http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/46516
The Contact
It was not the proverbial 3:00 a.m. phone call, but close enough. And it was not made to the White House, but to my house, which is not white, nor is it in DC. It was about 2:30 a.m. on 25 April 2012, and the call itself was somewhat unexpected. I had anticipated the telephone call from my DHS insider much earlier the previous day, but our schedules didn’t synch up. I was traveling on an investigative assignment, while my source was in meetings all day. I had just fallen asleep, and was slumbering no more than 20 minutes when the phone rang.
and....
On the surface, Hollande's government will undoubtedly maintain unity of purpose with the US, the United Kingdom and Germany, the other Western powers involved in the P5+1 Iran nuclear talks (along with Russia and China), insisting that Iran must "fulfill its international obligations".
In reality, however, Hollande and his foreign policy team will be more inclined to echo Moscow's diplomatic approach, crystallized in its "step-by-step" proposal that reportedly calls for a temporary suspension of Iran's uranium-enrichment program and gradual lifting of sanctions against Iran in exchange for its enhanced nuclear transparency.
Concerning the latter, on Monday and Tuesday, Iran and the top officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, are holding crucial talks aimed at reaching consensus on resolving the agency's areas of concerns about Iran's nuclear program, such as suspicion of nuclear-weapons related activities at the Parchin military complex.
In a conversation with the author last week, Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, dismissed Western media reports regarding "certain activities" at Parchin as pure propaganda and insisted that the IAEA's own reports about Parchin pertain to 10 to 12 years ago - and if Iran had any intention of "cleaning up" any evidence it would have done so long ago and not waited until now.
The chances are the two sides will reach an agreement on a modality for further cooperation and the IAEA will be permitted to visit Parchin and, most likely, conclude that there is nothing suspicious, just as it has on two previous occasions. For sure, the Iran-IAEA talks are an important mood-setter for the Baghdad meeting and, if successful, could shift the momentum in Iran's favor, much to the chagrin of the US and Israeli Iranophobic politicians and pundits who want to derail the Iran nuclear talks by forcing Western governments to adopt a hardline approach toward Tehran. [1]
The latter appear to be making some headway with the European Union, whose foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton was in Tel Aviv this month and subsequently made a rather hawkish statement regarding stopping Iran's nuclear weapons program, in sharp contrast to her more conciliatory behavior during and especially after the April nuclear talks in Istanbul. As expected, Tehran has reacted negatively to the pre-talk pressure tactics, warning they could damage the prospects of the Baghdad talks. Iran insists its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes.
The French connection
It is in this volatile and highly uncertain environment that Paris and Tehran are now engaged in the preliminary stages of exploring the option of improving relations, which are intimately connected to a whole set of other relations and considerations. These include France's pre-commitment to the EU's current coercive approach toward Iran, which will culminate in the EU's oil ban on Iran in July if the Baghdad talks fail to made tangible progress.
In that event, heightened tensions with Iran will simply translate into added economic woes for the troubled eurozone that can ill-afford the shock waves of an Iran crisis causing higher oil prices.
Optimistically, however, France and Iran may be on the road to a new chapter in their relations if the Iran-IAEA talks bear fruit and set the stage for more concrete progress in Baghdad. Then, France, which downsized its embassy in Tehran last December, may reverse course by restoring full embassy facilities, and Iran might also reconsider its decision to suspend oil shipments to France. Although France received only 3% of its oil imports from Iran, there is no reason why this can't increase if the countries manage to reset their relations.
Not only that, Hollande is apt to discover a serious partner in dialogue in Tehran with respect to a number of key regional issues, such as Syria, Lebanon and Afghanistan, in the light of Hollande's campaign promises to withdraw French forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2012.
The big question is whether or not the candidate-turned-president Hollande, who has no prior foreign policy experience, will be able to withstand pressure from fellow North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members led by the US to reconsider his campaign promises.
Hollande's first foreign policy test will be at the NATO meeting in Chicago this month that is bound to be preoccupied with the question of Afghanistan's growing instability, not to mention Syria's escalating civil war.
Another important issue, which has raised the ire of Moscow, is NATO's planned anti-missile defense shield in Europe as well as modernization of NATO's nuclear delivery capability by relying on new US bombers.
