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Ismail Khan Survives Suicide Boomer
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 09/28/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What's that spell?
Posted by: Scott R || 09/28/2009 3:56 Comments || Top||

#2 

One, Two, Kick

Split Personality

XBox Game

Yippy Kai Yay

Daily Gam Shot

Leap of Faith

Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 09/28/2009 4:02 Comments || Top||

#3  I don't know what that spells, but I think I'm under it.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon || 09/28/2009 8:19 Comments || Top||

#4  Women acting out a Matisse painting?
Posted by: Free Radical || 09/28/2009 9:04 Comments || Top||

#5  A surrealistic O-H-I-O? Pig Latin?
Posted by: Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division || 09/28/2009 10:03 Comments || Top||

#6  There are sea nymphs!
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/28/2009 12:14 Comments || Top||

#7  #1 What's that spell?
Posted by: Scott R 2009-09-28 03:56


Methinks it was supposed to be "SOS", but Nymph #1 positioned herself same as Nymph #3 thereby occluding the message.

Maybe a "negative transferrence" caused by post-rehearsal personnel assignments/changes?
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 09/28/2009 17:21 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
2160 Virgins ordered from Allan's Take Out Service
KABUL (AP) -- A U.S. team working with Afghan soldiers swooped in on a militant stronghold in the country's west, killing at least 30 Taliban fighters, U.S. and Afghan officials said Monday. Elsewhere, a Taliban highway ambush left six truckers dead, and a roadside bomb killed another six Afghans in a crowded van.

Farah provincial Gov. Roh ul-Amin said no airstrikes were used during the battle. U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal has made protecting Afghan civilians a priority and sharply restricted the use of airstrikes.

Ul-Amin said 50 Taliban militants - but no coalition forces or civilians - died in the fighting, which he said began overnight and was still ongoing.

Maj. James Brownlee, a U.S. military spokesman, confirmed an operation but gave a lower death toll of 30 Taliban militants killed. He declined to comment further.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 09/28/2009 14:29 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Marines and Afghan army. Surviving taliban fleeing with hostages. I guess that means they are
free to flee back into Iran.
Posted by: ed || 09/28/2009 16:09 Comments || Top||


Bomb Blast Kills Three Afghan Civilians
[Quqnoos] A roadside bomb blast has killed three civilians and wounded four others in the western Afghan province of Farah on Sunday, The bomb went off earlier this morning as a civilian vehicle passed over the device in the restive district of Bala Boluk, said provincial Police Chief, Gen Mohammad Faqir Askar.

Four of a family, including two children and a woman have been injured in the explosion, the official further said.

Gen Askar added the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was planted to target either Afghan or international forces.

No groups, including Taliban, have claimed responsibility for the attack.

Farah incident is the second bombing in western Afghanistan today which leaves civilian casualties.

In early hours of Sunday, a suicide bomber attacked a convoy of Afghan minister of energy in Farah's neighbouring province of Herat that killed at least 4 civilians and hurt a dozen more. Minister Mohammad Ismael Khan has survived the attempt on his life.
Posted by: Fred || 09/28/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Ismail Khan Survives Suicide Boomer
[Quqnoos] A suicide bomber hit the vehicle of Minister Ismael Khan in western Herat province on Sunday, killing four civilians Afghan Minister of Energy and Water, Mohammad Ismael Khan, has survived the attempt on his life. "At least four civilians around were killed and 17 more, some of them students, were wounded," a police spokesman, Abdul Rauf Ahmadi said.

The incident took place in the western Heart city this morning as the minister was driving to the airport to leave his hometown for the capital, Kabul, officials said. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack. The four dead included a woman and a child, according to an official. The explosion in Heart occurred outside a school.

