Blog
Why the US Wants to Delegitimize the Iranian Elections
It is with somewhat of a relief that I found a good article about the situation in Iran published by Counterpunch. Maybe, just maybe, will the voice of Paul Craig Roberts bring some people back to their senses. Anyway – check out what this highly knowledgeable observer has to say and please read it carefully and heed the warning of this honest man who knows – from first hand experience
Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s Iran/Contra Connection?
by RFS for the RFS blog What do Michael Ledeen (the American ‘neo-conservative’), Mir-Hossein Mousavi (the Iranian presidential candidate of ‘chagne’) and Adnan Khashoggi (the opulent Saudi Arabian jet-setter) have in common? They are all good friends and associates of Manuchehr Ghorbanifar (an Iranian arms merchant, an alleged MOSSAD double agent, and a key figure in the Iran/Contra Affair, the arms-for-hostages deals between Iran and the Reagan administration). In one
The gullible, useless, clueless and mindless Left
The situation in Iran is volatile and fluid and things could get much worse (there are already reports about Mousavi supporters being arrested with explosives!) and it is way too early to draw some deep conclusions about these events. One thing, however, is absolutely clear: the so-called “Left” showed no common sense, no critical thinking and no analytical capabilities whatsoever. Even the best Leftist websites and commentators (Pepe Escobar, Counterpunch,
Iran’s ‘Stolen’ Election: a Hardline Demagouge’s Victory Over a ‘Reformer’? Not So Fast
By Phil Wilayto for AlterNet As this is being written, official announcements in Iran today of a landslide victory by incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are being met with cries of “fraud” by supporters of his principal challenger, former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi. The New York Times is reporting that “at least one person had been shot dead in clashes with the police in Vanak Square in Tehran. Smoke from burning
Rafsanjani: shark or kingmaker?
by Simon Tisdall for The Guardian The man accused by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of masterminding the opposition campaign to oust him from the presidency has dropped out of view since election day. But Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani remains a formidable figure in Iranian politics with a network of well-placed allies straddling the reformist and moderate conservative camps. If any one leader is able to force a re-run of last Friday’s disputed
Rafsanjani’s gambit backfires
By M K Bhadrakumar for the Asia Times (thanks for Lucia for pointing out this article to me) Iranian politics is never easy to decode. The maelstrom around Friday’s presidential election intrigued most avid cryptographers scanning Iranian codes. So many false trails appeared that it became difficult to decipher who the real contenders were and what the political stakes were. In the event, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei won a
The Empire is Bankrupt – is anybody paying attention?
While the “big story” right now is the situation in Iran, check out this other “big story” which is not getting nearly as much attention: The American Empire Is Bankrupt by Chris Hedges De-Dollarization: Dismantling America’s Financial-Military Empire by Michael Hudson (thanks to C. for bringing these two articles to my attention!)
Insider report about the events in Iran
I am publishing a report form one of my contacts who actually has, shall we say, “inside access” to the ongoing events in Tehran. I have asked him to explain to me what the real context of these events actually is, and I am deeply grateful for his reply. He also told me that he would be available to answer any questions his analysis might raise. So please, if you
Reliable Poll predicted landslide victory for Ahmadinejad Iran election 2009
Take a look at what one American poll showed in May of this year: Listen also to his comment that most Azeris would vote for Ahmadinejad and not for Musavi (Hey Juan Cole – are you paying attention?!) For other polls, check out the Wikipedia entry on this topic here
Hezbollah: Iran has succeeded once again in the test of democracy
The AFP reports: A member of the political bureau of Hezbollah Ghaleb Abu Zeinab, told AFP on Saturday that during the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Islamic Republic has succeeded, “once again the test of democracy” . Abu Zeinab said that the party was “pleased with the choice of democracy and the Iranian people.” “Iran has proved its democracy, and succeeded time and again in the test of democracy.”
Netanyahu’s overt racism
I just saw this quote from Bibi’s latest speech: Any demand to resettle refugees within Israel undermines Israel as a state for the Jewish people He is absolutely right. And denying the right of return of those illegally displaced is, in itself, a form of Jewish racial supremacy, in particular when combined with the equally racist right of “return” for any and all Jews worldwide (nevermind that they never lived
Wishful thinking from Tehran
Againt the background of the “Tsunami” of baloney coming out from so many less than critically thinking “experts” and pundits, I recommend this well written article from the Guardian. VS by Abbas Barzegar for The Guardian I have been in Iran for exactly one week covering the 2009 Iranian election carnival. Since I arrived, few here doubted that the incumbent firebrand President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad would win. My airport cab driver
Decontructing Juan Cole’s “evidence”
The Iranian election is a fraud. Now we have “proof” and that “proof” of fraud is in the open, via Juan Cole. He has not one, but six elements of “proof” listed in his latest article. Let’s take a closer look. 1. It is claimed that Ahmadinejad won the city of Tabriz with 57%. His main opponent, Mir Hossein Mousavi, is an Azeri from Azerbaijan province, of which Tabriz is
Why was Mousavi allowed to run?
I am coming back to one of the points I made yesterday – the issue of why a person like Mousavi was ever allowed to run. In the comments section of my previous article on the elections in Iran, altigerrrr make a very good point that the Guardian Council could not prevent Mousavi from running because he is a reformist. I understand that, but that is not quite what I
Musings on yesterday’s elections in Iran
Let me begin my saying that I did not follow the campaigns of the four contenders to the post of President of Iran very closely. Nor did I carefully scrutinize their electoral platform. I did have a vague preference for anyone the West would consider a “moderate” (an utterly nonsensical concept) if only because it would make a military aggression on Iran by Israel and/or the USA harder to sell,
What Really Happened in the Lebanese Elections?
By ESAM AL-AMIN for South Lebanon Blog Since the Lebanese parliamentary elections on June 7, the mainstream media have declared that the results of the elections clearly show that Hizbollah and its coalition partners have suffered a “crushing defeat.” Some, led by the New York Times and cable news outlets, went even further, suggesting that the Cairo address by President Barack Obama was what made the difference, tilting the elections
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah speech of June 8th, 2009
The speech delivered by Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Monday June 8, 2008 via Al Manar Television I take refuge in Allah from the stoned devil. In the Name of Allah, The Compassionate, The Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, The Lord of the world. Peace be on our Master and Prophet – The Seal of Prophets – Abi Al Qassem Mohamad Bin Abdullah and on his chaste
Israel is controlled by religious fanaticism
by Shulamit Aloni for Ha’aretz Not very long ago, during Rabbi Meir Kahane’s racist rantings, the late writer and journalist Amos Elon gave me a copy of a letter Lord Rothschild sent to Herzl in August 1902. In the letter, Rothschild explains why he refuses to support the establishment of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel. He writes that he “should view with horror the establishment of a
Musings on yesterday’s elections in Lebanon in France
It sure looks like yesterday was a good day for the USraelian empire as some of its most obsequious stooges won the elections they were participating in: Sarkozy, Cohen-Bendit, Hariri, Siniora and Jumblatt all did unexpectedly well. Not only that, but the Far Right also did rather well in the EU elections – always a good thing for Washington. In France, the Anti-Zionist Party’s list lead by Dieudonne only got
