Aftenposten is reporting that a Wikileaks cable describes a November, 2009 meeting between a high-level delegation of Israeli and American political, military and intelligence operatives. On the agenda was the U.S. delivery of 100 bunker-buster bombs to Israel meant to be used to assault Iran’s fortified nuclear facilities. Those attending the meeting urged:
…That deliveries should take place in silence so that we could avoid allegations that the U.S. government was helping Israel to prepare for an attack on Iran, “the document noted…
From the discussion in the leaked document originating from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, it seems that the Israelis have obtained the bombs, by all accounts [approximately] 100, to break the Iranian nuclear program, the day they were to become necessary.
It has been widely reported that Israel would need such bombs to attack the Iranian facilities. But I’d never heard any report that quantified what was in the Israeli arsenal to this level of specificity.
It is also known that the Bush Administration supplied the bombs to Israel to penetrate Hassan Nasrallah’s underground complex during the Lebanon war. You’ll recall that Israeli generals were practically dancing on the rooftop of the Kirya believing they’d iced Nasrallah with one of the Big Boys. Alas, they missed and Nasrallah merely amped up his image as a nine-lived Muslim hero who could withstand the best Israel and the U.S. could throw at him. One wonders whether the same outcome could be in store if the U.S. and Israel were so foolish as to use those bombs against Iran. Damage? Yes. A knocked out program or even one severely disabled? Unlikely. Damage to the U.S. and Israeli image in the world? Beyond measure.
For more of what may be in store for Iran at the hands of the IAF, read this report of a radioactive bunker buster dropped on a Lebanese village during the 2006 war. It can be assumed that Israel would love to drop such weaponry on any Iranian nuclear facility in order to render them toxic to human habitation and thus cause even greater damage to Iran’s nuclear program.
Wondering whether those JDAMS are actually delivered yet. The SIPRIS arms trade site says they were due in 2010, but no signing off there.
http://armstrade.sipri.org/armstrade/page/trade_register.php
Also, the US quietly moved 387 bunker busters to Diego Garcia in March 2010.
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2010/me_israel0217_03_18.asp
(I realise WT isn’t the best of sources)
Haaretz says the bombs came from California, WT says they were diverted from destinations at US Israeli stockpiles which Israel can access.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/report-u-s-positioning-bunker-busters-for-possible-iran-strike-1.266529
Regarding the “radioactive” bomb, one should also consider the existance of radioactive material in the bombed site.
Oh yeah. Hezbollah certainly maintains stockpiles of enriched uranium in the Lebanese countryside. Nice try.
How do you know what they have and what they don’t?
I think it is relatively easy to find out in the US what are those bombs made of so we don’t have to guess too much.
But Richard, didn’t you know that in 2003 Saddam had his wmd’s trucked through Syria to be hidden in Lebanon’s Bakaa valley?! It’s a fact. I read it in WND.
Richard, I would doubt first any cable not available from WikiLeaks own site. This sounds like phony psy-ops propaganda. Unfortunately, it also implicates the US if Israel acts like a belligerent drunk again and pisses off the world at large. The Pentagon has already begun considering Israel a liability to troops. It looks like the plans are to drag Americans into another war, one that won’t end without millions of casualties.
Iranians and even the Iranian leadership are warm to US reconciliation. It’s time to abridge the troublemaker and stop aiding its belligerency. Solve the conflicts in your own borders, Israel, before you drag the world into more bloody violence.
Here’s a question for Israel, whose number one export and primary GDP factor is arms: why not use that innovative talent to create renewable energy resources that can wean dependency on oil and reach broader objectives? Arms sales come back to haunt you; improving the world will make you loved. China and Russia could use innovative imports like that as well.
Or is it easier to spread violence? Remember, proactive and artificial hegemony lasts for only so long before it implodes.
@ Mr. PA, where do you get your information from ? The Iranian ministry of information & Photo-shop applications ?
Israel isn’t the biggest arm’s dealer in the world not even close, and the primary GDP factor in Israel is technology and computers (51% would be considered primary right ?)
as for arm export statistic look at Wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_industry
I bet it is when taken as a proportion of overall national GDP.
what was the bet about ? you lost.
israel is number 4, with Russia, Uzbekistan and Jordan in the lead.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/mil_con_arm_exp_pergdp-conventional-arms-exports-per-gdp
Still #4 is pretty good. Not # 1, but right up there. Are you proud that your country is arms dealers to some of the scummier countries of the world? Not that I’m proud of the role my own country plays in this game either.
