Iran Launching "Massive" Ten Day War Game Tomorrow In Close Proximity To CVN-74 John Stennis
Zero Hedge
As the rest of the world enjoys Festivus or whatever celebration one indulges in, Iran is launching a "massive" 10 day war games naval exercise right in the belly of the beast.
"Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari on Thursday announced the upcoming launch of ten-day massive naval exercises in the international waters, the local satellite Press TV reported. Sayyari said at a press conference on Thursday that the naval maneuvers dubbed Velayat 90 will start on Saturday and will cover an area of 2,000 (1,250-mile) km stretching from the east of the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Aden, the report said.
This is the first time that Iran's Navy carries out naval drills in such a vast area, he was quoted as saying. He said that the exercises will manifest Iran's military prowess and defense capabilities in the international waters, convey a message of peace and friendship to regional countries and test the newest military equipment among other objectives, said the report. He added that the newest missile systems and torpedoes will be employed in the maneuvers, adding that the most recent tactics used in subsurface battles will also be demonstrated.
Iranian destroyers, missile-launching vessels, logistic vessels, drones and coastal missiles will also be tested, said the Iranian commander, according to the report." And while conventional wisdom is that the market is focused on what the upcoming closure of the Straits of Hormuz means for tanker routs and oil prices, there is another more disturbing possibility: with all those Iranian canoes, and soapboxes floating around, one wonders if one is bound to have a close encounter with USS CVN-74 John Stennis, which as the updated naval map below from Stratfor shows, will be smack in the middle of the action.
More on this potential powder keg:
Closing Strait of Hurmoz is under full control of Iran, he said but did not mention about the exercise to close it, according to the state IRIB TV website.
Earlier this month, Parviz Sorouri, a member of the Iranian Majlis (parliament) National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said that Iran plans to practice its ability to close the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most important passages for exports of crude and oil products from littoral states of Persian Gulf.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said later that closing the Strait of Hormuz is not on Iran's agenda.
As Iran has announced it several times, the issue of closing the Strait of Hormuz is not on Iran's agenda since Iran believes in upholding the stability and peace of the region," said Mehmanparast.
Alas, that's not the question: the question is what does everyone else believe is the best optics of representing Iran as believing in. Because if a US support vessel has to sink to make popular support for this and that a little more palatable, then sink it will. On its own if it has to.
A Look At What May Be The Foundation For A U.S. Attack On Iran
23 December, 2011
Following an eight year occupation that gutted Saddam Hussein's Sunni regime, the U.S. has pulled out of Iraq to find North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il suddenly deceased, and Iran allegedly building a nuclear weapon.
The Axis of Evil didn't exactly become foreign policy when George W. Bush coined the term in his State of the Union Address on January 29, 2002, but there seems reason to believe the U.S. could be eyeballing a foray into Iran.
There is the unprecedented missile collaboration between the U.S. and Israel slated for early next year that would keep incoming Iranian missile strikes in Israel to a minimum, following any attack on Tehran.
There is the near war-mongering article in Foreign Affairs by Matthew Kroenig that has everyone talking. Kroenig, an articulate and thoughtful writer apparently not given to wild extremes of opinion, makes the argument that an attack on Iran is "The Least Bad Option" and sums that reasoning up in his piece titled "Time to Attack Iran."
There is the IAEA report that systematically lays out Iran's apparent attempts to generate weapons grade radioactive material.
There is Leon Panetta saying three days ago that the U.S. will simply not allow Iran to have nuclear weapons. He told CBS News this would be "A red line," for both the U.S. and Israel.
There is the $10 million bounty now being offered for information leading to the capture of the Iran-based al-Qaida money-man Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil.
And then, perhaps most interesting in its quiet release, there is yesterday's ruling by a New York federal judge, who signed a default judgment holding the Taliban, al-qaida, and Iran responsible for the September 11 attacks.
Judge George Daniels ruled $100 billion is owed to victims families, and that Iran continues to "provide material support and resources to al-Qaida by providing a safe haven for al-Qaida leadership and rank-and-file al-Qaida members."
None of this means we'll wind up bombing Tehran, but if the U.S. plans to address the final 'Axis of Evil,' this could be the time it will do so.
This is, of course absolute BS and insanity - but wouldn’t it be convenient if Venezuela could be added to the list?
NY Judge: Iran, Taliban, Al-Qaida Liable For 9-11
TOPICS:FROM THE WIRES
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has signed a default judgment finding Iran, Taliban and al-Qaida liable in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Judge George Daniels in Manhattan signed the judgment Thursday, a week after hearing testimony in the 10-year-old case. The signed ruling, which he promised last week, came in a $100 billion lawsuit brought by family members of victims of the attacks. He directed a magistrate judge to preside over remaining issues, including fixing compensatory and punitive damages.
Daniels signed findings of fact saying the plaintiffs had established that the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 were caused by the support the defendants provided to al-Qaida. It also said Iran continues to provide material support and resources to al-Qaida by providing a safe haven for al-Qaida leadership and rank-and-file al-Qaida members.
And the official U.S. position (courtesy of the corporate media)
Iran’s war games could force U.S. to ‘respond aggressively’
22 December, 2011
Faced with the threat of growing international sanctions and unprecedented economic uncertainty that has seen the value of its currency halved in recent weeks, Iran announced Thursday its navy will stage a 10-day exercise in the Strait of Hormuz, starting Saturday.
The move, which increases the risk of military confrontation with the United States, has the potential to temporarily choke off oil exports from the Middle East, drive up international energy prices and damage the global economy.
Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, head of Iran’s navy, said submarines, destroyers, missile-launching ships and attack boats will occupy a 2,000-kilometre stretch of sea from the Strait of Hormuz, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, to the Gulf of Aden, near the entrance to the Red Sea.
