Rocketsbrain has been on the road for the last several days from Southern California to the State of Washington with another load of humble belongings.

Rocketsbrain made his way from Southern California up thru the Majove Desert along I15 and Hwy 395. Then turned west at Kramer Junction on Hwy 58 and crossed over to Bakersfield. Drove north on Hwy 99 thru the San Joaquin Valley, passing thru the State Capital, Sacramento.

Continued North on I5 thru Red Bluff, Redding, and Weed. It was snowing in Weed. Next morning took some photos of Mt. Shast towering on the horizon.

The next day headed up I5 to the CA/OR border where it was snowing again. Headed down the downhill grade into Asland, OR. Tractor trailer rigs were whizzing by. Makes you a little nervous when there are two "runaway truck" ramps on the grade. Hit Meford, Roseburg, Eugene, Salem, and on into Portland, OR. It was snowing on and off the whole way.

Turned east on I84 in Portlant and drove the Columbia River Gourge. It was snowing again. Once passed in to the Columbia Plateau region which is normally drive the sun was out and clear.

Headed north again into WA at Richland/Pasco and then up Hwy 395 to our destination.


See these photos taken along the way.



See slide show of "Bomber Run" at Flickr:

Link Here

HT Dr. Zin - Regime Change Iran

A great series of posts today by Dr. Zin re the Iranian situation.

*****

Iran Sleepwalking Into War?

Amir Taheri, Arab News:

With attention focused on the international row over the Islamic republic’s alleged attempt at building an atomic bomb, the average observer might not notice the domestic side of the debate.

The new radical administration in Tehran, led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is doing all it can to make this an “us vs. them” issue, whipping up xenophobic sentiments and diverting attention from the country’s real problems.

Nevertheless, Iran may be heading for its deepest crisis since the 1970s.

This crisis, related to the nuclear issue, has two aspects.

[...]

*****

ElBaradei's Blindness

Kenneth R. Timmerman, FrontPageMagazine.com:

Iran now has the materials to make up to ten nuclear weapons, the U.S. envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency told a closed-door meeting in Vienna yesterday. That stunning statement, by U.S. ambassador Gregory L. Schulte, not only turned heads; it changed minds.

It was also a conservative statement. In fact, nuclear experts tell me, if Iran had used the equipment the IAEA knows Iran imported from the nuclear black market of Pakistani nuclear dealer Dr. A.Q. Khan, it could have produced enough weapons-grade uranium for between twenty to twenty-five bombs – even as the IAEA was inspecting Iran’s declared nuclear sites. And some sources believe Iran has purchased actual weapons from Ukraine and North Korea recently on the black market.

[...]

*****

What Are The U.S. Military Options Against Iran?

Jonathon Karl, ABC News:

When it comes to dealing with Iran's nuclear program, Pentagon planners and outside experts say there are no attractive options, but there are options. "There is a broad and widely dispersed program infrastructure that could be targeted," said National Defense University professor Richard Russell, a former CIA analyst. "It's not an easy target package to target but you could do it in a sustained aerial bombardment campaign."

[...]

*****

Bush: Iran Grave Security Threat

CNN News:

U.S. President George W. Bush has called Iran an issue of "grave national security concern" but said he wanted a diplomatic solution to the Islamic republic's nuclear ambitions.

[...]

*****

Debunking Iran's need for nuclear energy and more

Iran Democracy Monitor:

Iran's claims that a nuclear program is necessary for domestic energy generation are undermined by its extensive oil and gas resources, a new report from a prominent Congressional committee has concluded. The March 2006 study by the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, entitled "Iran's Oil and Natural Gas Wealth," notes that Iran's vast energy stores - which include the world's third-largest oil and second largest natural gas reserves - mean that the development of nuclear energy is not necessary for domestic economic growth. Rather, the white paper says, efficient use of these resources has been hampered by the Iranian regime's international price-fixing practices, inefficient state controls, and "threatening policies that provoke U.S. trade and investment sanctions."

[...]

*****

Two Week Deadline for Iran?

Agence France-Presse, ABC News:

The United States and Europe want the United Nations Security Council to give Iran a two-week deadline to halt suspect nuclear work, a draft text for Council action obtained by AFP says. The draft says the UN Security Council should "call upon Iran without delay: to re-establish full, sustained and verifiable suspension of all enrichment related and reprocessing activities".

It also says the UN nuclear watchdog chief should "report to the Council within 14 days on the implementation by Iran of the actions it has requested"

[...]

*****

Read Them All

[Click on this article and scroll the rest of the posts for

HT Accuracy in the Media via Security Watchtower

AIM Report: Media Reports Connect Saddam to 9/11 Plot - March A

March 9, 2006
Telling the truth can be dangerous.

By Scott Malensek

The 9/11 Commission report tells us in detail that the terrorist attacks on America on 9/11 were set in motion in December 1998. They report that interrogations of the plot's mastermind, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, demonstrate that the plot was set in motion in "late 98 early 99" at a meeting in Khandahar, Afghanistan. This also happens to be the time period that Iraq came under bombardment by the United States. The timing is no accident.

The commission reported that the only time Osama bin Laden was in Khandahar during the time period of "late 98 early 99" was between December 18 and December 24, 1998, after he gave an interview to ABC News in which he declared that "To seek to possess the weapons that could counter those of the infidels is a religious duty. If I have indeed acquired these weapons, then this is an obligation I carried out and I thank God for enabling us to do that. And if I seek to acquire these weapons I am carrying out a duty. It would be a sin for Muslims not to try to possess the weapons that would prevent the infidels from inflicting harm on Muslims."

[...]

Read it All

HT Kobayashi Maru

KM has very useful perspective up this morning.

Waking Up to a Three Decade War

The Daily Standard and FrontPage magazine seem to be the only 'regular' media picking up the (identical, mirrored) story by Thomas Joscelyn that Iran helped the Taliban to fight the U.S. (H/T: Regime Change Iran) The revelation emerges from thousands of pages of Guantanamo tribunal transcripts - material released March 3rd by the Pentagon in response to litigation by the AP. (Aside to the MSM: careful what you wish for.)

[...]

Outraged much? We are. Frightened much? We're that too. Unfortunately, those are the easy parts: emotional fight/flight instincts that tell us this is bad... really bad. And we have to do something. (As a side note, we would be much more frightened without faith that all of this has been known by a loving and grace-bestowing God with purpose in mind, outside of time, free from the prison we find ourselves in... but that's another post.)

Stepping back, it's important to ask: What will happen with this increasingly damning pile of evidence and insight into Iran's belligerent moves against us? How will the public (and the Congress) react? And more importantly, what will they do?

