Tuesday, January 4, 2011

DTN News - BREAKING NEWS: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Asks U.S. President Barack Obama To Pardon Jailed Spy

Asian Defense News: DTN News - BREAKING NEWS: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Asks U.S. President Barack Obama To Pardon Jailed Spy
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Ari Rabinovitch - Reuters & Toronto Sun
(NSI News Source Info) JERUSALEM, Israel - January 4, 2011: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealed to U.S. President Barack Obama to grant clemency to imprisoned spy Jonathan Pollard in a letter he then read publicly in Israel’s parliament Tuesday.

Pollard, a former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, has been serving a life sentence in the United States since he was caught spying for Israel in the 1980s, triggering a scandal that rocked U.S.-Israeli relations.

“Mr. President, on behalf of the people of Israel, I am writing to you to request clemency for Jonathan Pollard. At the time of his arrest Jonathan was acting as an agent of the Israeli government,” Netanyahu said in Hebrew.

“Even though Israel was in no way directing its intelligence efforts against the United States, its actions were wrong and wholly unacceptable ... Israel will continue to abide by its commitment that such wrongful actions will never be repeated.”

Pollard’s release has been raised on many occasions by successive Israeli leaders with their U.S. counterparts in a variety of diplomatic frameworks, but no president has agreed to commute the sentence.

“We have received the letter and will review it,” White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

Netanyahu said, “Since Jonathan Pollard has now spent 25 years in prison, I believe that a new request for clemency is highly appropriate.”

He said many past and present senior U.S. officials knowledgeable of the affair, including many congressmen, agreed with the clemency request.

“I know the United States is a nation based on fairness, justice and mercy. For all these reasons, I respectfully ask that you favourably consider this request for clemency,” he said.

Pollard, who admitted spying for Israel, was arrested in 1985 outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington and sentenced for providing tens of thousands of pages of classified information to Israel.

His supporters say it was information Israel should have received from the United States and that his sentence was disproportionate. Pollard was sentenced to life in prison in 1987.

At the time, Israel presented the affair as an unauthorised operation by a fringe intelligence agency. Israel later granted Pollard citizenship in 1996 and acknowledged he was one of its spies in 1998.

Israeli officials say the country has since avoided operating in the United States.

*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News, contact: dtnnews@ymail.com

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  • Asian Defense News - China Claims New Nuclear Technology

  • guardian.co.uk,
  • Asian Defense News: China's ambitions to lead the world in nuclear power were boosted today by reports that its scientists had mastered a key technique in the reprocessing of spent uranium.

    State media claimed the technology overcame a supply bottleneck and ensured China would have sufficient nuclear fuel for at least 3,000 years.

    China nuclear power

    China completed the Daya Bay nuclear power station in Guangdong province, south China, in 2003. Photograph: Adrian Bradshaw/EPA

    The breakthrough would be a boon to the domestic industry, which is in the early stages of what looks likely to be the most spectacular burst of reactor-building in world history.

    Due to surging demand for energy and growing concerns about pollution, China's nuclear-power generating capacity is projected to increase up to tenfold in the next 10 years. By 2030 China could be on course to overtake the US as the world's leading atomic energy producer.

    The technology, developed and tested at the number 404 factory of the China National Nuclear Corporation, situated in the Gobi desert, enables recycling of irradiated fuel, according to China Central Television. How this differs from existing reprocessing methods in other countries is unclear, but the state broadcaster said that with this technique a kilo of uranium could produce close to 60 times more power than was now possible in China.

    If proven this method would extend the "usage life" of the 171,400 tonnes of the country's known uranium deposits, which previously were forecast to last less than 70 years.

    Reprocessing can also provide fissile material for weapons, though details have not yet been disclosed about the potential impact on China's nuclear arsenal.

    China first tested an atomic bomb in 1964, but it was slow to adopt nuclear power because of the cheapness and abundance of domestic coal, and the government was reluctant to depend on expensive foreign technology and uranium imports. But in recent years growing wealth and shifting environmental priorities have prompted a change.

    According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, China now has 13 operating reactors and 26 more facilities under construction.

    China National Nuclear Corporation said last year it planned to invest 800bn yuan (£78bn) in the industry by 2020. China has already been replicating the technology of its foreign suppliers and is moving to design its own reactors and reprocessing plants. The next step is construction and overseas sales.

