IRAN TESTS LONG RANGE MISSILES

"Iran's Revolutionary Guards tested 14 missiles... (as) a show of strength to the Islamic Republic's enemies in Israel and Washington. The Iranian-made surface-to-surface missiles, with a maximum range of 2,000 km (1,250 miles), were fired simultaneously at a single target... the Guards fired nine Zelzal missiles, two Shahab-1s, two Shahab-2s and one upgraded Shahab-3 missile.Iranian officials have previously announced that the Shahab 3 can reach targets up to 2,000 km away, putting Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf within reach... while Iran had the technological capacity to build longer-range missiles, the 2,000-km range had been chosen precisely with Israel and U.S. bases in mind... The head of the Revolutionary Guards' aerospace division (said) "Except American and the Zionist regime, we do not feel a threat from any other country."
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/iran-test-fires-long-range-missiles-capable-of-striking-israel-u-s-bases-1.370029


IRAN SHOWS MISSILE SILOS



"Iran ... unveiled underground silos that can carry missiles capable of hitting Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf... State TV broadcast footage of deep underground silos, claiming that medium- and long-range missiles stored in them are ready to launch in case of an attack on Iran. The silos are widely viewed as a strategic asset for Iran in the event of a U.S. or Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities... The commander of the Guard's Aerospace Force, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, touted the silos as a crucial asset in its standoff with the West, saying that with "these facilities we are certain that we can confront unequal enemies and defend the Islamic Republic of Iran."
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/iran-unveils-underground-silos-with-missiles-capable-of-reaching-israel-1.369924

MEK MAY GET U.S. SUPPORT FOR TERROR AGAINST IRAN

"... the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), an organization with the blood of Americans and Iranians alike on its hands... a designated foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government... may succeed in getting removed from the terrorist list... as a result of an unprecedented multi-million dollar media and lobbying blitz.

:... the desire to de-list them in Washington seems partially driven by gravitation towards covert military action against Iran. Neither sanctions nor diplomacy have yielded the desired results on the nuclear issue, and some in Washington are advocating using the MEK to conduct assassination and sabotage campaigns inside Iran. As one former State Department official put it, the "paradox is that we may take them off the terror list in order for them to do more terror."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/trita-parsi/washingtons-favorite-terr_b_887525.html

EGYPT MOVES TOWARD RESTORING RELATIONS WITH IRAN

"... Cairo and Tehran appear closer than ever to restoring diplomatic ties following a 31-year hiatus... "The Egyptian foreign minister and the Islamic Republic of Iran have announced their readiness to expand diplomatic relations between the two countries," Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said... (and) Nabil al-Arabi, Egypt's first post-revolutionary foreign minister, declared that Cairo was ready to "turn a new page" with Iran. "The Egyptian and Iranian people," he said, "deserve to have mutual relations reflecting their history and civilisation."
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=56238

FALSE SPIN ON IRAN NUCLEAR ASSESSMENT

"Confusion over an assessment of Iran's nuclear program by the Rand Corporation in the past week perfectly illustrates the quagmire that anyone has to contend with when sifting through bias on media reports... A deluge of commentaries took it at face value that Rand was alleging with iron-clad certainty that Iran was "two months away from making nuclear bombs".

"... (however) the Rand report failed to mention that the US intelligence community has yet to revise its December 2009 finding that Iran as of early 2003 has stopped its nuclear weapon program. Nor does it mention that the IAEA despite its expressed concerns about the "possible military dimension" of Iran's nuclear activities has repeatedly stated that after extensive inspections it has found "no evidence of diversion of declared nuclear material".

"... A report by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh titled "Iran And The Bomb - How Real is the Nuclear Threat?" and published in the June 6 issue of The New Yorker magazine quotes former IAEA director general Mohammad ElBaradei as saying he didn't see "a shred of evidence" in 12 years in charge to suggest Iran is building nuclear-weapons facilities and using enriched materials..."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MF10Ak06.html

IRAN TO DISPLAY DOWNED U.S. SPY DRONES

"Iran will put on public display two US Navy drones shot down by its elite Revolutionary Guards..."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110115/wl_mideast_afp/iranusguardsdrone

RUSSIA: STUXNET VIRUS COULD CAUSE IRANIAN CHERNOBYL

"... Russian nuclear scientists are providing technical assistance to Iran's attempts activate the country's first nuclear power plant... (and) have warned of another Chernobyl-style nuclear disaster at Iran's controversial Bushehr reactor because of... the extensive damage caused to Bushehr's computer systems by the mysterious Stuxnet virus..."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8262853/Stuxnet-virus-attack-Russia-warns-of-Iranian-Chernobyl.html

FAILURE OF U.S. PRESS ABOUT WAR WITH IRAN

"... The mainstream media has also inexcusably failed to educate the public about the nature of a possible war with Iran... It fails to point out that, just like the war in Iraq, any war with Iran would be totally illegal, so long as the Islamic Republic has neither attacked nor plainly threatened the United States. The mainstream media has failed to make clear that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will seem relative child's play compared to a war with Iran. The Islamic Republic has placed many assets throughout the Middle East; if attacked, Iran's military will not hesitate to use both its own resources and those assets to quickly spread the conflict -- via asymmetrical warfare, in particular -- throughout the Middle East and quite possibly the entire Islamic world. The mainstream media does not wish to tell the American people the unpleasant truth that a war with Iran will destroy the economy of the West, and may ultimately lead to World War III."
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2010/12/using-wikileaks-to-advance-the-narrative-of-war-on-iran.html

SENATOR SAYS U.S. SHOULD "NEUTER" IRAN

"Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham... (said) his country should be prepared to launch a military attack on Iran that would "neuter" the hard line regime... military action against Iran that would destroy its ability to fight back while allowing its people to rise up... "sink their navy, destroy their air force and deliver a decisive blow to the Revolutionary Guard... neuter that regime."
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20101106/lindsey-graham-iran-halifax-101106/

AHMADINEJAD DID NOT ACCUSE THE U.S. OF 9-11 ATTACKS

"The Iranian leader did not accuse the U.S. of conspiring to murder thousands of its own people to create a pretext for launching wars as conveyed by the US media... the Times published a correction: "A headline on Friday with an article about an incendiary speech in the United Nations General Assembly by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran summarized his remarks about the Sept. 11 terror attacks incorrectly. In his speech, Mr. Ahmadinejad asserted various theories about the origin of the attacks, including the possibility that they had been planned by the United States. He did not say that the United States had planned the attacks... "

"Following are the few paragraphs pertaining to this matter from the Iranian leader's text:

"In identifying those responsible for the attack, there were three viewpoints.

"1- That a very powerful and complex terrorist group, able to successfully cross all layers of the American intelligence and security, carried out the attack. This is the main viewpoint advocated by American statesmen.

"2- That some segments within the U.S. government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East in order also to save the Zionist regime. The majority of the American people as well as other nations and politicians agree with this view.

"3- It was carried out by a terrorist group but the American government supported and took advantage of the situation. Apparently, this viewpoint has fewer proponents. The main evidence linking the incident was a few passports found in the huge volume of rubble and a video of an individual whose place of domicile was unknown but it was announced that he had been involved in oil deals with some American officials. It was also covered up and said that due to the explosion and fire no trace of the suicide attackers was found..."

Ahmadinejad did not suggest these were his views...."

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=SMI20100926&articleId=21198

The corrected New York Times article (correction is at the bottom):
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/world/24nations.html?scp=1&sq=ahmadinejad%20correction&st=cse

RUSSIAN SALE OF S-300 MISSILE SYSTEM IS OFF

"... Russia... (will) permanently halt delivery of S-300 missiles, which Tehran wanted to build as a deterrent to airstrikes against its nuclear facilities. The declaration by Mr. Medvedev ended equivocation by Russian officials about whether the sophisticated advanced air defense system would fall under the sanctions ban..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/world/europe/23prexy.html?_r=1

ILLUSION OF LIMITED WAR ON AGAINST IRAN
U.S. casualties on a WW2 scale

"... The range of predictable responses available to the IRGC high command include dramatic hit ad run attacks against military and commercial shipping in the Persian Gulf, the use of mid-range ballistic missiles against American bases in the region and Israel and a direct assault on American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. All these options are likely to be used within 48 hours of the start of hostilities...

"One possible response by the IRGC Qods force is spectacular terrorist-style attacks against American intelligence bases and assets throughout the region. The IRGC Qods Force is believed to have identified every key component of the American intelligence apparatus in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan...

"The IRGC navy will also play a key asymmetrical role in the conflict by organising maritime suicide bombings on an industrial scale. By manning its fleet of speedboats with suicide bombers and ramming them into American warships and even neutral commercial shipping, (they) will hope to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which nearly 40 percent of world crude oil supplies pass...

