Khamenei Warns Iran’s Top Leaders: WAR IN WEEKS

DEBKAfile DEBKA Video August 1, 2012, 8:54 AM (GMT+02:00)

Tags: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Iran nuclear

Israel

Video

On July 27, just before Friday prayers, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei summoned top Iranian military chiefs for what he called “their last war council.”
“We’ll be at war within weeks,” he told the gathering, DEBKAfile’s exclusive Iranian and intelligence sources disclose.

Present were Defense Minister General Ahmad Vahidi, Khamenei’s military adviser General Yahya Rahim-Safavi, Armed Forces Chief Major General Seyed Hassan Firuzabadi, Revolutionary Guards Corps commander General Mohammad Ali Jafari and Al Qods Brigades chief General Qassem Soleimani. The commanders of the air force, the navy and ground forces were also there.

Each of the participants was tapped to report on the readiness of his branch or sector for shouldering its contingency mission.

While retaliation had been exhaustively drilled in regular military exercises in the past year, Khamenei ordered the biggest fortification project in Iran’s history to save its nuclear program from even the mightiest of America’s super-weapons. Rocks are being gathered from afar, piled on key nuclear installations, covered with many tons of poured concrete and finally plated with steel.

That same Friday, the US Air force unveiled its new Massive Ordnance Penetrators. Each bunker buster weighs 30,000 pounds and is able to penetrate 60 feet of reinforced concrete.
Turning to retaliation, the war council endorsed a battery of paybacks for potential US and/or Israeli pre-emptive strikes against its nuclear program. They would start by announcing enhanced uranium enrichment up to 60 percent - that is close to weapons grade.
Oft-tested ballistic missiles, Shehab-3, would be loosed against Israel, Saudi Arabia and American Middle East and Gulf military installations.

Hizballah in Lebanon and Hamas and Jihad Islami in Gaza stand ready to pitch in against Israel with attacks from the north and the southwest.

Saudi oil export terminals would be blown up and mines sown in the Strait of Hormuz to impede the export of one-fifth of the world’s oil.

Khamenei put before his war council a timeline of weeks for the coming conflict – September or October.

( Editor's comment.... )

and the below piece is an interesting take as to whom besides Iran or Syria may have wanted Bandar dead ( now that we know the Chief of Iran's Qud's force was not killed or seriously wounded and Syria probably couldn't pull that off by itself - might US or even Saudi rivals wanted Bandar dead ? )

Did Washington Kill Its Favourite Saudi Prince, Bandar Bush?

Saman Mohammadi
Infowars.com
August 1, 2012

Following unofficial reports by Voltaire Network that Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia was assassinated on July 26, analysts pointed to the government of Syria as the prime suspect. The motive is clear: revenge. Days earlier, Prince Bandar reportedly oversaw an intelligence operation that caused the deaths of Assad’s top generals.

But the question that must be asked is who else wanted Prince Bandar dead besides Syria? What if a different party is responsible for his death? There are several interpretations about who was behind Prince Bandar’s death because the Saudi leadership is not releasing any information about this shocking story. This article represents only one interpretation. It takes as its premise that the government in Washington is the suspect.

I admit this is conspiracy theorizing, but it is grounded in facts and history. In the attempt to find out why Prince Bandar was killed we must not concentrate on the obvious and point to Syria. Appearances can be deceiving in these situations. If it is shown with proof and official statements that Syria was responsible then take this article’s conclusions as a conspiracy theory, and nothing more.

But until the world knows with absolute certainty who killed Bandar Bush and why, it is our task to ask questions and look at every possible angle. We must keep in mind that many people wanted to see Prince Bandar go away; for some, permanently. A man like him makes a lot of enemies.

Last year, historian Webster G. Tarpley explained on the Alex Jones show that Prince Bandar was preparing to say goodbye to Washington and move Saudi Arabia closer to nuclear Pakistan and China. Over the years, dissent within the Saudi royal family has grown, and it seems that the question of which nuclear power to look to for protection has divided the leadership the most.