A trend in Europe is that compliant right-wing politicians who have forfeited European national security into American hands are on their way out, and a more self-assertive EU is on the rise that could detach itself from the American-Israeli militaristicmodus operandi.
NATO's nuclear modernization policy is coming under fire from some European pundits, who have labeled it as "expensive and unnecessary", although a more apt description might be dangerous. The Western military assumption - that they can go about beefing up their nuclear arsenal and capabilities and, worse, rely on them for foreign policy purposes, while at the same time holding up the banner of anti-proliferation and demanding other nations to simply consent to their nuclear hegemony without an iota of resistance - is a tissue of naive Euro-centrism that lacks credibility with much of the rest of the world.
This is especially true about the Middle East, where Israel continues to receive critical nuclear-weapons related technology from the West while simultaneously portraying itself as a victim of Iran's fictitious "nuclear threat". (See Israel stokes the Iran threatAsia Times Online, May 8, 2012.)
Given the above, the new socialist government in France is caught between conflicting priorities, given the long-standing French socialists' support for Israel. But, with today's Israel led by right-wing and some "messianic" politicians, to paraphrase criticism of some top Israeli intelligence officials critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the worst thing that Paris could do would be to endorse Netanyahu's warmongering approach toward Iran. This would have serious adverse consequences for the European economy if left unchecked.
A more prudent French approach, reflected in Rocard's trip to Iran, is to build bridges with Tehran and thus act as a positive influence in resolving the Iran nuclear standoff through wise diplomacy, thus compensating for the current falling rate of diplomatic wisdom vis-a-vis the dangerous Iran crisis. [2]
The Contact
It was not the proverbial 3:00 a.m. phone call, but close enough. And it was not made to the White House, but to my house, which is not white, nor is it in DC. It was about 2:30 a.m. on 25 April 2012, and the call itself was somewhat unexpected. I had anticipated the telephone call from my DHS insider much earlier the previous day, but our schedules didn’t synch up. I was traveling on an investigative assignment, while my source was in meetings all day. I had just fallen asleep, and was slumbering no more than 20 minutes when the phone rang.
In most households, a ringing phone at that time of night causes concern for everyone who hears it. In my household, it seems to surprise only my surly, 140 pound light-sleeping German Shepherd. He let out an objective grunt as I stepped over him to take the call in another room. It was “Rosebud,” the code name given my insider source.
Just a little bit here about my source and his “super-secret code name.” I’ve known this government insider since 1979, when he first became a municipal patrol officer. He took a job in a bigger city and had a very successful run as a cop. Before retirement and after the events of 9/11, he was tapped by the feds, where he worked in various capacities under the umbrella of DHS. He worked his way up, and suddenly found himself in what he terms the inner sanctum of the “TEC” building. TEC, he explains, is an acronym for what he calls “The Estrogen Challenged,” which houses the upper echelon of the Department of Homeland Security. I’ll leave it at that.
About Rosebud
As far as his code name, it originates from an incident that occurred at the end of the disco era. It is something that we both privately laugh about, but rarely ever talk about. His “code name” is known to him, me, and at the time, a young woman who has since vanished amid the glitter of disco balls and constant replays of the Bee Gees in a dark nightclub some 32 years ago, and has no “cloak and dagger” origins.
But he is real, his position serious, and his knowledge vast. Unfortunately, that’s what makes the whole situation frightening and deadly serious.
The information
It began on Wednesday, 2 May 2012 with a 45-minute interview on TruNews with Rick Wiles when I first disclosed the information I received the previous week from my source. The information I relayed “went viral,” as they say, across the internet.
To support the statements I made during that interview, I am showing my handwritten notes taken contemporaneously during our conversation. My notes consist of two pages and are, at various points, admittedly difficult to decipher. I ask that points not be deducted for my penmanship given the time of the morning which they were taken.
According to my source, there is talk among the highest levels of the uppermost echelon of the Department of Homeland Security, which he describes as effectively under the control of Barack Hussein Obama. During this call, he said that the DHS is actively preparing for massive social unrest inside the United States. He then corrected himself, stating that “a civil war” is the more appropriate term. Certain elements of the government are not only expecting and preparing for it, they are actually facilitating it,” stated my source.
“The DHS takes their marching orders from the Obama administration, from Obama himself, but mostly from his un-appointed czars. And Jarrett, especially Valerie Jarrett. Don’t think for a minute that the administration is doing anything to stabilize events in the U.S. They are revolutionaries, and revolutionaries thrive on chaos,” he added.
