full-scale war between the US and Iran (2 Viewers)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7061991.stm

US imposes new sanctions on Iran
The US government has designated an elite unit of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps a "supporter of terrorism" as part of a new round of sanctions. The Guards have been labelled a "proliferator of weapons of mass destruction", a reference to ballistic missiles they are allegedly developing.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made the announcement alongside Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
The classification will allow the US to target the powerful force's finances.
The US has repeatedly accused Iran of destabilising Iraq and Afghanistan, blaming the Revolutionary Guards for supplying and training insurgents.
'Proliferator'
Speaking at news conference in Washington, Ms Rice said the US would designate the Revolutionary Guards a "proliferator of weapons of mass destruction" on account of the ballistic missile programme in which it is allegedly involved.



REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS
Officially the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), or Pasdaran
Formed after 1979 revolution
Loyal to clerics and counter to regular military
Estimated 125,000 troops
Includes ground forces, navy, air force, intelligence and special forces
Also has political influence: dozens of ex-guard sit as MPs
Iran President Ahmadinejad is a former member
Source: Globalsecurity.org

Under Executive Order 13382, the US authorities will be able to freeze the assets of, and prohibit any US citizen or organisation from doing business with the Guards.
Iran's ministry of defence, which controls the country's defence industry, three Iranian banks and several companies owned by the Guards, will also face sanctions.
The Guards' Quds Force will be designated separately as a "supporter of terrorism" under Executive Order 13224, which authorises the US to identify individuals, businesses, charities and extremist groups engaged in terrorism.
The elite special operations wing of Revolutionary Guards has been accused by US officials of supplying powerful roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades to Shia militants in Iraq.
Thought to have 15,000 troops, it is responsible for conducting covert missions overseas and for forging relationships with other Shia groups.
"The Quds Force controls the policy for Iraq," the top US military commander in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, said earlier this month. "There should be no confusion about that."
Dominant force
When reports of the designations were first reported in August, Iranian officials condemned them as "worthless resolutions" issued "under baseless pretexts... to damage this holy institution".
The Revolutionary Guards force was set up shortly after the 1979 Iranian revolution to defend the country's Islamic system, and to provide a counterweight to the regular armed forces.
It has since become the dominant military force in Iran, with past members including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a number of his cabinet ministers.
It is estimated to have 125,000 active members, and boasts its own ground forces, navy and air force, and controls Iran's strategic weapons.
It also controls the paramilitary Basij Resistance Force and the powerful bonyads, or charitable foundations, which run a considerable part of the Iranian economy.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7061991.stm

Published: 2007/10/25 13:22:31 GMT
 
"But De Burgh, known for soft rock ballads like Don't Pay The Ferryman, seems unlikely to raise the ire of the ministry for culture and Islamic guidance - although he may want to leave Patricia The Stripper off his set list."

Made me laugh.
 
hugh said:
Yeah well since the Military option really seems to be off the table now they've gone for the next best thing.
Click to expand...
The part in the article below that might show it's not really off the table is:
"
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The Pentagon said it recorded the film and the sound separately and then edited them together to give a "better idea of what is happening".[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]But Commander Lydia Robertson, a navy spokeswoman, admitted: "We don't know for sure where they [the threats] came from. It could have been a shore station."[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The US lodged a formal complaint with Iran over the incident, and the president, George Bush, warned Tehran of "serious consequences" unless it stopped such aggression."[/FONT]

Mischievous 'Filipino Monkey' could have triggered latest US-Iran row


[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Matthew Weaver
[/FONT][FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Monday January 14, 2008
[/FONT][FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Guardian Unlimited
[/FONT][FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]A heckling radio ham known as the Filipino Monkey, who has spent years pestering ships in the Persian Gulf, is being blamed today for sparking a major diplomatic row after American warships almost attacked Iranian patrol boats.[/FONT] [FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The US navy came within seconds of firing at the Iranian speedboats in the Strait of Hormuz on January 6 after hearing threats that the boats were attacking and were about to explode.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Senior navy officials have admitted that the source of the threats, picked up in international waters, was a mystery.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]And now the US navy's journal, Navy Times, has claimed that the threats, which were broadcast last week by the Pentagon, are thought to have come from an infamous radio prankster.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]It said the Filipino Monkey, who could be more than one person, listens to ship-to-ship radio traffic and then interrupts, usually with abusive insults.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Rick Hoffman, a retired captain, told the paper: "For 25 years, there's been this mythical guy out there who, hour after hour, shouts obscenities and threats. He used to go all night long. The guy is crazy.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]"Could it have been a spurious transmission? Absolutely."[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]An unnamed civilian mariner told the Navy Times: "They come on and say Filipino Monkey in a strange voice. You're standing watch on bridge and all of a sudden it comes over the radio. It's been a joke out there for years."[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Last week, the Iranians and the US issued different video versions of what took place.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]On the Pentagon's version, a strange voice, in English, can be heard saying "I am coming to you. You will explode in a few minutes." The voice sounds different from one heard earlier in the recording and there is no background noise that would usually be picked up from a speedboat radio.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]In the Iranian version, there is no hint of aggressive behaviour.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The Pentagon said it recorded the film and the sound separately and then edited them together to give a "better idea of what is happening".[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]But Commander Lydia Robertson, a navy spokeswoman, admitted: "We don't know for sure where they [the threats] came from. It could have been a shore station."[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The US lodged a formal complaint with Iran over the incident, and the president, George Bush, warned Tehran of "serious consequences" unless it stopped such aggression.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]During the 20-minute incident, five Iranian patrol boats swarmed around three US warships and came within 200 metres, puttingthe ships on alert.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The US navy said its gunners came within seconds of firing on the speedboats.[/FONT]


[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,332056148-111322,00.html[/FONT]
 
Shadow of war looms as Israel flexes its muscle



...
But the rumours keep circulating and the hushed briefings are multiplying. In the Israeli Prime Minister's traditional round of interviews on the eve of Passover earlier this year, Olmert vowed that Iran 'will not be nuclear'.
Since then, a series of senior Israeli officials have added their own warnings of the threat of an Israeli strike. Most strident has been Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz who said earlier this month that Israel would have no choice but to attack Iran.
Other officials, too, such as Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Israeli ambassador to the US Sallai Meridor, have made less inflammatory remarks but in a similar vein.
If the rhetoric, coming in the midst of an effort by the so-called G5+1 to persuade Iran to accept incentives to suspend uranium enrichment, is alarming, then so too are Israel's ostentatious preparations for war.
Earlier this month, the Israeli Air Force conducted one of the largest aerial exercises in its history, flying 100 F-15 and F-16 fighter jets, supported by midair fuel tankers and rescue helicopters, 1,500kms west over the Mediterranean. That precisely matches the distance from Israel to Iran's nuclear facilities.
And while some of the messages amount to signalling, to warn Iran as well as the EU and the US that Israel does not intend its nuclear monopoly in the Middle East to be challenged, it is clear that Israel has launched an aggressive information campaign apparently designed to soften up public opinion for the case for war, reminiscent of the run-up to the war against Iraq. Indeed, some of the same cast are back on stage, not least the former US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, who has loudly been making the case for an Israeli strike.
Academics and journalists who have recently visited Israel have come back from meetings convinced the country is getting ready for war. The campaign has been assisted by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) in the US and the Britain-Israel Communications and Research Centre in the UK, two influential Jewish lobby groups who have brought over experts to brief the media....


more:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/29/israelandthepalestinians.middleeast
 
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/...ran/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration has launched a "significant escalation" of covert operations in Iran, sending U.S. commandos to spy on the country's nuclear facilities and undermine the Islamic republic's government, journalist Seymour Hersh said Sunday.

White House, CIA and State Department officials declined comment on Hersh's report, which appears in this week's issue of The New Yorker.

Hersh told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" that Congress has authorized up to $400 million to fund the secret campaign, which involves U.S. special operations troops and Iranian dissidents.

President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have rejected findings from U.S. intelligence agencies that Iran has halted a clandestine effort to build a nuclear bomb and "do not want to leave Iran in place with a nuclear program," Hersh said.

"They believe that their mission is to make sure that before they get out of office next year, either Iran is attacked or it stops its weapons program," Hersh said.

The new article, "Preparing the Battlefield," is the latest in a series of articles accusing the Bush administration of preparing for war with Iran.

He based the report on accounts from current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. Watch Hersh discuss what he says are the administration's plans for Iran

"As usual with his quarterly pieces, we'll decline to comment," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told CNN.


"The CIA, as a rule, does not comment on allegations regarding covert operations," CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said.

Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, denied U.S. raids were being launched from Iraq, where American commanders believe Iran is stoking sectarian warfare and fomenting attacks on U.S. troops.

"I can tell you flatly that U.S. forces are not operating across the Iraqi border into Iran, in the south or anywhere else," Crocker said.

Hersh said U.S. efforts were staged from Afghanistan, which also shares a border with Iran.

He said the program resulted in "a dramatic increase in kinetic events and chaos" inside Iran, including attacks by Kurdish separatists in the country's north and a May attack on a mosque in Shiraz that killed 13 people.

The United States has said it is trying to isolate Iran diplomatically in order to get it to come clean about its nuclear ambitions. But Bush has said "all options" are open in dealing with the issue.

Iran insists its nuclear program is aimed at providing civilian electric power, and refuses to comply with U.N. Security Council demands that it halt uranium enrichment work.

U.N. nuclear inspectors say Tehran held back critical information that could determine whether it is trying to make nuclear weapons.

Israel, which is believed to have its own nuclear arsenal, conducted a military exercise in the eastern Mediterranean in early June involving dozens of warplanes and aerial tankers.

The distance involved in the exercise was roughly the same as would be involved in a possible strike on the Iranian nuclear fuel plant at Natanz, Iran, a U.S. military official said.

In 1981, Israeli warplanes destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor.


Iran's parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, warned other countries against moves that would "cost them heavily." In comments that appeared in the semi-official Mehr news agency Sunday, an Iranian general said his troops were digging more than 320,000 graves to bury troops from any invading force with "the respect they deserve."

"Under the law of war and armed conflict, necessary preparations must be made for the burial of soldiers of aggressor nations," said Maj. Gen. Mirfaisal Baqerzadeh, an Iranian officer in charge of identifying soldiers missing in action.
 
The most interesting aspect of the latest Seymour Hersh warning that the Bush administration is gearing up for a fight in Iran (or over Iran) was this claim about a meeting Defence Secretary Robert Gates had with Democratic Senators:
"Gates warned of the consequences if the Bush Administration staged a pre-emptive strike on Iran, saying, as the senator recalled, 'We'll create generations of jihadists, and our grandchildren will be battling our enemies here in America.' Gates's comments stunned the Democrats at the lunch, and another senator asked whether Gates was speaking for Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney.
"Gates's answer, the senator told me, was 'Let's just say that I'm here speaking for myself.' (A spokesman for Gates confirmed that he discussed the consequences of a strike at the meeting, but would not address what he said, other than to dispute the senator's characterization.)"
So Gates and the US top brass will veto a strike. If Gates threatened to resign he would win. Is he gutsier than Powell? That's the question.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/justinwebb/
 
US Thwarted Israeli Plan to Bomb Iranian Nuclear Facility


January 11, 2009
Karen DeYoung / Washington Post
Pentagon officials revealed yesterday that George W. Bush last year rejected an Israeli request to provide sophisticated, deep-penetration bombs to attack Iran's underground nuclear enrichment facilities. The administration also rebuffed Israel's plan to fly through US-controlled Iraqi airspace to reach the Iranian site.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/10/AR2009011002257.html
WASHINGTON (January 11, 2009) — President Bush last year rejected an Israeli request to provide sophisticated, deep-penetration bombs to attack Iran's underground nuclear enrichment facilities, Pentagon officials said yesterday.

The administration also rebuffed Israel's plan to fly through US-controlled Iraqi airspace to reach the Iranian site, officials said. The Israelis had not proposed a specific date for an attack, and it was not clear how far along the planning was when the requests were made, officials said.

The Israeli requests were first reported on the New York Times Web site yesterday. The Times also said that President Bush, seeking to deflect the Israelis and to soften his refusal, told the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that he had authorized a new covert action program to sabotage Iran's uranium enrichment program.

The report quoted US officials as saying that some actions had been taken as part of what it described as an ongoing covert program, but that they had not seriously affected Iranian operations. Israel and the United States and principal European allies have charged that Iran has a secret nuclear weapons program, a charge Tehran has denied.

Officials with the Israeli Embassy and the CIA declined to comment last night. A White House spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Some factions within the Bush administration have long advocated a US military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, but military leaders and others have argued against it on the grounds that it could endanger US troops in the region and spark a broader war in the Middle East, and that it would probably only temporarily set back Iran's efforts.

