TURKEY/IRAQ BORDER WAR EXPLODES

TURKISH TROOPS MASS IN THE TENS OF THOUSANDS

TURKEY LAUNCHES MORTAR STRIKES AT KURDISH CAMPS

NORTHERN IRAQ VILLAGES "DEMOLISHED" IN ATTACK

From ZamanOnline : "The Turkish armed forces have launched their first military operation along the Iraqi border where Turkish troops have concentrated for days.

"The Northern Iraqi cities of Amedi and Zaho, sheltering Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) militants, were hit with mortar attacks in 'Operation Crescent.'

"First reports say that locations where militants were lodged....were demolished. Troop deployment to the region from different parts of the country continues.

"In another development, Kurdish militias (Peshmergas) under the leadership of Massoud Barzani tightened security measures along the Northern Iraqi border.

"On Thursday....(there was) a plea for cessation of external intervention in Iraq's domestic affairs. The need for agreement between officials from both Turkey and North Iraq was stressed."

"The Turkish army realized its first operation against eight Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) camps within the borders of Northern Iraq last week. The army will reportedly operate in accordance with intelligence coming from its troop stationed across the border.

"According to information gathered from a high-ranking official, the Turkish army is concentrating a military buildup on the border to prevent terrorists’ infiltrating across the border and to preserve its own border security in the case of a possible US intervention in Iran.

"The official who wanted to remain anonymous told that routine operations against the PKK will continue.

“'The special forces in Northern Iraq will try to clear Kandil Mountain, considered to be the headquarters of the PKK from terrorists, in a direct operation,' the official informed.

"In the case of possible US military action against Iran, Turkey will conduct its own military intervention in Iran 'to prevent terrorists’ crossing the border and to preserve border security.'"

THE US FAILS TO FIND MOMENTUM FOR ACTION ON IRAN

CHINA, RUSSIA TELLS THE US TO BACK OFF

THE NEW WORLD ORDER COMES TOGETHER, BUT WHERE IS THE US AND THE UK?

Opinion

By Darryl Mason

Iran has announced it will defy any further calls by the UN to stop its program of enriching uranium for civilian, peaceful purposes. At the same time, the US has declared the UN Security Council must act now in order to save its credibility.

But China and Russia have warned the US not to do anything stupid, or dangerous, when it comes to Iran. And Iran has told the US it will strike back "beyond belief" if there is an invasion or round of aistrikes, or even a solid slab of sanctions.

The US has crowed too loud this time.

The UN Security Council is unlikely to impose sanctions on Iran, and certainly won't okay military action, because two of its key members, China and Russia, hold vetoes and don't want any action on Iran, even if they are found to have nuclear weapons in development.

The US and Israel might not be able to live with Iran having nuclear weapons, but Russia and China are not so bothered. Iran is a powerful ally in the region now, where the US has become a dangerous liability.

After a solid month of leaked information about US military strike plans on Iran, and wall to wall television debates on the subject, US Secretary of Defence, Condileeza Rice, is finding it hard to be taken seriously when she declares that the US prefers diplomacy over war. She said it before, but the media didn't notice. They were too fixated on how the US will strike Iran.

Such talk of diplomacy will now be seen as a major backdown by the US, especially back home, even though Rice is singing the same song she has sung since the start of the year.

And the same for Bush. Neither have announced an intention to bomb Iran, but the major media in the US has talked about it ceaselessly - how it will be done, why it must be done, why it can't be done, when it will be done and, occasionally, if it will be done.

Bush, however, hasn't helped the global perception of the US being a war-wanting nation when he has thumped podiums and grinned speciously while talking about how no options have been taken off the table yet when it comes to Iran, "including the nuclear option".

Rice now finds herself unwelcome as she tours Middle East and EU countries. The diplomats may still like her, and trust her, but she is bad for local business. A War On Iran is shaping up, in Europe and the East at least, as the most unpopular confrontation in decades.

Condi Rice's quick "pop-in" to Iraq on Wednesday, teamed up with the Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, just as the Iraqi government was breaking a crippling deadlock over leadership and its constitution, was not widely viewed as affirmation of democracy in Iraq, but as further interference by the US.

"What are you doing here?" the uncomfortable Iraqi faces glared at Rice and Rumsfeld, who looked extremely uncomfortable themselves. Rice put on a good show, but Rumsfeld was grim and bitter and obviously had a lot on his mind.

Their visit was widely seen in Iraq, and across the Middle East, as the US giving its blessing to the new moves by the Iraq government, where no blessing was required.

The fact that this visit by Rice and Rumsfeld was undertaken with a wall of US media in tow didn't do much to wind back the idea that these are simply PR trips. The locals don't buy it, and now neither do the majority of Americans.

Rice is having an awfully hard time trying to round up enthusiasm and support for some hardcore UN sanctions on Iran, let alone military action, even now it is clear Iran will not stop pursuing their homegrown nuclear energy drive.

China and Russia are already doing big business with Iran and don't want their profit margins affected by sanctions that would clearly benefit the US, by giving a major leg-up to Iraq and all the US corporations now basing themselves there in the hope that Iraq will serve as a new American gateway to the riches of the Middle East.

"Help us on Iran," Rice says, seemingly desperate now, but so many countries are scared of getting involved with the US, this time.

Rice says "diplomacy", Bush says "all options, including nuclear, are on the table" in dealing with Iran, and suddenly it is the US, not Iran, who looks like the rogue state, the drunken sword swinger in the diplomatic ballroom.

And the US is not getting much help from the media this time.

There was resistance to the War On Iraq in the major media in the US, for a period, but once it seemed a lock-in that the War was on, they fell into line. Once Rumsfeld and then Secretary of State Colin Powell handed out the 'confidential' memos, intelligence reports and fake photos, the media took the bait and ran with it all the way to the front page.

But not this time.

Shocked, mortified, by their original enthusiasm for the War On Iraq, and the hellstorm of response from their readers that followed, and continues still, growing even stronger, journalists and editors across the US are suspicious of everything Rice, President Bush and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have to say about "options" on Iran.

The media is wary. They are stand-offish. "You lied before, how do we know you aren't lying this time?"

Scanning through dozens of newspapers online, from the US, across the EU, along with (translated) Russia and Chinese media portals, it appears the US faces nothing but opposition to any action at all to solve the Iran Crisis.

The international media didn't believe the US on Iraq from the beginning, and they seem to be literally doing everything they can to hammer the US now, to codify them, to nullify their once formidable projection of power and dominance.

Perhaps it's easier for the media to simply believe Iran is telling the truth when it says it only wants to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. Or easier to believe the US is lying, and wants to bomb Iran regardless of whether or not they are "nuking up".

There has been some extraordinary changes in the world since the start of the War On Iraq, and a huge slab of those changes have come directly from new energy and trade deals forged between the rising mega-powers which are China, Iran and Russia.

And there is the boom in Latin America as well, with new socialist democratic governments storming through, rich with fat oil dollars and major investment capital from China and the East.

All the while that this new order has been cutting deals and firming fresh ties, the US has been distracted by Iraq War fallout back home - 2300+ dead soldiers, torture scandals, intelligence scandals, battles over who lied about what and when, and the wall of opposition to the wartime implementation of hard security measures on freedom-focused Americans.

And perhaps worst of all, the money is now running out. The US can barely afford another War, and the American people now know this. It took a while, but once fuel prices leapt above $3 a gallon, suddenly every American wanted to know why.

China and Russia are working together and working with Iran, cutting energy deals for gas and oil worth half a trillion amongst themselves, and bringing India and Pakistan (two nations that most definitely are nuclear) into their breezily formed zone of energy security.

China has also made stunning inroads into Africa as well, just this week, locking up major supplies of oil from Niger.

The new global order of China, Iran, Russia, with India and Pakistan almost on board, and the leftist Latin America unification, is rich and powerful and popular.

