Iran says it recorded video of US aircraft carrier

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An Iranian surveillance plane has recorded video and photographed a U.S. aircraft carrier during Iran’s ongoing navy drill near a strategic waterway in the Persian Gulf, the official IRNA news agency reported on Thursday.

The report did not provide details and it was unclear what information the Iranian military could glean from such footage. But the announcement is an indication Iran is seeking to cast its navy as having a powerful role in the region’s waters.

IRNA quoted Iran’s navy chief, Adm. Habibollah Sayyari, as saying the action shows that Iran has “control over the moves by foreign forces” in the area where Tehran is holding a 10-day military exercise.

“An Iranian vessel and surveillance plane have tracked, filmed and photographed a U.S. aircraft carrier as it was entering the Gulf of Oman from the Persian Gulf,” Sayyari said.

He added that the “foreign fleet will be warned by Iranian forces if it enters the area of the drill.”

State TV showed what appeared to be the reported video, but it was not possible to make out the details of the carrier because the footage was filmed from far away.

The Iranian exercise is taking place in international waters near the Strait of Hormuz — the passageway for one-sixth of the world’s oil supply.

Beyond it lie vast bodies of water, including the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet is also active in the area, as are warships of several other countries that patrol for pirates there.

Lt. Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the U.S. 5th Fleet, said the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis and guided-missile cruiser USS Mobile Bay headed out from the Gulf and through the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, after a visit to Dubai’s Jebel Ali port.

She described the passage through the strait as “a pre-planned, routine transit” for the carrier, which is providing air support from the north Arabian Sea to troops in Afghanistan.

Rebarich did not directly address Iranian claims of possessing the reported footage but said the 5th Fleet’s “interaction with the regular Iranian Navy continues to be within the standards of maritime practice, well known, routine and professional.”

Thursday’s report follows U.S. warnings over Iranian threats to choke off traffic through the Strait of Hormuz if Washington imposes sanctions targeting Iran’s crude exports. On Wednesday, Rebarich said the Navy was “always ready to counter malevolent actions to ensure freedom of navigation.”

Gen. Hossein Salami, the acting commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard rejected the warning.

“The U.S. is not in a position” to affect Iran’s decisions, Salami told the semi-official Fars news agency Thursday. “Iran does not ask permission to implement its own defensive strategies.”

U.S. Navy won’t tolerate ‘disruption’ through Strait of Hormuz

(CNN) — The U.S. Navy said Iran‘s threat to block the strategically and economically important Strait of Hormuz is unacceptable.

“The free flow of goods and services through the Strait of Hormuz is vital to regional and global prosperity,” Navy 5th Fleet in Bahrain spokeswoman Cmdr. Amy Derrick Frost told reporters on Wednesday.

“Anyone who threatens to disrupt freedom of navigation in an international strait is clearly outside the community of nations; any disruption will not be tolerated.

Iran’s vice president has warned that the country could block the strait if sanctions are imposed on its exports of crude oil. France, Britain and Germany have proposed sanctions to punish Iran’s lack of cooperation on its nuclear program.

The 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain, and Frost noted that the Navy “maintains a robust presence in the region to deter or counter destabilizing activities.”

“We conduct maritime security operations under international maritime conventions to ensure security and safety in international waters for all commercial shipping to operate freely while transiting the region,” she said.

Asked whether the fleet would be able to keep the strait open if Iran moved to close it, she said, “The U.S. Navy is a flexible, multi-capable force committed to regional security and stability, always ready to counter malevolent actions to ensure freedom of navigation.”

Frost was also asked whether keeping the strait open is part of the fleet’s mandate.

She said it is “committed to protecting maritime freedoms that are the basis for global prosperity. This is one of the main reasons our military forces operate in the region.

“The U.S. Navy, along with our coalition and regional partners, operates under international maritime conventions to maintain a constant state of high vigilance in order to ensure the continued, safe flow of maritime traffic in waterways critical to global commerce.”

