Iran Archives
All the Photoshops that are Fit to Print
Filed under: Iran
What to do if you're a crazed Iranian dictator firing off missiles to terrorize the globe and one of them, oops!, doesn't leave the launch pad. What to do, what to do?
There's no need to fear, Photoshop is here!
All the Photoshops that are fit to print (main page of the paper's website 4 pm Wednesday; they don't hesitate to point out that lots of other papers did it too, as if that mattered).
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redditMahmoud Ahmadinejad, Flaming Psychopath
Filed under: Iran
That flaming psychopath Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran is at it again.
You may remember the incident a few months ago when he boldly declared that there are no homosexuals in Iran.
Now, if you can believe it, while visiting Iraq he has stated: "We do not care about [American] statements and remarks because they make statements based on erroneous information. We cannot count on what they say." How's that for hypocrisy? And then he adds that "no one likes" the American forces present in Iraq. Apparently, he's not only in touch with the thinking of every man, woman and child in Iraq, just as he knows, Santy-Claus-like, about the sexual proclivities of every Iranian, but he seems to have forgotten the horrific wars fought between Iran and Iraq, resulting in rivers of Iraqi blood moistening the desert.
Can you imagine how it must feel to know that your country is governed by a raving madman who's furiously striving to acquire nuclear technology? This lunatic makes George Bush look like St. Thomas Aquinas. He makes Teddy Kennedy look like Boss Tweed.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditGas shortage leads to clashes in Iran
Filed under: Iran
With world's attention focused on the naval tension in the Persian Gulf, many seem to forget that, after a 4 year period of lack of massive uprisings in Iran, people are willing again to rise against the Islamic Republic regime and try make their voice heard, no matter who will be the next US President. Read the report filed by Iranian Students Freedom Movement SMCCDI.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditIran, Unhinged
Filed under: Iran
No sooner is Iran presented with an opportunity to reduce tensions via the recent report indicating it is farther than thought from obtaining a nuclear device than it is deliberately provoking U.S. warships in international waters.
It is a nation governed by madmen. Slate offers analysis and suggestions as to how to avoid future conflict. What do you think? Should we have blown these boats out of the water? Or is that what Iran wanted us to do?
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditGood News on Iran!
Filed under: Iran
Christopher Hitchens of Slate magazine seems to have noticed in the recent news that Iran has been found to have suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003 what few others have, namely that "our overthrow of Saddam Hussein had impressed the Iranians in much the same way as it impressed the Libyans and made them at least reconsider their willingness to continue flouting the Non-Proliferation Treaty." Hitchens further notes: "Given that the examination of the immense Libyan stockpile also disclosed the fingerprints that led back to the exposure of the A.Q. Khan nuke-mart in Pakistan, the removal of Saddam from the chessboard has had more effect in curbing the outlaw WMD business than it is normally given credit for."
So, not only did George Bush's invasion of Iraq usher in many years of the total absence of terrorist events on our homeland (we've just reported that Russia, for instance, has experienced three terrorist bus bombings in the last six weeks alone), but it can also be argued to have cowed the Iranians into giving up their nuclear weapons plans.
There's no doubt that, as Hitchens points out, the Bush administration fell down on the job as far as recognizing this reality and capitalizing on it politically, but we must confront the reality of how one-sided and unfair many attacks on Bush have been, especially given the fact that the genesis of the Iraq invasion was in the Clinton administration.
And there's equally no doubt that Hitchens is right in saying: "It is completely false for anybody to claim, on the basis of this admitted 'estimate,' that Iran has ceased to be a candidate member of the fatuously named nuclear 'club.' It has the desire to acquire the weaponry, it retains the means to do so, and it has been caught lying and cheating about the process." So Bush is right on overall strategy as well.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditHeroically Blogging Iran
Filed under: Iran
Pajamas Media links to a blog by Arash Kamangir, an Iranian student in Canada, and publishes an essay by him about his native land. Arash writes: "With my homeland falling apart so rapidly, losing one's temper or getting offended by flames and throwing in the towel is the last luxury we can afford. We Iranians need to harness any tool for constructive discussion we can get our hands on, and right now, the Internet and the blogosphere is the best forum available."
