(OT) Obama's Chief of Staff Says Military Attack on Syria Is to Teach Iran a Lesson (UPDATED)

(UPDATE 9/9/2013) "Coalition of the willing" has added new members. See the list at the bottom.

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Rumor has it (other than the amount of money each candidate cities spent on winning the hearts and minds of IOC members) that Istanbul lost because of its proximity to Syria and Middle East. (See Xinhua news, for one.)

True that this Olympic is for 2020 not this year or the next, but it seems the recency bias worked on the IOC members.

The reason for the Obama administration to attack Syria continues to shift, and the latest reason was offered by Obama's Chief of Staff Denis McDonough on NBC "Meet the Press" by David Gregory on Sunday, September 8, 2013.

It's about teaching IRAN, not Syria, a lesson.

But instead of attacking Iran to teach the lesson, the Obama administration wants to attack Syria.

Now that's clear, I wonder how many Senators and Congressmen/women will rush to the support of the President.

From NBC News (9/8/2013):

McDonough says attack on Assad regime would send message to Iran

By Tom Curry, National Affairs Writer, NBC News

White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said Sunday that an impending U.S. attack on Syria would send a message to Iranian leaders that they should not feel free to develop nuclear weapons.

“This is an opportunity to be bold with the Iranians,” McDonough said on NBC’s Meet the Press.

He said, “nobody is rebutting the intelligence; nobody doubts the intelligence” that is the basis for President Barack Obama pinning the blame for an August 21 chemical weapons attack in Syria on President Bashar Assad's regime which is fighting to suppress a rebellion that began in 2011.

McDonough noted that “our troops have not been subject to chemical weapons attacks since World War I” and argued that “we have to make sure that for the sake of our guys – our men and women on the front lines – that we reinforce this prohibition against using chemical weapons.”

If Assad is not deterred, he will put chemical weapons on the front lines in his battle against the Syrian rebels and that would mean “a greater risk of them being proliferated” and perhaps falling into terrorists’ hands, McDonough argued.

He added that “the momentum on the battle field will be changed by a targeted, limited effort” but he said ultimately “there’s not a military resolution” to the civil war in Syria, only a “political, diplomatic resolution.”

(Full article at the link)

In the video segment at the link, Mr. Gregory shows the Youtube video (he doesn't say it's from Youtube) which was then edited by the State Department for public consumption and breathlessly explains that was the work of the Assad regime.

"Nobody is rebutting the intelligence, nobody doubts the intelligence"? I've seen several already, including the one from Russians on March 2013 attack, and the one from the retired US military and intelligence officers. I suppose Mr. McDonough's "nobody" means "nobody" in the administration and in the US Congress who are in support of attacking Syria.

So far, the "coalition of the willing" for Obama on attacking Syria includes:

10 countries at G20 who signed the joint statement with the US):
Australia
Canada
France
the U.K. (even though the Parliament voted No)
Italy
Japan
Saudi Arabia
South Korea
Spain
Turkey

(and)
few unnamed Arab countries, as per Secretary Kerry

(as of 9/9/2013, according to Washington Times)
Albania
Croatia
Denmark
Estonia
Germany
Honduras
Hungary
Kosovo
Latvia
Lithuania
Morocco
Qatar
Romania
United Arab Emirates

The Japanese government pretends as if the statement they signed at G20 was not about military intervention.

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Iran to Build 16 New Nuclear Power Plants Over the Next 15 Years

Like I said, if anything, the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident HAS ENCOURAGED developing nations to embark on the construction of new nuclear power plants.

Here's Iran, wanting 16 new plants across the country.

Iran's Bushehr nuclear facility sits on an active fault. But so what, just look at Japan. The entire country is effectively one big active fault and they have 50 nuclear reactors. They used to have 54, and 4 will be decommissioned after 3 of them had core meltdowns. No big deal, isn't it?

From The Times of Israel (2/23/2013; emphasis is mine):

Iran selects 16 new sites for nuclear plants
Locations chosen in part for their resistance to military airstrikes; state TV reports new uranium reserves discovered

TEHRAN — Iran has selected 16 locations for the construction of nuclear power plants as part of a plan to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity at multiple sites over the next 15 years.

Iranian state TV said Saturday that experts at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran had finished studies to select the best locations across the country. It added that sites were chosen in part for their resistance to earthquakes and military airstrikes.

The Islamic Republic claims it needs 20 large-scale plants to meet its growing electricity needs over the next one-and-a-half decades.

State TV also said on Saturday that Iran had discovered new uranium resources in the country that will put its reserves at 4,400 tons compared to 1,527 tons three decades ago.

Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator struck a belligerent tone just three days ahead of talks with world powers in Kazakhstan, saying that the Islamic Republic had fulfilled all of its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

“We will not accept anything beyond our obligations and will not accept anything less than our rights,” Saeed Jalili told nuclear industry officials in Tehran on Saturday. “Iran has fulfilled its NPT obligations as an active and committed member, therefore it should gain all of its rights,” he added in remarks quoted by the Iranian Students’ News Agency.

(Full article at the link)

Here's from Iran's Press TV (2/23/2013; emphasis is mine):

Iran designates 16 nuclear power sites: AEOI

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) announces that the Islamic Republic has designated 16 nuclear power sites.

