This could be laughable...but...

Oxford University "denies claim it bestowed honorary doctorate on Tehran interior minister, who, in turn, displays forged degree certificate riddled with errors as 'proof'."

Gateway Pundit has more.

Tags: fake diploma Ali Kordan Iranian Interior Minister Oxford University

Character and integrity are essential attributes of a leader.

Thomas Sowell's reflections on the US elections, one candidate, and war:

There is no office where the character and values of the person in that office matter more than the office of President of the United States. He holds the destiny of 300 million Americans in his hands and the fate of generations yet unborn.

That was never more true than today, with Iran moving ever closer to a nuclear bomb, while the United Nations wrings its hands and Congress fritters away its time on everything from steroids in sports to earmarks for pet projects back home.

Does anyone seriously consider what it would mean for Iran to have nuclear weapons? They are already supplying terrorists with the means of killing people in other countries, including killing American troops in Iraq.

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Not only Senator Obama, but too many other Americans, seem to have no concept of the seething hatred that can lead people to destroy their own lives in order to lash out at others.

But terrorists have been doing this repeatedly, not only in Iraq and in Israel, but in other countries around the world-- including the United States on 9/11.

Have we already forgotten how the Palestinians were cheering in the streets over the news of the attack on the World Trade Center? How videotapes of sadistic beheadings of innocent people by terrorists have found an eager audience in the Middle East?

Read the whole thing here.

Tags: Thomas Sowell American presidency terrorism Iran

Iran: a sewer spewing out infected cokroaches...

does the cartoon below convey a powerful message? Or is it bigotry and does it dehumanize?

Tags: Michael Ramirez cartoon Iran cockroaches

Ahmadinejad thanked Maradona for the gift of his T-Shirt.

USEFUL IDIOT

Thanks to Gateway Pundit.

Tags: Maradona Iran

Iranians in Nicaragua...

Tags: Iran Nicaragua

Trying to bring America to its knees...

Another axis of evil: Tehran, Caracas and Havana.

Tags: Cuba Iran Venezuela biological weapons biowarfare

Iranian rap: going against the grain of the mullahs.

From Gateway Pundit:

Earlier this year the regime in control of Iran cracked down on the underground music scene including the popular Iranian rappers. Iranian rappers often sing about the Persian empire before it was "invaded by Arab bedouins to be converted to Islam". This doesn't go over too well with the mullahs. Top Iranian rapper, Reza Pishro, who is very popular among young Iranians was arrested in April.

Mahmood Ramtin Atish Pareh Iranian rap

Iran and Argentina.

Just down the road from AMIA, the multi-story Jewish community headquarters in downtown Buenos Aires, on July 18, 1994, Maria Nicolasa Romero and her young son prepared to cross the road.

The boy slipped out of his mother's hand and dashed into the street ahead of her, however, and only narrowly escaped being hit by a white Renault Trafic van that was speeding by. Relieved that her son was unharmed but shocked that the van hadn't so much as slowed to avoid him, Romero screamed angrily at the driver, who naturally turned to look at her as he sped away. That was the last time anyone saw Ibrahim Berro alive.

Seconds later, Berro rammed the explosives-filled van into the AMIA building, with catastrophic consequences. The entire building collapsed, 85 people were killed and hundreds were wounded in what remains the worst ever terrorist attack in Argentina.

Read the riveting account here.

Hat tip: IsraPundit.


Iran Argentina AMIA terrorism

Iran in Latin America.

Iran orchestrated two bombings in Buenos Aires in the mid-1990s, killing more than 100 people, primarily because it was furious over Argentina's cessation of nuclear cooperation with the Islamic Republic, a top Argentinean prosecutor said Tuesday, offering chilling confirmation of the ruthlessness with which Iran has pursued its quest for nuclear capability.
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Nisman [the prosecutor] said the AMIA [Jewish community offices] blast, in which 85 people were killed, and the bombing of the Israeli Embassy two years earlier, in which 29 people were killed, had been "ordered, planned and financed" by Iran's top leadership. Teheran, he said, was incensed that Argentina, under former president Carlos Menem, had suspended and ultimately stopped what had been close cooperation with the Iranian nuclear program, including the training of nuclear technicians and the transfer of nuclear technology. At first Teheran tried to cajole Argentina into reconsidering, he said. Then it issued threats. And finally, it employed terrorism.

Read the whole story here.

Hat tip: Tiger Hawk. There are some interesting comments in Tiger Hawk's blog relating to the present-day woes of Argentina and shady arms deals.

UPDATE: More on this story here.

Iran Argentina AMIA Jews

"Hope nobody lost their head over this one!"

