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Iranian Alert - January 22, 2006 - Iran Threatens the West with its biggest weapon, oil. PLUS!
Regime Change Iran ^ | 1.22.2006 | DoctorZin

Posted on 01/22/2006 2:08:45 PM PST by DoctorZIn

Top News Story

Iran Threatens the West with its biggest weapon, oil.

  • The New York Times reported that Ahmadinejad hinted last weekend that Iran might be willing to use the "oil weapon" - that is, curbing oil exports.
  • United Press International also reported that Iran's plan for opening an oil bourse in March of this year could threaten the world economy.

 

Iran pulling it funds out of Europe.

  • The Jerusalem Post reported that Iran announced Friday it has begun pulling its foreign currency accounts out of European banks.
  • Reuters reported that an unnamed senior Iranian official said: "Yes, Iran has started withdrawing money from European banks and transferring it to other banks abroad."

 

Nuclear Diplomacy.

  • The Jerusalem Post reported that Europe and the United States continue to dismiss the possibility of talks with Iran.
  • The Financial Times reported that China is now the greatest obstacle to an international consensus on resolving the crisis.
  • Iran Focus reported that Kofi Annan urged Iran on Thursday to suspend nuclear activities.
  • The Guardian reported that Italy's foreign minister said that Iran's nuclear program is testing the resolve of the international community, and the world needs a unified approach to the escalating diplomatic standoff.

 

The Iranian Bomb - Troubling Developments.

  • The Jerusalem Post reported that an Iranian exile group claimed that Tehran has acquired banned nuclear weapons machinery that "are able to simultaneously use pressure and heat to produce uranium spheres for production of nuclear bombs."
  • Mehran Riazaty reported that The Germany’s BND Foreign Intelligence Service claimed that Iran will have atomic bomb in next several months.

 

The US Struggle for a new Iran policy.

  • The Washington Post reported that at the heart of an informal review of US Iran policy the goal is to change the character of a regime.
  • The New York Times reported that the Bush administration and European officials said that they want to avoid causing hardship or more anti-Western resentment in the Iranian public.
  • Reuters reported that the State Department is spending millions of dollars to boost democracy in Iran, but added, the U.S. goal was not to overthrow the Iranian government via these grants.
  • Vance Serchuk, The Weekly Standadrd argued that there is much the US can do to pressure the Iranian regime to give up its nuclear program.

 

Is the window closing to support an internal regime change?

  • Joe Katzman, Winds of Change.net argued why failure to support an internal regime change inside of Iran will likely lead to at least 10 million dead.

 

The Military Developments.

  • The Washington Times argued that it's not likely that military action short of overthrowing the current regime could eliminate the Iranian nuclear threat.
  • Counter Terrorism Blog reminded us that Iran had bought 18 disassembled BM-25 missiles from North Korea which can easily be launched from [a] freighter modified with launch tubes and blast channels.

 

Ahmadinejad's Other Troublemaking.

  • Yahoo News reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met in Damascus with the leaders of 10 radical Palestinian movements.
  • Zaman.com reported that Iran has reduced the amount of natural gas to Turkey, causing a crisis in Turkey.
  • Iran Focus reported that Ahmadinejad appointed, Hojjatoleslam Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, as the new head of the National Security Council. Pour-Mohammadi was a notorious former deputy intelligence minister, whose agents “systematically engaged in extra-judicial killings of opposition figures.

 

Here are a few other news items you may have missed.

  • Eli Lake, The New York Sun discussed the opportunity for the academic left to abandon its neutrality in the war between Iranians and the mullahs who hold them captive.
  • Francis Fukuyama, The Wall Street Journal reported on a Web site that comes online today and documents the individual stories of the victims of the Iranian regime.
  • And finally, Informazionecorretta published a cartoon: Ahmadinejad acts like a Nazi.

 



TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: ahmadinejad; alqaedaandiran; atomic; axisofevil; axisofweasels; ayatollah; azadi; binladen; democracy; dissidents; freedom; freeiran; ganji; guardiancouncil; humanrights; iaea; insurgency; iran; iranazadi; iranianalert; iranianregime; irannukes; iranpolicy; irgc; iri; islam; islamic; islamicrepublic; khamenei; khomeini; khomeinism; ledeen; mullahs; muslims; nuclear; nukes; persecution; persia; persian; persians; politicalprisoners; protest; protests; regime; regimechangeiran; revolutionaryguard; shiite; studentmovement; studentprotest; tehran; terror; terrorists; theocracy; usa; vevak; wot

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail DoctorZin

1 posted on 01/22/2006 2:08:57 PM PST by DoctorZIn
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To: Pan_Yans Wife; fat city; freedom44; Tamsey; Grampa Dave; PhiKapMom; Hinoki Cypress; ...
Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread – The Most Underreported Story Of The Year!

