Monthly Archives: March 2012 - Page 2

Iran could recover from attack on its nuclear sites within six months, says U.S. report – Haaretz

Posted by on March 29, 2012 Comments Off

Apparently, Israel shouldn’t attack Iran because Iran can just rebuild within six months. As if not attacking Iran is an option. Not attacking Iran means you get to watch Israeli cities mysteriously vaporized in five years due to nuclear terrorism. “Never again” will in fact come again.

This report just means that Israel needs to nuke some Iranian nuclear facilities and EMP the country. Israel needs to rock Iran to the core.

Iran could probably rebuild most of its centrifuge workshops within six months after an attack on its nuclear sites, according to a new report by U.S. congressional researchers, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

The report by analysts at the Congressional Research Service, citing interviews with current and former U.S. officials, said that the Islamic Republic’s centrifuge “workshops” are widely dispersed and hidden, which could complicate a potential Israeli military strike.

Iran could recover from attack on its nuclear sites within six months, says U.S. report – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

This next article reports that the attack has been posponed until 2013. I think it’s wishful thinking. Of course, Israeli and American blood is going to be shed if Israel attacks Iran. It doesn’t exactly take a genius to figure that out. Israeli leaders would have already accounted for it. Also, if American blood could be spilled in 2012, then it could also be spilled in 2013. So one either permanately cancels the attack, or one ignores the spilling of American blood.

To the negotiate forever crowd: What did you think was going to happen when negotiations failed? Now we just accept a nuclear Iran?

At 8:58 P.M. on Tuesday, Israel’s 2012 war against Iran came to a quiet end. The capricious plans for a huge aerial attack were returned to the deep recesses of safes and hearts. The war may not have been canceled but it has certainly been postponed. For a while, at least, we can sound the all clear: It won’t happen this year. Until further notice, Israel Air Force Flight 007 will not be taking off.

According to a war simulation conducted by the U.S. Central Command, the Iranians could kill 200 Americans with a single missile response to an Israeli attack. An investigative committee would not spare any admiral or general, minister or president. The meaning of this U.S. scenario is that the blood of these 200 would be on Israel’s head.

Israel’s plan to attack Iran put on hold until next year at the earliest – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

Kuala Lumpur seizes suitcases of counterfeit US dollars traced to Iran

Posted by on March 28, 2012 Comments Off

Two suitcases crammed with counterfeit $100 bills were seized in Kuala Lumpur this week from two Iranian traders who flew in to the Malaysian capital on direct flights from Tehran. One contained 153,000 forged dollars and the second 203,000. The traders claimed they were issued the bills by tellers at the Iranian central bank CBI to finance their business transactions and had no notion they had not been dealt genuine greenbacks.

debkafile’s sources report that alert local businessmen spotted the fake currency despite its quality workmanship when they used it to pay for their purchases.

According to a Malaysian source, the bills were finely printed on special paper. The initial investigation identified the paper as made in China especially for use in printing currency and a supply recently reached Iran.

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security

Iran flies thousands of pro-Palestinian activists to Syria. IDF fortifies borders

Posted by on March 28, 2012 Comments Off

Israel boosted its Syrian and Lebanese border units as special flights carrying thousands of pro-Palestinian activists from Tehran touched down in Damascus Tuesday, March 27 for the international Global March to Jerusalem Friday, March 30. Before taking off, they were split into small groups and tutored by Iranian Al Qods Brigades officers in tactics for breaching Israeli border barriers, bursting through and challenging the Israeli military forces defending the border.

On arrival in Damascus, one group of activists was sent by special bus to Lebanon, where Hizballah officers stood by to lead them to villages close to the Israeli frontier; a second is assigned to face Israeli lines on the Golan.

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security

Netanyahu and Barak Forge a Bond on Israel’s Iran Crisis – NYTimes.com

Posted by on March 28, 2012 Comments Off

Both Netanyahu and Barak feel that they must stop Iran’s nuclear program. Any retaliation from Iran or its proxies will pale in comparison to the impact of a nuclear Iran. Given this outlook, it is increasingly likely that 2012 will be the year of attack.

“On the surface they appear very different,” commented Daniel Ben-Simon, a left-leaning Labor Party member of Parliament who worked with Mr. Barak. “Netanyahu cannot disconnect Israel from the Holocaust. He sees himself as the prime minister of the Jewish people. Barak is the ultimate Israeli, the prince of Zionism. Many thought Barak would rein in Netanyahu on Iran. Instead he joined with him into a two-man show.”

While many here fear a catastrophe if Israel strikes at Iran, Mr. Barak and Mr. Netanyahu increasingly argue that there may be no other option. Their view is that given a choice between an Iran with nuclear weapons — which they say could use them against Israel directly or through proxies, as well as spur a regional arms race — and the consequences of an attack on Iran before it can go nuclear, the latter is far preferable. There will be a counterattack, they say; people will lose their lives and property will be destroyed. But they say it is the lesser of two evils.

“Rockets will fall on this building, but things would be far worse if Iran got the bomb,” said a top former official who has worked for both men, as he sat in a seaside Tel Aviv hotel lobby.