It's easy to say "I don't care; those in synch with our view have the votes and the power." Doing only that however, has the unfortunate side effect of prolonging the war at home - something the enemy fondly wishes to inflame. It would be re-fighting the homeland debate about the Iraq war which in many senses was a re-fight of the homeland screaming match about the Vietnam War... which set the stage for the retreatist isolationism that paralyzed us at the outset of Iran's war against us in the late '70's.

[...]

Read it All

HT Townhall.com

Larry Elder continues his interview with Iraqi Gen. Sada on the transfer of Saddam's WMD to Syria and his opinion on what should be done with the Iranian Mullahs.

RBT

Bush lied, people died: Part II

By Larry Elder

Mar 9, 2006

Gen. Georges Sada, the No. 2 ranking officer with the Iraqi Air Force, is finally being heard in Washington, D.C. Senate Armed Services Committee member James Inhofe, R-Okla., recently said, " . . . This old argument of weapons of mass destruction, which has always been a phony argument from the beginning, now that we have information that's been testified . . . in closed session, by this General Sadas [sic] -- all kinds of evidence as to the individuals who transported the weapons out of Iraq into Syria."

Ali Ibrahim, another Iraqi commander, corroborates Sada's assertion that Saddam possessed stockpiles of WMD, but transported them out of Iraq by air and by land. Furthermore, former FBI agent John Tierney says the United States uncovered hours of tapes -- since authenticated -- of Saddam Hussein and his henchmen discussing WMD, and how they hid their work from U.N. inspectors.

So, we continue our interview with Gen. Sada:

Elder: You said the president did the right thing in invading Iraq --

Sada: Excuse me, you say invading, I always say liberating.

Elder: OK, liberating Iraq. Are we winning this war of liberation?

Sada: The war is won. Now we are trying to win the peace. . . . The new elections were a great thing . . . and the wonderful, wonderful thing is that the first time we had 88 women elected in the Parliament of Iraq. I'm not sure of the number now, but you just imagine 88 women of 275 seats in the Parliament are women -- in an Islamic Arab country in the Middle East. This is the fruit of the liberation.

Elder: The WMD transported to Syria, are we talking about hundreds of tons of chemical and biological weapons?

Sada: Well, of course, because a Jumbo aircraft easily can take more than 50 tons. And especially that Jumbo was doing two sorties a day; maybe 727 was doing only one, but Jumbo for sure was doing two sorties a day, so it will be hundreds of tons were transported to Syria.

Elder: Transporting all these chemical and biological weapons to Syria in 56 sorties, using those planes, obviously a lot of people had to be involved in it. How can someone like David Kaye, our WMD hunter, and his successor, Charles Duelfer, how could they spend all that time in Iraq and not uncover what you told us?

Sada: . . . I can assure you that there are -- even in Intelligence sometimes -- that people are not taking it that serious, and dealing with it in that serious way. But now I can find that the senators like Inhofe and [Jeff] Sessions [R-Ala.], and Rep. Pete Hoekstra [R-Mich.], they are very serious, and this is the first time I can feel that your Intelligence are very serious . . . and I can assure you that this moment . . . there are people who are doing a lot in the Middle East to see the people who have transported the WMD to Syria.

Elder: What should we do about Iran?

Sada: I was in a discussion in Dubai . . . there were two professors from Iran there, and I was representing Iraq to discuss the security of the Gulf. And I told them like this: If you are going to possess the nuclear weapon, that's a disaster. If you will use it, it's a bigger disaster. And if you will not use it, it's also a disaster, because you are going to make a big, big, big hole in your economy. I hope that the Iranians at last will listen. We don't want that region to have more conflicts and to have more WMD, but the other way around, to get rid of these weapons, and make the region and the Middle East to live peaceful. . . .

Elder: So what should be done, General? They are embarking on acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Sada: Well, I think the world and the United States have got enough knowledge and enough courage, and enough things to know what to do, but I still believe that it will be much, much better to solve it in a peace way, because I am the director of a peace organization. But you know, always we cannot achieve the peace. . . .

Read it All

Rocketsbrain is on a "bomber" run again from So Cal to WA with rental truck of wordly belongings.

Will post as time permits, T-Mobile, Boingo Acct, and stable wireless nets in motels. Last night's sucked. The router kept cycling on it's broadband link.

My copies of Glenn Reynolds' (AKA Instapundit), "An Army of Davids" in now out. My copies from Amazon just arrived by UPS just at the rental bus was about to leave. Plan to read on my journey.

In the meantime the Iranian situation is coming to a boil. The question is if we "frogs" will have enough sense to jump out of the pot before we are cooked to death by the Islamofascists.

For further sites to watch while I'm driving:

www.instapundit.com

www.michellemalking.com

www.littlegreenfootballs.com

www.regimechangeiran.com

www.atlasshrugs.com

www.windsofchange.net

http://kmaru.blogspot.com

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com

Also follow the links to the sites these blogger link to.

Rocketsbrain

HT Spook86 - In From the Cold

Makes sense another bird was operational when the SR-71 was retired. Here in California there have been numerous reports including from geophysicists report aberations on their seismograph. I didn't Google to find report but here's another one.

RBT

*****

Blackstar

Aviation Week, often referred to as Aviation Leak in defense circles, is out with a fascinating story on a top-secret space plane, supposedly built and operated by the U.S., beginning in the late 1980s. Reporters from the magazine have been on the story for the past 16 years, and while available evidence tends to support existence of the space plane program (nicknamed "Blackstar"), Aviation Week has never been able to completely confirm the project.

According to the magazine, Blackstar may have recently been shelved, perhaps due to operating costs, or failure to meet performance expectations (more on that in a bit). Blackstar apparently consisted of a "mothership" that resembled a 1960s-era XB-70 supersonic bomber, which carried the space plane high into the atmosphere. At that point, the orbiter craft was released, using its own engines to carry it to the upper reaches of the atmosphere, or if the mission required, into low earth orbit. After completing the mission, the space plane glided back to earth, landing on a runway like a conventional aircraft. The magazine claims that orbiter landings have been reported at a number of USAF installations, including Hurlburt Field, Florida, Kadena AB, Okinawa, and Holloman AFB, New Mexico.

[...]

Read More

HT Kobayahisi Maru

RBT is mirroring KBTs post here.

If KBT's read of the tea leaves is correct, RBT predicts the Rove "Trump Card," that Saddam's WMD went to Syria with Russian help, will played in the open if the Russians and the Chinese can't or won't reign in Iranian President MAD and Imam Yazdi. The rope the LL and the MSM have been running with will suddenly draw taught with a snap.