The French Foreign Ministry stressed that the waterway is an international strait.

“In consequence, all ships, whatever their flag, enjoy the right of passage in transit, in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, adopted in 1982, and with the customary international maritime law,” the ministry said.

Iran is holding a 10-day military exercise in an area from the eastern part of the strait out into the Arabian Sea. Western diplomats describe the maneuvers as further evidence of Iran’s volatile behavior.

Related articles

• Iran Threatens to Close the Strait of Hormuz (awake2now.wordpress.com)
• U.S. Navy won’t tolerate ‘disruption’ through Strait of Hormuz (cnn.com)
• US Navy won’t allow Iran to close strait: report (marketwatch.com)
• U.S. Warns Iran Not to Disrupt Strait of Hormuz Oil Route – Fox News (foxnews.com)

IRAN THREATENS TO CLOSE THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ

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(Reuters) – Iranthreatened on Tuesday to stop the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz if foreign sanctions were imposed on its crude exports over its nuclear ambitions, a move that could trigger military conflict with economies dependent on Gulf oil.

Western tensions with Iran have increased since a November 8 report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog saying Tehran appears to have worked on designing an atomic bomb and may still be pursuing research to that end. Iran strongly denies this and says it is developing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Iran has defiantly expanded nuclear activity despite four rounds of U.N. sanctions meted out since 2006 over its refusal to suspend sensitive uranium enrichment and open up to U.N. nuclear inspectors and investigators.

Many diplomats and analysts believe only sanctions targeting Iran’s lifeblood oil sector might be painful enough to make it change course, but Russia and China – big trade partners of Tehran – have blocked such a move at the United Nations.

Iran’s warning on Tuesday came three weeks after EU foreign ministers decided to tighten sanctions over the U.N. watchdog report and laid out plans for a possible embargo of oil from the world’s No. 5 crude exporter.

“If they (the West) impose sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, then even one drop of oil cannot flow from the Strait of Hormuz,” the official Iranian news agency IRNA quoted Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi as saying.

Rahimi’s remarks coincided with a 10-day Iranian naval exercise in the Strait and nearby waters, a show of military force that began on Saturday and coincides with the heightened Western pressure on Tehran.

“Our enemies will give up on their plots against Iran only if we give them a firm and strong lesson,” Rahimi said.

JANUARY MEETING

EU ministers said on December 1 that a decision on further sanctions would be taken no later than their January meeting but left open the idea of an embargo on Iranian oil.

Countries in the 27-member European Union take 450,000 barrels per day of Iranian oil, about 18 percent of the Islamic Republic’s exports, much of which go to China and India. EU officials declined to comment on Tuesday.

About a third of all sea-borne oil was shipped through the Strait of Hormuz in 2009, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), and U.S. warships patrol the area to ensure safe passage.

Most of the crude exported from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq – together with nearly all the liquefied natural gas from lead exporter Qatar – must slip through the Strait of Hormuz, a 4-mile wide shipping channel between Oman and Iran.

Iran has also hinted it could hit Israel and U.S. interests in the Gulf in response to any military strike on its nuclear installations – a last resort option hinted at by Washington and the Jewish state.

However, some analysts say Iran would think hard about sealing off the Strait since it could suffer just as much economically as Western crude importers, and could kindle war with militarily superior big powers.

“To me, if Iran did that it would be a suicidal act by the regime. Even its friends would be its enemies,” said Phil Flynn, analyst at PFG Best Research in Chicago.

SAUDI REPLACEMENT?

Industry sources said on Tuesday No. 1 oil exporter Saudi Arabia and other Gulf OPEC states were ready to replace Iranian oil if further sanctions halt Iranian crude exports to Europe.

Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi had said that Saudi Arabia had promised not to replace Iranian crude if sanctions were imposed.

“No promise was made to Iran, its very unlikely that Saudi Arabia would not fill a demand gap if sanctions are placed,” an industry source familiar with the matter said.

