Build up to WW3
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North Korea says will fire on South if leaflets dropped
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/19/us-korea-north-idUSBRE89I09Y20121019
(Reuters) - North Korea issued its most strident warning in months on Friday when it threatened to open fire on South Korean territory if anti-Pyongyang leaflets were sent over from South Korean territory.
It said that if leaflets were dropped on Monday a "merciless military strike by the Western Front will be put into practice without warning", according to state news agency KCNA.
It said it would target a tourist area in the border city of Paju a few miles from the demilitarised zone that separates the two countries if the launch went ahead.
A coalition of non-government groups said it would go ahead with plans to drop anti-North Korea leaflets on Monday at 11:30 a.m. (0230 GMT) as part of their campaign against Pyongyang.
North Korea shelled a South Korean island almost two years ago, causing civilian deaths. In 2010, the North was widely blamed for sinking a South Korean navy ship, although it denied responsibility.
KCNA frequently carries anti-South Korean rhetoric, although a specific threat to an exact area has been rare in recent months.
"The KPA (Korean People's Army) never makes any empty talk," KCNA quoted military commanders as saying.
The leader of a coalition of groups comprising North Korean exiles and human rights activists said they intend to go ahead with the plan to send giant balloons containing 200,000 leaflets criticizing North Korea's government.
"We had similar threats last year and they did not stop us before and this is not going to stop us this time," said Pak Sang-hak, a North Korean exile who defected to the South 12 years ago.
Pak and his colleagues plan to put 1,000 $1 notes in the leaflets inside plastic bags. They say the U.S. dollars are prized by the impoverished people of North Korea.
(Reporting by David Chance and Jack Kim; Editing by Ken Wills)
(Reuters) - North Korea issued its most strident warning in months on Friday when it threatened to open fire on South Korean territory if anti-Pyongyang leaflets were sent over from South Korean territory.
It said that if leaflets were dropped on Monday a "merciless military strike by the Western Front will be put into practice without warning", according to state news agency KCNA.
It said it would target a tourist area in the border city of Paju a few miles from the demilitarised zone that separates the two countries if the launch went ahead.
A coalition of non-government groups said it would go ahead with plans to drop anti-North Korea leaflets on Monday at 11:30 a.m. (0230 GMT) as part of their campaign against Pyongyang.
North Korea shelled a South Korean island almost two years ago, causing civilian deaths. In 2010, the North was widely blamed for sinking a South Korean navy ship, although it denied responsibility.
KCNA frequently carries anti-South Korean rhetoric, although a specific threat to an exact area has been rare in recent months.
"The KPA (Korean People's Army) never makes any empty talk," KCNA quoted military commanders as saying.
The leader of a coalition of groups comprising North Korean exiles and human rights activists said they intend to go ahead with the plan to send giant balloons containing 200,000 leaflets criticizing North Korea's government.
"We had similar threats last year and they did not stop us before and this is not going to stop us this time," said Pak Sang-hak, a North Korean exile who defected to the South 12 years ago.
Pak and his colleagues plan to put 1,000 $1 notes in the leaflets inside plastic bags. They say the U.S. dollars are prized by the impoverished people of North Korea.
(Reporting by David Chance and Jack Kim; Editing by Ken Wills)
South Korea says it will strike back if attacked by North
(Reuters) - South Korea would launch a counter-strike at the source of any North Korean attack, Defence Minister Kim Kwan-jin said on Friday, after Pyongyang threatened to open fire on South Korean territory if anti-North leaflets were sent over their border.
"If that were to happen, there will be a perfect response against the source of the attack," Kim was quoted by Yonhap news agency as telling a parliamentary committee when asked about the threat made by the North earlier on Friday.
North Korea said it would deal a "merciless military strike" if leaflets were dropped as scheduled on Monday. A non-government group of North Korean exiles and activists said it would go ahead with a plan to send anti-Pyongyang propaganda.
(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Paul Tait)
"If that were to happen, there will be a perfect response against the source of the attack," Kim was quoted by Yonhap news agency as telling a parliamentary committee when asked about the threat made by the North earlier on Friday.
North Korea said it would deal a "merciless military strike" if leaflets were dropped as scheduled on Monday. A non-government group of North Korean exiles and activists said it would go ahead with a plan to send anti-Pyongyang propaganda.
(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Paul Tait)
Re: Build up to WW3
IDFSpokesperson
As part of operation #Pillar Of Defense, the #IDF will begin recruiting 16,000 reservists. #Gaza
As part of operation #Pillar Of Defense, the #IDF will begin recruiting 16,000 reservists. #Gaza
Re: Build up to WW3
IDFSpokesperson
As part of operation #Pillar Of Defense, the #IDF will begin recruiting 16,000 reservists. #Gaza
As part of operation #Pillar Of Defense, the #IDF will begin recruiting 16,000 reservists. #Gaza
Israel air strikes hit Hamas HQ
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20374282#TWEET369755
Israeli air strikes have targeted the headquarters of Gaza's Hamas leaders, as the bombardment of the coastal enclave moved into a fourth day.
Witnesses reported extensive damage to the building, which Egypt's PM Hisham Qandil had visited on Friday.
At least 29 Palestinians and three Israelis have died since Israel killed Hamas's military chief on Wednesday.
Israel earlier put 75,000 reservists on stand-by amid speculation of a ground invasion.
Militants in Gaza have continued to fire rockets into Israel, aiming at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Friday.
Drones over Gaza
After a lull overnight - with correspondents reporting that the area was quiet but for the almost-constant buzz of drones overhead - Gaza City was hit by a series of large explosions just before dawn on Saturday.
There was another series of strikes in and around Gaza City shortly after 05:00, with several targeting Hamas' cabinet buildings.
Continue reading the main story
Your stories: Israel and Gaza
“
Start Quote
When the F16s fly low, it's like a monster chasing its victim”
Muhammad Abu Shaban, Gaza City
Continue reading the main story
“
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It was terrifying for my nieces and nephews”
Hen Kinan, Beersheba, Israel
Israel and Gaza violence: Your stories
Gaza crisis at critical juncture
In pictures: Violence in Gaza and Israel
Press unease at deepening Gaza conflict
The BBC's Jon Donnison tweeted: "Five big air strikes now shaking my room. Feels close."
Israel's military said it had targeted 180 sites since midnight.
Rumours have been swirling that a ground attack is imminent, but Israeli officials say no decision has been made.
Israel blocked access to three major routes leading into Gaza on Friday; call-up papers have already been sent to 16,000 Israeli reservists, with officials authorising the mobilisation of another 75,000.
Militants and civilians, including at least seven children, have been among the Palestinians killed during the two-day Israeli bombardment, Hamas says.
Hamas's military leader Ahmed Jabari was killed by an Israeli air strike on Wednesday. A senior commander was killed on Friday, officials said.
Two Israeli women and a man died when a rocket hit a building in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi on Thursday, officials said.
Before the recent offensive, Israel had repeatedly carried out air strikes on Gaza, as Palestinian militants fired rockets across the border.
On Friday, Hamas said it fired rockets at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem: Haaretz newspaper said it was the first time since 1970 that a rocket had been fired at Jerusalem.
Iran ready to double uranium enrichment at Fordo - IAEA
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20368030
Iran ready to double uranium enrichment at Fordo - IAEA
In January, Iran said it had begun uranium enrichment at the heavily fortified Fordo facility
Continue reading the main story
Iran nuclear crisis
Far apart
Western 'sabotage'
Ongoing stand-off
UK mulls options
Iran is ready to double the output at its underground uranium enrichment facility, the UN nuclear watchdog says.
A leaked report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said there were 2,784 centrifuges at Fordo, and that Iran could soon double the number operating from 700 to 1,400.
