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German paper says Iranians paid cash to build mid-range missile launch pads on Paraguana Peninsula; Iranian engineers visited site in Feb. BERLIN – The Iranian government is moving forward with the construction of rocket launch bases in Venezuela, the German daily Die Welt wrote in its Friday edition. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is Teheran’s most important South American ally. Iran is building intermediate- range missile launch pads on the Paraguaná Peninsula, and engineers from a construction firm – Khatam al-Anbia – owned by the Revolutionary Guards visited Paraguaná in February. Amir al-Hadschisadeh, the head of the Guard’s Air Force, participated...

Frightening crisis evolves bearing unsettling similarities to 1962 Cuba... except this time facing advanced air defenses German Newspaper Die Welt has for months been reporting surreptitious scheming between Chavez and Ahmedinijad, and the latest fruit of this most unholy alliance is now ready for us to choke-on-down. Engineers from a construction company operated by Tehran's Republican Guards already surveyed sites back in February, and are reportedly putting into action plans for both defensive and offensive installations of Iranian missiles on the Paraguana Peninsula in the far north-west of Venezuela. You'd have to be pretty deep in denial to not see how these ambitious little despots are moving beyond...

Russia's S-300 air defense systems, which Moscow refused to deliver to Iran following a new round of UN sanctions against the Islamic Republic, could be sold to Venezuela instead, a Russian arms trade expert said on Friday. Russia signed a deal to deliver five battalions of S-300PMU-1 air defense systems to Iran in 2007 but banned the sale in September, saying the systems, along with a number of other weapons, were covered by the fourth round of sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council against Iran over its nuclear program in June. "Russia is looking for a buyer of five...

While Obama has been focusing his attention on the Republican hostage takers and bomb throwers the Iranian regime has been stockpiling Shahab 3 missiles in Venezuela that can reach the United States. Hudson New York reported, via Israel Matsav: According to Die Welt, Venezuela has agreed to allow Iran to establish a military base manned by Iranian missile officers, soldiers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Venezuelan missile officers. In addition, Iran has given permission for the missiles to be used in case of an “emergency”. In return, the agreement states that Venezuela can use these facilities for “national needs”...

Iran is planning to place medium-range missiles on Venezuelan soil, based on western information sources[1], according to an article in the German daily, Die Welt, of November 25, 2010. According to the article, an agreement between the two countries was signed during the last visit o Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to Tehran on October19, 2010. The previously undisclosed contract provides for the establishment of a jointly operated military base in Venezuela, and the joint development of ground-to-ground missiles. At a moment when NATO members found an agreement, in the recent Lisbon summit (19-20 November 2010), to develop a Missile Defence...

Half a century ago this October, for almost two weeks, the world dangerously slid toward war as the United States and U.S.S.R. played a nuclear chess match. The confrontation focused on whether Soviet missiles, secretly installed in Cuba, would be voluntarily withdrawn by Moscow. It was the closest the two Cold War adversaries would ever come to nuclear war. Washington was committed to not endangering its national security by the placement of missiles drastically reducing the distance required for Moscow to launch a surprise nuclear strike against the United States while also reducing U.S. reaction time to such a first...

That Khrushchev swept the floor with Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis was mainstream conservative conclusion throughout much of the Cold War. Richard Nixon and Barry Goldwater, for instance, represented opposite poles of the Republican establishment of their time. "We locked Castro's communism into Latin America and threw away the key to its removal," growled Barry Goldwater about the JFK’s Missile Crisis “solution.” "Kennedy pulled defeat out of the jaws of victory,” complained Richard Nixon. "Then gave the Soviets squatters rights in our backyard." Generals Curtis Le May and Maxwell Taylor represented opposite poles of the military establishment. "The biggest...

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived Wednesday in Cuba for talks with his counterpart Raul Castro as the Islamic Republic blamed Israel and the United States for the killing of a nuclear scientist in a Tehran car bombing. The scientist's killing heightened already high tensions with the West over Iran's suspect nuclear program but a defiant Ahmadinejad flashed the victory sign several times after landing in Havana. The Iranian leader was greeted by nine girls in traditional Iranian attire as he stepped off the plane that flew him in from Nicaragua on the third leg of his Latin American tour. Ahmadinejad,...

Can Paul Ryan avoid becoming the next Homer Capehart? And if so, how? Homer Capehart, after all, was right. Early. The issue was in fact just as real as he said it was and every bit as dangerous. He stood up when few were willing and said why it was dangerous -- over and over again. He called the President of the United States to task for not paying attention. There would be extremely serious consequences for ignoring the problem, he insisted. He spoke, he pleaded, he demanded. He did everything up to and including begging for something to be...

The next Israeli crisis is being manufactured in South America. As unimaginable as it is for the byzantine politics of Latin America to become more complicated, a metastasized Middle Eastern "peace process" has produced just that result... --snip-- Chavez's close relationship to the world's principal sponsor of terrorism isn't new, but it is a quantum leap in escalation of his enmity to America and his threat to South American democracies. The 1962 Cuban missile crisis was the closest the United States came to a nuclear war. With Soviet medium range missiles in Cuba, capable of carrying nuclear warheads to any...

