Tick-Tock... Countdown To Iran

[maryals]

You know that I look at both sides, all sides of an issue too.
I guess you and me just have different senses of smell for sniffing out bull crap

Mary and Baby

[Judee]

You know that I look at both sides, all sides of an issue too.
I guess you and me just have different senses of smell for sniffing out bull crap

Mary and Baby

Definitely! Sometimes crap is crap, and sometimes it's something someone wants to see as crap depending on their own beliefs.

[Judee]

Romney pledges to 'stand with Israel' on Iran threat

US presidential candidate says he recognises Israel's right to strike against Tehran

Donald Macintyre
Monday, 30 July 2012

Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate for the US presidency, pledged last night to "stand with Israel", hours after one of his senior advisers had said he would "respect" a decision by Israelis to launch a unilateral strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

Mr Romney said "no option should be excluded" in preventing Iran from becoming a military nuclear power, adding: "We recognise Israel's right to defend itself, and that it is right for America to stand with you."

There were some signs of damage limitation in the Romney campaign as the former Massachusetts governor, on a high-profile visit to Israel, declined to be as explicit as his adviser Dan Senor, who said earlier that Mr Romney would respect Israel's decision if it "has to take action on its own, in order to stop Iran from developing that capability."

When asked by the US television network CBS to comment on Mr Senor's remark, Mr Romney said he preferred to use "my own words".

Ina 17-minute speech, he went on to insist that his message to "the people of Israel and the leaders of Iran [was one and the same". He said: "We will not look away; and neither will my country look away from our passion and commitment to Israel."

Mr Romney lavished praise on his hosts, representing "one of the most impressive democracies on Earth", and controversially broke with a wide international consensus by declaring Jerusalem to be "the capital of Israel". The policy of most governments, including Britain's, is that they will recognise West Jerusalem as Israel's capital when East Jerusalem is the agreed capital of a Palestinian state.

On Iran, Mr Romney insisted that it was "our fervent hope" that diplomatic and economic measures would stop Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. He also followed the formula used by President Barack Obama earlier this year in saying that he recognised Israel's right to defend itself.

But while the Obama administration has made it clear to Israel that it does not want to see a military strike on Iran before sanctions have had a further chance to take effect, Mr Romney's pledge to "stand with" Israel – while not specific – may still fuel the impression left by Mr Senor that he would endorse an Israeli strike if one was launched before the US election in November. The Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who held a private family dinner last night with Mr Romney and his wife, praised the Republican's tough rhetoric to date after talks with the candidate.

He added: "We have to be honest and say that all the sanctions and diplomacy so far have not set back the Iranian programme by one iota.

"And that's why I believe we need a strong and credible military threat, coupled with the sanctions, to have a chance to change that situation."

Straining to the limit the protocol precluding overt attacks on the incumbent President, Mr Romney's visit is widely seen as an effort to use his pro-Israeli stance to increase the numbers of Jewish voters prepared to consider voting Republican in November.

Republican strategists will also hope that it may help to turn out fervently pro-Israeli Christian evangelist voters, including conservatives still unconvinced that Mr Romney is sufficiently in tune with their views.

One of the major donors aiding both the push for Jewish votes and the much wider campaign effort is the US billionaire Sheldon Adelson, a casino magnate, who has suggested that he will spend up to $100m on the Romney campaign, and is expected to attend a fund-raising breakfast here today.

Mr Adelson's free newspaper Israel Hayom, with the largest circulation in the country, is strongly supportive of Mr Netanyahu.

