WarSclerotic

( I felt this deserved more attention than in the comments section. – JW )

Sometimes Joseph, some of here in the UK, non Jewish people who strongly support Israel, we feel that you Israelis are the modern day equivalent of Leonidas and his Spartans holding off the Persians for us. Until we come to our senses and support you.

We are not the commentators and politicians, who seem to use every opportunity to degenerate your country. We are the ordinary people who admire your resolution, your bravery and your clear-sighted view of the Iranian threat.

I hope that you will be able to persuade Obama to do what most Americans seem to want-to support you in the removal of an increasing threat from Iran, not just to you but to the whole free world and Sunnis everywhere. Now.

It probably does not give you much help just to wish you well, if Obama continues his dithering, in an attempt to defer action until after the Presidential election, and you thus have to go alone on Iran but I can assure you that there will be at least one Brit’ cheering you on and praying for your success. I believe that there will be many more.

On a more general note, congratulations on a brilliant, informative and factual site, which should be required reading by all interested in the subject.

I wish you, personally, better health and happier days from here in the UK. Thank you for all you do.

From Blimp

Hamas claims responsibility for rocket fire in… JPost – Defense.

Photo: REUTERS

South under fire: 4 rockets fired at Ashkelon – Israel News, Ynetnews.

( Here we go again… Sigh! – JW )

Palestinians fire rockets at south early Tuesday which reportedly hit open areas south of Ashkelon. Hamas’ military wing claims responsibility for attack

Yoav Zitun

Several hours after the Air Force struck Gaza, rockets were fired at the Ashkelon area as air raid sirens sounded in the region. The IDF detected the launching of four rockets, which apparently hit open areas south of Ashkelon. No injuries or damage were reported.

Hamas‘ military wing Izz al-Din al-Qassam brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. A statement by the group said that the rockets were meant to hit the Zikim army base. On Tuesday, alert level in the Gaza vicinity communities was raised. Residents of the Eshkol Regional Council were instructed to remain 15 seconds away from a fortified space.

Air Force aircraft fired at a Palestinian terror cell early Tuesday as its members were attempting to plant an explosive device near the central Gaza Strip border fence.

The army said the attack target was hit. Palestinian sources later confirmed that the strike left casualties on the Palestinian side; no further details were provided.

“The IDF will not tolerate any bid to harm the State of Israel’s citizens and IDF soldiers and will continue to operate against any element that utilizes terror against the State of Israel,” the military said following the strike. “The Hamas terror group is the address and it bears the responsibility.”

On Monday, Two Palestinian terrorists were killed when Israeli aircraft targeted a rocket-launching cell in northern Gaza.

The aerial strike came just a few hours after Palestinian terrorists fired a rocket from Gaza towards the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. There were no reports of injury or damage.

Earlier Monday, at around noon, the Israel Air Force struck targets in the northern Gaza Strip. Palestinian sources said two Islamic Jihad terrorists were killed in the attack.

According to Palestinian reports, the two were targeted while riding a motorcycle near the north Gaza town of Beit Hanoun.

Elior Levy contributed to this report

Syria Dominates Obama and Putin’s Meeting – NYTimes.com.

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

President Obama met with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia at the Group of 20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, on Monday.

By HELENE COOPER

SAN JOSÉ DEL CABO, Mexico — President Obama and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir V. Putin, finally had their face-to-face meeting on Monday, as Mr. Obama pressed Mr. Putin to work with him to ease President Bashar al-Assad of Syria out of power, a move increasingly viewed by the West as the only way to end the bloodshed that has been under way there for more than a year.

But after two full hours together, Mr. Putin was still balking, appearing afterward with Mr. Obama before reporters in a grim tableau that seemed to bespeak the frustration on both sides. During the few minutes that it took their handlers to usher reporters out of the room after their prepared remarks, the two leaders remained seated, side by side, staring straight ahead, with none of the interaction or small talk that leaders usually engage in before the cameras. “We agreed that we need to see a cessation of the violence, that a political process has to be created to prevent civil war,” Mr. Obama said.

During the meeting, American officials said, Mr. Putin spent considerable time pointing to what the Russians view as failed examples of political transition in Egypt and Libya as well as their concern that the West does not have a credible plan for what would happen to Syria’s various battling factions and ethnic groups if Mr. Assad stepped down from power.

