Archive for February 23, 2012

Shapiro: US, J’lem planning for ‘all options’ on Iran

February 23, 2012

Shapiro: US, J’lem planning for ‘… JPost – Diplomacy & Politics.

By HERB KEINON 02/23/2012 19:23
US Ambassador says US, Israel are doing necessary planning to ensure those options are available if they become necessary, says most media descriptions of divisions are “pure speculation and wrong.”

US Ambassador Dan Shapiro By Marc Israel Sellem

US Ambassador Dan Shapiro said Thursday that not only are all options on the table in relation to Iran, but that planning is underway to ensure that those options can be used if it becomes necessary.

Shapiro, speaking to Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said that while the strategy for now was clearly to apply diplomatic and economic sanctions on Iran to isolate it, “all other options are on the table and more than that, the necessary planning is being done to ensure that those options are actually available if at any time they become necessary.”

Shapiro reiterated that US President Barack Obama has said over and over again that the US is determined to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Shapiro said that Israel and the US are completely coordinated in this. “Whatever one reads in the paper, I cannot think of any issue on which we are better coordinated than on the issue of Iran.”

About every other week, cabinet-level officials are traveling in one direction or another, discussing Iran, he said, “and that is exactly as it should be.”

Regarding the recent spate of media articles describing divisions between the US and Israel on the Iranian issue, Shaprio said, “it is often the case that those who talk don’t know and those who know don’t talk. Much of what is written on this topic is pure speculation and much of it is wrong.”

U.N. panel on Syria claims orders to kill protestors came straight from the top

February 23, 2012

U.N. panel on Syria claims orders to kill protestors came straight from the top.

Demonstrators take part in a protest against Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in Jerjenaz, near Idlib. The sign reads: “Enemies of humanity your dark night will go and the new dawn of freedom will rise.” (Reuters)

Demonstrators take part in a protest against Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in Jerjenaz, near Idlib. The sign reads: “Enemies of humanity your dark night will go and the new dawn of freedom will rise.” (Reuters)

Syrian forces have shot dead unarmed women and children, shelled residential areas and tortured wounded protesters in hospital under orders from the “highest level” of army and government officials, the United Nations said on Thursday.

Independent U.N. investigators called for perpetrators of such crimes against humanity to face prosecution and said they had drawn up a confidential list of names of commanding officers and officials alleged to be responsible.

“The commission received credible and consistent evidence identifying high- and mid-ranking members of the armed forces who ordered their subordinates to shoot at unarmed protestors, kill soldiers who refused to obey such orders, arrest persons without cause, mistreat detained persons and attack civilian neighborhoods with indiscriminate tanks and machine-gun fire,” a panel of U.N. human rights experts, headed by Brazilian Paulo Pinheiro, said in a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

The U.N. experts indicated that the list goes as high as President Bashar Assad.

“The commission has deposited with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights a sealed envelope containing the names of these people, which might assist future credible investigations by competent authorities.”

It doesn’t say who these investigating authorities might be, but the U.N.’s top human rights official has previously called for Syria to be referred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Members of the 47-nation U.N. Human Rights Council are expected to hold a special meeting on Syria in Geneva next week, at which the panel’s report will be formally presented.

Armed opposition groups, loosely connected under the umbrella of the Free Syrian Army, also committed some gross human rights abuses, the panel said. It cited the torture and execution of soldiers or suspected pro-government militia members, “although not comparable in scale.”

Thousands of Syrians have died in the violence since March and the panel, citing what it called a reliable source, said at least 500 children are among the dead.

Information gathered from outside sources

International pressure has been building on Assad’s government to halt its violent suppression of the opposition. Earlier this week the International Committee of the Red Cross called for temporary cease-fires so it could reach those trapped and wounded in the worst-affected areas.

But human rights groups say the violence is only increasing, with dozens dying every day from government shelling of cities like Homs, a rebel stronghold.

The U.N. panel was denied entry to Syria by the government, which accused it of ignoring official information and exceeding its mandate. The panel instead gathered much of its information from sources outside the country, including human rights activists and Syrian army defectors.

The report claims that the ruling Baath Party’s National Security Bureau was responsible for translating government policies into military operations that led to the systematic arrest or killing of civilians.

It says the four main intelligence and security agencies reporting directly to Assad – Military Intelligence, Air Force Intelligence, the General Intelligence Directorate and the Political Security Directorate – “were at the heart of almost all operations.”

The report details how businessmen helped hire and arm informal pro-government militias known as the Shabbiha.

“In a number of operations, the commission documented how Shabbiha members were strategically employed to commit crimes against humanity and other gross violations,” it said.

The report also identifies 38 detention centers “for which the commission documented cases of torture and ill-treatment since March 2011.”

