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