just a little thought from juan cole

and he's right of course. i never really thought about this until i JUST read it

Obama pwns Bush-Cheney on Iran;
First day of Talks Yields Significant Confidence-Building Steps

For 8 years, Bush-Cheney practiced what I call "belligerent Ostrichism" toward Iran. They refused to talk to Tehran. They wanted to ratchet up sanctions on it. Bush sent 2 aircraft carriers to the Gulf to menace Iran. Bush's spokesmen professed themselves afraid of Iran's unarmed little speedboats in the Gulf. Aside from issuing threats to attack and destroy Iran the way they did Iraq, Bush-Cheney had nothing else to say on the matter. During the 8 years, Iran went from being able to enrich to .2% to being able to enrich to 3.8%, and increased its stock of centrifuges significantly. Bush-Cheney gesticulated and grimaced and fainted away at the horror of it all, but they accomplished diddly-squat.

Barack Obama pwned Bush-Cheney in one day, and got more concessions from Iran in 7 1/2 hours than the former administration got in 8 years of saber-rattling.
............

swine and savages and beasts and soul-less beings

these men happen to be in iran, but it happens the world over. it's sick-making. i really feel nauseated reading this

Basiji militiaman: I raped virgins before their execution

By Daniel Tencer
A member of Iran’s notorious Basij militia who ran afoul of his superiors when he released two teenaged pro-democracy protesters says he was tasked with taking the virginity of young females sentenced to die.

In an exclusive interview with the Jerusalem Post, the unnamed male described how, as an 18-year-old Basij recruit, he was tasked with taking the virginity of girls who were sentenced to die.

Under Iranian law, a female cannot be executed if she is a virgin. Thus, prison officials forced young women into a brief “marriage” before their sentence was carried out.

“I could tell that the girls were more afraid of their ‘wedding’ night than of the execution that awaited them in the morning. And they would always fight back, so we would have to put sleeping pills in their food. By morning the girls would have an empty expression; it seemed like they were ready or wanted to die.............

this is good to know

peeps are working on Haystack, anti-censorship tool specifically for users in Iran, to launch soon.

i must warn you

this is real. very real.

this is NOT easy to watch

these are our brothers and sisters fighting for their freedom and fighting for democracy

for those of you that continue to insist

king george and his band of merry thugs is fighting the great fight on the 'war on terror' (which is THE lousiest name they could have picked mind you. it's incites our 'enemies' is the ONLY thing it does), here's how they're fighting it (by selling weapons to iran and goddess only knows where else)

Iran Using Fronts to Get Bomb Parts From U.S.
By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
The Iranian businessman was looking for high-quality American electronics, but he had to act stealthily: The special parts he coveted were denied to Iranians, especially those seeking to make roadside bombs to kill U.S. troops in Iraq.

With a few e-mails, the problem was solved. A friendly Malaysian importer would buy the parts from a company in Linden, N.J., and forward them to Iran. All that was left was coming up with a fake name for the invoice. Perhaps a Malaysian engineering school? "Of course, you can use any other company as end-user that you think is better than this," the Iranian businessman, Ahmad Rahzad, wrote in an e-mail dated March 8, 2007.

The ruse succeeded in delivering nine sensors called inclinometers to Iran, the first of several such shipments that year and the latest example of what U.S. officials and weapons experts describe as Iran's skillful flouting of export laws intended to stop lethal technology from reaching the Islamic republic. ...........

this my dears is a VERY telling story

let's say we BELIEVED them at the time. we (some of us that is) believed king george and his court that iraq had wmd didn't we? and then some of us (some NEVER learn their lessons do they?) believed king george when he said iran was making zillions of weapons and just TOSSIN' 'EM across to the iraqis like beads from a balcony at mardi gras.

i must sit here and wonder though, we sort of know how many actual weapons of iran the iraqis have. i wonder how many of the weapons of let's say BLACKWATER they have? think on that why don't cha

(note: i do NOT like iran. well the powers that be of iran. don't get me wrong. i'm NOT sticking up for them.. i'm pointing out the lies of our OWN king and his court. lies people continue to support and believe. WAKE UP MY PEEPS)

POLITICS: U.S. Task Force Found Few Iranian Arms in Iraq
By Gareth Porter*

WASHINGTON, Nov 15 (IPS) - Last April, top George W. Bush administration officials, desperate to exploit any possible crack in the close relationship between the Nouri al-Maliki government and Iran, launched a new round of charges that Iran had stepped up covert arms assistance to Shi'a militias.

Secretary of Defence Robert M. Gates suggested that there was "some sense of an increased level of [Iranian] supply of weapons and support to these groups." And Washington Post reporter Karen DeYoung was told by military officials that the "plentiful, high quality weaponry" the militia was then using in Basra was "recently manufactured in Iran".

But a U.S. military task force had been passing on data to the Multi-National Force Iraq (MNFI) command that told a very different story. The data collected by the task force in the previous six weeks showed that relatively few of the weapons found in Shi'a militia caches were manufactured in Iran.

According to the data compiled by the task force, and made available to an academic research project last July, only 70 weapons believed to have been manufactured in Iran had been found in post-invasion weapons caches between mid-February and the second week in April. And those weapons represented only 17 percent of the weapons found in caches that had any Iranian weapons in them during that period.

The actual proportion of Iranian-made weapons to total weapons found, however, was significantly lower than that, because the task force was finding many more weapons caches in Shi'a areas that did not have any Iranian weapons in them.

The task force database identified 98 caches over the five-month period with at least one Iranian weapon, excluding caches believed to have been hidden prior to the 2003 U.S. invasion. ...........

kettle, kettle, kettle!!!

sarevil, what do you have to say about THIS?

why is it ok for YOU to give shout outs to terrorists? i wonder. i really wonder.

i am just speechless now.

The Palins' un-American activities

By David Talbot

Oct. 7, 2008 | "My government is my worst enemy. I'm going to fight them with any means at hand."

This was former revolutionary terrorist Bill Ayers back in his old Weather Underground days, right? Imagine what Sarah Palin is going to do with this incendiary quote as she tears into Barack Obama this week.

Only one problem. The quote is from Joe Vogler, the raging anti-American who founded the Alaska Independence Party. Inconveniently for Palin, that's the very same secessionist party that her husband, Todd, belonged to for seven years and that she sent a shout-out to as Alaska governor earlier this year. ("Keep up the good work," Palin told AIP members. "And God bless you.").............

...........

Vogler's greatest moment of glory was to be his 1993 appearance before the United Nations to denounce United States "tyranny" before the entire world and to demand Alaska's freedom. The Alaska secessionist had persuaded the government of Iran to sponsor his anti-American harangue.

That's right ... Iran. The Islamic dictatorship. The taker of American hostages. The rogue nation that McCain and Palin have excoriated Obama for suggesting we diplomatically engage. That Iran...............

effing ABSURD

these people are such .....i have NO words.................warmongers? death purveyors? evil-ists? hatemongers?

are we just going to blow up EVERYONE who doesn't agree with us (and israel)?

(i do NOT like anything about the government of iran. i do NOT support iran. i think they are evil as well. i just DO NOT WANT TO KILL THEM.)
Ads pushing Iran strike show Denver under missile attack from Boulder
John Byrne
A nonprofit lobbying organization aimed at strengthening Israel's image in the media quietly ran ads during the Democratic National Convention in which Boulder, Colorado launches missile attacks on Denver, in an attempt to bolster support for Israeli action against Iran.

Today, The Israel Project released a survey showing that 63 percent of Americans support an Israeli "surgical" strike on Iran's purported nuclear facilities, with 55 percent supporting America's participation in such a strike. The poll, however, did not note the organization's effort to lobby those being polled.

The Boulder attack ad shows a map of Denver being hit by flaming missiles, then an image of Israel being hit by the same weapons. It then displays an image of Iran, followed by ominous missile launches, a photograph of a man with a black hood over his face, Iran's president, and a silhouetted traveler with a suitcase.......

we KNOW it's coming

and it's coming before he leaves (speaking of which IS he going to leave or is he going to declare marshal law?). we know iran is chuck full of insanity. we know they are dangerous. but strike them? no, we have NO right to do that. aren't our troops at their limits now? haven't we killed enough of our OWN men and women for NO reason?

don't know if the story below is true or bullshite. probably MORE true than not though (muhammad cohen???????????????????????????? what's up with that????????????????????? turns out muhammad cohen is quite real. thought it was some type of moniker. it's not)

Bush ‘Plans Iran Air Strike by August’
by Muhammad Cohen
NEW YORK - The George W Bush administration plans to launch an air strike against Iran within the next two months, an informed source tells Asia Times Online, echoing other reports that have surfaced in the media in the United States recently.
Two key US senators briefed on the attack planned to go public with their opposition to the move, according to the source, but their projected New York Times op-ed piece has yet to appear.
The source, a retired US career diplomat and former assistant secretary of state still active in the foreign affairs community, speaking anonymously, said last week that that the US plans an air strike against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The air strike would target the headquarters of the IRGC’s elite Quds force. With an estimated strength of up to 90,000 fighters, the Quds’ stated mission is to spread Iran’s revolution of 1979 throughout the region..........

