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Syrian envoy responds forcefully to suggestion of Israel attacking Syria

Syrian envoy: We’ll destroy Israeli nuclear facilities with 20 missiles Jordanian media report that Syria’s ambassador in Amman, Bahjat Suleiman said that his country is capable of destroying Israel’s nuclear facilities should Damascus come under attack YNet, Roi Kais   08.23.12,   Continue reading →

August 24, 2012 Posted by | politics international, Syria | 1 Comment

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to visit Iran

UN chief to visit Iran in defiance of US, Israel China Daily,  2012-08-23
* Ban to attend non-aligned summit in Iran – UN
* U.S., Israel had urged Ban to boycott Tehran summit
* UN chief to raise concerns about Iran nuclear work, Syria
* Ban hopes to meet with Iran’s supreme leader, president Continue reading →

August 23, 2012 Posted by | Iran, politics international | Leave a comment

Netanyahu and Ehud Barak wanting war, against all good advice?

Zone of Insanity Are Bibi Netanyahu and Ehud Barak really crazy enough to bomb Iran — against the wishes of the United States and their own people? Foreign Policy,   BY JAMES TRAUB | AUGUST 17, 2012  It must drive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu crazy that scarcely anybody outside his immediate circle of advisors — oh, and Mitt Romney — understands the imperative for war against Iran.

Israel’s retired security chiefs uniformly consider a war unnecessary right now. Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, agrees. A poll released this week found the Israeli public opposed to war by a solid 46 percent to 32 percent. As for the United States, Defense Secretary Leon Panettainsists that “the window is still open to try to work toward a diplomatic solution.” ……

It’s unclear whether Netanyahu is trying to prepare domestic public opinion for an imminent Israeli strike on Iran, or hoping to bully U.S. President Barack Obama into making some sort of ironclad promise to launch airstrikes — should Iran cross some stipulated red line or should diplomacy fail to deter the Iranians by a stipulated date. Netanyahu would plainly prefer an American attack, which would do far more damage to Iran’s nuclear infrastructure than an Israeli one would, but he may have concluded (as Barak intimated) that Israel will have to act alone rather than risk American inaction. Yet Netanyahu has put Obama in the almost impossible position of having to reassure Israel that the United States will act if necessary — thus reassuring American swing voters that he has Israel’s back — without binding himself to fight Israel’s war on Israel’s terms. Obama has already allowed Israel to back him into a corner by saying that he would go to war rather than accept a nuclear Iran, but apparently Netanyahu and Barak don’t believe him…..

The real danger, of course, is that Netanyahu might conclude that Israel has to go it alone. The smart money still thinks he’s bluffing, but Ross told me that the “decision-maker” interview convinced him that Barak and Netanyahu really are prepared to fight their own war. The Obama administration has prepared for this eventuality with a series of statements paying elaborate deference to Israel’s sovereign right to defend itself as it sees fit. I can only say that I hope that officials are sending a different message in private — making it very clear to their Israeli counterparts that they will not be drawn into a war with Iran and that a unilateral decision by Israel will do very grave harm to relations with the United States. If Netanyahu wants to go ahead anyway and pay that price on top of everything else — if “an existential threat” means that it’s irresponsible to balance benefits with costs — then it’s up to the Israeli public to decide what to do about their fearless, feckless leader. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/08/17/zone_of_insanity

August 18, 2012 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

UN watchdog may lower its estimate of ‘missing’ Iran uranium August 17, 2012 BUSINESS RECORDER    The United Nations’ atomic watchdog may decide that less uranium is missing at an Iranian research site than it had previously thought, diplomats say, and that may go some way to easing concerns that it may have been diverted for military use…. http://www.brecorder.com/general-news/172/1228763/

August 18, 2012 Posted by | Iran, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Saudi Arabia to go solar energy in a big way

Kingdom eyes 40 GW solar energy by 2032 Saudi Gazette, August 16, 2012  JEDDAH – Saudi Arabia has set an ambitious target of installing more than 40 GW of solar power capacity by 2032, of which 60 percent would be from concentrated solar power (CSP) and remaining from photovoltaics (PV). Continue reading →

August 17, 2012 Posted by | renewable, Saudi Arabia | Leave a comment

Legal action against Israel, USA, UK over murders of Iranian nuclear scientists

Families of Iran’s murdered nuclear scientists sue Israel, US and Britain Judiciary asked to pursue complaint through international bodies in attempt to bring killers of five scientists to justice Associated Press in Tehran guardian.co.uk,  15 August 2012 The families of murdered Iranian nuclear scientists have filed a lawsuit against Israel, the US and the UK, accusing them of involvement in assassination.

