WarSclerotic

Kerry: US will not allow allies to be attacked | The Times of Israel.

In Egypt, US secretary of state sends a message to Tehran, says ‘Iran will not get a nuclear weapon’

US Secretary of State John Kerry, center, walks with Egypt’s Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy, second left, to their joint press conference in Cairo, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Jason Reed, Pool)

CAIRO (AP) — US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday tried to reassure America’s Arab friends that the United States will not allow them to be attacked “from outside,” in an apparent warning to Iran.

He specifically mentioned Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan and Egypt as nations, alongside unspecified “others,” that the US will defend. Those others likely would include Israel, the strongest US ally in the region.

“The United States will be there for the defense of our friends and our allies,” Kerry told reporters in Cairo. “We will not allow those countries to be attacked from outside. We will stand with them.”

Kerry spoke during the first stop on his trip to the Middle East, Europe and North Africa.

After Egypt, he headed later Sunday to Saudi Arabia, where the biggest rifts with the Obama administration have emerged.

Saudi officials have complained that the United States did not follow through on its threat to punish Syrian President Bashar Assad with military strikes for his government’s use of chemical weapons. The Saudis also have watched warily as President Barack Obama has opened a tentative rapprochement with Iran, Saudi Arabia’s archrival.

Kerry acknowledged US divisions with Gulf nations over Syria and Iran, but he played down those differences. He said some countries do differ with US “tactics” in Syria.

“There may some differences on a tactic here and there,” he said. But he said they all agree on the goal of ending the fighting and forming an interim government.

“We can have a difference on a policy, on the tactics of the policy,” he said. “For instance, there are some countries in the region that wanted the United States to do one thing with respect to Syria and we have done something else.”

He stressed, though, that “those differences on an individual tactic on a policy do not create a difference on the fundamental goal of the policy. We all share the same goal that we have discussed, that is the salvation of the state of Syria and a transition government put in place … that can give the people of Syria the opportunity to choose their future.”

Kerry added that that the United States would never allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons. The administration is seeking a pause from the US Congress in putting in place fresh penalties against Iran, in order to provide flexibility in negotiations.

A new round of nuclear talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany is set to begin Thursday in Geneva.

“Iran will not get a nuclear weapon,” he said. “That is a promise by the president of the United States.”

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

Americans selling our secrets – Israel Opinion, Ynetnews.

Op-ed: US administration intentionally pointing finger at Israel in bid to sabotage our security policy

Alex Fishman

What the hell are the Americans thinking when they point at Israel as responsible for the strikes in Syria? Past experience shows that we have shared our operational activity with them so as not to embarrass and surprise, but Washington is selling our secrets cheaply.

The first time it happened, people here thought it was a mistake. The defense minister looked into it, the American secretary of defense offered an explanation, and an investigation was even launched there. The second time the Americans sold us, the secretary of defense apologized and blamed some scapegoat in the Pentagon.

And what now? Now it is dangerous villainy coming out of the administration intentionally, in a bid to sabotage the Israeli security policy. If the Americans hadn’t marked the Israel Air Force as responsible for some of the strikes which have taken place since January in Syria, Assad would have had no direction to point the accusing finger at.

The Syrian president has many reasons to be furious after the latest attack. Assad believed he had bought himself an insurance policy when he agreed to disarm Syria’s chemical weapons. The Damascus regime was convinced that as long as it cooperates with the foreign inspectors destroying the chemical facilities on its land, no one will touch it.

But while the entire world is impressed by the positive Syrian approach, the transfer of weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon continues. Indeed, the Syrians are a bit more careful than in the past – and for a certain period of time even stopped trying to transfer the problematic weapon systems as far as Israel is concerned – but the applause Assad received from the world has slightly turned his head around. Not to mention the fact that his debt to the Hezbollah organization is only growing.

The heads of the Israeli defense establishment have warned the Syrians: The Russians won’t help you, the inspectors’ presence won’t help you, and dreams about a reconciliation conference in Geneva won’t help you. If Israel reaches the conclusion – based on solid intelligence – that it is being threatened due to the spillover of problematic weapons to Lebanon or due to any other Syrian move – Assad will not be immune.

The description of the strike which took place last week in Latakia is very reminiscent of the strikes which took place on Syrian soil this year and are attributed to Israel: No jets are seen or heard. Someone describes a series of particularly strong explosions, eyewitnesses talk about a missile they saw or didn’t see coming from the sea, a military facility sustains damage – and that’s it. There are no incriminating signs. Even the foreign navies stationed in the area, which are monitoring every movement in the sea, air and land, are not reporting any unusual movements.