hey da liebs

there are PLENTY of countries and people (take saudia arabia for instance. take libya for instance . take your best bud king george for instance.) who are responsible for the deaths of americans. why aren't you bombing THEM i must ask myself?
Lieberman 'hopes' Iran is aware US airstrikes are 'distinct possibility'
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
After General David Petraeus testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in April, conservative pundit Pat Buchanan
warned that "the neocons may yet get their war on Iran."
Buchanan particularly singled out Petraeus's agreement with Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) when he suggested, "Is it fair to say that the Iranian-backed special groups in Iraq are responsible for the murder of hundreds of American soldiers and thousands of Iraqi soldiers and civilians?"
When Lieberman appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Monday, Buchanan reminded him of that question and asked, "Do you believe that the United States should conduct air strikes on the al-Quds force in Iran if they do not stop this, and do you expect President Bush to do something like that?"
"I hope we don't have to get to the point of moving in any way into Iran to strike at the base of the people who are responsible for killing Americans," Lieberman replied. "But I hope that the Quds Force and the Iranian government has in mind that that is a distinct possibility.".............

what do you believe?

wapo and nyt say iraq says iran IS responsible for acts of terrorism. mcclatchy says iraq is backing off of that and waiting for REAL PROOF.

i am not a fan of iran. i AM a fan of the truth. none of this shite would be happening if WE DIDN'T MEDDLE. (of course we did way more than meddle. we've displaced millions, been responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands and worse)

this was in today's wapo: Iraq Says It Has Proof Of Iranian Meddling
Tehran Funneling Weapons, Officials Say

By Amit R. PaleyWashington Post Foreign Service
BAGHDAD, May 4 -- The Iraqi government said Sunday that it has "concrete evidence" Iran is fomenting violence in Iraq and that a high-level panel had been formed to document the proof. The statement came as Iraqi officials find themselves trapped between the United States and Iran, which have each accused the other of wreaking havoc in Iraq. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is in a particularly delicate situation because he is close to American and Iranian officials.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh called reporters late Sunday night to clarify remarks he made at a news conference earlier in the day, when he appeared to say that there was no hard evidence that Iran was allowing weapons to come into Iraq. Dabbagh said his comments had been misinterpreted. .....

the nytimes has this: Hezbollah Trains Iraqis in Iran, Officials Say
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
BAGHDAD — Militants from the Lebanese group Hezbollah have been training Iraqi militia fighters at a camp near Tehran, according to American interrogation reports that the United States has supplied to the Iraqi government. An American official said the account of Hezbollah’s role was provided by four Shiite militia members who were captured in Iraq late last year and questioned separately.
The United States has long charged that the Iranians were training Iraqi militia fighters in Iran, which Iran has consistently denied, and there have been previous reports about Hezbollah operatives in Iraq.
But the Americans say the reports of Hezbollah’s role at the Iranian camp offer important details about Iranian assistance to the militias, including efforts Iran appears to be making to train the fighters in unobtrusive ways.
Material from the interrogations was given to the Iraqi government, along with other data about captured Iranian arms, before it sent a delegation to Tehran last week to discuss allegations of Iranian aid to militia groups.
It is not known if the delegation confronted its Iranian hosts with the information, or how the Iranians responded.........

