Iran the news again...................

[Shammu]

Ahmadinejad: Iran Won't Stop Enrichment
Monday, February 11, 2008 2:00 PM

TEHRAN, Iran -- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad struck a defiant tone Monday on the 29th anniversary of the Islamic revolution, vowing not to slow Iran's nuclear program and announcing plans to launch more rockets into space as part of its drive to orbit a domestic satellite.

Like Iran's nuclear activities, the country's space program has provoked unease abroad because the same technology needed to send satellites into space can be used to deliver warheads.

Iranian officials insist both the space and nuclear programs are intended for peaceful purposes, and Ahmadinejad rallied Iranians against U.N. Security Council demands that Iran stop enriching uranium.

"I ask the people's view. Would you agree if I ... gave in, surrendered or compromised over the nuclear issue? Would you agree to give up one iota of your nuclear rights?" Ahmadinejad asked hundreds of thousands at a gathering in the capital.

The crowd chanted in response: "No!" and "Nuclear energy is our definite right."

State TV said millions took to the streets across Iran to mark the anniversary of the 1979 revolution that toppled a pro-U.S. monarchy and brought hard-line clerics to power. Hundreds of thousands marched in Tehran shouting "Death to America" and burning effigies of President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Washington has led the push for a third round of sanctions against Iran for ignoring U.N. demands that it suspend uranium enrichment, a technology that can produce nuclear reactor fuel or material for an atomic bomb. Last month, the five permanent Security Council members _ the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France _ agreed on a draft resolution for new sanctions.

Ahmadinejad said Monday that Iran won't be frightened by the threat of more sanctions. He also warned the Security Council that it risked losing credibility by relying on U.S.-led questions about Iranian nuclear intentions.

"If (Security Council) powers make any decision against the Iranian nation, they in fact decide against their own credibility," he said.

He was alluding to a U.S. intelligence report in December that concluded Iran stopped a nuclear weapons program in late 2003 and had not resumed it. U.S. officials, however, continue to warn that Iran's enrichment work could easily allow Tehran to resume weapons development.

Ahmadinejad also dedicated Monday's speech to promoting Iran's space program, saying two more research rockets will be fired into space before the first Iranian-made satellite is put into orbit, hopefully by this summer.

Earlier this month, Iran said it launched its first research rocket into space and unveiled its first major space center and an Iranian-built satellite _ called the Omid, or Hope.

"Today, we possess all the fundamental sections needed to launch a satellite into space," said Ahmadinejad. "We built all ourselves."

The U.S. called the Feb. 4 rocket launch "just another troubling development" amid concerns about Iran's development of medium- and long-range missiles.

Despite the anxiety over the space program, it is not clear how far along Iran really is, and analysts have expressed doubts about previous Iranian announcements of such technological achievements.

On Monday, Ahmadinejad offered the first details about the Feb. 4 launch. He said the first section of the rocket _ the Kavoshgar-1, or Explorer-1 _ detached after 90 seconds and returned to earth by parachute. The second segment entered space for about five minutes, he said, and the final section was sent "toward" orbit to collect data.

Iran says it wants to put its own satellites into orbit to monitor natural disasters in the earthquake-prone nation and improve telecommunications. Iranian officials also point to U.S. use of satellites to monitor Afghanistan and Iraq and say they need similar security abilities.

Iran launched its first commercial satellite on a Russian rocket in 2005 in a joint project with Moscow, which appears to be the main partner in transferring space technology to Iran.

Ahmadinejad: Iran Won't Stop Enrichment

[Shammu]

Iranian hangings 'hit new record'
Tue. 12 Feb 2008
BBC News
By Jon Leyne

Early morning in Tehran, and two mobile cranes are being manoeuvred into place. They are to act as temporary gallows for a public execution.

Already the crowd are out in force, some of them in a remarkably cheery mood. A few are getting ready to photograph the scene on their mobile phones. There are even one or two young children around.

Amid this strangely everyday scene, the black-masked hangmen begin their work. They attach nooses to the cranes, check they are secure.

As the sentence is read out, the two criminals are brought out.

They have been convicted of bank robberies and murders, including the murder of a senior judge, close to this very spot in Tehran.

