31/10/07

Russia FM in surprise Iran visit for nuclear talks
by Staff Writers
Tehran (AFP) Oct 30, 2007
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Iran Tuesday on a surprise visit for talks with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over the controversial Iranian nuclear programme.
www.spacewar.com/reports/Russia_FM_
in_surprise_Iran_visit_for_nuclear_talks_999.html

US downplays talk of Iran attack
Washington (AFP) Oct 30, 2007 – After weeks of escalating US rhetoric on Iran, the White House vowed Tuesday vowed to “pursue every possible diplomatic means” to defuse the volatile dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program. Spokeswoman Dana Perino sought to quiet fears that US President George W. Bush plans to attack the Islamic republic over its refusal to freeze sensitive nuclear work that can lead to the development of ato …
www.spacewar.com/reports/US_down
plays_talk_of_Iran_attack_999.html

US: Iran seeks nuclear weapons
by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) Oct 29, 2007
The United States on Monday brushed aside the UN nuclear watchdog agency chief’s warning that there was no proof Iran seeks atomic weapons, and invited him to stay out of diplomacy with Tehran.
www.spacewar.com/reports/US_
Iran_seeks_nuclear_weapons_999.html

Outside View: Tehran opts for the hard way
Moscow (UPI) Oct 29, 2007 – Tehran’s tough new stance in its dialogue with the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear program, heralded by the sudden resignation of Ali Larijani as chief negotiator earlier this month, is the product of generational shift in Iran’s political elite. Larijani was head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. Changing negotiators at a crucial moment is a bad policy, but Iran is ch …
www.spacewar.com/reports/Outside_
View_Tehran_opts_for_the_hard_way_999.html

Chertoff Calls Iran, Venezuela Relationship ‘Troubling
FOX News – USA
WASHINGTON — Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff on Tuesday
called the developing relationship between Iran and Venezuela “troubling,”
in a …
www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,306418,00.html

Is a new war in Iraq looming on the horizon?
Tehran Times – Iran
TEHRAN (Press TV) — The catastrophe of the Iraq war has been detrimental
to the Iraqi people and consequently the entire region. The US-led invasion
opened …
www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=156161

Syria Signs US$2.6B Oil Refinery Contract With 3 Countries
Syria signed a US$2.6 billion contract with Iran, Venezuela and Malaysia for the construction of an oil refinery in central Syria that will have a daily capacity of 140000 barrels, the oil ministry said.
www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidDN20071030015182

Israeli general suggests to use Azerbaijan’s airbases in strike against Iran:
Brigadier General Oded Tira observed, “President Bush lacks the political power to attack Iran. As an American strike in Iran is essential for our existence, we must help him pave the way by lobbying the Democratic Party and US newspaper editors….as well as Saudi Arabia…immediately to make the Iranian issue strongly  bipartisan one and unrelated to the Iraq failure. General Tira urges the Israel Lobby to, “turn to Hillary Clinton and other potential presidential candidates in the Democratic Party so that they support immediate action by Bush against Iran.”
www.today.az/news/politics/34565.html

Explosive charge blows up in US’s face:
When the United States military command accused the Iranian Quds Force in January of providing the armor-piercing EFPs (explosively formed penetrators) that were killing US troops, it knew that Iraqi machine shops had been producing their own EFPs for years, a review of the historical record of evidence on EFPs in Iraq shows.
www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IJ27Ak05.html

30/10/07

Cheney/Halliburton/Iran…………..more bushco bullshit
By iain@themats.wanadoo.co.uk
As investigators from 60 Minutes discovered, Halliburton has used an offshore subsidiary incorporated in the Cayman Islands (where the company has no oil and gas construction or engineering operations) to trade with Iran, a country that …
sodajerk.terapad.com/index.cfm?fa=content
News.newsDetails&newsID=40387&from=list

Secret move to upgrade air base for Iran attack plans 29 Oct 2007 The US is secretly upgrading special stealth bomber hangars on the British island protectorate of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, according to military sources. The improvement of the B1 Spirit jet infrastructure coincides with an “urgent operational need” request for £44m to fit racks to the long-range aircraft. That would allow them to carry experimental 15-ton Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bombs designed to smash underground bunkers buried as much as 200ft beneath the surface through reinforced concrete.
www.theherald.co.uk/news/foreig
n/display.var.1792035.0.0.php

