WarSclerotic

‘We stand together as one family,’ says Peres in condolence message after Boston bombings | The Times of Israel.

Netanyahu says Israel and US are ‘partners in freedom,’ also warns of a nuclear Iran, tells foreign diplomats he backs ‘two states for two peoples’

An unidentified Boston Marathon runner is comforted as she cries in the aftermath of two blasts that exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon in Boston, Monday, April 15, 2013 (photo credit: AP/Elise Amendola)

President Shimon Peres on Tuesday sent his condolences to those hurt in the Boston bombings, which killed three and injured over 140 people Monday, and warned foreign diplomats about the ongoing danger posed by terrorism.

Speaking at his residence to the Foreign Diplomatic Corps toward the end of Israel’s 65th Independence Day, Peres expressed the country’s “solidarity with the bereaved families in Boston today. Three people lost their lives, 140 were wounded and I want to send, on behalf of all of us, our condolences to all the families and wish a speedy recovery to all the injured.”

Two explosions rocked Boston on Monday during the annual marathon race in the city center. Officials said no one had claimed responsibility for the bombings, which left the streets spattered with blood and glass, but it was being treated as a terrorist attack.

“When it comes to events like this, all of us are one family. We feel a part of the people who paid such a high price. God bless them,” the president said. While conventional wars between countries used to be the main danger, things have changed, Peres stated. “Today the real problem is terror, and terror is not an extension of policy: Their policy is terror, their policy is to threaten. Terrorists divide people, they kill innocent people.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his address to the diplomats, also focused on the attack. ”Yesterday, a day of enjoyment in Boston was turned into a day of terror. We send our condolences to President Obama, the American people and the bereaved families,” he said.

Netanyahu spoke about the bond between the countries, saying that every day “Israel stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the American people. We are partners in freedom and in seeking a better future for all humanity.”

Turning to the battle to thwart terror-sponsor Iran from attaining nuclear weapons, Netanyahu highlighted the dangers of rogue regimes with nuclear weapons. Those dangers were “recently seen,” he said, in a reference to the ongoing crisis in the Korean Peninsula.

“We have also seen that heavy sanctions are not always effective against a sufficiently determined regime. Therefore, we have an obligation to ensure that this will not happen again. If Iran achieves nuclear weapons, this will change the world,” Netanyahu stated, emphasizing that “all governments must do everything possible in order to ensure that this danger is not realized.”

Netanyahu also shared his vision for peace with the foreign diplomats, saying he was committed to “a peace that will be based on the principle of two states for two peoples, a Jewish state alongside a demilitarized Palestinian state.”

Israel’s security was crucial and the top priority in any future understandings or treaty with the Palestinians, the prime minister made clear. ”The state of Israel must be able to defend itself by itself; its security will be a main component of any future peace agreement.”

Saudi terror cell, possibly al Qaeda, behind Boston Marathon bombings. Manhunt for escaped suspect.

DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis April 16, 2013, 7:45 PM (GMT+02:00)

Police and agents search Saudi suspects apartment in Revere outside Boston.

FBI Special Agent Richard Deslauriers told reporters Tuesday, April 16, that the probe had no leads 18 hours after two explosions blew up at the annual Boston Marathon’s finishing line, killing three people and injuring 176 – 17 critically.

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debkafile’s counter-terrorism sources can disclose however that the investigation has in fact homed in on a suspected terror cell of three Saudi nationals, very possibly tied to Al Qaeda.

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The flat they share in the Revere, Massachusetts, near Boston, was searched after the questioning of one of the suspects, a Saudi student, who was hospitalized with badly burned hands. One of his flatmates was taken into custody over “visa problems.” A third is on the run. All three hail from a prominent Saudi family belonging to a tribe from the Asir province bordering on Yemen.

The search for the wanted man led to the grounding of a plane at Logan International Airport Tuesday.  The investigation has meanwhile broadened out to places in and outside Boston in a search for the cell’s accomplices.

