Will the Venezuelan Missile Crisis be the news of 2011?

by | May 21, 2011 | Economic Intrigue, Just plain weird, Politics, UK Misery, Well I never.

23rd October 1962 – are we headed for round two?

Via ZeroHedge, could this development in the ongoing US-Iran pissing match be the one that starts the missiles flying? :

A week ago Die Welt reported that, in what may soon be a repeat of the Cuban missile crisis, US arch-enemy Iran, following a secret agreement signed on October 19, 2010 of strategic cooperation, Venezuela has allowed Iran to commence construction of a missile base on Venezuelan soil.

The base, which will be located on the northernmost peninsula de Paraguana, 120 kilometers from the Colombian border, has recently been visited by a group of leading engineers from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard-owned construction company Khatam al-Anbia, is unofficially designed “to help develop an infrastructure to protect against air attack. Also planned is the construction of a command and control station, residential areas, watchtowers, and bunkers, in which warheads, missile fuel and other items can be stored.

In cooperation with its Venezuelan partners, Iran also intends to build missile silos at a depth of about 61 ft.” The project appears to be funded by Iran: “Information gathered by Die Welt also suggests that on their visit to Venezuela, members of the Iranian delegation carried cash in their luggage for the project’s initial funding. Western security circles suspect that this involved tens of millions of dollars siphoned off from Iran’s burgeoning oil profits.”

But most importantly is the discovery that while presumably defensive, Venezuela has told Iran, that it will be granted use of the base when completed: “According to the secret agreement between the two countries, Venezuela pledged to Iran that it will be able to strike its enemies from the joint missile base.

Iran is attempting to boost its strategic threat to the U.S., similar to the Soviet strategy in Cuba during the 1960s.” And while skeptics may say that the base located about 2,400 miles from DC has no chance in striking the US capitol, the reality is that the Iranian long-range ballistic missiles Shahab 5 and 6, are rumored to be a three-stage system, which has a range of anywhere between 3,000 and 10,000 miles.

And, those are not the only moves afoot :

So with missile base supplies most likely to come by sea (Venezuela is a few hundred miles away from Cuba), is a recreation of the 1961 Cuban missile crisis the next big political diversion?

Which then begs the question: is America trying to antagonize Iran and to accelerate this “Cuban” denouement? According to the latest Naval update, not only are there now two aircraft carriers situated at the Straits of Hormuz, but a third one, CVN 77 G.H.W. Bush, is under way on a deployment to the 5th and 6th fleet AORs.

Three aircraft carriers floating around near Iran suggests that something may be in the planning and also possibly explains the US disengagement from Libya early in Cameroids futile campaign.

If all that isn’t enough to get you thinking then Iran has certainly raised the stakes even higher with this little surprise :

And a move that is sure to tip the scales to an outright confrontation even more, is the just announced by Al Arabiya arrest of 30 suspected US spies: a move which will certainly lead to executions, and the complete collapse of any diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Iran has arrested 30 people it said were spying for the United States.

“Due to the massive intelligence and counter-intelligence work by Iranian agents, a complex espionage and sabotage network linked to America’s spy organization was uncovered and dismantled,” an intelligence ministry statement read out Saturday on the television said.

“Elite agents of the intelligence ministry in their confrontation with the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) elements were able to arrest 30 America-linked spies through numerous intelligence and counter-intelligence operations,” it added.

According to Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency, the suspects had passed information to US officials at embassies and consulates in third countries, including Malaysia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

There will soon be more countries with confilcts and protests than those without. Half the Middle East is either revolting or poking the US, Europe is either protesting or falling apart and the whole worlds monetery system is reliant on the US pumping in dollar after dollar just to keep the extend and pretend game on the road.

Whatever happens I am pretty sure that it is going to get damned ugly quite quickly but with so many conflicts to choose from it will probably be a complete surprise where it eventualy kicks off.

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