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| Israel-Palestine | |
| Israeli spy satellite ditches after takeoff | |
| 2004-09-07 | |
| An Israeli spy satellite intended to increase surveillance over Iran landed in the sea Monday after a rocket malfunction shortly after take-off, Israeli officials said. The satellite, Ofeq-6, was meant to give Israel more early warning in case of a surprise missile attack and to provide more information on Iran's extensive missile program. Ofek means "horizon" in Hebrew. Iran has already tested the Shahab-3 missile, which can reach Israel and beyond, and it is working to build nuclear weapons to mount on it, according to senior Israeli intelligence officials. "Iran wants to become a regional superpower and then a global superpower," an official said in an interview Monday. "They intend to be the latter, and this is what worries us the most." The Israelis believe that Iran wants nuclear weapons to further and bolster its flagging revolution, to provide an alternative to Egyptian secular moderation, and to challenge the military supremacy of Israel and the United States in the Middle East. "When the Iranians have enough fuel for enrichment and the technology for it, it's over," the Israeli official said. "We hope somebody will do something about it pretty soon."
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| Posted by:Steve White |
| #8 Im sorry, dammit. .com do you still have a link to Fluffy? Destroyer of Worlds? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-09-07 6:08:40 PM |
| #7 You're correct TW, that would be my least cat. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-09-07 6:07:48 PM |
| #6 "the satellite was destroyed!" *wink wink* |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-09-07 2:28:25 PM |
| #5 Cheaderhead, The mullahs believe Allah will protect them from the consequences of their actions, because they are the beloved of God. Intelligence (or any thinking whatsoever)does not enter in to it. A major miscalculation, in my estimation, but then I'm not God (unless Heinlein was right, but that's another story). |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2004-09-07 2:25:05 PM |
| #4 For a while I was concerned that if nuclear weapons were to used it would be between the Indians and Pakland. If the Mullahs are allowed to get their hands on the bomb all bets are off. Granted with enough weapons they could destroy Israel but at the cost of their own culture? I pray that even the Mullahs in Tehran aren't that dumb because it just might spread and would be sure to spill over to India and Pakland. The question is would it stop there? |
| Posted by: Cheaderhead 2004-09-07 1:11:45 PM |
| #3 It would be the Med CM.... the Israelis are forced to launch "against the wind" or from east to west to avoid dropping a live one on the palis and their affliated brethen. They pay a big price in payload for this. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-09-07 10:17:17 AM |
| #2 Just read the whole thing, folks. This guy is from the NYT school of Duranty. Love the scare quotes around war on terror. BTW, is it possible to "land" a satellite "in the sea" (Med., Red, or Black?) after its launch has been aborted? In any case, Israel, keep trying. |
| Posted by: chicago mike 2004-09-07 10:10:29 AM |
| #1 I wonder how much French help Iran is getting with it's missle program? I wouldn't put it past Chiriac after all he was a peddler of all things nuclear as well in the past and wants to be a counterweight agaisnt US intersts. That makes him natural allies with Iran. The French our "friends" sinp * Reports out of France indicate the Chirac government is behind the anti-American demonstrations there, and that references to the coalition troops as "Anglo-American" forces and "Anglo-American liberalism" are terms borrowed from Vichy propaganda during the Hitler occupation. * Not only have French radicals desecrated the monument at Etaples honoring 11,000 "Anglo-American" soldiers who died to free France, but according to a poll in Le Monde 25 percent of Frenchmen wanted an outright Iraqi victory over the United States and United Kingdom. * Slogans were painted on the Etaples monument at the Channel coastal town declaring of the dead Americans and Brits whose graves stretch to the horizon: "Dig up your rubbish, they are soiling our land." |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-09-07 5:28:31 AM |