Monday, February 1, 2010
Could Israel attack Iran with nuclear weapons?
USA ready to declare Iran a nuclear power
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Netanyahu failed on Iran
US concedes nuclear Iran
U.S. expanding missile defenses in Persian Gulf
The United States has been expanded land- and sea-based missile defense systems in and around the Persian Gulf to counter what it sees as Iran's growing missile threat, U.S. officials said.
The deployments include expanded land-based Patriot defensive missile installations in Kuwait, Qatar, UAE and Bahrain, as well as Navy ships with missile defense systems within striking distance in and around the Mediterranean, officials said.
General David Petraeus, who as head of U.S. Central Command is responsible for military operations across the Middle East, said this month that the United States has stationed eight Patriot missile batteries in four Gulf countries, which he did not identify.
The buildup began under the Bush administration, but has expanded under President Barack Obama, who is pushing for a new round of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.
Officials said the expansion was meant to increase protection for U.S. forces and key allies in the Gulf.
The chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said last month the Pentagon must have military options ready to counter Iran should Obama call for them.
"The chairman has made it clear many times that he remains concerned about the ballistic missile threat posed by Iran, but it would be inappropriate to discuss any mitigation or defense measures we might have in place to deter/defeat that threat," a spokesman for Mullen said.
Obama announced a revised missile defense system last year that included the deployment of Aegis ships equipped with missile interceptors to help defend Europe and U.S. forces against Iranian rockets.
The Pentagon said it envisioned keeping three ships at any given time in and around the Mediterranean and the North Sea to protect areas of interest, with the possibility of sending additional ships to the region as needed.
The Obama administration said the decision to change plans was based mainly on technological developments and a shift in intelligence assessments to meet short- and medium-range missile threats posed by Iran.
Pentagon officials said deploying ships with SM-3 interceptors, made by Raytheon Co., would provide the flexibility to move U.S. missile defense capabilities as may be needed.
Ships with Aegis interceptor systems are capable of blowing up ballistic missiles above the atmosphere. The system can track over 100 targets, military officials said.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Libya buys S-300 air defence system
Libya is poised to pick up more than $2 billion worth of Russian arms, focusing mainly on a fleet of 200 fighter planes, Russia's Interfax news agency reports. The report comes hot on the heels of a key visit to Russia by Libya's defense minister, Gen. Abu-Bakr Yunis Jaber. The visit signals the latest show of renewed cooperation between Russia and the once pariah state of North Africa.
"Libya is ready to buy around 20 fighter planes, at least two divisions of S-300PMU2 air defense systems and several dozen T-90S tanks from Russia, and also to modernize more than 70 tanks and other weapons," Interfax reported citing unidentified military sources.
Officials on both sides have refused to openly concede the deal, which local media, including the reputable Vedomosti newspaper, put the contract at $2 billion.
The same newspaper reported that the deal would also include purchase of the sophisticated S-300 surface-to-air anti-missile systems, which Russia has also delivered to Iran.
Another part of the deal would focus on securing combat aircraft such as the SU-35, SU-30 and Yak-130. That purchase alone would absorb half of the funds Libya is set to allocate for its Russian arms design, the Interfax news agency said.
Relations between Russia and Libya have warmed in recent years following the latter's bid to shed its pariah status in 2003 when it renounced weapons of mass destruction and took responsibility for a 1988 airliner bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland that killed 270 people.
In 2008, also, during a visit to Tripoli by President Putin, Moscow agreed to cancel billions of dollars of Libyan Soviet-era debt in exchange for big contracts for Russian companies.
It was Putin's first visit to Tripoli since the 1980s.
It remained unclear whether the new, lucrative arms contract was signed during Jaber's Russia visit.
"We expect his visit will not just be of a political nature, but will also allow the signing of contracts on the delivery of arms and military hardware," Vyacheslav Dzirkaln, deputy head of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, told the RIA-Novosti state news agency ahead of Jaber's visit.
The official, who oversees arms exports, did not elaborate. There was, also, no official confirmation or statement by Russia's powerful state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport.
Local media suggested that details of the contract could be revealed during a news conference on Wednesday.
The arrival of the senior Libyan minister comes days after the Libyan Investment Authority snatched up the Hong Kong initial public offering of UC Rusal, the world's biggest aluminum producer.
In 2008 UC Rusal had signed a memorandum of understanding to create a joint venture to build an "energy and metals complex" in Libya.
"Libya is ready to buy around 20 fighter planes, at least two divisions of S-300PMU2 air defense systems and several dozen T-90S tanks from Russia, and also to modernize more than 70 tanks and other weapons," Interfax reported citing unidentified military sources.
Officials on both sides have refused to openly concede the deal, which local media, including the reputable Vedomosti newspaper, put the contract at $2 billion.
The same newspaper reported that the deal would also include purchase of the sophisticated S-300 surface-to-air anti-missile systems, which Russia has also delivered to Iran.
Another part of the deal would focus on securing combat aircraft such as the SU-35, SU-30 and Yak-130. That purchase alone would absorb half of the funds Libya is set to allocate for its Russian arms design, the Interfax news agency said.
Relations between Russia and Libya have warmed in recent years following the latter's bid to shed its pariah status in 2003 when it renounced weapons of mass destruction and took responsibility for a 1988 airliner bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland that killed 270 people.
In 2008, also, during a visit to Tripoli by President Putin, Moscow agreed to cancel billions of dollars of Libyan Soviet-era debt in exchange for big contracts for Russian companies.
It was Putin's first visit to Tripoli since the 1980s.
It remained unclear whether the new, lucrative arms contract was signed during Jaber's Russia visit.
"We expect his visit will not just be of a political nature, but will also allow the signing of contracts on the delivery of arms and military hardware," Vyacheslav Dzirkaln, deputy head of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, told the RIA-Novosti state news agency ahead of Jaber's visit.
The official, who oversees arms exports, did not elaborate. There was, also, no official confirmation or statement by Russia's powerful state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport.
Local media suggested that details of the contract could be revealed during a news conference on Wednesday.
The arrival of the senior Libyan minister comes days after the Libyan Investment Authority snatched up the Hong Kong initial public offering of UC Rusal, the world's biggest aluminum producer.
In 2008 UC Rusal had signed a memorandum of understanding to create a joint venture to build an "energy and metals complex" in Libya.
UK bank system no longer ranks among safest
The rating agency placed the UK's banking system in group 3 out of its 10 Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment (BICRA) categories on Dec 21 2009, alongside the banking system of the USA.
"The publication of this report is just providing more colour on what went into that decision making process," said Nigel Greenwood, analyst at Standard and Poor's.
While British banks are at the same rank as those from Portugal, Chile and Austria, the banking systems of Canada, France and Germany banks are ranked higher.
S&P said in its statement that the action was due to the Britain's weak economic environment, the reputational damage wrought upon the banking industry, and high dependence on state-support programs of a significant proportion of the industry.
The agency also said that the deleveraging process of households, government and companies would weigh on the economy and therefore the banks' financial performance.
British shares and sterling fell after the release of the report, with the FTSE 100 index <.FTSE> down 0.96 percent at 1624 GMT, and the pound trading almost a cent lower at $1.6143 from $1.6236 previously. Gilt futures also slipped. The report from S&P came just two days after the agency downgraded four Irish banks [ID:nLDE60P2E6] following a similar process. Irish banks are in BICRA group 4.
NATO-led forces kill Afghan cleric in Kabul
An Afghan civilian shot dead by NATO-led forces in the Afghan capital Kabul Thursday was a Muslim cleric, the alliance said in a statement.
Muhammad Yonus, who was imam of a mosque in central Kabul, was in a car when a convoy of troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) shot him.
"In an unfortunate incident this morning, an ISAF convoy fired on what appeared to be a threatening vehicle. Regrettably, an Afghan civilian was killed ... He was initially wounded in the incident, but later died of his wounds," an ISAF statement said.
The incident triggered a protest outside a large U.S. military base in Kabul. ISAF have declined to comment on the nationality of the convoy involved.
The shooting could increase tensions between Afghans and foreign troops at a time when Washington and its allies want to limit civilian casualties and protect the population as part of their strategy to weaken the Taliban insurgency.
But a number of incidents over the past year involving ISAF air strikes on Afghan villages, which have led to large numbers of civilians being killed, have undermined efforts to reduce such casualties.
Elsewhere, a member of U.S. forces was killed in a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan, ISAF said in another statement.
There are more than 110,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan fighting the insurgency, which claimed record numbers of civilian and foreign troop lives in 2009.
More than 50 countries are meeting in London to produce a plan to strengthen Afghan security forces and the Kabul government and start engaging the Taliban in order to pave the way for a gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces.
Muhammad Yonus, who was imam of a mosque in central Kabul, was in a car when a convoy of troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) shot him.
"In an unfortunate incident this morning, an ISAF convoy fired on what appeared to be a threatening vehicle. Regrettably, an Afghan civilian was killed ... He was initially wounded in the incident, but later died of his wounds," an ISAF statement said.
The incident triggered a protest outside a large U.S. military base in Kabul. ISAF have declined to comment on the nationality of the convoy involved.
The shooting could increase tensions between Afghans and foreign troops at a time when Washington and its allies want to limit civilian casualties and protect the population as part of their strategy to weaken the Taliban insurgency.
But a number of incidents over the past year involving ISAF air strikes on Afghan villages, which have led to large numbers of civilians being killed, have undermined efforts to reduce such casualties.
Elsewhere, a member of U.S. forces was killed in a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan, ISAF said in another statement.
There are more than 110,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan fighting the insurgency, which claimed record numbers of civilian and foreign troop lives in 2009.
More than 50 countries are meeting in London to produce a plan to strengthen Afghan security forces and the Kabul government and start engaging the Taliban in order to pave the way for a gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces.
German Minister: Weak Govt Finances Danger To Euro-Zone
The weak public finances of some euro-zone nations are a danger to the entire currency bloc, German Economics Minister Rainer Bruederle said Thursday without naming any country specifically.
He also told parliament that Germany must "remain the stability anchor in Europe" and criticized euro-zone nations with weak finances.
"A few European nations are exhibiting dangerous weaknesses," Bruederle said. "That could have a fatal impact on all countries in the euro zone."
Portugal's confirmation earlier this week that it's budget deficit was larger than expected has fueled fears that Greece isn't the only country in the euro zone with deep fiscal problems. Spain, Italy, and Ireland are also grappling with budget problems which have been compounded by weak growth and tax revenue.
While not naming any country specifically, Bruederle said there would be no bailout aid for problem nations. European governments should coordinate their recovery strategies, but they shouldn't rely on a "European economic government," he said.
Bruederle said U.S. President Barack Obama's proposals for bank regulation lend momentum to what is a critical process, but the best setting to design such measures internationally remains the Group of 20 industrialized and developing nations.
"The signal is important," Bruederle said of Obama's plan.
He also told parliament that Germany must "remain the stability anchor in Europe" and criticized euro-zone nations with weak finances.
"A few European nations are exhibiting dangerous weaknesses," Bruederle said. "That could have a fatal impact on all countries in the euro zone."
Portugal's confirmation earlier this week that it's budget deficit was larger than expected has fueled fears that Greece isn't the only country in the euro zone with deep fiscal problems. Spain, Italy, and Ireland are also grappling with budget problems which have been compounded by weak growth and tax revenue.
While not naming any country specifically, Bruederle said there would be no bailout aid for problem nations. European governments should coordinate their recovery strategies, but they shouldn't rely on a "European economic government," he said.
Bruederle said U.S. President Barack Obama's proposals for bank regulation lend momentum to what is a critical process, but the best setting to design such measures internationally remains the Group of 20 industrialized and developing nations.
"The signal is important," Bruederle said of Obama's plan.
Tehran warns off Gulf-based attack
GCC countries should not allow the use of US military bases in their territories against Iran, Speaker of Iranian Parliament Ali Larijani told reporters Wednesday at the Kuwaiti Parliament. “GCC nations must prevent the use of these military bases as a launching pad for an attack on Iran. We do not mean harm to any of these countries,” Larijani asserted in a press conference before his departure. Larijani said his country’s strategy is based on the respect of other countries’ sovereignties, and non-interference in their domestic affairs. Stating his two-day official visit to Kuwait was aimed at bolstering tries between the Kuwaiti and Iranian parliaments, Larijani revealed his visit led to the formation of the Kuwaiti-Iranian Friendship Committee to strengthen bilateral ties.
“Discussions during this visit focused on a number of topics, including financial, political, and commercial, as well as some sensitive issues related to regional and international affairs. There are many opportunities for commercial exchange between the two countries,” Larijani opined, adding that an agreement has been reached for the commercial and trade chambers of both countries to “broaden fields of cooperation”. Other issues tackled during Larijani’s visit include the transport of water and gas. He clarified “negotiations are still ongoing” regarding the disputed Al-Dorra gas field. On the demonstrations in Iran following the presidential elections, Larijani stressed “conflicts are quite natural for a country where popular political participation is taken seriously, but unusual in politically dead nations whose rulers have been in power for many decades. Media institutions have been publishing exaggerated reports on the recent developments in Iran. There is a big difference between what has been published and the actual events in the Islamic Republic.”
Without ruling out external influences on the internal affairs of Iran, Larijani stated, “Some countries have been trying to realize their goals and implement their agendas in Iran, which explains the assassination of physicist Ali Mohamadi”. He added the Iranian revolution has overcome much tougher challenges.
Accusing some “regional, western and Zionist affiliations” of trying to instigate conflicts between Iran and countries in the region, Larijani affirmed Iran recognizes the right of nations to implement their own policies.
Narrating the history of ties between Iran and the Arab world, Larijani said the Iranian revolution never harmed any of the Arab states. “Our support to Hamas and Hezbollah does not mean interference in the internal affairs of other countries. We are doing this to advocate Islamic armed resistance to face Zionist aggression,” he argued. He went on to say if it was not for the Iranian support to Hamas, Israel would have belittled the whole region. “We are proud of supporting Hamas and those who pulled out should blame themselves,” he added.
Larijani lamented several countries have accused Iran of supporting Shiites when it backed up Hezbollah in its war against Israel in Southern Lebanon in 2006, while these countries held discreet talks with the Zionist side. “When Iran started supporting Hamas in Gaza, these voices can no longer claim we only support Shiites, so they started instigating conflicts between Iran and Arab nations,” he said. He also accused the US and Israel of trying to control more of the region’s wealth and military bases.
On the Iranian nuclear program, Larijani explained this has been in existence even prior to the Iranian revolution, during which Iran got assistance from many countries, including France and Germany. However, this assistance was cut off after the revolution, so Iran was forced to realize its nuclear goals on its own.
“The US imposed sanctions on us to stop working on our nuclear program, but we still succeeded. This is a major victory and the nuclear plant will be a base for the Islamic world since the West aims to hinder the Muslim world from having a nuclear plant. General Secretary of the European Union Javier Solana had earlier contended that if they approve the Iranian nuclear program, the other countries will follow suit, but we are determined,” Larijani said.
