WORK IN PROGRESS - DATA DUMP ..... THEORY : JFK ASSASSINATION

 WORK IN PROGRESS - DATA DUMP

THEORY : JFK ASSASSINATION

President John Kennedy was killed because he cancelled the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion (ANP) program, used the money as a slush fund to insure his reelection, and was poised to go after the managers of the ANP program on trumped up fraud charges. This program was developing the pet projects of three of the biggest names in the USAF and aviation industry, respectively General Curtis Lemay, Richard Bissell, and Kelly Johnson. The ANP program was developing nuclear engines for the B-52, the B-70 bomber and the SR-71 Blackbird. So, the plot was really about American oligarchic intrigues. It was about the money and staying out of jail. It was not about Kennedy wanting to end the Cold War or pull out of Vietnam. His cancellation of the ANP program bankrupted North American Aviation and Lockheed. Lockheed had to be bailed out in 1971. To add insult to injury Kennedy was poised to prosecute Lockheed for “mismanagement” i.e. fraud. The plot was self defense to stay out of jail on trumped up charges.   

This theory also explains the heavy Air Force presence in JFK assassination lore. Oswald is connected to the U2 program. USAF General Edward Lansdale has long been accused of being the architect of the plot. It explains the reason why the TFX program was so controversial. USAF General Curtis Lemay was reportedly at the autopsy. Richard Bissell was fired in the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs fiasco. He supervised the development of the U2 and the overflight program. USAF Col. L. Fletcher Prouty worked with Lansdale. He shared an office with Lansdale in the Pentagon. 

The history of the capitalism is a history of economic disruptions, of technological developments displacing and destroying traditional industries. For example, the power loom destroyed traditional textile manufacturing, destroying the weaving profession. The steam hammer revolutionizes the manufacturing of steel instruments. It destroys the profession of blacksmithing. In the late 1950’s nuclear energy was an industry positioning itself to revolutionize how Americans powered their homes and the fuels they used to move. Nuclear energy was positioned to revolutionize the aerospace industry. The JFK assassination is about preventing an economic disruption from happening. 

Acting in the interests of Southern oil tycoons represented by LBJ and the Rockefeller’s , JFK blocked a nuclear revolution from happening. The Rockefellers had their plants in the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), one of them was Joseph Campbell. He served on the AEC in the early 1950’s and was married to Standard Oil fortune heiress Dorothy Stokes Bostwick, granddaughter of Jabez A. Bostwick a founding partner of Standard Oil. Campbell later goes onto to be the 4th Comptroller General of the United States. He writes the February 1963 GAO Report that lies about the status of the ANP program. The plane worked. Campbell told Congress that it did not work. The report was being forwarded to Congress for further investigation. They were ready to go after the contractors for fraud. 

They were playing hardball with the companies who stood poised to disrupt the energy industry. The Rockefellers et al oil companies wanted to cancel the nuclear powered plane. Because it threatened their profits. They made a fortune selling JP-5 to the military. A nuclear-powered plane does not need JP-5. So, they stood lose billions of dollars. They stood to lose even more when civilian airliners became nuclear powered. So, Kennedy was killed because he prevented the disrupters from making a fortune displacing oil as a fuel for planes, bankrupting Lockheed and North American Aviation and more importantly to prevent his justice department from prosecuting the ANP contractors for fraud. So, the Rockefeller interests put the kibosh on nuclear energy to save their oil assets from becoming worthless by killing the nuclear aircraft program. The ANP faction fights back by killing JFK preventing him from putting them in jail on trumped up charges. Because the nuclear plane really worked, in fact it was flying over the USSR in the form of the U2 and Canberra RB-57.

The USAF had been pursuing a nuclear-powered bomber since 1946 under a program titled Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft or (NEPA) project. Five years later in May 1951 the program changed its name to Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion (ANP). USAF General Curtis Lemay was an adamant supporter of the nuclear plane. He put the nuclear plane above the development of the ICBM.

Dallas and Los Angeles were development hubs for the ANP/NEPA programs. The Kennedy brothers were killed in cities that played a central role in the development of the nuclear-powered plane. In 2019 RFK Jr. claimed that his father was killed by Lockheed security guard Thane Eugene Cesar.

SR71 Development According to Ben Rich

Ben Rich’s account of the development of the Blackbird does not speak kindly of JFK or his Defense Secretary McNamara. He refers to McNamara pejoratively as “Mac the Knife.” This is from a song made famous by Louis Armstrong presumably about an Irish knife wielding gangster. “Mac the Knife” murders a man, after that man takes all of his money out of the bank. Mac then spends all of that money like a [drunken] sailor. Kelly Johnson’s first impression of McNamara was that he was “haughty and cold (Rich & Janos 227).” Johnson believed that McNamara was out to kill any program that began under Eisenhower. This was the acrimonious beginning of Kelly Johnson’s relationship with the Kennedy administration.  

According to Ben Rich the day after the November 1960 presidential election Kelly Johnson returns to his office from a three-day vacation to find a wire/telegram from Richard Bissell inquiring how much it would cost to cancel the Blackbird program (Rich & Janos 215). The Blackbird was a completely black program. It was being developed “in the black” complete secrecy only the President and a handful of people in Congress and the Pentagon knew about the program. Due to the secrecy of the program Kelly Johnson was not allowed to lobby Congress on behalf of Lockheed for funding. The life or death of the program was solely in the hands of President Kennedy. So, the bad blood between Kennedy and the CIA/MIC began the day after he became president elect.

Rich also claims that there was a schism between Kelly Johnson and Curtis Lemay. In 1947 Major General Curtis Lemay was Deputy Chief of Air Staff for Research and Development and the director of the NEPA project (Graham, 1947). Lemay blamed Johnson for cuts to the B-70 bomber program. Kennedy cancelled the program in 1961. Lemay and Johnson make up after Kelly promises not to lobby against the B-70 bomber.  Kelly Johnson makes an oblique reference to this squabble in his memoirs (Johnson & Smith, 136) This supposed fight between Kelly Johnson is curious. Because Ben Rich’s book was published in 1994. Sixteen years later WIRED magazine would publish an article entitled, “Meet the XB-70 Valkyrie, Almost the World's First Nuclear Aircraft.” The B-70 was part of the ANP program. Rich also more curiously claims that Curtis Lemay did not know about the Blackbird program. This contradicts Kelly Johnson’s account and it is hard to believe because Lemay headed the NEPA program in 1947 (Graham, 1947). He would have been one of the few people with a clearance that Kelly could talk about the program with. They likely had known each other for decades. He says that he “made a series of proposals for a Mach 3-plus reconnaissance aircraft to Richard Bissell of the CIA and the USAF (Johnson & Smith, 135).” Lemay would have been there when Johnson made the sales pitch. We also know that Lemay was intimately involved with the ANP program. He made it a higher priority than nuclear missiles. We also know that Kelly Johnson was working on the nuclear-powered plane. He was part of the NEPA/ANP program. At the end of his book, Kelly takes credit for ending the NEPA program. 

