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Russia to give Iran new anti-aircraft defenses John VI Cantacuzenes Alert: "Iran to get new Russian air defences by '09 -Israel," by Dan Williams for Reuters, July 23 (thanks to Mackie):TEL AVIV, July 23 (Reuters) - Iran is set to receive an advanced Russian-made anti-aircraft system by year-end that could help fend off any preemptive strikes against its nuclear facilities, senior Israeli defence sources said on Wednesday. First delivery of the S-300 missile batteries was expected as soon as early September, one source said, though it could take six to 12 months for them to be deployed and operable --...

Gordon Brown to condemn Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Gordon Brown will pledge "unbreakable" support to Israel while launching his strongest attack yet on Iran. The Prime Minister will send a tough message to the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday, warning of imminent sanctions on oil and gas if he does not abandon his nuclear ambitions. In a landmark speech to the Israeli parliament, Mr Brown will say that Mr Ahmadinejad's denial of Israel's right to exist is "totally abhorrent". The European Union has already said it stands ready to push for a block on foreign investment in new Iranian...

Going public for the first time in an article and interview on Pajamas Media, an Iranian who infiltrated Iran's Revolutionary Guard for the CIA accuses the mullahs of orchestrating — among other things — the 1988 explosion of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Iran has resumed work on constructing highly sophisticated equipment that nuclear experts say is primarily used for building atomic weapons, according to the latest intelligence reports received by Western diplomats.

Late one evening in March, I sat in Haandi, a Pakistani restaurant on Lexington Avenue, and watched the swearing in of the new Prime Minister of Pakistan, Yousaf Raza Gillani. Gillani is a loyalist of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which since its founding in 1967 has been led by the Bhutto clan. The general election in February was held seven weeks after the PPP's chair, Benazir Bhutto, was killed by a bomb blast and a bullet to the head at an election rally in Rawalpindi, and in an acrid climate of grief, anger and bewilderment, the PPP ended up...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will not give up its right to enrich uranium, a senior Iranian official said on Saturday, days before major powers submit an upgraded package of incentives to try to coax Tehran into halting the work. "Suspending enrichment is not negotiable ... Depriving Iran of its right cannot be on offer," Gholamhossein Elham, the government spokesman, told a weekly news conference.

FALLUJAH, Iraq — At the western entrance to the Iraqi city of Fallujah on Tuesday, Muamar Anad handed his residence badge to the U.S. Marines guarding the city. They checked to be sure he was a city resident, and when they were done, Anad said, a Marine slipped a coin out of his pocket and put it in his hand. Out of fear, he accepted it, Anad said. When he was inside the city, the college student said, he looked at one side of the coin. "Where will you spend eternity?" it asked. He flipped it over, and on the...

The International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna based its new and damning findings partly on 18 intelligence documents submitted by the United States, and now accuse Tehran of willful lack of cooperation. Iran dismissed the documents as forged or fabricated. DEBKAfile reports that the documents came from materials contained in a laptop stolen from one of the heads of Iran’s nuclear program in Tehran in late 2006 by Iranian dissidents. It was passed to the CIA. Despite this evidence of an ongoing nuclear weapons program, sixteen US intelligence agencies, including the CIA, combined last year to announce this program was...

Today on Covert Radio our guest is Iranian Ex Pat and Analyst Banafsheh Zand Bonazzi she shares with us her amazing insight into Iran. In this episode find out about the Gangster nature of the Mullahs, The Ayotollah Khomeni’s beliefs on nuclear weapons, the ongoing plight of the Iranian people, the Apocalyptic worldview of Ahmedinejad and the struggle by one of Iran’s ethnic minorities, who have been persecuted in a brutal fashion- the Baluchis. All of this plus, Ban’s take on President Bush’s speech in Israel and the damage being wrought by Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Five British hostages who were kidnapped in Iraq almost a year ago are being held inside Iran by Revolutionary Guards, according to two separate sources in the Middle East and London. The hostages were handed over to the Revolutionary Guards by their Iraqi kidnappers last November, the sources believe. One of the sources said they were being held in the western Iranian city of Hamadan. If confirmed, the involvement of Revolutionary Guards would be seen as evidence that senior figures in the Iranian government had backed the decision to hold them in the country. However, British officials said that while...

