Panetta: Israel Will Attack Iran This Spring! Iran building missiles to hit US

[jimmy olsen]

Shit's about to get real, yo.

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/02/03/nuclear-iran-usa-israel-idINDEE81200Q20120203

Panetta believes Israel may strike Iran this spring - reports

(Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believes there is a growing possibility Israel will attack Iran as early as April to stop Tehran from building a nuclear bomb, U.S. media reported on Thursday.

The Washington Post first reported that Panetta was concerned about the increased likelihood Israel would launch an attack over the next few months. CNN said it confirmed the report, citing a senior Obama administration official, who declined to be identified.

"Panetta believes there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June - before Iran enters what Israelis described as a 'zone of immunity' to commence building a nuclear bomb," Washington Post columnist David Ignatius wrote.

"Very soon, the Israelis fear, the Iranians will have stored enough enriched uranium in deep underground facilities to make a weapon - and only the United States could then stop them militarily," Ignatius wrote.

Ignatius did not cite a source. He was writing from Brussels where Panetta was attending a NATO defense ministers' meeting.

Panetta and the Pentagon both declined comment on the Post report.

Israel, widely believed to possess the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, views Iran's uranium enrichment projects as a major threat and has not ruled out the use of military force to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Iran says its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes.

The Post article said the postponement of a joint U.S.-Israeli military exercise that had been scheduled for this spring may have signaled the prospect of an Israeli attack soon.

Washington and the European Union imposed tighter sanctions on Iran in recent weeks in a drive to force Tehran to provide more information on its nuclear program.

Iran has said repeatedly it could close the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane if sanctions succeed in preventing it from exporting crude, a move Washington said it would not tolerate.

Israel's military intelligence chief said on Thursday he estimated that Iran could make four atomic bombs by further enriching uranium it had already stockpiled, and could produce its first bomb within a year of deciding to build one.

But in his rare public remarks, Major-General Aviv Kochavi held out the possibility that stronger international sanctions might dissuade Tehran from pursuing a policy he had no doubt was aimed at developing nuclear weapons.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said separately that "if sanctions don't achieve the desired goal of stopping (Iran's) military nuclear program, there will be a need to consider taking action."

(Reporting by JoAnne Allen in Washington and Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem; Editing by Peter Cooney)

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2012/0202/Is-Iran-trying-to-develop-a-missile-that-could-reach-America

Is Iran trying to develop a missile that could reach America?

An Iranian missile under construction, caught up in a mysterious blast in November, had a range of 6,000 miles, a senior Israeli official said Thursday in a speech outside Tel Aviv.

By Howard LaFranchi, Staff writer / February 2, 2012

Is Iran trying to develop a missile that could reach the "Great Satan"?

The missile under construction at an Iranian research-and-development facility, which was damaged by a mysterious explosion in November, was a long-range missile prototype with a range of 6,000 miles – enough to hit the United States, a senior Israeli official said Thursday in a speech to a defense and security forum.

At the time of the Nov. 12 explosion at a facility some 30 miles outside Tehran, Iranian officials insisted that the suspicious blast was an accident. It occurred, they said, during experimentation on a medium-range missile – one capable of reaching Israel.

RECOMMENDED: Top 4 threats against America – the good and bad news

But on Thursday, Moshe Yaalon, Israel's vice prime minister and minister of strategic affairs, said in a speech outside Tel Aviv that the missile under development actually had a range closer to 6,000 miles.

"That's the Great Satan," Mr. Yaalon said, using the well-known pejorative term that Iranian officials have used for the US. "It was aimed at America, not at us."

If true, Yaalon's claim would put Iran's missile development program into a new league. Until now, most arms analysts have estimated that the range of Iranian missiles is limited to about 1,500 miles – enough, to be sure, to reach Israel and parts of Europe. But analysts have speculated very little on research into or development of a longer-range missile.

One Washington weapons research organization, the Institute for Science and International Security, did conclude in a late November report on the Iranian facility explosion that the blast occurred just as Iran had achieved "a major milestone in the development of a new missile."

The institute said its investigation revealed that the explosion took place during a tricky and volatile procedure involving a missile engine. Postexplosion speculation had centered on sabotage that might have been part of what many experts assume is a covert war against Iran's nuclear and weapons programs, being carried out by Israel, the US, and perhaps other Western countries.

But the claim issued by Yaalon, who just last week was in Washington to confer with US officials on Iran's nuclear program, may also have been aimed at convincing the US that Iran poses a dangerous and growing threat – not just to Israel and the Middle East region, but also to countries farther afield.

Yaalon said in his speech that the West does not yet realize how much of a threat is posed by Iran, which he called "a nightmare for the free world." In reality, he said, Israel in the Iranian regime's eyes is only the "little Satan," while America, as leader of the West, is "the larger Satan."

[Habbaku]

Ruh-roh.

[fhdz]

Later in our broadcast, we'll be naming the "2/5 Satan" and the "3/4 Satan". Stay tuned!

