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TIMES OF INDIA: Stepping up its preparations for a possible strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, the United States is transporting hundreds of 387 'bunker-buster' bombs to its air base on the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, a media report claimed on Wednesday. The US government signed a contract in January with Superior Maritime Services to transport 10 ammunition containers to Diego Garcia from Concord, California, the Sunday Herald reported. The shipment includes 195 smart, guided Blu-110 bombs and 192 Blu-117 900kg bombs. The key Iranian nuclear facilities are underground and both these type of bombs are...

Israeli media reported on Sunday that the Israeli air force has started practicing rapid refueling, the type of which would only be used in a sustained aerial attack on a distant enemy. The process involves Israeli warplanes sent on raids thousands of miles away returning to Israel, landing and refueling without shutting off their engines in order to get back in the air as fast as possible. Naturally, rapid refueling of this type is very risky, since the fuel is being pumped not far from the jet's engines. Revelation that Israel is doing this kind of training came just a...

On the eve of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Moscow, senior Russian security officials were speaking out on defense-related issues that have provoked tensions between the two countries. An hour before Netanyahu's plane took off on Sunday, Russian officials said that Moscow sees no reason to delay the sale of the S-300, a powerful air-defense system, to Iran. In addition, on Friday, Russian intelligence officials leaked comments expressing their displeasure with plans by an Israeli firm to close a major arms deal with Georgia. "There is a signed contract [for the S-300 missiles] which we must follow through on,...

The chairman of the US military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said on Sunday he was concerned about the consequences of any attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. "The outbreak of a conflict will be a big, big, big problem for all of us, and I worry a great deal about the unintended consequences of a strike," Admiral Mullen said.

Here is video of former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton on Fox and Friends today, where he said the case for striking Iran is growing. Bolton said Iran's radical Islamic regime sent signals this week that they are still firmly in control, as they kept protests to a minimum on the day Ahmadinejad announced they had successfully enriched uranium. He made the announcement on the 31st anniversary of the "Islamic Revolution" in Iran. Bolton said he believes the "pre-emptive use of military force" is the only way to prevent Iran from obtaining Nuclear Weapons. Since Bolton believes there is "zero likelihood"...

Iran's Islamic Revolution had a busy week preceding its 31st birthday yesterday. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced on Sunday that Iran would enrich uranium to 19.75% purity for Tehran's research reactor. Yesterday he claimed to have done just that, making Iran "a nuclear state." Earlier, Tehran boasted of making advances in radar-evading drone aircraft. Its ambassador to Moscow said that Russia promised imminent delivery of S-300 air-defense systems that could preclude Israel from attacking Iran's nuclear program. And to intimidate protesters, the regime disrupted communications networks, made widespread arrests, and executed dissidents. Antiregime demonstrations yesterday were met with force. Unfortunately, President...

The U.S. should support an Israeli military strike against Iranian nuclear installations if the Jewish state, fearing diplomacy has failed, ultimately takes that course of action, stated former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. Asked whether the U.S. should support an Israeli strike, Huckabee replied, "Absolutely." Huckabee was speaking in a WABC Radio interview with Aaron Klein, WND's senior reporter, who has been hosting a weekend show on the New York mega-station.

They're back! The "Bomb Iran" crowd is making a big return to the political center stage after months of puzzlement over what to do about developments in the Islamic Republic. Hawks such as Daniel Pipes and John Bolton are arguing that Iran is dead-set on its pursuit of a nuclear arsenal -- and point to developments such as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's announcement this weekend that Iran would enrich its uranium stocks to 20 percent to argue that diplomatic avenues have reached a dead end. The would-be bombers fear that the mullahs will leverage their nuclear capability to expand Persian influence...

Self-confessed bulldog with lipstick and conservative hero Sarah Palin has started her 2012 campaign on a combative note. War with Iran and soon. This comes in the wake of Tehran yet again getting up the West’s noses with regard to their uranium enrichment programme. Palin advocated war with Iran in a recent interview with Fox news and added that the war card may well be Obamas safest bet for re-election in 2012. "Say he decided to declare war on Iran or decided really to come out and do whatever he could to support Israel, which I would like him to...

An Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program will neither completely stop Teheran’s nuclear march, nor bring down the ayatollahs’ regime, according to former Swiss ambassador to Iran Tim Guldimann. Speaking to The Jerusalem Post on the sidelines of this week’s Herzliya Conference, Guldimann, who knows the Iranian way of thinking well, expressed – as a personal opinion – his deep concern about the military option against Iran. Guldimann was Swiss ambassador to Iran and Afghanistan from 1999 to 2004. As ambassador to Teheran, Guldimann – now senior adviser and head of the Middle East Project at the Center for Humanitarian...

