OPERATION BITE: APRIL 6 SNEAK ATTACK BY US FORCES AGAINST IRAN

Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2007 12:56:53 -0700 (PDT)
From: Webster Tarpley < webstertarpley@yahoo.com>

OPERATION BITE: APRIL 6 SNEAK ATTACK BY US FORCES AGAINST IRAN
PLANNED, RUSSIAN MILITARY SOURCES WARN

GENERAL IVASHOV CALLS FOR EMERGENCY SESSION OF UN SECURITY
COUNCIL TO WARD OFF LOOMING US AGGRESSION

By Webster G. Tarpley

Washington DC, March 25 --

The long awaited US military attack on Iran is now on track
for the first week of April, specifically for 4 AM on April
6, the Good Friday opening of Easter weekend, writes the
well-known Russian journalist Andrei Uglanov in the Moscow
weekly "Argumenty Nedeli." Uglanov cites Russian military
experts close to the Russian General Staff for his account.

The attack is slated to last for twelve hours, according to
Uglanov, lasting from 4 AM until 4 PM local time. Friday is
a holiday in Iran. In the course of the attack, code named
Operation Bite, about 20 targets are marked for bombing; the
list includes uranium enrichment facilities, research centers,
and laboratories.

The first reactor at the Bushehr nuclear plant, where
Russian engineers are working, is supposed to be spared from
destruction. The US attack plan reportedly calls for the Iranian
air defense system to be degraded, for numerous Iranian warships
to be sunk in the Persian Gulf, and the for the most important
headquarters of the Iranian armed forces to be wiped out.

The attacks will be mounted from a number of bases, including
the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Diego Garcia
is currently home to B-52 bombers equipped with standoff
missiles. Also participating in the air strikes will be US naval
aviation from aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, as well as
from those of the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. Additional
cruise missiles will be fired from submarines in the Indian
Ocean and off the coast of the Arabian peninsula. The goal is
allegedly to set back Iran's nuclear program by several years,
writes Uglanov, whose article was re-issued by RIA-Novosti in
various languages, but apparently not English, several days
ago. The story is the top item on numerous Italian and German
blogs, but so far appears to have been ignored by US websites.

Observers comment that this dispatch represents a high-level
orchestrated leak from the Kremlin, in effect a war warning,
which draws on the formidable resources of the Russian
intelligence services, and which deserves to be taken with
the utmost seriousness by pro-peace forces around the world.

Asked by RIA-Novosti to comment on the Uglanov report, retired
Colonel General Leonid Ivashov confirmed its essential features
in a March 21 interview: "I have no doubt that there will
be an operation, or more precisely a violent action against
Iran." Ivashov, who has reportedly served at various times as
an informal advisor to Putin, is currently the Vice President
of the Moscow Academy for Geopolitical Sciences.

Ivashov attributed decisive importance to the decision of the
Democratic leadership of the US House of Representatives to
remove language from the just-passed Iraq supplemental military
appropriations bill which would have demanded that Bush come
to Congress before launching an attack on Iran. Ivashov pointed
out that the language was eliminated under pressure from AIPAC,
the lobbing group representing the Israeli extreme right,
and of Israeli Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni.

"We have drawn the unmistakable conclusion that this operation
will take place," said Ivashov. In his opinion, the US planning
does not include a land operation: " Most probably there will
be no ground attack, but rather massive air attacks with the
goal of annihilating Iran's capacity for military resistance,
the centers of administration, the key economic assets, and
quite possibly the Iranian political leadership, or at least
part of it," he continued.

Ivashov noted that it was not to be excluded that the Pentagon
would use smaller tactical nuclear weapons against targets
of the Iranian nuclear industry. These attacks could paralyze
everyday life, create panic in the population, and generally
produce an atmosphere of chaos and uncertainty all over Iran,
Ivashov told RIA-Novosti. "This will unleash a struggle for
power inside Iran, and then there will be a peace delegation
sent in to install a pro-American government in Teheran,"
Ivashov continued. One of the US goals was, in his estimation,
to burnish the image of the current Republican administration,
who would now be able to boast that they had wiped out the
Iranian nuclear program.

Among the other outcomes, General Ivashov pointed to a partition
of Iran along the same lines as Iraq, and a subsequent carving
up of the Near and Middle East into smaller regions. "This
concept worked well for them in the Balkans and will now be
applied to the greater Middle East," he commented.

"Moscow must expert Russia's influence by demanding an emergency
session of the United Nations Security Council to deal with
the current preparations for an illegal use of force against
Iran and the destruction of the basis of the United Nations
Charter," said General Ivashov. "In this context Russia could
cooperate with China, France and the non-permanent members of
the Security Council. We need this kind of preventive action
to ward off the use of force," he concluded.

http://fr.rian.ru/world/20070319/62260006.html
http://fr.rian.ru/world/20070321/62387717.html