 Graphic courtesy AFP. |
Ottawa (AFP) Oct 1, 2009
Iran is attempting to acquire clandestine shipments via Canada for its nuclear program, a senior customs official said Thursday.
Canadian customs officers have seized everything from centrifuge parts to programmable logic controllers being shipped to Iran through third countries, George Webb, head of the Canada Border Services Agency's Counter Proliferation Section, told the National Post.
The increasing number of cases involves entrepreneurs and state-sponsored cells, Webb told the daily, in comments that were confirmed to AFP by a spokeswoman for CBSA.
Microchips identified as possible "navigational chips" from the United States, Denmark and Japan were marked as headed for the United Arab Emirates, but officials suspect the end destination was Iran, said the Canadian daily.
"With all of the UN sanctions, of course, now no one declares that the goods are going to Iran. They actually declare UAE, Dubai," Webb said.
The most recent seizure occurred just last week.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon told reporters he was "very pleased" authorities were acting to stem the flow of illicit nuclear materials to Iran.
He also said he welcomed Iran's agreement Thursday with international powers to allow UN access to a new nuclear plant, but said Canada "remains suspicious" of Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
In April, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police charged a Toronto man with attempting to export pressure transducers, which can be used in nuclear power plants but are also required to produce nuclear weapons, to Iran.
Mahmoud Yadegari is to be tried in January for attempting to ship the items to Iran via Dubai.
In another case, high pressure pipes from Texas were originally suspected of containing Mexican drugs, but turned out to be for nuclear use in Iran.
However, "arrests are rare because the procurement cells are difficult to identify," the newspaper said.
Webb also said authorities had recently discovered a new port in the Gulf named Ras al-Khaimah being used to transship goods to Iran.
The port is nominally in the UAE, but is controlled by Iran and is situated just across the Gulf from Bandar Abbas, an Iranian city with a naval base and an airport capable of landing large transport planes, he said.
Oregon Wi-Fi System Protects Against Chemical Weapons (Government Technology) “A massive wireless network, a series of ‘overpressurized’ shelters, a software modeling program that tracks airborne chemicals and a tone-alert radio system that sounds voice messages during a hazard” protect “the Oregon communities neighboring the U.S. Army’s Umatilla Chemical Depot,” which stockpiles “mustard gas and other deadly munitions,” reports Government Technology. “From perches in any of three command centers, officials can override the lights and signs on local highways, activate drop-arm barricades, and update message signs in Spanish and English. With the flip of a switch, emergency management officials can direct residents out of the local area if there’s a chemical leak, and monitor roadways via remote-controlled cameras. The evacuation system also includes a video-conferencing setup that enables officials to converse in real time with officials from other parts of Oregon and with first responders working in the field.” [View article]
FBI
Moves Toward Multimodal Biometrics
(Network World) “The Federal
Bureau of Investigation is expanding beyond its traditional fingerprint-focused
collection practices to develop a new biometrics system that will include DNA
records, 3-D facial imaging, palm prints and voice scans, blended to create
what’s known as ‘multi-modal biometrics,’” reports Network World. “… The
FBI plans to begin migrating from its [Integrated Automated Fingerprint
Identification System] database, established in the mid-1990s to hold its vast
fingerprint data, to a next-generation system that’s expected to be in prototype
early next year.” The “system is under design by Lockheed Martin, with
MorphoTrak and others.” [View
article]
 Goldstone defends report on Israel, Hamas Washington (UPI) Oct 1 - Richard Goldstone Thursday defended his highly controversial report on Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza that accused both sides of war crimes, saying the criticisms, which mainly come from Israelis, ignore the fundamental purpose of the investigation. "Our mandate was (to investigate) human rights violations," not determining whether Israel was justified in its attack on Gaza, Goldstone, a former justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, said Thursday in comments at the National Press Club in Washington. The 575-page Goldstone Commission report, commissioned by the United Nations and released Sept. 15, accused Israel and Hamas of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity. The Israeli government, which had refused to cooperate with Goldstone's team of investigators, and Israeli supporters were indignant with the report's