[Tolo News] Afghan politicians Sunday made it to elect head of the Afghan House of Representatives.
Abdul Rahouf Ebrahimi, a fellow candidate from northern Kunduz province, swept majority of votes in the parliament and won house speaker seat after more than a month of stalemate in the house. That would appear to be a win for the Northern Alliance bloc...
Hours after Mr Ebrahimi won the seat; President Karzai's Offices in a statement congratulated him for his new position.
Mr Ebrahimi sweeping 169 votes in the parliament could make it up to 50+1.
Around 173 parliamentarians were taking part in Saturday's vote which was held transparently.
Parliament stalemate on house speaker lasted for more than a month ended after Mr Ebrahimi was elected to fill the seat.
The newly elected house speaker pledged to protect Afghan national interests in the best way possible. "I really appreciate that you have trusted me to hold this crucial seat," he said.
"I want to offer my deepest congratulations on winning the votes and confidence of parliamentarians," said Mohammad Yunus Qanoni, former head of the parliament.
Mr Ebrahimi said next day the parliament will vote for deputy house speakers and secretaries.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2011 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] Afghan High Peace Council said foreign troops behave more harshly compared to insurgent attacks against civilians. In that case we can leave.
Peace council strongly condemned foreign troops' harsh behavior, including night raids and house searches.
A surge in insurgent attacks, which are organised in Pakistan's lawless tribal belts, is aimed to mar peace efforts of Afghan government with the Taliban. "We play down night raids and house searches by foreign troops and as well as their secret jails for Afghans," said High Council of Peace Spokesman Mawlawi Qyamuddin Kashaf.
Peace council believes that presence of foreign troops hasn't been helpful enough to improve Afghan economy situation. But still Afghanistan requires their stay.
Foreign forces are expected to begin leaving Afghanistan in July this year and at the same time Afghan security forces will begin to take responsibility for security in some areas.
Afghan and foreign officials have frequently said the troops will stay in Afghanistan even beyond 2014, but more in supporting and mentoring role.
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02/28/2011 00:00 ||
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[Jerusalem Post Front Page] The chief of the vaporous Arab League said on Sunday he would run in this year's presidential elections in Egypt, a day after a panel recommended reforms that would relax the eligibility requirements for potential candidates.
Amr Moussa or Mohammed Elbaradei... What a dilemma for the voters.
Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa ... who has been head of the Arab League since about the time Jerry and Dean split up ... , an often-scathing critic of Israel through his decade heading the Arab bloc, enjoys wide popularity in Egypt and would be a leading candidate to replace Hosni Mubarak, ousted on February 11 after 30 years in power.
The state news agency MENA announced Moussa's decision via its text message service.
"I intend to run in the next presidential election, and an [official] announcement will be made at the right time," MENA quoted him as saying, adding that a new Egyptian figure would be picked "very soon" to head the 22-member pan-Arab organization.
If adopted in a national referendum, Egypt's proposed constitutional changes would open its presidential elections to competition and impose a two-term limit on presidents -- a dramatic shift from a system that allowed Mubarak to rule for decades.
Come to think of it, President Mubarak was merely chased out of office by what was essentially a national sit-in (with violent aspects, yes, but even so). Both of his predecessors were murdered. So that is an improvement...
Charismatic and engaging, the former foreign minister was one of the first Arab public figures to side with popular protests upon the outbreak of the Tunisian uprising in December.
"The Arab soul is broken by poverty, unemployment and general recession," he told a meeting of Arab leaders. "The political problems, the majority of which have not been fixed... have driven the Arab citizen to a state of unprecedented anger and frustration."
All passive voice. Things happen to the Arab citizen, inshallah.
Much of Moussa's popularity with average Egyptians stems from his consistently hard line against Israel. Following the Israel Navy's raid on a Gazoo-bound flotilla last May, Moussa accused Jerusalem of continued "atrocity and assault" and of violating human rights ... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you... and international law, while praising Turkey for challenging Israel's blockade on the coastal territory.
He has often questioned Israel's commitment to the grinding of the peace processor.
"Israel has not accepted the two-state solution. Until now there is not one official statement that Israel accepts the two-state solution and accepts to have a viable Paleostinian state," he said in February 2009. "The Israelis do not want a Paleostinian state."
