Category Archives: Iran

Ali Khamenei, Egypt, Iran, Terrorism, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

Suicidal Iranians: Another Dastardly Terror Plot in the Suez Canal……….

    

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“The Egyptian authorities claim to have foiled an Iranian attempt to blow up Israeli vessels in the Suez Canal, a government-linked newspaper has reported. Details of the alleged plot are likely to escalate tensions between Israel and Iran, who are locked in a stand-off over Tehran’s nuclear programme that many fear could trigger a new war in the Middle East. Israeli officials were unable to confirm the details, but said it was significant that the report had been published in Al-Ahram Weekly, a semi-official newspaper. Quoting state prosecutors, Al-Ahram said Egyptian police were holding two Egyptian nationals who are charged with receiving orders and payment from Iranian agents to blow up an Israeli ship. The two allegedly offered a third suspect, Mohammed Zakri, £5.1m to carry out the attack. Mr Zakri was reportedly told that he would be “paid by the Shiites”, apparently a reference to Tehran.…………..”

Oh oh, this is now an epidemic. Yet another Iranian plot surfaces, this time in Egypt, just two days after the last one, which was about four days after the one before it, which was just days after the one preceding………
And the suspect in Egypt knew just the exact words to say to the police; “paid by the Shiites“. He sounds so sincere, he almost sounds like a Salafi that equates Shi’as with Iranians (the way I often equate Salafis with a Saudi fifth column). There hasn’t been an Iranian plot against Egypt since they tried to take over the country with the help of Hizbollah about two months ago, as reported by Saudi daily Asharq Alawsat. A couple of months before that the Iranians were plotting with al-Qaeda to take over Egypt again, for the second time in 25 centuries (according to the same Saudi daily). Before that, some two years ago, they had tried to convert all 80 million Egyptians to the Shi’a sect, but Hosni Mubarak and the Shaikh of al-Azhar saved the day.
This new plot is uncovered exactly one day after an Iran-Hizbollah-Hamas plot was exposed by Ambassador Gerald Feierstein to take over Yemen, barely two days after the plot in New York to take photos of tourist sites. I am not even going to list all the other plots exposed so far, leaving their masterminds, the Iranian mullahs, in a state of un-consummated frustration.
Apparently the (extremely stupid) Iranians are itching to be bombed and have their infrastructure destroyed by Israel and the United States. Preferably with the blessings of the UN Security Council (they already have all the al-Saud and Salafi blessings they need). The mullahs must be disappointed with nothing to show for their efforts: that their country is still standing on its feet after all the previous plots they concocted and tried to execute all around the world. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei must have called in the chief of the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and given his a dressing down:  ”If you are so smart, then why are our cities, out command and control centers, our ports and our oil infrastructure still standing?”
What must be frustrating for the mullahs is that all their terror plots consistently fail. From the Persian Gulf to Egypt to Georgetown to New York to Asia, not one of these dastardly plots has been consummated. Maybe the best thing for the West to do about their nuclear program is to leave it alone. Just let them botch it up like all their other plots.

(Humor and wit side: it is possible, just possible, that the Iranians, some faction of them, are behind all these wild worldwide plots that we read about almost every other day now. Some of them, besides Jack the Texan and his Mexican drug cartel pals, may have had a grudge against the Saudi ambassador. But in that case which faction is it? An internal Iranian faction or an external Iranian faction?)
Cheers
mhg


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Afghanistan, Iran, Lebanon, Libya, Racism, Terrorism

White Gods vs. Brown Gods: Greed and Blood Money from Beirut to Lockerbie to Tehran to Afghanistan.. …….

    

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Here are some brief media reports of “terrorist” acts in Beirut, Europe, the Persian Gulf, and Afghanistan. These acts were committed by Arabs, Muslims, and Westerners. That acts were shocking, they always are. Note the aftermath. It is almost as shocking as the acts themselves, in fact more so because the aftermath reflects how humans are valued differently in the West. Now a comparison is in order:

Feb. 2012: “The U.S. paid $50,000 in compensation for each villager killed and $11,000 for each person wounded in a shooting rampage allegedly carried out by a rogue American soldier in southern Afghanistan, Afghan officials said Sunday. The families were told that the money came from President Barack Obama. The unusually large payouts……….”

Feb. 2011: “Paul Wolfowitz has been branded ‘pathetic’ after launching an extraordinary attack on the families of those who lost loved ones in the Lockerbie bombing. The former deputy Secretary of Defense said the U.S. had buckled under pressure from grieving relatives to normalise relations with Libya so they could walk away with $10million each in compensation………….”