findings, saying they ignored Israel's right to self-defense and were not evenhanded. "The Goldstone Commission is part of a long series of biased, one-sided actions taken by the United Nations Human Rights Council," said The American Israel Public Affairs Committee in a public statement. Goldstone said such broad criticisms are impossible to deal with because no details are given. He also said he was disappointed in Israel's decision not cooperate with his commission. "I started with the belief that Israel would cooperate," said Goldstone. "We couldn't go to West Bank at all and had to go to Gaza through Egypt." Israel wouldn't allow investigators into Israel, either. The White House called the report "unfair to Israel" because it didn't focus enough on the actions of Hamas. However, the administration has said it will not prevent the report recommendations from reaching the International Criminal Court. Israel began its military operation in Gaza on Dec. 27, 2008, claiming self-defense against Hamas rocket attacks. Though the report condemned the rocket attacks by Hamas, it accused Israel of using excessive and unnecessary force against civilians and civilian structures such as a flour factory, a legislative building and a sanitation plant. "There's no explanation as to how that relates to self-defense," Goldstone said. Groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have defended the U.N. report, urging the United States to endorse it. "Dismissal of all or parts of the Goldstone report would contradict President Barack Obama's stated commitment to human rights in the Middle East," Human Rights Watch said in a statement. Goldstone emphasized the importance of fact-finding reports like his in achieving lasting peace. "Without some sort of truth telling, there cannot be any sort of peace," he said. |
Ramallah, West Bank (UPI) Oct 1, 2009
The return of former security chief Mohammed Dahlan from exile to the inner circle of Palestinian political power could signal a new dynamic in the long-moribund peace process.
It could also trigger a new spasm of fighting between the mainstream Fatah movement and Hamas, which now rules Gaza.
In August the charismatic Dahlan, 47, who has worked closely with the Israelis and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, was elected to Fatah's 18-member Central Committee, the movement's executive body, at landmark legislative elections.
The gathering in the West Bank town of Bethlehem elected a new breed of Palestinian leaders to start taking over the reins from the long-entrenched corruption-tainted Arafat generation that has led the Palestinians since the 1960s.
The dapper Dahlan fell from grace in 2007, when Hamas' fighters drove him and his armed followers out of the Gaza Strip.
Dahlan, then head of the Palestinian Authority's Preventive Security Service in Gaza, was widely held responsible for igniting that bloody coup because of his long feud with the fundamentalists.
But now the longtime favorite of U.S. administrations and Israel's security service is back in the top tier of Palestinian politics. He is seen by many as a possible contender to take over as Fatah leader when the current PA president, 74-year-old Mahmoud Abbas, steps down.
Dahlan was one of the leaders of the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in 1987-93. He was arrested by the Israelis and deported to Jordan. He made his way to Tunis, where the Palestine Liberation Organization leadership was then based.
Yasser Arafat took him under his wing, and he returned with the PLO leader when he and his cronies returned to the Palestinian territories in 1994 following the Oslo Accords.
Arafat rewarded him by putting him in charge of the PSS in Gaza, one of the Palestinians' main security forces, and the Fatah apparatus there, making him one of the most powerful figures in the Palestinian Authority.
But Dahlan became disenchanted with Arafat's political chicanery and became one of the most vocal critics of the Arafat generation. He demanded political change and reform.
Even then, in the mid-1990s, supported by the Americans, Dahlan, the tough-guy Gaza strongman and grassroots leader, was seen as a possible successor to Arafat, who died in 2004.
The Israelis considered him a pragmatist with whom they could do business and expected him to deliver a complete halt to attacks on Israel. In 2004 the Israelis even wanted him to lead a coup against Arafat.
Dahlan also had the support of the intelligence services of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The CIA, with whom he liaised on security issues, favored him and was reported to have encouraged him to crush Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Dahlan resigned as Arafat's security adviser in 2004. It was a largely powerless position, but it allowed Arafat to keep a close eye on a man he increasingly viewed as a challenger.
At that time, Dahlan went all out to lead the frustrated "Young Guard," push Arafat from power and establish a democratic Palestinian state that Israel could live with.
