Obama Agrees To Give Israel Long Range Refueling Aircraft and State-of-the-Art Bunker Buster Bombs

You know, if you're one of the crazy mullahs in Iran right now, you gotta have a pit in your stomach, a lump in your throat and a Depends full of shit as more and more news is filtering out about the upcoming Israel strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. The news today from DEBKA is that the U.S. has agreed to give Israel the following for the mission:

"four KC-35 aerial refueling aircraft, doubling the number already in the Israeli Air Force's inventory, and GBU-31 Direct Attack Munition-JDAM bombs of the type which serve US bombers especially those based on aircraft carriers."

I must say, this is impressing me that Obama would make this move but at the same time, Obama knows full well if he totally abandons Israel on this Iranian issue, he will lose the election in the fall - simple as that. So let's be clear about it - Obama doesn't WANT to do this - Netanyahu has worked him into a corner and at the same time, Obama thinks he can save some face with the anti-war nuts in the country by not authorizing direct American action.

I will say this about the Israeli strike - this is NOT going to be what you expect. When it's over and G_d willing, it will be a success, you will shake your head in awe and amazement as to the strategy.

US bunker-busters, aerial refueling for Israel alongside diplomacy for Iran


American sources disclosed Tuesday March 6, that President Barack Obama had decided to let Israel have weapons systems suitable for long-range military operations and strikes against fortified underground targets. They include four KC-35 aerial refueling aircraft, doubling the number already in the Israeli Air Force's inventory, and GBU-31 Direct Attack Munition-JDAM bombs of the type which serve US bombers especially those based on aircraft carriers.
This news came together with the announcement that European Union’s Catherine Ashton had proposed to Iran that long-stalled nuclear negotiations be resumed with the Six World Powers.
debkafile reported earlier Tuesday, March 6:

The morning after Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu pledged before the pro-Israeli AIPAC convention that he would head off the threat of Israel’s annihilation by a nuclear Iran, and his agreement to disagree with US President Barack Obama in their White House talks, the European Union’s Catherine Ashton suddenly jumped up with a proposition to Tehran to resume the long-stalled nuclear negotiations with the world powers. She made her offer on behalf of China, France, Germany, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Following the same script as Ashton, Tehran signaled its willingness to let international inspectors visit the military base of Parchin where nuclear explosive tests are strongly suspected of taking place.

Straight after this two-way messaging, Tehran prevaricated by announcing, “Considering the fact that it is a military site, granting access is a time-consuming process and cannot be permitted repeatedly. Nevertheless it would be allowed after the International Atomic Energy Agency submits paperwork about related issues.”
Monday, March 5, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano declined to spell out the suspicion that the Iranians needed time to remove the nuclear evidence from Parchin. "But I can tell you that we are aware that there are some activities at Parchin and it makes us believe that going there sooner is better than later," Amano said.
debkafile has reported in the past that this military base was used for the secret testing of nuclear explosives and warhead triggers.

Our Washington sources add that US intelligence certainly knew what was going on there. So did President Obama, when he addressed the AIPAC convention and promised to “prevent, not just contain” Iran’s acquisition of a nuclear weapon. And so did Netanyahu, when he met the president at the White House Monday

Yet Parchin did not come up on any of those occasions.

The prime minister knew there was no point because Obama was already firmly set on engaging Iran in nuclear diplomacy with the Six Powers – probably in Istanbul next month as Tehran had proposed – irrespective of any other considerations. Tehran was to be allowed to flex its military muscle so as to reach the table in the strong position of a nuclear power.

(On Feb. 18, debkafile first revealed that agreement had been reached to resume those talks.)

Netanyahu spoke from this knowledge when he declared “Israel must be master of its fate” and “The pressure (on Iran) is growing but time is growing short.”

He made it clear that he has no faith in the diplomatic option achieving anything. As in the past, Tehran would apply “bazaar tactics” to duck, weave, procrastinate and haggle, the while using the talks as a safe cover for continuing with impunity the very processes under discussion.

Yet a few hours after the Obama-Netanyahu impasse, Washington and Tehran whipped whip out the diplomacy ploy to cut short Israel’s military plans. It was assumed that Israel would not risk attacking Iran while it was locked in international negotiations.
But Netanyahu has always resisted making this promise. Israel may therefore see its chance when the diplomatic process inevitably hits bumps in the road and stalls.

US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta echoed President Obama when he spoke before the AIPAC conference on Tuesday: He vowed that the United States would take military action to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon if diplomacy failed.

"Military action is the last alternative when all else fails," he told the pro-Israel lobbying group. "But make no mistake, we will act if we have to."
He carefully sidestepped any reference to a timeline. So there is no guarantee that Iran won’t already be armed with a nuclear weapon by the time Washington gets around to determining that diplomacy has failed.

Is The Fix In?

Yesterday I posted Because You Leak relating to the world that Israel would not give Barack Hussein Obama an early warning when they attack Iran.  Now the reason for this attitude by the Israelis has been made known.

Obama, Iran in secret nuclear deal

My sources inside Iran tell me that President Obama, seeking to protect the recovering U.S. economy and bolster his chances of being re-elected in November, apparently has entered into an informal agreement with Iran that he believes will defuse the nuclear weapons crisis and keep Israel from attacking the Islamic regime.

The agreement calls for the United States to acknowledge that Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons, and for Iran to hand over its highly enriched uranium, which is necessary for nuclear weaponization.

Iran, for its part, though engaging Obama, has no intention of abiding by the agreement and is stepping up its nuclear enrichment program clandestinely, even as it prepares for a war it believes it can win.

When Obama took office in 2009, he threw out the Bush administration’s aggressive posture in negotiating with Iran and instead sought a new approach, one of diplomacy and friendship. He had a golden opportunity to support millions of Iranians who took to the streets over Iran’s fraudulent elections that June, but instead turned his back on freedom and democracy while believing that negotiations with the Islamic regime would yield results.

Once the protests had died down, the Iranians, after months of promises, announced that a proposed agreement by the West that limited their nuclear activity was no longer acceptable and that they had successfully enriched uranium to 20 percent, which is nine-tenths of the way to nuclear weaponization.

The Iranians have now expanded their nuclear program to the point where they not only have enough low-enriched uranium for six nuclear bombs but also have doubled their stock of highly enriched uranium of 20 percent. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recently reported that Iran has added 3,000 more centrifuges to the Natanz facility, bringing the total to 9,000, and has started enriching to 20 percent at the previous secret site, the Fordow facility, which is deep within a mountain and secure against any attack. Such production could give Iran weapons-grade uranium for nuclear bombs within weeks.

Obama knows that Israel is losing patience with the lack of progress over Iran’s unabated continuation of its illicit nuclear program despite four sets of U.N. sanctions and other sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the European Union. He also knows that any confrontation between Israel and Iran will drag America into an unwanted war and therefore destabilize the American economy and harm his chances of re-election.

Iran knows that its best chance to delay any attack on its nuclear and military facilities and its best opportunity to be in a win-win situation is to once again engage Obama, believing he is weak, that Iran holds the key to his re-election and that a Republican win in November could mean direct confrontation

As revealed in January, Obama sent a message to the Iranian leaders through three different channels. Part of it, disclosed by the Iranian officials, reflected a message by the U.S. president asking for cooperation and negotiation based on mutual interests, but more importantly, it assured Iran that America will not take any action against the Islamic regime.

Sources within Iran reveal that Khamenei, in a secret meeting with his top officials and military commanders, has issued a directive to push for a step-by-step Russian proposal to defuse the crisis in which Iran would only hand over its 20 percent enrichment stock while keeping all low-enriched uranium stock (enough for six nuclear bombs) and cooperate more with the IAEA (all the while continuing its enrichment activity). In exchange, the West would ease up on the sanctions as each step is taken.

The U.S., for its part, had to announce that Iran is not after the nuclear bomb, backing Israel into a corner and pressuring it not to take any action.

In the same meeting it was decided that if the West did not take the offer, then a limited war in the region could help the Iranian leaders further consolidate power at home, incite further uprisings in the region, become the leader of the Islamic movement by attacking Israel and still save some of its nuclear facilities, which are either at secret locations or deep underground. And that would justify their pursuit of the nuclear bomb.

The Obama administration responded positively. First, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsy, publicly announced that Iran is a rational actor and that it is not after a nuclear bomb. Then, just as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to arrive in Washington for talks with Obama over Iran’s nuclear program, the consensus of 16 U.S. intelligence agencies said Iran has already stopped efforts to build a bomb.

This despite the most recent IAEA report clearly indicating the military aspect of the Iranian nuclear program and last week’s announcement by the U.N. nuclear agency that Iran has ramped up by 50 percent its production of highly enriched uranium, well beyond what is normally needed for peaceful nuclear energy.

