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| Middle East |
| Bush’s Middle Eastern Quagmire and Apocalypse Future |
| 2003-12-02 |
| Mostly a Islamo-Lefty rant, but with an interesting nugget on nuclear missiles going to Israel. One trusts that an American electorate mesmerized by Reality TV and the NFL/NBA regular season schedules will stop long enough to contemplate the apocalyptic implications of Gordon Thomas’s October 27th exclusive for the American Free Press: that George Bush’s neo-conservative regime has secretly flown 100 Harpoon cruise missiles tipped with nuclear warheads to the joint American-UK military base stationed on the remote Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. Thomas informs us that it is now known where 72 of these Harpoons have been subsequently assigned--to three Israeli Dolphin-class submarines (24 apiece) that have subsequently left Diego for the Gulf of Oman. The purpose? To target Iranian nuclear facilities well within the range of the Dolphins and their collective nuclear-tipped payload supplied by the United States. Most ominously, these instruments of mass death and destruction are under the command-and-launch decision making authority of one Ariel Sharon, whose moral, political, and military mindset is best revealed by his pivotal role in the Sabra and Shatila massacres in southern Lebanon in 1982, along with occupational policies on the West Bank and Gaza that have recently included the deliberate IDF bulldozing to death of Olympia, Washington’s Rachel Corrie, an unarmed peace activist protesting Palestinian house demolitions sanctioned by the Sharon government. It gets worse. The Thomas story has subsequently been confirmed by a senior aide to Bush National Security Advisor Condolezza Rice for both the Los Angeles Times and London’s Guardian newspaper. Where, pray tell, is the American media and Congress in confronting George Bush with the absolutely incomprehensible decision to supply any government--much less the Sharon regime in Tel Aviv--with American nuclear weaponry and the accompanying authority to decide if, when, and against whom the Apocalpyse is to be unleashed? Who are the powers in his Administration who have set this obviously reckless and derailing course of action in motion? May we conclude that they are largely the same advisors--with direct connections to the Likud regime in Israel--who urged the President to involve American men and women in an ill-conceived preemptive strike against Iraq, where the fraudulent Administration claims about Weapons of Mass Destruction in that country are made all the more maddening by the obvious, enveloping quicksand of death, debt, and international ill-will increasing exponentially by the day? And where are the medallioned luminaries of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in this nightmare--scheduling this week’s tee times at the Congressional Country Club? Pat Buchanan correctly observes that Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith, Wurmser and Company have now placed themselves, and their countrymen, in mortal peril with the neo-conservative strategy on preemptive military action against Iraq and the subsequent occupation. As Mr. Buchanan analyzes things, the Project for the New American Century crowd has only three options in the political and military morass created since March. The first is to withdraw from Iraq completely, an option made problematic by the subsequent power vacuum, civil war, and outside interventionism that would surely follow. A second involves continuing the present course of action by priming the pump of American lives and dollars in the elusive hope that a responsible government and economic infrastructure for the Iraqi people can emerge from the present chaos and violence. Buchanan notes here that the elusiveness of the goal is matched by the thinning of the patience and political will of the American electorate for Mr. Bush’s version of the War on Terrorism and For World Democracy. The third is the most ominous of all--a deliberate escalation of American military interventionism in the Middle East by preemptive attacks against Syria and Iran, with all of the attendant risks. The Thomas report on Harpoons for the American Free Press must be seen as the most significant sign yet that it is the third option which has been selected in the secret and dark inner counsels of the Bush national security team. The Boys of Empire and Sharon lead us to Apocalypse Future. Can any Rantburgers confirm any details about Israel having submarines and whether Harpoon missiles can be nuclear armed. If true it answers the question how could Israel take out the Iranian nuclear plants. I recall that the US does store nuclear weapons at Diego Garcia. |
| Posted by:phil_b |
| #12 #,11 &12, I meant Stephen. Sorry 'bout that. |
| Posted by: Larry Everett 2003-12-3 12:46:29 AM |
| #11 #11 Keee-ristmas Steven. I think you have found a way to run up your hit counter, if you have one. The Liberal Left Loonies will be quoting your story as fact for years to come. Links will follow. Well done. I wish I could write like that. |
