US Federal prosecutors are seeking to take over four mosques and a New York City skyscraper owned by a Muslim organization they say is controlled by the Iranian government.US Federal prosecutors are seeking to take over four mosques and a New York City... more
BERLIN (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog chief urged Iran on Friday to accept an offer to process its enriched uranium abroad by the end of 2009, and advised Western powers not to impose further sanctions on Tehran.
Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said a plan brokered by the IAEA in which Iran would send low-enriched uranium to Russia and France for conversion into fuel for a Tehran medical reactor was a rare chance to defuse mistrust over its nuclear program.
"I would hope definitely that we'll get an agreement before the end of the year," he told a news conference in Berlin. "I believe frankly the ball is very much in the Iranian court. I hope they will not miss this unique but fleeting opportunity."
ElBaradei, who retires on November 30 after 12 tough years trying to stop the spread of nuclear weapons know-how, praised the role in talks with Iran played by U.S. President Barack Obama, saying he had an initiated a "complete change of policy."
Noting that under Obama the United States had taken a "creative and pragmatic" approach to resolving the impasse over Tehran's nuclear program, ElBaradei used the news conference to send a message directly to the Iranian leadership.
"You need to engage in creative diplomacy, you need to understand that this is the first time that you will have a genuine commitment from an American president to engage you fully, on the basis of respect, with no conditions.
In an interview published in Izvestia, Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of the Kremlin’s security council, said the new doctrine offers “different options to allow the use of nuclear weapons, depending on a certain situation and intentions of a would-be enemy. In critical national security situations, one should also not exclude a preventive nuclear strike against the aggressor.”
What’s more, Patrushev said, Russia is revising the rules for the employment of nukes to repel conventionally armed attackers, “not only in large-scale, but also in a regional and even a local war.”
The Russian Federation is considering the “first strike” option as part of a larger overhaul of military doctrine. The new doctrine, which is supposed to be presented to President Dmitry Medvedev later this year, is supposed to provide “flexible and timely” responses to national security threats.
Iran and Russia have special ties along with Israel and America.In an interview published in Izvestia, Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of the... more
SEOUL, South Korea — President Obama delivered a stern message on Thursday to North Korea and Iran that they risk further sanctions and isolation if they do not rein in their nuclear ambitions.
Appearing at a joint press conference with President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea, Mr. Obama singled out Iran, where leaders have apparently rejected an offer from the West to take Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium to another country to turn it into fuel rods, which would buy time for diplomatic negotiations.
“We’ve seen indications that for internal political reasons or perhaps because they are stuck in some of their own rhetoric, they are unable to get to ‘yes,’ ” Mr. Obama said. “As a consequence, we have begun discussion with our international partners” on sanctions, he said.
He said that over the next few weeks the United States would be developing a package of “potential steps we can take that will indicate our seriousness.”
Mr. Obama’s words were his strongest to date and seemed to signal that he was ready to move to sanctions.
On the North, Mr. Obama said he was sending his North Korea envoy to Pyongyang next month for talks designed to try to get the nation back to the bargaining table. But he warned that even getting the North back to the table would not be enough.
“I want to emphasize that President Lee and I both agree on the need to break the pattern that existed in the past in which North Korea behaves in a provocative fashion, then is willing to return to talks, and then talks for a while, and then leaves the talks and seeks further concessions,” Mr. Obama said.
Mr. Obama’s visit to Seoul is the last — and perhaps easiest — leg of an Asia trip in which he was forced to deal with a newly assertive Japan and an increasingly powerful China.
South Korea quickly proved true the predictions that it would be more accommodating to Mr. Obama, with whom Mr. Lee has been cooperating closely on key issues, including efforts to eventually halt North Korea’s nuclear program.
A number of Iranian lawmakers have called for a probe into the “suspicious” death of a doctor who worked at the controversial Kahrizak detention center south of Tehran, the Aftab-e Yazd newspaper said on Wednesday.
..... http://televisionwashington.com/floater_article1.aspx?lang=en&t=1&id=15757A number of Iranian lawmakers have called for a probe into the “suspicious” death... more
Very beautiful and accurate description of what hapenned in the Iranian election, through the investigation of Neda Agha-Soltan's murder in the streets of Tehran by Basij militia.