But there is no sign of remorse. In fact, one of the two men can't stop smiling, even as the noose is put around his neck. Then swiftly the stool is pulled from under their legs.

The bodies are left dangling - a lesson for everyone to see.

'Executions necessary'

Under the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the number of executions has increased dramatically.

Amnesty International says the figures are up from 200 executions in 2006 to about 300 last year, and there have been more than 30 in the first month of this year alone.

The Iranian government says the executions are necessary to deter hardened criminals - murderers, drug dealers and rapists.

Ayatollah Mahdi Hadavi, a professor of Islamic law based in the holy city of Qom, explained this interpretation of Islam.

"In Islam, punishment is very harsh," he said. "Because the philosophy of punishment is to prevent the people from committing a crime."

In future that may include fewer public executions. The most recent was held in January.

But now Iran's chief judge has ordered that none should be held without his personal authorisation.

However, a similar edict stopping the punishment of stoning to death does not seem to have been obeyed.

Legs amputated

One man was stoned to death in Iran last year, after being convicted of adultery.

Human rights groups say two sisters, Zohreh and Azar Kabiri, now face the same penalty, after they were also convicted of adultery. Both are mothers, each with one child.

To add to this challenging list of punishments, the Iranian Nobel peace prize winner and human rights lawyer, Shirin Ebadi, has warned of a revival of the practice of amputation.

She said that several criminals in the remote province of Sistan-Baluchistan had recently had hands and legs amputated.

The violation of human rights in Iran had found new dimensions, warned the group of lawyers that she heads.

Ms Ebadi says she believes that there is a political dimension to the growing number of executions: "I see this as way of putting fear into society. They want to use this to frighten people, to make people afraid of voicing criticism."

Western liberals

It's not a charge that's likely to concern President Ahmadinejad.

His government has turned to a strict interpretation of Islam as a way of reviving the revolution and controlling the population.

It's hard to say how many people in Iran support these policies, though they are certainly more popular with Mr Ahmadinejad's poorer, more conservative, rural supporters.

On this 29th anniversary of the Islamic revolution, the government of the Islamic republic is prouder than ever of its difference from Western liberal countries.

It thrives on a confrontation with the West, not just on matters of foreign policy, but on basic questions of religious and social values.

Nowhere are these differences more stark than in Iran's increasingly tough attitude to crime and punishment.

Iranian hangings 'hit new record'

[Shammu]

Iran, you have been doing these public execution things for decades now. If it really worked, then how come you now have a new record high? Shouldn't you have a new record low?

It's obviously not working.....

[Shammu]

Imanutjob: Iran 'number one world power'
Feb 28 06:54 AM US/Eastern
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared on Thursday that Iran was the world's "number one" power, as he launched a bitter new assault on domestic critics he accused of siding with the enemy.

"Everybody has understood that Iran is the number one power in the world," Ahmadinejad said in a speech to families who lost loved ones in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

"Today the name of Iran means a firm punch in the teeth of the powerful and it puts them in their place," he added in the address broadcast live on state television.

Ahmadinejad's comments come amid renewed Western efforts on the UN Security Council to agree a third package of sanctions against Tehran over its refusal to suspend sensitive nuclear activities.

They also came a day after former top nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani launched an unprecedented attack on Ahmadinejad's foreign policy, accusing him of using "coarse slogans and grandstanding".

"You can see how some people here... try to materialise the plans of the enemies and by showing that Iran is small and the enemy is big," added Ahmadinejad.

"These are the people who put the enemies of humanity in the place of God," said the deeply religious president.

He also told the families of the "martyrs" of the war that their loss was not in vain as the message of the Islamic revolution of 1979 that ousted the pro-US shah was spreading all over the world.

"Today the message of your revolution is being heard in South America, East Asia, in the heart of Europe and even in the United States itself," he said.

Ahmadinejad said he talked with people everywhere he travelled in the world and "it is like I am in district 17 in Tehran", referring to the low-income area in the south of the Iranian capital where he was giving his speech.

Ahmadinejad is due to travel to Iraq on Sunday in the first visit by a president of the Islamic republic to its western neighbour.

