http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/taheri/ en-us Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:43:32 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2139659/posts The Army of Muhammad is back. This was the message buzzing in radical Islamist circles yesterday as the world tried to absorb the shock of the terrorist attacks in Bombay, India's economic capital. While it is not yet clear which group was behind the attacks, it looks as if the perpetrators were trying to imitate the tactic of ghazwa, used by the Prophet against Meccan caravans in his decade-long campaign to seize control of the city. The tactic consists of surprise no-holds-barred attacks simultaneously launched against a caravan or settlement with the aim of demoralising the enemy and hastening his... Telegraph.co.uk http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2139659/posts#comment Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:43:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2116057/posts Is Barack Obama the "promised warrior" coming to help the Hidden Imam of Shiite Muslims conquer the world? The question has made the rounds in Iran since last month, when a pro-government Web site published a Hadith (or tradition) from a Shiite text of the 17th century. The tradition comes from Bahar al-Anvar (meaning Oceans of Light) by Mullah Majlisi, a magnum opus in 132 volumes and the basis of modern Shiite Islam. According to the tradition, Imam Ali Ibn Abi-Talib (the prophet's cousin and son-in-law) prophesied that at the End of Times and just before the return of the... forbes http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2116057/posts#comment Mon, 27 Oct 2008 01:40:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2090325/posts Earlier this week, I wrote about the dirty tricks campaign against journalist Amir Taheri following his revelation that, in a private meeting in Iraq last July with Iraqi leaders, Barack Obama tried to persuade them to delay the agreement being hammered out with the US government on a draw-down of the American military presence. According to this account, which quoted Iraq’s foreign minister Hoshya Zebari (pictured), Obama had thus privately sought to undermine an American government foreign policy initiative – an explosive revelation. Taheri subsequently dismissed as tendentious Camp Obama’s response which he said deliberately confused two separate agreements under... Spectator Blogs http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2090325/posts#comment Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:27:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2087588/posts The way Barack Obama talks of Iraq, you'd think the whole county is a sea of fire and blood, created by the United States. So he might be surprised to learn that tour operators in Europe and the Middle East are touting this "sea of fire and blood" as a new holiday destination. One program just put on the market by Terre Entiere, a leading French tour operator, offers a "Christmas Pilgrimage" in December to Iraq's biblical sites, some of which date back more than 2,000 years. Another program starts in January. Called "Forgotten History," it includes visits to some... New York Post | Frontpagemagazine http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2087588/posts#comment Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:16:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2087529/posts Yet more disturbing evidence of Barack Obama’s patent unsuitability for high office has dropped like a stone having briefly surfaced in the mainstream media. Last Monday, Amir Taheri reported in the New York Post that, while campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Obama tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence. This meant a number of things. First, the delay would keep US troops in Iraq until after the 2010 deadline for withdrawal proposed by Obama himself – thus showing, said Taheri, that... Spectator Blogs http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2087529/posts#comment Mon, 22 Sep 2008 08:31:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2085738/posts On Monday, in an opinion piece published in the New York Post, I suggested that Senator Barack Obama had urged Iraqi leaders to postpone making an agreement with the United States until there was a new administration in Washington. I said this because Obama himself had said it. By trying to second-guess the present administration in its negotiations with Iraq, Obama ignored a golden rule of American politics. I first learned about that rule from Senator Edward Kennedy more than 30 years ago. During a visit to Tehran, Kennedy received a few Iranian reporters for a poolside chat. The big... NRO http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2085738/posts#comment Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:19:39 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2084911/posts Story growing legs? I'm surprised it's being folowed up on. Fox News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2084911/posts#comment Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:10:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2082722/posts http://www.againstobama.com/2008/09/obama-tried- New York Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2082722/posts#comment Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:21:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2076138/posts AHMADINEJAD'S NEW ENEMY: WOMEN By AMIR TAHERI September 6, 2008 -- IN one of his last sermons before his death, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini warned of "three threats" to his vision of Islam: the US, the Jews and women. Two decades later, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad thinks he has the United States and the Jews in hand - and is moving on the third "enemy." Women were the first to demonstrate against Khomeini's regime with a mass rally in Tehran on March 8, 1979 - less than a month after the mullahs had seized power. Over the next decade, the authorities... www.nypost.