Maintaining Stability Iranian Style: Basiji Thugs

The alternate universe that is Islamic law rears its ugly head again, Iranian style. In an article headlined “I wed Iranian girls before execution” in the Jerusalem Post a Basiji militiaman describes how the ruling powers in Iran get around a pesky clause in Islamic law that prohibits the execution of virgins. They perform a sham marriage, marrying a girl or woman to a militiaman, then consummate the marriage by having the militiaman rape his “wife”:

In a shocking and unprecedented interview, directly exposing the inhumanity of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s religious regime in Iran, a serving member of the paramilitary Basiji militia has told this reporter of his role in suppressing opposition street protests in recent weeks.

He has also detailed aspects of his earlier service in the force, including his enforced participation in the rape of young Iranian girls prior to their execution.

The interview took place by telephone, and on condition of anonymity. It was arranged by a reliable source whose identity can also not be revealed.

Founded by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979 as a “people’s militia,” the volunteer Basiji force is subordinate to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and intensely loyal to Khomeini’s successor, Khamenei.

The Basiji member, who is married with children, spoke soon after his release by the Iranian authorities from detention. He had been held for the “crime” of having set free two Iranian teenagers – a 13-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl – who had been arrested during the disturbances that have followed the disputed June presidential elections.

“There have been many other police and members of the security forces arrested because they have shown leniency toward the protesters out on the streets, or released them from custody without consulting our superiors,” he said.

Once again we see that peace and stability in an Islamic state (that is peace that does not upend the apple cart of the ruling cabala), are maintained through brutality and terror, and the treatment of female human beings as property. This would cause a rational person to wonder what kind of ruling government, that is supposedly governing based upon the word of a just God, a government controlled by religious figures, supposedly holy figures, would tolerate such inhumanity.

Jim Leff has a theory in his blog posting titled “Iran: The Real Battle Reveals Itself”. Jim’s theory is that Iran is actually controlled by an economic “mafia”, which is behind all of the brutal repression:

So what’s being stated here is that the core money guys (power and Allah aside) constitute a mafia with entrenched interest in remaining in power and tightening control to resist scrutiny by press or public. And since the clergy – even the most conservative clergy – has sided with the reformists, the battle is no longer left vs. right, mullahs vs. public, or reformists vs. conservatives. The gloves have come off, and it’s becoming clear that it’s about a corrupt mafia (which happens to be composed of a few clergy) versus the people.

Jim’s analysis may well be right, repressive regimes always seem to be controlled by a readily corruptible “power elite”, be it the Central Committee of the Soviet or Chinese Communist Party, the Myanmar generals, the former Bathist regime of Saddam Hussein, or the money men and their mullah co-conspirators in Iran. It so frequently seems to come down to greedy, criminal motives. We are better than this, humanity has not evolved intellectually and physically, we have not become more adept at provisioning our food and shelter, more comfortable in our existence because we have behaved brutally, we have thrived through hard work, self control, collaboration and mutual respect. A repressive regime that does not command the respect of the people that it governs will always be doomed to ultimate failure, sooner or later.

One way to counter the brutality and thuggishness that is occurring in Iran today is to shine a very bright light upon it all, readers here can join in by participating in and supporting the United for Iran world rally, Global Day For Action tomorrow, July 25. (Click here for info.)

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That A Life & Death Not Be Forgotten

Neda Agah-Soltan, 26 years old, killed by a bullet in the front of her neck while standing on a street in Tehran. Neda Agah-Soltan was unknown by the public prior to her death, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times she was:

Born in Tehran, they said, to a father who worked for the government and a homemaker mother.

They were a family of modest means, part of the country’s emerging middle class who built their lives in rapidly developing neighborhoods on the eastern and western outskirts of the city.

Like many in her neighborhood, Agha-Soltan was loyal to the country’s Islamic roots and traditional values, friends say, but also curious about the outside world, which was easily accessed through satellite TV, the Internet and occasional trips abroad.

The second of three children, she studied Islamic philosophy at a branch of Tehran’s Azad University until deciding to pursue a career in tourism. She took private classes to become a tour guide, including Turkish-language courses, friends said, hoping to someday lead groups of Iranians on trips abroad.

Travel was her passion, and with her friends she saved up enough money for package tours to Dubai, Turkey and Thailand. Two months ago, on a trip to Turkey, she relaxed along the beaches of Antalya, on the Mediterranean coast.

She also loved music, especially Persian pop, and was taking piano lessons, according to Panahi and other friends. She was also an accomplished singer, they said.

But she was never an activist, they added, and she began attending the mass protests only because she was outraged by the election results.

The Iranian government has done everything it can to obscure any memory of Neda Agah-Soltan’s death, reportedly at the hands of a government backed paramilitary, according to a BBC report. The Ayatollahs in power, who in all likelihood engineered a crooked election to retain their puppet president do not want Neda Agah-Soltan to become a martyr of the people. The Ayatollahs are in fear, in fear that despite their continuing repression of their people, they may one day lose the power to squelch and control the people, that one day, the ordinary people of Iran may achieve their own self determination.

Neda Agah-Soltan is a universal symbol of that desire by all ordinary people, throughout the world for self determination, for a chance to live a productive, joyous life, in freedom and without fear. Her’s is a life and death that should not be forgotten. A reminder, that no matter our own status in life, there are always going to be others we should not forget or neglect.

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It’s All About Maintaining A Cold War

The election in Iran this past Friday seemed to be a joke to most of  the world. The incumbent won but even if the opposition would have gotten all of the votes I really don’t think it would have made one bit of difference. The country isn’t governed by the elected president anyway. It is ruled by a religious dictator who hand picked all of the politicians who ran for president. The runoff last week was two people with the same brain…the guy from there who “talks with god”.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, makes all of the decisions for the way Iranians live. He wamt to be the one who makes the worlds decisions as well. Especially the decision of everything Israel.  He doesn’t want there to even be an Israel.