Assad’s sensitive area

Someone has, apparently, the ability to carry out an accurate attack, with missile guidance, from ranges beyond the detection systems. That someone also has, apparently, the ability to commit a tactical deceit which creates the surprise.

Whoever carried out the attack the other day struck a military target in the heart of Alawistan – the Alawite canton which is being shaped into an autonomy in crumbling Syria. It will be the last stronghold of the current Syrian regime. That’s where it will drain into and concentrate all the strategic means at its disposal to prepare for a rainy day when the Alawite faction’s existence will have to be protected.

If Assad wants to hide chemical weapons, he will hide them there. If he wants to keep the sophisticated anti-ship missiles (Yakhont) and the new surface-to-air missiles he received in the past year from the Russians, he will move them there. Whoever struck made it clear to the president in Damascus: Don’t pretend to be wise. I will attack you even in your most sensitive area.

The Syrian bought himself an insurance policy, but he also bought himself handcuffs. In light of the world’s desire to keep him on his seat, at least until the summer of 2014, for good behavior – his hands are tied in terms of a military response against the attacker.

And as for the inspectors’ success in dismantling the production and mixing facilities of chemical weapons on Syrian soil, it’s worthwhile listening carefully to what the head of the inspection delegation said. When he was asked if he was convinced that all sites were destroyed, he responded: We destroyed the sites the Syrians uncovered to us.

Which means, between the lines: It’s possible that the Syrians did not uncover all the sites to us. In the meantime we are not getting into a conflict with them. Whatever they reveal – we buy into. What they hid and we know about – we’ll take care of in the end.

Israel Hayom | Is the US spilling its allies’ secrets?.

Israel Hayom | Under Obama, US no longer on top.

Prof. Abraham Ben-Zvi

Mystery explosion at Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor.

( Debka is the only one reporting this at the moment.  If confirmed, break out the beer! – JW )

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report November 3, 2013, 2:10 PM (IDT)

Iran’s heavy water plant at Arak

Tehran did its utmost to conceal the mystery blast which last week struck the heavy water reactor under construction at Arak in western Iran. It is revealed here for the first time by debkafile’s intelligence and Iranian sources.  The explosion, whether accidental or not, will delay for a second time the reactor’s first test with real fuel. Tehran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency in August of a previous holdup.

The cause of the blast and the extent of the damage it caused have not yet been established. According to the partial information initially reaching our sources, it occurred inside the reactor building when preparations were underway for a test scheduled for this month with artificial fuel and light water. The site of the explosion may have been the large coolant containers and the pressure gauges attached to the reactor’s core.
Iranian Atomic Council experts and intelligence agents are testing four possible causes of the explosion:

1. Sabotage.

2. A virus planted in the computers that control the systems administering the test.
3. An error in engineering calculations in the design of the coolant containers which underestimated their strength for standing up to the required level of pressure.
4.  The deliberate sale to Iran of inferior steel materials that were not strong enough to withstand such pressure.
Last August, Iran informed the nuclear watchdog that the test with real fuel would be the final one before the reactor entered its running-in stage.

The damage caused by the explosion will have postponed that stage indefinitely.
The Arak reactor, known as IR-40 and designed for a capacity of 40 megawatt, is the cause of deep concern in Israel because it is capable of producing plutonium for use in nuclear bombs as an alternative to enriched uranium.

Khamenei: Israel is ‘illegitimate, bastard’ regime – Israel News, Ynetnews.

( First time I’ve agreed with Khamenei, “We should not trust a smiling enemy.” – JW )

Iran’s supreme leader lashes out at Israel, says he’s not optimistic about nuclear talks with world powers. Referring to US, he says ‘We should not trust a smiling enemy’

AFP

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday Israel is ‘illegitimate, bastard’ regime. He further expressed pessimism about talks with world powers over its disputed nuclear program but backed them.

“No one should see our negotiating team as compromisers,” Khamenei, Iran’s top decision-maker on its nuclear drive, was quoted as saying on his official website.

“I am not optimistic about the (nuclear) negotiations but, with the grace of God, we will not suffer losses either,” he added.

A new round of talks between Iranian negotiators and representatives from the so-called P5+1 group of world powers is scheduled in Geneva for November 7 and 8.

The second meeting since moderate President Hassan Rohani took office in August, the talks are aimed at curbing Iran’s sensitive nuclear work in exchange for a relief from international sanctions strangling Iran’s economy.

