terrorism-war

War Drums

Whenever I switch the TV News or read other mainstream news these days, I’m constantly seeing and hearing about Iran this and Iran that… nuclear development this and strait-of-hormuz that… Ahmadinejad this and Israel that… it’s as if the mainstream is throwing ‘stuff’ at the wall to see what, if anything, sticks while hoping or attempting to garner support for some sort of attack on Iran. More War…

I get the very distinct feeling that there are factions of the powers-that-be who would like nothing more than to ignite another war, to conveniently move the public’s attention from the stagnant and depressing economy to a ‘united’ ‘patriotic’ cause. It’s like we always need a villain to keep our minds from looking inward at ourselves.

While the goings on in Iran may arguably be destabilizing to the current power structure of the Gulf region and Middle East, and while Ahmadinejad is an apparent loose canon, it is curious as to the apparent attempts to stir up the American public on this matter. I get the feeling that it’s not working as well as they hoped for though. We’ll see.

How about another $Trillion or thereabouts for another war? Heck, we’re already $15 Trillion in the hole, what’s the big deal, right? It’s only paper, just print some more!

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Iran: Strait of Hormuz

Located between Oman and Iran, the Strait of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.

Hormuz is the world’s most important oil choke-point due to its daily oil flow of 15.5 million barrels.

Flows through the Strait in 2009 are roughly 33 percent of all seaborne traded oil or 17 percent of oil traded worldwide.

On average, 13 crude oil tankers per day passed eastbound through the Strait with a corresponding amount of empty tankers entering westbound to pick up new cargo.

At its narrowest point, the Strait is 21 miles wide, but the width of the shipping lane in either direction is only two miles, separated by a two-mile buffer zone.

The Strait is deep and wide enough to handle the world’s largest crude oil tankers, with about two-thirds of oil shipments carried by tankers in excess of 150,000 deadweight tons.

To traverse the Strait, ships pass through the territorial waters of Iran and Oman.

So… how much would the price of oil and gasoline soar to ‘if’ Iran were to cause trouble here, as they are currently threatening to do??

“Closing the Strait of Hormuz for Iran’s armed forces is really easy … or as Iranians say, it will be easier than drinking a glass of water,” Iran’s navy chief Habibollah Sayyari told Iran’s English-language Press TV on Wednesday.

The U.S. Fifth Fleet said on Wednesday it would not allow any disruption of traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, after Iran threatened to stop ships moving through the world’s most important oil route.

Source: Reuters

The Foundations For Global Conflict

The success of an Iranian backed closure of the Straits, even for a short period of time, could unleash regional chaos in an area already beset by public uprisings against the established order. Iraq, already divided by regional power-demarcation, could re-collapse into wholesale anarchy.

An EU-wide embargo of Iranian oil would destroy Iran’s economy in short order, and likely send crude oil prices significantly higher. The regime would be forced to act militarily to survive, despite its significant force inferiority.

Along with the chaos sweeping the MENA region, as one power vacuum after another emerges, open conflict with Iran has ability to conflagrate into an all-out global conflict of potentially catastrophic proportions.

Source: Jim Sinclair’s Mineset

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China Will Not Hesitate WW-III To Protect Iran

Major General Zhang Zhaozhong from the Chinese National Defense University said China will not hesitate to protect Iran even if with a third World War, and that not hesitating to fight a third World War would be entirely for domestic political needs.

The Chinese Communist Party Foreign Ministry said during a press conference in Beijing on November 23rd (the same day that the US announced new sanctions against Iran) that China is opposed to unilateral sanctions against Iran.

A recent IAEA report (International Atomic Energy Agency) revealed what we’ve heard before, that Iran may secretly be developing nuclear weapons.

China evidently purchases large quantities of oil from Iran. China is Iran’s biggest trading partner totaling $30 billion. Voice-of-America has reported that according to Chinese customs data, this year (2011) Iran could become China’s 2nd largest crude oil supplier.

From NTDTV.com

In the mean time, the US DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), with a quarter of a billion dollars, is developing a Hypersonic Missile weapon system for a World War III scenario. The AHW (Advanced Hypersonic Weapon) is part of what’s called Conventional Prompt Global Strike and is meant to deliver conventional weapon attacks to any site on the planet within no more than 60 minutes at Mach 20.

In addition, Reuters recently reports, U.S. military chief General Martin Dempsey: Unclear if Israel would alert U.S. ahead of attack on Iran.

Iran has warned that it will respond to any attacks by hitting Israeli and U.S. interests in the Gulf. Analysts say Tehran could retaliate by closing the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway where about 40 percent of all traded oil passes.

In this regard, the question of late has been… Will Israel do it? Will they strike Iran?

Also, were they responsible for the mysterious explosion November 12 at an Iranian missile base facility? (haven’t heard much about that since…)

Update, December 2, While this story has not been caught by any of the major wires, The Australian’s Jerusalem correspondent Sheera Frankel reports something quite disturbing: “All eyes on Israel after second Iranian blast. CLOUDS of smoke billowed above the city of Isfahan – evidence that the latest strike against Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program had hit its target.” (Source: ZeroHedge.com)

Knowing that both Russia and China have trade relations with Iran, and knowing that China relies on Iran for much of its oil, would they sit back and not become involved after an Israel-Iran attack?

It’s a dangerous game all around, for sure. Iran promising to destroy Israel – Israel threatening to take out Iran’s nuke facilities – the IAEA saying that Iran is developing nukes – A Chinese General saying they would not hesitate to bring on WWW-III to protect Iran…

…and we think that $100/barrel oil is high now??

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Russian Cyber-Attack Hits Illinois Infrastructure

A cyber intruder hack of a critical infrastructure water system in Illinois in which a water pump was cycled until it burnt out, was traced to a computer in Russia.

