The Israeli air industries first unveiled its new Harop "loiter drone" for taking out ground-to-air missiles at the annual Aero-India 2009 air show which closed recently at Bangalore. The Harop is an upgraded version of the Harpy with more advanced features for taking out radar installations and anti-air missile installations. It can travel 1,000 km to patrol an assigned area and loiter there until a hostile target is exposed. Its 23-kilo warhead then strikes the target before it is activated in attack mode.
The Russian S-300 missile purchased by Tehran is one such target. It is classified in the West as a "game-changer" designed to rule out air attacks on its nuclear sites. This missile system is capable of engaging up to 100 targets at once, tracking targets with a mobile radar station which is immune to jamming.
The Harop is an expendable unmanned aerial vehicle which can sustain a mission of several hours over an assigned area. Operated by electro-optical sensors, Harop can detect weapons systems in inert mode, weapons on the move and radar installations switched off to avoid detection.
Our military experts maintain that once it penetrates Iranian airspace, this drone can silence surface-to-air batteries and open the skies to aerial and missile attack.
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Mossad was rumoured to be behind the death of Ardeshire Hassanpour, a top nuclear scientist at Iran's Isfahan uranium plant, who died in mysterious circumstances from reported "gas poisoning" in 2007. Other recent deaths of important figures in the procurement and enrichment process in Iran and Europe have been the result of Israeli "hits", intended to deprive Tehran of key technical skills at the head of the programme, according to Western intelligence analysts.
Mossad's covert operations cover a range of activities. The former CIA operative revealed how Israeli and US intelligence co-operated with European companies working in Iran to obtain photographs and other confidential material about Iranian nuclear and missile sites. "It was a real company that operated from time to time in Iran and in the nature of their legitimate business came across information on various suspect Iranian facilities," he said.
Israel has also used front companies to infiltrate the Iranian purchasing network that the clerical regime uses to circumvent United Nations sanctions and obtain so-called "dual use" items metals, valves, electronics, machinery for its nuclear programme. The businesses initially supply Iran with legitimate material, winning Tehran's trust, and then start to deliver faulty or defective items that "poison" the country's atomic activities.
Mossad and Western intelligence operations have also infiltrated the Iranian nuclear programme and "bought" information from prominent atomic scientists. Israel has later selectively leaked some details to its allies, the media and United Nations atomic agency inspectors. On one occasion, Iran itself is understood to have destroyed a nuclear facility near Tehran, bulldozing over the remains and replacing it with a football pitch, after its existence was revealed to UN inspectors. The regime feared that the discovery by inspectors of an undeclared nuclear facility would result in overwhelming pressure at the UN for tougher action against Iran.
#4
The regime feared that the discovery by inspectors of an undeclared nuclear facility would result in overwhelming pressure at the UN for tougher action against Iran
Ha ha ha ha ha - you kidders!
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/28/2009 17:29 Comments ||
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#5
Iran, fear the strongly worded UN memo! /sarcasm
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/28/2009 18:24 Comments ||
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TEHRAN/BUSHEHR -- Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani declared on Friday that Iran is technologically capable of starting up and operating the Bushehr nuclear power plant, even without the help of the Russians. Russia and other countries should be aware that even if they do not come, we ourselves can complete the Bushehr nuclear plant, he said.
And in fact you'd like if only to grab the spent fuel and reprocess it yourselves ...
In the test run of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, which began on Wednesday, non-nuclear fuel was used instead of enriched uranium. Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Director Gholamreza Aqazadeh and Sergei Kiriyenko, the chief executive officer of Rosatom Corp, visited the plant to observe the beginning of the test run.
Aqazadeh said the plant will start producing electricity in four to seven months. Rafsanjani said the Bushehr nuclear power plant project experienced various hurdles and delays over the years and it will still be a few months until the plant becomes operational. Rafsanjani stated that serious efforts must be made to bring the plant on stream as soon as possible.
In the first stage of its operation, the plant will provide Irans southern provinces with 500 megawatts of electricity, Aqazadeh explained. We hope that in a few months it will supply electricity to this region, the AEOI director said.
Were celebrating Bushehrs pre-commissioning, which means we are getting closer to the launch of the plant, Aqazadeh told reporters in Bushehr. This virtual fuel testing was successful.
Kiriyenko also praised the successful test of the reactor, Reuters reported. In recent months, there have been significant improvements. Im very satisfied with what I saw, Kiriyenko told reporters.
Kiriyenko also said he and Aqazadeh held talks on signing a deal according to which Russia would deliver nuclear fuel to the Bushehr nuclear reactor for ten years. In negotiations with Mr. Aqazadeh today (Wednesday), we also held talks about signing a deal for delivering nuclear fuel to Iran for ten years, he explained.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/28/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11135 views]
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#1
Given the Inshallah approach to tech in that part of the world, I'd advise staying upwind.
Potassium Iodide supplements would be a good addition to the diet too.
Posted by: N guard ||
02/28/2009 0:31 Comments ||
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#2
Have the Iranians trained their cadre of suicide fuel rod swappers already?
Posted by: ed ||
02/28/2009 0:46 Comments ||
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#3
Cause the 13th Imam will warn them if something goes wrong?
Bahrain and Iran foreign ministers said on Friday they will maintain "good" bilateral ties, following a crisis over official Iranian remarks that questioned the national sovereignty of the Arab Gulf state.
Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmad al-Khalifa, during a visit to Tehran, said after a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki that the kingdom will continue "good neighborly" relations with Iran.
In a televised statement, the two men indicated that the diplomatic row was over.
Earlier this month, Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that Iran had sovereignty over the kingdom, according to media reports.
Gulf Arab states called on Iran last week to condemn the remarks, which Bahrain's interior minister earlier rejected as irresponsible.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11137 views]
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(AKI) - The international tribunal established to try those responsible for political killings in Lebanon will begin its inquiries next week, the United Nations said.
"All the necessary measures have been taken for the special tribunal for Lebanon to commence functioning this Sunday," UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said in a report to the Security Council.
The tribunal is designed to try those accused of recent political murders in Lebanon, particularly the February 2005 assassination of Rafiq Hariri, (photo), who was killed in a massive car bombing in downtown Beirut with 22 others.
The probe into the killings is being carried out by the International Independent Investigation Commission, headed by Daniel Bellemare, a Canadian prosecutor.
According to the report, Bellemare will assume office as prosecutor of the special tribunal on 1 March and continue his investigations from The Hague in the Netherlands, where the court is based.
The judges of the trial and appeals chambers will assume their responsibilities on a date to be fixed and court hearings are expected to begin in early 2010.
UN legal counsel Patricia O'Brien will attend a ceremony in the Netherlands on Sunday to mark the start of the Tribunal.
Ban has pledged to ensure that the court is able to achieve its mandate in the most effective manner.
Hariri, a successful business entrepreneur, was prime minister of Lebanon from 1992 to 1998 and again from 2000 until his resignation in October 2004.
Widely credited with reconstructing the capital, Beirut, after the country's civil war, Hariri was assassinated on 14 February 2005 when explosives equal to 1000 kg of TNT were detonated as his motorcade drove past a hotel in the centre of the city.
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Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2009 00:00 ||
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Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami officially takes his re-election bid to the next level by opening his campaign headquarters.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2009 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
(AKI) - The international tribunal established to try those responsible for political killings in Lebanon will begin its inquiries next week, the United Nations said.
