HT The Counterterrorism Blog

From the definitely not cool files!

*****

January 14, 2006
Jihadis are indeed targeting French planes

Back in October, the French press leaked that Islamists had acquired missiles to shoot down planes at French airports. This information was just confirmed. It is included in the file prepared by anti terror French judges regarding the Chechen terror networks. In fact, according to Jordanian/ Palestinian Islamist Abu Atiya (a close associate of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi) arrested in 2003, a terrorist group headed by Algerian Islamist Taqi Al Din purchased in mid 2000 two Russian SAM 18 Igla missiles from Chechen rebel Ruslan Gulaiev. Al Din told Abu Atiya that he wanted to use the missiles to down civilian planes in France with the help of two Algerians holders of European passports. Al Din was able to smuggle the missiles to Turkey but from that point on authorities were not able to trace them. So far, the missiles have not been recovered.
Finally, Abu Itya acknowledged that he convinced Al Din to target the US rather than France. But at this point, Al Din did not confirm.

Read More

HT LGF

Anyone wanting to know more about the fanatical religious mission of President MAD should read this article in The Telegraph (UK). As I said before there is a lot in common with President MAD and his mentor Imam Yazi with David Koresh and the Branch Davidians and Jim Jones and the Kool-Aid bunch.

'Divine mission' driving Iran's new leader
By Anton La Guardia
(Filed: 14/01/2006)

As Iran rushes towards confrontation with the world over its nuclear programme, the question uppermost in the mind of western leaders is "What is moving its President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to such recklessness?"

[...]

The most remarkable aspect of Mr Ahmadinejad's piety is his devotion to the Hidden Imam, the Messiah-like figure of Shia Islam, and the president's belief that his government must prepare the country for his return.

[...]

This is similar to the Christian vision of the Apocalypse. Indeed, the Hidden Imam is expected to return in the company of Jesus.

Mr Ahmadinejad appears to believe that these events are close at hand and that ordinary mortals can influence the divine timetable.

The prospect of such a man obtaining nuclear weapons is worrying. The unspoken question is this: is Mr Ahmadinejad now tempting a clash with the West because he feels safe in the belief of the imminent return of the Hidden Imam? Worse, might he be trying to provoke chaos in the hope of hastening his reappearance?

[...]

The main rift is no longer between "reformists" and "hardliners", but between the clerical establishment and Mr Ahmadinejad's brand of revolutionary populism and superstition.

[...]

they heard the president speak in apocalyptic terms of Iran struggling against an evil West that sought to promote "state terrorism", impose "the logic of the dark ages" and divide the world into "light and dark countries".

The speech ended with the messianic appeal to God to "hasten the emergence of your last repository, the Promised One, that perfect and pure human being, the one that will fill this world with justice and peace".

In a video distributed by an Iranian web site in November, Mr Ahmadinejad described how one of his Iranian colleagues had claimed to have seen a glow of light around the president as he began his speech to the UN.

"I felt it myself too," Mr Ahmadinejad recounts. "I felt that all of a sudden the atmosphere changed there. And for 27-28 minutes all the leaders did not blink…It's not an exaggeration, because I was looking.

"They were astonished, as if a hand held them there and made them sit. It had opened their eyes and ears for the message of the Islamic Republic."

Western officials said the real reason for any open-eyed stares from delegates was that "they couldn't believe what they were hearing from Ahmadinejad".

Their sneaking suspicion is that Iran's president actually relishes a clash with the West in the conviction that it would rekindle the spirit of the Islamic revolution and - who knows - speed up the arrival of the Hidden Imam.

Read it All

Michelle Malkin has a excellent post and roundup of the developing Iranian situation.

A Case for Action! ". . . DAMN THE TORPEDOS - FULL SPEED AHEAD!

Welcome Michelle Malkin's readers and others who followed the trackbacks here.

Instead of waiting for the UN and other governments to act, we, The Bogosphere, now have the collective power and resources to self-initiate regime change by helping the Iranian people to topple the the Mad Mullahs' of Iran house of cards.

See below The War of Information

Also see some related good news from Omar at Iraq the Model below

Rocketsbrain

*****

HT. Col Austin Bay

The collective brain power of the Blogos is now coming online regarding the dangers the free world is now facing by the cultlike religious fanatics led by the Iranian President MAD and his religious mentor, Imam Yazi. Again there are many parallels with Tolkien's, The Ring Trilogy.

Austin Bay notes the metaphorical mystical/religious apocalyptic connection with the Book of Revelation. The real danger, poorly understood by the Western World, is these nuts live in this revelationary reality and will act accordingly. This is a logical action just like the suicidal bomber agents are acting in a rational manner from this frame of reference.

The use of nuclear weapons to hasten the return of the !2th Imam is not mythical/metaphorical to them, IT IS REAL!

The collective wisdom - Regime Change Iran, carried out by the Iranian people and fostered, aided, funded, and encouraged by the West, should now be our new course.

Dr. Zin and Rocketsbrain have been advocating this position for several years.

Our government may be constrained by political reasons and bureaucratic inertia to come around to this new course. The LL, and the MSM are too preoccupied with the Justice Alito's Supreme Court confirmation process to notice to report and educate the American people on these findings.

The Blogosphere now has the power and resources to drive this message home. It's time we as American citizen fill the gap to support our government where it can't or won't protect this Country e.g. The Minutemen and as Michelle Malkin posted, WE ARE ALL HOMELAND SECURITY AGENTS.

It's time WE THE PEOPLE hold our representatives accountable to protect this Country and remind them it's WE THE PEOPLE who allow them to govern.

". . . DAMN THE TORPEDOS - FULL SPEED AHEAD!"

*****

What to do about the Tehran hub of the axis of evil?

For background, check out these two prior posts (a recent one here), including my column advocating “internal regime change” (from two weeks ago).

In today’s Daily Telegraph, Charles Moore divines an apocalyptic connection. “Breaking the seals” has a revelatory ring:

In the Book of Revelation, the Lamb breaks the seven seals and earth-shattering violence ensues: “…the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together… And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men… hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains”.

Our own not-quite-chief captain, Jack Straw, took refuge instead in a BBC studio. It is almost physically impossible to keep one’s attention on the Foreign Secretary as he smothers meaning in his blanket of official phrases about IAEA governing bodies and Chapter Seven UN Resolutions and “prior stages” before anything like sanctions actually happens, but I did hear him yesterday venture the opinion that “in Iran things are difficult”. You’ve got to give it to the man: he’s right.

It is just a pity that Mr Straw recognises it only now…

But what do we do?

Moore:

What can we do? There may be sanctions and other forms of isolation that would work. For instance, although full of crude oil, Iran is short of petrol and has to import a great deal from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Without that, it would be in trouble.

But the bigger question concerns the West’s extraordinary indulgence (Mr Straw calls it “patience”) towards the regime. Why don’t we distinguish government from people and reach out to the latter? In the contest of the West with revolutionaries, we win in the end when we help their victims rise up against them, when the people themselves, not our tanks, take down the Berlin Wall.

Yes. That’s internal regime change, fostered by overt and covert political and economic support. The mullahs fear their own people.

[...]

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Update:

I forgot to link to Michelle Malkin's post today also re what to do about the Mad Mullahs. Michelle also links to VDH and has a good roundup of links with similar opinions.

Update:

More in the Blogos linking:

Ace of Spades
A North American Patriot
Atlas Shrugs has her view too
The Glittering Eye has more suggestions
Spook86 says "Follow the Oil!:
ThreatsWatch - Time to put cards on the table and Iranian Paralysis Broken

The Belmont Club - on a related thread re a role reversal between the Republic and Democratic Parties re a strategic foriegn policy in the 21st Century in view of the rise of Islamofascist ideology.

Security Watchtower - Echoes a similar theme to The Belmont Club re Iran is not another Vietname unless we make it so.

And finally Dr. Zin - Regime Change Iran [The go to source for all things Iranian], is linking to Victor Davis Hanson's piece,[NRO] "The Multilateral Moment?", that Col. Bay linked to above and posted here below.

Update:

Omar at Iraq thel Mode is reporting some good news from the Anbar Provence in Iraq. Local Iraqi groups are fed up with AQ killing friends andr relatives are chasing AQ agents out of the area. Perhaps the taste of slice of freedom is worth fighting for.