My source stated that he has not seen things this bad since he began working within DHS. “It’s like they [DHS agency heads] don’t care about what the American people see or feel about what the DHS agencies are doing. They figure that if the average American will put up with being “sexually groped and nuked” just to fly, they’ll accept almost anything. “That’s why their actions are becoming more overt. “It’s in your face and the brass actually chuckle about it” said my source.
New Information
Astounded by the information my source provided “going viral,” I spoke to him again early Sunday morning. This was a scheduled telephone call (as noted on page 2 of my notes) based on a high level meeting of DHS personnel that was scheduled for and took place in Chantilly, Virginia, on Saturday, 5 May 2012. He hoped to provide me with more information to supplement that which he already given. Although he was not personally present, his source was. While he would not say who was at the meeting on Saturday or give its precise location, he said that the many of the names would be recognizable. He spoke to his source late Saturday night.
I contacted him on his cellular phone early Sunday morning to get the promised update.
“Geez, nice job on getting the word out about what’s really going on at DHS and in this administration,” were the first words out of his mouth, followed by “thanks a lot.” I asked him why he would be thanking me. “I just wanna’ tell you that I’m going to have to hire someone to start my car, and I’m surely not going for any rides in small planes in the immediate future,” he said with a bit of nervous laughter. “I hope no one finds out who I am or it’s going to be more than my pension I’ll have to worry about.”
“I can tell you word is getting out that people are starting to wake up, which is causing a lot of ‘pissed off brass.’ I can’t tell if they are more desperate or upset about the exposure, but the tone is starting to become a lot more tense. I hope that we’re having something to do with that,” he added.
With that, he provided me with additional information to supplement that which he already given me on 25 April. For clarity purposes, I have combined the information together from both contacts. The following information includes the updated information provided to me Sunday morning.
Obama the revolutionary
Metaphorically speaking, there’s a revolution going on in the U.S., propped up by three legs. Economic chaos, chaos through racial division, and chaos through class division, all joined by one core element: Barack Hussein Obama and his stable of unelected czars. Obama is using the lessons learned in 1968 as the template for 2012, and many of those who were active in the late 1960s are now calling the shots for 2012.
“The Obama administration and many of the un-elected ‘czars,’ either directly or indirectly, are engaged in covert activities with the occupy movement, various labor protests, and other subversive activities inside the U.S.,” stated my source. Using untracked campaign funds, they are paying people to infiltrate the various movements to cause physical destruction of property and disrupt commerce. That began last year, but has increased ten-fold already this year,” stated this source. He added that they are using some lower level DHS agents to make the payments under the context of tracking subversives, but they are the unwitting subversives. “It’s like Fast & Furious” but in the social realm,” he added.
“Obama is using some high profile people as pawns to foment the revolution. I heard several times through very credible sources that [Louis] Farrakhan is on the CIA payroll. Other have been named as well, but I’m not prepared to identify them yet. Farrakhan is to coordinate the Blacks and the Muslims to prepare for riots this summer, using any means necessary.”
“Mentioned at the meeting Saturday were methods to use pawns to simulate the rioting in the Arab Spring countries, but to the benefit of this administration. A controlled chaos thing,” stated my source. They envision rioting starting in the urban areas first, such as New York and other major cities, followed by a disruption of business and commerce. This will allow the DHS to mobilize their various teams into the streets of America without objection of the people,” stated my source.
“They want to restrict travel, if not through high energy prices, then by checkpoints and curfews mandated by rioting and unrest. They understand we are the most well-armed nation in the world, yet they are aware of our vulnerabilities and intend to fully exploit them,” he added. The whole purpose is to keep Obama in office for another term, no matter how unpopular he is, as he is not finished changing our country from a Constitutional Republic. This is the run-up to the 2012 elections, or perhaps causing enough chaos to delay them - indefinitely.”
One statement that rattled me more than anything was that a great number of those already in power, whether in appointed or elected positions, actually want to see Obama stay in power, according to this source. “This is what we’ve been working toward and we’re closer now than we’ve ever been. If we lose now, we might not have another chance.”
