Iran News and Discussions

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 10 Jul 2010 15:51

The increase in flights is due to the sanctions. I think they will start to use a location like Mumbai for transit or refuelling. Dubai is no longer the Iranian hub. So, expect Iran Air to use Mumbai as a refuelling/transit location. I can't see any other location in the vicinity.

Foreign sec was right, now our crude supplies are affected.

India-Iran JV in sanctions list, crude oil ferries hit

The resolution adds IRISL to the list of entities and specifically designates Iran-o-Hind as among the subsidiaries which now come under sanctions. This means that measures laid out in the original 2006 UN sanctions resolution 1747 on Iran will now be applicable to Iran-o-Hind. This would essentially require India to freeze all funding to this entity as well as its assets except those funds necessary to pay salaries and other such mandatory expenses.

In trying to cope with this gradual isolation, Iran placed significant premium on the Indo-Iran Joint Commission meeting which concluded today. This morning, at a meeting with Shipping Ministry officials, Iran officially handed over a proposal inviting Indian investment to build the strategically important Chabahar port.

Conceived more than six years ago, this project was to link up with the Zaranj-Delaram road, already built by India, so that Afghanistan gets port connectivity. But matters have moved very slowly even as both New Delhi and Kabul are now trying to increase pressure on Tehran. This time, Iran has provided a proposal and also indicated that it would need Indian technical help with rail linkages for the port.

While this project is not affected, sources said, such sanctions will inhibit future cooperation in some measure or the other. So while India may have signed a fresh air services agreement with Iran today, the fact is that no Indian carrier has plans to operate to Iran. Much of the benefit will go to Iran as it has been agreed to add two more ports of call besides increasing the number of flights.

It is believed that Iran even wanted to explore cooperation in space but that too had to be politely turned down. At the same time, New Delhi is of the view that much can be done within the limited scope possible and every opportunity ought to be explored.

No news on Defence delegation which went to Tehran last month.

India has elicited a response from the Obama administration. Very interesing. India is paying back Obama for their support of TSP imo.

Tehran concern on US table
ARCHIS MOHAN

New Delhi, July 9: US national security adviser James Jones arrives here next week to finalise the agenda for President Barack Obama’s visit to India in November with the talks also expected to feature India’s recent overtures to Iran against Washington’s advice.

Jones’s visit is scheduled on July 13-14. His parleys with Indian counterpart Shiv Shankar Menon will include the Afghan situation and the finalisation of the Indo-US nuclear deal.

When Jones last visited India in June 2009, the post-election situation in Iran had formed an important part of his discussions with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, defence minister A.K. Antony and the then national security adviser, M.K. Narayanan.

Sources said Iran’s nuclear programme and India’s gradual warming up to Tehran had caused consternation in the Obama administration. India and Iran today concluded their two-day joint commission consultations by signing several agreements to increase economic co-operation. The Indian side attaches great importance to the visit by finance minister S. Shamseddin Hosseini.

After meeting foreign minister S.M. Krishna, the Iranian minister met the Prime Minister, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and Menon and all the three premier chambers of commerce: Ficci, Assocham and CII.

In April, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao had described Iran as a “responsible country” when asked about its nuclear programme. On Monday, she seemed to take a swipe at the US-backed Iran sanctions.

“We are justifiably concerned that the extra-territorial nature of certain unilateral sanctions recently imposed by individual countries, with their restrictions on investment by third countries in Iran’s energy sector, can have a direct and adverse impact on Indian companies and more importantly, on our energy security and… development needs,” she said.

lsunil · Post by **lsunil** » 10 Jul 2010 20:47

Iran is the most odd country is the ME. Their citizens do not talk religious mumbo jumbo like many others in that region. It has always been secondary to them. I wonder what iran would be like if they didn't obsess about israel so much. Did they support pakistan in all the indo-pak wars?

AnimeshP · Post by **AnimeshP** » 10 Jul 2010 22:47

Apologies if posted earlier ...
In scramble for Afghanistan, India looks to Iran

RajeshA · Post by **RajeshA** » 11 Jul 2010 15:18

X-Posted from Afghanistan News and Discussions

Iran, AfPak loom large on agenda: Hindu

India, say officials, is reviewing all its options on the Afghan issue in anticipation of a drawdown of American and allied forces from that country.

