WarSclerotic

U.S. upgrades strike capabilities against Iran, stations ‘stealth’ fighters in Gulf – Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper.

US last April deployed six F-22 Raptors, its most advanced fighter currently in operational use and the only operational ‘stealth’ fighter in use around the world, on airbase in UAE. This temporary deployment has apparently become permanent.

By Anshel Pfeffer | Jan.27, 2013 | 7:18 PM | 53

Four of six F-22 fighters over European skies in January 2012. Photo by Gian Luca Onnis

By Reuters | Jan.27,2013 | 7:18 PM | 3

The United States significantly upgraded its strike capabilities in the Persian Gulf last week when it stationed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) six F-22 “stealth” fighters with advanced strike features.

In the past, the U.S. had insisted that it was temporarily stationing the fighters in the Gulf on deployments that had been planned long in advance. It now seems that the deployment has become permanent while the fighters capabilities have been enhanced.

The deployment of six F-22 Raptor fighters last April at the Al-Dhafra Airbase in UAE, 150 kilometers from Iranian territory caused a flurry of reports on the buildup of American forces in the Persian Gulf before a possible strike against Iran’s nuclear installations.

The F-22 is the most advanced fighter currently in operational use by the United States Air Force and the only operational “stealth” fighter in use around the world with the capability to evade enemy radar systems. A USAF spokesman said at the time that “this is a very normal deployment” which was scheduled in advance and “not a threat to Iran.” Such a deployment usually lasts for a few months and the planes return to their home base.

Last week, the six F-22s returned after nine months – a rather long deployment – to the 49th Fighter Wing’s Holloman Base in New Mexico. But they did not leave the UAE before being replaced by six other F-22s, this time from the 3rd Fighter Wing which flew all the way from Elmendorf-Richmond Base in Alaska. The fact that after such a long deployment, the Americans are keeping up the presence of these advanced fighters in the Persian Gulf indicates that this is not a routine sojourn but rather a more permanent presence aimed at a possible conflagration in Iran.

The F-22 was designed as an air-superiority fighter and has been in operational service for a decade and is the most expensive fighter in history – $150 million for each plane. The high price lead the Obama administration to decide in 2010 to end procurement of the plane and end its production in late 2011 after only 187 fighters (due to its secret systems, the F-22 was not authorized for export) had been delivered to the USAF, despite initial plans to buy 750. Due to its huge cost, the F-22 has yet to be used in combat. The maintenance of the plane, which has experienced more than its fair-share of technical problems, is also extremely high-cost, due among other factors to the need to maintain and periodically replace the “radar absorbing” materials which coat it. A lengthy deployment, far from American shores puts a heavy burden on the U.S. military.

In addition to the F-22’s extended deployment to the Persian Gulf, the other significant development is the fact that the newly arrived fighters are of a more advanced version than those they replaced. The 3rd Fighter Wing’s jets were the first to undergo a software upgrade to the 3.1 version which allows the F-22 to carry eight “smart” bombs and launch them simultaneously at four separate targets at super-cruise speed and without losing its stealth capability. With the upgrade, the air fleet’s most advanced fighter jet, designed for air-to-air combat, can now also carry out pinpoint ground attacks against a number of “quality” targets in one mission.

The replacement of the F-22 in the UAE with even more advanced fighters was not accompanied by an official announcement from the Pentagon or published in the media. The flight of the advanced planes over Europe was seen by an Italian photographer during aerial refueling and published in The Aviationist, a blog on aeronautical matters. In addition, the landing of the fighters en route at the Lajes Airbase on the Azores was noted by airplane spotters.

The upgrade of American strike capabilities in the Persian Gulf is taking place at the same time the American Administration is seeking to lower the tensions in the region over the Iranian nuclear issue. President Barack Obama said last Sunday in the inauguration speech opening his second term that “a decade of war is now ending” while his appointment of Senator Chuck Hagel, a staunch opponent of war against Iran, as the next Defense Secretary, is a signal that the administration will do its utmost to avoid a strike. On the other hand, the heavy investment by the Americans in preparing military options proves that this alternative is still on the table if needed. Over the weekend, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in an interview with the Daily Beast that the administration has prepared plans for surgical attacks on Iran. “The Pentagon prepared quite sophisticated, fine, extremely fine, scalpels,” said Barak. “So it is not an issue of a major war or a failure to block Iran. You could under a certain situation, if worse comes to worst, end up with a surgical operation.”