    DTN News: Iran Top Stories / Headlines News Dated January 4, 2011

    Asian Defense News: DTN News: Iran Top Stories / Headlines News Dated January 4, 2011
    Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Press TV
    (NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 4, 2011: Comprehensive daily news related to Iran for the world of TODAY.
    *Comprehensive daily news related to Iran Top Stories / Headlines News for the world of TODAY
    Tue Jan 4, 2011 7:57AM
    A group of Iranian students have gathered in front of Egypt's Interests Section in Tehran to protest Cairo's continued policy on preventing Iranian activists from reaching the Gaza Strip.
    Tue Jan 4, 2011 7:41AM
    Iran has invited representatives and ambassadors of different countries to inspect its nuclear facilities to once again show its goodwill, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast says.
    Tue Jan 4, 2011 7:12AM
    Head of the Iranian delegation with the Asia to Gaza Solidarity Caravan, (Asia 1) says Egypt's decision to block Iranian humanitarian aid from reaching the Gaza Strip is a pro-Israeli effort.
    Tue Jan 4, 2011 4:56AM
    Kuwait plans to mount an exhibition of works created by a number of contemporary Iranian artists at the Arab emirate's FA Gallery.
    Tue Jan 4, 2011 2:6AM
    The Red Crescent Societies of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Iraq have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to improve services to the pilgrims of the two nations.
    Mon Jan 3, 2011 9:10PM
    The Iranian Foreign Ministry has summoned the Swiss envoy over United States' inhumane treatment of an Iranian woman who has been held in a US prison for three years.
    Mon Jan 3, 2011 7:16PM
    Iran has urged the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to help determine the fate of a former Iranian deputy minister who has reportedly died in Israeli detention.
    Mon Jan 3, 2011 4:31PM
    The Iranian Navy says the royal sailboat of Oman, Zinat al-Bahar, has anchored off the southern coast of Iran with a message of peace and friendship.
    Mon Jan 3, 2011 3:23PM
    A senior prosecutor in Iran says for foreign or domestic journalists there is no restriction on writing reports about an Iranian woman convicted of adultery and complicity in murder.
    Mon Jan 3, 2011 11:6AM
    Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi has criticized a bill ratified by Iranian lawmakers on the establishment of a new government ministry.
    Tue Jan 4, 2011 9:15AM
    A prominent Israeli rabbi has issued a religious decree forbidding Jewish women from driving or learning to drive unless absolutely necessary.
    Tue Jan 4, 2011 8:17AM
    Israeli forces have razed a Palestinian home in East al-Quds (Jerusalem), the latest in the nonstop wave of Israeli demolitions in the illegally annexed city.
    Tue Jan 4, 2011 6:13AM
    Mortar shells have targeted a US military base in central Iraq, further indicating that the foreign troops have worn out their welcome in the country they invaded in 2003.
    Tue Jan 4, 2011 1:56AM
    The Israeli Air Force (IAF) has reportedly issued a request for information on a Korean warplane, which Tel Aviv might rent for training its pilots.
    Mon Jan 3, 2011 11:59PM
    The US must be accountable for the rising number of cancer rates and birth defects reportedly linked with America's use of depleted uranium in the Iraq war, analysts say.
    Mon Jan 3, 2011 10:19PM
    Egyptian authorities have prevented an Asian convoy's ship carrying humanitarian aid and activists from reaching the Gaza Strip.
    Mon Jan 3, 2011 7:1PM
    A Lebanese military judge has issued an indictment, urging the death penalty for a retired Lebanese army general for allegedly spying on his country.
    Mon Jan 3, 2011 5:39PM
    Nearly 80 illegal African migrants have been feared drowned after two boats overturned off the coast of south Yemen, says the Yemeni Interior Ministry.
    Mon Jan 3, 2011 4:34PM
    Kuwait is planning to mount an exhibition of works created by a number of contemporary Iranian artists, at the Arab emirate's FA Gallery.
    Mon Jan 3, 2011 2:42PM
    A walkout staged by Israeli foreign ministry workers has forced Tel Aviv to cancel an official planned visit by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

    *This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News, contact:dtnnews@ymail.com

    © COPYRIGHT (C) DTN NEWS DEFENSE-TECHNOLOGY NEWS