In response to the Americans meeting Khamenei’s demands, the Iranian supreme leader responded by publicly announcing that Iran has never sought and will never seek nuclear weapons as it regards possession of such weapons a great sin.

Other Iranian officials did their part by announcing that the cooperation with the IAEA will continue to once again show the world that claims of Iran wanting a nuclear bomb are unfounded.

In this high-stakes game, Iranian leaders believe Obama is hamstrung by politics, and even if war comes, ultimately Russia and China will intervene to support Iran,  and therefore giving Iran a victory similar to the outcome of the 200demanding a cease-fire6 Hezbollah-Israel war.

Though an election year, Obama must know that radicals ruling Iran, if given time, will obtain nuclear weapons, changing the world as we know it forever, no matter who is in the White House come 2013

Source

Given this information no one can now accept that Obama will be trying to throw Israel under the bus.  His re-election is at stake.  It is just too bad that Benjamin Netanyahu is not on board for this plan.  His only concern is his nation, his people.  And will do anything possible to prevent Iran or Obama from bringing about a Second Holocaust!

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Because You Leak!

The Israelis want to scream at President Barack Hussein Obama and the members of his regime administration.  President Obama has demanded that the Israelis give him a 12-hour advanced notice of when they will attack Iran.  The Israelis know that if they did that President Obama would go public with the knowledge and inform the world.  So the Israelis have decided (And rightly so.) not to inform the United States of any advanced knowledge of an attack on Iran.

Israeli officials say they won't warn the U.S. if they decide to launch a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, one U.S. intelligence official familiar with the discussions told the Associated Press. The pronouncement, delivered in a series of private, top-level conversations, sets a tense tone ahead of meetings in the coming days at the White House and Capitol Hill.

Israeli officials said that if they eventually decide a strike is necessary, they would keep the Americans in the dark to decrease the likelihood that the U.S. would be held responsible for failing to stop Israel's potential attack. The U.S. has been working with the Israelis for months to persuade them that an attack would be only a temporary setback to Iran's nuclear program.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak delivered the message to a series of top-level U.S. visitors to the country, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the White House national security adviser and the director of national intelligence, and top U.S. lawmakers, all trying to close the trust gap between Israel and the U.S. over how to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Netanyahu delivered the same message to all the Americans who have traveled to Israel for talks, the U.S. official said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive strategic negotiations.

The White House did not respond to requests for comment, and the Pentagon and Office of Director of National Intelligence declined to comment, as did the Israeli Embassy.

Iran claims its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but the International Atomic Energy Agency has raised alarms that its uranium enrichment program might be a precursor to building nuclear weapons. The US has said it does not know whether the government has decided to weaponize its nuclear material and put it on a missile or other delivery device.

The secret warning is likely to worry US officials and begin the high level meetings with Israel and the US far apart on how to handle Iran.

But the apparent decision to keep the U.S. in the dark also stems from Israel's frustration with the White House. After a visit by National Security Adviser Tom Donilon in particular, they became convinced the Americans would neither take military action, nor go along with unilateral action by Israel against Iran. The Israelis concluded they would have to conduct a strike unilaterally -- a point they are likely to hammer home in a series of meetings over the next two weeks in Washington, the official said.

Barak will meet with top administration and congressional officials during his visit. Netanyahu arrives in Washington for meetings with President Barack Obama next week.

The behind-the-scenes warning belies the publicly united front the two sides have attempted to craft with the shuttle diplomacy to each other's capitals.

"It's unprecedented outreach to Israel to make sure we are working together to develop the plan to deter Iran from developing a nuclear weapon," and to keep them from exporting terrorism, said Maryland Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee.

He traveled there with the intelligence committee chairman, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., to meet Israel's prime minister and defense minister, along with other officials.

"We talked about the fact that sanctions are working and they are going to get a lot more aggressive," Ruppersberger added.

They also discussed talked about presenting a unified front to Iran, to counter the media reports that the two countries are at odds over how and when to attack Iran.

"We have to learn from North Korea. All those (peace) talks and stalling and they developed a nuclear weapon," he said. "We are going to send a message, enough is enough, the stalling is over. ... All options are on the table."

"I got the sense that Israel is incredibly serious about a strike on their nuclear weapons program," Rogers told CNN on Monday. "It's their calculus that the administration ... is not serious about a real military consequence to Iran moving forward.

"They believe they're going to have to make a decision on their own, given the current posture of the United States," he added.

U.S. intelligence and special operations officials have tried to keep a dialogue going with Israel, despite the high-level impasse, sharing with them options such as allowing Israel to use U.S. bases in the region from which to launch such a strike, as a way to make sure the Israelis give the Americans a heads-up, according to the U.S. official, and a former U.S. official with knowledge of the communications

Cooperation has improved on sharing of intelligence in the region, according to one current and one former U.S. official. Israel is providing key information on Syria for instance, now that the U.S. has closed its embassy and pulled out both its diplomats and intelligence officials stationed there, the U.S. official said.

Source

Every move President Obama has made in the Middle East has been the wrong one.  He misjudged the Arab Spring, his Muslim Outreach, his Iraq and Afghan Policies.  In fact to the Muslim world he is seen as a weak leader.

The Israelis cannot afford to rely on such a weak leader for their safety.  In fact the Israelis have already learned that Obama will leak any secret they have.  An nuclear Iran is too dangerous for the Middle East, too dangerous for Israel's survival.  They will attack.  And if Obama is lucky he might get a 12 second warning, but he will not be able to prevent an Israeli strike without using US air power against the IAF.  And that would be throwing not Israel under the bus, but his re-election under the bus.

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

U.S. General: "US would take action against Iran closure of Hormuz"

In probably the most pointed discussion of the Iranian threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. head of the Joint Chiefs, General Martin Dempsey made no bones about the fact that the U.S. navy would clearly and decisively act to reverse that Iranian action.

From the report at The Jerusalem Post:

Iran has the ability to block the Strait of Hormuz “for a period of time,” and the US would take action to reopen it, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Martin Dempsey said Sunday.

“They’ve invested in capabilities that could, in fact, for a period of time block the Strait of Hormuz,” Dempsey said in an interview airing on the CBS “Face the Nation” program. “We’ve invested in capabilities to ensure that if that happens, we can defeat that.”

Should Iran try to close Hormuz, the US “would take action and reopen” the waterway, said Dempsey, US President Barack Obama’s top military adviser.

Blocking the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic shipping lane linking the Gulf of Oman with the Persian Gulf, would constitute a “red line” for the US, as would Iranian efforts to build a nuclear weapon, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on the same program.

Continued pressure, rather than threats of air strikes, is the best way to forestall Iran from developing nuclear weapons, Panetta said.

The Iranians can't be this stupid. There's two reasons this would be suicide for them - first, this would give the West a perfect opportunity to expand operations against Iran and conduct a "nuclear clearinghouse" of Iranian nuke facilities under the guise of international provocation by the Iranians and second, the Iranians have ZERO support in closing the Strait of Hormuz. Sure, the Russians might clamor a bit but they would back down quickly especially if the coalition to open the Strait was large.

But at the same time, what the Iranians need right now is time - they desperately need time to finish their nuclear warhead work and get some testing done of nuclear missiles and one way to buy more time is to get the West occupied with a different kind of threat.

'US would take action against Iran closure of Hormuz'


Iran has the ability to block the Strait of Hormuz “for a period of time,” and the US would take action to reopen it, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Martin Dempsey said Sunday.

“They’ve invested in capabilities that could, in fact, for a period of time block the Strait of Hormuz,” Dempsey said in an interview airing on the CBS “Face the Nation” program. “We’ve invested in capabilities to ensure that if that happens, we can defeat that.”

Should Iran try to close Hormuz, the US “would take action and reopen” the waterway, said Dempsey, US President Barack Obama’s top military adviser.

Blocking the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic shipping lane linking the Gulf of Oman with the Persian Gulf, would constitute a “red line” for the US, as would Iranian efforts to build a nuclear weapon, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on the same program.

Continued pressure, rather than threats of air strikes, is the best way to forestall Iran from developing nuclear weapons, Panetta said.

Panetta: Applying pressure on Iran is the responsible course of action

While the US shouldn’t “take any option off the table,“ Panetta said “the responsible thing to do right now is to keep putting diplomatic and economic pressure on them to force them to do the right thing and to make sure that they do not make the decision to proceed with the development of a nuclear weapon.”

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said January 1 on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he would use air strikes against Iran unless the country dismantled its nuclear program or allowed inspectors to verify that the work isn’t aimed at making a weapon.

Dempsey suggested that curbing Iran’s nuclear work by bombing its facilities would be difficult.