Syria’s chemical weapons could trigger Israel military strike.

( The “secret meeting” mentioned here was about Fordo.  The chemicals may have been discussed, but they’re using it as cover. – JW )

Sunday, 27 January 2013

If Syria’s grip on its suspected chemical weapons slips, as it battles an armed uprising, Israel may resort to military strikes. (AFP)

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Any sign of Syria’s grip on its suspected chemical weapons slipping, as it battles an armed uprising, could trigger Israeli military strikes, Israel’s vice premier said on Sunday.

Silvan Shalom confirmed a media report that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had last week convened security chiefs to discuss the civil war in nearby Syria and the state of the country’s chemical arsenal.

The meeting, held on Wednesday, had not been publicly announced and was seen as especially unusual as it came while votes were still being counted from Israel’s national election the day before, which Netanyahu’s party list won narrowly.

Should Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrillas or rebels battling forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad obtain Syrian chemical weapons, Shalom told Israel’s Army Radio, “it would dramatically change the capabilities of those organizations.”

Such a development would be “a crossing of all red lines that would require a different approach, including even preventive operations,” he said – alluding to military intervention, for which Israeli generals have said plans have been readied.

“The concept, in principle, is that this (chemical weapons transfer) must not happen,” Shalom said. “The moment we begin to understand that such a thing is liable to happen, we will have to make decisions.”

Interviewed separately by Army Radio, Civil Defense Minister Avi Dichter said Syria was “on the verge of collapse.”

But asked whether Israel perceived an imminent threat, Dichter said: “No, not yet. I suppose that when things pose a danger to us, the State of Israel will know about it.”
France, among the most vocal backers of Syria’s rebels, said last week there were no signs Assad was about to be overthrown since international mediation and crisis diplomacy were going nowhere.

The conflict also appears largely stalemated on the ground.

Syria has taken center stage in Israeli rhetoric in recent weeks.

“The greatest danger to the world is in nuclear weapons built in Iran,” Netanyahu said in a Jan. 7 speech, adding that it would also be in Syrian chemical weapons falling into the wrong hands.

Two days later, Dichter told Israel Radio that monitoring Syria was “the top priority – that is, a very high priority”.

An Israeli government security adviser told Reuters on Sunday that Syria had taken new prominence in strategic planning “because of the imminence of the threat. The WMDs (weapons of mass destruction) are ready there and could be turned against us at short notice.”

Raising the regional stakes, Tehran, among Assad’s few allies and itself long the subject of Israeli war threats over its nuclear program, said on Saturday it would deem any attack on Syria an attack on Iran.

Israel and NATO countries say Syria has stocks of various chemical warfare agents at four sites. Syria is cagey about whether it has such arms, but insists that, if it had, it would keep them secure and use them only to fend off foreign attack.

Syria is widely believed to have built up the arsenal to offset Israel’s reputed nuclear weapons, among other reasons.

Netanyahu had sought to burnish his hawkish credentials ahead of the ballot, in which centrist rival made big gains.

The government adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Netanyahu might have a secondary interest in playing up security threats given that his rightist Likud-Beiteinu party list suffered surprise election setbacks and must now seek a new coalition with a constellation of political challengers.

“But Syria is a serious business, and the people dealing with it in Israel are serious,” the adviser said.

Israel’s biggest-selling newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth on Dec. 28 quoted the deputy armed forces commander, Major-General Yair Naveh, saying that weapons developed for a possible strike on Iran could have “usefulness for other confrontations in our vicinity, including in Lebanon and Syria.”

Russia says Assad made ‘grave, perhaps fatal error’.

Sunday, 27 January 2013

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s remarks were the most vocal Russian statement that Assad’s days could be numbered. (AFP)

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Iran actively weighs Syrian-Israeli clash. Iron Dome posted in N. Israel.

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report January 27, 2013, 6:38 PM (GMT+02:00)

Free Syrian Army displays used ordnance

Tehran is looking seriously at a limited Syrian-Lebanese clash of arms with Israel – possibly using Bashar Assad’s chemical weapons as a trigger, debkafile’s military and intelligence sources disclose.  Reacting to this news, Israel announced Sunday, Jan. 27, the deployment of Iron Dome anti-missile batteries some days ago to reinforce security in northern Israel and the key Haifa port.

