The tried-and-true excuse for a war.
What the hell, nothing else is working and now they are allies against ISIS.
"Iran’s Khamenei has prostate surgery" Associated Press September 09, 2014
TEHRAN — Iran’s supreme leader underwent prostate surgery on Monday and was recovering at a government hospital in Tehran, state media said in a rare report on the state of health of the country’s top cleric.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 75, who has final say on all state matters and has been Iran’s top leader since 1989, was reported to be in ‘‘good condition’’ and his doctors said he was resting after the surgery.
President Hassan Rouhani visited Khamenei in the hospital after the procedure and later released a statement saying that the leader’s condition is ‘‘very good and hence, the people should not be worried.’’
Rouhani said he had offered to cancel his attendance at a regional summit in Tajikistan but that Khamenei had persuaded him to proceed with the planned trip. Rouhani left later in the day on a five-day trip there and to Kazakhstan.
The official IRNA news agency described the operation as ‘‘routine’’ and said it was successful, without giving details on what had prompted it or the underlying medical condition.
The head of Khamenei’s medical team, Dr. Ali Reza Marandi, told state TV that the procedure took less than half an hour and was performed under local anesthesia.
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The president is more like ours, Amerikan. In other words, he's an asshole:
"Iran president urges clerics to tolerate Internet" | Associated Press September 02, 2014
TEHRAN — Iran’s president urged the country’s clerics Monday to be more tolerant of the Internet and new technologies, which are often the target of criticism by influential hard-liners in the Islamic Republic.
Hassan Rouhani made the appeal during a meeting with clerics in Tehran, where he said that the Internet is important for aspiring students and experts trying to access new knowledge and science.
‘‘In today’s world, one who does not know the Internet and does not apply it is not called an expert, even a student. . . . We cannot close the gates of the world for the younger generation,’’ he said in a broadcast speech.
Rouhani, a relative moderate elected last year, has vowed to expand media and Internet freedoms but has faced resistance from hard-liners, who oppose third-generation cellular network technology for example, saying that it paves the way for immoral images.
In recent weeks, however, the government has allowed more Iranian operators to provide 3G service.
Authorities have banned many social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube after the opposition used them during postelection protests in 2009. But technology-savvy Iranians use proxy servers or other workarounds to bypass the controls.
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Both being dicks about the USraeli assassination program:
"Iran says nuclear scientists were targeted" by Nassir Karimi | Associated Press September 03, 2014
TEHRAN — Iran has disrupted plots by foreign spies to recruit its nuclear specialists and stopped sabotage attempts through faulty foreign equipment supplied for its facilities, the deputy head of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear department said.
The comments by Asghar Zarean, who is in charge of security for Iran’s nuclear program, came during a visit by an Associated Press team to Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization in Tehran organized by state officials. It comes as Iran continues negotiations with world powers over its contested nuclear program and after authorities said they shot down a purported Israeli drone near one of its atomic facilities.
‘‘We aim to raise awareness about the enemy, who is more hostile to us every day,’’ Zarean said Monday, without naming the countries that authorities believe are behind the efforts.
Iran’s nuclear program has been the target of sabotage.
Been kind of quiet in that front lately.
In 2010, the so-called Stuxnet virus disrupted operation of thousands of centrifuges, key components in nuclear fuel production, at Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility.
Iran says it and other computer virus attacks are part of a concerted effort by Israel, the United States, and their allies to undermine its nuclear program through covert operations. Israel has never commented on the allegations but is widely believed to have been involved in the Stuxnet attack.
There are your "hackers." Some even speculate Stuxnet infected nuclear reactors from Europe to Japan, Fukushima being one of them.
In the interview, Zarean said foreign intelligence agencies targeted the specialists when they traveled abroad and that the specialists informed their superiors when they returned home. He did not say where the alleged contact occurred.
Zarean also showed journalists parts and equipment, including modems and pumps, which he said had been deliberately tampered with to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program. He described the items as a small sample of Western sabotage.
The United States and its allies fear Iran’s nuclear program could allow it to build atomic weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, like generating electricity and medical research.
Which it is because there is no evidence to the contrary despite war-monger braying.
