Iran [Archive] - It's Happening Forums

al-Canine

02-28-2005, 09:36 PM

IAEA looks at Iran's nuclear past

ElBaradei asks Iran to provide more information about past dealings with nuclear smuggling ring.

By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

As the International Atomic Energy Agency began a board meeting in Vienna on Monday, the Associated Press reports that IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei called on Iran to cooperate with the agency in its investigation of the country's past nuclear activities. Sunday The Washington Post reported that international investigators had disovered that Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan had given Iran a written offer to supply the basics of a nuclear weapons program.

The meeting, believed to have taken place in a dusty Dubai office in 1987, kick-started Tehran's nuclear efforts and Khan's black market. Iran, which was at war with Iraq then, bought centrifuge designs and a starter kit for uranium enrichment. But Tehran recently told the International Atomic Energy Agency that it turned down the chance to buy the more sensitive equipment required for building the core of a bomb.

The Post reports that US officials believed that Iran used the documentation as a "buyer's guide," and purchased some of the "pricer items" elsewhere. Iran continues to insist that it has no desire to build a bomb and will only use nuclear technology for "peaceful purposes."

The New York Times reports that Iran has "reluctantly turned over new evidence" that affirms the conversations with Mr. Khan 18 years ago. The Times says the confirmation of the meetings does not prove that Iran has been "secretly seeking to make a bomb," but it does show how "aggressively" Khan's network was "peddling the technology" to Iran. Investigators say Iran cut back on its contacts with the network in the mid-90s.

'It adds a piece to the puzzle that makes the whole thing more incriminating,' said one European official with access to the intelligence. 'But is this a smoking gun? No. Does this make people more suspicious? Yes.'
Pakistan, meanwhile, said the Post story "offered nothing new" and dismissed it as an "old story." Pakistan has never allowed the IAEA to question Mr. Kahn about his activities in the 80s selling, when he smuggled nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

The Daily Times of Pakistan reports that one of the troubling aspects of this story is that the US and Britain had been aware of Khan's network for about 18 months when the Iran in Dubai meeting took place. The Los Angeles Times reports that the US had adopted a "watch-and-wait policy" in regards to Khan's activities, which allowed him to go from "a secretive procurer of technology for Pakistan's atomic weapons program" 20 years ago to "history's biggest independent seller of nuclear weapons equipment and expertise."

In spite of the information about the meeting with Khan, Mr. ElBaradei is also expected to tell the meeting that there is no new evidence that Iran is working on a nuclear weapons program, and thus the IAEA board will not recommend UN Security Council sanctions against the country, which is what the United States had been hoping.

The Bush administration, however, might be willing to try another tactic with Iran. The Washington Post reports that the US administration is "close to a decision to join Europe in offering incentives to Iran" if Iran will give up any plans to develop a nuclear weapon. Incentives offered by the US and the EU would include membership in the World Trade Organization.

'The reason we're comfortable considering this tactically is because strategically, when the president was in Europe, he found them solid on the big issue: that Iran can't have a nuclear weapon. Having found them firm on the strategic issue, he's more willing to consider the tactical aspects with the Europeans – including how do we work with them and what can the Europeans offer that we would be part of it,' said a senior State Department official speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive diplomacy.

Finally, the IAEA will tackle one other difficult issue during this week's meeting in Vienna – the decision of ElBaradei to run for a third term as director general, a move that has been strongly opposed by Washington. The Financial Times of London reports that the biggest problem that US officials may have with ElBaradei is that he was right, and they were wrong, about Iraq possessing nuclear weapons.

Before the war, he upset them by more or less declaring there was no evidence that Iraq had an active nuclear weapons program. After the war, he rubbed salt in that wound by being right. Before last November's US presidential election he reported that 350 tons of high explosive had gone missing from an Iraqi facility that the IAEA had been monitoring before the invasion. John Kerry ... seized on the missing explosive as evidence of further administration bungling in Iraq. Mr. ElBaradei was accused by Republicans of interfering in the election. But his supporters asked whether he was expected to keep such information secret, when it had implications for UN workers and others inside Iraq.

The Financial Times said that the question boils down to "how much political capital" is the US willing to burn, especially after President Bush's trip to Europe last week that "warmed" a relationship that had been "chilled over Iraq." ElBaradei is very popular with the Europeans (including Britain), and all other members of the IAEA. At one point, the US was actively campaigning to find someone among its allies to challenge ElBaradei for the position, but was unable to do so.

The Washington Times reported earlier this month that this failure to find a replacement has not changed the US position on the director general.

'There are gracious ways to leave the stage,' the official said. 'ElBaradei has not chosen the gracious way, but that has not changed our view that we need a new IAEA head.'

http://www.christiansciencemonitor.com/specials/sept11/dailyUpdate.html

The 801

03-02-2005, 08:01 AM

Iran News

Feb 27th, 2005 - 15:56:46

--------------------------------------------------------

Mole Caught in Iran mullah president's OfficeFeb 27, 2005, 15:47
(Persian Journal)

A high-placed Iranian mole has been caught in Iranian mullah president Mohammed Khatami's office in Tehran.

Hossein Marashai, head of Iran's cultural heritage council, was caught using a sophisticated US-manufactured listening long distance transmitting device at top-level mullah leadership meetings.

Sources call this the deepest foreign intelligence penetration in all 26 years of Iran's Islamic regime of mullahs.

© Iranian.ws

http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/article_5899.shtml

Persain source for mole story

801

Petronas

03-03-2005, 01:04 AM

‘190,000 US troops a target if Iran attacked’
Thursday, March 03, 2005

TEHRAN: The head of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards has warned that 190,000 US troops stationed close to the Islamic republic could be targetted if Iran were attacked, a report said Wednesday. “More than 190,000 members of American forces are scattered in Afghanistan and Iraq. If the US carries out its threats against Iran, they nust know that all these forces will be within our reach,” Yahya Rahim Safavi told the ultra-hardline Ya Lessarat newspaper. “The US and the Zionist regime (Israel) do not have the power to confront us and we will hand them bone-breaking blows,” Safavi said, adding that “Iraq is getting more unsafe everyday for America” anyway. He also warned that if “the Zionist regime had a satanic thought and attacked Iran, we would not leave one point safe in the entire Zionist territory”. The United States and Israel both accuse Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, and have not ruled out military options to prevent the clerical regime of acquiring the bomb.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_3-3-2005_pg4_17

TrustButVerify

03-06-2005, 03:36 PM

From Debka:
Russian-Iranian military cooperation reaches into space. DEBKAfile’s military sources report Russia will next month launch on Iran’s behalf two satellites. Kosmos-3 will loft Mesbah (Dawn) military surveillance probe and Sinah-1 (Sinai-1) into space.

Iran claims resolution of Mesbah’s instruments high enough to pick up valuable military and strategic data for attacks on Israel. Launching put forward from summer to April at Tehran’s insistence.

Petronas

03-12-2005, 07:14 PM

Iran’s nuclear ‘nightmare’ very close, says Israel
Sunday, March 13, 2005

MEXICO CITY: Israel said on Friday that Iran was very close to being able to make a nuclear bomb and urged the United States and Europe to pressure Tehran to abandon a suspected nuclear arms program. Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told Reuters an Iranian nuclear bomb would be a “nightmare” for Israel and other countries. “In our view, they are very close, they are too close, to having the knowledge to develop this kind of bomb and that’s why we should be in a hurry,” Shalom said in an interview on a visit to Mexico. Pakistan acknowledged this week for the first time a disgraced Pakistani scientist at the center of a nuclear black market gave Iran centrifuges which can be used to make atomic weapons. Shalom would not put a date on when Israel thought its bitter foe Iran could have nuclear arms, which he said could eventually take nuclear weapons to the heart of Europe because Tehran is developing new long-range missiles. “The idea that this tyranny of Iran will hold a nuclear bomb is a nightmare not only for us but for the whole world,” Shalom said. Israeli warplanes bombed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor in a daring raid in 1981 to prevent it from making atomic bombs. Observers have speculated Israel might launch a similar strike against Iranian facilities, but Shalom played down the military option against Iran. “We believe that diplomacy is the only way to deal with this issue,” he told a meeting of academics and journalists. The United States and Europe launched a coordinated push on Friday to get Iran to abandon its suspected nuclear arms program by offering economic incentives as a carrot and possible UN action as a stick.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_13-3-2005_pg4_17

Petronas

03-16-2005, 01:30 AM

Several celebrators killed and hundreds injured or arrested in Iran
Mar 16, 2005

Several protesters/celebrators have been killed and hundreds have been injured or arrested following the violent clashes that rocked most Iranian cities, yesterday night, at the occasion of popular riots during the "Pagan" Tchahar-Shanbe Souri (Fire Fiest). These clashes happened as brutal militiamen attacked Iranians who transformed the already hardly tolerated celebration into protest action and show of "un-Islamic" joy. Most areas of the Capital and cities, such as, Esfahan, Mahabad, Shiraz, Rasht, Kermanshah, Babol, Sannandaj, Dezful, Mashad, Ahwaz, Marivan, Khoram-Abad, Zabol, Baneh, Tabriz, Hamedan and Oroomiah (former Rezai-e) were scenes of sometimes unprecedented street fights between the regime forces and groups of Iranians.

In Tehran alone official sources are stating about two deaths in what has been qualified as "incident during non professional work on incendiary devices" "inside a abandoned home in east of the Capital".

More concordant reports are stating about an astonishing use of force in the Capital's areas of Rey, Guisha, Narmak and Reja-i Shahr leading to many injured, arrested and few believed deaths. Other neighborhoods, such as, Shahrak Gharb, Madar Square, Haft-Hose, Gohardasht, Tajrish and Pasdaran were also transformed into unprecedented scenes of apocalypse and giving prelude to what can happen the last night of the rule of Islamic regime during a general uprising.

In Esfahan, Tabriz, Shiraz several demonstrators were seen with broken heads laying in their blood following the brutal assaults of the regime's forces in Tchahar Bagh, Ab-Ressani, Sajad and Azadi (Freedom) avenue.

Hundreds have been reported as admitted to hospitals due to wounds inflicted by heavy objects (clubs or chains) and even plastic bullets. Hundreds more are missing following the massive wave of arrests after the regime forces charges on Iranians. Reports from their quick transfers by full buses with military escort are coming from several cities.

Several regime vehicles, such as, anti-riot trucks, patrol cars and even firefighter trucks with water cannon have been destroyed in Esfhan, Mahabad and southern part of the Capital. Tens of militiamen have been also injured, some seriously, by armed masked individuals or groups of young using pieces of stones and incendiary devices, such as, Molotov Cocktails or hand made grenades.

Many celebrators were seen shouting slogans against the regime and its leaders, such as, "Marg bar Jomhoori e Eslami" (Down with Islamic Republic), "Marg bar Taleban e Iran" (Down with Taleban), "Toop, Tank, Feshfeshe, Bassiji bayad Koshte She" (Gun, Tank, Fire Cracker, Militia must be killed) and "Referendum, Referendum, in ast Shoar e Mardom" (Referendum, Referendum, this is the people's slogan) by making reference to a genuine election, expressed so many time since three years ago, and after the total fall of the Islamic regime and without giving any chance to some so-called redempted 'former' factions of the regime to surf again over the popular aspiration.

Other slogans stating about a dangerous level of the popular exasperation, such as, "Bush, Bush, kush? Kush?" (Bush, Bush, Were's He? Were's He?) were also shouted along with some unprecedented public attacks against EU members, such as, France and Germany.

Pictures of regime's leaders and Islamist books, even at some occasion, Mandatory veils and copies of the Koran along with some EU symbols, such as, French and German flags were thrown into fire by some protesters. France and Germany are the closet collaborators of the illegitimate regime in Iran.

In some areas, like in the center of Mahabad and Sannandaj, overwhelmed official forces had to pull back at several occasions while some streets' initiative felt into residents hands. The regime forces were deployed massively around strategic buildings and facilities, such as, the Governmental TV and Radio by fear of a popular take over.

The impact of the riots are to the point that the regime's propaganda tools are already blaming the exasperated Iranians for "acts of vandalism and hooliganism having lead to the perturbance of civil order and endangering the public safety". The unprecedented event forced even the governmental TV to praise Tchahr Shanbe Souri and then to condemn those who can't make a "normal celebration" of "this old tradition".

It's to note that the religiously banned celebration in which millions of Iranians are participating, each year, has been considered as "Paganistic" by the dogmatic clerics. It became this evening, once again as not only another act of joy and renewing with the Persian Cultural Heritage, but also as an act of political civil disobedience, and a show of attachment to Iranians' national values.

The Movement's Coordinator and speakers of various opposition groups had reiterated the importance of the continuation of such action in various interviews made with most Persian satellite TV and radio networks broadcasting to Iran. Aryo B. Pirouznia of SMCCDI had stated, again and during the W-End, that the persistence of Iranians to show their attachment to their cultural heritage that contradicts Shia principles and show their deep rejection of the main basis of the Islamic regime. "Tchahar Shanbe Souri is not only a Persian cultural event but also an evident and noticeable show of opposition opportunity".

The Islamist clerics have always tried, especially since taking power in 1979, to ban such tradition that date before the Arab/Islamic invasion of Iran which lead to the forced conversion of Iranians to Islam. The clerics see it, the fire fest, as a threat to their spiritual and political existence.

In Year 2000, the number of bushes set on fire were to the point that a landing Air France plane tried to change its trajectory as the pilot thought a revolution was taking place in Iran. At least 6 celebrators were killed and hundreds of others beaten and arrested by the regime forces. The Capital Law Enforcement Forces declared that the deaths were due to the explosion of fire crackers at their homes but a month later and in an unprecedented manner, the head of the regime's Medical Legalist, confessed that no deaths due to explosion were brought to his services and on that night most deaths were caused by heads of victims smashed with heavy objects.

The Islamic regime forces made, on that night, a wide spread use of heavy clubs and chains in order to attack the demonstrators.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/smccdinews/article/publish/article_4369.shtml

Petronas

03-20-2005, 12:46 AM

X-55 Long Range Cruise Missile

On 28 January 2005, Ukranian parliamentarian Hryhoriy Omelchenko issued an open letter to President Viktor Yushchenko that Ukraine had illegally sold cruise missiles to Iran. It's was a credible report, which names dates, names, the bank accounts, fictitious shell companies that were set up to extradite the transfer of money from Iran. Plus there was collaborating evidence to this whole affair. He refered to a paper company set up in Cyprus to channel money for the missiles.

Anti-corruption lawmaker Omelchenko was a ranking State Secret Services (SBU) officer and a deputy belonging to Yulia Tymoshenko's parliament faction. Omelchenko is the past head of the parliament's committee on combating organized crime and corruption and is also the Head of the Temporary Committee on Investigating the Murder of Georgiy Gongadze. He has requested that the Attorney General arrest Leonid Kuchma for his involvement with the murder of Internet journalist Heorhiy Gongadze.

On 18 March 2005 "Financial Times" newspaper of Britain reported that Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Svyatoslav Piskun had stated that Ukraine exported 12 cruise missiles to Iran and six to China in 2001. Piskun told the paper that none of the 18 X-55 cruise missiles (also known as Kh-55 or AS-15) was exported with the nuclear warheads they were designed to carry.

The newspaper said it was the first confirmation by a Ukrainian government official that the exports took place. The the X-55 has a range of 3,000 kilometers, more than enough to reach Israel from Iran. The US embassy in Kyiv is closely monitoring the investigation and wanted the findings of a reported secret trial over the missile exports to be made public.

The missiles themselves were not in very good shape, according to one US official. They were diverted from Soviet stocks left behind when the Ukraine declared its independence in 1991.

Prosecutors said the missiles were sold illegally, and were not exported by Ukrainian enterprises. Export documents known as end-user certificates recorded the recipient of the 20 Kh55 missiles as "Russia's Defense Ministry."

A government investigation into illicit weapons sales by officials loyal to former President Leonid Kuchma, who left office in January 2005, led to secret indictments or arrests arms dealers accused of selling missiles to Iran and China. At least three people were arrested and another three were indicted last year in connection with the illicit arms trade.

In 2000 Russian national Oleg Orlov and a Ukrainian partner identified as E.V. Shilenko exported 20 Kh55 cruise missiles through a fake contract and end-user certificate with Russia's state-run arms dealer and with a firm called Progress, a subsidiary company of Ukrspetseksport -- Ukraine's arms export agency. Orlov was detained 13 July 2004 in the Czech Republic, and as of early 2005 an extradition procedure was under way to return him to Ukraine for prosecution. Orlov and his partners were suspected of providing Iran with maintenance equipment and technicians to service the Kh-55 missiles.

Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun was chief prosecutor under Kuchma and retained his job after Yushchenko, a Kuchma opponent, came to power in January 2005. Legislator Hrihoriy Omelchenko dismissed the statement by prosecutors as a "political trick" by Piskun to keep his post in the face of calls by pro-Yushchenko legislators for his resignation.

Lawyer Bogdan Ferents defends in court the sole defendant in the case on the sale of the missiles, director-general of the company Ukrainaviazakaz Vladimir Yevdokimov. The Kh-55 cruise missiles delivered by Ukraine to Iran and China in 1999-2001 "are not weapons", Ferents said, adding that the missiles were not complete with parts.

The missiles delivered to third countries were manufactured in 1987, and had a service life of eight years. The lawyer maintained that storage of the missile did not meet standards since 1992. Former Air Force commander Viktor Strelnikov and specialists who examined the missiles said that they were marked with the inscription "training".

Jane's Intelligence Digest, published on 18 March 2005, noted: "There is no doubt that the sale of the missiles to Iran and China could only have taken place with the knowledge and cooperation of senior Ukrainian officials. ... there is ... mounting evidence to suggest that the sale of missiles to Iran was undertaken with the assistance of the Russian security services."

Why Does Iran Want Cruise Missiles?
The half-dozen missiles sold to China are consistent with a Chinese interest in reverse-engineering these weapons to provide technical input into China's ongoing efforts to develop long range cruise missiles. But Iran is not known to have a long range cruise missile development program, and the dozen missiles aquired by Iran suggest the possibility that Iran hoped to equip these missiles with nuclear warheads, once Iran completed its atomic weaponization program.

Press reports noted that while Iran does not operate long-range bombers, it was believed that Tehran could adapt its Soviet-built Su-24 strike aircraft to launch the missile. But this totally misunderstands the multiple launch modes of this missile, which can also be launched from ships or from land based truck launchers. These later modes are certainly the ones relevant to Iran. The Soviet sea and ground launched versions of the missile had a small solid rocket motor that would boost the missile to cruising speed, and Iran would have to make some provisions to replicate this equipment. Such small motors would seem well within the reach of Iran's capability base.

Long range cruise missiles tipped with atomic bombs would provide an attractive capability for attacking Israel. It may be imagined that an Iranian atomic bomb would be somewhat larger and heavier than the Soviet nuclear charge the missile was initially designed to carry, but no so much larger as to preclude installation in the missile's nose. Absent unavailable data on Iranian atomic bomb characteristics, some reduction in the Kh-55's 2,500-3,000 km range would be anticipated, but not so much as to preclude reaching Israel at a distance of less than 1,500 km.

While Israel has invested considerable effort in developing the Arrow anti-missile system for countering Iran's ballistic missiles, Israeli capbilities to counter low-flying cruise missiles are less well developed. The X-55 cruise missile is much smaller than the Shehab 3, and consequently could be mounted on a much smaller launching truck, making it easier for the launcher garrison to evade detection.

Unlike a ballistic missile, it is hard to detect a cruise missile when it is launched. The KH-55 flies at medium altitude for the first part of its flight. Cruise missiles can fly at low altitude and weave in between mountain ranges to minimise the risk of detection. They are much more difficult for SAMs and other air defences to track or attempt to engage. The only way to effectively deal with cruise missiles is to use AWACS to guide in fighters. Even then its hard for the fighters' AAMs to engage the missiles. Trying to intercept cruise missiles over land is a difficult challenge for the defending side.

Basic computer maps used for navigation can be compiled from information bought from most countries with operational satellite systems. With the inflight navigation fixes periodically throughout its flight this would be good enough for a 1,500 km flight. With a simple low powered altimeter radio system it could avoid the ground quite easily.

With converted civilian planes, Iran could possibly launch these missiles from the middle of the Atlantic to hit the United States. This might require some fancy engineering on the part of Iran. The missiles could be mounted on launchers slung under the wings of a heavy cargo plane such as an IL-76, but Iran only has one such airplane in military service. Low-wing commercial aircraft would not provide sufficient ground clearance for such an installation. In principle commercial passenger aircraft could be modified with a bomb-bay, but the structural modifications required would be rather heroic.

A more attractive alternative might consist of arming small ships with single cruise missiles. The modifications required to launch such a small missile would easily escape detection.

Iran's merchant marine fleet is controlled by the state shipping company Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL). It serves now two container services from the port of Bender-e Abbas. One of them goes on a 30-day loop to East Asia, the other reaches Europe via the Suez in 22 days.

In 2003 it was estimated that Iran's merchant marine consisted of 130 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 4,715,242 GRT / 8,240,069 DWT. This was composed of 40 bulk, 36 cargo, 3 chemical tankers, 7 container, 1 liquefied gas tanker, 5 multifunction large-load carrier, 33 petroleum tankers, 8 roll-on/roll-off cargo, 1 short-sea passenger, and 10 other ships registered in other countries.

Iran's merchant marine fleet is doing relatively well, but the average age of 40% of its vessels is over 20 years, which makes it rather unfit for international competition. In October 2001 an agreement for manufacturing six ships was signed with Germany. The ships will be constructed with a total investment of $188 million in Bandar Abbas under German supervision.

Iran Shipbuilding and Offshore Industries Complex [ISOICO] is a qualified Iranian company, active as shipbuilder and shiprepairer of different types of vessels and contractor of offshore structures. It operates from a production premises on the Persian Gulf (37 km west Bandar Abbas City), shipping to any location offshore or onshore.

The activity of the Company started in the early 1990s as a workshop and a yard. The experience gained in this operation enabled the company to enlarge its sphere of activity to plants and mechanical plant components, then to multidisciplinary projects. Although the offshore experiences is short but ISOICO has played an important role in offshore market, constructing in its Bandar Abbas Yard.

ISOICO shipyard is capable of constructing any type of vessel up to about 4 x 80,000 DWT per year on its existing building berths mainly bulk carrier, containership and oil product carrier using advance technology, which after accomplishing the development in process (i.e. two Dry Docks) the constructing capability will increase for the vessel up to about 2 x 300,000 DWT VLCC or 2 x 140,000 m3 LNG carrier per year in addition to the existing capacity.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iran/x-55.htm

Petronas

03-26-2005, 01:30 AM

AP: Iran Stockpiling High-Tech Small Arms
March 25, 2005 8:00 PM EST

VIENNA, Austria - Iran is quietly building a stockpile of thousands of high-tech small arms and other military equipment - from armor-piercing snipers' rifles to night-vision goggles - through legal weapons deals and a U.N. anti-drug program, according to an internal U.N. document, arms dealers and Western diplomats. The buying spree is raising Bush administration fears the arms could end up with militants in Iraq. Tehran also is seeking approval for a U.N.-funded satellite network that Iran says it needs to fight drug smugglers, stoking U.S. worries it could be used to spy on Americans in Iraq or Afghanistan - or any U.S. reconnaissance in Iran itself.

The United States has a strict embargo on most trade with Iran, which it accuses of supporting terrorist organizations and trying to build nuclear arms. It also has imposed sanctions on dozens of companies worldwide over the past decade for supplying Tehran with equipment that could be used for nuclear or conventional warfare.

Much of the military hardware has been hard to hide - sales of tanks and anti-ship missiles by Belarus and China, or helicopters and artillery pieces from Russia have been well documented by U.S. authorities and international nongovernment agencies. Other weapons are smuggled and may be revealed only by chance - such as the consignment of 12 nuclear-capable cruise missiles delivered by Ukrainian arms dealers to Iran four years ago but divulged by Ukrainian opposition officials only recently.

The smaller weapons and related material Iran is amassing may not be as eye catching. But they are of U.S. concern because of their origin - through U.N.-funded programs or technically advanced western countries - and because they could harm U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan or ultimately Iran, which President Bush has not ruled out as a military target.

Iran says it needs the satellite network, high-tech small arms bought on the European arms market and night-vision goggles, body armor and advanced communications gear through the U.N program to fight drug smugglers pouring in from neighboring Afghanistan. "We need assistance," Pirouz Hosseini, Iran's chief delegate to U.N. organizations in Vienna told The Associated Press, dismissing U.S. fears as "a political stance not based on realities."

But such high-resolution satellite imagery could reveal what U.S. troops in neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan are doing on the ground - or that they could show the Iranians what the United States is seeing as it spies from outer space for evidence of illicit Iranian nuclear activity. And with Iran suspected of backing insurgents in Iraq, Washington fears some of the equipment bought in Europe or delivered as part of the U.N.-backed anti-drug fight could be used against U.S. troops there, say Western diplomats here who are familiar with U.S. concerns.

Austrian officials with access to counterintelligence information told AP that Iranian diplomats in European capitals routinely focus on securing arms deals. Like the Western diplomats, the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case. Just four months ago, U.S. and Austrian authorities arrested two Iranians in Vienna on charges of trying to illegally export thousands of sophisticated American night-vision systems for Tehran's military - a powerful force in the region.

In a more recent - and legal - deal, Iran last month took delivery of hundreds of high-powered armor-piercing snipers' rifles with scopes from an Austrian firm, as part of a consignment for 2,000 of the weapons. Confirming the sale, Wolfgang Fuerlinger, head of Steyr Mannlicher GmbH, told AP that U.S. Embassy officials had expressed concerns the arms could make their way to Iraq for use against American troops. The Austrian government approved the sales in November after concluding that they would be used to fight narcotics smugglers. While wary of Iran's ultimate purpose, other European countries also have sanctioned similar deals when convinced Tehran would use the equipment to fight the drug trade, said an Austrian official, declining to offer details.

A draft proposal obtained by AP, to create a regional satellite network that would survey Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq is on hold, with Iran shifting it to the U.N. office on drugs and crime after opposition stalled it in the U.N. office on space affairs, also based in Vienna. "The U.S. and Britain and France had questions as to what the intention and purpose of the proposal is," a senior U.N. official told AP, requesting anonymity because of the sensitive topic. "One of the worries - is it only drugs they are worried about or something they could use to track other things?"

Still, suspect material is reaching Iran in connection with an aid program created in 1996 by the U.N. drugs office, which also provides training, vehicles and other help to fight what is generally acknowledged as a serious drug problem. An internal U.N. summary of the program lists France and Britain as providing night vision equipment, mobile global positioning systems, computers and body armor to help Iranian anti-smuggler attempts. Iranian officials confirmed such items were shipped. A diplomat familiar with the program described the shipments of sensitive equipment as "likely in the hundreds." In London, the Foreign Office confirmed 250 night vision goggles were approved by the British government two years ago for use by Iranian border patrols along the Afghan border. Another shipment of 50 body armor vests and 100 body armor plates was en route as of last week, as part of British help to Iran that's exempt from a strict embargo and arms and related material, said Foreign Office officials.

Diplomats with access to Iranian program material said other exemptions to the British embargo in recent years have included parts originally manufactured for military aircraft engines that Iran said it needed for its oil and gas industries, aircraft instrumentation components and gas turbine parts that also had possible military applications.

American officials in Vienna and Washington refused to comment on the procurements beyond saying the Bush administration is opposed to all efforts by Iran to buy weapons and any other militarily useful equipment. But the diplomats in Vienna say that American opposition to such procurements is complicated by the fact that even Washington agrees Iran has a drug-smuggling problem.

Afghanistan last year supplied more than 90 percent of the world's opium, the raw material for heroin, the U.N. anti-drug agency says. While the source of most heroin in the United States is Colombian or Mexican, heroin from Afghan opium - most of it transiting Iran - makes up 90 percent of what's available on Europe's streets, explaining British, French and other European interest in stanching the flow.

Iran says more than 3,000 of its police officers have died in the last 10 years battling drug smugglers, some equipped with machine guns and rocket launchers. In a report last year, Antonio Maria Costa, head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said Iranian intelligence had shown him pictures of a drug convoy of more than 60 vehicles with armed escorts crossing from Afghanistan to Iran.

http://start.earthlink.net/article/int?guid=20050325/42439ad0_3ca6_15526200503251669927830

Petronas

03-31-2005, 10:27 AM

Exiles: Iran Seeks to Obtain Nuclear Warheads
Mar. 31, 2005

Iran allocated $2.5 billion to obtain three nuclear warheads last year, an exiled opposition group said Thursday, without saying whether Iran had secured any of the warheads. The group, which has given accurate information in the past on some of Iran's nuclear facilities, also said Iran was speeding up work on a reactor south of Tehran which could produce enough plutonium for an atomic bomb by 2007. Iran says its nuclear program will be used only to generate electricity. But Washington and European countries fear Iran could use its nuclear plants to produce bombs.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an exile group that wants to oust Iran's clerical rulers, said Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had told the defense minister to take steps to obtain nuclear warheads. "In mid-2004, Khamenei allocated $2.5 billion to obtain three nuclear warheads," Mohammad Mohaddessin of the NCRI told a news conference in Paris. Mohaddessin said he received the news Thursday morning and had no further information on the project. He did not say whether or how the money had been spent.

The NCRI said last year that Iran obtained a nuclear bomb design from a Pakistani scientist who has acknowledged selling nuclear secrets abroad. The group has also said Iran was working on large-range missiles capable of hitting European cities. The NCRI is a coalition of exiled opposition groups, which is listed by the United States as a terrorist organization.

SPEEDING UP WORK ON REACTOR

Mohaddessin said the Iranian regime was speeding up work on a reactor in Arak, 150 miles south of Tehran, which could produce enough plutonium for one atomic bomb per year. "The regime told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) the reactor would be operational in 2014, but in reality, they want to start it in 2006 or 2007," he said. A U.S. think-tank said earlier this month that new satellite images showed that a heavy water plant at Arak, intended to supply the research reactor, was nearly complete. Heavy-water reactors can be used to produce significant amounts of bomb-grade plutonium, which can then be extracted from the spent fuel through reprocessing. The NCRI revealed the Arak heavy-water production plant, along with the Natanz uranium enrichment plant, in August 2002, describing it as part of a secret nuclear weapons program. Iran later declared both sites to the IAEA.

According to Mohaddessin, Iran's parliament said in a confidential report in February 2004 that the government had not informed it sufficiently about the two sites. "The legislative branch does not clearly know where the budget for these two projects is coming from," Mohaddessin quoted the report by a parliamentary committee as saying. "It neither knows how the project was started and how it was put into place," the report said, according to the NCRI.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=628701

Petronas

04-01-2005, 10:27 AM

Violent clashes rock the City of Baneh in NW Iran
Mar 30, 2005

Violent clashes happened, yesterday, in the northwestern City of Baneh as angry residents intended to protest against the murder of two residents by Islamic regime's militiamen. Hundreds of residents had to retaliate against the regime forces sent to repress their peaceful march for quest of justice. Pieces of stone and incendiary devices were thrown to the regime forces who had to pull back at several occasion. Slogans were shouted against the regime and its leadership while some demonstrators were seen destroying the regime's symbols, such as, the pictures of its supreme leader and deceased founder.

Tens of demonstrators were injured or arrested in the street fights, as well as, several militiamen. Numbers of patrol cars and public buildings were damaged by incendiary devices. One of the initial victims named Jamal was shot to death by a militiaman on Monday near Baneh. The other victim named Khaled Koohi was killed by another militiaman, yesterday, in Kookhe-Mamoo village located near the rebellious town.

The situation was very tense today and the town was placed under state of martial law. Hundreds of fresh militiamen sent from Marivan were deployed in the streets in order to stop more riots at the occasion of Iran's victory over N. Korea. Baneh's last massive riots happened, as reported, at the occasion of the traditional "Tchahr-Shanbe Soori" (Fire Fiest) during which heavy clashes rocked the town.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/smccdinews/article/publish/article_4384.shtml

Petronas

04-01-2005, 10:30 AM

Official death toll rises; Arrested female soccer protesters to be lashed
Mar 26, 2005

At least six demonstrators were killed in the Greater Tehran and several other in some of the riots which rocked cities, such as, Khoram-Abad, Esfahan, Shiraz, Kermanshah, Sari, Ardabil, Babol, Rasht, Mashad, Hamedan, Mahabad and Oroomiah (former Rezai-e) due to popular demonstrations which happened following Iran's win over Japan in the frame of the qualification games for the 2006 Soccer World cup. Tens of other have been severely injured and some are in critical conditions.

Brutal militiamen were seen using clubs, chains and knives against demonstrators with the firm intention to kill anyone standing against the regime. Several female protesters were seen beaten to death in Guisha and Fatemi as they took off their veils.

Islamic regime's propaganda tools, such as, the official so-called "Iran Students News Agency" (ISNA) have qualified some of these deaths as due to "having been trampled under the spectators' feet" or "Dying of heart attack due to excitement". Foreign news agencies, such as, Reuters, AP, Xinhua or AFP have ignored the existence of street riots while echoeing the official version due most likely of fear of seeing their correspondents expelled or due to their financement by major lobby groups interested in continuing business with the Islamic republic.

The Islamic regime's mouthpieces are omitting, of course, to mention why there were sudden un-controlled rushes to the stadium's exit doors when Iran's team came out victorious of the game; Nor they do mention why in case of such big victory, tens of buses, patrol cars and public materials were damaged or destroyed from the parking of "Azadi (Freedom') Stadium" to the center, southern, northern, western and eastern of the Capital which are located as over 40 KM from the game. In Khoram-Abad alone, some of the deaths have been attributed to traffic accidents by avoiding to mention the brutal repression and chase and runs which took place in this rebellious city. Total silence is kept about the two bodies sent to Esfahan's coronary administration following brutal clashes in Darvaze Shiraz.

Arrested female demonstrators are to be lashed for their "un-Islamic behavior" before getting released. Such decision has been announced to some of the families who have searched for their missing members arrested following yesterday's Soccer riots.

This repressive declaration is another desperate effort to put a stop to the increase of Iranian Women's legitimate aspiration of seeing the end of the Islamist state's instated Gender Apartheid policy. Most arrested were caught during the riots or carnivals of joy and some inside and around the stadium while protesting or having entered the premises in male clothing due to the law on banning female fans from soccer games. Foreign female visitors are exempted from such discriminatory law and can access the Iranian stadiums if respecting the mandatory veil.

Family members are afraid about the consequences of the methodic barbarian lashing punishment on the health of the arrested demonstrators who are mostly slim due to their often young age. The Islamic regime is applying the backwarded Islamic Sharia Law by which stoning, mutilation, amputation, lashing or eye for eye punishments are promoted.

The yesterday Soccer riots which happened just few days after the Tchahar-Shanbe Souri (Fire Fiest) clashes are confirming the increasing pattern of popular exasperation and Iranians wishes for ending the totallity of Islamic regime's rule by all means. It's more than three years, now, that Iranians and especially students are shouting the famous slogan "Referundum, Referundum, this is our Slogan!". They do hope that a concerted International pressure and promotion of a genuine Secular-Democratic Opposition Council abroad, coordinated with the Civil Disobeidance Movement inside Iran will bring the Islamic regime's leaders to step down from political power especially now that no one can anymore claim about possibilities of 'reforms from within the Islamc system'.

But some well known opportunist or discredited abroad based 'opposition' groups or financed radio and TV commentators are already trying to qualify the yesterday riots as a sign of popular backing for a controversial project named 'national call for referendum'. This project has been initially introduced by 'former' elements of the Islamic regime, such as, Mohsen Sazgara who's a founder of the repressive Islamic Revolution Guards and was also implicated in illegitimate and corrupt deals beside Behzad Nabavi - former Minster of Industry and Mines - with European countries. Sazgara was also involved in the promotion of Khatami's corrupt gang. His project which is qualified by many Iranians as 'another try to lure everybody' has been also endorsed by part of the traditional abroad 'opposition' which due to its lack of credibility or structure, especially inside, or by fear of a US Strike has given up to it just as it did during Khatami's years. Many of its members are well known for having tried to push the Iranians to participate in the Islamic regime's last tow sham elections which were boycotted massively by Iranians.

This strange combination of old horses is intending to surf again the popular wave and to portray the well known popular aspiration for a genuine referendum - which is seeking to give the opportunity to Iranians for a total change in Iran - as being in line with Sazgara's plans and some of its members are even trying to qualify him as the leader of inside opposition and a potential head of the referendum movement in Iran while speaking to American press or Think Thanks in desperate quest of project for Iran.

The controversial project has been so far more dividing than uniting and has not witnessed real popular support especially by inside Iranians who are used to such demagogies. The strange combination is fixing even to 'remodel' a controversial website created, last November, for collect of signatures.

It's to note that Soccer riots are a way of popular demonstration against the Islamic republic as many exasperated Iranians are usually seizing ever opportunity offered by such games or big events to protest and express their rejection of the Islamic regime. Indeed, Iran was the scene of consecutive and massive protests, during the 2002 World Cup soccer qualification games but the trend was stopped by bloody repressive measures, and the believed forced loss of Iran to Bahrain. In Esafahan alone several protesters were killed by the security apparatus and the regime had to transfer the notorious Esfahan Governor. Known for having ordered the bloody repression, he, the governor, was transferred to his present post as the Islamic regime's Ambassador to Kuwait.

Since then, important soccer games are often turned into popular protests, especially when they're played in Tehran, or in Ahwaz where there was a huge demonstration a few months ago.

Several groups and SMCCDI had called for seizing yesterday's opportunity, offered by Iran-Japan game, in order to show a massive rejection of the regime in the current favorable geopolitical context. The Movement's Coordinator, Aryo B. Pirouznia, requested, during his March 11th and 14th appearances on NITV and Pars TV, "to use this important game which will be broadcasted to many countries and, especially, to Japan, to show the deep rejection of the regime and the Iranians quest for Freedom".

SMCCDI is known for its key role in the promotion of Football (Soccer) Protests and especially in the coordination of last World Cup Soccer qualification games' riots. It constantly mobilized the masses via the intense use of digital technology, such as the Internet and satellite TV, as well as, help from some friendly Persian speaking radio stations abroad who were offering airtime for consecutive interviews and transmitting the Movement's calls: http://www.daneshjoo.org/article/publish/article_486.shtml http://www.daneshjoo.org/article/publish/article_485.shtml http://www.daneshjoo.org/article/publish/article_482.shtml http://www.daneshjoo.org/article/publish/article_479.shtml

Other preliminary games are scheduled to be played in the days and weeks ahead for Iran's qualification for the 2006 Soccer World Cup. The next one is to take place against the N. Korean team on the upcoming Wednesday (11:00 AM Iran's local time) in Pyong Yang which is the Capital of Islamic regime's closest ally and another member of the "axis of evil".

http://www.daneshjoo.org/smccdinews/article/publish/article_4379.shtml

Alli

04-05-2005, 09:36 AM

Sunday, April 03, 2005 - ©2005 IranMania.com

LONDON, April 3 (IranMania) - French ambassador to Tehran Francois Nicoullaud said on Friday there is not the slightest difference between Iran and France.
Talking to reporters, Nicoullaud called bilateral political, economic and cultural ties "very good" and said President Mohammad Khatami's Paris visit is a friendly visit, partly aimed to address the UNESCO meeting on dialogue among civilizations.

Nicoullaud said French President Jacques Chirac had voiced interest to meet Khatami after his UNESCO address in order to discuss bilateral, regional and international issues.

As ambassador of one of the three European heavyweights, being a negotiation party with Tehran on nuclear issues, Nicoullaud said his country does her best for success of the talks and would do all she can to ensure its success.

He said, "as you know we are not alone in the talks and there are other countries in as well but France would do her best to play a more dynamic role in the talks."

He hailed economic ties between Tehran and Paris, saying French enterprises get more extensive role on Iranian market and the Iranian and French economic institutions had exchanged meetings for oil and auto manufacturing cooperation.

He said cooperation in auto manufacturing sets a good model of mutual cooperation.

more (http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=30616&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs)

Bman

04-05-2005, 02:54 PM

Well, both countries open their legislative sessions by chanting "Death to America", but I believe the French say it in French, not Farsi

so there is that ONE big difference!

Bman

Alli

04-05-2005, 03:09 PM

Well, both countries open their legislative sessions by chanting "Death to America", but I believe the French say it in French, not Farsi

so there is that ONE big difference!

Bman :add09:

Petronas

04-05-2005, 07:14 PM

New allegations prove Iran ‘wrong’ over murdered journalist
April 06, 2005

OTTAWA: Canada on Monday said new allegations about the violent death of Iranian-Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi in detention in Tehran, disproved the Islamic Republic’s denials that she was murdered. Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew said that Canada had helped Iranian doctor Shahram Azam, who last week claimed Kazemi was tortured and raped, obtain asylum here to debunk Iranian government claims on the case. “Iran’s position is unacceptable,” Pettigrew told the House of Commons.

“Iran is in the wrong, it was murder, and that is why we brought the doctor here, to clearly show the facts.” “We have been saying for two years what Doctor Azam has just said, and if we helped him to come to Canada, it was to show the world that Canada deserves support in its crusade against Iran’s disrespect for human rights.”

Iranian authorities have consistently argued that Kazemi died after a fall in jail and was not murdered. Azam last week held a press conference to provide what he said were details of Kazemi’s condition, gleaned while he was a major in the Iranian army and working in an emergency room at a Tehran military hospital.

The photojournalist was unconscious when she was brought into hospital and had injuries consistent with torture, including broken fingers, evidence of rape, missing fingers and genital damage, he said. Iran hit back on Saturday, branding the charges “baseless and completely false” and denied that anyone named Shahram Azam ever worked in the hospital. Kazemi, 54, was arrested taking photos of a demonstration in front of a prison in north Tehran. The photographer, who had Iranian-Canadian dual nationality, died in detention ten days later in July 2003, victim of a cerebral haemorrhage. Iran acknowledged that Kazemi had been beaten violently in prison, but last year, the only suspect — an intelligence agent — was discharged and authorities have classified the case as an accident.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_6-4-2005_pg4_17

Not the slightest difference to France?

Petronas

04-19-2005, 05:55 PM

Iran (Country threat level - 4): Hundreds of Arab Iranians participated in violent protests in the city of Ahvaz in the province of Khuzestan on 15 and 16 April 2005. The riots began on the night of 15 April in response to rumors circulating that Iran intended to move more non-Arabs into the city. The protesters smashed the windows of police cars and set several banks and police stations on fire. Exiled opposition groups report high numbers of casualties, as many as 30 killed, while the Interior Ministry confirms that one person was killed. An unspecified number of people sustained injuries, and more than 250 people were arrested. The latest reports indicate that calm returned to the city by 17 April, but there continues to be a heightened presence of security forces.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 4/18/2005

Petronas

04-21-2005, 03:23 PM

400 Iranians Ready Themselves for Anti-Israel Suicide Attacks
Beirut, Updated 21 Apr 05, 13:36

Around 400 Iranian men and women met in Tehran on Wednesday to declare their readiness to carry out suicide operations against Israel. Some 250 men and 150 women, all members of Islamist militias, responded to an appeal by two non-governmental organizations urging them to support Palestinian suicide bombers and declare their own readiness to become "martyrs". Grouped together in a hall in the centre of Tehran, women in chadors and men wearing headbands with the inscription "There is no God but Allah" heard the organizers read out a religious decree legitimizing suicide attacks. Such actions are "permitted and considered relevant in the holy war for the good of Allah when the difference between the military forces of the army of Islam and those of the enemy is too great and there is no other classical means to hurt the enemy at strategic points," according to the decree from Grand Ayatollah Hossein Nuri Hamedani.

"I am ready to take up arms, travel to Palestine and fight against the Zionists," said Mansoureh Sadeghi, 31, a student. "People die in any case so why not die for one's ideals?" The Islamic republic has always made clear its refusal to recognize Israel and its support of the Palestinian cause. However it denies providing anything other than political support to militant Palestinian groups. The authorities keep their distance from events gathering together would-be suicide bombers, saying they can do nothing to prevent such events taking place.

http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&C9D446A89115026BC2256FEA00244E84

Petronas

05-04-2005, 02:13 AM

1st strike on Iran 'gaining traction'
Posted: May 4, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern

JERUSALEM – With Tehran announcing it will shortly resume some nuclear activities in spite of ongoing negotiations with European countries, a private report that was issued to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon urging an American or Israeli pre-emptive strike against Iran has been gaining some steam here. "Iran is determined to pursue all legal areas of nuclear technology, including (uranium) enrichment, exclusively for peaceful purposes," Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told a United Nations conference yesterday. He was the fourth Iranian official to make such remarks the past few days.

An EU negotiation team represented by Germany, France and the UK, which has been seeking guarantees Iran will not use its nuclear program to develop weapons, said if Tehran follows through with the threat to enrich uranium it could refer the country to the U.N. Security Council for punitive action.

Reports continue to stream in that Iran – with the assistance of Russia – has been moving ahead with its nuclear program. Several reactors with advanced production capabilities have been built, and Russia has been contemplating providing Tehran with rods that are able to enrich uranium, a deal that was first reported last September. Russia also recently trained a group of senior Iranian nuclear scientists and has installed a mobile anti-missile system to protect Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor, with similar systems allegedly in the works for other Iranian nuclear facilities, including a facility in central Iran.

Top Iranian officials have repeatedly warned they would use nuclear missiles to threaten the Jewish state. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has many times stated he would "vaporize the Zionist entity" if Iran obtained a nuclear bomb.

In response to the growing Iranian threat, a panel of foreign policy and military experts delivered to Sharon last year a series of recommendations entitled "Project Daniel: Israel's Strategic Future," regarding Israeli pre-emptive action. The authors of the plan, first reported by Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, a premium online intelligence newsletter, told WorldNetDaily this week their report has been gaining traction in certain high-level military circles. "Decision-makers at the very highest levels of government in Jerusalem and Washington as well as NATO have been briefed on Project Daniel. Sharon last month carried our urgent message directly to President Bush," said Dr. Louis Rene Beres, Project Daniel chair and a professor of international law at Purdue University whose books and articles are routinely considered by military officials.

Project Daniel recommends that with Tehran now developing the infrastructure that could allow the country to go nuclear, the United States or Israel should strike pre-emptively against Iran's nuclear installations if the diplomatic track fails. "The group suggests strongly and unequivocally that conventional Israeli pre-emption against selected enemy nuclear infrastructures now in development be executed as early as possible and – wherever possible – in collaboration with the United States. Where America may be unable or unwilling to act proactively against these infrastructures, it is essential that Israel be able and willing to act alone," says the report.

Project Daniel urges Israel to strike Iran's nuclear facilities using covert operations, conventional weaponry and, if it can be reasonably assured of success, by targeting Iran's regime leadership. "Pre-emption may be overt or covert, and range from 'decapitation' to full-scale military operations," says the report.

Co-author Yoash Tsiddon-Chatto, a former Knesset member and the former chief of planning for the Israeli Air Force, told WND military action should include "striking all known Iran nuclear facilities, including hidden facilities, underground tunnels, covert operations, such as the killing of scientists ... whatever is necessary." Other report authors include the former head of the IDF general staff, a department head from Israel's Dimona nuclear plant and several expert analysts.

Beres stressed, "Today, more than ever before, the state of Israel must include appropriate pre-emption options in its overall defense strategy. Vastly more vulnerable to catastrophic first-strike aggressions than the United States, Israel must deal now with existential harms in every available fashion." He said pre-emption should only be used before Iran acquires a nuclear weapon. "Attempts at pre-emption against an enemy that had already been allowed to go nuclear may be too risky and could invite an existential retaliation."

Iran signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and has obligated itself to random inspections supervised by the International Atomic Energy Agency. But the treaty allows Iran to produce nuclear material as long as it can plausibly claim the production is for "peaceful purposes."

Experts warn that Iran can build the infrastructure needed to make nuclear weapons while telling inspectors they need the material for "energy and nuclear medicine research," and then kick out the inspectors, renounce the treaty and quickly assemble a nuclear arsenal, as did North Korea, which is now said to have ten nuclear warheads. If Iran obtains a nuclear device, the report recommends Israel should disclose selected elements its own nuclear program. "The essence of deterrence lies in the communication of capacity and will to those who would do Israel great harm," says the report. Israel currently maintains a policy of nuclear ambiguity, holding as secret the number, configuration and targeting capabilities of nuclear weapons it possesses.