The development is likely to fuel Western suspicions that Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
The government in Tehran insists the nuclear programme is entirely peaceful.
Talks this year about the uranium enrichment programme between Iran and the so-called P5+1 - the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany - have made little progress.
Bushehr fuel 'removed'
Iran's progress at Fordo was disclosed in a leaked report based on the findings of the IAEA's inspectors, who visit the facility regularly.
While the uranium enrichment plant is not yet fully operational - with only about 700 of the 3,000 centrifuges the facility is designed in use - experts say it could be within months.
The IAEA report said four new cascades of 174 centrifuges each "having been subjected to vacuum testing, were ready for feeding" with uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas.
Once the new cascades were in operation, monthly production of 20%-enriched (medium-enriched) uranium would be about 25kg (55lb) per month, compared with 15kg at present, one official said.
The facility at Fordo, which is buried deep under a mountain inside a military base near the holy city of Qom, is designed to contain 16 cascades producing medium-enriched uranium, which experts say could be enriched to about 90%, or weapons-grade, in a relatively short time.
The IAEA also revealed in its report that Iran had produced about 233kg (512lb) of higher-grade enriched uranium since 2010, an increase of 43kg since August.
Earlier this year, the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) used 96kg of its supply of 20%-enriched uranium for conversion into fuel for its medical research reactor in Tehran. Experts say it would be difficult to turn the fuel into weapons-grade uranium.
Nuclear fuel had also been removed from the core of the nuclear reactor at Bushehr without a reason being given by Iran, the IAEA added.
The report also said that "extensive activities" at the Parchin military site had seriously undermined an investigation into indications that experiments related to nuclear weapons might have been carried out there. Iran is suspected of attempting to removing evidence.
Iran has denied that there are any nuclear-related activities at Parchin.
The IAEA's report concluded that the agency was "unable... to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities".
Re: Build up to WW3
all its gonna take is one of these govs, to say "fuck it we aint got shit to lose no more"..than bam we all dead
Re: Build up to WW3
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/12/syria-chemical-weapons-3/
Exclusive: U.S. Sees Syria Prepping Chemical Weapons for Possible Attack
BY NOAH SHACHTMAN AND SPENCER ACKERMAN12.03.1212:57 PM
Kansas National Guardsmen practice decontamination techniques in the event of a chemical weapons attack. Photo: National Guard Bureau
Engineers working for the Assad regime in Syria have begun combining the two chemical precursors needed to weaponize sarin gas, an American official with knowledge of the situation tells Danger Room. International observers are now more worried than they’ve even been that the Damascus government could use its nerve agent stockpile to slaughter its own people.
The U.S. doesn’t know why the Syrian military made the move, which began in the middle of last week and is taking place in central Syria. Nor are they sure why the Assad government is transferring some weapons to different locations within the country, as the New York Times reported on Monday.
All that’s certain is that the arms have now been prepped to be used, should Assad order it.
“Physically, they’ve gotten to the point where the can load it up on a plane and drop it,” the official adds.
Sarin gas has two main chemical components — isopropanol, popularly known as rubbing alcohol, and methylphosphonyl difluoride. The Assad government has more than 500 metric tons of these precursors, which it ordinarily stores separately, in so-called “binary” form, in order to prevent an accidental release of nerve gas.
Last week, that changed. The Syrian military began combining some of the binaries. “They didn’t do it on the whole arsenal, just a modest quantity,” the official says. “We’re not sure what’s the intent.”
Back in July, the Assad regime publicly warned that it might use its chemical weapons to stop “external” forces from interfering in Syria’s bloody civil war. The announcement sparked a panic in the intelligence services of the U.S. and its allies, which stepped up their efforts to block shipments of precursors for those weapons from entering the country.
“This is a more serious moment than July,” according to the official.
At the Pentagon, chief spokesman George Little said that “any consideration of the use of chemical weapons by the use of the Syrian regime would be unacceptable.” In Prague, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the use of those weapons “a red line” that would prompt a U.S. response, which Little declined to elaborate upon.
“The Syrian regime must maintain security over their chemical weapons stockpiles and must not use chemical weapons against their own people,” Little said.
It’s unclear whether the chemical weapons movements is preparation for an outright offensive. But Mideastern nations and international groups are taking precautions, because of the dangers both conventional and not. The U.N. is pulling non-essential staff out of Damascus. Egypt ordered a commercial plane to Damascus to turn back around, and Israeli officials have quietly mooted a plan to the Jordanians for taking out the chemical sites, the Atlantic reported. Pentagon officials have suggested securing those sites would require some 75,000 troops — an indication of the Pentagon’s reluctance to deepen its involvement in Syria.
Assad’s position appears to have weakened recently. Fighting around the Syrian capital of Damascus has intensified, as rebel troops captured a half-dozen bases around the city. Damascus’ airport, a major logistics hub, is under threat, and the regime was forced to bring in “troop reinforcements to secure the route to the airport,” reported the Los Angeles Times. The rebel gains have been the most dramatic in the north and east. Over the course of last month, rebel forces overran more towns near the Turkish border and seized a major military base near the besieged city of Aleppo, which netted an arsenal of heavy weapons including tanks, howitzers and armored personnel vehicles. Assad has continued to retaliate, with more reports of cluster bomb attacks filtering out of Syria, and another round of air attacks on rebel-controlled villages.
Even Assad’s ability to strike the rebels from the air is under challenge. In two videos posted online in recent weeks, a Syrian air force Mi-8 helicopter operating near Aleppo was seen being shot down by a missile. In another set of videos that appeared online prior to the attack, the rebels have what appears to be SA-7 man-portable anti-aircraft weapons, or MANPADS. And those might not be the only ones the rebels have. A series of photos on rebel Facebook pages, collected by blogger Eliot Higgins at the Brown Moses blog – a go-to source for images of the Syrian conflict — rebels associated with extremist group Ansar al-Islam are shown posing with what appears to be incomplete SA-16 and SA-24 anti-aircraft missile tubes. Those Russian-made MANPADS are some of the most advanced on the market and pose a major proliferation risk.
On Thursday, Syria abruptly became disconnected from the internet, likely after the regime disabled the four cables that provide Syria with connectivity. The rebels use the internet not only to document regime atrocities but to disseminate training tactics and to spread their propaganda. Yet the regime also relies on the internet: It’s tried to hijack rebel hardware by spreading spyware in the form of fake security software. As the SecDev group internet security consultancy predicted last week, the outage ended quickly, as online monitor Renesys confirmed a “largely complete restoration of the Syrian Internet” by Saturday.
The U.S. official doesn’t believe the internet blackout was related to the combination of the chemical weapon binaries. And at the Pentagon, Defense Department spokesman Little said the online outage didn’t make a difference for the U.S. understanding of Assad’s dangerous weapons. “The U.S. government has good visibility into the chemical weapons program and we continue to monitor it,” Little said.
One U.S. official worried to CNN that “this puts us into the contingency of potential U.S. action.” But it’s far from clear what a U.S. response might look like. The Pentagon has suggested that securing Syria’s chemical stockpiles will be a massive undertaking, requiring some 75,000 troops, while the Afghanistan war drags on. NATO will decide a early as Tuesday whether to station Patriot missile batteries in Turkey, but that defensive measure is a far cry from a decision to seize Syria’s chemical weapons. Until recently, that seemed like an extremely remote possibility. But that was before Assad’s engineers began their poisonous combinations.
