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December 3, 2008 | 1727 GMT Summary Judging from the manner in which India is building a case for military action against Islamist militant facilities in Pakistan in response to the Nov. 26 attacks in Mumbai, it is likely that the Indians will exercise their option to use force. If and when that happens, it is likely to begin with artillery fire and airstrikes against militant camps in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Given that this is a red line for the Pakistanis, Islamabad is likely to respond, and the resulting situation could easily create a bigger security problem for India. Analysis Although...

A familiar coalition of hawks, hardliners, and neoconservatives expects Barack Obama's proposed talks with Iran to fail -- and they're already proposing an escalating set of measures instead. Some are meant to occur alongside any future talks. These include steps to enhance coordination with Israel, tougher sanctions against Iran, and a region-wide military buildup of US strike forces, including the prepositioning of military supplies within striking distance of that country.

India, Pakistan nuclear posture unchanged: US military 2 hours ago WASHINGTON (AFP) — India and Pakistan have not changed their nuclear posture or made overt military moves since terror attacks in Mumbai despite heightened political tensions, a US military official said Tuesday. "Militarily, the temperature is pretty low right now," said the official, who asked not to be identified. The official said Pakistan moved some aircraft and air defense units to the border after the Indians pointed a finger at Pakistan as the source of the attack. But the Pakistanis have moved no ground forces, and "on the nuclear side...

New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs called the Pakistani High Commissioner Shahid Malik in New Delhi to make its first direct demand on handing over suspects responsible for the Mumbai attacks. Sources tell CNN-IBN that apart from telling Malik that the attacks had been planned by Pakistani elements, they also told Pakistan to hand over Dawood Ibrahim and Masood Azhar, or face the consequences. Mumbai has been attacked earlier too. In March 1993, 13 blasts that killed at least 250 people and injured more than 700. That attack too was the handiwork of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. South Block...

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran on Sunday proposed developing nuclear power plants jointly with neighbouring Arab states in the Gulf, amid international pressure on Tehran to halt its sensitive atomic work. "I suggest that countries in the region put on their agenda the creation of a consortium to build and develop light-water nuclear plants," said Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, the head of Iran's atomic energy organisation. "Iran is ready to present a comprehensive proposal if the Persian Gulf countries agree to it in principal," he told an energy conference in Tehran. However, he did not give any specifics about the proposal, or...

And if the country had atomic weapons in 1945, it should have used them against the Allies, General Toshio Tamogami added. Sacked as chief of staff of the Air Self-Defence Force in late October for writing an essay in which he claimed Japan was tricked into the war and that Japan was not the aggressor, Gen Tamogami has continued to embarrass the government by going further with his demands. Those demands now include instilling nationalistic pride in Japanese schoolchildren, giving a freer hand to the military and revising the parts of the constitution that deal with the military. Gen Tamogami...

Top Iranian Army commander Major General Ataollah Salehi said Sunday that the recent war rhetoric against the country has prompted Iran's military brass to task analysts with developing quick-reaction contingency plans. The general said the "heavy weight" of enemy warships provides the Iranian side with an ideal opportunity for launching successful counter-attacks. This is while earlier in June, The New York Sun reported that America's intelligence analysts were poring over scenarios for an Iranian attack on the US 5th Fleet, located in Bahrain.

Posted: 01 December 2008 2210 hrs NEW DELHI: India's foreign ministry on Monday summoned Pakistan's ambassador to lodge an official protest over the Mumbai attacks, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said. In New Delhi's first formal complaint to Islamabad, Pakistani High Commissioner Shahid Malik was handed a message concerning his country's alleged "failure to curb terrorism emanating from its soil." India's foreign ministry has said investigations have shown that all the militants involved in the Mumbai attacks were Pakistani nationals. Pakistan's government has denied it was in any way linked to the atrocities, which left over 170 dead and...

Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan’s president, on Sunday warned that escalating tensions between Pakistan and India would be disastrous for the war on terror by sapping his nation’s effort against militants on its Afghan border. Pakistan is worried that suspected foreign involvement in the terror attacks on Mumbai will lead to a sharp deterioration of relations with India. Deepening hostility between the two adversaries could lead Pakistan to defend its border with India more heavily. (snip) On Saturday, Pakistan’s government and military officials warned that India was beginning to mobilise its armed forces. One senior Pakistani military official in Islamabad said...

US, India face Pak blackmail on terror 1 Dec 2008, 0054 hrs IST, Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN WASHINGTON: The United States and India face tactics bordering on blackmail from a militarized Pakistan - where civilian control is still very dodgy - as they coordinate efforts to eliminate terrorism in the region, according to analysts and officials on both sides. In what is turning out to be an elaborate chess game in the region, Islamabad on Saturday made its "Afghan move" to counter the US-India pincer, telling Washington that it will have to withdraw some 100,000 Pakistani troops posted on its western...

From Times OnlineNovember 30, 2008 Relations between India and Pakistan were on a knife edge today as Indian authorities combed through the wreckage of last week's attacks on Bombay and interrogated the one Pakistani militant captured. A senior Pakistani security official has warned that Pakistan would pull back troops fighting Islamist militants on the Afghan frontier if India builds up its forces on Pakistan's border, as it did after an attack by Pakistani militants on India's parliament in 2001. He said the next 48 hours would be crucial for the two nuclear-armed neighbours, which have fought three wars since winning...

The only terrorist captured alive after the Mumbai massacre has given police the first full account of the extraordinary events that led to it – revealing he was ordered to ‘kill until the last breath’. Azam Amir Kasab, 21, from Pakistan, said the attacks were meticulously planned six months ago and were intended to kill 5,000 people. He revealed that the ten terrorists, who were highly trained in marine assault and crept into the city by boat, had planned to blow up the Taj Mahal Palace hotel after first executing British and American tourists and then taking hostages. As it...

The United States is in deep trouble in the Middle East. Despite Barack Obama's promises to withdraw from Iraq, the debacle there shows no sign of ending soon. Hamas rules in Gaza; Iran is quickly moving to acquire a nuclear deterrent. We need a radically different strategy for the region. Fortunately, there is a strategy that has proved effective in the past and could serve again today: "offshore balancing." It's less ambitious than President Bush's grand plan to spread democracy throughout the Middle East, but is would be much better at protecting actual U.S. interests. The United States would station...

In his book "The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse," Gregg Easterbrook, senior editor at the New Republic and contributing editor to The Atlantic, castigates the media for dwelling on minor problems without celebrating the broader, more upbeat context in which they exist. One of the broader, more upbeat events of recent years is the significant and dramatic increase in real GDP per-capita worldwide. Using world GDP data from the IMF and world population data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the chart above shows real world GDP per-capita from 1985 to 2013 (data from 2008 -...

For the first time ever, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has admitted that his country started the military conflict in South Ossetia in August. But the Georgian leader is adamant the action was justified. He was testifying before a parliamentary commission investigating the five-day war. According to Saakashvili, the attack on the South Ossetian capital, which involved night shelling of residential areas with multiple rocket launcher systems, was aimed at protecting Georgian citizens. He said it was a response to Russia’s “intervention” in the region. “We did start military action to take control of Tskhinvali and other unruly areas. But we...

Indian officials said they believe "elements in Pakistan" are somehow involved in the attacks on Mumbai -- a claim Islamabad disputes -- but one official said it will be difficult to ascertain details before the situation is over. "The preliminary investigation indicates that some elements in Pakistan are involved," said Pranab Mukherjee, India's foreign affairs minister. "I can't tell you the details since the investigation is going on," he said. "Until the investigation is complete, it will be difficult to say where they came from and how they came." Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also indicated that the gunmen came...

