Ahmadinejad: Israeli PM Netanyahu a 'skilled killer'

Ahmadinejad: Israeli PM Netanyahu a 'skilled killer'

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the Israeli prime minister is a professional assassin, who should be tried for his crimes against the people of Palestine.


"[Benjamin] Netanyahu should be tried in court for blockading Gaza and massacring innocent Palestinian women and children," Ahmadinejad said in an interview with CNN's Larry King on Wednesday.

"Netanyahu is a professional assassin. All dictators in history accuse others to turn the spotlight away from themselves," the Iranian president said when asked about the Israeli prime minister's worries about Iran.

"It is questionable [why] American media feel responsible for this person (Netanyahu)," Ahmadinejad said, adding that "you (American media) are afraid of Netanyahu's warmongering."

The Iranian president said the US and Israel's nuclear weapons are the main threat to the world, and they are mistaken to think they can divert attention from this issue by using propaganda campaigns and spreading lies about others.

"Iran is firmly after the nuclear disarmament of the US and Israel."

Ahmadinejad added that Israel is an "illegitimate regime" and an "occupier" and that the US easily starts wars and massacres people, "they are not qualified to have nuclear weapons and should be disarmed as soon as possible."

When asked about the fate of a former FBI agent who allegedly disappeared on Kish Island, the Iranian president said a "joint Iranian-American intelligence committee is to investigate the matter."

Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent, disappeared on March 9, 2007 on Kish Island where he was doing investigative work for a private security firm.

US officials have dismissed suggestions that Levinson was on assignment for a US government agency.

Iranian authorities have announced that Tehran has no information on the matter but they stand ready to work with the FBI if asked by Washington.

Former Mossad head calls for Western air forces to strike at Teheran’s nuclear facilities.

Yatom: Only attack will stop Iran

By YAAKOV KATZ

Former Mossad head calls for Western air forces to strike at Teheran’s nuclear facilities.

Western countries need to form a coalition of air forces now and attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, former Mossad director Danny Yatom said on Sunday.


Only military force can stop Iran, the former Labor MK said, speaking at an International Institute for Counter-Terrorism conference at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya.

“Since the sanctions are not enough, I am hopeful that the world will come to its senses and reach the conclusion that to stop the Iranian nuclear arms race, we will have to attack some of their nuclear facilities,” Yatom said, in rare comments by a former top Israeli security official regarding the use of force against the Islamic Republic.


While some of Iran’s nuclear facilities are scattered throughout the country and are in fortified bunkers deep underground, if the world “mobilizes its capabilities” it would be possible to cause enough damage to delay the program.

“If the modern air forces led by the United States mobilize their capabilities it is possible, if not to completely remove the threat, at least to delay it for years to come,” Yatom said.

While refraining from discussing specific Israeli capabilities, he said that if the world failed to meet the challenge, Israel would “retain the right to self-defense.”

“Figure out for yourselves what that means,” he told the audience.

Yatom said that Israel could not live with a nuclear Iran.

“I don’t want to be in a situation that I will be sitting in Israel and my fate will be in the hands of others, especially when we are talking about a lunatic regime,” he said. “I don’t want to be the subject of an Iranian experiment.”

Yatom’s predecessor as Mossad chief, Shabtai Shavit, weighed in on the recent socalled “Galant Document” scandal that rocked the IDF and said that Col. Erez Weiner, Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi’s top aide, could not be promoted due to his involvement in the affair.

Weiner gave a copy of the document to a former IDF officer, who then leaked it to Channel 2.

“We need to immediately clear the IDF of extraneous considerations,” Shavit said.

He also warned against appointing one of the majorgenerals who lost the bid to replace Ashkenazi as the next head of the Mossad.

“For the defense minister, this is another ploy to build coalitions and garner support for his policies by appointing people who will be in his debt,” Shavit said.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak met on Sunday with a group of senior IDF officers who are candidates for new positions, as incoming chief of General Staff Maj.-Gen. Yoav Galant leaves the reins at the Southern Command in the coming weeks.

Barak held meetings with the head of the IDF Operations Directorate Maj.-Gen. Tal Russo and OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Gadi Eizenkot.

Russo is rumored to be a candidate to replace Galant as OC Southern Command, and Eizenkot has asked to remain as OC Northern Command or be appointed deputy chief of General Staff under Galant.

"The empire is at the point of committing a terrible error that nobody can stop. It advances inexorably toward a sinister fate,"

"The empire is at the point of committing a terrible error that nobody can stop. It advances inexorably toward a sinister fate,"

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro sits at the National Centre for Scientific Investigation (CNIC) in Havana July 7, 2010.

