UANI Wants to Know Where Obama Stands on Nuclear Iran

Posted on November 15, 2011

United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), a non-partisan group that is committed to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons, has submitted a questionnaire and pledge to President Obama and each of the Republican candidates.

The 17 questions touch on subjects ranging from whether to classify Iran as a wartime enemy, to how to convince China and Russia to take part in punitive sanctions against the country.

Candidates are also asked to sign a pledge stating they would “take all necessary action through diplomacy, sanctions, covert action and if necessary the military” to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear-armed state.

In a recent interview with The Daily Caller, UANI’s spokesman Nathan Carleton stated that “UANI is hoping to provide voters with a clear and unambiguous understanding of the candidates’ positions on the danger of a nuclear-armed Iran, and how they would act if elected president.”

UANI was founded in 2008 by the late Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, former CIA director James Woolsey, Middle East expert Dennis Ross and Ambassador Mike Wallace.

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Restricted IAEA report on Iran leaked

Posted on November 10, 2011

The United Nations Nuclear Safety watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have released a new report  that reveals Iran has acquired the knowledge and material to build its first nuclear weapon.

According to the report:

“Previous reports by the Director General have identified outstanding issues related to possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear programme and actions required of Iran to resolve these.Since 2002, the Agency has become increasingly concerned about the possible existence in Iran of undisclosed nuclear related activities involving military related organizations, including activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile, about which the Agency has regularly received new information.”

“The Agency has serious concerns regarding possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear programme. After assessing carefully and critically the extensive information available to it, the Agency  finds the information to be, overall, credible. The information indicates that Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device. The information also indicates that prior to the end of 2003, these activities took place under a structured programme, and that some activities may still be ongoing.”

The report is currently restricted to IAEA Member States only. However it has been leaked on the internet and can be read here.

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Iran Bans Popular Footballers for Immoral Behavior

Posted on November 1, 2011

Iran’s latest target to clamp down on so-called “immoral behavior” are football players. That’s right, football players.

Iran’s football federation on Monday imposed indefinite bans on two players for their “immoral acts” during goal celebrations, state television’s website reported.

The incidents, condemned by officials and commentators alike, took place during a league match between Persepolis Tehran and Damash Gilan, broadcast live on national television to millions of Iranians.

Footage on YouTube shows Persepolis defender Mohammad Nosrati pinching his teammate Sheys Rezaei’s bottom as they celebrated a goal against Damash.

Rezaei, another YouTube video shows, squeezed an unidentified teammate during another goal celebration in the dying moments of the game, which Persepolis won 3-2.

“Nosrati and Rezaei have been banned indefinitely from all football activities for committing immoral acts,” said Ismail Hasanzadeh, head of Iranian football federation’s disciplinary committee.

The two footballers have been banned from playing indefinitely and made to pay a fine of 500 million rials (nearly $40,000) each – an enormous sum in Iran.

One can only imagine what the Iranian authorities would do to the European and American footballers who love nothing more than to indulge in crowd-pleasing antics on the football field.

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U.S. to Launch “Virtual” Embassy in Iran

Posted on October 27, 2011

U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has announced that the United States intends to launch a “virtual embassy” in Iran by the end of the year. The Internet-based embassy will aim to reach out to Iranians hoping to broaden their understanding of the United States.

The “embassy” also hopes to inform Iranians about visas and student exchange programs.

“We want to create better relations first and foremost with the Iranian people,” Clinton told BBC Persian.

She also acknowledged that the U.S. was helping Iranians circumvent government blocks and restrictions on the Internet and other digital communication — which could be fortunate should Iran attempt to block the new “embassy.”

The speaker of Iran’s parliament, Ali Larijani was quoted as saying, “If the Americans believe they can do something in Iran with a virtual [embassy], they are mistaken. These declarations shouldn’t be taken seriously because they’re a sign of political shortcomings”.

The US hasn’t had an embassy in Iran since breaking off diplomatic relations shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran, likewise, has no embassy in Washington.

Watch VOA’s Persian News Network interview with U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton.

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Iranian Students Demonstrate in Solidarity with Occupy Wall Street Protesters

Posted on October 23, 2011

As if the Occupy Wall Street protests have not taken enough bizarre twists and turns, Iranian students in Tehran are now showing their solidarity with the New York protesters.

A number of students from universities across Tehran held a demonstration outside the Swiss Embassy on Saturday to express their solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Iran and the United States do not have diplomatic relations, and the Swiss Embassy in Tehran hosts the U.S. Interests Section in Iran.

The demonstrators chanted slogans in support of the protesters and denounced the crackdown on the protests.

The students also set the flags of the United States and the Zionist regime on fire and chanted “Down with the United States,” “Death to Israel,” “Down with Capitalism,” and other slogans.

In recent weeks, there has been a marked increase in anti-Semitic and anti-Israel sentiment being expressed by protesters on Wall St.

The Iranian students also said that the Occupy Wall Street movement has been inspired by the tide of popular uprisings rolling across the Middle East and North Africa region.

The people of the United States have become fed up with moral corruption of the country’s officials, they added.