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2076138/posts#comment Sat, 6 Sep 2008 17:11:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2068600/posts BACK TO JIMMY - What Biden Pick Really Signals BY choosing Sen. Joseph Biden as his vice-presiden tial running mate, Barack Obama sent three messages. The first two are implicit admissions that Hillary Clinton had a point in the primaries. The third tells us more of what Obama means by "change." Biden is supposed to make up for Obama's lack of the knowledge and experience needed to leader on national security and international affairs. And the Delaware senator, with his humble working-class origins, is also meant to reassure the "simple folk" that Obama seems to be losing. But the third... NY Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2068600/posts#comment Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:32:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2055031/posts Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills... Previous Thread http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2055031/posts#comment Fri, 1 Aug 2008 19:17:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2059187/posts Missiles of Illusion Remember al-Qaher and al-Zafer? You don't? Well, what about al-Hussein and al-Abbas? No, again? The first two were the names of missiles that the Egyptian dictator Gamal Abdul Nasser relied upon as "secret weapons" in his promised "Battle of Destiny" in 1967. The other two were names of Saddam Hussein's missiles that were supposed to secure him victory in his "Mother of Battles" in 1991. We now have to learn the names of two other missiles, Shahab and Zelzeleh presented by Iran's Khomeinist rulers as in what they regard as an inevitable war against the United States... Asharq Alawsat http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2059187/posts#comment Sat, 9 Aug 2008 21:50:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2054896/posts Tehran's Tricks: Plays Rope-A-Dope On Nukes August 1, 2008 TOMORROW is the deadline for Iran to respond to the latest offer on its nuclear program. The package, shaped by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany and offered in Geneva two weeks ago, offers a way out of the impasse. But don't expect Tehran to call the lead negotiator, European Union foreign-policy czar Javier Solana, to say it's accepted the deal. Iran has made it clear it doesn't intend to show any flexibility. "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad set the tone Wednesday in... NYPost http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2054896/posts#comment Fri, 1 Aug 2008 15:03:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2052394/posts Spiderman in Tehran 25/07/2008 By Amir Taheri "A picture is worth a thousand words!" This is the proverb invented by an American photographer in the 1920s but ascribed to the Chinese for good effect. While not always true, like all other proverbs, it is surprisingly accurate on some occasions. No picture could replace a thousand words by Neffari or Roumi. But no number of words could replace the 1990 photo of an Afghan teenage girl with terror in her green eyes, reflecting two decades of war and famine. Sometimes, however, words are needed to reveal the hidden meanings of a... Asharq Alawsat http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2052394/posts#comment Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:49:36 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2047950/posts Iran's Brutal Labor Crackdown New York Post Amir Taheri A year ago last Saturday, Ali Khamenei ordered the abduction of trade-union leader Mansour Osanloo. In so doing, Iran's top ruling mullah hoped to kill in infancy the independent trade-union movement that Osanloo had launched in '05 with the help of colleagues among bus drivers and conductors in Tehran. A year later, Osanloo is still in prison, sentenced to five years on a charge of "undermining the security of the Islamic Republic." Yet the free-union movement that he inspired has spread like wildfire. Transport workers in Tehran and its suburbs have... New York Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2047950/posts#comment Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:04:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2038131/posts Sufism, Sophistry and Politics 27/06/2008 By Amir Taheri Bombing the Islamic Republic's nuclear installations would turn the Middle East into a "ball of fire". The warning comes from Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Muhammad El-Baradaei. The "ball of fire" is a poetic expression, and I wondered where it came from. I thought of Johnny Cash's famous song, The Ring of Fire. However, a friend suggested that the image came from a qasida by the great Egyptian Sufi Ibn al-Farid. That Egyptians, besides being masters of jokes (nokats), have a poetic bend of mind is to their credit.... Asharq Alawsat http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2038131/posts#comment Sun, 29 Jun 2008 13:48:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013995/posts The Offer He Will Refuse May 09, 2008 Asharq Alawsat Amir Taheri Will you take an offer if you knew that by refusing it you would get a better one? The answer from Tehran is an emphatic no, and concerns the latest "generous package" that the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany put together in London last week. The “package” shaped after days of hard bargaining between the United States and the European Union on one side, and Russia and China on the other, is designed to persuade the Islamic Republic to break the diplomatic logjam... Asharq Alawsat http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013995/posts#comment Sat, 10 May 2008 12:26:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2008832/posts Why Does Ahmadinejad Want Russian Troops in Iran? 25/04/2008 By Amir Taheri Why is the leadership in Tehran anxious to give Russia the right to land troops in Iran? The question is not fanciful. The Islamic Republic is conducting