• Ali Larijani,  Iran,  Iran Nuclear Watch,  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,  Saudi Arabia

    Iran Nuclear Watch: Next Target Tehran?

    Readers: Please Vote in Flap’s January 2008 GOP Presidential Poll

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    Saudi King Abdullah (R) meets with Iran ‘s top national security official Ali Larijani in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia’s official SPA official news agency said that Larijani, who is also Tehran’s top nuclear negotiator, delivered a letter from Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the Saudi monarch.

    Guardian: Next target Tehran

    All the signs are that Bush is planning for a neocon-inspired military assault on Iran

    The evidence is building up that President Bush plans to add war on Iran to his triumphs in Iraq and Afghanistan – and there is every sign, to judge by his extraordinary warmongering speech in Plymouth on Friday, that Tony Blair would be keen to join him if he were still in a position to commit British forces to the field.

    “There’s a strong sense in the upper echelons of the White House that Iran is going to surface relatively quickly as a major issue – in the country and the world – in a very acute way,” said NBC TV’s Tim Russert after meeting the president. This is borne out by the fact that Bush has sent forces to the Gulf that are irrelevant to fighting the Iraqi insurgents. These include Patriot anti-missile missiles, an aircraft carrier, and cruise-missile-firing ships.

    Many military analysts see these deployments as signals of impending war with Iran. The Patriot missiles are intended to shoot down Iranian missiles. The naval forces, including British ships, train to pre-empt Iranian interference with oil shipments through the straits of Hormuz.

    Having been given so much advice on what to do in Iraq – most notably by the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group – the president went with the recommendations of the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI). So much for the idea that the Iraq debacle marginalised the neocons.

    Well, DUH

    Let’s see why:

    Iran continues (despite United Nations resolution 1737) to enrich uranium to manufacture a nuclear weapon

    Iran is sending war material including IED’s and advisors to kill American troops in Iraq

    Iran’s President Ahmadinejad is fomenting anti-American activities in Central and South America to THWART the United States

    Iran’s President wants to “wipe Israel off the map.”

    President Bush has put Iran on notice.

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    The USS Enterprise and USS Dwight David Eisenhower

    Military assets have been positioning themselves for some time, including 21,000 more troops and war plans have been gamed.

    Israel has been evaluating the Iranian threat to its survival and is rumored to be planning a nuclear attack.

    Tick Tock Tick Tock

    The “NUCLEAR POINT OF NO RETURN” is imminent.

     Previous:

     Iran Nuclear Watch: United States Has No Plan to Strike Iran?

    Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Arrests a Nuclear Spy

    Iran Nuclear Watch: United States Submarine Collides With Japanese Ship

    Iran Nuclear Watch: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – Iran Will NEVER Abandon Development of Nuclear Technology

    Cox & Forkum: Saber Rattling

    Iran Nuclear Watch: Israel Planning Nuclear Strike on Iran’s Nuclear Facilities?

    The Iran Nuclear Files

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    The Natanz uranium enrichment complex in Natanz is pictured in this January 2, 2006 satellite image.


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  • Daniel Ortega,  Iran,  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,  Nicaragua

    Iran Watch: Ahmadinejad And Ortega Pledge Closer Ties

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    Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega, center, and First Lady Rosario Murillo, rise their fists during a visit to the neighborhood ‘Cuba Libre’ in Managua, Sunday, Jan. 14, 2007. As part of his Latin America tour, Ahmadinejad will visit Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Ecuador.

    BBC: Iran and Nicaragua vow close ties

    Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has pledged closer ties with Nicaragua as he continues his Latin America tour.

    “We have common interests, common enemies and common goals”, he said as he visited shantytowns in Managua with the Nicaraguan leader, Daniel Ortega.

    Mr Ahmadinejad arrived in Nicaragua from Venezuela where he signed business agreements with President Hugo Chavez.

    The Iranian president’s visits are aimed at boosting ties with the region’s most vocal critics of the US.

    The aim is also to garner further support in the international debate over Iran’s nuclear programme and its alleged interference in Iraq.

    So, Ahmadinejad is reworking the old Soviet Socialist network in order to poke the United States in the eye is he?’

