Posted on 01/08/2006 1:41:26 AM PST by F14 Pilot
THE UNITED STATES has a surprising ally in its impatience with the new Iranian president. Since his inauguration, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's pugnacious demeanor has not only roiled the international community but also a significant portion of Iran's ruling elite. A coalition of traditional conservatives, pragmatists and reformists is emerging within the government to oppose Ahmadinejad's brand of governance. With Iran saying it will resume nuclear fuel research, the U.S. should do all in its power to boost the bargaining power of these more moderate Iranian leaders.
The rise of the anti-Ahmadinejad faction defies the expectations of Iran analysts, who believed that the post-Khatami era would produce a monolithic conservative bloc in control of most major levers of power.
Instead, the coalition is strengthening and attracting many of the regime's powerful personalities, perhaps even the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Evidence of the latter is Khamenei's recent decree giving the Expediency Council, a non-elected body headed by former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, oversight of the presidency.
Ahmadinejad's primary supporters have always been the rank and file of the country's paramilitary forces. Renowned for their fearlessness and passionate commitment to the populist ideals of the Islamic revolution, they had not dominated government before or since Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's death in 1989.
The political struggle of Iran's security establishment has come full circle with Ahmadinejad's rise, which makes dealing with Tehran more difficult. The paramilitaries are the ultimate guarantors of the regime's survival.
Their leaders wield enormous influence in the Islamic Republic's coercive security establishment, particularly those associated with the Revolutionary Guards. The militants also dominate the volunteer, or Basiji, militia force, believed to have more than 1 million members.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
ON THE NET...
http://www.memri.org/iran.html
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http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=countries&Area=iran&ID=SR3906
Special Report - No. 39
January 5, 2006 No.39
"Iranian Leaders: Statements and Positions (Part I)"
Perhaps an old fashion "arkancide plane ride" may be in order.
Note: The following post is a quote:
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1553993/posts
UK Cleared Nuclear Cargo to Iran
The Observer/Guardian UK ^ | Sunday January 8, 2006 | Antony Barnett
Posted on 01/07/2006 10:56:36 PM PST by F14 Pilot
British officials have allowed the export to Iran of a cargo of radioactive material that experts believe could be used in a nuclear weapons programme, The Observer can reveal. The disclosure has prompted calls for an inquiry into how the international trade in such compounds is controlled.
On 31 August a truck carrying 1,000kg of zirconium silicate supplied by a British firm was stopped by Bulgarian customs at the Turkish border on its way to Tehran, after travelling 2,400 kilometres (1,500 miles) from Britain, through Germany and Romania, without being stopped. Zirconium can be used as a component of a nuclear programme. According to one expert, it is used in nuclear reactors to stop fuel rods corroding and can also be used as part of a nuclear warhead. The metal can be extracted from zirconium silicate. It is because the compound can be used for military purposes that its trade is usually tightly controlled.
The fact that a British firm was allowed to sell the compound without scrutiny will raise questions for the British government over its controls on sensitive materials. Intelligence documents disclosed last week in the Guardian detailed how Iran is creating agencies and middlemen to procure equipment and know-how in Europe in a covert attempt to build nuclear weapons. The Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is expected this week to order the resumption of tests on machinery that can be used to make weapons-grade uranium.
The official who stopped the truck was alerted after its cargo emitted unusual radioactivity levels. Bulgarian officials said that the Turkish driver was arrested on 31 August. He was investigated 'for violating international treaties... by transferring across the border dangerous wastes, toxic chemical substances, biological agents, toxics and radioactive materials'. The Bulgarians discovered the exporter was a British firm and ale
(Excerpt) Read more at observer.guardian.co.uk ...
Oops, posted on the wrong thread, but I think I'll leave it here as an FYI.
It is OK
Thanks...late night, etc.
I'm not buying.
neither am I. The election was a fixed farce. The mullahs put this psycho in charge of their country knowing full well who he was and what they were getting.
Iran kicked out the IAEA again...on Fox's alligator crawl this am.
North Korea in the mideast is in the making?
true!
When Iran hits Teheran or Paris or London with a nuke, will Britain rethink its export nuke component policies?
I'm with you.
This sounds like the UN speaking:
"The history of U.S.-Iran relations shows that the more Washington chastises Tehran for its nuclear ambitions, the more it plays into the hands of the radicals by riling up fear and nationalist sentiment. Instead, the U.S. needs to offer Iran an acceptable face-saving mechanism to allow it to master, under appropriate international supervision, the nuclear fuel cycle."
Sorry. I think this is naive thinking. Once upon a time we heard Khatami was enlightened and would come save the day. Didn't happen.
Then we heard Rafsanjhani, when he was speaker of their "parliament," was a "pragmatist."
Arnaud de Borchgrave had a good article for the UPI recently in which he quoted both those clowns as saying some really wacky, extremist stuff.
Now we are led to believe that the guy who REALLY runs the show in Iran in the first place, the Ayatollah Khameini, is the latest "last, best hope?"
RRRIIIGGGHHHTTT...
I think we better keep our powder dry...tell the LA Times to go sell crazy somewhere else. We're all full up here.
I'm starting to think the opposite. The only thing that might shake the West out of it delusions, is a full blown raving Islamo-nut with nukes. Perhaps even a nuclear mushroom.
The United States has invested a great deal of life and treasure to dealing with this scorpion nest. To which most of the West has been far less than helpful.
Perhaps it is best to let Iran's presidential nut-case go wild, while their means of deliver and number of weapons is limited. The French, Germans, Swedes, etc. simply aren't going to grow up until it is THEIR problem.
We've tried to protect the prissy kids on the playground from the bully, but all we've gotten is snide comments from the prissies that they can't tell who the real bully is.
My only problem with your idea is that in ALL their rhetoric, the Ayatollahs refer to America as the Great Satan. They seldom if ever refer to any European nation.
If they can master multi-stage rocketry, the difference between hitting Paris or London and New York or Washington isn't as great as many might realize.
(Teheran is in Iran.)
Dangerous State Department wishful thinking published in the LA Times.
Reminds me of the 'kremlinologists' who were always pronouncing this or that on changes in the Soviet leadership...they were always wrong but got plenty of MSM coverage.
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