Category Archives: Iran

Cyber Security, cyber war, Iran, Israel, Terrorism

From Nuclear Assassination to Cyber Assassination?………..

      

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“Mojtaba Ahmadi, who served as commander of the Cyber War Headquarters, was found dead in a wooded area near the town of Karaj, north-west of the capital, Tehran. Five Iranian nuclear scientists and the head of the country’s ballistic missile programme have been killed since 2007. The regime has accused Israel’s external intelligence agency, the Mossad, of carrying out these assassinations. Ahmadi was last seen leaving his home for work on Saturday. He was later found with two bullets in the heart..…………..”

Like the murders of the scientists and physics academicians in Berkeley Tehran, it is probably all part of a war of terror. Unless there is a personal angle, which is not likely.

Cheers
mhg

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Iran, Israel, US Foreign Policy

Kerry and Hagel on Rouhani (and Netanyahu)………

      

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“Rapprochement with Iran won’t come at the expense of Israel’s security or its relationship with the United States, top Obama administration officials said Thursday, but they added that it would be “diplomatic malpractice” not to explore whether Iran’s nuclear program can be defused peacefully. The forceful defense of engagement made by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John F. Kerry during a visit here with their Japanese counterparts was the first high-level U.S. answer to a blistering rebuke delivered Tuesday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli leader warned that the West is being fooled by the new, friendlier face of Iranian leadership that is being offered by President Hassan Rouhani……………..”

My slightly eccentric but insightful source tells me that, privately, Kerry has added that: “It is enough that we get so much bullshit from the likes of Netanyahu and we have to take it all with a smile. Now we will not take the same type of BS from Rouhani”.
For his part, Hagel is reported to have mused: “Besides, how many lobbyists does Rouhani have in Washington, New York, and Hollywood?”

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, Iran, Saudi Arabia

From Damascus to Libya to Riyadh and the Gulf: ‘Til Death Do Them Part………

      

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“Until a few weeks ago, Saudi Arabia was riding high. Its regional policies, based on countering revolutionary fervour and containing Iran, appeared to be bearing fruit. Egypt’s army ousted the Islamist president, to plaudits and generous funding from Riyadh; the Syrian opposition elected a new pro-Saudi leadership; and the US seemed poised to launch military strikes on the regime in Damascus that Saudi Arabia has tried to dislodge. But Riyadh’s satisfaction turned to dismay as a US and Russian deal to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons removed the need for military strikes; leading rebel factions turned against the leadership of the Syrian National Coalition; and relations between the US and Iran appear to be warming as the new president, Hassan Rouhani, pledged to negotiate over Tehran’s nuclear program………………..”

Clearly the princes are pissed (to put it succinctly) about a few things. Syria is just one of them, given that they finally got their own man, Ahmed Al-Jarba appointed as figurehead chief of the Syrian National Coalition (the real head is a Saudi prince). Sure enough, within weeks of his appointment, the rebel military groups that are inside Syria put up new obstacles against the exile “leaders”( the warlords put obstacles against everybody, including each other, especially each other). Then there is the new possibility of negotiations between the Iranians and the Americans, something that would make anyone jealous: after all if your steady date starts flirting with the scowling mullahs, look out! Even the Gulf Salafis who never cared for Americans except in evil malevolent ways are upset with this turn of event.
The princes are pissed enough to cancel their annual speech at the UN General Assembly. Not that many would listen to the speech by the usual prince. The usual prince, Saud Al-Faisal, has been foreign minister of his family for about forty years, appointed by his uncle who took over after his father was assassinated. Forty years seems to be the charmer for Arab potentates in high potent positions, from Colonel Gaddafi to the decrepit prime minister of Bahrain. I think the (Christian) marriage liturgy applies to most Arab potentates, the one that says “………..Till death do us part”.

Cheers
mhg

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Ali Khamenei, Iran, nuclear Iran, U.S. Congress, US Foreign Policy

Mission Accomplished? the Ayatollah and the American Election Cycles……

      

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“We support the movement in government’s diplomacy, including the New
York visit, since we hold trust in the … government and we are
optimistic about it, but some of what happened in the New York visit
were not proper because we believe the US administration is
untrustworthy, conceited, illogical and unfaithful to its pledges,” Ayatollah Khamenei said………”

Khamenei seems here to be eager for a nuclear deal, but he seems to be warning his people of the pitfalls of high expectations. Or perhaps he is also warning the American side of the pitfalls of declaring: “Mission Accomplished“.
No doubt Khamenei has been following the Iran “debate” in the United States. No doubt he knows that it is controlled by long-term forces as well as by short-term election cycles. No doubt he, a speaker and reader of at least three languages, is aware of the current U.S. election cycle of 2014 and how it overlaps the next election cycle of 2016. No doubt he knows there is a very narrow window for diplomacy in the middle of this continuous election posturing and white noise. No doubt he is aware of the jingoist strain in the U.S. Congress that has been revived in recent years. No doubt he has serious doubts and misgivings about the chances of a deal that is acceptable to “all” sides, and I mean “all” sides including those not present at the table.
On the other hand, most American leaders and politicians feel the same way, even worse, about their Iranian counterparts. A small world, no?