Now, I am not presenting any argument here about the Israel/Palestine differences or how Israel became a state back in the 40’s. Neither your view or the Ayatollah’s is what I am writing about today. It’s something I haven’t much talked about since the Berlin Wall came down and the cold war was “oficially over”. It is nuclear weapons and a new kind of cold war. One with a nation that doesn’t have nuclear weapons yet, one that does, and the United States.

It has been news and then not then is again.You know…the Koreans and Iran teaming up with the nukes Kim Jong Il has and the long range missles Ahmadinejad has and their friendly political status in the world view. And the fact that no matter who is president of Iran, Ali is the one who really is friendly with the Korean leader. A bunch of insane, power mad fools, some religious zealots and some just crazy.

On one hand this cold war is not that much different than the one the US had with the Soviet Union. The beginning hysteria has just begun in the news. Kids in Israel, South Korea and even Iran are being fed back door propaganda by the bomb drills that take me back to my elementary school days. Diving under the desk and shielding their eyes in nuke drills that wouldn’t do any good but really keeps the fear in the mind. Enough fear in the kids minds keeps their parents full of fear and the support for warring actions at the forefront. Every one has the knowledge the weapons of mass destruction are always poised for killing and no one knows when their lives will be threatened. Fear!

On the other hand (man! didn’t the president catch shit using that phrase)  this one is not like the last one.  While the countries involved are smaller than either the United States or the Soviet Union it seems their leaders are much more willing to use the nukes to serve their own purpose. The implications for a huge scale nuclear holocaust are still there though. The bigger nuclear armed countries are sitting in the background waiting to help the favored nation(s) of their choice. So the opportunity for a larger scale nuclear disaster is greater.

The leaders of the worlds nations are scrambling to try to talk with the leaders of Iran, Israel and N.Korea. Diplomacy before drastic action is always best and no matter what the plans are most of the nations involved are being asked to at least go through that protocal. If they do I will be suprised but somewhat comforted. New Mexico’s governor, Bill Richardson has been able to temporarily calm the insane N.Korean guy a few times over the years but I fear Il’s crazy has a new ally in Ahmadinejad and his insanity. Their combined psychotic desire for destruction will feed off of the others and they will attempt attack(s) on nations they abhor. Retaliation will come not only from the smaller nations but their allies who are also armed with bigger and badder nukes poised nearby.

I really am trying to be optimistic about the new cold war. I am hoping that the leaders of the world will sit down together and work things out. I really feel a nuclear free world would be a better place but as long as there are humans I doubt that could even happen…unless a bigger, more destructive weapon is as mass produced as the nukes were/are. So I am hoping we all just keep the bombs in our basement where they belong.

Lets hope this cold war turns out like the last one did.

You know…sitting around the campfires amidst rubble from a wall torn down…singing Kum Ba Ya.

Or some other happy song.

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Guantanamo, Iraq and Iran — a digest

Attorney General Eric Holder is indicating that he is reluctant to examine detainee treatment under the Bush administration. This followed the publication of information about a 2007 International Red Cross report containing detainee interviews that claimed torture. Holder did say that he would be bound by “wherever the law and the facts take” the DOJ, noting once again that they do not want to criminalize policy differences. The DOJ has recently had discussions with European officials about taking some of the detainees. The AG reported that they are looking who and what method might be used to try other detainees, suspected of crimes. This comes from CQ Politics of 3/18.

The Obama administration’s new definition of terrorists looks a lot like the old one, says Christopher Weaver, writing for ProPublica on 3/17. The administration is no longer using the phrase “war on terror” and now, “enemy combatant.” In a detainee habeas corpus case, the DOJ did not substantially change the claim to hold suspected terrorists, as it is tied to the 2001 Congressional resolution known as the AUMF. New rules will still have to be adopted. To quote the article’s conclusion:

The filing is littered with ambiguous phrases like “private armed groups” and a “novel type of armed conflict” instead of “enemy combatants” and the “war on terror.” The scrapping of martial lingo backs away from the Bush-era argument that asserts the commander in chief’s right to lead the military independently from Congress. However, in a press release the Justice Department explained that the latest definition still relies on the international laws of war as they apply to a 2001 congressional resolution that authorized the president to use military force.

“They’re recognizing a right to detain,” Madeline Morris, a Duke law professor who helped prepare a major brief to the Supreme Court on behalf of several detainees. “They’re recognizing that that right is not governed by existing [laws of war],” in these cases, and that new rules will need to be articulated.

What they’re not doing, so far, is showing their hand, our experts agree. “In every way, it’s better than the old definition,” said Mariner, the Human Rights Watch expert. “It’s just not substantially different.”

Several Republican senators are attempting to derail the nomination of Christopher Hill as the new Ambassador to Iraq, according to CQ Politics (3/17/09). Led by Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), five senators sent a letter to President Obama urging the withdrawal of Hill’s name from consideration. Brownback has also threatened to but a hold on the nomination. The others are Jon Kyle, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, James Inhofe and Christopher Bond.

Just exactly how to engage with Iran was the subject of a very interesting analysis by Adam Graham-Silverman of CQ Politics on 3/16. The headline points to a “just right approach.” Dennis Ross is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s special adviser on the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia. In addition to Ross, Richard Haas, Senator Kerry, who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee, and Zbignew Brzezinski also weighed in with opinions. It is a good read. To quote further:

The administration’s review of U.S. policy toward Iran could be completed this week and will have to provide answers to some pressing questions, from what concessions and pressure the United States can bring to the table to what kind of Iranian nuclear program it can accept

In conclusion, here are a couple of excerpted paragraphs regarding the Middle East from my most recent CQ Behind the Lines newsletter by David C. Morrison:

Courts and rights: . . . another Post piece has the ACLU calling for an independent prosecutor to investigate CIA torture allegations. . . Old terror case files are being dusted off as the Obama administration considers prosecuting high-profile Guantanamo Bay detainees in civilian courts, focusing on pre-9/11 crimes, AP reports. . .

