Bush's upcoming Mideast trip...

[Dead Money]

Israel to brief George Bush on options for Iran strikeUzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv

ISRAELI security officials are to brief President George W Bush on their latest intelligence about Iran?s nuclear programme - and how it could be destroyed - when he begins a tour of the Middle East in Jerusalem this week.

Israeli security officials believe the only way to prevent uranium enrichment to military grade is to destroy Iranian installations. Many Israelis are eager to know whether America would give their country the green light to attack, as it did last September when Israel struck a mysterious nuclear site in Syria.

Bush refused to be drawn when asked whether he would support an Israeli attack. ?My message to all countries in the region is that we are able to solve the problem in a diplomatic way,? he said, ?but all options are on the table.?

Ehud Barak, the defence minister, is said to want to convince him that an Israeli military strike against uranium enrichment facilities in Iran would be feasible if diplomatic efforts failed to halt nuclear operations.

A range of military options has been prepared.

Last month it was revealed that the US National Intelligence Estimate report, drawing together information from 16 agencies, had concluded that Iran stopped a secret nuclear weapon programme in 2003.

Israeli intelligence is understood to agree that the project was halted around the time of America?s invasion of Iraq, but has ?rock solid? information that it has since started up again.


While security officials are reluctant to reveal all their intelligence, fearing that leaks could jeopardise the element of surprise in any future attack, they are expected to present the president with fresh details of Iran?s enrichment of uranium - which could be used for civil or military purposes - and the development of missiles that could carry nuclear warheads.

In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot this weekend, Bush argued that in spite of the US intelligence assessment, Iran still posed a threat.

?I read the intelligence report carefully,? Bush said. ?In essence, what the report said was that Iran had a secret plan to develop nuclear weapons.

?I?m saying that a state which adopted a nontransparent policy and had a secret plan for developing nuclear weapons could easily develop an alternative plan for the same purpose. So to conclude from the intelligence report that there is no Iranian plan to develop nuclear weapons will be only a partial truth.?

 

[Spytheweb]

So what? Why can't Iran have nuclear weapons? With countries like the US and Israel ready to invade a fool wouldn't want the weapon. If Saddam had a nuke would he still be in power? Hell yea.

Better be careful, there are Russians working at those nuclear sites, if Israel bombs and kills them, Russia would have to attack Israel just to save face. Israel can't attack Iran without the US's ok.

 

[Dead Money]

And herds of domestic pigs were sighted flying overhead..

And herds of domestic pigs were sighted flying overhead..

By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY
RAMALLAH, West Bank ? President Bush laid out his vision Thursday of a peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians that he said should be reached this year, and he indicated he's likely to return to the Middle East to see it through.
Bush said a deal should end the 1967 "occupation" of Arab land by Israel and create a Palestinian state that is "contiguous," rather than the current split between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

He urged the creation of "new international mechanisms, including compensation" to resolve the issue of Palestinian refugees.


MIDEAST TOUR: Bush's visit to test his credibility
'INNER CIRCLE': President protected with 'layered security'

The president was less prescriptive about Jerusalem, which both sides claim as their capital.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: George W Bush | George W Bush | Israel | West Bank | Gaza Strip | Palestinians | Mideast | Jerusalem | Abbas | Palestinian Authority | Israelis | Ehud Olmert | Palestinian state | Palestine
"I fully understand that finding a solution to this issue will be one of the most difficult challenges on the road to peace," Bush said. "But that is the road we have chosen to walk."

Bush's summation of where Israeli-Palestinian peace talks stand came after two days of shuttle diplomacy.

He met with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem Wednesday and Palestinian leaders in this West Bank city Thursday, becoming the first president in nearly a decade to visit the two sides in one of the world's most intractable disputes.

"The peace agreement should happen, and can happen, by the end of this year," Bush said. "I know each leader shares that important goal, and I am committed to doing all I can to achieve it."

Stephen Hadley, Bush's national security adviser, said that likely would include more Bush visits to the Middle East before his presidency ends a year from now.

"I think you will see him back in the region at least one more time, and maybe more, before he leaves," Hadley said.

Bush called on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to "make sure their teams negotiate seriously."

"I share with these two leaders a vision of two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security," he said.

To achieve that, he said, Israel must stop expanding settlements and remove unauthorized outposts, and the Palestinians must confront terrorists and end the bombing of Israel.

Bush is in the Mideast for eight days.

In his outline for a peace accord, Bush said "the agreement must establish a Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people, just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people."

He said "security for Israel and viability for the Palestinian state are in the mutual interests of both parties" and said any agreement "would require adjustments to the armistice alliance of 1949."

He was referring to Israeli neighborhoods on disputed lands that Israel would keep when an independent Palestinian state is formed.

Earlier in the day, standing beneath a portrait of Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian leader who is buried nearby, Bush vowed to "nudge the process forward" by pressuring leaders on both sides and "be a pain if I need to be a pain."

Bush sought to jump-start negotiations at a conference in Annapolis, Md., six weeks ago.

Abbas called Bush's trip from Jerusalem to his government compound ? past numerous Israeli and Palestinian checkpoints ? "a historic visit that gives our people great hope." Bush later visited the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, a Palestinian city about six miles south of Jerusalem.

Until now, Palestinians have been skeptical of the American president because of his strong backing of Israel.

But Abbas pronounced himself satisfied with the day's talks and promised that "in the coming few days, we are going to bilateral negotiations with the Israelis."