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Russia successfully tests ICBM designed to beat anti-missile systems

DEBKAfile Special Report

August 28, 2008, 3:19 PM (GMT+02:00)

Russia's Topol RS-12M (SS-25 Sickle)

Russia's Topol RS-12M (SS-25 Sickle)

Reporting this Thurs. Aug. 28, Alexander Vovk, spokesman for Russia’s strategic nuclear forces said the Topol RS-12M was tested to “develop equipment for potential combat and use against ground-based missiles.”

Earlier this week, amid the crisis over Georgia, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned of a military response to the US missile shield to be installed in Europe.

The ICBM test follows Russia’s warning to NATO against sending more ships to the Black Sea and caution to Moldava to watch its step.
More...


Why has Russian strongman Putin backed away from summit with Bush?

Answers in next DEBKA-Net-Weekly

August 27, 2008, 10:26 AM (GMT+02:00)

And what makes the Kremlin’s decision-making mechanism tick?

In its next issue, DEBKA-Net-Weekly offers some exclusive answers to these questions, keys to understanding the Cold War chill.

Don’t miss these special disclosures and insights in the coming issue out Friday.

To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weekly click HERE .


Medvedev not afraid of Cold War after approving Georgian regions’ independence

DEBKAfile Special Report

August 26, 2008, 8:48 PM (GMT+02:00)

Russian president Dimitry Medvedev

Russian president Dimitry Medvedev

The move sparked a sharp exchange between Washington and Moscow. President George W. Bush said it exacerbates tensions and complicates negotiations. The Russian president warned of “military responses” to the US missile shield in Europe.

Signing the decrees confirming South Ossetian and Abkhazian independence, Russian president Dimitry Medvedev said Tuesday, Aug. 26: “We are not afraid of anything, including the prospect of a Cold War.” DEBKAfile's Moscow sources report the Kremlin is planning further sanctions against Georgia and its US-NATO backers, possibly in Eastern Europe.
More...


Cheney to visit Georgia, Iwo Jima sails for Middle East

DEBKAfile Special Report

August 25, 2008, 1:06 PM (GMT+02:00)

US Vice President Dick Cheney to visit Tbilisi and Kiev

US Vice President Dick Cheney to visit Tbilisi and Kiev

The Georgian conflict over South Ossetia is spiraling into a contest between the US and Russia over control of the Black Sea region and the eastern Mediterranean.

The US Vice President Dick Cheney will stop over in Georgia, the Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Italy during a trip starting Sept. 2. These steps were Washington’s response to a rapid volley of decisions in Moscow.
More...


Barak flew to Egypt, heard Mubarak on new Gaza plan

DEBKAfile Special Report

August 26, 2008, 7:01 PM (GMT+02:00)

The Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak wanted to hear about progress in Egypt's mediation for the release of the Israeli soldier kidnapped in 2006 by Hamas, when he met the president Hosni Mubarak Tuesday, Aug. 26. However, DEBKAfile reports that Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak preferred first to lay before his Israeli visitor the 11-point scheme he and Saudi king Abdullah have developed for the Gaza Strip.
More...


Russian Mediterranean warships placed under Black Sea Fleet command

DEBKAfile Special Report

August 25, 2008, 11:00 PM (GMT+02:00)

Russian Navy chief Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky confers with Chief of Staff Gen. Nikolay Makarov

Russian Navy chief Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky confers with Chief of Staff Gen. Nikolay Makarov

The Russian Navy chief, Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky announced Sunday, Aug. 24, that its warships in the Mediterranean region have been placed under the command of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report extreme concern in Israel’s military and navy.
More...


TOP STORIES

Hizballah high-up falls to his death at rocket pad on Israeli border

DEBKAfile Special Report

August 27, 2008, 12:47 PM (GMT+02:00)

A Hizballah bunker close to Israeli border

A Hizballah bunker close to Israeli border

The geography of the accident Tuesday, Aug. 26, belied the reiterated claims of Israeli ministers and UN officials that Hizballah’s rockets had been pushed back from the Lebanese-Israeli border under the terms of the Resolution 1701 ceasefire. The Hizballah operative was discussing with his men how far inside Israeli territory the rockets installed at launch pads on the Israeli border could reach. In Jerusalem, Israeli ministers discussed measures for protecting the civilian population "by legislation."
More...