Netanyahu and Barak Forge a Bond on Israel’s Iran Crisis – NYTimes.com

Of course, Iran could stop its nuclear program, but apparently the spirtitual Mahdi told Ayatollah Khomeini to continue the nuclear program at all cost. The Iranian nuclear program will faciliate the chaos required for the return of the Mahdi, says the spiritual Mahdi. This chaos must include millions of deaths.

Right now at least, it looks like Israel will attack Iran over its nuclear program very soon – probably in 2012. Given that Russia and China are backing Iran, and the US is backing Israel, an Israeli attack on Iran could very well lead to war between the major powers. The Mahdi is hinting at this.

The Global March to Jerusalem | The Weekly Standard

Posted by on March 28, 2012 Comments Off

Now, after two by sea, there will be one by land. The Global March to Jerusalem, slated for March 30 (Land Day for the Palestinians), is a coordinated attempt to breach Israel’s borders from surrounding Arab states—Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. Participants are planning to arrive from around the globe –Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and even America. Their goal is to ensure that as many as one million people overwhelm Israeli border security and march to Jerusalem, where they will assert Muslim rights to the holy city. 

But will this march result in bloodshed, like the first flotilla, or red tape, like the second?

The Global March for Jerusalem | The Weekly Standard

China’s Anti Access Future is Here | Defense Tech

Posted by on March 28, 2012 Comments Off

China’s may already be able to hold U.S. forces in the far western Pacific Ocean at bay, argues DT’s go to China expert and Naval War College professor Andrew Erickson in one of his latest analysis pieces.

While China can’t yet project serious military power around the globe — or even to the farthest corners of the Pacific — it’s massive military buidup may have given the nation enough muscle to create the anti-access/area denial scenario in its own neighborhood that Pentagon planners have been worrying about for several years. As Erickson says, the “the future is now.”

Here’s an excerpt from his piece titled, Near Seas “Anti-Navy” Capabilities, not Nascent Blue Water Fleet, Constitute China’s Core Challenge to U.S. and Regional Militaries.

China’s Anti Access Future is Here | Defense Tech

NSA Chief: China Behind RSA Attacks

Posted by on March 28, 2012 Comments Off

China is stealing a “great deal” of military-related intellectual property from the United States and was responsible for last year’s attacks against cybersecurity company RSA, U.S. Cyber Command commander and National Security Agency director Gen. Keith Alexander told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

“I can’t go into the specifics here, but we do see [thefts] from defense industrial base companies,” Alexander said, declining to go into details about other attacks. “There are some very public [attacks], though. The most recent one was the RSA exploits.” RSA had earlier pinned the attacks on a “nation state.”

NSA Chief: China Behind RSA Attacks – Government – Security – Informationweek

Think Like a Dragon: The Global Lessons of China’s Nuclear Program | The Atlantic

Posted by on March 28, 2012 Comments Off

Although it is difficult to determine current investments in the Chinese nuclear-weapons program, there is reason to believe that the Second Artillery Corps has seen significant increases in its budget. And with the theft of U.S. nuclear-weapons-design information, China has a strong foundation from which to advance the technological capabilities of its weapons.

Chinese Strategy

In the modern Chinese military treatise The Science of Campaigns, the essence of Chinese nuclear strategy is described as lying “in the ingenious selection of targets, ingenious choice of timing opportunities, ingenious use of forces and firepower, and the ingenious application of operational methods.” This prompts several questions: Who is targeted? What is the objective? When will it happen? Where will the Chinese deploy it? And why and how will they do it?

Who? China’s strategic nuclear weapons are designed to target the United States. The United States is China’s current and future strategic adversary–in spite of all the rhetoric of “competitive cooperation.” Chinese tactical nuclear weapons, however, have a Russian or Indian address because of tensions on the borders of both nations.

Think Like a Dragon: The Global Lessons of China’s Nuclear Program – Panayotis A. Yannakogeorgos & Adam Lowther – International – The Atlantic

Chinese strategists are thinking how to win a nuclear war. What is the U.S. doing?

Posted by on March 28, 2012 Comments Off

President Obama used the occasion of the just-concluded Nuclear Security Summit, which tackled nuclear terrorism, to reiterate his “vision of a world without nuclear weapons,” as he put it to an audience of South Korean university students. It is a noble goal, but one which remains unrealistic given the need for great power nuclear deterrence.

The problem is Russia and China do not share President Obama’s “global zero” goal. Russia is actually increasing its reliance on nuclear weapons for defense as its ability to maintain a first-class conventional force wanes. More worrying at the moment, China’s nuclear program is so cloaked in secrecy that it is difficult to discern just how Beijing understands nuclear deterrence—we simply don’t know how large Beijing’s arsenal is or how committed it is to its declared “no first use” policy.

Michael Mazza: Obama Lets America’s Nuclear Guard Down – WSJ.com

Robert Shiller: Suburban Home Prices Will Not Rebound In Our Lifetime

Posted by on March 27, 2012 Comments Off

Many young people are choosing to live at home for a longer period of time instead of buying. Moreover, would-be homebuyers are settling into modern apartments and condominiums, further hindering a housing rally. Shiller says the shift toward renting and city living could mean “that we will never in our lifetime see a rebound in these prices in the suburbs.”A perpetually sluggish housing market, which Shiller believes has become “more and more political,” might push the country in a “Japan-like slump that will go on for years and years.”

Robert Shiller: Suburban Home Prices Will Not Rebound In Our Lifetime