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POPSIranian Protesters to Obama: "You're Either With Us or With Them" "I have made it clear that the United States of America wants to move beyond this past, and seeks a relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran based upon mutual interests and mutual respect." Now the Iranian protesters know who the man is with. Since we've never had a President who favored tyranny over liberty before, this appears to be uncharted territory for not only the protesters -- but the American citizenry as well.
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POPS TenSION Obama On Iran: "I''m Not Interested in Victory" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD6nMxYcmjE&feature=player_embedded H/T Gateway Pundit HotAirpundit Well done Chip Reid You showed the President's hand Reid: Thank you Mr. President, you just mentioned sanctions that have bite, what kinds of sanction, and I know you can't get into details but what kind of sanctions at all would have bite with Iran, do you really think that any kind of sanctions would have any effect on somebody like Ahmadinejad, secondly some of your advisers today said that this announcement was a victory, do you consider it a victory and if so why didn't you announce it earlier since you have known since you were President elect?.. Obama flustered by the question, "I'm not interested in victory, I'm interested in solving the problem" Clearly, today is a big smokescreen, he doesn't wanna come across as "America good, Iran bad," the global citizen is all talk here, we're not going to do anything
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POPS One Other Thought I know the pundits are all saying this means people will have to take him seriously and go along with the hopey peace thing. OK, only the sap pundits are saying that, but still … Mickey Kaus has a point . Maybe he should turn it down. Before he’s stuck with it, and its stuck all over him. http://slate.com/blogs/blogs/kausfiles/archive/2009/10/09/what-obama-should-do-with-his-nobel-peace-prize.aspx
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POPSCan Game Theory Predict When Iran Will Get the Bomb? 
positions shifted. American and Israeli national-security players grudgingly accepted that they could tolerate Iran having some civilian nuclear-energy capacity. Ahmadinejad, Khamenei and the religious radicals wavered; then, as the model reached our present day, their power " another variable in Bueno de Mesquita’s model " sagged significantly. Amid the thousands of rows on the spreadsheet, there’s one called Forecast. It consists of a single number that represents the most likely consensus of all the players. It begins at 160 " bomb-making territory " but by next year settles at 118, where it doesn’t move much. “That’s the outcome,” Bueno de Mesquita said confidently, tapping the screen. What does 118 mean? It means that Iran won’t make a nuclear bomb. By early 2010, according to the forecast, Iran will be at the brink of developing one, but then it will stop and go no further. If this computer model is right, all the dire portents we’ve seen in recent months . . .
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POPS The Greatest Threat in the Middle East Dr. ElBaradei has long considered a confrontational strategy toward Iran to be counterproductive. Responding to calls for the report’s release, he has raised doubts about its completeness and reliability.” ElBaradei’s non-confrontational approach likely explains today’s statement in Tehran that “Israel is the number one threat to the Middle East given the nuclear arms it possesses.” Because it’s much safer to verbally attack democratic nations like Israel than unpredictable authoritarian regimes like Iran. patterico's pontifications http://patterico.com/
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POPSSmart Power! Results May Not Be The Same as Implied or Expected That would be the same Mohammed El-Baradei that, you know, conveniently left out of the IAEA reports the part concerning Iran’s work on nuclear weapons; the same El-Baradei that considers himself a world peacemaker that’s doing God’s work! This is the guy the administration is going to rely on to “coordinate the details” of the Qum inspection schedule and regimen? This is the kind of Smart Power ! that’s guiding our nation’s most urgent and sensitive foreign policy actions; yet another example of the President’s Brilliance! and Judgement! perhaps? It’s been observed by some of his opponents that all of Obama’s promises have an expiration date, but a few months ago nobody would have believed that the time period would become this short! And I guess it’s safe to say that his proclamation that, “a nuclear Iran is unacceptable“, has expired too; after all, they’re just words …
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POPSMahmoud Ahmadinejad's Jewish Roots Revealed: "Heil Sabourjian!" The phenomenon of Jews denouncing other Jews and being their own worst critics (and I do mean worst) is a well known one, in history down to the present day -- whether it's those who profess to still identify with the faith, as with some members of Jewish Voice for Peace (most have long since substituted Marxism for their religion and simply live off genetics), those whose parents converted (as with Marx), or those who converted out themselves and now prove their bona fides by trashing their former co-religionists. One thing's for sure, this is just more proof that there's something about those Jews -- always prime movers on every side of world-historical events and movements. In fact, maybe that's it! Ahmadinejad (nee Sabourjian) is just a ZIonist under deep cover, agitating for a war to bring about Iran's ultimate defeat and the massive expansion of Greater Israel's borders. Think about it, fever swampers. The title of course refers to the fact that Adolf Hitler's . . .