Nov. 2008: “The U.S. said Sunday it has begun transferring more than $500 million in Libyan compensation money to the families of American victims of the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. More money is on the way to complete the settlement, but $504 million of $536 million to be distributed to the families was moved from the U.S. Treasury to a private account administered by Lockerbie families’ lawyers on Friday, the top American diplomat for the Mideast said. David Welch spoke to reporters aboard U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s plane as she returned to Washington from the Middle East. He said he expected the rest of the Lockerbie payments would be made soon as soon as administrative details were worked out. The cash comes from a $1.5 billion fund for U.S. victims of Libyan-linked terrorism in the 1980s that Libya finished paying into last month………”

Sept. 2007: “WASHINGTON — Iran must pay $2.65 billion to the families of the 241 U.S. service members killed in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, a federal judge declared Friday in a ruling that left survivors and families shedding tears of joy. U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth described his ruling as the largest-ever such judgment by an American court against another country. “These individuals, whose hearts and souls were forever broken, waited patiently for nearly a quarter century for justice to be done,” he said………………”

“On July 3, 1988, an Iranian aircraft registered on the radar screen of the USS Vincennes. The U.S. Navy officers on the bridge identified the approaching aircraft as an Iranian Air Force F-14 Tomcat. Though they would later claim that they tried to reach the aircraft on military and civilian frequencies, they failed to try air traffic control, which would have probably cleared the air. Instead, as the aircraft drew nearer, the Americans fired two guided missiles at their target: a civilian Airbus A300B2, killing 290 civilians, including 66 children, en route to Dubai…… Reza, who served as a volunteer Basiji from 1987-1988 and teaches chemistry now, admits he doesn’t think about what happened too often. “Still, when I do,” he said, “I remember how nobody cared! These were Iranian civilians who were killed and there was no condemnation.”……..”

The Huffington Post report, the first one I quoted up there, calls the $50k and $10k “unusually large payouts“. What they mean is “unusually large payouts for the life and limb of Afghans, non-Westerners“.
I have commented before on Lockerbie vs. Iran Air 655. Clearly, a white man or woman, a white child, is worth much more than an Afghan or an Iranian or an Arab (man or woman or child). Reading through these reports, I wonder: is it possible that they are? Maybe they are.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Arabian Peninsula, Hezbollah, Iran, Saudi Arabia, US Foreign Policy, Yemen

The Usual Suspects: Hezbollah and Hamas in Yemen and Casablanca………….

    

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Captain Renault: “Major Strasser’s been shot. Round up the usual suspects.“  Casablanca

“Washington believes Iran is working with Shi’ite Muslim rebels in northern Yemen and secessionists in the country’s south to expand its influence at the expense of Yemen’s Gulf neighbours, the U.S. envoy to Sanaa was quoted as saying on Sunday. The pan-Arab daily al-Hayat cited Gerald Feierstein, in an interview in London, as accusing Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Hamas of helping their backers in Shi’ite Iran at the expense of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a bloc in which Sunni-led oil giant Saudi Arabia’s influence is dominant. “The Iranians want to build influence in Yemen… both internally and more broadly in the region by establishing a foothold in the Arabian Peninsula,” the paper quoted Feierstein as saying in remarks published in Arabic. “It’s something that’s naturally regarded as a security threat to Saudi Arabia and the rest of the GCC states.” Feierstein told Reuters in an interview last month that there were signs of greater Iranian activity in Yemen, There is evidence that Hezbollah and Hamas support this Iranian effort ……….”

Also sprach the US ambassador quoted by Saudi semi-official daily al-Hayat (owned by Prince Khalid Bin Sultan).
Yemen is much more complex than the picture this ambassador paints. Al-Qaeda has become a major disruptive force across Yemen now, including the once secular south. That is what 20 years of union with the tribal north Yemen has done to the rest of the country. That and nearly twenty years of Saudi Wahhabi influence.
The fact is that the GCC (Saudi) plan that the West supported in Yemen does not meet the aspirations of most Yemeni people (excluding Tawakkol Karman). The killings by regime forces continue, except that Arab and Western media are not covering them anymore. The people want a regime change, but they had a reactionary status-quo GCC plan rammed down their throats. Clearly they are not accepting it.
There is some Iranian involvement and influence in parts of Yemen, just as there are Saudi influences in parts of Yemen. And there is American influence, especially in the skies. But it is not clear how Hamas and Hezbollah got together in Yemen. Hamas is Muslim Brotherhood Sunni, Hezbollah is Shi’a. Maybe the ambassador has some evidence he can’t share with the public. It is also quite likely he is just mouthing the same old manta the Yemen regime has been repeating for the past two or three years. The “foreign interference” mantra most Arab regimes repeat when they are in trouble in places like Bahrain and Syria and before them in Egypt and Libya.
Of course, this is not to say there is no Iranian interference, there probably is some of that (the theory of political vacuum and all that). But Hamas and Hezbollah? That sounds like a 2012 American presidential campaign slogan, produced by AIPAC.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Iran, Iraq, Syria, US Foreign Policy