Should a nuclear Iran make a first-strike threat, the Project Daniel group urges Israel to immediately deter Tehran by threatening to use nuclear bombs to target Iranian population centers. "To meet its ultimate deterrence objectives – that is, to deter the most overwhelmingly destructive enemy first-strikes, Israel must seek and achieve a visible second-strike capability to target approximately 15 enemy cities. Ranges would be to cities in Libya and Iran, and recognizable nuclear bomb yields would be at a level sufficient to fully compromise the aggressor's viability as a functioning state," says the report. "Israel should focus its resources on counter-value warheads, targeting between 10 and 20 city assets of crucial importance to the enemy, but excluding religious assets wherever possible. Choosing countervalue-targeted warheads in the range of maximum destructiveness, Israel will achieve the maximum deterrent effect, and will neutralize the overall asymmetry between the Arabs and the state of Israel. All enemy targets should be selected with the view that their destruction would promptly force the enemy to cease all nuclear/biological/chemical exchanges with Israel."

Beres described the devastation an Iranian nuclear attack would wreak on the Jewish state. "Israelis would be killed by the radiation and crushed by collapsing buildings and torn to shreds by flying glass. Others would fall victim to raging firestorms. Fallout injuries would include whole-body radiation injury, produced by penetrating, hard gamma radiations, superficial radiation burns produced by soft radiations, and injuries produced by deposits of radioactive substances within the body. Water supplies would become altogether unusable. Housing and shelter could be unavailable for survivors. Transportation would break down to rudimentary levels. Food shortages would be critical and long-term. Israel's complex network of interlocking and interdependent exchange systems would be shattered. Virtually everyone would be deprived of the most basic means of livelihood ... in short, normal human society would cease. With the passage of time, many of the survivors would expect an increased incidence of serious degenerative diseases and various forms of cancer. They would also expect premature death, impairment of vision and sterility," said Beres.

Israel has been saying publicly it will not carry out a pre-emptive strike against Iran. Raanan Gissin, chief spokesperson for Sharon, told WND yesterday, "Israel will not be the pit bull of the world. The nuclearization of Iran is a threat to world security, not just Israel. We support a coalition of democratic, free countries, led by the U.S. to bring Iran to the Security Council if it fails to comply with the international community."

Sharon himself said last month: "Ultimately, I don't think there will be any alternative but to bring [Iran] to the U.N. Security Council and to take diplomatic and economic steps as pressure to stop this [nuclear effort]." At the same time, there has been a behind-the-scenes debate within the ranks of Israel's military and top diplomatic circles about the possibility of striking Iran.

"Israel will not, I repeat, will not, allow Iran to go nuclear," said a top IDF official who talked on condition his name be withheld. "Right now, we are giving diplomacy a try, but if it becomes clear that Iran is going nuclear and will not be deterred, even by sanctions, we will not sit by and do nothing. The question though is whether we act, or America acts." The official said Israel would prefer that the U.S. carry out any military action. "It's more acceptable diplomatically for America to act. We will take more heat. Also, the missions are difficult for us. It's further, we have problems of refueling in the air. American controlled aircraft carriers are much closer, and the U.S. has a launching base [from Iraq.]" Confirming a report in the London Sunday Times in July, the official said Israel could technically attack Iran: "Of course, we have the airplanes, including [long-range] F-151i [jets] that can do it."

Uzi Arad, the former head of Mossad's foreign intelligence, previously told WND if the U.S. or Israel attacks Iran, operations would not be limited to the targeting of Tehran's suspected nuclear sites. "From a hypothetical point of view, one shouldn't assume any attack would only target nuclear facilities. Other targets of significance to the Iranians could be attacked, including military bases, oil facilities and certain industrial facilities," said Arad. "The Iranians shouldn't make the assumption that just because they hide a few nuclear sites they are safe. There are enough targets to exact a very heavy price on Tehran, so much so that it should render their entire nuclear exercise a losing proposition," Arad said.

But the senior IDF official warned that Israel should only act if it can be assured of a near 100 percent success rate. "If Iran is attacked, and the attack fails to get rid of the facilities, it will unite the Iranian street against us, and will make Iran even more determined to go nuclear. The results will be very bad."

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44107

Petronas

05-09-2005, 07:20 PM

Iran 'to resume nuclear activity'
Monday, 9 May, 2005, 19:39 GMT 20:39 UK

Iran says it will resume uranium enrichment activities within the next few days, in a move which could put talks with Europe in jeopardy. Tehran has said for days that it plans to resume conversion of raw uranium into gas, but it has not said when. Germany has said such a move could lead to Iran being referred to the United Nations Security Council. The United States has accused Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran has strongly denied.

The deputy head of Iran's atomic energy organisation, Mohammad Saeedi, told a university conference that the first stage of Iran's suspension of enrichment-related activities would be lifted at its Isfahan site. Iran is known to be converting uranium yellow cake into gas at the site to make the feed material for centrifuges. Tehran says it had already converted 37 tons of raw uranium into gas before its suspension came into force.

Earlier, one of Iran's negotiating partners, Germany, warned that a resumption of enrichment would lead to the collapse of talks between Europe and Iran - and might culminate in the referral of Tehran to the UN Security Council. Iran, however, says it only agreed to suspend enrichment and related activities for a short period, and it is impatient with the pace of progress in negotiations with Europe. Tehran is also likely to stress that it is not resuming full-blown enrichment, just the preparatory phases.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4531209.stm

Petronas

05-14-2005, 01:43 AM

Iran to face gasoline shortage
Posted: 09-05-2005 , 13:24 GMT

Managing Director of Iran's National Oil Derivative Production and Distribution Company (NODPDC) said on Sunday that gasoline imports are expected to cost the country US$4.5 billion in the current year (1384) which started March 21. According to Hossein Kashefi, the figure was US$3 billion last year.

The total refining capacity amounts to 40 million liters daily whereas the gasoline consumption is estimated to exceed 64.5 million liters daily this year. "Hence, we have to import 24.5 million liters daily," he added, according to IRNA. If public transportation is not adequately developed Iran should face major shortage of gasoline in the Iranian year of 1400 when consumption is projected to hit 308 million liters, he conveyed.

http://www.menareport.com/en/business/183378

Note that the current year in the Iranian calendar (1384) is a lower number than in the Arabic calendar. While both use the Prophet Mohammed's flight from Mecca as their starting point, the Iranian calendar uses a solar year, which is longer than the lunar year.

Petronas

05-30-2005, 11:25 AM

IRAN: VOTE FOR RAFSANJANI AND WE WILL HAVE NUCLEAR BOMBS, SAYS RELIGIOUS LEADER
Tehran, 27 May (AKI)

Hojatolislam Gholam Reza Hasani, a representative of Iran's supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, in Iranian Azerbaijan, has no doubts as to who to vote for in the next presidential elections on 17 June. "You need to vote for Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani," said Hasani. "This way we will finally be able to have for ourselves the atomic bomb to fairly stand up to Israeli weapons," said Hasani.

"Freedom, democracy and stupidities of this type cannot be carried over to any part, and these concepts are out of sync with the principles of Islam," said Hasani, the imam who led Friday prayers in the main city of western Iranian Azerbaijian.

"Islam always spoke with the sword in the hand and I don't see why now we have changed attitudes and talk with the other civilisations."

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Politics&loid=8.0.171686888&p

Petronas

06-09-2005, 08:25 PM

Iran (Country threat level - 4): Late on 8 June 2005, four improvised percussion bombs exploded near the Masumah holy shrine in the clerical city of Qom. Authorities declared the bombs were planted with the intention of undermining security in the city, but did not give any other details regarding the motivation for the attacks. Three people were injured in the blasts. No arrests have been made.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 6/9/2005

Casey

06-13-2005, 08:28 PM

Bombings in southwestern Iran related to foreign agents: official
www.chinaview.cn (http://www.chinaview.cn)
2005-06-14 05:12:55

TEHRAN, June 13 (Xinhuanet) - Iranian Minister of Information Ali Younessi said here Monday that the authorities had found Sunday's fatal bomb explosions in the southwestern city Ahvaz were related to some foreign agents.

"Iranian security forces have tracked down the terrorists who were involved in planting four bombs in Ahvaz Sunday morning," Younessi said, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.

"The Information Ministry has found out links between the bombers and foreign intelligence services, and those behind the terrorist bombing have been identified and some of them arrested," Younessi said.

He added the terrorist networks will be identified soon and brought to justice.

Four bombs went off consecutively within two hours on Sunday morning in Ahvaz, capital city of the oil-rich Khuzestan province bordering Iraq, killing eight and injuring scores.

Khuzestan is a province accounting for almost 90 percent of Iran's nearly 132 billion barrels of proven oil reserve and most ofthe country's 2 million ethnic Arabs.

In mid-April, the province witnessed a wave of riots touched offby a forged letter about the alleged coercive migration of the ethnic Arabs of Khuzestan to some northern provinces.

Several hours after the Ahvaz bombing on Sunday, three bomb explosions also took place one after another in the capital of Tehran. One of them was placed around a traffic juncture in easternpart of central Tehran, which claimed one life and wounded three others.

The explosions occurred just 5 days ahead of Iran's ninth presidential elections.

Younessi dismissed any relation between the Ahvaz bombing and the explosions in Tehran.

"The terrorist nature of the explosion at the intersection at Imam Hossein Square (in Tehran) has not been determined yet," he said.

"Bombing in Ahvaz had been terrorist operation, but the garbage can in Tehran's Imam Hossein's may have exploded by accident. Of course, we are investigating," Younessi said.

The official stressed that the explosions could never affect theatmosphere of the looming elections.

"The enemies have attempted to create panic among the public targeting June 17 election. However, all terrorist elements are under control and they cannot pose any threat to safe and sound polling on the election day," he said. "They have made desperate attempt to deter people from actively taking part in the election. But, everything in under control and they are unable to pose any threat to a healthy election on Friday," Younessi added. Enditem

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-06/14/content_3081104.htm

Petronas

06-14-2005, 08:06 PM

Iran (Country threat level - 4): A small bomb placed in a garbage bin exploded on the evening of 12 June 2005 in Imam Hussein Square in central Tehran. Two people were killed and two others were wounded in the blast. Another improvised device exploded in Vali Asr Square, also in Tehran, without causing any casualties. Authorities defused three other devices in the capital.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 6/13/2005

Petronas

06-25-2005, 12:49 PM

Al-Qaida finds safe haven in Iran
Updated: 8:13 p.m. ET June 24, 2005

Somewhere north of Tehran, living perhaps in villas near the town of Chalous on the Caspian Sea coast, are between 20 and 25 of al-Qaida’s former leaders, along with two of Osama bin Laden’s sons. Men such as Saif al-Adel, the former military commander of al-Qaida, and Suleiman Abu Ghaith, the bespectacled bin Laden spokesman, are not in hiding but rather in the care — or custody — of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. “They are under virtual house arrest,” not able to do much of anything, said one senior U.S. intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

How they got there and what will happen to them is one of the more intriguing stories of the war on terror, one that is filled with secret movements, stolen communications and a failed attempt at a prisoner exchange involving Iranian dissidents. “We believe that they're holding members of al-Qaida's management council,” Fran Townsend, President Bush’s counterterrorism czar, said of Iran. In an interview with Tom Brokaw two weeks ago, she added: “And we have encouraged and suggested that they ought to try them, they ought to admit freely that they're there — which they have not done — that they're holding them. Or they ought to return them to their countries of origin, which they've also been unwilling to do.”

How’d they get there?

The road to Iran
NBC News has learned that in the chaotic last days before Kabul, Afghanistan, fell to U.S. troops in November 2001, bin Laden and his lieutenants made a strategic decision. Al-Qaida’s then military commander, Mohammed Atef, has just been blown up in a U.S. air attack in the city, one in which a CIA Predator had pinpointed the very house he was staying in. It was time to move out. Al-Qaida’s leadership had been divided into consultative and management councils, both of which reported to bin Laden.

The consultative council, the “al shura,” was viewed as the more critical to the terror network's continued operations. Its members, including bin Laden and his No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, would flee east to cities in Pakistan. There, over the next few years, many key players would be picked up and bundled off to interrogation centers with great regularity. Abu Zubaydah, al-Qaida’s recruitment and training leader — known as the “dean of students” — was arrested in Faisalabad. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, its operations commander, was grabbed in Rawalpindi; two of his deputies, Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Abu Faraj al Libbi, were taken in Karachi and Multan, and other lesser figures were regularly rousted by Pakistani forces.

The management council went west, to northern Iran, where the United States had little sway and the Iranians had little interest in pushing for their arrests. The group included al-Adel and abu Ghaith; Shaik Said, al-Qaida's chief financial officer; Abu Hafs, al-Qaida’s personnel director; the two top aides to Zawahiri; and a mysterious Yemeni, Abu Dahak, who served as al-Qaida’s ambassador to the rebels in Chechnya. On a personal level, two of bin Laden’s teenage sons, Sa’ad and Hamza, also were taken to Iran.

Setting up base
That’s not to say the Iranians, with their Shiite leadership, held any love for the Wahhabis and Salafists. Iranian intelligence had tried to kill Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban, at a palace built for him by bin Laden in Kandahar, Afghanistan. “They missed, but it wasn’t for lack of trying,” said a Pentagon counter terrorism official at the time of the 2000 attempt. “It was one big truck bomb. I know. I saw pictures of the crater.”

But Iran was either unable or uninterested in taking the al-Qaida members into custody. Al-Qaida operatives, it was soon determined, were in communications, both personally and electronically, with the management and consultative councils. Orders were being given, commands were being carried out.

In April 2002, only five months after leaving Afghanistan, U.S. intelligence officials believed they saw a link between al-Qaida in Iran and the first post-9/11 terrorist attack ordered by bin Laden. A propane truck, used a truck bomb, breached the gates of one of Africa’s oldest synagogues in Djerba, Tunisia, killing 14 tourists. Although the suicide bomber was Tunisian, Western intelligence believed that the attack has been organized by Sa’ad bin Laden.

Feeling pressure
There was also evidence that critical meetings regarding the future of al-Qaida were being held in the relative safety of Iran. But al-Qaida decided at a meeting in Iran in November 2002 that the pressure on it was so great that it could no longer exist as a hierarchy. Two top leaders had just been arrested in Pakistan and in the pre-Iraq war environment, Western governments were putting up a united front. Instead, following the advice of a key Iran-based al-Qaida strategist, Mustapha Nasar Setmariam, the terror network decided to move its operatives out into the wider world, to the rest of the Middle East, Europe and North America. As time wore on, the al-Qaida operatives became bolder. In May 2003, operatives in Saudi Arabia carried out the first attack in Riyadh, targeting Westerners’ compounds. Thirty-five people, including eight Americans, were killed.

But then things changed.

Let's make a deal
As a former senior U.S. counterterrorism official told NBC News: “The U.S. government believed that the Saudis made a deal with the Iranians in 1996 after the Khobar Towers bombing. The deal was structured this way: The Saudis would not cooperate with the U.S. on the investigation, knowing that if they did cooperate, the U.S. would have the justification for bombing Iran.” In return, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Iranians agreed not to support any terrorist attacks in the kingdom. (Ultimately, the United States charged Saudi Hezbollah members with the Khobar Towers attack and named as unindicted co-conspirators two officers of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence.) “Then, in 2003, we are told, the Saudis — with U.S. and British help — discovered that al-Qaida's management council in Iran was communicating with the al-Qaida cell in Saudi that had carried out the attacks on Western compounds in Riyadh," the official said.

House arrest
“The Saudis let the Iranians know and, citing the earlier agreement, demanded that the Iranians put a halt to the operations of the management council, leading to the Iranians putting the 20 to 25 al-Qaida officials in Iran under virtual house arrest,” the official said. And that’s just what happened, say current U.S. officials. According to reports in the Arab media, they were rounded up and taken to two locations guarded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards: one in villas in the Namak Abrud region, near the town of Chalous on the Caspian coast, 60 miles north of Tehran, and the other in Lavizan, a region northwest of the capital that also houses a large military complex.

Publicly, all CIA Director Porter Goss will say is that Iran has “detained” al-Qaida elements. “I don't have all of the information I would like to have,” he told Tom Brokaw. “But I think your understanding is that there is a group of leadership of al-Qaida under some type of detention — I don't know exactly what type, necessarily — in Iran is probably accurate. But I don't think I want to go too far into that — if you don't mind.” Whether it was a quid pro quo with the Saudis is uncertain to this day, say U.S. officials, but it’s better that they are under some sort of control and not operating freely.

U.S. presses for information
The Iranians admit privately they have the al-Qaida officials and say they are “investigating” their activities. That does not impress Townsend. “But the Iranians are not telling us who they have," she said. "They may be telling you and there may be things in their newspapers, but they're not telling us, and they were not talking about what, if anything, what progress, if any, has been made in terms of their investigation.”

Does the White House counterterrorism czar think there will be a trial of the al-Qaida officials anytime soon? “No. I do not,” she said. And does the United States have any kind of communication with Iran about the situation? “I would refer you to the State Department,” Townsend said. Isn’t that a matter that might go outside of channels? “It could,” she said.

Talk of terrorist trade
In fact, says one former senior U.S. intelligence official, back-channel discussions have been a lot more concrete. “The Iranians will not give you specific names, or at least they would never give us specific names. They would always duck the question,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. In fact, he said, Iran first proposed the exchange of al-Qaida operatives for leaders of the group Mujahedeen E. Khalk who are under U.S. control in Iraq. The MEK has been on the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations since 1998, when the Clinton administration was trying to open up lines of communications with Iran. The State Department blames the group for the killings of five Americans in the run-up to the Iranian revolution in 1979 and various murders and attacks on Iranian diplomats and civilians both inside and outside Iran. In addition, Saddam Hussein had financed, trained and armed the MEK, even building the group a 5,000-man training facility in Fallujah (now being used by the U.S. Marines) and used them in the Iran-Iraq War and in cross-border attacks after the war.

“The exchange was never formally proposed, but several general offers were made through third parties, not all of them diplomatic,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “One reason nothing came of it was because we knew that there were parts of the U.S. government who didn't want to give them the MEK because they had other plans for them … like overthrowing the Iranian government.”

18 al-Qaida leaders reportedly in Iran
Even if there is no movement in U.S.-Iranian discussions, there have been indications over the past year of discussions between Arab states and Iran about the disposition of al-Qaida members in Iran. There was a particularly intense and public flurry last summer, according to Sharq al-Awsat, the London-based Arab newspaper, which also reported that the total number of al-Qaida operatives in Iran was 348 and leaders 18. In June, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said his country had in the past given Saudi Arabia some useful information concerning members of bin Laden's network that it was detaining. He did not elaborate. Sharq al Awsat also reported that Tehran handed over wanted Saudi militant Khaled bin Odeh bin Mohammed al-Harbi to Saudi authorities.

Syria weighs in
Riyadh believed the disabled militant, suspected of being an al-Qaida figure close to bin Laden, surrendered in mid-July under an amnesty after contacting the Saudi Embassy in Iran. That reportedly followed a meeting at which Syrian President Bashar al-Assad convinced Tehran during a visit early this month of the "seriousness" of using al-Qaida elements in Iran as a card in its policy with the United States.

Most recently, there are reports in Iranian newspapers of the investigation proceeding and a comment by Saif a-Adel, the former military commander, in al-Quds, a radical London-based newspaper. Accompanying an article in which he praises Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, was a note saying that al-Adel had “a lot of free time” to write.

That, say U.S. officials, is a good thing.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8330976/

Casey

06-27-2005, 02:24 PM

Iran New Leader to Restart Nuke

27/06/2005

TEHRAN, Iran, AP -The president-elect of Iran vowed to restart the nation's controversial nuclear program, saying it was meant only for peaceful energy purposes. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld labeled the new ultraconservative leader as "no friend of democracy."

Asked about relations with the United States during his first news conference since Friday's election, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday said Iran "is taking the path of progress based on self-reliance. It doesn't need the United States significantly on this path."

In a sign of tensions likely ahead, Rumsfeld dismissed the vote as a "mock election."

Ahmadinejad entered the crowded chambers in Iran's municipal building with little fanfare, maintaining the unassuming style embraced by the roughly 17 million Iranians who voted him to power in a landslide victory.

His government's foreign policy would focus on "peace, moderation and coexistence," he said.

"Moderation will be the policy of (my) popular government. Extremism will have no place in (my) popular government," he said.

He fielded questions confidently and smiled broadly when asked by an Iranian female journalist wearing a colorful head scarf whether he would introduce a strict dress code.

It wasn't his job to decide, he said.

"I am the president. There are people who make those decisions," Ahmadinejad said. He appeared to be referring to the judiciary and the police, which enforce the law on the dress code.

In his opening statement, he promised to shun extremism and cobble together a moderate regime. Yet critics say his election only consolidated the hard-liners' hold on power, and no reform-minded people remain in the government.

"He is no friend of democracy," Rumsfeld said on "Fox News Sunday." "He is a person who is very much supportive of the current ayatollahs, who are telling the people of that country how to live their lives, and my guess is over time the young people and women will find him as well as his masters unacceptable."

A key concern for the United States is Iran's 20-year-old nuclear program, revealed in 2002.

The United States alleges the program is aimed at building atomic weapons. Iran insists it is only interested in generating electricity. Uranium enriched to low levels has energy uses, while highly enriched uranium can be used in bombs.

Iran suspended all uranium enrichment-related activities in November to avoid possible sanctions from the U.N. Security Council, but it said all along the suspension was temporary. France, Britain and Germany have offered economic incentives in hopes of persuading Iran to permanently halt enrichment.

"Iran's peaceful technology is the outcome of the scientific achievements of Iran's youth," Ahmadinejad said. "We need the peaceful nuclear technology for energy, medical and agricultural purposes and our scientific progress. We will continue this."

He said Iran's decision would not change, but he did not say when the resumption would begin.

"This is the final path we have taken," he said.

Concerning Iran's negotiations with France, Britain and Germany, Ahmadinejad said he was waiting for specific offers to break the stalemate.

"We will continue talks with Europeans while preserving our national interests and insistence on the right of the Iranian nation to use nuclear energy," he said. "If there is to be trust-building, then it should be mutual."

Western leaders have worried that relations with Iran may become increasingly troublesome with Ahmadinejad as president.

As Tehran mayor, he also served as managing director of a newspaper affiliated with the Tehran municipality. He quickly replaced journalists who defended pro-democracy reforms with conservative writers.

He also replaced most district mayors considered pro-reform.

"We didn't have a revolution to have a democracy," he is widely quoted as saying, referring to the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

A former Revolutionary Guard commander, Ahmadinejad resurrected platitudes popular in the movement's early days.

"Iran can accomplish anything. Iranians have everything they need themselves to accomplish everything," he said Sunday.

His comments overlooked the fact that Iran's economy is staggering under the weight of high unemployment, double-digit inflation and interest rates of 25 percent to 30 percent on personal loans.

He also responded harshly to comments in Sunday's Rome daily La Repubblica, where European Union Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini was quoted as saying: "We are waiting for clear words on human rights and the nuclear issue from the new president. But if the responses are negative, the European Union can't but freeze the dialogue with Iran."

Ahmadinejad said the European Union "should come down from its ivory tower and understand that they cannot talk to the Iranian nation in this way."

Ahmadinejad said he would seek to improve relations with other countries and "pay attention to improving relations with any country that doesn't seek hostilities against Iran." http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?id=597&section=1

Petronas

06-28-2005, 02:28 PM

Man sentenced to have eyes gouged out in Iran
Jun 27, 2005

Amnesty International is calling for a sentence of eye gouging against a man in Iran not to be carried out. The 28-year-old man, known only as Vahid, has been sentenced to have his eyes surgically gouged out for a crime committed when he was 16 years old. The Iranian Supreme Court rejected an appeal earlier this month and ordered that the punishment should be carried out. It may now be inflicted at any time and Amnesty International has issued an 'Urgent Action' appeal against the sentence and is urging the authorities to abolish punishments such as eye-gouging which constitute cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, amounting to torture.

Amnesty International UK Media Director Mike Blakemore said:

"This is a truly shocking case amounting to a sentence of judicial torture. We appeal to the Iranian authorities to guarantee that this punishment is not carried out and would further appeal to all medical practitioners in Iran to have nothing to do with this gruesome punishment."

According to Iranian press reports, Vahid was convicted of deliberately pouring acid from a battery on the face of another youth, Gholam-Hossein, blinding him. This took place in 1993, when Vahid had been working as a labourer in the capital, Tehran. Vahid reportedly maintained throughout his trial that the attack was not intentional and that he had only meant to threaten the youth with the battery during an argument, but the battery?s lid had opened accidentally, causing the injury.

The trial court reportedly ordered that Vahid's eyes be sprayed with acid as retribution (qesas) for his actions. Vahid's lawyer appealed, arguing that the rest of his face would also be damaged from the acid. The appeal was reportedly rejected by a second court which ruled instead that Vahid's eyes would be surgically gouged out in order not to damage his face. Vahid's lawyer is reportedly seeking clemency for his client from Gholam-Hossein's family. Vahid has been asked to pay three billion Rials (approximately ?150,000) as diyeh (blood-money) to escape the punishment, but he has reportedly said that he does not have that much money.

Amnesty International's appeal on behalf of Vadim comes the day after International Day in Support of Victims of Torture (26 June) and is part of the organisation?s current campaign against all forms of torture, including torture in the 'war on terror'.

http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/article_7898.shtml

NYC

07-01-2005, 01:34 PM

Iran: U.S. Examines Hostage Accusations Against Ahmadinejad

By Golnaz Esfandiari

U.S. President George W. Bush said on 30 June he wanted answers on whether Iranian President-elect Mahmud Ahmadinejad was involved in the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover in Tehran, in which 52 Americans were taken hostage and held for 444 days. Several of the former American hostages say they are convinced Ahmadinejad was one of their captors. Ahmadinejad has not reacted to the accusations, but several former student leaders have said that he was not involved in the hostage incident, and some former hostages say the same.

PRAGUE, 1 July 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Is Iran's hard-line president-elect a former hostage-taker?

At least five of the Americans taken hostage in 1979 say they believe Mahmud Ahmadinejad was one of their captors.

One former hostage, retired U.S. Navy Captain Donald Sharer, told U.S. NBC television on 29 June that he remembers Ahmadinejad on two specific occasions.

"One of our guards let us pace the hallway outside of our jail cell up to another jail cell, where [fellow hostage] Tom Ahearn was, and we did that for a couple of days," Sharer said. "One day this fellow comes in while we are doing it and just chews out the guard very vehemently and he says in Farsi -- and Chuck, Colonel Scott [Chuck Scott, the embassy's military attache], interpreted for me -- he called us pigs and dogs and said we deserved to be locked up all the time. With something like that, a certain amount of fear seeps into your heart wondering what is going to happen next. Well, we got locked up and -- you tend not to forget people that kind of put your life in threat."

Another former hostage, Kevin Hermening, has said Ahmadinejad was involved in his interrogation the day he was taken captive.

But several former student leaders who were involved in the seizure of the U.S. Embassy say Ahmadinejad played no role.

Abbas Abdi, one of the best known of the former student leaders, is quoted by "The New York Times" as saying that Ahmadinejad wanted to take part in the U.S. Embassy takeover, but was rejected.

Abdi said Ahmadinejad "called after the embassy was captured and wanted to join us, but we refused to let him come to the embassy or become a member of our group."

Mohammad Ali Seyyednejad, one of the five founding members of the central council of Iran's largest student association, the Office to Foster Unity, has a different account of the events.

He told Radio Farda that Ahmadinejad was against the embassy takeover.

"Mr. Ahmadinejad was a member of the initial founding council of Office To Foster Unity, and later, when the issue of the occupation of the U.S. Embassy was put on the agenda of a central council meeting, Mr. Ahmadinejad and I were among the opponents of the embassy occupation," Seyyednejad told Radio Farda.

The U.S. Embassy in Tehran was stormed on 4 November 1979 by a group of student activists calling themselves the Student Followers of the Imam [Khomeini]'s Line.

They took the staff hostage, accusing them of engaging in espionage. The students said they were protesting against U.S. interference in Iran's internal affairs.

Questions about Ahmadinejad's role in the U.S. Embassy occupation were raised in recent days after a photograph of a bearded hostage-taker leading a blindfolded American hostage was published on several websites.

Some believe the hostage-taker is Ahmadinejad, but others, including some of his aides, have dismissed the claim. Photos of Ahmadinejad from that time published on his website (http://www.mardomyar.com) show little resemblance.

On 30 June, U.S. President Bush said the accusation against Ahmadinejad "raises many questions." The U.S. State Department then called on the Iranian government to clarify the role of Ahmadinejad in the 1979 siege.

The allegations against Ahmadinejad are unlikely to cause public outrage in Iran.

Several participants in the embassy siege are now prominent politicians, including Massoumeh Ebtekar, a vice president and head of Iran's environmental protection organization.

Some went on to become reformists, including Abbas Abdi, who was recently released from jail after serving time for organizing a poll showing that most respondents favored restoring ties between Iran and the United States.

For Americans, the 1979 hostage taking sparked a political crisis that led to the rupture of diplomatic ties between Washington and Tehran.

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on 30 June the American government is working to establish the truth about Ahmadinejad's alleged involvement in the hostage crisis.

He added that the government had "not forgotten" that so many of its diplomats were taken hostage and held for "more than a year."

Sonia Sceats is an associate fellow at the international law program at Chatam House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, in London. She told RFE/RL the accusations against Ahmadinejad could further damage already strained relations between Iran and the United States.

"If there is strong enough evidence [linking Ahmadinejad to the hostage-taking] it will place limitations on his travel, because if he travels to a country which, for example, recognizes international jurisdiction over a crime of that nature, he may face being arrested, charged, and tried in that country," Sceats said. "Or he may face extradition to the United States, where certainly the federal courts recognize international jurisdiction over the crime of hostage-taking."

Iranian officials have yet to react to the allegations against Ahmadinejad.

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/07/992e9294-d81d-4093-a38b-20dc9642013b.html

NYer

07-19-2005, 07:39 AM

Ganji Is Near Death in Iranian Prison, a Dissident Reports

BY ELI LAKE - Staff Reporter of the Sun
July 18, 2005
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/17131

WASHINGTON - Akbar Ganji's 36-day hunger strike has nearly cost the Iranian dissident his life, according to a writer recently released from the Tehran prison that holds Mr. Ganji, whom President Bush and European Union leaders have demanded the mullahs set free.

In a telephone interview from Tehran, a former political prisoner who was released temporarily from Evin prison at the end of June, Amir Abbas Fakhravar, told The New York Sun that Mr. Ganji's kidneys had failed and that he was seen yesterday by two fellow inmates in Evin's hospital wing laying unconscious on a floor as two guards tried to prop him up.

"I received word this afternoon from two inmates who saw Akbar Ganji in the prison hospital and was not moving at all. Two guards were trying to get him to walk, but he was unconscious, lying on the ground and not able to walk," Mr. Fakhravar said. "He is on the verge of dying."

On Saturday, a Persian wire service, Tabriz News, published a statement from Mr. Ganji contradicting published reports from the Iranian judiciary that claimed his condition was good. "Since the statements of the judiciary do not express the truth about my conditions, I am not willing to cooperate with the clinic officials on recording my vital signs effective now, Saturday July 17, 2005." Another Persian wire service reported that Mr. Ganji's wife was denied a visit yesterday to Evin prison. She told the Islamic Republic News Agency yesterday that Mr. Ganji has refused intravenous injections that could keep him alive.

Mr. Ganji was sentenced in January 2001 for publishing a series of articles and a book, "The Red Eminence and the Gray Eminences," that charged senior regime officials with playing a direct role in a series of assassinations of Iranian intellectuals and dissidents in the late 1990s, which have become known as the "chain murders." On June 11, Mr. Ganji was re-arrested after allegedly violating the terms of his medical leave (he suffers from asthma) when he gave an online interview urging his countrymen to boycott last month's presidential election. In the interview, he challenged the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to stand for office. On the same day, Mr. Ganji began his current hunger strike, subsisting since then on water and sugar cubes.

Mr. Fakhravar last month was granted a temporary release from Evin prison, where since 2002 he had been serving an eight-year sentence for publishing a criticism of Ayatollah Khamenei called "This Place Is Not a Ditch." In 2003, Mr. Fakhravar became one of the first members of the democratic opposition in Iran to call for a constitutional referendum to rescind the powers of the supreme leader and Council of Guardians that have since 1997 stymied the efforts of reformers to expand individual liberties in Iran.

He was released temporarily from Evin to complete his university examinations, and in the interview yesterday, he said, "I forgot to report back to prison." Mr. Fakhravar is ignoring a warrant for his arrest issued by Iranian authorities.

When asked whether he was willing to risk his life by speaking on the record, he replied, "My objective in life is to free my country that is in such misery." He added, "This is what we are about, and we have no fear."

Mr. Fakhravar said that Mr. Ganji was placed in solitary confinement in section 240 of Evin prison, an area of the facility where, according to Mr. Fakhravar, female enemies of the revolution in 1979 and 1980 were raped before they were executed. "It is against Islamic law to kill a virgin," he said.

Regarding the details of Mr. Ganji's captivity, Mr. Fakhravar said, "I saw him in the first 10 days of the hunger strike. After 10 days, they took him to solitary confinement."

The account squares with Mr. Ganji's letter last month from prison, in which he said the regime would not allow other inmates or journalists to see him. A second letter, claiming to be from Mr. Ganji, has circulated around the Internet in the last four days. Mr. Fakhravar yesterday said he doubted its authenticity, due to Mr. Ganji's failing health.

As Mr. Ganji's body weakens, more people around the world have taken up his cause. Opendemocracy.net, in conjunction with the International Society for Iranian Studies-Committee for Academic and Intellectual Freedom and International PEN, has circulated a petition calling on the supreme leader to free Mr. Ganji. More than 100 have signed the petition so far, including the South African archbishop and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, Desmond Tutu; an MIT linguistics professor, Noam Chomsky, and a University of Chicago philosopher, Martha Nussbaum.

Last week, a separate letter from 33 Iranian intellectuals urged the U.N. secretary-general, Kofi Annan, to intervene personally. When asked about Mr. Ganji on Wednesday by the Sun, the secretary-general said he did not know enough about the dissident's case to take a stand. Five U.N. human rights rapporteurs on Friday issued a statement calling on the Iranian regime to offer Mr. Ganji adequate medical care for his asthma and afford him a fair and impartial trial. The statement, however, did not directly call for his release from prison.

Recent attention from intellectuals and activists may not be enough to save the journalist this newspaper has called the Iranian Vaclav Havel. Mr. Fakhravar yesterday said he feared that Mr. Ganji would soon be dead. At the end of the interview yesterday, he said: "Never in these past 25 years has the Islamic republic been in so much turmoil. The minute Akbar Ganji dies, you will see what a revolution looks like here."

http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=17131

NYer

07-27-2005, 07:16 AM

Iran body seeks suicide 'martyrs'
By Frances Harrison
BBC News, Tehran

An advertisement in an Iranian publication has called for people to come forward for "martyrdom operations" against the enemies of Islam.

It is published by an institute managed by one of Iran's most conservative and radical clerics, Ayatollah Masbah Yazdi, who has declared his support for Iran's new President, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.

The advertisement calls for men and women to enlist with the "Martyrdom Lovers' Headquarters".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4718873.stm

NYer

07-27-2005, 01:07 PM

Unrest in Iran ...

Iranian authorities cracked down on protesters today in the southwestern oil province of Khuzestan, home to most of the Islamic Republic's Arab minority. There are reports that four people may have been killed in the violence:

An Iranian official said police had restored order after 12 arrests, but a leader among the Arab protesters said four protesters were killed and many injured in clashes with authorities.

Iran's Interior Ministry told Reuters it had no immediate information on deaths and would check with security forces.

Unrest among the Arab minority flared in April, when five people were killed and about 200 arrested. The street fighting was kindled by rumours that Tehran was planning to force ethnic Arabs to relocate.

The protests had a strong ethnic tone with people hanging Khuzestani Arab flags from buildings.

* * * * *

On Monday a Kurdish protester was shot and killed in northeren Iran. Kurdish Iranians were protesting the brutal killing of a young Kurdish acivist earlier in the month:

A Kurd named Umer Emini was killed and tens of people were wounded when Iranian soldiers tried to stop the protest which started at 21:30 (9:30 pm GMT+3:30) led by the Kurdish party PJAK in support of the uprising in Mahabad. An unknown number of people were arrested.

The uprising in Mahabad started after news that Iranian soldiers had on July 9 brutally killed the young Kurdish activist Shivane Qadri in the district of Pisttep in Mahabad. It escalated when grotesque pictures of Qadri’s tortured body was published by Kurdish news agencies. Two Iranian soldiers were killed during the protests.

Protests are still raging on in eastern Kurdistan (Iran).

Kurdish journalists report that three people were killed on Monday and seven died in previous days.

Kurds are saying the unrest is a sign of frustration over the denial of minority rights in Iran.

The northern city of Shino is protesting the oppressive attitude of the Iranian state forces:

The oppressive forces of the Iranian regime have shot at the demonstrators and two of them by the names of Hayder Abdullazada and Homer Emini the son of Shehk Mohammed have unfortunately been made martyrs and an unknown number of the demonstrators were also wounded.

The Iranian regime has gathered its suppresive forces from the cities of Mianduab and Urumiye and has ordered them to go towards the city of Shnow and to attack the civilians of the city. The oppressive forces are already moving towards the city of Shino with the intention of surrounding it.

posted by Gateway Pundit at 7/27/2005 05:54:00 AM
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2005/07/deadly-protests-erupt-in-iran.html

NYer

07-28-2005, 08:24 AM

Iran to restart nuclear work
Notes advance in missile program

By Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press | July 28, 2005

TEHRAN -- Iran said yesterday that it will restart some nuclear activities as soon as August and announced it has developed solid-fuel technology for its ballistic missiles, increasing the accuracy of weapons able to reach Israel and US forces in the Persian Gulf.

The Shahab-3 missile -- able to fly up to 1,200 miles, according to Iran, putting the entire Arabian Peninsula and even parts of Greece and Egypt within its range -- is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. Iran, however, insists its controversial nuclear program does not aim to develop weapons.

The developments come as new hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prepares to take office Aug. 6. Some Europeans worry that he will take a tougher line in negotiations about Iran's nuclear program. Ahmadinejad has said Iran will not pursue atomic weapons, but will not submit to international pressure to abandon its nuclear program.

Iran has decided to resume parts of the program it froze under an agreement with the Europeans, outgoing President Mohammad Khatami said yesterday.

The process to be resumed is the conversion of raw uranium into gas, Khatami said. He said Iran would not resume the next stage, enrichment of the gas. Enrichment turns the gas into material that can be used either to produce weapons or as fuel for a nuclear reactor to produce energy.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/07/28/iran_to_restart_nuclear_work?mode=PF

NYer

08-01-2005, 08:39 AM

Iran: Another “No” Vote For The EU?

Reuters reports that Iran will “resume sensitive nuclear activities at once without waiting for EU compromise proposals…”

More brinksmanship by Tehran? Possibly. But I’ve long thought the mullahs really want The Bomb. (This week is the 60th anniversary of Hiroshima– a good week to play nuclear politics.) Tehran looks around Iran’s borders and sees the US in Afghanistan, sees a nuclear-armed Pakistan to the east, sees a modernizing, democratizing Iraq to the west. I wrote an article in January that talked about the regional effects of a “new Iraqi Army” — an army much better trained than Saddam’s forces and capable of selective offensive action with “western allies” or western support. Acquiring nuke might solidify Tehran’s leadership of Muslim “rejectionists” (despite Tehran’s status as a “Shia power”). Heck, getting a nuke not only “stands up” against Israel, it’s a hard slam against “Christendom” (Europe and the US). We shall see.

The Reuters report includes this note:

But Iran said earlier it had little to fear from referral to the U.N. Security Council.

“There is no legal basis for Iran’s case to be referred to the U.N. Security Council. Besides, being referred to the council is not the end of the world. Some officials even believe it is better to be referred to the council,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a news conference.

Russia and China, which both hold a veto as permanent members of the council, have close trade links with Iran and are less keen on the idea of sanctions than other members.

http://austinbay.net/blog/index.php?p=463

NYer

08-05-2005, 09:51 AM

Iranian Spokesman to Reporters: "What Do You Care?"

You are not going to believe this press conference with Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi, broadcast on Iranian Channels 1 and 2 on July 31, 2005, in which reporters ask questions about Iran’s plan to restart their UCF (Uranium Conversion Facility) at Esfehan:

Reporter: What will the scope of the (UCF) activity in Esfahan be at the beginning? Will it have full or partial capacity?

Asefi: What do you care?

Female reporter: I’ll repeat my colleague’s question...

Asefi: Go ahead, please...

Female reporter:... regarding the UCF in Esfahan. Will its activity start at full or partial capacity, in order to show that the suspension...

Asefi: He asked, and I already said it is of no interest to you.

Female reporter: Please tell us, it might interest us.

Asefi: No. I know it is of no interest to you.

Reporter: Regarding the IAEA inspectors stationed in Tehran, when the UCF activity starts in Esfahan, will the inspectors be there, or did the Iranians plan a special ceremony to mark the start of activity?

Asefi: No. If by “special ceremony” you mean handing out cake and candy, then we have no such thing.

And the video is linked at:
www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog

NYer

08-08-2005, 03:38 PM

Iran resumes nuclear work; the West scrambles
International Atomic Energy Agency to hold an emergency meeting Tuesday - a step closer toward a showdown at UN.
By Howard LaFranchi | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON – - Iran's resumption of uranium conversion Monday is set to be taken up at an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency Tuesday - a move that could result in referral of the Iranian nuclear issue to the United Nations Security Council.

The council, in turn, could set in motion an international effort to isolate Iran politically and economically, something Iran has long wished to avoid.

Western officials likened Iran's step to an "in-your-face move" by a nation in a political transition, with a new president in tune with the reigning conservative mullahs. But Iranian officials, who insist their nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, say the activity is part of Iran's right to develop nuclear power.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0809/p02s01-wogi.html

NYer

08-09-2005, 09:51 AM

Dissident: Tehran Has 4,000 Centrifuges

By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press WriterTue Aug 9, 5:50 AM ET

Iran has manufactured about 4,000 centrifuges capable of enriching uranium to weapons grade, an exiled Iranian dissident who helped uncover nearly two decades of covert nuclear activity in 2002 said Tuesday.

Alireza Jafarzadeh told The Associated Press the centrifuges — which he said are unknown to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency — are ready to be installed at Iran's nuclear facility in Natanz.

Jafarzadeh, who runs Strategic Policy Consulting, a Washington-based think tank focusing on Iran and Iraq, said the information — which he described as "very recent" — came from sources within the Tehran regime who have proven accurate in the past.

None of Jafarzadeh's claims could be independently verified immediately.

The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, which was convening an emergency meeting on Iran later Tuesday, did not immediately comment on the centrifuge allegations. The agency previously had said it was aware of the existence of 164 centrifuges at Natanz, 300 miles south of Tehran.

Iran also did not immediately comment on the Jafarzadeh's claims.

Under an agreement with the IAEA, Iran had pledged to stop building centrifuges, which can be used to enrich uranium to levels high enough to fuel a nuclear weapon.

Centrifuges also can be used for the peaceful generation of nuclear energy, which Iran insists is its only intention. The United States contends the country is running a covert effort to produce nuclear weapons.

"These 4,000 centrifuge machines have not been declared to the IAEA, and the regime has kept the production of these machines hidden from the inspectors while the negotiations with the European Union have been going on over the past 21 months," Jafarzadeh said in a telephone interview.

Iran on Saturday rejected a package of EU incentives presented by envoys from Britain, France and Germany, and on Monday, it announced it had resumed uranium conversion activities at its nuclear facility at Isfahan.

Jafarzadeh said the centrifuges were manufactured in Isfahan and Tehran, and that construction of buildings, concrete foundations and other work needed to prepare the Natanz facility for centrifuge installation has continued in recent months.

The IAEA's 35-nation board of governors was meeting to assess Iran's latest nuclear activities, and diplomats said it could issue a formal warning to Tehran.

The board, however, appeared unlikely to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council, which has the authority to impose economic or political sanctions on the regime.

Jafarzadeh said Iran was making "extensive" use of front organizations or companies for the production and testing of centrifuge parts. He identified the companies as Pars Tarash, Kala Electric and Energy Novin, and said all had office space in the downtown Tehran building that houses Iran's Atomic Energy Organization.

Pars Tarash, which has been mentioned in IAEA reports, is using subcontractors to make some centrifuge components, Jafarzadeh alleged. He said Malek Ashtar University in Isfahan also allegedly was involved in producing centrifuge parts.

Those companies "don't know what they're building — they're just given specifications for some parts — but the Pars Tarash company knows what it's building: centrifuges," he said.

In 2002, Jafarzadeh — then a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an exiled opposition group — disclosed information about two hidden nuclear sites that helped uncover nearly two decades of covert Iranian atomic activity and sparked present fears that Tehran wants to build a bomb.

The council is the political arm of the Mujahedeen Khalq, a group that Washington and the European Union list as a terrorist organization.

Jafarzadeh identified the top two engineers allegedly working on centrifuge parts as Morteza Behzad, who works for Iran's atomic agency and heads Pars Tarash, and Ali Karimi, a Defense Ministry engineer with experience in more advanced P2 centrifuges.

"This clearly shows that contrary to Iran's claim that it is transparent and cooperating with the IAEA, it hasn't stopped being deceitful, hasn't stopped lying and hiding its program," Jafarzadeh said by telephone from Washington, D.C.

In June 2004, diplomats told AP in Vienna that Iran had acknowledged inquiring about 4,000 magnets needed for uranium enrichment equipment with a European black-market supplier and had dangled the possibility of buying a "higher number." It was unclear whether the magnets were intended for use in the 4,000 centrifuges Jafarzadeh cited.

A month later, in July 2004, Iran confirmed it had resumed building centrifuges, although it said it had not restarted uranium enrichment.

Britain, France and Germany called Tuesday's emergency IAEA meeting after Tehran announced plans to resume conversion, the process preceding enrichment. Highly enriched uranium can be used to make weapons; uranium enriched to lower levels is used to produce electricity.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050809/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_nuclear_centrifuges&printer=1;_ylt=AooRLwXXECXHcimCv7_f9xwUewgF;_ylu=X 3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

NYer

08-12-2005, 01:46 PM

Now if the MSM continues to serve as a reliable reverse indicator ...

Iran: Revolution, Unrealistic

By Mark Hosenball

08/08/05 "Newsweek" -- -- A classified analysis by the U.S. intelligence community warned top Bush administration officials last spring that the theocratic reign of Iranian mullahs could be entrenched for years to come, NEWSWEEK has learned. This National Intelligence Estimate, issued by a unit of the new National Intelligence Director's office, reported that Iran is not in a prerevolutionary state and that near-term regime change appeared unlikely, say U.S. officials familiar with the report who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the material. (The National Intelligence Council, a committee of top analysts, produced the document at the same time that it sent out a second classified report about Iran's nuclear program.) The analysts also noted that Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was Tehran's mayor and a dark-horse presidential candidate at the time of the NIE's publication, might have a surprisingly strong following among poorer Iranians because of his reputation as an anticorruption campaigner. The office of intel czar John Negroponte had no comment on the top-secret document.

In briefings with reporters, intel officials have stressed recently that they want contrary views to be taken into account when analyses are presented to policymakers. But a White House spokesperson says President George W. Bush had no intention of backing away from comments he made about Iran just before its June election. In his June statement, Bush hinted at regime change, telling the Iranian people, "As you stand for your own liberty, the people of America stand with you." In July, Bush publicly mentioned the case of an imprisoned Iranian journalist, Akbar Ganji, who has become a cause celebre for U.S. neoconservatives who have been agitating for more U.S. support of efforts to overthrow the mullahs; Sen. Rick Santorum even introduced a bill to offer U.S. funding for exiles and Iranian-Americans seeking peaceful regime change.

Mark Hosenball
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9704.htm

NYer

08-15-2005, 08:52 AM

Report: Iran supporting Iraq insurgency

BAGHDAD, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- Iran is supporting insurgency groups in Iraq as well as receiving vital information due to leaks within the new Iraqi government, Time magazine reports.