Ht The Counterterrorism Blog

January 13, 2006
CIA Targets Ayman al-Zawahiri in Pakistan (updated)

LAST UPDATE AT 10:32 pm ET. CNN reporting a CIA airstrike against Al Qaeda's #2, Ayman al-Zawahiri in Pakistan - CIA got "good reporting" on al-Zawahiri's presence in a building and it ordered the Predator airstrike - could be visual confirmation soon but weeks before confirmation through DNA tests. ABC News: "Villagers described seeing an unmanned plane circling the area for the last few days and then bombs falling in the early morning darkness. Eighteen people were killed, according to the villagers who said women and children were among the fatalities. But Pakistani officials tell ABC News that five of those killed were high-level al Qaeda figures, and their bodies are now undergoing forensic tests for positive identification." Terrorism expert Peter Bergen on CNN - his death would be "major blow" to the organization. MSNBC: "Pakistani officials say U.S. aircraft, apparently CIA Predator drones, fired as many as 10 missiles at the residential compound." And quoting U.S. intel source: “Anyone who tells you there is clarity on whether he [Zawahri] was killed ... do not take what they are saying as gospel.” AP story quotes senior Pakistani government official: "there is 50-50 chance that some al-Qaida personality was at the home."

A reliable source with high-level U.S. contacts tells me that U.S. "really believes" we might have whacked him. This effort has developed over the past few days as intel has indicated his presence in Damadola, a small village near the Afghan border.

[...]

Read More

Update:

More from The Counterterroism Blog

January 13, 2006
CIA Targets Ayman al-Zawahiri in Pakistan - Pakistan Officials Say He Was Not at Site (updated 1/14)

CIA airstrike against Al Qaeda's #2, Ayman al-Zawahiri in Pakistan - CIA got "good reporting" on al-Zawahiri's presence in a building and it ordered the Predator airstrike. But AP reports on Saturday morning that "Al-Qaida's second-in-command was not at the site of a U.S. airstrike on a Pakistan village near the Afghan border that killed at least 17 people, two senior Pakistani officials said Saturday."

[...]

Read More

The Multilateral Moment?

Victor Davis Hanson

January 13, 2006, 8:37 a.m.
The Multilateral Moment?
Our bad and worse choices about Iran.

"Multilateralism good; preemption and unilateralism bad.”

For four years we have heard these Orwellian commandments as if they were inscribed above the door of Farmer Jones’s big barn. Now we will learn their real currency, since the Americans are doing everything imaginable — drawing in the Europeans, coaxing the Russians and Chinese to be helpful at the U.N., working with international monitoring agencies, restraining Israel, talking to the Arabs, keeping our jets in their hangars — to avoid precipitous steps against Iran.


Its theocracy poses a danger to civilization even greater than a nuclear North Korea for a variety of peculiar circumstances. Iran is free of a patron like China that might in theory exert moderate influence or even insist on occasional restraint. North Korea, for an increasingly wealthy and capitalist China, is as much a headache and an economic liability as a socialist comrade.

In contrast, Iran is a cash cow for Russia (and China) and apparently a source of opportunistic delight in its tweaking of the West. Iranian petro-wealth has probably already earned Tehran at least one, and probably two, favorable votes at the Security Council.

[...]

The Democratic leadership should step up to the plate and, in Truman-esque fashion, forge a bipartisan front to confront Iran and make the most of their multilateral moment. If the Democrats feel they have lost the public’s confidence in their stewardship of national security, then the threat of Iran offers a Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, or John Kerry an opportunity to get out front now and pledge support for a united effort — attacking Bush from the right about too tepid a stance rather from the predictable left that we are “hegemonic” and “imperialistic” every time we use force abroad.

Finally, the public must be warned that dealing with a nuclear Iran is not a matter of a good versus a bad choice, but between a very bad one now and something far, far worse to come.

[...]

Read More

HT Dr. Zin - Regime Change Iran

Farouz Farzami, The Wall Street Journal:

On the surface, it would appear that pressure from the United Nations and the United States has little effect on the mullahs who rule Iran. The opposite is true.

The best current example is the standoff over Iran's nuclear program. Fearing that the mullahs are secretly developing nuclear weapons, the U.N. wants strict limits on Iran's nuclear program. The country's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, and Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have refused to consider any such limits, even after Russia offered a compromise that would permit Iran to enrich uranium on its soil. The president and the top negotiator have been defiant -- on state-run TV recently, Mr. Larijani, thinking several steps ahead, pledged a "crushing response" to any military attack by the U.S. or Israel.

But if you look past this headline-generating bluster, you see that Western pressure is having an effect. The hard-line position of the Iranian government has begun to splinter.

There are now three minds about this issue in the Majlis, the Iranian parliament:

• A categorical rejection of the Russian proposal to allow Iran to enrich uranium at its facilities, a compromise that would deny Iran the privilege of enriching uranium on its own soil.

• Modifying the Russian proposal to allow for enrichment to occur in both Russia and Iran.

• Suspending all enrichment until further notice or even to some agreed-upon future date, to defuse tension and rebuild confidence with the European Union.

[...]

HT Michelle Malkin

This story has been building steam in the Blogos for the last day or so. Michelle Malkin just linked to it.

Rocketsbrain has been advocating just this action for the last two years. Oh well you know what they say about a prophret in their own country. Be honest with the American people and tell them what signs to look for. This is exactly what our governement should be doing. Think of the millions of watchful eyes. When you're looking for a needle in a haystack - get a magnet!

Seriously there are simple things to look for that just may tip an embedded sleeper cell before it can strike e.g. 9/11.

This is the name of the game. There's no one around left to prosecute after the fact.

See these pieces at HSPIG:

IACP'S NEW PUB ON HOMELAND SECURITY

The Traditional Law Enforcement/Criminal Justice System Paradigm Is Ill Prepared to Fight this War On Terror (08-11-04)

Mission Focused Strategic Communications (06-20-04)

THE EVENT CLOCK IS TICKING . . .

*****

By Michelle Malkin · January 13, 2006 11:06 AM

Picture this: You're a retail store clerk. It's the busy Christmas season. A half-dozen men of Middle Eastern/Southeast Asian descent walk into the store. They want to buy between 60-150 disposable cell phones--you know, the kind that can't be traced. The kind that have been used by terrorists as detonators.

What do you do?

Do you think nothing of the incident? Hope for the best, sell them what they want, and move on?

Do you feel guilty for "profiling" them and dismiss any misgivings you have?

Or do you listen to your post-9/11 conscience and contact the authorities?

Lucky for us, some clerks who work at Wal-Mart and Target did not give in to ingrained P.C. impulses. ABC News reports:

[...]

Read it All

Update:

The Strata-Sphere weighs in too.

So is In the Bullpen

Here's blast from the past. See this miltary role playing scenario reported by James Fallows in the December 2004 edition of The Atlantic Monthly. Now fast forward to now!

Scroll down to the bottom of this piece.

So this is how the war game turned out: with a finding that the next American President must, through bluff and patience, change the actions of a government whose motives he does not understand well, and over which his influence is limited. "After all this effort, I am left with two simple sentences for policymakers," Sam Gardiner said of his exercise. "You have no military solution for the issues of Iran. And you have to make diplomacy work."

Well folks fast forward in time. The diplomatic solution has about run its course. I'm sure there are late night planning sessions now going on at the Pentagon.

I have a novel suggestion. Pose this a hyhpothetical problem modeling the Iranian situation to the online gaming freak community who play these strategy games 24/7. I'm sure some creative ideas may surface that may actually be of some use.

*****

Will Iran Be Next?

Soldiers, spies, and diplomats conduct a classic Pentagon war game—with sobering results

by James Fallows

.....

Throughout this summer and fall, barely mentioned in America's presidential campaign, Iran moved steadily closer to a showdown with the United States (and other countries) over its nuclear plans.

In June the International Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran had not been forthcoming about the extent of its nuclear programs. In July, Iran indicated that it would not ratify a protocol of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty giving inspectors greater liberty within its borders. In August the Iranian Defense Minister warned that if Iran suspected a foreign power—specifically the United States or Israel—of preparing to strike its emerging nuclear facilities, it might launch a pre-emptive strike of its own, of which one target could be the U.S. forces next door in Iraq. In September, Iran announced that it was preparing thirty-seven tons of uranium for enrichment, supposedly for power plants, and it took an even tougher line against the IAEA. In October it announced that it had missiles capable of hitting targets 1,250 miles away—as far as southeastern Europe to the west and India to the east. Also, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman rejected a proposal by Senator John Kerry that if the United States promised to supply all the nuclear fuel Iran needed for peaceful power-generating purposes, Iran would stop developing enrichment facilities (which could also help it build weapons). Meanwhile, the government of Israel kept sending subtle and not-so-subtle warnings that if Iran went too far with its plans, Israel would act first to protect itself, as it had in 1981 by bombing the Iraqi nuclear facility at Osirak.