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POPSObama's Move: Iran and Afghanistan United States between April and September. In his speech to the Islamic world from Cairo, he planned to show a desire not only to find common ground, but also to acknowledge shortcomings in U.S. policy in the region. With the appointment of special envoys George Mitchell (for Israel and the Palestinian territories) and Richard Holbrooke (for Pakistan and Afghanistan), Obama sought to build on his opening to the Islamic world with intense diplomatic activity designed to reshape regional relationships. It can be argued that the Islamic masses responded positively to Obama’s opening " it has been asserted to be so and we will accept this " but the diplomatic mission did not solve the core problem. Mitchell could not get the Israelis to move on the settlement issue, and while Holbrooke appears to have made some headway on increasing Pakistan’s aggressiveness toward the Taliban, no fundamental shift has occurred in the Afghan war.
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POPSObama On Nuclear Conflict With Iran: "I'm Not Interested In Victory" (Video) Obama At The G-20 On Iran: "I'm Not Interested In Victory" Oh yes he did say it, first of all, Obama gets hit with a very good question from CBS's Chip Reid Well done Chip Reid....You showed the President's hand... Reid: Thank you Mr. President, you just mentioned sanctions that have bite, what kinds of sanction, and I know you can't get into details but what kind of sanctions at all would have bite with Iran, do you really think that any kind of sanctions would have any effect on somebody like Ahmadinejad, secondly some of your advisers today said that this announcement was a victory, do you consider it a victory and if so why didn't you announce it earlier since you have known since you were President elect?.. Obama flustered by the question, "I'm not interested in victory, I'm interested in solving the problem" Clearly, today is a big smokescreen, he doesn't wanna come across as "America good, Iran bad," the global citizen is all talk here, we're not going to do
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POPS The Iran Attack Plan Israel would have to contend with the fact that it has consistently had a "red light" from both the Bush and Obama administrations opposing such strikes. Any strike that overflew Arab territory or attacked a fellow Islamic state would stir the ire of neighboring Arab states, as well as Russia, China and several European states. No one knows what specialized weapons Israel may have developed on its own, but Israeli intelligence has probably given Israel good access to U.S., European, and Russian designs for more advanced weapons than the GBU-28. Therefore, the odds are that Israel can have a serious impact on Iran's three most visible nuclear targets and possibly delay Iran's efforts for several years. The story is very different, however, when it comes to destroying the full range of Iranian capabilities. There are no meaningful unclassified estimates of Iran's total mix of nuclear facilities, but known unclassified research, reactor, and centrifuge facilities number . . .
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POPSObama: From Savior to Leftist Windbag in Nine Months Hugo Chavez got a big round of American-hating applause when he said “it doesn’t smell like sulfur in here anymore” in reference to President Bush whom he had previously referred to as the devil. Words are cheap and Obama used a whole lot of them to promote his socialist-light agenda to the nation last year. There might not be much in the ways of original ideas floating around in his head - just a collection of discarded Democrat lost causes from the past half century or so - Obama has convinced himself that as a man of destiny he doesn’t have to bother with trivial matters like telling the truth or keeping his word. In an effort to sell healthcare reform to the nation that it doesn’t want, Obama habitually plays fast and loose with the truth. It’s gotten to the point where he can barely speak on the subject for longer than a few minutes without someone wanting to cough up the word “liar” in the background, just like Rep. Joe Wilson did last week.
