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  • There is no shortage of proposals regarding what to do about the present Iran conundrum. Some proposals are authored by experts such as Henry Kissinger, while others are put forward by a variety of lesser luminaries.

    I am one of the lesser luminaries. I have been observing and worrying about my country of birth, Iran, ever since a gang of murderous Mullahs and their functionaries assumed power. To my infinite regret and the regret of millions of Iranians, the situation in Iran under the fascist rule of Mullahs is rapidly deteriorating in every respect.

    The Iranians, historically among the most civilized and tolerant of mankind, are now viewed as the base recruits of a primitive seventh century barbaric campaign of Islamofascism. Iran, under the stranglehold and machinations of the Mullahs, has been transformed, in less than three decades, to the lead perpetrator of all that is abhorrent to humanity.

    The "Iran Problem," is now a world problem. The question is what to do about Iran?

    Pivotal to the success of any solution is first the realization that Islam is a religion of death and misery. A few facts are presented below to support this assertion.

    * The Quran itself repeatedly glorifies death, killing and dying for Islam. It promises the faithful infinite rewards for his Jihad in Allah's paradise.

    * Nearly all Islamic holy days, particularly those of the Shiite sect, are observances and re-enactments associated with death.

    * The Palestinian territory is festooned with huge portraits of the "martyrs," the suicide bombers that the rest of the world calls them for what they are.

    * Streets, parks and all manners of public places in the Islamic Republic of Iran are named after "martyrs" of various sorts.

    * Sheikh Hasan Nasrullah, the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon and the pawn of Iran's Mullahs, assured the world of Hezbollah's victory over Israel by proudly announcing: "we will prevail, because the Israelis want to live, and we relish death.

    The litany of Islamic death-based beliefs and actions is long indeed. It is, therefore, understandable that Iran's Mullahs are obsessed agents of death. Islam, the Mullahs' and their fanatic follower's system of belief, denigrates life and glorifies death. To these people, death is not death. It is martyrdom, a sure passage to the unimaginably magnificent eternal paradise promised in the Quran.

    Under the rule of these adherents of death, everything in Iran is deteriorating and dying. In spite of huge oil revenues, the per capita income of the Iranians is now about one third of what it was before the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Every form of misery has also skyrocketed. Drug addiction, prostitution and suicide have gone through the roof. The young and the educated continue deserting Iran and family, fleeing to the four corners of the earth in search of a decent life.

    To make matters worse, the agents of death, the Mullahs, divert the sorely needed funds at home to sponsor and support adventurous Islamic trouble-making abroad. They supply weapons, provide funds, and train any and all takers who share their wanton campaign of terrorism anywhere in the world.

    Dissatisfaction with the rule of the Mullahs is widespread. Students, traditionally the vanguard of political and social reform in Iran, continue their valiant struggle in the face of torture, imprisonment and death. Labor unions, although tightly controlled, are in a constant state of rebellion against the inhumane treatments by the state. Ethnic and religious minorities suffering under the ruthless Islamic injustice and Pogrom-like measures are ripe for mass eruption.

    The lifeblood of Iran's economy is oil and natural gas. The criminal neglect and squandering of these vital and irreplaceable resources holds a future of even more severe hardship for the Iranian people. Impartial expert studies show that Iran's oil production, at the present rate of exploitation and absence of maintenance, will decline by nearly ten percent per year and will hit zero by 2015.

    Corruption and mismanagement, combined with the huge allocation of resources to acquire nuclear weapons are bound to burden the country's badly ailing economy that will likely bury the Mullahs in the rubbles of their own making and grant them their death wish. Regrettably, these purveyors of death aim to hurt and kill many innocent people along the way to their inevitable looming graves.

    Over the years, much of the world has been preoccupied with its own problems and showed little concern for the plight of the Iranian people until the Mullahs installed a firebrand Islamist, Ahmadinejad, as the President of the country. This man, called by many Iranians "The Monkey," is now alarming the world by being at the control of the Islamofascist train and throttling it full speed ahead for a cataclysmic collision. Ahamadinejad and his gang are loading their guns and doing all they can to obtain the bomb to bring about the biggest and most dreadful death that would usher in the "Mahdi", their savior-ruler of the world.

    What can the world do is the huge question. Some advocate military solutions of various types, ranging from surgical bombings of Iran's nuclear facilities, to military occupation of its oil-producing regions along the Persian Gulf to a full occupation of the country. Each and every one of these trigger-happy solutions is doomed to failure, since they will play directly into the hands of the Mullahs. Any military action against Iran will encounter Iranians' fierce sense of national pride that would rally the people to the support of the regime. Military actions would compound the problem by creating a greater worldwide Islamic solidarity against the perceived "Crusaders-Zionists" conspiracy.

    There are those who see the solution in negotiation with the Mullahs. These people are either naïve or dishonest. Mullahs' negotiation is Islamic to the core. They take all and you give all since you, according to the Islamic fiat, are not entitled to anything. One can see how Muslims negotiate even among themselves in places like Iraq, the Palestinian territory, Pakistan and every other Islamic land.

    The most promising solution is in the free world's united support of the Iranian opposition groups to the rule of the Mullahs. The Iranian people themselves are fully capable and are determined to remove the cancer of Islamism from their country. The United States and Israel and other democracies have a huge stake in the success of the Iranian people to rid themselves of the Islamic tyranny.

    As I have briefly outlined above, the Mullahs are highly vulnerable. A comprehensive political, moral and economic measure by the United States and others offers the best chance of ending the Mullah's reign of terror and diffusing the existential threat they pose to the world. The Bible says, "From those who are much given, much is demanded." Perhaps it is for this reason that the people of the United States of America, once again, are called upon to make huge sacrifices to defeat another tyranny. It is important that this great nation stays the course, enlists its power in support of freedom-loving Iranians to topple the ruling Islamofascits who are bent on wreaking death and destruction of the world.

    It is also important to keep in mind Albert Einstein's warning, "The world is a dangerous place not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing."

