WarSclerotic

Air strike on Sudan arms plant heightens Israel-Iran tensions – The Globe and Mail.

US-Israel drill simulates missile attacks… as rockets fall on South | The Times of Israel.

While troops in joint drill practice intercepting incoming fire, Israeli soldiers nearby operate air defense systems for real against Gaza rockets

An American soldier talks to an Israeli solder during a joint exercise with the Patriot anti-missile system, in north Tel Aviv on October 24. (photo credit: Yossi Zeliger/Flash90)

The US and Israel simulated rocket attacks during their largest-ever joint military drill Wednesday, while real missiles fired from Gaza exploded in southern Israel.

US military officials noted that the joint exercise, called Austere Challenge 12, was planned long before the latest flare-up between Israel and Hamas-ruled Gaza and a long-running debate over how to deal with Iran, and said it was unrelated to specific threats facing Israel.

It comes at a time when Israel and the US have openly debated the merits of a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, and as US support for Israel has emerged as a central issue in the upcoming American presidential elections.

In this week’s presidential debate, President Barack Obama cited the joint drill, calling it a testament to the strong military cooperation between the two countries. Presidential contender Mitt Romney has claimed that the Obama administration has undermined Israel as it faces threats from Iran and Arab countries.

About 1,000 troops brought in from the US are in Israel alongside a similar number of Israeli troops. An additional 2,500 US troops, based in Europe and the Mediterranean, are participating in the drill. The armies say they are practicing their ability to work together to thwart a variety of threats that face Israel. The exercise will continue for about three weeks.

“Make no mistake. The US is 100 percent committed to the security of Israel. That commitment drives this exercise,” said US Air Force Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin in a news conference at a training site near a beach in the Tel Aviv area.

Air defense commander Brig. Gen. Shachar Shochat lauded Israel’s air defense system for being the most advanced and sophisticated in the world.

Reporters were invited to view a large parking lot near the beach where large camouflage-colored trucks and a Patriot air defense battery launcher were deployed for Wednesday’s exercise simulating incoming rockets. In that simulation, Israeli commanders and their American counterparts identified an incoming rocket or enemy aircraft, then American troops pushed the button to activate the anti-missile launcher.

Not far away, Israeli soldiers were operating similar batteries for real, as Gaza militants fired dozens of rockets at southern Israel. The locally made “Iron Dome” system knocked down eight rockets from Gaza, Israeli officials said Wednesday.

Also this week, US soldiers said they practiced a response to a chemical and biological attack on a joint Israeli-American military convoy. In that exercise, soldiers rubbed a charcoal-like substance to decontaminate the imagined chemical and biological byproducts from army vehicles and personnel.

Sgt. Gary Sabby, 26, from St. Paul, Minnesota, said he played a 47-year-old male suffering a seizure from the attack. He rolled up the sleeve of his camouflaged military fatigues to reveal the pinprick — above a large tattoo of a bear — where soldiers stuck him with an IV needle.

“If something ever did happen, we could come together,” said Specialist Brandon Maroney, 23, from Dallas, Texas. “This joint exercise validated that we can work together.”

The bombed Sudanese factory produced Iranian Shehab missiles.

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report October 24, 2012, 11:03 PM (GMT+02:00)

Sudanese missile factory in flames

The Yarmouk Complex of military plants near Khartoum, whicht was bombed five minutes after midnight Wednesday, Oct.  24, by four fighter-bombers, recently went into manufacturing Iranian ballistic surface-to-surface Shehab missiles under license from Tehran, debkafile’s military and intelligence sources disclose.

