full-scale war between the US and Iran (5 Viewers)

primetime lastnight had a report from Iran, alot of unrest but the students etc believe change is more likely 2 years away. Everyone seems to want change, but it'll be a while. Also in other political news Iranian women seem hot.
 
Terrorists Hiding in Iran, Evidence Suggests Friday, June 03, 2005
Fox News WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence and foreign allies have growing evidence that wanted terrorists have been residing in Iran despite repeated American warnings to Tehran not to harbor them.

The evidence, which stretches over several years, includes communications by a fugitive mastermind of the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing and the capture of a Saudi militant who appeared in a video in which Usama bin Laden confirmed he ordered the Sept. 11 attacks, according to U.S. and foreign officials.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because much of the evidence remains classified.

Saudi intelligence officers tracked and apprehended Khaled bin Ouda bin Mohammed al-Harbi last year in eastern Iran, officials said. The arrest came nearly three years after the cleric appeared with bin Laden and discussed details of the Sept. 11 planning during a dinner that was videotaped and aired across the world.

The capture was a coup for Saudi Arabia, which spent months tracking him and setting up the intelligence operation that led to his being taken into custody in exchange for eventual amnesty.

The officials said interrogations of al-Harbi, who is now in Saudi Arabia, have yielded confirmation of many Al Qaeda tactics, including how members crossed into Iran after the U.S. began military operations to rout Al Qaeda and the Taliban from Afghanistan.

Al-Harbi is believed to have been paralyzed from the waist down while fighting in the 1990s alongside Muslim extremists in Bosnia and Afghanistan, and he surprised intelligence officials when he appeared in the December 2001 video with bin Laden.

"Everybody praises what you did," al-Harbi said on the tape.

U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies also have evidence stretching back to the late 1990s that indicates Ahmad Ibrahim al-Mughassil remains hiding in Iran. He is wanted as one of the masterminds of the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 Americans.

Al-Mughassil, who also goes by the alias Abu Omran, has been charged as a fugitive by the United States with conspiracy to commit murder in the attacks and has a $5 million bounty on his head.

U.S. authorities have long alleged the 1996 bombing was carried out by a Saudi wing of the militant group Hezbollah, which receives support from Iran and Syria.

Intelligence agencies gathered evidence, including a specific phone number, as early as 1997 indicating al-Mughassil was living in Iran, and have other information indicating his whereabouts.

U.S. officials have not publicly discussed the Saudi capture of al-Harbi or their evidence on al-Mughassil's whereabouts, but have increasingly raised questions about Iran's efforts to turn over other suspected terrorists believed to be under some form of loose house arrest.

Nicholas Burns, State Department undersecretary for political affairs, told Congress last month that Iran has refused to identify Al Qaeda members it has in custody.

"Iran continues to hold senior Al Qaeda leaders who are wanted for murdering Americans and others in the 1998 East Africa Embassy bombings and for plotting to kill countless others," Burns said.

Top administration officials have repeatedly warned Iran against harboring or assisting suspected terrorists.

U.S. intelligence this week has been checking some reports, still uncorroborated as of Friday, that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Al Qaeda's leader of the Iraqi insurgency, may have dipped into Iran, officials said.

On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld warned countries in the Middle East not to help al-Zarqawi.

"Were a neighboring country to take him in and provide medical assistance or haven for him, they, obviously, would be associating themselves with a major linkage in the Al Qaeda network and a person who has a great deal of blood on his hands," Rumsfeld said.

The U.S. and foreign officials said evidence gathered by intelligence agencies indicates the following figures are somewhere in Iran:

—Saad bin Laden, the son of the Al Qaeda leader whom U.S. authorities have aggressively hunted since the Sept. 11 attacks.

— Saif al-Adel, an Al Qaeda security chief wanted in connection with the deadly 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa.

—Suleiman Abu Ghaith, the chief of information for Al Qaeda and a frequently quoted spokesman for bin Laden.

U.S. and foreign intelligence officials say they believe those three are under some form of house arrest or surveillance by Iranian authorities.