So this is how the war game turned out: with a finding that the next American President must, through bluff and patience, change the actions of a government whose motives he does not understand well, and over which his influence is limited. "After all this effort, I am left with two simple sentences for policymakers," Sam Gardiner said of his exercise. "You have no military solution for the issues of Iran. And you have to make diplomacy work."

Read it All

HT Dr. Zin - Regime Change Iran

Lets hope some of them our realists. Unfortunately President MAD and Imam Yazi are delusional and will not be detered. Hence the importance of the West driving Mack trucks in the rift zone developing in the ruling theocracy.

*****

Iran Press News: Translation by Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzzi.

According to a report from the site IRAN ASRAR (Iran Camouflaged) , the political branch of the revolutionary guards in an internal analysis [produced in December 2005] entitled "Recent Changes in Syria and the Security Ramifications on the Region" expressed the Islamic regimes anxiety in the face of the recent political changes in both Lebanon and Syria; the report stressed that the regime will be confronted with incalculable and frequent adversities.

In view of the current multitude of transitions taking place within the Middle East, not to mention the mounting international pressures against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its political allies in Syria and Lebanon, the regime is facing the most precarious situation ever. In a section of the analysis, the regimes sense of danger is evident: "...From a strategic standpoint any change or weakening within Syria, will undermine or defeat the Islamic Republic's calculations and access in the face of threats from the Zionist leadership. This very construct has taken place in Lebanon with gradual measures taken for change within the political formation, the transition of command and its upshot is that Hezbollah is being faced with having to accept results that is forced upon them..."

Further in the report, under the heading "The Islamic Regimes Nuclear Dossier, the Next Objective" it specifically mentions the nuclear issues facing the regime and the dire political need for obtaining nuclear capability.

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By Kenneth R. Timmerman
FrontPageMagazine.com | January 13, 2006

With U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice noting that Iran has definitively "chosen confrontation with the international community," the United States and Europe called on the International Atomic Energy Agency today to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

After many months of probing Western resolve, Iran’s leaders ended any possible ambiguity as to their nuclear intentions on January 10, when they forcibly removed IAEA seals that had been put in place to prevent them from producing nuclear weapons material.

IAEA inspectors dispatched to Iran for the occasion pointedly refused to remove the seals themselves. In a confidential report back to Vienna, they said the Iranians not only removed seals at key nuclear production facilities, but began feeding uranium hexafluoride (UF6) into a centrifuge enrichment cascade, a key step toward the bomb.

Iran’s actions so incensed IAEA Secretary General Mohammed ElBaradei that he told reporters in Vienna he was “losing his patience” with Tehran’s leaders and that “a red line for the international community” was fast approaching.

This is a crisis that has been building not just for months, but for years. And while events will now move at a very fast clip, it is useful to pause the camera an instant and examine exactly what got us here.

Read it All

HT The Strategy Page

January 11, 2006: Britain, which has taken the lead in developing EMP (ElectroMagnetic Pulse) devices, is testing a new EMP warhead with the United States. This weapon is intended for use in cruise missiles or UAVs, for attacks on enemy command and control centers. Some of these operations are in bunkers that are well protected from bombs. But an EMP device could at least damage some of the electronics used in those locations. An EMP warhead would also be useful when the target is surrounded by civilians, an increasingly common tactic with some governments, who know that Western governments are more reluctant to kill non-military personnel.

EMP was discovered when nuclear weapons were being tested. The nuclear explosion also created an EMP, that damaged or destroyed many electronic components. As electronics got smaller over the last few decades, they became more vulnerable to EMP. You can build EMP shielding into electronic components, but this increases size, weight and cost.

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HT DR. Zin Regime Change Iran

Tony Blankley, The Washington Times:

"Blocking research activities is similar to blocking the light" was the poetic phrase used by Iran's head of nuclear research, Hossein Ghafourian, on Iranian radio last weekend to defend Iran's plans to restart their nuclear centrifuge research.

It is precisely the fear of such blinding and incinerating nuclear light that is moving the world's diplomats to speak out with increasing stridency and urgency in the face of Iran's intent to recommence nuclear research and testing that might lead to their development of nuclear weapons.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier responded to Iranian words of intent to break the seals and restart the nuclear program: "This marks a breach of Tehran's commitments. [Iran is sending ] very, very disastrous signals. It cannot remain without consequences... We have had two very, very grave signals from the Iranian government over the past weekend."

[...]

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HT Austin Bay

I will update this later with more thoughs but a tip for the DOD. Put the docs up on the Internet for all to see and the Blogos will translate them. Also seek out Iraqi Christians fluent in Arabic to help translate. The will do it for free.

*****

[WSJ OnlineJournal Featured Article]

What they tell us could save American lives today.

Friday, January 13, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST

It is almost an article of religious faith among opponents of the Iraq War that Iraq became a terrorist destination only after the U.S. toppled Saddam Hussein. But what if that's false, and documents from Saddam's own regime show that his government trained thousands of Islamic terrorists at camps inside Iraq before the war?

Sounds like news to us, and that's exactly what is reported this week by Stephen Hayes in The Weekly Standard magazine. Yet the rest of the press has ignored the story, and for that matter the Bush Administration has also been dumb. The explanation for the latter may be that Mr. Hayes also scores the Administration for failing to do more to translate and analyze the trove of documents it's collected from the Saddam era.

[...]

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By John A. Ross (01/12/06)

[The American Daily - Analysis with Political and Social Commentary]

Iran’s Mullahs are World-class masters of manipulation, deceit and purveyors of brutality, with a track record spanning the last twenty-six years. Adept at playing Arab, Chinese, European, Russian and American interests against one another, the despotic Mullahs exploit religious, economic and security concerns of countries around the globe. Enhancing their personal financial status while forging loose ties to international counterparts motivated by greed and power, Iran’s Mullahs have built a regime based on perceptions, not reality.

Inuring, or exploiting contemporary Islamic fascist mentality, Tehran’s Mullahs are not of Arabic decent but sponsor terrorist organizations and their suicide operations, to remain in power.

Recognizing that Islamic opinions must be assuaged to remain in power, Iran’s ruling Mullahs use Wahhabist, or radically conservative Muslims as mercenaries in conflict management situations.

[...]

The “Great Proliferator,” China, provided the “Pakistan Connection,” A.O. Khan, with key information and equipment to build their nuclear weapons. The “Khan Connection” sold atomic weapons of mass destruction information and equipment to Iran, North Korea, Egypt, Libya and others with the original Chinese characters on drawings provided. Cinching the noose tighter around the neck of India, the Chinese are developing the Pakistani port of Gawdar, to receive compressed natural gas (CNG) supplies from Iran.

Flush with a massive influx of cash from the recent sharp increase in oil prices, the Mullahs are feverously working to develop a nuclear weapon and the missile system to deliver it. Armed with a nuclear weapon and the means to deliver it by ballistic missile, Iran’s Mullahs will have the perceptive muscle to threaten European infidels and America. In this area, it has been determined that a nuclear triggered electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) weapon detonated high above the United States could set our country back a hundred years.

[...]

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HT The Strategy Page

Items About Areas That Could Break Out Into War

January 12, 2006: The Baluchis are rising. No, it isn’t a recipe for some new puff pastry, but yet another ethnic group that, like the Kurds, would like a homeland of their own. In this case, the homeland would be carved out of southwestern Pakistan, southeastern Iran and southern Afghanistan. None of these countries is eager to give up any of their territory to help form a new state of Baluchistan. But that hasn’t stopped the Baluchis from trying. And they appear to be trying.

On December 15th, there was an attempt to assassinate Iranian president Muhammad Ahmadinejad. The Iranian government has said little about the incident, which resulted in the deaths of several of Ahmadinejad’s security team. This has led to considerable speculation about the attack. Some conspiracy-mavens have been asserting that it was a deliberately staged incident, like Hitler’s “Reichstag Fire,” which would result in the accrual of even greater power to Ahmadinejad and the religious extremists who run Iran. Others have pointed to Israel’s Mossad, the CIA, or perhaps even Iranian liberal dissidents. Then the real story began to come out.