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditU.S. Majority Supports Striking Iran
Filed under: Iran ~ Russia
Pajamas Media links to a Zogby Poll which agrees with our prior poll here on Publius Pundit approving a military strike on Iran. Zogby states:
A majority of likely voters -- 52% -- would support a U.S. military strike to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, and 53% believe it is likely that the U.S. will be involved in a military strike against Iran before the next presidential election, a new Zogby America telephone poll shows. The survey results come at a time of increasing U.S. scrutiny of Iran. According to reports from the Associated Press, earlier this month Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Iran of "lying" about the aim of its nuclear program and Vice President Dick Cheney has raised the prospect of "serious consequences" if the U.S. were to discover Iran was attempting to devolop a nuclear weapon. Last week, the Bush administration also announced new sanctions against Iran. Democrats (63%) are most likely to believe a U.S. military strike against Iran could take place in the relatively near future, but independents (51%) and Republicans (44%) are less likely to agree. Republicans, however, are much more likely to be supportive of a strike (71%), than Democrats (41%) or independents (44%). Younger likely voters are more likely than those who are older to say a strike is likely to happen before the election and women (58%) are more likely than men (48%) to say the same -- but there is little difference in support for a U.S. strike against Iran among these groups.
This is a remarkable demonstration of solidarity given the quagmire that Iraq has become, and flies in the face of the nattering nabobs of negativity who claim Americans don't support standing up against those who threaten them.
It's unfortunate, though, that lost in the shuffle is the need to deal with Russia, the nation that is enabling Iran's outrageous actions by supplying the rogue state with nuclear technology, a missile system to defend it (even while, outrageously, inveighing against the U.S. system proposed for Eastern Europe) and blocking economic sanctions in the U.N. Security Council.
Vladimir Putin's Russia is as much our enemy, and as much the enemy of democracy, as Iran.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditI Love You, You Love Me . . .
Filed under: Iran ~ Russia
The Associated Press reports:
Vladimir Putin issued a veiled warning Tuesday against any attack on Iran as he began the first visit by a Kremlin leader to Tehran in six decades -- a mission reflecting Russian-Iranian efforts to curb U.S. influence. He also suggested Moscow and Tehran should have a veto on Western plans for new pipelines to carry oil and natural gas from the Caspian Sea, using routes that would bypass Russian soil and break the Kremlin's monopoly on energy deliveries from the region. Putin strongly warned outside powers against use of force in the region, a clear reference to the United States, which many in Iran fear will attack over the West's suspicions that the Iranians are secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made similar comments. "We are saying that no (Caspian) nations should offer their territory to outside powers for aggression or any military action against any of the Caspian states," Putin said. The Russian leader also used the occasion to make a nod to Iran's national pride -- describing it as a "world power" and referring to the might of the ancient Persian empire.
Now, remember folks -- Russia is a member of the G-8. We are officially through the looking glass. If this Putin fellow is our ALLY, do you dare imagine who our enemies might be?
My latest installment on the Pajamas Media megablog explains why Russia is becoming more and more interested in jumping under the sheets with Iran: In addition to a latent hatred of Western values that gives Iran's a run for its money, slowly Russia is becoming a Muslim nation.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditIran, Exporting Revolution to Azerbaijan
Filed under: Iran ~ Russia
We've previously discussed the threats to Western security posed by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's support for radical Islamic maniac Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Now, let's have a look at the consequences for Russia itself.