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 12 Jul 2010 20:21

IPI pipeline: India to resume talks with Iran

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 13 Jul 2010 09:28

20 kilos of 20 pct enriched uranium ready: Iran

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... ZMACk0-zWA

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 13 Jul 2010 10:55

Castro's dire predictions if Iran is attacked,which could also lead to N-war spreading between India and Pak.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/ju ... st-iran-us

EXcerpts:

Fidel Castro returns to TV with dire warning of nuclear conflictIn rare appearance, Cuba's former president, 82, analyses Middle East situation and says Iran will not be cowed by the US

Jo Tuckman in Mexico City The Guardian, Tuesday 13 July 2010
Former president Fidel Castro speaks on Cuban television, the second time in less than a week that he has made a public appearance. Photograph: Reuters

The Middle East is on the verge of a nuclear war triggered by a US attack on Iran in the name of preventing the country from developing its own weapons, according to ageing Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro.

"To do this on the basis of a calculation that the Iranians are going to come running out to ask the Yankees for forgiveness is absurd," Castro said. "They [the US] will encounter a terrible resistance that will spread the conflict that cannot end up any other way than turning nuclear."

The former Cuban president said Israel would throw the first bomb, but the risk that red buttons would also be pressed in Pakistan and India was latent.

Castro made the prediction on Cuban TV last night, in a dramatic return to public life after four years in near-seclusion.

"The US is activating the machinery to destroy Iran," he said. "But the Iranians have been building up a defensive force little by little for years."

Castro said attacking Iran would have a very different result from invading Iraq. "When Bush attacked Iraq, Iraq was a divided country," he said. "Iran is not divided."

The Cuban leader also emphasised that India, Pakistan and Israel are the three nuclear powers who have refused to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

"The control that Israel has over the United States is enormous."

"US foreign policy is better described as the policy of total impunity."

The leader of the 1959 Cuban Revolution who went on to become an icon of resistance to US dominance in Latin America during the Cold War, and ended up as the great survivor of the fall of communism, fell seriously ill in 2006. After emergency intestinal surgery he handed power over to his younger brother Raul, who is now 79, first temporarily and then permanently.

Castro appeared in a couple of videotaped interviews with Cuban television in 2007 and rather more frequently in photographs greeting foreign leaders visiting the island. He had not been seen in a public setting until photographs of him visiting a science centre in Havana were published in the Communist party newspaper Granma on Monday. He was shown smiling and chatting to workers, dressed in sports clothes and looking relaxed.

Still the official head of Cuba's Communist party, Castro maintains a lively presence in print, publishing regular 'Reflections' on his own nation and the world.

In recent weeks he has turned his attention to the Middle East, prompted by the Israeli raid on an aid convoy attempting to break the blockade of Gaza on 31 May. During Monday's broadcast of a special edition of a daily public affairs show called Round Table, the 82-year-old looked rather frail and his voice was somewhat weak. He shuffled papers and quoted extensively from the Arabic press, Pentagon and Noam Chomsky, among others.

Dressed casually in a tracksuit top over a checked shirt, the man once known for always wearing military fatigues, interspersed his warnings of imminent nuclear conflict with a rambling history lecture that ranged from the roots of the Korean war to the Cuban missile crisis, by way of the war in Angola.

"We have experiences of being close to it [nuclear war]," he said. "Now I believe the threat of war has greatly increased. They [the US] is playing with fire."

Ambar · Post by **Ambar** » 13 Jul 2010 12:27

Now how on earth did this happen!

TEHRAN: An Iranian nuclear scientist Tehran claims was abducted by US intelligence agents has taken refuge in the Islamic republic's interest section in Washington, state media reported on Tuesday.

“Shahram Amiri, the abducted Iranian expert, took refuge in Iran's interest section in Washington hours ago,” state television's website said.

In a separate report, Mehr news agency said Amiri who was “abducted by Americans went to Iran's interest section... and asked for a quick return to Tehran.” Iran's interests in the United States are managed by the Pakistan embassy as Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic ties for more than three decades.

Iranian officials have long maintained that Amiri was kidnapped by US agents from Saudi Arabia last year where he had gone for a Muslim pilgrimage.

