Iran’s Security Ministry to Safeguard Shariah Rule During Sham Parliamentary Elections

Posted on 06/09/2011 by terrortrends

Many people around the world are under the mistaken impression that elections in Iran are free and legitimate. Nothing could be further from the truth. Candidates have to be approved by the supreme leader and his council ahead of time, thus ensuring that true opposition is stifled.

Moreover, the ruling ayatollahs send their thug Pasdaran into the streets to ensure that no one disrupts the rubber stamp elections that perpetuate the illusion of pluralistic governance.

A prime example comes to us today. In March, Iran will hold elections for its parliament, known as the Majlis. Readers should understand that the Majlis has no real power. The real power, of course, resides with the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is the Supreme Leader. Nevertheless, the Iranians like to make a big show of their parliamentary elections.

Just to make sure that everything goes smoothly and that here aren’t any “deviations” from the “Islamic system,” Iran’s Security Ministry will be out in force during the elections to make sure that opposition movements cannot “occupy the presidential and parliamentary chairs” and thus try to “win people over.”

http://en.trend.az/regions/iran/1927622.html?

 

Filed under: Elections, human rights, Iranian Opposition, Khamenei, Oppression, Pasdaran, Protests | Leave a comment »

Another Meaningless Offer From Tehran to Buy More Time

Posted on 05/09/2011 by terrortrends

Every so often, when the Ayatollahs in Iran start to feel the heat from the international community about their nuclear weapons program, they begin to make noises about compromising and negotiating. These noises are always meaningless. They result in weeks and months of fruitless talks and always amount to nothing.

Last week, French President Nicholas Sarkozy proclaimed that Iran’s nuclear program could very well get it attacked.

True to form, the Iranians then trotted out a proposal–without details of course–to allow supervision of its nuclear program (at least the parts that aren’t secret). And, just as predictably, the Iranians add the caveat that they will continue enriching uranium in violation of UN resolutions.

In other words, the Iranians want us to buy into a scheme in which the UN will supervise a nuclear program that the UN has already declared illegal! In return, all the world has to do is lift sanctions on Iran!

Such a deal!

Not surprisingly, the Los Angeles Times dutifully reported the Iranian proposal as if it meant anything at all.

What this proposal is designed to actually do is to buy the Iranians more time to work on their nukes…

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran-nuclear-20110906,0,615223.story#tugs_story_display

 

Filed under: Diplomacy, IAEA, nuclear program, nuclear talks, sanctions, United Nations | Leave a comment »

Wishful Thinking on Nuclear Iran from Soros Stooge Matthew Duss in Foreign Policy Magazine

Posted on 03/09/2011 by terrortrends

nn

A political alliance between the Libertarian/Neo-Isolationist wing of the Republican Party and the hard Left of the Democrat Party is attempting to prepare America for a nuclear Iran with what can only be described as a snow job.

The meme from these strange bedfellows maintains that an Iran armed with nuclear weapons is no big deal, not any different, but of a lower magnitude, than the Soviet nuclear threat of the Cold War.

In an article published this week in Foreign Policy magazine, Matthew Duss, who works for the Soros-funded, radical Leftist Center for American Progress, tries to articulate this flawed position. But there are key flaws in Duss’s argument.

Duss scoffs at assertions by Newt Gingrich and others that Iran might be willing to sacrifice large numbers of Iranians in a nuclear exchange. In so doing he ignores two important pieces of evidence that contradict his position:

• Iranian leaders themselves have stated outright that in a war with Israel, Iran could absorb a large number of casualties–a number that would virtually wipe out Israel.

• During the Iran-Iraq War, the Iranians sent large numbers of young boys into minefields and ahead of combat formations to clear the way as cannon fodder.

So, despite what Duss may falsely declare, the Iranians do indeed have an extensive, recent history of using martyrdom to fight their enemies.

Duss also points to episodes in which President Ahmadinejad was–or was rumored to have been–rebuked by the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei or other clerics. But what Duss fails to explain is that Ahmadinejad essentially serves as the pleasure of Khamenei. If Khamenei did not want Ahmadinejad  to be president of Iran, he wouldn’t be. So, dismissing Ahmadinejad’s ranting about state martyrdom and the return of the Mahdi is in fact reckless. The inescapable conclusion is that Khamenei must have some level of approval of Ahmadinejad’s philosophy.

As Iran gets closer to achieving nuclear power status, we can expect 5th columnists and useful idiots, such as Matthew Duss, to generate these smoke screens to try to convince us that Iran is nothing to worry about. It is very important that Americans realize that these smoke screens are terribly misguided and harmful.

http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/08/23/the_martyr_state_myth

Filed under: Ahmadinejad, Israel, Khamenei, nuclear program | Leave a comment »

17 Years Too Late, the UN Decides that Maybe Iran IS Working on Nuclear Weapons!

Posted on 02/09/2011 by terrortrends

 

More than seventeen years after a Clinton administration State Department spokesperson told USA Today that Iran’s nuclear program had  none of the characteristics of a peaceful energy program and all of the hallmarks of a weapons program, the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has released a statement indicating that they are “increasingly concerned” about intelligence that shows that Iran is in fact working on nuclear weapons.

