Sudan’s Bashir says airstrike Israeli regime’s ‘hysterical reaction’

 

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/28/269129/attack-israel-hysterical-reaction-bashir/

Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has slammed the recent Israeli airstrike on an arms factory in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, as Tel Aviv’s ‘hysterical reaction’ to the Arab world developments.

“The reckless behavior is a manifestation of Israel’s concerns and nervousness about the political and social upheavals in the region and about the progress in Sudan,” Bashir said in his Friday address to the nation on the occasion of Eid Al-Adha.

He pointed out, “Such aggressive acts by the Zionist entity could never force Khartoum to change its policies,” and reaffirmed the Sudanese nation’s determination to make “tough choice” in the face of challenges.

According to Sudanese Minister of Information Ahmed Bilal Osman, information collected by experts indicates that the weapons used in the aerial strike on Yarmouk facility were made in Israel.

“The sophisticated warplanes and weapons used in the attack are available to no country in the region except Israel.”

Four Israeli warplanes attacked the arms factory in the capital on October 23, Osman said.

Sudan has asked the United Nations Security Council to condemn the Israeli regime for violating the country’s sovereignty and bombing the factory.

The Tel Aviv regime has so far refused to comment on the incident. Israeli Minister for Military Affairs Ehud Barak has said that there is “nothing I can say about this subject.”

SYRIA: The Kofi Annan "Peace Plan" is a Ploy. The Unspoken Objective is "Regime Change"

 

Brookings Announces Next Move in Syria: War!

By: Tony Cartalucci
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.ca/

Story Source: Global Research
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=30779

After admitting UN peace plan was a ploy, Brookings predictably scraps it and begins promoting expanded military conflict

By the US policy think-tank Brookings Institution's own admission, the Kofi Annan six-point peace plan in Syria was merely a ploy to buy time to reorganize NATO's ineffective terrorist proxies and provide them the pretext necessary for establishing NATO protected safe havens from which to carry out their terrorism from. In fact, Brookings actually stated in a recent report, "Assessing Options for Regime Change" (emphasis added)

"An alternative is for diplomatic efforts to focus first on how to end the violence and how to gain humanitarian access, as is being done under Annan’s leadership. This may lead to the creation of safe-havens and humanitarian corridors, which would have to be backed by limited military power. This would, of course, fall short of U.S. goals for Syria and could preserve Asad in power. From that starting point, however, it is possible that a broad coalition with the appropriate international mandate could add further coercive action to its efforts." -page 4, Assessing Options for Regime Change, Brookings Institution



Image: Also out of the Brookings Institution, Middle East Memo #21 "Assessing Options for Regime Change (.pdf)," makes no secret that the humanitarian "responsibility to protect" is but a pretext for long-planned regime change.

Image Source: Get Full Brookings Report here
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2012/0315_syria_saban/0315_syria_saban.pdf

As if to alleviate any lingering doubts, NATO's "Alliance News Blog" has confirmed that the US is committed not to "peace," but rather to the overthrow of Syria's government and is "already committed to helping [President Bashar al-Assad] fall," but is "merely looking for the least violent, lowest cost way to get there." The April 9, 2012 blog entry features an op-ed titled, "US 'already committed to helping Assad fall'," and fully admits that the US is equipping the so-called "Free Syrian Army" which has received weapons, leadership, and cash from the NATO-backed Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) terrorists led by notorious mass-murderer Abdul Hakim Belhaj



Image: NATO's official "Alliance News Blog proudly reports that the US is already committed to helping "Assad fall" and is simply using the lull in fighting brought on by Kofi Annan's disingenuous "peace plan" to rearm, reorganize, and redeploy their terrorist proxy forces against Assad. The op-ed featured on NATO's blog was featured in the LA Times and written by CFR member Doyle McManus.

And now, the Brookings Institution itself has predictably declared the Annan "peace deal" a failure and states that the time to "stretch" Syria's military to the breaking point through expanded foreign-backed unrest has come. In an article titled, "Annan's Mission Impossible: Why is everyone pretending that the U.N. plan in Syria has a prayer of suceeding?" Brookings Doha Center director Salman Shaikh insults the intelligence of his readership while handing out useful talking points surely to be parroted by the corporate-media over the next few days and weeks. Shaikh depicts the ceasefire's failure as solely the result of the Syrian government's belligerence and brutality, while mentioning nothing of the Syrian opposition's documented and even admitted atrocities.