Larijani also rejected claims that Iran poses a grave threat to the region, asserting “the Zionist existence is the real threat” as Iran does not aim to own nuclear weapons. He added US President Barrak Obama has not changed the foreign policies of America and he had also failed in handling the Palestinian issue, citing the embargo on Gaza and the construction of Israeli settlements.
“Discussions during this visit focused on a number of topics, including financial, political, and commercial, as well as some sensitive issues related to regional and international affairs. There are many opportunities for commercial exchange between the two countries,” Larijani opined, adding that an agreement has been reached for the commercial and trade chambers of both countries to “broaden fields of cooperation”. Other issues tackled during Larijani’s visit include the transport of water and gas. He clarified “negotiations are still ongoing” regarding the disputed Al-Dorra gas field. On the demonstrations in Iran following the presidential elections, Larijani stressed “conflicts are quite natural for a country where popular political participation is taken seriously, but unusual in politically dead nations whose rulers have been in power for many decades. Media institutions have been publishing exaggerated reports on the recent developments in Iran. There is a big difference between what has been published and the actual events in the Islamic Republic.”
Without ruling out external influences on the internal affairs of Iran, Larijani stated, “Some countries have been trying to realize their goals and implement their agendas in Iran, which explains the assassination of physicist Ali Mohamadi”. He added the Iranian revolution has overcome much tougher challenges.
Accusing some “regional, western and Zionist affiliations” of trying to instigate conflicts between Iran and countries in the region, Larijani affirmed Iran recognizes the right of nations to implement their own policies.
Narrating the history of ties between Iran and the Arab world, Larijani said the Iranian revolution never harmed any of the Arab states. “Our support to Hamas and Hezbollah does not mean interference in the internal affairs of other countries. We are doing this to advocate Islamic armed resistance to face Zionist aggression,” he argued. He went on to say if it was not for the Iranian support to Hamas, Israel would have belittled the whole region. “We are proud of supporting Hamas and those who pulled out should blame themselves,” he added.
Larijani lamented several countries have accused Iran of supporting Shiites when it backed up Hezbollah in its war against Israel in Southern Lebanon in 2006, while these countries held discreet talks with the Zionist side. “When Iran started supporting Hamas in Gaza, these voices can no longer claim we only support Shiites, so they started instigating conflicts between Iran and Arab nations,” he said. He also accused the US and Israel of trying to control more of the region’s wealth and military bases.
On the Iranian nuclear program, Larijani explained this has been in existence even prior to the Iranian revolution, during which Iran got assistance from many countries, including France and Germany. However, this assistance was cut off after the revolution, so Iran was forced to realize its nuclear goals on its own.
“The US imposed sanctions on us to stop working on our nuclear program, but we still succeeded. This is a major victory and the nuclear plant will be a base for the Islamic world since the West aims to hinder the Muslim world from having a nuclear plant. General Secretary of the European Union Javier Solana had earlier contended that if they approve the Iranian nuclear program, the other countries will follow suit, but we are determined,” Larijani said.
Larijani also rejected claims that Iran poses a grave threat to the region, asserting “the Zionist existence is the real threat” as Iran does not aim to own nuclear weapons. He added US President Barrak Obama has not changed the foreign policies of America and he had also failed in handling the Palestinian issue, citing the embargo on Gaza and the construction of Israeli settlements.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Obama State of the Union speech
The State of the Union Wednesday, January 27, 2009 Washington, DC
Madame Speaker, Vice President Biden, Members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:
Our Constitution declares that from time to time, the President shall give to Congress information about the state of our union. For two hundred and twenty years, our leaders have fulfilled this duty. They have done so during periods of prosperity and tranquility. And they have done so in the midst of war and depression; at moments of great strife and great struggle.
It's tempting to look back on these moments and assume that our progress was inevitable - that America was always destined to succeed. But when the Union was turned back at Bull Run and the Allies first landed at Omaha Beach, victory was very much in doubt. When the market crashed on Black Tuesday and civil rights marchers were beaten on Bloody Sunday, the future was anything but certain. These were times that tested the courage of our convictions, and the strength of our union. And despite all our divisions and disagreements; our hesitations and our fears; America prevailed because we chose to move forward as one nation, and one people.
Again, we are tested. And again, we must answer history's call.
One year ago, I took office amid two wars, an economy rocked by severe recession, a financial system on the verge of collapse, and a government deeply in debt. Experts from across the political spectrum warned that if we did not act, we might face a second depression. So we acted - immediately and aggressively. And one year later, the worst of the storm has passed.
But the devastation remains. One in ten Americans still cannot find work. Many businesses have shuttered. Home values have declined. Small towns and rural communities have been hit especially hard. For those who had already known poverty, life has become that much harder.
This recession has also compounded the burdens that America's families have been dealing with for decades - the burden of working harder and longer for less; of being unable to save enough to retire or help kids with college.
So I know the anxieties that are out there right now. They're not new. These struggles are the reason I ran for President. These struggles are what I've witnessed for years in places like Elkhart, Indiana and Galesburg, Illinois. I hear about them in the letters that I read each night. The toughest to read are those written by children - asking why they have to move from their home, or when their mom or dad will be able to go back to work.
For these Americans and so many others, change has not come fast enough. Some are frustrated; some are angry. They don't understand why it seems like bad behavior on Wall Street is rewarded but hard work on Main Street isn't; or why Washington has been unable or unwilling to solve any of our problems. They are tired of the partisanship and the shouting and the pettiness. They know we can't afford it. Not now.
So we face big and difficult challenges. And what the American people hope - what they deserve - is for all of us, Democrats and Republicans, to work through our differences; to overcome the numbing weight of our politics. For while the people who sent us here have different backgrounds, different stories and different beliefs, the anxieties they face are the same. The aspirations they hold are shared. A job that pays the bills. A chance to get ahead. Most of all, the ability to give their children a better life.
You know what else they share? They share a stubborn resilience in the face of adversity. After one of the most difficult years in our history, they remain busy building cars and teaching kids; starting businesses and going back to school. They're coaching little league and helping their neighbors. As one woman wrote me, "We are strained but hopeful, struggling but encouraged."
So we face big and difficult challenges. And what the American people hope - what they deserve - is for all of us, Democrats and Republicans, to work through our differences; to overcome the numbing weight of our politics. For while the people who sent us here have different backgrounds, different stories and different beliefs, the anxieties they face are the same. The aspirations they hold are shared. A job that pays the bills. A chance to get ahead. Most of all, the ability to give their children a better life.
Madame Speaker, Vice President Biden, Members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:
Our Constitution declares that from time to time, the President shall give to Congress information about the state of our union. For two hundred and twenty years, our leaders have fulfilled this duty. They have done so during periods of prosperity and tranquility. And they have done so in the midst of war and depression; at moments of great strife and great struggle.
It's tempting to look back on these moments and assume that our progress was inevitable - that America was always destined to succeed. But when the Union was turned back at Bull Run and the Allies first landed at Omaha Beach, victory was very much in doubt. When the market crashed on Black Tuesday and civil rights marchers were beaten on Bloody Sunday, the future was anything but certain. These were times that tested the courage of our convictions, and the strength of our union. And despite all our divisions and disagreements; our hesitations and our fears; America prevailed because we chose to move forward as one nation, and one people.
Again, we are tested. And again, we must answer history's call.
One year ago, I took office amid two wars, an economy rocked by severe recession, a financial system on the verge of collapse, and a government deeply in debt. Experts from across the political spectrum warned that if we did not act, we might face a second depression. So we acted - immediately and aggressively. And one year later, the worst of the storm has passed.
But the devastation remains. One in ten Americans still cannot find work. Many businesses have shuttered. Home values have declined. Small towns and rural communities have been hit especially hard. For those who had already known poverty, life has become that much harder.
This recession has also compounded the burdens that America's families have been dealing with for decades - the burden of working harder and longer for less; of being unable to save enough to retire or help kids with college.
So I know the anxieties that are out there right now. They're not new. These struggles are the reason I ran for President. These struggles are what I've witnessed for years in places like Elkhart, Indiana and Galesburg, Illinois. I hear about them in the letters that I read each night. The toughest to read are those written by children - asking why they have to move from their home, or when their mom or dad will be able to go back to work.
For these Americans and so many others, change has not come fast enough. Some are frustrated; some are angry. They don't understand why it seems like bad behavior on Wall Street is rewarded but hard work on Main Street isn't; or why Washington has been unable or unwilling to solve any of our problems. They are tired of the partisanship and the shouting and the pettiness. They know we can't afford it. Not now.
So we face big and difficult challenges. And what the American people hope - what they deserve - is for all of us, Democrats and Republicans, to work through our differences; to overcome the numbing weight of our politics. For while the people who sent us here have different backgrounds, different stories and different beliefs, the anxieties they face are the same. The aspirations they hold are shared. A job that pays the bills. A chance to get ahead. Most of all, the ability to give their children a better life.
You know what else they share? They share a stubborn resilience in the face of adversity. After one of the most difficult years in our history, they remain busy building cars and teaching kids; starting businesses and going back to school. They're coaching little league and helping their neighbors. As one woman wrote me, "We are strained but hopeful, struggling but encouraged."
So we face big and difficult challenges. And what the American people hope - what they deserve - is for all of us, Democrats and Republicans, to work through our differences; to overcome the numbing weight of our politics. For while the people who sent us here have different backgrounds, different stories and different beliefs, the anxieties they face are the same. The aspirations they hold are shared. A job that pays the bills. A chance to get ahead. Most of all, the ability to give their children a better life.
Russian stealth fighter to fly by end-Jan
Russia will test fly by the end of January a new "fifth generation" stealth fighter that aims to challenge the United States for technical superiority, an aviation industry source told Reuters on Wednesday.
World | Russia
This would be the first all-new military aircraft Russia has built since the Soviet Union collapsed two decades ago and is crucial to showing that Moscow still has advanced technologies of its own, defense analysts said.
However, it would probably take five to seven years before Russia's military finally got to fly the first of these fighters, they said.
Fifth-generation jets are invisible to radar, have advanced on-board flight and weapons control systems and can cruise at supersonic speeds. Russia currently builds military aircraft based on designs dating from the Soviet era.
Asked when the new fighter, built by the Sukhoi company, would make its maiden flight, the industry source said: "By the end of this month."
Sukhoi is Russia's largest exporter of military planes and accounts for a quarter of the country's annual arms sales. It has foreign orders worth billions of dollars, with India its biggest client.
A spokesman for Sukhoi said the plane would fly "in the near future."
Interfax news agency quoted a source in the Far Eastern city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where the first prototype plane has been built, as saying its first flight could take place "in two or three days, depending on the actual weather."
DELAYED JET IS MOSCOW'S PRIDE
The warplane is seen as Moscow's challenge to the U.S.-built F-22 Raptor stealth fighter, which first flew in 1997.
"The importance of this project is huge. This is the first and principally new plane built in Russia after the fall of communism," said Alexander Khramchikhin, chief analyst at the Moscow-based Institute of Military and Political Analysis.
"This is good for Russia's defense capability, because so far only the United States has built such a jet."
But Khramchikhin said he was not starry-eyed about the plane, recalling delayed deliveries to Russia's armed forces of much-publicized new diesel submarines and the formidable Iskander tactical missiles.
A series of failed tests of the newest, submarine-launched Bulava (Mace) intercontinental nuclear missile, touted by the Kremlin as a perfect weapon able to pierce any air defense, has only added to Moscow's embarrassment in recent years.
"In an optimistic scenario, Russian air forces meanwhile will probably rely strongly on supplies of the less advanced Sukhoi Su-35 jet fighter whose deliveries are due to start this year," the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) said in an analytical note sent to Reuters.
"It appears the new jet will take years to be fine-tuned, and its delivery to the armed forces would take between five and seven years at least." It said Russia was likely to produce the new jet jointly with its close partner India.
CAST said the mass output of the fifth-generation fighter and its future modifications would attract young engineers to the aviation sector and boost Moscow's military exports after the market for the current Su-30 had been saturated.
"The fifth-generation plane could easily occupy a niche of at least one third of the world market for this type of output," CAST said. "Europe is not building such jets, and China's would-be copycat planes will not match the high standards."
Potential exports of U.S. fifth-generation jets may be limited by Washington's security considerations, reducing sales to a narrow circle of close U.S. allies such as Israel, Saudi Arabia and Japan, CAST said.
World | Russia
This would be the first all-new military aircraft Russia has built since the Soviet Union collapsed two decades ago and is crucial to showing that Moscow still has advanced technologies of its own, defense analysts said.
However, it would probably take five to seven years before Russia's military finally got to fly the first of these fighters, they said.
Fifth-generation jets are invisible to radar, have advanced on-board flight and weapons control systems and can cruise at supersonic speeds. Russia currently builds military aircraft based on designs dating from the Soviet era.
Asked when the new fighter, built by the Sukhoi company, would make its maiden flight, the industry source said: "By the end of this month."
Sukhoi is Russia's largest exporter of military planes and accounts for a quarter of the country's annual arms sales. It has foreign orders worth billions of dollars, with India its biggest client.
A spokesman for Sukhoi said the plane would fly "in the near future."
Interfax news agency quoted a source in the Far Eastern city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where the first prototype plane has been built, as saying its first flight could take place "in two or three days, depending on the actual weather."
DELAYED JET IS MOSCOW'S PRIDE
The warplane is seen as Moscow's challenge to the U.S.-built F-22 Raptor stealth fighter, which first flew in 1997.
"The importance of this project is huge. This is the first and principally new plane built in Russia after the fall of communism," said Alexander Khramchikhin, chief analyst at the Moscow-based Institute of Military and Political Analysis.
"This is good for Russia's defense capability, because so far only the United States has built such a jet."
But Khramchikhin said he was not starry-eyed about the plane, recalling delayed deliveries to Russia's armed forces of much-publicized new diesel submarines and the formidable Iskander tactical missiles.
A series of failed tests of the newest, submarine-launched Bulava (Mace) intercontinental nuclear missile, touted by the Kremlin as a perfect weapon able to pierce any air defense, has only added to Moscow's embarrassment in recent years.
"In an optimistic scenario, Russian air forces meanwhile will probably rely strongly on supplies of the less advanced Sukhoi Su-35 jet fighter whose deliveries are due to start this year," the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) said in an analytical note sent to Reuters.
"It appears the new jet will take years to be fine-tuned, and its delivery to the armed forces would take between five and seven years at least." It said Russia was likely to produce the new jet jointly with its close partner India.
CAST said the mass output of the fifth-generation fighter and its future modifications would attract young engineers to the aviation sector and boost Moscow's military exports after the market for the current Su-30 had been saturated.
"The fifth-generation plane could easily occupy a niche of at least one third of the world market for this type of output," CAST said. "Europe is not building such jets, and China's would-be copycat planes will not match the high standards."
Potential exports of U.S. fifth-generation jets may be limited by Washington's security considerations, reducing sales to a narrow circle of close U.S. allies such as Israel, Saudi Arabia and Japan, CAST said.
Military coup in Turkey to start at 3 am
A number of PowerPoint slides published in the Taraf daily on Tuesday suggest that a planned coup d'état was to be launched at 3 a.m. on an undisclosed date in İstanbul, with tanks patrolling the larger neighborhoods of the city to destroy any “threat” that might attempt to block the military takeover.