All decisions on the nuclear program, which the West suspects is masking a military drive despite repeated Iranian denials, rest with Khamenei.

“All the better if the negotiations bear fruit but if there are no results, the country should rely on itself,” said Khamenei while criticizing the US policy of approaching the talks on two fronts of sanctions and diplomacy.

“The Americans smile and express desire for negotiation; on the other hand, they immediately say that all options are on the table,” he said. “We should not trust a smiling enemy.”

Israel to US: Syria raid leak ‘endangers our national security’ | The Times of Israel.

Jerusalem reportedly conveys bitter protests to White House, Pentagon, CIA for confirming that IAF hit missile shipment; ‘embarrassed’ administration has yet to respond

By Times of Israel staff and Yifa Yaakov November 3, 2013, 1:06 pm

Satellite footage of alleged missile base in Latakia, Syria (photo credit: Wikimapia)

Israel conveyed a series of bitter protests to the White House and to others in the US administration over the weekend over the Obama administration’s confirmation that it was the Israeli Air Force that struck a military base near the Syrian port city of Latakia last Wednesday.

Israel has not acknowledged carrying out the strike, one of half a dozen such attacks widely ascribed to Israel in recent months, but an Obama administration official told CNN on Thursday that Israeli warplanes had indeed attacked the Syrian base, and that the target was “missiles and related equipment” set for delivery to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

This US confirmation, which was not the first case of the administration leaking word of Israeli strikes in Syria, risked causing a flare-up that could “endanger the security of Israel and the region as a whole,” Israel claimed in its protest messages to the US according to a report in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Sunday.

Israel’s fury was conveyed directly to the White House, as well as during meetings and conversations between senior Israeli officials and their US counterparts in the Pentagon, the CIA and the State Department, the report said.

Israel’s shocked complaints produced no American explanation or reaction whatsoever, the report went on, which Israeli officials ascribe to embarrassment on behalf of the administration. Israel believes the leaks may be “a consequence of negligence.”

Jerusalem was said to be baffled as to why the Americans would repeatedly leak word of Israeli raids in Syria, when there were all manner of back channels by which the US could convey concern over such strikes if it wanted to do so. In fact, as far as Israel is aware, the report said, “the United States does not have complaints about such Israeli activities.”

Israeli officials stressed that Israel was still not confirming responsibility for the strike last Wednesday.

Israel’s Channel 10 TV on Friday night quoted Israeli officials branding the American leak as “scandalous.” For Israel’s ally to act in such a way was “unthinkable,” the officials were quoted as saying.

A second TV report, on Israel’s Channel 2, said the leak “came directly from the White House,” and noted that “this is not the first time” that the administration has compromised Israel by leaking information on such Israeli Air Force raids on Syrian targets.

It said some previous leaks were believed to have come from the Pentagon, and that consideration had been given at one point to establishing a panel to investigate the sources, but that Thursday’s leak had come directly from the White House.

Channel 2′s military analyst, Roni Daniel, said the Obama administration’s behavior in leaking the information was unfathomable.

Daniel noted that by keeping silent on whether it carried out such attacks, Israel was maintaining plausible deniability, so that Syria’s President Bashar Assad did not feel pressured to respond to the attacks.

But the US leaks “are pushing Assad closer to the point where he can’t swallow these attacks, and will respond.” This in turn would inevitably draw further Israeli action, Daniel posited, and added bitterly: “Then perhaps the US will clap its hands because it will have started a very major flare-up.”

Satellite footage of alleged missile base in Latakia, Syria (photo credit: Wikimapia)

Channel 2 speculated that the US might have leaked word of Israel’s attack as a warning to Israel to desist from such actions. Alternately, it might be seeking to signal that it was part of the tough policy designed to prevent a flow of sophisticated weaponry to Assad. But these and other possible explanations simply didn’t justify the leak, which the TV report described as “illogical” and “foolish.”

Jerusalem’s reported anger with the White House over the leak coincided with efforts by the administration to assure Israel that it is holding to a tough line on Syria and in the effort to thwart Iran’s nuclear program, and is maintaining its robust military partnership with Israel.

On Thursday, the US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, reiterated America’s commitment to thwarting Iranian nuclear weapons ambitions.

“Let me be absolutely clear: President Obama is determined to ensure that the Islamic Republic does not acquire a nuclear weapon,” Power said at the Anti-Defamation League’s centennial conference held Thursday in a Manhattan hotel. Addressing the subject of nuclear negotiations with Iran, she said the Obama administration considers a bad deal worse than no deal and that the administration will not accept a bad deal.

