Prepare Now for the Coming Middle East War

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Companion Thread:

• Is Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco and Libya Facing Real Unrest or a Manufactured Crisis?
• The Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated both the Clinton and Obama Administrations

Egypt sends forces to Sinai, threatens Israel

Saber-rattling in a prelude to discarding the Camp David accords altogether.

"Egypt’s military leader responds to Lieberman with threat of violence," by Elhanan Miller for the Times of Israel, April 23 (thanks to David):

In remarks apparently directed at Israel, Field Marshal Muhammad Hussein Tantawi, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) and the country’s de facto leader, threatened on Monday to thwart any foreign aggression against Egypt. He was speaking in the wake of reports, widely covered in the Egyptian media, that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has warned of an imminent military threat emanating from Egypt. “Our borders are constantly burning, but we do not attack any neighboring country but only protect our borders,” Tantawi told Egyptian press during a live ammunition maneuver in the Sinai Peninsula titled “Nasr 7.” “If anyone comes close to Egypt’s border, we will break their leg. Therefore, our forces must be in a perpetual state of alert.”

A second senior military figure, Major General Muhammad Higazi, commander of Egypt’s Second Field Army, also issued a tacit threat, warning that potential aggressors should “reconsider before thinking of attacking any part of Egypt’s territory.”

In Jerusalem, the Foreign Ministry sought to calm the dispute.

“The foreign minister was interviewed today on two Israeli radio stations,” a spokesman said on Monday evening, “and he made it very clear that both sides have a clear interest in keeping the peace agreement.”

On Sunday, the Hebrew daily Maariv reported that Lieberman recently sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warning him about a potential threat from Egypt and requesting that Israel’s southern command be reinforced by three military divisions. “The Egyptian issue is much more disturbing than the Iranian problem,” Lieberman was reported to have said during closed discussions on the topic.

Lieberman’s comments were prominently covered in Egyptian media on Monday, sparking condemnation from commentators and politicians.

Egypt’s Foreign Ministry asked the Israeli government on Monday to clarify the statements attributed to Lieberman.

Foreign Minister Muhammad Amr asked his ambassador in Tel Aviv to inquire about statements comparing the Egyptian threat to that of Iran, establishment daily Al-Ahram reported Monday.

“[The Egyptian ambassador] will convey Egypt’s bewilderment at the publication of such words, attributed to a senior official in the Israeli government,” read a statement issued by Egypt’s Foreign Ministry.

According to Maariv, Lieberman also criticized the fighting capabilities of the seven battalions Egypt sent to the Sinai recently to combat al-Qaeda operatives in the peninsula. The minister could not rule out the possibility that Egypt will divert more substantial military forces to the Sinai following the election of a new president in June, in violation of the 1979 peace treaty with Israel, Maariv reported.

“The Egyptian fighter will secure the eastern borders of the country,” said Major General Muhammad Higazi, commander of Egypt’s Second Field Army, during the Sinai maneuver. “The ongoing training is a clear message for all to reconsider before thinking of attacking any part of Egypt’s territory,” he told Al-Ahram.

The daily quoted Higazi as saying that Egypt’s armed forces sent troops to the northern Sinai city of Al-Arish, near the border with the Gaza Strip, “without asking permission from anyone.”

“We act based on what influences us, not according to what the other side [Israel] imposes on us,” Higazi added.

[Ryan Ruck]

Israel's Key Energy Provider, Egypt, Cuts Off All Natural Gas Supplies

April 22, 2012

Two months ago, we warned that while the world had decided to blissfully move on from last year's topic #1, the MENA revolutions, and specifically the massive power vacuum left in their wake, things in the region were far from fixed. Quite the contrary, and as we added back then "it is very likely that the Mediterranean region, flanked on one side by the broke European countries of Greece, Italy, Spain (and implicitly Portugal), and on the other by the unstable powder keg of post-revolutionary Libya and Egypt, will likely become quite active yet again. Only this time, in addition to social and economic upheavals, a religious flavor may also be added to the mix". Yet nobody cared as after a year of daily videos showing Molotov Cocktails dropping like flies, people had simply gotten habituated and needed some other source of excitement. Nobody cared also when a week ago Art Cashin warned that the hidden geopolitcal risk is not Spain but Egypt. Today, Egypt just reminded at least one country why perhaps caution about the instability caused by having a military in charge of the most populous Arabic country and the one boasting "the Canal", should have been heeded after Egypt just announced that it is cutting off its natural gas supplies to Israel, which just so happens relies on Egypt for 40% of its energy needs. From Reuters:

Egypt's energy companies have terminated a long-term deal to supply Israel with gas after the cross-border pipeline sustained months of sabotage since a revolt last year, a stakeholder in the deal said on Sunday.

