Iran-U.S.A

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

ایران: نیازی به ارتقاء سطح گفتگو با آمریکا نیست


حسینی گفت تغییری در سیاستهای کشورش در قبال آمریکا به وجود نیامده است
سخنگوی وزارت خارجه ایران گفت این کشور، نیازی به ارتقا سطح گفتگوها با آمریکا نمی بیند.
محمد علی حسینی گفت تغییری در سیاستهای کشورش در قبال آمریکا به وجود نیامده است.

نمایندگان ایران و آمریکا تاکنون دو بار بر سر مسائل عراق، در بغداد پشت میز مذاکره نشسته اند.

آقای حسینی روز یکشنبه 4 شهریور در نشست هفتگی خود با خبرنگاران در تهران گفت تاریخ دور بعدی گفتگوهای ایران و آمریکا بر سر مسائل عراق را مقامات عراقی پس از گفتگو با طرفین مشخص خواهند کرد.

این موضع رسمی از سوی سخنگوی وزارت خارجه ایران در حالی ابراز می شود که دو هفته پیش، اکبر هاشمی رفسنجانی رئیس "مجمع تشخیص مصلحت نظام" گفته بود کشورش برای مذاکره با آمریکا "در هر سطحی در مورد مسائل منطقه، مسائل هسته ای و هر مساله ای که وجود دارد "، آماده است.

آقای هاشمی رفسنجانی در عین حال تاکید کرده بود این مذاکرات، درصورتی انجام خواهد شد که غرب "شرط های تحقیر آمیز و غیرقابل قبول" خود را پس بگیرد.

ایالات متحده آمریکا می گوید کماکان بر لزوم توقف کلیه فعالیتهای غنی سازی اورانیوم توسط ایران، بر اساس قطعنامه های سازمان ملل متحد به عنوان پیش شرط مذاکرات تاکید دارد.

سپاه پاسداران

به گزارش ایرنا، خبرگزاری دولتی ایران، محمدعلی حسینی سخنگوی وزارت خارجه این کشور همچنین در مورد قرار گرفتن نام سپاه پاسداران انقلاب ایران در فهرست "سازمانهای تروریستی" از سوی آمریکا، این اقدام را نشانه "تقابل آمریکا با نهادهایی که از جايگاه عالی در نزد مردم بر خوردارند" توصیف کرد.

آقای حسینی گفت "سپاه پاسداران*نهادی مردمی و برخاسته از متن مردم و قانون است (این نهاد) مدافع منافع ملی و امنيت مردم و پاسدار مرزها و تماميت ارضی كشور است".

۲۱۱نماینده مجلس شورای اسلامی ایران نیز چهارشنبه گذشته با صدور بیانیه *ای به تلاش دولتمردان و قانونگذاران آمریکایی برای تروریستی قلمداد کردن سپاه پاسداران واکنش نشان دادند.

در آن بیانیه که در نشست علنی مجلس قرائت شد، از دشمنی آمریکا با سپاه پاسداران تحت عنوان افتخار ملی یاد شده و آمده است: "آمریکا و شخص آقای بوش [رئیس جمهور آمریکا] بدانند که همه ملت ایران در حمایت *از فرزندان رشید پاسدار خویش با همه *توان ایستاده است و اهانت به سپاه را اهانت به همه ملت ایران می *داند".

[Rasputin]

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran warned on Sunday that the authorities would clamp down on university students who it said were in contact with the US administration and seeking to topple the country's rulers.

"We will confront those who are currently studying in universities under the guise of being students and have contact with foreigners and White House statesmen," Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie said.

"They will be confronted because we believe they are not university students but are seeking to destroy the system of the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency.

"I want the university students to prevent the infiltration of such people into their circles so they can have their discussions in peace," he added.

The authorities have in recent months stepped up warnings to students and professors over the dangers of contacts with US academic and political institutions at a time of acute tension over Tehran's nuclear programme.

Iranian universities have long been at the centre of political activism, and 16 students were arrested in July on the anniversary of 1999 student riots sparked when Islamist vigilantes raided university dormitories.

Security forces in May arrested eight students from the Amir Kabir University -- long a hotbed of student activism -- on suspicion of publishing anti-Islamic caricatures in a student newspaper.

Three of those arrested are still in detention while the rest have since been released.

Mohseni Ejeie's stern warning to students also comes amid an ongoing investigation into US-Iranians accused of using their contacts with US institutes to back an American drive to bring down Iran's Islamic system.

Middle East scholar Haleh Esfandiari and urban planning expert Kian Tajbakhsh were both detained in May on charges of harming national security, although Esfandiari was released on bail last week.

Mohseni Ejeie said that "no university student is in detention because of his political ideas," however.

He said that the three Amir Kabir students still in jail -- Ehsan Mansouri, Majid Tavakoli and Ahmad Ghassaban -- had not been released because of the gravity of the charges against them of insulting Islam.

[Rasputin]

In the mid twentieth century, US-Iran relations prospered. Many Americans celebrated Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as a model king. President Lyndon B. Johnson pronounced in 1964: 'What is going on in Iran is about the best thing going on anywhere in the world'.

During the 1970's Iran's Shah propelled Iran into becoming a dynamic middle-east regional power. The Shah implemented broad economic and social reforms, including enhanced rights for women, and religious and ethnic minorities. Economic and educational reforms were adopted, initiatives to cleanse politics of social upheaval were systematized, and the civil service system was reformed. When sectors of society rioted to demand even greater freedom, the Shah promised constitutional reform to favor democracy. In the face of Soviet and fundamentalist Islamic pressures, constitutional reform remained on the back burner, as the Shah built what on paper was the world's fifth or sixth largest armed force. In 1976, it had an estimated 3,000 tanks, 890 helicopter gunships, over 200 advanced fighter aircraft, the largest fleet of hovercraft in any country and 9,000 anti-tank missiles.

The Shah used Iran's military might to address regional crises consistent with foreign relations goals of the United States. The Nixon and Ford administrations endorsed these efforts and allowed the Shah to acquire virtually unlimited quantities of any non-nuclear weapons in the American arsenal.