‘Iran set to expand nuclear activity in mountain bunker’

February 23, 2012

‘Iran set to expand nuclear acti… JPost – Iranian Threat – News.

Print Edition

Photo by: REUTERS
‘Iran set to expand nuclear activity in mountain bunker’
By REUTERS
23/02/2012
Diplomats: Iran “working toward full installation” of uranium enrichment centrifuges at underground facility, “the time when Iran’s efforts to build a bomb will become immune to a strike is fast approaching.”
VIENNA – Iran is believed to be carrying out preparations to expand nuclear activity deep inside a mountain, diplomats say, in a further sign of defiance in the face of intensifying Western pressure to curb its sensitive uranium enrichment drive.

Increased capacity at the Fordow underground site would probably heighten Western suspicion of Iran’s intentions, after it last month started refining uranium there to a level that cuts the time it would need for any nuclear weapons bid.

A senior team of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) failed again this week to get the Islamic state to start addressing their mounting concerns about its nuclear work and returned empty handed to Vienna after two days of talks in Iran.

The setback increased worries about a downward spiral towards conflict between the Islamic Republic and the West, and sent oil prices to a nine-month high.

The UN agency is now putting the finishing touches to its next report on Iran, expected to include information on the Tehran talks as well as more detail on the status of the Fordow plant near the Shi’ite Muslim holy city of Qom.

“I think we will see a jump in the potential state of readiness of the facility,” one Vienna-based envoy said.

Fordow is of particular concern for the West and Israel as Iran is shifting the most controversial aspect of its nuclear work, refining uranium to a level that takes it significantly closer to potential bomb material, to the site.

Estimated to be buried beneath 80 meters (265 feet) of rock and soil, it gives Iran better protection against any Israeli or US military strikes.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak has warned that the Islamic state’s nuclear research could soon pass into what he called a “zone of immunity,” protected from outside disruption.

In a report issued on Thursday, the International Crisis Group think-tank said prospects for a military confrontation erupting in the long-running nuclear row, though still unlikely, appeared “higher than ever.”

“As Israel sees it, the nuclear program represents a serious threat; the time when Iran’s putative efforts to build a bomb will become immune to a strike is fast approaching; and military action in the near future – perhaps as early as this year – therefore is a real possibility,” it said.

A Western official said Fordow was a very sensitive issue: “I’m not quite sure the Iranians understand they are playing with fire there.”

Iran last month said it had started to refine uranium to a fissile concentration of 20 percent, compared with the 3.5 percent normally used for nuclear power plants, at Fordow.

Soon afterward, it doubled production capacity to a total of more than 600 uranium enrichment centrifuges at Fordow, diplomats have told Reuters.

Iran now appears to be making preparations for a further increase in the number of the cylindrical machines, spinning at supersonic speeds to increase the concentration of the fissile U-235 isotope, at the facility.

“They are working towards full installation,” said another diplomat in the Austrian capital. “But they are not installed and ready to operate yet.”

Nuclear bombs require uranium enriched to 90 percent, but Western experts say much of the effort required to get there is already achieved once it reaches 20 percent concentration, shortening the time needed for any nuclear weapons “break-out”.

‘Iran has yet to decide on whether or not to weaponize nuclear program’

Olli Heinonen, a former head of safeguards inspections at the UN International Atomic Energy Agency, said he believed its next report would include information about the progress in setting up the required infrastructure for enrichment at Fordow.

But diplomats said they expected Iran to mainly keep using old-generation centrifuges, not the newer and more efficient models which it has tried for several years to develop.

“I don’t have any indications that cascades of new machines are ready to be operated,” one of them said.

Neither Iranian officials nor officials at the Vienna-based IAEA, which regularly inspects Iranian nuclear sites including Fordow, were available for comment.

The United States and its allies say Iran is trying to develop the means to make atomic bombs. The Islamic Republic maintains that its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity and isotopes for medical treatment.

Iran said last year that it would transfer its highest-grade uranium refinement work to Fordow from an above-ground research and development facility at its main enrichment plant at Natanz, and sharply boost capacity.

It says it will use 20 percent-enriched uranium to convert into fuel for a research reactor making isotopes to treat cancer patients, but Western officials say they doubt Iran has the capability to do that on an industrial scale.

In addition, they say, Fordow’s capacity – up to 3,000 centrifuges – is too small to produce the fuel needed for nuclear power plants, but ideal for yielding smaller amounts of high-enriched product typical of a nuclear weapons program.

Western officials believe Iran has not yet decided whether it will indeed “weaponize” enrichment, but rather is seeking now solely to establish the industrial and scientific capacity to do so if needed for military and security contingencies.