Ampal-American Israel Corporation, a partner in the East Mediterreanean Gas Company (EMG), which operates the pipeline, said the Egyptian companies involved had notified EMG they were "terminating the gas and purchase agreement".

And judging by the sound and fury emanating from Israel the move was hardly expected:

The company said in a statement that the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation and Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company had notified them of the decision, adding that "EMG considers the termination attempt unlawful and in bad faith, and consequently demanded its withdrawal".

It said EMG, Ampal, and EMG's other international shareholders were "considering their options and legal remedies as well as approaching the various governments".

Before the sabotage, Egypt supplied about 40 percent of Israel's natural gas, which is the country's main energy source.

Suddenly Israel may have bigger things to worry about that whether or not to leak its Iran invasion plas on national TV:

Israeli officials have said the country was at risk of facing summer power outages due to energy shortages.

Companies invested in the Israeli-Egyptian venture have taken a hit from numerous explosions of the cross-border pipeline and are seeking compensation from the Egyptian government of billions of dollars.

Ampal and two other companies have sought $8 billion in damages from Egypt for not safeguarding their investment.

Furthermore, if the Egyptian move is indeed an escalation in strategic alliance shifts in the region, it could have truly huge implications:

The Egyptian decision is a potential blow to the country's ties with Israel, already tested by the toppling of Israeli ally President Hosni Mubarak a year ago.

Egypt was the first of two Arab countries to sign a peace trety with Israel, in 1979, followed by Jordan in 1994.a

Has the country's endless warmongering calls for a preemptive war against Iran backfired epically? We won't know for a while, but what we do know is that any government left in the power of military elites, is, how should we say it, unstable... for the simple reason that a military regime tends to require war to remind people why it is in charge. And the Egyptian "transitional" military government appears pretty much set to become permanent. Again from Reuters:

Ex-foreign minister Amr Moussa, a leading contender for Egypt's presidency, said on Sunday he would give the military a voice in key policies via a national security council, a move to reassure ruling generals about their status after a power transfer.

Moussa, a self-described liberal nationalist whose main election rivals are Islamists, also said Egypt needed a president with lobbying skills to work effectively with the Islamist-dominated parliament and other institutions after decades of autocratic government.

Which means add one more election to the already surging roster of short-term catalysts now including France, Greece, Germany and, as of yesterday, the Netherlands:

Egypt's presidential vote that starts on May 23-24 will mark the final stage of a transition to civilian rule from generals who took charge after Hosni Mubarak was ousted last year.

Unfortunately for Israel, either outcome will likely be a choice between a rock and a hard place, as the country appears to be rapidly alienating its one core catalytic long-term ally in the region.

Moussa, 75, said the national security council, to be chaired by the president, would include senior cabinet ministers plus top military officers. It would have a broad national security brief, he told a news conference.

"It has to consider all issues pertaining to national security and not only issues of defence or war, etc, but issues like water, issues like relations with neighbours," said Moussa, a former head of the Arab League.

"(The council) will be a power house on those issues of major priority for the national life," he added.

Other candidates, including one Islamist, have made similar suggestions but Moussa's proposal and his plans as a whole are more detailed than most.

...

The army has said it will hand over power and return to barracks by July 1, leaving the new president in charge.

But various comments from army officials, usually in private, or from the military-appointed cabinet have indicated that the military wants a longer term role in protecting broad interests that range from businesses to national security, and wants to guide state affairs that could impact them.

The only question Israel may want to answer now is whether it wants to get cozy with Russia, whose nat gas it may suddenly be very, very attractive. And for that to happen, it means a huge softening in its anti-Iran tone, which in turn will have a huge impact on regional geopolitics, and specifically the risk of war in Iran, and thus the price of Brent. All of this, of course assumes, Israel does not immediately retaliate against Egypt, recently a big recipient of US aid, not to mention tear gas, and start a pre-emptive two front pre-war...

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France: UN should prepare military option in Syria

Security Council unlikely to back the idea

April 25, 2012, 7:33 pm

Syrian protestors gather around U.N. observers during their visit in Douma near the capital of Damascus, Syria, April 23, 2012 (photo credit: AP)

PARIS (AP) — France wants the UN Security Council to consider allowing military action in Syria if an international peace plan fails to stop the violence under Bashar Assad’s regime, the French foreign minister said Wednesday.

Alain Juppe’s comments signaled that Paris is increasingly lining up behind a US position laid out by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton last week.

