#Hagel was brought to #Rutgers by #Khameni supporter

Last week, (Carl) reported on a 2007 Chuck Hagel speech at Rutgers University in whose question and answer session Hagel stated that the US State Department is controlled by Israel. It turns out that there's another interesting story about that speech: Hagel was brought to Rutgers by supporters of Ayatollah Ali Khameni's Iranian dictatorship.

A pro-Hezbollah, pro-Hamas candidate for the Iranian presidency, a man linked to Iranian-controlled front groups, brought former Republican Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel to speak at Rutgers University in 2007, according to another professor on campus.

Hooshang Amirahmadi, who led Rutgers’ Center for Middle Eastern Studies when Hagel came to campus, is the founder and president of the American-Iranian Council. He arranged for Hagel’s speech on March 2, 2007, the faculty source told The Daily Caller.

Iran’s Guardian Council cleared Amirahmadi to run for the presidency in 2013. Approval of the regime is required before candidates’ names can appear on the ballot. To be approved, candidates must be Shia, male, and committed to the Islamic revolution.
...
A press release in 2007 noted that the “Rutgers Center for Middle Eastern Studies” — Amirahmadi’s campus group – ”is hosting the senator’s visit to the university.”

Amirahmadi’s CV discloses that he has received financial support from the Alavi Foundation, a wealthy organization that the U.S. government has called “a front for the government of Iran.”

And IRS records provided to TheDC by FoundationSearch.com show that between 2003 and 2008, Rutgers University received $688,000 from the same foundation.

The New York Post reported in 2009 that the Alavi Foundation contributed $100,000 towards Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Columbia University.

“We found evidence that the government of Iran really controlled everything about the foundation,” Adam Kaufmann, investigations chief at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, told the Post in 2009.

Read the whole thing. Hagel is like a gift that keeps on giving with one thing after another being uncovered. And yet... not one Democrat has said he (or she) would vote against him. What will it take to wake these people up as to who Hagel is? What is sufficient to be termed a smoking gun?

"The Lid": Obama's Secret Negotiations With Iran Led by Valerie Jarrett

Secret or out in the open, any negotiations with Iran regarding their nuclear program are as delicate as they are important.   Obviously they must be handled by a very experienced diplomatic negotiator ..well not according to this President.
Israeli Newspaper Yediot Ahranot published in their Print edition today, that it is friend of Obama , former slumlord, and friend of the radical Islamist community Valerie Jarrett who is the president's secret envoy to Iran.
You may remember the reports about Jarret's last foray into foreign policy, she tried to convince Obama NOT to approve the raid on Bin Laden.
Ask yourself this, do you really want "re-hire" as commander-in-chief a person that sends a former slumlord with no diplomatic experience to negotiate with Iran about its Nuclear Program?
An English Translation of the full Yediot Ahranot story follows:

Yediot Ahranot, November 5, 2012, page 10
Obama’s Woman in Tehran Meet Valerie Jarrett – Obama’s secret envoy to talks with Iran
By Alex Fishman
Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor to President Barack Obama, is the key figure in the secret contacts conducted by the White House with the Iranian government. According to senior sources in Israel, the attorney from Chicago serves as the American president’s personal envoy for contacts with representatives of the spiritual leader Khamenei.
Jarrett, a close friend of Michelle Obama, is a central figure among the advisors to the president. She was born in the city of Shiraz in Iran to parents who were sent on an agricultural mission.
On October 21 the New York Times claimed that the American administration had secret contacts with Iran with the goal of opening direct talks immediately after the presidential elections in the US. A spokesman for the US National Security Council denied that there was any agreement between the Americans and the Iranians for direct talks or of any meeting after the elections, however, the next day senior officials in the administration confirmed that talks existed through a secret channel. They claimed, however, that no meeting was set between the sides.
The American administration made great efforts to minimize the contacts because central countries to the negotiations, like Russia, were not partners to the secret talks.
Israel was apparently surprised by the revelations. Today, however, senior officials in Jerusalem know of secret negotiations taking place between the sides for several months. The contacts, the sources say, were initiated by Jarrett and she serves as the head of the negotiations. Jarrett served, according to them, as the direct and personal envoy of the president to the secret meeting with the Iranians which apparently were held in one of the Persian Gulf emirates, most likely in Bahrain.
At the Iranians request, the talks will open – if they open – after the US elections and only if Obama is reelected.
According to the estimates done in the US State Department, the economic pressure on Iran will reach a climax at the beginning of next year – in February and March, immediately after the presidential inauguration. The direct contacts with Iran on a nuclear understanding are therefore expected to take place precisely in the same time frame that Iran will find itself under particularly heavy pressure. This confluence is likely to bring about positive results in the secret direct talks and in the P5+1 talks.

via yidwithlid.blogspot.com

Column One: Israel faces a cynical world By CAROLINE B. GLICK

This week a German doctor filed a criminal complaint against Rabbi David Goldberg for performing a ritual circumcision.