“Following months of efforts, 16 new sites for nuclear power plants have been designated in coastal areas of the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman, [southwestern province of] Khuzestan and northwestern part of the country,” the AEOI said on Saturday.

It added the projects are in line with Iran’s long-term plans to develop electricity generation via nuclear power plants and in accordance with standard and international regulations.

The organization also said that Iran has discovered more uranium deposits to further improve its position among countries possessing nuclear technology.

Following the new discoveries over the past 1.5 years, the country’s mineral reserves and resources have increased 4.5 times compared to 35 years ago.

Iran says all activities by its nuclear experts are aimed at defending the Iranian nation.

The AEOI homepage says "Nuclear Energy a Symbol of Pride for Nation".

Japan was like that in 1960s, as reactors were being built in Fukushima. Good old days.

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IAEA Chief Yukiya Amano: ‘We Continue to See Activities’ at Iranian Parchin Site"

Mr. Amano, a career bureaucrat at Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, became the Director General of IAEA after the organization and its then-Director General Mohamed ElBaradei had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

His appointment didn't go smoothly, but in the end his and his government's pledge to the US that he would be instrumental in reining in Iran's nuclear ambition in the interest of the US seems to have finally cinched the election in 2009. (WikiLeaks, as reported by Asahi Shinbun on December 3, 2010.)

From Antiwar.com (10/17/2012; emphasis is mine):

IAEA Chief: ‘We Continue to See Activities’ at Iranian Parchin Site
The IAEA also noted an increase in Iranian enrichment capacity, but the latest report confirmed Iran's uranium was used for peaceful medical research

by John Glaser, October 17, 2012

UN nuclear watchdog chief Yukio Amano said on Wednesday there continues to be some “activity” around Iran’s Parchin military site, although he refused to say what kind of activity or to make any direct allegations that Tehran is hiding anything illicit in its nuclear program.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its chief, Amano, continue to push Iran to allow inspections at Parchin, following accusations that Iran was trying to clean up evidence of weaponization of its nuclear program. The activity IAEA officials are seeing it from satellite imagery.

But Parchin is a military site that is not a declared nuclear site, and therefore not under IAEA jurisdiction. IAEA inspectors continue to constantly inspect all of Iran’s declared nuclear enrichment sites and to this day have never found any evidence that nuclear material from these sites has been diverted elsewhere for possible military use.

Many Western observers suspicious of Iran’s nuclear program, which they continue to insist is for purely peaceful uses only, use the unspecific Parchin accusations, along with Iran’s increasing uranium enrichment capacity at its Fordow plant, as indirect evidence that Iran is working towards nuclear weapons.
But the IAEA’s latest report, and Israeli intelligence, conclude that Iran has diverted much of its enriched uranium to peaceful scientific research and medical isotopes, as it promised.

Despite the IAEA’s estimate that enrichment capacity has increased, senior Israeli defense officials told Haaretz that “Iran has moved the wall back by eight months at least.”

And regarding inspections at Parchin, international observers should not be surprised that Iran hasn’t followed every demand and dictate of the inspectors and the Western-led negotiators.

The so-called diplomacy with Iran has been “predicated on intimidation, illegal threats of military action, unilateral ‘crippling’ sanctions, sabotage, and extrajudicial killings of Iran’s brightest minds,” writes Reza Nasri at PBS Frontline’s Tehran Bureau. These postures have spoiled the chance to resolve this issue promptly and respectfully.

After the failed talks in 2009 and 2010, wherein Obama ended up rejecting the very deal he demanded the Iranians accept, as Harvard professor Stephen Walt has written, the Iranian leadership “has good grounds for viewing Obama as inherently untrustworthy.” Former CIA analyst Paul Pillar has concurred, arguing that Iran has “ample reason” to believe, “ultimately the main Western interest is in regime change.”

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Crude Oil Spikes on News That Saudi Arabia Tells Citizens to Leave Lebannon Immediately

Here's the intraday chart of crude oil (Yahoo Finance):

Here's the short snippet from Reuters (8/15/2012):

Saudi Arabia tells citizens to leave Lebanon immediately - SPA

(Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has ordered its citizens to leave Lebanon "immediately", the state news agency reported in an SMS alert on Wednesday.

"The Saudi Arabian embassy in Lebanon calls all Saudi citizens to leave Lebanon immediately," the alert said, without elaborating.

(Reporting by Asma Alsharif; Writing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

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Iranian Nuclear Facilities Hacked, Blasting AC/DC Music

Incidentally, AC/DC music was among "the loud music played to detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility in preparation for interrogations", as the article below notes.

From San Francisco Chronicle quoting Bloomberg News (7/25/2012):

(Updates with comments from Iranian Information Technology official starting in sixth paragraph, AC/DC profile in seventh.)

July 25 (Bloomberg) -- Iran’s nuclear facilities have suffered a cyber attack that shut down computers and played music from the rock band AC/DC, the F-Secure Security Labs website said.

A new worm targeted Iran’s nuclear program, closing down the “automation network” at the Natanz and Fordo facilities, the Internet security site reported, citing an e-mail it said was sent by a scientist inside Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.

