Author Topic: Summer 2008 War on Iran/Syria/Hizballah  (Read 17648 times)

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Christians4LessGvt

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Summer 2008 War on Iran/Syria/Hizballah
« on: April 25, 2008, 02:24:47 PM »
Tehran & Damascus on Tenterhooks

Moscow Withholds Weapons and Nuclear Fuel from Iran and Syria
 
US defense secretary Robert Gates said Monday April 21 that he believes Iran is "hell bent" on acquiring nuclear weapons. He then warned that another war in the Middle East is "the last thing we need and, in fact, I believe it would be disastrous on a number of levels".

Gates was addressing the US Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.

But then he went on to say that he favors keeping the nuclear option against Iran on the table, "given the destabilizing policies of the regime and the risks inherent in a future Iranian nuclear threat" either directly or through proliferation.

That statement was the strongest refutation heard yet from the Bush administration of the judgment by the National Intelligence Estimate of December 2007 that Iran had given up its nuclear weapon program in 2003.

It was also the strongest affirmation that Washington had not discarded its military option. Gates' words were given substance by the signs that that US navy and air force might is again foregathering in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East for purposes that may cover action to terminate Iran's military nuclear plans.

Military sources report that the USS Harry S. Truman Strike Group has just taken up position in Persian Gulf waters. It consists of 12 warships led by the giant LSD-41 class USS Whidby Island landing craft, submarines and eight assault squadrons. The legend on their banner is: Give 'em Hell.

Another nuclear aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, will soon set out for the region from the South China Sea, along with two more US naval strike forces: the USS Kitty Hawk and the USS Nimitz.
 

Braced for a summer 2008 war

The triple strike flotilla is only waiting for the new Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou to be sworn in on May 20 before departing for the Persian region to arrive late May, early June.

Middle East sources are looking at June or July or August at latest - as likely dates for potential military action, starting according to their scenario with a US attack on Iran?s nuclear facilities and followed by an Israeli attack on Hizballah in Lebanon and Syria.

Iranian sources also view the US military buildup as geared to the summer 2008 timeline. They draw their confirmation from three additional American military activities.

1. The Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), Adm. Gary Roughead, has just completed a tour of US Fifth Fleet installations at their Bahrain headquarters and bases in Oman and Kuwait, as well as the US warships anchored at United Arab Emirates ports. The US Naval Operations Chief also visited the Harry S. Truman.

To Tehran this tour looked suspiciously like an advance checkup of American Gulf forces' operational preparedness for an assault on Iran.

2. Both Iran and Syria are eyeing the USS Nassau Expeditionary Strike Group's movements in the big NATO Phoenix Express 2008 naval exercise in Souda Bay off Crete.

This group joined the exercise from its deployment opposite Lebanon and Syria and is destined to return there after it is over or head for the Persian Gulf.

3. The US secretary of the Navy Dr. Donald C. Winter paid a three-day working trip to Israel March 26-30.

Tehran took note of three occurrences in the course of that trip:

One: Dr. Winter held talks with the entire Israeli political and military leadership, working his way down from prime minister Ehud Olmert, defense minister Ehud Barak and chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi.

He spent a whole day inspecting Israel's assault Dolphin submarines, Israel's longest military arm opposite Iran which carry nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. It was the first time a foreign military figure was allowed access to Israel's long-range nuclear capability.
 

Moscow holds back advanced weaponry and nuclear fuel

Syria too is showing signs of stress.

On April 15, a week before Gates' remarks at West Point, a large Syrian military delegation arrived in Tula, the railway and highway hub of the Moscow industrial region's manufacturing center, to find out what had happened to the Pantsyr-S1 advanced self-propelled, short range missile air defense system on order from Russia.

Iran had made a down-payment of close to $1 billion dollars for the system's delivery to Syria during 2007 and 2008; part of the shipment was to be consigned to Iran through Syria.

The first 10 batteries were shipped to Syria in mid-August last year; six were transferred to Iran. However, military and intelligence sources disclose that, since then, the consignments have dried up. Although the Russians accepted Iranian and Syrian teams last year to train at their bases in operating the missile, they shipped no more missiles to Syria.

And the delegation returned to Damascus from Tula empty-handed.

