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

[Shammu]

'Iranians believe in peace and love'
Aug. 11, 2008
jpost.com staff and ap
THE JERUSALEM POST

Iranian Vice President Esfandiar Rahim Mashai said Monday that he would not retract his recent statements that the Iranian people were fond of Israelis and Americans.

Speaking to reporters in Teheran, Mashai said that he was proud of his remarks and did not regret making them since "the Iranians believe in peace and love between people."

"We are friends of all of humanity. There is no difference at all between the Iranians and Americans, even the Israelis are our friends," he said.

Mashai stressed, however, that his comments did not constitute recognition of Israel's legitimacy.

On July 20, Mashai said that Iran was "friends with the Israeli people and described United States as "one of the best nations in the world."

"Today, Iran is friends with the American and Israeli people. No nation in the world is our enemy, this is an honor," he said on the sidelines of a tourism congress in Teheran.

"Of course we have enemies and the most unfair hostilities are committed against the Iranian people," he said. "We regard the American people as one of the best nations in the world."

Mashai is in charge of Iranian tourism and historical sites.

He is said to be extremely close to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and earlier this year, his daughter married Ahmadinejad's son.

'Iranians believe in peace and love'
~~~~~~~

Sounds like Baghdad Bob announcing to the world that no Americans were in Baghdad.

[Shammu]

Hit squads training in Iran

By PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writer Fri Aug 15, 7:07 AM ET

WASHINGTON - Iraqi Shiite assassination teams are being trained in at least four locations in Iran by Tehran's elite Quds force and Lebanese Hezbollah and are planning to return to Iraq in the next few months to kill specific Iraqi officials as well as U.S. and Iraqi troops, according to intelligence gleaned from captured militia fighters and other sources in Iraq.

A senior U.S. military intelligence officer in Baghdad described the information Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.

The officer on Wednesday provided Iraq's national security adviser with several lists of the assassination teams' expected targets. He said the targets include many judges but would not otherwise identify them. Iraq's intelligence service is preparing operations to determine where and when the special group fighters will enter the country and is to provide an assessment to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The U.S. official acknowledged disclosing the information in an attempt to pressure Iran to suspend the training and prevent the militia fighters from returning to Iraq. The U.S. military also wants the Iraqi government to take steps to protect the targets. "Wanted" posters picturing men believed to be heading the special groups are being posted around Baghdad, the military officer said.

The U.S. also is encouraging the Iraqi government to confront Iran with the information in diplomatic channels, and it wants Iraq to continue pumping money into its own reconstruction. By building stability and Iraqis' confidence in their government, internal support for militia groups should decline, making it more difficult for them to operate.

The fighters are expected to return to Iraq between now and October, but the officer said there's no intelligence suggesting they are actually in Iraq yet. The information came from militia fighters captured in Iraq and other sources in the country that the officer would not describe.

Many of the fighters fled to Iran this spring after Iraqi government forces cracked down first on militia sanctuaries in Basra and Baghdad's Sadr City district, then in Amarah and now in Diyala province, the military officer said.

One of the reasons the U.S. believes the special groups moved out during that period is the sharp decline in the number of deadly roadside bombs bearing Iran's signature explosive design. In March, there were 55 such attacks. By July, that number had dropped to around 18, the officer said. U.S. intelligence believes those sophisticated bombs can be traced back to Iran.

Iran, Hezbollah's benefactor, denies giving any support to Shiite extremists in Iraq.

The officer said training is going on in at least four locations in Iran: Qom, Tehran, Ahvaz and Mashhad. The number of "special group criminals" — the U.S. name for Iraqi fighters sponsored by Iran — is unknown but is estimated in the hundreds and possibly more than 1,000.