This 11th hour admission is enough to make sane, sober people flip their lid. For those who may not remember, the head of the IAEA for too many years was an Egyptian politician named Mohammed El-Baradei. Baradei went to great lengths–repeatedly–to give the Iranians the benefit of the doubt on their nuclear program, despite evidence that they were lying and cheating. One has to wonder if El-Baradei was in fact running interference for the Iranians and whether he was doing so out of religious fervor, a hatred of Israel, for money or all of the above.

Former IAEA Chief Mohammed El-Baradei Meets With Iranian President Ahmedinejad: What Did El-Baradei Know And When Did He Know It?

Here are some highlights of the new 9-page report that the IAEA just released about Iran’s nuclear program:

• Iran is working secretly on developing a nuclear payload for ballistic missiles.

Iranian Ballistic Missile

• Iran has developed a new, hardened facility at Fordow in which to enrich uranium, a facility thought to be more resistant to air attack than the existing facility at Natanz.

New Hardened Iranian Uranium Enrichment Facility At Fordow, Near The Holy City of Qom

Iranian Uranium Enrichment Facility at Natanz

• It is possible that Iran has undisclosed nuclear-related activities and facilities. [In our estimation this should be a forgone conclusion!]

• Iran has enough enriched uranium right now to produce 6 nuclear bombs.

• Iran’s secrecy and lack of cooperation make it impossible for the IAEA to conclude the Iran’s nuclear program is peaceful.

This last statement is especially infuriating because Iran has been secretive and uncooperative about its nuclear program from the very beginning. For the IAEA to now suddenly admit that the Iranians’ policy is suspicious can only mean either the IAEA has gotten wiser or previous IAEA personnel looked the other way while Iran worked on nuclear weaponry.

We still maintain that should Iran be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons, the world will be forever altered for the worse and future generations of Americans will ask of our generation: “How did you ever let that happen?!”

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=14435627

Filed under: ballistic missiles, Fordow, IAEA, missiles, Mohammed El-Baradei, Natanz, nuclear program, nuclear talks, United Nations | Leave a comment »

Clare Lopez and W. Thomas Smith: Iranian Press TV Publishes Names of US Citizens in Apparent “Hit” List

Posted on 02/09/2011 by terrortrends

Clare Lopez and W. Thomas Smith are two of the best practicioners of national security analysis in America. They have just co-wrote an important article that reveals that the Iranians have published a list of Americans who have been active in opposing Shariah and warning about Jihad. Some experts warn that such a list amounts to a threat, much like a fatwa.

The names mentioned are some of the best, most knowledgeable folks in the US when it comes to Jihad. The fact that the Iranians would publish such a list–which looks eerily similar to the names mentioned by the George Soros-funded think tank Center for American Progress last month–is testimony to the work that these brave people do. The fact that the list is similar to the Center for American Progress list raises serious questions about that organization as well…

Read more at Canada Free Press…

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/39990

 

Filed under: HAMAS, Hezbollah, Jihad, Terrorism | Leave a comment »

Sarkozy issues veiled threat to Iran

Posted on 02/09/2011 by terrortrends

French President Nicholas Sarkozy warned Iran this week that its continued evasiveness with reagard to, and pursuit of, its nuclear ambitions could result in some country attacking Iran. Sarkozy didn’t name any countries when he said this.

We have mixed emotions when it comes to this statement from Sarkozy. On the one hand, it’s about time someone played hardball with the ayatollahs and reminded them that they are subject to unpleasant consequences if they keep up their horrible behavior. Obama’s policy of taking the possibility of force off the table with regard to Iran sends a terrible signal that they will simply suffer no consequences of note for any of their actions. It’s not a bad idea to remind the Iranians that they are far from invulnerable and they have opponents in the world who are a lot stronger and more militarily competent than they are–by a long shot.

Moreover, Sarkozy is correct in his statement that the Iranians have not conducted any meaningful negotiations with regard to their nuclear program. In fact, it was the French who pointed out just how naive Obama’s expressed policy of engagement of Iran was when Obama announced it while running for president way back in 2008. The French had already tried to negotiate with the Iranians and it was abundantly clear that the Iranians had no interest in negotiating, simply because they were determined to move forward with uranium enrichment no matter what. Obama has basically wasted two years trying to wave enough carrots in front of the Ayatollahs to get their attention, not realizing, despite ample evidence, that they don’t like or want carrots!

