WarSclerotic

Aide to Egyptian President Morsi claims Holocaust a US hoax | Fox News.

( Wow…  “Hey!  I’ve got a great idea.  Let’s send them some more F-16s.” – JW )

By Paul Alster

Published January 29, 2013

| FoxNews.com

HAIFA, Israel –  A key figure in Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi’s government called the Holocaust a hoax cooked up by U.S. intelligence operatives and claimed the 6 million Jews who were killed by Nazis simply moved to the U.S.

The outrageous claims, by Fathi Shihab-Eddim, a senior figure close to President Morsi who is now responsible for appointing the editors of all state-run Egyptian newspapers, came as the world marked Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, and also as the U.S. continues to assess its relationship with the increasingly radical Arab state.

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“The myth of the Holocaust is an industry that America invented,” Shihab-Eddim said, leaving no room for doubt that the Egyptian government — like Iran’s — has at the very least significant elements that deny humanity’s greatest crime of all.

“U.S. intelligence agencies in cooperation with their counterparts in allied nations during World War II created it [the Holocaust] to destroy the image of their opponents in Germany, and to justify war and massive destruction against military and civilian facilities of the Axis powers, and especially to hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the atomic bomb,” Shihab-Eddim said.

The ludicrous claims were especially worrisome to Israeli experts who have been watching since the Muslim Brotherhood Morsi administration took over the Egyptian government in elections last summer, following the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, who maintained good relations with Israel. Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center in New York, said Shihab-Eddin’s comments were as troubling as they were ridiculous.

“Fathi goes on to claim that the 6 million Jews all really moved to the United States during the war (and oddly no one noticed) and that the number of Jews killed in the war was about the number who died in traffic accidents,” Greenfield wrote in Frontpagemag.com.

Efraim Zuroff, Israel Director of the Jerusalem-based Simon Weisenthal Center, whose mission is to defend against anti-Semitism and teach the lessons of the Holocaust to future generations, told FoxNews.com the remarks show a dangerous, but common, mindset.

“Obviously, if a person in that position makes that ridiculous claim it is of concern,” Zuroff said. “The sad truth is that these views are relatively common in the Arab world and are the result of ignorance on one hand and of government-sponsored Holocaust denial on the other hand.”

The latest Holocaust denial from a senior Egyptian figure comes hot on the heels of the much-publicized comments made by President Morsi in 2010, that Jews are “the descendants of apes and pigs,” remarks that Morsi insists were taken out of context. Despite Morsi’s claims, archivists subsequently said the Egyptian leader made similar statements repeatedly before he rose to power.

Mohammed el-Baradei, a leading figure in Egypt’s secular opposition and formerly the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, spoke out against Morsi’s remarks and his assertion that his comments had been misinterpreted.

“We are all aware that those statements were not taken out of context and that this discourse is very common among a large number of clerics and members of Islamist groups, El-Baradei said. “Apart from the remarks themselves, I am calling upon the person who made them to courageously admit either the real stance he and the Muslim Brotherhood and their followers adopt, or how mistaken they had been for all those years.”

Anti-Semitic statements and denial of the Holocaust are seemingly part and parcel of the Muslim Brotherhood doctrine. Among many examples of the vitriol espoused by senior figures from the parent organization of the terrorist group Hamas, one of their spiritual leaders and a popular Islamic television figure, Youssef Al-Qaradawi said, “I’d like to say that the only thing I hope for is that as my life approaches its end, Allah will give me an opportunity to go to the land of Jihad [Israel] and resistance, even if in a wheelchair. I will shoot Allah’s enemies, the Jews, and they will throw a bomb at me, and thus, I will seal my life with martyrdom.”

Al-Qaradawi further stated in a 2009 broadcast about the Holocaust, “He [Hitler] managed to put them [the Jews] in their place. This [the Holocaust] was divine punishment for them. Allah willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers.”

With Morsi facing significant resistance to his rapid imposition of more stifling legislation in Egypt, fears are rising that Holocaust denial, anti-Semitism, and anti-Israeli rhetoric will increase in a country that continues to receive significant financial and logistical support from the U.S. The Obama administration recently began shipping a foreign aid package to Egypt that includes 20 F-16 fighter jets and 200 Abrams tanks.