The US, the UK, Australia, these countries are neither needed, nor especially wanted, in the new global order. We might have some resources they can use, but to not get coal and gas and uranium from the West will not cripple the new global order's rise and dominance. China and Russia will just go elsewhere to get what they need, which is why Iran and African countries like Niger are now so important to them.

But the US wants to freeze out Iran, shut down their rising world status, and isolate them from their ties with China and Russia, and pipeline deals with Pakistan and India.

Iran with the bomb is a country that will be hard to hold back from dominating the Middle East, particularly with China and Russia standing tall behind them, if that is actually what China and Russia will allow.

Iran has more readily available oil and gas today than Iraq does, and far more stability, for now, in the face of US pressure, which has caused the dissenters to go quieter, instead of rising up as might be expected, to cash in on the US pressure.

And Latin America, led by Hugo Chavez's Venezuela, is gradually pulling out of the US oil market and finding new customers, in the Bahamas, in Iran, in China and Russia.

In the Middle East, outside of Israel, it is not Iran that is viewed as the greatest danger, or the most repressive of the regimes. That black honour falls on the Saudi Kingdom, one of the strongest US allies in the world. And yet is a brutocracy that appears to be fragile, a few shoves away from finally toppling over.

The US doesn't want this, of course. The Saudis are friends, and good business partners, despite the torture and brutality used to hold onto power, and despite being the producer of September 11 terrorists and Osama Bin Laden.

The US shouts for freedom and democracy, and Bush sermonises about how every human soul longs to be free, but young people in the Middle East wonder why they don't start with the Saudi kingdom first, and then perhaps Syria, and then move on from there.

How will the US get back on top? How will they regain their position as the stable, most trustworthy, mega-power in the world? No-one seems to know, including the US.

They are being played for fools by Iran, by Venezuela. While demand for oil, and refining problems, are bumping up the cost of oil, the insecurity borne of the talk of war has added substantially to the storming rise in fuel costs of the past three months.

Iran threatens the US and appears dangerous, and unstable, and oil goes up. Iran makes money. And so does Venezuela, another so called 'wild-card' nation in the Americas that is cleaning up from the US' current vulnerability, thanks to the Iraq War fiasco.

The US has been set up, quietly, subtly, by all these countries that now point out how exposed they are, how vulnerable. Did the US walk into a trap by invading Iraq? Perhaps. Osama Bin Laden himself said it was what he wanted, and he stated that the price of oil was too cheap, when it was only $50 a barrel, that it should in fact be closer to $100.

Right now it's almost too easy for Iran to destabilise the US simply by banging together a few swords and raging against Israel. They must be laughing oil heading towards Bin Laden's preferred market price. Who gets rich from all this? Not the average American. But the chiefs of the oil companies do, no matter in which country they are based. They're all cleaning up.

Does a War On Iran loom larger today? Hardly. Russia and China would not allow it, for starters, let alone the US Congress, let alone every other country in Middle East, with the exception of Israel.

There was the appearance that Iran was buying time, baffling the UN and the IAEA, delaying the inevitable while it rushed towards building nuclear weapons. But perhaps next week it will will be revealed that it was actually the US buying time.

Time enough to prove invading Iraq was the right thing to do, that it would be a success.

Time enough to show the world that they are still in control, that they are still number one.

Or time enough to buy their seat at the table of the New Global Order, the New World Order that they were leading, initiated by President Bush's father in the early 1990s.

President Bush may well say that time is running out for Iran, but Iran knows the truth, that the exact opposite is, in fact, true.

With Russia and China as friends, business partners and allies, Iran has all the time in the world now.

(This piece has been corrected since its original publication)

JAPAN TELLS CHINA AND KOREA, "YOU WILL BE SORRY"

KOREAN PRESIDENT ADOPTING TOUGHER STANCE IN DEALINGS WITH CHINA

From Chosun.com : "Japan's prime minister went on the offensive on Tuesday, saying he believes China and Korea will one day be sorry they refused to hold summits with him, taking issue with his repeated visits to a shrine honoring the war dead including convicted World War II criminals.

"The leaders of both Korea and China have been boycotting summits with Koizumi since his last visit to the shrine in October. However, Koizumi said he is ready for talks with both countries.

"Meanwhile, political analysts in Seoul said the latest comments by the Japanese leader indicate he may have been irritated by Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's speech on Tuesday. In a nationally-televised address, President Roh outlined a tougher stance in dealing with acts by Japan perceived as challenges to Korea's sovereignty."

CLAIM : US RUNNING BLACK OPS INSIDE IRAN AIMED AT DESTABILISING REGIME

From Asia Times : A former Iranian ambassador and Islamic Republic insider has provided intriguing details....about US covert operations inside Iran aimed at destabilizing the country and toppling the regime - or preparing for an American attack.

"The Iranian government knows and is aware of such infiltration. It means that the Iranian government has identified them [the covert operatives] but for some reason does not want to show [this]," said the former diplomat....

There has been a marked spike in unrest in Kurdistan, Khuzestan and Balochistan, three of Iran's provinces with a high concentration of ethnic Kurdish, Arab and Balochi minorities respectively. With the exception of the immediate post-revolutionary period, when the Kurds rebelled against the central government and were suppressed violently, ethnic minorities have received better treatment, more autonomy and less ethnic discrimination than under the shah.

"The president hasn't notified the Congress that American troops are operating inside Iran," said Sam Gardiner, a retired US Army colonel who specializes in war-game scenarios. "So it's a very serious question about the constitutional framework under which we are now conducting military operations in Iran."

Recent events believed to be related to this low key black ops confrontation :

Early January - An Iran Revolutionary Guard military airplane crashed close to the Iraq border, killing 11 top Iranian commanders, including the commander of the Guard's ground forces and the deputy commander for intelligence. Bad weather and poor engine maintenance, due to sanctions on new aircraft parts, were originally blamed for the crash but intelligence experts pointed out this was unlikely as any flight carrying such top military brass would be properly maintained. An Iranian minister recently claimed the US was responsible, using radar and "signals jamming" equipment.

Mid-February - An aircraft leaving Azerbaijan province crashed inside Iraq, shortly after crossing into Iranian airspace. Western media reported the passengers as being German, but Iranian media claimed they were of Israeli origin.

April 9 - An unmanned suveillance plane is brought down in Khuzestan, Iran claims. Since 2004, the US had been flying UAVs over Iran, monitoring nuclear energy sites and military build up, and testing their tracking capabilities.

AUSTRALIA TELLS CHINA, TAIWAN TO STOP INTERFERING IN SOLOMON ISLANDS POLITICS

SOLOMON ISLANDS PRIME MINISTER QUITS AFTER EIGHT DAYS

From the Sydney Morning Herald : Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has warned China and Taiwan to stay out of Solomon Islands politics, saying chequebook diplomacy is unacceptable.

"We don't want to see chequebook diplomacy entering the Pacific," he said in an address at the National Press Club attended by China's ambassador to Australia, Fu Ying.

Mr Downer said it was up to Solomons MPs to choose a new prime minister, free of "inappropriate incentives", following the resignation of Prime Minister Snyder Rini.

Mr Rini quit following only eight days as prime minister after members of his ruling coalition crossed the floor of parliament, and his replacement is expected to be chosen early next week.

It has been claimed riots, which broke out a short time after Solomons MPs chose Mr Rini as PM, stemmed from a belief that he won office thanks to the support of Taiwanese money.

Taiwan is officially recognised by the Solomons Islands, along with five other Pacific nations, much to the chagrin of China. In respect of this official recognition, which holds some small sway in the international arena, the Solomon Islands recieve substantial investment from Taiwan.

China and Taiwan are quietly battling, at least diplomatically, for access to the resources of the Solomon Islands, as well as 'basing rights' for any number of the thousands of islands in the region not controlled by Australia.