The Iranians see three strategic benefits in embroiling Israel in a limited war with its two allies, Syria and Hizballah:

1.  A new outbreak of armed violence would direct world attention away from the Syrian civil war:
2.   Israel would be sidetracked from a possible strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities – even a “surgical operation” such as Defense Minister Ehud Barak spoke of over the weekend – by being thrown into multiple battles with Iranian forces in Syria and Lebanon, the Shiite Hizballah and the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihadi in the Gaza Strip.
The clash would be programmed to end without winners or losers like Israel’s war against Hizballah in 2006 and its two anti-terror operations the Gaza Strip in 2009 and 2012. But meanwhile Israel would have its hands too full with threats on three borders to pursue military action against a nuclear Iran.

3. Tehran would buy another year’s delay for spinning out its talks with the Six Powers (US, Russia, France, Britain, China and Germany) on their nuclear controversy.
At the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem Sunday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said “Israel faced some of the gravest threats in its existence” and they continue to run riot “in the east, the north and the south.”
Behind his words, was an immediate neighborhood beset in last couple of weeks by al Qaeda’s advance in Mali – now checked by French intervention; the Algerian gas field hostage siege; and the discovery of the strong interface among the various African Al Qaeda branches, including Egypt, in operations, logistics, shared arms suppliers and the pooling of jihadist manpower in the different arenas.
Israel’s prime minister and security chiefs are clearly troubled by the perceived danger of the jihadist networks based in Egyptian Sinai and al Qaeda affiliates fighting in Syria joining up to attack Israel from two directions, the north and the south. This would be in keeping with the multiple, multinational terrorist threats surfacing in Africa.

With regard to Syria’s chemical weapons, after convening an expanded security-diplomatic cabinet meeting last Wednesday, Jan. 23, the day after Israel’s general election, Netanyahu remarked: “We have to look around us… What’s happening in Iran and the lethal weapons in Syria, which is falling apart…”
He left the specifics to Deputy Prime Minister Sylvan Shalom, who said Sunday that if chemical weapons reached Hizballah or Syrian rebel hands, “Such a development would be a crossing of all red lines that would require a different approach, including even preventive operations.”

But even Shalom did not specify where the red lines would be – the handover of Syrian chemical weapons to Hizballah? And against whom would Israel take preventive action – Syria, Hizballah or both? And if they reached Syrian rebel hands, would Israel hit them or go straight for the poison gas arsenals?

Neither Netanyahu nor Shalom responded to the Iranian warning issued Saturday by Ali Akbar Velayati, a close adviser to Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that an attack on Syria would be tantamount to an attack on Iran.
This warning was intended to drive home to Israel the message that an offensive against Syria would be treated as a direct confrontation with Iran.

This warning aimed at holding Israel back from a military strike against Syria – Syria, not the Assad regime. This is because an Israeli attack on Syrian rebels armed with chemical weapons would also serve Tehran’s purpose very well:  Iranian forces in Syria and Lebanon would use the opportunity to unite the Syrian army and the rebels against the common enemy, Israel, and so start the process of winding down the anti-Assad revolt.
Velayati also avoided mentioning Iran’s key ally in Lebanon, Hizballah. In his warning, he said: “Syria has a very basic and key role in the region for promoting firm policies of resistance [against Israel]… For this reason an attack on Syria would be considered an attack on Iran and Iran’s allies.”
This high-ranking Iranian figure took care not to draw attention to Hizballah because, according to debkafile’s military sources, parts of the Syrian chemical arsenal have already reached Hizballah and are stashed away in fortified bunkers in the terrorist militia’s Beqaa Valey strongholds, along with a lethal array of long- and medium-range ground-to-ground rockets that too were smuggled secretly across the Syrian border.
Some western intelligence sources – especially American – now believe Syrian chemical weapons were secreted to Hizballah during 2012. They were sent over in small packages to avoid attracting US or Israel notice.  By now Hizballah is thought to have accumulated a substantial supply of poison weapons.

Our military sources report that Israel’s military planners have long-range logistical plans ready for dealing with new situations such as this one. It has expanded its undercover penetration of Syria and Lebanon and is making rapid progress in erecting a sophisticated 57-kilometer security force along the Syrian border. This project may take months to complete. But meanwhile, Iran is working on its own plans for jumping the gun before it is finished with a military adventure.

