.bmp)
.bmp)
JERUSALEM-Israeli security officials here strongly denied reports the Israeli Air Force has been practicing at U.S. bases in Iraq for a possible attack against Iran.The officials also questioned the veracity of the original report, which was uncredited and which may have originated with Iran itself.U.S. media hysteria broke out today after the Jerusalem Post published an uncredited report quoting sources in the Iraqi Defense Ministry telling a "local news network" that Israeli war planes were practicing in Iraqi airspace and that massive Israeli flyovers were detected at U.S. bases in Iraq.The Post report, which did not name the local news network that aired the information, further quoted local sources stating they heard from "former military officers" in Iraq's Anbar province that Israeli jets arrive at night from Jordan and land on a runway near the city of Hadita.But neither the Jerusalem Post nor dozens of other English news reports today quoted the original source of the information – an Iranian newspaper quoting an unspecified Iraqi news website. That claimed Iraqi news website could not immediately be found. Security officials here said the report may have entirely originated with Iran.The Iranian dispatch citing a purported Iraqi news website was quoted last night by the Hebrew Israeli media and then it finally made it to the pages of the Jerusalem Post today. The Post did not tell its readers where the information comes from.Asked for a response to the reports, an Israel Defense Forces spokesman told WND, "We do not comment on the operations of the Israel Air Force."Israeli security officials speaking to WND dismissed the Arab media report as "groundless."Iraq's Defense Ministry said on Friday it had no knowledge of any Israeli air force drills in its airspace.Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters, "I find that report inconceivable, and clearly someone is either misinformed or intentionally trying to create mischief."The latest round of media hysteria follows a veiled warning to Iran by Israel's defense minister, Ehud Barak, who stated Israel "is the strongest country in the region and we have proven in the past that we are not deterred from acting when our vital interests are at stake."Barak was responding to a reported Iranian missile and military drill that may have been exaggerated by Iran's state-controlled media, which released a picture of four Iranian long-range missiles taking off. It was later determined the image had been doctored to add at least one missile.Earlier this week, an official from the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guards warned if the U.S. or Israel attacks Iran, Tehran will retaliate by "burning down" Tel Aviv and U.S. naval forces in the Persian Gulf.Last month it was reported the Jewish state held a major military exercise over the Mediterranean Sea involving more than 100 aircraft. The drill was widely seen as Israeli preparations for a possible bombing of Iran's nuclear installations.According to some reports last week, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, who visited Israel last month, told the Jewish state it does not have a "green light" from the U.S. to attack Iranian nuclear facilities.Last week, WND conducted an exclusive interview with Meir Amit, a former head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, who said Israel should use force to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weaponsThe comments from Amit, one of the most esteemed figures in the Israeli intelligence establishment, are significant, since he previously had refused to support an attack against Iran."I am in favor of using the power of force against Iran, because if we let things go as they are we will find ourselves in a very dangerous situation," Amit said. "We have good intelligence, and we shall decide what is the right timing for any attack.http://www.worldnetdaily.com/?pageId=69345
As in the days of Noah...