    And when it comes to doing something the prudent way, it is good to follow the advice of the ancient Persians: "The lion of the meadow of Mazandaran can be captured by no other than a Mazadarani warrior." The best match for the ruthless Mullahs and their hired Islamic storm troopers are the Iranian warriors themselves. The people of Iran themselves are the best solution for the present Iranian conundrum. The valiant Iranians need a bit of help. And the last thing they need is appeasing negotiators to give the Mullahs a new lease on life, or invasion by the Marines, or a shower of bombs from the skies.

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    • Pollution threat in Tehran 'bad as huge quake'

      Officials in Tehran have warned that the city's notoriously polluted air could cause a catastrophe after figures showed 120 people a day had died from toxic fumes.
      The potential effects have been compared to those of a large earthquake, after 3,600 people were reported to have died from pollution-related illnesses in four weeks during October and November. The figures were released by officials heading a government programme to cut pollution in Tehran, home to 12 million people.

      Emergency services have reported a big rise in hospital admissions for heart, chest and respiratory problems.
      The statistics add to last year's 9,900 reported deaths from the effects of nitrous oxide and dust particles. Environmentalists say the poisonous cocktail is compounded by 2m tonnes of carbon monoxide and 180,000 tonnes of deadly hydrocarbons pumped out annually.

      Starting this Friday, city authorities will offer free air filters and services to owners of Paykans, the Iranian-built Hillman Hunter-based cars that are often blamed for many of the environmental problems. About 1,000 old buses will be withdrawn while gas-fuelled buses and taxis will be introduced.

      Mohammed Hadi Haidarzadeh, head of Tehran city council's clean air office, said life in the city amounted to "mass suicide". He told the Isna news agency: "The danger posed by Tehran's air pollution crisis is no less than an earthquake, with the difference that the destructive effects of an earthquake are instantaneous, whereas air pollution kills innocent people gradually."

      The problem worsens in winter, when the combination of cold, still air and the surrounding mountains produces a film of smog that reduces visibility to a few hundred metres.

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      • Iran smog 'kills 3,600 in month'

        Tehran is one of the world's most polluted cities
        Air pollution is estimated to have killed nearly 10,000 people in Tehran over a one-year period, including 3,600 in a month, Iranian officials say.
        Most of the deaths were caused by heart attacks and respiratory illnesses brought on by smog, they said.

        The scale of the problem led one senior official to say living in the Iranian capital was like "collective suicide".

        Cheap fuel encourages car use in Iran, correspondents say, and many vehicles do not meet global emissions standards.

        "It is a very serious and lethal crisis, a collective suicide," the director of Tehran's clean air committee, Mohammad Hadi Heydarzadeh, told an Iranian newspaper.

        "A real revolution is needed to resolve this problem."

        He said air quality had worsened and was linked to some 3,600 deaths in October. Many of the deaths were caused by heart attacks brought on by the air pollution.

        New figures showed a sharp rise in pollution-related deaths in Iran, where 9,900 people died of pollution in the previous Iranian year (March 2005 to March 2006).

        The latest assessments were based on World Bank figures which extrapolate mortality rates according to certain levels of pollution.

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        • مهر
          * ظاهرا قراراست بنياد مستضعفان با ستاد اجرايی فرمان حضرت امام (ره) ادغام و محمد شريعتمداری وزير بازرگانی دولت سيد محمد خاتمی به عنوان رئيس اين مرکز منصوب شود.

          * درپی انتشارخبر دستگيری يک جاسوس در مرکز پژوهش های مجلس در ماه گذشته که اخيرا از سوی رئيس اين مرکز اعلام شد، يک منبع آگاه اعلام نمود يکی از کارکنان دبيرخانه وزارت ... نيز پيش از اين، به اتهام همکاری با گروهک تروريستی منافقين دستگير شده است. در اين راستا برگزاری جلسات توجيهی وآموزشی حفاظتی مستمر برای مديران دستگاههای دولتی می تواند از بروز مشکلاتی درآينده بکاهد.

          * در پی درج "گفته می شود" در هفته گذشته که از درخواست خانه احزاب ايران از وزارت ارشاد برای صدور مجوز استفاده ماهواره برای احزاب قانونی و ارجاع اين تقاضا به معاونت سينمايی وزارتخانه حکايت داشت، يک منبع آگاه در خانه احزاب توضيح داد: وزارت ارشاد در مرحله نخست موافقت خود را با استفاده خانه احزاب از ماهواره اعلام کرد، اما هنگامی که اين مجموعه خواستار فراهم شدن زمينه استفاده همه احزاب از ماهواره شد، معاونت مطبوعاتی وزارت ارشاد ضمن مخالفت با اين مساله، صدور مجوز ابتدايی استفاده از ماهواره برای خانه احزاب را نيز غير قابل توجيه خواند.

          گفتنی است قبلا يک مقام آگاه به مهر گفته بود که با توجه به قانون تصميم گيری در اين زمينه به معاون سينمايی ارشاد محول شده است.

          * خط انتقال دريايی گاز از فاز يک عسلويه به مجتمع گازی پارس جنوبی که ظرفيت انتقال 12 ميليون متر مکعب گازرادارد، به علت عدم پيش بينی های لازم درخصوص مقاومت لوله های استفاده شده، دچار پوسيدگی ناشی ازتماس با آب شده است؛ کارشنا سان در تابستان سال جاری خواستار رسيدگی جدی به اين مساله شده بودند اما مسئولان امر به توصيه آنها توجه نکردند.

          * در حالی که کارشناسان احداث يک مجموعه عظيم پتروشيمی در شرق کشور (استان های خراسان شمالي، خراسان رضوی و خراسان جنوبی و سيستان و بلوچستان) را ازنظر اقتصادی مقرون به صرفه ندانسته وبا اين کارمخالفت کرده اند، دولت اصرار دارد اين کار صورت گيرد. کارشناسان معتقدند استان های شرقی به دليل گرمی هوا با معضل پايدار کمبود آب مواجه هستند و از آنجا که ايجاد سيستم خنک کننده نيازمند لوله کشی آب است، چنانچه مجموعه پتروشيمی مورد نظر در استان هايی که به دريا و ميادين گازی نزديک هستند احداث بشود، در گام نخست هشت ميليارد دلار کم تر هزينه خواهد شد. در عين حال دولت تاکيد دارد اين کار به توسعه عدالت از طريق اشتغال زايی در مناطق کم بهره مند از امکانات و خدمات منتهی خواهد شد.