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POPSUnited Nations; Trade Union & Social Club For Tin Pot Tyrants by Mark Steyn which of them is more unreal. To be sure, Colonel Qaddafi peddled his thoughts on the laboratory origins of “swine flu” and the Zionist plot behind the Kennedy assassination. But, on the other hand, President Obama said: “No nation can or should try to dominate another nation.” Pardon me? Did a professional speechwriter write that? Or did you outsource it to a starry-eyed runner-up in the Miss America pageant? Whether or not any nation “should try” to dominate another, they certainly “can,” and do so with effortless ease, all over the planet and throughout human history. And how about this passage? “I have been in office for just nine months " though some days it seems a lot longer. I am well aware of the expectations that accompany my presidency around the world. These expectations are not about me. Rather, they are rooted, I believe, in a discontent with a status quo that has allowed us to be increasingly defined by our differences . . . ”
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POPSPM Netanyahu's Address to The Nations Here is a copy of those minutes, in which the Nazis issued precise instructions on how to carry out the extermination of the Jews. Is this a lie? A day before I was in Wannsee, I was given in Berlin the original construction plans for the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Those plans are signed by Hitler's deputy, Heinrich Himmler himself. Here is a copy of the plans for Auschwitz-Birkenau, where one million Jews were murdered. Is this too a lie? This June, President Obama visited the Buchenwald concentration camp. Did President Obama pay tribute to a lie? And what of the Auschwitz survivors whose arms still bear the tattooed numbers branded on them by the Nazis? Are those tattoos a lie? One-third of all Jews perished in the conflagration. Nearly every Jewish family was affected, including my own. My wife's grandparents, her father's two sisters and three brothers, and all the aunts, uncles and cousins were all murdered by the Nazis. Is that also a lie?
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POPSThe UN Loves Barack Obama Because He Is Weak Not convinced about that last “seething with anti-Americanism” line, though. I think the world actually loves America. That’s why the world is all trying to get here. The world just has a bit of an adolescent attitude toward America’s dad-like role in the world. . . I’d say it’s more the United Nations General Assembly that is seething with anti-Americanism. Get back on topic, Nile! OK, here we go: It is natural that much of the UN will embrace an American president who declines to offer strong American leadership. A president who engages dictators like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez will naturally gain respect from the leaders of the more than 100 members of the United Nations who are currently designated as “partly free” or “not free” by respected watchdog Freedom House. The UN is not a club of democracies - who still remain a minority within its membership " it is a vast melting pot of free societies, socialist regimes and outright tyrannies.
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POPSEvil Ahmadinejad in Denial as He Discusses 'democratic' Iran at UN Those who stayed had to all but stifle their laughter when Ahmadinejad heralded Iran's recent "glorious and fully democratic election" - a contest that sparked massive street protests, which ended only after Ahmadinejad's thugs brutally beat and killed opponents. "I don't think I have sever seen a walkout of this magnitude," Walter Russell Mead of the conservative Hudson Institute told CNN after Ahmadinejad finished playing to the half-empty General Assembly hall. "It was a speech Adolf Hitler could have given." Outside UN headquarters, hundreds of Iranians picketed the Iranian strongman for much of the day. "He is not our voice. He is not our representative. We want him out of the UN," said Masomeh Ataey, 52, who traveled from Virginia to join hundreds of flag-waving protesters at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza. Ahmadinejad insisted his country is ready to shake all hands "that are honestly extended to us," which seemed to be an odd reversal on his comment Tuesday that he'd . . .
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POPS Delegates Walk Out On Ahmadinejad Undeterred, Mr Ahmadinejad went on to accuse foreign troops of spreading "war, bloodshed, aggression, terror and intimidation" in Iraq and Afghanistan. And he also used his speech to brush off accusations that his re-election in June was a fraud, describing the polling day as "glorious and fully democratic". Notably absent from Mr Ahmadinejad's podium address was the subject of Tehran's stand-off with Western powers over its nuclear ambitions. As the Iranian leader prepared to address delegates, the UN Security Council members announced that they were expecting Iran to engage with them on the issue. "We expect a serious response from Iran and will decide, in the context of our dual track approach, as a result of the meeting, on our next steps," Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on behalf of Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States. Realtime results for #GreenNY http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23GreenNY
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POPSCBS: Obama International ‘Darling,’ But Hasn’t Accomplished Anything However, Reid spent the remainder of the segment demonstrating how that break with the Bush administration has failed to achieve any results: "The President orchestrated a mini summit today with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but in the end, the result was a hand shake, not a break through....Mr. Obama has reached out to rogue nations like Iran, but that hasn’t stopped President Ahmadinejad...from pursuing a nuclear program." Reid concluding his report by noting: "There are two very busy days still to go in this summit, but the White House is actively downplaying expectations because they concede there won’t be much in the way of immediate results." Here is a full transcript of Reid’s report: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/kyle-drennen/2009/09/23/cbs-obama-international-darling-hasn-t-accomplished-anything "Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center.