He was highly popular with ordinary Palestinians, weary of the corruption and nepotism that infected the Palestinian Authority, and of the ceaseless bloodshed with Israel and between rival Palestinian factions.
Arafat had no interest in serious reforms, as demanded by Dahlan and his associates, for fear they would end his long domination of Palestinian politics and finances.
Dahlan has a penchant for stylish business suits and was frequently seen dining with Israeli generals and political leaders in the top restaurants of Tel Aviv.
But he also has a ruthless streak, as evidenced by his brutal crackdown on Hamas in the 1990s and the systematic assassination of his rivals in his drive for power.
Dahlan's enemies say he is too close to Israel and the United States to be trusted. And Dahlan has made wide use of his connections to amass considerable wealth and, until Hamas looted it after the 2007 coup, the biggest mansion in the Gaza Strip.
But he still retains wide grassroots support among Palestinians, and now that he's back in play, in part at least because of the support of Fatah's demoralized rank and file, there are expectations of action and change.
Dahlan has made clear he wants to oust Hamas, his old nemesis, as rulers of his native Gaza. Asked about using force to secure his revenge and reunite the Palestinians, he replies enigmatically, "It's too soon to be thinking about that."
 US envoy wraps up Asia tour A top US envoy in Japan on Thursday wrapped up a week-long tour of five Asian countries that was focused in part on pushing communist North Korea to return to nuclear disarmament talks. US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg was in Asia days before Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao travels to Pyongyang Sunday and ahead of an October 10 Beijing summit of the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea. Steinberg reiterated during his trip Washington's stance that it is willing to hold direct talks with Pyongyang -- but only to bring it back to six-party disarmament talks also involving South Korea, China, Russia and Japan. Pyongyang, which has raised regional tensions with two nuclear tests, quit the forum in protest at a UN censure of its long-range rocket launch in April. On Thursday Steinberg met Japan's new Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada. They were joined by Sung Kim and Akitaka Saiki, respectively the US and Japanese envoys to the stalled six-party talks. Japan's new centre-left government has indicated it would review some aspects of military cooperation with the United States and seek a "more equal" partnership, but has also vowed a continued tough line against North Korea. After his Tokyo meetings, Steinberg told journalists: "I'm delighted at the warm reception that we received and a strong sense of the importance of the US-Japan alliance and our partnership moving forward." In his earlier talks with Japanese deputy foreign minister Mitoji Yabunaka, Steinberg discussed issues including North Korea and Myanmar as well as Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran, a foreign ministry statement said. They also talked about international challenges such as global warming and nuclear disarmament, in addition to bilateral issues, it said. Steinberg earlier visited Vietnam, Malaysia, China and South Korea. |
Seoul (AFP) Oct 1, 2009
South Korea's leader urged the military Thursday to stay on guard against North Korea despite its recent peace overtures, saying the communist state is diversifying its threats against the South.
"North Korea has heightened the crisis on the Korean peninsula with a rocket launch and a second nuclear test after making comments about a military confrontation," President Lee Myung-Bak told a parade marking Armed Forces Day.
Lee called on the armed forces to maintain firm deterrence.
"Dialogue with North Korea should not lead to a compromise in our principles and values," he said.
"Our military must be able to deter a war without fighting one," he added in a speech, saying North Korea is "diversifying its threats" with its nuclear and missile programmes.
North Korea launched a long-range missile on April 5. In response to United Nations censure of the launch, it quit six-nation nuclear disarmament talks and staged its second atomic weapons test on May 25.
In August, after months of hostile moves towards Seoul and bitter verbal attacks, Pyongyang began making peace overtures to South Korea and to its ally the United States.
It sent a delegation to Seoul in August to pay respects to late president Kim Dae-Jung and to hold talks with Lee, and allowed the resumption of a family reunion programme for the first time in two years.
South and North Korea have remained technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice without a subsequent peace treaty.
Armed Forces Day marks the day when South Korea and its allies made their first military counter-offensive into the North in 1950.