Kenneth Katzman, a Middle East analyst at the Congressional Research Service, said the conditions that some of suspected terrorists are living under are unclear. Katzman said it's possible they are being held in guarded villas and he doubts any detention is uncomfortable.

"I think that Iran sees these guys as something of an insurance policy," he said. "It's leverage."

Rasool Nafisi, a Middle East analyst who studies conservative groups in Iran and travels there frequently for research, said Iran has returned some lower-rank operatives to their home countries but probably is keeping higher-ranking operatives as a bartering chip.

"Remember, Islamic tradition is very much based on haggling," Nafisi said. "Everything is negotiable, and you haggle for everything. If I were the Iranian government, I'd be very happy to have them and to use them in future negotiations with the United States."


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,158567,00.html
 
Sunday June 12, 4:30 PM
 At least three killed in bomb attacks in oil-rich Iranian city


At least three people have been killed in a series of four bomb attacks targetting public buildings rocked Iran's restive southwestern city of Ahvaz, officials said.

Interior ministry spokesman Jahanbaksh Khanjani told AFP there were four explosions and that "three or four people" were killed in Ahvaz, the capital of oil-rich Khuzestan province and an ethnic-Arab majority city close to the border with Iraq.

Ahvaz was also hit by several days of ethnic unrest in April.

Khanjani said at least one of Sunday's blasts -- which came just days before the Islamic republic is due to go to the polls on June 17 to elect a new president -- was a car bomb attack outside the Ahvaz prefecture.

The attacks are also the first to hit Iran in years.

According to state television, 30 people were injured in the "strong explosions". The state news agency IRNA said three to four were killed and 23 injured.

Quoted by the official news agency IRNA, the interior ministry's security affairs director Amir Hossein Motahar reported three explosions -- outside the prefecture, a housing ministry building and outside the home of the director of Iranian state television operations in Ahvaz.

Motahar was quoted as saying that one of the bombs exploded while police were trying to defuse it.

Ahvaz was rocked by ethnic violence from April 15-18. According to official figures, five people were killed in the clashes, which appeared to have been sparked by a forged letter, dating back seven years and attributed to then vice president Mohammad Ali Abtahi, calling for modifications to Khuzestan's ethnic composition.

Iran's Islamic regime blamed foreigners and counter-revolutionaries for the ethnic tensions, but admitted the province's development was still hampered by the devastation it suffered during the 1980-88 war with neighbouring Iraq.



[size=-1]http://sg.news.yahoo.com/050612/1/3sxb3.html[/size]
 
Sunday June 12, 11:31 AM
 Iran seems to be honoring suspension of nuclear fuel activities: diplomats

ran seems to be honoring its suspension of nuclear fuel activities, diplomats have said ahead of a meeting opening Monday of the UN atomic agency which is investigating US claims that the Islamic Republic is secretly developing nuclear weapons. "The suspension is holding," said a diplomat close to the International Atomic Energy Agency, as IAEA inspectors this week visited an underground uranium enrichment plant in Natanz and a uranium conversion facility in Isfahan.

The diplomat, speaking Saturday, said there had been some construction work at Natanz, including pouring concrete to cover the main plant, but that this did not violate either the suspension or IAEA nuclear safeguards requirements.

The diplomat said the inspectors were still in Iran and could find new things before the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors opens its meeting at the agency's headquarters in Vienna but that it seemed "Iran wants to be a nice boy now" and meet its international agreements.

Iran has since November suspended uranium enrichment activities towards making fuel for civilian nuclear power plants but what could also be the explosive core of nuclear bombs.

This is a confidence-building measure for talks with the European Union that opened in December and focus on Tehran guaranteeing its nuclear program is peaceful in return for trade, security and technology benefits.

IAEA inspectors had "faced no restrictions during their recent visit of Iranian sites," the deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Mohammad Saeedi, was quoted by the student agency ISNA as saying.

He said the inspectors on Wednesday and Thursday visited the nuclear facility in Natanz, 270 kilometers (170 miles) south of Tehran. "The inspectors have completely visited Natanz based on an IAEA request."