Video: Michael Weiss of the Neo-Con "Henry Jackson Society," openly admits that diplomatic options are being paraded publicly to satisfy public opinion, but ultimately NATO plans to unilaterally intervene militarily in Syria, and will do so with the UN's purposefully sabotaged "humanitarian operation" as its pretext.

And while portraying the Syrian government as irrationally carrying out a campaign of brutality against the Syrian people, Shaikh admits that the "Free Syrian Army" is operating militarily out of Turkey and that the Syrian National Council (SNC) represents foreign harbored and influenced leadership. While Shaikh portrays Syria's minorities as "on the sideline," he declines from explaining why they have not joined the foreign-driven unrest. In reality, these groups have been the hardest hit by rebel atrocities, including Syria's large Christian communities.



Image: Christians in Syria have been particularly hit hard by what is being described as "ethnic cleansing," not by Syrian security forces, but by NATO-backed death squads under the banner of the "Free Syrian Army." The LA Times has been quietly reporting on the tragedy of Syria's minorities at the hands of the Syrian rebels for months - and indicates that wider genocide will take place, just as it is now in Libya, should Syria's government collapse under foreign pressure.

Shaikh's shoddy salesmanship also reveals another truth - when he claims that "opposition leaders inside and outside the country do not have the resources to unite their ranks alone." Surely any opposition group that represented the vast majority of the Syrian people, as the UN and the corporate-media claim daily, would not have trouble finding the resources inside of Syria "alone." In reality, the unrest in Syria is driven by a foreign-backed violent minority, carried out by a combination of violent Sunni-extremists from Syria and many foreign fighters brought in from abroad. Many of Syria's real opposition find the "Free Syrian Army's" collaboration with foreigners "unacceptable."

NATO and its proxies' efforts have failed primarily because the movement's semi-covert foreign backing is still not enough to turn the tide, and more overt backing is needed, including foreign military intervention. Shaikh's entire argument hinges on the creation of a "genuine grand opposition coalition " that currently, admittedly, does not exist.

As the Brookings Institution prepares the next stage of its premeditated escalation against the sovereign nation-state of Syria, and continues framing the violence as one-sided, a torrent of reports even from the corporate-media itself confirms what many geopolitical analysts have been saying for over a year - that the "Free Syrian Army" is conducting a vicious campaign of terrorism leaving Syrian security forces no choice but to continue fighting on to restore order.

In fact, just today, Wednesday May 9, 2012, Syrian rebels attempted to attack a convoy consisting of Kofi Annan's UN monitors. France inexplicably then blamed the Syrian government for not providing adequate security for the UN monitors, after a year of condemning the government for attempting to restore order in the face of the very growing militant violence the attacks resulted from. And in recent weeks, everything from Human Rights Watch reports, to open admissions from the rebels themselves confirm that they are committing widespread human rights abuses and turning toward indiscriminate bombing tactics. This indicates a threat Syria's government would be remiss not to counter - and surely a threat the "international community" would be remiss to continue supporting, funding, and even arming.

Now a concerted effort will be made to sabotage the UN peace plan in every shape, form, and manner, especially through increased violence and particularly in cross-border incidents to help sell NATO-backed, Turkey-led incursions into Syria to carve out "safe havens." From there a steady stream of weapons and fighters from around the world will be funneled in, in an attempt to, as Brookings Shaikh puts it, stretch Syria's forces "to a breaking point.”



Image: The cover of the CFR's flattering report on US-Turkey relations, full of empty promises to entice Turkish leaders into falling on their swords for Western ambitions across the Middle East. And of course, the report is written in the context of what Turkey can do for the US in terms of Syria and Iran in particular. Pro-genocide Madeleine Albright chaired the "task force" that produced the report



To help convince Turkey to "take the plunge" for NATO, the Council on Foreign Relations has recently published a report attempting to flesh out an improved alliance between the US and Turkey - claiming the new relationship would trump the potential for US cooperation with any BRICS nation (except perhaps India). This patronizing political stunt attempts to fill Turkish leaders with delusions of grandeur, tempting them with "goodies" ahead of falling on their swords for Wall Street and London's ambitions in Syria and Iran. Turkish leaders might reassess such grandiose claims and remember BRICS' growth and benefits are based on solidarity and production, avoiding "alliances" with Wall Street, London, and their institutions, while conversely, Wall Street and London's "benefits" are based on domination, exploitation, betrayal, and unsustainable pyramid schemes.