"The combination of these asymmetrical forms of warfare with more conventional style missile and even ground force attacks on American bases in the region will likely result in thousands of American military casualties in the space of a few weeks. The IRGC has both the will and wherewithal to inflict a level of casualties on American armed forces not seen since the Second World War...

"Not only will it awaken the sleeping giant of Iranian nationalism... U.S. military aggression will likely accelerate the actualisation of the very scenario that American political and military leaders insist they are determined to prevent, i.e. a nuclear armed Iran..."

http://www.juancole.com/2010/08/abedin-the-illusion-of-a-‘limited-war’-against-iran.html

AHMADINEJAD EXPECTS U.S. ATTACK SOON

"Iran expects the United States to launch a military strike... "They have decided to attack at least two countries in the region in the next three months," Ahmadinejad said..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/07/27-7

IRAN READY TO RESOLVE NUCLEAR DISPUTE

"Iran is ready for "effective cooperation" to resolve the dispute over its nuclear program... will talk with P5+1 as of early September, but there are some conditions... the conditions for talks include the P5+1 members announcing their positions on Israel having nuclear weapons... The P5+1 consists of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the United States, Russia, China, France and United Kingdom -- and Germany..."
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/07/27/iran.nuclear.negotiations/index.html?iphoneemail

EX-CIA DIRECTOR SAYS STRIKE ON IRAN IS "INEXORABLE"

"Michael Hayden, a CIA chief under President George W. Bush...predicts Iran will build its program to the point where it's just below having an actual weapon... during his tenure a strike was "way down the list" of options. But... such action now "seems inexorable."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/25/us-iran-military-strike-likely_n_658522.html

IRAN STUDYING NUCLEAR FUSION

"Iran's nuclear agency began studies Saturday to build an experimental nuclear fusion reactor, something that has yet to be achieved by any nation... Iran will take two years to complete these studies and then another decade to design and build a reactor... The United States, the European Union, China, India, Russia, Japan and South Korea signed an accord in 2006 to build a $12.8 billion experimental fusion reactor at Cadarache, southern France, aimed at revolutionizing global energy use for future generations. The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, members have said no single country can afford the immense investment needed to move the science forward... Iran's nuclear chief, said Iran was willing to join any international grouping to offer its expertise to promote the project. However, he said Iran will go its own way should the world not welcome it."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/iran_nuclear

IRANIAN DEFECTOR TOLD CIA IRAN HAS NO NUKE PROGRAM

"... CIA sources familiar with the Amiri case say he told his CIA handlers that there is no such Iranian nuclear weapons programme... Amiri provided "almost no information" about Iran's nuclear programme... but had picked up "scuttlebutt" from other nuclear scientists with whom he was acquainted that the Iranians have no active nuclear weapon programme... (which is a) reaffirmation... of the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE)'s finding that work on a nuclear weapon has not been resumed after being halted in 2003..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/07/19-5

GOP LAWMAKER SAYS IRANIANS INFILTRATING FROM MEXICO



"Iran is working with Venezuela. And they're transiting through Venezuela, taking Spanish for maybe six months. They're getting the false documents that they need, coming up through Mexico and if they're stopped, they just say well I'm Spanish... the other thing that we're seeing... in the prisons is Farsi tattoos. Farsi is basically a Persian language, which Iran is... That's a pretty good indication that these people coming across our border are not just coming from Mexico..."
--Representative Sue Myrick (R-N.C.), member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/14/sue-myricks-latest-conspi_n_646093.html

This Republican congresswoman, who is on the House Intelligence Committee, believes that Iran sends agents to Venezuela to be trained in Spanish, so they can cross the Mexican border into the US, where so many end up in prison that they can be spotted by their Farsi tattoos.

This fear-mongering fantasy neatly combines Iran, Chavez, the Mexican border, immigration reform, and olive-skinned prisoners unto a call for action. Dislike of immigrants was not enough; now fear of Iran is being used to justify more defenses on the Mexican border. And it also increases the support for an attack on Iran.

In analyzing this "intelligence", I expect that:
1. There are Iranians in Venezuela as a result of the trade and military exchanges between the two countries.
2. The people in the trade and military missions are learning each other's languages.
3. No Spanish-speaking Iranian agents have been caught on the Mexican border.
3. The tattoos on the US prisoners are Arabic, and the prisoners are Hispanics and/or converts to Islam, who speak no Farsi and have no connection to Iran.

IRAN SUBJECT TO NUCLEAR DOUBLE STANDARD

"... U.S. and other nuclear-armed powers have punished Iran with the sanctions even though it doesn't have nuclear weapons, while at the same time they support Israel, which is widely believed to have a sizable nuclear arsenal...

"The Jewish state, which unlike Iran has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, maintains a policy of deliberate ambiguity about its nuclear program, neither confirming nor denying that it has nuclear weapons...

"(Meanwhile) ... the U.N. nuclear watchdog never found evidence of Tehran diverting its nuclear program into weapons-making... (and Iran says) it only seeks nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and insists on its rights under the nonproliferation treaty to enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel..."

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/06/18-0

IRAN'S RISING INFLUENCE IN LATIN AMERICA

"Iran has undertaken its own ambitious mission in recent years to expand its influence across Latin America and the Caribbean... The expanding Iranian-Brazilian interface, as well as Iran's growing multifaceted contacts with Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Cuba, Guyana, among a host of other nations in the Americas, reflect Iran's commitment to assert itself as a player in its own right in the Americas.... (D)iplomatic exchanges and growing business contacts between Iran and partners in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Peru and Mexico, coupled with the opening of new Iranian embassies, also illustrate the rapid development of the Islamic Republic's relations with the region..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LF19Ak03.html

AHMADINEJAD UP, GREEN MOVEMENT DOWN

"Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad seems be to standing on firmer political ground than any other time during his time in office... his government is now more confident at home and more respected abroad. On a broader scale, the Islamic Republic of Iran is in many ways stronger and more stable... In the international arena of geopolitical and diplomatic challenges, Iran has recently scored a number of important points and won important new allies... (with) the recent Iran-Brazil-Turkey agreement on nuclear fuel exchange...

"(Meanwhile)... the political fortunes of... Mir Hossein Mousavi... have significantly declined and their ''Green'' movement... is in disintegration... (T)he green movement ran a dishonest presidential campaign. Its candidate, Mousavi, ran for president but refused to submit to the will of the majority when it became clear that he had lost the election. This has led many observers to believe that his presidential campaign was more akin to a coup attempt..."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LF16Ak01.html

AFGHAN INSURGENTS GETTING AID FROM IRAN

"Afghan insurgents are being trained inside Iran and given weapons to fight security forces, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces said... General Stanley McChrystal said... Iran, as a neighbor, had natural interests in Afghanistan and to a certain extent the assistance and interaction it provided was healthy. "There is however clear evidence of Iranian activity, in some cases of providing weapons and training to the Taliban that is inappropriate... "

"Tehran's economic influence in Afghanistan has grown rapidly in recent years, especially in the West, where cross-border trade is brisk. A dialect of Iran's Farsi language is one of two state languages in Afghanistan, and Iran hosted millions of Afghan refugees during decades of conflict...."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_afghanistan_iran

U.S. ORDERS CLANDESTINE MILITARY OPERATIONS INSIDE IRAN

"... Gen. David H. Petraeus... has ordered a broad expansion of clandestine military activity in an effort to disrupt militant groups or counter threats in Iran... the order also permits reconnaissance that could pave the way for possible military strikes in Iran if tensions over its nuclear ambitions escalate... The secret directive, signed in September... appears to authorize specific operations in Iran, most likely to gather intelligence about the country’s nuclear program or identify dissident groups that might be useful for a future military offensive..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/world/25military.html

U.S. DENIES IRAN THE RIGHT TO PEACEFUL ENRICHMENT
Because such knowledge would be a deterrent against attack

"... the position of the U.S.... has been that Iran must be compelled to forfeit its right to enrich uranium, even for a purely peaceful nuclear program, since the technological knowledge that Iran is acquiring by enriching uranium could be diverted towards a military program in the future...

(However) Iran's goal is not the acquisition of a nuclear weapon, but the acquisition of the technological knowledge to assemble the components of a nuclear weapon without actually building one and without violating the nuclear non-proliferation treaty... this approach could give Iran much of the benefit of acquiring a nuclear weapon as a deterrent against Western attack without subjecting Iran to the negative political and economic consequences of openly violating the treaty.

(So) The U.S. goal has not been merely to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon - the U.S. goal has been to prevent Iran from acquiring the deterrent benefits of getting close to acquiring a nuclear weapon..."

