Cccckkkk

Quote:

"If the world wants to make the region insecure, we will make the world insecure."

Reminds me of the old "diplomatic" saying, "For Russia to feel secure, every one else must feel insecure."

So why is FoxNews.com trying to freak people out with a Reuters pic of Iranian military exercises from last year?

Hmmmmm

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501713_162-5....

Quote:

Diplomats say Iran's intelligence chief has met the Saudi crown prince in a rare visit to the kingdom, an apparent attempt to ease strained relations between the regional powerhouses.

Dec. 27 (PTI) -- No oil will be permitted to pass through
he key oil transit Strait of Hormuz if the West applies
anctions on Iran's oil exports, Iranian Vice President Mohammad
eza Rahimi warned today.
The threat was reported by the state news agency IRNA as
ran conducted navy wargames near the Strait of Hormuz, at the
ntrance of the oil-rich Gulf.
"If sanctions are adopted against Iranian oil, not a drop
f oil will pass through the Strait of Hormuz," Rahimi was
uoted as saying.
"We have no desire for hostilities or violence... but the
est doesn't want to go back on its plan" to impose sanctions,
e said.
"The enemies will only drop their plots when we put them
ack in their place," he said.
The threat underlined Iran's readiness to target the narrow
tretch of water along its Gulf coast if it is attacked or
conomically strangled by Western sanctions.
More than a third of the world's tanker-borne oil passes
hrough the Strait of Hormuz.
The United States maintains a navy presence in the Gulf
in large part to ensure that passage remains free.
Iran is currently carrying out navy exercises in
international waters to the east of the Strait of Hormuz.
Ships and aircraft dropped mines in the sea Tuesday as
part of the drill, according to a navy spokesman.
Although Iranian wargames occur periodically, the timing
of these is seen as a show of strength as the United States and
Europe prepare to impose further sanctions on Iran's oil and
financial sectors.
The last round of sanctions, announced in November,
triggered a pro-regime protest in front of the British embassy
in Tehran during which Basij militia members overran the
mission, ransacking it. (AFP) SAZ 12272018

-0- Dec/27/2011 14:49 GMT

They are completely justified in that reaction. Sanctions is an act of war. Wether or not they have the actual capability or not is another question. I am convinced they probably have mobile SSM's like Sunburns and Exocets that could shut down the straights for a long long time. Airforce would be have a hell of a time finding them in that swampy terrain off the coast. The entire area is a canopy wetland

Not to mention. A naval ground force would have to initiate a campaign against those 8 islands that the iranians have clearly been fortifying for the last 5 years. You couldn't clear the hormuz without those islands in your hands.

Meanwhile the power elite continues to build a case for war with Iran. This might sound just a tad similar to 2003:

US judge rules Iran responsible for 9/11
By Daniel Harding, New York
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/us-....

Saturday, December 24, 2011

A US judge has signed a default judgment finding Iran, the Taliban and al-Qaida liable for the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Judge George Daniels in Manhattan signed the judgement a week after hearing evidence in the 10-year-old case.

The signed ruling came in a $100 billion lawsuit brought by victims’ families.

He directed a magistrate judge to preside over remaining issues, including fixing compensatory and punitive damages.

Judge Daniels signed findings of fact saying the plaintiffs had established that the attacks were caused by the support the defendants provided to al-Qaida.

It also said Iran continued to provide material support and resources to al-Qaida by providing a safe haven for al-Qaida leadership and rank-and-file members.

During last week’s hearing, September 11 victims’ families sat through a four-hour presentation from lawyers who cited evidence supporting their claims that Iran actively assisted the hijackers of planes that crashed into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.

Former members of the September 11 Commission and three Iranian defectors also spoke.

It would be near impossible to collect any damages, especially from the Taliban or al-Qaida.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly denied any Iranian connection in the September 11 attacks or with al-Qaida.


http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/us-....

LS, I was just reading about that case. While I wasn't aware of it, it sure does feel like another piece falling into place leading to war against Iran. Shoot, most of the year has felt that way. Accusations, saber rattling, threats and counter threats.

