WarSclerotic

WikiLeaks: Iran ‘obtains North Korea missiles which can strike Europe’ – Telegraph.

Bomb Kills Iranian Nuclear Scientist – NYTimes.com.

By WILLIAM YONG and ALAN COWELL

Published: November 29, 2010

TEHRAN — Unidentified assailants riding motorcycles launched bomb attacks early on Monday against two Iranian nuclear physicists here, killing one of them and prompting accusations that the United States and Israel were behind the episode, state-controlled media reports said.

The dead scientist was identified as Majid Shahriari, a physics professor at Shahid Beheshti University in northern Tehran, whose wife was injured when a bomb attached to his car was detonated remotely. A second professor at the same university, Fereydoon Abbasi, was injured in a separate, simultaneous attack. His wife was also hurt.

Iranian media reports said the attackers attached bombs to the cars of both academics and detonated them from a distance.

The semi-official Fars news agency declared: “The United States and the Zionist regime perpetrated a terrorist attack on two professors at Shahid Beheshti university.”

Some unofficial Iranian media reports, controlled by hardliners, described Mr. Abbasi as a loyalist supporter of the Iranian regime involved in nuclear research at the Defense Ministry and said both scientists were from the nuclear engineering department of Shahid Beheshti University.

Mr. Shahriari was said in some reports to have taught at the Supreme National Defense University, run by the Iranian Army.

Iranian media accounts called the attacks terrorism.

The attack were similar to a bombing last January in which a remote-controlled bomb killed another physics professor, Masoud Ali Mohammadi, outside his home. The Iranian authorities also blamed that attack on the United States and Israel — a charge the State Department in Washington rebutted as absurd.

In an apparent coincidence, the latest bombing came a day after leaked State Department documents quoted several Arab leaders as urging the United States to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. Iran says its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only but many in the West and in Israel maintain Tehran’s aim is to build a nuclear bomb.

The bombings came days before Iranian officials are supposed to meet on Dec. 5 for oft-postponed talks on nuclear and other issues with officials from world powers seeking to persuade Tehran to abandon nuclear fuel enrichment which could contribute to a military capability.

WikiLeaks: US cables focus on Iran – Telegraph.

Iran features heavily in the disclosure of 250,000 US embassy cables leaked through the whistle-blowers’ website WikiLeaks.

Russia to Israel: Technology for canceling S-300 deal – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Russia promised Israel $1 billion, scrapping of Iran missile deal in exchange for drone technologies

Ynet

Russia offered Israel $1 billion for advanced drone (automatic aircraft) technologies, and in addition offered to cancel the deal to supply Iran with S-300 missiles, according to an official cable published Sunday via WikiLeaks.

The cable was sent by US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Ellen Tauscher after meeting Director of Policy and Political-Military Affairs at the Defense Ministry Amos Gilad.

The American diplomatic documents leaked to the website Wikileaks and published in France’s Le Monde suggest that Russia’s attitudes to Iran were “mysterious,” as written in a memo from November 2009. The cable was sent one year before the Kremlin announced it would cancel its deal to supply Iran with the missiles. The Israelis are very concerned about the need to act more forcefully to get Russia to join diplomatic efforts against Iran, the document says. In a number of cables from December 2009, Israelis expressed their fears on this issue to the US government. Behind the scenes, there was extensive correspondence on this issue, and on December 1, 2009 Tauscher sent a cable to the secretary of state, saying that Gilad had said Moscow has asked Israel for advanced drones in exchange for canceling the S-300 deal. Gilad said the Russians are aware they are behind in these technologies, and that they are ready to pay $1 billion in return for Israeli technologies.

Gilad, the document says, emphasized that Israel would not supply Russia with its most advanced technologies because it would quickly end up in China’s hands. On the same day, Foreign Ministry Director-General Yossi Gal met Tauscher, and said the time had come to impose sanctions which would paralyze Iran. He compared sanctions to an urgent medical prescription for antibiotics, which must be taken every day otherwise it would have no effect.

