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Protests likely as Iran marks US embassy seizure (AFP) 2 November 2009 TEHRAN - Street protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are expected on Wednesday as Iran marks the 30th anniversary of the capture of US embassy at a time when it is engaged in high-profile nuclear dialogue backed by Washington. November 4 has emerged as an anti-US day in Iran, with thousands of Iranians, mostly students, gathering annually outside the US embassy building, dubbed the ‘Den of Spies’, to shout slogans such as “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!” The event marks the capture of the embassy on November...

Secretary of State Takes On a Complicated Mission in the Mideast as Obama's 'Engagement' Diplomacy Comes Under Pressure MARRAKESH, Morocco -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used a diplomatic swing across the greater Middle East to reassert her role in foreign policy even as the trip exposed the strategic challenges facing the Obama administration's overseas agenda.Mrs. Clinton, during her first 10 months atop the State Department, has appeared at times a marginal player on a national-security team dominated by special diplomatic envoys and President Barack Obama himself. Foreign governments have questioned what role Mrs. Clinton was playing in formulating...

The United States is looking for nukes in all the wrong places. Nuclear terrorism won't come from countries; it will come from vast networks of operatives with only tenuous links to states. Nor are terrorists likely to get their nuclear material from rogue regimes. Far more probable is that they will steal it or obtain it through the growing global black market. If this is to be prevented, the United States and its allies will have to give their counterproliferation mindset a sweeping overhaul. Today's terrorist threats are far less tangible than the traditional, state-centric security ones embodied by such...

Norway expelled a 36-year-old Iranian student studying space technology earlier this month amid fears his studies may be used to contribute to the Iranian missile program, according to reports Tuesday in the Norwegian media. The student studied Norwegian language and culture last year and, according to the reports, was due to begin a master's program in space technology at Narvik University College in Narvik, a town some 1,400 km north of Oslo. Jorn Preserudstuen, police inspector for the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST), told the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation that history has shown a connection between a space program and missile...

The Ministry of education’s Academic Basij Resistance summoned all of the commanders of the ministry’s Basij centers to instruct them on confronting the pupil’s march on Nov. 4. The Basij forces are to be spread in groups of 50 among the pupils to control their behavior and slogans. Apparently the Special Security Forces personnel did not want to confront their own children in the marches. Graffiti has appeared in all sections of Tehran inviting the people to participate in the Nov. 4 demonstrations In a letter stamped “confidential” and “urgent” , the Press Assistant of the Guidance Minister wrote, “emphasizing...

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that countries opposed to Iran's atomic program should give up their own nuclear weapons, and attacked as "arrogant" the sanctions imposed on Ankara's neighbor. He also said he wanted the Middle East, and then the whole world, to rid itself of nuclear weapons. During a trip to Iran this week, Erdogan said he backed Tehran's "right to peaceful nuclear energy" and called its approach in nuclear talks with Western powers "positive." The trip added to Western concern that NATO's only Muslim member may be shifting its foreign-policy focus towards the Islamic world...

Several Iranian websites, including the official site of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have published details of an unusual encounter between Khamenei and a student who publicly criticized the Iranian establishment. The encounter took place in an October 28 meeting between Khamenei and students in Tehran, during which the supreme leader said that questioning the disputed June 12 vote was the "biggest crime." According to the reports, a student from Sharif University, named by some websites as Mahmud Vahidnia, criticized the Iranian leader, state broadcast media, the postelection crackdown, and the closure of the reformist press -- for a...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi appeared to urge his supporters on Saturday to take part in rallies on November 4 marking the 30th anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran. If they gather in the streets on Wednesday, there may be clashes with police and government backers, as happened during annual demonstrations in Iran in support of the Palestinians on September 18. In a statement posted on a reformist website, Mousavi said he would press ahead with his efforts for political change in Iran following its disputed election in June, which he says was...

This column is in answer to the linked NAACP objection to my column(s.) I have linked to the column in question and the letter. Please read both before perusing my response. My initial reaction to this communiqué and that of my liberal-leaning friend, webmaster and former editor of the Rolla Daily News, Martin Schwartz, was: “You (Weinbaum) made an opinion in the op-ed section of the RDN. They (NAACP) disagreed with it. So the NAACP wants to stop this and other opinions like it from being published in the paper.” In other words, until Weinbaum conforms to NAACP opinion, he...