Over there: . . . “What failed in Iraq, fails in Afghanistan,” The Strategy Page flatly concludes — as The Long War Journal sees two Taliban leaders denying recent reports that their leader is in peace negotiations with the Afghan government. The White House is considering expanding strikes inside Pakistan against Taliban power centers beyond the tribal areas currently targeted, The New York Times reveals.

See also Behind the Links, for further info on this subject.

Carol Gee – Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for all my websites.

Technorati tags: news middle-east iran iraq guantanamo DOJ>

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The Alternate Universe of Islamic Law

Imagine a universe where young people are denied an education, or punished when they seek knowledge.  Imagine a universe where men who have committed violent crimes are literally slapped on the wrist, and allowed to go free, and where women who have been innocent victims of violent crimes perpetrated by men, are condemned and killed simply because they are victims.

Imagine a universe where women are delegated to the role of “slave breeders”, where men take as many wives as they wish, demand carnal relations at their whim, where the women bear children who they are then forbidden to have any relationship with, where despite bearing the children of the family patriarch, have no rights to family property, or simple human liberties, such as traveling alone in public or driving an automobile.

Image a  universe where a thirteen year old female child is forcibly raped, then condemned for “adultery”, placed in a hole in the ground, buried with dirt to the top of her shoulders, immobilized and terrorized, and then stoned to death in front of a crowd of 1,000 rabid Islamic fundamentalists.  Then open your eyes, and see that it is not an alternate universe, it is part of our universe, occurring today in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, etc.

Then, except for Afghanistan, consider that the insatiable appetite for oil by free, western nations, is what fuels the economy that enables and empowers the slave owning class of fundamentalist Islamic males.  Our need for conspicuous consumption, fueled directly through oil refining in to gasoline, and fueled indirectly through oil burning electrical generation, is the grease that makes the repression and subjugation of humans continue in the Islamic world.  As for Afghanistan, its export economy and the repression by the Taliban  is driven by the needs of wealthy (in relative terms) westerners, who indulge in and become hooked on the narcotic derivatives of opium.

What can we do to help ourselves economically, and environmentally, and at the same time, help those men, women and children that are repressed, abused, and killed in the feeding of our insatiable appetites?

For more on the cruel facts of life under Islamic fundamentalism, and criminal regimes see:

Johnathan Turley’s posts here, here and here.

The CNN report here.

The BBC report here.

The Amnesty International report here.

The latest Los Angeles Times report here.

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propaganda at its finest

i guess i wonder why anyone follows american news anymore.  it’s obvious that they are in corporates’ pockets and they have a pretty clear agenda- propaganda.  there is no real news in american media anymore.  i haven’t subscribed to anything other than national geographic for years.  i rarely read online news from any of the msm newspapers or broadcast media- and this is why:

american news source- new york times- iran may achieve nuclear capabilities by 2009

foreign news source- via juan cole- the hindu- IAEA finds iran not producing nuclear grade weapons

see, the american folks don’t bother to interview anyone directly involved in anything other than lobbying or think tanking.  foreign news folks go to the folks who are actually involved in handling issues.  juan cole has it quite right:

“US newspapers are complaining that they are losing money and may not survive. After they put all sorts of falsehoods about Iraq on their front pages, it may be that they fatally wounded their credibility with the US public. In any case, the above report does not show up anywhere on the web or in Lexis that I can find, except here in The Hindu, which tells me that someone is not doing their job.”

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red rum

So it is finally over, or is it? True, I was wrong about whom I thought would win based on a history of 43 prior white men, but as for my reasoning I was not. This past 22 months has reinforced all of the positions I have laid out in text from my dissertations regarding the economy to why we as human being must obviate race from our lexicon if we can, for although this past week was historic, and the world now see America in a different light, we still see ourselves in the same fashion, well at least many of us do.

First, it is obvious that many folk prefer to emote in contrast to think. I was hard on McCain (but this was ok). Unfortunately I was just as hard on Obama (but for many this was not). I have never approached any subject matter with respect to feeling with the exception of family, my children and how I would treat my woman. Oh, and food. But with respect to politics, I have never based any decision on feeling. This has lead me to understand than many folks make selections based on feeling when I make my as a function on thinking. For I know that if there was no TV or Radio, and folks were forced to read the history and positions of the Republican and Democratic selections for this past election – you would have seen that there were basically no difference between the two and that they were more similar than dissimilar. I also learned that many folks tend to vote for the individual whereas I vote for the policy positions.

True Obama won, and I’m pleased with that, but American may be in the same position historically it has always been. Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, Georgia, Utah, Montana and Idaho among others still remain GOP and in strong support of the divisive politics that have historically been a function of race (many in the South). And I know folks don’t like to use history to project future speculation and to form opinion – but I do. These states have been red for the longest and no end seems to be coming soon.

I feel that yes this is historic, but also may reflect a change – a regression for many back to the time before the civil rights movement. Yes, 40 years ago a great man was killed for bringing change. I just don’t know what will be, given what i feel will be major conundrums quick fast and in a hurry for the new president jones:

• Russia: This may be the first head bump for Jones. Russia (Putin) is making a fat cat move to buy allegiance from Latin American states that are right in our own backyard. Plus they mad because of our decision to deploy elements of a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. So as a result, they have decided to place some similar equipment in Cuba – or so they say.
• Economy: Many would like to infer that Obama’s victory brought back extreme volatility to the market, with the Dow Jones industrials falling 480 points and the major indexes tumbling more than 5 percent. After Tuesday night. True some may be pulling loot out as a form of fear, but truth as I have written before, this will continue for a couple of few administrations, irregardless of who had won. He will have to tackle this and his tax cuts, during a recession don’t make much micro or macro economic sense, but it sounds good to the voter. So he will need to foster the gumption to show how smart folk really think he is, for short term tactics as taking loot from the rich wont pay for nothing, nor do jack, when the deficit is approaching a trillion dollars; oh and did I say he wont be able to end the war as quickly as he proposed?
• Middle East: It will be difficult for Obama to end the war as he said. Especially since his chief of staff was one of the folks that assisted and motioned that we start a war with Iraq and has a desire to start one with Iran – Israeli Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel, the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives as the Democratic Caucus chairman, will be returning to the White House, where he served as a political and policy adviser to Clinton.