In accordance with the pleasant US-Iran relations then-existing, President Carter spent New Year's Eve in 1977 with the Shah and toasted Iran as 'an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world'. Nonetheless, between 1975 and 1978, the Shah's popularity fell due to the Carter administration's misguided implementation of human rights policies. The election of Mr. Carter as president of the United States in 1976, with his vocal emphasis on the importance of human rights in international affairs, was a turning point in US-Iran relations. The Shah of Iran was accused of torturing over 3000 prisoners. Under the banner of promoting human rights, Carter made excessive demands of the Shah, threatening to withhold military and social aid. Carter pressured the Shah to release 'political prisoners', whose ranks included radical fundamentalists, communists and terrorists. Many of these individuals are now among the opponents we face in our 'war on terrorism'.

The Carter Administration insisted that the Shah disband military tribunals, demanding they be replaced by civil courts. The effect was to allow trials to serve as platforms for anti-government propaganda. Carter pressured Iran to permit 'free assembly', which encouraged and fostered fundamentalist anti-government rallies. The British government and its MI6 intelligence agency also heightened the Shah's precariousness. The government-controlled BBC presented Iranians with a dossier of twenty hour newscasts detailing the location of all anti-Shah demonstrations and consistent interviews with the exiled outcast Ayatollah Khomeini, making a religious scholar few Iranians knew about into an overnight sensation.


When the Shah was unable to meet the Carter Administration and British demands, the Carter Administration ordered the Central Intelligence Agency to stop $4 million per year in funding to religious Mullahs who then became outspoken and vehement opponents of the Shah. Unfortunately, the Shah's efforts to defuse the volatile situation in Iran failed, despite the grant even of free and democratic elections. Confronted with lack of US support and unleashed Mullah fury, the Shah of Iran fled the country.

Subsequent to the Carter Administration's ill-conceived foreign policy initiative, Iran is now a dungeon. Ayatollah Khomeini's dictatorship executed the Shah's prisoners, predominantly communist militants, along with more than 20,000 pro-Western Iranians. Women were sent back into servitude. Citizens were arrested merely for owning satellite dishes that could tune to Western programs. American diplomats were taken hostage, and the Soviet Union invaded Iran's eastern neighbor Afghanistan as a result of this chaos, allowing it to secure greater influence in Iran and Pakistan. The struggle against the Soviets in Afghanistan, and the defeat of this invading Superpower with help from the United States under President Reagan gave rise to the radicalization and emergence of Muslim zealots like Osama bin Laden. Moreover, within a year of the Shah's ouster, Iran on its western flank was locked into the Iran-Iraq War, in which the U.S. sided with secular Iraq and its military dictator Saddam Hussein.

In retrospect, the Iran-Iraq War would never have occurred had Jimmy Carter not weakened the Shah's regime. This conflict cost the two nations more than 500,000 lives, including thousands of Iranians killed by Saddam Hussein's use of chemical weapons. The Iran-Iraq war triggered the rise of Saddam Hussein as a major power whose invasion of Kuwait was repelled by Desert Storm. The United States refrained from deposing Saddam Hussein in a continuation of the Desert Storm operation out of concern that the resulting 'power vacuum' would be filled by Iran's Ayatollahs.

Thus Jimmy Carter's misguided implementation of human rights policies not only indirectly led to overthrow of the Shah of Iran, but also paved the way for loss of more than 600,000 lives, Iran's rule by Ayatollahs, the Iran-Iraq War, Iraq's Invasion of Kuwait and Desert Storm, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, and the mass murder of Americans and destruction of the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001.

[Rasputin]

[abadani69]

يک ديپلمات معتقد است که همکاري ايران و بازرسان سازمان ملل ممکن است باعث جلوگيري از تحريم هاي جديد بشود اما براي قطعي شدن اين موضوع، ايران بايد همه برنامه هايش را کاملا در اختيار اين سازمان بگذارد.

طبق اعلام مقامات مقرآژانس بين المللي انرژي اتمي سازمان ملل در وين، ايران تا کنون به ابهامات آژانس بين المللي انرژي اتمي سازمان ملل درباره آزمايش پلوتونيوم، که يکي از مواد اوليه بمب اتم محسوب مي شود، پاسخ داده است.

طبق برنامه کاري، ايران بايد پاسخگوي نگراني هاي بوجود آمده که بصورت مستند دست روي پروژه هاي مخفيانه ايران براي ساخت سلاح اتمي گذاشته است، باشد.

مسئله يعدي، بکار انداختن دستگاه هاي سانتريفيوژ حساس براي غني سازي اورانيوم و ساخت رآکتور آب سنگين براي توليد پلوتونيوم است. هر دوي اين مواد مي تواند بعنوان سوخت براي رآکتور هاي اتمي بکار رود که البته کاربرد ديگر آن هسته انفجاري بمب اتمي است.

همه هدف اين است که ايران بتواند به ابهاماتي که براي بازرسان آژانس بين المللي انرژي اتمي که بعد از بيش از چهار سال هنوز نتوانسته اند مشخص کنند که آيا برنامه هاي اتمي ايران صلح آميز است يا خير، تا آخر ماه دسامبر پاسخ بدهد.

آمريکا ايران را متهم مي کند به اين که برنامه هاي اتمي اش سرپوشي است براي ساخت بمب اتم و اينکه براي جلوگيري از تحريم هاي سازمان ملل، آژانس بين المللي انرژي اتمي را به بازي گرفته است.

آمريکا معتقد است که نبايد به ايران اجازه داد تا در مقابل دو تحريم شوراي امنيت سازمان ملل که به منظور توقف غني سازي مشکوک اورانيوم تدوين شده است، بايستد.

آمريکا و دوستانش انگلستان، فرانسه که اعضاي دائمي شوراي امنيت هستند، براي صدور قطعنامه سوم، تلاش مي کنند اما روسيه و چين مي خواهند ببينند که کار همکاري هاي ايران و آژانس بين المللي انرژي اتمي به کجا مي رسد. ايران هم مشخصا نشان داده است که اين همکاري بستگي به اين دارد که سازمان ملل قطعنامه اي صادر نکند.

علي لاريجاني، سرپرست هيئت مذاکره کننده ايران، در اوايل ماه جاري درباره شوراي امنيت گفت: "اگر آنها دست به اقدامات نا معقول بزنند، همکاري ايران و آژانس بي نتيجه خواهد ماند". يک ديپلمات در وين گفت: "اگر شوراي امنيت تحريم هاي بيشتري در نظر بگيرد، همکاري ايران و آژانس از بين خواهد رفت".