Anyway, here are some excerpts from the article on the suit(Havlish, et al. v. bin Laden, et al.) that I found:

Quote:

The Havlish evidence included sworn testimony and affidavits from the following:

Ten expert witnesses including three former 9/11 Commission staff members, two former CIA case officers, two investigative journalists, and an Iran analyst who has testified in 25 cases involving Iranian terrorism.

Three Iranian defectors who were operatives of MOIS and the IRGC. Witness X, whose dramatic testimony was previously filed under seal, was revealed to be Abolghasem Mesbahi, a former MOIS operative in charge of Iran's espionage operations in Western Europe. Judge Daniels found that Mesbahi has testified in numerous prosecutions of Iranian and Hezbollah terrorists, including the Mykonos case in Germany and the AMIA case in Argentina, and found to be highly reliable and credible. Judge Daniels also credited Mesbahi's testimony that he received messages during the summer of 2001 from inside the Iranian government that an Iranian contingency plan for unconventional warfare against the U.S. called "Shaitan dar Atash" had been activated. "This is compelling proof that Iran was deeply involved in the 9/11 conspiracy," said Tim Fleming, lead investigative attorney for the Havlish group.

Quote:

Included among Judge Daniels' findings in Havlish are the following:

Members of the 9/11 Commission staff testified that Iran aided the hijackers by concealing their travel through Iran to access al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. Iranian border inspectors refrained from stamping the passports of 8 to 10 of the 9/11 hijackers because evidence of travel through Iran would have prevented the hijackers from obtaining visas at U.S. embassies abroad or gaining entry into the United States. The 9/11 Commission Report addressed these facts and called for further investigation. 9/11 Commission Report at pp. 240-41.

Expert and U.S. government evidence also confirmed that Iran facilitated the escape of al Qaeda leaders and members from the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan into Iran and provided safe haven inside Iran after 9/11.

Abolghasem Mesbahi testified he was part of an IRGC-MOIS task force that designed contingency plans for unconventional warfare against the U.S., code-named "Shaitan dar Atash" ("Satan in Flames") which included crashing hijacked passenger airliners into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the White House. During the weeks before 9/11, Mesbahi received three coded messages from a source inside Iran's government indicating that the Shaitan dar Atash plan had been activated.

Mesbahi also testified that in 2000 Iran used front companies to obtain a Boeing 757-767-777 flight simulator for training the terrorists. Due to U.S. trade sanctions, Iran has never had any Boeing 757-767-777 aircraft, but all the airplanes hijacked on 9/11 were Boeing 757 or 767 aircraft.

A May 14, 2001 memorandum from inside the Iranian government demonstrating that Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, was aware of the impending attacks and instructing intelligence operatives to restrict communications to existing contacts with al Qaeda's Ayman al Zawahiri and Hizballah's Imad Mughniyah.

Documents obtained from German federal prosecutors showing that 9/11 coordinator Ramzi Binalshihb traveled to Iran in January 2001 on his way to Afghanistan to brief Osama bin Laden on the plot's progress.

Evidence from the 9/11 Commission Report that a "senior Hezbollah operative," which the Havlish evidence identifies as Hezbollah terrorist chief Imad Mughniyah, coordinated activities in Saudi Arabia and was present (or his associate) on flights the hijackers took to and from Beirut and Iran. 9/11 Commission Report at pp. 240-41. Mughniyah, a longtime agent of Iran, orchestrated a string of terror operations against the U.S. and Israel during the 1980s and 1990s. He was assassinated in Syria in February of 2008.

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/12/23/v-print....

First fuel rod. Happy New Year!

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/01/01/....

Translation: "Israel will not be made to feel insecure under my watch"

Santorum: Fail. The reality is that the vast, vast majority of the people in this country could give a flying **** about Israel. Many could not find Israel on a map. The rest simply don't care, and rightly so. News filtered through NY or LA is colored in a way to make you believe that this is a vital issue. Its not. Its simply the view of politicians who have been co-opted by the Israeli lobby.