U.S. military documents point to Tehran backing for at least one network of insurgents that is using advanced bomb making techniques to create an even deadlier insurgency.

A Time investigation reports that Iran has arranged a partnership between influential Iraqi Shiites and the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.

The investigation also shows an alleged plan for Tehran to gain influence in the new Iraqi government.

Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps documents discovered by U.S. and British intelligence show communication on insurgency and U.S. troop positions, Time said.

It also appears that Iran is paying the salaries of a military wing of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the Badr Corps, the magazine said.

Badr leader Hadi al-Amri is demanding proof of the allegation.

A former Iraqi official also alleged that he was recruited by Iran to infiltrate the new Iraqi Ministry of Interior.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20050814-13123900-bc-iraq-iran.xml

NYer

08-17-2005, 05:56 PM

IRAN: NEW DEFENCE MINISTER ACCUSED OF TERRORISM

Tehran, 17 August (AKI) - Iran's new defence minister, Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, participated in the organisation of a terrorist attack at a US Marine base in Lebanon in 1983, according to the Washington-based Iran Focus website. The explosion of a truck full of explosives near Beirut in front of the barracks of American peacekeepers killed 241 Marines. The Lebanese Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack and Imad Mughnieh, the former Hezbollah official, who is on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation's Most Wanted Terrorist list, was believed to be the mastermind behind the terrorist act.

According to his official biography, Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, who was the former commander of the Pasdaran or Iran's Revolutionary Guards was, in that period, active within the Pasdaran in Lebanon, Palestine and the Persian Gulf.

According to Iran Focus, in the weeks preceding the attack, Najjar was in Lebanon to coordinate Hezbollah's terrorist activities.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.197993350&par=0

NYer

08-21-2005, 10:16 AM

Iran 'supplies infra-red bombs' that kill British troops in Iraq
By Toby Harnden, Chief Foreign Correspondent
(Filed: 21/08/2005)

British soldiers in Iraq are being killed by advanced "infra-red" bombs supplied by Iran that defeat jamming equipment, according to military intelligence officials.

The "passive infra-red" devices, whose use in Iraq is revealed for the first time by The Sunday Telegraph, are detonated when the beam is broken, as when an intruder triggers a burglar alarm. They were used by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group against Israel in Lebanon from 1995.

http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/21/wiran21.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/08/21/ixnewstop.html

NYer

08-25-2005, 08:18 AM

Iran Vows ‘Innovations’ to Solve N-Row
Agencies

TEHRAN, 25 August 2005 — Iran wants negotiations over its nuclear program to continue and is finalizing “innovations” to resolve the dispute, the Islamic republic’s new President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced yesterday.

However, he told reporters that Iran would also defend its “lawful rights” in the nuclear domain — a reference to the country’s demand to hold on to sensitive atomic energy fuel cycle technology that the West fears could be diverted to weapons use.

“Our policy is transparent and clear: we are after the nation’s lawful rights within the framework of international law and we will defend these rights seriously,” he said on the sidelines of a parliamentary confidence vote on his proposed Cabinet.

But he added that “we want the negotiations to continue,” even though talks with Britain, France and Germany have broken off due to Iran’s decision to partially end its suspension of uranium enrichment-related work.

“I have some innovations concerning the fuel cycle which are being finalized by the experts and the details will be known,” he said, but did not elaborate. At the end of July, the EU-3 formally asked Iran to abandon uranium enrichment-related work in exchange for a package of trade incentives, access to nuclear fuel produced overseas and help with Tehran’s regional security concerns.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=68989&d=25&m=8&y=2005&pix=world.jpg&category=World

These Iranians have other thoughts ...
http://activistchat.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6503

NYer

08-27-2005, 08:38 PM

Iranian air force will knock down enemies if Iran was attacked -- Safavi

TEHRAN, Aug 27 (KUNA) -- The Air force will knock enemies down if Iran is attacked, warned Commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi on Saturday.

His remarks followed a ceremony to mark the appointment of Brigadier General Ali-Reza Zahedi as the new commander of the IRGC air force.

Safavi said the well-equipped Iranian air force should be alerted to encounter any US or Israeli threat, in coordination with other Iranian forces in order to defend the lands and interests of Iran.

http://www.kuna.net.kw/home/story.aspx?Language=en&DSNO=763949

Petronas

09-14-2005, 12:52 AM

Cultural genocide in the name of Islam
Amil Imani
September 13th, 2005

The Islamic Republic of Iran has renewed its war of destruction on Persian antiquities. Its intention is to build up an Islamic empire and to change the whole face of Iran into a backward purely Islamic nation. The Islamic Republic of Iran sees its Persian heritage as a formidable enemy of its conquest. It aims at turning Iran into a pure form of an Islamic nation. Hence, they have waged a war on Persian antiquities in the hope of suppressing Persian pride and nationalism.

"Cultural genocide" is a term sometimes used to describe the deliberate destruction of the cultural heritage of a people or nation for political or military reasons. Since its inception twenty-six years ago, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been in a state of constant war with the Iranian people as well as the Iranian heritage.

Over its life span, the Islamic Republic zealots have tried many times to cleanse the pre-Islamic Persian heritage in the name of Islam. First, they declared war against the Persian New Year or “Nowruz”, and then they attacked other Persian traditions and customs. At the beginning of the revolution, Islamic zealots rushed to the site of the Persepolis, the magnificent palace of the Achaemenid kings. Fortunately, the total bulldozing of the relics of the Palace was averted by Iranian patriots who wished to preserve their heritage.

In their latest attempt in the war of destruction, the Islamic Republic has been insidiously planning to obliterate some of the most cherished places in Persian history. They intend to eradicate the Pasargad, the Bolaghi gorge and the Persepolis. Most of all, they are obliterating the memory of one of history's great rulers, Cyrus the Great.

In Pasargad is found the tomb of Cyrus the Great, the King of Kings and the founding father of Persia. Cyrus the Great, who is mentioned twenty-five times in the Bible, is known for his passion and compassion and his unprecedented tolerance. Cyrus the Great's Charter of Human Rights is known to be the first such charter written, and refers to the concept of humans as having universal rights, regardless of legal jurisdiction, ethnicity, nationality or religion.

Cyrus the Great's most notable reputation of a great leader stands high as a Persian king who freed the Jews from captivity by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
Cyrus the Great, not only allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple, but assisted the Jews in this endeavor, something which was followed by his heirs.

Cyrus the Great proclaimed more than 2500 years ago,

"Today, I announce that everyone is free to choose a religion and free to live in all regions and take up a job provided that they never violate other's rights."

Cyrus the Great declared himself not a conqueror, but a liberator.

It has been said that Alexander the Great set the torch to Persepolis in a drunken rage, regretting it the following day. Alexander the Great plundered Persia. He destroyed and burned Persepolis, the magnificent palace complex of the Achaemenid kings. Yet, Alexander the Great paid tribute to Cyrus the Great at his tomb. This shows how much the king of kings was respected, even in the eyes of his fierce enemies. What Alexander came to set on fire to more than 2200 years ago, the Islamic Republic intends to submerge today.

In its war of construction and destruction, the Islamic Republic has been building "Sivand Dam" near the Persian antiquities. The construction of the Sivand Dam on the Polvar River began in 1992 without consultation with or the knowledge of the World Cultural Heritage Organization officials. The dam's opening was planned in March 2005, but the Iranian energy ministry has delayed it to early 2006 to give the archaeologists more time to examine the sites.

This dam will flood the entire Tang-e Bolaghi (Bolaghi Gorge) mountain pass and the surrounding region. That would lead to some 8 kilometers of the Bolaghi Gorge being submerged and lost forever. Thus, experts of ICHCTO and the Pars-e Pasargad Research Foundation quickly undertook a project to study the area. So far they have identified more than 100 archeological sites there

The Islamic Republic's ulterior motive in building "Sivand Dam" so close to the archeological sites was to intentionally flood the vast archeological area of Pasargad, including the tomb of Cyrus the Great, Bolaghi Gorge, the King's path and the main historical road of Persia, which was constructed by order of Darius of the Achaemenids and the relics of the magnificent palace of Persepolis.

Although the Islamic Republic’s records speak dismally for itself, there are numerous reasons for this cultural genocide by the Islamic regime, in Iran.
The Islamic regime's decision to destroy Cyrus the Great's tomb is due to their inner fear of the personification of Cyrus the Great in the heart of every Persian. Since Cyrus the Great released the Jews from captivity some 2500 years ago, the Islamic Republic's intense hatred of Jews has fueled their mission of destruction. Also, fear of Persian nationalism is so immense that it stands in their way of creating an Islamic Utopia. These fears are justified, especially following the news on the future release of a British movie on the life of Cyrus the Great.

Today, we are up against a truly malignant force in radical Islamism that is breeding, sheltering and financing its terrorist armory. This new enemy of humanity and world heritage is far more radical and dangerous than the Nazi Germany or the old Soviet Russia ever were. The Islamic Republic’s ultimate objective is the destruction of everything in the world that is good and leaving behind a network of Islamic terror around the free world.

Let us hope that people of the earth become united against the forces of evil and evildoers of radical Islamism. Let us hope that the free world applies pressure to the Islamic Republic to prevent them from purging the Persian heritage.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=4815

NYer

09-22-2005, 08:53 AM

Canada demands justice over photographer murdered in Iran

Wed Sep 21, 3:28 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Canadian Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew said he had told his Iranian counterpart that Ottawa expected justice to be rendered in the murder of Canadian-Iranian photographer Zahra Kazemi.

Pettigrew had a rare meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki here Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

"I have indicated to him that Canada was determined in going to the bottom of Madame Kazemi's case," he told reporters.

"That lady was raped, beaten and killed," he said. "Justice must be rendered... They owed it to Madame Kazemi, they owed it to the international community as well."

Kazemi, who was 54, died in custody in Tehran in 2003 July after being arrested for photographing a demonstration outside a Tehran prison. Family lawyers have accused the Iranian judiciary of a cover-up, a charge backed by Ottawa.

Iran's previous reformist government acknowledged Kazemi was violently beaten in prison, although the judiciary has also said she may have died after a fall.

"This is before the court. The (Kazemi) family has asked for an appeal. I told the minister yesterday that we expected that appeal to take place, to stop dragging their feet," Pettigrew said.

He said that Mottaki responded by saying that the justice system in Iran was independent from the government.

On Monday, Iran's judiciary said it has reached a verdict in the appeals process on the Kazemi case but that the result of the appeal was still being typed out.

Last July a Tehran court acquitted an intelligence agent accused of giving the journalist a mortal blow to the head while she was in custody two years ago.

Kazemi family lawyers agree the agent is not guilty, but complain that their efforts to see judiciary officials questioned during the appeals process were blocked.

The official news agency IRNA on Wednesday quoted Mottaki as saying Ottawa was guilty of "propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran while the case was transparently taking its course".

Pettigrew also commented on the case of Keyvan Tabesh, an 18-year-old Iranian shot dead by police in Vancouver in 2003.

"The Iranian official line is always to try to make an equivalent comparison (with the Kazemi case) whereas they know very well that there's just no parallel, no equivalence that can ever possibly be drawn there," he told reporters here.

The police officer involved in the Vancouver shooting has been cleared of any wrong-doing by Canadian criminal investigators. An internal police review concluded Tabesh ran toward the officer waving a machete and ignored his warnings before being gunned down.

"The verdict on the Tabesh case was released without any transparency and without any trial," Mottaki was quoted as saying by Irna.

The two cases have badly strained relations between Ottawa and Tehran.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050921/wl_mideast_afp/irancanadaunjustice_050921192151;_ylt=AnfCq.zsuaZe KiyT8xsfmAZSw60A;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRP UCUl

Casey

09-27-2005, 05:46 AM

27/09/2005 12:42:54 News from Al-Mendhar - www.almendhar.com

More than 4000 of the Iranian National Guard, Al Quds Corps and the Intelligence Ministry are in Iraq

• During the past three years, Iran has been the major player in Iraq for several reasons. Everyone is speaking about the Iranian interference in Iraq and the spread of Iranian intelligence agents and the Guard elements intensively in the south, symbolically in the north and secretly in Baghdad.

A) According to some documents, in addition to the statements of colonel Ismael, a leader of Al Quds Corps, who fled from Iran and Al Sharq Al Awsat has previously published an interview with him, Major Yasser, from the Guard intelligence, and a top official from the office of the Supreme Guide Khamenei, who requested anonymity, 3000-4000 men from the Guard and Al Quds Corps and the intelligence ministry have been sent to Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein, within approximately 14 thousand men from Badr Corps, Iraqi volunteers in Al Baseej and the sons of Iranian families deported from Iraq, who have not only received military training but also in all fields of life, such as reciting religious songs, presenting radio and TV programs, using newspapers, and running Husainias, bookstores, restaurants, and networks for distributing oil, meat and drugs.

B) The Iranian intelligence has purchased and rented more than 5000 homes, apartments, stores, warehouses, bookstores, mosques, restaurants, gas stations, etc, in Al Basra, Al Diwaneya, Al Kufa, Al Najaf, Karbala, Al Kazimiyah and Baghdad, for residence and employment places for its intelligence elements, Badr comrades, and a group of Al Da'wa, which is opposing Dr. Ibrahim Al Ja'fari.

C) Upon encouragement and support on behalf of the office of the Supreme Guide and the Islamic Propaganda Organization (Sazeman-e Tablighat-e Islami), more than 2000 Iranian, Afghani and Pakistani students and clergymen (among the students in Qum's Hawza with scholarships on behalf of the Supreme Guide office) headed to Al Najaf and Karbala during the past two years. Two thirds of them are students and clergymen linked to the Iranian intelligence.

D) Ayatollah Khamenei has appointed representatives and agents in the holy Shiite cities. They pay monthly salaries to more than 7000 students and teachers to bring them and make them utter the pledge of allegiance for Khamenei as the leader of the nation and the deputy of Al Mahdi, the Imam who will appear at the end of time. While the top Najaf scholars, such as the Supreme reference Al Sayyid Ali Al Sestani, Al Sayyid Sa'ed Al Hakam, Al Fayyadh, and others, can not afford paying more than $20-80 a month to students and teachers, working at their educational Hawzas, students who are following the approach of the Iranian Supreme Guide receive $ 50-100 a month, while the teachers' salaries are $200-500. According to a document that we viewed, $30-40 million are transferred to Khamenei's representatives and agents in Iraq every month. A part of this sum is designated for payments to people other than students and teachers, including the Shiite clergymen involved in the regime.

E) Within the same context, a group of supporters of the Supreme Guide and elements that previously resided in Iran at the expense of the Guard and its intelligence, or the ruling jurist and his office, have been sent in an attempt to hold key positions in the Iraqi government. The Iranian leadership views them as troy horse of the empire of the Shiite jurist ruler. This is another element that reinforces the conviction of many Iraqis and non-Iraqis that the Iranian regime has a well-studied plan for getting Iraq, even without Kurdistan, under its control, immediately after the departure of the American and British soldiers.

F) There is also an Iranian presence in Kurdistan through thousands of Iranian Kurds, including leaders and elements of the opposing Kurdish democratic party, the opposing Kumala Communist Party, and the Kurdish students, scholars and workers, who are residing in the Kurdish semi-state in search for security from the oppression of the regime, or education in their mother tongue, or working to support their families. The Iranian presence also exists through the Kurdish and Persian cultural and popular delegations visiting Kurdistan, among which the system plants some intelligence elements. Three months ago, a delegation consisting of Iranian singers and artists visited Iraqi Kurdistan, where they held huge concerts. Nevertheless, an intelligence element among them, managed to add poison to the tea of Dr. Serdar Jaff, the son the late Dawood Jaff, the leader of the Kurdish Jaff clan, who fled to Iran with his family after the coup d'état by Abdel kareem Qasem in 1985. His children studied in Iran. The oldest son has become a companion of the Shah, while his second son was elected as an MP for the city of Bawa. After the revolution, Salar was executed upon the orders of Al Khomeini, while Sardar returned with his fortune and Jaff's children have returned to Iraq with their families. Sardar Jaff was a consultant for Dr. Shabour Bekhtiyar, the leader of the national resistance movement, who has been assassinated on behalf of the agents of the Guard in France, by the beginning of the 90s of last century. The activities of Serdar Jaff, and his links with the Iranian resistance, in addition to his influence among the Kurds, were among the factors that made his liquidation a top priority for the Guard. He was finally murdered by adding poison into the cup of tea that he drank during the concert of the Iranian artists.

Iran is also present in Kurdistan through the official Guard intelligence offices in Al Sulaimaniyah and the unofficial offices in Erbil. There is a type of 'gentleman' understanding between the Guard intelligence and the Kurdish authorities in al Sulaimaniyah and Erbil that the Iranian party shall not interfere in Kurdish affairs or chase the opposing Kurds and Iranians in Iraqi Kurdistan, in return for the Kurdish authorities prohibition of establishing armed activities on behalf of the Iranian Kurds against the regime in Iran, through the lands of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Al Sharq Al Awsat

http://www.almendhar.com/english_6423/news.aspx

NYer

09-27-2005, 08:08 AM

These actions are not going unnoticed, witness the SAS activities in and around Basra.

NYer

10-05-2005, 09:30 AM

If Iran's nuclear ambitions are peaceful, why this?

Army takes control of Iran nukes

By David R. Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
October 5, 2005

Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has placed the military firmly in control of his nation's nuclear program, undercutting his government's claim that the program is intended for civilian use, according to a leading opposition group.

Leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the force created specifically to defend the 1979 Islamic revolution, now dominate Iran's Supreme National Security Council, the country's top foreign policy-making body under the constitution.

Mr. Ahmadinejad, a little-known former mayor of Tehran before his surprise election in July, is a former IRGC commander, as is new council Secretary-General Ali Larijani, who has taken the lead in negotiations about Iran's nuclear programs.

Revolutionary Guard commanders also have taken charge of the council's internal security, strategy and political posts, according to a report issued by the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran. A Revolutionary Guard veteran even serves as the council's press spokesman.

"The military under the new president is firmly in control of the nuclear program and the nuclear negotiations with the United Nations and the West," said Mohammad Mohaddessin, chairman of the NCRI's foreign affairs committee, in a telephone interview yesterday.

The personnel changes "make it less and less credible that Iran is pursuing nuclear programs for peaceful uses," he said.

The report, which also tracks Iran's extensive nuclear infrastructure and technical programs, charges that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamanei has turned to IRGC personnel in order to "eliminate all bureaucratic and political obstacles to obtaining nuclear weapons."

Iran, which claims the right to pursue a civilian nuclear program to meet its domestic energy needs, is in intense negotiations with European Union powers France, Britain and Germany over the fate of its nuclear programs.

http://washingtontimes.com/world/20051005-121400-6491r.htm

Petronas

10-06-2005, 12:16 AM

Iran 'behind attacks on British'
Wednesday, 5 October 2005, 21:55 GMT 22:55 UK

Britain has accused Iran of responsibility for explosions which have caused the deaths of all eight UK soldiers killed in Iraq this year. A senior British official, briefing correspondents in London, blamed Iranian Revolutionary Guards. He said they had provided technology to a Shia group in southern Iraq, although the Iranians had denied this, he added.

An Iranian spokesman denied the charge, insisted that Tehran was committed to ensuring a peaceful Iraq. "From the very beginning, we have stated our position very clearly - a stable Iraq is in our interests and that is what the Iraqi authorities have said themselves on many occasions," Hamid Reza-Asefi told the BBC. "Even in recent days, the Iraqi authorities have welcomed our position and our approach to Iraq."

While UK officials have hinted at an Iranian link before, this is the first specific allegation to be made. They may feel there is little to lose right now by making such accusations, given that diplomatic relations are already low following the breakdown of talks over Iran's nuclear programme, says the BBC News Website's world affairs correspondent, Paul Reynolds.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the technology had come from Hezbollah in Lebanon via Iran and produced an "explosively shaped projectile". He said that dissidents from the Mehdi army, a militia controlled by the radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, were suspected of carrying out the attacks. One of their leaders, Ahmed al-Fartusi, was arrested by British forces recently and was "currently enjoying British hospitality", as the official put it. It was that arrest which sparked off an anti-British protest in Basra recently.

The official said that protests had been made to Iran and that the Iranian government had denied responsibility. Asked about an Iranian motive, the official said that it could be that Iran felt that it had to show that it could not be "pushed around".

The official also said that the trial of Saddam Hussein, due to start on 19 October, might be postponed until after the elections in December. Logistical arrangements for the trial, including a witness protection programme and even whether bullet proof glass was to be used around the dock, had still not been decided, he said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4312516.stm

NYer

10-28-2005, 08:33 AM

The Scotsman
Fri 28 Oct 2005

Blair delivers blunt 'action' warning to Iran

JAMES KIRKUP
WESTMINSTER EDITOR

Key quote
"If they carry on like this, the question people are going to ask me is, 'when are you going to do something about this?'" – Tony Blair

TONY Blair last night issued a clear threat to Iran and suggested that military action against the Islamic republic could no longer be ruled out by the international community.

Departing sharply from Britain's previous cautious stance, the Prime Minister expressed his fury at the president of Iran's call for Israel to be "wiped from the face of the Earth".

The president's comments, following growing unease over Iran's continued nuclear programme, its defiance of a UN inspection regime and its alleged interference in Iraq, have sharply increased international tensions.

Speaking after the European Union leaders' meeting at Hampton Court outside London yesterday, Mr Blair declared that Iran would be making "a very big mistake" if it believed Iraq will distract European and US leaders.

Admitting that he has previously come under pressure to rule out military action against Iran, Mr Blair predicted that in the wake of the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments on Israel, he will now face calls to consider that very option.

"If they carry on like this, people are going to believe they are a real threat to world stability," Mr Blair said. "If they carry on like this, the question people are going to ask me is, 'When are you going to do something about this?'"

http://dowan.org/wp-content/uploads/HellFreezesOver.jpg

Describing himself as "very angry" and Mr Ahmadinejad's comments as "a disgrace," the Prime Minister said he held very little hope of Iran changing course without some form of international intervention.

"What they have to do is alter their basic attitude, but the fact that it's being expressed by the president of the country, it doesn't give you a lot of confidence," Mr Blair said. Britain will discuss a response to Iran's "unacceptable" attitude with allies over the weekend.

Israel yesterday called for Iran to be expelled from the UN, and will step up pressure on the US to at least turn a blind eye to any military action it might undertake.

Mr Ahmadinejad, an avowed conservative, earlier this year won the election to replace the moderate Mohammed Khatami. Since then, Iran has been taking an increasingly intransigent line over nuclear issues and Iraq.

Despite repeated warnings from the US, Tehran has persisted with its nuclear energy programme, which Washington says is a cover for atomic weapons research. Until recently, the US has been willing to allow European diplomats to take the lead on the issue, hoping a more emollient approach would pay off.

In recent weeks, however, European patience with Iran has been eroded, both over the nuclear issue and Iraq.

Last month, Britain finally went public with allegations that Iran is training and equipping insurgent forces in southern Iraq, in effect accusing Tehran of colluding in the deaths of UK troops.

Only last month, however, Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said military action against Iran would be "inconceivable".

Though merely restating what has technically been Iran's policy for more than two decades, there were signs yesterday that Mr Ahmadinejad's remarks could prove a turning point for the international community.

http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=2155682005

NYer

10-28-2005, 11:02 AM

Pls remove - duplicate post

NYer

10-28-2005, 11:03 AM

Iran's President reiterates his threats on Israel. (http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-10-28T124834Z_01_HOL724007_RTRUKOC_0_UK-IRAN-ISRAEL.xml)

Petronas

11-03-2005, 09:58 AM

Iran (Country threat level - 4): On 2 November 2005, a small explosive device detonated on the 10th floor of the Sayeh office building, located on Vali-e-Asr Avenue in downtown Tehran. The blast occurred near the door to the staircase outside the offices of BP, British Airways, Lloyds and Mercedes Benz. No injuries were reported as a result of the explosion, which authorities suspect was caused by a homemade concussion grenade. Several windows and a door were damaged in the blast. It is not known if the incident is related to a similar explosion that was reported at the same location on 2 August 2005.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 11/2/2005

Casey

11-04-2005, 09:45 AM

IRAN: WESTERN EMBASSIES MAY BE IN DANGER

Tehran, 2 Nov. (AKI) - After a small bomb outside British companies offices and news of a massive shakeup of Iran's diplomats, the rumour mill in Teheran is churning with speculation about some unexpected move, possibly the occuption of a Western embassy. The Iranian website, Gooya, one of the most popular Persian language sites, has reported that many British diplomats have left Tehran, in view of a possible occupation of their premises. The same sources also say records and data from the embassy building have been shifted to a more secure area.

On Wednesday morning, an explosion occured in front of the offices of British Airways and British Petroleum. Participants at a rally to celebrate the anniversary of the 1979 occupation of the American embassy in Tehran, received a warning without any reason a few hours before the rally, not to go near the British embassy not other British interests in the country.

Whoever gave the warning was probably aware of the imminent explosion of the device which the Iranian deputy interior minister has referred to as a "response to certain positions taken by certain countries against Iran."

Iran's interior minister has denied students permission to hold a counter-demonstration outside the Italian embassy in Tehran on Thursday in response to one being held in the Italian capital, Rome, to protest Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's call for the removal of Israel from the map. The Rome rally, which will take place in front of the Iranian embassy, was organised by right wing newspaper Il Foglio, but politicians of various hues will be taking part.

The news agency Parsa has said that the students of Basij, a popular militia group, have said that they intend to hold a rally against the "Zionist Italians". Iran's interior minister however has said that no authorisation has been given for such a rally.

The increased tension comes as president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced a major shakeup of the diplomatic corps, replacing ambassadors to key European capitals. Critics say it ammounts to a 'purge' of diplomatic staff seen as being too close to the reformist forces that have been sidelined since Ahmadinejad was elected president in June.

(Rah/Aki)

Nov-02-05 16:56
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.225159328&par=0

NYer

11-04-2005, 12:36 PM

The Mad Mullahs want to Party Like It's 1979 ...

http://clowningglory.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/hostages_takers.jpg

Happy Anniversary, Indeed...

NYer

11-07-2005, 02:59 PM

Looks like the Mullahs aren't the only ones who are Mad ...

Wishing-well politics prove that the leader of Iran is mad
ADVERTISEMENT

MADMAN: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's demented belief in his global significance makes him dangerous

THERE are two views currently circulating about Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The first is that by calling for Israel's liquidation and by defying the international community on the nuclear issue, he is simply reaching out to his anti-American support-base. The second is that he is mad. Let me tell you why I think the second view iscorrect.

A number of weeks ago, Ahmadinejad instructed his cabinet to write a letter to a ninth-century Shia imam, Mahdi. Shiites hold that Mahdi will return at the end of days to establish Islam as a global religion. Currently, they believe he is hiding at the bottom of a well in the Iranian city ofIsfahan.

After signing the letter, Ahmadinejad's cabinet wondered how they might deliver the letter to the imam Mahdi. The president ordered his minister for culture to hand-deliver the letter by dropping it into the well. Once it was delivered, Ahmadinejad announced that Mahdi sanctioned his presidential power.

So here we have the leader of an oil-rich theocracy with nuclear ambitions sending letters to a 9th-Century imam in a well. Beneath the comedy, however, there is a terrible truth. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad believes that he has been divinely ordained to bring about the final drama in the struggle for the world's soul. And it is that demented belief in his global significance that makes the new president so dangerous.

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=36&si=1501331&issue_id=13234

NYer

11-08-2005, 11:29 AM

Iran Looks to South Africa for help processing Uranium. (http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=284&fArticleId=2985075)

OTH The Government of South Africa denies. (http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=284&fArticleId=2985123)

Alli

11-08-2005, 11:59 AM

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union insisted on Monday that Iran comply with an international resolution that it freeze all sensitive nuclear activities but said it was studying a new offer of talks from Tehran.

British Foreign Minister Jack Straw said the EU had not “so far” discussed economic or diplomatic sanctions on Iran if it did not comply with the resolution by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“What we would like to see is Iran implementing the terms of the resolution of the board of governors of the IAEA that was passed in September,” Straw, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the 25-member EU, said.

“(The possibility of sanctions) has not been discussed so far. I’m not going to speculate on the future,” he told a news conference after a meeting of EU foreign ministers.
source (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051107/wl_nm/nuclear_iran_eu_dc)
(woooo, bet the mullahs are quivering in their robes)

NYer

11-10-2005, 11:56 AM

Apparently, the USA has a score to settle with Iran's President. Scott Johnson explains in Captivity Pageant. (http://powerlineblog.com/)

Vancouver

11-11-2005, 05:06 AM

Personally I am keeping an eye on Ahmadinejad's relationship with the Iranian student mob. It was students (Ahmadinejad among them, some say) who took the embassy hostages in Carter's time. Khomeini was too weak to break up that crisis. Ahmadinejad knows these things, and I think he plans to use the students again. Certainly he intends to enlarge his power or importance in some way.

Petronas

11-16-2005, 01:50 PM

Iran body launches national drive to recruit suicide bombers
Mon. 14 Nov 2005

Tehran, Iran, Nov. 14 – An organisation set up by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) is holding a rally in a provincial centre in north-east Iran on Tuesday as part of a nationwide drive to recruit volunteers or “martyrdom-seeking” operations, Iran Focus has learnt. The event, dubbed “Palestinian intifada and martyrdom-seeking”, will be staged on the campus of the Industrial University of Shahroud. The keynote speaker will be Mohammad-Ali Samadi, the spokesman for the “Headquarters to Commemorate the Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement”. Samadi is a senior officer of the Revolutionary Guards and his organisation is run by the IRGC in an effort to recruit potential suicide bombers. Organisers of the rally said the representative of the militant Palestinian group, Hamas, in Iran, Abu Othmama, will also speak at the rally.

“This event is part of a series of events that we have named ‘Daughters of the Olive’, and in addition to Tehran, similar rallies have already been held in Tabriz and Bushehr”, a local organiser told Iran Focus. A film on “martyrdom-seeking operations” is planned to be shown at the gathering and a debate will be held regarding the guidelines for suicide operations from both Sunni and Shiite Islam’s perspectives and their impact on “the enemy”, the source added. Earlier this month, radical fanatics signed up for suicide operations in Tehran to mark the end of the month of Ramadan.

Samadi said that 40,000 volunteers for suicide bombing operations had already enlisted to attack targets on the orders of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Application forms for suicide volunteers to sign up were distributed at the gathering. The group’s organisers previously said that their targets were three-fold; U.S.-led forces in Iraq, Jews in Israel, and Salman Rushdie, who still has a fatwa against his head issue by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

In October, Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has himself been a senior IRGC commander, openly called for the destruction of Israel and threatened Muslim countries developing ties with the Jewish states. “Israel must be wiped off the map”, he said.

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=4429

NYer

11-18-2005, 08:28 AM

Iran in turmoil as president's purge deepens

Iran is facing political paralysis as its newly elected president purges government institutions, bringing accusations that he is undertaking a coup d'état. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's clearout of his opponents began last month but is more sweeping than previously understood and has reached almost every branch of government, the Guardian has learned. Dozens of deputy ministers have been sacked this month in several government departments, as well the heads of the state insurance and privatisation organisations. Last week, seven state bank presidents were dismissed in what an Iranian source described as "a coup d'état".

An informed Iranian source with first-hand knowledge of all the main political and clerical figures in the country said: "Ahmadinejad is defying everybody. He does whatever he wants and considers it to be right. This is not how things are done in Iran."

The upheaval at the highest government levels in Tehran follows the dismissal of four senior ambassadors and has raised questions about Iran's ability to conclude negotiations on its nuclear programme which are due to come to a head at a UN meeting in Vienna next week.

Growing resistance inside Iran to Mr Ahmadinejad, who was unexpectedly elected in June, is coming from several senior figures and sections of the media. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president who was runner-up in the election, denounced the purge and, in comments reported by Iranian news agencies, suggested the president should be reined in.

"A tendency in Iran is trying to banish competent officials and it is harming the country like a plague," Mr Rafsanjani said. "Our society has been divided into two poles and some people are behaving aggressively." Hassan Rohani, sacked as Iran's senior nuclear negotiator, told Tehran newspapers that the negotiations with the west were being mishandled. The former president Mohammad Khatami also voiced concern that Mr Ahmadinejad was exceeding his powers.

In a sign of divisions at the top of the clerical establishment, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has until now supported Mr Ahmadinejad, said "irregularities" in the government's behaviour would not be tolerated.

Iranian sources said opinion in the conservative-controlled majlis [parliament], which initially welcomed the president's election, was becoming uneasy. There has been a series of rows about Mr Ahmadinejad's nominees to top ministry jobs, including in the oil ministry. The stock market has fallen 30% since the new president took office, and there is growing criticism of his failure to deliver on promises to create jobs and raise living standards. "There is a very tense situation. Ahmadinejad has made a very bad start and needs to get attuned to political realities," the Iranian source said, suggesting that Mr Ahmadinejad could face impeachment proceedings in the majlis if he continued to pack the government with his appointees.

But the source said western threats of economic sanctions or military action against Iran were strengthening Mr Ahmadinejad at the expense of moderate conservatives, liberals and reformers.

Paralysis at the top of the Iranian government could pose serious problems for the west as it struggles to resolve the nuclear stand-off. Iran began processing a fresh batch of uranium yesterday in spite of compromise proposals. Next week's UN meeting will debate whether to refer Iran to the security council for possible action.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,12858,1645457,00.html

Time for more popcorn ...

Petronas

11-18-2005, 08:44 PM

According to the Mahdi prophecy, the Mahdi (the Guided One) will emerge during the End Times, shortly before "Yaum al-Qiyamah" (the Day of Resurrection or Last Judgment) and will establish Islam as the global religion. This will, not surprisingly, be accompanied by much fighting and great slaughter until Islam is victorious worldwide.

If the President of a radical theocracy, that is training tens of thousands of suicide bombers and will likely soon have nuclear weapons, believes in this prophecy and is basing his government policies on it, that is truly a chilling thought.

"Before the appearance of the one who will rise, peace be upon him, the people will be reprimanded for their acts of disobedience by a fire that will appear in the sky and a redness that will cover the sky. It will swallow up Baghdad, and will swallow up Kufa. Their blood will be shed and houses destroyed. Death will occur amid their people and a fear will come over the people of Iraq from which they shall have no rest."

6th Shia Imam, Jafar al-Sadiq

Iran president's religious views arouse interest
Thu Nov 17, 2005 10:43 AM ET

TEHRAN (Reuters) - His call for the destruction of Israel may have grabbed headlines abroad, but it is President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's devotion to a mystical religious figure that is arousing greater interest inside Iran. In a keynote speech on Wednesday to senior clerics, Ahmadinejad spoke of his strong belief in the second coming of Shi'ite Muslims' "hidden" 12th Imam.

According to Shi'ite Muslim teaching, Abul-Qassem Mohammad, the 12th leader whom Shi'ites consider descended from the Prophet Mohammed, disappeared in 941 but will return at the end of time to lead an era of Islamic justice. "Our revolution's main mission is to pave the way for the reappearance of the 12th Imam, the Mahdi," Ahmadinejad said in the speech to Friday Prayers leaders from across the country. "Therefore, Iran should become a powerful, developed and model Islamic society."

"Today, we should define our economic, cultural and political policies based on the policy of Imam Mahdi's return. We should avoid copying the West's policies and systems," he added, newspapers and local news agencies reported.

Ahmadinejad refers to the return of the 12th Imam, also known as the Mahdi, in almost all his major speeches since he took office in August. A September address to the U.N. General Assembly contained long passages on the Mahdi which confused Western diplomats and irked those from Sunni Muslim countries who believe in a different line of succession from Mohammed.

This fascination has prompted wild stories to circulate. Presidential aides have denied a popular rumor that he ordered his cabinet to write a letter to the 12th Imam and throw it down a well near the holy city of Qom where thousands of pilgrims come each week to pray and drop messages to the Imam.

But what really has tongues wagging is the possibility that Ahmadinejad's belief in the 12th Imam's return may be linked to the supposed growing influence of a secretive society devoted to the Mahdi which was banned in the early 1980s. Founded in 1953 and used by the Shah of Iran to try to eradicate followers of the Bahai faith, the Hojjatieh Society is governed by the conviction that the 12th Imam's return will be hastened by the creation of chaos on earth.

Ahmadinejad, who is only the second non-cleric to become president since the revolution, has made clear his immense respect for Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, a deeply conservative cleric with close ties to the Hojjatieh-founded Haqqani theological school in Qom. Conspiracy theorists, never in short supply in Iran, allege that many members of Ahmadinejad's cabinet and other key appointees are Haqqani graduates and Hojjatieh followers. "It seems that they (Hojjatieh members) have recently become more active and are spread through the government," said a political analyst who declined to be named. "The president has repeatedly said his government will pave the way for the Imam's return."

But others point out that many former government officials, perceived as moderates, graduated from Haqqani. Haqqani's continued links to Hojjatieh, though rumored, have not been proven and it remains one of the most prestigious theological schools in Qom. Ahmadinejad's emphasis on the importance of development and justice to encourage the Mahdi's return, also suggest an important divergence from Hojjatieh thinking.

But he would be better advised to focus his speeches on practical rather than religious issues, said former Vice-President Mohammad Ali Abtahi. "Of course, we must pray for the return of the Imam, but we must also tackle inflation and unemployment," the reformist cleric told Reuters.

http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=uri:2005-11-17T154309Z_01_SCH756562_RTRUKOC_0_US-RELIGION-IRAN-AHMADINEJAD.xml&pageNumber=0&summit=

Petronas

11-19-2005, 01:10 PM

New revelations on Iran nuclear program
Posted: 19-11-2005 , 05:54 GMT

Iran got designs from the nuclear black market run by a Pakistani scientist showing how to cast highly radioactive uranium into a form that could be used to build the core of an atomic bomb, diplomats said Friday. The revelations came as Iran said it had started converting a second batch of uranium into gas. Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, told state TV the country had started converting a second batch of uranium. "This job is done and the plant is continuing its activity," Larijani said in the interview recorded late Thursday and aired Friday. He added that Iran had informed the U.N.'s nuclear monitoring agency of the development.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday that Iran received the detailed designs from the network managed by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear program. The document given to Iran showed how to cast "enriched, natural and depleted uranium metal into hemispherical forms," said a confidential IAEA report, cited by the AP. The report said Iran insisted it had not asked for the designs but was given them anyway by members of the nuclear network.

http://www.albawaba.com/en/countries/Iran/191526

Petronas

11-21-2005, 01:11 AM

Senior Iran cleric calls non-Muslims "animals"
Sun. 20 Nov 2005

Tehran, Iran, Nov. 20 – A senior Iranian cleric said on Sunday that all non-Muslims were “animals engaged in corruption” and defended the path of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as the only path to heaven. Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati who heads the powerful Guardians Council and is a close adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told a gathering of Revolutionary Guards commanders, “Human beings, apart from Muslims, are animals who roam the earth and engage in corruption”.

Jannati was speaking at a ceremony in north-eastern Iran to commemorate the “martyrs” of Revolutionary Guards. “If the Islamic Republic of Iran is still standing on its feet, we owe it to our martyrs”, he said, “If it was not for our martyrs, we would not have these precious young men with vivid Islamist views”. Still, Jannati lamented, the Islamic world did not fully appreciate martyrdom. “Human beings who don’t put the memoirs of martyrs into practice and forget the values that martyrs created become like animals”, Jannati said. The powerful ayatollah is a mentor of hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=4504

Petronas

11-21-2005, 01:13 AM

Riots rock Kurdish city in Iran
Sun. 20 Nov 2005

London, Nov. 20 – State Security Forces (SSF) have been dispatched to the streets in the Kurdish city of Mahabad, north-western Iran, and the volatile city is in a de facto state of martial law, according to local Kurdish activists. The crackdown comes in the wake of numerous hit-and-run clashes between anti-government protestors and the para-military police in the city, a Mahabad resident told Iran Focus in an email. His account was confirmed by another resident reached by telephone. The paramilitary police attacked protestors with teargas canisters.

Clashes broke out after a uniformed soldier shot dead a local Kurd after a scuffle between policemen and young men. As news of the killing of the young man spread, people poured on to the streets and chanted anti-government slogans. It is unclear if there have been any arrests.

Over the summer, there were continuous anti-government protests in Iran’s Kurdish regions. A number of demonstrators were killed by agents of the SSF who were attempting to prevent an escalation of dissent. The protests erupted after news emerged that the SSF had shot another young anti-government activist, Shawane Qaderi, in cold blood. His body was tied to the back of a jeep and dragged around the city.

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=4510

Petronas

11-21-2005, 11:42 PM

Iran Is Building Nukes in Underground Locations
Nov. 21, 2005

Iran has built, with the help of North Korea, dozens of underground tunnels and facilities for the construction of nuclear-capable missiles, according to Alireza Jafardazeh, a Washington D.C.-based consultant and former spokesman for the National Council of the Resistance of Iran, an Iranian opposition group. Speaking this morning at the National Press Club, Jafarzadeh described an "extensive large-scale operation" for the development of nuclear-capable missiles "in the most sophisticated, hidden way" in tunnels in a mountain range east of Tehran. Jafarzadeh named several Iranian entities involved in Iran's missile program, overseen by the Hemmat Industries Group. He said that eyewitnesses describe the facilities, begun in 1989, as an "underground township." Jafarzadeh added that, in addition to work on the Shahab family of missiles, Hemmat is overseeing work on a new long-range missile, Ghadar, which is still in development and has a projected range of 1,300 to 1,900 miles.

Reports of North Korean cooperation with Iran on its nuclear and missile programs have surfaced previously. In July 2005, Reuters cited a three-page intelligence report charging that North Koreans were teaching secret graduate-level courses at Tehran's Polytechnic University in nuclear technology. The UK's Telegraph reported in June 2005 that North Korean specialists in underground construction had arrived in Tehran to help design their facilities that would better shield Iran's nuclear program from international scrutiny.

Jafarzadeh's allegations come on the heels of the latest report on Iran from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which reveals that Iran received a document from the A.Q. Khan network in 1987 describing the "casting and machining" uranium into "hemispherical forms," a process directly relevant to the design of a nuclear warhead.

A State Department official contacted by ABC News about Jafarzadeh's charges was unable to corroborate them but did confirm that the Hemmat Industries Group was sanctioned in May 2003 as the unlawful recipient of missile technology from Moldova. The Shahab-3 was flight-tested by Iran in 2004. It is known to be capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and has a range of 1,500 kilometers. Experts do not know how many such missiles Iran has produced or deployed.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=1334218

Petronas

11-27-2005, 10:02 AM

Churchill warned those who feed the crocodile because they think then he will eat them last that this is not a good strategy. Russia will discover the same with its support of the current Iranian regime.

Teheran 'secretly trains' Chechens to fight in Russia
27/11/2005

Iran is secretly training Chechen rebels in sophisticated terror techniques to enable them to carry out more effective attacks against Russian forces, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal. Teams of Chechen fighters are being trained at the Revolutionary Guards' Imam Ali training camp, located close to Tajrish Square in Teheran, according to Western intelligence reports. In addition to receiving training in the latest terror techniques, the Chechen volunteers undergo ideological and political instruction by hardline Iranian mullahs at Qom.

The disclosure that Iran is training Chechen rebels will not go down well in Moscow, which regards itself as a close ally of the Iranian regime. Russia has sided with Iran in the diplomatic stand-off over Teheran's controversial nuclear programme. While the British and American governments have accused Iran of having a clandestine nuclear weapons programme, the Russians, who are building Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, back Teheran's claim that their nuclear intentions are solely peaceful. Moscow has offered a face-saving formula to prevent Iran from being reported to the United Nations Security Council for its failure to co-operate fully with UN nuclear inspection teams. Under the terms of the deal, the Russians would oversee Iran's nuclear enrichment activities to ensure that only partially enriched uranium, which is not of weapons grade, is produced. At this weekend's meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, America and Britain gave their qualified backing to the Russian proposal in the hope that it might resolve the crisis in the agency's dealings with Teheran.

But the Iranians are growing increasingly suspicious of Moscow's intentions, and it is for this reason that Western intelligence officials believe that Iran's hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has sanctioned the training of Chechen fighters in Teheran. "Just as they have orchestrated attacks against British troops in Basra to pressure Britain to drop its opposition to Iran's nuclear programme, so they are trying to put pressure on Moscow by backing Chechen fighters," said a senior intelligence official.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=SOKLFPK05APSDQFIQMGSFFWAVCBQ WIV0?xml=/news/2005/11/27/wchech27.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/11/27/ixworld.html

Petronas

11-28-2005, 11:38 AM

Student protests erupt in Iran’s capital
Sun. 27 Nov 2005

Tehran, Iran, Nov. 27 – Several anti-government student protests erupted in the Iranian capital on Sunday in response to an increasingly harsher government crackdown on campus activists. Students at the University of Tehran refused to attend classes in the morning and gathered outside the campus library to demonstrate against the appointment of a cleric as the new chief of the university. Ayatollah Amid Zanjani, a notorious religious prosecutor in the 1980s, was installed on Sunday as the new university chancellor. His predecessor, an academic, expressed surprise at “the unprecedented haste over the transition”.

The students chanted, “Appointed head, resign now!” and “Even if we students die, we will not accept humiliation”. As protests got heated several students pushed the ayatollah and threw his turban off his head. Iran’s Education Minister Mohammad-Mehdi Zahedi told state television that Zanjani’s appointment was carried out in the framework of the law and under the provisions he had as minister.

Meanwhile, in Amir Kabir University, some 2,000 students rallied against the recent increased government security protocols being run on campus. Several students who took over the university podium and addressed fellow demonstrators blamed the government for tightening their controls on student actions, and said that on campus security offices had been set up. Demonstrators also called for an end to indiscriminately suspensions being issued to vocal anti-government students.

Separately, a protest was held by students outside the Economics Department of Allameh Tabatabai University, but was quickly forced back by State Security Forces who prevented demonstrators to move into the main university gates. There were chants of “They don’t let students into the university” by protestors.

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=4606

Petronas

12-01-2005, 10:51 AM

Not only is it OK to call non-Muslims "corrupt animals", but if you dare protest you are hauled in front of the Revolutionary Tribunal.

IRAN: ZOROASTRIAN LAWMAKER FACES SLANDER CHARGES
28-Nov-05 17:09

Iranian parlamentarian Kurosh Niknam, a member of Iran's Zoroastrian religious minority has been summoned to appear before the country's Revolutionary Tribunal after being accused of spreading false news and showing lack of respect for the authorities. The charges stem from comments Niknam made to protest against derogatory remarks against non-Muslims uttered by a close aide to Iran's Supreme Leader, Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

Non-Muslims "cannot be called human beings but are animals who roam the earth and engage in corruption." said Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati last week at a ceremony in north-eastern Iran to commemorate the 'martyrs' of the Revolutionary Guards and the war against Iraq (1980-88).

Nikam described the remarks as "an unprecedented slur against religious minorities." "Non-Muslims not only are not beasts, but if Iran has a glorious past and civilisation to be proud of it owes this to those who lived in the country before the advent of Islam," he said, adding sarcastically that he wished to ask forgiveness to the "beasts" because "they do not commit sins, while those who sully the earth are those humans who don't show respect for the other creatures of God."

The Zoroastrian community in Iran is estimated to number some 22,000 - half the size of that in existence before the 1979 Islamic revolution. The faith was founded in about 600 BC by the Persian prophet Zarathustra, who believed he had seen visions of a God he called Ahura Mazda. Zoroastrian rule was driven out of modern-day Iran by the Muslim Arab invasion 1,400 years ago.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Religion&loid=8.0.234116648&par=0

Petronas

12-02-2005, 11:10 AM

Iran Revolutionary Guards chief vows to defeat U.S. in Iraq
Mon. 28 Nov 2005

Tehran, Iran, Nov. 28 – The Commandant of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) declared that Iran was exporting its Islamic revolution to other Muslim countries including Iraq which would inevitably bring about the downfall of the United States in the Middle East, state dailies reported on Monday.

Speaking at a gathering of the IRGC’s Navy commanders on Sunday, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi said, “The impoverished people’s Bassij force was formed on the orders of the Imam [Ruhollah Khomeini] following the siege of the American spies’ den [U.S. embassy in Tehran] on November 4, 1979 and the arrest of the spies of that country to fight any possible threat from the enemies”. Safavi said that the para-military Bassij force, an offshoot of the IRGC, was invaluable during Iran’s 1980-88 war with Iraq.

