انتخابات فرمايشي مجلس كه ما كارگران در آن نقشي نداريم از نظر ما محكوم است
همه در جريان هستيم كه انتخابات مجلس نزديك است و ميرويم تا دوباره شاهد عزل و نصبهايي باشيم كه در راس حكومت انجام ميگيرد بدون اينكه ما اقشار زحمت كش اين سرزمين در آن كوچكترين نقشي داشته باشيم.آنهايي كه بايد انتخاب شوند و كرسي هاي مجلس را تصاحب كنند خيلي پيشتر از اين انتخاب شده اند و ما تنها بايد چون بردگاني حلقه به گوش شاهد و ناظر اين اقدامات باشيم.در اين ساليان ما كارگران مانند سايراقشار محروم كشور در فقر و نداري روزگار گذرانديم و هيچ كدام از شعارهاي دولت و كابينه به اصطلاح مهرورز و عدالت گستر نان شب سفره هاي ما را تامين نكرد. پشت چرخهاي توليد و در لابه لاي پستوهاي كارخانجات جان داديم عرق ريختيم و جان كنديم اما خان آقازاده ها رنگين شد, دركشوري شناور بر روي اقيانوسهاي نفت و ذخاير خدادادي نفس كشيديم اما با دستهايي پر از شرم نداري به خانه بازگشتيم.ما تعدادي از كارگران كارخانجات محور غرب تهران اين نامه را نوشتيم كه به اين وسيله به گوش مجلسيها برسانيم تا بلكه گوشهاي بسته را باز كنند و فرياد ما كارگران بيگناه را كه تنها براي به دست آوردن لقمه ناني با شرافت صبح تا شب جان ميكنيم را بشنوند.ما به شما راي نميدهيم چرا كه معتقديم راي دادن به نظام غارت و چپاول خيانت به وطن و هم وطن است.ما همين شكمهاي گرسنه را به فروختن شرافت و غيرتمان ترجيح ميدهيم.
زنده باد آزادي و عدالت
جمعي از كارگران محور غرب تهران
A New Middle East, After All
February 09, 2008 Weekly Standard Reuel Marc Gerecht
What George W. Bush hath wrought.George W. Bush staked his presidency on his response to 9/11: on the proposition that the United States had to defeat the virulent forces loose in the Muslim world directly and militarily. In his last State of the Union address, delivered shortly after his first and only grand tour of the Middle East, Bush reaffirmed his intention to continue the fight everywhere he has committed American arms. It is way too soon to give the president a final grade, and it is surely tempting to flunk him, given the high-wire act the country has endured in Iraq. The denizens of the Middle East, however, will remember Bush as the most momentous American leader since an angry Thomas Jefferson sent men-of-war in pursuit of the Barbary pirates. His successor will not be able to walk away from what he has wrought. Let us consider the issues one by one--leaving aside for another day Iran and the menace of a Persian bomb.
U.S. sees attacks by Iranian-backed groups up in Iraq
By Arshad Mohammed : Reuters : Thursday, February 7, 2008; 2:46 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attacks by Iranian-backed groups in Iraq have increased in recent months, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday, casting doubt on the view Iran might have reduced its support for violence in the war.David Satterfield, the State Department's Iraq coordinator, said he believed Iran's strategy remained to force the United States to withdraw from Iraq at as high a price as possible.The United States has 158,000 troops in Iraq seeking to quell an insurgency and sectarian violence that erupted after the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled former dictator Saddam Hussein.Satterfield said President George W. Bush hoped to leave his successor a more stable Iraq and the time to weigh options on how to deal with the country, which holds the world's third largest oil reserves.Attacks across Iraq have fallen by 60 percent since June 2007, when Bush's "surge" of 30,000 additional U.S. troops became fully deployed.Analysts attribute the decline to the deployment of more U.S. and Iraqi forces, a decision by some Sunni tribal leaders to help the United States fight foreign-born Islamic extremists, and a cease-fire declared by anti-U.S. cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.Satterfield said he believed Iran still wants U.S. forces out of Iraq to increase its own local and regional influence."Iran remains, we believe, determined to pursue its goal of departure of U.S. forces under as difficult circumstances as possible, both as a means of securing its ambitions in Iraq per se as well as projecting through and beyond Iraq its broader regional and ... international ambitions," he said."Iran remains lethally engaged in terms of providing training and equipment to the most radical and the most violent forces in Iraq. Attacks by those forces continue," he added.Satterfield said attacks on U.S. forces with armor-piercing munitions that U.S. officials believe come from Iran, have risen in recent months, as have mortar attacks on Basra Air Station in southern Iraq near Iran. He called both "bellwethers of Iranian-backed violence."