The PowerPoint slides were retrieved from a 5,000-page plan allegedly drafted by active duty members of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in March 2003. The plan, titled the “Balyoz [Sledgehammer] Security Operation Plan,” was drafted only a couple of months after the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government came to power. The masterminds behind the plan were allegedly retired Gen. Çetin Doğan, who was then commander of the 1st Army, former Air Forces Commander Gen. İbrahim Fırtına and retired Gen. Ergin Saygun.
According to the slides, the major threat to the “secularist order of the Republic of Turkey” was posed by “internal targets.”
“As indicated by Great Leader [Mustafa Kemal] Atatürk, what is important is the internal front. Nothing can be achieved unless the internal front is strengthened. This main principle suggests that the elimination of the external threat could only be possible after the elimination of the internal threat.
What is problematic with the internal threat is the difficulty in the realistic determination of the ability and opportunities of the enemy. As we have witnessed in many countries, a small spark can bring together a massive crowd that displays unconscious reactions,” read one of the slides.
The document seems to refute a statement by the General Staff, which claimed that the Sledgehammer plan was part of a series of “scenarios” drafted by the armed forces against the possibility of an external threat. The plan was, however, mainly based on potential methods to “crush” internal threats.
The major internal threat, according to another slide, came from observant Muslims, who the military usually refers to as “reactionary.”
“To permanently get rid of the reactionary threat, necessary measures should occur as was done after the War of Independence and reactionary sympathizers should be assimilated,” stated the document. Another slide warned that reactionary activities had the potential to rapidly spread in İstanbul and southeastern Turkey unless “definite, quick and harsh” measures were taken.
Taraf reported last week that the armed forces had yet another plot to instigate chaos through bomb attacks on popular historic mosques in İstanbul to eventually lead to a military takeover. The plan would also have discharged hundreds of military officers after the coup.
The coup plotters planned to “make use of” the police force and soldiers to facilitate the staging of the coup. Police officers and soldiers would be used to establish special security teams, which would be deployed in various Turkish provinces for security reasons.
The PowerPoint slides also indicated that around 200,000 people residing in the duty zone of the 1st Army were deemed to “pose a threat” to the planned military takeover. Other documents published by Taraf last week suggested that the armed forces planned to detain and then arrest at least 200,000 individuals on charges of reactionary activities in İstanbul after the coup. Individuals who stood up against the coup were to be taken into custody and brought to large sports facilities for interrogation. Among the facilities mentioned were the Burhan Felek sports complex and Fenerbahçe Stadium. The suspects would be questioned by security forces there and then sent to prisons. If the prisons were unable to accommodate all the arrestees, military barracks would temporarily be turned into jails.
In order to prevent a public revolt against the coup, the armed forces planned to patrol several of İstanbul’s larger neighborhoods with tanks and armored vehicles. Among these neighborhoods were Gazi, Eyüp, Fatih and Sultanbeyli. Thousands of security forces would be deployed in İstanbul streets, as they were after the Sept. 12, 1980 military coup. The Hasdal Military Barracks would be turned into a command center to control the military takeover.
The armed forces also hoped to end transmission of many TV and radio stations, which they categorized as “extreme right,” “extreme left” and “missionary.” Among such stations were Radyo 7, Kanal 7, Yön FM and Mega FM.
The documents also suggested that the police was to be brought under the control of the military, that the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) would be restructured and that the new organization would be headed by an army general on active duty.
After the declaration of martial law, a curfew would be imposed and the prisoners at the Metris Prison in İstanbul would be transferred to other prisons in Thrace to open up more space for individuals to be arrested in İstanbul after the coup.
The PowerPoint slides were retrieved from a 5,000-page plan allegedly drafted by active duty members of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in March 2003. The plan, titled the “Balyoz [Sledgehammer] Security Operation Plan,” was drafted only a couple of months after the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government came to power. The masterminds behind the plan were allegedly retired Gen. Çetin Doğan, who was then commander of the 1st Army, former Air Forces Commander Gen. İbrahim Fırtına and retired Gen. Ergin Saygun.
According to the slides, the major threat to the “secularist order of the Republic of Turkey” was posed by “internal targets.”
“As indicated by Great Leader [Mustafa Kemal] Atatürk, what is important is the internal front. Nothing can be achieved unless the internal front is strengthened. This main principle suggests that the elimination of the external threat could only be possible after the elimination of the internal threat.
What is problematic with the internal threat is the difficulty in the realistic determination of the ability and opportunities of the enemy. As we have witnessed in many countries, a small spark can bring together a massive crowd that displays unconscious reactions,” read one of the slides.
The document seems to refute a statement by the General Staff, which claimed that the Sledgehammer plan was part of a series of “scenarios” drafted by the armed forces against the possibility of an external threat. The plan was, however, mainly based on potential methods to “crush” internal threats.
The major internal threat, according to another slide, came from observant Muslims, who the military usually refers to as “reactionary.”
“To permanently get rid of the reactionary threat, necessary measures should occur as was done after the War of Independence and reactionary sympathizers should be assimilated,” stated the document. Another slide warned that reactionary activities had the potential to rapidly spread in İstanbul and southeastern Turkey unless “definite, quick and harsh” measures were taken.
Taraf reported last week that the armed forces had yet another plot to instigate chaos through bomb attacks on popular historic mosques in İstanbul to eventually lead to a military takeover. The plan would also have discharged hundreds of military officers after the coup.
The coup plotters planned to “make use of” the police force and soldiers to facilitate the staging of the coup. Police officers and soldiers would be used to establish special security teams, which would be deployed in various Turkish provinces for security reasons.
The PowerPoint slides also indicated that around 200,000 people residing in the duty zone of the 1st Army were deemed to “pose a threat” to the planned military takeover. Other documents published by Taraf last week suggested that the armed forces planned to detain and then arrest at least 200,000 individuals on charges of reactionary activities in İstanbul after the coup. Individuals who stood up against the coup were to be taken into custody and brought to large sports facilities for interrogation. Among the facilities mentioned were the Burhan Felek sports complex and Fenerbahçe Stadium. The suspects would be questioned by security forces there and then sent to prisons. If the prisons were unable to accommodate all the arrestees, military barracks would temporarily be turned into jails.
In order to prevent a public revolt against the coup, the armed forces planned to patrol several of İstanbul’s larger neighborhoods with tanks and armored vehicles. Among these neighborhoods were Gazi, Eyüp, Fatih and Sultanbeyli. Thousands of security forces would be deployed in İstanbul streets, as they were after the Sept. 12, 1980 military coup. The Hasdal Military Barracks would be turned into a command center to control the military takeover.
The armed forces also hoped to end transmission of many TV and radio stations, which they categorized as “extreme right,” “extreme left” and “missionary.” Among such stations were Radyo 7, Kanal 7, Yön FM and Mega FM.
The documents also suggested that the police was to be brought under the control of the military, that the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) would be restructured and that the new organization would be headed by an army general on active duty.
After the declaration of martial law, a curfew would be imposed and the prisoners at the Metris Prison in İstanbul would be transferred to other prisons in Thrace to open up more space for individuals to be arrested in İstanbul after the coup.
U.S. unprepared to defend against nuke, bio attacks
As terrifying as the Christmas Day plot was, as close as the underwear bomber got to bringing down that jet, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and the damage he might have wrought are nothing compared with what Al Qaeda has in store.
Two reports make clear that America's mortal enemy remains viciously focused on nuclear or biological attacks and that Washington is falling far short in its duty to protect the public.
First comes Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, former chief of the CIA's Weapons of Mass Destruction Department, now at Harvard. He dissects Al Qaeda's "decade-long effort to steal or construct an improvised nuclear device," fueled by "their perception of the benefits of producing the image of a mushroom cloud rising over a U.S. city, just as the 9/11 attacks have altered the course of history."
And, contrary to those who use the foiled Christmas plot as evidence of the terrorists' diminished capabilities ("The Decline of Al Qaeda," read one headline), he concludes that Al Qaeda's quiet these past eight years is not good news. Not at all.
Instead, Mowatt-Larssen paints a picture of an organization that is likely lying back on purpose.
He writes: "Events have shown that the Al Qaeda leadership does not choose weapons based on how easy they are to acquire and use, be they conventional or unconventional weapons. They choose them based on the best means of destroying the specific targets that they have in mind."
We haven't even gotten to the truly disturbing part yet. This is it: While Al Qaeda is determinedly plotting, the U.S. government's counterterrorism gears are barely spinning.
That is the conclusion of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, headed up by former Sens. Bob Graham and Jim Talent.
Two reports make clear that America's mortal enemy remains viciously focused on nuclear or biological attacks and that Washington is falling far short in its duty to protect the public.
First comes Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, former chief of the CIA's Weapons of Mass Destruction Department, now at Harvard. He dissects Al Qaeda's "decade-long effort to steal or construct an improvised nuclear device," fueled by "their perception of the benefits of producing the image of a mushroom cloud rising over a U.S. city, just as the 9/11 attacks have altered the course of history."
And, contrary to those who use the foiled Christmas plot as evidence of the terrorists' diminished capabilities ("The Decline of Al Qaeda," read one headline), he concludes that Al Qaeda's quiet these past eight years is not good news. Not at all.
Instead, Mowatt-Larssen paints a picture of an organization that is likely lying back on purpose.
He writes: "Events have shown that the Al Qaeda leadership does not choose weapons based on how easy they are to acquire and use, be they conventional or unconventional weapons. They choose them based on the best means of destroying the specific targets that they have in mind."
We haven't even gotten to the truly disturbing part yet. This is it: While Al Qaeda is determinedly plotting, the U.S. government's counterterrorism gears are barely spinning.
That is the conclusion of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, headed up by former Sens. Bob Graham and Jim Talent.
Obama approved secret operations in Yemen
President Barack Obama approved secret joint U.S. military and intelligence operations with Yemeni troops that began six weeks ago and killed six regional al Qaeda leaders, The Washington Post reported.
Obama approved a December 24 strike against a compound where a U.S. citizen, Anwar al-Aulaqi, was believed to be meeting with regional al Qaeda leaders, the newspaper said in its Wednesday editions.
He was not the target and was not killed but since has been added to a short list of U.S. citizens to be killed or captured by the U.S. military's clandestine Joint Special Operations Command, military officials told the Post.
The American advisers do not take part in raids in Yemen but help plan missions, develop tactics and provide weapons, the paper said.
The United States is also sharing highly sensitive intelligence with Yemeni forces, including electronic and video surveillance, three-dimensional terrain maps and analysis of the al Qaeda network, the Post said.
"We are very pleased with the direction this is going," a senior administration official was quoted as saying about the cooperation with Yemen.
A Yemeni official was quoted as saying the two countries maintained a "steadfast cooperation in combating AQAP (al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula), but there are clear limits to the U.S. involvement on the ground. Information sharing has been a key in carrying out recent successful counterterrorism operations."
Obama approved a December 24 strike against a compound where a U.S. citizen, Anwar al-Aulaqi, was believed to be meeting with regional al Qaeda leaders, the newspaper said in its Wednesday editions.
He was not the target and was not killed but since has been added to a short list of U.S. citizens to be killed or captured by the U.S. military's clandestine Joint Special Operations Command, military officials told the Post.
The American advisers do not take part in raids in Yemen but help plan missions, develop tactics and provide weapons, the paper said.
The United States is also sharing highly sensitive intelligence with Yemeni forces, including electronic and video surveillance, three-dimensional terrain maps and analysis of the al Qaeda network, the Post said.
"We are very pleased with the direction this is going," a senior administration official was quoted as saying about the cooperation with Yemen.
A Yemeni official was quoted as saying the two countries maintained a "steadfast cooperation in combating AQAP (al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula), but there are clear limits to the U.S. involvement on the ground. Information sharing has been a key in carrying out recent successful counterterrorism operations."
Israel will not probe Gaza war
Israel will not establish a commission of inquiry into allegations of war crimes committed during last winter's Gaza war, a minister said on Tuesday.
The decision would mean a rejection of a demand in a United Nations report on the three-week Gaza offensive. That report was mandated by the UN Human Rights Council and authored by South African judge Richard Goldstone.
The decision would mean a rejection of a demand in a United Nations report on the three-week Gaza offensive. That report was mandated by the UN Human Rights Council and authored by South African judge Richard Goldstone.
National debt will make the United States a second-rate power
A half-dozen or so groups have tried to snap Congress into tackling the growing national debt. The latest entrant, unveiled Monday, is a bipartisan effort led by an all-star cast of political elders.
Inaction, they warned, will make the United States a second-rate power within a generation or two, as mounting debt payments overtake any potential government revenue.
But obstacles remain, mirroring those in Congress itself.
There's no agreement on the right combination of tax hikes and spending cuts. Some think that raising taxes should not be considered at all. And there's no way to force actual lawmakers or the White House to follow their advice.
This much is certain, though.
"Sacrifice is going to be built into this," said former Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., former chairman of the Senate budget committee.
Domenici will co-chair the task force created by the Bipartisan Policy Center, one of a half-dozen or more high-profile efforts aimed at pressuring Congress to confront the nation's record-setting $12 trillion debt.
There were few words of reassurance that these solutions would be simple or politically palatable.
"Raising taxes causes real pain. Cutting spending, especially entitlement benefits that people have counted on, will cause real pain," said co-chairwoman Alice Rivlin, the Clinton-era budget director.
But such steps – in some combination that so far has eluded policymakers – will be required, because the explosion of debt is unsustainable, she said.
"It's fantasy. We couldn't borrow that much money. No one would lend it to us. And the interest rates that we would have to pay would sink our economy," she said.
The Senate will vote today on whether to create a bipartisan task force empowered to devise ways to tackle the national debt. President Barack Obama has embraced the idea. He has also considered creating a panel of his own, though such an entity would not be able to force lawmakers into voting on a package of tax hikes and spending cuts.
But many conservatives view the president's call for a commission as a smokescreen for a tax-raising agenda.
On Monday, Republican Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Dallas, a leading fiscal conservative, derided Obama as a "spendaholic" in search of political cover.
"It seems to me that the president is really saying, 'Quick, stop me before I spend again,' " he told Fox News. "What we really need is a spending commission, not a deficit commission. The deficit is the symptom. It's spending that's the disease."
Domenici said that for his commission and for Congress itself, everything, including tax increases, must be on the table. But even some of his own commission members don't buy that.
"Conservatives like me would never agree that tax increases should be on the table," said Frank Keating, a former GOP governor of Oklahoma.
Keating said he would welcome an overhaul of the tax code, perhaps shifting from income taxes to service and sales taxes. He tried without success to enact such a change when he was governor from 1995 to 2003.
Federal debt levels are attracting alarm from several quarters and could be a hot election year issue.
The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Peter G. Peterson Foundation joined forces in December to publish a report called "Red Ink Rising" urging the government to begin reducing the debt by 2012.
Earlier this month, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences completed a two-year study called "Choosing the Nation's Fiscal Future" that suggested four ways to start reducing the debt.
These and other studies have all warned that economic growth will not be enough to fund government programs and start reducing the debt.
The Domenici-Rivlin team, mindful of the politics, vows to release its report this year, but not until after the November elections.
