Ahmedinejad Khatami Split

[segovius]

Looks like Ahmedinejad and Khatami are at loggerheads. Or, more specifically, Ahmedinejad is running scared of Khatami's growing moderate power base.

TEHRAN: Iran's government spokesman has launched a blistering attack on former President Mohammad Khatami, saying he was yielding to the United States with his cherished "Dialogue of Civilizations" plan, media reported on Thursday.

Since handing over power to his successor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the reformist Khatami has devoted his energies to the center he has founded to promote dialogue among the world's cultures and religions.

"With this plan we bowed in front of the system of domination and we said 'We are backward, we should learn democracy from you,'" the Etemad newspaper quoted government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham as saying.

"When Iran put forward this plan we showed passivity and obeisance," Elham told students in a speech on Tuesday at Shahed University outside Tehran.

The attack comes during the build-up to parliamentary elections on March 14, with forces linked to Khatami and other reformists hoping to launch a comeback after years in the cold.

Link (http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=86071)

We've - luckily and thank God - miraculously got one more chance to get back on the road Iran was on before the US stuck its schnozz in and caused a backlash which swept Ahmedinejad to power and put an end to all moderate hopes for years because of Bush's insane and juvenile macho bluster and posturing.

Now it seems there is one last chance in the upcoming elections - yes, Iran DOES have them (who'd have thunk it?) - and perhaps the moderates can seize control.

All we need is for Bush to keep his big trap shut and let regime change happen without a shot being fired.

Unfortunately that means he will most likely ratchet up the rhetoric, neanderthal bar-room bluster and frenzied drum-beat to war.

But still, we can hope.....

[Jubelum]

... yea, the world we be fine if it wasn't for that swaggering frat boy GWB.
A utopia even. :\

Do you see any problem with a nuclear-armed Iran? Just wondering...

When are the next elections in Iran?

[@_@ Artman]

Do you see any problem with a nuclear-armed Iran? Just wondering...


Just a thought, the administration's afraid of Iran with nuclear weapons. And then I see what happened in Pakistan and think (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071019/ap_on_re_as/pakistan)...are we worried or afraid of the wrong country?

This is not a jab at the Pakistani people, just the nut-bags who run or may take over the present nut-bag government.

[segovius]

... yea, the world we be fine if it wasn't for that swaggering frat boy GWB.
A utopia even. :\

Do you see any problem with a nuclear-armed Iran? Just wondering...

When are the next elections in Iran?

Well, in this case, Ahmedinejad got in because of US breast-beating. Otherwise we would have had Khatami for the last three years.

Second, I see a problem with a nuclear armed US. They are the ones who have said they may even use them on Iran. I expect Iranians see that as a problem too. So if it stopped Iran getting nuked by a swaggering fat-boy then no, I don't see a problem.

But then we do not have any evidence that Iran is going the nuke road. We have some proven liars parroting it just like they did when they lied about Iraq's WMD and we have Putin saying Russia has no evidence - oh, and a lot of wingnut fanboys frothing about it but that's all there is.

I think the elections are March next year.

Plenty of time for Fat Boy to nip any pinko commie peace tendencies in the bud.

[Northgate]

Funny. Relations between the US and Iran seemed to be getting much better before Bush took office.

I wonder what happened to change all that?

Oh yeah, we illegally invaded the one and only country that seemed to be keeping them in check.

If GWB parked an aircraft carrier in my back yard I'd be getting a little riled up myself.

[segovius]

Just a thought, the administration's afraid of Iran with nuclear weapons. And then I see what happened in Pakistan and think (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071019/ap_on_re_as/pakistan)...are we worried or afraid of the wrong country?

This is not a jab at the Pakistani people, just the nut-bags who run or may take over the present nut-bag government.

They're not afraid.

They know - as well as Russia and China and anyone not singing from the same hymn-sheet - that Iran is not going the nuclear route.

Iran was scheduled for shock and awe days after 911 and Ahmedinejad was down on the farm not even dreaming of power then. And Iran was moderate in comparison to what you have now.

The nuke BS is for the sheep.

If they really believed it and it was true Israel and/or the US would have taken out the facilities and hang the rest of it the minute they knew.

They wouldn't be sitting around fannying for months on end like they are doing. Of course they have to sit around fannying for months on end in order to prep the sheep.....

[Northgate]

It's called the "Jack Bauer" foreign policy.

[Jubelum]

Second, I see a problem with a nuclear armed US. They are the ones who have said they may even use them on Iran.

Goodness, I should have beaten you to the punch on that one. I KNEW that was going to be part of the response. :lol:

So, how can we help moderates in Iran? Maybe we can dig up that game plan for Operation Ajax and see if it still works.. ;)

[Northgate]

Or we can ask Clinton how he did it in Yugoslavia.

[Jubelum]

Or we can ask Clinton how he did it in Yugoslavia.

from 30,000 feet?

[@_@ Artman]

DEBKAfile Exclusive: Warning letters delivered to thousands of Jewish families in Iran advise them to leave the country without delay (http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=4685)

The letters, according to DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources, have been posted to Jewish families in Tehran (where the community numbers some 13,000), Isfahan (under 2,000) and Shiraz (some 4,000). They are captioned: Danger! Danger! Danger! and tell recipients to try and reach the West with all possible speed. Iranian Jews like the rest of the population face grave danger from impending events, the anonymous writers warn.

The letters posted to Iranian Jews, our sources report, are not signed; they were postmarked from different towns in America and Europe and from private addresses so as not to raise the suspicions of Iranian security services.

All the same, some were discovered and confiscated, prompting Tehran to accuse Israel and world Zionist organizations of a campaign to scare its Jewish citizens.