According to the officer, the training camps are operating under the direction of Quds force commander Brig. Gen. Ghassem Soleimani, with the knowledge and approval of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The elite Quds Force is a branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

The training includes how to conduct reconnaissance to pinpoint targets, small arms and weapons training, small unit tactics and terrorist cell operations and communications. They are also learning how to use bombs packed with explosive penetrators that can rip through U.S. armored vehicles, along with other improvised explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades, including the RPG-29 used by Lebanese Hezbollah and the Quds force. They are also receiving training on assassination techniques, employing RPGs, small arms or explosives, the officer said.

Lebanese Hezbollah conducts much of the training in the camps because they speak Arabic. Iranians are Persian and speak Farsi. Lebanese Hezbollah also has credibility with the Iraqis, given the successful 2006 uprising in Lebanon, the officer said. The U.S. officer said there are no confirmed reports of Lebanese Hezbollah members crossing into Iraq.

That conflicts with what Iraqi Shiite lawmakers and a top Iraqi army officer told the AP last month: Hezbollah trainers were running training camps in southern Iraq until April, when they were pushed into Iran by the Iraqi crackdown.

The trainees in the Iranian camps include three Iraqis already wanted by the Iraqi government for terrorist attacks: Haji Mahdi, Haji Thamir and Baqir al Sa'idi, the officer said. He identified two Iraqi Shiite militia groups in Iran by name: "The League of the Righteous," or "Asaib al Haq," and the "Kataib al Hezbollah."

Foot soldiers and cell leaders are physically separated for most of the training, the officer said. Leaders are trained in Tehran and cell members are in separate camps where Quds trainers attempt to indoctrinate them without competition from their Iraqi leaders.

The "special group criminals" are offshoots of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Jaysh al-Mahdi militia. They spun off their own groups after al-Sadr declared a cease-fire with the Iraqi government in August 2007 and are not thought to be under his control now.

Hit squads training in Iran

[Shammu]

Ahmadinejad prays for advent of Lord of Time
Tehran, August 14, IRNA

Iran-President-Mahdaviat
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday prayed for reappearance of the Lord of Time (May God Hasten His Advent).

Ahmadinejad, who is well interested to propagate the philosophy of Mahdaviat, a belief in reappearance of Imam Mahdi (May God Hasten His Advent) cherished by Shia Muslims, elaborated on the philosophy in the Fourth International Seminar on Mahdaviat Doctrine.

He said that the philosophy of Mahdaviat has focused on virtue of mankind and accomplishment of humanity.

He said that the modern world is in dire need of justice promised by reappearance of Imam Mahdi.

Muslims believe that Imam Mahdi (May God Hasten His Reappearance) will bring justice to humanity by his advent.

Ahmadinejad said that nobody is satisfied with the current situation in the world, owing to the chaos emanated from brutal acts of illegitimate governments.

Turning to Iraq as a pattern for crimes perpetrated by the present rulers, he noted that criminals have assaulted the civilized country under the pretext of fighting weapons of mass destruction, but they continue with occupation, in the war-torn country although the dictatorship has gone.

Ahmadinejad said that the ambition of establishing the fake Zionist regime had roots in a historical desire by western powers to dominate the Muslim nations in the Middle East.

"The UN Security Council, which is tasked with creating tranquility in the world, has turned into means for fomenting differences in nations and paving the way for the occupying and looting powers," he said.

He said that the bullying powers misuse the international community and organizations to press ahead with their own illegal agenda.

Ahmadinejad prays for advent of Lord of Time
~~~~~~~~

Justice?? He has no idea how ironic that statement will be to him, if his Mahdi returns.....

[Shammu]

Iran and Turkey ink 5 cooperation agreements

ISTANBUL (IRNA) -- Iran and Turkey on Thursday signed five protocols for security, economic and cultural cooperation.

The five cooperation protocols were signed after talks between Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul in Istanbul.

Under the protocols, drafted in the Persian, Turkish and English languages, the two neighbors will cooperate in campaign against organized crimes, terrorism and drugs transit, environment protection, and transportation.

