the opinionist

Russian News & Information Agency (RIA Novosti) - a state run media outlet - published a report last week in which retired Russian General [Leonid] Ivashov proposes a detailed report on U.S. plans to strike Iran on Friday April 6.

General Ivashov was the Chief of Staff of the Russian armed forces during the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the U.S. and is now the vice-president of the Academy of geopolitical affairs in Moscow.

He has written many pro-Iran, anti-American diatribes for the Canada-based ‘Center for Research on Globalisation‘ (CRG), a notoriously radicalized anti-American online media platform for and by ‘writers, scholars and activists’.

It needs to be stated upfront that General Ivashov has, over the years, made many wide and conspiratorial statements about the U.S., 9/11, pro-Milosevic speeches, and so on and so forth.

The RIA-Novosti article (originally in French) [link] has been Google-translated as follows:

The Russian military experts estimate that the planning of the American military attack against Iran passed the point of nonreturn on February 20, when the director of the IAEA, Mohammed El Baradei, recognized, in his report/ratio, the incapacity of the Agency “to confirm the peaceful character of the nuclear program of Iran”. According to the Russian weekly magazine Argoumenty nedeli, a military action will proceed during the first week of April, before Easter catholic and orthodoxe (this year they are celebrated the 8), when the “Western opinion” is on leave. It may be also that Iran is struck on Friday 6 public holiday in the Moslem countries. According to the American diagram, it will be a striking of only one day which will last 12 hours, 4 hours of morning at 16 o’clock in afternoon. The code name of the operation is to date “English Cock” (Bite). A score of Iranian installations should be touched. With their number, centrifugal machines of uranium enrichment, centers of studies and laboratories. But the first block of the nuclear thermal power station of Bouchehr will not be touched. On the other hand, the Americans will neutralize the DCA, will run several Iranian buildings of war in the Gulf and will destroy the stations - keys of command of the armed forces. As many measurements which should remove in Teheran any capacity to counteract. Iran projected to run several tankers in the strait of Ormuz with an aim of cutting the provisioning of the international markets of oil and of striking with the Israel missile. The analysts affirm that strike them American will be launched from the island of Diego-Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, from where will take off of the bombers with long operating range B-52 with on their board cruise missiles; by the embarked aviation of the American aircraft carriers deployed in the Gulf and belonging to the 6th American Fleet in the Mediterranean; cruise missiles will be also drawn since the submarines concentrated in the Pacific and off Arabia. Result, the Iranian nuclear program will be rejected several years behind. In private talks, American Generals suppose that the times of deployment of American anti-missile defense in Europe can be deferred to later. Another event envisaged, the oil barrel could fly away to 75-80 dollars and this for one prolonged period. Meanwhile, the new resolution on Iran and whose project was adopted by the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany should be voted with CS as of this week. The text envisages sanctions against 10 Iranian public companies and to three companies concerned with the Body of the guards of the Islamic revolution, unit of elite to the orders of the spiritual leader of the Islamic Republic, the ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Sanctions are also envisaged against 15 physical people: eight leaders placed high of companies of State and seven characters - keys with the Body of the guards of the Islamic revolution.

RIA-Novosti has also reported, in recent days, of a U.S. military build up on the Iranian border with Iraq. Again, much of this information is either conjecture, wild speculation or a generous spin on public domain news reports.

Much of the General’s information is simply regurgitated to provide some air of authority and resonance for an eager audience. I suppose we’ll have to either hold our breath a little longer or keep digging.

R

Posted on March 29th, 2007 under Ahmadinejad, British Sailors, Iran, Iraq, Russia, U.S. •  Email This Post • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback