Iran

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Ahmadinejad, at Columbia, Parries and Puzzles

New York Times

He said that there were no homosexuals in Iran — not one — and that the Nazi slaughter of six million Jews should not be treated as fact, but theory, and therefore open to debate and more research. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, aired those and other bewildering thoughts in a two-hour verbal contest at Columbia University yesterday, providing some ammunition to people who said there was no point in inviting him to speak. Yet his appearance also offered evidence of why he is widely admired in the developing world for his defiance toward Western, especially American, power. In repeated clashes with his hosts, Mr. Ahmadinejad accused the United States of supporting terrorist groups, and characterized as hypocritical American and European efforts to rein in Iran’s nuclear ambitions. “If you have created the fifth generation of atomic bombs and are testing them already, who are you to question other people who just want nuclear power,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said, adding, pointedly: “I think the politicians who are after atomic bombs, politically, they’re backwards. Retarded.”

California Seeks to Ban Investment in Iran

Pensions & Investments - Schwarzenegger gets Iran divestment bill

CalPERS and CalSTRS would be required to divest from companies with ties to the energy and defense sectors in Iran if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs legislation the California state Senate passed on Thursday, said Chip Englander, chief of staff for Assemblyman Joel Anderson, who wrote the bill. The bill requires the $247.7 billion California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the $169 billion California State Teachers’ Retirement System, both in Sacramento, to divest stocks totaling about $2 billion and $1.4 billion, respectively. Mr. Schwarzenegger has until Oct. 14 to sign the bill. A call to the governor’s office was not returned before press time.

Iran scorns French warning of war

BBC NEWS

A warning by France's foreign minister that the world should prepare for war over Iran's nuclear programme has drawn a furious response in Iranian media. France was aping the US and its new president had "taken on American skin", the official Iranian news agency said. On Sunday Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said: "We have to prepare for the worst, and the worst is war." Iran's nuclear programme is to be debated in Vienna, Austria, at the UN nuclear watchdog's annual conference. Iran denies it is trying to acquire nuclear weapons, and says it only wants nuclear power to generate electricity for civilian purposes. But it has repeatedly rejected UN demands to give up the enrichment of uranium, which the US and other Western states fear is being diverted to a nuclear weapons project. 'Inflammatory' Mr Kouchner said negotiations with Iran should continue "right to the end", but that an Iranian nuclear weapon would pose "a real danger for the whole world".

Iran Vows to Use 'Smart' Bomb on Enemies

Breitbart.com

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran vowed Sunday to use a new 2,000-pound "smart" bomb against its enemies and unveiled mass production of the new weapon, state television reported. The government first announced development of the long-range guided bomb Thursday, saying it could be deployed by the country's aging U.S.-made F-4 and F-5 fighter jets. "We will use these (bombs) against our enemies when the time comes," Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said on state television Sunday. Iran often announces new weapons for its arsenal, but the United States maintains that while the Islamic Republic has made some strides, many of these statements are exaggerations. The broadcast included a brief clip of a fighter jet apparently dropping one of the bombs, which destroyed a target on the ground. The defense minister continued his threats as state television showed him unveiling a mass production line for the weapon in Tehran.

Why is Iran Shelling Iraq?

Time

Iraqi Kurdish media are reporting that the Iranian military is massing at the main border crossing into northern Iraq, possibly for an incursion against PEJAK. Clashes between PEJAK and the Iranians have been increasing steadily, and Iraqi Kurdish officials say that about 40 Iranian soldiers were killed on Saturday. Whether or not the Iranians attack, the timing of build-up is ominous. Last week, the United States announced that it may list Iran's Revolutionary Guard — a branch of the country's military — as a terrorist organization for supplying explosives to Shi'ite militias in Iraq for use against American soldiers. The statement was part of a growing White House campaign aimed at either intimidating the Iranian regime, or at building a case for an American strike against Iran. In that light, yesterday's shelling is a reminder that Iran has the ability to confront the U.S. not just on the streets of Baghdad but also in the one part Iraq so safe that there are hardly any American soldiers: Iraqi Kurdistan.

Diplomatic Showdown With Iran Intensifies

Washington Post

The United States has decided to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country's 125,000-strong elite military branch, as a "specially designated global terrorist," according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to target the group's business operations and finances. The Bush administration has chosen to move against the Revolutionary Guard Corps because of what U.S. officials have described as its growing involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as its support for extremists throughout the Middle East, the sources said. The decision follows congressional pressure on the administration to toughen its stance against Tehran, as well as U.S. frustration with the ineffectiveness of U.N. resolutions against Iran's nuclear program, officials said.

Iraq Sunni Leader: Iran Backing "Genocide"

CBS News

(CBS/AP) Iraq's most senior Sunni politician issued a desperate appeal for Arab nations to help stop what he called an "unprecedented genocide campaign" by Shiite militias armed, trained and controlled by Iran. Adnan al-Dulaimi said "Persians" and "Safawis," Sunni terms for Iranian Shiites, were on the brink of total control in Baghdad and soon would threaten Sunni Arab regimes which predominate in the Mideast.