Mr. Obama made a long and detailed effort to reassure Mr. Putin that the United States does not want to come between Russia and Syria, a strategic ally that Russia views as its last real bastion of influence in the region, the officials said. The Americans acknowledged that Russian officials have not really believed them when they have made these assurances in the past; Monday’s meeting, they said, provided Mr. Obama the chance to try to make this case personally to Mr. Putin.

“We have found many common points on this issue,” Mr. Putin allowed in his own remarks after the meeting, adding that the two countries would continue discussions.

Mr. Obama described the meeting — rescheduled for this gathering of Group of 20 leaders after Mr. Putin canceled his trip to an economic summit meeting Mr. Obama held at Camp David last month — as “candid, thoughtful and thorough.”

But American officials did not try hard to paint the meeting between the men as full of bonhomie and good cheer. “I thought the chemistry was very businesslike, cordial,” Michael McFaul, the United States ambassador to Russia, told reporters in an effort to push back against any negative impressions the body language between the two presidents might have suggested. “There was nothing extraordinary” about Mr. Putin’s dour demeanor, Mr. McFaul said. “That’s the way he looks, that’s the way he acts.”

Now that Mr. Obama and Mr. Putin have gotten this first meeting out of the way and listened to each other’s explanation for why Mr. Assad should, or should not, be pushed aside in Syria, United States officials say they hope they will be able to move forward.

“I think there was agreement that there needs to be a political process, that it cannot be just a cease-fire,” said Benjamin Rhodes, the director for strategic communications with the National Security Council. “Obviously the United States believes that political process needs to include Bashar al-Assad stepping down from power.”

Also on the agenda for Mr. Obama and Mr. Putin was the effort by the United States and Russia, along with Europe and China, to rein in Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Even as they were meeting on the outskirts of a world economic summit gathering here in Mexico, tough talks on Iran’s nuclear program were under way in Moscow. Mr. Obama said he and Mr. Putin had “emphasized our shared approach” and agreed that there was still time for diplomacy to work.

Mr. Obama’s attempt to reset relations with Russia had begun with Mr. Putin’s predecessor, Dmitri A. Medvedev, who only two and a half months ago said that “these were perhaps the best three years of relations between Russia and the United States over the last decade.”

But this first meeting between these outsize personalities as leaders of their respective countries could not have come at a more fraught time. Russia and the United States are clashing over a series of difficult issues: the American deployment of a missile defense system that Mr. Putin considers a threat; pending legislation in Congress that blocks visas and freezes assets of Russian officials linked to human rights abuses; and statements from the State Department about the protests that greeted Mr. Putin’s inauguration that left the Russian leader fuming.

But the biggest irritant of all right now is Syria, a longtime ally whose leader Russia has continued to defend in the face of condemnation from the West over Mr. Assad’s bloody crackdown on protesters who support democracy. Russia has opposed Western intervention and, by some accounts, continues to arm Mr. Assad’s forces. On Saturday, the United Nations suspended its observer mission in Syria because of the escalating violence. The move was widely viewed as an attempt to press Russia to intervene to assure that the observers are not targeted by Syrian forces or their sympathizers.

The renewed tensions come as the United States is heavily dependent on Russian cooperation for its military operations in Afghanistan. With Pakistan cutting off supply lines to Afghanistan, the so-called northern distribution network through Russia is the primary reinforcement route for America’s war on the Taliban.

That all of this is happening in the middle of an election campaign is not lost on the White House, especially given the recent assertion by Mitt Romney, Mr. Obama’s Republican opponent, that Russia is America’s biggest strategic threat. The comments were widely ridiculed in foreign policy circles but nonetheless felt in Moscow.

The Obama administration dismissed Mr. Romney’s remarks as election-year posturing, but given that they came just as Mr. Putin has been doing some muscle-flexing of his own, it has put Mr. Obama in a difficult position as he tries to persuade Mr. Putin of America’s good intentions — or, at least, its lack of ill intentions — toward Russia.

Peres: Iran running out of time – Israel News, Ynetnews.

President tells CNN Iranians continues to provoke world by pursuing nuclear weapon, do not take threat of military strike seriously

Attila Somfalvi

President Shimon Peres usually weighs his words carefully when it comes to the Iranian nuclear program, but in a Monday interview with CNN he voiced a more threatening tone.

Amid a new round of talks between Iran and the P+5 countries in Moscow, Peres told CNN’s Elise Labott that Iranis running out of time for a diplomatic solution vis-à-vis its nuclear program and warned the Islamic Republic leaders that they are making a grave mistake by thinking that a military offensive is not a viable option.

