Sounds like they are gearing up for W.W. 111.

[Carsten Wiethoff]

From http://debka.com/article/8665/
(Just keep in mind the political position of Debka)

Obama recalls bunker-buster bomb kits to bar Israeli strike on Iran
DEBKAfile Special Report March 20, 2010, 6:54 PM (GMT+02:00)
Tags: bunker-busters Israel Obama

Advanced BLU-100 recalled by President Obama

Shortly after Vice President Joe Biden's Israel visit ended on March 11 in high dudgeon over the approval 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem, US president Barack Obama ordered a consignment of Joint Direct Attack Munition- JDAM already on its way to Israel to be diverted to the US Air Force base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. This step, the pointer to a US arms embargo for preventing Israel attacking Iran's nuclear sites, is first revealed here by debkafile's military sources.
US military sources describe the consignment as consisting of 387 JDAM kits for attachment to the warheads of 2,000-pound BLU-109/MK-84 or the 1,000-pound BLU-110/MK-83 bunker-busters for their conversion into smart bombs.
On March 13, debkafile disclosed that the Obama administration was pondering withholding from Israel military hardware that could be used for an Israeli attack on Iran. In late February, we reported that defense minister Ehud Barak had submitted to defense secretary Robert Gates a list of the items Israel required urgently to stand up to a four-front assault by Iran and its allies - mainly air force ordnance, certain types of missile and advanced electronic devices. Barak made it clear that all these items must be present in Israel before the outbreak of hostilities. The requests were so urgent that the minister proposed that if Washington was reluctant to hand them directly to Israel, they could be stored for the interim in the big American emergency depots in Israel's Negev.
The 387 DJAP kits were due for delivery at one of the Israeli Air Force's Negev bases in March. Because of his concern over the US president's step to divert the shipment, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu decided to take the defense minister with him to Washington next Monday, March 22 and have him present at the meeting with Obama which the US media reports has been fixed for Tuesday (the day after his address to the AIPAC annual conference). Together they will ask for the delayed munitions to be released and handed over as part of any general understandings they may reach.
debkafile reports that the pair of Israeli Gulfstream Vs converted to spy planes sighted over Budapest on March 17 may have been an Israeli signal of its concern over White House measures for keeping the means of attacking Iran out of its hands.
The long-haul flights, demonstrating the Israel Air Force's ability to cover the distance to Iran, took the aircraft over Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania as well as Hungary. The two planes carried out maneuvers over Budapest international airport with no attempt at concealment.
Because they fly in pairs, Western aviation experts say the electronic measures aboard are able to detect the functioning of electronic devices, radar stations, communications centers and cell phones on the ground, locate them and relay the data for warplanes to destroy them.
Two years ago, in June 2008, Israel deployed more that 100 Air Force F-16 and F-15 warplanes over Greece and the Aegean Sea in a big exercise designed to showcase its long-range capabilities.

[Ed Jewett]

Blink. (Phew!)

[David Guyatt]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/...30129.html

UN inspectors to investigate 'new Iranian nuclear plants'
By Stephen Foley in New York
Monday, 29 March 2010SHARE PRINTEMAILTEXT SIZE NORMALLARGEEXTRA LARGE
International inspectors are preparing to search for two new uranium enrichment sites in Iran, which the country says it plans to build in defiance of United Nations demands. According to reports, the UN inspectors are taking seriously claims by the head of Iran's atomic energy organisation that Tehran has ordered work to begin on new plants, and are trying to avoid a repeat of the debacle over the enrichment site at Qom, which Iran was able to keep hidden until last year.

Western intelligence sources also told The New York Times this weekend that Iran had already amassed the equipment for new enrichment plants. UN inspectors are focusing on an interview with the Iranian Student News Agency by Ali Akbar Salehi, the country's atomic energy chief. He said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had ordered work on two new enrichment plants, which "will be built inside mountains", presumably to protect them from attacks.

The reports come as the US is piling pressure on Russia and China to support additional sanctions. David Axelrod, President Barack Obama's chief strategist expressed optimism for a deal yesterday. On Saturday, Russia's President, Dmitry Medvedev, had said that additional punishment for Iran is not the best option, but added that such a step can't be excluded.

Armed with shaky intelligence, the US is headed into today's meeting of the G8 group of industrialised nations hoping to bolster the Western consensus for additional sanctions. Canada, which holds the chair of the G8, has put the issue on the agenda for the meeting of foreign ministers in the Quebec town of Gatineau. Lawrence Cannon, Canada's Foreign Minister, said last week: "I believe we are left with little choice but to pursue additional sanctions against Iran, ideally through the UN Security Council."

[Ed Jewett]

Would the U.S. Shoot Down an Israeli Jet? Top Officer Won’t Say

* By Noah Shachtman
* April 20, 2010 |
* 3:07 pm |
* Categories: Iraq
*

100419-N-0696M-369MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — I’m not going to make a big deal of this, although some dug deep in the trenches of the Middle East debate might. But America’s top military officer wouldn’t rule the possibility today of U.S. forces firing on Israeli jets, if Israel launched a pre-emptive strike on Iran.