and then in mcclatchy, there's this: Iraq backs off allegations that Iran is behind violence
By Leila Fadel and Shashank Bengali McClatchy Newspapers
BAGHDAD — The Iraqi Government seemed to distance itself from U.S. accusations towards Iran Sunday saying it would not be forced into conflict with its Shiite neighbor. And Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki ordered the formation of a committee to look into foreign intervention in Iraq.
As the government appeared to back down from its hardening stance against Iran, four marines were killed in Anbar in the deadliest attack in the Sunni province in months.
The government spokesman, Ali al Dabbagh, told reporters Sunday that a committee was formed to find "tangible information" about foreign intervention, specifically Iran's role in Iraq rather than "information based on speculation."
"We don't want to be pushed into any conflict with any neighboring countries, especially Iran. What happened before is enough. We paid a lot," Dabbagh said, referring to the eight years war between the two nations in which an estimated 1 million people died.
While the Iraqi government has long said they would not be used for a proxy war between the U.S. and Iran at odds over Iran's nuclear aspirations, the statement came as the Iraqi government had taken tough stances towards Iran in the past week. This included sending a delegation last week to Iran to urge them to stop the flow of weapons and to refrain from funding Shiite militias battling Iraqi Security Forces.
U.S. officials in Baghdad rejected allegations made Saturday by a senior Iranian official who, according to Iranian state media, accused the United States of attacking Iraqi civilians.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Armand Cucciniello said that the remarks by an unnamed Iranian official "align the Iranian government with these very extremists and criminal elements and against the Iraqi government and people.
"The only appropriate response...to the concerns raised by the government of Iraq is for Iran to immediately cease providing funding, training and arms to extremist militias in Iraq."
In Sadr City the battle continued with overnight U.S. air strikes in the northeast Shiite slum and stronghold of Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr's Mahdi Army.
While Maliki said he would not stand for enemy "gangs" in Iraq, Sadr officials said they were open to negotiation.
Baha al Araji, a Sadrist lawmaker, condemned attacks on the heavily fortified Green Zone where the U.S. Embassy and Iraqi government offices are located and said that disbanding the Mahdi Army was a legitimate request. The Green Zone has come under heavy rocket fire for over a month.........

how can king george and his court

claim iran is f**king up iraq and influencing iraq way too much when THEY ARE NOT ONLY DOING IT THEMSELVES THEY F**KING STARTED IT. they wrote the book on the subject. why is it ok for THEM to do it and not for others?

U.S. Weighing Readiness for Military Action Against Iran

By Ann Scott Tyson Washington Post Staff Writer
The nation's top military officer said yesterday that the Pentagon is planning for "potential military courses of action" as one of several options against Iran, criticizing what he called the Tehran government's "increasingly lethal and malign influence" in Iraq. Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said a conflict with Iran would be "extremely stressing" but not impossible for U.S. forces, pointing to reserve capabilities in the Navy and Air Force.
"It would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat capability," he said at a Pentagon news conference. Speaking of Iran's intentions, Mullen said: "They prefer to see a weak Iraq neighbor. . . . They have expressed long-term goals to be the regional power." .......

i don't know that much about dan froomkin

i DO know he has some clear insight in the following
Not to Be Trusted

By Dan FroomkinSpecial to washingtonpost.com
The Bush administration's latest story line about Iraq -- that Iran is now the primary problem there -- should be greeted with profound skepticism.
Not only is it the latest in a series of rationales for U.S. involvement in Iraq, most of which have turned out to be based on flawed intelligence, misrepresentations or outright dishonesty.
But there are at least two illegitimate reasons why the White House would want the American public to see Iran as a threat right now.
One is that President Bush needs a definable, demonizable enemy for public-relations purposes, to take attention away from the reality that U.S. troops remain perilously and indefinitely astride several civil wars and resistance movements. .......... (please DO read the whole thing. it's well worth it. how we can be so complacent and NOT challenge this buillshite is beyond me. i know the american people are smart enough NOT to believe it - weapons of mass destruction, COME ON NOW - but they're not brave enough or strong enough to say STOP. we've had it. this is BEYOND enough)

ahhhhhhhhhhhh

they just make this shite up as they go along. if it's going 'good' they have one story. if it gets a little bad, they have another. if it worsens, yet another. then if it's over the edge, they start pointing fingers at phantoms. he did it. no, she did it. no, he. no, that one. no him. no her. and on and on. when i say going good, i only mean no us troop deaths. i do NOT in any circumstance mean going good for the iraqi people. we've disrupted their lives and their country for generations to come.
if it's al-qaeda or iran or whomever, WE DID IT. we are 100% responsible.

Iran Top Threat To Iraq, U.S. Says
Focus on Al-Qaeda Now Diminishing

By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer
Last week's violence in Basra and Baghdad has convinced the Bush administration that actions by Iran, and not al-Qaeda, are the primary threat inside Iraq, and has sparked a broad reassessment of policy in the region, according to senior U.S. officials.
Evidence of an increase in Iranian weapons, training and direction for the Shiite militias that battled U.S. and Iraqi security forces in those two cities has fixed new U.S. attention on what Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates yesterday called Tehran's "malign" influence, the officials said.
The intensified focus on Iran coincides with diminished emphasis on al-Qaeda in Iraq as the leading justification for an ongoing U.S. military presence in Iraq.
In congressional hearings this week, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus said the U.S. military has driven al-Qaeda from Baghdad, Anbar province and central Iraq, and he depicted the group as now largely concentrated in a reduced territory around the northern city of Mosul.
During their Washington visit, Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker barely mentioned al-Qaeda in Iraq but spoke extensively of Iran. .....