The president noted that Iran continues to mock the United Nations and world leaders by resuming its efforts to develop nuclear weapons. “You cannot provoke the world, assuming the world is made of fools only,” he said.

Must stay united. Peres and Obama (Photo: GPO)

Peres urged the international community to stay united on the Iranian issue, and called on the United States to step up its efforts to reach a solution. While Peres expressed his support in pursuing a non-military solution, including sanctions, he stressed that there must be a credible threat of a military strike for those options to be successful.

“If the Iranians will understand seriously that this is an option, maybe we shall not need it,” he said, adding that “If they think this is a bluff, then it may lead to a war.”

“For that reason, the warning must be credible, the sanctions must be credible. So let’s first of all use the non-military means, indicating to the Iranians, ‘Gentlemen, better you agree with a non-military confrontation than look for other options'”, Peres told CNN.

Asked whether he is expecting any positive outcome from the talks in Moscow, Peres said: “I am not sure that something will happen there for two reasons. (First,) the Iranians think this is just a warning, that people are not serious enough. And the second is they believe it can introduce a split in the coalition that President Obama has built.”

Peres refused to discuss the military options on the table but said that there are many different possibilities at hand. He also stressed the urgency of reaching an agreement, saying that Iran is continuing to build a bomb and enrich uranium while ignoring UN resolutions and the IAEA.

Russia, China, Iran plan to stage in Syria “biggest Mid East maneuver”.

DEBKAfile Special Report June 18, 2012, 8:31 PM (GMT+02:00)

Middle East military tensions around Syria shot up again Monday, June 18, with the news reported by the semi-official Iranian news agency Fars that a joint Russian-Chinese-Iranian exercise is to take place in Syria.

It was described as “the biggest of its kind ever staged in the Middle East” with 90,000 personnel, 400 air planes and 900 tanks taking part.
As part of its preparations, Beijing is reported to have asked Egyptian authorities to permit the passage through the Suez Canal in late June of 12 naval ships heading for the Syrian port of Tartus, where Moscow maintains a naval and marine base. debkafile reported earlier this week that Russian naval vessels with marines on board were heading for Tartus. The Iranian media did not itemize their contribution to the joint exercise.
debkafile stresses that this would be the first time that substantial Russian and Chinese military strength has ever been deployed in Syria or anywhere else in the Middle East. It means that the two powers are prepared to parade their unabashed partnership with the Iranian and Syrian armies for the shared purpose of obstructing US-European-Arab military intervention in Syria. A large-scale Russian and Chinese military presence in the embattled country would expect to deter the United States from leading a military operation against Bashar Assad and his regime.
No date was attached to the report but the exercise may possibly take place before the end of the month

The large-scale maneuver was announced in Tehran on the first day of the nuclear crisis talks in Moscow between Iran and the six world powers, their third attempt to resolve the crisis by diplomacy. However, Russian and Iranian sources close to the talks were pessimistic about progress. An Iranian delegation member complained the atmosphere was harsh and unconstructive. A Russian source saw no way of bridging US-led Western differences with Tehran when the parties reconvene Monday.
debkafile also notes that the big joint Russian-Chinese-Iranian exercise “at sea, air and land on Syrian soil,” ws released for publication shortly before US President Barack Obama was due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 summit in Mexico.

‘Iran considering halting high-g… JPost – Iranian Threat – News.

By REUTERS

06/18/2012 15:12

Ahmadinejad says Tehran prepared for step if world powers meet needs for fuel, but unclear how much influence he has on talks.

Photo: REUTERS/Stringer

As talks over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program were underway, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday that Tehran would be prepared to stop high-grade uranium enrichment if world powers agreed to meet its needs for the fuel.

“From the beginning the Islamic Republic has stated that if European countries provided 20 percent enriched fuel for Iran, it would not enrich to this level,” Ahmadinejad stated in comments published on his presidential website.

But it is not clear how much influence Ahmadinejad has over the negotiations and whether his remarks reflect Tehran’s position in the talks.

Talks with Iran began earlier Monday to try to end a decade-long stand-off and avert the threat of a new war in the Middle East.

Experts and diplomats said a breakthrough was unlikely at the meeting in Moscow, where the world powers are wary of making concessions that would enable Tehran draw out the talks and give it more time to develop a nuclear weapons capability.

Iran strenuously denies it has any wish to obtain such weaponry and says it only wants nuclear technology to generate electricity.

