In an interview conducted shortly before he was sworn in today as prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu laid down a challenge for Barack Obama. The American president, he said, must stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons—and quickly—or an imperiled Israel may be forced to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities itself.

“The Obama presidency has two great missions: fixing the economy, and preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu told me. He said the Iranian nuclear challenge represents a “hinge of history” and added that “Western civilization” will have failed if Iran is allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

In unusually blunt language, Netanyahu said of the Iranian leadership, “You don’t want a messianic apocalyptic cult controlling atomic bombs. When the wide-eyed believer gets hold of the reins of power and the weapons of mass death, then the entire world should start worrying, and that is what is happening in Iran.”

History teaches Jews that threats against their collective existence should be taken seriously, and, if possible, preempted, he suggested. In recent years, the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has regularly called for Israel to be “wiped off the map,” and the supreme Iranian leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, this month called Israel a “cancerous tumor.”

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The US and Japan yesterday deployed anti-missile batteries on land and sea to shoot down possible debris from an intercontinental ballistic missile North Korea is expected to test in the next few days.

Launch

Japan’s upper house of parliament unanimously passed a resolution today urging North Korea to scrap its plan, saying it would “damage peace and stability, not only in Japan but also in north-east Asia”.

South Korea also planned to dispatch its Aegis-equipped destroyer, according to a Seoul military official who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

The US defence secretary, Robert Gates, said America had no intention of shooting down the missile itself, which satellite photographs show is sitting on a launch-pad in Musudan-ri. Pyongyang says the launch is intended to put a satellite into orbit, but any such ballistic missile testing or development is banned by a 2006 United Nations resolution. Two US warships armed with Aegis anti-ballistic missiles left ports in South Korea yesterday to monitor the launch, which experts say could take place as soon as Saturday.

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Yesterday’s reports of a foiled “terrorist plot” in relation to the G20 protests in London have been scaled back after it was revealed that the house raided by police contained only plastic guns and fireworks.

“The three men, aged 25, 19 and 16, and two women, both 20, all live in Plymouth and the surrounding area,” reported The Guardian.

“They are political activists unaffiliated to any terrorist organisation, and were arrested at addresses in Plymouth. They are being held under terrorism legislation. The explosive devices were made from simple fireworks, police said.”

Nevertheless, police have called in Royal Navy bomb disposal experts to deal with the weapons.

The police have also said that they recovered “allegedly extremist materials”, without further expanding on what they might be.

“At a press conference at Crownhill police station in Plymouth, Assistant Chief Constable Paul Netherton said the investigation was sparked when a 25-year-old man was arrested for spray-painting on a wall in Plymouth city centre - but would not comment on the nature of the graffiti,” reported the Press Association.

It has since come to light that the graffiti read ‘Antifa’, which is the name of an anti-racist movement that advocates the use of violence against extreme right-wing groups.

The youths, who were initially arrested on drug charges, are now being held under the terrorism act.

Meanwhile, fresh reports have emerged alleging that anarchists are planning to pose as peaceful protesters as a cover to seed chaos in the capital.

Hundreds of activists are hoping to fool police by pretending to be part of legitimate demonstrations, before breaking off and storming city banks, according to the London Evening Standard which says it infiltrated an anarchist leaders meeting yesterday.

Other reports have revealed that the SAS is being readied to react to any “terrorist” activity.

Rather bizarrely, it has also been revealed an entire network of central London’s wireless CCTV cameras will be turned off during the protests because they have been deemed to be illegal.

Is there a pattern here? Tim Kretschmer, the baby-faced killer who went on a murderous rampage at the Albertville Secondary in Winnenden, near Stuttgart, Germany, was on “medication” for depression, the Scotsman has revealed. “It emerged that Kretschmer had been suffering from depression, even attending a clinic and receiving medication for the condition,” the newspaper reports. No further details are provided.

	Fox News report on violence and antidepressants.