Iranian state television reported Tuesday that five people had been sentenced to death over the unrest that followed the country’s disputed presidential election in June. The report quoted a statement by the Justice Department saying that the five were members of terrorist and armed opposition groups. Iran began a trial in August for more than 100 prominent opposition figures and activists over the election protests. The opposition maintains that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected through fraud in the June 12 vote. At least three others caught up in the turmoil have also received death sentences.Iranian state television reported Tuesday that five people had been sentenced to death... more
Newsweek has boiled down the the first decade of this millennium into a seven minute video, highlighting the good, the bad and the unforgettable. From Bush V. Gore, to 9/11, to the iPod, to Borat, to the Iraq war, to Twitter and much, much more. Watch and marvel at this busy decade.
It really makes you remember about all that has changed about that last 10 years around the worldNewsweek has boiled down the the first decade of this millennium into a seven minute... more
Partendo dalla orribile uccisione di un giovane fixer, Ian Old riesce nel compito di svelare la storia e i retroscena politici del rapimento in Afghanistan di un inviato del quotidiano La RepubblicaPartendo dalla orribile uccisione di un giovane fixer, Ian Old riesce nel compito di... more
The United Nations nuclear watchdog has expressed fears that Iran may have other secret nuclear sites following the discovery of the facility hidden in a mountain near the holy city of Qom.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, in a report published today, said the previously secret site at Fordo was in "an advanced state of construction" and was scheduled to start up in 2011.
The IAEA reprimanded Iran for failing to inform it until September about the site, even though construction had begun at least two years ago.
Washington, 16 November (WashingtonTV)—A group of 109 human rights and civil society organizations from around the world have called on the United Nations to condemn human rights violations in Iran, an Iranian human rights group reported on Monday. http://televisionwashington.com/floater_article1.aspx?lang=en&t=1&id=15687Washington, 16 November (WashingtonTV)—A group of 109 human rights and civil society... more
Caspian Makan, a 38 year old Iranian photographer, has had a terrible few months. Amid massive street protests against Iran's government his girlfriend, Neda Agha Soltan, died a bloody and disturbing death. And the whole watched it on YouTube. Things only got worse for Makan from there. He spent months in the dreaded Evin Prison and upon release, decided to flee the country for his own safety.
The Guardian has a long interview with Caspian Makan, now having had smugglers help him escape Iran. A short excerpt:
"On the day of her death, Caspian was out with his camera in another part of the city. "I was taking pictures of the protests and the protesters that day. It was hard to take pictures as the security guards were beating up protesters. I used my mobile's camera when I couldn't use my big camera. It was six to seven in the evening when I started seeing people get shot and injured. I thought of Neda a lot. I was very worried for her. I wanted to call her but the mobile phone system had been disconnected and I couldn't contact her at all. I didn't sleep that night. The terrible scenes were going through my head. I was sitting in front of my computer, looking at the photos I had taken. Around six in the morning my mobile rang. It was Neda's number. But it wasn't her. It was her sister. She said, 'Caspian, Neda is gone!' I didn't understand what she meant. I couldn't believe what she was telling me."
WASHINGTON — International inspectors who gained access to Iran’s newly revealed underground nuclear enrichment plant raised questions in a report released on Monday about whether the country may have also concealed other nuclear factories.
So far Iran has denied that there are other hidden sites in addition to the one built deep underground on a military base north of the holy city of Qum. The inspectors were given access to the half-built plant late last month and reported that they had found it in “an advanced state” of construction, but that no centrifuges — the fast-spinning machines needed to make nuclear fuel – had yet been installed.
They confirmed American and European intelligence reports that the site was built to house about 3,000 centrifuges, enough to produce enough material for one or two nuclear weapons a year. But that is too small to be useful in the production of fuel for civilian nuclear power, which is what Iran insists was the intended purpose of the site.
The plant’s existence was revealed in September, as many as seven years after construction had begun.