Moussa, 74, has also criticized the United States and its allies for what he views as double standards in singling out Iran's nuclear program while ignoring Israel's own reputed arsenal.
"Israeli policy disregards international opinion," he told French television in April. "They believe that they have that right according to their own logic, which no one else agrees with."
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02/28/2011 00:00 ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] Egypt's once widely feared interior minister Habib al-Adly is to appear before a criminal court on March 5 accused of money laundering, judicial sources told AFP on Sunday.
Adly would be the first of toppled president Hosni Mubarak's regime to face trial.
He was nabbed on February 17, along with tourism minister Zoheir Garranah and steel tycoon Ahmed Ezz, a senior member of Mubarak's National Democratic Party.
Nationwide protests that erupted on January 25 led to the overthrow of Mubarak, who had ruled Egypt for 30 years under emergency law.
The protests that lasted 18 days and saw bloody festivities between protesters and Adly's security forces, left at least 384 people dead and over 6,000 injured while scores were jugged.
Upon his resignation, Mubarak handed power to a military council that pledged to pave the way for a free democratic system in the Arab world's most populous nation and vowed to prosecute all those found guilty of abuses during the protests.
Pro-democracy campaigners have repeatedly called for Adly to be held accountable for violence used against protesters, and for the use of force and torture by his security apparatus during his time as minister.
Egypt's controversial emergency law which gives police extended powers of arrest, suspends constitutional rights and curbs non-governmental political activity, has been extended regularly years since 1981.
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02/28/2011 00:00 ||
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[Ennahar] Tunisian Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi, in whom demonstrators demanded the departure, announced his resignation Sunday during a presser in Tunis. "I decided to resign my position as prime minister," said Mr. Ghannouchi, who took the reins of a transitional government after the fall on January 14 of President Ben Ali, thrown by the pressure of the street.
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02/28/2011 00:00 ||
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You gotta have some sympathy for Humberto Moreira, the newly coronated president of Mexico's Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI).
One week before walking into the position, a former governor of the state of Nuevo Leon was quoted in the Mexican press that when PRI presidents were in power, PRI didn't have the national problem with violence because drug routes were allocated to the drug cartels by the various state's governors.
Oops.
Since that moment last Wednesday, political rivals and allies alike including Gustavo Madero, president of the Partido Accion National (PAN) and Carlos Navarrete, coordinator in the Mexican senate for the Partido Revolucion Democartica (PRD) have weighed in with their own unique views, with PRD's remarks confirming Wednesday's remarks as an "open secret" thereby complicating the response of PRI.
Carlos Navarrete's remarks seems to have provided PAN with a rare enough political opening for them to simply sneer, "We don't do accommodations with criminals" retort, which also happens to be the current government's policy.
Were it not for the tragedy of more than 30,000 individuals killed in drug and gang related violence since President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa's declaration of war on the drug cartels in 2006, the amount of spinning being done by the PRI would be hilarious. It is hard to imagine Calderon not getting a chuckle out of the remarks and the attempts by the PRI to deal with the political fallout in the early going.
Socrates Cuauhtemoc Rizzo Garcia, the 66 year old former governor of Nuevo Leon, made his remarks at a seminar at the law school of the Universidad Autonoma de Coahuila in Saltillo, Coahuila last Wednesday, outlining that governors during the terms of PRI presidents before 2000, assigned routes and areas through which cartels could ship their goods and where they could operate without fear of interference from state and local governments.
In his remarks as reported by Milenio, Rizzo Garcia did not single out a president although he did serve as governor of Nuevo Leon from 1991 to 1996, which would span two PRI president's terms, Ernesto Zedillo from 1994 to 2000, and Carlos Salinas de Gortari from 1988 to 1994. He was known to be close, however, to Salinas de Gortari.
"...but there was a control (when we) had a strong state and a strong president and a strong attorney and tight control of Army, and then somehow was said 'you go through here, you here, but do not touch anyone in these places...'", Rizzo Garcia is quoted as saying.
Rizzo Garcia added that governors were not necessarily those who determined the routes. "Everything was decided from the capital and the governors were less independent", he added.
He also said that before money transfers such as drug sale proceeds between the United States and Mexico were so closely monitored and restricted, and domestic drug consumption was very low. He said that the beginning of the domestic drug market in Mexico marks the start of drug cartel violence.
