Breaking: Top Commander’s Killed in Iran

Finding it just now coming out.  http://enduringamerica.com/2009/10/18/the-latest-from-iran-18-october-semi-normal-indeed-khamenei-bahari-hajjarian/

and below which says it was a suicide bomber…

http://blog.taragana.com/n/report-suicide-bomber-kills-5-top-revolutionary-guard-commanders-in-southeastern-iran-199094/

Filed under: Iran

Unconditional Talks or Threat of Force?

Cartoons By Michael Ramirez

Filed under: Global Affairs, Global Threats, Iran, Islam, Muslim, Religion

Iran Tests Fires Missiles

The picture speaks for itself…

Groupthink :: View topic – Life Imitates The Cube: Iran’s Mullahs Photoshop A Missile

Filed under: Iran, Islam, Military, Muslim

Iran finds the cure for AIDS.

Yup, how can Iran be such a bad country now that they’ve found the cure for AIDS?  What a bunch of nice guys…

Iran to Publicize Medical Discovery in Feb.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- An Iranian health official said that his country will announce good news about success in developing a new medicine in the coming Ten Day Dawn – from February 1-11 (marking the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979).

Hessamoddin Madani, director of the health ministry’s team for the Iran-made anti-AIDS drug (IMOD), said that the ministry is conducting studies to develop 22 new drugs.

He further called on the government to render increased spiritual and material support to researchers.

After 7 long years of arduous work, Iranian scientists last February introduced a herbal medicine which cures Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

“The drug named ‘IMOD’ is completely effective and safe with no proved side effects,” Madani said.

The Iranian AIDS drug strengthens immunity system of the patients against HIV and provides a more qualitative life for the affected population.

“One IMOD injection produces effects for 21 months, meaning that the patient will not need any medication for 21 months,” Madani said.

“The herbal drug prolongs patient’s life by 5 years,” he added.

Filed under: Iran

Policy Brief: Iraq, Iran and Turkey

As I recuperate from oral surgery, I spent some of my time catching up at the Center for Defense Information.  Oh, for future reference, don’t have you wisdom teeth pulled after the age 40.  Not so fun…  This issue (101) of Weekly Security Review’s analysis by WSI Senior Fellow, John Newhouse.

One year since the release of the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group report, WSI Senior Fellow John Newhouse revisits the Study Group’s recommendations in his latest policy brief, “Iraq, Iran and Turkey: A Regional Approach.” Newhouse argues that the United States must keep a low profile in Iraq and push for a regional framework for resolving the crisis. But it must also realize that bigger issues now threaten the region, such as how to deal with Iran and Turkey’s powder-keg situation in northern Iraq.

Filed under: Global Threats, Iran, Iraq

Democrats = Copperheads?

Occasionally I browse through Wikipedia for fun.  Understanding its editorial process, I know not to assume everything written in there is fair, non-partisan or accurate.  But, it is a great place to gather initial research and provide a starting point for further research.

Today I stumbled upon a piece of history that might describe today’s events if we changes some of the words slightly…

During the American Civil War (1861-1865) Iraq War, the Copperheads Democrats nominally favored the Union but strongly opposed the war, for which they blamed abolitionists Rumsfeld, Cheney and Rice, and they demanded immediate peace and resisted draft laws funding. They wanted Lincoln Bush and the Republicans ousted from power, seeing the president as a tyrant who was destroying American republican democratic values with his despotic and arbitrary actions.

Some Copperheads Democrats tried to persuade Union soldiers to desert. They talked of helping Confederate Iraqi/Al Qaeda prisoners of war seize their camps and escape. They sometimes met with Confederate Islamic Radical agents and took money. The Confederacy Islamic Radicals encouraged their activities whenever possible.^[1] Most Some Democratic party leaders, however, repelled Confederate Islamic Fundamentalist advances.

I found the similarities between the Copperheads and Democrats amazingly close.  But back in the 1800’s, groups like the Copperheads were handled much differently.

The Copperheads sometimes talked of violent resistance, and in some cases started to organize. They never actually made an organized attack, though. As war opponents, Copperheads were suspected of disloyalty, and Lincoln often had their leaders arrested and held for months in military prisons without trial.

Anyway, maybe the comparison is a stretch, but I still found it all quite similar to today’s current events.

Filed under: Democrats, Iran, Iraq, Islam, Politics, Republicans, Thoughts

U.S. Building Genetic Weapons…

From MEMRI.org.  Get a load of this!  Lunacy at its best.

Iran Accuses U.S., Israel of Genocide For Manufacturing “Genetic” Weapon To “Kill Specific Peoples”

An Iranian official has said that the U.S., assisted by Israel, is seeking to create a genetic and molecular bank to manufacture new types of unconventional weapons.

