Saudi Arabia has conducted tests to stand down its air defences to enable Israeli jets to make a bombing raid on Iran's nuclear facilities, The Times can reveal.
I guess this means Turkish air space is closed to Israel ...
You think the rat bastards perfidious Turk would do that to their long time ally favourite arms supplier?
In the week that the UN Security Council imposed a new round of sanctions on Tehran, defence sources in the Gulf say that Riyadh has agreed to allow Israel to use a narrow corridor of its airspace in the north of the country to shorten the distance for a bombing run on Iran. To ensure the Israeli bombers pass unmolested, Riyadh has carried out tests to make certain its own jets are not scrambled and missile defence systems not activated. Once the Israelis are through, the kingdom's air defences will return to full alert.
Ummm, does this imply the Saudis will clear the way for the Israelis to return, too?
"The Saudis have given their permission for the Israelis to pass over and they will look the other way," said a US defence source in the area. "They have already done tests to make sure their own jets aren't scrambled and no one gets shot down. This has all been done with the agreement of the [US] State Department."
Sources in Saudi Arabia say it is common knowledge within defence circles in the kingdom that an arrangement is in place if Israel decides to launch the raid. Despite the tension between the two governments, they share a mutual loathing of the regime in Tehran and a common fear of Iran's nuclear ambitions. "We all know this. We will let them [the Israelis] through and see nothing," said one.
The four main targets for any raid on Iran would be the uranium enrichment facilities at Natanz and Qom, the gas storage development at Isfahan and the heavy-water reactor at Arak. Secondary targets include the lightwater reactor at Bushehr, which could produce weapons-grade plutonium when complete.
The targets lie as far as 1,400 miles (2,250km) from Israel; the outer limits of their bombers' range, even with aerial refuelling. An open corridor across northern Saudi Arabia would significantly shorten the distance. An airstrike would involve multiple waves of bombers, possibly crossing Jordan, northern Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Aircraft attacking Bushehr, on the Gulf coast, could swing beneath Kuwait to strike from the southwest.
Passing over Iraq would require at least tacit agreement to the raid from Washington. So far, the Obama Administration has refused to give its approval as it pursues a diplomatic solution to curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions. Military analysts say Israel has held back only because of this failure to secure consensus from America and Arab states. Military analysts doubt that an airstrike alone would be sufficient to knock out the key nuclear facilities, which are heavily fortified and deep underground or within mountains. However, if the latest sanctions prove ineffective the pressure from the Israelis on Washington to approve military action will intensify.
Israeli officials refused to comment yesterday on details for a raid on Iran, which the Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has refused to rule out. Questioned on the option of a Saudi flight path for Israeli bombers, Aharaon Zeevi Farkash, who headed military intelligence until 2006 and has been involved in war games simulating a strike on Iran, said: "I know that Saudi Arabia is even more afraid than Israel of an Iranian nuclear capacity."
In 2007 Israel was reported to have used Turkish air space to attack a suspected nuclear reactor being built by Iran's main regional ally, Syria. Although Turkey publicly protested against the "violation" of its air space, it is thought to have turned a blind eye in what many saw as a dry run for a strike on Iran's far more substantial -- and better-defended -- nuclear sites.
That wasn't actually a dry run, since they actually destroyed something at the end of it. Very effectively, too.
Israeli intelligence experts say that Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan are at least as worried as themselves and the West about an Iranian nuclear arsenal.
Not all of the West. Apparently America -- or President Obama, anyway -- can live with the possibility.
Israel has sent missile-class warships and at least one submarine capable of launching a nuclear warhead through the Suez Canal for deployment in the Red Sea within the past year, as both a warning to Iran and in anticipation of a possible strike. Israeli newspapers reported last year that high-ranking officials, including the former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, have met their Saudi Arabian counterparts to discuss the Iranian issue. It was also reported that Meir Dagan, the head of Mossad, met Saudi intelligence officials last year to gain assurances that Riyadh would turn a blind eye to Israeli jets violating Saudi airspace during the bombing run. Both governments have denied the reports.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/12/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Of course after this obviously planted article the Saudis know Iran will attack them after any Israeli attack on Iran.