The recent assassination of Prince Bandar makes Tarpley’s analysis from last year that much more important. According to Tarpley, Prince Bandar was distancing himself from the American Eagle. He knew his regime was targeted by Washington for regime change, so he started looking at Pakistan to provide security. Naturally, Washington would be pissed by Bandar’s aggressiveness.

The prideful Eagle saw a rebellion looming in Saudi Arabia’s inner circle and wanted blood.

II. Prince Bandar Bush: A Man of Two Clans

Prince Bandar Bush was truly a man of two clans. As Washington’s adopted son, his fate was tied to a hostile house that is famous for disloyaty and betrayal. He was planning to strike against his American father, and as a result he was no longer considered the favourite son in the family. The American father wasn’t in the mood of tolerating a rebellion. So he took out his whip and made sure the Saudi prince knew who was the boss.

There can be only one prince of darkness in this world, and he resides in the White House in Washington.

It is generally known that Prince Bandar was one of Al-Qaeda’s chief financiers but he should not be made the scapegoat. He acted merely as an executioner for the tyrants who control the CIA, Wall Street, and the White House. The sin of creating Al-Qaeda belongs to the CIA alone.

III. The Eagle Sees All: Washington Refuses To Be Checkmated

In this interview with Alex Jones in April 2011, historian Webster G. Tarpley discussed Prince Bandar’s decision to move Saudi Arabia closer to nuclear Pakistan and China, and away from the United States because of its “color revolution” policy. Tarpley says that the prince was wise to Washington’s plot against the Saudi royal regime and sought a future in which Washington was no longer Saudi Arabia’s superpower patron.

Here is an excerpt from the interview:

“The idea that Bandar is turning towards an alliance with Pakistan in order to defend Saudi Arabia against the U.S. is a kind of strategic revolution. Up to now, Saudi Arabia has relied on the United States for security. But now the people around Bandar see, obviously, that Obama is the main threat, that the U.S. regime, the CIA, the NED [National Endowment for Democracy], are the main threat to the internal security of Saudi Arabia. So they’re looking for an option. Now once you say Pakistan, of course, you’re also saying nuclear weapons. You can say in a certain way it’s quite possible that Bandar has arranged that Saudi Arabia is now under the Pakistani nuclear umbrella.

This is quite a new thing in world affairs. These are two countries, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, who have been under the US yoke, totally dominated by the US, bombed in the case of Pakistan, who are trying to make a jailbreak.” [You can hear the quote starting at the 2:45 mark to the 3:40 mark].

Later in the interview, Tarpley added that an alliance between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, China, and Russia would signal the end of U.S.-British dominance in the Middle East. Washington would essentially be checkmated had Prince Bandar succeeded in disconnecting Saudi Arabia from Washington’s iron grip. This bold move would’ve marked the start of a whole new ball game in world politics.

IV. Washington’s Dark History of Double-Crossing Its Allies

It is said that great powers don’t have permanent allies, only permanent interests. In the case of Washington it couldn’t be more true.

In the late 1970s, Washington threw the Shah of Iran under the bus in a dishonourable fashion after discovering that he had cancer through the Shah’s right hand man, General Hossein Fardoust. Instead of letting the Iranian people decide their own political fate, Washington acted against the Shah by destabilizing his regime while covertly supportinghis successor, Ayatollah Khomeini. Read more about this secret history in, “An Epic Deception: America’s Overthrow of The Shah And The Secret Quest For A One World Government.”

Washington is cold-blooded in its mad pursuit of hegemony in the Middle East, and that is normal behaviour by a superpower. But we don’t live in normal times. The nuclear age and the era of a lone superpower don’t mix. One is coming to an end, hopefully both. Washington must give up its hegemonic power and ambitions peacefully, or else it risks dragging the Middle East and the world to the nuclear abyss.

and....