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POPSNeda Agha-Soltan's Fiance Has Been Released From Evin Prison in Iran Amnesty International had been calling for Makan's release, claiming he had been ill treated in prison and subject to coercion and torture. The circumstances of his release and his imprisonment are not immediately clear, and Amnesty International has apparently suspended its appeal but is continuing to monitor Makan's situation. Others involved in the circumstances surrounding the now-famous videotaped death of the young Neda Agha-Soltan have fled Iran in fear for their own lives, including Dr. Arash Hejazi, who attended to Neda after she was shot, and the television journalist who interviewed Caspian Makan after Neda's untimely death.
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POPSProtests Resume In Iran With The Government-Backed Quds Day Ceremony 11.57am: At least 10 protesters have been arrested, according to Reuters. "Supporters of Ahmadinejad are beating supporters of Mousavi near the Vali-ye Asr street. At least two protesters were injured," it quoted a witness as saying. 12.02pm: Al Jazeera's Alireza Ronaghi, reporting from Tehran, said the security forces were out in force, attempting to keep opposition demonstrators away from Tehran University where Ahmadinejad was speaking earlier. "I didn't expect the protests to be as big," he said Another video appears to confirm that thousands have been involved in the protests today. It also seems to show attempts to prevent filming taking place. 12.57pm: NBC has released more of its interview with Ahmadinejad. In the latest segment, he defended the detention of three Americans, who have been held for more than seven weeks. They "trampled the law, and in accordance with the laws, they need to be punished," he said. The full interview will be broadcast on Sunday.
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POPS“It’s Life Has Come To An End” Ahmadinejad Lays The Smack Talk On Israel Ahmadinejad’s fresh comments came ahead of his appearance at the United Nations General Assembly next week and before Tehran attends talks on Oct. 1 with major powers worried about the Islamic Republic’s nuclear strategy. NUCLEAR PROGRAMME Ahmadinejad repeated on Thursday that Iran would “never” abandon its disputed nuclear programme to appease critics. In an NBC-TV interview, he also offered no direct response when asked whether there were any conditions under which Iran would develop a nuclear weapon. “We don’t need nuclear weapons,” Ahmadinejad said, speaking through an interpreter. “We do not see any need for such weapons. And the conditions around the world are moving to favour our ideas,” he added. President Barack Obama, who came to office pledging to engage with Iran, has suggested Tehran may face harsher sanctions, possibly targeting its gasoline imports, if it does not accept good-faith talks by the end of September.
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POPS Not Liked Enough In fairness to Obama, though, it’s a pretty lame message from the cave-dweller. Despite the recent bombings in Iraq, violence is still significantly down, Iraq is a functioning democracy, the security forces are increasingly capable, and the pullout is on track … thank you, George Bush. If Osama wants to needle Obama and show he’s really hip and with it, he’ll poke him over the Afghanistan thing. A little timely al Qaeda crowing is exactly what the surrender enthusiasts in Washington DC need right now to put them in full retreat. You know, “How do you like your good war now, infidels? Run, it’s what you do best!” Something like that. Remember when he had his No. 2 admonish the Dems for failing to surrender fast enough in Iraq, and they redoubled their efforts? Now that Bush is out of the way, it’s a great opportunity for Osama to revive his favorite old theme from back in the day. Americans have no stomach for a fight, and will bolt if you give them a bloody nose.
