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"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail DoctorZin”
Posted on 08/10/2004 9:02:21 PM PDT by DoctorZIn
Iran tests missile capable of hitting Israel
By Reuters
Haartz, Israel
August 11th
TEHRAN- Iran's defense ministry said on Wednesday it had carried out a field test of the latest version of its Shihab-3 medium-range ballistic missile which defense experts say can reach Israel or U.S. bases in the Persian Gulf.
Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani said last week Iran was working on improvements to the range and accuracy of the Shihab-3 in response to Israel's moves to boost its anti-missile capability.
A defense ministry spokesman confirmed a state television report that the test was carried out "to assess the latest developments implemented on this missile." He declined to give any further details.
Iran says its missile program is purely for deterrent purposes. Tehran also denies U.S. and Israeli accusations that it is seeking to develop nuclear warheads which could be delivered by the Shihab-3.
Based on the North Korean Nodong-1 and modified with Russian technology, the Shihab-3 is thought to have a range of 1,300 kilometers which would allow it to strike anywhere in Israel.
Shihab means meteor in Persian.
Amid media speculation that Israel may try to halt Iran's nuclear program by carrying out air strikes on some atomic facilities in Iran, Iranian officials have said Tehran would retaliate promptly and strongly to any such attack.
Tough talk
"If Israel behaves like a lunatic and attacks the Iranian nation's interests, we will come down on their heads like a mallet and break their bones," the ISNA students news agency quoted Revolutionary Guards Commander Yahya Rahim Safavi as saying on Wednesday.
Israel successfully tested its Arrow II anti-missile project in the United States last month. It was the seventh time the Arrow II had worked but the first time it had destroyed a Scud missile - similar to the Shihab-3 - in flight.
"The Israelis have recently tried to increase their missile capability and we will also try to upgrade our Shihab-3 missile in every respect," the ISNA students news agency quoted Shamkhani as saying last week.
He said the improvements to the Shihab-3 "will not be limited to the missile's range and will include all its specifications".
Iran deployed the Shihab-3 missiles to its Revolutionary Guards last July after preliminary field tests were successfully completed.
Six of the sand-colored missiles, bearing slogans which said "We will stamp on America" and "We will wipe Israel from the face of the earth", were displayed at an annual military parade last September.
Iran has not said how many of the missiles it has so far manufactured. Military analysts say questions remain about its reliability and accuracy.
A senior Israeli defense source said Israel believed Tehran was developing a Shihab-4 missile with a range of 1,700 km capable of reaching Europe. Iran has denied this.
"This 'new and improved' Shihab-3 could well be Iran's way of producing the extended-range missile while avoiding the Mark-4 label which would draw international concern," he said.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/463495.html
Iran reporters 'detained in Iraq'
BBC
8.11.2004
At least three Iranian reporters, including the Baghdad bureau chief of Iranian news agency IRNA, have reportedly been detained in Iraq.
"Local police have arrested three of our colleagues in Iraq," Hassan Lavasani, IRNA's head of foreign news, told Reuters news agency.
Earlier reports had suggested the men had been kidnapped by an armed group.
Separately, officials have confirmed that a body found in the Tigris river was that of a Bulgarian hostage.
Ivaylo Kepov, a 32-year-old driver, was identified through DNA analysis, officials said.
Mr Kepov and his colleague, Georgi Lazov, 30, were kidnapped at the end of June in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul by militants loyal to the Jordanian-born al-Qaeda suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Mr Lazov's body was also found in the Tigris.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3556066.stm
As Bush and Kerry Focus Elsewhere, Atomic Threats Stew [Excerpt]
Wall Street Journal - Editorial
Aug 11, 2004
When Democrats gathered in Boston's boisterous Fleet Center for their national convention, there was, predictably, plenty of talk about Vietnam (John Kerry's old war) and Iraq (George W. Bush's new one).