The appearance of nuclear weapons materials on the black market is a growing global concern, and it is crucial that the United States reinforce its team of nuclear forensics experts and modernize its forensics tools to prepare for or respond to a possible nuclear terrorist attack. Large quantities of nuclear materials are inadequately secured in several countries, including Russia and Pakistan. Since 1993, there have been more than 1,300 incidents of illicit trafficking of nuclear materials, including plutonium and highly enriched uranium, both of which can be used to develop an atomic bomb. And these are only the incidents we...

To see why Tuesday's "retirement" of Navy Adm. William "Fox" Fallon as head of U.S. Central Command is good news, all you have to do is look at the Esquire profile that brought about his downfall. Its author, Thomas P.M. Barnett, a former professor at the Naval War College, presents a fawning portrait of the admiral -- a service he previously performed for Donald Rumsfeld. But evidence of Fallon's supposed "strategic brilliance" is notably lacking. For example, Barnett notes Fallon's attempt to banish the phrase "the Long War" (created by his predecessor) because it "signaled a long haul that Fallon...

Iranian clerics face a backlash over good life By Kay Biouki in Teheran and Gethin Chamberlain Last Updated: 2:05am GMT 24/02/2008 The Ayatollah Khomenei brought millions on to the streets of Iran to overthrow the decadence of the Shah. Now the late leader's grandsons and other Iranian clerics face a backlash over their families' fondness for fast cars, big houses and hot tubs. A website linked to radical elements of Iran's regime last week attacked the lifestyle of Ayatollah Khomenei's grandson, Hassan. " Driving a $100,000 BMW and relaxing in his uptown villa in north Teheran, is Hassan Khomenei actually...

Anger in Iran after law student dies in custody By Kay Biouki in Teheran and Gethin Chamberlain 26/01/2008 The death of a student in the custody of Iranian intelligence officers has provoked outrage among opponents of the regime, who claim it is part of a concerted crackdown on dissent in the run-up to parliamentary elections. Ebrahim Lotf-Allahi, a fourth year law student, was buried before his family could see his body. They later discovered that the grave had been filled with cement, apparently to prevent his body being exhumed for medical examination. Student leaders say 150 students have been arrested...

The head of the United States' missile defense program sought Wednesday to bolster Washington's argument for anti-missile sites in Europe by warning that Iran has sped up development of long-range missiles. Facing tough opposition from Russia and increasing skepticism from Poland, where the US wants to place part of the system, the American officials are trying to convince Europeans that program is crucial to guarding against an emerging threat from Iran. "They are developing missiles today in an accelerated pace," Lt. Gen. Henry Obering said in remarks at the Foreign Ministry in the Czech Republic, where Washington wants to install...

Britain's last chance of securing this treacherous corner of Afghanistan lies in the hands of a piratical, black- turbaned figure with long beard, white cloak and silver-sequinned slippers with curled toes. Mullah Abdul Salaam may not look much like a white knight. He served as a commander in the Taleban and even today his true loyalties remain suspect. The 45-year-old former Mujahidin guerrilla could, however, decide the fate of the British mission to stabilise the lawless province of Helmand, where this week he was put in charge of the key district of Musa Qala. "He's not just the best show...

They come so frequently, it's hard to get worked up, but there's a dead giveaway this time. The teaser for the piece reads, "At the risk of sounding like an apologist for the Islamic Republic..." The author is Hooman Majd, who accuses the Pentagon of manufacturing the incident with Iran in the Gulf this week. The Pentagon's version of the encounter in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday morning, involving U.S. Navy warships and Iranian Revolutionary Guard patrol boats is, at the very least highly suspicious. On Tuesday, the Navy released video footage and an audiotape to back its claims...