Iran last week said it had submitted “evidence” to the Swiss embassy that Amiri was abducted by US intelligence agents. The Swiss embassy manages Washington's interests in Iran.

“We expect that based on the US administration's obligations... the US authorities will announce the results of their investigation regarding this Iranian national,” foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanaparast had said.

On June 29, Iranian television screened a video of a man claiming to be Amiri and saying that he had managed to escape from the hands of US intelligence agents in Virginia.

“I could be re-arrested at any time by US agents... I am not free and I'm not allowed to contact my family. If something happens and I do not return home alive, the US government will be responsible,” he said.

“I ask Iranian officials and organisations that defend human rights to raise pressure on the US government for my release and return to my country,” the man said, adding he has not “betrayed” Iran.

US officials have dismissed the allegations in the Iranian broadcast.

Amiri disappeared in June 2009 after arriving in Saudi Arabia for a pilgrimage. Iran accused US agents of abducting him with the help of Saudi intelligence services.

ABC news in the United States reported in March that Amiri had defected and was working with the CIA. US officials have rejected these allegations. – AFP

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 13 Jul 2010 13:24

Missing Iranian nuclear scientist turns up in USShahram Amiri went missing during a pilgrimage to Mecca a year ago, which Iran blamed on the US

More on this startling development.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/ju ... hington-dc
Excerpt:
Missing Iranian nuclear scientist turns up in USShahram Amiri went missing during a pilgrimage to Mecca a year ago, which Iran blamed on the US

Saeed Shah in Islamabad
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 13 July 2010
Shahram Amiri, who disappeared in May 2009, has taken refuge in the Pakistani embassy in Washington

A missing Iranian nuclear scientist has taken refuge in the Pakistani embassy in Washington following claims that he had been kidnapped by the CIA.

Iran accused Saudi Arabia of handing Shahram Amiri over to the US after he went missing during a pilgrimage to Mecca a year ago. A man purporting to be Amiri subsequently appeared in three internet videos. In one, the man said he was studying in the US, while in another a man calling himself Amiri said that he was in hiding from American agents.

This morning, a spokesman for Pakistan's ministry of foreign affairs in Islamabad said Amiri had been "dropped off" at the Iranian interests section of the Pakistani embassy in Washington at 6.30pm (11.30pm BST) last night.

"He was dropped there by someone," said Abdul Basit. "He's in the Iranian interests section, not in the Pakistan embassy per se. They are making arrangements to repatriate him."

Because Iran and the United States do not have diplomatic relations, Pakistan handles Iranian interests in the US.

The Iranian interests section is in a separate building, about two miles from the Pakistani embassy, and it is staffed by around eight Iranians.

Basit said he did not know how Amiri had got there or how he would be sent back to Iran.

Separately, Iran's state radio reported today that Amiri "took refuge at Iran's interest section at the Pakistan embassy in Washington, wanting to return to Iran immediately".

Amiri, who works for Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, could have valuable information on the progress of Iran's nuclear programme.

According to some reports, he had defected to the US and was helping the CIA. The US, Britain and other western powers allege that Iran is secretly trying to build nuclear weapons, while Iran insists that its nuclear development is for peaceful purposes.

sum · Post by **sum** » 13 Jul 2010 13:33

How do 2 countries share a common embassy? Does that mean that Pak and Iran will be aware of each other's activities in the US?

Also, regarding the "dropping off" of the missing scientist, could it be that all the juice has been extracted and he is being let go since Iran will anyways never let him get back near their Nuke program fearing that the scientist might be a Manchurian candidate/turned over mole?

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 13 Jul 2010 16:45

No, Pakistan looks after Iran's interests in Washington looks like, so usually its staffed by Iranians under TSP cover. Swiss embassy in Tehran represents US in Iran.

Probably a prisoner exchange of some sort. They both have been exchanging prisoners for a while in Iraq. But the US handed over prisons to Iraqi's, who have custody of rest of Iranian int operatives arrested, some were released. So US has no bargaining chip - so they probably handed this guy over.

Ambar · Post by **Ambar** » 13 Jul 2010 17:05

sum wrote:How do 2 countries share a common embassy? Does that mean that Pak and Iran will be aware of each other's activities in the US?

