An Interview with Bina Darabzand of Salam Democrat

by Bill Weinberg, WW4 REPORT

On December 12, 2006, as the Holocaust revisionism conference called by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opened in Tehran, small but angry groups of students held protests—against both the conference and Ahmadinejad, burning his picture and chanting "down with the dictator." Scores of students marched at the Amir Kabir University of Technology (formerly Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran University and Sanandaj University in Kordistan province.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16772560/

Falling fuel costs probably not a coincidence, oil traders say
ANALYSIS
By Robert Windrem

Investigative producer
Updated: 3:03 p.m. CT Jan 23, 2007
Oil traders and others believe that the Saudi decision to let the price of
oil tumble has more to do with Iran than economics.

Their belief has been reinforced in recent days as the Saudi oil minister
has steadfastly refused calls for a special meeting of OPEC and announced
that the nation is going to increase its production, which will send the
price down even farther.

Saudi Oil Minister Ibrahim al-Naimi even said during a recent trip to
India that oil prices are headed in the "right direction."

Not for the Iranians.

A very important and interesting article...

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IA13Ak02.html
Jan 13, 2007

By M K Bhadrakumar

Two prominent leaders of the Middle East headed abroad last weekend,
canvassing support from the international community. Iranian President
Mahmud Ahmadinejad went on a tour of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Ecuador,
the "red rain land" of Latin America, while Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert headed for China.

By coincidence, on Wednesday, while Ahmadinejad was being received in
Managua by the charismatic Marxist revolutionary Daniel Ortega at his
inauguration as the democratically elected president of Nicaragua,
Olmert was received with state honors in Beijing. Nothing can bring
home as vividly the complexities of the emerging "multipolar" world
order.

by Paul Craig Roberts

Is the surge an orchestrated distraction from the real war plan?

A good case can be made that it is. The US Congress and media are
focused on President Bush's proposal for an increase of 20,000 US
troops in Iraq, while Israel and its American neoconservative allies
prepare an assault on Iran.

Commentators have expressed puzzlement over President Bush's
appointment of a US Navy admiral as commander in charge of the ground

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/alsafadi141206.html

MRZine

by Mahmoud Al-Safadi

Mr. President, I write to you following the announcement of your intention
to organize a conference on the Holocaust in Teheran on 11-12 December, and
I sincerely hope that this letter will be brought to your attention.

First of all, allow me to introduce myself: Mahmoud Al-Safadi, a former
prisoner from occupied Jerusalem. I was released less than three months ago

by Paul Craig Roberts

Information Clearing House (September 26 2006)

The neoconservative Bush administration will attack Iran with tactical nuclear
weapons, because it is the only way the neocons believe they can rescue their
goal of US (and Israeli) hegemony in the Middle East.

The US has lost the war in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Generals in both war
theaters are stating their need for more troops. But there are no troops to send.

By Gareth Porter

WASHINGTON - Israel has argued that the war against Hezbollah's rocket arsenal was a defensive response to the Shi'ite organization's threat to Israeli security, but the evidence points to a much more ambitious objective - the weakening of Iran's deterrent to an attack on its nuclear sites.

In planning for the destruction of most of Hezbollah's arsenal and prevention of any resupply from Iran, Israel appears to have hoped to eliminate a major reason the US administration had shelved the military option for dealing with Iran's nuclear program - the fear that Israel would suffer massive casualties from Hezbollah's rockets in retaliation for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.

One leading expert on Israeli national-defense policy issues believes the aim of the Israeli campaign against Hezbollah was to change the US administration's mind about attacking Iran. Edward
China Business Big Picture

From the New Yorker Issue of 2006-04-17

The Bush Administration, while publicly advocating diplomacy in order to stop Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon, has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack. Current and former American military and intelligence officials said that Air Force planning groups are drawing up lists of targets, and teams of American combat troops have been ordered into Iran, under cover, to collect targeting data and to establish contact with anti-government ethnic-minority groups. The officials say that President Bush is determined to deny the Iranian regime the opportunity to begin a pilot program, planned for this spring, to enrich uranium.

The US wants a Security Council resolution allowing for the use of force

By Siddharth Varadarajan

March 25, 2006
The Hindu

The Anglo-Americans want a Security Council resolution allowing for the eventual use of force. Iran must play its cards very carefully from now onwards.

THIS WEEK, the fog of Anglo-American diplomacy on the Iranian nuclear question parted momentarily to give the world a rare glimpse of the drive to war that lies behind. On Wednesday, the Times of London reproduced a letter written last week by John Sawers, the British Foreign Office pointman on Iran, to his counterparts in the United States, France, and Germany outlining the line of action the four allies should follow in the United Nations Security Council.

by Doug Ireland; DIRELAND; January 15, 2006

As the Islamic Republic of Iran's lethal anti-gay pogrom -- the government's intense persecution of its own citizens for homosexuality, including the execution of at least a dozen young gay men -- proceeds at a terrifying pace, the victims of this oppression, despite great obstacles, continue to try to flee from the largest religious prison in the world to tell the story of the inhuman treatment they have suffered.