American-Iranian Tug of War over Iraqi Skies and Syria………

    

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“The first major test of U.S. post-war influence in Iraq is now raging over efforts to stop Iran from funneling arms to Syria through Iraqi airspace, but the Iraqis are either unwilling or unable to assure the United States the shipments will cease. Last week, the Washington Times reported that the Iraqi government was refusing to halt Iranian cargo flights to Syria that fly over Iraqi airspace, despite the fact that U.S. officials believe the flights carry massive and illegal shipments of arms to aid President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, which is murdering civilians by the thousands in its struggle to keep power. Publicly, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has stated the shipments contain “humanitarian goods, not weapons.” However, U.S. officials aren’t buying that excuse, and have been repeatedly pressing Maliki behind the scenes to make Iran halt the arms shipments, with limited if any success……….”

No doubt the Iranians are sending some weapons and equipment to Syria, among other things they send to help the Assad regime. Yet whatever Iran sends by air pales in comparison to what the Syrians get by sea from the Russian fleet based on the Syrian coast. Which always puzzled me: the Russians can and do provide much better weapons to Syria from safe sea routes (Black Sea to Mediterranean). And they can ship real heavy equipment and armor by sea. Whatever the Iranians provide must be small change, unless the Russians have decided to stop or restrict their Syrian arms shipments, and there is no so indication of that yet. So why all the fuss about smaller Iranian shipments? Could it be political rather than of any military value? Yes, it could, it could.
The Iraqis would love to get their hands on sophisticated warplanes to replace their old Baath air force that was destroyed, ironically, by the United States. This is a bargaining chip the Obama administration can use, may be using. On the other hands, there are other suppliers willing to supply the Iraqis with warplanes, but these are not as good as American brands. These are the variables. Oh, and there is an Arab ‘summit’ scheduled for Baghdad soon which the Iraqis would like to succeed and some neighborly Arabs would love to fail.
Cheers
mhg


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Espionage, Hezbollah, Iran, Lebanon, Terrorism, U.S. Congress, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

New Iranian Terror Plot Uncovered by, You Guessed it, NYPD………..

    

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“A senior New York police official disclosed that at least 13 suspects with ties to the Iranian government had been questioned by authorities in the last seven years after conducting surveillance of possible attack sites. Mitchell Silber, the New York Police Department’s director of intelligence analysis, said the city’s large Jewish population and international significance as a terror target made it ripe for a strike by either Iran or Hizbollah, the Lebanon-based militant group it sometimes uses as a proxy. Testifying before the House of Representative’s Homeland Security Committee, he said the suspects included six people on a sightseeing cruise who were taking photographs and film of well-known New York landmarks such as the Brooklyn Bridge in 2005. And in September 2010, federal air marshals detained four people taking pictures and films at a heliport in the city. During questioning, all 13 people admitted that they were associated with the Iranian government, but they were ultimately released without charge…………”

I wonder if it is still legal to take pictures of the Empire State building. That used to be my favorite landmark in New York when I was a teenage student back east, it still is, along with the Statue of Liberty. I used to take photos of it, then climb on top and take more amazing photos.
I don’t know about this. They haven’t been able to catch any Iranian terrorists yet (just a few weapon and technology smugglers). Even with Hezbollah agents, the best they could find was some hapless Lebanese trying to smuggle bullets for pistols to Lebanon. Bullets for pistols! I guess he didn’t realize that Hezbollah has missiles and anti-aircraft guns and drones and is waiting for the first Iranian nuclear bomb.
I am near despair that they ever will catch a genuine Iranian or Hezbollah terrorist in the US: unless they can revive that old Cheney idea of a meeting in Prague between Mohammed Atta and Iranian intelligence. Woops, that was Iraqi intelligence, allegedly. Then there is Jack the Texas used-car dealer who conspired with Ali Khamenei and the Quds Force and Hezbollah and the Mexican Cartel and FARC to blow to smithereens an Arab yes-man ambassador in Washington. I am beginning to suspect that there
probably are no such thing as “Iranian terrorists” in the United States,
none in New Jersey-NYC, none in Westwood. Not even any hiding under the bed of the Saudi ambassador or Representative
Peter King or, heaven forbid, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fl).