The signal hallmark of the USSR, as much as communism or repression, was always self-destruction, and it appears that adopting a proud KGB spy as its ruler has allowed Russia to retain that hallmark intact. Scholar-blogger Paul Goble tells us that Azerbaijani prosecutors have
brought to trial 16 members of an underground group the authorities there identify as the "Northern Mahdi Army" and say was organized, trained and supplied by Iran's Republican Guard in order to overthrow the current Azerbaijani government and impose an Islamic state on the Iranian model there. The trial, which began [Monday] in closed session some ten months after Azerbaijani police arrested the group, throws into sharp relief the growing tensions just beneath the surface of what both Baku and Tehran have generally sought to portray as good-neighborly relations. According to the prosecution, Russian and Azerbaijani media report, the members of this group underwent "special training in Iran [under the direction of that country's Republican Guard, a group the United States and other countries have identified as a terrorist organization] in the use of various forms of arms and explosive devices." The notion that Iran would try to "export its revolution" to Azerbaijan, the only other country with a Shiite majority, has long been common ground in discussions about Azerbaijan, but the suggestion that Iran has set up "an underground army" to overthrow the government there has raised a variety of concerns there and elsewhere.
Goble notes that "Azerbaijanis are thought to form roughly a third of the Iranian population overall -- some 30 million people -- and to constitute a slightly greater share of the residents of the Iranian capital, Tehran" and provides a wealth of background information on the region.
Let's leave aside Russia's ridiculous proposal to reposition the U.S. European missile defense system in Azerbaijan, which was absurd for strategic reasons long before this issue is considered, an obvious effort by Russia to subvert Western security (relying on the Soviet idea that the West is composed of idiots clever Russians can easily dupe). Let's instead ask this: If Iran is seeking to export revolution to Azerbaijan today, how long before it targets contiguous, Slavic-Orthodox Russia? Goble reports that Russia's large Muslim population is becoming increasingly active, with the number applying to make the Haj pilgrimage doubling this year compared to last, and that the Kremlin is seeking to use its Chechen proxy Ramzan Kadyrov as a wedge against the rise of domestic Islam. Some Russian Orthodox leaders are referring to intermarriage as a form of genocide, and Goble has noted the possibility that Russia could be majority-Muslim by 2050.
By seeking to insert a U.S. military presence in Azerbaijan, was Russia trying to get the U.S. to do its fighting for it? And how can Russia's active support for Iran, including nuclear technology, missile systems to defend it (even while opposing such systems in Eastern Europe as destabilizing) and endless diplomatic cover, blocking sanctions in the UN over the entire world's objections, constitute anything other than a fundamentally suicidal policy for Russia? Is Russia really willing to create, and be destroyed by, a Frankenstein monster in Iran just so it can spit in the eye of the West? One might find that hard to believe if there were not the recent history of the USSR as a reference point.
Click the jump for a map of the region.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditOne Picture is Worth a Thousand Screams
Filed under: Iran ~ US Elections
Copious Dissent says that the nutroots (led by the fanatical Daily Kos, which is currently arguing that Ahmadinejad is no different than a radical Republican on the issue of homosexuality, and previously said it couldn't care less about the American civilians being killed in Iraq, whom it called "mercenaries" and said "screw them") have botched the Ahmadinejad and Moveon.org issues and are dooming their political fortunes in 2008; in fact, he says they've poisoned the well for all Democrats. Do you agree? David Brooks says the nutroots are on the way out, too, but says there is still a chance for the Democratic center to prevail. Comments welcome.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditThe New York Times & Columbia University: An Axis of Evil?
Filed under: Iran ~ Ukraine
"In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country. In Iran we do not have this phenomenon. I don't know who's told you that we have this."-- the so-called "president" of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking to students at Columbia University earlier today and explaining why it's impossible to accuse Iran of persecuting and executing homosexuals.
Ten days ago, we reported on how the New York Times had sunk to a new low, allowing the wretched extremist left-wing Soros-funded propaganda campaign "Moveon.org" to pay less than one-third the going rate for a full-page ad launching a scurrilous attack on General David Petraeus over his handling of the Iraq campaign. In the resulting scandal, not only did the Washington Post expose the fact that the Moveon ad was riddled with factual errors, but the Times own Public Editor declared the preferential pricing to have violated the Times own guidelines for accepting political advertisements -- exposing a Times cover-up which insisted for days that it did nothing wrong in accepting the ad. Moveon is now running scared in the face of several complaints to the FEC by conservative groups.