Here is a list of recent (September, 2008) shooters on various antidepressants (compiled by The Bitter Pill blog):

DeKalb, Illinois - February 14, 2008: 27-year-old Steven Kazmierczak shot and killed five people and wounded 16 others before killing himself in a Northern Illinois University auditorium. According to his girlfriend, he had recently been taking Prozac, Xanax and Ambien. Toxicology reports showed that he still had trace amounts of Xanax in his system.

Omaha, Nebraska - December 5, 2007: 19-year-old Robert Hawkins killed eight people and wounded five before committing suicide in an Omaha mall. Hawkins’ friend told CNN that the gunman was on antidepressants, and autopsy results confirmed he was under the influence of the “anti-anxiety” drug Valium.

Jokela, Finland - November 7, 2007: 18-year-old Finnish gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen had been taking antidepressants before he killed eight people and wounded a dozen more at Jokela High School in southern Finland, then committed suicide.

Cleveland, Ohio - October 10, 2007: 14-year-old Asa Coon stormed through his school with a gun in each hand, shooting and wounding four before taking his own life. court records show Coon had been placed on the antidepressant Trazadone.

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Blacksburg, Virginia - April 16, 2007: The psychiatric drug history of Seung-Hui Cho in the Virginia Tech Massacre was never made public. Initial reports stated that “depression medication” was found among Cho’s belongings. But neither his toxicology reports, nor his recent medical history were ever released to find out whether Cho had been in withdrawal from psychiatric medication. (33 were killed and 29 injured, but this was not included in the total of dead and wounded cited above.)

Red Lake Indian Reservation, Minnesota - March 21, 2005: 16-year-old Native American Jeff Weise, reportedly under the influence of the antidepressant Prozac, went on a shooting rampage at home and at his school, killing nine people and wounding five before committing suicide.

Greenbush, New York - February 2004: 16-year-old Jon Romano strolled into his high school in east Greenbush and opened fire with a shotgun. Special education teacher Michael Bennett was hit in the leg. Romano had been taking “medication for depression.”

El Cajon, California - March 22, 2001: 18-year-old Jason Hoffman was on two antidepressants, Effexor and Celexa, when he opened fire at his California high school wounding five. Hoffman had also undergone an “anger management” program.

Williamsport, Pennsylvania - March 7, 2000: 14-year-old Elizabeth Bush was on the antidepressant Prozac when she blasted away at fellow students in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, wounding one.

Conyers, Georgia - May 20, 1999: 15-year-old T.J. Solomon was being treated with a mix of antidepressants when he opened fire on and wounded 6 of his classmates.

Columbine, Colorado - April 20, 1999: 18-year-old Eric Harris was on the antidepressant Luvox when he and his partner Dylan Klebold killed 12 classmates and a teacher and wounded 23 others before taking their own lives in the bloodiest school massacre in history. The coroner confirmed that the antidepressant was in his system through toxicology reports while Dylan Klebold’s autopsy was never made public. Harris and Klebold underwent “anger management” and “death education” classes.

Notus, Idaho - April 16, 1999: 15-year-old Shawn Cooper fired two shotgun rounds in his school narrowly missing students he was taking a mix of antidepressants.

Springfield, Oregon - May 21, 1998: 15-year-old Kip Kinkel murdered his own parents and then proceeded to school where he opened fire on students in the cafeteria, killing two and wounding 22. Kinkel had been on Prozac. Kinkel also underwent “anger management” classes.

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3. German Shooter Avid Violent Video Game Player

American forces will still conduct joint combat operations even after they pull back to bases outside Baghdad and other cities as part of the U.S.-Iraqi security agreement, a spokesman said Sunday.

Brig. Gen. Frederick Rudesheim, a deputy commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, said the redeployment to the periphery will actually help improve security in the capital because U.S. troops can help stop militants from using bases in rural areas to stage urban attacks.

