North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?
Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?
Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?
?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?
US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty Anti-Empire >>
A bird's eye view of the vineyard
Alternative Copy of thesaker.is site is available Thu May 25, 2023 14:38 | Ice-Saker-V6bKu3nz Alternative site: https://thesaker.si/saker-a... Site was created using the downloads provided Regards Herb
The Saker blog is now frozen Tue Feb 28, 2023 23:55 | The Saker Dear friends As I have previously announced, we are now “freezing” the blog.? We are also making archives of the blog available for free download in various formats (see below).?
What do you make of the Russia and China Partnership? Tue Feb 28, 2023 16:26 | The Saker by Mr. Allen for the Saker blog Over the last few years, we hear leaders from both Russia and China pronouncing that they have formed a relationship where there are
Moveable Feast Cafe 2023/02/27 ? Open Thread Mon Feb 27, 2023 19:00 | cafe-uploader 2023/02/27 19:00:02Welcome to the ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’. The ‘Moveable Feast’ is an open thread where readers can post wide ranging observations, articles, rants, off topic and have animate discussions of
The stage is set for Hybrid World War III Mon Feb 27, 2023 15:50 | The Saker Pepe Escobar for the Saker blog A powerful feeling rhythms your skin and drums up your soul as you?re immersed in a long walk under persistent snow flurries, pinpointed by The Saker >>
Staff at ?100 Million Alan Turing Institute Attack ?Chaotic? Management Amid Diversity Row Sun Dec 22, 2024 19:00 | Richard Eldred Staff at the ?100 million Alan Turing Institute have erupted in protest over a diversity row, accusing leadership of "tokenistic" hiring and sparking fears that the organisation's credibility is at risk.
The post Staff at ?100 Million Alan Turing Institute Attack ?Chaotic? Management Amid Diversity Row appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
?Our Irish Leaders Have Contributed to Hatred Against Jews? Sun Dec 22, 2024 17:00 | Richard Eldred Ireland's Chief Rabbi has blasted the country's leaders for fuelling antisemitism, leaving Jewish children hiding their identities and many others afraid to wear symbols of their faith.
The post ?Our Irish Leaders Have Contributed to Hatred Against Jews? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
?Grocery Tax? to Hike Britons? Shopping Bills by ?56 in Labour Net Zero ?Inflation Boost? Sun Dec 22, 2024 15:00 | Richard Eldred Labour's "grocery tax" is set to punish British families, slapping an extra ?56 onto their shopping bills and driving up inflation, all in the name of Net Zero.
The post ?Grocery Tax? to Hike Britons? Shopping Bills by ?56 in Labour Net Zero ?Inflation Boost? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Furious German Protesters Demand Mass Deportations Following Christmas Market Attack by Saudi Doctor... Sun Dec 22, 2024 13:00 | Richard Eldred Over 1,000 protesters have flooded Magdeburg, demanding mass deportations after a Saudi psychiatrist killed five people and injured over 200 in a Christmas market attack.
The post Furious German Protesters Demand Mass Deportations Following Christmas Market Attack by Saudi Doctor, Leaving Five Dead Including a Nine Year-Old Boy appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
NHS Faces High Court Legal Fight Over Cross-Sex Hormones Prescribed to Boy Sun Dec 22, 2024 11:00 | Richard Eldred A Brighton father is suing the NHS in a High Court showdown, claiming a GP's prescription of cross-sex hormones to his 16 year-old son defied Cass Review guidance and broke the rules.
The post NHS Faces High Court Legal Fight Over Cross-Sex Hormones Prescribed to Boy appeared first on The Daily Sceptic. Lockdown Skeptics >>
Voltaire, international edition
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?113 Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:42 | en
Pentagon could create a second Kurdish state Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:31 | en
How Washington and Ankara Changed the Regime in Damascus , by Thierry Meyssan Tue Dec 17, 2024 06:58 | en
Statement by President Bashar al-Assad on the Circumstances Leading to his Depar... Mon Dec 16, 2024 13:26 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?112 Fri Dec 13, 2024 15:34 | en Voltaire Network >>
|
War on Iran has started
Statement from Hands Off the People of Iran
Hands Off the People of Iran unequivocally condemns the ratcheting up of sanctions on Iran in the aftermath of the much-heralded report of the International Atomic Energy Agency on that country’s nuclear capability on November 8. The report did little more than confirm the assessment that Hopi arrived at some time ago: that at worst Iran may be interested in the so-called ‘Japanese’ option. This is nuclear development that stops just short of the capacity to produce a nuclear weapon - but only by a month or so. But this is something that has been commented on many times before.
Despite the fact that this report contained little or nothing that was new (it was little more than a compilation of UK satellite pictures and the pre-existing reports of the CIA and other western intelligence agencies), imperialist leaders have fallen over themselves to express horror and outrage at these ‘new’ findings: French president Nicolas Sarkozy urged “unprecedented” sanctions on the country.
Chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne announced that from November 28, all UK credit and financial institutions were obliged to cease trading with Iran’s banks, a move that apparently represented “a further step to preventing the Iranian regime from acquiring nuclear weapons”. This is the first time the UK has cut off an entire country’s banking system from London’s financial sector.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton welcomed the opportunity the report presented for a “significant ratcheting-up of pressure” on Iran through the imposition of new sanctions. US actions include measures to limit Tehran’s ability to refine its own fuel, as well as targeting the financial interest of the Revolutionary Guards.
Even this was not enough for the rabid Israeli regime, which frothed about Iran having a nuclear weapon within a year and made ominous noises about military action. Israel feels politically vulnerable, given the current upheavals in the Arab world. An Iran with nuclear capability challenges its regional hegemony in a broader sense, but there is also a very practical concern. Iran’s missile delivery system is sophisticated enough to deliver a conventional payload to Tel Aviv - hence the November 7 explosion/assassination at the military base in Bid Ganeh, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) west of Tehran. Amongst others this killed major-general Hassan Moqaddam, a key figure in Iran’s ballistic missiles programme: according to Time magazine, a “western intelligence source” laid the blame at the door of the Israeli spy agency, Mossad, and warned that “there are more bullets in the magazine”.
On one level, the western powers are in a weak position when it comes to convincing the wider population that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. The debacle of Iraq - and farcical claims around Saddam’s supposed “weapons of mass destruction” - have prompted many commentators to dub the IAEA’s report “Iran’s 45-minute moment” (a reference to the nonsense peddled about Iraq’s supposed capability to drop bombs on strategic European targets in that time frame). Of course, from the point of view of Iraq’s barbaric rulers, if such weapons had existed it would have been a fairly obvious military response to the invasion of their country to use them. Similar claims today about Iran’s nuclear ambitions will raise many a sceptical eyebrow.
The veracity of the report will also be called into question when it is recalled that the current IAEA director general, Yukiya Amano, has often been accused, on solid grounds, of pro-US bias. According to diplomatic cables published by Wikileaks last year, US diplomats favoured his nomination, as he was “in tune with the US position regarding Iran’s nuclear programme” - a revelation that will help undermine the US/Britain’s charges against the regime.
However, on another level the case for imperialist intervention has undoubtedly been bolstered by the relatively ‘clean’ regime change in Libya (so far ...). The overthrow of Gaddafi by western-backed insurgents is widely perceived of as a ‘good war’, in stark contrast to the quagmire of Iraq; the inability of the anti-war movement in this country to mobilise large numbers onto the streets in opposition to the intervention is a mark of this.
The current low level of anti-war mobilisation is a big problem for all those who oppose the imperialist interference in the Middle East, for we should be clear that the war on Iran has already started. It is unlikely to take the form of military invasion and occupation at any stage - the experience of the running sore of Iraq has chastened the imperialists on that front. What we will see - are seeing - is war pursued by other means:
Cyber warfare with its unforeseen consequences (last year’s attack on Iran’s nuclear plants and a number of major industrial complexes by the sophisticated piece of malware, Stuxnet).