The new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran’s Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities doesn’t change my view of that we need to restrain Iran. The NIE confirms that as recently as the fall of 2003, Iran was covertly working to develop nuclear weapons. Perhaps they have since halted their covert nuclear weapons work, but meanwhile they continue to aggressively pursue a uranium enrichment capability, despite the fact that it makes no economic sense as a civilian program. This program was begun secretly as part of their larger nuclear weapons program and could be converted to bomb-making in short order. The knowledge...

In the post-9/11 Republican Party, there is one line that us conservatives don't cross. We do not critique Bush's handling of foreign policy and national security issues from a leftist perspective. Those who do, like Lincoln Chafee, Chuck Hagel, and Walter Jones, get "primaried". After improvements in Iraq finally begin to take place and victory appears to be attainable, Mike Huckabee, in his latest Foreign Affairs piece, attacked President Bush's handling of the War on Terror from the left. Even Ron Paul has not crossed that line. At least when Ron Paul says everything about blowback, and leaving Iraq, it...

JIMMY CARTER THE CRIMINAL   Jimmy Carter - infamous worst ex US president that is largely at fault for the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran (by putting extra pressure on the Shah), ultimately resulting in 1) Islamic Republic of Iran's oppression of millions of Persians, and 2) the planet in peril at the hands of that nation's mullahs' nukes.   Jimmy Carter has his hands blooded in every single violent action being perpetrated by that Islamic republic on a daily basis since 1979, including the crimes against humanity like the massacres in the 1980's, the terrible persecution on minorities such as:...

Iran tested a newly-developed ballistic missile on the day of the Annapolis conference, Channel 10 reported Wednesday. The Ashoura missile has a range of 2,000 kilometers and is capable of reaching Israel, US Army bases in the Middle East and eastern European cities, including Moscow, said the TV channel. According to the report, the new missile is an improvement on the existing Shihab-3 missile. The Ashoura uses solid fuel instead of the Shihab's liquid fuel, giving it a significantly faster launch sequence which is harder to detect. Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Mostafa Muhammad-Najjar had announced the development of the new...

    Symposium: The Mullahs’ “Vice List”   By Jamie GlazovFrontPageMagazine.com | Friday, December 07, 2007 The Mullahs’ moral crackdown continues in Iran. The Iranian police have now unveiled a list of "vices," which include “decadent” movies, makeup and un-Islamic dress. The Mullahs have also illegalized rap music.What is this moral crackdown about? What impulses engender it? What does it say about the regime in particular and Islamo-fascism in general? To discuss this issue with us today, we have:Dr. Nancy Kobrin, a psycho-analyst, Arabist, and counter-terrorism expert.Steve Schippert, co-founder of the Center for Threat Awareness and managing editor for...

TEHRAN - Iran's president declared victory over the United States on Wednesday and the head of a U.N. watchdog said Iran had been "somewhat vindicated" by a U.S. report that it halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003. U.S. President George W. Bush called for Tehran to "come clean" on its nuclear activities and stop its enrichment of uranium which can potentially be used to make atomic bombs. But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran would press ahead with its nuclear program which the Islamic Republic says has only peaceful civilian aims. "Today, the Iranian nation is victorious but you...

Regardless of what one thinks about the National Intelligence Estimate's conclusion that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons program in 2003 -- and there is much to question in the report -- its practical effects are indisputable. The Bush administration cannot take military action against Iran during its remaining time in office, or credibly threaten to do so, unless it is in response to an extremely provocative Iranian action. A military strike against suspected Iranian nuclear facilities was always fraught with risk. For the Bush administration, that option is gone. Neither, however, will the administration make further progress in winning international...

Iran's nuclear ambitions are just one aspect of the mullahs' iron-fisted approach to maintaining their power. According to an article in the Monday Wall Street Journal (entitled "Domestic Terror in Iran"), the powers that be that run the Islamic Republic are cracking down against "anti-Islam hooligans," as well as "trade union leaders, student activists, journalists and even mullahs opposed to the regime." After describing the recent public execution of seven men, the author, Amir Tahiri, states: "The Mashad hangings, broadcast live on local television, are among a series of public executions ordered by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last month as part...

BERLIN - Germany does not want to rush into a third round of U.N. sanctions against Iran for defying Security Council demands that it freeze its nuclear enrichment programme, diplomats said on Wednesday. Germany and the five permanent U.N. Security Council members -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- have been key players in efforts to ratchet up pressure on Tehran to halt its programme and cooperate more with U.N. inspectors. German officials have repeatedly warned that unless Iran heeds the demands of the United Nations and suspends its nuclear fuel programme, which the West fears is...

My cousin Kamran is a successful software engineer in Tehran with a house, a thriving business of his own, and a brand new Peugeot, which he likes to show off by careening through the city's clogged streets at maniacal speeds. Like most of Iran's young and highly educated population, he must rely on other means to make ends meet. So, in addition to running his software business, Kamran tutors neighborhood children, raises chickens on his aunt's farm, hires himself out as a guide and translator for tourists, dabbles in real estate, and occasionally sells imitation designer handbags out of the...

Flying Lying Imams' conspiracy theories The Garbage "holiness", Muslim Mullahs' despicable industry of "conspiracy theories" on the Islamic attack of September 11, 2001 This is the story of 'flying Imams', no, not that one in which they've managed to put fears into ordinary passengers with "holy-Islamic" Pro bloodthirsty Bin-Laden statements, that the "moderate" terrorists organizations' front goup: CAIR tried to "defend" afterwards. This is about [though the same type of] imams that are in the line of how to commit the crime upon crime, after the Islamic murdering innocent people on 9/11/2001, how to add yet another Islamic crime,...

Islamic Republic of Fear http://www.economist.com/world/africa/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=9687617 Iran Islamic Republic of Fear Aug 23rd 2007 From The Economist print edition Restoring the revolution, taking away civil liberties AP Iran makes a grotesque spectacle of itself Get article backgroundTHE head of Iran's judiciary is a confident man. Despite foreign attempts at slander, Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahrudi recently declared, his country has presented a fine image to the world of Islamic law at work. If news were limited to such mercies as the recent release, on bail, of Haleh Esfandiari, a 67-year-old Iranian-American academic, after six months in jail on charges of espionage, or...

America and her quasi-backboned "allies" have a huge problem that grows by the day. Expectedly, there are as many analyses of our problem as there are "experts" to tell us what to think. A deluge of Western analysts have their diverse expert opinions regarding the "Mullah Problem" and what do about it. Some strategists advocate a military solution that ranges from full invasion of Iran to selective bombardment of its burgeoning nuclear centers and related facilities. Others are proponents of imposing economic sanctions of various types and severity. Still others feel that we simply have to learn to live with...

Iran has hanged up to 30 people in the past month amid a clampdown prompted by alleged US-backed plots to topple the regime, The Observer can reveal. Many executions have been carried out in public in an apparent bid to create a climate of intimidation while sending out uncompromising signals to the West. Opposition sources say at least three of the dead were political activists, contradicting government insistence that it is targeting 'thugs' and dangerous criminals. The executions have coincided with a crackdown on student activists and academics accused of trying to foment a 'soft revolution' with US support. The...

Abraham Lincoln once famously observed, "The philosophy of the school room in one generation is the philosophy of government in the next." The truth of Lincoln's observation is, no doubt, at the core of the apprehensions that New Yorkers have expressed about the Khalil Gibran International Academy scheduled to open next month in Brooklyn. Adding to their apprehensions is the fact that KGIA is just three blocks from a mosque which has a history of employing radical imams and which was frequented by one of the terrorists implicated in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. It takes a lot to...

Iran has just carried out the largest wave of executions since 1984. It is early dawn as seven young men are led to the gallows amid shouts of "Allah Akbar" (Allah is the greatest) from a crowd of bearded men as a handful of women, all in hijab, ululate to a high pitch. A few minutes later, the seven are hanged as a mullah shouts: "Alhamd li-Allah" (Praise be to Allah). The scene was Wednesday in Mashad, Iran's second most populous city, where a crackdown against "anti-Islam hooligans" has been under way for weeks. The Mashad hangings, broadcast live on...