Imanutjob: Iran 'number one world power'
~~~~~~~~

Imanutjob, is getting nuttier by the day. I think it's time to up Imanutjob's meds, his delusions of grander continue.

[Shammu]

Iranian Group Calls to Kill Israeli Leaders
2 Adar Bet 5768, March 9, '08

(IsraelNN.com) An Iranian group calling itself “The Movement of Justice-Seeking Islamic Students” is offering a cash prize for the assassination of Israeli leaders, according to Omedia.  The group posted a notice on its website offering a prize for the deaths of “Zionist regime heads” Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Mossad head Meir Dagan, and IDF intelligence head Amos Yadlin.

The group accused the three of clear involvement in “the assassination of the heads of the resistance,” such as Hizbullah arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in Syria in February.  Israel has denied involvement in his death.

The group has called on Iranian Muslims to agree to sell a kidney in order to increase the value of the cash prize being offered for the assassinations.

Iranian Group Calls to Kill Israeli Leaders

[Shammu]

Iran celebrates election by ending nuclear talks
Sun. 16 Mar 2008

The Sunday Telegraph

By Kay Biouki in Tehran and Gethin Chamberlain

Hardliners in the Iranian regime celebrated victory in parliamentary elections by toughening their stance against the West, firmly rejecting any possibility of talks over the country’s controversial nuclear programme.

Buoyed by the early results from Friday’s parliamentary elections, the government said talks with the group of five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany were at an end.

The statement will come as a blow to those who believed the group could still broker a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis, but reflects the strength of the conservative vote.

With more than half the results counted for the 290 seat parliament, conservatives had taken a 108 to 33 seat lead over their reformist opponents.

If the results are repeated in the remaining seats, it would mark a significant victory for the hardliners aligned with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

After months of jostling for position among the ranks of rival conservatives, the IRGC is now poised to take over from Iran’s clerics as the dominant force in the country’s parliament.

In recent weeks some more moderate clerics have found themselves the subject of unprecedented public criticism over their lifestyles, undermining their electoral chances.

Many reformist supporters boycotted the polls, complaining that their candidates had been barred from standing, but the government claimed that turnout still amounted to more than 60 per cent of those entitled to vote.

For Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president who faces elections next year, the results offered a mixed message.

The rise of the IRGC is generally regarded as being in his favour - although he has faced some criticism from its ranks for backsliding - but there were also gains for more moderate conservatives, who have been critical of his handling of the ailing Iranian economy.

Their success could increase the chances of an alternative conservative challenge to Mr Ahmadinejad next year, with Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the mayor of Tehran, and Ali Larijani, the former nuclear negotiator who left his job after falling out with the president, both mentioned as possible rival candidates.

Reformists were hoping to at least form an effective minority bloc, larger than their approximately 40 seats in the outgoing parliament, but the results pointed to how deeply the movement was hurt when the unelected Guardian Council used its powers to disqualify 1,700 candidates on grounds of insufficient loyalty to Islam or Iran’s 1979 revolution.

Many of their supporters did not bother to vote but others said they felt they had to make an effort.

“The situation in the country has gone from bad to worse,” said Araman Mohebi, a 25 year old businessman in Tehran’s main bazaar.

“I voted for the reformists because something is better than nothing and I hope they could bring some changes to the suffering of the people.

"I don’t like Ahmadinejad and I will never vote for him in the next presidential election either. He has made us face danger with the world and also suffer from high inflation inside the country.”

Those concerns about the state of the economy may account for the failure of the hardliners to secure a more resounding victory.

With the Iranian New Year just around the corner, people busy making final preparations for the festive season could not fail to notice the increase in prices.

“Look at the prices at this new year,” said Hossein Hashemi, 55, outside a polling station in Tehran.

“How many times can they go up in a short while? I have great difficulties to buy new clothes and presents for my wife and children and they want me to vote for some people who I don’t know at all. What difference would this make?

"We all know that the results have been fixed before and the conservatives will win the election. They only want to use us and nothing else.”

Iran celebrates election by ending nuclear talks

[Shammu]

Ahmadinejad's Nuclear Mandate Strengthened After Iran Election