A continent that withstood European colonialism welcomes Chinese conquest. By Peter Hitchens It is the optimism of Africa that is so heartbreaking. In the alleyways of townships where human waste dribbles among the potholes, in mud villages where tiny homes cluster round anthills, the same scene replays. Out of dim hovels come scrubbed children in dazzlingly clean uniforms, hurrying to disciplined schools where they hope to better themselves. On Sundays, platoons of beautifully dressed, joyous women make their way proudly to full churches, carrying themselves like royalty. In the great cities, a thousand tiny businesses compete good-naturedly for scanty trade....

The United States accused Syria on Friday of adopting tactics "honed by Iran" to impede a U.N. watchdog probe into alleged covert nuclear activity. A November 19 International Atomic Energy Agency report said a Syrian building bombed to rubble by Israel in 2007 had markings resembling those of a nuclear reactor. Traces of uranium, or nuclear fuel, were found by inspectors at the site in June.

Pakistan on Friday agreed to send the chief of its spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to share information over the deadly terror attack in Mumbai after India blamed "some elements in Pakistan" for engineering the strike.

Russia says it is in contact with the Obama administration in a bid to convince it to normalize ties with Iran and solve the nuclear issue. He said US President-elect Barack Obama would have to normalize ties with Iran to reach a solution to the nuclear dispute. "We are doing it [bypassing the Bush administration and reach Obama's team] through our embassy in Washington D.C. and our contacts with people who are around Barack Obama," Ryabkov added.

Earlier today, in another sign of progress, Iraq's Council of Representatives approved two agreements with the United States, a Strategic Framework Agreement and a Security Agreement, often called a Status of Forces Agreement or SOFA. The Strategic Framework Agreement sets the foundation for a long-term bilateral relationship between our two countries, and the Security Agreement addresses our presence, activities, and withdrawal from Iraq. Today's vote affirms the growth of Iraq's democracy and increasing ability to secure itself. We look forward to a swift approval by Iraq's Presidency Council. Two years ago, this day seemed unlikely - but the success of...

The arrival of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and a naval squadron in Venezuela this week is an unequivocal message to President-elect Barack Obama that his most nettlesome challenge in the Americas will be Venezuela's populist government and its oil-fueled crusade against U.S. influence, political analysts say. Obama faces the task of blunting the pretensions of a country intent on building alliances with American adversaries, including Iran and, critics say, Marxist guerrillas in neighboring Colombia. Obama also faces more immediate worries, including two wars, looming questions about Iran's nuclear ambitions and a resurgent Russia.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev opened his visit in Venezuela with a nuclear cooperation agreement, a deal that could irk Washington. Medvedev and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez also signed accords on oil and gas explorations, industrial cooperation, and relaxing of visa requirements for citizens of each countries. The Russian president's visit also highlights military cooperation in his talks with Chavez. The militaries of both countries are scheduled to conduct a joint naval war games starting December 1. Russia has been trying to revitalize its influence in the region, particularly in leftist countries that were once its allies at the height of...

Russia to help Venezuela develop nuclear energy By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER, Associated Press Writer Christopher Toothaker, Associated Press Writer 1 min ago LA GUAIRA, Venezuela – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed to help start a nuclear energy program in Venezuela and said Moscow is willing to participate in a socialist trade bloc in Latin America led by President Hugo Chavez. Medvedev used his visit to Venezuela — the first by a Russian president — to extend Moscow's reach into Latin America and deepen trade and military ties. Chavez denied trying to provoke the United States, but he welcomed Russia's growing presence...

(CNN) -- Iran has 5,000 "running centrifuges" in its main nuclear site at Natanz, according to Iranian news reports quoting a top official. The United States and other Western nations have been pressing Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, believing Tehran wants to develop nuclear weapons. Iran insists it wants to use the technology to produce electricity. Reza Aqazadeh, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran made the remarks while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of his tour of the Exclusive Exhibition on Nuclear Industry Achievements in Tehran. "Suspension of nuclear enrichment is meaningless and it is not found...

