Posted on 01/10/2005 1:56:41 AM PST by DoctorZIn
Top News Story
Iran Won't Allow Military Gear Inspection
Monday January 10, 2005 5:16 AMAP Photo NY114
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran will allow U.N. nuclear experts to take environmental samples at a military site the United States links to an alleged nuclear weapons program but won't allow them to inspect military equipment, the foreign ministry spokesman said Sunday.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, said last week that Iran had agreed to grant access to the site at Parchin, just southeast of Tehran, and that his inspectors could arrive soon. The IAEA had pressed Tehran for months to be allowed to inspect the military complex, long used to research, develop and produce ammunition, missiles and high explosives.
``The discussion is not about visiting military installations,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters Sunday.
``The IAEA had asked to take environmental samples from the complex's green spaces,'' Asefi said, apparently referring to landscaped areas outside the huge complex's ammunition production workshops.
``To show that nothing other than peaceful nuclear activities are carried out in the Islamic Republic of Iran, we agreed to allow the taking of environmental samples from the green spaces in the complex,'' Asefi said.
Iran has repeatedly denied U.S. and other allegations it has a secret nuclear weapons programs, saying it wants nuclear technology only for peaceful energy purposes.
In leaks to media last year, U.S. intelligence officials said that a specially secured site at Parchin may be used in research on making high-explosive components for use in nuclear weapons.
Iran asserts its military is not involved in nuclear activities, and the IAEA has found no firm evidence to the contrary.
Under international pressure, Iran suspended uranium enrichment and all related activities in November to try to escape U.N. Security Council sanctions for which the United States had pressed. The IAEA agreed to police suspension of Iran's nuclear activities.
Under the agreement reached with France, Germany and Britain, which negotiated on behalf of the European Union, Iran will continue suspension of its enrichment activities during negotiations with the Europeans on economic, political and technological aid from the 25-nation European Union. Details of those talks are to start later this month.
Iran says it will judge within three months whether to continue suspension.
American Halliburton wins South Pars tender
Mehr News Agency ^ | Jan 8th, 05
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1317476/posts
That is not illegal to do business with the Mullahs of Iran but it is a shame if a US company invests in Iran and help the mullahs lives longer.
Good quote!
Bump!
January 10, 2005, 7:15 a.m.
Circle Squared
Iran, Iraq, Syria.
Last week, Alhurra an Arabic-language television station that is funded by our government broadcast a taped interview with a terrorist named Moayad Ahmed Yasseen, the leader of Jaish Muhammad (Muhammad's Army). He was captured nearly two months ago in Fallujah during the liberation of the city.Yasseen had been a colonel in Saddam's Army, so he was a fighter of some importance. He told Alhurra that two other former Iraqi military officers belonging to his group were sent "to Iran in April or May, where they met a number of Iranian intelligence officials." He said they also met with Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and were provided with money, weapons, "and, as far as I know, even car bombs" for Jaish Muhammad.
Yasseen also said he was told by Saddam himself, after the liberation of Iraq in the spring of 2003, to cross into Syria and meet with a Syrian intelligence officer to ask for money and weapons.
So here we have a high-ranking member of the "insurgency," a textbook case of the sort of Saddam loyalist said to compose the bulk of those fighting against the Coalition. And what does he tell us? He tells us that he has been working closely with Iran and Syria, and that this close working relationship was directed by Saddam. Moreover, his organization, Jaish Muhammad, is an ally of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, himself a longtime resident of Tehran.
In other words, while there are certainly plenty of Saddam loyalists among the terrorists fighting against us, they are receiving support from Damascus and Tehran. Yasseen's testimony is one of the first bits of intelligence from the Fallujah campaign to reach the public. If we had truly investigative journalists out there, they would be all over this story, which is only one of many that came out of Fallujah. About a month ago, a letter from an Army officer who had fought in Fallujah circulated on the net, and, like Yasseen's tape, it helps dispel some of the myths clouding our strategic vision.
"In Fallujah," we learn, "the enemy had a military-type planning system...Some of the fighters were wearing body armor and Kevlar, just like we do. Soldiers took fire from heavy machine guns (.50 cal) and came across the dead bodies of fighters from Chechnya, Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Afghanistan, and so on. No, this was not just a city of pi**ed off Iraqis, mad at the Coalition for forcing Saddam out of power. It was a city full of people from all over the Middle East whose sole mission in life was to kill Americans. Problem for them is that they were in the wrong city in November 2004."
