WarSclerotic

U.S. Concerned as Syria Moves Chemical Stockpile – WSJ.com.

By JULIAN E. BARNES, JAY SOLOMON and ADAM ENTOUS

WASHINGTON—Syria has begun moving parts of its vast arsenal of chemical weapons out of storage facilities, U.S. officials said, in a development that has alarmed many in Washington.

The country’s undeclared stockpiles of sarin nerve agent, mustard gas and cyanide have long worried U.S. officials and their allies in the region, who have watched anxiously amid the conflict in Syria for any change in the status or location of the weapons.

American officials are divided on the meaning of the latest moves by members of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Some U.S. officials fear Damascus intends to use the weapons against the rebels or civilians, potentially as part of a targeted ethnic cleansing campaign. But other officials said Mr. Assad may be trying to safeguard the material from his opponents or to complicate Western powers’ efforts to track the weapons.

Some said that Mr. Assad may not intend to use the weapons, but instead may be moving them as a feint, hoping the threat of a chemical attack could drive Sunnis thought to be sympathetic to the rebels from their homes.

Whatever the motivation, the evidence that the chemical weapons are coming into play could escalate the conflict in Syria, some fear. “This could set the precedent of WMD [weapons of mass destruction] being used under our watch,” one U.S. official said. “This is incredibly dangerous to our national security.”

The Obama administration has begun to hold classified briefings about the new intelligence. U.S. officials are particularly worried about Syria’s stocks of sarin gas, the deadly and versatile nerve agent. The officials wouldn’t say where weapons have been moved.

The new intelligence comes as the U.S. and its allies step up pressure on Russia to join an international drive to dislodge Mr. Assad from power. But the new information could cut both ways, officials said: It could bolster calls for international action to remove Mr. Assad, but also underline the risks of intervening against a military armed with weapons of mass destruction.

“This shows how complex this is,” a second official briefed on the matter said.

The Syrian government denied the chemical stockpiles have been moved.

“This is absolutely ridiculous and untrue,” said Syria’s foreign ministry spokesman, Jihad Makdissi. “If the U.S. is so well-informed, why can’t they help [U.N. envoy] Kofi Annan in stopping the flow of illegal weapons to Syria in order to end the violence and move towards the political solution?”

The White House, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon declined to comment.

Damascus is believed to possess one of the largest stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in the Middle East. Syria never signed the 1992 Chemical Weapons Convention, the arms-control agreement that outlaws the production, stockpiling and use of such weapons.

Despite the new intelligence, U.S. officials said they believe that the weapons remain under Syrian government control.

The State Department reiterated U.S. warnings: “We have repeatedly made it clear that the Syrian government has a responsibility to safeguard its stockpiles of chemical weapons, and that the international community will hold accountable any Syrian officials who fail to meet that obligation,” said spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

Syrian opposition leaders said that rebels have confiscated equipment from Syrian forces apparently meant to protect them during a chemical weapons attack.

Syria has long had the capability of placing its chemical agents in artillery shells and Scud missiles, U.S. officials have said. But chemical and biological weapons are difficult to deploy effectively. Sarin, for example, can be used either as a gas or to poison water supplies because it is heavier than air, but is hard to control when used as a weapon against a crowd of people.

The weapons are a danger not only to opponents, but also to the government’s own forces. In 2007, an accident at a chemical-weapons facility involving mustard gas killed several Syrians.

U.S. officials have held discussions with the Jordanian military, working on plans to have Jordan’s special operations forces secure the chemical and biological sites in the event that Assad’s government falls.

Because of the faulty intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction that were used to justify the Iraq war, U.S. officials are extremely cautious about using reports of Mr. Assad’s chemical stockpiles to support military intervention.

Some U.S. officials briefed on the matter said the information isn’t conclusive on what Mr. Assad’s forces intend to do with the weapons. These officials said the moves may be aimed at safeguarding the materials from enemies, rather than a sign Mr. Assad is preparing to use them.

Officials point out that Mr. Assad remains in power today largely because of international disagreement over how to handle the crisis. If he used a chemical weapon, they said, Western allies would likely rally around plans to more aggressively intervene and topple him from power.

