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British Coast Guards on Alert as Listing Container Ship Loses Cargo

Sunday, January 21, 2007

LONDON —  A damaged container ship, grounded off the English coast and listing badly, began to lose some of its cargo in heavy winds, and coast guards said Sunday they were on alert because the vessel could break up.

The stricken MSC Napoli was deliberately run aground in waters close to Sidmouth, southwest England, after it was damaged during a storm on Thursday. Navy helicopters rescued the vessel's 26 crew members in rough seas, 45 miles off Lizard Point on England's southwest tip.

French maritime officials said that of the 41,700 tons of merchandise in the ship's 2,400 containers, 1,700 tons were considered dangerous, including explosive and flammable material. The containers also hold motorcycles, car parts and oak barrels.

Britain's Maritime and Coastguard Agency said more than 150 containers from the ship, which was listing at a 35-degree angle, had slid into the sea as new gales struck the English coast late Saturday.

Oil from the vessel's ruptured engine room tanks was reported to have washed up on a nearby beach, the agency said. It said about 50 coast guards were searching for the lost containers and pollution teams were on standby to handle any spillage.

Coast guard agency spokesman Paul Coley said two of the containers that went overboard contained hazardous materials — including battery acid and perfume products — but that the risk they posed was "minimal."

The 16-year-old vessel is registered in London and was last inspected by the coast guard agency in May 2005, when officials said it met safety standards.

British Coast Guards on Alert as Listing Container Ship Loses Cargo (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,245338,00.html)

Man Falls From 17th Floor at Minneapolis Hotel, Survives

Sunday , January 21, 2007

MINNEAPOLIS — A Wisconsin man in town for a dart tournament apparently was goofing around Saturday morning at the Minneapolis Hyatt Regency when he crashed through a window and fell 16 stories.

The man, identified in a police report as 29-year-old Joshua S. Hanson, of Blair, Wis., landed on a roof overhang near the hotel's main entrance along Nicollet Mall. His most serious injury was a broken leg.

The man must have "an angel on his shoulder or something," said Minneapolis police Lt. Dale Barsness. "He's a lucky guy."

He was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis. His condition was not immediately known.

According to the police report, Hanson and two friends were out drinking and returned to the Hyatt about 1:30 a.m. Saturday.

They might have been horsing around as they took an elevator to the 17th floor, Barsness said. For some reason, Hanson ran from the elevator and down a short hallway toward a floor-to-ceiling window, he said. He apparently lost his balance and crashed through the glass, landing through the awning of the overhang below.

Rescue crews extricated him from the awning and metal grating while paramedics worked to stabilize him, said Assistant Fire Chief Ulie Seal. He was strapped on a backboard and brought down in a fire truck basket, he said.

"This has never happened before," said Tom Mason, general manager of the Hyatt.

The window was double-paned, and had a safety bar, he said, adding that hotel officials will investigate and "will take whatever steps we have to do to ensure safety."

Man Falls From 17th Floor at Minneapolis Hotel, Survives (http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,245258,00.html)

Hundreds of dead ducks discovered
written by: Shawn Patrick , Reporter 
posted by: Dan Boniface , Web Producer 
   
created: 1/20/2007 2:29:31 PM

DENVER - Almost 200 dead ducks have been found in a chlorine basin at a wastewater treatment facility.

An engineer first noticed several distressed ducks on site January 2nd, and then a week later, the staff discovered a pattern; hundreds of ducks dead in the water.

The Division of Wildlife and U.S. Fish and Wildlife are investigating, as lab tests are being performed in Fort Collins to find a cause to the problem.

For the past 20 years, hundreds of ducks flock to the warm water at this plant, but this is the first time the staff has noticed such an ominous scene.

“It's not unusual at all to have ducks here. The ducks come every winter, but we just don't see ducks die,” said Steve Frank, spokesperson for Metro Wastewater Reclamation District.

Maintenance workers at the plant have a sound gun firing off blank shots each half hour to keep the ducks away from the water, until the root of the problem is confirmed.

Workers are also skimming the water to find any remaining ducks.

Several of the surviving birds sit in cages and towels, with their feathers no longer waterproof, possibly suffering from hypothermia.

The plant increased the amount of chlorine in the water in December, but the staff says there’s no connection.

“When we increased the chlorine dosage we didn't notice any additional ducks, dead or alive, when we decreased it, we didn't notice any change either,” said Frank.

The staff plans to put a net over the basin to keep birds out of the water.

Lab results are expected within the next few weeks.

Hundreds of dead ducks discovered (http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=63481)

Iran masses troops along borders with Iraq -- source

IRBIL, Jan 19 (KUNA) -- An Iraqi Kurdish source said Friday that Iran is massing troops along its borders with north Iraq.

A Pishmerga source said that Iran has beefed up its troops stationed along the main border crossing (Pashmakh), midway between the Kurdish Penjavin city and the Iranian Miriwan city.

He added that Iran sent more reinforcement troops to the Kirban border position with Iraq, between Daza castle north of Suleymania.

Also the Iranian border authorities are applying a lot of pressure on businessmen at the border crossing and tightening the inspection process there.

Iran masses troops along borders with Iraq (http://www.kuna.net.kw/home/story.aspx?Language=en&DSNO=944040)

Iran to conduct missile war games

Sun Jan 21, 1:35 AM ET

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran plans to conduct missile war games during a three-day period beginning Sunday, state-run television reported.

The war games will be carried out near Garmsar city, about 60 miles southeast of Tehran, according to the broadcast.

"Zalzal and Fajr-5 missiles will be test fired in the war game," the broadcast quoted an unnamed military commander, as saying. Both are considered short-range missiles.

