israel
steps, and even if the UN tried the US would block with its veto, proven
last month when the US used the 'veto' one more time to protect Israel
with hardly anyone noticing.
ISRAEL WEIGHS STRIKE TO STOP IRAN'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS
PROGRAM
TEL AVIV —
For the first time, Israel's military has raised the prospect of an
operation to destroy Iran's suspected nuclear weapons
program.
Israel's chief of staff, alarmed by the failure of the
international community to move against Iran, has warned that Israel would
consider unilateral action to stop the "nightmare scenario" of Teheran's
development of nuclear weapons.
Earlier, Israeli Foreign Minister
Silvan Shalom demanded that the international community stop the
program.
"Iran is fast approaching the point of no return in its
efforts to acquire nuclear weapons capability," Shalom said. "It's urgent
that the international community act to ensure that this nightmare
scenario is prevented."
Israel's Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Moshe
Ya'alon took the rhetoric up a notch.
"At the moment there is
continuing international diplomatic activity to deal with this threat, and
it would be good if it succeeds," Ya'alon said. "But if that is not the
case we would consider our options."
Israel has never specified
what action it might take to stop Iran's nuclear weapons program. But
Israeli officials assert that the nation's deep-strike air capability has
been vastly upgraded since Israeli F-16 multi-role fighters destroyed the
Iraqi reactor at Osirak in 1981.
Officials said Israel has been
dismayed by what they term the refusal by both the European Union and the
United States to share the sense of urgency regarding Iran's nuclear
program. Last week, Washington rejected an Israeli assessment that Iran
could complete its first nuclear weapons by the end of 2004.
"The
fact that a country like Iran, an enemy [of Israel] and which is
particularly irresponsible, has equipped itself with nonconventional
weapons is worrisome," Ya'alon said.
"The combination in this case
of a nonconventional regime with nonconventional weapons is a
concern."
The clearest warnings yet came on the eve of another
effort by the International Atomic Energy Agency to investigate suspected
Iranian violations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The suspected
violations include the unauthorized enrichment of uranium.
Three
leading EU states have offered to share nuclear technology with Iran if
Teheran agrees to sign a protocol for tougher nuclear inspections.
Britain, Germany and France sent a letter to Iran that offered nuclear
technology in a bid to defuse the confrontation with the IAEA.
In
early September, the IAEA voted to give Teheran until Oct. 31 to respond
to all agency inquiries over Iran's nuclear program. An IAEA delegation
was expected to arrive in Iran on Sunday to conduct additional
environmental sampling of nuclear facilities to test for uranium
enrichment
Special To World Tribune - 25 Sept
2003.
PENTAGON MISSILE TARGETEERS LINE UP IRAN’S NUCLEAR
FACILITIES
by Gordon Thomas*
The Pentagon’s forward
planners have targeted two Iranian nuclear facilities after weapons-grade
enriched uranium has been found in one by UN inspectors. A UN report
published this week says the country could acquire a nuclear bomb within
two years.
Particles of weapons-grade enriched uranium were discovered
at Natanz. Iran claims the particles were from “contaminated components”
it bought on the black market in the 1980s when it was trying to set up
its “peaceful nuclear programme” – and could not find a supplier in the
West ready to help.
But both the CIA and MI6, who have now each
made intelligence gathering on Iran a priority, discount Iran’s claim of
how it came to have sufficient enriched uranium to make an effective
“dirty bomb”.
Neo-conservatives around Secretary of Defence Donald
Rumsfeld have not discounted a pre-emptive strike against the plants at
Natanz and Arak. They are sited south of Tehran, in the remote fastness of
central Iran.
Unlike the rift that developed over the war with Iraq
between the United States and the European Union, there is a consensus
that it is “essential and urgent” for Iran to stop arming itself with
nuclear weapons.
Washington is supporting a UN resolution –
sponsored by Britain, France and Germany – that Iran must stop its nuclear
programme by the end of October. Implicit in the resolution is a warning
the plants could be hit by missiles fired from US warships in the
Gulf.
The plant at Natanz is far bigger than anything Iraq ever
had. Natanz is guarded by a heavily patrolled thirty-mile deep perimeter
within the featureless landscape.
The Tehran regime claims the
Natanz plant is only working to develop the country’s peaceful nuclear
energy programme to bring power, heat and electricity to its hundreds of
small towns and villages.
But British and German intelligence
agents have pinpointed an underground complex capable of holding 1,000
personnel.
UN inspectors, diverted from searching for weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq, have confirmed the existence of the
complex.
Buried thirty-feet below ground, it has eight-feet thick walls
to protect two large halls.
In a report last week to the 35-member
board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, the
inspectors told their closed meeting in Vienna they are certain the
underground complex is designed to carry out the process of turning
enriched uranium into weapons-grade material.
The report states:
“there are 1,000 gas centrifuges and components for the manufacture of
50,000 further centrifuges”.
Highly enriched uranium is an essential
element in producing a nuclear weapon.
Iran has two plants – one at
Arkadan, east of Natanz, the other near the historic town of Isfahan – to
convert uranium ore into yellowcake, a processed form of uranium. The
yellowcake can be converted into enriched uranium as well as producing
hexaflouride gas, essential to drive the centrifuges.
Russian
engineers are helping Iran to build a heavy water plant at Arak. Iran
again claims the plant will be used only for peaceful purposes. But
the UN report states: “heavy water can also produce more plutonium than
light water reactors, and therefore can produce significant quantities to
be used in weapons”.
Kenneth Brill, the US ambassador to the United
Nations in Vienna said last week that the evidence against Iran “already
justifies an immediate non-compliance verdict”.
Under the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the UN Security Council could introduce
crippling sanctions against Iran. That would most certainly place the
United States on a collision course with one of the nations President Bush
has named as being part of the “axis of evil”.
There is also a
clear danger that Israel could act unilaterally and launch its own air
strikes against Iran’s nuclear plants. It has done so before – when it
destroyed Iraq’s nuclear reactor outside Baghdad in March,
1981.
“We will not stand by and allow the Iranians to use the same
cat-and-mouse games over their nuclear plants that Saddam used over many
years”, said a senior Israeli intelligence officer in Tel Aviv. “There is
a need to take a touch line now. In two years time, it could be too
late”.
The prospect of military action came that much closer after
Hashemi-Rafsanjani, one of Iran’s most influential clerics and the
country’s former president, called on Muslim states last December to use
nuclear weapons against Israel.
Mossad analysts told Israel’s prime
minister, Ariel Sharon, that the appeal was directed not only at Pakistan,
the one Muslim nation known to have nuclear weapons, but also to Iran’s
partner in the “axis of evil” – North Korea.
That possibility has
led to the Pentagon forward planners continuing to prepare their own
missile strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
As the Israeli
intelligence officer said: “it could be a race who presses the button
first – us or the Americans”. -30 Sept 2003.
* Gordon Thomas is a veteran Irish journalist
known for his long-time connections with senior Israeli and British
intelligence officials. He is the author of numerous books including
Voyage of the Damned and a book about the history and exploits of
the Israeli Mossad.
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