Political assassinations of Iranian physicists/scientists allegedly involved in the nuclear programme (murders that are used by the Iranian regime to justify its own political executions).
Swingeing sanctions that, while barely troubling the rich and powerful, dramatically impoverish ordinary Iranians and actually endanger their lives (sanctions have affected everything from aviation to surgery and dentistry).
These sorts of tactics betray the strategic goal the US and its allies have in mind. Ideally for them, a repetition - in a ‘tidier’ form - of the Libyan scenario. That is, that pressure from imperialism engenders splits in this deeply discredited regime and its possible collapse/paralysis. Then indigenous opposition forces spearhead regime change, with the active aid and encouragement of the west. Clinton has spoken openly of her administration’s hopes for the implosion of the regime. There is solid ground for her optimism. Fraught divisions exist at every level of the theocratic regime, most dramatically in its top echelons with the ongoing conflict between supreme leader ayatollah Khamenei and president Ahmadinejad, and continued joint conflict with timid reformists such as Mir-Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi.
The Obama administration would have been encouraged in this by recent developments in the Iranian opposition movement. A pro-war/anti-war-pro-sanctions debate is now dominating Iranian political discourse generally and has engendered a split into two major trends in this opposition. First there are those such as Mohammad Khatami who totally oppose the war, despite their criticisms of the regime. However, this does not flow from any sort of principled or consistently democratic position; rather, it is inspired by nationalism. Khatami has called for “national unity” in the face of this crisis and offers the supreme leader advice about ‘changing course’.
Far more worrying has been the significant section of the opposition (including some who could be politically designated as ‘soft left’, but mainly composed of liberals) who appear to be almost egging the Americans to launch a military strike. The example of the Nato bombing of Libya is looked to by these forces as a positive example of ‘humanitarian intervention’. Although there does not appear to be the appetite in Washington for air strikes, the US’s ally in the region, Israel, remains politically unstable and bellicose: witness the recent statement by Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak that “We do not expect any new UN sanctions on Tehran to persuade it to stop its nuclear defiance. We continue to recommend to our friends in the world and to ourselves not to take any option off the table.”
The stance of Hands Off the People of Iran is crystal-clear. We implacably oppose the sabre-rattling of the imperialists and demand that all sanctions on the country are lifted, that all threats of military action be rescinded. We call for this not because we have any illusions in the loathsome regime in Iran. It starves its own people; it denies them basic human rights; it endangers their lives through its elaborate games of brinkmanship with the US and its powerful allies. Unlike some politically demented leftists, we say that nuclear weapons in its hands would be a defeat for the forces of democracy and radical social change, as well as a profoundly destabilising development in the region.
No, we oppose the warmongering - whether it takes the hard form of assassinations, threats of military action, or the ‘soft’ option of sanctions - because we do not have any illusions in the loathsome regimes in place in Washington, London or Tel Aviv either. The intervention of these powers and their allies has nothing whatsoever to do with the promotion of ‘democracy’ - indeed, the regimes the imperialists impose often have features that are significantly worse than the previous team of oppressors of the people. Hopi insists that democracy can only come in Iran from below - from the struggles of the workers’, women’s and students’ movements. It will never fall from the sky in the tip of a US or Israeli bunker-buster.
We look to those like the working class and anti-capitalist activists, left intellectuals and students who met in an anti-capitalist conference in Iran on November 4. Many of the contributions emphasised the need to strengthen the workers’ struggles, the underground left/workers’ groups and the fight for left unity - “It is a shame that hero worship of certain intellectuals acting as semi-gods has harmed unity amongst the forces of the Iranian left,” said veteran labour activist NA. Military action against Iran, whether overt or covert, whether air strikes or sanctions, only acts to disorganise and disorientate these forces for change. This is why the threatening military backdrop to the conference was discussed by participants and Clinton’s bellicose statements noted. This is why Hopi contributes to their struggle for freedom by fighting against any imperialist attack on their country.
The imperialists want change in Iran via a palace coup or politically neutered opposition movement. Hopi says genuine democratic change must come from below, through the initiative, elan and thirst for change of the masses themselves! l
No war, no sanctions on Iran!
For a nuclear-free Middle East as a step to a nuclear-free world!
Don’t attack Iran
|
View Comments Titles Only
save preference
Comments (57 of 57)
Jump To Comment: 57 56 55 54 53 52 51 50 49 48 47 46 45 44 43 42 41 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1..only one one way out of our social and political dilemma, Felix.
So when do you actually take over and impose your rule of global philosopher-king?
I suppose you derive your Solomonic wisdom from your associations with the chosen people and their virtuous rule over such primitive savages as the children of Gaza. Your words glow like the very phosphorous they Cast from the heavens with the manna of their Leaden hand. Heilaluja!
There is nothing whatsoever objective about the BBC. There can be no revolutionary socialist movement created in Ireland without understanding that the BBC are liars pure and simple, all of them, anybody who decides to work for the BBC is a liar, the BBC operate behind smug British hypocricy and they are the BIGGEST LIARS on the planet bar none.
If I see a “fact” on the BBC then I will want to check on it 10 times over and then if it is true will wonder why they are advancing it at this time.
The BBC led all of the Media in the Imperialist/Jihad campaign to overthrow the rightful government in Libya of Muammar Gadhafi and they are more than anybody on earth responsible for the ethnic cleansing carried out by the Arabs who were reinforced with SAS and American Specia Forces.
Having done all of that evil then they now will come out with some covering stories “Oh what have we done etc.”
The BBC are the experts in world lying, the RTE jerks are the mere pupils.
This characteristic hypocrisy of the BBC, really the characteristic hypocrisy of the British cruel ruling class, and their middle class agents, and their lumpen racists inside the British working class, especially in the Labour and trade union leaders such as the TUC, is the worst in the world. They simply have no equal.
And the very worst in this British hypocrisy, really cruelty in class rule, is precisely those who you like, Radio 4 and the World Service.
Socialists in Ireland cannot even begin to examine issues such as Israel and the so/called “Palestinians” without being clear on that.
... remains the sabre-rattling and escalating drumbeat for war, emanating from Washington, Tel Aviv, and the Nato desert-stormtroopers towards Iran. As I said mutually reinforcing fascisms, each thriving off the projected and useful enemy without. Tel Aviv is straining for this confrontation, as it strains to keep Lebanon in ruins and the region balkanised to serve the various nefarious agendas of the vultures preying on the remains of the Ottoman system they replaced, after centuries of imperial wars and tidal fows of blood and treasure,now gone spherically global.
If Gaza is sliding towards Sharia it is being driven by the intrusion of the cuckoo Zionist project into its people's homeland of centuries, probably back to pre-biblical times, which tome of folk-tales and foundation-myths Israel posits as the justifications of its dispossessions. Theocracy driving counter-theocracy.
As for the Irish left, its a variform collection of all sorts, no doubt, as is traditional with covert agencies, well laced with manipulators and provocateurs. I wou;ld imagine the CIA delegates suveillance to the local agencies and MI kiddies.
But then I would have placed you and your ideological Trotskyism in that 'left' camp. Personally I think such analysis can be useful, but as I've said I'm wary of ideology and its stultifying effects on thought and tendency to abstract false templates from actuality.
As for the BBC, I'm well aware of its deficiencies, not least its chronic definition of the northern wars as sectarian primitive bigotry, a handy simplification fitting to their semi-conconcious right-wing ideology. But they still gave more objective coverage over the last half-century than RTE, and still(and I'm writing of Radio 4, World Service and even Radio 5)do.
Oh, and another thing I notice down the decades of observing the Irish 'left';, Felix like our republican factions, each sect seems to claim the sacred torch the 'real' perspective.
