Free Republic

Last week, the pistachio nut dropped. With adequate missile defense technology, I had questioned the necessity of a preemptive attack on Iran’s nuclear capability. Uncomfortable as living with an Iranian bomb would be, I thought, better to defend ourselves than attack first. And why should Israel – alone – take such risks? Overflowing with dire predictions and warnings, pleas for negotiations and economic and diplomatic sanctions, the media, politicians and ‘experts’ left me confused. Why is an Iranian nuclear arsenal ‘intolerable?’ I wondered, until I attended a press briefing by Dr. Shmuel Bar, Director of Studies at The Institute for...

Iran has resumed work on making advanced equipment that nuclear experts say is principally used for developing atomic weapons, the The Telegraph reported Monday, citing intelligence reports received by Western diplomats. The British newspaper said that the goal of the work was to develop the blueprint provided by Pakistani scientist Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the so-called father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, who sold Iran information on building atom bombs in the early 1990s. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has established several civilian companies to work on the program, continued the Telegraph , adding that the companies' operations were being...

They were once the storm troops of the Iranian revolution, the fanatical young men who spearheaded Ayatollah Khomeini's campaign to overthrow the Shah and establish an Islamic Republic where the rule of law was based on a strict interpretation of the Koran. Nearly three decades have passed since the ayatollah returned in triumph to Tehran from exile in Paris, but many of those who were the original founders of Iran's Revolutionary Guards today hold positions of great power and influence, to the extent that many Iranians are now openly questioning whether there is any point in voting in next week's...

IIn the movie “Die Hard 2,” a terrorist is laying out his nefarious plans to the air-traffic control chief — played by one Sen. Fred Thompson — at Dulles International Airport. “Dammit, you can't do this!” an aghast Thompson tells the terrorist character. “I am doing this!” snarls the terrorist. With similar melodramatic aplomb, the Iranians played a potentially deadly game of chicken just as all eyes were fixated on Thompson and the rest of the New Hampshire hopefuls. As Iranian speedboats confronted U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf, a radio transmission intoned in the speaker's best Darth Vader English,...

The Day the Americans Sunk Khomeini's Navy Friday 11 January 2008 The other day in the Strait of Hormuz history repeated itself but, as always in such cases, only as farce. Five French-made speedboats flying the colors of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran's parallel army, approached a US warship in a "threatening posture." When the Americans asked what the Iranians wanted, the answer came loud and clear: Move away or we will sink you! In response, the Americans trained their heavy guns on the tiny IRGC boats and prepared to fire. The incident ended with some huffing and...

They come so frequently, it's hard to get worked up, but there's a dead giveaway this time. The teaser for the piece reads, "At the risk of sounding like an apologist for the Islamic Republic..." The author is Hooman Majd, who accuses the Pentagon of manufacturing the incident with Iran in the Gulf this week. The Pentagon's version of the encounter in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday morning, involving U.S. Navy warships and Iranian Revolutionary Guard patrol boats is, at the very least highly suspicious. On Tuesday, the Navy released video footage and an audiotape to back its claims...

This past summer during one of the last episodes of HBO's mega-hit "The Sopranos," A.J., the whiny suicidal son of the show's mafia boss anti-hero, was heard to worry about what he saw as the certain bombing of Iran by President Bush. "You don't know that," his mafia princess sister responded. Though this stray snippet, which was widely noted in reviews of the show, did not offer any clues as to the fate of the fictional leaders of the North Jersey mafia, it may have heralded the beginning of a new twist on what it means to be "anti-war" in...

A majority of likely voters - 52 percent - would support a U.S. military strike to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, and 53 percent believe it is likely that the U.S. will be involved in a military strike against Iran before the next presidential election, a new Zogby America telephone poll shows. The survey results come at a time of increasing U.S. scrutiny of Iran. According to reports from the Associated Press, earlier this month Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Iran of "lying" about the aim of its nuclear program and Vice President Dick Cheney has raised...

BERLIN - Germany does not want to rush into a third round of U.N. sanctions against Iran for defying Security Council demands that it freeze its nuclear enrichment programme, diplomats said on Wednesday. Germany and the five permanent U.N. Security Council members -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- have been key players in efforts to ratchet up pressure on Tehran to halt its programme and cooperate more with U.N. inspectors. German officials have repeatedly warned that unless Iran heeds the demands of the United Nations and suspends its nuclear fuel programme, which the West fears is...