“I’d rather not discuss the degree of difficulty and in any way encourage them to read anything into that,” Dempsey said. “My responsibility is to encourage the right degree of planning, to understand the risks associated with any kind of military option.”

US plans in case of Israeli strike

Should Israel decide to undertake a unilateral military strike against Iran, the US priority would be protecting American troops in the region, Panetta said.

Dempsey and Panetta sought on CBS to provide assurances that the new US military strategy, announced last week, won’t limit the US ability to stop aggressors.

“What we’re looking to do here is not constrain ourselves to a two-war construct, but rather build a force that has the kind of agility” needed to adapt to any scenario, Dempsey said. Previous US war planning called for preparing to fight two conventional wars simultaneously.

The plan was driven by the need to cut almost $490 billion from projected Pentagon spending through 2021, including about $261 billion through 2017. Panetta said last week the details won’t be released until the Pentagon presents its 2013 budget request to Congress by early February.

Iran Claims To Have Shot Down U.S. Recon Drone Inside Iran, Threatens Retaliation

Here we go. The Iranians apparently have decided that the best defense to their nuclear program is an offensive against the West and today they announced that they have shot down a reconnaissance drone of the U.S. and are threatening to retaliate for the action outside the borders of Iran. Hmmm. So where might they retaliate? Iraq? Afghanistan?

From the report at The Jerusalem Post:

Iran's military has shot down a US reconnaissance drone aircraft in eastern Iran and has threatened to respond to the violation of Iranian airspace, a military source told state television on Sunday.

"Iran's military has downed an intruding RQ-170 American drone in eastern Iran," Iran's Arabic-language Al Alam state television network quoted the unnamed source as saying.

"The spy drone, which has been downed with little damage, was seized by the Iranian armed forces."

"The Iranian military's response to the American spy drone's violation of our airspace will not be limited to Iran's borders," the military source said, without elaborating.

You know what? I hope the Iranians do it. This is just what we need to provoke U.S. action against Iran. Let's just say the Iranians take out some aircraft of the U.S. at a base in Kuwait or in Iraq or perhaps strafe a U.S. naval vessel in the region - that would be an act of war. Now, I realize that Barack Hussein Obama is President and will resist any force against an Islamic country but the door would be open.

If the U.S. retaliated to this act of war and just so happened to end up with cruise missiles and bunker busters hitting the nuclear facilities of Iran, that could be viewed as purely coincidental...you know?

A message to the Ayatollah, Ahmadinejad and the mullahs: do you have any idea how many of the American people want your piece of shit country turned to glass?

Iran military says it shot down US drone in east province


Iran's military has shot down a US reconnaissance drone aircraft in eastern Iran and has threatened to respond to the violation of Iranian airspace, a military source told state television on Sunday.

"Iran's military has downed an intruding RQ-170 American drone in eastern Iran," Iran's Arabic-language Al Alam state television network quoted the unnamed source as saying.

"The spy drone, which has been downed with little damage, was seized by the Iranian armed forces."

Iran shot down the drone at a time when it is trying to contain foreign reaction to the storming of the British embassy in Tehran on Tuesday, shortly after London announced that it would impose sanctions on Iran's central bank in connection with Iran's controversial nuclear enrichment program.

Britain evacuated its diplomatic staff from Iran and expelled Iranian diplomats in London in retaliation, and several other EU members recalled their ambassadors from Tehran.

The attack dragged Iran's relations with Europe to a long-time low.

"The Iranian military's response to the American spy drone's violation of our airspace will not be limited to Iran's borders," the military source said, without elaborating.

The United States and Israel have not ruled out military action against Iran's nuclear facilities if diplomacy fails to resolve the nuclear dispute.

Iran has dismissed reports of possible US or Israeli plans to strike Iran, warning that it would respond to any such assault by attacking US interests in the Gulf and Israel.

Analysts say Tehran could retaliate by launching hit-and-run strikes in the Gulf and by closing the Strait of Hormuz. About 40 percent of all traded oil leaves the Gulf region through the strategic waterway.

Iran said in July it had shot down an unmanned US spy plane over the holy city of Qom, near its Fordu nuclear site.

In related news, Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese website al-Intiqad on Sunday posted what they claim to be pictures of Israeli spy devices that IAF aircraft destroyed on Friday after they had been discovered in southern Lebanon.

Two people were injured Friday during an explosion in the southern Lebanese towns of Srifa and Deir Kifa, Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star reported.

The report suggested that the explosion may have been caused by an IDF drone, but also speculated that it was a result of a cluster bomb.

Jerusalem has alleged that Iran has heavily armed Hezbollah by transferring weapons through Syria.

Did Russia Just Threaten Europe With War Over the NATO Missile Shield?

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. — Photo by AFP

You know, I'm no foreign policy expert but the Russian foreign minister today sounds like he just made a threat to make war on western Europe and NATO if the proposed NATO missile shield isn't abandoned.

The story is from DAWN ...take a look at this excerpt and see if I got this wrong:

Russia could take steps of “a technically military nature” if its objections to Nato’s planned missile defence system are not heeded, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a Serbian daily on Tuesday.

“If our partners in the future continue to ignore our position, then we should protect our interests by other means and for that, concrete measures might be needed to the response of a technically military nature,” Lavrov told Belgrade’s Vecernje Novosti in an interview published on Tuesday.

“We do not wish such development,” he added.

Lavrov made his comments in light of the deal signed in mid-September between Washington and Serbia’s neighbour Romania to host US missile interceptors.

Now, that statement seems enrobed in all kinds of double talk and innuendo but to me it says that Russia will take military action...and that means war and that means this is a declaration of war if....the West doesn't do as the Russians say.

This is just another example of how insane Obama's START treaty really was...these are the "friends and ally" that Obama agreed to disarm for - just months after Obama agrees to diminish our protection of nuclear weapons, our partner in the disarmament agreement is rattling sabers and missile launchers. Way to go, Barry.

Russian foreign minister targets Nato missile shield


BELGRADE: Russia could take steps of “a technically military nature” if its objections to Nato’s planned missile defence system are not heeded, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a Serbian daily on Tuesday.

“If our partners in the future continue to ignore our position, then we should protect our interests by other means and for that, concrete measures might be needed to the response of a technically military nature,” Lavrov told Belgrade’s Vecernje Novosti in an interview published on Tuesday.

“We do not wish such development,” he added.

Lavrov made his comments in light of the deal signed in mid-September between Washington and Serbia’s neighbour Romania to host US missile interceptors.

His comments come on the same day when the Romanian President Traian Basescu was due to visit Belgrade.

“I am forced to conclude that the signing of the deal (between Bucharest and Washington) is an additional link in a chain of events that shows that the US is stepping up the plans to construct their missile shield without taking into account the Russia’s concerns,” Lavrov said.

On Monday, Lavrov said in Moscow that Russia wants to break the deadlock over the missile shield in Europe by holding the talks between the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his US counterpart Barack Obama.

According to Nato and Washington, the planned Europe-wide ballistic missile shield is aimed at thwarting missile threats from Iran. But Moscow has expressed its concern that the shield could target Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles and could be used as nuclear deterrents.

State Department Says That Pakistan Is Harassing U.S. Citizens With Visas

There is no question that the relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan hasn't been this bad in decades so I guess it isn't surprising that the Pakistanis are hassling U.S. citizens visiting that country on visas (why someone would want to be in Pakistan is beyond me).

This report at DAWN talks about how the U.S. State Department is complaining about this harassment:

The number of US citizens arrested, detained, and prosecuted for overstaying their visas in Pakistan this year has “increased markedly across the country”, says the US State Department.

A long and detailed travel warning, issued on Monday afternoon also includes complaints against the Pakistani media which, according to the State Department, “recently have falsely identified US diplomats, journalists and employees of non-government organisations as spies or as private security personnel”.

Taking note of the rapidly growing anti-American feelings in Pakistan, the department says: “Rallies, demonstrations, and processions occur regularly throughout Pakistan on very short notice. Demonstrations often have taken on an anti-US or anti-Western character, and US citizens are urged to avoid large gatherings.”

The statement differs markedly from previous warnings that focused on security threats to US citizens in Pakistan from terrorist groups and their supporters.

The latest warning, however, underlines measures taken by the Pakistani government, which indicates continued deterioration of relations between the two allies.

“US citizens throughout Pakistan have been arrested, deported, harassed, and detained for overstaying their Pakistani visas or for travelling to Pakistan with the inappropriate visa classification,” warns the State Department.

Well, well, well. I think perhaps the Pakistani government better look back over the total aid that has come into their country from the U.S. over the past 10 years and think twice about treating our citizens like shit. Don't you? I realize we have cut some aid and threatened to cut more but cutting it off completely forever might just make the Pakistanis a little nice to Joe Q. American on the streets of Karachi.