Richard,
the point is was the claims made by Mr. PA and yourself right.
no they weren’t.
and as for israeli achievements and israeli contribution to the world, yes i am very proud of that. should i start listing the israeli achievements ? they are all around you, from your windows XP, via your cell phone, your Intel duo core processor and many others.
Proud of Israeli weapons killing women & children in civil wars around the world? Proud of despots fielding Israel wepaonry to suppress dissent and free speech? Yr priorities are screwed up.
You don’t need to do any hasbara. We Israel–the good and the bad. You’re apparently neglected the latter.
Which is precisely why I based my entire post on an article which was directly & explicitly based on the field research of those who ARE. I find it incredibly ironic that you argue that depleted uranium isn’t dangerou when it’s part of one of the most powerful & destructive conventional weapons in Israel’s arsenal. A real laugher.
You can’t understand plain English. I was only talking about Israel’s GDP, not Russia or anyone else’s in comparison, etc.
Where do you learn your English? Seinfeld reruns? ….Newman.
Mr. PA. again the number 1 export factor contributing to the israeli GDP is technology, i stated that above. either substantiate your claim, or simply stop arguing.
Israel is no more a liability to U.S. troops than is the U.S. itself. Why are you trying to exonerate the U.S.? They are behind and in front of every move Israel makes. They will control the Middle East together.
C’mon Gene. It’s not going too well for Israel these last few decades now, is it? Trying to control the Middle East or at least their frontline neighbors & it’s not working & never has. You’re too prone to conspiracy theories that simplify things beyond what is reasonable.
Okay, Richard. In one of our recent exchanges you suggested I refer to a book from which someone could learn, instead of just calling someone dumb. Among many others I could point to, try just this one: Chapter 9 of Michel Chossudovsky’s “The Global Economic Crisis.” Page 197; Military Alliances: The U.S.-Nato-Israel Military Axis. I am not prone to conspiracy theories, but I also do not dismiss the unreasonable (almost everything Israel and/or the U.S. does these days is unreasonable). “Under the Obama administration, we are no longer dealing with three separate and distinct war theaters: Afghan, Iraq and Palestine. Military escalation is conducive to the ‘de facto’ integration of these individual war theaters.” I don’t have the patience to type the whole thing out. You can look it up. When you’ve done that, I’ll cite more evidence of my conspiracy.
It may not be going well from your point of view, Richard, but from the Zionist point of view it’s going very well. Continued expansion into the territories, tons of bucks from their partners in the U.S. What else could they ask for? Peace? Forget it. Neither Israel nor the U.S. wants that. They want perpetual war and control of all the resources. Only suckers like us dream of peace.
If you look in the newspaper archives you will probably be able to locate several items from late 2005 detailing a shipment of bunker busters from the US to Israel. I thought for sure that an attack on Iran was imminent. I wish I had saved a least one of those articles.
Now, this new shipment makes me wonder what happened to those of 2005. Were they used on the Gaza-Egypt tunnels?
A bunch were used in Lebanon in 2006 as I noted in my post.
Considering Hezbollah kept their rocket underground, they must have been needed.
Let’s for the hell of it create a wild hypothetical. Iran & the U.S. are at war. The president & Congress go into the underground bunkers. Iran uses a bunker buster bomb to attempt to kill our elected leaders (much as Israel did in the Lebanon war against Nasrallah). Legitimate? If not, why not?
Is Nasralla the elected president of Lebanon? Was he ever elected to any position?
And, was it legitimate to try and kill Hitler?
Indira Gandhi isn’t elected to any position yet she runs the ruling party. What’s yr pt.?
Nasralla is not teLebanon’s prime minister or president. He does not represent a seloveriegn state. He controls a miltary far more powerful than the Lebanese army and can engage in any military activity irregardless of the policies of the Lebanese govt. His Hebollah is no more than a proxy army of Iran. If only Israel was able to kill him, but they were pretty much focused don neutraling rocket fire hitting multiple civilian targets in central to northern Israel.