REDUCED ROADSIDE BOMBINGS
"If there was any demonstration that there was a certain degree of toning down of that violence, the increased attacks on Basra Air Station, the increased EFP attacks, would certainly vitiate that argument," he added, referring to the armor-piercing arms called explosively formed penetrators.Some analysts have speculated that a reduction in roadside bomb attacks and other violence in Iraq last year may have reflected reduced Iranian support. But U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other senior U.S. military officials have said it was unclear whether this was the case.The United States and Iraq hope to begin negotiations later this month on a bilateral agreement that would provide a legal framework for the continued presence of U.S. forces, who now operate under a U.S. mandate that expires in December.Satterfield denied suggestions the agreement would tie the hands of his successor."We hope ... to be able to leave to the next president, whoever he or she may be, an Iraq which is more stable, more secure than it has been, a U.S. relationship with Iraq that is stable and projectable over the long term," he said."We will not and we cannot bind a new U.S. administration. That's not our intent. It is to allow that new administration options and time to reflect upon both our interests in Iraq, broader regional and international interests, and how that new administration would wish to pursue them," he added.
FROM : MAHISTAN *** Sang o Shisheh *** سنگ و شیشه *** Feb 5, '08 4:52 PM
for everyone Hatman Bebinid حتما ببینید
Be Monasebat e roz nangine 22 bahman به مناسبت روز ننگین 22 بهمن
از ملت کم حافظه ایران تقضا داریم این فیلم را ببینند و دروغهای آن دجال بزرگ را بیاد بیاورند
Mehdi Kalhor, ( general lier) Media Advisor to President Ahmadinejad: Zionists Responsible for 9/11 (Archival) http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/1674.htmFollowing are excerpts from an interview with Mehdi Kalhor, media advisor to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which aired on Channel 2, Iranian TV on September 25, 2007:Mehdi Kalhor: American society knows that what happened on 9/11 did not happen the way it is depicted in the American media. 9/11 is a complex mystery, which must be resolved, in order to begin to unravel what is happening in today's world. People were killed there, and as you know from the statistics, most of the victims were non-American Pakistanis and blacks.They were victims of a conspiracy, which is still going on in the world.Traditionally, the mayor of New York City is Jewish. This has always been the case. Traditionally, this is a Jewish American city. The Christians are perhaps the minority there, and the black Muslims and the Jews are [the majority]. For 20-something years, the city has had a latent problem with Zionism. For many years, the Jews in New York have been confronting the Zionists in Israel, and there is a struggle between them. If you recall, when 9/11 took place, Sharon, the Israeli prime minister at the time, was supposed to be visiting New York. Since they planned the attack and knew about it in advance, they told him not to go there, and so he didn't.Powerful Shiite cleric quiets in Iraq :By HAMZA HENDAWI and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA February 7th, 2008 10:55 AMIraq's most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has sharply reduced his workload in recent months, raising new questions about the health of the aged leader and the prospect of a dangerous power vacuum without a clear and dominant successor.http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=06&a=15"><> style="color:#cc0000;">Intelligence Official Revives Iran Doubts The senior US intelligence official on Tuesday stressed that a recent report on Iran had concluded that Tehran had halted only one part of its alleged nuclear weapons programme. Admiral Michael McConnell, director of national intelligence, said the November national intelligence estimate had concluded that Tehran had ceased only efforts to covertly enrich uranium and design nuclear warheads. “The only thing that they’ve halted was nuclear weapons design, which is probably the least significant part of the programme,” he told the Senate intelligence committee. : By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington>Read'>http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=06&a=15">>Read the Article
<>style="font-size:130%;color:#3333ff;">US-Russia nuclear deal upstages Iran : By M K BhadrakumarThere was a time when Iran might have believed that a multipolar world order would be just and fair from the point of view of the "suppressed nations". If that notion wasn' the to of a for it on was visit?.