Re: Build up to WW3
Indian navy ready to deploy to South China Sea as tensions climb
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/04/us-china-sea-idUSBRE8B303M20121204
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/04/us-china-sea-idUSBRE8B303M20121204
(Reuters) - India has declared itself ready to deploy naval vessels to the South China Sea to protect its oil-exploration interests there, a potential new escalation of tensions in a disputed area where fears of armed conflict have been growing steadily.
India's naval chief made the statement on Monday just as Vietnam's state oil and gas company, Petrovietnam, accused Chinese boats of sabotaging an exploration operation by cutting a seismic cable being towed behind a Vietnamese vessel.
Petrovietnam said the seismic vessel, Binh Minh 02, had been operating outside the Gulf of Tonkin when the cable was severed on Friday. It had earlier been surveying the Nam Con Son basin further south -- an area where Indian state-run explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has a stake in a Vietnamese gas field.
Indian Navy Chief Admiral D.K Joshi said that, while India was not a territorial claimant in the South China Sea, it was prepared to act, if necessary, to protect its maritime and economic interests in the region.
"When the requirement is there, for example, in situations where our country's interests are involved, for example ONGC ... we will be required to go there and we are prepared for that," Joshi told a news conference.
"Now, are we preparing for it? Are we having exercises of that nature? The short answer is yes," he said.
Petrovietnam posted on its website comments made by the deputy head of exploration, Pham Viet Dung, to a journalist from Vietnam's Petrotimes that the seismic cable was quickly repaired and the survey resumed the following day.
"The blatant violation of Vietnamese waters by Chinese fishing vessels not only violates the sovereignty ... of Vietnam but also interferes in the normal operations of Vietnamese fishermen and affects the maritime activities of Petrovietnam," Dung was quoted as saying.
Tensions have simmered in the South China Sea for many years but have escalated this year as an increasingly powerful China, which sees virtually the entire sea as its territory, begins to assert its long-standing offshore claims more vigorously.
Parts of the South China Sea are also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan. The region, Asia's biggest potential military troublespot, is believed to be rich in oil and gas -- and more than half the world's oil-tanker traffic passes through it.
Last week, Chinese state media said police in southern Hainan province would board and search ships which illegally entered what China considers its territory in the sea -- a move that immediately raised fears for the free passage of international shipping and the possibility of a naval clash.
COLLISION COURSE?
India is not the only non-claimant nation concerned about disruption to shipping or oil exploration in the South China Sea. The United States, a close ally to several of the Southeast Asian claimants, has also voiced concern at the prospect of China stopping international ships in contested waters.
India has sparred diplomatically with China in the past over its gas and oil exploration block off the coast of Vietnam.
Any display of naval assertiveness by India in the South China Sea would likely fuel concern that the navies of the two rapidly growing Asian giants could be on a collision course as they seek to protect trade routes and lock in the supply of coal, minerals and other raw material from foreign sources.
Admiral Joshi described the modernization of China's navy as "truly impressive" and a source of major concern for India.
"It is one of the most important international waterways and freedom of navigation there is an issue of utmost concern to India because a large portion of India's trade is through the South China Sea," said Brahma Chellaney, an analyst at the Centre for Policy Research, in New Delhi.
Chellaney, however, played down Joshi's comments, saying the Indian navy's focus would remain on the Indian Ocean, which the South Asian nation views as its strategic backyard.
Singapore, home to the world's second-busiest container port, joined some of its neighbors on Monday in expressing concern at the Chinese reports that Hainan police would board and search ships under rules to take effect from January 1.
"We urge all parties to the territorial disputes in the South China Sea to refrain from provocative behavior," the Singapore government said in a statement.
Asked about the reports of China's plan to board ships, Joshi said India had the right to self-defense.
Estimates for proven and undiscovered oil reserves in the South China Sea range as high as 213 billion barrels of oil, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a 2008 report.
That would surpass every country's proven oil reserves except Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, according to the BP Statistical Review.
On Monday, China's National Energy Administration said China aims to produce 15 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year from the South China Sea by 2015.
It said the South China Sea would "form the main part" of China's offshore gas exploration plans.
(Reporting by Arup Roychoudhury and Mayank Bhardwaj in NEW DELHI, Kevin Lim in SINGAPORE and John Ruwitch in SHANGHAI, and Ho Binh Minh in HANOI; Editing by Mark Bendeich and Paul Tait)
Re: Build up to WW3
DontxTrip wrote:http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/12/syria-chemical-weapons-3/Exclusive: U.S. Sees Syria Prepping Chemical Weapons for Possible Attack
BY NOAH SHACHTMAN AND SPENCER ACKERMAN12.03.1212:57 PM
Kansas National Guardsmen practice decontamination techniques in the event of a chemical weapons attack. Photo: National Guard Bureau
Engineers working for the Assad regime in Syria have begun combining the two chemical precursors needed to weaponize sarin gas, an American official with knowledge of the situation tells Danger Room. International observers are now more worried than they’ve even been that the Damascus government could use its nerve agent stockpile to slaughter its own people.
The U.S. doesn’t know why the Syrian military made the move, which began in the middle of last week and is taking place in central Syria. Nor are they sure why the Assad government is transferring some weapons to different locations within the country, as the New York Times reported on Monday.
All that’s certain is that the arms have now been prepped to be used, should Assad order it.
“Physically, they’ve gotten to the point where the can load it up on a plane and drop it,” the official adds.
Sarin gas has two main chemical components — isopropanol, popularly known as rubbing alcohol, and methylphosphonyl difluoride. The Assad government has more than 500 metric tons of these precursors, which it ordinarily stores separately, in so-called “binary” form, in order to prevent an accidental release of nerve gas.
Last week, that changed. The Syrian military began combining some of the binaries. “They didn’t do it on the whole arsenal, just a modest quantity,” the official says. “We’re not sure what’s the intent.”
Back in July, the Assad regime publicly warned that it might use its chemical weapons to stop “external” forces from interfering in Syria’s bloody civil war. The announcement sparked a panic in the intelligence services of the U.S. and its allies, which stepped up their efforts to block shipments of precursors for those weapons from entering the country.
“This is a more serious moment than July,” according to the official.
At the Pentagon, chief spokesman George Little said that “any consideration of the use of chemical weapons by the use of the Syrian regime would be unacceptable.” In Prague, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the use of those weapons “a red line” that would prompt a U.S. response, which Little declined to elaborate upon.
“The Syrian regime must maintain security over their chemical weapons stockpiles and must not use chemical weapons against their own people,” Little said.
It’s unclear whether the chemical weapons movements is preparation for an outright offensive. But Mideastern nations and international groups are taking precautions, because of the dangers both conventional and not. The U.N. is pulling non-essential staff out of Damascus. Egypt ordered a commercial plane to Damascus to turn back around, and Israeli officials have quietly mooted a plan to the Jordanians for taking out the chemical sites, the Atlantic reported. Pentagon officials have suggested securing those sites would require some 75,000 troops — an indication of the Pentagon’s reluctance to deepen its involvement in Syria.
Assad’s position appears to have weakened recently. Fighting around the Syrian capital of Damascus has intensified, as rebel troops captured a half-dozen bases around the city. Damascus’ airport, a major logistics hub, is under threat, and the regime was forced to bring in “troop reinforcements to secure the route to the airport,” reported the Los Angeles Times. The rebel gains have been the most dramatic in the north and east. Over the course of last month, rebel forces overran more towns near the Turkish border and seized a major military base near the besieged city of Aleppo, which netted an arsenal of heavy weapons including tanks, howitzers and armored personnel vehicles. Assad has continued to retaliate, with more reports of cluster bomb attacks filtering out of Syria, and another round of air attacks on rebel-controlled villages.
