any word yet?

is that you ernie?////

The Sunday Times January 07, 2007

Revealed: Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran

Uzi Mahnaimi, New York and Sarah Baxter, Washington

ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.

Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources.

The attack would be the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb.

Under the plans, conventional laser-guided bombs would open “tunnels” into the targets. “Mini-nukes” would then immediately be fired into a plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to reduce the risk of radioactive fallout.

“As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished,” said one of the sources.

The plans, disclosed to The Sunday Times last week, have been prompted in part by the Israeli intelligence service Mossad’s assessment that Iran is on the verge of producing enough enriched uranium to make nuclear weapons within two years.

Israeli military commanders believe conventional strikes may no longer be enough to annihilate increasingly well-defended enrichment facilities. Several have been built beneath at least 70ft of concrete and rock. However, the nuclear-tipped bunker-busters would be used only if a conventional attack was ruled out and if the United States declined to intervene, senior sources said.

Israeli and American officials have met several times to consider military action. Military analysts said the disclosure of the plans could be intended to put pressure on Tehran to halt enrichment, cajole America into action or soften up world opinion in advance of an Israeli attack.

Some analysts warned that Iranian retaliation for such a strike could range from disruption of oil supplies to the West to terrorist attacks against Jewish targets around the world.

Israel has identified three prime targets south of Tehran which are believed to be involved in Iran’s nuclear programme:

# Natanz, where thousands of centrifuges are being installed for uranium enrichment

# A uranium conversion facility near Isfahan where, according to a statement by an Iranian vice-president last week, 250 tons of gas for the enrichment process have been stored in tunnels

# A heavy water reactor at Arak, which may in future produce enough plutonium for a bomb

Israeli officials believe that destroying all three sites would delay Iran’s nuclear programme indefinitely and prevent them from having to live in fear of a “second Holocaust”.

The Israeli government has warned repeatedly that it will never allow nuclear weapons to be made in Iran, whose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has declared that “Israel must be wiped off the map”.

Robert Gates, the new US defence secretary, has described military action against Iran as a “last resort”, leading Israeli officials to conclude that it will be left to them to strike.

Israeli pilots have flown to Gibraltar in recent weeks to train for the 2,000-mile round trip to the Iranian targets. Three possible routes have been mapped out, including one over Turkey.

Air force squadrons based at Hatzerim in the Negev desert and Tel Nof, south of Tel Aviv, have trained to use Israel’s tactical nuclear weapons on the mission. The preparations have been overseen by Major General Eliezer Shkedi, commander of the Israeli air force.

Sources close to the Pentagon said the United States was highly unlikely to give approval for tactical nuclear weapons to be used. One source said Israel would have to seek approval “after the event”, as it did when it crippled Iraq’s nuclear reactor at Osirak with airstrikes in 1981.

Scientists have calculated that although contamination from the bunker-busters could be limited, tons of radioactive uranium compounds would be released.

The Israelis believe that Iran’s retaliation would be constrained by fear of a second strike if it were to launch its Shehab-3 ballistic missiles at Israel.

However, American experts warned of repercussions, including widespread protests that could destabilise parts of the Islamic world friendly to the West.

Colonel Sam Gardiner, a Pentagon adviser, said Iran could try to close the Strait of Hormuz, the route for 20% of the world’s oil.

Some sources in Washington said they doubted if Israel would have the nerve to attack Iran. However, Dr Ephraim Sneh, the deputy Israeli defence minister, said last month: “The time is approaching when Israel and the international community will have to decide whether to take military action against Iran.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2535310,00.html

September 11th

Later the Mujahideen saw that the gang of black-hearted criminals in the White House was misrepresenting the event, and that their leader, who is a fool whom all obey, was claiming that we were jealous of their way of life, while the truth - which the Pharaoh of our generation conceals - is that we strike at them because of the way they oppress us in the Muslim world, especially in Palestine and Iraq, and because of their occupation of the Land of the Two Holy Places. When the Mujahideen saw this they decided to act in secret and to move the battle right into his [the U.S. president\'s] country and his own territory.

