Tag: war

Israel Defense Forces to Plan Attack on Iran’s Nuclear Program

Amanda Casanova – January 15, 2021

The Israel Defense Forces is reportedly planning an attack on Iran’s nuclear program.

According to the Israel Hayom Daily, the IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi has asked for three proposals to take down Iran’s nuclear program. The newspaper said one of the proposals is a military effort, but also an expensive option.

The Times of Israel reports that Iran has increased the enriching of uranium to a 20 percent concentration last week. In 2015, a nuclear deal capped the enriching of uranium to a 4.5 percent concentration, the BBC reports.

Low-enriched uranium, between 3 to 5 percent concentration, is used to make fuel for commercial power plants. Concentrations of 20 percent and more is largely used in research reactors, and concentrations of 90 percent and more are considered weapons-grade uranium.

Likud minister Tzachi Hanegbi said recently that Israel could attack Iran’s nuclear program if the United States rejoins the nuclear deal, an agreement that US President-elect Joe Biden has said he plans to approve.

“If the United States government rejoins the nuclear deal — and that seems to be the stated policy as of now — the practical result will be that Israel will again be alone against Iran, which by the end of the deal will have received a green light from the world, including the United States, to continue with its nuclear weapons program,” Hanegbi said in an interview with Kan news.

Former president Barack Obama signed the Iranian nuclear deal with world powers in 2015, but in 2018, President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord and imposed economic sanctions on Iran.

Biden has indicated that he would negotiate with Tehran if Washington returns to the deal, and Iran has said it would welcome the return of the Americans to the deal, but only after the economic sanctions are lifted.

https://www.christianheadlines.com

From ‘Dangerous Fantasy’ to Reality in Seven Years: EU Reveals ‘Uniformed Service’

Oliver JJ Lane – January 12, 2021

Less than seven years after British Eurosceptics were laughed at for expressing concerns about a coming European Union army, the bloc has revealed the official uniform of its new ‘standing corps’, as the first of 10,000 recruits prepare to deploy to the field.

Frontex, the European Union’s combined border force and coastguard, revealed the new uniform in a social media post on Monday, showing off the navy uniform complete with EU-flag identification patches and military side cap. The force said: “For the first time, the European Union has its own uniformed service – the European Border and Coast Guard standing corps.”

Previously, officers seconded to Frontex from national forces denoted their new role by wearing an armband with a symbol of the European political project — a ring of gold stars on blue — on their right arm.

The “troops” of Frontex in their own European uniforms comes less than seven years after Brexiteers were told they believed a “dangerous fantasy” for saying the European Union was moving towards having its own armed forces — of which the paramilitary Frontex is the first phase.

The so-called standing corps recruited its first inductees during 2019, who were sent to academies in Poland for training. According to reports at the time, the first Frontex standing corps officers are due to deploy in early 2021.

https://www.breitbart.com

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Unveil Underground Missile Base Near Persian Gulf Coast – Photos, Video

Sputnik News – January 8, 2021

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has revealed the existence of a new top-secret underground missile base belonging to the IRGC Navy.

Photos and video of the new base published by Iranian media shows senior officers touring the facility, walking past rows and rows of missiles of various classes and ranges. Footage shows long tunnels wide enough to allow for two-way traffic by mobile, truck-based missile launchers and supply vehicles.

The IRGC wasn’t exactly subtle about who the unveiling of the missile base was meant to send a message to, with the video showing officers walking over flags of the United States and Israel painted on the floor as they entered the base.

IRGC Commander-in-Chief Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, who was on hand to inaugurate the new facility, said the base is “one of several bases housing the Guards’ Navy’s strategic missiles,” suggesting it would help “boost the country’s deterrence power”, and protect “the territorial integrity and independence of the country and the achievements of the Islamic Revolution” against any would-be “demons” threatening aggression.

The commander added that the missiles housed at the base have a range of hundreds of kilometres, and have a high level of accuracy and destructive power, including anti-electronic warfare capabilities. According to Salami, the IRGC’s naval missiles are among the best in the world among coast-to-sea, surface-to-surface, air-to-sea and sea-to-air missile systems.

https://sputniknews.com

U.S. sees some indications of possible Iranian attack in Mideast

Mosheh Gains – January 1, 2021

WASHINGTON — The U.S. has seen increasing indications that Iran could be planning an attack against American forces or interests in the Middle East, according to a U.S. official.

The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that reading Iran’s intentions was “difficult and at times unpredictable.”

But the indications are being taken seriously, the official said. The one-year anniversary of the U.S.’ killing of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani is just days away.

Soleimani was killed in a U.S. dronestrike in Iraq on Jan. 3, 2020, in what the Defense Department characterized as a “defensive action” because it alleged the leader of Iran’s Quds Force was developing plans to attack Americans. Iran launched missiles against U.S. forces in Iraq in response to the killing days later.

This week, the U.S. flew B-52 bombers based at a Minot, North Dakota, Air Force base to the Middle East in a “deliberate appearance,” U.S. Central Command said, in the second such show of force this month.

The U.S. has recently accused what it said was an Iranian-backed militia of a Dec. 20 rocket attack on Baghdad’s green zone, in which 21 rockets were fired. No one was injured or killed.

Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, in a Tweet on Thursday objected to the B-52 flights and wrote: “Intelligence from Iraq indicate plot to FABRICATE pretext for war.”

On Dec. 23, referring to the rocket attack that damaged the U.S. embassy in the green zone, President Donald Trump had tweeted: “Some friendly health advice to Iran: If one American is killed, I will hold Iran responsible. Think it over.”

https://www.nbcnews.com

China is developing Genetically Modified ‘Super-Soldiers’: Was this prophesied in War of Gog-Magog?

_ December 24, 2020

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed earlier this month, John Lee Ratcliffe, the Director of National Intelligence in the Trump administration, wrote that “the People’s Republic of China poses the greatest threat to America today and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom world-wide since World War II. The intelligence is clear: Beijing intends to dominate the U.S. and the rest of the planet economically, militarily, and technologically.”

“There are no ethical boundaries to Beijing’s pursuit of power,” Ratcliffe wrote, adding that China is working to develop “soldiers with biologically enhanced capabilities” as part of a scheme to take over “the planet economically, militarily and technologically.”

Last year,  Elsa Kania and Wilson VornDick a brief in the Jamestown Foundation claiming that Chinese scientists have been exploring “the potential of biotechnology on the future battlefield”. Some applications could include “brain-machine interfaces”. Since the potential for these technologies is still being explored, many of the possible applications go beyond what people can currently imagine.

One of the avenues of exploration includes the use of CRISPR (an acronym for “clusters of regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats”), a new technique for gene editing that has demonstrated unique potential. Chinese scientists are at the forefront of CRISPR technology, unencumbered by the moral and ethical limitations imposed on western scientists. For example, developing the use of gene-edited animals to grow human-like organs. A doctoral dissertation titled “Evaluation and Research on Human Performance Enhancement Technology,” published in 2016 and supported by the Central Military Commission (CMC) Science and Technology Commission envisioned CRISPR as one of three primary “human performance enhancement technologies” that can be utilized to boost personnel combat effectiveness.

Another ethical obstacle is the use of gene modification to enhance healthy subjects. Western scientists currently refrain from this type of research however Ratcliffe’s article implied that China is actively researching the possibility.

https://www.israel365news.com

Lawmakers Asking Whether Cyberattack Is Act of War

Jeffrey Rodack – December 18, 2020

Congressional lawmakers are questioning whether the cyberattack on the federal government is an act of war.

According to The Hill, the cyberattack, widely attributed to Russia, may be the biggest in U.S. history.

It noted any U.S. response could be complicated by the presidential transition.

“We can’t be buddies with Vladimir Putin and have him at the same time making this kind of cyberattack on America,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told CNN. “This is virtually a declaration of war by Russia on the United States and we should take that seriously.”

And Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, told SiriusXM’s Olivier Knox in a Thursday interview: “What I find most astonishing is that a cyberhack of this nature is really the modern equivalent of almost Russian bombers reportedly flying undetected over the entire country. And they didn’t drop bombs, but they had the capacity to show that our defense is extraordinarily inadequate.”

The Energy Department and its National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains America’s nuclear stockpile, were targeted as part of a broader attack, according to a person familiar with the matter. The hack didn’t affect mission-essential national security functions.

In addition, three unidentified states were also targeted.

CNN reported that Marco Rubio urged people not to jump to conclusions.

“There’s still information gathering occurring, so I’d caution anyone reaching conclusions or making pronouncements until all that is in,” said Rubio, who is Senate Intelligence Committee chairman.

https://www.newsmax.com

U.S. Sends Two B-52s on ‘Show-of-Force’ Mission over Persian Gulf

Simon Kent – December 11, 2020

A pair of U.S. B-52H Stratofortresses flew a show-of-force mission across the Persian Gulf on Thursday in a display intended to deter attacks from Iran. The bombers were joined by fighter escorts from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar.

The aircraft, assigned to Louisiana’s Barksdale Air Force Base-headquartered 2nd Bomb Wing, flew a short-notice nonstop mission the military said was “designed to deter aggression” and assure allies and partners the United States can rapidly deploy military power.

“Potential adversaries should understand that no nation on earth is more ready and capable of rapidly deploying additional combat power in the face of any aggression,” U.S. Central Command’s commander, Gen. Frank McKenzie, said.

“Our ability to work together as partners on a mission like this heightens our collective readiness to respond to any crisis or contingency,” McKenzie said.

UPI reports this is the second U.S. show-of-force mission involving B-52s in the region in as many months.

The mission comes two weeks after the assassination of top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in Iran and amid escalating tentions between the United States and Iran, as Breitbart News reported.

https://www.breitbart.com

Father of Iran’s nuclear and missile programs assassinated near Tehran

Debkafiles – November 27, 2020

The reclusive Dr. Mohsen Fakriazadeh, reputed father of Iran’s nuclear weapons and missile programs, was assassinated near Tehran on Friday, Nov. 27. He was attacked by unknown killers in Damavand, Tehran Province, during an armed conflict with his bodyguards. This was confirmed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards of which the scientist was also a brigadier general.