          * آلودگی شديد هوای تهران و احتمال فلج شدن کامل امور شهری ، باعث شده اين موضوع به عنوان يک بحران جدی در کشور مورد توجه قرارگرفته تا تدابير لازم برای حل اين مشکل با حضور نمايندگان نهادهای مسئول آغاز شود، طبق بررسی های انجام شده در صورت ادامه وضع موجود، آلودگی هوا و ترافيک در شهر تهران، جريان زندگی تا 3 سال آينده در تهران دچار اختلال جدی و حتی توقف خواهد شد، طبق گزاراشات موجود، قربانيان آلودگی هوا نيز درهفته های اخير افزايش چشمگير و نگران کننده ای داشته اند.

          * خاوير سولانا، مسئول سياست خارجی اتحاديه اروپا اخيرا برای احيای روند مذاکرات و توافقات خود با دکتر علی لاريجانی اظهار تمايل کرده است. سولانا درتازه ترين اظهار نظر خود، برنقش موثر وتعيين کننده ايران درعراق نيز تاکيد کرد و ادامه همکاری های سازنده ايران را خواستار شد. وی تاکيد کرده که مذاکره با لاريجانی هنوز هم می تواند برای حل اختلافات کارساز باشد.

          * همزمانی دهه فجرامسال با ايام عزاداری سيد الشهداء(ع) واعلام برگزاری جشن هسته ای ازسوی رئيس جمهور دردهه فجر، باعث ايجاد سئوالات ودغدغه هايی مبنی برحفظ حرمت وشئونات ماه محرم شده است . گفته می شود کميته ای در دولت مامور تدارک اين جشن با رعايت ملاحظات ايام محرم شده است.

          *يکی از ورزشکاران ملی کشورمان در رشته های رزمی در مراسمی خارج از شوون اسلامی حضور يافته است. عکس هايی از اين مراسم موجود است ولی وی در پاسخ به منتقدان اقدام خود با بدترين عبارات آنها را به اهانت کشيده است و....

          * گفته می شود اسناد و مدارک دخالت آمريکا در نا آرامی های قومی در ايران که توسط نهادهای امنيتی کشور جمع آوری شده، رسما به سازمان ملل متحد تحويل گرديده و به نظر می رسد اين موضوع چالش جديدی در آينده روابط ايران و آمريکا باشد.

          * دکترمحسن رضايی دبير مجمع تشخيص مصلحت نظام، اخيرا جلساتی منظم را با برخی از جوانان که اکثر از فرزندان و وابستگان فرماندهان سپاه پاسداران هستند، برگزار می کند . وی در اين جلسات، به شرح وتحليل تاريخ انقلاب اسلامی و جنگ تحميلي، نقد مديريت اجرايی کشور، پرونده هسته ای و... می پردازد و در پايان اين جلسات نيز پرسش و پاسخ انجام می شود. گفتنی است پس از شهادت سردار احمد کاظمي، وی در نامه ای به رهبر معظم انقلاب برای بازگشت به نيروهای مسلح ابراز آمادگی کرده بود.

          * مسعود زريبافان دبيرسابق هيات دولت که به خاطر کانديداتوری درانتخابات شورای شهر سوم تهران ازسمت خود استعفا کرده بود ، پس ازعدم موفقيت دراين انتخابات، هنوز در سمتی مشغول به کار نشده و اکنون تنها در جلسات شورای شهر تهران شرکت می کند. درحالی که به تازگی از وی به عنوان يکی ازاعضای هيات مديره باشگاه استقلال تهران نام برده شده وعليرغم نداشتن مسئوليت در دولت، در برخی جلسات که رئيس جمهور در آن شرکت دارد، حضور پيدا می کند. برخی سايتها از جانشينی زريبافان به جای الهام نيز خبر داده بودند.

          * کمبود گسترده و کيفيت بد نان و صف های طولانی در مقابل نانوايی ها در شهرهای مرزی غرب کشور، باعث ايجاد مشکلات زيادی برای مردم شده است، مردم اين مناطق بعضا حدود 3 ساعت در صف نان می ايستند. گفته می شود قاچاق گسترده " آرد" از سوی مافيای آرد به عراق يکی از دلايل ايجاد اين مشکلات است.

          * روند مشکوک سقوط قيمت نفت، بازتاب گسترده ای درميان تحليلگران اقتصادی وسياسی داشته است، با وجود فرارسيدن فصل سرما و افزايش بحرانهای منطقه اي، قيمت جهانی نفت مرتبا کاهش می يابد. برخی کارشناسان اين فرآيند را محصول هماهنگی برخی کشورهای عربی و ايالات متحده برای ضربه زدن به اقتصاد ايران می دانند. جالب توجه است که عربستان سعودی بودجه سال آتی خود را بر اساس قيمت 35 دلار برای هر بشکه تنظيم کرده ولی خبرهای رسيده حاکی است که در بودجه 86 کشورمان، رقمی بين 40 تا 45 دلار برای هر بشکه نفت، تخمين زده شده است.

          * بررسی وتحليل دلايل آرای نسبتا زياد باطله درانتخابات 24 آذرکه تاکنون ميزان دقيق آن از سوی هيچ يک از نهادهای مسئول دولتی اعلام نشده است، به عنوان يک موضوع تحقيقی و پژوهشی در دستور کار برخی نهادهای مسئول قرار گرفته است.

          * قاچاق "کتاب های ممنوعه" پديده جديد قاچاق در کشور است، اخيرا در محافل فرهنگی خبرهايی دال بر ايجاد بازار گسترده و مخفی برای کتاب های ممنوعه يا فاقد مجوز انتشار شنيده می شود

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            • EU seeks "fast, full" move on U.N. Iran sanctions

              LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union wants to apply United Nations sanctions on Iran fully and rapidly and may expand the list of people linked to Tehran's nuclear programme targeted by the U.N. resolution, diplomats said on Friday.

              Tehran maintains that its nuclear ambitions are limited to generating electricity. The European Union and the United States suspect Tehran is secretly seeking to build nuclear bombs.

              They say it will face harsher sanctions if it ignores the resolution unanimously passed on December 23 at the behest of the United States, Britain, Russia, China and France. The resolution gave Iran 60 days to suspend nuclear fuel-enrichment activity.

