Like we would even know WHO to ship them to. Student groups and others disaffected are far from being capable of armed resistance. This cannot be transformed into an American fight and simplely trying to arm the unknown is not smart strategic thinking. The situation in Iran has to mature further before it is of any real use to us.

ran warns US over Iraq
23/05/2004 14:18 - (SA)

Tehran - Iran has sent a "formal warning" to the United States over American policy in neighbouring Iraq, foreign ministry spokesperson Hamid Reza Asefi said on Sunday, as he branded Washington immoral and deceitful.

The situation in Iraq is serious and this is why we have addressed the necessary warning," he told a press conference.

Shiite Muslim-dominated Iran has voiced alarm in recent days at fighting around the Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala between US-led coalition forces and the militia of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr, for which it blames the United States.

It opposed the invasion of Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein's regime, with which it fought an eight-year war in the 1980s, and has called for the US-led coalition to withdraw rapidly and hand back power to the Iraqis.

Violent demonstrations have been staged recently outside the British embassy in Tehran against the actions of the United States and its main ally Britain in Iraq.

Washington has no diplomatic relations with Tehran and the warning - the first to be made public at least since the Iraq war began - was passed by diplomatic channels through the Swiss embassy here, which represents US interests in Iran.

"We want several things for Iraq, the most important of which are the departure of the occupation forces as quickly as possible and the restitution of authority to the Iraqi people themselves," Asefi said.

The United States accuses Iran of influencing Iraq's own Shiite majority to destabilise the country, and allowing foreign fighters to cross its borders into Iraq.

Asefi also insisted that the People's Mujahedeen, the main armed opposition organisation to the Islamic republic, be expelled from Iraq, where they have been held in a base under US guard.

"They should already have been expelled from Iraq, though they are still under American protection," Assefi said.

"What we see here is the hypocrisy and immoral approach of the Americans."

The People's Mujahedeen operated out of bases in Iraq under the protection of Saddam's regime, but were disarmed by US forces and some 4 000 of its members in Ashraf camp, 100km northeast of Baghdad, not far from the Iranian border.

Tehran has promised no harm to the ones who repent and return as long as they do not have "blood on their hands."

The provisional Iraqi authorities announced on December 9 their intention to expel the Mujahedeen from Iraq by the end of the year but this has not happened.

Asefi said the situation in Iraq had changed following "the torture of prisoners" by US troops and "attacks on the holy places."

Edited by Tisha Steyn

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1531289,00.html

Iran tells US to pull out of Iraq

Protest against Iraqi occupation on Friday, 21 May 2004

Previous demonstrations outside the British embassy have been violent

The Iranian foreign ministry has sent a warning message to the US, criticising its policy in Iraq.

A spokesman said Iran wanted "the departure of the occupation forces as quickly as possible and the restitution of authority to the Iraqi people".

Iran, a Shia republic, is worried by fighting in holy cities such as Najaf and Karbala in neighbouring Iraq.

Around 400 people also took part in a protest against the Iraq occupation outside the UK embassy in Tehran.

Demonstrators chanted slogans demanding the closure of the UK embassy and expulsion of the British ambassador from Iran.

About 100 of them repeatedly tried to rush the police lines but they were heavily outnumbered by the security forces, the BBC 's Jim Muir reports from Tehran.

Some stones and firecrackers were thrown at the embassy compound, which has become a focal point for demonstrators angered by what they see as the violation of Shia holy places in Iraq.

But there was more violence at a demonstration on Wednesday, when petrol bombs were thrown.

Sympathy for militant

Iran issued its warning through the Swiss embassy, as its diplomatic ties with the US have been severed.

The foreign ministry said Iraq's Shia should take their lead from their senior religious leaders.

Our correspondent says that while Iran has officially thrown its weight behind the moderate cleric, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, some hardline elements appear to have a good deal of sympathy for the younger and more militant Moqtada Sadr.

Spying allegations denied

In a separate development, Iran has denied that it received confidential information from Ahmed Chalabi, a senior member of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.

However, Iran did acknowledge it had a "continuous and permanent dialogue" with Mr Chalabi, who faces allegations of passing US secrets to Tehran.

