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POPSTime To Man Up, Barry
The sentence for Kian Tajbakhsh was the longest prison term yet in a mass trial of more than 100 opposition figures, activists and journalists in the post election turmoil. The longest sentence so far, yet news accounts offer no explanation as to what Mr. Tajbakhsh did to deserve arrest, let alone a 12 year sentence. Apparently he was arrested at his home, not at a demonstration. News of his sentence was coupled with reports of lenient treatment given to a Canadian citizen: At the same time, Iran allowed another defendant to leave the country--Canadian-Iranian Maziar Bahari, a Newsweek journalist arrested in the same crackdown who had been freed on bail over the weekend. Bahari joined his British wife, who is in the last days of her pregnancy, in London, Newsweek said on its Web site Tuesday. It could be a coincidence. But news accounts certainly raise a question whether the mullahs are publicly sticking their finger in the Obama administration's eye, letting a Canadian go . .
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POPSThe Return of the Iran-Contrarians A retired Central Intelligence Agency official has confirmed to the Senate Intelligence Committee that on the secret mission to Teheran last May, Robert C. McFarlane and his party carried a Bible with a handwritten verse from President Reagan for Iranian leaders. According to a person who has read the committee's draft report, the retired C.I.A. official, George W. Cave, an Iran expert who was part of the mission, said the group had 10 falsified passports, believed to be Irish, and a key-shaped cake to symbolize the anticipated ''opening'' to Iran.
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POPSToo Much Nuance, Projection & Cognitive Dissonance, Not Enough Power All of which is a way of saying that nasty George W. Bush is no longer around with all his self-righteous swagger, and that with (as Obama did not fail to note) the first African-American installed in the White House, America is now on the same page with the rest of the world. Much of the speech seemed to be an exercise in what Sigmund Freud called "projection," assuming that others think the way you do. Obama spoke as if the mullahs of Iran, the Kim Jong Il clan of North Korea, Vladimir Putin and his gang of oligarchs, and the rulers of China had the same gripes against the Bush administration as Obama and the liberal Democrats in Congress. Hey, if we just close Gitmo, they'll realize that we're all in sympathy now.................. Unfortunately, it is clear that even in the year 2009 the interests of nations and peoples are not as unanimously shared as Obama proclaimed Wednesday. Our diplomats and those of five other nations are scheduled to meet with an
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POPSWhite Voters, Easy Marks For Controversy Stokers proposed healthcare overhaul, in which some conservatives accused him of socialism. Obama’s ratings seem likely to rise again if he wins passage of healthcare legislation this fall. One such episode came to a head Sunday when Van Jones, Obama’s green jobs czar, resigned after a week of criticism over past inflammatory statements and for signing onto conspiracy theories questioning whether the U.S. government played a role in the Sept. 11 attacks. In another episode, some conservatives have criticized a White House dinner invitation issued to the lead lawyer in the American Civil Liberties Union lawsuits that have forced the government to disclose Bush-era interrogation techniques. The lawyer was invited to an event for the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. And Obama’s plan to address the nation’s schoolchildren Tuesday has prompted an outcry among some conservative parents and GOP officials. Some of them have accused the White House of trying to infuse “socialism”
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POPSPawn Swapping In peril in Pyongyang? How jailed female journalists were in greater danger sharing a plane with Bill Clinton The story has all the ingredients of a Hollywood blockbuster. Two beautiful girls in peril, an evil North Korean dictator holding them captive and, riding to the rescue, Slick Willy himself, former President Bill Clinton. As journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee collapsed, sobbing tears of joy, into the arms of their relieved families after being pardoned from a sentence of 12 years’ hard labour in North Korea, their palpable relief was perhaps enhanced by the flood of lucrative film, book and interview offers that came pouring in. The pair had been arrested on the North Korea-China border last March, accused of illegal entry and spying. Then, last Wednesday, the silver-tongued Clinton burst back on to the global political scene by flying to the world’s most secretive state for what its regime described as ‘sincere and exhaustive discussions’
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POPSControl-freaks: It Must Be in Their Genes At the heart of Obama's action plan to deal with every problem is the principle of government control over individual action. Consider the first problem: the economy. Obama's first action was to infuse failing financial institutions with borrowed money, with government strings attached. In exchange for the money, government gained veto power over the management of private corporations. Had the people in power not been infected with the "control" gene, financial institutions that had made bad business decisions would have paid the consequences, and the self-correcting free-market financial system would, ultimately, have been stronger. But alas, the poisoned tentacles of government now permeate the financial system.
