Wanna meet one of our agents?
"In exile, an Iranian ‘lion’ keeps fighting; UMass scholar presses for reform" by James F. Smith, Globe Staff | July 13, 2009
After four years of exile, she has lost none of her quiet ferocity, or blunt determination. A visiting scholar at UMass, she has led an appeal to the UN secretary general to appoint a special envoy to investigate abuses against activists in Iran, and is pushing for the United States to do more as well. But while she has come to enjoy some of the peaceful pleasures of life here....
With charges still pending against her, she came to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in September 2005 as a visiting scholar, with her infant daughter and her journalist husband in tow. She told no one she was leaving for the United States - not even her mother. “I just told them I was going to Cambridge, and they thought I meant the other Cambridge, in England.’’
The couple and their daughter made it to Dubai without incident, got their US academic visas, and flew to Boston in September 2005. “I didn’t speak English then. My life was so hard, it was horrible.’’
John Tirman, the executive director of MIT’s Center for International Studies, arranged for her to come to the United States and took the family under his wing, helping them rent an apartment and raising a bit of money for their living expenses....
Don't you wish someone would take that interest in you, 'murkn?
After her year at MIT, she earned successive stints as a visiting scholar at the Kennedy School at Harvard, at the University of Connecticut and now at UMass-Boston, where she is helping design the online version of the certificate program in the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy. Going home feels unrealistic now....
Shahla Haeri, who leads the Women’s Studies Program at Boston University, cautioned against seeing Haghighatjoo as a feminist, noting her traditional roots and adding that women have long played a vocal role in Iranian public life....
Oh, you are either lying or kidding -- and either way, it is bad for the Muslim-hating, agenda-pushing, war-mongering papers!
As she adapts to American life, Haghighatjoo says she sees in the cartoons she watches with her daughter “the components of democracy - teamwork, how to respect others’ ideas. Kids here, from the moment they are born, learn and absorb democratic values. If the US wants to export democracy, cartoons are one way to market it. A totalitarian government would block these cartoons,’’ she said.
Our cartoons suck! Full of violence and hurt!
And is that Mickey Mouse I see in the shop window?
Hey, what's one more damnable lie from the jewspaper, huh?
As a psychologist, she also appreciates the problem-solving her daughter is learning in her school in Cambridge. “Here, the school raises many questions. Challenging is a value here. In my country it’s hard to challenge your teacher.’’
Try asking the teacher how buildings fall down that way because of fire on 9/11 and see how far you get.
And she sees in American society an enviable vein of accountability. “If my daughter falls she says, ‘I hurt myself.’ In my country we would say, “the floor hurt me.’ We don’t provide enough room to accept responsibility for our faults.’’
Unreal! The shit is getting deep!
Haeri, the BU professor, said it was striking how far Haghighatjoo had come since arriving in the United States....
--more--"
Of course, look at which protest get very little coverage (and an insult):
"On Saturday, a group of Iranians gathered in front of the German Embassy in Tehran in a protest against the killing, some of them throwing eggs at the main gate, a witness said."
Related: German Jew Attempts Islamic Abortion
The U.S. detention of Iranians for OVER TWO YEARS elicits no outrage in the U.S. media, either. Strange when you consider the reaction to North Korea's seizure of "reporters" or Iran's detention of British violators.
TEHRAN - Five Iranian officials held in Iraq for more than two years by US forces returned home yesterday after the United States released them under pressure from the Iraqi government.
American officials said a US-Iraqi security agreement required that they hand the men over. But they also said they fear that the Iranians - held on suspicion of aiding Shi’ite militants - pose a threat to US troops in Iraq.
The five men were handed over to Iraqi officials Thursday and flew yesterday to Tehran. There they were met at the airport by a cheering crowd of onlookers who carried the men on their shoulders and put garlands of flowers around their necks.
In a news conference with the men, Iran’s foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, welcomed them back to Iran and praised what he described as their courageous resistance while they were held in Iraq by US forces. The Iranians were detained in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil in January 2007. At the time, US authorities said the men included the operations chief and other members of Iran’s elite Quds Force, which is accused of arming and training Iraqi militants.
Iran denied the claim, and has described the men as diplomats who were kidnapped by US forces. Mottaki accused President Obama of continuing the bullying practices of his predecessor. “Iran preserves its right for legal action against the bullying act of the Bush administration in detaining Iranian diplomats, which was unfortunately continued in the new administration,’’ Mottaki was quoted as saying by Iranian television.