Mr Chalabi was previously tipped for high office by senior figures in the Pentagon, but has fallen out of favour since reports on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction provided by his informants have proved to be unfounded.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3740027.stm

Protests held at British embassy in Iran
Sun 23 May, 2004 16:12

TEHRAN (Reuters) - An estimated 400 people, some throwing firecrackers, have demonstrated for the fourth time in little over a week outside the British embassy in Iran against the actions of U.S.-led forces in Iraq, witnesses say.

A Reuters journalist at the scene on Sunday saw at least two firecrackers and several tomatoes thrown at the embassy by the crowd of mostly students as they chanted "Death to Britain, Death to America."

Riot police with batons and shields prevented the crowd from getting close to the main gate of the embassy. About a dozen people were arrested as police tried to disperse the crowd. About 100 of the demonstrators refused to move and staged a sit-in in front of the embassy.

Three protests at the embassy last week turned ugly with demonstrators hurling petrol bombs, firecrackers and stones at the large diplomatic compound in central Tehran. No one was hurt in those incidents.

"The British embassy must be closed down. Its mercenary ambassador must be expelled," the crowd chanted on Sunday.

Shi'ite Muslim Iran has in recent weeks become more vocal in opposing the presence of U.S.-led forces in Iraq. Religious leaders in the Islamic Republic have been particularly incensed by fighting close to holy Shi'ite sites in Najaf and Kerbala.

In a statement on Sunday, the protesters listed several demands, including the expulsion of British Ambassador Richard Dalton, an apology from the United States and Britain for "desecrating" holy sites in Iraq and the immediate withdrawal of U.S.-led forces from Najaf and Kerbala.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said on Sunday Tehran had sent a formal diplomatic warning to the United States about its actions in Iraq.

But Asefi dismissed calls from some hardliners for Dalton to be expelled.

"Expelling the British ambassador is not on our agenda," he told a weekly news conference.

The British embassy is the main focus of anti-Western demonstrations in Iran in the absence of a U.S. diplomatic presence. Washington severed ties with Tehran in 1980.

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=515936&section=news

My read on this is that the Shiite rebellion funded by Iran has collapsed. Sadr's troops collapsed. Sistani has turned against him after his house was attacked. An Iranian spy ring has been busted. Hezbollah is hosting staged protests in Lebanon but, its too little too late.

In short, the Coalition just beat the Iranian funded and organized Shiite insurrection. We took their best shot and are still standing.

This is big and positive news.

I agree with your assessment. The Iraqis want no part of Iran. They seem to think that just because they are Shiia that the Iraqis will be on their side. Not so. The Iraqis have had a front row seat on Iran for years and have watched the country fall into poverty and despair.

Something seems off these past few days in Iraq; I have a bad feeling while others have a really good feeling.

My spidey sense has been tingling, too. I feel like I'm watching a grand chess game, but the board is covered by a blanket and all I can see are the players' arms moving.

I did a big "Huh?!" over the Abu Graib incident, then got even more suspicious when Chalabi got busted, and now this.

Something big is going on behind the scenes but I can't make heads or tails of it. Imal--you got any ideas or insight?

Never bluff a man with the nuts.

I love your thought.......and would go to help you in a heartbeat....but then again...Hitlary Clinton feels she is so good of a Commander and Chief...may she goes to the Holy Site there in Iran and preach to the Mullahs.

Perhaps we should reply with a diplomatic message of our own, taped to the side of a MOAB.

Don't we still owe the Mullahs a butt wipping?

In spades. Remember the hostages.

Attach them to trees!

Iran said Sunday that it had sent a message of formal diplomatic warning to the United States about its actions in neighboring Iraq.

Heed the warning Mr. President, for we know who actually holds the power and might in the ME.

We had better stop what we are doing over there before Iran REALLY gets mad and squashes us with their might!! LoL's

Oh ya I remember very well, ad all the attendant Iranian carp all over the news. that is why I said it.

Your chess game analogy is a good one, and I'm not sure if anyone gets to see under the blanket, even the players. Without a doubt, there are big doings afoot.

