The Difference!

Sheema: The difference between some one like Haleh Esfandiari and Sheema Kalbasi (I) is that I see the Iranian regime as a group of people who have committed and continue to commit horrendous crimes against humanity. People like Dr. Esfandiari -- who I hope will return to the U.S. safe and sound especially since Keyhan has accused her of apostasy-- do support a dialogue with the Iranian regime. I like to know why Ms. Esfandiari’s husband is devastated over his wife’s arrest and why he doesn’t try to engage in a dialogue with the Iranian regime. Why Shaul Bakhash goes on BBC to confirm that Esfandiari is still a Muslim. After all Ms. Esfandiari and people like her insist on engaging in a dialogue with the Iranian regime.

So what if she is accused of apostasy! So what if women and men are stoned to death in Iran! So what if political activists and Bahaies are arrested and executed and the Bahai graveyards are destroyed, and they are not even allowed to bury their dead in adherence to their religious tradition. So what if Kurds are murdered and their dead body are shown throughout the town to teach a lesson! So what if Iranian women have no right to their children after divorce! So what if Iranian women don’t have equal opportunities, and so what if women activists, workers, and teachers are arrested! So what if intellectuals have been murdered and bloggers are arrested! Iranian regime is a regime that one can engage in a dialogue with.

I am sure once Dr. Esfandiari is back in the U.S. she will continue to work with her boss and this time her words and work will have more legitimacy since she will be that victim of the Iranian regime her self!! For people who have lost nothing and/or their countrymen and women’s arrests and executions has not influenced and effected their lives the Iranian regime is surly legitimize enough to engage in a talk with. They tend to show Ahmadinejad is the worst case Iran has ever had during the years Iran has been occupied by the regime. Let us not forget the Iranian regime is not a product of president Ahmadinejad. The Iranian regime has been in power for almost thirty years and Ahmadinejad is the product of this regime. I may be buying a lot of junk and a lot of junk may sit on my figure but this junk just doesn’t fit and sit right with me!! And let us thank the democratic candidate Ms. Clinton for bringing attention to Haleh’s case! I hope she will not forget the Iranian regime’s problem with Dr. Esfandiari is not her duel citizenship!

Read more!

Iran: Iranian Teachers Beaten up Again and the usual suspects' Justification

Potkin:
More Iranian teachers were beaten up outside the Islamic Assembly in Tehran yesterday. Many were prevented from joining the rally by road blocks and fear of previous brutal crackdowns, but despite the smaller numbers yesterday, there was no reduction in the brutality of the Islamic Republic security forces.Some of the teachers were huddled into unmarked cars and taken away to undisclosed locations.

One teacher suffered a stroke and another was unable to talk after having been so savagely beaten up.Amongst the arrested was Sorraya Darabi, whose husband Mohammad Khaksari, editor of a Teacher publication, is still in prison. There are reports that their eldest son, Sajjad has also now been arrested.Of course the Islamic Republic apologists and lobbyists, the current champions of the British academic institutions and the Champagne Socialists, admonish all Iranian dissidents and those who report on such crackdowns.
[...]
In their view while their beloved Islamic Republic is under "external threat", there should be no dissent or reporting of dissent.See CASMII's protest at Znet's mild criticism of the Islamic Republic on 18th May, 2006:, June 11, 2006or an email I recently received from an Islamic Republic apologist, Shirin Saedi (ss725@cam.ac.uk ), from Cambridge Universty and a member of the CASMII editorial, who desperately tried to justify the crimes of Islamic Republic :"....any country under threat passes extraordinairy laws to bypass democratic institutions."--

Shirin Saeidi, a member of the editorial board at CASMII.

The fearmongering by the CASMII et al is nothing but an intimidation tactic to silence dissent and score political points for the establishment who support this ilk. Al-quda and the IRI have declared war against the U.S. (see here, here, and here) Israel, and the West(e.g. recent hostage taking of British Sailors) many years ago and their track record doesn't bode too well for them in that regard.

...The idea that there is a preventive war strategy to change the regime is at best a straw-man argument and at worst a conspiracy theory.Criticism regarding carrier group dispatch is misplaced. First, it is important that Arab states in the Persian Gulf recognize that the United States is going to defend its interests and protect our allies. Second, while Washington assumes events revolve around our decisions, the danger is Iranian overconfidence. Decision-makers in Iran, those in the office of the Supreme Leader and the Revolutionary Guard, may confuse democratic debate with weakness and inadvertently cross a red line. We know from their statements that they do not take U.S. diplomatic demarches seriously. That the United States is willing to demonstrate red lines aids transparency and reduces the risk of accidental conflict.

Then, let me get this, according to Shirin Saeidi's logic, it follows that Iran should not be criticized because any of the criticism can and will be used as a pretext for attacking Iran. Further, all morbid actions by Iran are defensive. Even the "wipe off" other countries comments and weekly death wishes (for 28 years) and "Making the World Without America possible" as the long-term objectives of the IR.

Luckily for dictators around the world, utilizing Shirin Saedi's sophism, we can obsolve democratically elected Hitler, the late Shah, Saadam (100% of the votes were for him), democratically elected Pol pot and all the rest from any crimes they have ever done against their own citizens and against others. Splendid!

Then, lets not criticize Israel and the U.S. at all either as the criticism may lead to terrorist attacks against Americans, other westerners, and Israelis. What a wonderful logic, 'danger of attack absolves from criticism'. Why didn't I think of that? So, Mrs. Saedi, please stop writing your highly anti-American articles because your criticism of USA can subject USA to terrorist attacks. Thanks.

Read more!

Beating by Guards Fails to Stop Voting, Iranian Students Say

The NY Times:

TEHRAN, May 7 — Students at Amir Kabir University fended off club-wielding university security guards on Monday and went ahead with elections for a pro-democracy association.
Despite the successful election at Amir Kabir, it is not clear that balloting for student associations will be allowed at other universities. The associations, a powerful center of support and communication among student democracy advocates, are a constant irritant to the government, which seeks to maintain strict control over politics and cultural norms.
The University of Science and Industry, where President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad taught before he was elected, has not been permitted to hold elections for the past two years. Students at Tehran University have vowed to hold a ballot, but have yet to do so.
Amir Kabir University has long been a center of student political activity. Students there chanted against Mr. Ahmadinejad when he visited the university late last year and set fire to posters bearing his likeness.

A student leader, Mehrdad Khalilpour, was arrested Monday by security officials, but two of his comrades managed to escape. Among other student leaders, Babak Zamanian was arrested late last month and Ahmad Ghassaban was arrested on Friday.
However, the student democracy advocates said they scored a victory on Monday when they managed to hold their annual elections.

“The students reached the conclusion that the only way was to resist,” said Ehsan Mansouri, a student leader who has been banned from attending classes. “The students guarded the ballot boxes as they were attacked and clubbed severely by the university security guards.”
Protests erupted last week after four student publications appeared with articles that offended religious sensibilities. Student advocates denounced the articles, saying the publications had been forged in an effort to frame the students.
Under Iran’s Islamic law, punishment for the offense, technically “insulting religious sanctities,” can be death. One of the articles had raised what were seen as offensive questions about the return of the 12th Imam — the messiah in Shiite Islam.
Conservatives protested last week inside and outside the university, calling for a second cultural revolution. Under the first, which followed the 1979 Islamic revolution, universities around the country were closed, and liberal students and professors were purged.
The pressure on student advocates seems to be part of a major social and political crackdown. Women and younger men have been the target of the vice police in the past two weeks, with officers patrolling the streets and cautioning or arresting people they accused of looking immodest.