The Natanz complex in central Iran houses several underground structures containing gas centrifuges to enrich uranium. The Iranian government has said it is interested in peaceful nuclear energy only, but its failure to cooperate fully with international verification efforts has led to increasingly strict Western economic sanctions.

Israel has long considered Iran the main threat to its long-term security and has pressed a series of US administrations to take stronger action against it.

The Times said its information was developed during reporting for an upcoming book by reporter David E. Sanger on global challenges awaiting the administration of President-elect Barack Obama.

Pentagon officials said that they were disturbed when Israeli air and naval exercises in the Mediterranean last summer appeared designed to test-fly distances equal to those between Israel and Iranian sites. The exercises briefly reawakened US concerns that Israel was moving ahead with its attack plan. It could not be determined yesterday whether the Israeli plan had been abandoned or postponed.

http://www.envirosagainstwar.org/know/read.php?itemid=7771
 
Manufacturing Consent For Attack

September 17, 2009
Agence Frace-Presse Top US lawmakers vowed tough action on Iran Thursday as tensions mounted ahead of a late September deadline for negotiations and amid speculation Israel may launch a preemptive strike. "The clock is ticking and in fact, it has almost run out," Democratic Representative Howard Berman told Jewish leaders in comments intended to allay concerns that President Barack Obama's administration is not doing enough to tame Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23465.htm
WASHINGTON (September 11, 2009) — Top US lawmakers vowed tough action on Iran Thursday as tensions mounted ahead of a late September deadline for negotiations and amid speculation Israel may launch a preemptive strike.

"The clock is ticking and in fact, it has almost run out," Democratic Representative Howard Berman told Jewish leaders in comments intended to allay concerns that President Barack Obama's administration is not doing enough to tame Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Eric Cantor, the sole Jewish Republican in the House of Representatives, said he was "very anxious to see a demonstrated effort on the part of this administration and Congress to do all we can to coalesce with our allies to put as much pressure as possible on the terrorist regime in Iran."

World powers have given Tehran a late September deadline to begin negotiations with them concerning the atomic program or face more sanctions. Tehran is already under three sets of UN sanctions.

If Iran fails to meet the deadline, Berman, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he would mark up bipartisan legislation next month that places additional sanctions on the Islamic republic.

"The nuclear threat from Iran already exists. And it is one that we literally cannot live with," warned Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the top Republican on Berman's panel.

Her comments came as Washington Thursday dismissed a new proposal from Iran about its nuclear program as "not really responsive" to its concerns.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23465.htm
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8274903.stm

Iran concealed a partially-built second uranium enrichment plant in defiance of calls for transparency over its nuclear plans, US President Barack Obama says.
The leaders of the US, UK and France demanded UN inspectors be given immediate access to the facility and threatened tough new sanctions.
Iran told the UN about the plant on Monday, saying it was not operational yet and would provide nuclear energy.
Iranian officials in New York and Tehran denied the plant was a secret.
Tehran has previously acknowledged it has one enrichment plant, at Natanz.
Iran's decision to build a secret facility represented a "direct challenge to the basic compact" of the global non-proliferation regime, US President Barack Obama said, making a statement in Pittsburgh, where he is hosting a G20 summit.
Despite Iran's assertions that the facility was for peaceful purposes, the new plant was "not consistent" with that goal, the US president said.
In Washington, US officials said the Western nations decided to reveal their intelligence assessments when the Iranians realised the plant's secrecy was compromised.
Iran now faces the prospect of tougher international sanctions if it does not satisfy Western calls for full disclosure in the coming months.
'Line in the sand'
Speaking alongside UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Mr Obama said it was time for Iran to begin meeting its international commitments.

