by Rob Edwards for the Herald Scotland
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.
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.
What is your take on this, Saker? The fact that the story is publicized, even if true, tells me that one objective at this stage is to scare Iran.
The location (Diego Garcia) makes sense in order not to embarrass any of the Arab puppets with US bases on their soil. Of course US military hardware has been stockpiled in Israel, but again using this equipment is problematic, politically.
@Tony: The fact that the story is publicized, even if true, tells me that one objective at this stage is to scare Iran.
Could be. But then, Diego Garcia is the ideal place from which to stage such attacks and 400 heavy bombs is about what it would take to hit the rather few deeply buried bunkers Iran would have.
Nonetheless, I am still absolutely convinced that Iran will be attacked by the USA and Israel acting together. I do not believe for one second that the issue is some hidden Iranian nuclear weapons program (no such program has ever escaped the vigilance of the IAEA inspectors), but rather the fact that Iran (together with Hezbollah) is challenging Israel for the role of superpower of the Middle-East.
Also, since the war in 2006 was an abject and humiliating failure, and the massacre of Gaza did nothing to restore the credibility of the Israelis, so making a bloody example of Iran makes perfectly good sense. Add to this that the landslide victory of Ahmadinejad (and, more relevantly, therefore Khamenei) and the subsequent defeat of the “Gucci Revolution” of the Rafsanjani-Mousavi team in Iran represented the last hope for the USA and Israel to coopt the Iranian rulers into their sphere of influence.
For all these reasons an attack on Iran is inevitable. It’s just a matter of time.
Kind regards,
The Saker
Thanks, Saker.
You and I have been in agreement that USrael will attack Iran, for the reasons you gave; it is a question of time.
@Tony: and check out the latest Israel-worshipping statements of Biden (the same idiot who wants to split Iraq into 4 countries) and you will see that the current administration is at least as controlled by the Israel Lobby as any previous one. All this discussion of bad relations between the twob because Biden was “insulted” is gonna last all of 30 seconds before business as normal resumes. And with a dangerous lunatic like Bibi in power in occupied Palestine we can expect the worst kind of folly coming out of all this.
Don’t be too discouraged by all that. As Sayyed Hassan recently repeated, the next war the USraelians start will also be the one which will defeat them. Not because the Iranians will be able to prevent the Yanks from boming, of course, but because Iran will do exactly what Hezbollah did in 2006 and the results will be the same, only on a much larger scale.
The Empire is crumbling, and just like Hitler in his bunker, the Imperial rulers are in total denial of this fact. Be we have all the reasons to keep hoping.
Kind regards,
VS
When I feel helpless (and I basically am) to somehow react to Israel, I go for the somewhat childish boycott of starbucks and mcdonalds cause those two were on the list of heavy Israel supporters on some disinvestment/boycott site. I bet they are on their knees cause I went to wendys and carabou coffee instead.
I wouldn’t consider boycotts childish. Short of an armed revolution or waiting for the Ukamerisrael to collapse on its own, they are probably the best tactic we have to bring this system down or at least damage it heavily, provided enough people get involved.
The primary target of any boycott movement should be the media, as this is the principle propaganda apparatus of the corporate state, and the means by which consensus in the American public for its own oppression is formed.
I personally boycott all mass media such as newspapers and television and radio. My individual action makes little difference, but the process of freeing yourself from this mind poison is incredibly liberating and should be a goal in its own right. If enough people were to do so, the media could be easily crushed. The government would of course bail out is corporate propaganda arm with taxpayer money, but even when newspapers like the NY Times and Washington Post are free and paid for with taxes, people should continue to boycott them. Let all that paper pile up on newsstands.
@Saker “Biden (the same idiot who wants to split Iraq into 4 countries)..”
Your sentence implies as if Iraq was a solid nation state. Remember the imperialists (the Brits) made it up into a country…
Zerkes
@Zerkes: Your sentence implies as if Iraq was a solid nation state
If it does, that was not my intention. What I wanted to imply is that splitting up Iraq right now is a stupid idea. I do not find it stupid because I like the current borders of Iraq, but because that kind of splitting up with inevitably result in a bloodbath and massive ethnic cleansing. I don’t like “ethnically pure” states. It is one thing to uphold minority rights, and quite another to split up a country into several parts.
But your point is well taken – Iraq (and Kuwait for that matter) are an artificial creation of British imperialism. There are PLENTY of artificial states out there (most of Africa, the Ukraine, most of Central Asia, Macedonia, Bosnia and, of course, Israel) but the fact that these are artificial/ideological creations does, alas, not make them less real. These artificial entities are now populated with people who will be the inevitable victims of massive ethnic cleansing if some moron like Biden decides that repeating the disaster of the former Yugoslavia is one brilliant idea.
Don’t you agree?