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/05/04-4

IRAN NO THREAT

"... Iran historically is not an aggressive, expansive nation. Though it is, by dint of its oil reserves and its population, one of the biggest and most powerful countries in the Middle East, it has not invaded another country since the 18th century, and there is no indication that it plans to invade any other country now... For Iran to launch a crude nuke at Israel would be an act of national suicide, and while individual terrorists may kill themselves, nations don't commit suicide....

"Iran... (is not) America's arch enemy... It has backed the same Shi'ite led government in Iraq that the US has been backing, and indeed, to the extent that Iraq has stabilized, it is largely Iran's doing. It provided key help to the US in the early invasion of Afghanistan and the routing of the Taliban government, which was never favored by the Iranians... Iran has no ability to attack the US, and even its ability to threaten US forces in Iraq or Afghanistan is severely limited, not to mention the fact that should it be foolhardy enough to initiate any such action, it would bring down the full force of the US military on its head in an instant..."

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/04/22-7

IRAN AIMING FOR NUCLEAR LATENCY AS DETERRANCE
U.S. has no policy to deal with it

"... Iran (may) choose the course that many government and outside analysts consider likely: Iran could assemble all the major parts it needs for a nuclear weapon — fuel, designs and detonators — but stop just short of assembling a fully operational weapon. In that case, Iran could remain a signatory of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty while becoming what strategists call a “virtual” nuclear weapons state.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/world/middleeast/18iran.html?hp

"... Tehran (may) achieve ‘nuclear latency’ (where a country has the ability to construct a nuclear weapon but stops short of doing so), in order to avoid international sanctions and disapproval... (Secretary of Defense) Gates concurs with those analysts... that Iran does not intend actually to build a bomb, but wants the technical know-how to do so as a way of deterring foreign invasions and attacks... Gates sent the White House a memo last January observing that the US has no real developed policy for dealing with Iran should Tehran achieve ‘nuclear latency’..."
http://www.juancole.com/2010/04/gates-worries-about-iranian-nuclear-research-while-khamenei-blasts-us-for-hiroshima.html

ISRAEL THE CAUSE OF IRAN NUCLEAR PROGRAM

"... Iran is a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, is at the moment largely in compliance with it, has no nuclear arsenal, and does not even have a nuclear weapons program. (The treaty allows countries to enrich uranium for fuel, which is all that Iran is known to be doing). Yet the US has an extensive regime of economic sanctions on Iran, along with UN Security Council sanctions, both of which Obama is attempting to ratchet up. In contrast, Israel is actively constructing more and more nuclear warheads, which it is stockpiling, and which its leaders occasionally brandish at other Middle Eastern states. The Israeli arsenal, in turn, spurs a Middle East arms race..."
-- Juan Cole, Informed Comment, April 11, 2010
http://www.juancole.com/

IRAN DEVELOPING NUKES OUT OF FEAR

"... Iran is developing nuclear weapons out of a rational fear for its national safety because of the systematically threatening posture of the United States and Israel... Hostile actions of the United States and its Israeli client are a major factor in Iran's decisions of whether or not to develop a nuclear deterrent... the defiant and hypocritical insistence of the United States on holding the constant threat of military action over Iran as a punishment for its noncompliance with United Nations mandates..."
--Noam Chomsky, Memorial Church, Harvard University, March 6, 2010
http://www.hlrecord.org/news/noam-chomsky-iran-pursuing-nuclear-weapons-out-of-fear-1.1265656

IRAN ANNOUNCES CRUISE MISSILES

"Iran announced Sunday that it has started a new production line of highly accurate, short range cruise missiles... the cruise missile, called Nasr 1, would be capable of destroying targets up to 3,000 tons in size... the missile can be fired from ground-based launchers as well as ships, but would eventually be modified to be fired from helicopters and submarines... the cruise missiles would strengthen Iran's naval power..."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2010-03-07-iran-missile_N.htm?csp=usat.me

IRAN NUCLEAR STOCKPILE OUT IN OPEN

"Iran moved nearly its entire stockpile of low-enriched nuclear fuel to an above-ground plant... with inspectors present, the Iranians moved roughly 4,300 pounds of low-enriched uranium out of deep underground storage to the small plant that they have declared they will use to re-enrich the fuel to 20 percent purity... the fuel now sits out in the open, where an air attack... could destroy it.... military officials say this is a tempting moment for the Israelis...."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/27/world/middleeast/27iran.html?hp

IRAN AND THE NUCLEAR TREATY

From the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty:
"Article I: Each nuclear-weapons state (NWS) undertakes not to transfer, to any recipient, nuclear weapons...
Article II: Each non-NWS party undertakes not to receive, from any source, nuclear weapons...
Article III: Each non-NWS party undertakes to conclude an agreement with the IAEA for the application of its safeguards to all nuclear material in all of the state's peaceful nuclear activities and to prevent diversion of such material to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.
Article IV: Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Non-Proliferation_Treaty

"... Greg Thielmann, Senior Fellow at the Arms Control Association, notes that it would be far better if the U.S. would stress that Iran's right to uranium enrichment, consistent with Non-Proliferation Treaty Article IV, is contingent on Iran's adherence to the treaty's Articles I, II, and III. Thielmann notes that Iran has no inherent right to uranium enrichment while it is violating its Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA. Yet this point is being lost by the West's unqualified emphasis on the demand that uranium enrichment be suspended, and inconsistent U.S. statements about Iran's intention to develop nuclear weapons. Consequently, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can posture that the West is just trying to keep Iran down and deny it the rights guaranteed under the NPT..."

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/02/22-1

WAR GAME SHOWS ATTACK ON IRAN COULD BACKFIRE

"... (A) recent war game conducted at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, part of the Washington-based Brookings Institution, a center-left think tank, appears to dampen hopes for a simple solution to Iran's real-world nuclear challenge. The lesson is "once you start this, it's really hard to stop it"... even a "successful" airstrike on Iran's nuclear facilities — setting the program back by two to four years — could come at a tremendous, unpredictable cost..."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/02/21/87061/war-game-shows-how-attacking-iran.html

ISRAEL HAS DRONE FLEET THAT CAN REACH IRAN


"Israel's air force on Sunday introduced a fleet of huge pilotless planes that can remain in the air for a full day and could fly as far as the Persian Gulf, putting rival Iran within its range.The Heron TP drones have a wingspan of 86 feet (26 meters), making them the size of Boeing 737 passenger jets and the largest unmanned aircraft in Israel's military. The planes can fly at least 20 consecutive hours and are primarily used for surveillance and carrying diverse payloads.... The unmanned plane resembles its predecessor, the Heron, but can fly higher, reaching an altitude of more than 40,000 feet (12,000 meters), and remain in the air longer... The plane's maker, state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, has said it is capable of reaching the Persian Gulf, which would put Iran within its range. Israeli defense officials said the Heron TP could be a useful tool against Iran. It could provide surveillance, jam enemy communications and connect ground control and manned air force planes..."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100221/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_drones

CLINTON PROMOTES CONFLICT WITH IRAN

"In a visit to Qatar and Saudi Arabia this week, Hillary Clinton said that Iran "is moving toward a military dictatorship"... What could America's top diplomat hope to accomplish with this kind of inflammatory rhetoric?... what is the purpose of a speech like this? The most obvious conclusion is that it is to promote conflict, and to convince Americans that Iran is an actual threat to their security. Americans generally have to be prepared and persuaded for years if they are to accept that they must go to war... (Americans must be led to believe that) it's really true that all these people just want to kill us for no reason; that it has nothing to do with our foreign policy or wars; that we can effectively reduce terrorism by bombing and occupying Muslim countries; and that terrorism is the country's most urgent security threat..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/feb/18/hillary-clinton-iran

IRAN SAYS NUKES ARE BANNED BY ISLAM

"Iran's supreme leader said Friday the Islamic republic isn't seeking and doesn't believe in pursuing nuclear bombs... "Iran will not get emotional in its response to these nonsensical statements, because we have often said that our religious tenets and beliefs consider these kinds of weapons of mass destruction to be symbols of genocide and are, therefore, forbidden and considered to be haram (religiously banned)," he said. "This is why we do not believe in atomic bombs and weapons and do not seek them."
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/02/19/iran.nuclear/index.html?iphoneemail

DEBATE OVER DEFINITION OF TERRORISM

"... confusion and doubt arose (after Joseph Stack's airplane attack on an IRS building) over whether a person who perpetrated a classic act of Terrorism should, in fact, be called a Terrorist: he's not a Muslim and isn't acting on behalf of standard Muslim grievances against the U.S. or Israel, and thus does not fit the "definition." It has really come to mean: "a Muslim who fights against or even expresses hostility towards the United States, Israel and their allies."
If an American Muslim argues that violence against the U.S. (particularly when aimed at military targets) is justified due to American violence aimed at the Muslim world, that person is a Terrorist who deserves assassination... if the U.S. military invades a Muslim country, Muslims who live in the invaded and occupied country and who fight back against the invading American army -- by attacking nothing but military targets -- are also Terrorists.... (And) large numbers of detainees at Guantanamo were accused of being Terrorists for nothing more than attacking members of an invading foreign army in their country..."
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/02/19/terrorism/index.html

"... Stratfor, an Austin-based global intelligence firm specializing in international risk management, said the rhetoric in Stack's rant clearly matches the USA Patriot Act's definition of terrorism: a criminal act that is intended to "intimidate or coerce a civilian population to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a government by assassination or kidnapping..."
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/nation-world-news/plane-attack-prompts-debate-over-terrorism-label-558975.html

IRAN DISMISSES U.S. DEADLINE, SETS ITS OWN DEADLINE

"... Iran dismissed an end-of-2009 deadline... to accept a U.N.-drafted deal to swap most of its enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. The deal would reduce Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium... Under the plan, Iran would export most of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium for further enrichment in Russia and France, where it would be converted into fuel rods. The rods, which Iran needs for the research reactor in Tehran, would be returned to the country about a year later... Exporting the uranium would temporarily leave Iran without enough of a stockpile to further enrich the uranium into material for a nuclear warhead, and the rods that are returned cannot be processed further for use in making weapons..."