The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors came just two days after President Obama, expressing increasing impatience with Iran’s responses in nuclear negotiations, indicated that he would begin to plan for far more stringent economic sanctions against Tehran. He was joined during that announcement by President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia, but Mr. Medvedev was vague about whether Russia was now prepared to join in those sanctions. Mr. Obama was expected to take up the issue on Tuesday with President Hu Jintao of China, where Mr. Obama is on a state visit. China, like Russia, has historically resisted sanctions on Iran.
In its report, the agency said that Iran’s belated “declaration of the new facility reduces the level of confidence in the absence of other nuclear facilities under construction, and gives rise to questions about whether there were any other nuclear facilities in Iran which had not been declared to the agency.”
Both I.A.E.A. officials and American and European diplomats and nuclear experts have argued that the existence of the hidden facility at Qum would make little sense unless there was a network of related facilities to feed it with raw nuclear fuel.
Iran denied that it had any other facilities that it had failed to report to the agency. But in a letter to the nuclear inspectors, parts of which were quoted in the report to the board of the I.A.E.A., Iranian officials said they were motivated to build the underground plant because of “the threats of military attacks against Iran,” a reference to the assumption that Israel, the United States or other Western powers might take military action against its main plant for uranium enrichment, located at Natanz.
At least two Saudi soldiers have been killed in the latest fighting, and the conflict is further raising tensions in the region, with Iran warning Saudi Arabia not to interfere in Yemen's internal affairs.
"The news proves that the US government has been the accomplice and assistance in such suppressive measures."
The Iranian parliament also called on the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to intervene to stop the killing of Yemeni Muslims.
Hashem Ahelbarra reports from Sana'a, the Yemeni capital, where he's been gauging the fallout from this ongoing battle.At least two Saudi soldiers have been killed in the latest fighting, and the conflict... more
US President Barack Obama on Sunday won the strongest backing yet from Russia on the Iranian nuclear crisis as he warned that Tehran was "running out of time". Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said after talks with Obama that neither he nor the US leader were satisfied with the pace of progress, as Tehran drags its feet over its response to a UN-sponsored nuclear enrichment deal.US President Barack Obama on Sunday won the strongest backing yet from Russia on the... more
“Yellow Cake” is a short animated film by the award-winning Canadian animator Nick Cross. Cross explains that he got the idea for the film in 2003, in light of speculation during the Bush administration that Iraq was buying uranium powder called “Yellow Cake.” Yellow Cake Uranium was one of the Weapons of Mass Destruction that Iraq allegedly possessed. Cross’s fantastic animated epic becomes a modern parable of terrorism and catastrophic war, a lamentable tragedy featuring geopolitical bullying, social unrest and worker revolt. In the end, as with most revolutions, the revolt is both crushed by foreign intervention and corrupted from the inside until it becomes as evil as the regime the workers had originally fought.
“Yellow Cake” initially lures the viewer into a tale of pleasant mirth, filled with adorable blue creatures who spend all day baking and then eating their own exquisitely delicious yellow cakes. But soon the tide turns, and the small town of happy little bakers is driven to terrorism by the greed of their leader and cake-hungry fat cats, resulting in the town’s ultimate catastrophic destruction. It seems that no matter what they do, the oppressed have no hope left.
This piece presents a number of colorful illustrations from the film, as well as the remarkable animated short, “Yellow Cake.”
Please visit my website and view the colorful illustrations and this fantastic short animated film:
Iran's greatest master of traditional music, Mohammad Reza Shajarian, always avoided open clashes with his country's ruling hard-line clerics.
So it was a bombshell when Shajarian - so revered that his audiences pelt him with roses - demanded state radio and TV stop broadcasting his music as a protest against the government. The state broadcaster complied.
What pushed Shajarian into action was the government's brutal crackdown on protests over the June 12 election that Shajarian and millions of other Iranians believe fraudulently gave a second term to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"After what happened, I said 'no way' and threatened to file a complaint against them if they continued to use my music," Shajarian told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
Iran's political turmoil has raised a culture clash as hundreds of musicians, actors, filmmakers, poets and writers have spoken out against the government for its suppression of dissent and arrest of thousands. In a particular embarrassment to the government, the filmmaker daughter of Ahmadinejad's own culture adviser sought asylum in Germany in October, citing the crackdown at home.