Rizzo Garcia also lamented that PAN president Vicente Fox did not follow up on PRI's strategies.
The Milenio report does not recount the reactions of the law students in Saltillo, although it would be hard to imagine the students weren't stunned by the revelations. The current Mexican political establishment, especially the PRI, certainly was.
Reaction was swift. PAN's Madero took time out of a speaking tour in Nuevo Leon to criticize the remarks and to express his surprise the "narcopacts" would even be mentioned.
"A strong president is one who will not deal with criminals", said Madero. Madero also said he thought that the deals with the cartels were common knowledge at the time and he was surprised the revelation was made.
Shortly afterwards PRI senator Manlio Fabio Beltrones Rivera denied such pacts were ever made.
Manlio Fabio Beltrones Rivera, who served as governor of Sonora between 1991 and 1997, lamented the remarks do little to address the current problem of drug abuse and violence. His reaction clearly means the PRI doesn't want to "go there".
Former Chihuahua governor, Fernando Baeza Melendez affirmed Beltrones Rivera.
"There was no direct or indirect dealings with drug traffickers to give them any support. Consumption has grown in recent years, there was a series of conflicts because there was no struggle for the market," Baeza Melendez is quoted by Milenio as saying.
The former governor of Quintata Roo, Pedro JoaquÃn Colwell, told reporters that Rizzo Garcia's is a personal opinion he does not share. Pedro JoaquÃn Colwell served as governor between 1981 and 1987.
"I think it would be good if you explain to people what was really what happened and maybe that would begin to tell all Mexicans what we are now suffering", he said.
Milking PRI's faux pas as much as possible at a Zocalo Flag Day ceremony Friday, President Calderon reaffirmed what Madero and Gonzalez Morfin had already said.
"It is clear that the surrender, the surrender, in the submission, the resignation or transaction in the dark there is not, nor will there ever be true peace. The only lasting peace is one that is secured by the rule of law, prevail by the Constitution, laws deriving from it, the rule of law in which Mexicans have decided to live, any interest over and above any ambition", he said.
Calderon's remarks are by every possible definition, a deft twisting of the blade into his opponents, while affirming his party's position on law and order.
Recognizing the PRI spin offensive was in full swing a Coahuila deputy, Mario Delgado Davila, managed to get his remarks published Friday in which he warned a number of PRI actors would present their case that the "narcopacts" were not real. Elections are on the line.
Moreira's management of the crisis appeared to be weak as well. His predecessor, Beatriz Paredes Rangel is preparing to step down as leader of the PRI after a stunning series of victories in state governorships in 2010. The crisis could not have come at a worse time for the PRI.
Looking surprised in published photos, Moreira admitted Friday that, yes, PRI presidents were in power when the alleged pacts were made, but he wanted to remind the press Sinaloa drug cartel leader Joaquin Guzman Loera AKA "El Chapo" escaped during the years of Vicente Fox.
The last and perhaps most damaging of all were the remarks by Carlos Navarrete who said the allegations were "nothing we have not discussed in private during the regimes of the PRI..."
Moreira's defense of PRI was weak to be sure, and surely more was to said, but it wouldn't be by his opposition and it did not come from Moreira himself. Next: Anatomy of a Mexican Political Crisis: The Terminal Phase
[The Nation (Nairobi)] North Korea threatened "all-out war" in response to exercises by South Korean and US troops due to start on Monday and told Seoul to stop cross-border propaganda, upping the rhetoric against its arch rivals.
Pyongyang would respond to the upcoming drill, with "unprecedented all-out counteraction" that would turn the South's capital Seoul into a "sea of flames", the Korean Central News Agency said on Sunday.
"The army and people of the DPRK will return bolstered nuclear deterrent of our own style for the continued nuclear threat... and our own missile striking action for their vicious attempt to eliminate our missiles," KCNA said.
The statement was in contrast to more conciliatory comments it made earlier this year aimed at securing peace talks with the United States but came after Pyongyang officials stormed out of talks with the South this month.
Some 200,000 South Korean and 12,800 US troops will take part in the Key Resolve/Foal Eagle drills, which the North has labelled a preparation for war.
Key Resolve, a command post exercise involving computer simulation, will last until March 10. Part of Foal Eagle, a joint air, ground and naval training exercise, will continue through April 30.