A memorandum of understanding was also signed in the ceremony for cooperation between Iranian and Turkish national libraries and archives.

Iranian president visited Turkey on Thursday. He returned home on Saturday.

Ahmadinejad said Iran seeks to increase trade deals with Turkey to 20 billion dollars within four years.

Iran and Turkey ink 5 cooperation agreements

[Shammu]

Well he's just making friends all over the place. Iran is going to cooperate in the war on terror. So, when is ImaNutJob and the rest of the Iranian government going to resign, and have themselves arrested for terrorism??

[Shammu]

Ahmadinejad says Israel will be removed soon

In apparent effort to difuse criticism over conciliatory remarks made by his vice president, Iranian leader says Jewish state 'germ of corruption'

Associated Press
08.20.08, 19:55 / Israel News

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is calling Israel a "germ of corruption" that will be "removed soon."

The comments were posted Wednesday on his presidential website. They appear to be part of an effort to defuse criticism by hard-liners over recent remarks made by a high-level official.

Last week, Iranian media quoted Vice President Esfandiar Rahim Mashai as saying Iranians were "friends of all people in the world - even Israelis."

The comments were rare from a government official in Iran, whose president regularly calls for Israel's destruction.

They sparked domestic criticism of Mashai, with some officials calling for his resignation.

In 2005, Ahmadinejad said he believed Israel should be "wiped off the map."

Ahmadinejad says Israel will be removed soon

[Shammu]

And for you, Mr.Ding-bat ImaNutjob

[Soldier4Christ]

Hezbollah Training Hit Squads In Iran: U.S.

Iraqi Shiite assassination teams are being trained in at least four locations in Iran by Tehran’s elite Quds force and Lebanese Hezbollah and are planning to return to Iraq in the next few months to kill specific Iraqi officials as well as U.S. and Iraqi troops, according to intelligence gleaned from captured militia fighters and other sources in Iraq.

A senior U.S. military intelligence officer in Baghdad described the information Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.

The officer on Wednesday provided Iraq’s national security adviser with several lists of the assassination teams’ expected targets. He said the targets include many judges but would not otherwise identify them. Iraq’s intelligence service is preparing operations to determine where and when the special group fighters will enter the country and is to provide an assessment to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The U.S. official acknowledged disclosing the information in an attempt to pressure Iran to suspend the training and prevent the militia fighters from returning to Iraq. The U.S. military also wants the Iraqi government to take steps to protect the targets. “Wanted” posters picturing men believed to be heading the special groups are being posted around Baghdad, the military officer said.

[Shammu]

Iran's Supreme Leader Praises Ahmadinejad for 'Standing Up to' the West

Sunday , August 24, 2008

AP
ADVERTISEMENT

WASHINGTON —
Iran's supreme leader is praising President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for "standing up to" the West in a dispute over the country's nuclear program.

State TV quotes Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying Ahmadinejad's government has helped "revive" the values of the 1979 Islamic revolution that transformed Iran into a strict theocracy.

He was also quoted Sunday as saying "some bullying countries ... wanted to impose their will on Iran (over the nuclear issue) ... but the president stood up to them."

Ahmadinejad has come under some domestic criticism for his handling of the economy, despite a 2005 campaign promise to distribute Iran's oil revenue to each family. Iran faces skyrocketing food and fuel prices, unemployment and inflation.

Iran's Supreme Leader Praises Ahmadinejad for 'Standing Up to' the West

[Shammu]

Iran supplied Hizbullah with advanced missiles

Al-Quds al-Arabi reports missiles can accurately hit targets in Israel, weapons to be used by Lebanese organization in event that Israel or US launch attack against Islamic republic

Roee Nahmias
Published:    08.29.08, 11:05 / Israel News

Iran has supplied Hizbullah with advanced missiles which can accurately hit extensive targets inside Israel, the London-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi reported Friday, quoting Arab sources.

