The Storm Approaches

Thanks to Michael:


'Military plan against Iran is ready'
Yaakov Katz, THE JERUSALEM POST
Jun. 10, 2007

Predicting that Iran will obtain a nuclear weapon within three years and
claiming to have a strike plan in place, senior American military officers have
told The Jerusalem Post they support President George W. Bush's stance to do
everything necessary to stop the Islamic Republic's race for nuclear power.
Bush has repeatedly said the United States would not allow Iran to "go
nuclear."
A high-ranking American military officer told the Post that senior
officers in the US armed forces had thrown their support behind Bush and
believed that additional steps needed to be taken to stop Iran.
Predictions
within the US military are that Bush will do what is needed to stop Teheran
before he leaves office in 2009, including possibly launching a military strike
against its nuclear facilities.
On Sunday, Sen. Joseph Lieberman of
Connecticut said the US should consider a military strike against Iran over its
support of Iraqi insurgents.
"I think we've got to be prepared to take
aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing
Americans in Iraq," he said. "And to me, that would include a strike over the
border into Iran, where we have good evidence that they have a base at which
they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers."
According to a high-ranking American military officer, the US Navy and Air
Force would play the primary roles in any military action taken against Iran.
One idea under consideration is a naval blockade designed to cut off Iran's oil
exports.
The officer said that if the US government or the UN Security
Council decided on this course of action, the US Navy would most probably not
block the Strait of Hormuz - a step that would definitely draw an Iranian
military response - but would patrol farther out and turn away tankers on their
way to load oil.
On Sunday, the Israel Air Force held joint exercises with
visiting US pilots, but IDF sources dismissed speculation that the drills were
connected to an attack on Iran.
The US officer said that perhaps even more
dangerous to Israel and the Western world than Iranian nukes was the possibility
that a terrorists cell associated with al-Qaida or global jihad would acquire a
highly radioactive "dirty bomb" or a vial of deadly chemical or biological
agents. The officer said al-Qaida was gaining a strong foothold in the Middle
East and that Israel was being surrounded by global jihad elements in Lebanon,
Jordan and Sinai.
"Iran is a state-sponsored type of terrorism that can be
dealt with," he said, adding that it was far more difficult to strike at the
source of an isolated terrorist cell.
To combat this threat, the US Navy has
come up with a plan for a "1,000-ship navy" - a transnational network composed
of navies from around the world that would raise awareness of maritime threats
and more effectively thwart sea-based terrorism and the illicit transfer of arms
by sea.
"The idea is to allow free trade and to prevent criminal and terror
activity at sea," the officer said.
A smaller-scale example of the US Navy's
vision is NATO's Active Endeavor antiterrorism operation based in Naples. Israel
plans to send an officer to be stationed there in the coming months. NATO
launched Operation Active Endeavor in wake of 9/11 and has succeeded in bringing
together a number of Mediterranean countries to work together in Naples to share
information on naval terrorism and suspicious vessels in the region.
***

DEBKAfile reports: If attacked, Tehran will strike US and Israeli interests worldwide, says an Iranian official. Oil may hit $250
June 10, 2007, 8:44 PM (GMT+02:00)

Iran's deputy interior minister on security, Mohammad Bager Zolghadr, issued
this warning Sunday, June 10, with an eye on the joint US-Israel air maneuver
which began the same day in the Negev. The unusually explicit threat by a senior
Iranian official was prompted, say DEBKAfile's Tehran sources, by his
government's interpretation of the seven-day Negev exercise as a preparatory
step for a US-Israeli air attack on their nuclear sites.
His threat to send
oil prices skyrocketing to $250 a barrel hinted that Iran could block the Strait
of Hormuz to oil exports from the Gulf.
Last week the American carrier USS
Stennis and its strike group practiced fending off small fast boats carrying
explosives, torpedoes and missiles in the strategic strait, after Tehran
announced the expansion of its fleet of small vessels.
Exercise commander
Lt. Kevin Ralston said the threat was real. "We all remember the USS Cole
[rammed by suicide bombers in a fast explosives-laden boat in Aden Port seven
years ago].
Speaking to a gathering of Iranian internal security units,
Zolghadr remarked that Iran had spread sabotage networks across the world
capable of striking US and Israel interests at any point on the globe. They may
take the offensive, he said, but they will not keep control up until the end,
and the damage they suffer will be harsh and painful.
Iranian leaders have
also taken to heart transport minister Shaul Mofaz's remark after his strategic
talks in Washington last week that no options can be ruled out, including the
military option.
DEBKAfile's Iranian sources have learned add that the
Islamic Republic's rulers have been sounding out "revolutionary" Latin American
governments about creating joint anti-US terrorist cells for attacks in North
and South America. The subject came up in talks with Nicararagua's Daniel Ortega
when he arrived in Tehran Sunday and in discussions with Hugo Chavez of
Venezuela.
Neither is enthusiastic about getting involved in violent
terrorist activity against the United States, although not averse to stepping up
anti-US propaganda.
Before Ortega took off for Tehran, Israeli
parliamentarian Effie Eytam visited Managua and cautioned Nicaraguan lawmakers
about the detrimental implications of close relations with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's
Iran. However, Ortega is angling for economic aid from Tehran. On arrival at
Khomenei airport, he said he is looking forward to fruitful ties of cooperation
with Iran in the war on poverty.
Copyright 2000-2007 DEBKAfile. All Rights
Reserved.

Iran is expanding assembly of centrifuges by 300 a week, diplomats in Vienna
June 10, 2007, 9:44 PM (GMT+02:00)

Two weeks ago, the UN nuclear watchdog reported Iran had assembled 1,600
centrifuges at its underground facility at Natanz. Sunday, unnamed diplomats at
the IAEA Vienna headquarters said the number had risen to more than 2,000 and
was expanding at the rate of about 300 per week.
DEBKAfile's military
sources estimate that Tehran may have produced enough enriched uranium for one
or two nuclear devices, though lacking the technology to build a bomb.
Diplomatic efforts to stop Iran's rapid progress are paralyzed.