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NH02Ak03.html

Where is Prince Bandar?
By Pepe Escobar

Was Prince Bandar "Bush", 63, son of Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz (perennial Saudi Defense Minister,1963-2001), semi-perennial ambassador to Washington (1983-2005), and secretive jihad financier, killed by a Syrian intelligence death squad?

Thunderous silence prevails on Syrian, Iranian and Arab media (most of it controlled by the Saudis). The same applies for al-Jazeera. This is DEBKA's somewhat fanciful take.

Dates are crucial. Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud may have pulled off operation "Damascus Volcano" on July 18. He was definitely promoted to head of Saudi intelligence on July 19. And he might have been killed in a bomb attack on the Saudi General Intelligence HQ inRiyadh on July 22.

One Syrian rumor mill version rules that "Damascus Volcano" came from Saudi intel - with logistics provided by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). This is highly unlikely; the CIA is clueless on how to penetrate Assad's inner sanctum. The predominant version circulating in the Syrian capital is this was a white coup.

"Damascus Volcano", by the way, was a flop; the swarm of mercenaries - infiltrated via Jordan - who were supposed to take over the capital had to retreat up north. Now the news cycle is fixated on another faux game-changer - the "Battle of Aleppo".

There are serious problems with all the spin around "Damascus Volcano". None of the Assad regime's four heads of military intelligence were killed - they are actually running the (ghastly) show in Aleppo.

There are also problems with a Syrian death squad being able to strike Riyadh's inner sanctum. But Iranian intelligence could certainly pull this off. As for Debka's assumption that Tehran may have hired al-Qaeda jihadis for an inside job against the House of Saud, that is rubbish.

The bottom line; no one knows, because no one is talking. What is certain is that Bandar as head of Saudi intelligence was part of King Abdullah's hardcore response to the Arab Spring.

In Syria, the House of Saud strategy boils down to regime change - and a fragile, fragmented, Sunni government in Damascus not aligned with Tehran.

Internally, the strategy is to viciously smash any peaceful Shi'ite-majority protest in the eastern provinces. Essentially, there's no Arab Spring in Saudi Arabia because the House of Saud either bribes or intimidates its subjects.

The overall strategy of choice is "blame it on Iran"; as this logic goes, Saudi Shi'ites are Iranian puppets as much as Bahraini Shi'ites. The Obama administration blindly subscribes to this fallacy - totally missing the point; the House of Saud hates any semblance of Western parliamentary democracy as much as it hates Shi'ites - Iranian and otherwise.

So what happened in Riyadh? A graphic Tehran message to the House of Saud? A rogue suicide bomber? An internal Saudi war? The House of Saud is not talking. And Bandar is not moving.

http://www.infowars.com/new-spin-attack-syria-to-fight-al-qaeda/

New Spin: Attack Syria To Fight Al-Qaeda

NATO powers helped put Al-Qaeda fighters in Syria in the first place

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Tuesday, July 31, 2012

We are now clearly entering a new phase in the propaganda war with regard to Syria, heralded by the NATO-aligned establishment now using the presence of Al-Qaeda fighters in the country, many of whom were airlifted into Syria by NATO powers, as a justification to launch a wider military assault.

For months the establishment media has downplayed the presence and influence of Al-Qaeda rebels as a means of legitimizing the NATO-backed Free Syrian Army’s efforts to topple President Bashar Assad.

Despite innumerable bombings and assassinations targeting the regime, the fact that Al-Qaeda fighters were behind the violence was considered taboo, and some mainstream news outlets even preferred to spin conspiracy theories about Assad’s forces being behind the bombings rather than admit the truth.

The mainstream media now admits that Al-Qaeda is behind most of the anti-Assad violence in Syria and that the Syrian opposition is largely led by Al-Qaeda fighters, backed up by U.S.-funded rebels. In addition, U.S. officials likeAmbassador Susan Rice and the White House itself have all but applauded terrorist bombings in Damascus.

Back in March, leaked emails also revealed that the Pentagon was planning to direct terror attacks and assassinations inside Syria in a bid to topple Assad.

