Showing posts with label Yochanan Visser. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yochanan Visser. Show all posts

Sunday, September 30, 2018

ANALYSIS: New Revelations Prove Netanyahu Right on Iran's Nuclear Program - Yochanan Visser ISRAEL TODAY

ANALYSIS: New Revelations Prove Netanyahu Right on Iran's Nuclear Program

Sunday, September 30, 2018 |  Yochanan Visser  ISRAEL TODAY
On Friday, Iran responded to the speech Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu gave during the annual General Assembly of the United Nations in New York City in which he revealed Iran has another never disclosed nuclear site in its capital Tehran.
Netanyahu said a secret nuclear warehouse inside Tehran contained 300 tons of nuclear-related material and demanded the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) immediately examined the evidence Israel has in its possession.
The Israeli PM also said Iran had recently spread 15 kilograms of radioactive material around Tehran last month to in an effort to hide its activities in the facility.
When Israel shared this information with the IAEA recently the nuclear watchdog did nothing according to an unnamed Israel official who spoke with TV Channel 10 in the country.
The Mossad, Israel’s Spy Agency, knows exactly what is stored in the facility the official said just like it knew what was in the secret nuclear archive in Tehran where Israel stole Iran’s nuclear secrets on January 31 this year.
Iran now says Netanyahu’s claims were “baseless and ridiculous” according to Bahran Qassemi, the spokesman of the Iranian Foreign Ministry.
Javad Zariff, Iran’s Foreign Minister called Netanyahu’s presentation at the UNGA “an arts and craft show” meant to obfuscate Israel has his own secret nuclear secret and undeclared actual atomic arsenal a reference to what Israel calls its life insurance.
Israel’s estimated sixty-five to eighty-five warheads, according to a Rand Corporation study are meant as the ultimate defensive weapon in case the country is threatened with annihilation, however.
Israel has, furthermore, repeatedly promised it would never be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East.
Iran, on the other hand, is aggressively exporting the Islamic Revolution to other parts of the Middle East and is the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism.
The Islamic Republic is not only using words to threaten Israel with destruction but is actively working on the annihilation of the Jewish state which it calls a cancer tumor which must be removed.
In addition, Iran is causing mayhem in several Arab countries such as Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon which was the first Arab country to become an Iranian satellite state.
Netanyahu’s revelations at the UNGA followed recent information about how Iran continues to deceive the world about its nuclear weapons program which is still in place until this very day despite the 2015 landmark-nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and six world powers.
This was revealed by Israeli investigative journalist Ronen Bergman, the writer of the 2009 book “The Secret War with Iran”, in a Hebrew language article which was published on September 7.
In the article, which was based on original Iranian documents, Bergman revealed that the material the Mossad seized during the daring raid in Tehran earlier this year clearly showed that Iran has never stopped working on the development of a nuclear weapon.
Officially the Islamic Republic stopped its nuclear weapons program dubbed ‘AMAD’ in 2003 when the US army invaded Iraq in March 2003 and the regime in Tehran thought it would be next in line.
Bergman wrote that the Mossad had observed the warehouse in Tehran for more than one year and knew exactly what was stored there.
When a team of dozens of Mossad agents broke into the facility they knew which of the 32 giants safes contained the most relevant information about the AMAD project and its secret successor ‘project Sfand’.
The Sfand project, which was headed by nuclear scientist Fakhri Zada, was started in the fall of 2003.
Zada received a letter from Abassi-Duwani, another Iranian nuclear expert, who advised Zada to publish the parts of the atomic project that were peaceful in character in order to deceive the international community.
Abassi-Dawani wrote that neutron research should be kept secret because it would reveal that Iran continued research for the development of a nuclear weapon.
The Mossad also seized a letter written by then-Iranian Defense Minister Simhani which stated that Sfand would include: project Serab 1, a facility for an underground test with an atomic bomb and Serab 2 and 3, facilities for the production and integration of a nuclear warhead for the Shihab 3 ballistic missile.
The leaders of the Sfand project, which was a direct result of a decision by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Al Khamenei, also decided to deny the IAEA access to military facilities where Iran was conducting work on its nuclear weapons program.
For this reason, Iran initially denied IAEA inspectors access to the military base near Parchin where the Islamic Republic was suspected of having conducted tests with detonators for nuclear warheads in special tubes.
When the IAEA was finally granted access to Parchin the Iranians had removed virtually all evidence their nuclear activities there.
Bergman now published so-called selfies of Iranian nuclear scientists standing next to two different kinds of test chambers for the detonators at Parchin.
“Presumably none of the photographers imagined that his pictures would ever reach Israel," Bergman wrote, adding that the photos he had seen proved beyond doubt that Iran had lied about the military dimensions of its nuclear program.
The Mossad material also proved Iran had lied about equipment for neutron research which it said was not in its possession and about its possession of a sophisticated camera that could capture the moment of the chain reaction that leads to the detonation of an atomic bomb.
The 55,000 pages and 182 disks stolen by the Mossad contained further evidence that Iran was actually developing a nuclear weapon in underground bunkers and with equipment that the Islamic Republic had always claimed was not in its possession.
“The bottom line of the material is clear and sharp and indisputable: it is a mega-scam in which senior Iranian officials and hundreds of people participated for years," Bergman wrote.
"For two decades Iran denied that it had a military nuclear project. But the contents of the safes brought to Israel tell a different, completely opposite, and undeniable story: For years, Iran has been conducting a covert nuclear project aimed at producing five nuclear bombs," he asserted.
Both Bergman, who has contacts within the Mossad and other Israeli intelligence services, and the Israeli government are convinced the Sfand project continued after the implementation of the nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers, in 2016.
Iran’s mega-scam started in 1987 when Khamenei, during a secret meeting of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran ordered the development of a nuclear weapon because of “external threats.”
“The little we can do to stand up to this danger is to make our enemies aware that we can defend ourselves. Accordingly, any step we take here will serve the defense of our nation and your revolution. With this aim in mind, you must work hard and fast,” Khamenei said at the time.
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Thursday, September 6, 2018