"(Now) Iran (has) set a one-month deadline... for the West to accept its counterproposal... (which is) to have the West either sell nuclear fuel to Iran, or swap its nuclear fuel for Iran's enriched uranium in smaller batches instead of at once as the U.N. plan requires... (Iran)... warned that otherwise it will produce reactor fuel at a higher level of enrichment on its own..."

"(However) it would likely take years before it could master the technology to turn uranium enriched to the level of 20 percent into the fuel rods it needs for a medical research reactor..."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/02/iran-warns-west-it-will-m_n_409306.html

TEHRAN POLICE SHOOT INTO PROTESTERS, KILL 4

"Iranian police opened fire on protesters in Tehran... killing at least four people... crowds marched down a central avenue ... They refused to retreat even as police fired tear gas, charged them with batons and discharged warning shots. The police then opened fire directly into the crowd... One of the dead was Ali Moussavi... a nephew of the opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi... He was shot near the heart..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/world/middleeast/28iran.html?_r=1&hp

ISRAELI ATTACK WOULD RESULT IN RETALIATION AGAINST U.S. SPONSOR

"... it must be a distinct possibility that Israel will indeed launch a massive air assault, feasibly backed up by cruise missiles launched from submarines in the Arabian Sea sometime next year... A very significant proportion of the munitions... would be "Made in the USA".... Iran may... be far more vengeful against those who made the weapons, trained the pilots, built the aircraft and who Tehran ultimately blames for sponsoring and protecting its attacker... Iran's response may therefore be to blindly strike back at any and all available targets, whether Israeli or Western, and by any means left to it, including missile strikes and attacks by its worldwide network of supporters, including Hezbollah and Hamas... "
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KL22Ak04.html

AHMADINEJAD SAYS U.S. SPURNED NUCLEAR DEAL

"Ahmadinejad... said his country's cooperation on its nuclear programme had been spurned... He once again dismissed a year-end deadline on a U.N.-drafted fuel deal, saying it was "meaningless"... The deal requires Iran to ship most of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) abroad in exchange for fuel for a Tehran research reactor... Ahmadinejad said Iran had made the proposal, and according to the regulations the offer of fuel was unconditional but "they are insisting that to have conditions for giving us the fuel -- political conditions"...

"Iran says its uranium enrichment programme is solely aimed at generating electricity so it can export more gas and oil.The West believes Iran wants to make atomic bombs..."

here
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE5BM1IY

NUCLEAR MEMO A FABRICATION

December 22
"Ahmadinejad, rejected the notion that a memo published last week by a British newspaper shows that Iran has been working on a trigger for a nuclear weapon... said that the document was one of “a fabricated bunch of papers continuously being forged and disseminated by the American government”...
"Intelligence officials say they have yet to authenticate” the two-page Persian-language document... which describes research Iran would need to conduct on an advanced technology to detonate a nuclear weapon, if it was to develop one... (and that) This information’s been sloshing around for well over a year..."
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/ahmadinejad-calls-nuclear-claims-a-joke/?sudsredirect=true

December 28
"U.S. intelligence has concluded that the document... which purportedly describes an Iranian plan to do experiments on what the newspaper described as a "neutron initiator" for an atomic weapon, is a fabrication... intelligence sources say that the United States had nothing to do with forging the document, and that Israel is the primary suspect... The Rupert Murdoch chain has been used extensively to publish false intelligence from the Israelis... (the) Murdoch publishing empire... includes the Sunday Times, Fox News and the New York Post. All Murdoch-owned news media report on Iran with an aggressively pro-Israeli slant..."
http://ipsnorthamerica.net/news.php?idnews=2758

OBAMA SAYS U.S. UNABLE TO PREVENT ISRAELI ATTACK

"President Barack Obama has warned... that the United States would not be able to keep Israel from attacking Iranian nuclear installations for much longer... ... if it does not accept Western proposals for its nuclear program... The Iranian government, its military and intelligence services go out of their way to needle the West in a manner that suggests that they still harbor the illusion of surviving such a military confrontation..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KL22Ak04.html

LIMBAUGH CALLS FOR MASSIVE BOMBING, WAR


"On his show Friday, Rush Limbaugh warned his listeners that "if we don't pound Iran into submission at some point they are going to get the bomb." Unhappy with Obama's "appeasement mentality," Limbaugh insisted that the only choice was to go to war:
'Let's be blunt here: the only way to stop them is to destroy the Iranian regime, the mullahs, and that can only be accomplished through war. And by war I don't mean ground troops; I mean massive bombing raids intended to destroy every one of the key targets..."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/18/limbaugh-calls-for-massiv_n_397715.html

CAMPUS PROTESTS ACROSS IRAN

"Campuses across Iran erupted in protests Monday as defiant college students chanting anti-government slogans clashed with security forces armed with clubs in a forceful new round of confrontations over the nation's disputed June presidential election... amateur videotape posted on the Internet showed thousands of anti-government students chanting slogans and gathering on various campuses around the country... in the central Iranian cities of Esfahan, Shiraz and Kerman, in the eastern city of Mashhad and in the western cities of Tabriz, Kermanshah, Hamedan and Ilam as well as in Rasht on the Caspian Sea... Fewer of the slogans were aimed at Ahmadinejad and more at Iran's theocracy-based political system, a shift that could... destabilize the Islamic Republic..."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-iran-protests8-2009dec08,0,7136715.story

IRAN DEBATES LEAVING NUCLEAR TREATY

"... Parliament speaker Ali Larijani said there was little point in Iran staying in the treaty if it was liable to be reprimanded by the International Atomic Energy Agency for exercising its right to develop peaceful nuclear energy... However, Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's atomic energy agency... (said) Tehran had no wish to leave the NPT... (saying) "Our spiritual leader says that to obtain nuclear weapons is a sin -- if we wanted to obtain nuclear weapons we would leave the Non-Proliferation Treaty. We are naturally enduring a lot of pressure but we will remain in the treaty..."
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSHAF93199320091130

IRAN TO BUILD 10 MORE ENRICHMENT PLANTS

"The Iranian government approved a plan... to build 10 new uranium enrichment facilities... just two days after the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency censured Iran, demanding it immediately stop building a newly revealed enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom and freeze all uranium enrichment activities...

"... the new sites (will) be on the same scale as Iran's only other industrial-scale enrichment plant currently in operation, near the town of Natanz in central Iran. About 8,600 centrifuges have been set up in Natanz, but only about 4,000 are actively enriching uranium... The facility will eventually house 54,000 centrifuges...

"Iran,... says it seeks only to generate electricity... (and) aims to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity through nuclear power plants in the next 20 years... the new plants are needed to produce enough fuel for its future reactors... Iran will need to install 500,000 centrifuges throughout the planned enrichment facilities to produce between 250 to 300 tons of fuel annually..."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091129/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_nuclear

IRAN'S TRUE NUCLEAR AMBITION: BREAKOUT CAPABILITY

"... Iranian leaders say that nuclear weapons are contrary to the Islamic law of war, that they do not want them and could not legally deploy them. They hold that the enrichment facilities are intended to produce fuel for a string of nuclear reactors that will keep Iran from having to use its precious petroleum, a key earner of foreign exchange and guarantor of national independence, for domestic power generation...

"Iran's leadership is seeking what is sometimes called the "Japan option" or a "rapid breakout capability." Unlike North Korea, India and Pakistan... Tehran genuinely does not want to actually construct and detonate a nuclear device. India and Pakistan are such large and important countries that they defied the First World nuclear club successfully and so joined it. North Korea, much smaller, weaker and poorer, has made itself an international pariah in this way, and is suffering more and more severe UN sanctions... most senior Iranian leaders wish to avoid those heavy sanctions, having seen what they did to Iraq...

