WarSclerotic

Iran: UN agency sending nuclear spies, not inspectors – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Iran’s intelligence minister repeats allegations that Israel’s Mossad was behind murder of nuclear scientist earlier in the week.

Iran accused the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Saturday of sending spies from foreign intelligence services to the Islamic state, underlining worsening relations between Tehran and the UN atomic watchdog.

Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi made the allegation two days before Iran is due to resume talks with world powers seeking to resolve a long-running row over Tehran’s atomic work.

“The IAEA has been sending spies working for foreign intelligence organizations among its inspectors, and it should be held responsible,” Moslehi was quoted as saying by state broadcaster IRIB.

He was referring to IAEA inspectors who visit Iran regularly to monitor its atomic activities. The IAEA had no immediate comment on the allegation.

Moslehi repeated allegations that the intelligence services of Britain, the United States and Israel were behind the murder of an Iranian nuclear scientist this week, citing confessions from those arrested by Iran over the case.

The scientist, Majid Shahriyari, was killed in a bomb attack on his car on Monday.

“This terrorist act was carried out by intelligence services such as the CIA, Mossad and the MI6,” said Moslehi. “A group that wanted to carry out a terrorist act but did not succeed, was also arrested. They confessed that they were trained by these intelligence services.”

Iran has accused the United Nations of complicity in the attack and said it considers those countries which had issued UN sanctions resolutions against Tehran accountable.

A separate car bomb on Monday wounded another nuclear scientist, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, who is subject to UN sanctions because of what Western officials said is his involvement in suspected nuclear weapons research.

“We consider responsible those who revealed the names of the Iranian nuclear scientists in the UN resolutions. They paved the way for this kind of assassination,” Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference in Manama.

Ties between Iran and the IAEA have become increasingly strained under agency chief Yukiya Amano, who has taken a blunter approach towards the Iranian nuclear issue than his predecessor Mohamed ElBaradei.

Iran has accused Amano of bias and ties soured further in June when he said Tehran was hampering IAEA work by barring some of its inspectors.

Iran has agreed to meet with a representative of world powers in Geneva on Dec. 6-7 but it has made clear it will not negotiate about its “nuclear rights”, code for sensitive work the West suspects is aimed at developing an atomic arsenal.

The powers — the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany — want Iran to curb its nuclear program, which Tehran says is for purely peaceful purposes.

	Technicians measuring parts of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant in this undated photo.
	Photo by: AP

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security.

DEBKAfile Special Report December 4, 2010, 1:42 PM (GMT+02:00)

Russian Il-76 attacks Carmel inferno

Arson attacks spread Saturday, Dec. 4 from the North to Jerusalem, where fires started at Tsur Hadassah and the Jerusalem Forest. Day Three of the Carmel fire day began with a fleet of foreign planes taking off at first light to dump water and fresh supplies of retardants on the flames and smoke again engulfing Beit Oren, Ein Hod, Nir Etzion and Isfiya, fanned by scorching winds.

The two giant Russian Il-76s carry 42 tons of water in each sortie. Greek, Cypriot, Turkish and British planes filled their tanks with seawater and doused focal points. Jordan and Egypt sent fire trucks and volunteers.

Despite the massive international effort to beat back the fire, the overall director of the fire-fighting operation, Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch was not optimistic about quick results Saturday. The blaze is showing as much obstinacy as the forces fighting it.

The bodies were recovered of two senior police officers, Lior Boker, 57, North Command Operations chief, from Pardess Hanna and Yizhak Melina, 46, head of Traffic in Haifa district, the fireman Uri Semandayov, 27, from Mishmar HaEmek, and Elad Riban, the 16-year old schoolboy volunteer from Haifa. Ahuva Tomer, commander of the Haifa district is still in serious condition.
As part of the official campaign to avoid attaching a deliberate character to the widely-spread outbreaks of fire, police spokesmen reported that an initial probe had shown the Carmel fire was set off Thursday, Dec. 1, by the carelessness of an Isfiya family who neglected to put out the nargilla they were smoking.

Nonetheless, debkafile reports the police have posted patrols in Western Galilee and other parts of northern Israel to watch out for fire-raisers. Saturday, Manara and Margaliot near Kiryat Shmona and the Galilee Panhandle, were the northernmost point hit by suspected arson. Fires there triggered explosions at a nearby minefield. The Manara-Margalit road was closed and Jewish National Fund forest inspectors asked to keep an eye out for offenders from their look-out posts.

Two American flights are now expected with fire-fighting materials and experts. One French plane is in place and three more, two of them amphibious, go into action Sunday with tanks capable of carrying 10 tons of water and refilling every 20 minutes. Altogether, nine foreign planes are due Sunday, with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev promising a third Iyushin and a big air transport.