Safavi said that the U.S. had failed to prevent Tehran from exporting its Islamic revolution to other countries in the region. “Following the victory of the [1979] Islamic revolution, America tried with all its might to contain the Iranian people’s Islamic revolution inside the geographical borders of Iran and to thwart the export of the revolution. But, the activities in Lebanon, Palestine, and present-day Iraq, as well as Islamic and freedom-seeking nations of the world proved the opposite”.

“America seeks to dictate its own world order and wants the world’s politics, economics, security, and culture to be under its rule, so that it can rule the world”, the IRGC Commandant added. “Following the downfall of Communism, today, only Islam stands against America’s imperialism. The U.S., well aware of the potentials of the Islamic world and the Islamic revolution, is afraid of the merciful culture of the Islamic revolution becoming a model for the whole world. It fears the creation of an Islamic world superpower with 1.5 billion Muslims in the key and strategic region geographically stretching from Southeast Asia to the north of Africa and the Middle East, with its ample economic resources”.

Safavi said that Khomeini’s ideology had awoken Muslims all over the world.

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=4616

Alli

12-02-2005, 11:17 AM

Perhaps they might dispatch the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp to help rescue the peace activists.

Petronas

12-13-2005, 11:17 PM

Former Iran leader: Zionists’ days numbered
12.13.05, 08:28

The Zionist entity's days are numbered, former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said in a meeting with senior Hamas member Khaled Mashal, according to an Islamic Republic News Agency report. The agency said that in a report released by the Iranian Expediency Council, headed by Rafsanjani, the former leader pointed to the political standstill facing the ‘Zionist’ regime and its withdrawal from some of the territories as reasons for its backward movement. "The high spirit, resistance and hopefulness of the Palestinian people for restoration of their violated rights are among the factors leading to the current situation encountered by the Zionists," he said.

Rafsanjani said Iran would continue with its fundamental policy of supporting the ‘oppressed’ Palestinian people, adding that resistance is the only option left for the Palestinians in order to restore their rights. He said the Palestinians bear the basic burden of countering the aggressive goals of the ‘Zionist’ regime upon their shoulders. "One of the reasons for the pressures currently being exerted on some of the regional states, including Iran, Syria and Lebanon is to prevent their support for the oppressed Palestinian people,” Rafsanjani claimed.

For his part, Mashal said that the ‘Zionist’ regime has lost its power for imposing the ‘occupation’ on the Palestinians. He noted that political, social and other campaigns launched by ‘resistance’ movements such as Hamas aim to restore the Palestinians rights, but added that, "Politics cannot replace resistance, but can only complement it."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3183664,00.html

Petronas

12-13-2005, 11:30 PM

DEBKA-Net-Weekly
December 13, 2005, 3:51 PM (GMT+02:00)

IDF chief of staff Dan Halutz repeated: Within three months Iran will reach the point of no-return in terms of its capability to manufacture a nuclear bomb, although it still has problems to overcome. He was addressing the Knesset foreign affairs and security committee Tuesday, Dec. 13. Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohammed ElBaradei spoke in similar vein when he said that upon completion of its Natanz core, three months would separate Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb.

http://www.debka.com/

Solo

12-14-2005, 06:57 AM

Sorry, double post.

Solo

12-14-2005, 07:04 AM

Speech of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Speech of His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

President of the Islamic Republic of Iran
at the Extraordinary Islamic Summit

Excellencies, Presidents, Prime Ministers
And Heads of Islamic Countries

Infinite praise is due to the God of Beit al-Haram, the God of Arafat
and Mashar al-Haram, the God of the land of revelation and Qoran,
the land of the prophet of compassion, peace and freedom; the prophet
who was the saviour of the humanity, who raised His flag of dignity
and bestowed honour on the prophet for the reason that he obeyed God
and fought against shirk and the worshippers of idols.

I am grateful to the Almighty that we have come together here in the
land of revelation to explore solutions with unity and with all our
hearts for the problems besetting the Islamic world and search for
ways and plans that could lead to the advancement of the Ummah.

At the outset, I would like to thank the Custodian of the Two Holy
Shrines, His Majesty King Malik Abdollaha ibn Al-Aziz, for the warm
hospitality and for hosting the Extraordinary Islamic Summit. I
should also convey the best regards and wishes of the government and
the people of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the government and
people of Saudi Arabia and thank my brother Dr Ahmade al-Din Ehsan
Oghloo, the honourable Secretary General of OIC for the successful
organization of this meeting.

Excellencies, Presidents, Prime Ministers
And Heads of Islamic Countries

Today Muslim Ummah look toward great and historical hopes,
expectations and opportunities, but also stand facing challenges and
threats. By having better insight of these challenges and
opportunities, we can overcome the hurdles, and with the grace of the
Almighty pave the way for the advancement of our nations and the
Islamic Ummah by bringing our hearts closer together and by our
greater solidarity. As a large part of the world population, Muslim
nations can play a central in role global developments, in promotion
of justice and morality, in contributing to peace and freedom and in
elevating human dignity.

Hopes and Opportunities – The great opportunities and hopes are not
few in the Islamic world. Inspired by the Islamic teachings, Muslim
Ummah has always put its hope and trust in God, since He is the dear,
all-powerful and invincible one. He has absolute power over all
things here and in the other world, and knows the secrets to the
heavens and the Earth. But He is also compassionate and merciful. He
calls on people to give them life. He has taught them to seek refuge
in Him in times of adversity. He watches over us with concern and
anxiety. Such a God with this exalted power and dignity says:
…………………………He tells his prophet ……………. Such a Creator will never
abandon the faithful Muslims who place their hopes and trust in Him.
Therefore, there is no room for despair and hopelessness in the
Islamic world. In fact, the greatest asset of Muslims is hope.

Greater awakening: - Muslims of today are more than ever cognizant of
the global developments and conscious of the good and evil. This
capital asset radiates with light and deep knowledge and is the
blessing of the Almighty granted to the Muslims of our time.
Awakening is the source of movement and change towards the better
life. With the blessings of the Almighty, this awakening flourishes
among our Ummah and is a never-ending and unparalleled asset that
protects us against deceptions of our adversaries and malicious
intentions.

Presence of people: More than ever Muslim nations are mindful of the
good and evil and the destiny of the Islamic countries and maintain a
presence in developments that affect their destiny. This presence is
a clear sign of the power and progress of the Muslim nation. The
presence of people assures the interests, the power and dignity of
Muslim Ummah and disheartens our greedy opponents. We cannot afford
to take too lightly this power. The presence of people on the scene
is a manifestation of the power of God and no one has the power to
face up to it. Many Islamic countries enjoy the benefits of this
great asset.

Scientific Advancement: There are clear indications of scientific
progress in the Islamic world. Scientists and scholars are being
trained and educated, and the existence of universities, research
centers, instructors, and energetic and eager young men and women in
these places of learning are tower of strengthen for the Muslim
Ummah. With the advances in science and learning come many skills,
capabilities and greater independence. Illiteracy is declining.
Muslim Scientifics and scholars figure prominently in the world.

Although our adversaries place restrictions and refuse to make
available equal technologies and sciences and have created
technological apartheid, whenever there have been opportunities our
scholars and scientists have proved their capabilities and
unparalleled innovative powers. I have no doubt that Muslims will
once again prevail and conquer the pinnacles of scientific
achievements.

Economic Development: Muslims have been crowned with endless
bounties of the Almighty. God-given abundant resources of energy,
mines seas, ports, forests, rivers, incorporable islands, and
important waterways are all assets of the Islamic world. We are
pleased to see signs of economic progress and power in most Islamic
countries. But, there is still along way before reaching the desire
destination.

History of Glaring Civilization and Culture: The Islamic World is
honoured to have a history that shines with science, culture and
civilization. Without any doubt the world today is indebted to
Islamic civilization. Muslim Ummah were in the forefront of arts,
literature, divine sciences and various techniques and disciplines of
knowledge. The Islamic culture abounds in notions and values such as
compassion, kindness, and respect for the rights of people, charity
and devotion, forgiveness and mercy, decency, generosity, bravery,
piety, cooperation and solidarity, faithfulness, helping the poor,
respect for the elders, gentleness toward children, respect for the
rights of women, respect for the parents, protection of human dignity
and worth, jihad against oppression, occupation and usurpation and
defending the oppressed.

This culture is a great moral capital and means to move towards the
pinnacles of morality and dignity of Muslims. Muslims have a good and
perfection-seeking religious identity. Their cultural background is a
solid foundation on which they will be able to tread on the path to
advancement and perfection without wavering and deviation.

The Islamic world is also facing challenges that we cannot afford to
deny and ignore.

1. Poverty and Unemployment: Poverty and
unemployment in some countries are due to number of reasons,
including, insecurity and civil wars, inclement climatic conditions,
natural disasters and brutal policies of the oppressive powers. There
are places in the Islamic world that people toil to meet their bare
necessities. Unemployment is also vivid and tangible in many
countries.

2. Military Interventions: Unfortunately, some
Islamic countries suffer from consequences of military interventions
and policies of superpowers. Muslim Ummah are parts of a single body
and when one part is at pains, the rest cannot remain at rest.
Regrettably, these aggressions and interventions continue to take
place.

3. Attempts by the enemies of Islam to sow the seeds
of disunity in the ranks of Muslim nations have a long record in
history. Fomenting sectarian and ethnic differences among Muslims and
among their governments by political devices and false insinuations
were the p9olicy tools of the past, today and future of those who
hold malice towards us.

Unfortunately, a huge part of the global media is managed by the
enemies of Islam. This media attempt to suggest and say over and over
that there are antagonistic differences among us. They have been,
regrettably, successful to some extend.

4. Among the old challenges facing the Islamic world
is the existence of the occupier Zionist regime. More than fifty
years, Muslims have suffered from the aggressions of this regime.
Huge human and financial resources have gone away in this struggle.
This existence of such a regime that enjoys the full support of the
United States poses a lasting pain and anguish for the Muslim Ummah.
The honour of our Ummah has been blemished because of the existence
of these occupiers. Hardly a day passes without a young Palestinian
falling in his blood, a house demolished over the head of the owner,
harvest of a farmer set ablaze and olive trees cut to the ground. The
existence of such a vicious and destructive force is one of the pains
of the Islamic world for which we must find a solution.

5. Promotion of Western Values: Opponents and
enemies of Islam know full well that so long as the culture and
identity of Muslims are protected they will not be able to reach all
their goals and ambitions. For this reason, they are targeting
Islamic culture, manners, morality and upbringing under the guise of
arts, humanist philosophy, liberalism, secularism, nihilism, and by
electronic media and satellites. They intend to take away Islamic
values and replace them with the values of their own choice. If they
succeed to impose their own culture, then they have been able to
surmount the cultural and value boundaries of Islam and there will no
longer be any need to resort to military invasion, political
pressures, economic sanctions and propaganda onslaught. By taking
away Islamic culture they will be able to take everything else. This
is a daunting and formidable challenge facing the Islamic world.

6. Strengthening deviant cults and preparing new
groups under the name of Islam: In recent decades new cults have
been given a boost. Their very presence is an affront to Muslims and
presents a warped and twisted picture of our religion. These groups
present a brutal, inflexible and irrational picture of Islam and
commit grave crimes. What we used to see in Afghanistan yesterday,
we see them today in Iraq. These deviations and emergence of these
cults are also among the problems of the Islamic world.

7. Drug Abuse has reached a crisis level among the
youths of some Islamic countries. Destruction of talents of our huge
human resources which are the backbone and principal capital of every
country, the collapse of families, and corruption and decadence are
the consequences of this phenomenon.

8. Scientific and Technological Backwardness:
Despite the fact that some Islamic countries have made substantial
progress in science and technology, there are others that have
remained behind. This is a serious deficiency that jeopardizes the
independence of nations and provides an opportunity for imposition of
culture and the will of those powers that are at odds with the
Muslims.

9. Honourable Presidents and Heads of Islamic
Countries

In light of the hopes, opportunities, challenges and threats that I
just spelled out, we can overcome the hurdles by relying on hopes and
opportunities and tread upon the path to advancement and perfection.
If we put our trust in God we can prevail over impediments and reach
the pinnacles of dignity and honour and disappoint the adversaries of
the Muslim Ummah and make our enemies to think twice before
aggressing and invading our countries. To achieve this goal I draw
the attention my dear brothers to the following points:

Ø The foundation of power and dignity of Muslims is
Islamic faith, culture and noble values. We must defend and promote
them with all our power. The logic behind Islam is more superior.
We can create opportunities for dialogue and interactions with
scholars of other nations. We need to lay the ground more than ever
for interactions among our own Muslim scholars, writers and
academicians. By establishing centres of learning and international
universities in collaboration with each other we can open doors to
greater convergence of our views and deeper understanding of various
disciplines of knowledge. The achievements of the Islamic countries
belong to the entire Islamic world. The Islamic Republic of Iran is
prepared to accept and receive scholars, students and researchers of
the Islamic world in scientific areas and fields of interest to all
countries. We need to seriously embark on exchange of students and
university instructors.

Ø Today different forms of media play a fundamental role
in cultural exchanges. By establishing a union broadcasters of the
Islamic countries we can provide opportunities for exchanges of
information, technologies and sciences as well as media products.
The Islamic countries do not have even a single international
network. We propose the launching of an Islamic radio and television
network for the purpose of protection of the cultural boundaries and
elevating Islamic culture in order to bring about greater convergence
of diverse thoughts, ideas and values of Islamic countries.

For the purpose of promoting economic prosperity, increasing
production and generating employment opportunities we suggest the
following measures to be accorded priority.

A. Accelerating establishment of joint banking
establishment on the basis of Sharia and Islamic contracts.

B. Establishing an Islamic common market: Diverse range
of our products and national requirements make the establishment of a
common market desirable. A common market facilitates trade and
commercial interactions through customs and trade facilitation
schemes.

C. What we have put forward as our proposals will not
materialize without visa facilitation for the nationals of the
Islamic countries. I propose abolition of visa requirement for
nationals of Islamic countries. Islamic Republic of Iran declares
here that all nationals of Islamic countries can travel to Iran for a
period of two weeks, which is extendable for one month, without the
need to have a visa. The Islamic Republic of Iran is home to all
Muslims.

Honourable Presidents, Heads of Islamic Countries

As I explained earlier in my presentation here the Muslim ummah is
being targeted from all sides by the world arrogant powers and our
malicious adversaries. They cannot stand to see peace, tranquility
progress of Islamic countries and by their interventions they seek to
change the political map of some Islamic countries. Under these
circumstances the Islamic countries have no choice but to stay
together and consolidate their ranks of solidarity. As I also
mentioned earlier, people are the foundation of the power of Islamic
countries, if they remain on the scene with vigilance and awareness,
no power in the world can defeat them. The presence of people
requires trustful relationship with their governments. This will
only happen when the governments are also on the side of their people
and share in their joy and agony and serve them to overcome their
problems. Governments also need to respect the right of people, to
place promotion of justice on the top of their agenda and fight
corruption and discrimination and protect the honour of their
people. This is the key to success and survival.

Dear Brothers and Heads of Islamic Countries

The solid connection between the people and government creates a
powerful alliance that will disappoint and defeat enemies of Islam.
All differences among us can be resolved by peaceful means on the
basis of justice. Mistrust, misunderstandings and disputes as well as
issues of concerns, a major part of which are created artificially by
our common enemies, can be resolved. It is also very clear that
unity and power of the Islamic world do not jeopardize and is not
against any nation or country. The global power of Islam is at the
service of peace and stability. Islam wants peace, dignity and
respect for the entire humanity.

We need to have full agreement among ourselves in confronting our
common challenges. The usurper regime of Palestine is the shared
preoccupation of the Muslim Ummah. Recognition of this regime has no
justification both in our Sharia or rules of international law. How
can we recognize a regime that has gained strength by aggression and
occupation. I said at the UN General Assembly that return of
Palestinian refugees, holding a referendum with the participation of
people of Palestine origin with different religious beliefs –
Muslims, Christians and Jews – is the logical way to determine the
type of government in the entire Palestinian land and Al-Qods as its
capital. I propose a group comprising representatives of some of
the member countries of OIC to follow this up at the UN on behalf of
the OIC. Today some Islamic countries are subjected to threats by
big powers. They bring a huge military force from thousand of
kilometers away to invade an Islamic country, but also at the same
time claim to be the advocate of human rights.

In light of the fact that Islam has much respect for the rights of
people I propose establishment of an Islamic human rights body that
His Majesty King Abdullah for hosting our meeting. I wish to also
thank the Secretary General of OIC. I pray to the Almighty for the
success of the audience here and Muslims throughout the world.

Mahmouid Ahmadi Nejad
President of the Islamic Republic of Iran

http://www.oic-oci.org/ex-summit/english/speeches/iran-speech.htm

NYer

12-14-2005, 03:07 PM

Dr. Zin has More (http://haloscan.com/tb/doctorzin/113064439825809463)

And this picture tells more than its thousand words ... and not just in Farsi.
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d3/doctorzin/wozion2.jpg

Now about that Nobel Prize ...

NYer

12-15-2005, 08:10 AM

Israel to Iran: "There will be NO second 'Final Solution.'" (http://www.dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,20281,17570324-5001028,00.html)

Petronas

12-15-2005, 12:46 PM

Police Seize Forged Ballots Headed to Iraq From Iran
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 13

Less than two days before nationwide elections, the Iraqi border police seized a tanker on Tuesday that had just crossed from Iran filled with thousands of forged ballots, an official at the Interior Ministry said. The tanker was seized in the evening by agents with the American-trained border protection force at the Iraqi town of Badra, after crossing at Munthirya on the Iraqi border, the official said. According to the Iraqi official, the border police found several thousand partly completed ballots inside. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said the Iranian truck driver told the police under interrogation that at least three other trucks filled with ballots had crossed from Iran at different spots along the border. The official, who did not attend the interrogation, said he did not know where the driver was headed, or what he intended to do with the ballots. ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/14/international/middleeast/14iraq.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1134540180-iZ4xLbWw8qnCFWsjf4q4wA

NYer

12-18-2005, 12:08 PM

Iran to West: Be More Tolerant of Views on Some Small Incident in the 40's. (http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-12-18T102039Z_01_FLE836834_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAN-ISRAEL.xml)

Petronas

12-18-2005, 01:59 PM

Iran President’s bodyguard dies in ambush
Sat. 17 Dec 2005

Tehran, Iran, Dec. 17 – One of the bodyguards of Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was killed and another wounded when an attempt to ambush the presidential motorcade was thwarted in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan, according to a semi-official newspaper and local residents. “At 6:50 pm on Thursday, the lead car in the presidential motorcade confronted armed bandits and trouble-makers on the Zabol-Saravan highway”, the semi-official Jomhouri Islami reported on Saturday.

“In the ensuing armed clash, the driver of the vehicle, who was an indigenous member of the security services, and one of the president’s bodyguards died, while another bodyguard was wounded”, the newspaper, which was founded by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, wrote.

Ahmadinejad traveled to the restive province, where ethnic Baluchis have been fighting for years for autonomy, on Wednesday and returned to Tehran on Friday afternoon. Tehran often refers to anti-government activists and political opponents of the Islamist regime as “bandits” and “trouble-makers”.

The newspaper report made no mention of Ahmadinejad’s whereabouts during the attack on his bodyguards’ vehicle, but Zabol residents reached by telephone said there were rumors in the town that the hard-line president himself was the target of the attack, which took place near Zabol. “Many people have been rounded up for questioning after the attack and the authorities here were clearly shaken by the incident”, a Zabol resident told Iran Focus. The Sunni Baluchis have faced years of religious and racial discrimination under Iran’s Shiite clergy-dominated government.

Ahmadinejad called the Holocaust a “myth” on Wednesday, on the first day of his trip to the province. “They have fabricated a legend under the name 'Massacre of the Jews', and they hold it higher than God himself, religion itself and the prophets themselves”, he told a crowd in Zahedan, the provincial capital of Sistan and Baluchestan.

The presidential office and other government officials have refrained from making any comment on the ambush. Iran’s state-controlled media have given much prominence to Ahmadinejad’s visit to the impoverished province.

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=4931

NYer

12-19-2005, 04:34 PM

U.S. Warns Turkey Of Air Strike On Iran And Syria

Link to story: http://thefinalphaseforum.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=878&view=findpost&p=9492

In an overlooked story, the Turkish press reported last week that CIA Director Porter Goss went to Ankara recently and informed the Turkish government that Iran already has nuclear weapons and they should be ready for "a possible US air operation against Iran and Syria".

CIA’S GOSS REPORTEDLY WARNED ANKARA OF IRANIAN THREAT

During his recent visit to Ankara, CIA Director Porter Goss reportedly brought three dossiers on Iran to Ankara. Goss is said to have asked for Turkey’s support for Washington’s policy against Iran’s nuclear activities, charging that Tehran had supported terrorism and taken part in activities against Turkey. Goss also asked Ankara to be ready for a possible US air operation against Iran and Syria. Goss, who came to Ankara just after FBI Director Robert Mueller’s visit, brought up Iran’s alleged attempts to develop nuclear weapons. It was said that Goss first told Ankara that Iran has nuclear weapons and this situation was creating a huge threat for both Turkey and other states in the region. Diplomatic sources say that Washington wants Turkey to coordinate with its Iran policies. The second dossier is about Iran’s stance on terrorism. The CIA argued that Iran was supporting terrorism, the PKK and al-Qaeda. The third had to do with Iran’s alleged stance against Ankara. Goss said that Tehran sees Turkey as an enemy and would try to “export its regime.” /Cumhuriyet/

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=89033

Vancouver

12-19-2005, 09:43 PM

Gunfire has killed one and wounded two of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's bodyguards. Ahmadinejad himself was not present.
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/051217/w121754.html
Theories?
-- An assassination attempt by someone who thought M.A. was present.
-- A faked assassination attempt, to be used by M.A. as a pretext for expanding his power and removing whoever is standing in his way.
-- Something to do with opium traffic; maybe there was a shipment of Afghan opium moving nearby.

(edit) Oops, sorry Petronas :) I should have scrolled down a little further before posting this.

Petronas

12-20-2005, 11:08 PM

Iran’s president honours “martyred” bodyguard
Mon. 19 Dec 2005

Tehran, Iran, Dec. 19 – Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, several of his ministers and senior military and government figures attended a special service at the Presidential Office in Tehran on Monday to honour a top presidential bodyguard, who died in an ambush during Ahmadinejad’s visit to south-eastern parts of the country, the government-owned ISNA news agency reported.

Hojjatollah Garmabdari died in a gunfight with unidentified armed men near the city of Zabol on Thursday. Another bodyguard and the driver of the lead car in the presidential motorcade were seriously wounded. The incident was first reported by the semi-official newspaper, Jomhouri-Islami on Saturday morning. Iran Focus was the first English-language news service to report the attack, which was confirmed by its own sources in Iran.

Although Iran’s state-controlled media downplayed the incident, the presence of Ahmadinejad and senior government figures at the ceremony indicated the importance of Garmabdari in the hierarchy of Ansar Al-Mahdi Corps, a special unit of IRGC responsible for the protection of senior Iranian officials.

The keynote speaker during the memorial service on Monday was Brigadier General Mohammad Hejazi, a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). “Our enemies must know that the Revolutionary Guards will protect the rule of the Islamic Republic of Iran until the last drop of their blood and their last breath”, he said. Hejazi rejected claims that the personnel of the IRGC, the army and other armed forces had become demoralised and lost the will to fight for the Islamic Republic, but he stressed that the Revolutionary Guards “must not be lured by material existence”. “All the Revolutionary Guards remain committed to the allegiance that they vowed to the Imam and the Supreme Leader”, Hejazi said.

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=4956

Petronas

12-20-2005, 11:17 PM

Exiles say Iran uses tunnels to hide atomic work
Tue Dec 20, 2005 9:02 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - An Iranian exile group on Tuesday called on the U.N.'s atomic watchdog to inspect an extensive network of tunnels which it says the Islamic Republic has built to conceal a clandestine nuclear weapons programme. The National Council of Resistance of Iran, which first made allegations of the tunnels in September, said their sources in Iran had evidence of underground complexes in 14 locations, near Tehran, Isfahan, Qom and other cities. "These have been built by military agencies and their front companies," said Hossein Abedini, a member of the foreign affairs committee of the NCRI at a news conference. "The purpose of the tunnels is to conceal parts of the Tehran regime's atomic and missile programmes," he said, adding they were used for hiding research centres, workshops, nuclear equipment and nuclear and missile command and control centres.

He said the NCRI, which has previously reported accurately about hidden atomic facilities in Iran, had sent the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency its latest information and urged the body to inspect the tunnels. "Today we call on the International Atomic Energy Agency to immediately and urgently act," said Abedini. No one was immediately available at the IAEA to comment.

The NCRI is a coalition of exiled opposition groups that seeks to overthrow Iran's clerical rulers and is listed by the United States as a terrorist organization.

The allegations come a day before Britain, France and Germany meet Iranian officials to discuss the possibility of restarting negotiations on Iran's disputed nuclear programme. Almost two years of talks collapsed earlier this year when Iran said it would restart some sensitive nuclear activity. The West suspects Iran of developing atomic weapons but Tehran argues it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity.

Abedini gave more details about the tunnels than previously available and named companies and engineers involved. He said a complex of tunnels at Parchin, east of Tehran, was used for work on laser techniques for uranium enrichment. Another tunnel system in Khojeer, southeast of Tehran, was used to assemble ballistic missiles and was 1 km (0.6 miles) long and 12 metres (yards) wide. The NCRI believes Iran could develop an atomic bomb in "a couple of years".

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2005-12-20T140142Z_01_KNE050031_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAN-TUNNELS.xml&rpc=22

NYer

12-22-2005, 10:57 AM

Tidbits from Turkey on Iran. (http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/007888.php)

"Faster, Please."
M Ledeen

Petronas

01-05-2006, 02:31 PM

Secret services say Iran is trying to assemble a nuclear missile
Wednesday January 4, 2006

The Iranian government has been successfully scouring Europe for the sophisticated equipment needed to develop a nuclear bomb, according to the latest western intelligence assessment of the country's weapons programmes.
Scientists in Tehran are also shopping for parts for a ballistic missile capable of reaching Europe, with "import requests and acquisitions ... registered almost daily", the report seen by the Guardian concludes.

The warning came as Iran raised the stakes in its dispute with the United States and the European Union yesterday by notifying the International Atomic Energy Authority that it intended to resume nuclear fuel research next week. Tehran has refused to rule out a return to attempts at uranium enrichment, the key to the development of a nuclear weapon.

The 55-page intelligence assessment, dated July 1 2005, draws upon material gathered by British, French, German and Belgian agencies, and has been used to brief European government ministers and to warn leading industrialists of the need for vigilance when exporting equipment or expertise to so-called rogue states. It concludes that Syria and Pakistan have also been buying technology and chemicals needed to develop rocket programmes and to enrich uranium. It outlines the role played by Russia in the escalating Middle East arms build-up, and examines the part that dozens of Chinese front companies have played in North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

But it is the detailed assessment of Iran's nuclear purchasing programme that will most most alarm western leaders, who have long refused to believe Tehran's insistence that it is not interested in developing nuclear weapons and is trying only to develop nuclear power for electricity. Governments in the west and elsewhere have also been dismayed by recent pronouncements from the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has said that Holocaust denial is a "scientific debate" and that Israel should be "wiped off the map". The leak of the intelligence report may signal a growing frustration at Iran's refusal to bow to western demands that it abandon its programme to produce fuel for a Russian-built nuclear reactor due to come on stream this year.

The assessment declares that Iran has developed an extensive web of front companies, official bodies, academic institutes and middlemen dedicated to obtaining - in western Europe and in the former Soviet Union - the expertise, training, and equipment for nuclear programmes, missile development, and biological and chemical weapons arsenals. "In addition to sensitive goods, Iran continues intensively to seek the technology and know-how for military applications of all kinds," it says.

The document lists scores of Iranian companies and institutions involved in the arms race. It also details Tehran's growing determination to perfect a ballistic missile capable of delivering warheads far beyond its borders. It notes that Iran harbours ambitions of developing a space programme, but is currently concentrating on upgrading and extending the range of its Shahab-3 missile, which has a range of 750 miles - capable of reaching Israel. Iranian scientists are said to be building wind tunnels to assist in missile design, developing navigation technology, and acquiring metering and calibration technology, motion simulators and x-ray machines designed to examine rocket parts. The next generation of the Shahab ("shooting star" in Persian) should be capable of reaching Austria and Italy.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,16518,1677541,00.html

Petronas

01-05-2006, 06:47 PM

IRAN: TEHRAN ISSUES NEW THREAT TO EUROPE
04-Jan-06 17:37

The head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, who is also the man behind Iran's foreign policy, has warned Europeans "not to force the Islamic Republic to cut short the dialogue process and to opt for another scenario". Speaking on Tuesday night on state television he said: "We are for a strategy based on dialogue, but if the counterparty Europe plays dirty, then we will pass onto another plan that we have worked out and then there will be problems for the Europeans." Without specifying the nature of the other plan and the other scenario, Larijani has compared the talks on Iran's nuclear programme to a chess game.

"In this game, we are for a result that will be satisfactory to both Iran and Europe," said Larijani adding that "if we lose, the same will also happen to the other party (Europe) and they will have to prepare themselves to live in a hell." But Larijani used even stronger words for the United States. "A small error on the part of USA or the Zionists will be enough to induce us to unleash hell," said Larijani. "They know this very well and for this they haven't gone further than a verbal or psychological war," he said.

Larijani also reiterated how Tehran "does not have any intension of renouncing its cycle of producing nuclear fuel." "For our requirements we do not intend to trust even our friends," he said, stressing Iran's right to "advance the research in all the areas of the nuclear sector." "To start the research and study, does not always signify establishing an atomic programme," said Larijani.

Referring to the Russian proposal to conduct the necessary uranium enrichment in Russian nuclear plants for the purposes of Iranian use, Larijani called the proposal "unsatisfactory". "We are not disposed to imposing someone else's [proposal], but to find a neutral and constructive proposal," he said.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.246108457&par=

Petronas

01-05-2006, 06:52 PM

Terror expert says JI split into bombing faction and 'mainstream' group
January 06, 2006

SINGAPORE (AP): Terror group Jamaah Islamiyah is divided between a few dozen militants involved in bombings and a larger "mainstream" of up to 1,000 people who pose a long-term threat to Indonesia as their leaders try to regroup, an expert said Thursday. The analysis by Sidney Jones, one of the world's leading experts on the Islamic extremist group linked to al-Qaeda, indicated that different tactics and goals exist within the organization amid intense pressure from law enforcement authorities.

At a forum in Singapore, Jones said JI militants involved in bomb plots number up to 50, and are divided into cells of five to 10 people based in central and eastern Java island. The larger group, however, is not involved in bombings but continues to conduct military training for members and is suspected of carrying out robberies to raise funds, Jones said.

"The real issue is what's going to happen to the JI'mainstream'," she said at a forum sponsored by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. "I don't think we're going to see acts of violence on the part of the JI 'mainstream' for some time to come." She noted that Abu Rusdan, a "mainstream" leader who received militant training in Afghanistan, had been released after serving a jail term for sheltering a bomber in the deadly attacks on Bali in 2002.

Jamaah Islamiyah has been blamed for five suicide bombings targeting Western interests since 2002, the most recent on the resort island of Bali three months ago. The attacks killed more than 240 people. Indonesian police scored a big success against Jamaah Islamiyah, or JI, in November when they killed its chief bomb-making expert, Azahari bin Husin, in a raid. But a top accomplice, Noordin Moh Top, remains a fugitive.

Jones, project director for the International Crisis Group in Jakarta, said JI's bombing faction had considered kidnapping to raise funds from ransoms or as a form of terror. She said that information came from a man who helped Noordin hide in East Javain early 2005. At that time, Jones said, Noordin ordered a survey of possible kidnapping attempts or other attacks on Americans working at an electrical plant, a synagogue in the city of Surabaya and the ethnic Chinese owner of a mushroom processing company. No attacks were carried out, apparently because of police pressure, shesaid.

Jones said the JI "mainstream" did not share the bombing faction's tactic of terrorizing the United States and its allies with indiscriminate bombing, and that its main goal was the establishment of an Islamic state in Indonesia. While "mainstream" JI leaders distance themselves from the bombings, she said, some rank-and-file members could be supporting the moreviolent faction.

Jones noted that the JI bombing faction had tried to woo militants linked to the Muslim charity Kompak who have been involved in local conflicts such as those between Muslims and Christians in the Maluku regional capital of Ambon, and Poso on Sulawesi island. "They have been invited to take part in bombings by the JI bombing faction, but thus far have refused," she said. JI members have links to militants in the Philippines, but experts at the forum said there was no clear evidence that the group was involved in the Islamic insurgency in southern Thailand.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillatestnews.asp?fileid=20060105183218&irec=0

NYer

01-10-2006, 08:52 PM

Iran defies calls for freeze on nuclear research, restarts program
By Jonathan S. Landay
Knight Ridder Newspapers

http://www.80stees.com/images/products/Monty_Python_fart_link.jpg

WASHINGTON - Iran on Tuesday resumed nuclear research that will include enriching small amounts of uranium, a process used to make nuclear weapons, defying calls by the United States, Europe, Russia and China to maintain a 26-month freeze.

Iran's move raised the likelihood that the International Atomic Energy Agency will report Iran to the U.N. Security Council for violating the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the keystone of the global system to halt the spread of nuclear weapons.

The Security Council can slap economic sanctions on Iran, an approach long favored by the Bush administration. The IAEA, the international nuclear monitoring body, says that Iran has failed to disclose all aspects of its nuclear program, which relied on an international black market.

Iranian leaders apparently are gambling that Russia and China will veto any U.S.-led drive for U.N. sanctions. Both China and Russia have substantial financial interests in oil-rich Iran.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/13595051.htm

NYer

01-11-2006, 01:04 PM

Israel updates plans for pre-emptive strike. (http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/53948.html)

Petronas

01-11-2006, 07:34 PM

Iran to hang teenage girl attacked by rapists
Saturday, 7th January 2006

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 07 – An Iranian court has sentenced a teenage rape victim to death by hanging after she weepingly confessed that she had unintentionally killed a man who had tried to rape both her and her niece.

The state-run daily Etemaad reported on Saturday that 18-year-old Nazanin confessed to stabbing one of three men who had attacked the pair along with their boyfriends while they were spending some time in a park west of the Iranian capital in March 2005.

Nazanin, who was 17 years old at the time of the incident, said that after the three men started to throw stones at them, the two girls’ boyfriends quickly escaped on their motorbikes leaving the pair helpless.

She described how the three men pushed her and her 16-year-old niece Somayeh onto the ground and tried to rape them, and said that she took out a knife from her pocket and stabbed one of the men in the hand.

As the girls tried to escape, the men once again attacked them, and at this point, Nazanin said, she stabbed one of the men in the chest. The teenage girl, however, broke down in tears in court as she explained that she had no intention of killing the man but was merely defending herself and her younger niece from rape, the report said.

The court, however, issued on Tuesday a sentence for Nazanin to be hanged to death.

Last week, a court in the city of Rasht, northern Iran, sentenced Delara Darabi to death by hanging charged with murder when she was 17 years old. Darabi has denied the charges.

In August 2004, Iran’s Islamic penal system sentenced a 16-year-old girl, Atefeh Rajabi, to death after a sham trial, in which she was accused of committing “acts incompatible with chastity”.

The teenage victim had no access to a lawyer at any stage and efforts by her family to retain one were to no avail. Atefeh personally defended herself and told the religious judge that he should punish those who force women into adultery, not the victims. She was eventually hanged in public in the northern town of Neka.

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/print.php?storyid=5183

Petronas

01-11-2006, 07:44 PM

Iran’s Ahmadinejad: Sharon dead and “others to follow suit”
Thu. 05 Jan 2006

...“We must believe in the fact that Islam is not confined to geographical borders, ethnic groups and nations. It’s a universal ideology that leads the world to justice”, Ahmadinejad said. “We don’t shy away from declaring that Islam is ready to rule the world”, he added.

Ahmadinejad dwelled on his recurrent theme that the return of the Shiite Messiah, the Mahdi, is not far away and Muslims must prepare for it. “We must prepare ourselves to rule the world and the only way to do that is to put forth views on the basis of the Expectation of the Return”, Ahmadinejad said, referring to the Shiite Muslim belief that the Mahdi, on his return, will establish justice in a world consumed by chaos and corruption. “If we work on the basis of the Expectation of the Return [of the Mahdi], all the affairs of our nation will be streamlined and the administration of the country will become easier”, Ahmadinejad said. ...

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5166

Petronas

01-11-2006, 08:02 PM

True, this is Debka, but I would not dismiss this report out of hand.

Iran has crossed the point of no-return to a nuclear weapon - undeterred by international censure
January 10, 2006, 10:17 PM (GMT+02:00)

...1. Thousands of P2 and P1 type centrifuges, developed under cover of the two-year purported suspension, can go into action free of international curbs. The IAEA statement said uranium hexafluoride, a uranium gas - can be fed into cascades of centrifuges to produce low-level nuclear fuel or weapons-grade material. This can happen within a week or two.

2. The intelligence consensus reaching our sources is that within six weeks to two months, the centrifuges will have produced enough enriched uranium to build a single nuclear weapon. ...

http://www.debka.com/

NYer

01-11-2006, 09:50 PM

Russia won't block US on Iran.
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/11/AR2006011102124.html)

pixikill

01-11-2006, 10:24 PM

isnt tony blair confronting th U.N about iran?

NYer

01-12-2006, 12:33 PM

http://www.coxandforkum.com/archives/06.01.10.Fallout-X.gif

www.coxandforkum.com

NYer

01-12-2006, 05:08 PM

EU throws in the towel (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,181409,00.html) on Iran.

"From our point of view, the time has come for the U.N. Security Council to become involved," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after meeting with his French and British counterparts and the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana.

NYer

01-13-2006, 01:45 PM

Iran Years From Nuke, UN Decades (http://www.scrappleface.com/?p=2142) From Action.

*WINK*

NYer

01-14-2006, 03:43 PM

Iran's Leader Shrugs Off Sanctions Threat. (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2006/01/14/international/i113440S91.DTL)

NYer

01-17-2006, 08:29 AM

Apparently, Egypt is not thrilled about the prospects of a nuclear Iran. (http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/670595.html)

"All countries should adhere to their commitments in a way to allow the international community to be sure of the peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program, as we do not accept the emergence of a nuclear military power," Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in a statement.

Aboul Gheit said Egypt was "closely watching" the development of the Iranian nuclear issue "out of its absolute keenness to support all the efforts aimed at consolidating the nuclear nonproliferation (policy) not only at the regional level but all over the world."

NYer

01-17-2006, 12:29 PM

Amir Taheri in today's NY Post reviews Iran's Nukes, Europe's Follies. (http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/60571.htm)

TREATING Iran's alleged nuclear ambition as a hot potato, the European trio of Britain, Germany and France has decided to pass it on to the International Atomic Energy Agency and thence to the United Nations' Security Council. "Our talks with Iran have reached a dead end," says Germany's new Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

In truth, however, the trio's three-year talks with Iran started at a dead end.

Read the whole thing.

NYer

01-20-2006, 08:42 AM

Posted on Drudge ...

Iran's Moving Its Assets (http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-01-20T131906Z_01_L18188832_RTRUKOC_0_US-NUCLEAR-IRAN.xml&rpc=22) Out of Europe.

NYer

01-21-2006, 09:01 PM

Iran allocates over $100 Million for Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad. (http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=97051)

NYer

01-22-2006, 08:55 PM

Tehran plans nuclear weapons test this March. (http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20060119-075725-6399r)

Tick ... tick ... tick ...

TomJones

01-23-2006, 11:15 AM

Iran catches Mossad agent along border..

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/673818.html

NYer

01-23-2006, 11:25 AM

Iran using children as Human Shields. (http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2006/01/iran-sends-in-children-human-shields.html)

NYer

01-24-2006, 07:54 AM

Turkey feels Iran chill. (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HA24Ak02.html)

Iran's supply of natural gas to Turkey was inexplicably slashed by 70% last Friday, in one of the coldest months of the year. On the same day, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul raised the tension between the two countries by calling for greater Iranian "transparency" over Tehran's nuclear program.

Alli

01-24-2006, 09:49 AM

Six Killed in Southwest Iran Bombings

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Bombs killed six people and wounded more than 30 others Tuesday in Ahvaz, a southwestern city with a history of violence involving members of Iran's Arab minority, Iranian state media reported.

The bombs exploded outside a bank and a state environmental agency building in Ahvaz, the capital of oil-rich Khuzestan province, which borders Iraq, the official Islamic Republic News Agency said.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad canceled a planned visit to Ahvaz Tuesday, citing a forecast calling for heavy rain, IRNA reported. The report did not say whether the blast had any bearing on the cancellation.

Ahmadinejad and his entire Cabinet had been expected to meet in Ahvaz as part of a series of visits to provincial capitals to address key local issues.

State TV said the bombs killed six people and wounded 34 others.

more (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAN_EXPLOSIONS?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=INTERNATIONAL)

NYer

01-24-2006, 12:43 PM

Iran Official: UN Sanctions May Lead Us to Seal Off the Persian Gulf (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/674159.html)

A senior Iranian official threatened that Tehran may forcibly prevent oil export via the Straits of Hormuz if the UN imposed economic sanctions due to Iran's nuclear program, an Iranian news Web site said on Monday.

NYer

01-25-2006, 10:53 PM

Six Killed in Southwest Iran Bombings

Iran accuses UK of bombing link. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4646864.stm)

Meanwhile, Iran says it will put Israel in eternal coma. (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1137605913647&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull)

Has anyone alerted the WHO to the possibility of a rabies outbreak in Tehran?
http://rantburg.com/images/rabiddog.jpg

NYer

01-26-2006, 11:25 AM

Missing President

Best source up to the moment reports that Ahmadinejad has gone missing along with the missing Imam. Mookie Sadr appeared at presidential palace in Tehran two days back, and no sign of Ahmadinejad. Presidential visit to Ahvaz called off because no sign of Ahmadinejad. Missing three days from view. His presence projected on state TV this news cycle in order to denounce the Brits for planting the bombs in Ahvaz (more likely local rascals, long-standing beef with Tehran), but still no sighting.

Where is he?

Ahmadinejad is likely preparing the next phase of the aggression. Iranian air defense is said to be on unusally paranoid high alert. The gangsters are freshly spooked. Ahmadinejad is also likely conferring with his demons and not a few terror gangs to launch a surrogate attack against the West. Good guess now is that HizbAllah will launch on Israel. However the deal with Bashar al-Assad last weekend in Damascus puts Syria at the center of the storm in the Ummah. Any combination of murder raid, assassination, provocation or oil weapon card is credible.

Mordor is restless and slightly not visible. The Orcs are marching. The only Tehran surprise possible now is that there will not be a Tehran surprise.

Posted By: John Batchelor
http://www.spectator.org/blogger.asp

Alli

01-26-2006, 11:31 AM

Mordor is restless and slightly not visible. The Orcs are marching. The situation is certainly not funny, but I lol'd.

NYer

01-27-2006, 08:45 AM

Iran goes Tepid (http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.257773776&par=0) on Russian plan.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator said Friday that a compromise proposal by Russia - allowing Tehran to enrich uranium on Russian soil - was not enough to meet Tehran's energy needs. Speaking to reporters on his return from a visit to China, Ali Larijani said "Russia's initiative should be more comprehensive" and needed to be "discussed and improved”. The US and the European Union are pressing to have Iran's case referred to the UN Security Council and a board meeting of the UN's atomic watchdog will debate this next week.

It appears at some point, Iran will go Ballistic.

NYer

01-27-2006, 08:38 PM

El Baradei asks US to Call Iran's Bluff (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060127/ap_on_re_mi_ea/world_forum_nuclear;_ylt=AjcbVaYUU6HG.Uj2QayyEhVva A8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--)

U.N. nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei on Friday called on the United States to provide Iran with nuclear reactors and urged Tehran to declare a moratorium on enriching uranium for at least eight years.

ElBaradei said that amount of time would enable the country to earn the confidence of the international community that it was really interested in nuclear energy — not nuclear weapons.

Now if Entergy could run them as well ...

Petronas

01-28-2006, 12:47 PM

Iran warns US, Britain of missile response if attacked
28 January 2006

TEHERAN - Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief warned the United States and Britain on Saturday that Iran would retaliate with missiles if attacked, state-run television reported. General Yahya Rahim Safavi also accused US and British intelligence services of provoking unrest in the oil-rich southwestern Iran and providing bomb materials to Iranian dissidents. Two bombings killed at least nine people in the southwestern city of Ahvaz on Jan. 21 , near the border with southern Iraq where 8,500 British soldiers are based.

“The world knows Iran has a ballistic missile power with a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,300 miles),” Safavi said on state-run television. Israel is within that range. “We have no intention to invade any country. We will take effective defence measures if attacked,” he said.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2006/January/middleeast_January785.xml&section=middleeast

NYer

01-28-2006, 03:09 PM

Straw Pursues Iran Conciliation (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4656878.stm)

http://www.darkworks.org/chamberlain.jpg
"We must have a bargain which enables both sides to come out of it with their head held high," Jack Straw said.

NYer

01-30-2006, 09:06 AM

Iran Sets Up Secret Team To Infiltrate (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/30/wiran30.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/01/30/ixworld.html) UN Nuclear Watchdog.

Iran has formed a top secret team of nuclear specialists to infiltrate the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, the UN-sponsored body that monitors its nuclear programme, The Daily Telegraph has been told.

Its target is the IAEA's safeguards division and its aim is to obtain information on the work of IAEA inspectors so that Iran can conceal the more sensitive areas of its nuclear research, according to information recently received by western intelligence.

Kudos to Dan Darling for this one ...

NYer

01-31-2006, 07:51 AM

Next Stop: Security Council (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4664378.stm)

Key powers have agreed that the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, should report Iran to the Security Council over its nuclear programme.

The agreement on Iran came after late-night talks between of the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany, aimed at co-ordinating their position ahead of a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Thursday.

Iran reacted angrily to the London announcement.

"We consider any referral or report of Iran to the Security Council as the end of diplomacy," nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani was quoted as saying by state television.

Petronas

02-01-2006, 12:29 AM

Moscow believes Iran has developed a large nuclear device in its “preliminary stage”
January 31, 2006, 8:11 AM (GMT+02:00)

Russian FM Sergei Lavrov put this information before the five permanent UN Security Council and Germany, which Tuesday night, Jan. 30, agreed for the first time to haul Iran before the UN body over its nuclear program. Until then, Moscow and Beijing had stood out against the UN nuclear watchdog’ referring the Iran dossier to the Security Council. Tehran hit back Wednesday by saying the decision was unconstructive and the end of diplomacy. According to Lavrov, Russian intelligence estimates that Iran is now capable of detonating this non-weaponized nuclear device - or in other words carrying out its first nuclear test. ...

This estimate which Russian president Vladimir Putin passed to President George Bush some weeks ago is challenged by US and Israeli nuclear experts, who do not believe Iran is up to the stage of a nuclear device. However, on Jan. 21, the opposition FDI claimed Iran would carry out its first nuclear test before the Iranian new year, which falls on March 20.

Ahead of the IAEA’s Thursday meeting in Vienna, a leaked report claimed Iran had last week given the watchdog sensitive documents which apparently showed how to mold highly enriched uranium into the hemispherical shape of warheads, in an effort to stave off referral to the Security Council. At the same time, according to the same unnamed diplomats, the agency passed to Tehran intelligence provided by the US that suggests Iran has been working on details of nuclear weapons, such as missile trajectories and ideal altitudes for exploding warheads. When the IAEA asked Iran for an explanation of the documents, Tehran replied they had been obtained from members of a nuclear black market network.

Still ahead of the nuclear watchdog’s meeting, Moscow and Beijing dispatched diplomats to Tehran to explain that their support for referral to the Security Council did not mean an end to diplomacy. Referring the issue to the UN would have a “very big effect” on oil prices, Libyan Energy Scretary Fathi Hamed bin-Shatwan said Tuesday at an OPEC meeting in Vienna.

http://www.debka.com/

NYer

02-01-2006, 11:42 AM

With fiends like these, who needs enemas?