A prominent art professor, Nureddin Zarrinkelk, was expelled from Tehran University last week after he commented about the beauty of a woman’s hair at one of his classes.
The police also started seizing satellite dishes last week. Because the dishes provide access to opposition television channels they are officially banned, but that does not stop large numbers of people from using them.

Reformist politicians, who were marginalized after Mr. Ahmadinejad’s election two years ago, became alarmed last week when a former nuclear negotiator, Mohammad Hussein Moussavian, was arrested on espionage charges. To many here, the arrest seemed to signal a new crackdown on social freedoms.

“No one should be surprised if they stage another cultural revolution and shut down the universities,” said Saeed Leylaz, an economist and political commentator in Tehran. “The Islamic Republic has reached a stage that wants to suppress any kind of dissent, even if that means creating a police state.”

I applaud the NY Times for reporting the democracy movement in Iran. Thanks.

Read more!

Iran: Savage Islamist Jacobins in 1980's

What a day?

دوستان گرامی مدتهاست میخواهم برایتان مطلبی راجع به سی خرداد بنویسم که از آن روزقتل عام بچه های مردم ایران به دست خمینی جنایتکارشروع شد و تا همین اکنون ادامه دارد یعنی ماجرای روز شروع حمله و کشتار مردم ایران از هرگروه و دسته و قوم و مذهبی ماجرا این بود که به شکل کاملا ارگانایز مدتها بود که گروه هایفشار با پشتیبانی کمیته ها به سازمان های مختلف سیاسی و فرهنگی حمله کرده و محل را مصادره و همه بچه ها را بهضرب چاقو و چماق مشتی لمپن خود فروخته که برای پول به شکل گنگ های مردمی عمل میکردند با فریاد و فحاشی وچماق و چاقو به هر محلی که میخواستند حمله و درش را تختهمیکردند

آخرین جا سازمان پیشگام بود
که اول خیابان بیست ویک آذرقرار داشت و خود داستانی بود که برایتان روزی خواهم نوشت و بعد نوبت مجاهدین رسید خمینی به مجاهدین پیغام داد که بیائید اسلحه های خود را تحویلدهید و فعالیت حزبی کنید مجاهدین اینجا به نظر من یک اشتباه تاکتیکی کردند و تصمیم بهمقاومت گرفتند آن زمان میتوانستند مقادیری از اسلحه ها را داده و ظاهرا خلع سلاح شوند البته سریعا بهانه ای برای نابودکردنشان میافتند و این درمان ماجرانبود ولی ماجرا را به عقب می انداخت در این زمان ماجرای دیگری هم در شرف وقوع بود و آن زدن بنی صدرتوسط ژاکوبن ها بود میخواستند کاملا از عناصر شهر وند قدرت مرکزی را خالی کنند خوب در چنین شرایطی من به دلیل بودن در میلیوی سیاسی ایرانخبر شدم که روز سی خرداد قرار است از جلوی شرکت نفت درخیابان تخت جمشید حرکت اعتراضی شروع شود
آن زمان دیگر روزنامه و یا اطلاعیه ای وجود نداشت که به مردم خبربدهند بنابراین همه به شکل افواهی ماجرا را خبر شدند این همهکه میگویم طبق معمول مشتی دانشجو و مشتی روشنفکر و مبارز بدبخت همیشگی بودند ورنه مردم عادی خبری از چیزی نداشتند من تصمیم گرفتم تنها بروم زیرا میدانستم که برخورد خواهد پیشآمد و هنگامی که با دوستان بودم در فرار و سعی در کتک نخوردن خیلیبرام سخت بود اگر فرار میکردم احساس عذاب وجدان داشتم و اگر میماندم که خوب مگر خر بودم که بمانم و قمه بخورم ؟؟؟؟؟؟

به همین دلیل به همه گفتم خودم تنها خواهم رفت و سر ساعت چهاربعد از ظهر که موقع تعطیل شرکت نفت و باقی شرکت ها میرسید در چهار راه تخت جمشید و بهجت آباد بودم وضع خیابان معمولی بود فقط کمی شلوغ تر از مواقع دیگر ولی ناگهانعده ای جوان به شدت مرتب و منظم در میانه خیابان ابتدا یک مربع انسانی ساختند و ناگهان میانه مربع مردمی که نمیدانم کجا بودند جمع شدند و ناگهان مربع شد مستطیل و با مشت های گره کرده و فریاد های شعار حرکت کردند و من و هرکه بود هم به آنان پیوستیم این گروه از خیابان ویلا به طرف جنوب سرازیر شد و جمعیت هم لحظه به لحظه زیادترمیشد

درست در همان خیابان ویلا بود که موتور سوارهایچوب و قمه و زنجیر به دست به ما حمله کردند و چون سازمان به اعضاگفته بوده که اگر بهتان حمله شد این بار پاسخ بدهید ناگهان جنگ و کتک کاری بد جوری شد یعنی دیگر کسی فرار نکرد بلکه بچه هابا لمپنان دست به یقه شدند و من آن روز برای اولین بار بعد از تمامی بالا پائین رفتن های جامعه و تجاوز به حقوق تک تک مردم دو سه کله شکسته از لمپنان حزب الهی دیدم و هر لجظه شرایط تنس تر و خشن تر میشد به هر حال با این جمع هنگامی که به خیابان شاهرضا رسیدیم و تازه روی خیان شاهرضا پلی بنا کرده بودند جمعیت بخشی از زیر پل و بخشی کهمن هم میانشان بودم از بالای پل به حرکت به طرف چهار راه پهلوی و شاهرضا ادامه دادیم و درست روی این پل بودیم که من صدای تیر اندازیواقعی را شنیدم و متوجه شدم که پاسداران روی مردماتش گشوده اند همه روی پل خم شدیم و خمیده با فشار و وحشت به عقب بازگشتیم اینزمان که نمیدانم چه اندازه طول کشید تمامی خیابان و میدان فردوسی تکهتکه سنگ های درشتی بود که بچه های مجاهدین به سر و کله حزب الهیها و کمیته زده بودند به هر حال همگی به شکل فرار از تیراندازی از خیابان ویلا به طرف شمالو تخت جمشید دویدیم و ناگهان من متوجه شدمکه کلی ماشین در حال گرفتن بچه های جوان است برای فرار از تیر و سنگ و باقی به درگاه یک ساختمان قدیمی و سیاه وکهنه رفتم و ایستادم مدتی که گذشت ناگهان دو دختر جوان سیزده چهاردهساله مجاهد به کنارم آمدند و با گریه و برافروخته به من گفتند عده ای راکشته اند و

