Here is the first page of the article the second page can be seen here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...920074,00.html



"Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv, and Sarah Baxter, Washington
ISRAEL’S armed forces have been ordered by Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, to be ready by the end of March for possible strikes on secret uranium enrichment sites in Iran, military sources have revealed.
The order came after Israeli intelligence warned the government that Iran was operating enrichment facilities, believed to be small and concealed in civilian locations.
NI_MPU('middle');Iran’s stand-off with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over nuclear inspections and aggressive rhetoric from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, who said last week that Israel should be moved to Europe, are causing mounting concern.
The crisis is set to come to a head in early March, when Mohamed El-Baradei, the head of the IAEA, will present his next report on Iran. El-Baradei, who received the Nobel peace prize yesterday, warned that the world was “losing patience” with Iran.
A senior White House source said the threat of a nuclear Iran was moving to the top of the international agenda and the issue now was: “What next?” That question would have to be answered in the next few months, he said.
Defence sources in Israel believe the end of March to be the “point of no return” after which Iran will have the technical expertise to enrich uranium in sufficient quantities to build a nuclear warhead in two to four years.
“Israel — and not only Israel — cannot accept a nuclear Iran,” Sharon warned recently. “We have the ability to deal with this and we’re making all the necessary preparations to be ready for such a situation.”
The order to prepare for a possible attack went through the Israeli defence ministry to the chief of staff. Sources inside special forces command confirmed that “G” readiness — the highest stage — for an operation was announced last week.
Gholamreza Aghazadeah, head of the Atomic Organisation of Iran, warned yesterday that his country would produce nuclear fuel. “There is no doubt that we have to carry out uranium enrichment,” he said.
He promised it would not be done during forthcoming talks with European negotiators. But although Iran insists it wants only nuclear energy, Israeli intelligence has concluded it is deceiving the world and has no intention of giving up what it believes is its right to develop nuclear weapons.
A “massive” Israeli intelligence operation has been underway since Iran was designated the “top priority for 2005”, according to security sources.
Cross-border operations and signal intelligence from a base established by the Israelis in northern Iraq are said to have identified a number of Iranian uranium enrichment sites unknown to the the IAEA.
Since Israel destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981, “it has been understood that the lesson is, don’t have one site, have 50 sites”, a White House source said. If a military operation is approved, Israel will use air and ground forces against several nuclear targets in the hope of stalling Tehran’s nuclear programme for years, according to Israeli military sources. It is believed Israel would call on its top special forces brigade, Unit 262 — the equivalent of the SAS — and the F-15I strategic 69 Squadron, which can strike Iran and return to Israel without refuelling."

If this is indeed real it scares me very much. IMO it sets the stage for what the world fears the most.

They can perform a surgical air strike against Iranian nuke facilities but the consequences remain unknown!

I dont understand this whole Iran problem, they say there nuclear infastructure is underground only penterable with nuclear weapons. Why not use nukes? I mean if we attack them with conventional arms there gona hit back with everything they have anyway so why not just put a few mushroom clouds over there nuke sites.

Not only will this stop there nuclear program it will send a BIG message to N. Korea and any other nation thinking about getting some WMDs.

here's the question for you, what do you do after you nuke iran? You wanna be the guy that has to go and occupy that? Because the way the world works nowadays, after a war, your gonna be occupiding and pacifing the country. Personally i'd rather not have to patrol the streets of a nuked city.

Also, figure on this, USA uses Nukes. China/Russia declare that the USA is either in breach of treaties or obviously incapable of handlign the responsibilities, it is a rogoue nation in other words. The result is some form of military actions against the USA/NATO by and easter coalition, the USA responds, now facing a world power, with it's full arsenal, attempting to achieve a premtive strike. However, that strike is detected, and responded to in turn with strieks against the US and it's allies. Long story short, nuclear winter and the eradication of most of North America/Europe.

Originally Posted by Rabs

I dont understand this whole Iran problem, they say there nuclear infastructure is underground only penterable with nuclear weapons. Why not use nukes? I mean if we attack them with conventional arms there gona hit back with everything they have anyway so why not just put a few mushroom clouds over there nuke sites.

Not only will this stop there nuclear program it will send a BIG message to N. Korea and any other nation thinking about getting some WMDs.

LoL... I understand that you dont care about the people of Iran and that you can not differentiate with the evil government of Iran and the pro-west people of Iran

Right?

You need to change your attitude!

Well, I'll not bring up the global implications regarding a nuclear attack and the eco-system. You allready made clear that the climate isn't your concern in another post. So not only do you kill indiscriminatly and shoot the rest of the US credibility as global peace-keeper to hell, you also shower Europe with nuclear particles or even teh more densely populated South Asian peninsula. I reckon there's probably a better way.

And to my own surprise I have no troubles with Israel if they did such a surgical strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. Is it me or do I slowly turn into a Republican

lol. most of the posts i made yesterday were around 2:30am so dont put too much faith into them. However i was under the impression that Irans nuclear facilites were isolated.

Isolated or not, we start using nukes and there will be hell to pay later. Besides we do have conventional weapons that are capable of doing the same sort of job that a nuke could do, without the radiation.

The United States should remove the dog leash from Isreal. Let the Isreali military conquer the Middle East. I support the IDF and Isreal's policies toward terrorism and those little groups like PLO, PLF, Hezbollah, and other terrorist groups. RAZE THEM TO THE GROUND!

Originally Posted by 5.56X45mm

The United States should remove the dog leash from Isreal. Let the Isreali military conquer the Middle East. I support the IDF and Isreal's policies toward terrorism and those little groups like PLO, PLF, Hezbollah, and other terrorist groups. RAZE THEM TO THE GROUND!

indeed... not to bash or anything... but why the did Iran think of getting nuclear power anyways? its sooo STUPID!.. really... wtf is wrong with them, like they cant figure out that Israel, or ANY other country(for that matter) will allow it...

they're slowly diggin their own grave...