admiral william fallon is retiring

is it because he's done his duty and just wants to retire. OR is it because his commandant in chief is a lunatic who wants to start YET ANOTHER WAR? i guess we'll just have to wait (for more people to be killed, displaced, tortured and gravely wounded)
Mideast military chief resigns after magazine article
Defense Secretary Robert Gates says that Admiral William Fallon, the top U.S. military commander for the Middle East, is resigning.
Gates said Fallon had asked Gates for permission to retire and that Gates agreed.
Fallon was the subject of an article published last week in Esquire magazine that portrayed him as opposed to President Bush's Iran policy. It described Fallon as a lone voice against taking military action to stop the Iranian nuclear program.
In one passage, the magazine said:
So while Admiral Fallon's boss, President George W. Bush, regularly trash-talks his way to World War III and his administration casually casts Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as this century's Hitler (a crown it has awarded once before, to deadly effect), it's left to Fallon--and apparently Fallon alone--to argue that, as he told Al Jazeera last fall: "This constant drumbeat of conflict . . . is not helpful and not useful. I expect that there will be no war, and that is what we ought to be working for. We ought to try to do our utmost to create different conditions."
Gates described as "ridiculous" any notion that Fallon's departure signals the United States is planning to go to war with Iran. And he said "there is a misperception" that Fallon disagrees with the administration's approach to Iran.......

and this:
Middle East commander resigned by phone from Iraq
By Nancy A. Youssef McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — Adm. William J. Fallon, the commander of all U.S. military operations in the Middle East, abruptly ended his nearly 42-year military career Tuesday with a phone call from Iraq in which he asked to resign because of controversy caused by his criticism of the Bush administration's Iran policy.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said Tuesday in a hastily convened news conference that he accepted Fallon's resignation because it was the "right thing to do."
Fallon's phone call, and Gates' decision to accept his resignation, ended weeks of speculation within military circles about how long a military commander who appeared to challenge Bush administration policy could hold onto his job.
Army Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, Fallon's deputy and a one-time commander of efforts to train Iraq's security forces, will lead U.S. Central Command until the Senate can confirm a permanent replacement, Gates said. Fallon's resignation is effective March 31.............

king george damn well better hurry

he may not have too much time left to find someone to kill more people. this time in iran. well, not too much time left in office that is UNLESS HE DECLARES MARTIAL LAW (which is a distinct possiblity)

Bush May Fire CentCom Chief Adm. Fallon, Replace With Commander More ‘Pliable’ To War With Iran
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has called CENTCOM commander Adm. William Fallon “one of the best strategic thinkers in uniform today.” Fallon opposed the “surge” in Iraq and has consistently battled the Bush administration to avoid a confrontation with Iran, calling officials’ war-mongering “not helpful.” Privately, he has vowed that an attack on Iran “will not happen on my watch.”
Unfortunately, this level-headed thinking and willingness to stand up to President Bush may cost him his job. According to a new article by Thomas P.M. Barnett in the April issue of Esquire magazine (on newsstands March 12), Fallon may be prematurely “relieved of his command” as soon as this summer:
[W]ell-placed observers now say that it will come as no surprise if Fallon is relieved of his command before his time is up next spring, maybe as early as this summer, in favor of a commander the White House considers to be more pliable. If that were to happen, it may well mean that the president and vice-president intend to take military action against Iran before the end of this year and don’t want a commander standing in their way.........

did king george and his court

push iraq into the arms of iran? it's possible. if it does happen, what will the supporters (of king george and his court) say? will they blame THAT on others? will they not hold king george and his court accountable? this is our WORST nightmare. oh i blame congress and the senate as well. THEY have buried their heads in the sand all along (except for a few)

