EDITOR: Iran Bombing kept quiet!
You may be forgiven for not knowing that the Iranian nuclear facility at Isfahan was partly destroyed by a ‘mysterious blast’ late three weeks ago, as this was hardly evident in media reports in the west. The exception is Israel, where it was widely reported with ‘a nod and a wink’ attitude. While the original report was far from openly admitting this was Mossad’s handiwork, the report today in Haaretz comes much closer. Will the further planned bombing also be kept quiet by western media? One wonders.
Report: Mysterious blast in Iran’s Isfahan damaged key nuclear site: Haaretz
London Times quotes Israel intelligence officials as saying that satellite images show this week’s reported blast in Isfahan was ‘no accident.’
By Yossi Melman
A mysterious blast which reportedly rocked Isfahan in western Iran on Monday damaged a key nuclear facility in the city, the Times of London reported on Wednesday.
On Monday, Haaretz sited Iranian media as reporting that an explosion was heard near Isfahan, home to a uranium conversion plant operational since 2004.
According to reports by the semi-official Fars news agency, frightened residents called the fire department after the blast, forcing the city authorities to admit there had been an explosion. Residents reported that their windows shook from the explosion’s force.
At first, Iranian officials denied the reports, with the governor of Isfahan later alleging that the blast was caused by an accident that had occurred during a nearby military drill.
However, a report in the Times on Wednesday alleged that the blast had not been a military accident, and that the city’s nuclear facility was damaged.
The report quotes Israeli intelligence officials who based their conclusion on updated satellite images showing smoke billowing from the direction of the conversion plant.
According to the Israeli sources, there was “no doubt” that the blast had damaged the nuclear facility, and that the explosion was not an “accident.”
“This caused damage to the facilities in Isfahan, particularly to the elements we believe were involved in storage of raw materials,” one source told the Sunday Times.
It must be noted that the Times report was not confirmed by any other source.
The Isfahan plant went into operation in 2004, taking uranium from mines and producing uranium fluoride gas, which then feeds the centrifuges that enrich the uranium.
Since 2004, thousands of kilograms of uranium flouride gas were stockpiled at Isfahan and subsequently sent to the enrichment plant in Natanz.
Commenting on the report of an explosion in Isfahan, U.S. State Department Spokesman Mark Toner said Monday, “We don’t have any information at this time other
than what we’ve seen in the press as well. But certainly we’re looking into it.”
“As you know, we’re somewhat limited in our ability to glean information on the ground there, but we’re certainly looking into it,” Toner added.
Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan said in a television interview on Tuesday that if Israel attacks Iran, it will be dragged into a regional war.
According to Dagan, Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas will respond with massive rocket attacks on Israel. In that scenario, Syria may join in the fray, Dagan said on the television program “Uvda”.
Report on the Sunday Times (only available to paying customers…)
Iran: explosion in Isfahan reported: Guardian
Widely conflicting reports emerge of apparent explosion in the north-east of Isfahan near where nuclear facilities are located
Saeed Kamali Dehghan
Conflicting reports have emerged from Iran over an explosion heard in the central city of Isfahan, close to the country’s sensitive nuclear facilities.
Iran’s semi-official Isna news agency quoted a judiciary official in Isfahan, saying that an explosion had been heard.
“We heard a sound similar to that of an explosion but we have received no reports about its causes and the consequences so far,” said Gholamreza Ansari, in quotes carried by Isna. He said the explosion did not appear to be of any significance.
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency was one of the first media organisations to report the explosion, saying it was heard at 2.40pm local time (1110 GMT). Fars quoted the deputy governor, Mehdi Ismaili, as confirming a sound that the news agency reported was loud enough to be heard across the city. The agency, however, removed the article from its website sometime later.
Ismaili then spoke to another semi-official agency, Mehr, denying his quotes as reported by Fars. “I have heard no sound whatsoever in Isfahan,” he said. Ismaili also told the Irna state news agency that he had not spoken to Fars in the first place.
Several residents of Isfahan told the Guardian that they had heard a loud blast. One said that it rattled the windows of their home.
Isfahan is home to Iran’s uranium conversion facility (UCF), which operates under IAEA surveillance. Iran’s main uranium enrichment facilities are situated in the city of Natanz to the north-east of Isfahan, where many of the country’s centrifuges are installed. In recent years, Iran’s nuclear activities at Natanz have been at the centre of an international dispute.
Earlier this month, a huge explosion at a missile base in the west of Tehran killed more than 30 members of Iran’s revolutionary guards, including Major General Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, a senior commander described as the architect of the country’s missile programme.
In recent years, Iran’s nuclear and missile programmes have experienced a series of setbacks in what has been widely seen as a covert war against the Islamic republic.
Images Show Devastation at Iran Base After Blast: NYT
By WILLIAM J. BROAD
Published: November 29, 2011
The large, deadly explosion at an Iran military base in Iran on Nov. 12, which Iranian authorities have called an accident that set back research work there by a few days, appears to have been far more devastating than their description suggested, according to an analysis of newly released commercial satellite images of the blast site.