Iran may be tunneling to protect nukes

Washington Post

The sudden flurry of digging seen in recent satellite photos of a mountainside in central Iran might have passed for ordinary road tunneling. But the site is the back yard of Iran's most ambitious and controversial nuclear facility, leading U.S. officials and independent experts to reach another conclusion: It appears to be the start of a major tunnel complex inside the mountain. The question is, why? Worries have been stoked by the presence nearby of fortified buildings where uranium is being processed. Those structures in turn are now being connected by roads to Iran's nuclear site at Natanz, where the country recently started production of enriched uranium in defiance of international protests. As a result, photos of the site are being studied by governments, intelligence agencies and nuclear experts, all asking the same question: Is Iran attempting to thwart future military strikes against its nuclear facility by placing key parts of it in underground bunkers? The construction has raised concerns at the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Vienna-based U.N. watchdog that monitors Iran's nuclear program. On Friday, an IAEA spokeswoman confirmed that the agency has broached the subject with Iranian officials. "We have been in contact with the Iranian authorities about this, and we have received clarifications," said Melissa Fleming, the spokeswoman. She declined to elaborate. Calls to Iran's U.N. mission in Vienna were not returned. IAEA officials plan to press the issue further in a previously scheduled visit to Tehran later this week, according to informed sources.

Iranian forces 'crossed Iraqi border'...

The Sun

IRANIAN forces are being choppered over the Iraqi border to bomb Our Boys, intelligence chiefs say. Military experts claim this worrying move means we are at WAR with Iran in all but name. Last night an intelligence source told The Sun: “It is an extremely alarming development and raises the stakes considerably. In effect, it means we are in a full on war with Iran — but nobody has officially declared it. “We have hard proof that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps have crossed the border to attack us. “It is very hard for us to strike back. All we can do is try to defend ourselves. We are badly on the back foot.”

Iran says won't rule out using oil as a weapon

Reuters

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will not rule out using oil as a weapon if the United States resorts to military action against the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, an Iranian oil official said in remarks published on Tuesday. "When the Americans say that military action in regard to the nuclear issue has not been put aside, Iran can also say that it will not put aside oil as a tool," Iran's OPEC governor, Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, told Iran's Sharq newspaper. Washington says it wants a diplomatic end to a row over Iran's nuclear ambitions but has not ruled out force if that route fails. Iranian officials say they do not want to use oil as a weapon but have also said they might do so if pushed. The United States accuses Iran of seeking to build atomic bombs, a charge Tehran denies.

Gates: Iran leaders likely know of arms shipments

USA Today

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — Iran's government likely knows about the shipment of weapons from Iran to Taliban militants in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday. Gates said the volume of weapons shipments makes it "difficult to believe" they're coming from smugglers "or that it's taking place without the knowledge of the Iranian government." However, Gates said, there is no specific intelligence linking the Iranian government to the shipments. He made the comments on his way to a NATO conference in Brussels where he said he would encourage allies to meet earlier pledges to boost the alliance's mission in Afghanistan.

Official: Iranian Weapons Intercepted on Way to Taliban

FoxNews.com

PARIS — The United States has "irrefutable" evidence that Iran is transferring weapons to the Taliban in Afghanistan, with the knowledge of the Iranian government, and NATO has intercepted some of the shipments, a senior U.S. diplomat said Wednesday. "There's irrefutable evidence the Iranians are now doing this," said Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns on CNN. "It's certainly coming from the government of Iran. It's coming from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard corps command, which is a basic unit of the Iranian government." Speaking separately to The Associated Press, Burns also said that NATO needs to act to stop the shipments. The Iran-Afghanistan frontier is "a very long border. But the Iranians need to know that we are there and that we're going to oppose this." "It's a very serious question," he said, adding that Iran is in "outright violation" of relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Iran: US bases in Mideast are within range of our missiles

The Jerusalem Post

Iran has warned that US military bases in the Middle East are within the range of its missiles, amid increasing tensions with Washington over the Iranian nuclear program, media reports claimed on Monday. "All the American bases in the region are within the reach of our weapons," AFP quoted Muhammad Baqer Zolghadr, the deputy interior minister in charge of security issues, as saying.

Did the U.S. Incite Iran's Crackdown?

Time

Tehran's jailing of Haleh Esfandiari, a 67-year old grandmother who holds dual Iranian-American citizenship, as well as the interrogation of others with similar papers, is evidence that Washington's latest attempt to foist change on Iran is backfiring — as Iranian democracy advocates had warned. The Bush administration had trumpeted its $61.1 million democracy program, including Farsi-language broadcasts into Iran, education and cultural exchanges and $20 million worth of support for "civil society, human rights, democratic reform and related outreach" as an important effort. However, sources tell TIME that several key Iranian reformers had repeatedly warned U.S. officials through back channels that the pro-democracy program was bound to expose them as vulnerable targets for a government crackdown whether they took Washington's funds or not.

Ahmadinejad: It's 'Too Late' to Stop Iran's Nuke Program

FoxNews.com

TEHRAN, Iran — Hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that it was "too late" to stop Iran's nuclear program and warned the U.S. and its allies not to push for new U.N. sanctions on Iran, which he compared to a lion sitting quietly in a corner. "We advise them not to play with the lion's tail," Ahmadinejad said, prompting applause from a room of reporters, Iranian officials and foreign dignitaries at a Tehran news conference. "It is too late to stop the progress of Iran," Ahmadinejad said. "Iran has passed the point where they wanted Iran to stop."

Rice Holds Line on Iran Nuclear Program

ABC News

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held the hard U.S. line against concessions to Iran over its nuclear program Thursday and renewed a conditional offer to talk to the clerical regime on any subject. Iran also refused to budge ahead of talks Thursday between Iran's chief international negotiator and the European Union's senior foreign policy official.

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