WarSclerotic

Eilat under rocket attack from Sinai.

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report April 17, 2013, 9:46 AM (GMT+02:00)

Three rocket warning sirens sounded in Eilat Wednesday morning, April 17, alerting Israel’s southernmost town  to falling Grad rockets fired from Sinai. One of the three exploded outside a residential district in the town. There is no immediate word on casualties. On April 4, debkafile reported that southern Israel had been placed on alert on intelligence that al Qaeda cells in Egyptian Sinai and the Gaza Strip had finished preparations for launching a multiple terror attack on targets in the southern Israeli Negev and Eilat. Two Iron Dome missile interceptors were deployed near Eilat against attacks from Sinai and Ashkelon further north in case Salafist Bedouin associated with al Qaeda started firing rockets.

According to our sources, the attack on Eilat Wednesday was the opening salvo of a broad al Qaeda terror offensive against southern Israel.

Read debkafile’s April 4 report for background.

Incoming intelligence of All Qaeda groups in the Sinai Peninsula winding up preparations for a multiple attack on an Israeli location, such as Eilat, and a US military target in the Negev, has put southern Israel and US forces posted there on high terror alert. This is reported by debkafile’s military sources.
The Israeli high command decided to treat the five Qassam rockets fired at Shear Hanegev Wednesday, April 3, which were claimed by the Al Qaeda-affiliated Salafist “Jihad Brigades in Jerusalem.” as the opening salvo for this coordinated attack. An Iron Dome battery was accordingly moved Thursday to the Israeli-Egyptian border north of the southern port of Eilat and additional IDF strength directed to the South.
Heavy sandstorms in the region have sharply reduced visibility for troop movements and provided excellent cover for terrorist infiltration.
Dozens of armed Salafist and al Qaeda operatives in SUVs on which heavy machine guns were mounted were sighted Tuesday driving along the northern Sinai road linking Rafah on the Gazan border to Sheikh Zuweid. They withdrew hurriedly to the mountainous central region when a beefed up Egyptian military contingent drew up and was able to catch a few.
The group is believed to be preparing to mount a multiple attack simultaneously from Sinai and the Gaza Strip. Eilat may be one target but others are thought to be US forces based in the Negev and also the many American officers and men of the MFO peacekeeping force in northern Sinai.
debkafile: Israeli spokesmen are holding Hamas responsible for the revival of the missile and mortar attacks from the Gaza Strip after five months of calm were ushered in by the November ceasefire agreement. They are trying to push the Hamas rulers into asserting control and reining in the Salafist and al Qaeda-linked cells embedded in the southern Gaza Strip.
Israel is also calling on the Egyptian government to step up military action to cut down terrorist activity in North Sinai and other border areas.
These Israeli steps have had little effect. Hamas is scared of a direct confrontation with al Qaeda’s cells and allies, while the Egyptian security agencies have adopted a policy of checking the papers of entrants from Sinai to Egypt proper, but not travelers moving in the opposite direction. There is therefore no bar against Islamist terrorists from Egypt and even Libya entering Sinai.

Two rockets fired on Eilat | The Times of Israel.

( Home, sweet home…. I’ll be there tomorrow. – JW )

No injuries reported in terror attack; missiles also land in nearby Jordanian city of Aqaba

A panoramic view of the southern Israeli city of Eilat. (photo credit: Moshe Shai/Flash90)

Two rockets were fired on the southern city of Eilat Wednesday morning. Initial reports said one landed in a residential neighborhood and the other in an open area in the outskirts of the city. No injuries were reported.

Police began scanning the area for the remains of additional weapons and to identify the type of rocket that was fired.

The rockets were believed to have been fired by Islamist terrorists from the nearby Sinai Peninsula.

Arabic media said two explosions were also heard in the Jordanian city of Aqaba, located several kilometers away.

An Iron Dome missile defense battery has been stationed near Eilat for the last two weeks in light of intelligence assessments warning of just such an attack. But in the Wednesday attack, the system was not utilized.

The city’s airport was temporarily shut down because of the attack.

Eillat Mayor Meir Yitzhak Halevy said all the city’s children were safe in the schools. “We hope this difficult episode is over,” he said.

In December 2012, the army inaugurated a new brigade tasked with protecting the Red Sea resort town and its environs, saying the move represented a growing need in a changing environment.

The creation of the Eilat Regional Brigade, under the aegis of the 80th “Edom” Division, comes as Israel’s border region with Egypt becomes increasingly volatile.

Police stand next to a rocket that landed in Eilat in early April 2012 (photo credit: AP/Yehuda Ben Itah)

Last April, two rockets fell in open areas of the city. In 2010, five rockets were fired at Eilat, with several overshooting Israeli territory and one killing a Jordanian in Aqaba.

