Posted on 01/29/2014 7:44:03 PM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Saudi Arabia has long been a backroom player in the Middle East's nuclear game of thrones, apparently content to bankroll the ambitions of Pakistan and Iraq (under Saddam Hussein) to counter the rise of its mortal enemy, Iran.
But as the West and Iran have moved closer to a nuclear accommodation, signs are emerging that the monarchy is ready to give the world a peek at a new missile strike force of its own - which has been upgraded with Washington's careful connivance.
According to a well-placed intelligence source, Saudi Arabia bought ballistic missiles from China in 2007 in a hitherto unreported deal that won Washington's quiet approval on the condition that CIA technical experts could verify they were not designed to carry nuclear warheads.
The solid-fueled, medium-range DF-21 East Wind missiles are an improvement over the DF-3s the Saudis clandestinely acquired from China in 1988, experts say, although they differ on how much of an upgrade they were.
The newer missiles, known as CSS-5s in NATO parlance, have a shorter range but greater accuracy, making them more useful against "high-value targets in Tehran, like presidential palaces or supreme-leader palaces," Jeffrey Lewis, director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, tells Newsweek. They can also be fired much more quickly.
The poor accuracy of the old DF-3s rendered them impotent during the first Gulf War as a counterstrike to Saddam Hussein's Scuds, according to Desert Warrior, a 1996 memoir by Saudi Prince Khaled bin Sultan, then-commander of the Riyadh's Air Defense Forces. King Fahd declined to fling them at Iraq because the likely result would have been mass civilian casualties, and "the coalition's air campaign being waged against Iraq was sufficient retaliation," Khaled wrote.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
Whats the difference between slinging a HE warhead, a sack full of pumpkins, or a nuke warhead? Isn't the booster just a “booster”??????????
CIA helping the Saudis buy Missiles from China. How is that not treason?
And two other thoughts. This is the same intelligence community that says the NSA is acting in our interests.
And second, does anyone still doubt that Benghazi was a covert CIA op to funnel AAA missiles to the Syrian terrorists?
According to Wikipedia the DF-21 was designed as a strategic launcher to carry nukes.
I like a well crafted conspiracy theory as well as the next guy, but why should I believe this one?
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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The CIA is already part of the world government. No surprise.
So, some good news this frigid morning.
The balance of power is not in Iran’s favor
With an almost certain secret Israel/GCC mutual defense treaty, Iran no longer needs to speculate where the power lies.
Because if something makes sense, it most often turns out it's true. I'm not saying you should believe this, but it wouldn't hurt to keep your eyes open to anything else comes up that confirms it.
It makes sense. We've bent over backwards so China would finance our debt and so the Saudis would keep the oil flowing. There's a situation where it doesn't make sense that the rebels in Syria haven't been thoroughly defeated if we weren't helping them. To keep all of these initiatives rolling, doesn't it at least seem possible that the CIA would help the Saudis and the Chinese help each other?
If it's true, it's dumb beyond belief to give the Chinese inroads into the Mideast.
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