Foreign Confidential ™
Foreign News and Analysis Since April 2005 -- formerly China Confidential -- What's Really Happening in the World
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Iran Appears to Threaten EMP Attack on US
Iran has threatened the East Coast of the United States in a way that could mean that the mullahocracy has already deployed seemingly civilian cargo ships equipped with camouflaged (containerized) systems capable of launching nuclear-tipped missiles--in order to strike U.S. coastal cities or effectively destroy the U.S. in a surprise EMP attack. Click here for the news.
The Iranian threat follows a North Korean EMP threat against the U.S. homeland.
Taboo question: Could Iran have bought one or more nuclear weapons from its proliferation partner, North Korea?
Related: Iranian Admiral Threatens New York
Israeli Leaders More Outspoken on Syria
Israeli leaders are increasingly outspoken on the Syrian crisis. There is now a broad consensus that Syrians and Israelis--and the region in general--would be better off without the current Syrian regime. In fact, intelligence reportedly makes Israel's leaders more hopeful that a pro-Western Sunni government will replace Shiite Islamist Iran's secular ally, Bashar al-Assad.
Given the involvement of the clerical fascist (Islamist) Muslim Brotherhood in the Syrian uprising and the support that it has from MB-backing Turkey's supposed "moderate" Islamist government, one can only hope that the intelligence is accurate. On the one hand, Assad's alliance with Iran (and North Korea) has posed a serious threat to Israel; on the other hand, the last thing Israel needs is another Islamist neighbor on its northern border. Lebanon, which is in the grip of Iran's Shiite Islamist proxy, Hezbollah, is a big enough problem for Israel--the Hitlerian terrorist group has been allowed to amass an arsenal of tens of thousands of missiles capable of striking targets across the Jewish State.
It's hard to believe that there was a time when it was commonly believed by Israelis and their supporters and friends abroad that Lebanon--back in the days when Beirut was "the Paris of the Middle East"--would be the second Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel. Nowadays, it looks like Lebanon will be the last to sign.
Then, again, it's also hard to believe that there was a time when Iran was an ally of both the United States and Israel. But that's another story.
Tasteless,Terrifying Ad Touts Water as the Next Oil
Water as a globally traded commodity? Creating, trading, leveraging life-sustaining liquid assets? What's the next Big Trade--air? Read more.
The Fidelity ad is tasteless, stupid, scary. Shame on Yahoo for approving it. Water privatization and the threat of water wars are serious, controversial issues, as Californians and others in the American West well know.
A North Korean May Day Nuclear Test?
Preparations are underway in North Korea for another nuclear test.
Analysts expect the event to take place before the end of May.
The North could possibly detonate a nuclear device as early as next Tuesday, May 1, which is May Day.
May Day, also known as International Workers Day, is a major North Korean holiday, an occasion for displaying the Stalinist/Kimist country's military might.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Barak Restates Israeli Position on Nuclear Iran
Defense Minister Ehud Barak restated Israel's fears of a nuclear-armed Iran on Thursday after his top general clashed with the government's line by describing the Islamic republic as "very rational" and unlikely to build a bomb.
Addressing foreign diplomats on Israel's independence day, Barak said Iranian leaders were not "rational in the Western sense of the word - connoting the quest for status quo and the peaceful resolution of problems."
Believing otherwise "borders on blindness or irresponsibility", said Barak, who branded Iran, with its religiously fuelled calls for the Jewish state's demise, as seeking regional hegemony and being "undeterred by the apocalyptic."
Suggestion: stop arguing over "rational." Intentions is the key word. The clerical fascist regime that muses openly about "a world without America and Zionism" clearly intends to destroy Israel and drive the United States from the Middle East--for starters. Iran's foreign policy is imperialist in that it seeks to overthrow the status quo, or power relations among nations, as Barak said. As such, it can't be appeased--appeasement will only make war inevitable--and certainly cannot be allowed to acquire atomic arms. That Iran, which is bristling with ballistic missiles, could already possess or be close to possessing an arsenal of primitive nuclear warheads and dirty bombs, along with presumed stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, is both scary and scandalous.
Phony Missiles Not a New Tactic
From an English king's legendary "family jewels" to the Kimist regime's fake missiles … a concise, colorful history of a certain kind of military deception. Click here to read it.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Analysts Say New N. Korean Missiles are Fakes
Good news. Analysts who have studied photos of the ominous new missiles that North Korea paraded call them fakes, a "mishmash of … components that could never fly together." Read more.
But complacency is not in order, especially in light of the North's belligerent boasts and threats. The Kimist regime has enough real missiles, including ballistic missiles capable of being fired from seemingly civilian cargo ships, real nuclear bombs, and real terrorist commandos to create real nightmares for the United States, South Korea, and Japan.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Israelis Fear Iran Could be Building Dirty Bombs
DEBKAfile is reporting that Israelis are increasingly concerned that Iran may be on the verge of developing primitive nuclear devices, including dirty bombs--a concern that Foreign Confidential™ has been raising since January 2010. On January 9 of this year, Foreign Confidential™ observed that
Iran has nuclear materials, money, missiles and warheads, scientific and technical expertise, conventional explosives, and political will and determination, etc. So why shouldn't we assume that Iran, while working on nuclear weapons, has already produced an arsenal of advanced radiological dirty bombs--and various means of delivering them?
The distinction some experts make between weapons of mass destruction and "mass disruption" is clever … but far from comforting when one stops to consider: the large numbers of people powerful explosives are capable of killing and maiming; the immediate and long-term health hazards from radiation poisoning; the billions of dollars in economic damage that a dirty bomb could cause; and the potentially paralyzing, psychological impact of a dirty bomb attack on a targeted population.
Moreover, given the focus on Al Qaeda's quest for a dirty bomb, what, exactly, is the deterrent against an anonymous and deniable Iranian dirty bomb attack on an American city, which could be carried out by Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force operatives and/or terrorist proxies and allies?
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