14 Iranians in US custody in Iraq

The US troops in Iraq currently have fourteen Iranians in their custody, they had freed 10 others last year, a military official says.

The Iranians are “being held as imperative threats to security in accordance with United Nations Security resolution,” the US Central Command claimed in a statement from its headquarters in Tampa, Florida.

“The dates and times of their individual capture are not immediately available,” Major Brad Leighton, spokesman for the US military in Iraq told AFP on Monday.
Read more

War pimp alert: U.S. sees attacks by Iranian-backed groups up in Iraq

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Attacks by Iranian-backed groups in Iraq have increased in recent months, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday, casting doubt on the view Iran might have reduced its support for violence in the war.

David Satterfield, the State Department’s Iraq coordinator, said he believed Iran’s strategy remained to force the United States to withdraw from Iraq at as high a price as possible.

The United States has 158,000 troops in Iraq seeking to quell an insurgency and sectarian violence that erupted after the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled former dictator Saddam Hussein.

Satterfield said President George W. Bush hoped to leave his successor a more stable Iraq and the time to weigh options on how to deal with the country, which holds the world’s third largest oil reserves.

Attacks across Iraq have fallen by 60 percent since June 2007, when Bush’s “surge” of 30,000 additional U.S. troops became fully deployed.

Read more

War pimp alert: Breaking cables accident or Internet warfare?

Friday 1 February the BBC broke the news that two of the undersea cables providing the middle east with Internet had been broken. Causing a critical telecom breakdown in countries as far ranging as Egypt and India. This was the second cable breakage in a day. Both cables are owned by the same English Telecoms company, U.K. FLAG Telecom . The reason for these breaks was not known but it was thought that an anker cable might be responsible. One cable was near Alexandria in the Mediterranean Sea and the second was 58 Km from Dubai. Repair ships had been send out to repair the cables but this could take up to two weeks in total.

It is curious that while these cables have been floating undisturbed in the Oceans for a long time and were never hit or damaged and all of a sudden two cables are completely severed in one day. What would be the odds at that happening?
What’s even more curious is that while China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan all reported some loss in their ability to  use the Internet the only country to have been completely disconnected from the Internet was Iran.

What makes this even more suspect is the fact that neither Israel nor Iraq were affected by the cut cables. None of this was mentioned in the BBC article, which strikes me as incomplete reporting. To make the situation even more bizarre is the fact that in an unprecedented cluster of cable break accidents a third cable was severed in the Persian golf. This cable is also owned by the same English firm. The break in this cable caused severe telephone disruptions on top of the Internet disruptions  already experienced in the region.

This break will take about two weeks to be repaired. These three events combined mean that Iran will be incommunicado for up to two weeks. It will severely disrupt the countries ability to do business and will be hugely damaging to their economy. It will help to destabilize the country in ways the Bush regime could only dream about. It also hampers the countries ability to reach out to the world directly and show their side of the “incidents” that America is using to trigger a war. This worked very well in for example the boat incident, some weeks ago, and a little longer ago Iran could proof it’s innocence when accused of providing the resistance with bombs.

The reason given for the breaks is hardly convincing, to think that huge ships sail around with their ankers hanging of the ship is so unlikely that it can not be taken seriously. That and the fact that all three cables belonged to the same company and that Iran is the only country completely cut of while Israel and Iraq have absolutely no problems strikes me as highly suspicious.

The Pentagon published a paper called the Information Operation Road map. In it it states; The Internet needs to be dealt with as if it were an enemy “weapons system”. I wonder is this the first of Iran’s “weapon systems” that is killed off while America prepares for an attack.  Iran is effectively isolated from the rest of the world with no means of communicating to the rest of us what is happening there. I can’t believe this is just an accident. The Neocon fascists have been biting at the bit, The Israelis are being prepared to be bombed. I have the feeling that we will see an incident between US soldiers and Iranians and it will trigger an invasion with the Iranians unable to use the Internet to show their side of the story.

War pimp alert: Israel gearing up for Another War

Israel calls for shelter rooms to be set up in a bid to prepare the public for yet another war, this time, one of raining missiles.