Maurice and David,
Hezballah is a key party in Lebanese politics and has a great deal of legitimacy there among all segments of Lebanese society, including parts of the Maronite community with which I am personally acquainted via in-law relationships. Ironically, but not surprisingly Israel’s actions in 2006 increased Hezballah’s standing in the eyes of a fair number of Maronites.
As for Nasrallah, it really would behoove you to learn a bit about him and his actual positions and points of view before pontificating about him. Your problem here is that many of us know far more real stuff about Hezballah and Nasrallah than you do, so you begin to look quite the fools going on and on based upon the propaganda you have been fed.
And by the way it is a dangerous ignorance-based mistake to believe that Hezballah is “nor more than a proxy army of Iran”. It shows a complete lack of any knowledge at all of Hezballah, its history and significance, or the historic relationship between Iranian and Lebanese Shi`as. But then why should you base anything on historical, sociological, and political facts when they do not serve your agenda?
Reportedly Israel’s Ehud Barak (Minister of Defense) had President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton convinced that he could “nudge” Netanyahu towards a peace agreement. Were these bunker-buster bombs part of what was supposed to be a quid pro quo? Might this be part of the reason why Obama and Clinton are reportedly so angry with Barak? Did Barak get his ‘quid’ and then fail to deliver the ‘quo’?
When we see the US massacres of innocents in Iraq, Af/Pak, Somalia, Yemen and places known only to God, we realize the evil that AmeriKKKa represents in the new millennium. Did you notice how last summers TV series, ‘The Pacific, on HBO last year, replays ad naseum, the tattered old story of an ‘America the greatest and saviour of the world?’ An America that the world no longer believes exists. In Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, the US became the ‘monster’ that it has continued to be in the murder and maiming of innocents throughout the world, if not for oil, gas, or strategic materials or locations (Like encircling Russia and China more recently), then (Palestine, Syria, Sri Lanka and Georgia) for just plain ‘Ol ass ethnic cleansing and out right racism.
2.7m innocents slaughtered in Vietnam/Laos/Cambodia and some 1.4m in Iraq, Af/Pak and thousands of murdered Palestinians (some 30% of them innocent children) murdered by US weaponry and tax-dollars in the hands of the terrorist ZioNazi’s of apartheid Israel – Yes, yes, let’s play ‘Proud to be an American’ in the back ground as you read this.
We saw the handiwork of US uranium based ‘bunker buster’ JDAM’s in the hands of the Jews in Lebanon, the torn little childrens bodies at Qana II – and let’s not forget the results of US/Thiokol white phosphorus, DIME (tungsten based), MK-77 napalm and hundreds of thousands of US supplied cluster bombs (still murdering and maiming children and sheppards tending their sheep and goat herds even today, 4+ years later) in summer of 2006 (Let’s skip the Jewish slaughter of some 28,000 (500,000 left homeless) men, women and Chatilla (Also, we’ll skip the Israeli armed and trained Phalangist who committed the slaughters at Sabra & Chatilla – as Israeli tanks blocked all the entrances and exits as the IDF fired para-flares into the darkened skies over the camps for three nights as the Phanlangists proceeded to slaughter all the terrified and screaming refugees in the camps, OK?) in Lebanon, summer of 1982 for now, OK?).
Yassar, it’s a mean world and America ha smade it even meaner with its imperialistic warmongering i the new millennium.
TheAZCowBoy
Tombstone, AZ.
Question of the day: “How many Taliban flew airliners into the WTC?”
Hey Cowboy, Arabs have done a much lmore effective job at killing Arabs under Hafez Assad and Sadddam Hussein thn the US, Israel or any western powere has.
Off topic & grandstanding. If you persist in violating comment rules you’ll lose yr comment privileges.
I find the terms in this comment offensive, they violate my comment rules. Please read them. I don’t have any problem with angry denunciation of Israel or the U.S. But if you break the rules, you’ll be moderated.