Black stumps and soot-laden soil are all that remains of 10,000 acres of nature reserve, parks and woodland of the northern Carmel range, one of the most popular and scenic getaway spots in the country. Four million trees, some of them rare species, were lost, despite the efforts of the Nature and Parks Authority and Jewish National Fund personnel. The Hay Bar open zoo is threatened, although the animals are still safe.

The Fire Brigade’s entire national force of 400 firefighters mobilized Thursday are all still on duty. Seventeen villages, kibbutzim and other locations have been evacuated and housed in temporary shelters. Friday night, seven people, trapped in a burning building at the Ein Hod artists’ village, were rescued safely.

The greatest firefighting aircraft in the word is now battle the Carmel fire.

Thank you RUSSIA!!!

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security.

DEBKAfile Special Report December 4, 2010, 11:07 AM (GMT+02:00)

Carmel inferno defies fighters

Day three of the Carmel fire, Saturday, Dec. 3, began with more than a dozen foreign planes at first light dumping seawater and retardant substances on the flames and smoke, which again engulf Beit Oren, the artists village Ein Hod, Nir Etzion and Isfiya fanned by scorching winds. The giant Russian Il-76s which went into action with 46 Russian experts leads the battle carrying 42 tons of water in each sortie.

The bodies were recovered of two Northern District police commanders, Ido Nahshon from Pardess Hanna and Yizhak Melina, from Haifa, the fireman Uri Semandayov, from Mishmar HaEmek, and the 16-year old volunteer from Haifa, Elad Riban. Haifa commander Ahuva Tomer is still in serious condition.

The northernmost fires, which erupted Saturday at Manara and Margaliot near Kiryat Shemona and the Galilee Panhandle, set off explosions in a nearby minefield. The Manara-Margalit road is closed.

Black stumps and charred land are all that remain of 10,000 acres of nature reserve, parks and woodland of the northern Carmel range. Four million trees, some rare species, were lost despite the efforts of the Nature and Parks Authority and Jewish National Fund personnel. The Hay Bar open zoo is threatened although the animals are still safe.
Two American planes are due Saturday with supplies of fire-extinguisher materials and materials. President Barack Obama phoned Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Friday night and promised all possible assistance. Greek, Cypriot, Bulgarian, British and Turkish planes and volunteers are already in action along with fire trucks and firemen from neighboring Jordan and Egypt. French and Spanish planes are on the way.

The Fire Brigade’s entire national force of 400 firefighters mobilized Thursday are all still on duty. Seventeen villages, kibbutzim and other locations have been evacuated and housed in temporary shelters. All 40 Prison Services warder cadets trapped in flames Thursday have been identified.

Israel reviews bid to halt wildfire as flames reach more homes – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

(THANK YOU TO ALL THE COUNTRIES WHO HAVE SENT US HELP.  UK, CYPRUS, GREECE, US, TURKEY, BULGARIA, JORDAN AND ESPECIALLY RUSSIA.  THE RUSSIAN PLANE DUMPS 4 TONS OF WATER.  GOD BLESS YOU ALL!  –  Joseph Wouk)

Seven people evacuated from burning building in Ein Hod; firefighting aircraft renew attempts to contain the flames.

By Haaretz Service

Firefighting aircraft from countries across the world took to the skies Saturday morning, in a renewed attempt to contain the Carmel wildfire, which continues to blaze unabated.

The wildfire, which has been burning since Thursday, continued to spread on Saturday morning, burning houses in the artists’ village Ein Hod and moshav Nir Etzion, as residents were evacuated from their homes.

	A firefighting aircraft sprays flame retardant on the wildfire in the Carmel forest on Nov. 4, 2010.
	Photo by: Gil Cohen Magen

Special aircraft from Turkey, Greece, Cyprus and Britain dumped sea water and flame retardant on the woodland inferno Saturday morning. A special plane from Russia, which is capable of holding up to 42,000 liters of water, also went into action on Saturday.

Police said that several people who refused to vacate their homes were trapped in Ein Hod and firefighters were attempting to rescue them from the burning village. Army Radio reported one incident where seven people were rescued from a burning building in the village on Saturday morning.
Earlier the flames reached the Carmel Forest Hotel and engulfed the area of the Hai-Bar nature reserve. Animals from the reserve are reported as being evacuated to a safe place.

Firefighters also battled the flames approaching Haifa University and the Denya neighborhood of Haifa.

Yoram Levy, a spokesman for Israel’s fire and rescue service, said firefighters battling strong winds were having trouble accessing the mountains and valleys.

