Clock Ticking on IRAN

NUKEWARS

Iranian Nuclear Time Bomb Ticking Virtually Away

File photo of a nuclear facility at Isfahan, Iran.by Amir OveissiUPI Outside View CommentatorWashington (UPI) Apr 28, 2006

In the 1980s it was Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime vying to fill a power vacuum left by the demise of the Pahlavi dynasty in Iran. Today the roles have reversed, as we witness the Islamic Republic of Iran trying to exert its influence in post-Saddam Iraq and beyond.
Tehran's efforts to subvert progress next door betray an over-arching scheme to dominate the Middle East. And a nuclear weapon is the linchpin.

Despite what it claims, Iran is clearly seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Amid sheepish cries of protest from the United Nations, radical President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently touted the country's membership to the international "nuclear club" and declared its ambitions to be "irreversible." Iran's successful April 11 enrichment of uranium using 164 centrifuges is a mere prelude to "industrial scale" enrichment by the end of 2006, according to deputy nuclear chief Mohammad Saaedi.

Nuclear technologies that could lead to weapons in the hands of Ahmadinejad and his ilk would undoubtedly render the entire Middle East hostage. Repeated calls by the firebrand leader that Israel be "wiped off the map" cannot be dismissed as mere rhetoric. Ahmadinejad and a vanguard of influential mullahs are religious literalists convinced Shiite Islam's 12th Imam will soon return to herald a new era of Shiite Islamic supremacy.

They also believe this must be preceded by an apocalyptic conflagration that will reduce enemies to ashes. Unlike the Soviet Union during the Cold War, there is a case to be made that Iran is not bound by the invisible cuffs of mutually assured destruction. Connect the dots and a nuclear Iran becomes more than just a geopolitical pest.
The delay of the world's attention to Iran is a testament to the clerics' prescience.

Ahmadinejad's fire-and-brimstone remarks echo those of previous Iranian leaders since the revolution of 1979. Ayatollah Ruhallah Khomeini, the patriarch of the Shiite revolution, labeled Israel a "cancerous tumor;" former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani carried the banner, saying that if the "Islamic world is also equipped with (nuclear) weapons ... the imperialists' strategy will reach a standstill;" and even self-styled reformer, ex-President Mohammad Khatami, deemed Israel "a parasite in the heart of the Islamic world."

While the tone of rhetoric has fluctuated -- hot under Khomeini, lukewarm after the setbacks of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war and a tactful cool during the Khatami years -- work has moved forward underground to put bite behind the bark. The International Atomic Energy Agency discovered in 2003 that Iran had carried out secret nuclear activities for 18 years in breach of its obligations under the non-proliferation treaty.

And just this week, Iran threatened to halt all cooperation with the U.N.'s atomic energy agency if the Security Council imposes sanctions, warning that it might hide its nuclear program if any other "harsh measures" are taken by the West.

Meanwhile, intelligence sources in Washington believe hundreds of Iranian intelligence agents have infiltrated Iraq to undermine U.S.-led efforts at democracy building. There are reports that Iran has smuggled sophisticated weaponry to give Shiite militants a boost in case of a full-blown conflict. Military officials further allege that Hassan Kazemi Ghomi, the charge d'affaires of the Iranian embassy in Baghdad, is working in secret with local forces and militias.

According to the U.S.-backed Iraqi National Intelligence Service, Ghomi is a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' elite Quds Force -- a special forces outfit much like the Green Berets -- with specialized skills and experience in the support of militia activity.
As for soft power, mullahs in Tehran have cultivated ties with powerful Iraqi Shiite leaders such as Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, ex-Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi (out of favor in Washington after charges that he passed U.S. intelligence to Iran).

The Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the country's most powerful political party, was formed by Khomeini's intelligence services. Even more troubling is firebrand leader Moqtada al-Sadr, whose 10,000-strong Mahdi Army has already fought U.S. troops. Sadr has vowed to defend Iran if necessary, and intelligence estimates indicate he commands the support of 1-1.5 million Iraqis.

Clearly Iran poses a formidable challenge to U.S. policy in the region: A state sponsor of terrorism, increasingly aggressive, on its way to developing nuclear weapons and tilting the balance of power in the Middle East favorably in its direction. With the brunt of its forces tied down in Iraq and Afghanistan as oil prices hover around $75 a barrel, how should United States respond to such a threat?

To the delight of the mullahs, fevered head-scratching is the order of the day among White House and Pentagon officials. But while there is no easy solution to the "Persian puzzle," inaction as Iran's nuclear program advances is tantamount to giving up the game. A comprehensive inside-out approach would at worst stall Tehran's nuclear drive, and at best, spark internal convulsions to scuttle the regime.

First, Security Council sanctions need to be imposed on Iran post-haste. With Russia and China running interference, the United States and allies must look for alternative means of delivering economic penalties. Wednesday's House vote to penalize foreign groups investing more than $20 million in Iran's energy sector is a first step. A possible arrangement with the EU3 (Britain, France, Germany) to impose a separate set of sanctions, free of Security Council restraints, could have leverage comparable to a Council decree and need not be ruled out.

Second, Congress needs to shotgun the approval of the $75 million dollar request by the Bush administration to increase support for opposition groups working in and outside of Iran. The House has already signed off on the initiative, though reports funding has been slashed to $56 million are troubling. Consider that a majority of this money would be used to finance television and radio broadcasts, which beam programs that reinforce the repressed but far from toothless student democratic movement in Iran.

And third, the administration needs to continually show -- in word and deed -- its support for Iranians and their plight for democracy in Iran. This will give a moral boost to opposition groups simmering within Iran. Modern Iranian history has shown that moral support from a U.S. administration can go a long way in fostering revolutionary movements.

The distancing of Jimmy Carter's administration from the Shah, and his vocal support of dissident groups that toppled the Pahlavi throne, expedited Iran's undoing, whose aftershocks are still felt today throughout the Middle East. The lesson learnt from Carter's administration is that bold, symbolic gestures of solidarity drastically help dissident groups.

The last option on the table is military strikes. There's only one worse scenario, rightfully stated by Sen. John McCain, and that's a nuclear-armed Iran.

(Amir Oveissi is a Mideast analyst at the Institute for International Law and Politics at Georgetown University. He is currently working as a contributing author on a book titled "Lifecycles of Terrorist Movements," to be published by the IILP. He can be reached at aroveissi@gmail.com)

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)

Source: United Press International

Al-Qaida Nukes

TOP STORY

More evidence of al-Qaida nukes

Pakistani journalist who met bin Laden confirms acquisition
Publishing Date: 27.04.06 17:42

Hamid Mir, the only journalist to interview Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri in the wake of 9/11, has confirmed that al-Qaida has obtained nuclear suitcase weapons from the Russian black market, that the weapons were tested in Kabul in 2000 and that may have already been forward deployed to the United States.

Replica of suitcase nuke"If you think that my information and analysis about bin Laden's location is correct," Mir said, "then please don't underestimate my analysis about his nuclear threat also."
Mir said that he met with an Egyptian engineer last week who had lost an eye after one of bin Laden's nuclear tests in Kunar. The Pakistani journalist said that the encounter with the engineer greatly disturbed and depressed him since it provided further assurance that a nuclear nightmare for America is about to dawn.

Mir believes that an "American Hiroshima" will occur as soon as the U.S. launches an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. "Al-Qaida and Iran," he says, "have a long, secret relationship."

That relationship dates back to June 21, 1996, when bin Laden attended a terror summit in Tehran. The gathering attracted terror leaders from various places throughout the world, including Ramadan Shallah (the Palestinian Islamic Jihad), Ahmad Salah (Egyptian Islamic Jihad), Imad al-Alami and Mustafa al-Liddawi (HAMAS), Ahmad Jibril (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), Abdallah Ocalan (the Kurdish People Party), Muhammad Ali Ahmad (al Qaeda), and Imad Mugniyah (Hezbollah).

The summit resulted in the creation of the "Committee of Three" that would meet on a regular basis for the "coordination, planning, and execution of attacks" against the United States and Israel. The committee members were Ahmad Salah, Imad Mugniyah and bin Laden.

Mir's position that al-Qaida's nuclear weapons may have already been forward deployed to the United States confirms the report of Sharif al-Masri, a key al-Qaida operative who was arrested in Pakistan in November 2000.

Al Masri, an Egyptian national with ties to al-Zawahiri, said that al-Qaida had made arrangements to smuggle nuclear weapons and supplies to Mexico, From Mexico, he said, the weapons were to be transported across the border and into the United States with the help of a Latino street gang.

Mir also maintains that numerous sleeper agents are in place in major cities throughout the United States to prepare for the nuclear holocaust. Many of these agents, he says, are Algerians and Chechens who obtained European passports and are posing as Christian and Jews.

He further says that many of these agents have been in the United States since bin Laden's issuance of his "Declaration of War on Americans Occupying the Country of the Two Holy Places." That fatwa was issued Aug. 23, 1996.

-- Paul Williams and David Dastych

Osama Bin Laden

TOP STORY

Bin Laden's new call to jihad

Osama's latest message analyzed by reporter who knows him

Publishing Date: 25.04.06 10:18

The following article was prepared especially for G2B by Paul L. Williams, Ph.D., author of the new book "The Dunces of Doomsday," and David Dastych, intelligence analyst and international news correspondent.

The latest tape from Osama bin Laden, aired by al-Jazeera Sunday, is a call upon all Muslims to take part in a New Jihad against the United States, Israel, and Europe that will include the killing of more civilians.
Osama bin LadenThe al-Qaida leader said the American people, including women and children, have become fair targets because they continue to support the decisions of the Bush administration.