Which brings me back to thinking over feeling. I as many feel that America has changed. But looking the states that McCain carried, what I call the redrum states to honor one of my favorite movies of all time, the Shining, it won’t be easy. These folks will fight tooth and nail against him, even when it may benefit the commonwealth. For unfortunately, his victory has also brought back the zealots, the folks if they don’t like the color of your skin, will post up outside your crib and chase you with an ax and string you up from a tree. Yes this is historic, but the history he has fostered via victory, has only begun. Let’s just hope it does not assist in bring back the attitudes many thought were no more, and that some as myself – feel are merely dormant.

Had a ball talking politics with 12kyle at shop yesterday.

Crossposted from Torrance’s blog RawDawg Buffalo.

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Martial Law- the Ultimate Stomping of Freedom

The man who wants to be a Dictator!

In light of the numerous events occurring so rapidly now that Bush’s time is running short as we said it would, I want to reiterate something I wrote 6 months ago- then post today’s proof we are dead on and the worst is yet to come.  Stay together!  Anyway, Martial law is perhaps the ultimate stomping of freedom. And yet, on September 30, 2006, Congress passed a provision in a 591-page bill that will make it easy for President Bush to impose martial law in response to a terrorist “incident.” It also empowers him to effectively declare martial law in response to what he or other federal officials label a shortfall of “public order” – whatever that means. to me, it is public outcry to what our so called leader is doing to our country and the world!

Section 1076 is more ominous in light of the Bush administration’s long record of Posse Comitatus violations. Since 2001, the Bush administration has accelerated a trend of using the military as a tool in the nation’s domestic affairs. Section 1076 of the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act (Public Law 109-364) unnecessarily expanded the President’s authority to federalize the National Guard during certain emergencies and disasters only he as the Decider can declare.   Section 1076 concern!

From its support of the Total Information Awareness surveillance vacuum cleaner, to its use of Pentagon spy planes during the Washington-area sniper shootings in 2002, to the Pentagon’s seizures of Americans’ financial and other private information without a warrant, the Bush administration has not hesitated to use military force and intimidation at home whenever convenient. And Americans may have little or no idea of how far the military has actually gone on the home front, given the Bush team’s obsessive secrecy.

That is bad enough but I am starting to believe the military Industrial complex is the power behind the right! The Military-Industrial Complex: In his prophetic “Farewell Address” of 1961, President Eisenhower warned the nation about the serious threat that its “unwarranted influence” posed to the Republic. (1) Nick Turse, in his book, “The Complex: How The Military Invades Our Everyday Lives,” describes the current situation: “Just like the fictional ‘Matrix,’ the Complex is nearly everywhere and involved in almost everything and very few people aren’t plugged into it in some way, shape or form. Above all…most people are hardly aware that this ‘REAL MATRIX’ even exist.”

Turse says that the Complex reaches “deeper into American lives…than Eisenhower could ever have imagined.” For example, in 1961, the Pentagon was spending about $23 billion per year on weapons “and other military goods. Today, that would equal about $200 billion in the budget. [But], in 2007, the Department of Defense’s stated budget was $439 billion. Counting the costs of its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the numbers jump to $600 billion. Factoring in all the many related activities carried out by other agencies, actual U.S. national security spending is NEARLY $1 TRILLION PER YEAR.” In 1970, there were about 22,000 prime contractors doing business with the U.S. department of Defense (DoD). In 2008, Turse writes: “The number of prime contractors tops 47,000 with subcontractors reaching WELL OVER THE 100,000 MARK, making for ONE MASSIVE CONGLOMERATE touching nearly every sector of society.”

Today’s telling events! U.S. to sell $6.4 billion in weapons to Taiwan

We just made another nuclear deal with India and U.N. raises Islamabad security level

explosion kills soldiers in Lebanon

Dozens killed Baghdad in Ramadan’s deadliest day

Battle in Iraq kills 15 Turkish soldiers

Plans shelved to put US diplomats in Iran

And the kicker with Bush we can’t trust this deploying army combat units in America

The Bankrupting of America is almost complete and As you know I am very concerned about Bush lifting Posse Comitatus and declaring martial law. However I now firmly believe that Declaring martial law will not happen under Bush but it will under President McCain. * Yhep he is the next heir to the throne! The right has built the new phony American hero and he will get in somehow. Again, whoever tries to speak the truth about him will be labeled as anti military, unpatriotic, un-American, you name it. He will get in one way or the other and he will be a lot worse than Bush if you can imagine that. People talk about his temper but just watch how ruthless McCain can be!

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the peace movement

hmmmm…. yeah. i guess i wonder where it’s moving. can someone check its pulse? that’s my second cuppa snark this morning. there are many folks in this country who want peace- no doubt. and there are some who actually engage with the rest of humanity on a quest to get it. but there is a biiiiigggg obstacle to peace in this country- and no it isn’t just the neocons and obstructionist dems- americans themselves don’t really want peace. not really.

how else to explain the abysmal way we treat each other? most folks have heard by now of fellow americans being tased to death- i think we may be getting closer to 3 digits every time i post- and we have heard of police beatings of people who weren’t resisting and of the huge ice roundups that just herd everyone together to sort out later (and detain indefinitely). but what about our daily lives? looking at how we treat each other or talk about each other- and those around the world- it’s indicative of where we really are at.