The exercise will be the first by Iran since the U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on December 23, which banned selling materials and technology that could be used in Iran's nuclear and missile programs and the freezing of assets of 10 Iranian companies and individuals.

Earlier in November Iran test-fired dozens of missiles — including the Shahab-3 that can reach Israel.

Iran held three large-scale military exercises last year. In its April exercises, Iran tested what it called an "ultra-horizon" missile, which is fired from helicopters and jets, and the Fajr-3 missile, which can reportedly evade radar and use multiple warheads to hit several targets simultaneously.

Iran to conduct missile war games (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070121/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_missiles)

Zeus worshippers demand access to temple

DEREK GATOPOULOS, Associated Press Writer Fri Jan 19, 1:07 PM ET

ATHENS, Greece - After all these centuries, Zeus may have a few thunderbolts left. A tiny group of worshippers plans a rare ceremony Sunday to honor the ancient Greek gods, at Athens' 1,800-year-old Temple of Olympian Zeus. Greece's Culture Ministry has declared the central Athens site off-limits, but worshippers say they will defy the decision.

"These are our temples and they should be used by followers of our religion," said Doreta Peppa, head of the Athens-based Ellinais, a group campaigning to revive the ancient religion.

"Of course we will go ahead with the event ... we will enter the site legally," said Peppa, who calls herself a high priestess of the revived faith. "We will issue a call for peace, who can be opposed to that?"

Peppa said the ceremony will be held in honor of Zeus, king of the ancient gods, but did not give other details. The daily Ethnos newspaper, citing the group's application to the Culture Ministry to use the site, said the 90-minute event would include hymns, dancers, torchbearers, and worshippers in ancient costumes.

Greece's archaic religion is believed to have several hundred official followers, mainly middle-aged and elderly academics, lawyers and other professionals. They typically share a keen interest in ancient history and a dislike for the Greek Orthodox Church.

Ancient rituals are re-enacted every two years at Olympia, in southern Greece, where the flame lighting ceremony is held for the summer and winter Olympic games. But the event is not regarded as a religious ceremony and actresses are used to pose as high priestesses.

Last year, the Culture Ministry, fearing damage to monuments, blocked an initiative to hold an international track meet at Olympia. A panel of ministry experts ruled against Sunday's ancient ceremony at the ruins of the Temple of Zeus on similar grounds.

"Ancient sites are not available for this kind of event," ministry official Eliza Kyrtsoglou said. It was not clear whether the government had plans to block the worshippers.

Peppa's group, dedicated to reviving worship of the 12 ancient gods, was founded last year and won a court battle for official state recognition of the ancient Greek religion.

Those who seek to revive the ancient Greek religion are split into rival organizations which trade insults over the Internet. Peppa's group is at odds with ultra-nationalists who view a revival as a way to protect Greek identity from foreign influences.

They can't even agree on a name for the religion: One camp calls it Ancient-Religion, another Hellenic Religion.

The worshippers also face another obstacle: Greece's powerful Orthodox Church.

About 97 percent of native born Greeks are baptized Orthodox Christian, and the church regards ancient religious practices as pagan. Representatives of the church in the past have not attended flame ceremonies at Olympia because reference is made to Apollo, the ancient god of music and light.

Christianity took hold in Greece in the 4th century after Roman Emperor Constantine's conversion. Emperor Theodosius wiped out the last vestige of the Olympian gods when he abolished the Olympic Games in 394 A.D. The modern revival of the Olympiad maintains a slender link to ancient ceremonies.

"Christianity did not prevail without bloodshed," said Peppa, a novelist and historical writer. "After 16 centuries of negativity toward us, we've gotten something in our favor."

Ellinais is demanding government approval for its downtown offices to be registered as a place of worship — a move that could allow the group to perform weddings and other ceremonies. They threaten further court action unless that permission is granted.

"There should be respect for people who want to express their religious feelings in a different way, that is not the typical Orthodox or Christian way," Peppa said. "We should not be stopped or denied our rights."

Zeus worshippers demand access to temple (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070119/ap_on_re_eu/greece_ancient_gods)

Time to break Iran-Syria alliance

Top Defense Ministry official says 'Israel must use diplomatic or military means to sever ties' ; adds: Arab Sunni states reached point of ‘deep fear’ of Iran

Yaakov Lappin
Published:    01.21.07, 20:19

Israel must sever the alliance between Tehran and Damascus within the next year, senior Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad said Sunday evening during a session of the Herzliya Conference.

"Israel must uproot the Iran-Syria alliance, either by diplomacy or through military means, within the next year," said Gilad, the director of the Defense Ministry's Political-Military Bureau.

He added that the alliance between the two countries was based purely on common interests, and that "the Iranians do not like the Syrian regime."

Outlining Syria's capabilities, Amos said Damascus could "bring down the Lebanese government, and destroy the legitimacy of international forces. Syria can and does support Hamas and Islamic Jihad with weapons and finances, and can collapse the Palestinian Authority," he added, saying such factors meant that Syria's union with Iran must be severed.

Gilad said Arab Sunni states had reached a point of "deep fear" of Iran, and have begun talking about creating their own nuclear programs to counter the Iranian threat.

"In the Middle East, when you start talking, you don't know where it can lead," he said, adding that Israel was faced with an ideal opportunity to form an alliance with Egypt, Jordan, and other Sunni Arab states to confront Iran.

'Iran may make dramatic announcement in 2 months'

"It seems we have two, three, maybe four years until Iran has nuclear weapons," Gilad said, adding that in two months, there may be an attempt by (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad to gain a psychological edge.