"But having a rapid breakout capability-- being able to make a bomb in short order if it is felt absolutely necessary to forestall a foreign attack-- has a deterrent effect. So Iran would have the advantages of deterrence without the disadvantages of a bomb if it could get to the rapid breakout stage.."

http://www.juancole.com/2009/11/iaea-condemnation-of-iran-omen-of-new.html

IRAN CONFISCATES NOBEL PEACE PRIZE MEDAL

"Iranian authorities have confiscated Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi's medal... from a safe-deposit box in Iran... They also seized her Legion of Honor and a ring awarded to her by a German association of journalists... Authorities froze the bank accounts of her and her husband and demanded $410,000 in taxes that they claimed were owed on the $1.3 million she was awarded... the government also appears intent on trying to confiscate her home. In Norway, where the peace prize is awarded, the government said the confiscation of the gold medal was a shocking first in the history of the 108-year-old prize. Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her efforts in promoting democracy."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/shirin_ebadi_nobel_seized

AHMADINEJAD VISITS BRAZIL

"... The most concrete result of the visit was the signing of eight cooperation agreements in areas like science, technology, agriculture and industry, which reflect the desire of both Brazil and Iran to strengthen South-South cooperation and increase bilateral trade, which currently stands at around two billion dollars, while the goal is to raise that amount to 10 billion dollars in the near future. Some 200 business leaders accompanied Ahmadinejad on his visit…"

"... the visit made it clear that both Brazil and Iran are keen on playing a more active role on the world stage, based on each nation's clout in their specific areas of influence.... Iran enjoys significant territorial, linguistic and cultural cohesion, added to its abundant natural resources and considerable technological development - it launched a domestically made satellite in 2008, and 48 percent of the population has access to the internet - all of which give it a strong sense of national pride and a central role in Middle Eastern geopolitics. Brazil, for its part, buoyed up by strong economic indicators, besides its position as Latin America's giant, has expanded its influence on the international scene..."

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49403

U.S. CONTINUING TO BE STATE SPONSOR OF TERRORISM IN IRAN

2009
"... At least five commanders of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps were killed and dozens of others left dead and injured in two terrorist bombings...The bombers struck early Sunday as the Guards prepared to bring together leaders of the region’s Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities to try to reconcile differences... A terrorist group calling itself Jundallah — or Soldiers of God — took responsibility for the attacks, according to the state-owned Press TV. The group is made up of ethnic Baluchis... and Iranian officials say it has been encouraged, financed and armed by the United States..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/world/middleeast/19iran.html?_r=1&hp

2007
"... American intelligence has been training and equipping anti-Iranian terrorists belonging to the so-called Jundallah in camps inside Afghanistan. The Voice of America recently interviewed Jundallah leader Abdul Malek Rigi. He is a wanted by Tehran for several kidnappings and over 50 killings. In the latest incident, on March 25, Jundallah terrorists blocked the Zahedan-Zabol highway in Sistan-Balochistan province, killing 22 people, injuring six others and taking eight people as hostages. Later, four of these hostages were killed and the video footage of their killing was broadcast on a number of Arab television channels..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ID21Ak01.html

2007
"A Pakistani tribal militant group responsible for a series of deadly guerrilla raids inside Iran has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials since 2005... The group, called Jundallah, is made up of members of the Baluchi tribe and operates out of the Baluchistan province in Pakistan, just across the border from Iran. It has taken responsibility for the deaths and kidnappings of more than a dozen Iranian soldiers and officials. U.S. officials say the U.S. relationship with Jundallah is arranged so that the U.S. provides no funding to the group, which would require an official presidential order or "finding" as well as congressional oversight.."
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/04/abc_news_exclus.html

IAEA SAYS NO EVIDENCE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS TECHNOLOGY IN IRAN

"... the IAEA's Safeguards Department... only has suspicions - not real evidence - that Iran has been working on nuclear weapons in recent years... the agency "assesses that Iran has sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable implosion nuclear device". But other passages indicate the authors regard such knowledge only as a possibility, based on suspicions rather than concrete evidence... The IAEA affirmed that it has found no evidence that Iran ever acquired such technology..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KJ08Ak05.html

U.S. STORY ON IRAN NUKE FACILITY DOESN'T ADD UP

"The story... was the official assertion that U.S. intelligence had caught Iran trying to conceal a "secret" nuclear facility.... (but Iran notified) the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the second enrichment facility in a letter on Sep. 21 A major question surrounding the official story is why the Barack Obama administration had not done anything – and apparently had no plans to do anything - with its intelligence on the Iranian facility at Qom prior to the Iranian letter to the IAEA... there had been no plan for briefing the IAEA or anyone... the senior administration official briefing the press was deliberately portraying the new enrichment facility in more menacing terms than the actual intelligence assessment... The circumstantial evidence suggests that Iran never intended to keep the Qom facility secret from the IAEA but was waiting to make it public at a moment that served its political-diplomatic objectives..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48649

IRAQ STANDS WITH IRAN AGAINST U.S. SANCTIONS

"Iraq's president said new sanctions against Iran won't work and warned Saturday that Iraq will never allow Israel or any other country to use its airspace to carry out an attack against Iranian nuclear facilities... President Jalal Talabani (said) "I think the Iranian leadership explained that the bomb is against Islam because it's killing innocent people," he said. "So they said openly that they are not for having the bomb but only the use of technology."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090926/ap_on_re_us/us_us_iraq_2

SANCTIONS WOULD BE UNFAIR, ENCOURAGE IRAN TO LEAVE NUCLEAR TREATY

"... sanctions against Iran are deeply unfair if Israel, India and Pakistan are held harmless for ignoring the NPT altogether and for developing their bombs. In fact, the way the UNSC is proceeding against Iran is such as to destroy the NPT, because any country in its right mind would prefer to withdraw from it and just do as it pleases, a la Israel, than to submit to it and have that submission be a pretext for sanctions, even where the signatory country had done nothing contrary to the letter of the law..."
http://www.juancole.com/2009/09/qom-enrichment-facility-revealed-moves.html

SECOND SECRET UNDERGROUND NUCLEAR PLANT FOUND, VIOLATES NPT TREATY

"President Obama and leaders of Britain and France accused Iran on Friday of building a secret underground plant to manufacture nuclear fuel, saying the country has hidden the covert operation from international weapons inspectors for years... The three men demanded that Iran allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to conduct an immediate inspection of the facility, which is said to be 100 miles southwest of Tehran... the new site (is) built inside a mountain near the ancient city of Qum... one of the holiest Shiite cities in the Middle East...

"ISNA, an Iranian news agency, quoted an “informed source” as confirming the existence of the second uranium-enrichment site, describing it as similar to Iran’s known enrichment facility at Natanz... information unearthed by an Iranian dissident group led to the discovery of the underground plant at Natanz in 2002..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/26/world/middleeast/26nuke.html?hp

IRAN LOSES ITS ONLY AWACS PLANE




"... above a big military parade in Tehran... two air force jets collided in mid-air. One was Iran's only airborne warning and control system (AWACS) for coordinating long-distance aerial operations... it collided with one of escorting planes, a US-made F-5E, and both crashed to the ground in flames... (Iran's) first and only AWACS went into service in April 2008. It was a renovated version of the Russian Ilyushin 76, part of Saddam Hussein's air force before it was transferred to Iran in 1991 during the first Gulf War.
Tehran hired Russian technicians to carry out renovations and install up-to-date radar... Air Force commander Brig. Gen. Ahmad Miqani boasted its new radar systems were made in Iran and able to spot any airplane or missile at a distance of 1,000 kilometers from Iran's borders. The loss of this airborne control system has left Iran's air force and air and missile defenses without "electronic eyes" for surveillance of the skies around its borders."
--DEBKAfile, September 23, 2009
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=6280

U.S. STILL FINDS NO EVIDENCE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM

"The U.S. intelligence community is reporting to the White House that Iran has not restarted its nuclear-weapons development program... U.S. agencies had previously said that Tehran halted the program in 2003... (and) the status of Iranian work on development and production of a nuclear bomb has not changed since the formal National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran's "Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities" in November 2007.... (which) had "moderate confidence" that it had not restarted weapons-development efforts..."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/215529

ALLEDGED IRANIAN NUCLEAR DOCUMENTS FABRICATED

"... the IAEA has refused to acknowledge publicly significant evidence brought to its attention by Iran that the documents were fabricated.. Iran has submitted serious evidence that the documents are fraudulent. Iran's permanent representative to the United Nations in Vienna, Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh... said he had pointed out to a team of IAEA officials in a meeting on the documents in Tehran in early 2008 that none of the supposedly top-secret military documents had any security markings of any kind, and that purported letters from Defense Ministry officials lacked Iranian government seals..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KI16Ak01.html