Iran disclosed the existence of Fordow to the IAEA only in September 2009, at least two years after construction began, after learning that Western spy services had detected it.

Turkey plans to buy 100 U.S. F-35 fighters: report

February 23, 2012

Turkey plans to buy 100 U.S. F-35 fighters: report.

(Given Turkey’s Islamic tilt and its hostility to Israel, should the US sell its most advanced fighters to them? – JW)

Turkey has long planned to purchase about 100 jets to replace its ageing F-4 and F-16 fleet, but increasing costs have hindered the procurements. (File photo)

Turkey has long planned to purchase about 100 jets to replace its ageing F-4 and F-16 fleet, but increasing costs have hindered the procurements. (File photo)

Turkey is planning to purchase 100 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters worth $16 billion in an attempt to meet its future air force needs, Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz was quoted as saying Thursday.

“Turkey plans to buy 100 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, two of which will be delivered in 2015,” Yilmaz told the daily Milliyet.

It is the first public announcement by Ankara of how much the program will cost.

Turkey has long planned to purchase about 100 jets to replace its ageing F-4 and F-16 fleet, but increasing costs have hampered the acquisitions.

The Joint Strike Fighter, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, is the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program ever.

The U.S. defense department plans to buy more than 2,400 of the aircraft at a cost of about 385 billion dollars. The cost of each plane is now well over 100 million dollars.

Syria forces roll into Homs after lengthy siege, opposition says

February 23, 2012

Syria forces roll into Homs after lengthy siege, opposition says – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Rebel district of Baba Amr has sustained 20 days of bombardment, with dozens killed and hundreds wounded.

By Reuters

Armored forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad moved into the rebel district of Baba Amro in Homs on Thursday after 20 days of sustained bombardment, opposition sources said.

“Tanks have entered the Jobar area in the south of Baba Amro,” activist Abu Imad told Reuters from the city.

Syria - Reuters - February 20, 2012 A Syrian army tank is seen in the neighbourhood of Erbeen, near Damascus, February 20, 2012.
Photo by: Reuters

Earlier this week activists said that Syrian military sent columns of tanks and other reinforcements toward Homs.

A flood of military reinforcements has been a prelude to previous offensives by the authoritarian regime, which has tried to use its overwhelming firepower to crush an opposition that has been bolstered by defecting soldiers and hardened by 11 months of street battles.

“Most of the deaths occurred in the province of Homs. Others were killed in the provinces of Idlib and Hama,” Omar Idlibi, the LCC spokesman in Beirut, told dpa.

Wednesday’s violence followed shelling by Syrian forces on Tuesday that killed at least 65 people in Homs, activists said, describing the attacks as the heaviest since the start of an assault on the restive city early this month.

Homs shelling - AFP - February 2012 Syria security forces shell the Baba Amro district of Homs.
Photo by: AFP

Activist Omar Homsi told DPA that more than thirty people were also wounded in the city’s besieged neighborhoods of Baba Amr, Al-Khalidiyeh, and Inshaaat and the region of al-Kussair.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Red Cross called for a daily two-hour cease-fire in Syria so that it can deliver emergency aid and reach people who are wounded or sick.

US, France, UK, Turkey, Italy prepare for military intervention in Syria

February 23, 2012

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security.

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report February 23, 2012, 10:29 AM (GMT+02:00)

 

Secret Homs press center

Despite public denials, military preparations for intervention in the horrendous Syrian crisis are quietly afoot in Washington, Paris, Rome, London and Ankara. President Barack Obama is poised for a final decision after the Pentagon submits operational plans for protecting Syrian rebels and beleaguered populations from the brutal assaults of Bashar Assad’s army, debkafile’s Washington sources disclose.
This process is also underway in allied capitals which joined the US in the Libyan operation that ended Muammar Qaddafi’s rule in August, 2011. They are waiting for a White House decision before going forward.
In Libya, foreign intervention began as an operation to protect the Libyan population against its ruler’s outrageous crackdown on dissent. It was mandated by UN Security Council. There is no chance of this in the Syrian case because it will be blocked by a Russian veto. Therefore, Western countries are planning military action of limited scope outside the purview of the world body, possibly on behalf of “Friends of Syria,” a group of 80 world nations which meets for the first time in Tunis Friday, Feb. 24, to hammer out practical steps for terminating the bloodbath pursued by the Assad regime.
The foreign ministers and senior officials – Russia has excluded itself – will certainly be further galvanized into action by the tragic deaths of two notable journalists Wednesday, Feb. 22, on the 19th day of the shelling of Homs.
Preparations for the event are taking place at the Foreign Office in London. Wednesday, Foreign Secretary William Hague said: Governments around the world have the responsibility to act…and to redouble our efforts to stop the Assad regime’s despicable campaign of terror.”
Hague pointedly said nothing about removing the Syrian ruler. Nor did he spell out the efforts need to stop the campaign of terror. debkafile’s military sources note that he left these issues open because a decision by President Obama about if and how the US will act is pending until the Pentagon submits operational plans to Commander-in-Chief Obama.
The US president is also waiting for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s report on the mood at the Tunis conference. He wants to know in particular if Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar and the UAR will support US-led Western intervention in Syria, both politically and financially.
The Sunday Times correspondent Marie Colvin and the French Figaro video-photographer Remi Ochik died Wednesday in the heavy shelling of a fortified building which housed Western journalists making their way into Homs under the protection of Syrian rebels. Three other Western journalists were injured. Western military sources reported Thursday that this undercover Western press center was maintained by the rebels in tight secrecy. The building was practically gutted by a direct hit, suggesting that Syrian forces located it with the help of advanced electronic measures.
Another Western source noted that the journalists covering the atrocities in Homs from this hideout used coded channels of communications protected by anti-jamming and anti-tracking devices. The Syrians must therefore have called on Russian satellites or advanced Iranian electronic systems to locate it.
The authorities in Damascus decided to treat the press hideout as the first step in overt Western intervention in the Syrian conflict. It was accordingly razed totally with its occupants.

