Russian Spys In The UN Stole $500 Million in Iraq’s Oil For Food Program

Well another reason has surfaced on why Russia was against invading Iraq…

UNITED NATIONS —  A former Russian top spy says his agents helped the Russian government steal nearly $500 million from the U.N.’s oil-for-food program in Iraq before the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Sergei Tretyakov, who defected to the United States in 2000 as a double agent, says he oversaw an operation that helped Saddam’s regime manipulate the price of Iraqi oil sold under the program — and allow Russia to skim profits.

Tretyakov, former deputy head of intelligence at Russia’s U.N. mission from 1995 to 2000, names some names, but sticks mainly to code names. Among the spies he says he recruited for Russia were a Canadian nuclear weapons expert who became a U.N. nuclear verification expert in Vienna, a senior Russian official in the oil-for-food program and a former Soviet bloc ambassador. He describes a Russian businessman who got hold of a nuclear bomb, and kept it stored in a shed at his dacha outside Moscow.

The 51-year-old Tretyakov had never spoken out about his spying before this week, when he granted his first news media interviews to publicize a book published Thursday. Written by former Washington Post journalist Pete Earley, the book is titled “Comrade J.: The Untold Secrets of Russia’s Master Spy in America after the End of the Cold War.”

“It’s an international spy nest,” Tretyakov said of the U.N., during an interview this week with The Associated Press. “Inside the U.N., we were fishing for knowledgeable diplomats who could give us first of all anti-American information.”

His defection was first reported by the AP in 2001. Shortly after, the New York Times broke the news that he was not a diplomat, but a top Russian spy who was extensively debriefed by the CIA and the FBI.

Some of the people named or referenced by a code name in the book have denied Tretyakov’s claims. The Russian mission to the U.N. said Friday it would have no immediate comment.

Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, described Tretyakov’s allegations as potentially serious violations of law and U.N. rules.

But Dujarric said it would be up to others to prosecute if the allegations are substantiated: “Since the U.N. can’t prosecute, it is now up to national governments to prosecute.”

An 18-month investigation into the oil-for-food corruption, led by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, culminated in an October 2005 report accusing more than 2,200 companies from some 40 countries of colluding with Saddam’s regime to bilk the humanitarian program in Iraq of $1.8 billion.

The program was aimed at easing Iraqi suffering under U.N. sanctions imposed after Saddam’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. It allowed Iraq to sell oil provided the bulk of the proceeds were used to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian goods and to pay war reparations. Volcker’s reports blamed shoddy U.N. management and the world’s most powerful nations for allowing corruption in the $64 billion program to go on for years.

Tretyakov defected to the United States with his wife and daughter in 2000, after serving as a double agent passing along secrets to the U.S. government. He calls his defection “the major failure of Russian intelligence in the United States” and warns that Russia, despite the end of the Cold War, harbors bad intentions toward the United States.

The decision to defect, he said, was made only after his mother died in 1997, and he had no other close relatives alive in Russia who could be used to blackmail him. The Tretyakovs now live in retirement in an undisclosed location.

“I got extremely disgusted with the Russian government, and I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. I’m not very emotional. I’m not a Boy Scout,” said Tretyakov, who was accompanied during the interview by his wife, Helen, and Earley. “Knowing people who are running Russia, I started feeling that it’s immoral to help them. And finally in my life, when I defected, I did something good in my life. Because I want to help United States.”

Russia To Defend Terrorist Nations Using Nukes

I wonder where the liberal media is with this one, had the US been the one to say the nuclear option is not off the table, then the media would be lambasting Bush for threatening nuclear war with Russia…. but since it is Russia threatening to use nukes if their allies, Iran, Syria, North Korea, are attacked, then it is ok…

Not that this is a new policy, the timing of their restatement of their policy is interesting, it would appear they are more worried about strikes against Iran….

Russia’s military chief of staff said Saturday that Moscow could use nuclear weapons in preventive strikes to protect itself and its allies, the latest aggressive remarks from increasingly assertive Russian authorities.

Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky’s comment did not mark a policy shift, military analysts said. Amid disputes with the West over security issues, it may have been meant as a warning that Russia is prepared to use its nuclear might.

“We do not intend to attack anyone, but we consider it necessary for all our partners in the world community to clearly understand … that to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia and its allies, military forces will be used, including preventively, including with the use of nuclear weapons,” Baluyevsky said at a military conference in a remark broadcast on state-run cable channel Vesti-24.

According to the state-run news agency RIA-Novosti, Baluyevsky added that Russia would use nuclear weapons and carry out preventive strikes only in accordance with Russia’s military doctrine.

The military doctrine adopted in 2000 says Russia may use nuclear weapons to counter a nuclear attack on Russia or an ally, or a large-scale conventional attack that poses a critical risk to Russia’s security.

Retired Gen. Vladimir Dvorkin, formerly a top arms control expert with the Russian Defense Ministry, said he saw “nothing new” in Baluyevsky’s statement. “He was restating the doctrine in his own words,” Dvorkin said.

Moscow-based military analyst Alexander Golts said that when Russia broke with stated Soviet-era policy in the 2000 doctrine and declared it could use nuclear weapons first against an aggressor, it reflected the decline of Russia’s conventional forces in the decade following the 1991 Soviet collapse.

“Baluyevsky’s statement means that, as before, we cannot count on our conventional forces to counter aggression,” Golts told Ekho Moskvy radio. “It means that as before, the main factor in containing aggression against Russia is nuclear weapons.”

Putin and other Russian officials have stressed the need to maintain a powerful nuclear deterrent and reserved the right to carry out preventive strikes. But in most of their public remarks on preventive strikes, Russian officials have not specifically mentioned nuclear weapons.

Baluyevsky spoke amid persistent disputes between Moscow and the West over issues including U.S. plans for missile defense facilities in former Soviet satellites, NATO members’ refusal to ratify an updated European conventional arms treaty, and Kosovo’s bid for independence from Serbia.

Like Golts, Moscow-based military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said Russia plays up its nuclear deterrent because of its weakness in terms of conventional arms. “We threaten the West that in any kind of serious conflict, we’ll go nuclear almost immediately,” he said.

But in the absence of a real threat from the West, he said, “It’s just talk.”

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Liberal Doves Wary Of NEI Conclusion On Iran’s Nuclear Program

Wow another news story I never thought I would see happen… It appears that Bush’s assertion that Iran is a danger is not overblown….

Some experts fear the intelligence estimate will sap international pressure to prevent Tehran from getting nuclear weapons.

By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 7, 2007

WASHINGTON — The new U.S. intelligence report that says Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 is suddenly raising concerns among the political center and left, as well as conservatives who have long called for a hard line against the Islamic Republic.

Moderate and liberal foreign policy experts said that U.S. intelligence agencies, possibly eager to demonstrate independence from White House political pressure, may have produced a National Intelligence Estimate that is more reassuring than it should be on the potential risks of the Iranian nuclear program.

Isfahan

 click to enlarge

The report, made public Monday, contradicted the Bush administration’s assertion that Iran has been secretly working to build nuclear weapons. It also found that Tehran, which says it is enriching uranium solely for civilian energy purposes, appears to have a pragmatic view and has responded to outside pressure and economic sanctions, in contrast to characterizations by administration hawks.

For years, President Bush’s anti-Tehran vitriol has drowned out the more circumspect voices in the U.S. foreign policy establishment who nonetheless agree Iran poses a concern. But with this week’s report, many experts worried that the pressure they believe is needed to counter Tehran now may dissipate.

Iran expert Ray Takeyh, a former professor at the National War College and National Defense University, said that although his own politics are left of the president’s, he agrees with Bush that Iran’s nuclear program is a continuing threat.

“The position I take is that President Bush is right on this,” said Takeyh, now at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Takeyh, who has long argued for engaging Iran in diplomacy, said the intelligence report was too easy on Tehran by not objecting to the uranium enrichment program, which many Western governments have alleged is meant to build the knowledge base to eventually develop nuclear weapons. The American intelligence agencies, in effect, accepted Iran’s contention that the enrichment is for peaceful purposes, Takeyh said.