Frustrated by Iran's continued defiance of demands to come clean on its nuclear program, the Obama administration is leaning toward imposing new sanctions, even if it must act alone. Administration officials acknowledged growing concern that there may not be international consensus to expand the existing U.N. sanctions, despite Tehran's apparent rejection of a confidence-building measure proposed by the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog in hopes of making progress on the nuclear issue. To that end, the administration is quietly supporting legislation in Congress that would give President Barack Obama a broad new array of authority to target Iran's energy sector by penalizing...

The postcard from the Home Front Command that recently arrived in my mailbox looks like an ad from the Ministry of Tourism. A map of Israel is divided by color into six regions, each symbolized by an upbeat drawing: a smiling camel in the Negev desert, a skier in the Golan Heights. In fact, each region signifies the amount of time residents will have to seek shelter from an impending missile attack. If you live along the Gaza border, you have 15 seconds after the siren sounds. Jerusalemites get a full three minutes. But as the regions move farther north,...

Watching the Obama administration launch its "new era of engagement" over the past 10 months, most seasoned observers have pondered two questions: First, if engagement fails, will the Obama team ever acknowledge that it has failed? And what then? The first question is about to be answered. The main object of the "new era of engagement," Iran, has settled back into its old game-playing. The joint proposal agreed to by the United States, France and Russia, to have Iran ship 70 percent of its low-enriched uranium to Russia this year, was a compromise, as administration officials acknowledge. It might theoretically...

In the deepening international stand-off over Iran's nuclear program, the Islamic Republic's quest for advanced air- and missile defense technologies could play a decisive role. "For years now, Tehran has been working hard to acquire sophisticated Russian antiaircraft missiles that would make it far tougher for Israeli planes to stage a successful attack on Iranian nuclear facilities," Christian Caryl wrote on October 2nd in the online edition of Foreign Policy magazine. That system is the S-300, an advanced interceptor array believed to be superior to the U.S. Patriot. Russia signed a deal to deliver units of the S-300 to Iran...

Iran has been accused of playing games after attempting to renegotiate a deal on its nuclear programme. Tehran responded to an International Atomic Energy Agency offer to send its uranium abroad for enrichment by submitting a counterproposal. Britain and other European Union nations were preparing to reject the new plan last night, raising the threat of a protracted confrontation and new sanctions. Iran presented its response to the deal drawn up by the United States, Russia and France on and Germany on Thursday. It came as European Union foreign ministers were meeting in Brussels and they were last night thrashing...

Robert Kagan wondered this morning if The One will ever be prepared to play hardball with Iran or if the “plan” is, in fact, eternal negotiation while they perfect their bombmaking technique. We’ll know soon. The proposal would have depleted Iran’s stockpile of nuclear fuel below the threshold necessary for making a single nuclear bomb, possibly creating diplomatic breathing room for a broader agreement between Tehran and those worried about its atomic research program. But according to the diplomat, Iran wants to send its uranium abroad in smaller batches over an undetermined stretch of time rather than the lump transfer...

It was late February 2003, a few weeks before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and President George W. Bush's administration still lacked a real strategy for the would-be regional hegemon next door. As the Iran desk officer in the office of the secretary of defense, I felt desperate. We were about to invade Iraq without a definitive policy toward its most bitter foe. I feared a repeat of Vietnam and saw in Iran a new Ho Chi Minh Trail -- the enemy lifeline that snaked through Laos and Cambodia and helped dash U.S. hopes for Southeast Asia. I knew that...

America on the Children's Crusade: Think they're attacking you because they really want to make a deal? By Barry Rubin thelastcrusade.org A friend of mine who used to be a high-ranking U.S. government official made a very interesting remark: Intelligence does not settle disputes in government, theories do. In other words, no matter how badly an enemy acts, you can interpret it as their building up bargaining chips to make a deal. They are hitting you to force you to offer them a good bargain. The bottom line is, therefore, that even if you can prove that a country...

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, as they say. The Center for Security Policy has discovered that something called the “Interests Section of Iran” has donated to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a group accused of supporting Sunni Hamas and discriminating against Shiites according to some of its former staff. Frank Gaffney explains:

Turkey is switching to national currencies in trade with Iran and China, ending dependence on the U.S. dollar and the euro for about 20% of its commodity turnover, local media reported on Wednesday. Turkey has already switched to settlements in national currencies with Russia amid weakening confidence in the greenback as the world's major reserve currency. The move was initiated by Turkish President Abdullah Gul during his visit to Moscow in February. Turkey's decision to make settlements with Iran and China in national currencies was announced during a visit to Iran by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Turkish...

