Category Archives: WMD’s

Iran to chair U.N. disarmament conference

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Canada Free Press:

GENEVA,  – Iran will chair the United Nations’ most important disarmament negotiating forum during the panel’s May session, which opened today, sparking calls by an independent monitoring group for the U.S., the EU, and UN chief Ban Ki-moon to protest. Click here for UN website.

“This is like putting Jack the Ripper in charge of a women’s shelter,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, the Geneva based non-governmental organization, which announced it will hold protest events outside the UN hall featuring Iranian dissidents.

“Iran is an international outlaw state that illegally supplies rockets to Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas, aiding and abetting mass murder and terrorism. To make this rogue regime head of world arms control is simply an outrage. Abusers of international norms should not be the public face of the UN.”

U.N. officials say Iran’s post is merely the result of an automatic rotation.

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Investigator: UN has testimony Syrian rebels used Sarin gas

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YNET News:

Carla Del Ponte, member of UN’s independent commission of inquiry on Syria says there are strong suspicions rebel forces using nerve agent Sarin

Reuters

Published:05.06.13, 08:53 / Israel News

The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria has not yet seen evidence of government forces having used chemical weapons, which are banned under international law, said commission member Carla Del Ponte.

“Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of Sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated,” Del Ponte said in an interview with Swiss-Italian television.

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“This was use on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities,” she added, speaking in Italian.

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Animals found dead in Halab, Syria (Photo: Reuters)

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U.S. delivers strong warning to Israel

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H/T Richard

WND:

EL AVIV – According to informed Middle Eastern security officials, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel delivered a strongly worded message to Israel – do not attack Iran.

The officials told WND that Hagel informed the Israeli government the Obama administration will not accept any unilateral Israeli attack against Iran and that Israel must not strike Tehran without coordination with the U.S.

Hagel further told Israel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cannot decide alone whether Iran has crossed the nuclear threshold, or the so-called Red Line previously outlined by the Israeli leader.

In a speech at the United Nations in September, Netanyahu drew a red line on a drawing of a bomb, depicting the point where he said Iran will have enough medium-enriched uranium to move rapidly toward building a nuclear bomb.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu draws a red line on the image of a bomb at the U.N. Sept. 27, 2012.

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‘Iran already past nuclear red line,’ expert says

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H/T Richard

Times of Israel

Former IDF intel chief says Tehran will be able to break out to the bomb this summer; calls for drastic increase in sanctions

By April 23, 2013, 2:36 pm
Amos Yadlin, former director of military intelligence, Jan 2012. (photo credit: Gideon Markowicz/Flash90)
Amos Yadlin, former director of military intelligence, Jan 2012. (photo credit: Gideon Markowicz/Flash90)

Iran has essentially crossed the “red line” set by Israel for its nuclear activity, and the coming few months will be a crucial period, Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Yadlin, a former head of IDF Military Intelligence, said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a security conference in Tel Aviv, Yadlin said that “for all intents and purposes, Iran has crossed Israel’s red line… in the summer, Iran will be a month or two away from deciding about a bomb.”

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Israeli Intelligence Says Syria Using Chemical Weapons

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H/T Richard

Bloomberg:

Israel’s top military intelligence analyst said Syrian government forces have used chemical weapons against rebels, and warned his own country may soon become a target.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry questioned whether there’s hard evidence of chemical arms use, telling reporters that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been unable to confirm the reports in a phone call today.

“I talked to Prime Minister Netanyahu this morning from here,” Kerry said at a gathering of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Brussels. “I think it’s fair to say he was not in a position to confirm that, so it’s up to him and their process as to when and how they do that.”

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Afghan girls’ school feared hit by poison gas

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H/T Richard

Reuters:

By Folad Hamdard

TALUQAN, Afghanistan | Sun Apr 21, 2013 11:06pm IST

(Reuters) – As many as 74 schoolgirls in Afghanistan’s far north fell sick after smelling gas and were being examined for possible poisoning, local officials said on Sunday.

While instances of poisoning are sometimes later found to be false alarms, there have been numerous substantiated cases of mass poisonings of schoolgirls by elements of Afghanistan’s ultra-conservative society that are opposed to female education.

Local officials said the girls became ill after smelling gas at their school, Bibi Maryam, in Takhar province’s capital, Taluqan. The city is about 250 kilometres north of the country’s capital, Kabul.

The Takhar governor’s spokesman, Sulaiman Moradi, blamed “enemies of the government and the country” for the mass illness and said the aim was to stop girls from going to school.

The girls were taken to the provincial hospital and most were released after being treated, though several remained in a critical condition on Sunday evening, the head of the hospital, Dr Jamil Frotan, said.

“We have already sent samples of their blood to the Ministry of Public Health and it will soon become clear what the reason for their illness was,” Frotan said.

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N. Korea may be able to deliver nuke, Pentagon intel says

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H/T Ted L

CNN

(CNN) — The Pentagon’s intelligence arm has assessed with “moderate confidence” that North Korea has the ability to deliver a nuclear weapon with a ballistic missile, though the reliability is believed to be “low.”

Disclosed first by a congressman at a hearing on Thursday and then confirmed to CNN by the Defense Department, the assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency is the clearest acknowledgment yet by the United States about potential advances in North Korea’s nuclear program.

The surprise development comes amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

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North Korea ‘preparing for fourth nuclear test’

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The Telegraph:

 North Korea may be preparing a fourth nuclear test, it has been reported, one day after China’s president issued an indirect call for the country’s leaders to avoid sowing “chaos for selfish gains.”

