. 24/7 Space News .
Cheney mulled luring Iran into war with Israel

by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) Sept 23, 2007
US Vice President Richard Cheney has considered provoking an exchange of military strikes between Iran and Israel in order to give the United States a pretext to attack Iran, Newsweek magazine reported in its Monday issue.

But the weekly said the steady departure of neoconservatives from the administration over the past two years had helped tilt the balance away from war.

One official who pushed a particularly hawkish line on Iran was David Wurmser, who had served since 2003 as Cheney's Middle East adviser, the report said.

A spokeswoman at Cheney's office confirmed to Newsweek that Wurmser left his position last month to "spend more time with his family."

A few months before he quit, Wurmser told a small group of people that Cheney had been mulling the idea of pushing for limited Israeli missile strikes against the Iranian nuclear site at Natanz -- and perhaps other sites -- in order to provoke Tehran into lashing out, the magazine reported, citing two unnamed "knowledgeable sources."

The Iranian reaction would then give Washington a pretext to launch strikes against military and nuclear targets in Iran, Newsweek reported.

When Newsweek attempted to reach Wurmser for comment, his wife, Meyrav, declined to put him on the phone and said the allegations were untrue, the report said.

A spokeswoman at Cheney's office told the weekly the vice president "supports the president's policy on Iran."

Community
Email This Article
Comment On This Article

Related Links
Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com
Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com
All about missiles at SpaceWar.com
Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


US, Israel shared intel before Syria raid: report
Washington (AFP) Sept 21, 2007
Israel warned the United States that North Korea might be sharing nuclear know-how with Damascus before it carried out an air strike deep inside Syria, the Washington Post reported Friday.







  • Russia aims for new far east space launch pad by 2020
  • Global space summit looks to the future, 50 years after Sputnik-1
  • Malaysian 'Gagarin' hopes to observe Ramadan fast in space
  • Call For More Vital Role For University Of Leicester In Space Exploration

  • NASA Orbiter Finds Possible Cave Skylights On Mars
  • Shaking Off The Dust And Getting Back To Work
  • Life on Mars Pregnancy Test Launched
  • Changes to Mars Science Lab Project Respond to Cost Increases And Keep Program On Track

  • Pratt And Whitney Rocketdyne's RS-27A Powers New-Gen Imaging Satellite To Orbit
  • United Launch Alliance Launches 75th Consecutive Delta II On USAF 60th Anniversary
  • Arianespace To Launch Japanese Satellite JCSAT-12
  • Russian Space Launch Vehicle Firing Tests Set For 2008

  • Boeing Launches WorldView-1 Earth-Imaging Satellite
  • New Faraway Sensors Warn Of Emerging Hurricane's Strength
  • Key Sensor For Northrop Grumman NPOESS Program Passes Critical Structural Test
  • Air France And ESA Join To Offer Passengers Unique View Of Voyage

  • Outbound To The Outerplanets At 7 AU
  • Charon: An Ice Machine In The Ultimate Deep Freeze
  • New Horizons Slips Into Electronic Slumber
  • Nap Before You Sleep For Your Cruise Into The Abyss Of Outer Sol

  • 'Orphan' Stars Found In Long Galaxy Tail
  • Explosion Reveals Tiny Magnetic Island
  • A World Premiere! The International Dark Sky Reserve Of Mont-Megantic Is Officially Created
  • The Magellanic Clouds Are First-Time Visitors

  • NASA Maps The Moon With Google
  • The Promised Moon
  • Japan says lunar orbiter launch a success
  • Google offers reward to land robot on moon

  • Brussels to present finance plans to save Galileo satnav project
  • DoD Permanently Discontinues Procurement Of Global Positioning System Selective Availability
  • Boeing Builds First GPS IIF Satellite
  • India To Build Constellation Of Seven Navigation Satellites

  • The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2007 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement