Iran vows to 'humiliate' U.S.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad scorned U.N Security Council sanctions imposed against Iran, telling a crowd Tuesday that Iran had humiliated the United States in the past and would do so again.

Speaking in the southwestern provincial capital of Ahvaz, Ahmadinejad said the Security Council's resolution last month was invalid and had left the world body's reputation in tatters.

The council voted unanimously to bar all countries from selling materials and technology to Iran that could contribute to its nuclear and missile programs. It also froze the assets of 10 Iranian companies and 12 individuals related to those programs.

"Let the world know that from the Iranian nation's point of view, this resolution has no validity," Ahmadinejad said.

He said the United States was the main power behind the resolution, and warned Washington: "I want you to know that the Iranian nation has humiliated you many times, and it will humiliate you in future."

The U.S. has led the drive to stop Iran from enriching uranium -- a process that produces the material for either nuclear reactors or bombs. Iran denies that it seeks to build atomic weapons, saying its nuclear program is limited to the generation of electricity.

Ahmadinejad said the sanctions were not important but were part of a campaign of psychological warfare against Iran that was designed to provoke dissent within the country.

Recalling the West's support for Iraq, then ruled by Saddam Hussein, during its eight-year war with Iran in the 1980s, he said: "If all the powers that supported Saddam in his war against Iran were to regroup and confront Iran again, Iranians would deliver a historic slap in their face."

Ahmadinejad said Iran had done everything it could to prove that its nuclear program is peaceful, but the West -- in the name of opposing nuclear weapons -- was trying to thwart Iran's development.

"We have tried all legal, wise and logical ways to convince these corrupt and selfish powers," he said.

While Ahmadinejad has repeatedly attacked the Security Council resolution, he has avoided any public comment on the results of Dec. 15 municipal elections, in which his political allies were heavily defeated.

The polls were seen as an electoral test of Ahmadinejad's presidency, and the success of his opponents suggested that voters want him to pay more attention to domestic issues rather than foreign policy.

Some people in the crowd in Ahvaz on Tuesday tried to remind the president of the need to address domestic problems. State television showed a placard carried by one spectator that read: "Inflation, unemployment, insecurity, drug addiction have desiccated the tree of the revolution."

Inflation is officially at 12 percent but thought to be much higher, and an estimated 3 million people are unemployed.

 

Online rumors: Iran's supreme leader dead

Following report of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's death in American expert's blog, numerous rumors on internet claim he passed away. Iranian media conveys business as usual, while question remains: Is he dead or alive?
Dudi Cohen

In the past 24 hours, it has been rumored that Iran 's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei passed away. Iranian news agencies did not address the issue, but numerous blogs reported it. The blogs have yet to be confirmed by any official source. It all started with a blog by Michael Ledeen, a senior researcher at the US Institute for Public Policy in Washington, who reported the ayatollah's death.

Supreme Leader's Ruling

Khamenei: Beware of watching non-Muslim women / Yaakov Lappin In new web ruling, Iran's supreme leader warns of 'vile consequences' of looking at non-Muslim women Full story

Ledeen, a neoconservative, added no other details than the death itself, but because of his reputation, a cascade of rumors began spreading between blogs worldwide, all of them asking to know: Is it true or not? Is he dead or alive?

In the blog , written on the 'Pajamas Media' website, Ledeen reported that a source has "learned that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has apparently succumbed to the cancer that hospitalized him last month" at the age of 67. A blogger of Iranian origin estimated that "something is happening, and I hope it is not the collapse of another dictator, becayse Iran should prepare for someone worse."

Another blogger, living outside Iran, wrote: "My mother in Tehran says that there are songs on television, so everything is as usual."

He added that before the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, the former leader, the regime called on the public to pray for his wellbeing and prepared for the leader's death. But this time, there is no sign on the media in Iran testifying to an unusual event.

'An Israeli conspiracy'

Practically all media outlets in Iran are closely supervised by the regime and have yet to deny the report. The only website which responded to the rumors was Baztab, which is owned by Mohsen Razaee, the secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council of Iran, and which claimed that the report was "an Israeli conspiracy."

And what about Ahmadinejad? The energetic Iranian president continued his trip to the south of the country and did not convey any sign to testify that such a highly significant event has indeed taken place.

The last time 67-year-old Khamenei was seen in public was on December 15, when he arrived to vote in the elections for the Council of Experts and the local councils in Iran. Surprisingly, however, he did not appear in public in order to deliver his sermon in honor of the Hajj, as he does every year. Instead, his office issued a written announcement on his behalf.

If the Iranian supreme leader is indeed dead, the Council of Experts, a body comprised of 86 clerics, will elect one of its members as the new leader. Under such circumstances, internal struggles may erupt between the clerics in Iran, and this may undermine the Iranian regime.

But UPI says...