The virus also prompted several of the computers on site to play the song “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC at full volume in the middle of the night, according to the e-mail, part of which is published in English on the website.

F-Secure Security Labs, which is linked to F-Secure Oyj, the Finnish maker of security and cloud software, said that while it was unable to verify the details of the attack described, it had confirmed that the scientist who reported them was sending and receiving the e-mails from within Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.

Iran’s nuclear program and oil facilities have been subject to a succession of cyber attacks that the Foreign Ministry said in May were launched by hostile governments as part of a broader “soft war.” Iran accuses the U.S. and Israel of trying to sabotage its technological progress. Both countries say Iran’s nuclear activities may have military intent, an allegation that Iran denies.

Iran has called on the United Nations to condemn organized cyber attacks against nations, the head of Iran’s Information Technology Organization Ali Hakim Javadi said today, according to a report by the state-run news channel Press TV. Significant investment is needed for the creation of malware viruses such as Stuxnet or Flame, which previously targeted Iran, indicating that they were not produced by individuals, the Iranian official said.

AC/DC have played “high voltage rock ’n’ roll” since they were formed in 1973 in Australia, according to the band’s website. Their songs were among the loud music played to detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility in preparation for interrogations, the Associated Press reported in October 20009, citing the National Security Archive in Washington.

F-Secure Security Labs is involved in analyzing viruses, spyware and spam attacks, according to its website.

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New York Times: Obama Ordered Stuxnet Attacks on Iran Nuclear Facilities

A long article that appeared on New York Times (6/1/2012) does mention that the program was started by President Bush.

According to the article, the Nobel Peace Prize winner president's decision to use the computer virus on Iranian nuclear facilities was made in his first months in office. I remember one of the very first things he did after his inauguration was to bomb Pakistan.

From New York Times (6/1/2012):

Obama Order Sped Up Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran
By DAVID E. SANGER

WASHINGTON — From his first months in office, President Obama secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America’s first sustained use of cyberweapons, according to participants in the program.

Mr. Obama decided to accelerate the attacks — begun in the Bush administration and code-named Olympic Games — even after an element of the program accidentally became public in the summer of 2010 because of a programming error that allowed it to escape Iran’s Natanz plant and sent it around the world on the Internet. Computer security experts who began studying the worm, which had been developed by the United States and Israel, gave it a name: Stuxnet.

At a tense meeting in the White House Situation Room within days of the worm’s “escape,” Mr. Obama, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the director of the Central Intelligence Agency at the time, Leon E. Panetta, considered whether America’s most ambitious attempt to slow the progress of Iran’s nuclear efforts had been fatally compromised.

“Should we shut this thing down?” Mr. Obama asked, according to members of the president’s national security team who were in the room.

Told it was unclear how much the Iranians knew about the code, and offered evidence that it was still causing havoc, Mr. Obama decided that the cyberattacks should proceed. In the following weeks, the Natanz plant was hit by a newer version of the computer worm, and then another after that. The last of that series of attacks, a few weeks after Stuxnet was detected around the world, temporarily took out nearly 1,000 of the 5,000 centrifuges Iran had spinning at the time to purify uranium.

(Full article at the link)

That's an act of war by the way, without declaration. But that's nothing new in the US. Zero Hedge has a post dissecting the NY Times article, here.

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Israel Requests Japan to Stop Buying Iranian Oil

From Nikkei Shinbun quoting Kyodo News (1/30/2012):

【エルサレム＝共同】イスラエルを訪問した山根隆治外務副大臣は29日、エルサレムでリーベルマン外相らと会談した。イスラエル側はイランからの原油輸入停止を要請。山根氏は日本のイラン産原油輸入量は過去５年間で約40％減っており、今後も削減に努めると説明、理解を求めた。

(Jerusalem, Kyodo News) Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ryuji Yamane who is visiting Israel met on January 29 with Israel's Foreign Minister Lieberman in Jerusalem. Israel requested Japan to stop importing crude oil from Iran. Yamane explained that the amount of crude oil Japan imports from Iran has decreased by 40% in 5 years and that Japan will continue its effort to reduce the amount, and asked for Israel's understanding.

　山根氏がエルサレムで記者団に明らかにした。イスラエルは、核開発を進めるイランを最大の脅威と位置付けている。...

Yamane disclosed the Israel's request to the press in Jerusalem. Israel considers Iran as its greatest threat, as Iran develops its nuclear program.

What Japan reduces will simply go to China, India, and Russia. Canada's oil and gas will probably also go to China. Japan will be left dry, and cold, as a mini ice age hits...

Isn't it ironic that Japan is part of the economic embargo against Iran by the US and the EU, while it suffered the same by FDR in the run-up to the World War II?

No wonder the population of Japan is set to decrease by whopping 30% by 2060.

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Iran starts enriching uranium to 20 Percent, says IAEA

From RIA Novosti (1/10/2012):

The International Atomic Energy Agency officially confirmed that Iran has started enriching uranium to the 20-percent level, which can easily be turned into fissile warhead material.

"The IAEA can confirm that Iran has started the production of uranium enriched up to 20 percent using IR-1 centrifuges in the Fordo Fuel Enrichment Plant," the agency said in a statement.