Gee, a lunar eclipse and the Iranian Festival of Lights Celibrations will occur on the night of March the 14th. Will there be a mushroom cloud on the horizon during the festivities? Definitely Medieval. Pure Evil straight out of The Ring Trilogy.

If the Iranians can't or won't be detered, the Pizza Huts inside the Beltway are going to have a large surge in business over the next two weeks.

What will follow will be a very lethal lightening strike by joint air and ground special forces ops assets to render the majority of the Iranian nuclear weapons sites inoperative.

This will be a one night stand.

Fortunately President Bush is in his second term and doesn't have to be worry about relection. VP Cheney will be the fall guy and Condi will be appointed to replace him.

Of course our spin of the tea leaves could be wrong. We can only hope :--)

Where are the Jedi knights when you need them?

May The Force be with US!

RBT

*****

Countdown to Conflict

Before the end of March. This is what we hinted at in January after Ariel Sharon's stroke:

It seems unlikely that scheduled March elections [in Israel] will put an end to the uncertainty that's been created literally overnight and the danger that goes with it. That scheduled Israeli elections happen to roughly coincide with the expected fulfillment of Iran's nuclear ambitions (March) should get the entire planet's attention.

What we speculated privately with a few friends was more specific: something military is going to go down vis a vis Iran before the end of March. At the Intelligence Summit, we heard - from retired Lt. General Tom McInerney - a reference to Michael Ledeen's February 17th column in National Review. Iran appears to be pressing for an April 8th deadline for completion of... something.

Sometime in late November or early December, Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei gathered his top advisers for an overall strategic review. The atmosphere was highly charged, because Khamenei's doctors have diagnosed a serious cancer, and do not expect the Supreme Leader to live much more than a year... Despite this disquieting news, the overall tone of the conversation was upbeat, because the Iranians believe they see many positive developments, above all, the declaration that "it has been promised that by 8 April, we will be in a position to show the entire world that 'we are members of the club.'" This presumably refers to nuclear weapons... Khamenei... stressed that it was important to compel the United States to face at least three crises by the April 8.

Alas, Ledeen does not cite a source. What is Iran thinking it will have achieved by April 8th? What does "member of the club" mean? It's tempting to conclude the obvious: an operational nuclear weapon. But the quote raises more questions than it answers. A test? A nuke attached to a missile? What kind? Multiple nukes? A bunch of nukes in place... somewhere?

What really gives us the creeps are the other things happening around the same time: March 28th - elections for the 17th Knesset in Israel.

March 29th - the only total solar eclipse anywhere on earth in a three year period (April, 2005 to August, 2008). That event will darken part of North Africa, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Russia in a path as wide as 114 miles for as long as 4 minutes and six seconds, with a significant partial eclipse to each side darkening... Israel, Iraq, Iran... and pretty much the entire Middle East. (True astro-geeks might want to look at this.)

What the heck does that all mean? We don't know. It sounds foolish and medieval even as we type it. But to a regime in the hands of a man who thinks the next Imam is on his way after a lunar (March 14) and then a solar eclipse, such superstitious celestial signals may take on more significance than we'd like to think in our tidy, rational Western mindset.

April 8th. "Member of the club". Israel on unstable footing politically. It's enemies swearing to wipe it off the map. If you were the president, when would you take action? Especially in light of this breaking news, the answer would be sooner rather than later.

U.S. military and intelligence officials tell ABC News that they have caught shipments of deadly new bombs at the Iran-Iraq border. They are a very nasty piece of business, capable of penetrating U.S. troops' strongest armor. What the United States says links them to Iran are tell-tale manufacturing signatures — certain types of machine-shop welds and material indicating they are built by the same bomb factory.

If the Iranians are already bringing the fight to us, what might have seemed a big step a few days ago (crossing the border to forcefully signal our intense displeasure with such mischief) is now much less encumbered with the potential for the U.S. to be accused of unilateralism.

Read it All

[KBT has many HTML links]

Update:

KBT

RBT posted this comment in KBT's piece.

*****

Nice piece. I trackbacked to it and posted my two cents worth that I copied below.

CAUTION - this is speculation from just looking at the puzzle pieces.

My street cop "gut level" meter on circumstancial evidence re Saddam's WMD going to Syria has passed the halfway mark, "to more likely than not."

With regard to the Iranian Mullah situation, folks must remember they do not view the world from the same perspective that the West does.

In short launching a nuke attack to prepare the world for the coming of the 12th Imam, even if it results in the Iran becoming a nuclear waste zone of slag, is a rational move from in their ideological paradigm.

It's a completely logical action from their frame of reference. Same motivation that drives the Islamofascist suicidal bombers.

An analogy folks may grasp here, is compare this with the nonrational actions of David Koresch and the Branch Davidians (Waco), and Jim Jones and the Kool-Bunch.

This is a religious-like cult of hate and evil who's goal is the ultimate destruction of our culture, our very way of life, and what we hold most dear, THE FREE WILL OF MEN and WOMEN.

Just as The Greatest Generation came to realize that Nazism was a growing cloud of darkness/Evil in the World and rose to the challenge, our generation must do the same.

Our enemy can't be appeased. This enemy and its ideology must be vanquished from the world.

There is no other choice. There is no moral equvilence between this ideology with the other religions of peace.

We will die just like frogs to in a pot of boiling water that is brought slowly to a boil.

RBT

The Wednesday Morning Club Welcomes

GENERAL GEORGES SADA

[Author of Saddam's Secrets]

Thursday
March 16, 2006

Four Seasons Hotel
300 South Dohey Drive
Los Angeles, California 90048

11:30 A.M. Reception
12:00 P.M. Luncheon
1:30 P.M. Book Signing

Georges Hormis Sada graduated from Iraq’s Air Academy in 1959 and was trained by elite forces in Great Britian, Russia and the U.S. An Ace fighter pilot who trained other pilots, he went on to become air vice marshal in Saddam Hussein’s military. His acts of bravery, including saving the lives of forty downed coalition pilots in the gulf War, have earned him hero status.

Now retired, Sada is director of the Iraqi Institute for Peace and also serves as spokesman for the newly elected prime minister of Iraq. A recipient of the prestigious International Prize for Peace and Reconciliation presented by the bishop of Coventry, England, Sada is also the president of the National Presbyterian Church in Baghdad and chairman of the Assembly of Evangelical Presbyterian Churches-Iraq.

He was Saddam Hussein's top military advisor and a truth-teller in a regime where truth was relative. He was also a devout Christian in an anti-Christian country. For the first time, General Georges Sada shares his amazing journey and speaks of the military secrets he was asked to keep. Secrets that only those closest to Saddam would know. But God's work in General Sada's own life is no secret. From his years of covert military operations, to his dramatic conversations with Saddam and other world leaders, God has enabled Sada to make a difference, even when lives hung in the balance. In this exclusive book, the General paints a picture of Hussein, his regime and his country that is at once personal and truthful, compelling and sobering .