Even Assad’s ability to strike the rebels from the air is under challenge. In two videos posted online in recent weeks, a Syrian air force Mi-8 helicopter operating near Aleppo was seen being shot down by a missile. In another set of videos that appeared online prior to the attack, the rebels have what appears to be SA-7 man-portable anti-aircraft weapons, or MANPADS. And those might not be the only ones the rebels have. A series of photos on rebel Facebook pages, collected by blogger Eliot Higgins at the Brown Moses blog – a go-to source for images of the Syrian conflict — rebels associated with extremist group Ansar al-Islam are shown posing with what appears to be incomplete SA-16 and SA-24 anti-aircraft missile tubes. Those Russian-made MANPADS are some of the most advanced on the market and pose a major proliferation risk.
On Thursday, Syria abruptly became disconnected from the internet, likely after the regime disabled the four cables that provide Syria with connectivity. The rebels use the internet not only to document regime atrocities but to disseminate training tactics and to spread their propaganda. Yet the regime also relies on the internet: It’s tried to hijack rebel hardware by spreading spyware in the form of fake security software. As the SecDev group internet security consultancy predicted last week, the outage ended quickly, as online monitor Renesys confirmed a “largely complete restoration of the Syrian Internet” by Saturday.
The U.S. official doesn’t believe the internet blackout was related to the combination of the chemical weapon binaries. And at the Pentagon, Defense Department spokesman Little said the online outage didn’t make a difference for the U.S. understanding of Assad’s dangerous weapons. “The U.S. government has good visibility into the chemical weapons program and we continue to monitor it,” Little said.
One U.S. official worried to CNN that “this puts us into the contingency of potential U.S. action.” But it’s far from clear what a U.S. response might look like. The Pentagon has suggested that securing Syria’s chemical stockpiles will be a massive undertaking, requiring some 75,000 troops, while the Afghanistan war drags on. NATO will decide a early as Tuesday whether to station Patriot missile batteries in Turkey, but that defensive measure is a far cry from a decision to seize Syria’s chemical weapons. Until recently, that seemed like an extremely remote possibility. But that was before Assad’s engineers began their poisonous combinations.
Just another excuse to take down Syria to make way for what they want done in Iran.
Re: Build up to WW3
DontxTrip wrote:Indian navy ready to deploy to South China Sea as tensions climb
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/04/us-china-sea-idUSBRE8B303M20121204(Reuters) - India has declared itself ready to deploy naval vessels to the South China Sea to protect its oil-exploration interests there, a potential new escalation of tensions in a disputed area where fears of armed conflict have been growing steadily.
India's naval chief made the statement on Monday just as Vietnam's state oil and gas company, Petrovietnam, accused Chinese boats of sabotaging an exploration operation by cutting a seismic cable being towed behind a Vietnamese vessel.
Petrovietnam said the seismic vessel, Binh Minh 02, had been operating outside the Gulf of Tonkin when the cable was severed on Friday. It had earlier been surveying the Nam Con Son basin further south -- an area where Indian state-run explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has a stake in a Vietnamese gas field.
Indian Navy Chief Admiral D.K Joshi said that, while India was not a territorial claimant in the South China Sea, it was prepared to act, if necessary, to protect its maritime and economic interests in the region.
"When the requirement is there, for example, in situations where our country's interests are involved, for example ONGC ... we will be required to go there and we are prepared for that," Joshi told a news conference.
"Now, are we preparing for it? Are we having exercises of that nature? The short answer is yes," he said.
Petrovietnam posted on its website comments made by the deputy head of exploration, Pham Viet Dung, to a journalist from Vietnam's Petrotimes that the seismic cable was quickly repaired and the survey resumed the following day.
"The blatant violation of Vietnamese waters by Chinese fishing vessels not only violates the sovereignty ... of Vietnam but also interferes in the normal operations of Vietnamese fishermen and affects the maritime activities of Petrovietnam," Dung was quoted as saying.
Tensions have simmered in the South China Sea for many years but have escalated this year as an increasingly powerful China, which sees virtually the entire sea as its territory, begins to assert its long-standing offshore claims more vigorously.
Parts of the South China Sea are also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan. The region, Asia's biggest potential military troublespot, is believed to be rich in oil and gas -- and more than half the world's oil-tanker traffic passes through it.
Last week, Chinese state media said police in southern Hainan province would board and search ships which illegally entered what China considers its territory in the sea -- a move that immediately raised fears for the free passage of international shipping and the possibility of a naval clash.
COLLISION COURSE?
India is not the only non-claimant nation concerned about disruption to shipping or oil exploration in the South China Sea. The United States, a close ally to several of the Southeast Asian claimants, has also voiced concern at the prospect of China stopping international ships in contested waters.
India has sparred diplomatically with China in the past over its gas and oil exploration block off the coast of Vietnam.
Any display of naval assertiveness by India in the South China Sea would likely fuel concern that the navies of the two rapidly growing Asian giants could be on a collision course as they seek to protect trade routes and lock in the supply of coal, minerals and other raw material from foreign sources.
Admiral Joshi described the modernization of China's navy as "truly impressive" and a source of major concern for India.
"It is one of the most important international waterways and freedom of navigation there is an issue of utmost concern to India because a large portion of India's trade is through the South China Sea," said Brahma Chellaney, an analyst at the Centre for Policy Research, in New Delhi.
Chellaney, however, played down Joshi's comments, saying the Indian navy's focus would remain on the Indian Ocean, which the South Asian nation views as its strategic backyard.
Singapore, home to the world's second-busiest container port, joined some of its neighbors on Monday in expressing concern at the Chinese reports that Hainan police would board and search ships under rules to take effect from January 1.
"We urge all parties to the territorial disputes in the South China Sea to refrain from provocative behavior," the Singapore government said in a statement.
Asked about the reports of China's plan to board ships, Joshi said India had the right to self-defense.
Estimates for proven and undiscovered oil reserves in the South China Sea range as high as 213 billion barrels of oil, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a 2008 report.
That would surpass every country's proven oil reserves except Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, according to the BP Statistical Review.
On Monday, China's National Energy Administration said China aims to produce 15 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year from the South China Sea by 2015.
It said the South China Sea would "form the main part" of China's offshore gas exploration plans.
(Reporting by Arup Roychoudhury and Mayank Bhardwaj in NEW DELHI, Kevin Lim in SINGAPORE and John Ruwitch in SHANGHAI, and Ho Binh Minh in HANOI; Editing by Mark Bendeich and Paul Tait)
The war with Iran started along time ago as far as I'm concerned. When the US put harsh economic sanctions on them in order to purposely inflict harm on the Iranian people, it was an act of war. The US being the aggressor.
And the way US politicians speak of China so recklessly its obvious they're just want to fight as many wars as possible.
Re: Build up to WW3
@Reuters
FLASH: U.S. to work with partners in six-party talks to pursue "appropriate action" on North Korea - White House they all finna die
FLASH: U.S. to work with partners in six-party talks to pursue "appropriate action" on North Korea - White House they all finna die
Re: Build up to WW3
DontxTrip wrote:@Reuters
FLASH: U.S. to work with partners in six-party talks to pursue "appropriate action" on North Korea - White House they all finna die
im finna get zuited.!!! get your heats ready!
Forum Gawd- Boss
- Number of posts : 4842
Registration date : 2009-09-16
Age : 30
Location : Athol Street Nd Hemlock.!!!
Re: Build up to WW3
URGENT: China airplane enters Japanese air space over Senkakus: spokesman
A Chinese airplane entered Japanese air space over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea on Thursday, the top Japanese government spokesman said.
The Air Self-Defense Force scrambled F-15 jets after the Chinese Oceanic Administration airplane was spotted near Uotsuri Island at 11:06 a.m., Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters.