Israel has threatened to bomb Iran if no solution to the dispute is found, oil markets are nervous over the prospect of intensifying regional tensions and the frail world economy can ill afford a further increase in crude prices.

“The atmosphere was fine, business-like and good. We hope this translates into a serious political commitment by the Iranians to address our proposals,” a European Union spokesman said after the talks started in the Russian capital.

But a Western official made clear the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany were ready to deepen Iran’s diplomatic and economic isolation if no deal is reached.

“If Iran remains unwilling to take the opportunities these talks present, it will face continuing and intensified pressure and isolation,” a Western official said.

The Moscow talks follow two rounds of negotiations since diplomacy resumed in April following a 15-month hiatus.

The United States wants to halt Iran’s enrichment of uranium to 20 percent purity, a level which some experts consider to be a dangerous step towards achieving the ability to create the explosive material required to make a nuclear bomb.

Ahmadinejad’s comments on enrichment appeared intended to ease pressure from the world powers and encourage them to make concessions at the talks.

But the Iranian president, who stands down at elections next year, has fallen out of favor with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the man who has the ultimate decision-making power over the strategic nuclear program.

The American Spectator : Obama’s Stuttering Covert War.

By Jed Babbin on 6.18.12 @ 6:10AM

President Obama’s piecemeal approach to war reminds us of nothing at all. The Iraq withdrawal, the ongoing pullout from Afghanistan, the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and his now-publicized “kill list” program using drones to bomb individual terrorists appear disconnected from any overall strategy to end the threat of Islamic terrorism.

Obama’s approach to Iran is consistent with his overall incoherence. On one hand, he is doing everything possible to block an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear weapons program. On the other, as we learned seventeen days ago from the New York Times, Obama has engaged in a covert cyberwar against that same objective.

The president would argue that under our outdated laws, a cyber attack isn’t even an act of war. But Carl von Clausewitz’s “On War” defines war as “an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will.” The cyber attacks on Iran are clearly an act of force to compel Iran to stop enriching uranium, imposing our will and Israel’s. They were acts of war by any logical measure.

The problem that results from Obama’s lack of cohesion is twofold. First, a covert war is most effective when it is covert, not advertised on the Times‘ front page. Second, if the covert war is to compel a result that doesn’t disappear in a few weeks or months, it has to be carried out until the desired goal is achieved.

Covert operations such as the cyber attacks on Iran are authorized by “Presidential Determinations,” which are supposed to be shared with the chairmen and ranking minority members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees in recognition of Congress’s constitutional power over the conduct of wars. Presumably the Determination authorizing the covert cyber attack stated the objective of blocking Iran from achieving nuclear weapons.

But the cyber attacks, while they apparently delayed Iran’s progress for several months, didn’t achieve more than that.

Few nations have earned our wrath more convincingly than Iran. From the hostages taken at our Tehran embassy in 1979 to Iran’s complicity in the 9/11 attacks (determined last December by a federal judge) to its direct support (with the innovative “explosively-formed penetrator” weapon) of Iraqi insurgents which killed many U.S. troops, Iran has taken little care in even disguising its military actions against us.

If Obama means to end our covert war with the cyber attacks, he is intending to end or limit a conflict that cannot be ended or limited because Iran will not let it. If we are unwilling to do more, we could at least undertake a wider covert war.

Some Iran experts, including my friend Michael Ledeen, argue that we need not conduct a conventional war with Iran to stop its nuclear weapons program. They argue that support for the Iranian opposition is a better option and would have the necessary effects in time to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power.

I have never believed that the Iranian opposition could be strong enough to topple the Tehran regime, and that military power would have to be employed to prevent the regime from producing nuclear weapons and the means of deploying them. Diplomacy won’t work. No negotiation has produced any change in the Tehran regime’s behavior since it came to power. The only questions remaining are whether covert operations can delay Iran’s nuclear weapons program indefinitely and whether we can obtain enough accurate intelligence on that program to determine when the clock has run out and prompt, decisive military action has to be taken.

Our intelligence community still lacks the detailed information that could enable us to determine when Iran will achieve the nuclear capability it is pursuing. Though our ability to launch more covert operations against Iran is limited only by technology and imagination, the persistent lack of actionable intelligence — which is not likely to be remedied in the coming months or years — raises the risk of indefinite delay of military action to an intolerably high level. If we — and the Israelis — limit ourselves to covert action indefinitely, Iran will eventually achieve its nuclear ambitions.

