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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran increasingly willing to launch US attack, top intelligence official warns |
| 2012-01-31 |
| America's top intelligence official has claimed that Iran's leadership was now more willing than before to carry out an attack inside the US, and that intelligence agencies were worried about plots against US and allied interests around the world. In a report to Congress, the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, said a plot to blow up the Saudi ambassador in a Washington restaurant - which the US blamed on Iran's Revolutionary Guard - "shows that some Iranian officials, probably including supreme leader Ali Khamenei, have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived US actions that threaten the regime". Clapper added: "Iran's willingness to sponsor future attacks in the United States or against our interests abroad probably will be shaped by Tehran's evaluation of the costs it bears for the plot against the ambassador as well as Iranian leaders' perceptions of US threats against the regime." US officials have expressed concern that the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, responsible for external operations, could have sleeper cells in the US or over the border in Mexico and the rest of Latin America. Clapper's statement was the latest salvo in a war of words between the west and Iran over Tehran's nuclear programme and planned oil embargos by both the US and European Union. Clapper said Iran was "keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons". |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #6 America proper is just a [expletive deleted] to pull off an unconventional attack. In past, I've mentioned the US has 16 major intelligence agencies, and 100+ federal police agencies, some of which are downright scary when they set their mind to it. In 1988, the Japanese intelligence informed the FBI that a terrorist of the Japanese Red Army, Yū Kikumura, intended to fly to Canada in a month, drive to the US, buy bomb supplies and blow up something. The FBI decided to make a dramatic example of him. From his point of view, everything went off without a hitch. He drove across the US border. He stopped at different places to buy parts and chemicals at hardware stores. After a while, he was pulled over by a state trooper on the New Jersey Turnpike, who told him he had made a minor traffic mistake and was getting a warning. After talking to him, he said that he suspected he might be intoxicated, so asked him to exit his vehicle for a sobriety test. Then a platoon of FBI came out of nowhere and grabbed him, but *didn't* arrest him. They took him to an isolated house, where he had to wait an hour. Then they sat him in a chair to watch a movie. The movie began with him going to the airport in a taxi in Japan. After he had left the taxi, the driver held up his Japanese government ID for the camera. From that point, each and every person he met, from ticket agents, other passengers on the flight, the custom officials in Canada, the car rental agency, the US border personnel, even gas station attendants and hardware store employees who sold him stuff, and finally the state trooper all showed their IDs or badges. Then they placed him under arrest, and took him into federal detention. A member of the Japanese consulate was waiting for him in booking. Then he was given a telephone and told to call his lawyer in Japan, and tell him about *everything* that had happened to him. With full knowledge that his lawyer would tell all his Japanese Red Army buddies about it. He was prosecuted by Samuel Alito and sent to ADX Florence. He is one of the few to have come out of it alive. He was deported to Japan, where he was rearrested and served another sentence. He finally got out in 2007. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2012-01-31 21:20 |
| #5 This is self-obvious already. IMO Iran per se will hold off doing anything unilateral + military for ALAP AMAP for a while yet. AGAIN, AS LONG AS USN, NATO WARSHIPS STAY OFFSHORE + NO GROUND ARMIES INVADE, OWG SHIA-LED CALIPHATE = UMMAH-HAPPY IRAN CAN STILL GET ITS NUKES. And while also still attempting to empower regional, global pro-Iran policies + geopol influence. IOW, IN IRAN'S VIEW IT LOSES NOTHING AS PER ITS NUCPROGS BY ALLOWING US-NATO WARSHIPS TO STAY IN THE GULF. * INTERNATIONAL ANALYSTS PAST + PRESENT > NUCLEAR DETERRENCE = ONCE ANY NATION ACQUIRES DE FACTO [reliable] NUCWEAPS MIL CAPABILITY, ITS ALL BUT ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE FOR SAID NATION TO BE ATTACKED BY OTHERS, BE THE LATTER NUCLEAR OR NOT. MULLAHS = Iff the US, etc. want to stop Iran from going nuclear, IT WILL HAVE TO DE FACTO INVADE + OCCUPY IRAN. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2012-01-31 19:08 |
| #4 Bambi vs. Ronnie in the WH. Any questions? |
| Posted by: Mike Ramsey 2012-01-31 18:03 |
| #3 Fiction yes, but interesting HUFPO hyperbole. Klik |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2012-01-31 16:52 |
| #2 Even if they're rational actors why should they fear the consequences of a massive attack in the US? After 9/11 the US declared that the Taliban would be destroyed. Now the US & NATO are begging the Taliban to The risk to the Iranian leadership is calculable and not too great. The potential reward is enormous, hegemony over ME oil. |
| Posted by: Glinens Angeaper9980 2012-01-31 16:38 |
| #1 Addressing a conference in Tehran on Wednesday, entitled "The World Without Zionism", Ahmadinejad said, "To those who doubt, to those who ask is it possible, or those who do not believe, I say accomplishment of a world without America and Israel is both possible and feasible." To a cheering audience that at several points erupted with chants of "death to Israel, death to America, death to England", Ahmadinejad continued, "Once, his eminency Imam [Ruhollah] Khomeini - leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution], stated that the illegal regime of the Pahlavis must go, and it happened. Then he said the Soviet empire would disappear, and it happened. He also said that this evil man Saddam [Hussein] must be punished, and we see that he is under trial in his country. His eminency also said that the occupation regime of Qods [Jerusalem, or Israel] must be wiped off from the map of the world, and with the help of the Almighty, we shall soon experience a world without America and Zionism, notwithstanding those who doubt." |
| Posted by: Shimble Guelph5793 2012-01-31 15:36 |