Washington, U.S.A. — The following is being released by the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy – The FBI partially declassified and released files linking Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a nuclear technology smuggling ring that targeted the United States. The declassified files are now publicly available online at http://www.IRmep.org/ila/krytons/06272012_milco_mdr.pdf

FBI agents interviewed indicted American smuggler Richard Kelly Smyth on April 16-17, 2002, at the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles. The secret interview report details how during trips to Israel Smyth’s handler placed him in contact with Benjamin Netanyahu at Heli Trading Company. The FBI report suggests that “Smyth and [Netanyahu] would meet in restaurants in Tel Aviv and in [Netanyahu's] home and/or business. It was not uncommon for [Netanyahu] to ask Smyth for unclassified material.”

Smyth was indicted in the mid-1980s for smuggling 800 dual use “krytrons” without proper export licenses through a multi-front company network. Smyth fled the U.S. and lived abroad, supported by unknown means, until he was captured by Interpol and returned to the U.S. in 2001. He was convicted in 2002.

During the 2002 Smyth counterintelligence debriefing, the FBI learned that the Israeli Ministry of Defense ordered and paid an Israeli company called Heli Trading for krytrons. Heli in turn sourced them fromCalifornia-based MILCO in a clandestine operation codenamed “Project Pinto.” The report reveals how MILCO illegally shipped other prohibited military articles under general Commerce Department export licenses rather than smuggling them out via Israeli diplomatic pouches.

Released on the Internet on July 4, 2012, the files have been the subject of reporting in the Israeli press, including Israeli National News, Ma’ariv and The Marker. Some U.S. alternative media also explored the implications of the formerly secret files including Antiwar.com, Tikkun Olam, Mondoweiss and CounterPunch. WBAI radio and the Scott Horton Show have hosted interviews.

Although the FBI report has now been sent to the New York Times, Washington Post, all members of Congress and United Nations members, no top-tier establishment news coverage, Congressional or UN investigations have been made public. On Friday, National Public Radio syndicated host Diane Rehmimmediately disconnected IRmep Research Director Grant F. Smith when he asked her reporter roundtable to assess the implications of the Netanyahu espionage ring. An audio clip of the brief exchange is available at: http://www.IRmep.org/NPR.mp3

IRmep is a private nonprofit that studies how warranted law enforcement and civil action can improve U.S. Middle East policy.

Image Courtesy of   Mikhail Levit / Shutterstock.com

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US president Barack Obama recently approved fresh sanctions against Iran in a crucial step to mount pressure on Iran over its nuclear weapons programme, and re-open the gates of diplomacy.

The pressure of economic isolation by imposition of laws and restrictions that hinders or distracts economic activity leading to convulsion of social, financial and economic problems may bring a nation back into dialogue.

Tensions are flaring high enough between US and Iran over the Iranian ambition for nuclear programme that could potentially frazzle down peace and tranquility of the life of millions of people in the region.

Incessant Iranian nuclear activity has raised suspicion as to the heights of military power that Iran is interested in reaching. Through enrichment of uranium that may ultimately assist the development of nuclear weapons, over the years, this has translated into a threat to global peace and economic security.

Barack Obama lashed back at the Iranian stubbornness when he vowed to go ahead with tough sanctions on Iran, saying that there is enough oil in the world markets to allow countries like India and China to reduce their dependence on Iranian imports.

President Obama said in his speech: “There is a sufficient supply of petroleum and petroleum products from countries other than Iran to permit a significant reduction in the volume of petroleum and petroleum products purchased from Iran by or through foreign financial institutions.”

Major portion of Iranian revenue comes from oil; any attempt to drag down oil exports for Iran will have a detrimental effects on its economy.

Currently, Tehran is facing its toughest round of sanctions since 2002, when it was discovered that the authorities had been hiding an 18-year-old programme for strategic mastering of nuclear work, enrichment of uranium to fuel power reactors or to produce an atomic bomb.

From the beginning, it seems there had been deterrent reluctance from Iran to disclose their true ambition behind this programme, which eventually solidified in ground for concern on behalf of the international community.

War may not be the right answer to this crisis, because the world is  already at economic war, battling it out within national economies, originally because the US housing market bubble erupted and swallowed the Lehman Brothers in 2008. Even after four years of consolation in terms of amendments to laws overlooking financial industry, bailouts, and austerity packages, the global economic future seems bleak.

