Russia appears ready to sell Venezuela the same five S-300PMU-1 air defense missile battalions it withheld from Iran because of international sanctions. DEBKAfile's sources report Venezuela's ruler Hugo Chavez offered to buy them when he met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow Thursday, Oct. 14. Israel turned to Washington to try and block the transaction for its original client, Iran, to get hold of the sophisticated interceptors through its good friend Chavez. Saturday, Oct. 16, apparently out of the blue, the powers-that-be in Washington leaked the five-year old suggestion by David Coleman Headley's wife that her Chicago-based husband, a key figure in the planning and preparation of the terrorist plot that killed 174 people in Mumbai, was also a paid US informant while training in Pakistani terrorist camps. DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources offer two possible explanations for the timing of this leak now.
Iran loses most of its ballistic missile launchers in mysterious blasts.
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New Beijing policy supports radical camp led by Iran and Turkey.
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Its army chiefs say the missile is a vital shield for nuclear plants and Tehran.
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Sunday, 17 October 2010
DEBKAfile Special Report October 16, 2010, 5:24 PM (GMT+02:00)
Russian-Venezuelan deal recoups $800 m lost on cancelled missile sale to Iran
DEBKAfile Special Report
October 16, 2010, 9:57 PM (GMT+02:00)
David Coleman Headley, Chicago-based Al Qaeda executive
Covert War on Iran Continued
Chinese Warplanes in the Middle East
Iran offers $1bn for S-300 Blueprints
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