Addressing an international seminar on “The Consequences of the Use of Chemical Weapons against Iran,” Foundation for the Protection of the Values of the Sacred Defense head Gen. Mir Feysal Bagherzadeh said that the U.S., in collaboration with the Zionist regime of Israel, is forming a bank of the molecules and genes of the different world nations and peoples in pursuit of its hostile goals.

“This is not done in pursuit of humanitarian goals. Rather they are seeking to manufacture a weapon which could kill specific peoples in a limited geographical area,” he stressed.

Gen. Bagherzadeh further pointed out that this move should be considered genocide, “because they intend to massacre specific peoples and ethnicities” with the help of this weapon.

He said that several U.S. experts are conducting activities and research in Bosnia and Herzegovina along the same lines, and that after the recent crash of a Thai plane, U.S. and Israeli experts searched for corpses of Iranian nationals in a bid to obtain their genes for the research.

Source: Fars, Iran, October 22, 2007

Posted at: 2007-10-22

Filed under: Iran

The Story of the Year! Ahmadinejad at Columbia University.

He thinks the Holocaust is the cause of heavy catastrophes, that academic freedom and speech are to be valued, that there are no homosexuals in Iran.  I’m hitting highlights, but WaPost has the full transcripts.  If you missed it, Columbia University President Bollinger hit Mr. A pretty hard…

AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Like you, like any academic, I, too, will keep — not yet become silent until I get the answer. So I’m awaiting logical answers instead of insults.

My first question was if — given that the Holocaust is a present reality of our time, a history that occurred, why is there not sufficient research that can approach the topic from different perspectives?

Our friend referred to 1930 as the point of departure for this development. However, I believe the Holocaust from what we’ve read happened during World War II, after 1930, in the 1940s. So, you know, we have to really be able to trace the event.

Research your history a bit more Mr. “Academic”, Hitler stated his hatred for Jews in 1922, persecution started almost immediately when Hitler rose to power in January 1933.  It really started to get ugly in 1938,

My question was simple: There are researchers who want to approach the topic from a different perspective. Why are they put into prison? Right now, there are a number of European academics who have been sent to prison because they attempted to write about the Holocaust or research it from a different perspective, questioning certain aspects of it.

My question is: Why isn’t it open to all forms of research?

What exactly are you alluding too?  You mean research to supposedly point out that the Holocaust never happened?

I have been told that there’s been enough research on the topic. And I ask, well, when it comes to topics such as freedom, topics such as democracy, concepts and norms such as God, religion, physics even, or chemistry, there’s been a lot of research, but we still continue more research on those topics. We encourage it.

But, then, why don’t we encourage more research on a historical event that has become the root, the cause of many heavy catastrophes in the region in this time and age?

Wow, that’s a new spin on things…

MODERATOR: The first question is: Do you or your government seek the destruction of the state of Israel as a Jewish state?

AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): We love all nations. We are friends with the Jewish people. There are many Jews in Iran, leaving peacefully, with security.

Blah, blah, blah…  President Bollinger responds.

QUESTION: Mr. President, I think many members of our audience would like to hear a clearer answer to that question. That is…

(APPLAUSE)

The question is: Do you or your government seek the destruction of the state of Israel as a Jewish state? And I think you could answer that question with a single word, either yes or no.

(APPLAUSE)

AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): You asked the question, and then you want the answer the way you want to hear it. Well, this isn’t really a free flow of information.

(APPLAUSE)

I’m just telling you what my position is. I’m asking you: Is the Palestinian issue not an international issue of prominence or not? Please tell me, yes or no?

Obviously misdirecting the conversation here.  He still hasn’t answered yes or no.

(APPLAUSE)

There’s the plight of a people.

QUESTION: The answer to your question is yes. (Bollinger responds to Ahmadinejad’s query very easy enough. ed.)

AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Well, thank you for your cooperation. We recognize there’s a problem there that’s been going on for 60 years. Everybody provides a solution. And our solution is a free referendum.

Let this referendum happen, and then you’ll see what the results are.

And to end this mess, perhaps the most brilliant observation ever.

QUESTION: Mr. President, the question isn’t about criminal and drug smugglers. The question was about sexual preference and women.

(APPLAUSE)

AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals, like in your country. (Highlight, mine. ed.)

(LAUGHTER)

We don’t have that in our country.

(AUDIENCE BOOING)

AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon. I don’t know who’s told you that we have it.

