[News] Bunker Busters Shipped to Diego Garcia: Imminent Attack on Iran?

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Two Articles Follow

<http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/35620>Bunker 
Busters Shipped to Diego Garcia: Imminent Attack or Strategic Move?

By: 
<http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/author/jimwhite/>Jim 
White Wednesday March 17, 2010 7:15 am
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/35620

The internet is buzzing about 
<http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/world-news/final-destination-iran-1.1013151>this 
report on heraldscotland.com, where we find that 
large, "bunker buster" bombs are being shipped 
from Concord, California to a base on the island 
of Diego Garcia. The report claims the bombs are 
intended for immediate use in an attack on Iran. 
An alternate explanation would be that the bombs 
are meant to increase pressure on Iran to prevent 
enrichment of uranium to weapons grade.

Here is how the article opens:

Hundreds of powerful US “bunker-buster” bombs are 
being shipped from California to the British 
island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in 
preparation for a possible attack on Iran.

The Sunday Herald can reveal that the US 
government signed a contract in January to 
transport 10 ammunition containers to the island. 
According to a cargo manifest from the US navy, 
this included 387 “Blu” bombs used for blasting 
hardened or underground structures.

The article is receiving a lot of attention because of this quote it contains:

“They are gearing up totally for the destruction 
of Iran,” said Dan Plesch, director of the Centre 
for International Studies and Diplomacy at the 
University of London, co-author of a recent study 
on US preparations for an attack on Iran. “US 
bombers are ready today to destroy 10,000 targets 
in Iran in a few hours,” he added.

The key portions of the cargo are 195 Blu-110 
bombs (at 1000 pounds each) and 192 of the even 
larger, 2000 pound Blu-117 bombs, as seen in the Navy photo above.

Although I’ve seen unconfirmed rumors that the 
bombs arrived at Diego Garcia yesterday, note 
that the shipping contract was signed in January. 
Shipping our largest existing bunker busters in 
January fits with 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/world/middleeast/06sanctions.html?pagewanted=1>this 
article from the 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/world/middleeast/06sanctions.html?pagewanted=1>New 
York Times and 
<http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BH5IQ20091218?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a49:g43:r1:c1.000000:b30325404:z0>this 
report from Reuters.

First, the Times article (from January), which 
deals mostly with an explanation that Iran has 
engaged in hiding its nuclear facilities 
underground, but has this very interesting statement almost in passing:

Now, with the passing of President Obama’s 
year-end deadline for diplomatic progress, that 
cloak of invisibility has emerged as something of 
a stealth weapon, complicating the West’s military and geopolitical calculus.

Couple the passing of Obama’s diplomatic deadline 
with this Reuters report from December on our 
development of even larger bunker buster bombs:

A "bunker buster" bomb with more than 10 times 
the explosive power of its predecessor will be 
put into service by the United States next 
December, six months later than previously 
scheduled, the U.S. Defense Department told Reuters on Friday.

Here is how 
<http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0213354020090802>Reuters 
previously characterized the new bomb:

The Pentagon is seeking to speed deployment of an 
ultra-large "bunker-buster" bomb on the most 
advanced U.S. bomber as soon as July 2010, the 
Air Force said on Sunday, amid concerns over 
perceived nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran.

The non-nuclear, 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance 
Penetrator, or MOP, which is still being tested, 
is designed to destroy deeply buried bunkers 
beyond the reach of existing bombs.

/snip/

Carrying more than 5,300 pounds of explosives. it 
would deliver more than 10 times the explosive 
power of its predecessor, the 2,000-pound 
BLU-109, according to the Pentagon’s Defense 
Threat Reduction Agency, which has funded and managed the seed program.

So, with Obama’s diplomacy deadline passing and 
the deployment date for the MOP delayed for 
almost a year past that deadline, it would make 
sense for him to put into place the current 
largest ordnance designed for underground targets.

Getting back to the Times article, we see the 
difficulties brought about from the Iranian facilities being underground:

“It complicates your targeting,” said Richard L. 
Russell, a former Central Intelligence Agency 
analyst now at the National Defense University. 
“We’re used to facilities being above ground. 
Underground, it becomes literally a black hole. 
You can’t be sure what’s taking place.”

Even the Israelis concede that solid rock can 
render bombs useless. Late last month, the 
Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, told 
Parliament that the Qum plant was “located in 
bunkers that cannot be destroyed through a conventional attack.”

Heavily mountainous Iran has a long history of 
tunneling toward civilian as well as military 
ends, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has played a 
recurring role ­ first as a transportation 
engineer and founder of the Iranian Tunneling 
Association and now as the nation’s president.

There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of big 
tunnels in Iran, according to American government 
and private experts, and the lines separating 
their uses can be fuzzy. Companies owned by the 
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran, for 
example, build civilian as well as military tunnels.

