Netanyahu: Iran Needs Missiles to Carry Medical Isotopes?
By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
25 april 2012, Ijar 4, 5772

Iran: We'll Never Give Up Our Nuclear Program
by Elad Benari
13 maart 2012, Adar 19, 5772

Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency reiterated Thursday that his country “is ready to re-engage with (the) IAEA” but continued to insist his country’s nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes.

“A new chapter is open,” Ali Asghar Soltanieh was quoted by CNN as having told reporters at the IAEA board of governors meeting in Vienna, Austria.

He added, however, that Iran “will never ever suspend our nuclear activities.”

The ambassador's statement came shortly after six world powers called on Iran Thursday to resume nuclear talks without preconditions, urging it to grant inspectors access to its Parchin military base.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/153294#.T2ETMPW6WuL

On Wednesday it was reported that satellite images of the Parchin facility appear to show trucks and earth-moving vehicles at the site, indicating an attempted cleanup of radioactive traces, possibly left by tests of a nuclear-weapon trigger.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/153552#.T2ETjfW6WuK

Diplomats who spoke to The Associated Press said the crews at the Parchin military site may be trying to erase evidence of tests of a small experimental neutron device used to set off a nuclear explosion.

Soltanieh dismissed the suspicions regarding the development of nuclear weapons at Parchin, telling reports they were “childish” and “ridiculous.”

He added that international sanctions and cyberattacks against Iran will not prevent it from developing nuclear energy, and that sanctions were only working to hurt its citizens, CNN reported.

The continued Israeli threat of attack against Iran's nuclear installations, he noted, is against international law, and called on the United Nations to condemn and take action against Israel.

Earlier, the IAEA’s director general, Yukiya Amano, directly accused Iran of refusing to come clear about its nuclear program.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/153570#.T2ET3vW6WuK

"Iran is not telling us everything. That is my impression. We are asking Iran to engage with us proactively, and Iran has a case to answer," Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said.

Amano told CNN that Iran has declared a number of nuclear facilities to the IAEA, but refuses to declare others and open them for inspection.

"For these facilities and activities, I can tell that they are in peaceful purpose," Amano said. "But there are also, there may be other facilities which are not declared, and we have the indication or information that Iran has engaged in activities relevant to the development of nuclear explosive devices."

Top Nuclear Watchdog Demanding Answers
by Gavriel Queenann
8 maart 2012, Adar 14, 5772

The International Atomic Energy Association on Thursday directly accused Iran of refusing to come clear about its nuclear program amid reports of a bid by Tehran to destroy evidence of wrong-doing.

"Iran is not telling us everything. That is my impression. We are asking Iran to engage with us proactively, and Iran has a case to answer," Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said.

Amano told CNN that Iran has declared a number of nuclear facilities to the IAEA, but refuses to declare others and open them for inspection.

"For these facilities and activities, I can tell that they are in peaceful purpose," Amano said. "But there are also, there may be other facilities which are not declared, and we have the indication or information that Iran has engaged in activities relevant to the development of nuclear explosive devices."

Also Wednesday, a Western diplomat here said that the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, plus Germany –the so-called P5-plus-1 – have agreed on a joint statement on Iran, which will be delivered Thursday to the IAEA.

"The statement underlines our concerns about Iran's nuclear activities, including its uranium enrichment activities at Natanz and Fordow," the diplomat said. "It calls on the director general of the IAEA to report back on Iran's progress in fulfilling its obligations."

The renewed press by Amano and western diplomats comes as new satellite images of the Parchin military complex appear to show trucks and earthmoving vehicles at the site ahead of a proposed new round of nuclear talks.

The diplomats, all nuclear experts accredited to the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the Associated Press that the images appear to reveal an attempted cleanup of radioactive materials that may have been left by tests of a nuclear-weapon trigger.

In explaining such a device, the agency's November report said that "if placed in the center of a nuclear core of an implosion-type nuclear device and compressed, [it] could produce a burst of neutrons suitable for initiating a fission chain reaction."

The IAEA has been wrangling with Iran over access to the Parchin site for months. Earlier this week Iran announced it would allow IAEA inspectors access to Parchin as a "gesture of goodwill," but insisted terms for the visit would have to be negotiated - leading to charges Tehran is stalling.

Iran previously razed the Lavizan Shian complex in northern Iran before allowing IAEA inspectors to visit the suspected repository of military procured equipment that could be used in a nuclear-weapons program.

Tehran claimed the site had been demolished to make way for a park, but inspectors who subsequently visited the site found traces of uranium enriched to or near the level used in making the core of nuclear warheads.

Israel Brings Iranian Soil Samples to Washington
29 december 2011, Tevet 3, 5772
by Chana Ya'ar

Israeli officials are again warning Washington that time is almost up, and that the Iranian nuclear threat is growing stronger -- this time based on soil samples collected near suspected sites.Investigative reporter Eli Lake writes this week in an exclusive report published in The Daily Beast that a delegation of Israeli diplomats, IDF officers and intelligence officials raised the issue at a meeting in the U.S. capital during the annual "strategic dialogue" conference earlier this month.

Israel's presentation on the Iranian nuclear program included intelligence based on soil samples that indicated the Islamic Republic is building secret reactors to produce nuclear fuel.Moshe "Boogie" Ya'alon confirmed in a December 24 speech in Jerusalem that although Iran probably did indeed suspend their nuclear technology activity in 2003, they resumed the drive to produce an atomic weapon by 2005.

U.S. national intelligence estimates still claim that Iran has not resumed its weaponization work -- with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta claiming an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities could "consume the Middle East in a confrontation and a conflict that we would regret."In response, Israel cites the document recently uncovered by the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) showing detailed plans for construction of a "neutron initiator" as evidence that time is rapidly running out.

As Lake explains, the neutron initiator is a pellet that sits at the middle of the nuclear core and is crushed by high explosives in a nuclear explosion. The existence of such a document is concrete proof that Iran is continuing its weaponization activity.The November 2011 IAEA report stated plainly that intelligence shared by member states appears to show that Iran has conducted explosive tests linked to nuclear weapons research.

The stakes are high, and not all Israeli politicians believe it is clear that Israel can trust the United States when the chips are down.As Ya'alon put it, "There is no credible military action when we hear leaders from the West, saying, 'this is not a real option,' saying, 'the price of military action is too high.'"

Iran Answers Rumors of Planned Attack: ‘Our Wrath on Tel Aviv’
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu 
November 6, 2011, Cheshvan 9, 5772

A week of rumors that Israel plans to attack Iran has prompted a warning that it can deal Israel a “crushing response” and that “any Israeli aggression against the Islamic Republic would be reciprocated with a destructive reprisal.”  http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/149445#.Tsek3LKvkVp

Responding to repetition in the media that Israel has decided that the “military option” is the only way to stop Iran from possessing a nuclear weapon, an Iranian legislator was quoted by the state-run Fars News Agency as saying, "Before (being able to take) any action against Iran, the Israelis will feel our wrath in Tel Aviv.”   http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/149432#.TseknbKvkVp

Hossein Ebrahimi, a member of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission said that "since the beginning of the Islamic Revolution, the U.S., UK and Israel have frequently threatened Iran… This is not a new development."

"The Israelis entered the (Lebanon) war with the capabilities they had but earned nothing but humiliation," Ebrahimi said. "I do not think that Israelis along with the Americans and Britons will commit such a folly.

"If the threat is carried out, they will see the political might of the (Islamic) establishment, the solidarity of the Iranian nation, and the strength of the country.”

Media reports of an imminent Israeli attack on Iran crop up at least twice a year, with different predictions on when Iran will possess a nuclear weapon. It possesses enough enriched uranium to manufacture two to four nuclear weapons, according to various experts.

With each rumor, there is less time to stop Iran from obtaining an atomic bomb, which the Islamic Republic constantly denies it seeks.

Different interpretations over the weekend pointed to mild American reactions to the reports that most, if not all, Israeli ministers have removed previous objections to a military attack.

During the period of the Obama administration’s attempt to “engage Iran," the regime has built nuclear plants deep underground in rocky areas that make it difficult, if not impossible, to attack except through a strike mounted by anti-regime agents in Iran.

Ahmadinijad: PA State First Step to Israel's Demise
by Gavriel Queenann
September 28, 2011, Elul 29, 5771

As Palestinian Authority officials prepare to make their statehood bid at the United Nations in September, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinijad said Friday the creation of a 'Palestinian state' ws only the first state to the destruction of Israel.

Ahmadinejad, restating the position he outlined after taking office in 2005, said Israel was a "tumor" to be wiped off the map and urged Arabs in PA administered areas not to settle for a two-state solution, but to strive for a complete return of what they consider their land.

"Recognizing the Palestinian state is not the last goal. It is only one step forward towards liberating the whole of Palestine," Ahmadinejad told worshippers at Friday prayers on international Qods Day -- an annual show of support for the PA cause.

"The Zionist regime is a center of microbes, a cancer cell and if it exists in one iota of Palestine it will mobilize again and hurt everyone."

"It is not enough for them to have a weak, powerless state in a very small piece of Palestine. They should unite to establish a state but the ultimate goal is the liberation of the whole of Palestine," he said.

"I urge the Palestinians never to forget this ideal. Forgetting this ideal is equal to committing suicide. It would be giving an opportunity to an enemy which is on the verge of collapse and disappearance."

Ahmadinijad's comments echo those of the long-Iranian underwritten Hamas terror organization in Gaza that has said any peace agreement with Israel would only serve as a prelude to war.

Iran reportedly significantly reduced - or even cut - its aid to Hamas in recent weeks due to the terror organization's refusal to endorse the crackdown of Iranian ally President Bashar Assad in Syria. Nevertheless, Iran continues to be a driving force behind Hamas and Hizbullah in its proxy war against Israel.

Iran Threatens the US East Coast
by Chana Ya'ar 
September 28, 2011, Elul 29, 5771

Iran is threatening to send war ships to the East Coast of the United States in a major escalation with America.

The threat comes barely a week after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was welcomed at the podium of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Iranian Navy head Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari declared, “Like the arrogant powers that are present near our marine borders, we will also have a power presence close to American marine borders.”

Sayyari made his remarks at a ceremony marking the 31st anniversary of the start of the Iran-Iraq war, which lasted from 1980 to 1988, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

Periodically Iran shows off the latest missiles and other military hardware currently in development, and parades its military prowess to the general public.

