I dont think you can understate the point that this country is run by a religious establishment.

So scarey.

1/7/2010 9:11:02 PM

Quote :

"Iran shields nuclear efforts in maze of tunnels Tehran says veiled bombing threats forced country to put sites underground"

OMG That makes too much sense! We must bomb them for thinking and being smart.

1/8/2010 8:23:03 AM

http://www.michaeltotten.com/

This is Part 2 of this interview. Part one can be found here
http://www.michaeltotten.com/2010/01/an-interview-with-christopher-hitchens-part-i.php

............The man should need no introduction, but I'll give him one anyway. He's the author or editor of more than twenty books, a journalist, a literary critic, a world traveler, a teacher, and a polemicist who migrated rightward from the radical left and no longer fits in anyone's convenient box. Last year Forbes magazine cited him as one of the 25 most influential liberals in the U.S. media, but at the same time he's a fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford. In 2005, Foreign Policy magazine cited him as one of the 100 most influential intellectuals in the world............

Quote :

"MJT: Hezbollah is the Mediterranean branch of the Revolutionary Guards. Hitchens: We have the same bunch overseas where they're not wanted, in Lebanon and even among the Palestinians, conducting assassination missions abroad, shooting down young Iranians in the streets of a major city, and controlling an illegal thermonuclear weapons program. We do have a target. All this has been accumulated under one heading. MJT: Yes. Hitchens: I thought that was worth pointing out. It's not "the regime" or "the theocracy." It's now very clear that the Revolutionary Guards have committed a coup in all but name—well, I name it, but it hasn't yet been named generally. They didn't rig an election. They didn't even hold one. MJT: They never counted the votes. There's no "recount" to be done. Hitchens: The seizure of power by a paramilitary gang that just so happens to be the guardian and the guarantor and the incubator of the internationally illegal weapons program. If that doesn't concentrate one's mind, I don't know what will. MJT: If the Obama Administration calls you up and says, "Christopher, we need you to come in here, we need your advice." What would you tell them? Hitchens: I would say, as I did with Saddam Hussein—albeit belatedly, I tried to avoid this conclusion—that any fight you're going to have eventually, have now. Don't wait until they're more equally matched. It doesn't make any sense at all. The existence of theocratic regimes that have illegally acquired weapons of mass destruction, that are war with their own people, that are exporting their violence to neighboring countries, sending death squads as far away as Argentina to kill other people as well as dissident members of their own nationality—the existence of such regimes is incompatible with us. If there is going to be a confrontation, we should pick the time, not them. We're saying, "Let's give them time to get ready. Then we'll be more justified in hitting them." That's honestly what they're saying. When we have total proof, when we can see them coming for us, we'll feel okay about resisting. MJT: They don't think about it that way. Hitchens: They don't know that's what they're saying, but it actually is."

I think this should answer a lot of questions. Make us all less ignorant.

1/13/2010 5:44:13 PM

Who murdered Prof. Ali-Mohammadi?
13 Jan 2010

Quote :

"Dr. Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, a professor of physics at the University of Tehran, was assassinated in front of his home in northern Tehran on Tuesday. Reports indicate that a motorcycle parked next to his car held a bomb that was set off by a remote control device. There are, however, other reports suggesting that the motorcycle had been there for the past three days. State media, including the Islamic Republic News Agency and Fars immediately declared that Professor Ali-Mohammadi was a nuclear physicist and a supporter of Velayat-e Faghih [guardianship of the Islamic jurist, represented by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei], and blamed Israel, the United States, and 'their lackeys' for orchestrating the assassination. However, friends, colleagues, former and current students quickly refuted the charge, stating that the professor's views had changed fundamentally, and that he was a supporter of the reformists."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2010/01/who-murdered-prof-ali-mohammadi.html

[Edited on January 13, 2010 at 6:16 PM. Reason : ^ Good post--it's another version of what I've been saying all along. ]

1/13/2010 6:13:33 PM

Quote :