Backers 'to pay £30,000 a head' for breakfast

About 30 potential donors to the Republican campaign will attend a fundraising breakfast at a reported cost of $50,000 (£31,000) a head at Jerusalem's King David Hotel today. Like other events on Mr Romney's international pre-election swing, the fundraiser has not been problem-free. The event was to have been a dinner but became a breakfast because it clashed with the end of the Jewish Tisha B'av holiday. Then campaign organisers had to reverse its decision to close it to the press after protests that Mr Romney had promised more fundraising transparency.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-7986174.html#

[maryals]

All I can think about is how much good that $50,000/head could do if given directly to charities, food banks, homeless shelters, etc

Mary and Baby

[maryals]

man, I just noticed, this Thread was begun nearly a year ago! Yet the Count Down Continues:

Iran test fires short-range missile
Upgraded version of Fateh-110 missile equipped with guidance system has range of 300km, officials say.
Last Modified: 04 Aug 2012 21:44

The Fateh-110 has a range of 300km and could purportedly strike with pin-point precision [EPA]
Iran has test fired a new short-range missile equipped with a guidance system it plans to install on all future missiles it builds, Ahmad Vahidi, the defence minister, has said, adding the test was "successful".

"With the fourth-generation of the Fateh 110, the armed forces of our country are able to target and destroy land and sea targets, enemy headquarters ... missile seats, ammunition sites, radars and other points," Vahidi said in quotes carried by Islamic Republic News Agency on Saturday.

The Fateh 110 has a range of around 300km, IRNA reported, meaning it would only be able to strike Iran's immediate neighbours.

Vahidi claimed the weapon could strike with pin-point precision, making it the most accurate weapon of its kind in Iran's arsenal.

"By reaching this generation of the Fateh-110, a new capability has been added to our armed forces in striking sea and land targets," state TV quoted Vahidi as saying.

The launch drew swift reaction from the United Kingdom although there was no immediate comment from Washington, which suspects Iran of building a nuclear bomb.

Britain's foreign office said in a statement that it was concerned by the reports of the missile test.

"This move calls into question again Iran's stated commitment to a purely peaceful nuclear programme," the ministry said on Saturday.

"We remain concerned that Iran continues to develop missile technology with the clear intention of extending the range and sophistication of its missiles."

Threat against Israel

Iran's military leaders have threatened that Israel, which also suspects Tehran of developing nuclear weapons and has hinted at a military strike on the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities, "would disappear from the Earth" if it attacks Iran.

Military commanders have also warned that 35 US military bases in the Middle East are within Iran's missile range and would be destroyed within seconds after any US attack on Iran.

Israel is about 1,000km away from Iran's western borders, while the US Navy's Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain, some 200km from Iranian shores in the Persian Gulf.

Meir Javedanfar, an expert on Iran at Israel's Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, said the test was a warning to the West.

"The test firing of the missile is most likely to be a warning to the West and Iran's Persian Gulf neighbours that Iran too can escalate the level of tensions in the Persian Gulf area," he told the Associated Press news agency.

Bruno Gruselle, senior research fellow at the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris, said any improvements in the accuracy of Iran's short-range missiles might be a precursor to better long-range ones.

"Fateh is a very short range guided rocket and a good platform to test improved guidance," he said.

"They will have to take that to longer range systems which have very different mechanical constraints during their flight, but they will obviously work on that."

The Fateh-110, or Conqueror, is a single-stage solid-propellant, surface-to-surface missile put into service in 2002.
The earlier version of the domestically-produced missile had a range of 200km.

The weapon was developed by Iran's Aerospace Industries Organisation. Iran also has a variety of longer-ranged missiles including a Shahab-3 variant with a range of 2,000km that can reach Israel and southern Europe.

Many of its missiles could in theory carry a nuclear warhead.

The Pentagon released a report in June noting significant advances in Iranian missile technology, acknowledging that Tehran has improved the accuracy and firing capabilities of its missiles.

Earlier this week, Leon Panetta, the US defence secretary, warned that Iran must either negotiate acceptable limits on its nuclear programme or face the possibility of US military action to stop it from getting the bomb.

Panetta made his remarks on Wednesday outside a city in southern Israel, with an "Iron Dome" anti-rocket defence system as a backdrop. http://www.aljazeera.com

Mary and Baby

[Judee]

I know Mary. It must be awful to be living in a country knowing that everything you worked hard for was going to be destroyed by war. I can't imagine what that must feel like.