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“I want to leave it very clear that there’s no cessation of combat operations,” Rudesheim said at a news conference in Baghdad’s heavily guarded Green Zone.

But he said the troops will travel to the site of the combat operations from bases outside the city instead of outposts that were established throughout various neighborhoods as part of the 2007 U.S. troop surge.

Rudesheim’s comments come a week after Baghdad was hit by two separate suicide bombings that killed more than 60 people, raising new concerns about the readiness of Iraqi forces to take over their own security.

“We will not forsake the security that has been established by the Iraqi security forces and coalition forces,” he said.

The security pact calls for U.S. combat forces to leave the cities by the end of June in the first step of a plan to pull out all American troops from Iraq by the end of 2011.

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1. A residual U.S. force will remain in Iraq
2. Iraq says pact to allow U.S. troops until 2011
3. “Surge” Ends Up with More U.S. Troops in Iraq

LURGAN, Northern Ireland – Irish nationalist gangs hurled gasoline bombs at police Saturday after three alleged IRA dissidents were arrested on suspicion of killing two British soldiers in an attack designed to trigger wider violence in Northern Ireland.

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Police operating in armored cars and flame-retardant suits said none of their officers was injured during the rising mob violence in the Irish Catholic end of Lurgan, a religiously divided town southwest of Belfast. Rioters also blocked the main Belfast-to-Dublin railway line that runs alongside the hardline Kilwilkie neighborhood of the town.

Later, police said they arrested a 37-year-old man and 30-year-old woman, and seized a gun and ammunition in the neighboring town of Craigavon, where Irish Republican Army dissidents shot to death a policeman Monday.

Police would not say whether those arrests and the arms find were connected to the March 7 shooting of the soldiers or the subsequent killing of the policeman. Police said the couple were being questioned about unspecified &quotserious terrorist crime.&quot

The unrest came in direct response to Saturday’s arrest of Colin Duffy, 41, the best-known Irish republican in Lurgan. Police arrested two other suspected Irish Republican Army dissidents aged 32 and 21 in the overwhelmingly Catholic village of Bellaghy — all on suspicion of shooting to death two soldiers last weekend.

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Research related articles:

1. EU steps up pressure on Ireland to hold second Lisbon Treaty referendum
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3. Ireland under Franco-German pressure to hold new EU vote

Attorney General Eric Holder stated on February 25, 2009 that Mexican drug cartels pose a national security threat, and issued a direct warning to these cartels that they will be destroyed.

The warning came as the attorney general and acting Drug Enforcement Administration chief Michele Leonhart announced the completion of the final phase of DEA’s &quotOperation Xcellerator,&quot which targeted the Sinaloa cartel, a major western Mexico drug operation that has been expanding its reach into the United States . [1].

	President Obama recently announced that he was looking at possibly deploying National Guard troops to contain the violence but ruled out immediate military force. Photo: &quotno-man’s land&quot on the border of Tijuana, Mexico and the US.

Meanwhile, the blood shed in the Mexican cities continues to be extensive and has expanded its tentacles of violence to various cities in Mexico. Lawlessness, corruption, murders, decapitations, and kidnappings have taken the Mexican cities by a storm, giving rise to a new radical group calling itself the Juarez Citizens Command that is threatening to strike back against lawlessness that has gripped Mexico for a long time. The group stated that they are going to strike back by killing one criminal a day until order and peace is restored. Similar groups are popping up all across Mexico. [2].

In its last report, the US Department of justice disclosed that 17.2 billion dollars in cash entered Mexico in only the past two years as a result of money laundering operation in their country. The report advised that Mexico and Colombia are the principal destinations of narco resources that operate in the US and that “the laundering of drug money is a global industry” with transnational organizations present in various countries. [2].

According to a DEA undercover operative, the Mexican drug cartels have gained more and more of the American market. They have grown bolder in their attempts to expand their operations in Mexico and the United States . They now control the ruling party in Mexico and operate the biggest drug business on earth right here in the USA . [2].

