Iran & US: Shadowy on-going Negotiations and Placating Constituents

Iranian Envoy Says Iranians May Be Freed

BAGHDAD (AP) - Five Iranians detained during a U.S.-led raid in northern Iraq in January could be released as early as next week, Iran's ambassador said Wednesday.
Hassan Kazemi Qomi said U.S. officials had informed Iranian delegates at a weekend security conference here that they were in ``the final stage'' of the investigation into the case. Qomi said he hoped the five could be released before the Iranian New Year, which falls on March 21.

So, apparently we have been involved in stealth negotiating position with the Islamic Repbulic of Terrorists for quite a while now ...Jules Crittenden excerpts and analyzes a Stratfor report on the on-going covert negotiations between the United States and Iran. Tidbit:

The Iranians are also under pressure. They have miscalculated on what Bush would do: They expected military drawdown, and instead they got the surge. This has conjured up memories of the miscalculation on what the 1979 hostage crisis would bring: The revolutionaries had bet on a U.S. capitulation, but in the long run they got an Iraqi invasion and Ronald Reagan.

Expediency Council Chairman Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani already has warned the Iranians not to underestimate the United States, saying it is a “wounded tiger” and therefore much more dangerous than otherwise. In addition, the Iranians know some important things.

… Uncontrolled chaos next door could spill over into Iran in numerous ways — separatist sentiments among the Kurds, the potential return of a Sunni government if the Shia are too fractured to govern, and so forth. A certain level of security in Iraq is fundamental to Iran’s national interests.

… there are concerns that Iraq’s Shia are so fractious that they might not be serviceable as a coherent vehicle for Iranian power.

… Finally, Iran’s ability to threaten terror strikes against U.S. interests depends to a great extent on Hezbollah … far more interested in the power and wealth to be found in Lebanon than in some global — and potentially catastrophic — war against the United States. The Iranian leadership has seen al Qaeda’s leaders being hunted and hiding in Pakistan, and they have little stomach for that. In short, Iranian leaders might not have all the options they would like to pretend they have …

… Iran has sufficient power to block a settlement on Iraq, but it lacks the ability to impose one of its own making. Second, Hezbollah is far from willing to play the role of global suicide bomber to support Iranian ambitions. Third, an Iranian nuclear bomb is far from being a reality. Finally, Iran has, in the long run, much to fear from the Russians: Moscow is far more likely than Washington to reduce Iran to a vassal state …

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Iranian Women Resisting Gender Apartheid

Partial translation:
Today, We have decided to express explicitly the goals of this peaceful movement and resistance.

Freedom, Liberty

We have raised you men in our bodies and we have given you men life from our own life.

Another world is possible
Freedom and Deliverance Is possible for Iranian women
This movement is going to accomplish this
This is the voice of freedom
This is the voice of revolution

We're Children of this land but we have no rights.

Iranian womens' right must be restored
The Constitution must be reformed
Women are human too

Unjust,patriarchal and cruel laws against women should be revoked
Injustice to women is injustice to humanity.

Update 1: LA Times reports that Iran arrests 10 at Women's Day rally

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China Moving in the Right Direction

China Changing Stance?

This could be an indication:
March 2, 2007 (Beijing) — China has left Iran, Sudan, and Nigeria off its latest list of resource-rich countries for which it will provide financial incentives to Chinese companies to invest in, the Financial Times reported.

The Chinese National Development and Reform Commission, the chief economic planning agency that also oversees energy policy, released the new list on Thursday.
The nine nations slated for further Chinese oil and gas investment are Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Morocco, Libya, Niger, Norway, Ecuador and Bolivia.

It is not clear whether the exclusion of Iran, Sudan and Nigeria came because Chinese companies already have short-term investment plans in the three countries, or for more political reasons...Kudos to China.

I'll be cooking and eating lots of chinese food from now on...

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Batebi's Wife is Abducted; Batebi Starts Starvation

Kamangir: Ahmad Batebi has reportedly started a dry starvation after the reports about the abduction of his wife, Somaiieh Bayenat. His wife’s brother mentioned to BBC earlier today that his sister has been arrested by individuals resembling intelligence personnel, after they showed her a document. A few minutes before her abduction, in a phone call, she told one of her friends that she felt like being followed for the whole day. Mohammad Abtahi, a close aide to the former president compares Batebi’s case with Jazayeri, the corrupt businessman who fled recently, and writes, “I am afraid he did not have the money to escape”.

This is an opportunity for the Liberals, the Left and the anti-war/torture activists in the West to show the Iranian people where they stand on fundamental issues of freedom and human rights.Do they back Iranian people's legitimate struggle for human rights and democracy, do they back Iranian just cause for equal rights? Or do they only come out of their closets for a bit of US bashing? Where are the dailykos bloggers? Do they only care about the legal and human rights of Guantanamo prisoners ? The left is the enemy of the enslaved Iranian people, period. Not only that, they want to sell us out to the tyrannical mullahs; hence, their silence. The sick part is that they expect us to lick their boot while they are kicking us in the face and expect us to celebrate their so-called moral relativisim, which quite frankly tantamounts to what social psychologist call, 'covert racism'.