Rahim Ahmadi Roshan, whose son, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a chemistry expert and director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility,was killed in a bomb attack in January, told a press conference in Tehran that the families had asked Iran’s judiciary to pursue their complaint through international bodies and bring those behind the killings to justice.

“We’ve filed an indictment against the Zionist regime and the arrogant powers,” Roshan said. The judiciary “is to pursue this case with the relevant international bodies”, he added….. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/15/iran-murdered-nuclear-scientists?newsfeed=true

August 16, 2012 Posted by | Iran, Legal | Leave a comment

Strike on Iran’s nuclear program could provoke bloody month-long war: Israeli defence chief  National Post, Amy Teibel, Associated Press | Aug 15, 2012 JERUSALEM — An Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program could trigger a bloody month-long war on multiple fronts, killing hundreds of Israelis or more, the Israeli Cabinet’s civil defence chief warned in an interview published Wednesday.

It was the most explicit assessment yet of how the government sees events unfolding in the aftermath of an Israeli attack.

Matan Vilnai, who is stepping down as the “home front” Cabinet minister to become Israel’s ambassador to China, described the scenarios to Israel’s Maariv daily at a time of heightened debate about the Iranian nuclear threat. Vilnai, a retired general who was
deputy military chief of staff, has spent the past five years overseeing upgrades of Israel’s civil defence systems, including air-raid sirens, bomb shelters and a public alert system.

It could be that there will be fewer fatalities, but it could be there will be more. That is the scenario that we are preparing for according to the best experts
In the Maariv interview, Vilnai said “the home front is ready as never before.” Nonetheless, he said the country must be braced for heavy casualties in the case of conflict with Iran……

At a news briefing in Washington on Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
reaffirmed the U.S. assessment that Israel has not yet decided whether to strike, while the U.S. military chief, Gen. Martin Dempsey, echoed a widely held assessment that an Israeli operation would only set back, not destroy, Iran’s nuclear project.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/08/15/strike-on-irans-nuclear-program-could-provoke-bloody-month-long-war-israeli-defence-chief/

August 16, 2012 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Agressive statements from Israel leaders upsetting Iran, and upsetting Israel’s military leaders

The report claimed that the prime minister and the defense minister were encountering stiff resistance to the idea of ordering the strike now from military and intelligence chiefs

Talk of military strike ‘makes Tehran nervous’ Jerusalem Post, By YAAKOV LAPPIN08/13/2012 Israeli media continue to be dominated by reports of supposed imminent strike on Iran’s nuclear program.ran is disturbed by threats emanating from Israel to strike its nuclear sites and takes such threats seriously, a senior Iran expert told The
Jerusalem Post. Continue reading →

August 13, 2012 Posted by | Iran, Israel, politics international | Leave a comment

Was Yasser Arafat poisoned by radiation? Swiss experts asked to investigate

Swiss radiation experts invited to examine Arafat’s remains http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Swiss+radiation+experts+invited+examine+Arafat+remains/7061676/story.html#ixzz23B4nMoZa Announcement follows disagreement over investigation By Mohammed Daraghmeh, The Associated Press August 9, 2012

Swiss experts have been invited to the West Bank to test Yasser Arafat’s remains for possible poisoning, the chief investigator looking into the 2004 death of the Palestinian leader said Wednesday. Continue reading →

August 10, 2012 Posted by | MIDDLE EAST, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Diplomacy the way to go: Iran not close to making nuclear weapons

U.S. still believes Iran not on verge of nuclear weapon  Aug 9, 2012   (Reuters) – The United States still believes that Iran is not on the verge of having a nuclear weapon and that Tehran has not made a decision to pursue one, U.S. officials said on Thursday…..

a White House National Security Council spokesman disputed the Israeli reports, saying the U.S. intelligence assessment of Iran’s nuclear activities had not changed since intelligence officials delivered testimony to Congress on the issue earlier this year.