Gulf delegates from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said an Iranian threat to close the Strait of Hormuz would harm Tehran as well as the major regional producers that also use the world’s most vital oil export channel.

Oil prices spiked on Tuesday, fuelled by fears of supply disruptions and Iranian naval exercises in a crucial oil shipping route, with gains capped by simmering euro zone debt concerns.

Crude oil futures jumped nearly a dollar to over $109 a barrel after the Iranian threat, but a Gulf OPEC delegate said the effect could be temporary. “For now, any move in the oil price is short-term, as I don’t see Iran actually going ahead with the threat,” the delegate told Reuters.

The industry source said that in the case of EU sanctions, Iran would most likely export more of its crude to Asia, while Gulf states would divert their exports to Europe to fill the gap until the market is balanced again.

A prominent analyst said that if Iran did manage to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, the ensuing spike in oil prices could wreck the global economy, so the United States was likely to intervene to foil such a blockade in the first place.

“First, the U.S. will probably not allow Iran to close the Strait. That’s a major economic thoroughfare and not just for oil. You shut that Strait and we are talking a major hit on many Middle East economies,” said Carl Larry, president of Oil Outlooks in New York.

“Second, there is no way that the Saudis (alone) have enough oil or quality of oil to replace Iranian crude. Figure Saudi spare capacity is 2 to 4 million at best. Of that spare, about 1-2 million is real oil that is comparable out of Iran. Lose Iran, lose 3.5 million barrels per day of imports. No way.”

French President Nicolas Sarkozy proposed hitting Iran with an oil embargo and won support from Britain, but resistance to the idea persists within and outside the European Union.

An import ban might raise global oil prices during hard economic times and debt-strapped Greece has been relying on attractively financed Iranian oil.

Iran’s seaborne trade is already suffering from existing trade sanctions, with shipping companies scaling down or pulling out as the Islamic Republic faces more hurdles in transporting its oil.

(Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Tehran, Dmitry Zhdannikov in London, Robert Gibbons and Janet McGurty in New York, Amena Bakr in Dubai; Writing by Mark Heinrich; Editing by Jon Boyle and Alison Williams)

IRAN’S NAVY TO HOLD WAR GAMES IN THE GULF OF OMAN RIGHT NEXT TO THE U.S. FIFTH FLEET

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The Iranian military said its navy would stage 10 days of exercises in the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, near major oil shipping lanes patrolled by the United States Fifth Fleet.

Recent economic sanctions combined with other economic issues have cut the value of its currency sharply, nearly half. In response Iran had made statements regarding the effect this might have on oil prices, forecasting that it could potentially double the price per barrel. In recent weeks the potential effects were seen when it was announced that Iran would practice sealing off the Strait which sent prices, you guessed it, up. Thursday Iran also announced that it will begin 10-days of war games. The move, which increases the risk of military confrontation with the United States, has the potential to temporarily choke off oil exports from the Middle East, drive up international energy prices and damage the global economy.

Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, head of Iran’s navy, said submarines, destroyers, missile-launching ships and attack boats will occupy a 2,000-kilometre stretch of sea from the Strait of Hormuz, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, to the Gulf of Aden, near the entrance to the Red Sea.

“Iran’s military and Revolutionary Guards can close the Strait of Hormuz. But such a decision should be made by top establishment leaders,” he said.

Related articles

• Iran’s Navy to Hold Drill in International Waters (foxnews.com)
• Iranian Official Threatens Military Drill Sealing Off the Strait of Hormuz (foxnews.com)
• Oil prices in spotlight as Iran plans naval exercises (business.financialpost.com)
• From Peter Goodspeed: Iran’s currency collapse prompts fear of oil blockade (fullcomment.nationalpost.com)

WWIII?: 69 PATRIOT MISSLES STOPPED EN ROUTE TO CHINA

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HELSINKI – Finnish authorities have detained two Ukrainians over 69 surface-to-air Patriot missiles found on board a ship that docked in Finland en route to China, customs officials said Thursday.