"Iran must comply with UN Security Council resolutions and make clear it is prepared to meet its responsibilities as a member of the community of nations," Mr Obama said.
Tehran would be held accountable for any failure to meet these responsibilities, he said.
Speaking after Mr Obama, the French and British leaders used strong language to insist that Iran would now have to disclose full details of its entire nuclear programme or face new and tougher sanctions.
Gordon Brown stressed that the US, France and UK were "at one" on the issue, and accused the Iranians of "serial deception".
There was now "no choice but to draw a line in the sand" over the nuclear issue, he said.
"Iran must abandon any military ambitions for its nuclear programme."
Mr Sarkozy said the situation was a challenge to the entire international community.
"Everything must be put on the table," the French president said, adding that the world needed to see a "step change" from Iran in the coming months.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was "worried" by the developments and would make a statement later on Friday, his office said. He was informed of the plant's existence by Mr Obama during a bilateral meeting this week.
China, also informed this week, was considering its response, officials said.
Underground plant
Iranian officials were quick to deny the latest plant was any kind of clandestine project.
"This installation is not a secret one, which is why we announced its existence to the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency]," Ali Akbar Saleri, head of Iran's nuclear agency, told the AFP news agency.
Iran says it does not need to inform the IAEA of any new site until 180 days before any nuclear material is place in the facility.
The existence of Iran's first enrichment plant, at Natanz, was only confirmed after intelligence emerged from Iranian exile groups several years ago.
Click to expand...
 
..

Western governments are said to have known of the existence of the new enrichment plant for some time. Mr Obama was first told about it during the "transition" period before he took office in January, officials say.
The new facility is said to be underground at a mountain on the site of a former missile site belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, north-east of the holy city of Qom.
Construction on the facility - believed by the US to be large enough to contain 3,000 centrifuges, not large enough for commercial work - started in earnest in mid-2006, diplomatic sources said.
Iran's letter to the UN watchdog, the IAEA, on Monday informed it that "a new pilot fuel enrichment plant is under construction".
Iran told the agency that no nuclear material had been introduced into the plant, and enrichment levels would only be high enough to make nuclear fuel, not a bomb.
In response, the IAEA has requested Iran to "provide specific information and access to the facility as soon as possible", an IAEA statement adds.
The disclosure of the new plant comes one day after world leaders stressed the need for greater co-operation against nuclear proliferation and shortly before Iran is due to resume talks with international powers on the issue.
Since taking office in January, Mr Obama has told Tehran than he is ready for direct talks on the nuclear issue, but has had no firm response from Iran.
Earlier this month, Tehran agreed to "comprehensive" talks on a range of security issues - but made no mention of its own nuclear programme.
The talks are due to be held in Geneva on 1 October with Tehran and the five permanent UN Security Council members - US, UK, Russia, China and France - plus Germany.
Click to expand...
 
The Arms Race between Israel and Iran


September 26, 2009
Al Jazeera
Iran has informed the UN nuclear watchdog that the country has a second uranium enrichment plant under construction. Meanwhile, the focus on whether Iran's nuclear energy program could be intended to have military applications (Iran has denied this), ignores the issue of the only existing nuclear weapons threat in the region — Israel's existing nuclear arsenal. Al Jazeera surveys the "arms race" between Israel and AIran


http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/09/200992581942180430.html


Iran Discloses New Enrichment plant
Al Jazeera

(September 25, 2009) — Iran has informed the UN nuclear watchdog that the country has a second uranium enrichment plant under construction.

Marc Vidricaire, a spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told Al Jazeera on Friday that Tehran had notified the body of the plant's existence in a letter earlier this week.

Iran was previously known to have one enrichment plant at Natanz, in central Isfahan province, which is under daily surveillance by IAEA inspectors.

"On 21 September, Iran informed the IAEA in a letter that a new pilot fuel enrichment plant was under construction in the country ... the enrichment level would be up to five per cent", Vidricaire said.

In response, the IAEA has requested that Tehran provide specific details, and expects access to the facility as soon as possible.

"This will allow us to assess safeguard verification requirements for the facility, but we understand that no nuclear material has been introduced as yet," Vidricaire said.
 
New posts

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Activity
So far there's no one here

Similar threads

pete
Tindersticks - The Amputees
Replies
1
Views
1K
Cornu Ammonis
Cornu Ammonis
pete
The Hold Steady - Denver Haircut (Frenchkiss Records)
Replies
2
Views
830
rettucs
rettucs
pete
[Feb 10, 2019] White Denim, LYLO (Whelan's)
Replies
0
Views
1K
pete
pete
Psycho Punk
Iran: Corruption, repression, fightback
Replies
14
Views
2K
Denny Oubidoux
Denny Oubidoux
Psycho Punk
Imperialist War Rages On.
Replies
0
Views
859
Psycho Punk
Psycho Punk

Support thumped.com

Support thumped.com and upgrade your account

Upgrade your account now to disable all ads...

Upgrade now

Latest threads

Latest Activity

Loading…
Back
Top