L. Fletcher Prouty

USAF Colonel L. Fletcher Prouty is one of the more interesting characters of the JFK assassination research community. Prouty was the basis of the Mr. X character played by Donald Sutherland in auteur filmmaker Oliver Stone’s movie JFK (1991). He claimed to know what happened. He knew who killed Kennedy. But he never told all even on his deathbed.

He claims that the TFX project cost $6.5 billion (Prouty 146). This is close to $8 billion estimated cost of Project Pluto (Dewar 65). So, it looks like McNamara found a way to save 1.5 billion dollars.  

Prouty’s narrative is heavy on the why. It is very light on specifically who committed the crime. He never talks about who specifically had beef with Kennedy. He only talks about a nebulous “high cabal.” Where was the acrimony in the administration? Who specifically hated Kennedy in the CIA/MIC?

Prouty mentions Curtis Lemay and Kelly Johnson in his JFK tome, but he makes no mention their attitudes toward JFK. He makes no mention of the fact JFK killed their pet projects. In 1947 Major General Curtis Lemay was the director of the NEPA project (Graham, 1947). The program changed its name in 1951 to ANP.  Prouty has them giving their approval of the TFX. He claims that the fate of the TFX project was in the hands of Kelly Johnson (Prouty 146). He also claims that McNamara did not know of an expert who could vouch for the General Dynamics TFX proposal. So, he asked an unnamed friend to suggest an expert. The unnamed friend suggested McNamara use Kelly Johnson. According to Ben Rich’s account Kelly Johnson did not like McNamara. Because he wanted to kill the Blackbird program. It is hard to believe that Johnson and McNamara had not met prior to this phone call.

Was Prouty working a PSYOP to make the Soviets/Russians think that CIA was a rogue actor outside of the control of the POTUS? Thereby absolving the POTUS from responsibility when a covert operation is uncovered. 

Herbert York

Herbert York’s account of “the elusive nuclear airplane,” begins with a blanket denial that the B-70 Bomber was a nuclear-powered plane. We know 55 years later that York lied. The B-70 Bomber was the nuclear-powered airplane. He opens his book talking about “Eisenhower’s other warning.” The other warning was about “the scientific-technological elite.”

Eisenhower : “Yet in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.”

I think this part of Eisenhower’s farewell speech was an oblique reference to General Curtis Lemay who had been Deputy Chief of Air Staff for Research and Development and the director of the NEPA project, Dr. Richard Bissell who managed the CIA overflight program and Kelly Johnson Vice President for Advanced Development Projects (Johnson 157). It was about “military versus civilian control of defense planning (York 58).” This is the problem that Kennedy inherited from Eisenhower.

“Although Nixon did carry California in 1960, Kennedy won nationally, and the B-70’s new lease on life ran out almost immediately (York, 57).” Ben Rich says the same thing about the Blackbird. It was cancelled the day after the 1960 election.

 

Kennedy governed like an autocrat for the benefit of the oligarchs. He began the tax cuts for the benefit of the wealthy. He said, “a rising tide lifts all boats.” Kennedy began the trickle-down economic policies most people associate with Ronald Reagan. His administration is often referred to as the “Camelot era.” That made Kennedy king Arthur. He certainly was not thinking about the impact his cuts were going to have on men and women working in the defense industry.

Herbert York knew Eisenhower and visited him on numerous occasions at his Palm Desert, California winter home. York asked Eisenhower “to explain more fully what he meant by the warnings.” Eisenhower refused to elaborate, saying that he did not mean anything more detailed than what he said at the time (York 11). So, this invalidates attempts to add other institutions to the MIC. There is no MIC + X. There is no MICIMATT.

The B-70 bomber was a massive program. Curtis Lemay planned to build 250 B-70 bombers. That gets whittled down to 4 bombers. The bombers might have used in a two stage to orbit black space program. It was the carrier plane for the Dynasoar. 06 March 2006 Aviation Week and Space Technology front cover had an artist conception of the BLACKSTAR program. There had been sightings of an B-70 bomber in the 1990's. 

“Before the first full year under contract was over, there were more than forty first- and second tier subcontractors, and suppliers were by then involved in the total program. Seventy of the then ninety-six United States Senators had a major part of the program in their states, and something like a majority of the Congressional districts had at least on supplier of consequence (York, 53).”

The Kennedy administration cancelled the ANP program. This program was developing the Blackbird and the B-70 bomber. Kennedy replaced this program with the ICBM and TFX program. The USAF brass hated the ICBM. They did not want to be silo sitters. They hated the TFX and thought the TFX was pushed on them by Kennedy. The cancellation of the ANP program was a huge win for the petroligarchs. Because it replaced the ANP program with weapons systems that needed petroleum to operate. 

York took part in a documentary that on the nuclear plane that aired on the Discovery Channel in the 1990's. It used an interesting infographic designed to make people think the nuclear jet engine did not work. The audience was told that this was the direct cycle engine. It has the air going through the back of the reactor then out of the front end then back to the rear of the jet engine. 

This is how the direct cycle engine was depicted in the GAO report for Congress. If the nuclear jet engine truly did not work. There would be no need for a disinformation propaganda campaign. 

These dual turbojet single reactor engines were ideal for turning the B-52 into a nuclear powered bomber. The cockpit would have needed a shielding upgrade like the NB-36 had to shield the crew from radiation. But it would have worked. One can imagine what the triad of the nuclear powered B-52, B-70 and A-12 Blackbird would have had in an attack on the Soviet Union or more urgently over the skies of Vietnam. 

 "As I recall his [Lemay] personal view of the priorities , he placed the B-52H first (it was then called B-52 squared and the B-70 second (it was then called the WS-110). The nuclear airplane was somewhere in the middle of his short list, and long range missiles were at the bottom. He and other  leading Air Force generals managed to make it clear to the contractor that they personally considered the B-70 to be at least as important as the ICBMs, whatever the official priorities might be, and they ordered the first flight by the end of 1961 (York 51)."  