So, would planting this article encourage Saudi to shoot down Israeli planes?
#3
My, my my. Please fly by said the spider to the fly. We won't trap you in our web.
Why, oh why would anyone ever rely on the word of a Middle Eastern nation? How did that work with those wise Turkish generals who would never let the Islamists take power? I'm sure the Saudis will just look the other way for the good of the children.
#9
This could be reasonable, with some twists and turns.
First of all, no mention of Iraqi airspace, which is still under US air traffic control, and has no Iraqi AAA.
Second is that the airspace for an Iranian attack would have both combat aircraft and the all-important refueling aircraft.
So picture this situation. The Iraq-Saudi border, with air corridors on both sides, with combat aircraft on one side and refueling aircraft on the other, both of which can cross over the border laterally.
The Iranian AF wants to attack, but is it willing to violate two different nations airspace, both of which have more or less effective AAA, which could end up with it being at war with Israel, Saudi, Iraq, the US, and maybe some of the Gulf States at the same time?
Add to that Bagram AB in Afghanistan, with a lot of very powerful aircraft coming from the East, and this is a major suck scenario for the Iranian AF.
Oh yes, and the USN, who I am SURE would want to party.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2010 12:16 Comments ||
Top||
#13
But would their commander-n-chief allow it,?
In a related article, TW, I saw that the Waffler-in-Chief has not given Israel the OK to fly though Iraqi airspace. Seems to me, that the Irawi airspace belongs to, um, somebody else. Like the Iraqis. Unless Bambi wants to kick the Israelis ass, too.
When its'go time,' I think the Isrealis are going to do what they need to and if that causes some peripheral dust-ups, then that is the cost of doing business.
#17
Nobody in the ME wants a nuclear Iran. Jordan, SA, Qatar, nobody.
It doesn't translate well to the Western mindset, but Iranians are Persian, not Arab. That makes a huge difference to them for some reason.
I think they're all nuts.
#18
In line with the Saudis, don't forget that Egypt gave free transit to 3 Israeli subs and a frigate recently, all heading for the Persian Gulf; and all are nuclear capable.
#19
John QC - a flight down the Gulf of Aqaba and a sharp left turn would avoid putting Jordan in the mix
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2010 15:09 Comments ||
Top||
#20
the Waffler-in-Chief has not given Israel the OK
There's a nation state you're leaving out of that equation. Truman didn't give jooooo state the right to exist, he looked at ground facts, as did the 2nd nation to seem same.
tl;dr
if it comes to nut cutting time we ain't got nothing to do with this shit. We will have die pearle shine.
#22
generally, too long, didn't read. but in Shipese, like JoeMspeak.... who the hell knows?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2010 18:39 Comments ||
Top||
#23
There are a lot of potential subtleties in this scenario. For example, while the Arab countries would discreetly be all in favor of the Israelis blowing up the Iranians, they would also want to be able to complain about their airspace being violated.
Iran might attack them, but they would prefer it be an aggressive attack, as they can get western backing.
Russia likes Iran, but also likes the Arab nations. So in a fight, who will Russia back?
Turkey is a big wild card in all of this as well. Egypt and Jordan are likewise inscrutable.
#24
Egypt goes back to being the big dog again, if the Iranians are knocked down, since Egypt has the population, the weapons, and the infrastructure, courtesy of the Peace Treaty with Israel. Turkey might be able to install a friendly government in Iran if the Mullahs get damaged enough; Iraq would just like the incursions from Iran to stop.
Babelfish
Four people were injured including two Mexican Federal police officers in a confrontation with striking miners at a copper mine in Cananea, Sonora, according to Mexican news reports.
The ongoing labor dispute between members of the striking Sindicato Minero Seccion 65 y Grupo México, the owner of the mine, came to a head as the company started bussing new workers to the mine entrance.