    Mahmoud must have delusions of grandeur because Iran is NO Soviet Union in its Cold War days.

    The Bush administration is watching Mr Ahmadinejad’s tour closely, says BBC Latin America correspondent Duncan Kennedy.

    As well as meeting Mr Chavez and Mr Ortega, Mr Ahmadinejad is also due to attend the inauguration of Ecuador’s leftist new President Rafael Correa.

    It is also expected that the Iranian president will meet Evo Morales of Bolivia.

    But, what about Latin America’s more developed countries – the ones without socialist governments? Flap supposes Ahmadinejad will not waste his time there because he cannot buy respect with his oil revenue.

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    Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (L) and Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega greet supporters from Ortega’s Sandinista party during a meeting in a suburb of Managua January 14, 2007.

    Mr Ortega took his visitor on a tour of shantytowns in the Nicaraguan capital, Managua.

    Hundreds of people turned out, waving flags of Mr Ortega’s Sandinista party and holding photographs of the Iranian president.

    “The imperialists don’t like us to help you progress and develop. They don’t like us to get rid of poverty and unite people,” said Mr Ahmadinejad.

    “But the whole world knows that Nicaragua and Iran are together.”

    Mr Ortega said he would sign accords with Mr Ahmadinejad to help reduce poverty in Nicaragua, one of the poorest countries in Latin America.

    The two countries announced that they were restoring full diplomatic relations and re-opening embassies in their capitals.

    Flap doesn’t think these countries have too much in common except totalitarian governments that harbor a hatred of the United States.

    Is Iran attempting to export its Middle East hegemony? Trying to take the game to the United States?

    You bet…..

    Time to take the gloves off…….

    Stay tuned……..

    irannukeaugust21aweb

    Previous:

    Iran Watch: United States LINKS Five Iranians Detained in Iraq to al-Qods Force

    Iran Nuclear Watch: United States Has No Plan to Strike Iran?

    Iran Watch: United States Led Forces Detain 6 Iranians in Iraq


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  • Cox & Forkum,  Hugo Chavez,  Iran,  Venezuela

    Cox & Forkum: Belly Up

    Readers: Please Vote in Flap’s January 2008 GOP Presidential Poll

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    Cox & Forkum: Belly Up

    CNN: Venezuela to nationalize ‘absolutely all’ energy sector.

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said on Saturday the country’s entire energy sector had to be nationalized, reinforcing his socialist revolution and possibly giving himself more targets for state take-over.But he said he would permit foreign firms to hold minority stakes in energy deals.

    The anti-U.S. leader, in power since 1999, this week announced he would nationalize power utilities and the country’s biggest telecommunications firm, confirming his status as the catalyst of Latin America’s swing to the left.

    “We have decided to nationalize the whole Venezuelan energy and electricity sector, all of it, absolutely all,” Chávez said in his annual state of the nation address to parliament, potentially opening up more projects for state acquisition in the No. 4 crude exporter to the United States.

    The president was reinaugurated this week for a term that runs through 2013.

    Chávez has already pursued oil and gas projects and power utilities but on Saturday left no leeway for a private company to hold a majority in operations anywhere in the energy sphere.

    What will be targeted?
    It was not immediately clear whether his pronouncement on nationalizing the whole sector was a precursor to moves against specific projects or companies.

    Venezuela will have to judge how closely private firms must be connected to the country’s oilfields, refineries, pipelines, gasoline stations and coal mines to count as targets for nationalization.

    Huge oil service companies such as Halliburton and Schlumberger operate in Venezuela but Chávez gave no indication whether deals involving such businesses were now in his sights.

    Hugo Chavez Watch: Iran and Venezuela Plan to Fund Projects – To Thwart United States Domination

    AP: Iran and Venezuela plan anti-U.S. fund

    Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — fiery anti-American leaders whose moves to extend their influence have alarmed Washington — said Saturday they would help finance investment projects in other countries seeking to thwart U.S. domination.

    The two countries had previously revealed plans for a joint $2 billion fund to finance investments in Venezuela and Iran, but the leaders said Saturday the money would also be used for projects in friendly countries throughout the developing world.
    “It will permit us to underpin investments … above all in those countries whose governments are making efforts to liberate themselves from the (U.S.) imperialist yoke,” Chavez said.