Israel's prime minister says Washington has not rejected a request by Tel Aviv to take any action it deems "necessary" against Iran. Ehud Olmert, the outgoing premier, said Tuesday that he had extensively discussed Iran and its nuclear program with "Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the (US) president". "There is a basic, deep understanding about the Iranian threat and the need to act in order to remove the threat," Olmert told reporters.

LA GUAIRA, Venezuela (AFP) – Venezuela welcomed Russian warships on Tuesday at a northern port near Caracas for a week of joint maneuvers with its navy, an activity not seen in the region since the Cold War. The ships, including the nuclear-powered cruiser Peter the Great and destroyer Admiral Chabankenko, arrived at La Guaira to coincide with a two-day visit by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Venezuela, the strongest US critic in the region. The exercises, dubbed VenRus 2008, would take first take place in dock and then at sea on December 1, vice admiral Luis Morales Marquez, a Venezuelan...

LA GUAIRA, Venezuela – Russian warships arrived off Venezuela's coast Tuesday in a show of strength aimed at the United States as Moscow seeks to expand its influence in Latin America. The deployment is the first of its kind in the Caribbean since the Cold War and was timed to coincide with President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Caracas — the first ever by a Russian president.

Fresh links between Iran's Revolutionary Guards and al-Qaeda have been uncovered following interception of a letter from the terrorist leadership that hails Tehran's support for a recent attack on the American embassy in Yemen, which killed 16 people... The letter, which was signed by Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's second in command, was written after the American embassy in Yemen was attacked by simultaneous suicide car bombs in September... The missive thanked the leadership of Iran's Revolutionary Guards for providing assistance to al-Qaeda to set up its terrorist network in Yemen, which has suffered ten al-Qaeda-related terror attacks in the past year,...

Although President George W. Bush has accomplished more in the way of missile defense than his predecessors -- including Ronald Reagan -- he will leave office with only a rudimentary system designed to stop a handful of North Korean missiles launched at our West Coast. Barack Obama will become commander in chief of a country essentially undefended against Russian, Chinese, Iranian or ship-launched terrorist missiles. This is not acceptable. Consider Iran. For the past decade, Iran -- with the assistance of Russia, China and North Korea -- has been developing missile technology. Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani announced in 2004...

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday he believed US president-elect Barack Obama could change Washington's position over a hotly contested plan for a US missile defense shield in Eastern Europe. Asked if he saw a chance of a shift on the issue under Obama, Medvedev told reporters: "I think there are chances, because if the position of the current administration on this question looks extremely inflexible, the position of the president-elect looks more careful." Striking a positive note about relations with the next US administration, Medvedev referred to the Obama team's refusal so far to establish its position on...

Adressing a meeting to mark the start of the Week of Basij (mobilization of volunteer forces), lieutenant commander of the General Staff of Iran's Armed Forces Major General Gholam-Ali Rasheed said that US President George Bush has established the infrastructures required in the region for posing a threat to Iran. "The United States threats have now found a structural form. They have done the planning for reaching the necessary preparedness to wage a war against Iran through setting up military bases, holding security pacts, etc.," he said. The General viewed "northwestern and southeastern Iran as well as the southwestern province...

A defense establishment paper recommends making contingency plans to attack Iran, reaching an agreement with Syria that includes leaving the Golan Heights and preventing new elections in the Palestinian Authority, even if this means a confrontation with the United States. The paper will be presented to the cabinet next month as part of the National Security Council's annual situation assessment. The document warns that in 2009, Israel may find itself facing a nuclear Iran virtually alone, following a rapprochement between the U.S., Iran and the Arab world that would also undermine Israel's military superiority. Additionally, it warns of a possible...

