1. The Iranian consulate in Arbil, sovereign territory of Iran under international law, was attacked with stun bombs and six staffers taken away by U.S. troops. The Iranian flag was lowered and the keys handed over to the Kurdish Peshmerga militia. This is a blatant act of war.
The forces entered the building about 3 a.m., detaining the Iranians and confiscating computers and documents, two senior local Kurdish officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information. Irbil is a city in the Kurdish-controlled northern part of Iraq, 220 miles from Baghdad.
A resident living near the building said the troops used stun bombs and brought down an Iranian flag from the roof. As the operation went on, two helicopters flew overhead, the resident said on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
At the Pentagon, a senior U.S. military official said the building was not a consulate and did not have any diplomatic status. The six Iranians were taken in a "cordon-and-knock" operation, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070111/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq2. Another Iranian bank was banned and frozen by Bush.
The action against Bank Sepah means no U.S. companies or citizens can do business with it, and any of its assets that come under U.S. jurisdiction will be blocked.
"Bank Sepah is the financial linchpin of Iran's missile procurement network and has actively assisted Iran's pursuit of missiles capable of carrying weapons of mass destruction," said Stuart Levey, Treasury's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
In September, Levey announced measures to cut off one of Iran's main state-owned banks, Saderat, from dealings with the U.S. financial system, accusing the Iranian government of using the bank to transfer money to terrorist organizations. Iran has denied various U.S. charges that it supports terrorism.
The U.N. Security Council in December imposed sanctions that target 10 Iranian organizations or companies and 12 individuals associated with Tehran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
The resolution, number 1737, was adopted by a 15-0 vote and requires that countries freeze the financial assets abroad of those on the list.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/10/AR2007011001972.htmlAdd to this the extra carrier strike force, the USS Sitting Duck Missile Target Group, going to the Gulf; Condi saying no Iranian talks without capitulation; Israel threatening to use nuke bunker-busters on Iranian facilities; anti-missile Patriot platoons will be going to friendly Sunni allies; 92,000 more active-duty troops; several thousand expeditionary Marines already in the region (who could invade the 2 ports of Iran); a troop surge into Baghdad to take out the Shia al-Sadr Brigade (who would counter-attack against US troops in a war with Iran); and the fact that Fred Kagan and the neo-cons are BACK BIG-TIME -- and one can only draw one conclusion:
As of today, we are rapidly headed toward war with Iran. All this after many recent meetings between the US and Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
It does not look good.
The neo-cons are cornered politically and it appears they decided to once again create a new reality and expand the war to Iran. This distracts from Iraq and they hope the Iranians are crazy enough to sink a US vessel and give them the "New Pearl Harbor" called for in the PNAC Plan.
They really are that crazy, who knew?
Here are specs on the anti-ship missiles of the Iranians:
The SaccadeFrom Wilkipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-802 The Yingji-82 or YJ-82 (Chinese: literally "Eagle Strike"; NATO reporting name: CSS-N-8 Saccade) is a Chinese anti-ship missile first unveiled in 1989 by the China Haiying Electro-Mechanical Technology Academy (CHETA), also known as the Third Academy. Since the Yingji-82 missile has a small radar reflectivity and is only about five to seven meters above the sea surface when it attacks the target, and since its guidance equipment has strong anti-jamming capability, target ships have a very low success rate in intercepting the missile. The hit probability of the Yingji-82 is estimated to be as high as 98 percent. The Yingji-82 can be launched from airplanes, surface ships, submarines and land-based vehicles, and has been considered along with the US Harpoon missile as among the best anti-ship missiles of its generation.<1> Its export name is the C-802.
The SunburnThe Sunburn can deliver a 200-kiloton nuclear payload, or: a 750-pound conventional warhead, within a range of 100 miles, more than twice the range of the Exocet. The Sunburn combines a Mach 2.1 speed (two times the speed of sound) with a flight pattern that hugs the deck and includes “violent end maneuvers” to elude enemy defenses. The missile was specifically designed to defeat the US Aegis radar defense system. Should a US Navy Phalanx point defense somehow manage to detect an incoming Sunburn missile, the system has only seconds to calculate a fire solution –– not enough time to take out the intruding missile. The US Phalanx defense employs a six-barreled gun that fires 3,000 depleted-uranium rounds a minute, but the gun must have precise coordinates to destroy an intruder “just in time.”
The Sunburn’s combined supersonic speed and payload size produce tremendous kinetic energy on impact, with devastating consequences for ship and crew. A single one of these missiles can sink a large warship, yet costs considerably less than a fighter jet. Although the Navy has been phasing out the older Phalanx defense system, its replacement, known as the Rolling Action Missile (RAM) has never been tested against the weapon it seems destined to one day face in combat.
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