Later Thursday, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel told the same gathering that the US is testing Iran’s diplomatic intentions but remains “clear-eyed” on Iran’s role as a state sponsor of terror and exporter of extremism.

Hagel also announced that the US will fast-track delivery of six advanced Osprey helicopter-airplanes to Israel. “Israel will get six V-22s out of the next order to go on the assembly line, and they will be compatible with other [Israeli defense] capabilities,” Hagel said, anticipating delivery in two years’ time. NBC News said Israel requested that the delivery of the Ospreys be expedited because of threats from Iran and Syria.

Hagel added that “the Israeli and American defense relationship is stronger than ever, and it will continue to strengthen.”

Nonetheless, the ADL’s national director Abraham Foxman, who has close ties to the Israeli leadership, told the conference that American wariness of foreign military involvement is making it seem “weak and retreating.” In unusually bitter comments, Foxman declared, “The combination of America’s unsatisfactory involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, together with the financial crisis at home, have generated a broader opposition to American military involvement overseas.”

Citing among other developments the recent congressional resistance to authorizing a strike on Syria, Foxman said: “America is being seen as weak and retreating… The world looks at our choices, looks at our public opinion polls, looks at congressional reactions, looks at the paralysis in Washington on budgeting matters and wonders.”

The perception of weakness could harm US efforts to get Iran to end its nuclear push, Foxman warned. “I hope that we get our act together.”

Israel has been accused of striking Syrian sites several times in the recent past, including in January and May of this year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Khamenei is not ‘optimistic’ but supports Iran nuclear talks – Alarabiya.net English | Front Page.

( Dead?  Apparently not yet… – JW )

Sunday, 3 November 2013

Al Arabiya

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed his support on Sunday for Iran’s nuclear talks but said he was not optimistic.

“No one should see our negotiating team as compromisers,”Khamenei was quoted as saying on his official website, Agence France-Presse reported.

“I am not optimistic about the (nuclear) negotiations but, with the grace of God, we will not suffer losses either,” he added.

A new round of talks between Iranian negotiators and representatives from the P5+1 group of world powers is due to take place in Geneva for November 7 and 8.

The talks are aimed at reducing Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for a relief from international sanctions.

Decisions on the disputed nuclear program which the West and Israel suspect is aimed at atomic weapons, widely rely on Khameini.

“All the better if the negotiations bear fruit but if there are no results, the country should rely on itself,” Khamenei was quoted as saying by AFP while criticizing the U.S. policy of approaching the talks on two fronts of sanctions and diplomacy.

“The Americans smile and express desire for negotiation; on the other hand, they immediately say that all options are on the table,” he said. “We should not trust a smiling enemy.”

Khameini has also described Iran’s arch enemy Israel as an “illegitimate and bastard” regime as he also criticized the U.S. for supporting it.

“The Zionist regime is an illegitimate and bastard regime,” he was quoted as saying in remarks carried by AFP from his website.

“The Americans have the highest indulgence towards the Zionists and they have to. But we do not share such indulgence.”

(With AFP)

Turkey and Iran sign secret intelligence cooperation pact. Ankara rolls up anti-Iran spy rings.

Iranian and Turkish foreign ministers – close friends

Turkish and Iranian Foreign Ministers Ahmet Davutoglu and Javad Zarif secretly signed in Ankara a pact covering intelligence cooperation between their two countries, Friday, Nov. 1, debkafile’s excusive sources report.

Although a member of NATO, Turkey undertook under this accord to stop cooperating with any third countries in spying on Iran and to roll up anti-Iranian spy rings operating from its soil. Most significantly, the Erdogan government agreed to end the activities of agents collecting information on Iran from the Turkish side of the Iranian border.
The details of the new pact were worked out in six weeks of discussions between Hakan Fidan, head of the Turkish MIT intelligence service and Khosrow Hosseinian, Iran’s deputy intelligence minister in charge of special duties.
Our Iranian sources add that this Iranian official operates under such deep cover that he uses a false name and few people even in Tehran know his real identity.

Sitting in too on some of their sessions was acting Iranian Revolutionary Guards chief and head of its intelligence, Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami.

The new pact presents a major obstacle to any further credible intelligence-gathering on Iran from Turkey.

Our sources disclose that the MIT showed Tehran its good will by jumping the gun on the pact in the third week of October and forcing the many agents based on the Turkish border with Iran to pack their bags and quit. Their main task, with or without the knowledge of Ankara, was to quiz fleeing Iranians who were heading via Turkey for Europe or the United States.