This chilling common goal also explains the lack of interest in the Constitutional legitimacy of Obama. It is common knowledge that Obama is not an American, and neither is his agenda. Of course, criticism of his bona-fides feeds into the cries of racism, despite the massive fraud perpetrated on the American people. Party lines are meaningless when the common objective is the revolutionary overtaking of America.
Obama, the professor of Keynesian economics
“The Obama administration is working closely with Bernanke, Geithner and others not to save our economy, but to outright destroy it. He is not the first or only one to try this, but the most effective and most vetted for that purpose. Do you actually think that the fact that Timothy Geithner’s father worked with Obama’s mother in Indonesia was coincidental,” stated my source rhetorically. “What we’re seeing now is the fourth quarter of a game that started long ago, which also currently involves the Clintons. Obama would not be where he is if it were not for the Clintons, and to a lesser extent, Bush, but that’s for other reasons. Don’t be fooled, the Clintons never left or lost power,” he added.
“There are file drawers full of papers, heavily guarded papers at the ‘TEC building’ so I can only imagine what’s in them, about international financial dealings going back decades. I do know, or at least I was told, that they involve organizations that are the so-called conspiracy fringe groups, such as the Bilderberg group, the Trilateral Commission, and people including George Soros, Henry Kissinger, and current leaders of big industry. Some are fossils. They’ve been around a long time. Others are up-and-coming. They’ve got one thing in common, though, and that is to put in place a global system of governance, including a common currency. Economics is a huge part of this revolution, and they want to replace the dollar, to see it collapse. They expect, that is, they are working toward this very goal, and when this happens, it will cause chaos like never seen before in the history of this country.”
“Why do you think Jon Corzine is not only walking around, but heavily involved in Obama fundraising? They know it’s just a matter of time that Europe will implode economically, and when it does, start counting the days before we see massive hyperinflation and the ultimate collapse of the U.S. dollar,” stated this insider. “What will it look like in the streets of America when the general population realizes that there is no money? That’s right, chaos.”
Obama & the planned racial divide
According to this insider, the Trayvon Martin case is just the tip of the iceberg. “You certainly don’t have to be a genius to understand how Obama and his team played the public on this issue, and it’s far from over. But that’s not the sole element of what we’ll see this summer.”
“Remember the shots fired at the White House not too long ago?” asked my source. There was an element of outrage that was squandered, according to ‘team Obama.’ In fact, Obama and some of his closest advisors, especially [Valerie] Jarrett were incredibly angered that the outrage was seemingly tempered. It should have been an opportunity to use our force against the Tea Parties, the gun clingers, the Constitutionalists, and everyone who has complained about Obama. DHS should have stepped in right then, and used that event to start the clampdown,” this source stated about White House comments.
This source stated that from that point on, the DHS must become more responsive and aggressive.
Watch for a false flag event against Obama or his family, something that will outrage ‘black America.’ It will be carefully choreographed, but executed in a manner that will evoke the ugliest of reactions and create racial chaos in this country that will make the Watts riots, 1968 and the Rodney King riots pale in comparison. That’s the third leg in this.”
The planned end-game
Does Obama look worried about the upcoming elections? Look at his lavish vacations, his limited work schedule, and those with whom he is working. This is a very dangerous man who has, as his closest advisors, people who have orchestrated the revolutions of the 1960s. They know the “trigger points” in America.
The Obama administration, including his czars and along with his closets Progressive supporters, are planning a manufactured insurgency against America. He is using the media to his advantage to garner both sympathy and support for his unfinished goals. He is desperately seeking a way to remain in office, even if it means the surreal prospect of an indefinite postponement of elections - if it can be pulled off. So far, he’s got the support of the majority of the DHS “brass” behind him, according to my source.
“They’re power hungry, and they want to remain in charge,” stated this source.
The “surreal” aspect of suspended elections won’t look so surreal when you see any or all of the “trigger points” take place in the not-so-distant future.
“The end-game plan for America is its destruction as a Constitutional Republic, with the assistance of the agencies under the umbrella of the DHS.”
My sourced stated one more thing that seemed to tie things together. He urged me to recall the quote by Henry Kissinger who was speaking at a Bilderberg meeting at Evian, France, on 21 May 1992:
Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful. This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead with world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by their world government.
That threat need not be from beyond. All it might take is a world of starving, broke and desperate people.
Note: My source promised more information at a later time. Stay tuned.
and....