After the report’s release, Bush pledged to maintain pressure on Iran and lobbied for international support. On Thursday, French and German leaders meeting in Paris said they favored continued pressure, although German Chancellor Angela Merkel did not commit herself to backing harsher United Nations sanctions sought by the United States.

The new U.S. intelligence estimate has made any new economic sanctions unlikely, most analysts agree, since it has given nations such as Russia and China a reason to give the benefit of the doubt to Iran, their ally and business partner. As a result, experts of varying political affiliations in Washington believe that efforts to successfully apply pressure on Iran have been hurt by the report.

At the same time, they say, it is questionable whether the Islamic Republic has been responsive to international pressure, as the report suggests.

Sharon Squassoni, a former government nuclear safeguards expert now with the generally liberal Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, noted that the intelligence report said Iran suspended its enrichment program in 2003 and later signed an agreement allowing U.N. inspections.

But, she said, the portion of the report made public was silent on the fact that the Iranians reversed both actions in 2006.

The ability to develop fissile materials is the most important element of a nuclear weapons program, she told reporters.

Gary Samore, who was a top arms control official in the Clinton White House, agreed that the National Intelligence Estimate did not adequately emphasize Iran’s continuing efforts to enrich uranium and build missiles.

“The halting of the weaponization program in 2003 is less important from a proliferation standpoint than resumption of the enrichment program in 2006,” said Samore, director of studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Samore said the report undermined Bush’s warnings about Iranian efforts to develop nuclear weapons and left Tehran in a strong position, allowing it to develop its enrichment capacity without a substantial challenge from the United States and its allies. The secret weaponization program is “on ice,” he said, but Iran preserves the option to resume that when it wishes.

Though American intelligence officials believe Iran has been enriching uranium at a concentration that could only be used for civilian energy purposes, analysts fear that the same basic technology could eventually be used to kick-start a weapons program.

Anthony Lake, who was a national security advisor to President Clinton, found no fault with the intelligence report. But he said a key message was the importance of taking action.

“While we’ve got more time, we’ve got to use the time, because the enrichment activities are continuing,” Lake said in an interview.

The new report repeats a number of the same cautions and conclusions in its last major assessment, in 2005, when the agencies reached the vastly different conclusion that Iran was determined to develop nuclear weapons. But the new report stresses the more recent findings that cast doubt on Tehran’s determination to build a bomb.

As a result, conservatives have denounced the report.

John R. Bolton, the hawkish former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., has called for a congressional investigation of the report, which he said is flawed.

In a Washington Post op-ed column Thursday, Bolton alleged that many of the officials involved were “not intelligence professionals but refugees from the State Department” brought in by J. Michael McConnell, the director of national intelligence.

Norman Podhoretz, the right-wing commentator who has advocated a U.S. military strike on Iran and who is a foreign policy advisor to Republican Rudolph W. Giuliani’s presidential campaign, accused the intelligence community of purposefully “leaking material calculated to undermine George W. Bush.”

paul.richter@latimes.com

Have Nuke, Will Travel

Alas, most have already forgotten the nuclear threat from Al Qaeda… Most Americans sleep at night blind to what is right in front of them. For years now, the threat has been made, then the liberal media brushes it under the rug and everyone becomes compacent…

Well a little reminder, Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations around the world want to attack us, on our land, in our places of work, at our homes. They have made clear they want to attack with nuclear, biological or chemicals weapons. They have made clear they are trying to put together a program. They have repeatedly claimed to have such devices. What more does America need to tackle the big problems out there. Countries like Iran, Syria and N. Korea are more than willing to aide terrorists in attacking the west. Russia has shown its alliances to the Triad of Terror. Russia has shown it will sell weaponary to anyone willing to pay the price.

This is why we bring the battle to them, our next President needs to have the resolve that President Bush once had. We need a President willing to make the hard decisions, the decisions that may not be the popular choice, the decision to protect Americans.