Apparently,they have different sections inside the embassy building.Iranian section is insulated and staffed by Iranians and Pakistani section by Pakis. Source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/07/ ... tml?hpt=T2

rsingh · Post by **rsingh** » 13 Jul 2010 17:39

US is planting a trained agent in Iranian nuclear establishmients............and Bakis are helping them. IMO Iranian knows this. I expact that guy to be
1 Arrested on reaching Iran and is hanged to the nearset pole
2 Debriefed and hanged to the nearest pole
3 Dies in strange circumstances within a few months ( if Iranians are really sophisticated)

rsingh · Post by **rsingh** » 13 Jul 2010 17:41

sum wrote:How do 2 countries share a common embassy? Does that mean that Pak and Iran will be aware of each other's activities in the US?

Also, regarding the "dropping off" of the missing scientist, could it be that all the juice has been extracted and he is being let go since Iran will anyways never let him get back near their Nuke program fearing that the scientist might be a Manchurian candidate/turned over mole?

Sharing common embassy does not means that they are aware of each other's activities.

Varoon Shekhar · Post by **Varoon Shekhar** » 13 Jul 2010 21:23

Question: these sanctions on Iran that have been imposed, and will further be imposed- will they seriously affect countries like China, Russia and France, who are more involved in Iran than India is? In the worst case scenario of either a massive embargo on Iran, or an actual war, whose economic interests would be most seriously affected?

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 13 Jul 2010 23:35

US warns India not to break Iran sanctions

US expects India to enforce UN sanctions against Iran

While Russia, China,Malaysia continue to have trade relations with Iran, US wants India to abide by sanctions?

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 15 Jul 2010 16:27

Interesting speculative article on the truth of the Iranian "N-spy" affair,and earlier examples from the Cold War.

(7/2010) Iranian Defector: A CIA Nightmare
Jul 14, 2010
http://www.basilandspice.com/journal/72 ... tmare.html

Excerpt:

Rick Francona--

The case of the the Iranian nuclear scientist who allegedly defected to the United States and now wants to return home is an intelligence officer's nightmare - trust me.

Shahram Amiri went to the Iranian interests section at the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington today, seeking repatriation to Iran. This raises a whole series of questions, none of which I have the answers to, but it might be illustrative to speculate.

Defectors wanting to return home is not new - it happens. It happens to "us" (the good guys), and it happens to "them" (the bad guys). Many intelligence officers of my generation will remember Soviet defector - well, we thought he was a defector - Vitaly Yurchenko. Yurchenko, a KGB officer with twenty-five years of service, defected to the United States in 1985 while assigned to the Soviet embassy in Rome. Soon afterwards, he identified two American intelligence officers working for Soviet intelligence. One was convicted and the other fled.

Later that same year, Yurchenko left a dinner at the popular Au Pied de Cochon eatery in Georgetown and returned to the Soviet Union. For the intelligence trivia buffs, the chair that he was sitting on was marked with a plaque, and the drink he was having has been named the "Yurchenko shooter" (half vodka, half Grand Marnier).

Yurchenko's repatriation caused tremors throughout the intelligence community. Had he been the real thing? Was his information real or fabricated? It was made more difficult because he had accurately named two American traitors, both valuable Soviet intelligence assets. If he was on a deception mission, a "dangle" in the vernacular, why were the Soviets willing to compromise two well-placed spies? Ronald Pelton worked at the National Security Agency, and Edward Lee Howard was a CIA case officer. Pelton is in prison until at least 2015; Howard died in Russia under mysterious circumstances (that's spy-speak for "he was murdered by the KGB").

Back to Shahram Amiri. Amiri, a nuclear physicist in his early 30s, was a researcher at a university tied to the Iranian military's missile programs. The school's rector has been named by the United Nations as involved in Iran's nuclear program. Given those affiliations and Amiri's expertise, as an intelligence officer, he would have appeared to be of interest to me.

In June 2009, Amiri traveled to the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina as part of the hajj, the pilgrimage required of all able-bodied Muslims. The Iranians claim he was kidnapped by American officers while in Saudi Arabia. Would we kidnap an Iranian while on a religious trip to Saudi Arabia? Doubtful. Would we engineer a chance to talk to him? Of course we would - that's what intelligence officers do. It would appear that we did. It also appears he wanted to talk to us.

