(WMR)—WMR has learned from U.S. defense intelligence community sources that America’s signals and human intelligence collection activities aimed at Israel have yielded important intelligence on how the Israelis plan to ratchet up a war with Iran between a planned “window of opportunity” from April to June. The window was revealed publicly by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in a recent interview with The Washington Post’s David Ignatius but new details of Israel’s plans were conveyed by senior Pentagon sources to WMR.
Israel’s secret plans to set the stage for an attack on Iran are two-pronged. Firstly, Israel has concluded secret military basing and refueling agreements with Sunni Muslim countries bordering on or near Iran. Azerbaijan has granted Israel warplane refueling rights at airbases in Azerbaijan. Israeli planes would conceivably re-fuel in Azerbaijan before and after air strikes on Iranian nuclear facility and other targets. Israel has also been given access to a number of Azerbaijani intelligence agents among Iran’s Azeri community, which represents some 20 percent of Iran’s population, most of whom live in northern Iran’s majority Azeri province. The Azeri agents have been providing logistical support to Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) terrorists operating from Azerbaijan and Iraqi Kurdistan. MEK agents have been responsible for car bombing assassinations and assassination attempts of Iranian scientists linked to Iran’s nuclear power program.
Recent charges by Azerbaijan’s government that Iranian agents planned to target Jewish and Israeli facilities in Azerbaijan appears to be part of a Mossad “false flag” campaign designed to keep Azerbaijan firmly in the secret Israeli-Sunni government alliance. Iran has counter-charged that Azerbaijan has allowed Mossad agents to use its territory to launch covert operations inside Iran.
The Israeli “false flag” operation that saw a car bomb defused outside the Israeli embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia, also appears aimed at garnering full support from Georgia for base rights in an Israeli attack on Iran. Georgia and Iran have had friendly relations in the past.
In addition to support for MEK terrorists, the government of Iraqi Kurdistan has also agreed to allow Israel to establish forward-area search and rescue (SAR) bases near the border with Iran to allow Israeli team to extract from Iran Israeli pilots who might be shot down over Iran during military action.
Israel has also received military logistics basing rights with Saudi Arabia in a secret agreement. Although Israel sought to hammer out support agreements with Sunni governments on Iran’s periphery in support of a military attack on Iran, an Israeli feeler personally extended by then-Vice President Dick Cheney to the Sultan of Oman in March 2008 failed to achieve an agreement that would allow Israel to use Omani bases to re-fuel its aircraft in a military attack on Iranian targets. Subsequently, Azerbaijan replaced Oman in Israel’s military operational planning for an attack.
The second part of Israel’s strategy is to paint Iran as a terrorist sponsor responsible for attacking Israeli targets. Israel hopes to gain international sympathy in support of an attack on Iran. Israel’s reasoning is that Israel will be viewed as acting in self-defense.
The car bombing of the vehicle of the Israeli defense attache in New Delhi was part of the propaganda blitz aimed at Iran. In addition, the bombing in the Indian capital was also designed to warn India away from plans to export more oil from Iran in the face of increased Western sanctions on Iran. As previously reported by WMR, India’s intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) has discovered evidence of Israeli “false flag” terrorist activities in Mumbai, Goa, and Kochi and has made its feelings about such activities known to Israeli officials.
In Thailand, a cell said to have been responsible for the construction of magnetic car bombs in Bangkok were not working for Iran, as alleged by an Israel-compliant international news media, but were members of the MEK building small bombs disguised as cell phone and sending them to Iran for use in targeting nuclear scientists. After WMR scooped the media in reporting on the MEK connection to the Bangkok bombers, the Shia leader of Thailand, Syedsulaiman Husaini, confirmed, in a report in the Bangkok Post, that four Iranians suspects said to be involved in carrying out a planned bombing of Israeli targets in Bangkok were members of the MEK. The Bangkok Post also reported that a secret Iranian intelligence report identified the four Iranians in Thailand as MEK members.
An MEK safe house in the Ekkamai district of Bangkok that was partially destroyed in an accidental bomb explosion was identified as the miniature magnetic bomb-producing factory used by the MEK. The safe house was outfitted with un-Islamic purple sofas often found in Bangkok karaoke clubs and gay discos. There was not even a prayer rug found inside the house allegedly used by Iranians willing to die for Allah and the Ayatollah Khamenei.
After its Bangkok bomb-making operation was discovered, the Mossad attempted to cover its tracks by putting out the word to a salivating media that a number of clearly visible signs with the Arabic word “SEJEAL” found along Sukhumvit Road between the Marriott Hotel in Nana and Asoke in Bangkok were Iranian marker signs to point out Israeli targets to the Iranian bombers. In fact, the Marriott is a favorite hotel for visiting Arabs and Iranians who fly to Bangkok from Dubai on Emirates airline. Across the street from the Marriott, is the Arab district in Nana. There are no Israeli “targets” anywhere near the area.
However, after the bungled Mossad-MEK operation in Bangkok, Mossad tried to salvage its mess by trying to link the alleged planned “attacks” to the Palestinians as well as the Iranians, the same ruse Mossad employed on 9/11 by having Israeli agents dressed up as Palestinians seen around the North Jersey/New York region celebrating the hijacked planes impacting the World Trade Center. In Bangkok, the Israelis pushed the notion of Palestinian involvement by pointing out that the rockets fired from Gaza into Israeli are called “Sejeal Stones” by Palestinians in a Koranic reference to a Yemeni attack on the Prophet Mohammed being repelled after stones dropped by “birds from heaven” repelled the Yemenis after the stones scared their elephants away.
Some 52 SEJEAL signs were discovered on power poles, traffic signs, phone kiosks, and billboards along a route from Nana to Asoke. Other SEJEAL signs were said to have been discovered in the Nasa Vegas Hotel along the Sukhumvit Road where one of the suspected MEK operatives, Leila Rohani, had stayed. Six of the signs were found under the seat of one of the other MEK agent’s motorcycle seat.
The SEJEAL signs would not have meant much to the Arabs and Iranians in the area since they could have taken the signs as a warning for unsuspecting pedestrians to beware of droppings from the many birds, especially starlings, that roost on electric lines and overhead signs in the area.
Pentagon sources point out that the next two weeks are critical as far as an Israeli attack on Iran in concerned. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has moved up its annual meeting in Washington from the usual April/May time frame to March 4. That day is the same day as Russia’s first round presidential election. If Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wins the first round outright, as some Russian polls suggest, Israel will be pressed to launch an attack before Putin consolidates his new government, a government that can be expected to strongly back Iran. Putin is currently riding high with the spike in world oil prices, with pensions and salaries in Russia being paid on time.
On March 5, the same day President Obama meets with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at the White House, the International Atomic Energy Agency is due to release its official report on the status of Iran’s nuclear program.
On March 6, Netanyahu is scheduled to address AIPAC. It is the same day as the Republican Party’s “Super Tuesday” primary, one that could indicate whether the ardently pro-Israeli Rick Santorum can sustain his current momentum to win the GOP presidential nomination, an event that would bolster Israel’s stranglehold on America’s political process and push Obama into a difficult corner with the Jewish lobby.
Some of that Israeli pressure has already been applied by Jerusalem officials on Joint Chiefs Chairman General Martin Dempsey who has been criticized by Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak over an interview given to CNN in which Dempsey publicly warned against an Israeli attack on Iran. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon is in Israel where Dempsey’s comments resulted in a strong rebuke by Netanyahu and Barak. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is due next in Israel to convey similar misgivings about Israel’s war plans from the Obama White House.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2012 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
great article