Wednesday Morning Club Members...................................... No Charge Non Members and Guests ................................................... $75.00

To make reservations, please contact
Stephanie Knudson at the Center for the Study of Popular Culture
323-556-2550 ext.209 – stephanie@cspc.org

HT ABC News breaking via Powerline

The only thing "new" about this news is that the MSM is reporting on it.

RBT

*****

Made in Iran

ABC News has alerted us to this exclusive report by chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross that has now been posted on its site: "Iraq weapons — made in Iran?" ABC reports:

U.S. military and intelligence officials tell ABC News that they have caught shipments of deadly new bombs at the Iran-Iraq border.

They are a very nasty piece of business, capable of penetrating U.S. troops' strongest armor.

What the United States says links them to Iran are tell-tale manufacturing signatures — certain types of machine-shop welds and material indicating they are built by the same bomb factory.

"The signature is the same because they are exactly the same in production," says explosives expert Kevin Barry. "So it's the same make and model."

The report is scheduled to air on this evening’s World News Tonight.

JOHN adds: Isn't this an act of war?

Posted by Scott at 05:03 PM

Read More

Update:

ABC News Story Link

HT Winds of Change

Hmmmm. At least no mushroom cloud so far.

RBT

*****

The Mullah's Nuclear Saruman
by Trent Telenko at March 6, 2006 01:42 PM

The Ents shall hear of this!

That was the start of an e-mail sent to me this morning on Iranian efforts to hide their nuclear secrets. It seems that there is nothing the Mullahs of Iran will not stoop too, even stealing a page from the Lord of the Rings, and playing Saruman vs. the Ents. According to an article titled Teheran park 'cleansed' of traces from nuclear site , the mayor of Teheran, Mohamed Baker Khalibaf -- The Nuclear Saruman -- ordered 7,000 trees near the Teheran's Lavizan nuclear complex to be cut down to prevent their leaves and small branches for being tested for traces of highly enriched uranium or plutonium.

[...]

Two points from that passage for you to consider. The first is the ruthlessness of the Mullah regime using the population of its capitol city as hostages against American air strikes. The second is that from traces of nuclear material, a nuclear forensic investigation can show much about how it came be enriched and by what processes.

We will see how close to the atomic bomb the Iranians are soon enough. The count down to the Iranian nuclear test proceeds apace. The same exiles that revealed the Lavizan nuclear complex predict that they will test a nuclear weapon March 20th, the Iranian new year.

If that prediction bears out, I guarantee the New Year after it will not be happy for anyone.

Read it All

HT The Aventures of Chester War and Foreign Affairs

Anyone interested in helping Chester out?

RBT

*****

March 05, 2006
Discussion Topic: Media Memes and the War on Terror

Of all the memes disseminated by our media with regard to the war on terror in general, and Iraq in particular, how can they be categorized or classified? My thought is:

-the US is disrespectful of Islam (the Newsweek story)

-the US routinely violates human rights (Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib)

-the Iraq war is analogous to the Vietnam war

-Iraq is perpetually on the brink of civil war

-extreme Islam should be tolerated (the refusal to publish cartoons)

-Iraq grows more violent by the day

Are there more? If all of these might be categorized in some way, what would they be? Aside from mere opposition to US efforts, can more distinct categories be discerned?

Link to Chester

HT Sgt. Mom via The Daily Brief

Since the topice today has been the War of Information, I thought this post by Sgt. Mom was appropriate from Major Loggie who just returned from Afghanistan. Read it and decide if this was worth the effort or not.

RBT

*****

I got back from Afghanistan last week. Just got the home system hooked back up here in Germany so I’ve got web connectivity now.

After Action Report from the Stan:

I know you don’t get the reports from the media on what goes on over there, but we’ve got alot of international support. One of my missions was to assist the Lithuanian Provincial Reconstruction Team with their logistics. Fantastic people, fantastic soldiers. All about getting the job done. We have the support of the people of Afganistan. I could see that every day I went outside the wire in Herat. We were so safe there we didn’t need to ride around in uparmored vehicles and didn’t need to wear our helmets. That area is now under control of Italian and Spanish troops. We’re handing over RC South, the Kandahar Region, over to the British, Canadians, and Dutch. These guys have some top quality troops and they’re coming in hard and heavy. The Brits are sending in their Apache and Harrier Squadrons and the Canadians will have their Stryker type vehicles (which I think they call the Kodiak). Fantastic soldiers and ready to do the mission….I just hope that their governments don’t constrain them on the Rules of Engagement. The Canadians have already taken some casualties in IED strikes and Ambushes. The Romainains are there too, they do the Force protection in Kandahar, They’ve got a whole battalion from a motorized rifle Regiment there. The Poles and South Koreans each have an Engineer battalion doing mine clearing and construction. The Egyptians and Jordanians each have hospitals there giving care to the local Afghans. Norway, Austrialia, New Zealand, Denmark, and Germany all have contributed with either PRTs or Special Operations Forces.

Bottom line is that the coalition is strong and committed. The Afghan Army and Police have come along way. A crowd of people actually applauded when a border policeman arrested a truck driver for smuggling and after trying to bribe him, something that they have never seen before. Conditions are improving and the support of the locals is strong. The terrorists that are there are all along the Pak border and they infiltrate into RC South and East to cause chaos. They are generally not supported by the locals. Most of them work for ex warlords from the Taliban regime or are foreign fighters who believe in the Jihadi movement. But they rely on the IED and suicide bombers to attack us. If they do engage in an ambush it is usually from a distance so they can run…and rarely do they inflict casualties that way. When that does happen, we pounce on them with everything we’ve got available, and they pay, big time.

If you’d like you can post the above on the webpage, its all unclassified. And if there are any questions that come from it I’ll try to answer the best I can.

By the way. I just made the list for Major. Waiting for my promotion date, Once that happens I’ll be known from now on and for evermore as MAJ LOGGIE.

(PS– from Sgt. Mom…. well, as long as you are not known as “Major Pain-in-the-A**”….)

HT IRANIAN BLOGERS IN JAIL (DEMOCRACY FOR IRAN)

As said before RBT does not usually post entire articles. Since this is an OP/ED piece of interest to the Iranian people, I'm posting it here in case the original site is blocked.

RBT

*****

ContraCostaTimes.Com
Posted on Sat, Mar. 04, 2006

GUEST COMMENTARY

Iranian people frustrated with government
By OMID MEMARIAN
FROM THE ACADEMIC COMMUNITY

"No to the West, no to the East, Iran"

One of the best-known Iranian revolutionary slogans is about to come true. The International Atomic Energy Agency, in a 27-3 vote, has referred Iran's case to the U.N. Security Council and will decide on it soon.