The government has responded by accusing artists of falling prey to foreign "enemies" and by stepping up pressure for their work to toe its ideological line. More than 100 artists have had their works banned or have been prevented from traveling abroad. Others have been detained.
Ahmadinejad's art adviser, Javad Shamaqdari, last summer threatened to ban artists from film festivals. "The enemy, which has been thwarted in its plans for a velvet coup, is trying to keep up the fever of their subversive activities at foreign art and cinematic events," he said in Tehran.
One TV producer says that since the election, authorities have unofficially barred actors who are considered unacceptable from appearing on shows.
"They tell us 'give us a list of artists you want to use.' When we give them the list, they say 'this and this person are not suitable,'" said the producer, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
State TV chiefs even seek to prevent anyone in a program from wearing green - the color of the opposition movement - and they've gone so far as to cut scenes of actors wearing green clothes in films made before the election, the producer said.
In Iran, dissent by artists is more than just a matter of celebrities mouthing off about politics: It has a powerful resonance among the public. Arts and culture hold a special place for Iranians. At family parties they read poetry aloud or bring out a santour, a dulcimer-like instrument, and sing songs of their favorite composers.
The shrines of poets Hafez and Saadi in the central city of Shiraz are among the most frequented sites in the country. When faced with a tough decision, Iranians will sometimes pick a verse of Hafez' poetry at random and try to divine their fate from it.
Since its creation in 1979, the Islamic Republic has always kept a tight grip on artists' work, but artists say the suppression in the post-election period has been among the toughest.
"It's much greater now because of the stand most of the artists have taken against them," said Shajarian. "For now, they're moving very calmly. But in the future, I know there will be a confrontation between the artists and this government."
Since the election, Shajarian and others have been making pointed messages with their art. In September, Shajarian sang "Zaban e Atash o Ahan" (The language of Fire and Iron), based on a well-known poem in which he pleads: "Lay down your gun. Come, sit down, talk, hear. Perhaps the light of humanity will get through to your heart too."
During his last tour of Europe in September, he sang "Brotherhood in Arms," calling on Iranians to unite.
"It's a message that I always had for the Iranian people: how to love each other, how to be good and kind to each other, to be united," Shajarian said. "But now it's taken on a more important meaning."
One of Iran's most prominent poets, Simin Behbahani, put out her own plea. "Stop the screaming, mayhem and bloodshed," she lamented in her latest work. "Stop making God's creatures mourn with tears. Stop recklessly throwing my country to the wind."
More than 100 Iranian poets have boycotted government-sponsored literary awards and contests, saying since the June election works of many poets have been censored, while others have been threatened or imprisoned. Dozens of cartoonists and documentary filmmakers stayed away from state festivals in Tehran in recent months.
Directors and actors from Iran's acclaimed cinema industry, which has a strong international following, have also provoked authorities' anger by showing up at international film festivals in the opposition's green.
Filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who was briefly detained during a July demonstration in Tehran, wore a green scarf at a Montreal festival over the summer. In apparent retaliation, authorities barred him from traveling abroad for another festival in October, along with several others planning to attend.
When filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf won a lifetime achievement award at the Nuremberg International Human Rights Film Festival in October, he dedicated it to Mehdi Karoubi, one of the two defeated opposition presidential candidates.
But what made news at the Nuremberg festival was the defection of the daughter of Ahmadinejad's cultural adviser.
Narges Kalhor, 25, filed for asylum after the screening of her short film, "Rake," which is based on the Franz Kafka short story "In the Penal Colony," describing a torture chamber in which the crimes of prisoners are tattooed on their bodies. Although she made the film a year ago, before the uprising, Kalhor said it was influenced by human rights violations that routinely occur in Iran.
"Certainly, I think an Iranian has to be in a certain condition to want to make such a film. I could have instead made a love story, which would have been much easier and happier. One must ask why I took on making such a film," said Kalhor in a telephone interview from Germany.