By Mark Bentley and Ladane Nasseri

 March 17 (Bloomberg) -- Defenders of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's nuclear policy won parliamentary elections in Iran, strengthening his hand as he pursues a program of uranium enrichment in defiance of the United Nations.

Iran's most devout Islamists, who backed Ahmadinejad as he ignored the West's opposition to his nuclear ambitions, swept the nationwide ballot on March 14 with about 70 percent support, according to preliminary results. A pro-democracy group opposed to the president won less than a quarter of the vote after clerics barred most of the group's candidates.

Ahmadinejad, 51, has made Iran's nuclear program the centerpiece of a presidential term that is up for renewal next year. The U.S., which has pushed three sets of economic sanctions against Iran through the UN, says the country, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, is seeking to build nuclear weapons.

``The nuclear rhetoric could get worse now,'' Meir Javedanfar, co-author of ``The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the State of Iran,'' said in a telephone interview from New York. ``The election victory may bring tougher UN sanctions, making Iran's economic situation all the more difficult.''

The president, backed by Iran's religious leaders, has stoked tensions with the U.S. and its allies in Europe since his election three years ago. At the same time, he has pursued economic policies at home based on spending, subsidies and price controls that have contributed to nationwide fuel shortages, a 21 percent youth unemployment rate and the highest inflation in eight years.

Voting `Cooked'

The U.S. said on the day of the election that voting was ``cooked'' in favor of the theocratic regime established by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in an Islamic revolution in 1979.

Vice-President Dick Cheney, who left Washington yesterday for a 10-day trip to the Middle East, will discuss with Arab leaders how to engineer a peaceful resolution to the dispute with Iran.

In a combative mood the day after the election, Ahmadinejad said the poll had ``stamped a mark of shame and despair on the forehead of Iran's enemies.''

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, speaking on state television, characterised the UN sanctions as ``evil tricks'' that failed to sway voters.

Iran has been under investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency since 2003, after the UN discovered the country had hidden nuclear work from its inspectors for 18 years in contravention of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Producing Electricity

The Iranian government says its nuclear program is aimed purely at producing electricity for its expanding population.

Ahmadinejad will now forge ahead with the program in defiance of the UN, said Mashaallah Shamsolvaezin, an adviser to the Tehran-based Center for Scientific Research and Middle East Strategic Studies.

``Iran will proceed in a radical manner on the nuclear dossier,'' he said, adding that Ahmadinejad has the full backing of Ayatollah Khamenei.

Ali Larijani, Iran's former nuclear negotiator, said the election proved the regime had widespread support from Iranians to defend its rights to nuclear power.

``The Iranian nation has reaffirmed the Islamist system and frustrated the enemies,'' he said in a statement carried by state-run Press TV yesterday. He labelled U.S. policy toward Iran as ``hostile and provocative.''

Larijani leads a pro-regime group that has broken away from the main pro-Ahmadinejad United Principlist Front. He said two days ago that differences with the president were more on style than substance, the state-run Fars news agency reported.

Iraq, Lebanon

The U.S. says that under Ahmadinejad's presidency Iran also supports insurgents in Iraq and sponsors the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, which the U.S. and Israel consider terrorists. The Iranian president has also denied Israel's right to exist.

Cheney raised concerns about the threat from Ahmadinejad's Iran to Israel before heading to the Middle East.

``Tehran may increasingly be turning its sights to inflaming the situation in the Gaza Strip,'' Cheney said in a March 11 speech to the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel, seized control of Gaza last June. Israel has exerted military and economic pressure on Gaza in a bid to stop cross-border rocket attacks from the Strip.

Ahmadinejad believes he has strong support among neighbors for his foreign policy, and the election results will do nothing to alter that, according to Mohammad-Reza Djalili, a professor at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.

``Since coming to power the president has pursued an aggressive and intransigent foreign policy,'' Djalili said in a telephone interview. ``I don't see why he would change course.''

Ahmadinejad's Nuclear Mandate Strengthened After Iran Election

[Shammu]

Please note; this is not the conspiracy theory site CuttingEdge.
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Iran Mulls the Death Penalty for Apostates—Perhaps with Worldwide Jurisdiction
Joseph Griebowski   March 17th 2008

