Hezbollah

Syria Declares Israel Attack An “Act Of War’, While Israeli Defense Forces Close Northern Airspace

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– Syria Declares Israel Attack An “Act Of War’, While Israeli Defense Forces Close Northern Airspace (ZeroHedge, Mai 5, 2013):

In the aftermath of last night’s second attack in two weeks by Israel on Syria, the immediate response has so far been muted, with Syria condemning the aggression as an act of war. According to UPI, Syria “vowed to retaliate after an apparent Israeli airstrike on the capital Damascus early Sunday. A government official said on CNN the attack on a military research facility was “an act of war” that the government would not take lightly. “Syria is a country that does not accept insults and it doesn’t accept humiliation,” said Omran Zoabi, Syria’s information minister. Zoabi added the attack had opened “a wide door for all possible options.” It remains to be seen what, if any, option Syria will take or if it will merely jawbone toothlessly, inviting further unrequited air-based incursions into its territory. Most likely any response will need the preapproval, and the assistance, of Putin.

Incidentally, the only response so far has come from Israel. As Stratfor reports, citing Israel News, the airspace in northern Israel has been closed until May 9 due to an Israel Defense Forces directive issued May 5. Which means the only planes flying in north Israel, which borders Syria through the Golan Heights, would be military.

In the meantime, those curious what Israel bombed and why on Sunday Morning, Enduring America has compiled a detailed analysis on the topic.

Early on Sunday morning, huge explosions rocked northern Damascus.

Scientists said that the explosions measured between two and three on the Richter scale, a scale designed to measure earthquakes. Giant balls of fire rose above Mt. Qasioun, a mountain that overlooks the capital and is at the center of Syria’s largest military complex. The very symbol of Assad’s control over Damascus was on fire.

Immediately, Syrian officials stated that an Israeli airstrike had hit a military installation in the area. Within a short time, unnamed American officials confirmed Israel had struck Damascus, a sign that the US government likely greenlighted the attack.

Read moreSyria Declares Israel Attack An “Act Of War’, While Israeli Defense Forces Close Northern Airspace

‘Report: Israel Using Depleted Uranium In Missile Attacks On Damascus’ (Iran’s FARS News Agency)

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FYI.

Flashback:

– Depleted Uranium Shells Worse Than Nuclear Weapons (Natural News):

“Because DU has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, the Middle East will, for all practical purposes, be radioactive forever.”

– Report: Israel Using Depleted Uranium in Missile Attacks on Damascus (FARS News Agency, April 5, 2013):

TEHRAN (FNA)- Sources disclosed on Sunday that Israel has used depleted uranium in its recent missile attacks on a suburban Damascus area.

The first missile which hit Jamraya near al-Haviyeh in Reef (outskirts of) Damascus contained uranium substances, a correspondent of the Russian TV quoted some local sources as saying.

Other media outlets had also earlier released similar reports on Israel’s use of radioactive materials in attacks on Syria.

Read more‘Report: Israel Using Depleted Uranium In Missile Attacks On Damascus’ (Iran’s FARS News Agency)

Israeli Warplanes Continue To Pound Damascus – Syria ‘To Defend Its People By All Available Means’

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– Israeli warplanes continue to pound Damascus (CBS News, April 5, 2013):

BEIRUT Israeli warplanes struck areas in and around the Syrian capital Sunday, setting off a series of explosions as they targeted a shipment of highly accurate, Iranian-made guided missiles believed to be bound for Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, officials and activists said.

The attack, the second in three days and the third this year, signaled a sharp escalation of Israel’s involvement in Syria’s bloody civil war. Syrian state media reported that Israeli missiles struck a military and scientific research center near Damascus and caused casualties.

Syria’s government called the attacks against against its territory a “flagrant violation of international law” that has made the Middle East “more dangerous” and warned it has the right “to defend its people by all available means.”

Read moreIsraeli Warplanes Continue To Pound Damascus – Syria ‘To Defend Its People By All Available Means’

Israel Launches Second Syria Airstrike In Two Days (Reports & Videos)

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– Israel launches second Syria airstrike in two days – reports (RT, May 5, 2013):

Strong blasts hit the outskirts of Syria’s capital early on Sunday, with reports saying that they were results of Israeli airstrikes on a military research center. Other sources suggest Damascus Airport was hit.

