The Human Costs of Bombing Iran

With the rumour mill grinding out terrifying predictions about a 6th of April attack on Iran by the US it is perhaps not a bad idea to stand still by what this actually means in the cost of human lives and the loss of an ancient civilisation.

George Bush didn’t exactly deny Seymour Hersh’s report in The New Yorker that the Administration is considering using tactical nuclear weapons against Iran.

Neither did Scott McClellan.

Bush called it “wild speculation,” and McClellan said the United States would go ahead with “normal military contingency planning.”

Those are hardly categorical denials.

So let’s look at what the human costs of dropping a tactical nuclear weapon on Iran might entail.

They are astronomical.

“The number of deaths could exceed a million, and the number of people with increased cancer risks could exceed 10 million,” according to a backgrounder by the Union of Concerned Scientists from May 2005.

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War pimp allert: Pentagon Orders “Bunker-Busters” for Urgent Delivery; Strike on Iran in the Works?

Where would the military use a stealth bomber armed with a 30,000-pound bomb, and why the rush?
Tucked inside the White House’s $196 billion emergency funding request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is an item that has some people wondering whether the administration is preparing for military action against Iran.

The item: $88 million to modify B-2 stealth bombers so they can carry a newly developed 30,000-pound bomb called the massive ordnance penetrator, or, in military-speak, the MOP.

The MOP is the the military’s largest conventional bomb, a super “bunker-buster” capable of destroying hardened targets deep underground. The one-line explanation for the request said it is in response to “an urgent operational need from theater commanders.”

What urgent need? The Pentagon referred questions on this to Central Command.

ABC News called CENTCOM to ask what the “urgent operational need” is. CENTCOM spokesman Maj. Todd White said he would look into it, but, so far, no answer.

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War pimp allert: Petraeus: Iran still fueling war

FORWARD OPERATING BASE CALDWELL, Iraq (CNN) — Although America’s top general in Iraq called al Qaeda “the wolf closest to the sled,” he said sectarian fighting among militias fueled by Iran could be the biggest long-term challenge for Iraq.

Petraeus says Iran must prove it is no longer supplying weapons to Iraq militias.

Gen. David Petraeus, in an interview with CNN’s Jim Clancy near the Iranian border in Diyala province, said, “Militias could potentially be the long-term problem for Iraq, if you assume that we can continue to make progress against al Qaeda,” Petraeus said.

He said he is in a “show-me mode,” waiting to see if Iran honors a pledge to stop the flow of arms, money and training from Iran into Iraq that has helped both Shiite and Sunni militants.

“Al Qaeda remains the wolf closest to the sled, if you will. The enemy that is always bent on reigniting sectarian violence, causing the most horrific casualties, damaging the infrastructure in the most difficult way. So you cannot lose focus on al Qaeda.”

But, Petraeus added, there was “no question” that Iranian arms were ending up in the hands of the Iraqi militias and there was “no debate” that six Iranians detained by the U.S. military in northern Iraq are Iranian Quds force members, the Iranian unit accused by the United States of training and arming insurgents.

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Pentagon Issues Blackwater New $92 Million Contract

Presidential Airways, Inc is not just a nice aviation service, they have been implicated in the CIA rendition flights.
It is extremely worrying the a trigger happy mercenary group closely connected to Cheney gets this job in a highly volatile region were appart from Afghanistan no official American business is conducted.  

Earlier this month, Blackwater USA was involved in the fatal shooting of 11 Iraqi civilians. While the Iraqi government swiftly condemned the contractor, the Bush administration has continued to back Blackwater’s story that it was “defensive fire.”

Last Thursday, Gen. Peter Pace told reporters, “Blackwater has been a contractor in the past with the department and could certainly be in the future.” The next day, that future was already here. The Pentagon had issued a new list of contracts, including one worth $92 million to Presidential Airways, the “aviation unit of parent company Blackwater.” From the release:

Presidential Airways, Inc., an aviation Worldwide Services company (d/b/a Blackwater Aviation), Moyock, N.C., is being awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) type contract for $92,000,000.00. The contractor is to provide all fixed-wing aircraft, personnel, equipment, tools, material, maintenance and supervision necessary to perform passenger, cargo and combi Short Take-Off and Landing air transportation services between locations in the Area of Responsibility of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. This contract was competitively procured and two timely offers were received. The performance period is from 1 Oct. 2007 to 30 September 2011.

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The picture that proves ‘torture flights’ are STILL landing in the UK

Blackwater involved in Rendition flights. 

 
 
This flight was spotted landing at a UK airport – proof that ‘rendition ‘ flights are still taking place 

By GLEN OWEN

The row over CIA ‘torture flights’ using British airports has deepened following fresh evidence that a plane repeatedly linked to the controversial programme landed in the UK just days ago.

The plane was logged arriving at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk last weekend, and watching aviation experts said the aircraft, piloted by crew clad in desert fatigues, was immediately surrounded on the runway by armed American security forces.

Its registration number, clearly visible on the fuselage, identifies it as a plane which the European Parliament says has been involved in ‘ghost flights’ to smuggle terrorist suspects to shadowy interrogation centres abroad. Records show the plane is owned by Blackwater USA, a CIA contractor described as ‘the most secretive and powerful mercenary army on the planet’. An eyewitness, who previously worked as an RAF electronic warfare expert, said that as the plane – a CASA-212 Aviocar – taxied to a stop on the runway it was met by a US military Humvee.