I find a lot of truth in this statement. Cowboy made a claim about how the US and Israel are slahtering Arabs. Sabr and C\hatilla was sited as an example. While the whole world was focused on the actions of the Phalangists, the Syrian govt engaged in the slaughter of over 10,000 of its own citizens in the city of Hama. Why is the lesser Sabra and Chatilla more commanding of the worlds attention. And why was Israel te primary party implicated in it? Why does Cowboy ignore the action of Saddam Hussein? What about Arab actions in Darfur?
If someone is going to selectively apply moral standards, I am going to call them on it.
You find my comments offensive, I find the ability to shut those crimes by the Arab world VER offensive
Off topic. Obey the rules. Stay on topic. If you stray fr. the topic of the post you are breaking comment rules.
Vae victis…let me just wipe my tears and then teach you some very simple rool:
DON’T SHOOT AT ISRAEL, DONT BOMB, DONT SHELL, DONT ROCKET, DONT THROW STONES INTO ISRAELI TERRITORY (not even an apple!).
If you keep this so simple rool, nothing will happen to you.
Pls. learn to spell.
If Palestinians didn’t resist the Occupation in precisely the ways you warn them not to, they would have nothing & never get anything fr. Israel. They must resist in whatever way they can in order to force Israel to accede to their rights as a nation. When Israel stops Occupation then nothing will happen to Israelis as well. Till then, resistance will continue.
What a steaming pile of processed bull food, Maurice.
How about don’t come to a piece of land from another continent and use terrorism and other forms of violence to ethnically cleanse it and rob its people of their land, their property, their homes, their possessions, and their lives. How about don’t shoot, don’t bomb, don’t shell, don’t rocket into other people’s territory. Don’t start wars every chance you get. Respect the people on whose land you wish to make your home.
If Zionists had kept this simple rool (sic), then they could have lived the last 60+ years happily in harmony with their neighbors.
Yes, spellcheck should be his friend.
You are right cowboy! The world would be a much better place with Imperial Japan slaughtering millions of Chinese every year; why for that matter bring back Hitler or your idol, the Great Pacifist and defender against imperialism, J.V. Stalin.
I find it your appalling ignorance to be a bleak statement on US education.
But I thank you for providing ample evidence that leftist antisemitism is fully capable of justifying the murder of Jews for any reason.
You make me sick with your hate.
This is a big comment rule violation. Hyperbole & making up the views of yr opponent is not acceptable here. I too disagreed w. some of AZ Cowboy’s comments & said so. But attributing worship of Stalin to him is a low blow. FOllow the comment rules.
Do you have any idea how little you know about bunker busters (or everything else it seems)? The truth is that if you are going to us a radioactive bomb, you might as well just use a nuke and be done with it.
The bombs do not have any radioactive materials in them.
Not sure what your sources are, but like your report of the Iranian general dying in Israeli custody, you clearly are willing to believe ANYTHING negative about Israel and broadcast it as truth.
I think your blog can be neatly summed up with two words: zero credibility.
You didn’t even bother to read the article linked here which named the sources–respected academics in the field doing research for the UN. They found radioactivity at the bomb site. I’m afraid it is you who has zero crediblity.
The issue is that banker-busters are not the field of expertise of neither of you.
Bunker Busters have depleted uranium (DU). DU is a material of choice for penetrating weapons, because of its properties. DU is a by-product of the nuclear power industry. Natural Uranium contains two isotopes U-235, U238. U235 is what is used to produce nuclear power and in nuclear chain reaction, basically the uranium is refined to extract the U235 and create enriched uranium.
DU isnt dangerous in its solid form and is used in many components around us one example i can think of is airplane ballast.
it is used in bunker baster for its famous 3 properties
1. Hardness, as hard as almost tungsten. usually it is alloyed with titanium with makes it even better.
2. density – almost as twice heavier then led.
3. Incendiary properties – similar to magnesium it burns.
this entire article (on the Norwegian source) is no more then a red herring, which serves as a tool in the demonizing campaign against the state of israel, You Richard walked right into that trap without even doubting the source.
Depleted uranium is also toxic and carcinogenic, and is the cause of serious birth defects, especially with long-term exposure. It will continue to contaminate the soil, air, water, and food supply of Iraq for many generations. The overwhelming majority of its victims are and will be non-combatants, most of whom have not even been conceived yet. Its use reflects a complete lack of concern about human beings and all other forms of life.
