NEWS FROM HELL

Leaflets said to warn of Iran move into north Iraq : Tue Aug 21, 2007 9:19AM EDT :
http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USL2181466720070821

SULAIMANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - Kurdish authorities in northeastern Iraq said on Tuesday they were investigating the authenticity of leaflets warning villagers to evacuate ahead of an Iranian military offensive against Kurdish rebels. Hundreds of villagers have fled their homes in Iraq's mountainous northeast while others hid in caves after what local authorities said was days of intermittent shelling by Iran across the border.So far there has been no official comment from either Tehran or Baghdad about the shelling.Cross-border skirmishes occasionally occur as Iraq's neighbors Turkey and Iran combat Kurdish separatist rebels operating from bases in Iraq's mountainous and remote north and northeast.The government of Iraq's largely autonomous region of Kurdistan said it was investigating after villagers said they had seen the leaflets thrown from helicopters on Monday.Residents said there were no identifying marks on the leaflets, written in Kurdish, apart from the words "The Islamic Republic of Iran" across the top and bottom.The leaflets said villagers had 48 hours to evacuate before an Iranian offensive began."They do not carry an official stamp of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards or the Iranian Defense Ministry," said Jamal Abdullah, a spokesman for the Kurdish government."These leaflets made many people leave their homes."The leaflets said the offensive would be around the villages of Qandoul, Haj Omran and Isaw and the town of Qal'at Dizah, 325 km (200 miles) north of Baghdad.Two women have been wounded, livestock killed, farms and orchards set ablaze and homes damaged in the shelling near small villages across a front of about 50 km (30 miles), local officials have said in the past three days.
On Saturday, the Iranian news agency Mehr said an Iranian army helicopter which crashed near the border of northern Iraq had been engaged in an operation against the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).Turkey blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since 1984, when it launched its struggle for an ethnic homeland in Turkey's southeast.


Iran News Round Up
August 21, 2007 National Review Online Michael Rubin
Michael Rubin: Ranting against America & more.Larijani to U.S.: Don’t enrage us by pressing the IRGC terror case the way you did the nuclear issue.
IRGC monitors every enemy movement in the Persian Gulf.
Larijani: We will stop cooperating with the IAEA if the West again brings the nuclear issue to the UN.
Accepting our nuclear ambitions is key to resolution.
Larijani in anti-American rant.
We will not be afraid of America.
Supreme Leader appoints new navy chief.
Iranian ambassador in Baghdad (and IRGC commander) Hasan Kazemi Qomi summarizes Iranian projects in Iraq.
SCIRI leader Abdulaziz Hakim’s fourth round of chemotherapy ends in Tehran.
Headline: “Bush’s Advisor: We’ve been defeated but we will remain in Iraq.”
Hardline press covers Foreign Policy and Center for American Progress poll of (pre-selected) opinion-makers saying surge is failing.
Production on new jetfighter, nearing testing on new Ya-Husayn training aircraft.
Flashback: Rice’s State Department urges licensing of export of aircraft parts to Iran.
Video of Iranian F4E simulator.
Tehran University hostage situation ended.
Released Iranian hostages to fly home from Pakistan
(For background, see August 19 Iran News Round Up).
Supreme Leader’s paper blames U.S. for hijacking, hostage taking in Iranian Baluchistan.
“The same blood-curdling abuse was carried out with gay abandon at Abu Ghraib against the Ba’thists who used to be Uncle Sam’s blue-eyed boys as long as it served the US purpose to wage the 8-year war against the Islamic Republic and terrorize the Iraqi nation.”
Iran fourth-largest producer of Peugeot cars.
Iran and Kazakhstan triple trade.
Ahmadinejad heads to Azerbaijan.
After Islamist victory in Turkey, Ahmadinejad seeks closer relations.
Picture of the Day: Iranian diplomats stationed abroad take instruction from Supreme Leader.
Supreme Leader's advice of the day: "Drinking Something Served by a Non-Muslim"
Question: One of our workmates is not Muslim (a Buddhist) and he serves us water and tea. Are we allowed to drink what he serves?Answer: If he you are confident that he had not touched them [the drink] with his body along with transmitting moisture, there is no objection to drinking them.

Symbolic Attack On Iran : August 21, 2007

Since 1984, the State Department has listed Iran's government as a "state sponsor of terrorism" and subjected it to economic and political sanctions. In 2002, President Bush declared Tehran's regime as a charter member of an "evil empire." More recently, the U.N. Security Council imposed two rounds of sanctions in response to the regime's insistence on continuing with its nuclear buildup.Now U.S. officials are preparing to brand Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps a "specially designated terrorist group." It would be the first time that Washington so tags an arm of a country's military force.Don't count on the latest move to be any more successful in cowing Tehran than the previous branding. Isolating Iran, like isolating North Korea and, at one time, China and North Vietnam, strengthens regimes. Autocrats and theocrats blame their failures at home on outsiders and rally the population to defend the country against "satanic" forces. Two arguments are being used to explain the intended designation of the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group: Allies in Europe and Asia would be so alarmed by the threatened escalation that they would fall behind U.S. efforts to further toughen U.N. sanctions. America's hawks may soften demands for outright military retaliation against the Islamic republic.Those are insufficient reasons to declare a nation's security force a terrorist group. Isn't it enough to call the entire Iranian regime a state sponsor of terrorism and an evil force?It is true that the designation of "terrorist group" has legal consequences. Foreign-based assets of the Revolutionary Guard, which owns businesses in Iran, may be blocked. Any person or group here or abroad caught supporting the guard would also be sanctioned by Washington. But the guard has few or no assets abroad. Nor does it have business links in the West that also have ties to the United States.The latest designation is mostly symbolic at best and, at worst, diverts attention from dealing with Iran's hard-line government through tough diplomacy, instead of name-calling. Iran shares a 900-mile border with Iraq and supports Shiite co-religionists across the border. Iran is the second biggest oil producer in the Middle East. Most experts on the region will tell you that the active cooperation of Iran is crucial to peace-building in Iraq and stability of energy supplies. Engaging Iran diplomatically is the only rational way to deal with the regime's nuclear ambitions (as we did in North Korea) and its supply of weapons to militant groups in the Middle East. The Revolutionary Guard certainly isn't a garden-variety military force. It's an ideological force dedicated to protecting the Islamic core of the regime. But there is more to Iran than the guard. By targeting the Revolutionary Guard, the administration is practicing avoidance. Instead of dealing with peripheral issues, enter into comprehensive negotiations. Isolation won't win the day.