مارک فيتزپاتريک، تحليلگر گروه منع توليد سلاح اتمي در لندن، معتقد است: "من گمان مي کنم که ايران با زرنگي وارد اين بازي شده است تا از تحريم هاي بيشتر تا آخر سال، جلوگيري کند. اما آمريکا و انگلستان و فرانسه هم براي صدور سريع قطعنامه اصرار دارند، مگر اينکه ايران به ابهامات آژانس بين المللي انرژي اتمي پاسخي مناسب بدهد".

فيتزپاتريک هم مثل ديپلمات هاي ديگر از اين مسئله ابراز نگراني کرد که آژانس در پي طرح سووالات بيشتري از ايران است، ولي ديگر سووال مهمي باقي نمانده است. طرح کردن سووال بيشتر خطرناک است.

وي معتقد است: "هر بار که ايران به سووالي پاسخ داده است، کامل نبوده است و باعث بوجود آمدن سووالات بيشتر شده است. آنها در پي به دست آوردن آزادي موقت از زندان هستند".

فيتزپاتريک همچنين توافق بر سر برنامه کاري جديد را زير سووال برد که طبق آن، به محض اينکه ابهامات آزانس از بين رفت، بازرسان به صورت عادي به کار خود ادامه بدهند. وي گفت: "به نظر مي رسد با چنين ابلاغي، ايران را براي امضاي پروتکل الحاقي آژانس، محکوم مي کنند".

سفير آمريکا، گرگوري شولت، هفته گذشته گفت که ايران بايد اين پروتکل را قبول کند و به دليل متوقف نکردن غني سازي اورانيوم، همچنان منتظر قطعنامه شوراي امنيت باشد.

ديپلمات اروپايي معتقد است که برنامه کاري که مد نظر مديران آژانس بين المللي انرژي اتمي است که در ماه سپتامبر قرار است با يکديگر ملاقات کنند، سندي نيست که او بتواند امضايش کند.

وي در ادامه گفت: "اين پيشنهاد که بازرسي بازرسان به شکل عادي ادامه پيدا کند، ناقض پروتکل الحاقي است که بر پايه اعتماد متقابل، مانند توقف غني سازي اورانيوم، شکل گرفته است".

[Rasputin]

Misguided rights

In the mid twentieth century, US-Iran relations prospered. Many Americans celebrated Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as a model king. President Lyndon B. Johnson pronounced in 1964: "What is going on in Iran is about the best thing going on anywhere in the world".

During the 1970's Iran's Shah propelled Iran into becoming a dynamic middle-east regional power. The Shah implemented broad economic and social reforms, including enhanced rights for women, and religious and ethnic minorities. Economic and educational reforms were adopted, initiatives to cleanse politics of social upheaval were systematized, and the civil service system was reformed. When sectors of society rioted to demand even greater freedom, the Shah promised constitutional reform to favor democracy.

In the face of Soviet and fundamentalist Islamic pressures, constitutional reform remained on the back burner, as the Shah built what on paper was the world's fifth or sixth largest armed force. In 1976, it had an estimated 3,000 tanks, 890 helicopter gunships, over 200 advanced fighter aircraft, the largest fleet of hovercraft in any country and 9,000 anti-tank missiles.

The Shah used Iran's military might to address regional crises consistent with foreign relations goals of the United States. The Nixon and Ford administrations endorsed these efforts and allowed the Shah to acquire virtually unlimited quantities of any non-nuclear weapons in the American arsenal.

In accordance with the pleasant US-Iran relations then-existing, President Carter spent New Year's Eve in 1977 with the Shah and toasted Iran as "an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world". Nonetheless, between 1975 and 1978, the Shah's popularity fell due to the Carter administration's misguided implementation of human rights policies. The election of Mr. Carter as president of the United States in 1976, with his vocal emphasis on the importance of human rights in international affairs, was a turning point in US-Iran relations.

The Shah of Iran was accused of torturing over 3000 prisoners. Under the banner of promoting human rights, Carter made excessive demands of the Shah, threatening to withhold military and social aid. Carter pressured the Shah to release "political prisoners", whose ranks included radical fundamentalists, communists and terrorists. Many of these individuals are now among the opponents we face in our "war on terrorism".

The Carter Administration insisted that the Shah disband military tribunals, demanding they be replaced by civil courts. The effect was to allow trials to serve as platforms for anti-government propaganda. Carter pressured Iran to permit "free assembly", which encouraged and fostered fundamentalist anti-government rallies. The British government and its MI6 intelligence agency also heightened the Shah's precariousness. The government-controlled BBC presented Iranians with a dossier of twenty hour newscasts detailing the location of all anti-Shah demonstrations and consistent interviews with the exiled outcast Ayatollah Khomeini, making a religious scholar few Iranians knew about into an overnight sensation.

When the Shah was unable to meet the Carter Administration and British demands, the Carter Administration ordered the Central Intelligence Agency to stop $4 million per year in funding to religious Mullahs who then became outspoken and vehement opponents of the Shah. Unfortunately, the Shah's efforts to defuse the volatile situation in Iran failed, despite the grant even of free and democratic elections. Confronted with lack of US support and unleashed Mullah fury, the Shah of Iran fled the country.

Subsequent to the Carter Administration's ill-conceived foreign policy initiative, Iran is now a dungeon. Ayatollah Khomeini's dictatorship executed the Shah's prisoners, predominantly communist militants, along with more than 20,000 pro-Western Iranians. Women were sent back into servitude. Citizens were arrested merely for owning satellite dishes that could tune to Western programs. American diplomats were taken hostage, and the Soviet Union invaded Iran's eastern neighbor Afghanistan as a result of this chaos, allowing it to secure greater influence in Iran and Pakistan.

The struggle against the Soviets in Afghanistan, and the defeat of this invading Superpower with help from the United States under President Reagan gave rise to the radicalization and emergence of Muslim zealots like Osama bin Laden. Moreover, within a year of the Shah's ouster, Iran on its western flank was locked into the Iran-Iraq War, in which the U.S. sided with secular Iraq and its military dictator Saddam Hussein.