More seriously: it pays to be vigilant these days. If there is a new war, all bets are off. Terrorism may become a reality instead of just an opportunity for some ambitious or overeager cop or agent or East Coast DA.
Cheers
mhg


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Iran, Iraq, United Nations International Organizations, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

Is It Payback Time for Yukiya Amano Cheney? the IAEA Tehran Deception…………..

    

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“The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the nuclear watchdog at the heart of the growing Iranian crisis, has been accused by several former senior officials of pro-western bias, over-reliance on unverified intelligence and of sidelining sceptics. In November, it published an unprecedented volume of intelligence pointing towards past Iranian work on developing a nuclear weapon, deeming it credible. However, some former IAEA officials are saying that the agency has gone too far. Robert Kelley, a former US weapons scientists who ran the IAEA action team on Iraq at the time of the US-led invasion, said there were worrying parallels between the west’s mistakes over Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction then and the IAEA’s assessment of Iran now. “Amano is falling into the Cheney trap….”……… The acrid taste left by the election was heightened by the US diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks which revealed Amano’s assiduous courting of American support. In an October 2009 cable, the US charge d’affaires, Geoffrey Pyatt, wrote: “Amano reminded [the] ambassador on several occasions that he would need to make concessions to the G-77 [the developing countries group], which correctly required him to be fair-minded and independent, but that he was solidly in the US court on every key strategic decision, from high-level personnel appointments to the handling of Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program.”………..”


To me it has always sounded like déjà vu all over again (as the baseball man said). Like the buildup to the Iraq war (that I supported). Domestic American right-wing pressure, Israeli pressure, Arab princes applying pressure, shadowy exiles making wild claims, terrible intelligence (George Tenet’s “slam dunk), even more terrible analysis and interpretation of the terrible intelligence. It is so similar, almost a breathtaking repeat of the exact same steps. Then the years of demonization and Hitler-izing the prospective enemy. It is amazing how most people are not recalling that earlier deception of 2002-2003.
Cheers
mhg


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Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, Syria, Weapons deals, WMD

Syrian Air Defenses, Hezbollah Air Defenses……………

    

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“Syria has been arming and training Hezbollah fighters in the use of advanced antiaircraft weapons in recent months, Israel Defense Forces sources have told Haaretz. A senior officer in the Northern Command says hundreds of fighters were taught to use surface-to-air missiles in Syria and Iran. IDF officers are worried by two developments involving Syria and Hezbollah that could change the balance of power in the region. The first is the transfer of huge quantities of surface-to-air missiles; the second, the transfer of chemical and biological weapons. IDF officers believe that Hezbollah use of advanced antiaircraft missiles could jeopardize Israeli aerial supremacy……….”

Training is possible, in fact both Iran and Syria do it. However, supplying sophisticated weapons or WMD is doubtful (especially WMD). There are no doubt some sophisticated missiles supplied to Hezbollah by the Iranians but not by the Syrians (and certainly not WMD).


The Syrians don’t give away their somewhat sophisticated air defense systems, especially not to a Lebanese group. Any Lebanese group. Same applies even more to WMD: contrary to the Western (especially American) fear-mongering legend, Middle East regimes do not supply outsiders with WMD (or sophisticated conventional weapons).
Besides, the same air defense system failed the Syrians when the Israeli air force bombed the alleged nuclear plant (an odd story that has not been explained to the public in either Syria or Israel). Of course the Syrians may have been unwilling, too afraid, to use their air defenses; Hezbollah is certain to use them, if they have them, if Lebanon is attacked.
Cheers
mhg


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Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Religion, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy

Meshugenner American Evangelicals and the Rapture of Israel………

    

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“The prominence of the Iran issue in the current Republican primary race also incenses Klein, who is quick to elaborate that the force behind the rhetoric is not just a “small group of Jewish neoconservatives.” “There is this whole bunch of meshugenner Evangelicals who love their little Jewish ‘sisters and brothers,’ who they believe are going to incinerate themselves once the Rapture comes … The Evangelicals are a major force in American politics and the Republican politicians listen to what they are is saying. When you have a politician like [Newt] Gingrich or [Rick] Santorum say that Iran’s government is completely irrational, that it is a death cult – using words like ‘satanic cult that will use the bomb as soon as it gets it’ – they are following a Rapturian line, No. 1, and No. 2, there are people in the Israeli government – and I know this for a fact – who are selling that to them.” ……”

Also sprach Joe Klein on Iranian cultists, American cultists, and their Likud manipulators…..
Cheers
mhg


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Iran, Israel, Palestine

Oh, No: Ahmadinejad is back on the Palestine Israel Issue..……..