Even the support of supposed allies China and Russia seems in doubt.

Iran now finds itself isolated and there is no way for them unless supporting the Russian proposal. If not, the possible scenarios at the Security Council will be more and more hurtful.

Despite being backed into a corner, Iran's hard-line government still presents itself as invulnerable to potential sanctions or military attack.

Iranian officials warn the consequences of such a response could include an increase in the price of oil, destabilization of the Middle East peace process, and retaliation by their Shi'ite allies in Iraq.

They speak of a "Bermuda Triangle" of allies -- a network ranging from Hezbollah in Lebanon, to the Badr Brigade in Iraq to Hamas in Palestine.

Some of Iran's ultra conservatives warn that an attack on their country could spark World War III. But domestic crises and foreign policy failures mean Iran's bark may be worse than its bite.

Inside the country, people are frustrated by the Ahmadinejad government. Neither Iran's middle class, nor its intellectuals, nor its upper class supported him in last June's election. Even his mostly lower-class backers dislike the new president's adventurism.

They are impatiently awaiting his promised economic changes, and potential sanctions threaten to obliterate those dreams. Still, the government is using its propaganda machine to try to convince the international community that the people of Iran demand nuclear power.

They also are trying to convince the Iranian people that this is a matter of national pride. So far, only hardcore conservatives have bought this line.

Between being labeled part of the "axis of evil," two decades of economic decline, and marginalization from the rest of the world, not to mention the revolution and 8 years of war with Iraq (1980-1988), even the most patriotic Iranians are wary of further conflict.

That's why the antiwar movement, both in Iran and among expatriots, is weak.

In the buildup to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, they never protested the war, despite their government's strong anti-war stance.

In early January, fewer than forty people attended an San Francisco anti-war meeting held by a group campaigning against sanctions and intervention against Iran.

While a month earlier, in Berkeley, 400 people paid $25 each to watch a Farsi-speaking stand-up comic. Inside Iran, the anti-war movement is far weaker.

Last year, some Iranian journalists and activists established a weblog opposing any kind of intervention in Iran.

I was one of the contributors writing from inside the country. I pointed out how many Iranians dislike the idea of any international intervention.

I received dozens of comments criticizing my stance. Other contributors received similar comments. It's not hard to understand the roots of this anger.

Seventy percent of the Iranian population is under the age of 29. In a survey last year, the government-run National Youth Organization found young people are facing three main social crises: sexual repression, unemployment, and drug use.

The level of frustration is astronomical, and because of this, the study found, 55 percent of Iranian youth have contemplated suicide at least once.

Moreover Iranian people feel that political change won't bring about tangible economic or social improvements.

As a result, society has become depoliticized and passive about political debates.

Whereas, more than 80 percent of voters participated in the 1998 presidential election, which brought Khatami to the power, that number dropped to 30 percent in the last parliamentary election and just 20 percent in a local election in Tehran six years later.

Voters trusted President Khatami to bring about real changes in society and their everyday lives. But that didn't happen.

This situation has put Iranian ultra conservatives in a fragile situation. Insisting on nuclear enrichment would take Iranians to the point of no return.

Sanctions, which would inevitably harm ordinary people, would be just the beginning.

Furthermore, talking about retaliation would mean political suicide for the fundamentalist government and for the country as a whole.

All they need to do is to look at what happened to Saddam Hussein destiny.

That's why many reformists and intellectuals believe the Islamic regime must do whatever they can to avoid being penalized by the Security Council in early March and to earn the trust of the international community.

If the regime doesn't, this will be the last chance for Iran.

Memarian, an Iranian journalist and blogger, is a visiting scholar at UC-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

HT All Things Beautiful via Powerline

RBT just linked to this piece by Alexandra von Maltzan from ATB in the thread from Powerline. I guess the heading would be more appropriate now as, The War of Information

This is a MUST READ!

RBT

*****

MSM Ignores Iran's Admission Of Guilt

UPDATE: The U.K. Telegraph picks up on the story only on Sunday March 5th (via Powerline). Let's see if the rest of the MSM still carries on ignoring it.

Thursday last week the Iran Press Service (written in poor English, see edited version below) published a damning article quoting remarks of Hojjatoleslam Hasan Rowhani, former Secretary of Iran's Supreme Council of National Security (SCNS) and chief nuclear negotiator:

”We need time in order to put into practice our potentials. The day we can master full nuclear cycle, the world would face a fait accompli. The world did not want Pakistan to have [an] atomic bomb or Brazil to possess full nuclear cycle. But both achieved their goals and the world accepted [it]. Our problem is that we have achieved neither, even though we are not that far.”

Anyone read this in the MSM? Even questioning its authenticity? No. INSTEAD the MSM is still wildly speculating what Iran's intentions are (via Michelle Malkin), quoting the embargoed report by IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei, "Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Islamic Republic of Iran," which came out today (thanks to Vital Perspective):

[...]

Well, I don't know what ElBaradei is playing at, but the admission of one of Iran's top officials, that they were playing games with the IAEA so as to gain more time to complete their true nuclear ambitions, the acquisition of a nuclear bomb, is good enough for me and most certainly worth reporting.

But, alas nothing. Not even at this current stage of last minute diplomatic wrangling, of looming UN sanctions and the MSM's keen awareness of possible military strikes against Iran!

[...]

The timing of these leaked admissions from Rowhani are potentially even more important and certainly better assessed in the context of a proper understanding of what the Expediency Council does and says:

Immediately after Iraq was occupied by the US government the authoritarian wing of the Iranian regime made a turn in their policy towards America. This turn is headed by former president Rafsanjani.

In its first issue after the occupation of Iraq, Rahbord, a periodical which is published by the Strategic Studies Centre, a body which is tied to the Iranian regime’s Expediency Council, published a 24 page interview with [former president] Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the chairman of this Council. In the interview Rafsanjani deals with the role of the Expediency Council in resolving difficulties between Iran and America.

He said that “as Muslims we have no problem with resolving any of the foreign issues facing us… We have a tenet in Islam which is the precedence of the expediency of power over the expediency of weakness… In principle, the Expediency Council has been created on the basis of this need.”

He referred to Khomeini’s view which specified that one can even stop prayers and fasting if it is for the expediency of the system, and added that: “To endanger our country and imagine that we are acting in an Islamic way is not Islamic.” In this interview he claimed that the foreign policy apparatus of Iran, because of the inexperience of its officials, had in many cases missed opportunities, but now it has reached a state under which it appreciates the world’ s political issues and can assess and analyze them!