FRENCH GENERAL SAYS WAR ON IRAN = CATASTROPHE

"The head of the French military... Chief of Staff Jean-Louis Georgelin... has warned that any military attack aimed at halting Iran's nuclear program could cause a "Catastrophe"... because there is no guarantee that 'one shot' would solve the problem.
"If you fail in one shot, it is a catastrophe," Georgelin concluded..."
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=105877§ionid=351020104

PUTIN WARNS AGAINST U.S. ATTACKING OR SANCTIONING IRAN

"... the US and Israel have never ruled out the option of air strikes on Iran to stop it acquiring an atomic weapon... (but) Russian PM Vladimir Putin has warned against military action targeting Iran or imposing new sanctions... on Iran's oil sector... to curb its nuclear programme... Putin... said any attack on Iran would be "very dangerous, unacceptable" and would lead to "an explosion of terrorism... "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8251531.stm

IAEA SAYS NO EVIDENCE OF NUKE PROGRAM

"... Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said there was no concrete evidence that Tehran has an ongoing nuclear weapons program... Iran is not going to produce a nuclear weapon any time soon and the threat posed by its atomic program has been exaggerated..."
http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre5811v1-us-iran-nuclear-elbaradei/

REPORT DEBUNKS IRAN HAWKS

"... hawks in the US and Israel have argued that there is no time to spare in dealing with the Iranian nuclear program, and that the US should quickly move to sanctions targeting Iran's refined petroleum imports if engagement does not bear fruit by the end of September.... (But) Iran is unlikely to be able to produce enough highly enriched uranium (HEU) for a nuclear weapon until at least 2013, according to a United States government intelligence estimate made public last Thursday... (by) the US State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR)..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KH11Ak01.html

IRAN AND RUSSIA CONDUCT MILITARY EXERCISE

"Iran and Russia performed... a joint military exercise in the Caspian Sea, aimed at boosting maritime navigation and security... "
http://www.kuwaitobserver.com/news/newsfull.php?newid=255377

ANTI-IRAN JUND-ALLAH TERRORIST GROUP

"Jund-Allah is an armed Islamic movement. Most members are from the religious Sunni Baluchi minority who live in the Sistan-Baluchistan Province, which lies in southeastern Iran at the borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan... the leader of the group, Abd-al-Malik Righi, announced the change of its name from Jund-Allah (Soldiers of God) to the Popular Resistance Movement...
The Iranian regime maintains that the United States is behind Jundu'llah's terrorist activities, as a means of destabilizing or even partitioning Iran..."
http://www.juancole.com/2009/07/brief-history-of-sunni-jundullah.html

KHOMEINI TURNED SHIITE ISLAM INTO AN AUTHORITARIAN STATE

"... Throughout much of its history, the Shi’ite clergy have abstained from direct intervention in political life... Shi’ites await the promised return of the missing Twelfth Imam to rule a world of perfect peace and justice, but until that time no political authority is seen as fully legitimate.

"... as a religious radical... (Ayatollah) Khomeini... turned one thousand years of Shi’ite thought and practice on its head with the creation of his Islamic republic... a revolution carried out in the name of both Islam and democracy has been badly tarnished, perhaps forever...

"Khomeini... (made the) Islamic political system – revolutionary maslahat – the “most important of God’s ordinances”... so, he effectively cost the Islamic republic any claim on special religious or moral legitimacy and turned it into just another authoritarian state...

"Today, the damage Khomeini inflicted on the Shi’ite religious institution is on full display, as the system he left behind on his death in 1989 lurches from internal crisis to internal crisis... the Islamic republic seems headed – not today but eventually – for the dustbin of history."

http://www.juancole.com/2009/07/lyons-spectre-of-khomeini-as-religious.html

BIDEN SAYS ISRAEL IS FREE TO ATTACK IRAN

"Vice President Joe Biden signaled that the Obama administration would not stand in the way if Israel chose to attack Iran's nuclear facilities... Biden said... that Israel, like the U.S., has a right to "determine what is in its interests..."
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/nation-world-news/biden-israel-free-to-set-own-course-on-iran-190800.html

THE U.S. NED AGENCY, NIAC AND IRAN

"... One mechanism by which the U.S. interferes in the internal political affairs of other nations is the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a quasi-governmental agency with funding from both Congress and private individuals whose purpose is to support foreign organizations sympathetic to U.S. foreign policy goals...

"The idea behind NED was to create an organization to do overtly what the CIA had long been doing clandestinely, and the organization has developed its own history of foreign interference. “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA,” acknowledged Allen Weinstein, one of NED’s founders...

"NED is also active in Iran, granting hundreds of thousands of dollars to Iranian groups. From 2005 to 2007, NED gave $345,000 to the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation (ABF). The group claims “no political affiliation” on its website, but is named for the founder of the National Movement of the Iranian Resistance (NAMIR), an opposition group to the clerical regime founded in 1980...

"Another recipient of NED grants is the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), which received $25,000 in 2002, $64,000 in 2005, and $107,000 in 2006. The 2002 grant was to carry out a “media training workshop” to train participants representing various civic groups in public relations. The 2005 money was given in part to “strengthen the capacity of civic organizations in Iran,” including by advising Iranian groups on “foreign donor relations.” The 2006 grant was similarly designed to “foster cooperation between Iranian NGOs and the international civil society community and to strengthen the institutional capacity of NGOs in Iran.” The group’s president is Dr. Trita Parsi, whose parents fled political repression in Iran when he was four. He studied for his Doctoral thesis at the Johns Hopkins’ School for Advanced International Studies under Professor Francis Fukuyama.

"Fukuyama wrote in 2007 that “Ahmadinejad may be the new Hitler,” but that the use of military force against Iran “looks very unappealing,” and that airstrikes “would not result in regime change,” which was “the only long-term means of stopping” Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program. The NIAC similarly opposes the use of military force against Iran, and instead “supports the idea of resolving the problems between the US and Iran through dialogue in order to avoid war.”

"Following the Iranian election and subsequent violence, NIAC issued a statement saying that “The only plausible way to end the violence is for new elections to be held with independent monitors ensuring its fairness...”

"NIAC president Trita Parsi explained the goal of the U.S. policy by saying, “The administration is trying to make regime change through democratization the policy, instead of making confrontation by military means the policy..."

http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2009/06/23/has-the-u-s-played-a-role-in-fomenting-unrest-during-irans-election/

ANALYSIS OF VOTE FRAUD IN IRAN

• In two conservative provinces, Mazandaran and Yazd, a turnout of
more than 100% was recorded.
• At a provincial level, there is no correlation between the increased
turnout and the swing to Ahmadinejad. This challenges the notion that
Ahmadinejad’s victory was due to the massive participation of a
previously silent conservative majority.
• In a third of all provinces, the official results would require that
Ahmadinejad took not only all former conservative voters, all former
centrist voters, and all new voters, but also up to 44% of former
Reformist voters, despite a decade of conflict between these two
groups.
• In 2005, as in 2001 and 1997, conservative candidates, and
Ahmadinejad in particular, were markedly unpopular in rural areas.
That the countryside always votes conservative is a myth. The claim
that this year Ahmadinejad swept the board in more rural provinces
flies in the face of these trends.

The summary of "Preliminary Analysis of the Voting Figures in Iran’s 2009 Presidential Election", published by Chatham House and the Institute of Iranian Studies, University of St Andrews.

http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/files/14234_iranelection0609.pdf

OR - NOT FRAUDULENT

"Many experts are claiming that the margin of victory of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the result of fraud or manipulation, but our nationwide public opinion survey of Iranians three weeks before the vote showed Ahmadinejad leading by a more than 2 to 1 margin... Conducted by telephone from a neighboring country, field work was carried out in Farsi by a polling company whose work in the region for ABC News and the BBC has received an Emmy award. Our polling was funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund...

"Iranians view their support for a more democratic system, with normal relations with the United States, as consonant with their support for Ahmadinejad. They do not want him to continue his hard-line policies. Rather, Iranians apparently see Ahmadinejad as their toughest negotiator, the person best positioned to bring home a favorable deal...