But some American officials, who hold the view that the U.S. needs to do more to protect the Syrian population, fear that the chemical weapons have been moved in so they can be available for government-allied forces to use, should the rebels make further gains or the Syrian state begin to fall apart.

“The regime has a plan for ethnic cleansing, and we must come to terms with this,” the first U.S. official said. “There is no diplomatic solution.”

Some analysts and U.S. officials believe that if the Assad government is forced to abandon power, it would retreat to the Mediterranean coast, where the country’s Allawite population is concentrated. The Syrian regime since 2011 has attacked Sunni enclaves in the coastal areas otherwise dominated by the pro-government Allawite minority.

As the rebels continue to gain in key areas and the Assad regime is increasingly threatened, it could resort to chemical weapons, said Joseph Holliday, a former Army intelligence officer and an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War.

“We can’t discount him using this, we just can’t,” Mr. Holliday said. “If we believe the Assad regime and their closest allies view this as an existential struggle, we have to assume they could use chemical weapons against their population at some point in the conflict.”

Opposition leaders maintain there are increasing indications that the Damascus regime is trying to cleanse strategic areas, such as Hama and Homs, of Sunnis in order to set up an ethnic state that could be defended by the Assads’ Allawite ethnic minority.

A delegation from the umbrella Syrian opposition group, the Syrian National Council, visited Moscow this week and pressed the Russian government to use its leverage with the Assads to quell the violence, according to members of the group.

Qassim Saadaldin, spokesman for the rebels’ military leadership in the Syrian city of Homs, said the opposition has intelligence that the regime is readying biological or chemical weapons. “Assad is prepared to use these weapons should he consider his authority to be in jeopardy,” Mr. Saadaldin said.

Write to Julian E. Barnes at julian.barnes@wsj.com, Jay Solomon at jay.solomon@wsj.com and Adam Entous at adam.entous@wsj.com

US piles more sanctions on Iran – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Treasury Department announces news financial sanctions against 11 companies affiliated with Iran’s defense ministry, Revolutionary Guards and national shipping line

Associated Press

The Obama administration on Thursday hit Iran with more sanctions designed to hinder the country’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The Treasury Department announced new financial sanctions against 11 companies affiliated with the Iranian defense ministry, Revolutionary Guard Corps and national shipping line as well as a university, all for actions they took to support the programs. Several of the firms are already subject to US and European sanctions.

Treasury also slapped penalties on four men, including an Austrian national and three Iranians, for similar activity.

“Iran today is under intense, multilateral sanctions pressure, and we will continue to ratchet up the pressure so long as Iran refuses to address the international community’s well-founded concerns about its nuclear program,” said David Cohen, Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial Intelligence.

“Today’s actions are our next step on that path, taking direct aim at disrupting Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs as well as its deceptive efforts to use front companies to sell and move its oil.”

The sanctions freeze any assets that the firms and individuals may have in US jurisdictions and bar Americans from doing business with them.

The affected firms include the Electronic Components Industries Co. and Information Systems Iran, subsidiaries of a company run by Iran’s defense ministry that make high tech communications equipment and computers; the Advanced Information and Communication Technology Center; Digital Media Lab; Value-Added Services Laboratory; Ministry of Defense Logistics Export; International General Resourcing FZE, which is based in the United Arab Emirates; Malek Ashtar University, which trains military technicians; and Good Luck Shipping, an Emirates-based affiliate of Iran’s previously sanctioned national shipping line, IRISIL.

The other two companies are Pentane Chemistry Industries; which manufactures components for Iran’s nuclear facilities and the Center for Innovation and Technology Cooperation, which aides in technology transfer from scientists to the Iranian military.

The four individuals are Iranian software engineer Hamid Reza Rabiee; Austrian Daniel Frosch, the owner of International General Resourcing FZE; Ali Fadavi, the naval commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hossein Tanideh, a former vice president of Pentane Chemistry Industries.

In addition, Treasury identified several front companies operating on behalf of the Iranian government and the sanctioned entities, including energy firms based in Hong Kong, Switzerland and Malaysia. The identifications mean they will now be subject to existing sanctions covering their parent or sister organizations.