باقی را دارند میگیرند من بلافاصله زنگ ساختمان را زدم همهطبقات را و ناگهان کسی درب را با درب باز کن برقی باز کرد و من و این دودختر ودو پسر جوان هم که به ما پیوستند داخل شدیمتمامی طبقات خالی و سوراخ و درها شکسته بود جز طبقه چهارم کهکسی به ما گفت بیائید بالا و هنگامی که رسیدیم آنجا را یک تریکو بافی یافتیم که شش کارگر مشغولتریکو بافی بودند و یک صاحب کار هم بود که به ما همگی گفت بنشینید وما دور اطاق روی صندلی های لهستانی نشستیم صدای تیر اندازی و آژیر و جیغ و فریاد از پنجره ها میامد و همگی مضطرب بودیم شاید نیم ساعت بود آنجا بودیم که زنگ را زدند و صاحب کار به خیال این که باز هم کسانی هستند که میخواهند پناهنده شوند درب را باز کرد و مادرجندگان کمیته یکی از یکی زشت تر و بوگندو تر و عرق ریزان بالا آمده و مانند وحشی ها ابتدا با لگدی چیزها را پرت کردند و بعد داخل شده مانندکفتاری زخمی ابتدا به سراغ من که بانفرت نگاهشان میکردم امدندو کریه ترینشان به من گفت :- دستهات را نشونم بده من بی اختیار دستهایم را از پشت به طرفش گرفتم که گفت :- نه از تو ....من دستهایم را برگرداندم و نگاهی کرد و گفت اینجا چهمیکنی ؟گفتم در خیابان بودم که خر تو خر شد و به اینجا پناه آوردم به سرعت به طرف دو دختر و دو پسر دیگر رفت و همان کار را با آنان کردو متاسفانه دستهای این بچه های نازنین خاکی بود و هیچ یک از ما بهاین فکر نیفتاد که بروند دستهایشان را که سنگ و آجر پرتاب کرده اند بشورند هر چهار نفر را با خود بردند و به من گفت :- صبر کن خلوت که شد بیا بیرون نیم ساعتی بعد از رفتن آنان بیرون آمدم و به خیابان فردوسی رفته و بهچهار راه پهلوی رفتم و چیزهائی دیدم که نصیب هیچ انسانی دیدنش نشود

همان شب بنی صدر و رجوی به همراه یک خلبان نیروی هوائی که حتیبه زنش هم نگفته بود به پاریس فرار کردند و رژیم قصابان خمینی در زندان اوین عده ای از زندانیان گرو گرفته از مجاهدین را که بچه دبیرستانی های روزنامه سر چهار راه فروش بودندبه همراه شکراله پاکنژاد و سعید سلطان پور که مدتی بود زندان بود اعدام کردند بعدها شنیدم تمامی بچه هائی که آن روز گرفته بودند بلافاصله برایگرفتن زهر چشم از باقی مردم ایران اعدام کرده اندتا روزی که زنده ام آن بعد از ظهر شوم و چهره تازه و سرخ آن دو دخترو دوپسر جوان مبارز را فراموش نخواهم کرد صحنه ای بود درست مانند فیلم های راجع به فاشیست های هیتلریو خوف و وحشت همان بدینسان تعرض به جان مردم ایران آغاز گردید که بدون توقف تا همین امروزبیست و هشت سال است که ادامه دارد ..............................نانا

Read more!

Iran's Subsidized Basijee: Execute Iran's Father of Animation!

There are calls for the execution of a 70 year old Iranian cartoonist (Iran's father of animation), Nooredin Zarrin-kelk, who is said to have ridiculed the chador (a sort of unpegged tent some women wear in Iran):

The incident led to organised protests by state backed fundamentalist Baseej students/thugs, who once again exploited the situation in favour of their recent demand for a second "cultural revolution".

If you follow the link, you'll see there is such a thing as a free lunch, at least for state subsidized Islamic fundamentalist students (rent-a-mob) who organise spontaneous demonstrations.

One Basiji website even implicitly threatened (The owner of the website claims that he is ready to give up his life for Imam Mahdi and Khamanei) Zarrin-kelk's family members by boasting to have obtained their personal telephone numbers and addresses.

Potkin also laments the British universities (Cambridge this time) despicable act of inviting the supporters of the regime to lecture on behalf of the Islamic republic in their institutions and "ignoring the plight of their colleague in Iran and continuing to host Islamic Republic's hand-picked "fake dissidents" and apologists."

Read more!

Iran's Hostile Policies in Iraq

Absolute MUST READ : Comprehesive and expert analysis by James Phillips of Heritage Foundation on what we're up against in Iraq, catastrophic consequences of leaving Iraq and some tangible solutions to constrain and deter Iran from continuing its hostile policies against the United States in Iraq. Here are some excerpts:

[...]Iran's Goals in Iraq

Iran sought to expand its influence over Iraq long before the 2003 war in Iraq. After the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran's new regime sought to sub­vert Iraq's Sunni-dominated regime by radicalizing Iraq's Shia majority, which is more than 60 percent of the Iraqi population. Iran's subversive efforts were one factor that provoked Iraqi dictator Sad­dam Hussein to invade Iran in September 1980, resulting in a bloody eight-year war that greatly weakened both countries.

During that conflict, Tehran's revolutionary regime gave sanctuary and aid to the Iraqi opposition, includ­ing the political parties that form the backbone of the current Iraqi government. Iran invested its political capital in a wide variety of Iraqi political parties and militias. As a result, Iranian influence in post-Saddam Iraq is "substantial and growing."[1]

Iran's closest ally is the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which Tehran helped to create and molded while it was in exile in Iran. The SCIRI won the most seats in Iraq's 2005 elections and is the dominant political force within the United Iraqi Alliance, the Shiite umbrella group that claims 128 seats in Iraq's 275-seat parliament.

Tehran also retains strong influence within the Dawa Party, an older, more moderate Shiite political party that includes Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.Iran also enjoys good relations with the Kurdish Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdi­stan, the two main Kurdish political parties. Both received sanctuary and support from Iran while they resisted Saddam Hussein's repressive regime.

Iran's good relations with these various political par­ties are understandable given the long history of Ira­nian support. Tehran is believed to have recruited agents from within the various parties who now hold key positions throughout the Iraqi govern­ment bureaucracy.Even more troubling is that, while maintaining good relations with these mainstays of Iraq's govern­ment, Iran is also pursuing a covert policy of arming and training militias, including many associated with these political parties, that pose a long-term threat to the prospects of success for a broad-based Iraqi government.

Tehran seeks to preclude the emergence of a stable democratic government in Iraq, its historical archrival, that could become an American ally against Iran. Although the political parties in Iraq's ruling coalition depend on contin­ued U.S. political, economic, and military support, their militias are much more hostile to the contin­ued coalition troop presence and could become use­ful allies of Iran in a possible war with the United States.

The militia leaders are also more likely to share Iran's goal of driving out coalition forces because such an outcome would increase their own power and importance within Iraq.In addition to driving out Western troops and Western influence, the Tehran regime would prefer a weak and divided Iraq to an Iraq with a united and broad-based government.

Even if such a govern­ment were not allied with the United States, it would pose an ideological threat to Iran's theocratic regime because it would demonstrate the viability of a secu­lar democratic system in a Shia-majority nation, thereby encouraging Iranian reformers and opposi­tion movements to increase their efforts to reduce the political power of Iran's unelected clerics.

Iran's radical clerics are also uncomfortable with the knowledge that the Shia religious leaders in the Iraqi holy cities of Najaf and Karbala wield an inde­pendent religious influence that could undermine their own base of legitimacy. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the top Shiite religious leader in Iraq, is an influential cleric who outranks most if not all of the clerics in the Iranian regime. Although he was born in Iran, he rejects Ayatollah Khomeini's harsh brand of Islamic ideology and opposes Iran's system of clerical rule.To undermine al-Sistani, the Iranians have thrown their support behind Sayed Moqtada al-Sadr, his chief rival.