Mexico’s drug and violence problem now engulfs the entire country, inundating cities along the U.S.-Mexico border. The robust drug cartel reduced its position in the western mountains, and lunged into the heart of national power in Mexico City. The capital that was once relatively immune to such contemptuous boldness of drug killings has become the scene of multiple assassinations of high-ranking federal police officials in about a week. More than 1,000 people have been killed in Mexico this year in drug-related violence and about 6,290 in 2008. [11].

Mexican police and soldiers are battling a wave of drug-related violence across the country, particularly in northern areas bordering the US . The Mexican Federal Government launched a campaign against drug-related violence more than two years ago involving the deployment of around 36,000 troops across the country.

The situation in Mexico has become so dire and out of control that U.S. Defense secretary Gates stated on March 01, 2009 that the US is in the position to provide more help to Mexico in the fight against drug cartels operating near the U.S. border. [4].

Not surprisingly, the violence has over-spilled into the United States . Brian Ross of ABC news reported that Phoenix Arizona has become the kidnapping capital of America , with more incidents than any other city in the world outside of Mexico City , and over 370 cases in 2008 alone. Phoenix police Chief Andy Anderson told ABC news that if the situation doesn’t stop here and is not turned around, it will spread across the nation. Another law enforcement officer compared the Arizona border to that of Pakistan . [5].

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Apparently, Mexico is in a losing battle with drug cartels whose escalating violence is providing cover for Marxist insurgents to become active. The newest cartel murderous offensive raises troubling questions about the ability of the Mexican government to provide safety and security for its citizens, and heralds a future of bloody anarchy if officials cannot regain control of the streets. As a result, the United will be coming to the rescue. President Obama recently announced that he was looking at possibly deploying National Guard troops to contain the violence but ruled out immediate military force. [6].

Ironically, while we are beating the drums of national security and intervention, the Associated reported on March 13, 2009 that Forbes magazine ranked Joaquin &quotEl Chapo&quot Guzman, Mexico’s most violent drug cartels on its list of billionaires, with an estimated $1 billion fortune, at No. 701, between a Swiss oil-trading tycoon and an American chemical heir. Guzman , Mexico ’s most-wanted fugitive, is believed to head the Sinaloa cartel. President Felipe Calderon said Thursday that &quotmagazines are not only attacking and lying about the situation in Mexico but are also praising criminals.&quot [8].

Analysis:

Who benefits from the destabilization of Mexico ?

KNX News radio station a subsidiary of Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) reported this week that most of the guns that land in the hands of the drug cartel allegedly came from the black market in the United States . Ironically, most of the drugs that enter the United States from Mexico , have been funneled to the Mexican drug lords through rendition flights from Columbia (cocaine) and Afghanistan (opium) to Mexico , then, rerouted to the US through the Mexican drug lords. Per example, On September 24, 2007, a Florida based Gulfstream II jet aircraft, number N987SA, crashed in the Yucatan . As it turns out, not only was the plane used on at least three CIA rendition flights from Europe and the United States to the Guantánamo torture chamber, but it was loaded with tons of cocaine when it went down. El Nuevo Herald reported that the CIA plane was loaded up with 3.3 tons of coke in Medellín, Colombia, and was used to ferry “hundreds of delinquents,” including alleged members of the Taliban, to Cuba for water boarding and other specialties. [10]. (You can also see video of crash on youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oszATUJ4IRE)

Historically, most of the illegal activities especially in drugs and human trafficking, originate in the poorer and the less developed areas of the world, then, moves across borders to rich, developed country markets. In order for this process to take place, criminal organizations are fostered, subsidized, and protected by high level government officials, in order to launder money throughout the international banking systems and to increase the global cash flow. The IMF has reported in 2003, that 1.5 trillion US dollars a year is laundered through banks, where 500 to 600 billion dollars of that money is from drug trade and the aggregate size of money laundering in the world could be somewhere between 2 to 5 percent of the world’s GDP. It has also been a well known and documented fact in the press and in congressional records that the US intelligence agencies have dealt and circulated drugs in the US and abroad for many years.