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Radar fails in Memphis; hundreds of flights affected

 ATLANTA (CNN) — Air traffic controllers were forced to use their personal cell phones to reroute hundreds of flights Tuesday after the Federal Aviation Administration’s Memphis Center lost radar and telephone service for more than two hours, snarling air traffic in the middle of the nation.

The FAA’s Memphis Center lost communication service Tuesday, affecting FedEx flights and others.

A spokesman for FedEx, which has its hub in Memphis, Tennessee, said the package delivery company had diverted 11 aircraft to other cities. But most of its flights take off and land after 10 p.m., so FedEx expected the impact to be minimal, the spokesman said.

Air traffic was halted at 12:35 p.m. ET when a major communication line that feeds all the telephones at the FAA’s Memphis Center failed, said FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen.

Service was restored at 3 p.m.

The malfunction, which occurred inside a telephone company’s switching office, made it impossible for air controllers at FAA’s Memphis Center to communicate normally with adjoining centers to hand off control of flights, Bergen said.

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Duty, Honor, Country 2007

An Open Letter to the New Generation of Military Officers Serving and Protecting Our Nation

By Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF, ret., National Commander, The Patriots

9/14/07

“The Nuremberg Principles says that we in the military have not only the right, but also the DUTY to refuse an illegal order. It was on this basis that we executed Nazi officers who were ‘only carrying out their orders’… The Constitution which we are sworn to uphold says that treaties entered into by the United States are the ‘highest law of the land,’ equivalent to the Constitution itself. Accordingly, we in the military are sworn to uphold treaty law, including the United Nations charter and the Geneva Convention… Based on the above, I contend that should some civilian order you to initiate a nuclear attack on Iran (for example), you are duty-bound to refuse that order. I might also suggest that you should consider whether the circumstances demand that you arrest whoever gave the order as a war criminal.”

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Secret raid on Korean shipment

 Uzi Mahnaimi in Tel Aviv, Sarah Baxter in Washington and Michael Sheridan

IT was just after midnight when the 69th Squadron of Israeli F15Is crossed the Syrian coast-line. On the ground, Syria’s formidable air defences went dead. An audacious raid on a Syrian target 50 miles from the Iraqi border was under way.

At a rendezvous point on the ground, a Shaldag air force commando team was waiting to direct their laser beams at the target for the approaching jets. The team had arrived a day earlier, taking up position near a large underground depot. Soon the bunkers were in flames.

Ten days after the jets reached home, their mission was the focus of intense speculation this weekend amid claims that Israel believed it had destroyed a cache of nuclear materials from North Korea.

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Mystery deepens over Israeli strike on Syria

By Donald Macintyrein Jerusalem

Published: 15 September 2007

 

Israel is still maintaining official silence a week after Syria complained that Israeli aircraft invaded its airspace in a mysterious incident which raised tensions and triggered a welter of US media speculation about possible targets for the operation.

Explanations – for what anonymous US officials have said was a strike inside Syria – range from suggesting it was aimed at the shipment of weapons to Hizbollah from Iran, to saying Syria may be building a nuclear facility with North Korean help.

Syria, which has asked for a formal complaint to be “circulated” to the UN Security Council, said last week that Israeli aircraft unloaded ammunition after being spotted and fired on by its air defences but inflicted no damage.

Reuters, The New York Times and CNN have all quoted officials – mainly in the US – as saying that Israel carried out a strike in Syria. Reuters quoted an unnamed US official on Wednesday as saying: “The strike I can confirm. The target I can’t.” The agency quoted another US official as saying that reports on the targets were “confused”.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported this week a US official as saying that recent satellite imagery, mainly provided by Israel, suggested that Syria may building some form of nuclear facility with the help of material unloaded by North Korea.

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The 9/11 Mystery Plane (Part II)

Although flight data analysis by the pilots for 911 truth group has shown that whatever flew towards the Pentagon flew to high to have hit it this is still an interesting article.

Especially in light of the recent admission that an E-4B had indeed flown over the White house on 911.

In a recent article, I presented compelling evidence that an E-4B, the US military’s most advanced command and control platform, circled over the White House at the time of the September 11, 2001 attack.[1] Officially known as the National Emergency Airborne Command Post (NEACP, pronounced knee-cap), the E-4B’s more common name is the “doomsday” plane. This paper will expand that discussion and will ultimately argue that the military fudged the time of the pentagon crash to conceal the presence of the E-4B.

As in any wartime situation, the day of September 11 2001 was marked by tremendous uncertainty and confusion. Although a total of four commercial airliners were involved in the attack, the FAA processed numerous false reports of other hijackings, well into the afternoon. By one account New York City firemen at the World Trade Center also received a false alarm about a third suicide plane.[2] There was a bomb scare at the FAA’s Boston Air Traffic Center, as well as a false alarm about an approaching suicide plane that prompted the evacuation of the building.[3] An evacuation also occurred at another FAA facility on Martha’s Vineyard when a large white plane was sighted near the tower. [4] Unfortunately, this low-flying plane was never identified. There were also evacuations at Reagan National Airport in Washington and at Cleveland Airport. There was even a reported threat to Air Force One, which delayed President Bush’s return to Washington.[5]

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