Zuroff said the sinister statements by a top Morsi aide should give other nations pause for thought in evaluating their relationships with the new government in Cairo.

“Government-sponsored Holocaust denial is the most dangerous…as opposed to attempts by individuals to convince people that the Holocaust did not take place,” Zuroff said. “When it comes with a strict Islamic interpretation and one which is basically anti-Semitic, then it becomes much more dangerous.”

Paul Alster is an Israel-based journalist who blogs at www.paulalster.com and can be followed on Twitter @paulalster

How Israeli Government Officials Fueled A Conspiracy Website Story About Iran – The Daily Beast.

( The lefties are really losing it in the US over this.  This story was copied onto the Huffington Post.  It’s a model lesson in how ideology blinds those who are afflicted by it. – JW )

by Ali Gharib Jan 28, 2013 5:30 PM EST

Here’s an object lesson that shows just how far some press—and even Israeli government officials—have gone down the rabbit hole on Iran issues by propagating a story reported on a conspiracy website. The dubious tale goes like this: there was a huge explosion at Iran’s main nuclear facility at Fordow, near the city of Qom, leaving hundreds of workers trapped underground. The facility is the source of much trepidation in Israel, where fears of insufficient military capabilities make the nuclear plant impenetrable to Israeli attack. The report came from a completely unreliable character writing for none other than World Net Daily, a website most famous for being the most prominent hub of the “Birther” conspiracy theory positing that Barack Obama is a secret Muslim and not American (among other conspiracy theories about the Obama administration). What’s more, the story, thanks to a firm denial by American officials, reveals yet another rift between the Obama administration and Israel’s government over Iran—a rift that can be laid nowhere except at the feet of overeager Israeli officials.

The tale first popped up three days ago on WND, written by an author going by the pseudonym Reza Kahlili who claims to be a former CIA spy in Iran. But Kahlili is unreliable, to say the least: among other outlandish claims peddled by Kahlili, he wrote that Iran already has nuclear weapons. But that didn’t stop all kinds of news media repeating Kahlili’s unsubstantiated claim. The website of the Israeli paper Yedioth Ahronot ran a story on Saturday that began, “WND, an American news website affiliated with the Right, reported Friday that a mysterious explosion has destroyed a significant portion of Iran’s Fordo nuclear facility.” (If I was on the right, I’d be angry about the claim that my political beliefs are “affiliated” with WND.) On Sunday, the Jewish Press ran a story riddled with punctuation errors that cited WND and Yedioth, reprinting parts of the latter’s piece in full. And another story today at the Jewish Press, under a credulous headline, admitted the story might not be right in its lede.

But it didn’t stop there. Speaking frankly, it’s not that surprising that a tabloid like Yedioth would run with an unreliable story. (In contrast, the liberal Israeli paper Haaretz deserves kudos for not simply repeating the rumor and its unreliable source, but rather giving context and doing some—gasp!—reporting on it.) What was surprising was that Israeli government officials would publicly comment on such a story. But that’s exactly what happened when a top national security adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu seemed to take the report at face value. Responding to an inquiry from the Times of Israel, Homefront Defense Minister Avi Dichter—the acting defense minister at the time—said, “Any explosion in Iran that doesn’t hurt people but hurts its assets is welcome.” That’s all fine and dandy, except that it propagates a potentially false story from an unsavory source. Rather more amazingly, Israeli intelligence sources confirmed to the Times of London that the story was real. Now, it’s perfectly reasonable for Israeli officials to want to play up the notion that they—with the help of the United States—are waging a successful shadow war against Iran’s nuclear program. The problem is that if and when these stories are revealed as a bluff, the effect will be that Israel’s bluster will not only be rendered hollow, but will be counter-productive to Israel’s own hawkish posturing. Not only did these Israeli government officials hurt their own credibility, especially vis-a-vis the Iran issue, but they gave a leg-up to an unsavory conspiracy website.