Oh and Iran kicks it up a notch. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4667970.stm)

NYer

02-02-2006, 08:07 AM

According to a former member of German intelligence, latter day Hitler Ahmadinejad might be setting himself up to experience the Blitzkrieg firsthand. (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HB03Ak02.html)

The somewhat standard scenario for this war - as indicated by Chinese and Russian war games - has the following features:

An initial Israeli air attack against some Iranian nuclear targets, command and control targets and Shahab missile sites. Iran retaliates with its remaining missiles, tries to close the Gulf, attacks US naval assets and American and British forces in Iraq. If Iranian missiles have chemical warheads (in fact or presumed), the US will immediately use nuclear weapons to destroy the Iranian military and industrial infrastructure. If not, an air campaign of up to two weeks will prepare the ground campaign for the occupation of the Iranian oil and gas fields.

Mass mobilization in Iraq against US-British forces will be at most a nuisance - easily suppressed by the ruthless employment of massive firepower. And Israel will use the opportunity to deal with Syria and South Lebanon, and possibly with its Palestinian problem.

The character of this war will be completely different from the Iraq war. No show-casing of democracy, no "nation-building", no journalists, no Red Cross - but the kind of war the United States would have fought in North Vietnam if it had not had to reckon with the Soviet Union and China.

NYer

02-02-2006, 01:41 PM

UK to Iran: Just Shut Up! (http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-02-01-voa41.cfm)

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has told parliament the international community needs to send Iran what he calls "a signal of strength" that Tehran must curb its nuclear ambitions.

"It is important surely, at this moment, above all else that we say that they have to come back into compliance with their international obligations and we all support the action necessary to do so," he said. "Now we are pursing that, as I say, in front of the U.N. Security Council but its important that they understand from this House, I hope, that we are united in determining that they should not be able to carry on flouting their international obligations."

NYer

02-03-2006, 02:50 PM

IAEA does what it does best: Nothing. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060203/ts_nm/nuclear_iran_dc)

NYer

02-04-2006, 12:33 PM

Finally! (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,183802,00.html)

The U.N. nuclear watchdog Saturday reported Iran to the U.N. Security Council in a resolution expressing concern that Tehran's nuclear program may not be "exclusively for peaceful purposes."

Iran threatens Retaliation. (http://www.india-defence.com/reports/1301)

Interestingly, Iran Airstrike Futures are Trading Lower. (http://www.intrade.com/jsp/intrade/contractSearch/index.jsp?query=iran)

Vancouver

02-04-2006, 03:09 PM

A few days ago, the Israeli paper Haaretz, monitoring Iranian radio (they say), also said that Mahmoud is threatening to close the Hormuz. Tehran's daily propaganda sheet
http://www.irna.ir/en/
doesn't go that far. I dunno. Iran does have some anti-ship missile batteries on islets near the straight. But the Gulf is full of warships from all over the world. The US 5th Fleet is based on Bahrain.

NYer

02-04-2006, 05:14 PM

Merkel defines Irony (http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2006-02-04T123512Z_01_L0444484_RTRUKOC_0_US-NUCLEAR-IRAN-MERKEL.xml&rpc=22), likening Iran to Nazi era.

From a nation who knows:

Addressing the annual Munich security conference, she said there had been complacency in other countries as Adolf Hitler rose to power.

"Looking back to German history in the early 1930s when National Socialism (Nazism) was on the rise, there were many outside Germany who said 'It's only rhetoric -- don't get excited'," she told the assembled world policy makers.

"There were times when people could have reacted differently and, in my view, Germany is obliged to do something at the early stages ... We want to, we must prevent Iran from developing its nuclear program."

As she was speaking, the board of governors of the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency, voted in Vienna to report Iran to the UN Security Council over concerns that it is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Iran says its nuclear program is purely aimed at civilian energy production.

But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has not allayed concerns in the West and elsewhere with recent comments denying that the Nazi Holocaust happened and calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map".

Post-war Germany, conscious of the Nazis' crimes, has made support for Israel's existence a pillar of its foreign policy.

NYer

02-05-2006, 04:27 PM

Zarqawi in Iran? (http://smh.com.au/news/World/Iraq-arrests-top-alQaeda-figure-report/2006/02/06/1139074130565.html)

Iraqi police have arrested the fourth-ranking figure in al-Qaeda in Iraq, state television said, while officials are investigating whether the group's leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has fled to neighbouring Iran.

The brief report on Iraqiya television identified the suspect as Mohammed Rabei, also known Abu Dhar, and said he was No 4 in al-Qaeda. It gave no further details.

Meanwhile, a senior Iraqi security officer said the Iraqi government has been receiving information that al-Zarqawi may have moved to neighbouring Iran after hot pursuit by US and Iraqi forces in western Iraq.

As always, add more than a few grains ...
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f218/sono001/salt.jpg

NYer

02-11-2006, 09:18 PM

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2006/02/12/wiran12abig.jpg;jsessionid=1HFTFWTSEQD4TQFIQMGCFGG AVCBQUIV0

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/02/12/wiran12.xml&sSheet=/portal/2006/02/12/ixportaltop.html

NYer

02-12-2006, 04:47 PM

IAEA surveillance cameras removed from Iran N-sites. (http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/25FED04F-EF52-4A9F-96C2-5B3012F5DC7C.htm)

Inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog agency have stripped most surveillance cameras and agency seals from Iranian nuclear sites and equipment as demanded by Tehran in response to its referral to the UN Security Council, according to diplomats.

http://www.everyonecan.org/images/alarm_clock.jpg

Tick ... Tick ... Tick ...

Petronas

02-12-2006, 08:10 PM

Iranians show massive rejection of the Islamic regime at the occasion of its 27th birthday
SMCCDI (Information Service)
Feb 11, 2006

Millions of Iranians inflicted another heavy slap to the face of the shaky and unpopular Islamic regime by boycotting its "27th anniversary revolution celebration" by staying home, or far from the official gatherings.

The regime's desperate leadership was hoping to bring millions in the streets by playing their nationalistic or religious feelings. But in Tehran, which was supposed to become a show room, the regime was unable to muster more than 70 or 80 thousand professional demonstrators and government employees and schools' students. Many of them, such as most governmental employees, are known to be forced to participate in official gatherings and others are fanatics or paid demonstrators. Hundreds of buses had transferred thousands of such demonstrators to the Capital. For reference purposes, there are more than 12-million inhabitants in Tehran, the capital of Iran. ...

http://daneshjoo.org/publishers/smccdinews/article_4512.shtml

Petronas

02-12-2006, 08:18 PM

Tick ... Tick ... Tick ...US prepares military blitz against Iran's nuclear sites
(Filed: 12/02/2006)

Strategists at the Pentagon are drawing up plans for devastating bombing raids backed by submarine-launched ballistic missile attacks against Iran's nuclear sites as a "last resort" to block Teheran's efforts to develop an atomic bomb.

Central Command and Strategic Command planners are identifying targets, assessing weapon-loads and working on logistics for an operation, the Sunday Telegraph has learnt. They are reporting to the office of Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, as America updates plans for action if the diplomatic offensive fails to thwart the Islamic republic's nuclear bomb ambitions. Teheran claims that it is developing only a civilian energy programme.

"This is more than just the standard military contingency assessment," said a senior Pentagon adviser. "This has taken on much greater urgency in recent months." ...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/02/12/wiran12.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/02/12/ixnewstop.html

Alli

02-12-2006, 08:19 PM

Speaking of which....our "allies" the Saudis...

Saudi king felicitates Iran revolution anniversary
LONDON, February 11 (IranMania) - Saudi Arabia king and crown prince in separate messages to Iran's government and nation felicitated the 27th anniversary of victory of Islamic Revolution, according to IRNA.

Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the official Saudi news agency, reported on Friday night that the King Abdullah in his message to President Ahmadinejad felicitated him on the 27th anniversary of the Islamic revolution's victory.

He also expressed his best wishes for the brotherly country of Iran.

Saudi Crown Prince, Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Sultan Bin Abdul aziz also in his message on the occasion, wished success, development, prosperity and health for Iran and Iranians.

The Saudi crown prince in his message said, "I felicitate the revolution anniversary to brotherly and friendly country of Iran and present my best and most sincere wishes to Iranians."

source (http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=40438&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs)

Petronas

02-12-2006, 08:28 PM

Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Ahmadinejad: Israel 'will be removed'

Tehran (dpa) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday that the Palestinians and "other nations" will eventually remove Israel from the region. Addressing a mass demonstration in Tehran - one of many organized throughout Iran to commemorate the 27th anniversary of the Islamic revolution - he once again questioned the Holocaust "fairy tale".

"We ask the West to remove what they created sixty years ago and if they do not listen to our recommendations, then the Palestinian nation and other nations will eventually do this for them," Ahmadinejad said in a ceremony marking the 27th anniversary of the Islamic revolution.

"Do the removal of Israel before it is too late and save yourself from the fury of regional nations," the ultra-conservative president said. He once again called the Holocaust a "fairy tale" ...

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=78985

Vancouver

02-13-2006, 07:52 AM

Somebody has been chatting with the Telegraph about the shape that an attack on Iran would take.

'Strategists at the Pentagon are drawing up plans for devastating bombing raids backed by submarine-launched ballistic missile attacks against Iran's nuclear sites as a "last resort" to block Teheran's efforts to develop an atomic bomb.'

The whole article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/02/12/wiran12.xml

NYer

02-13-2006, 09:20 AM

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f218/sono001/deering.gif

NYer

02-13-2006, 06:09 PM

Mahmoud kicks up the Brinksmanship (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060213/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_nuclear) another notch.

iranshiapower

02-14-2006, 03:23 PM

Saudi king felicitates Iran revolution anniversary
LONDON, February 11 (IranMania) - Saudi Arabia king and crown prince in separate messages to Iran's government and nation felicitated the 27th anniversary of victory of Islamic Revolution, according to IRNA.

Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the official Saudi news agency, reported on Friday night that the King Abdullah in his message to President Ahmadinejad felicitated him on the 27th anniversary of the Islamic revolution's victory.

He also expressed his best wishes for the brotherly country of Iran.

Saudi Crown Prince, Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Sultan Bin Abdul aziz also in his message on the occasion, wished success, development, prosperity and health for Iran and Iranians.

The Saudi crown prince in his message said, "I felicitate the revolution anniversary to brotherly and friendly country of Iran and present my best and most sincere wishes to Iranians."
i hate this fucking saudis more than sharon-stupid bitch-when we got the bomb we should bomb out saudi arabs and then make meka iranian city.
fuck this wahhabi asshole.

exitwound

02-14-2006, 05:35 PM

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f218/sono001/deering.gif

Sadly, that is probably exactly what is going to happen. :mad:

NYer

02-14-2006, 05:49 PM

Sufis, Iranian police clash in Holy City. (http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=40504&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs)

Clashes broke out Monday between members of the Sufi sect and Iranian police in the Shiite Muslim holy city of Qom, the semi-official Fars news agency and websites reported.

Fars said some 50 Sufis demonstrated against the closure of their place of worship in Qom. "There was some violence," it said, without elaborating.

NYer

02-15-2006, 11:45 AM

Countdown to Iran's Nuclear Test. (http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/008096.php)

http://www.everyonecan.org/images/alarm_clock.jpg

Tick ... Tick ... Tick ...

Alli

02-15-2006, 12:01 PM

Countdown to Iran's Nuclear Test. (http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/008096.php)

http://www.everyonecan.org/images/alarm_clock.jpg

Tick ... Tick ... Tick ...
One could superimpose/photo shop a pic of Elmojihad's face on the clock.

minor suggestion.

NYer

02-16-2006, 08:16 AM

Too little, too late? (http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,1710721,00.html)

he Bush administration made an emergency request to Congress yesterday for a seven-fold increase in funding to mount the biggest ever propaganda campaign against the Tehran government, in a further sign of the worsening crisis between Iran and the west.

Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, said the $75m (£43m) in extra funds, on top of $10m already allocated for later this year, would be used to broadcast US radio and television programmes into Iran, help pay for Iranians to study in America and support pro-democracy groups inside the country.

NYer

02-16-2006, 04:12 PM

Condemning the Government of Iran for violating its international nuclear nonproliferation obligations and expressing support for efforts to report Iran to the United Nations Security... (Introduced in House)

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.CON.RES.341:

HCON 341 IH

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress--

(1) condemns in the strongest possible terms the many breaches and failures of the Government of Iran to comply faithfully with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations, including its obligations under the Agreement Between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency for the Application of Safeguards in Connection with the Treaty on the Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, done at Vienna June 19, 1973 (commonly referred to as the `Safeguards Agreement'), as reported by the Director General of the IAEA to the IAEA Board of Governors since 2003;

(2) commends the efforts of the Governments of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom to seek a meaningful and credible suspension of Iran's enrichment- and reprocessing-related activities and to find a diplomatic means to address the non-compliance of the Government of Iran with its obligations, requirements, and commitments related to nuclear nonproliferation;

(3) calls on all members of the United Nations Security Council, in particular the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China, to expeditiously consider and take action in response to the report of Iran's noncompliance in fulfillment of the mandate of the Security Council to respond to and deal with situations bearing on the maintenance of international peace and security;

(4) declares that Iran, through its many breaches for almost 20 years of its obligations under the Safeguards Agreement, has forfeited the right to develop any aspect of a nuclear fuel cycle, especially with uranium conversion and enrichment and plutonium reprocessing technology, equipment, and facilities;

(5) calls on all responsible members of the international community to impose economic sanctions designed to deny Iran the ability to develop nuclear weapons; and

(6) urges the President to keep Congress fully and currently informed concerning Iran's violation of its international nuclear nonproliferation obligations.

Final Vote (http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll012.xml)

NYer

02-16-2006, 09:20 PM

Iranian missile test. (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=98683)

Iran tested a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, according to a report on Channel 2.

The missile has a 2,000 kilometer (more than 1,200 miles) range, according to the report.

NYer

02-17-2006, 10:34 AM

Radical Clerics OK Nukes. (http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD109606)

The spiritual leaders of the ultra-conservatives [in Iran] have accepted the use of nuclear weapons as lawful in the eyes of shari'a. Mohsen Gharavian, a disciple of [Ayatollah] Mesbah Yazdi [who is Iranian President Ahmadinejad's spiritual mentor], has spoken for the first time of using nuclear weapons as a counter-measure. He stated that 'in terms of shari'a, it all depends on the goal.'

Alli

02-17-2006, 10:52 AM

NYer

02-18-2006, 09:55 PM

France accuses Iran of making Nukes. (http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2006/feb/16/021607136.html)

France accused Iran on Thursday of secretly making nuclear weapons, ditching Europe's traditional diplomatic caution for bluntness that echoed the tough U.S. stance and reflected growing exasperation with Tehran.

Iran quickly denied the allegation by French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, who hardened the line that European negotiators had previously taken in their efforts to persuade Iran to suspend nuclear activities.

"No civilian nuclear program can explain the Iranian nuclear program. It is a clandestine military nuclear program," Douste-Blazy said on France-2 television.

Well, the French should know. Apparently some good German neighbors are lending Iran a helping hand. (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1139395436735&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull)

Several German companies are under investigation for alleged involvement in Iran's disputed nuclear program, a German magazine reported Saturday.

Police searched the premises of eight firms as well as private homes on February 8 as part of the investigation, the Spiegel weekly said in an article released before its publication Monday.

Horst Salzmann, a spokesman for federal prosecutors, declined to comment on the report.

Looks like one big happy family ...

Petronas

02-19-2006, 11:55 AM

Suicide Bombers Warn U.S., U.K. of Attacks
Sunday, February 19, 2006

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- An Iranian group that claims its members are dedicated to becoming suicide bombers warned the United States and Britain on Saturday that they will strike coalition military bases in Iraq if Tehran's nuclear facilities are attacked. Mohammad Ali Samadi, spokesman for Esteshadion, or Martyrdom Seekers, boasted of having hundreds of potential bombers in his talk at a seminar on suicide-bombings tactics at Tehran's Khajeh Nasir University.

"With more than 1,000 trained martyrdom-seekers, we are ready to attack the American and British sensitive points if they attack Iran's nuclear facilities," Samadi said. "If they strike, we have a lot of volunteers. Their (U.S. and British) sensitive places are quiet close to Iranian borders," Samadi said.

Samadi reviewed the history of suicide bombing as a weapon, praising it as the most effective Palestinian tactic in their confrontation with Israel. The organizers showed video clips of suicide attacks against Israelis, including one in the Morag settlement near Rafah in Gaza strip in February 2005. One settler, three Israeli soldiers and the two attackers were killed in the attack. Hasan Abbasi, a university instructor and former member of the elite Revolutionary Guards, told the audience of about 200 that Iran was not seeking nuclear weapons as claimed by the United States and some of its allies. "Our martyrdom-seekers are our nuclear weapons," said Abbasi, the event's main speaker.

After his speech, about 50 students filled out membership applications. "This is a unique opportunity for me to die for God, next to my brothers in Palestine. That was why I signed up," said Reza Haghshenas, a 22-year-old electrical engineering student. A 23-year-old woman student, Maryam Amereh, said: "We are trying to defend Islam. It's a way to draw the attention of others to our activities." But Rahim Hasanlu, a 22-year-old industrial management student, declared himself not interested in joining. "I just attended to learn what they're saying, thats all." Esteshadion was formed in late 2004, calling for members on a sporadic basis at Friday prayer ceremonies, state-sponsored rallies and at the group's occasional meetings.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAN_SUICIDE_BOMBERS?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=INTERNATIONAL

NYer

02-24-2006, 08:12 AM

Dan Darling: Tehran Plays Host to Al Qaeda (http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/006/782ppuml.asp)

"IRAN CONTINUES TO HOST senior al Qaeda leaders who are wanted for murdering Americans and other victims in the 1998 East Africa Embassy bombings. We have called repeatedly for these terrorists to be handed over to states that will prosecute them and bring them to justice. We believe that some al Qaeda members and those from like-minded extremist groups continue to use Iran as a safe haven and as a hub to facilitate their operations."

So said a high State Department official in a speech in Washington on November 30. The assertions by Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns were nothing new. Though often overlooked, they have been the position of the U.S. government for some time. As discussion of Iran's nuclear program and its hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad intensifies, Iranian aid to al Qaeda should not be allowed to drop off the radar screen.

A careful review of what is known about this matter--even a review confined to public sources--shows that Iran has long maintained ties to al Qaeda and has assisted the group in refining its terrorist capabilities. During the years of Taliban rule, Tehran allowed al Qaeda members, including some future 9/11 hijackers, to transit its territory en route to and from Afghanistan. Nor has this support waned since the Taliban's fall. To this day, much of the surviving al Qaeda leadership is based in Iran, enjoying the protection of the Revolutionary Guards Corps.

More at link ...

NYer

02-27-2006, 06:52 AM

Debka Alert: Tehran - Russia announce agreement on joint uranium enrichment (http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=1976) on Russian soil.

Russia denies. (http://news.ft.com/cms/s/7ce58ba4-a735-11da-b12c-0000779e2340.html)

The Mullah Mambo continues ...

Petronas

02-27-2006, 11:08 PM

Two Bombs Explode in Iran, Wounding Four
Mon Feb 27, 5:54 AM ET

TEHRAN, Iran - Two grenades exploded Monday in a southwestern Iranian province known for unrest among its Arab population, wounding at least four people, the official Iranian news agency reported. The grenades went off in restrooms in local government offices in Abadan and Dezful in Khuzestan province, the Islamic Republic News Agency said, citing official sources. The agency described the blasts as "terrorist acts," saying they wounded two people in each town.

Oil-rich Khuzestan has a history of violence involving members of Iran's Arab minority. Several bombs exploded in the provincial capital of Ahvaz in January and last year. An Iranian Arab insurgent group, the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz, claimed responsibility for the Jan. 24 blasts, which killed six people and wounded 46. The Iranian government blamed the bombings on Britain and United States, which denied any involvement. Britain has 8,500 troops in southern Iraq, across the border from Khuzestan, serving in the U.S.-led multinational force. Last year, bombings in June and October killed a total of 14 people in Ahvaz.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060227/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_explosions;_ylt=AlDoMOHZIAv.rsh6OzStSPpvaA8F; _ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

Petronas

02-27-2006, 11:27 PM

Iran tests 20-centrifuge N-cascade
Tuesday, February 28, 2006

VIENNA: Iran has begun testing a cascade of 20 centrifuges at its Natanz pilot uranium-enrichment plant, pressing ahead with efforts to purify nuclear fuel in defiance of world pressure, a nuclear watchdog report said on Monday. The confidential report by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei said that Iran had also begun substantial renovations of Natanz’s system handling UF6 gas, which is converted by centrifuges into enriched atomic fuel. It said that the cascade of 20 centrifuge machines began to undergo vacuum testing on February 22.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Iran would like the United States and Russia to abolish their nuclear weapons as they were a threat to Middle Eastern stability. ...

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\02\28\story_28-2-2006_pg7_2

NYer

02-28-2006, 08:04 AM

U.N. Atomic Agency Says Iran Is Not Fully Cooperating. (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/27/international/middleeast/27cnd-iran.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin)

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f218/sono001/surprise.jpg

The International Atomic Energy Agency released a report today saying that it cannot conclude that Iran's nuclear program is intended for peaceful purposes only, as Tehran insists, unless Iran provides more information about its past activities, an agency official said.

The report was sent to the 35 nations that make up the agency's board of governors, who are to discuss the looming showdown over Iran at a meeting next week in Moscow. On Feb. 4, the board voted to refer Iran's case to the United Nations Security Council, but it extended a grace period of a month to allow for diplomatic efforts.

In the report, the agency's director, Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, wrote that "it is regrettable and a matter of concern that the uncertainties related to the scope and nature of Iran's nuclear program have not been clarified after three years of intensive agency verification."

Petronas

03-01-2006, 11:19 AM

Terrorist training camps in Iran
Mon. 27 Feb 2006

London, Feb. 27 – Iran Focus has obtained a list of 20 terrorist camps and centres run by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The names and details of the training centres were provided by a defector from the IRGC, who has recently left Iran and now lives in hiding in a neighbouring country. Iran Focus agreed to keep his identity secret for obvious security reasons.

The former IRGC officer said the camps and the training centres were under the control of the IRGC’s elite Qods Force, the extra-territorial arm of the Revolutionary Guards.

“The Qods Force has an extensive network that uses the facilities of Iranian embassies or cultural and economic missions or a number of religious institutions such as the Islamic Communications and Culture Organisation to recruit radical Islamists in Muslim countries or among the Muslims living in the West. After going through preliminary training and security checks in those countries, the recruits are then sent to Iran via third countries and end up in one of the Qods Force training camps”, the officer said.

The Imam Ali Garrison has been a long-time training ground for foreign terrorist operatives. Presently, some 50 Islamists from neighbouring Arab countries are receiving training there in five groups of 10, the officer said.

“Iraq followed by the Palestinian territories have become the focal point of the Qods Force’s activities. Many of the foreign recruits in these camps now come from these two areas, but others come from a wide range of countries, including the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, North Africa and south-east Asia”, he said. “In most camps, the Sunnis outnumber the Shiites”.

“The scale and breadth of Qods Force operations in Iraq are far beyond what we did even during the war with Saddam”, the officer said, referring to the IRGC’s extensive activities in Iraq during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. “Vast areas of Iraq are under the virtual control of the Qods Force through its Iraqi surrogates. It uses a vast array of charities, companies and other fronts to conduct its activities across Iraq”.

“We would send our officers into Iraq to operate for months under the cover of a construction company”, he said. “Kawthar Company operated in Najaf last year to carry out construction work in the area around Imam Ali Shrine, but it was in fact a front company for the Qods Force. Qods officers, disguised as company employees, established contacts with Iraqi operatives and organised underground cells in southern Iraq”.

The officer said Qods Force officers also used the Iranian Red Crescent and the state-run television and radio corporation as fronts for their operations in Iraq.

A special branch inside Iran’s Foreign Ministry is responsible for assisting the Qods Force in bringing in foreign recruits. The recruits first travel to third countries where they are given new passports by Iranian agents to facilitate their entry into Iran. Upon finishing their training course, the new agents leave Iran for third countries from where they use their genuine passports to return to their countries of origin or where missions are planned.

The list of the bases used for training terrorists identified for Iran Focus are as follows:

1) Imam Ali Training Garrison, Tajrish Square, Tehran,
2) Bahonar Garrison, Chalous Street, close to the dam of Karaj,
3) Qom’s Ali-Abad Garrison, Tehran-Qom highway,
4) Mostafa Khomeini Garrison, Eshrat-Abad district, Tehran,
5) Crate Camp Garrison, 40 kilometres from the Ahwaz-Mahshar highway,
6) Fateh Qani-Hosseini Garrison, between Tehran and Qom
7) Qayour Asli Garrison, 30 kilometres from Ahwaz-Khorramshahr highway,
8) Abouzar Garrison, Qaleh-Shahin district, Ahwaz, Khuzestan province
9) Hezbollah Garrison, Varamin, east of Tehran
10) Eezeh Training Garrison
11) Amir-ol-Momenin Garrison, Ban-Roushan, Ilam province
12) Kothar Training Garrison, Dezful Street, Shoushtar, Khuzestan province
13) Imam Sadeq Garrison, Qom
14) Lavizan Training Centre, north-east Tehran
15) Abyek Training Centre, west of Tehran
16) Dervish Training Centre, 18 kilometres from the Ahwaz-Mahshar highway,
17) Qazanchi Training Centre, Ravansar-Kermanshah-Kamyaran tri-junction,
18) Beit-ol-Moqaddas University, Qom
19) Navab Safavi School, Ahwaz
20) Nahavand Training Centre, 45 kilometres from Nahavand, western Iran

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5956

NYer

03-01-2006, 11:43 AM

The embargoed El Baradei IAEA Iran Report can be found Here. (http://vitalperspective.typepad.com/vital_perspective_clarity/files/20060227_dg_report1.pdf)

Petronas

03-03-2006, 11:47 AM

IRAN: NEW EXPLOSION IN AHWAZ
Mar-03-2006 05:44 pm

Tehran, 3 March (AKI) - Just a few hours after the public execution of two Arab separatists in the south-western Iranian city of Ahwaz, a bomb attack was reported in the capital of the Khuzestan province late on Thursday. Ali Afrawi and Mehdi Nawaseri were hanged for the October 2005 attack in Ahwaz which killed six people and wounded at least 30 passers-by. Another two explosions had preceded the execution. No one was reportedly injured.

The attacks were part of a series of bombings in the city of Ahwaz, in Khuzestan province, following unrest a year ago in which ethnic Arabs protested against alleged discrimination by the Persian majority. Over 1.5 million Arabs live in Iran's southern regions. Iranian officials have blamed the attacks on British forces stationed in southern Iraq - an allegation strongly denied by Britain.

Thirteen people, including the two men hanged on Thursday, have been executed in Iran since 20 January this year.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.271507371&par=0

NYer

03-05-2006, 05:22 PM

IDF Operating Inside Iran? (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1139395537470&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull)

Israeli special forces are working in Iran to locate the precise sites at which Iran continues to enrich uranium, a British newspaper reported Sunday.

According to the Sunday Times article, the Israeli team is based in northern Iraq and has the support of the United States.

NYer

03-06-2006, 08:25 AM

Muslim Institute dares Mahmoud to visit Auchwitz. (http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20060214-060305-8680r)

http://tq.hkr.se/~worldwar2/arbeit-macht-frei.jpg

NYer

03-06-2006, 08:40 PM

Iraq Weapons -- Made in Iran? (http://abcnews.go.com/International/IraqCoverage/story?id=1692347&page=1)

U.S. military and intelligence officials tell ABC News that they have caught shipments of deadly new bombs at the Iran-Iraq border.

They are a very nasty piece of business, capable of penetrating U.S. troops' strongest armor.

What the United States says links them to Iran are tell-tale manufacturing signatures — certain types of machine-shop welds and material indicating they are built by the same bomb factory.

"The signature is the same because they are exactly the same in production," says explosives expert Kevin Barry. "So it's the same make and model."

"I think the evidence is strong that the Iranian government is making these IEDs, and the Iranian government is sending them across the border and they are killing U.S. troops once they get there," says Richard Clarke, former White House counterterrorism chief and an ABC News consultant. "I think it's very hard to escape the conclusion that, in all probability, the Iranian government is knowingly killing U.S. troops."

http://www.rpbridge.net/j/holmes2.jpg
The game is afoot...

The 801

03-07-2006, 05:39 PM

Iranian negotiator boasts of fooling Europeans

By Philip Sherwell in Washington
March 6, 2006
AdvertisementAdvertisement

THE man who for two years led Iran's nuclear negotiations has laid out in unprecedented detail how the regime took advantage of talks with Britain, France and Germany to forge ahead with its secret atomic program.

In a speech to a closed meeting of leading Islamic clerics and academics, Hassan Rowhani, who headed talks with the so-called EU3 until last year, revealed how Tehran played for time and tried to dupe the West after its secret nuclear program was uncovered by the Iranian opposition in 2002.

He boasted that while talks were taking place in Tehran, Iran was able to complete the installation of equipment for conversion of yellowcake - a key stage in the nuclear fuel process - at its Isfahan plant while convincing European diplomats that nothing was afoot.

"From the outset, the Americans kept telling the Europeans, 'The Iranians are lying and deceiving you and they have not told you everything'. The Europeans used to respond, 'We trust them'," he said.

Revelation of Mr Rowhani's remarks comes at an awkward moment for the Iranian Government, before a meeting today of the United Nations atomic watchdog, which must make a fresh assessment of Iran's banned nuclear operations. The International Atomic Energy Agency's judgement is the final step before the case is passed to the UN Security Council, where sanctions may be considered.

In his address to the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution, Mr Rowhani appears to have been seeking to rebut criticism from hardliners that he gave too much ground in talks with the Europeans. The contents of the speech were published in a regime journal that circulates among the ruling elite.

He told his audience: "When we were negotiating with the Europeans in Tehran we were still installing some of the equipment at the Isfahan site … In reality, by creating a tame situation, we could finish Isfahan."

America and its European allies believe that Iran is clandestinely developing an atomic bomb, but Tehran insists it is merely seeking nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Iran's negotiating team engaged in a last-ditch attempt last week to head off Security Council involvement. In January the regime removed atomic energy agency seals on sensitive nuclear equipment and last month it resumed banned uranium enrichment.

Iran is trying to win support from Russia, which opposes UN sanctions, having tried unsuccessfully to persuade European Union leaders to allow it more time. Against this backdrop, Mr Rowhani's surprisingly candid comments on Iran's record of obfuscation and delay are illuminating.

In a separate development, the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran has obtained a copy of a confidential parliamentary report making it clear that Iranian MPs were also kept in the dark on the nuclear program, which was funded secretly, outside the normal budgetary process.

Telegraph, London

http://smh.com.au/news/world/iranian-negotiator-boasts-of-fooling-europeans/2006/03/05/1141493547376.html

Whadafugginsurprise....

NYer

03-07-2006, 08:12 PM

Russia and US Reject Iran Nuclear Compromise. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4784262.stm)

Iran had suggested it might be allowed to enrich small quantities of uranium for research purposes while importing most of its nuclear fuel from Russia.

However, the US opposes allowing Iran to enrich any uranium.

Speaking in Washington, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also rejected a deal.

Mr Lavrov said Moscow's proposal for Iran to enrich uranium on Russian territory depended on Iran's full compliance with the requirements of the UN nuclear agency.

The International Atomic Energy Agency wants Iran to suspend uranium enrichment altogether. Its board is currently meeting in Vienna to consider Iran's case.

The Mullah Mambo continues ...

NYer

03-08-2006, 10:26 AM

Drudge: Iran has enough enriched uranium for ten nukes. (http://drudgereport.com/flash5.htm)

The United States has alleged that Iran has enough uranium gas to make 10 nuclear weapons and has called for new inspections in the Islamic Republic, a diplomat in Vienna told AFP Wednesday.

A senior US official made the claim at a closed-door meeting in Vienna of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the diplomat said.

US ambassador Gregory Schulte told the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors that Iran had failed on every count to meet the watchdog's call for it to suspend uranium enrichment.

Uranium is enriched so it can be used as fuel in a nuclear power reactor or, if enriched further, to make an atomic weapon.

Schlulte said Iran had 85 tons of the uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas and said this was enough to make 10 atom bombs, the diplomat reported.

He said there now should be special inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities.

A copy of his speech was not immediately available.

Developing...

Petronas

03-08-2006, 07:52 PM

Iran Threatens U.S. Over Nuclear Program

... Iran reacted angrily to Washington's role in the standoff over its nuclear ambitions. "The United States has the power to cause harm and pain," Ali Asghar Soltanieh, the chief Iranian delegate to the IAEA, said, reading from a statement. "But the United States is also susceptible to harm and pain. So if that is the path that the U.S. wishes to choose, let the ball roll." ...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060308/ap_on_re_mi_ea/nuclear_agency_iran

NYer

03-08-2006, 11:26 PM

Rumsfeld: Iran has deployed Elite Forces in Iraq. (http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/06/front2453803.091666667.html)

Iran has deployed elite forces to confront the U.S. military in Iraq in what has been termed a major escalation, the Pentagon says.

"They are currently putting people into Iraq to do things that are harmful to the future of Iraq," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said. "It is something that they, I think, will look back on as having been an error in judgment."

Officials said Iran has deployed members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iraq in early 2006. They said the IRGC operatives helped foment unrest and bolster Shi'ite militias in Iraq amid sectarian violence triggered by the bombing of the Golden Dome mosque in Samara on Feb. 22.

In a Pentagon briefing on Tuesday, Rumsfeld said Iran was deploying members of the Quds Brigade of the IRGC.

More ...

Hat tip to Dr. Zin of Regime Change Iran ...

NYer

03-09-2006, 08:45 AM

And the Hits Just Keep On Coming (http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/011/939xcmif.asp)

Iran secretly agreed to assist the Taliban in its war against U.S. forces in October 2001, according to the transcript of a high-level Taliban official's tribunal session at Guatanamo Bay, Cuba. The seven-page transcript, as well as thousands of pages of similar documents, was released by the Pentagon on March 3 in response to litigation brought by the Associated Press.

I guess the Yale University Dean of Admissions passed on this guy ...

The government also alleges that he at one time served as "the Taliban spokesperson for the BBC and Voice of America;" a charge the detainee did not deny. Nor did he deny a third, more astonishing allegation:

Detainee was present at a clandestine meeting in October 2001 between Taliban and Iranian officials in which Iran pledged to assist the Taliban
in their war with the United States.

Wait ... this can't be true ... Iran and the Taliban were enemies. The CIA said so.

...the recently released transcript corroborates earlier reporting on Iran's cooperation with the Taliban, as well as al Qaeda. Afghani opposition sources reported in early 2002 that the Iranians helped Taliban and al Qaeda members escape approaching U.S. forces through the Herat province. For example, Time Magazine reported:

An adviser to [Herat] warlord Ismail Khan told TIME that shortly before the U.S. bombing campaign began in October, a high-ranking Iranian official connected to the hard-line supreme leader Ayatollah Khameini had been dispatched to Kabul to offer secret sanctuary to Taliban and al Qaeda fugitives. The Iranian official was apparently trapped in Kabul during the bombing, and remained there until the
Northern Alliance took control of the city. Although the Iranians despised the Taliban for their persecution of Shiite Muslims in Afghanistan, their hatred for the U.S. may have run deeper.

And, according to sources in Herat, the Taliban and al Qaeda took the Iranians up on their offer. Shortly before Herat's Taliban garrison fled in November, a convoy of 50 off-road vehicles carrying some 250 senior Taliban and al Qaeda members allegedly crossed over into Iran, using a smugglers' route through the hills about 20 miles north of the city. A Western diplomat in Afghanistan claims that groups of Taliban and al Qaeda are still threading their way through the mountains of central Afghanistan and heading for the Iranian border. "The Iranian Revolutionary Guard has an eye on everything that happens along the border," says the diplomat. "Of course they know that Taliban and al Qaeda fighters are getting across."

http://richard.meek.home.comcast.net/ArteJohnsonVerrrryInteresting.JPG

NYer

03-09-2006, 03:44 PM

US to use Emirates To Monitor Iran. (http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=28831)

The Dubai monitors, and the setting up of American radio and television stations beaming into Iran, would address "a serious divergence between our capabilities and the profound challenges before us concerning Iran," Foggy Bottom's no. 3 official, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, Nicholas Burns, told the House International Relations Committee.

Mr. Burns made his remarks to a hearing tied to the Iran Freedom Support Act, legislation that has been languishing for more than a year without committee action because of obstruction by the State Department.

Mr. Burns confirmed that by this summer a new Iran-watching office would be in operation at the American Consulate in Dubai with 10 diplomats designated to keep a watchful eye on Tehran as well as to meet and work with Iranian dissidents.

Mr. Burns likened the initiative to fabled American diplomat George Kennan's monitoring of the Soviet Union from a German outpost during the 1920s.

NYer

03-10-2006, 11:23 AM

Why Iran needs hundreds of IRBM's. (http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/hticbm/articles/20060310.aspx)

Israel has threatened to retaliate with nukes if Israel is hit with chemical or nuclear warheads. Israel has Arrow anti-missile systems that can stop Shahab 3s, but only a few at a time. If Iran launched a dozen or more Shahab 3s simultaneously, some would get through. If Iran had several hundred Shahab 3s, they could launch most of them at Israel, using high explosive warheads, and do a lot of damage. Israel could respond with its own Jericho II missile, but this system was designed for use with nuclear weapons, and Israel apparently only has 20-30 of them. Israel could respond with air strikes, and cruise missiles from submarines in the Persian Gulf or Indian Ocean. But, again, this would appear as a limited response to massive Iranian missile attacks. An Iranian attack with nuclear warheads would kill a large number of Moslems, and even radical Iran might be put off by that, because Israel would likely respond in kind.

A large number of IRBMs could also be used to intimidate nearby Arab countries, as these missiles could damage oil production facilities.

NYer

03-12-2006, 09:55 AM

Iran Sleepwalking into War? (http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=79031&d=11&m=3&y=2006)

Taheri's piece includes this gem:

The feeling that a handful of “tasmimgran” (decision makers) may have deceived not only the gullible Europeans but also the Iranian people has been strengthened by two other events.

The first is the decision by President Ahmadinejad to suppress a report by the Tehran University’s seismographic center calling for “broader studies” in the choice of locations for projected nuclear power stations. The report warns that Iran, located on the world’s most active earthquake zone, may not be the best place for building nuclear stations which, with existing technology, might not resist tremors of over 7 on the Richter scale.

The report, parts of which have been leaked, caused concern in the Gulf province of Bushehr, where Iran’s first nuclear station is located, and in Khuzestan where a second one is to be built by 2010.

The Tehran University report has been seized upon by those who argue that Iran, the owner of the world’s second largest gas reserves, and with enough oil to cover its needs for at least 250 years, might have no need of costly and potentially dangerous nuclear energy.

The second event is the release of another report, almost certainly leaked by the entourage of former President Khatami, that shows Iran’s uranium reserves will cover the needs of the Bushehr power station for fuel for no more than seven years.

But the same reserves, when processed and enriched, could help the Islamic republic build some 200 atomic bombs.

The report’s message is clear: Iran cannot have a nuclear power industry without secure supplies of imported uranium. Thus the current enrichment program, using locally mined uranium, could be aimed at only one thing: Producing enough ingredients for bombs.

Are the wheels about to come off Mahmoud's Nuclear Carnival wagons? To quote Michael Ledeen:"Faster, please."

NYer

03-12-2006, 07:13 PM

Iran to Russia: No Deal! (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,187580,00.html)

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f218/sono001/surprise.jpg

Iran on Sunday ruled out a proposal to conduct uranium enrichment on Russian territory, drawing a harsh rebuke from a lawmaker in Moscow who said the move destroyed the only chance for a compromise in the standoff over Tehran's suspect nuclear program.

NYer

03-13-2006, 11:09 AM

US to present UNSC with Iran Evidence (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1139395539882&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull)

The British Sunday Times newspaper reported on Monday morning that the United States will present to the United Nations Security Council schematics for a nuclear bomb which it claims to have taken off a computer stolen from an Iranian nuclear scientist two years ago.

The schematic will reportedly be a central piece of evidence the United States will provide in the upcoming debate in the UNSC over possible sanctions against Iran for failing to comply with international monitors of its nuclear program.

uchiuke123

03-14-2006, 08:19 AM

IRAN MAINTAINS MILITARY ON FULL ALERT

NICOSIA [MENL] -- Iran has maintained its military on full alert.

Iranian Defense Minister Mustafa Najar said the military has been prepared for any enemy invasion. Najar said the military was ordered to respond to any foreign strike.

"If any country intends to attack Iran, it should expect a fatal reply by the Iranian armed forces," Najar told the official Iranian news agency Irna on March 9. "The Iranian armed forces are in full combat readiness and are to defend the country's territorial integrity with full power."

Over the last four months, Iran has held a series of major exercises. They included a naval and air exercise that Western officials said was designed to demonstrate Teheran's ability to block the shipment of Gulf Arab oil to the West.

uchiuke123

NYer

03-14-2006, 12:48 PM

Here's another interesting view on the approaching Iran confrontation. (http://en.nufdi.org/Editorial/Editorial_mainf.cfm?Editorialha=37)

The insiders point to the fact that the nuclear crisis is heating up and that the regime feels more isolated in the international arena. Thus, AhmadiNejad is trying to increase government spending to secure the “support of the people.” Of course, the high price of oil allows him to be generous. In all of his domestic trips so far, he has been accompanied by his cabinet and they approve large development projects on the spot.

The problem is that once these projects are approved by his cabinet, the funding goes to the rent seeking local religious leaders and not to the appropriate government agencies. This will only result in the rapid increase of corruption and will further diminish the regime’s legitimacy. It will also increase the dependency of the regime on the cash flow from oil to secure “popular support.” The regime is wholly dependent on the export of oil. Thus, not only they can not afford to use oil as a weapon, but in fact, any boycott of the Iranian oil will put unbearable pressure on the Islamic regime.

The Islamic regime is only playing the game of war of nerves with the West.

I've seen this scenario before ... picture Mahmoud as Tarkin on the Death Star, just before the Weapon becomes operational. Could Iran truly be ready to implode?

"Faster, Please ..."
Michael Ledeen

NYer

03-15-2006, 10:58 AM

Japan fires a shot across Mahmoud's bow. (http://today.reuters.com/business/newsarticle.aspx?type=tnBusinessNews&storyID=nT24895&imageid=&cap=)

Nippon Oil Corp, Japan's largest refiner, will cut its imports of Iranian crude by 15 percent this year, the first sign of Tehran's nuclear dispute with the West affecting its vital oil trade.

Alli

03-15-2006, 11:51 AM

US to present UNSC with Iran Evidence (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1139395539882&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull)

The British Sunday Times newspaper reported on Monday morning that the United States will present to the United Nations Security Council schematics for a nuclear bomb which it claims to have taken off a computer stolen from an Iranian nuclear scientist two years ago.

Cue the "Why should we believe the United states...they were wrong about WMD" crowd.

NYer

03-15-2006, 12:11 PM

Cue the "Why should we believe the United states...they were wrong about WMD" crowd.

Not Necessarily (http://www.wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?p=585903#post585903)

NYer

03-18-2006, 11:51 AM

Iran's Top Dissident Released From Jail

Iran's most prominent political dissident, Akbar Ganji, has been Released. (http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-03-18T113722Z_01_L18100562_RTRUKOC_0_UK-RIGHTS-IRAN-DISSIDENT.xml)

Ganji, a journalist, was jailed in 2000 after writing articles linking senior officials to the serial killings of political dissidents in 1998.

His articles particularly targeted powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Iran's president from 1989 to 1997.

A cheerful but thin and heavily-bearded Ganji welcomed reporters into his Tehran apartment. He stuck to pleasantries and sidestepped politics.

"Thanks for coming," he said, grinning. "I am so sorry it is such a small place."

Lawyer Youssef Mowlaie told Reuters Ganji had been released late on Friday evening. He predicted a legal wrangle over whether Ganji would have to return to Tehran's feared Evin prison for a few more days.

Mowlaie said he reckoned his client's jail term ended on March 17, but a senior judiciary figure disagreed.

"Currently, he is on leave and his sentence will end on March 30," Mahmoud Salarkia, deputy prosecutor-general for prison affairs, told the official IRNA news agency.

Salarkia said Ganji was allowed to return home for seven days to celebrate the Iranian New Year holiday which starts on Monday night. However, Ganji's wife insisted her husband was staying at home for good.

Ganji spent stints in solitary confinement and fell gravely ill in July, weakened by a hunger strike aimed at persuading authorities to release him. The reporter's case sparked outrage from the United States and European Union.

Ganji, born in 1959, was a devoted follower of the 1979 Islamic revolution and served in the hardline Revolutionary Guards. He has been criticised for his propaganda work and his surveillance of Iranian student activities in Turkey.

However, his political views changed sharply and his letters from prison broke two of Iran's biggest taboos, both criticising the system of clerical rule and levelling personal attacks on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Petronas

03-18-2006, 08:40 PM

Iran links Britain to shooting of 21 officials
Saturday March 18, 2006

Iran accused Britain of trying to stir religious and ethnic unrest in its eastern border region yesterday after armed rebels ambushed a party of government officials and killed 21. Police said the victims, who included security officials, were ordered out of their vehicles and shot in cold blood. The fleet of cars was then set ablaze. Seven others, including the governor of the provincial capital, Zahidan, were wounded in Thursday night's incident, which happened after gunmen, disguised in military uniforms, set up a roadblock to intercept the convoy as it travelled along a remote spot in the south-eastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan.

The convoy had been returning from a function honouring religious martyrs and war dead. Reports suggested that as many as 12 others had been kidnapped by the gunmen, who were said to have fled across the border into Afghanistan or Pakistan after a brief armed exchange with Iranian security forces. Sistan-Baluchestan, one of Iran's poorest provinces, has a large ethnic Baluchi Sunni population, which has long complained of religious discrimination at the hands of the Shia majority.

All the victims of Thursday's incident, the most serious in a spate of recent violent clashes in the province, were Sistani and Shia, official Iranian media reported. There was no claim of responsibility but government officials wasted little time in linking the incident with British and US forces stationed in neighbouring Afghanistan. "We have information that the bandits had meetings with British intelligence services," Iran's national police chief, Esmaeel Ahmadi Moqaddam, a relative of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, told state television. "It appears that a plan to create instability and religious hatred similar to the bombing of the Shia shrine in Samarra [in Iraq] is being pursued here."

Iranian officials have publicly blamed America for last month's attack on Samarra's golden mosque, accusing it of trying to foment chaos in Iraq. The foreign ministry in Tehran has summoned the Afghan and Pakistani ambassadors to complain that rebels are using their countries, both US allies, as sanctuaries from which to strike Iran. "We do not consider this to be a limited regional incident. It is related to the plans that the enemy [code for America and Britain] is launching in the bandits' area," an unnamed interior ministry source told the semi-official ILNA news agency.

The accusation echoed similar claims over a spate of bombings in another Iranian province, Khuzestan, bordering Iraq, which has killed more than 20 people in the last year. Iran has accused British forces in Iraq of training ethnic Arab militants to carry out the attacks in the heavily Arab-speaking province. Britain has vigorously denied the allegations.

The latest violence and resulting war of words come amid a backdrop of impending talks between Iran and the US aimed at bringing stability to Iraq. Addressing Friday prayer worshippers at Tehran University Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, said the talks - breaking what is a taboo for many Iranian hardliners opposed to ties with the US -would be limited to Iraq and would not include Iran's nuclear programme or other issues.

Sistan-Baluchestan, a barren, mountainous region, is one of Iran's most violent and lawless provinces. It is the scene of frequent clashes between security forces and armed traffickers of opium and heroin from Afghanistan and Pakistan. More than 3,000 Iranian military personnel are believed to have been killed in such confrontations since the Islamic revolution in 1979. In November a clash between police and gunmen left five officers and two gunmen dead. In December armed men killed a member of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's security team.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,1733776,00.html

NYer

03-19-2006, 11:12 AM

Oil groups shun Iran over fears of embargo. (http://news.ft.com/cms/s/d8cd30be-b5f1-11da-9cbb-0000779e2340.html)

International oil companies are putting multibillion-dollar projects in Iran on hold, concerned about the diplomatic standoff over the country’s nuclear programme.