US says its citizens being harassed in Pakistan


WASHINGTON: The number of US citizens arrested, detained, and prosecuted for overstaying their visas in Pakistan this year has “increased markedly across the country”, says the US State Department.

A long and detailed travel warning, issued on Monday afternoon also includes complaints against the Pakistani media which, according to the State Department, “recently have falsely identified US diplomats, journalists and employees of non-government organisations as spies or as private security personnel”.

Taking note of the rapidly growing anti-American feelings in Pakistan, the department says: “Rallies, demonstrations, and processions occur regularly throughout Pakistan on very short notice. Demonstrations often have taken on an anti-US or anti-Western character, and US citizens are urged to avoid large gatherings.”

The statement differs markedly from previous warnings that focused on security threats to US citizens in Pakistan from terrorist groups and their supporters.

The latest warning, however, underlines measures taken by the Pakistani government, which indicates continued deterioration of relations between the two allies.

“US citizens throughout Pakistan have been arrested, deported, harassed, and detained for overstaying their Pakistani visas or for travelling to Pakistan with the inappropriate visa classification,” warns the State Department.

“US citizens who attempt to renew or extend their visas while in Pakistan have been left without legal status for an extended period of time and subjected to harassment or interrogation by local authorities.”

In 2011, the number of US citizens arrested, detained, and prosecuted for visa overstay increased markedly across the country, said the statement, adding that US missions in Pakistan might not always be available to help them.

“Security threats may on short notice temporarily restrict the ability of US missions, particularly in Peshawar, to provide routine consular services,” it says.

The State Department encourages all US citizens to apply for renewal of travel documents at least three months prior to expiration.

The stark warning continues to point to the threat to Americans from Al Qaeda, Taliban and militant sectarian groups throughout Pakistan.

The State Department, however, notes that Pakistan`s government has increased security measures, especially in major cities, but the “terrorists have (often) disguised themselves as Pakistani security personnel to gain access to targeted areas”.

The department notes that terrorists focus on places where westerners congregate, including shopping areas, hotels, clubs and restaurants, places of worship, schools, or outdoor recreation events.

The travel warning includes a detailed list of terrorist attacks in Pakistan, the latest on May 20, when a US consulate vehicle in Peshawar was attacked, killing one person and injuring 12.

It points out that US citizens throughout Pakistan have also been kidnapped for ransom or for personal reasons.

Reported kidnappings include the June 2011 kidnapping of a US citizen in Lahore; the 2010 kidnapping of a US citizen child in Karachi, and the 2009 kidnapping of a US official of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Balochistan.

The kidnapping of Pakistani citizens and other foreign nationals, usually for ransom, continues to increase dramatically nationwide, the State Department warns.

Safety measures suggested to US citizens in Pakistan include maintaining good situational awareness, avoiding crowds, and keeping a low profile.

It reminds them that even peaceful demonstrations may become violent.

The proposed safety measures include an advice to US citizens should to avoid setting patterns by varying times and routes for all required travel.

How To Destroy A Friendship

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

 Friendship is defined as:  A friendly feeling or disposition.  Yet in the last week we have witnessed President Barack Hussein Obama destroy the special relationship the United States has had with Israel.  A relationship based on mutual trust, understanding, and respect.  As of Thursday, all that is now a one-way street, with Israel being the friend and the United States actively and openly working to destroy the tiny Jewish state.

In doing this without condemning the violence perpetrated towards Israel, the official indoctrination of Anti-Semitism into the minds of Arab children, the rewriting of history with the purpose of distorting and obliterating the presence of the Jewish people from the Land of Israel, and finally the daily calls for the destruction of the State of Israel has displayed to the world (And especially Jewish voters.) that the United States is no longer a full partner with Israel but just one of many who condemn the Jewish state.

This has left Israel with very few options.  They can no longer trust the United States to veto resolutions in the Security Council that condemn it for any whim the Arab/Muslim world decides to invent.  And let us face it, these idiots invent so many things against the only beacon of freedom in the Middle East.

On Thursday President Obama was 45 minutes late in addressing the State Department in his second major address to the Muslim world.  He was on the phone with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of Israel who was vainly trying to get him to remove the  passage:  1967 borders.   This Obama did not do, nor was he going to.  In doing this, President Obama has effectively backed the Israelis into a corner.  They cannot return to the Auschwitz Borders, nor can they use it as the starting base in negotiations.



Without condemning Hamas for the rocket fire into Southern Israel, or Fatah for the murder of Israelis (Especially the slaughter of the Fogel family.), President Obama has effectively turned the Foreign Policy of the United States in a 180 degree turn away from Israel.

This is leaving President Obama with a problem here at home.  To be exact a Jewish Problem here at home.  While in 2008 President Obama received over 78% of the Jewish vote, today that support is down to 55% (The exact same number that Jimmy Carter received in 1980.) and it is dropping.  While in 2008 the Obama campaign found that their major donors were Jews, today donations from The Tribe is down 60%.  The more President Obama's foreign policy turns away from Israel and towards the Muslim world, the more Jews will desert him in favor of a candidate that is more appealing to their values.  In an economy that is doing well, with low gas prices, this wouldn't even be an issue.  As we know the economy is going to hell in a handbasket, gas is rising out of sight, and this is now a big issue with the Jewish voters.

As for what Israel will do.  Sources in the Israeli government have remarked that they are looking for a new partner.  A new friend.  Russia, France and Great Britain are no friends.  Their record of official anti-Semitism for centuries destroys that idea.  Instead the Israelis are sending out feelers towards China.  China needs a source of high technology.  While the Arabs have oil in abundance, they are very low on the Leaders of Technology scale.  And while Israel is very short on oil, it is a Leader in Technology (In robotics it will surpass the United States and Japan by 2015.).  China will be able to buy oil from anyone, but gaining the technological advantage takes more than money.  Takes a willing partner to help them.

It is a shame that the United States under the "leadership" of Barack Hussein Obama has destroyed the friendship between Israel and the United States and may have helped China become a technological giant by forcing a friendship between Israel and China.

American F-15 Forced To Crash Land In Libya

This is breaking news and the details are sketchy regarding an American F-15E Eagle crew having to crash land inside of Libya just a short time ago. The report from Fox News states that the crew is supposedly okay...let's hope and pray so.

UPDATE: Here's some more information from TimesofMalta:

One crew member has been safely rescued and the search for the other is ongoing.

"Both aircrew ejected," the spokeswoman, Karin Burzynski, said from the command's headquarters in the western German city of Stuttgart.

"One crew member was recovered and the operation to recover the second crew member is ongoing."

The plane appeared to have suffered mechanical failure and had not been shot down, the spokeswoman said.

Here's the article:

U.S. Jet Reportedly Crash Lands in Libya, but Crew Believed Safe


TRIPOLI, Libya -- A U.S. warplane was forced to make a crash-landing in Libya after suffering from mechanical failure, The London Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday.

The crew of the F-15E Eagle was believed to be safe. There was no immediate confirmation of the crash-landing from U.S. or U.K. military officials.

A correspondent for the newspaper on the ground in Libya said via Twitter that the plane plowed into a field near opposition stronghold Benghazi in the east of the country late Monday. The crew was in rebel hands, the newspaper reported.

US planes including F-16s were involved in a third night of air attacks on Libya on Monday.

NATO Forces Intercept 48 Iranian Rockets Headed To Taliban In Afghanistan...At What Point Will We Finally Turn Iran To Glass?

I've absolutely fucking had it. The last time that a huge cache of munitions from Iran was intercepted by NATO forces in Afghanistan, explosives and weapons that were heading to the Taliban to kill American and coalition forces, I nearly lost it here. Well, now we have NATO forces intercepting 48 BLOODY ROCKETS FROM IRAN headed to the Taliban - think about what kind of destruction 48 rockets would wreak on our forces.

Here's the news on it from DAWN:

Nato forces in Afghanistan have seized 48 Iranian-made rockets intended to aid the Taliban’s spring battle campaign, the most powerful illicit weapons ever intercepted en route from the neighboring state, officials said Wednesday.

The shipment is seen as a serious escalation in Iran’s state support of the Taliban insurgency, according to Nato officials and described in detail by an international intelligence official.

It’s also an escalation in the proxy war Western officials say Iran is waging against US and other Western forces in Afghanistan, as Washington continues to lobby for tougher international sanctions against Tehran to dissuade it from its alleged goal of building nuclear weapons.

The intercepted 122-millimeter rockets can be fired up to 13 miles (22 kilometers) away from a target, and explode in a burst up to 80 feet (25 meters) wide _ double that of the previous 107-millimeter rockets provided by Iran to the Taliban since 2006, the intelligence official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss classified matters.

