Report: Iran Preparing to Fire Missiles at Dimona

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29/06/2008

Iran has moved ballistic missiles into launch positions, with Israel’s
Dimona nuclear plant among the possible targets, the London-based Times
newspaper reported Sunday, quoting defense sources. According to the
report, the movement of Shahab-3B missiles, which have an estimated
range of more than 1,250 miles, followed a reported large-scale
exercise earlier this month in which the Israel Air Force flew en masse
over the Mediterranean in an apparent rehearsal for a threatened attack
on Iran’s nuclear installations.

General Mohammad Ali Jafari, chief of Iran’s elite Revolutionary
Guards, has issued a new warning against Israel not to attack it,
saying the country is well within range of its missiles, the Iranian
Jam-e Jam newspaper reported on Saturday.
"Israel is completely within the range of the Islamic republic’s
missiles. Our missile power and capability are such that the Zionist
regime, despite all its abilities, cannot confront it," he said.
"There is the possibility that by attacking Iranian nuclear sites the
enemy wants to delay our nuclear activities, but any interruption would
be very short since Iranian scientific ability is different from that
of Syria and Iraq."

SHAVIT: IN CASE SANCTIONS DON’T WORK, WHAT’S LEFT IS MILITARY ACTION
Meanwhile, former Mossad Director Shabtai Shavit has warned that Israel
has only one year to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
In an interview with the British Telegraph newspaper published Sunday,
Shavit said that the "worst-case scenario" is that Iran may have a
nuclear weapon within "somewhere around a year".
"As an intelligence officer working with the worst-case scenario, I can
tell you we should be prepared," he added. "We should do whatever
necessary on the defensive side, on the offensive side, on the public
opinion side for the West, in case sanctions don’t work. What’s left is
a military action."

The former Mossad chief also addressed the possibility that an attack
on Iran would be thwarted if Democratic candidate Barack Obama is
elected US president.
"If (Republican candidate John) McCain gets elected, he could really
easily make a decision to go for it. If it’s Obama: no. My prediction
is that he won’t go for it, at least not in his first term in the White
House," Shavit said.

SEYMOUR HERSH: $400 MILLION IS COST OF COVERT OPERATIONS AGAINST IRAN
Last year, U.S. congressional leaders agreed to President George W.
Bush’s funding request for a major escalation of covert operations
against Iran aimed at destabilizing its leadership, according to a
report in The New Yorker magazine published online on Sunday.

The article by reporter Seymour Hersh centers around a highly
classified Presidential Finding signed by Bush which by U.S. law must
be made known to Democratic and Republican House and Senate leaders and
ranking members of the intelligence committees.

"The Finding was focused on undermining Iran’s nuclear ambitions and
trying to undermine the government through regime change," the article
cited a person familiar with its contents as saying, and involved
"working with opposition groups and passing money."

Hersh has written previously about possible administration plans to go
to war to stop Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons, including an
April 2006 article in the New Yorker that suggested regime change in
Iran, whether by diplomatic or military means, was Bush’s ultimate goal.

Funding for the covert escalation, for which Bush requested up to $400
million, was approved by congressional leaders, according to the
article, citing current and former military, intelligence and
congressional sources.

Clandestine operations against Iran are not new. U.S. Special
Operations Forces have been conducting cross border operations from
southern Iraq since last year, the article said.

But the scale and the scope of the operations in Iran, which include
the Central Intelligence Agency, have now been significantly expanded,
the article said, citing current and former officials.

Many of these activities are not specified in the new finding, and some
congressional leaders have had serious questions about their nature, it
said.

Among groups inside Iran benefiting from U.S. support is the Jundallah,
also known as the Iranian People’s Resistance Movement, according to
former CIA officer Robert Baer. Council on Foreign Relations analyst
Vali Nasr described it to Hersh as a vicious organization suspected of
links to Al-Qieda.

The article said U.S. support for the dissident groups could prompt a
violent crackdown by Iran, which could give the Bush administration a
reason to intervene.

None of the Democratic leaders in Congress would comment on the
finding, the article said. The White House, which has repeatedly denied
preparing for military action against Iran, and the CIA also declined
comment.

The United States is leading international efforts to rein in Iran’s
suspected effort to develop nuclear weapons, although Washington
concedes Iran has the right to develop nuclear power for civilian uses.