Of course, the intelligence officer in me also would ask - if Amiri was so valuable or knowledgeable about the Iranian nuclear program, why was he allowed to travel to Saudi Arabia? The quick answer and perhaps the key to the whole repatriation decision - he had to travel without his family. This is common while on the hajj, but it also leaves an "anchor" back in Iran. Hold that thought.

Now it gets strange. In June 2010, a video appeared on a social networking site in which a man claiming to be Amiri says he had escaped from American intelligence agents in Virginia. Again, having done this for a living, it is inconceivable to me that a defected asset in CIA or DOD custody would have the opportunity to "escape," and make and post a video on the internet. Unless things have really changed at Langley or Arlington, it just could not happen that way.

It gets better. Now he wants to go home. Here is where the intelligence community has a dilemma. There are now the same questions as in the Yurchenko case - had he been the real thing; was his information real or fabricated? ........

Some intersting trivia about the author.

Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona is a retired U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, a veteran of the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars, and service in the Balkans. His assignments include the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the Central Intelligence Agency, with tours of duty in Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia, and operational duties in virtually every country in the Middle East.

During the last year of the Iran–Iraq war in 1988, Rick was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad as a liaison officer to the Iraqi armed forces intelligence service, where he served in the field with the Iraqi army and flew with the Iraqi Air Force.

Throughout the first Gulf War he served as the personal Arabic interpreter and advisor on Iraq to General Norman Schwarzkopf and later co-authored the report to Congress on the conduct of the war. His is the author of book, Ally to Adversary – An Eyewitness Account of Iraq’s Fall from Grace.

Following the Gulf War, Rick served as the first air attaché to the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, Syria until 1995. In 1995 and 1996, Rick served in northern Iraq with the Central Intelligence Agency, where he narrowly escaped an attempt on his life by Iraqi agents. In 1997 and 1998, he served in the Department of Defense counter terrorism branch and led a special operations team in Bosnia that captured five indicted war criminals.

From 2003 through 2008, Rick was a Middle East military analyst for NBC News. You'll find Lt. Col Francona online at http://francona.blogspot.com/

shravan · Post by **shravan** » 16 Jul 2010 00:12

IRNA: 20 people dead and 100 injured after 2 explosions in #Zahedan

aqkhan · Post by **aqkhan** » 16 Jul 2010 01:28

An Attack on Iran: Back on the Table

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article ... 21,00.html

In late 2006, George W. Bush met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon and asked if military action against Iran's nuclear program was feasible. The unanimous answer was no. Air strikes could take out some of Iran's nuclear facilities, but there was no way to eliminate all of them. Some of the nuclear labs were located in heavily populated areas; others were deep underground. And Iran's ability to strike back by unconventional means, especially through its Hizballah terrorist network, was formidable. The military option was never officially taken off the table. At least, that's what U.S. officials always said. But the emphasis was on the implausibility of a military strike. "Another war in the Middle East is the last thing we need," Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wrote in 2008. It would be "disastrous on a number of levels."

Gates is sounding more belligerent these days. "I don't think we're prepared to even talk about containing a nuclear Iran," he told Fox News on June 20. "We do not accept the idea of Iran having nuclear weapons." In fact, Gates was reflecting a new reality in the military and intelligence communities. Diplomacy and economic pressure remain the preferred means to force Iran to negotiate a nuclear deal, but there isn't much hope that's going to happen. "Will [sanctions] deter them from their ambitions with regards to nuclear capability?" CIA Director Leon Panetta told ABC News on June 27. "Probably not." So the military option is very much back on the table.

What has changed? "I started to rethink this last November," a recently retired U.S. official with extensive knowledge of the issue told me. "We offered the Iranians a really generous deal, which their negotiators accepted," he went on, referring to the offer to exchange Iran's 1.2 tons of low-enriched uranium (3.5% pure) for higher-enriched (20%) uranium for medical research and use. "When the leadership shot that down, I began to think, Well, we made the good-faith effort to engage. What do we do now?"