According to the report, the missiles will be operational at any moment Israel "thinks of acting adventurously and attacking Iran" or when the United States launches a regional war against the Tehran government.

The Arab sources said that the new missiles are capable of reaching a range "Israel cannot even imagine" and are one of the "surprises" promised by Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.

It was also reported that the missiles were equipped with advanced navigation mechanisms, which would enable them to hit their targets in a more accurate manner.

According to recent reports, Iran plans to build an array of antiaircraft missiles for Hizbullah in Lebanon. Kuwaiti newspaper al-Siyasa reported Tuesday that 300 Iranian experts were working to build an array of antiaircraft missiles on the mountain range in western Lebanon.

Al-Quds al-Arabi went on to report that Iran is not only helping Israel's enemies in Lebanon, but is also attempting to reinforce the Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip in a bid to weaken the truce between Hamas and Israel.

According to the report, these attempts have led to clashes between Hamas and Jihad members in Gaza.

Iran supplied Hizbullah with advanced missiles

[Shammu]

Iran warns any attack would start 'world war'
Aug 30 05:48 AM US/Eastern

A senior Iranian military commander has warned that any US or Israeli attack on the Islamic republic would start a new world war, the state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.

"Any aggression against Iran will start a world war," deputy chief of staff for defence publicity, Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, said in a statement carried by the agency.

Iran is under international pressure to halt uranium enrichment, a process which lies at the core of fears about Iran's nuclear programme as it can make nuclear fuel as well as the fissile core of an atom bomb.

"The unrestrained greed of the US leadership and global Zionism... is gradually leading the world to the edge of a precipice," Jazayeri said, citing the unrest in Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and Georgia.

"It is evident that if such a challenge occurs, the fake and artificial regimes will be eliminated before anything," he said, without naming any countries.

Iran does not recognise Israel, which is often described by officials in Tehran as a "fake regime."

The United States and its staunch ally Israel, the region's sole if undeclared nuclear armed nation, accuse Iran of seeking atomic weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear programme.

Iran has vehemently denied the allegations, insisting its nuclear drive is aimed solely at providing electricity for a growing population when its reserves of fossil fuels run out.

The United States has never ruled out military action against Iran over its defiance of international demands for an enrichment freeze, but so far is pursuing the diplomatic route with calls for more sanctions.

Iran has repeatedly vowed a crushing response to any attacks and it has flexed military muscles in recent years by holding war games and showing off an array of home-grown weaponry and missiles.

Another top military commander said Iran was prepared to "take the enemies off-guard" and would unveil more weapons in case of an attack.

"Some of the equipment of our armed forces have been announced but there are important things hidden whose effect would be shown on the day (of any attack)," deputy army commander Abdolrahim Mousavi told Fars news agency.

During war games in July which provoked international concern, aides to the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that Iran would target US bases and US ships in the Gulf as well as Israel if it was attacked.

Iran also test-fired its Shahab-3 missile which it says puts Israel within range.

Iran is under three sets of UN Security Council sanctions over its refusal to freeze enrichment and risks further sanctions for failing to give a clear response to an incentives package offered by six world powers in return for a halt to the sensitive work.

Iranian officials have repeatedly said they have no intention of freezing enrichment and that the country is currently operating about 4,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges and installing several thousand more.

Iran warns any attack would start 'world war'

[Shammu]

It has never been a issue of will Iran get attacked for it's nuke program, it is always just a matter of when.

[Shammu]

Iran bill to ease polygamy angers women

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer Thu Sep 4, 2:22 PM ET

TEHRAN, Iran - A bill that would allow Iranian men to take additional wives without the consent of their first wife has angered women and the country's top justice official, who say it would undermine women's rights and could be a government attempt to more deeply enshrine its strict Islamic interpretation into law.

Outcry over the bill forced parliament to postpone a vote scheduled for Tuesday so lawmakers could debate it further in a committee.