US: Iran seeks nuclear weapons 30 Oct 2007 The United States on Monday brushed aside the UN nuclear watchdog agency chief’s warning that there was no proof Iran seeks atomic weapons, and invited him to stay out of diplomacy with Tehran. Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told CNN Sunday that he had no evidence Iran was building nuclear weapons and accused US leaders of adding “fuel to the fire” with their warlike rhetoric.
afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j
Bcgm2O2MKETEJ71ZHC4spasvoIw

US downplays talk of Iran attack 31 Oct 2007 After weeks of escalating US rhetoric on Iran, the White House overnight vowed to “pursue every possible diplomatic means” to defuse the volatile dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program.
www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22678158-23109,00.html

Bush, Putin and WW III?
Aijaz Ahmad on the Russian-Iranian handshake (2 of 3)
therealnews.com/c.php?c=071030&i=547

Iran Mediating Between Syria, Saudi Arabia
MEMRI – Washington,DC,USA
Iran’s Ambassador to Lebanon Muhammad Radha Shibani has confirmed that Iran
is attempting to mediate between Syria and Saudi Arabia in order to ease
…
www.thememriblog.org/blog_personal/en/3452.htm

The Bush administration and the Israeli government are on the same page about the urgent need to neutralize Iran’s nuclear facilities. But former CIA analyst Ray McGovern wonders whose interests are at the forefront of this impending conflict.
www.consortiumnews.com

Turning Truth On Its Head
By Abbas Edalat & Mehrnaz Shahabi
The US has opened up a new front in its now sharply accelerated war drive on Iran. The announcement last week by Condoleezza Rice, branding Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps a terrorist organisation, and imposing the strongest sanctions yet since 1979 Iranian Revolution, alarmed several democratic presidential candidates who described it as an indication that the White House had begun its “march to war”
www.countercurrents.org/shahabi301007.htm

29/10/07

Worries grow over US base in Lebanon
PRESS TV – Tehran,Iran
Worries grow in Lebanon over the possibility of a military base being built
by the United States in the Akkar district in northern Lebanon. …
www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=28986&sectionid=351020203

Iran reformists warn of isolation over nuclear policy

Tehran (AFP) Oct 26, 2007 – Iran’s top reformist party on Friday criticised the foreign policy of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying it was bringing the risk of tougher international confrontation over Tehran’s nuclear standoff. Mohsen Mirdamadi, secretary general of the Iranian Islamic Participation Front, warned that “new sanctions and even more dangerous actions” could result from the president’s “self-praise and …
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UN nuclear chief attacks hostile US claims on Iran
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US denies being on warpath with Iran
rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001GGYKLq0LMNsGsaus_k3XymqkJWq-T7y
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hCwiraIwqhiLAriz_

Destiny of Iran, Turkey, and Iraq intertwined: Ahmadinejad
Tehran Times – Iran
TEHRAN — President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said here on Sunday that the nations
of Iran, Turkey, and Iraq are “friends and brothers.” “The destiny of
all of us …
www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=155964

From Iraq to Iran — Shifting Priorities
ABC News – USA
“We hear eerie echoes of the runup to the war in Iraq, in the way the
president and the vice president talk about Iran,” said Barack Obama in
Iowa last …
www.abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=3787392&page=1

28/10/07

No evidence Iran is making nukes: ElBaradei 29 Oct 2007 Chief UN atomic watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei said overnight he had no evidence Iran was building nuclear weapons and accused US leaders of adding “fuel to the fire” with recent bellicose rhetoric. “I have not received any information that there is a concrete active nuclear weapons program going on right now,” the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told CNN.
www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/
0,21985,22664498-5005961,00.html

Head of UN nuclear agency calls on Bush to ease Iran rhetoric 28 Oct 2007 Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, urged the Bush administration Sunday to soften its rhetoric against Tehran, even as a prominent Democratic senator said he feared that U.S. military action was drawing “precariously close.” The comments by ElBaradei and Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, the senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee, came in response to the regime’s recent tough talk, including President [sic] George W. Bush’s warning of “World War III” if Tehran obtained nuclear arms, and Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney’s caution of “serious consequences” for Iran.
www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/28/america/policy.php

U.S. Military Ignored Evidence of Iraqi-Made EFPs By Gareth Porter 25 Oct 2007 When the U.S. military command accused the Iranian Quds Force last January of providing the armour-piercing EFPs (explosively formed penetrators) that were killing U.S. troops, it knew that Iraqi machine shops had been producing their own EFPs for years, a review of the historical record of evidence on EFPs in Iraq shows. The record also shows that the U.S. command had considerable evidence that the Mahdi army had gotten the technology and the training on how to use it from Hezbollah rather than Iran. The command, operating under close White House supervision, chose to deny these facts in making the dramatic accusation that became the main rationale for the present aggressive U.S. stance toward Iran.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39810

Iran FM: US should stop supporting terrorism 28 Oct 2007 Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Sunday expressed hope that Washington would stop supporting terrorism. Terrorist activities in northern Iraq have increased following the presence of foreign forces in that country, the Iranian said reiterating, “Such activities are carried out through foreign support.”
www.albawaba.com/en/countries/Iran/218096

White House Leak
Cheney’s Plan for Iran Attack Starts With Israeli Missile Strike
By Gregor Peter Schmitz and Cordula Meyer
This information was leaked by an official close to the vice president. Cheney himself hasn’t denied engaging in such war games. For years, in fact, he’s been open about his opinion that an attack on Iran, a member of US President George W. Bush’s “Axis of Evil,” is inevitable.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18631.htm

We must bomb Iran, says US Republican guru:
A senior foreign policy adviser to the Republican frontrunner Rudy Giuliani has urged that Iran be bombed using cruise missiles and “bunker busters” to set back Teheran’s nuclear programme by at least five years.
snipurl.com/1str1
 
Iran steps up preparations for US war:
Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is stepping up preparations for possible war with America by replacing a string of moderate regime officials with hardliners who more closely share his views.
snipurl.com/1str2
 
Pepe Escobar : ‘War on terror’ is now war on Iran:
Scores of middle-aged, mild-mannered, bearded gentlemen – the technocrats of the Iranian military bourgeoisie – are now officially enjoying the status of “terrorists”, at least from a Washington point of view.
www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IJ27Ak03.html
 
“Sanctions – A Prelude to War?”: Video:
The US government imposes new sanctions on Iran ‘s military. What will be the impact on Iran? Will the international community back the US action? And will this lead to war?
www.youtube.com/v/2nm2LDrhm5Q
 
US cautions India against Iran pipeline :
The US is hoping that India would not move forward with the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project as Washington has imposed more sanctions on Tehran citing links to terrorism and weapons proliferation.
snipurl.com/1str6
 
German FM warns against military measures against Iran :
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Saturday warned against any “military adventures” against Iran over its controversial nuclear programs, local reports said.
english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/6291950.html
 
In case you missed it:
Why shouldn’t Iran have nuclear weapons? :
As international political powers seek Iran’s capitulation on nuclear weapons development, little notice is given to what the Americans and the British have done to create this crisis nor what steps the Israelis might eventually take to make it profoundly more complicated.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12894.htm

Petroleum Ministry to Sign Agreement for Constructing Refinery in …
SANA – Syrian Arab News Agency – Damascus,Syria
Damascus, (SANA) – Syria, Iran and Venezuela will sign on Tuesday a
partnership agreement for constructing a crude oil refinery with a capacity
of 140 …
www.sana.org/eng/24/2007/10/28/145919.htm

Rein in the rush to a war in Iran
Chicago Sun-Times – United States
We’ve got to clean up our mess in Iraq before we even consider fighting
anybody else. That’s why we applaud Sen. Dick Durbin’s bill that would
require …
www.suntimes.com/news/commentary
/623676,CST-EDT-edit28a.article

First, Iraq; Now, Iran: Are We So Gullible?
By Left Turn(Left Turn)
While there are indeed plenty of Iranians or Iranian sympathisers in Iraq, they came in with the occupiers. Many in high places in Iraq’s corrupt, militia driven, American puppet government, speak Farsi, not Arabic. …
joswift.blogspot.com/2007/10/first-iraq
-now-iran-are-we-so-gullible.html

Iran Favours Peaceful Solution on Kurds, Iraq says
BAGHDAD-Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has told Iraq he supports a crackdown on Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq but wants a peaceful solution to the crisis, Iraq’s government said…
en.epochtimes.com/news/7-10-28/61288.html

The challenges ahead in Afghanistan
Tehran Times – Iran
After a breakfast meeting in Downing Street, Gordon Brown and Afghan
President Hamid Karzai painted an upbeat picture of developments in
Afghanistan. …
www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=155828

Target Iran part 1
Sunday Herald – Glasgow,Scotland,UK
“I don’t think he wants another Iraq on his hands, he wants to give
diplomacy a chance and to ratchet up the rhetoric. I guess he wants
Ahmadinejad to sweat …
www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/
display.var.1791455.0.target_iran_part_1.php