              Foreign ministers from EU states are due to meet on Monday to coordinate moves to apply the current range of sanctions across Europe. Diplomats said the bloc's 27 members wanted to deliver a strong broadside to Iran urging it to halt enrichment.

              "We are looking at a fast and strict implementation of all of the measures in the resolution," one EU diplomat said.

              The U.N. sanctions resolution bans transfers of sensitive nuclear materials to Iran, freezes financial assets of those associated with the nuclear programme and asks countries to pass on information about the whereabouts of individuals on the list.

              "We want the outcome (of the meeting) to reinforce the resolution so that the EU interpretation will not be limited to the names currently on the resolution's annexe," a second diplomatic source said.

              "We will be looking to broaden the resolutions to allow us to impose travel bans and freeze assets of other individuals," the source said.

              One EU official said the bloc would also look at measures to stop Iranians coming to the EU to study proliferation-sensitive subjects, although not necessarily by outright visa bans.

              DOOR REMAINS OPEN

              An original proposal to make legally binding the existing EU arrangements which effectively bar arms sales to Iran will not be on the agenda of Monday's meeting, diplomats said.

              "The EU has had a de facto arms ban on Iran for the past 10 years. When and if we now legally formalize it is not important -- the key issue now is its nuclear programme," said one.

              The EU has led international diplomacy based on the offer of trade, political and technical incentives for Iran to give up uranium enrichment, and diplomats say that offer remained on the table despite the move toward sanctions.

              "We've always said the door remains open -- but someone has to go through it," said one diplomat.

              Iran said earlier this week it was ready to begin installing 3,000 centrifuges for industrial-scale production of nuclear fuel. That prompted a warning from British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett that Tehran's stance was not "cost-free."

              Diplomats confirmed Iran's statement on Thursday, saying it had completed preparations at an underground plant where the 3,000 centrifuges are to be rigged up, expanding what to date has been a limited, research-level enrichment programme.

              Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency visited the Natanz enrichment complex over the past week to gather material for an IAEA report due to be issued to the U.N. Security Council on February 21, the 60-day deadline.

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                • Impatience on Iran Carries a Price

                  President Bush once again risks confusing his destiny with that of the nation. His presidency is running out of time. The United States is not. An all-or-nothing confrontation with Iran that has to be resolved before Bush leaves office is an artificial concept that will deepen American problems abroad.

                  Sports metaphors are dear to Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. But their "new thinking" on Iran and Iraq must not be allowed to turn into the political equivalent of pro football's two-minute drill. The "hurry-up" offense that works beautifully for the New England Patriots at game's end is far too dangerous when the stakes are war and peace.

                  With his presidency in its final two years, signs multiply that Bush has lost patience on Iran with the U.N. Security Council, much as he did on Iraq in 2003. While Rice was traveling in the Middle East and Europe last week, American allies were being told that Washington would not seek new and tougher Security Council sanctions against Iran, as has been widely expected.

                  Iran rejected the largely symbolic sanctions that were adopted by the council on Dec. 23 and vowed to continue its nuclear program. That program will allow Tehran to master within a year or two the technology needed to manufacture atomic bombs, according to Western intelligence agencies. Iran claims it will not develop such weapons.

                  But Russia's unexpectedly strong opposition even to weak sanctions adopted only after months of debate has deepened Bush's growing disillusionment with President Vladimir Putin.

                  The American leader is determined not to get caught in "a dead end" at the United Nations, according to U.S. officials. Bush is said to feel that Putin went back on personal pledges to support meaningful U.N. action in return for Bush's committing to diplomatic efforts last June. Bush rarely forgives someone he believes has gone back on promises to him.

                  Instead of returning to the United Nations for a new resolution, the administration has launched a broad effort to assemble an economic coalition of the willing to confront Iran. Trade, investment and the price of oil are the primary targets Washington chose for this coalition.

                  The United States wants European Union nations to deny export credits to Iran and to encourage their banks to join a campaign led by the U.S. Treasury to squeeze Iranian financial institutions linked to their government's support for terrorism in the Middle East. Iran's poorly managed oil fields are in desperate need of new foreign technology and investment, making Iran vulnerable to this kind of pressure.

                  The campaign received a big boost last week when it became clear that Saudi Arabia is finally worried enough about Iran to use oil as a weapon against the regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Saudi oil minister Ali Nuaimi publicly opposed Iranian calls for production cuts by the OPEC cartel to halt a decline that has taken crude oil from $78 a barrel in July to just above $50 a barrel last week.

                  The Saudis have enough reserve production capacity to swing OPEC prices up and down at will. Their relatively small population gives them a flexibility in postponing revenue gains that populous Iran lacks. Nuaimi's pronouncement, although cast as a technical matter that had nothing to do with politics, seemed to give teeth to recent warnings issued in private by Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi national security adviser, that the kingdom will now respond to Iranian hostility with its own confrontational tactics.

                  So a broad, sustained campaign of economic sanctions is perhaps the most effective way to bring pressure to bear on an Iranian regime that has failed to deliver on its grandiose promises of prosperity to a restive population.

                  But it is the Europeans and the Saudis, not the Bush administration, who control the tools of economic pressure that Washington wants wielded. Managing a campaign in which the immediate price will be paid by others will require skill, extensive consultations and enormous patience.

                  Such a campaign would be undermined by hurry-up tactics built around the American political calendar, or the use of U.S. military force in Iraq intended to serve as a show of force against Iran. Divisions within the Saudi royal family over how to handle Iran also should be handled with care, not bluster, by Washington. A new consensus with Europe on how to proceed must be sought as well.

                  This will all take time. Bush must guard against a sense of false urgency dictated by his time in office coming to an end. As Charles de Gaulle counseled, history continues even though the graveyard is full of indispensable leaders.

                  Comment


                  • Comment


                    • Iran's guards start wargame to test missiles

                      TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's Revolutionary Guards launched war-games in central Iran on Monday and said they would test two models of home-made missiles, state radio reported.

                      The war-games come at a time of rising tension between the West and Iran. Western capitals say Tehran's nuclear program is aimed at producing nuclear weapons but Tehran adamantly denies this charge.