The Iranian regime was initially wary of al-Sadr because he remained in Iraq during Saddam's rule and had an independent power base as well as political differences with their other Shiite allies, who had fled Iraq and were more dependent on Iran, but in recent years, Iran has provided increasing financial support, weapons, and training to the Jaish al-Mahdi (Mahdi Army), al-Sadr's militia...Read the rest of this comprehensive piece. You'll be glad you did.

Read more!

Cartoon!

From: Iranian.com

Transliteration: "How dare you? You should be ashamed for being more beautiful than us."--Strike Force of Sister Commandos.

Read more!

Khatami on Gays and Religious Minorities in Iran

From Harry's Place: "Killer Khatami gets capped"

[...]The dry facts of the matter are that for the majority of Khatami's Presidency the country that he represented was condemned for human rights abuses by the UN General Assembly or the Commission on Human Rights or both. The Iranian regime under his tenure was brought to book for a whole range of human rights issues; death sentence, use of torture, arbitrary arrest etc.

I suggest that what is specifically relevant to this whole rumpus with St Andrew's is the Iranian record on religious tolerance from 1997 to 2005. Khatami is receiving an honorary degree for his contribution to interfaith relations, and his record on this needs to be scrutinised.

Iran has one of the worst records on freedom of religion or belief of any state on earth. 4 religions, Islam, Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism, are recognised in article 13 of the constitution. All other systems of belief are not, and this translates to inferior status or non-recognition in the eyes of the law - "unprotected infidel" - does what it says on the tin.

Iran is home to 350,000 members of the Baha'i religion. All of these people are denied legal equality by reason of their beliefs. In 1998 a 52 year old man, Ruh'ullah Rohani, a Baha'i, was executed for the crime of apostasy. He did not have access to lawyer and was given oral notice of his death sentence 24 hours before being hung. 6 other Baha'is were on death row that year, but an international outcry saved them from the same fate. A Christian pastor, Hamid Pourmand, was also sentenced to death for apostasy during Khatami's period of office, and only saved by similar pressure. That is the kind of interfaith tolerance that existed in Iran under Khatami, that is the reality.

The annual reports of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, the FCO Annual Human Rights report, human rights NGO reports and UN resolutions throughout the years 1997 to 2005 all record serious problems of religious tolerance in Iran for Baha'is, and some problems for Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians, as well as for Sufi and Sunni Muslims.

There is ample evidence that St Andrews University and Sir Menzies Campbell could locate with ease that prove conclusively that whatever honeyed words were coming from the Iranian Presidency on interfaith relations OUTSIDE of Iran, for religious minorities INSIDE Iran, there was a lack of equality, repression and frequent human rights abuses.

Khatami has been one of the most effective PR managers for the IRA (Islamic Republic of Ayatollahs)for over a decade now. This minister of propaganda has no shame to promote "dialogue among civilization" while his government only allows monologues inside the country. He is even more appalling than the egomaniacal Ahmadinejad.

http://amir.irani-tehrani.com/?m=200609&paged=8

http://samiramohyeddin.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_samiramohyeddin_archive.html

The IRI(Islamic Republic of Iran) spends $150 mil. per year on it's propagnda machinary from lobbying the academics in the most prestigious universities in the US to journalists in Wapo and NY Times to manufacturing 'fake dissidents' who are later unleashed (mostly reformists) to the West and become activists on behalf of the mullahs.

And

The dishonouring of St Andrews
By Dean Godsonhttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,6-2420043,00.html

At very last, someone who actually understands the dynamics of the Iranian regime. Dean Godson, has definitely got Khatami worked out. Indeed Khatami was nothing more than a figure head whose job was largely to lull the democratic opposition into a false sense of security.

His legacy, more than anything else will be his callous indifference to repression and his attempt to legitimise a wholly illegitimate regime. As Dean rightly says, he is part of the Islamic Republic, to which his loyalties lie. I think Sir Menzies’ Judgement shows disrespect not only to the Iranian democratic movement, but also to all those who strive for democracy and rule of law around the world. We need more articles like Dean's to name and shame people like Khatami and at the same time honour and solute dissidents like Batebi who unfortunately are largely unknown here in the West.

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

Read more!

Iran: Crackdown Continues over Dress Code for Men & Women

Hejab for Men

"I want the whole world to know that they oppress us and all we can do is put up with it" Tofigh, 15

BBC: Thousands of Iranian women have been cautioned over their poor Islamic dress this week and several hundred arrested in the capital Tehran in the most fierce crackdown on what's known as "bad hijab" for more than a decade.
It is the talk of the town. The latest police crackdown on Islamic dress has angered many Iranians - male, female, young and old.


But Iranian TV has reported that an opinion poll conducted in Tehran found 86% of people were in favour of the crackdown - a statistic that is surprising given the strength of feeling against this move.
Police cars are stationed outside major shopping centres in Tehran.

They are stopping pedestrians and even cars - warning female drivers not show any hair - and impounding the vehicles and arresting the women if they argue back.

Middle-aged women, foreign tourists and journalists have all been harassed, not just the young and fashionably dressed.

Individual choice

Overnight the standard of what is acceptable dress has slipped back.

Hard-won freedoms - like the right to wear a colourful headscarf - have been snatched away.
It may sound trivial but Iranian women have found ways of expressing their individuality and returning to drab colours like black, grey and dark blue is not something they will accept easily.

"If we want to do something we will do it anyway, all this is total nonsense," says a young girl, heavily made up and dressed up. She believes Islamic dress should be something personal - whether you're swathed in a black chador or dressed in what she calls "more normal clothes".

Interestingly many women who choose to wear the all enveloping chador agree - saying it's a personal choice and shouldn't be forced on people. "This year is much worse than before because the newspapers and the TV have given the issue a lot of coverage compared to last year; it wasn't this bad before," says Shabnam who's out shopping with her friend.

Permission denied

At the start of every summer the police say they will enforce the Islamic dress code, but this year has been unusually harsh.
Thousands of women have been cautioned by police over their dress, some have been obliged to sign statements that they will do better in the future, and some face court cases against them.


Even shop mannequins considered "too revealing" are dealt with

Though the authorities want coverage internally to scare women - they don't want the story broadcast abroad.

The BBC's cameraman was detained when he tried to film the police at work and the government denied us permission to go on patrol with the police.
"Really we don't have any security," complains Shabam's friend Leyla.

"Since we came out this morning many people we met have continuously warned us to be careful about our headscarves and to wear them further forward because they are arresting women who are dressed like this," she says.

Boutique owners are furious. Some shops have been sealed - others warned not to sell tight revealing clothing.

One shopkeeper selling evening dresses told us the moral police had ordered him to saw off the breasts of his mannequins because they were too revealing.

He said he wasn't the only shop to receive this strange instruction.

Respect

There's even been less traffic on the streets because some women are not venturing out - fearful they will be harassed.
And it's not even safe in a car. Taxi agencies have received a circular warning them not to carry a "bad hijabi".

"They have said we shouldn't carry passengers who wear bad Islamic dress and if we do we have to warn them to respect the Islamic dress code even inside the car," said one taxi driver.