"It looks like February 11th will be the most violent confrontation to date. The regime is taking unusual measures to put down the promised demonstrations. In many ways it resembles the “Chinese solution.” First, an unprecedented mobilization: 120 trains and something like a thousand buses have been deployed from as far away as 250 kilometers from the capital. They will be used by the Revolutionary Guards and Basij to bring tens of thousands of paid “volunteers” to Tehran. These will consist of entire families (dependent on the regime) to counter the Green Wave. Each family gets $80 for the day, plus free food. The regime is aiming at 300,000 thugs in the streets. The Greens don’t think the numbers will be that high, and in any event they expect ten times that number of protesters, upwards of three million increasingly angry people, demanding freedom and justice. Their resolve has undoubtedly been hardened by the very tough interview released earlier this week by Green leader Mir Hossein Mousavi. As before, Mousavi put himself on the line, defying the regime to move against him as the mullahs have moved against his friends, allies, and family members. It’s quite a challenge: Today, the prison cells are occupied with the most sincere and devoted sons of this nation: students, professors and others. [Security forces] are trying to prosecute them with espionage or charges related to financial or sexual misconduct – charges based on expired formulas – while the real criminals and thieves who steal public money are free. Instead of looking for the real spies, they accuse decent religious people. I should take this opportunity to express my regret that all of my advisors, who are decent, honest and educated individuals, have been arrested; that I am not with them. These days, there is not a [single] night that I do not think of Imam [Khomeini], martyr Beheshti and others. I whisper to them that what was achieved is far from what they sought… Khamenei has still not mustered the courage to strike directly at Mousavi or Karroubi, which everyone sees as a sign of weakness. They see it as I do, as evidence that he is not prepared for a real showdown, fearing the vastly greater numbers of the Greens, and the unreliability of his armies. He knows that the recent Green video, appealing to the armed forces to join the revolution, is having an effect."

http://pajamasmedia.com/michaelledeen/2010/02/05/the-iranian-revolution-devours-its-young/2/f


[Edited on February 6, 2010 at 10:32 AM. Reason : dsdf]

2/6/2010 10:30:28 AM

Quote :

"I think this should answer a lot of questions. Make us all less ignorant. "

listening to one guys opinion should make us less ignorant. not to mention

Quote :

"I would say, as I did with Saddam Hussein—albeit belatedly, I tried to avoid this conclusion—that any fight you're going to have eventually, have now."

says it all. this guy is an idiot.

If its the same as hussein then we have absolutely no reason to attack.

2/6/2010 11:20:24 AM

2/7/2010 8:25:31 AM

Quote :

"............The man should need no introduction, but I'll give him one anyway. He's the author or editor of more than twenty books, a journalist, a literary critic, a world traveler, a teacher, and a polemicist who migrated rightward from the radical left and no longer fits in anyone's convenient box. Last year Forbes magazine cited him as one of the 25 most influential liberals in the U.S. media, but at the same time he's a fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford. In 2005, Foreign Policy magazine cited him as one of the 100 most influential intellectuals in the world............"

I am just going to go out on a limb here and put more weight to his interviews that your posts....

2/7/2010 9:19:20 AM

thats fine. hes giving good advice for the interest of our bully state but nobody said thats right. thats a selfish way at looking at things. obviously if we want to keep running a bully state alongside israel then we should kill everyone that doesn't agree with us and his advice is on point to our "interests" but that still doesn't make it ethically smart or valid on moral ground despite how qualified he may be I can still see right from wrong.

o and

GOT DAT 20% TODAY

2/8/2010 1:00:18 AM

I wish someone would do some ethnic cleansing confined to the walls of your home.

2/8/2010 2:54:34 PM

Hey Ayatollah! Leave those kids alone!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S49Nz0m3JBI

2/21/2010 1:11:00 PM

http://www.michaeltotten.com/2010/04/our-man-inside-irans-revolutionary-guards.php

4/6/2010 7:39:46 PM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/24/AR2010042402710.html

Quote :

"Iran's political turmoil has prompted a growing number of the country's officials to defect or leak information to the West, creating a new flow of intelligence about its secretive nuclear program, U.S. officials said."