The origins of the Saudi cell, if confirmed, strongly suggest that Al Qaeda of Arabia – AQAP –succeeded in planting a cell in the United States for the bombing attack in Boston – and possibly more than one in other parts of the US. Asir Province is known as a hotbed of resistance to the Saudi throne in Riyadh.
US law enforcement authorities in charge of the probe are refusing to confirm any suspects are in custody, or even leads to whoever carried out the bombings. President Barack Obama said in his second statement in 24 hours: “…we don’t know if who was behind the bombings were foreign, domestic or individual.” The President was forced to admit for the first time that the FBI was investigating “an act of terror.”

debkafile earlier Tuesday was alone in reporting that the FBI Boston Marathon probe pointed to Mid-East terrorists with domestic support.
Read on:

The lack of adequate security jumps to the eye after  twin bombings struck the high-prestige Boston Marathon Monday, April 15, killing three people, including an 8-year old boy and injuring 140 – seventeen critically.

This was the world’s oldest annual marathon, with 28,000 runners representing athletes from every US state and more than 90 nations. Yet there was no sign of dogs along the route trained to sniff out explosives or a police helicopter overhead with sensors for detecting explosives or traces thereof on the person of anyone present around the finishing line after the blasts.
Tuesday morning, while interviewing witnesses and collecting photos taken by spectators, the Boston police and security officers announced they were seeking two wanted men: One was described as swarthy, speaking with a foreign accent, his face partially hidden by a hood, who was carrying a large backpack and kept on trying to enter a closed section near the finishing line. This was the first time an area was disclosed as having been closed to the public.

The second man was photographed by a spectator walking on a rooftop overlooking the finishing line after the second bomb exploded.
After the event, police searches turned up and defused another three explosive devices. Had that search taken place before the event, at least one of the lethal devices might have been discovered and the race aborted.
Tuesday, the FBI admitted “a potential terrorist inquiry” was underway, although President Barack Obama, when he pledged justice for “the perpetrators,” carefully skirted the term “terror.” This recalls his administration’s refusal to brand as an act of terror the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012, and the murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens, although it was clearly the work of an al Qaeda element.
Counterterrorism experts are equally certain of the Middle East terrorist hallmarks on the Boston Marathon bombings, although it is too soon to say whether it was the work of Al Qaeda or an allied radical jihadi group such as the Ansar al-Shariah, which was responsible for the Benghazi consulate in conjunction with a clandestine al Qaeda command center in Cairo.
Here, too, initial investigation discloses the hand of al Qaeda or an affiliate.

Ahead of the London marathon scheduled for next week and the state funeral of the late UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher Wednesday, April 17, a determined official effort is being made in Washington and London to present the Boston bombings as the work of a lone wolf.

However, experts experienced in these matters maintain that an attack on this scale and of this type would have required four or five bombers on the ground and a support team of about 10 spotters and accomplices familiar with the terrain, further back. They would have needed more than one vehicle and communications gear, in addition to mobile phones which are easily tracked.

The two explosions, 400 meters apart, were obviously coordinated and designed to cause maximum casualties. The ball-bearings scattered across the crime scene and found in the pockets of some of the casualties were familiar to Israelis and others and telling evidence of Middle East terrorist authorship.

The explosive device which caused such havoc and agony was small yet deadly – another pointer to the “professionalism” of the attackers. A similar device was discovered in time three years ago in a bomb-rigged car parked in Times Square New York and left there by the Pakistani student Faisal Shahzad.
Unlike the president, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Chairperson of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had no compunctions about putting into words the general suspicion. Straight after the event, she said, “My understanding is that it’s a terrorist incident” – although it is too soon to say whether it was carried out by a foreign or domestic element.
Suspicion of a foreign hand was strengthened when the US media reported that a Saudi national suffering from severe burns was being questioned in hospital. The Boston Police Department denied the report and the FBI, now in charge of the case, said that no one has so far been taken into custody. They did not deny questioning “persons of interest.”

The first response to the explosions in Boston from Middle East itself came from Mohammad al-Chalabi the head of an extremist Jordanian Muslim Salafi group, who said he’s “happy to see the horror in America…American blood isn’t more precious than Muslim blood,” he said. “Let the Americans feel the pain we endured by their armies occupying Iraq and Afghanistan and killing our people there.”
A Mideast counterterrorism official based in Jordan said the blasts “carry the hallmark of an organized terrorist group, like al-Qaeda.”

