EDITOR: The buildup to disaster continues!
Against logic and reason, the new disastrous war in the Middle East is being prepared at full speed. The axis, as usual, is US, UK and Israel, and below you can read about the unprecedented measures now being taken by the US in Israel. This is to make sure that an attack on Israel bu Iran, in retaliation for the widely expected Israeli strike against its nuclear programme, will be considered an attack on the US itself, making intervention simpler and quicker. Israel will strike, Iran will retaliate, then the Axis will go into real action – quite a bit liker the Suez imbroglio in 1956! Another imperialist useless and murderous war, which we will all pay for, in more than one way.
US commander visits Israel to finalize missile drill: JPost
Israel, US to hold largest ever missile defense exercise this spring; thousands of US soldiers will be deployed in Israel.
Israel is moving forward with plans to hold the largest-ever missile defense exercise in its history this spring amid Iranian efforts to obtain nuclear weapons.
Last week, Lt.-Gen. Frank Gorenc, commander of the US’s Third Air Force based in Germany, visited Israel to finalize plans for the upcoming drill, expected to see the deployment of several thousand American soldiers in Israel.
The drill, which is unprecedented in its size, will include the establishment of US command posts in Israel and IDF command posts at EUCOM headquarters in Germany – with the ultimate goal of establishing joint task forces in the event of a large-scale conflict in the Middle East.
The US will also bring its THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) and shipbased Aegis ballistic missile defense systems to Israel to simulate the interception of missile salvos against Israel.
The American systems will work in conjunction with Israel’s missile defense systems – the Arrow, Patriot and Iron Dome.
Gorenc came to Israel for talks with Brig.-Gen. Doron Gavish, commander of the Air Force’s Air Defense Division.
He toured one of the Iron Dome batteries in the South and the Israel Test Bed lab in Holon where the IAF holds its interception simulation exercises.
The IAF is planning to deploy a fourth battery of the Iron Dome counter-rocket system in the coming months and is mulling the possibility of stationing it in Haifa to protect oil refineries located there.
The Defense Ministry has allocated a budget to manufacture an additional three Iron Dome batteries by the end of 2012. IAF operational requirements call for the deployment of about a dozen batteries along Israel’s northern and southern borders.
The IAF is also moving forward with plans to deploy Rafael’s David’s Sling missile defense system, which is designed to defend against medium-range rockets and cruise missiles. Rafael recently completed a series of successful navigation and flight tests of the David’s Sling’s interceptor and plans to hold the first interception test by mid-2012.
TENSIONS RATCHET UP IN STRAITS OF HORMUZ, U.S. ANNOUNCES ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ WAR GAMES IN ISRAEL, THOUSANDS OF TROOPS TO BE DEPLOYED: Richardsilverstein
A high level Iranian navy officer warned the U.S. not to send the U.S.S. Stennis back to the Straits of Hormuz through which it passed last week. The threat remained unspecified, but the implications were clear. If you return, you do so at your peril. The U.S. government responded defiantly that it would continue patrolling the body of water to ensure the free flow of international commerce:
The U.S. Navy maintains a “constant state of high vigilance” to “ensure the continued, safe flow of maritime traffic in waterways critical to global commerce,” George Little, a spokesman for the Pentagon, said…
These are regularly scheduled movements in accordance with our longstanding commitments to the security and stability of the region…
Which is of course a lie since the reason the U.S. navy is there is to intimidate the crap out of the Iranians and enforce an embargo on Iranian oil and other trade. It’s not yet officially come to that, but the Navy can and will place Iran under siege at the first opportunity, I’m certain. Someone will have to explain to me how having almost the entire Fifth Fleet right up Iran’s tuchus ensures the security and stability of the region. If the Chinese sent their new aircraft carrier to patrol off San Francisco would that ensure the security and stability of the region?
The Iranians test-fired a new medium-range missile during recent war games exercises, while the U.S. said it wouldn’t allow Iran to block the Straits. Who knows what the outcome of such a confrontation would be. The U.S. has might, the Iranians are fighting on their home ground. I believe that in any such military confrontation the Iranians could cause us pain.
Everyone knows which way this is going. The U.S. and Israel put the screws to the Iranians, trying to get them to cry “Uncle.” When they don’t, things get worse. Eventually, there will be a war, although how it will start is undetermined.
U.S. officials and hawkish analysts are trumpeting the savage blows caused by the new oil embargo against the Iranian economy. We hear about devaluations of currency and the like. The implication is that the Iranians can’t go on like this forever. That they will finally see the light and see it our way. This is utter nonsense. It’s simply wish-fulfillment and it is terribly naïve and destructive to base foreign policy on illusions as we are in this case.
