CIA spies captured in Iran and Lebanon

'I don't think we'll ever see them again:' More than a dozen CIA spies captured in Iran and Lebanon 'feared executed'

• It's a blow to U.S. attempts to track Iran and Hezbollah
• Officials warn of problems from sloppy CIA operations
• Others say it's unlikely any found CIA agents survived

By Mark Duell
Last updated at 3:35 PM on 21st November 2011

More than a dozen CIA spies have reportedly been caught in Iran and Lebanon and the U.S. government now fears they have been executed.
The spies were paid informants who were targeting Iran - which is feared to be producing nuclear weapons - and the Hezbollah group in Beirut.
Their discovery is a big hindrance to U.S. attempts to track Iran’s nuclear activities and discover if Hezbollah is plotting any attacks against Israel.

Capture: Hezbollah's longtime leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah boasted in June he had rooted out at least two CIA spies who had infiltrated his group's ranks

‘Espionage is a risky business,’ a U.S. official told ABC News. ‘Many risks lead to wins but some result in occasional setbacks.’
Former senior CIA officer Robert Baer worked against Hezbollah in the 1980s and said the group will often execute those it believes to be spies.

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‘If they were genuine spies, spying against Hezbollah, I don't think we'll ever see them again,’ Mr Baer told ABC News.
Other officials pointed out Hezbollah killed more Americans than any other terrorist organisation before the 9/11 attacks.
In 1983 more than 300 people - including 260 Americans - were killed in an attack on the U.S. embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut.

Past explosions: In 1983 more than 300 people - including 260 Americans - were killed in an attack on the U.S. embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut

CIA IN IRAN AND LEBANON

Hezbollah and Iran are among the CIA's toughest adversaries and have been improving their ability to hunt spies by relying on patience and guile to exploit holes.
The number of CIA agents in Iran and Lebanon countries is classified - but Iran claimed in May it arrested at least 30 people allegedly linked to a CIA-run spy network.
Hezbollah - backed by Iran - has built a professional counter-intelligence operation they proudly describe as the 'spy combat unit'.
But the U.S. has had no diplomatic presence in Iran for 30 years and this makes the CIA's job of finding out what is happening on the ground all the more important.

Some officials speaking to ABC News credited Iran and Hezbollah with their detection of spies, but others blamed sloppy CIA operations.
One case came when two Hezbollah agents pretended to work for the U.S. and the group found out where CIA officers were meeting with agents.
Two former officials told ABC News the CIA used the code-word ‘Pizza’ and the location was a Beirut Pizza Hut - but a current official denied this.
Hezbollah's longtime leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah boasted in June he had rooted out at least two CIA spies who had infiltrated his group’s ranks.
The damage to the Lebanon spy network has been greater than usual and the crisis is the latest mishap involving CIA counterintelligence.

Spying: The discovery of the agents is a big hindrance to U.S. attempts to track the nuclear activities of Iran and its president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Two years ago a suicide bomber posed as an informant and killed seven CIA employees and wounded six others in Afghanistan in December 2009.

'It all depends on who these guys were and what they have to say. Hezbollah has disappeared people before. Others they have kept around'
Matthew Levitt

The U.S. State Department last year described Hezbollah as ‘the most technically capable terrorist group in the world’.
Matthew Levitt, an intelligence expert and author at the Washington Institute for Near East Studies, said Hezbollah treats spies differently.
He said: ‘It all depends on who these guys were and what they have to say. Hezbollah has disappeared people before. Others they have kept around.’