While the US DHS (Department of Homeland Security) “has downplayed the Illinois cyber attack in public reports, stating that it had seen no evidence indicating a threat to public safety but was investigating the situation”, the Illinois Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center disclosed “the attackers gained access to the system months earlier”.

Lots of questions arise from this incident.

Why would the DHS, the same government agency that brings you the TSA, downplay the issue? Are the really that inept or short-sighted?

Is this only a test to expose holes in infrastructure security?

Does Iran have more than a casual interest in this little hack, and it’s outcome?

What other infrastructure systems are exposed to cyber attack?

This cyber attack ‘rings a bell’ of Stuxnet, and is brought to life via something called SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition – software). This really IS a huge problem because SCADA makes the world go ’round. SCADA is literally EVERYWHERE around the world, from controlling spacecraft to flushing toilets to oil rigs to nuclear power and sewage plants. SCADA software is quite obviously, vulnerable, and therefore so are we.

Foreign cyber attack hits US infrastructure: expert

“This is arguably the first case where we have had a hack of critical infrastructure from outside the United States that caused damage,”

“No one realized the hackers were in there until they started turning on and off the pump,”

Word also circulated on Friday that a water supply network in Texas might have been breached in a cyber attack.

“My gut tells me that there is greater targeting and wider compromise than we know about,”

Source: Breitbart

We live in an age of electronically controlled systems that enable highly efficient production, processes and distribution, which in turn enables dense population centers to exist without individual self-sufficiency skills and methods. In other words, we are dependent upon our infrastructure for survival.

What is your own risk where you live? Are you prepared?

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Iran Conflict With Israel Ready To Ignite?

During the past several weeks, there has been a noticeable ramp-up from many main-stream-media outlets reporting of an inevitable Iran conflict with Israel. Whenever all of the MSM outlets simultaneously begin repeating the same message, my radar lights up with suspicion… not always of its validity, but more-so of the reason ‘why’.

First, there were the recent reports of the so called ‘damning’ evidence from the IAEA that Iran has apparently overcome the Stuxnet virus and is now back to its nuclear weapons program.

Iran is attempting to engineer and test nuclear weapons at a series of banned production sites in defiance of United Nations sanctions, according to a report to be released next week.

The research by the UN’s watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, will add a substantial layer to seven years of investigations that is likely to inflame tensions in the Middle East.

They believe the IAEA has substantiated evidence from intelligence reports, interviews with Iranian scientists and on-the-ground inspections that Iran is carrying out a nuclear weapons programme in parallel to its civilian energy goals.

Source: The Telegraph

Then, reports that Israel has test-fired a particular ballistic missile which could be the weapon of choice to hit nuclear sites in Iran.

42 Jericho missiles suffice to hit nuclear sites

Experts sceptical, say no alternative to air strikes

Ballistic missiles could be Israel’s weapon of choice against Iranian nuclear facilities if it decides on a pre-emptive attack and deems air strikes too risky, according to a report by a Washington think-tank.

Israel is widely assumed to have Jericho missiles capable of hitting Iran with an accuracy of a few dozen metres (yards) from target.

…a 114-page report (titled, “Study on a Possible Israeli Strike on Iran’s Nuclear Development Facilities” from the Center for Strategic and International Studies) said a Jericho salvo could draw an Iranian counter-attack with Shehab missiles. Other reprisal scenarios include Iran choking off oil exports, hitting U.S. Gulf assets, or ordering proxy attacks on Jewish targets abroad.

Source: Reuters

Although it could be considered a routine IAF exercise, the Israel Air Force recently conducted ‘comprehensive drills on long-range attacks’ at a NATO base in Italy.

The drill included most of the aviation components that are likely to take part in future long-range attacking missions: combat squadrons, aerial refueling and air monitoring stations.

Normally, long-range drills last two weeks, but the IAF left this drill after five days, and by the weekend all the IAF planes had returned to their air bases in Israel. The IAF’s early departure ignited the spreading of conspiracy theories which suggested Israel was heading into a possible mission.

Source: HAARETZ

Other reports are popping up regarding training exercises that NATO countries are preparing for war.

Germany has put its Air Force Tornado warplanes in intensive training for a possible attack on targets in Iran, after taking part last week in a joint drill with the Israeli Air Force and other NATO members at the Italian Decimomannu air base on Sardinia.

Iran, for its part, is gearing up for a gloves-off reprisal against its attackers.

Source: DEBKAfile

There is now wide spread speculation that Israel may attack Iran next month.

Part of the reason for the rush is fear that Iran may be able to move the majority of its nuclear processing equipment underground.

A senior Foreign Office figure told the Daily Mail newspaper, “We’re expecting something as early as Christmas, or very early in the new year,” adding that Israel will attack Iran’s nuclear sites “sooner rather than later.”

Iran has already claimed that it would retaliate violently to such an attack and would not limit its actions to just its attacker. “Our enemies, particularly the Zionist regime [Israel], America and its allies, should know that any kind of threat and attack or even thinking about any military action will be firmly responded to”.

Source: New American

So is all this sabre rattling just a coincidence with the timing of the present teetering European economy?

Are the powers-that-be arranging an attack on Iran to shift the public’s mind off the likely horrific socio-economic domino effect of failure to bailout Greece, then Italy, then Spain, then… ?

If Israel goes it alone, will the US be drawn in to the fight?

Will Iran follow through with its promises to destroy Israel off the face of the Earth and to inflict great harm to the West?

Will oil prices rise well above $100 and send the already faltering economies into a faster tailspin?

There are lots of questions. The one thing we can do is to become better prepared for an economic collapse, be it induced from a catalyst of war, or entirely by it’s own weight. Stay abreast of the news, build an inventory of food and supplies, and don’t put all your eggs in one basket – for starters…

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