Michael Carmichael
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14 - 21 Jan, 2007
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Next ISRAEL PLANS TO NUKE IRAN In 1986, an Israeli civil servant who worked in the state-owned nuclear industry flew to London where he was invited to meet with reporters working for The Sunday Times. In these press briefings, Mordechai Vanunu revealed Israel's top secret - that they were in control of a growing stockpile of nuclear warheads. In the weeks immediately following his explosive revelations, Mr Vanunu visited Rome where agents of the Israeli security services abducted him. Back in Tel Aviv, Mr Vanunu was placed on trial for treason. Tried in a secret court, Vanunu's conviciton was a foregone conclusion, and he served an eighteen-year prison sentence with eleven of those years in solitary confinement. Released in 2004, Mr Vanunu converted to Christianity. Prohibited from travel to other nations where he has been offered academic posts, Mr Vanunu is now living in the sanctuary of a Church in Israel, but this has not stopped his political persecution. Since his release, Mr Vanunu has been arrested four times, and he is now facing 21 charges of contravening a lawful direction, a charge that carries a penalty of two years in prison for each count (ie. 42 years). The European Parliament condemned Israel's treatment of Mr. Vanunu. Amnesty International published a report charging that Israel’s treatment of Mr. Vanunu was, "cruel, inhuman and degrading . . . such as is prohibited by international law." Since his exposé of Israel's nuclear arsenal, Mr. Vanunu has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize seventeen times. Even though his name has been placed in nomination by Joseph Rotblat, Vanunu's Nobel nominations have always been systematically opposed by friends and supporters of the state of Israel. In 1987, Mr. Vanunu received the alternative Nobel Peace Prize (ie. the Right Livelihood Award). In 2005, he was awarded the Peace Prize of the Norwegian people, and he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the prestigious University of Tromso. The state of Israel has consistently blocked his taking up an academic post at the University of Glasgow. The Israeli government prohibits Mr. Vanunu from traveling beyond their borders apparently for fear that he will hold press briefings about their now well-known arsenal of nuclear weapons. Experts now rank Israel third behind only the USA and Russia in holding the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons. In the early 1990s, one of America's premiere journalists, Seymour Hersh, published a best-selling book, The Samson Option, detailing Mr Vanunu's testimony. Hersh's book contained a great deal of new information about Israel's vaunted nuclear defense capability. While the vast majority of the peoples of the earth have known about Israel's nuclear arsenal since 1986, many Americans remain unaware of the existence of WMDs under the direct control of the Israeli defense establishment. In the mid-1990s, Michael Moore - not known for neither his conservatism nor his reflexive support of Israel - made disparaging remarks during an interview that touched on the existence of the Israeli nuclear arsenal - because he was obviously oblivious to either Mordechai Vanunu's testimony or Mr Hersh's bestselling book. In the reports linked below, The Sunday Times have now revealed new evidence that Israel is currently planning to launch a nuclear attack against Iran. Aimed at destroying the embryonic Iranian nuclear industry, the Israeli missiles armed with nuclear war-heads will be delivered via conventional jet fighters according to the latest report. In The Sunday Times coverage, no reference was made to the possibility of a nuclear strike from Israeli submarines that have been equipped with Sea-to-surface missiles that could be fitted with nuclear warheads. Military experts have been reporting the presence of Israeli Dolphin class submarines in the Persian Gulf for the past two years ostensibly to support US naval operations in case Iran attempts to close the Straits of Hormuz. Two years ago, Seymour Hersh began publishing a series of papers in The New Yorker detailing a vast planning project in Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon to attack and wage war on Iran. In the interim, many other authors have now reported details of the highly publicized policy of the Bush-Cheney White House to use military force to compel Iran to abandon any ambitions she might have to develop nuclear weapons. These American military options include the use of nuclear weapons. Elizabeth Cheney, the eldest daughter of Vice President Richard Cheney, is the official at the State Department responsible for a budget of circa $100 million per year to encourage “democracy” inside Iran. From a lengthening series of reports, it is now clear that the Bush-Cheney administration has been severely weakened by the recent midterm elections, and they apparently no longer feel capable of launching a direct nuclear strike against Iran using American forces, weapons and our nuclear arsenal. In negotiations that took place in Washington between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President George Bush - as well as in the highly publicized negotiations between Vice President Dick Cheney and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia - it would now appear that the joint planning to strike Iran has altered only slightly from the grandiose schemes designed by Donald Rumsfeld prior to his abrupt retirement on the day after the midterm elections last year. According to The Sunday Times, there has been a slight re-calibration of the plans for the war against Iran. Rather than a direct American nuclear strike against Iran's hard targets, Israel has been given the assignment of launching the nuclear strike aimed at the nuclear sites in the Iranian cities: Natanz, Isfahan and Arak. What remains to be seen is whether the American media - now ranked 53rd on the International Press Freedom Index - will cover the story - and whether the American people will be informed of the intimate collaboration between the Bush-Cheney White House, the Olmert government in Israel and other governments now known to be involved in the military planning to contain Iran's still nascent nuclear development. Following The Sunday Times detailed coverage of the Israeli plans to launch a nuclear strike against Iran, the government of Israel issued an unconvincing denial. While American politicians of both parties are now openly expressing their opposition to the war in Iraq, relatively few have taken a position on the Bush-Cheney plans for war with Iran. During his confirmation hearings last month, Robert Gates responded to a question about the potential US military intervention against Iran. Mr. Gates stated that such an attack could have, "devastating consequences," for America and its friends in the region. The reality is stark. If Israel were to attack Iran, she would be playing Russian roulette on a grand scale. The retaliation from a broad spectrum of nations and militias in the Middle East could bring about a concerted series of devastating attacks against Israel and American forces in the region where they are arrayed in Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar and the Persian Gulf. There is an old adage in politics: It’s never your enemies who get you into trouble: it’s your friends. References
Mordechai Vanunu
The Mordechai Vanunu website
Free Mordechai Vanunu
Revealed: Israel plans nuclear strike on
Iran
An unholy alliance threatening
catastrophe
Israel will do whatever it takes
Ellsberg warns Bush & Cheney
contemplating 'gravest crime against humanity'
THE COMING WARS
THE IRAN PLANS
Last Update: 01/28/2007 |