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2064286/CIA-spies-captured-Iran-Lebanon-Hezbollah-feared-executed.html#ixzz1eMHYqeWq

Update on WW3

Obama seeks backup from Russia and China over Iran nuclear bomb threat... as Israel says it won't warn U.S. ahead of strikes

• U.S. Presidential candidates liken President Obama's handling of Iran to Iraq
• Romney says Obama's re-election will give Iran a nuclear weapon
• Perry says foreign aid will start at 'zero dollars' if elected for international pressure

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 4:37 PM on 13th November 2011

Searching for help, President Barack Obama lobbied the skeptical leaders of Russia and China on Saturday for support in keeping Iran from becoming a nuclear-armed menace to the world, hoping to yield a 'common response' to a crisis that is testing international unity.
Yet Obama's talk of solidarity with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao was not publicly echoed by either man as Iran moved anew to the fore of the international stage -- and to the front of the fierce U.S. presidential race.
Obama, at home in Hawaii and holding forth on a world stage, also sought to show aggressiveness in fixing an economy that has weakened his standing with voters.

Agreement: Speaking to reporters Saturday, President Obama (right) said he and Russian President Medvedev (left) plan to 'shape a common response' to possible Iranian nuclear weapons

He pushed Hu about American impatience with China's economic policy, touted the makings of a new pacific trade zone and showered attention on the lucrative Asia-Pacific export market.
The United States' vast worries about Iran grew starker with a report this week by the U.N. atomic agency that asserted in the strongest terms yet Iran is conducting secret work with the sole intent of developing nuclear arms.
The U.S. claims a nuclear-armed Iran could set off an arms race among rival states and directly threaten Israel.

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Last month Israel informed Obama of no guarantees a strike against Iran would be notified in advance to the U.S., suggesting the country feels it no longer needs Washington's permission, a source briefed on the meeting told the Telegraph.

'They did not suggest that military action was being planned or was imminent, but neither did they give any assurances that Israel would first seek Washington's permission, or even inform the White House in advance that a mission was underway,' a source told the Telegraph.

The Israeli decision shows a dampening confidence in a diplomatic solution by the state, as Russia and China remain a roadblock to the United States in its push to tighten international sanctions on Iran.

Pressed efforts: Despite President Obama's push (right) for Russian President Medvedev (left) to tighten control of Iran, both Russia and China has shown no sign of interest

Both are veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council and have shown no sign the new report will change their stand.
With Medvedev on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit here, Obama said the two 'reaffirmed our intention to work to shape a common response' on Iran.
Shortly after, Obama joined Hu, in a run of back-to-back diplomacy with the heads of two allies that hold complicated and at times divisive relations with the United States. Obama said that he and the Chinese leader want to ensure that Iran abides by 'international rules and norms.'
Obama's comments were broad enough to portray a united front without yielding any clear indication of progress.
Medvedev, for his part, was largely silent on Iran during his remarks, merely acknowledging that the subject was discussed. Hu did not mention Iran at all.

Iranian operations: A nuclear power plant in Iran is eyed in a report released Friday by the International Atomic Energy Agency that raises concern about Iran's nuclear program

Fabrication: Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (center) claims a report released Friday on their nuclear program is fabricated but international concerns grow as the country warns nearby Israel of mass retaliation to any military attacks

White House aides insisted later that Russia and China remain unified with the United States and other allies in preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, and that Obama, Hu and Medvedev had agreed to work on the next steps.
Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said the new allegations about Iran's programs demand an international response, and 'I think the Russians and the Chinese understand that. We're going to be working with them to formulate that response.'
As the president held forth on the world stage in his home state, Republicans vying to compete against Obama for the presidency unleashed withering criticism in a 'Commander-in-Chief Debate' held in South Carolina.

On the defense: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center) addressed the IAEA report in a cabinet meeting saying it strengthens claims that Iran is developing nuclear weapons

It was a rare moment in which foreign policy garnered attention in a campaign dominated by the flagging U.S. economy.
'If we re-elect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon. And if you elect Mitt Romney, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,' said Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor.

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann warned that Iran's attempt to develop a nuclear weapon is setting the table 'for worldwide nuclear war against Israel.'

In competing plans by the presidential candidates, Rival Herman Cain says he would not use military action but says he would move warships to the region to deter Iran.

Instead, Mr Cain says he would prefer to aid the resistance to Tehran to overthrow the regime.

