Nuclear Iran will destabilize Middle East: Mullen

Washington (PTI): A top US military official feels that a nuclear Iran would destabilize the Middle East and could push the countries in the region in a race to acquire atomic weapons.
Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the nations in the Middle East and Gulf could follow the pattern of Pakistan, which went on a hunt for nuclear weapons after India conducted its first nuclear test in early 1970's.
"I think the whole issue of nuclear weapons has got to stay front and center, because more and more countries are seeking them, and as more countries seek them, additional countries want them. I mentioned Pakistan. All you have to do is go back to India getting nuclear weapons, Pakistan developing them thereafter," he said.
"So in Iran, for instance, one of the things that I am extremely concerned about is their getting a nuclear weapon capability and then other countries in that region, given the threat that they feel from Iran, doing the same," Mr. Mullen said at the Junior Statesman Summer School Program in Virginia on Friday. "So it becomes a proliferation issue, and I think we have got to start to contain that and make decisions and sign up to strategic direction with other countries that reduces that threat and doesn't increase it," he said.

Obama Shifts Tone on Gates After Mulling Scale of Debate

WASHINGTON — President Obama tried Friday to defuse a volatile national debate over the arrest of a black Harvard University professor as he acknowledged that his own comments had inflamed tensions and insisted he had not meant to malign the arresting officer.

Mr. Obama placed calls to both the professor, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and the man who arrested him, Sgt. James Crowley, two days after saying the police had “acted stupidly” last week in hauling Professor Gates from his home in handcuffs. Mr. Obama said he still considered the arrest “an overreaction,” but added that “Professor Gates probably overreacted as well.”

U.S. officials believe that son of Usama bin Laden was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan.

Earlier this year, hellfire missiles from a U.S. Predator drone strike killed younger bin Laden. This is the belief of U.S. officials. - Sources confirmed to FOX News late Wednesday.

Saad bin Laden reportedly traveled to Pakistan last year after spending several years under house arrest in Iran. – Statement from Mr. Mike McConnell to NPR

It is believed that Saad, is not considered a significant player in Al Qaeda leadership, and he was "collateral" damage in the airstrike and was not considered important enough to target on his own. A U.S. official points out that Saad "had a marquee name" but was not actively considered a successor to his father.


A senior U.S. counterterrorism official told to NPR that It isn't possible to tell for certain whether he was killed, since a body has not been recovered, preventing DNA tests,

There are 80 to 85% chance that Saad bin Laden is dead.

FOX News says- U.S. officials believe that son of Usama bin Laden was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan.

Earlier this year, hellfire missiles from a U.S. Predator drone strike killed younger bin Laden. This is the belief of U.S. officials. - Sources confirmed to FOX News late Wednesday.

Saad bin Laden reportedly traveled to Pakistan last year after spending several years under house arrest in Iran. – Statement from Mr. Mike McConnell to NPR

It is believed that Saad, is not considered a significant player in Al Qaeda leadership, and he was "collateral" damage in the airstrike and was not considered important enough to target on his own. A U.S. official points out that Saad "had a marquee name" but was not actively considered a successor to his father.


A senior U.S. counterterrorism official told to NPR that It isn't possible to tell for certain whether he was killed, since a body has not been recovered, preventing DNA tests,

There are 80 to 85% chance that Saad bin Laden is dead.