December 21 2012

Tehran's missile program is clearly rushing forward at a rapid pace. In fact, some Western and Israeli missile experts suspect it may have overtaken North Korea and that Iran no longer stands in need of technical assistance from Pyongyang or Beijing.

If the second launch succeeds, it would mean that Iran is capable of producing solid fuel-powered rockets with a range of 2,450-2,450 kilometers, which covers not only all of Israel but would reach as deep into Europe as the Polish capital of Warsaw. Heads of the Islamic regime in Tehran hope that the advent of a second Iranian spy satellite in Middle East skies, boosted by the new Safir rocket, will so astound the Americans and Israelis that they will think twice before going after Iran's nuclear installations.

Most of all, they want Israel to count the cost of being subjected to their high-grade lethal weaponry before embarking on military action.

2. On Nov. 5, US and UK media quoted IAEA sources in Vienna as asking Iran to explain evidence that its scientists have experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design. They referred to the discovery of high-explosive components of a “two-point implosion” device that could enable Iran to eventually install small nuclear warheads on its ballistic missiles.

Command of this process would short-cut and simplify Iran's path to fitting nuclear warheads on long-range ballistic missiles such as the Shehab-4 which is about ready to go operational.

Iran is stonewalling on this international query too, continuing to dicker over every Western compromise proposal while racing ahead with its plans.

That's a bit dumb really, scientists are expecting a CME, and they are putting another weak satellite.

The situation with Iran is much more fraught because time is running out as Iran speeds toward its nuclear and missile goals. In the summer, Netanyahu gave Obama a guarantee to hold off on a military initiative against Iran until the end of the year to give his diplomatic engagement effort a chance.

This deadline is now only seven weeks away. DEBKAfile's Washington sources are assuming that the US president will use the Israeli prime minister's brief Washington visit to ask him to extend this deadline a while longer to permit him a last throw at cajoling Iran to accept a deal over its uranium enrichment. Our sources do not expect Netanyahu to refuse the president, both for the sake of his good standing with the Obama administration and because he too is in no hurry to cross the Rubicon for an act of war against Iran.

Procrastination in the West is Tehran's greatest boon.

If concluded, the deal will mark the most important transfer of military equipment to Russia by a NATO member.

Experts fear the sale could spark controversy with France's NATO partners and Russia's neighbors, given the conflict between Russia and Georgia last year, which underscored Moscow's lack of amphibious capability and tensions between Russia and the Ukraine.

The Mistral warship can carry 16 heavy helicopters, landing-craft and can also serve as a floating command and control center. It can ferry 13 battle tanks and 450 soldiers.

Turkish prime minister Tayyep Recep Erdogan and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad struck military cooperation deals which promised Iran Turkish military intelligence and air force assistance against a possible Israeli attack on its nuclear sites.

DEBKAfile's military sources report that word of the Turkish-Iranian military collaboration deal landed with shocking effect in Washington and Jerusalem. They had not forewarned by their intelligence services that Erdogan was willing to go as far as this to ally Turkey with the Islamic regime.

PositiveID will initially operate primarily in two areas: HealthID and ID Security. HealthID will focus on bringing innovative health solutions to consumers and businesses based on the Company's intellectual property, specifically a rapid virus detection system for the H1N1 virus and other forms of pandemic viruses, and an in vivo glucose-sensing RFID microchip, both of which are currently under development with partner RECEPTORS LLC. The Company will also offer its Health Link personal health record to help consumers manage their health records online. Through its ID Security segment, the Company will offer identity theft protection and related services including credit monitoring and reporting through its NationalCreditReport.com website.

16 He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, 17 so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.

18 This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666.

9 A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: "If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, 10 he, too, will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name."

At the same time, a very senior American official told DEBKAfile that his description of falling barriers between President Obama and prime minister was spot on and deserved a full stop. The rest of his comment applied to Israeli politics.

In another article in the North's official Rodong Sinmun daily, Pyongyang said the South will pay an expensive price for Tuesday's clash.

"Warmongers who like to play with fire will be certain to pay an expensive price," the paper said in an editorial.

"The armed clash on the West (Yellow) Sea was not an accident but was a premeditated act of aggression by the South's military seeking intensifying of tensions on the Korean peninsula."

Russia is prepared to support further sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program following the Islamic Republic's failure to accept a UN deal that would ease Western fears, AFP reported on Saturday, quoting an article in Russia's daily Kommersant newspaper.

The newspaper quoted sources in the administration of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as saying that Moscow was "100 percent ready" to back newsanctions.

Medvedev will meet US President Barack Obama in Singapore on Sunday, where the two will both be attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. According to Kommersant, the two will not only talk about the Iranian situation, but may also discuss the timing of new sanctions.

The Russian leader has already expressed a willingness to consider further sanctions. In an interview last week with German newspaper Der Spiegel which was translated by Reuters, Medvedev said that "We wouldn't want this to end with international sanctions because sanctions, as a rule, take us in a very complex and dangerous direction. But if there is no movement forward, nobody is ruling out such a scenario."