The exercise reportedly includes scenarios such as localised provocations, tracing weapons of mass destruction, a sudden regime change in the communist state and an exodus of refugees, Yonhap news agency reported.
It also said the US planned to deploy it 97,000-tonne aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan for the drills.
Cross-border tension has been acute since the North's deadly shelling of a frontier island in November that killed four South Koreans including two civilians and sparked fears of war.
The first attack on civilians since the 1950-53 Korean War prompted Seoul to stage a series of military drills alone or with the United States and to expand regular exercises in a show of force against Pyongyang.
The South also revived a propaganda campaign across the heavily-fortified border targeting ordinary North Koreans -- a practice it had suspended since 2000 due to protests by the North.
Conservative opposition politician Song Young-Sun, citing a report from the defence ministry, said on Friday balloons carrying humanitarian supplies such as medicine and clothes were being launched across the border by the military.
She said the balloons also carried news of civil uprisings against repressive regimes in the Arab World and were aimed at getting information to the people of North Korea, who are largely cut off from the outside world.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
HMMMM, HMMMMM, my interest in the KCNA Message is the use = inclusion of the phrase "our own".
#6
Did the use "..running dog Yankee Imperialists" yet. It always meant that we were really bad and they were sure we were going to come take their Workers Paradise away from them, because we coveted it. Right....
CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > PRE-2012 IS NORTH KOREA'S LAST CHANCE FOR [DPRK-specific Ideo? Mil?] VICTORY OVER THE ROK [South Korea] VIA NUKES + NERVE GAS | [Twitter]SOUTH KOREA, US BRUSH OFF [new = latest]NORTH THREAT, BEGIN BIG MILITARY DRILLS.
* TOPIX/WORLD NEWS > SOUTH KOREA TELLS NORTH: STOP MAKING THREATS.
* YONHAP > US HAS NO PLANS TO REDEPLOY TACTICAL NUKES TO SOUTH KOREA: WHITE HOUSE [No change in histor US Policy suppor Non-Nuclear Korean Peninsula].
Also from YONHAP > SOUTH KOREA NOT MULLING RETURN OF US TACTICAL NUCLEAR WEAPONS: GOVT.
IIUC, IOW the ROK will SSSSHHHHH....CCCCCC need to dev its own NucWeaps Arsenal - prob safe to say DITTO FOR JAPAN!?
* SAME > RELATIONS BETWEEN [two] KOREAS "AT CROSSROADS": UNIFICATION MINISTER. Seoul's point Man in the DPRK.
Two senators said to be targeted by U.S. military seeking to use "psychological operations" to convince them to support the war effort in Afghanistan say they're fine with an investigation though they don't believe there's much to the story.
Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., who've been traveling in the Middle East for the past week, joked Sunday about a Rolling Stone article released last week that alleged that three-star Gen. William Caldwell ordered his staff to use military techniques to persuade them to back more money for training Afghan forces.
"Actually, I'm sure they succeeded with Senator Lieberman. There's no doubt about that," McCain laughed before adding that he and Lieberman supported the effort in Afghanistan all along.
#1
Lieberman - "yes, they asked me questions and after I answered they would stare at me intensely for about a minute before asking the next one, it was kind of creepy..."
#2
...well, give the response was given by a Senator with a (D) behind the name, at the time, the questioners' brains were trying to process answer since it probably didn't meet the expected outcome [see Senator Kerry(D)]. The subroutines were kicking in like "is he just playing us along" or the "how come the usual drivel isn't there".
The government of Pakistan offered to trade a CIA contractor currently jailed in that country for a Pakistani neuroscientist suspected by U.S. intelligence to be an al Qaeda operative. Ahh. Now we know why they accused him of passing nuclear-related "stuff" a bit ago. They were trying to put him on par with this gal.
According to a senior American administration official and a Pakistani official involved in the negotiations to free CIA contractor Raymond Davis, the Pakistani government proposed trading Davis for Aafia Siddiqui, an MIT-educated Pakistani neuroscientist currently serving 86 years in federal prison for attempted murder.
Dr. Siddique is a bit more than a mere operative. See here and here for details. Suffice it to say, she is a true daughter of modern Pakistan, a national treasure like Dr. A. Q. Khan.
The offer was immediately dismissed by the U.S. government. "The Pakistanis have raised it," the U.S. official said. "We are not going to pursue it."