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/05/14/chicagos-first-false-flag-barack-attack/
Chicago’s First False Flag “Barack Attack”
By Captain Eric H. May, Ghost Troop CO
Speculation continues to build that the Obama administration and its Israel Lobby handlers will use the 25th NATO Summit to carry out a false flag attack, and according to a recent Canada Free Press article, the Department of Homeland Security intends to strong-arm Americans soon.
In his provocative May 8 story, The planned re-election of Obama, revolutionary style, Doug Hagmann reports that, according to an unnamed DHS source, the federal government is preparing for widespread civil turmoil before the fall elections, which it will use as a pretext for martial law and dictatorship.
Coming shortly before the NATO Summit, Hagmann’s information resonates. It wouldn’t be the first time a principled official informed the public about looming treason, thereby saving lives. The current Deep Throat should remind counter-false flag activists of another, whose warning to Chicago became a rallying point for diverse defenders.
Less than a month after the Obama inauguration the 9/11 Truth and Patriot movements were hoping that, under a new administration, there finally would be free speech about the abuses of King George and his Bush League, beginning with the truth about September 11, 2001.
On Feb 6, 2009 the newly installed president held a much-publicized meeting with 9/11 widow and “Jersey Girl” Beverly Eckert, along with dozens of USS Cole and 9/11 family members. All had lost a spouse or parent to “terrorism,” and they asked many incisive questions, although Obama provided few decisive answers. In the next six days, American glasnost became a short-lived reality. Senator Patrick Leahy demanded a “Truth Commission.” As if to accentuate the fact that kerosene won’t melt or demolish steel, the Mandarin Orange Hotel in downtown Beijing burned from top to bottom for 24 hours without falling, let alone collapsing neatly into its own footprint as did the Twin Towers and WTC-7. The gatekeeper Huffington Post, which had previously banned 9/11 “conspiracy theories,” published a two-part op-ed demanding a genuine investigation of the attacks.
At 11:00, p.m. on Feb 12 a highly suspicious aviation disaster over New York State killed the same Beverly Eckert who had a week earlier threatened the American elite with the one thing they can never allow: the truth. An hour later Obama’s Congress posted the Stimulus Bill online. The next day, Friday the 13th, an alarmed House of Representatives voted in favor of legislation that it didn’t have the time to read. It was an alarming echo of the Patriot Act vote.
Many believed what Eckert and 48 other passengers had discovered the hard way: Obama could be as murderous as his tyrannical predecessor. Huff-Poand the rest of the limp Left immediately resumed their head-in-their-hole posture about the attacks of 2001. The more militant wing of the 9/11 Truth Movement mobilized, fearing that the next 9/11 might be close. It might even show that a “Nuclear Obama” could one-up a “King George” in mass murder.
Credible chatter from alarmed officials in the Chicago area convinced Ghost Troop that the new president and his Israeli chief of staff “Rahmbo” Emanuel might intend to nuke Sears Tower in the next few days. Major Bill Fox, my executive officer, and I hurriedly published a weekend bombshell:
An alarming report about Chicago reached me Thursday, Feb 12: Inside source reveals FEMA & DHS preparing for mass graves and martial law near Chicago. After I listened to the brief audio part of the report, I found no reason to reject the identification of the speaker as an inside source. As for the particulars of disaster preparations, they are consistent with specific inside information I have been receiving since April/May 2006.I will analyze the Chicago scenario more in an upcoming column. For the time being, I hope that concerned patriots will review this article and its links. Please forward it, especially to the Chicago area and its first responders. With further networking we shall assimilate and circulate information that the mainstream media withholds or distorts. The new Chicago information dovetails with the December 2008 article by Major William B. Fox, Chicago Cops Dodge Blagojevich/Sears Tower Investigation, about a successful effort by Internet activists to forestall a false flag attempt against the 110-story Sears Tower on May 3, 2006 (its 33rd anniversary), during NLE-06.Over the weekend our article went viral, and on Sunday, Feb 15 Ghost Troop ally Theresa Mitchell, an astute political analyst who hosted Portland’s KBOO-FM political program, Presswatch, wrote:“Well, I know I said it before, but I think you saved our asses (at least for a while) against a Sears Tower demolition. I have little doubt the Mossad/neocon factions are plotting Plan B.”She had “said it before” when NLE-07, which targeted Portland for a dirty bomb attack, collapsed on Oct 18, 2007. That harrowing day began with an amazed Mitchell broadcasting It pays to monitor terror exercises about a timely Ghost Troop alert to Southeast Texas, which had anticipated a Dow Chemical explosion that morning by four hours. The day nearly ended with a bang as Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff arrived: Bomb scare disrupts terrorism drill. Rumors circulated that Portland police officers had joined the counter-false flag effort, which would explain why they shut down the exercise.As later events would demonstrate, Mitchell was right about the effectiveness of the Ghost Troop public affairs mission in Chicago. Operating in tandem with Internet activists, starting with those who provided and distributed the insider information, we led a successful cyber campaign.When Obama signed the Stimulus Bill into law on Tuesday, Feb 17, it was supposed to be the highlight of his first year. He was treated as an abject failure, though, and for no small cause: He had botched the false flag operation against the Windy City, which explains why administration officials immediately began to say that it might take another stimulus program to finish the job:DENVER — President Obama has not ruled out a second stimulus package, his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said on Tuesday, just before Mr. Obama signed his $787 billion recovery package into law with a statement that it would “set our economy on a firmer foundation.”Just hours later, Yahoo! delivered a powerful kick in the pants to Barack, described but not explained in‘Obama bin Laden’ Error Hits Yahoo’s Homepage. The morning after a bizarre NY Post editorial cartoon of appeared, linking the Stimulus Bill to a dead chimpanzee, whom some wits began to refer to as “Obonzo.”The none-too-subtle message was:
“Boy, you’re nothing more than our chimp, and if you can’t do what we hired you to do, we’ll get rid of you and find another just like you.”I challenge any media critics to give a more plausible explanation of this none-too-subtle racist threat by a Rupert Murdoch paper against a new “savior” president in his honeymoon phase with the media. The worst-case scenario is all-too-often the truth, and such is the case with Barack Obama. The powers that be selected him to be president because they believed that he was capable of carrying out mass murder for hire, and their payment was the Stimulus Bill. This means that patriots who ask whether he would try to attack Chicago aren’t asking the right question, which should be whether he will try to attack Chicago AGAIN.In Dec 2008, before Obama’s inauguration, Dr. Jim Fetzer, Major Bill Fox and I coauthored “Black Bush” Barack? False Flag Frankenstein?, which was read with outrage by many, some of whom demanded an apology. Considering the way things have turned out, I’m quite ready to apologize. I’m sorry for the article’s title, with its unnecessary quotation and question marks, and to atone for my mistake have renamed the Veterans Today edition more appropriately as Black Bush Barack: False Flag Frankenstein.
and.....
http://www.businessinsider.com/israel-is-using-american-black-ops-choppers-to-ferry-iranian-spies-into-iraq-2012-5
Israel is using bases in the Sunni Kurdish portion of northern Iraq to launch missions inside Shi'ite Iran to gather intelligence on the Islamic republic's nuclear program, according to a number of informed sources.
With the help of recruited Iranian dissidents in Kurdistan, the Israelis are attempting to gather sufficient information to convince the United States and the United Nations that Iran is involved in using its nuclear development program to make nuclear weapons.
Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government officially has denied claims by Iranian officials regarding the missions. But various reports including a recent Times of London report suggest that Israel is using specially modified U.S.-supplied Black Hawk helicopters to carry 12-member armed teams with sensitive equipment to monitor radioactivity and the magnitude of explosives tests. The helicopters may be similar to the specially modified stealth Black Hawks which were used in the May 2011 assassination of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden by U.S. Navy SEALS in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
One of those specially-modified helicopters crashed and was only partially destroyed, giving the Pakistanis access to the stealth technology which then was passed on to China, Iran and Russia, according to informed sources. In undertaking missions inside Iran, sources suggest that the commandos are dressed as members of the Iranian military and use Iranian military vehicles.
In separate activities, the Israelis also may be teaming up with members of the Mujahadeen-e-Khalq, or MEK, who use northern Iraq as a safe haven against Iran when they launch their own attacks. The MEK, which is a group comprised of militant anti-government Iranians, also has been implicated in working with the Israelis to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists. Separately, Middle East expert David Wurmser, who worked at the Department of Defense, State Department and for former Vice President Dick Cheney during the administration of President George Bush, told the open source intelligence service Lignet that despite Israel's new coalition government of Likud and Kadima parties, the chances of an Israeli strike remains high, and perhaps more so, since there is a developing consensus among various political parties in the country to back Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should he decide to launch an attack.