Talks by several European companies on oil and gas projects have largely ground to a standstill amid fears that the nuclear dispute, now before the UN Security Council, could lead to fresh sanctions against Iran.

US companies are already barred from investing in Iran. But fears of fresh sanctions now threaten Iran’s access to vital oil and gas technology from non-US sources.

Petronas

03-20-2006, 12:33 PM

'Only a fraction of Teheran's brutality has come to light'
19/03/2006

She is the female figurehead of what she hopes will become a new Iranian revolution. Now, after almost 25 years in exile, the world is beginning to beat a path to her door. Maryam Rajavi wants those who visit her near Paris to know what sort of regime Iran's mullahs are running.

As the leader of the largest exiled Iranian opposition group, she talks angrily of the 15-year-old boy flogged to death for eating during Ramadan, and the girl of 13 buried up to her neck and stoned for a similarly trivial "crime". When she describes the punishments meted out by Iran's rulers, a picture of the limp bodies of two hanged men suspended from a crane is projected onto a screen.

She waves a large bound book that, she says, contains the names of 21,676 people who have died resisting the clerical regime. Another 120,000 people have been executed since the mullahs took power in 1979, she claims. Now Iran's rulers are trying to develop a nuclear weapon. "We have always said that a viper cannot give birth to a dove, but nobody believed us," she told the Sunday Telegraph. "Only a fraction of the true nature of this regime, which is a brutal dictatorship of religious fanaticism, has come to public attention."

British MPs, lawyers and human rights campaigners are among those who have recently travelled to hear Mrs Rajavi, 52, hold court on behalf of the National Council for Resistance for Iran (NCRI). Yet while some see her as the best hope to lead a moderate Islamic government in Teheran, others are more cautious. Washington, the British Government and the European Union all regard the organisation's military wing as a terrorist group. Mrs Rajavi has been described as a self-serving zealot, and the head of a personality cult.

She combats criticism with smiles, regular repetition of the words "freedom and democracy", and the claim that the clerics in Teheran are deliberately trying to slur the opposition group. "Terrorists, then cult," she said. "They're trying to substitute one for another. As we disprove them, they find another name."

Mrs Rajavi is everything the mullahs fear and loathe - a former revolutionary student turned opposition leader who has been a thorn in the side of the Iranian government. She talks moderate Islam, against their religious fanaticism, and is anxious to present the NCRI as tolerant, progressive and reasonable.

As one of six children of a middle-class Iranian family under the Shah's regime, she was a 22-year-old metallurgy student at Teheran University when her elder brother was jailed. Shortly afterwards, she says, her older sister was executed for political activism. Mrs Rajavi joined the Mujahideen-e Khalq (People's Holy Warriors, also known as the MEK) - a student association that mixed Islam and Marxism, and violently opposed the Shah. Mrs Rajavi married a fellow revolutionary and had two children but divorced to wed the Mujahideen leader, Massoud Rajavi. Yet her hopes for the 1979 Iranian revolution turned to disillusionment. "Very quickly we witnessed the mullahs hijacking the freedom of the people," she said. "We had to start a new push, against Islamic fundamentalism."

In 1982, her younger sister, Masoumeh, 22 and eight months pregnant, died under torture by Ayatollah Khomeini's regime, Mrs Rajavi left Iran for France. Now she presides over the NCRI's heavily protected headquarters in Auvers-sur-Oise, 20 miles north-west of Paris. She and up to 100 supporters pursue the overthrow of the clerical regime and installation of an NCRI government, with her as leader, until free elections.

Mrs Rajavi's followers are so devoted that, in 2003, after she was detained for a fortnight by French police on suspicion of terrorism, two set fire to themselves and died. More damaging is the terrorist label slapped on the organisation's military wing by the US State Department in 1994, and subsequently by Britain, and the European Union, after deadly attacks by the group around the world.

Last week, visiting British members of the Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom said it was time for the Government, and the EU, to remove the "unjust tag". Mrs Rajavi says Western governments must end their "dangerous appeasement" of Iran's regime and recognise the worth of her group, the first to reveal Iran's secret uranium enrichment programme in 2002. The mullahs appear to fear her. "They are afraid of freedom and democracy, and of women who stand up for their rights," she said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/03/19/wiran19.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/03/19/ixworld.html

NYer

03-21-2006, 02:34 PM

Faster, please. (http://www.dawn.com/2006/03/21/top14.htm)

NYer

03-22-2006, 11:35 AM

Britain pushes for Military Option (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2097772,00.html#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=World) to restrain Tehran.

BRITAIN is pressing for a United Nations resolution that would open the way for punitive sanctions and even the use of force if Iran were to refuse to halt its controversial nuclear programme.

In a confidential letter obtained by The Times, a leading British diplomat outlines a strategy for winning Russian and Chinese support by early summer for a so-called Chapter VII resolution demanding that Iran cease its nuclear activities.

If the Government in Tehran refused to comply with such a resolution, the UN Security Council would be legally compelled to enforce it.

The strategy marks a significant hardening of the Government’s position. It contrasts with public statements by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, this month.

NYer

03-23-2006, 09:17 AM

Who is Mohammad-Ali Ramin and why should we pay very close attention to what he has to say (http://www.allthingsbeautiful.com/all_things_beautiful/2006/03/introducing_the.html)?

Petronas

03-26-2006, 07:22 PM

Ahmadinejad: Iran will obtain fuel cycle by end of year
Sat. 25 Mar 2006

Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared on Saturday that the Islamic Republic will obtain nuclear capabilities by the end of the new Persian year (ending: March 21, 2007), the official state news agency reported. “Our enemies want to prevent us from making progress through widespread propaganda but, God willing, this year will be the year that the Islamic Republic of Iran will obtain complete nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Iran’s advancements in various domains including the nuclear issue is in the direction of the interests of Islamic countries and the friends of the Islamic Republic”, he said. Ahmadinejad called for a nuclear disarmament of the United States and other world’s powers. He made the comments during a meeting with Syrian First Vice-President Farouq al-Shara.

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=6410

Petronas

03-27-2006, 10:16 AM

Nuclear Iran will dominate 17 Mid-East nations - official
Sat. 25 Mar 2006

Tehran, Iran, Mar. 25 – Iran’s official news agency quoted a top Iranian official as saying that a nuclear Iran will dominate 17 Muslim countries in the Middle East. “[The West] believes that if we master nuclear technology, we will be transformed into a regional superpower and will dominate 17 Muslim countries in this neighbourhood”, Mohsen Rezai, the secretary general of the State Expediency Council, told the paramilitary Bassij forces in the south-western city of Masjid Soleiman on Friday, according to the news agency IRNA.

Major General Rezai, who for years headed Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and is close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that the West was trying to prevent Tehran from making industrial and technological progress. “We have reached a very important stage and we need to pay a price for making Iran powerful”, Rezai said.

Rezai accused the United States of stirring up trouble in the oil-rich Khuzestan Province, where Masjid Soleiman is situated. “Khuzestan Province is one of the flashpoints between Iran and the Americans, and this is probably true of three or four other provinces that they are watching”, Rezai said. Khuzestan Province has been the scene of unrest and widespread protests by ethnic Arabs for more than a year. Iran has repeatedly accused Britain and United States of being behind the escalating protests and violence in the oil-rich province.

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=6403

NYer

03-28-2006, 08:43 AM

German nuclear parts (http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,408269,00.html) smuggled to Iran.

German prosecutors said on Monday they had uncovered a procurement network that has been illegally supplying equipment to Iran's nuclear industry via Russia.

The state prosecutor's office in Potsdam near Berlin said customs officers had raided 41 firms across Germany, one of which was under suspicion of having knowingly delivered material to Iran in contravention of German export restrictions. No arrests have been made.

"Five or six firms delivered goods to Iran. We suspect that one of the companies knew where the equipment was headed," Potsdam prosecutor Benedikt Welfens told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "The other firms thought the equipment they were supplying was destined for Russia, for which no export restrictions apply."

NYer

03-29-2006, 04:00 PM

Iran To Stage Massive Military Maneuvers. (http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2006/March/middleeast_March768.xml&section=middleeast&col=)

Thousands of Iranian troops will on Friday start a week-long military maneuver in the Gulf to ready armed forces for warding off “threats”, a senior commander announced on state television. The commander of the navy of Revolutionary Guards Crops, Rear Admiral Mostafa Safari, did not specify the nature of the threat although the maneuver comes amid increasing tensions with the West over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

“The Revolutionary Guards Crops navy and air force in collaboration with (Iran’s regular) army, navy, (the volunteer militia) Basij, and the Iranian police will start a maneuver from 31 March until 6 April in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman,” he said. Iran has two armed forces in which both have their own ground, naval and air force all under the command of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

He added: “We hope ... We will gain the necessary and needed readiness to decisively reply to any kind of threats.” “More than 17,000 soldiers and sailors will be used, along with 1,500 different kind of vessels, in addition to the different sorts of jet fighter planes, choppers and different missiles,” he added, but did not say whether Iran will use its ballistic missiles. Iran has medium-range Shahab-3 missiles with the capability of 2,000 kilometers (1,280 miles), able of hitting arch-enemy Israel and US bases across the Middle East.

“The exercise will cover an area stretching from the northern tip of the Persian Gulf all the way to the port city of Chah-Bahar in the Sea of Oman extending 40 kilometers into the sea,” he said.

Mine-laying operations?

Petronas

03-31-2006, 01:05 AM

Iran suicide bombers sign up for attacks against U.S.
Wed. 29 Mar 2006

Tehran, Iran, Mar. 29 – Radical Islamists in Iran’s western province of Lorestan were invited during a ceremony on Wednesday to enlist in garrisons to carry out suicide attacks against the United States. The People’s Headquarters in Continuation of the Path of the Martyrs in Lorestan, a newly-founded government-backed group, began enlisting “martyrdom-seeking volunteers” to “confront possible threats by America and the West” against Iran. The government-run news agency Mehr reported that the organisation comprised of “religious delegations” and “martyrdom-seeking garrisons”. The radical group said that it was prepared to “carry out its real duties” on the orders of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Another state-organised group, which avowedly trains suicide bombers against “Western infidels and Zionists”, recently announced that it had enlisted 53,900 people to carry out “martyrdom-seeking operations”.

The Headquarters to Commemorate Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement, an organisation set up by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in 2004, offers volunteers three choices: To carry out suicide attacks against “the infidels occupying Iraq”, against Israel, or against controversial British author Salman Rushdie.

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=6471

NYer

04-01-2006, 10:17 AM

Iran planning al Qaeda as Trump Card (http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2006/march/03_31_1.html)

The U.S. intelligence community has briefed Congress on the increasing cooperation between Iran and Al Qaida.

Congressional sources said congressional committees have been told that Teheran has sought to use Al Qaida in any Iranian war with the United States. The sources said Iran has harbored leading Al Qaida operatives and enabled them to plan major attacks that would be launched upon Teheran's approval.

"Teheran has been seeking a range of terrorist options against the United States in case it strikes Iran's nuclear weapons facilities," a congressional source said. "Al Qaida has played a role in these options, although it's unlikely to be a leading element."

From Dan Darling at Rantburg

Petronas

04-05-2006, 12:02 AM

Russian military stalls on reports Ukraine sold warheads to Iran
03/ 04/ 2006

The chief of Russia's General Staff said Monday he could neither confirm nor deny reports that Ukraine had sold 250 nuclear warheads to Iran. "Russia's General Staff has no information about whether Ukraine has given 250 nuclear warheads to Iran or not," General Yury Baluyevsky, also deputy defense minister, said in response to an article in Novaya Gazeta newspaper Monday. "I do not comment on unsubstantiated reports."

The newspaper said that Ukraine had failed to return 250 warheads to Russia in the 1990s when the former Soviet republic declared itself a nuclear-free zone. The paper suggested the warheads could have been sold to a third country, including Iran.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060403/45107320.html

NYer

04-06-2006, 08:15 AM

Iran raises spectre of damage to world's oil shipping. (http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/apr2006-daily/06-04-2006/world/w17.htm)

Amid concern over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, analysts are worried it could resort to a wide range of weapons and tactics to disrupt the world’s busiest oil shipping lanes if armed conflict erupts with the United States.

Because its shores line the narrow Straits of Hormuz, Iran could quickly hit both military and commercial shipping with missiles launched from land, air or sea as well as cripple maritime traffic with mines or sunken ships, they said. Despite a technological edge, US and allied navies would have less time to react to such threats in the lanes between the Gulf and the Indian Ocean than in, say, neighbouring Iraq, Washington-based analyst Andrew Koch said.

"You don’t have a lot of manoeuvring room," Koch, senior vice president for defence and homeland security at Scribe Strategies and Advisors, told AFP. Iran is also better armed than it was during the 1987 tanker war, at the height of the Iran-Iraq conflict, when it was able to disrupt shipping with mines and missiles and raise oil prices, Koch and other analysts said.

"There is a concern that Iran is flush with a lot of oil cash," Koch said.

"They are buying more and more sophisticated weapons." In what analysts called serious "sabre-rattling," Iran said during war games in the Gulf this week that it had test-fired a new land-to-sea missile as well as a rocket torpedo. World oil prices leapt towards 68.0 dollars per barrel on Monday as traders fretted over tensions in both Iran and Nigeria, another major crude producer.

http://cagle.msnbc.com/working/060403/ramirez.jpg

NYer

04-06-2006, 11:34 AM

Iran's Nuke Plants In A Quake Zone (http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/66490.htm)

IN the present state of scientific knowledge, it is still impossible to forecast earthquakes. Nevertheless, we know which parts of the globe are most likely to be struck. And in the center of perhaps the most active of these zones is the Iranian Plateau - where at least one nuclear reactors is now under construction, with more planned.

NYer

04-07-2006, 08:30 AM

Iranian Missile Command (http://www.imao.us/archives/005188.html)

A lot of people are getting concerned about the daily announcements of nuclear weapons research, guided missiles, radar-avoiding missiles, flying invisible boats, and super-cavitating torpedoes coming out of the Islamic Republic of Iran these days. Thank goodness that we've got the largest and best-equipped military in all the world, right?

Well, maybe not. Iran is letting the Zionist-controlled world know that they won't be as easy of a pushover as Saddam was in 2003:

"The missile command of the Guards' naval force ... via positioning various types of surface-to-sea missiles, is able, while defending the coastlines and islands, to confront any extra-territorial invasion," the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Safavi as saying.

This begs the question: What does the Iranian Missile Command look like, anyway?

Thanks to Top Secret Zionist IMAO Spy Shlomo Ben-Kevin, we now have exclusive photos of Iranian Missile Command:

http://www.isfullofcrap.com/albums/Blogstuff/iranian_missile_command.gif

And if you're wondering what the smartbombs look like, a certain Danish cartoon of Mohammed with a bomb in a turban should give you a clue.

Petronas

04-08-2006, 01:10 AM

Iran (Country threat level - 4): Reports on 7 April 2006 indicate that military forces in Iran have killed the leader and 11 members of a militant group calling itself Jundullah (Soldiers of God) in an operation in the Sistan-Baluchistan province, which is located in southeastern Iran on the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan. On 16 March, the group claimed responsibility for killing at least 22 Iranian soldiers and taking seven hostages, including a senior security official in an ambush to demand the release of some of its members who were detained by Iranian authorities.

Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan province has been the scene of sporadic unrest among Iran's Baluchi minority, most of them Sunnis, and frequent police clashes with armed drug smugglers. Tehran has accused U.S. and British intelligence services of encouraging Iranian rebels to attack people.

http://www.airsecurity.com/hotspots/HotSpots.asp

NYer

04-08-2006, 09:56 AM

US plans nuclear strikes (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18754045-2,00.html) against Iran.

THE administration of US President George W. Bush is planning a massive bombing campaign against Iran, including use of bunker-buster nuclear bombs to destroy a key Iranian suspected nuclear weapons facility, The New Yorker magazine reported in its April 17 issue.

The article by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said that Mr Bush and others in the White House have come to view Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a potential Adolf Hitler.

"That's the name they're using," the report quoted a former senior intelligence official as saying.

A senior unnamed Pentagon adviser is quoted in the article as saying that "this White House believes that the only way to solve the problem is to change the power structure in Iran, and that means war."

The former intelligence officials depicts planning as "enormous," "hectic" and "operational," Mr Hersh writes.

One former defence official said the military planning was premised on a belief that "a sustained bombing campaign in Iran will humiliate the religious leadership and lead the public to rise up and overthrow the government," The New Yorker pointed out.

The New Yorker article can be found here. (http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060417fa_fact)

Speculation alert must remain high as there is not a single quote here - Hersh cites a "former ormer senior intelligence official, A senior unnamed Pentagon adviser, former defence officials and other similar sources, choosing to quote "Strong sentiment within the military."

That being said, all options are clearly on the table. Some elements of the story do seem to parallel this earlier report. (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HB03Ak02.html)

Petronas

04-08-2006, 12:37 PM

1939 alert

Iran has missiles to carry nuclear warheads
07/04/2006

Iran has successfully developed ballistic missiles with the capability to carry nuclear warheads. Detailed analysis of recent test firings of the Shahab-3 ballistic missile by military experts has concluded that Iran has been able to modify the nose cone to carry a basic nuclear bomb. The discovery will intensify international pressure on Teheran to provide a comprehensive breakdown of its nuclear research programme. Last week, the United Nations Security Council gave Iran 30 days to freeze its uranium enrichment programme that many experts believe is part of a clandestine attempt to produce nuclear weapons.

Iran denies it is trying to acquire a nuclear arsenal. But ballistic missile experts advising the United States say it has succeeded in reconfiguring the Shahab-3 to carry nuclear weapons. The Shahab-3 is a modified version of North Korea's Nodong missile which itself is based on the old Soviet-made Scud.

The Nodong, which Iran secretly acquired from North Korea in the mid-1990s, is designed to carry a conventional warhead. But Iranian engineers have been working for several years to adapt the Shahab-3 to carry nuclear weapons. "This is a major breakthrough for the Iranians," said a senior US official. "They have been trying to do this for years and now they have succeeded. It is a very disturbing development."

The Shahab 3 has a range of 800 miles, enabling it to hit a wide range of targets throughout the Middle East - including Israel. Apart from modifying the nose cone, Iranian technicians are also trying to make a number of technical adjustments that will enable the missile to travel a greater distance.

Western intelligence officials believe that Iran is receiving assistance from teams of Russian and Chinese experts with experience of developing nuclear weapons. Experts who have studied the latest version of the Shahab have identified modifications to the nose cone.

Instead of the single cone normally attached to this type of missile, the new Shahab has three cones, or a triconic, warhead. A triconic warhead allows the missile to accommodate a nuclear device and this type of warhead is normally found only in nuclear weapons. According to the new research, the Iranian warhead is designed to carry a spherical nuclear weapon that would be detonated 2,000 feet above the ground, similar to the Hiroshima bomb.

Although US defence officials believe that Iran is several years away from acquiring nuclear weapons, they point out that the warhead could hold a version of the nuclear bomb Pakistan is known to have developed. Iran has acquired a detailed breakdown of Pakistan's nuclear weapons.

The development of the Shahab-3 is just one element of a wide-ranging missile development programme. In 2003 the Iranians concluded another secret deal with North Korea to buy the Taepo Dong 2 missile, which has a range of 2,200 miles and would enable Iran to hit targets in mainland Europe.

Earlier this week the Iranians announced that they had successfully test-fired a new missile, the Fajr-3, which has the capability to evade radar systems and carry multiple warheads.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/04/07/wiran07.xml&sSheet=/portal/2006/04/07/ixportaltop.html

Petronas

04-08-2006, 12:44 PM

1939 alert

Iranian Bomb Near?
Proceedings, April 2006

In March the nuclear crisis involving Iran became more acute, as satellite photos showed what looked to be an excavation for a test shot. That made it appear that Iran was on the verge of having a bomb, rather than, as had been imagined, still some years away from having one. ...

From an article by Norman Friedman, one of the most prestigiuos experts on weapons systems, on page 90 of the April 2006 issue of "Proceedings", the publication of the United States Naval Institute. Not available online, I believe; get it from a library if you want to read the entire article.

Petronas

04-08-2006, 01:38 PM

Iran to use advance weapons in near future – military chief
Thu. 06 Apr 2006

Iran will soon add modern and advanced weapons to its military arsenal, Iranian Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar told reporters on the final day of naval war-games in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). “We have plenty of more advanced and modern weapons which we will make use of in the near future”, Brigadier General Mohammad-Najjar said. His comments were carried by the government-run news agency Fars. “These military exercises have a special message for our enemies”, the defence minister said of the weeklong war-games. Iran had put on display what it claimed were new stealth missiles, sonar-evading torpedoes, and even a "flying boat" during the naval exercises dubbed “Great Prophet”.

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=6617

NYer

04-11-2006, 07:30 AM

Ahmadi Nezhad promised Iranians "A Very Happy News" (http://www.iran-press-service.com/ips/articles-2006/april-2006/iran_uraniun_enriching_10406.shtml) By Tomorrow

Speaking to families of martyrs and benevolent people in the holly city of Mash-had, the capital city of the north-eastern Khorasan Razavi province, the President said “after people heard the complete news, they must pray because time for thanksgiving (the Almighty) has arrived”, according to the official news agency IRNA.

Though Mr. Ahmadi Nezhad did not revealed the nature of that great news, but informed sources speculated that he might announce the completion by Iranian scientist of the full nuclear cycle by enriching uranium up to 3.5 per cent, which is the required level for non military purposes of nuclear energy.

NYer

04-11-2006, 11:17 AM

And This (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060411/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_nuclear;_ylt=At0N4l6qhAVJ3D50Hf2xSoSs0NUE;_yl u=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-) must be the "Very Happy News."

Former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani said Tuesday that Iran has enriched uranium using 164 centrifuges, a major development in nuclear fuel cycle technology, news agencies reported.

Petronas

04-13-2006, 11:49 AM

“If you do not return to monotheism and worshipping god and refuse to accept justice then you will burn in the fire of the nations’ fury”Under Islam, giving the infidel one last chance to convert is the last step prior to launching a "Jihad".

Iran’s Ahmadinejad: West will burn in nations’ fury
Wed. 12 Apr 2006

Iran’s radical President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a fiery sermon demanded that “Iran’s enemies”, or the West, bow down before Iran and apologize for having held back Tehran’s nuclear program for three years. He also warned the West that it would “burn” in the “fire of the nations’ fury”.

“Those who insulted the Iranian nation and set back Iran’s movement for progress for several years must apologise”, Ahmadinejad said at a rally in the eastern town of Rashtkhar. His comments were aired on state television and carried by the official news agency.

“You must bow down to the greatness of the Iranian nation”, he said, addressing the West. He added that if the United States continued to seek to use “bullying” tactics then “every nation of the world” would chant “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”.

“If you do not return to monotheism and worshipping god and refuse to accept justice then you will burn in the fire of the nations’ fury”, Ahmadinejad said. He once again accused the West of launching a “psychological war” against Iran.

On Tuesday, Ahmadinejad declared that Iran had joined the Nuclear Club. “I officially announce that Iran has joined the world’s nuclear countries”, Ahmadinejad said in a speech that was broadcast on state television. The UN Security Council adopted a “Presidential Statement” unanimously on March 29 giving Iran 30 days to suspend all of its uranium enrichment activities and resume its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=6733

Petronas

04-13-2006, 11:54 AM

I thought this summary of Ahmadinejad's background might be interesting for those who don't know it.

Iran’s new President has a past mired in controversy
Sat. 25 Jun 2005

“Ahmadinejad? Who’s he?” This was the typical reaction of most Iranians a day after the first round of presidential elections in Iran, when they heard that the two candidates facing each other in the run-off were veteran politician Ayatollah Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and the little-known, ultra-conservative mayor of Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Last week’s surprise was all forgotten by the much bigger shock on Friday, when Ahmadinejad defeated the former President and iconic figure in the ruling theocracy in a landslide victory that consolidated power in the hands of the ruling Islamic clerics. With spotlights now trained on the small, bearded figure in a trademark dilapidated grey suit, Ahmadinejad’s murky past is causing deep anxiety in Iran and growing concern abroad over the new President’s policies and orientation.

Born in the desert town of Garmsar, east of Tehran, in 1956, Ahmadinejad was the fourth child of a working class family with seven children. His father, who was a blacksmith, moved the family to Tehran when Ahmadinejad was barely a year old. He was brought up in the rough neighbourhoods of south Tehran, where a cocktail of poverty, frustration and xenophobia in the heydays of the Shah’s elitist regime provided fertile grounds for the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. After finishing high school, Ahmadinejad went to Elm-o Sanaat University in 1975 to study engineering. Soon the whirlwind of Islamic revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini swept him from the classroom to the mosque and he joined a generation of firebrand Islamic fundamentalists dedicated to the cause of an Islamic world revolution.

Student activists in Elm-o Sanaat University at the time of the Iranian revolution were dominated by ultra-conservative Islamic fundamentalists. Ahmadinejad soon became one of their leaders and founded the Islamic Students Association in that university after the fall of the Shah’s regime. In 1979, he became the representative of Elm-o Sanaat students in the Office for Strengthening of Unity Between Universities and Theological Seminaries, which later became known as the OSU. The OSU was set up by Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, who was at the time Khomeini’s top confidant and a key figure in the clerical leadership. Beheshti wanted the OSU to organise Islamist students to counter the rapidly rising influence of the opposition Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK) among university students.

The OSU played a central role in the seizure of the United States embassy in Tehran in November 1979. Members of the OSU central council, who included Ahmadinejad as well as Ibrahim Asgharzadeh, Mohsen (Mahmoud) Mirdamadi, Mohsen Kadivar, Mohsen Aghajari, and Abbas Abdi, were regularly received by Khomeini himself. According to other OSU officials, when the idea of storming the U.S. embassy in Tehran was raised in the OSU central committee by Mirdamadi and Abdi, Ahmadinejad suggested storming the Soviet embassy at the same time. A decade later, most OSU leaders re-grouped around Khatami but Ahmadinejad remained loyal to the ultra-conservatives. During the crackdown on universities in 1980, which Khomeini called the “Islamic Cultural Revolution”, Ahmadinejad and the OSU played a critical role in purging dissident lecturers and students many of whom were arrested and later executed. Universities remained closed for three years and Ahmadinejad joined the Revolutionary Guards.

In the early 1980s, Ahmadinejad worked in the “Internal Security” department of the IRGC and earned notoriety as a ruthless interrogator and torturer. According to the state-run website Baztab, allies of outgoing President Mohammad Khatami have revealed that Ahmadinejad worked for some time as an executioner in the notorious Evin Prison, where thousands of political prisoners were executed in the bloody purges of the 1980s.

In 1986, Ahmadinejad became a senior officer in the Special Brigade of the Revolutionary Guards and was stationed in Ramazan Garrison near Kermanshah in western Iran. Ramazan Garrison was the headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards’ “extra-territorial operations”, a euphemism for terrorist attacks beyond Iran’s borders.

In Kermanshah, Ahmadinejad became involved in the clerical regime’s terrorist operations abroad and led many “extra-territorial operations of the IRGC”. With the formation of the elite Qods (Jerusalem) Force of the IRGC, Ahmadinejad became one of its senior commanders. He was the mastermind of a series of assassinations in the Middle East and Europe, including the assassination of Iranian Kurdish leader Abdorrahman Qassemlou, who was shot dead by senior officers of the Revolutionary Guards in a Vienna flat in July 1989. Ahmadinejad was a key planner of the attack, according to sources in the Revolutionary Guards.

Ahmadinejad served for four years as the governor of the towns of Maku and Khoy in northwestern Iran. In 1993, he was appointed by Minister of Islamic Culture and Guidance Ali Larijani, a fellow officer of the Revolutionary Guards, as his cultural adviser. Months later, he was appointed as the governor of the newly-created Ardebil Province. In 1997, the newly-installed Khatami administration removed Ahmadinejad from his post and he returned to Elm-o Sanaat University to teach, but his principal activity was to organize Ansar-e Hezbollah, a radical gang of violent Islamic vigilantes.

Since becoming mayor of Tehran in April 2003, Ahmadinejad has been using his position to build up a strong network of radical Islamic fundamentalists organised as “Abadgaran-e Iran-e Islami” (literally, Developers of an Islamic Iran). Working in close conjunction with the Revolutionary Guard’s, Abadgaran was able to win the municipal elections in 2003 and the parliamentary election in 2004. They owed their victories as much to low turnouts and general disillusionment with the “moderate” faction of the regime as to their well-oiled political and military machinery. Abadgaran bills itself as a group of young neo-Islamic fundamentalists who want to revive the ideals and policies of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini. It was one of several ultra-conservative groups that were setup on the orders of Ayatollah Khamenei in order to defeat outgoing President Mohammad Khatami’s faction after the parliamentary elections in February 2000.

Ahmadinejad’s record is typical of the men chosen by Khamenei’s entourage to put a new face on the clerical elite’s ultra-conservative identity. But beyond the shallow façade, few doubt that the Islamic Republic under its new President will move with greater speed and determination along the path of radical policies that include more human rights abuses, continuing sponsorship of terrorism, and the drive to obtain nuclear weapons.

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2605

NYer

04-14-2006, 01:43 PM

From John Batchelor ...

Iran War Warning, Pt 4 (http://www.spectator.org/blogger.asp?BlogID=2566)

1. Best signals source says that Tehran chief brain and strategist Rafsanjani is now in Damascus for a round of meetings with the terror camps, from the al-Assads to Nasrallah of the Hizb to the usual suspects of PFLPGC, Hamas, IJ, Al Aqsa: the topic is agreed: the struggle to liberate the Golan Heights, the West Bank, the whole of Palestine, is the same struggle as to liberate Iraq. Iran means to crush Israel and retake Palestine just as if this was the end of the second crusade.

2. The Damascus meetings turn on what is to be done to prep for the pre-empt that the Iranians aim to launch before October showdown with the UNSC. The collective attack on Israel will soften the resistance to the general assault in the Gulf region on the oilfields.

3. Rafsanjani next heads to Kuwait to warn the Sunni princes of oil that they either turn the Americans out of their back acres or they will burn with the Americans. This same message will be delivered to Bahrain and the UAE. Burn later or surrender now.

4. The Tehran regime will not wait for the expected American punch under cover of the UNSC. The IRGC will pre-empt, forcing an escalating scale of strike/counter-strike.

5. Iran possesses several nuclear warheads purchased from Central Asia and the Black Sea Fleet in the 20th century. It also has up to 3 hand made plutonium bombs acquired from the North Koreans. The Chinese and Russians both know that Iran has these weapons and will use them at the point the escalation rounds become unbearable in Tehran. The Chinese especially understand, because Bejing is proliferator in chief. Those cascades in Iran are built with Pakistani, Iraqi, North Korean, Chinese technicians. The Iranians are working with the North Koreans because the warheads they aim to produce must fit on the North Korean missiles and use the North Korean warheads.

6. The question unanswered is: Does the US State Department asknowledge that Iran is a nuclear weapon power with the capability of launching warheads on the command of the National Comand Center (Ayatollah K)?

7. My Israeli signals source estimates two rounds of consultations at the UNSC through the summer months, heading to a final series of resolutions for sanctions in October. Israel is not surprised by anything so far. Israel does not know what the US president will do as the confrontation deepens into tactical options.

8. Best signals source indicates that Iran will treat any UNSC sanction as an act of war and will escalate the attacks on Israel and the US interests in the Gulf . Iran will use the oil weapon like turns of the screw. An open source suggests a possibility that the Sauds believe China will pay $90/barrel as a floor. The oil weapon will threaten the US economy first and foremost and will stagger the Bush GOP chance to retain command of Congress. Cynical question: do the Dem wannabees who are hawking the Iran-not-nuke-for-ten-years yarn count on the Bush team losing to Tehran in a catastrophe, and does this mean that the Dems will inherit a hobbled giant for a generation?

9. The UN is on a glide path to Chapter 7, Article 42. No one state can turn it off. Point of no return already passed. The Tehran regime welcomes the showdown. The Tehran regime may be manipulating the showdown.

10. Best signal identifies shooting by November election, since the Tehran regime believes thet the Bush Admninistration cannot handle a foreign policy crisis in an election year.

11. In the event of airland battle, the winter months will bog down troop movements and will make airstrikes sloppy in poor weather. Tehran believes the UN will bargain for a ceasefire that will leave Tehran triumphant in the region and the US in retreat from Iraq.

12. Endgame is acceptable up to the unknowable: Will the US national security apparatus resupply the beleaguered region with naval forces that the Iranians will strike with a nuke? What will the US response be to such a calamity?

13. This is a war warning, part 4.

Happy Easter indeed ...

Petronas

04-15-2006, 12:44 AM

Iran Flaunts Low-Level Enrichment to Conceal High-Powered Weaponizaton Plant
April 14, 2006, 7:27 PM (GMT+02:00)

Hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s claim of Iranian success in low-level uranium enrichment was more bombastic than frank. Before springing his disclosure at a sacred mausoleum in the northern town of Mashhad on April 11, DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources disclose he paid a stealthy visit to Neyshabour in Khorassan, 38 kms to the southeast. There, he inspected a project he omitted to mention in his Mashhad speech about low-level enrichment, namely, a top-secret plant under construction that is designed to run 155,000 centrifuges, enough to enrich uranium for 3-5 nuclear bombs a year. This is Project B, or the hidden face of the enrichment plant open to inspection at Natanz.

This plant, due for completion next October, is scheduled to go on line at the end of 2007. According to our intelligence sources, running-in has begun at some sections of the Neyshabour installation, which is located 600 km northeast of Tehran. DEBKAfile’s sources reveal too that the Neyshabour plant has been built 150 m deep under farmland covered with mixed vegetable crops and dubbed Shahid Moradian, in the name of a war martyr as obscure as its existence. Already hard at work at Iran’s most ambitious nuclear project are hundreds of Iranian engineers, experts and assistants under the instruction of foreign specialists in the technology of centrifuge operation. Neyshabour is guarded day and night by the special Revolutionary Guards Corps elite Ansar al-Mahdi unit.

In Moscow Thursday, April 13, US assistant secretary of state on arms control Stephen Rademaker calculated that, with 54,000 centrifuges, the Iranians could produce enough enriched uranium for a bomb in 16 days. He was referring to the statement by Iran’s deputy nuclear chief Mohammed Saeed, who said his government planned to expand its enrichment program to 54,000 centrifuges from the 164 used in the small scale process announced Tuesday.

According to this reckoning, the Neshabour installation, when ready to go in three years, will have three times the capacity of Natanz and be able to turn out 9-15 bombs a year.

The clerical rulers in Tehran have long suspected the Americans or Israelis would eventually bomb Natanz out of existence. Therefore, four years ago, they began constructing its mirror - albeit on a far larger scale – in order to push ahead uninterrupted with enrichment for weapons, regardless of objections from the West, Israel and Arab neighbors. Russian experts completed the initial plans in 2003 and construction began in early 2004. In late 2005, Bulgarian transport planes delivered tens of thousands of centrifuges from Belarus and Ukraine; they were transported directly to Neyshabour. In January 2006, 23 Ukrainian engineers arrived to start installing the equipment, joined in February by 46 Belarusian nuclear experts who are working in shifts to prepare the 155,000 P-1 and P-2 centrifuges for operation.

This compares with 60,000 in Nathanz – of which 40,000 are accessible for inspection while 20,000 are hidden in closed subterranean chambers. Neyshabour, however, still needs to undergo experimental stages, according to our Iranian sources. It is far from sure that the Ukrainian and Belarusian experts will be able to put together a well-synchronized centrifuge project that is workable in the long term.

The Natanz project was long slowed by serious malfunctions in running the centrifuges purchased from Pakistan. They were only partially overcome lately. Now, Tehran needs three years to work in secret and in peace from outside interference and international inspections to achieve its first N-bomb.

Tehran’s “success” in enriching uranium, announced with fanfare last Tuesday, actually happened, according to our sources, eight months ago. Ahmadinejad timed his “disclosure” to achieve two goals:

One, as a fait accompli that would force the world to acknowledge that Iran had joined the world’s nuclear club as its eighth member, and two, to signal that the Islamic republic was close to achieving a nuclear weapon and capable of retaliating forcibly to international threats of penalties. Teheran’s grandiose war games two weeks ago were staged for the same purpose.

Russian and Chinese sources have their own interpretation of Tehran’s motives. They believe the Iranian president’s announcement was a knee-jerk reaction to the approaching UN Security Council deadline and the press reports of an approaching US military strike against its nuclear facilities. According to their theory, his bellicose stance was the prelude to a climb-down; Tehran would now announce its national objective has been accomplished and a line could be drawn on further advances.

DEBKAfile’s Iranian experts dismiss this theory as contrary to the mind-set of the Islamic republic’s rulers. They are convinced that Tehran sought the universal condemnation it encountered; it proved to the Iranian public that in a hostile world, Iran is fully justified in its go-it-alone program for arming their country with a nuclear weapon.

http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1158

NYer

04-15-2006, 08:38 AM

Text message tells Mahmoud the Mad he should wash more. (http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Politics&loid=8.0.287519686&par=0)

Not ScrappleFace, honest ...

Iran's hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has apparently been incensed by an anonymous text message suggesting he does not wash enough. Ahmadinejad has taken legal action over the offending text, has fired the president of a phone company and has had four people arrested and accused of colluding with the Israeli foreign intelligence service, Mossad, the anti-government website Rooz Online reports.

keith

04-16-2006, 12:49 PM

Rafsanjani warns of regional instability if attacked

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
Sun Apr 16, 5:54 AM ET

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Any U.S. attack on Iran over its nuclear programme would plunge the region into instability, former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Sunday.

We do not discount the possibility of U.S. aggression under any circumstance; we stress at the same time that it would not be in the interest of the United States, nor us," the influential Rafsanjani said during a visit to Syria.

The United States says Iran appears intent on making an atomic bomb and all options are on the table to try to prevent it. But Washington says it is pursuing the diplomatic course and rejects reports it is stepping up plans for a military strike.

Rafsanjani said Tehran's nuclear programme, which he reiterated was for peaceful purposes, would benefit the region, which would also suffer from the fallout of any military strike.

"Harm will not only engulf the Islamic Republic of Iran, but the region and everybody," Rafsanjani, who heads a council that arbitrates Iranian legislative disputes, told a news conference with Syrian Vice President Farouq al-Shara.

Iran, whose population is mainly Shi'ite Muslim, has regional influence through Shi'ite allies in Iraq and Lebanon.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who defeated Rafsanjani in last year's elections, said on Tuesday Iran had enriched uranium needed to make nuclear fuel and would accelerate efforts to achieve industrial level enrichment.

The announcement deepened Iran's confrontation with the United States.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United Nations Security Council should consider Chapter Seven of the U.N. Charter to force Iran to change its nuclear policy.

Chapter Seven makes a resolution mandatory under international law for all U.N. members. It can lead to sanctions and eventually the use of force if it specifically calls for them or threatens "all necessary means."

"America and other countries want to issue a resolution taking advantage of Chapter Seven. Could they achieve this? It is doubtful," Rafsanjani said.

The Security Council is divided over how to deal with Iran. Russia, one of the five permanent members on the council, said the use of force will not resolve the confrontation.

France said it was in favor of negotiations and a military strike was "not topical."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060416/wl_nm/nuclear_iran_rafsanjani_dc;_ylt=AoOl572ygf_A2VE2LF s.1e1m.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

keith

04-16-2006, 12:55 PM

Real men go to Khuzestan
By Pepe Escobar
Apr 6, 2006

TEHRAN - When it comes to Iran, the widespread belief is that the United States cannot possibly occupy the country - it's the size of France, Britain, Italy and Spain combined - and thus exercise the avowed White House goal of regime change.

The next best thing - from the point of view of armchair warriors - would be subversion from within. Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, in a widely distributed opinion piece a few months ago, stated that should the US attack Iran, ethnic minorities "might welcome the humiliation of their oppressors", that is, the Persians. Nonsense replays itself, as in the US supposedly being greeted as the "liberator" of Iraq.

In the overdrive run-up to the attack on Iraq in 2003, the ultimate neo-conservative mantra was "Real men go to Khuzestan." Indeed, some of of these "real men" may already have been there. The Iranian government is convinced US, British and/or Israeli special ops have been conducted on Iran's western and southeastern borders, at least since early 2005.

Significantly, the new US budget calls for additional funds to special operations and psy-ops (psychological operations) in Iran, in addition to the US$75 million the administration of President George W Bush wants to spend to advance "regime change". For their part, the US marines have commissioned Hicks and Associates, a subsidiary of Science Applications International Corp, one of the biggest US defense contractors and heavily involved in the Iraq invasion, to carry out in-depth research into Iranian ethnic groups.

The ultimate prize is Khuzestan province, where 90% of Iran's oil is located and which provides the country with 80% of its funds from oil production. In January, Tehran announced it had evidence of British special ops and bombings in Khuzestan, starting last year. Two Iranian Arabs were hanged in public for bombing a bank in the provincial capital Ahvaz in January. Three others were executed in a local prison.

At least 50 Arabs were accused as perpetrators of bombings that killed 21 people last April - after an "official" (but unconfirmed) letter was leaked with detailed plans for the ethnic cleansing of Arabs in Khuzestan. President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has already had to cancel three trips to Ahvaz at the last minute.

The province could not be more sensitive. Iran's second nuclear reactor will be built in Khuzestan. During an extended Nauroz - the Persian New Year - which in many cases goes on until early April - the Revolutionary Guards promote instructive Khuzestan tours to huge groups from all over the country, who are bused to battle sites of the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s. As many as 2 million people a year may participate in these tours. During this period special permits are not issued for the foreign press.

John Bradley was one of the few foreign journalists to be allowed in Khuzestan last month. In a dirt-poor Arab village near Ahvaz, crossed by pipelines supplying crude oil to the huge Abadan refinery (450,000 barrels a day), Bradley saw Iranian Arabs complaining that "we are standing on all of the country's wealth, and yet we get no benefit from it". [1] Unemployment is rife, Farsi is the only language taught in local schools, and no Arab-language newspapers are allowed. The pipelines have already been bombed - last September. One month later, Tehran announced it had cracked a plot to bomb Abadan with five Katyusha rockets.

Welcome to the Ahwazi intifada
There is speculation in Tehran that al-Qaeda may be courting Arab tribal leaders in Khuzestan as part of its broader strategy of sabotaging oil infrastructure in the Persian Gulf region. Exiled Khuzestanis for their part pin their hopes on an "Ahwazi intifada" (Ahvaz, the Farsi name, is "Ahwaz" in Arabic). The official Iranian government position remains that this would-be intifada is being conducted from Iraq - with substantial help by Britain, Canada and the US.

Trying to defuse the situation, Tehran argues that nine of Khuzestan's 17 members of the majlis (parliament) are Arabs, and Arabs are posted in senior positions both in Khuzestan and in Tehran. But the root of the problem - which is economic - remains. According to the Islamic Majlis Center for Research - a government think-tank - Tehran must do everything in its power to fight poverty in its ultra-sensitive non-Persian areas, as well as youth unemployment nationwide.

We will Persianize you
Khuzestan shares a land, river and sea border with Iraq. Saddam Hussein posed as a self-styled "liberator" of Arabistan - as Arabs call the province - during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. He embarked on a wide-ranging campaign to encourage local Shi'ites to rebel against the Islamic Republic. They didn't. The logic of war led to the destruction of Abadan and its refinery, and the devastation of Khorramshar and its port. Today, still because of the war, Khuzestan is almost enclosed in a shell. It used to be totally open to the outside world.

The groups living in Khuzestan have lived and traded together for centuries. They have a common history that reaches beyond ethnic rivalry. Many non-Persian dynasties have ruled for centuries. It's true that most of Iran's population whose mother language is not Farsi lives in the border areas - Azeris, Kurds, Turkmens, Balochis and Arabs. But their identity is always imprinted under Iran, not in a separatist vein.

Iran has a strong capacity of assimilation, synthesis, cultural appropriation and Iranization. Alexander the Great brought Hellenism to the heart of the Persian Empire, and was totally Persianized afterward. Iran's Islamization after the Arab invasions was counteracted by its tremendous intellectual, artistic and scientific pull, which influenced the whole Muslim world. Iranian Islam is really something else. Turks and Mongols were also Persianized and became promoters and ambassadors of Persian language, culture, art and literature.

The former foreign minister (under ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini) and current secretary general of the opposition party, the Freedom Movement of Iran, Ebrahim Yazdi, nuances the explosive situation according to different Iranian borders. "People in Khuzestan complain about lack of freedom and economic development, and unemployment. Azeris are not independentists. Kurds are not for separation. With Arab governments it's different. They directly support separation in Khuzestan - ever since [Gamal Abdel] Nasser, [Hafez] Assad, [Muammar] Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein. No Arab country will complain when there are disturbances."

Moreover, "Americans and Pakistanis are against separation in Pakistani Balochistan. Once again, it's different as far as Khuzestan is concerned."

Yazdi sees many dangers in the venomous atmosphere of mutual accusations between Tehran on the one side and Washington and London on the another. Ahmadinejad has publicly accused the British in Iraq of "hiring terrorists for sabotage". Yazdi added that the US "could be tempted to try a real interventionist policy. If the Iranians are challenging the US, they must be prepared to react and defend themselves against the other side."

The crucial fact remains that any US interventionist dream of the "real men go to Khuzestan" kind is doomed. It will generate even more passionate Iranian nationalism, not to mention a nationwide and potentially bloody backlash against Arab Iranians, who will then be inevitably regarded as traitors in collusion with the Anglo-Americans.

Note
1. Repression of Arabs fuels unrest in Iran, Washington Times, March 23.

(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing .)

keith

04-16-2006, 12:59 PM

The Washington Times
Repression of Arabs Fuels Unrest in Iran

Thursday 23rd March 2006, by John R. Bradley

This article originally appeared in The Washington Times on March 15, 2006.
AHVAZ, Iran — Unrest among ethnic Arabs in this remote capital of oil-rich Khuzestan province bordering southern Iraq presents Iran with its most serious domestic security threat since the 1979 Islamic revolution, just as discussion in Washington about Iran’s myriad internal ethnic and religious divisions reaches fever pitch.

Two men found guilty of bombing a bank here in January, killing six persons, were publicly hanged from a crane this month. Both were ethnic Arabs, who are a slim majority in the province and have close ties to Iraqi Arabs across the border. A day earlier, three other Iranian Arabs reportedly were executed in a local prison. Three more face imminent death, opposition groups say.

About 50 Arabs have been identified as being behind bombings that killed 21 persons after anti-government riots in April last year, officials say. The rioters were furious at the leak of a letter attributed to former Vice President Muhammad Ali Abtahi, which he denounced as a forgery, that disclosed "official plans" to expel Arabs from the province, and replace them with ethnic Persians.

At least 20 persons were reported killed and hundreds were injured in the riots. Amnesty International said security forces summarily executed many of those arrested, but Tehran dismissed the charge as false.

The scale of the riots probably would have escaped attention outside Iran if Arabic Al Jazeera television had not managed to get a video crew into Khuzestan. It subsequently was barred from reporting from the province.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has since canceled three trips to Ahvaz at the last minute. The official reason each time was "bad weather," but it was more likely security threats. One of the worst bombings took place just hours before the president was to address a rally.

Repression ’wrong policy’

"Geographically, the unrest in Khuzestan has turned into a very great threat," said Ibrahim Yazdi, a former Iranian foreign minister who now heads the opposition Freedom Movement in Iran.

"It is true that some of the ethnic Arabs there are in favor of independence for Khuzestan, and in the [1991] Persian Gulf War many of them went into the street in support of Saddam," he added. "But the way the Iranian government is handling the current crisis, with further repression, is the wrong policy to adopt."

The vast, arid plains in Khuzestan are punctuated by the flaring of gas fires at dozens of oil drilling rigs, which provide Tehran with about 80 percent of its revenue from crude oil production.

Before the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, the province was among Iran’s most developed. When Iraq invaded in 1980, hoping to take advantage of the chaos after the 1979 revolution and seize the oil fields, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein portrayed himself as the "liberator" of the Khuzistan Arabs.

Although many Iranian Arabs in border towns openly backed Iraq, the majority elsewhere did not, perhaps because they were mostly Shi’ite Muslims, persecuted under Saddam’s rule.

Saddam’s rhetoric ultimately backfired. Rather than divide Iran, he helped unify it.