That Turkey and Iran were in the process of setting up an intelligence partnership came to the Obama administration’s knowledge last month. It is believed to have prompted The Washington Post disclosure of Oct. 17 that Turkey had blown the cover of an Iranian spy ring working for Israel.

According to that report, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Fidan last year shopped 10 Iranian agents serving the Israeli Mossad and US intelligence, who had been using the ease of crossing the border without requiring passports to meet their handlers in Turkey.

Turkey’s betrayal of that network opened the door to negotiations with Iran on the new pact.

Our intelligence sources also report that the day it was signed, Victoria Nuland, assistant secretary of state for European and Asian Affairs and former US State Department spokesperson, was on a visit to Ankara. It is not clear if she was in on the pact.
Having just signed it, the Turkish foreign minister reacted with extreme anger Saturday to Lebanes press claims that Ankara had provided intelligence for the Israeli Air Force strike on a Russian anti-air missile consignment in the Syrian coastal town of Latakia Wednesday Oct.30, to prevent its delivery to Hizballah.  Clearly uncomfortable, Davutoglu burst out: “There is an attempt to give the impression that Turkey has coordinated with Israel. We have issues with Syria based on a principle. But let me say it clearly: The Turkish government has never cooperated with Israel against any Muslim country, and it never will,” he told reporters. “Despite differences on Syria, we have deep and historic relations with Iran,” he added.

NSA tracked Israeli drones, missiles, papers show | The Times of Israel.

Documents seen by the New York Times also reveal sharing of raw intelligence between Washington and Jerusalem

By Times of Israel staff November 3, 2013, 8:09 am

In this March 7, 2007, file photo, the Heron TP drone, also known locally as the Eitan, flies during a display at the Palmahim Air Force Base in Palmahim, Israel. (Photo credit: AP/Ariel Schalit)

US spies shared information garnered through eavesdropping with Jerusalem, but also secretly tracked Israeli military actions, new papers on the breadth of Washington’s intelligence gathering activities revealed Sunday morning.

The documents from Washington’s National Security Agency, leaked to the Guardian by whistleblower Edward Snowden and published in The New York Times, reveal how American agents have spied on leaders from Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

And for the first time, the papers also reveal that Israel, along with nearly every other country on the planet, has been the target of NSA spying.

According to the papers, thousands of which were leaked by Snowden, the NSA has tracked “high priority Israeli military targets.”

These include unmanned aerial vehicles and the Black Sparrow missile system, a ballistic missile used as target practice for the Arrow missile-defense system.

Energy and Water Resources Minister Silvan Shalom told Israel Radio he was not surprised to hear that the US had been spying on Israel, and that defense officials knew as well. He said he was warned not to discuss sensitive matters on the phone when he became a minister, under the assumption that his calls were being listened to.

In late October, former Mossad head Danny Yatom told the Maariv daily the US had spied on Israel in the past.

“I can tell you with certain knowledge that [America] has been listening in on its allies, including Israel,” Yatom said, and “not necessarily in [Benjamin] Netanyahu’s tenure” as prime minister.

The NSA documents also confirm that the US shared intelligence information with Israel’s signal intelligence unit, known as Unit 8200, which received raw materials from the Americans.

The Guardian had originally reported on this revelation in early September, also based on documents leaked by Snowden.

“Raw Sigint includes, but is not limited to, unevaluated and unminimized transcripts, gists, facsimiles, telex, voice and Digital Network Intelligence metadata and content,” the British paper quoted a 2009 memorandum of understanding between Israel and the US reading.

An NSA document leaked by Snowden in late August listed Israel as one of several “priority targets,” including Cuba, China, Russia and Iran.

Revelations over NSA spying have served to strain relations with the US and allies around the world, especially amid revelations that leaders’ phones were tapped, along with those of millions of foreign citizens.

US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, who arrives in the region on Sunday, have been trying to quell international anger over disclosures of classified information by former National Security Agency contractor Snowden. Longer term, Snowden’s revelations about NSA tactics — that allegedly include tapping up to 35 world leaders’ cellphones — threaten to undermine US foreign policy in a host of areas.

Spying among allies is not new. Madeleine Albright, secretary of state during the Clinton administration, recently recalled being at the United Nations and having the French ambassador ask her why she said something in a private conversation that the French had apparently intercepted. The French government protested revelations this week that the NSA had collected 70.3 million French-based telephone and electronic message records in a 30-day period.

Albright said Snowden’s disclosures have been very damaging to US policymakers.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.