Near the end of December, Notani, one of the leaders of the Baloch (Baluchi) Liberation Army (BLA), announced that the BLA had been behind the attempt on Ahmadinejad’s life. First heard of around the end of 2003, the BLA (sometimes known as the Baloch Liberation Movement, BLM), has been primarily active in Pakistan, where it has been linked to about two dozen bombings. It is one of several groups fighting for an independent Baluchistan.

[...]

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HT Ace of Spades just linked to another jewel from the Iranian President MAD.

Ahmadnejean Says "Great Event" Is Coming

Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday evening that the Islamic Republic’s 1979 Islamic revolution was a great movement and a stepping stone to a final “great event” in the world.

Speaking to a crowd in the southern city of Roudan, Hormozgan province, Ahmadinejad said, “The Islamic Republic is the continuation of the path of the prophets which came to begin a great movement and the final occurrence”.

This isn't any time for joking, and this isn't really a joke, but I get the feeling this guy sees the bomb much as the mutants in Beneath the Planet of the Apes did. Not quite a God, but God's Avenging Angel on Earth.

We can't let them have the bomb. If it means preemptive war-- we canot let them have the bomb.

This, and a lot of other depressing stuff, from the internet's own Dr. Feelgood, Allah Is In the Link Mecca.

STOP THE PRESSES!

More info bubbles to the surface re Saddam's support of OBL and other terror groups. Deroy Murdock expands on Stephen Haye's earlier article in the Weekly Standard (HT Austin Bay). Murdock also includes statement by Vice President Cheney on Tony Snow's radio show (FOX News Radio) agreeing with Hayes' analysis.

Meanwhile, Dick Cheney gave Hayes a boost Wednesday. As the vice president told radio host Tony Snow: "Steve Hayes is of the view _ and I think he's correct _ that a lot of those documents that were captured over there that have not yet been evaluated offer additional evidence that, in fact, there was a relationship that stretched over many years between Saddam Hussein and the al Qaeda organization.

*****

By DEROY MURDOCK
Scripps Howard News Service
12-JAN-06

Drip, drip, drip.

Drop by drop, isolated news stories and emerging documents erode the popular myth that Saddam Hussein was clueless about terrorism. These revelations undermine war critics' efforts to whitewash Baghdad's ancien regime _ such as when Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada declared: "There was no terrorists in Iraq." Likewise, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., describes a "nonexistent relationship between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein."

Reid, Levin and others who dismiss the Baathist-terrorist nexus would struggle to do so if the Bush administration unveiled the evidence tying Saddam to Osama bin Laden and other extremists. President Bush immediately should release papers discussed in the Jan. 9 Newsweek and the Jan. 16 Weekly Standard.

A declassified 2002 Pentagon presentation obtained by Newsweek's Mark Hosenball offers fresh details on a suspected April 2001 meeting in Prague between Sept. 11 ringleader Mohamed Atta and Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) Station Chief Ahmed al-Ani. "No other intelligence reporting contradicts that (deleted) report," the heavily redacted document states. It adds: "al-Ani ordered IIS finance officer to issue funds to Atta." (For excerpts, see: msnbc.msn.com/id/10663343/site/newsweek.)

Another slide outlines numerous meetings among bin Laden, his deputies and top Iraqi officials. In 1999, the presentation says, "al-Qaida established operational training camp in northern Iraq; also reports of Iraq training terrorists at Salman Pak," a military base near Baghdad. In 2000, "According to CIA 'fragmentary reporting points to possible Iraqi involvement' in bombing USS Cole in October."

Among the document's findings: "Some indications of possible Iraqi coordination with al-Qaida specifically related to 9/11."

Is this all fabricated? How much is true? Releasing all 60 or so slides should sort this out.

The Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes consulted 11 federal officials before concluding that documents U.S. troops captured in Iraq prove that "the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein trained thousands of radical Islamic terrorists from the region at camps in Iraq over the four years immediately preceding the U.S. invasion."

Hayes reports, "Secret training took place primarily at three camps _ in Samarra, Ramadi, and Salman Pak _ and was directed by elite Iraqi military units." Al Qaeda-affiliated fanatics, such as Algeria's GSPC and the Sudanese Islamic Army, were among the 8,000 or so murderers instructed between 1999 and 2002.

Handwritten notes, computer discs and other "exploitable items" confirm Saddam's philanthropy of terror, Hayes says. But America has translated only some 2.5 percent of this huge cache. Federal officials barely discuss what they have learned. Even unclassified papers remain unavailable. Absurd.

Read It All!

HT Dr. Sanity

Some opinions re President Bush's resolve to defend this Country in time of war in the face of unprecedented opposition.

*****

In discussing the story of the Marsh Arabs in Iraq, The Anchoress expresses clearly what I think will be Bush's legacy:

This story, in the end, is the story of how one man standing alone in the face of unprecedented world-wide opposition, in the face of organized “marches” throughout the world and condemnation from global “diplomatic” entities, in the face of journalistic distortion such as has not been seen in our lifetimes, did something no one else had the physical, spiritual and political nerve to do. Even when things did not go perfectly, even when intelligence by the “experts” was revealed to be in error, even when the open scorn of the opposition devolved into outright hate, overriding their sensibilitie, one man stood, and kept his nerve. Had that one man backed down, none of this would have happened. It is an astonishing story.

I cannot imagine how anyone who is thinking clearly, who is not mad with hate, could wish this endeavor anything but success. What sort of heart will walk away from this, stomping the feet in dismay? What sort of spirit can see this and shriek? And how sad for those who pray for failure.

I have said it before, and I'll say it again here; the psychological resiliance of George W. Bush simply astonishes me. I know of very few people--myself included--who would not have been broken and defeated when confronted with an unrelenting onslaught of emnity of such incalculable proportions--and it began even before his election in 2000.

Read More

HT Security Watchtower

Does this surprise anyone?

*****

France, Germany and the United Kingdom have reluctantly concluded that diplomatic talks with Iran over their nuclear programs have run their course, and will be moving the issue to the United Nations Security Council. Iran resumed nuclear fuel research and some enrichment activities in a move described by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice as crossing an "important threshold."

In a joint press conference with his UK and French counterparts after emergency talks in Berlin, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said two-and-half years of negotiations between Germany, France, the UK - the so-called EU three - and Iran could go no further. He said the EU's confidence had been "repeatedly tested" by Iran, adding that Iran's resumption of work at the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility on Tuesday constituted a "unilateral rejection" of the talks process. "We believe the time has now come for the Security Council to become involved to reinforce the authority of IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] resolutions," Mr Steinmeier said. UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said extensive proposals had been made to Iran, including the prospect of World Trade Organization membership.

[...]

Read More

HT Iraq the Model

Omar at Iraq the Model has an excellent piece from last year why the Spirit of America's Arabic/Farsi annoymous blogging tool is a very important strategic weapon to win the War of Information:


Blogging Vs Terror (Part 1)

I had a date with Najaf yesterday. The trip this time was a special one because I was there to give lectures to spread blogging and to talk about the importance of blogging and the ways to get blogs and use them. It is a part of the Arabic blogging project of the Friends of Democracy that aims at connecting intellectuals, students and NGOs (especially women NGOs) through a network of blogs that facilitates communication and gives democratic debates a push forward through exchanging opinions and sharing ideas among all the parties and the communities in different cities, all through blogging.

[...]

Read it All!

I had an offline talk with Omar of Iraq the Model about the strategic importance of the Blogos in the War of Information to ultimately win the GWOT.

I don't give a rat's behind what others may say - I'm nominating Omar as a true American patriot!

I'm sorely tempted to call something much worse a few US Senators who are postering in the Judge Alito's confirmation hearings. These Senators appear as though they are running for high school senior class president.

Giving comfort, aid, and support to the enemy when this Country is at war is not high on my dance card.

HT Col Austin Bay

AMEN BROTHER BAY!

*****

I was on a local radio show Wednesday morning discussing the column I wrote ten days ago on Iran’s nuclear quest. (See the concluding graf quoted at the end of this post).

What to do about Iranian nuclear brinkmanship?

Timothy Garton Ash blusters in the Guardian. He hits the cultural awareness and strategic threat issues, but fails to come to grips with how to foster internal regime change.