In a separate development, the U.S. military announced it would hold major war game exercises in Israel during which thousands of U.S. troops would be deployed there. The Jerusalem Post described the size of the operation as “unprecedented.” While I’m not an expert on specific military exercises of this fashion, I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of such a large contingent of our troops being based in Israel for such a length of time. This is clearly a warning to Iran not to attack Israel. It also highlights more than almost anything could the symbiotic relationship between our two countries. It isn’t clear whether Israel is our protectorate or whether Israel is actually the tail wagging our dog. But the fact that U.S. troops are stationed now in Israel offers that country the relationship we’ve had with Germany and South Korea for decades.
The difference is that those two countries were always sensitive to the highly flammable nature of relations between the U.S. and its enemies. They strove not to escalate tensions and force the U.S. to clean up the mess they made. Israel is an entirely different matter. Israel will not curb its appetite or perceived interests in order to protect the U.S. from such hostilities. If Israel wants to go to war it will. If it can use the death of U.S. soldiers to manipulate U.S. involvement in such hostilities, it will do that as well. If Israel attacks Iran and the latter retaliates and in doing so kills U.S. troops stationed on Israeli soil, does that become a causus belli? You bet it does in the eyes of national security hawks like Obama.
U.S. troops should not be in Israel. It does not need our troops to defend it. Iran will not attack Israel unless the latter attacks it first. Placing our troops there is yet another escalation on the road to certain war.
Further, the worse this situation becomes the less pressure there will be to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is a good part of Bibi’s political calculation here. While the Israeli PM may half-believe the nonsense he’s peddling about Iran as an existential threat. He far more likely considers ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an existential threat to the settler-nationalist dream of controlling all of Eretz Yisrael. His highest priority is not stopping Iran from getting a bomb, but maintaining Israeli hegemony over its territorial patrimony (as he defines it).
U.S. says will continue to deploy warships in Persian Gulf despite Iranian threats: Haaretz
Pentagon U.S. ‘committed to security and stability of region’; State Department: Iran threats show economic sanctions begin to bite.
By Reuters and The Associated Press
The United States will continue to deploy its warships in the Gulf, a defense spokesman said on Tuesday after Iran threatened to take action if the U.S. Navy moves an aircraft carrier into the Gulf.
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“These are regularly scheduled movements and in accordance with our long-standing commitments to the security and stability of the region and in support of ongoing operations,” Commander Bill Speaks said in an emailed response to Reuters questions.
“The U.S. Navy operates under international maritime conventions to maintain a constant state of high vigilance in order to ensure the continued, safe flow of maritime traffic in waterways critical to global commerce,” he said.
When asked later Tuesday if the U.S. intends to send naval reinforcements to the Gulf in response to Iranian talk of closing the Strait of Hormuz, Pentagon spokesperson George Little did not answer directly but said, “No one in this government seeks confrontation over the Strait of Hormuz. It’s important to lower the temperature.”
Also referring to Iranian threats on Tuesday, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. saw “these threats from Tehran as just increasing evidence that the international pressure is beginning to bite.”
“They are feeling increasingly isolated and they are trying to divert the attention of their own public from the difficulties inside Iran, including the economic difficulties as a result of sanctions,” Nuland told a news briefing.
Earlier on Tuesday, Iran said it would take action if a U.S. aircraft carrier which left the area because of Iranian naval exercises returns to the Gulf. The state news agency IRNA quoted army chief Ataollah Salehi as saying that “Iran will not repeat its warning … the enemy’s carrier has been moved to the Sea of Oman because of our drill. I recommend and emphasize to the American carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf.”
Iran completed 10 days of naval exercises in the Gulf on Monday, and said during the drills that if foreign powers imposed sanctions on its crude exports it could shut the Strait of Hormuz, through which 40 percent of the world’s traded oil is shipped.
The U.S. Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain, said it would not allow shipping to be disrupted in the strait.
Iran said on Monday it had successfully test-fired two long-range missiles during its naval drill, flexing its military muscle in the face of mounting Western pressure over its controversial nuclear program.
Iran also said it had no intention of closing the Strait of Hormuz but had carried out “mock” exercises on shutting the strategic waterway.
US vows to stay in Gulf despite Iran warning: Al Jazeera English
Pentagon and White House dismiss Iran’s threat of closing Strait of Hormuz as sign of Tehran’s “weakness”.