But the prospect of the Security Council backing military action in Syria is remote because veto-wielding members Russia and China are unlikely to go along.

The Syrian government’s crackdown on a popular uprising is estimated to have killed more than 9,000 people over the past 13 months.

The French foreign minister demanded that 300 U.N. observers authorized to go to Syria be deployed within 15 days and said France has all but set a May 5 deadline for Damascus to comply with special envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan.

“We think this mediation should be given a chance, on the condition that the deployment of the observer mission happens quickly,” Juppe said after a meeting with Syrian dissidents at his ministry. The plan isn’t dead, he said, but “it is severely compromised”

Annan’s scheduled May 5 report on the state of a cease-fire called for under his six-point peace plan will be “a moment of truth: Either this mediation is working, or it isn’t,” Juppe said.

“We cannot allow ourselves to be defied by the current regime,” he added, insisting that Assad’s government has not held to the Annan plan.

Juppe said France has been discussing with other world powers the prospect of invoking Chapter 7 of the UN charter, which allows for action that could be militarily enforceable.

During Paris talks last week by key members of the so-called “Friends of Syria” group, Clinton also mentioned a Chapter 7 resolution despite concern that it would be vetoed by Russia and China. Russia, in particular, has largely defended its longtime ally Syria against the threat of UN sanctions.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

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Iran readying hacker attacks on U.S. infrastructure, specialists say

By Shaun Waterman
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The Washington Times
Wednesday, April 25, 2012

• Enlarge Photo
  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Associated Press)

Iran is recruiting a hacker army to target the U.S. power grid, water systems and other vital infrastructure for cyberattack in a future confrontation with the United States, security specialists will warn Congress Thursday.

“Elements of the IRGC [Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps] have openly sought to pull hackers into the fold” of a religiously motivated cyberarmy, according to Frank J. Cilluffo, director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University.

Lawmakers from two House Homeland Security subcommittees will hold a joint hearing Thursday about the cyberthreat posed by Iran, as tensions over Tehran’s nuclear program continue at a high level, and a possible Israeli strike looms.

The Washington Times obtained advance copes of witnesses’ prepared testimony.

In his remarks, Mr. Cilluffo says that, in addition to the recruiting by the IGRC, another extremist militia, the Basij, “are paid to do cyber work on behalf of the regime, [and] provide much of the manpower for Iran’s cyber-operations.”

Both militias are believed to be under the control of Iran’s clerical leadership, headed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei. Two Revolutionary Guard leaders have been indicted by U.S.prosecutors for their part in an alleged conspiracy to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States by bombing a prominent Washington restaurant.

“Over the past three years, the Iranian regime has invested heavily in both defensive and offensive capabilities in cyberspace,” states testimony from Ilan Berman, vice president of the hawkish American Foreign Policy Council, in his remarks for Thursday’s hearing.

Estimates of the skill level of Iran’s hacker army vary, but Mr. Cilluffo points out that there is a veritable “arms bazaar of cyberweapons” currently accessible through the Internet hacker underworld.
“Adversaries do not need capabilities, just intent and cash,” he states.

Mr. Cilluffo was recruited by former President George W. Bush on Sept 12, 2001, the day after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He helped set up the first Office of Homeland Security in the White House. He left for George Washington University in 2003.

In 2009, Iran’s nuclear program was attacked by a cyberweapon called Stuxnet. Although there is no definitive evidence of Stuxnet’s origins, Iran has blamed the United States and Israel and has been girding for a conflict in cyberspace ever since.

“For the Iranian regime … the conclusion [drawn from Stuxnet] is clear: War with the West, at least on the cyberfront, has [already] been joined, and the Iranian regime is mobilizing,” states Mr. Berman.

The tensions between Iran and the West have taken other unconventional forms besides cyberwarfare.

Iran claimed this month that it has been able to copy sensitive technology from a U.S. drone that crashed over its territory. It has also accused the United States and Israel of killing several of its nuclear scientists.

The congressional testimony comes as the world waits for the next round of talks about Iran’s nuclear program — which Tehran insists is for peaceful purposes — next month in Iraq.

The United States and other member of the U.N. Security Council are pushing Iran to end its program of uranium enrichment. In exchange, trusted third countries would provide fuel for its civilian nuclear program.

Enriched uranium can be used as fuel, but it can also quickly be further enriched and used in a nuclear weapon.

As negotiators prepare for the next round of talks, the tightening screw of international sanctions and the still-looming threat of an Israeli military strike against Iran’s nuclear sites have provoked angry threats from leading figures in the Revolutionary Guards.