And the bluff was indeed unmasked today when the American government threw cold water on the story: the White House denied the very report that Israeli officials have spent days pumping up. “We have no information to confirm the allegations in the report and we do not believe the report is credible,” spokesman Jay Carney said in a briefing with reporters. “We don’t believe those are credible reports.” BuzzFeed reported the remark under the headline “White House Shuts Down Rumors Of Iran Nuclear Plant Explosion.” Who can deny that both named and unnamed Israeli government officials fueled this rumor, forcing the story into non-conspiracy outlets? And now the White House deigns to respond to a website that claims the President of the United States is illegitimate. How awkward.

‘Regretful’ UNHRC postpones Israe… JPost – Diplomacy & Politics.

( Israel is being ballsy and honest.  F-ck the UNHRC ! The truth will out, but not by them. – JW )

They don’t mix: Argentina, Iran and ‘truth’.

( The last refuge of most Nazi war criminals continues down its odious history. – JW )

In 1994 a terrorist drove a truck with explosives into the Argentina Israelite Mutual Association headquarters in Buenos Aires. The blast killed 85 and wounded hundreds. Argentinian courts placed responsibility for the bombing on Iran (although incompetence and corruption hobbled a decades-long legal process), which has steadfastly refused to cooperate with the investigation, bring those responsible to justice or provide compensation to the victims and their families. (Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a 1992 bombing of the Israeli consulate that killed 29.)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez with Argentine President Cristina Kirchner (center) during a ceremony on March 30, 2011, at the government house in Buenos Aires. (DANIEL GARCIA/AFP/Getty Images)

Now, in a move that stunned Israel and international Jewish groups, Argentina agreed to set up a “truth commission” with Iran. The Anti-Defamation League issued a statement:

Argentina’s apparent willingness to collaborate with the Iranian regime’s nearly 20-year effort to evade being brought to justice under the Argentine criminal justice system is deeply disturbing.

The recently announced Memorandum of Understanding is an unprecedented attempt to establish a mechanism with no enforcement powers to internationalize the criminal proceedings against Iranian nationals with ties to the world’s most notorious state sponsor of terrorism which have been pursued for years by professional Argentine prosecutors.

This latest maneuver by Iran with shocking cooperation of the government of Argentina sets up an extrajudicial process which will further delay, and may even eliminate, the possibility of bringing the accused Iranian perpetrators of the terrorist attack to justice under Argentine law.  We call on President Kirchner to reconsider this affront to the victims and survivors and to the criminal justice system of Argentina.

The prolonged pain and suffering of the survivors and the families of the victims of the most devastating terror attack on a Jewish institution in the Western hemisphere are all but forgotten in this ill-considered agreement.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center responded to the news: “It will whitewash terrorism and encourage the mullahs to become patrons of further attacks.”

Israeli government’s reaction was swift. Reuters reports: “The forming of the commission, announced during the weekend, was seen as a diplomatic win for Iran as it confronts a U.S.-led effort to isolate Tehran because of its nuclear program.” In addition, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “The Argentine ambassador in Israel will be summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem to provide explanations.” And the Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli officials: “‘The announcement came as a complete surprise and shock,’ Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP news agency about the establishment of the new committee. ‘We warned the Argentineans that the Iranians were trying to manipulate them and set a trap for them that they will use for their propaganda purposes.’ . . . Argentina’s courts have already found Iran culpable, and even issued Interpol warrants against five Iranians and a Lebanese for the attack, including Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi.” Israeli officials suspect this is a ploy by Argentina to obtain better relations with Iran.

The U.S. response was surprisingly low key. At the State Department there was this exchange at the daily press briefing:

QUESTION: Yeah. La Nacion from Argentina. I’ll Silvia Pisani. I would like to ask you if you have any comment or – about a recent agreement that Argentina arrived with Iran concerning the bombings in the AMIA.

MS. NULAND: Well, our position on the AMIA bombing is clear. It remains unchanged for the last 18 years. We in the international community have joined the Argentine Government and victims of this horrific attack in seeking justice. We continue to stress that the Iranian Government has a responsibility to cooperate fully with Argentine authorities in seeing that the perpetrators are brought to justice. We’re – obviously, that has not been something that the Iranians have been forthcoming about, but we’ll continue to make the points publicly.

