Nuclear Programmes in the Middle East: In the shadow of Iran

At least thirteen countries throughout the greater Middle East have recently announced new or revived plans to explore civilian nuclear energy. They spoke of the need for energy diversification to meet growing electricity demand and the economic and environmental benefits of nuclear power. This surge of interest is consistent with a worldwide trend likened to a ‘nuclear renaissance’. Yet political factors also motivate the renewed interest in nuclear energy in the Middle East, including competition with Iran and concern about its determined pursuit of technologies that appear designed toprovide it with a nuclear weapons capability.

The IISS Strategic Dossier on nuclear programmes in the Middle East provides a comprehensive overview of the history of nuclear programmes in the region, an evaluation of national nuclear capabilities and policies, and an analysis of future aspirations. The fact-rich country profiles, which include Israel and Turkey, also assess how each state may react to an Iranian nuclear weapons capability. In addition to analyzing the proliferation risks inherent in the nuclear fuel cycle, the dossier assesses policy options, including possible regional arms control measures, that can help allow atomic energy to be harnessed for peaceful uses without engendering a ‘proliferation cascade’.

This Strategic Dossier was launched on 20 May 2008.

A live stream of the presentation and Q&A session is available.

Suspicions abound that Wikileaks is part of U.S. cyber-warfare operations

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/10/23/gordon-duff-ho-hum-more-wikileaks-chickenfeed/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/25/afghanistan-war-logs-military-leaks

Suspicions abound that Wikileaks is part of U.S. cyber-warfare operations....

http://cryptome.org/0002/wikileaks-feint.htm

WMR has learned from Asian intelligence sources that there is a strong belief in some Asian countries, particularly China and Thailand, that the website Wikileaks, which purports to publish classified and sensitive documents while guaranteeing anonymity to the providers, is linked to U.S. cyber-warfare and computer espionage operations, as well as to Mossad's own cyber-warfare activities.

Wikileaks claims to have decrypted video footage of a U.S. Predator air strike on civilians in Afghanistan and that covert U.S. State Department agents followed Wikileaks's editor from Iceland to Norway in a surveillance operation conducted jointly by the United States and Iceland. Iceland's financially-strapped government recently announced a policy of becoming a haven for websites that fear political oppression and censorship in their home countries. However, in the case of Wikileaks, countries like China and Thailand are suspicious of the websites' actual "ownership."

Wikileaks says it intends to show its video at an April 5 press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC but that its presenters may be detained or arrested before that time. WMR's sources believe the Wikileaks "militancy" in the face of supposed surveillance appears fake.

Our Asian intelligence sources report the following: "Wikileaks is running a disinformation campaign, crying persecution by U.S. intelligence- when it is U.S. intelligence itself. Its [Wikileaks'] activities in Iceland are totally suspect." Wikileaks claims it is the victim of a new COINTELPRO [Counter Intelligence Program] operation directed by the Pentagon and various U.S. intelligence agencies. WMR's sources believe that it is Wikileaks that is part and parcel of a cyber-COINTELPRO campaign, such as that proposed by President Obama's "information czar," Dr. Cass Sunstein.

In January 2007, John Young, who runs cryptome.org, a site that publishes a wealth of sensitive and classified information, left Wikileaks, claiming the operation was a CIA front. Young also published some 150 email messages sent by Wikileaks activists on cryptome. They include a disparaging comment about this editor by Wikileaks co-founder Dr. Julian Assange of Australia. Assange lists as one of his professions "hacker." His German co-founder of Wikileaks uses a pseudonym, "Daniel Schmitt."

Wikileaks claims it is "a multi-jurisdictional organization to protect internal dissidents, whistleblowers, journalists and bloggers who face legal or other threats related to publishing" [whose] primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we are of assistance to people of all nations who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations. We aim for maximum political impact. We have received over 1.2 million documents so far from dissident communities and anonymous sources."

In China, Wikileaks is suspected of having Mossad connections. It is pointed out that its first "leak" was from an Al Shabbab "insider" in Somalia. Al Shabbab is the Muslim insurgent group that the neocons have linked to "Al CIAda."

Asian intelligence sources also point out that Assange's "PhD" is from Moffett University, an on-line diploma mill and that while he is said to hail from Nairobi, Kenya, he actually is from Australia where his exploits have included computer hacking and software piracy.