In a town hall on the campus of the University of West Virginia, a young airman asked Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen to respond to a “rumor.” If Israel decided to attack Iran, the speculation went, those jet would need to fly through Iraqi airspace to reach their targets. That airspace is considered a “no-fly” zone by the American military. So might U.S. troops shoot down the Israeli jets, the airmen asked the chairman, if they breached that airspace?

Mullen tried to sidestep the question. “We have an exceptionally strong relationship with Israel. I’ve spent a lot of time with my counterpart in Israel. So we also have a very clear understanding of where we are. And beyond that, I just wouldn’t get into the speculation of what might happen and who might do what. I don’t think it serves a purpose, frankly,” he said. “I am hopeful that this will be resolved in a way where we never have to answer a question like that.”

The airmen followed-up: “Would an airmen like me ever be ordered to fire on an Israeli – aircraft or personnel?”

Mullen’s second answer was much the same as his first. “Again, I wouldn’t move out into the future very far from here. They’re an extraordinarily close ally, have been for a long time, and will be in the future,” the admiral said.

Does this represent a shift in American policy towards Israel? Some signal that the U.S. would stop an Israeli first strike at the final moment? Probably not. I’d guess this is Mullen trying not to wade further into treacherous waters. But it was interesting to hear America’s top military officer decline to knock down the idea that U.S. troops might fire on America’s closest ally in the Middle East.

[PHOTO: The Joint Staff via Flickr]

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/04/top-officer-iraq-no-fly-zone-applies-to-israeli-jets/#more-23805#ixzz0lgCFHGlb


Israel Weighs Merits of Solo Attack on Iran
--Officials, Seeing Impending Policy Split With U.S.,
Debate Prospect of a Military Strike Without Washington's Consent

21 Apr 2010

The Israeli security establishment is divided over whether it needs Washington's blessing if Israel decides to attack Iran, Israeli officials say, as the U.S. campaign for sanctions drags on and Tehran steadily develops greater nuclear capability... Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reiterated Sunday the U.S. position that a military strike against Iran is a "last option."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405...WhatsNewsSecond

[Ed Jewett]

The U.S. Will NOT Conduct A Military Strike Against Iran: U.S. Official

An Iranian flag outside the reactor of the Bushehr nuclear power plant
in the southern Iran. Photo AFP

US Official: Iran Military Strike 'Off The Table' -- Washington Post/AP

SINGAPORE -- The U.S. has ruled out a military strike against Iran's nuclear program any time soon, hoping instead negotiations and United Nations sanctions will prevent the Middle East nation from developing nuclear weapons, a top U.S. defense department official said Wednesday.

"Military force is an option of last resort," Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy said during a press briefing in Singapore. "It's off the table in the near term."

Read more ....

More News On The U.S. Deciding Not To Strike Against Iran's Nuclear Program

US weighs Iran military option -- BBC
US attack on Iran seen unlikely, for time being -- Global Times
US official rules out military strike against Iran any time soon -- Earth Times
Admiral Mullen on Iran: Diplomacy First, Attack Last -- Epoch Times
Mullen: No Attack on Iran -- Hamsayah.net
Mullen Defends Plans to Keep Iran From Getting Nuclear Weapons -- Bloomberg/Business Week
US top military official says strike against Iran would halt nuclear programme -- The Telegraph
US has limited options in stopping Iranian nukes -- Boston.com/AP
Get ready to live with nuclear Iran -- H.D.S. Greenway, Boston.com
America in Iran's Crosshairs? -- FOX News
Gates' Memo on Iran: Controversial but Correct -- Time Magazine

as compiled by Snuffysmith

[Ed Jewett]

Pentagon Repudiates Undersecretary: Attack on Iran Always an Option

Iran Reiterates Criticism of Nuclear Threat

by Jason Ditz, April 21, 2010

Email This | Print This | Share This | Comment | Antiwar Forum
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell quickly repudiated comments from one of the Defense Department’s undersecretaries today, insisting that attack Iran at any time is “always an option.”
The latest comments came in response to Undersecretary Flournoy’s claims earlier this morning that a military attack against Iran was “off the table in the near term” and that the Obama Administration was focusing on “engagement and pressure.”
The US has been threatening to attack Iran for years, but those threats have gotten increasingly direct since President Obama took office last year.
Meanwhile Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei reiterated his nation’s outrage at the Obama Administration’s threat to launch a nuclear first strike against Iran. Earlier this month, President Obama announced that the US would never launch a nuclear first strike against a non-nuclear power, but then quickly noted that Iran was explicitly excluded from this pledge.






["Okay, scratch that... get those bombs out of the bunker" and " "No, no, put them away.." "No, we have our orders and ..."


I'm guessing this is a typical day inside the District of Criminals and particularly in their palaces where their worship Mars or Moloch or whomever...



Evidence of a power struggle ... ]

[Magda Hassan]

Evidence of a power struggle ...

Gentlemen! There is no fighting in the War Room!