[maryals]

I know Mary. It must be awful to be living in a country knowing that everything you worked hard for was going to be destroyed by war. I can't imagine what that must feel like.

Yes, the citizens and residents of Israel have lived with that every single day since...1948?
All of their neighbors want them destroyed simply because they are Jews.
"Never Forget" keeps them going.
And yet they don't live in fear....they still have such joy mixed with melancholy, a love of their Land.

The Iranian People are good people too, intelligent, creative. But their Leaders are crazy and will destroy them and their neighbors

Mary and Baby

[Judee]

Yes, the citizens and residents of Israel have lived with that every single day since...1948?
All of their neighbors want them destroyed simply because they are Jews.
"Never Forget" keeps them going.
And yet they don't live in fear....they still have such joy mixed with melancholy, a love of their Land.

The Iranian People are good people too, intelligent, creative. But their Leaders are crazy and will destroy them and their neighbors

Mary and Baby

The Israeli leaders are just as crazy. If the leaders of the world's countries had to go to war along with the troops, and put themselves out there on the front line, along with all of their 'of-age' children, I'll bet there'd be far less war. It's a religious frenzy, with all the leaders more than happy to send the young people out to die for their belief's. The US leaders will do the same.

[maryals]

The Israeli leaders are just as crazy. If the leaders of the world's countries had to go to war along with the troops, and put themselves out there on the front line, along with all of their 'of-age' children, I'll bet there'd be far less war. It's a religious frenzy, with all the leaders more than happy to send the young people out to die for their belief's. The US leaders will do the same.

Yes, the Fundamentalist Crazies are everywhere. Even among my beloved Israelis are the Ultra Militaristic Zionists

So now I'm scratching my head over those 2 major quakes in Iran. Dangit my Tin Foil Hat is pinging. Sure, that whole area is seismically active so those quakes could have happened anyway.
I want to honor my Tin Foil Hat thinking about this but I also don't want to go smilie - hair on fire.gif

Mary and Baby

[Judee]

August 27th, 2012
Risking Nuclear Armageddon
by Stephen Lendman



Irresponsible leaders risk the unthinkable. Media scoundrels cheerlead mindlessly. So do neocon think tanks. Ordinary people are more concerned about mundane trivia than survival.

Nero didn’t fiddle while Rome burned. The violin wasn’t invented for another 1,500 years. Today’s officials go where earlier ones wouldn’t dare. They risk regional or global disaster. War on Syria and/or Iran may ignite more than leaders bargain for.

Imagine blowing up the world to control it. Imagine forces able to stop it staying sidelined. Imagine the unimaginable. Imagine it before it’s too late to matter.

World War II weapons were toys compared to today’s. Before war ended, tens of millions died. Estimates range from 50 – 70 million. No one knows for sure. Preventing war would have saved them. Hoped for never again became perpetual conflicts.

Obama replicates hardline neocon extremism. He did what supporters thought impossible. He surpassed the worst of Bush. Imagine what’ll do in a second term.

He’s risking the unthinkable. He’s lurching toward potential nuclear war. He’s mindless about likely consequences.

Only America used nuclear weapons. It’s not working to avoid potential catastrophe. It wants advantageous geopolitical positioning and dominance. Mutually assured destruction so far worked. Fail safe days may be ending.

Attacking Syria risks Russian and perhaps Chinese intervention. War on Iran entails that risk and more. Washington’s arsenal includes weapons too dangerous to use.

One around for several years is called “the Mother of All Bombs (massive ordinance penetrator, or MOP).” At 30,000 pounds, it’s able to penetrate 200 feet of concrete before exploding. It’s America’s most powerful non-nuclear weapon. Use will cause horrific casualties and destruction.