Candidates' debate: The 'Commander-in-Chief Debate' Saturday was the first foreign policy debate by the U.S. GOP candidates

Iraq: Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul likened the U.S.' handling of Iran to 'the war propaganda that went on against Iraq.'

And rival Ron Paul, a congressman from Texas, says any use of force against Iran would require approval from Congress, adding,
'I'm afraid what's going on right now is similar to the war propaganda that went on against Iraq.'
Iran has insisted its nuclear work is in the peaceful pursuit of energy and research, not weaponry.

U.S. officials have said the report by the International Atomic Energy Agency was unlikely to persuade China and Russia to support tougher sanctions on the Iranian government.
But led by Obama, the administration is still trying to mount pressure on Iran, both through the United Nations and its own, for fear of what may come should Iran proceed undeterred.

Financial pressure: Texas Governor Rick Perry suggested a form of pressure to foreign countries would be scrapping their foreign aid to zero dollars and negotiating up from there

In a suggested form of pressure by Mr Perry at Saturday's debate, he proposed a cut to foreign aid to send 'a clear message to every country.'
'...the foreign aid budget in my administration for every country is gonna start at zero dollars. Zero dollars. And then we'll have a conversation,' Mr Perry said.
More broadly, Obama sought Saturday to position the United States as a Pacific power, creating more American jobs by tapping the explosive potential of the Asia-Pacific.
For businesses, he said, 'this is where the action's going to be.'

'There is no region in the world that we consider more vital than the Asia-Pacific region,' he told chief executives gathered for a regional economic summit.
The president went so far as to saying the United States had grown 'a little bit lazy' in trying to attract business to the United States.
Obama's aides said he was blunt with Hu in expressing concern about China's undervalued currency, which keeps its exports cheaper and U.S. exports to China more expensive.

Deputy National Security Adviser Mike Froman said Obama made it clear that Americans are growing 'increasingly impatient and frustrated' with the state of change in China economic policy.

Economy: President Obama and wife Michelle greet Chinese President Hu Jintao and his wife Liu Yongqing (left) ahead of the APEC summit leaders' dinner before discussing the U.S' desire for the Chinese currency to be permitted to rise

China had a $273 billion trade surplus with the U.S. last year and U.S. lawmakers say the imbalance hurts American manufacturers and taken away American jobs.
Underscoring the search for some good economic news ahead heading toward a re-election vote, Obama announced the broad outlines of an agreement to create a transpacific trade zone encompassing the United States and eight other nations.
He said details must still be worked out, but said the goal was to complete the deal by next year.
'The United States is a Pacific power and we're here to stay,' Obama said.

The eight countries joining the U.S. in the zone would be Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

Obama also spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda about Japan's interest in joining the trade bloc.

Free trade: Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda (left) told President Obama Saturday of Tokyo's desire to negotiate a Pacific free trade area with the U.S.

In a sign of potential tension with China, Froman shrugged off complaints from China that it had not been invited to join the trade bloc.
He told reporters that China had not expressed interest in joining and said the trade group 'is not something that one gets invited to. It's something that one aspires to.'
Addressing the European debt crisis, Obama said he welcomed the new governments being formed in Greece and Italy, saying they should help calm world financial markets.
Obama's ever increasing attention to the Asia-Pacific is driven in part by Europe's own financial woes and the U.S. need to get more aggressive in tapping its export options.
Obama will be in Honolulu through Tuesday, when he leaves for Australia before ending his trip in Indonesia.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2060971/Iran-nuclear-bomb-threat-Obama-seeks-backup-Russia-China.html#ixzz1de3GAixS

Washington Post is catching up with me. First on the WW3 Issue.

This video was just released on Washington Post online . This Video below was floating on YOUTUBE since September 23,2011. Meanwhile people are shouting Israel is going to start WW3 . Israel is going to do the job this Muslim President Obama wont do . That is to save the lives of millions of Americans and Europeans. If the Muslims want to kill themselves and their children in a nuclear blast they should do it to themselves , But the West loves their children. That life is worth saving. Muslims go kill your children while you wrap yourselves in your own hate. Blow yourselves up. But do it in your own land and in your own homes and Mosques.