Egypt on top alert for major al Qaeda attack

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

August 24, 2008, 1:07 PM (GMT+02:00)

Egyptian special forces in Sinai

Egyptian special forces in Sinai

DEBKAfile’s intelligence and counter-terror sources disclose that Egypt’s interior ministry’s security forces, airports, harbors, and border terminals were placed on the highest terror alert Sunday afternoon, Aug. 24, in response to information that an al Qaeda team or teams were heading for major strikes against specific targets.

Extra guards were posted at the American, Israeli, Swedish and British embassies.
More...


Cutting out US role, new Egyptian-Saudi plan proposes inter-Arab force for Gaza

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

August 23, 2008, 1:06 PM (GMT+02:00)

Putting together a new scheme for Gaza

Putting together a new scheme for Gaza

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that a new 11-point scheme, just developed by Saudi King Abdullah and Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, provides for the bulk of the 3,000-strong force to be Egyptian. It will be presented to Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak Tuesday, Aug. 26.

When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s arrives in Jerusalem and Ramallah, Sunday, Aug. 24, she will find this plan already on the table.
More...



Full Articles and Analyses

No Caucasian Ceasefire until Russia Achieves its Aims

DEBKAfile Special Report and Analysis

August 11, 2008

Prime minister Vladimir Putin toys defiant Georgia

Prime minister Vladimir Putin toys defiant Georgia

By Monday, Aug. 11, the fourth day of the Caucasian conflict, which first erupted over the breakaway province of South Ossetia, the pro-American Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili sounded hopeless in the face of overwhelming Russian might.

International condemnation of Russian behavior as “unacceptable and disproportionate” did not ease his country’s plight or stop the continuing violence.

Saakashvili’s third commitment to a ceasefire, signed in the presence of the French and Finnish foreign ministers, was brusquely rejected by the Kremlin before the would-be mediators had a chance to present it later that day. The Russian NATO ambassador said his government would not deal with the “war criminal” Georgian president, confirming Saakashvili’s charge that one of Moscow’s objects was to oust him as president.

DEBKAfile’s military analysts reported Sunday, Aug. 10:

Russian president Dimitry Medvedev said Sunday, Aug. 10, the war would go on until Tbilisi withdrew its forces...
In full


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A Welcome at Downing Street for The Grand Old Man of Terror

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Iranian Early Warning Station, Anti-Air Base on Lebanese Peak

Iranian Early Warning Station, Anti-Air Base on Lebanese Peak

July 12, 2008

Mt. Sannine, Central Lebanon

Mt. Sannine, Central Lebanon

To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weekly click HERE .

In the past few weeks, Hizballah at the behest of Iran and Syria has commandeered the 7,800-foot Mt. Sannine, a strategic asset capable of determining the outcome of the next war, as DEBKA-Net-Weekly 356 revealed.

Radar-guided missile positions and an early warning station have since been deployed on its summit, which are capable of monitoring and threatening US Sixth Fleet movements in the eastern Mediterranean and Israel Air Force flights.

This development was serious enough for Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak to repeat three times in as many days that the IDF is keeping a close watch on events in the northern front, especially the deepening ties between Syria and the Lebanese Hizballah. Barak travels to Washington this week.

Mt. Sannine, which dominates the roads connecting Beirut and Damascus, is one of the most prized strategic assets in the region. It was fought over for...
In full


Related articles:

Israel backs Georgia in Caspian Oil Pipeline Battle with Russia

Would Obama come to terms with Iran as a nuclear power?

Merkel Recognizes Israel’s Capital – But Opposes Military Steps against Iran


Mossad Chief Empowered to Prepare Groundwork for Iran Strike

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

July 12, 2008

Meir Dagan appointed to seventh year as Mossad Director

Meir Dagan appointed to seventh year as Mossad Director

By extending the Mossad director, Meir Dagan’s tenure for another year until the end of 2009, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has put in place a vital constituent for a possible eleventh-hour unilateral strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities.

In his six years on the job, the 61-year old external intelligence has proved his covert mettle in a variety of counter-terror operations, graduating most recently to a highly successful intelligence coup leading up to the demolition of Syria’s North Korean plutonium reactor in al Kebir last September.