Massive explosions have been heard near Mount Qasioun in Damascus. The area hosts the Jamraya military research center, which came under Israeli attack earlier in January and marked the first incursion by Israel into Syrian airspace in six years.

A senior US official confirmed to NBC News that Israeli Air Force bombed the military research center.

The overnight Israeli strike reportedly targeted Iranian-supplied missiles to Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah, a Western intelligence source told Reuters. “In last night’s attack, as in the previous one, what was attacked were stores of Fateh-110 missiles that were in transit from Iran to Hezbollah,” the source said.

Read moreIsrael Launches Second Syria Airstrike In Two Days (Reports & Videos)

Israel Confirms Airstrike Inside Syria, ‘Targeting Shipment Of Advanced Missiles Bound For Hezbollah’

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FYI.

– Israel confirms airstrike inside Syria (Al Jazeera, April 4, 2013):

Israeli officials say air force hit a shipment of ‘game changing’ weapons in Syria bound for Hezbollah.

Israeli officials have confirmed that the country’s air force carried out a strike against Syria and say it targeted a shipment of advanced missiles.The officials said on Saturday the shipment was not of chemical arms, but of “game changing” weapons bound for the Lebanese Hezbollah group.

Read moreIsrael Confirms Airstrike Inside Syria, ‘Targeting Shipment Of Advanced Missiles Bound For Hezbollah’

There Will Be War In The Middle East

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– There Will Be War In The Middle East (Economic Collapse, Nov 14, 2012):

The military action that we are watching in the Middle East right now is just a preview of coming attractions.  Tensions in the region are rising with each passing day, and all sides have been anticipating future conflicts and preparing for war for decades.  It would be wonderful if everyone could sit down, forgive each other and agree to quit fighting, but that is not going to happen.  Most of us that live in the western world have a very difficult time understanding the mindset of those immersed in these conflicts.  In the Middle East, there are vendettas and grudges that go back literally thousands of years.  Children are raised in schools where they are taught to bitterly hate their enemies from the time that they are first able to speak.  As Americans, we have forgiven former enemies such as Germany and Japan and we just expect that everyone else should be able to forgive as well.  But that is simply not the way that it works over there, and there is no long-term solution in the Middle East that is going to be acceptable to all sides.  Right now, Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, Syria and Iran are all preparing for war.  Hopefully cooler heads will prevail in this current crisis, but that will only delay the inevitable.  There will be war in the Middle East.  Yes, politicians such as Barack Obama will do their best to broker more “peace agreements”, but even the declaration of a “Palestinian state” will never stop the fighting.  In fact, it would just set the stage for more war.  I don’t mean to sound pessimistic about the region, but the truth is that there will be more war until it is not possible to fight any longer.  Any “peace plan” will just be a pause in the warfare.But hopefully the current crisis in the Middle East will not immediately erupt into a full-blown regional war.  That would not be good for the global economy.  In fact, that would not be good for anyone at all.

Here are some of the most recent developments…

Read moreThere Will Be War In The Middle East

Netanyahu Shoots Down Hezbollah Drones Over Israel

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– Netanyahu Shoots Down Hezbollah Drones Over Israel (ZeroHedge, Oct 11, 2012):

It would seem things are going from worse to worserer as while US citizens prepare to see 30,000 drones over their own ‘domestic’ heads, Israel’s Benjamin Natanyahu accuses Lebanon’s Hezbollah of launching a previously unidentified drone (which has been shot down) over Israel last week. As the Globe and Mail reports (via AFP) –

“We are acting with determination to protect our borders,” his office quoted him as saying during a visit to the frontier with Egypt.

“As we prevented last weekend an attempt by Hezbollah. We shall continue to act aggressively against all threats,” Mr. Netanyahu said.

Webster Tarpley: Depression, Dictatorship & WW3 (Video)

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FYI.