However, IAEA Spokeswoman Gill Tudor said that all nuclear materials and operations in the Fordo facility are “under the Agency's containment and surveillance."

Iranian officials earlier said the Fordo plant, deep inside the mountains near the central Iranian city of Qom, was build to produce 20-percent uranium needed for a research reactor in Tehran, which produces medical isotopes to treat cancer patients.

The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereydoon Abbasi said last August that Iranian authorities planned to transfer all enrichment facilities from a plant in Natanz to Fordo, citing insufficient security.

He also said Iran had no plans to enrich uranium to higher than 20 percent.

The news is likely to further increase tensions between Iran and the West over the country’s clandestine nuclear research. Western nations suspect Iran of pursuing a secret weapons program while Tehran says it needs nuclear research for peaceful energy purposes. Negotiations have been stalled for 12 months.

The IAEA statement has already triggered harsh statements from diplomats in the United States and Europe.

"This is a further escalation of their ongoing violations with regard to their nuclear obligations," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.

"The fact that the IAEA has made clear that they are enriching to a level that is inappropriate at Fordo is obviously a problem," she went on.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague described the move as "a provocative act that undermines claims that the program is civilian in nature."

The German foreign ministry expressed hope that the European Union will agree on a fresh round of sanctions against Iran during a meeting on January 30, because the start of operations at Fordo was “a step of further escalation.”

“With it, the international community’s concern that the Iranian nuclear program is serving military purposes is growing,” the ministry said in a statement. “So long as Iran does not move, there is no alternative to tough sanctions,” the statement said.

The IAEA's chief Yukiya Amano, a Japanese career bureaucrat from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, got his job as the head of the IAEA in December 2009 after he spoke with the US ambassador and told him he was "was solidly in the U.S. court on every key strategic decision, from high-level personnel appointments to the handling of Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program", according to Wikileaks. (From Wikipedia entry on Amano)

As Zero Hedge points out (1/9/2011),

At this point it is quite obvious that virtually everyone involved in the US-Israel-Iran hate triangle is just itching for someone else to pull the trigger. And the latest report out of the IAEA will only precipitate this. Who - remember the IAEA? The same IAEA which did not find nukes in Iraq in 2003 only to be overriden by Dick "WMD" Cheney to "justify" an invasion.

and

Finally, to anyone assuming China (and Russia) will sit idly by and wait as its marginal oil producer is subsumed by the west, even as it is now expected to overtake the US in oil imports in under 2 years, we have for sale a 5th lien on a reverse Chinese IPO of a company building bridges to non-existing timberlands.

(5th lien... Hehehe...)

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Iran Produced Its Furst Nuclear Fuel Rod

Iran "is getting desperate and will take some drastic step", according to Bloomberg News.

From Bloomberg News (1/2/2012):

Gold and silver gained after reports that Iran produced its first nuclear fuel rod, spurring investors to buy the precious metal as a haven.

Gold for immediate delivery advanced 0.2 percent to $1,566.27 an ounce as of 2:50 p.m. in New York. Silver was 0.1 percent higher at $27.8625 an ounce. Gold rose 10 percent last year, the 11th straight annual gain, and silver dropped 9.9 percent.

A domestically made rod was inserted into the core of Tehran’s atomic research reactor after performance tests, the Iranian Students News Agency reported today, citing the country’s atomic energy agency. The Tehran reactor produces radioisotopes for cancer treatment, according to Mehr news agency. Nuclear fuel rods contain pellets of enriched uranium that provide fuel for nuclear power plants.

“Iran’s nuclear plans have raised fears that it is getting desperate and will take some drastic step,” Gnanasekar Thiagarajan, a director at Commtrendz Risk Management Services Pvt., said by telephone from Mumbai. “More sanctions are expected from the U.S. and other nations. This will have a positive impact on gold prices as ideally people would try to buy gold.”

The U.S. and allies are increasing pressure on Iran to halt what they say may be a covert nuclear weapons program. Sanctions signed into law by President Barack Obama on Dec. 31 aim to deter dealings with the Iranian central bank, and the European Union is considering a ban on imports of oil from Iran, the world’s third-largest oil exporter. Iran denies seeking to develop atomic weapons.
Reserves Climb

Gold reserves increased in November in Belarus, Turkey, Tajikistan, Macedonia, Mauritius and Morocco, and declined in Mexico, according to data on the International Monetary Fund’s website. Turkey’s holdings increased to 5.758 million ounces from 4.429 million in October, and Mexico’s declined to 3.413 million ounces from 3.417 million, the data showed. Morocco’s holdings were 710,000 ounces in November compared with 708,800 in October, according to the data.

I wonder what has happened to the Stuxnet infection in Iran's nuke facilities.

By the way, Iran's first commercial nuclear power plant, Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant on the Persian Gulf, uses the VVER reactor, a Russian (Soviet)-designed pressurized water reactor. Dr. Jassem al-Awadi, a geologist at the University of Kuwait, says the plant sits at the junction of three tectonic plates.

One thing from history is very clear. People never learn from history, even the most recent one.

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Bloomberg News: Iran to Hold Military Drill for Closing Hormuz Strait, Fars Says

From Bloomberg via The San Francisco Chronicle (12/13/2011):

Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Iran's military is set to conduct drills for closing the Strait of Hormuz, a bottleneck for oil exports from the Persian Gulf, the state-run Fars news agency reported, citing parliamentarian member Parviz Sorouri.