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POPSCan Game Theory Predict When Iran Will Get the Bomb? Is Iran going to build a bomb? With the help of his undergraduate class at N.Y.U., he researched the primary power brokers inside and outside the country " anyone with a stake in Iran’s nuclear future. Once he had the information he needed, he fed it into his computer model and had an answer in a few minutes. A tall man with a slab of gray hair, Bueno de Mesquita, who is 62, welcomed me with painstakingly prepared cups of espresso. Then he pulled out his beat-up I.B.M. laptop " so old that the lettering on the A, S, D and E keys was worn off " and showed me a spreadsheet that summarized Iran’s future.The spreadsheet included almost 90 players. Some were people, like the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei; others were groups, like the U.N. Security Council and Iran’s “religious radicals.” Next to each player, a number represented one variable in Bueno de Mesquita’s model: the extent to which a player wanted Iran to have the ability
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POPSMass Trial of Iranian Protesters Deepens Nation's Divides possibly more, in prison. Among the defendants are several prominent reformist opposition activists including former vice president Mohammad Ali Abtahi, former government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, former vice speaker of parliament Behzad Nabavi, former deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh and leader of the biggest reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front, Mohsen Mirdamadi. Pictures from the courtroom showed a thin-looking Mr. Abtahi and a grim Mr. Mirdamadi, both in prison uniforms, sitting in the front row. More than a hundred defendants could be seen sitting in the packed courtroom, many of them handcuffed but without prison uniforms. State media didn't provide further details about the trial, and there was no information on when it would end or when a verdict would be expected. Iran's former reformist President Mohammad Khatami criticized the country's first trial of activists and protesters following the disputed presidential election as a sham.
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POPSLatest Updates on the Protests in Iran! July 21 These protests have been held in occasion of 21 July 1952.On this day after five days of bloody protests and full of casualties in Tehran and some other cities, Mohammad Reza Shah was forced to accept conditions of Mohammad Mossadegh and Ghavamo saltaneh government was toppled. General Ahmad Reza Radan, police chief successor had warned earlier today that any kind of gathering will be encountered. Ahmad Reza Radan in an interview with Mehr News Agency and by referring to rumors about holding a protest rally had said: It is police duty to encounter with this illegal rallies.
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POPSHard-Line Force Extends Grip Over a Splintered Iran “It is not a theocracy anymore,” said Rasool Nafisi, an expert in Iranian affairs and a co-author of an exhaustive study of the corps for the RAND Corporation. “It is a regular military security government with a facade of a Shiite clerical system.” The corps has become a vast military-based conglomerate, with control of Iran’s missile batteries, oversight of its nuclear program and a multibillion-dollar business empire reaching into nearly every sector of the economy. It runs laser eye-surgery clinics, manufactures cars, builds roads and bridges, develops gas and oil fields and controls black-market smuggling, experts say. Its fortune and its sense of entitlement have reportedly grown under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Since 2005, when he took office, companies affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards have been awarded more than 750 government contracts in construction and oil and gas projects, Iranian press reports document.
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POPSShowdown as Mousavi Attends Friday Prayers In his sermon broadcast live on radio nationwide, Rafsanjani reprimanded the clerical leadership for not listening to the controversy over the election, which was declared a victory for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in results that Mousavi's supporters say were fraudulent. "Doubt has been created (about the election results)," Rafsanjani said. "There is a large portion of the wise people who say they have doubts. We need to take action to remove this doubt." Rafsanjani couched his sermon in calls for unity in support of Iran's Islamic Republic. But his sermon was an unmistakable " if implicit " challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has declared Ahmadinejad's victory valid and demanded an end to questioning of the results. Rafsanjani said the people's voice must be considered. "We believe in the Islamic Republic ... they have to stand together," he said. "If 'Islamic' doesn't exist, we will go astray. And if 'republic' is not there,
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POPS A Profoundly Dangerous Message Because never at any time since the revolution has public criticism been as open and as bitter as now. The state television channel as the mouthpiece of the regime is increasingly mocked for its lies. We watched in disbelief as it broadcast cookery shows during the upheaval. Now we view staged confessions by some of the countless individuals rounded up after the election. A colleague quietly left a piece of paper on my desk tallying recent news items on IRIB. Neda Agha Soltan, the young woman shot dead during a street protest, was mentioned three times; Uighur Muslims in China eight times and the killing of an Egyptian-born Muslim woman by a racist in Germany 140 times. Until recently, it was almost unheard of to utter criticism and the name of the Supreme Leader in the same breath. But now, even Ayatollah Ali Khamenei does not escape, and I don't mean just in conversations between trusted friends. My own father, seriously mistrustful of talking about anything . . .