Western intelligence sources have not revealed what types of Shehab were being turned out in Sudan but they believe the Yarmouk’s output was intended to serve as Tehran’s strategic reserve stock in case Iran’s ballistic arsenal was hit by Israeli bombers.
The Israeli Air Force has a long record of pre-emptive attacks for destroying an enemy’s long-range missiles in the early stages of a conflict. In June 2006, for instance, the IAF destroyed 90 percent of Hizballah’s long-range missiles in the first hours of the Lebanon war.
Videos of the explosions caused in the air raid over Sudan showed large quantities of phosphorus flares in the sky suggesting that a large stockpile was demolished along with the manufacturing equipment.
Western sources did not divulge information about the comings and goings of Iranian missile specialists or whether the Bashir government had given Tehran permission to stage attacks from Sudan against Middle East targets, in return for the allotment of a number of missiles to the Sudanese army. All they would say is that the complex’s structures had been completely leveled by the aerial bombardment and subsequent fire.
Sudan accused Israel of the attack and stated it reserved the right to respond at a time and circumstances of its choosing. Israeli officials declined to comment in answer to questions.
If Indeed Israel was responsible for the bombing raid, it is possible to postulate the following objectives:
1.  Its air force flew 1,800-1,900 kilometers to reach the Sudanese arms factory, a distance longer than the 1,600 kilometers to the Iranian underground enrichment site of Fordo. This operation may have been intended to show Tehran that distance presents no obstacles to an Israeli strike on its nuclear program.
2.  The IAF has an efficient in-flight refueling capability.
3.  The raid would have degraded Iran’s ability to retaliate for a potential Israel or US attack.
If it was conducted by Israel, it would add a third item to the list of backdoor assaults in which Iran and Israel appear to be engaged in the past three months.
On August 17, the power lines to Fordo were sabotaged, interrupting the work of enrichment taking place there and causing some of the advanced centrifuges to catch fire.
On Oct. 6, an Iranian stealth drone was launched from Lebanon into Israeli air space and photographed its most sensitive military sites as well as the Dimona nuclear reactor before Israel brought it down.

Quiet prevails on Gaza border as informal truc… JPost – Defense.

For What it’s Worth-10-24-2012 Part 1 – YouTube.

A series of vids I hope to make on a daily basis regarding stories posted on “A Sclerotic Goes to War.”

Topics covered include:

1. The 80 rockets that have fallen since last night and the government’s response.
2. Sudan claims Israel bombed it’s arms factory.
3. Obama’s “Romnesia” focus is clever but likely to backfire.

Any and all feedback in the comments on this post would be most appreciated.

Joseph Wouk

Part One

Part Two

Iran weighs tougher line in stalled nuclear talks – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Islamic Republic said to be mulling tougher position in atom negotiations. ‘Sanctions have been harmful but will never make us give up our nuclear activities,’ Tehran official says

Associated Press

Iranian officials said Wednesday that the country is considering a harder line in nuclear talks with world powers: Threatening to step up uranium enrichment unless the West makes immediate concessions on sanctions.

The proposed demands, outlined by senior Iranian officials this week, have not been adopted as a negotiating policy, but they suggest economic pressures have pushed Iran to consider ultimatum-style tactics to seek relief from sanctions.Nuclear submarines are powered by fuel ranging from 20% purity to more than 90%. Many US submarines use nuclear fuel enriched to more than 90%, the same level used to build atomic bombs.

Boosting enrichment levels also would push Iran’s nuclear program far closer to the “red line” set by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu  to consider possible military options and shift world opinion away from trying to rein in Iran through economic pressures and diplomacy.

Mansour Haghighatpour, deputy head of the parliament’s influential National Security Committee, said failure to negotiate a deal could clear the way for Iran to enrich uranium above the current highest level, 20%.

President Ahmadinejad in nuclear reactor (Photo: EPA)

The West fears Iran’s enrichment program could lead to nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

Several rounds of talkshave produced little progress. No date has been set for their resumption.

“The West now has a chance to strike a deal with Iran. Perhaps we may need to produce nuclear fuel for large commercial vessels that need 60 percent purity,” he told The Associated Press in an interview.

That would mark a dramatic move toward the threshold for warhead-grade material at about 90% and would certainly bring a sharp escalation in calls for military action from Israel and others in the West.

