Posted on 05/12/2006 7:23:31 PM PDT by wjersey
WASHINGTON: Israel will strike Iran’s nuclear facilities in the next “month or two or three,” an Israeli official has been quoted here as saying.
The unnamed official told Arnaud de Borchgrave, editor-in-chief of the United Press International (UPI), at the recently held national day reception at the Israeli Embassy that he believed Israel would strike Iran first in the next two or three months and that fighter bombers would not be involved as they had been to take out Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor before it went critical in 1981. For Osirak, Israel had used 14 F-15s and F-16s. This time, the Israeli said, it would be missiles. Asked if Israel would employ Cruise missiles, he replied, “with a gesture of his hand that went up and down again”, which meant that it would be the weapon of choice.
Asked if tunnel entrances to widely scattered Iranian nuclear facilities would be targeted, he responded that Israel had its own geo-stationary spy-in-the-sky satellite taking constant pictures of Iran with a resolution down to 70 centimetres. “We know far more than anyone realises,” he added.
De Borchgrave’s report quoted a poll of conservative Republicans by a conservative web-based news service, which showed overwhelmingly strong support for bombing Iran. Almost 60,000 people took part in the poll and 88 percent agreed that Iran poses a greater threat than Saddam Hussein did before the Iraq War. To the question, “Should the US undertake military action against Iran to stop their (nuclear) programme?” 77 percent replied yes, 23 percent said no. Forty-five percent said that military action should be taken by the United States, while 35 percent wanted Israel to do that. Twenty percent said neither. As for whether US efforts to contain Iran’s nuclear weapons are working, 93 percent said they were not, while 89 percent said the US should not rely solely on the UN.
According to de Borchgrave, “Israel has developed some 100 Jericho-II medium-range ballistic missiles (which entered service in 1989). Jericho II’s range varies from 1,500 to 3,500 kilometres, depending on payload weight. They are deployed in underground caves and silos. Israel has several satellites in orbit - Ofeq-1 through Ofeq-5 - that were launched by Shavit space launch vehicles (SLV). The first two stages of the Shavit were Jericho II missiles. There are unconfirmed reports of an upgraded Jericho-3 missile with a range of over 3,000 kilometres.
That's a reliable source?
This isn't even a UPI story. What is going on?????
This is a Paki story.....
Sounds to me like maybe someone had a very general conversation expressing their opinion of what will happen, certainly not an official revealing Israel's top secret attack plan to UPI.
Shhhhh!! It's a secret!
HE is generally a reliable source.
OK Israel! Where were the WMDs??
OOOooops!
Where are the nukes?
Whatever.
Wise men come and go, but the stupid seem to live forever.
I believe that - and they have been threatened with annihilation.
They are too small a country to take the first hit - If they initiate the first hit - it's going to be hell for all of us - but worse for the Al-MAD man in Iran. Some things need to be avoided - not wait until irreversible consequences have taken place...
If the world plays tiddly winks until this mad man acts we are going to have a very tough time -
If I remember reports earlier this year, Israel is a couple of months behind schedule on this attack.
They need to bomb that well before the 12th medhi comes out.
I guess Nov. 10 is the next go.
So if America doesn't start bombing soon according to their schedule, they'll just start something so we have to clean up?
We will have to pay dearly to keep them from starting this.
This would unite 2 billion ragheads like nothing else.
Faster, please.
If Israel is forced to act first, it will be a stain on the US policy in the Middle East.
The threat is obvious....and growing by the day. The UN is hogtied. There is no reason to wait; particularly if you take Bush at his word: "we will not stand by and watch the worlds most repressive regimes develop the worlds most threatining weapons, without taking action". (rough quote).
Lets stop "standing by", George. Act!
de Borchgrave is. Read his now decades old book "The Spike", a fictionalized account of how MDM editors distorted and suppressed coverage of the Vietnam War, just as they are now *trying* to do with that of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Oh, there's no doubt about that. They're just being coy about how they know it.
Typically Israel has HUMINT assets in every one of its enemies. I would almost guarantee that it has many such assets in Iran.
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