A military strike on Iran could have the unintended consequence of stirring nationalist sentiment to the benefit of Tehran's hard-line government, U.S. General David Petraeus told Reuters.

"UP cops nab IM terrorist planning aerial strike" Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui, TNN, 2 February 2010, 01:48am IST SNIPPET: "LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI: The arrest of Shehzad alias Pappu — one of the key accused in the September 2008 serial blasts in Delhi and the Batla House encounter — by the anti-terrorism squad (ATS) of UP Police from Azamgarh on Monday evening is being seen as a major breakthrough in exposing a module that was planning to unleash air strikes. Shehzad, intelligence agencies had recently discovered, had undergone a training to fly planes from an institute in Bangalore and had surfaced as a...

French President Nicolas Sarkozy assessed that Israel "would not stand by while Iran develops nuclear weapons," Al Hayat quoted sources close to the French leader on Saturday. "Israel might take action to prevent the Iranian regime, which wants to wipe it off the map of the world, from obtaining a nuclear bomb," Sarkozy reportedly explained to visiting Lebanese Prime Minister Sa'ad Hariri.

Yemen says its fighter jets struck the home of a prominent al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula terrorist, the day after new international sanctions were announced against the group. Yemeni government fighter jets launched a series of raids against the fortified compound of a prominent terrorist Ayad al-Shabwani, reportedly destroying the structure. Militants close to Shabwani claim he survived the raids. Al-Jazeera TV showed images of the damaged compound, although it was not clear when they were taken. Missiles appear to have pierced a gaping hole on one side of the mud-brick fortress.

An Israeli Preventive Attack on Iran's Nuclear Sites: Implications for the U.S. by James Phillips Backgrounder #2361 Abstract: Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions are ominous in light of its hostile foreign policy and longstanding sup­port for terrorism. But Iran's repeated threats to annihilate the state of Israel while it develops the world's most dan­gerous weapons have created an even more explosive situ­ation. If diplomatic efforts to defuse the situation fail, Israel may see no other choice than to launch a preventive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. Heritage Foundation Mid­dle East expert James Phillips maps out the likely results of an Israeli...

US military commander for the Middle East and the Gulf region has confirmed that the United States has developed contingency plans to deal with Iran's nuclear facilities. Gen David Petraeus, head of Central Command or Centcom, did not elaborate on the plans, but said the military has considered the impacts of any action taken there. Asked about the vulnerability of Iran's nuclear installations, he told CNN: "Well, they certainly can be bombed. The level of effect would vary with who it is that carries it out, what ordnance they have, and what capability they can bring to bear." General Petraeus...

WASHINGTON DC, United States - A top US military commander responsible for the Middle East and the Gulf region said the United States has developed contingency plans to deal with Iran's nuclear facilities, insisting that they "can be bombed." "Well, they certainly can be bombed," General David Petraeus, head of US Central Command, told CNN television as he commented on suggestions that Iranian nuclear facilities were heavily fortified. "The level of effect would vary with who it is that carries it out, what ordnance they have, and what capability they can bring to bear," he added. The network plans to...

SANAA, Yemen -- Yemeni forces, backed by the United States, launched an attack Thursday on a meeting of al-Qaeda operatives where a Yemeni American preacher linked to the suspected gunman in the Fort Hood attacks might have been present, U.S. and Yemeni officials said. The strike on an alleged al-Qaeda hideout in southeastern Yemen killed at least 30 suspected militants and was the second such assault in the past week, according to Yemeni security and government sources. One of the possible meeting participants was Anwar al-Aulaqi, a U.S. citizen and extremist preacher who exchanged e-mails with the Army psychiatrist suspected...

Yemeni forces killed at least 30 suspected militants in an air strike early Thursday on an alleged al-Qaeda hide-out in southeastern Yemen, the second such assault in the past week, according to Yemeni security and government sources. The dead may include Anwar al-Aulaqi, the extremist Yemeni-American preacher linked to the suspected gunman in last month's deadly Fort Hood attack, a Yemeni government official said. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the apparent target of the strike was Aulaqi's house, where al-Qaeda leaders were believed to have gathered. It was unknown whether Aulaqi was present at the meeting and,...

The radical Muslim imam linked to the rampage at Fort Hood is believed to have been killed in a Yemen airstrike that may have also taken out the region's top Al Qaeda leader and 30 other militants, a security official told Reuters on Thursday. The raid in Yemen's east targeted an Al Qaeda leadership meeting held to organize terror attacks. It is believed to have killed Anwar al-Awlaki and at least two senior members in the organization, including the leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.