Dozens of fighter jets including KF-16s and attack helicopters such as Cobras staged performance flights, while special forces troops showed off martial arts moves and rappelling skills.
South Korea's 655,000 troops, backed up by US forces numbering 28,500, face off against a North Korean military numbering 1.2 million across a heavily fortified frontier.
The military cancelled the customary street parade this year. The government aims to minimise public gatherings that could help spread the H1N1 flu virus.
earlier related report
France appoints special
envoy to North Korea
French
President
Nicolas
Sarkozy
has appointed Socialist ex-culture minister Jack Lang special envoy to North
Korea to explore renewing diplomatic links with the communist state, his office
said Thursday.
Lang will also try to define "initiatives that France could usefully take to contribute to the resolution of the North Korean crisis," the Elysee said in a statement.
He will present Sarkozy with "an analysis of the circumstances that could lead France to consider establishing diplomatic relations with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," it said.
But that move would require "progress on the nuclear question, inter-Korean relations and the humanitarian situation and human rights," the statement said.
The international community is trying to bring North Korea back to six-party nuclear disarmament talks, which began in 2003 and include the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan.
Pyongyang quit the forum in protest at a United Nations censure of its long-range rocket launch on April 5. It staged a second atomic weapons test in May.
 Russia may base intelligence official in Brussels: officials Russia could soon have an intelligence expert based in Brussels to help improve "counter-terrorism" cooperation with NATO, officials said Thursday. "We are discussing the nomination of an FSB (Federal Security Service) representative, who will be based in Brussels to liaise with NATO on counter-terrorism," said a diplomat with Russia's delegation at the alliance. "The practical details remain to be negotiated, particularly whether he will be registered with NATO or with Belgium," he said. The NATO alliance has its headquarters in the Belgian capital. A NATO official told AFP "there is no opposition, in principle, to the nomination of a member of the FSB", but that details "are currently being ironed out." NATO froze high-level ties with Russia after Moscow's war with Georgia last year, and tensions between the two have only recently begun to thaw, aided by the United States dropping plans to extend its missile shield into Europe. Despite many differences -- including the independence of Kosovo -- NATO and Russia have common interests in the fight against "terrorism" and the stability of Afghanistan, where alliance troops are battling an insurgency. The NATO official said: "There are very frequent contacts" between NATO and Russia. "Russian experts came here last week to discuss the exchange of information classified as confidential." |
Washington (AFP) Oct 1, 2009
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday congratulated China on the 60th anniversary of communist rule, vowing to continue deepening US ties with the increasingly powerful nation.
"I would like to extend warm wishes and congratulations to the People's Republic of China on the 60th anniversary of its founding on October 1," Clinton said in a statement released by her staff.
"In the last 30 years, China has undergone an extraordinary economic transformation, lifting millions of people out of poverty. This is truly an historic accomplishment," she added.
Clinton, who recalled it is also the 30th year of US diplomatic ties with the communist government in Beijing, vowed to pursue efforts by President Barack Obama's administration to build stronger ties.
"We are committed to building a positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship that reflects the deepening ties between our two countries and enhances the security and prosperity of all our people," she said.
Given China's growing international clout, Washington and Beijing have forged a strategic dialogue focused on economic and political issues as well as counterterrorism.
In another sign of its growing importance, China was one of the four countries Clinton visited in February on her first overseas trip as secretary of state.
In Beijing on February 22, she called on Chinese authorities to continue buying US Treasuries, saying it would help jumpstart the flagging US economy and stimulate imports of Chinese goods.
Pentagon rushes giant bunker-buster bomb project
since Iran's Qom site discovered
DEBKAfile Special
Report
27 Sept. The Pentagon has brought forward to December
2009 the timeline for producing the first 15-ton super bunker- buster bomb
(GBU-57A/B) Massive Ordinance Penetrator, which can reach a depth of 60.09
meters underground before exploding. Top US defense agencies and air force units
were also working against the clock to adapt the bay of a B2a Stealth bomber for
carrying and delivering the bomb.