The union had vowed to block entrance to the mine for several days before this morning's 0700 hrs confrontation.
One striking miner was hurt by a tear gar canister hitting him in the head, a civilian was somehow struck and two Mexican Federal Police agents reported minor wounds.
Later, miners through their leader, Sergio Tolano Lizarraga, agreed to avoid future confrontations with Mexican Federal forces.
#1
History repeats itself but not in detail: the Cananea Copper Mine strike of the first decade of the 20th century was a notable precursor of a full-fledged armed Revolution (1910-1920 = "armed phase").
NATO has opened an alternate supply route to Afghanistan via Russia and central Asia a critical development that gives it the ability to bypass the previous ambush-prone main routes through Pakistan, the alliance said Friday.
Until now, most supplies destined for the 140,000-strong international force in Afghanistan were shipped to the Pakistani port of Karachi, and then trucked to the landlocked nation. But with the Taliban and their sympathizers targeting the convoys, military planners sought other alternatives.
"We will take advantage of all transport routes available as soon as possible," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.
The development is important because it signals Russian willingness to indirectly support the NATO-led mission. Moscow has been warmer to the mission's success in recent years, fearing that a NATO defeat in Afghanistan could destabilize central Asia and endanger Russia's security.
Although Russia offered to open its territory to NATO as a whole two years ago, the alliance did not immediately take them up on the offer. After a spate of ambushes in Pakistan in 2009, NATO started negotiating transit rights with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, which took almost a year to complete.
Individual alliance members, such as Germany and the United States, were allowed to use the so-called northern route for non-lethal materials but it was closed to alliance forces as a whole. About 14,000 maritime containers full of supplies had arrived via the northern route before it was opened to the whole alliance, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said.
"It is substantial," he said. "The central Asian states and Russia are playing a key role both in terms of ground transportation and overflights."
There are two other possible access routes to Afghanistan, through Iran and China.
But the alliance cannot use the one through Iran's southeastern port of Chahar Bahar because of the political dispute over Tehran's nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, a dirt road from China through the Wakhan Corridor, leads through some of the world's most mountainous terrain and is blocked by snow for much of the year.
It's almost as if Russia knew it was coming all along . . . .
MOSCOW (AFP) Russia signalled on Friday it was scrapping the controversial sale of S-300 missiles to Iran in a major shift the Kremlin said was needed after fresh UN sanctions over Tehran's nuclear programme.
"S-300 supplies to Iran fall under UN sanctions," a Kremlin source said in Tashkent where President Dmitry Medvedev was attending a summit of a regional security body led by Moscow and Beijing.
"Thus this type of weapon cannot be delivered to Iran," said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity. That's OK. I'm sure Iran has something better already. Probably developed by the same guy who invented super-cavitating torpedoes, their F-4 knockoff that can fly without engines, and the used hanky.
In a flurry of statements, a number of other senior Russian officials made clear that Moscow was changing tack on the missile deal, in the pipeline for years but strongly opposed by Israel and the United States.
"We will strictly and unswervingly follow the criteria and requirements in the resolution" Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in a statement posted on the foreign ministry website.
Separately, Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the State Duma's foreign affairs committee whose public pronouncements are known to reflect Kremlin policy thinking, said the S-300 sale had to be stopped.
"In the circumstances, I am opposed to fulfilling this contract," Kosachev said in remarks posted on his Internet blog and picked up by Russian media
He noted that that the UN resolution adopted Wednesday imposing fresh sanctions on Iran did not ban the sale of defensive weapons systems like the S-300 complex to the Islamic state.
But going ahead with the deal, long in the works, would "breach the spirit" of the resolution, he said.
Russia never made a secret of its deal to sell the powerful S-300 system to Iran and for years insisted that the move would in no way upset the balance of power in the Middle East.
However despite years of talking about it, Russia never went ahead with delivery of the system, which military experts said could have been used by Iran to provide medium-range anti-aircraft defenses of its nuclear facilities. It also could have been used to embarrass the Russian military if for some reason it didn't work. And the Iranian government for buying it.