That political parties, and individual politicians, in the Solomon Islands are being "funded" by Taiwan and China interests will eventually be investigated, locals hope, and the corruption that has plagued the islands for decades will be dismantled and dealt with.

AL-ZARQAWI'S NEW WARNING TO THE WEST

"WHAT IS COMING IS EVEN WORSE"

CLAIMS US SOLDIERS ARE COMMITTING SUICIDE IN IRAQ



"What is coming is more painful," said Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of the terrorist group al-Qa'ida in Iraq, in a new half video released on the internet yesterday.

Alleged to have beheaded American and British hostages (while wearing a mask) and being at the forefront of the most deadly attacks on Shiite and Western forces in Iraq, al-Zarqawi showed off what he said were new weapons in the video, and was seen walking through a desert landscape surrounded by heavily armed security guards. He even showed himself firing a machine gun in the exact same pose, and camera angle, as the character John Rambo in the iconic American movie First Blood.

He praised mujahedin fighters for fighting hard in Iraq :

"Your mujahedin sons were able to confront the most ferocious of crusader campaigns on a Muslim state. They have stood in the face of this onslaught for three years."

He claimed :

"Any government which is formed in Iraq now - whether by Shias or Zionist Kurds, or those who are dubbed Sunnis - would only be a (US) stooge."

He directed questions to US President Bush :

"Why don't you tell people that your soldiers are committing suicide, taking drugs and hallucination pills to make them sleep?

He issued hard warnings :

"By God, your dreams will be defeated by our blood and by our bodies. What is coming is even worse."

And he pointed out that the West was offered a truce, which was rejected outright by the US :

"Our emir, Sheikh Osama bin Laden, has offered you a truce, which was good for you if you had accepted. But you turned it down, because of your arrogance."

Al-Zarqawi is now the most wanted man in the world, alongside bin Laden, and while President Bush and a stream of US, UK and Australian politicians claimed they were not intimidated, and that they were winning the War On Iraq, and the War On Terror in general, the video clearly showed that Al-Zarqawi was in good health and clear in his purpose and intent.

And all the more dangerous for being so.

For the first few days of this week, at least, Al-Zarqawi showed he was winning the propaganda war.

THE "FORGOTTEN" WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

US AND PAKISTAN TROOPS WORKING TOGETHER IN BORDER REGION

From a recent Vanity Fair story by Sebastian Junger :

By all measures the situation in Afghanistan may be skidding dangerously off the rails. American military deaths in the past year—nearly a hundred—almost equal those for the three preceding years combined.

According to a recent internal report for the American Special Forces, opium production has gone from 74 metric tons a year under the Taliban to an astronomical 3,600 metric tons, an amount which is equal to 90 percent of the world's supply. The profit from Afghanistan's drug trade—roughly $2 billion a year—competes with the amount of international aid flowing into the country and helps fund the insurgency.

And assassinations and suicide bombings have suddenly taken hold in parts of Afghanistan, leading people to fear that the country is headed toward Iraq-style anarchy.

....the Taliban adopted a strategy of avoiding pitched battles and relying instead on a campaign of civil terror. The logic is brutal but sound: since the public wouldn't support the Taliban willingly, it would have to be terrorized into it.

If enough people were terrorized into quitting their jobs, the government would cease functioning. If the government ceased functioning, the economy would suffer, and it would be that much easier to hire unemployed young men to fight the Americans. And if you threw enough of those young men into battle, eventually the Americans would leave.

The whole story is worth a read and there's some interesting information about the activities of Pakistan military, and militants, in Afghanistan, and their ties with the Taleban and Al Qeada.

OPERATION MOUNTAIN LION SIGNALS MASSIVE US PUSH TOWARDS PAKISTAN BORDER

'Operation Mountain Lion', a massive US-thrust military operation has been unfolding over the past two weeks in East Afghanistan. More than 1200 Afghan troops are said to be leading the operations, but they are solidly backed by US soldiers and equipment.

At least six militants are claimed to have been killed, so far, with eight captured.

Afghanistan Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said the operation "would continue till the complete elimination of terrorists in the region." Azimi said at a press briefing, according to Xinhua.

'Mountain Lion' is pushing US troops ever closer to the border of Pakistan, with most of the fighting taking place in the rugged mountain regions where thousands of Taleban fighteres are believed to be hiding out.

US AND PAKISTAN TROOPS TO CONDUCT "MILITARY EXERCISE"

Pakistan and U.S. troops will conduct a joint military exercise in the volatile Afghan-Pakistan border region, the U.S. military said Monday, amid concerns over militant infiltration and poor co-ordination between the two Asian neighbours.

The operation, to be called Inspired Gambit, will be an "air assault exercise" involving a small contingent of Afghan soldiers and an unspecified number of Pakistani troops, U.S. military spokesman Col. Laurent Fox said during a press conference in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

"We feel that it is important that the only way we will solve the terrorism and insurgency problem is to work closely together with each other," Fox said.

TALEBAN FIGHTERS ARE PLANNING TO TARGET AND KILL BRITISH TROOPS NOW STARTING TOUR

A local Taleban commander in Helmand, one of the country's most volatile provinces, called the British "an old enemy of Afghanistan".

More than 3300 UK soldiers are now in Afghanistan, and UK Defence Secretary, John Reid, admitted the soldiers faced "massive risks".

Although the troops are in country to "help reconstruction efforts", Reid told the BBC they would, if necessary, adopt the recently announced US pre-emptive strike policy on insurgents and terrorists, which means UK forces will seek to hunt down and kill Taleban and Al Qeada fighters in order to rpevent the Taleban from regaining power.

British forces to remain in Afghanistan for at least three more years.

IRAN SAYS IT WILL DEFY THE WEST

ISRAEL PLAYS THE HITLER CARD

MAJOR MEETING OF RUSSIA AND ASIA DEFENCE CHIEFS

Iran will cut off its relations with the International Atomic Energy Agency if the UN Security Council imposes sanctions against it, Tehran's top nuclear negotiator said Tuesday.

"If sanctions are imposed on Iran, then we will suspend our relations with the IAEA," said Ali Larijani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council said.

Larijani also said that Iran would stop acting in a transparent manner over its nuclear programs if it is attacked.

"If the USA attacks Iran's nuclear facilities, we will stop acting transparently in the nuclear field and continue covert nuclear work at other facilities," he said.

"Iran's nuclear program cannot be stopped by force,"

Israel’s defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, claims the nuclear program currently being undertaken by Iran is the most serious threat Jews have faced since the Holocaust by the Nazis during World War 2, some sixty years ago.

"Of all the threats we face, Iran is the biggest. The world must not wait. It must do everything necessary on a diplomatic level in order to stop its nuclear activity. Since Hitler we have not faced such a threat."

The Defence chiefs of China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are meeting in Beijing today. The US-Israel fermented War On Iran will be on the agenda, along with regional security issues and terrorism in general.

BIN LADEN CLAIMS WAR ON TERROR IS "A WAR AGAINST ISLAM"

CALLS FOR WORLDWIDE JIHAD AGAINST "CRUSADERS"

CITES IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, SUDAN, KASHMIR, CHECHNYA, PALESTINE AS CURRENT BATTLEFIELDS

Osama Bin Laden is said to be the voice speaking on a tape broadcast, in four parts, by Al Jazeera. The following are excerpts from the transcript published on the Kavkaz website :

"The West is incapable of recognising the rights of others. It will not be able to respect others' beliefs or feelings. The West still believes in ethnic supremacy and looks down on other nations. They categorise human beings into white masters and coloured slaves.

"This is why they established institutions and enacted laws to maintain their supremacy by creating the United Nations and the veto power ...They regard jihad for the sake of God or defending one's self or his country as an act of terror. US and Europe consider jihad groups in Palestine, Chechnya, Iraq and Afghanistan as terrorist groups, so how could we talk or have understanding with them without using weapons?