ANALYSIS: Israel Heavily Involved in Widening Syrian War - Yochanan Visser ISRAEL TODAY

ANALYSIS: Israel Heavily Involved in Widening Syrian War

Thursday, September 06, 2018 |  Yochanan Visser  ISRAEL TODAY
The Syrian civil war is slowly turning into a regional conflict which has the potential to become a world war and Israel is heavily involved in it.
As we reported on August 23th Israel and the United States are now working together to contain the growing Iranian threat and to prevent further Iranian entrenchment in Syria.
This was the result of consultations between Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and President Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton who paid a three-day-visit to Israel late August.
The Iranians increasingly have become the dominant actor in Syria and controls a large stretch of the Syrian Iraqi border as well as the Syrian Lebanon border.
At the same time, Iran has turned the Syrian army into another proxy force, is building new bases and missile facilities in the country, and now also provides ballistic missiles to its Iraqi proxy force the Hash al-Shaabi umbrella organization of predominantly Shiite militias.
In addition, Iran is supplying large quantities of weapons to its Lebanese ally Hezbollah and has been caught using civilian airplanes to do so.  
The missiles delivered to Hashd al-Shaabi, if deployed in western Iraq, are able to hit Tel Aviv and this was the reason Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman as well as the IDF Northern Front commander  issued  stark warnings to Iran on Monday.
"We are certainly monitoring everything that is happening in Syria and, regarding Iranian threats, we are not limiting ourselves just to Syrian territory. This also needs to be clear," Liberman said during a national security conference in Israel.
Asked if this includes possible military action against Iran’s proxies in Iraq, Liberman answered: "I am saying that we will contend with any Iranian threat, and it doesn't matter from where it comes ... Israel's freedom is total. We retain this freedom of action."
A spokesman for the US-led coalition in Iraq later confirmed that Israel has already carried out airstrikes against the Iraqi militia Kata’ib Hezbollah which is also operating in Syria.
The Iraqi militia was struck twice in Syria over the past few months by IAF warplanes and one of the Israeli bombardments took place on the Iraqi Syrian border in the vicinity of the town al-Bukamal killing 52 people among them Iranians.
The Iraqi missile program, which includes the local production of rockets by Hashd al-Shaabi, is overseen by Qassem Soleimani, the shrewd commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.
During the same Israeli national security conference the commander of the IDF Northern Command, Maj. Gen. Yoel Strick, issued a clear threat to Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah.
“(Hezbollah) will feel the force of our arm. I hope there won’t be another war, but if there is, it won’t be another Second Lebanon War, but the final northern war,” Strick told the conference.
The IDF commander stressed that the fighting capabilities of the Israeli army vis a vis Hezbollah have “dramatically improved” since the 2006 Second Lebanon War.
 “If they (Hezbollah and Iran) knew what we know about them, they wouldn’t be speaking so confidently,” Strick said.
Israel is constantly carrying out reconnaissance missions in Lebanese airspace, Iranian and Lebanese media reported on Tuesday.
IRNA the state-controlled Iranian news agency reported that the “Zionist regime” carried out 134 of those missions in August alone.
Referring to the massive IAF bombardment of Iranian targets in Syria on May 10
th the Northern Command chief said that the Iranians, and Qassem Soleimani in particular, had learned a lesson about threatening Israel.
“Qassem Soleimani understood the gap between threats and capabilities. I’m glad that we are keeping him from those capabilities,” Strick claimed.
On Tuesday the IDF released a confidential report about Israel’s overall security situation which revealed that the Israeli army and air force had carried out 200 strikes against Iran-related targets in Syria over the past 18 months.
The revelation about the Israeli involvement in Syria was followed by media reports about new IAF strikes against Iranian targets in Syria.
The Israeli air force bombed an Iranian base near Damascus and on Tuesday evening attacked a missile facility near Masyaf in northwest Syria which resembled the Parchin military base in Iran.
At the same time, Russia and the United States are gearing up for a confrontation over an imminent offensive by the pro-Assad coalition against a 100,000 men-strong force of the Turkey-backed Sunni Islamist rebels in the Idlib Province in northern Syria.
US President Donald Trump warned the Iranians and Russians not to make a “grave mistake” by “recklessly attacking” the last large Islamist rebel hub in Syria and has already ordered his military to prepare for a massive response whenever the pro-Assad coalition launches the long anticipated offensive in Idlib.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights spotted a 150-vehicle strong American convoy which crossed into northeast Syria from Iraq on its way to the Kurdish controlled autonomous region on the east bank of the Euphrates River. 
The U.S. is also building up a naval force in the Persian Gulf which could repeat last year’s massive missile attacks on Syrian targets. 
The Russians, however, seem not to be overly impressed by Trump’s threats and war preparations.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the deployment of a small armada in the Mediterranean Sea opposite the Syrian coastline which started a massive drill on Tuesday.
At the same time, Russian warplanes started to bomb rebel positions in Idlib while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed Trump’s threats and warned U.S. military action. against Assad’s forces would have “very dangerous, negative potential for the whole situation in Syria.”
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Saturday, August 11, 2018