The Pentagon has ordered the number of
bombs rolling off the production line increased from four to ten - a rush job
triggered in May by the discovery that Iran was hiding a second uranium
enrichment plant under a mountain near Qom. Congress has since quietly inserted
the necessary funding in the 2009 budget.
This urgency indicates the Obama
administration may be thinking in terms of a one-time surgical strike against
Iran's underground enrichment facility as a warning shot should its defiance
continue.
Iran flexes missile muscles, unfazed by big power
demands
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis
28 Sept. Iran tested two surface-to-surface
missiles, the Shehab 3 and Sejil Monday, Sept. 28, Day 2 of its "missile war
simulation" exercise. The Sejil is known to be powered by solid fuel. Both have
a range of up to 2,000 km., putting Israel, the entire Middle East including US
bases and southern Europe within striking distance. Sunday, short and
medium-range missiles were tested.
Tehran is also cheered by the arrival of
Syrian deputy foreign minister Faysal al-Mekdad in Washington Monday, Sept. 28,
at US invitation, the first visit by a high Syrian official for five years.
As seen from Tehran, if President Obama at the peak of his campaign against
Iran's nuclear program is willing to continue his pursuit of good relations with
Bashar Assad in the face of his covert nuclear violations, Iran can afford to
discount demands for compliance with international rules and carry on as
before.
Israeli Dolphin subs upgraded for missiles,
larger fuel capacity
DEBKAfile Special Report
04 Oct. Western naval sources report that
Israel's German-made Dolphin submarines have been heavily modified: its torpedo
tubes enlarged to accommodate missiles, new electronics installed and its fuel
capacity expanded to keep the vessel at sea for 50 days without refueling. Eight
years after receiving the first three Dolphin subs from Germany and two more
last month, naval sources rate them the most modern non-nuclear subs in any
world navy. Israel has equipped the new Dolphin-class subs with home-made
1,500-km range cruise missiles carrying 200 kiloton nuclear warheads and
135-kilometer range US-made Harpoon missiles also fitted with nuclear warheads.
These missiles, fired through the newly-enlarged 650mm-26-inch tubes, can reach
Iranian coastal targets including its nuclear sites as well as naval, port and
Revolutionary Guards facilities.
The Dolphins' expanded fuel tanks enable
them to cover distances of up to 10,000 kilometers from their Mediterranean home
port (instead of 8,000 kilometers heretofore) and spend more time - up to 50
days - off the Iranian coast.
DEBKAfile's military sources note: Their
presence outside Israeli waters is a powerful deterrent to any surprise nuclear
or conventional attack, endowing Israel with an instantaneous second-strike
nuclear capability.
Nuclear physicist arrested for alleged terror links
Last Updated: 9th October 2009, 3:24pm
-
GENEVA — A nuclear physicist working at the world’s largest atom smasher has
been arrested on suspicion of links to the Algerian branch of al-Qaida, another
blow to a project that has been plagued by glitches and was shut down after a
massive electrical failure a year ago.
The scientist, arrested in France, is suspected of having links to al-Qaida’s
North African offshoot, which has carried out a deadly campaign against security
forces in recent months, a French official said Friday.
The judicial official said the suspect was one of two brothers arrested
Thursday in southeastern French city of Vienne. The official spoke anonymously
because the case is ongoing.
The scientist has been assigned to analysis projects at the laboratory since
2003, and was one of more than 7,000 scientists working on the Large Hadron
Collider, the world’s largest atom smasher, said the European Organization for
Nuclear Research, known as CERN.
The physicist had no contact with anything that could be used for terrorism,
it said.
“None of our research has potential for military application, and all our
results are published openly in the public domain,” the organization said.
The LHCb experiment where he worked is the smallest of a series of
installations along the 17-mile (27-kilometre) circular tunnel under the
Swiss-French border.
The nuclear research organization said the man, whom it did not identify, was
arrested Thursday in the eastern French city of Vienne, 33 kilometres (20 miles)
south of Lyon.
The men were French and aged 25 and 32, police said. The arrest was part of a
French judge’s probe into suspected terrorist links.
Police searched the suspects’ apartments and seized their computers.