Meanwhile, crazed Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived today in New York City with an invitation to speak before the student body of Columbia University and the intent to visit and desecrate with his presence the sacred ground of the 9/11 attack site.
How are the two incidents related, you ask? Well, it so happens that a few years ago Columbia, which controls the Pulitzer Prize for journalism, voted to allow Times reporter Walter Duranty to keep his Pulitzer prize even after it was revealed that Duranty had intentionally covered up facts about the Ukrainian famine/holocaust inflicted by Josef Stalin in order to help advance the interests of the USSR. As a recent letter to the editor of the International Herald Tribune stated: "During the Soviet-induced famine in Ukraine in the 1930s when at least 14.5 million people died, according to the historian Robert Conquest, many millions of Ukrainians were marched by foot to the White Sea, where they were loaded on to barges to be towed out to sea. Soviet gunboats then blasted them out of the water. No one knows how many millions perished. They too deserve mention and our memories."
Does anyone see a pattern?
Interestingly, the cowardly little rat bastard Ahmadinejad did not have the guts to let fly with his whole holocaust-denying, Israel-destroying repertoire of senile, subhuman bile while speaking at Columbia, giving rise to speculation that he may be too extreme even for his own country and may be getting flack at home for poisoning Iran's diplomatic well. But even toned down, he's still a weeping pustule on the buttocks of the world. Senator Mitch McConnell said of Columbia's invitation: "There is a world of difference between not preventing Ahmadinejad from speaking and handing a megalomaniac a megaphone and a stage to use it." New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn stated at a mass protest outside the United Nations: "We're here today to send a message that there is never a reason to give a hatemonger an open stage." Columbia University President Lee Bollinger told Ahmadinejad during his introduction of the speaker: "You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated. Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator. When you come to a place like this it makes you simply ridiculous." Gee, wonder which one of those reasons was the one that caused Columbia to give him a platform? Did they just want to all have a good laugh? Is any brainless moron or insane provocateur entitled to expect Ivy League speaking engagements?
Has the world gone mad?
Photo courtesy of Michelle Malkin. (It's worth noting that Russia also provides massive financial aid to Hamas, as well as Hezbollah, and provides nuclear technology and missiles to defend it to Iran itself, as well as huge quantities of weapons to Syria. Russia may certainly be deemed a root cause of Iran's hubris and aggression, making the regions lunatics think they have a bulwark against intervention, and should be treated accordingly in U.S. and European foreign policy.)
As David J. Feith & Jordan C. Hirsch of National Review put it:
It is naive to ignore the uses to which Ahmadinejad will put his invitation. Over the past years, Ahmadinejad's confrontational rhetoric and policies have resulted in diplomatic isolation and economic hardship for Iran. These developments are unpopular among Iranians. It is beneficial to Ahmadinejad and his regime, then, if he can claim to the Iranian people that his leadership is not hurting their country. If he can demonstrate that he is treated abroad as a respected leader, he will be better able to counter his critics at home. Columbia's invitation thus gives political assistance to Ahmadinejad.
How is it possible that the leaders of one of our loftiest universities can't understand this? Maybe Ahmadinejad was truly among his peers, where he belonged?
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditBedlam in the Middle East: Ahmadinejad on his Way Back to Columbia, Maybe Ground Zero too, and to Soon Play Footsie with Putin Whilst Syria is Getting Nukes from North Korea
Filed under: Iran
Last year Columbia University invited maniacal Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to give a speech to its students. A furious backlash resulted and the invitation was rescinded. Think that ended the matter? Guess again.
He's baaaaaack. It's just been announced that Ahmadinejad will speak at Columbia this coming Monday after he addresses the United Nations General Assembly at the opening ceremonies. Amazingly, Ahmadinejad also made a request to visit the Ground Zero site and lay a wreath, but it seems New York City authorities have denied the request (though perhaps not conclusively, he may go anyway).
