Monthly Archives: August 2010

Russian made TOR-M1 in Iran.

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report August 17, 2010
Two mysterious incidents are reported by DEBKAfile in the run-up to the fueling up of Iran’s first nuclear reactor Saturday, Aug. 21

Tuesday, Aug. 17, an Iranian F4 Phantom fighter jet was claimed by Tehran to have crashed 6 kilometers north of the Bushehr nuclear reactor in southern Iran. DEBKAfile’s military sources report it was shot down by Russian-made TOR-M1 air-missile defense batteries guarding the reactor. A local government official Gholam Reza Keshtkar said the pilot and co-pilot ejected from the plane before it crashed and were rushed to hospital.

The TOR-M1 is designed to intercept planes or missiles coming in at medium or very low altitudes in case of American or Israeli attack.

Our sources ask: How did the Phantom penetrate to a distance of 6 kilometers from the reactor when its skies up to a 20-kilometer radius are a no-fly zone?
Perhaps the Bushehr’s air defense system is slow to pick up intruders – although it is known to have been on high alert since a previous incident on Aug. 1. Or else it may been activated when inquiries to Iranian Air Force command about the jet’s identity and mission failed to elicit a satisfactory reply.

Our Iranian sources report extreme edginess in Tehran ahead of August 21 when the Russian-built Bushehr reactor enters its first operational phase in the presence of high-ranking officials from Moscow.

Tuesday afternoon, after the fighter jet crashed, the foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast warned “any aggression against the Bushehr nuclear plant can provoke serious reactions. Based on international rules, a facility with nuclear fuel cannot be damaged”
All the Bushehr defensive systems have been on the highest alert since a previous incident first revealed on Aug. 6 by DEBKA-Net-Weekly 456:.

On Aug. 1, three unidentified UAVs slammed into the reactor buildings, scaring the townspeople who were sure the plant was under American or Israeli attack.

After the heads of government in Tehran put their heads together to try and identify the drones, without success, the defense ministry emerged with a communiqué reporting that a single drone had crashed on the nuclear reactor’s dome, but insisted it was launched by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to test the alertness of the air defense personnel guarding it and the effectiveness of its anti-air radar system.

According to DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s Iranian and intelligence sources, Bushehr citizens were sure they heard three mighty explosions – not one. So the deputy district governor for security affairs, Mohammad Hossein Shenidi, who is responsible for safeguarding Bushehr and its reactors against air or missile attacks, pitched in with a lighter version of the communiqué: A single drone had indeed been fired, he admitted, but it carried no explosives because its only purpose was to simulate a loud bang to check the level of local alertness.

According to our sources, the townspeople were correct: Three drones hit the reactor killing at least five of its staff members.

Tuesday afternoon, another Iranian high-up, defense minister Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, talked to reporters. He declared that the “long range UAV called Karrar would be unveiled on this day” – an apparent reference to the DEBKAfile report of Monday, Aug. 16, that the death of Iran’s drone program head Reza Baruni had buried the program for years go come.
Regarding the delay in Moscow’s delivery of S-300 anti-aircraft missile system, Vahidi declared: “We build whatever we want inside the country… and the production of long-range air defense system in Iran is already on the agenda of the defense ministry.”

Former US envoy to the UN John Bolton Tuesday Aug. 17 repeated his warning that Israel has “eight days” to launch a military strike against Bushehr and stop Tehran from acquiring a functioning atomic plant. Once Russian loads it with fuel on Saturday, it will be too late because any attack would spread radiation and affect Iranian citizens, he said.

In the absence of an Israeli strike, said Bolton, “Iran will achieve something that no other opponent of Israel, no other opponent of the US in the Middle East really has and that is a functioning nuclear reactor.”

For the complete article, click here:
Debka File

This at Ground Zero? I don't think so!

Insiders say Muslim spiritual leaders behind the controversial initiative are considering giving up on the former World Trade Center location, in a gesture of appeasement.

After weeks of heated debate over plans for an Islamic community center near Ground Zero – the site of the 9/11 attacks on New York – it seems Muslim leaders will soon back down, agreeing to move to a new site.
The decision follows a high-profile campaign against the project that included advertisements on New York buses showing images of the burning Twin Towers, an iconic landmark razed when al-Qaida terrorists flew packed passenger planes into them in 2001. The New York Republican party is also said to be planning a hostile television campaign.

Sources in New York said on Monday that Muslim religious and business leaders will announce plans to abandon the project in the next few days.

New York Governor David Patterson said last weekend that Muslim leaders had rejected outright his proposal to swap the site in for another in Manhattan.

But several people familiar with the debate among New York’s Islamic activists now claim that the leaders are convinced abandoning the site is preferable to unleashing a wave of bitterness towards Muslims.