i read a piece in national geographic about iran. what struck me was the people. the government actually sounds like ours but the people- they have this sense of identity and stubborn will to be who they are despite millennia of invasions- it’s incredible. and yet, americans would be content to bomb them and their beautiful country to smithereens for oil. without taking a moment to think about the humanity lost and the thousands of years of world history. these folks speak farsi and are fairly anti-arab. they have their own identity and they aren’t terribly interested in america- except for the fact we keep threatening to annihilate them. anyhoo- i thought while reading- what an exceptional people and what an ally they would have made if we hadn’t fucked things up with our greedy foreign policy. sigh.

anyhoo- read the article- and really take a look at the people. we didn’t bother to do that with iraq or anywhere else in the world actually. the world isn’t our oyster and we don’t have the right to take what isn’t ours’. we need to take a hard look at our own culture and see it for what it is and isn’t. people who can be so callous as to let a man die after ignoring him for 22 hours or people who can stand by while a pet dies- and say that it’s only an animal get another- well, that gives me pause. these are everyday people- neighbors, family members, friends, co-workers- americans. if this is the real face of who we are- it is not only disillusioning- it’s frightening.

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The U.S. and Israel on Iran

The U.S. and Israel on Iran By Jerome Grossman and my sober reply: Obama putting a crimp in Bush’s Iran plans but it will not change the end result, more War! Please click on his Blog and let him know how “we the people” feel!

The United States of America and the State of Israel are the closest of allies, sharing intelligence, weapons, military research, among many other joint ventures. They support each other’s policies at the United Nations and other international venues with only rare exceptions. Policy on Iran may be one of those rare exceptions. Responsible Israeli officials have made their positions clear: Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons and Iranian protestations that their development of nuclear power is only for civilian electricity is not to be believed. Furthermore, that Iranian President Ahmedinejad’s threat “to wipe Israel off the map” represents Iranian policy.

Some Israeli leaders want to launch a preemptive attack. Israeli official Shaul Mofaz said recently, “If Iran continues its program to develop nuclear weapons, we will attack it.” In a New York Times op-ed, July 18, 2008, Benny Morris, an influential moderate and former Israeli official warned, “Israel will almost surely attack Iran’s nuclear sites in the next four to seven months.” Recently, the Israeli Air Force conducted a massive war game over the Mediterranean that was interpreted as a demonstration of Israeli ability to mount a serious and effective attack on Iranian installations.

However, US policy now seems to be headed in another direction. In the past, American policy placed Iran in the Axis of Evil, condemned it as a terrorist regime, passed a resolution in the U.S. Senate demanding regime change, appropriated money for Iranian dissidents, and refused to establish any diplomatic contact with the Iranian government. Now, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates says, “We are not planning for a war with Iran,” Admiral Mike Mullin Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff supports him. Accusations of Iranian interference in Iraq have diminished. Most importantly, the Bush administration is planning to establish an American diplomatic presence in Iran for the first time since Iranian extremists seized American hostages and occupied the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979.

Is the US sending a message to Israel not to attack Iran? Is the US sending a message to Middle East nations disassociating itself from an Israeli attack? Has US intelligence decided that the Israelis are serious in their threats?

The effects of an Israeli – Iran war would be world wide. The Muslim world would explode and attack western interests everywhere they could. Rulers of Muslim nations friendly to the west and clients of the US might be overthrown. The price of oil would probably reach $400 per barrel assuming that any oil at all would be shipped to the west. Worldwide energy shortages and commercial disruption would likely cause a financial collapse. The stakes could not be higher, considering that Barack Obama told the US Israeli lobby AIPAC on June 4, “My goal will be to eliminate the threat (to Israel) posed by Iran. I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. (Pause) Everything. The pause is scary.

My True but Sober Response: Obama putting a crimp in Bush’s Iran plans as well as Iraq and Afghanistan but it will not change the end result, more War!

With time running out for Bush his only concern is his legacy! The chief war mongering oil man wants to appear like he wants peace while it is war he has instigated! You know the plan to go after Iran is old. You know 9/11 and the Patriot Act were only to of the set ups to get oil control and war going.

Like everything else today this gets very confusing and convoluted on purpose to hide a hidden agenda. now that Obama is in the mix and the world is behind him getting elected as well they should be if we are to have a future Bush has been changing his tune on Afghanistan and Iraq as well as Iran where a Diplomatic interest was expressed.

That is merely a facade! Nothing is going to be won by us as we conventionally think of as winning and nothing is going to stop the total middle east breakdown before it erupts into total war again under a facade of peace voraciously instigated by the Bush mis-Administration!

I do not know who fears who anymore and it no longer matters! You know I have said many times there will be war with Iran. There has to be to get this going full swing watch! I no longer believe the thought of President Obama is the time constraint of the attack.

If it does not look like the Right can steal this election cleanly too Israel may go after Iran first just so the chief war monger will be at the helm. That will be determined soon.

Food, gas and oil, will be rationed but as you know I have said before, knowing a nuclear Iran would to common sensed eyes mean a power balance in the middle east you have to come to the conclusion that is not wanted.

Israel will never accept a nuclear Iran and will attack. Whoever is President will come to their rescue! Once again war will occur to prevent war. That makes sense yeah!

Again as I keep saying, at one time the threat of mutual destruction use to be a deterrence. Today it seems to be the goal.

Originally a buffer for Israel was their goal and it played well with Bush’s hidden agenda and if any message is being sent to Israel it is not going to matter or change our response.

* Despite heroic efforts of the likes of you Jerry what is still just unfolding will be prevented by no one. We are in serious trouble here and I better shut up now. Take care! please let me and Jerome know what you think!

original post july 22, 2008

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Head of Joint Chiefs: “Right now I’m fighting 2 wars, and I don’t need a third one…”

Crooks and Liars, those stellar bloggers of all things political and sometimes musical have a great post up about Admiral Mullens visit to Fox Noise Sunday. From the transcript via C&L:

WALLACE: I want to ask you two questions about Iran. How do you weigh as a military man, as the top military man, the downside risk if either the U.S. or Israel were to militarily strike Iran in terms of blowback from Iran and its allies in the region, increased turmoil in that area, increased turmoil in the oil market?