“The next war will see a massive use of ballistic weapons against the whole of Israeli territory,” claimed retired general Udi Shani.

Shani did not specify whether by ‘the next war’ he meant a battle against the residents of the Gaza Strip, the Lebanese or the war many speculate Israel will wage on Iran allegedly over its nuclear program, which the recent US National Intelligence Estimate conceded to be void of nuclear arms development intentions.
Read more

War pimp alert: Gadhafi son may be linked to Iraq attack

A devastating explosion in northern Iraq was spearheaded by foreign fighters under the sponsorship of Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, son of the Libyan leader, a security chief for Sunni tribesmen who rose up against al-Qaida in Iraq said Saturday.Col. Jubair Rashid Naief, who also is a police official in Anbar province, said the Anbar Awakening Council had alerted the U.S. military to the possible arrival in the northern city of Mosul of the Seifaddin Regiment, made up of about 150 foreign and Iraqi fighters, as long as three months ago.

The U.S. military did not immediately respond to an e-mail request for comment about Naief’s claim.

“They crossed the Syrian border nearest to Mosul within the last two to three months. Since then, they have taken up positions in the city and begun blowing up cars and launching other terror operations,” Naief told The Associated Press.

Read more

War pimp alert: Over 40 Russian planes to take part in naval drills in Atlantic

MOSCOW, January 24 (RIA Novosti) – Over 40 aircraft of Russia’s Air Force will take part in the final stage of a naval exercise in the Atlantic later this month, an aide to the Air Force commander said on Thursday.

“The Air Force will play an active role in the final stage of the naval task force exercises. Over 40 planes will be employed from January 28 to February 1,” Alexander Drobyshevsky said.

He said Tu-160 Blackjacks, Tu-95MS Bears, Tu-22M3 Backfire C strategic bombers, A-50 Mainstay airborne early warning aircraft, Il-78 Midas aerial tankers, MiG-31 Foxhound long-range interceptors and Su-27 Flanker frontline fighter aircraft will participate in the drills.

Read more

War pimp alert: Pre-emptive nuclear strike a key option, Nato told.

The crazies are running the madhouse.

Ian Traynor in Brussels
Tuesday January 22, 2008
The Guardian

A British Trident missile. Photograph: AP

The west must be ready to resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to try to halt the “imminent” spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, according to a radical manifesto for a new Nato by five of the west’s most senior military officers and strategists.Calling for root-and-branch reform of Nato and a new pact drawing the US, Nato and the European Union together in a “grand strategy” to tackle the challenges of an increasingly brutal world, the former armed forces chiefs from the US, Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands insist that a “first strike” nuclear option remains an “indispensable instrument” since there is “simply no realistic prospect of a nuclear-free world”.

Read more 

The Gaza strip is dying: 1.5 million people have no electricity, water or bread

I call this genocide.

War pimp alert:U.S. says Iran still training Iraqi militias

By Ross Colvin

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The U.S. military said on Sunday there had been a dramatic drop in the number of Iranian weapons being smuggled into Iraq but no let-up in Tehran’s training and financing of Iraqi militias.

Washington has accused Tehran of supplying Shi’ite militias with sophisticated weapons, including deadly armor-piercing bombs known as explosively formed penetrators (EFPs), to attack American troops. Tehran denies the charge.

“We do believe that the number of signature weapons that have come from Iran … are down dramatically. We do not think levels of training have been reduced at all. We don’t believe levels of financing are reduced,” U.S. military spokesman Rear Admiral Greg Smith told reporters in Baghdad.

His comments come at a time of heightened tensions between Iran and the United States after Washington said its warships were threatened by Iranian craft in the Strait of Hormuz earlier this month. The two countries are already at odds over Iran’s determination to pursue a nuclear program.

Read more

War pimp alert: Israel must bomb Iran for Bush: US Rep. advisor

Sunday, January 20, 2008 – ?2005 IranMania.com

LONDON, January 20 (IranMania) – A senior Republican advisor says since it is ‘politically impossible’ for Bush to attack Iran, the job should be ‘outsourced’ to Israel, PressTV reported.

If Tehran does not halt its nuclear program, Israel will ‘inevitably’ wreak mayhem on Iran, wrote Norman Podhoretz in the February edition of Commentary.