"Allegations of fraud and electoral manipulation will serve to further isolate Iran and are likely to increase its belligerence and intransigence against the outside world... Consider all independent information. The fact may simply be that the reelection of President Ahmadinejad is what the Iranian people wanted."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/14/AR2009061401757_pf.html

FRAUDULENT ELECTION THEORY

"... on Friday, it became clear that Mousavi was winning. Mousavi's spokesman abroad, filmmaker Mohsen Makhbalbaf, alleges that the ministry even contacted Mousavi's camp and said it would begin preparing the population for this victory. The ministry must have informed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has had a feud with Mousavi for over 30 years, who found this outcome unsupportable. And, apparently, he and other top leaders had been so confident of an Ahmadinejad win that they had made no contingency plans for what to do if he looked as though he would lose. They therefore sent blanket instructions to the Electoral Commission to falsify the vote counts. This clumsy cover-up then produced the incredible result of an Ahmadinejad landlside in Tabriz and Isfahan and Tehran... The regime's legitimacy will take a critical hit, and its ultimate demise may have been hastened, over the next decade or two..."
http://www.juancole.com/2009/06/stealing-iranian-election.html

IRAN OPINION POLL

"More than three out of every four Iranian citizens favour improved relations with the United States... Just over half (52 percent) of the pool of 1,001 respondents also said they believed Tehran should develop nuclear weapons, although more than 70 percent said they would support a deal by which the government would agree to forgo that option in exchange for outside aid and investment... Only one in four respondents said they favoured a peace treaty recognising the Jewish state, even with the creation of an independent Palestine alongside it. Sixty-two percent said they opposed any such treaty, while nearly two out of three respondents said they supported Tehran's provision of military and financial aid to Palestinian resistance groups... however, 52 percent said they would support a peace treaty recognising Israel if it were part of a larger deal leading to better relations with Washington..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47141

IAEA: IRANIAN ENRICHMENT OUT OF CONTROL

"According to the... International Atomic Energy Agency in its new report, Iran will be able to produce one nuclear bomb by the end of this year, doubling that figure in 2010... The IAEA admits its investigations are stalled in Iran... Iranian officials insist their nuclear program is peaceful and refuse to answer questions or cooperate in any way with UN inspectors. At one point in its new report, the IAEA asked for cameras with different wide-range angles for Natanz, indicating that even there, the Iranians are playing cat and mouse to conceal the real scale of their activities from view..."
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=6111

IRAN NOT COOPERATING WITH IAEA

"The IAEA... says Iran is continuing to enrich uranium in defiance of the UN Security Council... the IAEA says Iran now has about 7,000 centrifuges - the machines used for enriching uranium. The agency says that Tehran is running almost 5,000 of them. It also says that Iran has boosted its stockpile of low-enriched uranium (LEU) by 500kg to more than 1,300kg in the last six months... the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security think-tank has said that Iran now had enough LEU to convert into high-enriched uranium (HEU) to make one atomic bomb... (however) Iran would need to overcome some technical hurdles to achieve this - a process that could take several years or more. A senior official close to the IAEA says the agency has made little progress in its investigations in Iran and in Syria. The agency has urged both countries to co-operate with its inspectors."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8086565.stm

TERRORISTS IN IRAN HIRED BY U.S.

"A provincial official in Iran has accused the United States of being behind Thursday's bombing of a mosque that killed at least 19 people.... Jalal Sayah, deputy governor of Sistan-Baluchestan province, said three people had been arrested following the attack. "According to the information we obtained they were hired by America"... (BBC says) it is an open secret that former US President George W Bush directed large amounts of money to try to destabilise Iran and there is no sign the policy is any different under President Barack Obama..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8073336.stm

TERRORISM BOMBING IN IRAN

"A bomb in a mosque in south-east Iran has killed at least 15 people and wounded 50, the governor of Sistan-Baluchestan province said. The explosion happened in Zahedan, the provincial capital... members of a terrorist group had been arrested... There are a number of militants in the area... Two years ago at least 11 people, including members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, were killed by a bomb in Zahedan.... the Iranian government also accuses the US and Britain of supporting the militants..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8072795.stm

IRAN-PAKISTAN IP PIPELINE FOR CHINA AND RUSSIA
US policy toward Iran has directed a critical resource to Pakistan, China and Russia

"A silent, reptilian war had been going on for years between the US-favored Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline and its rival, the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline, also known as the "peace pipeline". This past weekend, a winner emerged. And it's none of the above: instead, it's the 2,100-kilometer, US$7.5 billion IP (the Iran-Pakistan pipeline), with no India attached.... Iran and Pakistan finally signed a deal this week in Tehran, by which Iran will sell gas from its mega South Pars fields to Pakistan for the next 25 years... The last 250 km of a 900-km pipeline stretch in Iran between Asalouyeh and Iranshahr, near the border with Pakistan, still needs to be built. The whole IP pipeline should be operational by 2014..."

"For Beijing, IP could not be more essential. Iranian gas will flow to the Balochistan province port of Gwadar... which China itself built, and where it is also building a refinery... Gwadar is supposed to be connected to a proposed pipeline going north, mostly financed by China... (through) Pakistan (which) is the absolutely ideal transit corridor for China to import oil and gas from Iran and the Persian Gulf. With IP in place and with multi-billion-dollar, overlapping Tehran-Beijing gas deals, China can finally afford to import less energy via the Strait of Malacca, which Beijing considers exceedingly dangerous, and subject to Washington's sphere of influence. With IP, not only China wins; Russia's Gazprom also wins. And by extension, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) wins. Russian deputy Energy Minister Anatoly Yankovsky told the Kommersant business daily, "We are ready to join the project as soon as we receive an offer..."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KE29Df02.html

IRAN HOSTS ANTI-EXTREMIST SUMMIT MEETING

"... Tehran is not wasting any time in deepening its ties with Pakistan and Afghanistan. A trilateral mini-summit in Tehran over the weekend brought the leaders of the countries together and culminated in a comprehensive "Tehran declaration"... It could be termed an anti-extremism summit, as the primary focus of the Tehran talks was regional coordination in the fight against terrorism and extremism... The three presidents are scheduled to meet again in the near future in the Pakistani capital Islamabad..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KE27Ak02.html

SAJJIL-2 MISSILE TEST SUCCESSFUL

"Iran says it has successfully test launched a mid-range surface-to-surface missile... described by officials... as a highly accurate "defensive" weapon... the Sajjil-2 missile used "advanced technology" and had "landed exactly" on the unspecified target... (the) two-stage missile... with a range of 2,000km (1,240 miles)... used solid fuel and was "able to go beyond the atmosphere then come back and hit its target". Solid-fuel missiles are reputedly more accurate than liquid-fuel missiles, which make up the majority of Iran's long-range arsenal..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8059104.stm

IAEA REPORT ON IRAN RELATED TO U.S. PROPOSED FUEL SANCTIONS
Because Iran has not satisfied the IAEA

Verification of Nuclear Non-Proliferation.
Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

"The Agency has been able to continue to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran, including all declared low enriched uranium. As the Report states, contrary to the request of the Board of Governors and the Security Council, Iran has not suspended its enrichment related activities, or its work on heavy water related projects. Nor has Iran implemented the Additional Protocol, which, as with other countries with comprehensive safeguards agreements, is a prerequisite for the Agency to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities. Iran has not permitted the Agency to perform the required design information verification at the IR-40 reactor currently under construction, and it has not implemented the modified text of its Subsidiary Arrangements General Part on the early provision of design information.

The Agency regrettably was unable to make any progress on the remaining issues which give rise to concerns about possible military dimensions of Iran´s nuclear programme because of lack of cooperation by Iran. For the Agency to be able to make progress, Iran needs to provide substantive information and access to relevant documentation, locations and individuals in connection with all of the outstanding issues.

Unless Iran implements the transparency measures and the Additional Protocol, as required by the Security Council, the Agency will not be in a position to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran. I again urge Iran to implement all measures required to build confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear programme at the earliest possible date and to unblock this stalemated situation...

