http://www.rense.com/general75/bite.htm

rense.com

Operation Bite - April 6 Sneak Attack
By US Forces On Iran Planned
- Russian Military Sources Warn

General Ivashov Calls For Emergency Session Of
UN Security Council To Ward Off Looming US Aggression
By Webster G. Tarpley
3-25-7

WASHINGTON DC -- The long awaited US military attack on Iran is now on track for
the first week of April, specifically for 4 AM on April 6, the Good Friday opening
of Easter weekend, writes the well-known Russian journalist Andrei Uglanov in the
Moscow weekly "Argumenty Nedeli." Uglanov cites Russian military experts close to
the Russian General Staff for his account.

The attack is slated to last for twelve hours, according to Uglanov, lasting from 4
AM until 4 PM local time. Friday is a holiday in Iran. In the course of the attack,
code named Operation Bite, about 20 targets are marked for bombing; the list
includes uranium enrichment facilities, research centers, and laboratories.

The first reactor at the Bushehr nuclear plant, where Russian engineers are
working, is supposed to be spared from destruction. The US attack plan reportedly
calls for the Iranian air defense system to be degraded, for numerous Iranian
warships to be sunk in the Persian Gulf, and the for the most important
headquarters of the Iranian armed forces to be wiped out.

The attacks will be mounted from a number of bases, including the island of Diego
Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Diego Garcia is currently home to B-52 bombers equipped
with standoff missiles. Also participating in the air strikes will be US naval
aviation from aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, as well as from those of the
Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. Additional cruise missiles will be fired from
submarines in the Indian Ocean and off the coast of the Arabian peninsula. The goal
is allegedly to set back Iran's nuclear program by several years, writes Uglanov,
whose article was re-issued by RIA-Novosti in various languages, but apparently not
English, several days ago. The story is the top item on numerous Italian and German
blogs, but so far appears to have been ignored by US websites.

Observers comment that this dispatch represents a high-level orchestrated leak from
the Kremlin, in effect a war warning, which draws on the formidable resources of
the Russian intelligence services, and which deserves to be taken with the utmost
seriousness by pro-peace forces around the world.

Asked by RIA-Novosti to comment on the Uglanov report, retired Colonel General
Leonid Ivashov confirmed its essential features in a March 21 interview: "I have no
doubt that there will be an operation, or more precisely a violent action against
Iran." Ivashov, who has reportedly served at various times as an informal advisor
to Putin, is currently the Vice President of the Moscow Academy for Geopolitical
Sciences.

Ivashov attributed decisive importance to the decision of the Democratic leadership
of the US House of Representatives to remove language from the just-passed Iraq
supplemental military appropriations bill which would have demanded that Bush come
to Congress before launching an attack on Iran. Ivashov pointed out that the
language was eliminated under pressure from AIPAC, the lobbing group representing
the Israeli extreme right, and of Israeli Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni.

"We have drawn the unmistakable conclusion that this operation will take place,"
said Ivashov. In his opinion, the US planning does not include a land operation: "
Most probably there will be no ground attack, but rather massive air attacks with
the goal of annihilating Iran's capacity for military resistance, the centers of
administration, the key economic assets, and quite possibly the Iranian political
leadership, or at least part of it," he continued.

Ivashov noted that it was not to be excluded that the Pentagon would use smaller
tactical nuclear weapons against targets of the Iranian nuclear industry. These
attacks could paralyze everyday life, create panic in the population, and generally
produce an atmosphere of chaos and uncertainty all over Iran, Ivashov told
RIA-Novosti. "This will unleash a struggle for power inside Iran, and then there
will be a peace delegation sent in to install a pro-American government in
Teheran," Ivashov continued. One of the US goals was, in his estimation, to burnish
the image of the current Republican administration, who would now be able to boast
that they had wiped out the Iranian nuclear program.

Among the other outcomes, General Ivashov pointed to a partition of Iran along the
same lines as Iraq, and a subsequent carving up of the Near and Middle East into
smaller regions. "This concept worked well for them in the Balkans and will now be
applied to the greater Middle East," he commented.

"Moscow must expert Russia's influence by demanding an emergency session of the
United Nations Security Council to deal with the current preparations for an
illegal use of force against Iran and the destruction of the basis of the United
Nations Charter," said General Ivashov. "In this context Russia could cooperate
with China, France and the non-permanent members of the Security Council. We need
this kind of preventive action to ward off the use of force," he concluded.

