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By David Rothkopf
$17.16
By David E. Sanger
$17.79
$22
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apan-info.net
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Just hours before the president’s national address, during which he accused Iran of supporting attacks on American troops, U.S. forces raided the Iranian consulate in Erbil, Kurdistan, abducting at least five people and seizing documents and other property, according to eyewitnesses.
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nationalgeographic.com
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The Sunday Times has learned that Israel is considering the use of tactical nuclear weapons in order to eliminate Iran’s nuclear program. According to Israeli military sources, the plan would be implemented only if the United States refused to act militarily or analysts decided a conventional attack would be unsuccessful. (h/t: Largest Minority)
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By Andy Borowitz — The satirist reports on the president’s vows for 2007—which include organizing a hunting trip for Dick Cheney and Nancy Pelosi.
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nytimes.com
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Iran has flooded Afghanistan with both good works and propaganda, writes The New York Times’ David Rohde, in an effort to spread its influence. While the U.S. has resisted Tehran’s ascendancy in Iraq, it seems the Bush administration’s growing disinterest in Afghanistan extends to Iran’s presence there.
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news.bbc.co.uk
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Iran responded defiantly Sunday to U.N. Security Council sanctions by announcing it would press ahead with nuclear enrichment. “Previously we said repeatedly that if the Westerners wanted to exploit the UN Security Council it will not only have no influence but make us more determined to pursue our nuclear goals even faster,” said Iran’s top nuclear negotiator.
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nytimes.com
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The student movement that led to revolution in Iran may now be setting its sights on the country’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was protested last week during an appearance at the same university where the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy was planned.
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The White House is considering whether to further pressure Iran by adding to the naval fleet already stationed in the Gulf region. The carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower and four other ships and submarines already present could be joined by at least one additional carrier in this dicey bid to rattle Tehran.
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Resse Erlich
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By Reese Erlich — Award-winning journalist Reese Erlich discovers that everyday Iranians favor talks between America and Tehran, but most think the negotiations will amount to little more than window dressing.
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slate.com
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The National Security Council has blocked publication of an article critical of the Bush administration’s Iran policy, claiming that it contains classified information. The piece was written by two former government Mideast experts, who have accused the NSC of playing politics: “They don’t want us to say how many opportunities this administration has missed to put relations with Iran on a better track.”
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thewe.cc
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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appears to have suffered his first major political setback, as early results from last week’s election start to come in. Ahmadinejad’s Sweet Scent of Service coalition won only three of Tehran’s 15 city council seats, while reformists and moderate conservatives enjoyed electoral success nationwide.
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news.yahoo.com
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Hezbollah has threatened an escalation in its campaign against Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora unless he resigns. Hundreds of thousands of Hezbollah supporters took to the streets on Sunday, but Christian and Sunni leaders appear unlikely to bow to the pressure.
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Courtesy Reese Erlich
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By Joshua Scheer — Investigative reporter Reese Erlich, just back from a tour of the Middle East, tells Truthdig that the U.S. efforts to promote democracy in that part of the world are beset by religious fundamentalists on one side and unabashed kleptocrats on the other.
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By Joe Conason — If nothing else can be said for Robert Gates, he seems to have learned that the appearance of honesty is preferable to blatant attempts at deception.
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newsweek.com
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With Moqtada al-Sadr walking out of Nouri al-Maliki’s government, the Iraqi prime minister is desperate for the support of prominent Shiite Abdul Aziz al-Hakim and his 30 parliamentarians, which may explain President Bush’s meeting with the politician earlier Monday. However, Hakim has strong ties to Iran, which is widely assumed to equip and fund his militia, placing Bush in yet another awkward tap dance between stability in Iraq and hostility toward Iran.
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By Joe Conason — Bush made his bed with the Iraq quagmire. Now he has to deal with the consequences: diplomacy with Iran and Syria.
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AP Photo / Vahid Salemi
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By Robert Scheer — How in the world did George W. Bush manage to turn Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the “Supreme Leader” of “Axis of Evil” Iran, into a prophet of peace in the Middle East?
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news.bbc.co.uk
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Iraq’s president met with his Iranian counterpart on Monday, asking for assistance with his nation’s growing security crisis. Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad responded warmly: “Definitely, the Iranian government and nation will stand next to its brother Iraq and will do every help it can to strengthen security in Iraq.”
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cns.miis.edu
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Analysts are abuzz over a potential U.S. airstrike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Although the certainty of such an attack has grown hazier with a new Congress and a new defense secretary, a number of Bush loyalists have already indicated their desire to deal militarily with Iran’s nuclear program.
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huffingtonpost.com
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President Bush is set to travel to Jordan next week for a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The event might be a bit uncomfortable for the pair, now that the Iraqi government has responded to the flirtations of Iran and Syria.
Posted on Nov 22, 2006
READ MORE 
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Iran has invited the Iraqi and Syrian presidents to Tehran for a weekend summit to figure out how to curb the violence in Iraq. The invite is being regarded as another example of the newly empowered Iran upstaging potential U.S. efforts toward the same end.
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The CIA has found no hard evidence of a secret drive by Iran to develop nuclear weapons, The New Yorker’s Sy Hersh reports.
Also, Hersh reports that Cheney has vowed to circumvent Congress and pursue military options against Tehran.
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Seymour Hersh says the White House is channeling intelligence related to Iran’s nuclear program, a la Iraq, preventing the CIA from scrutinizing “evidence” attributed to a secret Israeli source inside Iran. According to Hersh, the CIA maintains Iran has “no secret program of significant bomb making.”
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AP / Lee Marriner
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By Joshua Scheer — In a Truthdig interview, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) reacts to Rep. John Murtha’s failed bid for House majority leader, and explains why cutting off funding for the Iraq war is the only way to truly protect American troops.
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kollectablekaos.com.au
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International inspectors have found unexplained plutonium and highly enriched uranium traces in an Iranian nuclear waste facility and have asked Tehran for an explanation.
We’re guessing that Ahmadinejad isn’t trying to power a time machine, like the one from “Back to the Future” (above).
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By Robert Scheer — Truthdig’s editor argues that there remain unanswered questions surrounding the Iran-Contra connections of Robert Gates, whom Bush has tapped as defense secretary.
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From boston.com
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Mohammad Khatami, the reform-minded former president of Iran who favored a “dialogue among civilizations,” labeled America’s efforts to impose democracy on the Middle East a “great joke.” He added, “Democracy is not something to get exported.”
Listen to his BBC interview
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By Danny Postel and Nader Hashemi — Two experts on Iran tear to shreds the L.A. Times columnist’s recent essay about America’s “need” to intervene in that country.
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From robokopp.de
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At the same time America is lecturing N. Korea and Iran about abandoning their nuclear weapons programs, the U.S. is pressing ahead with plans to build a new stockpile of 2,200 deployed nuclear weapons.
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In the latest installment of the Truthdig Podcast, Robert Scheer offers his take on North Korea’s nuclear test, Iran, diplomacy, Democratic prospects and much more.
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In the latest installment of the Truthdig Podcast, Robert Scheer offers his take on North Korea’s nuclear test, negotiations with Iran, a possible victory for the Dems and much more.
Posted on Oct 12, 2006
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By Joe Conason — America’s invasion of Iraq has made predictable impressions on Iran and North Korea: Only military power, underscored by the actual possession of nuclear weapons, can guarantee survival against a superpower bent on regime change.
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Bill O’Reilly claims Iran is “upping the violence” in Iraq to give Democrats a boost in the November election. O’Reilly then hypocritically encourages Bush to use military action to achieve a political end. (Video & Transcript)
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AP Photo/Vahid Salemi
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By Chris Hedges — The former Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times and author of the bestseller “War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning” reports on Bush’s plan for Iran, and how a callous war, conceived by zealots, will lead to a disaster of biblical proportions.
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The Nation is reporting that the Pentagon has moved up the deployment of a major “strike group” of ships, including an aircraft carrier, to head for the Persian Gulf, just off Iran’s western coast. This is not conclusive, but it follows all kinds of other ominous signs of an impending strike on Iran.
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A former Air Force colonel said on CNN that the U.S. is currently conducting military operations inside Iran. But his evidence seems weak, and we don’t want to make a big deal out of it.
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argenpress.info
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The love-fest between Tehran and Caracas deepened this week, with an official visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the Venezuelan capital. Hugo Chavez and the Iranian leader embraced, signed 29 agreements and decried American-style world hegemony.
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During the president’s Rose Garden press conference, NBC reporter David Gregory asked Bush how he would feel if a country like Iran or North Korea kidnapped an American citizen, tortured him and then tried him without letting him see any evidence. Bush’s answer was a nonsensical non sequitur. (Read it) (Salon post - ad required)
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Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer strongly suggests that America needs to launch an aerial strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities within the next year.
The calculus he uses to weigh this decision is insidious—in that some of it is actually honest.
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A United Nations committee is bitterly complaining that parts of a U.S. House report on Iran’s nuclear capabilities are “outrageous and dishonest.”
Brain teaser: Name the last Middle Eastern country which America dubiously claimed was developing nuclear weapons, and whose name starts with the letters I-R-A…
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The U.S. and three European allies may seek a range of sanctions against Iran including travel restrictions on Iranian leaders and limitations on access to global financial markets. However, according to the NYT, a recent report by the IAEA might hamper the sanctions effort. The report says Iran is making slow progress and has not increased its rate of production of enriched uranium, and that the purity of the uranium would only be useful for power plants, not weapons.
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Senior Bush officials and other top Republicans are apparently angry that U.S. intelligence agencies aren’t issuing more ominous threats about Iran. The GOP’ers, marred by (but unrepentant for) their Iraq debacle, are eager to use their lethal Tonka Toys once again—this time in Iran.
Check out an intelligence expert at AMERICAblog who argues that Iran poses no imminent threat to the U.S.
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A congressional report warned that there are “significant gaps” in America’s understanding of Iran’s WMDs capabilities—and even questioned if we are able to engage in meaningful talks with Tehran on ways to diffuse tensions.
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From Fox News
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Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol continues his drumbeat for war against Iran in this clip from Fox News.
This is how it all starts. Unconvinced? Take it from Sy Hersh, the country’s best investigative journalist: (chronological dispatches, from oldest to newest: here, here, here and here)
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View the most popular tags overall?
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Real American Boy: How Our Byzantine Immigration System and Failed Economy May Have Made a Terrorist
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