Friday, July 17, 2009
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Rafsanjani Calls for 'Open Debate' on Election
Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani called Friday for "open debate" on the recent controversial election which saw President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad retain power. He also called on authorities to release opposition figures who have been imprisoned during a major crackdown on protesters which followed the election on June 12.
Rafsanjani, who still enjoys major influence in Iran, was addressing thousands of opposition supporters amid tight security, high anticipation and tension, at Friday prayers.
He began the speech before Tehran University with an appeal for calm. "Let us use the occasion to create a better future for our country," he told the crowd in his first public appearance since the election.
He urged them not to disrupt the peaceful Friday prayers atmosphere with anti-government chants, witnesses said.
Waiting for Mousavi
Mir-Hossein Moussavi was also expected to make his first public appearance for weeks, as well as former president Mohammad Khatami and former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi.
Witnesses said the crowd included thousands of Moussavi supporters, wearing green masks, and with most of the women wearing headscarves of green, the colour of Moussavi's opposition movement.
Witnesses said Moussavi supporters shouted, "Allahu Akbar," or "God is Great," which had in recent weeks turned into a major protest slogan against the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Rafsanjani and Moussavi are fierce opponents of Ahmadinejad and have not acknowledged his re-election in June 12 voting, which was marred by accusations of fraud by the opposition.
Witnesses said the atmosphere around the university was tense and clashes between Moussavi supporters and police could not be ruled out.
Foreign reporters and photographers were prohibited by security officials from covering the Friday prayer ceremony or even staying outside the university to observe.
-DPA
UPDATE: The AFP report can be found here.
Iran's official English-language TV channel is spinning the sermon as a call for "national unity." Click here.Recalling the Rafsanjani Connection ... to Terrorism
Thousands of Mousavi Supporters Chant His Praises
Click here for the AFP report. Eyewitnesses tell the news service thousands of Mousavi supporters gathered for Friday prayers at Tehran University, chanting support for the opposition leader and freedom for political prisoners.
Click here for the AP story. In all, tens of thousands gathered for the weekly prayer service. Supporters and opponents of Ahmadinejad chanted competing slogans.The Price of Sugar
Nightly Protests Continuing in Iran
The Gauntlet, one of North America's best student newspapers, reports:Nightly demonstrations in Iran are continuing, a month after the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on June 12.
In the aftermath of the contested election, which many have called the last straw for a generation of Iranians -- 60-70 per cent of Iran's population are under the age of 30 -- 20 protesters have died according to state reports, while other sources indicate as many as 200 are dead. According to observers there is a growing sense that demonstrators are calling for dramatic change in the structure of the Islamic Republic itself -- the separation of religion from government, more transparency and the right to dissent.
Click here to continue.
And be sure to go here for comprehensive, up-to-the-minute coverage of the continuing protests--a story the mainstream media have basically stopped reporting in recent days.S. Korean Think Tank: North Facing Major Crisis
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Ahmadinejad Seems to Threaten Nuclear Attack
Islamist Iran's maniac-in-chief Mahmoud Ahmadinejad angrily blamed the West Thursday for post-election unrest in Iran. His rhetoric seemed to suggest that Iran's revenge would be to cross the nuclear threshold--and attack its foes.
"As soon as the new government is established, with 10 times more power and authority than before, it will enter the global scene and will defeat the global arrogance," Ahmadinejad told supporters in a speech that was broadcast on state-controlled television.
He spoke during a visit to the northeastern city of Mashhad.Terrorists Attack American Hotels in Indonesia
The Case for Preemptive Nuclear Strikes on Iran
Absent a miracle, such as a democratic revolution in Iran, or a maritime blockade that will bring the nuclear-arming, Islamist regime to its knees, the Israeli government will soon have to choose between two horrible alternatives: mass death in Israel or mass death in Iran.
Israeli leaders know this to be true. But they dare not express it for fear of antagonizing the Obama administraion, which is bent on appeasing Islamist Iran--and Islamism in general.
The situation boils down to this:
1. Allowing Iran to develop nuclear weapons is likely to lead to a second Holocaust. Iran has vowed to "wipe Israel off the map," and has held conferences around the themes of Holocaust denial and a "world without America and Israel."