| Posted by: Larry Everett 2003-12-3 12:35:03 AM |
| #10 This "report" is total BS!I like the nice way the author(s) try to dazzle with bull as in following-"...confirmed by a senior aide to Bush National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice...".Looks impressive,until you realize the aide is not named,that there is not a single person actually named who is involved.The only facts in story are Israel has subs that can fire cruise missiles and the US stores nukes at Diego Garcia.Using the same type of facts I can report that THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION HAS SOLD NUCLEAR-TIPPED HARPOON CRUISE MISSILES TO JAPAN TO HELP PAY FOR IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION. I can confidently report that US Navy ships routinely refuse to admit they are carrying nuclear-tipped Harpoon into Japanese ports.With few countries willing to pay the costs of the US occupation of Iraq,the right-wing Bush Administration is looking for money.After watching Bush abandon the successful policy of President Clinton in negotiating w/North Korea,Japan has become worried over N.Korea's reactions to American provocations.A devil's bargain was then struck-the US sold 24 nuclear-tipped Harpoons for retalitory use from JSDF destroyers.A senior aide to American Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has refused to comment on whether US ships entered Japanese ports with Nuclear-tipped Harpoons or left Japanese ports without nuclear-tipped Harpoons. |
| Posted by: Stephen 2003-12-2 11:57:44 PM |
| #9 Israel has two other sub-launched missile types besides the Harpoon. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2003-12-2 10:32:20 PM |
| #8 The LA Times, pass the salt please, reported on Oct 12 2003 that Israel had modified US Harpoons to carry Israeli nuclear warheads. U.S. and Israeli officials have declined directly to address this news report. The Los Angeles Times reported Oct. 12 that two senior Bush administration officials said Israel has modified U.S. Harpoon cruise missiles, which can be launched from submarines, to deliver nuclear warheads. The paper added that an Israeli official confirmed the American statements. All three spoke on the condition of anonymity. Although Israel refuses to confirm or deny whether it possesses nuclear weapons, it is almost universally recognized as having built up an atomic arsenal. Typical estimates of the arsenal’s size range from weapons numbering in the high tens to a couple hundred. Israel fields medium-range ballistic missiles and U.S.-supplied fighter aircraft capable of delivering nuclear weapons. The Arms Control Today article is here. |
| Posted by: Gasse Katze 2003-12-2 9:41:11 PM |
| #7 I hardly think the Israelis need us to give them nukes. They've got their own. |
| Posted by: Pete Stanley 2003-12-2 9:41:10 PM |
| #6 I seriously doubt that any US president would ever hand over a US nuclear weapon to any foreign power, or the arming codes that go with it. The UK gets its nuclear weapons from the USA and has done so for many years. I think it goes back to an agreement that incorporated the UK's nuclear weapons program into the USA's program in exchange for the US providing nuclear warheads to the UK. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2003-12-2 8:28:02 PM |
| #5 This report embodies some seriously industrial-strength paranoia. American nukes simply given to Israel, for use against Iran? That's pretty damn far out. Oh, well; at least we've got the bastards scared. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2003-12-2 8:26:19 PM |
| #4 I found several recent articles using GOOGLE. Israel has three of the German made Dolphins. Two were donated in 1997 and Israel bought the third one. Isreal tested cruise missles capable of carrying nuclear weapons in 2000. Israeli defence sources claim the country has secretly carried out its first test launches from submarines of cruise missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. The launches last month from German-built vessels in the Indian Ocean were designed to simulate swift retaliation against a pre-emptive nuclear attack from Iran. the article is here. I'm sure that Super Hose and some other have a lot more info, but this is a start. |
| Posted by: Gasse Katze 2003-12-2 8:17:30 PM |
| #3 I seriously doubt that any US president would ever hand over a US nuclear weapon to any foreign power, or the arming codes that go with it. |
| Posted by: john 2003-12-2 8:10:27 PM |
| #2 Israel has Dolphin subs - there are many comments about a month ago on this...also they may have cruise missiles |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-12-2 8:01:14 PM |
| #1 Last I checked the Harpoon missile doesn't have a range greater than 150 miles (SLAM-ER was supposed to replace these for anti-ship capability). Take this whole article with a can of salt. |
| Posted by: Valentine 2003-12-2 7:58:29 PM |