“The ship’s captain and the first mate have been detained,” the head of the Finnish customs anti-crime unit, Petri Lounatmaa, told AFP.

Finnish customs are investigating the case as one of illegal export of defence material.

The missiles, produced by U.S. firm Raytheon, were discovered following a customs search on the British-registered Thor Liberty, owned by Danish firm Thorco, at the Finnish port of Kotka about 120 kilometres (75 miles) from Helsinki.

AFP/Getty Images/Files

U.S.-made Patriot missile

It is not known where the missiles came from, but Finnish police and customs investigators were working on finding leads in Germany, where the ship was loaded before heading to Finland.

Lounatmaa declined to provide further information on discussions with German officials.

“We have received intelligence information, but we first need official confirmation,” he explained.

According to regional German television NDR citing a customs source, the cargo is a legal shipment destined for South Korea.

Finnish police said Wednesday the ship’s destination was the Chinese port of Shanghai.

Lounatmaa said the Thor Liberty’s first officers and crew of about 30 were all Ukrainians, and that interrogations were under way.

He said investigators would be looking more closely into the intended destination of the vessel and its cargo, which also included propellant charges for the missiles, and 150 tons of explosives.

Port officials have relocated the vessel to a separate berth at the Kotka port.

Finnish customs have confiscated the missiles, and “the Finnish military are taking care of their transportation and storage,” Lounatmaa said.

Finnish law requires permission from defence officials to move such material across the country’s borders.

Related articles

• Finns stop ‘Patriot missile’ ship (bbc.co.uk)
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• Finnish police find Patriot missiles in cargo (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Finnish Police Find Patriot Missiles in Cargo (abcnews.go.com)

Asian stock markets lower amid news of Kim Jong Il death, worries about Europe debt crisis

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Kim Jong Il, the diminutive North Korean dictator whose provocations and brinkmanship confounded three U.S. presidents and raised tension across northeast Asia, has died. He was 69.

• KNS via, AFP/Getty ImagesRevered by military: North Korea’s Kim Jong Il inspects a unit of Korean People’s Army in North Korea in this photo released Nov. 2.

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KNS via, AFP/Getty Images

Revered by military: North Korea’s Kim Jong Il inspects a unit of Korean People’s Army in North Korea in this photo released Nov. 2.

 

Kim’s death was announced today by state television from the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, the Associated Press said.

Kim is believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008 but appeared relatively vigorous in photos and video from recent trips to China and Russia and in numerous trips around the country carefully documented by state media.

His death raises the specter of political chaos in a nuclear-armed hermit country. In September 2010, Kim Jong Il unveiled his third son, Kim Jong Un, as his successor, putting him in high-ranking posts. But it is unclear whether the Swiss-educated, Jong Un, 27, has the skills to stay in power or keep the fragile country from collapse.

Kim Jong Il ruled North Korea with an iron fist for 17 years. No one expected him to last long when he succeeded his father in 1994. The pudgy 5-foot-3 Kim — who favored pompadours and beige jumpsuits — did not cut an imposing figure, and he took power at a treacherous time. The Soviet Union had crumbled three years earlier, depriving North Korea of its closest communist ally and most generous economic benefactor.

The North Korean economy imploded in the 1990s, shrinking nearly 4% a year from 1990 to 1998 and falling far behind rival and one-time peer South Korea. Famine killed as many as 1 million North Koreans from 1995 to 2000. Yet Kim managed to hang on to power, ruthlessly repressing internal dissent with executions and a brutal prison system that holds hundreds of thousands of political prisoners, including children, according to Human Rights Watch.

Kim kept his generals happy by handing them 25% of his country’s budget under a policy of “Military First” that ignored the needs of his hungry, impoverished people. Still, he rallied the public by presenting North Korea as a racially pure state besieged by evil and repulsive foreigners, especially the Americans who kept thousands of troops garrisoned across the Demilitarized Zone in South Korea.