“Iran’s military and Revolutionary Guards can close the Strait of Hormuz. But such a decision should be made by top establishment leaders,” he said.
This month, Parviz Sarvari, a member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security Committee, said Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz as part of a military exercise.
“If the world wants to make the region insecure, we will make the world insecure,” he said.
In November, Iran’s energy minister told Al Jazeera television Tehran could use oil as a political tool in the event of future conflict over its nuclear program.
Dubbed Velayat-90 (Velayat is Persian for supremacy), the war games are designed to display Iran’s naval power in the face of growing international criticism of its nuclear work.
This week, Leon Panetta, the U.S. Defence Secretary, predicted Iran will be able to assemble a nuclear bomb within a year and warned the United States had not ruled out using military force to prevent that from happening.
The day before Iran announced the war games, General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told CNN television the U.S. was determined to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power.
“My biggest worry is they will miscalculate our resolve,” he said. “Any miscalculation could mean that we are drawn into conflict and that would be a tragedy for the region and the world.”
Iran said the war games would be held in international waters.
The Strait is a 50-kilometre wide passageway through which about a third of the world’s oil tanker traffic sails. Whoever controls this crucial choke-point virtually controls Middle East oil exports.
“The importance of this waterway to both American military and economic interests is difficult to overstate,” said a report by geopolitical analysts at the global intelligence firm Stratfor.
“Considering Washington’s more general — and fundamental — interest in securing freedom of the seas, the U.S. Navy would almost be forced to respond aggressively to any attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz.”
“Iran has built up a large mix of unconventional forces in the Gulf that can challenge its neighbours in a wide variety of asymmetric wars, including low-level wars of attrition,” said Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington.
This includes nearly 200 missile patrol boats, equipped with sea-skimming anti-ship missiles, which “can be used to harass civil shipping and tankers, and offshore facilities, as well as attack naval vessels,” he said.
“These light naval forces have special importance because of their potential ability to threaten oil and shipping traffic in the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, raid key offshore facilities and conduct raids on targets on the Gulf Coast.”
But Mr. Cordesman also warned “Iran could not ‘close the Gulf’ for more than a few days to two weeks even if it was willing to sacrifice all of these assets, suffer massive retaliation, and potentially lose many of its own oil facilities and export revenues.”
“It would almost certainly lose far more than it gained from such a ‘war,’ but nations often fail to act as rational bargainers in a crisis, particularly if attacked or if their regimes are threatened,” Mr. Cordesman wrote in a report titled Iran, Oil, and the Strait of Hormuz.
Closing the Strait for just 30 days would send the price of crude racing up to US$300 to $500 a barrel, a level that would trigger global economic instability and cost the U.S. nearly US$75-billion in economic activity.Iran's Navy Commander Habibulah Sayari announces 10 days of war games will be held in the Strait of ormu
“One bomb on Iran and oil prices could shoot up to $300 or even $500 a barrel,” veteran UPI correspondent Arnaud de Borchgrave wrote recently.
According to a computerized war game carried out by the Heritage Foundation in Washington in 2007, the effects of an Iranian attempt to block Gulf oil shipping may be minimal because the U.S. and its allies would immediately send military and naval forces to protect shipping lanes.
If Iran destroyed oil tankers or impeded the transit of oil and other commerce, it could expect to suffer considerable damage in retaliatory attacks, the study said.
The potential for a naval confrontation comes just as the U.S. and its allies are stepping up pressure to impose even stricter economic sanctions against Iran in an effort to force it to abandon its controversial nuclear program.
This follows the introduction of stronger economic sanctions by the U.S. and Europe after a International Atomic Energy Agency report issued in November increased fears Iran is working to develop atomic bomb capability.
Sanctions appear to be hurting Iran, squeezing its banks and sending the Iranian rial plunging to its lowest level against the U.S. dollar.
Washington recently declared Iranian banks guilty of money laundering, forcing U.S. banks to step up the reporting requirements of any banks they deal with who may be doing business with Iran.
This has made it so difficult for foreign businesses many have decided to stop dealing with the Iranians.
In November, Canada and Britain also decided to sever all ties with the Central Bank of Iran and France began calling for a European Union boycott of Iranian oil.
Last week, Issa Jafari, an Iranian parliamentarian, said, “If oil sanctions are imposed on Iran, we will not allow even a single barrel of oil to be exported to countries hostile to us.”
In the past, Iranian officials have dismissed sanctions as doomed to fail, but this week Akbar Salehi, the Foreign Minister, told the official Islamic Republic New Agency, “We cannot pretend the sanctions are not having an effect.”
Mahmoud Bahmani, governor of the Central Bank of Iran, also said Iran needs to act as if it were “under siege.”
More BS
U.S. offers $10 million for Iran-based al-Qaeda financier
23 December, 2011
The U.S. on Thursday announced a reward of up to $10 million for the capture of Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil, better known as Yasin al-Suri. Yasin al-Suri, the alleged financier and facilitator of al-Qaeda, is Syrian-born but based in Iran.
The U.S. goverment accuses al-Suri of facilitating the movement of hundreds of thousands of dollars as well as terrorist recruits from Iran to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
MSNBC reports that the bounty is the first for an al-Qaeda financier. The United States is seeking to disrupt a financial network that has been operating in Iran since 2005. The U.S. believes that a bounty offer may lead to arrest of al-Suri because similar offers in the past have yielded information leading to arrests. An offer of $10 million yielded information leading to arrest of Saddam Hussein's two sons and of Ramzi Yousef, the World Trade center bomber.
For article GO HERE
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