There is much to puzzle over these days, and though attention is fixed on Iraq, the contest is global in scope. Several other nations, notably China, have their mitts all over the Middle East, but that's not getting a lot of attention. In truth, Iraq is the fulcrum of a major geopolitical struggle that most of the world does not want the U.S. to win.

The highly-publicized-by-the-U.S. falling out with Chalabi appears to be a necessary prelude to his future political career. It seems contrived, and the only reason the world knows anything about it is our government's insistence that the world know about it.

After all, if Chalabi really sold us out, we'd make him disappear into Abu Ghraib or a successor, not turn him into an international media darling. I mean come on, does Chalabi or any member of his court really have a security clearance for sensitive classified material? This is cinema.

My take on this is that we're cutting Chalabi's umbilical cord. If he survives, he may well become Iraq's first "freely-elected" president of the new millennium. Thus the U.S. will "lose control" of the new Iraq to a leader who is publicly treacherous to the U.S., "his own man" (just look at the way he slapped the U.S. in the face!), a true "Iraqi patriot" and, all the while, he'll be privately in our pocket (we have a lot more on him than he has on us). Not a particularly new game to play, but you go with what works.

As for Iran, it has been in our sights for decades. They know we're after them, and they are justifiably concerned. With Iraq nailed down (watch, it will be sooner than it looks from this vantage point), we'll have Iran in the vice, with Afghanistan on the other side. We might use our dear friend Chalabi as leverage against them when he has his inevitable "falling out" with Iran (again, to prove he's not in anyone's pocket).

Of course, we'll blame Iran (and at some point Syria) for the lingering problems we face in both neighboring countries, while we quietly work to set up the next revolution, which will probably (and hopefully) be comparatively short in happening. With U.S.-occupied countries on their eastern and western borders, Iran's theocrats can plainly see the handwriting on the wall. "Diplomatic messages" like this one are laughably feeble attempts to salvage some dignity while they have their country taken out from under them.

After Iran's inevitable revolution inevitably succeeds, then the U.S. can count Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan as staunch allies. Perhaps Iran's deposed mullahs, imams and ayatollahs might find refuge in France, in accordance with tradition.

Syria will really start sweating bullets then (more than they are already), and I think we can expect a more genuinely free version of Lebanon to grace the Mediterranean soon, followed soon by a more "democratic" Syria, also soon to become more tolerant of the U.S., if not an overt ally (although that may very well be in the cards).

Meanwhile, the world will see the latest incarnation of the "Domino Theory", as boldly played by an "arrogant cowboy". Most will complain endlessly about it, but no one will be able to stop it. In light of their demonstrable impotence against this "threat", I suppose we can begrudge them some grumbling and grousing, all while they line up for their economic blessings from an ever benevolent Uncle Sam.

Ultimately, I suspect Bush the younger may someday be able to claim that he was the first U.S. president to actually take meaningful steps to secure a true and lasting peace in the Middle East (albeit not during his presidency, per se, but we don't credit his dad for the fall of the Berlin wall, either), while simultaneously presiding over a dramatic national shift from oil to alternative primary fuel sources (another story not getting a lot of press these days, but watch).

A wild card in all this is Al Qaeda, and I think it would be unwise to underestimate their ability to throw some very large wrenches into the plan. Every strike they make, however (even in Spain), will succeed only in galvanizing resolve against the radical Islamist agenda. If they succeed in striking hard in the U.S. prior to the November elections, we can expect a very different response from that which we saw in Spain, and I don't think it would go well for Kerry (not that it would anyway -- he's the Dems' "disposable candidate").

While it's true that Al Qaeda seeks to divide the world into Muslims and infidels, and thus foment world war, it seems they might already have overplayed their hand. Opposition to Russia's operations against Muslim insurgents in Chechnya, for example, has already faded to a whisper, and the stooge turnout for other anti-West causes is on a long, downward decline. Soon even Palestine will garner little sympathy, as the game they are a part of becomes more transparent.

Time will tell if I'm right or completely off-base on one or all of these topics. In the meantime, it's fun to speculate.

More people need to back up, get some perspective, and realize this.

