My name is Farshad Kholghi, and I am a free man. EuropeNews 30 Sept 2009 By Farshad Kholghi I love my freedom, which was granted me through the courage of my parents to defy grafity and flee from Iran of the fundamentalists. We fled to Denmark, because my parents belong to the Bahai' faith, a new Iranian religion favouring equality, democratic thinking and enlightenment for all.
It was banned when the Islamists seized power in Iran in 1979. Today, whenever you turn on the television and see news from Iran, it is either an awfully angry man with a full beard screaming “Death to the West!” But the Iran that I remember is something very different. I remember a county with fundamental values different from the hateful rhetoric of the Islamists.
The Iranian cultural heritage taught us universal, fundamental values: Freedom, equality and, most important of all: Freedom of expression. Iran was not a democratic country, and the king of the country, the Shah, was ruling the country with a very firm hand. Why? Non-Islamic books were to be burned. 'Why Don't We Try Peace?': An Interview With Dennis Kucinich. Share Late last week, I spoke with Representative Dennis Kucinich, D-OH, about the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act, specifically the provisions on Iran, and more broadly about the politics that repeatedly allow the country to seek war even after recent exercises proved to be disastrous. This conversation is edited slightly for length and clarity. GZ: I’d like to talk a little bit about the NDAA, which passed recently. You said on the House floor that it made a war with Iran basically a US policy.
DK: The language of the NDAA is a prescription for war. Now, John Conyers was able to get an amendment accepted that says “this is not an authorization of war.” But what the bill does almost makes the Conyers amendment moot. There’s a double game going on here. [This bill] is self-defeating. It presupposes that Iran has a nuclear weapons program, which it does not. Capability could mean any country which produces nuclear power. It’s a very dangerous time. News. US races headlong for final nuclear deal with Iran irrespective of program's military dimension [Editor's note by Prince Handley, U of E President / Regent]Cyber warfare is used extensively by major governments and terrorist organizations (both known, unknown & shell decoys). This report on US Racing for FINAL Nuclear Deal with Iran should be a wake-up call to Benjamin Netanyahu and the leaders of Israel. Can you see Ezekiel Chapter 38 Gog & Magog alliance forming?
Prince Handley's suggestion to Israel: CONCENTRATE CYBER WARFARE NOW AGAINST ENEMIES___________________________________________________ Iran and the six world powers embarked Tuesday, April 8, on two days of negotiations in Vienna for a final and comprehensive nuclear accord, with both the US and Iran resolved start drafting the document for resolving the long-running dispute in mid-May. His comment also paled compared with the sharp exchanges between Israel’s defense chiefs and Gen. Gen. J Street | Say THANK YOU for voting for diplomacy. Rep. Kucinich: Downed drone 'a step' toward war with Iran - The Hill's DEFCON Hill. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) on Monday said the fallout from a U.S. spy aircraft that crashed in Iran shows the American-led mission in Afghanistan is destabilizing the entire region.
Tensions have flared between Washington and Iran after an American RQ-170 unmanned aircraft went down on Iranian soil. The Iranians claim it was shot down; U.S. officials have countered that it malfunctioned. Iran says its response to such events will no longer be limited to its own territory. “If the American claims that the drone drifted into Iran after a mechanical malfunction are true, it serves as further evidence that our presence in Afghanistan is destabilizing the region,” Rep. But if Iran really did shoot it down, Kucinich said, “the damage is even more serious.” “The United States has no right to violate Iranian airspace; doing so would be a violation of international law and a serious provocation,” Kucinich said. The Pentagon said there's no evidence that the plane was shot down. 500 « TweetDeck - Your social world. U.S. official says no sign Iran shot down drone.
Preserving Cabrini-Green's images In the sharp sun of an April afternoon, Nate Lanthrum walks through the remains of Cabrini-Green giving away what he has taken. He looks out of place, a white guy carrying a $1,500 Nikon D700 camera, but the residents are used to him by now and greet... Blackhawks thrilled to have Brent Seabrook back Starting with Game 6 Sunday, Brent Seabrook's timeout will be over and the defenseman will be back on the ice — so long as he promises to play nice. The Blackhawks have done pretty well in Seabrook's absence, winning all three games the NHL... NFL draft preview: Defensive ends As the NFL draft nears — it takes place May 8-10 — we're taking an 11-day, position-by-position look at what's out there and what the Bears need.