YouTube Added: 17.09.2012

See also:

– Former Assistant Deputy Secretary Of State Dr. Steve Pieczenik Drops Bombshell: Israel To Start WW III On Sept. 25 (‘Yom Kippur’) – (Video)

– Max Keiser: Total Global Collapse By April 2013! (Video)

– Gerald Celente: Criminal Banksters Launching World War III (Video)

Flashback:

– The Truth About The Woman Who Stopped The 2007 Invasion Of Iran (Veterans Today)

Psyops Vs The … “Truth, The Highest Calling For Man” (Veterans Today)

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AMERICAN PSYOPS UNLEASHED AGAINST OUR OWN

– Truth, The Highest Calling for Man (Veterans Today, Sep 17, 2012):

Few understand the real crime of deception.  Deception can be simple betrayal or can be contrived to drive you to murder your friends or defend monsters. Military deception is called “psyops” or “psychological  operations” and is, frankly, tasked specifically with creating wrong beliefs to rob leaders or entire populations of their judgment.

Read morePsyops Vs The … “Truth, The Highest Calling For Man” (Veterans Today)

AND NOW … US To IRAN, Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah & Taliban: ‘You Owe Us $6 BILLION For 9/11’ (Video)

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YouTube Added: 02.08.2012

Description:

The US Congress has approved more new sanctions against Iran in the latest bid to derail the country’s nuclear program. It comes after an American federal judge ordered the country – along with Al-Qaeda, Taliban and Hezbollah – to pay 6 billion dollars for supposedly aiding the 9/11 attacks. RT’s Gayane Chichakyan explains what might be next after the judgment.

More on 9/11:

– Former Head Of Star Wars Missile Defense Program Says Cheney Main 9/11 Suspect

– Silverstein Laughs All The Way To The Bank: Insurer Caps WTC-Demolition Asbestos Payout At 10 Million (Veterans Today)

– Dr. Alan Sabrosky, Former Director Of Studies At The US Army War College: ‘It Is 100% Certain That 9/11 Was A Mossad Operation’ (Video)

– 9/11: Scientific Evidence For Reality Deniers

– 9/11: Take Our World Back! Government And Media Deceptions Exposed

– 9/11: It Wasn’t Muslims!

Read moreAND NOW … US To IRAN, Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah & Taliban: ‘You Owe Us $6 BILLION For 9/11’ (Video)

WIKILEAKS: ‘The Global Intelligence Files’ (More Than Five Million Stratfor Emails)

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For your information.

– The Global Intelligence Files (Wikileaks, Feb. 27, 2012):

 

LONDON—Today, Monday 27 February, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files – more than five million emails from the Texas-headquartered “global intelligence” company Stratfor. The emails date from between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal’s Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defense Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor’s web of informers, pay-off structure, payment-laundering techniques and psychological methods, for example :

“[Y]ou have to take control of him. Control means financial, sexual or psychological control… This is intended to start our conversation on your next phase” – CEO George Friedman to Stratfor analyst Reva Bhalla on 6 December 2011, on how to exploit an Israeli intelligence informant providing information on the medical condition of the President of Venezuala, Hugo Chavez.

The material contains privileged information about the US government’s attacks against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks and Stratfor’s own attempts to subvert WikiLeaks. There are more than 4,000 emails mentioning WikiLeaks or Julian Assange. The emails also expose the revolving door that operates in private intelligence companies in the United States. Government and diplomatic sources from around the world give Stratfor advance knowledge of global politics and events in exchange for money. The Global Intelligence Files exposes how Stratfor has recruited a global network of informants who are paid via Swiss banks accounts and pre-paid credit cards. Stratfor has a mix of covert and overt informants, which includes government employees, embassy staff and journalists around the world.

The material shows how a private intelligence agency works, and how they target individuals for their corporate and government clients. For example, Stratfor monitored and analysed the online activities of Bhopal activists, including the “Yes Men”, for the US chemical giant Dow Chemical. The activists seek redress for the 1984 Dow Chemical/Union Carbide gas disaster in Bhopal, India. The disaster led to thousands of deaths, injuries in more than half a million people, and lasting environmental damage.

Stratfor has realised that its routine use of secret cash bribes to get information from insiders is risky. In August 2011, Stratfor CEO George Friedman confidentially told his employees : “We are retaining a law firm to create a policy for Stratfor on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. I don’t plan to do the perp walk and I don’t want anyone here doing it either.”

Read moreWIKILEAKS: ‘The Global Intelligence Files’ (More Than Five Million Stratfor Emails)

Hezbollah Names CIA Spies In Lebanon On TV

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Hmmh.