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POPSBad Guys Refuse to be Charmed Obama has set a series of false notes in foreign policy by standing silently as huge crowds in Iran courageously protested a stolen election and failing to support Honduras against a Chavez-like attempt to avoid the rules of a democracy. He has not even been consistent: in the first case, he feared being characterized as the Wild “Meddling” West; in the second, he had no compunctions against major meddling. In another sense, however, he was consistent. In both cases he failed to support the people who were standing up, which makes his rhetoric in Russia still another false note.
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POPSMoussavi is no reformer !! A quick glance at his bio would convince anybody of that fact. He is perhaps Ahmadinejad Lite, but not the kind of leader that would take on the Theocratic Establishment to make Iran safe for capitalism. Third, Even if Moussavi was a reformer, he would be Iran's reformer. A president for the Iranians, as it should be and not a stooge of the West. And unfortunately being a local reformer means implementing an agenda that may have local traction but foreign opposition. This may include things that Western countries would object to. i.e: the continuation of the nuclear programme and continuous support for terrorist groups. So next time you see an "Iran Expert" on your favourite Tv channel going on about Iran... do some quick research before accepting the good guys vs. bad guys narrative.
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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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POPS ix-nay that "Death to Israel" Already! One of the participants at the meeting asked the president to take a lower profile regarding the public differences between his administration and the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the United States’ demand that Israel freeze all settlement construction activity in the West Bank. “This situation is not helpful,” he told the president, who rejected the request, saying that during the eight years of the Bush administration, such disagreements were never made public but that such an approach was not helpful in advancing the peace process. Kind of sounds like a White House WTF moment to me. Also sounds like all of that pulpit-thumping Zionist-bashing the Rev. Wright did at the Trinity United Church of Christ wasn’t a complete waste of time, even if Obama said he wasn’t listening to those parts. But the Rev. Wright was wrong about at least one thing. It turns out Obama isn’t afraid of offending Jews and Israel at all.
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POPSMullah Sprung From Gitmo Now Leads Taliban In Afghan Campaign According to some accounts, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar appointed Zakir as a senior military commander in mid-2008. He quickly developed a reputation as a charismatic leader. By this time, the Taliban had established a system of shadow-government structures in parts of Afghanistan: provincial governors, military commanders, and mullahs who served on Islamic courts. The Taliban's goal, as with many insurgent groups, has been to provide more effective law and order than the Afghan government. But it has been one of the most oppressive governments in modern history, banning many forms of entertainment, prohibiting women from working, and conducting public executions of suspected collaborators. It was in this context that Zakir made his defining contribution to the southern insurgency -- and created an opportunity for US forces to exploit. Early this year, he began to reorganize the Taliban.
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POPSObama 'meddles' in Honduras -- and chooses the wrong side Its surely tough to make decisions about the diplomatic posture America should take when defending (or supporting) liberty and democracy around the world. Especially when you hardly believe in in yourself. Its gonna be a tough 3.5 years for Obama at this rate.
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POPSVictorious President Ahmadinejad Showers Obama with Insults Though going forward the Iranians undoubtedly can expect to find themselves on the receiving end of some stern, carefully parsed lip pro-democracy service. Indeed, the trick will be maintaining clear moral support for Iran’s democrats " plus any other aid that’s useful, including keeping Iranians’ lines of communication open, from Western broadcasts to cellphones to Twitter " in the face of Iranian negotiators’ inevitable complaints. But in skillful hands, negotiations need not strengthen a dying regime. Instead, if the mullahs can be talked into abandoning some of the ideological pillars that have sustained their revolution for three decades, negotiations could undermine their rule in the long run. And that’s not a new challenge for American diplomacy. Twenty years ago, Ronald Reagan sought nuclear arms deals with Moscow even as he denounced the Soviet Union as “an evil empire.” Reagan aimed to undermine Soviet communism, but he also negotiated with its leaders " ----- and he
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POPSBOLTONLAND IT SAYS A LOT FOR A SOCIETY WHICH ALLOWS BOLTON AND OTHERS OF HIS ILK TO HAVE A NATIONAL PLATFORM AND REACH THE VERY TOP OF GOVERNMENT AND DIPLOMACY, INDEED THE PRESIDENCY ITSELF. THERE MUST BE SOMETHING INTRINSICALLY WRONG WITH IT. ONE ONLY NEEDS TO WATCH WITH INCREDULITY THE MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE DEATH OF A RATHER STRANGE ENTERTAINER, WHILST HUNDREDS ARE KILLED ALMOST DAILY BY THE ACTIONS OF THIS NATION AND ARE SCARCELY MENTIONED IN THE MEDIA. THIS IS EVEN WORSE THAN "NEVERLAND", IT'S FANTASY LAND. IT RENDERS ME ALMOST SPEECHLESS. LET US HOPE THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THIS EMPIRE IS IMMINENT.