Gantz: Nuclear Iran is an Existential Threat

February 23, 2012

Gantz: Nuclear Iran is an Existential Threat – Defense/Security – News – Israel National News.

Chief of Staff Benny Gantz: A nuclear-armed Iran is an existential threat to Israel. The reality in the Middle East is very complex.
By Elad Benari

First Publish: 2/23/2012, 1:16 AM

 

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz
Israel news photo: Flash 90

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz warned on Wednesday that a nuclear-armed Iran would be an existential threat to the State of Israel.

Speaking at a memorial ceremony for Major Eitan Belachsan, who was killed by Hizbullah terrorists in Lebanon in 1999, Gantz said, “The Iranian nuclear development is an existential threat. Even though there is a crack between Tehran, Damascus and Beirut, Lebanon is being strengthened.”

Gantz also referred to the changes in the Middle East in light of the Arab Spring and said that “this is a very complex reality. The Middle East of 14 months ago is not today’s Middle East and is not necessarily the Middle East of 14 months from now.”

Commenting on the subject of Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt, Gantz said, “The peace treaty with Egypt is very important to us and we should make every effort to preserve it while at the same time keeping a close watch” on what is going on in Egypt.

The extremist Muslim Brotherhood, which clinched the majority in recent parliamentary elections in Egypt, threatened to cancel the peace treaty with Israel by putting the issue up for a referendum and letting Egyptians decide. Potential presidential candidate Amr Moussa later rejected the possibility that Egypt will cancel the peace treaty it signed with Israel in 1979.

Finally, the Chief of Staff addressed Tuesday’s decision by the Supreme Court that the ‘Tal Law’ for religious exemptions from the IDF is illegal.

“We need to find a way to integrate everyone in the army,” said Gantz. “Military service is mandatory in Israel and not a possible alternative. Everyone can and should serve – it is a necessity.”

He added, “The challenges in the Middle East have changed but what should not change is our commitment to ourselves and to our actions. The security challenges not the only ones in Israel, but they are valid – active, present and threatening.

“There is a continuing growing trend among those who join the army of people who want to do more, but at the same time there is also a decrease in the percentage of those who join the army,” said Gantz. “The reality in which the majority serves in the military may change and the State of Israel should be concerned about that reality.”

Reza Kahlili and the Truth About Iran

February 23, 2012

Articles: Reza Kahlili and the Truth About Iran.

Western intellectuals have turned themselves inside-out to sanction the monstrous mullahcracy in Iran.  Saving the free world is of no import or little priority.  What is important is condemning any effective action to head off the inevitable catastrophe.  And so Obama touts his toothless sanctions and keeps extending olive branches to the murderous mullahs, and hardly anyone has the courage to call him on it.  But Reza Kahlili does.

 

Reza Kahlili is the author of A Time To Betray, the gripping story of his life as a CIA agent inside Iran’s bloodthirsty Revolutionary Guards.  Now he is a member of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, an advisory board member of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran, and an instructor at the Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy of the Department of Defense.  It is good to know that someone with sense and vision is still inside the DoD.

 

I recently interviewed Reza Kahlili, and what he told me was revealing.

 

Pamela Geller: Do you think the Iranian statements about Israel’s imminent demise portend a nuclear strike from Iran against Israel?