The rockets, which were shown to an Associated Press reporter, were machined without Iranian markings or any serial numbers, but the official says their technical details match other Iranian models. So far, there is no evidence that the 122-millimeter rockets have been used in Afghanistan, though the Taliban has sometimes used Chinese- and Russian-made rockets of the same range in the fight here, harvested from the multiple weapons caches around the country from Afghanistan’s decades of civil war.

So, let me ask the question I posed in the title of this blogpost: When the hell are we going to finally turn the country of Iran into glass?

Don't even dare ask me if I'm serious here - these shitbags in Iran have been actively killing American fighting men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan now for over 5 years. It's documented. It's factual. It's real as real can be. The nation of Iran has declared war on America by its actions in SE and Central Iraq and now in Afghanistan and it's about damn time that President Barack Hussein Obama gets off the golf course, makes a speech to the joint houses of Congress asking for permission to declare war on Iran, and order the first wave of bombers and fighter jets to take this piece of shit menace of a country out.

Name one reason....give me one excuse...why we should not attack Iran. Name one country in this entire world that would object to Iran being leveled to a smoking mass of fumes. Name one useful idiot that would defend these actions of the Iranians.

I haven't even touched on the whole nuclear ambitions of Iran or their goal to wipe out Israel. I haven't even touched on how many Americans have died at the hands of Iran's surrogates, Hezbollah and Hamas.

There are no more excuses. There is no more patience left. Give the damn Iranian people a week to get out of that country and then level that god forsaken land of perverts and pigs.

Bomb Iran Now.

Nato forces seize rockets from Iran in Afghanistan


KABUL: Nato forces in Afghanistan have seized 48 Iranian-made rockets intended to aid the Taliban’s spring battle campaign, the most powerful illicit weapons ever intercepted en route from the neighboring state, officials said Wednesday.

The shipment is seen as a serious escalation in Iran’s state support of the Taliban insurgency, according to Nato officials and described in detail by an international intelligence official.

It’s also an escalation in the proxy war Western officials say Iran is waging against US and other Western forces in Afghanistan, as Washington continues to lobby for tougher international sanctions against Tehran to dissuade it from its alleged goal of building nuclear weapons.

The intercepted 122-millimeter rockets can be fired up to 13 miles (22 kilometers) away from a target, and explode in a burst up to 80 feet (25 meters) wide _ double that of the previous 107-millimeter rockets provided by Iran to the Taliban since 2006, the intelligence official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss classified matters.

The rockets, which were shown to an Associated Press reporter, were machined without Iranian markings or any serial numbers, but the official says their technical details match other Iranian models. So far, there is no evidence that the 122-millimeter rockets have been used in Afghanistan, though the Taliban has sometimes used Chinese- and Russian-made rockets of the same range in the fight here, harvested from the multiple weapons caches around the country from Afghanistan’s decades of civil war.

Iran, which was a staunch opponent of the Taliban when it ruled Afghanistan before the US-led invasion triggered by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, has denied allegations that it is supporting militants in the wartorn country.

British and Afghan troops captured the 48 rockets, which were being transported in a three-truck convoy, and 1,000 rounds of ammunition on Feb. 5 in southern Nimruz, near the Iranian and Pakistani borders, according to British officials.

Mark Sedwill, Nato’s senior civilian representative to Afghanistan, said the rockets ”represent a step-change in the lethal impact of weaponry infiltrating Afghanistan from Iran.”

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said they were sent by Iran and intended ”to provide the Taliban with the capability to kill Afghan and ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) soldiers from significant range.”

Hague said Britain’s ambassador to Iran Simon Gass _ who will soon replace Sedwill as the Nato envoy in Afghanistan _ had raised the discovery of the haul with the Iranian foreign ministry.

In a separate development, the intelligence official said a high-level Afghan Taliban leader had traveled to Iran in the past two weeks to meet with a top Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force leader to ask for more powerful weapons to attack Afghan and Nato troops in the spring and summer fighting season.

An intelligence tip led to the rocket interception, according to the international intelligence official. The logistics of the shipment were arranged by a Taliban ”facilitator” who is based in Iran, the official added.

The seizure follows more than a year of fierce Nato operations against Taliban networks, with the highest number of special operations forces raids in Afghanistan ever, targeting Taliban safe houses, weapons caches and bomb-building factories.

In the 90 days before March 4, coalition forces launched more than 1600 operations and killed or captured about 350 insurgent leaders, Nato said Wednesday. They also captured over 1800, and killed around 500 lower-level insurgents. In that time, Nato raids found some 1,005 weapons caches, severely depleting the Taliban’s weapons supply.

In the alleged meeting with the Quds Force, the Taliban leader is believed to have asked the Iranians to provide more shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile systems, such as the two Iran provided in 2007, which were used against one British and one US Chinook helicopter, the official said. But Iran has not provided such weapons since, sticking to the smaller 107-millimeter rockets, C4 plastic explosives that have been used in some improvised explosive devices here, rocket-propelled grenades, and small arms like AK47 assault rifles, the official said.

In all, Nato troops seized 48 warheads, 49 fuses, and 49 rocket mortars during the Feb. 5 raid on the convoy. The drivers of the three vehicles resisted arrest and were killed. One of the three vehicles caught fire during the operation and burned up, making it hard to determine what that vehicle was carrying.

The official said the rockets’ increased range means they are less accurate and more likely to cause civilian casualties in heavily populated areas like Kandahar City _ the expected focus of the southern Taliban fighting campaign as the insurgents try to take back parts of Kandahar and Helmand provinces lost to Nato forces over the past year. – AP

Iranian Foreign Minister Flies To Syria To Meet With Assad On Lebanon Takeover Plan

Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran's acting foreign minister, arrives in Damascus on Sunday for talks with Syrian officials


Okay, for those of you who don't think the current situation in Lebanon is a crisis - think again. I'm telling you, this is setting itself up as a nightmare for Israel and quite frankly, for the entire world. The Iranian foreign minister has flown into Damascus, Syria to openly speak with Syrian President Assad about the plans for Lebanon. Think about it for a minute - Hezbollah sets itself up as the governing body of Lebanon, they open their borders to strategic missiles from Syria and potentially nuclear weapons from Iran...we are talking about the most serious threat to Israel in its history.

Imagine, if you will, Iranian Revolutionary Guard sitting in Beirut - training the Lebanese army. I'm telling you, this is madness.

From the report at The Telegraph:

Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran's acting foreign minister, flew to Syria to meet Bashar al-Assad, the president. It was officially acknowledged that the two were discussing Lebanon as their protégé, the militant and political group Hizbollah, grows more confident that it will be able to name the next prime minister.

Hizbollah and its allies this month forced the collapse of the government led by Saad Hariri, the pro-Western Sunni prime minister, after their ministers resigned from the coalition cabinet. The group, which is classed as a terrorist organisation by the US, has been locked in a standoff with Mr Hariri over a UN-backed investigation into the 2005 assassination of his father, the former premier Rafiq Hariri.

Hizbollah's growing clout was on show as its leader Hassan Nasrallah delivered a television address last night. He appears increasingly confident that Hizbollah would soon gain the parliamentary numbers needed to name a new prime minister of its choosing. At the end of last week Hizbollah gained the vital backing of Walid Jumblatt, the leader of Lebanon's Druze minority.

Where in the sam hell is the action from the White House and other western leaders? Are you trying to tell me that the United States of America is going to sit with its thumbs up its ass while Israel's pair of biggest enemies plot the takeover of Israel's neighbor? Where is the call from members of Congress for immediate action to intercede in this?

As you can tell, I'm hot. Call me overly dramatic if you wish, but if this turns out as badly as it appears it will, we will log this in as one of the most pivotal times in modern history - this will create hell on earth in the Middle East and we all know it will affect every corner of the globe.

Iran and Syria use Hizbollah to seize influence over Lebanon


Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran's acting foreign minister, flew to Syria to meet Bashar al-Assad, the president. It was officially acknowledged that the two were discussing Lebanon as their protégé, the militant and political group Hizbollah, grows more confident that it will be able to name the next prime minister.

Hizbollah and its allies this month forced the collapse of the government led by Saad Hariri, the pro-Western Sunni prime minister, after their ministers resigned from the coalition cabinet. The group, which is classed as a terrorist organisation by the US, has been locked in a standoff with Mr Hariri over a UN-backed investigation into the 2005 assassination of his father, the former premier Rafiq Hariri.

