Israel Denies It Has Nuclear Strike Plans

Newspaper Report Claims Israeli Pilots Are Training For Nuke Hit On Iran

(AP)  A British newspaper reported Sunday that Israeli pilots are training to possibly strike as many as three targets in Iran with low-yield nuclear weapons, aiming to halt Tehran's controversial uranium enrichment program.

Israeli officials swiftly denied the report, which comes amid growing global concerns over an Iranian project that Washington and other governments believe is secretly intended to build atomic weapons.

Israel has never confirmed it has nuclear bombs itself, although analysts widely believe the Jewish state possesses a significant stockpile and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates referred to the Israeli atomic arsenal during his recent confirmation hearing.

Citing multiple unidentified Israeli military sources, The Sunday Times said plans had been drawn up in Israel for a potential attack using "bunker-buster" nuclear weapons against atomic facilities at three sites south of the Iranian capital.

The U.S. and its allies suspect Tehran of trying to produce atomic weapons there — and the issue has taken on redoubled urgency because of Iranian leaders' statements calling for the destruction of Israel as well as their recent hosting of a conference at which the Holocaust was questioned.

Though Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has not explicitly ruled out a military strike on Iran's nuclear program, he says the issue should be dealt with diplomatically — and stresses that an Iranian nuclear bomb would be a problem for the entire world, not just Israel.

Some view Israeli officials' occasional implied threats as a means of pressuring the world community to take action itself, building on the recent U.N. Security Council decision to impose some economic sanctions on Tehran for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.

Iran claims its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes, including generating electricity, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has condemned the U.N. move as invalid and illegal.

The Sunday Times said Israeli military officials believed Iran could produce enough enriched uranium to build nuclear weapons within two years.

It said Israeli pilots had made flights to the British colony of Gibraltar while training for the 2,000-mile round trip that would be required to reach the Iranian targets.

Israeli pilots conducted a similar raid on Iraq in 1981, destroying a nuclear facility being built by Saddam Hussein's regime.

But Iran's program may be far more difficult to cripple as it is believed to be distributed over many sites and in part deep underground.

Olmert's office and the Israeli military declined to comment on report by The Sunday Times.

But Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev denied the report, saying Israel was supporting diplomatic efforts. "If diplomacy succeeds, the problem can be solved peaceably," he said.

Some analysts viewed the report as another element of a delicate diplomatic dance.

"I refuse to believe that anyone here would consider using nuclear weapons against Iran," Reuven Pedatzur, a prominent Israeli defense analyst and columnist for the newspaper Haaretz, told The Associated Press in Jerusalem. "It is possible that this was a leak done on purpose, as deterrence, to say: 'Someone better hold us back, before we do something crazy."'

Ephraim Kam, a former senior Israeli intelligence official who is now at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Strategic Studies, also suggested the report should not be taken literally.

"No reliable source would ever speak about this, certainly not to The Sunday Times," he said.

[damnedrelign]

TITLED, 'THE SUBJECT OF HAVING COURAGE'
Please, world leaders, heads of state, and other credible, responsible, authoritative entities, governments, or individuals - it is incumbent upon you to somehow find the courage to declare that the scourge of religion and the mindset or warped ways of thinking that religion prompts/creates, is at the very least, detrimental and destructive to all mankind.
We are in DIRE NEED of such take-charge leaders, particularly as the foregoing relates to the imminently catastrophic Middle East.
PLEASE FIND THE COURAGE TO BEGIN THE PHASING OUT AND EVENTUAL ELIMINATION OF RELIGIOUS MINDSET !

[damnedrelign]

The delusional mindset, which religion along with its 'holy' and 'awesome' MISconceptions...

...poses what is arguably mankind's greatest threat to (OUR OWN) extinction.

We should know better in the 21st Century, but constraints on our ability to reason freely and logically, do not permit us to progress. Such is attributable to many of this planet's people continuing to be held in the grip of religion - from The 'Church', to The 'Mosque', to The 'Synagogue'.

Oh, world leaders of ours, help us transcend our poisonous and very dangerous ways-of-thinking that religion creates. With the advent of incrementally destructive weapons, devices, etc, WE ARE ASSURED OF ONE THING. AND THAT IS TOTAL DESTRUCTION SOMETIME SOON !

[damnedrelign]

If we can have a number of credible world heads of state declare that religion is based on myth, ancient delusional visions (which were called 'revelations'), and that religion has caused more divisiveness, destruction, and death than just about anything in mankind's shameful history, we would then be on the right track for at least some SALVATION of this planet. Perhaps we can then arrive at the genuine salvation that we REALLY need - ECOLOGICAL SALVATION !
Religious mentality is defective, warped, and based on falsely conceived, delusional ancient mindsets.
Apply that especially to the Middle East. Help the subject Muslims, Jews and Christians there and in all parts of the world finally grow up.

[three-o-six]

Actually - Even though they deny they have a plan to hit Iran with Nukes - I hope they really do have a plan ready -- I hope that we have one ready -- I hope somebody does??

[mjv2944]

Let them nuke 'em, somebody has to stop that idiot. I don't think the people of Iran are all that pleased with him and his policies, the latest election proved that. Israel is definitely in his gun sights, but they have the ba!!s to do something about it.

[bobgee_1999]

We need to worry about the U.S. having nukes. Or anybody else, for that matter, since nobody but a raving imbecile would consider using one.

And why is it, exactly, that I seldom hear anyone but anti-semites using the word "Zionist?"
And yes, the majority of the Jews I know are nice people.

Innocent Palestinians should indeed be protected. And it shouldn't be hard, since they'd probably all fit in an armored car.

[j-whitman]

Our biggest problem where the boys from the Kittyhawlk in Yokuska, they planted drugs in our barraks because they lost a few scermishes... Delayed us from our hext port call.

[exusmcsgt]

j-whitman-

I was permanent with H&HS there and got into it with a bunch from the Ticonderoga with a couple of my Marine buds. We all got hauled in. Lots of fun. Those were the days, eh?

[j-whitman]

Gotta go bro,, talk again

[j-whitman]

exusmcsgt,, No kidding, I had that problem also. Every time a ship would pull in before us, up went the prices double, we seldom pulled in before them... It was great when we where the only boat in port at times, couldn't shake the girls off.

[exusmcsgt]

j-whitman-

No, just a stopover in Guam once. I tangled with a few squids in Iwakuni after I came out of Viet Nam in '73. A couple of 'em were pretty tough. They'd show up with 6 months pay in their pocket and buy up every bar girl in town. What nerve, eh? ;-)

[j-whitman]

exusmcsgt,,, Hell man we might even have fought each other, who knows ?? Ever stationed in Guam ??

[exusmcsgt]

j-whitman-

Well, somebody in the Navy has to do the fighting for the squids, right bro? ;-)

[j-whitman]

exusmcsgt,, No bro,, just an old sub sailor, I had a lot of fun with marines though.

[feelfree1]

Here is a film which documents some of the Israeli atrocities against the civilian population of Lebanon, when the recent illegal Israeli invasion of that country was defeated there:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOpB1x5Qzyg

[exusmcsgt]

j-whitman-

You a brother Devil Dog?

[j-whitman]

exusmcsgt -- SEMPRE FI

[exusmcsgt]

titocordero-

You obviously ignored or are ignorant of Israel's attack on the USS Liberty in 1967 or you would never make such a statement.

[exusmcsgt]

j-whitman-

I left 30 years ago now. It is a pleasure discussing with you.

[j-whitman]

exusmcsgt,,, OK you win, of course I've been out for 20 years now, so what do I know, I seldom followed orders anyway.