The United States has long charged that Iran is behind much of the violence in Iraq and that Tehran has been financing and assisting Shi’ite militias in attacks against US and Iraqi forces....
I am SO SICK of U.S. BULLSHIT! Please see Tortured Logic and follow the links for who is REALLY RESPONSIBLE for VIOLENCE in IRAQ!
Iran and Iraq have enjoyed better relations after the US-led invasion in 2003 toppled the government of Saddam Hussein, who launched an eight-year war against Iran in the early 1980s. Many current Iraqi leaders were in exile in Iran and still have close ties with Tehran.
The omissions and distortions in that small paragraph are simply too many to mention. Sigh.
And if the current crop of leaders -- OUR GUYS -- are close to Iran, why do we have a bitch? Oh, right, I-S-R-A-E-L!
The release of the five has been portrayed in Iran as a victory for the Islamic Republic at a time when the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is under domestic and international criticism following the disputed June 12 presidential election and the ensuing government crackdown on protests....
Iran has accused foreign powers - the United States and Britain, in particular - of fomenting the unrest. Yesterday, one of Iran’s vice presidents warned Western powers against meddling in the country, calling it a “lose-lose’’ situation.
Interesting that Israel is left out of the mix, 'eh?
Parviz Davoudi said such interference would backfire and destabilize the West, too, because Iran has influence in many parts of the world. “If you plan to fight Iran and destabilize it, you have to know that instability in Iran would lead to flux in the entire region and world,’’ the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.
They know; that is what they are shooting for!
Addressing the opposition, whose street protests have largely been quelled by security forces, Davoudi said they should not pin their hopes on the West, saying, “The system which you want to rely on faces a dead end and defeat.’’
Yeah, because it is CORRUPT and ROTTEN!!!
Iran and the United States have had no diplomatic relations since 1979, when militant students stormed the US Embassy in Tehran and held Americans there hostage for 444 days....
Why would they do that, MSM?
Hey, what is one more omission at this point?
--more--"
BEIRUT - Mir Hossein Mousavi plans to forge a new reformist political front that would challenge the country’s dominant conservatives, and will have most of the rights given to a political party....
The deputy chief of Iran’s parliament said yesterday that Ahmadinejad will be sworn in for a second term on or after Aug. 2 and propose a cabinet for parliament’s approval by Aug. 6, another period where analysts predict protests will erupt.
Reformists have tried for years to break through Iran’s legal and political restrictions and fend off ideological challenges and accusations of complicity with the West to obtain and exercise power.
Sort of like THIRD PARTIES here in AmeriKa, huh?
Oh, yeah: "Iran has more political freedom than many countries in the region"
What more is there to say about AmeriKa's jewspapers, 'eh?
The Islamic Iran Participation Front, a reformist political grouping, has been operating for years without gaining influence. Unlike a party, a front cannot call political rallies.
Sort of like THIRD PARTIES here in AmeriKa, huh?
But Mousavi’s new organization could gain political muscle with the help of Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a powerful cleric who is a pillar of Mousavi’s support....
Keep him in mind for later.
--more--"
Of course, Iran knows what to do with AmeriKan agents and assets:
TEHRAN - Iran yesterday hanged 13 members of a Sunni Muslim rebel group convicted of bombings and killings in the country’s restive southeast near the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan, the state news agency reported.
Related: Sneaking Through the Backdoor of Central Asia
The mass execution was the largest ever carried out against members of Jundallah and was likely meant as a warning to the group, which is composed of Sunnis from the Baluchi ethnic minority. They have waged a low-level insurgency in recent years, accusing the mostly Shi’ite and Persian Iranian government of persecution.
The group, whose name means Soldiers of God in Farsi, took credit for a suicide bombing of a Shi’ite mosque in May that killed 25 people in Zahedan, the capital of Iran’s southeast Sistan-Baluchistan province that has witnessed some of Jundallah’s worst attacks.
The Iranian government has struggled to enforce order in a region where the problem of sectarian violence is combined with the challenge of cracking down on drug smuggling routes connected to neighboring Pakistan and Afghanistan.