QUESTION: So, is this a good – is this a step in the right direction, that they’re going to engage in this process?

MS. NULAND: To engage in a truth commission?

QUESTION: Yes, because it doesn’t necessarily lead to – usually, such commissions don’t actually lead to prosecutions. You just tell the truth and – so, I mean, is this a step in the right direction or not? Or do you not know?

MS. NULAND: Well, I think we all, obviously, have all wanted to see the perpetrators brought to justice, so if the Argentine Government thinks this might take us closer to that, then we’ll have to see.

Is this part of the administration’s generally lackluster stance toward Iran? Part of its refusal to recognize Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez’s toxic influence in our hemisphere?

It is hard to believe we would not have more to say or more interest in a Mickey Mouse commission that paves the way for an Iranian diplomatic coup. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez increasingly has been following the lead of Chavez and in extending an olive branch to Tehran seems to be trying to mimic Chavez’s coziness with the mullahs. This is, in short, a very bad sign for the Western Hemisphere, evidence that Iran is certainly not “isolated” internationally as the administration insists and another regrettable indication that we don’t take Israel’s concerns very seriously.

Egypt, Syria are falling apart – an Israeli nightmare unfolds.

( Debka is now crying wolf about Egypt/Syria.  It’s a good political “poor me” position to take, but it’s almost the complete reverse of the truth.  The two greatest threat in the Arab world to Israel are self destructing before our eyes.  I’ll drink to that. –  JW )

DEBKAfile Special Report January 29, 2013, 5:54 PM (GMT+02:00)

Iron Dome anti-missile stationed in Haifa

Israeli Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel warned Tuesday, Jan. 29, that Syria is falling apart and no one knows what the next day may bring: “War may not break out tomorrow,” he said, “but we stand ready for any eventuality.”

If war is not expected tomorrow, why have Israel’s armed forces, including the air force, been on their highest level of preparedness since Friday, Jan. 25? The Syrian crisis may not technically fit the description of a state of war. However, the violent turbulence in that country may at any time spill over the border into hostilities in some shape or form.
The “no comment” stance on the Syrian civil war, long held by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak is untenable and pointless, especially after the latter cut short an overseas family trip to be flown home in a hurry Saturday.
No one believes the official explanation that the three Iron Dome anti-missile batteries stationed over the weekend in northern Israel – in the sight of many thousands of local dwellers – are there for a preplanned routine test – least of all after a senior Israeli officer told AFP that large Hizballah forces are parked at Bashar Assad’s chemical weapons stores poised ready to seize them.
If this happens, said the officer, “A decision to attack Syria or Lebanon will need to be implemented immediately.”

This is beginning to sound as though the politicians and the generals are not on speaking terms.

Gen. Eshel’s comment came hard upon the grave warning issued earlier Tuesday by Egypt’s army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who is also the defense minister. “The political strife is pushing the state to the brink of collapse,” he said on the sixth day of turbulent protests across the country at the cost of more than 60 lives.
Gen. El-Sissi reacted to the chaos and lawlessness engulfing Egypt. The government headed by President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood is no longer a functioning administration. They have been reduced to the single task of fighting to hang onto power.

None of the forces of law and order – the army, internal security, police – are willing to clash head-on with the opposition protesters rampaging on the streets of the main cities including Cairo.  Some towns have descended into chaos and some outlying areas in this country of 90 million are no longer receiving regular food and water supplies.
The Egyptian defense minister’s warning may be taken two ways:

1.  As a last warning to the Muslim Brotherhood and the opposition on the streets that this is the eleventh hour and if they don’t step back from their confrontation, the military will be forced to seize power to save the country.
2.  Alternatively, that the army will not interfere and will stand aside for now, while warning that a civil war in Egypt would be more extensive and calamitous than the vicious conflict bringing Syria to ruin in the last two years.