A worried Iranian airline pilot asked passengers to start praying after his plane was hit by a technical glitch early on Thursday, highlighting once again the notorious record of Tehran's aircraft. The Aseman Airlines Boeing plane had taken off from Tehran airport after a six-hour delay, but had to return following a technical fault, the ISNA news agency quoted a passenger as recounting. "The plane took off at 0015 in the morning and had to land back in Tehran after 45 minutes," the passenger said. "The pilot told the passengers 'the plane is facing a technical problem and has to...

Iran wanted shipments of low-enriched uranium (LEU) -- for conversion abroad into fuel for a Tehran research reactor -- to take place in stages, not as one block. It also wanted simultaneous imports of higher-enriched fuel from other countries for the same plant. The conditions were likely non-starters for Western powers, which suspect the Islamic Republic covertly seeks nuclear arms capability.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has proclaimed victory in his battle with the West, claiming he has compelled the US and its allies to 'co-operate' with Iran's nuclear programme. As Iran's nuclear negotiator handed in the country's response to a proposed deal to process its enriched uranium stocks abroad, Mr Ahmadinejad hailed a change in Western policy from "confrontation to co-operation". "We welcome fuel exchange, nuclear co-operation, building of power plants and reactors and we are ready to co-operate," he said in a speech shown live on state television. But he said he would not retreat "one iota" in his demand that...

"Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that Tehran will not give up its nuclear program although the West and Iran are now cooperating on the issue"

UNITED NATIONS — A Canadian-led bid to focus attention on Iran's human rights record says United Nations special investigators should turn their gaze on the Islamic republic, according to a draft resolution that's expected to be unveiled Thursday. The move by Canada and the measure's co-sponsoring governments comes amid criticism that many of UN human rights investigators spend a disproportionate amount of time probing alleged abuses in advanced democracies, while ignoring countries where the worst abuse takes place. The draft resolution calls on investigators of torture, extra-judicial executions, free speech suppression, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and persecution of human rights...

Iran is directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of more American military personnel than any other country since the Vietnam War. Tehran does not lack the will to stand up to the United States even without nuclear weapons. It's chilling to consider how much more bold Iran will be with an atomic arsenal.

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is quietly laying the groundwork for long-range strategy that could be used to contain a nuclear-equipped Iran and deter its leaders from using atomic weapons. U.S. officials insist they are not resigned to a nuclear Iran and are pressing negotiations to prevent it from joining the world's nuclear club. But at the same time, the administration has set in place the building blocks of policies to contend with an Iran armed with atomic weapons. Those elements, former officials and analysts said, include the newly revised defense shield for Europe and deeper defense ties to Gulf...

Turkish prime minister Erdogan has flown back home after a 2-day visit to Tehran. It was a big deal in all senses of the term. He went to Iran with a large delegation, including three ministers, many businessmen, leaders of Parliament, scads of reporters, and television crews. He met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mottaki, “President” Ahmadinejad, and other ministers. According to Iranians who were involved in the meetings, the two countries reached agreement on many issues, the upshot of which is a considerable tightening of the working alliance between them: –The creation of a joint airline; –The creation of a...

Exporting Terror by Ari Bussel October, 2009: Pakistani Military Headquarters in Islamabad attacked, the guard post at one of the entrances was breached and both civilians and officers were taken hostage. After a standoff, commandos were able to rescue most alive. This major security lapse and embarrassment is being investigated. A breach of security in Iraq allowed car bombs to be set off moments apart near the Ministry of Justice and the Baghdad Provincial Council, killing more than 150. An investigation began. A homicide bomber blew himself at a meeting in South East Iran, killing 42 people, including the Revolutionary...

A danger sign outside the Tuwaitha nuclear facility, south of Baghdad. The site was looted following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Iraq has started lobbying for approval to again become a nuclear player, almost 19 years after British and American war planes destroyed Saddam Hussein's last two reactors, the Guardian has learned. The Iraqi government has approached the French nuclear industry about rebuilding at least one of the reactors that was bombed at the start of the first Gulf war. The government has also contacted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and United Nations to seek ways around resolutions that...

A boatload of Iranian weapons destined for Shiite Zaidi rebels battling the military has been seized in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, a local official said on Monday. The vessel, with a cargo mainly of anti-tank shells, was seized on Sunday off the village of Midi in Hajjah province adjoining Saada, the Yemeni province bordering Saudi Arabia where the fighting is fiercest, the official told AFP. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said five Iranians and an Indian have been arrested and taken to the capital Sanaa, where they are being questioned by police. Another local...