"The war is a responsibility between the people and the governments," bin Laden said. "The war goes on and the [American] people are renewing their allegiance to its rulers and masters. They send their sons to armies to fight us and they continue their financial and moral support while our countries are burned our houses are bombed, and our people are killed."

In an exclusive interview, Hamid Mir, the only journalist to interview bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri in the wake of 9/11, said the issuance of the tape was necessitated by Europe's rejection of al-Qaida's offer of a truce two years ago, and the subsequent rejection of a similar truce that was offered to the American people
"There was only one positive response from America," according to Mir, "Douglas A. Borer wrote an article in The Christian Science Monitor on January 24, 2006, [in which] he argued that the British had made peace with the IRA and the U.S. had come to terms with Libya's terror-sponsoring leader [Moammar] Khadafy. Then why not al-Qaida? The American government said that talking to terrorists is not their policy."

Mir contends this rejection has served to give rise to increased support for bin Laden throughout the Muslim world and widespread belief that the only recourse against alleged Western aggression is total war, including attacks on civilian populations.

Asked about the current opinion of bin Laden in the Muslim world, Mir said: "Osama bin Laden has become more popular only after 9/11. Incidents like the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib jail, the desecration of the holy Koran in Guantanamo Bay prisons, and then the publication of the blasphemous caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in Denmark spread a lot of hatred against the West in the Muslim world. This hatred is the real strength of Osama bin Laden."
Mir believes that bin Laden has become the hero of anti-American Muslim youth by default.

"Many Muslims," he says, "are of the view that America played a role in implementing the UN resolutions on East Timor. This Christian majority province of Indonesia got independence through the UN, but the Muslim majority Kashmir area of India is denied the same right because West is biased against the Muslims. Now the Muslim youth is getting allergic of Islamic clerics who oppose al-Qaida.

More than 1,500 tribal elders and Islamic clerics have been assassinated by pro-al-Qaida militants in South Waziristan area of Pakistan in the past two years. These 1,500 elders and clerics cooperated with Pakistan army and opposed the presence of foreign fighters in their area."

He believes the issuance of the tape will result in a new wave of violence, particularly in Egypt and the Darfur province of Sudan.
"Bin Laden wants the West to send more troops into Darfur," he claims, "and then the al-Qaida fighters in Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania and other African countries will have an opportunity to test their jihadi spirits against the ‘enemies of Islam.''

The Pakistani journalist claims that bin Laden needs another Iraq in Africa to serve as a breeding ground for al-Qaida and a bleeding ground for American troops.

Mir further maintains that bin Laden remains in control of all aspects of al-Qaida and that Ayman al-Zawahiri, who has been called "the real brains" of the terrorist organization, only serves in a subservient role.
"Dr. Zawahiri was not aware about the 9/11 planning," he says. "He was not present in the meeting of Osama and Mullah Omar, which took place in southern Afghanistan in August 2005. Suicide bombings in Afghanistan were approved by Mullah Omar in that meeting. How can Zawahiri be the brain of Osama? The real brain was Muhammad Atef who was killed in November 2001 in Ghazni by American predators. Osama himself has a very sharp mind. America has failed to nab him. The failure of America proves that Osama is clever."

Mir says he changed his opinion about Dr. al-Zawahiri in the last six months: "I traveled thousands of kilometers in East and South Afghanistan in August 2005, and then in the North and South Wazirastan in Pakistan, through September and October of the same year. I met many Taliban and al-Qaida operatives in these remote mountain areas.

During my interviews with them, and after doing lots of research, I came to the conclusion that Dr. al-Zawahiri is not the brain behind Osama bin Laden. Definitely, he is close to him even now, but these days Abdul Hadi (also an Egyptian, based in Southern Afghanistan) is more important. He is heading the Shura (Grand Consultative Council) of al-Qaida.

I also met some other very important al-Qaida leaders in Kunar. They told me that Zawahiri came to know about the 9/11 attacks through them, as he was not aware about the plans of these attacks earlier. Dr. al-Zawahiri is actually an important al-Qaida link to Iran. He has old connections in the Iranian intelligence. In the last four years, he has spent lots of time in Iran. For the last two years, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri are not together for security reasons, but they are in touch."

Concerning the present whereabouts of the elusive emir, Mir maintains that bin Laden found shelter in the frontier regions of Pakistan in the wake of the bombing of his mountain fortress at Tora Bora. Among the Pashtun tribes, bin Laden remained protected by the Islamic code of milmastia which demands protection for fellow Muslims who seek shelter in their country -- even if such shelter means risking their lives.

From 2002 to 2004, bin Laden spent most of his time in the valley of Dir, about 50 miles from the Afghan border on the Kunar Province. Dir remains within the Malakand Pass, the site of some of the fiercest skirmishes under the British Raj. A Pakistani fort still stands where the young Winston Churchill shot down rebels and received a citation for heroism.

The fort is presently occupied by Maulvi Sufi Mohamad, an old and revered Muslim scholar, who maintains a Taliban-style rule of the area with public executions of adulterers, homosexuals, apostates, and Christian infidels. It was an area in which bin Laden felt quite at home.

Despite the $25 million bounty the U.S. government placed on his head -- a bounty that is proclaimed by thousands of Pashtu-language leaflets that are dropped by U.S. aircraft on a regular basis -- bin Laden felt secure enough to travel to other parts of Pakistan, including periodic trips to Peshawar and the smuggler-infested bazaar town of Rabate J'ali, north of Zahedan, within the center of "the Devil's Triangle," the conjunction of the borders of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran.

In 2004, according to Mir, bin Laden resettled in the Kunar province of eastern Afghanistan, only to return to the tribal regions of Pakistan in 2005.

Mir maintains that bin Laden now regularly moves from both locations with little fear of capture. The Pakistani journalist says that his beliefs in this regard have been confirmed by General Richard Myers and other leading American military officials.

From Mir's perspective, bin Laden is the beneficiary of the failed military tactics of the Bush administration. He says: "Now that Americans have reduced their troops in Afghanistan, they are busy in Iraq. They got Saddam Hussein with 150,000 troops in Iraq. How can they get Osama in Afghanistan with only 16,000 American troops?"

Mir's account of the present whereabouts of the elusive emir confirms an earlier report in WorldNetDaily posted on Aug. 6, 2005.
Concerning the present hiding place of the world's most wanted fugitive, Retired Vice Admiral John Scott Redd, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said:

"To say the obvious, if you want to hide somewhere in a very difficult area of the world where you have some friends and some support, you can do a pretty good job if you don't communicate and if you stay out of the limelight."

General "BLACK JACK" Pershing

General "Black Jack" Pershing and the Muslim Terrorists in the Philippines before WW IGeneral Pershing was born September 13th, 1860 near Laclede, MS. he died July 15th, 1948 in Washington, DC.Highlights of his life include:

1891 Professor of Military Science and Tactics University of Nebraska1898 Serves in the Spanish-American War1901 Awarded rank of Captain1906 Promoted to rank of Brig. General1909 Military Governor of Moro Province, Philippines1916 Made Major General1919 Promoted to General of the Armies1921 Appointed Chief of Staff1924 Retires from active duty Education West Point.Just before World War I, there were a number of terrorist attacks on the United States forces in the Philippines by Muslim extremists.

So General Pershing captured 50 terrorists, and had them tied to posts for execution. He then had his men bring in two pigs and slaughter them in front of the, now horrified, terrorists.Muslims detest pork, because they believe pigs are filthy animals. Some of them simply refuse to eat it, while others won't even touch pigs at all, nor any of their by-products. To them, eating or touching a pig, its meat, its blood, etc., is to be instantly barred from Paradise (and those virgins), and doomed to hell.

The soldiers then soaked their bullets in the pigs' blood, and proceeded to execute 49 of the terrorists by firing squad. The soldiers then dug a big hole, dumped in the terrorist's bodies, and covered them in pig blood, entrails, etc. They let the 50th man go.And for the next 42 years, there was not a single Muslim extremist attack anywhere in the world.Maybe it is time for this segment of history to repeat itself, maybe in Iraq? The question is, where do we find another Black Jack Pershing?Assalaam Alaikum -"peace be unto you."

Afghanistan - Top Story

TOP STORY

Bad news in AfghanistanTaliban regains control of much of country, Pakistan

Publishing Date: 18.04.06 21:18

Hamid MirThe Taliban is alive and well and thriving in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

One-eyed Mullah Omar and his army of radical Islamic students are presently in control of all of the rural and mountain areas of Afghanistan, including Khost, Paktia, Paktika, Ghazni, Zabul, Helmand, and Oruzgan, as well as a vast expanse of eastern and southern provinces including sections of Kandahar. They also have become the central governing body in South and North Qaziristan and other tribal territories of Pakistan.

That's the news from Hamid Mir, the only journalist to conduct face-to-face interviews with Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri in the wake of 9/11.

Mir, who has just completed an extensive tour of both countries, says that Pakistanis in government vehicles are no longer permitted to enter Waziristan, Baluchistan, and other tribal areas without the permission of local Taliban commanders. Muslim men who wander into this area without beards are routinely cast into prison as apostates. Kafirs (non-Muslims) are assumed to be enemy agents; most are put to death. Women are only permitted to appear in public in full burqa. And Shariah has become the rule of the land with regular occurrences of stoning, crucifixion and decapitation.