Militant group steps up campaign against US intelligence agency by revealing identities of 10 undercover officers in TV broadcast


Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah revealed in June that his group had identified at least two spies working for the CIA. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

– Hezbollah names CIA spies in Lebanon (Guardian, Dec. 13, 2011):

Hezbollah has revealed the identities of CIA officers working undercover in Lebanon, a blow to agency operations in the region and the latest salvo in an escalating spy war.

The militant group made the names public in a broadcast on Friday night on a Lebanese television station, al-Manar. Using video animations, the station recreated meetings purported to take place between CIA officers and paid informants at Starbucks and Pizza Hut outlets. The officers met with informants at locations more than once, a procedure frowned upon because it risks exposure.

Read moreHezbollah Names CIA Spies In Lebanon On TV

Report: Israel threatens to ‘return Syria back to the Stone Age’

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According to report in Sunday Times, Israeli minister said if Hezbollah dares to attack with ballistic missiles, responsibility will fall on Syria’s shoulders, Israel will mercilessly attack strategic targets. ‘Assad playing with fire,’ says minister, according to British paper

After Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman threatened that Syrian President Bashar Assad will lose his power should he provoke Israel, recent reports of advanced missiles being transferred from Syria to Hezbollah have led to more serious threats being made.

“We will return Syria back to the Stone Age,” an Israeli minister was quoted as saying in British paper, the Sunday Times. The paper reported that this sentiment was communicated to Damascus via a third party.

According to the report, the minister, speaking off the record, warned last week that Israel will do so by “crippling its power stations, ports, fuel storage and every bit of strategic infrastructure if Hezbollah dare to launch ballistic missiles against us.”

Read moreReport: Israel threatens to ‘return Syria back to the Stone Age’

Paul Craig Roberts: The American Puppet State

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Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review.

This article is a must read.

President George W. Bush was in his stand-up comedian role when he declared that he wanted to be remembered as a fighter for human rights.

Seldom has a fighter for human rights amassed Bush’s death toll. According to Information Clearing House, Bush’s invasion and occupation of Iraq has resulted in 1,297,997 dead Iraqis. Millions more have been wounded, and millions are displaced. Bush’s legions have taken out weddings, funerals, kid’s soccer games, hospitals, and mosques.

And that’s before we come to Afghanistan.
In Afghanistan “we don’t do body counts” declared a commander of Bush’s imperial legions. But the thousands of dead civilians and school children have rallied Afghans to the Taliban, whose lightly armed fighters have retaken most of the country from the Unipower.

The Taliban doesn’t have an air force, or cluster bombs, or drones, or “smart missiles,” or tanks, or satellite capability. The Taliban has Afghan resistance to occupation.

Bush was fighting for human rights in 2006 when he prevented for one month the civilized world from stopping Israel’s massive bombing of Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure and civilian neighborhoods. Israel had intended to clear Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon in order to steal that part of the country for its water resources. When the vaunted Israeli Army was defeated and put to rout by a few lightly armed Hezbollah guerrillas, Israeli rage took the Israeli defeat out on Lebanon’s civilian population–from the air, of course. The murder of Lebanon’s civilian population was enabled by the American weapons with which Israel is flooded.

Now Israel is bombing civilians in Israel’s Gaza Ghetto. Nothing has been spared. Not the hospitals, the university, or the children. Again, President Bush, to America’s everlasting shame, is blocking the civilized world’s attempt to force a halt to the Israeli aggression against the civilian population in Gaza.

If only Bush were merely a stand-up comedian. In truth, he is a puppet. A puppet of Zionist Israel.

Read morePaul Craig Roberts: The American Puppet State

Israel May Call Up Army Reserves After Bombarding Hamas in Gaza

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Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) — Israel’s cabinet agreed to call up as many as 7,000 army reservists, signaling that two days of air raids on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip may be followed by a ground invasion to halt rocket attacks.

“This will be a long, difficult and painful operation,” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told ministers in Jerusalem today, according to Cabinet Secretary Oved Yehezkel, before the call-up was approved by a committee of parliament.

As many as 285 Palestinians have been killed in the raids, the deadliest such attack since the 1967 Six-Day War. Israel began the bombardment yesterday after dozens of rockets were fired by Islamic militants at its southern towns following the Dec. 19 expiration of a six-month cease-fire with Hamas, which controls Gaza.

Warplanes today struck Hamas government offices in Gaza and 40 tunnels dug under the border with Egypt to bypass an Israeli blockade.