Tactical nuclear weapons may also be used. Called bunker busters, their explosive power ranges from less to more than bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Using them assures retaliation. Prime targets include Israel’s nuclear sites, US bases, and America’s nuclear armed vessels. Imagine the potential consequences. Armageddon is risked. The unimaginable may become reality.

Plans have been in place for years. Washington and Israel have them. Perhaps coordinated strikes are planned. Russian and Chinese intervention ups the catastrophic odds.

Dangerous signals are increasing. On August 19, Obama promised US military intervention if Syria repositions or uses chemical or other nonconventional weapons. At a White House news conference he said:

“We have been very clear to the Assad regime but also to other players on the ground that a red line for us is, we start seeing a whole bunch of weapons moving around or being utilized.”

“That would change my calculus. That would change my equation.”

At the same time, Mossad-connected DEBKAfile (DF) said US, UK and French special forces are positioned in Israel, Jordan and Turkey. They’re on standby to seize Syrian chemical weapons.

Doing so means invasion. DF said they’ll “engage Syrian troops attempting to” reposition nonconventional weapons. Allegedly it’s to prevent them from falling into insurgent hands or supplying them to Hezbollah.

Obama, Britain’s David Cameron, and France’s Francois Hollande “wrap(ped) up the details of their combined operation….” They plan direct intervention. Air strikes are involved.

DF said “American reconnaissance teams are already on the ground, marking out landing sites and setting up bridgeheads for the incoming US, British and French special forces.”

Direct US intervention began. Stepped up actions will follow. Obama’s acting on his own. Congress remains on summer recess until early September. Republicans hold their national convention from August 27 – 30. Democrats have theirs the following week.

All’s quiet on the home front. What better time perhaps for more war. National attention will be minimal. Perhaps Obama thinks he can wrap things up and declare victory before most people notice. He hasn’t been able to do it for over 18 months.

No end of conflict is imminent. Attacking Syria may involve Hezbollah, Iran, Russia and China. Imagine then what follows. All-out war repercussions can’t be predicted. Embroiling the entire region and beyond is possible.

Syria won’t use chemical weapons except in self-defense. It won’t give Washington pretext to intervene. Its statements left no ambiguity. On August 24, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said:

“We, for our part, have already worked with the Syrian government and have raised this issue. We have been given very strong assurances that everything possible will be done to stop it happening. Guarantees were also given that the chemical weapons will remain in their current place.”

“They assured us that very serious control is being exercised over the safety of these weapons, and there is no threat today that something could happen to them or the situation could get out of control.”

At the same time, Gatilov expressed concern about Washington perhaps instigating insurgent nonconventional weapons use blamed on Assad. Doing so gives America pretext for war.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said France will help enforce no-fly zone authority. Doing so without Security Council approval is lawless. It also involves bombing Syrian air defenses and command and control sites.

Libya 2.0 may be imminent. Imagine the horrific casualty count and devastation. War with Syria assures it. Planners, of course, say nothing. Media scoundrels suppress what everyone needs to know.

Another nonbelligerent nation is on America’s target list for total destruction. Imagine public inattention while it’s happening.

Attacking Iran may follow or occur simultaneously. On August 24, Haaretz headlined “Heading for an iceberg called Iran,” saying:

Netanyahu/Barak want support to attack. Cabinet members are evenly split pro and con. Shimon Peres went public. He’s concerned about something too dangerous to risk. Unfortunately he thinks so only if Israel acts unilaterally He calls going solo potentially suicidal. Alone or otherwise is madness.

Fourteen ministers comprise Israel’s security cabinet. Eight have most say. Currently Netanyahu/Barak favor war. Two others support them – Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz. Four others are opposed.

Netanyahu/Barak need one more on their side. How all cabinet members feel is important. Six want war. Another six don’t, and two remain undecided. Decisions this grave should be no-brainers. Mindless officials risk possible armageddon Haaretz spelled out as follows:

Though unlikely, if Israel goes it alone, Washington will be “furious. The price of oil soars. Thousands of missiles strike Tel Aviv, Haifa, Dimona and other Israeli cities. The economy collapses.”

