Here it is. Iran started its nuclear program in 1957 with the full support of the U.S. (then a strong ally), signed the NPT in 1968 and ratified it in 1970.
It did NOT start with Ahmadinejad, and Iran’s intentions have been consistently stated as “peaceful energy production” since 1957.
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Iran, Nuclear, Middle East, War on Iran, Ahmadinejad, Larijani, NPT
By the Time magazine. Make sure you check it out!
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Freedom of Expression, Iran, Middle East, War on Iran, Media, Persia, Tehran
Categories: Entertainment
He talks about his new article and Bush’s new plans for the Middle East. Check it out!
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Politics, Iran, Middle East, War on Iran, Bush, Media, Hezbollah, Seymour Hersh
Categories: Entertainment · Politics
Despite all the hype about Iran being a strict Islamic society and its government being radically Islamist, Iran has been taking a very liberal approach to AIDS in recent years.
In a region where other Muslim governments ignore the epidemic, quarantine HIV-infected people or preach abstinence as the only solution, Iran’s approach is especially remarkable.
It still doles out floggings to Iranians caught with alcohol, but it gives clean syringes and methadone treatment to heroin addicts. Health workers pass out condoms to prostitutes. Government clinics in every region offer free HIV testing, counseling and treatment. A state-backed magazine just began a monthly column that profiles HIV-positive Iranians, and last year the postal service unveiled a stamp emblazoned with a red ribbon for AIDS awareness. This year the government will devote an estimated $30 million to the program.
Iran is said to have one of the best prison programs in the world for drug addicts, and it’s one of the six or so nations in the world that has a functional needle-exchange program.
While Iran gives constant updates on the number and status of its AIDS patients and has preventative programs in place, even India is showing apathy about AIDS– let alone other countries in the Middle East.
And now, as this report says, Iran has held its first AIDS Film Festival on Feb 21-22 in Tehran.
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Iran, Middle East, AIDS, HIV
Seymour Hersh’s new article is up on The New Yorker’s website and will be published tomorrow in The New Yorker Magazine. He speaks about a very dark and dangerous conspiracy involving U.S., Israel and Saudia Arabia cooperating with the common goal of hitting Iran as hard as possible and preventing Shiite ascendency in the Middle East.
He points out that in the process, Sunni extremist groups, including Al Qaeda, will get leverage and support directly from Saudi Arabia– a totalitarian oppressive and exterimist Sunni state itself– and indirectly from the United States and Israel, all for the sake of weakening Iran and Shiites.
This is, indeed, horrible! The Administration has gone as far as supporting extrimist Sunnis who have killed thousands of Americans in New York, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, only to push its own political agenda. Very very sad and unfortunate!
Please read the whole article.
Categories: Politics
People who are opposed to Bush’s plans to bomb Iran, which now seems even more likely given Cheney’s reaction to what Blair said about military action being a “mistake,” are facing opposition from every corner of the world. Now, apparently even the military has voiced concerns and some high-ranking commanders have even threatened to resign if Bush calls for an attack.
“There are four or five generals and admirals we know of who would resign if Bush ordered an attack on Iran,” a source with close ties to British intelligence said. “There is simply no stomach for it in the Pentagon, and a lot of people question whether such an attack would be effective or even possible.”
A British defence source confirmed that there were deep misgivings inside the Pentagon about a military strike. “All the generals are perfectly clear that they don’t have the military capacity to take Iran on in any meaningful fashion. Nobody wants to do it and it would be a matter of conscience for them.
“There are enough people who feel this would be an error of judgment too far for there to be resignations.”
Categories: Politics
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is a new coalition between central Asian states including Russia and China, and has recently accepted Iran, India and Pakistan as observer states (except for India, all observer states have applied to permanent membership).
This organization has now the potential to form a strong force in the East to counter NATO, as it can be completely self-sufficient with energy giants like Russia and Iran and energy buyers like China and India. The member states also share the conviction that the West has an ugly habit of interfering in their internal affairs. So even though it’s still very young, SCO may eventually emerge as a mighty anti-West alliance.
