Category: 05 Iran

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Chuck Spinney: Today’s Good News – Netanyahu Back in His Box (Temporarily)

05 Iran, 08 Wild Cards, IO Deeds of Peace

 

Chuck Spinney

How Netanyahu's bomb Iran ploy failed

Netanyahu will no doubt campaign for re-election at home by demonising Iran as an “existential threat”, writes Porter.

Gareth Porter, Al Jazeera, 4 October 2012

Dr Gareth Porter is an investigative journalist and historian specialising in US national security policy

The rest of the world can stop worrying about Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's supposed threat to bomb Iran. Netanyahu's speech at the United Nations General Assembly last week appears to mark the end of his long campaign to convince the world that he might launch a unilateral strike on Iran’s nuclear programme.

The reason for Netanyahu's retreat is the demonstration of unexpectedly strong pushback against Netanyahu’s antics by President Barack Obama. And that could be the best news on the Iran nuclear issue in many years.

Commentary on Netanyahu's speech predictably focused on his cartoon bomb and hand-drawn “red line”, but its real significance lay in the absence of the usual suggestion that a unilateral strike against Iran might be necessary if the Iranian nuclear programme is not halted.

Although he offered yet another alarmist portrayal of Iran poised to move by next summer to the “final stage” of uranium enrichment, nowhere in the speech did Netanyahu even hint at such a threat. His explicit aim was to get the US to adopt his “red line” – meaning that it would threaten military force against Iran if it does not bow to a demand to cease enrichment.

Journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, whom Netanyahu had twice used to convey to the US his purported readiness to go to war with Iran, called it a “concession speech”. Netanyahu conceded, in effect, that his effort to force the US to accept his red line had failed completely.

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Today's Good News – Netanyahu Back in His Box (Temporarily)”

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Josh Kilbourn: US Banks Under Minor Cyber-Attack – Probable Israeli False Flag — Meanwhile US Cyber-Security Largely Vaporware + Meta-RECAP

03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Iran, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, IO Impotency
Josh Kilbourn

High Alert! Millions Of Bankers Cant Bank Online. BofA Blames Hackers From Middle East. Bank Cyber Attacks By Iran? Black Monday October 1, 2012?

The financial and banking industries are on high alert tonight as a massive cyberattack continues, with potentially millions of customers of Bank of America, PNC and Wells Fargo finding themselves blocked from banking online.

“There is an elevated level of threat,” said Doug Johnson, a vice president and senior adviser of the American Bankers Association. “The threat level is now high.”

“This is twice as large as any flood we have ever seen,” said Dick Clarke, an ABC News consultant and former cybersecurity czar.

Sources told ABC News that the so-called denial of service attacks had been caused by hackers from the Middle East who had secretly transmitted signals commandeering thousands of computers worldwide.

Hackers, Possibly From Middle East, Block U.S. Banks' Websites

A group of purported hackers in the Middle East has claimed credit for problems at the websites of both banks, citing the online video mocking the founder of Islam. One security source called that statement “a cover” for the Iranian government’s operations.

The attack is described by one source, a former U.S. official familiar with the attacks, as being “significant and ongoing” and looking to cause “functional and significant damage.” Also, one source suggested the attacks were in response to U.S. sanctions on Iranian banks.

Senior U.S. officials acknowledge that Iranian attacks have been the subject of intense interest by U.S. intelligence for several weeks. Last week, the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s Intelligence Directorate, known as J-2, confirmed continuing Iranian cyber attacks against U.S. financial institutions in a report described as “highly classified.”

Officials see Iran, not outrage over film, behind cyber attacks on US banks

Continue reading “Josh Kilbourn: US Banks Under Minor Cyber-Attack – Probable Israeli False Flag — Meanwhile US Cyber-Security Largely Vaporware + Meta-RECAP”

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DefDog: IAEA Veteran’s Letter “No Iran Bomb” Being Ignored

05 Iran, 08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, Corruption, Government, IO Deeds of War, Knowledge, Peace Intelligence, Politics
DefDog

I know nothing about the science, but this seems credible–certainly worth considering.

