[WCUSP] .can this insanity be true?

[yvonne simmons]

Dear Nancy, I do not know if any WILPF members were in
that protest of Lockheed Martin supplying Israel with
cluster bombs. I shall try and contact local branch.
In peace, Yvonne.
 Mr. Brown, who will not be Bush's yes man, as leader
of the Labor party,UK, about Iraq, said the hanging of
Saddam Hussein is deplorable whereas Blair double
talks.


This was the lead story on Fox New tonight on tv.  The
article below is from the Fox News website.  Can this
insanity possibly be true?
 

 
 Kate I shall speak with Goudarz today, an Iranian
spokesman on the Middle East about nuclear threat on
Iran, 
 Yvonne.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,242243,00.html
 
Report: Israel Planning Nuke Raid on Iran Uranium
Enrichment Sites

Saturday, January 06, 2007


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 u p 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 n ever 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 percent 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 ha ve to decide
whether to take military action against Iran.”



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