(LAUGHTER)

Yeah, right.  3 minutes in a Google search brings this up…

Filed under: History, Iran

Ballistic Missile Superiority and Asymmetrical Warfare – Iranian Style

 

Thanks to MEMRI…

On September 1, 2007, in a surprise move, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appointed Mohammad Ali Aziz Jafari as top commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). [1] His predecessor, Yahya Rahim Safavi, who had held the position for a decade, is now special military advisor to Khamenei. (To view the MEMRITV webpage on Yahya Rahim Safavi, visit: http://memritv.org/subject/en/355.htm )

This new Commander has recently discussed the Iranian Military’s Strategic goals,

Throughout his military career, he has emphasized “asymmetrical warfare” and developing Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities. A Rooz article from September 4, 2007 explained that “asymmetrical warfare” refers to “attacks in enemy territory based on dispersed commando strikes rather than on traditional warfare [between two armies].

But, Iran would never develop nuclear weapons…

The IRGC is closely monitoring the enemy’s movements in the region… We discern even their most minor movements… The IRGC’s excellent defensive and ballistic [missile] capabilities [constitute] one of our present advantages, and we aim to attain superiority [in this area]… Informed response to threats, developing independent capabilities and preserving Iran’s strength – these are among the goals of the IRGC…

Read more here.

Filed under: Global Threats, Iran

Pentagon’s "Blitz" on Iran – Times Online

So the Information Operation Campaign against Iran takes another step forward.  Last week, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are labeled as a terrorist organization,

The United States has decided to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country’s 125,000-strong elite military branch, as a “specially designated global terrorist,” according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to target the group’s business operations and finances.

Now the Times Online publishes U.S. military “strategic concepts”:

THE Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians’ military capability in three days, according to a national security expert.

Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national security at the Nixon Center, said last week that US military planners were not preparing for “pinprick strikes” against Iran’s nuclear facilities. “They’re about taking out the entire Iranian military,” he said.

Some would question the sense in telling the enemy what were doing, seemingly giving away our secrets.  The other side though, it to prepare your enemy for pending action, getting him into reactionary mode, making him respond to your move first, giving you tactical advantage…

Pentagon ‘three-day blitz’ plan for Iran – Times Online

Filed under: Iran

Panic in the Iranian Regime?

As the Iranian regime starts to lose control, the obvious step for them is to clamp down.  Hence, increased public executions to demonstrate their absolute authority. This thing can go two ways, utter repression of the populace through media blackouts, mass arrests and increased executions or student revolt and riots.

Executions In Iran On The Rise

In the past eight months, there have been 148 executions by public hanging in Iran. Eight of them have been carried out in Mashhad in the past 10 days, for delinquency. Preparations for the execution next month of 15 prisoners from Evin prison have been completed, and there are also additional prisoners who are waiting for their sentence to be carried out.

Source: Rooz, Iran, August 2, 2007 TheMEMRIblog 

Update 6:08 PM: Let’s not forget this little piece published August 4th over at Reuters…

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iranian police detained more than 200 people and seized alcohol and drugs in a raid on a “satanic” underground rock concert, media in the conservative Islamic state reported on Saturday.

Iran, which has launched an annual summer crackdown on “immoral behavior”, bans alcohol, narcotics and parties with unrelated men and women dancing, drinking and mixing. Western popular music is frowned upon.

The police operation took place on Wednesday night in the town of Karaj near the capital Tehran, at an event with local disc jockeys, rock and rap groups performing, the media said.

“Most of those arrested are wealthy young people … who came to this party with the goal of attending a provocative, satanic concert,” daily Tehran-e Emrouz quoted a senior police official, Reza Zarei, as saying.

Filed under: Global Threats, Iran

Stone; Just Another Part of the System?

Poor Oliver Stone. In addition to writer, producer, director, and actor, he can add supporter of Satan to his list of credits.  The man who brought us such notably anti-establishment films as JFK and Natural Born Killers has been branded by Iran as a part of the very system he’s tried to shake up.

“I sent a negative answer by Ahmadinejad to Oliver Stone,” the Fars agency quoted Mehdi Kalhor, media adviser to the [Iranian] president, as saying Sunday. “It is right that this person is considered part of the opposition in the U.S., but opposition in the U.S. is a part of the Great Satan.”

That must be a stinging rebuke for someone who decidedly is not conservative, nor republican.

“I hate conventional thought,” he said. “I always did. I think I went through a period of being institutionalized myself, in boarding schools, the Army, Merchant Marine and college, in the 1960s. I’ve seen conventional thinking and I’m always rebelling against it.

In the past, the Washington Post claimed he was a intellectual sociopath and Newsweek ran a cover headline saying that his movie JFK couldn’t be trusted. 

So, I’m wondering how Mr. Stone is feeling right now that Iran has labeled him no better than the system he’s been fighting all these years.  I bet that was a serious blow to his ego.

