Comments for Iran Bulletin

Comment on Stop threats for nuke deal: Ahmadinejad by Raziye

Raziye — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 04:50:49 +0000

Dear Nasser,Indeed, I was not giving a free pass to the Green Movement. I was just talcikng the assumption that the Green Movement would somehow sell-out Iran. There is no reason to think as such. We do share similar views and I am glad that I am not alone!Dear pirouz_2,Come back when you have factual arguments and not a regurgitation of regime propaganda.Dear kooshy,1. It is absolutely true that the US, in the form of the Shah, retarded Iran’s political evolution, especially after 1953. However, this was the fault of the Shah – thus an Iranian problem – and not the fault of anyone else. In essence, don’t hate the player (the US); hate the game (international relations).2. Do you believe that Turkey’s standing has been reduced because of its relations with the US and especially Israel? I believe otherwise. I believe that Turkey has amply demonstrated a successful long-term strategy of conformity, without impeding sovereignty, and with an eventual desire of becoming a regional power (for now this is working). I believe that to an extent the Shah was on a similar path. Of course, the Shah did not nurture the domestic politics of Iran. But again, that was the fault of himself – an Iranian – and not anybody else.3. Again, I absolutely agree that Iran’s sovereignty should never be challenged. But let us be realistic. Look at South Korea, Japan, Germany and to a lesser extent Italy. They are economic powerhouses. They are significant political players. They are regional superpowers. Now look at Iran. Our economy is crumbling. We are constantly at the brink of war. Nobody listens to us. Our desire to become a leader of the third world is hardly succeeding and, if anything, we are only inspiring extremists in Somalia and Pakistan. Ferdowsi wrote his epic to emphasise the greatness of Iran. He did not write it as a policy of isolating Iran and giving Iran a bad name. Anyway, Iran’s constitution is loosely based on the French constitution (Arjomand); does that mean the IR sold Iran out?I believe that US-Iran relations will ultimately be rewarding for Iran. I would go further and say it is necessary. But it would need very careful management, which returns us to Ms Harper’s fundamental argument that Iran’s foreign policy has been a failure for a long time.

Comment on Bulgaria terrorist attack live thread by Elaine

Elaine — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 00:35:25 +0000

Notice you don’t see them pushing any all-wheel-drive Audi pctduros. My family’s farm can only be accessed by a gravel road, about a third of a mile long. In winter when we would get 8 inches of snow or more, the road had to be cleared with the grader hooked to the back of a John Deere tractor, before any of our cars or trucks that were four-wheel-drive could make it down the lane. That was until we got our first Audi 4000 in the mid-80s. Dad was surprised when he was able to plow through more than a foot of snow, like you see in this video. Many of our neighbors frowned upon us for buying German cars, something that just wasn’t done in rural areas at that time. Like my grandparents, who were part of the World War II generation, these Bigoted ideas were perpetuated throughout the US by corporate America, and US car companies have capitalized on these prejudices for decades. My grandparents continued to buy American cars, even when they were putting plastic transmissions in them, that failed within months of buying a brand-new car. People without tractors and four-wheel drive trucks were just stuck to their houses, until they could get the roads cleared. And folks put up with that because their prejudices end peer pressure was so strong. Corporations depend upon perpetuating such social inhibitors to move their pctduros.Why give them all-wheel-drive, we don’t care Tens of millions of people actually need it, if even a vital necessity for many people in rural areas, but we won’t even offer them the option, and why, because we don’t have to. And why should we when we can pray upon peoples biases, that we perpetuate, and pocket billions at their expense in the process. There is no profit motive in doing the right thing, so we won’t. That’s the real reason why companies like Ford won’t offer all-wheel drive in their vehicles, they’re willing to go on screwing everybody for centuries even, if it means that certain select group of stockholders can acquire enough wealth that their family won’t have to work for the next 40 generations. I call it despicable, the kind of predatory approach that you apply enemies in the war, not customers you’re supposed to serve. This is part of the malignant rot that has eaten away at the heart of my country for a generation now, an affliction that threatens to destroy America if it is not confronted openly and combated by all people of good conscience and genuine morality.