Iron Dome Protects Northern Israel from Syria – Defense/Security – News – Israel National News.

( IMHO this is a cover story for fear of retaliation for Fordo. – JW )

Iron Dome system

Flash 90

The Iron Dome anti-missile defense system has been installed in northern Israel, according to the IDF, due to the escalating civil war in Syria. The move comes in response to increasing concerns that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad may lose control over the chemical weapons arsenal in the country.

Should that occur, the lethal arsenal held by Israel’s northern neighbor could be handed over, or become vulnerable to theft by a number of Islamic terrorist organizations, among them Hizbullah or Al Qaeda.

Turkey has already requested — and received — Patriot anti-missile batteries from NATO for the essentially same reasons.

Iron Dome anti-missile batteries have been deployed in multiple locations, including in the Haifa area, military officials said.

In order to be effective, chemical weapons must be released at a range that is relatively close to their targets. The chemicals, some of which are released in gaseous form, are loaded into warheads on missiles that are fired either from the ground or from fighter planes.

Iron Dome batteries proved their effectiveness in the interception of such missiles during Operation Pillar of Defense, the recent counter terror offensive against Gaza’s terror organizations. The anti-missile systems knocked out more than 80 percent of the medium and long-range missiles aimed at major cities in southern and central Israel.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak told reporters at a Pentagon news conference last November that due to the Iron Dome system, “only 55 rockets out of the 1,500 ended up falling in urban areas.”  He added that about 85 percent of the interceptions succeeded.

Iron Dome batteries deployed in north – Globes.

Israel has deployed Iron Dome batteries in Haifa and the north in response to Syria’s escalating civil war.

The IDF spokesman has confirmed that Israel has deployed Iron Dome batteries in Haifa and the north, in response to the escalating civil war in Syria and worries that its chemical weapons could end up in Jihadist hands.

Blast reported at Hezbollah weapons depot – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Lebanese media affiliated with anti-Hezbollah forces say series of blasts occurs in what is said to be ammunition compound in country’s west

Roi Kais

A blast sounded Saturday in the area of a Hezbollah ammunition compound in west Lebanon, media affiliated with anti-Hezbollah forces reported.

According to the Lebanese Al-Mustaqbal newspaper, Hezbollah operatives surrounded the area where the explosion occurred, as smoke reached villages in the region. It is unclear whether anyone was injured in the incident.

Residents of the area reportedly heard a few consecutive blasts. According to an uncorroborated source, the compound serves as storage for missiles and arms previously transferred from the Syrian regime to Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, according to the Lebanese Daily Star, the Lebanese army reported Friday of four infiltrations of Israeli fighter planes into Lebanese airspace.

(Photo: Google maps)

Last month, Lebanese news agencies reported about a large explosion in a Hezbollah ammunition compound in Tair Harfa, in the country’s south near the border with Israel.

Andrea Tenente, a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force in the area, UNIFIL, said it was investigating, but according to a Tair Harfa official, the explosion did not occur at a Hezbollah compound, but rather was “the result of the explosion of a rocket that was left behind after Israeli strikes, probably in the Second Lebanon War.

SCOOP: Iran’s Fordo Nuclear Plant Extensively Damaged by Sabotage Tikun-Olam Tikun Olam-תיקון עולם.

Yediot headline: “Explosion–Mystery in Iran”

A highly-placed Israeli source informs me that Iran’s uranium enrichment facility at Fordo has been extensively damaged by an explosion.  The bomb was the work of a joint Israeli-U.S.-MEK sabotage operation codenamed Achilles, which used a Trojan horse to infiltrate the plant.

Bibi Netanyahu convened an extraordinary meeting of all the top intelligence and military brass on Wednesday, the day after the election, to evaluate Achilles.  They deemed it a “great success.”  Word of the meeting leaked to the media, so the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) released a cover story saying the meeting was about the Syrian situation (Hebrew).  It wasn’t.

Such sabotage has happened before to Iranian nuclear facilities.  But one of the things that is new about this operation is that this is the first time in his previous reporting that my source has told me the U.S. and MEK collaborated with the Mossad.  Previous assassinations were joint efforts of only the MEK and Israel.  If this is true, it may mean that the State Department’s removal of the MEK from the U.S. terror list has allowed the CIA to begin working with the Iranian group in a much more direct fashion.  Those of us who know about the nature of the MEK can only be alarmed that our government is allying itself with a terrorist cult.

