ktlight
7th June 2011, 09:42
FYI:
Cargo vessels owned by Israel’s richest man, who died on Friday, had been used to ferry elite Israeli forces for operations inside Iran, according to defence sources.
The death in Tel Aviv of Sammy Ofer, 89, came just days after the United States accused his company of breaching sanctions by selling an oil tanker to Iran. It has mystified Israelis why a company with close links to the government was allegedly breaching sanctions.
Military experts suggested the cargo ships had carried Black Hawk helicopters, hidden in modified containers, for use by commando teams in reconnaissance missions against Iran’s secret nuclear sites. Israel is conducting a massive intelligence operation to monitor Iran’s nuclear weapons programme.
By using giant freighters with helicopters and men hidden in containers on their decks, the Israeli forces would possess a logistical platform similar to a helicopter assault warship and one that could approach the Iranian coast without suspicion.
Defence sources said some ships from the group controlled by Ofer and his brother Yuli were known to have given Israeli forces access to Iranian waters.
At least 13 ships owned by the Ofer Brothers Group have docked in Iran over the past decade, using the port of Bandar Abbas on the southern coast and the Kharg Island oil terminal in the Gulf, according to Equasis, a shipping information database.
The Raffles Park, a ship sold to Iran by the Singapore-based Tanker Pacific, had docked off the Iranian shore four times between September 2002 and January 2010, according to Equasis records. The US State Department said Tanker Pacific was owned by the Ofer Group but the company has said this is “a mistake” and denied any wrongdoing.
Israel has said the matter is one between the company and the State Department and it will not back Ofer’s efforts to be removed from the American blacklist of companies found trading with Iran.
source for more to read
http://freedomsyndicate.com/fair0000/times0063.html
Cargo vessels owned by Israel’s richest man, who died on Friday, had been used to ferry elite Israeli forces for operations inside Iran, according to defence sources.
The death in Tel Aviv of Sammy Ofer, 89, came just days after the United States accused his company of breaching sanctions by selling an oil tanker to Iran. It has mystified Israelis why a company with close links to the government was allegedly breaching sanctions.
Military experts suggested the cargo ships had carried Black Hawk helicopters, hidden in modified containers, for use by commando teams in reconnaissance missions against Iran’s secret nuclear sites. Israel is conducting a massive intelligence operation to monitor Iran’s nuclear weapons programme.
By using giant freighters with helicopters and men hidden in containers on their decks, the Israeli forces would possess a logistical platform similar to a helicopter assault warship and one that could approach the Iranian coast without suspicion.
Defence sources said some ships from the group controlled by Ofer and his brother Yuli were known to have given Israeli forces access to Iranian waters.
At least 13 ships owned by the Ofer Brothers Group have docked in Iran over the past decade, using the port of Bandar Abbas on the southern coast and the Kharg Island oil terminal in the Gulf, according to Equasis, a shipping information database.
The Raffles Park, a ship sold to Iran by the Singapore-based Tanker Pacific, had docked off the Iranian shore four times between September 2002 and January 2010, according to Equasis records. The US State Department said Tanker Pacific was owned by the Ofer Group but the company has said this is “a mistake” and denied any wrongdoing.
Israel has said the matter is one between the company and the State Department and it will not back Ofer’s efforts to be removed from the American blacklist of companies found trading with Iran.
source for more to read
http://freedomsyndicate.com/fair0000/times0063.html