"The Iranians could declare that they have ability to produce nuclear weapons in two months," Gilad predicted.

Under Iran's nuclear umbrella, Hizbullah is being rearmed and is growing in strength, and is attempting to be a stronger "entity than its host," Amos warned, adding that Iran was also backing Hamas' growth as a terrorist entity.

Gilad said one of the lessons of the second Lebanon war was that such growth cannot be passively watched, and counseled "military action" against Hamas and Hizbullah.

"We must now allow them to get stronger," he added.

Sounding a positive note, Gilad said Israel has an excellent opportunity to form a closer relationship with Sunni Arab states, had a strong alliance with Turkey, India, and the United States.

He added, however, that "for the first time, the Iranian threat must shape our policies."

Time to break Iran-Syria alliance (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3355183,00.html)

This Holocaust will be different
Benny Morris, THE JERUSALEM POST    Jan. 18, 2007


The second holocaust will not be like the first. The Nazis, of course, industrialized mass murder. But still, the perpetrators had one-on-one contact with the victims. They may have dehumanized them over months and years of appalling debasement and in their minds, before the actual killing. But, still, they were in eye and ear contact, sometimes in tactile contact, with their victims.

The Germans, along with their non-German helpers, had to round up the men, women and children from their houses and drag and beat them through the streets and mow them down in nearby woods or push and pack them into cattle cars and transport them to the camps, where "Work makes free," separate the able-bodied from the completely useless and lure them into "shower" halls and pour in the gas and then take out, or oversee the extraction of, the bodies and prepare the "showers" for the next batch.

The second holocaust will be quite different. One bright morning, in five or 10 years, perhaps during a regional crisis, perhaps out of the blue, a day or a year or five years after Iran's acquisition of the Bomb, the mullahs in Qom will convene in secret session, under a portrait of the steely-eyed Ayatollah Khomeini, and give President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, by then in his second or third term, the go-ahead.

The orders will go out and the Shihab III and IV missiles will take off for Tel Aviv, Beersheba, Haifa and Jerusalem, and probably some military sites, including Israel's half dozen air and (reported) nuclear missile bases. Some of the Shihabs will be nuclear-tipped, perhaps even with multiple warheads. Others will be dupes, packed merely with biological or chemical agents, or old newspapers, to draw off or confuse Israel's anti-missile batteries and Home Front Command units.

With a country the size and shape of Israel (an elongated 20,000 square kilometers), probably four or five hits will suffice: No more Israel. A million or more Israelis in the greater Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem areas will die immediately. Millions will be seriously irradiated. Israel has about seven million inhabitants. No Iranian will see or touch an Israeli. It will be quite impersonal.

Some of the dead will inevitably be Arab - 1.3 million of Israel's citizens are Arab and another 3.5 million Arabs live in the semi-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Jerusalem, Tel Aviv-Jaffa and Haifa have substantial Arab minorities. And there are large Arab concentrations immediately around Jerusalem (in Ramallah-Al Bireh, Bir Zeit, Bethlehem) and outside Haifa. Here, too, many will die, immediately or by and by.

It is doubtful whether such a mass killing of fellow Muslims will trouble Ahmadinejad and the mullahs. The Iranians don't especially like Arabs, especially Sunni Arabs, with whom they have intermittently warred for centuries. And they have a special contempt for the (Sunni) Palestinians who, after all, though initially outnumbering the Jews by more than 10 to 1, failed during the long conflict to prevent them from establishing their state or taking over all of Palestine.

Besides, the Iranian leadership sees the destruction of Israel as a supreme divine command, as a herald of the second coming, and the Muslims dispatched collaterally as so many martyrs in the noble cause. Anyway, the Palestinians, many of them dispersed around the globe, will survive as a people, as will the greater Arab nation of which they are part. And surely, to be rid of the Jewish state, the Arabs should be willing to make some sacrifices. In the cosmic balance sheet, it will be worth the candle.

A QUESTION may nevertheless arise in the Iranian councils: What about Jerusalem? After all, the city contains Islam's third holiest shrines (after Mecca and Medina), Al Aksa Mosque and the Mosque of Omar. But Ali Khamenei, the supreme spiritual leader, and Ahmadinejad most likely would reply much as they would to the wider question regarding the destruction and radioactive pollution of Palestine as a whole: The city, like the land, by God's grace, in 20 or 50 years' time, will recover. And it will be restored to Islam (and the Arabs). And the deeper pollution will have been eradicated.

To judge from Ahmadinejad's continuous reference to Palestine and the need to destroy Israel, and his denial of the first Holocaust, he is a man obsessed. He shares this with the mullahs: All were brought up on the teachings of Khomeini, a prolific anti-Semite who often fulminated against "the Little Satan." To judge from Ahmadinejad's organization of the Holocaust cartoon competition and the Holocaust denial conference, the Iranian president's hatreds are deep (and, of course, shameless).

He is willing to gamble the future of Iran or even of the whole Muslim Middle East in exchange for Israel's destruction. No doubt he believes that Allah, somehow, will protect Iran from an Israeli nuclear response or an American counterstrike. Allah aside, he may well believe that his missiles will so pulverize the Jewish state, knock out its leadership and its land-based nuclear bases, and demoralize or confuse its nuclear-armed submarine commanders that it will be unable to respond. And, with his deep contempt for the weak-kneed West, he is unlikely to take seriously the threat of American nuclear retaliation.

Or he may well take into account a counterstrike and simply, irrationally (to our way of thinking), be willing to pay the price. As his mentor, Khomeini, put it in a speech in Qom in 1980: "We do not worship Iran, we worship Allah... I say, let this land [Iran] burn. I say let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant..."