ANALYSIS: What's Behind the Latest Escalation in Israel's South? - Yochanan Visser ISRAEL TODAY

ANALYSIS: What's Behind the Latest Escalation in Israel's South?

Friday, August 10, 2018 |  Yochanan Visser  ISRAEL TODAY
The situation in southern Israel deteriorated significantly Wednesday night after Hamas started to pound the Israeli towns and communities in the Gaza belt with 180 rockets and mortar shells. Tens of thousands of Israelis spent several nights in bomb shelters, the IDF retaliated against over 150 terrorist targets, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his generals contemplated full-scale war.
According to Hamas, this brush with another destructive conflagration began as retaliation for an IDF attack on two of its snipers last Tuesday. 
The two were taking part in an exercise that was attended by Hamas leaders and aimed their rifles at an IDF position opposite the border after which they were taken out by a Merkava tank.
However, the lead-up to this fresh outbreak of violence really started on July 20th, when Hamas killed an IDF soldier close to the border fence in Gaza using a sniper.
Since then Hamas had been talking about a long-term truce with Israel which would include the full opening of the Keren Shalom border crossing which is used for the import of Israeli goods.
The demand Israel fully opens the Keren Shalom border crossing has nothing to do with Hamas’ desire to improve the dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza strip but everything with rampant corruption within the top of the terror organization.
The Gatestone Insitute just published an investigative article detailing this corruption which has filled the coffers of the Hamas top since it violently took over control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in 2007.
Corruption is one way for Hamas to stay in power maintaining a low-intensity conflict with Israel is another. 
For this reason Hamas started the so-called ‘Great March of Return’ at the end of March the two-month-long violent confrontations along the border with Israel in Gaza which turned into the so-called ‘Kite Jihad’ the daily attacks with incendiary balloons and kites which have caused a ecological disaster in southern Israel.
Hamas started these violent confrontations to remain relevant and to curry favor with Iran that is using the terror group as another proxy army against Israel.
It is no coincidence Hamas leader al-Arouri, who is living in Lebanon and never visited Gaza, arrived in the coastal enclave last week officially to hold consultations with other Hamas leaders about the ‘imminent’ long-term ceasefire with Israel.
Al-Arouri, an arch terrorist who has spent years in Israeli prisons for organizing terror attacks, was responsible for the reconciliation between Hamas and the Islamist regime in Tehran in October 2017 and the resuming of Iranian aid to the Sunni Islamist terror organization.
Shortly after this reconciliation Hamas started to prepare for another round of violence with Israel but was careful not to enter into all-out war with the Jewish state.
Israeli politicians like Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman have repeatedly accused Iran of being behind the current round of violence in Israel’s south.
Al-Arouri’s presence in Gaza could be the reason Hamas suddenly escalated the hostilities against Israel.
After all, Iran is working to create three fronts against Israel via its proxies as a preparation for a major war against the Jewish State: Lebanon, Syria -where Iran has taken-over the military as reported by the Jerusalem Post on Wednesday- and Gaza.
PHOTO: An Iron Dome battery in southern Israel intercepts an incoming rocket from Hamas-controlled Gaza. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
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Thursday, July 19, 2018