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail DoctorZin”

2 posted on 01/22/2006 2:10:09 PM PST by DoctorZIn (Until they are Free, "We shall all be Iranians!")
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To: DoctorZIn

Which has always confused me. Why do they need nukes if they have the "oil weapon"? Do you have an answer?


3 posted on 01/22/2006 2:15:48 PM PST by bnelson44 (Proud parent of a tanker! (Charlie Mike, son))
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To: bnelson44

Um... It's easier to kill Jews with a nuke?


4 posted on 01/22/2006 2:29:15 PM PST by Alas Babylon!
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To: bnelson44

Because the "oil weapon" is pointed at their own head.

The world can survive without Iranian oil. Iran cannot survive without selling their oil.


5 posted on 01/22/2006 2:40:05 PM PST by SampleMan
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To: DoctorZIn

Columnist at www.windsofchange.net points out that the Iranian people don't have the guts to revolt...even if we invade.

If we don't have an indigenous army of "Iranians" trained and ready now...then the Hildebeast was right when she criticized the President for being caught flatfooted by Iran's nuke program.

Many people say that the President should wait until *after* the Midterm elections to move on Iran.

I say the opposite should be the case. We need to conduct a takedown of the regime by this summer. If it really looks like this administration hasn't prepared an amazing "takedown" play for Iran...many independents in the middle will look toward a Biden here, a Hildebeast there...and maybe stop looking at the Republicans as being tough on national security.


6 posted on 01/22/2006 2:58:29 PM PST by GermanBusiness
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To: DoctorZIn
Tehran is preparing to open a bourse, a mercantile (commodity) exchange and potentially a futures/options market to be traded only in Euros, they claim the American Dollar will not be utilized to hurt US.

Besides crude oil, natural gas and pistachio nuts, just what other major commodities does the Mullah Inc think traders (without a brain) will be trading in the Shi'ite center for global jihad? Persian rug options?

Maybe they could try neckties, since nobody wears them in the Iranian ruling régime, since they too are "Western". Gezz, I wonder if Assad is knows what the score on this one? :)

The obvious threat is to deal what they hope to be a significant blow to the position of worldwide power the US Dollar in relation to the Euro and also try and sink major American stock indexes, sounds like economic warfare in conjunction to Tehran's jihadist terrorist war against the West. DOW Chart beginning to look bearish

Iran, the second-largest crude oil producer within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, exports roughly 2.5 million barrels per day - 1 million barrels more than current excess production capacity worldwide. It also controls the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping lane in the Middle East, but that so-called control could be altered very quickly through the U.S. Navy, British Navy & other allied navies and then how would Iran transport her oil & natural gas to awaiting customers? James Bartis, a senior researcher at Rand Corp stated "Even if Iran pulled a small amount of its oil off the market, say it pulled a half million barrels a day, I could see oil prices literally jumping over the $100 per barrel mark," so my advice is hop on board now before prices race off the charts.

"It's a very difficult situation where you don't know which side is going to blink first," said Leonard Spector, deputy director of the Monterey Institute of International Studies' Center for Nonproliferation Studies.

It should be known that India, which imports 75 percent of the crude it consumes, some from Iran, is a wild card in any meaningful sanctions directed against Iranian energy products. Recall Moscow a strong ally of Tehran and Beijing, also selling the Iranians various 'items' have a vote on the Security Council on what to do about Iran, once it is referred.

Is oil still "cheap" in relation to where she's heading over the next 6 months or so?

7 posted on 01/22/2006 3:12:43 PM PST by M. Espinola (Freedom is Never Free)
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To: DoctorZIn

Dear opponents of ANWR, where is your alternative energy technologies that will make up for the Iranian oil shortfalls in the coming months? A$$holes?!!


8 posted on 01/22/2006 3:36:49 PM PST by Fee (`+Great powers never let minor allies dictate who, where and when they must fight.)
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To: DoctorZIn
To read today’s thread click here.

Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread – The Most Underreported Story Of The Year!

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail DoctorZin”

9 posted on 01/22/2006 7:10:36 PM PST by DoctorZIn (Until they are Free, "We shall all be Iranians!")
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To: Fee
I said months ago that the true WMD the Islamofascist hold against us is Oil. The Party of Death (Dumocrats) is adamant on bringing the US to our knees. Thus their campaigns to keep America held hostage by these thugs.

If any one believes that GW won't push that red button better think again. My message to the sane democracy loving people of Iran is get out now, this has no place to go but from bad to worse.

10 posted on 01/26/2006 9:30:18 AM PST by marty60
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