NOW WHAT?

Today is Memorial Day. It is a day to pay tribute to ALL men and women who have or are now serving in our Military. Thank you.

But today is also the day North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test. This test is a violation of the UN Security Council Resolutions. The UN Security Council has called an emergency meeting today.

If North Korea is allowed to continue as in the past, count on Iran and Al Queda as North Korea's partners. The Western World (and ESPECIALLY the US) is therefore subject to Nuclear Attack and Israel is certainly a target. Read Dick Morris' article THE DEATH OF ISRAEL from which the page 2 quotes are taken.

Dick Morris makes clear what will happen if Iran goes Nuclear.

{... Caroline} Glick {deputy editor and op-ed writer for the Jerusalem Post} reports (likely from sources high up in the Israeli government) that the Obama administration has all but accepted as irreversible and unavoidable fact that Iran will soon develop nuclear weapons. She writes, “…we have learned that the [Obama] administration has made its peace with Iran’s nuclear aspirations. Senior administration officials acknowledge as much in off-record briefings. {Braces Mine, Brackets and Ellipses in original}

Is President Obama naive enough to believe that Iran's Leadership does not really intend to Wipe Israel the Map if they can? They can with Nuclear Weapons. So how naive is the Obama Administration?

She goes on to write that the Obama administration is desperate to stop Israel from attacking Iran writing that “as far as the [Obama] administration is concerned, if Israel could just leave Iran’s nuclear installations alone, Iran would behave itself.” [Emhpasis Mine]

While I am not Jewish, I have great respect for the Jewish Religion. To Me Candidate Obama always amazed me in his ability to count Jews as backers, even though his campaign rhetoric has always indicated to me that President Obama was not an ally of Israel. And apparently he was and is able to pull the wool over a lot of others regardless of Religious belief.

Those sunshine Jewish patriots who voted for Obama must realize that we, as Jews, are witnessing the possible end of Israel.
[...]
Because one thing is increasingly clear: Barack Obama is not about to lift a finger to stop Iran from developing the bomb. And neither is Hillary Clinton.

When the World goes Nuclear, I think we should ask two questions in addition to any questions we may ask of our own Governmental Officials.

The FIRST question is: What will the UN Do? The Scandal Ridden UN does not have a history of doing much. Another Resolution is no real deterrent.

The SECOND question [if the UN takes no meaningful action] is: Why do we continue to Support the UN? The US makes up over 20% of the UN's Budget, but why should we?

MUMBAI COULD HAPPEN HERE BECAUSE ...

WE HAVE BECOME COMPLACENT - THAT'S DANGEROUS. Complacent about the real threat of another Terrorist Attack aka 9/11 in the USA. Ray Kelly is the Police Commissioner in New York City. Mr. Kelly is in a position to know what is possible, but are the authorities listening? Ray Kelly's Wiretap Alarm says not nearly enough to prevent an attack similar to Mumbai, India.

India's three days of carnage stand as another warning about how easily terrorists can perpetrate a major attack. So when top New York City counterterrorism officials declare that U.S. intelligence laws are shackling their powers to prevent the next Mumbai, it ought to raise more than eyebrows.

After reading this article please ask yourself if total privacy is worth the loss of life this privacy allows? Or should we give up some reasonable amount of personal privacy to save lives by preventing the Terrorists from using American Legal Procedures to Handcuff the authorities? So when Mr. Kelly speaks are the right people listening? NO!

Instead, almost nobody seems to care. Seven years without an attack on the U.S. mainland has created a growing public complacency. And the anti-antiterror lobby has exploited that complacency to assail and constrain critical Bush Administration intelligence programs, making it harder to intercept terrorists before they strike. As a consequence innocent Americans may be killed.

We need to open our collective eyes to how much the success of the Bush Administration has wrought. President Bush, despite the Democrat Liberals, have been able to prevent further attacks similar to 9/11 and Mumbai. But the success has come at the price of reducing the perceived danger.