MULLEN: I think it would be significant. I worry about it a lot. I’ve said when I’ve been asked this before right now I’m fighting two wars, and I don’t need a third one. [...]

But I worry about the instability in that part of the world and, in fact, the possible unintended consequences of a strike like that and, in fact, having an impact throughout the region that would be difficult to both predict exactly what it would be and then the actions that we would have to take to contain it.

Everyone worries about the unintended consequences of an attack on Iran..except Bush and Cheney. Those fuckers don’t give a shit what it would cause to happen..aka the blowback upon the US.

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A Panel calls for new war powers Legislation!

On that front we discussed this possibility a year ago, it is now reality! Russia is thinking of aiming nuclear weapons at western Europe for the first time since the end of the cold war, according to defense sources in Moscow. The move is being considered in response to American plans to develop a defense shield against missiles from Iran and other countries. The plans under discussion include the possible deployment of ballistic missiles to Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave between the European Union countries of Lithuania and Poland. Kaliningrad has been nuclear-free since America and Russia agreed to scale back their nuclear arsenals at the end of the cold war.

A Russian parliamentary committee visited the enclave 10 days ago to examine how a new generation of nuclear missiles could be based there. Any such deployment would significantly escalate tensions in Europe between Moscow and Washington. Thanks to Bush Europe faces Russian nuclear missile threat

Also on that front and as a result of direct instigation to war Three days after the Czech Republic signed an agreement with the United States to host a tracking radar for an antiballistic missile system that Russia vehemently opposes, the authorities in Prague said the flow of Russian oil to their country was beginning to dwindle. In a statement on Friday, Czech officials declined to link the reduced supply to the deal signed Tuesday in Prague. Still, though the flow of oil can vary for technical reasons, it was clear that the Czechs suspected a connection and intended to ask the Russians to explain the decline. Russia maintains that the missiles meant to shoot down other missiles pose a threat to its own nuclear deterrence. The Bush administration says they are intended instead to counter a threat from Iran, which launched nine missiles on Wednesday. Czechs See Oil Flow Fall and Suspect Russian Ire on Missile System

I know just another coincidence! plus on the middle east front Syria caught on! The Syrian president has accused the US president of not being interested in peace in the Middle East, making it impossible for direct talks with Israel to go ahead within the next six months.Bashar al-Assad had asked Nicolas Sarkozy and the US to assist in peace negotiations as the two presidents met in Paris on Saturday ahead of talks by the Union for the Mediterranean. But Al-Assad said that his government will wait for the next administration to enter the White House, and made clear that the US should be closely involved in the process. Assad critical of Bush peace effort

Bush does not want Peace unless it is on his terms. He wants war! Towards that end: we hear Tensions may be rising between Israel and Iran after Tehran’s latest missile test, but the BBC’s Jonathan Marcus suggests it is too early to assume the worst. A high barbed wire fence marks the perimeter of the Palmachim air base. You can easily see the launch containers for US-supplied Patriot air defence missiles, large green rectangular boxes canted up at an angle of 45 degrees. But it is what is not visible that makes Palmachim Israel’s front line in the growing war of words with Tehran. For this is also the base for a battery of Arrow interceptors, the weapon Israel is counting on to defend itself against a potential missile attack from Iran.

I asked one man in East Jerusalem what he thought. Was he worried about an Iranian missile attack? “Not at all,” he replied with a grin. “You remember Saddam Hussein’s rockets,” he said. “Well, look what happened to him! The Iranians will go the same way.” A ‘new Persia’? That the views of a Palestinian from East Jerusalem should be so in tune with the Israeli mainstream illustrates the curious coalition That Iran’s regional prominence has created. Israel, the United States, and many of its Arab allies in the region are eager to contain the rise of this new Persia. Iran and Israel’s war of words

That will never happen without war and Congress better initiate emergency Legislation to control Bush’s power to initiate war before he has a chance to beat them to the punch one again. The perfect manufactured storm from beginning to end is about to come to a head and this will dwarf WW2 and the Great Depression combined and be a Hell of a lot longer!

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Iran continues to test missiles,

I wanted to discuss FISA as I received an interesting assortment of information on it yesterday, I also wanted to discuss Russia as they are flexing their military muscle over Georgia. However once again I must digress as events with Iran and our response got more interesting than usual. I now believe I have been right all along as to HAARP (High Frequency Active Aural Research Program), its use in the middle east, and its usefulness. In light of what Rice said I looked into HAARP again and found an extremely interesting video I recommend everyone watch!

This morning I woke to hear Iran continues to flex its muscles and it is serving its purpose of getting us much closer to confrontation! Iran test-fires more missiles, says Iran’s Press TV, one day after other test-fires.Rice: U.S. determined to prevent Iran from threatening its interests or those of allies Adds that missile defense shield in Eastern Europe could help head off threat. Israel to display an advanced aircraft that is capable of spying on Iran US vows to defend against Iran missile threat

After Hearing what Rice said I now believe Iran is playing right into Bush’s hand but first Iran had a second day of missile tests as well as Hoot torpedoes known as the fastest in the world!

Read more

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Trying to force a regime change in Iran the old fashion way-through covert ops.

The old fashioned way is using clandestine and/or covert ops by various US governmental agencies. The usual agencies are the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Seymour Hersh addresses these operations in his latest article for the New Yorker.

Mr. Hersh received the information on new covert ops against Iran from various military, intelligence, and congressional sources, per his article. The President received funding for these ops late last year from the Democratic-controlled Congress. The dollar amount Bush was seeking is in the ballpark of $400 million.