Fidel Castro to appear on Cuban television and radio

(Reuters) - Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who has lived in seclusion since falling ill four years ago, will appear on Cuban television and radio on Monday evening to discuss his theory that the world is on the verge of nuclear war, the Communist Party newspaper Granma said in its Monday online edition.

The appearance will mark the second time in less than a week that the suddenly resurgent 83-year-old has made a public appearance, after staying out of view, except in occasional photographs and videos, since undergoing emergency intestinal surgery in July 2006.

Last Wednesday, he made a visit to a Havana scientific center that was disclosed in a blog on Saturday.

Castro writes opinion columns, or "Reflections," for Cuba's state-run media that in recent weeks have focused on his prediction that nuclear war will soon break out, sparked by a conflict between the United States and Iran over international sanctions against Iran's nuclear activities.

"The empire is at the point of committing a terrible error that nobody can stop. It advances inexorably toward a sinister fate," he wrote on July 5.

The "empire" is how Castro usually refers to the United States, his bitter foe from the time he took power in Cuba in a 1959 revolution.

In a column published on Sunday night, Castro said the "principal purpose" of his writings has been to "warn international public opinion of what was occurring."

He said he has reached his dire conclusion based in part on "observing what happened, as the political leader that I was during many years, confronting the empire, its blockades and its unspeakable crimes."

The columns have attracted little attention internationally and caused little reaction in Cuba, but Castro promised to continue his lonely fight to warn the world of the coming disaster.

"I don't hesitate in running risks of compromising my modest moral authority," he wrote on Sunday. "I will continue writing 'Reflections' about the topic."

Castro ruled Cuba for 49 years before provisionally ceding power to younger brother Raul Castro following his 2006 surgery.

Citing age and infirmity, he officially resigned in February 2008 and Raul Castro, now 79, was elected president by the National Assembly.

Fidel Castro's reappearance comes as Cuba is preparing to release 52 political prisoners, all jailed in a crackdown on the opposition in 2003 while he was still in power.

(Reporting by Jeff Franks; editing by Eric Beech)

Iranian student group releases anti-Israel computer games

Iranian student group releases anti-Israel computer games

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF

Government back group produced games to celebrate al-Quds day; Iranian chief of staff: Teheran could strike "Israeli nuclear site" if attacked.

 

A government-backed Iranian student group released two anti-Israeli computer games, “Devil Den 2” and “Freedom Convoy,” to commemorate the last Friday of Ramadan, referred to by Shi’ites as al-Quds Day.

Both games were produced by the School Students Basij Organization, which is affiliated with Iran’s Education Ministry.

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Devil Den 2 is about “the Israeli protocols,” the director of the organization, Muhammad Saleh Jokar, said during a ceremony announcing the release of the two games on Thursday, the eve of Quds Day.


“The illegitimate regime has said in its protocols that they will abolish all beliefs,” Jokar was quoted as saying by the Iranian Mehr News Agency.

“We have witnessed that the foundations of the illegitimate Zionist regime have been weakened and our younger generation must be familiarized with the protocols and the inhuman ideology of the regime,” he added.

The second game, Freedom Convoy, is based on the Israel Navy’s May 31 raid on the Mavi Marmara. Jokar described the maneuver, part of an Israeli effort to prevent ships from breaking the blockade of the Gaza Strip, as an Israeli attack, referring to the six foreign vessels as the “Freedom Flotilla.”

A number of Iranian military commanders, including Basij (volunteer forces) Commander Brig.-Gen. Muhammad Reza Naqdi and the deputy commander of the Armed Forces Headquarters, Masud Jazayeri, attended the ceremony.

“The downfall of oppressors is carried out by God...In the most pessimistic view, there will be no trace of the Zionist regime in 15 years,” Naqdi was quoted by Mehr as saying during the ceremony.

The “Zionist regime’s” place in history will be similar to those of the former Soviet regime and South Africa’s apartheid government, Naqdi added.

Jazayeri said that the games have been produced as an alternative for users who are being flooded with games manufactured by the US and Israel. He typified computer games as “soft weapons” – nonviolent measures used to change the population’s point of view – and said the US and Israel were using soft weapons against Iran alongside the “hard weapons” at their disposal.

According to the report, Iran plans to produce six additional sequels to “Devil Den.” The first installment in the series was released in 2009.

Many copies of the two new games were distributed free of charge to demonstrators participating in the al- Quds Day rally in Teheran.

Also at the rally, Iran’s military chief of staff said Teheran could strike Israel’s alleged nuclear facility if the Jewish state were to attack Iran’s nuclear sites.

Gen. Hasan Firouzabadi said Iran hopes there won’t “be a need to target the nuclear facility of the Zionist regime,” but if there is, Israel would receive “dreadful retribution.”

The rally is often used by Iranian officials to issue threats against Israel.


AP contributed to this report.