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5000 Bombs
http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...0921-voa01.htm
Haaretz: Israel to Get 5000 US Smart Bombs, Bunker Busters VOA News 21 Sep 2004, 12:40 UTC An Israeli newspaper says the United States plans to sell Israel nearly 5,000 smart bombs, including 500 one-ton "bunker buster" bombs that can penetrate two-meter thick concrete walls. The Haaretz newspaper reported Tuesday that funding for the $319 million weapons deal would come from the U.S. military aid to Israel. According to the report, the U.S. Defense department pushed for deal to maintain, what the newspaper calls, Israel's military advantages and ensure U.S. strategic and tactical interests. Citing a senior Israeli security source, Reuters news agency said the type of weapons sought under the deal are not needed for use in Palestinian territories, but "bunker busters" could serve Israel against Iran or possibly Syria. Some information for this report provided by AP, Reuters. |
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On Wed, 22 Sep 2004 17:01:42 -0600, Scott Ferrin wrote:
[snip] But do you think Iran will be smart enough to take the hint? Nah. Probably not. IBM __________________________________________________ _____________________________ Posted Via Uncensored-News.Com - Accounts Starting At $6.95 - http://www.uncensored-news.com The Worlds Uncensored News Source |
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ISRAEL SEEKS U.S. BUNKER BUSTERS
HA'ARETZ, Sept. 21 -- The Israeli air force will purchase $319 million in air-launched bombs from the United States, including 500 deep earth-penetrating "bunker-buster" bombs, Ha'aretz reports, citing a senior Israeli security source. "This is not the sort of ordnance needed for the Palestinian front. Bunker busters could serve Israel against Iran, or possibly Syria," said the source. The sale, which includes 4,500 other guided air-launched munitions, is not expected to go through until after the U.S. presidential election in November. -- Harry Andreas Engineering raconteur |
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"Dav1936531" wrote in message
... From: (Allen Thomson) Date: 9/21/04 10:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time Message-id: Haaretz: Israel to Get 5000 US Smart Bombs, Bunker Busters VOA News 21 Sep 2004, 12:40 UTC The powers that be have decided that Iran is NOT going to be enriching uranium for a nuclear bomb. Too many terrorist connections in Iran to trust the mullahs with a nuke. Dave I hope someone remembers to invade the State Department and instill a regime friendly to the US during this war on terrorism. POTUS and the Congress can agree on any damn policy they want, but we keep forgetting to get State to go along. My bet is being put on Israel to take action against Iran. I'd be really surprised if the US gets around to anything more than "expressing grave concern." -- Scott What would you call a 51 year old man that marries a 6 year old girl? Muslims call him Prophet Muhammad. http://www.faithfreedom.org/Articles/sina/ayesha.htm |
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(Dav1936531) wrote in message ...
From: (Allen Thomson) Date: 9/21/04 10:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time Message-id: Haaretz: Israel to Get 5000 US Smart Bombs, Bunker Busters VOA News 21 Sep 2004, 12:40 UTC The powers that be have decided that Iran is NOT going to be enriching uranium for a nuclear bomb. Too many terrorist connections in Iran to trust the mullahs with a nuke. Who has more "terrorist connections" the Iranians or the USA? At the time that Saddam was using WMD on Iranians and Kurds, the US was backing and supporting Saddam www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82 www.commondreams.org/views03/1223-11.htm By the time of the US attack on Iraq, there were no WMD in Iraq, and they had been destroyed. THat's why none were found: David Kay said there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in the first place, and that if the war was because of WMD, then it was "not worth it" http://www.armscontrol.org/pressroom...ay_March15.asp ====== Ashcroft SUPPORTED terrorists: "When the White House released its Sept. 12 "white paper" detailing Saddam Hussein's "support for international terrorism," it caused more than a little discomfort in some quarters of Washington...But it did highlight Saddam's backing of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), an obscure Iranian dissident group that has gathered surprising support among members of Congress in past years. One of those supporters, the documents show, is a top commander in President Bush's war on terrorism: Attorney General John Ashcroft." (SOURCE: Ashcroft's Baghdad Connection; Newsweek, September, 2002) ====== US SUPPORTED THE TALIBAN: "Mr. ROHRABACHER: Afghanistan from the very beginning, when the Reagan Administration was involved with helping the Afghans fight the Russians, which were engaged in trying to put a totalitarian government there; because of Pakistan's insistence, a lion's share of our support went to a guy named Hek Makti Argulbadin, who had no democratic tendencies whatsoever...Only the United States has given-and I again make this charge-the United States has been part and parcel to supporting the Taliban all along and still is, let me add...And we have heard today that we are very proud that we are still giving aid to Afghanistan. Let me note that aid has always gone to Taliban areas. So what message does that send the people of Afghanistan? We have been supporting the Taliban because all of our aid goes to the Taliban areas, and when people from the outside try to put aid into areas not controlled by the Taliban, they are thwarted by our own State Department. Let me just note that that same area, Bamiyan, where I tried to help those people who were opposed to the Taliban, Bamiyan now is the headquarters of Mr. bin Laden. Surprise, surprise. Everyone in this Committee has heard me time and again over the years say unless we did something Afghanistan was going to become a base for terrorism and drug dealing. Mr. Chairman, how many times did you hear me say that? This Administration either ignored that or are part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Again, I am sorry Mr. Inderfurth is not here to defend himself, but let me state for the record at a time when the Taliban were vulnerable, the top person in this Administration, Mr. Inderfurth, and Bill Richardson personally went to Afghanistan and convinced the anti-Taliban forces not to go on the offensive. Furthermore, they convinced all of the anti-Taliban forces and their supporters, to disarm and to cease their flow of support for the anti-Taliban forces. Now, with a history like that, it is very hard, Mr. Ambassador, for me to sit here and listen to someone say our main goal is to drain the swamp-and the swamp is Afghanistan-because the United States created that swamp in Afghanistan, and the United States policies have undercut those efforts to create a freer and more open society in Afghanistan which was consistent with the beliefs of the Afghan people." (SOURCE: GLOBAL TERRORISM: SOUTH ASIA-THE NEW LOCUS; HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION JULY 12, 2000) ======= US GAVE ANTHRAX TO SADDAM: Copyright 1996 Newsday, Inc. Newsday November 27, 1996, Wednesday, ALL EDITIONS SECTION: NEWS; Page A04 LENGTH: 2103 words HEADLINE: UNDISCLOSED CONNECTION / SCIENTIST ON GULF WAR SYNDROME LINKED TO SUPPLIER OF IRAQI ANTHRAX BYLINE: By Patrick J. Sloyan. WASHINGTON BUREAU DATELINE: Washington BODY: Washington - A Nobel laureate who headed a 1994 Pentagon study that dismissed links between chemical and biological weapons and Persian Gulf War illnesses was also a director of a U.S. firm that had earlier exported anthrax and other lethal materials to Iraq before the 1991 conflict, according to federal records. Renowned geneticist Joshua Lederberg of New York served as chairman of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Persian Gulf War Health Effects. At the time of the 1994 study, Lederberg was also one of 10 directors on the board of American Type Culture Collection, or ATCC. Newsday has found that the nonprofit Rockville, Md., firm made 70 government-approved shipments of anthrax and other disease-causing pathogens to Iraqi scientists between 1985 and 1989, according to congressional records. Lederberg became a director, an unpaid position, in 1990, a year after the shipments were halted by the Bush administration. Lederberg resigned from ATCC last year. During and after the 1991 gulf war, U.S. intelligence became convinced that the ATCC shipments, along with supplies from other countries, had been used by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's scientists for an expanded biological weapons program, according to U.S. officials. A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said ATCC's products, designed for research, were ideal for growing tiny samples into wartime stocks. "They ATCC were not the only source, but they made a contribution" to the Iraqi weapons program, the official said. For the Bush administration, those Iraqi biological weapons were the "nightmare scenario" of the 1991 gulf war - the potential of a Scud rocket warhead filled with anthrax attacking Tel Aviv, prompting an Israeli nuclear counterattack on