Christ, that is some ballpark isn’t it? If you think this is something new in Bush’s War on Terror, think again. From Hersh’s article in July’s New Yorker:

Clandestine operations against Iran are not new. United States Special Operations Forces have been conducting cross-border operations from southern Iraq, with Presidential authorization, since last year. These have included seizing members of Al Quds, the commando arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and taking them to Iraq for interrogation, and the pursuit of “high-value targets” in the President’s war on terror, who may be captured or killed. But the scale and the scope of the operations in Iran, which involve the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), have now been significantly expanded, according to the current and former officials. Many of these activities are not specified in the new Finding, and some congressional leaders have had serious questions about their nature.

Serious questions? No…really? Who the hell wouldn’t  have serious questions about such actions by our government? Well, the Gang of Eight has been briefed as well as the upper echelons of the Republican and Democratic Congressional leadership. When such covert ops are to begin, the President must issue what is known as a “Presidential Finding“. This is a highly classified executive directive from Bush and its similar to an Executive Order. for a peek into this PF, Hersh has this:

“The Finding was focused on undermining Iran’s nuclear ambitions and trying to undermine the government through regime change,” a person familiar with its contents said, and involved “working with opposition groups and passing money.” The Finding provided for a whole new range of activities in southern Iran and in the areas, in the east, where Baluchi political opposition is strong, he said.

Evidently the congress critter’s with questions about these tactics/operations were appeased since the funding for these operations did get approved by both the Senate and the House. This is all done in secret of course. Interestingly enough, this all came to pass right around the time the NIE came out which stated Iran had stopped work on their nuclear weapons program in 2003.

Can you smell the irony? I can..but I digress.

So BushCo is pushing all the buttons that need to be pushed for his attack on Iran. There are, however, substantial opinions, Robert Gates among them, that bombing Iran would be a huge clusterfuck that would see our children’s children fighting Jihadists, and not only abroad but here on US soil. Again, from Hersh’s article:

A Democratic senator told me that, late last year, in an off-the-record lunch meeting, Secretary of Defense Gates met with the Democratic caucus in the Senate. (Such meetings are held regularly.) Gates warned of the consequences if the Bush Administration staged a preëmptive strike on Iran, saying, as the senator recalled, “We’ll create generations of jihadists, and our grandchildren will be battling our enemies here in America.” Gates’s comments stunned the Democrats at the lunch, and another senator asked whether Gates was speaking for Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney. Gates’s answer, the senator told me, was “Let’s just say that I’m here speaking for myself.”

Whoa, isn’t that some shit? The Joint Chiefs of Staff aren’t crazy about BushCo’s plan to bomb Iran. Neither are plenty of “the four-star officers who direct military operations around the world”. Before he was shit-canned, Admiral William Fallon, who until recently was the head of U.S. Central Command, was a very vocal advocate for NOT bombing the bejesus out of Iran. Admiral Fallon has quite a bit to say to Mr. Hersh on the subject of Iran and the covert ops:

“Did I bitch about some of the things that were being proposed? You bet. Some of them were very stupid.”

The Democratic leadership’s agreement to commit hundreds of millions of dollars for more secret operations in Iran was remarkable, given the general concerns of officials like Gates, Fallon, and many others. “The oversight process has not kept pace—it’s been coöpted” by the Administration, the person familiar with the contents of the Finding said. “The process is broken, and this is dangerous stuff we’re authorizing.”

I too wonder wtf the Democratic leadership was thinking to approve of these smarmy under-handed tactics while in public they all proclaim that Bush and his minions should be talking to Iran, not bombing them and most certainly not trying to bring down their government. The Democratic presumptive Presidential nominee, Barack Obama has said numerous times that talking not bombing is the only way to affect change in Iran.

BushCo has pushed the envelope when it comes to instigating bullshit with Iran. He attempts to egg them on with rhetoric that inflames and incites the Iran government and their religious leaders is a monthly, if not weekly tirade by the Asshat-in-Chief. There is no Congressional Oversight on these operations because everything is secret and Bush has given himself the power to conduct any and all operations he sees fit under the guise of the “War on Terror”.

Yet Congress gave Bush the money to conduct these types of covert operations inside of Iran, knowing full well that once they signed the check..they would no longer be kept in the loop as to what was being done, how it was being conducted and where. With this Presidential Finding being a top secret affair, no one can speak publicly against Bush about these clandestine operations being carried out in Iran.

The fact that these operations also include paying money to the dissent organizations inside Iran to carry out various bombings and killings of the Revolutionary Guard top brass is raising the ire of the mullahs and the Iranian government. These folks might be wingnuts, but they aren’t stupid–they know America is behind most if not all the strife currently taking place in Iran by either supplying the dissidents with money or weapons or both.

Which means if the Iranian government starts jailing and killing people that they deem as dissidents..their blood is on our hands.

Read the rest of the Hersh writeup at the link..and watch the short CNN interview of Hersh regarding his article in the New Yorker below. Crooks and Liars has the CNN transcript here.

If Bush can get away with it, and everything so far says he can..he will bomb Iran before he leaves office..bet on it.

Crossposted at Bring It On!

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Israel, Iran, the US: Our future is tied but not good!

jim joiner has graciously agreed to post for sirens and we couldn’t be more pleased. jim has his own blog, an average american patriot, where he lays out the big issues of the day- and doesn’t candy coat the truth. i have had the pleasure of talking gardening and sustainable living with jim- as he used to live on a subsistence farm when he was younger- and he is an incredible resource for information. jim, thank you and we welcome you to sirens. betmo

We heard about preparations yesterday but today I have both sides and the consequences of an Israeli attack on Iran! I have been saying for years now that an Israeli attack on Iran was unavoidable and long in the planning. I have done numerous stories on it saying coming to Israel’s aid will be our way of getting at Iran. Israel has long declared their willingness to attack if necessary and are now thanks to us armed, prepared, and are practicing!