For these worshipers at the cult of death, even the sacrifice of the homeland is acceptable if the outcome is the demise of Israel.

DEPUTY DEFENSE Minister Ephraim Sneh has suggested that Iran doesn't even have to use the Bomb to destroy Israel. Simply, the nuclearization of Iran will so overawe and depress Israelis that they will lose hope and gradually emigrate, and potential foreign investors and immigrants will shy away from the mortally threatened Jewish state. These, together, will bring about its demise.

But my feeling is that Ahmadinejad and his allies lack the patience for such a drawn-out denouement; they seek Israel's annihilation in the here and now, in the immediate future, in their lifetime. They won't want to leave anything up to the vagaries of history.

As with the first, the second holocaust will have been preceded by decades of preparation of hearts and minds, by Iranian and Arab leaders, Western intellectuals and media outlets. Different messages have gone out to different audiences, but all have (objectively) served the same goal, the demonization of Israel. Muslims the world over have been taught: "The Zionists/Jews are the embodiment of evil" and "Israel must be destroyed."

And Westeners, more subtly, were instructed: "Israel is a racist oppressor state" and "Israel, in this age of multiculturalism, is an anachronism and superfluous." Generations of Muslims and at least a generation of Westerners have been brought up on these catechisms.

cont'd next post

THE BUILD-UP to the second holocaust (which, incidentally, in the end, will probably claim roughly the same number of lives as the first) has seen an international community fragmented and driven by separate, selfish appetites - Russia and China obsessed with Muslim markets; France with Arab oil - and the United States driven by the debacle in Iraq into a deep isolationism. Iran has been left free to pursue its nuclear destiny and Israel and Iran to face off alone.

But an ultimately isolated Israel will prove unequal to the task, like a rabbit caught in the headlights of an onrushing car. Last summer, led by a party hack of a prime minister and a small-time trade unionist as defense minister, and deploying an army trained for quelling incompetent and poorly armed Palestinian gangs in the occupied territories and overly concerned about both sustaining and inflicting casualties, Israel failed in a 34-day mini-war against a small Iran-backed guerrilla army of Lebanese fundamentalists (albeit highly motivated, well-trained and well-armed). That mini-war thoroughly demoralized the Israeli political and military leaderships.

Since then, the ministers and generals, like their counterparts in the West, have looked on glumly as Hizbullah's patrons have been arming with doomsday weapons. Perversely, the Israeli leaders may even have been happy with Western pressures urging restraint. Most likely they deeply wished to believe Western assurances that somebody, somehow - the UN, G-8 - would pull the radioactive chestnuts out of the fire. There are even those who fell for the outlandish idea that a regime change in Teheran, driven by a reputedly secular middle class, would ultimately stymie the mad mullahs.

But even more to the point, the Iranian program presented an infinitely complex challenge for a country with limited conventional military resources. Taking their cue from the successful IAF destruction of Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981, the Iranians duplicated and dispersed their facilities and buried them deep underground (and the Iranian targets are about twice as far from Israel as was Baghdad). Taking out the known Iranian facilities with conventional weapons would take an American-size air force working round-the-clock for more than a month.

At best, Israel's air force, commandos and navy could hope to hit only some of the components of the Iranian project. But, in the end, it would remain substantially intact - and the Iranians even more determined (if that were possible) to attain the Bomb as soon as possible. It would also, without doubt, immediately result in a world-embracing Islamist terrorist campaign against Israel (and possibly its Western allies) and, of course, near-universal vilification. Orchestrated by Ahmadinejad, all would clamor that the Iranian program had been geared to peaceful purposes. At best, an Israeli conventional strike could delay the Iranians by a year or two.

IN SHORT order, therefore, the incompetent leadership in Jerusalem would soon confront a doomsday scenario, either after launching their marginally effective conventional offensive or in its stead, of launching a preemptive nuclear strike against the Iranian nuclear program, some of whose components are in or near major cities. Would they have the stomach for this? Would their determination to save Israel extend to preemptively killing millions of Iranians and, in effect, destroying Iran?

This dilemma had long ago been accurately defined by a wise general: Israel's nuclear armory is unusable. It can only be used too early or too late. There will never be a "right" time. Use it "too early," meaning before Iran acquires similar weapons, and Israel will be cast in the role of international pariah, a target of universal Muslim assault, without a friend in the world; "too late" means after the Iranians have struck. What purpose would that serve?

So Israel's leaders will grit their teeth and hope that somehow things will turn out for the best. Perhaps, after acquiring the Bomb, the Iranians will behave "rationally"?

BUT THE Iranians are driven by a higher logic. And they will launch their rockets. And, as with the first Holocaust, the international community will do nothing. It will all be over, for Israel, in a few minutes - not like in the 1940s, when the world had five long years in which to wring its hands and do nothing. After the Shihabs fall, the world will send rescue ships and medical aid for the lightly charred. It will not nuke Iran. For what purpose and at what cost? An American nuclear response would lastingly alienate the whole Muslim world, deepening and universalizing the ongoing clash of civilizations. And, of course, it would not bring Israel back. (Would hanging a serial murderer bring back his victims?)

So what would be the point?