What Democrats have done, in essence, is to insert an unelected judiciary into the wartime chain of command. As Mr. Kelly notes, this is producing a "lack of accountability" and "the lack of transparency into the inner workings of the FISA process." If some faceless FISA judge denies a surveillance request from Mr. Kelly and New Yorkers die as a result, that judge will answer to no one. Under current FISA rules, we won't even know who that judge is. Meanwhile, the very Members of Congress who insisted on FISA's limitations will blame the executive branch that they put under the supervision of those anonymous judges.

There is no supportable justification for the current restrictions on warrant-less wiretaps for communications which originate or end outside the USA. Those afraid of losing their privacy due to Government Warrant-Less Wiretaps in these cases are generally the same people who gladly use services like "On-Star" and "Lojack". Both these services allow 24-7 monitoring of our driving. We surrender our privacy for this Intrusion, but not to prevent Lives From Being Lost. Remember this "Big Blue Button" privacy mentality when NSA, FISA and Warrant-Less Wiretaps are attacked.

Personally I trust Ray Kelly a Hell-of-a-lot more than the Liberal Congress.

IS THE WORLD READY FOR 2013?

According to this New York Times Article (Panel Fears Use of Unconventional Weapon), the world will face a Nuclear, Biological or other Unconventional Attack by 2013. For those of you who thought the War on Terror was limited to Afghanistan and Osama Bin Laden, this is your wake-up call.

An independent commission has concluded that terrorists will most likely carry out an attack with biological, nuclear or other unconventional weapons somewhere in the world in the next five years unless the United States and its allies act urgently to prevent that. [Emphasis mine]

More importantly, are we the USA ready for a possible Terrorist attack using Unconventional Weapons? For that matter, are we ready for an attack like the Mumbai, India attack of last week?

In a report to be released this week, the Congressionally mandated panel found that with countries like Iran and North Korea pursuing nuclear weapons programs, and with the risk of poorly secured biological pathogens growing, unconventional threats are fast outpacing the defenses arrayed to confront them.

At the same time, the American people have become complacent. Complacent because President George Bush has done such a good job of preventing attacks.

“America’s margin of safety is shrinking, not growing,” the bipartisan panel concluded.

I must admit that so far, to my surprise, President Elect Obama has shown a retreat from his Primary Rhetoric concerning the Terror Threat that exists in the World. Hopefully this will continue to translate into an extension of the Patriot Act and support for the NSA and/or other Intelligence Gathering Activities.

Prepared before last week’s deadly terrorist attacks in Mumbai — which American officials say were most likely carried out by Pakistani militant groups based in Kashmir — the report also singled out Pakistan as a top security priority for the coming Obama administration.

Mumbai shows we cannot take Intelligence Information on Terrorist Activities lightly. Apparently India's Government did. Fortunately for India, the Terrorists were overly optimistic about the casualties their attack would inflict.

“Unless the world community acts decisively and with great urgency, it is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013,” the report states in the opening sentence of the executive summary.

This opening sentence is a chilling look at the present situation. We need to be pro-active and act now, unless we wish to be re-active later. As this paragraph from this article indicates, we need to shift our focus and attention to a much higher level.

Like the 9/11 Commission, this panel called for overhauling the jurisdiction of the Congressional committee that reviews the proliferation of unconventional weapons. “Congressional oversight is dysfunctional,” the report concluded. [Emphasis mine]

Hopefully since this was a Bi-Partisan Congressional Committee, President Elect Obama and our House and Senate are listening. One last thought - THIS REPORT SAYS BY THE END OF 2013, BUT DOES NOT RULE OUT TOMORROW!!!

U.S. Intel: Iran Plans Nuclear Strike on U.S.

U.S. Intel: Iran Plans Nuclear Strike on U.S.. This headline is chilling and ominous. And if you combine that article with this one- Kuwaiti Daily Reveals: Iran Building Secret Nuclear Reactor - and it should be obvious that Iran has no intentions to curtail Nuclear Activities.

The big question about this mess is WHAT DO WE DO ABOUT IT?

Nuclear Syria?

In early September this year, Israel attacked and destroyed something in Syria. Of course Syria complained about the attack, but oddly, so did North Korea. Even more surprising was the lack of information from all, especially Israel. Normally Syria and Israel would be leaking information about this incident like a sieve. But after this Israeli Military Air Strike, a virtual black hole developed. Normally this would call for Banner Headline News and Government chest thumping from all sides. In this case after initial one line Government Statements, almost nothing.