Finally, I am hopeful that the apparent fresh approach by the international community to dialogue with Iran will give new impetus to the efforts to resolve this long-standing issue in a way that provides the required assurances about the peaceful nature of Iran´s nuclear programme, while assuring Iran of its right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

--From Introductory Statement to the Board of Governors, 2 March 2009, Vienna, Austria, by IAEA Director General Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei
http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Statements/2009/ebsp2009n002.html

RUSSIAN MISSILE SALES TO IRAN

"Belarus fronts Russian Iskander-M surface missile sale to Iran, Syria... the Iskander-M (advanced cruise missile) sale to Tehran has gone through and negotiations are ongoing for Iran and Syria for another transaction: the sale of Russia's advanced S-300 anti-air anti-missile multi-targeting shield systems as well..."
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=6055

RECANTED CONFESSIONS ARE ROUTINE

“Delara Darab.... was an Iranian woman executed ... initially confessed to the crime but later recanted... persuaded her to confess by convincing her she would not be executed...”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delara_Darabi

“Damaging Forced Confessions... there is an all too familiar ring about the supposed confessions of arrested journalist Roxana Saberi... They had promised to release her after the confessions and she denies all of her confessions... Forced confessions made before television cameras by high profile detainees are routine in Iran...”
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46713

IRAN TO SUPPLY NATURAL GAS TO WEST

"Iran is about to become a major fuel supplier to the West... For the sake of dialogue and cooperation, Washington is ceding Tehran the chance to feed its natural gas into the 3,000 kilometer-long Nabucco pipeline project (from the Caspian to the EU via Turkey). The strategic-economic consequences of the Obama administration's (action is a) major perk for Iran..."
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=6047

IRANIAN CORRIDOR FOR U.S. TO AFGHANISTAN

"Talks on Iranian corridor for US troops, supplies to Afghanistan on fast track... Barack Obama's plans to ... (ask) Tehran to permit the passage to Afghanistan of fresh US troops, weapons and supplies across Iranian territory... the US Air Base at Al Udeid in Qatar would be the main hub for the air corridor taking US transport planes over the Persian Gulf, crossing the Iranian border and flying over southern and central Iran up to their destination, the US airbase near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. The sea route would hinge on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' main naval base at Chah-Bahar, which is situated on the Arabian Sea near Iran's border with Pakistan... an ideal port of call for US provisions to reach Afghanistan by a predominantly sea route. From this Arabian Sea port, consignments would head north through Iran's Sistan-va-Baluchistan up to the Iran-Pakistan-Afghanistan border intersection and then turn east by convoy to their destination at Kandahar..."
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=6048

PROPOSED FUEL SANCTIONS DEFEAT DIPLOMACY

"... The Iran Sanctions Enhancement Act, introduced by a bipartisan group of US senators, states in its preamble that its purpose is "to enhance US diplomatic efforts with respect to Iran by expanding economic sanctions against Iran to include refined petroleum... (this) new White House-backed legislation in the US Congress... aims to impose "crippling sanctions" on Iran by targeting its energy imports... to include refined petroleum... The powerful pro-Israel lobby group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), over the weekend, (indicated that) the purpose of this pending legislation is to provide "a powerful new weapon to use against Iran".

"... It appears that pseudo-engagement has replaced true engagement with Iran and the new legislation camouflages its true intention - to restrict, postpone and ultimately nip in the bud the flashes of a diplomatic change in the US's hitherto coercive diplomacy toward Iran."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KE02Ak01.html

DIPLOMATIC ENHANCEMENT?

"H.R. 1985, The Iran Diplomatic Enhancement Act of 2009, would amend the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996 to enhance United States diplomatic efforts with respect to Iran by expanding economic sanctions against Iran to include refined petroleum.... 4/21/2009... Referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committees on Financial Services, Oversight and Government Reform, and Ways and Means..."
http://www.washingtonwatch.com/bills/show/111_HR_1985.html

U.S. SAYS IRAN REMAINS A STATE SPONSOR OF TERROR
Mainly for supporting groups against Israeli occupation

Iran... remains the "most active state sponsor of terrorism" in the world, the US government charged Thursday. Iran was lumped with Syria, Sudan and Cuba as terrorism sponsors in the State Department report for 2008, the same countries that appeared in previous annual reports... It singled out the Qods Force, an elite branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as the Islamic republic's main means to cultivate and support terrorists overseas. The Qods Force gave "weapons, training and funding" to Hamas and other Palestinian anti-Israeli groups, Lebanon's Shiite Muslim fundamentalist Hezbollah as well as Iraq-based militants and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, the report said..."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090430/wl_mideast_afp/usattacksintelligenceiran

ISRAEL ALMOST DESTROYED 140 IRANIAN PLANES
"Iran canceled air show when Russia warned Israel planned to destroy all 140 warplanes... Israel was planning to destroy all 140 fighter-bombers concentrated at the Mehr-Abad Air Force base for an air show over Tehran on Iran's Army Day... Moscow had informed the Iranians that its spy satellites and intelligence sources had picked up preparations at Israeli Air Force bases to destroy the 140 warplanes, the bulk of the Iranian air force, on the ground the night before the display, leaving its nuclear sites without aerial defense. A similar operation wiped out the entire Egyptian air fleet in the early hours of the 1967 war."
--DEBKAfile, April 24, 2009
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=6040

ISRAEL PREPARING TO BOMB IRAN SITES

"The Israeli military is preparing itself to launch a massive aerial assault on Iran's nuclear facilities within days of being given the go-ahead by its new government... it was unlikely that Israel would carry out the attack without receiving at least tacit approval from America... An Israeli attack on Iran would entail flying over Jordanian and Iraqi airspace, where US forces have a strong presence... it was unlikely that the Americans would approve an attack... the leaks or statements made by Israeli leaders and military commanders are meant for deterrence..."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6115903.ece

IRAN AND THE NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY (NPT)

"... Iran is a signatory state of the NPT and has recently (as of 2006) resumed development of a uranium enrichment program. The Iranian government states its enrichment program is part of its civilian nuclear energy program. This is allowed under Article IV of the NPT... Iran states it has a legal right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes under the NPT, and further says that it "has constantly complied with its obligations under the NPT and the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency".

There are currently 189 countries party to the treaty... Five states are recognized by the NPT as nuclear weapon states (NWS)... the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and the People's Republic of China (the permanent members of the UN Security Council).

Only four recognized sovereign states are not parties to the treaty: India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea...

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said that by some estimates thirty-five to forty states could have the knowledge to develop nuclear weapons

Key Articles

Article I: Each nuclear-weapons state (NWS) undertakes not to transfer, to any recipient, nuclear weapons...

Article II: Each non-NWS party undertakes not to receive, from any source, nuclear weapons...

Article III: Each non-NWS party undertakes to conclude an agreement with the IAEA for the application of its safeguards to all nuclear material in all of the state's peaceful nuclear activities and to prevent diversion of such material to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.

Article IV: Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes...

Article VI. The states undertake to pursue "negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament", and towards a "Treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control".

Article X. Establishes the right to withdraw from the Treaty giving 3 months' notice..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Non-Proliferation_Treaty

ISRAEL HAS RESOURCES TO SUCCESSFULLY ATTACK IRAN
(Unless enrichment stops by late 2009)

"(A) detailed report compiled by the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS)... Study on a Possible Israeli Strike on Iran's Nuclear Development Facilities... concludes that the Jewish state has all the resources necessary for a successful strike. The CSIS paper ... maintains there is no need to destroy dozens or hundreds of sites; the destruction of seven to nine targets would be enough to cripple the Iranian program, and lists them as follows:
1. Lashkar A'bad, site of secret uranium enrichment plants in the north near the Turkish border.
2. Tehranb, for the central laboratory for developing atomic armaments as well as more uranium enrichment facilities.
3. Arak, in central Iran, where a heavy water plant is under construction to manufacture plutonium for weapons.
4. Isfahan, in central Iran, near which a small research reactor and a cluster of laboratories for uranium enrichment, centrifuges and weapons development, are situated.
5. Natanz, the main center for uranium enrichment.
6. Ardekan, at the southern tip of Iran, where more uranium enrichment facilities are located.
7. Saghand, Iran's main uranium mining region.
8. Bushehr, on the Persian Gulf shore, Iran's biggest nuclear reactor built by Russia:

9. Gachin, near the Strait of Hormuz, the site of more uranium mines and enrichment facilities...
The authors propose three attack routes for a potential Israeli operation against Iran: an eastern route over Saudi Arabia; a central route over Iraq, and a northern route over Turkey, Syria and northern Iraqi Kurdistan. They point to the third as Israel's best option in view of the superiority of its electronic warfare (EW) capabilities."

"... an Israeli official (said) that Jerusalem would give the Obama administration until late 2009 to stop Iran's uranium enrichment projects; after that, Israel will be forced to act..."

http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1386

OBAMA PROPOSES URANIUM FUEL BANK FOR IRAN

"... the US is also probing a solution to the Iran nuclear problem with Kazakhstan's helping hand...President Barack Obama has already hinted that he intends to pay a visit to Kazakhstan... the Obama administration is "carefully considering" the setting up of an international uranium fuel bank in Kazakhstan... as part of a US-backed plan to put all uranium enrichment under international control... which could form the exit strategy for the historic US-Iran standoff. That is why the visit by the Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad to Astana, Kazakhstan, on Monday assumes exceptional importance..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KD10Ak03.html

OBAMA MAY ACCEPT IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM

"... It now appears that the US might cede to Iran's nuclear program... as part of a policy review commissioned by Obama, "diplomats are discussing whether the US will eventually have to accept Iran's insistence on carrying out the [enrichment] process, which can produce both nuclear fuel and weapons-grade material"... the Obama administration's message to Tehran is increasingly shaping up as "Don't develop a nuclear weapon" - a nuanced stance that would not rule out a deal accepting Iranian enrichment as such...."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KD10Ak03.html