London in the United Kingdom, is obviously getting nervous about its hosting of the summer Olympics this year. Who are they expecting to attack?

According to RT news, London is introducing all kinds of surveillance ready for the Olympics, costing around 1,6 billion dollars. This at a time of severe economic crisis in the United Kingdom.

Prohibitive measures include ground-to-air missiles, drones and even warships…. are they getting ready for the Olympics, or war?

The Independent and Metro also reported in November last year that “Scotland Yard ready to use radio controlled ‘eyes in the sky’ to boost surveillance.”

In the video below, RT’s reporter Ivor Bennett reports on these extreme surveillance measures, as well as the fear of serious privacy issues.

Source.

Two Iranian naval ships have docked in the Saudi port of Jeddah. Iranian officials say the move aims to project the country’s “power on the open seas” and “confront Iranophobia.”

The supply ship Kharg and destroyer Shaid Qandi docked on Saturday in the Red Sea port in line with orders from the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to Iran’s news agency, Fars.

“This mission aims to show the power of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the open seas and to confront Iranophobia,” Fars quoted navy commander Admiral Habibollah Sayari as saying.

The commander added that the mission would last between 70 and 80 days, but did not specify its route.

Tehran says boosting its naval presence in international waters is in part motivated by the need to protect Iranian ships from Somali pirates. This is why Iranian vessels were deployed to the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden last year. In February 2011, for the first time ever, it also sent two naval vessels into the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal.

The rise in Iran’s naval activity comes amid a steep deterioration of its relations with the West. Its ties with Saudi Arabia are also in poor health, and have gone downhill fast since America accused Tehran of masterminding a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington.

As if that weren’t enough, relations between Tehran and Riyadh deteriorated further after EU countries agreed to impose sanctions on Iran’s oil exports over the country’s nuclear program. In return, Tehran assured the European Union that it is not afraid of its sanctions and that the EU would be the one to suffer. However, Saudi Arabia quickly offered to make up for any shortfall in Europe’s oil supplies. Tehran, in response, called on Riyadh to reconsider, saying its move was unfriendly.

The EU oil embargo has also increased tensions in the Strait of Hormuz – a vital link for oil transit between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.  Iran has threatened to block the Strait in the past, and its determination was underlined when a senior official said Iran would “definitely” close the Strait of Hormuz if the EU oil embargo disrupted the export of crude oil.

The situation around the Strait and the Iranian nuclear program – which the country states is purely peaceful – has already prompted Washington to send squadrons of war ships into the area, while Britain and France have expressed willingness to back the US navy in opposing attempts by Iran to block the Strait.

The Israeli Deputy PM added fuel to the fire, claiming that Iran has also succeeded in building a long-range missile capable of putting the US within its reach. These latest statements are very much in line with the position of Israel and its allies who are accusing Iran of using its nuclear industry to mask plans to develop nuclear arms, a charge official Tehran has frequently and vehemently denied.

The gravity of the crisis became particularly apparent when US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Israel could attack Iran in the next few months. The attack would allegedly occur before it enters a so-called “immunity zone”, ie: before Iran has time to fortify its nuclear facilities against attack.

Source.

Ministers are considering draconian plans to prevent a flood of money and people heading to Britain from Europe if the ailing single currency collapses.

Experts fear that the collapse of the euro would lead to the widespread movement of both people and money – with potentially damaging consequences for Britain if left unchecked.

The Treasury has drawn up contingency plans to prevent investors shifting huge sums of cash from the Eurozone to Britain – amid fears it could lead to a surge in the value of the Pound.

And it emerged yesterday that Britain’s borders could also be temporarily sealed against economic refugees from Europe if the collapse of the euro sparks widespread civil unrest on the Continent.

The Foreign Office is also working on contingency plans for the emergency evacuation of thousands of British expats and holidaymakers from stricken countries.

Officials insist the plans are being drawn up as a precaution – and do not indicate that the Government believes the collapse of the single currency is imminent.

Despite repeated attempts by Eurozone countries to prop up the single currency, many experts believe the 17-member currency cannot survive the coming year intact.

British officials believe that one or more countries, such as Greece and Portugal, could be forced to drop out of the single currency in order to tackle the dire problems in their own economies.

Ministers fear the break-up of the euro could have a devastating effect on Britain, dashing hopes of a recovery and sending the economy back into recession.

Anecdotal reports suggest some wealthy investors and individuals from countries like Greece are already moving money to the UK and buying property in London.

The Treasury, which has a central role in drawing up contingency plans for the euro’s collapse, believes a break-up could send international investors scrambling for a safe haven.