The Punggye-ri nuclear test facility in North Korea
The Punggye-ri nuclear test facility in North Korea Photo: AFP/Getty Images

By Tom Phillips in Shanghai

3:56AM BST 08 Apr 2013

Signs of possible test preparations had been detected at Punggye-ri in North Korea, suggesting a fourth test could be imminent, an unidentified South Korean official told the JoongAng Daily newspaper.

“There are recent active movements of manpower and vehicles at the southern tunnel at Punggye-ri,” the “high-ranking” official said.

“We are monitoring because the situation is similar to behaviour seen prior to the third nuclear test.”

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U.S., partners secure 149 pounds of bomb-grade uranium from Czech Republic

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H/T Bear

Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and its allies have secured 68 kilograms (149.91 pounds) of highly enriched uranium from the Czech Republic as part of an effort to keep nuclear materials from falling into the hands of extremists, the White House said on Friday.

The uranium, enough material for two nuclear weapons, was transported to Russia where it will be blended down into low-enriched uranium for nuclear power reactors, according to a statement from Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the National Security Council.

The Czech Republic becomes the 10th country from which all highly enriched uranium has been removed in the last four years, Hayden said.

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North Korea seen moving mid-range missile to east coast: reports

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H/T Magic Martin

Baltimore Sun:

Reuters9:17 p.m. EDT, April 3, 2013

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea has moved what appears to be a mid-range Musudan missile to its east coast, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said on Thursday, quoting multiple government sources privy to intelligence from U.S. and South Korean authorities.

It was not clear if the missile was mounted with a warhead or whether the North was planning to fire it or was just putting it on display as a show of force, one South Korean government source was quoted as saying.

“South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities have obtained indications the North has moved an object that appears to be a mid-range missile to the east coast,” the source said.

The Musudan missile is believed to have a range of 3,000 km (1,875 miles) or more, which would put all of South Korea and Japan in range and possibly also the U.S. territory of Guam in the Pacific Ocean. North Korea is not believed to have tested these mid-range missiles, according to most independent experts

South Korea’s defense ministry declined to comment.

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“Nuke Up Fast”

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Gatestone Inst: 

by Douglas Murray
April 1, 2013 at 5:00 am

Disarmed despots are soon-to-be-dead despots.

If you like what is happening with North Korea at the moment, you will love what happens when Iran goes nuclear.

In case anyone is in any doubt, it is always worth remembering that North Korea is a basket-case of a country – probably in the most abysmal situation of any country on earth (not forgetting the Middle East). Its people intermittently starve by the millions, and all of them lack even the most basic of amenities. As Shin Dong-hyuk and a few other unbelievably fortunate escapees have attested, concentration camps (for once the term is not inaccurate) are maintained across the country. And even those fortunate enough not to be in them are cut off from the outside world by a regime which has the unique selling point of being the world’s only Stalinist monarchy. The authorities have no ability to provide the most basic services to the majority of its population; and after years of sanctions, can do almost nothing either internally or externally to alter the situation it finds itself in. Yet here it is, dictating the news agendas of the world.

And why? For two straightforward reasons. First, because it has a new leader of whom everyone is ignorant. No one – no other government, intelligence agency or foreign office – is entirely sure of his intentions. We do know that he spent some time at a school in Switzerland and has a fondness for basketball. But apart from that and a few other tiny details, there is almost nothing known about him. It was the same with his father and indeed his grandfather. We knew what type of sushi the current Kim’s father liked, and we knew he was a fan of Hollywood movies, but aside from such ephemera we had almost no idea of the type of man he was or the type of things he thought. Now his son – the third generation of the family to reign – is even more of a mystery. So there, undoubtedly, is the first problem.

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N. Korea approves nuclear strike on United States

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H/T Magic Martin

Google News:

By Jung Ha-Won (AFP) – 2 hours ago

SEOUL — North Korea dramatically escalated its warlike rhetoric on Thursday, warning that it had authorised plans for nuclear strikes on targets in the United States.

“The moment of explosion is approaching fast,” the North Korean military said, warning that war could break out “today or tomorrow”.

Pyongyang’s latest pronouncement came as Washington scrambled to reinforce its Pacific missile defences, preparing to send ground-based interceptors to Guam and dispatching two Aegis class destroyers to the region.

Tension was also high on the North’s heavily-fortified border with South Korea, after Kim Jong-Un’s isolated regime barred South Koreans from entering a Seoul-funded joint industrial park on its side of the frontier.

In a statement published by the state KCNA news agency, the Korean People’s Army general staff warned Washington that US threats would be “smashed by… cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means”.

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Iran said advancing ‘at murderous pace,’ could have bomb by July

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H/T Richard

Times of Israel

Disgruntled security official claims Obama ‘threw sand in Israel’s eyes’ during visit last week, which seemed to convince Jerusalem to hold back on military action

By March 29, 2013, 6:13 am
US President Barack Obama, right, talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a state dinner in his honor last week, at the President's Residence in Jerusalem. (photo credit: Avi Ohayon/Flash90)

US President Barack Obama, right, talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a state dinner in his honor last week, at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem. (photo credit: Avi Ohayon/Flash90)

Iran could have the capability to build a nuclear bomb by July, unnamed security sources said in a report published Friday.

The sources added that Israel’s leadership had been mollified by US President Barack Obama’s visit earlier this month, which saw Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemingly cotton to Washington’s later timeline on when Iran could have a nuclear bomb.

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