Cheers
mhg

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Iran, nuclear Iran, U.S. Congress, US Foreign Policy

US Congress and Iran: Is it Only the Nuclear Issue? Sanctions and Flags……..

      

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“However, the vast network of overlapping US sanctions, which have built up over three decades, cannot be easily unpicked by the Obama administration without the support of both houses of Congress. “If – and it is a big ‘if’ – the president needs to use an easing of sanctions to provide incentive to the Iranians, or to acknowledge a gesture on their part, our feeling is: it will be very difficult for the administration to deliver that,” one senior European diplomat said. Hawks in the House of Representatives in particular are in no mood to compromise. Two months ago, with bipartisan support, the House passed a bill to tighten the economic noose on Iran. The Guardian has obtained a copy of a second draft bill that goes further: approving the use of military force to deter Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The bill states that the US would be “wholly capable, willing and ready to use military force to prevent Iran from obtaining or developing a nuclear weapons capability” ……………”

It is also clear that both sides, in Tehran and Washington, have more than their fair share of crazies disguised as old-fashioned hawks. Right now the American crazies in Congress are making much more hostile noise and serious harm than their Iranian counterparts, mainly on behalf of their Likud allies in Israel. But there will be some fireworks in Tehran as well.
I have some strong doubts if many of the crazies in the US Congress would be content with a nuclear deal with Iran. I suspect, nay I know, that many of them want something beyond that complex nuclear deal, something that is probably not do-able.

On the other hand, the Iranian conservatives have their own extremist wackos who stupidly chant after every Friday prayers “Marg Bar Amrika = Death to America” and some of them occasionally desecrate Old Glory (no, they don’t call it that). They have been doing it for so many years, one would think it is second nature to the more extremists among the mullahs and their followers. Something I know most of their people disagree with.

Cheers
mhg

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Ali Khamenei, Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, Iran

An Iranian Lesson: How to Leave Office Unlamented and Unmissed…….

      

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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is gone, and nobody seems to miss him, except maybe Benyamin Netanyahu, and nobody seems to regret his departure, except probably himself.
I suspect that when Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, departs he will be publicly missed, no doubt, and there will be public rituals of mourning. But the average Iranian will probably not care that much. A cult of personality is not usually encouraged in Iran, and it would be hard for one to take hold anyway. Probably the Islamic nature of the regime does not encourage personality cults, at least not lasting personality cults. After all, how can any person compete with God in people’s hearts and minds? Besides, there is surely a strong desire everywhere for change: a supreme leader lasting in office for life is the best protection against a personality cult. Just look at Bahrain: the most hated person is the prime minister who has been in office for 42 years. People get tired of the same old, same old, no matter how amenable and lovable that same old, same old is (FYI: Shaikh Khalifa Al Khalifa is not amenable or lovable, never has been).
In this there is also a lesson for Arab kings, princes, and shaikhs and assorted dictators and kleptocrats (is there any other kind?). The longer you cling to power and the office, the easier the people will breathe when you are forced to leave. The louder the cheers you’ll hear when you leave office (most likely involuntarily).

Cheers
mhg

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Espionage, Iran, Israel

Espionage in Jerusalem: From Tehran with Love……………

      

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“Yitzchak Bergel, 46, of the Meah Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem allegedly spied for Iran and offered to kill Zionists. The man has six children, three sons and three daughters. His sons attend the Talmud Torah Torah V’yirah religious school and his daughters attend the Bnos Ruchel religious school. Bergel attends prayer services at the Toldos Aharon synagogue in Jerusalem. As we reported earlier, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man was arrested after he was caught spying for Iran, according to a report by the Tazpit News Agency. Israel Police said that an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man, a member of the radical Neturei Karta sect in Jerusalem, has been arrested in July on charges of attempting to spy on Israel for Iran…………….”

An unusual story. This man was like the Israeli equivalent of the Mujahideen Khalq, the Iranian group that does Israel and Mossad’s bidding inside Iran.
Cheers
mhg

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Iran, Israel, Mossad, Mujahideen Khalq, nuclear Iran

Next Year with the Bomb: Mossad’s Iranian Proxies Claim Secret Nuclear Site………

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“An exiled Iranian opposition group claimed on Thursday to have evidence of a hidden nuclear site located in tunnels beneath a mountain near the town of Damavand, 70 kilometres (44 miles) northeast of Tehran. The Paris-based militant group the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), alleges the site has existed since 2006 with the first series of subterranean tunnels and four external depots recently completed. The group also claims the recently elected president Hassan Rowhani, a former nuclear negotiator, had a “key role” in the programme…………….”