But Sarkozy is hardly the best man to be delivering this tough message to the Iranians.

First of all, France is not militarily capable of unilaterally cutting Iran’s nuclear program down to size. France could conceivably play a role as part of a coalition in such an operation, but France wouldn’t even be a leader of that coalition. Make no mistake, only America possesses the military power–and the capability to project it–to severely damage or destroy Iran’s nuclear program. So, Sarkozy is the equivalent of the kid in school at the playground who picks a fight and then ducks behind his big brother when the fists start flying.

Second of all, France could do much–and should have done so years ago–to isolate the Iranians economically. The fact is, few nations can rival the amount of corporate life support that French firms have given the ayatollahs over the years, as United Against Nuclear Iran has done a superb job of detailing here:

http://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/ibr?order=field_country_value&sort=asc

So Sarkozy literally needs to put his money where his mouth is and impose meaningful sanctions on Iran if he really is serious about pressuring Iran.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.08e95fba9a75ed31e6c5e4213995533c.111&show_article=1

It is a shame that the Free World is essentially leaderless on the issue of Iran and we have to resort to the president of France to issue warnings to the regime in Tehran.

Filed under: France, nuclear program, nuclear talks, sanctions | Leave a comment »

World Tribune: Iranian Air Force to conduct combat exercise with unnamed neighbor

Posted on 02/09/2011 by terrortrends

WorldTribune.com is one of the best sources for information on the Iranian threat on the web. The folks over there cover this topic regularly–and it is a topic that the so-called mainstream media seems to relish ignoring.

World Tribune’s latest report indicates that the Iranians will soon conduct air combat maneuver exercises with a neighboring nation, though no one is saying who that neighbor might be.

We can speculate some about who it might be though because Iran doesn’t have all that many neighbors. There are a few possibilities, limited by geography:

• Iraq

We seriously doubt Iraq would be holding exercises with the Iranian Air Force right now. For one thing, the Iraqi Air Force has next to no combat aircraft and they are currently organizing primarily with the advice and assistance of US Air Force personnel. We’re not saying that the Iraqi regime wouldn’t hold joint exercises with Iran in the future, but we doubt that they could or would hold air combat exercises with Iran now.

• Kuwait

This is almost certainly not the answer. The Kuwaitis feel threatened by Iran and their air force has close ties to the US. Still, there are plenty of Islamist Kuwaitis who hate America and cooperating with Iran is not entirely out of the question. But, officially, the Kuwaitis are not yet at a place where they would likely hold joint exercises with Iran.

• Bahrain

This might be the least likely neighbor to hold exercises with Iran. The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is said to be active in supporting Shia unrest and rioting in Bahrain, which is ruled by a Sunni regime. The Shia-Sunni divide alone would not be enough to dismiss the possibility of cooperation, but in the case of Bahrain, that divide clearly involves meddling and hostility from the Iranians, who, for a variety of reasons, would like to see the ruling regime in Bahrain fall. One reason is that Bahrain is very close to the US and hosts the headquarters for the US Navy’s 5th Fleet.

• United Arab Emirates

Now, we could be getting warmer. The UAE have been playing a double game when it comes to Iran for years, if not centuries. Dubai has long been considered a primary smuggling point into and out of Iran and that has manifested itself in recent years with lax security surrounding the illicit import of prohibited items into Iran–items that could potentially be used as components in various weapon systems. All the while, UAE officials profess to being vigilant, but the reports of smuggling are too numerous and persistent for it to be happening without someone in the bureaucracy or halls of power being involved. At the same time, the UAE is scared to death of Iran’s nuclear program and their reaction has been to take on the role of battered spouse, attempting to warm up to Tehran. So, it would not surprise us if the UAE were to conduct exercises with Iran. Still, they’re not the most likely suspect.

• Qatar

Qatar might be one of our more likely suspects. They have previously conducted some non-combat naval exercises with Iran and, like the UAE, they have been playing a double game when it comes to Iran for some time. On the con side, Qatar is the site of US Central Command facilities and such close relations with the US military would seem to preclude their conducting air combat exercises with Iran. It would certainly be disturbing if it did end up being Qatar. We doubt it’s Qatar.

• Oman

Oman has always been wary of Iran and friendly with the West. They even let Delta Force rehearse and stage out of their airfields before the ill-fated hostage rescue attempt in Iran in 1980. We highly doubt that Oman is the neighbor in question.

• Turkmenistan

A likely suspect, highly likely in fact. Turkmenistan, Iran’s neighbor to the north and northeast has a small air force that flies MiG-29s, Su-25s and a few other aircraft. Turkmenistan also obtains arms from Iran, in addition to Russia and China, Iran’s two main foreign arms suppliers.

• Afghanistan

Not a chance. The Afghans have no fixed wing combat aircraft. Moreover, exercises with the Iranians would be pretty outrageous at this point given the large US military presence in Afghanistan and the fact that Iran supports the Taliban.