 

Reza Kahlili: Though it is difficult for the West to understand, the decisions and actions by the leaders of the Islamic regime in Iran are based on an ideology which is deeply rooted in “Mahdiism,” and that’s the promise by Allah for the day that the last Islamic Messiah (the Shiites’ 12th Imam, Mahdi) will reappear to raise the flag of Islam in all corners of the world.  As per centuries-old hadith, the trigger for the coming is the destruction of Israel.  The Iranian leaders are on a path to bring about that trigger, believing that it will bring about the final victory of Islam over infidels.  Their nuclear program is for the destruction of Israel and the West.

 

PG: What do you think should be done to prevent Iran from striking at Israel?

 

RK: I think the best course is regime change, as any attack just on the Iranian nuclear sites will not only fail to solve the threat posed by the radicals ruling Iran, but will engulf the region.  The only solution to this problem is a regime change in Iran, which would go a long way toward securing world peace and global stability.  That can only be achieved by helping the Iranians, who are one of the most westernized people in the region, to bring about change in Iran, while at the same providing every reason for the loyalists to abandon the regime.

 

PG: Is Iran a danger to the U.S. now?  How is that likely to change in five years?

 

RK: Unfortunately, not many in the U.S. realize that the leaders in Iran not only pose an existential threat to Israel, but also to America.  The fact that the U.S. could destroy Iran in a matter of minutes in case of an attack will not deter the Islamic regime in Iran from an attack on U.S. soil.  The Iranian assets, including Quds forces and Hezb’allah cells, have long infiltrated the U.S.  The Iranians run a complex operation through several entities and organizations, such as mosques, Iranian Islamic student associations, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Muslim Students Association, and others.  In helping U.S. intelligence, I once established contact with a Revolutionary Guard commander who posed as a student here in the U.S.  Another time I was informed of a very important Guard commander who had come to the U.S. under a fake passport, and was meeting with the heads of Muslim Students Association groups.  So not only terrorism at home is very likely when the leaders in Iran decide to take action, but a more dangerous scenario is a launched missile with a nuclear payload, either from Iran or off of a ship close to U.S. shores.

 

China has sold intercontinental ballistic missile technology to Iran, and the North Koreans are helping with the assembly.  And the fact that Iran can launch a satellite into space is another indication of their intercontinental missile capability.  The world will soon be shocked to find out that Iran possesses intercontinental ballistic missiles.  I revealed last July that Iran has armed its vessels with long-range ballistic missiles and soon will expand its mission into the Atlantic Ocean, reaching right outside of the Gulf of Mexico.  The Revolutionary Guards have practiced launching ballistic missiles off a ship and have detonated a warhead in the air.  This has been verified by the IAEA.  A naval vessel or a third-party commercial vessel could get close to our shores and in less than 60 seconds launch a missile with a nuclear payload, detonating over U.S. skies, creating an electromagnetic pulse attack that would fry U.S. power grids, shutting down power, water, electronics, communication…  Studies show that several weeks after such attack, Americans will be leaving their homes looking for food and water, and just one year after such attack, two-thirds of Americans will have ceased to exist.  Mutually assured destruction will not work with those who are looking forward to martyrdom!

 

PG: How popular are the mullahs?  If Obama had supported the demonstrators, might the regime have been toppled in 2009?  If so, what kind of regime might have replaced it?

 

RK: As described in my book A Time to Betray, barely a year and a half into the Islamic revolution, the people of Iran wanted change.  Tens of thousands have lost their lives, and thousands remain in prison as of today.  However, the West continuously chose to negotiate with the regime, as opposed to supporting the people.  We had the greatest opportunity in 2009 to bring about change in Iran and to change the geopolitics of the region without firing a single bullet, but President Obama and his advisers, believing they could negotiate with the regime, chose to appease.  And the regime, which was at the brink of falling when millions took to the street demanding regime change, successfully used the silence of the world over its atrocities and the suppression of the people to violently put down the uprising.  Once that was achieved, the regime then went back on its promise to the West that it would negotiate over the nuclear program and announced that there could be no negotiation over its right to nuclear energy.  They once again fooled the West.

 

PG: Iran under the Shah was a relatively secular society.  How broad is the support for the Islamization of Iranian society since 1979?  If the mullahs fell, would Iran become secular again?

 

RK: Growing up during the time of the Shah was wonderful, and it seemed that most Iranians were happy and hopeful, and the country was progressing.  It was a very open society.  Women were free to do what they wanted, and religion was not an issue.  Many Jews, Christians, and Muslims not only lived happily side by side, but were friends and shared mutual respect.  There were many Americans living in Iran, and they were respected and treated as part of a big family.  Living in Tehran then was like living in Los Angeles.  Building cranes monopolized the skyline.  Apartment buildings were thirty stories high.  Theaters, nightclubs, concerts, symphony, opera, and much more were there for entertainment.  Hundreds of colleges and universities across Iran provided education to tens of thousands of Iranian boys and girls.