The United States on Thursday acknowledged that the latest UN sanctions did not explicitly ban the S-300 sale to Iran, but nonetheless heaped praise on Moscow for its "restraint" in not going ahead with the deal.
"Russia has exercised responsibility, restraint and has not delivered those missiles to Iran," said State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters in Washington on Thursday.
Speaking on the sidelines of the gathering in Tashkent, Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, insisted that Iran's nuclear programme was peaceful.
"The peaceful use of nuclear energy -- is the inalienable right of all members of the (nuclear) non-proliferation treaty," he said at the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Uzbekistan. I wonder what that has to do with Iran.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad meanwhile lashed out Friday at the UN Security Council as a "tool of dictatorship" and said new UN sanctions over Tehran's nuclear programme "will have no effect."
"We have always said the Security Council is a tool in the hands of the United States. It is not democratic, it is a tool of dictatorship," the Iranian president told reporters in Shanghai.
The UN Security Council's fourth round of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear drive imposed broader military and financial restrictions on the Islamic republic.
Despite close economic and energy ties with the Islamic republic, Russia supported the latest round of sanctions.
The resolution bans the sale to Iran of eight new types of heavy weapons and applies new restrictions on Iranian investments abroad.
#1
these two paragraphs from an article by Yaakov Katz ,
posted on Aug. 8, 2008 in THE JERUSALEM POST
----------------------------------------------
Israel warns Russia: We'll neutralize S-300 if sold to Iran
If Russia goes through with the sale of its most advanced anti-aircraft missile system to Iran, Israel will use an electronic warfare device now under development to neutralize it and as a result present Russia as vulnerable to air infiltrations, a top defense official has told The Jerusalem Post.
Neutralization of one of the main components of Russian air defense would be a blow to Russian national security as well as to defense exports. "No country will want to buy the system if it is proven to be ineffective," the official said.
"For these reasons, Russia may not deliver it in the end to Iran."
#2
Neutralization of one of the main components of Russian air defense would be a blow to Russian national security as well as to defense exports.
When they destroyed Syria's top secret nuclear facility, Israel very neatly neutralized the air defense system Russia had just installed there. Was it the same one Iran wants to buy?
#3
No. They were the short range Tor-M1. It's highly unlikely they were near the "secret" nuke reactor since the radar would act like a beacon screaming, "Something interesting here."
Posted by: ed ||
06/12/2010 10:01 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Thanks, ed. Sorry -- I meant there in the sense of in Syria.
North Korea threatened Friday to retaliate against South Korea for seeking to punish it at the United Nations over the deadly sinking of a warship, the nuclear-armed nation' second harsh reaction in a week.
South Korea officially asked the UN Security Council last week to censure North Korea for what Seoul says was a torpedo attack on one of its warships that killed 46 sailors. A multinational investigation led by South Korea said last month that North Korea was the culprit. North Korea has denied responsibility and threatened to respond to retaliatory measures put in place by Seoul with "all-out war."
North Korea again wielded its trademark harsh rhetoric Friday to warn the South of possible consequences for seeking UN punishment. Last Friday's move was the first time Seoul has taken Pyongyang to the Security Council for an inter-Korean provocation. The North Korean army and people "will take merciless counter-actions as it had already clarified internally and externally," a spokesman from the National Defense Commission said in remarks carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. The spokesman, whose name was not provided, accused Seoul of "infringing upon the dignity and security" of North Korea and again criticized it for not allowing Pyongyang's own inspectors to visit the South as previously demanded. Tensions on the Korea peninsula spiked last month after South Korea blamed the North for the sinking of the 1,200-ton Cheonan.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
#2
ION WMF >FOOD, ECONMICALLY STARVING NORTH KOREA SHOULD CANCEL/DIS-ESTABLISH BULK OF ITS NATIONAL ARMED FORCES IN FAVOR OF CHINA'S PLA, 100,000-MAN DPRK CONTROLLED POLICE-ONLY CONSTABULARY.