In other news, it's being reported that Syria has a secret nuclear program, perhaps working in league with North Korea and, of course, Iran.
And Iran is reporting that it is pressing forward with Russia to put its Bushehr nuclear plant online. Russian "president" Vladimir Putin will visit Ahmadinejad in Tehran next month. Click the jump for an artist's rendering of the two faithful companions.
We have a poll running in regard to how the U.S. should respond to Ahmadinejad's evil deeds in Iraq, and over 300 have already cast their votes. Why not add your views to the mix? Click here to vote.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditIran Crosses the Rubicon
Filed under: Iran
On Tuesday, a rocket attack was made against the U.S. "Camp Victory" installation near the Baghdad airport in Iraq, the central command center for Iraqi operations. There was one fatality and there were 11 casualties. The event went largely unnoticed in light of the fury surrounding the testimony of General David Petraeus on Capitol Hill. It isn't the first time a weapon like this has been used against U.S. forces, but it's the first time the insurgents have dared to go after a target of this magnitude.
U.S. forces have now announced the result of their preliminary investigation of the attack, and have concluded that an Iranian-made Falaq-1 240 mm rocket was used in the attack. The weapon, fired from a barrel or rail mounted on a vehicle, weighs 111 kg, carries a 50-kg high-explosive payload and has a range of 10 km. Iran has provided these weapons to Hezbollah and they have been repeatedly used against Israel in Lebanon; now, it appears Iran is also supplying them to the Shiite extremists in Iran.
As Reuters reported: "U.S. commanders say that apart from rockets and mortars, sophisticated roadside bombs made from Iranian components have killed scores of U.S. troops."
Not long ago, we ran a poll asking under what circumstances, if any, readers felt U.S. military action against Iran would be justified. The overwhelming plurality of respondents so far have indicated that the U.S. should immediately take action against Iran because it is actively seeking to undermine security in Iraq. Now, it seems, they have been proven correct.
In a related development, Russia has reaffirmed its intention to provide Iran with diplomatic cover, blocking any concerted action in the United Nations to hold the rogue state in check.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditWhat do you think about U.S. military action against Iran?
Filed under: Iran
Over the weekend, President Bush paid a surprise visit to Iraq for a "war council." This is apparently meant to suggest he feels the "surge" has improved security sufficiently to allow his visit. At the same time, British troops are pulling out of the key Shiite city of Basra, implying Iran's influence may consolidate there. Yesterday, we reported on the Pentagon's exploration of military alternatives against Iran, now we'd like to know your views about U.S. military options. Please respond to our poll:
Feel free to add your own alternative action scenarios in the comments section. If allies are not mentioned in a response, this implies approval for the U.S. acting alone if necessary.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditIran shuts "Western" barber shops
Filed under: Iran
Iranian police closed more than 20 barbers shops in the capital Tehran. At least 700 barber shops were inspected during the two-week crackdown, according to BBC. I'll be damned! The mullahs now see men coiffure as anti-Islamic and pro-West!! Mullahs acts are getting stranger, repressive (demented actually) by the day.
If you want to read&see how women are treated by the mad Mullahs check here. And here you can see how a woman is dragged into the police car by men of Allah.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditAhmadinejad: Israel Is Bearer of Satan
Filed under: Iran
From AP TEHRAN "Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday that Israel was the standard bearer of Satan and the Jewish state would soon fall apart"
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditIRGC under close scrutiny
Filed under: Iran
In Iran as elsewhere the struggle between überradicals and radicals is for money and power. The religious discourse is mainly used for the masses. That is not to say that some of the mullahs do not believe themselves in Mahdi, apocalypse etc IRGC is involved in oil business in Iran, banking business in North Iraq and it helps HizbAllah in the South. They sure are busy. If the US will manage to designate IRGC as a terrorist entity all the foreign companies that may want to do business with it will think twice. It might look as a small step but its better than nothing. The civil unrest in Tehran (due to petrol rationing, poor economic development, lack of jobs etc) and in the provinces are a proof that people are far from being content with the present political leadership. The martyrdom speech still works for the most ignorant but not all are like that. If a military strike against Iran is unlikely (though not impossible) then the policy of small steps is the only available alternative. Read more about it here.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditTruth or propaganda?