Finsbury Park: Inside the British Jihad [Killing non Muslims for no reason & restore the Caliphate] http://globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=3205&cid=3&sid=74 Pratik Chougule - 8/4/2007 Stepping off the subway at Finsbury Park, the change in scenery could not have been more acute. Just an hour earlier, I had been awed by the grandeur of Big Ben, towering over the British Houses of Parliament. It is the symbol of the England in our history books: a beacon of liberty, tolerance, and stability. Finsbury Park is different. Small shops and ragged apartments line the streets of this working class area of North London. More pronounced than...

The week before, Iran captured 14 spies near the Iraqi border who it claimed were agents of American and British intelligence equipped with surveillance devices. The "spies" in question were squirrels – as in small furry animals very protective of their nuts (much like the Democratic Party regarding Mr. Soros). I'm prepared to believe that a crack team of rodents from NUTS (the Ninja Undercover Team of Squirrels) abseiled into key installations in Iran and garroted the Revolutionary Guards, but not that the U.S. and British governments had anything to do with it. If they have any CIA or MI6...

One of two known Al Qaeda leadership councils meets regularly in eastern Iran, where the American intelligence community believes dozens of senior Al Qaeda leaders have reconstituted a good part of the terror conglomerate's senior leadership structure. That is a consensus judgment from a final working draft of a new National Intelligence Estimate, titled "The Terrorist Threat to the U.S. Homeland," on the organization that attacked the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The estimate, which represents the opinion of America's intelligence agencies, is now finished, and unclassified conclusions will be shared today with the public. The classified document...

18th Tir anniversary of the bloody Student uprising of several years ago, was pretty quite in Iran this year. One reason was that at least 10 of the leaders of the Student Unity group from around the country were arrested in advance as have been other dissidents to prevent any demonstrations against the Ahmadi Nutjob regime. In the first video you can see how a handcuffed prisoner is mistreated while being "arrested". Public floggings (whippings) to set an example have been held in the streets in various parts of cities to terrify inhabitants.

John Mauldin, Millennium Wave Advisors 07.05.07, 12:44 PM ET I want to briefly look at a development in the oil markets, which I find intriguing. Dr. Woody Brock, in a recent paper on oil prices, wrote a rather interesting sentence, to wit, that Iran would not have net oil to export in 2014. I found that rather remarkable. Woody is very serious and sober-minded even for an economist, not given to rash analysis, but this was certainly a new idea to me. I knew they were importing most of their gasoline, as they do not have a great deal of...

Iran: Assassinations, gas station burnings and rock throwing — these are the signs of a populace unhappy with its ruling regime. Could the country be on the brink of a much-needed government upheaval? Iran, which sits on a small ocean of crude, instituted gasoline rationing Wednesday morning. Despite its vast oil wealth, the nation has scant refining capacity, and its infrastructure is crumbling. Even as the world's fourth-largest exporter of oil, it must import four of every 10 gallons of the gasoline it consumes. Iranians had two hours from the 10 p.m. Tuesday announcement to digest the news before the...

With the announcements by the Islamic Regime of impending gasoline (petrol) rationing, the last few days have seen long lines of upset citizens at gas stations throughout Iran. As supplies dwindled, tempers flared till this evening/tonight upset crowds set fire to some 50 gas stations in Tehran and tens of thousands of protesters marched from the eastern part of Tehran called Tehran Pars to Imam Hossein street.

Fred Thompson, the actor and former Senator widely seen as the Republicans' best hope for keeping the White House, called for a "blockade" of Iran yesterday. The screen veteran, whose announcement as the eleventh contender for the Republican nomination is expected within days, also warned that "jihadists" were trying to bring the West to its knees. Mr Thompson starred in Die Hard 2 and The Hunt for Red October before serving as Republican Senator for Tennessee. During a visit to London, he delivered a hawkish lecture on foreign policy, singling out Iran's nuclear ambitions as a key threat to the...