My cousin Kamran is a successful software engineer in Tehran with a house, a thriving business of his own, and a brand new Peugeot, which he likes to show off by careening through the city's clogged streets at maniacal speeds. Like most of Iran's young and highly educated population, he must rely on other means to make ends meet. So, in addition to running his software business, Kamran tutors neighborhood children, raises chickens on his aunt's farm, hires himself out as a guide and translator for tourists, dabbles in real estate, and occasionally sells imitation designer handbags out of the...

A SENIOR Iranian cleric said on Friday that plans by the US to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist group invited a fight with the Iranian nation which America could not win. “Americans should know that in this field, as with nuclear energy, they are dealing with the whole nation,” Ahmad Khatami told worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran. "And the great nation of Iran will never abandon its revolutionary people. “Americans should know that if they act madly in this regard, they would be entering a swamp they won't be able to get out of,” the...

An investigative article by journalist Mahdi Mustafa, published March 31, 2007 in the Egyptian government weekly Al-Ahram Al-Arabi, featured photographs of documents indicating that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki has ties with Muqtada Al-Sadr and with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. [1] The following are the main points of the article: Al-Maliki Calls to Withdraw Iranian Revolutionary Guards Commanders from the Iraqi Front in Order to Protect Them The first document, labeled "secret, personal, and urgent," is a January 2007 letter from Al-Maliki's office to the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, with copies to the presidency of the [Shi'ite party] Supreme Council...

Iran's Revolutionary Guard has been restructuring its military capabilities and taking an increasingly prominent role in the nation's political life as the United States builds political and military pressure on the Islamic republic. A number of former commanders have assumed political positions or become involved in shaping foreign policy, even as the military force -- known formally as the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) -- prepares itself for "asymmetrical warfare" and the possibility of internal unrest. On Feb. 21, the overall commander of the IRGC declared that the United States was not able to make any security changes in the...

Excerpt - TEHRAN (AP)--Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards launch Monday their second war games in a month, just days ahead of a U.N. deadline regarding Iran's nuclear program. The Revolutionary Guards will begin three days of ground maneuvers, dubbed Eghtedar, or Grandeur, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported Sunday "The guards will practice various kinds of fighting tactics including tactics of asymmetrical warfare," the report said without elaborating. ~ snip ~

Bomb Explodes in Southeastern Iran Saturday February 17, 2007 12:01 AM By ALI AKBAR DAREINI Associated Press Writer TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Police and insurgents clashed after a bombing in southeastern Iran late Friday near the site where an explosion killed 11 members of the elite Revolutionary Guards this week, Iranian news agencies reported. ``Minutes ago, the sound of a bomb explosion was heard in one of Zahedan's streets,'' the state-run news agency IRNA said, without giving more details. The semiofficial Fars news agency said clashes broke out between Iranian police and armed insurgents after the explosion. Fars quoted the...

Revolutionary Guards killed in bomb blast By Matthew Moore and agencies 14/02/2007 At least 11 people have been killed in an unprecedented bomb attack on a bus carrying Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards. The blast happened in the southeast of the country, near the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan, where government troops often clash with drug smuggling gangs. A bomb hidden in a car was detonated as the bus taking soldiers from their housing compound in the city of Zahedan to a military base drew near. According to some reports armed motorcyclists shot at the bus to force it to stop,...

TEHRAN, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Iran is demanding the immediate release of five Iranians held by U.S. forces in Iraq, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Sunday, adding that the five are diplomats. The five were arrested on Thursday in the northern Iraqi town of Arbil and the U.S. military has accused them of links to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard group that provides weapons to Iraqi insurgents. "Americans should immediately release the five Iranians and pay compensation for the damages they caused to our office in Arbil," Mohammad Ali Hosseini told a weekly news conference, adding the five were...

Another Iranian Military Plane Crash Kills 30 Revolutionary Guards, Third Crash This Year.