Terror attacks originating in the Sinai have become increasingly common as Muslim extremists have taken advantage of the power vacuum left after the ouster of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

Home to some 50,000 people, Eilat hosts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year and is among the country’s top tourist destinations.

Two rockets slam into Eilat following ‘Code Red’ siren | JPost | Israel News.

Pentagon seeks $220 million for Israel’s Iron Dome system | JPost | Israel News.

US Missile Defense Agency also projects to request $510b. for Arrow 3, intended to intercept long-range ballistic missiles such as those possessed by Iran and shorter range David Sling to intercept Hezbollah, Hamas rockets.

Briefing: Do earthquakes threaten Iran’s nuclear facilities? – environment – 16 April 2013 – New Scientist.

19:46 16 April 2013 by Michael Marshall

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake has rocked Iran, a week after another major quake struck the country. New Scientist assesses the risks

How bad was today’s earthquake?

According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the quake struck at 15:14 local time in Sistan and Baluchestan Province in the south-east of the country. A magnitude of 7.8 marks it as a major quake. Tremors were felt as far away as India.

“The earthquake was probably a result of normal faulting within the Arabian plate as it is subducted under the Eurasian plate along the Makran coast of Iran and Pakistan,” says Brian Baptie of the British Geological Survey.

So far it is unclear how many people have been killed; the BBC suggests at least 40. The USGS says the focus of the quake was 82 kilometres below the surface. Such deep quakes are less damaging than shallower ones.

Sistan and Baluchestan Province is a particularly poor and desolate part of Iran. It is sparsely populated, with many people living in vulnerable mud-brick houses. Many of these buildings have apparently collapsed. The remoteness of the area means it could take days or weeks to find out how many have died.

Is this linked to last week’s earthquake?

Today’s quake comes a week after a magnitude 6.3 quake that struck Bushehr Province in the south-west of Iran on 9 April. Although it was a smaller quake, at least 37 people were killed.

The two quakes were 1000 kilometres apart, says seismologist Jana Pursley of the USGS. “I wouldn’t call them related right now,” she says. Iran is a tectonically active country, and earthquakes are common.

Is there a danger to Iran’s nuclear facilities?

As far as we know, today’s quake was far from Iran’s nuclear facilities. Many of these are in the centre of country, particularly near the capital Tehran, or in the west.

Last week’s south-western quake occurred close to Iran’s only nuclear power station, in Bushehr. Iranian officials said that the plant was undamaged and no radioactive material escaped.

Nuclear power stations generally cope quite well with earthquakes, says Michael Bluck of Imperial College London. They are built on thick slabs of concrete that cushion them, and backup generators are used to keep the reactors cool in the event of an accident.

Iran does have other nuclear facilities but little is known about them.

Didn’t the Fukushima disaster show that earthquakes are a risk to nuclear power stations?

Fukushima rode out the earthquake safely but the Japanese disaster was a reminder that nuclear power stations are vulnerable to tsunamis.

When the Tohoku earthquake struck Japan in 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors automatically shut down. The real problems started when a massive tsunami swept over the sea wall. This knocked out the backup generators, leaving the reactors without their cooling systems. The reactors then overheated, there were explosions, and radioactive material escaped.

New issue of magazine offers jihadists terror tips – CNN.com.

“The pressurized cooker should be placed in crowded areas and left to blow up. More than one of these could be planted to explode at the same time. However, keep in mind that the range of the shrapnel in this operation is short range so the pressurized cooker or pipe should be placed close to the intended targets and should not be concealed from them by barriers such as walls.”

(CNN) — The second edition of an online al Qaeda magazine has surfaced with frank essays, creatively designed imagery and ominous terror tips such as using a pickup truck as a weapon and shooting up a crowded restaurant in Washington.

The magazine is called “Inspire” and intelligence officials believe that an American citizen named Samir Khan, now living in Yemen, is the driving force behind the publication.

The latest edition was emerged on the 10th anniversary of the suicide attack on the guided missile destroyer USS Cole — struck as it refueled in Aden, Yemen. The first edition came out in July.

Christopher Boucek, a Yemen expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the timing is no coincidence.

“It also comes on the heels of a busy week for al Qaeda in Yemen. They released an hourlong video last week. There was also an attack on a British Convoy in Sanaa [Yemen’s capital] last week. And an audiotape was released two days ago. Al Qaeda in Yemen is good at amplifying its message and that shows the organization is still active, that they’re still able to function,” he said.

An article titled “The Ultimate Mowing Machine” calls for using a pickup truck as a “mowing machine, not to mow grass but mow down the enemies of Allah.”