This week a German doctor in Bavaria filed a criminal complaint against Rabbi David Goldberg.
Rabbi Goldberg’s “crime”? He performs ritual circumcisions on Jewish male infants in accordance with Jewish law.
The doctor’s complaint came shortly after a ruling by a court in Cologne outlawing the practice of male circumcision.
The Austrians and the Swiss also took the ruling to heart and have banned infant male circumcision in several hospitals in Switzerland as well as in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg. Denmark and Scandinavian governments are also considering limiting the practice of circumcision which has constituted one of the foundational rituals of Judaism for four thousand years.
Meanwhile, in Norway Dr. Anne Lindboe has come up with the perfect way out of the artificial crisis. Lindboe serves a Norway’s ombudsman for children’s rights. And she proposes that we Jews just change our religion to satisfy anti-Jewish sensitivities. She suggests we replace circumcision with “a symbolic, nonsurgical ritual.”
It’s worth mentioning that circumcision isn’t the only Jewish ritual these enlightened Europeans find objectionable. Sweden, Norway and Switzerland have already banned kosher slaughter.
Attacking circumcision isn’t just a European fetish. The urge to curb Jewish religious freedom has reached the US as well. Last year San Francisco’s Jewish Community Relations Council had to sue the city to strike a measure from last November’s ballot that would have banned circumcision if passed. The measure’s sponsor gathered the requisite 12,000 signatures to enter the proposition on the ballot. Circumcising males under the age of 18 would have been classified as a misdemeanor punishable by a $1,000 fine and up to a year in prison. Sponsors of the measure distributed anti-Semitic materials depicting rabbis performing circumcisions as villains.
The people involved in banning or attempting to ban circumcision are not on the political fringe of their societies. They are part of a leftist establishment. They are doctors and lawyers, judges and politicians. This doesn’t mean that all their fellow leftists are anti-Semites. But it does mean the political Left in the Western world feels comfortable keeping company with anti-Semites.
This state of affairs is even more striking in international affairs than in domestic politics. On the international level the Left’s readiness to rub elbows with anti-Semites has reached critical levels.
While the Europeans have long been happy to cater to the anti-Semitic whims of the Islamic world, the escalation of the West’s willingness to accept anti-Semitism as a governing axiom in international affairs is nowhere more apparent than in the Obama administration’s foreign policy.
And the American Left’s willingness – particularly the American Jewish Left’s willingness – to cover up the administration’s collusion with anti- Semitic regimes at Israel’s expense is higher today than ever before.
A clear-cut example of both the Obama administration’s willingness to adhere to anti- Semitic policies of anti-Semitic governments and the Left’s willingness to defend this bigoted behavior is the Obama administration’s decision not to invite Israel to participate in its new Global Counterterrorism Forum.
The GCF was founded with the stated aim of fostering international cooperation in fighting terrorism. But for the Obama administration, it was more important to make Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, who supports the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist groups, feel comfortable, than it was to invite Israel to participate.
Not only did the US exclude Israel, at the GCF’s meeting last month in Spain, Maria Otero, the State Department’s under secretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights, seemed to embrace the Muslim world’s obscene claim that Israelis are not victims of terrorism because terrorism against Israel isn’t terrorism.
In her speech, titled “Victims of Terrorism,” Otero spoke of terror victims in Jordan, Turkey, Pakistan, Uganda, Colombia, Northern Ireland, Indonesia, India and the US. But she made no mention of Israeli terror victims.
Rather than criticize the administration for its decision to appease bigots at the expense of their victim, American Jewish leftists have defended the administration. Writing in The Atlantic, Zvika Kreiger, senior vice president of the far-left S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, wrote that allowing the Jewish state entry to the GCF parley would have “undermined the whole endeavor.”
Kreiger sympathetically quoted a State Department official who explained that actually, by ostracizing Israel the administration was helping Israel.
The source “reasoned the progress made by the organization would ultimately better serve Israel’s interests (not to mention those of the United States) than would the symbolic benefits of including it in a group that likely wouldn’t accomplish anything. [Moreover]... once the organization was up and running, and its agenda was established, they could find ways to include Israel that would not be disruptive.”
So despite the fact that Israel is a major target of terrorism, and despite the fact that many of the states the US invited to its forum condone terrorism against Israel and support terrorist groups that murder Israeli Jews, Israel is better off being excluded, because the anti-Jewish governments invited by the Obama administration will somehow totally change their perspective on anti-Jewish terrorism as long as they don’t have to suffer the irritation of sitting in the same room as real-live representatives of the Jewish state.
THE CYNICISM of the State Department official’s statement to Kreiger is only outpaced by Kreiger’s stubborn refusal to acknowledge that cynicism.
Kreiger’s behavior makes sense. If he acknowledges the bigoted nature of the Obama administration’s policies he will have to stop defending them.
To a degree, Kreiger’s willingness to defend and justify the Obama administration’s anti-Israel behavior parallels the behavior of Israelis who argue against Israel unilaterally striking Iran’s nuclear facilities in order to delay the Iranian regime’s acquisition of nuclear weapons.
Since 2003, when Iran’s nuclear weapons program was first revealed to the world community, Iran’s leaders have succeeded in convincing world leaders that Israel is No. 1 on their target list. And so, the international debate about what a nuclear-armed Iran will mean for the world has always followed the Iranians’ lead and centered on the dangers it would pose to Israel.
Israel’s leaders from then-prime minister Ariel Sharon down to the last governmental spokesman have maintained that Iran’s nuclear program threatens the entire Free World. Sharon – like his leftist disciples today – claimed that given the threat Iran’s nuclear program constitutes for global security, Israel has no reason to lead the global fight to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Indeed, Israeli leadership of the campaign against Iran’s nuclear program would cause some countries to do nothing because they hate Israel even more than they fear Iran.
Like his followers today, Sharon insisted that the US, as the leader of the Free World, is responsible for preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. And they are right. Iran’s nuclear program does threaten global security and Iran’s nuclear program does threaten the US specifically. Iranian dictator Ali Khamenei just ordered his troops to carry out terror attacks against the US in retaliation for US moves to overthrow Iran’s Syrian puppet Bashar Assad. Iran was the principle sponsor of the insurgency in Iraq and remains the principle supporter of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
It’s not that Israel’s leaders belittle the threat Iran’s nuclear weapons program constitutes for Israel. Across the spectrum on the Iran debate in Israel – from former Mossad director Meir Dagan and President Shimon Peres on the Left to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak on the Right – everyone agrees that in light of the Iranian regime’s religious fanaticism and its millenarian belief that Armageddon will hearken the coming of the Shi’ite messiah, Iran cannot be trusted not to use nuclear weapons against Israel.
Everyone admits that given Iran’s open sponsorship of terrorism, it is a certainty that terror groups would use the Iranian nuclear umbrella to massively expand their terrorist war against Israel.
Just as Dagan, Peres and their associates share Netanyahu’s assessment of the threat Iran’s nuclear program poses for Israel, Netanyahu agrees with their assessment that Israel’s options for contending militarily with Iran’s nuclear program are limited and imperfect. No one argues that Israel has a magic bullet to destroy Iran’s nuclear project.
Netanyahu and Barak have repeatedly warned that Israel has no perfect strike option. They have also warned that a response from Iran and its proxies in Syria and Lebanon to an Israeli strike will likely be harsh and deadly. All they say is that it is better than the alternative of Iranian acquisition of nuclear weapons.
The doves agree with Netanyahu that a limited Israeli strike is better than the alternative of a nuclear-armed Iran. They differ with Netanyahu on only one issue: their assessment of the US’s willingness to use military force to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power.
Voicing the doves’ assessment of the Obama administration and Europe, this week former commander of Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. (res.) Aharon Zeevi Farkash told NBC news, “I think Western leaders realize a nuclear Iran is the No. 1 challenge facing the world.”
Unfortunately, Farkash is wrong. Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, made this point earlier this week in an interview from Afghanistan. There Dempsey said frankly, “Israel sees the Iranian threat more seriously than the US sees it, because a nuclear Iran poses a threat to Israel’s very existence.”
In other words, Dempsey told us that Iran’s cynical packaging of its nuclear program as an anti-Israel initiative has worked. The Americans – and the Europeans – believe that Iran’s nuclear program is Israel’s problem to deal with. The Israelis are right that as the leader of the Free World it is the US’s responsibility to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power. But as Dempsey’s statement shows, the US is not interested in fulfilling its responsibility.
Like the Europeans, the Americans will only act when Iran forces them to do so. And that means they will do nothing to prevent Iran from developing the bomb. They will only move when Tehran has already crossed Israel off the top of its target list.
Israeli opponents of an Israeli strike against Iran don’t want to believe that Americans are capable of such cynicism. They would like to believe that the only government capable of behaving cynically is their own. They want to believe that the US – with its vastly superior military capabilities to destroy Iran’s nuclear program – will do the right thing and not leave it to Israel – with its limited means – to take care of the problem for a cynical world.
But just as Kreiger’s defense of the Obama administration’s courtship of anti-Semites at Israel’s expense crosses the line separating naivete from willful, bigotry-enabling blindness, so Peres, Dagan and their colleagues cross the line. And it is not mere bigotry they are enabling.
caroline@carolineglick.com

