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White house requests Bunker Buster bombs

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illinoisprogressive Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-24-07 10:17 PM
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White house requests Bunker Buster bombs
So, maybe that Iran vote was not for only diplomacy. Maybe the bushies are going to go to war with iran afterall.


Tucked inside the White House's $196 billion emergency funding request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is an item that has some people wondering whether the administration is preparing for military action against Iran.

The item: $88 million to modify B-2 stealth bombers so they can carry a newly developed 30,000-pound bomb called the massive ordnance penetrator, or, in military-speak, the MOP.

The MOP is the the military's largest conventional bomb, a super "bunker-buster" capable of destroying hardened targets deep underground. The one-line explanation for the request said it is in response to "an urgent operational need from theater commanders."

What urgent need? The Pentagon referred questions on this to Central Command.

ABC News called CENTCOM to ask what the "urgent operational need" is. CENTCOM spokesman Maj. Todd White said he would look into it, but, so far, no answer.

There doesn't appear to be any potential targets for a bomb like that in Iraq. It could potentially be used on Taliban or al Qaeda hideouts in the caves along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, but there would be no need to use a stealth bomber there.

So where would the military use a stealth bomber armed with a 30,000-pound bomb like this? Defense analysts say the most likely target for this bomb would be Iran's flagship nuclear facility in Natanz, which is both heavily fortified and deeply buried.

"You'd use it on Natanz," said John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org. "And you'd use it on a stealth bomber because you want it to be a surprise. And you put in an emergency funding request because you want to bomb quickly."


http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3771522&page=1
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Double T Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-24-07 10:25 PM
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1. Time to pull the carte blanche cards from the WH and the Pentagon............
BOTH of these out of control spenders must be cutoff!
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aquart Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-24-07 10:47 PM
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2. Try one out on that Texas "ranch."
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Adsos Letter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-24-07 10:59 PM
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3. some of it MIGHT be intended for underground structures
in the tribal areas of Pakistan... :shrug:
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