We killed more than a thousand terrorists in Fallujah, and nearly an equal number surrendered, many of whom provided our military with useful information. Presumably Yasseen's information has been exploited before letting the Syrians and Iranians know that he has told us all about them.
Perhaps these revelations will help outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell get on the right side of history before he rejoins civil society. Last September, in an interview with the Washington Times, he said "I don't think there's any doubt that the Iranians are involved and are providing support (for the terrorists in Iraq). How much and how influential their support is, I can't be sure and it's hard to get a good read on it."
Perhaps now he's got a better read. But of course, he chose not to know many things about Iran. He insisted that the Bush administration shut down a channel to a source of information about Iran, even though he knew that the source was reliable, and that information from that source information concerning Iranian support for anti-American terrorists had saved American lives in Afghanistan. Had the flow of information continued, we might have had a better picture of our enemies' intentions and capacities. And such a picture might have convinced Powell that Iran was not, as his deputy Richard Armitage put it, "a democracy," but a bloodthirsty tyranny that delights in killing Americans, Iraqis, and its own citizens.
Yet, in his final weeks in office, Secretary Powell has unfortunately continued to chant his mantra, "we are not working for regime change in Iran," as if he were proud of it. He, and his colleagues at State, the National Security Council, the Pentagon, and the CIA, should be ashamed. The mullahs are active supporters of terrorism all over the world, including Iraq, and we cannot expect to win this war so long as they remain in power.
Let's hope that Dr. Rice is paying close attention to the Yasseen confession, and the many others that will help her realize that there is no escape from the regional war in which we are engaged.
Faster, please.
Michael Ledeen, an NRO contributing editor, is most recently the author of The War Against the Terror Masters. He is resident scholar in the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute.
* * *
Circle Squared - Iran, Iraq, Syria.
Michael Ledeen
National Review Online
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1317575/posts?page=25#25
Smuggling in guns.......that's interesting
"the terrorist group to which the brothers are allegedly tied, the Moujahedeen Khalq, or MEK, is dedicated to the overthrow of Iran's ruling clerics. As such, the MEK enjoys widespread support from Republicans and Democrats in Congress, despite its inclusion on the State Department's list of terrorist organizations.
"Our point is that we aren't going to allow illegal aliens with ties to terrorist organizations a first shot to take terrorist acts," said William Odencrantz, the top lawyer for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement."
Our gov't needs to make its mind on the MEK. Some they arrest, some they allow as commentators on TV.
What Washington needs to agree on, is why MEK wants to see the end of the regime.......so their own crazy leaders can run Iran. And that's NOT a good thing.
Iraqi Authorities Detain Insurgent Leader
[Excerpt]
January 10, 2005
Dow Jones Newswires
AP
BAGHDAD -- Iraqi authorities have captured the leader of an insurgent group just days after he took over for the previous chief, who was detained two months ago, Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Monday.
Allawi identified the man as Raad al-Doury. He took over the top post of Jaish Muhammad, which is Arabic for Muhammad's Army, from Moayad Ahmed Yasseen, who was detained in November. Allawi has accused Jaish Muhammad of killing and beheading a number of Iraqis, Arabs and foreigners in Iraq.
"Moayad Ahmed Yasseen is still confessing to his crimes and he will stand trial soon. This terrorist organization has named a new leader, Raad al-Doury, who is now in our hands and he is giving us information," Allawi told reporters. "Every day the terrorists name a new leader we capture him and they will stand trial."
Another man who is now in Iraqi custody is Hasan al-Saqlawi, a leader of Fedayeen Saddam, the paramilitary group that was run by Saddam Hussein's elder son Odai.
Allawi said security forces had detained Mohammed Zangawin, described as a liaison between "terrorist organizations in Iraq and Iran ." Another man who performed a similar role, Salman Abdullah el-Shiek, was also detained.
Earlier in the day, the government announced that authorities had detained 147 suspected insurgents throughout the country, including a Saudi citizen.
A government statement identified the Saudi as Abdullah Hussein Ali, saying he was captured with three Iraqis in the northern city of Mosul. The statement said Ali was found with "leaflets that incite terrorism."
Iraqi Army troops searched Sumar Mosque in Mosul and captured five suspected insurgents, the statement said, while in Baghdad's Mashtal neighborhood, the statement said 27 "terrorists" were detained with their weapons.
Iraq and U.S. troops have detained hundreds of suspected insurgents in the past months, mainly in the Sunni Triangle where they are active. ...
An earthquake in Northern Iran with Magnitude 5.4 about 4 hours ago
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/Quakes/ustcbd.htm
bump!
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