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POPSBeware the Christians! I mean, it would be horrible if three-year-olds controlled all our nuclear weapons — one tantrum and millions would die — but that doesn’t mean we go around fearing three-year-olds, because why in the world would we ever put them in charge of nuclear weapons?
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POPSThe Jig Is Up Mousavi wasn’t about to give up Iran’s nuclear program either. But the fact that engagement is now so patently absurd even to the left blogosphere should give the Obama team pause. What are they going to do now? So perhaps it was not George Bush’s “fault” that we couldn’t “get along” with Iran. Any American president who declines to countenance the regime’s thuggish behavior becomes the object of their scorn. There is no “engagement” without forfeiting our conscience. And the notion that Ahmadinejad and his mullah patrons would give up their nuclear program in response to some charm offensive from the president is now revealed to be utter drivel. If Obama can’t rally world opinion now — when the nature and intentions of the regime are so clear — it is hard to see when he will ever be able to do so. After all, who now thinks we can do “business” with the mullahs and/or learn to live with a nuclear-armed despotic regime?
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POPSIran: “Conservatives” and Liberals John Ray: "The Soviets, the Ayatollahs and American “liberals” are the ones who are three peas in a pod: They all depend on the coercive power of the State in order to get their way. Conservatives don’t want to get their way. They just want to be left alone to do their own thing. Sadly, however, we have to fight the left in order to be left alone."
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POPSThe Little President From article: "Nicolas Sarkozy upheld our real values. He called the pictures of women and teenagers being beaten by Basij thugs on motorcycles "brutal" and "totally disproportionate." "The ruling power claims to have won the elections ... if that were true, we must ask why they find it necessary to imprison their opponents and repress them with such violence." "Chances are that behind the scenes the mullahs are promising Obama a glorious peace agreement that will allow him to parade his gargantuan ego around the world one more time. They are Persian rug sellers over there, who know all about hard bargaining. They've got his number: He's a pushover. Obama will trade personal glory against the freedom of Iran's people any day of the week."
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POPSDisgust-Blogging The Press Conference . . . . . Iranian people is one with which the United States can do business. And he is still planning on doing that. Good luck, Iranian people! That’s when I stopped listening. Let me know if I missed something. I’m looking forward to all the news reports that will tell me how he took a strong tone with his strongest words yet, etc. I hope the people of Iran, if they manage to free themselves of their violent, oppressive religious extremist rule, will forgive him his timid naivety, or shortsighted obtuseness, whatever it is. http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/06/obamas_latest_statement_on_ira_1.asp I have made it clear that the United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and is not at all interfering in Iran’s affairs. But we must also bear witness to the courage and dignity of the Iranian people, and to a remarkable opening within Iranian society. And we deplore violence against innocent civilians anywhere . .
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POPSClerics Join Iran's Anti-Government Protests Iranian opposition at the leadership level and in the streets now has new faces, made up of those who had opposing ideologies before the election. One symbol of that has become a nightly tradition in Iran. Secular or religious, Iranians go to their rooftops every night.. and shout out "Allahu Akbar" -- God is great -- and "down with the dictator."
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POPS Iran's Hidden Revolution Far from fretting about an impending attack from Israel or America, guard leaders have been warning the ayatollah that the most formidable threat to the Islamic Republic is a “soft regime change policy” involving the use of “orange revolutions” (as the hard-line Iranian newspaper Kayhan recently editorialized) Encircled by American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, besieged from within by disgruntled citizens, the supreme leader has turned to a bellicose strongman to preserve the system that elevated him. Indeed, Ayatollah Khamenei " who was scorned as a religious lightweight by many more established mullahs when he was chosen for the top post in 1989 " has repeatedly shown himself willing to undercut the “Islamic” in Islamic revolution. In doing so, he has painted himself into a corner " a permanent alliance with Mr. Ahmadinejad and the Revolutionary Guards. And this fraudulent election will only push them closer together.