Mr. Cilluffo points out that “Iran is not monolithic: command and control there is murky, even within the IRGC [Revolutionary Guards], let alone what is outsourced.”

He notes that the Lebanese-based militant Hezbollah movement — which the Iranians have frequently used as a terrorist proxy — has begun recruiting its own cybermilitia of skilled hackers.

“Iran has a long history of demonstrated readiness to ploy proxies for terrorist purposes,” Mr. Cilluffo’s testimony states.

“There is little, if any, reason to think that Iran would hesitate to engage proxies to conduct cyberstrikes against perceived adversaries.”

Those proxies could make it might be hard to prove that Iran was behind the attacks.

Mr. Berman’s testimony notes that an extremist newspaper affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards last year warned the United States to “worry about ‘an unknown player somewhere in the world’ attacking a section of [U.S.] critical infrastructure.”

In 2009 and 2010, a hacker group calling itself the Iranian Cyber Army attacked Twitter and the Chinese search engine Baidu, as well as Iranian websites belonging to the opposition Green Movement.

“In the event of a conflict in the Persian Gulf” attacks like that on Twitter “could provide Iran an avenue for psychological operations directed against the U.S. public,” states Mr. Cilluffo.

Such operations would aim at sowing fear and confusion by attacking systems Americans rely on in their daily lives.

In a Persian Gulf military stand off, Iran might also combine computer-network attacks against U.S. military information and communications systems with more conventional jamming techniques “to degrade U.S. and allied radar systems, complicating both offensive and defensive operations,” Mr. Cilluffo adds.

Some parts of the federal government like U.S. Strategic Command and the State Department’s Nonpoliferation Bureau have begun to pay attention to the Iranian cyber threat, but no one in the administration is “tasked with comprehensively addressing the Iranian cyberwarfare threat,” Mr. Berman warns.

“The U.S. government, in other words, has not yet even begun to get ready for cyberwar with Iran,” he concludes.

[Ryan Ruck]

Now this is interesting especially given the problems with the F-22 and the risk of loss of pilot/aircraft. Maybe these are ones that have been vetted and haven't been having problems?

New US Stealth Fighters Now at Iran's Back Door

April 27, 2012

America's most sophisticated stealth jet fighters have been quietly deployed to an allied base less than 200 miles from Iran's mainland, according to an industry report, but the Air Force adamantly denied the jets' presence is a threat to the Middle East nation.

Multiple stealth F-22 Raptors, which have never been combat-tested, are in hangars at the United Arab Emirates' Al Dafra Air Base, just a short hop over the Persian Gulf from Iran's southern border, the trade publication Aviation Week reported.

Air Force spokesperson Lt. Col. John Dorrian would not confirm the exact location of the F-22s, but told ABC News they had been deployed to a base in Southwest Asia -- a region that includes the UAE. Dorrian also stressed that the F-22s were simply taking part in a scheduled deployment and are "not a threat to Iran."

"This is a very normal deployment to strengthen military relationships, promote sovereign and regional security, improve combined tactical air operations and enhance interoperability of forces," Dorrian said.

The F-22 has only been in the UAE once before for training missions in 2009 with "coalition partners."

Dorrian declined to say what the Raptors' mission was in the region this time around or how many planes had been deployed, citing operational security. However, Dorrian said that because of the F-22's next-generation capabilities, any number of planes deployed to the region is "significant."

Though the F-22 has been officially combat operational since December 2005, no planes from the Air Force fleet -- which are made by defense contracting giant Lockheed Martin and cost an estimated $79 billion -- have seen combat. The plane was not used in Iraq, Afghanistan or in the U.S.-led no-fly mission over Libya. The Air Force has said the sophisticated jets simply haven't been needed yet.

But Jeff Babione, Lockheed Martin's vice president for the F-22 program, told ABC News last year that the plane was "absolutely" suited for taking on more sophisticated adversaries and could be used in deep penetration strike missions in well-defended combat zones inside places like North Korea or Iran.

Air Force: F-22s Ready for War, Despite Mystery Problem

The new deployment comes in the midst of the Air Forces' continuing battle with a rare but sustained oxygen problem plaguing the F-22. Since 2008, nearly two dozen pilots have reported experiencing "hypoxia-like symptoms" in mid-air. The problem got so bad that the Air Force grounded the planes for nearly five months last year in hopes of fixing the problem but never could.

The service also does not know what caused the malfunction that cut off F-22 pilot Capt. Jeff Haney's oxygen shortly before he fatally crashed during a training mission in Alaska in 2010.

But despite the ongoing issues, the Air Force says the F-22 is ready for war, should it be called.

