[Peace-discuss] Obama changing his game?

[C. G. Estabrook]

[This story is an obvious USG plant. Note that the "long-time Pentagon adviser" 
(in fact a PNAC Neocon, VP of the Lexington Institute) quoted below uses the 
same crass term -- "game-changer" -- that Obama employed in his scenery-chewing 
speech against Iran a week ago today. The result of the same military briefings? 
  Is an excuse being set up for an immediate descent on Iran?  ("We had to hit 
them before they got the surface-to-air missiles that would make it impossible 
for us to hit them...")  If one were of a suspicious turn of mind, one might 
even suspect that Obama -- with the Realists firmly in his pocket -- is moving 
to outflank the Neocons with his sudden talk about Iran. (Of course we remember 
that he's talked openly about his willingness to attack Iran since his Senate 
campaign...) --CGE]

	Russia threatens to supply Iran with
	top new missile system as 'cold war' escalates

Russia is deploying the threat to sell a "game changing" air defence system to 
Iran as a high stakes bargaining chip in its new "cold war" with America, The 
Sunday Telegraph has learned.

By Philip Sherwell in New York and William Lowther in Washington
Last Updated: 11:29AM BST 31 Aug 2008

US intelligence fears the Kremlin will supply the sophisticated S-300 system to 
Tehran if Washington pushes through Nato membership for its pro-Western 
neighbours Georgia and Ukraine.

The proposed deal is causing huge alarm in the US and Israel as the S-300 can 
track 100 targets at once and fire on planes up to 75 miles away.

That would make it a "game-changer", greatly improving Iranian defences against 
any air strike on its nuclear sites, according to Pentagon adviser Dan Goure. 
"This is a system that scares every Western air force," he said.

Senior US intelligence operatives believe that Russia is planning to use a 
stand-off over the S-300 to create a foreign policy showdown that would test the 
mettle of a new US president.

Republican candidate John McCain has taken a strongly anti-Kremlin line on a 
series of international issues and backed Georgia's desire to join Nato. His 
Democratic rival Barack Obama has also indicated he supports Nato membership for 
Georgia.

"The message from Moscow is very clear," said George Friedman, director of 
Stratfor, a leading US private intelligence agency. "They are saying if you 
don't stop meddling in our sphere of influence, this is what we are going to do.
"Back Georgia and Ukraine for Nato membership and you'll see the S-300 to Iran. 
It is a very powerful bargaining chip and a major deterrent to US actions in the 
region. Moscow is playing very strategically on America's obsession with Iran."

Moscow has been infuriated by the steady encroachment of Nato into the former 
Soviet bloc and the recent granting of independence to the ex-Serbian province 
of Kosovo against its wishes.

After American condemnation of Russia's foray into Georgia, Moscow invited 
Syria's dictator Bashar al-Assad, a long-time US foe, to discuss military deals 
in a deliberate signal of how it could cause trouble for Washington.

A senior US intelligence operative who recently returned from the Middle East 
said Russia is believed to have struck a tentative deal to sell the S-300 to the 
Islamic regime. There are reports that Russia has already moved some basic 
components for the system to its close ally Belarus, ready for possible transfer 
to Iran.

"Moscow cannot simply threaten to strike the deal," the official told The Sunday 
Telegraph. "Iran certainly thinks it has a deal. And the Israelis believe that a 
deal has been reached but that they can still block it."

The outgoing Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert is expected to pass that message 
on to his counterpart Vladimir Putin and President Dmitri Medvedev when he 
visits Moscow next month. Israel has already ended military assistance to 
Georgia in an effort to placate Russia.

Russia has denied previous assertions by senior Iranians that a deal has already 
been finalised on the S-300.

Dan Goure, a long-time Pentagon adviser, said: "If Tehran obtained the S-300, it 
would be a game-changer in military thinking for tackling Iran. That could be a 
catalyst for Israeli air attacks before it's operational."

Dr Friedman said that if it became operational, it would effectively rule out 
Israeli air raids and seriously complicate any US aerial bombardment.

The system would take up to a year to become operational. In the meantime, 
Israel would come under heavy domestic pressure to launch an attack on Iranian 
nuclear plants, which the West believes are part of a secret atomic weapons 
programme but which Tehran claims are for civilian energy.

A senior Iranian military commander warned yesterday that any attack on Iran 
would start a major conflict. "Any aggression against Iran will start a world 
war," deputy chief of staff for defence publicity, Brigadier General Masoud 
Jazayeri, said in a statement. "The unrestrained greed of the US leadership and 
global Zionism... is gradually leading the world to the edge of a precipice."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/2651516/Russia-threatens
-to-supply-Iran-with-top-new-missile-system-as-cold-war-escalates.html	

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