2. If Israel, which has been abandoned by the United States, preemptively attacks Iran with conventional weapons, thousands of Israeli civilians could die. The turbaned tyranny and its Lebanese proxy, Hitlerian Hezbollah, both bristling with ballistic missiles (and Syrian-supplied chemical warheads) have threatened to "burn Tel Aviv" in retaliation for an attack by Israel or the United States.
Therefore, the case for preemptive Israeli nuclear strikes on Iran--swift, merciless attacks aimed at destroying every known and suspected nuclear and missile site, the entire Revolutionary Guards Corps, and a good portion of the regular armed forces--grows stronger by the day.
As predicted, U.S. appeasement of Iran is making war inevitable.
Mass death in Israel or mass death in Iran ... can there be any doubt which of these alternatives Israel will choose?Gates to North Korea: Don't Make 'Stupid Mistakes!'
By Al Pessin
At a question-and-answer session with American soldiers, Defense Secretary Gates was asked whether he is concerned about the U.S. ability to defend South Korea from a North Korean invasion. The United States has 28,000 troops in South Korea. But Gates said South Korea's own army has grown in size and capability in recent years, and would handle most of the fighting, with help from American air and naval forces.
He added that he is not particularly concerned about North Korea's conventional military power, which is often reported to be substantial.
Starving Army
"Frankly, this is an army that's starving," Gates said. "The average North Korean, at this point, is seven inches shorter than his South Korean counterpart. This is a country where the famine of the mid-1990s has affected the physical and even intellectual development of those that are now coming into the zone who would be eligible for military service. So this is a country whose conventional forces and capabilities are really, I think, declining."
Still, Gates said he is concerned about North Korea's continuing efforts, in defiance of international sanctions, to develop nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.
"We're watching them very closely, and I hope they don't make any stupid mistakes," he said.
Gates spoke during a visit to Fort Drum in New York State, where many of the soldiers have served in Iraq, and some are preparing to return there, or for possible deployment to Afghanistan.Obama CIA Chief Killed Plan to Kill Qaeda Killers
Liberal Press Praising Panetta's Plug-Pulling
Click here for the Washington Post story.
The liberal media won't be satisfied until an atomic bomb is detonated in an American city. Then, they can publish front page stories about healing sessions and efforts to protect Islamist institutions....Sabotage Suspected in Air Crash in Iran
A Russian-made Caspian Airline jet crashed in Iran near Qazvin, on Wednesday July 15, killing all the 168 on board the aircraft. The exact circumstances of the crash is still shrouded in mystery and the subject of conflicting speculations by local and national aviation authorities.
In the initial round of press briefing on the aftermath the crash, ISNA (Iranian Student's News Agency) quoted Reza Ghadimi, general aviation manager at Imam Khomeini's International Airport, that "there were no known mechanical failure in connection with the plane during or before the flight and we don't have any confirmation of the pilot issuing any reports of malfunction."
Ghadimi refused to elaborate on whether or not the cause of the crash was due to an explosion. He maintained that substantiating evidence for the latter is the subject of an ongoing investigation and neither confirmed nor denied the possibility. Additional reports reflecting the assessment of other aviation authorities such as the one by Mehr News also indicated no confirmations of mechanical failure before or after the flight.
Conflicting Information
This version of the incident is contrasted against the concurrent claims of Qazvin's security office agent who maintained the plane has had technical difficulties and was in flight toward Zanjan and Tabriz for an emergency landing. According to Sirous Saberi, as the effort failed, the pilot changed the flight path back toward Tehran, where the deadly incident took place.
It is suspected that the event may have a connection with the recent appointment of Ahmadinejad's handpicked yes-man to a top aviation post. Ali Ilkhani who was appointed to the aviation post recently has a demonstrated history of involvements with the pro-regime's security sectors and was previously employed in the capacity of a security consultant for the aviation agency. He was appointed to a key aviation authority post shortly before Ahmadinejad's highly disputed re-appointment to presidency.
Some believe the timing of the event may be used as a distracting time bomb to divert public attention from the highly anticipated Friday prayer by Rafsanjani, who was a pro-mousavi backer and has been absent from the weekly friday prayer in Tehran since the election.