It is therefore not surprising that speculation runs high that what little information and rumor about this raid is known, the information supports the idea that something very big happened. North Korea, silence from Israel and Syria, could indicate a Syrian Nuclear facility and aid from North Korea. North Koreans are thought to have been killed by this attack in Syria. It seems likely that the attack involved Nuclear Expansion.

Analysts Find Israel Struck a Nuclear Project Inside Syria from the online New York Times is the latest to make this link.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 — Israel’s air attack on Syria last month was directed against a site that Israeli and American intelligence analysts judged was a partly constructed nuclear reactor, apparently modeled on one North Korea has used to create its stockpile of nuclear weapons fuel, according to American and foreign officials with access to the intelligence reports.

In 1981, a similar Israeli attack set back the Iraq Nuclear Capability many years. But some, including American Analysts, believe the attack was premature. The Reagan Administration officially condemned the 1981 attack, while the Israeli government considered it one of their finest military victories.

Many details remain unclear, most notably how much progress the Syrians had made in construction before the Israelis struck, the role of any assistance provided by North Korea, and whether the Syrians could make a plausible case that the reactor was intended to produce electricity. In Washington and Israel, information about the raid has been wrapped in extraordinary secrecy and restricted to just a handful of officials, while the Israeli press has been prohibited from publishing information about the attack.

The Bush Administration has remained concerned about the effect of this attack. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates have expressed this concern for the implications of a pre-emptive strike in the absence of an urgent threat.

The silence from the principals, and everybody else concerning this attack is very unusual.

In his only public comment on the raid, Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, acknowledged this month that Israeli jets dropped bombs on a building that he said was “related to the military” but which he insisted was “not used.”

A senior Israeli official, while declining to speak about the specific nature of the target, said the strike was intended to “re-establish the credibility of our deterrent power,” signaling that Israel meant to send a message to the Syrians that even the potential for a nuclear weapons program would not be permitted. But several American officials said the strike may also have been intended by Israel as a signal to Iran and its nuclear aspirations. Neither Iran nor any Arab government except for Syria has criticized the Israeli raid, suggesting that Israel is not the only country that would be disturbed by a nuclear Syria. North Korea did issue a protest.

The Bush Administration also refuses to discuss this matter.

The White House press secretary, Dana Perino, said Saturday that the administration would have no comment on the intelligence issues surrounding the Israeli strike. Israel has also refused to comment.

There are 2 different paths to enriched nuclear material used nuclear weaponry.

Nuclear reactors can be used for both peaceful and non-peaceful purposes. A reactor’s spent fuel can be reprocessed to extract plutonium, one of two paths to building a nuclear weapon. The other path — enriching uranium in centrifuges — is the method that Iran is accused of pursuing with an intent to build a weapon of its own.

Syria is known to have only one nuclear reactor, a small one built for research purposes. But in the past decade, Syria has several times sought unsuccessfully to buy one, first from Argentina, then from Russia. On those occasions, Israel reacted strongly but did not threaten military action. Earlier this year, Mr. Assad spoke publicly in general terms about Syria’s desire to develop nuclear power, but his government did not announce a plan to build a new reactor.

Whatever was located at the attack site appears to have been discovered by Israeli satellite photography. It is believed Israel was the first to detect the possible nuclear activity, and then brought it to the attention of the Bush Administration. North Korean involvement is interesting, and very likely significant.

North Korea has long provided assistance to Syria on a ballistic missile program, but any assistance toward the construction of the reactor would have been the first clear evidence of ties between the two countries on a nuclear program. North Korea has successfully used its five-megawatt reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear complex to reprocess nuclear fuel into bomb-grade material, a model that some American and Israeli officials believe Syria may have been trying to replicate.

The North conducted a partly successful test of a nuclear device a year ago, prompting renewed fears that the desperately poor country might seek to sell its nuclear technology. President Bush issued a specific warning to the North on Oct. 9, 2006, just hours after the test, noting that it was “leading proliferator of missile technology, including transfers to Iran and Syria.” He went on to warn that “the transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to states or non-state entities would be considered a grave threat to the United States, and we would hold North Korea fully accountable.”