The Islamic Republic's Yunis submarine  returned to Tehran in July after a 66-day international mission, carried out largely in the Red Sea, together with Iran's 14th Fleet.
http://www.persiancity.com/news/read.asp?iran-navy-submarines-return-home/topic/1284320/

Earlier in the year, a flotilla of two Iranian vessels traveled to the Syrian port of Lazeqiyya on a mission of “peace and friendship” following the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo's Tahrir Square Revolution. Both Israel and the United States expressed “grave concern” about the vessels and their presence in the Mediterranean at the time.  http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/142588#.ToPTA4Ko0ZI

One month later, Iranian-produced weapons  headed for Gaza were seized in March from a ship that had just left Syria. 
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/142914#.ToPTmoKo0ZI

The German-owned, French-operated and Liberian-flagged vessel was sailing to Alexandria crammed with Iranian-made weapons for the Hamas terrorists who rule of the region that borders Israel's southeastern flank.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/142909#.ToPT84Ko0ZI

The Iranian president has repeatedly vowed to wipe Israel off the map.

Columbia Students 'Excited' About Dining With Ahmadinejad

Weiger Iraanse delegatie op de Olympische Spelen
Algemeen Nederlands nieuws 
29 Juli 2011

Het World Jewish Congress in de VS heeft opgeroepen om de Iraanse delegatie voor de Olympische spelen te weigeren. Niet voor het eerst – eerder systematisch, zo blijkt – weigeren Iraanse atleten deel te nemen aan competities waaraan ook Israëlies participeren.

Zo nog afgelopen week toen de Iraanse zwemmer Mohammed Alirezaei forfait gaf tijdens de honderd meter schoolslag op het wereldkampioenschap zwemmen in Shangai. Aan deze kwalificatiewedstrijd nam immers ook de Israëliet Gal Nevo deel. Officieel was de Iraniër ‘vermoeid en duizelig’ maar het kan geen toeval zijn, aldus het WJC, dat dezelfde atleet ook al in 2008 tijdens de Olympische Spelen weigerde uit te komen in een reeks waarin de succesvolle Israëlische zwemmer Tom Beeri aantrad.

Het gedrag van Iran is hoogst onsportief en loopt over van antisemitime, aldus WJC-voorzitter Ronald Lauder. “Dit moet een halt worden toegeroepen!” De voorzitter van het Nationaal Olympische Comité van Iran, Mohamed Ali Abadi, verklaarde vorig jaar in een interview dat Iraanse atleten alle wedstrijden moeten boycotten waarin Israëlische atleten aantreden. De reden is duidelijk, stel dat een Israëli een Iraniër zou verslaan!

In februari van dit jaar nog, dreigde hij met een algehele boycot omdat in het officiële logo van de Spelen in Londen, weliswaar met veel verbeelding, de letters Z-I-O-N konden ontwaard worden.

Sport in Iran is hoogst gepolitiseerd. In 2009 werden vier voetballers levenslang geschorst omdat ze het aangedurfd hadden met een groene armband te spelen als steunbetuiging voor de toenmalige binnenlandse oppositie. Afgelopen jaar werd een gewichtheffer geschorst nadat hij tijdens het wereldkampioenschap in het strijdperk trad met een Israeli. “Een land met zo’n ingesteldheid hoort niet thuis in de Olympische beweging”, aldus nog het WJC.

Iran blokkeert vijf miljoen sites
8 juni 2011, bericht is uitgegeven op 19 november 2008

TEHERAN - Iran heeft de toegang geblokkeerd tot meer dan vijf miljoen internetsites. Dat hebben de Iraanse media woensdag bericht.

Foto:  ANP

Volgens de Iraanse media veroorzaakt internet "sociale, politieke, economische en morele" schade. "De vijanden willen onze religieuze identiteit aanvallen via internet", citeerde de krant Kargozaran een regeringsfunctionaris.

Er geldt onder meer een verbod voor sites over mensenrechten, politieke kwesties, vrouwenkwesties en pornosites en weblogs waarop de islam wordt aangevallen.

Internet is met twintig miljoen gebruikers populair in Iran.

Speculation intensifies over Iranian political situation
8 mei 2011, 4 Iyar, 5771
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgMt2dqk73k&feature=player_embedded

Iranian Nuclear Program Hit By Second "Cyber Missile" Virus
by Gavriel Queenann
Apr 26 '11, Nissan 22, 5771

Iranian civil defense commander Gholamreza Jalali said Monday the Islamic Republic's nuclear program has fallen prey to a computer virus called "Stars," Reuters reports.

The Stars virus is the second in the cyber war against Iran's bid for nuclear capability, following after the much-reported Stuxnet virus,

Jalalai said the introduction of the new virus is being investigated while admitting Stuxnet still posed a risk. "We should know that fighting the Stuxnet virus does not mean the threat has been completely tackled, because viruses have a certain life span and they might continue their activities in another way," Jalali said.

The revelation that Stuxnet is still hampering Iran's nuclear program runs counter to previous claims by Iranian officials that the destructive virus had been dealt with and buttresses Saudi concerns that Iran's intention to activate the Bushehr plant in May could lead to a 'second Fukushima.' Saudi concerns were based on reports attributed to a Russian engineer working at the site that metal shards were found in the coolant intakes for the reactor.

Iranian officials blamed Israel and the United States -- which believe Iran is seeking nuclear weapons -- for the Stuxnet virus, which some expert shave described as the first "guided cyber missile," aimed at Iran's atomic program.

"Stars," experts speculate, is the second.

"Fortunately," Jalali told Iran's press. "Our young experts have been able to discover this virus and the Stars virus is now in the laboratory for more investigations," Jalali was quoted as saying. He did not specify the target of Stars or its intended impact.

"The particular characteristics of the Stars virus have been discovered. The virus is congruous and harmonious with the [computer] system and in the initial phase it does minor damage and might be mistaken for some executive files of government organizations."

Bushehr is still not operational, having missed several start-up deadlines since the Stuxnet virus was introduced. 


Iranian Video Says Mahdi is 'Near'
CBN News Terrorism Analyst
April 03, 2011

New evidence has emerged that the Iranian government sees the current unrest in the Middle East as a signal that the Mahdi--or Islamic messiah--is about to appear.

CBN News has obtained a never-before-seen video produced by the Iranian regime that says all the signs are moving into place -- and that Iran will soon help usher in the end times.

While the revolutionary movements gripping the Middle East have created uncertainty throughout the region, the video shows that the Iranian regime believes the chaos is divine proof that their ultimate victory is at hand.

'The Coming is Near'

The propaganda footage has reportedly been approved at the highest levels of the Iranian government.

It's called The Coming is Near and it describes current events in the Middle East as a prelude to the arrival of the mythical tweflth Imam or Mahdi -- the messiah figure who Islamic scriptures say will lead the armies of Islam to victory over all non-Muslims in the last days.

"This video has been produced by a group called the Conductors of the Coming, in connection with the Basiji -- the Iranian paramilitary force, and in collaboration with the Iranian president's office," said Reza Kahlil, a former member of Iran's Revolutionary Guards who shared the video with CBN News.

Kahlili, author of the book, A Time to Betray, worked as a double agent for the CIA inside the Iranian regime.  http://shop.cbn.com/cbn/item.A-Time-to-Betray-The-Astonishing-Double-Life-of-a-CIA-Agent-.9781439189030.htm

"Just a few weeks ago, Ahmadenijad's office screened this movie with much excitement for the clerics," Kahlili told CBN News. "The target audience is Muslims in the Middle East and around the world."

To watch the video in its entirety, visit Kahlili's website.
http://atimetobetray.com/blog/iran-leaders-the-coming-is-upon-us-%E2%80%93-israel-shall-be-destroyed-watch-the-video/

The video claims that Iran is destined to rise as a great power in the last days to help defeat America and Israel and usher in the return of the Mahdi. And it makes clear the Iranians believe that time is fast approaching.

"The Hadith have clearly described the events and the various transformations of countries in the Middle East and also that of Iran in the age of the coming," said a narrator, who went on to say that America's invasion of Iraq was foretold by Islamic scripture--and that the Mahdi will one day soon rule the world from Iraq.

Other 'Prophetic' Signs

The ongoing upheavals in other Middle Eastern countries like Yemen and Egypt--including the rise of the Muslim Brotherood -- are also analyzed as prophetic signs that the Mahdi is near -- so is the current poor health of the king of Saudi Arabia, an Iranian rival.

"Isn't the presence of Abdullah, his illness, and his uncertain condition, great news for those anxious for the coming?" asks the narrator.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khameini, and Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Iran's terrorist proxy Hezbollah, are hailed as pivotal end times players, whose rise was predicted in Islamic scriptures.

The same goes for Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad, who the video says will conquer Jerusalem prior to the Mahdi's coming.

"I think it's a very grave development," Mideast expert Joel Rosenberg, author of The Twelfth Imam, told CBN News, "because it gives you a window into the thinking of the Iranian leadership: that they believe the time for war with Israel may be even sooner than others had imagined."

Kahlili says The Coming is Near will soon be distributed by the Iranian regime throughout the Middle East.  He explained that their goal is to instigate further uprisings in Arab countries.

Iran: We Have the Right to be in the Mediterranean
by Chana Ya'ar
4 maart 2011, Adar 28, 5771

Iran contends that its military vessels are legally entitled to sail in the Mediterranean Sea under international law.

The Islamic Republic's Navy Commander, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, praised the flotilla of two vessels to Iranian naval personnel in the Syrian port of Lazeqiyya Sunday night.

Sayyari claimed the Khark and the Alvand were on a mission to convey a message of “peace and friendship” to Islamic and regional states and strengthen ties among countries, according to the state-run FARS news agency.

The Khark carries a crew of 250 and three helicopters. The Alvand is armed with torpedoes and anti-ship missiles, the news agency reported.

Both Israel and the United States have expressed grave concerns about the Iranian vessels and their presence in the Mediterranean.  

Iran has said the two ships will be docked at the Syrian port for a year-long training program.

Iranian Human Rights Abuses Against Women Spotlighted Near UN
by Fern Sidman, INN NY Correspondent
4 maart 2011, Adar 28, 5771 

Graphic depictions of the most egregious forms of human rights abuses against women in Iran took center stage at a special seminar in New York City on March 3rd. Sponsored by Iran180, which spotlights the litany of human rights abuses that take place on a daily basis in Iran, the seminar was entitled, "Securing Gender Equality: Iran and the CSW." 