MEK, MKO, PMOI, former pals and henchmen of Saddam Hussein, are as credible on Iranian nuclear matters as the North Korean intelligence services are on South Korean politics, possibly less. In matters Iranian and nuclear, they are as credible as Mr. Netanyahu, who has been predicting an Iranian nuclear bomb “next year” since the 1990s. Which points them out as being much less credible than the Mossad.
The Iranians retaliate by claiming that the MEK was involved as proxies for Mossad (even for some Western agencies) in murdering Iranian academics and scientists and their families inside Iran. (But that can’t be, can it? After all, that would be called terrorism if the targeted victims were Westerners). They have also claimed that the MEK were involved in terrorist acts abroad for which the Iranian regime was blamed (maybe). Normally this new secret site would have been reported to the United States intelligence community and the Mossad (not necessarily in that order) before publicizing it in the media, if it were true. Unless the newly legitimized MEK has gone off the reservation. Therefore, my fatwa is that it is probably not true. Besides, with more than half the world’s satellites focusing their powerful cameras and audio receivers on Iran there is not much the mullahs can do that is not known by Western governments (and I mean they better have that noisy fan on and the curtains closed when necessary)……………

On Nuclear Weapons and Authoritarian Regimes and Crying Wolf Deliberately

Obama Goes Nuclear in Israel: Pushes Iran Threshold Beyond 1995 and 2001 and 2007 and 2013 and……..

Cheers
mhg

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Iran, Israel, U.S. Congress, US Foreign Policy

Lieberman Pushes Israeli War Agenda from Outside the US Senate…………

      

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“While the tumultuous events in Egypt and Syria have focused the public’s attention on civil strife in those countries, Iran remains the biggest threat to the United States in the Mideast, says former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman. “The most dangerous challenge to U.S. national security brewing in the region continues to be the Iranian regime’s pursuit of a nuclear-weapons capability,” Lieberman, who served in the Senate as both a Democrat and an independent, writes in The Wall Street Journal. The most important recent development in Iran is last month’s election of Hasan Rouhani as president and reaction to that result has generally been divided in two ways, says Lieberman, now senior counsel at the law firm……………….”

Good old Joe Lieberman. There was a time in 2000 when I thought Al Gore’s best and boldest move was to choose Joe as his running mate. The man who later in 2008 worked so hard to get Sarah Palin elected vice president of the United States. Lucky the American people were smarter than he was. Joe who single-handed screwed up Mr. Obama’s original Healthcare plan. He spent the last few years of his Senate tenure pushing for new Middle East wars, pushing for new and improved American wars on more Arab and Muslim lands. He made sure before he left the senate that the American sanctions, the blockade, against Iran are so water tight they can never be removed without congressional approval, meaning they can never be removed without Israeli approval.
Like Tony Blair, Joe occasionally crawls out of whatever rock he is under, to push for his favorite next war.

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, Egypt, Iran, US Foreign Policy

Tale of Two Military Coups: Where is Morsi? Where is Mossadeq?……….

      

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August 1953. A military coup was staged in Iran against elected prime minister Dr. Mohammed Mossadeq. The coup was engineered and plotted by the CIA and British MI6. It also started with protests and riots on the street, all paid for by the two major Western powers of that time. The Issues? Mossadeq had rightly nationalized Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later became NIOC and British Petroleum BP). The British Empire wanted him punished for nationalizing Iranian oil, and the American cousins were convinced by the Brits that Mossadeq was some secret communist. That was the basis for Operation Ajax (the American name for it). How stupid can you get? The Shah had flown to Rome before the coup, as part of the plot. Later the Shah’s daughter Princess Shahnaz (his daughter from Egyptian Princess Fawzia) was reportedly married to the son of General Zahedi who led the coup. Mossadeq was arrested, jailed, then spent the rest of his life under house arrest.
July 2013. Now in Egypt. It is not the CIA or MI6 anymore that buys or tries to buy the military. The petroleum potentates of the Persian Gulf are richer than the CIA and MI6 combined, in terms of free resources that do not require budgetary approval. The ruling families of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have deep pockets. They tried early to buy the Egyptian revolution of 2011 by offering billions of dollars in aid. When the elections went ahead and the Muslim Brotherhood (M won, the aid money never showed up.
Now the military coup staged by the remnants of the Mubarak regime (his feloul) gives the shaikhs and princes another chance at Egypt. The feloul that staged or helped the coup in Egypt are: (1) the military of Mubarak led by General Sisi, (2) the court system of Mubarak’s appointees, (3) Al Azhar led and staffed by Mubarak appointees, and (4) the formidable government bureaucracy staffed for 30 years by Mubarak. The MB had no chance. Two other groups aided and abetted: (a) the liberal secularists of Tamarod and (b) the Coptic Church leadership. But these two groups will most likely be left out of real influence in favor of the Salafists who opportunistically betrayed their MB allies and joined the coup-makers. Morsi, like Mossadeq is in prison and may his enemies no doubt wish for him to spend the rest of his life under house arrest.
Egypt did not have a shah to return to power. It has the military which has been in power for decades. The military has asserted its role as the supreme leader of Egypt. Whoever is elected will be second or third banana. End of the story? Unlikely, given the political base of the Islamists in Egypt. I can only see turmoil and trouble in the months ahead.

Cheers
mhg

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