Explosion Destroys Key Iran Nuclear Site – YouTube.

For what it’s worth…

Israeli minister welcomes report of huge blast at Iran nuclear plant | The Times of Israel.

( God bless the IDF special forces !  HOORAY!!!! – JW )

Any such explosion that doesn’t kill people is good news, says Avi Dichter, responding to unconfirmed story of devastating sabotage at Fordo

A satellite image of Iran’s Fordo nuclear enrichment facility (photo credit: AP/DigitalGlobe)

Israel’s Home Front Defense Minister Avi Dichter on Sunday welcomed a report that Iran’s Fordo nuclear facility had been rocked by a huge explosion.

The report was published Friday on the website wnd.com, under the sensational headline: “Sabotage! Key Iranian nuclear facility hit?” It claimed that a blast deep within Fordo last Monday “destroyed much of the installation and trapped about 240 personnel deep underground,” citing information from former intelligence officer Hamidreza Zakeri, who it said used to work with the Islamic regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and National Security.

Hamidreza Zakeri (photo credit: YouTube screenshot)

The article claimed the blast “shook facilities within a radius of three miles,” that Iranian security forces had “enforced a no-traffic radius of 15 miles,” that the Tehran-Qom highway was shut down for several hours after the blast, and that, “as of Wednesday afternoon, rescue workers had failed to reach the trapped personnel.” It said US officials were aware of the reported blast.

There was no independent confirmation of the claims. Nonetheless, Israel’s biggest-selling daily Yedioth Ahronoth led its Sunday paper with the report on the alleged blast, which it said might be “the most significant incidence of sabotage in the Iranian nuclear program to date.”

Asked about the story, Dichter said, “Any explosion in Iran that doesn’t hurt people but hurts its assets is welcome.”

Home Front Defense Minister Avi Dichter (photo credit: Abir Sultan/Flash90)

Israel and the United States have frequently been accused by the Iranian leadership of seeking to sabotage the Iranian nuclear program. Israel, which has been at the forefront of efforts to thwart Iran’s drive to the bomb, generally refuses to comment on such accusations.

The wnd.com report noted that Fordo “has become a center for Iran’s nuclear activity because of the 2,700 centrifuges [there] enriching uranium to the 20-percent level… The regime’s uranium enrichment process takes place at two known sites: the Natanz facility with more than 10,000 centrifuges and Fordow with more than 2,700. The regime currently has enough low-grade (3.5 percent) uranium stockpiled for six nuclear bombs if further enriched.”

The website, which also acknowledged that its story had no independent confirmation, said the blast occurred at 11:30 a.m. Tehran time Monday. It “rocked the site, which is buried deep under a mountain and immune not only to airstrikes but to most bunker-buster bombs… The site, about 300 feet under a mountain, had two elevators which now are out of commission. One elevator descended about 240 feet and was used to reach centrifuge chambers. The other went to the bottom to carry heavy equipment and transfer uranium hexafluoride. One emergency staircase reaches the bottom of the site and another one was not complete. The source said the emergency exit southwest of the site is unreachable.”

The report said that Iran’s regime considers the explosion to be a case of sabotage and believes the explosives “could have reached the area disguised as equipment or in the uranium hexafluoride stock transferred to the site… The explosion occurred at the third centrifuge chambers, with the high-grade enriched uranium reserves below them.”

On Friday, an Iranian diplomat who defected in Norway in 2010 warned that if the Iranians got the bomb they would use it against the Jewish state.

In an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 TV, Mohammad Reza Heydari, the former Iranian consul in Oslo who resigned and obtained political asylum there three years ago, said that ”If Iran is given more time, it will acquire the knowledge necessary to build a nuclear bomb within a year.” Asked whether it would use the bomb against Israel, he said: “If Iran gets to the point where it has an atomic bomb, it will certainly use it, against Israel or any other [enemy] country.”

Heydari — who defected soon after he was asked to identify his son in photos taken during the protests that followed the 2009 vote in which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was reelected — said the regime in Tehran was aiming to develop two or three bombs. It saw nuclear weapons as “insurance” to guarantee its survival.