WMR has confirmed Young's contention that Wikileaks is a CIA front operation. Wikileaks is intimately involved in a $20 million CIA operation that U.S.-based Chinese dissidents that hack into computers in China. Some of the Chinese hackers route special hacking program through Chinese computers that then target U.S. government and military computer systems. After this hacking is accomplished, the U.S. government announces through friendly media outlets that U.S. computers have been subjected to a Chinese cyber-attack. The "threat" increases an already-bloated cyber-defense and offense budget and plays into the fears of the American public and businesses that heavily rely on information technology.

It is also pointed out that on Wikileaks advisory board is Ben Laurie, a one-time programmer and Internet security expert for Google, which recently signed a cooperative agreement with the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and has been charged by China with being part of a U.S. cyber-espionage campaign against China. Other Wikileaks advisory members are leading Chinese dissidents, including Wan Dan, who won the 1998 National Endowment for Democracy (NED) Democracy Award; Wang Youcai, founder of the Chinese Democracy Party; Xiao Qiang, the director of the China Internet Project at the University of California at Berkeley, member of the advisory board of the International Campaign for Tibet, and commentator on the George Soros-affiliated Radio Free Asia; and Tibetan exile and activist Tashi Namgyal Khamsitsang.

Our sources in Asia believe that Wikileaks ran afoul of their CIA paymasters after it was discovered that some of Wikileaks's "take" was being diverted to Mossad instead of to their benefactors at Langley. After a CIA cut-off in funding, "Daniel Schmitt" took over and moved the Wikileaks operation to Belgium and Sweden with hopes of making a more secure base in Iceland.

There are strong suspicions that Wikileaks is yet another Soros-funded "false flag" operation on the left side of the political spectrum. WMR has learned that after former Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) decided to oppose Soros's choice of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's deputy Mark Malloch Brown as President of the World Bank, succedding the disgraced Paul Wolfowitz, Soros put the Wikileaks operation into high gear. "Daniel Schmitt" hacked into Coleman's supporters list, stealing credit card info, addresses, and publishing the "take" on Wikileaks. Democrat Al Franken, who was strongly backed by Soros, defeated Coleman in a legally-contested and very close election.

It is also believed by informed sources that Soros is behind the operation to move Wikileaks to Iceland. By becoming a power in Iceland, Soros can prevent Icelanders from paying back the British and Dutch investors in Icelandic online Ponzi scheme banking and continue his all-out war against British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who has, in turn, targeted Soros for betting against pound sterling.

Iceland is classic prey for Soros. The Icelandic krona has been decimated as a currency and has no where to go but up in value, especially if the British pound and the euro depreciate. Soros is currently talking down the euro, planning its fall and shorting it, just like he did versus the pound in London in the 1980s. After the UK's and Europe's currencies are devalued, Soros will buy every euro note in sight, thus making billions....

Soros and his Wikileaks friends have in Iceland a practically unregulated banking system desperate for an influx of capital -- money that will come from the exiled Russian tycoons in Israel, London and the United States. Israeli investors like Bank Leumi, and awash in siphoned-off Bernard Madoff cash, will do their bit for this smash-and-grab operation by Soros's Quantum-linked hedge funds.

With Wikileaks firmly ensconced in Iceland, the "brave" and much-heralded information leakers will run an international blackmail operation against Soros's foes and launch computer break-ins against Soros's business rivals and non-Quantum banks. Wikileaks will be used as the info-hitmen against President Obama's and Rahm Emanuel's enemies in the 2012 re-election campaign.

From Iceland, Soros will be well-positioned to gain control over the massive mineral resources under the melting ice sheet of Greenland. Under the ice are the only major rare-earth deposits outside of China and with such minerals at his disposal, Soros can control the world's electronics industries. This past week's volcanic activity in Iceland could, however, disrupt or destroy Soros's plans to establish and control a North American-European gateway in Iceland...

Wikileaks/DOD/CIA/DIA... is nothing but cointelpro

Wikileaks/DOD/CIA/DIA... is nothing but cointelpro to justify the upcoming Wars for Israel, it all started nearly a decade ago under a false flag attack....9/11, the US Deep State and Israel, here:

www.iuniverse.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-000190526

Plus, a good distraction from all those nasty stories coming out about how Wall Street banks have been literally, stealing people's homes and ALL 50 state Attorney Generals are now investigating....
Another timely distraction to let the thieves get away, catch their breath and make some more sinister plans....

