A New Storm Rising ?
Russian military intelligence services are reporting a flurry of activity by U.S. Armed Forces near Iran’s borders, a high-ranking security source said Tuesday.“The latest military intelligence data point to heightened U.S. military preparations for both an air and ground operation against Iran,” the official said, adding that the Pentagon has probably not yet made a final decision as to when an attack will be launched.
He said the Pentagon is looking for a way to deliver a strike against Iran “that would enable the Americans to bring the country to its knees at minimal cost.”
He also said the U.S. Naval presence in the Persian Gulf has for the first time in the past four years reached the level that existed shortly before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Col.-Gen. Leonid Ivashov, vice president of the Academy of Geopolitical Sciences, said last week that the Pentagon is planning to deliver a massive air strike on Iran’s military infrastructure in the near future.
A new U.S. carrier battle group has been dispatched to the Gulf.
The USS John C. Stennis, with a crew of 3,200 and around 80 fixed-wing aircraft, including F/A-18 Hornet and Superhornet fighter-bombers, eight support ships and four nuclear submarines are heading for the Gulf, where a similar group led by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower has been deployed since December 2006. The U.S. is also sending Patriot anti-missile systems to the region.
German sources report similarly. Germany’s TV channel “Phoenix” aired a talk yesterday evening, hosting an Iranian analyst in exile as well as two German journalists who were able to interview Iran’s president Ahmadinejad nine months ago.
The journalists, both having an excellent reputation being Middle East experts and political analyists, claimed to have gained the impression Mr. Ahmadinejad to be a hard-liner with tremendous internal problems. These internal problems, so their expertise, will provide no room to Mr. Ahmadinejad to step down from his present policy towards the West and will not permit him to enter negotiations regarding Iran’s nuclear program.
It wouldn’t be the first time that some political leader seeks to solve domestic problems by creating a crisis and risking a war.
Gospodin Prezident, George W. is calling you ….
“Russland Aktuell” claims to have information from a source in in the Kremlin stating that President G.W. Bush has phoned his Russian counterpart, Vladimir V. Putin, suggesting intensive talks and a close cooperation reagarding the American“missile defense shield” to be installed in Poland and the Czech Republic.
President Bush is reported to have suggested talks on the basis of “common security interests”.
Henry Obering, the head of the missile defense project in the Pentagon, is reported to have claimed being open towards these “intensive talks”, to have even suggested the “exchange of data and technology” .
In the course of the phone call President Bush is reported to have suggested to include Western Russia into the shield. According to President Bush not only France, Germany and Italy could be “protected” by this shield, large parts of Russia as well.
Obering insisted that the “missile shield” is not intended to be directed against Russia. He also claimed that the shield was unable to “take down Russian missiles”.
The Czech government has announced its intention to enter negotiations with the USA regarding the “missile defense shield”. Until fall this year the negotiations regarding a radar site near Prague could be completed, the Czech parliament could then pass a bill on this topic early next year.
