Re: PFTF Feb 14 2012
Attacks May Escalate Covert Israel-Iran War


U.S. officials and defense analysts are concerned that a covert war of assassinations between Israel and Iran could escalate out of control.

“Things are heating up and there is a surge” of assassination attempts, Matthew Levitt, a former U.S. Treasury Department official and now director of the Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said in a telephone interview.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday blamed Iran for car bombings of Israeli diplomatic vehicles in New Delhi and the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. The attacks come after the deaths of several Iranian nuclear scientists, the most recent in a Jan. 11 car bombing in Tehran that Iran said Israel had orchestrated.

Israeli leaders have said time is running out for sanctions to deter Iran from developing nuclear weapons and have not ruled out a military strike. The U.S. and its allies have tightened economic restrictions on Iran while seeking to avert a military conflagration in a region that holds more than half of global oil reserves.

The attacks came a day after the fourth anniversary of the killing of Imad Mughniyeh, who was a leader of the military wing of the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah movement, which Israel and the U.S consider a terrorist organization.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-1 ... -safe.html


Israel accuses Iran of bombings in Georgia, India while Iran rejects claims


Assailants targeted Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia in near-simultaneous strikes Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed on archenemy Iran and its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah. Iran denied responsibility for the attacks.

The bombs, which wounded four people, threatened to ratchet up already high tensions between Iran, which has been accused of developing a nuclear weapons program, and Israel, which says such a program would be an existential threat to the Jewish state.

The violence came as recent comments by Israeli officials have raised concerns Israel might be preparing an imminent strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. U.S. and other Western countries have been pressing Israel to give sanctions more time.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/02/13 ... z1mLX5LzlD


Israeli attack on Iran would be complex operation

If Israel attacked Iran's nuclear facilities, the strike would probably take the form of a complex air assault involving scores of planes that would have to penetrate Iranian air defenses and attack up to a couple of dozen targets simultaneously, analysts say.

"This would be way more sophisticated than anything that's ever been done before," said Charles Wald, a retired Air Force general who led the coalition air campaign in Afghanistan that helped topple the Taliban.

By contrast, Israel's strike on Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor in 1981 and an attack in Syria in 2007 were simpler operations that required Israel to hit a single above-ground target. Neither country had sophisticated air defense capabilities.

There would be nothing "surgical" in a strike on Iranian facilities, Wald said.

Iranians have learned from Israeli attacks in Syria and Iraq, Wald said. Iran's nuclear facilities are dispersed throughout the country, some of which are being hardened to withstand bomb blasts, said Colin Kahl, a Georgetown professor and former Pentagon official overseeing Middle East policy. Pilots would face a network of radar and anti-aircraft missiles designed to protect Iran's airspace.

Middle East analysts say it is difficult to predict precisely how any attack might unfold.



http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/stor ... 53083160/1




Fresh violence in Syria as U.N. warns of civil war

Syrian government forces renewed their assault on the rebellious city of Homs on Tuesday, activists said, as the U.N. human rights chief raised fears of civil war.


Troops loyal to President Bashar Assad have been shelling Homs for more than a week to retake parts of the city captured by rebel forces. Hundreds are believed to have been killed since last Saturday, and the humanitarian conditions in the city were worsening.

Homs was under "brutal shelling" on Tuesday, the Local Coordination Committees activist group said, citing its network of witnesses on the ground.

With diplomatic efforts bogged down, the conflict in Syria is taking on the dimensions of a civil war, with army defectors clashing almost daily with soldiers.

U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay warned on Monday that the Security Council's failure to take action has emboldened the Syrian government to launch an all-out assault.

The uprising began last March as mostly peaceful protests against Assad's authoritarian rule, but has become more militarized in the face of the brutal military crackdown.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/stor ... titialskip
_________________
In loving memory of my son Chris April 12 1985-June 19 2007


I don’t think it’s a matter of “is it coming.” I think that it’s already here, it’s just a matter of perspective. From one perspective, our frog friends are telling us that we should be grateful that the “spa” is hot and luxurious. From the cook’s perspective… another 10 minutes and we’ll be dinner.