So, is there a connection between our global policies and the destabilization of Mexico?

It would make sense to assume that Mexico is going to become a national security risk for the United States , which in turn will justify our Samaritan military aid and intervention to help the Mexican government contain the Mexican drug cartel. Therefore, Mexico will become a safer place for transnational corporations like Chevron and Exxon-Mobil. In addition, this process will pave the way for the security and prosperity partnership to unravel, as well as the privatization of Mexico ’s oil and natural resources and their takeover by the global corporations. As a result, a massive transfer of wealth and power to the new North American Union Government will unfold.

Is the American public aware and in agreement with the SPP?

Are we going to witness more conflict within our borders due to economic woes, or contrived attacks, which in return will solidify further the iron hand of our new democratic-socialist government?

Are we going to witness another major economic collapse like the prospective commercial real estate disaster that will cause major reverberations in the stock market, will induce further impoverishment of the population, and will lead to more bailouts leading to higher inflation, new currency, and poorer standard of living?

Are we heading toward civil unrest incited by the economic woes that will lead to the balkanization of America ?

Or, are we simply going to be led like sheep to the slaughter house where we will give up our freedom to satisfy our primal needs like food, shelter, and safety, then, become totally impoverished, micro-chipped, and controlled, and finally be forced into accepting the new global order?

References

1. ABC News, February 25, 2009. Holder Vows ‘Cartels Will Be Destroyed’ Operation Targeted the Sinaloa Cartel Highlights Spread of Drug Gang Violence

2. The American Chronicle, January 20, 2009, The Revolution in Mexico has begun.

3. UPI, January, 21, 2009. New Juarez police chief decapitated after 4 days.

4. Associated press, 03-01-09, Gates says military can help Mexico in drug war.

5. AFP, March 2-9, 2009, Issue 9/10. Arizona as dangerous as “ Pakistan ,” say top phoenix cop.

6. McClatchy Newspapers, March 12, 2009. Obama: Troop move to Mexican Border under consideration.

7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oszATUJ4IRE

8. Associated Press, March 13, 2009. Mexican Drug Lord makes Forbes Billionaire list.

9. KNX News, (1070), March 11, 2009.

10. El Nuevo Herald, 11-29-2007 04:37 PM. Avión usado por la CIA y la DEA traficaba drogas

11. Associated Press, march 9, 2009. Obama discusses U.S. military assistance to Mexico for drug war.

Research related articles:

1. Gates says US military can help Mexico in drug war
2. Obama Discusses U.S. Military Assistance to Mexico for Drug War
3. Report: Mexico More Dangerous Than Iraq

NEW YORK - Iran has haunted every U.S. administration since the days of President Jimmy Carter. While running for president, Barack Obama proposed opening talks with Tehran and trying to end the long Cold War between the United States and Iran.

Obama’s sensible idea was greeted with the deepest dismay by ardent supporters of Israel and Rambo Republicans who want to see the US go to war with Iran, a nation of 70 million, and destroy its nuclear infrastructure.

Now, as the United States fights for its economic life, the Iran question and its alleged nuclear weapons program have again become an issue of major contention. Officials in the Obama administration and the media issued a blizzard of contradictory claims over Iran’s alleged nuclear threat, leaving us wondering: who is really charge of U.S. foreign policy?

This awkward question was underlined during a visit to Washington by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Britain is supposed to be America’s most important ally and partner in their ’special relationship.’

Brown’s reception was dismal and Obama’s obvious lack of interest in Britain’s leader was quite embarrassing. The British media slammed America’s cold reception as an ‘insult,’ and claimed that Brown had been treated like the leader of a ‘minor African state.’ White House aides excused the huge diplomatic faux pas by claiming President Obama was worn out from dealing with the financial and economic crisis. I’m sure he is worn out, but this still does not bode well for the conduct of US foreign policy.