Over 1,500 Pakistanis in recent months, according to Mir, have been publicly executed for saying something in support of the regime of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and the coalition forces. Most were beheaded. The victims, Mir says, were "not ordinary people but very prominent people."

Regarding the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Mir contends that Afghan police are "weak"; that the coalition forces "limited in number"; and that the Pashtun people remain fiercely dedicated to Osama bin Laden and his jihad against the West.

Mir claims he has personally visited 12 provinces of Afghanistan in the past few weeks and has received first-hand confirmation that the Taliban has regrouped, recaptured much of the country, and remains intent upon ousting the coalition forces and toppling the puppet regime of President Hamid Karzai.

"If the president of Pakistan and the president of Afghanistan are not ready to accept my claims," Mir says, "they should accompany me with some international media personalities and the world will know who is right and who is wrong."

Support for the Taliban in the form of munitions and money is coming from Iran and Russia.

According to an April 17 article by Arnaud de Borchgrave of the Washington Times: "The Taliban is anything but a spent force. Suicide bombings are now commonplace in widely scattered parts of Afghanistan. Far removed from the Pakistani border, in the northern Afghan provinces, NATO-led forces uncovered huge Taliban arms caches -- e.g., 15,000 anti-personnel mines, 10,000 anti-tank mines, and 80 tons of TNT, all ‘Soviet' made.

The fact that 2 million pounds of supplies were air-dropped last year to U.S. troops chasing Taliban guerillas up and down mountains indicates: (1) a gradual increase of infiltration from Pakistan's tribal areas; and (2) the new Afghan army is not ready to take over. In fact, the Afghan military are still an estimated four years away from being able to fight on their own. Meanwhile, donor fatigue borders on donor exhaustion."

The Iranian-Taliban alliance, Mir maintains, is a new, unique and disturbing development. When the Taliban came to power in 1996, Mullah Omar and his army were decried by the Shiite mullahs in Iran for the massacre of thousands of Shiite Hazaras and Panjshiri Tajiks. Iran began to send money and arms to Ahmed Shah Massoud and his opposition army of Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Hazaras that became known as the "United Front" or "Northern Alliance." The Russians also came to the support Massoud's army to protect the interests of Uzbekistan.

The Northern Alliance continued to receive support from Iran and Russia until the launching of Operation Enduring Freedom (the codename for the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan) Oct. 7, 2001. Overnight, the Iranian and Russian advisers to Massoud became replaced by CIA operatives and Green Beret A team members.
A major blowback of the war on terror, according to Mir, is that Iran and Russia are now allied in Afghanistan on the side of their old enemy.

The first major indication of Iran's change of heart toward the Taliban came in the wake of the bombing of Tora Bora in December 2001, when Mullah Omar and hundreds of his soldiers and al-Qaida agents, scaled the mountains between the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, cut through the southern provinces of Afghanistan and headed west to Iran, where they found safe refuge, thanks to the intervention of Imad Mugniyah and the other leaders of Hezbollah.

The newly-arrived guests included such luminaries as Saad bin Laden, Osama's eldest son; Yaaz bin Sifat and Saif al-Adel, al-Qaida military planners; and Mohammed Islam Haani, the mayor of Kabul under the Taliban. Within Iran, they were placed in luxurious safe houses under the protection of SAVAMA, the Iranian intelligence service.

When the war on terror moved to Iraq, Iran came to serve as a base of operations for Aby Musab al-Zarqawi and other al-Qaida field commanders to mount attacks on the occupying armies.
This monumental event -- the union became Sunni with Shiite -- remained largely ignored by Western observers.

"We have been screaming at them [the Bush administration] for more than a year now that these guys all work together," an overseas operative told the Washington Post in June 2002. "What we hear back is that it can't because al-Qaida doesn't work that way. That is bull----. Here, on the ground, these guys all work together as long as they are Muslims. There is no other division that matters."

While the war dragged on in Iraq, Mullah Omar and other Taliban leaders returned to Pakistan, gained thousands of new recruits, secured control of much of the tribal areas, and launched the re-conquest of Afghanistan.

The Taliban soldiers are now accompanied by advisers and regulars from the Iranian army and, according to Mir, within Afghanistan, Mullah Omar has received visits from his old friend and fellow jihadi, Osama bin Laden.

-- G2B contributors Paul L. Williams, Ph.D., and David Dastych

Irans Suicide Bombers

Iran and its Nukes


Sunday Times: 40,000 Iran suicide bombers ready to hit US, UK targets

By Associated Press April 16, 2006

Protesters call for eradication of Israel (AP file)

Tehran has trained suicide bombers to attack British and American targets if Iran's nuclear sites are attacked, a newspaper reported Sunday. The main force -- the Special Unit of Martyr Seekers in the Revolutionary Guards -- was first seen in Iran last month when members marched in a military parade, dressed in uniforms with explosive packs around their waists and detonators held high, The Sunday Times said. Dr. Hassan Abbasi, head of Iran's Center for Doctrinal Strategic Studies in the Revolutionary Guards, said in a speech that 29 Western targets had been identified.

"We are ready to attack American and British sensitive points, if they attack Iran's nuclear facilities," The Sunday Times quoted Abbasi as saying in a tape recording of the speech the paper said it had obtained. He said some sites were "quite close" to Iran's border with Iraq.

Abbasi warned the would-be martyrs to "pay close attention to wily England" and vowed that "Britain's demise is on our agenda," The Sunday Times reported. The paper quoted unidentified Iranian officials as saying 40,000 Iranian suicide bombers have been trained and are ready for action. At a recruiting station in Tehran recently, volunteers for the suicide force had to show their birth certificates, give proof of their address and mark a box stating whether they would prefer to attack American targets in Iraq or Israeli targets, the paper said.

On Friday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel a "rotten, dried tree" that will be annihilated by "one storm." Last year, he said Israel should be "wiped off the map" and questioned whether the Holocaust actually happened. Last week, Ahmadinejad said Iran has successfully enriched uranium using 164 centrifuges, a significant step toward the large-scale production of a material that could be used to fuel nuclear reactors for generating electricity, or to build atomic bombs. Iran insists it is interested only in the peaceful use of nuclear power, but the United States and other nations suspect the regime wants to develop weapons and are demanding a halt to enrichment activities.

Since his announcement, Ahmadinejad has been even more defiant in defending his country's decision to press ahead with its nuclear program over the U.N. Security Council's objections. The Sunday Times said that according to Western intelligence documents it has obtained, Iran's Revolutionary Guards are in charge of a secret nuclear weapons program designed to evade the scrutiny of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. atomic watchdog agency. The paper said that according to one of the leaked reports, dated February, U.S. President George W. Bush is preparing to attack Iran.

"If the problem is not resolved in some way, he intends to act before leaving office because it would be unfair to leave the task of destroying Iran's nuclear facilities to a new president," The Sunday Times quoted the document as saying. U.S. media reports have said the Bush administration was considering a military attack on Iran over its nuclear program, but Bush has dismissed those reports as "wild speculation."

Dead Scientists

Master List Of Dead Scientists & Microbiologists

Rense February 4, 2005By Mark J. Harper

In the 1980's over two dozen science graduates and experts working for Marconi or Plessey Defence Systems died in mysterious circumstances, most appearing to be 'suicides.'

The MOD denied these scientists had been involved in classified Star Wars Projects and that the deaths were in any way connected. Judge for yourself...

March 1982: Professor Keith Bowden, 46 --Expertise: Computer programmer and scientist at Essex University engaged in work for Marconi, who was hailed as an expert on super computers and computer-controlled aircraft. --Circumstance: Fatal car crash when his vehicle went out of control across a dual carriageway and plunged onto a disused railway line. Police maintained he had been drinking but family and friends all denied the allegation. Coroner's verdict: Accident.

April 1983: Lt-Colonel Anthony Godley, 49 --Expertise: Head of the Work Study Unit at the Royal College of Military Science. --Circumstance: Disappeared mysteriously in April 1983 without explanation. Presumed dead.

March 1985: Roger Hill, 49 --Expertise: Radar designer and draughtsman with Marconi. --Circumstance: Died by a shotgun blast at home. Coroner's verdict: Suicide.

November 19, 1985: Jonathan Wash, 29 --Expertise: Digital communications expert who had worked at GEC and at British Telecom's secret research centre at Martlesham Heath, Suffolk. --Circumstance: Died as a result of falling from a hotel room in Abidjan, West Africa, while working for British Telecom. He had expressed fears that his life was in danger. Coroner's verdict: Open.

August 4, 1986: Vimal Dajibhai, 24 --Expertise: Computer software engineer with Marconi, responsible for testing computer control systems of Tigerfish and Stingray torpedoes at Marconi Underwater Systems at Croxley Green, Hertfordshire. --Circumstance: Death by 74m (240ft.) fall from Clifton Suspension Bridge, Bristol. Police report on the body mentioned a needle-sized puncture wound on the left buttock, but this was later dismissed as being a result of the fall. Dajibhai had been looking forward to starting a new job in the City of London and friends had confirmed that there was no reason for him to commit suicide. At the time of his death he was in the last week of his work with Marconi. Coroner's verdict: Open.