"We're beyond the level of frustration," said former Democratic Senate leader Tom Daschle. He warned that debt payments will soon crowd out spending on education, health care and various entitlements.
"We're nearing the level of fear."
Inaction, they warned, will make the United States a second-rate power within a generation or two, as mounting debt payments overtake any potential government revenue.
But obstacles remain, mirroring those in Congress itself.
There's no agreement on the right combination of tax hikes and spending cuts. Some think that raising taxes should not be considered at all. And there's no way to force actual lawmakers or the White House to follow their advice.
This much is certain, though.
"Sacrifice is going to be built into this," said former Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., former chairman of the Senate budget committee.
Domenici will co-chair the task force created by the Bipartisan Policy Center, one of a half-dozen or more high-profile efforts aimed at pressuring Congress to confront the nation's record-setting $12 trillion debt.
There were few words of reassurance that these solutions would be simple or politically palatable.
"Raising taxes causes real pain. Cutting spending, especially entitlement benefits that people have counted on, will cause real pain," said co-chairwoman Alice Rivlin, the Clinton-era budget director.
But such steps – in some combination that so far has eluded policymakers – will be required, because the explosion of debt is unsustainable, she said.
"It's fantasy. We couldn't borrow that much money. No one would lend it to us. And the interest rates that we would have to pay would sink our economy," she said.
The Senate will vote today on whether to create a bipartisan task force empowered to devise ways to tackle the national debt. President Barack Obama has embraced the idea. He has also considered creating a panel of his own, though such an entity would not be able to force lawmakers into voting on a package of tax hikes and spending cuts.
But many conservatives view the president's call for a commission as a smokescreen for a tax-raising agenda.
On Monday, Republican Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Dallas, a leading fiscal conservative, derided Obama as a "spendaholic" in search of political cover.
"It seems to me that the president is really saying, 'Quick, stop me before I spend again,' " he told Fox News. "What we really need is a spending commission, not a deficit commission. The deficit is the symptom. It's spending that's the disease."
Domenici said that for his commission and for Congress itself, everything, including tax increases, must be on the table. But even some of his own commission members don't buy that.
"Conservatives like me would never agree that tax increases should be on the table," said Frank Keating, a former GOP governor of Oklahoma.
Keating said he would welcome an overhaul of the tax code, perhaps shifting from income taxes to service and sales taxes. He tried without success to enact such a change when he was governor from 1995 to 2003.
Federal debt levels are attracting alarm from several quarters and could be a hot election year issue.
The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Peter G. Peterson Foundation joined forces in December to publish a report called "Red Ink Rising" urging the government to begin reducing the debt by 2012.
Earlier this month, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences completed a two-year study called "Choosing the Nation's Fiscal Future" that suggested four ways to start reducing the debt.
These and other studies have all warned that economic growth will not be enough to fund government programs and start reducing the debt.
The Domenici-Rivlin team, mindful of the politics, vows to release its report this year, but not until after the November elections.
"We're beyond the level of frustration," said former Democratic Senate leader Tom Daschle. He warned that debt payments will soon crowd out spending on education, health care and various entitlements.
"We're nearing the level of fear."
Traders Aggressively Buying Credit Default Swap Protection Against Sovereign Debt Defaults
Credit default swap (CDS) protection buying against sovereign debt default has spiked to five times the level of similar protection bought for corporate bonds, as the potential for a wave of sovereign debt defaults intensifies.
CDS notional amounts for 54 governments around the world jumped 14.2% since October 9th 2009 according to Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.
Outstanding CDS amounts for all other kinds of debt only rose 2.6% over the same period.
Demand for default protection has been particularly strong for Europe's fiscally disastrous nations:
Bloomberg: European countries led the jump, with the amount of protection on Portugal rising 23 percent, Spain 16 percent and Greece 5 percent.
...
The cost to protect against a default by Greece has more than doubled to 325 basis points since Sept. 30 as the government struggles to reduce a budget deficit that’s 12.7 percent of gross domestic product, CMA DataVision prices show.
CDS notional amounts for 54 governments around the world jumped 14.2% since October 9th 2009 according to Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.
Outstanding CDS amounts for all other kinds of debt only rose 2.6% over the same period.
Demand for default protection has been particularly strong for Europe's fiscally disastrous nations:
Bloomberg: European countries led the jump, with the amount of protection on Portugal rising 23 percent, Spain 16 percent and Greece 5 percent.
...
The cost to protect against a default by Greece has more than doubled to 325 basis points since Sept. 30 as the government struggles to reduce a budget deficit that’s 12.7 percent of gross domestic product, CMA DataVision prices show.
Obama could be killed like Kennedy
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi Tuesday called Barack Obama a "flicker of hope in the middle of the imperialist darkness," but said he feared the president could be assassinated.
"I fear that they could liquidate this young man or force him to submit to their imperialist policies," Gaddafi told a university gathering of his supporters in Sirte, without specifying who might put Obama under pressure.
"Obama is a flicker of hope in the middle of the imperialist darkness," the Libyan leader said, adding: "There is a fear that they would liquidate him as they liquidated Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln."
Gaddafi, who is the African Union chairman, had offered to work with Obama to sustain security, stability and prosperity in Africa and elsewhere.
Gaddafi praised Obama for breaking with what he said was the previous American foreign policy that dictated to the rest of the world what to do to serve U.S. interests.
"I fear that they could liquidate this young man or force him to submit to their imperialist policies," Gaddafi told a university gathering of his supporters in Sirte, without specifying who might put Obama under pressure.
"Obama is a flicker of hope in the middle of the imperialist darkness," the Libyan leader said, adding: "There is a fear that they would liquidate him as they liquidated Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln."
Gaddafi, who is the African Union chairman, had offered to work with Obama to sustain security, stability and prosperity in Africa and elsewhere.
Gaddafi praised Obama for breaking with what he said was the previous American foreign policy that dictated to the rest of the world what to do to serve U.S. interests.
September 11 Pentagon video
This video doesn't show an airliner crashing against the Pentagon.Why is there only one camera at the Pentagon and with low quality?
Mubarak Tells World to Treat Iran like Israel
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Tuesday night that any international decision on Iran's nuclear program must be applied equally to Israel. "All international efforts to deal with Iran's program must include a similar treatment of Israel's nuclear program," Mubarak told an Egyptian publication on the occasion of Egyptian "Police Day." Mubarak added that Iran has the right to develop nuclear capabilities but that the onus is on the Islamic regime to show that its nuclear program is designed for peaceful purposes only.
Iran to inaugurate missile projects in February
Iran will inaugurate several missile and arms projects next month to coincide with the 31st anniversary of its 1979 Islamic revolution, a Revolutionary Guards commander said on Tuesday.
Guards commander Massoud Jazayeri did not say whether Iran would test-fire new missiles and gave no other details of the planned events. A missile launch would be likely to add to tension with Western powers worried by Iran's nuclear ambitions.
"Iran's Defence Ministry will inaugurate several missiles and arms projects during the Fajr (Dawn) 10-day period, marking the victory of the 1979 Islamic revolution," he told a news conference.
New satellite projects would at the same time be unveiled by Iran's aerospace organisation, he said.
Iran marks the revolution's anniversary from February 1-11, starting on the day in 1979 when the Islamic Republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Tehran from exile in France.
In mid-December, Iran said it successfully test-fired a long-range, upgraded Sejil 2 missile. At the time, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the launch was of serious concern to the international community and underlined the case for tougher sanctions against Iran, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.
The West fears Iran's nuclear programme is aimed at making bombs. Tehran denies the charge.
Neither Israel nor the United States have ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the dispute. Iran has vowed to retaliate against any attack.
The United States and its European allies are planning to impose further sanctions on Iran after its failure to meet an effective U.S. deadline of December 31 to accept a U.N.-brokered proposal to send its uranium abroad for processing.
Guards commander Massoud Jazayeri did not say whether Iran would test-fire new missiles and gave no other details of the planned events. A missile launch would be likely to add to tension with Western powers worried by Iran's nuclear ambitions.
"Iran's Defence Ministry will inaugurate several missiles and arms projects during the Fajr (Dawn) 10-day period, marking the victory of the 1979 Islamic revolution," he told a news conference.
New satellite projects would at the same time be unveiled by Iran's aerospace organisation, he said.
Iran marks the revolution's anniversary from February 1-11, starting on the day in 1979 when the Islamic Republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Tehran from exile in France.
In mid-December, Iran said it successfully test-fired a long-range, upgraded Sejil 2 missile. At the time, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the launch was of serious concern to the international community and underlined the case for tougher sanctions against Iran, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.
The West fears Iran's nuclear programme is aimed at making bombs. Tehran denies the charge.
Neither Israel nor the United States have ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the dispute. Iran has vowed to retaliate against any attack.
The United States and its European allies are planning to impose further sanctions on Iran after its failure to meet an effective U.S. deadline of December 31 to accept a U.N.-brokered proposal to send its uranium abroad for processing.
Iran leader predicts destruction of Israel
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is confident Islamic nations will one day watch the destruction of arch-foe Israel, his website Wednesday quoted him as saying.
Khamenei made the remark during a meeting with Mauritanian President Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz in Tehran, the website said.
The all-powerful Iranian leader also said that Israel's continued "pressure to erase Palestine from the world of Islamic nations" will fail.
"Surely, the day will come when the nations of the region will witness the destruction of the Zionist regime... when the destruction happens will depend on how the Islamic nations approach the issue," Khamenei told Aziz, who arrived in Tehran on Monday.
"The Zionist regime, by continuing to use pressure, blockades and committing genocide, wants to erase Palestine... but it will not succeed."
Praising Mauritania for cutting its ties with Israel, Khamenei said the "Zionist regime is a great danger to the world of Islam as it was thinking of expanding its influence and grip on the region every day."
Iranian officials, including Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have earned the wrath of Israel and Western powers for their repeated anti-Israel comments.
Relations between the two nations have deteriorated particularly under Ahmadinejad who has often said that Israel is "doomed to be wiped off the map" and has termed the Holocaust a "myth".
Khamenei made the remark during a meeting with Mauritanian President Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz in Tehran, the website said.
The all-powerful Iranian leader also said that Israel's continued "pressure to erase Palestine from the world of Islamic nations" will fail.
"Surely, the day will come when the nations of the region will witness the destruction of the Zionist regime... when the destruction happens will depend on how the Islamic nations approach the issue," Khamenei told Aziz, who arrived in Tehran on Monday.
"The Zionist regime, by continuing to use pressure, blockades and committing genocide, wants to erase Palestine... but it will not succeed."
Praising Mauritania for cutting its ties with Israel, Khamenei said the "Zionist regime is a great danger to the world of Islam as it was thinking of expanding its influence and grip on the region every day."
Iranian officials, including Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have earned the wrath of Israel and Western powers for their repeated anti-Israel comments.
Relations between the two nations have deteriorated particularly under Ahmadinejad who has often said that Israel is "doomed to be wiped off the map" and has termed the Holocaust a "myth".
Roubini: Greece Is Bankrupt
Are we concentrating too much on sovereign debt concerns? Not according to Noriel Roubini, who can still live up to his pessimistic reputation.
“Greece is bankrupt,” Roubini told CNBC.com at WEF. “Look, they have to ask China to help them out.”
Greece is trying to get trying to entice China to buy 25 billion euros ($35 billion) in bonds, according to published reports Wednesday.
If the situation becomes dire enough the European Union will be forced to help bail Greece out because it’s such a threat to the monetary union, he said.
“Greece is bankrupt,” Roubini told CNBC.com at WEF. “Look, they have to ask China to help them out.”
Greece is trying to get trying to entice China to buy 25 billion euros ($35 billion) in bonds, according to published reports Wednesday.
If the situation becomes dire enough the European Union will be forced to help bail Greece out because it’s such a threat to the monetary union, he said.
Roubini Pessimistic on Euro Area, Calls Spain a Risk
New York University Professor Nouriel Roubini said he’s never been more pessimistic about the future of European monetary union, saying Spain poses a looming threat to the euro region holding together.
“Down the line, not this year or two years from now, we could have a breakup of the monetary union,” Roubini said in a Bloomberg Radio interview from the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. “It’s a rising risk.”
Roubini’s concern contrasts with the view of European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet who said it’s “absurd” to imagine that the 16-nation euro area could splinter. Speculation of a breakup has mounted in financial markets as Greece struggles to cut the continent’s biggest budget deficit and countries from Spain to Ireland face rising debt burdens.
“The euro zone could drift essentially with a bifurcation, with a strong center and a weaker periphery and eventually some countries might exit the monetary union,” said Roubini, who predicted the recent financial crisis a year before it began. “This is the very first test” of the single currency bloc.
Economies including Spain and Greece are threatened by fiscal imbalances and declining competitiveness, Roubini said. Membership in the euro means they can no longer devalue the currency to export their way out of recession, he said.
Commission Deadline
The Greek budget deficit ran more than four times the European Union limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product last year and Greece is one of 13 nations facing deadlines from the European Commission to cut its shortfall. The country’s debt is set to top 120 percent of GDP this year, the highest in the euro region and twice the limit for adopting the single currency.
Trichet on Jan. 14 dismissed as an “absurd hypothesis” the argument that Greece could be forced to exit the euro area. The country should remain in the union where its problems “will be unequivocally easier to solve,” central bank governor George Provopoulos said in the Financial Times on Jan. 22.
Billionaire investor George Soros said in Davos today that while Greece’s fiscal crisis is highlighting weaknesses in the euro region’s political structure, there is a “strong force” holding the bloc together.
Spanish Risk
Roubini said for all the focus on Greece, Spain may eventually pose a bigger threat to the euro zone because it’s the region’s fourth-largest economy and has higher unemployment and weaker banks. Spain’s jobless rate is more than 19 percent, almost twice the EU average.
“If Greece goes under that’s a problem for the euro zone,” he said. “If Spain goes under it’s a disaster.”
The risk premium investors demand to buy 10-year Spanish government bonds over comparable German debt gained 7 basis points today to 90, the highest since April of last year. Trading in credit defaults swaps on Spanish debt has risen 16 percent since Oct. 9, according to Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. data.
Roubini described rising sovereign risk as a “new phenomenon” for advanced economies that will complicate their recoveries from the worst global recession since World War II.
So-called bond vigilantes, or investors who punish governments by dumping their debt, “have been asleep at the wheel,” outside of Europe, Roubini said. The risk premium investors demand to buy 10-year Greek debt over comparable German bonds rose to an 11-year high of 352 basis points.
Greece Leads Surge in Sovereign Default Swaps on Deficit Woes
Greece Leads Surge in Sovereign Default Swaps on Deficit Woes
Credit-default swaps on Greek sovereign debt surged to a record on concern the government won’t be able to plug the largest deficit in the European Union, a day after it priced 8 billion euros ($11 billion) of bonds.
Contracts on Greece soared 48 basis points to 373, according to CMA DataVision. Swaps on Spain rose 17 basis points to 127, Portugal climbed 18.5 to 149 and Italy was up 10 basis points at 114, CMA prices show.
The European Commission said today that Greece hasn’t done enough to rein in its deficit that reached 12.7 percent of gross domestic product in 2009. Greece denied a Financial Times report it’s wooing China to buy as much as 25 billion euros of bonds.