Held at 777 UN Plaza, a building directly across the street from the United Nations, objectives of the gathering included raising awareness of Iran's violations of women's rights and the staging of symbolic protests against the welcoming of the Islamic Republic of Iran as the newest member of the UN Commission on the Status of Women at its 56th session.

Quoting findings of exiled Iranian lawyer, Zohreh Arshadi, Mr. David Kilgour, co-chair of the Canadian Friends of a Democratic Iran said, "The Iranian penal system is a principal means of sustaining inequality of genders. Its ludicrous premise is that women are deficient in abilities." Kilgour added Arshadi stresses that Iranian women, "have managed to achieve equality in one field only: equal right to imprisonment, exile, torture, being killed and now being slaughtered..."

Speaking of the many Iranian women who are unjustly imprisoned, tortured and often sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit, Mr. Kilgour relayed the narrative of Sakineh Ashtiani, a mother from the frequently targeted Turkic minority, who did not speak Farsi or understand the charge of alleged adultery leveled at her. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/140453  "She was incarcerated and beaten, then humiliated in front of her family by a public lashing. Her plight and narrow escape from death by stoning became a successful test case for the global community's response to the regime's misogyny," he said.

Mr. Kilgour quoted Irwin Cotler, Canadian MP and chair of the International Responsibility to Protect Coalition, who recently warned Iran is on an "execution binge", and making a "wholesale assault on the rights of its own people."  http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/142363  He added, "In 2011 alone, the Iranian regime has already executed at least 120 people. It now leads the world in per capita executions, many of which are in secret, taking place after arrests, detentions, beatings, torture, kidnappings, disappearances, and brief trials in which no evidence is presented."

Echoing previous calls for the disqualification Iran as a member of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, Mr. Kilgour suggested the CSW convene a special session to discuss women's rights in Iran and act to stop the repression of women. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/137401  "It is our responsibility to act in robust solidarity with the struggle for women's rights everywhere across Iran," he concluded.

The Association for the Defense of Azerbaijani Political Prisoners in Iran's (ADAPP) Fakhteh Zamani said, "In Iran, as throughout the world, women are victims of violence on a daily basis but Iran's justice system provides little or no remedy to the obstacles and violence facing women and girls."

Zamani noted women are not encouraged to bring complaints against their attackers for fear of bringing, "dishonor" on the family as well as reprisals from the attacker and relatives.

Quoting the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Ms. Zamani said, "discriminatory law in both the civil and penal codes in Iran play a major role in empowering men and aggravating women's vulnerability to violence. In particular, discriminatory provisions in the civil code relating to the areas of marriage, child custody, freedom of movement and inheritance may lead to, perpetuate or legitimize violence against women perpetrated by private actors."

On the trafficking in girls and women, Ms. Zamani said that the UN Special Rapporteur reported that, "most of the trafficking is said to occur in the eastern provinces, which are mainly Baluchi areas, where women are kidnapped, bought or entered into temporary marriage in order to be sold into sexual slavery in other countries." Concluding with an oft quoted phrase used by Iran's women human rights defenders, she said, "We are both women and minorities; so, in the Islamic Republic of Iran, we are doubly accused."

"I am absolutely opposed to the imposition of Sharia law," declared Shabnam Assadollahi, producer and host of the Canadian based Hamseda Persian radio program. "Sharia law tells us that female hair has evil energy and those women's rights activists in Iran who refused to wear head coverings were beaten and tortured while their children watched," she said. She detailed gruesome accounts of torture of women in Iran saying, "young girls and virgins were raped prior to being executed and after execution their bodies were burned and electrocuted."

Ms. Assadollahi said, "There is no place for Iran on this commission. Just think about the arrogance of this regime to judge others concerning gender equality and human rights."

Speaking in her native Farsi with an interpreter, Iranian rights activist Fariba Davoodi, told of her incarceration in Iran and the barbaric tortures that were inflicted upon her by her captors. "It is the common aspiration of all Iranian women to be free", she said. "When the regime came to arrest me for my activism on behalf of women's rights, they beat me up in front of my children and brought me to their notorious prison where I was kept in solitary confinement in a tiny cell where I was interrogated for long periods of time; where tey kept the lights on all the time and forced me to shower in front of them."

"The fear that women's rights advocates in Iran have is not only from the repressive government but from male family members including husbands, fathers and brothers," she said. Remaining optimistic about the future of women's rights in Iran is a daunting challenge for women such as Ms. Davoodi, "We hope that very soon we will live in a free and democratic Iran, but so long as the regime stays in power, our hopes will not be realized."  

Hizbullah Army Help Iran Suppress Massive Rallies
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Feb 21 '11, Adar 17, 5771

More than 1,000 Hizbullah terrorist army fighters have joined a huge Iranian police deployment to crush wide-scale protests that have left at least two people dead and hundreds injured or arrested.

The Islamic Republic regime in Iran has apparently decided to deploy an overwhelming army of police, Revolutionary Guards and Hizbullah members to squash the rallies. The government seeks to prevent the kind of momentum that toppled rulers of Tunisia and Egypt, and threaten kings and dictators in Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and other Muslim countries.

Foreign journalists have been barred from reporting on the Iranian demonstrations, and authorities have revoked work permits for 11 foreign journalists, photographers and cameramen for covering protests last week. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/142363

As in the protests nearly two years ago, after the disputed re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, protesters have circumvented authorities by using Twitter and other social messaging systems to communicate among themselves and report to the outside world. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/141418

Black-clad Basiz riot police shot and killed two protesters, according to opposition websites, and a CNN reporter tweeted that he saw security forces beat more than a dozen people with steel batons in Tehran’s Revolution Square. Police on motorcycles were seen plowing into crowds on sidewalks and clubbing them indiscriminately.

The protests drew at least tens of thousands of people according to foreign media, although the opposition Iran in Focus site reported that “hundreds of thousands” demonstrators challenged the Islamic Republic regime. It reported that chants of "Down with dictators in Cairo, in Tehran" and "Seyed Ali will be overthrown," referring to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, were heard in Tehran.

Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of Iran's ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was freed on Sunday after having been arrested briefly for “provocative behavior.”  Rafsanjani, an influential cleric, indirectly supported the opposition candidate running against Ahmadinejad in 2009, but has distanced himself from the opposition leaders and condemned the latest anti-government demonstrations. However, regime authorities do not consider his condemnation strong enough.

The semi-official Fars News Agency told Iranians that attempts at “sedition” were unsuccessful “despite the several-day-long ploy and intensive media provocations by the West.” It said calm has been maintained in Tehran.

Iran’s deputy police chief told Fars that authorities arrested a terrorist who supposedly was carrying explosives for a bomb intended to be detonated in the capital.

Police also claimed that anti-government “terrorists” who opened fire and killed two people, presumably the same two who, according to other reports, were gunned down by police.

Wat een dictatoriaal systeem doet met vrouwenrechten...
15 februari 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFqWlCV_4kE&feature=player_embedded#at=40

Report: 'Iran Hanging One Person Every 12 hours'
by Gil Ronen
6 februari 2011, Adar 2, 5771

The Teheran regime has hanged 66 individuals since the end of 2010, according to France 24 International News. Among them was a 46-year-old Iranian-born, Dutch national Sahra Bahrami, who was hung on January 29 on drug-smuggling charges.

Holland's Foreign Ministry said it was "shocked, shattered by this act by a barbaric regime," according to Agence France Presse.

Bahrami's sister dismissed the Iranian charges, which she contended were fabricated.

"She doesn't even smoke cigarettes, let alone possessing drugs. How could someone who participates in election gatherings and endangers her life, engage in such actions against her country?" she is quoted as telling the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. 

"I am bewildered as to how my client's death sentence was issued while her security charges had not yet been reviewed," Bahrami’s attorney said after her death.

The Hague froze relations with Iran in the wake of the killing. 

Iranian officials arrested Bahrami during anti-government protests in 2009, and held her on “security charges.” She had been visiting Iran to see her relatives.

Catherine Ashton, The European Union's representative in talks with Iran over their nuclear program, said that, "Executions are taking place at an alarming rate." Ashton made her remarks in reference to the hanging of 10 alleged drug traffickers, only two days prior to Bahrami's killing.

Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW) said on Sunday that they would begin posting news bulletins in Farsi in the wake of Bahrami's death.

Iran's Mashrek news agency on Saturday said the launch was part of “an international media campaign against Iran,” a charge that RNW Editor-in-Chief Rik Rensen strongly denied, calling it “baseless.” 

Rensen said the network was “independent and works according to internationally accepted standards of journalism.” 

The Farsi site, which RNW said also publishes the daily briefs and news reports on Twitter and Facebook, will run for a month-long test, according to Rensen, “at the end of which we’ll decide whether it should be continued.”

Iran Blocks Pre-Rally Internet Sites; US: Tehran Running Scared
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
13 februari 2011, Adar 9, 5771

Revolution fever is returning to Tehran, where new and illegal protests are planned tomorrow as the United States charges Iran “is scared of the will of its people.”

The regime of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has already blocked several opposition websites, including one named "Bahman,” the 11th month of the Persian calendar, in advance of the planned rally Monday.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, opposition elements in Yemen have accepted an offer by President Ali Abdullah Saleh not run again after demonstrations threatened stability in the country. Bahrain’s kingdom tried to stem trouble by offering every family $2,653 to "praise the 10th anniversary" of its constitution.

In Algeria, where protesters defied a ban on demonstrations, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika promised to lift emergency laws.

Iran was the scene of massive opposition rallies nearly two years ago after Ahmadinejad won re-election in a vote that opponents charged was riddled with fraud. Leaders of the opposition remain under house arrest, and others have been taken into custody ahead of Monday’s planned rally.

The Islamic Republic has praised the Egyptian uprising as being a copy of the Islamic revolution that overthrew the Shah in 1979, but the prospect of new protests in the streets of Tehran have prompted charges of a “double standard” against the government.

Ahmadinejad as recently as last week told Egyptian anti-Mubarak protesters, "The Iranian nation is your friend and it is your right to freely choose your path. We will soon see a new Middle East materializing without America and the Zionist regime and there will be no room for world arrogance in it.”

The Obama administration, which had remained silent on Iran during the Egyptian turmoil, charged on Saturday that the Iranian regime is "scared of the will of its people.” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, "We know that what they really are scared of is exactly what might happen.”