October 1986: Arshad Sharif, 26 --Expertise: Reported to have been working on systems for the detection of submarines by satellite. --Circumstance: Died as a result of placing a ligature around his neck, tying the other end to a tree and then driving off in his car with the accelerator pedal jammed down. His unusual death was complicated by several issues: Sharif lived near Vimal Dajibhai in Stanmore, Middlesex, he committed suicide in Bristol and, inexplicably, had spent the last night of his life in a rooming house. He had paid for his accommodation in cash and was seen to have a bundle of high-denomination banknotes in his possession. While the police were told of the banknotes, no mention was made of them at the inquest and they were never found. In addition, most of the other guests at the rooming house worked at British Aerospace prior to working for Marconi, Sharif had also worked at British Aerospace on guided weapons technology. Coroner's verdict: Suicide.

January 1987: Richard Pugh, 37 --Expertise: MOD computer consultant and digital communications expert. --Circumstance: Found dead in his flat in with his feet bound and a plastic bag over his head. Rope was tied around his body, coiling four times around his neck. Coroner's verdict: Accident.

January 12, 1987: Dr. John Brittan, 52 --Expertise: Scientist formerly engaged in top secret work at the Royal College of Military Science at Shrivenham, Oxfordshire, and later deployed in a research department at the MOD. --Circumstance: Death by carbon monoxide poisoning in his own garage, shortly after returning from a trip to the US in connection with his work. Coroner's verdict: Accident.

February 1987: David Skeels, 43 --Expertise: Engineer with Marconi. --Circumstance: Found dead in his car with a hosepipe connected to the exhaust. Coroner's verdict: Open. February 1987: Victor Moore, 46 --Expertise: Design Engineer with Marconi Space and Defence Systems. --Circumstance: Died from an overdose. Coroner's verdict: Suicide.

February 22, 1987: Peter Peapell, 46 --Expertise: Scientist at the Royal College of Military Science. He had been working on testing titanium for it's resistance to explosives and the use of computer analysis of signals from metals. --Circumstance: Found dead allegedly from carbon monoxide poisoning, in his Oxfordshire garage. The circumstances of his death raised some elements of doubt. His wife had found him on his back with his head parallel to the rear car bumper and his mouth in line with the exhaust pipe, with the car engine running. Police were apparently baffled as to how he could have manoeuvred into the position in which he was found. Coroner's verdict: Open.

April 1987: George Kountis age unknown. --Expertise: Systems Analyst at Bristol Polytechnic. --Circumstance: Drowned the same day as Shani Warren (see below) - as the result of a car accident, his upturned car being found in the River Mersey, Liverpool. Coroner's verdict: Misadventure. (Kountis' sister called for a fresh inquest as she thought 'things didn't add up.')

April 10, 1987: Shani Warren, 26 --Expertise: Personal assistant in a company called Micro Scope, which was taken over by GEC Marconi less than four weeks after her death. --Circumstance: Found drowned in 45cm. (18in) of water, not far from the site of David Greenhalgh's death fall. Warren died exactly one week after the death of Stuart Gooding and serious injury to Greenhalgh. She was found gagged with a noose around her neck. Her feet were also bound and her hands tied behind her back. Coroner's verdict: Open. (It was said that Warren had gagged herself, tied her feet with rope, then tied her hands behind her back and hobbled to the lake on stiletto heels to drown herself.)

April 10, 1987: Stuart Gooding, 23 --Expertise: Postgraduate research student at the Royal College of Military Science. --Circumstance: Fatal car crash while on holiday in Cyprus. The death occurred at the same time as college personnel were carrying out exercises on Cyprus. Coroner's verdict: Accident.

April 24, 1987: Mark Wisner, 24 --Expertise: Software engineer at the MOD. --Circumstance: Found dead on in a house shared with two colleagues. He was found with a plastic sack around his head and several feet of cling film around his face. The method of death was almost identical to that of Richard Pugh some three months earlier. Coroner's verdict: Accident.

March 30, 1987: David Sands, 37 --Expertise: Senior scientist working for Easams of Camberley, Surrey, a sister company to Marconi. Dr. John Brittan had also worked at Camberley. --Circumstance: Fatal car crash when he allegedly made a sudden U-turn on a dual carriageway while on his way to work, crashing at high speed into a disused cafeteria. He was found still wearing his seat belt and it was discovered that the car had been carrying additional petrol cans. None of the 'normal' reasons for a possible suicide could be found. Coroner's verdict; Open.

May 3, 1987: Michael Baker, 22 --Expertise: Digital communications expert working on a defence project at Plessey; part-time member of Signals Corps SAS. --Circumstance: Fatal accident owhen his car crashed through a barrier near Poole in Dorset. Coroner's verdict: Misadventure.

June 1987: Jennings, Frank, 60. --Expertise: Electronic Weapons Engineer with Plessey. --Circumstance: Found dead from a heart attack. No inquest. January 1988: Russell Smith, 23 --Expertise: Laboratory technician with the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, Essex. --Circumstance: Died as a result of a cliff fall at Boscastle in Cornwall. Coroner's verdict: Suicide.

March 25, 1988: Trevor Knight, 52 --Expertise: Computer engineer with Marconi Space and Defence Systems in Stanmore, Middlesex. --Circumstance: Found dead at his home in Harpenden, Hertfordshire at the wheel of his car with a hosepipe connected to the exhaust. A St.Alban's coroner said that Knight's woman friend, Miss Narmada Thanki (who also worked with him at Marconi) had found three suicide notes left by him which made clear his intentions. Miss Thanki had mentioned that Knight disliked his work but she did not detect any depression that would have driven him to suicide. Coroner's verdict: Suicide.

August 1988: Alistair Beckham, 50 --Expertise: Software engineer with Plessey Defence Systems. --Circumstance: Found dead after being electrocuted in his garden shed with wires connected to his body. Coroner's verdict: Open. August 22, 1988: Peter Ferry, 60 --Expertise: Retired Army Brigadier and an Assistant Marketing Director with Marconi. --Circumstance: Found on 22nd or 23rd August 1988 electrocuted in his company flat with electrical leads in his mouth. Coroner's verdict: Open

September 1988: Andrew Hall, 33 --Expertise: Engineering Manager with British Aerospace. --Circumstance: Carbon monoxide poisoning in a car with a hosepipe connected to the exhaust. Coroner's verdict: Suicide. Above list compiled by Raymond A. Robinson in 'The Alien Intent' (A Dire Warning) http://www.geocities.com/orgonegal/marconi-scientists.html

Dec 25, 1997: Sidney Harshman, 67 --Expertise: Professor of microbiology and immunology. "He was the world's leading expert on staphylococcal alpha toxins," according to Conrad Wagner, professor of biochemistry at Vanderbilt and a close friend of Professor Harshman. "He also deeply cared for other people and was always eager to help his students and colleagues." --Circumstances of Death: Complications of diabetes

July 10, 1998: Elizabeth A. Rich, M.D., 46 --Expertise: An associate professor with tenure in the pulmonary division of the Department of Medicine at CWRU and University Hospitals of Cleveland. She was also a member of the executive committee for the Center for AIDS Research and directed the biosafety level 3 facility, a specialized laboratory for the handling of HIV, virulent TB bacteria, and other infectious agents. --Circumstances of Death: Killed in a traffic accident while visiting family in Tennessee

September 1998: Jonathan Mann, 51 --Expertise: Founding director of the World Health Organisation's global Aids programme and founded Project SIDA in Zaire, the most comprehensive Aids research effort in Africa at the time, and in 1986 he joined the WHO to lead the global response against Aids. He became director of WHO's global programme on Aids which later became the UNAids programme. He then became director of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, which was set up at Harvard School of Public Health in 1993. He caused controversy earlier this year in the post when he accused the US National Institutes of Health of violating human rights by failing to act quickly on developing Aids vaccines. --Circumstances: Died in the Swissair Flight 111 crash in Canada.

April 15, 2000: Walter W. Shervington, M.D., 62 --Expertise: An extensive writer/ lecturer/ researcher about mental health and AIDS in the African American community. --Circumstances of Death: Died of cancer at Tulane Medical Hospital.

July 16, 2000: Mike Thomas, 35 --Expertise: A microbiologist at the Crestwood Medical Center in Huntsville. --Circumstances of Death: Died a few days after examining a sample taken from a 12-year-old girl who was diagnosed with meningitis and survived.

December 25, 2000: Linda Reese, 52 --Expertise: Microbiologist working with victims of meningitis. --Circumstances of Death: Died three days after she studied a sample from Tricia Zailo, 19, a Fairfield, N.J., resident who was a sophomore at Michigan State University. Tricia Zailo died Dec. 18, a few days after she returned home for the holidays.

May 7 2001: Professor Janusz Jeljaszewicz --Expertise: Expert in Staphylococci and Staphylococcal Infections. His main scientific interests and achievements were in the mechanism of action and biological properties of staphylococcal toxins, and included the immunomodulatory properties and experimental treatment of tumours by Propionibacterium.

November 2001: Yaacov Matzner, 54 --Expertise: Dean of the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem and chairman of the Israel Society of Hematology and Blood Transfusions, was the son of Holocaust survivors. One of the world's experts on blood diseases including familiar Mediterranean fever (FMF), Matzner conducted research that led to a genetic test for FMF. He was working on cloning the gene connected to FMF and investigating the normal physiological function of amyloid A, a protein often found in high levels in people with blood cancer. --Circumstances of Death: Professors Yaacov Matzner and Amiram Eldor were on their way back to Israel via Switzerland when their plane came down in dense forest three kilometres short of the landing field.