http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=06&a=20"><> style="color:#cc0000;">U.S. Official Tells VOA Iran Exacerbates Drug Trafficking Challenges in AfghanistanWashington, D.C. -- In an exclusive interview this week with Voice of America' the and of with in for its Iran?s a><> >more< http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=06&a=19"><> style="color:#cc0000;">Detained Filmmaker Found Evidence of Killings in IranWhen filmmaker Mehrnoushe Solouki returned to her native Iran, she discovered in a Tehran suburb what she believes is disturbing evidence of multiple killings. There, in the Khavaran cemetery, she said she found signs that some of the 6,000 opponents of the Islamist regime who disappeared in 1988 might be buried in mass graves. more By The Gazettehttp://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=06&a=18"><> style="color:#cc0000;">Moscow Suspicious of Iranian RocketRussia said Wednesday that Iran' the to of may a in are that it carry Iran be what its launched at first real about nuclear when a><> >more< http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=06&a=17"><> style="color:#cc0000;">US Military Chief: Order Given To Fire On Iran Speedboat WASHINGTON -- The commander of a U.S. warship gave the order to fire on an approaching Iranian speedboat in the Strait of Hormuz last month but it turned away just in time, the U.S. military chief said Wednesday. more By AFPhttp://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=06&a=16"><> style="color:#cc0000;">Iran Testing Advanced CentrifugesVIENNA-- Iran is testing an advanced centrifuge at its Natanz nuclear complex, diplomats said on Wednesday, a move that could lead to Tehran enriching uranium much faster and gaining the means to build atom bombs. Iran says it wants nuclear energy only for electricity so it can export more oil. But it is under sanctions for hiding the program until 2003, preventing U.N. inspectors since then from verifying it is wholly peaceful and refusing to suspend it. more By Reutershttp://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=06&a=14"><> style="color:#cc0000;">Reformists Barred From Fighting Iran PollIran’s reformists say they may be unable to compete for more than 10 per cent of seats in the forthcoming parliamentary elections because of the mass disqualification of their candidates. more By The Financial Timeshttp://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=06&a=13"><> style="color:#cc0000;">Iran Eyes the China CardChina’s presence in Iran and the Middle East might be a potential threat for the United States given its current regional policies – but it is an opportunity for emerging nations like Iran. more By The Washington Posthttp://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=06&a=12"><> style="color:#cc0000;">American Jewish Leader: Don't Rule Out Bush on IranUS President George W. Bush is committed to dealing with the Iranian nuclear program even as he enters his last year of office, a senior American Jewish leader said Wednesday. "Bush does not want to leave the situation worse than he found it," said Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. more By The Jerusalem Posthttp://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=06&a=11"><> style="color:#cc0000;">A Coming Hamas-Israel War?It' the to will which and with if a in from you or Iran. at believe a><> >more< http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=06&a=10"><> style="color:#cc0000;">Khomeini's Grandson Barred From Participating in ElectionsTehran -- Ali Eshraghi, a civil engineer and grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, one of the founding figures of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, has been banned from running in upcoming parliamentary elections, Iranian daily Karghozaran reported. more By Adnkronos International http://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20style=<> >more< Moscow a><>http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=06&a=8"><> style="color:#cc0000;">Divisions Simmer Behind Iran's Public FaceIn his frequent statements on Iran’s regional ambitions, President Bush often paints in broad strokes. His most recent comments are no exception. “Wherever freedom advances in the Middle East,” the president said during his final State of the Union address on January 28, “it seems the Iranian regime is there to oppose it.” But criticism of Iranian foreign policy leaves aside the country’s internal political dynamics. And in that regard, the Iranian regime is highly complex. more By The Council on Foreign Relations
Shutting'>http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=07&a=8">Shutting Down ZananPresident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and his hard-line allies rail against the United States and other external “enemies,” but who they really fear are their own citizens.By NY Times Editorial>Read'>http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=07&a=8">>Read the Article