Now, Al Qaeda and Bin Laden constantly make threats to try and prove they are still realevant, even though they are a diminishing reality, however it only takes one lucky shot to do the damage they need to become a leading terrorists in the world again. They thrive on the need to be seen as the ultimate martyrs in the Islamic world. We must not let our guard down against them, we must not under estimate them, we must not turn a blind eye because we think they are weaken and ineffectual…

Sleep fitfully America.

Nuclear attack on America: Hiroshima Paul Williams

The Global Islamic Media Front, the leading al Qaeda website, has posted a report that verifies Osama bin Laden’s possession of nuclear weapons and his intent, if provoked, to deploy these weapons against the United States.

The report maintains that bin Laden, when asked what will happen if the US uses nukes against his terrorist organization, said: “If they hit us with them, we will hit them with the same.”

In November 2001, bin Laden henchman Dr. Ayman al Zawahri provided a similar response to the same question during an interview with Hamid Mir. “We have chemical and nuclear weapons,” he told the Pakistani journalist. “If America uses chemical or nuclear weapons against us, then we may resort with chemical or nuclear weapons.” When Mir asked bin Laden where he obtained such weapons, the al Qaeda leader said: “It is not difficult [to acquire such weapons], not if you have contacts in the Russian underworld.”

The Global Islamic Media Front report goes on to say that al Qaeda, prior to 9/11, had commissioned an Egyptian scientist to prepare its arsenal of nuclear weapons–obtained from arms dealers, such as Semion Mogilevich of the Ukraine and black-market sources in Russia, Chechnya, China, Kazakhstan, Iran, and Sudan. This scientist, according to the Front, “tested exploding a miniature nuclear bomb and caused a huge, tremendous explosion which made the leaders of the mujahadeen very happy. Sheikh Osama personally was following the project through its various phases.”

Obama Blind to the Nuclear Threat

Obama, what do you think the world is trying to do? That is why it is so important to enforce non-proliferation treaties signed by N. Korea and Iran.

Do you really think your plan is better than what is in place now? I guess you think Iran and N. Korea should have free reign? How about letting them give some nuclear material to Al Qaeda? Hmmm

Democrat Barack Obama called for ridding the world of nuclear weapons Tuesday and offered his early opposition to the Iraq war as evidence of sound judgment that trumps his lack of Washington experience.

Obama argued that U.S. policy is still focused on the defunct Soviet Union instead of combatting the nuclear threat from rogue nations and terrorists. The United States shouldn’t unilaterally disarm, he said, but it must work with other nations to phase out weapons and control atomic material.

“Here’s what I’ll say as president: ‘America seeks a world in which there are no nuclear weapons,'” Obama said.

“The best way to keep America safe is not to threaten terrorists with nuclear weapons — it’s to keep nuclear weapons and nuclear materials away from terrorists,” the Illinois senator said. Aides said the process Obama envisions would take many years, not just a a single presidency.

The Dwarf and Iranian Jihadist Parliament Declare CIA and US Army Terrorists

Ahmadinejad trying to save face, has Iranian Parliament declare the CIA and US army as terrorist organizations.

Ahmadinejad has been racking up the tension in recent threats to US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, supplying and training terrorists in Iraq through Quds forces, working with N. Korea in expanding Iran’s Nuclear Program, Syrian cooperation in development of Chemical warheads, Hugs and Kisses with Hugo Chavez, closing of any diplomatic solution to the Nuclear issues, puchasing of weaponary from Russia, included surface to air systems, fighter jets etc..

This latest posturing movement is bringing the region closer to another war, one that Ahmadinejad will not win and will cause Russia to loose face.

Iran’s parliament on Saturday approved a nonbinding resolution to label the CIA and the U.S. Army “terrorist organizations.” The move is seen as a diplomatic tit-for-tat after the U.S. Senate voted in favor of a resolution urging the State Department to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.

“The aggressor U.S. Army and the Central Intelligence Agency are terrorists and also nurture terror,” said a statement by the 215 lawmakers who signed the resolution at an open session of the Iranian parliament. The session was broadcast live on state-run radio.