Ahmadinejad calls Iraq 'brotherly'
Ahmadinejad Says Landmark Visit to Iraq Opens New Chapter in 'Brotherly' Relations
QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday his landmark visit to Iraq opened a new chapter in "brotherly" relations between the two countries, which were once bitter enemies. Ahmadinejad is the first Iranian president to visit Iraq. The trip not only highlights his country's growing influence on its Arab neighbor in the post-Saddam Hussein era, but it also serves as an act of defiance toward the U.S., which accuses Iran of training and giving weapons to Shiite extremists in Iraq.
The Iranian leader went from Baghdad's airport to a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who gave him a red-carpet welcome. The two kissed four times on the cheek in the traditional fashion and a band played the two countries' national anthems.
"We had very good talks that were friendly and brotherly. ... We have mutual understandings and views in all fields, and both sides plan to improve relations as much as possible," Ahmadinejad said in a news conference with Talabani at the Iraqi president's residence, located across the Tigris River from the new U.S. Embassy in the fortified Green Zone.........

they will stop at NOTHING

NOTHING i tell you. they are evil and liars and want to bomb the shite out of just about everyone. they want to take over the world!

who am i talking about? iran? NOT in this case (although i am no fan of the iranian government). i am talking about KING GEORGE AND HIS COURT. THE biggest bunch of lyin' weasels (again, i mean NO offense to weasels) on this goddess' earth

POLITICS-US: Official Version of Naval Incident Starts to UnravelAnalysis by Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, Jan 10 (IPS) - Despite the official and media portrayal of the incident in the Strait of Hormuz early Monday morning as a serious threat to U.S. ships from Iranian speedboats that nearly resulted in a "battle at sea", new information over the past three days suggests that the incident did not involve such a threat and that no U.S. commander was on the verge of firing at the Iranian boats.The new information that appears to contradict the original version of the incident includes the revelation that U.S. officials spliced the audio recording of an alleged Iranian threat onto to a videotape of the incident. That suggests that the threatening message may not have come in immediately after the initial warning to Iranian boats from a U.S. warship, as appears to do on the video. Also unraveling the story is testimony from a former U.S. naval officer that non-official chatter is common on the channel used to communicate with the Iranian boats and testimony from the commander of the U.S. 5th fleet that the commanding officers of the U.S. warships involved in the incident never felt the need to warn the Iranians of a possible use of force against them. Further undermining the U.S. version of the incident is a video released by Iran Thursday showing an Iranian naval officer on a small boat hailing one of three ships. The Iranian commander is heard to say, "Coalition warship 73, this is Iranian navy patrol boat." He then requests the "side numbers" of the U.S. warships. A voice with a U.S. accent replies, "This is coalition warship 73. I am operating in international waters." The dramatic version of the incident reported by U.S. news media throughout Tuesday and Wednesday suggested that Iranian speedboats, apparently belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard navy, had made moves to attack three U.S. warships entering the Strait and that the U.S. commander had been on the verge of firing at them when they broke off. Typical of the network coverage was a story by ABC's Jonathan Karl quoting a Pentagon official as saying the Iranian boats "were a heartbeat from being blown up". ........

Furthermore, as the New York Times noted Thursday, the recording carries no ambient noise, such as the sounds of a motor, the sea or wind, which should have been audible if the broadcast had been made from one of the five small Iranian boats.

friday's book

My Life as a Traitor
Zarah Ghahramani & Robert Hillman

...........Zarah Ghahramani was born in Tehran in 1981, two years after Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran to establish the Islamic Republic. Her life changed suddenly in 2001 when, after having taken part in student demonstrations, she was arrested (literally snatched off the street by secret police) and charged with ‘inciting crimes against the people of the Islamic Republic of Iran’.
While imprisoned in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison she faced brutal interrogation: her head was shaved, and she was beaten. After being released, she was forbidden to return to university, and soon realised that she had no future in her native land. Robert Hillman, an Australian writer, met and befriended Zarah in Iran in 2003, and helped her to escape to Australia, where she now has permanent residency.............

gary indiana - city of the week!

you go gary!

Midwest City Fights Back Against Iran War-Mongering
By Erik Leaver, AlterNet
When the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran was released noting that Iran gave up its nuclear weapons program in 2003, the council moved into action. Unanimously, it passed a resolution ensuring that no preemptive military attack by the United States against Iran takes place.
Surprised you didn't hear about this courageous act? That's because it happened in the town of Gary, Ind., not in our nation's capitol.
Organized by the Northwest Indiana Coalition Against the Iraq War and introduced by Councilman Charles Hughes, the City of Gary has passed the most common-sense strategy to deal with Iran. The resolution called for Congress to:
Ensure that no preemptive military attack by the United States against Iran takes place.
Make clear to the administration that such a preemptive attack has not been authorized by any law, resolution, court ruling or article of the Constitution.
Support diplomatic engagement with Iran.
Maintain pressure against all escalations of war in the Middle East...........