Podhoretz, who is considered as one of the founders of neoconservatism, insists that Israel may even be forced to attack Iran’s Arab neighbors to prevent them from assisting Tehran if the country acquires nuclear technology.

The neocon godfather is said to have a close relationship with President George W. Bush and is now serving as the foreign policy advisor to Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani.

Podhoretz stated a year ago that the current administration will strike Iran’s nuclear facilities before the US president leaves office.

However, the US National Intelligence Estimate released in December concluded that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program.

Podhoretz claimed the NIE report made it ‘politically impossible’ for the Bush administration to wage war on Iran as the international community believes Iran’s nuclear program is civilian.

War pimp alert: US says ‘reckless’ Iran should avoid naval confrontations

So let me get this straight. US naval ships are roaming around the Persian golf in an obvious attempt to rile Iran and they fly their fighter jets on secretive missions, and when a few Iranians in speedboats issue a verbal threat to blow up these huge monstrosities it is warned not to do that again. The Americans felt so threatened they almost blew these speedboats out of the water.

I wonder how the Americans would feel if Iran had huge vessels roaming around in oh, say the golf of Mexico near a city (well, ex-city) like New Orleans.

I would call the American vessels reckless for being in Iranian waters.

The United States on Tuesday rejected Iran’s assertion that a tense naval standoff between Washington and Tehran’s navies in the Strait of Hormuz was routine, and warned “they should not do it again.”

“It was out of the ordinary, it was reckless,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said, as US President George W. Bush prepared to depart on a week-long Middle East trip partly designed to seek a united front to face down Iran.

“It’s hard for us to tell what they were thinking, or what they were doing, or whether or not they plan to take any such actions in the future. What I can tell you is our position is they should not do it again,” she said.

Asked whether the incident bolstered Bush’s case against Iran, Perino replied: “I think it’s just another point of reference for people in the region who are concerned about the behavior of Iran.”

Read more

War pimp allert: Israel to brief George Bush on options for Iran strike

ISRAELI security officials are to brief President George W Bush on their latest intelligence about Iran’s nuclear programme – and how it could be destroyed – when he begins a tour of the Middle East in Jerusalem this week.

Ehud Barak, the defence minister, is said to want to convince him that an Israeli military strike against uranium enrichment facilities in Iran would be feasible if diplomatic efforts failed to halt nuclear operations. A range of military options has been prepared.

Last month it was revealed that the US National Intelligence Estimate report, drawing together information from 16 agencies, had concluded that Iran stopped a secret nuclear weapon programme in 2003.

Israeli intelligence is understood to agree that the project was halted around the time of America’s invasion of Iraq, but has “rock solid” information that it has since started up again.

Read more

function pictureGalleryPopup(pubUrl,articleId) { var newWin = window.open(pubUrl+’template/2.0-0/element/pictureGalleryPopup.jsp?id=’+articleId+’&&offset=0&&sectionName=WorldMiddleEast’,’mywindow’,’menubar=0,resizable=0,width=615,height=655′); }

Benazir Bhutto named her assassins almost two months ago

Benazir Bhutto the former Pakistani prime minister named her assassins almost two months ago during her interview on November 02, 2007 with the world famous interviewer and British establishment pundit David Frost on his show “Frost over the world” (interview available on youtube titled “Benazir Bhutto: Bin Laden murdered”).  

The late Bhutto discussed with Frost the initial failed assassination attempt on her life that killed 158 Pakistanis two weeks after her return to Pakistan.
                                                    

The return of the late Ms. Bhutto to Pakistan was encouraged by the Anglo-American establishment under the guise of re-establishing democracy to this artificial country that was originally created by the colonial powers as a toxic thorn in the heart of India , and as a prospective tool for the destabilization of the region.

In her interview with Frost, the late Ms. Bhutto also discussed her knowledge of three people in the Pakistani government who are in collusion with the Islamists, and who might have been behind this failed assassination attempt. She also specifically stated that she wanted the Musharraf government to trace the finances of the terrorists instead of just naming them.  