Khuzestan devastated

Relentlessly bombed by Iraq for eight years, the main cities of Khuzestan were decimated, and the province now ranks among Iran’s poorest and least developed. The capital, Ahvaz, lacks a decent hotel, and visitors to the city center are greeted with the stench of an open sewer near the main hospital.

Drug addiction is a major local problem. In the evenings, the riverbank is dotted with groups of addicts, who discuss among themselves their progress toward rehabilitation under the supervision of social workers.

Ethnic Arabs complain that, as a result of their divided loyalties during the Iran-Iraq war, they are viewed more than ever by the clerical regime in Tehran as a potential fifth column, and suffer from a policy of discrimination.

In an impoverished Arab village about three miles from Ahvaz, a dozen young men point to the oil pipelines that run among their homes, carrying oil from the nearby drilling rigs to refineries near the Persian Gulf.

"We don’t have any freedom here," said one, who works as an engineer at a drilling rig. "We are standing on all of the country’s wealth, and yet we get no benefit from it," he complained, asking not to be identified for fear of government reprisals.

The men said that only Farsi is taught in their village school, although all the students are Arab, and that no Arabic-language newspapers are allowed to be published in the province. They said they also suffer much higher levels of unemployment and poverty than do Persians.

Arabs refused equality

"The government says we are traitors," said a man who said that, like most members of his family, he is unemployed. "But we are Iranians. It is the government in Tehran that is treacherous, because it refuses us equal rights."

Major oil pipelines supplying crude oil to the Abadan refinery on the shore of the Persian Gulf caught fire a few days after the two Arab men were publicly hanged in Ahvaz, and Iranian officials said they could not rule out sabotage.

The Abadan refinery has a capacity of 450,000 barrels per day, about 30 percent of Iran’s total refining capacity.

Pipelines in Khuzestan were bombed in September, temporarily disrupting supply. In October, Tehran said it also foiled an attempt to bomb the Abadan refinery with five Katyusha rockets.

"We know that certain Ahwazi Arab tribal leaders have been armed by the regime to help guard oil installations. Consequently, they have in-depth knowledge of the pipeline infrastructure," said Nasser Bani Assad, a spokesman for the British Ahwazi Friendship Society, which lobbies on behalf Iran’s ethnic Arabs and uses the Arabic name for Ahvaz.

"If the current ethnic repression continues, it is possible that some members of these tribes will attack the installations they were meant to be guarding," he predicted.

Oil becomes target

Disruptions to oil supply in Ahvaz on a scale seen in Africa’s Niger Delta would have global economic and political implications.

As the latest attacks erupted, al Qaeda was shifting the focus of its campaign in the Persian Gulf region to sabotaging oil facilities.

A major attack on the Abadan refinery, which represents more than a quarter of Iran’s refining capacity, or even on the export pipelines from Ahvaz’s massive oil fields, would severely disrupt both Iran’s oil exports and domestic fuel supplies, Mr. Assad said.

He said global oil prices would "shoot through the roof" if what he called "the Ahwazi intifada" strikes Iran’s oil industry with any degree of success.

Iranian officials have blamed the rise in violence on exiled separatist groups operating from Iraq, and are furious that Britain, Canada and the United States allow opposition groups based there to operate freely. Britain denies offering support to the Arab rebels.

At least 60 Arabic-language opposition radio and satellite television stations are beamed into the province from around the globe.

"These groups incite terrorist acts and inflame the situation by spreading false reports," said Khuzestan’s deputy governor, Mohsen Farokhnejad.

"Why do these Western governments allow them to do this when they claim to be fighting terrorism?" he asked. He dismissed accusations of discrimination, pointing out that nine of the province’s 17 members of parliament are ethnic Arabs and that Arabs hold many senior government positions both in the local government and in Tehran.

All the main overseas-based opposition groups have denounced the terrorist attacks, but a liberal analyst based in Tehran who asked not to be identified said the most popular group operating from Canada, the National Liberation Movement of Ahwaz, which runs the satellite Ahwaz TV station, does seem to advocate armed resistance.

A multinational empire

Slightly more than half of Iran’s 69 million people are ethnic Persians. The rest are Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, Baluchis and Lors. That makes Iran, in the eyes of many observers, not so much a nation state as a multinational empire dominated by Persians, much as the Soviet Union once was dominated by Russians.

The Islamic Majlis Center for Research, an Iranian government think tank, has warned in a report that the country faces serious internal conflict and unrest unless the government addresses the needs of its ethnic minorities. The report cited two key challenges: poverty among non-Persian ethnic groups living in border areas, and unemployment among youths.

In addition to Khuzestan, two remote Iranian provinces — Balochistan and Kurdistan — have witnessed serious unrest among ethnic and religious minorities.

About 2.1 million Iranian Balochis reside here and have long resented the regime in Tehran, saying the government brutally oppresses and neglects the Balochi population, 35 percent to 50 percent of whom are unemployed and most of whom are Sunni.

The province of Kurdistan in the northeast, bordering Iraq, has been a scene of sporadic anti-government demonstrations since June. At least 40 persons reportedly have died in clashes with the security forces, and more than 700 have been arrested.

Iranian activists involved in a classified research project for the U.S. Marines told the Financial Times last month that the Pentagon was examining the depth and nature of grievances against the Islamic government, and appeared to be studying whether Iran would be prone to a violent fragmentation along the same kinds of fault lines that are splitting Iraq.

The Bush administration, having mustered diplomatic support at the United Nations to counter Iran’s purported nuclear weapons program, asked Congress last month for $75 million to promote democratic change in Iran.

"It would be a very grave mistake for the West to try and interfere in Iran’s ethnic tensions," said Nasser Hadian, who teaches political philosophy at Tehran University. "It would unleash a wave of Iranian nationalism, and a massive backlash against any minority group seen as colluding with the West."

John R Bradley is the author of Saudi Arabia Exposed: Inside a Kingdom in Crisis (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005; updated paperback May 2006).

Petronas

04-16-2006, 01:06 PM

Iran suicide bombers ‘ready to hit Britain’
April 16, 2006

IRAN has formed battalions of suicide bombers to strike at British and American targets if the nation’s nuclear sites are attacked. According to Iranian officials, 40,000 trained suicide bombers are ready for action. The main force, named the Special Unit of Martyr Seekers in the Revolutionary Guards, was first seen last month when members marched in a military parade, dressed in olive-green uniforms with explosive packs around their waists and detonators held high.

Dr Hassan Abbasi, head of the Centre for Doctrinal Strategic Studies in the Revolutionary Guards, said in a speech that 29 western targets had been identified: “We are ready to attack American and British sensitive points if they attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.” He added that some of them were “quite close” to the Iranian border in Iraq. In a tape recording heard by The Sunday Times, Abbasi warned the would-be martyrs to “pay close attention to wily England” and vowed that “Britain’s demise is on our agenda”.

At a recruiting station in Tehran recently, volunteers for the force had to show their birth certificates, give proof of their address and tick a box stating whether they would prefer to attack American targets in Iraq or Israeli targets.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned last Friday that Israel was heading towards “annihilation”. He was speaking at a Tehran conference on Palestinian rights aimed at promoting Iran as a new Middle Eastern superpower.

According to western intelligence documents leaked to The Sunday Times, the Revolutionary Guards are in charge of a secret nuclear weapons programme designed to evade the scrutiny of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

One of the leaked reports, dating from February this year, confirms that President George W Bush is preparing to strike Iran. “If the problem is not resolved in some way, he intends to act before leaving office because it would be ‘unfair’ to leave the task of destroying Iran’s nuclear facilities to a new president,” the document says.

Alireza Jafarzadeh, a former spokesman for National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an opposition group, said a secret, parallel military programme was under way. According to sources inside Iran, the Revolutionary Guards were constructing underground sites that could be activated if Iran’s known nuclear facilities were destroyed.

The NCRI is the political wing of the Mujaheddin-e-Khalq, which is deemed a terrorist organisation in Britain and America. However, much of its information is considered to be “absolutely credible” by western intelligence sources after Jafarzadeh revealed the existence of the Natanz plant in 2002. Within the past year, 14 large and several smaller projects have been created, according to Jafarzadeh. Several are designed to be nuclear factories; others are for the storage of weapons, he claimed

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2136638.html

Petronas

04-16-2006, 01:15 PM

Iran expanding, reinforcing atomic sites - experts
Sun Apr 16, 2006 10:13 AM BST

VIENNA (Reuters) - New satellite imagery indicate Iran has expanded its uranium conversion site at Isfahan and reinforced its Natanz underground uranium enrichment plant against possible military strikes, a U.S. think tank said. Iran last week announced it had enriched uranium for use in fuelling power stations for the first time, stoking a diplomatic crisis over Western suspicions of a covert Iranian atomic bomb project. Iran says it seeks only nuclear energy for its economy.

The U.N. Security Council, which could consider sanctions on Iran, has called on Tehran to halt enrichment activity and asked U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei to report on the Iranian response on April 28. But Iran has accelerated nuclear work and stood its ground during a visit by ElBaradei last week.

The Institute for Science and International Security said in an email sent to news media with attached commercial satellite photos that Iran has built a new tunnel entrance at Isfahan, where uranium is processed into a feed material for enrichment. There had been just two entry points in February, it said. "This new entrance is indicative of a new underground facility or further expansion of the existing one," said ISIS, led by ex-U.N. arms inspector and nuclear expert David Albright.

ISIS also featured four satellite images taken between 2002 and January 2006 that it said showed Natanz's two subterranean cascade halls being buried by successive layers of earth, apparent concrete slabs and more earth and other materials. The roofs of the halls now appear to be eight metres (26 feet) underground, ISIS said.

An investigative report in New Yorker magazine this month said the United States was mulling the option of knocking out subterranean Iranian nuclear sites with tactical atomic bombs. President George W. Bush dismissed the story as "wild speculation" and said he remained focussed on diplomacy to defuse the confrontation with Tehran. But U.S. media accounts of air strike planning by the Bush administration have increased.

"Iran is taking extraordinary precautions to try to protect its nuclear assets. But the growing talk of eliminating Iran's nuclear programme from the air is pretty glib," Albright told Reuters by telephone from Washington. "Centrifuges are rather small machines and could be built again quickly, and Iran could store UF6 in a garage somewhere that would be pretty impossible to find," he said. "It will be very difficult to erase the knowledge they have achieved," said Mark Fitzpatrick, nuclear affairs expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

The Isfahan site had stockpiled 110 tonnes of feedstock UF6 gas, Tehran said last week, 25 more tonnes than it had reported to ElBaradei's International Atomic Energy Agency in February. The larger amount could yield a dozen atom bombs once Iran mastered the technology of enrichment in cascades of thousands of centrifuge machines whirling at supersonic speed, a threshold it will probably need 3-10 years to attain, analysts say.

Tehran proclaimed with fanfare that it had managed to enrich the concentration of uranium's fissile U-235 isotope to 3.5 percent, sufficient to run nuclear power plants, in a pilot cascade of 164 centrifuges. "Even if this is exaggerated, they are close to (enrichment ability) and the world faces a new reality," Fitzpatrick said. Enrichment must reach at least 80 percent to set off the chain reaction for a nuclear bomb. It would take 164 centrifuges over a decade to purify uranium enough for one bomb.

But Tehran aims to begin installing 3,000 centrifuges later this year, which could produce enough highly enriched uranium for one warhead in a year, nuclear scientists estimate. Albright said Iran was believed to currently have enough components to set up at least 1,000-2,000 more centrifuges. Analysts say Iran would need to run thousands of centrifuges for many months to years without breakdown, often caused by excessive vibration or pressure and temperature fluctuations, to prove it could make significant quantities of enriched uranium.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-04-16T091254Z_01_L15585216_RTRUKOC_0_UK-NUCLEAR-IRAN-SITES.xml

keith

04-16-2006, 01:28 PM

The war on Iran
By Pepe Escobar

"All options, including the military one, are on the table."
- US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

"I announce, officially, that dear Iran has joined the nuclear countries of the world."
- President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, saying on Tuesday that Iran had successfully enriched uranium for the first time, a landmark step toward its quest to develop nuclear fuel.

The ominous signs are "on the table" for all to see. The Pentagon has its Long War, the rebranded "war on terror" that Vice President Dick Cheney swears will last for decades, a replay of the war between Eastasia and Oceania in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.

President George W Bush issued a "wild speculation" non-denial "All options, including the military one, are on the table."
- US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

"I announce, officially, that dear Iran has joined the nuclear countries of the world."
- President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, saying on Tuesday that Iran had successfully enriched uranium for the first time, a landmark step toward its quest to develop nuclear fuel.

The ominous signs are "on the table" for all to see. The Pentagon has its Long War, the rebranded "war on terror" that Vice President Dick Cheney swears will last for decades, a replay of the war between Eastasia and Oceania in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.

President George W Bush issued a "wild speculation" non-denial "All options, including the military one, are on the table."
- US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

"I announce, officially, that dear Iran has joined the nuclear countries of the world."
- President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, saying on Tuesday that Iran had successfully enriched uranium for the first time, a landmark step toward its quest to develop nuclear fuel.

The ominous signs are "on the table" for all to see. The Pentagon has its Long War, the rebranded "war on terror" that Vice President Dick Cheney swears will last for decades, a replay of the war between Eastasia and Oceania in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.

President George W Bush issued a "wild speculation" non-denial denial that the US was planning strategic nuclear strikes against
Iran, but Iran considerably upped the ante on Tuesday with President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's announcement that Iran had enriched uranium for the first time. In a nationally televised speech, Ahmadinejad urged the West to stop pressuring Tehran, saying that Iran was seeking to develop nuclear energy only for peaceful purposes.

Iranian nuclear officials say the country has produced 100 tonnes of uranium gas, an essential ingredient for enrichment. The United Nations Security Council has demanded that Iran stop all uranium-enrichment activity by April 28. Iran has rejected the demand.

From the point of view of the Pentagon's Long War, a strategic nuclear attack on Iran can be spun to oblivion as the crucial next stage of the war on "radical Islam". From the view of a factionalized European Union, this is (very) bad business; the Europeans prefer to concentrate on the factionalized nature of the Iranian government itself and push for a nuclear deal.

Iranian government officials claim that the Germans and the Italians - big trade partners with extensive economic interests in the country - are pushing for a deal more than the French and much more than the British. As much as the EU cannot possibly agree on a unified foreign policy, Europeans in fact reject both sanctions and/or a possible US military strike.

Hitler meets Iraqification
The demonization of Ahmadinejad in some quarters in the US as the "new Adolf Hitler" is beside the point. As Asia Times Online has shown (The ultimate martyr, April 12), all crucial decisions in Iran remain with the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Ahmadinejad has been downgraded by the leader to play a "domestic" president's role.

His vocal, nationalist defense of Iran's civilian nuclear program follows the leader's script, and is met with approval because virtually all Iranians regard the issue as a matter of national right and pride.

According to a late-January poll by the Iranian Students Polling Agency, 85.4% of Iranians are in favor of continuing with the nuclear program. More than 80% feel the country needs nuclear energy. And about 70% regard the European negotiation side as "illogical".

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, issued a fatwa in the 1980s declaring that production, possession and use of nuclear weapons was against Islam. Russia, China and India still take him at his word.

For the Iranian government, the nuclear program is a powerful symbol of independence with regard to what is perceived as Anglo-Saxon colonialism. The view is shared by Iranians of all social classes and education backgrounds. Moreover, Iran is pushing for a leading role in the Non-Aligned Movement, stating that every country has the right to a peaceful nuclear program. What Iran officially wants is a nuclear-free zone in West Asia, and that includes Israel, the sixth nuclear power in the world with more than 200 nuclear warheads.

But the issue itself may be beside the point. What's really at stake is that while the occupation of Iraq might be downgraded, the "invisible" US military bases will consolidate the US presence in Iraq and the Persian Gulf region. Ahmadinejad in this scenario is the perfect Hitler; US troops - and bases - must remain on the ground to prevent Iran from going nuclear and to prevent Iran's influence in Iraq's "Shi'iteistan".

Meanwhile, Washington's avowed initiative of financing groups to provoke "regime change" from within is widely viewed in Tehran as a joke. What Iranians - both in government and in the bazaars and tea shops - take very seriously is the US lending a hand to Israel squeezing Palestine even more - a development also spun in Washington as part of the war on "radical Islam". The Quadrennial Defense Review - the Pentagon's strategic document calling for the Long War against terror - can be easily interpreted as a call for a war on Islam.

The first steps towards war
A war on Iran could involve many military scenarios. Iranian officials are aware that the US may go for an initial "shock and awe". But they play down the possibility of a street revolution toppling the nationalist theocracy, as Washington hopes; the regime controls everything, and in the event of a foreign attack, virtually the whole population would rally behind the government. They also exclude attacking Israel, because they know Israel may respond with a nuclear strike. But they do not rule out the possibility of the US dropping nuclear bombs on Iran.

Iran's current demonology instrumentalizes the UN Security Council, in the name of "peace" and nuclear non-proliferation. But Iranian officials keep complaining that the country's official nuclear proposal was never examined in full by the EU. It included a provision that Iran would continue to negotiate with the EU-3 (Germany, France and Britain) on uranium enrichment for two more years, and would resume enrichment only if negotiations failed. The next step in the Security Council may be the imposition of "intelligent sanctions" - an oxymoron. In practice, that would mean a partial trade embargo on Iran, excluding food and of course oil and gas. Oil and gas are once again the heart of the matter. A recent energy conference in Tehran (In the heart of Pipelineistan, March 17) made it clear that Iran is a crucial node of a proposed Asian energy-security grid, which includes China, Russia and India. This grid would bypass Western - especially US - control of energy supplies and fuel in a real 21st-century industrial revolution all across Asia. It's no wonder that many analysts view the war on Iran in essence as a war of the United States against Asia.

The ultimate prize
As was the case with Iraq, Iran is being sold as a threat to world peace (it may be pursuing nuclear weapons). Bush - at least vocally - hopes diplomacy will prevail. But the decision to attack may have been made already, just as it was taken regarding Iraq way before March 2003.

Iraq had signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) but was accused of possessing weapons of mass destruction (WMD). UN weapons inspectors were expelled on the eve of the 2003 war. Iran has also signed the NPT, but is being accused of pursuing a nuclear-weapons program. UN weapons inspectors still work in the country on and off - but for how long?

In 1995, Iraq told UN inspectors, via Saddam Hussein's brother-in-law Hussein Kamel, about a secret nuclear-weapons program, which had just been scrapped. This did not prevent the regime from being accused of concealing WMD just before the March 2003 invasion. In 2002, Iran told the UN that it had a secret nuclear program - not a weapons program. This did not prevent Iran from being accused four years later by the EU-3 of "concealment and deception".

In November 2002, the US threatened to strike Iraq unless it cooperated with UN inspectors. The US invaded Iraq anyway, without Security Council backing. In January, the EU-3 called for Iran to be referred to the Security Council. Sanctions may be applied. If no diplomatic solution is found, the Pentagon may find the opening it seeks for the next stage of its Long War.

Iran is not to be easily intimidated. Few in Tehran take the threat of oil sanctions seriously. Iranians know that even if the US decided to bomb the country's nuclear sites, they are maintained by Russian advisers and technicians; that would mean in effect a declaration of war against Russia. Russia recently closed a US$700 million deal selling 30 Tor M-1 surface-to-air missiles to Iran - very effective against aircraft, cruise missiles and guided bombs. The missiles will be deployed at the nuclear-research center at Isfahan and the Bushehr reactor, which is being built by Russia.

Iranians know Shi'ites in the south and in Baghdad would turn extreme heat on the occupation forces in Iraq. Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, on an official visit to Iran, according to his spokesman, said that "if any Islamic state, especially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is attacked, the Mehdi Army would fight inside and outside Iraq".

Iranians also know they can bypass any trade sanctions by trading even more with China. Anyway, Mohammed-Nabi Rudaki, deputy chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, which sits at the majlis (parliament), has already threatened that "if Europe does not act wisely with the Iranian nuclear portfolio and it is referred to the UN Security Council and economic or air travel restrictions are imposed unjustly, we have the power to halt oil supply to the last drop from the shores of the Persian Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz".

Up to 30% of the world's oil production passes through the strait. Were Iran to block it, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait would not be able to export their oil. The Pentagon may eventually get its Long War - but not exactly on its terms.

(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing .)

NYer

04-17-2006, 08:04 AM

It might be prudent to keep an eye on Here. (http://www.intrade.com/jsp/intrade/contractSearch/index.jsp?query=iran)

Meanwhile, The Adventures of Chester blog features an Iran Extravaganza. (http://www.theadventuresofchester.com/archives/2006/04/iran_extravagan.html)

NYer

04-17-2006, 11:40 AM

Air strikes may not Do It. (http://sushizero.blogspot.com/2006/04/sushizero-these-are-most-explosive.html)

NYer

04-17-2006, 03:59 PM

Text message tells Mahmoud the Mad he should wash more. (http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Politics&loid=8.0.287519686&par=0)

More evidence unveiled ...
IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v47/dallas59/Post%20pics/More%20pics/Even%20More%20Pics/More%20Even%20Pics/soap.jpg[/IMG]

NYer

04-17-2006, 04:11 PM

Text message tells Mahmoud the Mad he should wash more. (http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Politics&loid=8.0.287519686&par=0)

More evidence unveiled http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v47/dallas59/Post%20pics/More%20pics/Even%20More%20Pics/More%20Even%20Pics/soap.jpg

NYer

04-19-2006, 11:43 AM

From Rantburg:

Top Students' Group Criticizes Mahmoud the Mad's Ambitions. (http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.288437725&par=0)

Iran's top students' movement openly criticised the nuclear ambitions of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a statement published in Tehran on Wednesday. The association of the Islamic student councils, Daftar Tahkim Vahdat (the Office to Foster Unity), slammed Ahmadinejad's nuclear plan. "This aggressive policy and the decision to resume uranium enrichment threatens the security of the country and the population," the statement said.

"Once again, as in the past, the population was not consulted by the cabinet and decision makers," the note also said. "The country needs a responsible and democratic government which can be trusted by the international community, a necessary condition for the development of a nuclear policy." The students' movement criticised as "not very smart and offensive" Ahmadinejad's strategy "which defies for no reason the international community."

The students of Daftar Tahkim Vahdat concluded their statement denouncing the "fierce censorship imposed on the media in the Islamic Republic to prevent the public opinion from obtaining correct information on the nuclear issue."

NYer

04-21-2006, 08:41 AM

Iranian - Kurdish (http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2006-04-21T111557Z_01_GEO136585_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-IRAN-SHELLING.xml) Skirmish

Iranian forces shelled Iranian Kurdish guerrilla positions inside mountainous northern Iraq early on Friday morning to repel an attack, a Kurdish official said.

"This morning Iranian Kurdish fighters infiltrated the border into the Iranian side and the Iranian army bombed the area and repelled them. The shelling hit Iraqi land at Sidakan," said Saadi Pira, an official of the Iraqi Kurdish, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, party.

There was no word on casualties in the shelling of the Iranian Kurdish rebels of the PJAK movement.

keith

04-21-2006, 12:29 PM

Iran launches Islamic dress drive

Authorities in Iran are to crack down on women failing to follow the regime's definition of good Islamic dress.
Some 200 extra police are to patrol the streets of Tehran confronting women who reveal ankles, sport thin headscarves or wear short or tight jackets.

Those found to be in breach of Iran's Islamic dress code could face instant penalty fines.

The move is part of a blitz against anti-social behaviour, also targeting drugs and people who play loud music.

People walking pets or men sporting outlandish hairstyles could also face fines, of up to $55 (£31), said Tehran's police chief, Mortaza Talai.

Iran's clerical establishment says it wants to protect the values of the country's Islamic revolution against a corrupting Western influence.

Changing times

There have been many such campaigns in the past, but they have often achieved little, correspondents say.

Women's clothing has always been a political barometer in Iran, but has changed dramatically over the past decade, according to the BBC's Pam O'Toole.

Even if they arrest all the girls wearing bad hijab, how long can they keep them in jail?
Tehran resident

During eight years of reformist rule, many young women in big cities abandoned the dark colours and long loose clothing of the early Islamic revolution for colourful headscarves and short, figure hugging coats.
That offends conservative Iranians, the grassroots supporters of the new hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, our correspondent says.

"In my opinion Islam, and the Islamic Republic, don't want to have a confrontation with people who have bad hijab," said conservative MP Fatemeh Ajorlou, who backs the campaign.

"But if someone wants to blatantly flout Islam or the Islamic system, that's another matter."

Women appear resigned to the new initiative but sceptical of its long-term effectiveness.

"Ultimately what they can do is go onto the streets and burn some clothes shops," one Iranian girl told the BBC.

"They will put pressure on us for a while. But after that it is up to people what to wear. Even if they arrest all the girls wearing bad hijab, my question is - how long can they keep them in jail?"

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/4929504.stm

Published: 2006/04/21 08:52:56 GMT

© BBC MMVI

keith

04-21-2006, 12:31 PM

Iran sanctions 'depend on proof'

Russia has ruled out sanctions against Iran unless there is proof that its nuclear programme is not peaceful.
Mikhail Kamynin of the foreign ministry said Russia would have to see "concrete facts" proving military intent.

The US is trying to rally support from UN Security Council members, including Russia, to back tougher action on Iran.

The UN says there is so far no proof that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons - as suspected in the West - but nor has Iran proved that it is not.

"Sanctions can be discussed only when there are concrete facts showing that Tehran's nuclear activity is not exclusively peaceful," Mr Kamynin said in Moscow.

"At the present time, the concerns of the international community over the Iranian nuclear program cannot be eased through sanctions and use of force."

'Stonewalled'

The UN Security Council is awaiting a report from Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), assessing Iran's nuclear activities, before deciding its next move. The report is due in a week's time.

IAEA POSITION
In resolutions on Iran the IAEA has said:
There is an "absence of confidence that Iran's nuclear programme is exclusively for peaceful purposes"
Iran had failed to meet obligations on reporting of nuclear activities, and had a "policy of concealment"
The agency was "still not in a position to conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran"

Tehran has defied UN calls to stop nuclear activity, saying last week it had successfully enriched uranium. However it denies any nuclear weapons plans, saying it wants nuclear power only for energy purposes.

Iran's ambassador to the IAEA said on Friday Tehran would "continue its full co-operation" with the body.

But the IAEA says Iran has not co-operated fully, and one of its senior inspectors has called off a visit to the country that was supposed to have taken place on Friday.

There was no point in Olli Heinonen making the trip "if he's just going to get stonewalled", an EU diplomat told Reuters.

Differences

Mr Kamynin's comments in Moscow came after meetings there between the main Security Council powers and other major players, to discuss the next steps in the Iran crisis.

While the countries stress the need to maintain a united front, however, differences have opened up.

The US called on Russia to end assistance it is giving Iran with its civil nuclear programme, and to suspend a major arms sale to Tehran.

Russia refused on both counts, and repeated its opposition to any military strike on Iran, which the US has not ruled out.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/4929450.stm

Published: 2006/04/21 11:48:14 GMT

© BBC MMVI

NYer

04-23-2006, 06:26 PM

Hat tip to CaptainsQuarters ...

Iran's President Recruits Terror Master. (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2147683,00.html)

US officials and Israel intelligence sources believe Imad Mugniyeh, the Lebanese commander of Hezbollah’s overseas operations, has taken charge of plotting Iran’s retaliation against western targets should President George W Bush order a strike on Iranian nuclear sites.

Paging 801 ...

keith

04-24-2006, 04:07 PM

Iran Leader Hints at Exiting Nuke Treaty By NASSER KARIMI,

Associated Press Writer

Iran's hard-line president said Monday he is thinking about withdrawing from the nuclear nonproliferation treaty if the U.N. atomic agency tries to prevent his country from enriching uranium.

In a rare news conference with foreign journalists, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also predicted the U.N. Security Council will not impose sanctions on Iran, which is facing a Friday deadline to halt enrichment because of suspicions it is trying to develop atomic weapons.

Ahmadinejad's government insists the nonproliferation treaty gives Iran the right to enrich uranium for fueling civilian nuclear power plants, and he has given no ground in the international faceoff.

The United States, Britain and France maintain Iran also wants enriched uranium for atomic bombs, which would violate its commitments under the treaty. Iran denies the charge, but Washington is pressing fellow members of the Security Council to impose economic sanctions.

The fiery Ahmadinejad said he was reconsidering Iran's adherence to the nonproliferation treaty, which is aimed at stopping the spread of atomic weapons while allowing peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and membership in the International Atomic Energy Agency, a U.N. watchdog body.

"What has more than 30 years of membership in the agency given us?" he asked at the news conference, which was only the second since he took office last year at which foreign journalists have been allowed to ask questions.

"Working in the framework of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the agency is our concrete policy," he said. "(But) if we see that they are violating our rights, or they don't want to accept (our rights), well, we will reconsider."

Suspicions about Iran's intentions have grown since it was discovered in 2002 that the Tehran regime had for two decades secretly operated large-scale nuclear activities that could be used in weapons making.

The IAEA says it has since found no direct evidence of an arms program, but it also says the Iranians have not been fully forthcoming in answering questions about their nuclear activities.

After repeated attempts to resolve the issue through negotiations, the IAEA reported Iran to the Security Council for noncompliance. The council then gave Iran until Friday to suspend uranium enrichment.

Iran deepened international concerns by announcing April 11 that it had for the first time enriched uranium with 164 centrifuges — a step toward large-scale production of nuclear fuel.

The United States and others are urging the Security Council to take a tougher stance by imposing a mandatory order for Iran to halt enrichment, a move that would raise the threat of sanctions.

Russian and China, which are among the five permanent members that can veto council actions, have opposed that approach, saying diplomacy has not run its course. Ahmadinejad appears to be banking on their support to dissuade Washington from pressing a sanctions vote.

"I don't expect they will do this," Ahmadinejad said. "Those two or three countries who harshly oppose us are wise enough not to commit such a big mistake. They would be damaged if they create any restrictions on us."

Asked about the prediction, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he would not comment on the situation until after he read a report later this week from the IAEA's chief, Mohamed ElBaradei.

"That report will have to be studied very carefully and then the council will determine which way it goes," Annan said at U.N. headquarters in New York. "I will not prejudge what they will say, and I don't think anyone should."

Ahmadinejad also returned to his sharp verbal assaults on Israel, another issue that has drawn strong international criticism for the Iranian leader. Israel considers Iran its biggest threat.

"We say that this fake regime cannot not logically continue to live," Ahmadinejad said of Israel. Last year, he called the Nazi Holocaust a "myth" and declared that Israel should be "wiped off the map."

Other Iranian officials offered differing comments about the country's nuclear program, continuing Iran's recent practice of issuing conflicting statements about its plans.

Ali Hosseinitash, a member of the Supreme National Security Council, told the official Iranian news agency IRNA that "the Islamic Republic of Iran will begin nuclear fuel production on an industrial scale from 2007."

But Hasan Rowhani, also a member of the supreme council, said Tehran might be open to temporarily freezing uranium enrichment, although he stressed that it would not abandon the process.

"Iran would not have a problem with a short-term suspension. But the difficulty is that the West and the United States would use that as an excuse for extending" the suspension, Rowhani said.

"Their final aim is to prevent Iran from completing the enrichment technology. Our red line in Iran's nuclear case is that Iran's rights must be guaranteed and we must be able to enrich."

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
Questions or Comments

NYer

04-25-2006, 08:19 AM

Iran ready to transfer nuclear know-how (http://breakingnews.nypost.com/dynamic/stories/I/IRAN_NUCLEAR?SITE=NYNYP&SECTION=HOME)

Iran's top leader said Tuesday that Tehran is ready to transfer its nuclear technology to other countries. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the comments in a meeting with visiting Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who said last month that his impoverished, wartorn country was considering trying to create a nuclear program to generate electrical power.

"Iran's nuclear capability is one example of various scientific capabilities in the country. ... The Islamic Republic of Iran is prepared to transfer the experience, knowledge and technology of its scientists," Khamenei told al-Bashir at their meeting.

Omega

04-25-2006, 09:13 AM

Iran hangs gay kids.

keith

04-26-2006, 04:40 PM

As if Iran already didn't have enough problems:

Iran clergy angry over women fans
By Frances Harrison
BBC correspondent in Tehran

Iran's religious right is voicing growing opposition to a decision to let women to watch football matches for the first time since the 1979 revolution.
Four grand ayatollahs and several MPs have protested against the move, saying it violates Islamic law for a woman to look at the body of a male stranger.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that stadiums would reserve special areas for women and families.

The move was welcomed by women's rights groups which long contested the ban.

Mr Ahmadinejad, who is regarded as an ultra conservative, lifted the male-spectators-only rule on Monday.

It was a highly populist move in a country where both sexes love football and there is growing excitement about the World Cup.

Bad language

Members of the clergy say it is wrong for men and women to look at each other's bodies, even if they have no intention of taking pleasure from it.

One MP said, if the reformists had tried this, there would have been suicide bombers protesting on the streets of Teheran.
A hardline newspaper said the atmosphere in football stadiums was now so deplorable one should weep - a reference to the bad language and rowdy behaviour of male football fans here.

It is this failure to control the male spectators that is often given as the main reason for not allowing women into football matches.

Women can watch football broadcast on Iranian television and they can attend basketball and volleyball matches even though they too involve men dressed in shorts.

Speaking on state-run television on Monday, Mr Ahmadinejad said he had ordered the head of Iran's Physical Education Committee to make sure women were adequately catered for during Iran's major sporting occasions.

"The presence of women and families in public places promotes chastity," he said.

"The best stands should be allocated to women and families in the stadiums in which national and important matches are being held."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/4947508.stm

Published: 2006/04/26 15:55:40 GMT

© BBC MMVI

NYer

04-26-2006, 04:57 PM

Wiesenthal Center circulates petition to bar Mahmoud The Mad (http://www.wiesenthal.com/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=fwLYKnN8LzH&b=1578391&action=6741&template=x.ascx&refid=niJVI5MHJaKRJ1POH) from the World Cup.

keith

04-26-2006, 05:18 PM

THE ROVING EYE
What's really happening in Tehran
By Pepe Escobar

"Tehran appears hell-bent on defying the international community and pursuing a nuclear program that is of growing concern."
- Sean McCormack, US State Department spokesman. This followed a rare press conference with the international media in Tehran on Monday in which Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad suggested that Tehran might withdraw from the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency and the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and also said "there is no need" for US-Iranian talks on Iraq.

Because of the opacity of Iran's theocratic nationalism, outsiders may be tempted to assume that the official Iranian position is the

one expressed last week in Baku, Azerbaijan, by Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najar: "The United States has been threatening Iran for 27 years, and this is not new for us. Therefore, we are never afraid of US threats."

President George W Bush and other US administration officials have frequently said that "all options are on the table" with regard to Iran's nuclear program, which the United States suspects is designed to develop nuclear weapons.

Last month, the United Nations Security Council passed a statement asking Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed ElBaradei to report simultaneously to the council and the IAEA board by April 28 on whether Iran had halted enriching uranium, a process that can produce fuel for nuclear warheads. To date, Tehran has refused to do so.

Javad Zarif, the Iranian ambassador to the UN, has repeatedly relayed the official position. Iran's nuclear program is peaceful; there is no proof of a military development; the religious leadership opposes atomic weapons; and Iran has not invaded or attacked any nation for the past 250 years.

The power spheres in Iran seem to bet that even in the event of a shock and awe of B-2s, missiles and bunker busters, that simply is not enough to snuff out accumulated Iranian nuclear know-how and the quest to master the nuclear fuel cycle. So the only real question would be for how many years the US would be able to slow down Iran's nuclear program.

Is that all there is? Not really.

As some Iranian analysts and ministry officials have told Asia Times Online in Tehran off the record, there are reasons to believe the leadership is misreading an avalanche of US signs related to the military and psychological preparation for a possible war.

For instance, fundamentalist Christians in the US - who support Zionism for theological reasons - unleashed a ferocious media campaign depicting Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad as the Antichrist who wants to destroy Jerusalem and prevent Jesus' comeback.

There are even indications that the Iranian leadership has not taken the Bush administration's explicit desire for regime change seriously. It's as if the leadership is persuading itself Washington would never dare to escalate the situation - especially after such US bodies as the Union of Concerned Scientists and the National Academy of Sciences have stated that a tactical nuclear strike could kill more than a million Iranians.

At Monday's press conference, Ahmadinejad, asked about possible military strikes, smiled broadly and dismissed the notion. "Military attacks? On what pretext?" he asked, adding that Iran was strong and could defend itself.

Earlier, Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar said any US military attack over Iran's nuclear program would result in a humiliating defeat for the United States, the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.

But what if the Bush administration and the Ahmadinejad presidency were bluffing each other into a nuclear war?

Pick your faction
The key question is which Iranian leadership will have the final say. There are at least four main factions in the complex Iranian game of power politics.

The first faction is a sort of extreme right, closely aligned from the beginning to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and involved with a rapprochement with Sunni Arabs in general, while opposing even a tactical rapprochement with the US.

The faction includes the dreaded hojjatieh (a semi-clandestine, radically anti-Sunni organization) and the Iranian Hezbollah, which supports both the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Arab nationalism of Muqtada al-Sadr in Iraq. Former defense minister Ali Chamkhani - whom Asia Times Online was told in Tehran could not talk to the foreign press - is very close to this faction. They are very conservative religiously and socialist economically.

The difference between the Iranian and the Lebanese Hezbollah is that in Beirut Hezbollah is much more active, pushing to be at the heart of political life and improving people's living conditions.

The role of Ahmadinejad - a former Revolutionary Guards (Pasdaran) middle-rank official - in molding this first faction has been crucial. In 2005, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had the support of former president and Machiavellian master of ambiguity, Hashemi Rafsanjani, at the highest levels of power - the Expediency Council.

But as a balancing act the supreme leader also decided to boost the profile of Ahmadinejad, who happened to be totally opposed to the pragmatist Rafsanjani. To add more arabesques to this Persian miniature, Khamenei's favorite candidate in the 2005 presidential elections was actually Baqer Qalibaf, a former chief of police - basically a conservative but in favor of a controlled opening of political life, the supreme leader's own policy.

What this all means is that Ahmadinejad - even winning against Rafsanjani and Qalibaf - and as the new leader of the extreme right is not really in charge of the government. It's an open secret in Tehran that the Pasdaran intervened in the elections through massive fraud. This has led in the past few months to the formation of an anti-Ahmadinejad coalition that ranges from Qalibaf supporters to - believe it or not - pro-secular intellectuals close to former president Mohammad Khatami.

The supreme leader knew that Ahmadinejad would revive the regime with his populist rhetoric, very appealing to the downtrodden masses. But the ruling ayatollahs may have miscalculated that since they control everything - the Supreme National Security Council, the Guardians Council, the foundations, the army, the media - they could also control the "street cleaner of the people". That was not the case, so now plan B - restraining the president, and the powerful Pasdaran - is in order.

The second key faction is composed of provincial clerics, whose master is the supreme leader himself. These are pure conservatives, attached to the purity of the Islamic Revolution of 1979, and more patriotic than the first faction. They are not interested in more integration with Sunni Arabs. Faithful to the supreme leader, they want to keep both progressives and extremists "in the same house" (Ahl al Bait) , with the velayat-e-faqih - the role of jurisprudence - as the supreme law of the land. Ever since the 2004 parliamentary elections - largely boycotted by the Iranian population - an association of clerics totally dominates the majlis (parliament).

But there are huge problems behind this appearance of unity. Iranian money from the bonyads - foundations - badly wants a reconciliation with the West. They know that the relentless flight of both capital and brains - which is being actively encouraged by the Rafsanjani faction - is against the national interest. But they also know this can hurt Ahmadinejad's power. Some Western-connected Iranians are even comparing Ahmadinejad's current days to the Gang of Four in China a little while before the death of Mao Zedong in 1976.

The Pasdaran for their part want to keep their fight against Zionism and go all the way with the nuclear program. This entails the extraordinary possibility of a US attack against Iranian nuclear sites counting on the complicity of a great deal of the mullahcracy - which does not hide its desire to get rid of Ahmadinejad and his Pasdaran "gang".

All going the Machiavellian's way?
The third faction is the left - initially former partisans of the son of ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Ahmad Khomeini, who died in mysterious circumstances in the 1990s. After that they operated a spectacular mutation from Soviet-style socialism into some sort of religious democracy, which found its icon in former president Khatami of "dialogue of civilizations" fame. They became the so-called progressives - and even if they lost the 2004 and 2005 elections, they are still a force, although already debilitated by the slow awakening of a younger, more secular and more radical opposition.

The fourth and most unpredictable faction is Rafsanjani's. The consummate Machiavellian masterfully retained his own power from the late 1990s, juggling between Khamenei and Khatami. He may be the ultimate centrist, but Rafsanjani is and will always remain a supporter of the supreme leader. What he dearly wants is to restore Iran's national might and regional power, and reconcile the country with the West, for one essential reason: he knows an anti-Islamic tempest is already brewing among the youth in Iran's big cities.

As head of the Expediency Council, fully supported by the supreme leader, and in his quest to "save" the Islamic Revolution, Rafsanjani retains the best possible positioning.

Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad holds as much power as his predecessor - the urbane, enlightened and sartorially impeccable Khatami: that is, not much. What Ahmadinejad's obvious excesses are doing is to solidify the support the Rafsanjani faction is getting from the intelligentsia as well as the urban youth, not to mention the "enlightened police" faction of Qalibaf. This does not mean that another revolution is around the corner - as the Bush administration's wishful thinking goes.

Apart from these four factions, there are two others that are outside the ironclad circle of supreme-leader power: the revolutionary left and the secular right. Clerics call them biganeh (eccentric), and the denomination may be correct to a point, as both these groups are mostly disconnected from the majority of the population, although they also support the nuclear program out of patriotism.

The extreme left hates the mullahcracy, but has also derided Khatami's moderately progressive agenda. As for the Westernized liberals - which include former supporters of deposed prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh and members of the Freedom Movement of Iran, an opposition party, they are becoming increasingly popular with Tehran students, who are more and more pro-American (if not in foreign policy at least in behavior and cultural preferences).

The regime may in essence be unpopular - because of so much austerity and the virtual absence of social mobility - but for millions it is still bearable. No one seems to be dreaming of revolution in Iran. What is actually happening is the slow emergence of a common front - bent on the restoration of the power of the Iranian state through an alliance with Shi'ism in Iraq, Bahrain and Lebanon.

This may be interpreted as a Shi'ite crescent by alarmist Sunni Arabs, but there's no military, expansionist logic behind it. The common front is also in favor of moving toward a more market economy and a progressive liberalization of morals and public opinion. This is what one hears in Tehran from young people, women, workers in the cultural industry, and philosophers - and it is Tehran that always sets the agenda in Iran.

If the regime does not open up, the Iranian economy will never create enough jobs over the next few years to fight unemployment among its overwhelmingly young population. A great deal of the non-oil-dependent private sector is controlled by the bonyads, whose managers are usually incompetent and corrupt clerics.

Many Iranians know that an economic crisis - high oil prices notwithstanding - will rip the heart out of the lower middle class, the regime's base, and more crucially the industrial working class, which used to be aligned with the Tudeh, Iran's communist party.

There is a way out
They key to solving most of Iran's problems lies in finding a compromise with the West - especially the Americans - regarding the nuclear dossier. For all his vocal, popular support in the provinces, if Ahmadinejad and his Pasdaran hardliners go against this national desire for stability and progress, they will be sidelined.

Demonizing Western parallels of Iran enriching a few grams of uranium as akin to Adolf Hitler's march into the Rhineland is positively silly. So far Iran has only disregarded a non-binding request from the UN Security Council. The uranium-enrichment program may be under the operational control of the Pasdaran, but Ahmadinejad does not set Iran's nuclear policy: the supreme leader does, his guidelines followed by the Supreme National Security Council, which is led by the leader's protege, Ali Larijani. Khamenei and Larijani have both substantially toned down the rhetoric; Ahmadinejad hasn't.

The point is not that Ahmadinejad is a suicidal nut bent on confronting the US by all means available. The point is that the president leads just one of four key factions in a do-or-die power play, and he is following his own agenda, which is not necessarily the Iranian theocratic leadership's agenda. Washington neo-conservatives for their part may want regime change - but that won't happen with another shock and awe.

Ahmadinejad is playing the typical Bonapartist - using a political deadlock to go all the way toward dictatorship. Rafsanjani may also be a Bonapartist, but the difference is he's not interested in dictatorship.

The ideal outcome of this whole "nuclear crisis" would be an Iran moving to a moderately liberal alliance between eternal pragmatist Rafsanjani - the only one capable of subduing the Pasdaran - and the semi-secular left, which still regards Khatami as the least bad of all possible models. It may not be paradise, but it certainly beats war.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HD26Ak02.html

keith

04-30-2006, 02:19 PM

Iran 'attacks Iraq Kurdish area'

Iraq has accused Iranian forces of entering Iraqi territory and shelling Kurdish rebel positions in the north.
Iranian troops bombed border areas near the town of Hajj Umran before crossing into Iraq, the defence ministry in Baghdad said on Sunday.

It said the Iranians targeted the PKK, a Kurdish group that has waged a 15-year insurgency against Turkey.

The PKK is believed to have links with anti-Iranian Kurdish fighters. There are no details on casualties.

The Iraqi defence ministry also says Iran launched a similar attack on Kurdish rebel positions in the same area on 21 April.

There are no reported comments from Tehran on either of the alleged incidents.

NYer

05-01-2006, 07:28 PM

Iranian envoy asks UN to stop US threats (http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/05/01/iran.un/index.html)

Iran's ambassador to the United Nations has urged U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and the U.N. Security Council to stop "Washington's illegal and impudent threats against Iran," the state-run Iranian news agency IRNA reported.

You can't make this stuff up ...

Klaus

05-01-2006, 10:12 PM

www.SteveQuayle.com

http://stevequayle.com/News.alert/06_Unrest/060501.war.clouds.html

April 28, 2006
LA Times

LET ME TELL YOU about the next war.

It will start sooner than you think — sometime between now and September. And it will be precipitated by the $700-million Russian deal this week to sell Tor air defense missile systems to Iran.

When the war begins, it will be between Iran and Israel. Before it ends, though, it may set the whole of the Middle East on fire, pulling in the United States, leaving a legacy of instability that will last for generations and permanently ending a century of American supremacy.

Despite the high stakes, the Bush administration seems barely to have noticed the danger posed by the Russian missile sale. But the signs are there, for those inclined to read them.

As international pressure over their nuclear program mounts, the Iranians have become increasingly bellicose toward the U.S. and Israel. On Monday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Israel was a "fake regime" that "cannot logically continue to live." On Wednesday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, warned that "if the U.S. ventured into any aggression on Iran, Iran will retaliate by damaging the U.S. interests worldwide."

Israel has upped the rhetorical heat as well. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reiterated Israel's determination to "make sure no one has the capability or the power to commit destruction against us."

This alone should make any observer jittery. In June 1981, Israel unilaterally launched an airstrike against a nuclear reactor near Baghdad. Iran's nuclear facilities are dispersed and well-concealed, making a preemptive Israeli strike far more difficult this time around. But there's no reason to doubt Israel's willingness to try.

Of course, there's no firm evidence that Iran has offensive nuclear capabilities. And even a successful military strike against Iran would be a risky move for Israel, potentially igniting regionwide instability. Absent external meddling, Israel has a substantial incentive to wait to see if a diplomatic solution can be found.

But Russian brinksmanship is about to remove Israel's incentive to pursue a peaceful diplomatic path.

Russian leaders continue to mouth the usual diplomatic platitudes about democracy and global cooperation, but Russia is actually playing a complex double game. On Tuesday, Russia launched a spy satellite for Israel, which the Israelis can use to monitor Iran's nuclear facilities. On the same day, Russian leaders confirmed their opposition to any U.N. Security Council effort to impose sanctions against Iran, and their intention to go through with the lucrative sale of 29 Tor M1 air defense missile systems to Iran.

"There are no circumstances which would get in the way of us carrying out our commitments in the field of military cooperation with Iran," declared Nikolai Spassky, deputy head of Russia's National Security Council.

The upcoming deployment of Tor missiles around Iranian nuclear sites dramatically changes the calculus in the Middle East, and it significantly increases the risk of a regional war. Once the missile systems are deployed, Iran's air defenses will become far more sophisticated, and Israel will likely lose whatever ability it now has to unilaterally destroy Iran's nuclear facilities.