Iran IS the issue!
4international rejects all forms of anti Americanism.
We oppose Imperialism but not the ordinary American people and the masses are moving on the Iran issue against Obama.
READERS IN IRELAND SHOULD KNOW IMMEDIATELY ABOUT THIS IMPORTANT POLL OF OVERALL AMERICAN OPINION:
http://jihadcapitalistcrisis.blogspot.com/2012/01/obama....html
"THIS POLL IS ELECTRIC!
Americans overwhelmingly see Iran's nuclear program as geared toward the development of atomic weaponry, and more than eight in 10 support direct diplomatic talks to try to resolve the situation, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
As negotiators from the United States, France and Russia meet with Iran starting today in Vienna, public opinion in the U.S. is decidedly behind one possible outcome should the talks fail: 78 percent in the new poll support international economic sanctions against Iran to try to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons.
There's less, though still sizable backing for military engagement, with 42 percent of Americans supporting the bombing of Iran's nuclear development sites and 33 percent advocating invading the country with U.S. ground forces (54 and 62 percent, respectively, oppose these actions).
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-numbers/200....html
The findings are electric. The findings of the poll are of gigantic importance for the whole world. They show that the mighty American working class/American people think along these lines:
You ask about Gaza. It seems to me that Gaza is also heading the same way as Libya, towards Sharia Law.
As regards the BBC it is the same as all such Media organizations, you will find facts and factual knowledge, but in essence it is a lying organization and it has led the Arab Spring Nightmare, as well as the age old war on the Serbs, on the Irish, on communism etc. and you will never find me saying anything pleasant about the BBC.
Now having done those two can I ask you to return to the points I made above.
The main point of which is that the US is backing the Islamic Jihad to the hilt, and the left in ireland is tied in with this, even to the extent of CIA involvement as I pointed out in Ireland, possibly if not definitely using Ireland as a kind of base of operations. This so called "left" in ireland has got very dirty hands over this CIA affair in Dublin and this will have to be investigated by a real socialist movement.
But as I said earlier nobody can force them, the Irish themselves will have to decide.
If you'd only polish your monocle and climb down off your 'in the know' horse you would have noticed the 'obnoxious' BBC gave considerable coverage to the special forces provocateurs in Benghazi.
And where sits Gaza in your angelic Zionist dreamscape?An imperial power threatening the rightful owners of the land?Fascist interlopers?Do enlighten us out-of-the-know ignorami.
"If the revolutions are to deepen and spread they must be free from the intimidation of US imperial power".
So wrote swp.ie on March 8 2011
http://www.swp.ie/editorial/usa-hands-libyan-revolution.../4177
From this it would be easy to conclude that the swp.ie believe that these are “revolutions”? But however can that be? These “revolutions” are heavily promoted by the US elites, especially and above all by Mr Obama and by Mrs Clinton. Is it possible that swp.ie and many on the Irish “left” are on the same side as Obama and Clinton? Is that not a surprise to Irish workers and youth?
Not really a surprise to those in the know about the Irish “left” but it IS a problem and the problem here was that the US was in the heart of the Libyan Revolution, that is revolution as defined by the swp and cia.
Switch the scene to somewhere in Libya in early 2011. We meet a very strange and much beloved member of the Irish "left".
To quote again from the IT:
"LAST SUMMER the image of Mahdi al-Harati arriving in Turkey on a stretcher after the Gaza-bound flotilla he was sailing in was raided by Israeli commandos featured in a host of international media.
A year on, the 38-year-old Libyan-Irish dual national is living the biggest adventure of his life in the Nafusa mountains of western Libya. He is one of several members of Ireland’s Libyan community who have joined the rebel forces battling to oust Muammar Gadafy."
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2011/0813/122....html
it was a critical time for the world and that IT report was Saturday, August 13, 2011
Has there been a proper investigation anywhere made by the Irish left concerning this gentleman Mr el Harati whose wife and children he tells us have a great love for Ireland. He should have a great love because they were dammed good to him, to the Libyan murderers and to the CIA.
It is no wonder that this Jihadist had such a love for the “ould” sod when it appears that he was working with the CIA inside Ireland and that there was a massive wad of CIA money found in his flat in Dublin. WHAT WERE THEY UP TO? WHAT WAS GOING ON IN IRELAND?
There must have been an awful lot of eyes in Ireland closed firmly shut in the Irish Establishment and IN THE Irish “LEFT”!
This character also emerged on a stretcher to much fanfare BY THE ACTIVISTS ON THE ANTI ISRAEL ORGANIZATIONS, BECAUSE HE HAD TAKEN PART IN THE TURKISH FLOTILLAS AGAINST ISRAEL.
And everybody knows what a din UP AND DOWN THE COUNTRY the Irish Israel and Jew haters made about those boats.
Now it should be noted that Turkey is now the great buddy of the US and while Obama clearly detests Mr Netanyahu Obama clearly just loves Mr Erdogan, so on a recent big wigs meeting in Brussels he ignored all other European leaders, made a bee line for Erdogan, and hugged him!
It emerges that these Libyan Rebels have travelled down to Syria and are again operating along with Qatar and against Assad.
How far then are the CIA involved in that too, as well as their shenanigans in Ireland with this deadly Jihadist?
So is the CIA then pushing the Jihad everywhere in the world, including against and inside Russia and China, and is this Clinton/Ahmadinejad affair all a kind of theatre?
If that is the case then big sections of the US elite do want the Iranian Fascists to get the Nuclear Bomb, to negate thereby Israel. (HOPI admits here they are so doing and thus are on my side here) Conclusion is obvious: The US is no friend of the Jews.
Also I question what we are told that Iran is a very close friend of Assad. They may be now as far as appearances are concerned. But we do know that Iran was very, very fond of the Muslim Brotherhood and their leader in Libya (out of Egypt out of Qatar) Qaradawi, who may easily qualify as the worst antisemite on the planet.
So say Assad was overthrown by the “rebels”, all tribes expelled as in Libya, only Sunnis remain, and Sharia inevitably follows in time just as night would follow day, why would that not be very pleasing to the Mullahs in Iran.
But that is what the US, Britain, the BBC of course, I daresay swp.ie, all want. Which leads to the conclusion that the US elite, Britain are all on the side of the Iranian Fascists.
And they are indeed playing with fire, even more than Chamberlain was, but then their whole system is on fire.
The consensus seems to be that YOU are the only joke in town. And a bad joke at that.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
JOKING ARENT YOU?
and I guess, the fact the Felix Quigley likes the idea of bombing innocent Iranian civilians, kind of proves Dagan correct
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/former-mo...88090
Former Mossad chief: Iran far from achieving nuclear bomb
Dagan says military strike is not Israel's preferred option for dealing with Islamic Republic's growing nuclear program; also says Israel has contributed to its own deteriorating strategic situation.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/former-mo...98537
Former Mossad chief: Israeli strike on Iran will lead to regional war
Ehud Barak also seems to be indicating that he agrees with Dagan regarding the stupidity of Felix Quigley's ideas:
http://www.1112.net/lastpage.html
Barak: Israel 'very far off' from decision on Iran attack
[Israeli] Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Wednesday that Israel was "very far off" from a decision about an attack on Iran over its nuclear program.
The intelligence assessment Israeli officials will present later this week to Dempsey indicates that Iran has not yet decided whether to make a nuclear bomb.