Life for so-called apostates in Iran has never been easy, but it could become literally impossible if Iran passes a new draft penal code. For the first time in its history, Iran is considering the death penalty for apostates. In the past, authorities have executed apostates. But punishment by death has never before been set down in law.

The text of the draft penal code uses the word Hadd, which explicitly sets death as a fixed punishment that cannot be changed, reduced or annulled. The rest of the code is little better. By using ill-defined terms, other provisions also open the door to abuse Iran’s already beleaguered religious and ethnic minorities.

Article 225-1 states “Any Muslim who clearly announces that he/she has left Islam and declares blasphemy is an Apostate.” Article 225-2 adds that “Serious and earnest intention is the condition for certainty in apostasy.” So an accused person could claim that he made his statement reluctantly, or ignorantly, or while drunk, or through the slip of a tongue, and he would not be considered an apostate.
The penal code also identifies two types of apostates: innate (Fetri) and parental (Melli). An innate apostate has at least one parent who was a Muslim at conception, who declares himself a Muslim after maturity, then later leaves Islam. Maturity occurs at puberty, usually around 12 or 13. By contrast, both the parents of a parental apostate were non-Muslims at his conception. A parental apostate becomes a Muslim at maturity, then “later leaves Islam and returns to blasphemy.”

The code adds another condition for the parental apostate: anyone who has “at least one Muslim parent at the time of conception but after the age of maturity, without pretending to be a Muslim, chooses blasphemy is considered a Parental Apostate.”
 
To dispel any confusion over the required punishment for apostasy, the draft code says outright that “punishment for an Innate Apostate is death.” However, parental apostates do receive a slender reprieve: After sentencing, they have three days to recant their beliefs. If not, they will be executed according to their sentence.

Interestingly, the punishment for women is lighter than that for men. Punishment for a woman, whether innate or parental, is life imprisonment with hardship “exercised on her.” If a woman recants, she will be freed immediately. In a side note, the code’s authors said religious laws would determine “the condition of hardship.”

 The code would also further erode the rights of minorities such as Bahá’ís or Christians by labeling them apostates. “False prophets”—a term undefined in the code—are to be sentenced to death. Any Muslim who “invents a heresy” or a sect contrary to Islam is also an apostate.

Also worrying for minorities is Article 133-3, which declares that anyone who uses a minor to commit a crime will be punished. As past experience shoes, parents of Bahá’í or Christian youth who share their teachings with children other than their own could find this article applies to them. Also, two or more people who get together to commit a felony constitute a group or band. This reference can be used for any organized action by a group of people, including any activity carried out by groups the government considers dangerous, such as Bahá’ís, Christians, or Azeris.

 The code’s authors go even further, extending its jurisdiction beyond Iran’s borders to those acting “against the government, the independence and the internal and external security of the country.” The law does not define the term “security.” This means that groups around the world that Iran’s regime consider dangerous could be liable for actions they take outside the country.

Iran already has an abysmal record when it comes to oppressing religious minorities and political dissidents. The current draft penal code only provides more scope to abuse the fundamental rights of Iranians. For anyone who dares question the regime’s religious ideology, there could soon be no room to argue—only death.

Iran Mulls the Death Penalty for Apostates—Perhaps with Worldwide Jurisdiction

[Shammu]

Iran's Influence on the Rise - McCain

By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU – 10 hours ago

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting, expressed fresh concern Tuesday about Iran's influence in Iraq and rising sway in Mideast.

McCain, who has just completed his eighth visit to Iraq, said the U.S. military had just discovered a large new cache of "the most lethal" copper explosive devices there, and hinted the explosives had been provided by Iran.

McCain voiced concern that Tehran is bringing militants over the border into Iran for training before sending them back to fight U.S. troops in Iraq, and also blamed Syria for allegedly continuing to "expedite" a flow of foreign fighters.

"We continue to be concerned about Iranian influence and assistance to Hezbollah as well as Iranian pursuit of nuclear weapons," McCain said.

He added that, if elected president, he would coordinate better with Europe to impose a "broad range of sanctions and punishments" on Tehran, to "convince them that their activities, particularly development of nuclear weapons, is not a beneficial goal to seek."

McCain declined to comment on whether he could back an eventual decision to strike Iran if Tehran doesn't cease its nuclear activities.