Al-Qaida in Islamic Maghreb regularly targets Algerian government forces and
occasionally attacks foreigners.
The collider started spectacularly in September 2008 with beams of particles
flying in both directions on the first day of trying. But later that month an
electric failure because of a construction fault caused the entire machine to
shut down. It has been undergoing repairs almost ever since.
Spokeswoman Renilde Vanden Broeck said there was no indication of sabotage in
the shutdown and that the arrested man would have had access only to the small
experiment he was working on, and not to the tunnel itself.
The projects are aimed at making discoveries about the makeup of matter when
the Large Hadron Collider starts collecting data later this year or early next
year.
“LHCb is an experiment set up to explore what happened after the Big Bang
that allowed matter to survive and build the universe we inhabit today,” said a
description on the organization’s Web site.
The Big Bang was a vast explosion that scientists theorize was the beginning
of the universe 14 billion years ago.
The European laboratory has been working for years to build the $10 billion
collider.
Not all physicists working on the LHCb project were informed of the arrest.
“This is news to me,” said Ken Wyllie, one of dozens of scientists in the
department.
The prosecutor’s office in the Isere region said the arrest of the physicist
had been transferred to the anti-terrorist section of the Paris prosecutor’s
office.
Many of the scientists at the laboratory, whether or not they are employees
of the organization or of other institutes around the world, live in France, and
about half the operation is on French territory.
The nuclear research organization said the man was affiliated with an outside
institute.
The laboratory said it is providing the support requested by the French
police in the inquiry.
————
Associated Press writers Bradley S. Klapper and Frank Jordans in Geneva, and
Deborah Seward in Paris contributed to this report.
Study: Kids who eat candy more likely to end up in prison
Pentagon rushes giant bunker-buster bomb project
since Iran's Qom site discovered
DEBKAfile Special
Report
27 Sept. The Pentagon has brought forward to December
2009 the timeline for producing the first 15-ton super bunker- buster bomb
(GBU-57A/B) Massive Ordinance Penetrator, which can reach a depth of 60.09
meters underground before exploding. Top US defense agencies and air force units
were also working against the clock to adapt the bay of a B2a Stealth bomber for
carrying and delivering the bomb.
The Pentagon has ordered the number of
bombs rolling off the production line increased from four to ten - a rush job
triggered in May by the discovery that Iran was hiding a second uranium
enrichment plant under a mountain near Qom. Congress has since quietly inserted
the necessary funding in the 2009 budget.
This urgency indicates the Obama
administration may be thinking in terms of a one-time surgical strike against
Iran's underground enrichment facility as a warning shot should its defiance
continue.
Iran flexes missile muscles, unfazed by big power
demands
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis
28 Sept. Iran tested two surface-to-surface
missiles, the Shehab 3 and Sejil Monday, Sept. 28, Day 2 of its "missile war
simulation" exercise. The Sejil is known to be powered by solid fuel. Both have
a range of up to 2,000 km., putting Israel, the entire Middle East including US
bases and southern Europe within striking distance. Sunday, short and
medium-range missiles were tested.
Tehran is also cheered by the arrival of
Syrian deputy foreign minister Faysal al-Mekdad in Washington Monday, Sept. 28,
at US invitation, the first visit by a high Syrian official for five years.
As seen from Tehran, if President Obama at the peak of his campaign against
Iran's nuclear program is willing to continue his pursuit of good relations with
Bashar Assad in the face of his covert nuclear violations, Iran can afford to
discount demands for compliance with international rules and carry on as
before.
Israeli Dolphin subs upgraded for missiles,
larger fuel capacity
DEBKAfile Special Report
04 Oct. Western naval sources report that
Israel's German-made Dolphin submarines have been heavily modified: its torpedo
tubes enlarged to accommodate missiles, new electronics installed and its fuel
capacity expanded to keep the vessel at sea for 50 days without refueling. Eight
years after receiving the first three Dolphin subs from Germany and two more
last month, naval sources rate them the most modern non-nuclear subs in any
world navy. Israel has equipped the new Dolphin-class subs with home-made
1,500-km range cruise missiles carrying 200 kiloton nuclear warheads and
135-kilometer range US-made Harpoon missiles also fitted with nuclear warheads.