Angered - and likely embarrassed - by his daughter's defection, Mehdi Kalhor accused the Iranian opposition of supporting her attempts to challenge the government. He has not had contact with her for a year and a half.
"This issue is one of the symbols of a media and soft war that opposition has launched," he said, according to the official IRNA news agency.
Washington, 13 November (WashingtonTV)—Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi assured the Anti-Defamation League [ADL] that his country would not help Iran launch a communications satellite, the ADL said in a statement released on Thursday. http://televisionwashington.com/floater_article1.aspx?lang=en&t=2&id=15643Washington, 13 November (WashingtonTV)—Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi... more
NEW YORK – Federal prosecutors took steps Thursday to seize four U.S. mosques and a Fifth Avenue skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization long suspected of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government.
In what could prove to be one of the biggest counterterrorism seizures in U.S. history, prosecutors filed a civil complaint in federal court against the Alavi Foundation, seeking the forfeiture of more than $500 million in assets.
The assets include bank accounts; Islamic centers consisting of schools and mosques in New York City, Maryland, California and Houston; more than 100 acres in Virginia; and a 36-story glass office tower in New York.
Confiscating the properties would be a sharp blow against Iran, which has been accused by the U.S. government of bankrolling terrorism and trying to build a nuclear bomb.
A telephone call and e-mail to Iran's U.N. Mission seeking comment were not immediately answered.
John D. Winter, the Alavi Foundation's lawyer, said it intends to litigate the case and prevail. He said the foundation has been cooperating with the government's investigation for the better part of a year.
"Obviously the foundation is disappointed that the government has decided to bring this action," Winter told The Associated Press.
It is extremely rare for U.S. law enforcement authorities to seize a house of worship, a step fraught with questions about the First Amendment right to freedom of religion.
The action against the Shiite Muslim mosques is sure to inflame relations between the U.S. government and American Muslims, many of whom are fearful of a backlash after last week's Fort Hood shooting rampage, blamed on a Muslim American major.
"Whatever the details of the government's case against the owners of the mosques, as a civil rights organization we are concerned that the seizure of American houses of worship could have a chilling effect on the religious freedom of citizens of all faiths and may send a negative message to Muslims worldwide," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
More at link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091113/ap_on_re_us/us_mosque_forfeiture;_ylt=AlQ.hE1EqRn7lH_l1vZQldv9xg8F;_ylu=X3oDMTJuc3A3NTdoBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMTEzL3VzX21vc3F1ZV9mb3JmZWl0dXJlBGNwb3MDMgRwb3MDMgRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrA2ZlZHNtb3ZldG9zZQ--NEW YORK – Federal prosecutors took steps Thursday to seize four U.S. mosques and a... more
Since the end of the Second World War and the mass murder of Jews under the Nazi regime, Germany has made it its historic obligation to help Israel.
The first two U212s were donated by Berlin to the government of Israel after the 1991 Gulf War.
It split the cost of the third with the Jewish state, offering it at an almost symbolic price, local media reported.
"The German government decided to deliver Israel Â… the five vessels and allow its experts to manipulate them in order to provide Tel Aviv with hardware needed to evacuate its entire nuclear weaponry arsenal on an appropriate fleet, while allowing it to be employed in warfare," the Arab monitor reported.
It said the delivery was in violation of German law forbidding the export of military equipment or weapons of non-NATO countries engaged in warfare.
One of the subs delivered by the German government is permanently stationed in the Gulf, and Israeli media have said that the fleet of five vessels could be key in any decision by Israel to launch an attack on Iranian targets from the sea.
An Israeli submarine recently used the Suez Canal for the first time, anchoring in the Red Sea in a journey that would have normally required the Israeli vessel to travel around the coast of Africa.
Escorted in June by Egyptian navy vessels, the move was intended to send a message to Iran.
The delivery of the submarines follows Tehran's missile tests earlier this week.
Israel suspects Iran of trying to develop atomic weapons under the pretext of its civilian nuclear program. Tehran has repeatedly denied the charges, saying it is acting well within its rights.More than ironic, eh?
Apologists and haters: on your marks, get set, GO to... more