* ION TOPIX > DID THE US WAGE [Korean War 1950-53]GERM WARFARE AGZ NORTH KOREA?
and
WMF > WW2 SECRET:FEAR OF NAZI USE OF GERM WARFARE/BIOWAR WEAPONS LED BRITAIN [Churchill] + CANADA TO DEV + PRODUCE ENOUGH ANTHRAX, OTHER BIOWAR BOMBS TO QUICKLY KILL 30% OF WORLD'S WW2 HUMAN POPULATION. SHIPMENT OF ROUGHLY 5000 CANADIAN-PRODUCED ANTHRAX, BIOWAR BOMBS TO BRITAIN OUT OF 1/2MILYUHN DESIRED [500,000].
* SAME > RUSS ARMED FORCES CHIEF MAKAROV: RUSSIA INTENDS TO USE "MISTRAL" AMPHIB CARRIERS + TECHNOLOGIES TRANSFERS TO DEFEND DISPUTED RUSS FAR EAST, OTHER ASIAN-PACIFIC ISLANDS AGZ CHINA, JAPAN [Kuriles, Sakhalin]. IMPROVEMENT OF RUSS "RAPID RESPONSE" MIL FORCES, MISSIONS, AND CAPABILITIES.
* SAME > ELECTION OF NEW JAPAN PM NAOTO KAN, PROTECTION OF US-JAPAN SECURITY TREATY AND 2006 OKINAWA BASE DEAL DOES NOT MEAN JAPAN MUST NOR SHOULD RETURN TO BEING A COLD WAR-STYLE SLAVE/VASSAL TO THE US.
* SAME > US NAVY IN FEAR:PLAN TYPES 093, 094 FBMS OUT IN FORCE IN WESTPAC AFTER BREAKOUT OF CHEONAN KOREAN CRISIS [unknown or subjective location]. APPROXIMATELY 1000 DF-11/15 SRBMS AIMED AT TAIWAN, 500 DF-21 MBMS AIMED AT US BASES ON GUAM, OKINAWA, OTHER USFJ -USFK MILFORS.
* SAME > RUSSIAN MIL EXPERT ALEXANDER MOZGOVAI: RUSSIA FACES THREE MAJOR OR PRIMARY STARTEGIC THREATS FROM THE US, CHINA, + DEV IRAN [Nuclear Iran = Radical Islamism]. APPROVAL BY CHIN CMC BACK IN 1993 of FUTURIST "THREE NORTH SEAS" STRATEGEMS OF CHIN MILPOL EXPANSIONISM AGZ RUSSIA, US, + WESTERN EUROPE [NATO = now NATO-EU]. CHINA'S RISING ECON IS HIGHLY FRAGILE AND COULD EASILY COLLAPSE, POSING A THREAT TO RUSSIA. RUSSIAN FEAR OF EITHER CHIN UNILATERALISM AGZ RUSS FAR EAST-SIBERIAN TERRIROTIES AND CENTRAL ASIAN FORMER SSRS, OR SINO-US MILPOL COLLUSION AGZ RUSSIA.
Year 2017 = "Benchmark/Highwater" mark of POST-COLD WAR US MIL SUPERIORITY/DOMINANCE AGZ CHINA
versus
Year 2025 or shortly after = US LONGER POSS MIL SUPERIORITY/DOMINANCE AGZ CHINA.
* SAME > MCKAY: CANADA'S GOVT-NAVY TO SPEND US$30.0BILYUHN TO CONTRUX 28 LARGE WARSHIPS + 100 SMALLER VESSELS TO DEFEND CANADIAN NORTH AMERICA + ARCTIC INTERESTS.
POLISH authorities have arrested at the request of Germany a suspected Mossad agent thought to have played a role in the Dubai assassination of a Hamas commander.