As soon as he threw Iran into the mix it was a done deal....
It's genius if you think about it. The full twofer: not only can you push your own utter disinformation, but should another Daniel Ellsberg turn up, wikileaks will be his first port of call....LOL. Remember back in 2003 in the run up to Iraq and people were saying the US had learnt nothing from Vietnam? Bullshit! Clearly they didn't miss a trick....

GORDON DUFF: TERRORISM, ALWAYS SUSPECT A “FALSE FLAG” FIRST

ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER COSSIGA

REAL TERRORISTS ARE RARE AND USUALLY EASILY CAUGHT

http://de-construct.net/?p=7699

ALWAYS ASK: “WHO GAINS FROM THIS?

By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor

Every time there is a terrorist attack, the nations blamed say that it was a “false flag” operation. This is what America did to cover up My Lai. We were lying. Germans claimed Poland invaded Germany in 1939. An educated guess is that 75% of terrorist attacks we hear of were staged, never happened or were done by “radical groups” that were first infiltrated, then controlled and eventually financed and supplied by intelligence agencies. Intelligence agencies are, in actuality, the biggest terrorist organizations in the world. The CIA has blown up more buses, airplanes and markets than any almost anyone else. The Mossad may be number one, followed by, well, everyone, the RAW, ISI, MI-6, IRA and dozens of others.

Either directly or through idiots, clones (operatives using false identity to look like “terrorists”) or through simply doing it themselves, these groups promote national policy by destabilizing nations, swinging elections or defaming religious, national or political groups by staging attacks and using the press to place the blame. The popular video game Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 even has a terrorist attack on a transportation center in Moscow built into it, a “false flag” attack. Today, the real thing happened.

MOSCOW "FALSE FLAG" ATTACK IN VIDEO GAME

FRANCESCO COSSIGA, FORMER PRIME MINISTER, PRESIDENT AND MINISTER OF THE INTERIOR OF ITALY SPILLS HIS GUTS

With communism threatening to overrun Europe, NATO set up terrorist groups under Operation Gladio (short sword) to act as guerrilla armies in case Europe was overrun. As this became less and less likely, intelligence services began using the terrorist groups meant to fight Russia to manipulate politics in Europe through terrorist acts, such as bombings. We wouldn’t know the details if Cossiga, one of the planners of Operation Gladio, hadn’t spilled his guts about this and other “false flag” operations in Europe and elsewhere. This is what Cossiga told Robert Maroni, Italian Minister of the Interior about methods employed to control civil protests in Italy:

“Maroni should do what I did when I was Minister of the Interior.

“University students? … infiltrate them with agents provocateurs … and let the agents provocateurs devastate shops, set fire to cars and put cities to the sword for ten days.

“Then, having won the sympathy of the public … the police should pitilessly beat the shit out of protesters and send them all to hospital. “

One of the operational leaders of Operation Gladio, representing NATO with the CIA, was Vincezo Vinciguerra who stated under oath:

“You had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple. They were supposed to force these people, the Italian public, to turn to the state to ask for greater security. This is the political logic that lies behind all the massacres and the bombings which remain unpunished, because the state cannot convict itself or declare itself responsible for what happened.”

When the Italian parliament investigated, a number of allegations arose. It seemed that one of the Gladio operations was a train bombing in Bologna in 1980 which killed 85 people. This was supported by both physical evidence and significant testimony. It was also discovered that “Palestinian terrorists” operating in Europe including Abu Nidal were working for the CIA and Mossad. Investigations by the Italian parliament reported the following about Stefano delle Ciaie.

A neo-fascist group tied to extremist Masonic lodges in Italy had formed a political action cell called “P2.” Though none of this was reported in the US, this group, tied directly to NATO intelligence services was linked to terrorist acts throughout Europe and even in South America. The report reads as follows:

“In December 1985 magistrates in Bologna issued 16 arrest warrants, including at least three to P-2 members, accusing members of the Italian intelligence service SISMI of first planning and then covering up the Bologna bombing. One of these 16 was P-2’s leader Licio Gelli, who had spent most of the post-war years in Argentina. A small group of anarchists, penetrated by delle Chiaie’s man Mario Merlino, were blamed at first for the Piazza Fontana bombing, even though Sismi knew within six days that delle Chiaie was responsible, and Merlino had planted the bomb.”

THE “BUZZ WORDS” OF MURDER

We now use terms like “Low Intensity Conflict” and “Surrogacy Warfare” to describe terrorism operated by governments against either foreign governments or, more often, their own people. Most “false flag” attacks are used to influence elections or to push through “Patriot Act” and “FISA” type legislation or to justify acts like the invasion of Iraq. Control of both the press and any potential investigation makes such operations a mainstream effort of national policy, so commonplace that those who work in intelligence or at the highest levels of law enforcement automatically write off major terrorism incidents as staged.