The article says that such a plan could be implemented in countries where people back the “Israeli occupation of Palestine, the American invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq or countries that had a prominent role in the defamation of Muhammad.”

It said a four-wheel-drive pickup truck is needed — “the stronger the better.”

“To achieve maximum carnage, you need to pick up as much speed as you can while still retaining good control of your vehicle in order to maximize your inertia and be able to strike as many people as possible in your first run,” the article says.

Another tip in the magazine includes the use of firearms.

“For this choose the best location. A random hit at a crowded restaurant in Washington DC at lunch hour, for example, might end up knocking out a few government employees.

“Targeting such employees is paramount and the location would also give the operation additional media attention.”

An idea in the first edition, “Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom,” is touched on again.

“The pressurized cooker should be placed in crowded areas and left to blow up. More than one of these could be planted to explode at the same time. However, keep in mind that the range of the shrapnel in this operation is short range so the pressurized cooker or pipe should be placed close to the intended targets and should not be concealed from them by barriers such as walls.”

Adam Raisman, senior analyst at SITE Intelligence Group, said the “very well-presented magazine” covers a variety of topics, is meant to reach a wider audience, and tries to be tongue-in-cheek in its presentation.

“The magazine has suggestions, ideology it attempts to instill in the reader, and it includes tips for technology,” Raisman said.

Boucek said the “big takeaway” is that the magazine is focusing on what the individual can do.

“The message to the lone actor is to be patient — that you can do it — you can participate in this,” he said.

There are writings in the magazine by Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who U.S. authorities have linked to the failed attempt to blow up a U.S.-bound jetliner in December. Samir Khan wrote an article titled “I Am Proud to be a Traitor to America.”

There is also recycled material. The latest issue includes recent commentary from Adam Yahiye Gadahn, who is an American, about President Barack Obama.

CNN’s Joe Sterling and Mohammed Jamjoom contributed to this report.

US Senate c’tee: US will assist Israel if it attacks Iran | JPost | Israel News.

On Israel’s 65th Independence Day, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee adopted “Senate Resolution 65,” stipulating that the US will assist Israel diplomatically, economically and militarily if the Jewish state is compelled to take military action against Iran “in its defense of its territory, people, and existence.”

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) sponsored Tuesday’s resolution, which garnered a bipartisan group of 79 co-sponsors. The resolution also emphasizes that the US must be committed to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

“The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has sent a very clear and enormously important message of solidarity with Israel against the Iranian nuclear threat—which endangers American, Israeli, and international security,” the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) said in a statement.

“AIPAC urges the full Senate to act expeditiously to adopt the resolution.”

Also on Tuesday, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon warned in an Independence Day speech that the Iranian nuclear program could lead to “an arms race in the Middle East, and cause nuclear weapons to spread to terror organizations.” Ya’alon said the situation with Iran “could be a nightmare for the Western world.”

Ya’alon also emphasized that Iran continues to enrich uranium, which indicates that Iran’s government “is not impressed” by existing sanctions from the West. “The world must lead the campaign against Iran, but Israel must prepare for the possibility that it will have to defend itself with its own powers,” Ya’alon said.

Boston bombings kindle haunting deja vu of Twin Towers and Tel Aviv – West of Eden Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper.

( Poor America… Welcome to reality. – JW )

By Reuters | Apr.16,2013 | 11:51 PM

America tries to shore up public morale in wake of Boston carnage and against fear, which Israelis know well, that atrocities might be repeated.

Twenty-four hours after the shock and horror of the Boston bombings, America was busy reassuring itself and shoring up public morale. Politicians and public officials, from the president on down, applauded  the courage and the selflessness shown by doctors, emergency crews, marathon runners and regular citizens in the hours after the double blasts on Boylston Street.

“If you want to know who we are, what America is, how we respond to evil – that’s it.  Selflessly.  Compassionately.  Unafraid,” President Barack Obama said.

The instinctive and inevitable association in people’s minds, despite the immeasurable difference in scope and carnage, was, after all, to September 11, 2001, if only because of the video clips being shown in endless loops depicting the travesty in its most terrifyingly minute details.  “When we heard the second boom, we knew it was a terror attack,” several bystanders said, against a backdrop of panic-stricken people running through smoke-filled streets, in an eerie echo of that infamous New York morning almost 12 years ago.

For Israeli observers, the deja vu was slightly different but no less harrowing. The blown out shop windows, the medics frantically stemming the blood of the moaning wounded lying on the sidewalks, the little children crying as their parents sought refuge, the stern doctor reporting on the situation of the wounded at the entrance to the hospital and the endless parade of politicians pledging that the perpetrators “will be brought to justice” – all of these were like a 10-year-old reprise of scenes that were so terribly familiar a decade ago in  Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, suddenly transported through time and space to the metropolis of  New England.