Previously on Jailed Iranian Activists:

Brutal Death of Iranian Activist Akbar Mohammadi Revealed Iranian

Iranian Political Activist Batebi Gets Nine More Years at Evin Prison

Noted Iranian Activist, Ahmad Batebi, in Serious Condition Harvard Students Will Protest Khatami for Release of Ahmed Batebi Iranian Activist

Sanjari Arrested With Ayatollah Boroujerdi

Please checkout amnesty international library on Iran:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/eng-irn/index

Holy Crimes of IRI Documented:
http://www.abfiran.org/english/memorial-browse-1.php

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Appeasment=Surrender

This was swiped in full from Ardeshir's blog:


Whatever, regime must go

It is argued, on behalf of the regime, that the presence of the Iranian made bombs and explosives does not per se indicate the involvement of the Islamic government in the killing of American soldiers. The presence of Iranian bombs and explosives may or may not indicate that the regime at its highest level is involved in supplying the insurgents with these bombs and explosives. However, at least one thing it does illustrate is the regime’s inability to have controls over such weapons of mass destructions that it either produces or is supplied with from outside. This is exactly the point. Is it not? That should a rogue regime with its track records acquire nuclear technology and eventually nuclear bombs, would it not be possible thatt the nuclear technology and bombs could fall into the hands of some terrorist groups?


Many compare the present situation with the Russians and Chinese supplying of arms to the enemies of the West. This is what they say: When the Russians and Chinese were supplying our enemies we did not go to war with these countries because such attacks on these countries would have been detrimental to us and the rest of the world. We talked to them, negotiated, and eventually found peaceful solutions. Richard Nixon was talking to both the Chinese and Soviets at the same time when we had troops on the ground in Vietnam being killed with their weapons. And eventually the negotiations paid off.



I am not here to argue that America should attack Iran. But rather counter argue with those who argue we should negotiate with the regime. There are a number of factors that are very different this time around that do not seem to be taken much notice of by those who want America to negotiate with the Islamic regime. Firstly, both the Russians and Chinese had full control over their weapon productions and the supplying of these weapons was always endorsed at the highest levels. The communist system should be hailed for their total control over their system if not anything else. Besides, The Russians and Chinese had nuke bombs and surly a war with the Russians and the 1.2 billion Chinese would be catastrophic. This is why negotiations were the most pragmatic approach. The Islamic regime, however, is not in control of its weapons or itself for that matter and most importantly, the Islamic regime does not value life in the same way the Russians and Chinese did and do. It is true that both regimes executed and still do (perhaps more so in China) dissidents but none of them considered sacrificing their country and/or the entire population for their cause unlike the Islamic regime that believes in order to advance Islam, it may be necessary to sacrifice a whole country. This is what Ayatollah Khomeini said and what Ayatollah Khamenei is saying right now! Secondly, at the time of the war in Vietnam, there was not a ticking clock as such. The present situation is a race against the time. The Islamic regime is not far from acquiring enough technology to make its first nuclear bomb and that is why decisions and actions must be taken swiftly and correctly.


As an Iranian, I would naturally oppose any form of military attacks on my homeland, but I do condemn any form of negotiations with the regime that would either prolong or further strengthen their tyrannical rule. I wish those who want the West and America to negotiate with the Islamic regime would also make some reference to the suffering of the Iranian people at the hands of the regime.

Related Posts: Iran Is 'Suicide' Nation.

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Ahmad Batebi had a Stroke in Evin Prison

Remember him? Ahmad Batebi had a stroke in the infamous Evin Prison and went into coma for 3 hours. He is only 30 years old. To toruture him psychologically they had threatned to transfer him to the criminal and drug addicts section of the prison...He was taken to the clinic in prison but given his grave condition he needs the specialists help outside of the prison.

h/t to Sheema

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Tap The Hardboiled Egg!

Victor Davis Hanson has some excellent ideas for how to deal with the continuing menace of Iran's Imperialist theocracy. An excerpt:

We all know the Iranian M.O. - nuclear proliferation, Holocaust denial, threats to wipe out Israel, vicious anti-Western rhetoric, lavish sponsorship of terrorists at work attacking Israel and destabilizing Lebanon.

If that were not enough, we now learn that Iran has been sending agents into Iraq to destroy the fledgling democracy and supplying sophisticated roadside bombs to blow up Americans.
Lunatic state-run media keep boasting that Iran will kidnap American soldiers, shut down the Straits of Hormuz, send out global jihadists and raise the price of oil.

Most international observers agree on two things about this loony theocracy that promises to take the world down with it: We should not yet bomb Iran, and it should not get the bomb.

Yet the former forbearance could well ensure the latter reality.What, then, should the United States do other than keep offering meaningless platitudes about "dialogue" and "talking"?

Imagine that Iran is a hardboiled egg with a thin shell. We should tap it lightly wherever we can - until tiny fissures join and shatter the shell...There is plenty more.

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