She also added that one of these three men whom she suspected of orchestrating the assassination was a former military officer man who is also well connected to the Pakistani security agency, and who had dealings with another man named “Omar Sheikh” “who murdered Osama Bin Laden.” Ms. Bhutto did not make any attempt to correct herself about the murder of OBL, and the shrewd David Frost did not inquire either about this extraordinary statement, considering that the Anglo-American establishment’s war on terror has been totally choreographed around OBL. The late Ms.Bhutto also emphasized again in her interview the importance of pinning down the financiers of these extremists groups with their known connection to the ISI the Pakistani intelligence services. It is well known that the ISI was originally created and subsidized by western intelligence agencies to do their dirty work in the central Asian region. It has been the main mover and shaker of drug trafficking as well as the financing and training of Islamic militants since the Soviet-Afghani war in the late 70s and 80s. The ISI was also reportedly connected to 9/11.                                                                                            

Read more

War pimp alert: Bombing in Algeria linked to Al Qaida, Iran next?

(CNN) — Two suspected car bombs ripped through the Algerian capital Tuesday, reportedly killing at least 62 people in what appeared to be targeted attacks on government and United Nations buildings.

Rescue workers walk among damaged cars near the U.N. buildings.

1 of 2

var CNN_ArticleChanger = new CNN_imageChanger(‘cnnImgChngr’,’/2007/WORLD/africa/12/11/algeria.blast/imgChng/p1-0.init.exclude.html’,1,1); //CNN.imageChanger.load(‘cnnImgChngr’,’imgChng/p1-0.exclude.html’);

At least one U.N. worker — a driver for the Algiers office — has been confirmed dead, while another 12 staff members are apparently missing.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the blasts which he described as “terrorist attacks”, adding the dead included “a number of United Nations staff members.”

Jean Fabre, spokesman for the U.N. Development Program, told CNN a search was under way for the 12 missing staffers.

Algerian Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni blamed a militant Islamic group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).

The group aims to establish an Islamic state within Algeria. At a news conference, Zerhouni said the Supreme Court and Constitutional Council — hit by one of the two blasts — were known to have been on a list of GSPC targets.

The first bomb detonated near the Constitutional Council’s building in the Algiers neighborhood of Ben Aknoun, according to the state-run Algeria Press Agency.

The second exploded in the middle of the street between two U.N. buildings — the UNHCR offices and the U.N.’s main building — at approximately 9:30 a.m. (3:30 a.m. ET) in the residential area of Hydra, UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said.

Read more

War pimp alert: US knew Musharraf planned to institute emergency rule: report

Pakistan no longer has the protection of being a Commonwealth’s member.  Is this the prelude to an American military intervention in Pakistan?(Travellerev) 

The Bush Administration knew that Pakistani strongman Pervez Musharraf planned to institute emergency rule but did not act or speak out about the plan, according to officials with knowledge of the discussion who spoke anonymously in Friday’s Wall Street Journal.

“In the days before the Nov. 3 announcement, the general’s aides and advisers forewarned U.S. diplomats in a series of meetings in Islamabad, according to Pakistani and U.S. officials,” the paper said.

Because the US response was “muted,” Pakistan interpreted American silence as a green light to instituting martial law, quickly deposing an intransigent Supreme Court, which had ruled against the general in the past.

Read more

War pimp allert: Israeli sky-hack switched off Syrian radars countrywide

Backdoors penetrated without violence

By Lewis Page

Published Thursday 22nd November 2007 13:57 GMT

More rumours are starting to leak out regarding the mysterious Israeli air raid against Syria in September. It is now suggested that “computer to computer” techniques and “air-to-ground network penetration” took place.

The latest revelations are made by well-connected Aviation Week journalists. Electronic-warfare correspondent David Fulghum says that US intelligence and military personnel “provided advice” to the Israelis regarding methods of breaking into the Syrian air-defence network.

document.write(‘\x3Cscript src=”http://ad.uk.doubleclick.net/adj/reg.comms.4159/networks;’+RegExCats+GetVCs()+’pid=’+RegId+’;’+RegKW+’maid=’+maid+’;test=’+test+’;pf=’+RegPF+’;dcove=d;sz=336×280;tile=3;ord=’ + rand + ‘?” type=”text/javascript”>\x3C\/script>’);

Aviation Week‘s sources apparently said that the first move in the raid was a combined bombing and electronic attack on a Syrian radar site near the Turkish border, which allowed Israeli warplanes to fly in undetected. It seems that there was also some use of old-school brute force jamming.