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"UN’s Iran nuclear probe stalls again" Associated Press September 04, 2014
VIENNA — A new and seemingly promising UN probe of allegations that Iran worked on atomic arms has stalled, diplomats say, leaving investigators not much further than where they started a decade ago and dampening US hopes of reaching an overarching deal with Tehran by a November deadline.
Awwww, I'm sure the U.S. is muy disappointed.
Expectations were high just two weeks ago, when chief UN nuclear inspector Yukiya Amano emerged from talks in Tehran with Iranian President Hasan Rouhani saying Iran had given ‘‘a firm commitment’’ to cooperation and suggesting that years of deadlock had been broken.
But two diplomats said that the International Atomic Energy Agency will issue a confidential report this week saying that Iran hasn’t provided information to substantially advance the probe, a finding that could affect talks between Iran and six major powers.
The diplomats spoke only on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the confidential talks. IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor said Wednesday that the agency would have no comment. Iran’s mission to the IAEA said Reza Najafi, the chief delegate to the agency, was in Tehran and nobody else could talk to reporters.
The IAEA inquiry is formally separate from the US-led talks. But Washington says a successful IAEA investigation must be part of any final deal. That now seems unlikely by the Nov. 24 deadline even if the two sides agree by then on the rest of a deal meant to limit Iran’s nuclear capacities in exchange for sanctions relief.
The deadline is not until November? That's plenty of time for a deal.
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The 21st-century attempt at a U2 incident?
"US military flight rerouted to Iran" September 06, 2014
WASHINGTON — A commercial aircraft chartered by the US-led military coalition in Afghanistan for a flight to the Persian Gulf city of Dubai was rerouted to Iran on Friday, apparently because of a mix-up over its flight plan, US officials said.
The plane was flying from Bagram Airfield to Dubai. The normal flight path goes through Iranian airspace.
One official said Iranians radioed the plane’s crew to say they did not have the proper paperwork and to return to Bagram. The pilots said they did not have enough fuel to return so the Iranian authorities told them to land in Iran.
A senior State Department official said the issue appeared to have been resolved after the plane landed at Bandar Abbas in southern Iran and officials believed the plane would be cleared to resume its journey. The officials were not authorized to be named and spoke on condition of anonymity.
And thankfully no harm done.
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"Iran: Paperwork, expenses caused plane diversion" by ADAM SCHRECK" Associated Press, September 6, 2014
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran ordered a commercial aircraft chartered by the U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan to land in the Islamic Republic so it could pay expenses and complete paperwork, an official there said Saturday.
The comments by Mansour Haghighatpour, a member of the parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, are the first official word from Iran over the diversion Friday of the chartered flight from Dubai-based low-cost carrier flydubai.
The plane, on its way from Bagram airfield north of Kabul to Dubai, was allowed to depart after spending several hours on the ground in Bandar Abbas in southern Iran. The flight path goes through Iranian airspace.
‘‘The plane was ordered to land in order to pay related expenses and doing paperwork to continue its flight,’’ the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Haghighatpour as saying. ‘‘Americans should know that Iran strongly defends its territory in land, sea and air. They should observe international measures in this regards. Otherwise they will face such an attitude.’’
Jasem Jaderi, the governor of Hormozgan province, where Bandar Abbas is the capital, told Iranian news website yjc.ir that out of 140 passengers on the diverted flight, 110 were American.
Iranians radioed the plane’s crew to say they did not have the proper paperwork and to return to Bagram, a U.S. official said Friday. The pilots said they did not have enough fuel to return so the Iranian authorities told them to land in Iran.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf later described the cause of the diversion as a ‘‘bureaucratic issue’’ with the plane’s flight plan.
An airline representative speaking on condition of anonymity in line with company policy confirmed that the plane landed safely Saturday morning and said ‘‘the cause for the diversion is being examined.’’
Flydubai, like its larger sister carrier Emirates, is owned by the government of the emirate of Dubai, one of seven states in the United Arab Emirates.
The airline regularly flies to dozens of destinations and occasionally operates charter flights. It last month announced the start of its first scheduled flights in Iran — to the capital of Tehran and the northeastern city of Mashhad.
Isn't Iran under sanction and a Shi'ite-Sunni schism going on over there? And yet the UAE is flying planes in?
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NEXT DAY UPDATES:
‘Happy in Tehran’ dancers are given suspended sentences
How could you possibly talk to such people, 'eh?