The proposal is the latest in a series of efforts to break an impasse between Washington and Islamabad over Davis.
Actually, it looks more like an attempt to break the impasse over Siddique.
The CIA contractor has been held by Pakistani authorities since late January for shooting and killing two men he says were following his car and tried to rob him.
[Ma'an] Gazoo's interior ministry released a statement Sunday, saying recent reports of projectile from from Gazoo were false, and accused Israel of fabricating the claims in the interest of world public opinion.
"Please don't invade us again!"
The most recent reports of unconfirmed projectile fire from Gazoo came on 27 and 25 February, where Israeli military and police officials told news hounds that Qassam rockets landed near the southern Gazoo Strip.
In both cases, resistance factions did not report launching the projectiles, and the reports remained unconfirmed.
"Over the past days, the Israeli occupation has been publishing lies on the firing of projectiles from Gazoo toward Israel, in order to create excuses to prepare world public opinion for an escalation against Gazoo," the statement said.
The ministry further accused Israel of launching the accusations as a cover for ongoing settlement activity in Jerusalem, and the Israeli "Judization" of the city.
The country was "taking advantage" of the world's focus on revolts in Arab states, and preparing to ramp-up its aggression on Gazoo, the statement said.
In mid January, Egyptian officials warned Gazoo government officials against an escalation in projectile fire, reportedly telling leaders that the homemade rockets could lead to a new Israeli offensive against the coastal enclave.
A Jan. 13 meeting with security commanders saw Haniyeh call on armed Paleostinian factions to refrain from actions that could endanger Gazoo, instructions interpreted as a call to join Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,' two-year ceasefire with Israel.
At the time, the Gazoo-based premier said his decision was an effort to prevent Israel from "taking advantage" of the pretext cited by its army for firing on Gazoo following rocket attacks.
Since that point, projectile fire decreased, with factions insisting the majority of fire was directed at Israeli forces operating in Gazoo, or Israeli military infrastructure near the borders.
Factions, however, continue to announce the periodic launch of projectiles into Israeli territory, affirming in their statements the position that resistance is a viable option for securing Paleostinian self-determination.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2011 00:00 ||
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[Arab News] The Paleostinian Authority (PA) on Sunday rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's conditions to discuss the borders of future Paleostinian state.
Netanyahu told the British daily the Telegraph that there is no basis to discuss the borders of Paleostinian state without the Paleostinian leadership recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.
The Paleostinian Ministry of Information said in a press statement that Netanyahu's remarks "do not make peace."
It described the top Israeli hawk's remarks as "a continuation of the black racism and an expression of evasion and getting around international legitimacy."
The US administration has been sponsoring the peace negotiations between Israel and the Paleostinians. However, The infamous However... the Israeli-Paleostinian direct peace talks were suspended on Oct. 2, one month after they were launched in Washington, after Israel refused to freeze settlement construction.
On Sept. 26, Israel refused to extend a 10-month moratorium over settlement freeze in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The Paleostinians then suspended the talks and said that they won't get back to the negotiation table until settlements were stopped.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2011 00:00 ||
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Iran objects to the logo for the 2012 London Olympics, contending it is racist because it resembles the word "Zion" and warning of a possible boycott of the games. Pffffttt.... go ahead. It isn't like Iran would win anything anyway. Cya short round!
#3
Man o man, these people are weird. Never in a thousand years would I have deduced "Zion" from a scribble of 2012.
Posted by: Jefferson ||
02/28/2011 16:55 Comments ||
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#4
To me it looked like that item on the buffet table you see from a few servings away and looks bad, then you get to it and the smell just makes ya want to get away as fast as possible.
#7
The Olympic organizers should IMMEDIATELY replace the symbol with a more appropriate one. I suggest this design from the roof of a building in Iran.
"I think what happened is that the pump failed but it didn't just fail, it broke up, so that ... there are pieces of metal that are now circulated throughout the primary cooling system," one of them anonymous experts said.
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/28/2011 09:26 ||
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#1
"Hey, boss, what do we do with all these rods?"
