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

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