Despite the U.S. government welcoming attacks carried out by Al-Qaeda as a tool to further destabilize the Syrian government, the establishment has launched a spin campaign claiming that Al-Qaeda is merely capitalizing on the uprising in Syria when in reality Al-Qaeda is leading the uprising.

A new report out of the RAND Corporation confirms that since December, “Al Qaeda has conducted roughly two dozen attacks, primarily against Syrian security service targets. Virtually all have been suicide attacks and car bombings, and they have resulted in more than 200 deaths and 1,000 injuries.”

The report also notes how Al-Qaeda has doubled its ranks inside Syria and how its expanding presence in major cities is being funded by “a growing number of donors from the Persian Gulf and Levant,” according to the U.S. State Department.

Noticeably absent from the report however is the fact that many of these Al-Qaeda fighters were airlifted into Syria from Libya by NATO powers after the toppling of Colonel Gaddafi. As the London Telegraph reported back in November, Libyan rebel fighters and arms were being sent to Syria by the newly installed NATO puppet government.

As the Telegraph also reported, Abdulhakim Belhadj, now head of the Tripoli Military Council, “met with Free Syrian Army leaders in Istanbul and on the border with Turkey,” after being sent there by Mustafa Abdul Jalil, the interim Libyan president.

Belhadj is the former front man for the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), an Al-Qaeda offshoot designated as a terrorist organization by the US State Department, which represented the second-largest cohort of foreign fighters in Iraq, responsible for killing U.S. troops.

These details are absent from the RAND report for a reason – the U.S. military-industrial complex and the NATO-aligned establishment media is now using the presence of Al-Qaeda fighters within Syria as a reason to attack Syria – despite the fact that NATO powers helped those terrorists enter Syria in the first place.

“In addition to helping end Bashar Assad’s rule, there is a growing need to conduct a covert campaign against al Qaeda and other extremist groups gaining a presence in the country,” writes RAND’s Seth Jones, arguing that Al-Qaeda fighters should not be thrown in the same category as the FSA because Free Syrian Army rebels are “concerned” about “Qaeda’s growing involvement.”

However, as a London Guardian report reveals, Al-Qaeda and the NATO-backed FSA are working hand in hand to destabilize Syria in preparation for regime change.

“We have clear instructions from our [al-Qaida] leadership that if the FSA need our help we should give it. We help them with IEDs and car bombs. Our main talent is in the bombing operations,” said former FSA rebel turned Al-Qaeda commander Abu Khuder, adding that Al-Qaeda fighters meet “every day” with Syrian rebels.

In addition, rebel fighters are routinely photographed wearing the Al-Qaeda motif. There are also innumerable You Tube videos that show opposition forces flying the Al-Qaeda flag.

The fact that the Guardian report divulges how closely together Al-Qaeda and the FSA are working is ironic given that for months the same newspaper has run anonymous Twitter messages claiming the bombings in Syria now admittedly carried out by Al-Qaeda were in fact false flags carried out by Assad’s forces.

In conceding that the United States and Al-Qaeda were on the same side in Syria, Hillary Clinton attempted to make a distinction by remarking that Al-Qaeda are merely “claiming to support the opposition,” when in reality, as the Guardian report and a deluge of others confirm, the relationship is symbiotic.

It is this phony distinction that NATO powers will attempt to push in justifying a military intervention in Syria on the basis of routing out Al-Qaeda, when in fact Al-Qaeda is once again allied with the military-industrial complex, just as it is in targeting Iran as the next domino to fall in the middle east.

and as far as Iran.....

Saudi silence on intelligence chief Bandar’s fate denotes panic

DEBKAfile Special Report July 31, 2012, 1:52 PM (GMT+02:00)

Tags: Prince Bandar

Saudi Arabia

Iranian terror

Syria

Mystery over missing Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan

Disquiet in Washington, Jerusalem and a row of Middle East capitals is gaining ground the longer the Saudi government stays silent on the reports of the assassination of the newly-appointed Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan, purportedly in a revenge operation by a Syrian intelligence death squad. If true, it would shoot a devastating tentacle out from the Syrian conflict to the broader region.