"On their part, the rulers of our region consider the US and Europe as their friends and allies while looking at the jihad groups that fight against the Crusaders in Iraq and Afghanistan as terrorist groups as well. So how can we reach understanding with those rulers who deny us the right to defend ourselves and our religion without carrying arms?

"The net result of their thinking is for us to abandon jihad and acquiesce to remaining as their slaves...

"What does the destruction of the infrastructure in Iraq mean and the tragedy that befell them mean? And the use of depleted uranium, besieging Iraq for years, causing the death of more than one million children which amazed all who had visited Iraq, including the Westerners themselves? It is a malicious crusade against Muslims.

"What does the reoccupation of Iraq mean by using lies and deception along with murder, destruction, detention, torture and creation of huge military bases to dominate the whole region? It is a Zionist crusade against Muslims."

Bin Laden urged his supporters and followers "to establish jihad in the fields of jihad particularly in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Sudan, Kashmir and Chechnya."

The tape finishes with Bin Laden declaring : "Jihad today is an imperative for every Muslim."

FORGET THE AXIS OF EVIL

INTRODUCING THE OCTOPLEX OF OUTRAGE

The Washington Post has run a list of eight dictators, autocrats and rancid rulers "we should be paying attention to".

President Islam Karimov
Uzbekistan

King Gyanendra
Nepal

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema
Equatorial Guinea

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
Ethiopia

President Saparmurad Niyazov
Turkmenistan

President Isaias Afwerki
Eritrea

President Alexander Lukashenko
Belarus

Leader Joseph Kony
Lord's Resistance Army, Uganda

'FORTRESS BAGHDAD' RISES ON THE BANKS OF THE RIVER TIGRIS

NEW US EMBASSY IN IRAQ AS BIG AS VATICAN CITY

MASSIVE COMPOUND TELLS IRAQIS US PRESENCE TO REMAIN IN IRAQ FOR DECADES TO COME

104 acres of US territory becomes a mini-city on the banks of the River Tigris

It will eventually house tens of thousands of people, mostly Americans, it will be the largest fortified compound in the world, as big as Vatican City, it will have its own dedicated defence force, a power station, a desalination plant, sewerage treatment works, swimming pools, office blocks, at least six apartment towers, a taxi service, cinemas, a shopping district and it is on schedule to be completed in June 2007.

It is 'Fortress Baghdad' and it is the new US embassy in Iraq. When it's finished, it will be the biggest embassy complex in the world, six time larger than the UN compound in New York City.

'Fortress Baghdad' will consist of 21 buildings spread across 104 acres and will house thousands of troops, security guards, diplomats, diplomatic staff and FBI agents, along with a detachment of special forces.

In a final insult to the former dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, the embassy complex is being built right across the street from where the tyrant is now on trial. No doubt Hussein is allowed to glimpse the massive complex as he is taken to and from the court room.

The land on which the embassy is being built is actually owned by the United States, not leased. Ownership of the 104 acres of prime Baghdad land (should Baghdad become a bustling international centre of trade and commerce) was transferred over by Iraq's interim government in October 2004. The details and terms of the agreement have still not been disclosed.

The embassy was originally budgeted at more than $1 billion, but US Congress has only allowed, thus far, $592 million. The money comes straight from the emergency Iraq budget rammed through late last year. Around the same time that Congress cut the budget of the embassy, hundreds of Iraqi rebuilding projects, including medical centres and sewerage projects, also lost access to further funding.

While Baghdad is likely to remain vulnerable to power cuts and fresh water supply problems, the US embassy will be completely self-sufficient and is designed to remain functioning, even if the rest of the city, or country, descends further into chaos.

It will come as no great suprise to learn that Iraqis view the permanent nature of the massive complex as being indicative of the United States' plans to remain in the country for years, if not decades, to come.

The question will be, with so many diplomats, soldiers, FBI agents and special forces operatives permanently based in Baghdad, just how independently will the new government be allowed to operate?

The Iraq government is already housed within the 'Green Zone', surrounded by miles of concrete barriers and fortifications. The new Iraqi Parliment relies almost completely on US security, both military and privately contracted, for protection.

When the embassy is completed, the Iraq government is expected to relocate to new offices within the US compound for as long as the Baghdad remains the murder, kidnapping and terrorism capital of the world, and no doubt for many years after the city loses that distinction.

The United States has made an investment in Iraq's future that will clock over to $1 trillion dollars within a few years. They will be expecting a return on their massive investment.

That the US is going to pack up and leave Iraq any time soon is the stuff of fantasy. The hardened embassy mini-city within a city is proof positive that the US is planning to sustain a major, and highly influential presence, in Iraq for decades to come.

(Sources : The Washington Times, Associated Press)

IRAN/IRAQ/TURKEY BORDER WAR BREAKS OUT

LARGE SCALE OPERATIONS UNDERWAY

10,000 IRANIAN SECURITY FORCES DEPLOYED

From Zaman Online : "Iranian security forces killed 10 members of Pejak, which is affiliated with the PKK (Kurdish Workers’ Party) terror organization, in a major anti-terror operation.

"According to the reports, Iranian forces are conducting large scale operations near the Turkish and Iraqi borders after the PKK terrorists wintering in northern Iraq began to infiltrate the border with Turkey and Iran.

"Some 10,000 Iranian forces are taking part in the operation. 10 PKK terrorists were killed while six Iranian security forces lost their lives in the clashes. Several PKK terrorists were injured in the clashes.

"The Iranian operation coincides with major Turkish anti-terror operations near the Iraqi border. Turkish security forces, backed by helicopters, are carrying out operations against PKK terrorists in the region near Iraqi border. More than 35 PKK terrorists have been killed recently in the region."

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said the US are "committed" to stopping terrorists using Iraq territory to launch incursions into Turkey territory.

Turkey's been putting in the calls to the US but claim to be getting little real response back, and are yet to take serious measures to crush the PKK terrorists operating in Northern Iraq.

Turkish intelligence sources claims up to 3000 PKK/KADEK terrorists are based in Northern Iraq, hiding out in the mountains there.

The US is supposed to be working with Iraq and Turkey to deal with the problem, but from today's reports it sounds like Turkey might have turned to Iran for help, and that would include the sharing of intelligence if Iran is now launching major combat operations.

As the US shares Iraq-based intelligence with Turkey, it certainly sounds like Iran now has access to that same US-culled intelligence.

Iran now appears to be doing what the US cannot, or will not, do. Taking care of some of the terrorist-related problems in Iraq.

CHINESE MILITARY LINKED TO SMUGGLING RING PLANNING TO BRING 200 SHOULDER-MOUNTED MISSILES INTO THE UNITED STATES


The Washington Times is reporting : "...a California man...pleaded guilty to trying to smuggle anti-aircraft missiles into the United States...a Chinese general and state-run manufacturer are linked to the crime."

The conspiracy was to smuggle at least 200 Chinese QW-2 anti-aircraft missiles, worth some $18 million, into the US, along with the launchers, optical equipment for aiming and the operational hardware that would have allowed the missiles to be fired at airliners landing at, or leaving, airports in the United States.

A Chinese general has been linked to the conspiracy as one of the keys to getting the missiles and components out of China and on their way to the US. The anti-aircraft weapons would have been loaded into containers, presumably to be unloaded at an American port.

"(The conspirators) sought to mask the missile deal by producing a forged letter saying the purchaser was the Defense Ministry of Paraguay."

The whole story is worth a read, go here.

US FINDS LITTLE SUPPORT FOR SANCTIONS OR WAR ON IRAN

RUSSIA AND CHINA WILL NOT ALLOW MILITARY STRIKES

RUSSIA WILL SELL MISSILE DEFENCE SYSTEMS AND MILITARY EQUIPMENT TO IRAN

Reuters reports : "The US has failed to secure international support for sanctions against Iran...At a meeting in Moscow of deputy foreign ministers of the United Nations Security Council's permanent members - the US, Britain, France, China and Russia - plus Germany, Washington argued for sanctions to be imposed on Iran. Russia and China resisted and the meeting ended with no consensus."