"Soon we will hold a military maneuver on how to close the Strait of Hormuz," said Sorouri, a member of the national security and foreign policy committee, according to Fars. "If the world wants to make the region insecure, we will make the world insecure." His comments first appeared yesterday on the website of the state-run Iranian Students News Agency before the report was withdrawn without an explanation.

About 15.5 million barrels of oil a day, about a sixth of global consumption, flows through the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and Oman, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Still, crude oil went from $100 pre-US market to $95, as the global de-risking continued today, hitting commodities extra-hard.

I hope whatever drill that they plans to do will start and end without incident.

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France's Sarkozy Chimes in on Iran Nuke

Wag the dog, till the tail comes off...

From Zero Hedge (11/21/2011):

Luckily the market is all stable and stuff and can handle the prospect of a potential Iran war.

• SARKOZY WRITES LETTERS CONCERNING IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM
• SARKOZY SAYS IRAN'S PROGRAM IS A 'SERIOUS AND URGENT' THREAT
• SARKOZY SAYS NEW SANCTIONS WOULD FORCE IRAN TO NEGOTIATE

Now where is that weekly US naval update...

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AFP: 'Time has come' to act on Iran, Israel says

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak cites the report by IAEA, headed by Japanese bureaucrat Yukiya Amano.

From AFP via Yahoo News (11/20/2011):

The "time has come" to deal with Iran, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Sunday, refusing to rule out military action to curb the Islamic republic's nuclear ambitions.

Barak, speaking on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS program, indicated that Israel's patience was wearing thin -- and provided an ominous response when asked about the growing speculation of an Israeli military strike.

"I don't think that that is a subject for public discussion," he said. "But I can tell you that the IAEA report has a sobering impact on many in the world, leaders as well as the publics, and people understand that the time has come."

The International Atomic Energy Agency published a report on November 8 saying there was "credible" information that Iran was carrying out "activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device."

On Friday the IAEA's board passed a resolution condemning Iran's nuclear activities, but stopped short of reporting Tehran to the United Nations and issuing no deadline for compliance.

...The IAEA report -- based on "broadly, credible" intelligence, its own information and some input from Iran itself -- said that Iran had examined how to fit out a Shahab 3 missile, with a range capable of reaching Israel, with a nuclear warhead.

Tehran rejected the report "baseless," denies it is seeking nuclear weapons and maintains its nuclear activities are for civilian energy purposes.

Washington, Paris and London however jumped on the report as justification to increase pressure on Iran, already under four rounds of Security Council sanctions and additional US and European Union restrictions.

The UK military is already getting ready for the US action (whatever it will be, will be...), by the way.

From Guardian (11/2/2011):

Britain's armed forces are stepping up their contingency planning for potential military action against Iran amid mounting concern about Tehran's nuclear enrichment programme, the Guardian has learned.

The Ministry of Defence believes the US may decide to fast-forward plans for targeted missile strikes at some key Iranian facilities. British officials say that if Washington presses ahead it will seek, and receive, UK military help for any mission, despite some deep reservations within the coalition government.

In anticipation of a potential attack, British military planners are examining where best to deploy Royal Navy ships and submarines equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles over the coming months as part of what would be an air and sea campaign.

(The article continues at the link.)

The IAEA report on Iran nukes is here.

Let's see, who is downwind from Iran's nuke facilities?

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Here Comes #Iran, Right on Cue

Crashes are reported in Iran between the security forces and opposition supporters.

From Al Jazeera (3/1/2011):

Iran's security forces fired teargas and clashed with opposition supporters in central Tehran, where demonstrators were rallying to demand the release of two opposition leaders, according to witnesses and an opposition website.

"Security forces and people in civilian clothes clashed with demonstrators in Tehran to disperse them," opposition website Kaleme reported about Tuesday's events.

Kaleme.com said protesters rallied at several points in the capital, chanting "death to the dictator" and calling on authorities to free Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi.

Former presidential candidates Mousavi and Karoubi have not been seen in public since they called for a rally on February 14, during which thousands of their supporters took to the streets to support uprisings in the Arab world.

Family members and opposition activists say the two leaders have moved from house arrest to a Tehran prison along with their wives. Iranian authorities deny the reports.

Sahamnews, another opposition website, reported large numbers of security personnel stationed at main streets and squares in Tehran "to prevent gathering of opposition supporters."

By the way, have you noticed that Israel has gone very quiet since their attempt to support Hosni Mubarak went awry?

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Crashes Reported in Iran Between Protesters and Security Forces, With US Secretary of State Egging the Protesters On

The protests in Egypt have largely failed to become "hot", although the Mubarak regime tried their best to make them that way. And there has been no "radical Islam" taking over the country.

So, TPTB (the powers that be) must create a "hot" "revolution" somehow. Why, you ask?

Why not? Just for fun, maybe? As a diversion from the mess (like insolvent states in the US)? Or Israel needs an enemy, perhaps.

From Al Jazeera [emphasis is mine]:

There are reports in social media sites and non-state Iranian news sites of clashes between protesters and security forces in Tehran, the Iranian capital.