“It is clear to everyone that there is no way to end this without some sort of ground offensive,” Shmuel Bar, director of studies at the Institute for Policy and Planning at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center in Israel, said of the call-up. “This is one of the lessons learned from the second Lebanon War, that air strikes alone cannot prevent missile or rocket attacks.”

Read moreIsrael May Call Up Army Reserves After Bombarding Hamas in Gaza

IRAN READY TO HIT UK? The Bullshit Campaign Again!

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Iran has no interest whatsoever to attack anyone, BUT Iran will defend itself.
– Iran does not intend to wipe out Israel, says Ahmadinejad
– Ron Paul: Iranians Tested Missiles AFTER Israel had WAR GAMES

Iran has done nothing wrong. Iran is strictly obeying international law.
An attack on Iran would be illegal, since under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes and that is “perfectly legal”!
– Ron Paul on Iran and Energy June 26, 2008

It is Israel and the U.S. – not Iran – that are the aggressors and preparing for an attack:
– Ex-weapons inspector says Iran not pursuing nukes, but U.S. will attack before ‘09
– President George W Bush backs Israeli plan for strike on Iran
– Ron Paul: I hear members of Congress saying “if we could only nuke Iran”
– Ron Paul: Nancy Pelosi pulled Iran bill on orders of Israel
– Israel hints at readiness to strike Iran
– US backs Jundullah to destabilize Iran
– How Israel Is creating the war on Iran
– U.S. escalating covert operations against Iran: report
– Senate report exposes key role of the Israel lobby in fomenting war with Iran
– Top US commander briefed on IDF’s four-front strategy in potential Iran war context
– US: Oil blockade constitutes an act of war
– Israel Prodding U.S. To Attack Iran
– Israel launches ‘Iran Command’ for war
– Israel to attack Iran unless enrichment stops: minister
– Oil hits new high as Israel calls strike on Iran ‘unavoidable’
– Joschka Fischer: US, Israel will attack Iran
– And the winner is … the Israel lobby
– Bush ‘plans Iran air strike by August’
– U.S. Will Attack Iran
– Israel will not tolerate nuclear Iran: Olmert
– Israel preparing to bomb Iran N-sites
– Joint Chiefs of Staff: US prepping military options against Iran

Are “they” preparing the public, in the article below “IRAN READY TO HIT UK”, for another false flag attack like 9/11?
– Loose Change Final Cut
– 9/11 False Flag
Former Governor Jesse Ventura warns that they might use such a false flag attack as an excuse to attack Iran:
– Former Governor: “Absolutely” danger of false flag as pretext to attack Iran
And this time it is Iran who is “with the terrorists” and has the weapons of mass destruction and all of that.

Will it be easy to win this war?
– America Is the Rogue Nation

And why are they doing this? Just because of oil?
– Iran dumps U.S. dollars in oil transactions
– Ahmadinejad to OPEC: Dump weak dollar
– How Iran Has Bush Over a Barrel

No, it is not only about oil, it’s about something far worse.
Ask yourself what will happen, if Israel and/or the U.S. attack Iran?
What will such an attack cause?
If your answer would be something like:

“That can’t be!” or “They would not do that intentionally, would they?”

Then you are right on.
And then you have the reason, why they are really doing it.
If I would have told you this straightaway, you would probably have called this a conspiracy theory and you would have dismissed it. More on what is going on under World Situation (2.Politics).

July 16, 2008
By: The Infinite Unknown

IRAN READY TO HIT UK

Sunday July 13,2008
By Jason Groves
Source: Daily Express

IRAN is poised to launch terror attacks in Britain if the West presses ahead with military strikes against its nuclear facilities, intelligence experts warned last night.

As tensions in the Middle East continued to grow, they warned that the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah had already established sleeper cells in Britain and mainland Europe tasked with carrying out bloody reprisals.

Likely UK targets include nuclear power stations, military bases, Government buildings and high-profile politicians and members of the Jewish community.

Richard Kemp, former adviser on terrorism to Tony Blair, said the difficulty of attacking Western and Israeli military targets directly meant Iran was likely to use its terror network to retaliate. Hezbollah, formed in Lebanon in the 1980s, has grown to become a major force in the Middle East.

He said: “In my view Iran’s only realistic method of retaliation is through Hezbollah.