In retrospect, the Iran-Iraq War would never have occurred had Jimmy Carter not weakened the Shah's regime. This conflict cost the two nations more than 500,000 lives, including thousands of Iranians killed by Saddam Hussein's use of chemical weapons. The Iran-Iraq war triggered the rise of Saddam Hussein as a major power whose invasion of Kuwait was repelled by Desert Storm. The United States refrained from deposing Saddam Hussein in a continuation of the Desert Storm operation out of concern that the resulting "power vacuum" would be filled by Iran's Ayatollahs.

Thus Jimmy Carter's misguided implementation of human rights policies not only indirectly led to overthrow of the Shah of Iran, but also paved the way for loss of more than 600,000 lives, Iran's rule by Ayatollahs, the Iran-Iraq War, Iraq's Invasion of Kuwait and Desert Storm, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, and the mass murder of Americans and destruction of the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001.

[Rasputin]

US calls for 'reasonable' Iran nuclear talks

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Washington on Tuesday called for "reasonable" Iranians to take up negotiations over Tehran's disputed nuclear program after pragmatic ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was elected head of a powerful clerical body.

"Certainly we would hope that reasonable individuals in Iran would see the positive opportunity given to it by the international community to enter negotiations and be able to achieve a peaceful nuclear program while still reassuring everyone else that it is not simply a cover for building a nuclear weapon," said State Department spokesman Tom Casey.

Casey was asked to comment on Rafsanjani's election Tuesday to head Iran's Assembly of Experts, part of a political comeback for the former president as his pragmatic faction faces off against hardliners allied with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Rafsanjani has struck a moderate tone on the nuclear issue compared to the defiant Ahmadinejad.

"I'd like to believe that there are individuals in the Iranian leadership that would want to take what is in effect a rather unique and important opportunity, to allow Iran to engage with the rest of the international community, " Casey told reporters.

He said Tehran had a chance to allay concerns about its nuclear ambitions, secure a civilian atomic energy program and have for the first time "face-to-face" talks with major powers including the United States.

Asked if Rafsanjani could be described as "reasonable," Casey said: "I don't know. I think what is reasonable will depend on what policies are adopted."

The State Department spokesman also welcomed the release of Iranian-American academic Haleh Esfandiari, 67, who had been held in Tehran's Evin prison since May. The Iranian regime accused Esfandiari of helping an alleged US plot to topple Iran's rulers, a charge her family and colleagues dismissed.

"I want to join with the Wilson Center and her friends and family, not only here in the United States but throughout the world, in welcoming Mrs Esfandiari's release," Casey said.

"We are very glad to see her depart Iran and to see her individual case resolved."

Esfandiari, who heads the Wilson Center's Middle East program in Washington, was released on August 21 and left the country on Monday. She said she had spent 105 days in solitary confinement in the notorious Evin jail, but did not detail her conditions in detention.

Another US-Iranian scholar, Kian Tajbakhsh, is to be released on bail after spending over three months in jail in Tehran on security-related charges, a top judiciary official in Tehran said on Tuesday.

And a US-Iranian journalist, Parnaz Azima, who works for Radio Free Europe's US-funded Persian language service, has been given permission to leave the country. She had been stuck in Iran for the last seven months after her passport was confiscated.

[Rasputin]

محکومیت ایران توسط دادگاه فدرال آمریکا

يک قاضی دادگاه فدرال آمريکا روز جمعه دولت ايران را به پرداخت دو ميليارد دلار و ۶۵ ميليون دلار غرامت به خانواده قربانيان انفجار سال ۱۹۸۳ مقر تفنگداران آمريکايی در بيروت محکوم کرد.

انفجارمقر تفنگداران دريايی آمريکا در بيروت در سال ۱۹۸۳ دست کم ۲۴۱ کشته برجای گذاشت و تا بيش از حادثه ۱۱ سپتامبر مرگبارترین حمله به امريکايی ها محسوب می شد.

قاضی رويس لامبرت روز جمعه گفت دادگاه اميدوار است اين حکم سنگين هم درتسکين شاکيان موثر باشد وهم هشداری باشد برای عاملان اين رويداد تا بدانند حمله های غير قانونی به شهروندان ما تحمل نخواهد شد.

آقای لامبرت افزود که حکم صادره بزرگترين حکمی است که تا کنون برعليه يک کشور ديگر صادر شده است.

پيش از اين و در سال ۲۰۰۳، دادگاه ديگری رای داده بود که بر اساس شواهد موجود، در حمله مرگبار حزب الله لبنان به تفنگداران آمريکائی در سال ۱۹۸۳، ايران کمک های مالی و لجستيکی در اختيار حزب الله قرار داده بود .

صدها نفر از خانواده قربانيان در دادگاه فدرال در واشينگتن حاضر شده بودند تا از حکم صادره مطلع شوند.

دادگاه اميدوار است اين حکم سنگين هم در تسکين شاکيان موثر باشد و هم هشداری باشد برای عاملان اين رويداد تا بدانند حمله های غير قانونی به شهروندان ما تحمل نخواهد شد

قاضی رويس لامبرت
حکم دادگاه به بيش از هزار نفر از خانواده های قربانيان و کسانی که از حادثه جان سالم به در برده اند، اجازه می دهد تا که غرامت خود را از دارايی های مسدود شده ايران در آمريکا و سراسر جهان احذ کنند.

ايران هرگونه ارتباط با انفجار مقر تفنگداران آمريکايی بيروت را رد می کند و هيچ نماينده ای از اين کشور در دادگاه حضور نداشت.

محکوميت ايران به پرداخت غرامت به قربانيان الخبر

همچنين، قاضی رويس لامبرث دسامبرسال گذشته ايران را به پرداخت ۲۵۴ ميليون دلارغرامت به خانواده نوزده تن از قربانيان انفجار «الخبر»عربستان محکوم کرده بود.

دادگاه ايران را به دليل تغذيه مالی حمله به «برج الخبر» مقصر شناخت و دستور داد تا خانواده های اين قربانيان مبلغ مورد نظر را از اموال و دارايی های توقيف شده دولت ايران برداشت کنند.

در ۲۵ ژوئن ۱۹۹۶ انفجار ماشينی مملو ازمواد منفجره درمنطقه مسکونی نظاميان آمريکايی در«الخبر» در نزديکی ظهران باعث مرگ ۱۹ امريکايی شد.