But down the road at the more decorous Harvard Club, a group of foreign-policy professionals gathered, and their conversation was strikingly different. In a cavernous, dark-paneled room, the sense was that the most grave national-security problems facing the next president lie elsewhere: in North Korea and in Iran and their nuclear programs.
The mood was best captured by Graham Allison, a former Clinton national-security adviser, who declared: "If North Korea succeeds in becoming a nuclear-weapons state, which it could do at any moment...I believe historians will judge that the greatest failure in American diplomacy ever."
That's saying a lot, but the impulse is right. Americans correctly fear more terrorist attacks and more Middle East instability. Both threats will be far more grave if North Korea and Iran go fully nuclear. Yet the Bush and Kerry strategies for heading off calamity differ in significant ways.
In a world that has almost casually accepted Pakistan's and India's open acquisition of nuclear arms, the first question is why North Korea and Iran should strike such fear. Answer: India and Pakistan pose a threat mostly to each other. Iran and North Korea present threats that could ripple out much wider.
If North Korea -- which already claims to have a few nuclear bombs -- goes openly and promiscuously nuclear, dangers soar on two fronts. Asian neighbors that now focus on stopping proliferation might promptly reverse course and join the trend. Japan, South Korea and Taiwan all could embark on nuclear programs in self-defense. The global taboo on nuclear proliferation would go out the window, and America's role as nuclear protector of its Asian allies -- and its associated influence in keeping things under control -- would be undermined.
The far larger danger is that North Korea would develop a cash-and-carry arms program, selling to rogue states and terrorists alike in its desperation to feed itself. As Mr. Allison noted at the Boston event, hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, the only way to stop that process may be to use military force to destroy the Korean program, "since I can't imagine how if they're running such a production line I can prevent them selling weapons."
Iran isn't as irrational as North Korea but lives in a neighborhood where its decisions may be equally profound. As former national-security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski notes, Iran's nuclear impulse is understandable. Pakistan and India to its east, Russia to its north and Israel to its west all have nuclear arms. America seeks to set up what Iran sees as client-states on its eastern border, in Afghanistan, and on its western border, in Iraq. Tough neighborhood, Tehran's ayatollahs must tell themselves.
If Iran keeps moving toward a nuclear weapon, Israel may launch a pre-emptive military strike to stop it, as it did against Iraq two decades ago. If Iran crosses the finish line anyway, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, for starters, may decide they also need nuclear arms. Imagine how al Qaeda operatives, who looked to wealthy Saudis for cash, would relish a buildup of nuclear-arms material there.
The Bush formula for dealing with these twin threats is embodied in current policy. Much as he is criticized for going alone on Iraq, Mr. Bush actually is depending heavily on allied help. As recently as Monday, he reiterated that his formula for dealing with North Korea's nuclear program is to avoid direct negotiation with the North and rely instead on the current six-nation talks in which the U.S. is joined by Japan, South Korea, China and Russia in trying to talk down Pyongyang. Mr. Kerry says he'd be willing to talk one on one with North Korea. ...
http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_7573.shtml
http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/article_3269.shtml
Iran Arrests U.S. Citizen for Illegal Entry
Aug 11, 2004, 11:54
Iran has arrested a U.S. citizen who entered the country illegally from Pakistan. Citing an unnamed provincial official in the southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan state, ISNA said the man was a Jewish Californian who was detained by security forces Tuesday after crossing the Pakistani border apparently en route to Turkey.
"It makes no difference to us what nationality he has, the important thing is he entered our soil illegally," the official said.
State television said the arrested man was "probably American" and had been detained as he attempted to leave Iran, but Interior Ministry officials said they could not confirm the arrest. Foreign Ministry and provincial officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Baztab news Web site, which is well informed on security matters in Iran, also said a 32-year-old Jewish Californian had been arrested entering Iran from Pakistan.
U.S. visitors to Iran are rare but are not barred from traveling to the Islamic Republic provided they obtain a visa beforehand.
They are lovely, and like all lovely young women they want others to know it. The mad mullahs won't be able to keep these ladies under cover much longer.
Bump!
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