In Vietnam, Operation Phoenix was terrorism, meant to kill civilian “communists” including doctors, nurses, teachers and even religious leaders. We ran similar programs in Central America for years, killing thousands, nuns, reporters, union leaders and moderate politicians we were afraid would eventually join with communists. It was a horrible embarrassment to the CIA that the “communist dictatorship” in Nicaragua was voted out of office in an open election they sponsored. We had been running death squads throughout that country from our bases on Honduras for years.

Similar operations have been staged all over the world, from Chile to Korea to Indonesia, the Philippines,Lebanon and the United States. Half the bombings during the 60s and 70s were planned or influenced by “informants” or “agent provocateurs” as described by Cossiga. The massive infiltration of the militia movements of the 80s and 90s brings the Oklahoma City bombing into question....

EVERY DAY, ALL OVER THE WORLD

If a train or bus blows up in London, it is best to look at who is visiting, what political party is going to gain or what scandal needs to be pushed off the front page. In India, the Mumbai attacks, blamed on Pakistan, did nothing for Pakistan. Who gained? Israel gained as did India, gained massively. When a school is blown up in Pakistan and blamed on the Taliban, Pakistan doesn’t believe the Taliban had anything to do with it. When Iran is attacked from Balochistan, it knows nobody in Balochistan planned the attack.

Yes, there are real terrorists, people without hope who are pushed to extremism through exploitation, often by religious fanatics or hucksters. For every Maddrassa in Pakistan, there is a church in the US, perhaps ten, advocating beliefs that can lead nowhere but to violence.

BREEDING TERRORISM AT HOME

Radicals within the United States have always been a serious problem. A good analytical tool is the simple public poll. It reveals how gullible a population is and how easy they would be to fool. The primary groundwork for terrorism is control of the press and the molding of public opinion. With foreign governments with highly suspect intelligence agencies infiltrating the press, as they have in the United States, there is little doubt that providing cover for “false flag” terrorism is in the cards.

A RECENT HARRIS POLL REVEALS THE FOLLOWING BELIEFS BY ONE AMERICAN PARTY DEEMED “RIGHT OF CENTER”:

• 67 percent of Republicans (and 40 percent of Americans overall) believe that Obama is a socialist
• 45 percent of Republicans (25 percent overall) agree with the Birthers in their belief that Obama was “not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president”
• 38 percent of Republicans (20 percent overall) say that Obama is “doing many of the things that Hitler did”
• 57 percent of Republicans believe President Obama is a Muslim
• 24 percent of Republicans believe President Obama may be the AntiChrist

And it gets worse:

• 57% of Republicans either believe or are not sure that health care reform is a diabolical government plot to create death panels
• 91% of conservative Republicans call Obama a socialist, Marxist, communist, or fascist
• 72% of Republicans either think or haven’t made up their minds about whether Obama was born in the USA. 42% are solid birthers
• 80% of Republicans support extending the Patriot Act
• 67% of Republicans oppose the choice of a public health insurance option (only 40% of all Americans oppose)
• 70% of Republicans oppose a woman’s right to chose having an abortion
• 60% of Republicans oppose making it easier for workers to organize
• 60% of Republicans are creationists
• Only 6% of scientists are Republican
• 68% of Republicans are not at all concerned about Climate Change
• Only 23% of Republicans believe in natural evolution
• Only 38% of Republicans support funding embryonic stem cell research

HOW HARD CAN IT BE TO BLAME THE EASTER BUNNY FOR 9/11 WITH FOLKS LIKE THIS AROUND?
The basic rule is simply this, if terrorists suffer as a result of an attack, bring down massive retaliation, if new laws are passed or a public is aroused, then we are probably dealing with a “false flag” attack, not a genuine terrorist act. If a terror attack, such as the phony “Crotch Bombing” in Detroit are staged and individuals tied directly to security agencies make millions in profits overnight, you can be absolutely certain, no questions asked.

Who benefits from today’s attack on Moscow...? MOSSAD and CIA....?

Iran rediscovers value of Persian roots

Iran rediscovers value of Persian roots
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi

Over the weekend, Iran hosted the presidents of Iraq, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan to celebrate Nowruz, the ancient Persian new year marking the first day of spring that is celebrated by some 300 million people around the world who together form an important cultural bloc.