via jpost.com

Iranian suspicion grows over Turkey’s regional role.

(mfs other) Iranian suspicion grows over Turkey’s regional role. (AlArabiya) A senior Iranian political figure has spoken out against Turkey hosting Iran’s next talks with world powers on its disputed nuclear program, in the latest anti-Turkish broadside from politicians in Tehran, Fars news agency reported late on Monday. Last month Turkey offered Istanbul as the venue for talks expected to take place on April 13, a proposal which appeared to gather momentum last week when Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Istanbul would be “the best option.” Turkey has repeatedly backed Iran’s right to develop peaceful nuclear technology. The United States and its allies suspect Tehran of covertly working on nuclear weapons and have imposed tough new sanctions on its financial and energy sectors. Tehran, which says its nuclear activities are purely peaceful, has agreed to renewed talks with the five permanent members of the Security Council -- the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain -- and Germany this month. Once-warm Iranian-Turkish ties have cooled over the past year due to the popular revolt in Syria, Iran’s closest Arab ally and a steadfast backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.“Given the fact that our friends in Turkey have failed to fulfill some of our agreements, the talks... had better be held in another friendly country,” said former presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaie, Fars News reported. Speaking to staff of the Economic Cooperation Organization, a regional trade body with offices in Tehran, Rezaie did not specify what Turkey's failures were, but said that Baghdad, Damascus or Beirut would be a more suitable venue. “Offering Istanbul as the venue for the upcoming talks ... might give this wrong impression to the opposite side that Iran has grown weak and is in weak conditions,” he added. Rezaie has been an influential figure in Iranian politics for more than three decades since he was appointed commander in chief of the Revolutionary Guards, the elite force created to protect Iran’s system of theocratic rule. A critic and electoral rival of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009, Rezaie is now secretary of the Expediency Council, an influential body that advises Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who directs nuclear policy. His comments are a rare public criticism of neighboring Turkey whose prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, stressed the value of relations with Iran during a visit to Tehran last week.Iranian MP Esmail Kowsari has accused Turkey of being a messenger of the United States and Israel, saying that “it would surely be hated by its own people and other nations in the region because it is hand in hand with the arrogant (Western) powers,” the Iranian Labor News Agency reported on Monday. Kowsari ridiculed Turkey’s hosting on Sunday of a “Friends of the Syrian People” meeting of mostly Western and Arab countries, which he described as only enemies of Syria. Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani called the Istanbul event a “conference to bribe Israel” and said regional nations that described Syria as a dictatorship were no better themselves, Fars reported.Read the full story here.

politics, politics, politics... this Syrian situation sure has soured the relationship

Hamas Rejects BBC Claims, Vows to Give Crushing Response to Israeli Aggression against Iran.