Iran has jammed BBC’s Persian-language television channel and has arrested several foreign journalists. "The recent arrests and effort to block international media outlets underscores the hypocrisy of the Iranian leadership," National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

"By announcing that they will not allow opposition protests, the Iranian government has declared illegal for Iranians what it claimed was noble for Egyptians," he added in a statement. "We call on the government of Iran to allow the Iranian people the universal right to peacefully assemble, demonstrate and communicate that's being exercised in Cairo.”

Wikileaks Reveals an Isolated Iran
By Ryan Maur
2010-12-10

WikiLeaks’ release of 250,000 diplomatic cables is a shameful act that will discourage countries from sharing information with the U.S. and officials from having frank discussions. In the shadow of this disgrace, however, one kernel information may rise above the subversions and deliver an unexpected benefit: the world, including the Iranian regime, now knows that many Arab states are secretly entreating the U.S. to strike Iran.

In March, a member of Israel’s parliament claimed that a “wall to wall coalition” of Muslim states had secretly informed the Jewish State that they’d be behind whatever action was necessary to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The files released by WikiLeaks show that the MP was not bluffing. The Sunni Arab states are petrified of the prospect of a nuclear Iran, and an unofficial alliance of necessity between Israel and the Arab states has been forged.

Saudi Arabia, despite its promotion of anti-Semitism and Wahhabism, was reported, on several occasions, to have offered Israel its air space to carry out an attack. Exercises to simulate such an event have taken place. The Saudis deny that any agreement exists, but the private communications revealed by WikiLeaks show that King Abdullah “frequently exhorted the U.S. to attack Iran.” He has told the U.S. that if Iran gets nukes, the rest of the countries in the Middle East, his own in particular, will follow suit. King Abdullah went so far as to tell the Iranians in March of 2009 that they had one year to change their approach. It is not clear from the documents what Abdullah planned to do after that deadline.

In a meeting in April 2008 between General Petraeus and the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., the ambassador said, “He [Abdullah] told you [Petraeus] to cut off the head of the snake,” a remark that could be interpreted as meaning the Saudis support regime change in Iran. If so, then they are on the same page as the Israelis. The director of Mossad, Meir Dagan, was recorded imploring the U.S. in August 2007 to support regime change in Iran by supporting the democracy movement and restive minorities like the Kurds, Baluch, and Azeris. The cable says that Dagan was “sure” the regime could be toppled.

The cables show that Bahrain is also part of the coalition. “The danger of letting it [Iran’s nuke program] go on is greater than the danger of stopping it,” King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa was recorded communicating to the U.S. In November 2009, the U.S. ambassador to Bahrain reported that King al-Khalifa had “argued forcefully for taking action to terminate [Iran's] nuclear program, by whatever means necessary.”

Bahrain has good reason to want to stop Iran. It is a Shiite majority country, and the ruling Sunni government must worry about an uprising from its people. The country is very susceptible to Iranian manipulation, and should the regime aim to create a Hezbollah-type force there, the government could very likely be overthrown. The country has been targeted by terrorists trained in Syria, and so, King al-Khalifa is right to feel that he is seen by the Iranians as prey.

The leadership of the United Arab Emirates is also very vocal in their support for attacking Iran. Like the Saudis, the Foreign Minister explicitly told the U.S. in February 2009 that the rest of the region would be forced to build nukes if Iran is not stopped. The Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed told the U.S. that “I believe this guy is going to take us to war…It’s a matter of time. Personally, I cannot risk it with a guy like Ahmadinejad.” He even asked the U.S. if “all locations of concern” could be hit with air strikes and suggested that ground forces be used if they could not be. The UAE position isn’t news — the country’s ambassador to the U.S. said in July that Iran should be attacked if sanctions don’t work and that it would be worth the cost to his country.

Jordan appears to be a part of the Arab anti-Iran coalition as well, with the president of the country’s senate saying, “Bomb Iran, or live with an Iranian bomb,” according to one of the WikiLeaks documents. In January, Jordan immediately suspected Iranian involvement in a plot to assassinate two Israeli diplomats in its territory. Kuwaiti officials expressed similar alarm about Iran, specifically accusing the regime of supporting the Shiite Houthi militants in Yemen. The country’s military-intelligence chief was also optimistic about regime change, opining that a potential arrest of opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi could spark a popular uprising.

Egypt is undoubtedly in the alliance as well. The cables say that President Mubarak has a “visceral hatred” for Iran. Mubarak’s greatest challenge comes from the Muslim Brotherhood inside his country, which is the parent group of Hamas — a close ally of Iran. In April 2009, Egypt arrested 49 members of Hezbollah plotting attacks on Israeli targets in the country, which prompted the Iranian-backed terrorist group to call on Muslims to replace governments that had allied with the West. The Egyptian Prime Minister flatly stated that Hezbollah had “virtually declared war.”

The central Asian country of Azerbaijan, which borders Iran, did not explicitly support an attack in the files, but President Aliyev was recorded as expressing deep concern. He says that Iranian activity in his country, including the financing of terrorists like Hezbollah, is increasing. He also mentioned to the U.S. that Iranian state media was broadcasting photos of him with a Star of David into Azerbaijan. He condemned the fraudulent “re-election” of Ahmadinejad and said the regime is unstable.

The position of Qatar is less clear. This pro-American ally is described as “the worst in the region” in terms of supporting terrorism and is too fearful of its own population to take action. Qatar has taken a frustratingly pro-Iranian line in recent years, but Prime Minister al-Thani is recorded as saying he doesn’t trust the Islamic republic. “They lie to us, and we lie to them,” he said.

Interestingly, the WikiLeaks cables indicate that the party most opposed to a military strike on Iran’s nuclear sites is the United States. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates believes that the Iranian people would somehow forget how the regime has brutally oppressed them and embrace the regime if an attack occurred. One cable describes Gates as saying that an Israeli strike would only delay the nuclear program by one to three years “while unifying the Iranian people to be forever embittered against the attacker.”

The WikiLeaks document dump indicates a wide range of support for military action against Iran. The files show that Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and probably Kuwait and Azerbaijan support a strike. It is safe to assume that a large number of Muslim and non-Muslim governments not mentioned in the cables are also supportive.

The documents indicate that the Obama administration has all but ruled out military action, but Israel certainly has not. Time has been bought with the success of the Stuxnet cyber attack and sanctions against Iran, but should the time come when a decision to bomb Iran is made, the U.S. and Israel can count on the support of a large but quiet Muslim bloc.

Ryan Mauro is the founder of WorldThreats.com, National Security Advisor to the Christian Action Network, and an intelligence analyst with the Asymmetric Warfare and Intelligence Center.

8 februari 2011

Latma.tv: The Iranian bomb
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuEhhPbAAdA&feature=channel

Meer informatie kunt u lezen bij mijn collega:
http://brabosh.com/2010/07/13/iraniers-vragen-israel-bombardeer-ons-alstublieft/
http://brabosh.com/2011/02/01/pqpct-9uc/

Iran Sees ‘New Egypt’ as Part of Islamic Revolution
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
2 Februari 2011, Shevat 28, 5771 

Iran now is actively encouraging what it calls a “freedom seeking” movement in Egypt to help create its dream of a fundamentalist Islamic Middle East. Iranian officials, for the first time, said Tuesday they are offering support to the protesters in Egypt.

Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on state television, "With the knowledge that I have of the great revolutionary and history making people of Egypt, I am sure they will play their role in creating an Islamic Middle East for all freedom, justice and independence seekers."

He chastised the United States for allegedly playing a role of “direct interference" in Egyptian affairs at the same time that its citizens “are no longer ready to stand idle in face of crimes by the Zionist regime."

A statement signed by 214 Iranian legislators announced their “strong support for the Egyptian nation's uprising and movement against the tyranny of the country's rulers,” according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.

They declared that the revolutionary movement in Egypt is a spiritual one, emphasizing Islamic values.

The military advisor for the Islamic Republic, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, warned Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that he will face a fate similar to that of Iran's ex-Shah, who was toppled in the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Iran also spread the charge that Israel sent three planeloads of anti-riot equipment to Egypt, a charge that Jerusalem says is “totally false.”   http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/142069

Tot zover Iran, gedateerd bericht 2 februari 2011.

Mensenrechten in Iran??  Ach ja, als je een voorbeeld wilt stellen, dan vindt je licht een stok om te slaan toch? De waarheid is gemakkelijk om te buigen in jouw voordeel als terroristische staat... Zolang je maar genoeg terreur uitoefend, durft niemand zijn mond open te doen...

Rosenthal bevriest ambtelijke contacten met Iran
29 januari 2011

SWC calls on UNESCO to Stop Descration of Jewish Holy Site in Iran
Paris,10 January 2011

In a letter to UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr.Shimon Samuels, noted, "The Iranian student Basij militia, of Bu-Ali Sina/Avicenna University in Hamadan province, have removed the mausoleum sign to the entrance of the Esther and Mordechai tomb in Shush, during a demonstration replete with antisemitic racist calumny".

The letter continued, "The annual feast of Purim is a Jewish celebration of delivery from genocide.The Bible recounts how the Persian monarch, Ahasuerus was warned by his Queen, Esther, and her uncle Mordechai of his Minister Haman’s treachery. Thus was averted Haman’s planned massacre of Persian Jewry. Like the Passover story, Purim is a children’s festival iconizing liberation and justice. The tomb of its heroes, Esther and Mordechai, has for centuries been a revered Jewish pilgrimage site, long acknowledged as such by the Iranian authorities as a protected national heritage landmark."

Samuels pointed to Iranian government-sponsored Fars News Agency reports:-
www.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8909211062

www.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8909110904

"The student Basij campaign, which began last September, has now turned menacing in words and actions, declaring, inter alia, that:

-the removal of the mausoleum sign denotes the effacement of the site’s Jewish character
-an accompanying revisionist narrative holds Esther and Mordechai responsible for the murder of 75,000 Iranian [sic] martyrs, murdered in the course of one day i.e. 10% of the then Iranian population
-this was 'a Holocaust' that displaces the myth of the Nazi Holocaust
-the shrine is an arm of Israeli imperialism that impugns Iranian sovereignty
-its name must be obliterated to teach the younger generation to beware of the crimes of the Jews and to return the shrine to the Iranian people
-the site must become 'a Holocaust memorial' to the Iranian victims of Esther and Mordechai, and must be placed under the supervision of the religious endowments authority

-speakers listed, declared that 'unfortunately, large numbers of Iranian citizens, unaware of the facts, have travelled to this tomb of the damned, which honours the murderers of thousands of Iranians'. They then presented a litany of supposed 'Jewish atrocities' in Ethiopia and Yemen, and claimed that 'the Jewish festival of Purim sweetens the blood of Jewish children' with the misfortunes of Iran"

The Centre argued that "this matter should be of concern to UNESCO on two counts:

1-the abuse of Bu-Ali Sina /Avicenna University - founded by the French Ministry of Education in 1973 – now become a vector for the dissemination of, and incitement to, hatred in direct violation of UNESCO’s educational provisions
2-the physical and moral damage to the site contravenes UNESCO’s World Heritage principles"

The letter urged UNESCO "to condemn these abuses and to call upon the Iranian authorities to take appropriate measures to terminate this campaign of racism and desecration."