The mullahs likely knew where the Stuxnet worm cyber attack came from, but having our authorship of the attacks published effectively dared the Iranian regime to counterattack. We don’t know what form that response will take or how or when it will be made or if it will succeed. We do know that the leak to the Times makes it harder and more dangerous to do what is needed in Iran.

Though Obama has dipped his toe into the covert war waters, he or his successor next year face the same dilemma. Some combination of covert actions could have the effect of delaying Iran’s nuclear program substantially, but what should they be and how long can we rely on them?

The limitations on our covert operations are only three: technology, our willingness to engage in more and different kinds of such operations, and our politics. The Obama White House leaks on the cyber attacks on Iran, and the Obama “kill list” program of drone attacks, are evidence of a reckless political strategy that, if continued, could prevent any future covert operations from succeeding. No covert agent or special operations soldier should have to bear that burden.

We had a significant opportunity to support the Iranian opposition in 2009 when opposition protests shook the Tehran regime. Obama declined to support the opposition and what could have been a revolution fizzled. We have refused to even talk to the opposition, a position that should be reversed immediately. If there is a substantial revolutionary movement in Iran, we should provide it covert aid in terms of financing, communications equipment, training and arms. CIA paramilitary groups should be inserted into Iran to perform these tasks and to improve our intelligence-gathering there. Sabotage against Iranian nuclear facilities should become a commonplace occurrence.

Expanding our cyberwar operations against Iran is one of the best options. Offensive cyberwar is far cheaper, and easier, than the defensive. We can, and should, disrupt Iranian government and military functions as often as we can. Iran is reportedly developing a new computer language to make such attacks more difficult. Our cyber warriors should be tasked to infiltrate that project and plant malicious software — “malware” in cyber jargon — to gather information from and at our command disrupt or destroy the computer networks the new system runs on.

A future president — let’s hope one will take office next year — should consider the “bad luck” option. Covert operations need not be conducted only by special operations forces, CIA agents, or computer warriors. We have a significant variety of stealthy weapons and weapon platforms. That president would have the option of making an equally large variety of Presidential Determinations authorizing the use of those weapons against Iran’s nuclear facilities and its intelligence and military centers.

When a target such as those blew up in the dark of night, who is to say that it’s the fault of the Great Satan or just a bad luck accident? The Iranian regime could become the most unlucky in the world. Let’s make it so.

About the Author

Jed Babbin served as a Deputy Undersecretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush. He is the author of several bestselling books including Inside the Asylum and In the Words of Our Enemies. You can follow him on Twitter @jedbabbin.

World powers start nuclear talks… JPost – Iranian Threat – News.

‘Iran was involved in bomb plots on Isra… JPost – International.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

06/18/2012 10:47

Multinational investigation produces evidence that Iran was behind planned attack in India, Thailand, Georgia ‘The Guardian’ reports.

Photo: REUTERS/Parivartan Sharma

Evidence that Iran was involved in bomb plots against Israeli envoys earlier in the year has emerged from a multinational probe, British newspaper The Guardian reported Monday.

In February, Israel ambassadors were the targets of planned terror attacks in India, Thailand and Georgia.

According to the report, local Indian agencies informed ministers that a bomb attack in New Dehli, which injured the wife of the Israeli embassy’s chief security officer, was orchestrated by a an Iranian “security entity.”

The Guardian stated that European intelligence officials had told the newspaper that “they now found in difficult to judge Tehran’s ‘risk calculus.'”

“Until recently it was possible to see why they were doing what they have been doing … Now it has become very unpredictable. It’s very hard to see the logic behind [the February bombings], other than perhaps demonstrate an ability to cause problems in the event of war or a desire for revenge of some kind,” The Guardian cited an intelligence official as saying.

According to the report, a combination of police evidence, witness statements and court documents seen by The Guardian illustrates that the three attacks were, “conducted by a well coordinated network of about a dozen Iranians and prepared over at least 10 months.”

The evidence mentioned by The Guardian comprises the identification of at least ten Iranians suspected of involvement in the plots, money transfers to “key individuals” from Iran, the detection of Iranian phone connections and a flight of suspects to Iran after the attacks.

Following the attacks, Thai security authorities announced that they had discovered a “direct connection” linking the attacks against Israeli diplomats in Georgia and India with an Iranian terrorist cell apprehended in Bangkok.

The cell, which consisted of three Iranian nationals, intended to target Israeli diplomats, Thai Police Chief Prewpan Dhamapong said at the time.

Yaakov Katz contributed to this report