The clock is ticking for Israel. To have a hope of succeeding, any unilateral Israeli strike against Iran must take place before September, when the Tor missile deployment is set to be completed.

At best, a conflict between Israel and Iran (with resulting civilian casualties) would further inflame anti-Israel sentiment in the Islamic world, with a consequent increase in terrorism, both against Israel and against the U.S., Israel's main foreign backer. At worst — if the U.S. gets drawn into the conflict directly — the entire Middle East could implode, terrorist attacks worldwide would increase, the already overstretched U.S. military would be badly damaged and U.S. global influence would wane — perhaps forever.

So what is Russia up to? Andrei Piontkovsky, a Russian political analyst, suggests that Russia's oil and gas oligarchs wouldn't shed any tears over a war in the Middle East, especially if it's a war that ensnares the U.S. and keeps oil prices high.

Even so, it may not be too late to avert a new war in the Middle East. A quiet but firm U.S. threat to boycott the G-8 summit in July in St. Petersburg might inspire Russian President Vladimir V. Putin to freeze the missile transfer. And a promise to facilitate Russian entry into the World Trade Organization might even get Russia's oil and gas oligarchs on board. Freezing the missile sale would buy crucial time to find a diplomatic solution to the stalemate over Iran's nuclear program.

Unfortunately, the Bush administration appears to be asleep at the wheel, too distracted by Iraq, skyrocketing gas prices and plummeting approval ratings to devote any attention to Russia's potentially catastrophic mischief.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-brooks28apr28,1,2074482.column?coll=la-util-op-ed&ctrack=1&cset=true

NYer

05-02-2006, 11:44 AM

Apparently, Mahmoud and the Mullahs didn't see This (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060501/wl_mideast_afp/iranmayday_060501155415;_ylt=AgyKqy5IRLI4NnH1nb753 GJSw60A;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl) coming.

Oh and thus far, the Iran Air Strike Futures on intrade suggest an attack on Iran is unlikely. (http://www.intrade.com/jsp/intrade/contractSearch/index.jsp?query=iran)

Omega

05-02-2006, 12:00 PM

Iran is definately the next to go.

NYer

05-05-2006, 10:55 AM

Iran's nuclear program may be farther along (http://formerspook.blogspot.com/2006/05/mission-to-washington.html) than previously thought.

NYer

05-05-2006, 01:23 PM

When going to Brussels is a crime. (http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/002704.html)

One of our invited guests to the Brussels Forum, Dr. Ramin Jahanbegloo, never made it to the event as he was detained by the Iranian authorities on the way to the airport to fly to Brussels. Dr. Jahanbegloo is a well-known Iranian intellectual and human rights advocate who currently heads the Cultural Research Bureau in Tehran.

keith

05-08-2006, 07:12 PM

Seven hurt as two bombs explode in Iranian city
Mon May 8, 2:53 PM ET

Two small bombs exploded in the northwestern Iranian city of Kermanshah on Monday, wounding at least seven people, an official was quoted as saying.

Kermanshah lies in Iran's western borderlands which have simmered with unrest among the Kurdish minority for almost 12 months. Several members of Iran's security forces and Kurds have died in street protests and gun-battles.

"The two blasts injured seven people at the governor's office and the trade organization's building on Monday," the official IRNA news agency quoted Babek Izadi, head of Kermanshah's medical faculty, as saying.

Kermanshah's governor Hossein Khosheghbal told state television the blasts caused minor damage to government buildings and smashed some windows.

"Police and security forces are investigating the bombings," Khosheghbal said.

Iranian Kurdish rebels claimed responsibility for the blasts.

The Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), a branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a Turkish Kurd guerrilla group, said the two bombings were in response to Iranian shelling of villages and rebel camps in northern Iraq.

"We stated previously that the attacks on our camps would not go unanswered," said a PJAK spokesman by telephone.

"We carried out these actions firstly due to Iran's attacks on our camps in Iraq and secondly due to the pressure on the Kurdish people in Iran," he said.

Government leaders in Iraq's Kurdistan say Iran has attacked PKK guerrillas in Iraq three times in late April and early May.

The PKK, which has been fighting for a Kurdish homeland in Turkey since 1984, accuses Ankara and Tehran of mounting coordinated attacks against it and PJAK.

More than 30,000 people, most of them Kurds, have been killed in the conflict since 1984.

(Additional reporting by Jon Hemming in London)

Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.

Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

NYer

05-09-2006, 03:45 PM

Leak: Text (http://www.scrappleface.com/?p=2253) of Iran's Letter to Bush

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s private letter to U.S. President George Bush proposing ‘new solutions‘ was also inadvertently emailed to Mr. Ahmadinejad’s ‘buddy list’, and so reached several major American news organizations yesterday.

It’s the first time since the 1979 revolution, that an Iranian leader has initiated direct contact with the President of the United States.

Below is a translation of the letter:

To: George Bush, president of the Great Satan, puppet of Zionists
Fr: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of peaceful Islamic Republic of Iran
Re: Recent tensions

Sorry it’s been so long. It hardly seems like 26 years since we held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Well, enough nostalgia.

Listen, I have some new ideas for how to end the tensions over our little nuclear energy project, and your crusade to let the Zionists take over the Muslim world.

I had a brainstorming session with the Guardian Council, and we came up with a lot of great solutions. But I know you’re busy putting down a Republican rebellion and trying to pull your approval rating out of the toilet (LOL), so I’ll just give you our top five ‘new solutions’.

5) Wipe Israel off the face of the map. Replace with goat ranch.
4) U.S. buys Iranian oil. I make threatening statements causing uncertainty in petroleum markets. We use the windfall profits to pay Russia to help us make nuclear devices, and to pay China to stop U.N. sanctions. U.S. continues to buy Iranian oil.
3) Get U.N. to adopt ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy regarding uranium enrichment.
2) Put Zionists in boxcars. Send back to Europe. Replace Israel with goat ranch.
1) U.S. joins global Muslim Caliphate, ensuring peace and bountiful supplies of enriched uranium for all of Allah’s people.

Feel free to choose more than one solution.

I know you have a lot on your plate — what with the threat of Nancy Pelosi becoming Speaker of the House — but try to get back to me quickly so we can get implementation on a fast track.

Yours in Peace,
Mahmoud

keith

05-11-2006, 04:01 PM

Amid heightened threats from president Ahmadinejad, Tehran opens a back door into Israel for its penetration-cum-terror agents: Sudan to the Negev

May 11, 2006, 12:32 PM (GMT+02:00)

DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources reveal that two Iranian Revolutionary Guards companies were dropped at Khartoum’s military airfield May 2 by a C-130 transport and driven to a secret military installation on the outskirts of the Sudanese capital. Their arrival signals the onset of an Iranian military airlift to Sudan of a fully equipped RG brigade with armor, a major escalation of the clandestine Iranian threat to Egypt and Israel alike.

DEBKAfile’s security sources report the ongoing routine of illicit Sudanese infiltrations into the southern Israeli Negev, shepherded by any of three local smuggling rings: the Palestinian gang headed by Jamal Samhadan, the Hamas government’s new appointee as commander of its security forces, Sudanese-Egyptian crime organizations and al Qaeda’s Sinai network.

All three are readily available to operate under the orders of the Iranian RG intelligence officers posted in Sudan.

The scale of the Negev traffic is such that hardly a day goes by without Sudanese infiltrators being caught attempting to steal across the Egyptian border into southern Israel. Many are job-seekers; a few, mules for gunrunners or spies collecting data on army installations in the desert region; some were caught recently near the town of Mitzpeh Ramon. They are led to their destinations by Egyptian intelligence agents familiar with the territory, Palestinian terrorists from Gaza or a sprinkling of Israeli Arabs.

An Israeli security source told DEBKAfile that the current Egyptian-Israeli-Gazan border situation offers Iranian agents and terrorists mixed in among the Sudanese infiltrators an easy route into southern Israel. The RG agents are Arabic speakers, having acquired the language from their stint as military instructors with the Lebanese Hizballah.

keith

05-17-2006, 01:32 PM

Dissent and defection: An Iranian confession
By Mahan Abedin

Masoud Banisadr is an Iranian historian and political analyst. He is a former senior member of the Iranian opposition group the Mujahideen-e-Khalq Organization (MEK), and was its representative in the United States from 1990-96. Banisadr left the MEK in in June 1996 and has lived in London since. He finished his PhD research in chemical engineering and engineering mathematics at Newcastle University in 1981. Banisadr's book Masoud: Memoirs of an Iranian Rebel is widely regarded as the most authoritative ideological exposition of the MEK.

The MEK, which in some countries, including the US, has been placed on a terror watch list, has been based since 1986 in Iraq. It has been backed in the US by right-wing lawmakers, hardlineneo-conservatives and retired military officers, among others, who believe the MEK could be used to help destabilize the Iranian regime, if not eventually overthrow it in conjunction with US military strikes against selected targets. This interview was conducted on May 10 in London.

Mahan Abedin: This June will mark the 10th anniversary of your defection from the MEK. What is your feeling toward this organization today?

Masoud Banisadr: I am sad for the organization's members and supporters and those who lost their lives on this path. I am also sad to see the organization in its current state, when they are fighting for survival and have abandoned all their original core principles. At the same time, I am happy that I have at last freed myself of them, physically, emotionally and ideologically. When I left the organization I did not have a deep understanding of what was wrong with it. After 10 years I am confident I know what went wrong.

MA: And what is wrong with them?

MB: We were attracted to the organization for two reasons: its sacrifices during the struggle against the shah's regime and its sincere commitment toward the Iranian people. By changing from an ideological and political organization into a cult with a political agenda, the Mujahideen[-e-Khalq] fully disconnected themselves from this heritage. Many Iranians do not understand the concept of a "cult". This is partly rooted in language; the word "cult" is firqah in Persian and as such it has no negative connotations. When hearing the word firqah, Iranians immediately think of innocuous Sufi orders, so they don't fully appreciate the implications of this word.

The MEK is a cult in the conventional sense of the word, and as such it has no respect for the values to which it was originally committed. The organization had five original goals and aspirations for the Iranian people: (1) independence; (2) freedom (as in individual rights); (3) democracy; (4) progress and social justice, including some elements of socialism borrowed from Marxist-Leninist ideology; (5) Islamic culture. When it changed into a cult, the interests of the cult entirely eclipsed those of the country and the people. To advance the interests of the cult, they were prepared to collaborate closely with the worst enemies of the country, in particular Saddam Hussein, thus jeopardizing our independence.

A cult that is deeply committed to an "ideological leadership" cannot believe in equality, social justice and democracy. The first rule of membership in a cult is sacrifice of personal individuality; therefore a cult cannot believe in Western concepts of freedom and democracy based on individualism. Merit and personal ability are prerequisites for progress in any realm, but in a cult where lack of individuality and blind obedience toward the guru are conditions of membership and promotion, real progress is impossible.

For instance, despite the proliferation of talent, the Mujahideen have been unable to solve their financial problems, thus relying on Iran's enemies for funding. The Mujahideen's deeply rooted cult culture came to the fore in June 2003 when Maryam Rajavi and dozens of her closest advisers were detained by French counter-terrorism police. The Mujahideen's response was to encourage their members to set themselves on fire in major Western capitals.

How can you justify this level of submission and servitude toward another human being within the framework of Islamic monotheism? The real tragedy is the Mujahideen's acceptance that all their sacrifices and commitment [are] to the leadership and no other entity. This, by itself, highlights the depth of their ideological decline and is a stark reminder of their abandonment of all original values and objectives.

MA: How do you assess the MEK's activities against Iran's nuclear program?

MB: This goes back to the most important value outlined above, namely independence. When it was formed back in the 1960s, the organization was a vociferous champion of Iranian independence, but since its transformation it is exclusively preoccupied with the interests of the cult rather than the country. It was this transformation that led it to cooperate with Iran's national enemy Saddam Hussein, and is now leading it to side with those who want to sabotage Iranian aspirations for a peaceful nuclear program.

MA: But some people say the MEK has provided a valuable service by exposing aspects of Iran's nuclear program, not least the August 2002 exposure of the Natanz and Arak facilities.

MB: Despite being a cult, the organization has a distinct political agenda, and it uses a variety of methods to promote that agenda. For instance, it is well known for gross exaggerations and downright fabrications.

MA: But on that occasion its exposure proved accurate. My question is whether the MEK is providing a valuable service to international stability by exposing aspects of the country's nuclear program that the Iranian government wants to conceal.

MB: The Iranian nuclear program - as long as it remains peaceful - is a truly national aspiration regardless of the nature of the Iranian government. This is a national asset, and as such it belongs to all Iranians. Given this state of affairs, the MEK's activities are treacherous through and through. Even if there is any truth to its propaganda, every sensible and conscientious Iranian is well aware of our country's military weakness, vis-a-vis the Western powers and our immediate neighbors.

Moreover, every sensible observer knows that Iran has not committed a single act of aggression in the past 200 years and has, in fact, been invaded by a coterie of Western and regional enemies. Given this state of affairs, I don't think many Iranians would object to possessing nuclear weapons for defensive purposes.

MA: You have recently given media interviews, and the MEK has hit back through character assassination. I refer specifically to your interview with the Persian service of Radio France. How do you assess its reaction to your interviews?

MB: Well, they are very predictable in this regard. I am happy that they are showing such reaction because it vindicates my decision to leave the organization. If their reaction was any different, I would have doubted myself and my achievements in the past 10 years.

MA: What does it hope to achieve by these character assassinations?

MB: Since their transformation to a cult in the past two decades, their only interest is to advance the interests of the cult. So whatever they do is guided by this central goal. Their first priority is to safeguard the reputation of their "Guru" (Masoud Rajavi), and they do this by labeling any dissident member as a traitor and agent of the Iranian government. This is standard procedure for them.

MA: What do you think the MEK's reaction to this interview will be?

MB: (Laughs) Probably the same as always!

MA: But your critics do raise an interesting point, namely that you left the organization 10 years ago and for most of that period you were politically inactive. It is only recently that you have come out to defend yourself and criticize the organization. How do you explain the long years of silence?

MB: That is a very good question. First and foremost, it is important to understand that physical separation from a cult might happen overnight, but emotional, spiritual and, most important of all, ideological separation needs time and hard work. I had to understand what had happened to me. I had to get to know myself all over again. Don't forget that I was a member of a cult and had spent more than 15 years suppressing my personality.

When I left in June 1996, my personality had been reduced to virtually nothing, and I needed time to recover from this trauma. I had to understand what had attracted me to the MEK in the first place, and this led me to review the organization's history and ideology all over again. I had to go through this journey to be able to explain to myself, my children and whoever wants to know, what went wrong. I am afraid I feel that some of those who have left the organization and are currently engaged in a single-minded struggle against it are (despite appearances to the contrary) still trapped in the Mujahideen's ideological cosmos.

They are still living in the bipolar and black-and-white world of the Mujahideen-e-Khalq. It seems that their opposition to the Mujahideen is more born out of personal grudges than a desire to expose the organization for its betrayal of our people. Furthermore, their activism (against the Mujahideen) is not even effective. It serves to make ordinary supporters more committed to the organization.

MA: Curiously the Mujahideen did not attack you for writing the book. But they started an onslaught of character assassinations when your book was translated into Farsi. Why is that?

MB: The book (in its English version) was published about two years ago. When it was translated into Farsi, it became immediately accessible to ordinary supporters. The Mujahideen were terrified of the prospect of supporters questioning them because of the contents of the book. You should note that ordinary supporters (as opposed to members and cadres) are more valuable to the organization as their support is more effective and doesn't cost much financially.

Furthermore, holding on to them doesn't require significant organizational effort. I believe the ordinary supporters are the real members of the Mujahideen, as they have not been forced to change their personality and individuality. Therefore, their support is truly meaningful. This is in stark contrast to the members who had to change into a new person to be able to remain fully committed to the organization. Moreover, members have to be supported financially and have to be kept under constant ideological surveillance, to prevent them from "rediscovering" their old personalities.

MA: Have you now completed the journey of self-discovery?

MB: There is now much more clarity. But on rare occasions I find myself exhibiting some old organizational behavior. The difference is that I recognize this instantly and fight it accordingly.

MA: Let us now discuss anti-Iran lobbying in the US. You spent many years as the MEK's main representative to the US and developed impressive lobbying skills in the process. Please summarize your insights.

MB: First you have to understand the American system. I don't know how much Asia Times Online readers understand the American foreign-policy establishment. Direct and intensive lobbying has a lot of influence on the key foreign-policy centers in the US, in particular the Senate and the House of Representatives. As for the State Department, the NSC [National Security Council], the administration, Pentagon and the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency], lobbying takes the form of common interests. There is a lot of common interest between some of these centers, in particular the Pentagon, and exiled Iranian opposition outfits, regardless of the meager weight of these organizations. But insofar as the Congress is concerned, you need conventional lobbying power.

MA: Explain what you mean by lobbying power.

MB: There are three components: numbers of constituents, money, and organizational strength. There are basically two anti-Iran lobbies in the US. The first belongs to the supporters of the former monarchical regime and the second to the Mujahideen. Both lobbies are very weak and would be completely ineffectual were it not for the support of the pro-Israel lobby. To take a hypothetical case, if you need 1,000 lobbying units to influence Iran policy in the US Congress, 999 of these are provided by the pro-Israel lobby or the American administration, and the remainder by the weak and fragmented exiled opposition. Those 999 units constitute the weight and the one unit provided by the exiled opposition brings a fig leaf of legitimacy to these anti-Iranian activities. It also enables the pro-Israel lobby in the US or other American entities to claim there is effective opposition to the Iranian government.

MA: Explain the dynamics in the MEK-Israel lobby relationship.

MB: If there is an anti-Iran petition on the table in the Congress, the two lobbies would work hand-in-hand to promote it, without necessarily communicating directly.

MA: Are the two lobbies organizationally linked?

MB: To give you an example, we knew which members of Congress were influenced by AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee], so when we needed signatures we'd go to these congressmen first. AIPAC has a lot of weight in Congress, and without having to communicate with them directly, we benefited enormously from their deep influence. We also copied their lobbying techniques. Consequently the Mujahideen's lobby in the US is organizationally strong but it lacks the two core elements I outlined earlier, namely numbers and money. They have a tiny constituency among Iranian-Americans, and even with the addition of imaginary names and addresses they cannot deliver votes or similar political advantages to congressmen. It also lacks an independent financial base. Much of its funding came from the former Iraqi regime.

MA: Your claim that there were no direct contacts between the MEK and the pro-Israel lobby is undermined by the organization's intensive and very direct cooperation with the "Iran Policy Committee", which seems to be a spin off of AIPAC. There are also regular media reports alluding to direct MEK-Israel ties.

MB: I would not be surprised if these links existed. As I said earlier, the MEK is exclusively motivated by the interests of the cult, and as such it will cooperate with any constituency. If there is any hesitation in collaboration, it stems from Israeli reluctance, since the Mujahideen, because of its close relationship with the PLO [Palestine Liberation Organization], is not fully trusted by the Israelis. On the other hand, from an Israeli perspective, the MEK is the only viable tool against Iran.

Monarchists are deeply divided and lack organization. However, Western and Israeli intelligence are well aware of the MEK's limitations. They are perfectly aware of the cult nature of the organization and know that it has - at most - around 5,000 members and active sympathizers (most of whom are stranded in the Ashraf camp in Iraq) and are in no position to seriously threaten the Iranian government. This factor - coupled with the organization's cult-like and totalitarian ideology - dissuades the US State Department from working with them.

To put it simply, the Americans do not trust Mujahideen-e-Khalq, for they know they have no principles, save the interests of the cult. This is why, despite all the efforts of the organization in the past quarter-century, they have not been able to pass a single substantial resolution in support of the organization in Congress. Note also that the US government regards the Mujahideen as a terrorist organization and does not want to create another al-Qaeda.

MA: Do you think the current US administration is committed to regime change in Iran, regardless of the actions of the Iranian government? In other words, is the nuclear issue simply a pretext?

MB: Yes, as long as the neo-conservatives remain influential in the American administration. Moreover, it seems that most of the foreign-policy establishment and media in the US are mobilized against the Iranian regime. They are actively seeking to demonize the Ahmadinejad government, regardless of the nature and actions of this government.

MA: What is the source of US hostility toward Iran?

MB: The main source of friction is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Islamic Republic's hostility toward Israel disturbs the Americans not only because of their unreserved support for Israel but also because it represents Iran's clear opposition to American foreign policy, and as such is a powerful sign of Iranian political independence. This is why year after year the US State Department identifies Iran as the chief sponsor of terrorism in the world. This is a very political designation and is designed to dissuade the Iranians from working against Israeli interests in the Middle East. This conflict of interests has been sharpened by the recent election victory of Hamas.

MA: You think that a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would lead to the normalization of Iranian-American ties?

MB: Yes, as long as the Americans realize that their current foreign policy does not safeguard US interests and is in fact promoting instability the world over. From an Iranian perspective I think we cannot be more Palestinian than the Palestinians ...

MA: But the Iranian government has been for the past 27 years!

MB: That is because they thought the PLO did not represent the Palestinian people anymore. The situation is very different today. Iran's allies are in power in Palestine, and if they strike a lasting deal, Iran would have no option but to accept that.

MA: Aside from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, what else divides Iran and the US?

MB: I believe that is the main issue, and the rest are just pretexts and excuses. Take the issue of human rights, for instance. Iran's record on this - while far from perfect - is in fact much better than its neighbors', some of which are America's closest allies in the region. Even the nuclear issue does not worry the Americans nearly as much as they claim it does. The US is confrontational because it feels it has been challenged by Islamic culture in general and by Iranian Islamic culture in particular.

MA: Let us discuss internal Iranian politics. How do you assess political developments since Mahmud Ahmadinejad's ascension to power?

MB: Economic issues are the main problem in Iran. Ahmadinejad won the presidential elections because he promised to promote social justice and redistribute wealth. Now he has to deliver on his promises. If he is serious about redistributing wealth, he will have to confront powerful factions within the regime. Is he prepared to do that? Alternatively he can promote greater Iranian integration into the global economy, but this would contradict his anti-American rhetoric.

MA: Many analysts believe Ahmadinejad is intent on reforming the Islamic Republic, perhaps even reforming it beyond recognition. Do you think these analysts are wrong?

MB: Politics and economics are deeply intertwined in the Iranian establishment. The reasons the previous two presidents [Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami] failed to reform is because they focused on only one of these spheres. Rafsanjani wanted to reform the economy without touching the political setup; he had the "Chinese" model in mind. And Khatami wanted political reforms, but he did not endeavor to reform the country's flawed economic structures. Not surprisingly, both former presidents failed badly. If Ahmadinejad wants to avoid failure, he will have to pursue reforms in a truly comprehensive manner. Moreover, 27 years after the revolution, Iranians have matured politically and are more than capable of separating fact from rhetoric. Therefore, if Ahmadinejad does not go beyond slogans and rhetoric, he will not be elected in four years' time.

MA: How do you assess Ahmadinejad's anti-Israeli rhetoric?

MB: He clearly has ideological supporters, and this rhetoric is intended for that audience. I don't think he is addressing the Iranian people as a whole when he attacks Israel.

MA: Some people say Ahmadinejad is trying to appeal to a broader audience, mainly in the Arab world, where anti-Israeli rhetoric always goes down well.

MB: For what end?

MA: Presumably to mobilize Muslim public opinion in support of Iran's stance in the nuclear standoff.

MB: If he wanted to do that he would have had to say something about Iraq, which is currently the main point of grievance in the Muslim world.

MA: Twenty-seven years on, how do you assess the dynamics between the ideals of the Iranian revolution and the country's embattled pro-democracy movement?

MB: To be able to answer this question in depth without creating any misunderstanding, I'd have to write a book! But to summarize, we have to go back to the five values I outlined earlier, namely independence, freedom, democracy, Islam, and progress. As far as independence is concerned, the main factor is cultural independence, not least because of globalization and growing American cultural influence. In this respect Iran can be viewed as one of the most independent countries in the world, because the Islamic Republic has fought hard to safeguard Iranian culture.

However, we are faced with problems on the freedom-and-democracy front. But I don't think the problem necessarily stems only from the top. In this respect I disagree with the reform movement in Iran, which believes it can engineer meaningful change by removing the current rulers. Our problem stems from the society and the grassroots as well. We have to prepare the grassroots for understanding and accepting democracy first. People have to understand their rights and learn how to use and protect them.

MA: But surely if people at the top are obstructing change, nothing will happen.

MB: Changing the top is the final stage of democracy. Changing the top before preparing the people only perpetuates the status quo. Just look at the democratic revolutions in Western Europe. Democracy was achieved at the grassroots level before it penetrated the commanding heights of government. We ought to pursue the same strategy in Iran.

MA: What about freedom, and how do you separate it from democracy?

MB: When I talk about freedom, I have Western individualism in mind. The cultural problem in Iran, as in other Eastern countries, is the lack of individualism. We require a proper definition of individualism and individual rights. But Iran has a remarkable advantage over other Islamic countries, because it is Shi'ite.

MA: Why is that an advantage?

MB: Shi'ites have two concepts that resolve many issues and are powerful catalysts for democratization, namely ijtihad and gheybat [occultation - referring to the occultation of Imam Mahdi]. Unlike some branches of Sunni Islam, Shi'ism never suspended or impeded ijtihad, so it has always been exposed to new ideas and interpretations. Moreover, the concept and philosophy of occultation is premised on the notion that the just society can only be established by the Mahdi.

Therefore - absent the Mahdi - endeavors to create utopian states are futile. This immediately de-legitimizes any form of ideological government, including a pure Islamic one. Furthermore, the concept of occultation reinforces cultural relativism. This requires laws to be relative as well. In this situation the sharia becomes superfluous, if not obsolete.

Mahan Abedin is the editor of Terrorism Monitor, which is published by the Jamestown Foundation, a non-profit organization specializing in research and analysis on conflict and instability in Eurasia. The views expressed here are his own.

keith

05-18-2006, 12:25 PM

Iran: Russia, China drift toward US
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned that the current US-led push for United Nations sanctions against Iran could turn out to be a "pretext for war", and yet both Russia and China, long thought to be opponents of any sanctions, are now inching toward the US strategy with regard to Iran.

It is China that has taken the lead, by putting its weight behind the yet-to-be-submitted set of European "conditional incentives" for Iran to give up its uranium-enrichment program, which has had the effect of forcing Moscow to follow suit.

There is, after all, a diplomatic minuet involved here, with Beijing and Moscow carefully crafting every step according to the ebbs and flows of a fluid crisis that features multiple players with distinct, shared, parallel and opposing interests.

The news of China's slow accommodation with the US-EU plan was broken by US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick in his May 10 congressional testimony. He assured members that China "has agreed in principle" to play along. This was followed by a similar report by the Los Angeles Times that Tang Jiaxuan, a leading member of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee, has called for an Iranian moratorium on all enrichment-related activities.

As expected, this has had the desired effect, from the US point of view, of mollifying Russia, which has been seething at the recent US criticisms of its human-rights and energy policies. Thus at a press conference with his Chinese counterpart, Li Zhaoxing, Lavrov echoed China's backing of the European Union proposal by stating, "We will suggest this approach and will expect Iran to respond to it in a constructive way. We are firmly convinced that this is the only way to settle the situation."

The pertinent question, of course, is what will Moscow and Beijing do once the EU proposal is formally submitted and rejected by Iran, in light of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's preemptive "don't give a damn" reaction? Are they willing to set aside their opposition to UN sanctions? Another question is: How far are China and Russia willing to go to sacrifice their relations with Iran in order to maintain healthy relations with the United States?

The latter question touches on, among other things, the future of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Unfortunately, contrary to the earlier official announcements, particularly by China's officials, the SCO is now on the verge of changing its mind about expanding its membership and accepting Iran, as well as Pakistan and India, as new members.

"There are no plans to fundamentally enlarge the SCO. I don't think the number of SCO members will greatly increase in the foreseeable future," Lavrov said at a press conference on Tuesday, exactly one month prior to the SCO summit in Shanghai, in reaction to the news that the US government has asked Russia for "explanation" about the news that Ahmadinejad plans to attend the June summit.

In turn, the Iranian press has reacted negatively to Russia's turnabout on Iran's membership in the SCO and has questioned the wisdom of Ahmadinejad's participation in the absence of full membership. Iran has only been given observer status so far. Without doubt, should Moscow keep firm on its present line against Iran's inclusion in SCO, this will be interpreted as a major diplomatic setback for Iran and will negatively influence the course of Iran-Russian relations.

Interestingly, precisely at a time when the Russian and Chinese foreign ministers were holding a joint press conference and implicitly, if not explicitly, criticizing Iran's defiant stance, their respective ambassadors in Tehran were meeting with the Iranian foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, praising Iran's diplomacy and willingness to engage in dialogue with the US on the nuclear issue. Both Russia and China have a history of making deals over Iran with Washington, and naturally one wonders whether we are now witnessing another sad spectacle of trading principles for quid pro quos from Uncle Sam by both countries.

EU's old proposal sold as new
Whereas a top US official has admitted that the EU's "new" package is actually a "dusting off" of the pre-existing proposals "on the table", the Western media have uniformly praised the "new European package of incentives", including the offer of a modern light-water reactor.

In fact, while the final package has yet to be unveiled, and there are reports of serious US misgivings about any EU pledge of nuclear assistance to Iran, awaiting the verdict of the upcoming London meeting of the Permanent Five plus Germany, it is worth remembering that in November 2004, the EU-3 (Germany, France and Britain) signed an agreement in Paris with Iran that called for "cooperation" on "nuclear issues".

The Paris Agreement is dead, long live the Paris Agreement. It stated: "The E3/EU recognize Iran's rights under the Non-Proliferation Treaty exercised in conformity with its obligations under the treaty, without discrimination." The agreement called for Iran's suspension of its enrichment-related activities on a temporary basis. There is in fact no ambiguity about this aspect of the document that reads: "The E3/EU recognize that this suspension is a voluntary confidence-building measure and not a legal obligation."

By all indications, Iran faithfully implemented the terms of the Paris Agreement until January, when it resumed enrichment activities after the EU-3/EU's radical departure from their own agreement by calling for a permanent suspension, after the United States' blunt criticisms of the Paris Agreement. Turning history upside down, Western media pundits have now manufactured a consent about Iran's blameworthy behavior breaking the Paris Agreement, when in reality it was the surrogate Europe that caved in to US pressure and disrespected its own pledge to Iran - to respect Iran's nuclear rights "without discrimination".

Consequently, the EU is about to hurl an old package under new wraps, deemed as "generous" by the German negotiator, Michael Schaffer, in his recent communication to this author, without an iota of guilty conscience or moral qualm about its own pattern of misbehavior toward Iran. The irony that the EU has turned a complete blind eye to Brazil's simultaneous declaration of an ambitious new plan to accelerate its nuclear-fuel program, simply because the world "trusts Brazil" (but don't tell that to Brazil's neighbors!), has simply escaped the attention of Western media.

Jealous of Moscow's monopoly of Iran's nuclear market, the EU's latest proposal is partially aimed at preempting the recent Russian announcement of plans to build two new nuclear reactors in Iran, by potentially luring Iran away from such a deal and toward the more technologically advanced European nuclear market. Russian policymakers would indeed be remiss to overlook the purely self-interest elements of the latest European proposal.

Another clue to the EU's perceived hypocrisy, from Iran's point of view, is the recent joint EU/GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) statement expressing concerns about Iran's nuclear program, coinciding with new, and more energetic, efforts by the GCC with respect to the disputed islands of Abu Mussa, Little Tunb and Big Tunb. The EU's hidden tactic is, in other words, to lend support to the GCC over these Iran-controlled islands, to put additional pressure on the nuclear front.

The SCO historic bloc
Surely the SCO would be hobbled by new headaches caused by a significant expansion of membership that would, in turn, add to its qualitative weight and geopolitical significance. But to assume that the negative side-effects will necessarily outweigh the advantages is to succumb to the seeds of doubt planted by the West, which is wary of the emergence of a formidable anti-North Atlantic Treaty Organization counterweight via the SCO. The SCO, now and in the prospective future, is not so much an anti-NATO coalition as a potential countervailing bloc to the United States' interventionist policies. But surely the time is ripe to take the SCO to the next level.

Certainly, this is not to fall into the naive analyses of an impending "new Cold War" favored by certain Russian politicians, given the complexities of the post-Cold War world order. Taking account of these complexities, including a certain lack of fit between the geo-economic and geopolitical considerations, China and Russia would be well advised to eschew their present drift against the SCO's expansion, which will only appease the US.

One potential advantage of Iran's membership in the SCO is that it would allow China and Russia to influence more positively Iran's foreign policy and, by implication, the Muslim World. The SCO's chief concerns about terrorism can clearly benefit from Iran's inclusion, as this would translate into greater regional cooperation against Islamist extremism in, among others, Russia's and China's Muslim-led regions as well as the entire Central Asia-Caspian basin.

The SCO calls for "force sharing", and this would also translate into enhanced military cooperation among the member states, which, if inclusive of Iran, would have net benefit vis-a-vis the common Russia-China concerns about the undue expansion of NATO in the East.

Concerning the latter, there is talk of a NATO "encirclement of Iran" in Washington these days, championed by certain leading Republican senators, such as Senator John Warner, who have praised NATO's decision to more than double its forces in Afghanistan and to expand ties with some of Iran's other neighbors such as Azerbaijan. This must resonate with Moscow, which has similarly complained of NATO expansion and "encirclement" post-September 11, 2001.

A point of no return
Both China and Russia are on record opposing the Security Council's recourse to Chapter 7 of the UN Charter declaring Iran a threat to peace, in which case the US would be justified, from the prism of international law, in taking unilateral military action against Iran's nuclear facilities. And yet instead of exploring the perfectly viable options of full-scope international monitoring of Iran's limited, contained enrichment program, Russian and Chinese policymakers are slowly but surely adjusting themselves to precisely such a scenario, whose net effect would be detrimental to their own geopolitical vested interests, particularly if war breaks out.

Already, Washington is awash with self-justifying arguments for war against Iran, the main one being that Iran is on the verge of reaching a "point of no return" in terms of nuclear know-how and technology. The other argument is that this situation resembles the pre-World War II period of appeasement, as if 2006 were 1938 again.

Indeed, it is fascinating how many prominent journalists, academics, and present and/or former officials in the US have lent their penmanship to the "never again" 1938 scenario. The long list includes the Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer, Middle East scholar Bernard Lewis, and former secretary of state Henry Kissinger. To his credit, Kissinger has, however, nuanced this alarmist view with a prudent call for US-inclusive multilateral talks with Iran.

Unfortunately, in the present debates in the US on Iran, the upper hand belongs to those nay-sayers who have persuaded the administration of President George W Bush to turn down Ahmadinejad's call for direct talks, arguing that the "UN is the best forum". Since when have the same neo-conservatives, who have carved out an inglorious history for themselves for hammering the UN for six consecutive years, become such big fans of the UN?

John Bolton, the US ambassador to the UN, has recently lashed out at International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei for making political statements as the head of only a "technical organization". ElBaradei's latest guilt is that he has played down the news of certain reports by IAEA inspectors regarding traces of highly enriched uranium at a razed military site in Iran.

US nuclear experts have, however, wasted little time putting the right spin on this news, by claiming that this "casts serious doubt" on Iran's declarations on that particular site and the broader issue of alleged military involvement in Iran's civil nuclear program. According to IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming, ElBaradei had been misquoted. His main point had been that the analysis of environmental sampling at Lavizan was still ongoing and that it was too early to reach a definitive conclusion. Iran has already flatly rejected Western media's report on this issue as false.

As the heavyweights gear up for the next round, portending more serious initiatives against Iran at the Security Council, both China and Russia need seriously to re-examine the present drift of their policy, which will only strengthen the United States' "unipolar moment" and weaken their hoped-for multilateralist breakout. The stakes in the Iranian nuclear crisis transcend Iran.

Kaveh L Afrasiabi, PhD, is the author of After Khomeini: New Directions in Iran's Foreign Policy (Westview Press) and co-author of "Negotiating Iran's Nuclear Populism", Brown Journal of World Affairs, Volume XII, Issue 2, Summer 2005, with Mustafa Kibaroglu. He is also author of Iran's Nuclear Program: Debating Facts Versus Fiction.

NYer

05-18-2006, 04:36 PM

Mahmoud calls Iranian nuke foes Mentally Disturbed. (http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/international/ticker/detail/Iran_wants_accord_but_will_still_enrich.html?siteS ect=143&sid=6725820&cKey=1147970306000)

NYer

05-19-2006, 07:37 AM

Al Qaeda waiting for US-Iran clash. (http://www.tacticalreport.com/Articles/Newswires/18052006.htm)

From Dan Darling, posting on Rantburg ...

As Washington is stepping up pressure on Iran to stop enriching uranium, the Al-Qaeda, for its part, is waiting for a new opportunity to expand the circle of war with the United States.

Arab Gulf sources believe the Al-Qaeda-linked groups in the Gulf and the Red Sea are preparing for the period that will follow a US-Iran clash over the Iranian nuclear issue, as it waited for the US invasion of Iraq.

According to these sources, the Al-Qaeda thinks this clash will offer it a new great opportunity to open a large front after Afghanistan, Iraq, Chechnya and Waziristan in Pakistan.

A US-Iran clash will not have a limited impact. It will rather have repercussions on the whole region. All the tacit agreements between Iran and the USA on Iraq and Afghanistan are likely to collapse.

In addition, Iran and Al-Qaeda may put their differences aside and stand side by side against the United States.

The GCC states, including notably Saudi Arabia, do not want the situation to deteriorate any further. They rather prefer to contain it before it is too late.

They believe the way out of the crisis is to see the Americans agreeing to their demand to have the Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction.

Circles close to the Saudi Foreign Ministry say the Saudis will not give up efforts to settle the Iranian nuclear issue despite Washington and Tehran hardening their positions.

keith

05-19-2006, 12:27 PM

Damascus rounds up Iranian Ahwaz Liberation Fronts fugitives at Tehran’s behest

May 19, 2006, 5:32 PM (GMT+02:00)

Syrian police have arrested dozens of leaders of the groups fighting for self-rule for oil-rich Arab Khuzestan, among them their supreme leader Abu Nidal Ahwazi. The escaped from Iran and have been running their campaign from Syria. Iranian intelligence officers stationed in Damascus have demanded to interrogate the prisoners.

Our sources in Tehran disclose that Iran is becoming increasingly nervous over its failure to quell the Ahwaz Fronts’ guerrilla and terrorist campaign against government and oil targets in Khuzestan. The Assad regime’s prompt obedience attests to Iran’s powerful influence in Damascus, and is in stark contrast to the blank inertia meeting equally insistent demands from Washington to clamp down on Iraqi insurgents, al Qaeda and the Palestinian terrorists, all of which make free of Syrian territory.

NYer

05-22-2006, 07:47 AM

China, Germany agree: No Nuclear Weapons (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060522/wl_nm/nuclear_iran_germany_dc;_ylt=Anymtd_cDLfHN1rmISXWl Dis0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--) for Iran.

As always, the Devil's in the Details.

Petronas

05-23-2006, 01:09 AM

Save Nazanin

... At January 3, 2006, Nazanin was sentenced to death for murder by a criminal court. The Court of Appeal will review her sentence, and if upheld there, it must be confirmed by the Supreme Court, before she can be executed.

According to the Iranian daily Etemaad, then 17-year-old Nazanin and her niece had been spending some time in a park west of Tehran with their boyfriends, when three men started harassing them. The girls` boyfriends fled from the scene, leaving them helpless behind. The men pushed Nazanin and her niece down on the ground and tried to rape them, and to protect herself, she took out a knife from her pocket and stabbed one of the men in the hand.

The girls tried to escape, but the men overtook them, and at this point, Nazanin stabbed one of the other men in the chest, which eventually killed him. According to the newspaper, she broke down in tears when she told the court: "I wanted to defend myself and my niece. I did not want to kill that boy. At the heat of the moment I did not know what to do because no one came to our help." Nevertheless, the court sentenced her to death by hanging.

In a western country Nazanin would probably be acquitted or at most receive a short prison sentence, as she obviously acted in self-defense. Furthermore, since she was only 17 years old, she would be treated as a minor. In Iran however, the minimum age for the death penalty is 15 years for males, and 9, yes nine years for females. Although there is no record of girls that young being executed, the fact that the law opens for this speaks clearly about what kind regime Iran is.

Another point worth noticing, is that if Nazanin had let the men rape her, she could in the worst case have been arrested for extra-martial sex, which carries a maximum penalty of 100 lashes. ...

http://save.nazanin.googlepages.com/home

keith

05-23-2006, 01:06 PM

Iran deploys its war machine
By Iason Athanasiadis

TEHRAN - For Hossein Shariatzadeh, a veteran of the eight-year Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, now navigating Tehran's traffic-choked streets as a taxi driver, the issue of whether the United States will strike Iraq is hardly a frightening prospect.

"This is Iran," he roared. "It is fire. It is a nuclear bomb. Don't look at my sitting behind the wheel of this car. I would get up in a second and head off to the front to fight."

During his 18 months of service at the front, Shariatzadeh claims to have fought in several flashpoint events. Before being evacuated to Tehran after taking a bullet in the stomach, he participated in the 18th Mah, Fath-ul Mubin and Fajrs 1, 2 and 4 offensives, some of the most horrific campaigns of a drawn-out war characterized by trench warfare and tens of thousands of dead in return for minuscule advances.

Despite Shariatzadeh's lust to head to the front and defend his homeland, Iran's strategic planners are acutely aware that a military confrontation with the technologically more advanced US Army would be as rapid and multi-fronted as the Iran-Iraq War was static and slow-paced. Quite simply, there would not be a single front.

Neither the US nor Israel has ruled out taking military action against nuclear-related targets in Iran if ongoing diplomatic efforts to freeze Tehran's nuclear program do not prove successful.

Accordingly, Iran has been quietly restructuring its military, while carrying out a series of military exercises testing its new military dogma. In December, more than 15,000 members of the regular armed forces participated in war games in northwestern Iran's strategically sensitive East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan border provinces that focused on irregular warfare carried out by highly mobile and speedy army units.

In another telling development, a second exercise was launched in the majority-Arab province of Khuzestan, reportedly aimed at quelling insurgencies in areas subject to ethnic unrest and prone to foreign influence. Involving 100,000 troops, the exercise provided a taste of how the Islamic Republic would respond to further disturbances in the strategic, oil-rich province.

The exercise came on the heels of news that the irregular Basij forces that led Iran's offensives against Iraq were being bolstered by so-called Ashura battalions with riot-control training.

It is all part of a fundamental transition that Iran's Revolutionary Guard (RG) is undergoing as it moves away from focusing on waging its defense of the country on the borders - unrealistic in view of the vast territory that requires securing and the gulf separating Iranian and US military capabilities - and toward drawing the enemy into the heartland and defeating it with asymmetrical tactics.

At the same time, the RG is moving away from a joint command with the ordinary army and taking a more prominent role in controlling Iran's often porous borders, even as it makes each of Iran's border provinces autonomous in the event of war. Iranian military planners know that the first step taken by an invading force would be to occupy oil-rich Khuzestan province, secure the sensitive Strait of Hormuz and cut off the Iranian military's oil supply, forcing it to depend on its limited stocks.

Foreign diplomats who monitor Iran's army make it clear that Iran's leadership has acknowledged it stands little chance of defeating the US Army with conventional military doctrine. The shift in focus to guerrilla warfare against an occupying army in the aftermath of a successful invasion mirrors developments in Iraq, where a triumphant US campaign has been followed by three years of slow hemorrhaging at the hands of insurgents.

Tehran argues that it is at a high level of preparedness and points to a number of war games carried out in recent months along its coastal zones, from Bandar Abbas and the Strait of Hormuz in January to the Persian Gulf theater in April and the Khorramshahr naval base and the northwestern parts of the Persian Gulf as of Sunday.

From several interviews with Iranian officials, researchers and foreign diplomats, it is clear that the Iranian army considers itself ready to repel a US land offensive and increasingly sees itself as the main regional power.

In line with the new feeling of invulnerability sweeping through Iran's military elite, RG commander-in-chief Yehya Rahim Safavi warned last month that "the Americans should accept Iran as a great regional power, and they should know that sanctions and military threats are not going to benefit them but are going to be against their interests and against the interests of some European countries".

Iran's new asymmetrical-warfare plan appears to be aimed at neutralizing possible US-led offensives across the Mandali-Ilam (central Iraq-central Iran) axis. The Iranian Zagros mountain range offers a natural first line of defense. It has been reported that the RG is constructing new bases at Khorramabad, Pessyan, Borujerd, Zagheh and Malayer in the province of Lorestan, which would assure the logistics of a quarter of a million troops and provide temporary shelter for half a million refugees from the border. These bases are supposedly complementing older ones further west at Sahneh and Kangavar.

"We know for a fact that no two Western wars are similar," said Hossein, a member of the RG, "and we know there are at least three possible scenarios of attacking these [nuclear] sites, including using their submarines in the Persian Gulf, commandos from the sea, or Mujahideen-e-Khalq trained in Israel and Azerbaijan to destroy the Bushehr nuclear power plant from the inside."

Even while Iran's military is choosing to go low-tech, the country's leadership is continuing to apply advanced technology to military uses. Tehran is continuing with development of its long-range missiles and is forging ahead on its indigenous satellite program that centers on Russian-supplied technology.

In addition, Tehran's aging air-defense system will be boosted by Russian-supplied land-to-air rockets. Also, Iran has aging Chinese missiles that it upgraded and could deploy on coastal batteries, fast attack boats or even warplanes. Finally, were Iran to possess the fearsome Russian-made 3M-82 Moskit anti-ship missiles, it could turn the Persian Gulf into a death trap for the US fleet.

"While Iranian air power is somewhat limited, it has much in terms of land-to-air weaponry and has improvised much as well," Abdurrahman Shayyal, a Saudi Middle East and North Africa analyst, told Asia Times Online. "Furthermore, Iran has proved rather hard to infiltrate, and its military installations and bases are very well protected."

With the confrontation between Washington and Tehran escalating, a new, US-inspired plan to establish an anti-Iranian security regime has further raised tension in the Persian Gulf region. Aside from running covert operations inside Iran's ethnically mixed border provinces, the US administration is marshaling an alliance of Iran's Arab neighbors in the intensifying face-off.

The US media reported last weekend that the United States was trying to create a regional missile-defense system for the Gulf that would be integrated with real-time intelligence using sophisticated US Navy Aegis cruisers.

"Any security regime for the Persian Gulf that doesn't include Iran will not succeed," said Muhammad Reza Saedabadi, an assistant professor at the Institute of North American and European Studies at the University of Tehran. "It's splitting the region. It's good for the arms race and for arms sales to Persian Gulf states, but not for regional security."

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice continued ratcheting up the tension by refusing to offer Iran a guarantee that the United States would not attack it. "Iran is a troublemaker in the international system, a central banker of terrorism. Security assurances are not on the table," she said.

While seen as potentially threatening by several Gulf Arab governments, Iran commands significant popularity among indigenous Shi'ite Arab populations in Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. To a lesser extend, Sunni Arabs in the Gulf region and the wider Middle East applaud Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad for his strident anti-Western rhetoric, which emphasizes his country's independence and echoes the anti-imperialist liberation ideology of 1960s pan-Arabism.

Reflecting this mood, the English-language Gulf News published an editorial on Tuesday titled "An American offer we must refuse". It said, "As if the region was not volatile enough, the US now wants to install an advanced missile system in GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council ] states.

"Gulf countries have enough problems trying to walk a narrow path between the various positions ... so there is no need to exacerbate things further by introducing into the region such controversial measures as heightened security controls and advanced missile systems," the newspaper said.

At a "consultative summit" in Riyadh on May 6, the GCC countries indicated that they did not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon, but were also opposed to the use of force against it. Their position with regard to Iran, so far, bears greater similarity with the stance taken by Russia and China than the one adopted by the US and its European allies.

The GCC is a regional organization comprising the six Persian Gulf Arab states. Created on May 25, 1981, the council's members are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

"The US is being completely ridiculous. While it wishes to police the region, it is dealing with a country that is significantly more powerful than Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Vietnam, and every other country bar Germany that it has ever fought," said Abdurrahman Shayyal.

Iason Athanasiadis is an Iran-based correspondent.