The hard-line dominated parliament said the two were terrorists, because they were involved in dropping nuclear bombs in Japan in World War II, used depleted uranium munitions in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq, supported the killings of Palestinians by Israel, bombed and killed Iraqi civilians and tortured terror suspects in prisons.

The resolution, which is seen as a diplomatic offensive against the U.S., urges Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government to treat the two as terrorist organizations. It also paves the way for the resolution to become legislation that — if ratified by the country’s hardline constitutional watchdog — would become law. The government is expected to remain silent over the parliament resolution and wait for U.S. reaction before making its decision.

On Wednesday, the Senate voted 76-22 in favor of a resolution urging the State Department to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization. While the proposal attracted overwhelming bipartisan support, a small group of Democrats said they feared labeling the state-sponsored organization a terrorist group could be interpreted as a congressional authorization of military force in Iran.

The Bush administration had already been considering whether to blacklist an elite unit within the Revolutionary Guard, subjecting part of the vast military operation to financial sanctions.

The U.S. legislative push came a day after Ahmadinejad told world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly that his country would defy attempts to impose new sanctions by “arrogant powers” seeking to curb its nuclear program, accusing them of lying and imposing illegal penalties on his country.

He said the nuclear issue was now “closed” as a political issue and Iran would pursue the monitoring of its nuclear program “through its appropriate legal path,” the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog.

Tensions between the U.S. and Iran have escalated over Washington accusations that Iran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons and has been supplying Shiite militias in Iraq with deadly weapons used to kill U.S. troops. Iran denies both of the allegations.

Atlas expresses a few great thoughts on the subject:

When the world can not distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong, the narrative is up for grabs. The thugs and bullies control  the argument. I am sure this latest joke is an intended smack down of the legislation before Congress to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terror organization. A move, IMAO, that is nonsensical. Why the separation between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Guard? It’s the same thing.  Iran is a terror state at war with us.  We  ignore that painful truth – at our peril. Iran’s Proxy War Against America

Iran’s parliament on Saturday approved a nonbinding resolution labeling the CIA and the U.S. Army “terrorist organizations,” in apparent response to a Senate resolution seeking to give a similar designation to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

While on its face, it appears ridiculous. But repeat it enough times and it becomes part of the narrative much like the Arab narrative in the Pali Terror/Israeli conflict. Lies all. And yet Bush is still calling for a “two state solution.” Who could have imagined 40- years ago that the President of the United States would be advocating the establishment of an Islamic terror state after all the murder and mayhem despite all the billions thrown at them not to mention international legitimacy. So you see it works. Churchill was right when he said a lie is halfway around the world before the truth can get its pants on.

Will Iran Test their first nuke, or use it? Reliapundit

We must, of course, preemptively attack Iran here, at POWER LINE.

Iran News Round Up NRO

Russia & Iran Prepare for War With US/Israel

Some key points:

1. Russia is really selling a lot of stuff to Iran and has been for quite some time, including equipment for the enrichment of nuclear fuel, not to mention the help of building and setting up the sites. Russia does not want us to go into Iran for a reason…
2. North Korea has been heavily involved in the region of late and have brought nuclear material to Syria. They are in communications/negotiations with Syria and Iran…
3. The Israeli raid on Syria & N. Korea’s nuclear stocks was a show of capabilities. There is nothing between Israel and Iran to stop them or us. Syria’s air defense is useless, we will provide open flight space for Israel over Iraq.
4. The Dwarf should be home my the end of Ramadan…After the impression he made while he was in the US and the recent threats by his government against the US, he is definitely feeling the heat.

This is a translation from Radio-Canada.com. Original text at the bottom.

Mind you this is speculation, however there does seem to some strong indication of possibility.

The French newspaper the connected Duck affirms, in its edition of Wednesday, which there would be a plan of attack israélo-American against Iran. The newspaper indicates that in fact the Russian secret service discovered this plan. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, would have already informed the Iranian authorities.