Now that we know that the B-70 was the nuclear powered bomber. We know that B-70 was the highest priority for Lemay. It was a higher priority than the ICBM. The problem is that Kennedy ran on the premise of the missile gap. He intended to build more missiles. Kennedy's political priorities conflicted with the Air Force's priorities and the more generally the military. 

In 1955 the Air Force issued  GOR 81 with the intention of having operational units nuclear powered bombers by 1963. This was just in time for the ramp up of the Vietnam War. They intended to fight the Vietnam War with nuclear powered bombers. This would have radically changed how the war was conducted. It might not have changed the outcome. But it would have been radically different. When Kennedy killed the ANP program to the benefit of the Rockefeller petrol-oligarchs, he killed the Pentagon's plans the Vietnam War. Kennedy also had put the contractors in bind and they must have resented the fact that they were not going to be allowed to profit from the nuclear jet technology they developed. Because Kennedy kept it secret. 

Congressional Hearings / Fraud Trial

It is worth noting that there was no Congressional investigation into the ANP program. They did not follow up on Comptroller General Joseph Campbell's recommendations. The assassination of Kennedy prevented a Congressional investigation or a trial. The ANP contractors would have been behind the eight ball, if there had been a trial or a Congressional investigation. The ANP was a top-secret program. They would not have been allowed to present evidence showing they were falsely accused. Because nuclear jet engines were secret technology. Assuming Kennedy had lived the Congressional hearings or trial would have had to be held in camera. These are private court proceedings. The press and the public wouldn’t have been allowed to witness the proceedings when the defendants voiced their defense. These would have been star chamber proceedings. Worse still they could have been made to look like fools in the proceedings that were public. 

The President also has a great amount of influence over the media through his intelligence agencies. He has plants in all the major media outlets. He could have used that power to shape public opinion against the ANP contractors. While at the same time preventing them from voicing their defense. Killing Kennedy prevented this from happening. It also forced LBJ to coverup the crime. A public trial of the assassins/conspirators might have led to the public disclosure of the fact that the nuclear-powered plane worked. This is the fact that petrol-oligarchs were suppressing. There would have been global public scrutiny if there had been a trial of the conspirators. Congressional hearings into "mismanagement" or a fraud trial would have been a relatively low-key affair compared to a trial of the assassination conspirators. The press would have wanted to know what the motive was behind the crime. The President’s ability to control the media would have been broken by the intense global media focus on the trial. 

Works Cited

Rich, B.R. and Janos, L. (1994) Skunk works: A personal memoir of my years at Lockheed. New York, N.Y: Back Bay Books/Little, Brown and Company.

Prouty, L. Fletcher. (2003) JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the plot to assassinate John F. Kennedy. New York: Citadel Press/Kensington Pub. Corp.

Grabianowski, E. (2010) Meet the XB-70 Valkyrie, almost the world’s first nuclear aircraft, Wired. Available at: https://www.wired.com/2010/12/meet-the-xb-70-valkyrie-almost-the-worlds-1st-nuclear-aircraft/ (Accessed: 15 June 2025).

Graham, F. (1947) ‘U.S. at Work on Project to Apply Atomic Power to Planes, Missiles’, The New York Times, 23 February, page 43. 

Johnson, C.L. and Smith, M. (1985) Kelly: More than my share of it all. Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Spargo, C. (2019) Robert F Kennedy was assassinated by Thane Eugene Cesar, declares RFK Jr, who says it was the security guard who fatally shot his father from behind after planning the murder with Sirhan Sirhan, Daily Mail Online. Available at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7456521/Robert-F-Kennedy-assassinated-Thane-Eugene-Cesar-Sirhan-Sirhan-says-RFK-Jr.html (Accessed: 12 June 2025).

York, H. (1970) RACE TO OBLIVION: A PARTICIPANT’S VIEW OF THE ARMS RACE. NEW YORK, NEW YORK: SIMON AND SCHUSTER.

U.S. Government Report, Review of Manned Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion Program, Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of Defense, (U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, D.C., 1963)

 

 

 

AUGUST 2019 - SOVIET RADIO FOUND CACHED IN GERMAN FOREST

 SOURCE URL: https://www.livescience.com/soviet-spy-radio-discovered-germany.html

Sophisticated Soviet spy radio discovered buried in former forest in Germany

News

By Tom Metcalfe published February 18, 2020

It was buried shortly before the fall of the Iron Curtain.

The Soviet spy radio was found buried beside a path through a former forest near the German city of Cologne, a few miles from a nuclear research center and a military airbase. (Image credit: Jürgen Vogel/LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn)

Archaeologists digging for the remains of a Roman villa near the German city of Cologne have found a sophisticated Soviet spy radio that was buried there shortly before the fall of the Iron Curtain.

The spy radio was buried inside a large metal box that was hermetically sealed with a rubber ring and metal screws. Although the radio's batteries had run down after almost 30 years in the ground, the box hissed with inrushing air when it was opened.

"Everything in the box was carefully encased in wrapping paper — it is a factory-fresh radio," said archaeologist Erich Classen from the Rhineland Regional Association (LVR).

The buried box and the hidden radio were found in August 2019 by a team of archaeologists digging near what was once a path through the Hambach Forest, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) west of Cologne, in an area earmarked for an open-cast lignite mine and now cleared of trees.

They expected to find fragments from a Roman-age settlement thought to have been built in the area, and so they were surprised when they instead unearthed a pit and the metal box.

"We think the radio will work if a new battery is available, but we didn't try," Classen said. "Restoration work was not necessary."

Iron Curtain

The radio has been identified as a model R-394KM transmitter and receiver — code-named "Strizh," meaning "Swift" — that was manufactured in the Soviet Union in 1987. It was carried by agents into Western Europe shortly after that, and only a few years before the fall between 1989 and 1991 of the "Iron Curtain" of communism that divided Eastern and Western Europe. 

The scientists suspect agents would have used the spy radio to send secret reports back to the Soviet Union about observation of the Jülich Nuclear Research Centre, about 6 miles (10 km) west of where it was found; or of the military air base at Nörvenich, about the same distance to the southeast, where U.S. Pershing nuclear missiles were based until 1995. 