National Guard forces were streaming Tuesday into Boston in long convoys of armored Humvees.

Boston residents are in for upsets from the massive security measures that will continue throughout the week, as the area of the bombings is declared a crime scene and kept under lockdown; law enforcement officials patrol the streets and carry out random bag checks; and transport services are delayed.

To Prevent War With Iran, Give Israel Fuel Tankers – Andrew Burt and Jordan Chandler Hirsch – The Atlantic.

( This from the lefty rag “The Atlantic.”  Why thank you, boys… – JW )

A U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to the 100th Air Refueling Wing prepares to fuel Royal Danish Air Force F-16C Fighting Falcon aircraft on February 1, 2012. (Reuters)

Western diplomats departed Almaty, Kazakhstan recently declaring that yet another round of negotiations with Iran over ending its nuclear program had failed. But the problem for the United States isn’t just preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons — it’s also preventing Israel from attacking prematurely. And although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly accepted American timelines, the dispute between Israel and the United States will erupt again. And no amount of phone calls or summits can resolve it.

That’s because the clash between the two countries isn’t just about intentions–both have pledged to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, if necessary through force. Instead, it’s about military capability. Israel, with its limited arsenal, must attack before Iran produces enough nuclear material to build a bomb. Because Israeli military capabilities would be significantly stretched in a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, every strike option carries a risk that Israel will only partially destroy its targets. To succeed, it may need to attempt a follow-up attack or even a series of them. All of this requires time, something Israel is running out of.

If Israel decides to strike Iran, its lack of tankers will be a significant handicap.

Meanwhile, the United States, with weapons such as the long-range B-2 stealth bomber and massive bunker-busting bombs, can afford to wait. Despite the pleasantries of President Obama’s recent visit to Israel, this discrepancy reappeared in the Jerusalem press conference between Obama and Netanyahu, with Netanyahu reiterating the need to strike Iran before it passes the so-called zone of immunity — the point at which an attack would no longer derail the nuclear program. This tension has both exposed Israel’s limitations and undermined U.S. credibility, weakening diplomacy and emboldening Iran. All of this, ironically, increases the odds for war. The only way to solve the problem is to level the playing field: the United States should give Israel air refueling tankers, increasing its odds of destroying Iran’s nuclear program in the event of an attack and thereby giving it more time to wait.

Refueling tankers are one of the most important advantages the United States has over Israel if it came to an attack on Iran. Any Israeli operation against Iran would severely strain its air force. Over 1,000 nautical miles separate Israel from its furthest targets in Iran, and Israeli jets would need to refuel approximately halfway. Tankers would play a critical role in any such attack.

The problem is that Israel doesn’t have enough of them. It has roughly 10 tankers in its fleet, all of which it would need to deploy in a strike on Iran–presenting the Israelis with a major operational vulnerability. The loss of one or two tankers could threaten the entire mission. If Israel decides to strike Iran, its lack of tankers will be a significant handicap.

All of this means that Israel must decide whether to attack much earlier than the United States. The riskier the operation is for Israel, the less time it has to wait, as it will seek a time buffer in case more strikes are needed or the operation fails entirely. And with Iran reportedly expanding its nuclear production sites, Israel will likely need more tankers to hit additional targets. Israel could rely on Washington to act at the last moment, and this is what American officials are hoping for. But Israelis recognize that the Iranian nuclear program poses a lesser danger to the United States — making them less likely to rely on American goodwill.

This raises the second problem with American efforts to thwart Iran’s nuclear program: credibility. Despite Obama’s vows to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb, all signs indicate Iran has yet to take them seriously. And for good reason. War weary and budget strapped, the United States would face the prospect of entering its third major Middle Eastern war in the last decade — one that could severely damage the already-weakened global economy. That daunting scenario likely explains why administration officials have not only questioned the odds of a successful Israeli strike but expressed doubts about the impact of a U.S. attack as well. But the best chance for Iran to relinquish its nuclear program is if it truly fears the use of force.