    

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“Zionist regime is an insult to independent nations: Ahmadinejad. Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the occupation of Palestine is a historical problem and the existence of the Zionist regime is an insult to freedom, justice and all independent nations. “The Europe and the US spend tens of billions of their wealth on the Zionists each year to help a criminal regime…continue its occupation [of Palestinian lands],” he said, addressing a convoy of pro-Palestinian activists in Tehran who are heading to al-Quds (Jerusalem) on Sunday.
He also slammed the Western states for showing no tolerance towards questioning the existence of Israel. “Despite all liberal claims of the Western states, nobody is ever allowed to ask a question or conduct a research on how the Zionist regime was established,” the president said…….”

Oh oh, he is back, the maddest of lame ducks. And hinting about “research” into the Holocaust again. Some of his statements don’t help the Palestinian cause, on the contrary they can be harmful. Besides, they only divert attention from the West Bank issue to the Iranian nuclear program. Which is exactly what Netanyahu wants. I wonder if Bibi called him “Hey Mahmoud, we haven’t had one of your nuggets for some time…. how about you getting out a…….” Nah, highly unlikely.
Cheers
mhg


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CIA, Espionage, Iran, Israel, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

Iranian Nuclear issue, American Nuclear Issue, Conventional Strategic Issue…..

    

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“Intercepted communications of Iranian officials discussing their nuclear program raised concerns that the country’s leaders had decided to revive efforts to develop a weapon, intelligence officials said. That, along with a stream of other information, set off an intensive review and delayed publication of the 2010 National Intelligence Estimate, a classified report reflecting the consensus of analysts from 16 agencies. But in the end, they deemed the intercepts and other evidence unpersuasive, and they stuck to their longstanding conclusion……… As a result, officials caution that they cannot offer certainty. “I’d say that I have about 75 percent confidence in the assessment that they haven’t restarted the program,”…………….”

““There is not a lot of dispute between the U.S. and Israeli intelligence communities on the facts,” the former official said. The Times reported last month that U.S. intelligence analysts continue to believe there was no hard evidence that Iran has decided to build a nuclear bomb. The latest assessments by U.S. spy agencies are broadly consistent with a 2007 intelligence finding that concluded that Iran had abandoned its nuclear weapons program …….….”


Which deserves a resounding: WTF?
This seems to confirm my long-held suspicions: the noise about Iran has little to do with a nuclear program. It has a lot to do with broader Middle East balance of power. It has to do with pressure from the Israeli/American right-wing (and perhaps the Saudi princes). It is part of a struggle for influence in the Middle East.
The Israelis want Iranian influence in Lebanon and Syria reduced, but without the risk of an Islamist Salafi resurgence (in Syria) that would actively reopen the Golan file. Syria is a focus target, with the potential of a complete break with Iran and an alliance with the Saudis and their  right-wing March 14 proxies in Lebanon. Lebanon can be partly affected, but it would be unrealistic for it to have a complete break with Iran and join the Saudi camp (the demographics are against it).

The Saudi princes want to consolidate their hegemony over the Gulf GCC states and to dominate the Arabs of the eastern Mediterranean. A tough, nay impossible, job. In the process, they want Iranian infrastructure and military power destroyed by the Americans and Israelis. That would open the door for their money to move into the vacuum in Syria and perhaps regain influence in Lebanon. The Saudi princes want to play the same role they tried in the 1980s, when they armed and financed Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Iran and urged the West to do the same. We all know what Saddam did in 1990 right after the West pulled his nuts out of the fire.

Everybody in America is making ‘appropriate’ noises about the “nuclear” issue; even Obama is being pushed to it by both his right-wing opponents and by Democrats in the U.S. Congress. Especially so with the Republican candidates vying to outdo each other in Likud-orchestrated crazy rhetoric, rhetoric that seems to embarrass some past and current Israeli officials (not Netanyahu and Lieberman).
Cheers
mhg


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