مبنای حکم صادره گزارشی از اف بی آی نهاد کشوری تحقيقات پليسی آمريکاست.تحقيقات اف بی آی درباره پرونده بمب گذازی «الخُبَر» حدود پنج سال پيش در ۲۱ ژوئن ۲۰۰۱ منجر به تنظيم ادعانامه ای عليه ۱۳ عضو حزب الله لبنان شد.

به گزارش خبرگزاری رويتر در حکم ۲۰۹ صفحه ای قاضی لَمْبِرث آمده بود که «سردار پاسدار احمد شريفی به عضوگيری بمب گذاران «الخُبَر» پرداخته و کاميون بمب گذاری شده با همکاری سپاهِ پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی در پايگاه حزب الله در دره بقاع لبنان سر هم بندی شده بود ».

[Rasputin]

Iranians in U.S. face a choice -- to speak out, or not

USC professor Muhammad Sahimi knew he risked interrogation or arrest while visiting Iran because of his outspokenness about the need for political reform in his homeland.

But it wasn't until this summer that he canceled his travel plans. He deemed a family trip to Iran too dangerous after his friend, Ali Shakeri, a mild-mannered businessman and peace activist from Lake Forest, was thrown in a Tehran prison.

"A lot of people are afraid to go to Iran," he said, "because they say if a guy like Shakeri, who always advocated peace and negotiations, gets arrested, then who is safe?"

The plight of Shakeri has created a dilemma for politically active Iranian Americans: Do they lobby for change in Iran, knowing that their words could land them in prison if they visit their homeland? Or do they keep quiet and preserve their ability to go home again?

Shakeri, 59, a businessman whose pro-democracy writings about Iran circulate on the Web, has been jailed for more than four months in Tehran. He had been on his way back from visiting his mother, who died while he was there.

Shakeri's case surprised the Iranian American community because he was seen as a moderate peace activist and a minor figure in Southern California. A board member for the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding at UC Irvine, Shakeri garnered international attention when he became one of four dual Iranian American citizens detained in Iran this year. Two have since been released.

His family had been working quietly to free him until Friday, when his son, Kaveh Shakeri, broke the silence and implored authorities to release his father.

"Shakeri really sent shock waves," said Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, a Washington-based civic group. "Unlike the others, he was not a known figure on the national level. If someone like that gets taken, it becomes much more blurry who's a target and who's not."

That sentiment has rung especially true in Southern California, home to the world's largest community of Iranian emigres. Most settled in Southern California after the fall of Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1979. Centered in West Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley and Orange County, they now number more than 500,000.

Like the Cuban exile community in South Florida and Vietnamese expatriates of Orange County's Little Saigon, many Iranian Americans in the U.S. are advocates of democratic reform in their homeland. But they have had little success against the authoritative governments.

That doesn't stop some from trying to wield their influence from a distance, often through TV broadcasts, radio shows and online periodicals.

Ali Limonadi, producer and director of IRTV, a Persian-language international television station based in Studio City, said he had changed his e-mail address three times because of the nearly 1,500 virus-ridden e-mails a day he received. He said he believed those e-mails were generated by Iranian government agents.

Limonadi said he first spoke out in 1979 because he thought Islamic rule wouldn't last long in Iran.

He came to the United States a month after the 1979 revolution and planned to stay for a year. "I just didn't think the revolution would take that long," he said.

Others, however, have kept quiet about their political convictions, doing all they can to remain invisible to Tehran and preserve their ability to travel back and forth.

"Most of us in the U.S. don't really like what's going on in Iran, but whatever we say becomes a backlash against us," said Moe, a Rancho Santa Margarita engineer and dual citizen of Iran and the U.S. who asked that his last name be withheld to avoid attracting the attention of Iranian officials.

He has vowed to not speak about politics, hoping it will guarantee that he is not harassed or detained when he visits his mother and sister in Tehran every other year.

"If my mother over there doesn't do anything against the government, and I don't raise my voice in public either, we have nothing to worry about," he said.

Friends said Shakeri had no reason to be concerned either. They describe Shakeri as a political moderate who advocated nonviolent solutions, a stance that often earned him criticism for being a regime sympathizer.

"He got it on both sides," said Hossein Hedjazi, who featured Shakeri a handful of times as a guest on Golgasht, a Persian-language political commentary radio show he hosts on ***N-AM (670).
Mohammed Ali Dadkha, a Tehran human rights lawyer who said he had been contacted by Shakeri's family and was asked to defend him, said he had not been able to meet with Shakeri to sign forms authorizing him as his lawyer and had no idea what accusations Shakeri faced.

According to Iranian law, he said, "Nobody can be detained for more than two months unless new accusations are raised against him."

A spokesman for the Iranian Judicial Branch in Tehran who declined to give his name said Saturday that Shakeri's case was still under investigation and that he could not publicize the accusations against him, because "He has not been proven to be a criminal yet.

"I do hope his dossier will be clarified in the near future, like other cases recently," he added.

The Bush administration in May called for the release of Shakeri and the other three detainees, and the U.S. State Department has called the detainment of Shakeri and other dual nationals a "disturbing pattern" of harassment under the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

This summer the agency issued a travel warning urging Iranian American citizens traveling to Iran to be cautious, but it has been difficult to gauge whether they have made fewer trips.

Those who have not been back to their homeland in decades -- and don't plan to return under the current regime -- serve as the most vocal critics.

"What we have now is a new reign of terror, the goal being precisely ending this bridge between Iranian intellectuals and the diaspora community that was being created," said Abbas Milani, director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University.

Milani's house on campus is filled with reminders of his homeland -- Persian paintings, books and carpets. He cooks rice and kebabs for his son and listens to the Persian rock group Kiosk.

And although he dreams of returning to see the country on which he is considered a national expert, he has not been back since 1987, knowing that he might be apprehended.

"I won't buy that privilege at the price of self-censorship," he said.

Mariam Khosravani, a community services commissioner for the city of Irvine, said she made a conscious decision to enter into civic affairs in Orange County at the expense of visits home to her extended family in Tehran.

She said images like the photo that hangs in Khosravani's office in Fountain Valley -- her posing with former President Clinton at a campaign fundraiser for Sen. Hillary Clinton -- are precisely what many Iranian Americans are reluctant to be associated with.