Moscow also put on hold with no explanation the dispatch of SA-300 air defense missiles and the nuclear fuel rods promised Tehran for the $1 billion Russian built Bushehr nuclear reactor 400 kilometers southwest of Tehran.

The rods were promised on December 17, 2007 when Moscow announced after several delays that the first nuclear rods for fueling Iran's nuclear reactor at Bushehr had been dispatched. Atomstroyexport, the Russian nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly, promised Iran would receive 180 nuclear fuel rods in January-February 2008.

{source: e-mail}
« Last Edit: April 25, 2008, 02:29:12 PM by ChristiansUnited4LessGvt »
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Universe Prince

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Re: Summer 2008 War on Iran/Syria/Hizballah
« Reply #1 on: April 25, 2008, 03:46:20 PM »
ChristiansUnited4LessGvt is supposedly ignoring my posts, so would someone please ask him for me if he is looking forward to this war? Let him know I won't ask any other questions or say anything else about it.
Your reality, sir, is lies and balderdash and I'm delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever.
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sirs

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Re: Summer 2008 War on Iran/Syria/Hizballah
« Reply #2 on: April 25, 2008, 05:00:24 PM »
I'm not sure anyone "wants" or "looks forward" to war, Prince.  I can't speak for CU, but I know I'm no fan of it, though I do recognize when it becomes a necessary last resort, such as what Iraq was
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Universe Prince

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Re: Summer 2008 War on Iran/Syria/Hizballah
« Reply #3 on: April 25, 2008, 05:40:33 PM »

I'm not sure anyone "wants" or "looks forward" to war, Prince.


In general, I would agree. And I don't want to say much about this because I said I wouldn't. This isn't a gotcha moment. I'm just curious.I can't ask him directly, so I'm hoping someone else will ask.
Your reality, sir, is lies and balderdash and I'm delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever.
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Christians4LessGvt

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Re: Summer 2008 War on Iran/Syria/Hizballah
« Reply #4 on: April 25, 2008, 05:52:13 PM »


Ship hired by U.S. military fires warning shots in Gulf
Fri Apr 25, 2008
 
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A cargo ship hired by the U.S. military fired warning shots at boats suspected to be Iranian, the U.S. Navy said on Friday, underscoring tension in the Gulf as the Pentagon sharpened its warnings to Tehran.

According to American defense officials, the Westward Venture cargo ship chartered by the U.S. Defense Department was traveling in international waters when two unidentified small boats approached on Thursday.

After the boats failed to respond to radio queries and a warning flare, the cargo ship's onboard security team fired "a few bursts" of machine gun and rifle warning shots, according to Cmdr. Lydia Robertson, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet.

"The small boats left the area a short time later," she said by telephone. "They were able to avoid a serious incident by following the procedures that we use."

The news helped push oil prices up more than $3 to $119.50 a barrel -- within striking distance of the record $119.90 hit earlier this week -- as traders worried escalating tensions in the region could eventually disrupt crude shipments.

In Tehran, an Iranian navy source denied that any confrontation had occurred with a U.S. ship in the Gulf. But the source, quoted by a journalist for Iran's state-owned Arabic Al-Alam TV channel, said any shooting that may have occurred could have targeted a non-Iranian vessel.

U.S. defense officials said they suspected the boats were Iranian. "We don't have complete confirmation of that but we suspect it," one official said.

The incident was reported as America's top military officer charged Iran with increasing its support for Iraqi militias with weapons and training used to kill U.S. troops.

Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mullen said the United States would continue to rely on diplomatic and economic methods to encourage Iran to change, but stressed the Pentagon had military options.

"When I say I don't want to take any military options off the table, that certainly more than implies that we have military options," Mullen told reporters. "That kind of planning activity has been going on for a long time. I think it will go on for some time into the future."

Tensions in the region have risen this year. In January, the United States said Iranian boats aggressively approached three U.S. Navy battle ships, warning them they would explode in minutes.

In March, another U.S. military-chartered ship preparing to cross the Suez Canal fired warning shots at a small boat, killing an Egyptian on board.

(Reporting by Kristin Roberts and Andrew Gray, Editing by Chris Wilson)

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSWAT00939920080425?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true



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Plane

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Re: Summer 2008 War on Iran/Syria/Hizballah
« Reply #5 on: April 25, 2008, 06:13:36 PM »
Perhaps nothing will come of all this preparation and saber rattleing , but it would be a bad thing for Syria and Iran to beleive that they can't be attacked.