SNIPPET: "As Pakistan’s military continues to make progress against the Taliban and Al-Qaida in South Waziristan, an incident has occurred along its border with Iran that has raised eyebrows throughout the international community. Eleven Iranian Revolutionary Guards soldiers were detained after they crossed the Pakistan-Iran border into Pakistani territory. The incursion happens eight days following a suicide bombing that killed forty-two Iranians, including six Revolutionary Guards Commanders." SNIPPET: "The Iranian soldiers remain in Pakistani custody as they try to determine the meaning and intent behind the incursion. Officials have not announced whether or not the soldiers were part of Iran’s...

'There is no doubt he is our friend," Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, says of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, even as he accuses Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman of threatening to use nuclear weapons against Gaza. These outrageous assertions point to the profound change of orientation by Turkey's government - for six decades the West's closest Muslim ally - since Erdogan's AK party came to power in 2002. Three events this past month reveal the extent of that change. The first came on October 11 with the news that the Turkish military - a long-time bastion of secularism and advocate...

Student protests against the regime of Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad continue. A protest was held today by students at the Islamic Azad University in southern Tehran. Reports say more than 1,000 students participated. The students chanted “Allah Akbar,” “Death to the Dictator,” and “Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein," in support of opposition politician Mir Hossein Musavi, who lost to Ahmadinejad in a disputed election in June. A number of protests against Ahmadinejad and his allies have been held at universities in Tehran and other cities since the beginning of the academic year in late September.

This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Thirty years ago, Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Iran from exile to found a totalitarian theocracy -- the likes of which we have not seen for hundreds of years, perhaps even since medieval Europe. Thirty years ago, Iranian militants took American embassy workers hostage. Thirty years ago was the last time I saw Iran. To this day, I have not been able to return. In 1979, the new Iranian clerical regime promised the Iranian people a republic. By definition, a "republic" is a state in which the supreme power...

If world powers are not successful in efforts to contain the Iranian nuclear threat, an Israeli strike on Iran could become a reality, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said during a visit to Beirut, the Daily Telegraph reported Monday. The French foreign minister suggested that time was indeed short for a solution to the Iranian threat. "There is the time that Israel will offer us before reacting, because Israel will react as soon as they know clearly that there is a threat." "Israel will not tolerate an Iranian bomb. We know that, all of us," said Kouchner, adding that for...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran wants major amendments within the framework of a U.N. nuclear fuel deal which it broadly accepts, state media said, a move that could unravel the plan and expose Tehran to the threat of harsher sanctions. The European Union's foreign policy chief said on Tuesday there was no need to rework the U.N. draft and he and France's foreign minister suggested Tehran would rekindle demands for tougher international sanctions if it tried to undo the plan. Among the central planks of the plan opposed by Iran -- but requested by the West to cut the risk of...

The Obama administration is quietly laying the groundwork for long-range strategy that could be used to contain a nuclear-equipped Iran and deter its leaders from using atomic weapons. U.S. officials insist they are not resigned to a nuclear Iran and are pressing negotiations to prevent it from joining the world's nuclear club. But at the same time, the administration has set in place the building blocks of policies to contend with an Iran armed with atomic weapons.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - State television says Iran will agree to the “general framework” of a U.N.-drafted plan to ship enriched uranium out of the country for processing, but will seek “important changes” in the deal. The report Tuesday on the state-run channel Al-Alam does not specify the amendments Iran will seek. It says Iran will officially reply within 48 hours. The plan calls for Iran to ship 70 percent of its enriched uranium abroad for further enrichment.

Conservatives like Dick Cheney just don't get it: It's not that the president is “dithering” while Americans are dying in Afghanistan; it's that the president has other “wars of necessity” to fight, simultaneously, and he can't be everywhere at once. Take, for instance, the president's Cairo pledge, back in June, to help correct “under-investment” in Muslim nations. Last Friday Obama announced that the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation would commit between $25 million and $150 million to fund investment “throughout Asia, the Middle East and Africa.” This president is politically aware of the U.S.'s 10 percent unemployment rate, but he...

Tehran should love the U.S. offer on enrichment. One sign that an adversary isn't serious about negotiating is when it rejects even your concessions. That seemed to be the case yesterday when Iran gave signs it may turn down an offer from Russia, Europe and the U.S. to let Tehran enrich its uranium under foreign supervision outside the country. The mullahs so far won't take yes for an answer. Tehran had previously looked set to accept the deal, which is hardly an obstacle to its nuclear program. A Democratic foreign policy shop called the National Security Network heralded the expected...