SO:
- Isreali General Eschel seems to think that Felix's ideas are stupid,
- Ex-Mossad Head Dagan seems to think that Felix's ideas are stupid,
- Even Israeli Defence Minister [and probable War Criminal] Ehud Barak also seems to hink that Felix's ideas are stupid,
- The Israeli publc themselves seem to be gradually recognising the stupidity, and hypocrisy, of Fleix's ideas,
BUTFelix thinks that they, who live in Israel, and would suffer any retaliation should the Iranians, or anyone else decide to retaliate, are ALL WRONG, and only HE and a few of his fellow rabid racist fascist fellow-travellers REALLY knows what's going on and how to deal with it.So it looks like the relatively SANE people that live in Israel do not want an attack on Iran - it appears that an unprovoked attack on Iran is only supported by the insane ones who live there and other Insane loons like yourself (who does not live there)
Here is an excerpt from an interview with Yassamine Mather. It deals with the divisions in the current regime and with the green movement. Ful larticle at link.
How do you see the protest movement evolving?
In some ways, this period is helping to clarify where everyone in the anti-dictatorial movement stands in relation to the Islamic regime and the role of the supreme leader.
These divisions first appeared in December 2009 in the demonstrations known as ‘Ashoura’. The crowd were angry about political executions, the violence that greeted their protests from the regime’s thugs. They started questioning the role of the supreme leader. ‘Death to Khamenei’, became the slogan of the day. Moussavi, and also to a certain extent Karroubi, as well as all the leaders of the green movement, did all they could to distance themselves from this slogan.
In fact, their next move was to farcically advocate ‘silent’ demonstrations. It is quite clear that many of these individuals realise the downfall of the supreme leader is tantamount to the collapse of the entire Islamic order. So clearly ‘reformism’ has now become a serious obstacle to any form of change, gradual or otherwise. However, the overwhelming majority of the demonstrators, indeed the majority of the country’s population, do not share the ‘reformist’ leaders’ conservatism on this issue. On the contrary, they want the overthrow of the entire religious state, even if they disagree about what will replace the clerical regime.
For Iranian youth, the issue isn’t just Ahmadinejad’s presidency, but the interference of the state in the every aspect of their daily life. So one can see how recent events and Ahmadinejad’s fall from grace have negatively impacted on the ‘reformist’ leaders, but not their supporters. Khatami and his allies want to return to the ‘good old days’ of ‘reformist’ governments cooperating with the conservatives as different pro-regime factions. But the population of Iran at large has moved on. They want a different regime, not simply different faces at the top. The green movement is at the crossroads and many of the ideas and slogans put forward by its leaders are being challenged.
..that this site tends to list its sources and provide verifiable links...not common propagandist ploys, give its sources are mainstream organs of the 'usual suspects' ' agendas...but bring your cellars anyway. My experience is they dont bend facts and confirm, generally, my independent readings, though they can be a bit uncritical of some dubious targets of the 'West'.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28660
I no longer qualify my re-posts of material with 'dont forget your grain of salt' caveats. I try to avoid redundant repetition. Unlike felix, I do not trust certain sources unquestioningly, and tar those that fail to reinforce my inclinations as 'obnoxious'. I distrust ALL certainty on the Yeatsian grounds that the '..worst are full of passionate conviction..'. I hope I quoted that accurately, but no doubt felix will let me know if I didn't. I find GR qualifies its statements and tends to suspend any finalities of cast iron.
I also believe, again unlike herr quigley, that the BBC, despite its lockstep with the Foreign Office and Whitehall can be a useful source, as can IT, FT, and the other newsmediators, again bring your own NaCl. There are men and women of integrity thoughout, as there are self-serving extensions of unconscionable digestive tracts.
And felix, I gave the reason for not trusting your referenced site as YOU being the source, and did politely ask that you refrain from projecting your smear onto my intent. That remains the reason. You have proven yourself to be ideologically psychoscelerotic. As such I merely ask you stop misquoting me and make an adult attempt to accept that not everyone who differs with your obsessive opinions is deluded or evil-intentioned. It might brighten your outlook a smidgin.
I'll finish, for the craic, with a quote from an early Zionist(late nineteenth century, post Dreyfus et al), Israel Zangwill, who wrote when Jewish self-criticism still had a visible candle fluttering(it hasn't gone away altogether either, just got drowned by the Zionist uber-plotters).
"The Jews are a frightened people. Nineteen centuries of Christian love have broken their nerves." As Europeans, we should remember this before we load our moral fingers for wagging. I also hold that the WASP imperialists will dispense with Israel when it is expedient, as they colluded with fascism till it threatened their established fascistic grip on the planet.
I think it says something still, about the issue. Racism breeds counter-racisms, and there is only one chosen super-tribe, its the human race. The rest are rat races in the end, without the rats' animal innocence as mitigation. Shalom.
As Serf points out the Imperialists were quite happy to co-opt the "green revolution" in Iran. Ordinary people were on the streets hoping for a change to the shitty regime but the green leadership were really little different from the mullahs who rule now. The one important difference was that they were prepared to do business with the US. This is the regime change the US likes, a lot cheaper.
I support the people who came out on the streets looking for democratic rights but the green leaders were not going to deliver Liberty. HOPI never had any belief in that wing of the Mullahs.
Meanwhile we go further down the road towards War. At Question Time today David Cameron claimed that Iran was supplying arms to Syria and that Hezbollah was also doing so. Don't be surprised if a few Hezbollah bases are bombed.
Regime change in Syria would serve to isolate Iran. Subjugating Iran and returning it to Western tutelage is the prize that Washington and its allies have been seeking for the past 33 years ever since their client the Shah, Mohammad Rezā Pahlavi, was deposed by the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28675
Ah, there is the rub! The Shah was replaced by Khomeini with the full assistance of Western Imperialism, not least by France (Who can forget the Boeing jet laid on by France and the triumphant entry of Khomeini thanks to France whop had provided him with his base in France and given him a huge shove back into Iranian politics...from that point the fate of the Shah was sealed. Also who can forget the US Imperialist Government refusing the dying Shah any medical help in their country when he was literally dying of cancer. These are facts!)
So Global Research sees the world only through the prism of Israel hatred. This Israel hatred is really a bias which is found everywhere on the left today apart from 4international.
Take this phrase in the above: “returning it to Western tutelage”. No the US imperialists under either party Democrats or Republicans are not doing this at all for the very good reason that Iran is already an ally of US Imperialism. Emphasis on “already”. People of the left in Ireland repeat that “already an ally” before every gulp of Guinness!
As always the events in Libya are the test. The Iranian Fascists were supportive of Qaradawi and the Jihadists in the overthrow of Muammar Gadhafi. That is fact. Easy to demonstrate.
That is stupendously logical. Why would Iran not be on the side of the Empire/Jihad to overthrow the Government of Gadhafi? The Islamist regime of Iran is the creature of US Imperialism and is the creature of British Imperialism and its obnoxious BBC and it will remain so, even though there may be episodic differences, but much is street theatre for the gullible.
What you have going on between US and Iran at present is much theatre, for the gullible Media led masses and the gullible left.
There is no possibility AT ALL of Obama attacking and stopping in its tracks the Iranian Nuclear Bomb. Again that is fact and is easy to demonstrate. Please don't be tedious and ask me. Do your own research.
And I think there is no possibility in the wide world that Iranian Fascists in league with Obama will close the strait of Hormuz.
This is all street theatre for the gullible masses
One other thing: despite the horrific anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial etc. contained in that ADL collection which I referred to and which Opus would not read because it was the ADL the main promoter of anti-Semitism in the world today is...wait for this...not just the antisemites of the Arab world and the Islamic world, but it is US Imperialism.
So what have we? Obama will never attack the Iranian Nuclear Bomb, nor would Romney who is also the main contender of the Republicans. The Imperialists of France and US/Britain gave birth to the Mullahs of Iran!
Obama is setting up Israel which must attack the Nuclear Bomb of Iran. Why must it? In short it is existential. Look just look at the Holocaust denial in those ADL collection I gave the url to. There you have the answer as to why Israel has no choice.
There is another side to Obama though. He is a weak man unable to make decisions not related to which iron to use off the tee. He drifts. He is a political scrambler interested in elections only.