 http://fr.rian.ru/world/20070321/62387717.html



 http://fr.rian.ru/world/20070319/62260006.html

Selon l'hebdomadaire russe Argoumenty nedeli, une action militaire se déroulera au
cours de la première semaine d'avril, avant les Pâques catholique et orthodoxe
(cette année elles sont célébrées le 8), lorsque l' "opinion occidentale" sera en
congé. Il se peut aussi que l'Iran soit frappé le vendredi 6, jour férié dans les
pays musulmans. D'après le schéma américain, ce sera une frappe d'un seul jour qui
durera 12 heures, de 4 heures de matin à 16 heures d'après-midi. Le nom de code de
l'opération est à ce jour "Bite" en anglais (Morsure). Une vingtaine
d'installations iraniennes devraient être touchées. A leur nombre, des
centrifugeuses d'enrichissement d'uranium, des centres d'études et des
laboratoires. Mais le premier bloc de la centrale nucléaire de Bouchehr ne sera pas
touché. Par contre, les Américains neutraliseront la DCA, couleront plusieurs
bâtiments de guerre iraniens dans le Golfe et détruiront les postes clefs de
commandement des forces armées.

[comment about "western opinion" being on holidays during Easter as a convenient
time for an attack - original source is cited as Russian weekly "Argoumenty nedeli"
(Sunday Arguments)]



 http://fr.rian.ru/russia/20070330/62861794.html

Les États-Unis ont établi une liste des cibles iraniennes et élaboré le plan de
l'opération militaire. Le commandement américain sera prêt à porter une frappe dans
la première quinzaine d'avril, mais il appartient aux dirigeants politiques
américains de prendre une décision en ce sens, selon la source.

[A list of military targets has been established. The military command is ready
for an attack during the first fortnight of April, but it's up to political
leaders to take a decision, according to the source.]



 http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=3990

DEBKAfile Exclusive: US financial sources in Bahrain report American investors in
Bahrain advised to pack up business operations and leave

March 30, 2007, 12:41 PM (GMT+02:00)

The advice came from officers with US Central Command 5th Fleet HQ at Manama, who
spoke of security tension, a hint at an approaching war with Iran. Arab sources
report the positioning of a Patriot anti-missile battery in Bahrain this week; they
say occupancy at emirate hotels has soared past 90% due mostly to the influx of US
military personnel. They also report Western media crews normally employed in
military coverage are arriving in packs.

Thursday, March 29, Gen. Khaled al-'Absi, Bahrain's chief of air defense operations
disclosed that new alarm networks had been installed and air defense systems
upgraded to handle chemical, biological and radioactive attacks.

The USS Nimitz and its support ships will be departing San Diego Monday, April 2,
to join the John C. Stennis Strike Group in the Persian Gulf. The nuclear carrier
is due to relieve the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower , but military sources in the Gulf
believe all three US carriers will stay put if tensions continue to climb or if
fighting breaks out involving American, British and Iranian forces.

The mighty American armada is further supported by the USS Bataan and USS Boxer
strike groups.

War tensions have been triggered most recently by the crisis over the seized
British sailors and large-scale US sea, air and amphibious exercises in the Gulf.

1. DEBKAfile's Tehran sources report that in the contest within the Iranian
leadership over how to handle the affair of the captured British seamen, the
wildest radical element has gained the upper hand, reducing the prospects of their
imminent release. Heading the tough Tehran faction are hardline president Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad and Gen. Rahim Safavi, commander of the Revolutionary Guards whose
naval wing performed the seizure.

They gained strength from the British premier Tony Blair's initial passive,
semi-conciliatory response. Tehran quickly grasped it had acquired not just a
propaganda tool but a military asset, which the UK cannot match as long as the
Americans desist from throwing their military might into the fray. Washington has
refused to risk of a full-scale war confrontation with the Revolutionary Guards for
the sake of the British sailors.

Iranian strategists also registered that, although the Blair government has begun
moving mountains to gain the freedom of the marine crew held in Tehran, London
appeared fairly laid back about the kidnap of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston in
broad daylight by gunmen in Palestinian Gaza, although three weeks had gone by.

Revolutionary Guards serving with Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza no doubt
filed a full report on the Johnston case to Tehran, which drew its own conclusions.

2. Taking part in the big demonstration of American naval, air and marine force
launched March 27 are the two nuclear carrier strike forces Stennis and
Eisenhower , thousands of marines and 100 warplanes. Maneuvers on this scale in
the tight, overcrowded waters of the Persian Gulf carry risks of a collision
between American and Iranian craft.

DEBKAfile's military sources report that the Nimitz group is composed of the
Princeton guided-missile cruiser, four guided missile destroyers – the Higgins ,
Chafee , John Paul Jones and Pinckney . The strike force is armed with two
helicopter squadrons and a special unit for dismantling sea mines and other
explosive devices.

Earlier, DEBKAfile quoted intelligence sources in Moscow as predicting that a US
strike against Iranian nuclear installations codenamed Operation Bite has been
scheduled for April 6 at 0040 hours. Missiles and air raids will conduct strikes
designed to be devastating enough to set Tehran's nuclear program several years
back.