Obama's 'peacepartners' financed by the U.S. taxpayers, why wouldn't they laugh?
Hamas Rejects BBC Claims, Vows to Give Crushing Response to Israeli Aggression against Iran. (OTHER)(Fars).Tehran - Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior official of the Palestinian Hamas movement, strongly rejected a recent BBC report which quoted him as saying that Hamas would take no action in case of an Israeli invasion of Iran, and warned that any Israel or US attack on Iran will be reciprocated by Hamas's crushing response to the Zionists.
BBC Persian's website alleged in a report on Wednesday that the No. 2 Hamas official in the Gaza Strip has assured that his movement would not take any action in the face of an Israeli attack on Iran.
Al-Zahar strongly rejected the BBC claim as unfounded and a lie. "Retaliation with utmost power is the position of Hamas with regard to a Zionist war on Iran," Zahar told FNA on Wednesday afternoon.
Zahar rejected the possibility of any Israeli aggression against Iran, but meantime, reiterated that Hamas will give a crushing response to not only the Zionists but also to "whoever helping them" in such an attack.
Israel and its close ally the United States have recently intensified their war rhetoric against Iran. The two arch foes of the Islamic Republic accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, while they have never presented any corroborative document to substantiate their allegations. Both Washington and Tel Aviv possess advanced weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear warheads.
Iran vehemently denies the charges, insisting that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.
Iran has, in return, warned that it would target Israel and its worldwide interests in case it comes under attack by the Tel Aviv. Following the US and Israeli war rhetoric against Tehran, the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, said Tehran has an array of options for confronting the US pressures and sanctions.
Addressing millions of Friday Prayers worshippers on Tehran University Campus in February, Ayatollah Khamenei pointed to the US threats that 'all options are on the table', and underlined that the threat of war is harmful to the US interests and war can be ten times more harmful to that country.
"The US threats are sign of its failure in the face of Islamic Republic's discourse and indicates that they cannot create a logical response to Iran's reasoning," the Leader stated at the time.
"That's why it (the US) resorts to force; they do not have any logic except using force and have no way but bloodshed to go forward."
Ayatollah Khamenei further underlined that US and others must know and they know that Iran has threats too in face of oil sanctions and "we impose them whenever it is necessary".Read the full story here.

Free Syrian Army shows video of alleged Iranian fighters abducted in Homs

@Criticalanalyst

(AlArabiya) A group of Syria’s opposition “Free Army” has released a video showing what it was said were seven Iranians, including five members of the Revolutionary Guards, captured in the city of Homs.

The video showed travel documents of the captives, some of whom appeared to be speaking Farsi.
“I am Sajjad Amirian, a member the Revolutionary Guards of the Iranian armed forces. I am a member of the team in charge of cracking down on protesters in Syria and we receive our orders directly from the security division of the Syrian air force in Homs,” one of the captives said.
“I urge Mr. Khamenei to work on securing our release and return to our homes,” he added.

The armed Syrian opposition group, which called itself the “al-Farouq brigade of the Free Syrian Army,” also released a statement calling for Iran’s Supreme leader Ali Khamanei to “acknowledge in explicit and unambiguous words the existence of elements of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in Syria in order to help the Assad’s regime in its crackdown on the Syrian people.”

The group also urged Khamanei to withdraw all Revolutionary Guard fighters from Syria, pledging that that it would then release all captive Iranian fighters.
The group said five of those abducted were military men working with the Syrian air force intelligence and two showed “civilian status” as employees in a power plant in Homs.
It added that all the seven captives entered Syria during the uprising and passports of the five military men did not contain visas, adding that it would soon release the two Iranians with civilian status.
Syrian opposition groups have previously accused Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah group of assisting forces of President Bashar al-Assad in their bloody crackdown on protesters.
The Syrian Revolutionary Coordination Union reported on Jan. 17 that a group of Hezbollah fighters had hit civilian protesters near Damascus with Russian-origin BM-21Grad rockets.
“The attack was coordinated with the forces of President Bashar Assad,” the Syrian opposition group said.
A source from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) told Al Arabiya on Jan. 16 that the “Iranian government has not yet interfered in situation in Syria,” but stressed that Tehran was committed to a joint defense treaty with Damascus.
“We and our brethren in Iraq and Lebanon are protecting Syria,” the source explained in a clear reference to Nouri al-Malikil’s government and Hezbollah, both allies of Iran.
Despite reports stating that so far the situation in Syria is “stable,” the IRGC, the source pointed out, is still worried of a division or a coup in the Syrian army.
According to American officials who believe the IRGC is taking part in the fight against Syrian opposition, Maj. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, commander of IRGC al-Quds Force, which specializes in operations outside Iran, was in Damascus this month.
Gen. Suleimani’s visit, they argued proved that Iran’s support for the Syrian regime includes the provision of arms and military equipment.
They added that they are sure Suleimani met with the most senior officials in the Syrian regime, including president Bashar al-Assad.
The joint defense treaty between Syria and Iran was signed in June 2006 by a former Syrian defense minister, Hassan Turkmani, and his Iranian counterpart, Mustafa Mohamed Najjar, in Tehran.