It's possible that "Stasi," or State Security Service agents from the Soviet-controlled German Democratic Republic in the east of the country buried the spy radio in West Germany for future use, Classen said.

It may also have been a back-up in case a spy's other radios were damaged or seized.

The high-frequency or shortwave radio was capable of transmitting and receiving messages as far as 750 miles (1,200 km) — far enough to reach Warsaw in Poland, which was then part of the Soviet bloc. 

But the pristine condition of the buried radio suggests that it was never used, and it was probably forgotten and left in the ground soon after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Classen said.

Spy secrets

Some features of the Soviet spy radio hint at who might have used it.

Unlike most other radios of the same model, which are labeled in Russian using the Cyrillic alphabet, the controls of the radio found in the Hambach Forest area are labeled in English and the Roman alphabet.

That suggests it was designed to be used by a German or an English speaker, rather than a Russian; but it may also have been a form of camouflage, to hide the true origins of the radio in the Soviet Union.

The paper wrapped around the radio, however, had sequences of numbers in Russian handwriting, giving positions of the dials on the radio that could be used — similar number sequences have been found on Soviet checklists, Classen said.

It's unlikely that further details of the mystery of the Hambach Forest spy radio will be found, given that it's been so long since it was buried. But the spy radio itself is now part of the LVR's collection, and it is on display at the LVR-Landes Museum in Bonn until March 29, Classen said.

Some of the ancient artifacts from the same dig are also on display in the museum, but archaeologists haven't yet determined exactly how old they are, he said.

Military Keynesianism

In the wake World War Two and in the early days of the Cold War the US Military was a much larger proportion of the population than it is today. The US military employed millions of Americans. There were more military bases than there were today. The GI's who worked on these bases worked alongside civilian contractors. All of them spent their paychecks off base injecting money into the local economy. This military version of Keynesianism kept the US economy afloat for many years following the end of World War 2. It was a military that depended more on manpower than it did technology. As the Cold War dragged on corporate greed took over. The arms makers took more and more of the dollars away from the GI. The US military began to depend more and more on technology than manpower. The US began to close down military bases. This ended up depressing the local economies that depended on GI dollars. Military Keynesianism in the wake of WW2 gave the US the most prosperous economy the world has ever seen. 

Depressurization of Mexico's Viva Airbus flight 2220 on 28 December 2024

https://evrimagaci.org/tpg/viva-aerobus-flight-2220-makes-emergency-landing-due-to-cabin-issue-126521 

U.S. News

29 December 2024

Viva Aerobus Flight 2220 Makes Emergency Landing Due To Cabin Issue

Passengers transferred safely after scary cabin depressurization incident aboard airplane en route to Ciudad Juárez.

Viva Aerobus Flight 2220, traveling from Cancun to Ciudad Juárez, was forced to make an emergency landing at Monterrey International Airport on December 28, 2023, due to cabin depressurization. The incident, which unfolded about 30 minutes after takeoff, led to immediate emergency protocols being activated, fulfilling the mandatory safety measures.

The aircraft encountered issues with cabin pressure over the Gulf of Mexico, prompting the pilots to initiate a rapid descent. Originally, they considered landing in Matamoros but eventually decided on Monterrey, closer and equipped for any necessary emergency repairs. Reports indicate the aircraft, identified as an Airbus A320 with registration XA-VDH, faced no severe conditions but required controlled descent due to safety protocols.

According to El Financiero, the situation escalated with the captain instructing passengers to buckle their seatbelts, as the plane experienced what many aboard described as "a sharp drop." This moment created considerable anxiety among those aboard, with one passenger stating, "We were flying at normal altitude, and suddenly, it felt like the plane started to fall. The captain told us we were going down and asked everyone to stay seated. It was about 23 minutes of sheer uncertainty until the aircraft stabilized."

Despite the terrifying moments, the flight landed effectively at around 3:10 PM, with no injuries reported among the passengers or the crew. The airline announced their plan to have another aircraft ready for the passengers, ensuring they would continue their trip to Ciudad Juárez. Viva Aerobus confirmed the follow-up flight was scheduled for about 4:10 PM, aimed at minimizing disruption to travelers.

"A new aircraft will be dispatched to take the passengers to their original destination," said Viva Aerobus, emphasizing their priority is passenger safety throughout this incident. Following the unsettling event, the company initiated inspections on the affected aircraft to determine the cause of the cabin pressure malfunction and reassured the traveling public of their operational safety standards.

While passengers were being transferred to the alternate aircraft, those affected, nervous but relieved to be grounded safely, expressed gratitude for the flight crew’s handling of the situation. "The crew was incredibly calm and professional, which helped us remain calm too," noted another traveler. A report from the FAA also suggested the emergency protocols effectively managed the risks associated with cabin depressurization and contributed to the safe landing.

This incident was not the only disruption impacting Viva Aerobus flights on the same day, as multiple airports, including Villahermosa and Mérida, faced operations halts due to adverse weather conditions. The airline communicated these developments to customers, asking them to remain informed about flight statuses through official channels.

Interestingly, Flight 2220’s situation parallels another incident where the airline experienced technical issues with another aircraft scheduled for Ciudad Juárez, raising questions about maintenance protocols and oversight within the airline. The public awaits official statements from Viva Aerobus addressing safety measures taken after this emergency and detailing new operational protocols to prevent similar occurrences.

The press has reached out to the airline for additional information, and as of now, there has been no formal response concerning the investigation findings or detailed safety evaluations being conducted. Nonetheless, the airline has reiterated their commitment to transparency as they analyze flight data and maintenance records.

Having landed safely and been assisted rapidly, it stands as a relief not only for the passengers of Flight 2220 but for regular users of Viva Aerobus, who expect safe and consistent travel experiences. Plans to inspect the aircraft involved and potential changes to their operational procedures are to be anticipated.

Following this episode, both travelers and aviation experts will keep close watch on how Viva Aerobus responds and implements changes. Will such incidents result in positive reform, or will they highlight underlying issues within the operational structure? Time will reveal their full commitment to air safety.