Thousands of demonstrators were marching on Monday on Enghelab and Azadi streets [which connect and create a straight path through the city centre], with a heavy presence in Enghelab Square and Vali-Asr Street, according to these reports.

Several clashes have been reported on Twitter, the micro-blogging site, with claims of some demonstrators being teargassed and others beaten and arrested.

Al Jazeera's Dorsa Jabbari, in Tehran, confirmed reports that security forces used tear gas, pepper spray and batons against the protesters.

She said up to 10,000 security forces had been deployed to prevent protesters from gathering at Azadi Square, where the marches, originating from various points in Tehran, were expected to converge.

...As night fell in Iran, the BBC reported that city lights were being turned off and that security forces were attacking protesters in the dark.

...Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, hailed the "courage" of the protesters, and pressed Tehran to follow Egypt's example and "open up" its political system.

Our correspondent in Tehran said that as far as Iran's leaders are concerned, Monday's protests "are not a reflection of what people actually want."

They believe these are small groups of individuals who have ulterior motives, they are a threat to national security and therefore the security forces are necessary to prevent them from becoming a threat inside the country," said Jabbari.

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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Hails "Islamic" Uprising in Egypt

ummmm... it's not "Islamic" at all, if you care to understand what's been going on in Egypt for the past 12 days...

From Al Jazeera on 2/4/2011:

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader has called the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia an "Islamic liberation movement".

In his address, during Friday prayers at Tehran University in Iran's capital, he said that people are witnessing the reverberations of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

"The awakening of the Islamic Egyptian people is an Islamic liberation movement and I, in the name of the Iranian government, salute the Egyptian people and the Tunisian people,"he said.

Khamenei has urged Egypt's protesters to follow in the footsteps of the Iranian revolution which toppled a pro-US leader and installed an Islamic Republic, calling on Egyptians to unite around religion.

He said events in Tunisia and Egypt, were a sign of "Islamic awareness" in the region and that these movements will spell an "irreparable defeat" for the United States.

It is "us against them" for Egyptians, for sure, but "them" includes not only corrupt politicians but also people with religious fanaticism and intolerance - like you. These people are rising against the ruling class.

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Fred Reed: Let's Attack Iran!

Fred Reed, whose articles are regularly featured at Lewrockwell.com, writes about the latest squawking by the neocon Senator Lindsey Graham to attack Iran, and in the process deliciously comparing Senator Graham to a tapeworm.

His central message? War promoters, be careful what you wish for.

Let's Attach Iran: Children with Matches
(Fred Reed, 11/8/2010 Fred on Everything)

Oh good. I see that Senator Lindsey Graham wants to attack Iran. The US, he says, should "sink their navy, destroy their air force and deliver a decisive blow to the Revolutionary Guard."

Senator Graham has the brains of a tapeworm, making him eminently qualified for the senate. Tapeworms, I note, do not have brains. It is characteristic of warlike innocents, to include the Pentagon, to believe that if you destroy navies and air forces, you win wars. This worked well in Vietnam, you will recall, and as soon as we destroy the Taliban’s navy, Afghanistan will be a cakewalk.

Now, I understand that practicality and realism are alien concepts in American politics, to be approached with trepidation, but maybe, just once, we should think before sticking our private parts into a wood-chipper. Just once. I do not propose consistent rationality, forethought, or intelligent behavior. I profoundly respect my country’s traditions.

However, folk wisdom from West Virginia: Before you say, “I can whip any man in the bar!” it is well to scout the bar.

Note that the United States cannot defeat Iran militarily, short of using nuclear weapons. It is easy to start a war. Finishing one is harder. I could punch out Mike Tyson. Things thereafter might not go as well as hoped.

Some will find the thought of American martial incapacity outrageous. Can’t beat Iran? Buncha towel monkeys? Among grrr-bowwow-woof patriots, there exists a heady delusion of American potency, that the US has “the greatest military power the world has ever seen.” Ah. And when did it last win a war? In Afghanistan, for ten years the gloriousest military ever known, the expensivist, and whoosh-bangiest, hasn’t managed to defeat a bunch of pissed-off illiterates with AKs and RPGs.

At this point Lindsey of Persia will doubtless allude to the wonders of air power, of “precision-guided weapons,” of smart bombs that presumably read Kant on the way down. Those pitiable Iranians would have no hope of stopping our mighty bombers. True.

Implicit in this Thomistic fantasy (Clancy, I mean, not Aquinas) is that Iran wouldn’t, couldn’t, wouldn’t dare fight back without a navy, etc. Lindsey had better be very sure that Iran couldn’t block the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation. Enough of the world’s petroleum comes from the Gulf that the price would rise drastically if the Straits were blocked. Some economies would simply stop.

How many supertankers going up in flames would be tolerated before operators of tankers refused to risk it?

Iran recently began serial production of the Nasr 1, an anti-ship cruise missile. Tankers are thin-skinned and highly flammable. The Nasr 1 can be fired from the back of a truck. Trucks by their nature are mobile. They are easy to hide.