Christians4LessGvt

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Re: Summer 2008 War on Iran/Syria/Hizballah
« Reply #6 on: April 25, 2008, 06:34:43 PM »


US found date-stamped Iranian weapons in Iraq: report




US soldiers from the 2nd Battallion 12th Field Artillery Regiment guard
shells and rockets found in the village of Mullah Eid, 8 kms south of Baquba in
February 2008. The US military says it has found Iranian-made mortars, rockets
and explosives in Iraq bearing recent date stamps, the Wall Street Journal reported.
(AFP/File/Patrick Baz)


Fri Apr 25, 8:51 AM ET

NEW YORK (AFP) - The US military says it has found Iranian-made mortars, rockets and
explosives in Iraq bearing recent date stamps, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

"You can see the manufacturing dates right on the armaments themselves," a senior commander
in Baghdad was quoted as saying. "These are very clearly weapons that were made in
the last month or so."


Iran denies supplying ammunition to Iraqi militants, or training them.

Earlier this week, a US general in Iraq said that the increasingly sophisticated attacks carried
out by Shiite extremists were evidence that they were getting extra aid from Iranian groups
in the country.

Major General Rick Lynch, commander of US forces in central Iraq, said rocket and mortar
attacks by Shiite extremists were "more effective than before."

He charged that this indicated a rise in Iranian help to the militants.

"We are seeing an increase in (Iranian) influence... the number of attacks that are directly
attributed to Iranian influence have indeed increased," Lynch said.

"The number of EFP (explosively formed penetrator) attacks have increased, the number of
Iranian rocket attacks have indeed increased, the amount of Iranian weapons I am finding
on the battlefield has increased. The amount of Shiite extremists who tie their training back
to Iran have indeed increased."

Lynch, whose area of operation in Iraq has a long stretch of border with Iran, also charged
that his troops have found large numbers of caches of weapons and ammunition bearing Iranian
markings.

Citing a recent example, the general said his troops found in one place "enough components for
1,100 EFPs directly traceable back to Iran."


http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080425/pl_afp/usiraqunrestiranweapons_080425125149
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Christians4LessGvt

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Re: Summer 2008 War on Iran/Syria/Hizballah
« Reply #7 on: April 25, 2008, 11:19:43 PM »


Top U.S. military officer assails Iran's role in Iraq

By David Stout Published: April 25, 2008

WASHINGTON: The government of Iran continues to supply weapons and other support to extremists in Iraq, despite repeated promises to the contrary, and is increasingly complicit in the death of U.S. soldiers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Friday in a stark new assessment of Iranian influence.

The chairman, Admiral Michael Mullen, said he was "extremely concerned" about "the increasingly lethal and malign influence" by the government of Iran and the Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, a special force that aids and encourages Islamic militants around the world. The Quds Forces in Iran were created during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s and report directly to the leadership of Iran's theocratic government.

Pentagon concerns about Iranian influence in neighboring Iraq is nothing new, but the content and tone of Mullen's remarks left the impression that far from abating, the worries about Iran have intensified in recent months.

"The Iranian government pledged to halt such activities some months ago," Mullen said. "It's plainly obvious they have not. Indeed, they seem to have gone the other way."

The discovery of weapons caches in Iraq, with devices bearing stamps that indicate they were manufactured quite recently, run contrary to the Iranian promises not to interfere in Iraq, the admiral said. He conceded that he had "no smoking gun" to prove direct involvement by the very highest echelons in Tehran, but he said he found it hard to believe that all the top leaders were ignorant of recent developments.

The Pentagon is sufficiently concerned about Iran's apparently deepening involvement in Iraq that it plans a briefing in the near future by General David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, to publicize the caches of weapons, some of which are believed to have been used against U.S. troops in the recent fighting in Basra, in southern Iraq. Details of the weapons and the Pentagon's concerns over them were disclosed Friday in The Wall Street Journal.

"I believe recent events, especially the Basra operation, have revealed just how much and just how far Iran is reaching into Iraq to foment instability," Mullen said.