Iran denies it seeks nuclear weapons, but there have been suggestions it could ramp up uranium enrichment to future projects such as nuclear-powered submarines.

The tougher line outlined by officials has not been made public and it is still unclear whether it will be adopted as a negotiating position.

But the fact it is under review suggests Iran is eager for a sweeping deal to lift sanctions and could try to jolt the West with a now-or-never choice: Roll back the sanctions or face a stepped up Iranian nuclear program.

“The West feels sanctions are biting and this is forcing Iran to return to the negotiating table. That’s wrong. We never left the table. Sanctions have been harmful but will never make us give up our nuclear activities,” said lawmaker Hossein Naqavi, spokesman for the parliament Security Committee. “Pressures, sanctions and military threats won’t make us retreat.”

Many Iranian lawmakers and conservative clerics have said in recent months that Iran should enrich uranium to higher levels for proposed vessels such as nuclear-powered oil tankers. Iran currently has no such ships.

Nuclear-powered vessels other than warships are rare, and the International Atomic Energy Agency has said in the past that nuclear-powered merchant ships would be uneconomical.

But Iran’s deputy navy chief in charge of technical affairs, Admiral Abbas Zamini, said in June that Iran has begun “initial stages” of designing a nuclear submarine. The West has raised concerns that Iran might cite submarine and other nuclear-powered vessel construction as a justification for producing weapons-grade 90 percent enriched uranium.

Barak: No need to rush into Gaza ground incursion | The Times of Israel.

Defense minister says peace should be pursued alongside the war on terror; opposition leader Mofaz says government’s inconsistency emboldens Hamas

Defense Minister Ehud Barak visits an Iron Dome station in southern Israel in March. (photo credit: Ministry of Defense/Flash90)

Defense Minister Ehud Barak responded to the escalation in the south Wednesday by saying that a ground incursion into Gaza is an option, but that such a step need not be taken hastily.

“If we need a ground operation there will be a ground operation. We will do whatever necessary to stop this wave [of violence],” Barak said during an interview with Israel Radio.

“I trust the IDF’s chief of staff and the head of the Southern Command, and if they believe it’s necessary — and if it’s what the government decides on — then yes, it’s not out of the question,” the defense minister said.

Some 60 rockets and mortars were fired from Gaza into Israel between Tuesday night and Wednesday noon, injuring three foreign workers — two of them critically — and forcing schools in affected areas near the Strip to close for the day. The barrage led the IDF to retaliate several times, striking terror squads, some of which were in the process of launching rockets.

When asked whether a new reality was establishing itself in the south, Barak answered: “No, we haven’t gotten accustomed to this. But there are bad people in the area who want to hurt us, and our citizens.”

“The situation is much better than it was 10 years ago, and today we have [the] Iron Dome [missile defense system] — which is very important to note; some rockets were intercepted last night,” said Barak. “The fact that terrorists succeed in harming us once in a while doesn’t mean we’re not organized.”

He added that Israel killed 15 terror leaders in Gaza over the past week in response to the mounting rocket attacks. He also extended sympathy to IDF officer Ziv Shilon, who was seriously injured Tuesday by a roadside bomb near the Gaza border.

The defense minister also said he does not see the recent escalation in the south as related to the Qatari emir’s visit to Gaza on Tuesday — the first visit to the Strip’s Hamas leadership by a head of state — saying that the rise of Islamic extremism around the Arab world was likely the real culprit.

“I don’t think we can negotiate with Hamas… It needs to take certain steps, and if it had taken them, it would be trying to prevent terror,” Barak explained.

He also noted that fighting terror and maintaining Israel’s military edge are not diametrically opposed to advancing peace. “It’s vitally important to pursue an agreement [with the Palestinian Authority], in order to have a Jewish state, and, next to it, a Palestinian state. Otherwise the degradation will continue, and we will approach a bi-national state — one in which Jews would not be the majority.”

