Saudi Newspaper: Prepare for radioactive fallout from US nuclear attack on Iran

Bush sends nuclear sub and more warships to the Gulf
by Richard Clark - http://www.opednews.com/ - Mon Mar 24, 2008

According to Chris Floyd at the Empire Burlesque web site:
The Saudi government is now preparing plans to deal with "any sudden nuclear and radioactive hazards" that may arise from an attack on Iran's nuclear reactors. This was reported by a top Saudi newspaper, Okaz, and relayed by a leading German news service, DPA -- one day after Dick Cheney paid a visit to the kingdom. As we noted, no one knows exactly what was said at that confab of allied authoritarians -- but something sure lit a fire under the Saudis, and convinced them that urgent action is needed to brace for the lethal overspill from a strike on Iran. Floyd points out that nothing in Saudi Arabia becomes the top news story without government approval. That such a story should be released the day after Cheney's visit, sends a message to everyone about what’s on Cheney's mind. This, combined with the dismissal of Centcom chief, Admiral Fallon, Petreus' claim to have evidence (which he doesn't produce) that Iran was responsible for the recent shelling of the Green Zone, . . and the Egyptian report that a nuclear sub has been ordered by Bush into the Gulf, the bleak picture in both Pakistan and Afghanistan (accelerating collapse of Musharraf's power and strategy, the coming spring offensive in the Taliban's announced drive for Kabu), . . plus the oft-stated desire of Bush and Cheney to attack Iran, and, as noted by former mideast policy official William K. Polk at Juan Cole's site just a few days ago, the last time Cheney visited the nations he visited this time was right before the Iraq attack, . . then only a moron would deny that Bush and Dick have nothing but contempt for the will of the people, congress and the courts, and that they crave war like a junkie craves his fix.
http://soldiervoices.net/svfor/showthread.php?p=4883

Cheney Visits them, and Saudis then Prepare for "Sudden Nuclear Hazards" - One Tick Closer to Midnight

Last Friday, Dick Cheney was in Saudi Arabia for high-level meetings with the Saudi king and his ministers. On Saturday, it was revealed that the Saudi Shura Council -- the elite group that implements the decisions of the autocratic inner circle -- is preparing "national plans to deal with any sudden nuclear and radioactive hazards that may affect the kingdom following experts' warnings of possible attacks on Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactors," one of the kingdom's leading newspapers, Okaz, reports. The German-based DPA news service relayed the paper's story.
Simple prudence -- or ominous timing? We noted here last week that an American attack on Iran was far more likely than most people suspect. We pointed to the mountain of evidence for this case gathered by scholar William R. Polk, one of the top aides to John Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and to other indicators of impending war. The story by Okaz -- which would not have appeared in the tightly controlled dictatorship without approval from the top -- is yet another, very weighty piece of evidence laid on the scales, pointing toward a new, horrendous conflict. We don't know what the Saudis told Cheney in private -- or even more to the point, what he told them. But the release of this story now, just after his departure, would seem to be a clear indication that the Saudis have good reason to fear a looming attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, and that they are actively preparing for it. We don't know what the Saudis told Cheney in private -- or even more to the point, what he told them. But the release of this story now, just after his departure, would seem to be a clear indication that the Saudis have good reason to fear a looming attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, and that they are actively preparing for it. And they certainly should be bracing themselves. A U.S. attack on Iran will come suddenly, and if it is indeed aimed at destroying Iran's nuclear capabilities -- a "threat" being talked up again with new urgency by both Cheney and Bush lately -- it has the potential for unimaginable consequences.

War With Iran May Have Begun With Offensive In Iraq
The United States military offensive against Iran may have begun with a swiftly escalating series of operations directed against the Mahdi Army in Iraq.
Pulling Triggers In Iraq
Basra Fighting -- Why Now?
The Iranian Regime's Lobby In US And The Israeli Decoy
I wholeheartedly believe that a US war against Iran will be a catastrophe of unbelievable dimensions. It equally troubles me to see that Tehran's lobbyists and ayatollahs' advocates disguise their patronage for mullahs as anti-war pursuit. Their disinformation campaign is bringing us to the brink of a war they pretend they aim to deter..
Iraqi Police In Basra Shed Their Uniforms, Kept Their Rifles And Switched Sides
Abu Iman barely flinched when the Iraqi Government ordered his unit of special police to move against al-Mahdi Army fighters in Basra. His response, while swift, was not what British and US military trainers who spent the past five years schooling the Iraqi security forces would have hoped for. He and 15 comrades took off their uniforms, kept their government-issued rifles and went to the other side without a second thought.