Minister Ismael Khan landed in Kabul an hour after the incident and expressed his concerns over a worsened security situation in the relatively stable western Afghan province.
Posted by: Fred || 09/28/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa North
Egypt Detains 16 Islamists: Brotherhood
[Asharq al-Aswat] Egyptian authorities have detained 16 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, the movement's number two told AFP on Sunday, bringing to 250 the number of members in jail.

Security officials carried out the arrests late on Saturday in the Nile Delta province of Beheira, detaining former MP Gamal Heshmat as part of the group, Mohammed Habib said.

While members of his Islamist group are periodically detained, Habib believes the latest wave could be linked to next year's parliamentary elections in which the Brotherhood is planning to run.

"This is another attempt by the authorities to distance the Muslim Brotherhood from Egyptian political life," Habib said.

"Right now we have no less than 250 members in jails. Some are being held while on trial, some are in preventative detention, some are in jail," he said.

In 2005, the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest and most organised opposition group in the country, won 88 seats out of 454 in parliamentary elections marred by violence.

The group is officially banned but fielded candidates as "independents."

Muslim Brotherhood members are left to operate openly by the authorities and even have a working office in central Cairo, but the group is subject to regular crackdowns.
Posted by: Fred || 09/28/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood


Arabia
Yemeni Army bomb Shia civilians in north
[Iran Press TV Latest] In a new assault, the Yemeni military has bombarded residential areas in the Shia-populated north, killing and wounding dozens and destroying homes.

According to Houthi resistance fighters, the military planes "deliberately" targeted residential areas in Baghem district as well as Dammaj in Saada province, leaving dozens of civilians dead or wounded.

In south Saada, according to the Houthis, a military armored vehicle was destroyed by the fighters.

The leader of Yemeni fighters, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi has accused the government of discriminating against his people, vowing to continue the fight as long as attacked by the army forces.

"(The war) is part of the official discrimination, marginalization and separation practiced against us as a social group described by the authorities as a minority," al-Huthi said in a statement on Sunday.

"The war, the destruction and the arrests ... are being waged against our culture," he said, adding that the government detains Zaidis "on ethnic and sectarian grounds".

In an effort to crush the Zaidi fighters, the government launched an offensive against the mountainous north, leaving hundreds of civilians dead and thousands of others displaced.

The government who has so far failed to observe two ceasefires in the region, warned earlier that it will not backtrack, even if the war takes five or six years. The Yemeni president had announced, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, that the war with the Shia fighters would be over in two weeks.
Posted by: Fred || 09/28/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


Bangladesh
JMB camp busted
[Bangla Daily Star] Rapid Action Battalion has busted a training camp of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh in a remote hill area in Khagrachhari and arrested five militants in last two days.
Once upon a time to be a mujahid was to be a dashing figure of legend. Now they're getting ignominiously killed off all over the world. Predator missiles in Pakistan are only the public face of a world-wide repudiation.
The crime-busters raided the training facility at Matiranga under Khagrachhari district on Friday.
See? The rakish mujahids of yesteryear have become mere miscreants, treated no differently than a communist splinter group plotting caught plotting at three a.m. in the brickyard.
During the swoop, they arrested Abdur Rahim alias Saifullah, second-in-command of Chittagong division JMB, and seized powdered explosives, 14 grenade casings, 20 detonators, 49 books on jihad, 27 batteries and around 1 kg barbed wire.
Sergeant Bilal Siddique will need to open a new section of the evidence locker. But really, barbed wire?
In follow-up operations yesterday, Rab arrested four JMB cadres--Delwar Hossain alias Sajib, 32, and Yunus Ali alias Yunus, 20, at Shantipur of Matiranga, Delwar Hossain Dulal, 23, in Gazipur and Monir alias Ripon, 25, in Comilla.

The arrestees were paraded before the media at a press briefing at the Rab headquarters in Uttara yesterday afternoon.

Speaking to reporters there, Rahim said he, Naim and Majlish-e-Shura member Osman alias Shahid had planned an attack on BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia during her election campaign in Comilla last year.