The transfer of huge sums of money to London could send Sterling soaring – threatening to crush the fragile recovery in exports which is central to the Coalition’s plans to ‘rebalance’ Britain’s economy.

Earlier this year the Swiss government was forced to intervene after nervous investors transferred cash there from the Eurozone, sending the value of the Swiss Franc to unsustainable levels.

The Swiss authorities moved to peg the currency to the euro.

The Treasury is planning a different approach which will impose strict limits on the amount of money that can be moved in or out of the UK.

Treasury officials are also drawing up plans to deal with the impact on Britain’ s major banks, which have a combined exposure of £170 billion to the troubled economies of Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Spain.

Elsewhere in Whitehall there are fears that a collapse of the euro could lead to widespread civil unrest – and even spark a flood of economic refugees.

Some countries are expected to ground all flights and effectively seal their borders to prevent the flight of people and money. British officials are said to be considering contingency plans to seal the UK’s borders in a worst-case scenario – although any attempt to prevent the free movement of people is illegal under EU law.

The Ministry of Defence has also been put on standby to help rescue British nationals stranded in countries that are plunged into chaos.

Other EU countries are also drawing up contingency plans.

Earlier this month reports in Portugal said the country’s borders would be temporarily sealed if the country drops out of the single currency.

Strict limits would be imposed on cash withdrawals and euro notes would be stamped with an escudo mark until the new currency was printed and distributed.

Source.

A British Royal Naval destroyer was scrambled on Monday to “keep watch” on a Russian aircraft carrier and its escorts, the Ministry of Defense said.

The Royal Navy’s Type 42 destroyer HMS York sailed from Portsmouth, southern England, to meet with Russia’s Admiral Kuznetsov off the east coast of Scotland. The 65,000 ton carrier, with warships and support vessels, anchored outside British territorial waters some 30 miles off the Moray Firth, in Scotland.

The Admiral Kuznetsov “was thought to have taken advantage of the relative shelter to avoid the worst of current bad weather in the North Sea,” the MOD said in a statement Tuesday.

Britain, though, often has to scramble fighter jets to escort Russian military aircraft flying near to British airspace.

Source.

• William Hague orders closure of Iran embassy in London
• All Iranian officials ordered to leave within the next 48 hours
• Britain withdraws diplomatic staff from Iran after embassy attacks
• Norway closes its Tehran embassy citing security concerns
• David Cameron says Britain considering ‘very tough action’
• Siege of embassy ends after more than seven hours of chaos
• Iran foreign ministry expresses ‘regret’ over attack on embassy

15.22 Tory MP Bernard Jenkin said in the Commonsthe attacks against the embassy showed the need to take off the “rose-tinted spectacles” and consider military action after ten years of failed diplomacy:

It has been more than a decade of best-intentioned, positive diplomacy, trying to win the argument with the Iranians, and if this incident doesn’t raise the rose-tinted spectacles from our eyes, nothing will.

14.40 German foreign ministry spokesman says:

In light of yesterday’s events in Tehran, Foreign Minister (Guido) Westerwelle decided that the German ambassador in Iran should be recalled to Berlin for consultations.

14.38 David Miliband, the former Foreign Secretary urges condemnations of Iran not to lead to a “drumbeat of war”.

14.32 Germany recalls Iran ambassador for ‘consultations’.

Source.

The new radar station in the Kaliningrad enclave will be ready to monitor missile launches from the entire European continent already on Tuesday, Nov. 29. The new station plays a significant role in the complex of measures, which Russia takes in response to the growing power of the US missile defense system. The radar station in the Kaliningrad region will be put into service of the air defense system on November 29, Viktor Esin, the former chief of Russia’s missile troops told Izvestia newspaper.

The over-the-horizon missile warning radar Voronezh-DM is situated in the settlement of Pionerskoye of the Kaliningrad region. According to Viktor Yesin, the station will monitor the western direction on the distance of up to 6,000 kilometers. “The radar virtually covers all of Europe, including Great Britain,” the official said.

The station will be able to detect all missiles launched in Europe and monitor airspace in western areas from the North Pole to the north of Africa.

The radar station of the new generation was developed at the Moscow Research Institute of Long-Distance Radio Communication. Unlike the stations of the previous generation, Voronezh-DM consists of only 23 blocks of equipment. The new station consumes 40 percent less electric power. It is possible to redeploy the radar station quickly, if necessary.

Russia has a similar radar station operating in the south, the Krasnodar region. Another station like that will be ready in 2012 in the Irkutsk region (Siberia).