In response to a question about possible U.S. strikes against Tehran, McCain only said: "At the end of the day, we cannot afford having a nuclear armed Iran."

He warned that any hasty pullout from Iraq would be a mistake that would favor Iran and al-Qaida.

"We continue to be very concerned about the Iranian influence in Iraq and in the region," McCain said.

McCain ran into trouble last year when he joked about bombing Iran, giving a campaign audience in South Carolina a rendition of the opening lyrics of the Beach Boys rock classic "Barbara Ann," calling the tune "Bomb Iran" and changing the words to "bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, anyway, ah ..."

McCain, who has linked his political future to U.S. success in Iraq, was in the wartorn country on Monday for meetings with Iraqi and U.S. diplomatic and military officials.

"We were very encouraged by the success of the surge and the reduction in U.S. casualties," McCain told reporters in Jordan, where he stopped on the next leg of a congressional visit that will also take him to Israel, Britain and France.

"We are succeeding, but we still have a long way to go," he warned. "Al-Qaida is on the run, they're not defeated."

A "major battle" remains to be fought to reclaim the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, he said, stating it was a success for the U.S. that Iraqi troops were now "taking the lead in that struggle" against al-Qaida.

Later Tuesday, McCain received a celebrity welcome in Jerusalem, beginning a two-day visit to Israel with a stop at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. As his motorcade pulled up dozens of tourists greeted him and chanted "Mac is back," as he shook their hands and posed for photographs.

His visit to Iraq was the Arizona senator's first since emerging as the presumed Republican nominee. He was accompanied by Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, an independent, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., two of his top supporters in the race for president.

He promised that, if elected president, he would uphold a long-term military commitment in Iraq as long as al-Qaida in Iraq is not defeated.

McCain, who is the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the trip to the Middle East and Europe was for fact-finding purposes, not a campaign photo opportunity.

He is expected to meet with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for the first time, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy for the third time. He met and corresponded with Sarkozy both before and after the French president was elected. They last saw each other last summer.

McCain has told U.S. reporters he worries that insurgents might try to influence the November presidential election by stepping up their attacks in Iraq.

McCain is a supporter of the 2003 invasion and President Bush's troop increase last year.

McCain: Iran's Influence on the Rise

[Shammu]

Iran: Bright Future for Resistance, U.S. to Leave Region
Beirut, 18 Mar 08

Iran's ambassador to Lebanon Mohammed Reza Shibani has said a parliament session scheduled for March 25 to elect a president in Lebanon will likely not take place.

Shibani, in an interview with Hizbullah's Al Manar television channel on Monday, stressed that the "future is going to be bright for resistance forces … a matter that would force Washington to leave (the region) unwillingly."

Shibani ruled out a new Israeli war on Lebanon.

"We are confident that Israel does not have the courage to create such a crisis," he said.

Shibani underlined Tehran's belief that no solution could be achieved in Lebanon without a formula based on coexistence.

"Any party that believes of taking advantage of the other in order to exert political pressure is not acceptable," he warned.

"The final decision should be restricted to the Lebanese sides because the best authority is the Lebanese people," he stressed.

Shibani said Iran and Saudi Arabia continue to exert high level efforts to help end Lebanon's political impasse, adding that contacts between Tehran and Syria also never stopped in this regard.

Iran: Bright Future for Resistance, U.S. to Leave Region

[Shammu]

Iran Schoolbooks Teach Jihad, Martyrdom, Study Shows
By Fred Lucas  Staff Writer

Washington (CNSNews.com) - When third grade school children in Iran turn to page 113 of their textbook "Let's Read," they find a passage that says, "At that time, the Israeli officer pounded (three-year-old) Muhammad's head with the rifle's stock and his warm blood sprinkled upon his (six-year-old brother) Khaled's hands."

The Iranian textbook was published in 2004, before the controversial Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president of Iran in 2005. In another third-grade text, "Gifts of Heavan," an illustration of a monster wearing the Star of David is seen going through a tidy Muslim town leaving garbage everywhere.

While those examples could seem shocking to some, it gets worse, said Arnon Groiss, director of research at the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, who recently completed a study of 115 Iranian school textbooks. (Most of the books reviewed in the study had been published in 2004.)