Experts'>http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=07&a=12">Experts: Iran Has Faster CentrifugesVIENNA, Austria -- Iran has developed its own version of an advanced centrifuge that churns out fissile material much faster than other machines and has started testing them, diplomats and experts said Thursday. more By The Associated PressDeclaration'>http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=07&a=11">Declaration by the Presidency on Behalf of the EU Concerning Death Sentences in IranThe EU condemns the increasing recourse to death sentences and executions in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The EU also reiterates its longstanding opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances. The EU is in favor of the universal abolition of the death penalty and urges the Islamic Republic of Iran to abolish the death penalty, if necessary by initially establishing a moratorium on executions, in line with the UN General Assembly resolution adopted in December 2007 on a Moratorium on the use of the death penalty. more By EUROPAIran'>http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=07&a=10">Iran: Scores of Young Kurds ArrestedTehran -- Two Kurdish students have been arrested in Iran for unknown reasons, increasing the number of arrested Kurdish students to 11. Jamshid Bahrami and Salam Nabati, art and psychology students respectively, were reportedly taken away by agents belonging to Iran's Intelligence Ministry from their house in Mariwan, in western Iran. more By Adnkronos International Taking'>http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=07&a=9">Taking Down the NIEThe biggest story of the 2008 campaign so far may not be the fall or rise of any candidate, but the quick and quiet decline of the war on terror as a bone of political contention. Supposedly, the terror war is yesterday’s news, and in any case a losing issue for the Republicans in 2008. Yet this newly congealing conventional wisdom is mistaken. Republicans can win this election on national security. In fact, with its cover'>http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10608425">cover story this week, The Economist has dropped the winning argument into Republican laps, if only we have the guts and smarts to use it. more By National Review OnlineUS'>http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=07&a=7">US Aid for Russia Linked to IranWASHINGTON -- A U.S. program to keep Russian scientists from providing nuclear expertise to terrorists has funded research facilities that have helped Iran build its new nuclear power reactor, a congressional committee says, citing Russian sources. more By The Associated PressTwo'>http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=07&a=6">Two Women Stoned: Feminists Mum Two sisters – identified only as Zohreh and Azar – have been convicted of adultery in Iran. They have now been sentenced to be stoned to death. more By FrontPageMagazine.comSilencing'>http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=07&a=5">Silencing a Voice of ReasonLate last month, the Press Supervisory Board in Iran silenced another vibrant and reasoned voice by revoking the license of the magazine Zanan. The monthly is dedicated to the reporting and analysis of women's issues, problems, and achievements, and has been a voice for good sense and equality. more By The Boston GlobeIran's" Khatami Terms Election Process "Catastrophe"Tehran -- Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami termed the election process and widespread disqualifications of reformist candidates for next month's parliamentary elections a 'catastrophe,' Tehran media reported Thursday. 'That some decent people are disqualified is problem enough, but the more regrettable problem is that the trend of the people's votes is predetermined and this could seriously jeopardize the system,' ISNA news agency quoted the reform-minded Khatami as saying. more By Monsters and Critics.comAyatollah'>http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=07&a=3">Ayatollah Khomeini's Grandson: Won't Beg To Run In Iran VoteTEHRAN -- The grandson of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late founder of the Iranian Islamic Republic, said Thursday he would never beg to be allowed to run in parliamentary elections, describing his exclusion from the upcoming contests as an insult to the family. more By Dow Jones NewswiresIranian'>http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=07&a=2">Iranian Wonder WeaponIran, or, to be more precise, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), announced that they had flight tested a new, Iranian made, helicopter gunship. They also announced a new UAV with a range of 2,000 kilometers. Five months ago, the Iranians showed off a new Iranian made jet fighter, which appeared to be a make-work project for unemployed engineers. It's a bunch of rearranged parts on an old U.S. made F-5 (which was roughly equivalent to a 1950s era MiG-21). The new fighter, like so many other Iranian weapons projects, is more for PR than for improving military power. more By Strategy PageIndia'>http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2008&m=02&d=07&a=1">India Shoots Out of Iran's OrbitNEW DELHI -- India's traditionally friendly relations with Iran have come under unprecedented strain because of the launching of an Israeli spy satellite by an Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) rocket. This comes in addition to recent tensions caused by India's refusal to attend talks to complete a commercial deal on a proposed Iran-India-Pakistan gas pipeline.