IRIP copter crashes, five on board killed
Islamic Republic News Agency - Tehran,IranA helicopter operating under Islamic Republic of Iran Police crashed Friday afternoon killing all five on board, a provincial official said Saturday.
The Sunni-Shiite Terror Network
Wall Street Journal - USAMcCain suggested that the Islamic Republic in Iran, a Shiite power, may be helping al Qaeda, a Sunni outfit, in its murderous campaign in Iraq and elsewhere ...

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah says we monotheists worship the same deity.

SAUDI KING SAYS CHRISTIANS, JEWS, MUSLIMS SHOULD LIVE IN PEACE
By J. Grant Swank, Jr.MichNews.com -Mar 27, 2008

We don’t. - Allah is Lucifer, the Koran scribed by demons and mosque clerics agents of hell. Christ is the true Messiah, the Bible is divine revelation and biblical gospel-tellers are agents of heaven. Judaism does not recognize Christ as Messiah, holds to the Old Testament as divine revelation, and discounts Allah as co-deity.

Nevertheless, the king spoke at a seminar on “Culture and Respect of Religions.” There he set forth that better relations need to exist in his Muslim country because of the “weakening of the family, increasing atheism and a lack of ethics, loyalty and sincerity for our religions and humanity” per AP. Christianity is given the daily threat in Saudi Arabia. For a Muslim to testify to Christ as Savior equals death. So obviously the Islamic regime has set up Christianity as the archenemy. Time to be nice to Christians? Belatedly so. Weakening of the family? I did not know there was much of a Muslim regard for family, not with females regarded as less than dung and honor killing a daily slice-and-dice. As for atheism, I would think it would flourish as the most reasonable alternative to Islam. As for “ethics,” what does that mean to sharia and the Koran but bloodletting? Anyhow, at least the speech will make Islam appear the “peace religion” some think it is. Kudos to the king.
--Read: http://jgrantswankjr.blogspot.com/

Senate Committee Seeks Audit of Iraq Oil Money

“we believe that it has been overwhelmingly U.S. taxpayer money that has funded Iraq reconstruction over the last five years, despite Iraq earning billions of dollars in oil revenue over that time period that have ended up in non-Iraqi banks.”