4/25/2010 9:42:27 PM

sounds like nice propaganda to me.

4/25/2010 9:47:19 PM

I agree. You are dumb.

4/25/2010 9:49:25 PM

It takes higher intellect to question news that is being fed to you. Maybe it does sound crazy at first glance but think about the motive. When you read my posts ask yourself, "what if mambagrl is right?"

4/25/2010 10:26:51 PM

Then answer yourself "she's not"

4/25/2010 10:29:51 PM

I agree. OR DO I AGREE?

AM I JUST FEEDING YOU FALSE INFORMATION TO MANIPULATE YOU INTO A CERTAIN RESPONSE!1111111111

4/25/2010 11:40:47 PM

YOU'LL NEVAR GET THROUGH HER TINFOIL HAT

4/26/2010 12:24:24 PM

anybody care to comment on how he tore the US a new one at the UN today? The response from the media and Clinton was that he was simply trying to deflect blame...WELL DUH. Of course when someone with thousands of nuclear weapons is on your ass because you MIGHT be making ONE, you will deflect the blame onto the hypocrite. Typical.

5/3/2010 10:23:15 PM

Do you even understand what it means if Iran gets the bomb? How it changes the region?

But I think you are just a troll.

5/4/2010 10:35:09 PM

it means people will think twice about invading iran

but thats not the point

the point is we have thousands of them and are telling them not to have one. how does us having them change the world?

5/4/2010 11:33:59 PM

The issue isn't about if someone will invade Iran. The issue is that we'd very much prefer that a rogue nation, guided by religious leaders with a deep-seated hatred of us, should not have a bomb. Once they uncork that bottle, the genie ain't going back in.

Say it with me... non-proliferation. The last thing the world needs is a bunch of hardline Muslims with a bomb. They are clearly be more willing to use it.

[Edited on May 4, 2010 at 11:52 PM. Reason : .]

5/4/2010 11:50:49 PM

Quote :

"Do you even understand what it means if Iran gets the bomb? How it changes the region? But I think you are just a troll."

Yes. Israel America invades. The youth of America and Iran die needlessly as a result.

[Edited on May 5, 2010 at 12:00 AM. Reason : .]

5/5/2010 12:00:00 AM

Quote :

"the point is we have thousands of them and are telling them not to have one. how does us having them change the world?"

For one thing, none of our leaders seek to bring about Armageddon.


^ or Israel carries out a strike, Iran poisons the regional well in every way that it can (political and indirect military interference in Iraq and Afghanistan; Hezbollah; Straits of Hormuz--which would probably cause direct American military involvement), and then the U.S. is left holding the bag.

[Edited on May 5, 2010 at 8:09 AM. Reason : ]

5/5/2010 8:04:49 AM

http://blogs.reuters.com/frontrow/2010/05/05/ahmadinejad-says-bin-laden-in-washington/

Quote :

"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has the answer to the question that has plagued the United States since Sept. 11, 2001. He knows where Osama bin Laden is — in Washington. In an interview with ABC’S “Good Morning America” on Wednesday, Ahmadinejad rejected reports that the al Qaeda leader was in Iran. “I heard that Osama bin Laden is in the Washington, D.C.,” Ahmadinejad said through an interpreter in a contentious give-and-take with his interviewer, George Stephanopoulos. “He’s there. Because he was a previous partner of Mr. Bush. They were colleagues in fact in the old days. You know that. They were in the oil business together. They worked together. Mr. Bin Laden never cooperated with Iran but he cooperated with Mr. Bush,” Ahmadinejad said. “Rest assured that he’s in Washington. I think there’s a high chance he’s there.” "

lol, that guy

5/5/2010 10:10:50 AM

Quote :

"I heard that Osama bin Laden is in the Washington, D.C."