Now, let’s get to the real meat of this post.  Mehdi Kalhor has just made it very clear to me that they consider the U.S. to be the Great Satan, a phrase generally attributed to the Ayatollah in 1979, as well as the opposition parties within our society.  How does this bode for any future negotiations?  The Bush administration, therefore, they think, cannot be trusted.  Any opposition parties to Bush also cannot be trusted.

This effectively closes the door on the diplomatic instrument of National Security Strategy, leaving the economic and military instruments.  We’re currently working the economic piece through the sanctions, but will have to reassess them soon.  As you can guess, if these efforts don’t work, there is only one last instrument of National Security Strategy to use – military.

Filed under: Foreign Policy, Global Threats, Iran, Military, Politics

Islamic Persecution of Christians

The catch phrase of the day is the religious intolerance of Muslims in the United States and Europe. CAIR and other groups are clamoring over racial profiling at airports, telling us we fail to understand Muslim taxi drivers who refuse fairs because the passengers have alcohol or dogs or cashiers who refuse to ring up pork products at Target stores.

But, let me show you their intolerance through this one instance posted at PrisonerAlert.com.

Prisoner Profile

PRISONER NAME Issa Motamedi Mojdehi
LOCATIONI ran (Islamic Republic of)
ARRESTED July 2006
REVISED June 27, 2007

No personal or prison address is available for Issa Motamedi Mojdehi. Please be an advocate on his behalf and contact government officials.

Issa and his wife, Parvah, attempted to register the birth of their son, Micah, who was born in January, with the civil population bureau. Selecting such a Biblical name may have caused the authorities to begin investigating this Christian family. Issa was arrested July 24th on false charges of drug trafficking.

At the time of his July 24th arrest the convert was told he must renounce Christianity or face years in jail and possible execution for his apostasy. Under Iran’s judicial system based on Islamic law, anyone who leaves Islam for another religion has committed a capital offense. Lakan Prison officials reportedly tried for days to force him to confess to being involved in illegal drug trafficking.

Using strong psychological pressures, including threats to kill his family and other Christian believers, Issa was interrogated by secret service agents and a professor of Islamic theology, who urged him to recant his Christian faith and return to Islam. Issa refused to do so.

Iranian court authorities in the Northern city of Rasht have released Issa. He was granted bail August 24th, but the judge introduced new accusations against him at this hearing. According to unnamed “confidential witnesses,” the judge said, the convert’s eight-year-old daughter, Martha, allegedly had been trying to lead other children to the Christian faith.

He was reunited with his wife, Parvah, and his two children following his release. He has moved his family to an undisclosed location, but is subject to be recalled to court. Issa converted to Christianity seven years ago. He asks, “Pray for me, that I would be stronger in my faith.” Issa told other believers that the calmness and protection God gave him during his time in prison were miraculous.

Source: Compass Direct News

Filed under: Iran, Muslim, Religion

Iran Protests Israel’s Military Threat

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- The Iranian ambassador to the UN, in a letter to the secretary-general, complained that the UN Security Council has done nothing to stop Israel’s “unlawful and dangerous threats” against Iran.

Oh, the irony!  From FARS, those poor Iranians are upset that Israel says that Iran should be wiped from the map.  Oh, wait, they didn’t say that, Iran said that about Israel.

 TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- The Iranian ambassador to the UN, in a letter to the secretary-general, complained that the UN Security Council has done nothing to stop Israel’s “unlawful and dangerous threats” against Iran.

Javad Zarif protested yesterday a recent statement from Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz that Israel has not ruled out military action against Iran to disable its nuclear program. He also referred to a similar statement that Zionist regime’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made in April.

 ”I wish to inform you that, emboldened by the absence of any action by the Security Council, various Israeli officials have unabatedly continued to publicly and contemptuously make unlawful and dangerous threats of resorting to force against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Zarif said in the letter, dated June 11. He also sent a copy to the president of the Security Council. Zarif faulted the council for not condemning the statements and for “pushing for statements against Iran based on various distortions and unsubstantiated allegations … in a failed attempt and tired smokescreen to distract the international community’s attention from the real and serious threats that the (Israeli) regime poses to international and regional peace and security.”

Filed under: Global Threats, Iran

California Says No to Iran

I originally found the topic at Pajamas Media.  Looks like California understands a critical point.  Mahmoud ain’t the type of guy you want to do business with.  Cali is divesting its pension funds from Iran.

Iran divestiture act breezes through Assembly

By Malcolm Maclachlan
(published June 7th, 2007)

It’s rare that any bill gets the kind of bipartisan support enjoyed by AB 221–especially one authored by a freshman Republican. The bill, which calls for the state’s largest pension funds to divest from Iran, sailed through the Assembly on Tuesday with a 75-0 vote. It’s even garnered support from a bipartisan group of California Congress members.

Filed under: Global Threats, Iran, Religion