It is widely feared that Saudi rulers are too traumatized to respond by the fear of Iranian penetration of the highest and most closely guarded circles of Saudi government, possibly climaxing in Bandar’s assassination.
The unconfirmed reports of his death attribute its motive to revenge by Iran and Syria for the bomb explosion five days earlier in Damascus which killed four of Bashar Assad’s top managers of his war on the uprising against his regime.
The prince, son of the late crown prince Sultan, has not been seen in public since Saudi General Intelligence headquarters in Riyadh was hit by a bomb blast Monday, July 23 killing his deputy, Mashaal al-Qarni.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly 550 of Friday, July 26, was the first world publication to report this attack, in the face of a massive official blackout, from its exclusive intelligence sources.
Now as then, DEBKAfile’s sources have obtained no confirmation that Prince Bandar was injured or killed in that attack. King Abdullah made him Director of Saudi Intelligence on July 19, just a day after the Damascus bombing. But our sources doubt whether a Syrian intelligence squad would be capable of reaching deep inside Riyadh. They therefore postulate that the deed was committed or orchestrated by a clandestine Iranian agency.
It wouldn’t be the first time.

In 2003 and 2004, Iran initiated a wave of bombing attacks inside the Saudi kingdom carried out by Al Qaeda, supplying its terror squads with intelligence, explosives and money. Al Qaeda experts ran those operations. One of them, Saif al-Adal, was later freed by Iran and is now based in Pakistan.
Iran’s terror masters may have gone back to their tested stratagem of hiring Al Qaeda terrorists for an insider job against the Saudi regime.
For Tehran, all means are justified for the preservation of their foremost Arab ally, Syrian ruler Bashar Assad, in power. Furthermore, Iran’s ability to strike deep into the heart of the Saudi capital is meant to serve as a timely object lesson for their Middle East enemies that Iran’s arm is long enough to reach inside any of their capitals.The attack on Riyadh therefore throws a new perspective on the military calculations actuating the “Arab Spring” and governing US and Israel plans to strike Iran’s nuclear program in the very near future. In the same way, the Damascus bombing of July 18 dragged the Syrian civil war outside its borders to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Iran.

The unconfirmed report claiming Prince Bandar was critically injured and his doctors had lost the fight to save him, spilling out since Sunday July 29, has gained wide resonance – not because it was verified but because of its momentous strategic significance. Corroboration is still lacking. DEBKAfile reports that Washington too is groping the dark and has turned to its many Middle East intelligence contacts for a glimmer of light on what has happened to the key Saudi figure – so far without success.
It looks as though the enigma will be solved one way or another only after an authoritative account or an official statement is forthcoming from the Saudi government or if the missing prince appears in public. The absence of any word from the Saudi government increases the trepidation in Washington and among concerned parties in the Middle East.

Editor's note....

As we wonder whether or not Prince Bandar - the newly installed Head of Saudi Intelligence was killed during the recent unreported bombing of the Saudi Intelligence Headquarters , recall the Saudi bombing followed very shortly after the bombing n ?Damascus which top Aides of Assad and even more significantly for regional and global politics , may have killed the Head of Iran's Quods force

http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/07/irans-quds-force-commander-killed-in-damascus/

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Foreign and Defense Policy, Middle East and North Africa

Iran’s Quds Force commander killed in Damascus?

Ali Alfoneh | July 23, 2012, 10:43 am

By Bo yaser (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons

On Thursday July 19, Arutz Sheva, quoting “the Arab language press,” reported that Major General Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC QF), was killed in Wednesday’s bombing in Damascus. Al-Arabiya made a similar claim quoting “Israeli sources” and Arutz Sheva in particular.