Those firms include Petro Suisse Intertrade Company SA; Hong Kong Intertrade Company; Noor Energy (Malaysia) Ltd.; and Petro Energy Intertrade Company. All are said to be alleged fronts for Iran’s national oil company, which wanted to use them to evade existing sanctions. They also include the National Iranian Tanker Company.

The identifications “highlight Iran’s attempts to evade sanctions through the use of front companies, as well as its attempts to conceal its tanker fleet by repainting, reflagging, or disabling GPS devices,” Treasury said in a statement.

MI6 chief: Iran could go nuclear in 2 years – Israel News, Ynetnews.

John Sawyers says Britain foiled Iran’s attempts to produce nuclear weapons in 2008; FM Hague warns Tehran’s ambitions could spark ‘new Cold War’

AFP

Britain’s foreign intelligence chief believes Iran will acquire nuclear weapon capability within two years, the Daily Telegraph reported Friday.

MI6 Chief John Sawyers, in a rare public speech, spoke before a meeting of senior civil servants in London and said that British agents had foiled Iran’s attempts to produce a nuclear weapon as long as four years ago, according to the report.

“And so, the most serious round of nuclear proliferation since nuclear weapons were invented would have begun with all the destabilizing effects in the Middle East… And the threat of a new cold war in the Middle East without necessarily all the safety mechanisms – that would be a disaster in world affairs.”

“You’d have Iran as a nuclear weapons state in 2008 rather than still being two years away in 2012,” the report quoted Sawyers as saying.

“The Iranians are determinedly going down a path to master all aspects of nuclear weapons; all the technologies they need,” he said. “It’s equally clear that Israeland the United States would face huge dangers if Iran were to become a nuclear weapon state.”

He added that in such a case a military strikewould become increasingly likely.

“I think it will be very tough for any prime minister of Israel or president of the United Statesto accept a nuclear-armed Iran,” he suggested.

Iranian President Ahmadinejad in Natanz (Photo: EPA)

The US unleashed a fresh wave of sanctions against Iran on Thursday, ratcheting up pressure to convince Tehran to take seriously concerns about its suspected nuclear program.

The actions impose additional sanctions on Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missileproliferation networks and identify Iranian “front” companies and banks to assist in compliance, the Treasury Department said.

“The Treasury and State Department actions target more than 50 entities tied to Iran’s procurement, petroleum, and shipping networks,” the Treasury said.

Iran has been subject to severe international economic sanctions over its controversial nuclear program, which Western powers believe masks an atomic weapons drive despite repeated denials by Tehran.

Earlier this week, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague warned that Iran’s pursuit of nuclear capabilities may trigger a “new Cold War.”

The Daily Telegraph quoted Hague as saying that “Iran was threatening to spark a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, which could be more dangerous than the original East-West Cold War – as there are not the same ‘safety mechanisms’ in place.

“It is a crisis coming down the tracks,” Hague said. “Because they are clearly continuing their nuclear weapons program… If they obtain nuclear weapons capability, then I think other nations across the Middle East will want to develop nuclear weapons.

USS Laboon deploys to make history | WAVY.com | Norfolk, Va..

Updated: Thursday, 12 Jul 2012, 8:51 AM EDT
Published : Thursday, 12 Jul 2012, 8:51 AM EDT

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – The USS Laboon is off and making history Wednesday when the guided missile destroyer left Norfolk with one of the most advanced weapons systems in the Navy.

The USS Laboon got underway early Wednesday morning, but the ship’s commanding officer has been preparing the crew for this deployment for at least 12 months.

“This is a strategic, national mission,” Cmdr. James Storm told WAVY.com. “This is a priority of the President of the United States.”

That sense of urgency heightened by recent missile tests in Iran and intelligent reports that show sophisticated ballistic missile technology is more available than ever to nations hostile to the United States and our allies.

“Technology has kept pace with the proliferation of these threats and we have the capability to counter those threats,” Storm said.

That capability is the Ballistic Missile Defense System the ship was outfitted with last July. A number of Norfolk-based destroyers are equipped with the BMD system. Those vessels are the cornerstone of what is known as the president’s “Phased Adaptive Approach” to protect our European allies from the growing ballistic missile threat.