Of them, Naim was nabbed by Rab. Though he and Osman managed to slip through the dragnet, their plan for assault on the former prime minister failed, he added.

At the briefing, Rab's Additional Director General Col Mizanur Rahman Khan said, "It took us around eight months of intelligence work to trace the camp in deep forest."

He said the camp, which has three earthen and tin-shed rooms, was not complete for training yet.

Rahim was building it on four acres of land purchased in the name of farming. Sajib, one of the arrestees, who owns a poultry farm in the area, had helped in the purchase.

Osman oversaw things in this regard on instructions from the outfit's present head Saidur Rahman.

"Naim, who was arrested at Chandina in Comilla last year, told us JMB had been shifting its training facilities to far-flung hills, and since then we have been keeping a close watch on the areas," Col Mizan said.

Around eight months back, the JMB bought the Matiranga land for around Tk 2 lakh.

"JMB activities are getting limited. We are closing in on those still at large and hope to arrest its current chief soon," he added.

Rahim, who is also known as Zahid, Habib and Saiful, said he joined JMB in 2004. He fled to Matiranga and took a job at Sajib's poultry farm after the countrywide blasts the following year.

A Rab press release said he is a key member of the JMB suicide squad. He hurled a bomb on the Rab team during the Comilla raid last year and ran away.

He stands accused in three cases filed in this connection.

JMB STRUCTURE
At the briefing, Rab officials said Moulana Saidur Rahman's son Bashar plays a key role in running the organisation.

Seven members of Shura, highest policymaking body, are Shiblu alias Shishir, Sohel Mahfuz of Kushtia, Mehedi alias Abir of Barguna, Nazmul alias Bhagne Shahid of Natore, Osman alias Shahid of Comilla, Sayeem of Dhaka and Mahmud alias Asad of Panchagarh.

Of them, Shishir is in charge of the military wing, Sohel Mahfuz dawat (invitation) department, Mehedi southern districts, Nazmul northern region, Osman Chittagong division and Sayeem takes care of the IT wing.

The duties assigned to Mahmud could not yet be known.

Mostafiz alias Siddique of Gazipur works as an adviser to the banned outfit.
Posted by: Fred || 09/28/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh

#1  And yet, not one death in "crossfire."
Posted by: imoyaro || 09/28/2009 6:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Lemme see, I think I have a roll of barbed wire in the tractor shed, somewhere....here it is, behind the tank of diesel and beside the skid of fertilizer. hmmmm....
Posted by: Skunky Glins**** || 09/28/2009 14:58 Comments || Top||

#3  You string barbed wire along the ground, very loosely, and spike it down about every thirty yards. The loops that form will catch a person's foot and put him face-down on the ground. Barbed wire doesn't break easily, so the only way to clear it is to cut it. That results in its own problems. If they'd had that barbed wire laid properly, the RAB would never have snuck up on them.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 09/28/2009 17:26 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
12 charged in NY with Colombia terrorism link
Authorities in New York say 12 members of a Colombian organization are charged with conspiring to aid a foreign terrorist group and taking a U.S. citizen hostage.

Prosecutors said Monday that only two of the defendants are in custody. The rest are fugitives.

An indictment unsealed in Manhattan accuses the defendants of aiding Colombia's rebel army, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. It has been designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization.

It says the group kidnapped a U.S. citizen in April 2008. The victim was released in February after the family paid ransom.
Posted by: ed || 09/28/2009 15:36 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I expect Eric Holder to drop all charges
Posted by: Frank G || 09/28/2009 18:05 Comments || Top||


Colombia's FARC Rebels to Free two Captives to Piedad Cordoba
(Bloomberg) -- Colombia's biggest guerrilla group pledged to release two of its military captives in an effort to push the government to release jailed rebels.