 

I guess the only thing missing was political freedom — the freedom of speech.  Many political parties objected to that and would not accept the rule of Shah and his one-party system.  We did have political prisoners, and tortures were carried out at Evin prison, but nothing like what happened after the Revolution.

 

The Iranians had no idea that their aspirations for democracy and full political freedom would be hijacked by a minority of Islamists.  Though many in Iran then did not adhere to Islamic rules, they respected the religion and the clerics.  However, now they openly curse the religion, its God “Allah,” and its prophet “Mohammad.”  The Iranians see themselves as Persians.  Also, many are converting to Christianity, even though the crime of such conversion is the death penalty.  Once the Islamic regime falls, we will see true democracy in Iran and an important ally in the fight against radicalism in the region.

 

PG: Why is Iran funding the Sunni jihadis of Hamas and the Taliban?

 

RK: That’s another misunderstanding by the West.  Though the help by the Islamic regime to Sunni forces also is tactical to confront the U.S. and Israel, also in Islam the main enemy is the infidel.  And so in pursuit of that final glorification of Islam, the Iranian leaders will collaborate and help any Islamic force that could help with the destruction of Israel and the demise of America.

 

PG: What is life like for the Jews, the Baha’is, and other religious minorities within Iran?

 

RK: The Jews in Iran, though able to practice their religion, are constantly under watch by the regime.  Many Jews are interrogated upon traveling in and out of Iran, under the suspicion of being spies for Israel.  Several are imprisoned, and often mock executions are done in order to make them talk.  However, Baha’is have a much harder time, as they are banned from schools, universities, and businesses, and often are arrested and sentenced to death for their belief.  They live in constant fear.

 

PG: What did you see and hear from the Iranian leadership as a member of the Revolutionary Guards that Americans generally don’t know, and need to know?

 

RK: I have set out the details through my story in my book.  However, the most revealing issue is the fact that they would openly tell me how they are fooling the West in every level with promises of cooperation, while at all times believing in their goal of destroying the West.  You see, they do not resent the West because of its actions in the Middle East and the world; however, the most important fact that America and the West have continuously missed is the ideology behind Iran’s destiny.  Its doctrine knows no boundaries and stands in diametric opposition to and defiance of the most basic principles and fundamental forms taken by Western civilization.

 

Pamela Geller is the publisher of AtlasShrugs.com and the author of the WND Books title Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance.

The Iranian Plan to Annihilate the Jews

February 23, 2012

Articles: The Iranian Plan to Annihilate the Jews.

For many years, I have tried to raise awareness not only of the threat posed by the fanatics ruling Iran, but also of the injustices done to the Iranian people.  This has drawn the ire of the mullah-appeasers and those in alliance with the criminal Islamic regime in Iran.

Recently, I revealed a shocking piece, “Ayatollah: Kill All Jews, Annihilate Israel,” in which a well-known strategist within the Iranian government introduced a new doctrine not only to destroy Israel in a preemptive attack, but also to commit to genocide and kill the Jewish people.  The piece got international attention and made headlines across the world.

The facts in my piece were an exact copy of the original piece, which was published in Iran.  I even left a link to the Iranian piece that interestingly was not only written in Farsi, but also translated into English.  I wanted to make sure that the world could see that my piece was a true and accurate reflection of what was said in Iran.

I wanted the world to see that the jihadists in Tehran had no shame in openly calling for the mass murder of the people of another

nation.  I wanted the world to realize that we were once again dealing with madmen who had no interest in humanity, love, or peace, and that they were determined to commit a grave crime, based on their belief in glorifying Allah.

Even though I did my best to make it easy to verify the facts, many Islamists, and those supporting negotiations with the regime in Iran, launched an attack against me and my article and did not hide their hatred for Israel and the Jewish people.

In their attacks, they not only tried to assassinate my character, but also tried to deceive the readers, claiming that my piece was a lie and that no one in Iran was calling for the killing of the Jewish people. 

These people failed to mention that just recently, the Iranian supreme leader once again called Israel “a cancerous tumor that should and will be cut” during his recent Friday prayer sermon.  One must be living in a cave not to have heard Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and other officials of the Islamic regime call for the destruction of Israel and how this “cancerous cell” needs to be wiped off the face of the earth.

But the clarity is in the piece that was published in Iran, which has a full paragraph with the title “Israeli People Must be Annihilated.”  All Iranian state media are strictly pro-government and highly sensitive to any statement that might cause the regime problems.  The original piece was published in over 28 major official media sites of the Islamic regime, including the Revolutionary Guards’ Fars News Agency and Mashregh News.  It does represent the official view of the Islamic regime.