Corrupt officials? Now that’s the pot calling the kettle black…

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After 20 Years, Iran Finally To Be Reviewed by UN Human Rights Committee

Posted on October 17, 2011

Not that we should be all that surprised at the woeful inadequacy of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, but it’s taken them close to 20 years to review the appalling human rights record of Iran. That’s right – Iran was last reviewed by the committee in 1993 when its experts condemned “the extremely high number of death sentences that are pronounced and carried out, in many cases after a trial where the guarantees of a regular hearing were not applied in an appropriate manner”. The council equally denounced the application of extreme disciplinary measures, including flagellation and stoning.

Clearly, their condemnation was not all that strong given how long it has taken for the committee to address the extremely serious situation in Iran where there has been a disturbing rise in the incidences of human rights abuses and freedom of speech for many years now, but particularly since the fraudulent re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.


Starting today, Iranian officials will face questions from the 18 independent experts who make up the UN committee that monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights among state-parties. The review is set to begin with the presentation of a 224-page report produced by the experts and will wrap on Tuesday when the committee presents its conclusions.

Perhaps the committee’s recommendations will be reviewed in another 20 years?

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Iranian Plot to Assassinate Saudi Ambassador to US Foiled

Posted on October 11, 2011

The FBI and the DEA have foiled a plot by two men linked to the Iranian government to kill the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, His Excellency Adel A. Al-Jubeir, and to bomb a Saudi embassy, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.said in a news conference on Tuesday.

The Justice Department says one of the men – a naturalized U.S. citizen holding an Iranian passport – arranged to hire for the assassination someone in Mexico who he thought was an associate of a drug trafficking cartel. The person in Mexico actually was a DEA confidential source who was posing as a cartel associate, the Justice Department says.

The Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington called the plot “a despicable violation of international norms.”

The men accused of plotting the attacks were Manssor Arbabsiar and Gholam Shakuri, according to court documents filed in federal court in Manhattan. The Justice Department said the men were originally from Iran, although Arbabsiar is also a naturalized American citizen. Shakuri is believed to have been connected to the secretive Quds Force, a division of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards. Arbabsiar was arrested on September 29, although Shakuri is still at large.

Not surprisingly, Iran reacted immediately to the accusations by the Justice Department, dismissing them as fabrications. A Foreign Ministry spokesman told the Fars news agency that the charges lacked “any form of validity,” and the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said the charges were part of “a new propaganda campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Watch this news clip from CNN.

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U.S. Predator and Reaper Drones Hit by Computer Virus

Posted on October 9, 2011

Last year, the Iranian authorities discovered that the malicious computer worm virus, Stuxnet, had invaded five Iranian organizations, with the probable target widely suspected to be their uranium enrichment infrastructure. Although never proved or confirmed, it was widely rumored that both the U.S. and Israeli governments were involved.

Two weeks ago, the U.S. military’s Host-based Security System detected a computer virus has infected the cockpits of America’s Predator and Reaper drones, logging pilots’ every keystroke as they remotely fly missions over Afghanistan and other warzones.

As Wired reported in an online article, it has been revealed that despite the fact that the military has confirmed that operations have not been adversely affected by the virus, it has, so far, resisted multiple efforts to remove it from the computers, network security specialists say. And the infection underscores the ongoing security risks in what has become the U.S. military’s most important weapons system.


The specialists don’t know exactly how far the virus has spread. But they’re sure that the infection has hit both classified and unclassified machines at Creech Airforce Base in Nevada. That raises the possibility, at least, that secret data may have been captured by the keylogger, and then transmitted over the public internet to someone outside the military chain of command.

Read more

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As Energy Costs Soar, Iranian Cinemas Threaten Closure

Posted on October 5, 2011

It seems that another casualty of Iran’s soaring energy costs might be its cinemas.
“After the implementation of the (subsidy) plan, the price of electricity, water and gas increased by 10 to 15 times, while the income of the cinemas did not increase,” Habib Kavoush, a spokesman for the Cinema Guild told Sharq, a reformist newspaper, on Tuesday.

Despite the fact that Iran places heavy restrictions on foreign films, the local film industry is enormously popular with several Iranian films taking more than several millions of dollars in the domestic market, including “Nader and Simin – a Separation”, the Berlin film festival winner which Iran has entered for the Oscars.

Still, the cinema owners’ association is sticking together and have confirmed that if one cinema is forced to close, they will shut down all the others.

But the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance said cinema owners were exaggerating the problem and said the government would help.
“The issue is not so critical … no cinema will be closed due to this,” ministry official Alireza Sajadpour told Sharq. “There is a plan to support the cinemas and it will be put into practice by maximum next 10 days.”

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Wake Up America!

Posted on October 2, 2011

Reza Kahlili (not his real name) was once a former Iranian Revolutionary Guard member who worked undercover as a CIA agent for several years in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

As a CIA operative, counterintelligence, coded communications, escape tactics and evasion, dominated his new life. He risked exposure daily and after several close calls, he managed to leave Iran. His CIA activities continued in Europe for a few more years before he and his family finally moved to America.

After the 9/11 attack, Reza Kahlili activated a handful of sources within Iran and once again contacted the CIA. He continues as an active voice for a free Iran and works toward ending the ‘thugocracy’ of the mullah’s regime. He has written several articles for various media expressing his opinions and hope for a free Iran.

He has also made it his life’s mission to tirelessly warn the West about the catastrophic dangers posed by a nuclear Iran.

He recently posted this video which should absolutely convince you of Iran’s (and the Islamic world’s) hell-bent determination to spread Islamic law throughout the world.

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