Comment on Only several days remain for Israel to strike Bushehr by Giuseppe

Giuseppe — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 19:41:32 +0000

Pirouz_2,Thanks for passing on that cmoemnt from the Iranian lawyer. He mentions that a court’s decision is required to extend the one-month detention period. Does the initial one-month decision also require court approval, or does the prosecutor get the first month for free? Even if I knew this answer, of course, it would be hard or impossible for me to determine how independently the courts behave in practice on these matters. US courts can deny bail to defendants in many circumstances, but my impression is that they don’t rubber-stamp prosecution requests. I wonder whether that’s true in Iran too.I wonder even more why a defendant is not allowed to see an attorney. Whatever the rules may be, I see no reason to deny a defendant a right to have a lawyer help him ensure that the rules are properly applied in his case. Even if maybe especially if the government is absolutely certain that a defendant has broken a rule and deserves to be punished, it seems to me best for all concerned including the prosecution that he be given a fair opportunity to defend himself against the charge, with a lawyer’s assistance. In the US, the defendant would not only be given access to a lawyer, but the taxpayers would pay for the lawyer if the defendant cannot afford to. Nobody here likes to pay legal fees for some ax murderer or drug dealer, but most of us feel it’s worth it for reasons apart from the particular case: we can tell ourselves the system is fair. To be sure, there are rogue cops, dishonest prosecutors, and crooked judges. Nevertheless, those are the exceptions, and we are generally satisfied that the system is fair for both sides in a criminal case. No legal system can ever protect fully against the bad eggs, but it should at least establish a bit more level of a playing field than it sounds like Iran has done. As you know, I feel strongly that Ahmadinejad was validly elected and his government is legitimate. I think Pak, Scott, Binam and others make a tactical mistake to link their non-election complaints so tightly to their argument that Ahmadinejad’s government is not legitimate. But establishing a government’s legitimacy doesn’t give the government carte blanche to mistreat citizens. If government officials aren’t following their own rules, people should protest against that. If they are following their own rules but those rules don’t add up to a fair legal process, people should protest the rules not in the individual case, perhaps, but by pressing for the rules to be changed as soon as possible so that they are more fair.Even for its own selfish reasons, a government should want this. Take the election, for example. Scott has not taken the bait dangled to him in my recent questions, and so, for the sake of discussion, I’ll have to supply one of his standard answers to the question of why none of Mousavi’s on-site observers has ever backed him up on his fraud allegations: Each of them (40,000+) fears punishment if he disagrees with the vote count reported for his polling station.Whether or not one finds this plausible (I don’t), there can be little or no dispute that Scott’s argument gets a strong boost from the arrest and severe punishment of a prominent film-maker for making a movie protesting the election. It leaves Scott in a stronger position to say: See? I told you so. Someone, possibly you, pointed out a while ago that the Iranian government faces far more serious risks from outside interference than does the US government, and that a pro-Nazi movie maker during World War II might well have had a knock on his door late at night. I acknowledge that, and don’t think it would be productive to debate where Iran’s current situation is on the spectrum between complete risk-free stability and the near-chaos of total war. Even if one agrees with Iran’s government and its supporters that the risks of outside interference are extremely high and must be dealt with somehow, I don’t think it follows that the government should suppress free expression as much as it does, nor even close to that extent.Consider this fact: not a single serious scholar (to my knowledge) has sided with Mousavi about the election. Those few that addressed the subject in the early post-election days limited themselves to preliminary analyses and, without exception that I’m aware of, never followed up. (Dr. Ali Ansari is the classic example: he promised to, but ended up dropping the project like a hot potato.) Most or all of those scholars live outside Iran and had more or less unrestricted freedom to write or say whatever they liked about the Iran election. If Iran’s critics had been given the same free rein, they’d presumably have come up with nothing more than outside scholars have come up with. Had the Iranian government allowed them to do so, and even cooperated in their research, it would now be in a position to say this: OK, you’ve had more than a year now. Nobody’s been punished or even threatened, and no one claims they’re worried about this. We’ve helped you in every way you’ve asked. So tell us: What have you come up with to support your allegations of fraud? Wouldn’t that be better for the Iranian government, as well as everyone else than to allow people like Scott – along with dozens of influential journalists and other writers to run around asking: Look what happens to a film maker who dares to question the election?