The radar station in the Kaliningrad enclave can serve for 20 years and be modernized afterwards.

Last week, President Dmitry Medvedev released a harsh statement in connection with USA’s refusal to guarantee that its missile defense system would not be aimed against Russia. The president ordered the Defense Ministry to put the radar station in the Kaliningrad region in operation and strengthen the defense of strategic nuclear forces.

Source.

The United States, Britain and France seek to carry out a series of false flag operations in Syria, says a political observer.

Middle East expert Peter Eyre said in an article posted on Eyreinternational.wordpress.com on Sunday that the trio “are again rattling their sabers at Syria.”

“They are waiting for a justification to move in; a ‘false flag incident’ such as [what] happened on 9/11,” Eyre said.

The political analyst added that the three countries will “also push the UN for permission to go in [Syria] on humanitarian grounds, which is one of the best cons.”

“For sure the French have their experts training militia close to the border in Turkey and also in Lebanon. The US and British continue to push hard for a regime change,” Eyre said.

The Middle East expert also referred to the stance of Israel against Syria, saying that “at the top of the list is Israel waiting to strike and at the same time utilize their vast storage of weapons that have been stockpiled by the United States (almost double the norm).”

Eyre said the plot against Syria is part of a plan by the United States, Britain and France to “take control of the European Union, Middle East and the world.”

“Their plan has three main themes, to take control of the world’s natural resources, to take control of the markets for those resources, and to take control of the sea lanes and transit routes for those resources,” Eyre added.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has warned against any foreign attack against Syria, saying the military action will cause instability in the whole Middle East.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March, with demonstrations being held both in favor of and against President Assad. Hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed in the turmoil.

Damascus blames “outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups” for the unrest, saying that it is being orchestrated from abroad.

Source.

The UK Ministry of Defense (MoD) has announced the withdrawal of 1,800 military personnel from Germany in January, as part of the cuts declared in last year’s Strategic Defense and Security Review.

In a bid to save £250m a year, the government announced plans to relocate troops and pull them out of bases in the Rhineland, where the British Army had been present since the end of the Second World War in 1945.

The total pullout of all 20,000 British soldiers from Germany would happen by 2020, after 1,800 soldiers leaving by next January, another 8,200 by 2015, and the rest before the end of the decade.

The bases in Germany, with a population of over 43,000, including civilians, families and children, account for the biggest deployment of UK forces abroad.

“This is the start of a process that will lead to all British troops leaving Germany by 2020. It is the end of an era that began at the end of Second World War and lasted through the cold war,” a Whitehall source said.

Referring to the issue, Professor Malcolm Chalmers, of the Royal United Services Institute think tank said, “It may make us appear rather separate from our European allies. That is something we need to look out for.”

Cottesmore in Rutland and Kinloss in Scotland are among the two former Royal Air Force (RAF) bases, which have been renovated for the regiments returning to the UK.

Source.

A senior Iranian lawmaker has called on the UN Security Council to condemn the British prime minister for the brutal repression of protesters in the UK as a ‘war criminal.’

Deputy Chairman of Iran’s Majlis (parliament) National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Mohammad-Karim Abedi on Friday lashed out at David Cameron for his regime’s crackdown on protesters, describing it as “unacceptable,” Fars News Agency reported.

Speaking at a news conference outside 10 Downing Street on Thursday, British Prime Minister Cameron said he had authorized the use of rubber bullets and water cannon by the Metropolitan Police to suppress the widespread protests by youths — who UK politicians refer to as gangs of criminals.

“If the Security Council does not put David Cameron’s trial as a war criminal on its agenda and does not meet this demand of the British nation, nations’ view of this council will definitely change more than ever before,” he said.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran as an establishment which considers itself an advocate of the rights of nations cannot remain silent on the British kingdom’s crimes,” Abedi underlined.

The unrest in Britain broke out on August 6 in Tottenham, north London, after a few hundred people gathered outside a police station to protest the fatal shooting and killing of a black man, Mark Duggan, by the police.

Violent protests soon erupted in major cities like Birmingham, Liverpool, and Bristol, contributing to Britain’s worst riot since the 1930s.

On Thursday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the British chargé d’affaires in Tehran to convey Iran’s concern over the heavy-handed handling of protests in Britain.

Earlier, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for an end to the use of force against demonstrators in Britain.

Deputy chairman of Iran’s Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Hossein Ebrahimi said on Tuesday that Iran is ready to send a delegation to investigate human rights in Britain.

The commander of Iran’s Basij Force has also expressed readiness to deploy peacekeepers to monitor the rights situation in Britain.

Source.