==Kyodo
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2012/12/199078.html
A Chinese airplane entered Japanese air space over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea on Thursday, the top Japanese government spokesman said.
The Air Self-Defense Force scrambled F-15 jets after the Chinese Oceanic Administration airplane was spotted near Uotsuri Island at 11:06 a.m., Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters.
==Kyodo
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2012/12/199078.html
Re: Build up to WW3
Al Qaeda grows powerful in Syria as endgame nears
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
AMMAN | Thu Dec 20, 2012 7:39am EST
(Reuters) - Having seen its star wane in Iraq, al Qaeda has staged a comeback in neighbouring Syria, posing a dilemma for the opposition fighting to remove President Bashar al-Assad and making the West balk at military backing for the revolt.
The rise of al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, al-Nusra Front, which the United States designated a terrorist organisation last week, could usher in a long and deadly confrontation with the West, and perhaps Israel.
Inside Syria, the group is exploiting a widening sectarian rift to recruit Sunnis who saw themselves as disenfranchised by Assad's Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that dominates Syria's power and security structures.
Al-Nusra appears to have gained popularity in a country that has turned more religious as the uprising, mainly among Sunni Muslims, has been met with increasing force by authorities.
It has claimed responsibility for spectacular and deadly bombings in Damascus and Aleppo, and its fighters have joined other rebel brigades in attacks on Assad's forces.
According to Site Intelligence group, Nusra claimed responsibility in one day alone last month for 45 attacks in Damascus, Deraa, Hama and Homs provinces that reportedly killed dozens, including 60 in a single suicide bombing.
"In 18 communiqués issued on jihadist forums ... most of which contain pictures of the attacks, the al-Nusra Front claimed ambushes, assassinations, bombings and raids against Syrian security forces and 'shabbiha', pro-Bashar al-Assad thugs," Site said.
REVIVING THE CALIPHATE
Members of the group interviewed by Reuters say al-Nusra aims to revive the Islamic Caliphate, which dates back to the Prophet Mohammad's seventh century companions, forerunners of the large empire that once stretched into Europe.
That prospect alarms many in Syria, from minority Christians, Alawites and Shi'ites to traditionally conservative but tolerant Sunni Muslims who are concerned that al-Nusra would try to impose Taliban-style rule.
Fear of religion-based repression has already prompted Kurds to barricade their quarter of Aleppo city and was behind fierce clashes between Kurdish and al-Nusra fighters in the border town of Ras al Ain in November.
The ideas of al-Nusra are also at odds with a new Syrian opposition coalition that was recognized last week by dozens of countries as an alternative to Assad and is committed to establishing a democratic alternative to Assad's rule.
Omar, a 25-year-old university graduate and former army conscript, said he deserted and joined al-Nusra in reaction to repression he experienced as a Sunni from Alawite officers who all but monopolize the army's higher echelons.
Prior to the revolt, Omar said he had sympathized quietly with Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamic international party with a vision for the restoration of the Islamic caliphate abolished by the secular Turkish strongman Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1924.
"Prayer in the army is banned, and if they suspected that you pray they would send you to the most remote posts," Omar said by phone from a rural area near Aleppo city.
"Our aim is to depose Assad, defend our people against the military crackdown and build the caliphate. Many in the Free Syrian Army have ideas like us and want an Islamic state."
"We and other Islamists have gained a reputation as being able to hold our own in battle. Lots of people want to join Nusra, but we do not have enough weapons to supply all of them."
But a woman teacher, who lives in the central Mogambo district of Aleppo, said Nusra's thinking was abhorrent.
"Al-Nusra thinks that by shouting Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest) they can justify anything they do. We did not rise up to move from the humiliation from being under Assad to the humiliation of being under al Qaeda," she said.
NUSRA ATTACKS
Opposition sources said many Syrians who facilitated the transfer of jihadis from Syria to al Qaeda in Iraq at the height of its campaign against U.S. forces there were now fighting for Nusra, while jihadis in Iraq had reversed their roles, arranging for transfer of personnel and bomb-making know-how into Syria.
The source of Nusra funding is unclear, though that, too, may come from Iraq.
Ibrahim, another young Nusra member in Idlib province, said he was imprisoned in the notorious Sednaya prison north of Damascus, where 170 mainly Islamist prisoners were killed after the army put down a mutiny in 2007. "We want revenge," he said.
Asked about a U.S. statement that Nusra operations were killing many civilians, Ibrahim said it was an exaggeration.
"A bomb goes off in front of a security compound with four cars full of shabbiha in civilian clothes guarding it. The shabbiha die and state media says they were civilian. Only their clothes are civilian," he said.
Several videos have appeared on the Internet in recent weeks purportedly showing al-Nusra-linked rebels shooting and in some instances beheading captured Assad soldiers.
But al-Nusra still appears to have wide support. Video footage on Friday showed crowds in southern Syria, the birthplace of the revolt, denouncing the U.S. designation of the group as terrorists and shouting "al-Nusra front protects us".
Farouk Tayfour, deputy head of the Muslim Brotherhood, who fought against Assad's father in the 1980s, said it was too early to categories opposition fighters. Some, he said, joined Nusra to defend their homes without subscribing to its ideology.
"NOT A MONOLITHIC GROUP"
The identity of al-Nusra's leadership is not clear. A shadowy figure known as Abu Muhammad al-Golani - whose nationality is not known - has been named by some as the head.
But an Islamist opposition campaigner who toured northern and central Syria a few days ago and met Nusra commanders said the group operates more like an umbrella organisation with little coordination between units in different regions.
"They are not a monolithic group. The nature of Nusra in Damascus is more tolerant than Idlib. They have a real popular base in Idlib, where most Nusra members are Syrians, as opposed to Aleppo and Damascus."
He said it did not appear to be seeking to impose Taliban-style control. "Many rebels I have met say they joined al-Nusra because the group has weapons, mostly seized from raids, and that they will go back home after the revolt," he added.
But many centrist opposition campaigners fear that al-Nusra will turn its guns on any non-Islamist order that could come if Assad was deposed. "The big question is how to contain Nusra in a post-Assad Syria," said an opposition figure linked to jihadist groups, who did not want to be identified.
"Al-Nusra is the type of group that could declare the most pious cleric a heretic and kill him in the middle of a mosque just because he does not share its view," he said.
Nusra members are estimated to number in the thousands and are particularly strong in the northern region of Aleppo and Idlib, where they have joined or carried out joint operations with Islamist groups such as Ahrar al-Sham and Liwa al-Tawhid unit.
In and around Damascus they are fewer in number but remain potent, and are only 20 kilometers (12 miles) at some points from the Golan Heights front with Israel.
Abu Munther, an engineer turned rebel who operates on the southern edge of Damascus and goes to Jordan to meet other rebels, said in Amman that al-Nusra numbered hundreds of people in Damascus, as opposed to thousands in the north.
But those numbers could grow. Al-Mujahideen brigade in the southern Tadamun neighborhood of Damascus declared its allegiance to al-Nusra after dissatisfaction with Arab-backed military groups headed by defector officers.
Another opposition figure, who did not want to be named, said international intelligence agencies were trying to curb Nusra's influence in Damascus and the southern Hauran Plain, where they are near Israel and close to the Jordanian border.
"Western intelligence agencies are realising that the Nusra is the biggest threat in a post-Assad Syria and are devoting more resources to deal with the threat," he said.
"For the first time al Qaeda is within striking distance of Israel," he said. "Many are realising that the best that could be done for now is to contain them in north Syria - even if the area risks becoming an Islamist emirate of sorts - while trying to build a civic form of government in and around Damascus."