November 2001: Professor Amiram Eldor, 59 --Expertise: Head of the haematology institute, Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital and worked for years at Hadassah-University Hospital's haematology department but left for his native Tel Aviv in 1993 to head the haematology institute at Ichilov Hospital. He was an internationally known expert on blood clotting especially in women who had repeated miscarriages and was a member of a team that identified eight new anti-clotting agents in the saliva of leeches. --Circumstances of Death: Professors Yaacov Matzner and Amiram Eldor were on their way back to Israel via Switzerland when their plane came down in dense forest three kilometres short of the landing field.

November 6, 2001: Jeffrey Paris Wall, 41 --Expertise: He was a biomedical expert who held a medical degree, and he also specialized in patent and intellectual property. --Circumstances of Death: Mr. Walls body was found sprawled next to a three-story parking structure near his office. He had studied at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Nov. 16, 2001: Don C. Wiley, 57 --Expertise: One of the foremost microbiologists in the United States. Dr. Wiley, of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Harvard University, was an expert on how the immune system responds to viral attacks such as the classic doomsday plagues of HIV, ebola and influenza. --Circumstances of Death: He had just bought tickets to take his son to Graceland the following day. He had just left a banquet for fellow researchers in Memphis. Police found his rental car on a bridge outside Memphis, Tenn. His body was found Dec. 20 in the Mississippi River. his family said he was in perfect health. There was no autopsy. Forensic experts said he may have had a dizzy spell and have fallen off the bridge. Why did he leave the keys in the ignition and his lights on? Why was Wiley´s car facing in the opposite direction from his father´s house, which was only a short distance away?

Nov. 21, 2001: Vladimir Pasechnik, 64 --Expertise: World-class microbiologist and high-profile Russian defector; defected to the United Kingdom in 1989, played a huge role in Russian biowarfare and helped to figure out how to modify cruise missiles to deliver the agents of mass biological destruction. --Background: founded Regma Biotechnologies company in Britain, a laboratory at Porton Down, the country´s chem-bio warfare defense establishment. Regma currently has a contract with the U.S. Navy for "the diagnostic and therapeutic treatment of anthrax". --Circumstances of Death: The pathologist who did the autopsy, and who also happened to be associated with Britain´s spy agency, concluded he died of a stroke. Details of the postmortem were not revealed at an inquest, in which the press was given no prior notice. Colleagues who had worked with Pasechnik said he was in good health.

Dec. 10, 2001: Robert M. Schwartz, 57 --Expertise: Expert in DNA sequencing and pathogenic micro-organisms, founding member of the Virginia Biotechnology Association, and the Executive Director of Research and Development at Virginia´s Center for Innovative Technology in Herndon. --Circumstances of Death: stabbed and slashed with what police believe was a sword in his farmhouse in Leesberg, Va. His daughter, who identifies herself as a pagan high priestess, and several of her fellow pagans have been charged.

Dec. 14, 2001: Nguyen Van Set, 44 --Expertise: animal diseases facility of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization had just come to fame for discovering a virulent strain of mousepox, which could be modified to affect smallpox. --Circumstances: died at work in Geelong, Australia, in a laboratory accident. He entered an airlocked storage lab and died from exposure to nitrogen.

January 2002: Two dead microbiologists: Ivan Glebov and Alexi Brushlinski. Glebov died as the result of a bandit attack and Brushlinski was killed in Moscow. Both were well known around the world and members of the Russian Academy of Science.

January 28, 2002: David W. Barry, 58 --Expertise: Scientist who codiscovered AZT, the antiviral drug that is considered the first effective treatment for AIDS. --Circumstances: Feb. 9, 2002: Victor Korshunov, 56 --Expertise: Expert in intestinal bacteria of children around the world --Circumstances: bashed over the head near his home in Moscow.

Feb. 14, 2002: Ian Langford, 40 --Expertise: expert in environmental risks and disease. --Circumstances: found dead in his home near Norwich, England, naked from the waist down and wedged under a chair.

Feb. 28, 2002: Tanya Holzmayer, 46 --Expertise: a Russian who moved to the U.S. in 1989, focused on the part of the human molecular structure that could be affected best by medicine. --Circumstances: killed by fellow microbiologist Guyang (Matthew) Huang, who shot her seven times when she opened the door to a pizza delivery. Then he shot himself.

Feb. 28, 2002: Guyang Huang, 38 --Expertise: Microbiologist --Circumstances: Apparently shot himself after shooting fellow microbiologist, Tanya Holzmayer, seven times.

March 24, 2002: David Wynn-Williams, 55 --Expertise: Respected astrobiologist with the British Antarctic Survey, who studied the habits of microbes that might survive in outer space. --Circumstances: Died in a freak road accident near his home in Cambridge, England. He was hit by a car while he was jogging.

March 25, 2002: Steven Mostow, 63 --Expertise: Known as "Dr. Flu" for his expertise in treating influenza, and a noted expert in bioterrorism of the Colorado Health Sciences Centre. --Circumstances: died when the airplane he was piloting crashed near Denver.

Nov. 12, 2002: Benito Que, 52 --Expertise: Expert in infectious diseases and cellular biology at the Miami Medical School --Circumstances of Death: Que left his laboratory after receiving a telephone call. Shortly afterward he was found comatose in the parking lot of the Miami Medical School. He died without regaining consciousness. Police said he had suffered a heart attack. His family insisted he had been in perfect health and claimed four men attacked him. But, later, oddly, the family inquest returned a verdict of death by natural causes.

April 2003: Carlo Urbani, 46 --Expertise: A dedicated and internationally respected Italian epidemiologist, who did work of enduring value combating infectious illness around the world. --Circumstances: Died in Bangkok from SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) - the new disease that he had helped to identify. Thanks to his prompt action, the epidemic was contained in Vietnam. However, because of close daily contact with SARS patients, he contracted the infection. On March 11, he was admitted to a hospital in Bangkok and isolated. Less than three weeks later he died.

June 24, 2003: Dr. Leland Rickman of UCSD, 47 A resident of Carmel Valley --Expertise: An expert in infectious disease who helped the county prepare to fight bioterrorism after Sept. 11. --Circumstances: He was in the African nation of Lesotho with Dr. Chris Mathews of UCSD, the director of the university's Owen Clinic for AIDS patients. Dr. Rickman had complained of a headache and had gone to lie down. When he didn't appear for dinner, Mathews checked on him and found him dead. A cause has not yet been determined.

July 18, 2003: Dr. David Kelly, 59 --Expertise: Biological warfare weapons specialist, senior post at the Ministry of Defense, an expert on DNA sequencing when he was head of microbiology at Porton Down --Helped Vladimir Pasechnik found Regma Biotechnologies, which has a contract with the U.S. Navy for "the diagnostic and therapeutic treatment of anthrax" --worked with two American scientists, Benito Que, 52, and Don Wiley, 57. --Circumstances: 'Suicide'

Oct 24, 2003: Michael Perich, 46 --Expertise: LSU professor who helped fight the spread of the West Nile virus. Perich worked with the East Baton Rouge Parish Mosquito Control and Rodent Abatement District to determine whether mosquitoes in the area carried West Nile. --Circumstances: Walker Police Chief Elton Burns said Sunday that Perich of 5227 River Bend Blvd., Baton Rouge, crashed his Ford pickup truck about 4:30 a.m. Saturday, while heading west on Interstate 12 in Livingston Parish. Perich's truck veered right off the highway about 3 miles east of Walker, flipped and landed in rainwater, Burns said. Perich, who was wearing his seat belt, drowned. The cause of the crash is under investigation, Burns said. "Mike is one of the few entomologists with the experience to go out and save lives today." ~ Robert A. Wirtz, chief of entomology at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

November 22, 2003: Robert Leslie Burghoff, 45 --Expertise: He was studying the virus that was plaguing cruise ships until he was killed by a mysterious white van in November of 2003 --Circumstances: Burghoff was walking on a sidewalk along the 1600 block of South Braeswood when a white van jumped the curb and hit him at 1:35 p.m. Thursday, police said. The van then sped away. Burghoff died an hour later at Memorial Hermann Hospital.

December 18, 2003: Robert Aranosia, 61 --Expertise: Oakland County deputy medical examiner --Circumstances: He was driving south on I-75 when his pickup truck went off the freeway near a bridge over the Kawkawlin River. The vehicle rolled over several times before landing in the median. Aranosia was thrown from the vehicle and ended up on the shoulder of the northbound lanes.

January 6, 2004: Dr Richard Stevens, 54 --Expertise: A haematologist. (Haematologists analyse the cellular composition of blood and blood producing tissues eg bone marrow) --Circumstances: Disappeared after arriving for work on 21 July, 2003. A doctor whose disappearance sparked a national manhunt, killed himself because he could not cope with the stress of a secret affair, a coroner has ruled.

January 23 2004: Dr. Robert E. Shope, 74 --Expertise: An expert on viruses who was the principal author of a highly publicized 1992 report by the National Academy of Sciences warning of the possible emergence of new and unsettling infectious illnesses. Dr. Shope had accumulated his own collection of virus samples gathered from all over the world. --Circumstances: The cause was complications of a lung transplant he received in December, said his daughter Deborah Shope of Galveston. Dr. Shope had pulmonary fibrosis, a disease of unknown origin that scars the lungs.

January 24 2004: Dr. Michael Patrick Kiley, 62 --Expertise: Ebola, Mad Cow Expert, top of the line world class. --Circumstances: Died of massive heart attack. Coincidently, both Dr. Shope and Dr. Kiley were working on the lab upgrade to BSL 4 at the UTMB Galvaston lab for Homeland Security. The lab would have to be secure to house some of the deadliest pathogens of tropical and emerging infectious disease as well as bioweaponized ones.

