persian // Current

Funny picture of the day - This is Sparta

Funny picture of the day- This is Sparta

susuru
added this
11 days ago
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6 comments

Kaye-Ree's 2nd second single, "Reality" is on the rise in Europe...

"Reality" is Kaye-Ree´s second single off her album "Endless Melody", produced by... more

wilkinebrutus
added this
18 days ago
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0 comments

1 in 4 people in the world practice Islam

The global Muslim population stands at 1.57 billion, meaning that nearly 1 in 4 people... more

AwesomeJosh
added this
1 month ago
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5 comments

OBAMA PRAISES NEDA IN NOBEL SPEECH

"The young woman who marches silently in the streets on behalf of her right to be... more

WhiteNoise
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1 month ago
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5 comments

The Iran Attack

The Iran Attack Plan

By ANTHONY H. CORDESMAN

When the Israeli army's then-Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Halutz was asked in 2004 how far Israel would go to stop Iran's nuclear program, he replied: "2,000 kilometers," roughly the distance been the two countries.

Israel's political and military leaders have long made it clear that they are considering taking decisive military action if Iran continues to develop its nuclear program. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned at the United Nations this week that "the most urgent challenge facing this body is to prevent the tyrants of Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons."

Reporting by the International Atomic Energy Agency and other sources has made it clear that whether or not Iran ties all of its efforts into a formal nuclear weapons program, it has acquired all of the elements necessary to make and deliver such weapons. Just Friday, Iran confirmed that it has been developing a second uranium-enrichment facility on a military base near Qom, doing little to dispel the long-standing concerns of Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the U.S. that Iran is developing nuclear weapons.

Bryan Christie
Iran has acquired North Korean and other nuclear weapons design data through sources like the sales network once led by the former head of Pakistan's nuclear program, A. Q. Khan. Iran has all of the technology and production and manufacturing capabilities needed for fission weapons. It has acquired the technology to make the explosives needed for a gun or implosion device, the triggering components, and the neutron initiator and reflectors. It has experimented with machine uranium and plutonium processing. It has put massive resources into a medium-range missile program that has the range payload to carry nuclear weapons and that makes no sense with conventional warheads. It has also worked on nuclear weapons designs for missile warheads. These capabilities are dispersed in many facilities in many cities and remote areas, and often into many buildings in each facility—each of which would have to be a target in an Israeli military strike.

It is far from certain that such action would be met with success.The Iran Attack Plan By ANTHONY H. CORDESMAN When the Israeli army's then-Deputy... more

remanns
added this
2 months ago
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4 comments

The real Muslim punk underground

Michael Muhammad Knight's 2003 novel, The Taqwacores, imagined punk rockers who... more

JulyJones
added this
4 months ago
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6 comments

IRAN: Protesters advised to carry roses as weapons

Keep quiet under all circumstances, the circular advises those planning to march in... more

capt_ayhab
added this
5 months ago
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1 comment

Crocodile Tears for Iranians

By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 5 July 2009

[TEHRAN BUREAU] Elections in Iran, whether presidential, parliamentary, or even for city councils, are always preceded by great debates over a simple issue: to vote or not to vote. The typical turnout in Iranian elections is around 60% of eligible voters. Turnout has never exceeded 85%, which was attained in the presidential election of June 12, 2009. (One exception is the April 1979 referendum right after the revolution, which holds the record for turnout. Iranians were asked to cast a vote either in favor of the continuation of the monarchy or an Islamic Republic, which was not defined.) So, the vote-or-not debates are generally aimed at encouraging or discouraging the 20% of eligible voters who decide to vote on certain occasions (as they did last month, and also in 1997 and 2001, the two times in which Mohammad Khatami was elected president).

Iran’s presidential election of June 12 was no different. But that debate in Iran was practically settled as soon as Khatami announced several months ago that he would run for president. Huge crowds greeted him everywhere he went. After Khatami announced that he would withdraw in favor of Mir Hossein Mousavi and threw his support behind him, the same huge crowds began greeting Mousavi, which gave rise to the Green Movement. A great majority of Iranians came to reason that by voting they could remove Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from the presidency, and hence create a possibility for a better future.