Much of the uproar over Iran’s so-far non-existent nuclear weapons must be seen as part of efforts by neoconservatives to thwart President Obama’s proposition to open Tehran and to keep up the pressure for an American attack on Iran.

Israel’s government and its American supporters insist Iran has secret nuclear weapons program that the West has not yet detected. We heard the same claims about Iraq before 2003. Israel certainly knows about covert nuclear programs, having run one of the world’s largest and most productive ones.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lived up to her growing reputation for Mideast hawkishness when she named prominent Israel supporter Dennis Ross as her Special Advisor on Iran and the Gulf. This questionable appointment suggests that she may be more interested in building future domestic political support than securing balanced advice on the Mideast.

At least Ross is considered something of a moderate on the Israeli spectrum, having long been regarded as the Labor Party’s ‘man in Washington.’ During the Bush years, Israel’s centrist Laborites were replaced by partisans of the right-wing Likud Party, who quickly came to dominate administration Mideast policy.

In recent weeks, official Washington has been locked in confusion over Iran.

The new Central Intelligence Agency director, Leon Panetta, said in a recent interview, ‘there is no question, they [Iran] are seeking [nuclear weapons] capability.’

Pentagon chief Adm. Mike Mullen claimed that Iran has ‘enough fissile material to build a bomb.’ Fox News claimed Iran already has 50 nuclear weapons.

While the American Rome burns, here we go again with renewed hysteria over MWMD’s - Muslim Weapons of Mass Destruction. The war drums are again beating over Iran.

The czar of all 16 US intelligence agencies, Adm. Dennis Blair, stated Iran could have enough enriched uranium for one atomic weapon by 2010-2015. He reaffirmed the 2007 US National Intelligence Estimate that Iran does not have nuclear weapons and is not pursuing them. Defense Secretary Robert Gates backed up Blair. So did the United Nations nuclear agency.

Some of the confusion over Iran comes from misunderstanding nuclear enrichment, from domestic politics, and from recycled lurid scare stories from the days of Saddam Hussein.

Iran is producing low-grade enriched uranium-235 (LEU), enriched to only 2.5%, to generate electricity. Tehran has this absolute right under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NNPT). Its centrifuge enrichment process at Nantaz is under 24-hour international inspection. The soon-to-open nuclear plant at Bushehr cannot produce nuclear weapons fuel. All of its spent fuel, which is under international safeguards, will be returned to supplier Russia.

Today, some 15 nations produce low-grade enriched uranium 235 (LEU-235), including Brazil, Argentina, Germany, France, and Japan. I visited the Japanese Defense Ministry in Tokyo, and I saw plans for an atomic weapon. Experts believe Japan could produce a nuclear warhead in within three months, if it so decided.

I also believe - though cannot prove - that Switzerland may have produced a few nuclear warheads in the early 1960s and currently keeps them in one of its secret mountain forts as a sort of doomsday device.

Israel, India, and Pakistan are all covert nuclear weapons powers and have refused to submit to international inspection. North Korea abrogated it.

Interestingly, rather than the much pilloried Iran, it is the original nuclear powers who are all in violation of the nuclear arms treaty. These countries are: the United States, USSR/Russia, Britain, France and China. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty called for all nuclear powers to rapidly eliminate their nuclear forces. President Dwight Eisenhower championed this position. Far from eliminating their nuclear forces, all of the nuclear powers have expanded and modernized them.

UN inspectors report that Iran has produced 1,010 kg of 2-3% enriched uranium. Iran insists it is for energy generation. Theoretically that is enough for one atomic bomb. But to make a nuclear weapon, uranium-235 must be enriched to over 90% in an elaborate, costly process. Iran is not doing so, say UN inspectors, though they have raised certain technical questions about Iran’s nuclear process. Some believe Iran may go up to ‘breakout position’ - that is, having the components to assemble a weapon on fairly short notice.