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said that Israel would not long suffer fire on its citizens and anticipated a further escalation of violence unless the Palestinians cease their attacks. He told visiting EU foreign policy chief that the situation was “unacceptable” and that Israel would not maintain its current restraint for many more days.

Opposition leader Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) blamed the government for allowing Hamas to take the initiative in the use of force. The former defense minister said the government’s inconsistent responses to Palestinian attacks had emboldened Hamas.

“Netanyahu’s stammering on security issues comes at a price,” said Mofaz. “Instead of fear-mongering on Iran, we need a decisive defense policy.” He said Israel needs to regain its deterrence by striking a decisive blow.

Labor leader Shelly Yachimovich said she supports the prime minister’s position on Gaza and wouldn’t call on him to escalate the situation further.

White House Responds to Release of Real-Time Emails About Benghazi Attack – ABC News.

The White House this morning attempted to down-play the significance of emails sent to top national security officials during the attack on the diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, one of which suggested a known terrorist group claimed credit for the attack in its immediate aftermath.

As obtained by ABC News’ John Parkinson and posted last night, the emails seem to be ones sent by the State Department Operations Center to distribution lists and email accounts for the top national security officials at the State Department, Pentagon, the FBI, the White House Situation Room and the office of the Director of National Intelligence.

One of the emails reported that officials that Ansar al-Sharia claimed responsibility for the Benghazi attack on Facebook and Twitter, and had threatened to attack the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli.

In the first couple weeks after the attack, the White House and Obama administration generally blamed the attack on a demonstration an anti-Muslim video that got out of control. On September 14, White House press secretary Jay Carney asserted that “we have no information to suggest that it was a preplanned attack.” Only later would the Obama administration say the attack was planned.

White House officials maintained that the emails don’t contradict what the White House believed at that point, based on the intelligence community’s assessment of the attack. The views of the intelligence community are valued far more than Facebook and twitter claims, officials said, describing that email as an unclassified ops alert email, not a vetted intelligence assessment. It was not definitive, but rather the act of flagging open source reporting referencing a Facebook post, and – officials noted — on September 17, Ansar al-Sharia denied responsibility for the attack.

Carney today told reporters that there were emails about all sorts of information that was coming available in the aftermath of the attack. “There was a variety of information coming in,” Carney said. “The whole point of an intelligence community and what they do is to assess strands of information and make judgments about what happened and who was responsible.”

Moreover, officials said, the intelligence community still believes there wasn’t a tremendous amount of planning before the attack. A terrorist group carrying it out doesn’t mean it wasn’t an opportunistic attack, officials said.

The first email, with a subject line of “U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi Under Attack,” sent about 25 minutes after the attack began, states: “Regional Security Officer reports the diplomatic mission is under attack. Embassy Tripoli reports approximately 20 armed people fired shots; explosions have been heard as well. Ambassador Stevens, who is currently in Benghazi, and four COM (Chief of Mission) personnel are in the compound safe haven. The 17th of February militia is providing security support.”

The next email sent at 4:54 PM states that the shooting has stopped and the compound was cleared, adding that a response team was “onsite attempting to locate COM personnel.”

-Jake Tapper and John Parkinson

80 rockets, shells fired from Gaza Wednesday; PM threatens ‘more extensive’ response if they continue | The Times of Israel.

New salvos hit the south Wednesday afternoon; school canceled for the day; residents ordered to stay close to ‘secure rooms’; three foreign workers hurt in morning hit on chicken coop

IDF Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz (center) visits a coop hit by a rocket fired from Gaza, October 24 2012. (photo credit: Shay Wagner/DOTZ/Flash90)

Palestinian terrorists in Gaza continued their rocket assault on Israel Wednesday afternoon after a three-hour pause in the attacks, which have seen dozens of missiles target the south in the past two days. More than 80 rockets and shells had been fired into Israel Wednesday by late afternoon.