Last Modified: 04 Jan 2012 08:52
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The Pentagon has responded to an Iranian warning to keep US aircraft carriers out of the Gulf by declaring that US warships will continue regularly scheduled deployments to the strategic waterway.
George Little, the Pentagon press secretary, said on Tuesday that the navy operates in the Gulf in accordance with international law and to maintain “a constant state of high vigilance” to ensure the flow of sea commerce.
Earlier in the day, Iran’s army chief warned an American aircraft carrier not to return to the Gulf. Iran has also warned it could block one of the world’s key oil tanker sea lanes in response to economic pressures.
Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, dismissed Iran’s warnings as signs of Tehran’s weakness and of the international isolation it has faced for pursuing a nuclear programme.
“It’s the latest round of Iranian threats and is confirmation that Tehran is under increasing pressure for its continued failure to live up to its international obligations,” Carney said. “Iran is isolated and is seeking to divert attention from its behaviour and domestic problems.”
The US navy has said the aircraft carrier USS John C Stennis and another vessel left the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz a week ago.
Strategic channel
Iran has been holding naval exercises since then near the strait at the mouth of the Gulf, which is a critically important passage for international oil supplies.
“The deployment of US military assets in the Persian Gulf region will continue as it has for decades,” Little said in a written statement.
“These are regularly scheduled movements in accordance with our longstanding commitments to the security and stability of the region and in support of ongoing operations.”
The US Navy Fifth Fleet has long been headquartered in the Gulf state of Bahrain.
Asked whether the US intends to send naval reinforcements to the Gulf in response to Iranian talk of closing the Strait of Hormuz, Little did not answer directly but said, “No one in this government seeks confrontation over the Strait of Hormuz. It’s important to lower the temperature.”
Little reiterated that any closure of the strait would not be tolerated, but he declined to elaborate.
Iran test-fired a surface-to-surface cruise missile on Monday as part of its naval manoeuvres in the Gulf, prompting Iran’s navy chief to boast that the strait is “completely under our control”.
Asked about the significance of the missile test, Little said: “We are aware of reports of missile tests that are apparently tied to Iranian naval exercises that began in late December. They have the right to conduct exercises.”
Little said the US believes that the “Iranian regime should devote its energy and resources to establishing friendly relations with countries in the Gulf region”.
Juppe’s remarks
Against this backdrop of tensions in the Gulf, Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister, has urged the international community to adopt tougher sanctions on Iran.
He told French broadcaster ITV on Tuesday that “there is no doubt” that Iran is pursuing the development of nuclear weapons, saying the last report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had been “quite explicit on this subject”.
Iran denies that its nuclear programme is aimed at producing weapons, insisting it is for peaceful purposes only, such as generating electricity.
The IAEA report, published in November, concluded that some alleged clandestine work by Iran could not be used for any other purpose than making nuclear arms.
“This is the reason why France has blocked all dialogue and negotiations with Iran and of course imposed tougher sanctions,” Juppe said.
“The French president has put forward two proposals: the first one is a freezing of the assets of Iran’s central bank – which would be a very harsh measure – and the second is an embargo on Iranian oil exports.”
Israel kidnapped & interrogated a 6-year old child for four hours: Occupied Palestine
JANUARY 3, 2012
Updated Jan 4, 2012
Israel’s mayhem against children is getting beyond every imagination. On Jan 3, three young children were arrested. The youngest was only 6 years old: Mohammed Ali Dirbas who was kidnapped from the street while going to the grocery store. After that Israel detained and interrogated little Mohammed for 4 hours.
Today Jan 4, 2012 we decide to go blog all future child arrests and campaign this information around to create awareness for these zionist atrocities of the worst kind.
The arrest of a 6 year old is really the limit. At the moment over 160 children already are illegally detained, arbitrary and in violation with literally all International Laws, arrested, kidnapped, interrogated by every disregard of higher laws or regulations, tortured, and neglected – when ill- even to death.
The new overview of all arrests of children will be daily and continuously updated with arrests of children if they occur and we want to ask all to help raise the awareness by sharing (and keep sharing this post), reblog it on your own weblog, website or refer or link to it.
The following updates have been published by media and/or reported and confirmed by activists on the ground in Silwan and ‘Isawiyya with regard to the appalling arrest of the 6 year old child Mohammed Ali Dirbas from Al’Isawiyya which updates will be maintained in this post for quick insights for all who want to know which depths zionist occupation has reached.
Below the list of arrests, resources and related information, reports of human rights organisations and legal context or documents will be continuously updated as well for your reference.