Natanz has been a subject of close international attention: Iran only declared the facility to the UN's nuclear watchdog after the site was exposed in 2002 by an exiled opposition group.

Iran, which says its nuclear program is a strictly peaceful effort to generate electricity, claims it only intends to produce reactor fuel at Natanz -- which has been at the centre of allegations the country is striving to acquire the capacity to develop a nuclear bomb.

Enrichment activities at Natanz have been frozen since late 2003, and Iran has pledged to maintain the suspension pending the outcome of negotiations over its nuclear programme with European countries Britain, Germany and France.

The inspectors were to visit the nuclear site in Isfahan on Saturday, Saeedi added.

The Isfahan plant is used for uranium conversion, a precursor stage in uranium enrichment.

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a leading presidential candidate ahead of an election on Friday, has expressed optimism Iran can forge a deal with Europe over its nuclear programme, but warned against negotiations taking too much time.

"We can reach an accord, but I cannot predict when that will happen," Rafsanjani told AFP in an interview when asked of the chances of reaching a deal in the talks with Britain, France and Germany.

"We are against the negotiations being dragged out for no reason. The negotiations can continue longer, on the condition that we can resume our (uranium conversion) activities in Isfahan."
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/050612/1/3sx9q.html
 
In-fighting as Iranian hardliners face defeat in election


With less than a week to go before Iran's presidential election, the four hardliners in the race appear unable to unite behind a single name and eat into the lead of pragmatic conservative Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Informal opinion polls in the Iranian press suggest that none of the eight candidates will be able to secure more than 50 percent of the vote needed to win on June 17. That means the top two would have to go into a run-off -- unprecedented in the 26-year history of the Islamic republic.

Furthermore the main reformist candidate, Mostafa Moin, has been campaigning hard and may even nudge out hardliners from the number-two position behind Rafsanjani, so far the favourite to succeed outgoing reformist Mohammad Khatami.

This has left the two main right-wing contenders, former police chief Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and ex-state TV boss Ali Larijani, trading angry shots at each other in the hope that one will pull out.

A Larijani campaign official, Hamid Reza Katuzian, complained to the state news agency IRNA that "members of the army and the police are supporting one of the candidates but should not think that this will be to his benefit."

He did not directly name Qalibaf, who is also a former top commander in the powerful Revolutionary Guards. But Qalibaf's high-profile and well-financed campaign has raised some questions about his financing.

And another Larijani aide, Manoucher Motaki, has accused police of blocking their campaign convoys.

The interior ministry has also alleged that one candidate -- again without mentioning Qalibaf -- has been trying to use individual members of the armed forces to convince their extended families whom to vote for.

Qalibaf, 43, is desperate to shake off his image as a military man, a major turn-off for Iranian voters, and has been campaigning as a slick populist technocrat who is "full of youth".

The Qalibaf campaign is also trying to pile the pressure on Larijani -- a thin, greying 48-year-old and more of a traditional conservative -- to pull out.

"If we want to present a united front, we should take the decision before the first round," said one of Qalibaf's aides, Parviz Sarvari. "If not, there is reason to be worried."

The two other hardliners -- Mohsen Rezai and Tehran Mayor Mahmoud Ahmedinejad -- are also under pressure to drop out. Opinion polls have credited them with just a few percentage points each.

The Larijani campaign has said Ahmedinejad will pull out in the coming days, although this has been denied by the mayor's campaign as being part of a "propaganda war".

On the reformist side, Moin has been campaigning aggressively in the hope that he can lure disappointed reformist supporters to the polls on Friday.

Moin was initially disqualified from even standing in the polls, but then approved after supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei intervened. The regime had feared that Moin's disqualification could spark a damaging voter boycott.

A top reformist official, Behrzad Nabavi, said that "unless there is some dramatic development or unless they cancel a lot of the votes, Moin will be in the second round" against Rafsanjani.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/050611/1/3sx5d.html
 
Monday June 13, 4:33 AM
 Iran hit by wave of bombings ahead of vote, blames US


Iran was struck by a wave of deadly bombings in this restive southwestern city and the capital, with the Islamic regime accusing US-backed "terrorists" of seeking to destabilise the country just days ahead of presidential elections.