“We believe that there is time and space to continue to pursue a diplomatic path, backed by growing international pressure on the Iranian government,” the spokesman said. “We continue to assess that Iran is not on the verge of achieving a nuclear weapon.”…. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/09/us-israel-iran-usa-idUSBRE8781GS20120809

August 10, 2012 Posted by | Iran, politics international | Leave a comment

Israel, not Iran, greatest threat to world peace

“The greatest threat to the world is clearly nuclear-armed Israel with its almost daily threats to launch an attack on Iran, inevitably involving the U.S. in a potentially catastrophic Middle East war,” 

Hush  Now, Mitt: A Nuclear Iran Is Not the World’s Greatest Threat, The Atlantic,  AUG 7 2012,   Three-quarters of national security experts polled disagreed with the candidate. Three-quarters of National Journal’s National Security Insiders disagreed with a recent statement by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who said a nuclear Iran represents the greatest threat to the world.

If Tehran acquires a nuclear weapon, Romney told Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, it would pose the most serious threat to the world, to the United States and to Israel’s existence.

Not so, said 73 percent of NJ’s pool of national-security experts, even as they acknowledged that a nuclear Iran could have a destabilizing effect on the Middle East and erode international nonproliferation efforts. “It would be an unmitigated negative for U.S. interests,” one Insider said. “But it is not the greatest security threat facing the U.S. or the world at large.” Continue reading →

August 8, 2012 Posted by | Iran, Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Nuclear bomb for Iran is not inevitable or imminent

“They’ve been creating the technical know-how and the infrastructure, but they haven’t made that decision, and there is much more time than the Israelis portray there to be. I don’t think an Iranian nuclear weapons capability is inevitable or imminent.”

No imminent threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, experts say LA Times, August 3, 2012 Israeli and U.S. politicians lately have been bandying about the prospect of an airstrike on Iranian nuclear facilities, stirring fear that another destabilizing clash could be provoked in a region already rife with civil war in Syria and other religious and political tensions.

But nonproliferation experts and Middle East analysts are skeptical of Israeli claims that the Tehran regime is so close to building a nuclear weapon that time is running out for a peaceful resolution of the decades-long standoff. Continue reading →

August 4, 2012 Posted by | Iran, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Hacking into Iran’s nukes with heavy metal music

The latest cyber weapon to rock Iran’s nuclear program? Australia’s AC/DC The Star, July 25, 2012, Bloomberg, DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — Iran’s nuclear facilities have suffered a cyber attack that shut down computers and played music from the rock band AC/DC, the F-Secure Security Labs website says.

A new worm targeted Iran’s nuclear program, closing down the “automation network” at the Natanz and Fordo facilities, the Internet security site reported, citing an email it said was sent by a scientist inside Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.
The virus also prompted several of the computers on site to play the song “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC at full volume in the middle of the night, according to the e-mail, part of which is published in English on the website……

AC/DC has played “high voltage rock ‘n’ roll” since the band was formed in 1973 in Australia, according to the band’s website. The group’s songs were among the loud music played to detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility in preparation for interrogations, the Associated Press reported in October 2009, citing the National
Security Archive in Washington….. http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1231457–the-latest-cyber-weapon-to-rock-iran-s-nuclear-program-australia-s-ac-dc

July 29, 2012 Posted by | Iran, technology | Leave a comment

Heavy metal music: ACDC strikes Iran’s nuclear facilities

Iran nuclear facilities ‘Thunderstruck’ by AC/DC malware http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/07/iranian-nuclear-facilities-thu.html Jacob Aron, technology reporter  In 2010, Iran’s nuclear facilities were infiltrated by Stuxnet, the centrifuge-wrecking malware allegedly cooked up by the US government.

Now they seem to have been hit again by a bizarre attack forcing nuclear plant workstations to pump the song Thunderstruck by heavy metal band AC/DC through the speakers at full
volume. Continue reading →

July 25, 2012 Posted by | Iran, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Suspects arrested in murders of Iran’s nuclear scientists

Iran arrests suspects in 2011 killing of nuclear scientist  http://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/23/world/meast/iran-nuclear-scientist/  CNN Wire Staff July 23, 2012  Tehran, Iran   — Iran has arrested suspects in connection with the July 2011 killing of a nuclear scientist, semiofficial media reported, citing Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi.

Moslehi made the announcement Sunday at an event marking the first anniversary of the death of 35-year-old physicist Daryoush Rezaie. Continue reading →

July 24, 2012 Posted by | Iran, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

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