Filed under: Iran
Yahya Rahim Safavi, commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday that Iran has "surface to sea missile systems that can cover the length and breadth of the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman."
Safavi also said Iran's missiles with a range of 2,000 km (1,250 miles) were fitted with equipment that enabled them to be remote controlled, an apparent reference to the Shahab-3 missile, although he did not name it. That missile could hit Israel. Apparently the Revolutionary Guards ground forces had missiles in its arsenal that could penetrate the armor plating which he said was fitted to Israeli Merkava tanks and the US Abrams tanks. (YNet news&Defensenews.com)
The mullahs regime said that the US publicly declared intention to designate the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist entity is merely a PR stupid stunt. Perhaps not.
Update:In an interview with the international Jam-e Jam network on 16 August, referring to the power and capabilities of the Guards Corps in different fields, Gen Safavi said that "the Basij Resistance Force has mobilized and trained 12 million Basij forces, which are active within 2,500 Ashura battalions. In Iran, we have also organized flat or mosaic defense. In other words, every village, every city and every place that has a number of people living in it, members of the Basij of that city or that location can defend their own territory."
"(...) we are in contact with all the Basij forces through five layers of electrical and electronic communications."
"At the moment, both in the field of ground-to-ground ballistic missiles with 2,000 km range, they have been equipped with the most advanced long-range guided weapons with multiple firing platforms. Safavi continued: "In the field of air defense weapons too, we have one of the most advanced defensive ground-to-air missile systems, known as Taur M1 missiles"
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditWhither the Shiites?
Filed under: Iran
Much is being made of the above meeting between two major figures in Shiite politics. What do you think? Is this all "just for show" as some are saying? Is this a bad sign for the U.S., as others claim? Is it a sign of coming union between the Shia of Iraq and Iran? If so, has U.S. policy pushed them together? Many argue that there are serious philosophical and political tensions between the two groups that impede common cause, even though they superficially share the "same" brand of Islam. Is the rivalry with the Sunni of Iraq sufficient to overcome those differences? Reader views most welcome.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditImperialism: a phase Iran is going through
Filed under: Iran
Hussein Shariatmadari, one of the Supreme Leader (Ayatollah Khamenei) delegate said recently that Bahrain is a part of Iran and that three-disputed UAE Islands in the Gulf are Iranian. (Akhbar Al Khaleej, July 12 article by Sayyid Zahra)
Iran's role in the region is on the wave and it is causing destruction and despair from Iraq to Lebanon (Hezbollah), territories (Hamas), Afghanistan and now they got to Bahrain. Is there a clash in site between Arabs and Iran? It might if we continue to sit on our hands and allow the mad mullahs take control through their terrorist networks.
p.s I did not mention Syria, because Assad willingly (that is open to debate though) follows Iran
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditAnd So it Begins
Filed under: Iran
The Associated Press reports that Iran has started killing Americans:
Iran's elite Quds force helped militants carry out a January attack in Karbala that killed five Americans, a U.S. general said Monday. U.S. military spokesman Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner also accused Tehran of using the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah as a "proxy" to arm Shiite militants in Iraq. The claims were an escalation in U.S. accusations that Iran is fueling Iraq's violence, which Tehran has denied, and were the first time the U.S. military has said Hezbollah has a direct role.
Let's not forget where Iran gets the sheer hubris to undertake acts of this kind -- from the nation supplying it with massive diplomatic cover, nuclear technology and weaponry to defend it from Western attacks. The same one providing vast quantities of arms to Hugo Chavez. The same one doling out piles of cash to Hamas. That's right, KGB-ruled Russia. Welcome to Cold War, part II. And speaking of Venezuela, the BBC reports that it, too, is deepening ties with Iran, creating a web of threats to U.S. national security which must be immediately addressed (there's no need for them ever to have arisen, had not the Clinton and Bush administrations turned a blind eye to the rise of neo-Soviet Russia).