#3
...Okay - IIRC, one of the effects of prolonged radiation exposure on metal is that it becomes very, very brittle - which could explain the comments above. Then take this into consideration: Bushehr is also damned close to the ocean, which means salt air corrosion is another potential problem, assuming these guys aren't pumping salt water directly through the pump ("Well, Manoucher, it's like this: this is a water cooling pump, it needs water, and there's a whole freaking ocean about two miles that way. What do YOU think we should do?") With a little luck, between Stuxnet, inshallah planning and maintenance, and just plain lousy skills, these goons may have fried the place beyond hope.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/28/2011 12:30 Comments ||
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#4
Good point, Mike; my ex-father-in-law, a marine engineer, once told me "Water is evil, salt water is a bitch and hot salt water is the Devils brother." (He was Hungarian... kind of histrionic).
#5
How much sump does a sump pump pump when a sump pump does pump sump?
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/28/2011 13:32 Comments ||
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#6
We also don't know the antiquity, manufacturer or design of the pump (assuming it was a pump).
Remember, this facility is a composite of 3 decades worth of hardware (and probably several hundred major design modifications).
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
02/28/2011 13:55 Comments ||
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#7
Lord Garth,
More true than you know. Construction stopped and started several times for prolonged periods, so you know that somebody on the Iranian side said, "Use the stuff we already paid for"...and it's unlikely that it was stored/maintained properly. Also, it wouldn't be at all surprising if the Russians billed the Iranians for new gear, but used the old stuff.
Old habits, etc.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/28/2011 14:15 Comments ||
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#9
and it's unlikely that it was stored/maintained properly.
If it's anything like the mothballed factory Mr. Wife saw in Egypt, at the very least there will be desert rat skeletons throughout the pipes. Bushehr isn't in the desert, so theirs probably aren't mummified... but will no doubt still do nicely to clog the flow, with all that entails.
Posted by: Jefferson ||
02/28/2011 16:57 Comments ||
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#11
Whoa.. they have a core load of low burnup fuel (weapons grade Plutonium if reprocessed)?
This pump story is hogwash. They dumped the core to get the fuel.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/28/2011 19:52 Comments ||
Top||
#12
John, if at some time, or anyone, explain that theory, as even some around R can pinpoint Iran's development between 6 years in with multiple facilities and completely disable by virus?
That is, the difference between a shutdown or advancing an Iran is StrongQ!Q!! statement?
Maybe nuclear activity in Syria hasn't stopped after all. This report via nkeconwatch shows the possibility of a conversion facility in Syria that looks like it might be converting uranium yellowcake into uranium tetrafluoride which is eventually processed to metallic uranium for nuclear fuel.
Is this a Syrian nuclear program or is this Iran dispersing its project globally to defend against any attack on its facilities in Iran? And while I am on the subject, why would Iran let people know it is unloading the fuel at its Bushehr plant? Knowing that its plant is vulnerable to attack if fuel is not loaded, is this an attempt to lure an attack while the fuel is actually still loaded to cause an environmental disaster?
#2
See PRAVDA > IS SYRIA DEVELOPING ITS OWN NUCLEAR PROGRAM?, wid assistance from the DPRK = North Korea???
IIUC ARTIC > PRESIDENT ASSAD, JR. = SYRIAN GOVT has a vested interest in asymmetrically intentionally prolonging pertinent TIME FACTORS as per DISCOVERY, FORMAL PUBLIC ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, + INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE to same.
[Iran Press TV] Iran's Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani says the country will never back down in the face of enemy conspiracies.
"Iran has found its path, and is moving toward perfection and progress, and, thank God, serves as a role model for all popular and Islamic movements in and outside the [Middle East] region," Larijani said on Sunday.
He described the recent uprisings in Mohammedan countries as a storm "sweeping across the Middle East, North Africa and the Persian Gulf."
"Mohammedan nations have, all of a sudden, initiated a great movement which was probably unpredictable for everybody," said the top judge.
He underlined the dictatorship and totalitarianism gripping "these countries" definitely contributed to the revolutions there.
Another reason behind the uprisings, he said, was that the rulers humiliated their people.
Religion was yet another contributor to the recent events, Larijani underlined.
"Because of their beliefs and faith, Mohammedans have a strong motive to stand up to oppression and those who want to destroy the effects of faith," Larijani said.
"There is no ambiguity in these movements. These movements are definitely popular and undoubtedly driven by divine and anti-oppression motives," said the Judiciary chief.
He then warned against Western plots to cash in on these revolutions.
"The big danger today is that the US and Western countries are seeking to hijack these mass movements in their own favor," he underlined.