"He was arrested in Warsaw and is suspected of being involved in illegally obtaining a (German) passport," a spokesman for German federal prosecution said, confirming a report in German magazine Der Spiegel.
According to an article, the suspect identified as Uri Brodsky was arrested in early June on arrival at Warsaw's airport on suspicions that he helped a member of the hit squad get a German passport in June 2009.
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a founder of the military wing of the Islamist Hamas movement which controls Gaza, was found dead in his room in the Al Bustan Rotana hotel near Dubai airport on January 20.
Dubai police have released extensive surveillance camera footage they say shows the team of suspects from the hit squad they have linked to the Mossad.
#4
Spies are subject to different risks than those who openly wear the uniform, even the spies of countries we like. At least he wasn't shot immediately, and Israel has the chance to bargain for him.
SULAIMANIYA / Aswat al-Iraq: The 3rd general congress of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan on Friday re-elected Jalal Talabani as its secretary-general, an informed PUK source said.
Jalal Talabani was unanimously re-elected as PUK secretary general today (June 11) during the party's 3rd general congress held in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya,' the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. Also, the congress elected Koussert Rassoul and Burham Saleh as deputies for the secretary general of the PUK.
The congress also comes one year after the breakaway of key members and their joining along with Noshirwan Mustafa, the former PUK deputy secretary-general, the Change Movement, which won 25 out of a total 111 seats in the Iraqi Kurdistan region's parliament and eight seats in the Iraqi legislative elections, held on March 7, 2010.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/12/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that senior Obama administration officials have been telling foreign governments that the administration intends to support an effort next week at the United Nations to set up an independent commission, under UN auspices, to investigate Israel's behavior in the Gaza flotilla incident. The White House has apparently shrugged off concerns from elsewhere in the U.S.
government that a) this is an extraordinary singling out of Israel, since all kinds of much worse incidents happen around the world without spurring UN investigations; b) that the investigation will be one-sided, focusing entirely on Israeli behavior and not on Turkey or on Hamas; and c) that this sets a terrible precedent for outside investigations of incidents involving U.S. troops or intelligence operatives as we conduct our own war on terror.
The U.S. may send an antiterror agent back to the West Bank.
Mosab Hassan Yousef is a best-selling author who wrote "Son of Hamas" about his life as a Palestinian who became an informant for Israeli intelligence. He's probably near the top of every Islamist terror hit list, yet, incredibly enough, the U.S. may soon deport him as a terror threat.
In 2007, Mr. Yousef came to the United States, where he converted to Christianity from Islam and applied for political asylum. The request was denied in February 2009, Mr. Yousef says, on grounds that he was potentially "a danger to the security of the United States" and had "engaged in terrorist activity." His case has automatically proceeded to the deportation stage, and on June 30 at 8 a.m. he will appear before Judge Rico Bartolomei in Homeland Security Immigration Court in San Diego.
Homeland Security is well aware of the author's history, and in fact is using it against him. According to Mr. Yousef, a letter from Homeland Security attorney Kerri Calcador cites passages in "Son of Hamas" as evidence of his connection to terrorist leaders and suggests that the work he did for Hamas while spying for Israel provided aid to terrorists. "At a bare minimum, evidence of the respondent's transport of Hamas members to safe houses . . . indicates that the respondent provided material support to a [Tier I] terrorist organization," the U.S. lawyer wrote.
But unless Ms. Calcador knows more than she's saying, this is bizarre. As a spy for Israel, Mr. Yousef had to make his colleagues believe he was a loyal member of Hamas. He used that trust to gain information that he provided to Israeli intelligence, which used it to prevent terror attacks and save lives. One of Mr. Yousef's handlers at Shin Bet confirmed his book's account to the Israeli daily Haaretz, and his father, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, has disowned him from the Israeli prison he has occupied since 2005. (See our Weekend Interview with the younger Yousef, "They Need to Be Liberated From Their God," March 6, 2010.)