Syria's fate rests on both Syria and its allies' ability to produce a tactical reality on the ground that would make any foreign military incursion a disaster. It also depends on either Turkey's wisdom or foolishness in considering the elementary ploy and poisoned "goodies" the West is dangling in front of it in exchange for complicity in dividing and destroying neighboring Syria.

The corporate-financiers centered around the capitals of the West have committed to a global war aimed at permanently destroying nation-states and replacing them with a homogeneous administrative system built out of Wall Street and London-funded NGOs, interlocking with the West's contrived "international institutions." It is in essence, a World War, currently being fought with 4th generation warfare to build a neo-imperial global government has begun. With overt efforts to destabilize nations around the world, including Russia and China, the West's hand is revealed and there is no turning back.

The only hope of stopping disaster if either the corporate-financiers succeed or fail (thus turning in and feeding on itself), is to recognize their source of power, and begin undermining it on a daily basis through both boycotting their goods and services, while simultaneously replacing their corporations and institutions with local, genuine alternatives. Syria may seem like an isolated conflict, but is in reality linked to us directly, regardless of where we live. Either we live in a nation that will be next, or a nation who will be further crushed under the hubris, power, and arrogance of an empowered Wall Street and London elite.

Source Material:

Turkey begins fabricating "cross border" incidents to justify Brookings prescribed "safe havens" inside Syria
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.ca/2012/04/syrian-peace-deal-uns-cloak-to-natos.html

Brookings Report on Syria
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2012/0315_syria_saban/0315_syria_saban.pdf

Already committed to helping Assad fail
http://www.acus.org/natosource/us-already-committed-helping-assad-fall

Syrian Rebels are Foreign-backed Terrorists
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.ca/2012/03/syrian-rebels-are-foreign-backed.html

Free Syrian Army commanded by Military Governor of Tripoli
http://www.voltairenet.org/Free-Syrian-Army-commanded-by

Annan’s Mission Impossible
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/05/08/kofi_annan_mission_impossible?page=full

UN Working With NATO to Provide Pretext for Syrian Intervention
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.ca/2012/04/un-working-with-nato-to-provide-pretext.html

Church fears ethnic cleansing of Christians in
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/03/church-fears-ethnic-cleansing-of-christians-in-homs-syria.html

NATO's Slow Genocide in Libya: Syria is Next
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.ca/2012/04/natos-slow-genocide-in-libya-syria-is.html

Russia bids to unite Syria’s fractured opposition
http://en.ria.ru/russia/20120426/173076916-print.html

UN Mute Over NATO's Syrian Death Squads
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.ca/2012/05/un-mute-over-natos-syrian-death-squads.html

Bombs hit Syrian army truck escorting UN Team
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/05/20125991921190130.html

A Year Later, HRW Admits Syrian Rebels Guilty of Atrocities
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.ca/2012/03/year-later-hrw-admits-syrian-rebels.html

Outgunned Syria rebels make shift to bombs
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/30/us-syria-bombs-idUSBRE83T0XY20120430

CFR Task Force Report: US – Turkey Relations
http://www.cfr.org/turkey/us-turkey-relations/p28139

Madeleine Albright – Statement: “Genocide is worth it”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbIX1CP9qr4

CFR Publication - Interview: Stephan J. Hadley - A New US Turkey partnership?
http://www.cfr.org/turkey/new-us-turkey-partnership/p28180

Globalist blitzkrieg signals largest geopolitical reordering since WW2
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.ca/2011/02/middle-east-then-world.html

Tearing down sovereign nations & replacing them with global system administrators
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.ca/2012/02/empires-double-edged-sword-global.html

Russian Oppositions caught filing into US Embassy in Moscow!
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.ca/2012/05/unbelievable-russian-oppositions-confab.html

The globalist blitzkrieg's final destination is Beijing
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.ca/2011/03/target-china.html

Naming Names: Your Real Government
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.ca/2011/03/naming-names-your-real-government.html

Destroy the Globalists: One Fat-Cat Corporation at a Time
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.ca/2011/04/destroy-globalists.html

Self-Sufficiency: a universal solution to the globalist problem
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.ca/2011/03/globalists-worst-nightmare.html

At least 40 killed in twin blasts at Damascus intel compound, terrorists blamed (PHOTOS)

People run carrying a burnt body at the site of an explosion in Damascus May 10, 2012. (Reuters / Sana

Source: Russia Today
http://rt.com/news/syria-blasts-dead-opposition-886/

At least 40 people have been killed and 170 others injured by two powerful blasts in the Syrian capital on Thursday morning. The car bombs detonated near a military intelligence building.