"It is perhaps time for UNESCO and the World Heritage Committee to establish instruments for the universal protection of holy sites," concluded Samuels.

The Centre also shared this information with the French authorities, urging the suspension of all cooperation with Bu-Ali Sina/Avicenna University, pending its condemnation of its students’ racist behaviour. The University was established by France in 1973.

For further information contact Dr.Shimon Samuels on +33(0)609770158, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter page or mobile device.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).

Time is Up to Stop Iran's Nuclear Bomb
By Clare Lopez
9 december 2010

It’s not that unusual to hear hostile remarks directed at the United States from the Iranian regime -- but lately, it’s been getting not only personal but frankly contemptuous. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki recently let it be known that “we do not take [U.S. Secretary of State] Mrs. Clinton seriously.” Hostility is normal between mortal enemies. Contempt means they think we’re so weak, we don’t even rate the effort hostility would take.

At this point, even moves intended to show resolve fall flat with Tehran. Despite a U.S. naval build-up in the Persian Gulf that includes stationing two ships armed with anti-missile missiles and providing additional defensive missiles to Sunni regimes in the area, the Iranians remain unimpressed. Just as they were earlier when the Obama administration offered an “outstretched hand” if Iran would “unclench its fist.” Or when president Obama wrote ridiculous letters of supplication and congratulation to Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei and president Ahmadinejad.

The White House decision not to speak out in support of the Iranian demonstrators who took to the streets to protest rigged presidential elections in June 2009 didn’t seem to win any points with the mullahs either. Instead, the Iranian parliament voted to approve $20 million for exposing human rights abuses in the U.S. Is this country even capable anymore of realizing when it’s being seriously dissed? 

Apparently not, because events in the Middle East are closing inexorably on an Iranian demonstration of nuclear weapons status. Years of dithering negotiations have proven utterly ineffective in halting Tehran’s deliberate, determined progress towards acquiring the bomb. The ayatollahs have missed deadline after deadline set by the international community while brazenly forging ahead with nuclear enrichment and a succession of missile delivery system tests. That not one single meaningful consequence has ever followed years of Iranian non-compliance with obligations of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty they willingly signed must be the cause of much chuckling in Tehran’s tea rooms and war rooms. As long as China and Russia can be counted on at the United Nations Security Council to block serious sanctions or any other enforcement action with teeth, Tehran’s brutal dictators have no reason to expect they’ll be called to account. Certainly not by the Obama administration.

The scorn that drips from every comment to or about the U.S. by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his regime’s thugs has been earned. U.S. refusal to acknowledge the state of war declared against us by the Ayatollah Khomeini over 30 years ago, refusal to stand up to the rampant export of Islamic jihadist terrorism across the globe, refusal to impose regime-threatening consequences for failure to end the nuclear weapons program, refusal to stand with brave Iranians who dare to stand for their own liberty, and above all, refusal to confront Tehran’s 2-decade-long alliance with al-Qaeda, have thoroughly convinced the mullahs that they can get away with literally anything.

Even though Tehran has tried to hide its nuclear weapons program under bunkers, mountains, and population centers, given the revelations about it over the years from the Israelis, the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), and every other Western intelligence service but ours, and despite the thoroughly discredited 2007 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate which said Iran ended its nuclear program in 2003, there’s not much doubt anymore (even at the International Atomic Energy Agency—IAEA) that Iran is moving methodically towards acknowledged status as a nuclear weapons power.

The Iranian-North Korean joint venture on missile development has been coming along nicely with steady advances in technology (such as the use of solid rocket propellant fuel) and range capability (southern Europe by now). Iranian centrifuges spinning at the Natanz show site seem to multiply by the week (what goes on at the covert enrichment sites is anybody’s guess). An obvious nuclear triggering device test program and blueprints for fashioning the hemispherical pits of a nuclear weapon elicit little more than yawns from the U.S. intelligence community, even after both the MEK and IAEA revealed the details.

All that’s really left at this point is the buzzer -- or more specifically, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard commander’s finger on the button.

Change is coming to Iran, whether from a new generation of Greens determined to be free, or the gathering internal implosion of a revolution that’s run its course. But the time clock on Iran’s nuclear weapons program is ticking faster than either one of those now. Absent action from the outside, from the U.S., Israel, and/or the international community, Iran will be a nuclear weapons power in the very near future. Whether it chooses to demonstrate that status with a test launch, like India and Pakistan, an out-of-the-blue genocidal bolt against Israel, or a life-altering electro-magnetic pulse attack over the U.S., will soon be out of any of our hands unless somebody stops the mullahs soon and forcibly.

The courageous Dutch politician, Geert Wilders (currently on trial in Amsterdam for daring to speak the truth about Islamic jihad), has called America “The Last Man Standing.” The question is: are we? Are we really?

Clare Lopez is the Vice President of the Intelligence Summit and a professor at the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies.

Watch the Iranium trailer on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiEEn6C4Ca0
Website: http://www.iraniummovie.com/

WikiLeaks: Iran’s Supreme Ruler has Terminal Cancer
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Nov 29 '10, Kislev 22, 5771

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei   http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135756  has terminal cancer, according to a document exposed by WikiLeaks document reports. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/140892  His death could cause an upheaval in the Islamic Republic.

Rumors that Khamenei has cancer have circulated since 2009, but a WikiLeaks document, quoted by the French daily LeMonde, revealed a diplomatic cable to the United States.

The cable is based on a report from a businessman – not from Iran – who learned of the Ayatollah’s disease from a contact in Iran. It  was dated August 2009, when reports based on rumors stated that Khamenei collapsed, was taken to his special clinic, and that no one except his son and the doctors were allowed to visit.

However, expectations that he would die in several months, as indicated the leaked cable, were not fulfilled.

The death of the supreme Muslim ruler, who is superior to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, could spark an uprising against the Iranian regime - a scenario that Israel and the United States have been hoping for.

One blog on Iranian.com reported last year that billions of dollars were moved to Turkey to ensure the funds would be available to Khameni's family in case they have to flee Iran in the face of a revolution.

Iranian Revolutionary Guards and riot police violently subdued a growing street revolution in June 2009, when Ahmadinejad won re-election in voting whose results were widely considered to be fraudulent.

The source for the WikiLeaks report also told U.S. officials that former president Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, a leading critic of Ahmadinejad, was preparing himself to be a successor.

Horrific Stories of Iranian Militia Tell of Murders, Stonings
by Malkah Fleisher
Nov 29 '10, Kislev 22, 5771

Horrific stories are now being released of the crushing hand of Iran's state militia, used against citizens opposed to the rule of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and especially against women.

Since the re-election of Ahmadinejad in late June, which was protested by many anti-Islamic Revolutionary Iranians as fixed, protests have swept through the Iranian capital city of Tehran and the rest of the country, demanding a recount of votes and the appointment of opposition presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi as president of Iran.

WikiLeaks: Ahmadinejad Is Hitler
by Maayana Miskin and Elad Benari
Nov 29 '10, Kislev 22, 5771

United States diplomats' criticism of foreign leaders was made public Sunday as the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel published some details of the WikiLeaks trove of U.S. diplomatic cables. The magazine was accidently released too early, and while it was quickly pulled from the stands, readers who had obtained copies posted some of the content online.

The leaked documents showed criticism of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was compared in one case to Hitler, readers reported. Ahmadinejad is unpopular with Arab leaders as well as with the Western world, the files suggest, with leaders in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt terming him “evil” and an “existential threat.”

However, the files also show that U.S. leaders have ignored Israel's warnings regarding Iran's nuclear capabilities. When Prime Minister Netanyahu warned that Iran was months away from constructing nuclear weapons, U.S. leaders dismissed his report as a ploy.

Other WikiLeaks documents published by Britain's The Guardian indicate that Mossad Israeli intelligence chief Meir Dagan tried to convince a senior United States official to overthrow the regime in Iran with the help of local groups.

In an August 2007 memorandum, Dagan gave Undersecretary of State Nicholas Barnes details of five focal points regarding Iran, including recruiting student groups to instigate a revolt against the regime of the Islamic Republic. Dagan said during that meeting that more must be done to agitate the surface in order to overthrow the Iranian regime, and if possible to enlist the support of student organizations that support democracy.

The leaked documents also include criticism of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who is said to be “driven by paranoia,” of President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, who is called a “naked emperor,” and of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is termed “hesitant.”

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has said that the full content of the leaked diplomatic files will be bigger than the files leaked on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Officials in the U.S. and elsewhere have called on Assange and WikiLeaks to back down on the planned expose, saying that the release of the files could have serious repercussions and could even endanger lives. Assange has dismissed their fears as an attempt to avoid being held to account.

4 november 2010

Ahmadinejad:  Rusland heeft zijn ziel aan de duivel verkocht
http://video.nl.msn.com/watch/video/ahmadinejad-woedend-na-cancelen-wapendeal/5c8zqbl2

Iran Becomes President of OPEC
by Chana Ya'ar
Oct 17 '10, Cheshvan 9, 5771

The 12 member nations of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have elected Iran, OPEC's second-largest oil producer and one of its founding members, to become the organization's 2011 president.

Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi announced Thursday the Islamic Republic would take up the rotating presidency in the 50-year-old organization for the first time in 36 years. Iranian Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi was unanimously elected to the position at a one-day meeting on October 14, during the organization's 157th session in Vienna.

OPEC, which provides 40 percent of the world's oil, is comprised of Algeria, Angola, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Ecuador and Venezuela.

The group also decided not to make any changes to its official oil production target, currently standing at 24.84 million barrels a day. Current President Wilson Pastor-Morris of Ecuador told reporters after the meeting the decision was made “because the market is good.”