The Air Force, to include Naval Air, may be confident that it can destroy all of Iran’s missiles. The Air Force always believes that air power can do anything and everything—make coffee, win at marbles, everything. After all, don’t its airplanes say “Vrooom!” and “Swoosh!”? Don’t cockpits have lots of portentous buttons and spiffy little screens? Unfortunately the Air Force is regularly wrong.

In fact the entire military is regularly wrong about the ease and duration of its adventures. For example, it had no idea that Viet Nam would turn into an endless war ending in defeat (if that makes sense). Iraq notoriously was going to be a walk in the park. That the war on Afghanistan would last ten years with a distinct possibility of defeat…this never occurred to the soldiers.

It is barely conceivable that the Five-Sided Wind Box could do what Field Marshal Graham thinks it could do. The unexpected is always a possibility. But, the stakes being what they would be in Hormuz, hoo-boy….

Another possibility is that Israel will attack Iran, as it has threatened. I would like to think that even Bibi Nut-and-Yahoo has better sense but, it the US can produce gibbering wingnuts, why not Israel? The practical effects of an Israeli attack would be indistinguishable from those of an American attack: America would have to solve the problem. Which it probably couldn’t. Israel can bomb Iran’s nuclear codpieces, but it can’t defeat Iran. And if the Strait were blocked after an Israeli attack, the entire globe would holler, “Israel did it!” which would be true.

The distance from “Israel did it” to “The Jews did it,” though logically great, is emotionally short. People think in collective terms. Remember that after some Saudis dropped the Towers, the alleged war on terror morphed almost instantly into intense hostility for Moslems. It doesn’t make sense, but what has that got to do with anything?

I know a lot of Jews, who are all over the place politically and intellectually. They have in common a complete lack of resemblance to the scheming, hand-rubbing, heh-heh-heh Jews of Neo-nazi imagination. Few sacrifice Christian children (a temptation strongest, I can attest, among Christian parents). But…people think collectively.

Congress doesn’t support Israel because it likes Israel, but from political expediency. If the wind blows the other way, so will Congress. Gasoline at twelve dollars is a lot of wind in a commuting country.

Things worsen for America, yet we really don’t know where the country is going or how it will react. The last domestic catastrophe was the Great Depression, when America was a very different place. How bad can things get, economically, politically, internationally? How does a pampered population incapable of planting a garden respond to genuinely hard times? “It can’t happen here,” one hears. What can’t? I suspect that all sorts of things could happen, given sufficiently hard times.

The United States is today an edgy, unhappy country, sliding toward poverty, increasingly dictatorial, inchoately angry, hostile to blacks, the French, Mexicans, Moslems and, creepingly, the Chinese. (Jews, perhaps to their surprise, don’t make the enemies list.) Americans don’t do cosmopolitian. The federal pressure for diversity exists because otherwise no one would associate with anyone else. The Persian Gulf is one of few places that plausibly might wreck the industrial world. There would have to be someone to blame. And Israel can’t survive without American suppport.

Maybe I’m crazy. But if I were an Israeli, I’d find a nice café on Diesengoff and enjoy a double cappucino, watch the girls, and keep my bombs in my pocket. Let somebody else take the fall.

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Happy Bipartisanship: Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran!

The first joint project by Congressional Republicans and Obama may be to attack Iran.

Stratfor has already recommended that Obama attack Iran to boost his standing in the US and increase the chance of winning in 2012 Presidential election. Now the good old war-mongering Republicans will be happy to assist him.

Senator Lindsay Graham Warns Of War With Iran, Confrontation With "Cheating" China (Tyler Durden, 11/06/2010 Zero Hedge)

With republicans back in control, it was only a matter of time before the military-industrial complex reminded the world of its existence. It took about 72 hours: republican senator Lindsay Graham, who apparently has not received the memo that all modern wars are now waged in binary, and are won by those who can push the FX bid/ask the furthest and the fastest away from equilibrium, spoke at the Halifax International Security Forum, giving a very distinct taste of what US foreign policy is about to look like: "Iran is a major threat to any conceivable world order" and that he sees an almost inevitable confrontation with Iran. As AP reports, the South Carolina Republican saw the United States going to war with the Islamic republic "not to just neutralize their nuclear program, but to sink their navy, destroy their air force and deliver a decisive blow to the Revolutionary Guard, in other words neuter that regime." And the Democrats, still in shock over their recent pummelling, will likely not have the resolve to respond palliatively to such warmongering, which they likely deem as supported by the broad population: "US Democratic Senator Mark Udall, who joined Graham during a panel discussion at the forum in Halifax, Nova Scotia, urged continued sanctions against Iran. But he also noted that "every option is on the table," a thinly veiled reference to possible military action." And just when the world was getting along so well, and all the international bickering appeared to be taking place over various Forex terminals...

Read the rest of the article at the link.

Now, the true Tea Party Congressmen and Senators, please stand up. Not the neocon kind of Sarah Palin and her ilk (and her puppet masters). And shut up a neocon idiot like Lindsey Graham who wants to drag the bankrupt US into another costly and probably endless war.

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Stuxnet Followup: Stick It to Russians

It has wrecked havoc in Iran, it has moved to China and is doing the same, as I posted a few days ago.

No one supposedly know where Stuxnet, a virus that targets industrial control systems built by Siemens, originated, though there are not many nations in the world that are capable of programming something like this.