5/5/2010 10:49:08 AM

Quote :

"For one thing, none of our leaders seek to bring about Armageddon."

I don't know man, Bush certainly started the process. 8 years isn't much time to get the job done.

[Edited on May 5, 2010 at 11:15 AM. Reason : .]

5/5/2010 11:15:37 AM

was that meant to be humor or a serious comment?

5/5/2010 2:47:25 PM

a little bit of both. Thank God presidents are only limited to two terms. Who knows what WWIII mess we'd be in if Bush was in office for another 8 years.

5/5/2010 3:40:21 PM

'This Week' Transcript: Panetta
Jake Tapper Interviews CIA Director Leon Panetta
June 27, 2010

Quote :

"[Jake] TAPPER: I'd like to move on to Iran, just because that consumes a lot of your time as director of the CIA. Do you think these latest sanctions will dissuade the Iranians from trying to enrich uranium?"

Quote :

"[Leon] PANETTA: Will it deter them from their ambitions with regards to nuclear capability? Probably not."

Quote :

"TAPPER: The 2007 national intelligence estimate said all of Iran's work on nuclear weapons ended in 2003. You don't still believe that, do you? PANETTA: I think they continue to develop their know-how. They continue to develop their nuclear capability. TAPPER: Including weaponization? PANETTA: I think they continue to work on designs in that area."

Quote :

"PANETTA: I mean, we think they have enough low-enriched uranium right now for two weapons. They do have to enrich it, fully, in order to get there. And we would estimate that if they made that decision, it would probably take a year to get there, probably another year to develop the kind of weapon delivery system in order to make that viable."

http://tinyurl.com/2dtoj4h

6/28/2010 4:53:50 AM

Yeah. That wasn't really newsworthy. Practically everyone who studies Iran thinks they're pursuing nuclear weapons.

6/28/2010 8:50:11 AM

^ I guess you missed the 2007 NIE?

6/28/2010 8:52:34 AM

I guess you missed the three years in between then and now.

6/28/2010 8:54:38 AM

^ 1. Three years isn't that long ago.

2. I guess you missed all the folks calling the previous administration "warmongers" and so on for suggesting that Iran was continuing its nuclear ambitions.

3. I guessed you missed this very thread, in which some either didn't believe that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons; asserted that Iran has the right to such weapons--against UN resolutions; promoted the failed and doomed-to-fail diplomatic (read "sanctions" and "talks") route; and have no plan whatsoever to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions other than letting the rogue state obtain a nuclear weapon or weapons.

6/28/2010 9:06:02 AM

I think you're taking my comment too personally. I essentially agree with you. I would, however, hesitate to suggest military intervention, beyond perhaps air strikes, because of this effect it would have on the domestic anti-theocratic movement. A full scale military intervention would alienate half of the reformers while turning the other half (probably more, actually) back into nationalistic reactionaries.

[Edited on June 28, 2010 at 9:14 AM. Reason : ]

6/28/2010 9:14:27 AM

^ Fine. So, what's your solution? Is that it? And air strikes conducted by what country or countries?



[Edited on June 28, 2010 at 9:24 AM. Reason : You do realize that at least one of those nuclear sites is inside a mountain, right?]

6/28/2010 9:16:22 AM

If air strikes can neutralize their nuclear weapons facilities, then yeah, I think that would suffice. Preferably the strikes would be carried out by NATO, but as that is unlikely to happen, it's obviously either going to be the United States or Israel. I would prefer we do it, but honestly, in the eyes of the international community (and especially the Muslim world), it makes no difference.

Quote :

"You do realize that at least one of those nuclear sites is inside a mountain, right?"

So bomb the entrance. If they dig it out in two or three years, bomb it again.

[Edited on June 28, 2010 at 9:27 AM. Reason : ]

6/28/2010 9:26:50 AM

^ Well, at least you seem to be willing to do something--or at least allow something to be done. That's more than I can say for some. And it is clear that the policy we have now is basically nothingness.