Wurmser, who has been an adviser to the Israeli government and has close personal ties with Netanyahu, sees such an attack occurring once the Israelis are convinced that their operational capability to undertake such an attack will result in minimal losses. He expects an attack by the end of this summer. "The Israelis, having little faith that diplomacy at the end of the day will end Iran's nuclear program and losing faith that (U.S.) President (Barack) Obama will do something to end the program, they will wait only as long as their military options remain viable," Wurmser said.
The key to a decision, Wurmser said, will be whether the scheduled May 23 discussions in Baghdad between Western countries and Iran will produce concrete results. The Israelis, he said, are showing a "nervousness" about prospects for multilateral talks with Iran and do not want an outcome that only drags out negotiations beyond Israel's window to strike. He pointed out that representatives of the new Netanyahu government, including the Likud and Kadima parties, now give Netanyahu a substantial majority in the Knesset. They met in Jerusalem last week with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and expressed "broad concern across political parties in Israel" about Iran's "nuclear weapons program.
There are separate concerns among analysts that with Israelis attempting to search for a "smoking gun" regarding Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program, there is the prospect that such evidence can be fabricated and used to launch a pre-emptive strike, as was seen in the so-called intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program. Reached for comment, an Iranian official told G2Bulletin that if the Israelis want to launch an attack, "they should do so and get it over with. The Zionists (Israelis) are acting like people who want to commit suicide."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NE16Ak01.html
Tehran seeks to reset relations
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
In the current tumult of diplomatic maneuvers ahead of the crucial Baghdad talks on Tehran's nuclear program between Iran and the P5+1 nations scheduled for May 23, reflected in multiple "cold" signals from the West, Iran and France are poised to reset their troubled relations if certain conditions are met.
This much can be seen in the surprise three-day Tehran visit by Michel Rocard, a former French prime minister, less than two weeks after the stunning presidential victory of his socialist colleague, Francios Hollande, who will introduce his cabinet on Wednesday.
Although dubbed as a "private visit", Rocard's high-profile meeting with top Iranian officials and lawmakers has clearly unnerved the United States and Israel, which worry that Paris may no longertoe Washington's line on Iran, as it did for five consecutive years under the right-wing Nicolas Sarkozy.
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
In the current tumult of diplomatic maneuvers ahead of the crucial Baghdad talks on Tehran's nuclear program between Iran and the P5+1 nations scheduled for May 23, reflected in multiple "cold" signals from the West, Iran and France are poised to reset their troubled relations if certain conditions are met.
This much can be seen in the surprise three-day Tehran visit by Michel Rocard, a former French prime minister, less than two weeks after the stunning presidential victory of his socialist colleague, Francios Hollande, who will introduce his cabinet on Wednesday.
Although dubbed as a "private visit", Rocard's high-profile meeting with top Iranian officials and lawmakers has clearly unnerved the United States and Israel, which worry that Paris may no longertoe Washington's line on Iran, as it did for five consecutive years under the right-wing Nicolas Sarkozy.
On the surface, Hollande's government will undoubtedly maintain unity of purpose with the US, the United Kingdom and Germany, the other Western powers involved in the P5+1 Iran nuclear talks (along with Russia and China), insisting that Iran must "fulfill its international obligations".
In reality, however, Hollande and his foreign policy team will be more inclined to echo Moscow's diplomatic approach, crystallized in its "step-by-step" proposal that reportedly calls for a temporary suspension of Iran's uranium-enrichment program and gradual lifting of sanctions against Iran in exchange for its enhanced nuclear transparency.
Concerning the latter, on Monday and Tuesday, Iran and the top officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, are holding crucial talks aimed at reaching consensus on resolving the agency's areas of concerns about Iran's nuclear program, such as suspicion of nuclear-weapons related activities at the Parchin military complex.
In a conversation with the author last week, Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, dismissed Western media reports regarding "certain activities" at Parchin as pure propaganda and insisted that the IAEA's own reports about Parchin pertain to 10 to 12 years ago - and if Iran had any intention of "cleaning up" any evidence it would have done so long ago and not waited until now.