As the two countries teeter on the brink of catastrophe, Gen. Eshel’s dry forecast of doom correctly noted that no one knows what tomorrow will bring.
However, Israel is coming face to face with its worst fear: being hemmed in by a blazing ring of hopeless conflicts just across its borders: Syria and Lebanon in the north; Egypt in the west and south; and Jordan under threat.

IAF Chief: Iran source of most threats to Isra… JPost – Defense.

Israel’s need to deal with developing threats before they begin having an impact on the country’s security is growing, Israel Air Force Chief, Maj.-Gen. Amir Eshel, told a Herzliya space conference on Tuesday.

Speaking at the Eight Annual Space Conference, hosted by the Fisher Institute, Eshel said that “most of the threats come to our borders from Iran through various ways.”

Turning his sights to Syria, Eshel said the country is “falling part.”

“Today, no one has an idea of what will be in Syria, and how the country will look. This is happening in a place with a vast arsenal of weapons, some of which is modern and advanced, and some of which is unconventional,” he added.

“This isn’t our backyard – it’s right on our borders. This is a very big challenge for us. Beyond that, we are dealing with a very wide spectrum of enemies and threat. From the sub-conventional to the unconventional. From the knife to the nuclear, in shifting ranges. We are facing very varied weapons, including Western and eastern arms, and weapons produced locally,” said the IAF commander.

“Spring is a season that does not exist in our region, and the ‘Arab spring’ is a term that certainly does not fit our reality. There are clear dramatic changes, starting from the lack of sovereignty of regional states, which leads to exposure to terrorist activities,” Eshel said. “Borders that were once silent are affected. States around us are falling apart.”

In the current regional reality, Israel’s fronts and its civilian home front are under threat from ground-to-ground missiles and rockets, cruise missiles, and drones, Eshel said.

He described space as an arena that provides “strategic depth” and which “clearly expresses Israel’s quality edge, which must be safeguarded in the future. Our ability as a country in space is central in terms our deterrence, and allows to act in any range, in a continuous manner, and covertly, without violating sovereignty.

The world of satellite sensors was experiencing rapid development, he added.

Yaalon: Syrian Weapons Fall into Opposition Hands – Defense/Security – News – Israel National News.

( C’mon, Iran.  Get more involved in propping up this enemy of his own people after already killing 70,000.  The Vietnamese lost a million and kept fighting.  Let’s see how many Syrians you can kill before your involvement ends your own atavistic, corrupt regime. –  JW )

Moshe Yaalon (file)

Flash 90

The Vice Prime Minister and Minister for Strategic Affairs, Moshe Yaalon, said Monday that the government devoted much of its weekly session Sunday to the danger that Syrian chemical weapons would fall into the hands of terror groups, as President Bashar al-Assad loses ground in the civil war there.

“I do not know where it is going, but it is clear that Assad is losing control from day to day, and that installations and weapons stockpiles are falling into the hands of the opposition,” Yaalon said.

“Israel is not intervening in the Syrian civil war,” he explained, “but we are following the developments so that the barrels of the guns are not turned in our direction. That is what we did in the Golan, which remained quiet. We examine things systematically and continually, along with Turkey, Jordan, the United States, France and Britain.”

The Iron Dome anti-missile defense system has been installed in northern Israel, according to the IDF, due to the escalating civil war in Syria. The move comes in response to increasing concerns that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad may lose control over the chemical weapons arsenal in the country.

Should that occur, the lethal arsenal held by Israel’s northern neighbor could be handed over, or become vulnerable to theft by a number of Islamic terrorist organizations, among them Hizbullah or Al Qaeda.

Defected translator sheds new light on Iran’s global reach | The Times of Israel.

Tehran challenging US presence in East Africa and bypassing sanctions in the Indian subcontinent, says Ahmad Hashemi

Ahmad Hashemi, center, translates at a meeting between Iranian Vice President Mohammed Reza Rahimi and a minister from Zimbabwe, June 25, 2011 (photo credit: Iranian presidential website)

Iran has attempted to increase its military presence in the Horn of Africa and tried to initiate an “Islamic arms industry” as part of its bid to challenge Western hegemony, a defecting government translator told The Times of Israel in an interview.