Baghdad. More than 150,000 frontline U.S. combat troops got anthrax vaccine injections, according to Desert Storm records. Despite the wartime fears, UN Special Commission investigators in Iraq have found no evidence that Baghdad used biological weapons or even succeeded in developing the pathogens into usable battlefield munitions. But laywers for veterans groups argue that some biological weapons may have been included in nerve gas and other chemical poisons encountered on the gulf war battlefield. Dispersed as an aerosol, anthrax spores can produce high fever, breathing difficulty, chest pain and eventually blood poisoning and death. In addition, areas hit with anthrax spores can remain lethal to humans for decades, according to the U.S. Army. In 1993, after a growing number of gulf war veterans complained of fatigue, sore joints, sleep problems, diarrhea, memory loss and other problems, President Bill Clinton ordered the Pentagon study to determine whether U.S. troops had been exposed to chemical or biological weapons during the war. Most of the 75,000 ailing gulf war veterans share the array of symptoms called gulf war syndrome, according to the Pentagon health officials and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Lederberg, who shared the 1958 Nobel for medicine or physiology, was a director of ATCC when he was picked to head the study, which was overseen by Deputy Defense Secretary John Deutch, now director of Central Intelligence. As chairman of the seven-month Pentagon investigation, Lederberg was specific in his personal summary of the 1994 report. "There is no scientific or medical evidence that either chemical or biological warfare was deployed at any level against us, or that there were any exposures of U.S. service members to chemical or biological warfare agents in Kuwait or Saudi Arabia," Lederberg wrote in the report. Despite repeated requests for comment, Lederberg declined to be interviewed or to answer Newsday's written questions. Deutch, through a spokesman, said he was unaware of Lederberg's connection to ATCC or that the firm had shipped anthrax to Iraq. Some members of the 1994 Pentagon panel who served with Lederberg, 71, the former president of Rockefeller University in Manhattan, were unaware of his ties to ATCC. But in recent interviews they defended Lederberg's performance as chairman. "He is a real humanitarian," said retired Army Maj. Gen. Phil Russell of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Along with Russell, John Baldeschweiler of the California Institute of Technology was unaware of Lederberg's connection with ATCC. "But I do not view it as a conflict of interest," Baldeschweiler said. But critics of that Pentagon report such as James Tuite III, head of the Gulf War Veterans Foundation, said Lederberg should have recused himself from the Pentagon task force because of ATCC's involvement. "It's an ethical issue," Tuite said. According to Houston attorney Gary Pitts, Lederberg should have disclosed his tie to ATCC. "It doesn't pass the smell test," said Pitts, who noted that the task force pre-emptively ruled out biological weapons as a cause of gulf war syndrome. Pitts is one of the lawyers representing more than 2,000 gulf veterans participating in a class-action suit in state court in Texas seeking damages from ATCC and other firms that exported products that could have been used in Iraq's chemical and biological warfare program. ATCC officials say the firm did nothing improper or illegal in shipping the products to Iraq. Some veterans suspect that biological weapons caused their illnesses. Pitts said the Soviet-trained Iraqi army may have mixed biological and chemical weapons to create a lethal battlefield "cocktail" discussed in Russian military doctrine. Kay Sloan-Breen, an ATCC spokeswoman, said Lederberg received no money during his five-year stint as a director and trustee. She described ATCC as a distinguished, 70-year-old nonprofit repository of bacteria, fungi and other products used by the global scientific community as a standard of reference for research. Shipping ATCC's products to Iraq required approval by the U.S. Commerce Department during the Reagan administration, Sloan-Breen said. "These shipments were up to the Commerce Department," she said. At the time Robert Stevenson, then chief executive of ATCC, was a member of the Commerce Department's Technical Advisory Committee. But Sloan-Breen said Stevenson and the panel did not advise the department on specific exports. Instead, she said, the committee was seeking rules to restrict exports of potentially dangerous products. "But that committee's efforts went nowhere," she said. "We are a collection of scientists wearing white