Vote for Leah Lax in the Primary . Send donations to www.LeahLax.com. We need to protect Americans who live in the modern world not the world of suicide bombers.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in September that Iran is talking to Russia about building additional nuclear power reactors. (Sept. 23, 2011)

IAEA says foreign expertise has brought Iran to threshold of nuclear capability

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/iaea-says-foreign-expertise-has-brought-iran-to-threshold-of-nuclear-capability/2011/11/05/gIQAc6hjtM_story.html?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl5%7Csec1_lnk2%7C110484

By Joby Warrick, Published: November 6

Intelligence provided to U.N. nuclear officials shows that Iran’s government has mastered the critical steps needed to build a nuclear weapon, receiving assistance from foreign scientists to overcome key technical hurdles, according to Western diplomats and nuclear experts briefed on the findings.
Documents and other records provide new details on the role played by a former Soviet weapons scientist who allegedly tutored Iranians over several years on building high-precision detonators of the kind used to trigger a nuclear chain reaction, the officials and experts said. Crucial technology linked to experts in Pakistan and North Korea also helped propel Iran to the threshold of nuclear capability, they added.

The officials, citing secret intelligence provided over several years to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the records reinforce concerns that Iran continued to conduct weapons-related research after 2003 — when, U.S. intelligence agencies believe, Iranian leaders halted such experiments in response to international and domestic pressures.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog is due to release a report this week laying out its findings on Iran’s efforts to obtain sensitive nuclear technology. Fears that Iran could quickly build an atomic bomb if it chooses to has fueled anti-Iran rhetoric and new threats of military strikes. Some U.S. arms-control groups have cautioned against what they fear could be an overreaction to the report, saying there is still time to persuade Iran to change its behavior.
Iranian officials expressed indifference about the report.
“Let them publish and see what happens,” said Iran’s foreign minister and former nuclear top official, Ali Akbar Salehi, the semiofficial Mehr News Agency reported Saturday.
Salehi said that the controversy over Iran’s nuclear program is “100 percent political” and that the IAEA is “under pressure from foreign powers.”
‘Never really stopped’
Although the IAEA has chided Iran for years to come clean about a number of apparently weapons-related scientific projects, the new disclosures fill out the contours of an apparent secret research program that was more ambitious, more organized and more successful than commonly suspected. Beginning early in the last decade and apparently resuming — though at a more measured pace — after a pause in 2003, Iranian scientists worked concurrently across multiple disciplines to obtain key skills needed to make and test a nuclear weapon that could fit inside the country’s long-range missiles, said David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector who has reviewed the intelligence files.
“The program never really stopped,” said Albright, president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security. The institute performs widely respected independent analyses of nuclear programs in countries around the world, often drawing from IAEA data.
“After 2003, money was made available for research in areas that sure look like nuclear weapons work but were hidden within civilian institutions,” Albright said.

(AP) - In this April 8, 2008 file photo released by the Iranian President's Office, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits the Natanz Uranium Enrichment Facility.

Iran Plot and the 12th Iman

Rep. Rogers: Iran Assassination Plot Crosses 'Very Dangerous Threshold'

Thursday, 13 Oct 2011 06:09 PM

By Martin Gould and Ashley Martella

Read more on Newsmax.com: Rep. Rogers: Iran Assassination Plot Crosses 'Very Dangerous Threshold'
Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!

The foiled Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington D.C. crosses a "very dangerous threshold," says House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Mike Rogers — one that demands an unprecedented level of action from the Obama administration to stop the rising Islamist power.

“The longer we put off an aggressive international approach to this, the worse off we are all going to be,” said the six-term Michigan Republican in an exclusive Newsmax.TV interview.

“Imagine a nation state that’s engaged in trying to kill U.S. soldiers and coalition forces in Iraq; that is plotting to kill an ambassador, the Saudi Ambassador to the United States, here in Washington D.C.; oh, and by the way, they’re going to get nuclear weapons.”