And it's not just women who are being targeted this year.

Young men are being cautioned for wearing short sleeved shirts or for their hairstyles. Morad - a hairdresser whose gelled hair is made to stand straight up - says it's necessary for him to look like this to attract customers.

"These last few days I don't dare walk down the main roads looking like this case I get arrested," he says. "I use the side streets and alleys."

Morad is scared because his friends have told him they've seen the police seize young men and forcibly cut their hair if it's too long.

Fifteen-year-old Tofiq who'd also gelled his hair to stand on end said he too was afraid but he wasn't going to change.

"I want the whole world to know that they oppress us and all we can do is put up with it," he said.

Some parents have complained that harassing the young over their clothing will only push them to leave the country.

But one MP has said those Iranians who cannot cope with Islamic laws should leave.

Some commentators have suggested that the government is conducting this crackdown to distract attention from the rising cost of living in Iran and increasing tension with the international community over the nuclear issue.

If so, it's a strategy that risks alienating people who've got used to years of relative social freedom and do not want to return to the early days of the revolution when dress rules were much more tightly enforced.

Read more!

Killer Khatami, the Darling of the left, to Israeli Reporter: "Go To Hell"

LGF: Former Iranian president Killer Mohammad Khatami, who visited Harvard University and the National Cathedral recently, was celebrated by the Council on American Islamic Relations, gave an autograph to John F. Kerry in Davos, and has been roundly praised by the willfully blind media as a “moderate,” told Israeli journalists who approached him at a media forum in Kazakhstan to .

On Benedict XVI’s calandar for May 4 is an audience with Mohammad Khatami. Khatami is generally classified among the “moderate". Moderate for whom? The Left in the U.S.?

How about some moderation on destroying Iranian civilization and people, first.

He will take part in in a conference in Rome, which will be held at the Pontifical Gregorian University on the theme: “Intercultural dialogue, a challenge for peace.” The political model to which he adheres is, however, the one established by the religious revolution of Khomeini, who is certainly not a “moderate.” How about intercultural dialogue first within Iran's own religious minorities first, the Bahais and the Sunni iranian-arabs who've been killed by the hundreds because of their relgion?

In Shiite Islam, the revolutionary currents of the Khomeini stamp – in Iran, in Iraq, and in Lebanon with Hezbollah – are mainly opposed by the “quietist” tendency that takes its inspiration from the highest authority over the Iraqi holy places in Najaf and Kerbala, the grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.

See My previous post on reformists and Khatami . Also see here, here, here and here.

On the horrifice crimes Khatami presided over during his Presidency click here.

Read more!

Book: Islamic Fundamentalism

Islamic Fundamentalism - The new Global Threat - Mohammad Mohaddessin

Foreword

[...]
The new nexus, it soon was learned, began in Tehran with approximately $100 million a year in expenditures; ideas, influence, and money then moved to Sudan, where that country's government transformed it into training camps and influence for fundamentalists from Algeria to Tunisia to Egypt and (again) the Gulf. The situation by 1993 had become so serious that Turkish President Turgut Ozal warned when he came to Washington that the world was now facing basically a "religious war" of extremist and radically politicized Islam against the West...

Preface

Introduction: In the eye of the Storm

I
Dogmatism Versus Democracy: A Brief History of Fundamentalism

The Fundamentalist Appeal

Fanaticism Versus Liberty

Kharajites: First Advocates of Dogmatism

Legitimizing the Status Quo

Democratic, Antireactionary Islamic Movements

Shi'ism in Safavid and Post-Safavid Iran

Iran's Constitutional Revolution of 1906

Sunnism and the New Era

Conclusion

II

The Pillars of the Mullahs' Rule

Two Pillars of Khomeini's Rule:

Terror

Export of Islamic Revolution

Velayat-e-faqih in the Constitution

III
The Post - Khomeini Regime
Constitution Revised
Moderation an Anathema

IV
Mother of All Islamic Lands": The Mullahs' Foreign Policy

V
Fertile Grounds for Fundamentalism

The Power of Islam
A Bastion of Islamic Culture
Decline of Nationalism
Role of Oil
Global Changes
Appeasement: An Ominous Policy
Fundamentalism and Islam's Great Schism
....

Read the entire book online here.

Read more!

PBS: America at a Crossroads

PBS has brought together America at a Crossroads, a six-night television package that aims to explore challenges confronting the United States in a post-9/11 world.

Topics to be tackled include the war on terrorism; conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan; the experience of American troops serving abroad; the struggle for balance within the Muslim world; and global perspectives on America's role overseas.

The series, airing Sunday through Friday from 9 to 11 p.m. on KUHT/Channel 8, consists of 11 documentaries from a variety of producers, probing urgent issues in a variety of voices. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting developed the initial concept, issuing an open call for film projects. Veteran journalist (and former co-anchor of PBS' NewsHour) Robert MacNeil serves as host.

Aimed at creating a national dialogue surrounding the crucial issues explored in the series, an extensive media and outreach campaign in more than 25 communities accompanies the series. The campaign features screening events with the filmmakers and their subjects in discussions with United States military personnel, leading policy experts, leaders of the Islamic community, scholars from across the country as well as members of the public. Integrated Web and educational initiatives further extend the campaign.

This series of 11 independently produced documentaries will premiere on Sunday, April 15 and will run nightly through Friday, April 20, 9:00–11:00pm (ET).

Each night, series host Robert MacNeil will provide context to the compelling stories and provocative points of view to be shown throughout the week.

Additional films will air as specials following the premiere

America at a CrossroadsBroadcast Line-up
(All times are Eastern Standard Time, Schedule Subject to Change)

Sunday, April 15:
JIHAD: THE MEN AND IDEAS BEHIND AL QAEDA, 9:00 - 11:00 p.m.

Monday, April 16:
WARRIORS, 9:00 - 10:00 p.m.OPERATION HOMECOMING: WRITING THE WARTIME EXPERIENCE, 10:00 - 11:00 p.m.

Tuesday, April 17:
GANGS OF IRAQ, 9:00 - 10:00 p.m.
THE CASE FOR WAR: IN DEFENSE OF FREEDOM, 10:00 - 11:00 p.m.

Wednesday, April 18:
EUROPE’S 9/11, 9:00 - 10:00 p.m.
THE MUSLIM AMERICANS, 10:00 - 11:00 p.m.

Thursday, April 19:
FAITH WITHOUT FEAR, 9:00 - 10:00 p.m.
STRUGGLE FOR THE SOUL OF ISLAM: INSIDE INDONESIA, 10:00 - 11:00 p.m.

Friday, April 20:
SECURITY VERSUS LIBERTY: THE OTHER WAR , 9:00 - 10:00 p.m.
THE BROTHERHOOD, 10:00 - 11:00 p.m.

Note: McNeil in this series doesn't address or examine the Islamic Republic of Iran's (the most virulent type of theofascism) role and its long-term and highly organized plans in exporting Islamic Fundamentlism and destroying the West.

Read more!

This is what the Far Left Endorses!