"If our nation needs a capability to enter contested air space, to deal with air forces that are trying to deny our forces the ability to maneuver without prejudice on the ground, it will be the F-22 that takes on that mission," Air Force Maj. Gen. Noel Jones, Director of Operational Capability Requirements, said at a special briefing at the Pentagon in March. "It can do that right now and is able to do that without hesitation."

The Al Dafra base is approximately 800 miles from the Iranian capital of Tehran, well within the range of the F-22, which can "supercruise" at one and a half times the speed of sound.

[vector7]

US deploys F-22 fighter jets to UAE: officials

AFP – 10 hours ago
Related Content

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/us-deploys-...233154971.html

An F-22 Raptor. The United States has deployed sophisticated F-22 fighter jets to …

The United States has deployed sophisticated F-22 fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates amid deepening tensions between Iran and its pro-US neighbors, officials said Monday.

The US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, would not say how many F-22s would be sent to the Al-Dhafra air base in the United Arab Emirates. Military officers tend to avoid publicly discussing details of operations at the US air base.

An Air Force spokeswoman confirmed that a number of F-22 Raptors, the most advanced fighter in the US fleet, would be deployed to the region without mentioning the base or Iran.

"The United States Air Force has deployed F-22s to Southwest Asia. Such deployments strengthen military-to-military relationships, promote sovereign and regional security, improve combined tactical air operations, and enhance interoperability of forces, equipment and procedures," said Major Mary Danner-Jones.

Pentagon spokesman Captain John Kirby told reporters the move "was a very normal deployment" in keeping with an adjustment of US forces in the region following the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

Territorial disputes between Iran and the United Arab Emirates over three islands in the Gulf have flared recently, with Washington voicing support for Abu Dhabi's stance.

The argument over the Gulf islands comes against the backdrop of tensions surrounding Iran's nuclear program, with the US, European and Israeli governments fearing Tehran is pursuing a clandestine nuclear weapons project.

Iran's atomic ambitions and growing missile arsenal have raised concerns in Gulf Arab states, which have negotiated arms deals with Washington to build up missile defenses as a counter to Iran.

In December, the United States announced a $3.48 billion arms sale with the United Arab Emirates for missile defense batteries and radars.

[American Patriot]

Looks to me like there's a lot of idiots who think a settlement is illegal....

[American Patriot]

Israel just called something like 16 battalions!

[Ryan Ruck]

Just saw the headline on FNC.

"Israeli Army calls up 6 reserve battalions, readies 16 more"

They're going to the Egyptian and Syrian borders due to increasing tensions.

[American Patriot]

beat ya.... by at least 15 seconds.

[American Patriot]

(Only you got the information right, I got it wrong)

[Ryan Ruck]

Six Army Battalions Called Up Under Emergency Orders To Meet Growing Threat On Egypt, Syria Borders

Knesset approves IDF request to call up a further 16 battalions if needed

May 2, 2012

The IDF has issued emergency call up orders to six reserve battalions in light of new dangers on the Egyptian and Syrian borders. And the Knesset has given the IDF permission to summon a further 16 reserve battalions if necessary, Israeli media reported on Wednesday.

An IDF spokesperson said intelligence assessments called for the deployment of more soldiers.

According to 2008′s Reserve Duty Law, combat soldiers can be called for active reserve duty once every three years, and for short training sessions during the other two. Rising tensions between Israel and Egypt and the ongoing unrest in Syria caused the army to ask the Knesset for special permission to call up more soldiers, more often.

The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee approved the request recently, enabling the IDF to summon up to 22 battalions for active duty for the second time in three years. Already, the army has called up six of them.

“This signifies that the IDF regards the Egyptian and Syrian borders as the potential source of a greater threat than in the past,” the former deputy chief of staff, Dan Harel, said on Wednesday night.

“The army needs a better ‘answer’ than in the past to the threat,” he said, citing Egypt’s deteriorating control over the Sinai, marked by an upsurge in Bedouin smuggling of weapons and other goods. He also spoke of the growing threat of terrorism from Sinai, as exemplified by an infiltration last August in which eight Israelis were killed.

The Syrian situation was also highly combustible, Harel said, “and it could explode at any moment… and pose a direct challenge to us.”

Maariv said the army had to decide whether to cancel training sessions for enlisted soldiers or to summon additional reserve units, and it chose the latter; canceling training would mean soldiers would not be prepared in the case of an all-out war.

The IDF spokesperson said all the letters summoning soldiers for reserve duty were sent after the IDF received the approval of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for the larger call-up.