Former Terrorist of the "Islamic Army" in Iraq Abu Azzam Al-Tamimi: An American Withdrawal Will Spell Disaster - Iranian Occupation More Dangerous .Following are excerpts from an interview with Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi, a former leader in the "Islamic Army" in Iraq, which aired on Al-Arabiya TV on January 18, 2008http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/1675.htmAbu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: The organizations [in Iraq] do not need a lot of funding. The armed activity in Iraq is different than in other places. Weapons constitute the backbone of this activity. In 2003-2004, weapons were obtained for free.Interviewer: The weapons abandoned by the Iraqi army?Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: Yes, the former Iraqi army abandoned these weapons, and you could get them for free from those warehouses. The resistance began with the weapons of the former army. There were thousands of tons of weapons of all kinds. As for money, you only need it for minor organizational and administrative purposes. There may be donations from abroad, and there may also be financial sources from within Iraq.The resistance factions tended to reject any sort of occupation – whether Iranian, American, and so on. This changed once the Iranian activity and intervention in Iraq became very significant in the days of the Ja'fari government. Then, some [faction] leaders decided that we must reach a truce with the American forces, and reexamine our position with regard to the American forces, because of the Iranian intervention, which we consider to be more dangerous to Iraq than the American intervention, because occupation by a neighboring country is always more dangerous than occupation from afar.Interviewer: Is there significant Iranian intervention?Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: Of course.Interviewer: In what way?Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: Iran intervenes in every single detail in Iraq.Interviewer: Whom does it support?Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: Everybody – it works with the government, with the opponents of the government, with the opponents of the government's opponents, with Al-Qaeda, with the enemies of Al-Qaeda, with the militias, with the enemies of the militias... Iran spreads its investments everywhere – with the Shiites, the Sunnis, and the Kurds.Interviewer: Al-Qaeda is a Sunni organization, which claims to be fighting those they call "the Rafidites" – how can it possibly cooperate with the Iranians?Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: Of course it can. How else can you explain the fact that a large number of Al-Qaeda's leaders live in Tehran? How else can you explain the fact that the Al-Qaeda organization targets all the countries in the world – from America to Indonesia, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Algeria, and many others – and the only country absent from this list is Iran, even though it is located between Al-Qaeda's two jaws – Iraq and Afghanistan? Of course there is a very strong alliance between Al-Qaeda and Iran. There is a lot of evidence of this alliance. Iran invests in everybody in order to defend itself and its interests, and this may be legitimate, because the Iranian political regime is being targeted by...Interviewer: What does Al-Qaeda stand to gain from its alliance with the Iranians?Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: It gets a safe haven for its leaders. No other country can give refuge to Al-Qaeda's leaders or cadres. [Iran] provides Al-Qaeda with bases and financing. Al-Qaeda is broke. It has no money now. The sources of finances in the Gulf have been bled almost completely dry. So who finances them? Iran.Personally, I do not deem the American presence in Iraq a negative thing anymore. I believe an American withdrawal from Iraq at this point would spell disaster, because Iraq would then fall completely under Iranian influence – perhaps not only Iraq, but the entire region.Our contacts with Al-Qaeda continued even after we had contacts with the Americans. Only a year ago, we met with important Al-Qaeda commanders.Interviewer: What did you talk about?Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: About many things – about the killings and murders... We tried to get them to be rational and to direct them to the right path. We tried to encourage the Iraqi brothers in the Al-Qaeda leadership to take things into their own hands and remove the Arabs. All the problems are caused by the Arabs who come from beyond the borders. We don't even know who they are or who sent them. Why did they come? What are they thinking? Who are they working for? We have no idea. Our basic idea was that the Iraqis should take control of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.Many of the Iraqis in Al-Qaeda are bad people. I'm not saying that we Iraqis are all angels, and the Arabs who come here are all bad. What we say is that the leadership must be in the hands of the Iraqis, because with them, one can reach an understanding. This country is ours and theirs, and it is important to both sides. As a matter of fact, we reached understandings with Iraqi leaders in Al-Qaeda, but...Interviewer: Can you name names?Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: For example, the late Muharib Al-Jabouri, who was in charge of media in Al-Qaeda, and Khaled Al-Mashhadani, who is currently in American custody. Those were the two leading figures... The third was Abu Osama, who is still at large and is active in Al-Qaeda. At times, we managed to reach understandings with these people, but these understandings were presented to Abu Hamza Al-Masri, they were rejected out of hand. In my opinion, if the Iraqis had taken the leadership of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the evil of Al-Qaeda could have been diminished. I am not saying that it would have become a good organization, but it would have been possible to direct it to the right path, to contain it, or to reach an understanding with it.Interviewer: Does Al-Qaeda in Iraq have ties with Al-Qaeda abroad?Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: Of course, but in appearance only. Al-Qaeda today is not a centralized organization. Al-Qaeda is an ideology. Whoever supports the ideology of Al-Qaeda belongs to Al-Qaeda. There are organizations that are affiliated with Al-Qaeda, but only receive instructions from Al-Qaeda once a year or two. The role of the main Al-Qaeda organization today is to give its blessing only. Osama Bin Laden only legitimizes [organizations] and gives his blessing, but he does not know what those who got his blessing are doing. After all, the man sleeps in a cave somewhere.