“Who’s going to lend money to them next time and at what price?” said Gary Jenkins, head of credit strategy at Evolution Securities Ltd. “What’s happening is very negative and could lead to a vicious circle.”
The Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe Index of credit- default swaps on 15 governments from Germany to Greece rose 9.25 basis points to a record 87.25, according to London-based CMA. That means it costs $87,250 a year to insure against losses on $10 million of debt for five years.
Greece’s new five-year bonds fell in the first day of trading. The spread on the notes, due August 2015, widened 35 basis points to 385 over the benchmark mid-swap rate, according to Markit Ltd. iBoxx prices on Bloomberg.
“Technically, the term is that it’s getting smacked,” said London-based Jenkins.
Greece sold almost 75 percent of the notes to international investors, including from the U.K. and France, the head of the nation’s debt agency said.
Debt Allocation
U.K. investors bought more than 29 percent of the 8 billion euros of notes sold via banks, according to Spyros Papanicolaou, director general of the Public Debt Management Agency in Athens. French investors purchased almost 8 percent and domestic buyers acquired more than 26 percent. The government said it received 25 billion euros of orders.
Greece, which had its credit rankings cut by Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings last month, needs to raise 53 billion euros this year. The government gave plans to the European Commission on Jan. 15. designed to reduce the shortfall to within the EU’s 3 percent limit.
The yield on the Greek 10-year bond rose 44 basis points to 6.68 percent as of 4:35 p.m. in Athens, with the difference in yield, or spread, against German bunds increasing by 46 basis points to 350 basis points, the widest since December 1998.
Credit-default swaps pay the buyer face value in exchange for the underlying securities or the cash equivalent should a company or country fail to adhere to its debt agreements. An increase signals deterioration in perceptions of credit quality.
A basis point on a credit-default swap contract protecting $10 million of debt from default for five years is equivalent to $1,000 a year.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Bin Laden is alive because he was a CIA agent until 1989
![Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 [GHOST WARS]](http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B001TI4WA6&tag=newtechnolo0e-20)
Russia delays Iran's nuclear plant on purpose - Putin plays dangerous double game with West
Putin plays dangerous double game with West
The Bushehr nuclear power plant will be launched late September after a series of delays since 2001.Like with the S300 SAM missiles Putin plays a dangerous double game that could end all Russia's weapons exports.He obtained from USA the end of the anti-ballistic system in Poland but less countries will buy his weapons.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Chavez:US weapon test caused Haiti earthquake
Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez has once again accused the United States of playing God. But this time it's Haiti's disastrous earthquake that he thinks the U.S. was behind. Spanish newspaper ABC quotes Chavez as saying that the U.S. navy launched a weapon capable of inducing a powerful earthquake off the shore of Haiti. He adds that this time it was only a drill and the final target is ... destroying and taking over Iran.
What is HAARP?
This article was prepared to provide a summary of the contents of a book written in 1995 which describes an entirely new class of weapons. The weapons and their effects are described in the following pages. The United States Navy and Air Force have joined with the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, to build a prototype for a ground based "Star Wars" weapon system located in the remote bush country of Alaska.
The individuals who are demanding answers about HAARP are scattered around the planet. As well as bush dwellers in Alaska, they include: a physician in Finland; a scientist in Holland; an anti-nuclear protester in Australia; independent physicists in the United States; a grandmother in Canada, and countless others.
Unlike the protests of the 1960s the objections to HAARP have been registered using the tools of the 1990s. From the Internet, fax machines, syndicated talk radio and a number of alternative print mediums the word is getting out and people are waking up to this new intrusion by an over zealous United States government.
The research team put together to gather the materials which eventually found their way into the book never held a formal meeting, never formed a formal organization. Each person acted like a node on a planetary info-spirit-net with one goal held by all -- to keep this controversial new science in the public eye. The result of the team's effort was a book which describes the science and the political ramifications of this technology.
That book, Angels Don't Play this HAARP: Advances in Tesla Technology, has 230 pages. This article will only give the highlights. Despite the amount of research (350 footnoted sources), at its heart it is a story about ordinary people who took on an extraordinary challenge in bringing their research forward.
HAARP Atmosphere
HAARP Boils the Upper Atmosphere
HAARP will zap the upper atmosphere with a focused and steerable electromagnetic beam. It is an advanced model of an "ionospheric heater." (The ionosphere is the electrically-charged sphere surrounding Earth's upper atmosphere. It ranges between 40 to 60 miles above the surface of the Earth.)
Put simply, the apparatus for HAARP is a reversal of a radio telescope; antenna send out signals instead of receiving. HAARP is the test run for a super-powerful radiowave-beaming technology that lifts areas of the ionosphere by focusing a beam and heating those areas. Electromagnetic waves then bounce back onto earth and penetrate everything -- living and dead.
HAARP publicity gives the impression that the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program is mainly an academic project with the goal of changing the ionosphere to improve communications for our own good. However, other U.S. military documents put it more clearly -- HAARP aims to learn how to "exploit the ionosphere for Department of Defense purposes." Communicating with submarines is only one of those purposes.
Press releases and other information from the military on HAARP continually downplay what it could do. Publicity documents insist that the HAARP project is no different than other ionospheric heaters operating safely throughout the world in places such as Arecibo, Puerto Rico, Tromso, Norway, and the former Soviet Union. However, a 1990 government document indicates that the radio-frequency (RF) power zap will drive the ionosphere to unnatural activities.
" ... at the highest HF powers available in the West, the instabilities commonly studied are approaching their maximum RF energy dissipative capability, beyond which the plasma processes will 'runaway' until the next limiting factor is reached."
If the military, in cooperation with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, can show that this new ground-based "Star Wars" technology is sound, they both win. The military has a relatively-inexpensive defense shield and the University can brag about the most dramatic geophysical manipulation since atmospheric explosions of nuclear bombs. After successful testing, they would have the military megaprojects of the future and huge markets for Alaska's North Slope natural gas.
Looking at the other patents which built on the work of a Texas' physicist named Bernard Eastlund, it becomes clearer how the military intends to use the HAARP transmitter. It also makes governmental denials less believable. The military knows how it intends to use this technology, and has made it clear in their documents. The military has deliberately misled the public, through sophisticated word games, deceit and outright disinformation.
The military says the HAARP system could:
*
Give the military a tool to replace the electromagnetic pulse effect of atmospheric thermonuclear devices (still considered a viable option by the military through at least 1986)
*
Replace the huge Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) submarine communication system operating in Michigan and Wisconsin with a new and more compact technology
*
Be used to replace the over-the-horizon radar system that was once planned for the current location of HAARP, with a more flexible and accurate system
*
Provide a way to wipe out communications over an extremely large area, while keeping the military's own communications systems working
*
Provide a wide area earth-penetrating tomography which, if combined with the computing abilities of EMASS and Cray computers, would make it possible to verify many parts of nuclear nonproliferation and peace agreements
*
Be a tool for geophysical probing to find oil, gas and mineral deposits over a large area
*
Be used to detect incoming low-level planes and cruise missiles, making other technologies obsolete
The above abilities seem like a good idea to all who believe in sound national defense, and to those concerned about cost-cutting. However, the possible uses which the HAARP records do not explain, and which can only be found in Air Force, Army, Navy and other federal agency records, are alarming. Moreover, effects from the reckless use of these power levels in our natural shield -- the ionosphere -- could be cataclysmic according to some scientists.
Two Alaskans put it bluntly. A founder of the NO HAARP movement, Clare Zickuhr, says "The military is going to give the ionosphere a big kick and see what happens."
The military failed to tell the public that they do not know what exactly will happen, but a Penn State science article brags about that uncertainty. Macho science? The HAARP project uses the largest energy levels yet played with by what Begich and Manning call "the big boys with their new toys." HAARP is an experiment in the sky, and experiments are done to find out something not already known. Independent scientists told Begich and Manning that a HAARP-type "skybuster" with its unforeseen effects could be an act of global vandalism
HAARP will zap the upper atmosphere with a focused and steerable electromagnetic beam. It is an advanced model of an "ionospheric heater." (The ionosphere is the electrically-charged sphere surrounding Earth's upper atmosphere. It ranges between 40 to 60 miles above the surface of the Earth.)
Put simply, the apparatus for HAARP is a reversal of a radio telescope; antenna send out signals instead of receiving. HAARP is the test run for a super-powerful radiowave-beaming technology that lifts areas of the ionosphere by focusing a beam and heating those areas. Electromagnetic waves then bounce back onto earth and penetrate everything -- living and dead.
HAARP publicity gives the impression that the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program is mainly an academic project with the goal of changing the ionosphere to improve communications for our own good. However, other U.S. military documents put it more clearly -- HAARP aims to learn how to "exploit the ionosphere for Department of Defense purposes." Communicating with submarines is only one of those purposes.
Press releases and other information from the military on HAARP continually downplay what it could do. Publicity documents insist that the HAARP project is no different than other ionospheric heaters operating safely throughout the world in places such as Arecibo, Puerto Rico, Tromso, Norway, and the former Soviet Union. However, a 1990 government document indicates that the radio-frequency (RF) power zap will drive the ionosphere to unnatural activities.
" ... at the highest HF powers available in the West, the instabilities commonly studied are approaching their maximum RF energy dissipative capability, beyond which the plasma processes will 'runaway' until the next limiting factor is reached."
If the military, in cooperation with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, can show that this new ground-based "Star Wars" technology is sound, they both win. The military has a relatively-inexpensive defense shield and the University can brag about the most dramatic geophysical manipulation since atmospheric explosions of nuclear bombs. After successful testing, they would have the military megaprojects of the future and huge markets for Alaska's North Slope natural gas.
Looking at the other patents which built on the work of a Texas' physicist named Bernard Eastlund, it becomes clearer how the military intends to use the HAARP transmitter. It also makes governmental denials less believable. The military knows how it intends to use this technology, and has made it clear in their documents. The military has deliberately misled the public, through sophisticated word games, deceit and outright disinformation.
The military says the HAARP system could:
*
Give the military a tool to replace the electromagnetic pulse effect of atmospheric thermonuclear devices (still considered a viable option by the military through at least 1986)
*
Replace the huge Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) submarine communication system operating in Michigan and Wisconsin with a new and more compact technology
*
Be used to replace the over-the-horizon radar system that was once planned for the current location of HAARP, with a more flexible and accurate system
*
Provide a way to wipe out communications over an extremely large area, while keeping the military's own communications systems working
*
Provide a wide area earth-penetrating tomography which, if combined with the computing abilities of EMASS and Cray computers, would make it possible to verify many parts of nuclear nonproliferation and peace agreements
*
Be a tool for geophysical probing to find oil, gas and mineral deposits over a large area
*
Be used to detect incoming low-level planes and cruise missiles, making other technologies obsolete
The above abilities seem like a good idea to all who believe in sound national defense, and to those concerned about cost-cutting. However, the possible uses which the HAARP records do not explain, and which can only be found in Air Force, Army, Navy and other federal agency records, are alarming. Moreover, effects from the reckless use of these power levels in our natural shield -- the ionosphere -- could be cataclysmic according to some scientists.
Two Alaskans put it bluntly. A founder of the NO HAARP movement, Clare Zickuhr, says "The military is going to give the ionosphere a big kick and see what happens."
The military failed to tell the public that they do not know what exactly will happen, but a Penn State science article brags about that uncertainty. Macho science? The HAARP project uses the largest energy levels yet played with by what Begich and Manning call "the big boys with their new toys." HAARP is an experiment in the sky, and experiments are done to find out something not already known. Independent scientists told Begich and Manning that a HAARP-type "skybuster" with its unforeseen effects could be an act of global vandalism
HAARP History -3
His forecasts proved accurate. Today, a number of new tools for the "elite" are emerging, and the temptation to use them increases steadily. The policies to permit the tools to be used are already in place. How could the United States be changed, bit by bit, into the predicted highly-controlled technosociety? Among the "steppingstones" Brzezinski expected were persisting social crises and use of the mass media to gain the public's confidence.
In another document prepared by the government, the U.S. Air Force claims: "The potential applications of artificial electromagnetic fields are wide-ranging and can be used in many military or quasi-military situations... Some of these potential uses include dealing with terrorist groups, crowd control, controlling breaches of security at military installations, and antipersonnel techniques in tactical warfare. In all of these cases the EM (electromagnetic) systems would be used to produce mild to severe physiological disruption or perceptual distortion or disorientation. In addition, the ability of individuals to function could be degraded to such a point that they would be combat ineffective. Another advantage of electromagnetic systems is that they can provide coverage over large areas with a single system. They are silent and countermeasures to them may be difficult to develop... One last area where electromagnetic radiation may prove of some value is in enhancing abilities of individuals for anomalous phenomena."
Do these comments point to uses already somewhat developed? The author of the government report refers to an earlier Air Force document about the uses of radio frequency radiation in combat situations. (Here Begich and Manning note that HAARP is the most versatile and the largest radio-frequency-radiation transmitter in the world.)
The United States Congressional record deals with the use of HAARP for penetrating the earth with signals bounced off of the ionosphere. These signals are used to look inside the planet to a depth of many kilometers in order to locate underground munitions, minerals and tunnels. The U.S. Senate set aside $15 million dollars in 1996 to develop this ability alone -- earth-penetrating-tomography. The problem is that the frequency needed for earth-penetrating radiation is within the frequency range most cited for disruption of human mental functions. It may also have profound effects on migration patterns of fish and wild animals which rely on an undisturbed energy field to find their routes.
As if electromagnetic pulses in the sky and mental disruption were not enough, T. Eastlund bragged that the super-powerful ionospheric heater could control weather.
Begich and Manning brought to light government documents indicating that the military has weather-control technology. When HAARP is eventually built to its full power level, it could create weather effects over entire hemispheres. If one government experiments with the world's weather patterns, what is done in one place will impact everyone else on the planet. Angels Don't Play This HAARP explains a principle behind some of Nikola Tesla's inventions -- resonance -- which affect planetary systems.
In another document prepared by the government, the U.S. Air Force claims: "The potential applications of artificial electromagnetic fields are wide-ranging and can be used in many military or quasi-military situations... Some of these potential uses include dealing with terrorist groups, crowd control, controlling breaches of security at military installations, and antipersonnel techniques in tactical warfare. In all of these cases the EM (electromagnetic) systems would be used to produce mild to severe physiological disruption or perceptual distortion or disorientation. In addition, the ability of individuals to function could be degraded to such a point that they would be combat ineffective. Another advantage of electromagnetic systems is that they can provide coverage over large areas with a single system. They are silent and countermeasures to them may be difficult to develop... One last area where electromagnetic radiation may prove of some value is in enhancing abilities of individuals for anomalous phenomena."
Do these comments point to uses already somewhat developed? The author of the government report refers to an earlier Air Force document about the uses of radio frequency radiation in combat situations. (Here Begich and Manning note that HAARP is the most versatile and the largest radio-frequency-radiation transmitter in the world.)
