U.S. preparing strike on Iran

[Soldier4Christ]

This is not good news but something that is enevitable.


_________________________


Reports: U.S. preparing
military strike on Iran
German press speculates dispatch of officials
to Turkey, Pakistan meant to prepare allies
Posted: December 31, 2005
5:25 p.m. Eastern

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

While the U.S. has always refused to take the military option off the table in dealing with Iran, the German press is reporting new developments that indicate the U.S. has gone from acknowledging the possibility of action against Tehran's suspected clandestine nuclear weapons program to preparing its allies for a strike.

According to Der Spiegel, the German daily, reports of a pending strike escalated following Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent statements that Israel should be wiped off the face of the map and his calls for Israelis to be relocated to Europe.

On Dec. 23, a journalist for the German news agency DDP, who is also an intelligence expert, cited "western security sources" in a report claiming CIA Director Porter Goss asked Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to provide full intelligence cooperation and exchange for a possible air strike on Iran's nuclear and military facilities.

Goss reportedly provided Turkey with three dossiers at the Dec. 12 meeting containing evidence Tehran is cooperating with the Islamic terror network al-Qaida, as well as information about the current status of Iran's weapons program. German security sources, it is reported, say Goss assured Erdogan Turkey would be alerted to any air strikes, should they occur, a few hours before they were launched. Goss also gave the Turkish government the "green light" to strike the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Iran if the U.S. proceeds.

The governments of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman and Pakistan were also informed in recent weeks that air strikes are a "possible option," but no timeline was provided

Ahmadinejad's anti-Semitic speeches and claim the Holocaust is a "myth," it is speculated, have cemented the view in Washington that Iran would not back down in a nuclear showdown and Tehran is simply trying to buy time by continuing its talks with the Europeans.

"I would be very surprised if the Americans, in the mid-term, didn't take advantage of the opportunity delivered by Tehran," said a high-ranking German military official. "The Americans have to attack Iran before the country can develop nuclear weapons. After that would be too late."

In the January 2005 New Yorker, journalist Seymour Hersh reported that clandestine American commando groups were already on the ground in Iran, marking likely targets – a report the Bush administration attempted to play down as containing inaccurate statements but did not dispute.

In recent weeks, the number of visits to Ankara by American and NATO security officials has increased significantly. The head of the FBI, NATO General Secretary Jaap De Hoop Scheffer and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have made stops in the Turkish capital.

Joining the speculation in the German press, the left-nationalist Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet, though unable to discover the substance of their talks, noted the unusually long meeting Goss and Erdogan held with, "Now it's Iran's turn."

As reported by WorldNetDaily, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has ordered his defense forces to plan for a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear weapons facilities by the end of March – the time intelligence sources say Tehran will be able to begin producing nuclear weapons.

[twobombs]

When I read 'between the lines' I think that the US wants to strike earlier. Israel can't strike until after the end of the elections in March due to possible loss of votes. Anyone more thoughts on this ?

[Soldier4Christ]

North Korea working
to restart nuke reactor
Los Alamos scientist says latest effort
to yield plutonium for 10 bombs a year
Posted: January 1, 2006

A leading U.S. nuclear scientist and former director of the top secret Los Alamos laboratory is reporting new findings about recent North Korean initiatives to obtain plutonium that are being studied in Washington with increasing concern.

Siegfried Hecker, who was at Los Alamos from 1973-97, says North Korea is currently working to restart a reactor capable of producing enough plutonium to manufacture 10 atomic bombs a year. He revealed the information, gathered during two trips to North Korea, at a recent conference in Washington, D.C.

Further, Heckler says, North Korea made 30 pounds of plutonium last summer – during the six-party talks hosted by China to end their weapons program – by reprocessing 8,000 nuclear fuel rods.

This information comes at the same time North Korea is cutting off all U.N food aid. The secretive state announced in August that beginning in 2006 it would no longer need emergency food assistance from the World Food Program. Deputy Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon accused the United States of using food aid as a political weapon.

Professor Kim Young-Soo of South Korea's Sogang University, an expert on North Korea, said yesterday Pyongyang's intent was to block the WFP and U.S., who were demanding greater access to food distribution and guarantees that aid was reaching intended recipients. Accepting emergency food aid had forced the government to allow access to its citizens in isolated areas.

"North Korea is still suffering from food shortages. This is a tactic for Pyongyang to cope with the mounting demand for transparency in food distribution," Kim told the BBC. "It will become apparent in the next several months that North Korea will need emergency food aid again.

Diplomats also see evidence of North Korea's nuclear ambition in the decision to forgo aid and expel foreign aid workers, saying the move takes away leverage by the U.S. and U.N. and is part of a crackdown as Kim Jong-il prepares to join Iran in its confrontation with the U.S.over the right to possess nuclear weapons.

And nuclear scientist Heckler is convinced North Korea has the weapons, reports the London Times.

During a visit in 2004, Heckler met with North Korean physicists and the director of the Yongbyon nuclear research center. A small steel container, containing a wooden box, was brought into the conference room where they were meeting.

"They slid open the box and inside were two glass jars – two marmalade jars, actually – with screw-on tops," he says. One contained powder, the other a thin scrap of metal – the "stuff you would use for the bombs".

"I held the plutonium and it passed the test," Heckler says, although he told the director it didn't feel very warm.

"Well Dr Hecker," the Yongbyon director replied, "that's because the plutonium-240 content is low, which means that it's good bomb-grade plutonium."

On a second visit to Pyongyang in August, Hecker learned from the same director of North Korea's reprocessing success which brings their total stockpile to 90 pounds.

"They have the plutonium," Hecker says. "We have to assume the North Koreans can and have made a few nuclear devices."

But it's the confluence of North Korea's secretiveness, its poverty and its plutonium that most concerns Hecker, who worries the regime might sell its nuclear material to terrorists.

"Forty kilograms of plutonium, some number of briefcases anywhere in basements, in one of the 15,000 tunnels in North Korea – nobody will find it," he says.

[at_the_Cross]

2 Thessalonians 2:7-14
7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
13 But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.