Other intelligence sources say that the U.S. Army's Central Command, which is in charge of organizing military operations in the Middle East, has made some real progress in planning targeted air strikes — aided, in large part, by the vastly improved human-intelligence operations in the region. "There really wasn't a military option a year ago," an Israeli military source told me. "But they've gotten serious about the planning, and the option is real now." Israel has been brought into the planning process, I'm told, because U.S. officials are frightened by the possibility that the right-wing Netanyahu government might go rogue and try to whack the Iranians on its own.

One other factor has brought the military option to a low boil: Iran's Sunni neighbors really want the U.S. to do it. When United Arab Emirates Ambassador Yousef al-Otaiba said on July 6 that he favored a military strike against Iran despite the economic and military consequences to his country, he was reflecting an increasingly adamant attitude in the region. Senior American officials who travel to the Gulf frequently say the Saudis, in particular, raise the issue with surprising ardor. Everyone from the Turks to the Egyptians to the Jordanians are threatening to go nuclear if Iran does. That is seen as a real problem in the most volatile region in the world: What happens, for example, if Saudi Arabia gets a bomb, and the deathless monarchy there is overthrown by Islamist radicals?

Of course, it is also possible that this low-key saber-rattling is simply a message the U.S. is trying to send the Iranians: it's time to deal. There have been rumblings from Tehran about resuming negotiations, although the regime has very little credibility right now. The assumption — shared even by some of Iran's former friends, like the Russians — is that any Iranian offer to talk is really an offer to stall. A specific, plausible Iranian concession may be needed to get the process back on track. But it is also possible that the saber-rattling is not a bluff, that the U.S. really won't tolerate a nuclear Iran and is prepared to do something awful to stop it.

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 16 Jul 2010 05:15

^^ Its all talk. The US or Israel ain't gonna do sh*t. The whole "planning" thing is just to show the Iranians what could happen. Iran has enough power to cause havoc for the US/Israel. And US doesn't want to go for armageddon, as Obama knows he will have a crapstorm at home and a long and drawn out war will be costly for both US and Iran. Only thing US is doing is restraining Israel, but even Israel will lose legitimacy with the common US folk if it does anything overt on its own. Another war is something average Joe in the US can do without, and also the govt budgets.
-----------------------------

RoyG · Post by **RoyG** » 16 Jul 2010 06:03

I actually believe that war is on the horizon. Iran has started its own oil bourse which will carry out oil transactions in non dollar currencies. This was actually the primary reason why Iraq was invaded in 2003. Actions like these threaten demand for the US dollar which then causes a breakdown in petrodollar recycling.

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 16 Jul 2010 06:16

^^ Kuwait has also dropped the dollar peg, US hasn't made any approaches there.

RoyG, its old point that conspiracy theorists put forward.

Think of it this way - the collapse of the US will lead to a massive economic collapse all over the world. Think of it as a buyer seller relationship. The US is 25% of world demand. And a lot of the rest depend on US demand. So if anything happens in the US it affects the world. So dropping the dollar peg will hit their biggest customer for Oil - which would then affect all other customers. Hence demand for their product will be hit. There is no way the GCC can drop the dollar peg.

Iran started using Euros, which was sanctioned and Iran bought all their money from Euro banks to the Gulf. Now UAE has sanctioned most Iranian institutions. Where is that money going to go? Euro is in deep poo too. Dollar will rain supreme contrary to the noise out there, there is no alternative to the Dollar.

Invasion of Iraq is much deeper.

-------------
Moscow pledges Tehran oil products - against US embargo

-------------------

Amiri the nuke scientist case - DNW says, CIA wasn't sure which Amiri he was. They weren't sure if he was actually a nuke scientist Lol!!! They realised that there are 3 people with similar names, but they weren't sure if he was the real Amiri. It was Amiri who approached EU visitors that he wanted to help the US, 6 years ago. CIA didn't give him much attention. But it appeared Amiri did quite well in his uni research assignments. So, the Israeli's and CIA got together to discuss him.

DNW reckons that Amiri must have been a key contributor of the Iranian nuclear docs on the laptop computer which the US showed nuclear watchdog executives in Vienna in 2005.

The Americans claimed that these pages were taken from an Iranian laptop computer in mid-2004. They never gave away their sources, beyond citing a long-serving connection inside Iran.
That connection was Amiri, which is most likely one of the few true elements in the blend of fact and fiction surrounding this individual.