The chances are the two sides will reach an agreement on a modality for further cooperation and the IAEA will be permitted to visit Parchin and, most likely, conclude that there is nothing suspicious, just as it has on two previous occasions. For sure, the Iran-IAEA talks are an important mood-setter for the Baghdad meeting and, if successful, could shift the momentum in Iran's favor, much to the chagrin of the US and Israeli Iranophobic politicians and pundits who want to derail the Iran nuclear talks by forcing Western governments to adopt a hardline approach toward Tehran. [1]
The latter appear to be making some headway with the European Union, whose foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton was in Tel Aviv this month and subsequently made a rather hawkish statement regarding stopping Iran's nuclear weapons program, in sharp contrast to her more conciliatory behavior during and especially after the April nuclear talks in Istanbul. As expected, Tehran has reacted negatively to the pre-talk pressure tactics, warning they could damage the prospects of the Baghdad talks. Iran insists its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes.
The French connection
It is in this volatile and highly uncertain environment that Paris and Tehran are now engaged in the preliminary stages of exploring the option of improving relations, which are intimately connected to a whole set of other relations and considerations. These include France's pre-commitment to the EU's current coercive approach toward Iran, which will culminate in the EU's oil ban on Iran in July if the Baghdad talks fail to made tangible progress.
In that event, heightened tensions with Iran will simply translate into added economic woes for the troubled eurozone that can ill-afford the shock waves of an Iran crisis causing higher oil prices.
Optimistically, however, France and Iran may be on the road to a new chapter in their relations if the Iran-IAEA talks bear fruit and set the stage for more concrete progress in Baghdad. Then, France, which downsized its embassy in Tehran last December, may reverse course by restoring full embassy facilities, and Iran might also reconsider its decision to suspend oil shipments to France. Although France received only 3% of its oil imports from Iran, there is no reason why this can't increase if the countries manage to reset their relations.
Not only that, Hollande is apt to discover a serious partner in dialogue in Tehran with respect to a number of key regional issues, such as Syria, Lebanon and Afghanistan, in the light of Hollande's campaign promises to withdraw French forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2012.
The big question is whether or not the candidate-turned-president Hollande, who has no prior foreign policy experience, will be able to withstand pressure from fellow North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members led by the US to reconsider his campaign promises.
Hollande's first foreign policy test will be at the NATO meeting in Chicago this month that is bound to be preoccupied with the question of Afghanistan's growing instability, not to mention Syria's escalating civil war.
Another important issue, which has raised the ire of Moscow, is NATO's planned anti-missile defense shield in Europe as well as modernization of NATO's nuclear delivery capability by relying on new US bombers.
A trend in Europe is that compliant right-wing politicians who have forfeited European national security into American hands are on their way out, and a more self-assertive EU is on the rise that could detach itself from the American-Israeli militaristicmodus operandi.
NATO's nuclear modernization policy is coming under fire from some European pundits, who have labeled it as "expensive and unnecessary", although a more apt description might be dangerous. The Western military assumption - that they can go about beefing up their nuclear arsenal and capabilities and, worse, rely on them for foreign policy purposes, while at the same time holding up the banner of anti-proliferation and demanding other nations to simply consent to their nuclear hegemony without an iota of resistance - is a tissue of naive Euro-centrism that lacks credibility with much of the rest of the world.
This is especially true about the Middle East, where Israel continues to receive critical nuclear-weapons related technology from the West while simultaneously portraying itself as a victim of Iran's fictitious "nuclear threat". (See Israel stokes the Iran threatAsia Times Online, May 8, 2012.)
Given the above, the new socialist government in France is caught between conflicting priorities, given the long-standing French socialists' support for Israel. But, with today's Israel led by right-wing and some "messianic" politicians, to paraphrase criticism of some top Israeli intelligence officials critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the worst thing that Paris could do would be to endorse Netanyahu's warmongering approach toward Iran. This would have serious adverse consequences for the European economy if left unchecked.
A more prudent French approach, reflected in Rocard's trip to Iran, is to build bridges with Tehran and thus act as a positive influence in resolving the Iran nuclear standoff through wise diplomacy, thus compensating for the current falling rate of diplomatic wisdom vis-a-vis the dangerous Iran crisis. [2]
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