But that's not the full story of what happened at the meeting.

Russia's Kommersant reports the following :

"High officials of the United States, Russia, China, Great Britain, France and Germany began negotiations on the Iranian atomic problem yesterday in Moscow. Those negotiations will be continued in negotiations today in meetings on preparations for the G8 summit in St. Petersburg. With the decisive session of the UN Security Council taking place April 28, the positions of the world powers are diametrically opposed.

The U.S. is calling for decisive action, while Russia and China oppose sanctions. Moscow's continuing unwillingness to support Washington in its most important foreign policy issue threatens seriously to complicate Russian-American relations and lead to unpleasant surprises for Moscow at the G8 summit."

Meanwhile, Russia is planning to sell missile defence systems and military equipments to Iran, much to the chagrin, and horror, of the US and Israel, who claims such systems can be dismantled and rebuilt to act as offensive missle systems.

From Novosti : "The chief of the General Staff said Wednesday that Russia would honor its commitments on supplying military equipment to Iran.

"'We discussed supplies of military equipment to Iran...but it does not fall into the category of strategic weapons,' Army General Yury Baluyevsky said after talks in Moscow with NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe General James Jones.

"At the end of 2005, Russia concluded a $700-million contract on the delivery of 29 Tor M1 air defense systems to Iran.

"Baluyevsky also said Russia's Armed Forces would not be involved in any military conflict in Iran.

"'I do not think the conflict [in Iran] will turn into a war,' he said. 'Russia will not propose the use of its armed forces in a potential military conflict on either side.'

US Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice continues to talk about using diplomacy to deal with the Iran crisis, while President Bush refuses to take the possibility of a nuclear strike on Iran off the table.

The US has no real choice but to use diplomacy. Without the backing of the UK, Russia, China, Germany and France, the likelihood of any military action being taken against Iran is nex to zero.

For the moment, Iran has called the US' bluff, and won.

The US now has no choice but to talk up the benefits of diplomacy, so they can claim a victory if Russia and China force Iran to stick to their word that they are not developing nuclear weapons.

From the Sydney Morning Herald : "US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has expressed confidence a diplomatic solution will be found to the Iranian nuclear crisis...

"'I believe we can make the diplomacy work,' Rice said. "And long before we get to the point that we have to contemplate diplomacy failing I believe we have options at our disposal."

But the Russians and Chinese, and the Iranians, see the US threat for what it really is, just talk, aimed at capturing the headlines back home and making the Bush Administration appear as though it will stand by its word on never allowing Iran to have nuclear weapons.

Israel,. meanwhile, remains the wild card in the deck. They have threatened in the past to take action against Iran if they see final proof that nuclear weapons are being developed.

But Israel faces the real possibility of military action against them coming from Russia, and even China, who have said that they will not tolerate an attack on Iran, under any circumstances.

ISRAEL ATTEMPTS TO RALLY ALLIES AGAINST THE 'AXIS OF TERROR'

CLAIM : IRAN, SYRIA AND THE HAMAS-LED GOVERNMENT OF PALESTINE HAVE MADE "CLEAR DECLARATIONS OF WAR"

The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting : "Israel has warned the United Nations that a new 'axis of terror' - Iran, Syria and the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority - is sowing the seeds of a new world war.

"But the Palestinians accuse Israel of an escalating military campaign using indiscriminate force to kill civilians and entrench its occupation.

"Recent statements by the Palestinian government, Iran and Syria, including one by Hamas on Monday defending the suicide bombing (in Israel), 'are clear declarations of war, and I urge each and every one of you to listen carefully and take them at face value,' said Israel's ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman.

"'A dark cloud is looming above our region, and it is metastasising....'

"The Palestinian UN observer, Riyad Mansour, condemned the suicide bombing and the loss of innocent civilians on both sides, but attacked Israel for trying to portray its latest military escalation - which killed 21 Palestinians between April 7 and 9 - as a response to violence from the Palestinian territories.

"Israel, the occupying power has been relentless in its grave breaches of international law, including the wilful killing and injury of civilians and the practice of extrajudicial executions," he said."

The Jerusalem Post is reporting : "The Bush administration launched on Monday a campaign to reverse creeping assistance to the Hamas-led Palestinian government while endorsing help to the Palestinian people themselves.

"The campaign is directed initially at countries already primed to contribute to the Palestinian government. On Monday, oil-rich Qatar said it would contribute $50 million to help make up for a US and European cutoff.

"Russia, which had appeared to be in agreement with the United States, the European Union and Canada in denying aid to the government until Hamas renounces terrorism and accepts Israel existence, pledged unspecified, urgent aid last week.

"Iran said on Sunday it would contribute $50 million."

ISRAEL RULES OUT RETALIATION STRIKE AGAINST HAMAS, FOR NOW

HAMAS CLAIMS TEL AVIV BOMBING WAS "AN ACT OF SELF DEFENCE"

US GENERALS GO TO WAR AGAINST RUMSFELD

CALLS FOR DEFENCE SECRETARY TO GO MOUNT BY THE DAY

BUT NOW RUMSFELD STRIKES BACK

US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, is facing down the growing crowd of former US generals calling for his resignation over his widely perceived failings in adequately handling the situations in Iraq and Afghanisatn.

Today, Rumsfeld has been quoted as saying on the subject of the generals' resignation calls : "Well, you know, this, too, will pass."

Rumsfeld is quoted as telling an American right wing radio host :"I guess only someone who's rooted in the history of our country, I think, could accept the kinds of comments that are being made. And if we recognize that the same kinds of criticism that occurred in the Revolutionary War and World War I and World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, it's not new. There have always been people who have opposed wars."

"Wars are terrible things. (If the US had not participated in some of those wars, however) "we would have failed, and our country would be a totally different place, if it existed at all."

Rumsfeld has the full backing of President Bush who still believes his defence secretary is doing "a good job" and is "an honourable man".

But the criticism of Rumsfeld from some of the most senior of America's former generals has been damaging, and is a sign of a much deeper malaise within the US Military about the rising death toll, the ten thousand plus soldiers permanently disabled through fighting the War On Terror and a growing tide of anger by US Marines who are being told they must return for third and even fourth tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Here's some of the coverage of the Generals' War On Rusmfeld :

From the Washington Post : "...it is clear that the retired generals -- six so far, with more likely to come -- surely are speaking for many of their former colleagues, friends and subordinates who are still inside. In the tight world of senior active and retired generals, there is constant private dialogue. Recent retirees stay in close touch with old friends, who were often their subordinates; they help each other, they know what is going on and a conventional wisdom is formed.

"The major reason the nation needs a new defense secretary is far more urgent. Put simply, the failed strategies in Iraq and Afghanistan cannot be fixed as long as Rumsfeld remains at the epicenter of the chain of command.

"If more angry generals emerge -- and they will -- if some of them are on active duty, as seems probable; if the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan does not turn around (and there is little reason to think it will, alas), then this storm will continue until finally it consumes not only Donald Rumsfeld. The only question is: Will it come so late that there is no longer any hope of salvaging something in Iraq and Afghanistan?"

From The Times of London : "The real criticism of Mr Rumsfeld is not that he 'kicked to much butt', but that he kicked too little. At George Bush’s behest, he sent the US armed forces into a war that they weren’t yet fully ready to fight: they are much more prepared now, but the insurgency genie is out of the bottle. He was part of the Republican consensus that was contemptuous of Clinton-era peacekeeping operations, believing that real soldiers don’t do social workerish stuff."

And yet, there may be even worse events to come for Rumseld. New reports claim his fingerprints are all over some of the more disturbing methods of torture used in Guantanamo Bay. Not just that he signed off on 'torture memos', but that he personally requested, and enthusiastically agreed to, certain techniques being used to extract information from detainees.