/begin my translation"Ten Iranian Missile Engineers Visited N. Korea" (Sankei reports)  U.S. Sec. of State and Japanese Foreign Minister, "N. Korean missile issue should be resolved through dialogues." (Tokyo = Yonhap News) Shin Ji-hong correspondent = Ten Iranian missile engineers recently visited N. Korea, and the purpose of their visit is apparently to join the launch preparation for the long-range Taepodong-2 missile, according to Sankei Shimbun (of N. Korea) quoting U.S. government figures and military sources on N. Korea. According to the sources, the (Iranian) delegation to N. Korea are made up of senior engineers for missile development at Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and they went into N. Korea via Beijing. Their immediate mission could...

With Iran 's nuclear program in focus, fears arise over Tehran 's willingness to deploy its global network of proxies in retaliation over the United States efforts to halt its nuclear weapons program. United Press International reported that Iran has preemptively started funding 8 radical Islamic groups across the Middle East and installing arguably the most feared terrorist alive, Imad Mughniyeh, in command. Iran's recent threats to inflict “harm and pain” on US interests globally has been seen as a direct warning to Washington that Iran would use whatever means necessary to accomplish their objectives. While many in the media...

An Iranian military plane crashed in the northwest of the country on Monday, killing 13 people including the head of the Revolutionary Guards ground forces, Iranian news agencies reported. The crash came barely a month after a decrepit Iranian military transport plane crashed into the foot of a high-rise housing block after suffering engine failure. A total of 108 people were killed.

The United States has briefed key nations on intelligence that it says shows Iranian atomic weapons work, namely research on getting a missile warhead to explode at an altitude that would maximize the blast of a nuclear explosion, diplomats and analysts told AFP. However, a non-Western diplomat said the US briefing, carried out in various capitals ahead of a meeting in September of the UN atomic watchdog, "looks plausible but there is no hard evidence," namely direct proof of a nuclear warhead project. Iran says its nuclear program is a strictly peaceful effort to develop atomic power in order...

London, Apr. 21 – At least 62 people have been killed and over 1,000 arrested in the week-long clashes between people and security forces in Iran’s southern Khuzestan province, according to the main Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran. Fierce fighting has brought the province to a complete stand-still since Friday, when State Security Forces (SSF) opened fire on a 3,000-strong anti-government demonstration in the city of Ahwaz. The residents who were mainly ethnic Arabs were complaining of government plans to redefine the ethnic make-up of the province. Ahwaz was placed under a de facto martial law...

The Iranian government has given approval for the establishment of a secret nuclear research centre to train its scientists in all aspects of atomic technology, The Telegraph can reveal. Recent reports received by Western intelligence show that Teheran has recently approved the establishment of a faculty of applied nuclear engineering that will be attached to the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI). The faculty will provide post-graduate courses for Iranian scientists in nuclear engineering and the production of nuclear materials. Intelligence officials believe that the creation of the facility is yet further evidence that Iran is involved in a...

On July 9, 1999, six days of student-led uprising shook the foundations of Iran’s ruling fundamentalist regime. If not suppressed, the uprising, which quickly spread to nearly two-dozen other cities, had the potential of sweeping the theocracy from power. With the blessing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Mohammad Khatami, uniformed and plain-clothes security forces brutally cracked down on students and the thousands of other Iranians who had joined them. Several thousands were arrested and hundreds killed or wounded. The Economist magazine billed it as “Iran’s Second Revolution.” Others described it as a new page in the history of...

President Bush may have triumphed at home, but he was burned in effigy here Wednesday. A noisy street demonstration marked the 25th anniversary of the student takeover of the U.S. Embassy, after which 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days. Unlike past commemorations, this one appeared to be focused on the future and the potential for a major showdown with the United States during a second Bush term. Bush and not Jimmy Carter, who was president during the 1979-81 hostage drama, was at the center of the protest. Three massive photographs of the president served as a backdrop for...

Iran's supreme leader on Sunday inaugurated a new ballistic missile that brings Israel within range of the Islamic republic, praising the event as a key moment in the defense of the Palestinian cause. "Today our people and our armed forces are ready to defend their goals anywhere," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told a ceremony for the elite Revolutionary Guards carried on state television. "This divine force has answered all threats, and we are witnessing today that this divine force is now doing the same for the Lebanese and the Palestinian people," he added in the ceremony to bring the Shihab-3 missile...