    “This fund, my brother,” the Venezuelan president said, referring affectionately to Ahmadinejad, “will become a mechanism for liberation.”

    “Death to U.S. imperialism!” Chavez said.

    Solution:

    USA Energy Independence


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  • John Bolton

    John Bolton Watch: Mideast Peace Efforts a Waste of Time

    Readers: Please Vote in Flap’s January 2008 GOP Presidential Poll

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    Fox: John Bolton: Mideast Peace Efforts a Waste

    As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets with Mideast leaders to jumpstart the peace process, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton called the attempt a waste of time.

    Bolton, who also said it’s time another body replace the United Nations, told the Sunday Times of London the Arab-Israeli conflict was “not a priority,” adding: “I don’t see linkage to Iraq, and Hamas and Fatah are in a state of civil war.”

    Now back at American Enterprise Institute, Bolton let loose on a variety of topics during the interview, from negotiating nuclear weapons with Iran to the reunification of the Korean peninsula.

    Times Online: Ousted Bolton puts world to rights

    AS America’s ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton was no tame diplomat. Armed with his feared red pen, ready to strike out waffling resolutions, he was an able and aggressive defender of US interests, but he often had to uphold policies with which he was not in tune.

    “To the great chagrin of many people, I followed my instructions at the UN,” he said in his first newspaper interview since relinquishing his post. He is a free man now and eager to have his say.

    Bolton on Iran

    “I wouldn’t have engaged in negotiations with Iran in the first place,” he said, evidently disdainful of Britain, France and Germany’s years of reaching out to Iran. “The policy has failed. Sanctions won’t stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons.”

    Bolton thinks the Bush administration would “rather find a way for diplomacy to succeed but time is running out”

    One of his greatest concerns is the threat to Israel and the West posed by Iran’s nuclear programme. Regime change is “preferable” to striking Iran’s sites, he noted, but “the only course worse than the use of force is an Iran with nuclear weapons”.

    The EU3 nations’ years of negotiations with Iran were not a “neutral activity”. Iran used the time to develop its mastery of uranium enrichment — as its own leaders have boasted.

    “There are all kinds of ways to change the regime,”
    he added, citing covert and overt means to topple the theocracy. “We have an extensive diaspora of people with Iranian heritage in America who we don’t use effectively.”

    Bolton on Middle East Talks

    Bolton believes that Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, is wasting her time trying to restart the Middle East peace process. The Arab-Israeli conflict was “not a priority”, he added. “I don’t see linkage to Iraq, and Hamas and Fatah are in a state of civil war.”

    Bolton on America and Britain

    In Bolton’s view, America needs to take the lead in global affairs rather than the ineffectual UN because “Who else will?” His opinion of the Foreign Office in London is not much higher than the UN. It is “European” — not a compliment.

    Britain has a “fundamental choice” to make, Bolton insisted. “The real issue is whether the UK sees itself as part of a ‘little Europe’ as opposed to Atlanticist. I certainly hope the Atlanticist view will prevail.”

    Bolton on Iraq

    Unlike Bush, Bolton believes Iraq is already at war with itself: “The fundamental point is whether the civil war that exists is going to continue.” Bolton has often been mistaken for a neocon, but while he considers democracy preferable to other forms of government, he does not consider it America’s duty to spread it.

    The shape and form of the nation is irrelevant: what matters is that Iraq is either tolerably pro-western or de-fanged. He has no regrets about the removal of Saddam Hussein; now it is up to the Iraqis if they want to engage in “fratricide”. The same goes for partition: “If the future of Iraq is to stay together, that’s fine. If not, I couldn’t care less from a strategic perspective.”

    Flap somehow thinks that John Bolton will be MORE effective in developing perspectives on foreign policy than he ever could do in the United States State Department and certainly in the United Nations.

    Bolton fits Jeanne Kirkpatrick’s office at AEI well.

    Stay tuned……

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    Previous:

    Zalmay Khalilzad Watch: New United States Ambassador for the United Nations?

    John Bolton Watch: Who Will Replace United Nations Ambassador Bolton?