The blasts happened just as employees were arriving at work. Ambulances are trying to reach the victims of what’s been branded a terrorist attack by the state television, AP reports.

A number of bomb attacks have happened in Syria since the UN-brokered ceasefire between loyalists troops and armed opposition forces was announced in mid-April.

The major latest attack occurred on April 27, when a bomber wearing a suicide vest set off an explosion near members of the security forces. The blast killed at least nine people and wounded 26.

On Wednesday, a roadside bomb went off in the country’s south-west, just seconds after the UN observer team head passed by with his convoy. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned that such incidents cast doubt over the observer mission’s future.

Some foreign-based opposition groups have routinely been blaming the Bashar al-Assad government for masterminding these terrorist attacks to discredit the opposition. Damascus denies such allegations, saying radical militant groups funded, armed and trained by countries hostile to Syria are behind the violence.

Qatar and Saudi Arabia have admitted that they support Syrian opposition financially. It is believed that Turkey is turning a blind eye on armed groups using Syrian refugee camps on Turkish territory near the border to rest and regroup before moving into Syria.

It seems armed opposition groups, which failed to take control over any part of the country and turn it into their base of operation, are now resorting to guerilla tactics to attack the government. A ceasefire and political solution to the conflict are not in their interest, because they want nothing short of a total collapse of the Assad regime.

The Syrian government is seeking resolution of the violent crisis, which has been ravaging the country for 15 months, through political reform. This week it held a parliamentary election, the first ballot in decades involving competing political parties.


Smoke rises from the wreckage of mangled vehicles at the site of an explosion in Damascus May 10, 2012. (Reuters / Sana)


An image grab taken from Syrian state television shows Syrians inspecting charred corpses at the site of twin blasts in Damascus on May 10, 2012. (AFP Photo / SYRIAN TV)


People and security personnel try to remove a car from an explosion site in Damascus May 10, 2012. (Reuters / Sana)


Syrians inspect a crate at the site of twin blasts in Damascus on May 10, 2012. (AFP Photo / Louai Beshara)

US boosts bunker busters to target Iran

The Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker buster bomb (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/223534.html

War planners at the Pentagon are stepping up efforts to make the largest conventional bomb more powerful in order to use against Iranian nuclear facilities.

The 30,000-pound "bunker buster" bomb, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, was specifically designed to take out the facilities built by Iran deep underground for its nuclear program, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

However, initial tests showed that the earth-penetrating weapon, which is built by Boeing Co., was not capable to destroy Iran's underground compounds, either because of their depth or because new fortifications prevent any harm to them.

The findings prompted the Pentagon to submit a clandestine request to the Congress this month, urging more fund to increase the penetrative force of the bomb into rock, concrete and steel before explosion.

American officials say the push for a more bunker buster bomb is part of the contingency planning for a possible strike against Iran's nuclear installations.

The US Defense Department has spent about USD330 million so far to develop about 20 Massive Ordnance Penetrators. The Pentagon is seeking about USD82 million more to enhance the bomb's penetration ability.

The United States, Israel, and some of their allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear program. Washington and Tel Aviv have repeatedly threatened Tehran with the "option" of a military strike against its atomic facilities.

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council -- under pressure from Washington and Tel Aviv -- has imposed four rounds of sanctions against Iran. The United States and the European Union have also adopted unilateral measures against the Islamic Republic in an effort to deter Western investment in Iran's energy sector.

Iran argues that as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has every right to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

The IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence indicating that Tehran's civilian nuclear program has been diverted to nuclear weapons production.

Iran vows legal bid on Israeli terror

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/159627.html


Iran says it will exploit all its resources to condemn Israel and bring the regime to justice over its terror efforts against Iranian nuclear scientists.

“The issue that we will actively pursue is the condemnation of this illegal regime (Israel) and its punishment as the perpetrator of crimes against humanity and our scientists,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said at his weekly press briefing on Tuesday.

“We will definitely utilize all our means and capabilities to follow up the case in international legal bodies,” he said.

We will also pursue a legal case for the Israeli terror efforts using evidence and documentations compiled on the issue, he added.

The Iranian spokesperson also condemned Western support of the Israeli regime in sponsoring and carrying out acts of terrorism.

“That the Zionist regime (Israel) officially announces that it has had a hand in such terror efforts is indicative of an ongoing state terrorism and we regret that Western countries support such illegitimate acts by Israel.”

Mehmanparast's remarks came in response to a question about Iran's legal pursuits against the assassination of Iranian nuclear physics scientist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi.