The United States Congressional record deals with the use of HAARP for penetrating the earth with signals bounced off of the ionosphere. These signals are used to look inside the planet to a depth of many kilometers in order to locate underground munitions, minerals and tunnels. The U.S. Senate set aside $15 million dollars in 1996 to develop this ability alone -- earth-penetrating-tomography. The problem is that the frequency needed for earth-penetrating radiation is within the frequency range most cited for disruption of human mental functions. It may also have profound effects on migration patterns of fish and wild animals which rely on an undisturbed energy field to find their routes.
As if electromagnetic pulses in the sky and mental disruption were not enough, T. Eastlund bragged that the super-powerful ionospheric heater could control weather.
Begich and Manning brought to light government documents indicating that the military has weather-control technology. When HAARP is eventually built to its full power level, it could create weather effects over entire hemispheres. If one government experiments with the world's weather patterns, what is done in one place will impact everyone else on the planet. Angels Don't Play This HAARP explains a principle behind some of Nikola Tesla's inventions -- resonance -- which affect planetary systems.
HAARP History -2
Related research by Begich and Manning uncovered bizarre schemes. For example, Air Force documents revealed that a system had been developed for manipulating and disturbing human mental processes through pulsed radio-frequency radiation (the stuff of HAARP) over large geographical areas. The most telling material about this technology came from writings of Zbigniew Brzezinski (former National Security Advisory to U.S. President Carter) and J.F. MacDonald (science advisor to U.S. President Johnson and a professor of Geophysics at UCLA), as they wrote about use of power-beaming transmitters for geophysical and environmental warfare. The documents showed how these effects might be caused, and the negative effects on human heath and thinking.
The mental-disruption possibilities for HAARP are the most disturbing. More than 40 pages of the book, with dozens of footnotes, chronicle the work of Harvard professors, military planners and scientists as they plan and test this use of the electromagnetic technology. For example, one of the papers describing this use was from the International Red Cross in Geneva. It even gave the frequency ranges where these effects could occur -- the same ranges which HAARP is capable of broadcasting.
The following statement was made more than twenty-five years ago in a book by Brzezinski which he wrote while a professor at Columbia University:
"Political strategists are tempted to exploit research on the brain and human behavior. Geophysicist Gordon J.F. MacDonald, a specialist in problems of warfare, says accurately-timed, artificially-excited electronic strokes could lead to a pattern of oscillations that produce relatively high power levels over certain regions of the earth ... in this way one could develop a system that would seriously impair the brain performance of very large populations in selected regions over an extended period"
" ... no matter how deeply disturbing the thought of using the environment to manipulate behavior for national advantages, to some, the technology permitting such use will very probably develop within the next few decades."
In 1966, MacDonald was a member of the President's Science Advisory Committee and later a member of the President's Council on Environmental Quality. He published papers on the use of environmental control technologies for military purposes. The most profound comment he made as a geophysicist was, "the key to geophysical warfare is the identification of environmental instabilities to which the addition of a small amount of energy would release vastly greater amounts of energy." While yesterday's geophysicists predicted today's advances, are HAARP program managers delivering on the vision?
The geophysicists recognized that adding energy to the environmental soup could have large effects. However, humankind has already added substantial amounts of electromagnetic energy into our environment without understanding what might constitute critical mass. The book by Begich and Manning raises questions:
* Have these additions been without effect, or is there a cumulative amount beyond which irreparable damage can be done?
* Is HAARP another step in a journey from which we cannot turn back?
* Are we about to embark on another energy experiment which unleashes another set of demons from Pandora's box?
As early as 1970, Zbigniew Brzezinski predicted a "more controlled and directed society" would gradually appear, linked to technology. This society would be dominated by an elite group which impresses voters by allegedly superior scientific know-how. Angels Don't Play This HAARP further quotes Brzezinski:
"Unhindered by the restraints of traditional liberal values, this elite would not hesitate to achieve its political ends by using the latest modern techniques for influencing public behavior and keeping society under close surveillance and control. Technical and scientific momentum would then feed on the situation it exploits," Brzezinski predicted.
The mental-disruption possibilities for HAARP are the most disturbing. More than 40 pages of the book, with dozens of footnotes, chronicle the work of Harvard professors, military planners and scientists as they plan and test this use of the electromagnetic technology. For example, one of the papers describing this use was from the International Red Cross in Geneva. It even gave the frequency ranges where these effects could occur -- the same ranges which HAARP is capable of broadcasting.
The following statement was made more than twenty-five years ago in a book by Brzezinski which he wrote while a professor at Columbia University:
"Political strategists are tempted to exploit research on the brain and human behavior. Geophysicist Gordon J.F. MacDonald, a specialist in problems of warfare, says accurately-timed, artificially-excited electronic strokes could lead to a pattern of oscillations that produce relatively high power levels over certain regions of the earth ... in this way one could develop a system that would seriously impair the brain performance of very large populations in selected regions over an extended period"
" ... no matter how deeply disturbing the thought of using the environment to manipulate behavior for national advantages, to some, the technology permitting such use will very probably develop within the next few decades."
In 1966, MacDonald was a member of the President's Science Advisory Committee and later a member of the President's Council on Environmental Quality. He published papers on the use of environmental control technologies for military purposes. The most profound comment he made as a geophysicist was, "the key to geophysical warfare is the identification of environmental instabilities to which the addition of a small amount of energy would release vastly greater amounts of energy." While yesterday's geophysicists predicted today's advances, are HAARP program managers delivering on the vision?
The geophysicists recognized that adding energy to the environmental soup could have large effects. However, humankind has already added substantial amounts of electromagnetic energy into our environment without understanding what might constitute critical mass. The book by Begich and Manning raises questions:
* Have these additions been without effect, or is there a cumulative amount beyond which irreparable damage can be done?
* Is HAARP another step in a journey from which we cannot turn back?
* Are we about to embark on another energy experiment which unleashes another set of demons from Pandora's box?
As early as 1970, Zbigniew Brzezinski predicted a "more controlled and directed society" would gradually appear, linked to technology. This society would be dominated by an elite group which impresses voters by allegedly superior scientific know-how. Angels Don't Play This HAARP further quotes Brzezinski:
"Unhindered by the restraints of traditional liberal values, this elite would not hesitate to achieve its political ends by using the latest modern techniques for influencing public behavior and keeping society under close surveillance and control. Technical and scientific momentum would then feed on the situation it exploits," Brzezinski predicted.
HAARP History
HAARP History
The patents described below were the package of ideas which were originally controlled by ARCO Power Technologies Incorporated (APTI), a subsidiary of Atlantic Richfield Company, one of the biggest oil companies in the world. APTI was the contractor that built the HAARP facility. ARCO sold this subsidiary, the patents and the second phase construction contract to E-Systems in June 1994.
E-Systems is one of the biggest intelligence contractors in the world -- doing work for the CIA, defense intelligence organizations and others. $1.8 billion of their annual sales are to these organizations, with $800 million for black projects -- projects so secret that even the United States Congress isn't told how the money is being spent.
E-Systems was bought out by Raytheon, which is one of the largest defense contractors in the world. In 1994 Raytheon was listed as number forty-two on the Fortune 500 list of companies. Raytheon has thousands of patents, some of which will be valuable in the HAARP project. The twelve patents below are the backbone of the HAARP project, and are now buried among the thousands of others held in the name of Raytheon. Bernard J. Eastlund's U.S. Patent # 4,686,605, "Method and Apparatus for Altering a Region in the Earth's Atmosphere, Ionosphere; and/or Magnetosphere," was sealed for a year under a government Secrecy Order.
The Eastlund ionospheric heater was different; the radio frequency (RF) radiation was concentrated and focused to a point in the ionosphere. This difference throws an unprecedented amount of energy into the ionosphere. The Eastlund device would allow a concentration of one watt per cubic centimeter, compared to others only able to deliver about one millionth of one watt.
This huge difference could lift and change the ionosphere in the ways necessary to create futuristic effects described in the patent. According to the patent, the work of Nikola Tesla in the early 1900's formed the basis of the research.
What would this technology be worth to ARCO, the owner of the patents? They could make enormous profits by beaming electrical power from a powerhouse in the gas fields to the consumer without wires.
For a time, HAARP researchers could not prove that this was one of the intended uses for HAARP. In April, 1995, however, Begich found other patents, connected with a "key personnel" list for APTI. Some of these new APTI patents were indeed a wireless system for sending electrical power. Eastlund's patent said the technology can confuse or completely disrupt airplanes' and missiles' sophisticated guidance systems. Further, this ability to spray large areas of Earth with electromagnetic waves of varying frequencies, and to control changes in those waves, makes it possible to knock out communications on land or sea as well as in the air.
The patent said:
"Thus, this invention provides the ability to put unprecedented amounts of power in the Earth's atmosphere at strategic locations and to maintain the power injection level particularly if random pulsing is employed, in a manner far more precise and better controlled than heretofore accomplished by the prior art, particularly by detonation of nuclear devices of various yields at various altitudes... "
"...it is possible not only to interfere with third party communications but to take advantage of one or more such beams to carry out a communications network even though the rest of the world's communications are disrupted. Put another way, what is used to disrupt another's communications can be employed by one knowledgeable of this invention as a communication network at the same time."
"... large regions of the atmosphere could be lifted to an unexpectedly high altitude so that missiles encounter unexpected and unplanned drag forces with resultant destruction."
"Weather modification is possible by, for example, altering upper atmosphere wind patterns by constructing one or more plumes of atmospheric particles which will act as a lens or focusing device.
... molecular modifications of the atmosphere can take place so that positive environmental effects can be achieved. Besides actually changing the molecular composition of an atmospheric region, a particular molecule or molecules can be chosen for increased presence. For example, ozone, nitrogen, etc., concentrations in the atmosphere could be artificially increased."
Begich found eleven other APTI Patents. They told how to make "Nuclear-sized Explosions without Radiation," Power-beaming systems, over-the-horizon radar, detection systems for missiles carrying nuclear warheads, electromagnetic pulses previously produced by thermonuclear weapons and other Star-Wars tricks. This cluster of patents underlay the HAARP weapon system.
The patents described below were the package of ideas which were originally controlled by ARCO Power Technologies Incorporated (APTI), a subsidiary of Atlantic Richfield Company, one of the biggest oil companies in the world. APTI was the contractor that built the HAARP facility. ARCO sold this subsidiary, the patents and the second phase construction contract to E-Systems in June 1994.
E-Systems is one of the biggest intelligence contractors in the world -- doing work for the CIA, defense intelligence organizations and others. $1.8 billion of their annual sales are to these organizations, with $800 million for black projects -- projects so secret that even the United States Congress isn't told how the money is being spent.
E-Systems was bought out by Raytheon, which is one of the largest defense contractors in the world. In 1994 Raytheon was listed as number forty-two on the Fortune 500 list of companies. Raytheon has thousands of patents, some of which will be valuable in the HAARP project. The twelve patents below are the backbone of the HAARP project, and are now buried among the thousands of others held in the name of Raytheon. Bernard J. Eastlund's U.S. Patent # 4,686,605, "Method and Apparatus for Altering a Region in the Earth's Atmosphere, Ionosphere; and/or Magnetosphere," was sealed for a year under a government Secrecy Order.
The Eastlund ionospheric heater was different; the radio frequency (RF) radiation was concentrated and focused to a point in the ionosphere. This difference throws an unprecedented amount of energy into the ionosphere. The Eastlund device would allow a concentration of one watt per cubic centimeter, compared to others only able to deliver about one millionth of one watt.
This huge difference could lift and change the ionosphere in the ways necessary to create futuristic effects described in the patent. According to the patent, the work of Nikola Tesla in the early 1900's formed the basis of the research.
What would this technology be worth to ARCO, the owner of the patents? They could make enormous profits by beaming electrical power from a powerhouse in the gas fields to the consumer without wires.
For a time, HAARP researchers could not prove that this was one of the intended uses for HAARP. In April, 1995, however, Begich found other patents, connected with a "key personnel" list for APTI. Some of these new APTI patents were indeed a wireless system for sending electrical power. Eastlund's patent said the technology can confuse or completely disrupt airplanes' and missiles' sophisticated guidance systems. Further, this ability to spray large areas of Earth with electromagnetic waves of varying frequencies, and to control changes in those waves, makes it possible to knock out communications on land or sea as well as in the air.
The patent said:
"Thus, this invention provides the ability to put unprecedented amounts of power in the Earth's atmosphere at strategic locations and to maintain the power injection level particularly if random pulsing is employed, in a manner far more precise and better controlled than heretofore accomplished by the prior art, particularly by detonation of nuclear devices of various yields at various altitudes... "
"...it is possible not only to interfere with third party communications but to take advantage of one or more such beams to carry out a communications network even though the rest of the world's communications are disrupted. Put another way, what is used to disrupt another's communications can be employed by one knowledgeable of this invention as a communication network at the same time."
"... large regions of the atmosphere could be lifted to an unexpectedly high altitude so that missiles encounter unexpected and unplanned drag forces with resultant destruction."
"Weather modification is possible by, for example, altering upper atmosphere wind patterns by constructing one or more plumes of atmospheric particles which will act as a lens or focusing device.
... molecular modifications of the atmosphere can take place so that positive environmental effects can be achieved. Besides actually changing the molecular composition of an atmospheric region, a particular molecule or molecules can be chosen for increased presence. For example, ozone, nitrogen, etc., concentrations in the atmosphere could be artificially increased."
Begich found eleven other APTI Patents. They told how to make "Nuclear-sized Explosions without Radiation," Power-beaming systems, over-the-horizon radar, detection systems for missiles carrying nuclear warheads, electromagnetic pulses previously produced by thermonuclear weapons and other Star-Wars tricks. This cluster of patents underlay the HAARP weapon system.
HAARP Electric Particles
Bubble of Electric Particles
Angels Don't Play This HAARP includes interviews with independent scientists such as Elizabeth Rauscher. She has a Ph.D., a long and impressive career in high-energy physics, and has been published in prestigious science journals and books. Rauscher commented on HAARP. "You're pumping tremendous energy into an extremely delicate molecular configuration that comprises these multi-layers we call the ionosphere."
"The ionosphere is prone to catalytic reactions," she explained, "if a small part is changed, a major change in the ionosphere can happen."
In describing the ionosphere as a delicately balanced system, Dr. Rauscher shared her mental picture of it -- a soap-bubble-like sphere surrounding Earth's atmosphere, with movements swirling over the surface of the bubble. If a big enough hole is punched through it, she predicts, it could pop.
Angels Don't Play This HAARP includes interviews with independent scientists such as Elizabeth Rauscher. She has a Ph.D., a long and impressive career in high-energy physics, and has been published in prestigious science journals and books. Rauscher commented on HAARP. "You're pumping tremendous energy into an extremely delicate molecular configuration that comprises these multi-layers we call the ionosphere."
"The ionosphere is prone to catalytic reactions," she explained, "if a small part is changed, a major change in the ionosphere can happen."
In describing the ionosphere as a delicately balanced system, Dr. Rauscher shared her mental picture of it -- a soap-bubble-like sphere surrounding Earth's atmosphere, with movements swirling over the surface of the bubble. If a big enough hole is punched through it, she predicts, it could pop.