Ahmad Hashemi, who worked as an English and Turkish translator at Iran’s foreign ministry until his defection in June 2012, wrote in a Times of Israel blog post that Iran continues to insist on developing nuclear weapons capabilities, using deceptive tactics to mislead the world regarding the true nature of its nuclear program.

But over the past five years Hashemi also attended numerous meetings pertaining to Iran’s international military involvement, the details of which he shared with The Times of Israel on Monday in a phone interview from Turkey, where he fled as a political asylum seeker. The details he divulged could not be independently corroborated, but they did correspond with recent reports regarding Iran’s oversees activities.

Iran proposed an Islamic military alliance

Iranian defense minister Ahmad Vahidi on Saturday proposed the formation of a “NATO-like military organization” by Islamic states, tasked with defending Muslims across the world. According to London-based news daily Al-Hayat, Vahidi said the primary goal of the new alliance would be “to defend Palestine.”

Some two years ago, Hashemi was privy to a closed meeting in which Vahidi raised a similar idea.

Hashemi translates at a meeting between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a cleric from Azerbaijan (photo credit: Iranian presidential website)

The meeting took place in late 2010 between Vahidi and Bambang Brodjounegoro, director general of the Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI), a financial research center based in Saudi Arabia and owned by the Islamic Development Bank. In it, Vahidi raised the idea of creating an “advanced Islamic arms industry.” The idea, reported Hashemi, was dismissed by Brodjounegoro, an Indonesian national.

Vahidi is among the five Iranian and Lebanese nationals wanted by Argentina for his suspected involvement in the 1994 terrorist attack against the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires which left 85 people dead. On Sunday, Iran and Argentina signed an agreement to cooperate on a “truth commission” investigating Iran’s involvement in the bombing.

Iran’s involvement in Africa

On May 20, 2008, Hashemi attended a highly confidential closed-door meeting between Qassem Soleimani, head of the Quds Force, a branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) tasked with overseas operations, and the president of Eritrea, Isaias Afwereki. The meeting was also attended by Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki. 

At the meeting, the Iranians offered Eritrea assistance in developing its military capabilities and combating neighboring Ethiopia. The officials also discussed the need to curb the US presence in the Horn of Africa and take control of the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait, located between Eritrea and Yemen at the mouth of the Red Sea, through the deployment of Quds Force soldiers in the East African country.

A report published last month by Conflict Armament Research, a London-based center, traced Iranian ammunition in nine African countries from 2006 to 2009, including Sudan and Kenya in the east and Cote D’Ivoire and Nigeria in the west. Most of the ammunition was detected in the hands of non-state forces. The report found only one case of direct illicit supply of arms from Iran to Nigeria, in 2010, contravening a UN ban on Iranian arms export.

Bypassing the UN sanctions regime

Hashemi attended a number of meetings in which Iran discussed ways of exporting its goods to the Indian subcontinent.

In early 2012, he attended a meeting between Iranian and Indian officials who discussed the exchange of Iranian oil in return for Indian commodities and rupees.

On the Iranian side, the meeting was attended by Ali Bagheri, deputy head of Iran’s National Security Council, deputy president Hamid Baghai and deputy foreign minister Hussein Sobhaninia.

According to Hashemi, the Indians wanted the Iranian oil to be transferred from Iran’s Chabahar port to the Afghani city of Herat, and then onward to India. Iran, on the other hand, preferred a more bold violation of international banking sanctions, demanding direct transaction through the countries financial institutions.

Also in early 2012, the governor of Sri Lanka’s central bank, Ajith Nirath Cavraal, visited Iran and discussed ways of bypassing the international sanctions imposed on Iran with minister of industry and commerce Mehdi Ghazanfari and central bank governor Mahmoud Bahmani. According to Hashemi, who was present at the meeting, Cavraal offered to put Sri Lanka’s central bank at Iran’s disposal to acquire products banned by international sanctions.

Leaving Iran

Hashemi began working as an interpreter for Iran’s foreign ministry in January 2008, but joined the opposition’s Green Movement surrounding the elections of June 2009, he said.