World Renown Nuke Expert Nails Bibi to the Wall on Iran Bomb Threat

Jim W. Dean

EXTRACT (Letter Only, Editorial Hyperbole Detracts)

Dear Prime Minister Netanyahu:

Iran may be in your red zone, but can not score.

Sure, Iran could divert a few tons of 3.5% or a ton of 20% enriched uranium hexaflouride gas for enrichment to 90+%. But what then?

No one has ever made a nuclear weapon from gas. It must be converted to metal and fabricated into components which are then assembled with high explosives.

Iran lacks experience with and facilities for these processes which are very dangerous because of potential for a criticality accident or nuclear explosion. Iran would not jeopardize its important, fully safeguarded nuclear programs by an attempt to have a deliverable, one kiloton yield nuclear weapon ten to fifteen years later.

Continue reading “DefDog: IAEA Veteran's Letter “No Iran Bomb” Being Ignored”

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Penguin: Israel Lobbyist Suggests False Flag Attack Needed to Get USA Into War with Iran

05 Iran, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, Commerce, Corruption, Government, IO Deeds of War, Officers Call
Who, Me?

YouTube, 1:54, absolutely worth watching!

Today’s nominee for the Larry Silverstein Award for Chutzpah Beyond the Call of Duty: Israel lobbyist Patrick Clawson, who is openly calling for the mass murder of Americans, along the lines of the USS Maine, Lusitania, Pearl Harbor, USS Liberty, and (by implication) 9/11 orchestrated war-trigger events.

Tip of the Hat to Kevin Barrett at Veterans Today.

WATCH THE SHORT VIDEO

Phi Beta Iota:  The Israel lobbyist ably recounts false flags from WWI and WWII to Viet-Nam, neglects to mention 9/11 and the 935 now-documented lies led by Dick Cheney that took the USA into wars that restored Afghanistan as the world's #1 supplier of opium (and Pakistan as the #1 producer of heroin) while destabilizing the entire Middle East.

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NIGHTWATCH: Saudi Arabia Begins to Absorb Bahrain — Is Qatar Next?

03 India, 04 Indonesia, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 05 Iran, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Blog Wisdom, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Deeds of War
Click on Image to Enlarge

Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia and Bahrain discussed a political union at a meeting in Riyadh on 13 May. The arrangement under discussion would allow Bahrain to retain its seat at the United Nations, but the two states would merge foreign relations, defense and economic policy, according to press sources. The details have not been released.

Bahrain's Prime Minister, the Army Chief of Staff and the Foreign Minister – all members of the al-Khalifa royal family — have stated their support for the union.

Comment: The King of Bahrain and the royal family are Sunni Muslims who govern a population of mostly Shiite Muslims. Thus, the news that a union with Saudi Arabia is under discussion has prompted widespread criticism that Saudi Arabia intends to make Bahrain a vassal state so as to keep the Shiites disenfranchised and subjugated.

On the other hand, the limited information in the public domain suggests Bahrain's administration of internal affairs will not be changed by the union proposal. Bahrain, by itself, is not defensible against an Iranian attack or subversion, but in a union arrangement with Saudi Arabia it would not be alone.

Saudi King Abdallah has warned Iran repeatedly against meddling in Arab affairs. This union is consistent with his policy decision to stop Iranian meddling in Arab countries as well as the spread of Shi'i Islam which the Sunnis consider a heresy.

One advantage of the union would be that it would bypass tricky conditions attached to US foreign military sales. Conditions of the sales include that US military equipment can only be used for defense, cannot be resold without US permission and cannot be used outside the recipient country without US permission. Under a union arrangement, the Saudis would not need to consult the US before sending Saudi forces equipped with US tanks and armored personnel carriers back to Bahrain, unless they chose to.