TEHRAN -- Iran hanged an Israeli spy to show that it had entered a "serious intelligence war" with Israel, the official IRNA news agency quoted an official of counter-espionage of Iran's Intelligence Ministry as saying on Saturday. Ali Ashtari, who was arrested in February 2007 for cooperation with Israeli intelligence services (Mossad) for three years, was sentenced to death in June and was hanged in Tehran on November 17, according to the report. "The issue of his spying has been clear to the extent that it could not be overlooked at any judicial procedures," the unnamed offical said.

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The use of nuclear weapons will grow increasingly likely by 2025, US intelligence warned Thursday in a report on global trends that forecasts a tense, unstable world shadowed by war. "The world of the near future will be subject to an increased likelihood of conflict over scarce resources, including food and water, and will be haunted by the persistence of rogue states and terrorist groups with greater access to nuclear weapons," said the report. "Widening gaps in birth rates and wealth-to-poverty ratios, and the uneven impact of climate change, could further exacerbate tensions." Called "Global Trends 2025...

Iran has now produced roughly enough nuclear material to make, with added purification, a single atom bomb, according to nuclear experts analyzing the latest report from global atomic inspectors. The figures detailing Iran's progress were contained in a routine update on Wednesday from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been conducting inspections of the country's main nuclear plant at Natanz. The report concluded that as of early this month, Iran had made 630 kilograms, or about 1,390 pounds, of low-enriched uranium. Several experts said that was enough for a bomb, but they cautioned that the milestone was mostly symbolic,...

Iran Makes Nuclear Headway, IAEA Says Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008 Defying the U.N. Security Council, Iran has continued to both enrich uranium and expand its capacity to process even more material, the International Atomic Energy Agency disclosed today (see GSN, Nov. 18). (Nov. 19) - Iran has plans to begin operating its long-delayed Bushehr nuclear power plant sometime next year (Behrouz Mehri/Getty Images). The nation's uranium enrichment centrifuges at Natanz have so far manufactured 630 kilograms of low-enriched uranium, and work is under way to assemble significantly more centrifuge "cascades," according to a report by agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei that...

MOSCOW The Kremlin is grappling with a growing opposition in the military to the most sweeping overhaul of Russia's armed forces in over a generation. Retired generals warned Tuesday that reforms aimed at modernizing the 1.1 million-member armed forces are destroying Russia's military capability and called for Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov to be sacked and prosecuted. The warnings most public criticism of the reforms to date and reflect rising anger among uniformed and civilian military officials. "This isn't reform. You can't call the destruction of the army reform," Ret. Col. Vladimir Kvachkov said. Serdyukov, a former head of the federal...

"We are ready to do whatever is demanded of us" in order to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, IAF commander Maj. -Gen. Ido Nehushtan told German magazine Der Spiegel in an interview published Tuesday. Nehushtan told the magazine that whether a military strike is eventually decided upon is a political question and not an issue of Israel's military capabilities. A strike against Iran's nuclkear facilities "is a political decision," the IAF commabder said, "but if I understand it correctly, all options are on the table… The Air Force is a very robust and flexible force. We are ready...

Iran’s bank of rapidly spinning centrifuges has produced a stockpile of low-enriched uranium, ideal for fueling nuclear reactors, but able also to fuel nuclear weapons if re-circulated through the centrifuges. The re-circulation raises the concentration of the uranium isotope U-235, which fissions in nuclear weapons such as the one dropped on Hiroshima. Based on the amount of low-enriched uranium Iran has stockpiled, and the amount it is believed to be producing each month, the Wisconsin Project estimates that by inauguration day, Iran could have enough U-235 to fuel one bomb quickly. "Quickly," in this context, means two to three months...

‘Antimissile shield in Poland provokes Russia’ Italian PM says Created: 13.11.2008 10:35 Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi stated yesterday that the deployment of the US antimissile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic is a “provocation” against Russia. “Let’s speak frankly: we believe that there have been some provocations against the Russian federation such as the project to deploy missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic,” Berlusconi said. Italy’s PM reminded that the Russian president Dmitrij Medvedev’s response to that plan was to announce the deployment of missiles in – as Berlusconi put it – “the Russian enclave in the...