Still, the second holocaust will be different in the sense that Ahmadinejad will not actually see and touch those he so wishes dead (and, one may speculate, this might cause him disappointment as, in his years of service in Iranian death squads in Europe, he may have acquired a taste for actual blood). And, indeed, there will be no scenes like the following, quoted in Daniel Mendelsohn's recent The Lost, A Search for Six of Six Million, in which is described the second Nazi action in Bolechow, Poland, in September 1942:

A terrible episode happened with Mrs. Grynberg. The Ukrainians and Germans, who had broken into her house, found her giving birth. The weeping and entreaties of bystanders didn't help and she was taken from her home in a nightshirt and dragged into the square in front of the town hall.
There... she was dragged onto a dumpster in the yard of the town hall with a crowd of Ukrainians present, who cracked jokes and jeered and watched the pain of childbirth and she gave birth to a child. The child was immediately torn from her arms along with its umbilical cord and thrown - It was trampled by the crowd and she was stood on her feet as blood poured out of her with bleeding bits hanging and she stood that way for a few hours by the wall of the town hall, afterwards she went with all the others to the train station where they loaded her into a carriage in a train to Belzec.

In the next holocaust there will be no such heart-rending scenes, of perpetrators and victims mired in blood (though, to judge from pictures of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the physical effects of nuclear explosions can be fairly unpleasant).

But it will be a holocaust nonetheless.

This Holocaust will be different (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467762531&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

TURKEY LAUNCHES OFFENSIVE AGAINST PKK

ANKARA [MENL] -- Turkey has launched another offensive against Kurdish insurgents.

The Turkish military has begun a major operation against the Kurdish Workers Party near the border with Iraq. Officials said the offensive began on Jan. 19 in southeastern Turkey near the city of Tunceli.

The Turkish operation included air and ground strikes against PKK strongholds in the mountains along the border. Officials said suspected PKK camps were bombed and strafed.

The offensive included Turkey military and security forces. Officials said two AH-1S Cobra attack helicopters were deployed in the operation.

TURKEY LAUNCHES OFFENSIVE AGAINST PKK (http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2007/january/01_22_2.html)

January 21, 2007

Iran’s strongman loses grip as ayatollah offers nuclear deal
Marie Colvin and Leila Asgharzadeh, Tehran
IRAN’S supreme leader is considering a change of policy on the country’s nuclear programme in an effort to defuse growing tension with the West, according to senior sources in Tehran.

Alarmed by mounting US pressure and United Nations sanctions, officials close to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei favour the appointment of a more moderate team for international negotiations on the supervision of its nuclear facilities.

The move would be a snub to the bellicose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose threats to destroy Israel have left Iran increasingly isolated and facing a serious economic downturn.

Tehran sources said the impetus for a policy switch was coming from Khamenei, who has ultimate power over Iran’s foreign policy, security and armed forces.

Khamenei is said to believe that Washington’s aim is not only to halt Iran’s nuclear programme but to overthrow the regime.

He also considers the national interest is being undermined by an inexperienced president whose rhetoric is unnecessarily inflammatory.

Under proposals now being debated, an international group made up of the permanent five members of the UN security council, plus Germany or a nuclear power such as India, would oversee and monitor Iran’s nuclear programme.

Washington may judge this too little, too late. But European negotiators would be expected to regard such a move as a significant step towards reopening talks about the programme. Tehran insists it is for civilian power but the West believes it is aimed at creating nuclear weapons.

Last month the security council imposed sanctions on Iran. It set a 60-day deadline for Tehran to suspend nuclear activity or face further sanctions. Washington’s tough stance and claims that Israel has drawn up plans for a nuclear strike against Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities have alarmed Tehran’s conservative leadership.

Ahmadinejad tried to dismiss such fears on a trip to Central America last week. Referring to a Sunday Times report about preparations for possible Israeli airstrikes with nuclear-tipped “bunker busters”, he said: “I don’t think they would ever dare to attack us, neither them nor their masters. They won’t do such a stupid thing.”

He is due to appear before parliament today to present his annual budget. But the poor showing of his allies in December’s local elections has also emboldened his parliamentary critics.

In a sign that his power is waning, Iranian MPs have criticised Ahmadinejad for his handling of the nuclear negotiations and the country’s mounting economic crisis.

Sa’id Leylaz, a leading economist, said: “The future of the nation has never been this dark, both economically and politically.”

Iranians face rocketing prices for food and housing and sharply increased unemployment, estimated at 30%.

“Ahmadinejad is under extreme pressures from his own supporters to change policies,” said Leylaz. Sources in Tehran say Ahmadinejad could be vulnerable, as Khamenei has clearly signalled his displeasure and has the power to dismiss him.

Khamenei rarely speaks in public, but the Islamic Republic, a newspaper he owns, launched a strong attack on Ahmadinejad’s “personalisation” of the nuclear issue. In an editorial, it stated: “Our advice to the president is to speak about the nuclear issue only during important national occasions, stop provoking aggressive powers like the United States and concentrate more on the daily needs of the people, those who voted for you on your promises.”

Ahmadinejad’s weakness is being exploited by Ali Akhbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a conservative pragmatist and former president who was defeated by him in elections in 2005.

According to the Tehran sources, one of the possible members of a new Iranian negotiating team would be Mohammad Moussavian, a former senior nuclear negotiator and an ally of Rafsanjani.

Last week Moussavian accused Ahmadinejad of misleading the country about the dangers it faced as a result of UN penalties.

Iran’s strongman loses grip as ayatollah offers nuclear deal (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2557946,00.html)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I see no deal, I see a stall for time. Smoking mirrors, another islamic lie, then maybe I am to critical. :-\

Groups Head to Emirates, as Worries Grow Over Iran

Marc Perelman

The main umbrella group of American Jewish organizations is set to visit Dubai and Abu Dhabi next month in a sign of the growing concern among Sunni regimes over Iran’s nuclear and regional ambitions.