How An Iranian 'Oil Bourse' Threatens The American Empire
Iran's plans to trade oil in other currencies could sink the weak dollar. Bush, meanwhile, promises that he will join an Isareli nuclear strike on Iran. Is Bush leading us into a nuclear armageddon that cannot be won?
A Strike in the Dark : What did Israel bomb in Syria?
by Seymour M. Hersh - Full article :http://tinyurl.com/28j9zj
There is evidence that the preëmptive raid on Syria was also meant as a warning about—and a model for—a preëmptive attack on Iran.
When I visited Israel this winter, Iran was the overriding concern among political and defense officials I spoke to—not Syria. There was palpable anger toward Washington, in the wake of a National Intelligence Estimate that concluded, on behalf of the American intelligence community, that Iran is not now constructing a nuclear weapon. Many in Israel view Iran’s nuclear ambitions as an existential threat; they believe that military action against Iran may be inevitable, and worry that America may not be there when needed. The N.I.E. was published in November, after a yearlong standoff involving Cheney’s office, which resisted the report’s findings. At the time of the raid, reports about the forthcoming N.I.E. and its general conclusion had already appeared. Retired Major General Giora Eiland, who served as the national-security adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, told me, “The Israeli military takes it as an assumption that one day we will need to have a military campaign against Iran, to slow and eliminate the nuclear option.” He added, “Whether the political situation will allow this is another question.” In the weeks after the N.I.E.’s release, Bush insisted that the Iranian nuclear-weapons threat was as acute as ever, a theme he amplified during his nine-day Middle East trip after the New Year. “A lot of people heard that N.I.E. out here and said that George Bush and the Americans don’t take the Iranian threat seriously,” he told Greta Van Susteren, of Fox News. “And so this trip has been successful from the perspective of saying . . . we will keep the pressure on.” Shortly after the bombing, a Chinese envoy and one of the Bush Administration’s senior national-security officials met in Washington. The Chinese envoy had just returned from a visit to Tehran, a person familiar with the discussion told me, and he wanted the White House to know that there were moderates there who were interested in talks. The national-security official rejected that possibility and told the envoy, as the person familiar with the discussion recalled, “‘You are aware of the recent Israeli statements about Syria. The Israelis are extremely serious about Iran and its nuclear program, and I believe that, if the United States government is unsuccessful in its diplomatic dealings with Iran, the Israelis will take it out militarily.’ He then told the envoy that he wanted him to convey this to his government—that the Israelis were serious.
“He was telling the Chinese leadership that they’d better warn Iran that we can’t hold back Israel, and that the Iranians should look at Syria and see what’s coming next if diplomacy fails,” the person familiar with the discussion said. “His message was that the Syrian attack was in part aimed at Iran.”
U.S. in an About Turn, Says Iran May be Able to Make Nukes by 2009
February 05, 2008 Ha'aretz Amir Oren
The head of American intelligence said Tuesday that it is unclear whether Tehran has returned to its production of nuclear weapons in the past six months, and warned that Iran "would be technically capable of producing enough highly enriched uranium for a weapon" by the end of next year. Speaking two months after an American intelligence report cast doubt on Tehran's nuclear ambitions, National Intelligence Director John Michael McConnell made his remarks during an appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee to present an annual report on threats to the U.S.A National Intelligence Estimate report released in December said that Iran halted its nuclear weapons development program in the fall of 2003."We remain concerned about Iran's intentions and assess with moderate-to-high confidence that Tehran at a minimum is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons," the report said."We assess with high confidence that Iran has the scientific, technical and industrial capacity eventually to produce nuclear weapons," it said, adding that the only realistic way to prevent Iran from producing such weapons was "an Iranian political decision to abandon a nuclear weapons objective."McConnell expressed skepticism at the ability of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah movement to deliver security for Israel and to overcome Hamas' efforts to stymie the political process.He said that despite pressures on Hamas, "the group remains fairly unified, especially its military wing, and in charge in the Gaza Strip where itcontrols all PA facilities. Hamas continues to curtail freedoms and to harass Fatah members."McConnell said however, that the U.S. recognizes signs of Fatah's progress in the West Bank, praising "renewed security and law enforcement cooperation with Israeli forces in taking more effective action against Hamas."There was no mention in the report of the Israel Air Force attack on Syria in September 2007, which foreign news sources have speculated was a strike on a nuclear facility built with North Korean assistance. He said, however, that North Korea, which has sold ballistic missiles to Iran and other Middle Eastern countries, could "proliferate nuclear weapons abroad."The intelligence chief also estimated that Iran and Syria will boost their support for Hezbollah, Hamas and other Palestinian terror organizations. He accused Syria and Hezbollah of interfering with the Lebanese presidential elections.He warned that rising tensions in Lebanon could result in a fresh civil war, and the return to armed "militias" within the country."Many former militias in Lebanon are reconstituting, rearming, and retraining their fighters," he said. "The increased political and sectarian tension also raises the potential for civil war within the country."In addition, McConnell raised the threat of Al-Qaida in Lebanon, maintaining it continues to threaten the country's internal security.