In 2008, Amiri told his handlers that he was getting scared that MoIS was onto him. But CIA concluded its the usual paranoia of spies. Then in 2009 he kept telling his handler the same thing, so US&Israel said lets pull him out of Iran.

So Amiri was given 2 choices - Travel to Mecca and get picked up there OR a plane/ship to take him to one of the GCC states. Iran encourages its govt employees to travel on Hajj etc but monitored by Al Qods brigade boys.

Of course Amiri is singing a totally diff story of being forced to getinto a car with a gun to his kneck.

DNW says only true bit was that the KSA GID organised and conducted the operation of the transfer of Amiri from Mecca to the special US plane that awaited him in Jedda.

Upon debrief, this Amiri (they reckon that the Amiri who was in custody wasnt the same Amiri that they were dealing with all these years) didn't have his story straight. He couldn't talk about the building he worked in or his day to day activities that well. He started to contradict himself and the CIA decided that Amiri is either a phony or he never existed.

(My comment: From DNW's account it looks like the CIA never actually met face to face with Amiri and relied on go-betweens).

CIA/Israel concludes Iranian intel tricked them.

So now US is pausing and taking a step back to think about their Iran nuke policy which a lot of it was based on Amiri's documents and info. A lot of moves on Iran nuke issue was based on Amiri, so they reckon Tehran manipulated their policies.

DNW says after finding the secret nuke site at Qom on a side of a mountain which was based on Amiri's info (My comment: weird because DNW actually said before that they knew about this site for 2 years), the US actually gave Iran a 2 week ultimatum to come clean. The Qom site eqpt had been moved to another location which is still unknown to this day. IAEA guys inspected and found nothing but empty tunnels, then nothin was heard about this ultimatum. Only in the last few months were the west able to realise that they were being misdirected.

DNW says the truth is that US is now clueless and only relied on 1 or 2 nuke scientists, of which one was def Amiri. DNW says Rboert Gates told white house that they have no plan to stop Iran from going nuuke.

DNW says it is too late to stop Iran from going nukleaar and that Amiri was crucial. DNW compares this to the KGB agent Yurchenko defection of the US in 1980's. SVR closely cooperates with MoIS.

US officials were in denial in the press - saying we got a the better end of the deals. He is trying to build up credibility to go back home to see his family.

Amiri got paid $5m from the program. DNW says they aren't sure when CIA realised he was a double agent. THey allowed him free movement in the US to see who he would contact.

Loads of Amiri look alikes videos were released on the internet. And Iranian TV released a video of Amiri from an internet cafe in Arizona. Then US realised they can't prevent him from going back.

As soon as he landed he told news " I was never a nuke scientist!". Obviously the tough question for Iranian intel is whether he is now a double agent working for CIA.

If all this proves true, Iran is now in Kick ass league.

Carl_T · Post by **Carl_T** » 16 Jul 2010 06:53

I don't think anything unilateral is going to happen. There are so many nuclear sites and some are in mountains or underground, there will have to be extensive coalition building before any action.

arun · Post by **arun** » 16 Jul 2010 07:15

The practice of bombing Muslim places of worship by one sect of Islam targeting another sect of Islam seems to have seeped westward from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Followers of the Sunni sect of Islam appear to have suicide bombed a mosque of the Shia sect of Islam in Zahedan:

At least 21 killed in Iran suicide attacks

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 16 Jul 2010 07:42

Iranian Gave ‘Significant’ Intelligence, U.S. Says

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/world ... 6iran.html

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 17 Jul 2010 00:11

The Fatwa
Ayatollah Khomeini and the legacy of the Salman Rushdie affair.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2 ... /the_fatwa

satyam · Post by **satyam** » 17 Jul 2010 00:55

http://www.haaretz.com/news/internation ... s-1.302398

RajeshA · Post by **RajeshA** » 17 Jul 2010 04:32

satyam ji,

I have a request. Please give some heading to your links. If possible some commentary can also be helpful! Thanks!

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 18 Jul 2010 05:05

arun wrote:Head of Iran’s Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, on the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s links to terrorism via that country‘s Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) :

'Terrorists enter Iran via Pakistan'
Sat, 17 Jul 2010 12:56:26 GMT

A senior Iranian lawmaker says terrorists enter Iran from Pakistan and other neighboring countries, urging Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence to reconsider its relations with militants. …………………….