"It's a sad feeling that you know you cannot go back to your motherland," she said. "It's not like my name is on a blacklist, but it's hard to take a chance going to a country where you can't guarantee your safety."

[abadani69]

در حالي که فرماندهان سپاه پاسداران از عمليات تلافي جويانه در صورت حمله نظامي آمريکا مي گويند و خبرگزاري ها سخنان تازه محمد البرادعي را پاسخي به اظهارات جنگ طلبانه وزير خارجه فرانسه مي دانند، اخبار و گزارش ها درباره احتمال جنگ بين ايران و آمريکا شدت گرفته است.

با پاسخ محمد البرادعي به سخنان برنارکوشنر، وزير امورخارجه فرانسه مبني بر اينکه "جهان بايد براي احتمال درگرفتن جنگ بر سر برنامه هسته اي ايران آماده باشد" بحران هسته اي ايران وارد مرحله حادتري شد.

محمد البرادعي در سخناني که به نظر ناظران سياسي پاسخ غيرمستقيم به صحبت هاي وزير خارجه فرانسه در مورد احتمال وقوع جنگ عليه ايران آمد، اظهار داشت: "من به هيچ وجه در مورد استفاده از زور صحبت نمي کنم."

اما ظاهرا تنها البرادعي است که از "زور" حرف نمي زند، چرا که برنار کوشنر، وزير امور خارجه دولت نيکولا سارکوزي در مصاحبه خود گفته است "اگر چه حمله به ايران در حال حاضر باعملي شدن فاصله زيادي دارد اما براي ما طبيعي است که براي هر امکاني آماده شويم."

از سوي ديگر يک فرمانده ارشد سپاه پاسداران جمهوري اسلامي ديروز اعلام کرد: "هر نوع حمله به اهدافي در ايران، با پاسخ شديد روبرو مي شود". محمد حسن كوسه* چي، فرمانده ارشد سپاه پاسداران در غرب كشور به خبرگزاري ايرنا گفت: "عليرغم اينکه آمريکا دور تا دور ايران را گرفته، اين به معناي محاصره ما نيست، بلکه خودشان را در محاصره ما قرار داده *اند و آمريکا در تيررس ما قرار گرفته است."

وي افزود: "آمريکا گفته که بيش از دو هزار هدف را در ايران شناسايي کرده، اما هر آنچه که آمريکا در اطراف ما جا دارد، از اهداف ما هستند."

همزمان، فرمانده نيروي هوايي ارتش جمهوري اسلامي نيز اعلام کرد ايران خود رابراي يک نبرد دفاعي قدرتمند آماده کرده است.

فرمانده نيروي هوايي گفت: "دكترين ما پدافندي و دفاعي است و ما خودمان را براي يك نبرد قدرتمند دفاعي آماده كرده*ايم و ساختارهاي ما نيز بر اين اساس برنامه*ريزي شده است و آمادگي مقابله با هرگونه تهديدي را داريم و در صورت تجاوز، دشمن پشيمان و زمينگير مي*شود. ما بايد با به روز كردن تجهيزات دفاعي چنان آماده باشيم كه كسي جرأت تهديد ما را نداشته باشد."

در اظهار نظري جداگانه، محمد علي حسيني، سخنگوي وزارت خارجه جمهوري اسلامي، سخنان برنار کوشنر رادر جهت "زير سئوال بردن صلاحيت آژانس بين المللي انرژي اتمي" دانست و اظهار داشت: "وزير امور خارجه فرانسه، سياست کلي اتحاديه اروپا در قبال ايران را فراموش کرده است."

وي همچنين اظهارات وزير امور خارجه فرانسه را "تامين کننده منافع فرانسه" ندانست و ابراز اميدواري کرد که "اين اظهارات ناشي از ديدگاه هاي واقعي فرانسه نباشد".

اين اظهار اميدواري در شرايطي مطرح مي شود که پيش از آن نيکلاس سارکوزي، رئيس جمهور فرانسه در سخناني تندايران اتمي را"غيرقابل قبول" خوانده و بر لزوم اعمال تحريم هاي شديدتر عليه ايران، تاکيد کرده بود. مواضعي که از جانب محمود احمدي نژاد، رئيس جمهوري اسلامي، "فاقد ارزش سياسي" تلقي شد و وي با اين ارزيابي که "ايشان تازه آمده *اند و هنوز سرد و گرم را نچشيده *اند و متوجه اين مفاهيم نيستند"اعلام کرد:" ما حتي نمي* خواهيم به اين حرف ها فکر کنيم".

اما تکرار اين حرف ها از زبان وزير خارجه فرانسه و در شرايطي که "خبرنگاران مي گويند در روزهاي اخير صحبت گزينه نظامي عليه برنامه اتمي ايران بار ديگر در برخي محافل سياسي و رسانه اي طرح شده و مسئولان آژانس انرژي اتمي را - در حالي که اخيرا با ايران به توافقي براي پاسخگويي به پرسش هاي باقي مانده دست يافته اند - نگران کرده است"[بي بي سي] به قضيه ابعاد ديگري مي دهد.به ويژه وقتي که وي تاکيد مي کند: "ما بايد براي بدترين ها آماده باشيم که بدترين حالت، جنگ است."

در همين راستاست که خبرگزاري ايرنا، طي تفسيري مي نويسد: "جهت گيري هاي نيکولا سارکوزي و همراهانش در عرصه سياست خارجي، تصوير متفاوتي را از فرانسه نزد جهانيان به نمايش گذاشته است و نزديکي بي سابقه به آمريکا و حمايت همه جانبه از اسرائيل، مولفه هايي هستند که در مواضع نوين سياستمداران فرانسوي جلب توجه مي کنند."

به نوشته اين خبرگزاري "ديپلماسي فرانسه، هيچگونه مخالفتي با سياست هاي يکجانبه و خصمانه کاخ سفيد بر ضد ايران از خود نشان نداده و از همساني مواضع با واشنگتن سخن مي گويد."

مواضعي که محمود احمدي نژاد در گفتگو با ايرانيان خارج از کشور آن را به خود مرتبط مي داند و مي گويد: "غربي ها با من لجبازي مي *کنند ولي مهم نيست چون آنها با هرکسي که براي پيشرفت ايران کار و تلاش کند همين کار را مي *کنند."