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POPSMoussavi to Appear in Public in Tehran He has also called on authorities to release hundreds of people detained in the turbulent aftermath of the election, including leading reformists, journalists and rights lawyers. Rafsanjani will lead the prayers after two months of absence. Some of his relatives, including his daughter Faezeh, were arrested briefly for taking part in pro-Mousavi rallies. State media say at least 20 people were killed as protesters clashed with riot police and members of the Basij militia, but some rights activists believe the figure is higher. The authorities and Mousavi blame each other for the bloodshed. Hardliners have called for Mousavi to be put on trial. Iran has accused Britain and the United States, which have criticised a crackdown on opposition protests, of interfering in its internal affairs. London and Washington reject the charge.
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POPSLOL: Iran’s “Boycott SMS!” “You don’t need 100 percent of consumers on board for a boycott to work effectively,” said the director of a major advertising firm in Tehran, who did not want to reveal his name. “Even a 20 percent drop in consumption is enough to hurt a company.” There are already signs that the boycott may be taking its toll on mobile operators. TCI shares on the Tehran Stock Exchange fell to an all-time low yesterday with a 6 percent drop over a two-week period, according to HAMNA, Iran’s mobile communication news agency. Iran Cell, the country’s largest private operator, has also sustained losses. A senior executive of this company, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Tehran Bureau that Iran Cell was losing “close to $250,000 a day” because of the drop in SMS volume. Text messaging had played a vital role in pre-election campaigning " largely conveying anti-Ahmadinejad jokes and pro-Mousavi slogans " and was used to disseminate information about grassroots effort
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POPSThe Green Brief #26 Josh Shahryar 7.12.2009 5. In a statement released today, Mohsen Rezaie " another candidate in the disputed elections " announced five points that everyone in Iran should realize in understanding the post-election problems. - The Iranian Government should KNOW the difference between peaceful protesters and people who're working to destroy the Islamic Republic. - The Iranian Government should KNOW the difference between politicians/people who merely have complaints, and those who may be "foreign meddlers." - Politicians should be able to pursue their rights and rights of the people through legal channels. Government organizations should seriously consider complaints from the people/politicians without the fear of persecution from someone else. - Negotiations should be held between those with complaints and the government for solving these complaints in order to safeguard national security and continue peaceful political participation in the country. - Government agencies should follow the law .
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POPSThe Green Brief #25 by Josh Shahryar 5.Ayatollah Montazeri has released a Fatwa that is very supportive of protesters and their cause. In the Fatwa, Montazeri "condemned violence against protesters as un-Islamic." He's pleaded with the government to not play with the name of Shi'ism and Islam with their actions. He hinted that Khamenei's leadership is standing against Islam, human rationale and National interests " and that he was clearly in the wrong. Reports of Ayatollah Ustadi - Qom's temporary Friday Prayer's Imam - resigning his position and calling a strike could not be confirmed. 6.In an open letter released to the media, the women's wing of Mousavi's Participation Front have said that Iranian mothers were awaiting the release of their loved ones with teary eyes and aching hearts. Government / International 7.Iranian Foreign Minister, Manuchehr Motaki, has stated that Iran is willing to discuss issues with the West, but claimed that the government was going to present a package of issues for discussion "
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POPS"Opposition Heightens After Vote Fraud by President's Allies" Television ad that highlights recent press accounts that sound more like they are out of Iran than the U.S. But truth be told they are actually accounts of Barack Obama's (and his administration's) failures and poor policy decisions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWFb1Yvlem4
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POPS7.9.2009 Iran Blogging 18 tir Tonight, via reader Wilcoy, a new post. 7:30 PM ET -- "Russia, Iran will never forgive you." From a reader, "Just wanted to say that one of the photos you linked to says 'Russia, Iran will never forgive you'. Iranians care a lot about how other countries respond to this crisis." Russia, as readers know, has celebrated Ahmadinejad's election "victory" and said little about the subsequent violence. 7:27 PM ET -- Allah-o Akbar! Earlier today, the NYT reported: An Iranian blogger wrote on Twitter about one hour ago that in the Amirabad district of Tehran, "people are all on the roofs" to resume the nightly ritual of shouting "Allahu Akbar!" ("God is Great!") -- a form of protest turned against the Shah in the 1970s. Video from tonight... 7:12 PM ET -- "We are in this together." New York Times: A young woman, her clothing covered in blood, ran up Kagar Street, paused for a minute and said, "I am not scared because we are in this together."