HAARP Slicing the Ionosphere
Slicing the Ionosphere
Physicist Daniel Winter, Ph.D., of Waynesville, North Carolina, says, "HAARP high-frequency emissions can couple with longwave (extremely-low-frequency, or ELF) pulses the Earth grid uses to distribute information as vibrations to synchronize dances of life in the biosphere." Dan terms this geomagnetic action 'Earth's information bloodstream,' and says it is likely that coupling of HAARP HF (high-frequency) with natural ELF can cause unplanned, unsuspected side effects.
David Yarrow of Albany, New York, is a researcher with a background in electronics. He described possible interactions of HAARP radiation with the ionosphere and Earth's magnetic grid: "HAARP will not burn holes in the ionosphere. That is a dangerous understatement of what HAARP's giant gigawatt beam will do. Earth is spinning relative to thin electric shells of the multilayer membrane of ion-o-speres that absorb and shield Earth's surface from intense solar radiation, including charged particle storms in solar winds erupting from the sun. Earth's axial spin means that HAARP -- in a burst lasting more than a few minutes -- will slice through the ionosphere like a microwave knife. This produces not a hole but a long tear -- an incision."
Crudely Plucking the Strings
Second concept: As Earth rotates, HAARP will slice across the geomagnetic flux, a donut-shaped spool of magnetic strings -- like longitude meridians on maps.
HAARP may not 'cut' these strings in Gaia's magnetic mantle, but will pulse each thread with harsh, out-of-harmony high frequencies. These noisy impulses will vibrate geomagnetic flux lines, sending vibrations all through the geomagnetic web. "
"The image comes to mind of a spider on its web. An insect lands, and the web's vibrations alert the spider to possible prey. HAARP will be a man-made microwave finger poking at the web, sending out confusing signals, if not tearing holes in the threads. "
"Effects of this interference with symphonies of Gaia's geomagnetic harp are unknown, and I suspect barely thought of. Even if thought of, the intent (of HAARP) is to learn to exploit any effects, not to play in tune to global symphonies. "
Among other researchers quoted is Paul Schaefer of Kansas City. His degree is in electrical engineering and he spent four years building nuclear weapons. "But most of the theories that we have been taught by scientists to believe in seem to be falling apart," he says. He talks about imbalances already caused by the industrial and atomic age, especially by radiation of large numbers of tiny, high-velocity particles "like very small spinning tops" into our environment. The unnatural level of motion of highly-energetic particles in the atmosphere and in radiation belts surrounding Earth is the villain in the weather disruptions, according to this model, which describes an Earth discharging its buildup of heat, relieving stress and regaining a balanced condition through earthquakes and volcanic action.
Feverish Earth
"One might compare the abnormal energetic state of the Earth and its atmosphere to a car battery which has become overcharged with the normal flow of energy jammed up, resulting in hot spots, electrical arcing, physical cracks and general turbulence as the pent-up energy tries to find some place to go."
In a second analogy, Schaefer says "Unless we desire the death of our planet, we must end the production of unstable particles which are generating the earth's fever. A first priority to prevent this disaster would be to shut down all nuclear power plants and end the testing of atomic weapons, electronic warfare and 'Star Wars'." Meanwhile, the military builds its biggest ionospheric heater yet, to deliberately create more instabilities in a huge plasma layer -- the ionosphere -- and to rev up the energy level of charged particles.
Electronic Rain From The Sky
They have published papers about electron precipitation from the magnetosphere (the outer belts of charged particles which stream toward Earth's magnetic poles) caused by man-made very low frequency electromagnetic waves. "These precipitated particles can produce secondary ionization, emit X-rays, and cause significant perturbation in the lower ionosphere."
Two Stanford University radio scientists offer evidence of what technology can do to affect the sky by making waves on earth; they showed that very low frequency radio waves can vibrate the magnetosphere and cause high-energy particles to cascade into Earth's atmosphere. By turning the signal on or off, they could stop the flow of energetic particles.
Physicist Daniel Winter, Ph.D., of Waynesville, North Carolina, says, "HAARP high-frequency emissions can couple with longwave (extremely-low-frequency, or ELF) pulses the Earth grid uses to distribute information as vibrations to synchronize dances of life in the biosphere." Dan terms this geomagnetic action 'Earth's information bloodstream,' and says it is likely that coupling of HAARP HF (high-frequency) with natural ELF can cause unplanned, unsuspected side effects.
David Yarrow of Albany, New York, is a researcher with a background in electronics. He described possible interactions of HAARP radiation with the ionosphere and Earth's magnetic grid: "HAARP will not burn holes in the ionosphere. That is a dangerous understatement of what HAARP's giant gigawatt beam will do. Earth is spinning relative to thin electric shells of the multilayer membrane of ion-o-speres that absorb and shield Earth's surface from intense solar radiation, including charged particle storms in solar winds erupting from the sun. Earth's axial spin means that HAARP -- in a burst lasting more than a few minutes -- will slice through the ionosphere like a microwave knife. This produces not a hole but a long tear -- an incision."
Crudely Plucking the Strings
Second concept: As Earth rotates, HAARP will slice across the geomagnetic flux, a donut-shaped spool of magnetic strings -- like longitude meridians on maps.
HAARP may not 'cut' these strings in Gaia's magnetic mantle, but will pulse each thread with harsh, out-of-harmony high frequencies. These noisy impulses will vibrate geomagnetic flux lines, sending vibrations all through the geomagnetic web. "
"The image comes to mind of a spider on its web. An insect lands, and the web's vibrations alert the spider to possible prey. HAARP will be a man-made microwave finger poking at the web, sending out confusing signals, if not tearing holes in the threads. "
"Effects of this interference with symphonies of Gaia's geomagnetic harp are unknown, and I suspect barely thought of. Even if thought of, the intent (of HAARP) is to learn to exploit any effects, not to play in tune to global symphonies. "
Among other researchers quoted is Paul Schaefer of Kansas City. His degree is in electrical engineering and he spent four years building nuclear weapons. "But most of the theories that we have been taught by scientists to believe in seem to be falling apart," he says. He talks about imbalances already caused by the industrial and atomic age, especially by radiation of large numbers of tiny, high-velocity particles "like very small spinning tops" into our environment. The unnatural level of motion of highly-energetic particles in the atmosphere and in radiation belts surrounding Earth is the villain in the weather disruptions, according to this model, which describes an Earth discharging its buildup of heat, relieving stress and regaining a balanced condition through earthquakes and volcanic action.
Feverish Earth
"One might compare the abnormal energetic state of the Earth and its atmosphere to a car battery which has become overcharged with the normal flow of energy jammed up, resulting in hot spots, electrical arcing, physical cracks and general turbulence as the pent-up energy tries to find some place to go."
In a second analogy, Schaefer says "Unless we desire the death of our planet, we must end the production of unstable particles which are generating the earth's fever. A first priority to prevent this disaster would be to shut down all nuclear power plants and end the testing of atomic weapons, electronic warfare and 'Star Wars'." Meanwhile, the military builds its biggest ionospheric heater yet, to deliberately create more instabilities in a huge plasma layer -- the ionosphere -- and to rev up the energy level of charged particles.
Electronic Rain From The Sky
They have published papers about electron precipitation from the magnetosphere (the outer belts of charged particles which stream toward Earth's magnetic poles) caused by man-made very low frequency electromagnetic waves. "These precipitated particles can produce secondary ionization, emit X-rays, and cause significant perturbation in the lower ionosphere."
Two Stanford University radio scientists offer evidence of what technology can do to affect the sky by making waves on earth; they showed that very low frequency radio waves can vibrate the magnetosphere and cause high-energy particles to cascade into Earth's atmosphere. By turning the signal on or off, they could stop the flow of energetic particles.
HAARP Weather Control
Weather Control
Avalanches of energy dislodged by such radio waves could hit us hard. Their work suggests that technicians could control global weather by sending relatively small 'signals' into the Van Allen belts (radiation belts around Earth). Thus Tesla's resonance effects can control enormous energies by tiny triggering signals.
The Begich/ Manning book asks whether that knowledge will be used by war-oriented or biosphere-oriented scientists.
The military has had about twenty years to work on weather warfare methods, which it euphemistically calls weather modification. For example, rainmaking technology was taken for a few test rides in Vietnam. The U.S. Department of Defense sampled lightning and hurricane manipulation studies in Project Skyfire and Project Stormfury. And they looked at some complicated technologies that would give big effects. Angels Don't Play This HAARP cites an expert who says the military studied both lasers and chemicals which they figured could damage the ozone layer over an enemy. Looking at ways to cause earthquakes, as well as to detect them, was part of the project named Prime Argus, decades ago. The money for that came from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA, now under the acronym ARPA.) In 1994 the Air Force revealed its Spacecast 2020 master plan which includes weather control. Scientists have experimented with weather control since the 1940's, but Spacecast 2020 noted that "using environmental modification techniques to destroy, damage or injure another state are prohibited." Having said that, the Air Force claimed that advances in technology "compels a reexamination of this sensitive and potentially risky topic."
Avalanches of energy dislodged by such radio waves could hit us hard. Their work suggests that technicians could control global weather by sending relatively small 'signals' into the Van Allen belts (radiation belts around Earth). Thus Tesla's resonance effects can control enormous energies by tiny triggering signals.
The Begich/ Manning book asks whether that knowledge will be used by war-oriented or biosphere-oriented scientists.
The military has had about twenty years to work on weather warfare methods, which it euphemistically calls weather modification. For example, rainmaking technology was taken for a few test rides in Vietnam. The U.S. Department of Defense sampled lightning and hurricane manipulation studies in Project Skyfire and Project Stormfury. And they looked at some complicated technologies that would give big effects. Angels Don't Play This HAARP cites an expert who says the military studied both lasers and chemicals which they figured could damage the ozone layer over an enemy. Looking at ways to cause earthquakes, as well as to detect them, was part of the project named Prime Argus, decades ago. The money for that came from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA, now under the acronym ARPA.) In 1994 the Air Force revealed its Spacecast 2020 master plan which includes weather control. Scientists have experimented with weather control since the 1940's, but Spacecast 2020 noted that "using environmental modification techniques to destroy, damage or injure another state are prohibited." Having said that, the Air Force claimed that advances in technology "compels a reexamination of this sensitive and potentially risky topic."
HAARP zapping
40 Years of Zapping the Sky?
As far back as 1958, the chief White House advisor on weather modification, Captain Howard T. Orville, said the U.S. defense department was studying "ways to manipulate the charges of the earth and sky and so affect the weather" by using an electronic beam to ionize or de-ionize the atmosphere over a given area.
In 1966, Professor Gordon J. F. MacDonald was associate director of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the University of California, Los Angeles, was a member of the President's Science Advisory Committee, and later a member of the President's Council on Environmental Quality.
He published papers on the use of environmental-control technologies for military purposes. MacDonald made a revealing comment: "The key to geophysical warfare is the identification of environmental instabilities to which the addition of a small amount of energy would release vastly greater amounts of energy. " World-recognized scientist MacDonald had a number of ideas for using the environment as a weapon system and he contributed to what was, at the time, the dream of a futurist. When he wrote his chapter, "How To Wreck The Environment," for the book Unless Peace Comes, he was not kidding around. In it he describes the use of weather manipulation, climate modification, polar ice cap melting or destabilization, ozone depletion techniques, earthquake engineering, ocean wave control and brain wave manipulation using the planet's energy fields.
He also said that these types of weapons would be developed and, when used, would be virtually undetectable by their victims. Is HAARP that weapon? The military's intention to do environmental engineering is well documented, U.S. Congress' subcommittee hearings on Oceans and International Environment looked into military weather and climate modification conducted in the early 1970's. "What emerged was an awesome picture of far-ranging research and experimentation by the Department of Defense into ways environmental tampering could be used as a weapon," said another author cited in Angles Don't Play This HAARP.
The revealed secrets surprised legislators. Would an inquiry into the state of the art of electromagnetic manipulation surprise lawmakers today? They may find out that technologies developed out of the HAARP experiments in Alaska could deliver on Gordon MacDonald's vision because leading-edge scientists are describing global weather as not only air pressure and thermal systems, but also as an electrical system.
Small Input - Big Effect
HAARP zaps the ionosphere where it is relatively unstable. A point to remember is that the ionosphere is an active electrical shield protecting the planet from the constant bombardment of high-energy particles from space. This conducting plasma, along with Earth's magnetic field, traps the electrical plasma of space and holds it back from going directly to the earth's surface, says Charles Yost of Dynamic Systems, Leicester, North Carolina. "If the ionosphere is greatly disturbed, the atmosphere below is subsequently disturbed."
Another scientist interviewed said there is a super-powerful electrical connection between the ionosphere and the part of the atmosphere where our weather comes onstage, the lower atmosphere.
One man-made electrical effect -- power line harmonic resonance -- causes fallout of charged particles from the Van Allen (radiation) belts, and the falling ions cause ice crystals (which precipitate rain clouds). What about HAARP? Energy blasted upward from an ionospheric heater is not much compared to the total in the ionosphere, but HAARP documents admit that thousandfold-greater amounts of energy can be released in the ionosphere than injected. As with MacDonald's "key to geophysical warfare," "nonlinear" effects (described in the literature about the ionospheric heater) mean small input and large output. Astrophysicist Adam Trombly told Manning that an acupuncture model is one way to look at the possible effect of multi-gigawatt pulsing of the ionosphere. If HAARP hits certain points, those parts of the ionosphere could react in surprising ways.
Smaller ionospheric heaters such as the one at Arecibo are underneath relatively placid regions of the ionosphere, compared to the dynamic movements nearer Earth's magnetic poles. That adds another uncertainty to HAARP -- the unpredictable and lively upper atmosphere near the North Pole.
HAARP experimenters do not impress commonsense Alaskans such as Barbara Zickuhr, who says "They're like boys playing with a sharp stick, finding a sleeping bear and poking it in the butt to see what's going to happen."
As far back as 1958, the chief White House advisor on weather modification, Captain Howard T. Orville, said the U.S. defense department was studying "ways to manipulate the charges of the earth and sky and so affect the weather" by using an electronic beam to ionize or de-ionize the atmosphere over a given area.
In 1966, Professor Gordon J. F. MacDonald was associate director of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the University of California, Los Angeles, was a member of the President's Science Advisory Committee, and later a member of the President's Council on Environmental Quality.
He published papers on the use of environmental-control technologies for military purposes. MacDonald made a revealing comment: "The key to geophysical warfare is the identification of environmental instabilities to which the addition of a small amount of energy would release vastly greater amounts of energy. " World-recognized scientist MacDonald had a number of ideas for using the environment as a weapon system and he contributed to what was, at the time, the dream of a futurist. When he wrote his chapter, "How To Wreck The Environment," for the book Unless Peace Comes, he was not kidding around. In it he describes the use of weather manipulation, climate modification, polar ice cap melting or destabilization, ozone depletion techniques, earthquake engineering, ocean wave control and brain wave manipulation using the planet's energy fields.
He also said that these types of weapons would be developed and, when used, would be virtually undetectable by their victims. Is HAARP that weapon? The military's intention to do environmental engineering is well documented, U.S. Congress' subcommittee hearings on Oceans and International Environment looked into military weather and climate modification conducted in the early 1970's. "What emerged was an awesome picture of far-ranging research and experimentation by the Department of Defense into ways environmental tampering could be used as a weapon," said another author cited in Angles Don't Play This HAARP.