The world thinks like us – Israel Opinion, Ynetnews.

Op-ed: WikiLeaks boosted Israel by revealing that most world leaders share our views

Had WikiLeaks didn’t exist, Israel would have had to invent it. The massive leak of US diplomatic documents produces a clear, unequivocal picture: The whole world, and not only Israel, is terrified by the Iranian nuclear threat.

Iran’s nuclearization is not Israeli paranoia, as certain camps try to argue. It makes all world leaders, from Riyadh to Moscow, lose sleep. The Iranian issue is the common thread in the hundreds of thousands of documents that were leaked and it produces a narrative whereby the world expects Israel and the United States, in this order, to do something to stop “Hitler from Tehran.”

Some people feared WikiLeaks’ leaks because of the embarrassment to American diplomacy and the fears that the lives of US agents would be jeopardized. Yet that was a false alarm. The leak does not hurt America’s foreign policy, with the exception of a few tales recounted by junior diplomats. The leak reinforces the main message of two US administrations – which turned out to be incredibly similar to the main message conveyed by Israeli governments: Iran constitutes the clear, immediate and greatest threat to the world’s stability, and the world needs to act towards uprooting this malignant tumor. All the rest is dwarfed by it.

Israel largely unscathed

Some media outlets indeed tried to make a big deal out of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s supposed order to US diplomatic staff to spy after senior UN officials. However, scrutinizing the documents makes it clear that this had to do with concerns about close cooperation between some UN officials and Hamas/ Hezbollah. This theme had been frequently raised by Israel too.

In fact, the ocean of leaks has not yet produced an item that casts a negative light on Israel. Netanyahu came out of it (relatively) ok, Olmert came out of it (relatively) ok, and even Mossad Chief Meir Dagan’s statement about the US need to encourage the protest of intellectuals and students in Iran is commensurate with a liberal, democratic worldview and with accumulated experience in toppling dictatorships. It is doubtful whether in recent years Israel’s foreign and defense policy received such significant backing and reinforcement as happened Sunday. At least on the Iranian front, and apparently in respect to quite a few other issues too, world leaders – including the Arab world – think like us but are ashamed to admit it. WikiLeaks exposed this shame.

WikiLeaks: Arab world according to Mossad chief – Israel News, Ynetnews.

WikiLeaks documents contain reports of 2007 meetings in which Meir Dagan presented US with five-step program to perform coup in Iran; said ‘nothing can be achieved’ with Palestinians

Roi Mandel

Mossad chief Meir Dagan presented the United States with a five-step program to perform a coup in Iran in August 2007, one of the documents revealed by the WikiLeaks website indicates.

In a meeting with Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns Dagan said that Israel and the US have different timetables regarding Iran’s ability to achieve nuclear abilities. He noted that the Mossad is taking into consideration the Iranian regime’s determination to succeed.

The Mossad chief claimed in the meeting there was time to solve the Iranian nuclear crisis but stressed that the Islamic Republic is putting great effort into obtaining nuclear abilities.

He presented a five-step program against Iran:

1.Political approach: Dagan praised efforts to bring Iran before the Security Council and the decision to hold another round of sanctions, but stressed that this approach alone was not sufficient. He stressed that the timetable for political action against Iran was different that the nuclear project’s timetable.

2.Secret steps: Dagan and Burns agreed not to discuss this approach in the wider forum of the discussion.

3.Nuclear proliferation: Dagan stressed the need to prevent the transfer of knowledge and technology to Iran and said more can be done on the matter.

4.Sanctions: Dagan stated that three Iranian banks were on the verge of collapse and that the economic sanctions had national effect. He claimed the Iranian regime has difficulty handling the banks.

5.Regime change: Dagan said more should be done to change the regime, and raised the possibility of recruiting democratic student and ethnic movements as well as dissidents to this end.

During the meeting Dagan criticized what he referred to as Russia’s negative involvement in the region.