What a stunning example of leftish “process” fixation. Ash says we need to “share information” and reach a “common analysis.” Well, yeah. He does have the cast of charcters right, and I agree with his assessment of Iran’s internal power relationships. It’s a jigsaw of tyranny and terror.

Ash:

We need to share all this information and reach a common analysis. And before we take any step in the diplomatic dance, we need to ask ourselves two questions: how will this affect the Iranian regime, and how will it affect Iranian society? The regime is complex. Ahmadinejad is the president, but not the ultimate boss. The boss of this theocratic regime is the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khameini. Without his say-so, the nuclear seals would not have been broken. But he is constrained by strong interest groups, such as the Revolutionary Guards, and by other ayatollahs, such as the president’s fudamentalist guru, Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi.

Remember, nuclear weapons aren’t the real problem here. It’s the character, psychology, and aims of the men seeking them.

[...]

Read it All!

We are left with a high school debating society whose members are running for senior class president! (Alito Senate confirmation hearings)

Powerline has been drawing on history for guidance in these dangerous times.

*****

Regular readers of this site know that we admire, above all others, Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill. President Bush's reference to "victory" as the mandate he gives to his commanders recalls, intentionally, I am sure, Churchill's great speech upon becoming Prime Minister in May 1940--the speech in which he said, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat." This, though, is the key passage from that speech:

You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.

I think this fills the bill in the GWOT AKA Islamofascism and for the Hilters of the world waiting to take the world state e.g. Iranian President MAD

HT Dr. Zin - Regime Change Iran

A must read for anyone trying to understand Iranian President MAD. He truly is a man pursuing his own vision from his own warped sense of reality. This is DANGEROUS for those who live in other states of reality!

*****

Daniel Pipes, Frontpagemag.com:

Thanks to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, a new word has entered the political vocabulary: mahdaviat.

Not surprisingly, it’s a technical religious term. Mahdaviat derives from mahdi, Arabic for “rightly-guided one,” a major figure in Islamic eschatology. He is, explains the Encyclopaedia of Islam, “the restorer of religion and justice who will rule before the end of the world.” The concept originated in the earliest years of Islam and, over time, became particularly identified with the Shi‘ite branch. Whereas “it never became an essential part of Sunni religious doctrine,” continues the encyclopedia, “Belief in the coming of the Mahdi of the Family of the Prophet became a central aspect of the faith in radical Shi‘ism,” where it is also known as the return of the Twelfth Imam.

Mahdaviat means “belief in and efforts to prepare for the Mahdi.”

In a fine piece of reporting, Scott Peterson of the Christian Science Monitor shows the centrality of mahdaviat in Ahmadinejad’s outlook and explores its implications for his policies.

When he was still mayor of Tehran in 2004, for example, Ahmadinejad appears to have secretly instructed the city council to build a grand avenue to prepare for the Mahdi. A year later, as president, he allocated US$17 million for a blue-tiled mosque closely associated with mahdaviat in Jamkaran, south of the capital. He has instigated the building of a direct Tehran-Jamkaran railroad line. He had a list of his proposed cabinet members dropped into a well adjacent to the Jamkaran mosque, it is said, to benefit from its purported divine connection.

He often raises the topic, and not just to Muslims. When addressing the United Nations in September, Ahmadinejad flummoxed his audience of world political leaders by concluding his address with a prayer for the Mahdi’s appearance: “O mighty Lord, I pray to you to hasten the emergence of your last repository, the Promised One, that perfect and pure human being, the one that will fill this world with justice and peace.”

On returning to Iran from New York, Ahmadinejad recalled the effect of his U.N. speech:

one of our group told me that when I started to say “In the name of God the almighty and merciful,” he saw a light around me, and I was placed inside this aura. I felt it myself. I felt the atmosphere suddenly change, and for those 27 or 28 minutes, the leaders of the world did not blink. … And they were rapt. It seemed as if a hand was holding them there and had opened their eyes to receive the message from the Islamic republic.

What Peterson calls the “presidential obsession” with mahdaviat leads Ahmadinejad to “a certitude that leaves little room for compromise. From redressing the gulf between rich and poor in Iran, to challenging the United States and Israel and enhancing Iran’s power with nuclear programs, every issue is designed to lay the foundation for the Mahdi’s return.”
[...]

A must Read!

In the Bullpen also addresses the clear and present danger presented by Iran.

HT Real Clear Politics vis Austin Bay


January 10, 2006
Osama: Quiet as a Corpse
By Peter Brookes

Osama bin Laden hasn't made a single peep publicly in over a year — his longest absence since 9/11. The ghoul's eerie silence is both disturbing — and odd — for the leader of a global terrorist organization hellbent on changing world order.

So what is Public Enemy No. 1 up to? Osama's glaring absence from the world stage means one of three things: a) We've been closing in on him and he's gone deeper underground; b) He's lulling us into complacency while planning another big terrorist strike, or c) He's dead.

Read More

From a comment at Roger L. Simon

Strategic and tactical chess moves in play

Roger,

You may have missed my earlier tongue in cheek comments in your post first re PM Sharon's sudden illness and second Ledeen's cryptic reference to yet again another report of the demise of OBL.

While the LL and the MSM are contemplating their navels which is probably for the best, there may be a number of strategic and tactical chess moves in play.

And while we're at it, here's another piece that everyone in the Blogos should take note:

The War of Information - Spirit of America
HT Spirit of America

Great work again by Spirit of America to foster the free flow of news/info on the Net.

*****

Iran's "Let's Roll" Beginning?

Roger,

See this special report just in today from Dr. Zin (AKA Gary Metz) at Regime Change Iran regarding the strategic squeeze play the Mad Mullahs of Iran may be setting in motion re the illness of Sharon

[...]

Does anyone see the special significance of the recent back to back vists by the CIA and FBI director to Turkey? Perhaps a deal in the works for Turkish airspace in exchange for a greenlight for Turkey to take out the Iranian Kurdish terrorists? This was floated by Dan Darling (Winds of Change) a week or so ago.

[...]

Shussssh! Let's not tell the American people, consult with Congress and let the American President have the full reign of power as the Commander and Chief that our founding fathers intended in the separate powers in the US Constitution. Imagine going into battle by direction of committees with laborous hearings.

As they say, "Don't mess with Texas and don't mess with Texans!"

Perhaps we can pull this off before the MSM leaks this and the EU weenies, the UNk, and our "friends the French, have a cow that they were not consulted.

[...]

My bet is Israel, using the newly delivered advanced F16 Strike Eagles supported by our air cover and air-refueling, on the ground joint US/Israeli special forces to take the multiple nuclear sites, nutralize the defenders, render the sites usless, and get the "Hell out of Dodge."

The House of Saud will complain but not too loudly.

*****

and in the Ledeen thread OT re the recent rash of planes falling out of the sky in Iran:

*****

OT

Now SHUSSSSH do you suppose the black ops folks were listening without warrant and "painted" this plane from Turkish airspace? NAUGH the LL and the MSM would have leaked this by now! Dan Darling noted both the CIA and FBI directors made back to back visits in Turkey in the last several weeks.

Perhaps we have the "A Team" boys/girls on the playing field now (Not the TV show but cop lingo for the ace detective/special ops personnel).

If I'm correct that there is a rift developing in the ruling Iranian theocracy, the US/DOD/Dept of State, Radio Free Europe, The Voice of America, the BBC (fat chance), Deutsche Welle (Perhaps) and the Blogs should be running Mack trucks into this rift zone to reach the Iranian "Joyless Generation."

This is the only option that makes much sense short of a headon fight with President MAD before he gets his a nuclear button. This guy is more whacked out than Hitler was in the 30s. He truly believes by starting a regional nuclear conflict he will be preparing the way for the return of the 12th Imam form some well in the area.

Dr. Watson come quickly the game is afoot!

Of course we may be seeing something in the tea leaves that doesn't exist. This has to be another "mechanical failure." Oh damn - but sounds good for our side :-)

Hey, whose the resident detective mystery writer here anyway? :--)

[...]
Link

Update:

The Ace of Spades has some interesting comments re the Iranian oil pipeline infrastructure :--). Sounds like another mission for the MIB black ops personnel.

Update:

The Counter Terrorism Blog is also speculating sabatoge in the recent Iranian plane crash and reference a Stratfor analysis.

Dean of Dean's World thinks things are getting very, very, weird in Iran.