Does anybody even remember Obama's nuclear deadline--from September of last year?

A Nuclear Deadline Looms for Iran — and for Obama
Thursday, Sep. 03, 2009

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1920189,00.html

BTW, it wouldn't take "two or three years" for Iran to dig out.

6/28/2010 9:33:39 AM

Quote :

"BTW, it wouldn't take "two or three years" for Iran to dig out."

I think that's the figure I usually hear when "experts" talk about bombing Qom. At any rate, the point stands. It can be resealed, if you will.

Quote :

"Does anybody even remember Obama's nuclear deadline--from September of last year? "

Wasn't it a deadline until the U.S. sought sanctions? That's pretty much what happened.

[Edited on June 28, 2010 at 9:42 AM. Reason : ]

6/28/2010 9:40:09 AM

^ You mean these sanctions?

Quote :

"[Jake] TAPPER: Do you think these latest sanctions will dissuade the Iranians from trying to enrich uranium?"

Quote :

"[Leon] PANETTA: Will it deter them from their ambitions with regards to nuclear capability? Probably not."

http://tinyurl.com/2dtoj4h

6/28/2010 9:51:07 AM

The "rouge" nation that has never attacked anyone.

Leave Iran alone. They have just as much right to protect themselves against nuts as anyone else.

6/28/2010 7:57:30 PM

6/28/2010 8:07:59 PM

6/28/2010 10:38:36 PM

Quote :

"The "rouge" nation that has never attacked anyone. Leave Iran alone. They have just as much right to protect themselves against nuts as anyone else."

go back to trolling Entertainment

6/29/2010 9:00:19 AM

Well at least Iran is never boring.

http://www.michaeltotten.com/2010/07/ahmadinejads-mission.php

It doesn't usually end well when the leader of one nation or group of people furiously denounces another as sub-human or non-human, and it takes real nerve for a ruthless tyrant to describe any American president as the world's harshest dictator, but Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did both a few weeks ago.

Quote :

""Over 60 years ago, by means of an artificial and false pretext, and by fabricating information and inventing stories, they gathered the filthiest, most criminal people, who only appear to be human, from all corners of the world. They organized and armed them, and provided them with media and military backing. Thus, they occupied the Palestinian lands, and displaced the Palestinian people. [...] "[Obama] said: We support the Iranian nation’s right to be free, and so on and so forth... This is the Iranian nation. You want to talk about this? This nation does not accept you one little bit. The Iranian people loathe you. [...] "All the anti-human plans in the world are carried out under [Obama] and his administration. All the occupations, massacres, and human rights violations are perpetrated under his administration, yet along he comes with complaints about our nation. "Let me say something new here. This declaration of his has committed us, from this moment on, to add another international mission to those we already have. "What is this mission? I will tell you what it is. "Today, the harshest dictatorship is the one operating against the American nation, and the greatest pressure is exerted over there. They have no freedom of expression. No newspaper has the right to write anything about the crimes of the Zionists, or about the support given to them by the U.S. politicians. The American people do not have the right to demonstrate freely or to oppose the crimes of their politicians. Many Americans live in poverty. Eighty million people are poor. Some [leader] of that same America plundered hundreds and thousands of billions of dollars from the wealth of other nations. "Mr. President, before thinking about other nations, think about your own. The action you took has forced us to declare that from now on, one of the main demands of the Iranian nation is to rescue the American people from its non-democratic bullying administration.""

7/5/2010 10:54:46 PM

The favorite pasttime in politics seems to be misinterpreting ahmadinejad. By the context of his quote,, he clearly means that anyone who constantly commits crimes against humanity and is inHUMANE at heart, is non-human. Why is that shocking or hard for Americans to understand?

He really needs to start speaking in English often.

7/6/2010 9:19:07 AM

You speak farsi?

7/6/2010 3:08:13 PM

BOMB BOMB BOMB
BOMB BOMB IRAN

7/6/2010 4:06:59 PM

^ [OLD]

7/6/2010 6:42:09 PM