The vital question the MSM should have asked, is this the opposition's attempt to communicate with the West. But evidently the West, or rather its voice, the MSM, doesn't seem to be interested. Why? [Emphasis added]

Fortunately, Wizbang and Polipundit remind us that the President has seen the writing on the wall--soon the MSM won't matter anymore.

The original article is written in poor English, which makes it at times hard to understand, but it is explosive stuff, so make sure you read it all. Below the remaining article, which I have edited as much as possible for better understanding.

[. . . Read It!]


Read it All

Update:

The Counterterrorism Blog weighs in on sanctions on Iran

RBT

****

March 05, 2006
Iran Sanctions: Difficult But Necessary Now

The UN Security Council is scheduled this week to take up Iran’s continuing defiance of its NPT and IAEA obligations. When Iran acted earlier this year to break the monitoring seals at three of its nuclear facilities and to move ahead on uranium enrichment it knew that it would provoke a new international crisis. Iran's leaders had decided to gamble that the very tight international oil market and America’s growing imbroglio in Iraq will insulate Iran from any effective international response. They calculate that the international community is not likely to risk cutting off the flow of Iranian oil by imposing sanctions and count on China and/or Russia to hold up any really effective UN mandated action. They have reportedly hardened their key nuclear facilities against possible missile strikes, and believe that the US, already overextended militarily in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, and given current public attitudes, is unlikely to launch a sustained military operation to take the facilities down. They also count on support from within the Islamic community which may view Iran’s nuclear program as an effective response to Israel’s presumed nuclear capabilities.

[...]

Alone the United States has little sanctions leverage left on Iran. The US has barred most trade and investment with Iran, including the purchase of Iranian oil since 1995. But, we must press Europe and our other friends and allies to act with us together to bring home to Iran our opposition to its uranium enrichment program. Working with our European allies, Japan and other countries, targeted trade sanctions, even in the absence of a Security Council Resolution, can have a substantial impact. Iran's business community is heavily dependent on goods and services from Europe and Japan. In fact, imports from Europe and Japan have more than offset oil export’s to them two out of the last five years. Concerted action on such sanctions now, may still dissuade Iran from its current course. In the face of real sanctions, Iran might choose to re-think its position and take up Russia’s offer to provide alternative, and safeguarded, uranium enrichment services. Further debate and delay will only encourage Iran to move ahead with its enrichment program, leaving no options other than military action.

Read More

HT Powerline via Instapundit

RBT

*****

Thinking about Iran

It's time for some hard thinking on the subject of Iran's nuclear program. Specifically, the Bush administration must decide whether it is willing to accept the following risks associated with a nuclear Iran: (1) the possibility, real but probably not substantial, that Iran will in some fashion use its nuclear capability against the U.S. (2) the real and substantial possibility that Iran will use that capability against Israel, and (3) the near certainty that Iran will successfully use its capability to become the dominant power in the Middle East.

[...]

There are several ways Iran might retaliate in response to a military strike. Its actions towards Iraq are of particular concern. I doubt that Iran is prepared to send troops into Iraq to face our battle-hardened forces, but we might well see stepped-up efforts by its proxy forces in Iraq. However, without the support of mainstream Iraqi Shiite elements, it's highly questionable that these proxy forces can tip the balance against the U.S. And it's not clear why mainstream Shiite elements would want to disrupt a status quo that is operating so decisively in their favor merely because Iran is unhappy.

But this is just speculation on my part. I do not purport to provide a comprehensive or persuasive assessment of the risks associated with taking military action against Iran. I am simply arguing that the administration needs to assess those risks, balance them against the risks of not taking military action, and reach a decision. It also needs to avoid the kind of wishful thinking that might tempt it conclude that there is other than a military alternative to a nuclear Iran. And it needs to do all of this very soon.


Read it All

Powerline also commented on the earlier UK Telegraph story that Allahpundit posted [RBT as Our Enemies Are Laughing at Us]:

It wasn't hard

In today's Telegraph, Iran's nuclear negotiator is revealed bragging to Iranian clerics how he duped the West: "How we duped the West, by Iran's nuclear negotiator." Philip Sherwell reports from Washington:

[...]

Sherwell notes that the contents of the speech were published in a journal (unidentified in the article) that circulates among the Iranian elite. I should add that Baroness Alexandra von Maltzen beat the Telegraph to this story at All Things Beautiful in "MSM ignores Iran's admission of guilt." [A Must Read!] One beautiful thing would be for the MSM to pick up on the Telegraph's story.

Read it All

Liveblogging of the AIPAC 06 Conference in DC by Super Babe Atlas, of Atlas Shrugs

Now Is The Time

Panel discussion: Congresswoman Jane Harmon, Richard Pearle, Major-General Giora Eland, moderated by William Kristol (Weekly Standard)

Ricard Pearle:

"This is not a war on terror. It is a war against radical extremism. You cannot win unless you correctly identify the enemy"

Re Cartoon Controversy: "Anybody wonder how every demonstration id Damascus had Danish flags at the ready. That little store in Beirut, Damascus had Danish flags?"

"We must stop the flow of $$$$, at the core of enemy we face"

[...]

More Here

Atlas also has video blurb (Video Egg):

"A Nuclear Powered Rogue State"

While there were divergent views on the continuing global war on radical extremism, there was a strong consensus on the gravity on the impending threat of a nuclear holocaust should Iran get its hand on nuclear weaponry.

[...]

More Here

Click only if you have broadband/DSL access :--)

HT Alarming News via Ace of Spades

Here's a post by Allahpundit who surfaced at Alarming News re the Iranian Manhatten Project.

RBT

*****

Our Enemies Are Laughing at Us [posted by Allah]

Well, I guess that depends on who you define as "us":

In a speech to a closed meeting of leading Islamic clerics and academics, Hassan Rowhani, who headed [nuclear] talks with the so-called EU3 until last year, revealed how Teheran played for time and tried to dupe the West after its secret nuclear programme was uncovered by the Iranian opposition in 2002.

He boasted that while talks were taking place in Teheran, Iran was able to complete the installation of equipment for conversion of yellowcake - a key stage in the nuclear fuel process - at its Isfahan plant but at the same time convince European diplomats that nothing was afoot.

"From the outset, the Americans kept telling the Europeans, 'The Iranians are lying and deceiving you and they have not told you everything.' The Europeans used to respond, 'We trust them'," he said.

Charles Johnson has been writing about Iran's Manhattan Project since May 2003.

Three. goddamned. years. And we're still not ready to do anything about it. But we're getting closer.

[...]

Read More

HT Instapundit

Way too cool. The US Military is catching on and getting up to speed on the War of Information!