Speaking of Blast, Iranian Describes Work on Weapons (November 17, 2011)
Blast Kills Commander at Iran Base (November 14, 2011)
The images reveal vast destruction and chaotic disarray across a sprawling complex composed of more than a dozen buildings and large structures.
The Institute for Science and International Security, a private group in Washington, made the satellite images public Monday, along with an analysis of the damage. “It was pretty amazing to see that the entire facility was destroyed,” Paul Brannan, the report’s author, said Tuesday in an interview. “There were only a few buildings left standing.”
It was impossible to determine from the images whether the explosion had been a simple accident or an act of sabotage.
The force of the explosion was so great that it shook windows in many surrounding towns, according to Iranian news sites and witnesses quoted at the time. But no photographs of the blast damage were released by the Iranian government, which has become increasingly sensitive about its military capabilities as tensions escalate with the West over its missile and nuclear programs.
The base, set in an isolated patch of Iranian desert ringed by a security cordon, is about 30 miles west of Tehran and three miles west of the town of Bidganeh.
The explosion is already known to have killed 17 members of the armed forces, including a founder of the country’s missile program, Gen. Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, presided over a vast state funeral for General Moghaddam and 16 other members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps two days after the explosion. The showy memorial service underscored General Moghaddam’s importance.
Hassan Firouzabadi, the Iranian military chief of staff, said on Nov. 16 that the blast occurred while researchers were working on weapons capable of delivering Israel a “strong punch in the mouth.” He also said their research would result in only a “short-term delay of a few days.” But it was hard to reconcile his appraisal with the obliteration seen in the satellite image.
The spy-satellite business, once a secretive monopoly of advanced nations, went commercial starting more than a decade ago. Today, a new generation of civilian satellites can peer down from orbit to see objects on the ground as small as two or three feet wide — enough to distinguish between a car and a truck.
Last week, on Nov. 22, a commercial satellite operated by DigitalGlobe snapped an image of the stricken base. It showed that most of its buildings had been destroyed or extensively damaged.
In its analysis, the Institute for Science and International Security noted that some of the destruction may have resulted from subsequent demolition of buildings and the removal of debris that may have occurred. But it also discounted that possibility.
“There do not appear to be many pieces of heavy equipment such as cranes or dump trucks on the site, and a considerable amount of debris is still present,” the report noted. “About the same number of trucks are visible in the image after the blast as in an image from approximately two months prior to the blast. Thus, most of the damage seen in the Nov. 22, 2011, image likely resulted from the explosion.”
In the interview, Mr. Brannan said that the institute’s sources indicated that the blast occurred while rocket engineers were performing a volatile procedure with a missile engine.
His report called the work integral to “a major milestone in the development of a new missile.”
EDITOR: PA is to be paid by the boss, after some delays…
So after over a month of delaying the VAT repayments to the PA, a delay which is of course illegal – but exactly is still legal in Israel apart from racial hatred and apartheid – the boss has decided to pay the sub-contractor in Ramallah, after said employee of the Israeli regime has pulled out from the UN campaign. Payment for services rendered.
This is the tactic which keeps the PA in check – both weakened and humiliated, unable to pay its workers and for services in the PNA areas. This is a reminder who the boss is, and what happens when you displease the boss…
Israel okays handover of Palestinian tax money to PA: Haaretz
Following cabinet decision, top official tells Haaretz that Israel would consider future fund freezes if Palestinians continue UN statehood bid, form government with Hamas.
By Barak Ravid
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top cabinet ministers approved the handover of $100 million in tax money to the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday, despite the vocal opposition of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
The FM’s reason for wanting to hold the tax collection money was the possibility of it being used by a Palestinian unity government that would include Hamas – a terrorist organization in control of the Gaza Strip.
On Sunday, Netanyahu appeared close to a decision, saying at a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that he was considering releasing the money and that the cabinet would convene over the coming days to discuss the matter.
Netanyahu said he decided to go back on his decision to freeze the tax money due to the suspension of Palestinian activities at the UN, coupled with the fact that a Fatah-Hamas reconciliation does not appear to be on the horizon.
Lieberman was quick to respond at that meeting: “I have heard numerous infantile remarks about it being their money – as if with the money, they are free to murder or preach for the murder of Jews,” the foreign minister said at a meeting of his Yisrael Beiteinu faction.
Nevertheless, Lieberman did back down on Sunday from the threats he made last week. “We will vehemently oppose the release of the funds,” he said. “We won’t quit the government and we won’t create a crisis, but we will do everything we can to prevent the money from being transferred.”
On Wednesday, the decision was finally made, with the forum of eight ruling that Israel would both transfer the withheld October tax funds as well as refrain from delaying taxes collected for the month of November.
A senior Israeli official said that Netanyahu’s cabinet would consider freezing tax collection funds in the future if the Palestinians continue unilateral attempts for recognition at the United Nations or in the case of the formation of a unity cabinet between Fatah and Hamas.
Israel would track the money’s use, and in the event that the funds are funneled toward terrorists, it will cut those amounts from future transactions, the official indicated.
Writing in a New York Times op-ed on Tuesday, leading columnist Thomas L. Friedman wrote that Israel would be wise to transfer the money to the PA, arguing that Netanyahu had to bolster moderate forces in the Arab world in the wake of Arab Spring uprisings.