American intelligence: an oxymoron? Here's a very angry French perspective:

Mr. Claude Moniquet, a former field operative for the French foreign intelligence service, who heads the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center, writes in the Wall Street Journal:

Before rolling out the peace banners, though, it's worth looking at the [intelligence] agencies' track record in getting these sorts of "estimates" right. As a matter of fact, U.S. intelligence services have so far failed to predict the nuclearization of a single foreign nation. They failed to do so with regard to the Soviet Union in 1949, China in 1964, India and Pakistan in 1998, and North Korea in 2002. They also got Saddam's weapons program wrong -- twice. First by underestimating it in the 1980s and then by overplaying its progress before the 2003 invasion. But on the possible nuclearization of a regime that sounds fanatic enough to use this doomsday weapon, the NIE [National Intelligence Estimate], contradicting everything we have heard so far about the issue, including from a previous NIE report, is suddenly to be trusted?

It's not just on the nuclear front where American intelligence services have failed their country. They foresaw neither the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 nor the collapse of the Soviet Union two years later. In Afghanistan, during the 1980s, while other friendly services, among them the French, urged the CIA to support more "moderate" tribal chiefs in the fight against the Red Army, the agency relied on the enlightened advice of its Saudi friends and supported the most extreme Islamists. U.S. troops are fighting and dying today for that blunder.

More recently, the CIA conducted those "extraordinary renditions" of terrorist suspects in such an amateurish manner that several American intelligence officers were exposed and are now being tried in absentia in Italy. Allied services in other countries were also compromised, souring future cooperation between the agencies.

I do not rehash this history with any kind of schadenfreude but to urge policy makers in the U.S. and here in Europe to read this report with more than just a grain of salt. Many Democrats in Washington and the international media welcomed the agencies' "independence" from the political leadership. But one must wonder whether, in a democracy, intelligence services are supposed to cultivate their "independence" to the point of opposing the elected political leadership.

And make no mistake, the NIE has little in common with intelligence as it is understood by professionals. Instead, Langley & Co. seem to have decided to carry out their own foreign policy. The report's most controversial conclusion -- that Iran ceased its covert nuclear program -- is based on the absurd distinction between military and civilian. Iran itself admits -- no, boasts -- that it continues enriching uranium as part of its "civilian" program. But such enrichment can have only a military purpose.

With this sleight of hand, though, the intelligence services effectively sabotaged the Bush administration's efforts to steer its allies toward a tougher position on Iran. Paris in particular won't be amused about what appears almost like a betrayal. President Nicolas Sarkozy took a great political risk when he turned around French foreign policy and became Europe's leading opponent of a nuclear Iran. He even warned of a possible armed conflict with Iran -- not the most popular thing to do in France.

The agencies say in the report that they don't "know" whether Tehran is considering equipping itself with nuclear arms. These super-spies in the suburbs of Washington do not seem to be the least embarrassed by this admission of incompetence. With their multibillion-dollar budget, one might certainly expect the agencies to "know" these sorts of things.

This admission also betrays a rather naive view of the nature of the Iranian regime. Are the mullahs' intentions really so hard to discern? What everybody "knows" -- and not only those in the intelligence community -- is that Tehran has made it pretty clear that it wants nuclear arms and that it has very concrete plans for their deployment: to erase Israel from the map. Everybody also "knows" that nuclear arms would make the Islamic Republic almost untouchable, turning it into a regional superpower that could dictate its will on the Gulf states -- the world's suppliers of oil and gas. And everybody "knows" that this is an unacceptable prospect for the Gulf countries, practically forcing them to get the bomb as well. Over time the Middle East, not a very stable region, would become completely nuclearized.

Henry Kissinger echoes the same:

Intelligence personnel need to return to their traditional anonymity. Policymakers and Congress should once again assume responsibility for their judgments without involving intelligence in their public justifications. To define the proper balance between the user and producer of intelligence is a task that cannot be accomplished at the end of an administration. It is, however, one of the most urgent challenges a newly elected president will face.

national Intelligence Estimate NIE Iran nuclear weapons

Live Free or Die!

Iranian students protest in Tehran.The motto "Live Free or Die"

comes from a quote by New Hampshire's greatest Revolutionary War hero, Gen. John Stark. Stark reportedly gave a toast in 1809, when poor health led him to decline an invitation to a reunion of veterans of the 1777 Battle of Bennington: "Live free or die; death is not the worst of evils."

Read more about it at Powerline.

Tehran student protests

Big bomb.

Check out Times on Line:

Nestled deep in George Bush’s latest $190 billion request to Congress for emergency funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is a tantalising little item that has received scant attention.

The US Department of Defence has asked for an additional $88 million to modify B2 stealth bombers so that they can carry a 30,000lb bomb called the massive ordnance penetrator (or MOP, in the disarming acronymic vernacular of the military).

Iran massive ordnance penetrator MOP

An Iranian exiled activist...

speaks out:

"Iranians have already benefited immeasurably from democracy funding, especially from the Persian-language broadcasts by Voice of America television and Radio Farda ("Tomorrow"), for which a majority of the $75 million at issue now is allocated. These broadcasts offer news and perspectives to the Iranian public that they would not otherwise have, including news regarding developments inside their own country. The broadcasts are popular with millions of diverse Iranians and have successfully broken the Islamic Republic's attempt to isolate the country from external sources of information. The Iranian regime could not be happier to see its popular nemeses--VOA television and Radio Farda--exterminated by Iranian Americans and others purporting to do good.
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American lawmakers and Iranian-Americans who would eliminate financial support for Iran's democrats need to understand the following: Supporting Iranian civil society and the nonviolent struggle toward democracy and human rights is likely the most cost-effective means to prevent a future conflict with Iran or an armed struggle within its borders. Democracy is difficult to achieve. But with its remarkably young, educated population, and a long-stifled yearning for the fruits of modernity and liberalism, Iran has many of the key ingredients for success.

With some help from their American allies, Iranian democrats are brave enough and capable enough to achieve for their country what the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Vaclav Havel achieved for theirs."

Akbar Atri Iran democracy human rights civil society VOA radio farda

Help save Ayatollah Boroujerdi.

Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute is circulating an urgent petition to save Ayatollah Boroujerdi, who has been sentenced to death in Iran. As Mr. Ledeen says,

The history of political prisoners indicates dramatically that those who receive external support have a much higher survival rate than those who are abandoned to silence.

It only takes 10 seconds to sign the petition.

Thanks to Gateway Pundit.

Ayatollah Boroujerdi Iran death sentence Michael Ledeen petition

Che Guevara's children silenced in Tehran...

even though they were 2 of the 3 guests of honor at an Iran-Venezuelan sponsored conference! Why? Because the daughter, Aleida, contradicted speaker Hajj Saeed Qassemi, who said that "Che ...[was] a true revolutionary who made the American Great Satan tremble ...[and had been] a truly religious man who believed in God and hated communism and the Soviet Union."

Aleida spoke: "My father never mentioned God. He never met God."

Check out Amir Taheri's TEHRAN'S PRICE FOR 'SOLIDARITY'- MULLAHS SEEK USEFUL MARXIST IDIOTS.
Che Guevara Iran Venezuela Tehran conference useful idiots

Russia and a nuclear Iran? Per Stratfor:

"Putin knows full well that a nuclear-armed Iran would greatly complicate everything the United States is attempting to accomplish in the Middle East, and it is always useful to remind the Americans that the Russians are in the position to either grant or deny the Iranians that capability on the eve of grand strategic talks. After all, it is Russia that is building a nuclear power plant for the Iranians at Bushehr.

But this is not all just posturing before a major round of talks.

Putin is perfectly capable of looking at a map. Russia -- not the United States or Europe -- is Iran's neighbor, and the demonstrated 900-mile range of Iran's Shahab-3 missile brings a great many of Russia's industrial and population centers into potential striking distance. Should the Iranian missile actually reach the 1,500 miles that Tehran claims, it could even hit Moscow. Of the Western states, only those in the eastern Balkans are potentially at risk (and only if the 1,500-mile figure proves true). It is not so much that Russia believes an Iranian attack is imminent -- this would be suicidal for Iran, to say the least -- but rather that the shifts in the balance of power that a nuclear-armed Iran would cause would be far more detrimental to Moscow than to Washington.

There are very good reasons why the Russians have been dragging their feet at Bushehr, a project that was supposed to become operational nearly a decade ago. Putin is perfectly happy to take Iran's money, but if he can get a better deal from Washington on the broader dispensation of U.S. forces in the Eurasian theater, he is perfectly willing to throw Tehran under the American bus. Beep beep."

Go here to read the whole article (member login).

nuclear Iran Russia Bushehr

Iranian fables.

The story of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as told to Iranian children:

Click the picture above to watch the story or go to MEMRI.

Israel Palestinian Iranian TV

Dialoguing with Ahmadinejad.

Moral clarity on dialoguing with evil. Read Ron Rosenbaum:

I read one laughable attempt at a historical argument on a conservative-oriented blog, a pro-“dialogue” post which seemed to imply that Richard Nixon’s “dialogue” with Khrushchev in that silly “kitchen debate” (America’s true superiority lies in our material goods; we’re better because we’re have better refrigerators!) changed Khrushchev’s mind. And that the Berlin Wall fell because Reagan changed Gorbachev’s mind about its presence. Through dialogue of course.

“Hmmm,” you can hear Gorbachev saying, “Reagan says, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down the wall!’ Maybe I should! Why didn’t I think of it?”. But the point is he didn’t tear down the wall. No, the wall fell because the courage of Solidarity in bearing moral witness against the Soviet-style police state regime in Poland was contagious, and spread to East Germany. To deny that, to rob those brave Eastern Europeans who really did tear down the wall—truly fearless people—in order to use this denial as an argument for think-tanky dialogue, is a sad disservice to those those brave souls.

I just don’t get the desperate need for so many commentators left and right to twist themselves into knots of such clueless sophistry to trivialize a fascist regime, to prove somehow that by failing to speak out against Iran’s Stasi like regime that tortures and murders dissidents and heretics, they are somehow being braver and more sophisticated than the “fearful” who actually did speak out.

global war on terror Islam Ahmadinejad Berlin Wall Poland Solidarity

American Humor




global war on terror Ahmadinejad homosexual SNL Saturday Night Live