-Iran Press NewsDialogue THIS: Inspiring IAF Video
As Iran Plots Our Doom, a Lesson from the Past
As Iran Extends Its Reach, a Lesson From Argentina
By Daniel S. Mariaschin
EDITOR'S NOTE: Daniel S. Mariaschin is executive vice president of B'nai B'rith International. His Op-Ed, which appears below, was originally published by The Forward.
On July 18, 1994, terrorists bombed the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association building in Buenos Aires, killing 85 and wounding 300. Since then, we have learned that the bombing was carried out at the behest of key leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Now, as we mark the 15th anniversary of that devastating assault on the heart of Argentina’s Jewish community, a confluence of events makes Iran’s growing influence in Latin America all the more menacing. It does not require a great leap of imagination to predict that the current election-induced unrest in Iran might yield more terrorist attacks thousands of miles away.
With each passing year, the sponsors and perpetrators of the AMIA bombing grow more and more confident about getting away with their terrorism. From the start, there have been failures on so many levels to bring about justice in the case. Fifteen years is too long to wait, but we must also never give up because the wait is long.
Argentine state prosecutor Alberto Nisman has done courageous work in pursuit of those responsible for the attack. Three years ago, Nisman issued a report which concluded that Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based Shiite terrorist group, was behind the AMIA bombing. And, as we all know, Iran is behind Hezbollah. Over 800 pages, the Argentine prosecutor explained how Iran’s president at the time, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and other officials used Hezbollah to kill Jews in Argentina’s capital. This was a major investigative breakthrough.
Yet even as Iran has stymied efforts to bring the perpetrators of this attack to justice, it has continued to expand its influence in Latin America. Tehran’s many friends and supporters in Latin America now include Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and, thanks to Chavez’s introductions, the leaders of Ecuador and Bolivia. Also through Chavez, Nicaragua is now once again allied with Iran.
The region took a decidedly dangerous turn when Chavez enlisted these leaders in his alliance with Iran. Venezuela and Bolivia are sending uranium to Iran, according to an Israeli intelligence report obtained by the Associated Press. And Western officials have expressed fear that Hezbollah is establishing a beachhead in Chavez’s Venezuela. The region’s sometimes porous borders mean that once Hezbollah-affiliated terrorists establish a presence in one Latin American country, they are relatively free to travel to others. With easy air travel from Tehran to Caracas, it’s no wonder that Latin America has come to be viewed as a potential launching pad for terrorist activities.
The danger posed by Iranian meddling in Latin America should not be underestimated. The United States must team up with our Latin American partners to combat the growing threat of Iranian-inspired and -funded terror.
When the AMIA building was bombed, the world was shocked. Since then, mass-casualty terrorist attacks have become pervasive. The AMIA attack portended others, but we didn’t listen to the warning siren.
Each terror attack unanswered by the rule of law, and every terrorist not held accountable for his crimes against humanity, ratchets up the level of violence. The building blocks for future attacks are now being assembled. We must dismantle them. The AMIA bombing anniversary is a good time to start.Tehran Tense Ahead of Mousavi Appearance
Reuters reports:Iranian opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi plans to attend Friday prayers this week in his first official public appearance since a disputed election that provoked mass protests by his supporters last month.
A statement on his website confirmed reports the defeated candidate would be present at the weekly prayers at Tehran University to be led by former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a rival of re-elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Clearly reflecting concern the event may turn into a show of strength by Ahmadinejad's pro-reform opponents, Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei told Fars News Agency: "The vigilant Iranian nation must be aware that tomorrow's sermon should not turn to an arena for undesirable scenes."
Continue here.Dawn of a New World: Plenty of Sunshine for China, Wall Street, Saudi Arabia, Winter for Ordinary Folks
Read all about it! Click here ... here ... here ... and ... here.Wednesday, July 15, 2009
How Much Does N. Korea Earn from Arms Sales?
Friday 17 July 2009
Awaiting word on his Friday sermon, it is worth recalling that former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is no moderate. Click here and here to read about his connection to international terrorism.
Far from Hollywood, independent filmmakers are making great movies. This is one such production--a documentary about a courageous Catholic priest who risks his life to end a modern-day slave system. Click below to watch the trailer. Click here for more information about The Price of Sugar.
Click here for the report. A South Korean think tank says the North is facing its worst crisis in 15 years.
This just in: the recession is ending.
Click here for the answer to that and other questions about the nuclear-armed, Stalinist/Kimist/criminal state.
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