Quote:

The reality is that the vast, vast majority of the people in this country could give a flying **** about Israel. Many could not find Israel on a map.

What's funny is that while I think your second statement is true I don't think the first one is.

Many Evangelicals support Israel for non-political reasons and proponents of an interventionist foreign policy (read - most of the voting public, they just don't realize it) typically justify action in the Middle East on a pretext of supporting Israel.

EDIT - BTW, according to a Pew poll, only 57% of Americans can find Israel on a map.
http://www.people-press.org/2011/11/07/w....

Quote:

EDIT - BTW, according to a Pew poll, only 57% of Americans can find Israel on a map.

Actually.. that stat kind of impresses me.

Jeffrey - maybe that number is as high as it is because of that demographic element that supports Israel for religious reasons. After all, something like 80% of the country claims to be Christian (not necessarily Evangelical and certainly not all believers in the pre-tribulation "rapture" school of thought) and that part of the world is where Judaism and Christianity originated.

By comparison, in 2006 only about 40% of people aged 18-24 could locate Iraq on a map and 50% were unable to identify Mississippi.

What's even worse than the results is the answer to this question - when asked if it was important to know the locations of countries in the news, less than 30% said it was. Not only do they not know, they don't care.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/0....

I figure my voluntary request to deploy for DoD in CENTCOM theater of operation may be approved after all. I have not received a response for 6 months.

Don't know if I will make it back in one piece however. But then again, I feel like a good gamble at this point of my life.

50% were unable to find Mississippi on a map.

Including 47% of those from Mississippi. Bwahaa.

Imagine if they had to search for Rhode Island

Oil opens up a dollar

EU agrees to join in on the Iranian oil embargo.

BRUSSELS Jan 4 (Reuters) - European Union governments have reached a preliminary agreement to ban imports of Iranian crude to the EU but have yet to decide when such an embargo would be put in place, EU diplomats said on Wednesday.
Diplomats said that EU envoys held talks on the issue in the last days of December and that any objections to the idea, notably from Greece, were dropped.

"A lot of progress has been made," one EU diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The principle of an oil embargo is agreed. It is not being debated anymore." (Reporting by Justyna Pawlak and Julien Toyer. Editing by Sebastian Moffett.)

Oil Embargo is what caused Pearl Harbor...wonder what this one will do?

Here's one that got lost in the caucus noise - thousands of US troops and missiles being deployed to Israel.

I'm sure this is just a move to drive up oil prices, though. /sarc

http://www.whiteoutpress.com/articles/q1....

January 2, 2012 - Jerusalem - In one of the most blacked-out stories in America right now, the US military is preparing to send thousands of US troops, along with US Naval anti-missile ships and accompanying support personnel, to Israel. It took forever to find a second source for confirmation of this story and both relatively mainstream media outlets are in Israel. With one source saying the military deployment and corresponding exercises are to occur in January, the source providing most of the details suggests it will occur later this spring.

Calling it not just an “exercise”, but a “deployment”, the Jerusalem Post quotes US Lt.-Gen Frank Gorenc, Commander of the US Third Air Force based in Germany. The US Commander visited Israel two weeks ago to confirm details for “the deployment of several thousand American soldiers to Israel.” In an effort to respond to recent Iranian threats and counter-threats, Israel announced the largest ever missile defense exercise in its history. Now, it’s reported that the US military, including the US Navy, will be stationed throughout Israel, also taking part.

While American troops will be stationed in Israel for an unspecified amount of time, Israeli military personnel will be added to EUCOM in Germany. EUCOM stands for United States European Command.

In preparation for anticipated Iranian missile attacks upon Israel, the US is reportedly bringing its THAAD, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, and ship-based Aegis ballistic missile systems to Israel. The US forces will join Israeli missile defense systems like the Patriot and Arrow. The deployment comes with “the ultimate goal of establishing joint task forces in the event of a large-scale conflict in the Middle East”.