Sources

http://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/empresas/2024/12/28/desvian-vuelo-de-viva-aerobus-que-cubria-la-ruta-cancun-a-ciudad-juarez-a-monterrey-que-le-paso/

https://www.nmas.com.mx/chihuahua/vuelo-2220-cancun-a-ciudad-juarez-de-viva-aerobus-es-desviado-a-monterrey-por-falla-tecnica/

https://www.sdpnoticias.com/estados/que-le-paso-al-vuelo-2220-de-viva-aerobus-avion-de-la-ruta-cancun-ciudad-juarez-tuvo-problemas/

https://www.tiempo.com.mx/noticia/declaran_estado_de_emergencia_vuelo_de_cancun_a_juarez/

https://www.yucatan.com.mx/mexico/2024/12/28/vuelo-de-viva-aerobus-de-cancun-a-ciudad-juarez-aterriza-de-emergencia-en-monterrey.html

October 1984 AN EARLY MENTION OF SUITCASE NUKES

 The New York Times

October 29, 1984, Monday, Late City Final Edition

REAL SUPERTERRORISTS WOULD PREFER SUITCASE NUKES

SECTION: Section A; Page 22, Column 4; Editorial Desk

LENGTH: 324 words

To the Editor:

In ''Bolt From the Blue'' (Op-Ed, Oct. 15), William Safire argues that we need a space-based defense to defend against future terrorist attacks. His fear is that ''superterrorists'' may one day acquire intercontinental missiles armed with nuclear warheads, and thus set up a confrontation of ''terrorism versus civilization.''

This idea, sometimes bandied about in last-ditch fashion by ardent proponents of Star Wars defenses, should be seen for what it is: a fig leaf for the protection of missiles and command-and-control centers under the rubric of the Strategic Defense Initiative.

When all the rhetoric is stripped away, the Strategic Defense Initiative will in all likelihood never be able, or be designed, to protect population centers, so Mr. Safire's plan will not be implemented. In any event, superterrorists who were so clever as to build or buy long-range weapons will surely be capable of shorter-range delivery (e.g., suitcase bombs or air-delivered weapons, which could not in any case be covered by space-based lasers shooting down into the atmosphere). Finally, the most humorous of Mr. Safire's assertions concerns that related to the President's ''historic'' offer to share space-defense technology with Moscow. Lieut. Gen. James A. Abrahamson of the Air Force, director of the Strategic Defense Initiative, stated in the industry newsletter Defense Daily of Aug, 7 (page 196), ''There is no policy at this time to share S.D.I.-related technology with the Soviet Union.''

I suppose, however, that if you can believe that we're building inordinately expensive and fragile defenses in space to stop terrorists, then you can believe that we'll share state-of- the-art high technology with the Russians.

JONATHAN B. STEIN Washington, Oct. 16, 1984

The writer is a fellow in energy and defense studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies at Georgetown University.

CLINTON WAS HARDBALLING THE RUSSIANS OVER CHECHNYA.

AFX World news summary - Russia will pay 'heavy price' for Chechnya - Clinton

AFX.COM

December 7, 1999 Tuesday

Copyright 1999 AFX News Limited

Section: GENERAL; GOVERNMENT

Length: 387 words

Dateline: RAMALLAH, West Bank

Body

President Bill Clinton said yesterday that Russia would pay a "heavy price" for its actions in Chechnya, saying they are "intensifying extremism" and diminishing Moscow's standing in the world. Russian warplanes have dropped leaflets over Grozny telling all those still there to leave the city via a designated corridor. All people remaining in Grozny on Dec 11 would be "viewed as terrorists and bandits, and will be destroyed by artillery and aviation," the leaflets said, according to Russian television.

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A schoolboy, reportedly 12 or 13 year old, has been arrested and charged with trying to kill his classmates at an Oklahoma middle school after wounding four students, Agence France-Presse reported, citing a police officer. The boy arrived at Fort Gibson Middle School yesterday carrying a nine-millimeter pistol around 7:45 a.m. and shot one girl in the face and three boys in the arms and legs before he was overpowered by a school security officer , AFP said.

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The death toll from floods which struck central Vietnam has reached 109 with 21 people still missing, but rains have subsided and water levels are beginning to fall, officials said. "I think we can say the worst is over from the emergency point of view," said John Geoghagen, head of the delegation for the International Federation of Red Cross and Crescent Societies in Vietnam. 

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Deposed Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif was flown from a Karachi jail to Islamabad overnight to appear before the country's Supreme Court in a contempt of court case amid heavy security.

Sharif faces a treason and murder conspiracy case relating to the storming of the Supreme Court by a mob reportedly comprising leaders and workers of his Pakistan Muslim League party on Nov 28, 1997. 

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Palestinians threatened to break off peace talks over Jewish settlements on occupied land, on the eve of U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's visit. The Palestinians are protesting over plans announced Sunday by the Israeli housing ministry to build a further 500 homes for Jews in two West Bank settlements, saying that interim peace agreements call for a halt to such unilateral actions while they are negotiating on a final peace deal.

IRAN'S SUNBURN ANTISHIP MISSILE FROM RENSE 2004. THE US WAS NEVER GOING TO INVADE IRAN.

 Rense.com

The Sunburn - Iran's Awesome

Nuclear Anti-Ship Missile

The Weapon That Could

Defeat The US In The Gulf

By Mark Gaffney

11-2-4

 

A word to the reader: The following paper is so shocking that, after preparing the initial draft, I didn't want to believe it myself, and resolved to disprove it with more research. However, I only succeeded in turning up more evidence in support of my thesis. And I repeated this cycle of discovery and denial several more times before finally deciding to go with the article. I believe that a serious writer must follow the trail of evidence, no matter where it leads, and report back. So here is my story. Don't be surprised if it causes you to squirm. Its purpose is not to make predictions history makes fools of those who claim to know the future but simply to describe the peril that awaits us in the Persian Gulf. By awakening to the extent of that danger, perhaps we can still find a way to save our nation and the world from disaster. If we are very lucky, we might even create an alternative future that holds some promise of resolving the monumental conflicts of our time. --MG

 

Last July, they dubbed it operation Summer Pulse: a simultaneous mustering of US Naval forces, world wide, that was unprecedented. According to the Navy, it was the first exercise of its new Fleet Response Plan (FRP), the purpose of which was to enable the Navy to respond quickly to an international crisis. The Navy wanted to show its increased force readiness, that is, its capacity to rapidly move combat power to any global hot spot. Never in the history of the US Navy had so many carrier battle groups been involved in a single operation. Even the US fleet massed in the Gulf and eastern Mediterranean during operation Desert Storm in 1991, and in the recent invasion of Iraq, never exceeded six battle groups. But last July and August there were seven of them on the move, each battle group consisting of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier with its full complement of 7-8 supporting ships, and 70 or more assorted aircraft. Most of the activity, according to various reports, was in the Pacific, where the fleet participated in joint exercises with the Taiwanese navy.