ANALYSIS: How Israel and Others Exposed Iran's Nuclear Weapons Program - Yochanan Visser ISRAEL TODAY

ANALYSIS: How Israel and Others Exposed Iran's Nuclear Weapons Program

Wednesday, July 18, 2018 |  Yochanan Visser  ISRAEL TODAY
This week two leading American newspapers  published articles about how exactly the Mossad, Israel’s external intelligence agency, broke into a warehouse in Tehran, Iran to steal a giant trove of documents dealing with Iran’s secret nuclear weapons program.
During a dramatic six-and-a-half-hour during nightly operation on January 31, 2018 the 100 men-strong Mossad team broke into the warehouse via two doors after disabling the alarm system of the building in a commercial district in Tehran.
They then cut through a number of large safes by using torches that burned at least 3,600 degrees and left the capital of Iran at 5.00 AM two hours before Iranian security agents arrived for the morning shift, according to the New York Times.
The Israeli team knew exactly which safes contained the most critical designs for the production of nuclear weapons and how much time they had for the operation after a year-long surveillance of the warehouse which was not guarded by Iranians during the night to avoid drawing attention to the secret facility.
Last week, Israeli intelligence officials revealed that the planning of the operation began in 2016 when the Mossad obtained intelligence Iran had decided to consolidate and to conceal a large number of documents and disks its past illicit nuclear activities.
This happened after Iran and six world powers in the summer of 2015 reached an agreement called Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA) on its nuclear activities which aimed to delay Iran’s ability to break out to a nuclear bomb.
The controversial agreement was implemented early 2016 after the Obama Administration and other governments cancelled biting sanctions and released frozen Iranian assets.
During the briefing one of the Israeli intelligence officials likened the Mossad operation to the casino heist in the movie ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ and said Israel had specific intelligence steering the team “to focus their efforts on specific safes,” according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
When the operation in the warehouse was completed two hours before Iranian security agents  arrived the Mossad team left Tehran with some 50,000 pages and 163 compact disk of videos, designs and memos detailing Iran’s secret nuclear weapons program.
The New York Times showed a part of the Iranian archive to Robert Kelley, a nuclear engineer and a former inspector of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog.
“It’s quite good,” Kelley told Times reporter David E. Sanger and Israeli investigative journalist Ronen Bergman, the writer of the 2008 book “The Secret War With Iran”.
“The papers show these guys were working on nuclear bombs,” Kelley concluded after reviewing the documents detailing Iran’s secret Amad Project which was officially halted in 2003 when the United States invaded Iraq.
“The Iranian program to build a nuclear weapon was almost certainly larger, more sophisticated and better organized than most suspected in 2003,” other nuclear experts told The New York Times.
The documents shown to the American papers dealt with a nuclear warhead for Iran’s Shihab-3 long-range ballistic missile and described plans to built five nuclear bombs in the initial stages of the Amad Project.
After halting the Amad Project officially Iran shifted “many of its activities into the newly formed Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research,” according to WSJ.
The new details on Iran’s covert nuclear weapons program coincided with the publication of new German intelligence report by the state of Hesse which states that the Islamic Republic still  seeks to acquire  weapons of mass destruction.
The German report claimed Iran and North Korea are trying to “circumvent control mechanisms in countries that are not especially subject to embargo restrictions.” 
One of these countries is Syria which Iran is currently turning into another client state.
On July 11 Yossi Kupperwasser, a former top IDF military intelligence official told participants in a conference organized by the Jerusalem Center of Public Affairs that a “major purpose of Iran wanting to enlarge its footprint in Syria may be to hide aspects of its nuclear program from the International Atomic Energy Agency.”
The German magazine Der Spiegel as well as the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security (the good ISIS) have reported – based on extensive research- that Iran is probably operating an underground nuclear facility in Qusayr in the Qalamoun Mountains near the Lebanese border.
The Qusayr site is guarded by the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and was referred to by a high-ranking Hezbollah official as “the atomic factory”.
Der Spiegel already reported in 2015 that 8,000 fuel rods were stored at the Qusayr facility, where three building conceal entrances to tunnels.
In March this year a ISIS team lead by former IAEA inspector David Albright came to the conclusion that while “evidence remains inconclusive there is reason to believe that Syria, apparently with help from North Korea and Iran, built a new underground nuclear facility in Qusayr.”
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