‘Satisfied with sanctions’

In a secret document from July 13, 2007 the US Embassy in Israel reported of a meeting between Dagan and the national security advisor. In the meeting the two expressed satisfaction over the economic sanctions on Iran. Dagan noted that the UN sanctions caught the Iranians off guard and had a significant effect in putting more pressure on the regime.

Dagan noted that the Iranian regime was falsely claiming it managed to solve the uranium enrichment procedure. He noted Russia’s growing aversion of Iran and its nuclear program and said the Iranian were shocked to discover Russia blamed them of endorsing terror against the US.

Referring to disagreements in the Iranian government, he said there was no ideological disagreement on the annihilation of Israel, which everyone endorsed, but said there was growing variance on the tactic that should be employed. He noted that while some supported revenge actions against the West others championed a more moderate approach.

The Mossad chief also noted that Israel was not alone in its concerns over Iran and pointed to Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states which he said “expected someone else to do the job for them.”

Dagan also criticized the conduct of some of the Gulf leaders which created difficulties in handling Iran. He described Qatar as a “real problem” and said it was trying to please everyone – Syria, Iran and Hamas while also trying to achieve a measure of independence. He advised the US to remove bases from the country.

‘Peace talks will fail’

Dagan also expressed pessimism regarding peace talks with the Palestinians. He said that nothing can be achieved, despite a decade of trying to reach a full-status agreement. The Mossad chief claimed that only Israel’s military actions against Hamas in the West Bank prevented it from expanding its control outside Gaza and that without it Fatah would have fallen within a month.

As for Syria, Dagan said that Damascus’s strategic alliance with Tehran and Hezbollah had not changed and that Assad believes it is proving successful. He noted that only by enforcing UN resolutions on Lebanon and increasing efforts to disarm Hezbollah, could the international community separate Iran and Syria.

Enforcing such resolutions would add pressure on Assad who fears being tried for former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri’s murder, Dagan stated.

The Mossad chief also expressed concern over the disintegration of Turkey’s secular nature and warned that in time the country could radicalize further. He claimed that had the Turkish army received additional direct aid from the US it would have been better able to prevent the rise of the Islamists.

Mossad activity in Iraq

A secret cable from March 17, 2005 reveals a side of the Mossad’s activity in Iraq. Ambassador Dan Kurtzer reported that Dagan told him that Israel has proof that foreign fighters returned home from Iraq, which possibly indicates that the US’s war against the guerilla fighters was succeeding. Nevertheless, he expressed concern that the fighters’ homelands such as Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Syria will not be able to control the them. They were capable of threatening stability in the region, he said.

Dagan also noted that Israel has friendly relations with the Kurds in Iraq.

Analysis: Wikileaks vindicate, don’t damage, Israel.

Based on the trove of diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks on Sunday, the United States is clearly listening to and recording what Middle Eastern leaders have to say about Iran. The question left unanswered is what the US is willing to do about it.

For years now, top Israeli political and defense leaders have warned the world that a nuclear Iran is not just a threat to the Jewish state but is a threat to the entire region.

“If only we could say publicly what we hear behind closed doors,” Israeli officials would comment, following off-record talks they held with Arab leaders throughout the Middle East.

Well, now they can. According to one cable published by WikiLeaks on Sunday, Saudi King Abdullah “frequently exhorted the US to attack Iran to put an end to its nuclear weapons program” and to cut off the head of the snake.

According to another cable, King Hamad of Bahrain, a country with a majority Shi’ite population, urged in a meeting with former CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus that action be taken to terminate Iran’s nuclear program.

“That program must be stopped,” Hamad said, according to the cable. “The danger of letting it go on is greater than the danger of stopping it.”

Jordan, another country that voiced concern, is uncomfortable with the possibility that a nuclear Iran would provide an umbrella for opposition groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt is also challenged by Iran’s continued nuclear development, as shown by the conviction in April of 26 men who were spying for Hizbullah and plotting attacks in Egypt.