American military officials say Israel launched a major military exercise that appeared to be aimed in part at demonstrating its ability to stage an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Israel’s military refused to publicly confirm or deny whether the exercise was a rehearsal for a potential bombing attack. But a senior Israeli Air Force official close to the operation told FOX News that the military is preparing for all possibilities with Iran, and during this exercise was testing its refueling capabilities. The source said helicopters were even used to practice how to respond to a downed plane. An Israeli fighter pilot also confirmed to FOX News that he took part in the mock air mission in mid-May. Pentagon officials said Israel sent dozens of aircraft on the large-scale mission in the eastern Mediterranean.The aircraft used in the drill, F-15s and F-16s, flew a distance of about 900 miles — similar to the distance between Israel and uranium-enrichment facilities at Natanz, Iran, officials said. One defense official said the exercise could be taken as a show of force to Iran and a demonstration to the world that Israel is serious about the need to challenge the country’s nuclear program — and might be prepared to do so militarily.

“They have been conducting some large-scale exercises — they live in a tough neighborhood,” one U.S. official said, though he offered no other recent examples. Another defense official told FOX News that the “dry run” was the second time in three months Israel has carried out such a drill. The official said the reports on the mission were probably the result of a deliberate leak from the Pentagon to send a signal to Iran — and even Israel — about a potential strike against Iran.Privately, Pentagon officials grimace at the idea of Israel striking Iran, fearing the unintended consequences of such an attack.The Jerusalem Post reported that a senior cleric in Iran warned Israel, in response to the drill, that it would react to such a strike with a “strong blow.” The New YorkTimes first reported Friday that more than 100 Israeli fighter jets took part in the maneuvers over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece. Citing undisclosed American officials, it said the exercise appeared to be an effort to focus on long-range strikes. “They wanted us to know, they wanted the Europeans to know and they wanted the Iranians to know,” a Pentagon official told the Times. “There’s a lot of signaling going on at different levels.”(okay we know)

The source said the air force got permission from the countries along the Mediterranean to fly the mission. The Israeli Air Force needed permission to conduct the exercise from all the countries whose air space was entered, according to the official. The Israeli planes flew above civilian air space to avoid disrupting any passenger jets. U.S. officials, however, did not believe Israel had decided to attack Iran or think such a strike was imminent. Asked to comment, the Israeli military issued a statement saying only that the Israeli air force “regularly trains for various missions in order to confront and meet the challenges posed by the threats facing Israel.” Israeli military analyst Martin Van Creveld of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University said military preparations for a possible attack are indeed under way.

“Israel has been talking about this possibility for a long time, that it would not take an Iranian nuclear weapon lying down. And it has been practicing the operation or operations for a long time,” he said. But though an Israeli strike would likely be able to “paralyze the most important Iranian nuclear installations,” it probably won’t be able to destroy the program entirely, Van Creveld said. “I would be very surprised if Israel can really knock out every part of this program, which by all accounts appears to be large and well-concealed and well-dispersed,” he said. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev offered no comment beyond the military’s statement. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he prefers that Iran’s nuclear ambitions be halted by diplomatic means, but has pointedly declined to rule out military action. In an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel published on Wednesday, Olmert said the current international sanctions against Iran would probably not succeed alone, adding there were “many things that can be done economically, politically, diplomatically and militarily.” Asked if Israel was capable of taking military action against Iran, Olmert said, “Israel always has to be in a position to defend itself against any adversary and against any threat of any kind.” Israeli Military Demonstrates Ability to Attack Iran, U.S. Officials Say

*Personally I believe it will open up a hornets nest and Russia if not China will protect their interests and help Iran. Israel has long feared a three pronged attack from Iran, Syria, and Hamas. There are on going efforts to mitigate the threat from Syria and hopefully have a peaceful neighbor in Palestine as the inevitable war with Iran comes closer. In response to learning about Israel’s preparations Iran has said it considers a military attack on its nuclear facilities by Israel as “impossible”. “Such audacity to embark on an assault against the interests and territorial integrity of our country is impossible, said spokesman Gholam Hoseyn Elham. The statement follows reports in the US media that Israeli aerial maneuvers over the eastern Mediterranean were a possible test-run for a strike on Iran. Iran discounts ‘attack by Israel

Impossible or not they are prepared! Iran would respond to an Israeli attack on nuclear facilities with a “heavy blow,” a senior cleric said, following a New York Times report that Israel carried out an exercise that could prepare it for such a strike. Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami leading Friday prayers in Tehran, said today that Iran favored dialogue and would resist “mischievous acts,” the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said. Such an attack would prompt an “uproar on the part of our nation,” Khatami said. “If enemies, especially Israelis and their U.S. supporters, wish to speak in the language of force, they should rest assured they will be dealt a heavy blow on the face by the Iranian nation,” the ayatollah said, according to IRNA.

Khatami spoke after the report in today’s Times that the Israeli military had carried out maneuvers this month over the eastern Mediterranean with more than 100 F-16 and F-15 fighters as well as refueling tankers. Citing unidentified U.S. officials, the report said that the 900-mile (1,450-kilometer) range exercise could be a rehearsal for an attack against the Iranian nuclear plant in Natanz and Iran’s long-range conventional missiles. Iran doesn’t recognize Israel and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly predicted the end of the Jewish state. Crude oil rose today following the Times report that Israel held a rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iranian nuclear targets, and as the weaker dollar enhanced the appeal of commodities as a currency hedge. Iran Would Respond to Attack With `Heavy Blow

** Just wait until you see what else happens as a result of Israel attacking Iran and our inevitable involvement! Can anyone say gas and food rationing and that is just the beginning? As you know, fighting terrorism was merely the excuse to impose this so called new world order. The other main powers are doing the same damn thing. All it means is hell for a future and again as I say unless bringing about the end of days as I think it is, is the goal we are in more than serious trouble because someone will have to live in the mess that is left. Again as you know, I have said numerous times, this will dwarf the hundred years war in length dwarfing WW2 and the great depression combined. It is getting closer and it will not matter who is our President. They will run to Israel’s aid and get this entire new world order Forever War going.

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