The continued growth of the blaze followed an afternoon of cautious optimism in the fight against the largest wildfire in Israeli history.

As darkness fell on Friday, the operations of foreign firefighting aircraft from Europe were called off until the morning. During the night, firefighters on the ground were the only ones battling to stop the spread of the blaze, but there is not much of an expectation that they will be able to control it.

The initial inquiry conducted by fire investigators has pointed to negligence, not arson, as the cause of the wildfire.

According to the investigation, the wildfire started at one location west of Ussifiya. It is believed that household trash and tires that had been discarded in the area caught on fire and the fire spread. Investigators are looking into what exactly caused the trash to ignite.

Meanwhile, the police commissioner ordered district commanders to be on alert for acts of arson.

Northern District commander Shimon Koren said that several incidents of arson had occurred throughout the north on Friday. The fires did not develop into large blazes and were controlled quickly by firefighting forces.

Two male residents of Daliat al-Carmel were released on Friday after having earlier been arrested on the suspicion that they had attempted to ignite fires in the Carmel hills region.

After being questioned by police, it became clear that the two were not responsible for the acts they were suspected of.

17,000 Northern residents have thus far been evacuated from their homes as the wildfire has raged out of control in the Carmel hills south of Haifa, Israel’s third largest city, since Thursday morning.

Authorities are closely monitoring wind directions and are preparing for the possibility that the fire will spread to additional locations. Buses have been moved into to positions that will allow for additional evacuations if necessary.

A Home Front Command officer also said that at this point the fire is only growing stronger.

Fire-fighting aircraft from throughout the world landed in Israel on Friday to aid in battling the flames.

The death toll from the blaze reached 42 on Friday. Most of the victims had perished in an incident on Thursday involving a bus carrying members of a Prison Service guards’ course who were heading to the Damon jail in order to help evacuate inmates.

Firefighting aircraft from countries across the world took to the skies Saturday morning, in a renewed attempt to contain the Carmel wildfire, which continues to blaze unabated.

The wildfire, which has been burning since Thursday, continued to spread on Saturday morning, burning houses in the artists’ village Ein Hod and moshav Nir Etzion, as residents were evacuated from their homes.

	A firefighting aircraft sprays flame retardant on the wildfire in the Carmel forest on Nov. 4, 2010.
	Photo by: Gil Cohen Magen

Special aircraft from Turkey, Greece, Cyprus and Britain dumped sea water and flame retardant on the woodland inferno Saturday morning. A special plane from Russia, which is capable of holding up to 42,000 liters of water, also went into action on Saturday.

Police said that several people who refused to vacate their homes were trapped in Ein Hod and firefighters were attempting to rescue them from the burning village. Army Radio reported one incident where seven people were rescued from a burning building in the village on Saturday morning.
Earlier the flames reached the Carmel Forest Hotel and engulfed the area of the Hai-Bar nature reserve. Animals from the reserve are reported as being evacuated to a safe place.

Firefighters also battled the flames approaching Haifa University and the Denya neighborhood of Haifa.

Yoram Levy, a spokesman for Israel’s fire and rescue service, said firefighters battling strong winds were having trouble accessing the mountains and valleys.

The continued growth of the blaze followed an afternoon of cautious optimism in the fight against the largest wildfire in Israeli history.

As darkness fell on Friday, the operations of foreign firefighting aircraft from Europe were called off until the morning. During the night, firefighters on the ground were the only ones battling to stop the spread of the blaze, but there is not much of an expectation that they will be able to control it.

The initial inquiry conducted by fire investigators has pointed to negligence, not arson, as the cause of the wildfire.

According to the investigation, the wildfire started at one location west of Ussifiya. It is believed that household trash and tires that had been discarded in the area caught on fire and the fire spread. Investigators are looking into what exactly caused the trash to ignite.

Meanwhile, the police commissioner ordered district commanders to be on alert for acts of arson.

Northern District commander Shimon Koren said that several incidents of arson had occurred throughout the north on Friday. The fires did not develop into large blazes and were controlled quickly by firefighting forces.

Two male residents of Daliat al-Carmel were released on Friday after having earlier been arrested on the suspicion that they had attempted to ignite fires in the Carmel hills region.

After being questioned by police, it became clear that the two were not responsible for the acts they were suspected of.

17,000 Northern residents have thus far been evacuated from their homes as the wildfire has raged out of control in the Carmel hills south of Haifa, Israel’s third largest city, since Thursday morning.

Authorities are closely monitoring wind directions and are preparing for the possibility that the fire will spread to additional locations. Buses have been moved into to positions that will allow for additional evacuations if necessary.