The revealed secrets surprised legislators. Would an inquiry into the state of the art of electromagnetic manipulation surprise lawmakers today? They may find out that technologies developed out of the HAARP experiments in Alaska could deliver on Gordon MacDonald's vision because leading-edge scientists are describing global weather as not only air pressure and thermal systems, but also as an electrical system.
Small Input - Big Effect
HAARP zaps the ionosphere where it is relatively unstable. A point to remember is that the ionosphere is an active electrical shield protecting the planet from the constant bombardment of high-energy particles from space. This conducting plasma, along with Earth's magnetic field, traps the electrical plasma of space and holds it back from going directly to the earth's surface, says Charles Yost of Dynamic Systems, Leicester, North Carolina. "If the ionosphere is greatly disturbed, the atmosphere below is subsequently disturbed."
Another scientist interviewed said there is a super-powerful electrical connection between the ionosphere and the part of the atmosphere where our weather comes onstage, the lower atmosphere.
One man-made electrical effect -- power line harmonic resonance -- causes fallout of charged particles from the Van Allen (radiation) belts, and the falling ions cause ice crystals (which precipitate rain clouds). What about HAARP? Energy blasted upward from an ionospheric heater is not much compared to the total in the ionosphere, but HAARP documents admit that thousandfold-greater amounts of energy can be released in the ionosphere than injected. As with MacDonald's "key to geophysical warfare," "nonlinear" effects (described in the literature about the ionospheric heater) mean small input and large output. Astrophysicist Adam Trombly told Manning that an acupuncture model is one way to look at the possible effect of multi-gigawatt pulsing of the ionosphere. If HAARP hits certain points, those parts of the ionosphere could react in surprising ways.
Smaller ionospheric heaters such as the one at Arecibo are underneath relatively placid regions of the ionosphere, compared to the dynamic movements nearer Earth's magnetic poles. That adds another uncertainty to HAARP -- the unpredictable and lively upper atmosphere near the North Pole.
HAARP experimenters do not impress commonsense Alaskans such as Barbara Zickuhr, who says "They're like boys playing with a sharp stick, finding a sleeping bear and poking it in the butt to see what's going to happen."
What is HAARP?
Could They Short-Circuit Earth?
Earth as a spherical electrical system is a fairly well-accepted model. However, those experimenters who want to make unnatural power connections between parts of this system might not be thinking of possible consequences. Electrical motors and generators can be caused to wobble when their circuits are affected. Could human activities cause a significant change in a planet's electrical circuit or electrical field? A paper in the respected journal Science deals with manmade ionization from radioactive material, but perhaps it could also be studied with HAARP-type skybusters in mind:
"For example, while changes in the earth's electric field resulting from a solar flare modulating conductivity may have only a barely detectable effect on meteorology, the situation may be different in regard to electric field changes caused by manmade ionization... " Meteorology, of course, is the study of the atmosphere and weather. ionization is what happens when a higher level of power is zapped into atoms and knocks electrons off the atoms. The resulting charged particles are the stuff of HAARP. "One look at the weather should tell us that we are on the wrong path," says Paul Schaefer, commenting on HAARP-type technologies.
Angels Don't Play This HAARP: Advances in Tesla Technology is about the military's plan to manipulate that which belongs to the world -- the ionosphere. The arrogance of the United States government in this is not without precedent.
Atmospheric nuclear tests had similar goals. More recently, China and France put their people's money to destructive use in underground nuclear tests. It was recently reported that the US government spent $3 trillion dollars on its nuclear program since its beginnings in the 1940's. What new breakthroughs in life science could have been made with all the money spent on death?
Begich, Manning, Roderick and others believe that democracies need to be founded on openness, rather than the secrecy which surrounds so much military science. Knowledge used in developing revolutionary weapons could be used for healing and helping mankind. Because they are used in new weapons, discoveries are classified and suppressed. When they do appear in the work of other independent scientists, the new ideas are often frustrated or ridiculed, while military research laboratories continue to build their new machines for the killing fields.
However, the book by Manning and Begich gives hope that the military industrial academic bureaucratic Goliath can be affected by the combined power of determined individuals and the alternative press. Becoming informed is the first step to empowerment.
Earth as a spherical electrical system is a fairly well-accepted model. However, those experimenters who want to make unnatural power connections between parts of this system might not be thinking of possible consequences. Electrical motors and generators can be caused to wobble when their circuits are affected. Could human activities cause a significant change in a planet's electrical circuit or electrical field? A paper in the respected journal Science deals with manmade ionization from radioactive material, but perhaps it could also be studied with HAARP-type skybusters in mind:
"For example, while changes in the earth's electric field resulting from a solar flare modulating conductivity may have only a barely detectable effect on meteorology, the situation may be different in regard to electric field changes caused by manmade ionization... " Meteorology, of course, is the study of the atmosphere and weather. ionization is what happens when a higher level of power is zapped into atoms and knocks electrons off the atoms. The resulting charged particles are the stuff of HAARP. "One look at the weather should tell us that we are on the wrong path," says Paul Schaefer, commenting on HAARP-type technologies.
Angels Don't Play This HAARP: Advances in Tesla Technology is about the military's plan to manipulate that which belongs to the world -- the ionosphere. The arrogance of the United States government in this is not without precedent.
Atmospheric nuclear tests had similar goals. More recently, China and France put their people's money to destructive use in underground nuclear tests. It was recently reported that the US government spent $3 trillion dollars on its nuclear program since its beginnings in the 1940's. What new breakthroughs in life science could have been made with all the money spent on death?
Begich, Manning, Roderick and others believe that democracies need to be founded on openness, rather than the secrecy which surrounds so much military science. Knowledge used in developing revolutionary weapons could be used for healing and helping mankind. Because they are used in new weapons, discoveries are classified and suppressed. When they do appear in the work of other independent scientists, the new ideas are often frustrated or ridiculed, while military research laboratories continue to build their new machines for the killing fields.
However, the book by Manning and Begich gives hope that the military industrial academic bureaucratic Goliath can be affected by the combined power of determined individuals and the alternative press. Becoming informed is the first step to empowerment.
Chavez: US weapon test caused Haiti earthquake
Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez has once again accused the United States of playing God. But this time it's Haiti's disastrous earthquake that he thinks the U.S. was behind. Spanish newspaper ABC quotes Chavez as saying that the U.S. navy launched a weapon capable of inducing a powerful earthquake off the shore of Haiti. He adds that this time it was only a drill and the final target is ... destroying and taking over Iran.
Iran crosses red line, can enrich uranium up to 20pc grade
Debka predicts Iran will make nuclear weapons
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised the "good news" would be announced during the Feb. 1-11 celebrations of the Islamic Revolution. The "news" also prompted an urgent cabinet meeting in Jerusalem last week.
Ahmadinejad's announcement is a provocative demonstration of contempt for the six world powers and their offer to trade Iran's low-grade uranium for 20 pc enriched product overseas. By going public on the banned process and abandoning concealment, Iran's rulers are throwing down the gauntlet to them and Israel.
DEBKAfile's Iranian sources report that the hawks of the Islamic regime led by Ahmadinejad and spiritual ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have won the day for their tactics of jumping ahead of any possible US-led or Israel steps against their nuclear program with its own aggressive initiatives.
The Iranian president's enrichment announcement at a time that the Obama administration is pondering tough sanctions against the Revolutionary Guards was part of this policy; so were the Syrian and Hizballah declarations of military preparedness for a purported Israeli attack last week, taking advantage of an IDF war game to raise the alarm.
Our political sources predict that Tehran's provocative move will be met with more of the five months of foot-dragging with which Washington and Jerusalem have met Iran's contempt for one deadline after another for ending nuclear enrichment.
Both will continue to dither and pretend that stiff sanctions can scotch the Iranian nuclear threat. Tehran has meanwhile made good use of those five months to go forward and achieve a 20 pc enrichment capability.
The only straight talk from any Western leader has come from French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
Saturday, Jan. 23, he told visiting Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri that France has evidence Iran is developing nuclear weapons contrary to its claims. He warned that Israel "would not stand by while Iran develops nuclear weapons."
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised the "good news" would be announced during the Feb. 1-11 celebrations of the Islamic Revolution. The "news" also prompted an urgent cabinet meeting in Jerusalem last week.
Ahmadinejad's announcement is a provocative demonstration of contempt for the six world powers and their offer to trade Iran's low-grade uranium for 20 pc enriched product overseas. By going public on the banned process and abandoning concealment, Iran's rulers are throwing down the gauntlet to them and Israel.
DEBKAfile's Iranian sources report that the hawks of the Islamic regime led by Ahmadinejad and spiritual ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have won the day for their tactics of jumping ahead of any possible US-led or Israel steps against their nuclear program with its own aggressive initiatives.
The Iranian president's enrichment announcement at a time that the Obama administration is pondering tough sanctions against the Revolutionary Guards was part of this policy; so were the Syrian and Hizballah declarations of military preparedness for a purported Israeli attack last week, taking advantage of an IDF war game to raise the alarm.
Our political sources predict that Tehran's provocative move will be met with more of the five months of foot-dragging with which Washington and Jerusalem have met Iran's contempt for one deadline after another for ending nuclear enrichment.
Both will continue to dither and pretend that stiff sanctions can scotch the Iranian nuclear threat. Tehran has meanwhile made good use of those five months to go forward and achieve a 20 pc enrichment capability.
The only straight talk from any Western leader has come from French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
Saturday, Jan. 23, he told visiting Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri that France has evidence Iran is developing nuclear weapons contrary to its claims. He warned that Israel "would not stand by while Iran develops nuclear weapons."
Has Iran built an Atom bomb?
Ahmadinejad said Iran will make an announcement regarding the enrichment of uranium to 20 percent purity when the nation next month marks the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution which toppled the US-backed shah.
"Iran has given a chance to Western countries," he was quoted as saying by Fars news agency when asked by reporters about Iran's deadline to world powers over the controversial nuclear fuel deal.
"Therefore, during the 10 days of dawn (February 1 to 11) we will announce good news regarding the production of 20 percent enriched fuel in our country," he said of the period marking the 1979 Islamic revolution.
"This news is so sweet that it will make any Iranian and any freedom-loving person in the world happy. This news is about Iran's scientific advancement," Fars quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
The UN atomic watchdog has offered a proposal which sees the bulk of Iran's low-enriched uranium of 3.5 percent purity being sent to Russia and France in one batch for further enrichment to 20 percent and then returned as fuel for a Tehran research reactor.
Enriched uranium of 20 percent purity is used as fuel to power nuclear reactors and Iran needs it for its internationally monitored Tehran facility.
Iranian officials, however, have offered a counter-proposal of a phased fuel swap and Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki gave the West an end-January deadline to accept the Iranian plan.
World powers led by Washington are against Iran enriching uranium as it can also used to make the fissile core of a nuclear bomb.
The West suspect Iran wants enriched uranium -- despite three sets of UN sanctions -- so that it can make atomic weapons. Tehran says its nuclear programme is aimed solely at generating electricity.
Western powers have indicated that Iran has effectively rejected the UN-brokered proposal put forward in Vienna talks hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog.
But Mottaki insists Iran has not rejected "the principle" of the nuclear fuel deal.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, amid increasing international frustration with Tehran, has vowed Washington "will not be waited out" and "not back down" in the face of Iranian defiance.
Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, meanwhile, will travel to Moscow on Tuesday for talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, according to ISNA news agency.
Moscow has long been a nuclear partner of Tehran and has built Iran's first nuclear power plant in the southern port city of Bushehr but it is still to be operational.
On Thursday Russian atomic energy chief Sergei Kiriyenko said the Bushehr plant would start up this year.
"All the work is going as scheduled. The tests are a success. This year will be the year of the launch of Bushehr," he was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
In recent months Medvedev has indicated that Moscow could back fresh sanctions against Iran over its controversial nuclear programme.
Earlier this week Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow does "regret" Iran's refusal to accept the UN-brokered fuel plan.
He noted that the UN Security Council had the capacity to "study further measures on Iran" but did not come out explicitly in support of further sanctions.
"Acting with a logic of punishing Iran... is not a sober approach," he said.
Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, an influential Iranian lawmaker with close ties to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reiterated on Sunday that Tehran will not give up its right to nuclear technology.
"There is no reason for Westerners to pressurise us... and if they want to impose new sanctions, then the Iranian nation will not give up its (nuclear) right," Haddad Adel was quoted by state television website as saying.
"Iran has given a chance to Western countries," he was quoted as saying by Fars news agency when asked by reporters about Iran's deadline to world powers over the controversial nuclear fuel deal.
"Therefore, during the 10 days of dawn (February 1 to 11) we will announce good news regarding the production of 20 percent enriched fuel in our country," he said of the period marking the 1979 Islamic revolution.
"This news is so sweet that it will make any Iranian and any freedom-loving person in the world happy. This news is about Iran's scientific advancement," Fars quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
The UN atomic watchdog has offered a proposal which sees the bulk of Iran's low-enriched uranium of 3.5 percent purity being sent to Russia and France in one batch for further enrichment to 20 percent and then returned as fuel for a Tehran research reactor.
Enriched uranium of 20 percent purity is used as fuel to power nuclear reactors and Iran needs it for its internationally monitored Tehran facility.
Iranian officials, however, have offered a counter-proposal of a phased fuel swap and Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki gave the West an end-January deadline to accept the Iranian plan.
World powers led by Washington are against Iran enriching uranium as it can also used to make the fissile core of a nuclear bomb.
The West suspect Iran wants enriched uranium -- despite three sets of UN sanctions -- so that it can make atomic weapons. Tehran says its nuclear programme is aimed solely at generating electricity.
Western powers have indicated that Iran has effectively rejected the UN-brokered proposal put forward in Vienna talks hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog.
But Mottaki insists Iran has not rejected "the principle" of the nuclear fuel deal.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, amid increasing international frustration with Tehran, has vowed Washington "will not be waited out" and "not back down" in the face of Iranian defiance.
Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, meanwhile, will travel to Moscow on Tuesday for talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, according to ISNA news agency.
Moscow has long been a nuclear partner of Tehran and has built Iran's first nuclear power plant in the southern port city of Bushehr but it is still to be operational.
On Thursday Russian atomic energy chief Sergei Kiriyenko said the Bushehr plant would start up this year.
"All the work is going as scheduled. The tests are a success. This year will be the year of the launch of Bushehr," he was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
In recent months Medvedev has indicated that Moscow could back fresh sanctions against Iran over its controversial nuclear programme.
Earlier this week Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow does "regret" Iran's refusal to accept the UN-brokered fuel plan.
He noted that the UN Security Council had the capacity to "study further measures on Iran" but did not come out explicitly in support of further sanctions.
"Acting with a logic of punishing Iran... is not a sober approach," he said.
Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, an influential Iranian lawmaker with close ties to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reiterated on Sunday that Tehran will not give up its right to nuclear technology.
"There is no reason for Westerners to pressurise us... and if they want to impose new sanctions, then the Iranian nation will not give up its (nuclear) right," Haddad Adel was quoted by state television website as saying.
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