At least eight people were killed and 75 wounded by a series of four blasts outside several public buildings in Ahvaz, an ethnic Arab majority city close to the Iraqi border that is capital of oil-rich Khuzestan province.

Later Sunday, another blast hit a busy square in Tehran, killing two people and seriously wounding at least two others, official media said.

Two smaller home-made bombs were reported to have exploded in other parts of the capital, without causing any casualties.

"The terrorists of Ahvaz infiltrated Iran from the region of Basra" in southern Iraq, top national security official Ali Agha Mohammadi told AFP.

"These terrorists have been trained under the umbrella of the Americans in Iraq," he charged, adding that Iran suspected British troops across the border might also have links to the separatist group -- the London-based Ahvaz Arab People's Democratic-Popular Front.

"We call on the Americans and the British to condemn these attacks and hand over the terrorists in Iraq. Sadly, they have so far not said anything," Mohammadi said.

He said "several terrorists have been arrested", but gave no further details.

Ahvaz was hit by several days of ethnic unrest in April, with the 26-year-old Islamic regime then blaming "counter-revolutionaries".

Iran's main armed opposition group, the People's Mujahedeen, is based across the border in Iraq, and Mohammadi said he believed they were involved in some of Sunday's attacks in Tehran.

"The calls for a boycott of the vote had failed, so the terrorist groups based in Iraq are trying to use attacks to disrupt the election and prevent a strong voter participation," he said.

Iran is due to go to the polls to elect a new president on Friday.

"The attacks are a failure, because in the past the regime has been confronted by far worse," said Khuzestan's deputy governor, Gholam Reza Shariati.

An AFP reporter in Ahvaz said the area around the local governor's office, one of three public buildings targeted, was strewn with shards of glass and rubble.

Scores of police had sealed off the area, and by early evening municipal workers were already clearing the scene and mopping up pools of blood.

"It was inhuman, a horrible thing. There was a small child walking around looking for his dead mother," said Abdol Hossein Kord-Zanghaneh, a male nurse at an Ahvaz hospital where many of the casualties were taken.

"This is an American plot," he said, adding that many of the wounded had suffered concussion and blown ear drums.

The huge blasts occurred between 9:00 am and 11:00 am (0430 to 0630 GMT), hitting the governor's office, two other public buildings and a residential area which is home to the director of state television operations in Ahvaz.

The explosion in Tehran occurred at Imam Hossein square, interior ministry spokesman Jahanbaksh Khanjani told AFP. Witnesses said the blast was heard after 8:00 pm (1530 GMT), adding the bomb was hidden in a rubbish bin.

Ahvaz, situated 500 kilometres (320 miles) southeast of Tehran and 50 kilometres (32 miles) from the Iraqi border, was rocked by ethnic violence from April 15-18.

According to official figures, five people were killed in those clashes, which appeared to have been sparked by a forged letter, dating back seven years and attributed to then vice president Mohammad Ali Abtahi, calling for changes to Khuzestan's ethnic make-up.

On Friday, Iran is due to go the polls to elect a successor to reformist President Mohammad Khatami.

Informal opinion polls in the Iranian press suggest that none of the eight candidates will be able to secure the more than 50 percent of the vote needed to win. That means the top two would have to go into a run-off -- unprecedented in the 26-year history of the Islamic republic.

Tipped as the frontrunner is powerful ex-president and pragmatic conservative Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Trailing him are the main reformist candidate Mostafa Moin and the hardline former national police chief, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.

The close-run campaign has been heating up, with regular reports of politicians suffering violent attacks.

But Iran vowed it would "shame" the United States by drawing a huge turnout in the polls and disprove predictions of a voter boycott. The United States has dismissed the election as rigged.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/050612/1/3sxf4.html
 
Presidential run-off gives Iranians stark choices

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Pragmatic cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani faces a tough presidential run-off against a surprise hardline challenger next week which presents Iranians with a stark choice over the future direction of the Islamic state.
While Rafsanjani has promised to improve ties with the West and improve social freedoms if re-elected to the post he held from 1989 to 1997, his opponent Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has focused on tackling poverty and maintaining Islamic values.

Rafsanjani recently said the time was right for a "new chapter" in Iran-U.S. relations. Ahmadinejad said re-opening talks with Washington would not solve Iran's ills.

The contest looks set to reopen the deep divisions in Iranian society illustrated by Friday's close-run election.

Wealthy urbanites backed candidates promising more freedoms and an end to Iran's political isolation from the West, while the rural and urban pious poor supported those pledging to alleviate unemployment and the high cost of living.

Third-placed reformist cleric Mehdi Karroubi's main campaign pledge was to give everyone over 18 a monthly $62 state handout.

"The election showed how many people in this country are having a hard time financially and care more about the cost of meat than whether Iran makes up with (U.S. President George W.) Bush," said a political analyst who declined to be named.

The unprecedented June 24 run-off is required after none of the seven candidates secured more than 50 percent of the vote.

Final figures showed Rafsanjani, 70, barely clinched top spot with 21 percent of the vote. Ahmadinejad, 49, who opinion polls had placed well down the field, got 19.5 percent.

GOOD TURNOUT

Just over two million votes, out of nearly 29.3 million cast, separated first from fifth place in the tightest presidential race witnessed in OPEC's No. 2 producer.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/iran_ele...CtSw60A;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
 
Vote-Rigging Feared in Iran Election

By KATHY GANNON, Associated Press Writer Mon Jun 20, 1:32 AM ET
 TEHRAN, Iran - The front-runner in Iran's presidential runoff sought to rally moderates Sunday by warning that his hard-line opponent would run a totalitarian regime. The statement from the campaign manager for Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani came amid suspicions the powerful Revolutionary Guard would rig the runoff vote for conservatives.


Rafsanjani's campaign manager, Mohammed Baghir Nowbakht, said Friday's runoff was crucial because hard-liners would not tolerate differences of opinions if elected and would run a "totalitarian" regime.

"They would never let other groups participate in the government," he said.

One losing candidate already has accused the Revolutionary Guard and its vigilante supporters of fixing votes during the first round of balloting. None of the seven candidates received the necessary 51 percent to win outright, forcing the runoff.

Rafsanjani — president in 1989-1997 — finished first in Friday's balloting with only 21 percent of the vote. That was barely half the 40 percent most political analysts had predicted he would get.

But an even bigger surprise was the emergence of Tehran's hard-line Mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — a former Revolutionary Guard commander — as the voters' second choice. He received more than 19 percent.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050620/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_elections
 
Hardline Mayor Wins Iran Presidential Race


By BRIAN MURPHY, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 49 minutes ago


TEHRAN, Iran - The hardline mayor of Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, trounced a veteran statesman to win Iran's presidential election, a stunning upset that put conservatives firmly in control of the Islamic country.


Ahmadinejad won 62.2 percent of the vote while his more moderate rival, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, received nearly 35.3 percent, the Interior Ministry said. The ministry posted a notice in its headquarters declaring Ahmadinejad the winner of Friday's runoff. The rest of the ballots were deemed invalid.

The figures were based on more than 90 percent of the estimated 26 million votes cast, or nearly 55 percent of Iran's about 47 million eligible voters. In the first round last week, the turnout was close to 63 percent.

The victory gives conservatives control of Iran's two highest elected offices — the presidency and parliament — enabling the non-elected theocracy to rule with a freer hand.

Real power in Iran lies with the country's clerics and their supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who can overrule elected officials. But reformers, who lost parliament in elections last year, had been hoping to retain some hand in government to preserve the greater social freedoms they've been able to win, such as looser dress codes, more mixing between the sexes and openings to the West.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore indicated the result would not change the U.S. view of Iran, and what it considered to be a fundamentally flawed election that refused to accept scores of candidates, particularly women.

"With the conclusion of the elections in Iran, we have seen nothing that sways us from our view that Iran is out of step with the rest of the region in the currents of freedom and liberty that have been so apparent in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon," Moore said.

Ahmadinejad supporters will go to mosques to hold prayers and "thank God for this great victory," said his campaign manager Ali Akbar Javanfekr. But he said no street celebrations are planned.