Kim developed a nuclear program — with tests in 2006 and 2009 — that was used as a potential threat to extort aid from his enemies and stoke a xenophobic local pride that kept his people unified and loyal during a period of intense hardship. His brinkmanship with nuclear and missile tests made North Korea a player to be reckoned with — even though it ranks only a pitiful No. 189 in world economic output per capita.

According to North Korean mythology, Kim was born on sacred Mount Paektu in an event marked by the auspicious appearance of a double rainbow and a special star shining in the heavens. In fact, he was likely born in the Russian Far East, according to Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader, a history of North Korea’s leaders by journalist Bradley K. Martin.

Kim Jong Il’s father, Kim Il Sung, had led a communist guerrilla force fighting the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula. After World War II, the Soviet-backed Kim Il Sung became North Korea’s leader.

Kim Jong Il’s mother died when he was 7. He worked hard to please his father, even taste-testing his food for poison. He helped purge veteran communists.

The efforts to ingratiate himself worked, allowing Kim Jong Il to outmaneuver a stepmother plotting to put her own son in line to take power.

NORTH KOREAN LEADER KIM JONG IL DIES

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By The Associated Press and Reuters

SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Jong Il, North Korea‘s mercurial and enigmatic leader, has died. He was 69.

A state television presenter made the announcement Monday, saying that the leader died Saturday on a train trip, Reuters reported. The announcer said he had died of physical and mental over-work on his way to give “field guidance.”

Kim is believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008 but appeared relatively vigorous in photos and video from recent trips to China and Russia and in numerous trips around the country carefully documented by state media.

The leader, reputed to have had a taste for cigars, cognac and gourmet cuisine, was believed to have had diabetes and heart disease.

The news came as North Korea prepared for a hereditary succession. Kim Jong Il inherited power after his father, revered North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, died in 1994.

In September 2010, Kim Jong Il unveiled his third son, the twenty-something Kim Jong Un, as his successor, putting him in high-ranking posts.

NDAA BILL AIMS TO SUPPRESS INTERNET FREEDOMS

NDAA Bll Aims To suppress Internet Freedoms

The bill Contains language that would effectively allow pentagon to wage cyber war.With the

authority to label certain people as belligerent or as terrorist, it will no doubt be tested in

the realm of web journalism.The bill also posses threat to Occupy Wall Street protesters as well

as Tea Party activist and  the development of any hardline third party, or ultra conservative or

liberal third party as the vague nature of the language will easily allow for them to classified

belligerent or in support of terrorist.

to demonstrate the direction they intend to go, heres an excerpt from the bill”Congress affirms

that the Department of Defense has the capability, and upon direction by the President may

conduct offensive operations in cyberspace to defend our Nation, Allies and interests, subject

to (1) the policy principles and legal regimes that the Department follows for kinetic

capabilities, including the law of armed conflict; and (2) the War Powers Resolution.”

662 billion dollars is allocated towards military operations funding, including Iraq, Afghanistan

and more likely Syria and eventually Iran.But a fair amount of language about detention of

citizens deemed supportive to terrorist or belligerent is included.There is also some language

referencing sanction protocol in relation to Iran.

It seems that the pentagon is worried about cyber threats with the implementation of the new

smart grid.However, the Pentagon believes that “non-state actors increasingly threaten to

penetrate and disrupt DOD networks and systems.” To address this cyber threat, the Pentagon

released a plan declaring the Internet a “domain of war,” claiming how hostile groups “are

working to exploit DOD unclassified and classified networks, and some foreign intelligence

organizations have already acquired the capacity to disrupt elements of DOD’s information

infrastructure.”

“The U.S. is vulnerable to sabotage in defense, power, telecommunications, banking,” said Sami

Saydjari, a former Pentagon cyber expert. “An attack on any one of those essential

infrastructures could be as damaging as any kinetic attack on U.S. soil.”