Comment on Iran to mass-produce faster centrifuges by Toygun

Toygun — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 16:43:04 +0000

when is someone going to eiaplxn the HUGE difference between energy class and weapons grade ? uranium enrichment doesn’t mean they are building nukes! isreal has enough nukes already to take iran off the map, so what the fuck is everyone so scared of?! PROPAGANDA at it’s finest! leading us to war under false reasons! THIS IS BULLSHIT!

Comment on Reza Kahlili at RadicalIslam.org: Iran Has Sleeper Cells in U.S. Ready to Attack by Deep

Deep — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 10:16:28 +0000

I do not believe there is anhityng we or any other outside nation can do to truly affect the changes in any other country. Think about it. Since WWII no place have we sent our young men and women to fight have we truly made a difference. In fact none of these places truly wanted us there, and by that I mean the people on the street, not the politcians and leaders. And no where have we won, even in Iraq. The only place we have been with any real legitimacy since WWII is Afghanistan and instead of completed our mission there were turned away to invade another nation for personal political reasons. No, we have no business trying to force our will on another nation. If we disagree with that nations government then put sanctions in place. Do not invade even by request. Too many of our young men and women have been sent to die for poitcal agendas under the guise of national interest.

Comment on Osama bin Laden’s son tells of life in secret lair and claims his brothers are in Iran with knowledge of the regime by Risqi

Risqi — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 09:30:34 +0000

Excellent essay Ray! Hits it right on the head! Here’s an idea: I wonder if one could start a pailticol party in both Israel and Palestine that would essentially be one party but with both Jewish and Arab candidates, and would be committed to the above principles, treating all the violent players EQUALLY like criminals instead of militia. Such a party could emphasize the importance of human and family necessities, like shelter, property rights, health care, education, employment, and one fair and impartial legal system for all.Usually with two mutally hostile societies, this kind of thing comes about only after a brutal war, but wouldn’t it be nice to avoid the hundreds of thousands of dead, mutilated and traumatized for a change?

Comment on Iranian woman to be stoned to death for adultery by Alka

Alka — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 03:17:15 +0000

Let me clarify this for mlyesf.Our leaders tell us that Israeli leaders hate us. Israeli leaders tell Israelis that Iranian leaders hate them even more. The leaders of Iran and Israel hate each other the best, or the worst actually. Iranian people and Israeli people, however, far from hating each other’s guts, love each other so much that they cannot resist exchanging messages conveying this deep and ancient love. To add some explosive fun to this cocktail of extreme hate and love, the leaders of Iran and Israel are expressing an urgent need to bomb the people of Israel and vaporize the people of Iran, reaspectively.Now, I am a very old man who has seen a lot from all corners of the world, but I must admit this is mindboggling situation is beyond my wildest dreams, or nightmares rather.

Comment on 2008 Security Pact Between Iran and Turkey Should Call Into Question Turkey’s NATO Membership by iran tv

iran tv — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:16:19 +0000

great work please keep it going.

Comment on United Nations armored vehicles take part in Iran’s Army Day military parade by irannet.tv

irannet.tv — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:27:20 +0000

great work keep it going

Comment on Report: Iranian Unit 400 terror squad targeting Jewish, Israeli and Western targets in Turkey by irannet.tv

irannet.tv — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:18:31 +0000

great work keep it going