The site, Alef, which ran the piece, belongs to Ahmad Tavakoli, a hard-line parliamentarian and a close ally of Khamenei.  The author, Alireza Forghani (who recently resigned his post as governor of southern Iran’s Kish Province over tensions with pro-Ahmadinejad circles), entered the Basij forces when he was 14 and served one of the most fanatical elements of the regime, the Ansare Hezb’allah in the city of Mashhad, from age 17 to 21.  He continued his education in the field of analytical strategy.  He was one of the first within the Iranian government to call Khamenei an imam, and is an analyst and a strategy specialist in Khamenei’s camp.  He has the following in his bio on his blog:

Favorite book: The Absolute Rule of the Jurisprudent

Favorite sport: Jihad in fierce war

But let’s take direct quotes from the original piece, which was published in English:

In the name of Allah
Iran must attack Israel…

The necessity of Israel annihilation … :

Today, the first Qibla of the Muslims has been occupied by Israel, a cancerous tumor for the Middle East. Today, Israel is causing division using all evil means. Every Muslim is obliged to equip themselves against Israel. … and since the potential danger is facing the foundations of Islam, it is necessary for the Islamic governments in particular and other Muslims in general to remove this corrupting material by any means. All our troubles are due to Israel! And Israel results from America too.

Military Aspects of Iranian Attack on Israel

In order to attack Iran, Israel needs western and U.S. assistance, permission and coordination. In the current situation and passiveness of U.S. and the West, Iran should wipe out Israel.

… Based on preemptive defense doctrine, Israel should get under heavy military strikes through first and final strikes. In the primary step of first scene, ground zero points of Israel should be annihilated by Iranian military attacks. To get this end, Iran can use long-range missiles. The distance from Iranian easternmost point to westernmost point of Israel is about ۲۶۰۰ km (2,600km). Strategic targets deep inside Israeli soil are in the range of Iranian conventional missiles.

Israeli People Must Be Annihilated

Israel is the only country in the world with a Jewish majority. According to the last census of Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, this country has a population of ۷.۵ (7.5) million including ۵.۷ (5.7) million Jews …

Residents of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa can be targeted even by Shahb ۳ (3). Population density in these three adjacent areas composes about ۶۰ % (60%) of Israeli population. Sejjil missiles can target power plants, sewage treatment facilities, energy resources, transportation and communication infrastructures; and in the second stage Shahab ۳ and Ghadr missiles can target urban settlements until final annihilation of Israel people.

There is no need to post the whole piece, as the link here is available for all to see.

The point is that my piece was a true reflection of this new doctrine and shocking ideology of genocide of the Jewish people.

However, in order to see the truth, one must be faithful to one’s spirit.  In Iran, Basiji bullies, Revolutionary Guards armed to the teeth, and Ansare Hezb’allah thugs with chains and knives attack those bold enough to reveal the truth.  In America, the mullah-appeasers attack and character-assassinate those who reveal the truth about this criminal regime. There’s no difference between the two.

I do not take these attacks on me to heart, as I choose truth over lies, love over hate, justice over injustice, and light over darkness.  I choose to be the voice of the voiceless.  Although it is a constant battle on many fronts, I know that in my heart that I walk the path of My Lord.

I do not expect those who have chosen evil to understand, but again, if they had any dignity, if they had respect for humanity, then they would not support a regime that stones women to death, a regime that rapes and tortures Iranian boys and girls to suppress their desire for freedom, a regime that chops off hands and feet in punishment for stealing, a regime that lashes Iranians as punishment for not adhering to Islamic rules and savagely attacks anyone opposing it.  This is a regime that is at the helm of worldwide terrorism in which many of its officials are wanted either by Interpol or courts around the world for terrorist acts and assassinations.

Though it saddens me to know there are such individuals among us — individuals who profess loyalty to a barbaric regime — I am happy to report that even they will not be able save the criminals ruling Iran.  Their final outcome is in the hands of God.

Long Live the Iranian People.

God Bless America.

Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for a former CIA operative in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the author of the award-winning book A Time to Betray.  He is a senior fellow with EMPact America and teaches at the U.S. Department of Defense’s Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy (JCITA).

IAEA Will Not Hold Talks With Iran

February 23, 2012

IAEA Will Not Hold Talks With Iran, 23 February 2012 Thursday 9:28.

Turkish Weekly

Thursday, 23 February 2012

The U.N. nuclear agency on Wednesday acknowledged its renewed failure in trying to probe suspicions that Tehran has worked secretly on atomic arms, in a statement issued shortly after an Iranian general warned of a pre-emptive strike against any nation that threatens Iran, AP reported.