Hizbollah's growing clout was on show as its leader Hassan Nasrallah delivered a television address last night. He appears increasingly confident that Hizbollah would soon gain the parliamentary numbers needed to name a new prime minister of its choosing. At the end of last week Hizbollah gained the vital backing of Walid Jumblatt, the leader of Lebanon's Druze minority.

Talks on appointing a new premier are to start within days and Hizbollah is hoping to complete its rout of Mr Hariri by seeking to push a more pliant candidate – possibly Omar Karami, a pro-Syrian veteran of Lebanese politics. Mr Karami is a former prime minister who was forced from office during the Cedar Revolution of 2005.

Here We Go Again...Iranians Arrest American Woman On Charges of Spying

Why don't the Iranians just cut through the shit and say that they arrested a 55 year old American woman on suspicion that we was AMERICAN. And what the hell are these dumbass Americans even doing in that god-forsaken shithole of a country? I'm beginning to lose any sympathy for any American arrested in Iran - if you're dumb enough to be in that hellhole, then you took the risk.

Anyway, here's what's going on according to Breitbart:

Iranian authorities have arrested a 55-year-old American woman—reportedly with a microphone hidden in her teeth—on suspicion of spying, local media reported Thursday.

U.S. officials could not immediately confirm the report. But if true, the woman would be the fourth American Iran has detained and accused of spying in less than two years.

The state-owned newspaper IRAN said the woman—identified in Farsi as Hal Talaian—had "spying equipment or a microphone" concealed in her teeth when customs authorities detained her in the border town of Nordouz, 370 miles (600 kilometers) northwest of the capital Tehran. The report said she arrived in Iran from neighboring Armenia without a visa. The paper did not say when she was detained.

But Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency quoted an unnamed official as saying the woman was taken into custody about a week ago. Fars also said she told Iranian border guards that her life would be in danger if they sent her back to Armenia.

And what the crap is this about this new prisoner of the mullahs having a microphone in her teeth? Wasn't it just a day or so ago that the Saudis arrested a vulture from Israel for spying? In case you forgot, these are the same islamists that Obama has given accolades to for bringing civilization to the rest of us homies.

So, what happens now? Do we have Secretary of State Clinton make an appeal for this woman's release? Or do we wait for Bill Clinton or Governor Richardson to go to Iran to make the deal for her release? Or do we finally send a squadron of bombers over Tehran, let them drop their loads and call it match over?

Iran says American woman detained on spy charges


TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iranian authorities have arrested a 55-year-old American woman—reportedly with a microphone hidden in her teeth—on suspicion of spying, local media reported Thursday.

U.S. officials could not immediately confirm the report. But if true, the woman would be the fourth American Iran has detained and accused of spying in less than two years.

The state-owned newspaper IRAN said the woman—identified in Farsi as Hal Talaian—had "spying equipment or a microphone" concealed in her teeth when customs authorities detained her in the border town of Nordouz, 370 miles (600 kilometers) northwest of the capital Tehran. The report said she arrived in Iran from neighboring Armenia without a visa. The paper did not say when she was detained.

But Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency quoted an unnamed official as saying the woman was taken into custody about a week ago. Fars also said she told Iranian border guards that her life would be in danger if they sent her back to Armenia.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said U.S. officials have yet to confirm the reports. He said the U.S. was seeking more information through Swiss officials, who represent American interests in the Islamic Republic, and the U.S. Embassy in Armenia.

"There's lots of conflicting reports swirling about on this," Toner told reporters. "What we've heard so far is precisely conflicting reports. So, frankly, rather than give those any kind of momentum or life, I'd rather just wait until we have the facts."

Armenian authorities had no immediate comment on the reported arrest.

The case, if confirmed, would be the latest point of confrontation between Iran and the United States.

In July 2009, Tehran detained three Americans—Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal—along the Iraqi border. Initially, Tehran accused them of illegally crossing into Iran, but later added espionage charges, although authorities have given few details to support the accusations.

The U.S. has dismissed the spying charges. It says the three are innocent hikers and has repeatedly called for their release. The Americans' families have said the three were hiking in Iraq's largely peaceful mountainous northern Kurdish region and that if they crossed the border at all, they did so unwittingly.

Iranian authorities released Shourd in September on compassionate grounds on $500,000 bail. Her fiance, Bauer, and their friend Fattal remain in prison and could go on trial next month. They could face up to 10 years in prison, if convicted.

Iran has suggested in the past that the Americans in its custody could be traded for Iranians held in the U.S., raising concerns that the Americans are to be used as bargaining chips as the two countries face off over issues like Iran's disputed nuclear program.

The U.S. and its allies fear Iran's civil nuclear program is cover for the development of atomic weapons. Tehran denies the allegations, and says its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes.

WikiLeaks Proves a Point...America HAS To Make a Stand Against Iran and North Korea

For far too long, America and the West have been simply allowing both the Iranians and the North Koreans not only to get away with bad behavior but looking the other way while they arm themselves with the most powerful weapons known to man. And I don't care who you are, you have to admit that weapons of mass destruction in the hands of the Iranians and the North Koreans is far different than in the hands of countries that have a history of restraint and participation in treaties.


This article at Family Security Matters details just how serious the Iranian and North Korean threats have become and how America simply has no choice than to completely reverse course and make a stand against these enemies of our country. George W. Bush called Iran and North Korea part of the "axis of evil" - and at that time the Left in America went apeshit over the terminology...and now, we see just how correct that President was.

From the FSM article:

But the documents also confirm what many American defense hawks have long suspected. Iran’s missile capabilities are growing rapidly. Tehran bought nineteen North Korean long-range BM-25 rockets, with a range of some 4000 kilometers, based on Russian designs of submarine launched missiles.

Now a month ago David Fulghum of Aviation Week disclosed the new Pyongyang missile. He noted: “Israeli officials in particular have noted the first public emergence in North Korea of the BM-25/Musudan, a weapon that Israeli officials say has already been delivered to Iran. It is the first time the road-mobile, liquid-fueled intermediate range ballistic missile has been shown…”

He further explained the missile is a derivative of the Russian SS-N-6 submarine launched ballistic missile and may have been test-flown in Iran. “The range is estimated between 3,000 km to 4000 km depending on warhead mass.”

The leaked material confirms what Israel missile defense expert retired General Uzi Rubin has been saying for years. The missile cooperation between North Korea and Iran is extensive. Tehran now has the ability to stage its rockets as well as deploy solid-fueled missiles. Rubin has repeatedly warned that Iran now probably exceeds North Korea in its rocket capabilities, and with these new capabilities can now threaten most of Europe.

We also see from the Wikileaks documents that most of the Arab world is shocked at the Iranian moves towards first strike capabilities and wishes for the Iranians to be subdued.

So, that leads me to the obvious question - if 95% of the world is all for taking measures to remove the threat from the Iranians, why isn't it being done? Well, I'll tell you. For upwards of 40 years, the world has shifted its eyes to the United States of America to make the first move in policing the outrageous behavior of rogue regimes and madmen across this world. It's no different today. But what IS different today is the fact that the U.S. is now led by an administration of empty talk and weak-kneed doves.

So, to put it bluntly, we have an American President, Barack Hussein Obama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize one year and stands a good chance of, two years later, being the main reason that the world finds itself involved in World War 3. Weak leaders have always bred attacks. Weak leaders have always spawned wars.

The Need to Take a Stand Against Iran, North Korea


Leaked documents from America’s leftist enemies generally seek to undercut America’s military power. In some respects the new material dumped across the internet and news outlets of America did that. This sad and treasonous behavior will no doubt make it more difficult for the United States to conduct diplomacy or to seek and get the cooperation of our allies.

But the documents also confirm what many American defense hawks have long suspected. Iran’s missile capabilities are growing rapidly. Tehran bought nineteen North Korean long-range BM-25 rockets, with a range of some 4000 kilometers, based on Russian designs of submarine launched missiles.

Now a month ago David Fulghum of Aviation Week disclosed the new Pyongyang missile. He noted: “Israeli officials in particular have noted the first public emergence in North Korea of the BM-25/Musudan, a weapon that Israeli officials say has already been delivered to Iran. It is the first time the road-mobile, liquid-fueled intermediate range ballistic missile has been shown…”

He further explained the missile is a derivative of the Russian SS-N-6 submarine launched ballistic missile and may have been test-flown in Iran. “The range is estimated between 3,000 km to 4000 km depending on warhead mass.”

The leaked material confirms what Israel missile defense expert retired General Uzi Rubin has been saying for years. The missile cooperation between North Korea and Iran is extensive. Tehran now has the ability to stage its rockets as well as deploy solid-fueled missiles. Rubin has repeatedly warned that Iran now probably exceeds North Korea in its rocket capabilities, and with these new capabilities can now threaten most of Europe.