There is not enough DU in a GBU 28 to cause damage of the sorts you mentioned.
as i stated there is more DU in airplane ballasts, and if you ever flown on a commercial airplane you were exposed to the effects of the DU.
“There is not enough DU in a GBU 28 to cause damage of the sorts you mentioned.”
Are you deliberately missing the point? DU is toxic, carcinogenic, and causes birth defects. Once an area is contaminated with DU it lasts, for all practical human purposes, forever. Iraq, among other places, is heavily contaminated with DU. It is inescapable there, particularly in Southern Iraq, and the effects have been devastating and will continue to be devastating for many, many, many generations.
“there is more DU in airplane ballasts, and if you ever flown on a commercial airplane you were exposed to the effects of the DU.”
What a brazen bull****er you are. Do you think anyone here is stupid enough to believe, assuming what you said is even true, that DU exposure from a few hours of flying in a commercial airplane could be in any way remotely equivalent to the 24/7 exposure for people whose air, earth, water, and food are contaminated with it? If you are as knowledgeable as you claim to be, then surely you know that passengers are not directly exposed to ballast of any kind, DU or not, but are well separated from it, and that if DU is indeed used as ballast (which I find questionable in any case), it is in a very different form than the DU that contaminates former war zones in which human beings and other animals are attempting to live.
If you want to peddle this rubbish I am sure there are places where people are ignorant and unsophisticated enough to accept whatever you say. That is certainly not the case here. One does not have to be an expert in weaponry or DU to recognize that you are talking out of an orifice in your lower torso. One only needs to have an ability to use reason and logic.
Shirin
Since you know nothing about weaponry, the way it works or the way its composed
it’s pointless to argue with you. if i were you i would learn few things about the subject and then come back.
just FYI, the DU in a bunker buster does not change it form during detonation in remains in its solid state, in its solid state DU ins’t dangerous.
and just FYI, there is about 5500 pounds of DU ballasts on every 747, and many others.
if you don’t know something, please use google.
I know enough about DU to know you are blowing smoke. The air, soil, water, and food supply in Iraq, especially Southern Iraq, are heavily contaminated with DU, and not in its solid state form, so indeed the DU in weapons used by the United States in Iraq has changed its form, and how, and Iraqis are suffering the consequences, and will do for countless generations.
Assuming you are telling the truth about DU in 747’s, it does not pose a danger to passengers precisely because it is used in its solid state form, in addition to being in a separate compartment from the passengers.
Whom do you think you are fooling with all this nonsense?
A PERTINENT EXCERPT:
ABOVE EXCERPT FROM – The Lies of Diplomats: Why Wikileaks Matters, By Sheldon Richman, Counterpunch, 01/04/11, http://www.counterpunch.org/richman01042011.html
For all you Pilgrims swimming in that sea of ignorance’ (As a USAF fighter pilot (F-104C)) lemmie say that a quiet stroll through radioactive Fallujah (More radioactive that Hiroshima and Nagasaki a week after the BIG ones dropped) these dayze would tell you much about the facts about the US’ war crimes act of using DU, a weapon that continues to kill and provide deformed and cancer ridden victims for some 500,000 years in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and inceasingly in AFghanistan (along with the white phosphorus chemical and D.I.M.E. tungsten based munitions) has much to say about the Great Satans immorality and war criminal rap sheet.
Yassar, when that dirty nuke goes off in NYC’ harbour then the AmeriKKKan racists will discover that ‘Poetic Justice’ has arrived!
Like the Dioxins (Agent Orange) poured on the people of South East Asia (19m gallons) and the horrendous havoc and destruction of past, present and future generations, it has caused for 40+ years – (the US later promising to help clean it up – and then ultimately reneaging on the promise because it was ‘too expensive’) justice is coming and I think we definately won’t apreciate it despite our so-called ‘democratic’ roots.
TheAZCowBoy
Tombstone, AZ.
i’m sure you can validate this with an objective source.
Actually, it is not so much the radiation from DU that is dangerous to life as it is the toxicity combined with the fact that it contaminates air, soil, water, and therefore the food supply, so it is impossible to avoid consuming it. The radiation is probably low enough that it does not exceed the normal ambient radiation we are exposed to on a daily basis.