A salvo of eight rockets fell on Hof Ashkelon just after midday, shattering the quiet that had descended for a few hours after a series of rocket attacks in the morning. Another two projectiles were fired at the Hevel Eshkol area. There were no reports of injury or damage in the latest attacks.

Three foreign workers were injured in Wednesday morning attacks when a rocket hit the chicken coop they were working in, and several houses were damaged by other missiles. At least two other people were reported lightly injured in the strikes. Some of those hurt in the attacks were flown by helicopter to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba.

School was cancelled in areas close to Gaza on Wednesday, and residents were told to remain within 15 seconds of “secure rooms” in case of further attacks.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on a tour of the Iron Dome missile defense facility near the coastal town of Ashkelon, said, “It was not Israel that initiated this escalation, but if it goes on we are prepared to take more extensive action.”

He also promised to fortify every building in communities 4.5 to 7 kilometers from the Strip, where until now only educational facilities had been protected.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, speaking to Army Radio, said, “There are about 1,700 households that need fortification, but that said, the situation was a lot more difficult in the past because there was no Iron Dome.”

On Wednesday morning, Iron Dome intercepted seven Grads fired at Ashkelon. In the afternoon the system stopped another missile fired at the city.

France sharply condemned the rocket fire on Israel, urging restraint from both sides.

Since Tuesday afternoon Palestinian terror groups in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip have fired dozens of rockets and mortar shells at southern Israel. The incoming missiles were a mix of Gaza-produced Kassam missiles and military-grade Grad rockets that have a longer range and larger warhead.

Palestinian mourners carry the body of Mohammed Sheikh, 23, killed by an Israeli air strike on Gaza on Wednesday, Oct. 24 (photo credit: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

The IDF has responded to the barrages by targeting terror cells and Hamas installations in the Gaza Strip. Three Palestinians were killed in overnight airstrikes.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz called a meeting Tuesday to assess the situation and toured some of the sites that were hit in attacks.

Barak said he could not rule out a ground invasion if fire continued. “If we need a ground operation there will be a ground operation. We will do whatever necessary to stop this wave” of violence, he told Army Radio on Wednesday.

“It’s important for the government to think before it decides. This move will bring escalation and not peace — there is no way to reconcile with the terror from Gaza. We are considering everything we need and examining everything. If there will be no choice and the fire continues, they will be struck hard, nothing is impossible,” he said.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said Israel was facing “a serious escalation” in the south. Speaking before a meeting with visiting EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, he said Israel would “not tolerate” the ongoing rocket fire for much longer.

Sudan Claims Israel Bombed Its Ammunition Factory – Global – The Atlantic Wire.

A mysterious explosion leveled an ammunition factory in Sudan last night, but the Sudanese government is now claiming the building was bombed by Israeli warplanes. 

The Sudanese information minister told a news conference that four military planes came out of the east to strike the factory in Khartoum. “We think Israel did the bombing,” said Ahmed Bilal Osman. The military sealed off all roads to the plant, keeping journalists and others at bay as the fire was brought under control. There were no reported casualties.

This isn’t the first time that Israel has been accused of such attacks. In January 2009, a truck convoy was destroyed in the Sudanese desert and there were two similar attacks in December of last year, though details of how and where they happened were conflicted. In all the instances, the vehicles that were hit were allegedly smuggling explosives to Hamas fighters in Gaza, courtesy of Iran. Israel would not confirm or deny their involvement.

The timing of this attack is interesting, as Israel is currently involved in a battle with Hamas. Their forces have spent the last two days exchanging rocket fire with Gaza. Dozens of rockets and mortar shells began falling into southern Israel on Tuesday injuring as many as six people, and the Israel Defense Forces responded with tank shells and fighter planes on Wednesday, killing four people. The escalation may have been sparked by the recent visit to Gaza by the Emir of Qatar, who expressed support for the Hamas leadership before leaving on Tuesday—although he had expressly encouraged them to avoid more confrontations with Israel.