For a full appreciation of the folly of this very 
expensive cat and mouse game, where Iran is 
building multiple facilities buried deeper and 
deeper underground, while the US develops larger 
and larger bombs designed to reach ever deeper 
targets, one needs to see just how far away from 
a nuclear weapon Iran’s technology is today 
(caution, 
<http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/02/10/iaea-irans-higher-uranium-enrichment-modest/>FoxNews 
link):

The internal International Atomic Energy Agency 
document was significant in being the first 
glimpse at Iran’s plan to enrich uranium to 20 
percent that did not rely on statements from Iranian officials.

Iran says it wants to enrich only up to that 
grade ­ substantially below the 90 percent plus 
level used in the fissile core of nuclear 
warheads ­ as a part of a plan to fuel its 
research reactor that provides medical isotopes 
to hundreds of thousands of Iranians undergoing cancer treatment.

That report, of only a small amount of uranium 
being enriched to 20% (where Iran’s previous best 
was only 5%), was from February. It’s hard to see 
how that capability is anywhere near the large 
amounts of 90% enrichment needed for weapons. 
With Iran so far away from real nuclear weapon 
development and with the targets so hard to 
discern and destroy, it’s hard to imagine that 
Obama and the military really intend to attack 
now. This movement of bunker busters looks to me 
like just another move in the childish games Iran 
and the US are playing with one another.
********************************************************
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/final-destination-iran-1.1013151


Final destination Iran?

Exclusive: Rob Edwards
<http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/final-destination-iran-1.1013151#have-your-say>
[]
<http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/final-destination-iran-1.1013151#have-your-say>0 
comments

Published on 14 Mar 2010

Hundreds of powerful US “bunker-buster” bombs are 
being shipped from California to the British 
island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in 
preparation for a possible attack on Iran.

The Sunday Herald can reveal that the US 
government signed a contract in January to 
transport 10 ammunition containers to the island. 
According to a cargo manifest from the US navy, 
this included 387 “Blu” bombs used for blasting 
hardened or underground structures.

Experts say that they are being put in place for 
an assault on Iran’s controversial nuclear 
facilities. There has long been speculation that 
the US military is preparing for such an attack, 
should diplomacy fail to persuade Iran not to make nuclear weapons.

Although Diego Garcia is part of the British 
Indian Ocean Territory, it is used by the US as a 
military base under an agreement made in 1971. 
The agreement led to 2,000 native islanders being 
forcibly evicted to the Seychelles and Mauritius.

The Sunday Herald reported in 2007 that stealth 
bomber hangers on the island were being equipped to take bunker-buster bombs.
They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran

Dan Plesch, director, Centre for International 
Studies and Diplomacy, University of London

Although the story was not confirmed at the time, 
the new evidence suggests that it was accurate.

Contract details for the shipment to Diego Garcia 
were posted on an international tenders’ website by the US navy.

A shipping company based in Florida, Superior 
Maritime Services, will be paid $699,500 to carry 
many thousands of military items from Concord, California, to Diego Garcia.

Crucially, the cargo includes 195 smart, guided, 
Blu-110 bombs and 192 massive 2000lb Blu-117 bombs.

“They are gearing up totally for the destruction 
of Iran,” said Dan Plesch, director of the Centre 
for International Studies and Diplomacy at the 
University of London, co-author of a recent study 
on US preparations for an attack on Iran. “US 
bombers are ready today to destroy 10,000 targets 
in Iran in a few hours,” he added.

The preparations were being made by the US 
military, but it would be up to President Obama 
to make the final decision. He may decide that it 
would be better for the US to act instead of Israel, Plesch argued.

“The US is not publicising the scale of these 
preparations to deter Iran, tending to make 
confrontation more likely,” he added. “The US ... 
is using its forces as part of an overall strategy of shaping Iran’s actions.”

According to Ian Davis, director of the new 
independent thinktank, Nato Watch, the shipment 
to Diego Garcia is a major concern. “We would 
urge the US to clarify its intentions for these 
weapons, and the Foreign Office to clarify its 
attitude to the use of Diego Garcia for an attack on Iran,” he said.

For Alan Mackinnon, chair of Scottish CND, the 
revelation was “extremely worrying”. He stated: 
“It is clear that the US government continues to 
beat the drums of war over Iran, most recently in 
the statements of Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

“It is depressingly similar to the rhetoric we 
heard prior to the war in Iraq in 2003.”

The British Ministry of Defence has said in the 
past that the US government would need permission 
to use Diego Garcia for offensive action. It has 
already been used for strikes against Iraq during the 1991 and 2003 Gulf wars.

About 50 British military staff are stationed on 
the island, with more than 3,200 US personnel. 
Part of the Chagos Archipelago, it lies about 
1,000 miles from the southern coasts of India and 
Sri Lanka, well placed for missions to Iran.

The US Department of Defence did not respond to a request for a comment.




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