“Hezbollah undoubtedly have the capability to carry out attacks against Western targets outside the region. They have people here in the UK and they would aim to carry out attacks if they saw us as being in any way supportive of an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.”

Read moreIRAN READY TO HIT UK? The Bullshit Campaign Again!

Scott Ritter: Iran Shows Its Cards

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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, far left, sits with officers during a military parade last year.

By Scott Ritter: Former chief weapons inspector for the United Nations Special Commission in Iraq

There can no longer be any doubt about the consequences of any U.S. and/or Israeli military action against Iran. Armchair warriors, pundits and blustering politicians alike have been advocating a pre-emptive military strike against Iran for the purpose of neutralizing its nuclear-related infrastructure, as well as retarding Iran’s ability to train and equip “terrorist” forces on Iranian soil before dispatching them to Iraq or parts unknown. Some, including me, have warned of the folly of such action, and now Iran itself has demonstrated why an attack would be insane.

Related articles:
– President George W Bush backs Israeli plan for strike on Iran
– Iran does not intend to wipe out Israel, says Ahmadinejad
– Ron Paul: Iranians Tested Missiles AFTER Israel had WAR GAMES

I’ve always pointed out that no plan survives initial contact with the enemy, and furthermore one can never forget that, in war, the enemy gets to vote. On the issue of an American and/or Israeli attack on Iran, the Iranian military has demonstrated exactly how it would cast its vote. Iran recently fired off medium- and long-range missiles and rockets, in a clear demonstration of capability and intent. Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, regional oil production capability and U.S. military concentrations, along with Israeli cities, would all be subjected to an Iranian military response if Iran was attacked.

Read moreScott Ritter: Iran Shows Its Cards

U.S. Troops in Iraq Face A Powerful New Weapon

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BAGHDAD, July 9 — Suspected Shiite militiamen have begun using powerful rocket-propelled bombs to attack U.S. military outposts in recent months, broadening the array of weapons used against American troops.

U.S. military officials call the devices Improvised Rocket Assisted Munitions, or IRAMs. They are propane tanks packed with hundreds of pounds of explosives and powered by 107mm rockets. They are often fired by remote control from the backs of trucks, sometimes in close succession. Rocket-propelled bombs have killed at least 21 people, including at least three U.S. soldiers, this year.

The latest reported rocket-propelled bomb attack occurred Tuesday at Joint Security Station Ur, a base in northeastern Baghdad shared by U.S. and Iraqi soldiers. One U.S. soldier and an interpreter were wounded in the attack.

U.S. military officials say IRAM attacks, unlike roadside bombings and conventional mortar or rocket attacks, have the potential to kill scores of soldiers at once. IRAMs are fired at close range, unlike most rockets, and create much larger explosions. Most such attacks have occurred in the capital, Baghdad.

Read moreU.S. Troops in Iraq Face A Powerful New Weapon

A Declaration of U.S. Independence from Israel

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This is a talk given at the Nassau Club in Princeton by Chris Hedges, former New York Times Middle East bureau chief:

Israel, without the United States, would probably not exist. The country came perilously close to extinction during the October 1973 war when Egypt, trained and backed by the Soviet Union, crossed the Suez Canal and the Syrians poured in over the Golan Heights. Huge American military transport planes came to the rescue.

They began landing every half-hour to refit the battered Israeli army, which had lost most of its heavy armor. By the time the war as over, the United States had given Israel $2.2 billion in emergency military aid. The intervention, which enraged the Arab world, triggered the OPEC oil embargo that for a time wreaked havoc on Western economies. This was perhaps the most dramatic example of the sustained life-support system the United States has provided to the Jewish state.

Israel was born at midnight May 14, 1948. The U.S. Recognized the new state 11 minutes later. The two countries have been locked in a deadly embrace ever since.Washington, at the beginning of the relationship, was able to be a moderating influence. An incensed President Eisenhower demanded and got Israel’s withdrawal after the Israelis occupied Gaza in 1956.

During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israeli warplanes bombed the USS Liberty. The ship, flying the U.S. Flag and stationed 15 miles off the Israeli coast, was intercepting tactical and strategic communications from both sides. The Israeli strikes killed 34 U.S. Sailors and wounded 171.

The deliberate attack froze, for a while, Washington’s enthusiasm for Israel. But ruptures like this one proved to be only bumps, soon smoothed out by an increasingly sophisticated and well-financed Israel lobby that set out to merge Israel and American foreign policy in the Middle East.