The streets of Tehran were quiet early Saturday. State television announced the results in its dawn bulletin, and there were no immediate celebrations outdoors.

Ahmadinejad is expected to start consultations soon on his Cabinet. He will be watched to see if he chooses clerics such as Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, a firebrand who has been considered for the Culture Ministry, which controls publications as well as the arts.

Ahmadinejad, 49, campaigned as a champion of the poor, a message that resonated with voters in a country where some estimates put unemployment as high as 30 percent. He struck the image of a simple working man, casting Rafsanjani as a wealthy member of the ruling elite.

"The real nuclear bomb that Iran has is its unemployed young people," said Ali Pourassad, after voting for Ahmadinejad at a polling station set up in the courtyard of a mosque in the middle-class south of Tehran. "If nothing is done to create jobs for our young people, we will have an explosion on the streets."

But Ahmadinejad also vowed to return Iran to the principles of the Islamic Revolution more than a quarter-century ago. Such comments and reports about his inner circle of supporters — members of the Revolutionary Guard, the vigilantes who enforce public dress codes and some of the most hard-line clerics in Iran's theocracy — frightened Iran's reformers.


Ahmadinejad's surprising strength alarmed moderates and business groups at home and was watched with concern by international officials. He is expected to be a tough negotiating partner in Iran's talks with Europe over its nuclear program. Iran says the program is to produce energy but the United States contends nuclear weapons are the goal.

Ahmadinejad has criticized Iran's current negotiators as making too many concessions to Europe — particularly in freezing the uranium enrichment program — and he was expected to put Iran's nuclear program into the hands of some avowed anti-Western clerics.

The pragmatic Rafsanjani appeared more willing to negotiate on the nuclear program. But a Foreign Ministry spokesman Friday underlined that the suspension is temporary and that enrichment will eventually be restarted no matter who wins the election.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050625/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_election
 
The US War with Iran Has Already Begun


June 21, 2005
Scott Ritter / Al-Jazeera

We now know that the Bush administration was actively engaged in an undeclared war on Iraq long before the March 19 invasion. Secret US forces were active inside Iraq well before the invasion and a punishing bombing campaign was destroying defensive infrastructure and killing hundreds of civilians at the same time Bush claimed that war remained “a last resort.” Now, a former US weapons inspector warns, the Pentagon is violating Iranian airspace, the CIA has inserted Saddam-trained terrorists inside Iran and war games for the planned invasion of Iran have already begun.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7896BBD4-28AB-48BA-A949-2096A02F864D.htm

(June 20. 2005) — Americans, along with the rest of the world, are starting to wake up to the uncomfortable fact that President George Bush not only lied to them about the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (the ostensible excuse for the March 2003 invasion and occupation of that country by US forces), but also about the very process that led to war.

On 16 October 2002, President Bush told the American people that "I have not ordered the use of force. I hope that the use of force will not become necessary."

We know now that this statement was itself a lie, that the president, by late August 2002, had, in fact, signed off on the 'execute' orders authorising the US military to begin active military operations inside Iraq, and that these orders were being implemented as early as September 2002, when the US Air Force, assisted by the British Royal Air Force, began expanding its bombardment of targets inside and outside the so-called no-fly zone in Iraq.

These operations were designed to degrade Iraqi air defence and command and control capabilities. They also paved the way for the insertion of US Special Operations units, who were conducting strategic reconnaissance, and later direct action, operations against specific targets inside Iraq, prior to the 19 March 2003 commencement of hostilities.

President Bush had signed a covert finding in late spring 2002, which authorised the CIA and US Special Operations forces to dispatch clandestine units into Iraq for the purpose of removing Saddam Hussein from power.

The fact is that the Iraq war had begun by the beginning of summer 2002, if not earlier.

The violation of a sovereign nation's airspace is an act of war in and of itself. But the war with Iran has gone far beyond the intelligence gathering phase. This timeline of events has ramifications that go beyond historical trivia or political investigation into the events of the past.