Update:

Atlas is also commenting, What Must Be Done With Iran

Austin Bay is also out with an excellent column today

HT USNWR Michael Barone via Instapundit

No comment necessary

*****

So much for democracy

Here's James Risen, the New York Times reporter who coauthored the paper's December 16 story on NSA surveillance of foreign terrorists, flogging his new book on the Today show. He presents an interesting theory of governance.

Risen: Well, I–I think that during a period from about 2000–from 9/11 through the beginning of the gulf–the war in Iraq, I think what happened was you–we–the checks and balances that normally keep American foreign policy and national security policy towards the center kind of broke down. And you had more of a radicalization of American foreign policy in which the–the–the career professionals were not really given a chance to kind of forge a consensus within the administration. And so you had the–the–the principles–Rumsfeld, Cheney and Tenet and Rice and many others–who were meeting constantly, setting policy and really never allowed the people who understand–the experts who understand the region to have much of a say.

Couric: You suggest there was a lot of power grabbing going on.

So, "the career professionals were not really given a chance to kind of forge a consensus within the administration." Evidently, such consensus-building is how government is supposed to operate. Instead, you had folks like "the principles [sic, presumably transcriber's mistake]—Rumsfeld, Cheney and Tenet and Rice and many others—who were meeting constantly, settling policy, and really never allowed the people who understand—the experts who understand the region to have much of a say."

What a scandal! Presidential appointees like Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, and Condoleezza Rice and an elected official like Dick Cheney were meeting together! How dare they? And they were settling policy! Astonishing! What will such people dare to do next?

[...]

Read it All

HT Spirit of America

Great work again by Spirit of American to foster the free flow of news/info on the Net.

Now only if certain US based IT giants e.g., IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Texas Instruments, Cisco, and Motorola and the others who know who they are, would support the home team once in a while in the GWOT. Remember the Soviet Union began to crack with the spread of Xerox machines. A little white hacking of regime software/hardware would be patriotic too!

Not only do these companies have a vested economic interest in the outcome of the GWOT, they need to be reminded that their profits are dependent on a level playing field in a free economy. This level playing field is largely supported by the full faith and credit of the United States of America backed by the force projection of the US Military. The costs of which are largely borne by the American taxpayer.

And finally let's not overlook the strategic importance of Western Rock Music! President MAD made a fatal decision recently by banning Western music from the Iranian Joyless Generation. Bad karma!

The stragetic means by which the GWOT will be won, is not by military force alone, but by winning the War of Information.

The followers of Islamofascism must be clearly shown that it is a failed/doomed ideology from the 6th thru 12th Century that has no place in the modern civilized world without a period of reformation or enlightenment.

See the other thread today where the Religion of Peace (RoP) is used as a justification for the hanging yet again of a 17 year old Iranian girl. This time for killing her attacker in what amounted to a gang rape!

Islamofascism's principal failure is, unlike as set forth in the US Constitution, it does not recognize the universal truth of the free will of MEN and WOMEN!

Other ideologies since relagated to the dustbin of world history, have failed for the same reason e.g., Communisim, Nazism, Fascism, Maoism et al.

The Information War

As many of you are aware I'm a big fan of the Blogosphere (Blogos) and its tremendous power to push news/info thru institutional barriers.

Propaganda of the enemy must be immediately shown as lies e.g., the Jews killing Arab children for their blood and the LL/MSM reporting we're losing the war in Iraq. If you don't get out much or have alternative sources of info, some folks actually believe this garbage.

Once the light of the free world shines on these repressive regimes, they will crumble like houses of cards. Once they loose control of the flow of alternative sources of information, they are doomed. The power to control of the "Big Lie" quickly fades away. No more Final Solutions!

A metaphorical analogy - The Mad Mullahs of Iran and elsewhere will melt away in the light of the free world, just as the Wicked Witch of the East did when splashed with the bucket of water by Dorothy in the Wizard of OZ!

While Tolkien denied it, his Trilogy of the Ringswas seen by many as a warning of the coming of evil with the rise of The Third Reich after WWI. I believe there are strong parallels with our time too re Good vs. Evil.

This will be a reoccurring at this blog.

I'm not worried about excesses of the NSA either. I will comment on transparent privacy in a future post

*****


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SPIRIT OF AMERICA RELEASES ANONYMOUS BLOGGING GUIDES IN ENGLISH, ARABIC, CHINESE, AND PERSIAN

Spirit of America has launched the BlogSafer wiki, available at
http://www.blogsafer.org. BlogSafer contains a series of guides on how
to blog under difficult conditions in countries that discourage free
speech.

LOS ANGELES, California - January 7, 2006 - Spirit of America's
BlogSafer wiki hosts a series of targeted guides to anonymous
blogging, each of which outline steps a blogger in a repressive regime
can take, and tools to use, to avoid identification and arrest. These
range from common sense actions such as not providing identifying
details on a blog to the technical, such as the use of proxy servers.

"A repressive regime trying to still free speech first goes after and
shuts down independent print and broadcast media," said Curt Hopkins,
project director of Spirit of America's Anonymous Blogging Campaign.
"Once that is done, it turns its attentions to online news sites. As
these outlets disappear, dissent migrates to blogs, which are
increasing geometrically in number and are simple to set up and
operate."

In past several years at least 30 people have been arrested, many of
whom have been tortured, for criticizing their governments. This trend
is likely to increase in the coming year.

The five guides that are currently on the wiki serve bloggers in the
following countries:

- Iran (in Persian)
- China (Chinese)
- Saudi Arabia (in Arabic--also useful for other Arabic-speaking
regimes such as Bahrain, Egypt, Syria and Tunisia)
- Malaysia (in English--also applicable to neighboring Indonesia and
Singapore)
- Zimbabwe (in English--applicable to English-speaking Africans as
well as aid workers)

These countries were chosen because they are representative of the
kinds of repressive tactics that have been used in the past several
years against bloggers. These include filtering, interrogation,
torture and imprisonment.

The guides are a synthesis of all currently available information on
the subject of anonymization. They have been edited for non-technical
readers, translated into the languages of the target areas and posted
on the wiki. Bloggers can use the wiki format to expand, edit and
change the current guides to reflect a closer knowledge of the
changing situation in their countries. Others may use the guides, and
the other resources provided, to translate the guides into other
languages or create new guides specific to their countries'
situations.

The wiki will provide a work and communications space for those
bloggers around the world seeking to speak the truth as they see it
and those in freer countries who wish to support their fellows
bloggers.

Spirit of America's mission is to extend the goodwill of the American
people to assist those advancing freedom, democracy and peace abroad.
We provide support to those on the front lines: American military and
civilian personnel and people who call to Americans for help in their
struggle for freedom and democracy.

Spirit of America is a 501c3 nonprofit supported solely through
private-sector contributions. We do not receive funding from the
government or military. 100% of your tax-deductible donation is used
for the purpose you choose. For more information and to support Spirit
of America and this and other projects, visit the web site at
www.spiritofamerica.net.


Interview Contact: Curt Hopkins, Anonymous Blogging Director, Spirit of
America
Telephone: (541) 729-4146
Email: curt.hopkins@spiritofamerica.net
Blog Safer wiki: http://www.blogsafer.com

Anonymous Blogging blog: http://anoniblog.blogharbor.com

Spirit of America Anoniblogging project page:
http://www.spiritofamerica.net/projects/104

Spirit of America
12021 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 558
Los Angeles, CA 90025

Update:

Blogs linking -
The Daily Brief: A Military Blog
The Adventures of Chester

Update:

Omar at Iraq the Model has an excellent piece why the Spirit of America's Arabic/Farsi annoymous blogging tool is a very important strategic weapon to win the War of Information:

Blogging Vs Terror (Part 1)

I had a date with Najaf yesterday. The trip this time was a special one because I was there to give lectures to spread blogging and to talk about the importance of blogging and the ways to get blogs and use them. It is a part of the Arabic blogging project of the Friends of Democracy that aims at connecting intellectuals, students and NGOs (especially women NGOs) through a network of blogs that facilitates communication and gives democratic debates a push forward through exchanging opinions and sharing ideas among all the parties and the communities in different cities, all through blogging.

[...]

Read it All!

HT The Jawa Report

I'm with Dr. Rusty who cares what the UN thinks anymore. Sounds like ground forces were acting on credible intel and were on a hostage rescue mission. Give'm an "A" for acting.