I can hear the griping now from the LL and the MSM. CENCOM may just beat them at their own game. Well good. The MSM should do some investigative reporting for a change and keep CENCOM honest.

RBT

*****

US Central Command

Podcasting

Podcasting is a method of publishing audio broadcasts via the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a feed of new files (usually MP3s). Many content providers offer podcast feeds at no cost. These feeds deliver audio broadcasts to your desktop. You can listen to these files on your computer or load them on to your MP3 player and take them with you.
The word "podcasting" combines the words "broadcasting" and "iPod." The term can be misleading since neither podcasting nor listening to podcasts requires an iPod or any portable music player.

Podcasting is distinct from other types of online media delivery because of its subscription model, which uses a feed (such as RSS or Atom) to deliver an enclosed file. Podcasting enables independent producers to create self-published, syndicated "radio shows," and gives broadcast radio programs a new distribution method. Listeners can subscribe to feeds using "podcatching" software (a type of aggregator), which periodically checks for and downloads new content automatically. Any digital audio player or computer with audio-playing software can play podcasts.

CENTCOM is proud to host these audio programs which feature sounds and comments from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, giving further insight into the Global War on Terrorism.

[...]

Here's the Link

RBT promised to post more related comments from around the Blogos today on the developing Iranian situation.

BATTLE OF IDEAS - Part I

RBT

*****

Here's another bit of news on the the exclusion of women by the male dominated Iranian theocracy from the Irainian Bloggers Alliance.

Now where are the world's feminists when you need them!

The Strata-Sphere has a piece on Iran - Is it time to call the Mullahs bluff?.
In the Bullpen is also questioning.

Super Babe of Atlas Shrugs BTW is live blogging AIPAC with several interesting comments already:

David Kay:

"Iranians lie. Everything is a struggle to understand." "The fact is we won't know where Iran is in their nuclear weapons process until they test their nuclear bomb."

John Bolton:

"Simply put, there will no destruction of the state of Israel.

"We must use all the tools of our disposal to stop Iran's clear and unrelenting drive to develop nuclear weapons."

Let me clear, the longer we wait [to take action on Iran's development of nuclear weaponry] the harder it will be to solve. We must not ignore Tehran's refusal to engage the international community.

Iran in talks [with Russia] doublespeak.

[...]

Iran has a far more dangerous foe — democracy."

The US wishes to reach out t the Iranian people. The US fully supports their aspirations for a free and better future.

RBT agrees with Dr. Zin - Regime Change Iran, a regime change would be the best of all possible options.

Winds of Change has an interesting piece re the need for an world government to police rouge governments who practice genocide.

RBT would agrue that recognizing the free will of men and women, and enabling the free flow of news and information would curtail a lot of these abuses.

But as in the SciFi movie, The Day the Earth Stood Still, we still need our Gorts (cops).

And where is the LL and MSM on this story? After all isn't such causes their traditional bread and butter?

Dr. Sanity believes they are insane!

You cannot reason with these "Bush Lied, People Died" fanatics. No amount of evidence will ever persuade them. Syria could implode today from all the weapons Saddam sent there; the majority of Iraqis expire from some old container of Saddam's biological weapons-- and still they would cling to the mantra, repeating it over and over to gain comfort and solace.

People write to me all the time and ask me why? Why do these sad little people have so much hate for the President? What is going on? What is really motivating them?

A large part of the answer is in my previous post on Bush Derangement Syndrome. But there is another factor that is in play that needs to be considered. It is a psychohistorical reason.

George Bush came along at exactly the right time in history. The problem is that for most people of the left, Bush came at the most disappointingly lowest, unquestionably most serious point in several hundred years for their sad little ideology.

RBT has mentioned before the apparent role reversal of what was once the core beliefs of the Democratic and the Republic Parties.

RBT

Update:

Joe Katzman of Winds of Change just put up a great related article on this issue of lack of vision:

Our Darkening Sky: Postcards from the Edge

I just posted this comment over there.

Joe,

GREAT PIECE!

You clearly state the obvious that the LL and the MSM are just too blind to see.

It's a case of why a frog will not jump out of the pot and will die if the water is brought to a slow boil.

No common sense and no freakin vision to see the train coming down the tracks.

[...]

*****

Roger L. Simon has a good discussion underway on the elistist nature of the MSM that was kicked off by a lengthly post by Instapundit today. Dr. Michael Ledeen even stopped by and posted a comment in this thread:

March 05, 2006: War of the Media Worlds

Glenn Reynolds gets a "Best of the Blogs" on PJM this morning for an important and lengthy (for him) post on the growing conflict between the administration and the press over security leaks. I couldn't be more with Glenn on this one when he writes: The tendency of the press to conflate its own desire for guild-like special privileges with the protections of the First Amendment is one of the reasons for its decline in trust and popularity.

It's no surprise the Fourth Estate elevates itself to a higher moral plane. We all do - or want to. And the government always makes a particularly good target. Power corrupts, etc., etc. Except that both the media and the government have the power in our society - and sometimes the media has more of it. Some of this has to do with platform, some to do with longevity. The satraps of the Fourth Estate linger on for decades while pols often disappear as quickly as you can say Tom DeLay. Which side deserves more protection? Well, neither do. Both should be subject to inspection, always mindful that the protection of society involves the existence of some kind of functioning intelligence service and that whistle-blowers have agendas of their own. The idea that the press should always be able to protect these sources depends on the mind-boggling premise that reporters will always be objective (who is?), not to mention the assumption that these same reporters and editors would always be able to evaluate accurately the motives of others (who can?). No, the views of mainstream media have become antediluvian on this one. Open up! Open up! [emphasis added]

Read it All

Update:

Winds of Change just pulled a comment from a thread by Armed Liberal and posted it separately. It's a clear and concise statement of whom our enemy is in the GWOT by Mary at Exit Zero:

Exit Zero on The Real War

But who or what is out to kill us? (And who is "us"?)

If 'us' is defined as the five-sixths of the population of the planet that does not want to live under Islamic (Sharia) law, then our enemies are the supporters of those Islamic (Sharia) laws.

Sharia laws are, in all their forms, apartheid and authoritarian. As practiced in states like Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Sudan, they're also totalitarian, pro-slavery and genocidal. Our policy of so-called "moderation" requries us to ally with to ally with totalitarian, pro-slavery, genocidal states. It's impossible to see how an alliance with states that are not only totalitarian, pro-slavery, and genocidal could be called moderate or liberal. These states also support the terrorist groups that have murdered many of "us". They're doing this because they're at war with us.

[...]