The trip, by a delegation from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations to the main power centers of the United Arab Emirates, is notable because the Sunni-majority UAE does not have formal diplomatic ties with Israel. The trip also comes amid a flurry of consultations between Washington, its regional allies and Israel about steps to counter Iran’s influence in the region, first and foremost in Iraq but also in Lebanon and in the Palestinian territories.

“The UAE is a critically important place on the issue of terrorism, the fight against extremism and Iran,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Presidents Conference, a 51-member umbrella organization that serves as the Jewish community’s main collective voice on Middle East affairs. “We want to see improved relations with the U.S., of course, but also hope that this can foster relations with Israel.”

The UAE has no diplomatic ties with Israel and still adheres to the primary Arab boycott against trade with the Jewish state. Even though it abandoned the so-called secondary and tertiary boycotts against third-party firms that trade with Israel, the American Jewish delegation will not be flying directly from Israel; instead it will travel via Amman, Jordan, to reach the UAE.

According to Hoenlein, the UAE government extended an invitation a few months ago and then the American Jewish umbrella group received approval from both the American and Israeli governments to respond positively.

The upcoming visit is slated to include meetings with senior government officials, as well as with business and religious leaders.

Whether the trip could end up opening some diplomatic relations with Israel — as a previous one in 1995 helped lay the groundwork for such ties between Israel and Qatar — remains an open question.

Representatives of Israel and of the UAE held talks last year about opening a low-level Israeli interest office in Abu Dhabi, but little progress was made at the time. The trip to the Gulf region will precede the group’s annual mission to Israel, scheduled for the second week of February.

Iran is expected to be a topic at some of the meetings in the UAE. Still, despite widespread Sunni concerns about Iran, experts believe that the UAE is unlikely to confront Tehran publicly.

Members of the Gulf Cooperation Council “share many of our concerns about what the Iranians might intend, but they do not necessarily agree with our chosen means: verbal confrontation, threats, futile attempts at diplomatic isolation,” said David Mack, acting president of the Middle East Institute in Washington and a former American ambassador to the UAE. “They all have diplomatic relations with Iran and, in some cases, considerable trade.”

Indeed, Iran has very close economic ties to Dubai, the region’s leading business hub; as such, the emirate is key to American efforts to tighten the financial pressure on the mullah regime. In recent weeks, the U.S. Treasury Department has issued directives barring two Iranian state-owned banks from accessing American financial markets, because of the banks’ alleged role in supporting terrorism and procuring weapons.

In addition, the Bush administration has been pressuring European and Asian corporations to downgrade their presence in Iran. American officials have met UAE officials, too, to discuss Iran’s business interests in Dubai.

One factor that works in the administration’s favor is the UAE and the Gulf countries’ growing worries about Tehran’s nuclear program. In a major speech on Iraq last week, President Bush confirmed that the United States would send an additional carrier strike group to the Persian Gulf, as well as provide Patriot anti-missile defense systems to members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC.

Last year, Tehran signaled to the GCC states that it would retaliate against them if the United States attacked Iran using bases on their soil. Since Tehran’s most likely weapon would be ballistic missiles, deploying Patriots would protect the GCC states against a potential Iranian strike.

In addition to the concerns of America’s allies in the region about Tehran’s ascendancy, the Bush administration has ratcheted up its efforts to stem Iran’s influence in Iraq.

The administration has in effect rejected the recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group about the need to engage Iran and Syria, by issuing repeated warnings to Tehran about its meddling in Iraq and by taking more aggressive action on the ground.

Bush signed an order authorizing the disruption of Iranian activities in Iraq, which resulted in the arrest of several Iranian officials suspected of providing bomb-making materials during two American military raids conducted over the past month. In addition to protests from the Iranian and Iraqi governments, the operations ignited speculation about possible American military incursions into Iran.

“The incremental raids and arrests may be aimed at provoking the Iranians to respond, which in turn would escalate the situation and provide the Bush administration with the casus belli it needs to win Congressional support for war with Iran,” said Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council and an advocate of engaging Tehran. “Instead of making the case for a pre-emptive war with Iran over nuclear weapons, the sequence of events in the provocation and escalation strategy would make it appear as if war was forced on the U.S.”

In another sign of the geopolitical realignment in the region, London’s Daily Telegraph reported last week that Bush had authorized the CIA to take covert action to help the embattled Lebanese government against Hezbollah, with the support of both Saudi Arabia and Israel. The classified “non-lethal presidential finding” reportedly allows the agency to provide financial and logistical support to Prime Minister Fouad Siniora but bars the agency from physically targeting Hezbollah officials.

Groups Head to Emirates, as Worries Grow Over Iran   (http://www.forward.com/articles/groups-head-to-emirates-as-worries-grow-over-iran/)

 Ex-PM Netanyahu Calls on World to Stop Iran
17:09 Jan 21, '07 / 2 Shevat 5767
by Hillel Fendel

"The world, which did not stop the Holocaust, must try to stop the genocide being planned by Iran," Netanyahu said, pointing a finger at US pension funds investing with companies trading with Iran.


Speaking Sunday at the prestigious Herzliya Conference, Netanyahu said, "I want to call upon the world, which did not stop the Holocaust, to try and stop the one that Iran is planning: Stop investments in Iran - in order to stop a genocide...

"You remember the companies that arose against the apartheid in South Africa? The same thing can be done against Iran. We can start with the pension funds in the U.S. They invest enormous sums in 50 companies that trade with Iran. If these investments are stopped, this will place tremendous pressure upon Iran... Once the snowball of voluntary sanctions against Iran starts rolling, the citizens of Iran will start asking themselves if they are willing to pay this economic price.