But Israel is threatened by a Nuclear Iran. If you cannot see that either learn to read 9the ADL collection) or examine as a socialist your bias.
"Somebody called serf wrote earlier on saying that the Green Revolution had been a CIA-backed conspiracy . Global Research said pretty much the same thing in 2009 in a disgraceful article called "Iranian Elections: The ‘Stolen Elections’ Hoax ".
ok for those that haven't woken up and smelt the coffee by now (and there's still quite a few naive people out there it seems) I'll back up my claim...
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/11/how-to-start-wall-street-backed.html
http://www.scu.edu.au/research/cpsj/human_rights/AHRP2008_Proc_Final.pdf
(skip the first bit and read the submission on the Albert Einstien institute)
The fact is we've all been had regarding the "arab spring" and the "green movement" and the "syrian uprising" and the "libyan revolution"
Its just the CIA's new cost effective approach to toppling regimes that get in the way of opening up markets to their vulture capitalists, stealing of resources by their rich corporations and getting pools of cheap desperate labour as a by product. Oh, and selling lots of weapons to the "revolutionaries" which also have to be paid for. nice!
Sure, there are shitty governments in the world right now, and the mullahs are a fine example. But there are even worse possibilities looming. Be careful what you wish for. Unless of course you are the Madeline Albright type.
War removes ALL human rights. That includes the rights of union representatives and women and homosexuals. They all get horribly slaughtered and dismembered. And do remember when you see the bloody photos (yet again) that your blind Naivete contributed. Perhaps next time you'll get it. Maybe After thousands more children have died needlessly.
Switch off AlJazeera, hilary clintons favourite new channel, and start doing some reading and some real thinking for yourself ok? And stop just shooting the messenger!!
Unlike Non-Israelis like Felix Quigley, the Israeli public does actually recognnise the hypocrisy of Israel possessing Nukes and not being a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty while Israel criticises Iran and any Nuclear ambitions it may or may not have
It's easy to call for war, Felix, when you won't be have to suffer any consequences if or when others retaliate - ain't it Felix?
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2012/01/17...zone/
the extraordinary results of a recent poll (see full results) of Israeli public opinion about its country’s nuclear program and Iran’s. The answers to the poll’s questions showed rather amazing level of pragmatism regarding Israeli attitudes on the subject:
- 1. Israelis were almost equally divided on the issue of whether Israel should attack Iran, 43% favored a strike and 41% opposed.
- 2. 68% believe Iran will eventually develop nuclear weapons. This statistic isn’t surprising. But given this number the results of the following questions are.
- 4. 60% favor inspections of all nuclear facilities in the region (including Israel’s) in preparation for a nuclear free zone.
- 5. 63% would favor all nations in the region (including their own) renouncing nuclear weapons in the context of creating a nuclear free zone.
- 6. 64% favor the creation of a Mideast nuclear free zone.
A separate poll released by Haaretz indicates that nearly 60% of Israelis believe that an attack on Iran will lead to a regional war involving Hezbollah and Hamas.3. 65% believe it is better for neither Israel NOR Iran to have nuclear weapons.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/17/iran-nuclear-...20117
General Eshel, who spoke at the conservative Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs think-tank, quoted an unnamed Indian officer who, he said, had described the Asian power's friction with nuclear-armed rival and neighbour Pakistan in terms of self-restraint.
"When the other side has a nuclear capability and are willing to use it, you think twice," Eshel said. "You are more restrained because you don't want to get into that ball game."
Pat . I Agree. The problem is that the sanctions – and the ongoing threat of a military attack – have actually helped the theocratic regime whip the people of Iran into line as Yassamine has pointed out on a number of occasions. Any attack from above might make the situation worse and actually reinforce the fascist mullahs : that's why regime change must come from the people.
Opus . I take the view that Global Research is a conspiracy site . It clearly supported the holocaust denier Ahmadinejad three years ago when he stole the Iranian presidency in rigged elections. Somebody called serf wrote earlier on saying that the Green Revolution had been a CIA-backed conspiracy . Global Research said pretty much the same thing in 2009 in a disgraceful article called "Iranian Elections: The ‘Stolen Elections’ Hoax ".
Good points you make all the same about Felix and the tweedledum and tweedledee nature of the mutually reinforcing fascist regimes .
What the US would be happiest with would be a palace coup whereby a more amenable set of Mullahs would be in control. But if they cannot get this then they will certainly try and impose regime change from outside and and from above. That is why sanctions are being imposed: to either provoke a palace coup or as a precursor to military action.
..the bould felix is working to a set and unswerving agenda
meantime here's a different read of the situation http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28675
mutually reinforcing fascisms at wark(sic).
Felix offers the opinion that the mullah regime and the US need each other as if this is something so counter-intuitive that it has never been thought of before . In fact HOPI spokesperson ,Yassamine Mather, and other HOPI supporters have been saying the very same thing for a long time.
Yassamine Mather for instance wrote the following in 2009 :
“For the Iranian government, besieged by protesters in all its major cities, the continued threat of war and the imposition of further sanctions is a godsend. It can use sanctions as an excuse for the disastrous economic situation, for further attacks on workers’ wages and for accusing all its opponents of being agents of foreign powers and increasing repression against the opposition as part of ‘measures to strengthen national defence’ in its war against US and UK.”.
Reza Fiyouzat is an Iranian dissident whose articles have appeared on the HOPI website as well as on Indymedia Ireland .Felix Quigley implies that HOPI is somehow soft on the mullahs , but I wonder where Felix was when this article was attacked by those who were quick to take offense at criticism of the Iranian Junta.!
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/84028?&condense_comment...34572.
Reza Fiyouzat argues that “the U.S. ruling classes do not want a regime change in Iran at all. On the contrary, they like and appreciate greatly the theocratic setup in Iran, and all they wish is for the mullahs cool it down on the rhetorical front and act differently with regards to a few agenda items dear to Uncle Sam's heart as pertains to the regional setup in the Middle East.”
Felix Quigley should check out the work that HOPI has done in opposing the mullahs before writing .
..but I do believe you are not authorised to tell me shut up just because I point to your multiple contradictions. But ta for all the personal attention and multiple mentions in your dispatches.
I may have confirmed SOME of what you wrote, but I do not endorse your pro-zionist hasbara and tar-brush of everything Iranian. I find it more complex than your pontifications imply.
US imperialism and zionist expansionism are deeply connected, not least through the constant stream of war-industry exchanges and US subsidies and easy-term loans, plus the complimentary fundamentalist theocratic natures of their political environments. A structure mirrored in Iran's theocratic REACTION to the Shah's imposed regime with his Savak internal terror.
I never set out to 'defend unconditionally ' Gadhafi, so I request you stop twisting my words and imputing false intentions. It grows tiresome to correct your specious, tendentious and sophist distortions. You will force me to draw in a moderator for umpire if you persist; I do have other shit to deal with besides your ad hominem slurry.
And again you fail to discriminate between legitimate anti-zionism and bigotted anti-semitism, either a failure of intelligence, or deliberate propanganda spreading. Your recidivist repetitions incline me to believe it is the latter, and your idealising of Israel as some superlative paragon of righteousness confirms the blinkerdom of your mindset. It is one thing to deny the horrors of the nazi racist holocaust, it is not so different a distortion to imply it was solely Jews were its victims, and to use the crimes of Nazi Germany, and anti-semitic Europe and US policy to run pogroms and ethnic cleansing of Arabs and Palestinians on falsification of the facts of history, such as the proportionally greater losses of Gypsies and other 'untermenschen', and to produce and exploit a racial persecution complex to impose apartheid and dispossession of other indiginous peoples.
And you have yet to address the terrorist crimes of Israel perpetrated using Irish passports, or their collective punishment of incarcerated civilian populations in the reservations/concentration camps/bantustans in the encroaching sea of illegal settlements. Dont shut up, just get a fucking trace of honesty.