Iran Says Gulf Shields its Banks from U.S. Pressure
MANAMA -- U.S. allies such as Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates are helping shield Iran's banking system from Washington's "financial terrorism," the governor of Iran's central bank said on Tuesday.
Russia: Iranian Rocket Raises 'Suspicions' About Nuclear Program
By VOA News : 06 February 2008
A senior Russian diplomat says Iran's test launch of a rocket earlier this week has raised "suspicions" about the country's nuclear program.Russian news agencies quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov Wednesday as saying long-range rockets are one of the components of a nuclear weapons program.Iran inaugurated its first major space center Monday and launched a new rocket capable of carrying a first domestic-built satellite into orbit.Iran has been pursuing a space program for several years. It says it wants to launch satellites for research and telecommunications.U.S. officials describe the Iranian rocket as a ballistic missile and say the test will further isolate Tehran from the world.The United States and its Western allies accuse Iran of developing technology to produce nuclear weapons. Tehran denies the charge.The U.N. Security Council has already imposed two sets of sanctions on Iran for its failure to suspend uranium enrichment.The five permanent members of the council, which includes the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France, recently agreed on the text of a resolution that will impose a third round of sanctions against Iran.
Intelligence official revives Iran doubts
By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington : February 6 2008 03:05
The senior US intelligence official on Tuesday stressed that a recent report on Iran had concluded that Tehran had halted only one part of its alleged nuclear weapons programme.Admiral Michael McConnell, director of national intelligence, said the November national intelligence estimate had concluded that Tehran had ceased only efforts to covertly enrich uranium and design nuclear warheads. “The only thing that they’ve halted was nuclear weapons design, which is probably the least significant part of the programme,” he told the Senate intelligence committee.Adm McConnell said Iran continued to develop uranium enrichment technology and longer-range ballistic missiles.Critics of the US administration’s approach on Iran had seized on the NIE as evidence that the US had exaggerated the threat. In response, Robert Gates, defence secretary, gave a tough speech on Iran a few days later, stressing that the report had confirmed for the first time that Tehran had established a nuclear weapons programme.A spokesman for Adm McConnell said on Tuesday he was not backing away from the NIE’s conclusions but simply concerned that there had been too much focus on one element of the report.Adm McConnell was giving Congress his annual assessment of threats to the US. He also raised concerns about North Korea’s nuclear activities.“While Pyongyang denies a programme for uranium enrichment, and they deny their proliferation activities, we believe North Korea continues to engage in both,” he said. The US is trying to convince Pyongyang to provide a full declaration of its nuclear activities as part of a deal reached in six-party talks aimed at denuclearising the Korean peninsula. North Korea has already missed the deadline of the end of last year to provide the declaration.Adm McConnell expressed concern about the increased ability of al-Qaeda to operate in the border area of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and said the organisation was improving its ability to attack the US. He also raised concerns about a growing influx of “western recruits” into the tribal areas of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border since mid-2006.At the same hearing, General Michael Hayden, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, confirmed publicly for the first time that the US had used the interrogation technique of waterboarding – or simulated drowning – on three detainees captured since the 9/11 attacks.Gen Hayden said the CIA used the technique on Khaled Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the attacks, and two other detainees. He said the CIA had not used waterboarding for almost five years.