Twenty some years ago (1987-1988) thousands of political prisoners in Iran were massacred in large numbers , savagely and brutally tortured and then executed. Nobody knows the real figure. The affiliations among them were different, leftists and some Muslims, members of MKO, a leftist- Islamist organization. Protesting the massacre, the vice leader, Ayatollah Montazari resigned from his position and preferred to sit in his home and teach the clergies rather than sharing the crimes of Khomeini and his gang of criminals and mercenaries from Palestine. In an open letter addressing Khomeini, he protested the merciless killings and that was the last nail in his coffin and he was sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life.

Based on Khomeini's (Carter et al called him a Saint) fatwa, some the best and brightes children of Iranian nation were forever silenced and to produce a leadership vaccum the oppositions presently face.

The massacre happened in Evin prison in Tehran, in Gohar-dasht prison in Karaj and other major cities. The officials put the prisoners – already sentenced to years of imprisonment and had served some of their terms- under trial once again; asked them about their political affiliations. Two questions decided their fate: 1-Do you believe in Allah? 2-Do you want to repent?


The bodies of the victims were dumped in mass graves; some next to a Bahaii cemetery in Khavaron. The public became alerted of the mass graves only when they noticed large gathering of over enthusiastic stray dogs, scavenging for bones. . (see my previous post).

You can find some of the victims names (the list is still being compiled since the whereabouts of many others are still unknown and their death has not been confirmed).

If you did not already know (or somehow forgot), you may learn that firing on bound and blindfolded captives, especially teenagers and pregnant women, is an Islamic pastime and a virtue (if not a turn-on!), in short an integral part of the newfound pride in Iranian revolutionary identity. Now, isn't that a soothing thought?! ...You can also visit Omid Cyber Memorial for the names of more victims of the Holy crimes of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The survived prisoners tell horrible stories of those days:"and those of us who survived have never been able to be happy that is how this despotic regim managed to survive so many years by terrorizing and killing the most intelligent and freedom loving people", said one survivors in a comment section of another blog.

Friends and comrades were taken to death chambers and were hung savagely. The corpses were buried in different places. In Tehran, the leftists are buried in a place called Khavaran, a remote land patch onsouth east of the city. There are no names and no graves. Families of the executed prisoners gather there every now and then and commemorate the bravery and the memory of their loved ones. Two occasions are especial in this regard: Iranian new year, and end of summer, the same time when the prisoners were executed in 1988. They meet, tell stories, exchange news, sing songs, put flowers all around the place.



This is a type of tyrannical regime that the left, the realists and democrats endorse and want to engage with; "apparently the progressive/left is often filled with people who would gladly accept torture, genocide, stoning, hanging of gays, murder of writers and scholars, beatings of prisoners to death (e.g. zahra kazemi) and kidnappings of innocent civilians as well as an end to democratic freedoms they themselves would never want to lose, provided it all happens to somebody else.

Apparently all those things are still preferable to to taking a stand; " I'm just glad our grandparents' and great grandparents' generation didn't think like that. There'd be a lot fewer jews in the world, a lot less democracy, and a lot more authoritarianism. . .

Read more!

Iranian Dissent & American Media Apathy

Why is it that in the hypocritical MSM, we only hear of the Islamic Republic officials being tortured by the CIA but never once we hear anything about systematic tortures, hanging, and stoning of women and political dissidents in Iran. This is what you'll never hear from CNN or NBC, CBS, ABC... Is it because they're not terrorist trainers and jihadists like the so-called diplomats and officials of the IR? Here are some excerpts:

In past few months, the henchmen of Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) in ghastly ward 209 of Evin Prison have put political prisoners under psychological and physical pressure which has caused them mental and physical disorder.
For months, Messrs Keyvan Ansari, Saeed Masouri, Keyvan Rafii, Abul Fazal Jahandar, Saeed (Kheyrollah) Derakhshandi and Mohammad Ebrahimi spent time in the same ward. They have protested and went on a hunger strike over poor conditions within the prison. However, the prison’s officials are indifferent to their demands and in some cases have received involuntary tranquilizer injections or have been beaten by the guards to suppress their protests.
In the second week of April, upon Mr. Saeed Derakhshandi protest against his detention in ward 209, the prison officials had severely beaten him. Mr. Derakhshandi’s back as well as his left arm have been seriously injured as a result of beatings. The prison guards have refused to treat him.

Read more!

Liberals (anti-war) and Ahmadinejad Wish for War

From Amir:

As it should be clearly apparent by now the Islamic Republic continously does its best to provoke a military attack on Iran, while their minions in the west are hard at work to present the United States as the aggressive side. The focus of the so-called anti-war movement which seems to be made up of nothing but the same group of resentful reactionary anti-Americans with an unbelievable pretence for civility, supported by inferiority-laden and deluded Euro-centric *elitists, has of course been to vilify the American administration. Meanwhile if the claim of these activists that they are for peace was true, they would have to also protest the continuous aggressive behavior of the Islamic Republican mullacracy.

The war that is now being protested by the fuck-Bush crowd however was started long ago, and while the Iranian people can expect no genuine good-will from the Europeans or the reactionary, Eurocentric, conceited self-proclaimed intellectual-wanna-bes who cannot but view Iranians as slaves to the eternal Asiatic tyranny as this has been expounded in European tradition from the times of the ancient Greeks onward all the way to the terrorist-sympathizers and salon-communists and holier-than-thou good white guys of today’s Europe and New England, we have to do something for ourselves to put an end to the war which appears to be heading for a new plateau in a possible American or Israeli attack provoked by the Islamofascists under the cover of good-guy liberals.

What Iranians can do for themselves, and what they are doing, actually, is to build on the methods of non-violent civil disobedience as it is practiced today by Iranian workers unions, teachers and the women’s rights groups, are of whom are cracked down on with violent responses by the Islamic Republic to the oblivion if not cheering of the Europeans and New Englanders.

Along these lines, more education on methods of non-violent resistance is needed. There will be a workshop soon conducted in Boston which I would like to recommend to Iranians with a genuine resolve for peace which can only come about with the demise of the Islamic Republic:

Colleagues and Friends,
I wanted to let you know that the second annual Fletcher Summer Institute for the Advanced Study of Nonviolent Conflict will be held at the end of June, on the Tufts University campus in Boston, which our Center is presenting with the Fletcher School. We would be delighted ifyou were able to circulate this notice to your contacts and colleagues.
Last year the Institute’s participants were an extraordinary group of 42 NGO leaders, journalists, activists and academics representing more than 25 countries, and ranging in age from 26 to 62 — including a Jordanian newspaper editorial writer, a veteran of the Mongolian nonviolent revolution, a Zambian bishop, the leader of an election monitoring project in Egypt, a senior officer of Transparency International, a Quebec documentary filmmaker doing a series on the world’s remaining dictators, and one of Nigeria’s leading human rights lawyers.
To anyone interested, we’d be happy to provide more information about this year’s program.
Many thanks,
Jack
Jack DuVall
President
International Center on Nonviolent Conflict
http://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/

*Liberal/elitists= Consists in concealing how much they think of themeselves and how little they think of the other person."(i.e., malignant narcissism)

Read more!

Ahmadinejad, Emperor Nero & Great Fire of Rome

Photo: The Middle East Interest


Ahmed Al-Rabei of Asharq Alawsat has a refreshing look at the Iranian jigsaw puzzle and the craziness of Mahmood, The Mercurial. Excerpted segments below:

The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has come to resemble a young child playing with a dangerous toy. On a daily basis he issues a new statement about this new toy, namely, "the nuclear bomb". One day he is celebrating the use of the centrifugation process, another day he announces the 'national nuclear day' for the Islamic Republic of Iran and on another day, he rejects nuclear inspection in protection of "the dignity" of the republic!