April 12, 2004: Ilsley Ingram, 84 --Expertise: Director of the Supraregional Haemophilia Reference Centre and the Supraregional Centre for the Diagnosis of Bleeding Disorders at the St. Thomas Hospital in London. --Circumstances: unknown

May 14, 2004: Dr. Eugene F. Mallove, 56 --Expertise: Mallove was well respected for his knowledge of cold fusion. He had just published an open letter outlining the results of and reasons for his last 15 years in the field of new energy research. Dr. Mallove was convinced it was only a matter of months before the world would actually see a free energy device. --Circumstances: Died after being beaten to death during an alleged robbery.

May 25, 2004: Antonina Presnyakova --Expertise: Former Soviet biological weapons laboratory in Siberia --Circumstances: Died after accidentally sticking herself with a needle laced with Ebola. June 22, 2004: Thomas Gold, 84 --Expertise: He was the founder, and for twenty years the director, of the Cornell Center for Radiophysics and Space Research, where he was a close colleague of Planetary Society co-founder Carl Sagan. Gold was famous for his provocative, controversial, and sometimes outrageous theories. Gold's theory of the deep hot biosphere holds important ramifications for the possibility of life on other planets, including seemingly inhospitable planets within our own solar system. Gold sparked controversy in 1955 when he suggested that the Moon's surface is covered with a fine rock powder. --Circumstances: Died of heart failure.

June 24, 2004: Dr. Assefa Tulu, 45 --Expertise: Dr. Tulu joined the health department in 1997 and served for five years as the county's lone epidemiologist. He was charged with tracking the health of the county, including the spread of diseases, such as syphilis, AIDS and measles. He also designed a system for detecting a bioterrorism attack involving viruses or bacterial agents. Tulu often coordinated efforts to address major health concerns in Dallas County, such as the West Nile virus outbreaks of the past few years, and worked with the media to inform the public. --Circumstances: Dallas County's chief epidemiologist, was found at his desk, died of a stroke.

June 27, 2004: Dr Paul Norman, Of Salisbury, Wiltshire, 52 --Expertise: He was the chief scientist for chemical and biological defence at the Ministry of Defence's laboratory at Porton Down, Wiltshire. --Circumstances: He was killed when the single-engine Cessna 206 he was piloting crashed in Devon on Sunday. A father and daughter also died at the scene, and 44-year-old parachute instructor and Royal Marine Major Mike Wills later died in hospital.

June 29, 2004: John Mullen, 67 --Expertise: A nuclear research scientist with McDonnell Douglas. --Circumstances: Died from a huge dose of poisonous arsenic.

July 1, 2004: Edward Hoffman, 62 --Expertise: Aside from his role as a professor, Hoffman held leadership positions within the UCLA medical community. Worked to develop the first human PET scanner in 1973 at Washington University in St. Louis. --Circumstances: unknown

July 2, 2004: Larry Bustard, 53 --Expertise: A Sandia scientist who helped develop a foam spray to clean up congressional buildings and media sites during the anthrax scare in 2001. Worked at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque. His team came up with a new technology used against biological and chemical agents. --Circumstances: unknown

July 3, 2004: Dr Paul Norman, 52 --Expertise: The chief scientist for chemical and biological defence at the Ministry of Defence's laboratory at Porton Down, Wiltshire --Circumstances: He was killed when the single-engine Cessna 206 he was piloting crashed in Devon.

July 6, 2004: Stephen Tabet, 42 --Expertise: An associate professor and epidemiologist at the University of Washington. A world-renowned HIV doctor and researcher who worked with HIV patients in a vaccine clinical trial for the HIV Vaccine Trials Network. --Circumstances: Died of an unknown illness

July 21, 2004: Dr Bassem al-Mudares --Expertise: He was a phD chemist --Circumstances: His mutilated body was found in the city of Samarra, Iraq and had been tortured before being killed.

August 12, 2004: Professor John Clark --Expertise: Head of the science lab which created Dolly the sheep. Prof Clark led the Roslin Institute in Midlothian, one of the world's leading animal biotechnology research centres. He played a crucial role in creating the transgenic sheep that earned the institute worldwide fame. --Circumstances: He was found hanging in his holiday home.

September 5, 2004: Mohammed Toki Hussein al-Talakani --Expertise: Iraqi nuclear scientist. He was a practising nuclear physicist since 1984. --Circumstances: He was shot dead in Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad.

November 2, 2004: John R. La Montagne --Expertise: Head of US Infectious Diseases unit under Tommie Thompson. Was NIAID Deputy Director. --Circumstances: Died while in Mexico, no cause stated.

December 29, 2004: Tom Thorne and Beth Williams --Expertise: Two wild life scientists, Husband-and-wife wildlife veterinarians who were nationally prominent experts on chronic wasting disease and brucellosis --Circumstances: They were killed in a snowy-weather crash on U.S. 287 in northern Colorado.

December 21, 2004: Taleb Ibrahim al-Daher --Expertise: Iraqi nuclear scientist --Circumstances: He was shot dead north of Baghdad by unknown gunmen. He was on his way to work at Diyala University when armed men opened fire on his car as it was crossing a bridge in Baqouba, 57 km northeast of Baghdad. The vehicle swerved off the bridge and fell into the Khrisan river. Al-Daher, who was a professor at the local university, was removed from the submerged car and rushed to Baqouba hospital where he was pronounced dead. January 7, 2005: Jeong H. Im, 72 --Expertise: A retired research assistant professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Primarily a protein chemist. --Circumstances: He was stabbed several times and his body was found in the trunk of his burning white, 1995 Honda inside the Maryland Avenue parking garage.

Thanks to Steve Quayle for the latest additions to this file. 310 Iraqi Scientists Murdered By Israeli Mossad Agents Mathaba.net 10-31-4 More than 310 Iraqi scientists are thought to have perished at the hands of Israeli secret agents in Iraq since fall of Baghdad to US troops in April 2003, a seminar has found.

The Iraqi ambassador in Cairo, Ahmad al-Iraqi, accused Israel of sending to Iraq immediately after the US invasion 'a commando unit' charged with the killing of Iraqi scientists. "Israel has played a prominent role in liquidating Iraqi scientists. The campaign is part of a Zionist plan to kill Arab and Muslim scientists working in applied research which Israel sees as threatening its interests," al-Iraqi said.

BUSH AND IRAN

Bush 'is planning nuclear strikes on Iran's secret sites'By Philip Sherwell in Washington(Filed: 09/04/2006)

The Bush administration is planning to use nuclear weapons against Iran, to prevent it acquiring its own atomic warheads, claims an investigative writer with high-level Pentagon and intelligence contacts.
President George W Bush is said to be so alarmed by the threat of Iran's hard-line leader, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, that privately he refers to him as "the new Hitler", says Seymour Hersh, who broke the story of the Abu Ghraib Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal.

Mahmoud Ahmedinejad: 'The new Hitler'

Some US military chiefs have unsuccessfully urged the White House to drop the nuclear option from its war plans, Hersh writes in The New Yorker magazine. The conviction that Mr Ahmedinejad would attack Israel or US forces in the Middle East, if Iran obtains atomic weapons, is what drives American planning for the destruction of Teheran's nuclear programme.

Hersh claims that one of the plans, presented to the White House by the Pentagon, entails the use of a bunker-buster tactical nuclear weapon, such as the B61-11, against underground nuclear sites. One alleged target is Iran's main centrifuge plant, at Natanz, 200 miles south of Teheran.

Although Iran claims that its nuclear programme is peaceful, US and European intelligence agencies are certain that Teheran is trying to develop atomic weapons. In contrast to the run-up to the Iraq invasion, there are no disagreements within Western intelligence about Iran's plans.

This newspaper disclosed recently that senior Pentagon strategists are updating plans to strike Iran's nuclear sites with long-distance B2 bombers and submarine-launched missiles. And last week, the Sunday Telegraph reported a secret meeting at the Ministry of Defence where military chiefs and officials from Downing Street and the Foreign Office discussed the consequences of an American-led attack on Iran, and Britain's role in any such action.

The military option is opposed by London and other European capitals. But there are growing fears in No 10 and the Foreign Office that the British-led push for a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear stand-off, will be swept aside by hawks in Washington. Hersh says that within the Bush administration, there are concerns that even a pummelling by conventional strikes, may not sufficiently damage Iran's buried nuclear plants.


Iran has been developing a series of bunkers and facilities to provide hidden command centres for its leaders and to protect its nuclear infrastructure. The lack of reliable intelligence about these subterranean facilities, is fuelling pressure for tactical nuclear weapons to be included in the strike plans as the only guaranteed means to destroy all the sites simultaneously.

The attention given to the nuclear option has created serious misgivings among the joint chiefs of staff, and some officers have talked about resigning, Hersh has been told. The military chiefs sought to remove the nuclear option from the evolving war plans for Iran, without success, a former senior intelligence officer said.

The Pentagon consultant on the war on terror confirmed that some in the administration were looking seriously at this option, which he linked to a resurgence of interest in tactical nuclear weapons among defence department political appointees.

The election of Mr Ahmedinejad last year, has hardened attitudes within the Bush Administration. The Iranian president has said that Israel should be "wiped off the map". He has drafted in former fellow Revolutionary Guards commanders to run the nuclear programme, in further signs that he is preparing to back his threats with action.