Iranian ambassador to UN files complaint with Security Council about comments Olmert, Mofaz made regarding military attack on Iran WASHINGTON - Iran has filed an official complaint with the United Nations Security Council criticizing statements made by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz regarding the possibility of a military attack on the Iranian nuclear facilities. The letter was presented Monday evening to acting president of the Security Council, the Belgian Ambassador to the UN. The protest came in response to statements made by Mofaz during a visit to Washington last week, heading an Israeli delegation that held...

According to Brian Ross and ABC news, NATO officials claim "they have caught Iran red-handed, shipping heavy arms, C4 explosives and advanced roadside bombs to the Taliban for use against NATO forces in what the officials say is a dramatic escalation of Iran's proxy war against the United States and Great Britain." I suspect it is only a matter of time before the ever-predictable American media will suggest NATO is lying to get us into a war with Iran. While daily evidence builds of Iran's support of terrorism, the world sits idly by and does nothing. Not even a harsh...

Protest shuts down clerics' visit Toronto and Regional police gather at UW in case of trouble MIRKO PETRICEVIC WATERLOO (May 29, 2007) Dozens of irate protesters yelling "shame," "murderers" and "terrorists" shouted down a Waterloo meeting last night that was intended to build peace. About 50 protesters stood around the meeting hall at Conrad Grebel University College waiting for the dialogue between Mennonites and Muslim clerics from Iran to begin. Police from Waterloo Region and Toronto, Waterloo firefighters, paramedics and University of Waterloo police were called in in anticipation of protests. They arrived around 6 p.m., winding down their operations...

CBS News has learned that Iran is continuing to make progress on its expanded efforts to enrich uranium — in spite of covert efforts by U.S. and other allied intelligence agencies to actively sabotage the country's nuclear program. "Industrial sabotage is a way to stop the program, without military action, without fingerprints on the operation, and really, it is ideal, if it works," says Mark Fitzpatrick, the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Non-Proliferation and now Senior Fellow in Non-Proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Sources in several countries involved told CBS News that the intelligence operatives...

Middle East: As Iran continues to defy world demands that it halt its illicit nuclear program, a U.S. armada steams just off the Iranian coast. Good thing. Those ships might come in handy real soon. On Wednesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency issued another report underscoring Iran's refusal to halt a uranium-enrichment program that all evidence suggests will lead to the manufacturing of nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, this is par for the course.

A top security official accused the United States Thursday of seeking to undermine Iran's clerical regime by stoking sectarian and ethnic tensions in the country and using newspapers and non-governmental agencies toward that goal. "A soft threat is the main plan of the US due to its incapability to launch a military operation [against Iran,]" Deputy Interior Minister Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. Zolqadr, whose comments came in a speech he made in Iran's Kurdistan province, said, "The threat is being implemented through the creation of instability and tension inside Iran as...

Look behind the curtain of virtually every major problem in the Middle East, and you will find Iran: killings in Iraq; arms and money for Hezbollah's assaults on Israel and Hezbollah's attempts to usurp the elected government of Lebanon; support of Syria as the hotelier of the region's major terrorist groups; support and training of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and sleeper networks in countries beyond; promotion of a messianic revolutionary ideology that has deepened the Sunni-Shiite divide; the reckless seizure of 15 British sailors and marines as hostages; and defiance of the U.N. in pursuit of nuclear weapons. Only the...

The survey — taken after the Iranian government added piracy to the ways it flouts international norms with brazen cheer — may reflect the Europeans' unease with their own impotent status. Sure, they have "soft power,'' the sort of economic and diplomatic pressure that supposedly makes American force look brutish and hobnailed. But it's hard to put a tariff on an incoming missile. Soft power works best on soft targets, and if a claque of theocrats wants nukes to rule the Gulf and eliminate the Zionist entity, it will not be dissuaded by a six-month moratorium on dental-floss sales. Iran...

Michael Ramirez's latest cartoon on the nuclear-tipped mullahs of Iran is here.