    John Bolton Watch: Bolton Resigns as United Nations Ambassador

    John Bolton Watch: Bolton and Bipartisanship

    John Bolton Watch: President Bush Resubmits Bolton Nomination – DEAD ON ARRIVAL

    John Bolton Watch: Biden – “And I Think John Bolton’s Going Nowhere”


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  • Cox & Forkum,  Iran,  Iraq,  Iraq War

    Iran Watch: United States LINKS Five Iranians Detained in Iraq to al-Qods Force

    Readers: Please Vote in Flap’s January 2008 GOP Presidential Poll

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    Cox & Forkum

    Washington Post: U.S. Links Five Iranians Detained in Iraq to Militants

    The U.S. military said today that the five Iranian nationals detained on Thursday are connected to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s al-Qods Force, an organization that is active in arming, training, and funding Middle East militant groups, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.

    The organization is “attempting to destabilize the government of Iraq and attack Coalition forces,” the U.S. military said in a statement.

    Remember the original story?

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    Iraqi Shiite cleric Abdel Aziz al-Hakim speaks during a conference in the holy city of Najaf. Iran has condemned as “provocative” a raid by US troops on the Iranian consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil during which five employees were arrested.

    What a SURPRISE – NOT!

    The military statement came as administration officials in Washington stressed that they are concerned about meddling by Iran in the Iraq conflict and are determined to end such efforts by Tehran.

    Vice President Cheney, speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” said, “I think it’s pretty well known that Iran is fishing in troubled waters, if you will, inside Iraq. . . . I think the message that the president sent clearly is that we do not want them doing what they can to try to destabilize the situation inside Iraq. We think it’s very important that they keep their folks at home.”

    President Bush’s national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, was more explicit and said U.S. officials know that Iran is supplying militants who are attacking U.S. and Iraqi government forces.

    “We will interdict their operations,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.” “We will disrupt their supply lines. We will disrupt these attacks. And you have seen in the last couple of weeks that Iranians found doing things in Iraq have been picked up by coalition forces. And I think you’re going to see more of that.”

    Hell, where has the Bush Administration and the American military been?

    If Iran is supplying specialized IED’s and/or other supplies to Iraqis who are killing United States troops, then interdict the supplies and take out the Iranian factories that are making these devices and material. How about a blockade of the Iran-Iraq border?

    Flap cannot believe that you need a Presidential pronouncement to go after Iran. Everyone in the world knows they are fomenting violence and killing Americans in Iraq.

    iranjan142007aweb

    Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini speaks to journalists during a news conference in Tehran October 8, 2006. On Sunday Hosseini demanded the immediate release of the five arrested Iranians, saying that the five were diplomats involved in ‘consulate affairs.’

    In Baghdad, the military denied reports that the office where the Iranians were arrested, located in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, “had the diplomatic status of a consulate.” Iraqi officials have described the office as a “liaison office” that was in the process of getting consular authority. Several Kurdish officials said that the office represented the Iranian government and the Kurdish regional government was aware of its presence.

    “The Multi-National Force, in keeping with U.S. policy, will continue to disrupt logistical support to extremists that originate from outside Iraq. These initiatives are part of a broader plan including diplomatic efforts designed to support the Iraqi government, protect the Iraqi people, and seek assistance from neighboring nations, according to coalition officials,” the military statement said.

    The United States and Iraq governments need to “SWEAT” these guys for information (how do you spell Guantanamo) and intensify efforts to close down the Iraq-Iran border.

    Are Black Op missions into Iran too far away?

    How about just bombing or lobbing a few cruise missiles into the Iranian IED factories OVERTLY?

    Stay tuned…….

    iranjan142007bweb

    A video grab shows the building of the Iranian consulate in Arbil, the capital of Iraq’s northern autonomous Kurdish region. Iran has protested that five nationals arrested by US forces in Iraq were merely consular staff doing their job, amid intensifying American warnings over Tehran’s role in its war-torn neighbour.

    Previous:

    Iran Nuclear Watch: United States Has No Plan to Strike Iran?

    Iran Watch: United States Led Forces Detain 6 Iranians in Iraq


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