New York and other US cities are on high terror alert after the failed car bomb attempt to blow up Times Square, New York, Saturday night, May 1. Our terror experts note the similarity in methods of operation between this failed attack and two past bungled al Qaeda attempts to cause massive loss of American life: The British "shoe bomber" Richard Reid in 2002 and the Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on Christmas Day 2009.  New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg said the wiring "looked amateurish."
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New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters how the police evacuated the heart of Times Square, New York, for several hours Saturday night, May 1 when a smoking bomb car was found there. Shortly after a street vendor alerted the police to smoke coming out of a parked Nissan SUV, the NYPD bomb squad secured an unexploded car bomb improvised from 3 propane tanks, 2 gasoline containers, electric wire, white powder, consumer grade fireworks, electrical wiring and two clocks.

Chinese president Hu Jintao was taken by surprise by the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas's plea to support tough sanctions against Iran's nuclear program when they met in Shanghai Saturday, May 1, debkafile's Middle East sources reveal. A Middle East war, a real peril in the absence of sanctions, would cost the lives of many Palestinians who would be caught in the middle.
Abbas said he spoke for most Arab rulers.

US and Israeli defense chiefs Robert Gates and Ehud Barak told reporters at the end of their talks in the Pentagon on April 27: "Syria and Iran are providing Hizballah with rockets of ever-increasing capability...  and we're watching it very carefully" - Gates; and "We do not intend to provoke any kind of major collision in Lebanon or with Syria, but are watching closely..." - Barak.

debkafile: Neither sounded ready to halt the headlong Iranian-Syrian-Hizballah drive for a summer war.

The US and Iran are racing ahead towards their next moves in case sanctions fail to deter Iran from building a nuclear bomb. DEBKA-Net-Weekly's coming issue out this Friday opens a window on President Barack Obama's new Iranian policy and Iran's plans to loose its allies against Israel in August - or sooner.
Don't miss our detailed analysis of the buildup for a Middle East war this summer and its prospects.

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The US Fifth fleet and USS Eisenhower refrained from shooting an Iranian spy plane collecting intelligence from the American carrier on April 21 because they are under orders not to respond to hostile Iranian acts without permission direct from Washington. Gulf governments fear US military passivity will encourage Tehran to be bolder and more provocative, emulating Pyongyang which got away scot-free with sinking a South Korean vessel.
 

Israel's advanced military hardware sales to Turkey are petering out under the impact of Tayyep Recep Erdogan's alignment with Syria and Iran and his poisonous attacks, with detrimental effect on the Turkish army's operational capabilities. debkafile sources report that Israel refused to sell the Turkish Navy the Barak 8 missile interceptor, whose radar provides warships with 360-degree coverage against incoming missiles or air attack. Its co-developer India is equally adamant against the sale.

This relatively cheap, extra-smart, easy-to-use Club-K Container Missile System, which Moscow has put on the open market, allows cruise missiles concealed in freight containers to be launched from a prepositioned or moving land or sea platform. It is virtually undetectable by radar until activated. No wonder, Iran and Venezuela were keenly interested when the Club-K was put on the open market at the Defense Services Asia exhibition in Malaysia this week for $15 m.

In Iranian, Syrian or Hizballah hands, it would be a game-changer.
...

debkafile's Washington sources report that instead of a freeze on all Israeli construction in East Jerusalem, the Obama administration asks Israel to quietly suspend all building licenses and other permits for just four weeks, to give US Middle East envoy George Mitchell a chance to persuade the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to accept US-moderated proximity talks.
Israel did indeed make Abbas an offer of temporary borders, but he turned it down and demanded that the US President "impose" a solution.

The Obama administration appeared torn by internal debate when Wednesday, April 21, US deputy defense secretary Michele Flournoy said: "The US has ruled out a military strike against Iran's nuclear program any time soon " - only to be contradicted a few hours later when the Pentagon spokesman denied the United States had dropped its military option.
Iranian officialdom believes the debate is a trick to put them to sleep, while the US gradually builds up its Persian Gulf forces to peak in two or three months.