                      "In the four-day long missile war-games in Garmsar area, the Zelzal-1 and Fajr-5 missiles will be tested," state radio quoted a Guards spokesman saying.

                      Garmsar is a small city located 100 km (63 miles) southeast of Tehran, adjacent to the unpopulated Garmsar desert.

                      The Guards have in the past demonstrated and test fired many Iranian-made missiles.

                      The report said Zelzal-1 had a range of more than 350 km (220 miles) and Fajr-5 could hit targets more than 70 km (44 miles) away but some military experts say the Zelzal-1 has a shorter range.

                      State radio said the Revolutionary Guards ground force units would start arming and firing the missiles later on Monday.

                      Iran has staged several war-games in the past year, including firing some of its long-range Shahab-3 missiles, which Iran says have a range of 2,000 km (1,250 miles), putting Israel or U.S. bases in the Gulf in range.

                      The war-games have been seen by military experts as muscle flexing, aimed at showing off Iran's capabilities in the face of pressure from the United States.

                      The United States said it wants a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff, but refused to rule out military action if diplomacy fails.

                      Comment


                      • A ranking Iranian diplomat on Monday said the chaos of Iraq was spilling over into his country, spreading a destabilizing influence to its Arab population.

                        The assertion by Mohammad Reza Baghban, the Iranian consul in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, runs counter to the Bush administration analysis that violence and instability flow the opposite direction — from Tehran to Baghdad.

                        "If you take a look at the discoveries of the Iranian police, you will find arms, ammunitions and other illegal equipment smuggled from Iraq to Khuzistan and other Iranian provinces," Baghban said in a rare interview.

                        Khuzistan is an oil-rich, ethnically Arab province in mostly Persian Iran that has experienced outbreaks of violence over the last few years by suspected separatists.

                        Allegations that weapons flow from Iran into Iraq are unsubstantiated, despite a strong presence of British and American troops in the border region of southern Iraq, Baghban added.

                        "The Americans are used to speaking nonsense and none of their allegations are documented," Baghban said. "Can they offer any evidence of what they say?"

                        Baghban said American and British troops stationed at the Mehran and Shalamcheh border outposts have had ample opportunity to monitor the frontier between Iran and southern Iraq, which is dominated by Shiite Muslim militias and political parties with roots in Iran.

                        Iran and the U.S. have been locked in a decades-long cold war that has heated up recently over allegations of Iranian interference in Iraq as well as Tehran's nuclear ambitions. U.S. troops this month stormed an Iranian government office in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, arresting half a dozen officials on suspicion of aiding armed groups. Five of them remained in custody Monday.

                        Baghban said he had no fear that American or British troops would raid his consulate, which enjoys a higher degree of protection under international law. He added that his staff maintains relations with local British consular officials.

                        Besides its embassy in Baghdad, Iran operates consulates in the predominantly Shiite cities of Basra and Karbala, and two lesser-rank offices in Iraqi Kurdistan. All the locations, except Baghdad, are areas with ethnic and historic links to predominantly Shiite Iran.

                        The diplomatic stations have granted tens of thousands of visas to Iraqis, even as Americans permit only tiny numbers of Iraqis to travel to the U.S., Baghban said. In Basra alone, 10,000 to 30,000 visas are issued every month, he said.

                        "They travel to Iran for different purposes like pilgrimage, visiting their relatives or for medical treatment," Baghban said. "There also are Iranians coming to Iraq for pilgrimage, commerce or family visits, and they might pass by Basra. But currently, they are not numerous."

                        Comment


                        • If there is anywhere Iran could easily stir up trouble in Iraq, it would be in Diyala, a rugged province along the border between the two nations.

                          The combination of Sunni Arab militants believed to be affiliated with Al Qaeda and Shiite Muslim militiamen with ties to Iran has fueled waves of sectarian and political violence here. The province is bisected by long-traveled routes leading from Iran to Baghdad and Shiite holy cities farther south in Iraq.

                          But even here, evidence of Iranian involvement in Iraq's troubles is limited. U.S. troops have found mortars and antitank mines with Iranian markings dated 2006, said U.S. Army Col. David W. Sutherland, who oversees the province. But there has been little sign of more advanced weaponry crossing the border, and no Iranian agents have been found.

                          In his speech this month outlining the new U.S. strategy in Iraq, President Bush promised to "seek out and destroy" Iranian networks that he said were providing "advanced weaponry and training to our enemies." He is expected to strike a similar note in tonight's State of the Union speech.

                          For all the aggressive rhetoric, however, the Bush administration has provided scant evidence to support these claims. Nor have reporters traveling with U.S. troops seen extensive signs of Iranian involvement. During a recent sweep through a stronghold of Sunni insurgents here, a single Iranian machine gun turned up among dozens of arms caches U.S. troops uncovered. British officials have similarly accused Iran of meddling in Iraqi affairs, but say they have not found Iranian-made weapons in areas they patrol.

                          The lack of publicly disclosed evidence has led to questions about whether the administration is overstating its case. Some suggest Bush and his aides are pointing to Iran to deflect blame for U.S. setbacks in Iraq. Others suggest they are laying the foundation for a military strike against Iran.

                          Before invading Iraq, the administration warned repeatedly that Saddam Hussein was developing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Those statements proved wrong. The administration's charges about Iran sound uncomfortably familiar to some. "To be quite honest, I'm a little concerned that it's Iraq again," Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said last week, referring to the administration's comments on Iran.

                          *

                          Lowered credibility

                          The accusations of Iranian meddling "illustrate what may be one of our greatest problems," said Anthony Cordesman, a former Defense Department official and military expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

                          "We are still making arguments from authority without detail and explanation. We're making them in an America and in a world where we really don't have anything like the credibility we've had in the past."

                          Few doubt that Iran is seeking to extend its influence in Iraq. But the groups in Iraq that have received the most Iranian support are not those that have led attacks against U.S. forces. Instead, they are nominal U.S. allies.

                          The Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, one of the two largest parties in parliament, is believed to be the biggest beneficiary of Iranian help. The Shiite group was based in Iran during Hussein's reign, and Iran's Revolutionary Guard trained and equipped its Badr Brigade militia.

