The US Airbase in Incirlik, Turkey contains 90 nuclear warheads. As was the case in Afghanistan and Iraq, this base is likely to play a crucial role in a prospective war against Iran. Moreover, the Sunday Times map (see item 4) indicates that the use of Turkish airspace by Israel is also being planned, with the tacit consent of the Turkish authorities.
![[4] Sunday Times, 13 July 2008](/images/2008/07/404954.jpg)
[4] Sunday Times, 13 July 2008
"If America and Israel shoot any bullets and missiles against our country, Iranian armed forces will target the heart of Israel and 32 US bases in the region before the dust from this attack has settled," [the Iranian Supreme Leader's aide] Mojtaba Zolnoor said. [1]
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From July 15 to 18 more than 200 Turkish diplomats, including 103 of the country's ambassadors and heads of missions serving in different countries around the world, met in Ankara to discuss Turkey's short and long-term foreign policy goals. The unprecedented gathering of virtually all of the high-level personnel from the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs was the brainchild of Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan… [2]
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I received extremely positive messages with regards to our diplomats' Ankara meeting. It seems our diplomats have made extremely "realistic comments" on the issue of Iran in particular.
According to my friends who attended the meeting, Iran was a special item on the agenda. More specifically, views were exchanged on the kind of attitude Ankara should adopt "in the event of a possible Israeli and/or US attack against Iran, should Iran not give up enriching uranium to build a nuclear weapon" .
The probability of a [retaliatory] attack by the administration in Tehran on US bases in the region was regarded as being "unlikely". So, our diplomats are not expecting "a retaliatory attack by Iran on the Incirlik [US Airbase] ". Their argument is that "If Iran carries out a missile strike against the US targets in the region, then they would wipe Iran off the map. And Iranians know this fully well."
One of the participants to the meeting said that as Iran's missile technology is very backward, its missiles would not be able to carry warheads of claimed weights and their accuracy in hitting targets is very low. The example he cited in support of his argument was quite striking: "When they send a missile to Ankara, it would end up landing on Moscow." [3]
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NOTES:
[1] Iran to target ‘32 US bases’ if attacked
AFP, 12 July 2008
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Iran_to_target_32_US_bases_if_attac_07122008.html [2] Turkish Foreign Minister hosts Heads of Mission Conference in Ankara
by Gareth Jenkins, Jamestown Foundation, 19 July 2008
http://www.jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2373245 [3] Gundem Iran
by Sedat Sertoglu, Aksam, 24 July 2008
http://www.aksam.com.tr/yazar.asp?a=124536,10,199 [4] a map by Nir Ben-Yosef in ‘President George W Bush backs Israeli plan for strike on Iran’ by Uzi Mahnaimi, Sunday Times, 13 July 2008
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article4322508.ece ---------------------
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Hide the following 6 comments
At firs glance I thought the object in the top left was a pencil.
30.07.2008 17:16
Then I looked again with more care and begin to think the object wasn't a pencil but a missile whatyoucall'em thingum-a-jiggy Shahab complete with elasticated rubber band to hold a whopping big nib on the fuselage and disguise it as a gigantic multipurpose pencil just in case agents of the Mossad were looking for retaliatory rocket firing sites where the Sunday Times suggests they should be (on the Iraqi border with Iran or the Lebanese border with Israel).
very crafty disguise. arts & crafty almost.
Then I gave up on the mystery object which is perhaps what poor old Gary McKinnon should have done and learnt that there are more than 3,000 underground centrifuges at Natanz and it's a next to done & fallout dusted factiod that they're going to get bombed by the USAF. They must be dizzy with all the spin. Wikipedia tells us "The Natanz Nuclear Facility, located some 30 km NNE from the town 33°43′N, 51°43′E) near a major highway, is generally recognized as Iran's central facility for enrichment with 164 centrifuges, and as of April 2007 there is speculation that there are upwards of 3000 in the underground facility.[3][4] However, there is some speculation that the site could be a front, while expansion of the centrifuge program goes on elsewhere.[5]"
I suspect most people never think about the citations on wikipedia.
you can't properly speculate without citation [3] from the utterly impartial Israeli daily Ha'aretz newspaper of August 23rd 2006
They are obviously not in favour of bombing the place.
Q: So who is it that speculates [5] the centrifugal power of the atom is applied somewhere else?
A: The Washington Times,
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I know people get very worried about the possibility of the decent telly a limited nuclear exchange in the Middle East and Mid Asian region would afford us especially if it not only appeared to fulfil prophecy but vindicate their opposition all along to the Iraq war. I don't won't to offend such people by not believing a word of it. I simply suspect I'm not the only one "not to believe a word of it" and am rather amongst many who suspect the whole thing is a charade which routinely distracts our attention from other places and other conflicts and ought only be seen as part of the window dressing for the eventual realpolitik conditions of Iraq and her peoples in the Iranian sphere of influence when the US army goes home.
don't believe a word of it
some predictions
30.07.2008 20:53
Doomwatch
Item in top left is Israeli warplane
30.07.2008 20:53
Bobby
Well I am glad we got that straight
30.07.2008 21:43
What's wrong with people and their doom bin laden comments on these things? Forget the meds? Admittedly not everything is tickety-boo in Iran but they have an enviously strong hand in this chairforce mapped out confrontation. As for pesky little Israel - land of the child mutilation cult known as Zionism - and their state sponsor of terror - the U.S. of failed mortages, I don't see it somehow. They haven't got the guts for it, there is only good ole Dick and Condi left - all the rest have sloped off for their speaking tours. Even our here Don Rummy has gotten bored of transformative wars in the mid-East. Might as well write about how the Germans could have attacked Switzerland for all the good it does. People would post that to blogs and Indymedia too.
Dickhead Cheney
Have you noticed the "mont blanc" pen & pencil logo is almost a star o david?
31.07.2008 15:57
a very small expensive Israeli Jet or a very small expensive Mont Blanc pen/pencil?
muppet to you with semiotics™® & product placement - on top! ;-)
i still don't believe a word of it
Such Fun and Games
01.08.2008 22:00
The effective way for Iran to eliminalte its enemies is, on the face of it, selective Biological warfare. Iranians are not Arabs, so a specifically anti-semitic bioweapon would seem to suit them very well. But it would not work to take out Israelis as most of them are of European origin from a genetic base that chose Judaiism when forced to choose between Religions. I forget what they originally were, perhaps Shaman or suchlike.
The only bioweapon that Iran could safely use is one that its own population had been immunised against. Whatever Government perfects that weapon has to use it immediately before the others perfect theirs and there is not only mutual total destruction, but the extermination of the human race. If God intends that as a way to save the rest of this Creation from Mass Extinction, it is being left a bit late.. The GBs (G Bush and G Brown) have God well beaten.
The destruction of Civilisation could perhaps best be expedited by simultaneously wrecking Oil Tankers in many places. Could tanker crews decide to save the World?
Ilyan