He then blasted Western-style human rights; ... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you... and criticized the US and other Western countries for not adopting a firm stance vis-à-vis the "genocide" in Libya.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2011 00:00 ||
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[Jerusalem Post Front Page] The European Union is slated to probe in early March the possibility of targeted human rights ... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you... sanctions against Iranian leaders.
Writing on the Politico website, Washington-based journalist Laura Rozen first reported Saturday on her foreign policy blog that "European diplomats have prepared a list of over 80 Iranian militia and police unit commanders, prison guards, prosecutors, judges and ministry bureaucrats that will be taken up for discussion for possible European Union sanctions for alleged torture, murder and other human rights violations against Iranian citizens."
Politico's Rozen provided a link in her blog to the EU document, which outlines the names of the targeted individuals. The list is, by EU standards, expansive and includes Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps -- an organization already outlawed as a global terrorist entity by the US -- leaders, Basij militia commanders and penitentiary officials from the Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj, such as Hassan Akharian, Mr. Mirzaghayi, Mr. Zeynali, Mr. Youssefi, and Mr. Morradi.
However, The infamous However... the EU is unwilling to sanction the IRGC as an organization, whose military-industrial complex tentacles reach into as much as 75 percent of the Iranian economy. The EU is Iran's second largest trade partner after China.
The EU human rights sanctions could ratchet up the pressure on Iran's rulers, largely because many sanctions experts view human rights penalties, and a "name and shame" strategy, as a particularly vulnerable pressure point for a government that is worried about its international image at a time of turmoil in the Mohammedan world.
According to the proposed EU human rights sanctions list, the measures would also target Reza Taghipour, the minister of information and communications, and his deputy, Abdolmajid Riyazi, as well as Mehrdad Omidi, who runs the Computer Crimes Unit of the Iranian Police. Behrouz Kamalian, who oversees an IRGC-controlled cyber-group, is also named.
While there has been a whirl of human rights rhetoric in the Brussels-based EU parliament about Iran, the only EU country to take diplomatic action against Iran because of its human rights violations was the Netherlands because of the extra-judicial execution of the Dutch-Iranian woman Zahra Bahrami.
Iran's judiciary hanged Bahrami in late January based on charges of alleged narcotics trafficking. Critics claim Iran's rulers used phony narcotics charges as a pretext to execute her for participating in pro-democracy demonstrations against Iran's reported manipulation of the 2009 presidential election. The Netherlands froze diplomatic relations with Iran's regime and recalled its ambassador, who has since returned to Tehran.
Responding to the execution of Bahrami, the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, whose chairman is Italy's Gabriele Albertini, issued a statement in early February, noting that "Foreign Affairs Committee MEPs believe that the time has come for the EU to devise a new, broader strategy towards Iran, which goes beyond the nuclear issue and addresses Iran's human rights record and regional role. They call on EU foreign ministers to impose sanctions targeting Iranian officials responsible for serious human rights abuses since the disputed presidential election of June 2009, in line with similar measures taken by the USA last September."
The B.O. regime imposed unprecedented human rights sanctions last September on eight high-level Iranian government officials for committing torture, rape, violent beatings and unlawful detention of Iranian citizens. The sanctions aimed to penalize only the members of the Iranian regime and military apparatus who were responsible for crushing the pro-democracy protests in 2009.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Finally! Geeze what's it take to get countries to act against regimes Iran, N. Korea, Libya etc?
Don't they understand that if everyone worked together to block these countries nefarious ambitions, the world would be a better place?
guess not
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa
[Asharq al-Aswat] Egypt's once widely feared interior minister Habib al-Adly is to appear before a criminal court on March 5 accused of money laundering, judicial sources told AFP on Sunday.
North Korea
Two senators said to be targeted by U.S. military seeking to use "psychological operations" to convince them to support the war effort in Afghanistan say they're fine with an investigation though they don't believe there's much to the story.
Iran objects to the logo for the 2012 London Olympics, contending it is racist because it resembles the word "Zion" and warning of a possible boycott of the games.
Maybe nuclear activity in Syria hasn't stopped after all. This report via nkeconwatch shows the possibility of a conversion facility in Syria that looks like it might be converting uranium yellowcake into uranium tetrafluoride which is eventually processed to metallic uranium for nuclear fuel.