The United States thus finds itself in a bind: to convince the Iranians to abandon their nuclear program, it must bolster the credibility of its threat to attack. Given the uncertainties about its intentions, the question is whether it can do so without actually resorting to force. But such is not the case for Israel: Tehran hardly doubts Jerusalem’s seriousness. This past October, the New York Times reported that in 2007 and 2008, the Iranian military so feared an Israeli strike that it accidentally fired on civilian airliners and even one of its own military aircraft. And just recently, the Wall Street Journal discovered that Iran has slowed its nuclear program to remain within Israel’s red line until its elections in June. The Iranians merely doubt Israel’s ability to demolish its nuclear facilities, and therefore the credibility of Israel’s threats to do so.

By giving Israel refueling tankers, the United States can escape its bind. Jerusalem would be better equipped to ferry its air force to Iran and remain airborne long enough to attack an increasing number of targets. This would give Israel a greater margin of error, allowing it to wait longer before striking and placing it more fully on Washington’s timeline. Meanwhile, Tehran would take the potential consequences of an Israeli assault more seriously, so transferring the tankers would thus boost U.S. credibility. Empowering Israel, the country most likely to use force, would demonstrate that the United States is willing to risk war to stop Iran’s nuclear program. With Israel in possession of sufficient air tankers, the Iranian regime would have the strongest incentive yet to end its nuclear drive.

The hope, of course, is that neither the United States nor Israel will need to resort to force. Diplomatic niceties can calm the dispute between Israel and the United States over Iran temporarily, but only increasing Israel’s capabilities can buy real time and credibility. By realigning Washington and Jerusalem, it offers the surest means of avoiding preemptive war.

Major earthquake hits Iran, at least 40 killed – Israel News, Ynetnews.

US Geological Survey says quake hit at depth of 15.2 km; epicenter 201 km southeast of Zahedan; buildings in New Delhi shake; tremor also felt in Qatar, Dubai. Iran official says quake ‘biggest in 40 years’

News agencies

Iranian state TV said at least 40 people have been killed by a major earthquake that hit near the Iran-Pakistan border on Tuesday. Pakistani officials said the quake killed at least five people near the border.

Tremors from the 7.8 magnitude quake were also felt in India and Gulf states.

“It was the biggest earthquake in Iran in 40 years,” said an Iranian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The US Geological Survey said the quake hit at 10:44 GMT at a depth of 15.2 km (9.4 miles).

People in the city of Zahedan poured into the streets when the earthquake struck, Iran’s Fars news agency reported. Many houses in rural parts of the region are made of mud brick, which can easily crumble in a quake, Fars said.

Quake’s epicenter (Photo: Google maps)

All communications in the area have been cut, the Iranian Red Crescent’s Mahmoud Mozaffar told state television. Rescue teams have been dispatched to the affected area, he said.

“In the aftermath of this earthquake five evaluation teams from the Khash and Saravan branches were sent to the area to assess damage,” Mozaffar said.

The epicenter was in southeast Iran in an area of mountains and desert, 201 km (125 miles) southeast of Zahedan and 250 km northwest of Turbat in Pakistan, USGS said.

Devastation in Iran after last week’s earthquake (Photo: Reuters)

Fars reported that the Iranian city of Saravan, which lies near the center of the earthquake, has not seen serious damage.

On April 9, a powerful 6.3 magnitude quake struck close to Iran’s only nuclear power station, killing 37 people, injuring 850 and devastating two villages.

Most of Iran’s nuclear-related facilities are located in central Iran or its west, including the Bushehr nuclear power plant on the Gulf coast. A US Institute for Science and International Security map did not show any nuclear-linked facilities in southeastern Iran close to Pakistan.

Ira sits on major geological faultlines and has suffered several devastating earthquakes, including a 6.6 magnitude quake in 2003 that flattened the city of Bam, in Iran’s far southeast, killing more than 25,000 people.

This quake also shook tall buildings in India’s capital New Delhi, sending people running into the streets, witnesses said. People also evacuated buildings in Qatar and Dubai, residents said.

“I was working and my work station was shaking,” said Viidhu Sekhri, 35, an underwriter at a New Delhi insurance company. “Then it was a bit shaky so we just rushed outside.”

Earlier in the day two smaller tremors were felt in India’s Himalayan region close to the Chinese border.

An official at India’s disaster management authority said the tremors felt in New Delhi and across northern India were because of the earthquake in Iran.