It represents a record of precedent on the part of the Bush administration which must be acknowledged when considering the ongoing events regarding US-Iran relations. As was the case with Iraq pre-March 2003, the Bush administration today speaks of "diplomacy" and a desire for a "peaceful" resolution to the Iranian question.

But the facts speak of another agenda, that of war and the forceful removal of the theocratic regime, currently wielding the reigns of power in Tehran.

Pentagon Overfights Have Already Invaded Iran’s Airspace
As with Iraq, the president has paved the way for the conditioning of the American public and an all-too-compliant media to accept at face value the merits of a regime change policy regarding Iran, linking the regime of the Mullahs to an "axis of evil" (together with the newly "liberated" Iraq and North Korea), and speaking of the absolute requirement for the spread of "democracy" to the Iranian people.
(continues)
CIA-backed Saddam-era Terrorists Unleashed inside Iran
President Bush has taken advantage of the sweeping powers granted to him in the aftermath of 11 September 2001, to wage a global war against terror and to initiate several covert offensive operations inside Iran.

The most visible of these is the CIA-backed actions recently undertaken by the Mujahadeen el-Khalq, or MEK, an Iranian opposition group, once run by Saddam Hussein's dreaded intelligence services, but now working exclusively for the CIA's Directorate of Operations.
(continues)
Rumsfeld, Azerbaijan and the War in Iran
Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld's interest in Azerbaijan may have escaped the blinkered Western media, but Russia and the Caucasus nations understand only too well that the die has been cast regarding Azerbaijan's role in the upcoming war with Iran.

The ethnic links between the Azeri of northern Iran and Azerbaijan were long exploited by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and this vehicle for internal manipulation has been seized upon by CIA paramilitary operatives and US Special Operations units who are training with Azerbaijan forces to form special units capable of operating inside Iran for the purpose of intelligence gathering, direct action, and mobilising indigenous opposition to the Mullahs in Tehran.
(continues)
War Games Preparing for Iran Invasion Have Already Begun
US military planners have already begun war games calling for the deployment of multi-divisional forces into Azerbaijan.

Logistical planning is well advanced concerning the basing of US air and ground power in Azerbaijan.

Given the fact that the bulk of the logistical support and command and control capability required to wage a war with Iran is already forward deployed in the region thanks to the massive US presence in Iraq, the build-up time for a war with Iran will be significantly reduced compared to even the accelerated time tables witnessed with Iraq in 2002-2003.
(continues)
http://www.envirosagainstwar.org/know/read.php?itemid=2856
 
the people are behind him though...(and he's only just been elected remember)

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/524D8D2D-1EED-4F0D-9A03-511EFAB49166.htm

or is this more of that condensed support we uused to see under sadam..either way this is the worst it's been for a while. Would you reckon this would be an international effort this time round?. That would make everyone in american admin happy and we could have a jolly good bloodbath.
 
Latex lizzie said:
the people are behind him though...(and he's only just been elected remember)

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/524D8D2D-1EED-4F0D-9A03-511EFAB49166.htm

or is this more of that condensed support we uused to see under sadam..
Click to expand...

That is what it is. these anti-Israel protests are organised every year and they deflect nicely from the human rights abuses in Iran. Like Iraq under Saddam the Iranian government don't give a shit about the way their own citizens are treated but they like to stir up hatred against Israel.
 
yeah, this guy is a little different though...I was talking to an Iranian friend of mine at the weekend and he reckons this guy is more like george bush than sadam, the people really do like him as he has the common touch..he was the mayor of tehran for a while. Yeah they are an annual event and staged but his remarks couldn't have come at a worse time.
 
Israel Prepares to Attack Iran's Nuclear Sites

December 12, 2005
Uzi Mahnaimi and Sarah Baxter / The London Times Online

Israel’s armed forces have been ordered by Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, to be ready by the end of March for possible strikes on secret uranium enrichment sites in Iran, military sources have revealed. Meanwhile, Law Professor George Bisharat raises a timely question in the LA Times: "Should Isreal Give Up its Nukes?"
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1920074,00.html
Israel Readies Forces for Strike on Nuclear Iran
Uzi Mahnaimi and Sarah Baxter / The London Times Online

TEL AVIV / WASHINGTON. DC (December 11, 2005) — Isreal’s armed forces have been ordered by Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, to be ready by the end of March for possible strikes on secret uranium enrichment sites in Iran, military sources have revealed.