The situation was different outside Iran. A part of the exiled opposition (if they can be called such), which included hard-core royalists, supporters of the Mojahedin-e Khalgh, and a group of politicians and journalists who emigrated from Iran in the past few years, called for boycotting the election. Given that the MEK is nothing more than a terrorist cult, I will not discuss them any further. The royalists, who are after regime change in Iran, and others, who were vehemently opposed to voting, argued, as they always do, that elections in Iran are not meaningful, and that it does not matter whether the people vote or not. But after the surge in the popularity of Mousavi, they mostly fell silent.

Among the War Party in the United States, made up of those Republican and Democrats who favor a militaristic approach to foreign policy, the debate about Iran’s presidential election was, up to 2005, always the same. Prior to Ahmadinejad becoming Iran’s president in 2005, and particularly when Khatami was president, the neoconservatives, the War Party and others always mocked him for being powerless. On the eve of Iran’s presidential election of 2005, George W. Bush declared that in Iran power is held by “an unelected few,” meaning that elections were inconsequential. But after Ahmadinejad was elected and began using his incendiary, but inconsequential rhetoric about the Holocaust and Israel, the War Party and the Israel lobby transformed him into the most powerful man in Iran, even comparing him to Adolph Hitler.

It is well known that Iran’s president, while influential to some extent, is not the ultimate decision maker when it comes to foreign policy. But, regardless, the War Party, the neoconservatives, and the Israel lobby transformed Ahmadinejad into the most powerful man on earth, a mad man who, if he got his hands on a nuclear weapon, would not hesitate to use it against Israel. They even prayed that the U.S. would attack Iran, even though there is no evidence that Iran is interested in making nuclear weapons.

ContinuedBy MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 5 July 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] Elections in Iran,... more

capt_ayhab
added this
5 months ago
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12 comments

Poetry From Iran, One Tweet At A Time

Persians are known for their poetry. So it is not surprising that following Iran's... more

atomiclegion
added this
5 months ago
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10 comments

Jailed reformists have been tortured in an attempt to force them into TV "confessions"

EXCERPTS: Jailed Iranian reformists have been tortured in an attempt to force them... more

capt_ayhab
added this
5 months ago
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2 comments

Burtality In Iran. Live phone call from Iran to CNN

This is beyond belief! The world must stand up against such brutality! TEHRAN, Iran... more

capt_ayhab
added this
5 months ago
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0 comments

Tehran Protests Turn Into "Bloodbath"

(CBS/AP) Last Updated 1:48 p.m. EDT A demonstration near Iran's parliament turned... more

capt_ayhab
added this
5 months ago
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7 comments

'Courageous' women front Iran's resistance

Excerpts: Opposition a reaction to measures pushing females to the sidelines Jun... more

capt_ayhab
added this
5 months ago
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8 comments

Iran - Students Shot While Protesting

Iranian students were shot while protesting in Iran after a suspicious outcome to the... more

toreyray
added this
5 months ago
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0 comments

Iranian Woman killed While Protesting - Graphic

A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by... more

toreyray
added this
5 months ago
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9 comments

Israel papers: new era in US ties

Commentators in Israeli papers interpreted US President Barack Obama's address to the... more

capt_ayhab
added this
6 months ago
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0 comments

Israeli Reaction to Presidents Trip to Muslim world

How sad and racist these Israeli's react to the most genuine reach out by President... more

capt_ayhab
added this
6 months ago
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2 comments

How Israel Fabricated Iran Nuclear Document !

Report Ties Dubious Iran Nuclear Docs to Israel by Gareth Porter, June 04, 2009... more

capt_ayhab
added this
6 months ago
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3 comments

PJB: Did Bibi Box Obama In?