Military Corporal Pablo Emilio Moncayo, held about 12 years, and Private Jose Daniel Calvo, kidnapped five months ago, will be handed over to opposition Senator Piedad Cordoba, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia said in a statement published on Anncol, a news agency sympathetic to the drug- funded group, known as the FARC.

The statement, signed by the FARC's secretariat and dated Sept. 22 from the mountains of Colombia, said the unilateral release demonstrates the group's commitment to move ahead with a swap of more than 20 captives for some 500 jailed FARC fighters. The FARC will also return the remains of Major Julian Ernesto Guevara, who died of an unidentified tropical disease while in captivity.
Posted by: Fred || 09/28/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
Obama Administration Frees Three More Gitmo Detainees
The Department of Justice Saturday evening announced that two detainees had been transferred from Guantanamo Bay to Ireland, and one had been transferred to Yemen.

Alla Ali Bin Ali Ahmed, a native of Yemen, was captured in Pakistan in 2002 and returned to Yemen today. The Yemeni Embassy to the US issued a statement saying the country welcomed, "with enthusiasm, the release and transfer of its citizen."

The Obama administration did not name the detainees released to Ireland. "Pursuant to a request from the government of Ireland, the identities of these detainees are being withheld for security and privacy reasons," read a statement from the Justice Department. Amnesty International has been lobbying Ireland to accept Uzbek national Oybek Jamoldinivich Jabbarov, and another Uzbekh.
Posted by: Fred || 09/28/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda

#1  TOPIX/WORLD NEWS > JIHADISTS MUSHROOMING IN THE USA + MULTIPLE TERROR PLOTS UNCOVERED IN US SINCE 9-11.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/28/2009 1:36 Comments || Top||

#2  We ned to borrow a page ffrom the RAB, send them home by Ship, halfway there let them "Escape" over the side.

No more wild Celebrations , justice served, the murderers are dead.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 09/28/2009 13:02 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Two shot dead in Mohmand
[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Unidentified armed men shot dead two persons while the pro-government peace committee members arrested two suspected militants in separate incidents in Mohmand Agency on Sunday. The two persons were shot dead by unidentified armed men in Safi Tehsil. The identity of the deceased could not be ascertained till the filing of this report as the locals ran away from the scene after the incident and the bodies were left lying there. Meanwhile, Malik Muhammad Akbar, leader of the peace committee, told reporters that two persons, Ihsanullah and Attaullah, who had links with the local militants, were arrested in Khwezai Tehsil. He said they had got military training at Lal Masjid in Islamabad.
Posted by: Fred || 09/28/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Hundreds join Swat's anti-militant lashkar
[Dawn] Hundreds of armed volunteers joined a lashkar under the command of veteran politician and former federal minister Mohammad Afzal Khan Lala in Matta tehsil of Swat on Saturday.

District Nazim Jamal Nasir also raised lashkar against militants and started patrolling in their respective areas. Witnesses said that hundreds of people brandishing heavy weapons assembled in Matta chanting slogans: Pakistan Zinda Bad and long live Swatis, resolving to fight against terrorists.

Supporters of Afzal Khan Lala, also a leader of the ruling Awami National Party, assembled at the Frontier Constabulary's base camp in Dreshkhella where hundreds of people registered themselves as volunteers.

Provincial minister for science and technology Ayub Ashari, operation commander Brig Jamal Abdul Nasir and elders of the area addressed the volunteers.

'Restoration of peace in Swat is like new life for the residents of the valley who lived in barbaric environment and under tyranny for three years,' said Afzal Khan, adding that terrorists slaughtered sons in the presence of their parents and trained children as suicide bombers.

He said that people of Swat had suffered physically, socially and economically.

He said that militants had destroyed schools, hospitals, roads, agriculture, industrial sectors and infrastructure in the valley.

People of Swat and soldiers had rendered sacrifices for restoration of peace.

He said that the army and local people would jointly reconstruct Swat.