Kim Jong-il's Son Feels Japan's Reaction 'Justified' North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's eldest son Kim Jong-nam has said he believe Japan's reaction to the North's impending rocket launch "justified" for self-protection, Fuji TV reported Tuesday. The cable news channel interviewed Kim's eldest son on Monday at Beijing International Airport and in Macau. Kim had been asked whether the Japanese government was overreacting. The questioner did not directly mention the missile launch, but Fuji TV said Kim's reply was surprising since North Korea warned on Mar. 9 that shooting down the missile would be tantamount to a declaration of war. When...

The president-elect is caught between bellicose threats from Moscow and hawks at home. Russia didn't waste any time in putting President-elect Barack Obama on notice. A day after the election, President Dmitry Medvedev renewed Russian warnings that he would base short-range Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad, on the border of Poland, if the U.S. proceeds with plans to base a missile defense system in Europe, with the hardware in Poland and the Czech Republic. And this week, the Kremlin rejected new proposals put forward by the Bush administration to assuage concerns that the system could be used to neutralize Russia's nuclear...

DMITRY Medvedev, the Russian president, looks to have committed a strategic blunder by sending Barack Obama a message on his election day threatening the deployment of nuclear missiles to Kaliningrad. On an occasion, when even America's twin nemeses, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, sent telegrams of good wishes, Mr Medvedev's act stood out. The truth is that the Obama administration, facing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the nuclear ambitions of Iran has assigned Russia a low priority.

Cuba's Communist Party tried to quell fears of chaos on Thursday following the temporary surrender of power by the ailing Fidel Castro but failed to clear up doubts over who is in charge of the island. In a typically cryptic message, the main Communist Party newspaper Granma printed an old speech by Raul Castro, who took over island leadership on Monday, saying that his brother's only heir was the Communist Party itself. While the front page publication of the speech was obviously designed to quell fears that Fidel's possible exit after 47 years of rule would unleash chaos, it could...

/begin my summary China dispatched additional troops to N. Korean border Armed clashes between N. Korea and China are on the rise (N. Korean) espionage on missile technologyHong Kong Xin-bao reported on July 27: China dispatched additional troops to its border with N. Korea due to N. Korean missile crisis. According to Information Center for Chinese Human Right and Democracy Movement in Hong Kong, PLA 16th Corps, which defends the border with N. Korea, dispatched last week 2,000 additional troops to Tumen, Long-jing, Cong-hua, Hui-chun, all adjoining the border. The units involved are from 46th motorized infantry division and 48th...

North Korea Claims It Is Not Little Boy By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter North Korea is not a ``little boy'' as it already has nuclear weapons and will not succumb to the pressure from ``big brothers,'' Kim Gye-gwan, North Korea's vice foreign minister, told three Americans visiting Pyongyang when the North launched missiles. The plural form of brother indicates that the North was irritated by the pressure not only from the United States but also from China, its long-time communist ally and the main provider of humanitarian goods. The Nautilus Institute, a U.S. think tank on security and sustainability, posted...

/begin my excerpt Exclusive: Kim Pyong-il To Attend A Conference Of Overseas Mission Chiefs  Analysis: "Kim Jong-il to display solidarity among family in the midst of the missile crisis" It is revealed that Kim Pyong-il(age:53, see photo,) half brother of Kim Jong-il and N. Korean ambassador to Poland, is to attend a conference of overseas mission chiefs in Pyongyang soon. It is drawing some attention.According to Japanese media reports on July 18, N. Korean leadership, after rejecting a resolution at the UN Security Council, is to convene the conference of overseas mission chiefs where the leadership conveys its future direction in foreign affairs, and Ambassador Kim...

North calls alert, U.S. and Korea plan 5-way talks July 19, 2006 ¤Ñ North Korea has ordered wartime mobilization preparation for its soldiers and citizens, a senior intelligence official said yesterday. The order was delivered to military and civilian leaders just after midnight Sunday, four hours before the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution condemning the North's arms and missile programs. President Roh Moo-hyun convened a meeting of his security officials today to discuss that mobilization order and other issues stemming from the UN resolution. The order, which was not broadcast by radio or television, was the first in...

N.Korea 'Spending Hand Over Fist While People Starve' A Grand National Party lawmaker and member of the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee on Friday said North Korea’s budget structure means it can pour money into its missile program while its people are starving. The comments from Chung Hyung-keun came at a meeting of leading party members a day after the North slammed the South’s refusal to continue food aid until it returns to disarmament talks. "We understand that North Korea intends to build up to 17 more Taepodong-2 missiles,” Jung said. "Some people say each Taepodong-2 costs W60 billion (US$1=W954), but...

China Drowning In A 'Swamp Called N. Korea'/begin my translation China Drowning In A 'Swamp Called N. Korea'Huh Min "This is really depressing," deplores a reputable ethnic Korean professor teaching political science at a prestigious educational institution in Beijing, China, when he met the reporter on July 13. The comment reflects the sense of resignation that China has tried everything to defuse N. Korean missile crisis as if its life depended on it, but failed in the end, rendering all possible means useless. His comment was full of disappointment at N. Korea, his grandfather's country, and Kim Jong-il regime.Truly, the dismay and embarrassment Chinese authorities...