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POPS Protocols Of The Elders Of __________? Add this ado to earth's other hot spots like Darfur, "Palestine," Iran, South Lebanon, Afghanistan, Chechen province in Russia, Côte d'Ivoire, Mindanao Island (Philippines), Somalia, et. al., and you start to notice a pattern. One, no Jews in sight. And two, while the NY Times may not want you to know, adherents to Islam are so often an essential part of the mix. A mere coincidence, or could it be true: The Protocols of The Elders of Islam? Allah Hallavah!
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POPSThe Green Brief #21 (July 07) . . . Rafsanjani himself has so far not supported this statement and where he stands is still unknown at this time. 6. There are partially-confirmed reports that Mousavi met with one, mourning protester’s family on Monday night. The protester’s father told Mousavi that his son was not very political, yet had taken a great deal of interest in Mr. Mousavi’s message. He also claimed that his son was not violent. Mousavi told the grieving family that the blood of the innocent never goes in vain. 7. After US Vice President Joe Biden’s statement yesterday, that suggested the US would not interfere if Israel were to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, Saudi Arabia was reported as offering Israel its airspace for any future attacks on Iran. However, Saudi Arabia today denied that it had made such comments. In the meantime, US President Obama has vehemently denied that Biden’s statements implied that the US had given Israel “a green light” to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.
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POPSFresh News From Iran - July 4-5 Confirmed reports indicate that protesters are quietly going through the city and writing anti-government slogans on city walls, using the storm to their advantage. 4. Recently, a lot of news has been circulating about IRG and military clashes over how to deal with protests. (the more reliable twitter sources have not been able to confirm anything in this regard.) 5. Mehdi Karoubi today stated that they will continue to fight even though it looks as if resistance will become more difficult. He mocked Ahmadinejad for ordering a probe into Neda Agha-Soltan’s death while many more people have been killed in the unrests. 7. Reliable sources have indicated that Mir Hossein Mousavi will be creating a new party in order to further their goals of nullifying the election. Among the many instances of fraud in the election that have been claimed by Mousavi is the alleged printing of 20 million extra votes by the government in order to fill boxes with votes for Ahmadinejad.
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POPS No Eyewitnesses to the Crime Still, the world is watching. As we Americans celebrate the Declaration of Independence, let’s stand with Iran by recalling the first democratic revolution in Asia. It began in 1905 in Iran, driven by the quest to secure parliamentary government and a Constitution from the Qajar dynasty. Now, 104 years on, Iranians demand that the Constitution they have be respected through Islamic democracy and a government accountable to the people. They will not be silenced. The regime’s base has narrowed dramatically. Its internal splits are growing with the defection of much of the clerical establishment. One distinguished Iran scholar, Farideh Farhi, wrote this to me: “So I cry and ask why we have to do this to ourselves over and over again. Yet I do have hope, perhaps for purely selfish reasons " because I don’t want to cry all the time, but also because of the energy you keep describing.
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POPSAhmadinejad Says He Wants Public Talks With Obama.... Report: Ahmadinejad says he wants public talks with Obama TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he wants to engage President Obama in "negotiations" before international media, a semi-official Iranian news outlet reported on Saturday. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election last month sparked global protests and unrest in Iran. Speaking at a meeting of medical school deans, Ahmadinejad said Iran "will soon pursue a new round of diplomatic activity" amid a new position of strength for the Iranian government, the Iranian Student News Agency quotes him as saying. "I will go to the United Nations and will invite Obama to negotiations," Ahmadinejad said, adding that such talks would be "in front of the international media, not a sit-down behind closed doors in order to talk about matters." The Obama administration has sought dialogue with Iran but also criticized the government for its handling of unrest
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POPSNewsweek Reporter Faces Iran Trial: Lawyer "Any kind of interview and confession by these people who are being held in prison is invalid under the law and the Iranian constitution," Nikbakht added. Less than a week ago, the Fars news agency reported an "interview" with Bahari, in which he said that he had filed "unreal and biased reports from Iran which were driven by greed." On Wednesday Newsweek repeated a call on Iran to release its correspondent immediately and rejected charges made against him. The US news weekly said that Bahari has been detained in Iran since June 21 without access to a lawyer. It quoted an Iranian state news agency as saying that Bahari "has said he participated in a Western media effort to promote irresponsible reporting in Iran." Scores of journalists and reformist politicians were arrested following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election, which triggered mass protests in Iran and charges of voter fraud.
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