“The nature of war has changed dramatically since World War II,” Bill Morine said. His son, Grant, is a junior officer on the USS Laboon. “It’s great to see our son and this ship and all the people on board serving at the forefront, pioneering in new warfare on behalf of the defense of our nation.”

The opportunity to make history does not go unrecognized by the crew.

“To go out and actually do something for my country instead of sitting back and watching other people do it,” Thomas Taylor said.

Like many of his shipmates, this will be Seaman Taylor’s first deployment. Fir this mission, though, their youth may actually be an advantage.

“They’re more technologically savvy than I probably was when I first came in,” Storm said.

All are possessing the same devotion to duty.

Israel fears window for Iran attack starting to close, while US urges more patience | The Times of Israel.

Allies hold strategic dialogue in Jerusalem, but friction is growing behind the scenes, Times of Israel told

An Israeli F-15I at the Hatzerim Airbase (photo credit: Ofer Zidon/Flash90)

Israeli and American officials on Thursday held one of their semi-annual “strategic dialogue” meetings in Jerusalem, which concluded with a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry noting that Iran’s nuclear program was high on the agenda. Behind the bland public comments, however, one well-placed Israeli source spoke of friction in US-Israeli ties over the struggle to thwart Iran, with the US urging Israel to allow more time for sanctions to bite, and Israel expressing concern that its window of opportunity for military action is starting to close.

Thursday’s talks were led by Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns. “Iran’s continued quest to develop nuclear weapons, which the United States and Israel are both determined to prevent, the destabilizing role which it plays in the region, and its promotion of international terrorism were all addressed by the parties,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Ayalon noted that these were the fifth such talks between the two nations within the strategic dialogue framework. “Of course, at the top of the daily agenda is the issue of stopping the Iranian nuclear development process. Iran is the most severe and immediate threat to regional security and world peace.”

US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns (left) with Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon in Jerusalem (photo credit: Yossi Zamir/Flash 90)

The Foreign Ministry quoted Burns as stressing the importance of the meetings in light of regional changes. Burns was also said to have stressed American commitment to Israel’s security.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have for months been publicly expressing skepticism about the prospect of sanctions thwarting Iran’s nuclear drive, with Netanyahu urging the international community in March to consider the consequences of a failure to act in good time against Iran and Barak stressing how much more complex it would be challenge an Iran that has attained a nuclear capability.

Privately, said the well-placed Israeli source, speaking on condition of anonymity, the issue is a source of profound friction between Israel and the US, with Washington urging Israeli patience and Jerusalem responding that time is running out.

The source sketched out four possibilities unfolding on the diplomatic front over the coming months: The first, a negotiated agreement with Iran that resolves Israeli and American concerns, he said, was out of reach. The second, an unsatisfactory negotiated agreement, that does not fully address those concerns, was also highly unlikely, he said. In its latest interactions with the P5+1 powers (the permanent members of the Security Council and Germany), Iran rejected proposals to negotiate the safeguards and restrictions that would prevent it attaining a nuclear weapons capability, and referred to plans to build a new enrichment facility and four new research reactors, according to a document obtained by The Times of Israel.

A third possibility, the Israeli source said, was that the international community would declare that the diplomatic track had failed. This, too, was highly unlikely, he stressed, given that a declared failure could be read in Israel as a signal to strike, and given the oft-stated American and European interest in ensuring more time for diplomacy and for sanctions pressure to bite, including the recent EU sanctions on Iranian oil.

The fourth possibility, and by far the most realistic one therefore, the source said, was that the diplomatic engagement would be maintained, however unsuccessfully. Since the US administration is anxious to avoid a dramatic conflict on the Iranian front ahead of the presidential elections in November, since Europe has no desire to be harsher than the Americans, and since the Iranians are primarily interested in buying time while they make further nuclear headway, there is an unfortunate case of common interests at play.