"Israel has a key role in the international campaign against Iran. Israel must lead a coordinated, comprehensive campaign. We have to move world opinion, both Jewish and non-Jewish, and explain where the justice lies and where is evil. If another Holocaust is being threatened against the Jewish nation, who is going to respond if not us?"

Netanyahu said that he and other international political figures are working to have Ahmadinajad tried in an international court for his crimes: "If we succeed in drying out the Iran source, the Hamas and Hizbullah roots will be weakened as well. Without the Iranian checkbook, Hamas will be destabilized."

Relating to Prime Minister Olmert's not-quite shelved plan for a unilateral withdrawal from Judea and Samaria, Netanyahu said, "Such plans will only bring Palestinian rockets closer to the Tel Aviv area... Good neighborly relations with the Palestinians will come only by toppling the Hamas government, not by concessions or various other programs."

Having served as Finance Minister under Ariel Sharon, Netanyahu said, "We can bring Israel's economy to an annual growth rate of 6%; over the course of a decade, this will double our economy. For this, we need to take three steps: a stepped-up decrease in taxes, streamlining the public service sector, and continued economic structural reforms. We did all this when we in power, and a government headed by us will take the necessary steps to do this."

Netanyahu concluded, "A new spirit, that's what Israel needs today. This isn't only dependent on us. Israel is a just country - historically, legally, and humanely. We want peace and are prepared to make concessions to achieve it."

The Herzliya Conference opened today, featuring worldwide experts and politicians on various social, military and political topics centering around the theme, "Israel's Balance of Strength." Ever since Ariel Sharon announced his Disengagement at the Herzliya Conference of 2003, other politicians have similarly used that forum to make important declarations.

Others scheduled to speak at the conference today include US Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, US Ambassador to Israel Richard H. Jones, US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, Education Minister Yuli Tamir, Birthright Chairman Dr. Shimshon Shoshani, Former National Security Adviser to the German Chancellor Dr. Horst Teltschik, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee members MK Maj.-Gen. (res.) Matan Vilnai and MK Brig.-Gen. (res.) Effie Eitam, Prof. Alan Dershowitz of Harvard Law School (via satellite), and others. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will address the conference on Wednesday evening.

Ex-PM Netanyahu Calls on World to Stop Iran  (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=119931)

Where??    ;D ;D ;D ;D

 ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::)

These next 5 are from Iran's offical newspaper. IRNA

 Iran, Saudi Arabia call for expansion of ties
Riyadh, Jan 21, IRNA

Iran-Saudi Arabia-Relations
Iran's Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Mohammad Hosseini conferred here Sunday with Saudi Crown Prince and Head of Saudi Foreign Information Organization Sultan bin Abd Al-Aziz on expansion of mutual relations between the two countries.

At the meeting, the Iranian ambassador reviewed recent developments in the Middle East and called for expansion of ties between the two countries.

Iran and Saudi Arabia as two big countries in the Middle East could appear as one regional power and change the current equation in the region as well as in the Muslim world, he said.

The Saudi crown prince, for his part, expressed satisfaction with the friendly ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia and hoped to witness further expansion of all-out ties between the two countries.

"Now that the Middle East region is going through ups and downs, it is required that countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia play a much more active role in the global scene," he underlined.

Iran, Saudi Arabia call for expansion of ties (http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0701210784194349.htm)

 Iran, Belarus ministers hold 1st round of talks
Tehran, Jan 21, IRNA

Iran-Belarus-Talks
Visiting Belarus Defense Minister Leonid Maltsev and his Iranian counterpart Brigadier General Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar on Sunday held their first round of talks.

Maltsev, heading a top-ranking delegation, arrived in Tehran on Sunday for an official two-day visit at the invitation of
Mohammad-Najjar.

Pointing to Iran's principled policy on expansion of cooperation with the friendly and independent states, the Iranian minister said, "Defense and security convergence and interaction with different states are on agenda of Iran's Defense Ministry."
He added that expansion of defense cooperation between Iran and Belarus showed determination of the two sides' political leaders and a very good sign for cooperation between two independent states.

"Belarus enjoys a special status in Iran's foreign policy.

"Although the sides have no common borders, similar point of view between Tehran and Minsk on regional and international issues has led the two nations to satisfactory cooperation," Mohammad-Najjar said.

He added, "The Islamic Republic of Iran has always had constructive cooperation with different countries through
negotiations during its 28-year political life (after victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979).

"It believes that understanding, friendship and cooperation serve the nations' interests and lead to peace, tranquility and development in the entire world."
Maltsev, for his part, said the visit by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko to Iran in November, 2006 was a turning point in ties between Tehran and Minsk.

He expressed confidence implementation of agreements signed between the two sides during Lukashenko's Tehran visit would pave the way for bolstering bilateral cooperation.

The Belarus minister stressed Iran's special role in regional and international equations and voiced his country's readiness to promote defense cooperation between the two countries.

He condemned dual and discriminatory policies of certain countries on regional developments and said his country enjoys a common stance with Iran in this regard,

Iran, Belarus ministers hold 1st round of talks (http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-17/0701219777160417.htm)

 Iran-Iraq ties based on mutual interests: FM spokesman
Tehran, Jan 21, IRNA

Iran-Iraq-Hosseini
Iran and Iraq enjoy high level of bilateral ties based on mutual interests, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said here Sunday.

He made the statement at his weekly press conference in response to a question on remarks made by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari on possibility of limiting diplomatic exchanges between Tehran and Baghdad.

"Political will of the two countries' senior officials is based on promotion of relations.