Ahmad Hashemi (photo credit: courtesy)

In early 2012, Hashemi decided to run for parliament, but his candidacy was disqualified due to his so-called “nonreligious practices.” When he appealed the decision, he was fired from the foreign ministry and his entry to the building was banned. Throughout his service, Hashemi said, he was questioned numerous times by the ministry’s security department, known as Herasat, which ordered him to cease his opposition activity.

In May 2012 Hashemi began writing political articles for reformist dailies Shargh and Etemaad. At that point, he said, he started receiving anonymous death threats in late-night phone calls. One call, which explicitly threatened to behead him and toss his body in a nearby forest, particularly scared him.

Hashemi booked a return ticket to Istanbul, Turkey, in June and although he was stopped for questioning and a full physical search at Tehran airport by the Revolutionary Guard, he was eventually allowed to board the airplane, never to return to Iran. He told The Times of Israel that he continues to fear for his life, even in the relative safety of Turkey.

Fordo said to be crippled by ‘blast’ – Israel News, Ynetnews.

( Iran, Israel and the US will continue to “officially” not acknowledge the incident for as long as they can.  It serves the interests of none of them to go public on this.  Anyone who still  thinks this story is bogus gets my “Ostrich Award”. – JW )

Despite staunch denials by Iran, new details regarding explosion in nuclear site depict moments of detonation as allegedly captured by CCTV

Ynet

Despite vehement denials by Iran, new details emerged Tuesday regarding the alleged blast in the Fordo nuclear website.

The website reported Saturday that Fordo, which is considered to be Iran’s second-largest uranium enrichment facility, has suffered a massive explosion, which has razed a significant part of it, trapping over 200 people underground.

The credibility of the report has been questioned mostly due to the fact that the Qom-adjacent facility has been carved into a mountain and as such it is believed to be virtually unassailable by neither air strikes nor bunker-buster bombs.  

According to a Tuesday report by WND, the Revolutionary Guard has set up a 15km security zone around the site, cordoning it off completely.

The website said that among those now trapped in the belly of the mountain are 16 North Koreans, including 14 technicians, and two top military officers.

Iran insists the reports are “Western propaganda,” but WND claims that the Times of London and the Germany’s Die Welt both have sources that corroborated that a blast has crippled the Islamic Republic’s most important nuclear site.

The US, however, questioned the report’s validity: White House Spokesman Jay Carney said Monday that, “We have no information to confirm the allegations in the report and we do not believe the report is credible.”

The Islamic regime’s media, in a coordinated effort, reflected a similarly short response Sunday night in its denial, and Monday remained silent.

Minute by minute account?

Still, WND quoted Dr. Ali Reza Nourizadeh, director of the Center for Arab and Iranian Studies in London, as confirming that the explosion had trapped many inside.

The US-based website further alleged to have a source that saw, first hand, CCTV footage of the blast.

The account was as follows: “On January 21, 14 members of the North Korean team and two military officers now stationed at Fordo, along with Iranian scientists, started the process of feeding uranium gas into the newly set-up cascades at 9:15 am (Tehran time).”

Map of Iranian nuclear sites

“At 10:43 am, due to a drop in power pressure, system warning signs went off, but everything went back to normal after two minutes. At 11:36 am, five explosions occurred concurrently in the centrifuge chambers, two explosions in the uranium reserve enclosures and a subsequent explosion in the main hallway close to the exit.

“At the time of the explosions, a very bright red and purple light distorted the image and an extremely loud noise could be heard,” the account continues. “Before the explosions knocked out the cameras, interior walls could be seen coming down within the centrifuge chambers. All the explosions seemed to have been initiated from the ceilings.”

The force of the blast knocked out all of the cameras on the facility’s lowest level, which is about 300 feet underground, as well as those on the floor above it, WND claimed.

Other cameras soon malfunctioned, and according to the website, “The last images show eight personnel in anti-radiation clothing trying desperately to secure one of the rooms.”

Devastating Explosion At Key Iranian Nuclear Facility Confirmed By London Times.