This is what is very important. For a threat of500 - 3000 kilometers, the Navy deployed Standard Missile (SM) 3 (Block 1B and IIA) and the Israeli Arrow 3 will do. For 3000 – 7000 kilometer missile threats, the new Iran capability, a defense at least as capable as the US built two-stage Ground Based Interceptor is necessary. That was the joint Polish-American system we cancelled.

Since such Iranian missile capability appears to be “here and now”, even the Bush administration’s projected deployment date of 2013-15 for the GBI in Poland would have come shortly after the Iranians purchased the BM-25 North Korean missiles.

An advanced “to be developed” Navy standard missile capable of dealing with Iranian missile threats with ranges greater than 3000 kilometers is the future “name of the game”.

But such a deployment is scheduled only for late in this decade at the earliest.

In short, Houston, we have a problem. And it may be even worse than the leaked cables reveal. The USAF says Iran will have an ICBM capability by 2015 along with an ability to mate such missiles with nuclear weapons.

In short, we are living on borrowed time. Our defense clock is not keeping pace with Iran or North Korea’s threat clock.

What affect will this have? One pundit worries: “[T]he WikiLeaks fiasco crystallizes…a new challenge: Restoring the sense that the United States can effectively project its power.”

He was arguing that the leaked documents revealed an America unable to deliver a deal on Kyoto and global warming. We appeared weak. True.

But the real problem? Iran, North Korea, China and Russia all are working to enhance Tehran’s hegemonic missile capabilities to prevent exactly that—the projection of American power.

This new confirmation of Iran’s growing missile capabilities undermines the narrative on missile defense just recently pushed by the New York Times, for example. The Times says we have made real progress in the recent NATO agreement on missile defenses—which we have. But they say current technology is being used to the maximum extent possible in current planned missile defense deployments—not true.

Unfortunately, we have slowed or delayed or cancelled some of our missile defense technology. On the other hand, Iran’s capability to launch rockets is being enhanced. They are going forward, rapidly.

Many missile defense critics repeatedly claimed Western European areas—including such cities as London, Bonn and Paris-- were safe from Iranian missile threats. That is the reason the planned deployment of GBI’s in Poland was cancelled.

But the leaked documents vividly illustrate that we really do need a European and American defense from long-range Iranian rockets. What we need is a very fast missile interceptor. Our two-stage ground-based interceptor to defend the western European portions of NATO does the job. So would a Navy SM with a speed of 4.5+ kilometers a second. We have tested the former; we are developing the latter. Let’s deploy what we have now.

We know Iran’s terrorism in the Middle East is of the same cloth as the North Korean shelling of the Republic of Korea or its sinking of a South Korean naval vessel. Tehran’s missiles serve the same purpose as Pyongyang’s bombs.

We thus face a choice. The US can seek to curry favor with both tyrants in power in Pyongyang and Tehran and “seek a deal”. We can continue to believe that killing citizens of the ROK is somehow, as former President Carter said, simply a message that North Korea is in pursuit of “respect”, kind of a new 10-step program that involves murder, mayhem and even more murder.

Or we can recognize both Iran and North Korea are in the business of aggression and terror. In one leaked document, the head of Saudi Arabia is quoted as saying America needs to go to Tehran and “cut off the head of the snake”. Good idea. The second stop should be Pyongyang. Faster, please.

China Groped Us

This article over at Family Security Matters deals with that mysterious missile contrail that was observed and filmed off of California a few weeks ago - there has been tons of speculation as to who would and could have fired off this missile so close to American soil, if indeed, it wasn't one of our own. To this day, no one from the U.S. military or government has admitted it was ours. So the author of this article claims it was the Chinese. And that it was meant to send a very clear signal.

From the article:

On November 8th, a KCBS-TV news helicopter filmed a missile launched a few miles off the California coast! The video shows a smoke plume rising from the ocean just north of Catalina Island, well inside US territorial waters, heading west over the Pacific Ocean. No one has claimed the mystery missile. No one has said why or how it was done. So let us examine some facts and make a reasonable guess.

Brigadier Cash states that “there is absolutely no doubt” the video shows a missile launch near California, that it would have been detected by NORAD, and that the President was told about it. A subsequent decision to notify the public could only be made by the President. Nothing was said. Why?

The plume shown in the video was likely from an ICBM launched from a Chinese Type 092 Jin class ballistic missile submarine. (Russian subs can also fire such missiles, but Moscow is panting for the Senate to ratify the START treaty, so why risk scaring the Senators?)

Second, the missile launch took place just before President Obama was to meet with his Chinese counterpart in Seoul. He would have known about it as he shook hands with the chief Chinese communist.

China groped us. And if President Obama still does not understand what else the Chinese promise to do, he should look at the faces of sailors he reviewed in Beijing. They clearly intend to grope us. Again.

In all of this speculation, we have to keep in mind one distinct fact - we now have a U.S. President that is viewed as weak militarily by every government in the world - both friendly and adversarial. That cannot be disputed. America has become a new target for the jihadis like a dead horse in the desert attracts buzzards. And we have more than a handful of threatening gestures made towards the U.S. made by peon rogue regimes like North Korea, Iran and Venezuela. Yep, we have a sissy boy in the White House and the whole damn world knows it.

So, we have the Chinese reminding us that they can get within striking distance of Los Angeles and San Francisco, the North Koreans lobbing artillery towards American troops in the DMZ in South Korea and Iran shipping weapons into Afghanistan to kill U.S. troops...and I have critiques that tell me I am paranoid about our chances of survival with this Commander-in-chief in charge. I'd like to ask the American people a question: Do you feel safer now than you did two years ago?

China Groped Us


A Los Angeles woman, traveling by air the day before Thanksgiving, did not want radiation from an airport ‘naked body’ X-Ray scanner; she also did not want TSA goons to grope her. So she wore a revealing bikini and avoided both radiation and groping. The Obama White House is not nearly so clever. China groped the missile defenses of our homeland and President Obama said and did nothing. No one noticed. Well, almost no one.

On November 8th, a KCBS-TV news helicopter filmed a missile launched a few miles off the California coast! The video shows a smoke plume rising from the ocean just north of Catalina Island, well inside US territorial waters, heading west over the Pacific Ocean. No one has claimed the mystery missile. No one has said why or how it was done. So let us examine some facts and make a reasonable guess.

Experts agree the missile was large, as big as an intercontinental ballistic missile—an ICBM. It is not possible for an amateur rocket club to launch such a rocket from Catalina Island without being seen. No ships were on the surface. No rockets were launched from American bases in California. The U.S. Navy says none of our subs did it. And if you insist the plume is an aircraft contrail, remember there were no airliners in the area at the exact time and place—then go online and watch the video.

An accidental launch? Contrary to Hollywood, there is no ‘red button’ that launches an ICBM. Two keys must be simultaneously turned, and several other steps taken before the missile can be fired. A secret test? The Pentagon denies it. And besides, aviators and sailors are always warned of the time, path, and impact point of rockets that might endanger them. All nations make such announcements well in advance.

Could the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), our global ICBM monitoring system, have detected the launch of an ICBM so extremely close to our coast?

NORAD has made no public statement, but retired Air Force Brigadier Jim Cash posted a comment on the Catalina Island launch. General Cash was a Command Director and the Assistant Director of Operations for NORAD. He states the NORAD system is manned by 150 highly trained people 24/7, and can detect a missile shot “from any point on the globe.” If the missile looks threatening, the President is immediately notified by the officer always near him who carries the “football,” a brief case containing the launch codes for our nuclear forces.

Brigadier Cash states that “there is absolutely no doubt” the video shows a missile launch near California, that it would have been detected by NORAD, and that the President was told about it. A subsequent decision to notify the public could only be made by the President. Nothing was said. Why?

The plume shown in the video was likely from an ICBM launched from a Chinese Type 092 Jin class ballistic missile submarine. (Russian subs can also fire such missiles, but Moscow is panting for the Senate to ratify the START treaty, so why risk scaring the Senators?)

Did our anti-submarine warfare (ASW) systems know the Jin was there? Was it tracked across the Pacific? No, the old SOSUS hydrophones are no longer manned and maintained by Navy ASW experts. The SOSUS sound arrays that have not been destroyed are now sometimes used by scientists to track whales. So Defense Secretary Robert Gates simply could not know a Chinese submarine was in U.S. waters—or if it is still there.

The ballistic missile the Jin launched was probably a JP-2 Giant Wave, China’s latest. It is thought to have multiple warheads and a range of 5,000 miles. Leaping out of the ocean near Catalina, it traveled northwest and was destroyed in flight over the Pacific. Or it fell into the far western Pacific or a missile range inside China.

Why would the Peoples Republic of China do such a thing? Two reasons come to mind.