Obama’s week finished with a soft power slump. The U.S. had high hopes for two meetings with Iranian officials on their suspect nuclear programs. Early in the week the administration prematurely and foolishly started crowing that the Iranians were willing to negotiate. Soft power, they proclaim, had triumphed. A Washington Post article described the deal as “providing a major boost for the Obama administration” in engaging with the Islamist government in Tehran.

Pakistani police arrested 11 Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers Monday for illegally entering the country, amid tensions over a recent suicide attack that Tehran alleges was carried out by militants backed by Pakistani intelligence officials. The 11 officers were taken into custody in Mashkel, close to the countries' border in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, police officer Dadur Raman said. He said officers were interrogating the men and had seized two vehicles.

As the United States and its allies haggle with Iran over its nuclear program, Moscow has fueled Western unease about its military links to Tehran by pledging to continue selling arms to the Islamic republic. This has raised speculation that it may brush aside the strident objections of the United States and Israel and supply Iran with advanced S-300PMU surface-to-air missiles that would greatly enhance its defenses against airstrikes. The Russians, who have rejected the proposed imposition of economic sanctions on Iran as "counterproductive," are keeping the waters muddied with contradictory and ambiguous statements regarding the S-300s. On Wednesday, Russia's...

TEHRAN, Iran — U.N. inspectors entered a once-secret uranium enrichment facility with bunker-like construction and heavy military protection that raised Western suspicions about the extent and intent of Iran's nuclear program. The visit Sunday by the four-member International Atomic Energy Agency team, reported by state media, was the first independent look inside the planned nuclear fuel lab, a former ammunition dump burrowed into the treeless hills south of Tehran and only publicly disclosed last month. The inspectors are expected to study plant blueprints, interview workers and take soil samples before wrapping up the three-day mission. No results from the inspection...

President George W. Bush, backed by a well-known neo-con crew as well as the gang in Tel Aviv, did all he could to formulate his war-loving foreign policy to force his successor manage a third military conflict in the Middle East. President Obama, meanwhile, has toned down the rhetoric since taking office and adopted a softer language, offering a glimmer of hope for direct diplomacy with Tehran — the two states have not had any diplomatic relations since the US Embassy take over in Tehran in 1980. Soon enough, the White House will have to come to terms with the...

You won't hear it from the Obama administration, but there's still a revolution going on in Iran. Massive protests—which began in June following the sham election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—persisted last month on Quds Day, when the government attempted to orchestrate nationwide anti-Israel marches. Refusing to follow the regime's script, marchers chanted "Death to Russia" and "Death to China" instead. (Russia was the first country to recognize Ahmadinejad as president in June, and China maintains rich commercial ties with Tehran.) State television abruptly stopped airing the marches. Two weeks ago, the Islamic Republic sentenced three people to death for participating in...

Obama's State Department cuts funding for Freedom House to placate Iran "Denying the Green Revolution" (Wall Street Journal, October 23 2009) reports that Barack Obama's State Department has cut funding for Freedom House, the bipartisan organization that reports on freedom and human rights throughout the world, because it publishes material critical of Iran's murderous regime. Freedom House was founded largely by Franklin Roosevelt, and Eleanor Roosevelt was its honorary chairman. As reported by the Wall Street Journal article, The Boston Globe reported this month that the Connecticut-based Iran Human Rights Documentation Center recently lost its State Department funding. The Center—a...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said Iran must agree to stop all uranium enrichment in any deal with world powers. The UN nuclear watchdog and world powers headed by the United States are trying to reduce Tehran's stockpile of enriched uranium in return for supplying a medical reactor. They hope the deal will build trust on the way to persuading Iran to give up uranium enrichment, which they fear is part of an atomic weapons program, even though Iran says the uranium will only fuel power stations. "The crucial thing is that the international community pressure...

Wednesday night, October 21, former Vice President Dick Cheney received the Center's Keeper of the Flame Award. He was introduced by Senator Jon Kyl and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Here are his prepared remarks:

Iran's nuclear programme Deadline missed Oct 24th 2009 From Economist.com Iran misses a deadline for responding to an offer for others to enrich its uranium IRAN has again failed to do deadlines. It has been evading them in the seven years since an opposition group first outed its extensive covert nuclear programme, despite five UN Security Council resolutions that have told it to halt its suspect nuclear work. After talks that ended in Vienna on October 21st, Iran and the three countries trying to strike a side-deal over new fuel for a Tehran-based nuclear reactor were told by Mohamed ElBaradei,...