                          But the Supreme Council also has strong U.S. connections. Bush played host to the head of the party, Abdelaziz Hakim, at the White House in December, and administration officials have frequently cited Adel Abdul Mehdi, another party leader, as a person they would like to see as Iraq's prime minister.

                          The Islamic Dawa Party of Iraq's current prime minister, Nouri Maliki, also has strong ties to Iran.

                          Some U.S. officials have also suggested that Iran, a Shiite theocracy, has provided aid to the Sunni insurgents, who have led most of the attacks against U.S. forces. Private analysts and other U.S. officials doubt that. Evidence is stronger that the Iranians are supporting a Shiite group that has attacked U.S. forces, the Al Mahdi militia, which is loyal to radical cleric Muqtada Sadr.

                          Top U.S. intelligence officials have been making increasingly confident assertions about Iran.

                          "I've come to a much darker interpretation of Iranian actions in the past 12 to 18 months," CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said in recent congressional testimony. Previously, Tehran's priority was to maneuver for a stable Iraq dominated by its Shiite majority, but that attitude has changed, he said.

                          "There is a clear line of evidence that points out the Iranians want to punish the United States, hurt the United States in Iraq, tie down the United States in Iraq," he said.

                          One high-ranking intelligence official in Washington acknowledged a lack of "fidelity" in the intelligence on Iran's activities, saying reports are sometimes unclear because it is difficult to track weapons and personnel that might be flowing across the long and porous border.
                          But U.S. forces have picked up specially shaped charges used to make roadside bombs capable of penetrating advanced armor, he said, with markings that could be traced to Iran and dates that were recent. The markings have been found on the devices themselves or the crates in which they were smuggled into the country, he said.

                          "Two years ago we were debating whether this was really happening," the official said. "Now the debate is over."

                          *

                          Documents withheld

                          U.S. officials have declined to provide documentation of seized Iranian ordnance despite repeated requests. The U.S. military often releases photographs of other weapons finds.

                          British government officials, including Prime Minister Tony Blair, have also accused Iran of supplying advanced explosive devices to Iraq.

                          Blair said a year ago that the weapons bore the hallmarks of Iran or Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia in Lebanon. But British officers stationed in Iraq at the time said they had seized no such weapons in the districts for which they had responsibility.

                          "We do have intelligence which suggests that weapons and ammunition are being smuggled in from Iran," Maj. David Gell, a spokesman for British forces in Basra, said last week. "We don't always manage to find any."

                          U.S. military officials in Diyala have had the same experience. No munitions or personnel have been seized at the border, officers said.

                          Sutherland, the U.S. colonel who oversees Diyala, believes that Tehran is prepared to work with any group, Shiite or Sunni, that can tie up U.S. forces. But State Department and intelligence officials have privately expressed doubts that Iranians are helping Sunnis.

                          Sunni insurgents in Diyala don't appear to need outside suppliers. They exploit massive weapons stashes containing materiel dating back to the Iran-Iraq war, when Hussein had a major military base in the area. U.S. military officials say they have found the type of shaped charges they attribute to Iran and Hezbollah in majority-Shiite parts of the province.

                          Outside military analysts have questioned how many of these sorts of weapons actually come from Iran. The technology used to make them is simple and widely known in the Middle East, they note. Iran is a likely source for some of the more sophisticated devices, but other countries could also be pitching in.

                          "A lot of rather sophisticated weapons have actually been released by Syria," said Peter Felstead, editor of the London-based Jane's Defense Weekly.

                          Others note that smugglers could be bringing weapons across the border from Iran without government approval.

                          *

                          'They are significant'

                          A second high-ranking U.S. intelligence official in Washington acknowledged that only a "small percentage" of explosions in Iraq could be linked to shaped charges coming from Iran.

                          "But in terms of American casualties, they are significant," he said, because they are much more lethal than standard roadside bombs.

                          A senior U.S. military intelligence official said coalition forces in Iraq had also found shaped charges "in the presence of Iranians captured in the country." He declined to elaborate but noted that U.S. operatives who raided an Iranian office in the Iraqi city of Irbil this month captured documents and computer drives he called a "treasure trove" on Iran's "networks, supply lines, sourcing and funding."

                          Five Iranians were taken into custody in the raid, prompting angry protests from the Iraqi government.

                          U.S. intelligence officials emphasized that Iran intentionally stops short of steps that would be seen as direct provocation and provide justification for a military response. For example, Iran has refrained from supplying Shiite militias with surface-to-air missiles and other weaponry that was part of Hezbollah's arsenal in its fight with Israel last summer, they said.

                          A high-ranking U.S. intelligence official called it a "careful calibration" that probably reflected disagreements within the Islamic regime. "I don't doubt that Iranian national security council meetings are very contentious," the official said.

                          Comment


                          • It is too early to tell whether the Bush administration's new Iraq strategy will provide the course correction necessary to ensure victory. On at least one other issue, however, President Bush's plan is a long overdue sign of seriousness.

                            "Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops," Bush declared in his Jan. 9 televised address. "We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran ... And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq."
                            Bush's bold pledge was tantamount to a direct repudiation of the suggestions of the Iraq Study Group, which counseled the White House on the need to unconditionally engage Iran in hopes that Iran's ayatollahs would commit to more "constructive policies" in the region. It was also a welcome indication that the Bush administration has finally begun to grasp the destabilizing role that Iran plays on the territory of its western neighbor, Iraq.

                            Few now dispute that Tehran is developing nuclear weapons and is doing so in defiance of the UN. Iran is also actively expanding its ballistic missile arsenal and will soon be capable of threatening targets far beyond the Middle East. At the same time, Iran has become a serial proliferator, demonstrating the capacity and the intent to transfer weapons of mass destruction technologies to rogue states and terrorists. Iran remains the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, fueling the activities of Hezbollah, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in addition to insurgents in Iraq.

                            A lasting American victory in Iraq and the larger Middle East will require that the Bush administration craft a broader strategy for dealing with Iran--one designed to prevent Iran from going nuclear, contain its regional ambitions and encourage a fundamental political transformation within its borders.

                            Such a strategy needs to focus on several fronts.

                            The first is intelligence. The U.S. and its allies know far too little about the strategic capabilities of Iran, including how far Iran actually is from the nuclear threshold. Washington desperately needs a crash intelligence program to "get smart" on Iran in order to better understand the country's internal dynamics--and to identify the best tactics to employ against the ayatollahs.

