|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
By Brad Kessler
$16.32
By T Cooper and Adam Mansbach
$11.64
$35
|
|
|
|
AP photo / Hasan Sarbakhshian
|
Political observers in Iran are estimating that turnout for Friday’s parliamentary elections may break the country’s 2004 record low of 51 percent. The government’s ruling religious conservative faction is accused of barring many opposition reformist candidates and depressing electoral participation.
|
breitbart.tv
|
Last Sunday’s alleged confrontation between five Iranian boats and a U.S. Navy vessel, the Hopper, in the Strait of Hormuz was not the dangerous confrontation American officials claimed it was, as evidenced by the somewhat confusing footage the Pentagon released Tuesday. In fact, according to a source in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the video itself was “fabricated.”
|
payvand.com
|
A new report released by American intelligence officials profoundly contradicts President Bush’s claims on the Iran nuclear threat and casts his “World War III” fear-mongering in a dubious light. The National Intelligence Estimate’s declassified assessment, compiled from 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, says Iran actually halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 “in response to international pressure.”
|
AP photo / Hasan Sarbakhshian
|
In what may be a sign of turning tides within Iran, a powerful paper in Tehran, The Islamic Republic, published an editorial Wednesday slamming President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s treatment of his political opponents—an auspicious critique, considering the paper’s close ties with Ayatollah Khamenei.
|
AP photo / Vahid Salemi
|
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stopped off in Tehran to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday after the weekend’s OPEC summit in Saudi Arabia, marking Chavez’s fourth trip to Iran in two years. During their tête-à-tête, the two least likely leaders to drop in for dinner at the White House discussed, among other things, the dollar’s recent and precipitous decline.
|
AP photo / Vahid Salemi
|
The good news, according to the U.N.‘s nuclear agency, is that Iran earlier was forthcoming with information about its nuclear program. The bad news is that Iran is not now offering the same level of transparency, is reportedly still enriching uranium in defiance of the Security Council and may be, according to the BBC, cooperating just enough to avoid additional sanctions. Above, Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili.
|
AP photo / Brennan Linsley
|
By Chris Hedges — The last, best hope for averting a war with Iran lies with the United States military. We will be saved or doomed by our generals.
|
AP photo / Vahid Salemi
|
Iran is another step closer to reaching its long-term nuclear goals, now that 3,000 centrifuges are up and running as part of its uranium enrichment program. Some experts in the West say 3,000 centrifuges technically could be sufficient to produce a nuclear weapon within a year.
|
AP photo / Caleb Jones
|
Adding fuel to the fire from President Bush’s “World War III” comment about the threat a nuclear-equipped Iran would pose to the world, Vice President Dick Cheney said on Sunday that the U.S. and like-minded nations “will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.” However, Cheney was less than clear about exactly how this nuke-thwarting process might take place.
|
macadamcage.com
|
Gina Nahai —
Truthdig is pleased to present these two excerpts from the novel “Caspian Rain” by Gina Nahai, best-selling author of “Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith.” In “Rain,” her fourth novel, Nahai explores Iran’s complex culture through the eyes of a group of memorable characters living in various sectors of society during the years leading up to the Islamic Revolution.
|
|
President Bush has once again accused Iran of supplying militants in Iraq, colorfully referring to “Tehran’s murderous activities” in a speech Tuesday. The heated rhetoric, including references to Iran’s supposed nuclear ambitions and mysterious evidence of unsavory behavior, bears an uncomfortable resemblance to the administration’s push for war with Iraq.
|
|
After extensive meetings with Iraqi officials in Tehran this week, Iranian Vice President Parviz Davoodi linked Iraq’s future security to U.S withdrawal from the country. Judging by the reported mood of the meetings, Iraq and Iran are forging strong ties that will make the Bush administration’s increasingly cagey attitude toward Iran hard to sell to Iraqi leaders.
|
|
Here’s some good news from Iran that President Bush and his flock of hawks may not be eager to hear: United Nations officials have reported that Iran is slowing its nuclear program and inspectors are returning to Tehran.
|
AP photo
|
You wouldn’t think one of the world’s biggest oil producers would have gasoline shortages, but Iran simply lacks the refining capacity to meet demand. A new rationing system meant to keep costs down has sparked riots. Under the new rules, prices have soared to 38 cents a gallon.
|
AP Photo / Vahid Salemi
|
A report released by the International Atomic Energy Agency reveals that Iran is moving forward with its nuclear program, in defiance of sanctions imposed in March by the United Nations. The watchdog agency says Tehran is obstructing the IAEA’s investigative efforts to monitor suspicious nuclear activities, according to the BBC.
|
AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian
|
By Robert Scheer — Relations between the U.S. and Iran are shifting as U.N. inspectors discover that Iran’s uranium enrichment program appears to be further along than previously believed. These new developments only underscore the increasing volatility in the very region the American invasion of Iraq was supposed to secure, and they put the Bush administration in a codependent relationship with Iran’s ruling regime.
|
news.bbc.co.uk
|
Evidence of Iran’s influence over the global economy appeared Wednesday as the oil-rich nation agreed to release 15 British captives and petroleum prices consequently fell. If a relatively minor diplomatic dispute can perturb investors, imagine how invading or bombing Iran would affect global markets.
|
|
Two of the 15 captured British sailors are reportedly scheduled to appear on Iranian TV Sunday to offer their “confessions” for trespassing in Iranian waters on March 23. The incident has provoked unrest in Tehran, where Sunday some 200 angry students hurled firecrackers and rocks at the British Embassy, according to the BBC.
|
|
More than 32 Iranian women were arrested Sunday for picketing near a Tehran courthouse in which five female activists were on trial for planning a women’s rights demonstration last June. The unfortunate irony of this situation became more pronounced when protesters suggested that police were using intimidation to discourage rallies on March 8, International Women’s Day.
|
msnbc.com
|
An anonymous U.S. official said on Tuesday that prominent Shiite cleric and Iraqi political figure Moqtada al-Sadr had fled to Iran in order to escape either an American crackdown or fringe elements of his own militia. But several Iraqi officials on Wednesday, also speaking anonymously, said al-Sadr was still in Iraq.
|
jabtv.com
|
Four years ago, Iran offered to end its support of Hezbollah and Hamas, help to stabilize Iraq and make its nuclear program more transparent, according to a top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell. But Vice President Dick Cheney nixed the deal, because of his “We don’t talk to evil” mentality, the aide said.
|
from asashop.org
|
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who only two years ago supported renewing diplomatic relations with Tehran, has taken the administration’s recent Iran bashing to heart, saying the U.S. will beef up its presence in the Persian Gulf to make sure Ahmadinejad & Co. don’t get any ideas.
|
nationalgeographic.com
|
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)
|
news.bbc.co.uk
|
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.
|
nytimes.com
|
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.
|
Resse Erlich
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
AP Photo/Vahid Salemi
|
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.
|
|
By Robert Scheer — “A once swaggering president, who so convincingly wielded a bullhorn and modeled a flight suit, now has assumed the pretzel pose of a supplicant attempting to cajole our old enemy in Tehran into dropping its nuclear ambitions while simultaneously initiating talks with Iran aimed at bailing us out in Iraq.”
|
|
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has told Bush that the UK will not offer any support to strike Iran, regardless of whether there is a U.N. mandate to do so, according to The Scotsman newspaper.
|
|
By Andy Borowitz — The political satirist reports on Rumsfeld’s plan to punish the government of Iran for its nuclear ambitions by sending the one troop to Tehran.
|
|
Forty-eight percent support striking Iran if it continues down its nuclear course, but a majority do not trust the president to make the “right decision,” according to an L.A. Times-Bloomberg poll.
|
|
The president asserts that many of the roadside bombs in Iraq—which have proved so deadly to U.S. forces—originate in Iran.
This is part and parcel of Bush & Co.‘s efforts to portray Tehran as the next big boogeyman.
Check out Truthdig’s Juan Cole on Bush’s campaign to frame Iran.
|
|
Tehran ratchets up the war of words with the U.S. over American-led action to bring Iran before the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions against its nuclear program.
We’re being threatened by the country Bush didn’t invade and whose surrogates we put in power in Iraq.
|
|
The Tehran city council-owned newspaper says it is testing the West’s arguments about freedom of expression. | story
Meanwhile, Four Afghans are killed in cartoon-related protests near the U.S. base in Bagram—the first time violence has been directed against America in the controversy. | story
|
|
The Iranian president, while claiming that his nuclear research is peaceful, slammed the “double standards” of the West and those who seek to “make peace for themselves by creating war for others.” | story
Perhaps he’s right, but this guy is also a Holocaust denier.
Update: And now he wants to hold a debate on the scale and consequences of the Holocaust.
|
|
U.N. warns that world is running out of patience with Tehran | more
Posted on Jan 9, 2006
READ MORE 
|
|
No excuse given, Iranian team leader reportedly heads back to Tehran. | more
Posted on Jan 5, 2006
READ MORE
|
View older articles:
< 1 2
View the most popular tags overall?
|
|
Bank of America Lied to Homeowners and Rewarded Foreclosures, Ex-Employees Say
Newsletter 
Like Us
Follow Us
Get Our Feed