The only thing missing were the inevitable gangs of right-wing hooligans shouting “death to the Arabs” in front of TV cameras, but who knows, their time might also come.

As investigators sieved through mountains of evidence and experts debated whether pressure-cooker bombs point to domestic or international terrorists, the media could hardly contain their preferences, depending on their respective point of view. Some on the right were pulling for the Saudi “person of interest” detained for questioning as a lead to a jihadi connection that would confirm their basic weltanschauung and possibly chip away at President Obama’s good credit in the fight against terror.  Others on the left appeared to be rooting for radical right wing types with shades of a (Boston) Tea Party, relying, inter alia, on the “Patriot Day” timing chosen by both the Boston bombers and by Timothy McVeigh in the 1995 Oklahoma federal building bombing in which 168 people were killed.

Just as the 9/11 attacks were portrayed as a blow to the symbols of Wall Street and American capitalism, there was an underlying potency to the disruption of a world class marathon in a city which takes such pride in its adoration of sports – and of a deadly attack in one of the historic birthplaces of America itself. The injuries were not only to body and soul, but to America’s pride and sense of heritage as well.

Beyond the need to apprehend the bombers in order to ensure that they do not repeat their crimes, their identity could have wide-ranging repercussions for American politics as well. The reemergence of terrorists linked to radical Islam could change the mood of the American public and revert it to the fear-filled, xenophobic days  of post 9/11; domestic terrorists, unless proven to be part of wide conspiracy, might be quickly forgotten. And a lone, unaffiliated bomber with obscure motives will render the killings, ironically, even more inexplicable and senseless.

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” President Franklin Roosevelt said 80 years ago, and Israelis will readily concur. Monday, America put on a brave face and showed a solid front, but if Boston turns out to be more than an isolated incident, the debilitating anxiety and fear that Israelis knew so well in the dark days of the suicide bombings in the second intifada will invade American hearts and minds as well.

Iran says it may need to enrich uranium to 50% | The Times of Israel.

( Tick, tick, tick… – JW )

Certain necessities may arise for boats and submarines, says head of Tehran’s nuclear agency

Iran’s heavy water nuclear facilities near the central city of Arak 150 miles (250 kilometers) southwest of Tehran. (photo credit: AP/ISNA,Hamid Foroutan, File)

Iran would enrich uranium to around 50 percent in order to fuel boats and submarines if it needed to operate such vessels, the head of the country’s nuclear agency said Tuesday.

International treaties forbid countries from enriching uranium to 20% or higher, since that type of enrichment is considered too high for civilian usage and indicates it could be for military purposes.

Iran’s nuclear program has long been under international criticism, and heavy sanctions have been implemented by the US, EU and other countries in an attempt to stop Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons capability.

At the moment Iran has “no enrichment plan for purity levels above 20 percent,” Fereidoun Abbasi told the FARS news agency. However, “certain needs” such as “ships and submarines” could cause Iran to make “small engines which should be fueled by 45 to 56 percent enriched uranium.”

“We have the capability to produce nuclear fuel for ships and submarines,” Abbasi said in July, when he first announced Iran had the knowledge and ability to fuel such vessels with enriched uranium.

Talks held between Iran and the world powers on the Iranians’ rogue nuclear program at the start of April did not yield any results, and Western officials said the sides were a “long way apart“ on any deal.

Israel has said Iran is only a few months away from the threshold of having material to turn into a bomb and has vowed to use all means to prevent it from reaching that point. The United States has not said what its “red line” is, but President Barack Obama has said that it will not tolerate an Iran armed with nuclear weapons. In an interview on Israel’s Channel 2 on Tuesday, President Shimon Peres said he was “100 percent certain” Obama would use force to thwart Iran’s nuclear program if all else failed.

Any strike on Iran could provoke fierce retaliation directly from Iran and through its Middle East proxies in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, raising the specter of a larger Middle East conflict.

Senate declares support for Israel in Iranian threat | The Times of Israel.

AIPAC praises resolution urging diplomatic, military, and economic support to Israel ‘in its defense of its territory, people, and existence’

In this photo released by the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), an Iranian Shahab-3 missile is launched during military maneuvers outside the city of Qom, Iran, Tuesday, June 28, 2011 (photo credit: AP/ISNA, Ruhollah Vahdati)

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee adopted Senate Resolution 65 on Tuesday, declaring bi-partisan support for Israel in the case of military action against the threat from Iran. The resolution specifies that the United States should provide diplomatic, military, and economic support to Israel “in its defense of its territory, people, and existence.”

AIPAC issued a statement praising the resolution, which also reiterates that the policy of the United States is to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability and to take such action as may be necessary to implement this policy.