FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog

Congrats to Bear Flag League member Xrlq on the birth of his son.

Technorati Tags: XRLQ, BearFlagLeague

Cox & Forkum: Militant Message

The Age: Disarming Hezbollah put on hold.

ISRAEL has dropped its demand for the immediate disarming of Hezbollah and begun to focus on persuading UN forces to stop the flow of weapons into Lebanon.Israel accepted that its goals must be realistic and the first step was to prevent Hezbollah from staging cross-border raids or acquiring long-range weapons, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.

“It is not that we have given up on disarming Hezbollah in Lebanon, but we see it as a process and the most important thing is … to prevent their strategic rearmament,” he said.

The UN-brokered ceasefire says international forces must help the Lebanese army disarm militias, but it does not specify whether they should actively remove weapons from Hezbollah fighters.

And what are the U.N.’s plans for disarming Hezbollah? From AP: Israel seeks troops from Muslim nations. (via LGF)

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan stressed Friday it was not the peacekeepers’ task to strip the guerrillas of their weapons, saying that was an issue for Lebanon’s government and “cannot be done by force.”“The troops are not going there to disarm Hezbollah. Let’s be clear about that,” he said.

Meanwhile in Iraq, from AP: Blasts in Iraq kill 31, injure dozens.

This cartoon is a take on Ben Franklin’s “Join, Or Die” cartoon (and not our first).

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage pauses while meeting Russia’s Security Council chief Igor Ivanov in Moscow in this Oct. 28, 2004, file photo. Armitage’s official State Department calendars, provided to The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, show a one-hour meeting marked ‘private appointment’ with Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward on June 13, 2003. The mid-June 2003 meeting occurred the same time the reporter has testified an administration official talked to him about CIA employee Valerie Plame.

Captain Ed has Just A Plame Waste Of Time

Michael Isikoff and David Corn have a new book coming out that reveals the inside details of the leak that allowed Valerie Plame’s identity as a CIA agent to be uncovered. As widely speculated, the leak came from Richard Armitage, Colin Powell’s key deputy, and it came without malicious intent.

Read it all.

Like Flap said before here - this investigation by Patrick Fitzgerald was a waste of time. Now it turns out it was just an ordinary Washington witch hunt.

Tom Maguire has The ‘Hubris’ Of Richard Armitage

Flap asks when will the Scooter Libby prosecution be dropped?

Hopefully soon and the Wilson’s lawsuit?

Please…..

Previous:

CIA Leak Case Watch: Was it Richard Armitage?

CIA Leak Case Watch: Karl Rove Won’t Be Charged in CIA Leak Case

Plamegate Watch: Valerie Plame Cashes IN

CIA Leak Case Watch: Bob Novak - “President Knows Leak Source”

Iran’s army naval forces fire a ground-to-sea missile during a large maneuver in the Sea of Oman, near Jask, southern Iran, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2006.

AP: Iran tests submarine-to-surface missile

Iran test fired a new submarine-to-surface missile during war games in the Persian Gulf on Sunday, a show of military might amid a standoff with the West over its nuclear activities.

A brief video clip showed the long-range missile, called Thaqeb, or Saturn, exiting the water and hitting a target on the water’s surface within less than a mile. The test came as part of large-scale military exercises that began Aug. 19.

“The army successfully test fired a top speed long-range sub-to-surface missile off the Persian Gulf,” the navy commander, Gen. Sajjad Kouchaki, said on state-run television.

Iran in a blatant show of military force is demonstrating their missile prowess in order to scare the world (most notably the Europeans) that Iran WILL PLAY THE “OIL CARD.”

And now Iran adds submarine missiles to attack surface ships - oil tankers or warships.

All of these political and military manuevers are to intimidate the UNSC into delaying economic/trade/travel sanctions after the August 31 deadline for Iran to halt uranium enrichment?

But, the United Security Council will NEVER vote for meaningful sanctions anyway.

Tehran has expressed worry about Israeli threats to destroy its nuclear facilities, which the West contends could be used to make a bomb but which Iran insists are for the peaceful purpose of generating electricity. The Islamic country also is concerned about the U.S. military presence in neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan.

In an advance for Iran’s weapons industry, the Thaqeb is the country’s first missile fired from underwater that flies above the surface to strike its target, adding to the country’s repertoire of weapons that can hit ships in the Gulf.

Iran’s current arsenal includes several types of torpedoes — including the “Hoot,” Farsi for “whale,” which was tested for the first time in April and is capable of moving at some 223 mph, up to four times faster than a normal torpedo.

Kouchaki said the Thaqeb could be fired from any vessel and could escape enemy radar. He said it was built based on domestic know-how, although outside experts say much of the country’s missile technology originated from other countries like Russia and China.

He did not give the weapon’s range. It did not appear capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

During the April war games, Iran also tested a new land-to-sea missile, the Kowsar, with remote-control and searching systems that cannot be scrambled, as well as a high-speed missile boat that skims above the water and is undetectable by radar.

The progress in naval technology has raised concerns in the West that Iran has obtained a greater array of weapons that could hit oil shipments in the Gulf, through which about two-fifths of the world’s oil supplies pass.

When the “POINT OF NO RETURN” is reached the United States and Israel will ACT against Iran’s nuclear targets regardless of Iran’s display of force. Will world oil supplies be disrupted?

Probably

Is it a price to pay to assure Iran’s mullahs NOT obtain nuclear weapons?

YOU BET……

Stay tuned……

Previous:

Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Launches a New Phase in the Arak Heavy-Water Reactor Project

Iran Nuclear Watch: Russia Rejects United Nations Sanctions Against Iran

Iran Nuclear Watch: Israel Sending a “CLEAR” Message to Iran

The Iran Nuclear Files

The Natanz uranium enrichment complex in Natanz is pictured in this January 2, 2006 satellite image.

Day by Day by Chris Muir