Initially, Israeli aviation would carry out raids against the Iranian nuclear sites. The American plane-radars would guide and protègeraient these raids. Thereafter, the United States Air Force would take the relai, according to results’ obtained, supports the newspaper.

The Russian secret service even specifies that the attacks would take place between the end of the Ramadan, that is to say towards mid-October, and the beginning of the year 2008. Let us recall that the Security Council of UNO gave to the Islamic Republic until December 2007 so that it makes it possible the International Atomic Energy Agency to carry out new controls of its nuclear sites.

The article of connected Duck also states that the French secret service observed an important delivery of weapons from Moscow in Teheran. They would be anti-ship batteries of missiles, anti-aircraft missiles and helicopters.

Always according to sources’ of the French secret service quoted by the newspaper, American plane-radars AWACS and of the Israeli planes carried out several exits near the Iranian targets.

The mysterious Israeli raid counters Syria, last on September 6, could be seen as a repetition before a possible attack against Iran.

The nationalist daily newspaper panarabe Al-Qods Al-Arabi, published in London, had evoked, a few days ago, an American attack against Iran. According to the author of the article, there would be indices which leave think that Teheran will be the next target one of Washington.

Among the indices advanced by the author, the fact that George Bush used the terms of “nuclear holocaust” is a warning in Teheran so that it ceases enriching by uranium; the presence of Nicolas Sarkozy as a new ally of Washington leaves the vacant place left by the ex-first Tony Blair minister; finally, the signature by Saudi Arabia of a contract of some 5 billion with an American company to involve and equip some 35 000 men charged to protect the Saoudi oil installations.

 Original Text

Téhéran sera-t-il attaqué?

Le journal français Le Canard enchaîné affirme, dans son édition de mercredi, qu’il existerait un plan d’attaque israélo-américain contre l’Iran. Le journal indique que ce sont les services secrets russes qui ont découvert ce plan. Le président russe, Vladimir Poutine, aurait déjà informé les autorités iraniennes.

Dans un premier temps, l’aviation israélienne effectuerait des raids contre les sites nucléaires iraniens. Les avions-radars américains guideraient et protègeraient ces raids. Par la suite, l’aviation américaine prendrait le relai, selon les résultats obtenus, soutient le journal.

Les services secrets russes précisent même que les attaques auraient lieu entre la fin du ramadan, soit vers la mi-octobre, et le début de l’année 2008. Rappelons que le Conseil de sécurité de l’ONU a donné à la République islamique jusqu’à décembre 2007 pour qu’elle permette à l’Agence internationale de l’énergie atomique d’effectuer de nouveaux contrôles de ses sites nucléaires.

L’article du Canard enchaîné indique également que les services secrets français ont observé une importante livraison d’armes de Moscou à Téhéran. Il s’agirait de batteries de missiles antinavires, de missiles antiaériens et d’hélicoptères.

Toujours selon des sources des services secrets français cités par le journal, les avions-radars américains AWACS et des avions israéliens ont effectué plusieurs sorties à proximité des cibles iraniennes.

Le mystérieux raid israélien contre la Syrie, le 6 septembre dernier, pourrait être vu comme une répétition avant une éventuelle attaque contre l’Iran.

Le quotidien nationaliste panarabe Al-Qods Al-Arabi, édité à Londres, avait évoqué, il y a quelques jours, une attaque américaine contre l’Iran. Selon l’auteur de l’article, il existerait des indices qui laissent à penser que Téhéran sera la prochaine cible de Washington.

Parmi les indices avancés par l’auteur, le fait que George Bush ait utilisé les termes d’« holocauste nucléaire » est un avertissement à Téhéran pour qu’il cesse d’enrichir de l’uranium; la présence de Nicolas Sarkozy en tant que nouvel allié de Washington laisse la place laissée vacante par l’ex-premier ministre Tony Blair; enfin, la signature par l’Arabie saoudite d’un contrat de de quelque 5 milliards avec une société américaine pour entraîner et équiper quelque 35 000 hommes chargés de protéger les installations pétrolières saoudiennes.