On July 21st, Ramezan Sharif, Revolutionary Guards Public Relations commander, dismissed the reports on Suleimani’s death as “immoral and hostile propaganda campaigns of some Arab media and their Western counterparts against Iran,” but Suleimani has not been seen in public since Wednesday’s bombing. The latest report on Suleimani’s whereabouts is Kayhan‘s summary of a speech Suleimani allegedly delivered at the IRGC Navy seminar in Mashhad on Monday July 16; Suleimani could theoretically have attended the meeting in Damascus.

Only time will show if Suleimani indeed was in Damascus and if he survived the bombing or not, but one thing is sure: In the eyes of the Iranian public, Suleimani the hero from the war with Iraq, died many years ago. War heroes do not unleash terror campaigns in a neighboring Muslim country like Iraq; they do not kill civilian Israeli tourists in Bulgaria; and they certainly do not help an authoritarian dictator brutally suppress the just struggle of the Syrian people for a dignified life. In that sense, Suleimani has long been dead.

and......

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/158048

Report: Iran Quds Force Commander Killed in Damascus

A bombing that killed several members of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's inner circle may have also killed Iran's infamous spymaster

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By Gabe Kahn

First Publish: 7/19/2012, 8:11 PM

Damascus Funeral Procession

Reuters

Reports in the Arab-language press indicate the head of Iran's covert foreign operations Quds force was killed in Wednesday's bombing in Damascus.

Al-Quds Force's long-elusive commander, Maj. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, is reported to have made several trips to Damascua to meet with Assad and his top commanders since January of this year.

Iran has made no bones about having bolstered Assad's embattled regime with members of its own elite Revolutionary Guard, but the death of Suleimani would be a direct blow to Tehran.

Suleimani, who masterminded al-Quds Force operations in Iraq and covert activities throughout the Persian Gulf and Lebanon, is a key figure in Iranian policymaking, particularly in security matters.

A combat veteran of Iran's 1980-88 war with Iraq, Suleimani took command of the al-Quds Force in the late 1990s and has become a powerful figure in the upper echelons of the Tehran regime.

His death in Wednesday's bombing could indicate Syria's rebels have covert support from Western nations in their anti-Assad campaign.

The United States, along with its allies, would like to see regime change in Damascus and end Syria's alliance with Iran, forged in 1980 by Assad's late father, Hafez Assad.

Israel, the United States, and Saudi Arabia all have known scores to settle with Suleimani. Riyadh and Washington recently blamed the Quds Force for a failed attempt to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States.

Jerusalem blames the Quds force for the deadly bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Ares eighteen years ago, as well as a recent spate of bombing attempts targeting Israeli diplomats abroad.

Suleimani's death may also explain the verbal aggression of Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah towards Israel in a speech he delivered following Wednesday's attack.

The Quds Force and Hizbullah terror organization in Lebanon have a long-established relationship, which Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called out on Wednesday following a bus bombing in Bulgaria that left at least six Israelis dead and dozens more wounded.

Iran also openly helped Hizbullah target US interests and personnel in Lebanon in the 1980's, and is believed to have advised the terror group when it carried out its deadly attacks on the US Marine Corps baracks and Embassy in Beirut.

Officially established thirty years ago, the Quds Force had as many as 2,500 members in Lebanon in 1982, and continues to provide military advisers to Hizbullah and other anti-Israel terror groups.

During Israel's 2006 war with Hizbullah, IDF personnel unconvered identification and documents for Quds Force members who actively fought against Israel.

Meanwhile, Syria's rebels -- of whom the Free Syrian Army of some 30,000 army defectors comprises the largest faction -- continue to accumulate successes: the long-loyal Division 61 defected in Damascus, while ammunition depots were looted by rebels.

Elsewhere, residents in Aleppo took to the streets to celebrate as rebels moved into the city, while the once impregnable Assad bastion of Damascus has become a fierce battleground as the rebels press their offensive deeper into the capital.

Meanwhile, Al-Arabiya TV reported that the Syrian security forces are shelling areas adjacent to the Golan Heights. Israel has placed its military on high alert and cancelled all weekend leaves out of concern the fighting could spill over into the Jewish state.

Catharsis Ours