The Jerusalem Post reports that US Lt.-Gen Frank Gorenc was in Israel meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Brig.-Gen Doron Gavish, commander of the Air Defense Division. While there, the US General visited one of Israel’s three ‘Iron Dome’ anti-missile outposts. The Israeli Air Force has announced plans to deploy a fourth Iron Dome system in the coming months. Additional spending increases in the Jewish state will guarantee the manufacture and deployment of three more Iron Dome systems by the end of 2012. The Israelis are hoping to eventually have at least a dozen of the anti-missile systems deployed along its northern and southern borders.

In a show of escalated tensions in the region, Iran test fired two long range missiles today. One, called the Qadar, is a powerful sea-to-shore missile. The other was an advanced surface-to-surface missile called the Nour. According to Iranian state news, the Nour is an ‘advanced radar-evading, target-seeking, guided and controlled missile’. Additionally, the Iranian military reportedly test-fired numerous other short, medium and long-range missiles. Yesterday, Iranian authorities reported that they test-fired the medium-range, surface-to-air, radar-evading Mehrab missile. Today is supposed to be the final day of Iranian naval drills in the Straits of Hormuz.

Iran recently made global headlines when it threatened to blockade the Straits of Hormuz if Europe and the US went ahead with their boycott of Iranian oil and the country’s central bank. One-quarter of the world’s oil passes through that waterway every day. President Obama has announced that a closure of the Straits was unacceptable and vowed to take whatever measures are necessary to keep the vital shipping lane open.

In response to the Iranian missile tests this weekend, French authorities were the first to respond, calling it a, “very bad signal to the international community."We want to underline that the development by Iran of a missile program is a source of great concern to the international community,"the French Foreign Ministry said in a written statement. Israeli officials suggested the flamboyant Iranian military drills this weekend were a sign that international sanctions on the country were taking a heavy toll and that any additional boycotts, on its banks or oil industry, would be crippling.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the large missile tests showed, “the dire straits of Iran in light of the tightening sanctions around her, including the considerations in the last few days regarding the sanctions of exporting petroleum as well as the possibility of sanctions against the Iranian Central Bank." While the chances of Iran going through with its threat of closing the Straits of Hormuz are slim, the deployment of thousands of US troops and naval ships to Israel shows the US isn’t taking any chances.


Original article:
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.asp....
US commander visits Israel to finalize missile drill
By YAAKOV KATZ
20/12/2011

Israel, US to hold largest ever missile defense exercise this spring; thousands of US soldiers will be deployed in Israel.

Israel is moving forward with plans to hold the largest-ever missile defense exercise in its history this spring amid Iranian efforts to obtain nuclear weapons.

Last week, Lt.-Gen. Frank Gorenc, commander of the US’s Third Air Force based in Germany, visited Israel to finalize plans for the upcoming drill, expected to see the deployment of several thousand American soldiers in Israel.

The drill, which is unprecedented in its size, will include the establishment of US command posts in Israel and IDF command posts at EUCOM headquarters in Germany – with the ultimate goal of establishing joint task forces in the event of a large-scale conflict in the Middle East.

The US will also bring its THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) and shipbased Aegis ballistic missile defense systems to Israel to simulate the interception of missile salvos against Israel.

The American systems will work in conjunction with Israel’s missile defense systems – the Arrow, Patriot and Iron Dome.

Gorenc came to Israel for talks with Brig.-Gen. Doron Gavish, commander of the Air Force’s Air Defense Division.

He toured one of the Iron Dome batteries in the South and the Israel Test Bed lab in Holon where the IAF holds its interception simulation exercises.

The IAF is planning to deploy a fourth battery of the Iron Dome counter-rocket system in the coming months and is mulling the possibility of stationing it in Haifa to protect oil refineries located there.

The Defense Ministry has allocated a budget to manufacture an additional three Iron Dome batteries by the end of 2012. IAF operational requirements call for the deployment of about a dozen batteries along Israel’s northern and southern borders.

The IAF is also moving forward with plans to deploy Rafael’s David’s Sling missile defense system, which is designed to defend against medium-range rockets and cruise missiles. Rafael recently completed a series of successful navigation and flight tests of the David’s Sling’s interceptor and plans to hold the first interception test by mid-2012.

Oil down on all this, weird