West Shows Cards To Iran

I wouldn't want to get too far ahead of the news cycle on this. In my opinion, the several links below, all culled from recent news reports are more about showing Iran our cards, than they are predictive of any imminent action.

Reuters:

LONDON (Reuters) - Israel has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran's uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons, Britain's Sunday Times newspaper said.

Citing what it said were several Israeli military sources, the paper said two Israeli air force squadrons had been training to blow up an enrichment plant in Natanz using low-yield nuclear "bunker busters".

Two other sites, a heavy water plant at Arak and a uranium conversion plant at Isfahan, would be targeted with conventional bombs, the Sunday Times said.

Iranian reformist groups voice concerns over regime's nuclear ambitions:

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian reformist parliamentarians on Saturday blamed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government for failing to prevent United Nations sanctions.

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on December 23 to impose sanctions on Iran's trade in sensitive nuclear materials and technology in an attempt to stop uranium enrichment work that could produce material that could be used in bombs.

Iran says it wants nuclear power to generate electricity.

Reformist former President Mohammad Khatami suspended Iran's nuclear work for more than two years in an effort to build confidence and avoid confrontation with the West, but resumed uranium enrichment in February last year.

"The only way to pass the crisis is to build confidence ... but a holding Holocaust conference and financing the Hamas government creates mistrust and tension," Noureddin Pirmoazzen, the spokesman of parliament's reformist faction, told Reuters.

The Saudis and the French call for compliance from Iran:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabia and France called Saturday on Iran to accept international demands to halt uranium enrichment, saying the Mideast should be free of weapons of mass destruction.

Visiting French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and his Saudi counterpart Prince Saud al-Faisal stressed diplomacy must be the way to solve Iran's ongoing standoff with the West over its nuclear program.

"We agreed on the necessity that the region should be void of weapons of mass destruction and that achieving this target will be by dialogue and diplomacy," al-Faisal said during a joint news conference.

Pakistan likely plays good cop to the world's bad for their own economic and geopolitical reasons, but I doubt they'll have interest in interfering beyond the rhetorical.

TEHRAN: Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Secretary-General of the Pakistan Muslim League, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed Saturday reiterated Pakistan`s fully supports Iran`s peaceful nuclear program.

Ralph Peters details the reasoning behind putting an Admiral in charge of CENTCOM while several American, British and Aussie warships sail toward Iran.

January 6, 2007 -- WORD that Adm. William Fallon will move laterally from our Pacific Command to take charge of Central Command - responsible for the Middle East - while two ground wars rage in the region baffled the media.

Why put a swabbie in charge of grunt operations?

There's a one-word answer: Iran.

With the health of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei very much in doubt, US sanctions in place against Iran,

The Bush administration is imposing economic sanctions on Chinese, Russian and North Korean companies for selling missiles and weapons goods to Iran and Syria, administration officials said.

despite Russia's protestations,

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia accused the United States on Saturday of illegally imposing sanctions on some Russian military firms which Washington says were cooperating with Iran and Syria.

the cards are being placed on the table for an upcoming game of showdown Iran.

Comments

[hobo]

I think it's a little late to put sanctions on Russia, China and North Korea to sell misslies and related supplies to Iran. Iran has, in its' possession, several missiles that can travel at mach 2 and mach 2.9 speed, three feet over water from 100 miles and 180 miles respectively. They can be outfitted with a nuclear warhead or a 750lb conventional warhead, and hit a three foot square target dead center. By the time the best radar system can pick up one in flight, they is 30 seconds to impact. It would probably only take two or three at the most to sink a carrier.

www.rense.com/general59/theSunburniransawesome.htm

[Phoenix]

Maybe the upcoming showdown will be internal. Can't get better than that.

[Purple Avenger]

"Adm. William Fallon"

Fallon is scary. He's the moron that was moving around a multi-billion dollar CVBG with no routine ASW operations going on and allowed that PRC sub to get within the group. That sub didn't sneak in, it was invited in due to dereliction of duty on his part.

Fallon also ordered a halt to much routine intel gathering on the PRC because he didn't want to bother them or something.

I also believe Fallon is the one who architected a harebrained military exchange program with the PRC where we were giving them tours of the inner sanctums of our most secret installations and systems and when it came time to reciprocate they didn't (doh!)

If Fallon is running this show, we'd better brace for some hard hits if shooting starts.

[lewis]

Israel doesn't have the balls. They couldn't even beat rag tag Hezbollah. They're dreaming!

[Phoenix]

Israel doesn't have the balls? What? Are you dreaming?

The only reason they didn't annihilate Hezbollah is because the whole world was watching to see if they were willing to snuff out the civilians Hezbollah used as cover. They weren't. Nuking nuke facilities is another thing.

Besides, just putting out the 'possibility' is enough psychologically to cause some ruffles. You don't think this was leaked accidentally, do you? The fact is, Israel CAN do it. Maybe the next time The Ferret of Iran threatens to blow Israel off the map, the Israelis will blow him out of his perch. The Kidon probably has a bead on that feral mouth even now.

[yyy]

Hmmm,

Nothing like attacking your neighbor with tactical nukes to prove to the rest of your neighbors that you really, really, really want to live in peace with them and are not in fact a dangerously paranoid and belligerant country.

Sounds like the last in a long line of bad ideas coming from the neocons.

If Israel nukes Iran I think its fairly safe to say the Saudis will start preparations for their own nukes and even Israel says that Iran will eventually get nukes, its only a matter of time.

Thus, it would seem pretty short sighted and stupid to confirm to the world everything negative that has been said and believed about the moral decay of the state of Israel.

Thus, undoubtedly, the Israelis will take this stupid, destructive, and ultimately self-hurting path.

[Phoenix]

Why, Why, Why

um..... this one doesn't even deserve a response. It's so stupid my mind can't even go there.