Shariar Heydari, Dep Chairman of Iran’s parliamentary National Security Commission told reporters that the Iranian scientist was martyred when “a car exploded in front of his vehicle followed by gunfire by the terrorists” killing the scientist and one of his bodyguards.

The physicist who operated in the shadows was first prominently named by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in April 2018, during his televised revelation that the Mossad had removed Iran’s vast nuclear archive from a secret warehouse in Tehran. He presented a photograph, saying “Remember that name, Fakhrizadeh.”

After Iran’s physics Research Center (PHRC) was exposed as a military organization, the center changed its name to the Institute of Applied Physics under the codename of AMAD.  Fakhriazadeh took over as head of research and continued the secret nuclear weapons program after Iran signed its 2015 nuclear accord with six world nations. This too was disclosed in the Netanyahu presentation.

In an effort to protect this key director of nuclear weapons development against assassination, photographs of the nuclear scientist were rare and he was surrounded by a protective shield of security. the Iranian authorities also denied numerous requests from the Atomic Energy Agency to interview him. He is the last in a succession of Iranian nuclear scientists who were assassinated over the years.

DEBKAfile adds: No party has claimed responsibility for the removal of the keystone of Iran’s drive for a nuclear bomb, and this assassination may never be officially acknowledged, any more than its precedents.

https://www.debka.com

Tensions spike with Tehran’s threat of revenge after IDF hits al Qods assets in Syria

Debkafiles – November 18, 2020

The IDF exposed the secretive Iranian al Qods Unit 840 operating in Syria on Thursday, Nov. 19, while drawing a threat from Tehran to “enemies and terrorists” of a :harsh revenge” for their “crimes against the Iranian nation. This was in response for a multiple Israeli air strike Tuesday night on a row of eight Iranian and Syrian sites in southwest Syria. Ali Shamkhani, Iran’s national security chief, said, “There is no safe and impenetrable haven for criminals and ill-wishers… that the “powerful hands of the Islamic Republic’s defenders cannot reach, sooner or later…”

The semi-clandestine Iranian al Qods Unit 840 that planted on the Israeli Golan the the anti-personnel mines and improvised explosive devices, which the IDF defused on Tuesday, was revealed by DF spokesman Brig.-Gen. Hidai Zilberman two days later. Unit 840 is responsible among other things, for planning and establishing terror infrastructure outside Iran, he said, for hitting Western targets and opposition groups. He reported that the anti-personnel mines discovered on Monday were planted several weeks ago by local Syrians under the command of the IRGC’s Qods Force, under the close watch of Israeli patrols and reconnaissance drones.

The targets included in Israel’s air raid were an Iranian military complex near Damascus International Airport, a secret military barracks housing high-ranking Iranian officials as well as visiting delegations, a command post for Division 7 of the Syrian army which cooperates with the Quds force, and mobile surface-to-air missile trucks which aimed fire at the Israeli jets during the strikes.

Syrian opposition sources reported at least 10 killed, including 5 members of Iran’s al Qods Force, three Syrian officers and air defense operators, two Iraqi or Lebanese troops as well as several seriously wounded.

The Syrian state SANA news agency earlier reported three military personnel dead. Syrian air defenses were said to have intercepted the “Israeli aggression” in the south of the country and downed a number of missiles.

https://www.debka.com

World War III is now ‘a real risk’

Strange Sounds – November 9, 2020

The corona lockdowns had dramatic consequences on the international and local economies. This fallout has made the prospect of World War 3 ‘a risk’, said General Sir Nick Carter, UK’s most senior military commander.

UK and the rest of the world would need to ‘learn’ from history and the international missteps that led to the previous world wars in the last century given the uncertainties caused by the pandemic. 

Here are the arguments of the Chief of the Defense Staff:

  • The coronavirus pandemic and measures to slow its spread had cost the global economy $3.8 trillion (£3 trillion), and put 147 million people out of work.
  • There was a worry that the increase in regional conflicts playing out across the world could ramp up into ‘a full-blown war’, mirroring the run-up to the two world wars in the 20th century when a series of alliances between countries led to years of bloodshed.
  • The world has become ‘a very uncertain and anxious place’ during the pandemic, and thus there is the possibility ‘you could see escalation lead to miscalculation.’

‘We have to remember that history might not repeat itself but it has a rhythm and if you look back at the last century, before both world wars, I think it was unarguable that there was escalation which led to the miscalculation which ultimately led to war at a scale we would hopefully never see again,‘ said Sir Nick.

World War I began in 1914 after the assassination of Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand ultimately led to Europe’s major powers ending up in conflict.

World War II was precipitated by a stand-off between the increasingly aggressive Nazi Germany and the UK.

So do you think there is a real threat of World War III? I’m just saying it’s a risk and we need to be conscious of those risks.

https://strangesounds.org