با اين وجود محمود احمدي *نژاد همچنان بر مواضع خود تاکيد مي کند و پيشنهاد مي دهد: "مثلا مي* توانيم شال گردن* هايي با آرم انرژي صلح* آميز هسته اي براي دانش *آموزان توليد کنيم، اين پيشنهاد خوبي است که مي *توان به سازمان انرژي هسته* اي داد که بچه *ها با شال* گردن*هايي با اين آرم به مدرسه بروند."

همزمان محمدآقازاده، رئيس سازمان انرژي اتمي ايران سخن از آن مي گويد که: "حركت در اين مسير ـ فناوري هسته اي ـ افتخارآميز امروزه به بخشي از هويت ملي ايرانيان تبديل شده است و هيچ دولتي نمي*تواند مانعي در برابر سيل خروشان اراده يك ملت بزرگ بوجود آورد".

معاون رئيس جمهور مي افزايد: "ملت بزرگ ايران مصمم است تا رسيدن به قله*هاي رفيع پيشرفت و اقتدار ملي به حركت خود ادامه دهد و براي دستيابي به اين مهم نيز از پذيرفتن هزينه*هاي آن ترس و واهمه*اي به خود راه نخواهد داد و تمامي تهديدات را ترفندي براي ارعاب خود و دليلي براي ناتواني بدخواهان ايران زمين تعبير خواهد نمود."

هزينه اي که آقاي آقازاده از آن ياد مي کند به نوشته روزنامه هاي غربي "درگيري مستقيم" بين ايران و آمريکاست. روزنامه گاردين در همين ارتباط و با اشاره به تنش فزاينده ميان ايران و آمريکا، خبر مي دهد: "تقابل دو کشور در عراق ممکن است در ماه هاي آتي به درگيري مستقيم طرفين منجر شود".

بر اساس اين نظر است که نويسنده روزنامه نيويورك تايمز نتيجه مي گيرد: "در حالي كه در روزهاي اخير بحث ها بر توان سربازان آمريكايي متمركز بود، جورج بوش از اين فرصت براي افزايش فشار بر ايران استفاده و در سخنراني روز پنجشنبه بر لزوم محدود كردن ايران به عنوان دليل اصلي تداوم حضور آمريكا در عراق تاكيد كرد".

به هر حال در شرايطي که هفته آينده قدرت هاي بزرگ جهان براي تصميم گيري در مورد نحوه برخورد با ايران در آمريکا گرد هم مي آيند، نويسندگان گاردين از اين واقعيت سخن مي گويند که "تندروهاي واشنگتن به رهبري ديک چني، معاون رئيس جمهور آمريکا، فشار خود را براي بکارگيري گزينه نظامي افزايش داده اند و در اين راه از حمايت اسرائيل و - به طور مخفيانه - برخي کشورهاي سني حاشيه خليج فارس برخوردارند".

آن هم در شرايطي که به گفته کمال خرازي، وزير خارجه سابق و مشاور رهبر جمهوري اسلامي ايران ديگر "در شرايط انجام مذاكره جامع با آمريكا نيست."

[Rasputin]

General Says 5 Iranians Should Stay In Custody

Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the top commander of day-to-day operations in Iraq, said he will recommend that five Iranians captured by U.S. forces in January not be released when their case is reviewed this month, a move that could further increase tensions between Washington and Tehran.

"Militarily, we should hold on to them," he told reporters and editors at The Washington Post on Wednesday.

The status of the captured Iranians is so sensitive that it is the only case of foreign detainees in Iraq that is being reviewed all the way up to the White House. Odierno's view reflects a deepening anger at both the State Department and the Pentagon over Iran's failure to cooperate in the stabilization of Iraq, even after the first bilateral public dialogue between U.S. and Iranian diplomats in 28 years was launched in March in Baghdad.

Since then, according to U.S. officials, Tehran has continued to arm, train and support Iraqi militants who aim to destabilize Iraq and target U.S. troops. "Why should we reward bad behavior?" said another senior U.S. official involved in Iraq policy.

The United States says the five Iranians, nicknamed the Irbil 5 because they were seized during a U.S. raid on Iran's Liaison Office in the northern Kurdish city of Irbil, are members of the Quds Force, an elite wing of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps charged with its foreign clandestine operations.

Iran and Iraq say the men were credentialed officials working out of a diplomatic facility recognized by the Kurdish government and about to be recognized by Baghdad. Two more senior Iranian officials who were the targets of the U.S. raid escaped.

U.S. troops last month arrested a sixth Iranian, Mahmudi Farhadi, in northern Iraq and said he also was part of the Quds Force network. Odierno said he is a "significant" player who is suspected of providing weapons, money and training to Iraqi militants since 2005. But Iran and Iraq say he was part of a visiting business delegation traveling with the knowledge of local and national Iraqi governments.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani told editors and reporters at The Post this week that Iraq is demanding that the Iranians be freed. "The five were not part of the Quds Force," he said. Iran threatened to close the border after Farhadi's capture, and Talabani wrote U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker charging that the United States had "ignored our authority." Talabani added: "I ask for his immediate release in order to maintain healthy relations."

In Iraq, detainees under U.S. control come up for review every six months. The United States also is holding two other Iranians detained in two separate earlier incidents.

[abadani69]

کاندليزا رايس، وزير خارجه آمريکا گفت ايران مانع اصلي در راه تحقق تصوير آمريکا از خاورميانه است؛ تصويري که در آن ملت هاي خاورميانه به "تبادل و تجارت بيشتر، سرمايه گذاري بيشتر، صحبت بيشتر، و کار بيشتر با مشارکت يکديگربراي حل مشکلات خواهند پرداخت".

وي در کنگره آمريکا گفت: "دولت ايران سياستي را در پيش گرفته است که به ضرر منافع دراز مدت همسايگان اين کشور، منطقه و مردم خود ايران است. لزومي به اين سياست نيست."

شهادت رايس در کميته روابط خارجي مجلس نمايندگان آمريکا در زماني انجام مي شود که دموکرات ها و محافظه کاران نگرانند که دولت بوش به اندازه کافي براي تغيير سياست هسته اي ايران کوشش نمي کند.