Felix you should check your facts . As far back as 2007 Peter Tatchell from HOPI wrote :
"Iran is a dangerous, terroristic, fundamentalist, anti-Semitic dictatorship, which is striving to develop nuclear weapons and which poses a serious threat to international peace and security."
http://gayswithoutborders.wordpress.com/2007/09/24/talk...reet/
HOPI Ireland has also consistently condemned the mullahs . Pat C has on this very site identified the mullah regime for what it is – a fascist junta .
“If you are looking for fascists in Iran then you need look no further than the Iranian Junta. They fill all the criteria for fascists: they smashed and banned unions, they banned all opposition parties, they oppress their national minorities, they stone women to death for adultery, they hang gays.”
I threw down a challenge to the Irish to deal with the antisemitic statements of the Iranian Muslim Fanatics. You confirm what I said and nothing has changed
i said the Irish have to make up their own minds on researching the statements coming from Iran. I supplied the url. It is the decision of the Irish themselves.
Apart from that, no change on Indymedia, I note in addition to that that Opus Diablos does confirm what I have always said.
Obama and US Imperialism is on the side of Iran and is as was the case in every decade of the past decades since 1948 against Israel.
In other words by his own words Opus Diablos does confirm that US Imperialism is with Iranian Muslim fanatics, just as US Imperialism along with British Imperialism/NATO were with the Jihad, and Qaradawi, against Muammar Gadhafi.
it is now rather more clear as to why Opus Diablos was not able to defend unconditionally Muammar Gadhafi against the Empire/Jihad.
But I have supplied the source. Until some Irish person is prepared to address the statements about Holocaust Denial made by the Iranian Fanatics what is there to talk about. I will wait until somebody does. What has the "illustrious" HOPI to say about those statements of the iranian Muslim Fanatics with all the obvious antisemitism therein.
"In a sensitive time with the military standoff in the Strait of Hormuz and looming sanctions over Iran's nuclear program, the MSM is cynically playing-up the prospect of war, between Iran and the West."
The above excerpts are from an RT report dated 16 January, 2012, 10:14 at:
http://rt.com/news/us-mainstream-media-war-849/
..DEAL WITH THIS MATERIAL..?'
Mostly because of ITS SOURCE.
Tusa, felix.
Your seriousness'.. in getting at the truth..' is conspicuous by its absence.
Perhaps it has dawned on Obambi that Isroil's nuclear threat, being a REALITY, is greater than the NON-EXISTANT Iranian one.
Iran is CO-OPERATING with the IAEA; Isroil is NON-COMPLIANT and refuses to sign NON-PROLIFERATION agreements.
Dooohhh.
"This report offers a selected, year-by-year compilation of Ahmadinejad's statements on Jews, the Holocaust and Israel in his own words.”
WHY WOULD YOU NOT DEAL WITH THIS MATERIAL I SUGGESTED?
It amazes me why anybody wouild not follow it up and instead dash out these insults against Israel.
The ADl has done a great job here in bringing about these statements over many past years. This has got to be a very useful resource in us trying to understand what is the motivation of the Islamist rulers in Iran.
If you want to know what they think and how they may act then study their statements about Israel, about America and about the world.
Why is it unreasonable to ask that that is done? How on earth is that a deflection?
As I said the Irish will have to make their own minds up about this. They cannot be forced to research the issue properly. I can only make a suggestion as to how to make a proper assessment of iran and then it is up to Irish people to do it or not.
The hole that Frank Adam was leading Israel into is explained by the clear rift between Obama and Israel. Obama is prepared to do nothing about the Iranian Nuclear Bomb threat.
There is no solution for Israel along that track. Israel to survive has to accept help where it can but has to be totally independeent from American Imperialism. the American imperialism will not like Israel being independent from it.
In the meantime I will wait for somebody connected with Indymedia to take up these statements made by Israel and collected by the ADL. If you do not make a serious study of what Iran has been saying over the past 6 years then what is there to discuss. You would not be serious in getting at the truth.
..but several very good reasons.
Such as your continuing shifting of the goalposts every time one or two of your specious assertions are deconstructed for the hasbara content.
Or that nuclear-primed and trigger-happy terror-state Isroil is the threat to stability in the region and beyond, and is decoy and enabler for the WASP imperial program of Full Spectrum Dominance with its Project for a New American Century on which the sun will never set as it leaves its trail of collateral mayhem across the globe.
Do you actually believe your own noise?
This report offers a selected, year-by-year compilation of Ahmadinejad's statements on Jews, the Holocaust and Israel in his own words.
Just follow this url, then follow the year by year account of the Iranian Islamic statements on Israel
http://www.adl.org/main_International_Affairs/ahmadinej...s.htm
“Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's anti-Semitic and anti-Israel views place him and the Iranian regime among the foremost threats to Jews and the state of Israel.
Ahmadinejad repeatedly demonizes the state of Israel and openly calls for its destruction at every opportunity. Most notoriously, he described Israel as a "fake regime" that "must be wiped off the map."
{There was much questioning about one statement as regards the translation by MEMRI, but the strength of this site is that we are dealing with literally tens of hundreds of such attacks on Israel, all of a deadly and antisemitic nature...FQ}
(continued) He termed Zionists "the most detested people in all humanity" and called the extermination of six million Jews during World War II "a myth," claiming that Jews have played up Nazi atrocities during the Holocaust in a bid to extort sympathy for Israel from European governments.
Ahmadinejad's virulently anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric and Holocaust denial are often matched by other Iranian leaders, and the Iranian regime itself has continued to sponsor anti-Zionism conferences and pseudo-academic lectures and exhibits questioning the fact of the Holocaust.
This report offers a selected, year-by-year compilation of Ahmadinejad's statements on Jews, the Holocaust and Israel in his own words.”
VITAL MATTER! THESE ISSUES NEED TO BE FOLLOWED UP BY EVERY SERIOUS POLITICAL IRISH PERSON...
It is all there in his and their own words. Either these reports are true or false and we have to reach a conclusion through scholarship which it really is. But there is no excuse for any Irish person with access to the net not to examine these, and thereby reach a conclusion as to the INTENT of Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs
could you please (pretty please?) put the 'T' back in 'c***s'?- otherwise I fear that people might mistake the depth of my absolute abhorrance for the NAZI-like Zionist state of Israel.
They might for instance mistake "souless NAZI c***s" for someting like "souless NAZI Craps" when what I REALLY meant was to describe Zionists as souless NAZI CUNTS
thanks
yours in anticipation . . .
Fuck Israel
Felix, they clearly DID try the same CIA tactics of gene sharp et al in Iran with their "green revolution" long before they got to Egypt/Tunisia/Libya/Syria. They just didn't actually succeed there thats all.
Don't worry, they ARE still on Israel's side (for now).
"Now looking at the above, who do you think poses the greatest threat to peace in the Middle East?"
It should be clear to you by now that Felix sees ANY situation where there might even be the slightest chance, however miniscule or completely hypothetical, that Israel might somehow be compelled NOT to act like a rabid Rottweiler as an "existential threat" to the Zio-NAZI state
Felix the Zio-racist said : "The concern of Israel to me seems straight forward."
Yeah the concern of Israeli Nazis is clear alright - if Iran got the Bomb the Israelis would no longer be able to act like a bunch of psychopathic souless NAZI c***s, whenever the mood took them.
So yeah, the concern for the Israeli Zio-NAZIs is that they would suddenly be expected to adopt an attitude more akin to other sane human beings rather than the psycho-NAZI stance they have become accustomed to adopting
...to me seems straight forward.'