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g255/artman46/aaaahx3.gif

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g255/artman46/laughzp6.gif

[segovius]

DEBKAfile Exclusive: Warning letters delivered to thousands of Jewish families in Iran advise them to leave the country without delay (http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=4685)


Iranian Jews have long been a target of the Zionist hate-mongers and this is just another lame-assed attempt either from them or from right-wing Christianist nutters.

Or maybe it is just made up by wingnut Islamophobes.

Interesting article from the Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2125155,00.html) (with interesting retraction of their printing of the 'wiped off the map' propaganda).

Iran's Jews have given the country a loyalty pledge in the face of cash offers aimed at encouraging them to move to Israel, the arch-enemy of its Islamic rulers.

The incentives — ranging from £5,000 a person to £30,000 for families — were offered from a special fund established by wealthy expatriate Jews in an effort to prompt a mass migration to Israel from among Iran's 25,000-strong Jewish community. The offers were made with Israel's official blessing and were additional to the usual state packages it provides to Jews emigrating from the diaspora.

However, the Society of Iranian Jews dismissed them as "immature political enticements" and said their national identity was not for sale.

"The identity of Iranian Jews is not tradeable for any amount of money," the society said in a statement. "Iranian Jews are among the most ancient Iranians. Iran's Jews love their Iranian identity and their culture, so threats and this immature political enticement will not achieve their aim of wiping out the identity of Iranian Jews."

Despite the absence of diplomatic ties with Israel, Iranian Jews frequently go there to visit relatives.

[Northgate]

from 30,000 feet?

Not the bombing campaign. I was referring to fueling the "regime change" without a single U.S. soldier getting killed.

History is sometimes inconvenient, isn't it?

[sammi jo]

They're not afraid.

They know - as well as Russia and China and anyone not singing from the same hymn-sheet - that Iran is not going the nuclear route.

Neither was Iraq going the nuclear route.... but Rice etc were given all the airtime in the world by the complicit mainstream media to spread unadulterated lies and BS to the people about Iraq's "reconstituted" nuclear program. Recall the scaremongering about "mushroom clouds"? In reality, Iraq's "nuclear program" was a collection of rusted buildings in the bombed-out, largely abandoned Tuwaitha facility some 20 miles south of Baghdad. Bush knew this, Rice knew this, the CIA etc gave them the pertinent intelligence, but they elected to lie, rather than let down their bosses.

Iran was scheduled for shock and awe days after 911 and Ahmedinejad was down on the farm not even dreaming of power then. And Iran was moderate in comparison to what you have now.

Some 10 days after 9/11, General Wes Clark was informed by (former) defense sec. Rumsfeld that "we going going to take out 7 countries in 5 years (http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/27683)". Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Sudan, and Somalia were 8 likely choices (amongst others) from which to select the "seven". This list is exactly the same list of nations that the PNAC called for in its "unworkable-without-9/11" empire bulding plan, publicized exactly one year to the day before the 9/11 attacks. How utterly convenient and coincidental... :no::no::no:
The plan to attack Iran and the rest was made long before 9/11.

If they really believed it and it was true Israel and/or the US would have taken out the facilities and hang the rest of it the minute they knew.

Take note... Syria did not react. Neither did Iraq when Israel bombed the Osirak nuclear power station a couple of decades back. Now imagine turning the tables, with one of Israel's neighbors succesfully bombing the WMD (nuclear) site at Dimona, (and perhaps their chemical and bio-weapons facilities elsewhere in Israel).. what would happen?

One rule for Israel, and another for everyone else....

~

and btw... whatever happened to the time when the world disapproved of apartheid?

[Jubelum]

Not the bombing campaign. I was referring to fueling the "regime change" without a single U.S. soldier getting killed.

History is sometimes inconvenient, isn't it?

History just is what it is. I'm not sure what you think is "inconvenient."

How, in your opinion, could we have affected regime change in Iraq without a single US soldier getting killed?

[segovius]

History just is what it is. I'm not sure what you think is "inconvenient."

How, in your opinion, could we have affected regime change in Iraq without a single US soldier getting killed?

You didn't need to do any regime change. Read my lips:it was none of your business...

Oh, wait, I forgot. There was oil and Islamophobic Xianist nutjobs are in control of what passes for your foreign policy....

[segovius]

Back OT: it seems the splits are widening within the Ahmedinejad administration.

Iran's nuclear negotiator resigns. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7053963.stm)

[Bergermeister]

Do you see any problem with a nuclear-armed Iran? Just wondering...


Some see a problem with a nuclear-armed US... recall the Cold War? Recall the billions and billions of dollars diverted from important things just to build lots of nukes because the Ruskies had them (but not as many as we were lead to believe)? Recall the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (which many question were truly necessary except for the CW)?

What about the long list of accidents involving nukes?

http://www.cdi.org/Issues/NukeAccidents/accidents.htm

Recall the recent news about a B-52 flying cross-country with nukes aboard in violation of tons of regulations? 70 personnel have been punished for widespread violations; 70 people who were entrusted with weapons of mass destruction. Held to account, but it should no have happened and there should be assurances of that.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071020/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/nuclear_mistake;_ylt=Ao8WaYIjflpeDwXpnUJ1lyms0NUE

What about some islands in the Pacific where the inhabitants were forcibly removed and the islands bombed so many times that no humans can return for many, many years?

What about the small number of missiles the US placed in a country named Turkey, that just happened to be pretty close to the USSR? They seem to have set in motion a sequence of events that led to a confrontation popularly known as the Cuban Missile Crisis (though it might just as well have been called the Turkish Missile Crisis).

The US has actually used and has abused nukes as badly or worse than the next country.

Let us pray that nothing ever goes seriously wrong.