MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

Iran will of course continue to call any assertions that they’re after nuclear weapons “baseless”.  Besides, even if they were seeking to develop nuclear weapons, it’s all for “peaceful purposes” …

By Damien McElroy – “The research by the UN’s watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, will add a substantial layer to seven years of investigations that is likely to inflame tensions in the Middle East.

Yukiya Amano, the organisation’s director-general, is unlikely to draw a definitive conclusion that Iran is making nuclear weapons, but according to Western diplomats the facts will make any other conclusion implausible.

They believe the IAEA has substantiated evidence from intelligence reports, interviews with Iranian scientists and on-the-ground inspections that Iran is carrying out a nuclear weapons programme in parallel to its civilian energy goals.

The agency will sound the alarm over Iranian scientists’ work to develop a ballistic missile warhead capable of carrying a nuclear device. It has already uncovered evidence that Iran has been carrying out research into triggers for nuclear weapons.

Inspectors have also questioned Iranian scientists on simulation programmes that they believe are designed to design and test a potential weapon.

‘This is the product of a vast amount of work by the IAEA which will show the level of evidence they’ve accumulated and make clear a number of supplementary indications they have uncovered,’ said a Western diplomat. ‘It makes an inescapable case that Iran has ambitions to militarise the uranium it has been enriching at its production facilities.'” Read more.

“The British military is accelerating planning for its part in a potential US-led attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, The Guardian reported on Wednesday, days after the UK’s military chief visited Israel.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak is currently in London on a state visit, where he met with senior officials, including British National Security Adviser Peter Ricketts.

The Iranian nuclear threat is believed to be at the top of the agenda of talks between Barak and British officials.

According to the Guardian report, the British Ministry of Defense believes the US may have intensified plans for targeted-missile strikes of Iranian nuclear targets.

The newspaper quoted British officials as saying that the UK would help the US in such a mission.

Britain is reportedly examining locations for mobilizing its Royal Navy ships and submarines to assist a possible American aerial and naval campaign against Iran.

Washington could also ask London for permission to use the British island of Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, as a base of operations.” Read more.

Flashback: US sells deep-penetrating bunker busters to Israel – “In 2005, the Israelis initially requested this particular kind of bunker buster, which is the top of the line. It can go through 20 feet of solid concrete. And the rationale at the time was deep concerns with Israeli transfers of military technology to China. That issue was largely resolved by 2007. And in a secret letter from President Bush to Prime Minister Olmert, Bush agreed to sell the bunker busters. But that sale was then deferred two years into what became the Obama administration. And then Obama, very early in his administration, approved the transfer of 55 out of 100 that had – Bush had agreed to sell Israel in 2009.” Read more.

By Julian Borger – “A report by the UN’s nuclear watchdog due to be circulated around the world next week will provide fresh evidence of a possible Iranian nuclear weapons programme, bringing the Middle East a step closer to a devastating new conflict, say diplomats.

The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is the latest of a series of quarterly bulletins on Iran’s activities, but this one will contain an unprecedented level of detail on research and experiments carried out in Iran in recent years, which western officials allege could only be for the design and development of a nuclear warhead. ‘This will be a game-changer in the Iranian nuclear dossier,’ a western official predicted. ‘It is going to be hard for even Moscow or Beijing to downplay its significance.’

The key passage of the ‘safeguards report’ will be a summary of all the evidence collected over the years by UN weapons inspectors, including a substantial amount of hitherto unpublished data pointing to work in the past seven years.

Western officials say Iranian work up to 2003 involved research and engineering, including the production of some prototype components of a warhead. From 2004, alarmed by the invasion of neighbouring Iraq, those officials say Iranian technicians pursued only design work and computer modelling to reduce the chances of being detected.” Read more.

Flashback: Israel National News: Will 2012 See The Beginning of Gog-Magog? – “In Israel, we find ourselves in foreboding circumstances today, in Spring 2011. The State of Israel seems to have lost a major measure of its support in the non-Jewish world and is being stampeded into abandoning large parts of the Land of Israel to the tender mercies of sworn enemies who have no peaceful intentions at all – the Palestinians. These are Arabs who constitute a ‘national entity’ invented recently of whole cloth and which never existed in world history. Their wish is to destroy the State of Israel and kill as many Jews as possible in the process. Prime Minister Netanyahu is being pushed into formulating a plan of further concessions, beyond those already granted… The Palestinian enemy fully expects this scenario to materialize and so, steadfastly refuses to negotiate. Since the ‘World’, lead by US President Barack Hussein Obama whose father was a practicing Moslem, does not punish them in any way for not negotiating, they feel vindicated in this assessment.” Read more.