Gantz: IDF can attack Iranian nuclear sites on its own | JPost | Israel News.

FBI Boston Marathon probe points to Mid-East terrorists with domestic support.

DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis April 16, 2013, 10:43 AM (GMT+02:00)

Boston police swat team in action

The lack of adequate security jumps to the eye after  twin bombings struck the high-prestige Boston Marathon Monday, April 15, killing three people, including an 8-year old boy and injuring 140 – seventeen critically.

This was the world’s oldest annual marathon, with 28,000 runners representing athletes from every US state and more than 90 nations. Yet there was no sign of dogs along the route trained to sniff out explosives or a police helicopter overhead with sensors for detecting explosives or traces thereof on the person of anyone present around the finishing line after the blasts.
Tuesday morning, while interviewing witnesses and collecting photos taken by spectators, the Boston police and security officers announced they were seeking two wanted men: One was described as swarthy, speaking with a foreign accent, his face partially hidden by a hood, who was carrying a large backpack and kept on trying to enter a closed section near the finishing line. This was the first time an area was disclosed as having been closed to the public.

The second man was photographed by a spectator walking on a rooftop overlooking the finishing line after the second bomb exploded.
After the event, police searches turned up and defused another three explosive devices. Had that search taken place before the event, at least one of the lethal devices might have been discovered and the race aborted.
Tuesday, the FBI admitted “a potential terrorist inquiry” was underway, although President Barack Obama, when he pledged justice for “the perpetrators,” carefully skirted the term “terror.” This recalls his administration’s refusal to brand as an act of terror the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012, and the murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens, although it was clearly the work of an al Qaeda element.
Counterterrorism experts are equally certain of the Middle East terrorist hallmarks on the Boston Marathon bombings, although it is too soon to say whether it was the work of Al Qaeda or an allied radical jihadi group such as the Ansar al-Shariah, which was responsible for the Benghazi consulate in conjunction with a clandestine al Qaeda command center in Cairo.
Here, too, initial investigation discloses the hand of al Qaeda or an affiliate.

Ahead of the London marathon scheduled for next week and the state funeral of the late UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher Wednesday, April 17, a determined official effort is being made in Washington and London to present the Boston bombings as the work of a lone wolf.

However, experts experienced in these matters maintain that an attack on this scale and of this type would have required four or five bombers on the ground and a support team of about 10 spotters and accomplices familiar with the terrain, further back. They would have needed more than one vehicle and communications gear, in addition to mobile phones which are easily tracked.

The two explosions, 400 meters apart, were obviously coordinated and designed to cause maximum casualties. The ball-bearings scattered across the crime scene and found in the pockets of some of the casualties were familiar to Israelis and others and telling evidence of Middle East terrorist authorship.

The explosive device which caused such havoc and agony was small yet deadly – another pointer to the “professionalism” of the attackers. A similar device was discovered in time three years ago in a bomb-rigged car parked in Times Square New York and left there by the Pakistani student Faisal Shahzad.
Unlike the president, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Chairperson of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had no compunctions about putting into words the general suspicion. Straight after the event, she said, “My understanding is that it’s a terrorist incident” – although it is too soon to say whether it was carried out by a foreign or domestic element.
Suspicion of a foreign hand was strengthened when the US media reported that a Saudi national suffering from severe burns was being questioned in hospital. The Boston Police Department denied the report and the FBI, now in charge of the case, said that no one has so far been taken into custody. They did not deny questioning “persons of interest.”

The first response to the explosions in Boston from Middle East itself came from Mohammad al-Chalabi the head of an extremist Jordanian Muslim Salafi group, who said he’s “happy to see the horror in America…American blood isn’t more precious than Muslim blood,” he said. “Let the Americans feel the pain we endured by their armies occupying Iraq and Afghanistan and killing our people there.”
A Mideast counterterrorism official based in Jordan said the blasts “carry the hallmark of an organized terrorist group, like al-Qaeda.”

National Guard forces were streaming Tuesday into Boston in long convoys of armored Humvees.

Boston residents are in for upsets from the massive security measures that will continue throughout the week, as the area of the bombings is declared a crime scene and kept under lockdown; law enforcement officials patrol the streets and carry out random bag checks; and transport services are delayed.