The Iranians are frenziedly digging hundreds of new missile launch silos in central and Western Iran in readiness for a US or Israeli attack on their nuclear installations, DEBKAfile's intelligence sources report. Some Western sources have noticed that they are creating more silo bases than they have operational missile batteries in order to mislead their enemies about the locations of the genuine launch pads. The dummy silos are fully equipped with air defenses including anti-air missiles which too are fake.

According to our military sources, the commanders of the two-week Juniper Cobra 10 joint US-Israel exercise which ended last week knew all about Iran's expanding silo project. It is managed by Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps which is responsible for its missile program.

The Iranians are working at the same frantic tempo to turn out Shehab-3, Shehab-4 and Sajil-2 ballistic missiles, as well as a fourth secret ICBM which is thought believed designed to carry a nuclear warhead. Our sources believe it is modeled on Pakistan's Ghauri 3, a three-stage weapon powered by solid fuel with a range of 3,000 km. If they can get this secret weapon off the production line, it would be the first three-stage missile in Iran's armory.

Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Ali Reza Asghari is being held in an Israeli prison, Army Radio quoted an Iranian website as saying Sunday.

Ashghari was a former Iranian deputy defense minister. He vanished in 2007 after arriving in Turkey from Syria.

JN: The public, generally, does not understand the concept of a nuclear war. Like all other forms of warfare there are tactics and strategies. It is not a simple affair of nuclear strike and counterstrike. Put yourself in the position of someone charged with winning a nuclear war. How do you defeat a nuclear-armed opponent? The key to winning a nuclear war is to eliminate the enemy’s nuclear weapons without allowing him to launch any in retaliation. In strict military terms, the nuclear strategist wants to paralyze his victim by attacking and eliminating the leadership of the target country, so that there is nobody left who can order a nuclear strike. Please keep in mind that only a handful of people in the United States can order the launch of nuclear missiles, and only they have the launch codes. Therefore, the attacker begins (1) with a decapitation attack under false colors. The attackers will seem to be Arab terrorists. In reality, however, they will be Russian or Chinese special forces commandos tasked with breaking the U.S. military’s chain of command. The diversionary attacks have already happened, and 9/11 was probably one of them (if we are to believe the testimony of Alexander Litvinenko and others). Finally, when there is no danger from American nuclear weapons, the main Russian missile forces can be used to destroy American missiles which will be sitting helpless in silos and in ports or air bases. The elimination of a society’s leaders is a temporary expedient, so that a brief window is opened for attacking the weapons themselves. Once the weapons are eliminated, America could not deter enemy attacks on her cities. Russia and China will then have strategic nuclear supremacy. No country will then be able to stop them. At that moment, the world will belong to them. The small arsenals of France, Britain and Israel would have no effective deterrent power. The Russians would demand their dismantling in the same way Sparta, in ancient times, demanded that defeated cities take down their fortifications.

DEBKAfile's sources say that the US-Israel intelligence conferences ongoing at present are the final touches to the process the Obama administration has instituted of strategic give-and-take with Israel ahead of a possible outbreak of war with Iran. The alignment has been going forward on four levels:

1. Communications between the White House and the Israeli prime minister's office, which are handled at the Washington end by Dep. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, who enjoys ready access to the president.

2. An open line to defense secretary Robert Gates which defense minister Ehud Barak set up when he visited the Pentagon last week.

3. Direct interchanges between the two army chiefs, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi.

4. Frequent conferences between US and Israeli intelligence heads.

Political, military and intelligence integration between the US and Israel on this comprehensive scale has been practically unknown in recent years. It serves the dual purpose of a demonstration of close American-Israel military cooperation while at the same time safeguarding the Obama administration against Israeli surprise moves in relation to Iran.

Devastating droughts in India, China, Argentina, Australia, Texas and California are crippling harvests across the globe, and the prospect of an unprecedented food crisis is very real. The truth is that the world food supply was just barely able to feed the world during good harvest years. Now that the world has been hit by a series of unprecedented droughts, it is becoming clearer by the day that there is simply not going to be enough food for everyone in 2010.

Earlier this year drought was the big worry. Now 'the big dry' has turned into deluges, which have hit with devastating consequences. Throughout the grain belt crops are in danger. It's not just in Iowa. This same story is repeated south from Wisconsin to Mississippi and east from Kansas to Tennessee.

Unusually cold temperatures this year delivered a double whammy. First frigid weather delayed planting sometimes by months. Farmers waited nervously to see if crops would amount to anything. Then as late as September when it appeared there might even be bumper yields, unseasonable cold struck again. Some crops hit by this early frost this fall are already "done" for the year. For a variety of reasons, more than HALF of the food belt has been declared disaster areas. Any county designated "yellow" is in major trouble.



Round three came with unrelenting record-breaking rain descending at the worst possible time – harvest. Land is so soggy in places corn, cotton, soy are mired in mud or stand in water. Combines sit idle unable to gather the goods while crops rot in the field. Farmers fear they will forced to plough them under.