NIGHTWATCH KGS Home

Phi Beta Iota:  It is entirely possible that Saudi Arabia is moving to a whole new level of global diplomacy, information-sharing, military alliances, and economic entanglements (DIME).  Qatar is similar to Bahrain in multiple ways.  Below is a map of the Sunni – Shi'ite spread.  A religious war is brewing, not just Sunni – Shi'ite, but Pentecostals against Islam, Jews against everyone, Catholics in a panic, and so on.  We say it again:  counter-intelligence generally, and religious counter-intelligence specifically, is the ONE 21st Century aspect of the craft of intelligence that must continue to be secret and that must *explode* in the near-term.  Note:  within the eight “tribes” or communities, we include religion and labor organizations within the Civil Society tribe.  The others are academic, commerce, government at all levels, law enforcement, media, military, and non-government/non-profit.

See Also:

Graphic: Muslim Sunni – Shi’ite Distribution (Global)

2012 PREPRINT AS SUBMITTED: The Craft of Intelligence

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Reference: Surrounding Iran – Updated with Pop-Up Info Boxes

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Iran, 07 Other Atrocities, DoD, IO Deeds of War, Military

Interactive: Map: US bases encircle Iran

Dozens of US and allied forces' military installations dot the region, from Oman, UAE and Kuwait to Turkey and Israel.

Doha, Qatar – US military bases continue to form a strategic envelope around Iran, although the American withdrawal from Iraq at the end of 2011 may have changed the regional balance somewhat towards Iran's favour. While US forces are scaling back in many parts of the globe due to budget cuts – and have begun a gradual depature from Afghanistan to be completed by 2014 – their international presence remains vast.

From an active-duty force of 1.4 million soldiers, the US has deployed some 350,000 troops to at least 130 foreign countries around the world. Some are at Cold War-era installations, but many are in or near combat zones in the Middle East. At more than 750 bases internationally, private contractors and third-country nationals also form a large percentage of the staff, in addition to military reservists and civilian employees of the Pentagon.

US military installations in the Middle East serve to keep an eye on Iran, but their regional footprint was significantly expanded well before Iran became the most publicly cited foreign “threat”.

There were three reasons why the US sought a presence across the Middle East, says Mehran Kamrava, Director of the Center for International and Regional Studies at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in Qatar:

“Securing oil resources, guaranteeing the security of the state of Israel and combating threats to American interests” were the initial priorities of US military activity in the region prior to the first Gulf War, Kamrava says.

“Subsequently, direct military presence wasn't in the form of impositions, but the [security umbrella] was a conscious policy decision on the part of the Persian Gulf states.”

See Interactive Map

Earlier Version with Black Dots:  Graphic: US Bases (44) Surrounding Iran

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Richard Wright: Washington Post – No Memory on Iraq & No Integrity on Iran

05 Iran, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Government, IO Impotency, Media
Richard Wright

An Mini-Me would say, “Huh”?

US intelligence gains in Iran seen as boost to confidence

By Joby Warrick and Greg Miller

The Washington Post
Published: April 8, 2012

More than three years ago, the CIA dispatched a stealth surveillance drone into the skies over Iran.

The bat-winged aircraft penetrated more than 600 miles inside the country, captured images of Iran’s secret nuclear facility at Qom and then flew home. All the while, analysts at the CIA and other agencies watched carefully for any sign that the craft, dubbed the RQ-170 Sentinel, had been detected by Tehran’s air defenses on its maiden voyage.

“There was never even a ripple,” said a former senior U.S. intelligence official involved in the previously undisclosed mission.

CIA stealth drones scoured dozens of sites throughout Iran, making hundreds of passes over suspicious facilities, before a version of the RQ-170 crashed inside Iran’s borders in December. The surveillance has been part of what current and former U.S. officials describe as an intelligence surge that is aimed at Iran’s nuclear program and that has been gaining momentum since the final years of George W. Bush’s administration.

Continue reading “Richard Wright: Washington Post – No Memory on Iraq & No Integrity on Iran”