dubob
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 | | Subject: Top Israeli and U.S. leaders huddle over plans to attack Iran Sat Feb 18, 2012 7:30 am | |
| Here's an interesting article written and posted on Joe Angione’s Conservatively Speaking (2/15/12) - The newsletter of conservative ideas/opinions. - Quote :
- If you believe DEBKAfile, the Israeli intelligence news organization, a recent clandestine Washington visit by Israel’s Mossad Chief, Tamir Pardo, to meet with U.S. senators, intelligence chiefs, and other top American officials had them all discussing plans to attack Iran perhaps as early as May of this year, but no later than the end of June.
When Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was asked about this visit, he didn’t deny that it had occurred. Also, when Dianne Feinstein, the Senator from California who heads up the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, asked Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, whether or not Israel intended to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, he answered that he would rather discuss the issue “behind closed doors.”
Will the U.S. join in? DEBKAfile reports that more than 100,000 U.S. troops are being massed on two small islands off the Iranian coast near to the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. military facilities are said to have existed on these islands for years, but a troop build-up is reportedly now underway like nothing ever seen there before.
US air transports are described by DEBKAfile sources as making almost daily landings on these two islands. The US military presence in the region is expected to expand in early March when three US aircraft carriers and their strike groups plus a French carrier are set to arrive in the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.
Both the U.S. and Israel are alarmingly concerned about Iran’s repeated threats to annihilate Israel and even reach out with missiles to eventually destroy the U.S. With Iran’s supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calling Israel a “cancer” and inviting other Arab nations to join it in wiping Israel and all Jews everywhere off the map, no one doubts that Iran will immediately use any nuclear weapon it develops to obliterate Israel once it has mated the weapon to a missile delivery system. Iran is said to already have missiles with a range of 1,500 miles, more than enough to reach deep into the Jewish nation.
Immediate worries for the U.S. are Iran’s plotting against American interests overseas, its willingness to sponsor attacks within the United states, and recent evidence that Iran may have a missile with a 6,000-mile range, long enough to hit major cities within the continental U.S.
Sanctions are failing miserably to deter Iranian aggression. No one has any reason to believe that diplomacy or stronger sanctions imposed on Iran will end Middle East tensions and avert war. Although Washington is hoping to delay an Israeli attack as long as possible, the Obama administration knows Israel will “call the shots” in the Middle East, and the U.S. can’t avoid being drawn into the conflict. All Washington can hope for is to persuade Israel to delay long enough to enable the U.S. to complete its military build-up off the coast of Iran.
Some might wonder where these U.S. troops are coming from. While it’s well documented that most of our troops formerly in Iraq have been pulled out, there is no correlation between the number that have left Iraq and the number that have actually returned to U.S. ports. Current estimates have at least 40,000 of our military circulating in and around the Middle East. It’s hinted that more may be arriving in the region from unnamed bases.
Additional evidence that the U.S. could be about to team up with Israel to attack Iran is a hurried decision on January 29th not to de-commission the USS Ponce helicopter marine carrier after duty off the coast of Libya. Instead, it will be refitted for deployment in the Persian Gulf by May as a floating base for SEAL teams. This special ops platform will expand the SEALs’ range in coastal areas, especially against Iranian torpedo-equipped speedboats, and will support counter-measures against mines that Iran threatens to plant in the Strait of Hormuz closing this vital waterway to oil shipments from the Middle East.
Word from Israeli Military Intelligence Chief, Major General Aviv Kochavi, notes that Iran has actually completed development of a nuclear weapon and just awaits a signal from Ayatollah Khamenei to assemble the nation’s first nuclear bomb. Kochavi’s comments coincide with findings published in early February by the Enterprise Institute, an American think-tank, that Iran would be able to manufacture a 15-kiloton bomb as soon as August of this year.
The “zone of immunity” can change everything. As if Iran’s fast-growing nuclear capability isn’t enough to push Israel and perhaps the U.S. into a future pre-emptive strike, there may be a need to act almost immediately. This comes from the knowledge that Iran may soon enter a “zone of immunity” by transferring its uranium enrichment and bomb and missile assembly operations to blast-hardened sites so deep underground that nothing except a nuclear detonation could destroy these facilities.
Many critics as well as supporters of the Obama administration might question why a president, who is so intent upon getting our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, would ever agree to a military deployment that supports Israel starting a major war with Iran. After all, Obama has always refused to side with Israel, even against the Palestinians, and has believed in the power of diplomacy to bring lasting peace to the Middle East. But conditions are changing for the worst so quickly in that part of the world and the exigencies of maintaining political power here in the U.S. are such that an immediate “about face” in foreign policy is very possible, and could occur almost overnight.
Mr. Obama has suffered heavily in the eyes of the public for his often soft, rather “gutless,” position on radical Islam. However, in an election year, he may want to toughen up his image and appear as the “glorious warrior president.” What’s more, Obama knows Americans don’t like to change presidents in the middle of a war. He’s also aware that–as happened during World War II—wartime production can quickly pull our economy out of recession.
Is DEBKAfile correct about plans for a joint Israeli-U.S. strike against Iran some time before summer? DEBKAfile is rated as being accurate about 75 percent of the time. But whether it’s on- or off-target this time, one thing is sure: Israel can’t wait much longer to see if new sanctions on Iran will save it from annihilation? It will delay only long enough to ensure the maximum opportunity for a successful strike. And when Israel acts, it will be alone only for the instant it takes Washington to confirm that Iran’s retaliation will target U.S. assets all across the Middle East. Israel and the U.S. are inextricably tied to the removal of Iran’s terrorist regime. --JA | |
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