Under Islam, a man can have up to four wives, and countries around the Mideast allow polygamy. However, Iran is one of the few — along with Syria and Tunisia — that require the consent of the first wife before a husband can take another. Still polygamy is rare in Iran, where most people frown on the practice.

The government of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proposed amendments last year to legislation drawn up by the judiciary that was supposed to be a landmark bill to allow women judges for the first time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Opponents said the government is trying to impose an even stricter version of Islamic law in Iran, especially toward women. The complaints were enough to force the parliament speaker to send the bill back to committee before it was to be put to a vote for the first time Tuesday.

Under Iran's Islamic Republic, women are required to wear headscarves and conservative clothing. A woman needs her husband's permission to work or travel abroad and a man's court testimony is considered twice as important as a woman's.

Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005 in part on a platform of restoring "Islamic values" that hard-liners say were eroded under the reform program of his predecessors. In 2006, Iranian activists launched a campaign to try to change laws that deny women equal rights in matters such as divorce and court testimonies — sparking a crackdown in which a number of women activists were arrested.

Despite the current restrictions, Iran's 35 million women have greater freedoms and political rights than women in most neighboring Arab states, particularly Saudi Arabia. There are numerous women in parliament and other political offices, though they are barred from the presidency and the more powerful, clerical post of supreme leader.

Earlier this week, dozens of women's rights activists, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, went to parliament to protest the polygamy bill.

"That the parliament postponed the vote is a significant victory for women in Iran," said women's rights activist Farzaneh Ebrahimzadeh. "But we have to fight on. The bill may return to the parliament for a vote but we have to make sure that articles reducing the rights of women are deleted."

Hard-line lawmaker Fatemeh Alia said in remarks published Thursday that she and other conservative lawmakers won't give in and will fight for a vote in the parliament soon.

"Lawmakers will never give up drawing up Islamic laws ... and won't give in to mudslinging by a group of secularists gathered around those obtaining gifts from aliens," Alia was quoted as saying by the daily Etemad-e-Melli. She was referring to Ebadi, who hard-liners accuse of working for the interests of Iran's enemies.

The government amendments were added to the Family Protection Bill soon after it was drawn up last year by the judiciary. Aside from allowing some female judges, the bill imposes prison sentences for men who marry girls before they have reached legal age. The bill had sat in parliament's judiciary committee since its submission to parliament.

Another government amendment that has drawn objections from the judiciary would introduce a tax on the dowry grooms pay to wives upon marriage under Islamic law. Opponents say the government should not be allowed to get its hands on that money.

Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi criticized the government's amendments as harmful to women. He said the proposed changes have overshadowed the pro-family articles in the original bill drawn up by the judiciary.

"The dowry tax was unnecessary. It is harmful to women," he told judges Monday. He also signaled his opposition to the polygamy amendment, saying it should be "amended and debated, away from public controversy."

The bill is now the focus of family discussions in Iran. At an "iftar" dinner Thursday ending the daily fast in the holy month of Ramadan, a family hotly debated the issue.

"A man taking another wife will give financial protection to the second woman. This will help fight social vices in the society," said Reza Khodakarami. His wife, Mahtab, strongly disagreed. "No. It only tramples women's rights," she said, as other family members clapped and whistled in support of her comments.

Iran has refused to ratify the U.N. convention on women's rights, and the country's senior clerics in Qom, Iran's main center of Islamic learning, have rejected the convention as un-Islamic.

But women's rights got a boost with the 1997 election of former President Mohammad Khatami, a reformist who appointed a female vice president. Since then, other women have held positions within the government but have not been Cabinet ministers. And while women in Iran can run for parliament, they are prohibited from running for president.

Iran bill to ease polygamy angers women

[Shammu]

Iran will stand by Hamas, 'holy warrior' Haniyeh
Oct. 1, 2008
Associated Press , THE JERUSALEM POST

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that Iran will stand beside the Hamas government in Gaza and that Israel is weakening and on the path to eventual destruction, state television reported.

Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters, called Hamas's prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, a "mujahed", or holy warrior, saying "the Iranian nation will never let you be alone."

Khamenei said Israel "has weakened day by day ... Today, officials of the Zionist regime acknowledge that they are moving towards weakness, destruction and defeat," according to state television.

"Definitely, the world of Islam will see that day and hope the existing generation of the Palestinian people will watch the day Palestine is at the disposal of the Palestinian people, in the hands of the landlords," he said at prayers marking the Islamic Eid al-Fitr holiday that ends the holy month of Ramadan.

Khamenei has predicted Israel's downfall in the past, like Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Khamenei has repeatedly called Israel a "cancerous tumor" that need to be removed from the Middle East.

Iran doesn't recognize Israel and backs Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Israel had close ties with Iran when the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was in power. When the 1979 Islamic revolution toppled the shah, Iran broke ties with Israel and turned the Israeli embassy in Teheran into the Palestinian Authority embassy.

Iran will stand by Hamas, 'holy warrior' Haniyeh

[Shammu]

Iran Parliament Requires Death for 'Apostates' As Crackdown Continues
Son of 1990 martyr among Christians arrested last month.
Compass Direct News | posted 9/30/2008 07:11AM

Two Iranian Christians were charged with "apostasy" and several others arrested as Iran's parliament approved a bill making the death penalty mandatory for those so convicted.

The measure is part of a new penal code that easily passed in parliament in a 196-7 vote on September 9. Christian and Baha'i communities are most likely to be affected by the bill.

But one source told Compass Direct News that when he discussed the apostasy section with some members of parliament, they said they were unaware of it. The source argued that the Iranian government was trying to bury the bill in the 113-page penal code.

Current Iranian law considers apostasy (leaving Islam) a capital offense, but punishment is left to the discretion of judges.

The Guardian Council, Iran's most influential body, must approve the penal code before it becomes law. Sources say they expect the council, which comprises six theologians and six jurists, to approve it.

Under the past three decades of Iran's Islamist regime, hundreds of citizens who have left Islam and become Christians have been arrested for weeks or months, held in unknown locations, and subjected to mental and physical torture.

The government last executed an Iranian Christian convert from Islam in 1990, though six other Protestant pastors have been assassinated since the execution of Assemblies of God pastor Hossein Soodmand.

Now Soodmand's 35-year-old son, Ramtin Soodmand, is among five Christians arrested in three cities in August. Authorities have not said what the charges are, but sources say they may be charged with spying for foreign powers—a less serious offense than apostasy. Hossein Soodmand was similarly accused of being an American spy.

"Christians are viewed as potential spies allied with Israel or America," said a source who works closely with Iranian refugees, adding that the overwhelming number of Iranian Christians he counsels have been intimidated by police, leading them to flee Iran.

He also believes that the rapid growth of Christianity frightens Iran's government. "They see it as something they cannot control," he said, "so they are afraid of house churches."

Another expert on Iran believes Christians outside the country are partly responsible for the persecution. When Christians claim there are thousands of house churches throughout the country, he said, Iranian authorities feel threatened.

"[The police] are obligated to crack down on Christian activities when these activities become too public," one Iranian Christian said.

The timing of the penal code debate and the arrests are not coincidental, said Joseph Grieboski, founder of the Institute on Religion and Public Policy. While the international community is focused on Iran's nuclear activities, he said, the Iranian government appears to be taunting the West with deliberate human rights violations.

"Because of the nuclear issues, ones like these get put on the back burner, which means that the regime can move with great liberty to install legislation like this with impunity, because the nuclear issue gives them cover," said Grieboski.

But the acts also may signal desperation, he said. "I have to say the Iranian regime is tightening severely its control over as many aspects of the lives of Iranian people as they possibly [can]. And that, I think, is the sign of a weakening regime."

Iran Parliament Requires Death for 'Apostates' As Crackdown Continues