"Indoctrination is less felt in the lower grades and increases in the higher grades," Groiss said, speaking at a forum Monday on the topic at the conservative Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C.

The books are part of an overall indoctrination effort aimed at school children. This effort includes rewritten Iranian history and the inclusion of Jihadist political views in science and geography texts, he said.

The seventh grade text "Islamic Culture and Religious Instruction," which refers to the West and Israel as the "Arrogant Ones," tells students that war is unavoidable and victory is guaranteed "in order to continue with all our power our revolution against the Arrogant Ones and the oppressors."

An eighth grade text says the "army of Islam would make the Arrogant Ones fall in holy Jihad and heavy attack."

"This is a form of child abuse rejected by all civilized countries," said Groiss, who for 30 years was an Arab-language journalist and is currently deputy director at Israel Broadcasting Authorities Arabic Radio. "This pictures a regime bent on global war to the point of self-destruction."

On page 20 of the high school textbook "Humanities," the United States is described as an "imperialist country" that "does not refrain from massacring people, from burying alive soldiers of the opposite side and from using mass-destruction weapons. It makes use of atomic bombs. ... It creates the greatest dictatorships and the violent and torturous security-oriented regimes, and defends them."

The good news could be that most Iranian families dismiss the teachings in the books, telling their children to simply memorize the material for the test, but nothing else, said the Iranian-born Shayan Arya at the forum.

"To the Iranian youth, America is the most popular country," said Arya, a member of the Constitutionalist Party of Iran - an international group of one-time Iranian citizens pushing for the establishment of a liberal democracy in that country. However, even a small number influenced by the books could be damaging, he said.

"The Islamist regime does not need to be 100 percent successful, only a small portion," Arya said. "If 10 percent are exposed, that's 5 million. If 1 percent is exposed, that's 500,000. If it's a half of a percent, that's 250,000. That's more troops than we have in Iraq."

Iran Schoolbooks Teach Jihad, Martyrdom, Study Shows

[Shammu]

Iranian, Syrian missiles to pound Israel in next war

Secret report paints grim picture: Thousands of casualties, nationwide power outages

Itamar Eichner
Published: 03.24.08, 13:46
Israel News

Hundreds of dead, thousands of injured, missile barrages on central Israel, full paralysis at Ben-Gurion Airport, constantly bombed roads, nationwide power outages that last for long hours, and whole regions' water supply being cut off – this is what the next war could look like.

A secret report recently distributed among government ministries and local municipalities details various wartime scenarios. The report deals with very harsh possibilities, including some that are downright horrifying, formulated as part of the lessons drawn in the wake of the Second Lebanon War.

Notably, the document does not aim to predict future developments with certainty, but rather, only aims to serve as a guideline for civilian war preparations. The above assessment is characterized as a "severe reasonable scenario" – that is, it is not the gravest scenario, but also not the most favorable.

According to this scenario, the war will last for about a month and will include the participation of Syria (military operations on the Golan Heights front and the firing of many Scud missiles at the home front,) Lebanon (the firing of thousands of Hizbullah rockets at the Galilee and Haifa as well long-range missiles at central Israel,) and the Palestinian Authority (relatively limited conflict that would include short-range rockets fired from Gaza and the West Bank as well as terror attacks such as suicide bombings within Israel.)

Mass evacuation in case of chemical attack

According to this scenario, Iran will also get involved in the war, but will only fire a limited number of missiles rather than non-conventional weapons. In addition to missile barrages, the scenario includes aerial strikes on military and strategic targets, attacks on infrastructure facilities, and attempted abductions of civilians and soldiers.

Such hypothetical war, according to the assessment, will leave 100-230 civilians dead, and 1,900-3,200 Israelis wounded. However, should Israel be attacked with chemical weapons, the number of killed and wounded Israelis would skyrocket to 16,000.

Under such circumstances, as a result of missile damage, chemical contamination, and the razing of homes the State would have to evacuate as many as 227,000 Israelis from their homes. According to the assessment, about 100,000 people would seek to leave the country should such scenario materialize.

Iranian, Syrian missiles to pound Israel in next war

[Shammu]

Iran: Parliament to discuss death penalty for converts who leave Islam

Tehran, 19 March (AKI) - In its first session since last week's general elections, the new Iranian parliament is expected to discuss a law that will condemn to death anyone who decides to leave the Muslim faith and convert to other religions.