And to me. They are afraid of any capabiltity to ward off their agression by developing a deterent to Israel's 200+ warheads, all with a range inclusive of Teheran. It is, felix, Israel, with the help of the French, among others, who upped the ante in the regional arms-race. You get it straight. And Saudi seems not to stir your worries in the least, despite its record in spreading the fundamentalism at the back of al Qaida and its sectarian bigotry. I have no illusions about the mullahs, but they arose as reaction to the Shah and his Savak regime, so who was responsible for that?
HOPI is quite clear in its analysis: it wants a nuclear free Middle East.
BUT: Iran does not have a nuclear bomb.
Israel HAS several hundred nuclear bombs.
Now looking at the above, who do you think poses the greatest threat to peace in the Middle East?
A country who has hundreds of nuclear bombs and who occupies the territory of other nations or a country without nuclear bombs?
Israel must be independent at every point from US Imperialism. That is why Frank Adams does such damage to Israel on this site.
Why did Obama not help the Iranians in 2009 who rose against the Mullahs? WHY! Will HOPI answer that?
Some months ago back in August 27, 2011 I wrote (pic is absent)
"Kim Sengupta and Portia Walker: Fierce fighting and wild rumours as hunt gathers pace
And they report the following:
…the discovery of a grim pile of corpses of executed men in the Bab al-Aziziya compound that had once been Colonel Gaddafi’s citadel offered grim evidence of retribution being exacted in the bloody civil war. A dozen bodies were seen by The Independent lying inside the complex with their hands tied behind their backs
look at the fear on the face of the black man on the right, there is no doubt that these black Africans are now all dead, butchered by the tools of Cameron and Obama"
{end of extract from 4international}
I write now:
(My personal fear is that US Imperialism is in league with the Mullahs of Iran. It seems counter intuitive. But they DO have a lot in common.)
http://4international.wordpress.com/2011/08/27/lesson-o...s-in/
To return to the words of HOPI above and I wish to focus on their assessment that Iran is planning to come to 80 per cent enrichment
And although they do not spell it out THIS IS THE BOMB
But first HOPI reference to Mrs Clinton:
"Clinton has spoken openly of her administration’s hopes for the implosion of the regime"
Well first of all hope is not a strategy. Secondly if Mrs Clinton hopes the opposite will happen. What the above leaves out is that the people of Iran did rise up against the regime in 2009, and Obama refused to aid them by word or by deed.(as did Mrs Clinton)
The reason Obama refused to come to their aid was because he reasoned that he could convince the Mullahs to stop by diplomacy.
But Obama and Clinton did not hesitate when it came to the overthrow of ben Ali, Gaghbo, Mubarak and Gadhafi. In the case of libya the US and Britain were directly involved in the war on Gadhafi, meaning their troops were involved.
The above piece clearly suggests that iran is going for it.
The report did little more than confirm the assessment that Hopi arrived at some time ago: that at worst Iran may be interested in the so-called ‘Japanese’ option. This is nuclear development that stops just short of the capacity to produce a nuclear weapon - but only by a month or so. But this is something that has been commented on many times before.
That means that Iran is pushing up the enrichment to 80 per cent. This I presume is material enough for x number of Nuclear Bombs, for example it could be 5.
Then with a decision from the Mullah leader they break out to make it. They have everything else in place.
In the words of HOPI it stops “just short”.
Now place that assessment by HOPI in the context of all of the verbal attacks on Israel by Ahmadinejad and others over recent years, then this gives ground for great concern on the part of Israel.
The concern of Israel to me seems straight forward.
[Moderator]
Please try to stay somewhat on topic or your posts, however interesting, risk being hidden as "off topic".
Thank you
-wageslave
..at the topic
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28560
..for triple distilled raving ignorance.
Of bothy Nazism and Germany in the last century, and the multifaceted history of the ancient Persia today represented by a reactionary regime besieged by the greatest empire history has assembled; and one determined to inflict its New American Century on the planet in the name of its Manifest Destiny, just as the Nazis attempted to impose their Thousand Year Reich.
At least I hope its only ignorance, and not part nof the warm-up deliberate muck-spreading of Zionist Goebbeldigook hasbara.
And as an Irish republican(well I'm not a fucking monarchist, it is the 21st century)who opposes force other than as last resort defense I find the transparency of your smear methodology particularly offensive. Its the equivelant of accusing all Jews of being responsible for Sabra and Shatilla or Cast Lead, and as such brings you into the Nazi anti-semitist/racist camp .
Shalom.
I would not be depending on US to attack Iran. So far US has been in league with iran (Irangate) Re the bomb under car, are iranians not cap[able of doing this, after all Irish republicans did this many times?
Peter Symonds writes on the latest war threats from the US towards Iran as well as the Economic Sanctions. Sanctions are War by other means. Full text at link.
US renews military threat against Iran
The US administration responded to Iran’s announcement last weekend that its Fordo uranium enrichment plant was operational with renewed threats of military action. The sharp rise in tensions in the Persian Gulf follows steps by the US and Europe to impose an embargo on Iranian oil exports that would ruin the country’s economy.
Speaking on the CBS “Face the Nation” last Sunday, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta acknowledged that Iran was not building a nuclear bomb at present. But he added, Iran was “developing a nuclear capability” and “that’s what concerns us.”
He warned: “Our red line to Iran is: do not develop a nuclear weapon. That’s a red line for us.” Panetta is threatening a devastating US military attack on Iranian nuclear and military facilities under the pretext that Tehran is developing nuclear arms.
While insisting that the current US focus was economic and diplomatic pressure, he repeated the mantra that the US was not “taking any option off the table.”
General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked on the same program how difficult it would be for the US to “take out their [Iran’s] nuclear facilities.” He did not address the question directly, but indicated that he was ensuring the “right degree of planning” and positioning of assets “to provide those [military] options in a timely fashion.”
Asked about any attempt by Iran to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz, Panetta declared that the US would not tolerate such action. “That’s another red line for us, and we will respond to them,” he said. Dempsey confirmed that the US “had invested in capabilities to ensure that if that happens, we can defeat that... We would take action and reopen the Straits.”
Mossad strike in Tehran.
Iran car explosion kills nuclear scientist in Tehran
BBC's Mohsen Asgari: "It seems a motor cyclist pasted a bomb to his car which he was in with two other passengers
A university lecturer and nuclear scientist has been killed in a car explosion in north Tehran. Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, an academic who also worked at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, and the driver of the car were killed in the attack. The blast happened after a motorcyclist stuck an apparent bomb to the car.
Several Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated in recent years, with Iran blaming Israel and the US. Both countries deny the accusations.
The US state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters she did not have "any information to share one way or the other" on the latest attack.
Iran's Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi told state television that the attack against Mr Ahmadi-Roshan would not stop "progress" in the country's nuclear programme. He called the killing "evidence of [foreign] government-sponsored terrorism".
Local sources said Wednesday's blast took place at a faculty of Iran's Allameh Tabatai university.
Two others were reportedly also injured in the blast, which took place near Gol Nabi Street, in the north of the capital.
'Magnetic bomb'
Mr Ahmadi-Roshan, 32, was a graduate of Sharif University and supervised a department at Natanz uranium enrichment facility in Isfahan province, semi-official news agency Fars reported.
Frank Gardner
BBC security correspondent
The assassination on Wednesday of another Iranian nuclear scientist may now prompt Iran to try to respond in kind.
The murder in Tehran of Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan comes on top of a sophisticated cyber sabotage programme and two mysterious explosions at Iranian military bases, one of which in November killed the general known as 'the godfather' of Iran's ballistic missile programme.
No-one is claiming responsibility for these attacks but Iran blames its longstanding enemy, Israel, and occasionally the US.
Whoever is behind them, Iran is clearly being subjected to an undeclared campaign to slow down its nuclear programme.
"The bomb was a magnetic one and the same as the ones previously used for the assassination of the scientists, and the work of the Zionists [Israelis]," deputy Tehran governor Safarali Baratloo said.