(snip)

President Ahmadinejad has a real weapon, namely the 50 billion dollars that Iran had obtained in the past year through the surge in oil prices. However, unemployment and poverty rates are on the rise and those billions are aimed at companies and deals with Russia and Korea to develop nuclear weapons. Iran has the opportunity to present itself as a force for peace to its neighbors and the world in order to gain everyone's respect and create an appropriate climate for investment and development, yet it continues to search for "divine victory" in Lebanon, militarize militias in Iraq and spread Shiism from the mountains of Yemen to Tajikistan in an attempt that Iran knows will not be successful.

Assuming that Ahmadinejad now owns a nuclear bomb and that missiles are capable of efficiently carrying it, what would he do with it? Does he want to create a balance of terror with Israel so that he could negotiate with Israelis? This would be impossible as he does not believe in peace with Jews in the first place! Will he shell Israel with his bomb, hoping that his nuclear Islamic bomb would kill the Jews of Israel and at the same time spare the lives of millions of Muslim and Christian Palestinians in the occupied territories and within the Green Line?! Does he believe that the world would just sit and watch if he uses the nuclear weapon or does he forget that the Iranian people would be the first victims of such action?!

The biggest problem is that the Iranian president disregards the prospect of a large-scale military strike on Iran, which is a major strategic error. There are two aircraft carriers in the region as well as decisive firepower. It is not true that the United States cannot act because of its status in Iraq; in fact perhaps the opposite is more accurate.

Everyday, the world awakes to President Ahmadinejad's dangerous games of which he does not realize their consequences. We all fear that the political messages that the Iranian president conveys to the Iranian public would make him forget the reality of the international situation itself, hence embroiling himself and the Iranians just as others did before him.

Yesterday's edition of World Tribune.com contains this urgent headline:

"U.S. still preparing cruise missile strike on Iran"

According to Russian military analysts interviewed by the publication, the U.S. is still planning to strike Iran, possibly in a matter of weeks. A similar assessment has also been offered by French military sources, who recently told a London-based Arabic newspaper that the United States will probably attack Iran sometime this year.

we saw many of the same claims about a year ago, in separate articles published by the Washington Post and the New Yorker. The fact is the U.S. has plans for attacking every country in the world even Canada.

Obviously, the difference this time around is the U.S. naval build-up in the gulf, and the continuing escalation in the Iranian nuclear conference. The sustained presence of three carriers in the Persian Gulf might suggest that something really is up, but we'll see about that shortly. The USS Eisenhower and its escorts have been operating in the region since last fall, and are scheduled to leave station sometime this month. They would be replaced by the Nimitz carrier group, which would remain in the area, along with a second carrier (USS John C. Stennis) which arrived a few weeks ago. If the Eisenhower's remains on station into May, that could be a sign of escalation toward a potential strike against Iran. While the nuclear-powered carrier can steam almost indefinitely in the gulf, an extended deployment would require extensive replenishment for its crew, the embarked air arm and its conventionally-powered escorts.



Mahmoud is, indeed, playing with fire and he is going to take the whole nation down with him reminscent of Nero the Roman emperor who set Rome on Fire for political gains.

It is said that Nero being hated by his people and extremely unpopular, decided to burn Rome to the ground for political intent and expediency (or perhaps sheer amuzement).

He began a rather large relief measure; he housed citizens in the remaining public buildings and his own gardens, built temporary shelters, imported food and water, and lowered the price of food. However, by this time rumours were already beginning that he started the fire himself. He is also known for having set fire to peoples' houses and then buying them from their owners.

Tragically, Mahmood and those occupying Iran seem to have been studying Nero's game plan and will be following in Nero's footsteps, soon. At this point, though, a Navy-led attack against Iran is far from certain. The U.S. is keeping its military options open, and the criminal mullahs occupying Iran keep guessing

Source

Read more!

Iran: Mahmood Salehi, leading labour activist arrested

From: Laborurnet.net:

Report by WPI England

Mahmood Salehi, a leading labour activist from the city of Saghez, was re-arrested on Monday April 9 by the Islamic regime’s security forces. Salehi who was at work at the time was taken during his lunch break by armed security forces to the public prosecutor’s office regarding his bail on charges of organizing May Day strikes and demonstrations last year.Later at the public prosecutor’s office, a revised court verdict was read to him summarily sentencing him to one year imprisonment and 3 years suspended sentence.

He was immediately transferred to the city of Sanandaj prison.Clearly this is an attempt to intimidate and attack the labour movement both in Iran and internationally. Last Year Manhood Salehi was bailed under immense international pressure from trade unions, and labour and progressive organizations internationally.

In addition, this is an attempt to undermine the vibrant workers’ movement Iran which is preparing to organize for this year’s international May Day celebrations following a huge teachers’ strike in Iran in the last couple of months over pay and conditions which resulted in the arrest of 45 teachers’ activists in the city of Hamedan on Saturday 7th April 2007.With nation-wide and daily protests such as the teachers’ strikes challenging the Islamic Republic of Iran, the regime is fearful of a powerful confrontation on May Day and is attempting to undermine the momentum of this movement by threats, intimidations and arrests of activists and labour leaders.

Note to the Editors:
Mahmood Salehi has been arrested twice since May 2003 for organizing May Day during recent last years. He was freed as a result of huge international campaigns for his release on both occasions. Mahmood Salehi has been recalled to the court over and over and has been under permanent threat and pressure by the Islamic Republic of Iran since his first arrest in May Day of 2003.

In a Related News: Iran: More Arrests of Teachers!

Read more!

Grand Concession!

IRGC FAITHFUL (Islamic Republic's Parallel Government)

"The only way humanity will be saved is that the world comes under the domination of Islamic Government".--Ayatollah Khamenie


As I've been saying all along, the Islamic Republic covets the "Grand Bargain" that Fidel Castro of Cuba was bestowed upon by President Kennedy and short of that 'Grand Concession', they will not stop their nuclear enrichment program or terrorist sponsoring activities because that's the only thing they view as worth having as far as incentives and diplomacy are concerened.

Apparently, Ahamdinejad has been studying the "Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 with the help of his friend Fidel Castro of Cuba. And Fidel more than happy to oblige, has been given him tips on how to secure the precious "Grand Bargain" from the US. The Nuclear Standoff with Iran parallels the Cuban Missile Crisis in many ways. China Confidential explains below:

A loose alliance of influential, left-leaning pundits, politicians, and academicians are rooting for a Kennedy-style solution to the Iranian Nuclear Crisis--as in JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.But a careful, sober reading of history suggests that would be a disaster. At best, following the Cuban model, Iran would be assured permanent security--and permanent protection from regime change--in return for giving up its suspect nuclear program. But the mullahocracy would be free to pursue its formidable chemical, biological, and ballistic missile programs for decades to come.

Like Communist Cuba, Islamist Iran would become an institutionalized, internationally accepted threat to world peace. But unlike Cuba--a Soviet welfare case throughout the Cold War--oil-rich Iran would have the cash to finance its deadly schemes and dreams.