Iran: Reports supreme leader dead false

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- Iran's ambassador to the United Nations says there is no truth to reports his nation's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Hoseini-Khamenei, has died.

Reports had surfaced on the internet Friday the 67 year-old Khamenei died. There were reports last month he was seriously ill.

But, Javad Zarif, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, told United Press International, "There is no truth to that" when asked about the reports.

Khamenei has been Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran since 1989.

The former Persia became a republic in 1979 when conservative clerical forces established a theocratic system of government. The unltimate political authority was put in the hands of a senior religious scholar, in this case, Khamenei.

Jan 7, 4:35 AM EST

Official: Khamenei Enjoys Good Health
 

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's foreign ministry on Sunday denied rumors that supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had died, saying he was in good health.

"He is in completely good health," said Mohammed Ali Hosseini, ministry spokesman, in his weekly media briefing when he was asked about Khamenei. "Some media made speculations that were not true. We wish him a long life and (lasting) good health."

Earlier this week, rumors appeared on the Internet claiming Khamenei was dead.

Khamenei, 67, has final say on all state matters in Iran as supreme leader, a post he has held since 1989.

Iran's supreme leader wields control over every major decision either directly or through a network of hand-picked loyalists and institutions, including the Revolutionary Guards, the judiciary and intelligence services.

Khamenei's fatwas, or religious edicts, are observed by followers in Iran and beyond.

Khamenei is expected to meet a group of Iranian officials on Monday. His last public appearance was in late December when he inspected elite troops at Iran's Military Academy in Tehran.

January 08, 2007

What to do about Iran

By Amil Imani

There is no shortage of proposals regarding what to do about the present Iran conundrum. Some proposals are authored by experts such as Henry Kissinger, while others are put forward by a variety of lesser luminaries.

I am one of the lesser luminaries. I have been observing and worrying about my country of birth, Iran, ever since a gang of murderous Mullahs and their functionaries assumed power. To my infinite regret and the regret of millions of Iranians, the situation in Iran under the fascist rule of Mullahs is rapidly deteriorating in every respect.

The Iranians, historically among the most civilized and tolerant of mankind's peoples, are now viewed as the base recruits of a primitive seventh century barbaric campaign of Islamofascism. Iran, under the stranglehold and machinations of the Mullahs, has been transformed, in less than three decades, to the lead perpetrator of all that is abhorrent to humanity.

The "Iran Problem," is now a world problem. The question is what to do about Iran?

Pivotal to the success of any solution is first the realization that Islam is a religion which is not helping establish a basis for peaceful resolution. A few facts are presented below to support this assertion.

* The Quran itself repeatedly glorifies death, killing and dying for Islam. It promises the faithful infinite rewards for his Jihad in Allah's paradise.

* Nearly all Islamic holy days, particularly those of the Shiite sect, are observances and re-enactments associated with death.

* The Palestinian territory is festooned with huge portraits of the "martyrs," the suicide bombers that the rest of the world calls them for what they are.

* Streets, parks and all manners of public places in the Islamic Republic of Iran are named after "martyrs" of various sorts.

* Sheikh Hasan Nasrullah, the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon and the pawn of Iran's Mullahs, assured the world of Hezbollah's victory over Israel by proudly announcing: "we will prevail, because the Israelis want to live, and we relish death."

The litany of Islamic death-based beliefs and actions is long indeed. It is, therefore, understandable that Iran's Mullahs are obsessed agents of death. Islam, the Mullahs' and their fanatic follower's system of belief, denigrates life and glorifies death. To these people, death is not death. It is martyrdom, a sure passage to the unimaginably magnificent eternal paradise promised in the Quran.

Under the rule of these adherents of death, everything in Iran is deteriorating and dying. In spite of huge oil revenues, the per capita income of the Iranians is now about one third of what it was before the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Every form of misery has also skyrocketed. Drug addiction, prostitution and suicide have gone through the roof. The young and the educated continue deserting Iran and family, fleeing to the four corners of the earth in search of a decent life.

To make matters worse, the agents of death, the Mullahs, divert the sorely needed funds at home to sponsor and support adventurous Islamic trouble-making abroad. They supply weapons, provide funds, and train any and all takers who share their wanton campaign of terrorism anywhere in the world.

Dissatisfaction with the rule of the Mullahs is widespread. Students, traditionally the vanguard of political and social reform in Iran, continue their valiant struggle in the face of torture, imprisonment and death. Labor unions, although tightly controlled, are in a constant state of rebellion against the inhumane treatments by the state. Ethnic and religious minorities suffering under the ruthless Islamic injustice and Pogrom-like measures are ripe for mass eruption.

The lifeblood of Iran's economy is oil and natural gas. The criminal neglect and squandering of these vital and irreplaceable resources holds a future of even more severe hardship for the Iranian people. Impartial expert studies show that Iran's oil production, at the present rate of exploitation and absence of maintenance, will decline by nearly ten percent per year and will hit zero by 2015.