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POPSWelcome Back, Carter It's not about us. The reign of the ayatollahs in Iran has an expiration date, and the ayatollahs know it. Seventy percent of Iran's population wasn't even alive in 1978, and they've had enough of the mullahs and their Basij bully boys. Whether their yoke is thrown off in 2009 or in 2012 or 2020, it's going to happen, probably within the next decade or so. I hope any sane person would agree that sooner would be better, but here's a question for all of those who are eaten up with concern over "what will they think of us?" Whenever the turn comes, what exactly will they think of us, if we turn our backs on them today? What will they think if we just hedge our bets against the ludicrous idea that we might be burning (nonexistent) bridges with the mullahs otherwise? I've meet a lot of Eastern Europeans who have pictures of Ronald Reagan on their mantles. They never forgot the way he stood up for them, in public, against the commissars.
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POPSObama: Start The Revolution Without Me So one of two things are going to happen. Either the demonstrators are going to succeed in overthrowing the current government which has already become destabilized, or the conservatives in Iran will unleash an unprecedented bloodbath against the protestors. Either way Obama's position of trying to stay in their good graces for the sake of negotiation has become obsolete, a situation that neither he nor his advisors have been able to recognize. But so far Obama has not seized the opportunity. He insists on giving legitimacy to the current government..The world seems ready to line up against the current Iranian government and their actions as the statements of condemnation from other European countries have shown. Obama could be the one to rally them. Instead he doesn't want to "meddle". People are taking their lives into their hands to stand up against a repressive government that poses a threat to the whole world . . . .
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POPSPersian Paranoia By Christopher Hitchens Also try to bear in mind that one day you will have to face the young Iranian democrats who risked their all in the battle and explain to them just what you were doing when they were being beaten and gassed. (Hint: Don't make your sole reference to Iranian dictatorship an allusion to a British-organized coup in 1953; the mullahs think that it proves their main point, and this generation has more immediate enemies to confront.) There is then the larger question of the Iranian theocracy and its continual, arrogant intervention in our affairs: its export of violence and cruelty and lies to Lebanon and Palestine and Iraq and its unashamed defiance of the United Nations, the European Union, and the International Atomic Energy Agency on the nontrivial matter of nuclear weapons. I am sure that I was as impressed as anybody by our president's decision to quote Martin Luther King"rather late in the week"on the arc of justice and the way in which it eventually bends.
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POPSAre the Iranian Election Protests Another US Orchestrated ‘Color Revolution’? "Neoconservative Kenneth Timmerman wrote the day before the election that “there’s talk of a ‘green revolution’ in Tehran.” How would Timmerman know that unless it was an orchestrated plan? Why would there be a ‘green revolution’ prepared prior to the vote, especially if Mousavi and his supporters were as confident of victory as they claim? This looks like definite evidence that the US is involved in the election protests." So quickly Americans forget how the US was involved with the 1953 Iranian "coup d´état" that deposed the democratically-elected government of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeqh. it wouldn't surprise me one little bit if the CIA is behind it all. The plot thickens...
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POPSWho Stands With The Freedom Fighters of Iran? Iran's dictatorship is the heart of much of Islamic terrorism and violence throughout the Middle East and the world. Ridding the world of that evil transcends the more narrow concerns about Iranian nuclear development! President Obama, behind the curve of even Democrats in his own party in the House who voted unanimously for a resolution sponsored by Mike Pence, (R-IN) to "Condemn the ongoing violence against demonstrators by the Government of Iran and pro-government militias," finally some additional fortitude Saturday afternoon and released the following statement: The statement above is a subtle shift from Obama's statements earlier in the week where he repeated the phrase "respect Iranian sovereignty" which is code for respect the dictatorship of the Mullahs. Today's phrase "If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community" is a subtle, but significant shift.
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POPSThe Latest From Iran What should President Obama do about Iran? He can do what he does best: Talk. He should roll out the TOTUS and give the Iranian mullahs and moguls an old-fashioned spanking. Complete with direct quotes from the Koran. Alas, this will not happen. Dr. Charles Krauthammer this week said of President Obama: “All hangs in the balance. The Khamenei regime is deciding whether to do a Tiananmen. And what side is the Obama administration taking? None.” Ouch. I feel the pain not for the target of Dr. Krauthammer’s words, but for the rest of us. 53% of the nation gave 100% of the world a leader of the free world someone who, when danger comes, dares to vote " present. Such a timorous approach to adversity is decidedly James Buchanan-like, as opposed to Harry Trumanesque or John Kennedyesque. There is much intelligence in not taking unnecessary risks. There is greater ignorance in trying to avoid all risks at all times.
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