President Obama also will have to make the case to the world for action against Iran, and that will mean pressuring China and Russia to fall in line. The two UN Security Council permanent members need to be told they have to stand with the rest of the world in opposition to the Tehran government, Rogers said.

“It is important for us, us, as the international community, to band together and say, ‘Hey, wait a minute, you have to make a choice here, you have to be for them and for a state sponsor of terrorism, or you are going to be with the rest of the international community. This is your chance.’

“I’m not pollyannaish enough to believe they are all of a sudden going to change their minds but we need to make them very uncomfortable,” he added.

Rogers was speaking just as Obama told reporters that Iranian involvement in the thwarted plot was “part of a pattern of dangerous and reckless behavior."

“What you're going to see is folks throughout the Middle East region questioning their ability to work effectively with Iran," added the president.

Rogers said he agrees with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Iran is about two years away from getting a nuclear weapon, and that must be stopped at all costs. He believes that the reason the plot targeted Saudi ambassador Adel al-Jubeir was due to Riyadh’s strong position opposing a nuclear Iran.

“They have been aggressive about saying that it is really dangerous if Iran gets a nuclear weapon,” said Rogers. “It’s destabilizing to the whole region and it unleashes the hordes of their intelligence service to do really bad things.”

The plot to kill al-Jubeir by blowing up a Washington restaurant as he ate was revealed by Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday. Rogers, Obama and other leaders had known about it since being briefed in June. Two Iranians have been charged in connection with the plot, one is in custody and the other is still on the run.

Iran has denied any link to the plot, but Rogers was adamant that the plot was real and that senior officials in the Iranian government were behind it.

“Evidence is evidence,” he said. “I’m a former FBI agent and I can tell you, I’ve looked at the case, I’ve looked at the evidence, I was briefed when this thing started to unfold months ago and they have nowhere to go.

“The evidence in this case is incredibly strong and that’s why you see such a widespread agreement of Republicans and Democrats and senior intelligence officials and DOJ officials. Yes this happened. Yes, it was tied to Iran. Yes, this crossed a very dangerous threshold.”

Rogers said Manssor Arbabsiar, the man who is in custody, is cooperating and has admitted to ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Quds force and to the very top in Tehran.

“This was an operation that would have cost $1.5 million, so you know someone senior in there has already been involved,” he said. “You know that the Quds force has a direct command relationship (with) the Supreme Leader.”

He said that because of the brazenness of the assassination plot it is safe to assume that it is not the first time – nor will it be the last – that Quds operatives have killed their enemies.

”It’s important to know the Quds force has been up to no good and dangerous activities for years, and went relatively unmolested by the rest of the world, unchallenged by the rest of the world. This is what led to this very brazen activity and, one could extrapolate, there is likely to be other plans… in the works.”

He said Quds operatives have been operating with impunity in both Iraq and Afghanistan in killing American and coalition soldiers.

Now, he said, it is time to “ratchet up” sanctions on Iran. “It would be a serious mistake if they didn’t feel some pain as a result of what was a very aggressive operation to commit an act of violence for political gain in the United States.”

But he said he does not agree with House Homeland Security Committee chairman Rep. Peter King of New York, who has called on Obama to expel all Iranian diplomats from the United States. “We don’t have a formal diplomatic relationship as it stands, there’s a consulate up in New York that we do some dealings with,” he pointed out.

“I always believe that even in a time of extreme tension, you need at least somebody to talk to, to either de-escalate or make an agreement about why they ought to change their ways. So I would be a little careful about going there.

“But that doesn’t mean we should not be incredibly aggressive about targeting Quds force people in Iraq and Afghanistan, and about making sure that the Quds force operatives, wherever they are in the world, are going to have difficulty operating, and that we continue to put pressure on Iran.”



Read more on Newsmax.com: Rep. Rogers: Iran Assassination Plot Crosses 'Very Dangerous Threshold'
Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!