“Hundreds are killed, thousands wounded. A mass flight of Israelis abroad. Tent cities. In this scenario, a senior figure in the ruling party said this week, Netanyahu will certainly lose the next election. Not even avowed Likudniks will vote Likud.”

Does Netanyahu know the risks? “Of course,” said a senior unnamed source. “He is not stupid.” He just acts that way. “He sees the whole picture and all its parts.”

Will that give him pause? “No. He believes that this is his reason d’être in life.” That’s why he was elected, he thinks. He and Barak are committed. Others are worried for good reason.

Haaretz downplayed potential disaster. At issue is irradiating Israel, causing vast destruction, killing thousands, injuring many more, and putting the entire population and others in neighboring countries at risk.

Nightly anti-war demonstrations target Barak’s home. Former adviser Eldad Yaniv participates. He said Yitzhak Rabin made a mistake allowing them weekly where he lived. They affected public opinion.

Yaniv thinks if he and others persist nightly, they’ll become “permanent fixture” enough perhaps to prevent war. He and other believe it’s too important not to try.

Hawks say waiting ups the dangers. Inflammatory reports lacking credibility and/or designed to enlist public support circulate.

On August 23, Reuters headlined “Iran expands nuclear capacity in underground bunker – sources,” saying:

More underground uranium enrichment ability “potentially pav(es) the way for a significant expansion of work the West fears is ultimately aimed at making nuclear bombs.”

Doing so “de(fies) international demands to curb its nuclear program.”

Unnamed sources lack credibility. Inflammatory reports advance the ball for war. Reuters shares guilt with other media scoundrels.

On August 23, The New York Times ran the same story in more detail with more deception. Writer David Sanger’s been waging war on Iran. Instead of truth and full disclosure, he features pro-Western misinformation.

He calls Iran’s peaceful nuclear program “a direct threat to the US.” He lied but won’t admit it. He’s at it again stoking fear instead of allaying it.

IAEA head Yukiya Amano will soon report more on Iran. He’s a pro-Western tool. Washington got him installed to serve its interests. He’ll say what Obama officials want to hear. He’ll stoke more baseless Iranian threats.

He’ll stop short of saying Iran decided to produce nuclear weapons. Perhaps he’s saving this type punchline for a later time. Claiming it doesn’t wash. It won’t deter him saying anything to debase Tehran unjustifiably.

Nonetheless, he’ll likely “renew the debate over Iran’s intentions at a time when Israeli officials are stepping up their warnings that the window to conduct a preemptive military strike is closing.”

His views may affect US voters in November. In July, Romney said Obama wasted time negotiating. Iran took full advantage, he claimed.

Inflammatory reports make negotiated solutions less likely. Sanger and others like him increase chances for war. They’d feel otherwise if bombs fell on them. They’re brain-dead about human costs of war. Proliferating propaganda only matters.

Amano plays the same dirty game. He’ll say Iran made substantial enriched uranium progress. They’ve got enough to produce five or more bombs.

Ordinary people have enough power with their bare hands to inflict harm. Few go around doing it. Headline stories don’t suggest they might. Spurious reports mischaracterize Iranian intentions.

Amano’s bottom line is how close is Tehran’s ability to produce nuclear weapons? Every nation operating commercial reactors can do so if they wish. Only Iran is called threatening. Accusers have other fish to fry.

At issue is regime change. Pretexts are easy to contrive. Repetition stokes fear. Public support for what’s unthinkable may follow. Imagine a worst case scenario. Imagine leaders risking it.

Imagine fears becoming reality. At that point it’s too late to matter. What better reason to stop potential catastrophe before it happens.

Obama’s bully pulpit can prevent it. Instead, he’s furthering belligerence, not deterring it. On March 7, House Congressional Resolution (HCR) 107 was introduced. It was referred to committee. No further action was taken.