Dr. Ali-Mohammadi, a lecturer at the University of Tehran, was killed when a remote-controlled bomb detonated near his house in the north of the Iranian capital, Tehran, in July 2010.

Iran's Intelligence Ministry said in a statement released on Monday that it has arrested the main perpetrators in connection with the assassination and dismantled a network comprising of Israeli-trained spies and terrorists following extensive security operations.

It said that Israeli intelligence service Mossad has used bases in certain European and non-European countries as well as some of Iran's neighboring states in an attempt to achieve its inhumane, anti-Islam and anti-Iranian objectives, including the assassination of Dr. Ali-Mohammadi.

Nuclear scientists hitmen trained by Mossad

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/159527.html


Senior Iranian lawmaker Esmail Kowsari says the assassins of an Iranian nuclear scientist have confessed to being supported by the Israeli intelligence service.

In July 2010, Iranian nuclear physics scientist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi was killed when a remote-controlled bomb detonated near his house in the north of the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Following security operations, Iran finally succeeded in arresting the main agents behind the terrorist incident and dismantled a network comprising of spies and terrorists commissioned by Israel, Intelligence Ministry announced on Monday.

Long before the assassination of Ali-Mohammadi, the intelligence officials of Israel, the UK and the US had publicly threatened to kill our nuclear scientists, Kowsari said on Monday.

“These [arrested] people have confessed that they had received assassination training from [Israeli inrtelligenece agency] Mossad; and Mossad had provided all their equipment,” Fars News Agency quoted deputy head of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission on Monday.

Kowsari added that the confessions of the detainees could be helpful in the arrest of the perpetrators of Dr. Majid Shahriari's assassination.

On November 29, unknown terrorists detonated bombs in the vehicles of Majid Shahriari and Fereydoun Abbasi -- both professors at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran.

Shahriari was killed immediately, but Abbasi and his wife sustained minor injuries and were transferred to a hospital and later released.

“Certainly these people are not the perpetrators of Dr. Shahriari assassination, but given the fact that all these terrorists take orders from Mossad, the confession of the detainees could be helpful in the arrest of agents behind the assassination of Dr. Shahriari and Dr. Abbasi,” Kowsari concluded.

Iran's Intelligence Ministry said in its statement that the Israeli intelligence service Mossad has used bases in certain European and non-European countries as well as Iran's neighboring states in an attempt to achieve its inhumane goals.

UN team finds 340 unexploded Israeli bombs in Gaza

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121311&sectionid=351020202


The United Nations Mine Action Team says they have recovered 340 unexploded Israeli bombs and shells, including phosphorous shells, in Gaza.

The unexploded ordnance include 84 white phosphorous shells and seven 1-ton bombs dropped by Israeli aircraft on Gazans during the 22-day assault on the blockaded Gaza Strip from December 2008 to January 2009 Gaza war.

More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the three weeks of Israel's land, sea and air assault in "Operation Cast Lead," at the impoverished coastal sliver. The offensive also inflicted $1.6 billion damage to the Gaza economy.

Kerei Ruru of the UN explosives experts team said that they have blown up several Israeli white phosphorous shells.

The detonation was only the second they have carried out as they are trying to rid Gaza of munitions left behind in the Gaza war. The Israeli government is to be blamed for the delays in detonations, he said.

More than a year after the end of the war, unexploded bombs are still leading to casualties in Gaza. Ten Gazans have so far been killed.

Hamas officials are also keeping their own stockpiles of unexploded ordnance, Ruru said.

Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recently said that it will open an investigation into Israel's alleged use of depleted uranium during its 22-day assault in the Gaza Strip.

In a 71-page report, the Human Rights Watch last March accused Israel of indiscriminate phosphorus use in Gaza.

It said the repeated use of air-burst white phosphorus artillery shells in populated areas of Gaza was not incidental or accidental, but revealed “a pattern or policy of conduct”.

It said the Israeli military used white phosphorus in a “deliberate or reckless” way.
-----------------------------

UN Chief visits Gaza amid Israeli siege



Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121327&sectionid=351020202


The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has arrived in the besieged Gaza Strip as part of his two-day tour of the Middle East.

Before heading to Gaza, Ban said by visiting the region he aims to express solidarity with the Palestinians living in the coastal enclave and their strife.

The UN chief also highlighted the need to end the blockade that Israel has imposed on the strip.

While in Jerusalem (al-Quds) on Saturday, Ban criticized Israeli officials for subjecting Palestinian civilians to what he called unacceptable hardships.

