China Confidential
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Global Warming Zealot Al Gore is Burning Mad
Dateline USA....
The windbag is fuming.
Democratic Party insiders say former Vice President Al Gore, the fire-breathing global warming zealot and charlatan, who parlayed a slideshow about a hoax--manmade global warming--into an Academy Award and a Nobel Peace Prize, is burning mad that the party's Presidential candidate, Barack Obama, has embraced natural gas and nuclear power, as well as alternative energy.
Gore, sources say, was "stunned" by Obama's inclusion of the conventional energy sources in his acceptance speech call for an end to the country's so-called oil addiction.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Emergency EU Summit on Russia Set for Monday
Foreign Confidential....
The European Union has scheduled an emergency summit of heads of government Monday to discuss what actions to take against Russia following its decision to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia--two Moscow-backed separatist regions in Georgia.
The 27-nation European Union is split between those countries, such as the Baltic States and Poland, favoring tough action, and other countries such as France, Germany and Italy resisting punitive measures against Russia.
For the sake of EU unity, summit members will probably use strong language, but forego tough measures. French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said Friday that EU leaders will not decide to impose sanctions.Israel and Iran Preparing for War
Foreign Confidential....
Countdown to conflict--between Israel and Iran. The war is coming--a matter of when, not if.
The Israeli newspaper Maariv reported Firday that Israeli leaders decided, in top-level strategic discussions three months ago, to do whatever it takes to prevent Iran from having nuclear bombs.
The paper's veteran political reporter Ben Caspit writes: "Preparations for an Israeli military option intended to stop Iran's nuclear program are underway."
"The debate between those who believe in doing everything, including a military operation, to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb, and those who think we can live with Iranian nukes, has been settled," Caspit writes.
He asserts that "if the ayatollahs' regime does not fall in the next year, if the Americans do not strike militarily, and if the international sanctions do not break the Iranian nuclear plan, Israel will have to act forcefully."
Iran Installing More Centrifuges
In related news, Iran is operating about 4,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges and it is installing several thousand more, the state news agency IRNA quoted the deputy foreign minister as saying Friday.
"There are nearly 4,000 centrifuges working in the Natanz enrichment facility... another 3,000 centrifuges are being installed," IRNA quoted Alireza Sheikh Attar as saying in an interview with state television.
In July, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran had up to 6,000 centrifuges for uranium enrichment, the process at the heart of Western fears that Tehran is secretly trying to build nuclear weapons.
Last week, a senior official with Iran's atomic energy agency said the country had started designing its second nuclear power plant.
Iran is still building its first nuclear power plant with Russia's assistance. The 1,000-megawatt plant is located in the southern city of Bushehr.
Iran Could Hit Back With Missiles
Iran could hit back at Israel with missiles if the Jewish state attacked it, and could also rely on allies in the region to strike, the commander of the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday.
He was clearly referring to Syria--which seems to have faked interest in reaching a peace agreement with Israel--and Hezbollah, Iran's Lebanese Shiite proxy.
The terrorist group is armed with advanced Iranian-supplied missiles capable of reaching targets deep inside Israel, according to a report in Friday's edition of the London-based pan-Arab daily Al-Quds al-Arabi.
The report quotes senior Arab sources who claim that the Lebanon-based militia plans to use the missiles in the event Israel decides to attack Iranian nuclear facilities, or if the United States launches an offensive that has the potential to ignite a regional war.
Hezbollah Boasts About its Missiles
The sources added that the new missiles have a range that Israel "cannot even fathom," and that the new arms are the "surprise" that Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah alluded to in his recent statements to the public. The report says the missiles are armed with a precision-guided mechanism that increases their accuracy.
Hezbollah has stockpiled new arms in recent months, including anti-aircraft systems, that it has deployed in the mountainous regions of Lebanon. Israel has repeatedly warned that positioning these missile batteries in Lebanon would be viewed as "a step that tilts the balance."
Israeli officials say this would justify a preemptive strike on these weapons systems.
Iranian defense experts are also reportedly in Lebanon in an effort to assist Hezbollah in developing anti-aircraft capabilities.
Iranian leaders have repeatedly vowed to "burn Tel Aviv" and bombard US bases in the Middle East.
Saturday, 30 August 2008
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