This review shows that Americans are already nervous about SCO’s potential. Indeed, I read in BBC Persian that Gen. Safavi, the Commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, has recently spoken about the rise an alliance consisting of Iran, China, Russia and India, and has emphasized Iran’s role as a superpower in the Middle East and the West’s will to constrain it.
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Politics, Iran, Middle East, Ahmadinejad, China, Russia, SCO
Jeff Huber, as Retired U.S. Navy Commander, lists some of the possibilities which may lead to a war between Iran and the U.S., and the points out some of the gaffes made by the administration so far, and the embarrassment that could be awaiting them if they actually do what they want to do.
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Politics, Iran, Middle East, War on Iran, Bush, Ahmadinejad
I have decided to change my header images in concert with seasonal themes, and try to depict Iran, its landscape and its people through these images.
What you see now is a picture of Mount Damavand, the tallest mountain in the Iranian Plateau, located just North of Tehran; and looking at the picture I can tell this picture was probably taken near the beginning of Esfand in the Persian Calendar, that is around the end of February to beginning of March.
Mount Damavand has been used as a symbol of national pride, unity, strength and resistance against foreign rule in Persian literature, qualities that are particularly relevant in the face of the current crisis.
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Iran, Persian Culture, Persia
Alright, so here’s BBC’s report on Ahmadinejad’s last speach before the U.N. Security Council deadline and ElBaradei’s cooments. It says,
Mr ElBaradei told the Financial Times newspaper Iran could be only six months away from being able to enrich uranium on an industrial scale.
But he said “there’s a big difference between acquiring the knowledge for enrichment and developing a bomb”.
Here’s the original interview referred to here on Financial Times. A few things to note:
1. ElBaradei never says Iran is six months away from enrching uranium on an industrial scales. Here’s what he does say,
ElBaradei: My three priorities as I said are [for] Iran not to go to industrial capacity until the issues are settled, confidence is built, we need full inspection, involving additional protocol, and at all costs I would like to see Iran not moving out of the [treaty based non-proliferation] system. That would set a terrible precedent and I do not want them to come back in a couple of years and say: ‘Good morning gentlemen, we have nuclear weapons.’
The prospects of Iran achieving industrial scale enrichment.
FT: If you define industrial capacity as a cascade of 3,000 centrifuges or more, since if that was fully functioning it would take a year to get enough fissile material for a bomb, how far away do you think they are at the current stage of progress?
ElBaradei: I think they are still far away
FT: A year, two years?
ElBaradei: It’s difficult, I really like not to take numbers, to speculate, but away from what, from developing the three thousand [centrifuges]?
FT: From getting three thousand functioning smoothly.
ElBaradei: I don’t know, it could be a year, it could be six months. It could be a year, but we need to remember but as long as even they have 3,000 [centrifuges], as long as these 3,000 are under [NPT] safeguards, they cannot go beyond five per cent, people forget that… it’s really a risk assessment more of tomorrow more than it is of today…
If you read that carefully, what it says is that Iran could get the 3000 centrifuges up and running in 6 months, that it takes a year or two from that point on to enrich uranium on industrial scale, and that “as long as even they have 3,000 [centrifuges], as long as these 3,000 are under [NPT] safeguards, they cannot go beyond five per cent.”
2. It quotes ElBraradei saying, “there’s a big difference between acquiring the knowledge for enrichment and developing a bomb.” I fail to find that in the interview. He says that, “I think they are still far away [from making a bomb]” and that again, “as long as these 3,000 are under [NPT] safeguards, they cannot go beyond five per cent.”
Please don’t tell me they’re stupid. BBC seems to have joined the rest of the state media and is lying and exaggerating the Iranian issue. We have seen the dangerous consequences of this type of purposeful lying before.
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Politics, Freedom of Expression, Iran, Nuclear, Middle East, War on Iran, Ahmadinejad, BBC
Categories: Entertainment · Europe · Politics