“If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks,”

said one Pentagon official, prior to releasing its cybersecurity plan.

In other words, the Pentagon is afraid that with the Internet’s capability to disseminate

information instantly, the spread of information or ideas “not consistent with U.S. government

themes and messages” could be too powerful and dangerous to national security

Syria Coverage Update: BBC Reporter was detained & Prevented from Covering US-NATO- Syrian Operations in Turkey!

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Syria Coverage Update: BBC Reporter was detained & Prevented from Covering US-NATO- Syrian Operations in Turkey!.

RUSSIAN WARSHIPS TO DOCK AT THEIR TARTUS BASE IN SYRIA BUT NOT BEFORE ACHORING OFF COAST OF SCOTLAND IN A SHOW OF INTIMIDATION

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Russian aircraft carrier ‘fly-tipping’ off Moray Firth

 Royal Navy destroyer HMS York shadows aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov

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“Whilst Scotland welcomes all nations to its seas, it is important they observe international conventions.”

The Admiral Kuznetsov was headed for Syria when it and other vessels sought shelter in “deteriorating weather”, according Russian military news agency Interfax-AVN.

The Royal Navy and Ministry of Defence (MoD) have released images of HMS York close to the carrier.

In a statement, the MoD said: “The 65,000 ton carrier, with other warships and support vessels, is thought to be en route to the Mediterranean on exercise.

“The aircraft carrier anchored outside British territorial waters some 30 miles off the Moray Firth where she was thought to have taken advantage of the relative shelter to avoid the worst of current bad weather in the North Sea.”

Other Russian ships that sought shelter in the Moray Firth included the anti-submarine warfare ship Admiral Chabanenko and escort ship Yaroslav Mudryy, according to Interfax-AVN.

Flotilla of warships

Meanwhile, a report said Monday that Russia will send a flotilla of warships led by its only aircraft carrier to its naval base in Syria for a port call next year amid tensions with the West over the Syrian crisis.

The ships, headed by the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, will dock at the little-utilized Russian base in the Syrian port of Tartus in spring 2012, the Izvestia daily said, quoting the Russian navy.

The Tartus base, a strategic asset for Moscow dating back to Soviet times, is rarely used by Russian vessels and currently no Russian ship is based there although civilian and military personnel are present.

A naval spokesman confirmed the plan to send the ships but insisted it had nothing to do with the deadly violence in Syria between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and the opposition.

“The call of the Russian ships in Tartus should not be seen as a gesture towards what is going on in Syria,” the spokesman told the paper, adding the Admiral Kuznetsov would also visit Beirut, Genoa and Cyprus.

“This was planned already in 2010 when there were no such events there. There has been active preparation and there is no need to cancel this,” added the spokesman.

Russia and the West have become deeply split over the situation in Syria, with Moscow insisting that sanctions and pressure against the Assad regime is not the way to solve the crisis.

Izvestia said the Admiral Kuznetsov – Russia’s only operational aircraft carrier — would head down from the Russian Far North in December, keeping west of Europe and heading into the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar. It would also carry around a dozen aircraft.

It said the Admiral Kuznetsov would not be able to dock in Tartus itself due to the size of the vessel but anchor outside and be supplied by the smaller ships accompanying it. The ship has visited Tartus before in 1995 and 2007.

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• Russian warships park 30 miles off Britain to shelter from storm (telegraph.co.uk)
• Russia Sends Show Of Support To Syria (news.sky.com)
• Russia sent military ships to base in Syria (mysatelite.wordpress.com)
• Syria: France says ‘days are numbered’ for Bashar al-Assad’s regime (telegraph.co.uk)
• Russia sent military ships to base in Syria – English pravda.ru (livingstrongandhappy.blogspot.com)
• Raising the stakes: Russian aircraft carrier heads for Syria (rt.com)