The double signs of defiance reflected continued Iranian determination not to bow to demands that it defuse suspicions about its nuclear activities despite rapidly growing international sanctions imposed over its refusal to signal it is ready to compromise.

With the International Atomic Energy Agency already failing to dent Iranian stonewalling in talks that ended just three weeks ago, hopes had been muted that the latest effort would be any more successful even before the IAEA issued its statement.

The fact that the communique was issued early Wednesday, shortly after midnight and just after the IAEA experts left Tehran, reflected the urgency the agency attached to telling its side of the story.

As the two-day IAEA visit was winding down, Iranian officials sought to cast it in a positive light, with foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast telling reporters that “cooperation with the agency continues and is at its best level.”

Beyond differing with that view, the language of the IAEA communique clearly – if indirectly – blamed Tehran for the lack of progress.

“We engaged in a constructive spirit, but no agreement was reached,” it quoted IAEA chief Yukiya Amano as saying.

The communique said that on both visits, Iran did not grant requests by the IAEA mission to visit Parchin – a military site thought to be used for explosives testing related to nuclear detonations, and cited Amano as calling this decision “disappointing.”

It also said that no agreement was reached on how to begin “clarification of unresolved issues in connection with Iran’s nuclear programme, particularly those relating to possible military dimensions.”

The abortive trip was just the latest sign of Iranian resolve to continue hard-line resistance in the face of international pressure to curb its nuclear activities, despite sanctions and U.S. and Israeli warnings of possible last-resort military action should diplomacy fail.

Iran over the weekend announced that it will stop selling oil to Britain and France in retaliation for a planned European oil embargo this summer. The move was mainly symbolic – Britain and France import almost no oil from Iran – but it raised concerns that Iran could take the same hard line with other European nations that use more Iranian crude.

The European Union buys about 18 percent of Iran’s oil exports, though most of that comes from sales to just two countries: Italy and Spain.

Iran flailed out again just hours before the IAEA team left, with Gen. Mohammed Hejazi, who heads the military’s logistical wing, warning that Iran will “not wait for enemies to take action against us.”

“We will use all our means to protect our national interests,” he told the semiofficial Fars news agency.

His comments followed Iran’s announcement of war games to practice protecting nuclear and other sensitive sites, the latest military maneuver viewed as a message to the U.S. and Israel that the Islamic Republic is ready both to defend itself and to retaliate against an armed strike.

The official news agency IRNA said the four-day air defense war games, dubbed “Sarallah,” or “God’s Revenge,” were taking place in the south of the country and involve anti-aircraft batteries, radar, and warplanes. The drill will be held over 73,000 square miles (190,000 square kilometers) near the port of Bushehr, the site of Iran’s lone nuclear power plant.

Iran has held multiple air, land, and sea maneuvers in recent months as tensions increase, while at the same time continuing to deny any interest in nuclear weapons. It asserts that the allegations of secret work on developing such arms are based on fabricated U.S. and Israeli intelligence.

But Amano, the IAEA chief, outlined his concerns in a 13-page summary late last year listing clandestine activities that he said can either be used in civilian or military nuclear programs, or “are specific to nuclear weapons.”

Among these were indications that Iran has conducted high-explosives testing to set off a nuclear charge at Parchin – the site the agency said Wednesday that the IAEA team was not allowed to visit.

Other suspicions include computer modeling of a core of a nuclear warhead and alleged preparatory work for a nuclear weapons test and development of a nuclear payload for Iran’s Shahab 3 intermediate range missile – a weapon that could reach Israel.

The IAEA team had hoped to talk to key Iranian scientists suspected of working on the alleged weapons program, break down opposition to their plans to inspect documents related to nuclear work and secure commitments from Iranian authorities to allow future visits.

Beyond denying any covert work on nuclear arms, Iran also insists concerns that it will turn its uranium enrichment program to making fissile warhead material are unfounded, saying it is enriching uranium only to make nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes such as producing energy.

But because of weapons fears, the U.N. Security Council has imposed sanctions on Tehran in a failed attempt to force it to stop enrichment.

More recently, the U.S., the European Union and other Western allies have either tightened up their own sanctions or rapidly put new penalties in place striking at the heart of Iran’s oil exports lifeline and its financial system.

Tehran’s expanding enrichment activities at its plant at Fordo, near the holy city of Qom, are of particular concern for Israel – which has warned it will not let Iran develop nuclear arms – because it is dug into a mountain and possibly resistant to attack.

In interviews late last week, diplomats told The Associated Press that Iran is poised to install thousands of new-generation centrifuges at the cavernous facility. That would mean that Iran would have the capability of enriching to weapons-grade level much more quickly and efficiently that with its present, less efficient mainstay machines.