*****

U.S. Forces Raid Umm al-Qura Mosque

U.S. forces raided Baghdad's Umm al-Qura mosque Sunday after receiving a tip that activities related to Jill Carroll's kidnapping were going on inside:

ABC Online—Sunni Arabs in Iraq have branded a US raid on a mosque complex a "sinful assault" and say it will worsen their relations with the US military.

The United Nations (UN) has also criticised Sunday's military operation.

Sunni Arab political parties say the raid on the Baghdad offices of the influential Muslim Clerics Association targeted the clergy and violated a place of worship.

Witnesses say US soldiers slid down ropes from helicopters as troops on the ground burst into the mosque complex, blowing doors off hinges and ransacking offices.

[...]

Read More

News from the Foundation for Democracy in Iran

Www.iran.org

Jan. 10, 2006: The nuclear crisis begins. Iran broke IAEA seals at several nuclear sites today, after IAEA inspectors in Tehran refused to remove them at Iran's request. Among the sites where Iran plans to resume nuclear research and production work are the Natanz enrichment plant, Faraymand Technique and Pars Trash, where Iran had been assembling enrichment centrifuges. IAEA Director General Mohammad el Baradei expressed "anger" at Iran's moves, and delivered an urgent report to members of the Board of Governors detailing the Iranian moves.[ed note. President MAD is shaking in his boots] In that report, which remains "confidential," the IAEA said that Iran was feeding uranium hexafluoride (UF6) into enrichment centrifuges, FDI has learned. This directly contradicted assertions in Tehran today by Mohammad Saeedi, the deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, who told reporters that production of nuclear fuel "remains suspended." Saeedi was recalled to Tehran from Vienna last Thursday without explanation as the crisis began to escalate.

The removed IAEA seals "covered P-1 centrifuge components, maraging steel, high strength aluminium and centrifuge quality control and manufacturing equipment, as well as two cylinders containing UF6 located at Natanz," according to a press release from the Agency. "The seals also covered some process equipment at the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP) at Natanz." Iran claimed it was installing a small-scale enrichment cascade at Natanz and was feeding UF6 gas into centrifuges for limited "research and development" only.

Developing... For updates, visit www.iran.org

HT Ace of Spades

Der Spiegel (Germany's world political magazine) weighs in on growing concern re Iranian President MAD.

Guten Tag Wie Geht es Inhnen. Ich sprecke ein bischen Deutsche auch!

Anyway interesting read via Ace of Spades.

*****

THE WORLD FROM BERLIN

Ahmadinejad's Appetite for Self-Destruction

Iran has broken the seals at nuclear facilities signaling its intention to start production of enriched uranium anew. This is seen as a major provocation in Europe and many newspapers in Germany warn that it's time to drop the carrots and starting wielding the sticks.

Iran has called the Holocaust fiction, it's called for the destruction of Israel and, on Monday, it removed the seals from nuclear fuel research facilities so it could resume uranium-enrichment work. It's been an escalation in antics from the mullah-led country that has caused many in Europe to throw up their hands in dispair after months of exhaustive diplomatic work and painstaking negotations.

[...]

Read More

Update:

Dr. Zin also takes notice of the Der Spiegel article and wondered whether European press was finally on Iran.

HT Jihad Watch

Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch just linked to this very significant piece reporting , "...Pope Benedict XVI has let it be known that he does not believe Islam can reform."

This is a BOMBSHELL of course don't expect to see this anytime soon in the MSM.

*****

Spengler in Asia Times (thanks to all who sent this in) tells truths that cannot be told in American public discourse, making points we have made here many times:

Islam is the unexploded bomb of global politics. US foreign policy - the only foreign policy there is, for the United States is the only superpower - proceeds from the hope that a modern and democratic Islam will emerge from the ruins of Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Through democratic institutions, Washington believes, the long-marginalized Shi'ites will adapt to religious pluralism. Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's Islam, fixed in amber since the High Middle Ages, will metamorphose into something like American mainline Protestantism.

Alas, the available facts suggest that the opposite result will ensue: more freedom equals more fundamentalism. Not the secular Shi'ite parties but the pro-Iranian religious parties dominate the Iraqi polls. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood quadrupled its vote despite heavy-handed measures to intimidate its supporters; Hamas threatens to displace Fatah in the Palestinian elections this month; Hezbollah has become the strongest electoral as well as military force in Lebanon; and, most important of all, Mahmud Ahmadinejad crushed a more pragmatic opponent in last June's Iranian presidential elections.

Islam was founded as a theocracy, such that the Western innovation of church-state separation remains alien to its culture. Is it possible for Islam to reform? A negative answer implies that Ahmadinejad's January 5 call for world domination falls within the Islamic mainstream. He told an audience of religious students, "We must believe in the fact that Islam is not confined to geographical borders, ethnic groups and nations. It's a universal ideology that leads the world to justice. We don't shy away from declaring that Islam is ready to rule the world. We must prepare ourselves to rule the world." The previous day, the London Guardian leaked a European intelligence report detailing Iran's efforts to acquire technology required to build nuclear weapons. A very few writers, including this one, have rejected the possibility of Islamic reformation, to the stony contempt of universally accepted opinion.

Now Pope Benedict XVI has let it be known that he does not believe Islam can reform. This we learn from the transcript of a January 5 US radio interview with one of Benedict's students and friends, Father Joseph Fessio, SJ, the provost of Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida, posted on the Asia Times Online forum by a sharp-eyed reader. For the pope to refute the fundamental premise of US policy is news of inestimable strategic importance, yet a Google News scan reveals that not a single media outlet has taken notice of what Fessio told interviewer Hugh Hewitt last week. No matter: still and small as Benedict's voice might be, it carries further than earthquake and whirlwind.

Read it all. Yes, you heard me.

HT Jihad Watch

A fuller version of this story from Iran Focus, with thanks to Sparta:

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 07 – An Iranian court has sentenced a teenage rape victim to death by hanging after she weepingly confessed that she had unintentionally killed a man who had tried to rape both her and her niece.

The state-run daily Etemaad reported on Saturday that 18-year-old Nazanin confessed to stabbing one of three men who had attacked the pair along with their boyfriends while they were spending some time in a park west of the Iranian capital in March 2005.

Nazanin, who was 17 years old at the time of the incident, said that after the three men started to throw stones at them, the two girls’ boyfriends quickly escaped on their motorbikes leaving the pair helpless.

She described how the three men pushed her and her 16-year-old niece Somayeh onto the ground and tried to rape them, and said that she took out a knife from her pocket and stabbed one of the men in the hand.

As the girls tried to escape, the men once again attacked them, and at this point, Nazanin said, she stabbed one of the men in the chest. The teenage girl, however, broke down in tears in court as she explained that she had no intention of killing the man but was merely defending herself and her younger niece from rape, the report said.

The court, however, issued on Tuesday a sentence for Nazanin to be hanged to death.

HT Dr. Zin Regime Change Iran

Let's see how this unravels over time :--)

My monies on Black Ops by unknown forces. If the Mullahs have this many equipment failures, I'd be very worried about containing their nuclear research/reactor facilities.

*****

Kenneth R. Timmerman, Foundation for Democracy in Iran:

A Revolutionary Guards Falconjet crashed near Ourmieh in western Iran earlier today, killing 11 top IRGC officers, including the commander of the IRGC ground forces and the IRGC ground forces intelligence chief. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who came from the Rev. Guards ranks, issued a public note of condoleance to the IRGC within hours of the crash. According to FDI sources, at least one member of Iran's Majles called the crash "sabotage" and called for a parliamentary investigation.

In a rare move, the commander of the IRGC held a press conference acknowledging the crash just 90 minutes after it occured, and authorized the official Islamic Republic News Agency to publish a list of those on board. In addition to IRGC's Ground Forces Commander Gen. Ahmad Kazemi, the dead included:

* Commander of IRGC Rassoulollah 27th Army Division, Gen. Saeed Mohtadi,

* Deputy Commander of Ground Forces for Operation Affairs, Gen. Saeed Soleymani, reportedly a top Iranian liason officer with the Iraqi insurgency

* IRGC Ground Forces Intellligence chief, Gen. Shahramoradi Hanif Montazer-Qaem

* Artillery unit Commander, Gholam-Reza Yazdani;
* Two members of the Ground Forces' Command Office, Hamid Azinpour and Mohsen Asadi;

* Deputy Commander of Ground Forces, Gen Safdar Reshadi,
* IRGC Air Force General Abbas Karvandi, the plane's pilot, whom FDI sources identified as commander of the Qadr air base, which is responsible for defending the air space over Tehran;

* IRGC General Ahmad Elhaminejad, identified by FDI sources as head of the IRGC air force college, who was the plane's co-pilot,

* IRGC Colonel Morteza Basiri.