One of the reservists summoned told Maariv he hadn’t expected his call-up letter until next year. Leaving home for more than three weeks is something you have to prepare for, he noted.

Activists from the Reserve Soldiers Forum said they were disappointed time and again by the way the IDF treated its reserve soldiers. The law was supposed to help reservists, but it has been repeatedly bypassed and ignored, they said. “At the end, all that will remain of the law will be its title.”

[American Patriot]

so a battalion is somewhere between 300-1200 troops.

Assuming "max" that would be 16*1200 = 19200.

22 battalions would be 26400... probably somewhat less than that number of personnel, but that's a damned lotta folks with guns, tanks and ammo.

[Ryan Ruck]

Was just about to post that a battalion is a sizable group. Not a massive call-up but that is a pretty good sized troop deployment.

[vector7]

Pentagon encircles Iran: Victory would take 3 weeks

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Published: 02 May, 2012, 15:49


Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) transits through the Arabian Sea (AFP Photo / US NAVY / Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Karolina A. Martinez)

As the US beefs up its military presence in the Persian Gulf region, Pentagon strategists estimate that they would need less than a month to defeat Iranian forces should a military conflict take place.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) believes it can destroy or significantly degrade Iran's conventional armed forces in about three weeks using air and sea strikes, a defense source told The Washington Post.

“We plan for any eventuality we can and provide options to the president,” Army Lt. Col. T.G. Taylor, a spokesman at CENTCOM told the newspaper. “We take our guidance from the secretary of defense and from our civilian bosses in [Washington] DC. So any kind of guidance they give us, that’s what we go off of [sic].”

The American military has been building up its presence in the region amid rising tension in the area.

The US Navy currently has two aircraft carriers deployed near Iran and is upgrading mine-detection and removal capabilities.

The US Air Force recently dispatched a number of F-22 Raptor strike fighters to a base in the United Arab Emirates. The move caused backlash from Tehran, which said Wednesday it threatened regional stability.

Deploying a “floating base” in the Persian Gulf – a converted transport ship that would serve as a semi-stationary base of operations for the US military – is also on the table. USS Ponce is expected to host mine-sweeping helicopters, speed boats and probably commando teams.

The Pentagon has also intensified training of elite troops of its allies in the region. The members of the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Gulf Cooperation Council commando team, who serve as instructors, may be ordered to go into the field as well, should such a need arise.

The measures are taken as contingency for possible attack by Iran on US troops or blocking of the Strait of Hormuz, the vital oil transit route, the US says.

CENTCOM says there are about 125,000 US troops in close proximity to Iran. The majority of them – 90,000 – are deployed in or around Afghanistan. Some 20,000 soldiers are ashore elsewhere in the Near East region; and a variable 15,000 to 20,000 serve on naval vessels.

Oil battlefront

The military threat is just part of the mounting pressure on Tehran. Washington says it would use force only as a measure of last resort and is instead focusing on economic pressure.

On Tuesday, US President Barack Obama signed an order giving the Treasury Department more power to impose financial sanctions against those trading with Iran.

"Treasury now has the capability to publicly identify foreign individuals and entities that have engaged in these evasive and deceptive activities, and generally bar access to the US financial and commercial systems," the department said in a statement.

The US and the EU have issued a ban on buying Iran-produced crude in a bid to cripple the country’s export-dependent economy. Part of this effort involves sanctions against companies and institutions engaged in the oil trade with Iran financially. They are banks transferring payment for the crude or firms insuring tankers transporting Iranian oil.

The Iranian oil industry is not suffering from sanctions alone. The country’s Oil Ministry reported last week that it had finally managed to contain a cyber attack on the industry’s facilities.

“The software attack has been fully contained and controlled with the help of experts three days after it was hit,” Iran’s deputy oil minister for engineering affairs, Hamdollah Mohammadnejad, told the state-run Mehr news agency.

In 2010 a malicious computer worm called Stuxnet damaged computer software at Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities. Some computer security experts said the malware was the work of a highly-professional hacker team, which was probably provided with know-how by US or Israeli governments.

Western countries and Israel suspect Iran of trying to build a nuclear bomb and are pressuring it to stop enrichment of uranium. Tehran insists it is pursuing a civilian nuclear power program only, which it is entitled to do as a sovereign state.

The row has escalated last year after the publication of a controversial report by UN’s nuclear watchdog, which Iran’s opponents used to justify issuing more sanctions.