"The US intends to damage or limit mutual ties," the
Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

He added that Iran and Iraq would continue their consultations, saying, "The level of mutual relations is determined by their common interests."
On the status of Iranian diplomats kidnapped by US troops in Iraq, he said based on latest information collected by Iran's embassy in Iraq, the kidnapped Iranian diplomats are kept in Iraq and have not left the country.

On a date for the visit of the French envoy to Iran, he referred to mutual talks between the Iranian and French foreign ministers held in Beirut last year, and said the visit has been confirmed but its date has not been specified yet.

Iran-Iraq ties based on mutual interests: FM spokesman (http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-17/0701211964152919.htm)

 Iran, Syria discuss bilateral, regional issues
Damascus, Jan 21, IRNA

Iran-Larijani-Syria
Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani and the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday discussed bilateral and regional issues, including the current situation in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine.

At the meeting, it was underlined that discord between Shiites and Sunnis in the world of Islam has been initiated by the US to achieve other goals.

Meanwhile, Larijani and al-Assad urged the need for contribution of Iraq's neighboring states to promotion of stability and security in his country as well as peaceful coexistence among various ethnic groups.

Both sides called for establishment of tranquility and stability in Lebanon.

Larijani arrived in Damascus Sunday before noon on a short undeclared working visit.

Upon arrival at Damascus airport, in a brief talk to reporters, he referred to Syria as a friendly country, adding that the two sides constantly exchange views in various political and economic fields as well as mutual ties and regional developments.

Larijani said that to materialize stability and peaceful coexistence, Iran will continue exchanging views with all parties, adding that this will be on the agenda of his talks with Syrian officials.

Iran, Syria discuss bilateral, regional issues (http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-17/0701216871164742.htm)

Iran keen to promote ties with Brazil
Tehran, Jan 21, IRNA

Iran-President-Brazil
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that Iran was interested in promotion of bilateral ties with Brazil given the fact that peoples of South American had many common points with Iranians.

The president made the remarks, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of submitting to Majlis the government's proposed budget bill for the next Iranian calendar year (starting March 21, 2007).

The rls 2290,000 billion annual budget bill, second submitted to the Majlis by President Ahmadinejad, shows a 19.6 percent increase compared with that of the current year.

Iran's foreign policy is based on establishment of cordial relations with other nations, said the president adding that Iranian officials will soon have high level visits to the South American states.

Asked about the date of his possible visit to Iraq, the president said agreements were made for the visit but "no exact date has been fixed yet.

Iran keen to promote ties with Brazil (http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-17/0701219741164622.htm)

Islamic Jihad launches rockets at Israel

Sun Jan 21, 5:21 AM ET

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Islamic Jihad militants launched homemade rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip on Sunday in retaliation for Israel's continuing military operations against their group in the West Bank.

The rocket attacks came despite a two-month-old cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza.

The group said it fired seven homemade rockets toward the Israeli towns of Sderot and Ashkelon. The Israeli army said several mortar shells had landed in empty areas in Israel on Sunday morning, causing no injuries.

Islamic Jihad launches rockets at Israel (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070121/ap_on_re_mi_ea/palestinians_rockets)

 Burma 'orders Christians to be wiped out'

By Peter Pattisson in Kayin State, southern Burma, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:02am GMT 21/01/2007

The military regime in Burma is intent on wiping out Christianity in the country, according to claims in a secret document believed to have been leaked from a government ministry. Entitled "Programme to destroy the Christian religion in Burma", the incendiary memo contains point by point instructions on how to drive Christians out of the state.

The text, which opens with the line "There shall be no home where the Christian religion is practised", calls for anyone caught evangelising to be imprisoned. It advises: "The Christian religion is very gentle – identify and utilise its weakness."

Its discovery follows widespread reports of religious persecution, with churches burnt to the ground, Christians forced to convert to the state religion, Buddhism, and their children barred from school.
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Human rights groups claim that the treatment meted out to Christians, who make up six per cent of the population, is part of a wider campaign by the regime, also targeted at ethnic minority tribes, to create a uniform society in which the race and language is Burmese and the only accepted religion is Buddhism.

In the past year, an estimated 27,000 members of the predominantly Christian Karen tribe were driven from their homes in eastern Burma.

In Koh Kyi village, in Arakan State, a monk backed by the military burnt down the local church. In another state, 300 monks were allegedly sent by the regime to forcibly convert the populace, all of whom belonged to the Chin ethnic group, which is mostly Christian.

The document, shown to The Sunday Telegraph by human rights groups, may have been produced by a state-sponsored Buddhist group, but with the tacit approval of the military junta. The regime has denied authorship of the document – which also calls for teenagers to be prevented from wearing Western clothes – but has made no public attempt to refute or repudiate its contents.

The dictatorship has long been accused of large-scale human rights abuses. In power since 1988, the generals annulled the National League for Democracy's sweeping 1990 election victory and jailed its leader, the Nobel peace prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi. She remains under house arrest. Last week she was accused of tax evasion for failing to hand over any of her Nobel prize winnings to the authorities.

Eha Hsar Paw, a Karen Christian, who fled her village while heavily pregnant to a refugee camp near the border with Thailand, said: "The journey here was very difficult. It was hard to leave our village, but if we had stayed there we would all be dead."

 Burma 'orders Christians to be wiped out' (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=H2RD4VIFYNMEFQFIQMFSFF4AVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2007/01/21/wburma21.xml)

Romans 12:14 Bless those who persecute you [who are cruel in their attitude toward you]; bless and do not curse them.

Galatians 1:23 They were only hearing it said, He who used to persecute us is now proclaiming the very faith he once reviled and which he set out to ruin and tried with all his might to destroy.