President Bush has not repeated his warnings about North Korea. This silence is likely because of the delicate balance and sensitive negotiations while the 6 party talks between North Korea, the US and 4 other nations, continue in an attempt to convince North Korea to end their Nuclear Weaponry ambitions.

While the partly constructed Syrian reactor appears to be based on North Korea’s design, the American and foreign officials would not say whether they believed the North Koreans sold or gave the plans to the Syrians, or whether the North’s own experts were there at the time of the attack. It is possible, some officials said, that the transfer of the technology occurred several years ago.

According to two senior administration officials, the subject was raised when the United States, North Korea and four other nations met in Beijing earlier this month.

Whatever happened on September 6^th remains a mystery and therefore subject to speculation. But there is an excellent chance that the speculation about Syrian Nuclear Facilities and North Korean aid are correct.

One important detail is left out of the New York Times article, however. That is the fact that Syrian Air Defenses were unable to prevent Israeli Air Attacks. This is siginificant because the Syrian Air Defense System was an advanced Russian System similar to, but more advanced than the Russian System in Iran.

We continue to watch for further developments.

Nuclear Material Was In Syria!

Follow-Up to What was in Syria?

Since last Sunday, 2 posts have discussed a Military Air Operation conducted early this month in Syria by Israeli F-15s.

• Middle East Tension
• What was in Syria?

Meanwhile reporting of this September 6^th bombing of a Secret Syrian Storage Facility, has been almost non-existent in the Main Stream Media. Yet this event may have great significance in the Politics of the World. The reason is explained in this article for the Sunday Times of London on-line (Israelis seized nuclear material in Syrian raid).

Israeli commandos seized nuclear material of North Korean origin during a daring raid on a secret military site in Syria before Israel bombed it this month, according to informed sources in Washington and Jerusalem. [emphasis mine]

In view of the 6 party talks aimed at getting North Korea to stop its Nuclear Weapon Production, North Korean Nuclear Material in Syria is a Big Deal. The material has been confirmed as North Korean and Several North Koreans were killed in the raid.

Why were North Koreans and North Korean Nuclear Materials in Syria? Two possible reasons come to mind. First, the North Koreans have recently agreed to dismantle their Nuclear Facilities. Therefore, North Korea may have sent part or all of the dismantled facilities to Syria for storage for later re-activation. Second, Syria and Syria's proxy Iran have expressed interest in developing Nuclear Weaponry. The Nuclear Material may have been shipped from North Korea to jump start Syrian and Iranian Programs.

On the other hand, maybe the North Koreans, Syrians and Iranians were trying to kill 2 birds with one stone. Hiding dismantled equipment and assisting Syria and Iran is a very possible scenario. It is also interesting that Israel and the US are sharing information about the activities in Syria and the Connections to North Korea.

Evidence that North Korean personnel were at the site is said to have been shared with President George W Bush over the summer. A senior American source said the administration sought proof of nuclear-related activities before giving the attack its blessing.

Snatched: Israeli commandos ‘nuclear’ raid is another related article from the same source. This article also claims there exists an agreement for intelligence sharing and co-operation between the US an Israel. But before the Bush Administration would give its approval for offensive operations, the US wanted proof that nuclear activities were involved. The Conclusive proof was provided and ...

Today the site near Dayr az-Zawr lies in ruins after it was pounded by Israeli F15Is on September 6. Before the Israelis issued the order to strike, the commandos had secretly seized samples of nuclear material and taken them back into Israel for examination by scientists, the sources say. A laboratory confirmed that the unspecified material was North Korean in origin. America approved an attack.

Details and additional information about this operation are still not being discussed by Israel, now being called the 'North Korean Project'. Israel's Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, who once commanded the Sayeret Matkal, was personally in charge of this operation.

Syria likely will retaliate for the Israeli attack. But if Nuclear Technology, weapons or manufacturing equipment was destroyed, the World is likely safer today than it was before September 6^th.