In early May, when Israel appeared to be heading for early elections, Channel 2 commentator Amnon Abramovich made headlines by asserting that Netanyahu was heading to the polls so that he would safely reelected, at the head of a transition government, and free to strike at Iran in September-October, with no need to worry about voter sentiment and aware that President Barack Obama would be paralyzed by the US presidential campaign. The Likud-Kadima coalition deal staved off elections then, but the September-October period remains potentially significant, given the need for pre-winter clear skies in any potential military intervention.

Iran’s capacity to withstand sanctions should not be underestimated, the Israeli source noted, saying that Turkey and India were among the countries letting Iran off the hook.

Meanwhile, Thursday’s talks also addressed the ongoing bloodshed in Syria. The two sides voiced concern over both the Syrian regime’s continued crackdown on its civilian populace and the assistance Syrian President Bashar Assad receives from Iran and Hezbollah. According to the Foreign Ministry, the situation in Syria “is a source of major humanitarian concern and the violence of the Syrian regime against its citizens could also lead to severe consequences for the entire region.”

Ya’alon threatens Hezbollah, dema… JPost – Diplomacy & Politics.

By REUTERS

07/12/2012 18:42

Strategic affairs minister says Iran believes itself immune from further US action before November election, warns Hezbollah of “heavy price” if it attacks Israel at behest of Tehran, Damascus.

Photo: Reuters

The United States must do more to show Iran it is serious about curtailing its nuclear ambitions because the current pressure is not working, Vice Premier Moshe Ya’alon said on Thursday.

Ya’alon also fired a warning at the terrorist Hezbollah movement in neighboring Lebanon, saying the Shi’ite group would be crushed if it tried to attack Israel at the behest of Tehran in any future war.

Speaking just days before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Jerusalem, Ya’alon said Iran appeared to believe it was safe from military attack or from further sanctions before November’s US presidential election.

“As long they perceive this, they don’t feel like they are under pressure. That is a pity,” said Ya’alon, who is also Israel’s minister of strategic affairs.

“It is up to the United States to try to change this perception in Iran. This is crucial,” he told Reuters, adding that Iran would top the agenda during Clinton’s visit on July 15 and 16 — her first trip here in almost two years.

Western powers believe Iran is developing technology to build nuclear weapons and have imposed an increasingly tough regime of economic sanctions to make it reverse course.

Iran insists its atomic program is peaceful and has shrugged off the latest round of sanctions, with a European Union embargo on Iranian crude oil taking full effect on July 1.

“We’ve witnessed the impact of the sanctions in Iran, but up until now the regime prefers to suffer rather than give up its military nuclear capabilities,” Ya’alon said, adding that the time had come to introduce “really crippling sanctions.”

Reputed to have the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal, Israel has threatened to resort to force if it deems diplomatic and economic means are failing. Ya’alon repeated the threat, but made clear that he thought Washington should lead the way.

“We believe of course that the military option should be the last resort and we believe that someone else should be doing the job. But we should be ready to defend ourselves by ourselves.”

Ya’alon predicts Assad’s impending downfall

A former chief of staff in the IDF, Ya’alon said he was sure Hezbollah would jump to Iran’s aid if hostilities broke out, but predicted it would soon regret any attack.

“Any provocation will be responded to by us, by charging them with such a heavy price that they will ask for a ceasefire,” he said, sitting in the sun-filled gardens of the King David Hotel in central Jerusalem.

Some Israeli officials have worried that Hezbollah, which is estimated to have thousands of missiles ready to rain across the border, might start trouble with Israel to divert attention from the woes besetting its ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Ya’alon did not see such a threat and thought that Assad was doomed to lose the violent power struggle gripping Syria.”We are not sure when it will happen, but it will happen. From day to day we have witnessed an acceleration of the process as a result of the power that the opposition has succeeded in gaining,” he said.

Two more US carriers, dozens of mini-subs rushed to Hormuz.