Appointed by former prime minister Ariel Sharon in 2002, Dagan’s first four years as the Mossad’s tenth chief were dedicated to counterterrorism rather than tracking Iran’s nuclear activities or monitoring Iran’s burgeoning strategic ties with Syria and Hizballah.

From mid-2006, the former general shifted the agency’s priorities to include these targets, while the Mossad continued to show its fearsome counter-terror paces in Damascus, Beirut...
In full


Related articles:

US Secret Service Embattled

The Cypriot Air Crash Continues to Baffle the Investigation

The Secret Cold War Partnership between Pope John Paul II and White House Revealed


 

Israel backs Georgia in Caspian Oil Pipeline Battle with Russia

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

August 8, 2008

Georgian tanks and infantry, aided by Israeli military advisers, captured the capital of breakaway South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, early Friday, Aug. 8, bringing the Georgian-Russian conflict over the province to a military climax.

Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin threatened a “military response.”

Former Soviet Georgia called up its military reserves after Russian warplanes bombed its new positions in the renegade province.

In Moscow’s first response to the fall of Tskhinvali, president Dimitry Medvedev ordered the Russian army to prepare for a national emergency after calling the UN Security Council into emergency session early Friday.

Reinforcements were rushed to the Russian “peacekeeping force” present in the region to support the separatists.

Georgian tanks entered the capital after heavy overnight heavy aerial strikes, in which dozens of people were killed.

Lado Gurgenidze, Georgia's prime minister, said on Friday that Georgia will continue its military operation in...
In full


Related articles:

Iranian Early Warning Station, Anti-Air Base on Lebanese Peak

Would Obama come to terms with Iran as a nuclear power?

Merkel Recognizes Israel’s Capital – But Opposes Military Steps against Iran


Secret US-Iranian Dialogue Brings Oil Prices down, Shakes up Mid East Alliances

From DEBKA-Net-Weekly 354 Updated by DEBKAfile

July 8, 2008

To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weekly click HERE .

Oil prices suddenly slumped Tuesday, July 8, as predicted by DEBKA-Net-Weekly on June 27, under the impact of the secret American-Iranian talks embarked on last month to solve burning issues by diplomatic engagement.

These talks between the US and Iranian delegations, representing President George W. Bush and Iranian supreme ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have yielded ad hoc understandings on controversial issues. One is an agreement not to allow the price of oil to rocket past $150 the barrel.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s exclusive Gulf and Iranian sources disclosed that the bilateral negotiations were deliberately masked by the war fever engineered by Washington in the form of a stream of leaks indicating that a US or Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear installations was imminent.

At the same time, neither nation has sheathed its military option. Those understandings are ad hoc and could...
In full


Related articles:

US Military Option on Iran Is Back on the Table

Middle East Efforts by Rice, Carter Spark More Violence

Washington Opens Diplomatic Door to Tehran


Iran Has Technology for a Nuclear Warhead to Fit Shehab-3 Missile

DEBKA-Net-Weekly 351 Updated by DEBKAfile

July 8, 2008

Urs Tinner, evidence against him destroyed

Urs Tinner, evidence against him destroyed

To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weekly click HERE .

Some Western military and intelligence were shocked to learn that Iran had the blueprints for making a nuclear warhead that could fit onto its Shehab-3 missiles. The discovery was released by the former UN weapons inspector, David Albright, Sunday, June 16, ahead of the report on his investigation of the nuclear smuggling ring run by the father of the Pakistan nuclear bomb Abdul Qadeer Khan. He alleged that the nuclear blueprints passed to Libya, Iran and North Korea included “previously undisclosed designs for a compact warhead that could fit on Iran’s medium-range ballistic missiles.”

On May 22, Swiss President Pascal Couchepin, disclosed that, last December, the destruction had been ordered of a batch of 30,000 documents detailing construction plans for nuclear weapons, gas ultra-centrifuges to enrich weapons-grade uranium and guided missile delivery systems , evidence in a criminal...
In full


Related articles:

A Chill Has Crept over US-Pakistani Relations

Musharraf Dumps Hundreds of al Qaeda Operatives Back in Afghanistan



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