Re: Build up to WW3
North Korea to target U.S. with nuclear, rocket tests
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/24/us-korea-north-nuclear-idUSBRE90N03I20130124
(Reuters) - North Korea said on Thursday it would carry out further rocket launches and a nuclear test that would target the United States, dramatically stepping up its threats against a country it called its "sworn enemy".
The announcement by the country's top military body came a day after the U.N. Security Council agreed a U.S.-backed resolution to censure and sanction the country for a rocket launch in December that breached its bans.
"We are not disguising the fact that the various satellites and long-range rockets that we will fire and the high-level nuclear test we will carry out are targeted at the United States," North Korea's National Defence Commission said, according to state news agency KCNA.
North Korea is believed by South Korea and other observers to be "technically ready" for a third nuclear test, and the decision to go ahead rests with leader Kim Jong-un who pressed ahead with the December rocket launch in defiance of the U.N. sanctions.
China, the one major diplomatic ally of the isolated and impoverished North, agreed to the U.S.-backed resolution and it also supported resolutions in 2006 and 2009 after Pyongyang's two earlier nuclear tests.
Thursday's statement by North Korea represents a huge challenge to Beijing as it undergoes a leadership transition with Xi Jinping due to take office in March.
North Korea has rejected proposals to restart the so-called six-party talks aimed at reining in its nuclear capacity.
"After all these years and numerous rounds of six-party talks we can see that China's influence over North Korea is actually very limited. All China can do is try to persuade them not to carry out their threats," said Cai Jian, an expert on Korea at Fudan University in Shanghai.
Analysts said the North could test as early as February as South Korea prepares to install a new, untested president or that it could choose to stage a nuclear explosion to coincide with former ruler Kim Jong-il's Feb 16 birthday.
"North Korea will have felt betrayed by China for agreeing to the latest U.N. resolution and they might be targeting (China) as well (with this statement)," said Lee Seung-yeol, senior research fellow at Ewha Institute of Unification Studies in Seoul.
U.S. URGES NO TEST
Washington urged North Korea not to proceed with a third test just as the North's statement was published on Thursday.
"Whether North Korea tests or not is up to North Korea," Glyn Davies, the top U.S. envoy for North Korean diplomacy, said in the South Korean capital of Seoul.
"We hope they don't do it. We call on them not to do it," Davies said after a meeting with South Korean officials. "This is not a moment to increase tensions on the Korean peninsula."
The North was banned from developing missile and nuclear technology under sanctions dating from its 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests.
A South Korean military official said the concern now is that Pyongyang could undertake a third nuclear test using highly enriched uranium for the first time, opening a second path to a bomb.
North Korea's 2006 nuclear test using plutonium produced a puny yield equivalent to one kiloton of TNT - compared with 13-18 kilotons for the Hiroshima bomb - and U.S. intelligence estimates put the 2009 test's yield at roughly two kilotons
North Korea is estimated to have enough fissile material for about a dozen plutonium warheads, although estimates vary, and intelligence reports suggest that it has been enriching uranium to supplement that stock and give it a second path to the bomb.
According to estimates from the Institute for Science and International Security from late 2012, North Korea could have enough weapons grade uranium for 21-32 nuclear weapons by 2016 if it used one centrifuge at its Yongbyon nuclear plant to enrich uranium to weapons grade.
North Korea gave no time-frame for the coming test and often employs harsh rhetoric in response to U.N. and U.S. actions that it sees as hostile.
Its long-range rockets are not seen as capable of reaching the United States mainland and it is not believed to have the technology to mount a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile.
The bellicose statement on Thursday appeared to dent any remaining hopes that Kim Jong-un, believed to be 30 years old, would pursue a different path from his father Kim Jong-il, who oversaw the country's military and nuclear programs.
The older Kim died in December 2011.
"The UNSC (Security Council) resolution masterminded by the U.S. has brought its hostile policy towards the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North Korea) to its most dangerous stage," the commission was quoted as saying.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/24/us-korea-north-nuclear-idUSBRE90N03I20130124
(Reuters) - North Korea said on Thursday it would carry out further rocket launches and a nuclear test that would target the United States, dramatically stepping up its threats against a country it called its "sworn enemy".
The announcement by the country's top military body came a day after the U.N. Security Council agreed a U.S.-backed resolution to censure and sanction the country for a rocket launch in December that breached its bans.
"We are not disguising the fact that the various satellites and long-range rockets that we will fire and the high-level nuclear test we will carry out are targeted at the United States," North Korea's National Defence Commission said, according to state news agency KCNA.
North Korea is believed by South Korea and other observers to be "technically ready" for a third nuclear test, and the decision to go ahead rests with leader Kim Jong-un who pressed ahead with the December rocket launch in defiance of the U.N. sanctions.
China, the one major diplomatic ally of the isolated and impoverished North, agreed to the U.S.-backed resolution and it also supported resolutions in 2006 and 2009 after Pyongyang's two earlier nuclear tests.
Thursday's statement by North Korea represents a huge challenge to Beijing as it undergoes a leadership transition with Xi Jinping due to take office in March.
North Korea has rejected proposals to restart the so-called six-party talks aimed at reining in its nuclear capacity.
"After all these years and numerous rounds of six-party talks we can see that China's influence over North Korea is actually very limited. All China can do is try to persuade them not to carry out their threats," said Cai Jian, an expert on Korea at Fudan University in Shanghai.
Analysts said the North could test as early as February as South Korea prepares to install a new, untested president or that it could choose to stage a nuclear explosion to coincide with former ruler Kim Jong-il's Feb 16 birthday.
"North Korea will have felt betrayed by China for agreeing to the latest U.N. resolution and they might be targeting (China) as well (with this statement)," said Lee Seung-yeol, senior research fellow at Ewha Institute of Unification Studies in Seoul.
U.S. URGES NO TEST
Washington urged North Korea not to proceed with a third test just as the North's statement was published on Thursday.
"Whether North Korea tests or not is up to North Korea," Glyn Davies, the top U.S. envoy for North Korean diplomacy, said in the South Korean capital of Seoul.
"We hope they don't do it. We call on them not to do it," Davies said after a meeting with South Korean officials. "This is not a moment to increase tensions on the Korean peninsula."
The North was banned from developing missile and nuclear technology under sanctions dating from its 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests.
A South Korean military official said the concern now is that Pyongyang could undertake a third nuclear test using highly enriched uranium for the first time, opening a second path to a bomb.
North Korea's 2006 nuclear test using plutonium produced a puny yield equivalent to one kiloton of TNT - compared with 13-18 kilotons for the Hiroshima bomb - and U.S. intelligence estimates put the 2009 test's yield at roughly two kilotons
North Korea is estimated to have enough fissile material for about a dozen plutonium warheads, although estimates vary, and intelligence reports suggest that it has been enriching uranium to supplement that stock and give it a second path to the bomb.
According to estimates from the Institute for Science and International Security from late 2012, North Korea could have enough weapons grade uranium for 21-32 nuclear weapons by 2016 if it used one centrifuge at its Yongbyon nuclear plant to enrich uranium to weapons grade.
North Korea gave no time-frame for the coming test and often employs harsh rhetoric in response to U.N. and U.S. actions that it sees as hostile.
Its long-range rockets are not seen as capable of reaching the United States mainland and it is not believed to have the technology to mount a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile.
The bellicose statement on Thursday appeared to dent any remaining hopes that Kim Jong-un, believed to be 30 years old, would pursue a different path from his father Kim Jong-il, who oversaw the country's military and nuclear programs.
The older Kim died in December 2011.
"The UNSC (Security Council) resolution masterminded by the U.S. has brought its hostile policy towards the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North Korea) to its most dangerous stage," the commission was quoted as saying.