The problem seems to be that, under a provision of U.S. immigration law, anyone who is shown to have provided "material support" for terrorist organizations is automatically denied asylum. In the relentless way that bureaucracy works, this is being interpreted as leaving little discretion for deserving exceptions like the case of Mr. Yousef. In some cases Homeland Security does have the power to issue a waiver of this "no admission" rule--an option that was not exercised before Mr. Yousef's asylum was denied.
If Mr. Yousef were a security threat, you'd expect that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency would have found reason to detain him. Yet he remains free to travel and even to hit the book-selling circuit. A senior government official tells us that Homeland Security will "not be mounting a stiff defense" of the 2009 decision to deny him asylum, which is at least one burst of common sense.
Mr. Yousef is a native of the West Bank, which is where he would presumably return if he is deported and where Hamas would immediately seek to kill him. Under the Convention Against Torture, the U.S. has an international treaty obligation not to return people to countries where their lives would be at risk. That concern stopped the return to China of the Uighers at Guantanamo, and rightly so. It would dishonor the U.S. to deport a convert in the war on terror because our immigration bureaucracy is too obtuse to make even life and death distinctions.
Iran's nuclear chief says his country will begin construction of a new uranium enrichment plant by March of next year, a defiant announcement days after the U.N. approved tougher sanctions.
Posted by: ed ||
06/12/2010 10:56 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
'New' as in 'additional capacity,' or 'new' as in 'anticipated replacement?'
There is a huge security presence in Tehran and other Iranian cities, as the country marks the first anniversary of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election, witnesses say.
The opposition leadership has called off planned demonstrations, saying they did not want to be responsible for the loss of innocent lives. But some Iranians are still expected to take to the streets.
They came onto the streets in their millions a year ago. It was a spontaneous outburst of anger from huge numbers of Iranians who felt Mr Ahmadinejad had stolen the presidential election.
Since then the opposition have been steadily battered into submission, beaten up when they demonstrate on the streets, arrested and, they say, abused in prison.
Mr Ahmadinejad's government continues to be tellingly nervous about its hold on power. It has been steadily tightening its grip on the media and the internet, and even warning foreign exiles not to speak out.
The opposition seem to have run out of ideas. Many Iranians are now reduced to sullen acquiescence. The government's next big problem looks to be the economy: with falling oil revenues, it could be, fairly rapidly, running out of money.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/12/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Houston's pro-democracy Iranians were out protesting and sending encouragement to relatives living there. Hopefully, they can channel their anger and knowledge of the Iranian community into real intelligence any Hezbollah agents living here, in case Israel does respond to the threat Imanutjob poses. And much like their Lebanese Phoenicians, they prefer to called Persians!
#3
How about channeling their anger toward Iranian Revolutionary Guard agents who've snuck across the Mexican border or otherwise arrived in the U.S., Lumpy Elmoluck5091?
#2
I can only assume it was a minor stroke. Maher is 99.9% wrong
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2010 17:15 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Funny when he was libertarian he was right more often than not. Then he went left and got promoted off of Comedy Central and his hit rate dropped until he was unwatchable.
#4
He's wrong, as usual. The medis understand completely. They have chosen sides. Just like Helen Thomas, Nice Christian name for a self proclaimed arab. This Arab has had a front row seat and has slandered the news every day for 50 years. She deserves a deportation ticket to her homeland!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
06/12/2010 19:59 Comments ||
Top||
#5
NiceChristian name for a self proclaimed arab.
Last I heard, 49Pan, most Arabs in this country are actually Christian, come here for opportunity or to escape Muslim depradations... or both. Most Muslims here are from the Indian subcontinent or African-American, as I recall.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Saudi Arabia has conducted tests to stand down its air defences to enable Israeli jets to make a bombing raid on Iran's nuclear facilities, The Times can reveal.
North Korea threatened Friday to retaliate against South Korea for seeking to punish it at the United Nations over the deadly sinking of a warship, the nuclear-armed nation' second harsh reaction in a week.
The U.S. may send an antiterror agent back to the West Bank.