a devious campaign to prepare public opinion for that eventuality. The message is relayed through deliberately vague terms that diplomats understand immediately while the general public does not. The device is to revive two treaties that most students of Iranian history thought were dead and buried long ago. The first is the 1921 Treaty that the government of Sayyed Ziauddin Tabatabai,... Asharq Alawsat http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2008832/posts#comment Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:26:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2002669/posts Murder's Mess for Muqtada April 16, 2008 New York Post Amir Taheri Riad al-Noori liked to boast that a "host of angels" protected him, along with his 250 heavily armed bodyguards. Yet, he has just been gunned down in his home in Najaf, Iraq's principal "holy" city, by a three-man hit team that managed to get away without any of the angels or bodyguards making a move. Noori was a bad man but an important player in the dirtiest corner of Iraqi Shiite politics. He headed the special bureau of Muqtada al-Sadr, the maverick mullah sponsored by Tehran. Himself a... New York Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2002669/posts#comment Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:42:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1999678/posts April 10, 2008 -- A GAMBLE that proved too costly. That's how analysts in Tehran describe events last month in Basra. Iran's state-run media have de facto confirmed that this was no spontaneous "uprising." Rather, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) tried to seize control of Iraq's second-largest city using local Shiite militias as a Trojan horse. Tehran's decision to make the gamble was based on three assumptions: * Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki wouldn't have the courage to defend Basra at the risk of burning his bridges with the Islamic Republic in Iran. * The international force would be... NY Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1999678/posts#comment Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:52:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1989804/posts Unconditional Talks with Iran Could Lead to War Mar. 21, 2008 Talk to almost anybody in Washington about foreign policy these days and you are likely to hear that Iran is the number one "international problem" for the United States. Pundits and politicians are unanimous that dealing with the Islamic Republic will be one of the key issues of the presidential election campaign. The question is: what to do about Iran? It is clear that the leadership in Tehran, boosted by last week's parliamentary elections, is in no mood to offer concessions. The choice facing policymakers is between standing up... Asharq Alawsat http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1989804/posts#comment Sat, 22 Mar 2008 12:40:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1989316/posts Judging by the way much of the Western media is dealing with the Iraq War's fifth anniversary, we're still fighting the acrimonious debates of 2002 and early 2003. Focusing on the past, however, may prevent us from understanding what's happening in Iraq today and its effect on the broader region. The war had three objectives: * To dismantle the regime of terror created by Saddam Hussein and his Tikriti clan. * To restore to the Iraqi people the power that the Tikritis had usurped. * To help Iraqis build a new system that might, in time, become a model for... New York Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1989316/posts#comment Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:44:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980807/posts ...Most Americans judge a candidate based on his politics rather than his parents' religious background. In a country where everyone has a rich ethnic and religious background, Obama's family story wouldn't have sounded that exotic. Some Americans may have even regarded the Islamic part of Obama's family story as a plus for the candidate, if only because the biggest challenge to US global leadership todayscomes from forces speaking in Islam's name. Obama's efforts to distance himself from Islam contrasts with his innovative approach to US relations with its Islamist challengers. President Bush has chosen the "iron fist" - invading Afghanistan... New York Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980807/posts#comment Wed, 5 Mar 2008 17:57:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1977666/posts Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrives in Bagh dad tomorrow for what both sides call an "historic visit."... As the possibility of al Qaeda and its allies winning recedes, Iran is starting to focus on the prospect that a Shiite-dominated but pro-American Iraq might offer Iranians a rival model. So the Islamic Republic has determined not to let the Americans and their Iraqi allies succeed beyond defeating al Qaeda and the Sunni insurgency. As Ahmadinejad has put it several times, Tehran won't allow Iraq to have an "American future." In Tehran's eyes, America's historic mission was to remove the Khomeinist regime's... New York Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1977666/posts#comment Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:36:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1974987/posts Islam at the Ballot Box AMIR TAHERI February 21, 2008 Pakistan's election has been portrayed by the Western media as a defeat for President Pervez Musharraf. The real losers were the Islamist parties. The latest analysis of the results shows that the parties linked, or at least sympathetic, to the Taliban and al Qaeda saw their share of the votes slashed to about 3% from almost 11% in the last general election a few years ago. The largest coalition of the Islamist parties, the United Assembly for Action (MMA), lost control of the Northwest Frontier Province -- the only one... WSJ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1974987/posts#comment Sat, 23 Feb 2008 14:17:29 GMT