Highly enriched uranium-235 or plutonium must then be milled and shaped into a perfect ball or cylinder. Any surface imperfections will prevent achieving critical mass. Next, high explosive lenses must surround the core, and detonate at precisely the same millisecond. In the gun system, two cores must collide at very high speed. In some cases, a stream of neutrons is pumped into the device as it explodes.

This process is highly complex. Nuclear weapons cannot be deemed reliable unless they are tested. North Korea recently detonated a device that fizzled. Iran has never built or tested a nuclear weapon. Israel and South Africa jointly tested a nuclear weapon in 1979.

Even if Iran had the capability to fashion a complex nuclear weapon, it would be useless without delivery. Iran’s sole medium-range delivery system is an unreliable, inaccurate 1,500 km ranged Shahab-3. Miniaturizing and hardening nuclear warheads capable of flying atop a Shahab missile is another complex technological challenge.

It is inconceivable that Iran or anyone else would launch a single nuclear weapon. What if it didn’t go off? Imagine the embarrassment and the retaliation. Iran would need at least ten warheads and a reliable delivery system to be a credible nuclear power.

Israel, the primary target for any Iranian nuclear strike, has an indestructible triad of air, missile and sea-launched nuclear weapons pointed at Iran. An Israeli submarine with nuclear cruise missiles is on station off Iran’s coast.

Iran would be wiped off the map by even a few of Israel’s estimated 200 plus nuclear weapons. Iran is no likelier to use a nuke against its Gulf neighbors. The explosion would blanket Iran with radioactive dust and sand.

Finally, while Washington keeps invoking the specter of a nuclear armed Iran, India has quietly developed a large nuclear arsenal and will soon test an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to North America.

Compared to America’s titanic economic and financial mess, whatever goes on in Tehran is of pipsqueak magnitude. The real danger to America comes from its Wall Street fraudsters, not from Tehran.

Editor’s note: Osama bin Laden died in late 2001. Report: Bin Laden Already Dead. Pakistan’s Musharraf: Bin Laden probably dead.

French secret service memo claims Bin Laden dead.

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden accused moderate Arab leaders of plotting with the West against Muslims and urged his followers to prepare for jihad (holy war), in a recording aired by Al Jazeera television.

It is clear that some Arab leaders have plotted with the Zionist-crusader coalition against our (Muslim) people, these (Arab countries) the United States calls the moderate states,” bin Laden said, without naming any of the leaders.

&quotWe must seriously work and prepare for jihad to enforce the right and abolish the wrong,” bin Laden said in the audio recording that was aired on Saturday.

Bin Laden, who made a similar call for jihad on January 14, described Israel’s offensive in Gaza and its attacks on the Palestinian territory as a &quotholocaust” and said militants wanting to help Gazans should support Iraqis fighting U.S.-led forces and Baghdad’s government.

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Press TV
March 13, 2009

The US has extended a set of sanctions against Iran for another year over claims that Tehran is still a threat to US national security.

“The actions and policies of the Government of Iran are contrary to the interests of the United States in the region and pose a continuing unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security and the US economy, President Barack Obama said in a Thursday message to Congress.

In April 1995, a total embargo on dealings with Iran by US companies was imposed by Bill Clinton’s administration. The sanctions also banned American companies from helping Iran to develop its oil industry.

The sanctions would have expired if Obama had not extended them.

Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic relations for nearly three decades. The two countries severed all ties in 1980 in the aftermath of a US embassy takeover by Iranian revolutionary students.

The United States and its Western allies claim that Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at developing atomic weapons. Tehran denies the charge, saying its nuclear program is solely for electricity-generating purposes.

Obama has vowed to begin direct talks with Iran to thaw relations between the two nations and resolve Iran’s nuclear issue. However, he has made no concrete offer of talks yet and his decision to restore the sanctions seems to undermine the US administrations claim of a new rhetoric towards Iran.

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