A Home Front Command officer also said that at this point the fire is only growing stronger.

Fire-fighting aircraft from throughout the world landed in Israel on Friday to aid in battling the flames.

The death toll from the blaze reached 42 on Friday. Most of the victims had perished in an incident on Thursday involving a bus carrying members of a Prison Service guards’ course who were heading to the Damon jail in order to help evacuate inmates.

US rushes assistance to Israel to combat Carmel fires.

(Israel needs your help.  If you are a fire fighter, please contact the Israel consulate nearest you to find out if you can contribute to fighting this catastrophe. – Joseph Wouk)

“We are pursuing a ‘full court press’ to help and have the Israeli people in our thoughts and prayers,” Obama
So far the US has sent 12,000 liters of fire-suppressing foam and 45 metric tons of fire-retardant spray to be disseminated from planes, and is looking at the possibility of sending air support, according to National Security Council senior Middle East advisor Dan Shapiro.

In addition, a team of three expert American fire fighters is due to arrive this weekend.

“The US has been working overtime in many, many different streams to try to be as responsive as possible to Israel’s needs,” Shapiro said.

Obama also relayed his condolences and American support for Israel throughout the tragedy at the annual White House Hanukkah party he hosted Thursday night.

“As rescuers and firefighters continue in their work, the United States is acting to help our Israeli friends respond to the disaster,” he told the approximately 500 guests in attendance. “Of course, that’s what friends do for each other.”

In response to the fires, US Ambassador to Israel Jim Cunningham has issued a disaster declaration, which helped launched the effort to rapidly provide Israel as much US firefighting assistance as possible.

In addition to the chemicals provided by the US European Command, America is also providing fire-mapping to help local responders get accurate pictures of the extent of the fire and is offering to assess the costs of the fire and what will be needed long-term to cope with its consequences.

“We are moving as quickly as we can to provide this assistance, and are heartened by similar efforts to contribute resources from Israel’s other friends around the world,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement put out Thursday night, stressing that “we are fully committed to assisting Israel during this tragedy.”

She continued, “My hope is that the fires are extinguished soon. The hearts of the people of the United States go out to the people of Israel, and we stand with them at this difficult time.”

The Israeli embassy welcomed the help proffered by the United States.

“The people of Israel have been profoundly moved by the outpouring of support from a number of foreign countries,” Israel’s ambassador to the US Michael Oren said in a statement Friday. “We are especially grateful to President Barack Obama for his expression of support.”

He added that Israel is “ready to begin the task of rebuilding – restoring the damaged communities, replenishing the wildlife, and planting new forests. The State of Israel has surmounted many challenges in its short history. Together with our friends worldwide, we will overcome this too.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron also called Netanyahu Friday afternoon to extend condolences and sympathies for the lives lost in the ongoing Carmel forest fires.

“The Prime Minister extended his sincere condolences and great sympathies for the tragic loss of life in Israel in the ongoing forest fires. The UK had been glad to be able to help through the deployment of two UK helicopters based in Cyprus. Prime Minister Netanyahu thanked the British Government for the help; Britain had been amongst the first nations to provide assistance,” a Downing Street spokesman said.

Foreign Secretary William Hague also expressed condolences on behalf of the British Government.

“The British Government has been saddened by the Carmel Forest fire in northern Israel which has claimed so many lives,” Hague said on Friday.

“Our thoughts are with the thousands who have had to leave their homes due to the blaze. This tragedy is all the more sad as it comes as the Jewish community around the world celebrates Hanukka a time of hope and joy.”

Jonny Paul contributed to this report.

Small fires break out across Galilee; police suspect arson – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Police Commissioner David Cohen had warned local police chiefs to prepare for a spate of fires that were purposely started.

By Eli Ashkenazi

Close to a dozen fires broke out across the Galilee in northern Israel on Friday, even as fire fighters from Israel and abroad fought to contain a massive wildfire which has swept across a huge swathe of the nearby Carmel region. Police suspect that the new blazes were set deliberately.

Police Commissioner David Cohen earlier Friday warned local police chiefs to prepare for a spate of fires that had been purposely started. Police fear that some would take advantage of the current crisis to start more fires in the region.

	Firefighters fighting the flames in Tirat Carmel, Dec. 3, 2010.
	Photo by: AP

The heightened state of emergency led earlier to the arrests of two residents of the Druze village of Daliat el-Carmel, itself threatened by the brushfire, on suspicion of deliberately starting the massive blaze. The two were later released without charge once it was established that they had no connection to the fire. Investigators have said that they believe the massive fire was caused by negligence, rather than arson.