Israel has reaped tremendous rewards from this alliance. It has been given more than $140 billion in U.S. Direct economic and military assistance. It receives about $3 billion in direct assistance annually, roughly one-fifth of the U.S. Foreign aid budget. Although most American foreign aid packages stipulate that related military purchases have to be made in the United States, Israel is allowed to use about 25 percent of the money to subsidize its own growing and profitable defense industry. It is exempt, unlike other nations, from accounting for how it spends the aid money.

Read moreA Declaration of U.S. Independence from Israel

US Congress approves Israel aid increase

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(The economy is falling apart, the former middle class is living in their cars, the U.S. are broke but….

The US Congress has approved a 170 million dollar increase in security assistance to Israel as part of its new 10-year, 30 billion dollar defense aid commitment to the Jewish state.

The money for Israel was part of a larger supplemental spending bill that included 162 billion dollars for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The legislation gained final approval in a 92-6 Senate vote late Thursday.

America’s pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, welcomed the congressional action, saying it would increase US aid to Israel to 2.55 billion dollars in fiscal year 2009, up from 2.38 billion dollars this year.

“The US commitment to maintaining Israel’s qualitative military edge is the cornerstone of American policy in the region,” AIPAC said in a statement Friday.

…and this is how Israel will spend the money:

– Israel flexes muscles with Iran attack drill

– Israel launches ‘Iran Command’ for war

– A human rights crime in Gaza By Jimmy Carter

– Israeli siege leads to soaring anemia in Gaza newborns

– Israel Causes UN Food Aid Relief For Gaza to Halt

– U.N. chief condemns Israel after Gaza clash

…What should be done? Michael Scheuer, Former Head of the CIA Bin Laden Unit:

– ISRAEL is NOT WORTH A SINGLE AMERICAN LIFE OR DOLLAR

– The Infinite Unknown)

“This year’s package holds heightened significance for US security interests, as the US and Israel face new challenges from Iran’s drive to acquire nuclear weapons as well as the growing influence of radical anti-western forces to Israel’s south in Gaza and to the north in Lebanon.”

The package was unveiled by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on July 30 as part of a new military pact with US allies in the Middle East in a bid to “counter the negative influences” of militant groups Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah as well as arch enemies Iran and Syria.

The aid includes a 20 billion dollar weapons package for Saudi Arabia, a 13 billion dollar package for Egypt, and reportedly arms deals worth at least 20 billion dollars for other Gulf states.

The military aid to Israel reflected an increase in value of more than 25 percent, Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said, describing the package as a considerable improvement and very important element for national security.

Read moreUS Congress approves Israel aid increase

Middle East: Beating the Drums of War

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“In a regional war scenario, Israel will deal mainly with Lebanon and Syria while the U.S. and Britain will deal mainly with Iran. [51] The help of Turkey and NATO will definitely be needed by Israel, America, and Britain in such a war. Ankara and NATO will also be involved in both fronts. [52]

NATO has already built a presence on the western borders of Syria and Lebanon and inside Afghanistan on the eastern borders of Iran with forward positions. Israeli officials such as Shaul Mofaz have also stated, in no uncertain terms, that if they launch an attack on Iran, the U.S. and NATO will come to the aid of Tel Aviv.”

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Israel, Syria, and Lebanon Prepare the “Home Fronts”


The Levant could be the starting point of a major international conflict with global ramifications and which could quickly spin out of control. Such a conflict could even involve the use of Israeli or American nuclear weapons against Iran and Syria. Syria has additionally declared that it is preparing for an inevitable war with Israel despite the fact that it believes that the chances of a war in 2008 are slim. (They are not slim at all. – The Infinite Unknown)

Read moreMiddle East: Beating the Drums of War

Source: U.S. Strike on Iran Nearing

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Contrary to some claims that the Bush administration will allow diplomacy to handle Iran’s nuclear weapons program, a leading member of America’s Jewish community tells Newsmax that a military strike is not only on the table – but likely.

“Israel is preparing for heavy casualties,” the source said, suggesting that although Israel will not take part in the strike, it is expecting to be the target of Iranian retribution.

“Look at Dick Cheney’s recent trip through the Middle East as preparation for the U.S. attack,” the source said.