--more--"
That makes THIS seem all the more suspicious:
"Plane nose-dives in Iran, killing all 168 aboard; Jet’s tail on fire before crash, witnesses say" by Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press | July 16, 2009
The impact of the Caspian Airlines Tupolev jet plowed a deep, long trench into a field outside the village of Jannat Abad, Iran. (Khalil Emami/ AFP/ Getty Images)
That's an odd looking debris field for a crash.
See: Breaking News: Iranian Airliner Destroyed in Terror Attack
TEHRAN, Iran - A Russian-made jetliner carrying 168 people nose-dived into a field after taking off from the Iranian capital yesterday in a fiery crash that shredded the aircraft and killed everyone aboard - Iran’s worst air disaster in six years. Witnesses say the plane’s tail was on fire before it went down.
It was the latest in a string of deadly crashes in recent years that have highlighted Iran’s difficulties in maintaining its aging fleet of planes.
Yeah, that's it: Mystery surrounds crash of 'fit to fly' Iran plane
Iranian airlines, including state-run ones, are chronically strapped for cash, and maintenance has suffered, specialists say. US sanctions prevent Iran from updating its 30-year-old American aircraft and make it difficult to get European parts or planes as well. The country has come to rely on Russian aircraft, many of them Soviet-era planes that are harder to get parts for since the Soviet Union’s fall.
So the U.S. is ALSO indirectly RESPONSIBLE for this through their inane policies!
The Caspian Airlines Tupolev jet’s impact plowed a deep, long trench into an agricultural field outside the village of Jannat Abad, and the aircraft was blasted to bits. Flaming wreckage and personal items were strewn over a 200-yard area. Firefighters put out blazes from the crash, but smoke smoldered from the pit for hours as emergency workers searched for data recorders and other clues to the cause....
I'm sorry, world, but the photographs and descriptions look and sound TOO MUCH like Shanksville, PA on 9/11. Ergo, the plane was either BOMBED or SHOT DOWN! MSM NEVER tells the truth about plane crashes,
The cause of the crash was not immediately known....
But the MSM DROPS the story like a hot potato!
I mean, they spent days and days on the French liner that went down off the Brazilian coast, so WTF?
The MSM's subsequent AVOIDANCE of this crash actually tips the reader off to western involvement!
Most of the passengers were Iranians, many of them from Iran’s large ethnic Armenian community, as well as 11 members of Iran’s national youth judo team. Five Armenian citizens were among the dead, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement, along with two Georgians, including a staff member from the Caucasus nation’s embassy in Yerevan....
Georgia is an Eastern European base for the Jewish mafia.
Age itself may not be a problem - jets that are even older are in service around the world - but keeping them maintained is. Masoud Mohajer, an aviation expert in Tehran, said Iranian airlines can’t afford to keep even Russian planes in shape because of lack of government support.
This is STINKING even more now!!!!
“Iranian airliners don’t have enough cash even to buy new Russian planes. The government controls ticket prices. It’s not profitable for airliners,’’ Mohajer said. Some of the jets in Iran’s fleet are US-made craft bought before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which led to a cutoff in ties between the nations. US sanctions since prevent Iran from buying parts for those planes or new ones....
--more--"I get the feeling we will be killing a whole lot more Iranians before this is all over.
Well, we began with a U.S. agent and asset; let's end with another.
"Iran opposition sees opportunity at Friday prayers; Main advocate in clerical ranks to give sermon" by Nasser Karimi and Lee Keath, Associated Press | July 17, 2009
TEHRAN - The opposition is planning a dramatic show of strength on one of Iran’s most important and resonant political stages: the main Islamic prayers in the capital.
Their top supporter in the clerical leadership - Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani - is delivering the sermon today for the first time since the disputed June 12 presidential election, and opposition activists intend to pack the hall to prove their movement remains vibrant despite a government crackdown....
The opposition hopes the prayers will be a key moment to prove its staying power.... the biggest challenge to the clerical leadership rule in 30 years.
They have depicted the opposition as radicals backed by foreign enemies and have kept the opposition voice out of state-run media, which reaches the widest audience around the country.
Doncha love it when the kettle AmeriKan MSM hollers pot?
Friday prayers could poke a hole in that blackout, a prospect that clearly concerns authorities.
The prayers, held at Tehran University, could be an unpredictable moment. Opposition activists are planning a rally outside the university afterward, raising the prospect of friction
--more--"I guess we will find out on Slow Saturday.... or will we?