Mr Bush and others in the White House view him as a potential Adolf Hitler, a former senior intelligence official told Hersh. "That's the name they're using. They say, 'Will Iran get a strategic weapon and threaten another world war?' "

Despite America's public commitment to diplomacy, there is a growing belief in Washington that the only solution to the crisis is regime change. A senior Pentagon consultant said that Mr Bush believes that he must do "what no Democrat or Republican, if elected in the future, would have the courage to do," and "that saving Iran is going to be his legacy".

Publicly, the US insists it remains committed to diplomacy to solve the crisis. But with Russia apparently intent on vetoing any threat of punitive action at the UN, the Bush administration is also planning for unilateral military action. Hersh repeated his claims that the US has intensified clandestine activities inside Iran, using special forces to identify targets and establish contact with anti-Teheran ethnic-minority groups.

The senior defence officials said that Mr Bush is "determined to deny Iran the opportunity to begin a pilot programme, planned for this spring, to enrich uranium".

IRAN Has Nukes

NUCLEAR WAR-FEAR

Iranian missiles can carry nukes U.S. official says 'breakthrough'a 'very disturbing development'

Posted: April 7, 20062:08 p.m. Eastern

© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (courtesy Radio Netherlands) Iran now has ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, according to military experts.

While Tehran denies it is trying to develop a nuclear arsenal, ballistic missile experts advising the United States say it has succeeded in reconfiguring the Shahab-3 ballistic missile to carry nuclear weapons, the London Telegraph reports.

"This is a major breakthrough for the Iranians," said a senior U.S. official, according to the London paper. "They have been trying to do this for years and now they have succeeded. It is a very disturbing development."

Recent test firings of the Shahab-3 by military experts show Iran has been able to modify the nose cone to carry a basic nuclear bomb, the experts conclude.

WorldNetDaily first reported one year ago that Shahab-3 ballistic missiles, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, were being designed to destroy America's technical infrastructure. Scientists, including President Reagan's top science adviser, William R. Graham, said there is no other explanation for such tests than preparation for the deployment of electromagnetic pulse weapons – even one of which could knock out America's critical electrical and technological infrastructure, effectively sending the continental U.S. back to the 19th century with a recovery time of months or years.

In December, WND reported that while the U.S. always has refused to take the military option off the table in dealing with Iran, new developments indicated Washington had gone from acknowledging the possibility of action to preparing its allies for a strike.

The Shahab-3 is an adaptation of North Korea's Nodong missile, which Tehran secretly obtained from Pyongyang in the mid-1990s. The Nodong is based on the old Soviet-made Scud missile. Iran concluded another secret deal with North Korea in 2003 to buy the Taepo Dong 2 missile, with a range of 2,000 miles.

The United Nations Security Council last week gave Iran 30 days to freeze its uranium enrichment program, which many experts believe is tied to a clandestine attempt by Tehran to produce nuclear weapons.
U.S. defense officials believe Iran is several years from acquiring nuclear weapons, but they point out a version of Pakistan's nuclear bomb could fit on the Shahab warhead.

Tehran is known to have acquired detailed plans of Pakistan's weapons.
The Shahab 3, with a range of 800 miles, is capable of hitting Israel. But Iranian technicians are working on technical adjustments to further increase the range.

Teams of Russian and Chinese nuclear-weapons experts are assisting Iran, Western intelligence officials believe.
Similar to the Hiroshima bomb, the Iranian warhead is designed to carry a spherical nuclear weapon that would be detonated 2,000 feet above the ground, the Telegraph said.

Author Jerome Corsi, who warned one year ago of Iran's intention to acquire nuclear weapons and threaten Israel and the West in his book "Atomic Iran, says Tehran is "proceeding much faster than what the world expected."

"We knew they had designs for simple gun-type spherical bomb," he said. "But now they've managed to adapt the warhead, and all they need is the bomb itself."

In January, Tehran opened a nuclear facility in Isfahan, and analysts believe within another four to six months it may have the capability to produce its own enriched uranium.
In November, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatened to "wipe Israel off the map."

"Iran has declared war on Israel whether we recognize it or not," Corsi said.
In December, Israeli officials said then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had instructed the Israeli Defense Forces to prepare for a possible military strike against Iran.

As WorldNetDaily reported in January, Ahmadinejad told a crowd of theological students in Iran's holy city of Qom that Islam must prepare to rule the world.

"We must believe in the fact that Islam is not confined to geographical borders, ethnic groups and nations. It's a universal ideology that leads the world to justice," Ahmadinejad said Jan. 5, according to Mehran Riazaty, a former Iran analyst for the Central Command of the Coalition Forces in Baghdad.

Ahmadinejad, who drew global attention for his contention the Holocaust was a "myth," said: "We don't shy away from declaring that Islam is ready to rule the world."

Riazaty, in a post on the website Regime Change Iran, said the Iranian president emphasized his current theme that the return of the Shiite messiah, the Mahdi, is not far away, and Muslims must prepare for it.
According to Shiites, the 12th imam disappeared as a child in the year 941. When he returns, they believe, he will reign on earth for seven years, before bringing about a final judgment and the end of the world.
Ahmadinejad is urging Iranians to prepare for the coming of the Mahdi by turning the country into a mighty and advanced Islamic society and by avoiding the corruption and excesses of the West.

"We must prepare ourselves to rule the world and the only way to do that is to put forth views on the basis of the Expectation of the Return," Ahmadinejad said. "If we work on the basis of the Expectation of the Return [of the Mahdi], all the affairs of our nation will be streamlined and the administration of the country will become easier."

Attack on IRAN Pending

"IRAN ATTACK PREPARATIONS"

It is believed that an American-led attack, designed to destroy Iran's ability to develop a nuclear bomb, is 'inevitable'..."MER - MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 2 April: With Washington politics in slow-motion meltdown, the Iraq war bordering on historic catastrophe, and an impeachment attempt possibly looming, preparations for attacking Iran are very real.

A few days ago a quarter-page ad on the Op Ed Page of the New York Times loudly warned this is what is coming. Furthermore both Washington and Israel may actually be attempting to provoke Iran and supporters, or at least prepare the public climate to blame them for anything that may happen, in order to create the excuse and momentum to unleash the wider war long sought by the Neocons, the fundamentalist Evangelicals, and the hardline Israeli Lobby. The following articles, all published today, are from Sunday's Telegraph in the UK, Zaman in Turkey, and the Washington Post in the U.S. And remember the previous articles and analysis published by MER for some time.

London Government in secret talks about strike against IranBy Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent
Daily Telegraph - 2 April 2006: The Government is to hold secret talks with defence chiefs tomorrow to discuss possible military strikes against Iran.

A high-level meeting will take place in the Ministry of Defence at which senior defence chiefs and government officials will consider the consequences of an attack on Iran.

It is believed that an American-led attack, designed to destroy Iran's ability to develop a nuclear bomb, is "inevitable" if Teheran's leaders fail to comply with United Nations demands to freeze their uranium enrichment programme.

A high-level meeting will take place in the Ministry of Defence
Tomorrow's meeting will be attended by Gen Sir Michael Walker, the chief of the defence staff, Lt Gen Andrew Ridgway, the chief of defence intelligence and Maj Gen Bill Rollo, the assistant chief of the general staff, together with officials from the Foreign Office and Downing Street.

The International Atomic Energy Authority, the nuclear watchdog, believes that much of Iran's programme is now devoted to uranium enrichment and plutonium separation, technologies that could provide material for nuclear bombs to be developed in the next three years.
The United States government is hopeful that the military operation will be a multinational mission, but defence chiefs believe that the Bush administration is prepared to launch the attack on its own or with the assistance of Israel, if there is little international support.
British military chiefs believe an attack would be limited to a series of air strikes against nuclear plants - a land assault is not being considered at the moment.

But confirmation that Britain has started contingency planning will undermine the claim last month by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, that a military attack against Iran was "inconceivable".

Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, insisted, during a visit to Blackburn yesterday, that all negotiating options - including the use of force - remained open in an attempt to resolve the crisis.

General Sir Michael Walker
Tactical Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from US navy ships and submarines in the Gulf would, it is believed, target Iran's air defence systems at the nuclear installations.

That would enable attacks by B2 stealth bombers equipped with eight 4,500lb enhanced BLU-28 satellite-guided bunker-busting bombs, flying from Diego Garcia, the isolated US Navy base in the Indian Ocean, RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and Whiteman USAF base in Missouri.

It is understood that any direct British involvement in an attack would be limited but may extend to the use of the RAF's highly secret airborne early warning aircraft.

At the centre of the crisis is Washington's fear that an Iranian nuclear weapon could be used against Israel or US forces in the region, such as the American air base at Incirlik in Turkey.

The UN also believes that the production of a bomb could also lead to further destabilisation in the Middle East, which would result in Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia all developing nuclear weapons programmes.


A senior Foreign Office source said: "Monday's meeting will set out to address the consequences for Britain in the event of an attack against Iran. The CDS [chiefs of defence staff] will want to know what the impact will be on British interests in Iraq and Afghanistan which both border Iran. The CDS will then brief the Prime Minister and the Cabinet on their conclusions in the next few days.

"If Iran makes another strategic mistake, such as ignoring demands by the UN or future resolutions, then the thinking among the chiefs is that military action could be taken to bring an end to the crisis. The belief in some areas of Whitehall is that an attack is now all but inevitable.
There will be no invasion of Iran but the nuclear sites will be destroyed. This is not something that will happen imminently, maybe this year, maybe next year. Jack Straw is making exactly the same noises that the Government did in March 2003 when it spoke about the likelihood of a war in Iraq.

"Then the Government said the war was neither inevitable or imminent and then attacked."

