DEBKAfile Special Report April 21, 2009, 12:17 PM (GMT+02:00) Iranian uranium enrichment leaps ahead DEBKAfile's military sources cite some Western intelligence and nuclear weapons experts as predicting that Iran could turn out nuclear weapons some time in the next 12 months. This estimate is based on Tehran's announcement that 7,000 centrifuges are in operation to enrich uranium. If all those machines were to work at top speed day and night, seven days a week, they could produce enough weapons-grade uranium to build a bomb in 60 days, say some intelligence sources. DEBKAfile Special Report April 21, 2009, 11:06 AM (GMT+02:00) US Vulcan Phalanx for short-range missiles The population of southwestern Israel will remain vulnerable to attack after eight years should Hamas revive the Qassam missile blitz from the Gaza Strip. Defense minister Ehud Barak, after finally accepting that the Iron Dome still under development will not be up to the task, applied to Washington to purchase Vulcan Phalanx systems worth $25 million each. Chances of Washington approval are faint. DEBKAfile Special Report April 20, 2009, 10:59 AM (GMT+02:00) Swiss president Hans Rudolf Merz Protesters constantly disrupted the speech as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad condemned Israel for "racism" at the Anti-Racism conference which opened in Geneva Monday, April 20. Some were bundled out. He went on to denounce the US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan as an arrogant drive to "expand its sphere of influence." UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon accused the Iranian leader of misusing the anti-racist platform "to divide and incite hate." At the main Holocaust Day ceremony in Jerusalem, with which the Geneva conference coincided, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu pledged that Holocaust deniers would not be permitted to perpetrate another such crime against the Jewish people. DEBKAfile Special Report April 20, 2009, 12:30 PM (GMT+02:00) Israeli TecSAR DEBKAfile's military sources report that India rushed through its order for the Israeli Aerospace Industries all-weather, 24-hour surveillance TecSAR after 10 gunmen murdered 165 people in Mumbai last November, including five Israelis. The Israeli satellite is considered one of the most advanced in the market, capable of seeing through clouds and carrying out day-and-night all-weather imaging. TOP STORIES DEBKAfile Special Report April 21, 2009, 12:43 PM (GMT+02:00) Barack Obama's CIA debut Former Vice President Dick Cheney formally asked for the declassification of legal memos which proved that the CIA's interrogation techniques such as water-boarding worked. He stressed that the American people must have a chance to see "what we obtained and what we learned and how good the intelligence was, as well as this debate over legal opinions." Cheney spoke to Fox News April 20 as President Barack Obama paid his first visit to Central Intelligence Agency headquarters at Langley, Virginia, Monday, April 20, to tell its staff they must uphold the rule of law in their continued war on terror. DEBKA-Net-Weekly Exclusive April 21, 2009, 11:00 AM (GMT+02:00) How is Barack Obama handling the crisis? In its coming issue out next Friday,DEBKA-Net-Weekly analyses its causes and effects - including the ways al Qaeda and its ilk may be expected to exploit this opportunity. To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weeklyclick HERE . DEBKAfile Special Report April 20, 2009, 11:11 PM (GMT+02:00) Roxana Suberi condemend to eight years in Iranian jail In the course of opening up US relations with Iran, the Obama administration was confronted April 18 with an unforeseen obstacle: A Tehran court convicted the US-born American-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi of spying for the US and sentenced the 31-year old to eight years in jail. DEBKAfile's Iranian sources explain the timing of the Saberi case as an attempt by wildly anti-US elements inside Tehran's power structure, possibly in the Revolutionary Guards Corps and clergy, to choke off an Iranian-US rapprochement.Iran could produce first nuke in 60 days with 7,000 centrifuges working 24/7 – Western experts
More...Barak bids for US Vulcan Phalanx anti-Qassam missile after Israeli Iron Dome falters
More...Twenty-three delegations storm out of UN Racism conference as Ahmadinejad condemns Israel as "racist"
More...India puts an Israeli all-weather spy satellite in orbit Monday
More...Cheney steps into row over CIA's grilling methods as Obama moves to calm crisis
More...The CIA hits a low in its counter-terror tactics
US-Iranian reporter victim of Iranian extremists' bid to block talks with US
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Tuesday, 21 April 2009
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