First, the Chinese government has made serious objections to U.S. warships in the South China Sea, international waters China claims are its own. What could drive the point home better than a Chinese warship in American waters? Senior Chinese officers also make blunt threats now, like Colonel Meng Xianging who promised a “hand to hand fight with the US” within ten years, “when we are strong enough.” And Major General Yang Yi, who said, “We must make them hurt.” He meant the United States.

Second, the missile launch took place just before President Obama was to meet with his Chinese counterpart in Seoul. He would have known about it as he shook hands with the chief Chinese communist.

China groped us. And if President Obama still does not understand what else the Chinese promise to do, he should look at the faces of sailors he reviewed in Beijing. They clearly intend to grope us. Again.

Threat to America: Hezbollah's American Operations

This article at IPT is very timely as the issue of border security has reached a fevered pitch and the organization, Hezbollah, has come up more than a few times in our borders insecurity discussions. The article does a stellar job of outlining some details that most of us knew nothing about and probably wish we didn't. These are the kind of reports that truly has to make each of us wonder if the Federal government is actually doing what it is SUPPOSED to do - that is to protect the security of our nation.

Hezbollah is here already in America. Their forces to the South are growing. Are we really prepared for this enemy?

Hizballah's American Operations


(Part one of three) The indictment reads like a couple of grifters who finally ran out of luck. They talked of selling Oxycontin, of faking an automobile accident, and of using "Lebanese lightning" - arson - for insurance fraud all in hopes of scoring fast cash. But Hor and Amera Akl weren't simply trying to get rich, federal investigators say.

In secret recordings with an FBI informant, the Toledo, Ohio, couple discussed how their crimes would benefit the terrorist group Hizballah. They'd smuggle hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to Lebanon. Some of the money could buy pickup trucks Hizballah could use to fire rockets at Israel. They claimed to have high-level contacts in the terrorist group.

They'd keep a percentage as a commission, their June indictment says.

Just a few months earlier and more than 1,300 miles away, authorities arrested three Miami-area men in connection with an alleged conspiracy to export electronics items including cameras and video game consoles to a mall in Paraguay in a scheme to benefit Hizballah. The U.S. Treasury Department designated the Galeria Page shopping center in 2006, saying it served as "the central headquarters for Hizballah members in the TBA [Tri-Border Area]."

It is owned and operated by Hizballah members, who pay "a regular quota to Hizballah based on profits" generated at the shopping center.

While these prosecutions are new, American-based criminal activity benefitting Hizballah dates back at least to the early 1990s, records show.

Credit card and insurance fraud, drug trafficking and counterfeiting are criminal activities involving Hizballah members that were highlighted in a 1994 FBI Intelligence report obtained by the Investigative Project on Terrorism via the Freedom of Information Act. In language that tracks closely with allegations in the Akl case, the report said the motivation seems to be a mix of personal gain while "an unknown percentage of the profits is specified for Hizballah coffers."

More than a dozen cases of Hizballah support – from relatively small-scale criminal enterprises to attempts to supply the terrorist group with equipment and satellite technology – have been generated since then.

In recent years, however, there is a developing concern that Hizballah operations in the hemisphere may shift from financial support to operational activity. And to do that, terrorists are tapping into narco-trafficking networks in South America's tri-border region of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. It is mostly speculative, but the concerns rise with increasing tensions over Iran's nuclear weapons program, fears of another possible war between Israel and Hizballah and expectations the United Nations will implicate Hizballah in the 2005 bombing attack that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Testimony Sept. 22 before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee underscored the unknown nature of Hizballah's international capabilities. In response to a question from Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael Leiter said Iran remains a chief provider of money and arms to the terrorist group:

"Hizballah remains a highly effective terrorist organization and political organization with quite incredible capability, both within the Levant but also elsewhere -- they have a global network of individuals. And within the Levant they have highly sophisticated weaponry that they have, in the past, used against Israel.

The big question mark for us has always been not their capability but their intent. Currently, we do not assess there to be a clear intent to attack the United States, but should that intent change, they undoubtedly have the capability to launch attacks against the U.S. and the West on a relatively global scale."

Brown asked "if there's an escalation between Iran and Israel that we will see more of a threat here in the United States?"

"Yes," Leiter said.

It's not clear that relevant agencies are as concerned. Rep. Sue Myrick, R-NC, has asked the Department of Homeland Security to create a task force to investigate possible Hizballah activity along the U.S.-Mexican border and the possibility that terrorists could be smuggled into the country through alliances with drug traffickers. Homeland Security officials have dismissed the issue, saying "DHS does not have any credible information on terrorist groups operating along the Southwest border."

But in his award-winning 2008 series "Breaching America," published in the San Antonio Express-News, journalist Todd Bensman detailed examples of terrorists who have crossed into the United States from Mexico. He quoted testimony and a statement to reporters by FBI Director Robert Mueller, who cited "indications that leaders of other terrorist groups may be contemplating ...having persons come across assuming identities of others, and trying to get across the border. It is intelligence that indicates there have been discussions on that."

Another official who spoke publicly about the issue, Adm. James Stavridis, then the commander of U.S. Southern Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in March 2009 that there is "a direct connection between Hizballah activity and the narco-trafficking activity."

In July, the Kuwaiti newspaper, al-Seyassa, reported that Mexican authorities arrested Jameel Nasr earlier this summer. The newspaper cited Mexican authorities as saying that Nasr took instruction from Hizballah leaders in Lebanon and had been "entrusted with forming a base in South American and the United States to carry out operations against Israeli and Western targets."

Officials today shouldn't be so quick to dismiss the notion that Hizballah might use that base to expand its American operations, said Michael Braun, who retired from the Drug Enforcement Agency as its operations chief in 2008.

The group makes millions of dollars smuggling drugs from the Tri-Border Area to Europe and the Middle East. "They are masters at identifying and exploiting existing global smuggling infrastructures for whatever it is they want to do," Braun said. "They've successfully developed the global contacts to get virtually anything done or anything moved."

It's all part of what he calls the "currency of contraband."

"Corporate Hizballah" has created alliances with drug cartels throughout the region. Those partnerships don't have to be limited.

"It's not just drugs," Braun said, who advises the U.S. Department of Defense. "It's tens of millions of dollars you're talking about. You can't just walk past it. This is the money that is allowing these guys you're trying to kill to live and breathe and grow."

If Hizballah does choose to target the United States, those alliances can be easily exploited.

"I am more concerned about the guys who, when asked by corporate – 'we need you to move a satchel' – those are the guys" Braun said. "They've got the ability to do it."

Established Presence

Law enforcement records show Hizballah members have lived and operated in the United States for years.

In a separate FBI report, also obtained via the Freedom of Information Act, an FBI supervisor responsible for Hizballah-related investigations [whose name was redacted] in 1997 summarized some of the investigations at that time. Hizballah members in the U.S. "raised and collected hundreds of thousands of dollars which were sent to support Hizballah activities in Lebanon."

Foreign intelligence surveillance wiretaps from that period show those members "receive directions for their terrorist activities in the United States from leaders of HIzballah who reside outside the United States."

A ranking Hizballah operative in the United States serves as a "direct communications link between Hizballah leadership in Lebanon and Hizballah members in the United States and he collects funds for Hizballah headquarters in Lebanon," the memo said. The money helps support the group's terrorist activities.

Some Islamist organizations considered mainstream have trouble accepting Hizballah's designation as a terrorist group. In 2000, Abdurrahman Alamoudi, then one of the nation's most influential Islamist political operatives, defiantly expressed support for Hizballah in a rally across the street from the White House. Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society's (MAS) Freedom Foundation, shared the stage with Alamoudi and raised his fist in agreement.

Officials at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) have refused to label Hizballah as a terrorist group. Instead, they focus on the group's success in Lebanese electoral campaigns and cast it as "part of their democratic governments."

The 2009 national convention for the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) featured a panel that portrayed Hizballah as the passive victim of an Israeli onslaught during the 2006 war. There was "no reason why Hizballah should not remain armed," author Cathy Sultan said.

Gauging the depth and nature of Hizballah activity here is challenging, said Bill Kowalski, former assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Detroit field office. That field office has handled numerous Hizballah-related financial crimes. His telephone often rang with calls from agents in other districts, Kowalski said, seeking information about Michigan connections with Hizballah-linked suspects throughout the country.

"Clearly they are not as violent against the U.S. in the U.S, as some other groups, but historically they have negatively impacted U.S. interests as severely as any other terror organization save for al-Qaida," Kowalski said. "There remains in CONUS [the continental United States] a large cadre of individuals who view Hizballah as legitimate or semi-legitimate and have difficulty dealing with US intelligence or law enforcement who characterize the group harshly as a terror group."