On that blessed Tuesday, the 23rd of jumada al-thani, 1422, which corresponds to September 11th, 2001, while the Zio-American alliance was still using American tanks and planes and Jewish hands to reap [the lives] of our sons and our people in the land of al-Aqsa; while our sons in Iraq were dying as a result of the oppression of the unjust siege [inflicted on them] by America and her agents; and while the Muslim world was still very far from genuinely supporting Islam; while things were in this state of frustration, desperation and procrastination -- on the part of the Muslims, with the exception of those on whom Allah had had mercy, -- and a state of injustice, arrogance and aggression -- on the part of the Zio-American alliance; and while the land of Uncle Sam, heedless in its transgressions, bellowing its tyranny, \'puffed up its cheeks in contempt of the people and strutted merrily on the face of the earth,\'[22]without paying heed to anyone, believing that nothing could harm it -- then disaster struck them.

Come let me tell you what that terrible disaster means: the \'unkempt of hair and dusty of foot\'[23]pounced -- they who are everywhere hunted down, young men who believed in their Lord, whom Allah had guided to the right path, whose hearts He had strengthened and filled with faith. [These young men, when it comes to acting] for Allah\'s cause, do not fear \'the reprimands of those who seek to find fault\'[24]because they desire only Allah\'s recompense; their hearts do not allow them to close to injustice; they sacrifice their lives, but never their honor.

They carried out the raid by means of enemy planes in a courageous and splendid operation the like of which mankind had never before witnessed. They smashed the American idols and damaged its very heart, the Pentagon. They struck the very heart of the American economy, rubbed America\'s nose in the dirt and dragged its pride through the mud. The towers of New York collapsed, and their collapse precipitated an even greater debacle: the collapse of the myth of America the great power and the collapse of the myth of democracy; people began to understand that American values could sink no lower. The myth of the land of freedom was destroyed, the myth of American National security was smashed and the myth of the CIA collapsed, all praise and thanks to Allah.

One of the most important positive results of the raids on New York and Washington was the revelation of the truth regarding the conflict between the Crusaders and the Muslims. [The raids] revealed the strength of the hatred which the Crusaders feel towards us, as the two raids peeled the lamb\'s skin off the back of the American wolf and revealed the hideous truth. The whole world awoke from its slumber, and the Muslims were alerted to the importance of the [Muslim] principle which states that positions of alliance or hostility may be taken [only] for the sake of Allah. The spirit of religious brotherhood among Muslims was likewise strengthened, which constitutes a great step forward along the road towards uniting Muslims under the banner of monotheism in order to establish the rightly-guided Caliphate, God willing. People discovered that it was possible to strike at America, that oppressive power, and that it was possible to humiliate it, to bring it into contempt and to defeat it. For the first time, the majority of the American people [now] understand the truth of the Palestinian issue and that what hit them in Manhattan is a result of the oppressive policy of their government.

To sum up: America is a great power possessed of tremendous military might and a wide-ranging economy, but all this is built upon an unstable foundation which can be targeted, with special attention to its obvious weak spots. If it [America] is hit in one hundredth of those spots, God willing, it will stumble, wither away and relinquish world leadership and its oppression.

A small group of young Islamic [fighters] managed, despite the international alliance drawn up against them, to provide people with [concrete] proof of the fact that it is possible to wage war upon and fight against a so-called \'great power.\' They managed to protect their religion and effectively to serve the objectives of their Nation better than the governments and peoples of the fifty-odd countries of the Muslim world, because they used Jihad as a means to defend their faith. As Abu Hilala[25]said: \'Victory has its reasons, as does defeat, and any means which brings victory is worthwhile; the paths which lead to exalted ends are different, and the shortest of them is that which sheds blood and which has noble people [standing] at both its sides.\'

Osama bin Laden, 11 Feb 2003

http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP47603