Senate Committee Seeks Audit of Iraq Oil Money : By JAMES GLANZ

Two senior members of the Senate Armed Services Committee have requested a full accounting of how Iraq is spending its soaring oil revenue, amid starkly conflicting estimates of how much the country has invested in rebuilding its broken infrastructure and providing basic services to its citizens. The request, sent Friday to David M. Walker, the top official at the United States Government Accountability Office, estimates that Iraqi oil revenue could skyrocket above $56 billion in 2008, largely because of the rising price of oil. That enormous influx of cash comes as the United States has been reducing spending on the reconstruction effort. Since the invasion in 2003, the United States has invested close to $50 billion in reconstruction, but the effort has achieved at best mixed results when measured by improvements in the lives of Iraqi citizens. Still, the American military and State Department continue to finance a wide range of relatively small reconstruction projects as well as training and equipment for Iraqi military forces.Despite the dire need for better health care, more electricity and clean water, a functioning sewage system and other services, the accountability office has previously estimated that Iraq spent only 22 percent of the oil money set aside for reconstruction in 2006. And in January, the office, which is charged with overseeing the Iraqi government’s finances, reported that Iraq had spent a meager 4.4 percent of its 2007 reconstruction budget by August of that year, the most recent figures available at the time.As a result, the letter from the Armed Services Committee says, “we believe that it has been overwhelmingly U.S. taxpayer money that has funded Iraq reconstruction over the last five years, despite Iraq earning billions of dollars in oil revenue over that time period that have ended up in non-Iraqi banks.”The letter was signed by Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who is the committee chairman, and Senator John W. Warner, a Virginia Republican who is a former chairman. Senator John McCain of Arizona, the ranking Republican on the committee and the presumptive Republican nominee for president, did not sign the letter. Iraqi officials say they face many obstacles in what might seem to be a straightforward task: spending their plentiful money. Workers are attacked, engineers and contracting experts have fled government ministries, construction companies refuse to take jobs in risky areas and building materials are not available. And if all of those factors were not daunting enough, the various Iraqi and American government entities involved cannot even agree on how much the notoriously opaque Iraqi bureaucracy has in fact spent on reconstruction. Last fall, as Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, and Ryan C. Crocker, the American ambassador to Iraq, reported to Congress on the state of the war, the Bush administration provided figures that contrasted sharply with those of the accountability office. The administration reported that by July 2007, Iraq had spent 24 percent of the $10 billion in oil revenue set aside for reconstruction that year. The accountability office disputed those figures, saying they were based in part on projections that proved inaccurate. But in a recent phone interview, a senior Iraqi official gave even more bullish estimates of the expenditures. Citing official Iraqi Finance Ministry figures, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to provide information that had not yet been publicly released, said by the end of last year, Iraq had spent 63 percent of its capital budget, a leap over the previous year that would indicate rapid progress in governmental efficiency. “It’s totally unacceptable that there’s no decent accounting for their money,” Senator Levin said in a telephone interview Saturday. “But the problem is our money. Why are we spending our money five years later when they have a surplus? That’s just extraordinary.”In order to resolve some of these discrepancies and track down where the oil money has gone, the letter by Senators Levin and Warner asks the accountability office to answer a series of basic questions.The senators requested detailed information on the amount of Iraqi oil revenue from 2003 to 2007, how much of that money has gone unspent, and “how much money does the Iraqi government have deposited, in which banks, and in what countries?”Finally, Senators Levin and Warner ask the question looming over the entire rebuilding effort: “Why has the Iraqi government not spent more of its oil revenue on reconstruction, economic development and providing essential services for the Iraqi people?” Also on Friday, Iraqi security forces discovered a mass grave containing the remains of about 100 people in Diyala Province, said Maj. Winfield Danielson, a spokesman for Multinational Forces-Iraq.

Bin Laden Hunt Heating Up

The CIA is ramping up its activities in the lawless northern Waziristan area of Pakistan, on the trail of two very high value targets: Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. Armed with fresh intelligence, the CIA is moving additional man power and equipment into Pakistan in the effort to find Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al Zawahri, U.S. officials tell ABC News. “Reports that the trail has gone stone cold are not correct,” said one U.S. official. “We are very much increasing our efforts there,” the official said. People familiar with the CIA operation say undercover officers with paramilitary training have been ordered into Pakistan and the area across the border with Afghanistan as part of the ramp-up. Although never publicly acknowledged, Pakistan has permitted CIA teams to secretly operate inside Pakistan. Pakistan officials say they are aware that CIA teams have increased their presence in northern Waziristan since last September when Pakistan withdrew its troops from the area under a much-criticized “peace deal” with tribal leaders. Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell testified last week that current intelligence “to the best of our knowledge” puts both bin Laden and al Zawahri in Pakistan. It was the first time a high-ranking U.S. official publicly identified Pakistan as bin Laden’s hiding place.

Sixteen civilians were killed in eastern Afghanistan Sunday when a US convoy was ambushed and troops returned fire, the US-led coalition said

As the government said the soldiers killed 10 people.
The coalition did not specify how many were killed in the suicide attack in the eastern province of Nangarhar and how many in the subsequent gunfire from the soldiers. A car bomb struck the convoy "as part of a complex ambush involving enemy small-arms fire from several directions," it said in a statement. "Coalition forces returned fire in defence of the patrol. Sixteen civilians died during the initial attack, including four civilians who later died of their wounds. Twenty-four civilians were wounded during the attack." A coalition soldier was also wounded. A spokesman confirmed that the casualties were from the ambush and the return fire. "It was throughout the entire attack," he told AFP. Asked how many were killed in the ambush and how many in the subsequent coalition fire, he said the incident was being investigated. The Afghan interior ministry said the troops killed 10 civilians. A suicide bomber smashed and detonated an explosives-filled car into a coalition convoy in Nangarhar which killed a number of our countrymen," it said in a statement. According to the coalition forces, they came under fire following the blast and as a result of return fire, 10 of our countrymen were killed and 25 others were wounded. Hundreds of Afghans gathered at the scene, on the main road between the capital Kabul and the border with Pakistan, to demonstrate their anger. The incident was the second involving a high number of civilian casualties in under a week. On Tuesday around 16 Afghan civilians were killed in a suicide bombing at a US military base near Kabul as it was being visited by US Vice President Dick Cheney.