 

But why so much naval power underway at the same time? What potential world crisis could possibly require more battle groups than were deployed during the recent invasion of Iraq? In past years, when the US has seen fit to "show the flag" or flex its naval muscle, one or two carrier groups have sufficed. Why this global show of power? The news headlines about the joint-maneuvers in the South China Sea read: "Saber Rattling Unnerves China", and: "Huge Show of Force Worries Chinese." But the reality was quite different, and, as we shall see, has grave ramifications for the continuing US military presence in the Persian Gulf; because operation Summer Pulse reflected a high-level Pentagon decision that an unprecedented show of strength was needed to counter what is viewed as a growing threat in the particular case of China, because of Peking's newest Sovremenny-class destroyers recently acquired from Russia.

 

"Nonsense!" you are probably thinking. That's impossible. How could a few picayune destroyers threaten the US Pacific fleet?" Here is where the story thickens: Summer Pulse amounted to a tacit acknowledgement, obvious to anyone paying attention, that the United States has been eclipsed in an important area of military technology, and that this qualitative edge is now being wielded by others, including the Chinese; because those otherwise very ordinary destroyers were, in fact, launching platforms for Russian-made 3M-82 Moskit anti-ship cruise missiles (NATO designation: SS-N-22 Sunburn), a weapon for which the US Navy currently has no defense. Here I am not suggesting that the US status of lone world Superpower has been surpassed. I am simply saying that a new global balance of power is emerging, in which other individual states may, on occasion, achieve "an asymmetric advantage" over the US. And this, in my view, explains the immense scale of Summer Pulse. The US show last summer of overwhelming strength was calculated to send a message.

 

The Sunburn Missile

 

I was shocked when I learned the facts about these Russian-made cruise missiles. The problem is that so many of us suffer from two common misperceptions. The first follows from our assumption that Russia is militarily weak, as a result of the breakup of the old Soviet system. Actually, this is accurate, but it does not reflect the complexities. Although the Russian navy continues to rust in port, and the Russian army is in disarray, in certain key areas Russian technology is actually superior to our own. And nowhere is this truer than in the vital area of anti-ship cruise missile technology, where the Russians hold at least a ten-year lead over the US. The second misperception has to do with our complacency in general about missiles-as-weapons probably attributable to the pathetic performance of Saddam Hussein's Scuds during the first Gulf war: a dangerous illusion that I will now attempt to rectify.

 

Many years ago, Soviet planners gave up trying to match the US Navy ship for ship, gun for gun, and dollar for dollar. The Soviets simply could not compete with the high levels of US spending required to build up and maintain a huge naval armada. They shrewdly adopted an alternative approach based on strategic defense. They searched for weaknesses, and sought relatively inexpensive ways to exploit those weaknesses. The Soviets succeeded: by developing several supersonic anti-ship missiles, one of which, the SS-N-22 Sunburn, has been called "the most lethal missile in the world today."

 

After the collapse of the Soviet Union the old military establishment fell upon hard times. But in the late1990s Moscow awakened to the under-utilized potential of its missile technology to generate desperately needed foreign exchange. A decision was made to resuscitate selected programs, and, very soon, Russian missile technology became a hot export commodity. Today, Russian missiles are a growth industry generating much-needed cash for Russia, with many billions in combined sales to India, China, Viet Nam, Cuba, and also Iran. In the near future this dissemination of advanced technology is likely to present serious challenges to the US. Some have even warned that the US Navy's largest ships, the massive carriers, have now become floating death traps, and should for this reason be mothballed.

 

The Sunburn missile has never seen use in combat, to my knowledge, which probably explains why its fearsome capabilities are not more widely recognized. Other cruise missiles have been used, of course, on several occasions, and with devastating results. During the Falklands War, French-made Exocet missiles, fired from Argentine fighters, sunk the HMS Sheffield and another ship. And, in 1987, during the Iran-Iraq war, the USS Stark was nearly cut in half by a pair of Exocets while on patrol in the Persian Gulf. On that occasion US Aegis radar picked up the incoming Iraqi fighter (a French-made Mirage), and tracked its approach to within 50 miles. The radar also "saw" the Iraqi plane turn about and return to its base. But radar never detected the pilot launch his weapons. The sea-skimming Exocets came smoking in under radar and were only sighted by human eyes moments before they ripped into the Stark, crippling the ship and killing 37 US sailors.

 

The 1987 surprise attack on the Stark exemplifies the dangers posed by anti-ship cruise missiles. And the dangers are much more serious in the case of the Sunburn, whose specs leave the sub-sonic Exocet in the dust. Not only is the Sunburn much larger and faster, it has far greater range and a superior guidance system. Those who have witnessed its performance trials invariably come away stunned. According to one report, when the Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani visited Moscow in October 2001 he requested a test firing of the Sunburn, which the Russians were only too happy to arrange. So impressed was Ali Shamkhani that he placed an order for an undisclosed number of the missiles.

 

The Sunburn can deliver a 200-kiloton nuclear payload, or: a 750-pound conventional warhead, within a range of 100 miles, more than twice the range of the Exocet. The Sunburn combines a Mach 2.1 speed (two times the speed of sound) with a flight pattern that hugs the deck and includes "violent end maneuvers" to elude enemy defenses. The missile was specifically designed to defeat the US Aegis radar defense system. Should a US Navy Phalanx point defense somehow manage to detect an incoming Sunburn missile, the system has only seconds to calculate a fire solution not enough time to take out the intruding missile. The US Phalanx defense employs a six-barreled gun that fires 3,000 depleted-uranium rounds a minute, but the gun must have precise coordinates to destroy an intruder "just in time."

 

The Sunburn's combined supersonic speed and payload size produce tremendous kinetic energy on impact, with devastating consequences for ship and crew. A single one of these missiles can sink a large warship, yet costs considerably less than a fighter jet. Although the Navy has been phasing out the older Phalanx defense system, its replacement, known as the Rolling Action Missile (RAM) has never been tested against the weapon it seems destined to one day face in combat. Implications For US Forces in the Gulf

 

The US Navy's only plausible defense against a robust weapon like the Sunburn missile is to detect the enemy's approach well ahead of time, whether destroyers, subs, or fighter-bombers, and defeat them before they can get in range and launch their deadly cargo. For this purpose US AWACs radar planes assigned to each naval battle group are kept aloft on a rotating schedule. The planes "see" everything within two hundred miles of the fleet, and are complemented with intelligence from orbiting satellites.