From Reuters : "Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld could be criminally liable for the torture of a detainee at Guantanamo Bay in late 2002 and early 2003...

"A December 20, 2005 Army Inspector General's report, obtained by Salon.com this week, contains a sworn statement by Lt. Gen. Randall M. Schmidt that implicates Secretary Rumsfeld in the abuse of detainee Mohammad al-Qahtani. Based on an investigation that he carried out in early 2005, which included two interviews with Rumsfeld, Gen. Schmidt describes the defense secretary as being 'personally involved' in al-Qahtani's interrogation."

"A six-week regime of sleep deprivation, forced exercises, stress positions, white noise, and sexual humiliation amounts to acts that were specifically intended to cause severe physical pain and suffering and severe mental pain and suffering...
That's the legal definition of torture."

THE GLOBAL STORM WARNING

The Washington Times is reporting in an editorial that the Global War On Terror, or the recently rebranded 'The Long War', is reaching a crisis point with the Taliban in Afghanistan mounting a strong Spring Offensive, with the on-the-street and governmental turmoil in Iraq increasing, with the Israel-Palestine conflict ramping up to an Intifada III and with once strong US allies in the Middle East Gulf states looking to China and India for future "protection" and energy deals.

NATO is set to double its 10,000 strong force in Afghanistan by November, the Taliban is anything but a spent force, suicide bombings are becoming commonplace, the Afghanistan Army is estimated to still be four years away from "being able to fight on their own" and heavy air attacks by US bombers are reaching high in mountain regions closer and closer to the border with Pakistan.

Oil is moving beyond $70 a barrel, gold is cresting $600 an ounce, the American dollar is rapidly losing confidence in East Asia, Iran is ramping up uranium enrichment and there are "fears of worse to come in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and on the Israeli-Palestinian front..."

In the US backed (and some would say US controlled) Gulf countries, such as Kuwait, there is serious concern about what will happen when the US eventually pulls out of Iraq, and now that Saudi Arabia moves ahead building strong new ties with India and China, there are signs that these countries "no longer depend on US protection".

"Hurricane force geopolitical winds are in the forecast for the rest of the year -- and beyond,"
the Washington Times predicts.

CLAIM : TONY BLAIR HAS TOLD PRESIDENT BUSH THAT BRITAIN WILL NOT OFFER ANY MILITARY SUPPORT FOR AIR STRIKES OR AN INVASION OF IRAN

The Scotsman is reporting today : "Tony Blair has told George Bush that Britain cannot offer military support to any strike on Iran, regardless of whether the move wins the backing of the international community, government sources claimed yesterday.

"Amid increasing tension over Tehran's attempts to develop a military nuclear capacity, the Prime Minister has laid bare the limits of his support for President Bush, who is believed to be considering an assault on Iran, Foreign Office sources revealed.

"But, in the midst of international opposition to a pre-emptive strike on Tehran, and Britain's military commitments around the world, the government maintains it cannot contribute to a military assault. 'We will support the diplomatic moves, at best," a Foreign Office source told Scotland on Sunday. "But we cannot commit our own resources to a military strike.'

The decision not to support US military action on Iran, including airstrikes, would presumably include stopping the US from using UK air bases for the deployment of long range B2 bombers.

MOTHERS OF THE SOLDIERS WANT TO CONFRONT TONY BLAIR OVER THE "ILLEGAL INVASION OF IRAQ"

Go here for extracts from the UK Independent story and a summary.

THE WAR ON IRAN HAS ALREADY BEGUN

US ACCUSED OF OUTSOURCING SPECIAL OPERATIONS TO TERRORIST GROUP USED BY SADDAM HUSSEIN

From Raw Story : "The Pentagon is bypassing official US intelligence channels and turning to a dangerous and unruly cast of characters in order to create strife in Iran in preparation for any possible attack, former and current intelligence officials say.

"One of the operational assets being used by the Defense Department is a right-wing terrorist organization known as Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), which is being 'run' in two southern regional areas of Iran...

"One former counterintelligence official....describes the Pentagon as pushing MEK shortly after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The drive to use the insurgent group was said to have been advanced by the Pentagon under the influence of the Vice President’s office.....

"According to all three intelligence sources, military and intelligence officials alike were alarmed that instead of securing a known terrorist organization, which has been responsible for acts of terror against Iranian targets and individuals all over the world – including US civilian and military casualties – Rumsfeld under instructions from Cheney, began using the group on special ops missions into Iran to pave the way for a potential Iran strike.

"Indeed, Saddam Hussein himself had used the MEK for acts of terror against non-Sunni Muslims and had assigned domestic security detail to the MEK as a way of policing dissent among his own people."

“We are already at war,”a UN official told Raw Story.

Billions Being Transferred Out Of Iranian Bank Accounts

"The Iranian authorities and elite are busy transferring their bank accounts from Europe to Asia, or to Switzerland....These are multi-billion sums. Many analysts see this as Tehran's precaution ahead of a potential armed clash with the U.S. and its allies..."

Russian Intelligence Expert Spells Out Possible End-Game Results For The US In Attacking Iran

"U.S. long-term goals in Iran are obvious: to engineer the downfall of the current regime, establish control over Iran's oil and gas, and use its territory as the shortest route for the U.S.-controlled transportation of hydrocarbons from the regions of Central Asia and the Caspian Sea bypassing Russia and China. This is not to mention Iran's intransient military and strategic significance."

Claim : Hundreds Of Iranian Targets Already In War Plan, US Troops On The Ground And Active

"The Bush Administration, while publicly advocating diplomacy in order to stop Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon, has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack. Current and former American military and intelligence officials said that Air Force planning groups are drawing up lists of targets, and teams of American combat troops have been ordered into Iran, under cover, to collect targeting data and to establish contact with anti-government ethnic-minority groups."

The Israel Lobby In The US Beating The Loudest Drums For War On Iran

"The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the premier Israel lobby group...has also been pushing hard on Capitol Hill for legislation to promote regime change (in Iran). Despite White House objections, the group has sought tough sanctions against foreign companies with investments in Iran."

America's Right Wing Media And NeoCon Hawks Scream For War Now

The usual media suspects are demanding President Bush go to War On Iran now, not later, to stop the possibility of Iran developing nuclear weapons. From the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Times, to the Weekly Standard and a veritable army of extreme rightist bloggers, the message is the same : "Don't wait for proof, strike now! Strike Now!'

48% Of Americans Back Military Action Against Iran

But doubts about White House claims that Iran is developing nuclear weapons are widespread.

RUSSIA AND IRAN DEMAND : FREE PALESTINE

HAMAS SAYS IT WON'T CAVE IN TO ISRAEL AND US PRESSURE

RUSSIA TO BACK HAMAS GOVERNMENT WITH AID

Rueters is reporting that the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said the following in a speech yesterday :

"The existence of the Zionist regime (in Israel) is tantamount to an imposition of an unending and unrestrained threat so that none of the nations and Islamic countries of the region and beyond can feel secure from its threat,

"Are the consequences of the establishment of this (Israeli) regime less than the Holocaust which you (the West) are claiming? If there are doubts regarding the Holocaust, there is really no doubt regarding the Palestinian disaster and holocaust."

"Palestine should be returned to the Palestinian nation and the united Palestinian government, elected by all Palestinians, should rule the country."

The Irish Examiner reports : Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh told the largest rally he has addressed since taking office, “Attempts to destroy this government and put obstacles before it and disrupt it will only be met with more steadfastness, resolve and solidarity.”

“The Palestinian people will not give up their government no matter how many sacrifices we have to make."

The US and Israel have cut all non-humanitarian aid to Palestine, with Israel witholding tens of millions of dollars in tax money due to the Hamas government. The European Union has backed the blocking of financial assistance.

Xinhua reports Russian President Vladimir as stating the following : "We believe it is necessary to resume the peace process on the basis of the Roadmap settlement plan and consistently move towards its destination point -- the creation of an independent Palestinian state peacefully coexisting with Israel.