By Barak Ravid, Amos Harel, Zvi Zrahiya and Jonathan Lis – “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are trying to muster a majority in the cabinet in favor of military action against Iran, a senior Israeli official has said. According to the official, there is a ‘small advantage’ in the cabinet for the opponents of such an attack.

Netanyahu and Barak recently persuaded Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who previously objected to attacking Iran, to support such a move.

Although more than a million Israelis have had to seek shelter during a week of rockets raining down on the south, political leaders have diverted their attention to arguing over a possible war with Iran. Leading ministers were publicly dropping hints on Tuesday that Israeli could attack Iran, although a member of the forum of eight senior ministers said no such decision had been taken.

Senior ministers and diplomats said the International Atomic Energy Agency’s report, due to be released on November 8, will have a decisive effect on the decisions Israel makes.” Read more.

Israel Test Fires Missile That Can Hit Iran – “Israel successfully test-fired on Wednesday a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and striking Iran, fanning a public debate over whether the country’s leaders are agitating for a military attack on Tehran’s atomic facilities… An Israeli defense official told The Associated Press that the military tested a “rocket propulsion system” in an exercise planned long ago. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of security restrictions, and declined to give further information. Further information about the test was censored by the military. Foreign reports, however, said the military test-fired a long-range Jericho missile — capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and striking Iran.” Read more.

Iran warns Israeli strike will meet ‘harsh punishment’ – “Iran’s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Hassan Fairouz Abadi commented Wednesday on reported Israeli threats to strike Iran and warned that Tehran would retaliate with a ‘surprising punishment’ if Israel pursued such a ‘mistake.’ ‘Even though the likelihood for such an attack is low, we see the threat as a serious threat and are on full alert,’ Abadi told Iran’s Fars news agency. Speaking on the sidelines of an Iranian defense conference, he added that ‘America knows that a Zionist military strike in Iran would cause it major damages in addition to the damages caused to this regime.’ He further warned the US against striking in Syria, as NATO forces have done in Libya, saying: ‘The military regime in Damascus is at the forefront of our dealings with the occupying Zionist regime… The Libyan model will not intimidate Syria. If they strike there will be a Muslim uprising that would leave nothing of the Americans or the Zionist regime.'” Read more.

I understand Captain, it makes me wanna vent some frustration, too.  These hidden, clandestine weapons programs are intended primarily for one enemy.  Its capital starts with a “J”, ends with an “M”, and the “USA” stands somewhere in between …

“UN investigators have identified a previously unknown complex in Syria that bolsters suspicions that the Syrian government worked with A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb, to acquire technology that could be used to make nuclear arms.

The buildings in northwest Syria closely match the design of a uranium enrichment plant provided to Libya when Moammar Gaddafi was trying to build nuclear weapons under Khan’s guidance, officials told The Associated Press.

The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency also has obtained correspondence between Khan and a Syrian government official, Muhidin Issa, who proposed scientific cooperation and a visit to Khan’s laboratories following Pakistan’s successful nuclear test in 1998.

The complex, in the city of Al-Hasakah, now appears to be a cotton-spinning plant, and investigators have found no sign that it was ever used for nuclear production. But given that Israeli warplanes destroyed a suspected plutonium production reactor in Syria in 2007, the unlikely coincidence in design suggests that Syria may have been pursuing two routes to an atomic bomb: uranium as well as plutonium.

Details of the Syria-Khan connection were provided to the AP by a senior diplomat with knowledge of IAEA investigations and a former UN investigator. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The Syrian government did not respond to a request for comment. It has repeatedly denied pursuing nuclear weapons but also has stymied an investigation into the site bombed by Israel. It has not responded to an IAEA request to visit the Al-Hasakah complex, the officials said.” Read more.