[American Patriot]

Tel Aviv boosts troops at borders with Egypt and Syria

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Published: 02 May, 2012, 18:57

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Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers (Reuters / Neil Cohen / IDF / Handout)
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TAGS: Military, Paula Slier, Rory Suchet, Israel, Security

Israel is to deploy at least 22 reserve battalions on its borders with Egypt and Syria, claiming the growing instability in the two countries makes it necessary to be ready for possible external security threats.
*The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has been given an approval of a call-up of additional force by Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee although they exceed the average. Reservists from six battalions have already received their orders, even though many of them are soldiers who have already completed their annual reserve duty.

Israeli generals say these troops are needed to deal with security threats which are coming from Israel’s borders with Egypt and Syria, and also because of growing instability in those countries.

The situation on the Sinai Peninsula which borders Israel is becoming unmanageable, RT’s correspondent Paula Slier reports from Israel. Since the ouster of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, she said, Sinai police have been attacked more than 50 times by local Palestinian jihadist groups, as well as by the local branch of Al-Qaeda which is operating in the region.

On April 22, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Lieberman said in a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he was more worried by developments along Israel's southern border than by the Iranian threat. He advises Netanyahu to send three or four divisions to the area and to prepare for political changes in Egypt.

For more than a year now has been Cairo facing turmoil following the ouster of the longtime president. And with just three weeks left before elections scheduled for May 23-24 the violence continues.

On Wednesday, clashes between police and civilians saw at least 11 Egyptian protesters killed and more than 160 wounded in front of Defense Ministry in Cairo. People are protesting against Egypt’s ruling military body and disqualification of Islamist Salafi leader Hazem Salah Abu-Ismail from the presidential race.

Army troops have been deployed in Cairo ready to end the violence.

At the beginning of April, Egypt reinforced its army in Sinai, with Israeli permission, with seven battalions to combat terrorism on the peninsula. But Lieberman believes Egypt is possibly in breach of the peace treaty and will send more troops into Sinai without Israeli consent.

The Egyptian maneuvers came just days after suspected Sinai militants fired rockets at the residential area in the southern Israeli city of Eilat.
Meanwhile in Syria, violence is still continuing despite the ceasefire implemented on April12 and the observers’ mission on the ground. The Israeli-Syrian border lies near the Golan Heights, territory which Israel captured from its neighbor in 1967.

[American Patriot]

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Israel Calls Up The Reserves

Six Army Battalions Called Up Under Emergency Orders To Meet Growing Threat On Egypt, Syria Borders -- Times Of Israel

Knesset approves IDF request to call up a further 16 battalions if needed

The IDF has issued emergency call up orders to six reserve battalions in light of new dangers on the Egyptian and Syrian borders. And the Knesset has given the IDF permission to summon a further 16 reserve battalions if necessary, Israeli media reported on Wednesday.

An IDF spokesperson said intelligence assessments called for the deployment of more soldiers.

According to 2008′s Reserve Duty Law, combat soldiers can be called for active reserve duty once every three years, and for short training sessions during the other two. Rising tensions between Israel and Egypt and the ongoing unrest in Syria caused the army to ask the Knesset for special permission to call up more soldiers, more often.

My Comment: Why the call-up now .... but not in the past year when Egypt's internal revolt cascaded enough to overthrow Mubarak .... and the Syrian civil war was just starting. My gut is telling me two things .... (1) Israeli intelligence is picking up terrorist info that is very disquieting to them .... or (2) these are the first moves to get ready for a backlash should Israel decide to launch a military strike against Iran's nuclear faciltiies.

[vector7]

Iranian naval exercise follows on Israel’s northern border drill

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report May 1, 2012, 7:31 PM (GMT+02:00)


Israel's Golani Brigade in war maneuver

Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak offered the view this week that the next round of Six-Power talks with Iran taking place on May 23 in Baghdad would lead nowhere, throwing cold water on the current optimism. As for US media reports of a lessening in war tensions over Iran because of the internal debate in Israel over an independent attack, they were soon overtaken by significant military steps embarked on Tuesday, May 1, by the US, Israel and Iran.

The large-scale Israel Defense Forces war game on the borders of Syria (Golan) and Lebanon was quickly followed by naval drills along Iran’s southern Persian Gulf coast by its border guards. Tehran was making good on the policy agreed with Syrian and Hizballah allies in early 2011 to counter any Western or Israel military movement in the region with a comparable response.

Israeli army spokesmen were cagey about the scale and nature of the exercise beyond preparing people living in the north for heavy military traffic on regional highways and the sounds of gunshots and explosions.

debkafile’s military sources disclose that the IDF drilled a strengthened, proactive presence in the North to meet al Qaeda’s looming presence and expanding operations next door, especially in Syria, and the threat of the Syrian civil war spilling over into Lebanon.