Read More

Mary added a further comment in the previous post:

China, to begin with, won't define itself as part of "us". It's a Communist or by now a fascist oligarchy, and it is not our friend. The best we can hope for is its neutrality, till its modernising armed forces grow stronger.

I agree with George Bush's India diplomacy too. China, on the other hand, isn't a friend, but it can be a kind-of ally. How do we know China won't define itself as part of "us"? Have we ever asked?

During the late '30's, Europe was dominated by totalitarianism. We didn't consider the Communists or the Axis to be friends, but when the Axis attacked us, we wisely decided that we were at war with them. Instead of fighting "totalitarianism" or "European culture" we decided to ally with Stalin to fight the fascists.

[...]

The Saudi government was as culpable as the Taliban were for the act of war that was 9/11, an attack that was equivalent to Pearl Harbor. They're currently paying Islamist paramilitary groups to destabilize the goverments in Thailand and India. We call the state that murdered thousands of Americans our allies. We're not willing to go to war with them over dead Americans, Thais or Hindus, but we are willing to go nuclear to defend Taiwan.

Our foreign policies are still very pre-9/11.

Read More

RBT commented in this thread and is excerpted here

****

If I find any other interesting pieces I will start a Part III

RBT

HT Austin Bay

A MUST READ! - A call for a Blogswarm!

RBT normally does not post articles in their entirity in respect for the intellectual property rights of the creator.

But in this case RBT is making an exception with this WSJ article because of it's important message to the American and Iranian people.

The Mad Mullahs of Iran block/filter sources of alternative information on the Internet for reasons RBT has discussed before. They do so that they are not outed for their BIG LIES and lose their power to control

RBT would encourage the Blogos to mirror this article throughtout cyberspace, as the Mullahs can't possibly plug all the holes.

We must engage the enemy in the battlespace of CyberSpace to first win the War of Information to win the GWOT.

RBT calls for a Blogswarm to get this message through to the Iranian people.

RBT will post shortly other comments and related posts in the Blogos today.

RBT

*****

BATTLE OF IDEAS

Iranian Solidarity?
Workers take on the mullahs. Is the world listening?

BY ROYA HAKAKIAN
Sunday, March 5, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST

The bomb that Tehran's mullahs are allegedly building has already done its damage. For two years now, it has decimated the headlines. In the mushroom cloud of its anticipation, some of the most critical stories in Iran have vanished. "The bomb" is an ingenious design by which to divert any global interest in the country's domestic matters, giving the ruling clerics free rein to devastate opposition with all the brutality they can muster. Among the ruins is an event unprecedented in 27 years: a major strike by the workers of Sherkat-e Vahed, the Union of Workers of the United Bus Company of Tehran.

The union issued a call for a strike to be held on Jan. 28 to demand the release of their leader, Mansour Ossanloo, who has been in prison since December 2005, and to call for legal recognition of the union and a pay increase. The historic significance of the strikers' intentions becomes clear only in light of history: After the 1979 revolution, the regime banned the formation of all independent labor unions, and instead established Islamic guilds, run by the government itself. The guilds failed at gaining the workers' trust, and, therefore, never grew in membership. The bus union, conceived in 1968, disbanded in 1979 and reestablished in 2004, is one of Iran's truly labor-driven entities.

The executive committee's first meeting came under fire. Baton-wielding thugs shouting "The bus syndicate, the monarchs' hideout!" charged in, set their office on fire, beat everyone in attendance, and promised to cut off the tongue of Mr. Ossanloo if he continued his activities. As a sign of their seriousness, they ran a blade over his tongue, shaving a layer off. He has spoken with a lisp ever since.

In every flier and in every interview, the workers emphasized that they were apolitical and did not wish to topple the government, asking only to have some very basic demands met. And their initial demands, as posted on their Spartan Web site, moves even the most casual browser: the delivery of two sets of winter and summer uniforms, plus two pairs of shoes, basic stationary for record keeping, a raise of less than a dollar a day to subsidize lunches, and an assistant for every driver. "In the name of He who created justice," write the organizers, "we hope for the people of the world to hear our plea: Death or Syndicate!"

Days before the strike, several members of the executive committee were summoned to appear before the Revolutionary Court, where they were ordered to call off the strike. When they refused, they were arrested and taken to prison. The officials had declared the strike illegal and threatened to fire all participants. In the days that followed, security forces launched mass arrests of the union members. Those who showed up on the day of the strike were beaten while watching members of the security forces cross their picket line to take their places behind the wheels. In the last week of January, an estimated 1,000 workers were arrested and taken into prison. Though hundreds were released upon signing guarantees that they would not participate in any strikes again, and received permission from the Revolutionary Court to return to work, the company itself refuses to let them back. On the eve of the Iranian New Year, hundreds of these workers have become unemployed. The six union leaders remain in prison incommunicado.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who fashioned himself in the image of an Islamic Robin Hood during last year's presidential campaign, has profoundly betrayed the poor who rallied behind him in the hopes of better living standards. In the process, he has proved to have no regard for any convention, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Iran is a signatory, or even Iran's own constitution, whose Article 26 allows "the formation of parties, societies, political or professional associations." This is the man who, some pundits would have us believe, will honor an agreement over the purpose of Iran's nuclear activities.

What did enlightened people do to support the strikers? Very little. Most Iranian intellectuals, former Marxist activists included, were consumed by polite electronic debates over the Dutch cartoons. Hundreds of striking drivers were arrested, as the cameras of the world's biggest news agencies shot images of the couple of dozen government-paid hoodlums throwing rocks at the Danish embassy in Tehran. Wives and children, even distant relatives of the activists, were hauled off into detention to force the union leaders to turn themselves in, as India's Communist Party threatened to leave the ruling coalition in New Delhi if India voted to refer Iran to the Security Council. Clearly, workers of the world ought to postpone uniting until other scores are settled.

The war against terror is, above all, a war of ideas. But if the terrorists' ideas, be they in the form of the 1979 hostage crisis, the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, the nuclear issue, or the fury over the depiction of Muhammad, so intensely occupy us--our headlines and our airwaves--doesn't geographical territory become irrelevant? Can we still say that the terrorists have not conquered us? Historians agree that the most significant blow to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was delivered by the 1978 strike of the oil workers, which sparked other unions to join, and ultimately brought Iran's economy to a halt. But when the current regime systematically suppresses information, and the free press of the free world cannot be cured of its chronic fetish for uranium, will Iran's movement for democracy have any hope of gathering momentum?

Ms. Hakakian is author, most recently, of "Journey From the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran" (Crown, 2004).

WSJ OnlineJournal Link

Update:

For others following trackbacks here I split this post into two parts. The rest of the commentary is here, BATTLES OF IDEAS - Continued.