In May 1974, Tribune delivered 2 Watergate bombshells Obama denounces racist comments reportedly made by NBA owner Cubs can't take advantage of Brewers' injuries Northwestern women win at Wrigley Blackhawks thrilled to have Brent Seabrook back. WaPo: Fact-Check "Iran's Quest to Possess Nuclear Weapons". Services The Salsa Client Services team handles all new client set-ups as well as custom projects such as data clean-up, large-scale content and campaign migration, webpage customization and custom reporting.
For more services including everything from strategic consulting to development, we have a community of partners ready to help too. Support The folks in support help you be successful in Salsa in a friendly, clear and efficient manner. You can count on the support specialists to ask you questions to target the specific problem and determine how to best address your concerns. Training We provide weekly online training, certification courses and strategic best practices webinars and resources at a variety of levels so you can customize your education the way you need it. Iran shot down US spy plane, military source says.
Iran Music Special: The Basij Militia Rap for Occupy Wall Street. We have repeatedly noted the Iranian regime's love of protest --- well, protest that is 1) in America or 2) by Basij militia "students", say, in front of a foreign embassy. But what if the two could be combined? And what if it could be done through music? Not just music, but hard-core urban rap music? Basij member Hashem Bafghi has made that protest dream come true. Occupy Wall Street is a real war streetWhat Happened to the American Dream? Unfortunately, we cannot embed this iconic track, but you can have a listen and rap along here (hat tip to Golnaz Esfandiari of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty). And, for a reminder that criticism of Wall Street is not just a 21st-century thing, you can enjoy a less aggressive foreign intervention through music:
China-Iran-Russia axis. The China-Iran-Russia axis has been dubbed "that other axis" by Asia Times' Jephraim P. Gundzik, who wrote June 9, 2005, that "Beijing's increasingly close ties with Moscow and Tehran will thwart Washington's foreign policy goal of expanding US security footholds in the Middle East, Central Asia and Asia. However, the primacy of economic stability will most likely prevent a proxy-style military confrontation, in Iran or North Korea, between China and the US.
" [1] "Initially, Moscow supported Washington's 'war on terrorism'. However, the US invasion of Iraq changed this support into resistance, and later into active efforts to counterbalance the US. Additionally, since the "beginning of the war in Iraq," he said, "Beijing has worked feverishly ... in an apparent effort to prevent US military action against the remaining 'axis of evil' members, Iran and North Korea. "Both North Korea and Iran are following a course of action that is putting them directly at odds with U.S. interests. P.R. Iran Oil Embargo Could Hurt Europe and Help China, Russia.
On Thursday, Europe's foreign ministers are planning to meet in Brussels, where they will discuss whether to implement an Iranian oil import embargo as a way to pressure Iran to halt its nuclear program. France, in particular, has been advocating such a measure after an international report earlier this month revealed that Iran is moving closer to building its own nuclear weapon.
While the international community seems to agree that something should be done to prevent Iran from increasing its nuclear capabilities, some worry that imposing an oil embargo or other sanctions affecting the country's oil industry could do more harm to the countries imposing the measures than to the Iranian regime itself. As they face precarious economic situations, countries like Greece and Italy have expressed reluctance to cut off oil imports from Iran, fearing that an embargo could drive up costs of fuel. [Slideshow: The Death Toll of the 'Arab Spring' Revolutions.] On Wednesday, the U.S. Iran. Iranian students storm UK Embassy in Tehran amid rising tensions | Kurat. Iranian police officers scuffle with protesters trying to storm British Embassy in Tehran Tuesday. (Vahid Sale … Hundreds of Iranian protesters stormed the British embassy in Tehran on Tuesday, throwing firebombs and ransacking offices, in the latest stark example of escalating tensions between the West and Iran ostensibly over its nuclear program.
Elements of the Iranian government appeared to at least tacitly condone the violent demonstration, which was observed by Iranian news reporters and television cameras. The protest came two days after Iran's parliament voted to expel Britain's envoy to Iran in retaliation for the United Kingdom's decision to join the United States and Canada in a new round of economic sanctions targeting Iran's petrochemical sector. Calling the situation an outrage, the British foreign office vigorously protested the incursion, and said it holds the Iranian government responsible. "Tehran can choose a different direction. Other popular Yahoo! Is Britain Plotting With Israel to Attack Iran?
Last February Britain’s then defense minister Liam Fox attended a dinner in Tel Aviv with a group described as senior Israelis. Alongside him sat Adam Werritty, a lobbyist whose “improper relations” with the minister would lead eight months later to Fox’s hurried resignation. According to several reports in the British media the Israelis in attendance at the dinner were representatives of the Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, while Fox and Werritty were accompanied by Matthew Gould, Britain’s ambassador to Israel. A former British diplomat has now claimed that the topic of discussion that evening was a secret plot to attack Iran. The official inquiry castigating the UK’s former defence secretary for what has come to be known as a “cash-for-access” scandal appears to have only scratched the surface of what Fox and accomplice Adam Werritty may have been up to when they met for dinner in Tel Aviv.
Murray said the Tel Aviv dinner was especially significant. And a sixth meeting has come to light. Algerian Women Singing Against Sharia Law - "What Came Over You Judge?" Virus hits Iran's defence network. IRAN says its defence computer systems have been infected with a ''supervirus'' similar to the one believed to have been created by Israel that severely damaged Tehran's nuclear program last year. Anti-virus experts have identified a virus called Duqu that they say shares properties with the Stuxnet worm apparently created by Mossad, the Israeli security service. It was thought to have targeted the nuclear program's centrifuges, the devices that enrich uranium to create nuclear fuel. It was not clear from the Iranian statement whether Duqu had also struck nuclear facilities, but it was the regime's first admission of damage. ''We are in the initial phase of fighting the Duqu virus,'' said Gholamreza Jalali, the head of Iran's civil defence program. ''The final report which says which organisations the virus has spread to and what its impacts are has not been completed yet.
All the organisations and centres that could be susceptible to being contaminated are being controlled.'' World. Report: Explosion rocks Iran city of Isfahan, home to key nuclear facility. Persianbanoo. Camp Ashraf and Iranâs Nuclear Threat. ما يحدث فى مصر فى دقيقتين ! Wes Clark and the neocon dream - Glenn Greenwald. (updated below) In October, 2007, Gen. Wesley Clark gave a speech to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco (seven-minute excerpt in the video below) in which he denounced what he called “a policy coup” engineered by neocons in the wake of 9/11. After recounting how a Pentagon source had told him weeks after 9/11 of the Pentagon’s plan to attack Iraq notwithstanding its non-involvement in 9/11, this is how Clark described the aspirations of the “coup” being plotted by Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and what he called “a half dozen other collaborators from the Project for the New American Century”: Six weeks later, I saw the same officer, and asked: “Why haven’t we attacked Iraq?
Are we still going to attack Iraq?” Clark said the aim of this plot was this: “They wanted us to destabilize the Middle East, turn it upside down, make it under our control.” The current turmoil in the Middle East is driven largely by popular revolts, not by neocon shenanigans. Iran Feature: So How Big is the Bank Fraud? Iranian politics, as well as the financial sector, has been rocked since September by the revelation of a $2.6 billion bank fraud. The line is that a businessman, Amir Mansoor Khosravi, used lines of credit from eight major Iranian banks to set up or buy dozens of companies in sectors such as steel manufacturing. The head of Bank Melli, Mahmoud Reza Khavari, resigned and has apparently fled to Canada; the head of Bank Saderat, Mohammad Jahromi, resigned. The Iran Prosecutor General has declared that dozens of people have been arrested in the connection with the case.
But is there more? An EA reader wrote us this week to ask about chatter that the fraud was $12 billion and took in even more leading Iranian institutions. The on-going investigation into the $2.8 billion Amir Mansour Aria Group embezzlement scandal has so far seen the removal of the heads of Banks Melli, Saman, and Saderat. VERITY did not identify its sources, so an EA correspondent took up the chase for information. 1. 2. The Latest from Iran (26 November): Embezzlement. Graffiti of the Day. "The Greens Are Awake and Alert" 2125 GMT: Labour Front. ILNA reports on the protests of Tabriz workers and retirees in East Azerbaijan against changes in Iran's labour laws. 2037 GMT: Habil Darvish, the Chief Executive Officer of the Tehran Metro, has criticised the Government for paying only 20% of the allocated subsidies this year. And Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf has struck a note of defiance: 400 new metro carriages will run until the end of year, even though the Government has ordered banks not to cooperate with the Metro. 2029 GMT: Currency Watch.
As the Iranian rial plunges (see 1645 GMT), Etedaal suggests that the Central Bank has abandoned the market to exchange dealers, despite the claims of the Minister of Economy and Bank head to contain the shock of sanctions on the Iranian economy. 2021 GMT: The Battle Within. 2011 GMT: CyberWatch. An EA correspondent sends the message, "Looking around to find them. " 2005 GMT: Paging George Orwell. UK severs ties with Iranian banks. U.S. to impose more sanctions on Iran | Radiozamaneh. Rostam Qasemi - Talk to Al Jazeera. UN atomic watchdog passes Iran nuclear program resolution. Big Medias Double Standards on Iran. Letters from Iran - General.