                            The second approach deals with regime leadership. Thanks to the recent Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, ongoing unrest in Iraq and Iran's nuclear advances, Iran is rapidly gaining in regional influence and prestige. Diminishing its standing needs to be a major American objective. That can be accomplished by publicizing the regime's corruption, human rights abuses and ties to international terror, and using these issues to isolate Iran internationally.

                            The third front must be economic. Iran is deeply dependent on foreign capital and foreign gasoline. Targeted financial measures that take advantage of these vulnerabilities can substantially impact Iran's political priorities. But in order to be effective they need to be carried out outside the confines of the United Nations, where serious financial action is subject to a Russian or Chinese veto.

                            Fourth, Washington must tackle Tehran's deep support for terrorism. If it is serious about winning the war on terror, the U.S. will need to degrade Iran's ability to support regional instability, stopping its arms shipments to terrorist proxies and capturing or killing Iranian-supported radicals. Such steps would be an important signal to other state sponsors of terror that their actions are not cost-free.

                            The fifth component should be communication. Washington needs to improve the clarity and strength of its message to the Iranian regime and its people. To the former, the U.S. must communicate in no uncertain terms that continued rogue behavior carries adverse consequences, up to and including the use of force. To the latter, outreach should be optimized to better demonstrate our commitment to their urge for freedom, both in word and in deed.

                            Finally, the White House needs to map out a full spectrum of military options vis-a-vis Iran. Although Bush has declared that the U.S. "will not tolerate" a nuclear Iran, the political costs of military action against Iran's nuclear program mean that such a step will be strictly a last resort. However, more limited overt and covert military measures aimed at increasing economic and political pressure on the Iranian regime can and should be explored now.

                            These steps will not be cost-free. Iran already has demonstrated that it is a sophisticated adversary with the ability to respond to American initiatives in a multitude of destabilizing ways. And in the near future, it will achieve a nuclear-weapon capability, cementing its status as a regional power and fundamentally altering the strategic balance in the Middle East. What is exceedingly clear, however, is that the consequences of inaction far outweigh the risks of resolutely confronting Iran now.

                            Comment


                            • In recent years, we have seen the publication of a large number of books on Iran, whether memoirs or historical, literary and political studies. We are Iran is different from any of those. This is a book about ordinary Iranians as seen through the eyes of the country’s many bloggers, mainly young people who are voicing their hopes and anxieties through their writings. Its editor and (skillful) translator, Nasrin Alavi, has compiled a sample of their blogs in such a way that readers can come to their own conclusions about the fabric of the Iranian society based on the opinions of those who were either very young or not yet born during the turbulent days of the Islamic Revolution.

                              It is rather difficult to do a review of this book since it is not about one historical figure or episode, or even one particular subject; instead, it is about Iran, its current state and its many faces. It includes blogs about love, life, the mullahs, boyfriends, politics, mothers and fathers, relationships, about men and women. Subject range from human desires and weaknesses, about life and death, about earthquakes and university riots, and war. We read about the US, Israel, Palestine, Iraq; about everything and anything that is interesting, sometimes irrelevant and sometimes noteworthy. We hear opinions about Khamenei, Mossadegh, Montazeri, Khatami, the Shah -- about evil doers, the good, the bad and the ugly. And we learn about women, Fatimeh Haghighat-jou, Shirin Ebadi, in addition to many unknown ones.

                              Unlike most books, which start with an introduction and end with a conclusion, the author has left that to the reader. Although it would have been useful to begin with an explanatory introduction, We are Iran does not present its material randomly; it is divided into chapters that are organized in a loose way according to historical sequence. The first one, titled “A Virtual Community,” is followed by chapters on the Revolution, and via subjects like censorship, the media, women, we arrive at the present, “A Quarter Century Later.”

                              In the process we go from dictators to martyrdom, from faith to war, from veils to political rights, from forbidden love to free and fair elections. The tone of the blogs selected ranges from sarcastic remarks about those in power to joyful odes to life to introspective musings about the gap between appearance and reality in today’s Iran. All excerpts ooze with spontaneity and vibrancy, and many serve as poignant commentary on the absurdities of life in the Islamic Republic. .

                              Had this book been published about any other country, it might not have had much of an impact. Coming, as it does, from within the borders of Iran, a country that has long been a mystery for the behavior of its government and its confrontation with the one remaining superpower, it only reinforces the impression of a vibrant civil society chafing at the bit and ready to jump and flourish.

                              We are Iran is a book to read. It is a book to read at night, in gatherings, on the metro or on the bus, to friends who want to know about this fascinating country, its people-- people from all walks of life, especially the young, energetic ones who long to break the chains of ignorance so they can be free and alive. It is a book for those who like to see what exercises the minds of the many articulate, witty, and committed young people of Iran, the ones whose notion of revolution does not just embrace reform but the simple and basic freedoms which we in the West take for granted.

                              A sampling of the hundreds of blogs translated into English in We are Iran:

                              “As a stand against tyrannical Mullahs, on Chahrshanbeh Suri we set off fireworks... ”

                              “If George Bush, Dick Cheyney and the Fox News Network swapped places with Ayatollah Khamenei, Rafsanjani and our own state-controlled television network... nothing much would change in the world. Just as everything in Iran is the fault of the Americans, in America, the Middle Eastern terrorists are to blame for all the woes of the World... ”

                              “Has everyone noticed the spooky absence of graffiti in our public toilets since the arrival
                              Of web logs? Remember the toilets at the university we used to call our ‘Freedom Columns’?”

                              “Yesterday I bought a turquoise ring... They say it brings you happiness... I didn’t let my boyfriend buy it... I bought it myself. I wanted to be the creator of my own happiness, beauty and freedom... The era of fairy-tale heroes has come to an end.”

                              “Death to everybody! Death to America! Israel! Britain! Imperialism!... Death to your mother, aunt, and sister too!... Death! Death! Death! They have been chanting Death to America and Israel for 25 years... and what have these useless leaders have achieved?... Israel is still the bully of the neighborhood and the Palestinians are swamped in misery... . But I can’t get over how we Iranians today are considered the most fanatical people in the world-all because of a bunch of nit-ridden illiterate mullahs... When I was growing up, Haji Yousef, the mullah who used to teach us the Koran.. Would say that ‘Moses taught us wisdom, Jesus love and Mohamed life’... so where did all these death chants come from?”