DEBKAfile, a website in one of such nations, insinuates that it was Russians who planted the virus:

"debkafile's intelligence sources report from Iran that dozens of Russian nuclear engineers, technicians and contractors are hurriedly departing Iran for home since local intelligence authorities began rounding up their compatriots as suspects of planting the Stuxnet malworm into their nuclear program.

"Among them are the Russian personnel who built Iran's first nuclear reactor at Bushehr which Tehran admits has been damaged by the virus.

"One of the Russian nuclear staffers, questioned in Moscow Sunday, Oct. 3 by Western sources, confirmed that many of his Russian colleagues had decided to leave with their families after team members were detained for questioning at the beginning of last week. He refused to give his name because he and his colleagues intend to return to Iran if the trouble blows over and the detainees are quickly released after questioning.

"According to our sources, these detentions were the source of the announcement Saturday, Oct. 2, by Iranian Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi that several "nuclear spies" had been captured. "The enemy had sent electronic worms through the internet to undermine Iran's nuclear activities," he said. This was the first high-level Iranian admission that the Stuxnet virus had been planted by foreign elements to sabotage their entire nuclear program - and not just the Bushehr reactor. The comprehensive scale of the damage is attested to by the detention of Russian nuclear experts also at Natanz, Isfahan and Tehran.

"...The prime aim of their interrogation is to find out if Russian intelligence knowingly planted the destructive worm in Iran's nuclear facilities, possibly for under-the-counter pay, or were the unwitting carriers of equipment on order by Iran that had been previously infected.

"debkafile's Western sources report that the hundreds of Russian scientists, engineers and technicians employed in Iran were responsible for installing the Siemens control systems in Iran's nuclear complex and other facilities which proved most vulnerable to the cyber attack.

"They were the only foreigners with access to these heavily guarded plants. At Bushehr, for instance, the Russian personnel enjoyed full access to all its systems."

Uh huh. Sure. It may be easy to bribe Russians to do things like plant the virus. The obvious question is, WHO BRIBED Russians?

And of course, the usual question: Cui bono?

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Stuxnet Has Moved On to China

After having wrecked havoc in Iran, Stuxnet the 'cyber weapon of mass destruction' apparently has moved on to China and is busy destroying computers there.

I'm very curious to know how it traveled from Iran to China... Hmmm. Maybe Chinese should have used legit copies of Windows from Microsoft...

So, who was it who created this malware? Maybe this one and this one?

Stuxnet 'cyber superweapon' moves to China (9/30/2010 AFP via Breitbart)

"A computer virus dubbed the world's "first cyber superweapon" by experts and which may have been designed to attack Iran's nuclear facilities has found a new target -- China.

"The Stuxnet computer worm has wreaked havoc in China, infecting millions of computers around the country, state media reported this week.

"Stuxnet is feared by experts around the globe as it can break into computers that control machinery at the heart of industry, allowing an attacker to assume control of critical systems like pumps, motors, alarms and valves.

"It could, technically, make factory boilers explode, destroy gas pipelines or even cause a nuclear plant to malfunction.

"The virus targets control systems made by German industrial giant Siemens commonly used to manage water supplies, oil rigs, power plants and other industrial facilities." [The article continues.]

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Iranian President Got Applause for his UN Speech on 9/11

and the US delegation walked out.

As a financial blogger, I find it amusing that the US delegation walked out on his 9/11 theory but didn't, on his comment on capitalism being the cause of poverty.

Anyway, neoconservatives are fuming, alongside the US government whose delegation walked out. Here's one of them:

Applause for Ahmadinejad (9/23/2010 Fox News)

"He was greeted by applause when he walked into the United Nations General Assembly, and applauded again, even after questioning 9/11 and claiming that the American government may have been behind the attack.

"That’s right, applauded after questioning the motivation for the terrorist attacks, who was responsible for them, and essentially suggesting they were a U.S. plot.

"...On Tuesday, when Ahmadinejad spoke during the global summit on poverty, the American delegation remained even as he predicted the defeat of capitalism.

"But true to form, he quickly went over the line with his 9/11 remarks and that prompted the U.S. diplomats, and others, to get up and walk out.

"But as Ahmadinejad walked from the podium, he did so rewarded by applause in the august chamber of the world body." [The full article at the link above.]

So what exactly is Ahmadinejad's theories about 9/11? According to AP,

1. That a “powerful and complex terrorist group” penetrated U.S. intelligence and defenses.

2. That some segments within the U.S. government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East in order also to save the Zionist regime.

3. That the attack was the work of “a terrorist group but the American government supported and took advantage of the situation.

So, the Iranian president proposes that either the US intelligence was compromised, or the US government orchestrated the attack, or the US government was complicit and took advantage of the situation (and introduced the monstrosity like the Patriot Act).

Obama's former Green Czar had the same doubts... Oh wait, he had to resign. Over 80% of Americans thought (probably still think) that the government was hiding something. Oh wait, the non-ruling class is irrelevant. And so-called Tea Partiers of Sara Palin's and her cohort's variety are all for bombing Iran anyway.

I'm sure either the CIA or the State Department recorded which delegation applauded after the speech (all of them?) and will take appropriate retaliatory measures.

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