The largest of the fires which broke out Friday began at around noon in the Tsur Shalom industrial area in Kiryat Bialik, on the outskirts of Haifa. The smoke caused by the fire led police to temporarily close off a section of Route 4, which runs the length of the country, between Acre and central Israel. Investigators searching the area once the fire had been doused discovered two bicycles and a bag containing a wig, which led police to suspect that the fire was the result of arson.

Less than two hours later, a brushfire broke out near Ma’alot Tarshiha, and at the same time a brush fire was reported in Kiryat Tivon. At around 2:30 P.M., small fires broke out east of Shfaram. Another fire also broke out in the Neve Yosef neighborhood of Haifa.

A little before 5 P.M., another brushfire started near the Bat Salame moshav, on the side of the Mount Carmel. The police closed a section of Route 70 to traffic due to heavy smoke, opening it again two hours later.

The new fires also continued throughout the evening. At 6 P.M., two brushfires broke out in the Nazareth area; arson was suspected in both cases. At around the same time, another fire started close to the community of Adi, next to Shfaram. The fire approached the gates of the community, but fire fighters soon brought the blaze under control.

At around 8 P.M. on Friday night, another fire was reported close to the Tel-Al community in the Western Galilee. Again, police closed part of Route 70. Half an hour later, another wildfire broke out in the industrial area of the town of Nesher, close to Haifa.

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security.

DEBKAfile Special Report December 3, 2010, 10:25 PM (GMT+02:00)

Aerial operation halted at night

A suspected arson attack on the West Galilee village of Tal El east of Acre, near a cluster of Arab villages, Friday night, Dec. 2, strengthened the suspicion gaining ground among police and military circles on Day Two of the fiercely rampant Carmel blaze, that Israel may also be beset by a wave of deliberately-set fires. Officers talking to debkafile‘s sources did not identity the hand behind these attacks, commenting only that Israel appears to be confronted with a new kind of warfare outside its experience.
As night fell high over the Carmel range and the planes withdrew, the flames kept on returning to places where they had been extinguished by exhausted Israeli firefighters with the help of crews and special planes from a dozen countries. Bet Oren, Haifa’s Danya suburb and Haifa University are again in the path of the fire.

An deliberate attempt to set on fire the fields of Mishmar Henegev in the south, not far from a military base was hardly noticed amid the agonizing effort to beat back the awesome flames of the biggest fire disaster Israel has ever faced. Seventeen endangered locations were partly or fully evacuated leaving more than 17,000 in temporary shelters.

Arson was strongly suspected as the cause of separate fires erupting in three more places – Kiryat Tivon southeast of Haifa and two outside the Carmel region in Kiryat Bialik north of Haifa and Shfaram to the east.
Northern District Police Chief Shimon Koren reported several firebomb attacks had taken place in the Haifa district Friday, after police backed by an Air Force drone caught two arsonists red-handed lobbing firebombs in several directions from a deserted spot on Mt. Carmel.

A police ambush backed by an Air Force drone trapped two men who, after looking around and seeing they were alone, lobbed firebombs in several directions.They were not identified except for the fact that they were in their thirties and came from the village of Daliat Hacarmel.

It was initially assumed that the pair was part of a larger network or gang, which had sett fires on the Carmel and later in other parts of the country as part of a deliberate campaign of sabotage. Later, the police played down the incident, claiming the two men had not been handling firebombs but combustible materials and had been released. All the same, the investigators decided to bring the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security agency, into their inquiry – a pointer to their real thinking.
The fires which broke out Friday night near Bat Shlomo and Haifa’s Neve Yaacov were both suspected arson and closed. Highway 70 which connects the area south of Haifa to Galilee.

Friday morning, near Kiryat Bialik, police found an abandoned bike and a wig, apparently abandoned by another arsonist who had apparently disguised himself with a wig and planned to ignite the local gas pump and start a fire that would have spread quickly to the factories of heavily-industrialized Haifa Bay.

Spotting the police, he dumped the wig and made off.

The suspicion of a politically-motivated arson conspiracy was further suggested by the damage caused the bronze statue of Alexander Zaid, the  founder of the pre-state early 20th century Jewish defense organization,  a frequent object of Israeli Arab vandals.

A third attempt to set dense foliage on fire was discovered in near Shefaram. Had it succeeded, a conflagration on the same scale as the Carmel disaster could have swept Western Galilee.

The two-day blaze has covered 35,000 dunams of the Carmel beauty spot, a favorite nature preserve and park of picnickers and nature-lovers, and destroyed at least four million trees. The heroic efforts of members of the National Parks Authority for two days failed to save the rare animals in the Carmel open zoo, but did rescue the birds.