Some 3,000 people assembled at the residence of District Nazim Jamal Nasir in Shangotai who joined the lashkar. Participants of the lashkar displayed weapons and expressed solidarity with the military in fight against militants.

Meanwhile, seven militants including Commander Abdul Sattar were killed in operation Rah-i-Rast in Ser Taligram and Manglawar areas of Swat.

Officials said that 20 militants also surrendered and detected three tunnels in Chaperyal.

The ISPR said that one of the tunnels was seven meters long.

Posted by: Fred || 09/28/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [13 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


152 Taliban surrender, 16 arrested in Swat
At least 152 Taliban surrendered on Sunday as security forces arrested 16 others -- including two commanders -- in the ongoing operation in Swat. In Gut Piyochar area of Matta tehsil, 48 Taliban -- including six young suicide bombers, laid down arms, while 104 Taliban surrendered to troops in FC Qila area of Kabal tehsil. The two arrested commanders have been identified as Maaz and Janat Gul. The Swat Media Centre said a curfew imposed in the area was relaxed on Sunday from 6am to 11pm. Meanwhile, two people were killed and as many seriously injured when their vehicle fell into a ravine near Khwazakhela. Separately, prominent political leader Habibullah Wazir and two of his friends were seriously injured in a remote-controlled blast in Hangu.
Posted by: Fred || 09/28/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Iraq
String of bombings kills at least 18 in Iraq
And thousands of terrorists released, at Iraqi gov urging, from US military custody. Cause meets effect. Full effect yet to be felt.
A string of bombings killed at least 18 people across Iraq on Monday, shattering a relative lull in violence during the celebration that marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

The blasts primarily targeted Iraqi security forces, which have been the focal point of insurgent attacks since U.S. troops pulled out of Iraq's cities at the end of June. The uptick in violence also comes as the country's shops and schools reopened after the Eid holiday that follows the end of the Muslim holy month.
Posted by: ed || 09/28/2009 15:30 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Al-Qaeda Attempted To Kill al-Hakim
[Iran Press TV Latest] Iraqi security forces have reportedly thwarted an assassination attempt targeting the leader of Iraq's largest Shia party, Ammar al-Hakim.

Al-Qaeda-linked militants sought to gun down the high-ranking Shia figure during Eid al-Fitr prayers at a mosque in Baghdad last Monday. The plot was nonetheless foiled since intelligence forces at the Iraqi Intelligence Ministry had earlier been tipped off, an unnamed source at Hakim's bureau was quoted by eyeiraq news agency as saying.

The source added that the Iraqi police subsequently raided suspected houses in Baghdad's southwestern Sunni neighborhood of al-Bayaa and apprehended an insurgent guilty of the failed scenario.

Two other members of the terrorist cell remain at large. Bombs, light weaponry as well as explosive devices were recovered from their hideout.

Ammar al-Hakim took over the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council after the death of his influential father, Abdulaziz al-Hakim last month in Iran where he had been receiving treatment for lung cancer.
Posted by: Fred || 09/28/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq


Boomer kills 4 Iraqi police in Ramadi
[Iran Press TV Latest] Four Iraqi policemen have been killed and four others wounded after a suicide bomber blew himself up near the western city of Ramadi, a police official says.

The attack happened around 10.30 am (0830 GMT) 10 kilometers (six miles) north east of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province on Sunday, AFP reported.

"The suicide bomber blew himself up at the gate at the entrance to the police station, causing the casualties," the police official said.

Later on Sunday, a roadside bomb exploded near a playground in the northern city of Mosul, killing a young boy and injuring four others.

The attack occurred at around 7:00 pm (1600 GMT) in the city's west, a police official said.
Posted by: Fred || 09/28/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Gates: Too Late to Stop Iran From Making Nuclear Weapons
A top official in the Obama Administration has at last admitted what intelligence agents and Israeli government officials have been warning about for years: Iran intends to build a nuclear arsenal.

