Countdown Iran » technology transfer

Obama Aide Says Iran May Lash Out at Israel

C.I. — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 20:09:51 +0000

JAN. 30 – “President Barack Obama’s national security adviser is citing a heightened risk that Iran will respond to growing pressure over its nuclear program by stoking violence against Israel,” reports the AP.

Jerusalem Post: NSC’s Ross Joined NSA’s Jones on Israel Visit

C.I. — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 09:21:32 +0000

JAN. 17 – In his dispatch this morning for The Jerusalem Post, Herb Keinon speculates as to why NSC staffer Dennis Ross joined US National Security Adviser James Jones on his recent trip to Israel, and why Jones departed next for Lebanon.

Report: Charges in Alleged Plot to Ship Possible Nuclear Parts to Iran

C.I. — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:47:36 +0000

JAN. 14 – According to L.A. Now, “three men, including an Iranian-born chemical engineer living in Glendale, have been charged in a scheme to smuggle sophisticated industrial components into Iran that could be used in the development of a nuclear weapon.”

Required Reading: ‘Iran Expands its Target List’ in WSJ

C.I. — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 21:54:17 +0000

JAN. 3 – “The nagging question of the nuclear age has been what if a madman gets hold of an atomic bomb?” writes USMC (Ret.) Timothy J. Geraghty, in an opinion piece in today’s Wall Street Journal. “That question is about to be answered as Iran’s defiance puts it on a collision course with the West.”

Geraghty writes: “On Nov. 4, 2009, Israeli commandos intercepted a ship 100 miles off the Israeli coast carrying hundreds of tons of weapons from Iran bound for Hizbullah in Lebanon. Since the 2006 war, Iran has rearmed Hizbullah with 40,000 rockets that will likely rain on Israeli cities – and even European cities and U.S. military bases in the Middle East – if Iran is attacked.

“Our 200,000 troops in 33 bases are vulnerable. Iran is capable of disrupting Persian Gulf shipping lanes, which could cause the price of oil to surge, and could also create mayhem in oil markets by attacking Saudi oil refineries. Moreover, Iran possesses Soviet-made SS-N-22 “Sunburn” supersonic anti-ship missiles that it could use to contest a naval blockade,” according to Geraghty, who was the U.S. Marine commander in Beirut in 1983.