From an Israeli perspective, therefore, it would not be an exaggeration to say that WikiLeaks may have done the country a service on Sunday. By presenting the Arab leaders as more extreme in their remarks than Israeli leaders, the cables show the dissonance in the region and the danger involved in allowing Iran to continue with its nuclear program.

While there were some comments made by Mossad director Meir Dagan regarding leaders in the Middle East – the emir of Qatar is “annoying,” and the king of Morocco is not interested in governing – that are slightly embarrassing, Israeli politicians were spared the more embarrassing analyses of their personalities that French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi received.

The information revealed in the cables is vast and informative, providing an unprecedented insight into the way some of Israel’s top intelligence officials and politicians view the region and its challenges.

Dagan, for example, comes out looking much more than just the head of a spy agency, and according to the cables, is sought after by almost every senior US official visiting Israel. In one cable he met with a Homeland Security official, in another with the undersecretary of state. In another he met with officials from the Treasury Department and in another, Mossad officials met with US military officers.

In general and contrary to earlier predictions, the cables did not appear to contain information that could significantly harm Israeli national security.

Most Israeli officials, such as Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Dagan and Military Intelligence chief Maj.-Gen.

Amos Yadlin, appear to be careful in what they say in the meetings, which are clearly being documented by American aides in the room. In one cable, while Yadlin said that covert means needed to be used to stop Iran, he was quoted as refusing to elaborate.

At the end of the day, though, none of this has changed the state of affairs regarding global efforts to stop Iran. While the UN has ratcheted up sanctions and the US is threatening more and tougher ones, the Teheran regime is continuing to defy the international community and to enrich uranium, making it today just a jump away from creating a nuclear weapon whenever it wants.

WikiLeaks exposed all on Iran, but told nothing new – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

In the modern age, covert documents aren’t necessarily as surprising and often state the obvious; in this case: Everyone wants Iran bombed.

By Yossi Melman

Eighteen months ago, in May of 2009, Defense Minister Ehud Barak issued a warning during a meeting with U.S. congressmen that Iran could be prevented from obtaining nuclear weapons in 6 to 18 months. Later, Barak claimed, according to the newly exposed documents, that any military solution would result in unacceptable collateral damage.

Barak meant what he said, since any strike that would take place later than the deadline he set would result in a grave disaster to the population and to the environment because of radioactive fallout. We are now in November, the date Barak gave as the last line for an assault on Iran and still that attack is nowhere in sight. The defense minister’s words were recorded in a report by U.S. ambassador to Israel James Cunningham, and is one of the millions of documents leaked to WikiLeaks.

	The reactor building of the Bushehr nuclear power plant is seen, just outside the southern city of Bushehr, Iran, on Aug. 21, 2010
	Photo by: AP

There is little doubt that the Americans understood that Barak was trying to get a message to the Obama administration through the congressional delegation, but they remained unfazed. They knew Israel wanted the United States to attack Iran and would for that end provide overestimations in regards to the advancement of the Iranian nuclear program. But Israel’s basic request was not completely strange to American ears. They heard it from the Saudi king and from other U.A.E. leaders. King Abdullah is even quoted as asking the United States to “cut off the snake’s head” in one of the cables, and everyone knows he means Iran.

It could seem surprising that the fact that Arab leaders found themselves in the same effort to end the ayatollahs nuclear efforts. But for that kind of understanding of the Middle East’s inner workings you don’t need secret State Department cables to be leaked to the media. It would have been sufficient to read pundits and journalists who cover the Mideast to see that everyone is in agreement on this issue. Everyone would like to see the United States bomb Iran. In other words, covert documents, in the modern age, aren’t necessarily as surprising and often state the obvious.

WikiLeaks exposé: Saudis told U.S. ‘Cut off the head of the snake’ on Iran – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Diplomatic cables to U.S. officials quote leaders of mainly Sunni Arab states urging Iranian nuclear program be stopped ‘by whatever means necessary’.

