Australia fears Israeli military strike on Iran: cables

SYDNEY — Australian intelligence agencies fear Israel may launch a military strike on Iran to knock out its nuclear facilities, which they said could lead to nuclear war, leaked US diplomatic cables showed on Monday.

Secret cables from the US embassy in Canberra, provided exclusively to The Sydney Morning Herald by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, reveal that Australian officials raised the issue with their allies on several occasions.

“The AIC’s (Australian intelligence community’s) leading concerns with respect to Iran’s nuclear ambitions centre on understanding the timeframe of a possible weapons capability, and working with the United States to prevent Israel from independently launching uncoordinated military strikes against Iran,” an embassy official wrote to Washington in March 2009.

“They are immediately concerned that Iran’s pursuit of nuclear capabilities would lead to a conventional war — or even nuclear exchange — in the Middle East involving the United States that would draw Australia into a conflict.”

Another cable sent four months earlier reported on Australian concerns about a unilateral Israeli military strike against Iran and “the likelihood of an Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear facilities”.

The leaked letters also reveal that Australian intelligence agencies see Iran’s nuclear ambitions as a strategy to deter foreign attacks and argue it would be wrong to view Iran as a “rogue state”, the newspaper said.

The cables were prompted by a US initiative to solicit responses to Washington possibly engaging Tehran in a security dialogue, and concluded that Australia would likely not object to the United States if it chose to do so.

The correspondence shows that the Australian government, under both former prime minister Kevin Rudd and his successor Julia Gillard, is generally supportive of Israel.

Source : http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/international/2010/December/international_December490.xml§ion=international&col=

In our modern societies, preemptive war acts cannot be accepted and any attacks done by Israel should be condemned by the world. Israel cannot bully it's neighbors over allegations and illegitimate factual evidence. It's clear Iran is following what they are asked in regards to the inspections, yet they still get accused of ill doing.

Israel must not take such a bold step, the world can change and peace can be achieved through other means then war.

War is never the answer unless in defense, defending against occupiers.

Iran launches rocket into space

ran successfully launched a can of worms into space today, prompting a jubilant President Ahmadinejad to brag that the Islamic Republic would soon be sending its own astronauts to orbit Earth.

About a dozen worms joined a rat and two turtles in a research capsule aboard a Kavoshgar-3 satellite-carrying rocket launched this morning as part of an ambitious Iranian space programme that has worried Western experts who fear the same technology could be used to deliver atomic warheads.

France reacted to the rocket launch with "great concern". A Foreign Ministry spokesman said: "This announcement can only reinforce the concerns of the international community as Iran in parallel develops a nuclear programme that has no identifiable civil aims."

Paradoxically, the launch came only a few hours after Mr Ahmadinejad suggested that Iran would be willing to go back to a UN-brokered deal it rejected last year and send its low-enriched uranium for processing abroad. The proposal was given a cautious welcome in Western capitals.

Iranian state television showed footage of the Kavoshgar rocket being fired from a desert launchpad. A few minutes later the grainy images showed the capsule detaching from the rocket and spinning off into orbit – although there were no details of its fate after that. The station reported that the rocket had "the ability to send back empirical data".

State television also carried pictures of Mr Ahmadinejad unveiling another home-built rocket dubbed the Simorgh (phoenix). The milk-bottle shaped rocket, emblazoned in blue with the words "Satellite Carrier Simorgh", is equipped to carry a 100kg (220lb) satellite 500km (310 miles) into orbit.

At the ceremony, at which he also unveiled three home-built satellites, Mr Ahmadinejad hailed the progress Iran was making in its space programme and said that it was only through science that it could "break the global domineering system".

"It is a great job that living organisms can be sent into space – we do experiments on them and they return to Earth," the President said. "We are going to send a satellite 500km up.

"The next steps are 700km and 1,000km. Everyone knows that reaching the 1,000km orbit allows you to reach all orbits.

"This was a huge breakthrough... and we hope we can send our own astronauts into space soon."

Iran launched its first home-built satellite, Omid (hope), in February last year to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution. The previous year it launched two rockets – Kavoshgar (Explorer) and Kavoshgar 2, although neither was carrying any payload.

Tehran has said that it wants to put satellites into orbit to monitor natural disasters in the earthquake-prone nation and improve its telecommunications, but it is already locked in a stand-off with the West over its nuclear programme – which it insists is for the generation of electricity – and its technological advances have set alarm bells ringing.

Source : Times Online

What have Muslims done in since 9-11 to denounce Terrorism

In Iran, they observed a minute's silence for the victims of 9/11. Ayatollah Imami Kashani said this act of terrorism could only be condemned by all Muslims, adding that the whole world should mobilise against terrorism. On September 18th, Iranians held a vigil on the streets of Tehran. They lit candles, prayed for the victims, and condemned terrorism.

In Bangladesh and Indonesia they held rallies condemning terrorism.

Palestinian organizations strongly condemned the terrorist attack. Palestinians held candle light vigils on September 12th and 14th to express their grief and solidarity with Americans. Close to a million Palestinian students stood for five minutes in silence, to express their solidarity for American children who were struck by the tragedy. Palestinian university students in East Jerusalem began a blood drive to donate blood to the victims of 9/11.

In Kuwait, they sent so many flowers in sympathy to the American Embassy, it formed a ring around the embassy.

Every leader, from every Muslim country, except Iraq, condemned the terrorist attack and denounced terrorism, along with thousands of Muslim organizations and scholars around the world.

American Muslims held a rally in Washington attended by thousands to condemn terrorism.

Here in the United States, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), American Muslim Alliance, American Muslim Council, Muslim Public Affairs Council, Muslim American Society, Islamic Society of North America, Islamic Circle of North America, Muslim Alliance in North America, and American Muslims for Jerusalem all condemned the attacks and denounced terrorism. These groups represent most of the seven million Muslims in the United States. None of it made national headlines, just local headlines.

Thanks to Isabella-37