On July 15, two bomb explosions in quick succession took place outside the Zahedan Grand Mosque. At least 27 people lost their lives and more than 100 others were injured in the terrorist attack, which has widely been blamed on extremist Wahabis and Salafis trained by US intelligence in Pakistan.

"The Pakistani government and the country's Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) which have relations with terrorists must reconsider and take necessary measure to confront these criminals," Fars News Agency quoted Boroujerdi as saying. ………………..........

Press TV, Iran

This attack ensures Iran will be on our side and it means that the KSA/ISI/US are continuing/renewing their war against Iran.

Ambar · Post by **Ambar** » 18 Jul 2010 06:07

shyamd wrote:
This attack ensures Iran will be on our side and it means that the KSA/ISI/US are continuing/renewing their war against Iran.

Iran is probably no pushover when it comes to defending their country, but i don't think they have any leverage in international politics.Lets admit it, they have loonies running their government and what they say is of little consequence to the rest of the world.India deals with Israel and US more than it deals with the Iranians,it would be a strategic suicide to openly side with the Ayatollahs and their cronies.Honestly,i couldn't care less when it comes to these nutty people in theocratic islamic states blowing each other up and i am not sure if the rest of the world cares much either!

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 18 Jul 2010 08:00

Iran Accuses Pakistan of Harbouring Rebels

Suppiah · Post by **Suppiah** » 18 Jul 2010 11:46

From above link....

“The Islamic Republic considers it its right to deal with insurgents who disappear into the other side of the border,” Chief Radan was quoted as saying"

It is sad to see a large Islamic country being so forthright in articulating its position on terrorism, but our WKK's, stalinist mass murderers and rapist goons together have conspired to ensure that any remark against Pakbarian animals is considered 'fascism' and against IM...

Mahendra · Post by **Mahendra** » 18 Jul 2010 14:28

Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism just like Pakbaristan. The only difference is that the terrorism emanating from Pakbaristan has the partial sanction of the west.

Nihat · Post by **Nihat** » 20 Jul 2010 00:59

Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism just like Pakbaristan.

how is that ( and I don't say that in a mocking tone)

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 20 Jul 2010 08:29

The protests in the Tehran bazaar during the past few weeks weren't tied to the Green Movement. Even so, they are bad news for the regime.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2 ... d_the_weak

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 20 Jul 2010 08:29

Why put an attack on Iran back on the table?

http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/ ... _the_table

sum · Post by **sum** » 20 Jul 2010 09:12

Nihat wrote:
Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism just like Pakbaristan.
how is that ( and I don't say that in a mocking tone)

Hezbollah?

Kailash · Post by **Kailash** » 23 Jul 2010 12:50

India ignoring Washington as it woos Iran

Until recently, when the choice emerged between Iran and the U.S., India would side with the U.S. But the Obama administration's callous attitude toward India is pushing India toward Iran, and that could have grave geopolitical consequences. Ignoring Washington, India recently signed several agreements with Iran, including an air services agreement and a memorandum of understanding on new and renewable energy aimed at increasing trade from $15 billion to $30 billion.

Economic cooperation in priority areas such as oil, gas, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and textiles is key to this endeavor. Plans are afoot for greater maritime cooperation; Iran has already joined the Indian Navy's annual initiative, the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium. Moreover, the two sides have decided to hold "structured and regular consultations" on the issue of Afghanistan.

Pratyush · Post by **Pratyush** » 23 Jul 2010 13:31

Folks, India nedds to work with Iran. At the same time any oil investments in Iran are at risk for the potential Indian Investors. IE risking a freezing of assets of any Indian entity if the investment exceeds 20 Million $. That being the case, should the GOI create an OIL PSU to deal exclusively with Iran?

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 23 Jul 2010 15:36

^^ We don't need to think that way. Look at China - they arm Iran and are buying huge amounts of Oil from Iran (have been doing so for a long time). Russia - Bushehr and arms. Malaysia continues to be the refiner and a location for Iranian trade despite State dept visits. Why do we need to shiver at the thought of US arm twisting? US has more to lose.

India should continue to establish relations with Iran.