 

But US naval commanders operating in the Persian Gulf face serious challenges that are unique to the littoral, i.e., coastal, environment. A glance at a map shows why: The Gulf is nothing but a large lake, with one narrow outlet, and most of its northern shore, i.e., Iran, consists of mountainous terrain that affords a commanding tactical advantage over ships operating in Gulf waters. The rugged northern shore makes for easy concealment of coastal defenses, such as mobile missile launchers, and also makes their detection problematic. Although it was not widely reported, the US actually lost the battle of the Scuds in the first Gulf War termed "the great Scud hunt" and for similar reasons.

 

Saddam Hussein's mobile Scud launchers proved so difficult to detect and destroy over and over again the Iraqis fooled allied reconnaissance with decoys that during the course of Desert Storm the US was unable to confirm even a single kill. This proved such an embarrassment to the Pentagon, afterwards, that the unpleasant stats were buried in official reports. But the blunt fact is that the US failed to stop the Scud attacks. The launches continued until the last few days of the conflict. Luckily, the Scud's inaccuracy made it an almost useless weapon. At one point General Norman Schwarzkopf quipped dismissively to the press that his soldiers had a greater chance of being struck by lightning in Georgia than by a Scud in Kuwait.

 

But that was then, and it would be a grave error to allow the Scud's ineffectiveness to blur the facts concerning this other missile. The Sunburn's amazing accuracy was demonstrated not long ago in a live test staged at sea by the Chinese and observed by US spy planes. Not only did the Sunburn missile destroy the dummy target ship, it scored a perfect bull's eye, hitting the crosshairs of a large "X" mounted on the ship's bridge. The only word that does it justice, awesome, has become a cliché, hackneyed from hyperbolic excess.

 

The US Navy has never faced anything in combat as formidable as the Sunburn missile. But this will surely change if the US and Israel decide to wage a so-called preventive war against Iran to destroy its nuclear infrastructure. Storm clouds have been darkening over the Gulf for many months. In recent years Israel upgraded its air force with a new fleet of long-range F-15 fighter-bombers, and even more recently took delivery of 5,000 bunker-buster bombs from the US weapons that many observers think are intended for use against Iran.

 

The arming for war has been matched by threats. Israeli officials have declared repeatedly that they will not allow the Mullahs to develop nuclear power, not even reactors to generate electricity for peaceful use. Their threats are particularly worrisome, because Israel has a long history of pre-emptive war. (See my 1989 book Dimona: the Third Temple? and also my 2003 article Will Iran Be Next? posted at http://www.InformationClearingHouse.info/article3288.htm )

 

Never mind that such a determination is not Israel's to make, and belongs instead to the international community, as codified in the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). With regard to Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA's) recent report (September 2004) is well worth a look, as it repudiates facile claims by the US and Israel that Iran is building bombs. While the report is highly critical of Tehran for its ambiguities and its grudging release of documents, it affirms that IAEA inspectors have been admitted to every nuclear site in the country to which they have sought access, without exception. Last year Iran signed the strengthened IAEA inspection protocol, which until then had been voluntary. And the IAEA has found no hard evidence, to date, either that bombs exist or that Iran has made a decision to build them.

 

(The latest IAEA report can be downloaded at: http://www.GlobalSecurity.org)

 

In a talk on October 3, 2004, IAEA Director General Mohamed El Baradei made the clearest statement yet: "Iran has no nuclear weapons program", he said, and then repeated himself for emphasis: "Iran has no nuclear weapons program, but I personally don't rush to conclusions before all the realities are clarified. So far I see nothing that could be called an imminent danger. I have seen no nuclear weapons program in Iran. What I have seen is that Iran is trying to gain access to nuclear enrichment technology, and so far there is no danger from Iran. Therefore, we should make use of political and diplomatic means before thinking of resorting to other alternatives."

 

No one disputes that Tehran is pursuing a dangerous path, but with 200 or more Israeli nukes targeted upon them the Iranians' insistence on keeping their options open is understandable. Clearly, the nuclear nonproliferation regime today hangs by the slenderest of threads. The world has arrived at a fateful crossroads.

 

A Fearful Symmetry?

 

If a showdown over Iran develops in the coming months, the man who could hold the outcome in his hands will be thrust upon the world stage. That man, like him or hate him, is Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has been castigated severely in recent months for gathering too much political power to himself. But according to former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who was interviewed on US television recently by David Brokaw, Putin has not imposed a tyranny upon Russia yet. Gorbachev thinks the jury is still out on Putin.

 

Perhaps, with this in mind, we should be asking whether Vladimir Putin is a serious student of history. If he is, then he surely recognizes that the deepening crisis in the Persian Gulf presents not only manifold dangers, but also opportunities. Be assured that the Russian leader has not forgotten the humiliating defeat Ronald Reagan inflicted upon the old Soviet state. (Have we Americans forgotten?) By the mid-1980s the Soviets were in Kabul, and had all but defeated the Mujahedeen. The Soviet Union appeared secure in its military occupation of Afghanistan. But then, in 1986, the first US Stinger missiles reached the hands of the Afghani resistance; and, quite suddenly, Soviet helicopter gunships and MiGs began dropping out of the skies like flaming stones. The tide swiftly turned, and by 1989 it was all over but the hand wringing and gnashing of teeth in the Kremlin. Defeated, the Soviets slunk back across the frontier. The whole world cheered the American Stingers, which had carried the day.

 

This very night, as he sips his cognac, what is Vladimir Putin thinking? Is he perhaps thinking about the perverse symmetries of history? If so, he may also be wondering (and discussing with his closest aides) how a truly great nation like the United States could be so blind and so stupid as to allow another state, i.e., Israel, to control its foreign policy, especially in a region as vital (and volatile) as the Mid-East.

 

One can almost hear the Russians' animated conversation:

 

"The Americans! What is the matter with them?" "They simply cannot help themselves."

 

"What idiots!"

 

"A nation as foolish as this deserves to be taught a lesson"

 

"Yes! For their own good."

 

"It must be a painful lesson, one they will never forget. "Are we agreed, then, comrades?"

 

"Let us teach our American friends a lesson about the limits of military power..."