The parliament, also known as the Majlis, will debate the new law which has been presented by the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Under the proposed law, anyone who is born to Muslim parents and decides to convert to another faith, will face the death penalty.

Currently converts, particularly those who have decided to leave the Muslim faith for Evangelical churches, are arrested and then released after some years of detention.

The new legislation, which has caused concern in Iran and abroad, was proposed mainly because of fears of proselytising activities by Evangelical churches particularly through the use of satellite channels.

There has also been concern over fact that many young people in Iran have abandoned Islam because they're tired of the many restrictions imposed by the faith.

According to unofficial sources, in the past five years, one million Iranians, particularly young people and women, have abandoned Islam and joined Evangelical churches.

This phenomenon has surprised even the missionaries who carry out their activities in secret in Iran.

An Evangelical priest and former Muslim in Iran told Adnkronos International (AKI) that the conversions were "interesting, enthusiastic but very dangerous".

"The high number of conversions is the reason that the government has decided to make the repression of Christians official with this new law," said the priest on condition of anonymity.

"Often we get to know about a new community that has been formed, after a lot of time, given that the people gather in homes to pray and often with rituals that they invent without any real spiritual guide," he told AKI.

"We find ourselves facing what is more than a conversion to the Christian faith," he said. "It's a mass exodus from Islam."

Since the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, at least eight Christians have been killed for their faith.

Seven of them were found stabbed to death after they were kidnapped while only one, Seyyed Hossein Soudmand was condemned to death.

Iran: Parliament to discuss death penalty for converts who leave Islam

[Soldier4Christ]

 Two Israeli politicians on the opposite sides of the political spectrum agree on one thing - Iran

On a recent trip to the Middle East, US Vice-President Dick Cheney stopped in Israel to try and keep the Middle East peace process on track; and Vice-President Cheney met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to encourage each side to make the hard concessions to accomplish a peace agreement.

The United States Vice-President met with Israel's President Shimon Peres; and also the opposition leader of the government, Likud Party leader and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with both men, both from opposite sides of the political spectrum, both men agreeing on the issue of Iran and it's danger to the Jewish state of Israel.

Both politicians agreeing on the Iranian threat.

Two opposing political leaders of Israel, agreeing on one issue, the Iranian threat, is significant politically; but very significant prophetically.

As Dick Cheney met with the leaders of Israel on a recent Middle East trip, he heard from two Israeli politicians on the opposite sides of the political spectrum that there is something that they agree on today.

Both men, Israeli President Shimon Peres and opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, agree that Iran is the major threat to the Jewish state of Israel.

President Peres says that Israel can not give back the Golan Heights to Syria, that would allow for Syrian-Iranian control of the "high spot" in northern Israel.

Benjamin Netanyahu says that a divided Jerusalem would allow for the Hamas-Iranian element to take control of the old city of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.

Israeli intelligence reports that Iran is orchestrating a take-over of all of Israel and in particular, the Golan Heights and the Temple Mount. Actually, there is nothing new in this intelligence report. Bible prophecy foretold this scenario some 2500 years ago in the biblical books of Daniel, Ezekiel and the Psalms.

These passages of prophecy reveal an alignment of nations who rise up to destroy the Jewish state in the last days, with Iran center focus in this alignment, Ezekiel 38:5 and Psalm 83:6.

Political agreement on Iran is indeed evidence that Bible prophecy will be fulfilled.

[Shammu]

ImaNutjob wants to 'annihilate corrupt powers'

Mashhad, 10 April(AKI) - Iran's hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday his country's objective was to destroy what he called corrupt western powers.

"Our objective is to annihilate all corrupt powers that dominate our planet today," said Ahmadinejad.

He was speaking in the holy Shia city of Mashhad, located 850 kilometres east of the Iranian capital Tehran at an event where he met Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade.

Ahmadinejad also "advised" western powers to repent or, "otherwise Iranians will hoist their flag on the roof of their buildings."

"Our enemies do not fear the technological, economical and industrial aspects of our nuclear programme, but tremble at the thought of the Islamic republic sitting as equals with them at the same table," he said.

ImaNutjob wants to 'annihilate corrupt powers'