                              “Death to America! Death to Bush! Death to Colin Powel! Death to Elizabeth Taylor!
                              But I want to go and live in America.”

                              “A man who hits his wife or daughter on the head, saying’
                              Tighten your headscarf and cover yourself up’ and that man who passes a law to ban the headscarf are both pursuing
                              Their own ulterior motives...
                              Freedom is the ability to choose... in our case, a group of men is forcing us to wear it and yet elsewhere they force you to take it off!”

                              “Here in this forgotten corner of the world, lost in this third millennium, I am worried
                              About the crumbling ruins collapsing on my only child’s head...
                              Not far away in the civilized world, people would laugh at my deepest fears... No rubble
                              Will disturb their dreams... I can hear them snoring.”

                              “Just as the West has Romeo and Juliet and the Arabs Lailee and Majnoon, for Iranians it’s the tale of Shirin and Farhad... Lailee, The Arab girl, is a weak, shattered, distraught being and even though she loves Majnoun, she cannot bring herself to speak of their love because of her background. For solace she cries behind her veil and is even tormented by her father and brother for expressing sorrow... Oh, but our Shirin, once she feels that Farhad is her man, she mounts her horse and leaves for Tisfoon’ to be with him. Significantly, there is no father or a brother to torment her or stand in her way and when those close to her see her passion for him they encourage her to go after her Farhad.. and the rest... Yet in a deliciously cruel historic irony, centuries later, unlike Shirin, we are denied the expression of the love in our hearts...”

                              “Men are my guards and they guard their own property and honour ... who am I? I am my brother’s, father’s husband’s uncle’s honour and even the honour of the honourable boy next door... Who should I see , if I don’t want all these guard dogs?”

                              “Ardeshir Afshin-Rad was killed as he tried to escape from members of the security services... other reports say he died as a result of torture and assault at the hands of the security agents of Ansar {Hezbollah}. What can I say? I am truly sorry... My agony is more than I can express in words.”

                              “Parliamentarians today started handing in their resignation letters... If only they had woken up earlier... if only people still believed them.”

                              “I hate war. I hate the liberating soldiers that trample your soil, home, young and old under their boots. Believe me I love freedom. But that you have to make yourself free. No one else can free you.”

                              And in a letter to a Basiji, a blogger writes:

                              “In an answer to your question, the government we Iranians want;
                              No government official has a job for life.
                              The people elect the head of our government every four years.
                              No power is holy or sacred.
                              No religious groups or races are discriminated against, even atheists.
                              No one can investigate your private life...
                              Without a doubt the worst way to solve the problems of any society is
                              To have a revolution. Just as the nastiest way of solving any international dispute is war.
                              But when a society closes all its doors to change the worst will happen.”

                              Comment


                              • Who
                                At the moment, Seyyeds run Iran, propagating their Empire. Their self-acclaimed moral prerogative, is that they are related to Halabi Qureshi (aka Mohammed), who himself was brought to world attention, thanks to the abdication of the High Priest of Iran in the 7th Century AD to Christianity and then eventually to Halabi Qureshi. Ancient Iranian mythology (referred to by Christian historians as Zoroastrianism), speaks of an Iranian traitor; that creates a new revolution and overthrows the Iranian Empire; but much later is overthrown by a true Iranian.

                                Will
                                The next word in the question is "will". The word "will" immediately links ones mind to "will power". The inspiration behind will power has to be Iranian, and there we see the Iranian nation reading Ferdowsi to be inspired with Iranian nationality. This is the will power, that drives an Iranian to be Iranian, and its roots are from a Zoroastrian book called Khodayenamak. There are many other Iranian poets and philosophers that came after Ferdowsi, but it was he who had the will power to resurrect the "Iranian Will Power" as it were.

                                Fight
                                The word "fight" immediately brings on the impression of weapons and war. Whilst in today's world people fight with ideas, and the opposition overcomes dictatorship with massive non violent demonstrations and general strikes. That is not war with swords, that is war with words. Just count the number of real Iranians that participated in the latest Seyyed so called "elections" in Iran. Moreover the war of words by Iranian Bloggers is running circles around the Seyyed media in Iran. So real Iranians are winning against the alien Seyyeds in Iran right now.

                                For
                                "For" is the hardest word in the question. So many Iranians who are against the Seyyeds end up fighting for Seyyeds if Iran was attacked. They did so in the Iran-Iraq war. Iranians died in that war, not Seyyeds. But if the definition of "For" is Iran, then one can say that real Iranians are fighting in a non violent way for Iran from within Iran right now. Everywhere you go you will find the Seyyeds trying to intervene, but are circumvented by real Iranians. So much of the Iranian way of life has been sabotaged, and the economy is drained by Seyyeds' overspending in the nuclear industry, that real Iranians are openly and overtly criticising the Seyyeds. A massive peace movement "For" Iran to prevent a war for Seyyeds needs to be developed.

                                Iran
                                What is Iran? It is called in the Zend-Avesta as Eran-e-Vitch. Sounds Russian, doesn't it. And old Iranian culture is much closer to the culture surrounding the Caspian Sea, than the culture around the Persian Gulf. The oldest inhabitants of Iran come from as far back as anywhere in the world. Yes, we in Iran have archaeological roots from what the archaeologists call the Olduwan in Kasharfud. And it is not surprising to find, that our ancient myth talks of our first rulers inventing the tools for civilization like fire and clothing. So the word Iran can be in itself have the meaning of the root of human civilization.

                                ?
                                The question mark is perhaps the most interesting part of the whole sentence. Are there those of us, who are not focused on Iran properly? Some see Iran politically, religiously, or economically, and at the end lose sight of what it really is. They will raise too many questions and give no answers. They are too cynical, because they do not have a belief system based on Iran. Only Iranians that have faith in the story of Iran or the Spirit; that is behind the story of Iran; will see the future of Iran; be part of it; and make a new Iran happen in an Iranian way. Others will remain cynical and lose interest over time.

                                Comment

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