DEBKAfile Special Report July 12, 2012, 10:23 AM (GMT+02:00)

Tiny SeaFox submersibles for destroying mines

As Russia and NATO continued to boost their military strength in the eastern Mediterranean, debkafile‘s military sources report substantial US reinforcements, led by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier, are being rushed to the Persian Gulf opposite Iran, with dozens of unmanned underwater craft for destroying mines.
The USS John C. Stennis arrives in August, raising the number of American aircraft carriers in waters off Iran to four including the USS Enterprise and the USS Abraham Lincoln, with the French Charles de Gaulle due soon to make up a fifth.
The Eisenhower, which reached its new position in the first week of July, operates under the joint commands of the US Sixth (Mediterranean) and Fifth (Gulf) Fleets.
Thursday, July 12, American military officials announced that the US is also dispatching to the Persian Gulf dozens of tiny, unmanned SeaFox submersibles that can detect and destroy mines if strewn by Iran to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint for transporting one-fifth of the world’s oil.
About 4 feet long, they each carry an underwater television camera, homing sonar and an explosive charge.

There are now additionally eight American minesweepers in the Persian Gulf as well as the USS Ponce, a platform for the special forces, helicopters and warships there to fight off Iranian marine units attempting to plant mines in the vital waterway.
debkafile‘s military sources say that Washington decided to expand its military deployment in the area after concluding, in consultation with French and British naval experts, that Iran is short of the military strength and sophisticated measure for completely sealing off the Strait of Hormuz to all sea traffic, especially oil tankers.

All the Iranians can do is plant enough underwater mines to impede traffic and slow it down.
The new, bolstered US deployment in the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean is on the ready for immediate action against any Iranian military threat. “If Iran starts spreading underwater mines in international waterways, i.e., the Strait of Hormuz, it will find American forces ready to dismantle them on the spot,” said a Western military source.

In any case, said the source, a slowdown of oil traffic through Hormuz won’t have an immediate impact on the world oil market or prices. “The world has enough reserve oil in storage to supply its needs for six full months,” said the source.

Israel to deploy Iron Dome system on Egyptian border – Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper.

( My little tourist town now needs Iron Dome.  Sigh…  – JW)

Rocket intercepting system to be set up near Eilat after the border with Egypt grows tense since a popular uprising ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak last year.

Syrian ambassador defects, joins revolutio… JPost – Middle East.

U.S. moving submersibles to Persian Gulf to oppose Iran – latimes.com.

WASHINGTON — The Navy is rushing dozens of unmanned underwater craft to the Persian Gulf to help detect and destroy mines in a major military buildup aimed at preventing Iran from closing the strategic Strait of Hormuz in the event of a crisis, U.S. officials said.

The tiny SeaFox submersibles each carry an underwater television camera, homing sonar and an explosive charge. The Navy bought them in May after an urgent request by Marine Gen. James Mattis, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East.

Each submersible is about 4 feet long and weighs less than 100 pounds. The craft are intended to boost U.S. military capabilities as negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program appear to have stalled. Three rounds of talks since April between Iran and the five countries in the United Nations Security Council plus Germany have made little progress.

Some U.S. officials are wary that Iran may respond to tightening sanctions on its banking and energy sectors, including a European Union oil embargo, by launching or sponsoring attacks on oil tankers or platforms in the Persian Gulf. Some officials in Tehran have threatened to close the narrow waterway, a  choke point for a fifth of the oil traded worldwide.

The first of the SeaFox submersibles arrived in the Gulf in recent weeks, officials said, along with four MH-53 Sea Dragon helicopters and four minesweeping ships, part of a larger buildup of U.S. naval, air and ground forces in the region aimed at Iran.

The U.S. already has sent two aircraft carriers and a squadron of F-22 fighters to the Persian Gulf, and is keeping two U.S. army brigades in Kuwait. Though much of the buildup has been publicly acknowledged by the Pentagon, the deployment of the submersibles has not been publicly disclosed, apparently to avoid alerting Iran.

The SeaFox is small enough to be deployed from helicopters and even small rubber boats, but it also can be dropped off the back of a minesweeper. It is controlled by a fiber optic cable and sends live video back to a camera operator.

It can be used against floating or drifting mines, which Iran has used in the past. It operates up to 300 meters deep, and moves at speeds of up to six knots. But the $100,000 weapon is on a what amounts to a suicide mission. The “built-in, large caliber shaped charge” it carries destroys the mine but also the vehicle itself.