Both Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmud Ahmadinejad used the occasion to emphasize the importance of Nowruz in fostering a global climate of peace and cooperation. In light of a recent United Nations General Assembly resolution marking March 21 as International Nowruz Day, Iran has now set its eyes on spreading the cause of celebrating Nowruz on an expansive basis.

"It is a cause of joy that through collective cooperation Nowruz became global," Ahmadinejad stated, adding that "observing Nowruz will not only promote cultural values, but it will also help nations establish relations based on friendship, peace, justice and respect." Iran has issued a new postage stamp to commemorate the UN's Nowruz Day, this as part of a concerted effort to maximize the benefits garnered by Iran's pre-Islamic heritage.

By all indications, this represents a cultural evolution in contemporary post-revolutionary Iran dominated by the Islamist discourse. Over the past 31 years, in the complex interplay of Iran's dualistic, part Islamic, part pre-Islamic culture, the government has prioritized the Islamic and, yet, increasingly has discovered the trans-Iran potential of the pre-Islamic, particularly since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rediscovery of cultural roots connected to Persian culture and language in certain parts of Central Asia and the Caucasus, above all Tajikstan.

To some extent, the origin of this new "cultural offensive" by Iran should be traced to a former president, Mohammad Khatami, and his promotion of a "dialogue among civilizations", which inevitably implicated the Islamist political system in a discrete re-embrace of pre-Islamic civilization, although without ever losing the priority given to Islam.

In contrast, although Ahmadinejad, Khatami's successor, has not continued his civilizational discourse, signs are emerging that as a result of both the national unifying cause as well as external dividends, Iran is devoting greater energy to "Persianist" cultural values, including by promoting tourism of numerous ancient sites, holding international conferences and seminars to celebrate the poet Hakim Abu'l-Qasim Ferdowsi (935-1020) and promoting the Farsi language.

Given the foreign priority of maximizing the sources of pro-Iran solidarity through whatever venues available at a critical time when Western pressure on Iran over the nuclear crisis is intensifying, Tehran's decision to tap into cultural values makes sense - and is bound to add to its domestic popularity as well. The trick is to make sure the unwanted (restorationist) consequences of glorifying the past monarchical systems are avoided. Such side-effects seem less important today than the tangible benefits of promoting "cultural blocs" among nations on the basis of language and culture.

On a broader level, the growing importance attached to Nowruz by Tehran is in synergy with the globalist self-promotion of the Islamic Republic that, in the words of Ahmadinejad, has a stake in "global management". This is tantamount to opening a new front in the conscious pursuit of an alternative global cultural and political "public sphere" that would not be either Western-centric or based on Western political hegemony. Nowruz provides Iran with an important cultural tool to refine and upgrade a cultural toolkit that for the most part has had a rather one-dimensional focus on the global politics of Islam. Does this mean that a restructuring of the regime's cosmopolitan identity is underway?

According to a Tehran University political scientist, the regime's identity is "in a state of flux" and a "hybrid" that due to the recent, more energetic embrace and application of the purely Persianist cultural values ("within set limits of course") has become more dynamic. A more organic self-connectedness to pre-Islamic values on the part of the Islamic Republic may be forthcoming, depending on "several factors, one being Iran-Arab relations" that are today marked by some tensions, above all between Iran and Saudi Arabia, says the Tehran professor.

As a result, instead of the Organization of Islamic Conference, which is dominated by Saudi Arabia, Iran may find that other transnational organizations and movements, such as the Non-Aligned Movement, which is slated to be led by Iran two years from now, may be more receptive to its globalist cultural intentions.

An important vehicle for Iran's global promotion is the English-language PressTV, the CNN-like news network launched by Tehran, which provides in-depth coverage of international issues, particularly pertaining to the Occupied Territories and the Middle East. The newly-launched network is in many ways a work in progress that could serve the need of developing nations for non-Western sources of news and commentaries.

Equally important for its future is to avoid the impression of being a tool of government propaganda. This is a tall order, and PressTV has still to pass the litmus test of a true "international network".

Together, Tehran's more spirited promotion of its basket of dual cultural values and the network are elements of novelty in the evolutionary process of post-revolutionary Iran.

Kaveh L Afrasiabi, PhD, is the author of After Khomeini: New Directions in Iran's Foreign Policy (Westview Press) . For his Wikipedia entry, click here. His latest book, Reading In Iran Foreign Policy After September 11 (BookSurge Publishing , October 23, 2008) is now available.