[Lettow77]

 I really wish America wouldn't attack Iran. Iran is soft and persian.

[Maximus]

It's a country, not a rug

[fhdz]

It's a country, not a rug

Nor cat

[Faeelin]

So the lesson here is that if you don't want to get bombed at will by Israel, build nukes.

[Siege]

So the lesson here is that if you don't want to get bombed at will by Israel, build nukes.

Do you really think Israel would be planning bombing Iran if Iran were not building nukes?
Pleaz nigga, take your anti-semite propaganda somewhere else.

[Hansmeister]

Israel better finally attack Iran.  I've been predicting for four years straight on new year that the following year is going to be the year the Israelis bomb Iran.  I'm bound be right eventually.

[Razgovory]

What an odd thing to say.

[CountDeMoney]

Israel better finally attack Iran.  I've been predicting for four years straight on new year that the following year is going to be the year the Israelis bomb Iran.  I'm bound be right eventually.

Betting on Israel striking against real or perceived threats to its national security, regardless of what the US and the ROTW thinks? 
Do you bet the favorite on whether the sun will rise in the east tomorrow as well?

[The Brain]

I wonder how many people Israel has in the Iranian bomb program.

[Hansmeister]

I wonder how many people Israel has in the Iranian bomb program.

Given the plethora of Iranian nuclear scientist who have died in recent months under mysterious circumstances Israeli agents might by now comprise a majority.

[Ed Anger]

I wonder how many people Israel has in the Iranian bomb program.

Given the plethora of Iranian nuclear scientist who have died in recent months under mysterious circumstances Israeli agents might by now comprise a majority.

Hello Benjamin.
Hello Lev.
Time to get in character.
....

DEATH TO AMERICA!

[jimmy olsen]

Looks like this shit is actually gonna happen.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46257786/ns/world_news-christian_science_monitor/#.Ty0FbvkU-Xs

By Joshua Mitnick Correspondent
updated 2/3/2012 6:08:35 PM ET

TEL AVIV  — Tensions between Israel and Iran are on the rise after a group of top Israeli leaders engaged in a round of saber-rattling on Thursday and Iran's Supreme Leader answered on Friday with a pledge to "remove" Israel.

Speaking at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center's annual conference, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak compared the current standoff with Iran to the "fateful" period before the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, when Israel launched a preemptive strike against Egypt.

At the same conference, Israel's military intelligence chief, Aviv Kochavi said that Iran had enough nuclear material to make four bombs, and could construct a missile within three years. Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon warned that "an unconventional country can't be allowed to have a nonconventional weapon" and that "a nuclear Iran would be the nightmare of the West."

Even though Israeli leaders have been heartened by international sanctions targeting Iran's nuclear program, which Iran insists is for peaceful purposes only,  the chorus of warnings from Israel reflect growing anxiety among some leaders that Iran may still obtain a nuclear bomb.

"The temperature is rising in Israel," says Meir Javedanfar, an Iran analyst in Tel Aviv. He says that if the defense minister sees the current period as similar to the run-up to the [1967] Six-Day War, "that gives credibility to those who think Israel is going to launch an attack."

Israeli strike would be 'a gift' for Iran, says dissident
Amid the rising anxiety, an Iranian dissident who lives in exile in the US, came to the Jewish state this week to warn leaders here that a preemptive strike on Iran would be counterproductive.

Amir Abbas Fakhravar, whose visit got significant attention in the Israeli media, says that Israelis are right to take the threat of a nuclear Iran seriously. But he says he is telling Israeli leaders – among them officials at the Foreign ministry – that harsh economic sanctions like the oil embargo adopted by Europe have the potential to weaken the regime. An Israeli attack, on the other hand, would strengthen it.

"This will be the worst scenario. It will be a gift from God for [embattled Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad," he says. "After a limited military attack, they can act as a victim, go around the world, and get support and legitimacy from other little countries."

Mr. Fakhravar predicts that absent a strike economic sanctions will eventually bring down the Islamic regime and lead to a new government that would not seek nuclear weapons.

Fakhravar says that he spent five years in Iranian jails and was tortured for participating in student riots against the regime in 1999. He then fled in 2006 with the help of former US defense official Richard Perle. Reports in the US have questioned his credentials as an opposition leader. He was brought to Israel by an Israeli consulting group linked to Israel's opposition Kadima party, in cooperation with the Israeli embassy in Washington.

Netanyahu compares Iran to Nazi Germany
But while Fakhravar's credibility may be questioned, his view on Iran is shared by numerous Israeli security chiefs who have publicly cast doubt about the effectiveness of an Israeli strike, and warned about widespread damage from a regional war. Among them is former Mossad chief Meir Dagan.

Israeli leaders, however, remain skeptical that sanctions would stop Iran's government gaining such a capability.

Comparing Iran's regime to Nazi Germany, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said it is Israel's right to act to prevent Iran from attaining a nuclear weapon.