The price of crude has varied between $70 to slightly more than $80 per barrel over the past year and was quote at $81.48 a barrel at the close of Friday's trading,. Strong energy demand combined with an uncertain economic future have  prompted OPEC to maintain steady prices, rather than risk slowing a global economic recovery. 

Ahmadinejad Again Denies Holocaust, Threatens U.S.
September 21, 2010

Iranian leader asks, why is Holocaust-denial so sensitive?
Ahmadinejad also says U.S. has never won a major war
He will address U.N. General Assembly Thursday

New York, Sept 21 – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has again questioned the Holocaust which he says “has been exaggerated as a pretext for war.” He also warned the United States that an attack on his country’s illegal nuclear weapons facilities would unleash a “war without end.”

The Iranian president is making the rounds in New York, ahead of his speech to the United Nations Security Council on Thursday.

In one meeting with the proprietor and editor of the Atlantic Monthly on Tuesday, he again disputed the historic truth of the Holocaust – the systematic murder of six million Jews by Nazi Germany.

“The question is, why don't we allow this subject to be examined further ... It is incorrect to force only one view on the rest of the world,” Ahmadinejad said. He added: “How come when it comes to the subject of the Holocaust there is so much sensitivity?”

The U.N. has imposed four rounds of sanctions on Iran to try to force it to halt its nuclear weapons program and President Barack Obama has repeatedly stated that if sanctions do not succeed, all options remain on the table.

Ahmadinejad dismissed the idea of a U.S. military strike. “The United States has never entered a serious war, and has never been victorious …The United States doesn't understand what war looks like. When a war starts, it knows no limits,” he said.

Earlier, the Iranian leader gave what was described by Agence France-Presse as a “chaotic speech” at the UN summit on the Millennium Development Goals in which he blamed capitalism for the world's ills. He broke off at one point to complain that his words were not being accurately translated.

Organizers of the conference said they were translating from a prepared text submitted by the Iranian delegation.

In other appearances in New York, Ahmadinejad accused the United States of using the International Atomic Energy Agency to dominate other countries and criticized peacemaking efforts in the Middle East.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Israel Project is an international non-profit organization devoted to educating the press and the public about Israel while promoting security, freedom and peace. The Israel Project provides journalists, leaders and opinion-makers accurate information about Israel. The Israel Project is not related to any government or government agency. The Israel Project authorizes and welcomes use of any part or all of this release/statement free of charge and without attribution.

UN: Delegates Walk Out as Ahmadinejad Hints US Gov't Behind 9/11
by Gil Ronen
Sep 24 '10, Tishrei 16, 5771 

United States delegates to the United Nations walked out in the middle of a speech by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Thursday, as the Iranian leader floated a theory that elements within the US government orchestrated the September 11, 2001 attacks on America.

“A propaganda machine began to work” after 9/11, he said. “It was said that some 3,000 people were killed on 9/11, for which we were all very saddened, but in Afghanistan and Iraq hundreds of thousands have been killed” since then, he accused, referring to the American sponsored battle against terrorism in those countries.

Ahmadinejad said that there were “three viewpoints” regarding who was behind the 9/11 attack: The first, he explained was that a very sophisticated terrorist group did it. The second was that “some segments within the US government orchestrated the attack” to reverse the declining US economy and in order to save "the Zionist regime." This view, Ahmadinejad said, was the one most widely held among the nations of the world. A third opinion was that the attack was carried out by a terrorist group, but that the American government took advantage of the situation.

When Ahmadinejad reached the second “theory,” US delegates walked out. Ahmedinejad went on to call for an "independent" UN investigation of the 9/11 massacre.

Ahmadinejad attacked Israel several times in his speech, and said that “the Zionists have committed the most horrible crimes against defenseless people in their wars against Lebanon and Gaza.”

Regarding women's rights, he said that "The tendency of toughening the soul and behavior of women deprives them of their basic right to be loving mothers and devoted wives. It would result in a more violent society with irreversible defects."

6 september 2010

Politiegeweld in Iran
http://www.zie.nl/video/ingezonden/Politiegeweld-in-Teheran/m1dzktsfrjep

Achtergrond hierbij:
http://www.amnesty.nl/wereldnieuws_artikel/44196
http://weblogs.amnesty.nl/mensenrechtenvandaag/tag/iran/
http://www.medium4you.be/Shirin-Ebadi-over-mensenrechten-in.html
http://www.iranfuture.nl/verslagen_mensenrechten_nl.html
http://www.europa-nu.nl/id/vic0hf3bovza/nieuws/debat_in_europees_parlement_over_iran?ctx=vhschxm4w6ut

Iran Tests New Missile; Says Lebanon Requests Military Aid
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Aug 25 '10, Elul 15, 5770 

Iran has successfully test-fired a new version of the domestically-built Fateh missile, Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi told the country’s semi-official PRESS TV.

The 3.5 ton missile is the latest in new weapons the Islamic Republic has shown off in the past week, following the launching of an unmanned bomber and the announcement by Iran that it will begin to produce two missile-launching boats.

The range of the missile is estimated at around 125 miles, far out of range of Israel.

Iran also announced that Lebanese President Michel Sleiman has officially asked the Islamic Republic to help equip the Lebanese Army. 

The request reportedly came at the same time that Hizbullah supreme leader Hassan Nasrallah urged Lebanon to file a request in response to moves by the U.S. Congress to halt $100 million in military aid  http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/news.aspx/139027  to Beirut. Voices were raised in the United States following the recent attack by a Lebanese soldier on an IDF position in Israeli territory, killing an Israeli officer http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/news.aspx/138924 and wounding one other.

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said on Saturday that Iran's "dynamic defense industry is capable of exporting arms to over 50 countries in the world."

Obama: Iranian Oil Obstacle to Sanctions
by Tzvu Ben Gedalyahu
24 augustus 2010 

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that he hopes tougher sanctions will be placed on Iran "within weeks” but admitted that oil from the Islamic Republic sways some countries from agreeing to harsher restrictions.

The United States wants the current United Nations blacklist to include firms controlled by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

Speaking alongside French President Nicolas Sarkozy in the White House, President Obama said, "What we said, though, was that there was going to be a timeline to it and that if we had not seen progress by the end of the year it was time for us to move forward on that sanctions track. My hope is that we are going to get this done this spring….  I’m interested in seeing that [sanctions] regimen in place in weeks.

“Let's be honest, Iran is an oil producer, and there are a lot of countries around the world that, regardless of Iran's offenses, are thinking that their commercial interests are more important to them than these long-term, geopolitical interests.”

China has been the major stumbling block to an American motion for the United Nations Security Council to endorse tougher sanctions. Beijing’s foreign ministry on Tuesday stated it opposes Iranian capability to obtain nuclear weapons, but it has not yet come out in favor of sanctions. China, like Russia, has supplied billions of dollars in investment and equipment in Iran’s nuclear facilities.  

President Sarkozy said, "The time has come to take decisions." Referring to Germany and Britain, he added, "We will make all necessary efforts to make sure that Europe as a whole engages in the sanctions regimen."

China against Sanctions on Iran despite Obama-Chinese Handshake
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
13 april 2010,  Nisan 29, 5770

China is against energy sanctions on Iran and instead favors “engaging” the Islamic Republic through negotiations despite U.S. President Barack Obama’s optimistic handshake with Chinese President Hu Jintao. The two leaders met at the American-sponsored Nuclear Summit in Washington on Monday.

Click here to read "Sanctions Are Utterly Futile."

Obama administration officials tried to present the meeting between the two presidents as a sign that “the Chinese very clearly share our concern about the Iranian nuclear program," said Jeff Bader, Obama's senior director for Asia on the National Security Council. However, the lack of public agreement on specifics is the tip of the iceberg of deep dissensions concerning Iran’s nuclear program.

Their discussions represented a warming of relations between the two countries and gave President Obama the opportunity to reiterate his expressed desire for tough sanctions aimed at preventing Iran from obtaining the capability to produce a nuclear weapon.

However, China’s ostensible cooperation for United Nations Security Council discussions on Iran may be a ploy to make sure that sanctions will be weak.

“The real question is whether they will ever accept any sanctions with real teeth, and my assumption is no,” according to Dan Blumenthal, a China expert at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington,” who was quoted by the Christian Science Monitor.

Diplomats have said that China has made it clear it is against a ban on new energy investments in Iran, which lacks oil refining facilities and is dependent on foreign countries for refined petroleum.

President Obama’s draft for sanctions does not include a call for limits on shipments of oil and gas to Iran, falling far short of expectations of those who consider that time almost has run out to stop Iran from developing a nuclear warhead.

Even if sanctions were to ban new energy investments on Iran, they would not affect the Bushehr nuclear reactor that Russia is building. Moscow’s vested interest in Iran’s nuclear facilities is another dark shadow on President Obama’s optimism.

"If we speak about energy sanctions, I'll give you my opinion. I think that we are unlikely to achieve a consolidated position in the world community on this issue," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on ABC television. "If half the countries are going to support sanctions and half are not, it's clear that the effectiveness of these sanctions will be zero," Medvedev said.

Ahmedinajad Envisions Middle East "Free of Zionists"
by Hillel Fendel
25 februari 2010

At a press conference in Damascus on Wednesday, Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmedinajad and his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad took turns threatening and taunting Israel. The former received more headlines, with his remark about a “New Middle East free of Zionists."

Assad said, “We assume that we are facing an entity [Israel] that is ready to attack us at any time. We are always ready for aggression, whether small or large.” He said that he had discussed with his Iranian guest “Israel’s crimes, and how to deal with [Israel] and help the resistance forces.”

Ahmedinajad, for his part, told the reporters, “The new Middle East [a phrase originally made popular by President Shimon Peres who envisaged a peaceful, prosperous region – ed.] will be a Middle East without Zionists and without imperialists. With Allah’s help, this will happen.”

“We hope that they [Israel] will recognize the rights of the nations of the region,” the Iranian president said, “but they must know that if they continue their mistaken ways of the past, they will have no place in our region… If the Zionists repeat their past mistakes, all the nations of the region will stand against them and rip them up from their roots.”

"No one can damage" the close Iranian-Syrian ties, Ahmadinajad said, which will “become deeper and develop over the years… We are brothers. We have mutual interests, as well as common goals and enemies.”

On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton downplayed last month's decision by the Obama administration to return an ambassador to Syria. Clinton told Congressmen that the U.S. demands that Syria sever all ties with Iran.