Cheney’s hastily arranged 9-day visit to the region, which began on March 16, included stops in Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, Turkey, and the Palestinian territories.

Tensions in the region have been rising.

While Israel was conducting the largest homefront military exercises in its history last week, Israel’s National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer warned Tehran about expected attacks on the Jewish state.

“An Iranian attack will prompt a severe reaction from Israel, which will destroy the Iranian nation,” he said.

He predicted that in a future war, “hundreds of missiles will rain on Israel,” but added that Iran “is definitely aware of our strength.”

Read moreSource: U.S. Strike on Iran Nearing

Petraeus Testimony Next Week Will Signal Iran Attack

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By Paul Craig Roberts

Paul Craig Roberts a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, has been reporting shocking cases of prosecutorial abuse for two decades. A new edition of his book, The Tyranny of Good Intentions, co-authored with Lawrence Stratton, a documented account of how Americans lost the protection of law, is forthcoming from Random House in March, 2008.

06/04/08 “ICH’ — – April 5, 2008. Today the London Telegraph reported that “British officials gave warning yesterday that America’s commander in Iraq will declare that Iran is waging war against the US-backed Baghdad government. A strong statement from General David Petraeus about Iran’s intervention in Iraq could set the stage for a US attack on Iranian militiary facilities, according to a Whitehall assessment.”

The neocon lacky Petraeus has had his script written for him by Cheney, and Petraeus together with neocon warmonger Ryan Crocker, the US governor of the Green Zone in Baghdad, will present Congress next Tuesday and Wednesday with the lies, for which the road has been well paved by neocon propagandists such as Kimberly Kagan, that “the US must recognize that Iran is engaged in a full-up proxy war against it in Iraq.”

Don’t expect Congress to do anything except to egg on the attack. On April 3 the International Herald Tribune reported that senators and representatives have made millions of dollars from their investments in defense companies totaling $196 million. Rep. Ike Skelton, the Democrat chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is already on board with the attack on Iran. The London Telegraph quotes Skelton: “Iran is the bull in the china shop. In all of this, they seem to have links to all of the Shi’ite groups, whether they be political or military.”

Read morePetraeus Testimony Next Week Will Signal Iran Attack

Ritter says White House preparing for war in Iran

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MIDDLEBURY – Scott Ritter, former head of weapons inspection in Iraq who protested there were no weapons of mass destruction to justify an invasion, believes the same is true for Iran.

But there is an 80 percent chance of war with Iran, he told about 200 people Wednesday at Middlebury College as part of a series of talks facilitated by the Vermont Peace and Justice Center.

The pattern of preparations for such a conflict has been steadily developing and involves Congress as well as the Bush-Cheney administration, he said.

Read moreRitter says White House preparing for war in Iran

Despite denials, military still studying clandestine use of blogs

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It was revealed this week by Wired that a study written for the U.S. Special Operations Command in 2006 recommended “clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers” in order to promote messages favorable to the military. It also raised the possibility of altering an “enemy blog” by hacking to destroy its credibility or use it to spread false information.

The military has downplayed this study as an “academic exercise,” but its conclusions appear to match closely with a strong and growing focus by the Pentagon on what it calls “information warfare.”

Underlining this interest, this past January former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld resurfaced for the first time in over a year to address a conference on “Network Centric Warfare.” He complained that Islamic radicals are winning the propaganda battle against the United States and proposed a “21st-century agency for global communications” that would tell the American side of the story, using resources ranging “from blogs to online social-networking sites to talk radio.”

During the question session afterward, Rumsfeld suggested again that “a new agency has to be something that would take advantage of the wonderful opportunities that exist today. There are multiple channels for information . . . The Internet is there, blogs are there, talk radio is there, e-mails are there. There are all kinds of opportunities.”

Until recently, the popular concept of information warfare primarily involved hacking or denial of service attacks deployed against blogs and websites in order to convey a political statement.

For example, at the time of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, there were reports of widespread hacking of both military and commercial websites. According to ZDNet, “most notably, the US Navy Web site was hacked by an activist called Apocalypse. The message posted on the site read: ‘No War, U.S.A think they can tell the world what to do.'” A few months later, several NASA sites were similarly hacked by Brazilian anti-war protesters.

Read moreDespite denials, military still studying clandestine use of blogs