Israel is selling weapons to China who is trading weapons to Iran for oil to be used against Israel.
The commission, created by the U.S. Congress in 2000, said a key to China's modernization had been "extensive" acquisitions of foreign military technologies, with Russia as the top supplier and Israel as No. 2.
As for Israel, Commission Vice Chairman Dick D'Amato told Reuters that while Washington had made "strenuous" efforts to restrain it from selling to China, "there's still not the level of cooperation and assurance that has relieved our concerns. We're very worried about this relationship." #msg-3334197
Today, nearly 60 percent of China's oil imports come from that region. Through bilateral agreements, rather than international mechanisms, and using arms sales and dual-use technology transfers - nuclear equipment, guidance systems for missiles - to cement ties, China has obtained oil exploration and exploitation rights in some of the most turbulent nations in the Middle East and North Africa - Iran, Sudan, Libya, Algeria and, until the recent war, Iraq. #msg-3830816
Note China may be using that notorious WMD that we use, depleted uranium. #msg-1197437
-Am
ARMORED WARFARE: The Beast From the East Grows Stronger
August 25, 2004: China’s new, well, sort of new, T-98 tank is apparently still a work in progress. Mass production has not yet begun, although small number have been turned out every month since the late 1990s. Based on Russian designs, the T-98 is a 50 ton tank with a 125mm gun, a three man crew, an auto-loader and a growing list of modern equipment and ideas. The design is new, and Chinese, as is the 125mm gun, The armor is apparently modular. There are large cavities in the from of the chassis and turret for the armor modules. This allows for damaged modules to be replaced or, more likely, older modules replaced with more effective ones. The fire control system includes a laser rangefinder, computer, wind sensor and, in the latest model, thermal imaging equipment. It’s also suspected that Israel is selling China its highly effective M711 125mm APFSDS armor piercing round. If this is true, the Chinese may be equipping it with a depleted uranium penetrator. The Chinese are already selling a 100mm shells with depleted uranium penetrators, so they obviously know how to deal with depleted uranium. An M711 shell using depleted uranium might not be able to knock out an American M-1 from the front, but from any other angle, it would be lethal.
With it’s 1200 horsepower diesel engine, the T-98 is as mobile as the M-1, and has much better gas mileage. The autoloader, when it’s well maintained, can get out eight rounds a minute. But this is not as important as getting off very accurate shots. This is where the T-98 may be in trouble. Little is known of how good the entire fire control system of the T-98 is. But the Chinese are not known to be producing high end fire control gear, yet. It’s also not known how well trained their T-98 crews are. The American M-1, with first class fire control and very well trained crews, has proven unstoppable so far. But at the rate the T-98 is developing, the Chinese may have, or may soon have, a tank that can at least slow the M-1 down. In addition, the Chinese are looking into Russian made anti-missile defenses for tanks as well. The Chinese are trying to leap-frog the M-1 design if they can, or at least give the American tank a formidable opponent.
Given that China and Iran have signed a 100 billion dollar gas deal that eventually could take the total value to as much as 200 billion dollars and that China is known to trade weapons for oil or gas, these showcased weapons could already be in Iran’s hands. #msg-4431516
Through bilateral agreements, rather than international mechanisms, and using arms sales and dual-use technology transfers - nuclear equipment, guidance systems for missiles - to cement ties, China has obtained oil exploration and exploitation rights in some of the most turbulent nations in the Middle East and North Africa - Iran, Sudan, Libya, Algeria and, until the recent war, Iraq. #msg-3830816 http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pri&dt=041118&cat=news&st=newsd86e9qbo0&src=...
-Am
Updated 8:01 AM ET November 18, 2004
By ALAN CLENDENNING
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - The United States has intelligence indicating Iran is trying to fit missiles to carry nuclear weapons, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said.
Powell partially confirmed claims by an Iranian opposition group that Tehran is deceiving the United Nations and is attempting to secretly continue activities meant to give it atomic arms by next year.
"I have seen intelligence which would corroborate what this dissident group is saying," Powell told reporters Wednesday as he traveled to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Santiago. "And it should be of concern to all parties."
Pressed by reporters on the intelligence reports, Powell said the intelligence indicates that Iran "had been actively working on delivery systems" capable of carrying a nuclear weapon.
Powell said there is no evidence to suggest that Iran has developed the technology to make a nuclear weapon, but suggested that the regime is working to adapt missiles for nuclear warheads.
"I'm talking about information that says that they not only had these missiles, but I'm aware of information that suggests they were working hard as to how to put the two together," Powell said.
A senior official for the National Council for Resistance in Iran said Tuesday that a bomb diagram _ along with an unspecified amount of weapons-grade uranium _ was provided to Iran by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the disgraced former head of Pakistani's nuclear development which was tied to both Iran and Libya.
He said the designs were handed to the Iranians between 1994 and 1996, while Khan delivered HEU _ highly enriched uranium _ in 2001.
Banned in the United States as a terrorist organization, the group was instrumental in 2002 in revealing Iran's enrichment program in the central city of Natanz, based on what it said was information provided by sources in Iran.
The opposition group says a facility at Lavizan-Shian northeast of Tehran was part of a secret nuclear weapons program.
Powell declined comment on Khan, but said "for 20 years the Iranians have been trying to hide things from the international community."
Iran says its sole interest is to generate nuclear fuel through low-level uranium enrichment, but the United States suspects Iran wants to produce weapons-grade enriched uranium.
Enrichment does not violate the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty but the International Atomic Energy Agency and most of its members want Iran to scrap enrichment plans as a confidence building measure.
Iran announced suspension of enrichment last week, and the agency said it would police that commitment starting next week, in advance of a Nov. 25 IAEA board meeting.
The pledge reduced Washington's hopes of having the board refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for alleged violations of the Nonproliferation Treaty.
Tehran has not dropped plans to run 50,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium for what it says will be the fuel requirements of a nuclear reactor to be finished next year.
It currently possesses less than 1,000 centrifuges. But if it added 500 centrifuges, experts say Iran would be able to make enough weapons-grade uranium to make a bomb annually.
___
On the Net:www.iaea.org
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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