By Nader Bagherzadeh and Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich Ali Larijani , who is the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council responsible for nuclear discussions with the West, has called nuclear negotiations a “diplomatic chess.” Perhaps he is implying that like a good chess player he plans a few moves ahead of his opponent. After receiving two sanctions, Larijani had taken the position that as long as the Security Council (SC) refuses
by Chris Hedges The most effective diplomats, like the most effective intelligence officers and foreign correspondents, possess empathy. They have the intellectual, cultural and linguistic literacy to get inside the heads of those they must analyze or cover. They know the vast array of historical, religious, economic and cultural antecedents that go into making up decisions and reactions. And because of this—endowed with the ability to communicate and more able
by Juan Cole Bush made a surprise visit to Al-Anbar Province on Monday, as part of his propaganda drive to get Americans to think we should stay in Iraq because “progress” is being made. The debate over al-Anbar province is driven by the Bushies’ desire to find any ‘good news’ to grasp at. Indeed, from 2003 forward, their criterion for objective reporting on Iraq was that it gave the ‘good
Al-Manar TV reports that the former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was elected head of Iran’s Assembly of Experts on Tuesday. Rafsanjani becomes the second head of the Assembly of Experts – the body which supervises the work of the supreme leader – after the death of previous chairman Ayatollah Ali Meshkini who led the body for its 27 years of existence. The ex-president polled 41 votes from fellow members
Iran’s Press TV reports that Iran’s former IRGC Commander says 200,000 US troops are in weak positions in the Middle East and Iran has identified all their locations. Senior Advisor to the Leader for Military Affairs, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, made the remark Monday in a meeting with Imam Hussein University faculty in Tehran. Safavi said recent incidents have turned the region into the hub of political and security
By PATRICK COCKBURN The withdrawal of British forces from Basra Palace, ahead of an expected full withdrawal from the city as early as next month, marks the beginning of the end of one of the most futile campaigns ever fought by the British Army. Ostensibly, the British will be handing over control of Basra to Iraqi security forces. In reality, British soldiers control very little in Basra, and the Iraqi
By Gisoo Misha Ahmadi, Press TV, Tehran Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari dismisses the allegations made against the Islamic Republic that Tehran is meddling in Iraq’s affairs. On the sidelines of a ministerial meeting of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Zebari told the Press TV correspondent that the good relations between the governments of Iran and Iraq has prompted Tehran to step up its efforts to secure and stabilize the war ravaged-country.
First, there was this piece in the (otherwise highly unreliable) Debka file website: ——-DEBKAfile: USS Kearsarge Expeditionary Strike Group takes up position opposite Lebanese coast amid trepidation over September presidential election Our military sources report that aboard the Kearsarge group’s vessels are members of the 22nds Marine special operations-capable Expeditionary Unit, ready to execute landings on Lebanese beaches. Wednesday, Aug. 29, Adm. William Fallon, chief of US Central Command and
By Robert Fisk “The Independent” — – Stories that just don’t seem to make it into print. Did you know that the Hizbollah “Party of God” has installed its own private communications network in the south of Lebanon, stretching from the village of Zawter Sharqiya all the way to Beirut? And why, I wonder, would it be doing that? Well, to safeguard its phones in the event that the Israelis
by Sarah Baxter “The Times” – The Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians’ military capability in three days, according to a national security expert. Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national security at the Nixon Center, said last week that US military planners were not preparing for “pinprick strikes” against Iran’s nuclear facilities. “They’re about taking out the
Victims of National Security Injustice By Saul Landau In 1953, a man I knew got busted for masturbating at a public urinal. A cop had hidden in the ceiling grate above him “to find perverts.” The lawyer, a friend of our family, charged him $5,000. “I gave $500 to the cop,” the lawyer explained, “bought the judge a present and paid two witnesses $250 each to testify that he was
Press TV reports that a UN conference at the European Parliament has criticized Israel for its policies towards Palestinians, calling for a boycott against it. The ‘International Conference of Civil Society in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace’ in Brussels has been organized by the UN’s Committee to restore the Rights of the Palestinian People. During the conference, British Member of Parliament Clare Short blasted Israel for not being interested in a
Empire Note by Rahul MahajanIt’s not very interesting to take apart the latest bizarre rhetorical gambit from the White House – analogizing Iraq to Vietnam in order, strangely, to argue against withdrawal, on the grounds that allegedly premature withdrawal in 1975 led to bloodbaths in Vietnam and Cambodia and that the same thing could happen in Iraq. There was, of course, no bloodbath in Vietnam after the North Vietnamese victory
It is difficult to identify all the pro-Israel PACs because they fly under the radar with innocuous sounding names such as Metro PAC, Badger PAC, Pacific PAC, etc. By Ron Forthofer, Ph.DSpecial to PalestineChronicle.com In March 2006, two respected academics, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt from the University of Chicago and Harvard University, respectively, wrote a paper that shook up the academic and foreign policy communities. These authors broke the
by Osamah Khalil, The Electronic Intifada Over the past two months a coalition has formed around Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in an attempt to bolster his rule. Desperate to maintain his hold on power, Abbas has chosen to forgo national unity and rely on support from the U.S. and Israel to tighten his hold on the West Bank and target Gaza. Abbas and his benefactors have made it clear to
By RAY McGOVERNFormer CIA Analyst Why do I feel like the proverbial skunk at a Labor Day picnic? Sorry; but I thought you might want to know that this time next year there will probably be more skunks than we can handle. I fear our country is likely to be at war with Iran-and with the thousands of real terrorists Iran can field around the globe. It is going to
by Muriel Mirak-Weissbach President Bush’s most recent ranting, in which he accused Iran of threatening to unleash a “nuclear holocaust,” must be seen, for sure, in the context of the drumbeat for military aggression against the Islamic Republic. Within the space of a few days, several articles appeared in the mainstream press, indicating that the Cheney project for launching a new war is on the front burner. Most explicit was
Gregory Elich for Global Research Much attention has been given to the Bush Administration’s preparations for possible war against Iran as well as its drive to impose sanctions. Meanwhile, a less noticed policy has been unfolding, one that may in time prove to have grave consequences for the region. There is a covert war underway in Iran, still in its infancy, but with disturbing signs of impending escalation. In the
By Arianna Huffington As we all await the Petraeus Report on the state of the surge, we may also need to be anticipating the Allawi Coup. I’m talking, of course about Ayad Allawi, longtime C.I.A. asset and former interim prime minister of Iraq. He’s making quite the PR push to get his old job back, penning an op-ed for the Washington Post, hooking up with Wolf Blitzer on Late Edition
by Glenn Greenwald George Bush, speaking before yet another military audience, yesterday delivered what might actually be the most disturbing speech of his presidency, in which he issued more overt war threats than ever before towards Iran: The other strain of radicalism in the Middle East is Shia extremism, supported and embodied by the regime that sits in Tehran. Iran has long been a source of trouble in the region.