IRAN: HUNDREDS DEMANDING STUDENT'S RELEASE TO GO ON HUNGER STRIKE

Hundreds of students, journalists and intellectuals have announced a 24-hour hunger strike on Friday to demand the release from jail of political prisoners including Ahmad Batebi, detained after the July 1999 students' protests. His father Bagher Batebi has also launched an appeal for the international public opinion demanding the release of his son which has been published by Amnesty International.Batebi was arrested in July 1999 after he became a symbol of the students' movement following the publication on the British-based Economist magazine's front page of a picture of him holding the bloodied shirt of a fellow student killed by police at a student rally. His wife Sommayah Batinat was arrested last week after disclosing to the international media, that her husband was still in detention despite his poor health. Plainclothes officials reportedly brought the woman to an undisclosed location . Batebi's parents have since Thursday morning also started a sit-in protest at Tehran's Daneshjoo( Students) park where they say they will remain until their son is freed. "For the past eight years I have been watching the famous picture of my son while waiting for his release and I have no intention to sit still," said Bagher Batebi in his appeal. "I ask the entire world to help us free Ahmad before he is handed back to us inside a coffin."

Town’s Elders Plead for Help With Taliban

By ABDUL WAHEED WAFA and CARLOTTA GALL
KABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 24 — Taliban fighters who seized control of a remote town in southern Afghanistan three weeks ago have started a campaign of arrests and reprisals against tribal elders and townspeople, according to tribal elders. The elders called on NATO forces and the government to move against the insurgents, even if it means bombing the town. Five elders from the town, Musa Qala, including a member of its tribal council, traveled to Kabul this week to plead for help, expressing bitterness that neither Afghan forces nor NATO troops responded when Taliban forces overran the town on Feb. 2. In October, in a controversial deal brokered by the town’s 50-member tribal council, both British NATO troops and the Taliban withdrew, and the town enjoyed three months of calm. But the Taliban remained at large in the district, and when NATO forces killed eight of their members in an airstrike last month, their leader seized control of the town, putting elders who did not flee under house arrest and issuing death threats.
Hundreds of families fled, anticipating NATO bombing. NATO airstrikes have continued in the region and have killed several local insurgent leaders, but the elders said that had made the situation harder for the townspeople. “Mullah Ghafoor was killed in an airstrike, and the Taliban started to blame the elders and people for spying for NATO troops,” said the main spokesman for the group that came to Kabul, identifying one insurgent leader. Another leader, Mullah Manan, was killed, and the house where his body was taken was bombed, he said.“Since Tuesday the Taliban started to arrest people and elders and charge them with helping the government,” he said.


Ten people had been arrested, including an elder who had served as police chief, and one man was hurt and may have died, the elders said. The spokesman and an elder interviewed by telephone said that a Taliban leadership council in Quetta, Pakistan, was ordering the arrests and issuing the death threats. The elders who spoke asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals from the Taliban. Two said they had received death threats from the Taliban and had fled their homes. Other members of the tribal council were in hiding, they said. One elder said the Taliban had told him by telephone that they were under strong pressure from Pakistan to seize control of the town and now to go further. “One of the Taliban told me on the telephone, ‘Hajji Sahib, I am respecting you like my father, but we are ordered to kill you,’ ” he said. One landowner from Kajaki, a neighboring district, said the Taliban had executed 13 people from their own ranks and arrested three more. About 1,000 Taliban are in Musa Qala’s broader district, also called Musa Qala, the elders said. The Taliban have boasted that they control 10,000 fighters in the region. “We want the government to take back Musa Qala,” said one elder who helped broker the October deal. “People are ready to help NATO and the government, but we don’t know what we are waiting for.” Asadullah Wafa, the governor of Musa Qala’s province, Helmand, was at the NATO airbase at Kandahar discussing the situation with NATO commanders. He said that he was not aware that the Taliban had begun making arrests but that the government and NATO were poised to act. “We have a comprehensive plan to resolve the issue of Musa Qala, and it will be solved very soon,” he said by telephone.
Abdul Waheed Wafa reported from Kabul, and Carlotta Gall from Lahore, Pakistan. Taimoor Shah contributed reporting from Kandahar, Afghanistan.