ماه گذشته مجلس نمايندگان آمريکا با 397 راي در مقابل 16 راي، قانوني را تصويب کرد که هدف آن جلو گيري از سرمايه گذاري خارجي در ايران بخصوص در صنايع سود آور نفت و انرژي است. در اين قانون که توسط کميته روابط خارجي تهيه شد حق تغييرات از رئيس جمهور گرفته شده است.

رايس گفت دولت با اهداف کنگره آمريکا در تشديد تحريم ها عليه ايران موافق است.

بوش مي گويد ضروري است که يک سيستم دفاع موشکي هر چه زودتر در اروپا مستقر شود تا جلوي حمله احتمالي ايران را بگيرد. برنامه انجام اين کار سبب اختلافاتي ميان آمريکا و روسيه شده است؛ روسيه معتقد است توان ايران کمتر از چيزي است که بوش وانمود مي کند و ضمنا مسکو روابط تجاري با ايران دارد.

روز سه شنبه رابرت گيتز، وزير دفاع آمريکا گفت دولت بوش به مسکو گفته است انجام اين برنامه را به تعويق انداخته است تا مدرک بيشتري دال بر توان موشکي ايران به دست آورد."ما فعال کردن سايت هاي موشکي لهستان و چک را موکول به تائيد تهديد ايران خواهيم کرد."

رايس در شهادت خود گفت ايران گذشته از تهديد هاي هسته اي که ممکن است ثبات منطقه را بر هم زند، تهيه کننده "سلاح هاي کشنده براي گروه هاي افراطي در لبنان، افغانستان، و سرزمين هاي فلسطيني، گذشته از عراق، نيز هست."

وي همچنين تاکيد کرد که فعاليت هاي سپاه قدس از شاخه هاي سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامي در عراق "مغاير تعهدات دولت ايران در حمايت از دولت عراق است."

[Rasputin]

Since President Bush declared his intention a few months ago to convene a Middle East peace conference, experts on the region and government officials have proposed specific agenda items that should be addressed to insure its success. Key suggestions include a declaration of principle, the creation of an ongoing negotiation process, broad-based regional representation, and endorsement of international bodies, agreement on future conferences, and the inclusion of Syria. Whereas all these ideas are necessary to reach an agreement I do believe, however, that the conference will be another missed opportunity unless the Israelis and the Palestinians agree on three critical components: an agreement in principle, enter immediately into negotiations to sort out the details, and most importantly, undertake immediate, continuous and concurrent confidence-building measures (CBM) to keep up the momentum and to offer a real hope for eventual agreement.


An agreement in principle on the issues of borders, Palestinian refugees, and Jerusalem can be brokered, but it will have to be both general and constructively ambiguous. Such an agreement will allow both sides the flexibility they need over time to mobilize their constituencies, while neutralizing opposing factions back home, to support the necessary concessions that each must make to reach an accord. Neither President Mahmoud Abbas nor Prime Minister Olmert is in a position to make these concessions at this juncture and hope to stay in power to deliver them.

Once such an agreement in principle is achieved the two parties must enter immediately into negotiations to hammer out a final accord. These negotiations will be hard, painstaking and at time will appear hopeless. Both sides, however, must remain vigilant, relentless and purposeful with unshakable commitment to stay the course under any circumstances. Otherwise extreme elements on both sides, who do not wish to reach mutual accommodation, will resort to any means to torpedo the negotiations. In addition, both parties must agree, as part of the commitment that all the means used to achieve this goal must be peaceful. No agreement at Annapolis will be worth the paper it is written on if it does not rule out, once and for all, the use of violence by either side to achieve their political objectives.

The third element and probably the most critical is rebuilding the trust between both parties that was completely shattered in the wake of the second Intifadah. Nothing engenders lasting trust more than the joint undertaking of immediate, continuous and concurrent to the negotiations of a wide range of confidence building measures that yield immediate benefits for both peoples. But for CBM to be effective and generate the desirable outcome of trust, they must meet three criteria:

First, the measures must be unilateral and not be held captive to a rigid timetable. Let me explain: the basic fault in CBM behavior is that it is conditional and based on the notion that if one party makes a good-faith gesture, the other party must respond, usually quickly, with its own. Sometimes this is impossible, and yet because there is an expectation of it being possible, the whole cooperative structure can break down. In order to overcome this problem, I suggest that measures taken by one side should not be conditional on a direct reciprocal action by the other. Thus, each can gauge the other’s commitment on a long-term rather than on a reciprocal basis (or quid-pro-quo) and perhaps even more importantly not be subject to outside disruptive elements seeking to undermine the process.


The second requirement for CBM to succeed involves Israel sending a clear message to the Palestinians that it is committed to ending the occupation. Such a message will represent the first (and most important) tangible expression of Israel’s commitment to establishing a Palestinian state and should augment trust by a) making it abundantly clear that the government will not tolerate building any more illegal outposts and will dismantle all existing ones, b) ending the expansion of existing settlements (other than those being incorporated into Israel proper by mutual agreement), c) providing economic incentives and sustainable development projects to Palestinian communities that do not engage in violent activity, d) removing all roadblocks that are not absolutely critical to Israel‘s security, e) allowing Palestinians to legitimately build, plant, and develop their land with no undue restrictions, f) forsaking any form of collective punishment and, finally, g) releasing all Palestinian prisoners, except those who wantonly killed Israelis. With or without the support of the Palestinian Authority and regardless of the Authority’s political convictions, Israel must make positive inroads into the Palestinian community to engender a lasting trust between the peoples.

The third requirement for rebuilding trust is for the Palestinians to realize that for trust to endure it must be mutual. To that end, the Palestinians must demonstrate that accepting Israel’s right to exist means ending all incitements against Israel now, not some time in the future, it means ending all acts of violence against Israel, it means educating Palestinian children about the reality of Israel and of the importance of cultivating brotherly relations, and it means using the media to promote the ideas of a common future, neighborly relations, and a shared destiny with the Israelis.

The commitment toward a two-state solution must not be left to the whims of extremists on either side. It must be translated to action on the ground now. This must be the outcome of this conference. Otherwise, it will be just another missed opportunity that tragically crowded the annals of Israeli-Palestinian relations.

[Dokhtar Bandari]

So what are you saying...the stinky moolahs are here to stay?