• Pakistan

If the neighbor that Iran ended up holding air combat exercises with ended up being Pakistan, it would be a near-worst case scenario. Close military relations between these two nations is one of the last things the world needs to see. Luckily, there is no indication that the neighbor in question is Pakistan. Given Saudi public hostility toward Iran and the fact that the Saudis bankroll a lot of what goes on in Pakistan, it is unlikely that Pakistan would hold air combat exercises with Iran. On the other hand, if there are two more treacherous, two-faced nations on earth than Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, we don’t know which ones those would be. Under the theory that anything is possible, we won’t rule out that the neighbor is Pakistan, but we doubt it–and hope that it is not.

• Saudi Arabia

Very similar to Pakistan, except that the Saudis are extremely worried about Iran on a lot of levels, so we doubt they’d hold air combat exercises with Iran under any circumstances. At some point, if the Saudis see that the West is not heading off Iran’s nuclear program, don’t be surprised if the Saudis start to warm up to the Iranians in an attempt to bribe them to keep them from causing trouble in the kingdom.

• Azerbaijan

Not beyond the realm of possibility, though relations between Iran and Azerbaijan are best described as “mixed.” The two countries have cordial relations, but Azerbaijan has been publicly supportive of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. Meanwhile, there are reports that Iran supports opposition parties in Azerbaijan. If the undisclosed neighbor does end up being Azerbaijan, which has a fairly modern and large air force by regional standards, it could signal a distinct warming of relations, something we would not want to see.

• Armenia

Armenia has a small air force made up of just a handful of ground attack aircraft. Their relations with Iran are fairly warm and it is certainly possible that they would hold air exercises with Iran. Such a development would in fact possibly be worrying for the West because currently Russia provides Armenia with air defense. This means that air exercises between Armenia and Iran could in fact cloak air exercises involving Russian and Iranian air forces. That would be disturbing to be sure.

• Turkey

It’s certainly not Turkey, but given the trajectory of politics in Turkey, don’t be surprised to see something along these lines in the next decade or so.

Read more at World Tribune:

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2011/me_iran1095_09_01.asp

Filed under: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijin, Bahrain, Iranian Air Force, Kuwait, military, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, UAE, Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

Michael Ledeen: The Blind Who Will Not See: The President, the Secretary of Defense, and the Iranian Death Spiral

Posted on 18/11/2010 by terrortrends

The latest wisdom from Iran expert Michael Ledeen of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies focuses on the curious and frustrating public views of the Obama administration with regard to Iran and the lack of support the U.S. is giving to opposition to the Ayatollahs in Tehran…

http://pajamasmedia.com/michaelledeen/2010/11/17/the-blind-who-will-not-see-the-president-the-secretary-of-defense-and-the-iranian-death-spiral/?singlepage=true

Filed under: Iranian Opposition, nuclear program, Obama, Oppression, Protests, sanctions, US State Department | Leave a comment »

Iran complains to Turkey about proposed NATO Missile Shield

Posted on 17/11/2010 by terrortrends

Iran’s foreign ministry says it has informed Ankara about concerns that Turkey could accept an offer to host some radar defenses under NATO’s plan for a missile shield over Europe.

Iran says it has serious doubts about the shield’s purpose and suspects it’s aimed at supporting Israel.

The U.S. has asked NATO-member Turkey to host some of the radar defenses and to approve the proposal for a Europe-wide defense network. Turkey has hesitated, saying it doesn’t want the system explicitly to target its neighbor, Iran.

Given that Tehran has claimed for years that its missile program is a “space” program and that its nuclear program is for “peaceful” energy purposes, one cannot help but wonder why Iran has such strident objections to a defensive anti-missile system…

http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_content.php?id=1434472&lang=eng_news

Filed under: ballistic missiles, Missile Defense, missiles, NATO, Turkey | Leave a comment »

Iran accused of assaulting French diplomats

Posted on 17/11/2010 by terrortrends

Relations between Iran and the West have plunged again, with France accusing Iranian security forces of physically assaulting its diplomats in Tehran.

France alleges Iranian security agents struck at least two French diplomats and arrested guests of the French ambassador after they arrived at his residence on Sunday for a concert.

The French Foreign Ministry has summoned Iran’s ambassador in Paris to condemn what it calls “unacceptable violence”.

It says similar incidents have happened at the Australian, British, Austrian and Dutch embassies, where security forces have targeted young Iranians invited to functions.

France has been a frequent critic of Iranian policies. Iran in turn has accused France and other missions of fuelling last year’s election-related protests.

In February, pro-Iranian activists threw stones at several Western embassies in Tehran.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/11/17/3068412.htm?section=justin

Filed under: Diplomacy, France | Leave a comment »

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