"Russia is also ready in the future to provide assistance to the Palestinian government,"

THE WAR IN CHAD

ATTACK ON CAPITAL CITY REPELLED

CHAD CUTS ALL TIES WITH SUDAN

The BBC reports : "Chad's government has announced it has cut off diplomatic relations with Sudan after repelling a rebel attack on the capital, N'Djamena, on Thursday.

"Sudan denies Chad's accusations that it backs the United Force for Change rebels, who were beaten back by Chadian troops after launching a dawn raid.

"Chad's president has threatened to expel about 200,000 refugees who fled conflict in Sudan's Darfur region. The US called this an unacceptable breach of Chad's obligations."

The Taipei Times reports : "Chadian troops paraded 285 prisoners and laid out the bodies of dead insurgents at the National Assembly building yesterday to demonstrate their victory following a rebel attack on the capital, N'Djamena.

"Some of the prisoners spoke of being conscripted in the rebel United Front for Change. Others said their commanders told them they would not meet any resistance when they attacked the capital before dawn on Thursday.

"In just three days, the rebels charged 1,000km in pickups from their bases and came close to capturing the National Assembly building in the center of N'Djamena.Government troops pushed them back with tanks, artillery and attack helicopters."

The Financial Times reports : "Idriss Déby, president of Chad, yesterday said he was cutting off diplomatic ties with neighbouring Sudan, a day after his forces repulsed a dawn rebel attack on the capital.

"Officials said more than 100 people were killed after insurgents fought government troops in N'Djamena. Mr Déby, speaking at a public rally, has repeatedly accused Khartoum of backing the rebels, which he has described as mercenaries. Sudan has denied the allegations."

THE RISE OF THE BATTLEFIELD ROBOTS

MACHINE GUN 'BOTS ALREADY DEPLOYED IN IRAQ

From USA Today :"The military also is responding to some creative tinkering by the troops, who have modified their (bomb disarming) robots to carry grenades and other weapons into buildings or other potentially unsafe targets.

"'Soldiers and Marines are very innovative and ... have figured out how to do that,' Griffin says.

"As a result, the Pentagon is testing a new version of the Talon robot that carries a remote-control M-240 machine gun.

"Meanwhile, much larger and more ambitious robot weapons are in testing, including a tank-like, 1,600-pound vehicle called the Gladiator, which can fire a variety of guns, tear gas or almost anything else that fits. It also has loudspeakers to "shout" instructions, such as those to calm a mob."

While soldiers in the field may be tinkering with bomb disposal robots to carry weapons, the statement that armed robots is the world of soldiers alone is absurd. Hundreds of millions of dollars have already been spent by high tech weapons research companies, like DAPRA, to fulfill Donald Rumsfeld's dream of sending platoons of armed robots into future battlefields.

To see images of Military robots already armed with up to three machine guns, go here.

US HYPES THE WAR ON IRAN

"IRAN COULD PRODUCE NUCLEAR BOMB IN 16 DAYS"

RUSSIA AND CHINA TELL US AND ISRAEL TO BACK OFF

From Bloomberg : "Iran, defying United Nations Security Council demands to halt its nuclear program, may be capable of making a nuclear bomb within 16 days, a U.S. State Department official said.

"Iran will move to `'industrial scale'' uranium enrichment involving 54,000 centrifuges at its Natanz plant, the Associated Press quoted deputy nuclear chief Mohammad Saeedi as telling state-run television today.

"'Using those 50,000 centrifuges they could produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon in 16 days,' Stephen Rademaker, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, told reporters..."

From Xinhua : "Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Wang Guangya said Tuesday that military and economic measures on Iran's nuclear issue are counterproductive.

Wang....is also the current president of the UN Security Council...

"We still believe that negotiations and diplomatic solution is the best way out of it," he observed.

Russia has also been critical towards any talk of military action against Iran and, like China, also opposes sanctions.

In two weeks, the Iran issue goes before the UN Security Council where the US will push for sanctions. China and Russia are expected to oppose this move and win the vote.

The US and Israel don't need permission from the Security Council to take military action against Iran, though it would be an illegal act under international law. As was the War On Iraq.

"I FORMALLY DECLARE THAT IRAN HAS JOINED THE CLUB OF NUCLEAR NATIONS"

ISRAEL TELLS U.S. GO TO WAR OR WE WILL

From the Guardian : "Iranian television broadcast pictures of scientists dancing and waving test tubes apparently marked with chemical symbols. Mr Ahmadinejad, who has threatened to wipe Israel off the map, said the nuclear programme was for purely civilian purposes."

From Iran Mania : "In an interview with the Kuwait news agency KUNA also reported by Iran's ISNA news agency, influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said a cascade of centrifuges, devices that spin at supersonic speeds, had been operated at a facility in Natanz.

"'We operated the first unit which comprises 164 centrifuges, gas was injected, and we got the industrial output,' Rafsanjani was quoted as saying.

"'We must expand the operation of these devices in order to become a full industrial unit, as we still need dozens of such units to become a plant for uranium enrichment'."

From the Jerusalem Post : "By showing it has already achieved capability to enrich nuclear uranium before the issue is discussed in the upcoming Security Council meeting, Iran could argue that the events have overtaken the discussion and the Security Council must allow Iran to continue with the process."

From the Independent : "Iran continues to insist it is pursuing the production of enriched uranium to enable it to begin nuclear power generation. The programme has triggered fears in Western nations, however, that Tehran's true ambition lies in making nuclear weapons."

From YNetNews : "Israeli officials who visited Washington recently gave the Americans an urgent message regarding Iran: The Islamic Republic was closer to developing a nuclear bomb than Washington realizes, and the moment of decision is approaching quickly.

"...Israel recently leaked its own attack plans, if the United States does not act. The Israeli plan includes aerial attacks, commando raids, a possibility of a missile attack, and even bombs carried on the backs of dogs.

"....Israel constructed an exact replica of the (Iranian) Natanz nuclear development facility, but the United States does not believe that the operation can succeed without using nuclear weapons. "

THE COMING ARCTIC WARS

CANADIANS DEPLOY ON 'EPIC' RECON MISSION

From C News, Canada : "The last night of an epic military operation in Canada's frozen north ended up being the worst

"Operation Nunalivut, which means The Land Is Ours in Inuktitut, was the first time that several patrols from widely separated points in the North travelled by snowmobiles on harsh land and converged at one point.

"The purpose of the operation was to establish Canadian sovereignty and to learn about various camps, airstrips and other structures built and abandoned on the land."

The Arctic ice is now breaking up and major new shipping lanes are expected to become passable in less than a decade. As the ice retreats, thousands of miles of previously unusable coastline will become habitable and exploitable by mining and oil companies. Russia, the US, Canada and Greenland all have coastline in this massive new territory, but who owns what is still under dispute, which is why countries like Canada are now making a big show of their recon missions.

Go here for a map of the territory and more on the Coming Arctic Wars.

THE LONG WAR NERVE CENTRE HOUSED IN A TRAILER PARK

US PUSHES FOR 'ETERNAL' ALLIANCE IN WORLD TERROR FIGHT

US Central Command co-ordinates all the major US Military activities in the War On Terror, now re-branded by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as 'The Long War'. For the moment, the nerve centre of The Long War is housed in a set of trailers in what was once a car park.

Not for long. Central Command is getting new digs and wants the global intelligence sharing that has characterised the War On Terror to become a permanent alliance. But other countries, like France and Germany, are resisting.

"Most countres here are not interested in a new alliance. We've got one," said a European general. "It will be a coalition kind of thing, but one where we sign in and sign out."

But that's not what the Americans want.

Go here for the full story.