The source said that the Israeli attack against Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981 proved that a limited operation was the best military option.

The Israeli air force launched raids against the plant, which intelligence suggested was being used to develop a nuclear bomb for use against Israel.

Military chiefs also plan tomorrow to discuss fears that an attack within Iran will "unhinge" southern Iraq - where British troops are based - an area mainly populated by Shia Muslims who have strong political and religious links to Iran.

They are concerned that this could delay any withdrawal of troops this year or next. There could also be consequences for British and US troops in Afghanistan, which borders Iran.

The MoD meeting will address the economic issues that could arise if Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president - who became the subject of international condemnation last year when he called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" - cuts off oil supplies to the West in reprisal.


There are thought to be at least eight known sites within Iran involved in the production of nuclear materials, although it is generally accepted that there are many more secret installations.
Iran has successfully tested a Fajr-3 missile that can reach Israel, avoiding radar and hitting several targets using multiple warheads, its military has confirmed.

21 March 2006: Bush warns Iran: don't touch our ally Israel
14 March 2006: Bush ready to initiate 'regime change' for the mullahs
Leader: Time to take action
Sleuths look for smoking gun
The experts' analysis
Iran factfile

US will Find Another Excuse to Target Iran By Ahmet Dinc, Ankara Zaman.com - Turkey - 2 April: The United States is firm in its plans to launch a military operation against Iran, said Kazim Jalali, a spokesman for the Iranian Parliament’s Commission of Foreign Affairs, adding the United States would find another reason for its military operation even if the nuclear plants were immediately shut down.

There are peaceful motives behind the nuclear projects in Iran, said Jalali, when he asserted that the use of nuclear weapons is outlawed according to Islam too. The Western news media distorted what Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said about Israel, Jalali argued.

Jalali was hosted in Turkey by the Political Thought Platform. Iran signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, NPT, Jalali told Zaman, and added that the treaty accords certain rights to produce and utilize nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

There are nuclear projects in Iran that allow international monitoring, said Jalali.

“For the past three years, 1,700 international overseers have been granted official permission to inspect Iran’s nuclear projects. One is most unlikely to see any other instances of this. Iran received an order from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to relinquish its works on nuclear energy within a period of two months. Iran put on hold its nuclear works of its own accord when the government here conferred with the European Union member countries on the Paris Pact. With a blind eye to our efforts, they asked us for a sheer abandonment of nuclear projects.

Iran’s use of a new generation of technology would alarm the United States,” said the Iranian deputy. He argued that the administration in Washington is encouraging the IAEA to press the administration in Tehran to turn its back on the nuclear projects.

The nuclear works in Tehran are only used as a pretext by the United States to do away with the Islamic regime of Iran, Jalali said.
“The United States will always have a reason to strike Iran in spite of an assertion from the government here to close soon all the nuclear plants.”

Although there is a common awareness of the presence of nuclear weapons in Israel, there is no objection to Israeli right to own such weaponry, said Jalali.

The Iranian government will definitely not disown its peaceful nuclear projects, Jalali concluded.

Attacking Iran May Trigger TerrorismU.S. Experts Wary of Military Action Over Nuclear Program

By Dana Priest
Washington Post - Page 1 - Sunday 2 April: As tensions increase between the United States and Iran, U.S. intelligence and terrorism experts say they believe Iran would respond to U.S. military strikes on its nuclear sites by deploying its intelligence operatives and Hezbollah teams to carry out terrorist attacks worldwide.

Iran would mount attacks against U.S. targets inside Iraq, where Iranian intelligence agents are already plentiful, predicted these experts. There is also a growing consensus that Iran's agents would target civilians in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, they said.
U.S. officials would not discuss what evidence they have indicating Iran would undertake terrorist action, but the matter "is consuming a lot of time" throughout the U.S. intelligence apparatus, one senior official said. "It's a huge issue," another said.

Citing prohibitions against discussing classified information, U.S. intelligence officials declined to say whether they have detected preparatory measures, such as increased surveillance, counter-surveillance or message traffic, on the part of Iran's foreign-based intelligence operatives.

But terrorism experts considered Iranian-backed or controlled groups -- namely the country's Ministry of Intelligence and Security operatives, its Revolutionary Guards and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah -- to be better organized, trained and equipped than the al-Qaeda network that carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The Iranian government views the Islamic Jihad, the name of Hezbollah's terrorist organization, "as an extension of their state. . . . operational teams could be deployed without a long period of preparation," said Ambassador Henry A. Crumpton, the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism.

The possibility of a military confrontation has been raised only obliquely in recent months by President Bush and Iran's government. Bush says he is pursuing a diplomatic solution to the crisis, but he has added that all options are on the table for stopping Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons.

Speaking in Vienna last month, Javad Vaeedi, a senior Iranian nuclear negotiator, warned the United States that "it may have the power to cause harm and pain, but it is also susceptible to harm and pain. So if the United States wants to pursue that path, let the ball roll," although he did not specify what type of harm he was talking about.

Government officials said their interest in Iran's intelligence services is not an indication that a military confrontation is imminent or likely, but rather a reflection of a decades-long adversarial relationship in which Iran's agents have worked secretly against U.S. interests, most recently in Iraq and Pakistan. As confrontation over Iran's nuclear program has escalated, so has the effort to assess the threat from Iran's covert operatives.

U.N. Security Council members continue to debate how best to pressure Iran to prove that its nuclear program is not meant for weapons. The United States, Britain and France want the Security Council to threaten Iran with economic sanctions if it does not end its uranium enrichment activities. Russia and China, however, have declined to endorse such action and insist on continued negotiations.

Security Council diplomats are meeting this weekend to try to break the impasse. Iran says it seeks nuclear power but not nuclear weapons.
Former CIA terrorism analyst Paul R. Pillar said that any U.S. or Israeli airstrike on Iranian territory "would be regarded as an act of war" by Tehran, and that Iran would strike back with its terrorist groups. "There's no doubt in my mind about that. . . . Whether it's overseas at the hands of Hezbollah, in Iraq or possibly Europe, within the regime there would be pressure to take violent action."

Before Sept. 11, the armed wing of Hezbollah, often working on behalf of Iran, was responsible for more American deaths than in any other terrorist attacks. In 1983 Hezbollah truck-bombed the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241, and in 1996 truck-bombed Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 U.S. service members.

Iran's intelligence service, operating out of its embassies around the world, assassinated dozens of monarchists and political dissidents in Europe, Pakistan, Turkey and the Middle East in the two decades after the 1979 Iranian revolution, which brought to power a religious Shiite government. Argentine officials also believe Iranian agents bombed a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994, killing 86 people. Iran has denied involvement in that attack.

Iran's intelligence services "are well trained, fairly sophisticated and have been doing this for decades," said Crumpton, a former deputy of operations at the CIA's Counterterrorist Center. "They are still very capable. I don't see their capabilities as having diminished."

Both sides have increased their activities against the other. The Bush administration is spending $75 million to step up pressure on the Iranian government, including funding non-governmental organizations and alternative media broadcasts. Iran's parliament then approved $13.6 million to counter what it calls "plots and acts of meddling" by the United States.

"Given the uptick in interest in Iran" on the part of the United States, "it would be a very logical assumption that we have both ratcheted up [intelligence] collection, absolutely," said Fred Barton, a former counterterrorism official who is now vice president of counterterrorism for Stratfor, a security consulting and forecasting firm. "It would be a more fevered pitch on the Iranian side because they have fewer options."

The office of the director of national intelligence, which recently began to manage the U.S. intelligence agencies, declined to allow its analysts to discuss their assessment of Iran's intelligence services and Hezbollah and their capabilities to retaliate against U.S. interests.

"We are unable to address your questions in an unclassified manner," a spokesman for the office, Carl Kropf, wrote in response to a Washington Post query.

The current state of Iran's intelligence apparatus is the subject of debate among experts. Some experts who spent their careers tracking the intelligence ministry's operatives describe them as deployed worldwide and easier to monitor than Hezbollah cells because they operate out of embassies and behave more like a traditional spy service such as the Soviet KGB.

Other experts believe the Iranian service has become bogged down in intense, regional concerns: attacks on Shiites in Pakistan, the Iraq war and efforts to combat drug trafficking in Iran.

As a result, said Bahman Baktiari, an Iran expert at the University of Maine, the intelligence service has downsized its operations in Europe and the United States. But, said Baktiari, "I think the U.S. government doesn't have a handle on this."

Because Iran's nuclear facilities are scattered around the country, some military specialists doubt a strike could effectively end the program and would require hundreds of strikes beforehand to disable Iran's vast air defenses. They say airstrikes would most likely inflame the Muslim world, alienate reformers within Iran and could serve to unite Hezbollah and al-Qaeda, which have only limited contact currently.

A report by the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks cited al-Qaeda's long-standing cooperation with the Iranian-back Hezbollah on certain operations and said Osama bin Laden may have had a previously undisclosed role in the Khobar attack. Several al-Qaeda figures are reportedly under house arrest in Iran.

Others in the law enforcement and intelligence circles have been more dubious about cooperation between al-Qaeda and Hezbollah, largely because of the rivalries between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. Al-Qaeda adherents are Sunni Muslims; Hezbollah's are Shiites.

Iran "certainly wants to remind governments that they can create a lot of difficulty if strikes were to occur," said a senior European counterterrorism official interviewed recently. "That they might react with all means, Hezbollah inside Lebanon and outside Lebanon, this is certain. Al-Qaeda could become a tactical alliance."