Monday, Israel started building a defensive wall 10-meter high, 2 kilometer-long along its border with Lebanon to protect the Israeli population and highways in northern Galilee from sniper fire coming from the Lebanese village of Kfar Kila in the Hizballah-dominated south. According to intelligence received, the Lebanese Shiite Hizballah plans to lash out against Israel in the hope of recovering its waning popular support as a result of its tight bonds with the hated Bashar Assad. Snipers are to pick off Israelis in cross-border fire and so provoke a major firestorm that will take the world’s attention away from the savagery in Syria.

Just as Israel estimates that the Galilee Panhandle and Golan could become flashpoints for exchanges of cross-border fire, so too Iran is taking into account that an operation to destroy its nuclear facilities may also entail landings on its southern coast by American and Israel special forces, and maybe others too.

Gen. Hossein Zolfaqari, Commander of the Iranian Border Guards, was more forthcoming about the exercise he is leading than Israel’s army spokesmen. He announced that the naval maneuver codenamed “Fajr” would exercise the latest tactics in border protection with the participation of the border guard units of the provinces of Bushehr (site of Iran’s only nuclear reactor and parts of its uranium enrichment facilities), the Persian Gulf Kish Island (where big Revolutionary Guards bases at situated), Hormozgan (near the Revolutionary Guards main headquarters at Bandar Abbas) as well as Khuzestan and Sistan and Balochestan, Iran’s biggest oil regions.

Very much on the offensive, Tehran Monday claimed to have developed the technological expertise for “redirecting enemy missiles to a target which we will determine,” in the words of Brig. Farzad Ismaili, commander of the Khatam-ol-Anbiya (Last of the Prophets) Air Base. “This is the capability of electronic warfare in which it is we who program the enemy missile,” he boasted.

There was also an outpouring of comment from Tehran about last week’s deployment of US F-22 Raptors in the UAE’s Al Dhafra Air Base opposite Iran’s southern shores. One spokesman said they posed no danger to Iran and had been moved in for “psychological warfare;” another that they “threatened regional security” and Gulf nations should not allow foreign armies to take up position on their shores.

A week after the F-22 squadron was deployed in the Gulf, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, special assistant to President Obama and senior director for European affairs at the National Security Council, disclosed Monday that the completion of the initial phase of the US-backed missile network in Europe would be announced at the NATO summit meeting in Chicago on May 20.

She added that additional work is underway in the next phase of the network, designed for protecting Europe and the Middle East from Iranian ballistic missile attack.

The chronology is significant: The announcement that the US-led missile shield has gone operational will be made three days before the Six Powers and Iran resume nuclear negotiations in Baghdad. Far from reducing war tensions over Iran, America has tossed the military ball into the Iranian court.

[vector7]

Israel to take delivery of fourth submarine from Germany

By YAAKOV KATZ
05/02/2012 21:12

Defense delegation arrives in Germany ahead of delivery of Dolphin-class submarine, widely rumored to be capable of carrying nuclear weapons; expected to arrive in Israel in coming months.


Photo: REUTERS/Handout An Israeli defense delegation arrived in Germany on Wednesday ahead of the planned delivery of Israel’s fourth Dolphin-class submarine, widely rumored to be capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
Led by Defense Ministry Dir.-Gen. Udi Shani, the delegation met with senior German defense officials and was scheduled to visit the shipyard where the submarine is being built. It is expected to arrive in Israel in the coming months.

Related:

• 'Iran adds 3 more submarines to naval fleet'
• Israel's strategic weapon

Israel’s submarines are the military’s most expensive platform and are often referred to as the country’s second-strike doomsday weapon due to their reported ability to fire cruise missiles tipped with nuclear warheads.

The three Dolphin-class submarines in the navy’s fleet are called Dolphin, Leviathan and Tekuma and are believed to be some of the most advanced diesel-electric submarines in the world.

Germany donated the first two submarines after the First Gulf War and split the cost of the third with Israel. The three submarines currently in the navy's possession employ a diesel-electric propulsion system, which requires them to resurface frequently to recharge their batteries.

The submarines under construction will be fitted with a new propulsion system combining a conventional diesel lead-acid battery system and an air-independent propulsion system used for slow, silent cruising, with fuel cells for oxygen and hydrogen storage.

The submarine that will be delivered is one of two which Israel ordered following the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

In March, Israel signed a contract for a sixth submarine, meaning that by the end of the decade the navy will have doubled its fleet. The German government heavily subsidized both recent deals.

[American Patriot]

BS Alert there Peterle. Religious stuff belongs in the religious forums...