Click the jump for an UPDATE on criticism of this report by the left-wing moonbats at the Daily Kos.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditUnrest in Iran over Fuel Rationing
Filed under: Iran
“Toop, Tank, Feshfesheh, Ahmadinejad Koshteh Sheh”. “Guns, fireworks, tanks, Ahmadinejad should be killed”. This is the slogan shouted by dozens and dozens of exasperated Iranians, during a violent protest against fuel rationing. Of all Persian Gulf countries, Iran is one of the leading producers and exporters of oil.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditIran is Running out of Gas!
Filed under: Iran
MSNBC reports: "Angry Iranian motorists lined up for gasoline for hours on Wednesday after the world's fourth-largest oil exporter imposed fuel rationing, sparking chaotic scenes and the torching of at least two pump stations. One Iranian news agency, Fars, said 12 gasoline stations were set ablaze in Tehran after the government's announcement late on Tuesday, but only two could be independently confirmed [one shown above]. Seeking to rein in soaring consumption and costly imports, the government on May 22 raised the liter price by 25 percent to 1,000 rials (11 U.S. cents) but rationing was delayed."
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditIran and the United States Hold First Bilateral Meeting Since 1979
Filed under: Iran
Today, the US Ambassador Ryan Crocker met with the Iranian Ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi at al Maliki's office in Baghdad. The Iraqis were represented at the talks by Mowaffak al-Rubaie, the National Security Adviser. The discussions were about Iraq's fragile to some, non existent to others, security status.
The United States and the Iraqis know that Iran is supporting the Shiias militias (al Hakim and al Sadr) and when it suits its interests even the Sunni terror cells. For their part the Iranians will most likely deny such allegations, and ask for an immediate timetable for the withdrawal of coalition forces from Iraq.
Bottom line: the United States wants Iran to stay out of Iraqi affairs, and Iran wants the United States and coalition troops out of Iraq. I bet they'd (Iranians) want the US troops out of the region, but thats not going to happen anytime soon.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said about the meeting, "We are hopeful that Washington's realistic approach to the current issues of Iraq by confessing its failed policy in Iraq and the region and by showing a determination to changing the policy guarantees success of the talks and possible further talks."
Iran's nuclear program was not discussed at this time.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditWho Can Enjoy Tinker to Evers to Chance . . .
Filed under: Europe ~ Iran ~ Middle East ~ Russia
. . . when you have to deal with Russia to Syria to Iran, and they don't have a baseball they have this:
What is it? According to Jane's Defense Weekly, it's a Russian Tor-m1 missile system launching vehicle during exercises at an undisclosed location in Russia. Reuters says:
Syria has agreed to supply Iran with at least 10 out of 50 air defense systems that Damascus is in the process of buying from Russia. Iran would take delivery of them in late 2008. To reward Syria for its middleman role, Tehran would part-finance Syria's Pantsyrs as well as paying for its own. Syria struck a $730 million deal with Russia earlier this year for some 50 Pantsyr-S1E self-propelled short-range gun and missile air defense systems. Its source said Moscow had not been officially notified of the reported Syrian arrangement with Tehran, which flowed from a November 2005 strategic accord between the two countries on military and technological cooperation.
These systems will be used, of course, to shoot down Western aircraft if/when they seek to take out Iran's nuclear weapons capacity. In other words, they'll assist Iran in developing nuclear weapons, and increase the cost in Western lives of addressing that threat. Looks like this "cold war" thing could get pretty damn hot pretty damn fast if the Kremlin continues down its crazed current course. How is it possible that the nation providing weapons to one of NATO's most hardened and dangerous foes is a quasi-member of the G-8? How long will it take us to come to our senses on Russia?
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