I realized it from day one. It makes it easy to ignore the sideshow.

What you really meant to say is "The Peanut farmer guy left a long time ago. What part of balls for earrings didn't you get?" "W" open a can of whoop a$$ so fast your turban tops would be like a pull start for breaking necks.

Think I sound prejudiced? I'm not, when terrorists hide behind a religion's symbols - then they surely need to die.

BUMP!

MAY 7?, 2004 TUE PM : (S AMERICA : GUYANA : REPORT : THE BODY OF IRANIAN CLERIC M H EBRAHIMI HAS BEEN FOUND) GEORGETOWN, Guyana (Reuters) — An Iranian scholar who was abducted in Guyana last month [on APRIL 2, 2004] in a case that baffled local police has been found dead with gunshot wounds to the head, police said on Wednesday. The body of Mohammad Hassan Ebrahimi, director of Guyana’s International Islamic College for Advanced Studies, was discovered by local people late on Tuesday 45 miles (70 km) south of the capital, Georgetown. ...
Police spokesman John Sauers said the partly decomposed body of the slain academic, with the mouth taped and hands and feet bound was found in a shallow grave. “There were two gunshot wounds to the head,” he said.
A colleague of Ebrahimi, Abdul Kadir, identified the corpse which was found in bushes along a track near the Linden-Soesdyke highway south of Georgetown. The body was handed over to the family after a post-mortem examination. ...Four Iranian police detectives and Iran’s ambassador to Guyana, Ahmad Sobhani, who is based in Venezuela, went to Georgetown last week to assist local authorities. Muslims form a significant part of Guyana’s multiracial population, although the Christian and Hindu communities are larger.-—— “Iranian Scholar Abducted in Guyana Found Dead ,” Tehran Times ^ | May 8, 2004 | Reuters
Posted on 05/12/2004 12:01:30 PM PDT by LurkedLongEnough
*****
Not that it’s related but the coincidence is strange. A couple stories down the page is a bit about a pair of guys from Georgetown [GUYANA], who just arrived @JFK airport, only one of them died of unknown causes on the flight to the US.
2 posted on 05/12/2004 12:11:12 PM PDT by blackdog | To 1

MAY 2004 : (NY: GUYANESE MAN DIES ON FLIGHT INTO JFK AIRPORT — ISOLATED INCIDENTS) Not that it’s related but the coincidence is strange. A couple stories down the page is a bit about a pair of guys from Georgetown [GUYANA], who just arrived @JFK airport, only one of them died of unknown causes on the flight to the US.
2 posted on 05/12/2004 12:11:12 PM PDT by blackdog | To 1

CORRECTION:

MAY 11, 2004 TUE : (JAMAICAN MAN ON FLIGHT FROM GUYANA DIES BEFORE ARRIVING AT NY’S JFK AIRPORT IN THE US) ot that it’s related but the coincidence is strange. A couple stories down the page is a bit about a pair of guys from Georgetown [GUYANA], who just arrived @JFK airport, only one of them died of unknown causes on the flight to the US.
2 posted on 05/12/2004 12:11:12 PM PDT by blackdog | To 1
******
GEORGETOWN, Guyana — A Jamaican man collapsed and died on a nonstop flight from Guyana to New York on Tuesday, airline officials said. Rupert Cameron, 33, was pronounced dead when North American Airlines Flight 92 from Georgetown arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport just before 2 p.m. EDT, said Jenny DeBarros, a spokeswoman for the Queens-based airline. Cameron had complained of feeling unwell and repeatedly asked for water. Several passengers, including a Guyanese doctor, administered CPR when he stopped breathing, DeBarros said. It was unclear when an autopsy would be performed.
Authorities detained a Jamaican friend traveling with Cameron.
Cameron had arrived in this South American country on May 4 and had been staying with friends in the bauxite mining town of Linden, 70 miles south of Georgetown.———————Jamaican Man Dies On Flight From Guyana To New York
NBC News 4 - New York ^ | May 11, 2004 | AP
Posted on Wednesday, May 12, 2004 2:48:14 PM by LurkedLongEnough