Joel News International
22 april 2010

In Tehran, the capital of Iran, thousands of Muslims have become Jesus followers over the last months. They gather illegally in house churches. This is reported by Iranian pastor Mahim Mousapour, living in exile in Germany. Iranian friends have told her that Jesus appeared to people in dreams, and in a number of cases sick people were surprisingly healed. 

The new believers in Iran take courage and speak about their faith more publicly. Mousapour estimates that in Tehran alone there are now more than 100,000 Christians. At the same time, the oppression is increasing. Muslims who confess Jesus are arrested and tortured without any reason. Some of them are missing without a trace.

Over the past months many readers ordered the DVD 'More Than Dreams' with real stories of Muslims who met Jesus in dreams and visions. One of these is Khosrow, an Iranian teenager, who described his experience vividly as "waves of electricity flowed through my body over and over again. I wept for the first time since I was a child and joy filled my heart."

Gulf States Pushing for Attack on Iran
by Hillel Fendel
Aug 19 '10, Elul 9, 5770

First it was the United Arab Emirates ambassador in Washington, now it’s a Saudi Arabian editorial, and John Bolton says the entire Persian Gulf feels the same: an attack on Iran is the only option - if it's not too late.

An editorial in an official Saudi Arabian newspaper indicates that a military attack against Iran might be the only way of stopping it from obtaining nuclear weapons. “Tehran is moving its conflict with the international community into high gear,” the Al Madina daily wrote this week, “and [in this case] some may consider the military option to be the best solution.”

Delaying recourse to this option, the paper continues, “may lead to a point where it is impossible to implement it - if Tehran manages to produce a nuclear bomb of its own.”

Former Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton goes a bit further, saying it is the only way of stopping it – but adds that it might already be too late.

Just last month, the United Arab Emirates ambassador to Washington said at a conference, "A military attack on Iran by whomever would be a disaster, but Iran with a nuclear weapon would be a bigger disaster."  

Ambassador Yousef al-Otaiba was unusually candid in his remarks, saying, "I think it's a cost-benefit analysis. I think despite the large amount of trade we do with Iran, which is close to $12 billion… there will be consequences, there will be a backlash and there will be problems with people protesting and rioting and very unhappy that there is an outside force attacking a Muslim country; that is going to happen no matter what… Am I willing to live with that, versus living with a nuclear Iran? My answer is still the same: 'We cannot live with a nuclear Iran.' I am willing to absorb what takes place at the expense of the security of the U.A.E."

Former Ambassador Bolton feels that many states in the Persian Gulf region feel the same. He told Army Radio today (Thursday), however, that it might very well be too late to attack Iran because of the radioactivity that will emanate from the bombed reactor, harming the civilian population. 

"Diplomacy and sanctions against Iran have failed," Bolton told Army Radio's Nitzan Fisher on the Ma Bo'er program, "and don't think the West took seriously enough Iran's efforts over the course of decades to get nuclear power. Frankly, I think the most likely outcome now is that indeed Iran does get nuclear weapons. I think the only possibility of stopping this is the use of military force - an extremely unattractive option, but it's even more unattractive to consider a world in which Iran has nuclear weapons."

He explained, though, that it might be too late: "With Russia beginning to supply fuel in Bushehr [two days from now], it makes the reactor essentially immune to attack, except in the most dire circumstances - because to attack it would mean, almost inevitably, the release of radioactivity into the atmosphere and possibly into the waters of the Persian Gulf."

"I don't think there's a ghost of a chance that the Obama Administration will use force against Iran's nuclear weapons program," Bolton said. "If anyone will do it, it's going to have to be Israel - and I don't know what Israel is going to do... I am very worried that Obama's fallback position is to accept an Iran with nuclear weapons. I think that can have potentially catastrophic consequences in the Middle East and beyond - but I think that's where the Obama Administration is."

Iran's Defense Minister Ahmed Wahidi said this week that Israel's existence will be endangered if it attacks the Bushehr reactor. He said such an attack would be an "international crime."

Iran Links Second Uranium Centrifuge Cascade
by Chana Ya'ar
Aug 10 '10, Av 30, 5770

Iran has moved its nuclear development program up another notch, activating a second centrifuge cascade in its race to enrich uranium.

The Islamic Republic had notified the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency in March of its intent to link a second cascade to one that had already been brought online in February. The second set of 164 centrifuges, like the first, is located at the Natanz pilot fuel enrichment plant.

The IAEA told the Associated Press the move has enabled Iran to produce enriched uranium at up to 20 percent in the two linked cascades.

On July 17, “Iran was feeding nuclear material to the two interconnected 164-machine centrifuge cascades, contrary to U.N. Security Council resolutions affirming that Iran should suspend all enrichment related activities” when agency inspectors visited the facility, according to IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor.

Once enriched to 20 percent, uranium is considered weapons-grade nuclear material. At 95 percent enrichment, uranium may be used to build an atomic bomb. Although Iran denies its intent is hostile, Israeli and other Western intelligence sources believe the Islamic Republic intends to create a nuclear weapon, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly threatened in public speeches to annihilate the State of Israel.

After debating the issue for months, the U.N. Security Council finally voted in June to impose a fourth round of economic sanctions against Iran in an attempt to pressure the country to end its nuclear development program. The United States, Australia and the European Union quickly followed up with increased sanctions of their own.

Iran has responded with an announcement by Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi that the country will “remove the dollar and euro from our foreign exchange basket and will replace them with (the Iranian) rial and the currency of any country cooperating with us. We consider these currencies (dollar and euro) dirty and won't sell oil in dollar and euro,” Rahimi told the Fars news agency.

Over the past two years, Iran has tightened its ties with Venezuela, which possesses the largest supply of crude oil in the Western hemisphere. In addition, The Islamic Republic has also begun to tighten its diplomatic ties with Brazil, Syria and Turkey, which signed an agreement to process Iran's uranium abroad, in defiance of U.N. sanctions.

Iran Turns the Tables on US, Calls it World’s Leader in Terror
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Aug 10 '10, Av 30, 5770

Iran says the United States “is calling the kettle black” by saying it leads the world in terror and that the American government is trying to cover up its guilt of sponsoring and conducting terrorist operations around the world.

"Under such circumstances that instances of the U.S. behavior show this country has been the biggest sponsor of terrorism during the last three decades, Washington projects the blame and levels void accusations against other countries in a bid to conceal its acts in this regard," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said Monday.

The U.S. State Department’s annual report on terrorism last week blamed Iran for sponsoring terror. “Not so,” according to Mehman-Parast. “The Islamic Republic of Iran has always made special efforts to cooperate with the international community in fighting terrorism,” the spokesman said in a statement published by the semi-official Fars News Agency.

“To give [an] example of such the double-standard, we can refer to full-scale activities of the terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) in the Western states and their connections with political figures and their secret services in those countries,” he told another government agency.

The MKO is a religious leftist organization that advocates the overthrow of the Iranian regime but also has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States. An American court last month ordered the government to reconsider the blacklisting.

Mehman-Parast said the United States sponsors the Sunni Muslim Jundollah terrorist group that has carried out attacks on Iranian officials. Iran has maintained that the group’s leader, Abdolmalek Rigi, confessed after his arrest in February that the United States funded Jundollah.

The Iranian official also alleged that the U.S. Army forces in Afghanistan have allowed increased cultivation of poppies, used to make heroin that is a fundraising vehicle for terrorists. American activities in Israel were not spared in Iran’s accusations. Mehman-Parast said the “crimes and atrocities of Zionists” indicate the role of the United States in promoting terror.

Of tewel Ahmadinejad in het voetlicht van de pers !

Ahmadinejad to Visit Lebanon as Northern Axis Tightens the Knot
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
August 8, 2010, Av 28, 5770  

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Lebanon next month and tighten the knot connecting Iran, Syria, Turkey, Hizbullah and Hamas.

He will travel to Lebanon after the Muslim fast month of Ramadan which begins Wednesday, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said at a joint news conference with his visiting Lebanese counterpart Ali al-Shami. The daily fast begins on Thursday and concludes in early September.

It will Ahmadinejad's first trip to Lebanon and the first Iranian presidential visit there since 2003. Lebanese President Michael Sleiman visited Tehran nearly two years ago as the Hizbullah terrorist organization strengthened its political power in the Lebanese government.

Mottaki removed any doubts that he sees Syria and Iran as Beirut’s strategic allies. He said, "The government of the Islamic republic and the Iranian nation are standing with the Lebanese and Syrian governments and nations against the aggression and threats of the Zionist regime," Mottaki said.

The influence of Hizbullah and Syria on the Lebanese government, and Iran’s and Syria’s newfound friendship with the government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, present a solid northern front against Israel.

Ahmadinejad Challenges Obama to a 'Man-to-Man' to Debate
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Aug 3 '10, Av 23, 5770

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has challenged U.S. President Barack Obama to a public and "man-to-man" debate when the Islamic Republic leader visits the United Nations next month for the next session of the General Assembly. President Obama is unlikely to accept the offer.

Ahmadinejad criticized the American leader for missing “historic opportunities" and being under the influence of Israel. "Somebody should answer questions whether the U.S. government is dominated by the Zionists, or the Zionist regime is controlled by the U.S. government,” he added.

In a live state television address to expatriate Iranians, he stated, "We are hopefully coming for the UN assembly. We are ready to sit down with Mr. Obama face-to-face and put the global issues on the table, man-to-man, freely, and in front of the media and see whose solutions are better. We think this is a better approach."

You support a country which has hundreds of atom bombs, and you say 'we have to stop Iran,' which you say can one day have a bomb. You are disgracing yourselves in the world."  

The offer of a debate follows by several weeks the Iranian’s president’s suggestion that the United States accept Iranian help to stop the giant oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. government made no comment on the offer.  http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/news.aspx/138210

Ahmadinejad has blamed the United States for “global disorders,” particularly the recent financial crisis that threw the entire world into panic and ushered in an almost-worldwide recession.

Despite Ahmadinejad’s criticism of the U.S. government, President Obama previously has tried to “engage” Ahmadinejad in diplomatic talks over the Islamic Republic’s unsupervised construction of nuclear power.

Ahmadinejad said in his speech, "The U.S.  government recently said it was ready for a high level dialogue. Fine, we are ready to have high level talk based on mutual respect and dignity. But if you think you can brandish a stick so that we accept all that you say, that will not happen.”