War may devastate Iran’s dream of nuclear power, and invites to consequences hard to imagine as well. It will become a major source of complications for global economy, hurting trade, force a decline in growth rate, and fiscal deficits. War may fetch great success to those who see no other alternative, but it will plunder the hope of stability and peace in the region, affecting millions of lives, ruining sources of livelihood, and demolishing the will to survive.

The objectives for this war may be different, but history stands witness to the fact that war kills humanity and from an economic perspective during a recession period, war is turmoil. The international community should push as strong as possible to avoid conflict, and try to nourish the dream of diplomacy.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/presidenciaecuador/

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According to the latest media reports, the threat of a possible Israeli attack on Iran seems to be impending. Moreover, Israeli leaders have publicly stated that a military action against Iran is being considered as a preventive form of defense in case Iran fails to halt its nuclear program.

Columnist David Ignatius in his opinion column on Washington Post, wrote that Leon Panetta, the U.S. Defense Secretary, thinks there is the possibility of an imminent attack by the Jewish State against the Islamic Republic, nevertheless not specifying what has led him to this conclusion.

To quote Ignatius, “Panetta believes there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June — before Iran enters what Israelis described as a “zone of immunity” to commence building a nuclear bomb.”

At this point, the burning questions are many; Will Israel really attack Iran? What would be Iran’s reaction? What will the Western countries do in case of a real attack – especially the United States? Will the attack cause a chain reaction? Are Iran’s allies and “friends” ready to intervene and take part in a possible conflict? Will this be the triggering event for a third World War? Might it be an atomic war – meaning an actual catastrophe for humanity?

It may sound like a far-fetched theoretical scenario, one that we might experience in the comfort of a cinema armchair or sofa, as the heroes and heroines fight off catastrophe on screen, but in the current state of the world, it could become a reality.

If we look back on history, it almost seems that the creation of the state of Israel did nothing more than cause constant instability and insecurity in the Middle East, involving even far-away countries in the West in its never-ending dispute. The majority of world nations have diplomatic relations with the Jewish State, and for some countries like the United States, this relation is exceptionally strong.

On the other hand, since the Islamic revolution in 1979, relations between Iran and Israel have turned hostile and Iran has instead developed good relations with Israel’s opponents and with so-called “rogue states” and their allies. Therefore, it is not surprising that the possibility of a conflict between Israel and Iran might lead to a world disaster.

The question of Iran’s nuclear program, linked to the possibility of a working Iranian nuclear bomb factory, has arisen again recently and it is considered the “safety factor” that would legitimize an Israeli attack and, potentially, the intervention of the United States and other Western countries on behalf of Israel’s cause. It would be presented as a question of world security, as a threat against the entire humanity which must be be stopped, a danger for the world’s populations – especially those of Israel and Western countries – to be dealt with.

After all, it would not be the first time we hear a rhetoric like this. Other wars of this century were waged with the same or similar purposes, other conflicts were created to follow the logic of the “war on terror” which the U.S. and UK were particularly adamant about. Iraq is the perfect example of this, having been invaded in the ‘belief’ that Saddam had WMD’s which he did not have. Now, with Iran, all I can think is “here we go again.”

There is no certainty of a factory for nuclear bomb, as there is no proof of an Iranian plan to attack Israel or the U.S. at an unspecified time in the future. As far as I remember, the only country that used the atomic bomb against another country’s population in the history of man were the United States – also known as “the democracy exporters” –, and Israel, even if it is widely believed that they have nuclear weapons as well, has never been attacked or invaded for disarmament, and is not considered as a potential threat (by Western countries).

What is difficult to understand is why the world should continue to tolerate the never-ending aggressive attitude of Israel and furthermore, why the state of Israel should believe they have the right to attack Iran on the assumption that “[t]he Iranians are, after all, a nation whose leaders have set themselves a strategic goal of wiping Israel off the map” – as the Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told to Ronen Bergman.

Iran is not a democratic and liberal country, that is absolutely true, and surely there is a possibility that it has or plans to gain nuclear weapons but is this not the case of other countries in the world too? Should Israel attack all those countries too, at will? Should other countries attack Israel for the same reasons?

The U.S. and Israel, together with the UK and other Western countries, have so far been the only powers who saw fit for themselves to decide other countries’ future and dominate the Middle East. Nevertheless, the world’s power balance is changing, the financial crisis is getting stronger, and in a potential global war scenario the world society could split up into two new opposing deployments with new big powers rising to prominence with a potential U.S. at one end and a likely China at the other. Has the time come for a new world war?

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