DARFUR : US MAY JOIN UN PEACEKEEPING TROOPS

100,000s HAVE DIED IN WAR, 2 MILLION PEOPLE DISPLACED

From the Washington Post : "The Bush administration has settled on the idea of sending up to several hundred NATO advisers to help bolster African Union peacekeeping troops in their efforts to shield villagers in Sudan's Darfur region from fighting between government-backed Arab militias and rebel groups, administration officials said.

"The move would include some U.S. troops and mark a significant expansion of U.S. and allied involvement in the conflict.

"The proposal...falls well short of more aggressive measures that some have advocated, such as sending ground combat troops or providing air patrols to protect peacekeepers and prevent the bombing of villages.

"The latest conflict dates from early 2003, when Darfur rebel groups took up arms against the Arab-led Islamic government in Khartoum, citing discrimination against the region's black tribes. The Sudanese government bombed villages to force the rebels out and unleashed Arab militias that mounted a campaign of burning and pillaging. An estimated 100,000 to 400,000 people may have died from violence or disease, according to U.N. officials and human rights advocates, and more than 2 million people have been displaced to camps."

ISRAEL HAMMERS GAZA WITH 300 SHELLS A DAY

HAMAS ANNOUNCES END TO SUICIDE BOMBINGS AS TACTIC OF WAR

From the London Observer : "Hamas is to abandon its use of suicide bombers, who have killed almost 300 Israelis, in any future confrontations with Israel...

"The Islamic group, which leads the Palestinian Authority, says, however, that it may resort to other forms of violence if there is no progress towards Palestinian statehood.

"As Hamas toned down its rhetoric, Israel increased pressure on the Palestinians, particularly in Gaza. Two militants were killed in an airstrike near Gaza City yesterday and five men and a five-year-old boy were killed on Friday night."

Media reports state that more than 300 shells per day from Israeli tanks and mortar battalions are hitting vacant land, militant targets and civilians in the Northern Gaza region.

At the same time, Israel is choking the Palestinians economy by refusing to open a number of borders to allow the free flow of commodities such as flour and sugar. Farmers also complain that Israeli checkpoints are stopping them from getting their goods to market. Prices for basic commodities in Gaza have risen 200% over the last month.

Figures from the Israeli Army claim that since October 2000, Hamas was responsible for more than 51 suicide attacks resulting in the deaths of more than 270 Israelis.

During the same period, more than 5000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli tanks, missile strikes and gun fire.

While the Western media has portrayed Palestinians as supporting suicide bombers unanimously, most are and have always been opposed to such tactics, if only for the base reason that the indiscriminate killing of Israeli civilians portrays the Palestinians as the aggressors in the war and illegal occupation and not the Israelis.

NORTH KOREA'S "HUMAN BOMBS" READY TO DEFEND SOCIALISM

UNITED STATES ACCUSED OF "ZEALOUSLY INCITING HOSTILITY"

From the Sydney Morning Herald : "North Korea's defence chief has warned that Pyongyang could also launch a pre-emptive attack against the United States, with state media saying soldiers were ready to be 'human bombs'.

"'A pr-eemptive attack is not (the) monopoly of the US, and North Korea will never sit idle till it is exposed to a preemptive attack of the US," Defence Minister Kim Il-Chol said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

"'The US...is zealously inciting hostility toward North Korea while floating all sorts of sheer fictions, utterly indifferent to the talks," he said.

"The whole army is replete with the spirit of devotedly defending the leader and all the servicepersons are reliably defending the country and socialism in the spirit of readily becoming human bombs, the spirit of suicide bombing. It has modern offensive and defensive means capable of coping with any war.'"

CLAIM : BUSH PLANNING NUKE STRIKES ON IRAN

From the Melbourne Age : "The Administration of President George Bush is planning a massive bombing campaign against Iran, including use of bunker-buster nuclear bombs to destroy a key suspected nuclear weapons facility.

"Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, writing in The New Yorker magazine, said Mr Bush and others in the White House had come to view Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a potential Adolf Hitler.

"In recent weeks, the President has quietly initiated a series of talks on plans for Iran with a few key senators and members of the House of Representatives, including at least one Democrat, the report said.

"One of the options under consideration involves the possible use of a bunker-buster tactical nuclear weapon, such as the B61-11, to insure the destruction of Iran's main centrifuge plant at Natanz, Hersh writes.

"But the former senior intelligence official said the attention given to the nuclear option has created serious misgivings inside the military, and some officers have talked about resigning."

Go here to read the Seymour Hersh New Yorker article in full.

IRAN'S DRAMATIC WAR GAMES END

SHOW OF FORCE TO SHOW OFF NEW WEAPONS

"NOT IMPRESSED" CLAIMS THE WEST

The Australian is reporting : "Iran has wrapped up a week of war games, which the regime used as much to rally local support as to send an intimidating message to detractors of its controversial nuclear ambitions.

"Trumpeting its 'homegrown' military achievements, the Islamic republic unveiled a wide range of weaponry such as multiple-head missiles, high-speed torpedoes and radar-evading anti-ship missiles in a week of military exercises in the strategic Gulf waters to the south.

"'Iranian missile invisible to radars: fresh nightmare for the United States, Western experts say,' ran a headline in the hardline daily Kayhan newspaper soon after Iran said it had successfully tested an underwater 'super-modern' missile.

"The war games, which began last Friday and ended on Thursday, were held in the Straits of Hormuz - the narrow neck in the Gulf through which a third of the world's oil exports passes.

"Most of the arms tested this week were anti-ship weapons, which could hit military vessels and oil tankers.

"Political analyst Saeed Laylaz said: 'If they sink a 500,000-tonne tanker in the region, they can cripple the traffic in the Persian Gulf'."

THE BILLION DOLLAR TERROR WAR ONLINE

THE PENTAGON WILL WAGE WAR ON AND ACROSS THE INTERNET

From Scotland's the Sunday Herald :

"Imagine a world where wars are fought over the internet; where TV broadcasts and newspaper reports are designed by the military to confuse the population; and where a foreign armed power can shut down your computer, phone, radio or TV at will.

"In 2006, we are just about to enter such a world. This is the age of information warfare, and details of how this new military doctrine will affect everyone on the planet are contained in a report, entitled The Information Operations Roadmap, commissioned and approved by US secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld..."

It is certainly no great secret that the Pentagon is already deep into a massive 'psy-ops' program focused primarily on winning the War On Terror and destabilising the insurgency in Iraq. This program makes use of fake news stories, fake videos posted online, spreading propaganda through the message and discussion boards of websites around the world and publishing high profile books that may be 80% sensational and revealing fact, with 20% pure falsity.

The Lincoln Group, a media company paid hundreds of millions of dollars by the Pentagon to plant terribly written stories in Iraqi newspapers was recently exposed by the UK's Independent newspaper, along with a stream of US media outlets. Rather than backing down from continuing such a program after exposure, US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rusmfeld, said the Lincoln Group would continue to be funded for its work and that he had no problem with fake 'good news' stories finding their way into Iraqi newspapers.

It is not unreasonable to assume, therefore, that getting exposed may have been part of the Lincoln Group's original plans, as now many Iraqis view their newspapers as possibly containing planted stories. What to believe? What to dismiss as propaganda? The credibility of Iraqi newspapers as being truthful and reliable has been effectively destabilised.

The Pentagon backed psychological operations campaign involves the use of all media, including books, posters, films, the internet, music, personal assistant computer devices (PDAs, Blackberrys), web forums and newspapers. These media forms are used to funnel out black propaganda and misinformation that is aimed at assisting the US government goals and military strategies in the War On Terror.

Rumsfeld admitted in 2005 that Al Qeada was winning the information war online, and when he talked of their successes, he spoke almost in awe. He was most certainly impressed by what they had achieved.

From the shattering footage of beheadings and US tanks being destroyed by roadside bombs, to Osama Bin Laden speeches that were seen by more people than the speeches of President Bush, the Pentagon has been slow to realise the full potential and effectiveness of their enemy in the online world.

Not any more, or so it appears.