The order came after Israeli intelligence warned the government that Iran was operating enrichment facilities, believed to be small and concealed in civilian locations.

Iran’s stand-off with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over nuclear inspections and aggressive rhetoric from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, who said last week that Israel should be moved to Europe, are causing mounting concern.

The crisis is set to come to a head in early March, when Mohamed El-Baradei, the head of the IAEA, will present his next report on Iran. El-Baradei, who received the Nobel peace prize yesterday, warned that the world was “losing patience” with Iran.

A senior White House source said the threat of a nuclear Iran was moving to the top of the international agenda and the issue now was: “What next?” That question would have to be answered in the next few months, he said.

Defence sources in Israel believe the end of March to be the “point of no return” after which Iran will have the technical expertise to enrich uranium in sufficient quantities to build a nuclear warhead in two to four years.

“Israel — and not only Israel — cannot accept a nuclear Iran,” Sharon warned recently. “We have the ability to deal with this and we’re making all the necessary preparations to be ready for such a situation.”

The order to prepare for a possible attack went through the Israeli defence ministry to the chief of staff. Sources inside special forces command confirmed that “G” readiness — the highest stage — for an operation was announced last week.

Gholamreza Aghazadeah, head of the Atomic Organisation of Iran, warned yesterday that his country would produce nuclear fuel. “There is no doubt that we have to carry out uranium enrichment,” he said.

He promised it would not be done during forthcoming talks with European negotiators. But although Iran insists it wants only nuclear energy, Israeli intelligence has concluded it is deceiving the world and has no intention of giving up what it believes is its right to develop nuclear weapons.

A “massive” Israeli intelligence operation has been underway since Iran was designated the “top priority for 2005”, according to security sources.

Cross-border operations and signal intelligence from a base established by the Israelis in northern Iraq are said to have identified a number of Iranian uranium enrichment sites unknown to the the IAEA.

Since Israel destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981, “it has been understood that the lesson is, don’t have one site, have 50 sites”, a White House source said.

If a military operation is approved, Israel will use air and ground forces against several nuclear targets in the hope of stalling Tehran’s nuclear programme for years, according to Israeli military sources.

It is believed Israel would call on its top special forces brigade, Unit 262 — the equivalent of the SAS — and the F-15I strategic 69 Squadron, which can strike Iran and return to Israel without refuelling.

“If we opt for the military strike,” said a source, “it must be not less than 100% successful. It will resemble the destruction of the Egyptian air force in three hours in June 1967.”

Aharon Zeevi Farkash, the Israeli military intelligence chief, stepped up the pressure on Iran this month when he warned Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, that “if by the end of March the international community is unable to refer the Iranian issue to the United Nations security council, then we can say the international effort has run its course”.

The March deadline set for military readiness also stems from fears that Iran is improving its own intelligence-gathering capability. In October it launched its first satellite, the Sinah-1, which was carried by a Russian space launcher.

“The Iranians’ space programme is a matter of deep concern to us,” said an Israeli defence source. “If and when we launch an attack on several Iranian targets, the last thing we need is Iranian early warning received by satellite.”

Russia last week signed an estimated $1 billion contract — its largest since 2000 — to sell Iran advanced Tor-M1 systems capable of destroying guided missiles and laser-guided bombs from aircraft.

“Once the Iranians get the Tor-M1, it will make our life much more difficult,” said an Israeli air force source. “The installation of this system can be relatively quick and we can’t waste time on this one.”

The date set for possible Israeli strikes on Iran also coincides with Israel’s general election on March 28, prompting speculation that Sharon may be sabre-rattling for votes.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the frontrunner to lead Likud into the elections, said that if Sharon did not act against Iran, “then when I form the new Israeli government, we’ll do what we did in the past against Saddam’s reactor, which gave us 20 years of tranquillity”.


http://www.envirosagainstwar.org/know/read.php?itemid=3527
 
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