hats," Sloan-Breen said. ATCC's role as a supplier of anthrax to Iraq became public on Feb. 9, 1994, when Sen. Donald Riegle (D-Mich.) delivered a Senate speech outlining ATCC's shipments and criticizing Commerce Department export controls. "I think the U.S. government approving export of these materials to a government like that and to someone like Saddam Hussein violates every standard of logic and common sense," Riegle said. By then it had been widely reported that Iraq had inflicted heavy casualties on Iranian troops with chemical weapons since 1981. The senator noted that ATCC shipped "bacillus anthracis," twice - in May, 1986, and September, 1988. There were also two shipments of clostridium botulinum - a bacteria used to make botulinum toxin - on the same dates. The batches, frozen in tiny vials, were shipped to Baghdad's Ministry of Education. According to CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency and UN Special Committee reports, Iraq had expanded its biological warfare program in 1986 at facilities in Salman Pak. Workers in gas masks and polyethylene suits were spotted at the "strictly controlled" plant, according to a recently declassified CIA document. Eight days after the senator's floor speech, Lederberg wrote Riegle on stationery headed "Office of the Secretary of Defense." Lederberg noted that he had been assigned to examine all available information regarding gulf war syndrome. "I was intrigued by your recent suggestion that the medical problems being exhibited by some gulf war veterans might be related to biological warfare, specifically, to the list of biological materials sent to Iraq from the American Type Culture Collection," Lederberg wrote in the letter. He requested a briefing by a member of Riegle's staff. "I am sure that you understand the necessity for us to examine all the scientific facts that may bear on this matter," Lederberg wrote. Riegle sent Tuite, the director of a Senate Banking Committee investigation of gulf war illnesses, to testify before Lederberg's panel on Feb. 25, 1994. None of Tuite's testimony or details about ATCC's shipments were contained in Lederberg's report. Lederberg's task force devoted only a half-page to biological weapons in the 1994 Pentagon report. "Biological agents are easily recognized through their effects on a target population," the report said. "The effects of the two most likely Iraqi agents - botulinum toxin and anthrax - are very well understood. "There were no reported cases of botulinum toxicity or of infection by anthrax," the report said in concluding that Iraq did not deploy or use biological weapons in the gulf war. All evidence indicates that that conclusion is still valid. UN inspectors in Iraq after the war found facilities to grow a tiny vial of infection-causing pathogens into weapons, but they are still searching for actual biological weapons. One possible source of a low-level exposure to biological weapons may have been the destruction of Iraqi biological facilities by U.S. warplanes, according to military leaders. The main production facility, Salman Pak, was bombed from the outset of the war after an extensive debate between President George Bush and his military commanders. They feared fallout from the air strikes could pollute the battlefield. After the war, Army Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf recounted in his memoirs the decision to bomb. He quoted Bush as saying "that if we do not attack these plants, we cannot guarantee that these agents won't be used on U.S. troops. This would be unforgivable." Widespread criticism by members of Congress, veterans groups and the media of the Pentagon's investigation of gulf illnesses resulted in Clinton's creating an advisory committee on the issue almost a year ago. The White House committee was instrumental in forcing disclosures this year that at least 20,800 soldiers may have been exposed to sarin nerve gas after 14 tons of the poison were destroyed in March, 1991. The panel's final report is due next month and may recommend yet another investigation outside of the control of the Defense Department. |
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(Dav1936531) wrote in message ...
From: (Allen Thomson) Date: 9/21/04 10:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time Message-id: Haaretz: Israel to Get 5000 US Smart Bombs, Bunker Busters VOA News 21 Sep 2004, 12:40 UTC The powers that be have decided that Iran is NOT going to be enriching uranium for a nuclear bomb. Too many terrorist connections in Iran to trust the mullahs with a nuke. Maybe we can get the NPT modified to put specific limits on Uranium enrichment. -- FF |
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