Don't expect these dire warnings to resonate among members of the American foreign policy establishment. From the State Department to the Council on Foreign Relations, Kennedy's handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis is ... well ... worshipped.

The popular myth of a totally successful outcome, a staple of the liberal entertainment and publishing industries, ignores an inconvenient truth: JFK's administration bungled the Cuban file from the get-go. Just days before the crisis began, National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy ridiculed reports of suspicious activity on Cuba--i.e. eyewitness accounts of deployment of Soviet-supplied nuclear-tipped missiles. Appearing on national television, Bundy branded the information that Cuban exiles had been giving the State Department and CIA for months as mere "refugee rumors."

Said Bundy: "Nothing in Cuba presents a threat to the United States. There's no likelihood that the Soviets or Cubans would try and install an offensive capability in Cuba."

The following day, Kennedy himself declared: "There's fifty-odd-thousand Cuban refugees in this country, all living for the day when we go to war with Cuba. They're the ones putting out this kind of stuff."

So much for one of best and the brightest--and his brilliant monarch.

In the end, the United States and the Soviet Union managed to back away from the brink and avert a possible nuclear war. The Missile Crisis ended when Moscow backed down and removed the weapons it had secretly installed in Cuba.

As we now know, however, the secret agreement between Kennedy and Soviet Communist Party boss Nikita Khrushchev forbade any invasion of Cuba--not just by the US, but also by any other group or nation in the Western Hemisphere. Thousands of Soviet troops and KGB officers already in Cuba were allowed to remain on the island, bolstering an anti-American regime just 90 miles from Florida.

Shortly after the missiles were removed, Washington, in accord with its covert deal with the Soviet Union, pulled US missiles out of Turkey. Following Kennedy's assassination, US President Lyndon Johnson reaffirmed Washington's hands-off-Havana pledge.

The difference this time is that Fidel's main ambition and objectives for his state were not world domination by an Islamic Government.

Read more!

U.N.'s Utter Disregard for Human Rights in Iran and Uzbakistan

From NCRI:

The Iranian Resistance strongly condemns the decision by the U.N. Human Rights Council not to monitor the systematic and flagrant violation of human rights by a regime which is the world’s record holder of execution in Iran. The decision is the disgraceful domination of the Council by the countries which are themselves notorious violators of human rights and it is a catastrophe for human rights. In 2002, the same countries prevented the UN Human Rights Commission from condemning the Iranian regime’s human rights violations. Half of the members of a special committee which was formed to examine Iran’s human rights’ violations have abysmal records in human rights violations.

Only three months ago, in December 2006, The UN General Assembly adopted a strongly worded resolution, condemning the human rights violations by the Iranian regime. Therefore, yesterday’s vote by the members of the Council is contrary to the decision made by the highest international body. It farther indicates that the members of the Council in no way represent the international community.

The U.N. council’s action amounts to an endorsement of crackdowns on human rights in Iran and Uzbekistan. It shows utter disregard for the human rights activists who are struggling in these countries.

Read more!

Britain to Iran: " Have no Fear".

photo of American Hostages kept for 444 by the Khomeinist regime in 1979 (This incident is called by many the "Second Revolution" of 1979)

From the LONDON (AFX) ("Whole Series of Measures") came the following:

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has warned Iran that thereis a "whole series of measures" that could be taken to pressure the Islamic republic to hand over 15 British navy detainees. "What we have to do in a very firm way, is step up the pressure," he told ITV television, as British sought an agreement on a United Nations Security Council statement about the dispute. "The next step is the UN statement. There's a whole series of measures we can take," he added, giving no further details. "We are going to have to step up pressure not just with them in the UN and the European Union, but see what further measures are necessary to get them to understand it's not merely wrong but only going to result in further tension so it's sensible to resolve it now.

The Security Council's statement was a watered-down version of a stronger draft sought by Britain to "deplore" Iranian actions and urge the immediate release of the prisoners, primarily because Russia opposed putting blame on the Tehran regime.

"I'm not interested in confrontation for its own sake, the most important thing is to get 15 personnel back safe and sound."

"The important thing is we just keep making it very, very clear to the Iranian government it is not a situation that will be relieved by anything but the unconditional release of all our people," Blair said.

"There's no alternative but to release them and the longer it goes on, the more the pressure will be stepped up.

"I think we should take this a day at a time at the moment," Blair added.

Blair's official spokesman said Britain wanted to resolve the crisis quickly and without having a "confrontation over this." "We are not seeking to put Iran in a corner.

We are simply saying, 'Please release the personnel who should not have been seized in the first place,'" said the spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government policy.

While Tony Blair is livid by another letter apparently written by Turney call in for withdrawal of British troops from Iraq and dictating British foreign policy, some of these British officials (anonymous sources) are indicating to the Iranians quite openly that they have nothing to fear in the way of British reprisals whatsoever. I should also add for the umpteen times that Mr. Blair's (or any other Western leaders and appeasers) stated reliance on Iranian regard for "international law" is simply a stupid joke. The Iranian regime has not changed a bit since 1979, if anything, they have become bolder and more sophisticated in manipulating and deceiving Western leaders and media.

The message so far to the mafiaso running Iran is this: Give us back our marines. But, if you don't, so be it - you have nothing to fear.

This is ominously starting to look like the 1979 hostage crisis. Apparently both the UN Secretary-General and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana have held talks with Iran on the issue. But Iran has refused to release the 15 British personnel until Britain apologises for the alleged incursion. I have little doubt that this seizure was planned by the IR rather than being the action of an impulsive local commander. A few days earlier, speaking of the impending United Nations Security Council vote that condemned Tehran for its nuclear stance, Khamenei had declared that such a vote would be "illegal" and that Iran's response could therefore be similarly "illegal".

What so bemusing is that the IRI has never tried to hide its actions and intentions. They are quite open about their goals in their Constitution and their actions in regards to spreading their revolution and defeating the arrogant powers since they came to power in 1979.

“an advisor to the new Iranian govt says his country’s objective is the destruction of the evil in the world perpetuated by England and the nations derived from England”
“The [Iranians] President’s chief strategist, Hassan Abbassi, has come up with a war plan based on the premise that “Britain is the mother of all evils” – the evils being America, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, the Gulf states and even Canada, all of whom are the malign progeny of the British Empire. “We have a strategy drawn up for the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization,” says Mr Abbassi. “There are 29 sensitive sites in the U.S. and in the West. We have already spied on these sites and we know how we are going to attack them… Once we have defeated the Anglo-Saxons the rest will run for cover.””

They waited for their chance, and when it came they took it. They can now shore up their failing legitimacy by parading the hostages around, much as they did back in 1979.

And if the British decide to take military action, such military action will only galvanize that the 10 million Basiji into martyrdom.

This incident, then, isn't about humiliating The West; it's about a shaky regime attempting to maintain its grip on power and shift the domestic attention of its fed up citizens from horrendous economic and social problems to external enemies. The regime has no other goal but to perpetuate its existence in any shape or form.

Iran has had enough time by now to act as a reasonable nation would and release the British sailors without making a creepy show of their captivity. But apparently an international provocation and a war are just what the Islamic Republic is itching for.

With this new crop of hostages, Allah now has his meal-ticket and the thug-in-chief and his military junta (IRGC & Quods) will have their "third revolution".Like the hostages in '79-'80, this show is just going to go on and on and on.

Read more!