Israel has continued to close all border crossings to the Gaza Strip ever since the Hamas movement won a large majority in the 2006 legislative elections.

The illegal Israeli-imposed blockade on the Gaza Strip, which has steadily tightened since 2007, has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the coastal enclave.

Some 1.5 million people are being denied their basic rights, including the freedom of movement and the rights to appropriate living conditions, work, health and education.

Poverty and unemployment rates stand at approximately 80% and 60% respectively in the Gaza Strip.

This is Ban's second visit to Gaza after the deadly 22-day offensive that the Israeli military carried in the coastal region back in 2008-2009.

Three weeks of Israeli air strikes and a ground incursion into Gaza between Late December 2008 and early January 2009 resulted in the death of over 1,400 Palestinians and the injury of about 5,450 people in the Gaza Strip. Most of the victims were civilians.

The carnage also inflicted more than $1.6 billion of damage on Gaza's economy.

Diego Garcia bunker-busters meant to threaten Iran

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=120910§ionid=351020101


The Sunday Herald has reported that hundreds of powerful US "bunker-buster" bombs are being shipped from California to the British island of Diego Garcia.

In January, the US government signed a contract to transport 10 ammunition containers to the island, the Scottish newspaper wrote on March 14.

According to a cargo manifest from the US navy, this included 387 “Blu-110” and "Blu-117" bombs used for blasting hardened or underground structures. Crucially, the cargo included 195 smart, guided, Blu-110 bombs and 192 massive 2000lb Blu-117 bombs.

Experts say that they are being put in place for an assault on Iran's nuclear facilities, added the newspaper.

There has long been speculation that the US military is preparing for such an attack should diplomacy fail to persuade Iran to halt uranium enrichment.

Although Diego Garcia is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, it is used by the US as a military base under an agreement made in 1971. The agreement led to 2,000 native islanders being forcibly evicted to the Seychelles and Mauritius.

The Sunday Herald reported in 2007 that stealth bomber hangers on Diego Garcia Island were being equipped to accommodate bunker-buster bombs.

Although the story was not confirmed at the time, the new evidence suggests that it was accurate, the latest edition of the Sunday Herald said.

A shipping company based in Florida, Superior Maritime Services, will be paid $699,500 to carry many thousands of military items from Concord, California to Diego Garcia.

"The US is not publicizing the scale of these preparations to deter Iran, tending to make confrontation more likely," the Sunday Herald quoted Dan Plesch, the director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of London, as saying.

"The US… is using its forces as part of an overall strategy of shaping Iran's actions," he added.

According to Ian Davis, the director of the new independent think tank NATO Watch, the shipment to Diego Garcia is a major concern. “We would urge the US to clarify its intentions for these weapons, and the Foreign Office to clarify its attitude to the use of Diego Garcia for an attack on Iran,” he said.

The British Ministry of Defense has said in the past that the US government would need permission to use Diego Garcia for offensive action.

However, the US military used Diego Garcia as a base to attack Iraq in 1991 and 2003.

About 50 British military personnel are stationed on the island and over 3,200 US troops.

Tehran blast kills nuclear physics scientist

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=115934§ionid=351020101


An Iranian nuclear physics scientist has been killed in a remote-controlled bomb attack in the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Dr. Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, a lecturer at the Tehran University and a staunch supporter of the Islamic Revolution, was killed in booby-trapped motorbike blast on Tuesday.

The explosion took place near the professor's home in Qeytariyeh neighborhood, in northern Tehran.

Iran's police and security bodies are investigating the terrorist case to identify those behind it.

Press TV correspondent Amir Mehdi Kazemi, reporting from the scene of the assassination, quoted security officials as saying that the equipment and system of the bomb used in the attack had been related to a number of foreign intelligence agencies, particularly Israel's Mossad.

Meanwhile, Tehran's Prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi confirmed the assassination of the university lecturer on Tuesday morning and said that he taught neutron nuclear physics at the University of Tehran.

"No suspect has been arrested yet," he told the Iranian Students News Agency.

He added that Ali-Mohammadi was killed when a motorbike parked near his car exploded.

The terrorist attack came as Shahram Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist, went missing in the Saudi holy city of Medina while on a pilgrimage visit in June 2009.

In December, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said Tehran had information that authorities in Riyadh had delivered Amiri to the United States.

He added that Amiri is among eleven Iranian nationals held in detention in US prisons.

It seems the kidnap and assassination of Iranian scientists is on the agenda of the United States.