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In about turn, U.S. says Iran may be able...Ha'aretz 18:22 5-Feb-08
Iran says Gulf shields its banks from U.S. pressureReuters 18:11 5-Feb-08
Iran dismisses US concern over space research driveIrish Sun 14:27 5-Feb-08
What's to Negotiate?The American Spectator 05:00 6-Feb-08
Israelis Want Next US President to Deal With IranCrosswalk.com 16:50 5-Feb-08
Iranian test shows need for Europe-based missile defence: PentagonThe Earth Times
Pentagon Briefing
Regime Change in Iran: Difficult But Not Impossible
February 08, 2008 Harry's Place hurryupharry.bloghouse.net
Yossi Alpher, a former senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, has written a piece for The Forward newspaper in which he claims that the Islamist regime in Iran, "however odious, is here to stay."Alpher argues: True, the Tehran regime actually encourages Western regime-change advocates by its paranoia. A regime that goes to such extreme measures to suppress dissent and concoct virtual subversives must, the outsider reasons, be extremely weak and unstable.Yet the simplest indication that regime change efforts against Tehran don’t work is the fact that for nearly 30 years they haven’t worked.Indeed, objectively speaking, the mullahs’ regime has been in far worse straits throughout most of the past three decades than it is today, when it is flooded with petrodollars. Iranians willingly vote in their elections, however unfair and undemocratic they may look to us. They idolize the heroes of the war in the 1980s with Iraq. And when they express dissatisfaction with their abject lack of freedoms, the regime is very skillful at suppressing dissent.
I asked Potkin Azarmehr, an Iranian blogger living in London, to respond to Alpher. Here is what he writes:I have rarely read something so defeatist in the last 29 years, during which I have followed Iranian related news on a daily basis. In fact the article does not give any valid reasons why the Islamic regime cannot be toppled, it just says it's difficult! So should we only engage in easy tasks? Next time I am handed a project at work should I say, oh that's difficult, I only want to do easy ones?I have to say I agree with a few points in the article. Fomenting ethnic dissent is counter-productive to toppling the regime. Those familiar with Iranian history and Iranian psychology will realise that the overwhelming majority of Iranians are so anti-separatism that they will put up with the most repressive regime to keep the historic entity of Iran intact, and this includes myself. The Islamic Republic does not discriminate against the ethnicity of Iranians, it discriminates against those who do not conform to the state's interpretation of religion. The Islamic Republic is not a "Persian chauvinist" state, the Supreme Leader is an Azeri like myself. Persian is not a ruling ethnic group, it's the common language of the Iranian people and much loved because of its richness by all Iranian people. The majority of Persian literature lecturers and scholars are non-Persians.Back to my objections to the article. Is it difficult to topple the regime? Yes it is. Is it impossible? Not at all. Why is it not impossible? Just look at the trend of its popularity in the last 29 years. In the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution, 98 percent of the people voted for the referendum to establish an Islamic republic. Although it was a flawed election, we have to accept that the majority were in favour, not knowing what was ahead for them. Would a similar number vote in favour now? Absolutely not. Just look at the filtering of the candidates by the Guardian Council. The regime is so scared of giving the Iranian people a real choice that even the most loyal people to the revolution are now barred from standing as candidates. If the likes of Yossi Alpher bothered to promote engagement with Iranian dissidents as well as with Iranian state officials, perhaps it would surprise him to find out from the ex-political prisoners that even their prison guards and governors would at times manifest their hatred of the religious dictatorship in Iran. That's how deeply unpopular the regime has become.The difficulty in mobilising the Iranian masses to reach the critical mass required to topple the regime is that the regime to them seems invincible. They lack confidence, and certainly such articles by Yossi Alpher do not help. The people of Iran need to see that the world is not bending over backwards to the Ayatollahs, that their struggles are reported by the international media, that the regime's officials are not received by the world as eminent dignitaries, that the notorious judge Mortazavi is not accepted in Geneva as the head of the Iranian Human Rights delegation. They want to see a crack in the regime's invincibility. Then the likes of Yossi Alpher will be surprised at how quickly the crack will spread, just as academics have always been surprised with any revolution. I can't recall a revolution which was ever predicted, neither in Iran, nor in East Europe, nor anywhere or any time by any academics. Predicting revolutions is not a safe bet to bolster your academic credentials. It does not happen very often, but it does.
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