Of particular concern to U.S. military commanders are explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, which the Pentagon says are being made in Iran and shipped to Shiite militants in Iraq, where they are used to deadly effect against U.S. forces trying to subdue extremist elements and bolster the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.

Asked whether the new evidence of Iranian mischief in Iraq portends an U.S. military conflict with Iran, the admiral said, "I'm not going to add anything to what I've already said in that regard." For now, Mullen said, the best weapon against Iran is a combination of diplomatic and financial pressure by the United States and other nations alarmed by Iran's attitude.

Pentagon leaders have said they would not rule out military action against Iran. But it is not uncommon for U.S. civilian and military leaders to leave "all options on the table," in an often-used phrase, because to rule out military action in advance is seen as admitting a lack of resolve.

Mullen acknowledged that the U.S. military was being stretched thin by the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. But, he said, "it would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat capability." As for Iranian motives, Mullen said he believed the leadership in Tehran hopes for a weak Iraq, so that Iran can increase its influence in the region.

Moreover, deep resentment remains in Iran toward the United States, which until the Iranian revolution in 1979 long supported the repressive regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as a bulwark against Soviet influence in the Cold War. The current Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has shown little indication of wanting better relations with Washington.

Mullen said Iranian influence in Iraq goes beyond shipment of weapons. "They continue to train Iraqis in Iran to come back and fight Americans and the coalition," he said. Reiterating earlier accusations, he asserted that Iranian leaders "continue to broadly support terrorists in other parts of the region," including the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas.

"And in fact, we're seeing some evidence that they're supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan," Mullen said.

Thom Shanker contributed reporting.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/25/mideast/military.php
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Universe Prince

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Re: Summer 2008 War on Iran/Syria/Hizballah
« Reply #8 on: April 26, 2008, 01:00:52 AM »
So, no one is going to ask him?
Your reality, sir, is lies and balderdash and I'm delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever.
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sirs

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Re: Summer 2008 War on Iran/Syria/Hizballah
« Reply #9 on: April 26, 2008, 01:31:40 AM »
Yo, CU4, Prince would like to know if you are looking forward to this war between Isreal vs Iran/Syria/Hizballah?
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Lanya

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Re: Summer 2008 War on Iran/Syria/Hizballah
« Reply #10 on: April 26, 2008, 03:41:20 AM »
Perhaps nothing will come of all this preparation and saber rattleing , but it would be a bad thing for Syria and Iran to beleive that they can't be attacked.


I can't imagine why they'd ever think they can't be attacked. 
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Plane

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Re: Summer 2008 War on Iran/Syria/Hizballah
« Reply #11 on: April 26, 2008, 05:15:37 AM »
Perhaps nothing will come of all this preparation and saber rattleing , but it would be a bad thing for Syria and Iran to beleive that they can't be attacked.


I can't imagine why they'd ever think they can't be attacked. 

The US is hamstrung with so many pacifists and people who grow war weary quickly that it is a paper tiger whose threats and diplomats can be ignored.

Xavier_Onassis

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Re: Summer 2008 War on Iran/Syria/Hizballah
« Reply #12 on: April 26, 2008, 07:21:27 AM »
There is not going to be any war. Iran is not a threat, and a war would be just really stupid.

Pacifists have not managed to stop Juniorbush and Cheney from their previous lunacy. The problem is sanity and reason oppose another war.
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Plane

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Re: Summer 2008 War on Iran/Syria/Hizballah
« Reply #13 on: April 26, 2008, 12:59:48 PM »
There is not going to be any war. Iran is not a threat, and a war would be just really stupid.

Pacifists have not managed to stop Juniorbush and Cheney from their previous lunacy. The problem is sanity and reason oppose another war.

If Iran and Syria develop some sanity and reasoning ability there will be no war. If they do not they can cause a war whether we welcome the idea or not.

Lanya

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Re: Summer 2008 War on Iran/Syria/Hizballah
« Reply #14 on: April 26, 2008, 01:52:27 PM »
Plane:  <<The US is hamstrung with so many pacifists and people who grow war weary quickly that it is a paper tiger whose threats and diplomats can be ignored.>>

Nonsense.
There are  realists who can see there would be no good result in attacking a country who did not attack us.

If they did, I'm sure we would reinstate the draft very quickly.
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