Warsaw and Prague dismiss Sarkozy's missile shield plea POLAND AND the Czech Republic have dismissed an appeal by French president Nicolas Sarkozy to freeze talks on their plans to host a controversial US missile defence shield, which Russia fiercely opposes, writes Daniel McLaughlin Moscow has threatened to station missiles in its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad - wedged between EU and Nato members Poland and Lithuania - if the US plan goes ahead, and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev appeared to have persuaded Mr Sarkozy of the delicacy of the issue at Friday's EU-Russia meeting in Nice. "As president of the European...

Russia's Gambit By Vasko Kohlmayer FrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, November 17, 2008 On November 5th – less than 24 hours after the victory of Barack Obama in the US presidential race – Russian President Dmitri Medvedev announced that his country would install short-range semiballistic missiles in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad. The deployment is part of Russia’s bid to halt the construction of the Ballistic Missile Defense Shield in Europe, a project virulently opposed by the Kremlin. Medvedev’s statement is a clear indication that after months of threats and intimidation, the Russian leadership has finally settled on a definitive course of...

BRUSSELS, Nov 17 (Reuters) - NATO reaffirmed on Monday its backing for a planned U.S. missile shield in Europe after French President Nicolas Sarkozy said it would bring no extra security on the continent. NATO leaders including Sarkozy welcomed U.S. plans to deploy the missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic as a "substantial contribution to the protection of allies" at a summit in Bucharest last April. Washington says the shield will protect the United States and its allies from attack by "rogue" states such as Iran and North Korea and rejects Russia's argument that it is a direct...

PM tells 'General Assembly' of Jewish leaders Islamic Republic 'has not terminated its pursuit of nuclear weapons; free world must do whatever it can to prevent nuclear Iran'

resident Dmitry Medvedev is to visit Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez has been cultivating stronger military and economic relations with Russia. Stops in Brazil and Cuba are also planned. By Chris Kraul November 15, 2008 Reporting from Bogota, Colombia -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev plans to travel this month to Venezuela, Brazil and Cuba to strengthen regional ties, a tour that underscores a foreign policy challenge close to home that awaits the Obama administration. Medvedev's visit to Venezuela comes as Russia and the Latin American nation strengthen their economic and military relationship. In July, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a strident...

According to reports, Iran has apparently test-fired a new generation of surface-to-surface missile on November 12, 2008. The Iranians claimed the missile called 'Sejil' represents a new generation of surface-to-surface missiles developed by the country's missile industry.

Barack Obama was handed an early foreign policy hot potato yesterday when President Sarkozy proposed a truce in the row over US plans for a missile defence system in Europe. Taking it upon himself to make the EU’s first intervention in the debate – and getting the backing of Russia, which has threatened to position missiles in Kaliningrad – Mr Sarkozy proposed a summit next year on a new pan-European security system, after a suspension of activity from both Moscow and Washington. The French President’s latest piece of off-the-cuff diplomacy caught most of the main players by surprise and raised...

Men carry the body of a man killed by a shell in the town of Gori on August 12 For Giorgi Kapanadze, the fighting in South Ossetia began days before the world even noticed that a war was going on. Pro-Moscow separatist forces had been shelling his hometown of Avnevi, an ethnic-Georgian village inside the breakaway region, pretty much nonstop since the beginning of August until Georgian troops entered the enclave around midnight on August 7-8. "The war did not start on August 7 for us, it started on August 2," Kapanadze, who now lives in a shelter for displaced...

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev plans to travel this month to Cuba and Venezuela, which have increasing military and trade ties with Moscow. The U.S. has objected to Russia's greater links with the two countries that have antagonistic relations with Washington. A Russian naval flotilla is on its way to the Caribbean to hold joint military exercises with Venezuelan forces.