Obama says struggling over whether to intervene in Syria
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/28/us-obama-syria-idUSBRE90R00V20130128
By Roberta Rampton
WASHINGTON | Sun Jan 27, 2013 8:28pm EST
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama said he has been wrestling with the question whether a U.S. military intervention in Syria's 22-month-old civil war would help resolve the bloody conflict or make things worse.
In a pair of interviews, Obama responded to critics who say the United States has not been involved enough in Syria, where thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced according to U.N. officials. Transcripts of both interviews were released on Sunday.
The United States has called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, and has recognized an opposition coalition - but has stopped short of authorizing U.S. arming of rebels to overthrow Assad.
"In a situation like Syria, I have to ask: can we make a difference in that situation?" Obama said in an interview with The New Republic published on the magazine's website.
Obama said he has to weigh the benefit of a military intervention with the ability of the Pentagon to support troops still in Afghanistan, where the United States is withdrawing combat forces after a dozen years of war.
"Could it trigger even worse violence or the use of chemical weapons? What offers the best prospect of a stable post-Assad regime?
"And how do I weigh tens of thousands who've been killed in Syria versus the tens of thousands who are currently being killed in the Congo?" he said.
Obama's comments come as world leaders gathered in Davos, Switzerland, said they wished the United States were more engaged in geopolitical issues such as the conflicts in Syria and Mali, where France is attacking al Qaeda-affiliated militants.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Saturday that the United States will fly tankers to refuel French jet fighters, expanding U.S. involvement, which had been limited to sharing intelligence and providing airlift support.
In an interview with CBS television program "60 Minutes," Obama bristled when asked to respond to criticism that the United States has been reluctant to engage in foreign policy issues like the Syrian crisis.
Obama said his administration put U.S. warplanes into the international effort to oust Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, and led a push to force Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak from office.
But in Syria, his administration wants to make sure U.S. action would not backfire, he said.
"We do nobody a service when we leap before we look, where we ... take on things without having thought through all the consequences of it," Obama told CBS.
"We are not going to be able to control every aspect of every transition and transformation" in conflicts around the world, he said. "Sometimes they're going to go sideways."
By Roberta Rampton
WASHINGTON | Sun Jan 27, 2013 8:28pm EST
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama said he has been wrestling with the question whether a U.S. military intervention in Syria's 22-month-old civil war would help resolve the bloody conflict or make things worse.
In a pair of interviews, Obama responded to critics who say the United States has not been involved enough in Syria, where thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced according to U.N. officials. Transcripts of both interviews were released on Sunday.
The United States has called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, and has recognized an opposition coalition - but has stopped short of authorizing U.S. arming of rebels to overthrow Assad.
"In a situation like Syria, I have to ask: can we make a difference in that situation?" Obama said in an interview with The New Republic published on the magazine's website.
Obama said he has to weigh the benefit of a military intervention with the ability of the Pentagon to support troops still in Afghanistan, where the United States is withdrawing combat forces after a dozen years of war.
"Could it trigger even worse violence or the use of chemical weapons? What offers the best prospect of a stable post-Assad regime?
"And how do I weigh tens of thousands who've been killed in Syria versus the tens of thousands who are currently being killed in the Congo?" he said.
Obama's comments come as world leaders gathered in Davos, Switzerland, said they wished the United States were more engaged in geopolitical issues such as the conflicts in Syria and Mali, where France is attacking al Qaeda-affiliated militants.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Saturday that the United States will fly tankers to refuel French jet fighters, expanding U.S. involvement, which had been limited to sharing intelligence and providing airlift support.
In an interview with CBS television program "60 Minutes," Obama bristled when asked to respond to criticism that the United States has been reluctant to engage in foreign policy issues like the Syrian crisis.
Obama said his administration put U.S. warplanes into the international effort to oust Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, and led a push to force Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak from office.
But in Syria, his administration wants to make sure U.S. action would not backfire, he said.
"We do nobody a service when we leap before we look, where we ... take on things without having thought through all the consequences of it," Obama told CBS.
"We are not going to be able to control every aspect of every transition and transformation" in conflicts around the world, he said. "Sometimes they're going to go sideways."
Iran threatens 'axis of resistance' if West attacks Syria
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/iran-threatens-axis-of-resistance-if-west-attacks-syria/story-fnb64oi6-1226562980235
IRAN will defend the Syrian government to the end to preserve an "axis of resistance" to Israel and the West, its ambassador in Damascus has warned.
It is already providing military and security advice to Syrian forces caught in an "impasse" with rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad, said ambassador Mohammad Reza Raouf Sheibani.
He denied US reports that Iran had supplied weapons and combat troops, but did not rule out further support if Syria asked for it. "We believe that we have to defend the axis of resistance, which must remain strong and solid," Sheibani said in an interview.
His warning was reinforced when an aide to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Iran would respond to any attack on Syria as if it were itself under fire.
"Syria has a very basic and key role in the region for promoting firm policies of resistance," said Ali Akbar Velayati, the aide. "For this reason, an attack on Syria would be considered an attack on Iran and Iran's allies."
Iran, which faces the threat of possible airstrikes against its nuclear programme by Israel, has been a steadfast ally to Mr Assad during a war that is thought to have claimed 60,000 lives and displaced an estimated 3.2 million people.
On Saturday, rebel positions on the outskirts of Damascus, the capital, were shelled continuously. The booms of artillery fire echoed across the city, punctuated by MiG fighters roaring through the skies.
The Shia leaders of Iran and Syria have condemned support for the rebels from Sunni-led countries such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which are believed to be arming and financing foreign jihadist elements of the opposition.
The ambassador claimed the presence of trained, armed extremists on the Mediterranean would eventually have serious consequences for Europe. The jihadists in Syria would turn against the West, he said.
Sheibani urged British Prime Minister David Cameron, US President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to stay out of the conflict.
"No leader in the world has the right to say what should or should not happen in Syria," he said. "Such decisions are solely the right of the Syrian people."
Russia urged the international community last week to let Iran play a positive role in ending the violence. "We should involve the Iranians rather than isolate them," said deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov.
The ambassador said Iran had engaged in talks with opposition groups, but some seemed convinced only military action would end the crisis.
The conflict's impact on life in Damascus is increasingly felt. Last year the inhabitants jumped at the sound of an explosion. Now they no longer flinch. Gone are the days when streets and souks remained open until the early morning. Most people lock their doors when the sun goes down, preferring the safety of their homes to the risk of being kidnapped or the hassle of a checkpoint.
Although food is plentiful in the capital - for those who can afford the rising prices - a fuel shortage has left only a few garages to supply the city, and drivers begin queuing at 6am. Iran is to allow imports of Syrian produce worth up to $US1 billion (to boost the economy. It has also agreed to give Syrian importers $US1bn of credit to buy Iranian supplies.
The ambassador said only dialogue would resolve a conflict in which neither side is making clear progress. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who predicted last month that the end for Mr Assad was near, admitted last week: "Things are not moving."
The Sunday Times
IRAN will defend the Syrian government to the end to preserve an "axis of resistance" to Israel and the West, its ambassador in Damascus has warned.
It is already providing military and security advice to Syrian forces caught in an "impasse" with rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad, said ambassador Mohammad Reza Raouf Sheibani.
He denied US reports that Iran had supplied weapons and combat troops, but did not rule out further support if Syria asked for it. "We believe that we have to defend the axis of resistance, which must remain strong and solid," Sheibani said in an interview.
His warning was reinforced when an aide to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Iran would respond to any attack on Syria as if it were itself under fire.
"Syria has a very basic and key role in the region for promoting firm policies of resistance," said Ali Akbar Velayati, the aide. "For this reason, an attack on Syria would be considered an attack on Iran and Iran's allies."