It “(e)xpress(es) the sense of Congress that the use of offensive military force by a President without prior and clear authorization of an Act of Congress constitutes an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor under Article II, section 4 of the Constitution.”

It states:

“The President, Vice President and all Civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

What greater crime than aggressive war. Obama and other US leaders are guilty. Invoking constitutional power more than ever is urgent to prevent the unthinkable. If saving humanity isn’t reason enough, what is?

About the Author: Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled “How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War”

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/08...ar-armageddon/

[Judee]

Senior U.S. intelligence official: Israel won't strike Iran before November
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers: ‘No doubt in my mind’ that U.S. elections are influencing Israel’s calculations.
By Amos Harel | Sep.04, 2012


There is a growing American assessment that Israel will not attack Iranian nuclear facilities before the U.S. presidential elections on November 6.

U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, who visited Israel last week, told a breakfast panel at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida on Tuesday that he believes the Israeli government is likely to wait until after the elections.

Rogers said that after his trip, during which he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he’d been left with “no doubt in my mind” that the U.S. election cycle was part of Israel’s calculations. Asked why he thought Israel would wait, Rogers said, “Because I think they believe that maybe after the election they can talk the United States into cooperating.”

Rogers’ remarks were published on the website of the Washington newspaper The Hill, which reports primarily on the U.S. Congress.

During Rogers’ meeting with Netanyahu, the prime minister criticized U.S. President Barak Obama’s attitude toward Iran, according to a report in the daily Yedioth Ahronoth. This led to a sharply worded exchange between Netanyahu and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, who was present at the meeting, the paper said. Shapiro subsequently denied the report.

On Monday, former CIA director Michael Hayden told Haaretz that a decision on attacking Iran need not be made right now, as current assessments point to Iran achieving nuclear-weapons capabilities no earlier than 2013 or 2014.

Hayden said he believes those assessments are still valid, even though the time needed for the Iranians to make the leap into actual production of nuclear weapons has decreased, since the bottleneck in that plan was the missile development and the lack of enriched uranium needed to make warheads, not Tehran’s ability to turn the material into weapons.

Hayden added that if and when a decision is made to attack Iran, the U.S. would be better equipped to conduct it than Israel.

Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that Obama was considering a series of steps, both overt and covert, with the goal of helping Israel climb down from the tree and convincing Netanyahu to hold off on attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities.

According to the report, Obama is considering making declarations regarding the United States’ “red lines” that may bring about an American attack on Iran if crossed.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomac...ember-1.462712

[Alpha]

The Rothschild Must Attack Iran On The 11th Month This Year: Tim Rifat

Tim Rifat on Jeff Rense Show 2012 September 3rd : Can the US invade Syria ?

Tim Rifat talks straight, no interruptions by commercials as he reveal the Rothschilds deepest secrets bit by bit.

The West is controlled by the Rothschild as they own all the private banks in each country and occupy key government positions. The only countries remaining on this Earth that don’t have a Rothschild Central Bank are: North Korea, Iran, Sudan and Cuba. Up until recently Iraq and Libya also opposed the poison of the the Rothschild and we all know how those stories end. The Rothschild want to infect the remaining countries in Africa. The more I research the more I’m convinced that the Rothschild’s are truly responsible for the world’s greatest atrocities and wars. If there was ever a Lucifer for real – Rothschilds would be his children.



Basically, the trend of the financial world throughout the centuries has been to protect the interests of the largest investors, namely Rothschild Central Banks. In a combined venture, Rothschild and Rockefeller have invested in oil pipeline throughout the Middle East.

Iran is competing with these families to build an oil pipeline to China. The Taliban in Afghanistan wanted too much from Rothschild & Rockefeller to build the oil pipeline through their country so a war was created.http://geraldcelentechannel.blogspot.com/

[Judee]

Before or after the election I wonder...