 

Does anyone really believe that Vladimir Putin will hesitate to seize a most rare opportunity to change the course of history and, in the bargain, take his sweet revenge? Surely Putin understands the terrible dimensions of the trap into which the US has blundered, thanks to the Israelis and their neo-con supporters in Washington who lobbied so vociferously for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, against all friendly and expert advice, and who even now beat the drums of war against Iran. Would Putin be wrong to conclude that the US will never leave the region unless it is first defeated militarily? Should we blame him for deciding that Iran is "one bridge too far"?

 

If the US and Israel overreach, and the Iranians close the net with Russian anti-ship missiles, it will be a fearful symmetry, indeed.

 

Springing the Trap

 

At the battle of Cannae in 216 BC, the great Carthaginian general, Hannibal, tempted a much larger Roman army into a fateful advance, and then enveloped and annihilated it with a smaller force. Out of a Roman army of 70,000 men, no more than a few thousand escaped. It was said that after many hours of dispatching the Romans, Hannibal's soldiers grew so tired that the fight went out of them. In their weariness they granted the last broken and bedraggled Romans their lives.

 

Let us pray that the US sailors who are unlucky enough to be on duty in the Persian Gulf when the shooting starts can escape the fate of the Roman army at Cannae. The odds will be heavily against them, however, because they will face the same type of danger, tantamount to envelopment. The US ships in the Gulf will already have come within range of the Sunburn missiles and the even more-advanced SS-NX-26 Yakhonts missiles, also Russian-made (speed: Mach 2.9; range: 180 miles) deployed by the Iranians along the Gulf's northern shore. Every US ship will be exposed and vulnerable. When the Iranians spring the trap, the entire lake will become a killing field.

 

Anti-ship cruise missiles are not new, as I've mentioned. Nor have they yet determined the outcome in a conflict. But this is probably only because these horrible weapons have never been deployed in sufficient numbers. At the time of the Falklands war the Argentine air force possessed only five Exocets, yet managed to sink two ships. With enough of them, the Argentineans might have sunk the entire British fleet, and won the war. Although we've never seen a massed attack of cruise missiles, this is exactly what the US Navy could face in the next war in the Gulf.

 

Try and imagine it if you can: barrage after barrage of Exocet-class missiles, which the Iranians are known to possess in the hundreds, as well as the unstoppable Sunburn and Yakhonts missiles. The questions that our purblind government leaders should be asking themselves, today, if they value what historians will one day write about them, are two: how many of the Russian anti-ship missiles has Putin already supplied to Iran? And: How many more are currently in the pipeline?

 

In 2001, Jane's Defense Weekly reported that Iran was attempting to acquire anti-ship missiles from Russia. Ominously, the same report also mentioned that the more advanced Yakhonts missile was "optimized for attacks against carrier task forces." Apparently its guidance system is "able to distinguish an aircraft carrier from its escorts." The numbers were not disclosed.

 

The US Navy will come under fire even if the US does not participate in the first so-called surgical raids on Iran's nuclear sites, that is, even if Israel goes it alone. Israel's brand-new fleet of 25 F-15s (paid for by American taxpayers) has sufficient range to target Iran, but the Israelis cannot mount an attack without crossing US-occupied Iraqi air space. It will hardly matter if Washington gives the green light, or is dragged into the conflict by a recalcitrant Israel. Either way, the result will be the same. The Iranians will interpret US acquiescence as complicity, and, in any event, they will understand that the real fight is with the Americans. The Iranians will be entirely within their rights to counter-attack in self-defense. Most of the world will see it this way, and will support them, not America. The US and Israel will be viewed as the aggressors, even as the unfortunate US sailors in harm's way become cannon fodder. In the Gulf's shallow and confined waters evasive maneuvers will be difficult, at best, and escape impossible. Even if US planes control of the skies over the battlefield, the sailors caught in the net below will be hard-pressed to survive. The Gulf will run red with American blood.

 

From here, it only gets worse. Armed with their Russian-supplied cruise missiles, the Iranians will close the lake's only outlet, the strategic Strait of Hormuz, cutting off the trapped and dying Americans from help and rescue. The US fleet massing in the Indian Ocean will stand by helplessly, unable to enter the Gulf to assist the survivors or bring logistical support to the other US forces on duty in Iraq. Couple this with a major new ground offensive by the Iraqi insurgents, and, quite suddenly, the tables could turn against the Americans in Baghdad. As supplies and ammunition begin to run out, the status of US forces in the region will become precarious. The occupiers will become the besieged.

 

With enough anti-ship missiles, the Iranians can halt tanker traffic through Hormuz for weeks, even months. With the flow of oil from the Gulf curtailed, the price of a barrel of crude will skyrocket on the world market. Within days the global economy will begin to grind to a halt. Tempers at an emergency round-the-clock session of the UN Security Council will flare and likely explode into shouting and recriminations as French, German, Chinese and even British ambassadors angrily accuse the US of allowing Israel to threaten world order. But, as always, because of the US veto the world body will be powerless to act... America will stand alone, completely isolated.

 

Yet, despite the increasingly hostile international mood, elements of the US media will spin the crisis very differently here at home, in a way that is sympathetic to Israel. Members of Congress will rise to speak in the House and Senate, and rally to Israel's defense, while blaming the victim of the attack, Iran. Fundamentalist Christian talk show hosts will proclaim the historic fulfillment of biblical prophecy in our time, and will call upon the Jews of Israel to accept Jesus into their hearts; meanwhile, urging the president to nuke the evil empire of Islam. From across America will be heard histrionic cries for fresh reinforcements, even a military draft. Patriots will demand victory at any cost. Pundits will scream for an escalation of the conflict.

 

A war that ostensibly began as an attempt to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons will teeter on the brink of their use.

 

Conclusion

 

Friends, we must work together to prevent such a catastrophe. We must stop the next Middle East war before it starts. The US government must turn over to the United Nations the primary responsibility for resolving the deepening crisis in Iraq, and, immediately thereafter, withdraw US forces from the country. We must also prevail upon the Israelis to sign the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and open all of their nuclear sites to IAEA inspectors. Only then can serious talks begin with Iran and other states to establish a nuclear weapon free zone (NWFZ) in the Mid East so essential to the region's long-term peace and security. 10/26/04 "ICH"

 

*Mark Gaffney's first book, Dimona the Third Temple? (1989), was a pioneering study of Israel's nuclear weapons program. He has since published numerous important articles about the Mid-East with emphasis on nuclear proliferation issues.