EXCERPTS By Patrick J. Buchanan On Sept. 20, 2002, as the War Party was beating... more

capt_ayhab
added this
6 months ago
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0 comments

An Embarrassing Book of Misinformation by Ronen Bergman - The Secret War with Iran

EXCERPTS:
BOOK REVIEW
A flawed study of ‘rogue' Iran
The Secret War with Iran by Ronen Bergman

Reviewed by Mahan Abedin

The geopolitical rise of Iran and the undoubted successes of its clerical leadership in countering American influence and interests in the Middle East have sparked an intense interest in the institutions and personalities that underpin Iranian success on the international stage.

Specifically, there has been a concerted interest in the study of the Iranian intelligence services, both from academic and journalistic points of view. The Israeli investigative journalist Ronen Bergman's The Secret War with Iran: The 30-year Covert Struggle for Control of a 'Rogue' State falls neatly into the latter category. This politically-charged and ideological title, with its emphasis on

"rogue" state, is a fitting description of the contents of the book. It is often said that a book should not be judged by its cover, but in Bergman's case, the cover sets the stage for the many assumptions and presuppositions that inform his narrative.

Bergman sets out to "situate" a collection of anecdotal evidence and sources (that are not referenced properly) into a meta-narrative that fits neatly into a right-wing Israeli and American view of post-revolutionary Iran. Bergman's work is less a serious study into the covert intelligence wars between Iran and the West than an ideologically-driven exercise to frame Iran and its leadership as a "terrorist" state bent on undermining the international system.

At the center of it all is Israeli security and Bergman's unstated belief that this security (or a right-wing conception of it) should inform the considerations and priorities of the leaders of the Western world. Bergman may be a talented investigative journalist and a credible student of intelligence studies, but he falls into the trap that bedevils Israeli researchers and commentators of all political stripes; namely the simplistic narrative that divides the world between "us" and "them" from the vantage point of Israeli legitimacy and impunity.

First and foremost, Bergman clearly knows very little about Iran, its history, cultures and people. He seems to be inspired by the writings of the sensational (and widely discredited) Iranian journalist Amir Taheri. Indeed, the first two chapters of the book (the Twilight of the Iranian Monarchy and Death to the Infidels) are suffused with the journalistic hyperbole that is the mainstay of Taheri's books on Iran and the Middle East.

More embarrassingly for Bergman he makes costly mistakes. For instance, he identifies the forerunners of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as the "Revolutionary Organization of the Masses of the Islamic Republic"; no such awkward-sounding organization existed and the IRGC itself was formally established in May 1979, a fact that seems to have escaped Bergman's research.

An even costlier mistake is Bergman's description of the SAVAK acronym as the "Royal Organization for Security and Intelligence"; in fact it was the "National Intelligence and Security Organization". These mistakes may be dismissed as minor and insignificant, but given Bergman's role as a serious student of intelligence and security services (he claims to have completed a PhD on Mossad under the tutelage of Cambridge University's Christopher Andrew, the leading scholar on intelligence history) these mistakes cast a shadow of doubt on his knowledge and the thoroughness of his research.EXCERPTS: BOOK REVIEW A flawed study of ‘rogue' Iran The Secret War with Iran by... more

capt_ayhab
added this
6 months ago
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0 comments

tagged w/ persian

Funny picture of the day - This is Sparta

Kaye-Ree's 2nd second single, "Reality" is on the rise in Europe...

1 in 4 people in the world practice Islam

OBAMA PRAISES NEDA IN NOBEL SPEECH

The Iran Attack

The real Muslim punk underground

IRAN: Protesters advised to carry roses as weapons

Crocodile Tears for Iranians

Poetry From Iran, One Tweet At A Time

Jailed reformists have been tortured in an attempt to force them into TV "confessions"

Burtality In Iran. Live phone call from Iran to CNN

Tehran Protests Turn Into "Bloodbath"

'Courageous' women front Iran's resistance

Iran - Students Shot While Protesting

Iranian Woman killed While Protesting - Graphic

Israel papers: new era in US ties

Israeli Reaction to Presidents Trip to Muslim world

How Israel Fabricated Iran Nuclear Document !

PJB: Did Bibi Box Obama In?

An Embarrassing Book of Misinformation by Ronen Bergman - The Secret War with Iran

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