These missiles, fired through the newly-enlarged 650mm-26-inch tubes, can reach
Iranian coastal targets including its nuclear sites as well as naval, port and
Revolutionary Guards facilities.
The Dolphins' expanded fuel tanks enable
them to cover distances of up to 10,000 kilometers from their Mediterranean home
port (instead of 8,000 kilometers heretofore) and spend more time - up to 50
days - off the Iranian coast.
DEBKAfile's military sources note: Their
presence outside Israeli waters is a powerful deterrent to any surprise nuclear
or conventional attack, endowing Israel with an instantaneous second-strike
nuclear capability.
Nuclear physicist arrested for alleged terror links
Pentagon rushes giant bunker-buster bomb project
since Iran's Qom site discovered
DEBKAfile Special
Report
27 Sept. The Pentagon has brought forward to December
2009 the timeline for producing the first 15-ton super bunker- buster bomb
(GBU-57A/B) Massive Ordinance Penetrator, which can reach a depth of 60.09
meters underground before exploding. Top US defense agencies and air force units
were also working against the clock to adapt the bay of a B2a Stealth bomber for
carrying and delivering the bomb.
The Pentagon has ordered the number of
bombs rolling off the production line increased from four to ten - a rush job
triggered in May by the discovery that Iran was hiding a second uranium
enrichment plant under a mountain near Qom. Congress has since quietly inserted
the necessary funding in the 2009 budget.
This urgency indicates the Obama
administration may be thinking in terms of a one-time surgical strike against
Iran's underground enrichment facility as a warning shot should its defiance
continue.
Iran flexes missile muscles, unfazed by big power
demands
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis
28 Sept. Iran tested two surface-to-surface
missiles, the Shehab 3 and Sejil Monday, Sept. 28, Day 2 of its "missile war
simulation" exercise. The Sejil is known to be powered by solid fuel. Both have
a range of up to 2,000 km., putting Israel, the entire Middle East including US
bases and southern Europe within striking distance. Sunday, short and
medium-range missiles were tested.
Tehran is also cheered by the arrival of
Syrian deputy foreign minister Faysal al-Mekdad in Washington Monday, Sept. 28,
at US invitation, the first visit by a high Syrian official for five years.
As seen from Tehran, if President Obama at the peak of his campaign against
Iran's nuclear program is willing to continue his pursuit of good relations with
Bashar Assad in the face of his covert nuclear violations, Iran can afford to
discount demands for compliance with international rules and carry on as
before.
DEBKAfile Special Report
04 Oct. Western naval sources report that
Israel's German-made Dolphin submarines have been heavily modified: its torpedo
tubes enlarged to accommodate missiles, new electronics installed and its fuel
capacity expanded to keep the vessel at sea for 50 days without refueling. Eight
years after receiving the first three Dolphin subs from Germany and two more
last month, naval sources rate them the most modern non-nuclear subs in any
world navy. Israel has equipped the new Dolphin-class subs with home-made
1,500-km range cruise missiles carrying 200 kiloton nuclear warheads and
135-kilometer range US-made Harpoon missiles also fitted with nuclear warheads.
These missiles, fired through the newly-enlarged 650mm-26-inch tubes, can reach
Iranian coastal targets including its nuclear sites as well as naval, port and
Revolutionary Guards facilities. The Dolphins' expanded fuel tanks enable them to cover distances of up to 10,000 kilometers from their Mediterranean home port (instead of 8,000 kilometers heretofore) and spend more time - up to 50 days - off the Iranian coast.
DEBKAfile's military sources note: Their presence outside Israeli waters is a powerful deterrent to any surprise nuclear or conventional attack, endowing Israel with an instantaneous second-strike nuclear capability.
Last Updated: 9th October 2009, 3:24pm
GENEVA — A nuclear physicist working at the world’s largest atom smasher has been arrested on suspicion of links to the Algerian branch of al-Qaida, another blow to a project that has been plagued by glitches and was shut down after a massive electrical failure a year ago.