This man was a guest at the Obama White House last week

Yes, the man holding (and subsequently kissing, I am told) the hand of Ayatollah Ali Khameni of Iran was at the White House last week.

What could go wrong?

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

How Iran persecutes its oldest religion

Jamsheed K. Choksy

(CNN) Editor's note: Jamsheed K. Choksy is professor of Iranian studies, senior fellow of the Center on American and Global Security, and former director of the Middle Eastern studies program at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Bloomington, Indiana (CNN) -- As Zoroastrian funerary processions enter the graveyard overlooking the Tehran suburb of Ray, their sobriety is often shattered by the sound of explosions and gunfire. Frequently, the way forward is blocked by Islamic Revolutionary Guards conducting a combat exercise among the tombs. According to Zoroastrian custom, burial needs to take place within 24 hours, and the Revolutionary Guards will not halt their training activities there for the funerals.
This is just another sign of religious freedom fading in the Islamic Republic.
Much that is written about the Zoroastrians of Iran portrays them as a venerable and quaint religious community. But these followers of an ancient faith are not insulated from the tribulations of their country.

Zoroastrianism is named after its founder, the prophet Zarathustra -- or Zoroaster, as he came to be known in the West -- who preached sometime between 1800 and 1000 B.C. Zoroaster spoke of humans siding with God (called Ahura Mazda, or the Wise Lord) against the devil (called Angra Mainyu, or the Angry Spirit) and fighting for all that is right. In time, those concepts became central to Judaism, Christianity and Islam. So did Zoroastrian beliefs that each soul faces judgment after death before entering heaven, limbo or hell, and that all of humanity will experience resurrection, final judgment and heaven on Earth.
Ancient Persian kings like Cyrus and Darius followed their faith's basic tenet of doing good by freeing Israelites from the Babylonian Exile and supporting construction of the Second Temple at Jerusalem. Zoroastrianism's clergymen, or magi, are known around the world as the wise men in attendance at the nativity of Jesus. Until Arabs conquered Iran during the seventh century, Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians there could practice their own devotions unhindered. Thereafter, they became minorities who were persecuted and largely converted to Islam.
When the Islamic revolution occurred in 1979, fundamentalist Shiites stormed the fire temple at Tehran. There, Zoroastrians worship in front of a blazing fire, as a symbol of God's grace, just like Christians face a cross and Muslims turn to a qibla pointing toward Mecca. The portrait of Zoroaster was tossed down, a photograph of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was put up in its place, and the congregation was warned not to remove the image of Iran's new leader. Only months later could the prophet's picture be mounted upon an adjacent wall.
Their schools and classrooms began to be covered with images of Supreme Leaders Ayatollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and with verses of the Quran that denounce non-Muslims. Those who do well academically nonetheless find no openings within state-controlled universities.
When the bloody war with Iraq raged from 1980 to 1988, young Zoroastrians were involuntarily drafted for suicide missions in the Iranian army. Rejecting the Shiite mullahs' claim that military martyrdom would lead them to a heaven full of virgins was futile. Failing to offer their lives on the battlefield could result in execution for treason.
Then in November 2005, Ayatollah Ahmed Jannati, chairman of the Council of Guardians of the Constitution, disparaged Zoroastrians and other religious minorities as "sinful animals who roam the earth and engage in corruption." When the Zoroastrians' solitary parliamentary representative protested, he was hauled before a revolutionary tribunal. There, mullahs threatened execution before sparing his life with a warning never to challenge their declarations again. A frightened community subsequently declined to re-elect him.
Over the past two years, many Muslim Iranians have begun publicly rejecting the Shiite theocracy's intolerant ways by adopting symbols and festivals from Zoroastrianism. Those actions are denounced as causing "harm and corruption" by ayatollahs like Khamenei and Jannati.
Sensing that popular sentiment among Iran's Muslim majority is shifting away from the mullahs, even President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has begun utilizing Zoroastrianism's past for his own political ends. In September 2010, he arranged for the Cyrus Cylinder, a sixth-century B.C. document that speaks of religious tolerance and Iranian greatness, to be loaned from the British Museum. During a public ceremony in Tehran, Ahmadinejad lauded indigenous traditions as superior to Arab-imposed Islam. Privately, his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, even referred to King Cyrus as "a messenger of God."
Their tottering political base has sharpened the Shiite clerics' ire. Like members of the Christian, Jewish and Baha'i minorities, Zoroastrian activists who protest the theocracy's excesses are sent to Tehran's notorious Evin prison on charges of sedition. At the ayatollahs' instigation, Iranian media characterizes the followers of Iran's ancient faith as polytheists and devil worshipers. Lesser mullahs rant against Zoroastrians not only in Iran, but even at mosques in Toronto.
The Zoroastrian cemetery outside Tehran now faces another challenge: The municipality seeks to lay a highway through it. Some schools and devotional centers in other Zoroastrian strongholds like Yazd and Kerman have also been notified of pending annexation. Communal gatherings are routinely monitored by fundamentalist Muslim authorities who allege that Zoroastrianism "threatens national security and subverts the Islamic revolution."
Protections offered by the Islamic Republic's constitution have been rendered meaningless in practice. Not surprisingly, the daily regimen of discrimination makes Zoroastrians feel wholly unwelcome in their Iranian homeland. Only between 35,000 and 90,000 now remain in a country of approximately 74 million citizens -- and, fearing persecution, many do not readily identify themselves as Zoroastrians.
Yet, Zoroastrians are no mere footnote in human history and religiosity. Their ideas still determine how many of the globe's residents behave. The end of Zoroastrianism in Iran should be prevented. Making religious freedom a priority in U.S. and EU foreign policies will help achieve that goal.

Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei says that the only reason Barack Hussein Obama is supporting Israel is to get re-elected

Iran Delivers Threatening Letter to President Obama

Jalal Talabani, who recently participated in the “International Conference for the Global Fight against Terrorism” in Tehran, promised Khamenei that he would deliver the letter and the message to American officials. Ayatollah Khamenei, in a meeting with Iranian officials on June 30, warned that the U.S. — in a complicated plot — tries to create problems for Syria, and that the nature of the regional awakening was anti-U.S. and anti-Zionist. Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, which is a media branch of Hezbollah , quoted several of its Tehran-based sources as saying that the Iranian leadership also warned Turkey against taking any military action against Syria. The report adds that any militaristic meddling in Syria by the Turks would be considered “crossing a red line” and will not be tolerated by the Iranian regime.

The Arab-language newspaper Al-Ahram reports that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei recently sent a letter filled with threats to American officials. The letter, which is said to have been delivered by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, accuses the U.S. of meddling in Syrian affairs. According to Al-Ahram, Khamenei has ordered the U.S. to cease and desist pressuring the Syrian regime leadership, cautioning that Iran will retaliate against American troops stationed in Iraq should Obama refuse to take the warning seriously

Iran faces the prospect of an early presidential election after opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s controversial leadership united behind calls for a vote to coincide with next year’s parliamentary polls.

“We believe the next presidential election will be held sooner than its legal time and that a clergy will be elected to have more humbleness towards the Supreme Leader,” said Ghodrat Alikhani, a prominent religious MP.

Mr Ahmadinejad counted on the support of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to survive a popular revolt against the election that granted him a second term in 2009 but he has since fallen out of favour with the Supreme Leader.

Remembering Khomeini...Without Ahmadinejad

0630 GMT: The Ceremony. And with that reference to the brief disturbance caused by the enemy, the Supreme Leader is back to praising Iranian officials and their "great achievements", with "great security" that has thwarted the enemy. There is economic progress, and scientific achievement of "11- or 12-fold".
0625 GMT: The Ceremony. The Supreme Leader hits his stride about a "10-year enemy plot" --- "I don't have any specific evidence. This is just my interpretation."
And now the reference to the 2009 Presidential election: "the enemy was of the conviction that it could have made its plot work." The passage is somewhat rambling, as the Supreme Leader says "the enemy...created unrest for 2 or 3 months in Tehran".
This plot, of course, was defeated by the Iranian people, who rallied for the regime on Qods Day and Ashura in 2009. [Ed's Note: This is a bit of a revision of history, given that the Green Movement had its public high point on Ashura with mass gatherings that even pushed back security forces.]
0622 GMT: A Clerical Intervention. A different type of remembrance of Ayatollah Khomeini yesterday by Ayatollah Dastgheib, as he continues his criticism of the regime --- "The Imam didn't want to be an absolute ruler but guide people to goodness. You have defamed Islam."
0620 GMT: The Ceremony. Now it is getting a bit more interesting. The Supreme Leader takes aim at those who defy "spirituality" and "distance people from society", "keeping young people from participating in the political events".
He continues, "These people have deviated."
0610 GMT: The Battle Within. Not much happening at the Khomeini ceremony beyond the Supreme Leader's lengthy tribute, so a quick reminder of last night's LiveBlog....
Any supposed political truce was rocked on Friday by a series of statements, including the declaration by Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi --- the former "spiritual mentor" of the President --- that the Ahmadinejad camp is "trash" and the attack by a clerical representative of the Supreme Leader upon the Revolutionary Guards and Ayatollah Khamenei's office.
And this video puts a bit more fuel on the flames. Revolutionary Guards Commander Saeed Qassemi taunts Ahmadinejad, "You released the eight British spies with the help of British Ambassador."
Qassemi is referring to the detention and release in 2007 of 15 British naval personnel, seized when their boat allegedly strayed into Iranian waters.
0603 GMT: The Ceremony. Ahmadinejad is in the front row of the audience, between Khomeini's grandson Seyed Hassan and the head of judiciary, Sadegh Larijani (and two seats from his rival, former President Hashemi Rafsanjani). He is looking uncomfortable.
Other major Iranian political and religious figures are also present, including Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani.
0600 GMT: The Supreme Leader is already speaking in Tehran, paying tribute to Ayatollah Khomeini for making the "Iranian nation believe they are the real owners of the country".
0545 GMT: Iran's state media are already featuring today's ceremonies marking the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, as "millions of Iranians from across the country travel to Tehran to pay tribute to the late leader". The press and broadcasters are announcing that "Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei will address the gathering on Saturday".
What they are not saying is that President Ahmadinejad will not be addressing that gathering.
In the midst of Iran's political conflict, Ahmadinejad was rebuffed by the Khomeini Foundation last month. The organisers declared that, as the President had not met the deadline to announce his attendance, he would not be speaking.
The simple but effective rejection was another blow against the President in his contest for power with the Supreme Leader, the Guardian, Parliament, and the judiciary. It was also payback for 4 June 2010, when his supporters shouted down Khomeini's grandson at the Tehran ceremony.
And there was more embarrassment for Ahmadinejad last night. The President tried to regain ground at a memorial ceremony, but his speech was interrupted by competing chants, as critics denounced his right-hand man Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai.

via enduringamerica.com

it looks like A'jad is in trouble

Rift between Ahmadinejad and Khameni is growing

Ahmadinejad-Ayatollah conflict
turns into street-fighting

IRANIAN Surprise!
HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY

There are signs that the rift between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khameni is widening.