FDI sources in Tehran said the IRGC leadership was "shocked" by the crash, which apparently resulted from a failure of both engines of the French-made executive jet. On Monday evening, the National Security committee of the Iranian Majles went into an emergency meeting to hear classified information on the crash and to explore evidence of potential sabotage, our sources reported.

Unidentified gunmen attempted to assasinate president Ahmadinejad in eastern Iran on December 12, and sources in Tehran say the new president is facing fierce opposition for rival clerics who feel he has gone too far in openly defying the United States and Israel.

Update:

The readers of The Jawa Report are debating the finer points of air travel in Iran :-)

HT Jihad Watch:

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No surprise here at all, except to those who are determined to ignore the obvious Shi'ite plan in Iraq. From the Washington Times, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Shi'ite clerics are recruiting young Iraqis to go to neighboring Iran for political indoctrination and militia training, said the uncle of one young man who recently returned from a one-month session.

Upon the return of the young man -- whose name has been withheld from this article to protect his family -- he was recruited into the armed wing of the pro-Iranian Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) political party, the uncle said.

The claim is consistent with remarks by U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, who has repeatedly warned about Iranian meddling in Iraq's affairs.

Read More

See this comment I posted over at Indepundit re Lt. Smash's face off with a LL apologist:

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Great Lt. Smash you are a true American patriot!

See this post I just sent to my email list.

[...]

Representative Democracy at Its Best

HT Michelle Malkin

Michelle links to Lt. Smash's Blog today re objective/subjective assessment of War in Iraq. Yet another story the MSM will probably overlook. Here's the link from Michelle's site and also scroll to the bottom for a link to an audio feed recorded by Lt. Smash's wife. Damn those pesky cellphone cameras and digital recorders of the new waive of citizen journalists.

Lets all hold our elected governmental representatives accountable based on objective info and not subjective info as reported by the MSM. Just read the blogs of Austin Bay, Michael Yon, Bill Roggio and other brave citizen journalists who venture out from the "green zone" to report first hand as they see it from ground zero.

Triangulate these fresh perspectives and then make your own personal judgment but don't rely soley on what the MSM is reporting as an objective perspective.

The Weekly Standard story re Saddam's funding/support of Islamofascist terrorists is still breaking and it will take probably a year again before the MSM begins to cover this story. The GWOT is really a "war of information." To win this war we need the political will of the American people.

It's time WE THE PEOPLE hold our representatives accountable to protect this Country and remind them it's WE THE PEOPLE who allow them to govern.

See

Here and Here

OK - Good news?

I just posted a comment over at Roger L. Simon's re Ledeen's NRO article. Here's an excerpt on a related Iranian thread on the planes falling out of the sky in Iran.

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Anyone taking notice of the planes "falling" out of the sky lately in Iran? First there was the plane of Iranian journalists and now a plane carrying top generals in the revolutionary guard (See Winds of Change)

Gee it makes me wonder if Allah had a hand in this.

The $64 question is whose "Allah," and whose hand? I'm betting it was Pres "MAD" on the jounalists' plane.

The second [it] could be a hit by Pres MAD if these gens were on the outs with him. More likely, though, a hit from the other moderate mullah factions realizing President MAD is consolidating his power base and leaving them out.

Mind you they consider Pres MAD's religious mentor, Yazi, extreme for even their tastes. The word "moderate" is relative. They all hate the Big and Little Satans.

Could this be why AQ et al (Sunnis) and the Iranian Mullahs (Shia) would be breaking bread together? Makes you wonder what other high level AQ folks are sunning in "protective" custody along the Caspian Sea in Iran?

AQ Dr. NO #2 seems to pop up quite regularily with ease on video feeds. Yeah, it's only a donkey ride with a tape from Afgan/Pakistan's remote mountains but this would get old after awhile. I don't think fiber optic cables have been run to the mtn holes either :--)

If this is true I'd be damn sure I knew where AQ's naval fleet of ghost cargo ships were at all times and be prepared to blow them out of the water if they got in Scud range of the US Coast.

Think tactical nuke, shipped launched Scud, low alt detonation (100 km), over the US NE Powergrid to disable via EMP pulse by frying transformers, switching hardware, and software switching ops systems.

Now SHUSSSSH do you suppose the black ops folks were listening without warrant and "painted" this plane from Turkish airspace? NAUGH the LL and the MSM would have leaked this by now! Dan Darling noted both the CIA and FBI directors made back to back visits in Turkey in the last several weeks.

Perhaps we have the "A Team" boys/girls on the playing field now (Not the TV show but cop lingo for the ace detective/special ops personnel).

If I'm correct that there is a rift developing in the ruling Iranian theocracy, the US/DOD/Dept of State, Radio Free Europe, The Voice of America, the BBC (fat chance), Deutsche Welle (Perhaps) and the Blogs should be running Mack trucks into this rift zone to reach the Iranian "Joyless Generation."

This is the only option that makes much sense short of a headon fight with President MAD before he gets his a nuclear button. This guy is more whacked out than Hitler was in the 30s. He truly believes by starting a regional nuclear conflict he will be preparing the way for the return of the 12th Imam form some well in the area.

Dr. Watson come quickly the game is afoot!

Of course we may be seeing something in the tea leaves that doesn't exist. This has to be another "mechanical failure." Oh damn - but sounds good for our side :-)

Hey, whose the resident detective mystery writer here anyway? :--)

Update:

Dr. Zin at Regime Change Iran has additional posts re this newest crash

Update:

Atlas Shrugs has her usual witty quip about this sudden unfortunate happening.

Update II:

Atlas continues with quoting Stratfor's analysis of the wide rift developing in the Iranian theocracy and agrees we must exploit this.

More dribbling in from Dr. Zin's sources on the crash.

Osama Bin Laden died three weeks ago in Iran - Michael Ledeen (From NRO)

[HT Dr. Zin - Regime Change Iran]

I suppose this is worthy of my first post here. :--)

OK - Good news? Ledeen is generally a very reliable source however as in all things in the Blogos we should watch for further developments.

Will this hasten the end of the GWOT? Maybe, but OBL is or was a figure head of late for the most part anyway. It's the ideology we must discredit/destroy before this war is won.

Ron

*****

[...]

Ariel Sharon of Israel was incapacitated by a stroke in early January. And, according to Iranians I trust, Osama bin Laden finally departed this world in mid-December. The al Qaeda leader died of kidney failure and was buried in Iran, where he had spent most of his time since the destruction of al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The Iranians who reported this note that this year's message in conjunction with the Muslim Haj came from his number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, for the first time.

[...]

Link

Update:

The LL and the MSM will probably declare the GWOT over and blame President Bush for another screw up in not finding and capturing OBL. We still have unfinished business to attend to with the Mad Mullahs of Iran. Perhaps OBL should stay alive at least spiritually a little while longer :--)

Update II:

Atlas Shrugs and Dr. Sanity are now linking to this story. Haven't seen any other confirmation though yet. I did post a blurb in the Winds of Change - column. I'd watch the comments there as this story either grows legs or dies.

Wizbang is now running story and mentions another editorial by the New York Post also questioning the lack of OBL in recent AQ media releases.

Update III:

Nothing new to report. More of the Blogos are linking to Regime Change Iran and/or Ledeen's story at NRO.

Case of waiting for the other shoe to drop :--)

The Big Picture, The Jawa Report, The Strata-Sphere, In the Bullpen, Not Exactly Rocket Science, The Mudville Gazette, Right Winged, Captain's Quarters, and The Ace of Spades.

Agent Meatball, a commenter, at The Jawa Report noted that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi appeared to refer to OBL in the "past tense" in his pronouncement re the recent rocket attack from Lebanon. May the saints perserve us all :--)

The rocket firing at the ancestors of monkeys and pigs from the south of Lebanon was only the start of a blessed in-depth strike against the Zionist enemy (...). All that was on the instructions of the sheikh of the mujahedeen, Osama bin laden, may God preserve him," said the voice attributed to the Jordanian extremist.

[...]

Text at Breitbart.com

Link

Just checking on the format Technorati Profile