Following the lack of diplomatic progress with Iran, the United States last month convinced the United Nations Security Council to slap a new round of sanctions on the country and then stiffened its own punitive measures to restrict investments and activity in Iran’s energy sector.

(IsraelNationalNews.com)

ElBaradei, de voormalige leugenmachine van het IAEA
Uit het nieuws
10 maart 2010

Nieuwe onthullingen die recent door het Internationaal Atoom Energie Agentschap (IAEA), de nucleaire  'waakhond' van de Verenigde Naties werden uitgebracht, duiden erop dat Iran veel verder is in de ontwikkeling van een nucleair wapenarsenaal dan wat uit de vorige rapporten van deze club is gebleken. In een op 18 februari verschenen rapport maakt het IAEA zich zorgen over het feit dat Iran wel degelijk bezig is met de ontwikkeling van atoomwapens en dat Iran daar slechts enkele stappen van verwijderd is. Het  geheime rapport is gelekt naar nieuwsagentschappen in de hele wereld. Dat het IAEA nu met deze feiten naar buiten komt is opmerkelijk aangezien deze club, die sinds december 2009 onder leiding staat van de Japanner Yukiya Amano, na jaren van liegen nu plotseling toegeeft dat Iran wel degelijk met de ontwikkeling van een atoomwapen bezig is.

De voormalige moslimbaas van de IAEA de Egyptenaar ElBaradei, heeft jarenlang doelbewust cruciale en belastende feiten over het kernwapenprogramma van Iran, buiten de officiële rapporten van de Verenigde Naties gehouden en steevast het bestaan van de militaire nucleaire inspanningen van Teheran ontkent. Hij werd algemeen beschouwd als de belangrijkste supporter en weldoener van de Iraanse Ayatollahs en hun terreurleider Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In 2005 besloot het Nobelprijs Comité in een vlaag van verstandsverbijstering en een bizarre klucht de Nobelprijs voor de vrede aan de arrogante en zelfingenomen ElBaradei toe te kennen. Het Comité prees hem "voor zijn inspanningen de wereld te behoeden van nucleaire inspanningen voor militaire doelen . Hij kreeg deze prijs uitgereikt terwijl al lang bekend was dat hij bewijsmateriaal over Iraans nucleaire ambities verdoezelde.Toen in 2002 diverse internationale inlichtingendiensten bewijzen in handen kregen dat Iran belangrijke informatie achterhield en dat aan het Atoomagentschap doorspeelde, negeerde ElBaradei die en deed hij alle mogelijke inspanningen om de betrouwbaarheid van deze informatie te ondermijnen. Ook kwam hij herhaaldelijk tussenbeide om de verslagen van zijn inspecteurs over de nucleaire installaties van Iran te vervalsen en zorgde ervoor dat de periodieke rapporten over Iran werden gecamoufleerd in diplomatieke wartaal. ElBaradei's 12 jarige regeerperiode stond in het teken van manipulatie, het verkondigen van regelrechte leugens, het demoniseren van Israël, en het likken van de hielen van het Iraanse terreurbewind.

In 2006 beweerde hij  geen bewijs te hebben ontdekt voor mogelijke militaire aspecten van Iran's nucleaire programma, hoewel dat toen al voor iedereen volkomen duidelijk was. Hij was tegen sancties tegen Iran, laat staan dat hij wilde spreken van een militair optreden, en probeerde herhaaldelijk om een dialoog aan te gaan met Teheran om een compromis te bereiken. In Januari 2007, in het midden van een toenemende internationale roep om sancties, stelde  ElBaradei voor deze plannen uit te stellen. Toen in  September 2007, nieuwe sancties concreet begonnen te worden, riep hij opnieuw op een  "time-out" in te lassen. Zijn gedrag ten aanzien van Iran wekte niet alleen de woede op van Israël maar ook van de voormalige Bush administratie die hem uit zijn functie wilde zetten.

De relatie van ElBaradei met Israël, dat hij tweemaal bezocht, was gespannen. Israël heeft haar terughoudendheid ten aanzien van het IAEA al lang laten varen. In plaats van zich te concentreren op de nucleaire ambities van Iran en Syrië, hield ElBaradei zich bezig met het kritiseren  van de Joodse staat en noemde hij Israël's nucleaire arsenaal een serieuze bedreiging voor de wereldvrede. Dat standpunt is schaamteloos verkeerd.  Hij creëerde met dit soort uitspraken een situatie dat Israël gezien wordt als een gevaarlijke vijand en dat geeft Israël's vijanden het recht om ook nucleaire wapens te ontwikkelen om zich zogenaamd te verdedigen. Maar Israël is niet de agressor.  Het bezitten van een atoomwapen zien de moslimleiders als hét ultieme middel om Israël van de kaart te vegen.  Tot grote ergernis van het internationale agentschap heeft ElBaradei herhaaldelijk gepleit voor een nucleair-vrij Midden-Oosten, dat werd geïnterpreteerd als uitsluitend gericht tegen Israël.

Tijdens zijn bezoek aan Iran en ontmoeting met president Ahmadinejad op 4 oktober 2009 haalde hij tot grote vreugde en instemming van het apocalyptische terreurbewind andermaal uit naar Israël en noemde hij  Israël de grootste bedreiging voor de vrede in het Midden-Oosten gezien het feit dat ze nucleaire wapens bezitten. Tijdens een gezamenlijke persconferentie met Ali Akbar Salehi, de directeur van de Iraanse Atoomenergie Organisatie in Teheran, zei hij  dat het regime van Tel Aviv al 30 jaar weigert om inspecties toe te laten in haar nucleaire installatie in Dimona.

Van Israël wordt algemeen aangenomen dat het nucleaire capaciteiten heeft, maar Israël heeft dat altijd geweigerd te bevestigen of te ontkennen. In 2009 heeft het IAEA met kleine meerderheid een resolutie goedgekeurd waarin de organisatie bezorgdheid uitspreekt over de kernwapens van Israël en wordt de Joodse staat opgeroepen tot zijn volledige kernprogramma door het agentschap te laten inspecteren.De tekst werd met 49 stemmen voor en 45 tegen goedgekeurd. De voorstemmen kwamen vooral van islamitische ontwikkelingslanden. Tegen stemden onder meer de Verenigde Staten en de landen van de Europese Unie. Van de permanente leden van de VN-veiligheidsraad schaarden China en Rusland zich achter de resolutie.  Beide landen beschikken zelf over allesvernietigende atoomwapens. Rusland  heeft zelfs de drempel voor het gebruik van kernwapens verlaagd omdat er volgens president Medvedev sprake zou zijn van een toenemende militaire dreiging. Tot dusver was het gebruik van kernwapens alleen voorzien voor gevallen waarin het bestaan van Rusland werd bedreigd. Volgens de nieuwe uitgangspunten voor de veiligheid kan Rusland nu naar de kernwapens grijpen om gewapende agressie af te slaan. http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=126343

In een interview begin november 2009 met de New York Times zei ElBaradei dat de VN-inspecteurs in Iran bij de geheime uraniumverrijkingsfabriek bij Qom  niets hadden gevonden om zorgen over te maken . De locatie zou volgens hem niet meer zijn dan een  een gat in een berg , bedoeld als back-up voor het geval dat de nucleaire installatie bij Natanz zou worden vernietigd. Maar het hoofd van de Israëlische militaire inlichtingendienst, generaal-majoor Amos Yadlin, zei dat de nucleaire installatie in Qom  onmogelijk voor civiele doeleinden gebruikt kan worden . Het complex is volgens hem specifiek ontworpen voor verrijking van uranium. Ook diplomaten die toegang hebben tot bronnen en informatie van het IAEA in Wenen hebben bevestigd dat VN-inspecteurs bij hun onderzoek in Qom hebben geconstateerd dat het hier om een versterkte ondergrondse installatie gaat die dienst kan doen als faciliteit voor het produceren van hoogverrijkt uranium voor kernwapens.


 Nucleaire installatie in Qom

De bevindingen van het inspectieteam spreken de beweringen van Mohamad ElBaradei dus volkomen tegen.  Opnieuw is duidelijk geworden dat het jarenlang de tactiek van ElBaradei is geweest om zoveel mogelijk tijd voor Iran te rekken, om zo het land in staat te stellen door te gaan met het ontwikkelen  van nucleaire wapens. De diplomaten onthulden tegenover persbureau Associated Press tevens dat Iran al 7 jaar geleden is begonnen met de bouw van de militaire installatie bij Qom, en dat het project in de loop van 2010 kan worden voltooid. Ook dit bewijst de ware intenties van Iran's nucleaire programma, dat tot nu toe is blijven volhouden dat het slechts vreedzame bedoelingen heeft.

Amerikaanse en met name Israelische bronnen veroordelen ElBaradei's misleidende handelswijze als een diplomatiek schandaal dat grenst aan fraude. Op het eind van zijn ambtstermijn gaf hij toe de uraniumproductie van Iran onderschat te hebben en zei hij dat Iran overduidelijk bepaalde delen van haar nucleaire programma afschermt. In zijn laatste rapport schreef hij substantieel bewijs te hebben ontdekt  dat dit programma meer dan alleen gericht is op kernenergie, maar dat hij  tot zijn spijt deze informatie niet kon onthullen, omdat hij dan zijn bronnen zou verraden. Ook legde hij  verklaringen af waarbij hij de indruk gaf  ontwaakt te zijn uit zijn illusie dat Iran kan worden overtuigd om compromissen te sluiten. Met deze verklaringen probeerde hij zijn leugenachtig en frauduleus imago nog enigszins te zuiveren.  ElBaradei,s slechte reputatie heeft ook het Atoomagentschap van de VN een bezoedeld imago opgeleverd. Het laatste rapport wat onder leiding van de Japanner Yukiya Amano is verschenen, lijkt daarom bedoeld om het imago van het IAEA te verbeteren. Dat Iran wel degelijk werkt aan de ontwikkeling van atoomwapens, wordt nu schoorvoetend door het atoomagentschap toegegeven omdat ze dat niet langer kunnen ontkennen.

Bronnen:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1132451.html
http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/21/iaea-united-nations-mohammed-elbaradei-opinions-contributors-anne-bayefsky_print.html 
http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3778884,00.html
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3793663,00.html 
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/concoughlin/100026698/with-mohamed-elbaradei-out-of-the-way-we-truth-can-now-be-revealed-about-irans-nuclear-weapon-programme/