Allies of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were arrested this week for being "magicians" and invoking spirits, Iranian website reported on Wednesday.
Ahmadinejad's chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei as well as other people close to the Iranian president were accused of invoking djinns.
One of the arrested men, Abbas Ghaffari, was called "a man with special skills in metaphysics and connections with the unknown worlds," Iranian news site Ayandeh reported.

Heh.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

and the Magicians in the West thought kids parties and Bar Mitzvahs were a tough audience....

Ahmadinejad-Ayatollah conflict turns into street-fighting

According to reports from Iran, serious clashes between the rank and file supporters of Khamenei and the supporters of Ahmadinejad erupted on Saturday. Many were severely injured with clubs and machetes. The clashes are said to have been so fierce that the security guards did not intervene and stood aside, watching the brawl.

From Pajamas Media via judeopundit.blogspot.com and image via ps2.gamespy.com

Khamenei: Obama Doesn't Know What He's Talking About

In response to U.S. President Barack Obama's speech of support for the Iranian people to mark the Persian New Year yesterday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei mocked Obama. Khamenei said: "We don't know whether the current American president understands what he's saying, or is ignorant and confused. He said that the [Iranian] people in Azadi ('Freedom') Square in Tehran was like the Egyptian people in Al-Tahrir ('Liberation') Square in Cairo, while the [Iranian] people gathers every 22nd of the month of Behman [February 11, Iran's Islamic Revolution Day] in Azadi Square in Tehran and repeats its call (of 'Death to America')." via thememriblog.org

WikiLeak: Petraeus: If we wanted Middle Eastern oil, we could've just bought it

[Nazarbayev] said Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameni told him that even if Iran compromises on the nuclear issue, the United States would always find another reason to criticize "because they hate us -- all the United States wants is to conquer the entire region and steal the oil." General Petraeus interjected, "We could have bought all the oil in the region for 100 years for what we've spent in Iraq!" Nazarbayev, looking a bit amused, said, "I know. I'm just telling you what he said."

via oilandglory.foreignpolicy.com

Ahmadinejad: Koran burning will accelerate Israel's fall, annihilation

Ahmadinejad says plan is a "Zionist plot," Israel, its "supporters are on the path to collapse and decline and such desperate actions will not save them."

One can also call it Persian insanity hour.

(JPost) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Friday that the planned Koran burning by Florida Reverend Terry Jones will bring the destruction of Israel, according to a PressTV report.

According to the report, Ahmadinejad said that the plan to burn Korans was a, "Zionist plot, and against the teachings of all divine prophets." The burning is scheduled for the September 11th terror attacks anniversary on Saturday.

"The Zionists and their supporters are on the path to collapse and decline and such desperate actions will not save them, but will accelerate their fall and annihilation," Ahmadinejad said at a Teheran meeting with Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and other leading Iranian officials.

On Thursday Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Israel is behind the planned Koran burning, according to the official Iranian news agency IRNA.

“The software for this plan was made by the Zionists following their defeats against Muslims and the Islamic world,” Manouchehr said in a meeting with foreign diplomats in Iran.

According to the report, the foreign minister also blamed former US President George W. Bush and said Bush's rhetoric after the September 11 terrorist attacks led to the increase of Islamophobia in the country.

“The current US administration should fulfill its duties in guaranteeing the basic rights of American Muslims for avoiding the spread of such inappropriate and devilish moves,” added Mottaki.

Senior Iranian clergyman Ayatollah Safi Golpaygani also commented on the planned event, according to the DPA news agency.

"On behalf of a half billion Muslims, I condemn this savage plan and warn of its consequences," Golpaygani said in a statement on Iran's state television website, IRIB. "This pastor should be immediately arrested and his church closed down."

The ayatollah said US President Barak Obama would be held responsible if the "gruesome and inhuman act" takes place.

I mean... crazy doesn't even begin to cover it.

via eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com

Hitler loved parades. Do you go to parades? if you go to parades then you are doing what Hitler did.

guilty as charged!

noahdavidsimon's posterous

IRANIAN Surprise! HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that Iran is set to deliver a "punch" that will stun world powers during this week's 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution. "The Iranian nation, with its unity and God's grace, will punch the arrogance (Western powers) on the 22nd of Bahman (February 11) in a way that will leave them stunned," Khamenei, who is also Iran's commander-in-chief, told a gathering of air force personnel.  ....Happy Happy Joy Joy
The country's top cleric was marking the occasion when Iran's air force gave its support to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a key event which led to the toppling of the US-backed shah on February 11, 1979. His comments came as Iran said it would begin to produce higher enriched uranium from Tuesday, in defiance of Western powers trying to ensure the country's nuclear drive is peaceful. This year's anniversary is expected to become a flashpoint between security forces and supporters of opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who charge that the June re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was rigged. Opposition supporters are expected to stage anti-government protests on Thursday when the traditional regime-sponsored marches to mark the revolution take place across the country. Mousavi renewed his call for demonstrations on the February 11 anniversary. Just over a week ago, he and Karroubi had implicitly called for a gathering of their supporters. "The 22nd of Bahman is upon us, truly it should be called the day of gathering," Mousavi said on his Kaleme.org website Monday. "I feel we have to participate while maintaining the collective spirit as well as our identity and leave an impression," Mousavi said. "Anger and bitterness should not take our control away. "The clerics should know that since imprisonment, beatings, and other confrontational methods are done in the name of Islam and the Islamic regime, it is hurting Islam and we all should try to stop," he added. Anti-government protests were first triggered after the June 12 presidential election won by Ahmadinejad. Over the past eight months, several thousand people were arrested. Some were released and others were given hefty prison terms, among them politicians, journalists and human rights activists. Two protesters were tried, convicted and hanged in the aftermath of the election. Khamenei told the air force personnel the "most important aim of the sedition after the election was to create a rift within the Iranian nation, but it was unable to do so and our nation's unity remained a thorn in its eyes."
Nuclear test?
New home built fighter?
Air show of their new attack drones?

via ibloga.blogspot.com

Is an Iranian intifada imminent?