By Reuters

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia repeatedly exhorted the United States to “cut off the head of the snake” by launching military strikes to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, according to leaked U.S. diplomatic cables.

A copy of the cable dated April 20, 2008, was published in the New York Times website on Sunday after being released by the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. The classified communication between the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh and Washington showed the Saudis feared Shi’ite Iran’s rising influence in the region, particularly in neighboring Iraq.

	Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud awaits visitors at his palace in Riyadh, November 16, 2010.
	Photo by: Reuters

The United States has repeatedly said that the military option is on the table, but at the same time U.S. military chiefs have made clear they view it as a last resort, fearing it could ignite wider conflict in the Middle East.

The April 2008 cable detailed a meeting between General David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, and then U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, and King Abdullah and other Saudi princes.

At the meeting, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir “recalled the King’s frequent exhortations to the U.S. to attack Iran and so put an end to its nuclear weapons program,” the cable said.

“He told you to cut off the head of the snake,” Jubeir was reported to have said.

The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, however, pushed for tougher sanctions instead, including a travel ban and further restrictions on bank lending, although he did not rule out the need for military action.

The WikiLeaks documents also show U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates believes any military strike on Iran would only delay its pursuit of a nuclear weapon by one to three years, the Times reported.

‘Iran nuclear program must be stopped’

Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s top oil producers, is concerned about Iran’s growing military strength. The United States announced last month that it plans to sell the kingdom $60 billion worth of military aircraft to help it bolster its defenses.

Britain’s Guardian newspaper, one of a number of publications to have had access to the leaked diplomatic cables, said the communications also showed that other Arab allies have secretly agitated for action against Tehran over its disputed nuclear program.

The Guardian quotes documents that show officials in Jordan and Bahrain “openly calling for Iran’s nuclear program to be stopped by any means, including military.” The British daily also says leaders in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt called Iran “evil,” and an “existential threat” which “is going to take us to war.”

Another cable, sent from the U.S. Embassy in Manama, Bahrain, on Nov. 4, 2009, detailed a meeting between Petraeus and King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, whose kingdom is the headquarters of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth fleet. Like Saudi Arabia it is a Sunni Muslim-ruled kingdom.

King Hamad argued “forcefully for taking action to terminate (Iran’s) nuclear program, by whatever means necessary,” the cable said.

“That program must be stopped,” he was quoted as saying. “The danger of letting it go on is greater than the danger of stopping it.”

Iran denies its nuclear program is a cover to build a nuclear bomb and says it is purely for peaceful purposes.

A UN Security Council resolution passed in June, imposing a fourth round of sanctions, renewed a call on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, something Tehran has explicitly refused to do, saying such activity is its right under international law.

The top U.S. military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, said in comments released on Friday that the U.S. military has been thinking about military options on Iran “for a significant period of time”, but he stressed that diplomacy remained the focus of U.S. efforts.

Iran: U.S. attack plans a ‘joke’ – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Army responds to U.S. chief of staff MIke Mullen, who said his forces were assessing military options aginst Iran.

By DPA

An Iranian military commander said plans by the United States to attack Iran were a “joke,” the news network Press TV reported Monday.

Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told CNN on Sunday that the US has been mulling military options against Iran, adding he would not believe “for a second” Tehran was using its nuclear plants for civilian purposes.

	Iranian soldiers simulate battle to mark the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war, September 26, 2010.
	Photo by: Reuters

“This is a joke,” General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, commander the Basij militia, told Press TV. “for 30 years the US has been dreaming (of an attack), hopefully they will wake up,” he said.

“They would not be able to move an inch as the Basij forces would surround them anywhere,” he added.

Although the US has pursued diplomatic negotiations and put international pressure on Iran in the dispute over the Islamic republic’s nuclear programmes, Washington not ruled out military options.

Tehran’s rulers regard US threats as psychological warfare to make them compromise in the nuclear dispute.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned repeatedly that in case of US aggression against Iran, it would “reply with no limit making the other side regret its actions.”