They also hope the move will be seen as a show of sensitivity to families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks, and to the American public generally.

Another factor in the apparent climb down is a lack of funds to pay for construction of the center, estimated to cost a hundred million dollars. Backers hope moving it will lead to a wave of support, accompanied by cash donations.

It is also possible that the decision was also influenced by comments made by U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday, in which he appeared to reverse an earlier show of support.

Obama said that when he went on record backing the center, he meant only that it was the right of every religious group to establish its own places of worship – but he did not intend to justify building the center specifically at Ground Zero.

Adela Alvarado, the mother of kidnap victim Monica Alejandra Ramirez, holds a picture of her daughter.

Phoenix New Times, By Monica Alonzo, Thursday, Aug 12 2010
Maria was drifting off to sleep on the bedroom floor. She could hear women getting raped in the next room. Only she didn’t hear screams — she heard the laughter of male guards.

The women had been drugged by their rapists, who had done the same to Maria as soon as she walked into the house. They forced her to swallow a red liquid and handed her some chalky, white pills. She drank the liquid and tucked the pills on the side of her mouth, but they were slowly dissolving.

The drugs were beginning to deaden her senses.

Maria had arrived at the modest three-bedroom house in west Phoenix several days earlier in the back of a white van. She was one of about a dozen other immigrants who had hired coyotes to smuggle them into the United States in May. They each paid the human smugglers about $1,800 to guide them safely through the treacherous Arizona desert.

Their guides betrayed them. They delivered them to other coyotes, who were more vicious than their counterparts. The kidnappers demanded another $1,700 apiece for Maria and the 12 others, including two young boys, they were holding.

To read the complete article, click here:
Phoenix New Times

Mexican Gov. Authorties wouldn't release any ser. nr's. from these hundreds of weapons!

El Universal (Mexico City) Sunday 8/15/10
So far this year, Mexican Customs has intercepted merely 150 firearms, compared to the thousands the Mexican military has seized in combat against organized crime groups. Jose Bravo Moises, a leading official in the Customs service, explains that it is because the operations of his agency discourage trafficking through ports of entry. He recognizes that arms can cross by other means such as through the ample unguarded areas along the border and by air and sea.

Nonetheless, a special legislative commission overseeing Customs revealed in a meeting with the agency’s head that they paid 100 pesos [$7.86] to bring a firearm from Guatemala into Mexico. “One came in and they didn’t check anything in that Customs office, a serious problem for the traffic of arms the country suffers, for the thousands of deaths and the violence that no one stops,” said Representative Hector Pedroza Jimenez.

The Customs official rejected that the traffic of arms takes place through the Customs inspection points or that there exists corruption in the agency because as soon as any irregularity is detected, it is investigated. “We haven’t detected direct collusion, but we are constantly looking,” he said.

To read the complete article, click here:
El Universal,com

German factory investigated for supposed sale of arms to Mexico
La Jornada (Mexico City) 8/15/10

Berlin – German authorities opened a proceeding against the Heckler & Kochel arms factory for the presumed offense of illegal exportation of arms in 2006 to Mexican states with violent internal conflicts, according to the weekly edition of Der Spiegel. The investigation, led by the government attorney’s office and German Customs, is to determine if the factory violated the prohibition, in force in the country, to sell arms in zones of conflict. According to information, in 2006 the factory received official permission to sell “different Mexican national police” thousands of G36 assault rifles, the customary German Army weapon. The authorization supposedly excluded the areas of conflict such as the states of Chiapas, Guerrero, Chihuahua and Jalisco. A year later, Heckler & Koch solicited another permit, this time to supply parts for those rifles “to clients with an established address” in those states. The investigation is in its initial stage.

To read the complete article, click here:
La Jornada (Mexico City)

Where did I go wrong?

GateHouse News Service by Myrna Fearer, Aug 14, 2010

Danvers —
Not logging out of Facebook may have led to the arrest of an alleged housebreaker.

On Aug. 9, at 4:38 a.m., Danvers Police Officer Stephen Baldassare arrested Douglas Wilgo, 19, of 18 Windsor Road, Beverly, near McDonald’s on High Street for disturbing the peace. He was also charged with disorderly conduct, breaking and entering at nighttime for a felony and malicious destruction of property over $250.

Police had been investigating a report of a suspicious motor vehicle at an Ash Street address, said Lt. Carole Germano. When the police arrived, they were able to get into a second floor apartment where there was evidence that someone had been there. They also discovered the person’s identity because he had logged onto his Facebook account with his name, which was still on the computer.

When Officer Baldassare went looking for him, he found Wilgo walking the resident’s dog on High Street, Germano said. When Baldassare approached Wilgo, he became belligerent. The officer placed Wilgo under arrest and the dog was taken back to the residence.