An Iranian-style intifada seems to be in the making. At the beginning of the current period of opposition, which started soon after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's controversial reelection, quiet periods of seeming normalcy occurred between what were less frequent demonstrations.
This photo obtained by AP shows Iranian protesters beating police officers during an anti-government demo in Teheran on Sunday.
I have no doubt that the insurgency is real, but I'm not sure why anyone cares. These people are no more supportive of freedom then the present government. I have not heard any explanation about what type of government these people would support. Internationally the Green Revolution does not seem to have any different interest then the present administration. It is nothing but a power struggle that is common in Islamic culture.
Judging from the events of Ashura, however, the protests now seem to carry the potential to turn into a full-scale civil disobedience campaign, not unlike the first intifada the Palestinians initiated against Israel in 1987.
oh well happy joy joy... let them get a little taste of their own medicine
Such an uprising will mean continuous periods of strikes and civil disobedience, as well as more confrontations between members of the public and security forces.
wow... really? I'm upset
The main factor contributing to the new status quo is the unrelenting policies of the supreme leader, which have pitted his philosophy of the Islamic Republic against longstanding Islamic institutions.

THIS IS a battle that Khamenei will find extremely difficult to win. In fact, if developments continue in their current form, they can result in significant changes to the structure of his regime, or more drastically, lead to its total demise.
His decision to allow the Basij to mount an attack on mourners at Ayatollah Montazeri's funeral was one factor leading to the spread of opposition in rural areas, faster and more efficiently than any campaign the reformist camp could have orchestrated. Yes, members of the opposition tried to take advantage of the mayhem, but also many genuine mourners had come to pay homage to a grand ayatollah. To Khamenei's forces, they were all the same. To allow attacks against the residents of a holy city where the seeds of the 1979 revolution were planted was not just dead wrong from a religious perspective, it was politically counterproductive as well.
To make matters worse, the very next day, the supreme leader's forces attacked mourners attending a ceremony for Montazeri at Isfahan's Seyyed mosque, where inside members of the public were beaten. The Basijis also tried to assault Isfahan's former Friday prayers leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Jalaleddin Taheri, who had arranged the ceremony. However, his supporters protected him.
IF THE Shah had committed such an affront, one could have attributed it to his brute dictatorial secularism. But for the supreme leader of an Islamic republic to order violence against Islamic institutions means turning against the very establishment that formed the foundation - or the very DNA - of the current regime.
In 1987, to Palestinians, Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and the deteriorating political and economic situations there formed the nucleus of the political ideology that legitimized the first intifada.
those were different peoples. these are the same people cannibalizing... but I understand the media likes to glorify the Intifada whenever it can
Khamenei's increasing attacks against the Iranian public, followed by full-scale assaults against mosques and religious members of the community, are creating the nucleus of an ideology that is legitimizing opposition, not just in cities, but throughout Iran.
However, ideology is not enough. To succeed, what is needed is to increase the frequency of opposition to the point where the morale of the regime and its forces are sufficiently eroded and they can no longer afford to carry on with their current policies, or their ability to function.
Here again, Khamenei seems to be aiding the opposition. The brutal attack against the mourners at Montazeri's funeral meant that more people were motivated to turn up in the streets on Tasua (the day before Ashura), as well as on Ashura, which happened to fall on the seventh day of Montazeri's passing. In fact, small demonstrations have continued in different places since Montazeri was buried.
way to go Khamenei! keep up the great work. we are counting on you
Further, on Ashura, his forces killed Seyed Ali Habibi Mousavi Khameneh, the nephew of Mir Hossein Mousavi. It's very possible that he happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. However, the Mousavi family might understandably assume that he was targeted for assassination. After all, how is it possible that among thousands upon thousands of demonstrators, he was one of the few shot dead? Was he followed from the beginning by an assassination team? Was he marked for death before he left the house? These are questions that cannot be overlooked.
And now his funeral, as well as the seventh day of his death, will provide other occasions for the opposition to demonstrate. Add to this 15 religious holidays, plus at least five major political ones. Meanwhile, more are expected to be killed or arrested, meaning further mourning congregations and demonstrations. Put all of these dates together and the regime could start facing an unprecedented number of demonstrations.
Things could get much worse if the opposition turns to public strikes. With violence against the public expected to continue unabated and Ahmadinejad's plan to cut subsidies, translating to more economic misery, the regime could add to the attraction of this backbreaking scenario.
More than ever, the future of this regime hinges on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He can save his regime and keep it in its current form if he learns from his recent mistakes and modifies the way his forces and government reach out to the public. Failure to readjust could turn out to be a very costly mistake.
let's hope he doesn't learn a thing
This article was originally written for The Tehran Bureau, a partnership with PBS Frontline, at www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau.>
via jpost.com

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