In media interviews with American television news networks scheduled to air Sunday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said bluntly, "The Iranians have the intention of having nuclear weapons."

The statement was made just days after the discovery of a covert uranium enrichment site in Iran.

Even as the world expressed its outrage, however, Gates pointed out that there was little left to be done about it. "The reality is there is no military option that does anything more than buy time," he told CNN. "The estimates are three years or so."

In a separate interview with ABC News, he noted that Iran had engaged in "a pattern of deception and lies... from the very beginning," even as it claimed it was developing nuclear power for peaceful domestic energy purposes.

"If this were a peaceful nuclear program, why didn't they announce this site when they began to construct it?" Gates asked. "Why didn't they allow IAEA inspectors in from the very beginning?"

International leaders demanded the Islamic Republic immediately disclose all its nuclear efforts, including any programs involving weapons development, or face the consequences.

"The Iranian government must now demonstrate through deeds its peaceful intentions, or be held accountable to international standards and international law," said U.S. President Barack Obama following the discovery.

In a statement made at the G-20 meeting in Europe, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Obama ordered Iran to allow the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect the newly revealed site.

"We will not let this matter rest," Brown said. Sarkozy noted that the G-6 had given Iran until December to comply or face additional, intensified economic sanctions.

While Iran is to meet with the U.S. and others next week to discuss its nuclear program, however, it is planning to conduct war games on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

The announcement of the drill, which will include firing missiles that can hit Israel, was made at the same time the covert uranium enrichment site was revealed.

"Allah willing, this plant will be put into operation soon and will blind the eyes of the enemies," boasted Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani, the head of the office of the Supreme Leader.

The Revolutionary Guards website said over the weekend that military exercises, including the simultaneous firing of missiles at targets, will begin Sunday and last for several days.

Israeli officials do not necessarily agree that the military option would be ineffective.

IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi last week politely warned the Islamic Republic that the Jewish State is prepared to defend itself against any nuclear or other attack it might launch.

"We all understand that the best way of coping [with the Iranian nuclear threat] is through international sanctions," Ashkenazi told an interviewer on IDF Army Radio. However, he added, "Israel has the right to defend itself, and all options are open. The IDF's working premise is that we have to be prepared for that possibility, and that is exactly what we are doing."
Posted by: Anonymoose || 09/28/2009 18:28 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gates merely states the obvious. The fact is that there simply isn't a peaceful way of stopping Iran, North Korea, or any other nation that is intent on getting a few nuclear weapons. The best solution I see is to let the nation(s) with the most at state take things in their own hands. Israel will stand up to the task with any one of it's neighbors, but there doesn't seem to be anyone willing to take the risk. The question im my mind is who will stand up to Syria, Venezuala and others as they acquire their own nukes. The technology, long out of most nations hands, is becoming more and available. There is no long term plan here, at least that I'm aware of. Within 30 years, the number of nuclear nation could exceed 20. Detent will reach a magnitude never seen before. One nut job blows and the ripple effect could be bigger than ever imagined during the Cold War. Not just USSR and US targets, but a ripple effect could spread over every continent.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon || 09/28/2009 19:28 Comments || Top||

#2  There was never any way to prevent any country from getting nukes. The trick is to get them from using them. MAD worked with the Ruskies because they were no longer revolutionaries by the time they got the Nukes. I doubt the Norks are revolutionaries. But the Persians are. They will use them or give them to terrs to use or use them and appear to be terrs. In any case, we should let them know that if any nuke goes off and we don't know where it came from via radar/satellites, we'll assume it came from them and we will destroy every living thing in their country. Pour l'encouragement d'les autres.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 09/28/2009 19:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Too late if you haven't the stones to do what needs to be done. Whomp them and stand back and let them figure it out. Rinse and repeat as necessary.
Posted by: gorb || 09/28/2009 20:25 Comments || Top||

#4  And I'm sure the US knew this was coming long, long ago.
Posted by: gorb || 09/28/2009 20:25 Comments || Top||

#5  Which makes me wonder what the US was so afraid of. And still is.
Posted by: gorb || 09/28/2009 20:31 Comments || Top||

#6  Where is the electricity coming from that runs these centrifuges? It has to be consuming something above 10% of their national ability to generate power.