Witnesses said they had seen two people on the motorbike fix the bomb to the car, reported to be a Peugeot 405. The driver died of his wounds after the attack though the car itself remained virtually intact.
Mr Ahmadi-Roshan supervised a department at an uranium enrichment facility in Isafahan
The BBC's Mohsen Asgari, in Tehran, says that the explosion was caused by a targeted, focused device intended to kill one or two people and small enough not to be heard from far away.
Duck!
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=ca&aid=28491
The yellow subs are marking the deck in the conning tower.
Over on www.AntiWar.com/radio there is a podcast where Gareth Porter discusses the backgrounded to the recent Israeli Mossad chief’s admission that a nuclear-armed Iran would not be an “existential threat.
http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_12_30_kpfk_porter.mp3
Embedded audio: http://dissentradio.com/radio/11_12_30_kpfk_porter.mp3
...went down a while back.
Here is the crime scene:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=21188
Useful if the subject arises.
Any war involving Iran will have dreadful consequences for all those living in the Middle-East, including Jews . Those who think that US support for Israel means support for the rights of the Jewish people should read this 2005 wsws article by Patrick Martin that described the pervasive Christian fundamentalist and anti-Jewish atmosphere at the US Air Force Academy.
"According to an account published in the Los Angeles Times, Mikey Weinstein, a graduate of the academy and lawyer in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who is Jewish, was outraged by the religious bigotry expressed against his son Curtis when he entered the academy. His son was called a “filthy Jew,” among other slurs.
“When I visited my son,” he told the Times, “he told me he wanted us to go off base because he had something to tell me. He said, ‘They are calling me a ... Jew and that I am responsible for killing Christ.’ My son told me that he was going to hit the next one who called him something.”'
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/apr2005/acad-a30.shtml
Jews living in Israel have every reason to fear the right-wing Christian fundamentalists who control an acadamy that turns out officers with the power to incinerate the whole of the Middle-East . These people believe that a time called the "The Rapture" is rapidly approaching in which the Jews must accept Jesus as their Messiah or die. "They call for all Jews to “return” to Israel/Palestine, which will then bring a cataclysmic “rapture,” in which 120,000 Jews will convert to Christianity and the millions remaining will be killed in a cruel and bloody battle, which will then, in turn, bring the return to earth of Jesus Christ." see:http://www.ifamericaknew.org/cur_sit/religion.html
A.F.:"The best decision this current government has made is closing the Irish embassy over there, especially given our shameful history of maintaining diplomatic relations with nazi Germany to the end of that evil regime."
Actually, if you ask me, our very selective choice to close our embassy in Iran has more to do with us building our diplomatic relations to yet another evil fascist regime!! I guess just becoming a US aircraft carrier and their corporate money laundering rock of choice is not enough. Now we have to join in the villification of whoever the american hawks choose to villify.
Israel are an illegal nuclear state who actually DO have >200 nuclear weapons. Their murderous assassins forged Irish passports, and their soldiers beat up Irish citizens and held them illegally then deported them for peaceful protest in international waters. Why not close THAT embassy instead? Closing our Israeli embassy and boycotting THEIR produce might prevent them undercutting the price of potatoes (check your supermarket) and other vegetable / fruit produce here thus helping to weaken our own local agriculture.
"A new poll of Israeli Jews finds that 64% favor establishing a nuclear free zone in the Middle East, even when it was spelled out that this would mean that Israel as well as Iran would give up the option of having nuclear weapons. " http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/brmiddl...5.php
It is clear that certain lunatic elements in Israel and the US are bent on war with Iran and as widely reported have already murdered people their through their terrorist bombing campaign as reported in the above story, it seems there are some in Israel that are not completely mad and actually understand the madness of this unrelenting campaign now to begin the bombing in earnest as reported in this report.
Speaking at a meeting of top Israeli ambassadors in Jerusalem, Mossad chief Tamir Pardo rejected the notion that Iran, even if they were nuclear armed, constituted an “existential threat,” saying the term is being used “too freely.”
“If you said a nuclear bomb in Iranian hands was an ‘existential’ threat, that would mean that we would have to close up shop. That’s not the situation,” [http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/29/israeli...reat/] Pardo insisted. The claim that such a situation would be an existential threat has been a common talking point among hawks in both Israel and the US.
Pardo is the latest in a growing line of Israeli intelligence officials who have been making comments unfavorable to the Netanyahu government’s pro-war stance. His predecessor, Meir Dagan, had cautioned openly against attacking Iran, warning it would lead to a “regional war.” The comments spawned angry condemnations from political leaders.
I think the best answer to A Freeman will be found in this statement by opponents of the Iranian Regime.
War Will Hurt The Genuine Social Movement Of The Iranian people
A Statement By A Group Of Activists From Inside Iran
1. Wars have been the most terrifying phenomena people have confronted since the istant past. In our society, millions of Iranians have been living under the ominous shadow of the eight-year war with Iraq. The reminiscences of air raid sirens, damp shelters, overnight power cuts, nameless bodies, severed limbs, mothers who lost their children, children who lost their fathers, famine and hunger, homeless refugees and dozens of other frightening pictures at the back or forefront of our minds, vividly or vaguely, whether like a nightmare or a constant fear, is weighing down on everyone of us. ...
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/100995
That is a smear on Pat C , Mr Freeman . Pat is a member of the HOPI group which is opposed to attacks in the region yes , but is also absolutely firmly opposed to the Iranian regime , which is probably behind this outrage at some level . Hopi stands for Hands Off the People Of Iran. HOPI argues that the fascist mullahs' control of the country must be overthrown by the people of Iran from below . These same mullahs stole the election two years ago and let us not forget that it was was Pat C who did most to expose the fraud that brought Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power again . Pat has been the number one opponent of the mullahs' regime on this site -. Peter Tatchell from HOPI's steering committee made the group's opposition to the Iranian regime very clear some time ago . "Iran is a dangerous, terroristic, fundamentalist, anti-Semitic dictatorship, which is striving to develop nuclear weapons and which poses a serious threat to international peace and security." "If Iran was no longer a fanatical religious tyranny, the case for war would evaporate. Bush would lose the battle for hearts and minds. "
A regime-inspired mob in Tehran has broken into and ransacked the British embassy today and burnt the union flag in the street, pat c will be pleased! Meanwhile, thousands of political prisoners and members of minorities like the Bahi'i continue to be tortured in the dungeons of Evin prison. The best decision this current government has made is closing the Irish embassy over there, especially given our shameful history of maintaining diplomatic relations with nazi Germany to the end of that evil regime.
try this
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27864
An I thought it was gonna be real news. Go back to Dr Who and the Daleks and get some better inspiration for your next world exclusive "story".
The British connection? Full text at link.
Is Britain Plotting With Israel To Attack Iran?
Last February Britain’s then defense minister Liam Fox attended a dinner in Tel Aviv with a group described as senior Israelis. Alongside him sat Adam Werritty, a lobbyist whose “improper relations” with the minister would lead eight months later to Fox’s hurried resignation.
According to several reports in the British media the Israelis in attendance at the dinner were representatives of the Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, while Fox and Werritty were accompanied by Matthew Gould, Britain’s ambassador to Israel. A former British diplomat has now claimed that the topic of discussion that evening was a secret plot to attack Iran.
The official inquiry castigating the UK’s former defence secretary for what has come to be known as a “cash-for-access” scandal appears to have only scratched the surface of what Fox and accomplice Adam Werritty may have been up to when they met for dinner in Tel Aviv.
Little was made of the dinner in the 10-page inquiry report published last month by Gus O’Donnell, the cabinet’s top civil servant.
Instead O’Donnell concentrated on other aspects of Werritty’s behaviour: the 33-year-old friend of Fox’s had presented himself as the minister’s official adviser and jetted around the world with him arranging meetings with businessmen.