The scientist, arrested in France, is suspected of having links to al-Qaida’s North African offshoot, which has carried out a deadly campaign against security forces in recent months, a French official said Friday.
The judicial official said the suspect was one of two brothers arrested Thursday in southeastern French city of Vienne. The official spoke anonymously because the case is ongoing.
The scientist has been assigned to analysis projects at the laboratory since 2003, and was one of more than 7,000 scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest atom smasher, said the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN.
The physicist had no contact with anything that could be used for terrorism, it said.
“None of our research has potential for military application, and all our results are published openly in the public domain,” the organization said.
The LHCb experiment where he worked is the smallest of a series of installations along the 17-mile (27-kilometre) circular tunnel under the Swiss-French border.
The nuclear research organization said the man, whom it did not identify, was arrested Thursday in the eastern French city of Vienne, 33 kilometres (20 miles) south of Lyon.
The men were French and aged 25 and 32, police said. The arrest was part of a French judge’s probe into suspected terrorist links.
Police searched the suspects’ apartments and seized their computers.
Al-Qaida in Islamic Maghreb regularly targets Algerian government forces and occasionally attacks foreigners.
The collider started spectacularly in September 2008 with beams of particles flying in both directions on the first day of trying. But later that month an electric failure because of a construction fault caused the entire machine to shut down. It has been undergoing repairs almost ever since.
Spokeswoman Renilde Vanden Broeck said there was no indication of sabotage in the shutdown and that the arrested man would have had access only to the small experiment he was working on, and not to the tunnel itself.
The projects are aimed at making discoveries about the makeup of matter when the Large Hadron Collider starts collecting data later this year or early next year.
“LHCb is an experiment set up to explore what happened after the Big Bang that allowed matter to survive and build the universe we inhabit today,” said a description on the organization’s Web site.
The Big Bang was a vast explosion that scientists theorize was the beginning of the universe 14 billion years ago.
The European laboratory has been working for years to build the $10 billion collider.
Not all physicists working on the LHCb project were informed of the arrest.
“This is news to me,” said Ken Wyllie, one of dozens of scientists in the department.
The prosecutor’s office in the Isere region said the arrest of the physicist had been transferred to the anti-terrorist section of the Paris prosecutor’s office.
Many of the scientists at the laboratory, whether or not they are employees of the organization or of other institutes around the world, live in France, and about half the operation is on French territory.
The nuclear research organization said the man was affiliated with an outside institute.
The laboratory said it is providing the support requested by the French police in the inquiry.
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Associated Press writers Bradley S. Klapper and Frank Jordans in Geneva, and Deborah Seward in Paris contributed to this report.
Last Updated: 2nd October 2009, 11:59am
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LONDON — Willy Wonka would be horrified. Children who eat too much candy may be more likely to be arrested for violent behaviour as adults, new research suggests.
British experts studied more than 17,000 children born in 1970 for about four decades. Of the children who ate candies or chocolates daily at age 10, 69% were later arrested for a violent offence by the age of 34. Of those who didn’t have any violent clashes, 42% ate sweets daily.
The study was published in the October issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry. It was paid for by Britain’s Economic and Social Research Council.
The researchers said the results were interesting, but that more studies were needed to confirm the link. “It’s not that the sweets themselves are bad, it’s more about interpreting how kids make decisions,” said Simon Moore of the University of Cardiff, one of the paper’s authors.
Moore said parents who consistently bribe their children into good behaviour with candies and chocolates could be doing harm. That might prevent kids from learning how to defer gratification, leading to impulsive behaviour and violence.
Even after Moore and colleagues controlled for other variables like different parenting skills and varying social and economic backgrounds, they found a significant link between childhood consumption of sweets and violent behaviour in adulthood.
Previous studies have found better nutrition leads to better behaviour, in both children and adults.
Moore said his results were not strong enough to recommend parents stop giving their children candies and chocolates. “This is an incredibly complex area,” he said. “It’s not fair to blame it on the candy.”
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