It can't possibly take more than 100 sorties to turn off their ability to generate and transmit electricity. Plus another 100 sorties for air superiority while it is done.

Send a diplomatic note through the the Russians and Chinese. If they don't verifiably dismantle everything, then send their country back into the 19th century. It's not the 12th, but it will do for today.

Posted by: rammer || 09/28/2009 21:04 Comments || Top||

#7  The question is what are they going to use their enriched U235 for? Making weapons out of uranium fissile material is not suitable for air or space delivery.

Here's my WAG. I think that they are making U235 for a third party, like the Norks, to make into Pu239. From there it can be made into cores and nuclear weapons to stack on missiles. The Bushehr reactor is too vulnerable for the job.

Or the Iranians are building some terror weapons, which would be a DS thing to do. But firing off Shahab-3s in tests is just another way to intimidate.

Whatever their aims are, they have made enough serious threats to many of us that they must be dealt with. It is too bad that the Big O is on the side of the MMs. The people need support, and the US, by word and deed (even covertly) has failed them.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 09/28/2009 21:21 Comments || Top||

#8  Wouldn't U235 make a simply wonderful dirty bomb? Released as dust in a crowded tunnel or perhaps Grand Central Station...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 09/28/2009 22:11 Comments || Top||

#9  for dirty bomb, U323 would work just fine. it doenst have to actually be dangerous, but the absolute public hysteria of 'oh m god, they dusted us with radioactive uranium' would be fit the terror motif just fine. and the cost of cleaning up... staggering
Posted by: abu do you love || 09/28/2009 22:30 Comments || Top||

#10  er... U232. little dyslexic typing there
Posted by: abu do you love || 09/28/2009 22:31 Comments || Top||

#11  Strange. The SecDef says Iran is building nuclear weapons. The CIA says they definitely are not, and that Iran stopped its program in 2003. The intelligence services of Israel, France, and Germany side with the SecDef.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/world/middleeast/29nuke.html

The CIA is nothing.
Posted by: Maggie Ebbuter2991 || 09/28/2009 23:46 Comments || Top||

#12  So, translation:

Nonproliferation is a crock. Any country that really wants nuclear weapons can have them and there isn't squat anyone is going to do about it.
Posted by: crosspatch || 09/28/2009 23:47 Comments || Top||


Iran test fires short-range missiles
TEHRAN -- Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said it successfully test-fired short-range missiles Sunday in drills meant to show Tehran is prepared to crush any military threat from another country.

Gen. Hossein Salami, head of the Revolutionary Guard Air Force, said Iran had perfected its short range missiles to make them more accurate in tactical battlefield situations and defend the country from any attacks. "We are going to respond to any military action in a crushing manner and it doesn't make any difference which country or regime has launched the aggression," state media quoted Salami as saying. He said the missiles successfully hit their targets.

The missiles tested weren't the kind that can carry a nuclear warhead. Iran is developing such ballistic missiles, but the U.S. believes that effort has been slowed.

Tehran carried out the missile tests now "to show some muscle, show some strength, and say the game is not over for Iran yet," said Alex Vatanka, a senior middle east analyst at IHS Jane's. He noted that Iran will be meeting with the Western powers in Geneva next week. "They felt going into these meetings next week that they needed to have something else to bolster their position, and I think that Iran's Revolutionary Guard showing a bit of military muscle here is part of that," he said.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/28/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Some expert on the radio this morning pointed out that these regimes like to sabre-rattle for the home folks just before making a concession.

Right. Like North Korea.
Posted by: Bobby || 09/28/2009 6:40 Comments || Top||



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