Syria’s Assad warns of ‘earthquake’ if west intervenes – “Western powers risk causing an “earthquake” across the Middle East if they intervene in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad said, after protesters called for foreign protection from a crackdown in which 3,000 people have been killed. Assad’s warning came ahead of Syrian government talks with the Arab League on Sunday aimed at starting a dialogue between the government and opposition and ending violence that has escalated across Syria in recent days… ‘Syria is the hub now in this region. It is the fault line, and if you play with the ground you will cause an earthquake.'” Read more.

“TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran’s supreme leader on Sunday hailed the coming withdrawal of troops from neighboring Iraq as a ‘golden’ victory.

President Barack Obama plans to withdraw his 40,000 troops from Iraq by the end of the year after negotiations on keeping some forces there failed, a move some politicians say could give Tehran more room to assert its influence.

‘The uniform stance of all tribes and religions in Iraq over America’s pressure to get legal immunity for its occupying servicemen, and ultimately the coercion of America to exit Iraq, constitute a golden page in that country’s history,’ Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said after a meeting with Iraqi Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani, the ISNA news agency reported.

The troops are leaving more than eight years after a U.S.-led invasion toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Tehran welcomed the fall of Saddam, a secular Sunni Muslim who took majority Shi’ite Iraq into a bloody 1980-88 war with Iran, but has always criticized U.S. military intervention.

While it has been rebuilding ties with post-Saddam Iraq, Iran’s relations with the United States have worsened. Washington has warned Tehran not to underestimate its large military presence in other nearby countries.” Read more.

U.S. Planning Troop Buildup in Gulf After Exit From Iraq – “The Obama administration plans to bolster the American military presence in the Persian Gulf after it withdraws the remaining troops from Iraq this year, according to officials and diplomats. That repositioning could include new combat forces in Kuwait able to respond to a collapse of security in Iraq or a military confrontation with Iran. The plans, under discussion for months, gained new urgency after President Obama’s announcement this month that the last American soldiers would be brought home from Iraq by the end of December. Ending the eight-year war was a central pledge of his presidential campaign, but American military officers and diplomats, as well as officials of several countries in the region, worry that the withdrawal could leave instability or worse in its wake.” Read more.

They should have been deported a long time ago.  But wait, the UK doesn’t deport hate mongers and extremist agitators.  It only keeps some of them from entering, sometimes …

“An extreme Muslim group which caused outrage by burning a poppy last Remembrance Sunday is planning further disruption on November 11, with a twisted ‘Hell for Heroes’ campaign.

The demo, which mocks charity for injured soldiers Help for Heroes, is due to take place outside the Royal Albert Hall, the same location where a poppy was burned last year.

Emdadur Choudhury, who burned the poppy, was fined just £50.

The Muslims Against Crusades protestors, who have sought permission from police to hold the rally, aim to chant and disrupt the minute’s silence held in honour of the war dead.

Firebrand cleric Anjem Choudary, who has links to the Muslims Against Crusades group, said: ‘It’s going to be called Hell for Heroes and it will be around the Royal Albert Hall.

‘It will involve a protest and not observing the minute’s silence. We had a significant amount of support from Muslims around the world last year.

‘It’s one thing to remember the dead from the First World War and subsequent wars but it’s quite another when they say we need to remember the dead from Afghanistan and Iraq.

‘It’s become a political football and if they are going to use Remembrance Day for that purpose it’s only right that we have a counter protest, which we say is for Muslims.

‘The army is currently at war with Muslims in Muslim countries.’

Choudary also played down reports that MP Mike Freer had feared for his safety after a protest at a north London mosque where he was holding a surgery.

Up to a dozen protesters forced their way into the mosque where Mr Freer was meeting constituents, prompting officials to lock him in a private room for his own safety.” Read more.

Muslims Stone Catholic Festival-Goers in France – “Muslims have attacked Christians attending a Catholic celebration in southern France. The Joyeuse Union Don Bosco [Joyous Union Don Bosco] takes place in Nîmes, at the Sanctuary of Our Lady the Virgin of Santa Cruz, built by French people repatriated from the Algerian city of Oran following Algerian independence. These people were driven out of the place they grew up in by Muslim aggression. Now they face it in France too! ‘After a day of welcoming and reunions, around 7 pm, the participants were leaving in their cars and vehicles when ‘young Arab immigrants’ from the city started to throw stones at the vehicles descending from the sanctuary. The local police, whose station is in this area, were immediately notified and the event organisers had to arrange a diversion to another route to protect the occupants of the vehicles from the savage attacks which continued.'” Read more.