Corruption and mismanagement, combined with the huge allocation of resources to acquire nuclear weapons are bound to burden the country's badly ailing economy that will likely bury the Mullahs in the rubbles of their own making and grant them their death wish. Regrettably, these purveyors of death aim to hurt and kill many innocent people along the way to their inevitable looming graves.

Over the years, much of the world has been preoccupied with its own problems and showed little concern for the plight of the Iranian people until the Mullahs installed a firebrand Islamist, Ahmadinejad, as the President of the country. This man, called by many Iranians "The Monkey," is now alarming the world by being at the control of the Islamofascist train and throttling it full speed ahead for a cataclysmic collision. Ahamadinejad and his gang are loading their guns and doing all they can to obtain the bomb to bring about the biggest and most dreadful death that would usher in the "Mahdi", their savior-ruler of the world.

What can the world do is the huge question. Some advocate military solutions of various types, ranging from surgical bombings of Iran's nuclear facilities, to military occupation of its oil-producing regions along the Persian Gulf to a full occupation of the country. Each and every one of these trigger-happy solutions is doomed to failure, since they will play directly into the hands of the Mullahs. Any military action against Iran will encounter Iranians' fierce sense of national pride that would rally the people to the support of the regime. Military actions would compound the problem by creating a greater worldwide Islamic solidarity against the perceived "Crusaders-Zionists" conspiracy.

There are those who see the solution in negotiation with the Mullahs. These people are either naïve or dishonest. Mullahs' negotiation is Islamic to the core. They take all and you give all since you, according to the Islamic fiat, are not entitled to anything. One can see how Muslims negotiate even among themselves in places like Iraq, the Palestinian territory, Pakistan and every other Islamic land.

The most promising solution is in the free world's united support of the Iranian opposition groups to the rule of the Mullahs. The Iranian people themselves are fully capable and are determined to remove the cancer of Islamism from their country. The United States and Israel and other democracies have a huge stake in the success of the Iranian people to rid themselves of the Islamic tyranny.

As I have briefly outlined above, the Mullahs are highly vulnerable. A comprehensive political, moral and economic measure by the United States and others offers the best chance of ending the Mullah's reign of terror and diffusing the existential threat they pose to the world. The Bible says, "From those who are much given, much is demanded." Perhaps it is for this reason that the people of the United States of America, once again, are called upon to make huge sacrifices to defeat another tyranny. It is important that this great nation stays the course, enlists its power in support of freedom-loving Iranians to topple the ruling Islamofascits who are bent on wreaking death and destruction of the world.

It is also important to keep in mind Albert Einstein's warning, "The world is a dangerous place not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing."

And when it comes to doing something the prudent way, it is good to follow the advice of the ancient Persians: "The lion of the meadow of Mazandaran can be captured by no other than a Mazadarani warrior." The best match for the ruthless Mullahs and their hired Islamic storm troopers are the Iranian warriors themselves. The people of Iran themselves are the best solution for the present Iranian conundrum. The valiant Iranians need a bit of help. And the last thing they need is appeasing negotiators to give the Mullahs a new lease on life, or invasion by the Marines, or a shower of bombs from the skies.

Amil Imani is an Iranian-born American citizen and pro-democracy activist residing in the United States of America. He maintains a website, http://www.amilimani.com/

 

The Sunday Times

February 04, 2007

Iranian nuclear scientist ‘assassinated by Mossad’

Sarah Baxter, Washington

A PRIZE-WINNING Iranian nuclear scientist has died in mysterious circumstances, according to Radio Farda, which is funded by the US State Department and broadcasts to Iran.

An intelligence source suggested that Ardeshire Hassanpour, 44, a nuclear physicist, had been assassinated by Mossad, the Israeli security service.

Hassanpour worked at a plant in Isfahan where uranium hexafluoride gas is produced. The gas is needed to enrich uranium in another plant at Natanz which has become the focus of concerns that Iran may be developing nuclear weapons.

According to Radio Farda, Iranian reports of Hassanpour’s death emerged on January 21 after a delay of six days, giving the cause as “gas poisoning”. The Iranian reports did not say how or where Hassanpour was poisoned but his death was said to have been announced at a conference on nuclear safety.

Rheva Bhalla of Stratfor, the US intelligence company, claimed on Friday that Hassanpour had been targeted by Mossad and that there was “very strong intelligence” to suggest that he had been assassinated by the Israelis, who have repeatedly threatened to prevent Iran acquiring the bomb.

Hassanpour won Iran’s leading military research prize in 2004 and was awarded top prize at the Kharazmi international science festival in Iran last year.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to announce next Sunday — the 28th anniversary of the Islamic revolution — that 3,000 centrifuges have been installed at Natanz, enabling Iran to move closer to industrial scale uranium enrichment.

Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency say that hundreds of technicians and labourers have been “working feverishly” to assemble equipment at the plant.