So far, so conventional. However, Fulghum’s unidentified Pentagon contacts also said that after the Israelis crossed into Syrian airspace, US sensors in the region noted that the whole Syrian radar system “went off the air” for some time while the main raid on the Dayr as-Zawr facility (believed to have been a nuclear plant of some kind) went ahead.

Read more

War pimp allert: Iraqi fighters ‘grilled for evidence on Iran’

Interrogator says US military seeks evidence incriminating Tehran

David Smith in Baghdad
Sunday November 11, 2007
The Observer

Micah Brose, privately contracted interrogator working for US forces in Iraq. Photograph: David Smith
 

US military officials are putting huge pressure on interrogators who question Iraqi insurgents to find incriminating evidence pointing to Iran, it was claimed last night.Micah Brose, a privately contracted interrogator working for American forces in Iraq, near the Iranian border, told The Observer that information on Iran is ‘gold’. The claim comes after Washington imposed sanctions on Iran last month, citing both its nuclear ambitions and its Revolutionary Guards’ alleged support of Shia insurgents in Iraq. Last week the US military freed nine Iranians held in Iraq, including two it had accused of links to the Revolutionary Guards’ Qods Force.

Brose, 30, who extracts information from detainees in Iraq, said: ‘They push a lot for us to establish a link with Iran. They have pre-categories for us to go through, and by the sheer volume of categories there’s clearly a lot more for Iran than there is for other stuff. Of all the recent requests I’ve had, I’d say 60 to 70 per cent are about Iran.

‘It feels a lot like, if you get something and Iran’s not involved, it’s a let down.’ He added: ‘I’ve had people say to me, “They’re really pushing the Iran thing. It’s like, shit, you know.” ‘

Brose said that reports about Washington’s increasingly hawkish stance towards Tehran, including possible military action, chimed with his experience. ‘My impression is they’re just trying to get every little bit of ammunition possible. If we get something here it fits the overall picture. The engine needs impetus and they’re looking for us to find the fuel – a particular type of fuel.

Read more

War pimp allert: Is Israel About to Attack Hizballah?

NICHOLAS BLANFORD/BEIRUT

Israeli soldiers secure the gate at the Rosh Hanikra border crossing between Israel and Lebanon October 15, 2007.
Gil Cohen Magen / Reuters

Is Israel laying the ground for pre-emptive air strikes against targets belonging to the militant Shi’ite group Hizballah in Lebanon?

Tensions have been building along the Lebanon-Israel border in recent days. The Israeli army was engaged last week in large-scale military exercises in northern Israel, close to the border with Lebanon, putting into practice the lessons learned from last year’s 34-day war against Hizballah. The exercises took place at the same time as Israeli jets conducted a growing number of mock air raids and overflights in Lebanese airspace. Israeli aircraft fly in Lebanese airspace on a near daily basis, but last week Lebanese army anti-aircraft units fired at the jets for the first time since the end of the war.

War pimp allert: Secret move to upgrade air base for Iran attack plans

The US is secretly upgrading special stealth bomber hangars on the British island protectorate of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, according to military sources.

The improvement of the B1 Spirit jet infrastructure coincides with an “urgent operational need” request for £44m to fit racks to the long-range aircraft.

That would allow them to carry experimental 15-ton Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bombs designed to smash underground bunkers buried as much as 200ft beneath the surface through reinforced concrete.

Read more

WAr pimp allert: US: Iran seeks nuclear weapons

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States on Monday brushed aside the UN nuclear watchdog agency chief’s warning that there was no proof Iran seeks atomic weapons, and invited him to stay out of diplomacy with Tehran.Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told CNN Sunday that he had no evidence Iran was building nuclear weapons and accused US leaders of adding “fuel to the fire” with their warlike rhetoric.

“He will say what he will. He is the head of a technical agency,” US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. “I think we can handle diplomacy on this one.

Read more