Iran, which faces the threat of possible airstrikes against its nuclear programme by Israel, has been a steadfast ally to Mr Assad during a war that is thought to have claimed 60,000 lives and displaced an estimated 3.2 million people.
On Saturday, rebel positions on the outskirts of Damascus, the capital, were shelled continuously. The booms of artillery fire echoed across the city, punctuated by MiG fighters roaring through the skies.
The Shia leaders of Iran and Syria have condemned support for the rebels from Sunni-led countries such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which are believed to be arming and financing foreign jihadist elements of the opposition.
The ambassador claimed the presence of trained, armed extremists on the Mediterranean would eventually have serious consequences for Europe. The jihadists in Syria would turn against the West, he said.
Sheibani urged British Prime Minister David Cameron, US President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to stay out of the conflict.
"No leader in the world has the right to say what should or should not happen in Syria," he said. "Such decisions are solely the right of the Syrian people."
Russia urged the international community last week to let Iran play a positive role in ending the violence. "We should involve the Iranians rather than isolate them," said deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov.
The ambassador said Iran had engaged in talks with opposition groups, but some seemed convinced only military action would end the crisis.
The conflict's impact on life in Damascus is increasingly felt. Last year the inhabitants jumped at the sound of an explosion. Now they no longer flinch. Gone are the days when streets and souks remained open until the early morning. Most people lock their doors when the sun goes down, preferring the safety of their homes to the risk of being kidnapped or the hassle of a checkpoint.
Although food is plentiful in the capital - for those who can afford the rising prices - a fuel shortage has left only a few garages to supply the city, and drivers begin queuing at 6am. Iran is to allow imports of Syrian produce worth up to $US1 billion (to boost the economy. It has also agreed to give Syrian importers $US1bn of credit to buy Iranian supplies.
The ambassador said only dialogue would resolve a conflict in which neither side is making clear progress. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who predicted last month that the end for Mr Assad was near, admitted last week: "Things are not moving."
The Sunday Times
Re: Build up to WW3
Iran, North Korea Sign Technology Agreement
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI 09/01/12 12:49 PM ET
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/01/iran-north-korea-agreements_n_1849281.html
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran and North Korea signed a scientific and technological cooperation agreement Saturday, bringing the two nations deeply at odds with the U.S. closer together.
Iranian state TV did not provide further details on the document but said it will include setting up joint scientific and technological laboratories, exchange of scientific teams between the two countries and transfer of technology in the fields of information technology, energy, environment, agriculture and food.
Any technical accord between Pyongyang and Tehran is likely to raise suspicions in the West. The U.S. has repeatedly accused North Korea of providing Iran with advanced missiles capable of targeting Western European capitals.
Last year, Iran denied a U.N. panel report saying that North Korea and Iran appear to have been regularly exchanging ballistic missiles, components and technology in violation of U.N. sanctions.
Iran's state TV said the agreement was signed in Tehran in the presence of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and North Korea's No. 2, Kim Yong Nam, by Iran's Minister of Science, Research and Technology Kamran Daneshjoo and North Korea's Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Kim, the North Korean Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, that North Korea and Iran have "common enemies."
"Arrogant powers don't tolerate independent governments," Khamenei told Kim. "In the march towards great goals, one should be serious, and pressures, sanctions and threats should not cause any crack in (our) determination."
In a separate meeting, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Kim's visit would have a "great impact on strengthening bilateral ties, expanding cooperation and boosting the anti-hegemonic front."
Both countries are bitter enemies of the U.S. and the West. Iranian and North Korean officials have said in the past that their nations are in "one trench" in the fight against the Western powers.
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI 09/01/12 12:49 PM ET
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/01/iran-north-korea-agreements_n_1849281.html
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran and North Korea signed a scientific and technological cooperation agreement Saturday, bringing the two nations deeply at odds with the U.S. closer together.
Iranian state TV did not provide further details on the document but said it will include setting up joint scientific and technological laboratories, exchange of scientific teams between the two countries and transfer of technology in the fields of information technology, energy, environment, agriculture and food.
Any technical accord between Pyongyang and Tehran is likely to raise suspicions in the West. The U.S. has repeatedly accused North Korea of providing Iran with advanced missiles capable of targeting Western European capitals.
Last year, Iran denied a U.N. panel report saying that North Korea and Iran appear to have been regularly exchanging ballistic missiles, components and technology in violation of U.N. sanctions.
Iran's state TV said the agreement was signed in Tehran in the presence of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and North Korea's No. 2, Kim Yong Nam, by Iran's Minister of Science, Research and Technology Kamran Daneshjoo and North Korea's Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Kim, the North Korean Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, that North Korea and Iran have "common enemies."
"Arrogant powers don't tolerate independent governments," Khamenei told Kim. "In the march towards great goals, one should be serious, and pressures, sanctions and threats should not cause any crack in (our) determination."
In a separate meeting, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Kim's visit would have a "great impact on strengthening bilateral ties, expanding cooperation and boosting the anti-hegemonic front."
Both countries are bitter enemies of the U.S. and the West. Iranian and North Korean officials have said in the past that their nations are in "one trench" in the fight against the Western powers.
Re: Build up to WW3
World War III Update - Big Trouble in Little Everywhere
Veteran World War III chasers have pinned their hopes for global annihilation on Israel and Iran, but don't count out North Korea.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-28-2013/world-war-iii-update---big-trouble-in-little-everywhere
Veteran World War III chasers have pinned their hopes for global annihilation on Israel and Iran, but don't count out North Korea.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-28-2013/world-war-iii-update---big-trouble-in-little-everywhere
Re: Build up to WW3
DontxTrip wrote:North Korea Releases Video Showing New York Under Missile Attack
Quick question. If lets say N. Korea decided to come attack the US with an aerial attack, what bases would they have to go through? Like ships out in the ocean from the Navy right?
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Re: Build up to WW3
theyre trying to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles which could carry nuclear warheads. so they could launch form anywhere theoretically. so is iran i think. and they signed a technology pact recently.Joseph Smith wrote:DontxTrip wrote:North Korea Releases Video Showing New York Under Missile Attack
Quick question. If lets say N. Korea decided to come attack the US with an aerial attack, what bases would they have to go through? Like ships out in the ocean from the Navy right?
Re: Build up to WW3
DontxTrip wrote:theyre trying to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles which could carry nuclear warheads. so they could launch form anywhere theoretically. so is iran i think. and they signed a technology pact recently.Joseph Smith wrote:DontxTrip wrote:North Korea Releases Video Showing New York Under Missile Attack
Quick question. If lets say N. Korea decided to come attack the US with an aerial attack, what bases would they have to go through? Like ships out in the ocean from the Navy right?
Yeah I know that, but lets be honest you really think Iran has that type of technology? Lol. Were talking about a country that barely started sending monkeys into space. Same goes for Korea. Only way I see Korea getting something like this going is if China were to help them. I understand that they are both close but by no means are they allies. Until then its just bluff, and I don't see them doing it.
We all know that this would lead to a big war anyways. If Korea bombed The U.S. how long before the U.S. bombs the shit out of them. Sometimes I think that the U.S. uses this as an advantage to scare us. I dont know though.
Forum Gawd- Boss
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Location : Athol Street Nd Hemlock.!!!
Re: Build up to WW3
I think most of that is over blown hype. Especially with Iran. Iran's regime isn't the suicidal maniacs that the US government makes them out to be. But they do have an incentive to get nuclear weapon capabilies because they're aggressed upon by the US right now and the only way the US will back off is if they really had nuclear missile technology that would act as a deterent. Other wise the special interest groups wil continue to put pressure on the issue of regime change in Iran.
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