But details of the raid are still tantalisingly incomplete. Some analysts in America are perplexed by photographs of a fuel tank said to have been dropped from an Israeli jet on its return journey over Turkey. It appears to be relatively undamaged. Could it have been planted to sow confusion about the route taken by the Israeli F-15I pilots?

What's the long term effect of these actions? How deep are the ties between North Korea and Syria. There have been other incidents of co-operation between North Korea and Syria involving Chemical War heads at least since 2004, but this is the first evidence of Nuclear activity between the two countries.

What is Iran's role in the mix? We do know that Iran trains, equips and finances Terrorist Groups in Syria, but do they fit into this puzzle?

These questions magnify the importance of our current role in Iraq. It no longer matters why we went into Iraq, because the question of what we do now is much more important. To me it becomes even more essential that we complete the process we started in Iraq now more than ever.

What was in Syria?

Earlier this month, Israel sent F15s into Syria to take out a target. There has been little information broadcast about this incident. Middle East Volcano is Charles Krauthammer's look at the situation.

On Sept. 6, something important happened in northern Syria. Problem is, no one knows exactly what. Except for those few who were involved, and they're not saying.

We do know that Israel carried out an airstrike. How do we know it was important? Because in Israel, where leaking is an art form, even the best-informed don't have a clue. They tell me they have never seen a better-kept secret.

So can we assume that this was a Super-Secret operation? Probably. This was no accident. Rather it was a well planned military operation against something which Israel considered a serious threat.

Circumstantial evidence points to this being an attack on some nuclear facility provided by North Korea.

When a North Korean freighter docked at the Syrian Port City of Tartus, Israel re-directed its Spy Satellite to photograph the area. The North Korean Ship was officially loaded with Cement.

Speculation is that the cargo was actually Nuclear Weapon related. Probably not a bomb, but rather dismantled equipment from a North Korean Facility. Coincidentally, after the nuclear speculation, the September 19^th 6-party talks about the dismantling of North Korean nuclear facilities was canceled.

Apart from the usual suspects -- Syria, Iran, Libya and Russia -- only two countries registered strong protests to the Israeli strike: Turkey and North Korea. Turkey we can understand. Its military may have permitted Israel an overflight corridor without ever having told the Islamist civilian government. But North Korea? What business is this of North Korea's? Unless it was a North Korean facility being hit.

So the plot thickens. Mr. Krauthammer clearly enumerates the reasons for concern and implications of North Korean Nuclear involvement in the Middle East. It is known that Syria has Chemical Warheads for its missiles, and that Iran is aggressively pursuing the development of Nuclear Weapons. Syria also has Nuclear desires, and relies on Iran to train, equip and finance Syrian Terrorist Groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.

This is an extremely high-stakes game. The time window is narrow. In probably less than two years, Ahmadinejad will have the bomb.

Unless the World gets serious about Syria and Iran, as well as North Korea, we will have Nuclear Weapons being used. This situation makes it all the more important to achieve success in Iraq.

Previous post on the subject: (Middle East Tension).

Middle East Tension

From a report in the Times of London on-line that about 10 days ago Israel sent F-15s into Syria to destroy Nuclear Materials imported from North Korea. Israelis ‘blew apart Syrian nuclear cache’ is a report of actions taken by the Israeli Government against suspected military grade nuclear materials. But this highly secretive military mission was kept quiet for some time.

Ten days after the jets reached home, their mission was the focus of intense speculation this weekend amid claims that Israel believed it had destroyed a cache of nuclear materials from North Korea.

At least 2 theories as to why North Korean nuclear weaponry would be in Syria. The most likely scenarios are that Syria wanted to bolster its military posture with a nuclear threat or Syria is acting as a conduit for Iran.

An expert on the Middle East, who has spoken to Israeli participants in the raid, told yesterday’s Washington Post that the timing of the raid on September 6 appeared to be linked to the arrival three days earlier of a ship carrying North Korean material labelled as cement but suspected of concealing nuclear equipment.

The instability of the Middle East will not be helped by adding Nuclear Fears to the Equations. It is only a matter of time before a General Middle East War becomes a reality, unless some sense of compromise returns to the Iran, Syrian and North Korean leaders.