Iran's electronic trap for snaring the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel, one of the world's most secret drone programs in almost perfect condition, must be accounted a huge military and intelligence coup and a landmark in the long tussle over Tehran's nuclear program. It may have acquired the technology for its ...

The US is to shelve its covert war against Iran's nuclear program and any plans for a direct military attack until it discovers how Iran came to capture the top-secret RQ-170 reconnaissance drone complete with its secrets. Israel too will have to revamp its plans of attack before risking ...

Iran exhibited the top-secret US stealth drone RQ-170 Sentinel captured on Sunday, Dec. 4. Its almost perfect condition confirmed Tehran's claim that the UAV was downed by a cyber attack, meaning it was brought in undamaged by an electronic warfare ambush. This is a major debacle for the stealth technology the US uses in its warplanes and the drone technology developed by the US and Israel.  It obliges both to revise their strike plans against Iran's nuclear program.

After spotting an attempted plot on the life of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran has launched a mega manhunt to ferret out the army of double agents and inside traitors suspected to have infested the upper reaches of its government, Revolutionary Guards and armed forces.

The West and Israel have no option but to admit the failure of a decade of sanctions, military threats, diplomatic penalties, cyber war and covert operations to abort Iran's drive for a nuclear bomb. Tehran has never wavered from its goal, citing the "Persian Carpet Doctrine" as its secret ...

The hidden wars the United States, NATO, Arab League members and Israel are waging against Iran, Syria and Hizballah rose to a record pitch in the last two weeks. Aspects of these covert operations are revealed exclusively in the latest DEBKA-Net-Weekly, out lat Friday.  In Syria, these operations teeter on the brink of overt combat. In Iran, unseen hands are eroding regime stability.  

Read also about the Western-Arab plan to bisect Syria into pro-and anti-Assad entities.

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By April 2012 Iran will have five nuclear bombs or warheads, says intelligence reaching US president Barack Obama and relayed to Jewish leaders at a closed meeting in New York Sunday, Nov. 13, debkafile's sources report.  The window of opportunity for stopping Iran attaining a nuclear weapon will shut down in late March, after which military action would generate radioactive contamination across the Gulf oil region. Our sources refute claims that Saturday's Iranian base blasts were caused by the CIA or Mossad.

Germany now has the biggest unmanned aerial vehicle in the world, the 15-ton Euro Hawk 9901 co-produced by Germany and the US which made its maiden flight from California to South Germany in a record 23 hours. Its spying capabilities are unmatched by any world power excepting the United ...

The bid to replace toppled Arab regimes with pro-Western Arab democracies was a complete flop, the US and NATO intelligence chiefs meeting secretly in the third week of September agreed. In Libya, in particular the NATO operation on the side of the rebels opened the door for elements identified ...

The consensus of US and Western intelligence chiefs at their closed door meeting in Langley was that NATO should count itself out of further military interventions in Arab uprisings in the coming year – especially in Syria - after its mistakes in Libya. Reliance on Turkey was seen as a letdown. The Yemeni crisis was judged more dangerous to broader regions of the Middle East and East Africa than the Syrian conflict.

The new US Intelligence estimate for Iran to attain a nuclear bomb is now 2015-2016. Tehran is years behind schedule due to its technical inability to construct a containment shell for a bomb and get its new, advanced centrifuges working properly for enriching uranium to 60 percent at Fordo.  However, US spymasters confirm that Iran had made progress in ballistics, building missiles with more powerful engines capable of longer ranges and greater accuracy than ever before.  

Away from the optimistic hype surrounding the "Arab Spring" – especially in Libya - and the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, the coming DEBKA-Net-Weekly out Friday reveals how Western intelligence chiefs secretly sized up the consequences of both at their first conference in ten months.
Their outlook was far from rosy. The West is nowhere near its goals in the Arab world and the war on al Qaeda faces big obstacles in new places.
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Israel's military, police and Shin Bet security service are drilling extreme scenarios of possible Palestinian disturbances, mass rallies or even terrorist attacks in September – although there is no specific intelligence of a security threat in the offing. The authorities have also set up "September Command Centers" so as not to be caught off guard. The intelligence updates fed them on Palestinian activities contain no signs so far of organized Palestinian preparations for disorders beyond some talk at local Fatah cell level.

Taliban used insider intelligence to down the Chinook and avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden after inflicting a spate of precise hits to sow fear and alarm in the country ahead of the US forces' drawdown.

debkafile's intelligence sources report that the Stuxnet malworm which played havoc with Iran's nuclear program for eleven months was not purged after all. Tehran never did overcome the disruptions caused by Stuxnet or restore its centrifuges to smooth and normal operation as was claimed. Indeed, Iran finally resorted to the only sure-fire cure, scrapping all the tainted machines and replacing them with new ones – as was indicated Tuesday by an announcement in Tehran.

Western and Israeli intelligence missed Iran's spectacular nuclear fast-forward by miscalculating its timelines. It now appears that by 2012, Tehran will have around four-to-six bombs or warheads in stock and have tested ICBMs for their delivery. Uranium enrichment will be raised to 60 percent by relocating the plants from Natanz ...

The latest DEBKA-Net-Weekly out Friday uncovered Iran's surreptitious leaps and bounds toward a home-made nuclear weapon. Tehran has not only executed four nuclear-capable missile tests, but actually constructed a nuclear warhead prototype.
This issue showed how Tehran has crossed every red line set by the West against Iran acquiring nuclear arms by furtively exploiting the months of furious Arab unrest for high speed, undisturbed progress. Western and Israeli intelligence are now waking up to some unpleasant surprises.

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Jerusalem insisted Monday that no Cairo notification had been received of the arrest of dual US-Israeli citizen Ilan Grapel as an alleged Israeli spy, while Washington is checking to see if any word came through. Western intelligence circles suggest Egypt may have preferred to "find" a Mossad spy even if they suspected him of working undercover for other Western organizations. debkafile: The US and Israel are seeking his quick release before agitation against an alleged fomenter of Muslim-Coptic strife makes this impossible.

With a new strategic partner in hand after losing Turkey and Mubarak's Egypt, the Israeli prime minister was in a position to underline Israel's continued adherence to its military option against Iran acquiring nuclear weapons. Secret Saudi-Israeli intelligence parleys are now joined by Jordan.

The military and intelligence cliques of Assad's inner circle are sharply divided among themselves over the handling of the Syrian uprising: One group calls for a letup and compromise, while the other threatens to resist any easing of the crackdown by force.