|
Weekly Commentary
Meanwhile In
Iraq…
Just one day after the Champagne toasts at the residence of
France's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency,
celebrating the signing of a flawed nuclear accord with Iran,
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said "Iran will
never halt its nuclear activities under any circumstances." The
Following day, Tehran’s top nuclear official, Hassan Rowhani
declared victory for his regime and defeat for the United
States. When a terror-prone dictatorial regime like the one in
Iran wins, it is certain that the Iranian people and the world
community lose.
Indeed, the mullah’s regime may have made strategic gains by its
11th hour signing of the agreement, the least of which could be
preventing its case from being reported to the UN. As diplomatic
nuclear charade has been going on for more than a year now, the
clerical regime has worked hard to hide an equally ominous
campaign: the high jacking of the upcoming Iraqi election.
Tehran aims to accomplish this by making certain its block of
various proxies within the Iraqi Shiia political body gain a
majority in the future Iraqi parliament. And this plot, if not
neutralized, could plunge Iraq and the whole region into
worsening chaos and instability for many years to come. Just
imagine having two Khomeini-style Islamic republics in Iran and
Iraq.
There have been many reports coming from Iraq and Iraq
indicating that Tehran, parallel to its cunning diplomatic
maneuvers to buy time for its nuclear weapons program, has
utilized all its resources such that, come January 30th, its
Iraqi allies and proxies will be in a dominant position in
respect to democratic and secular Iraqi political groups.
Tehran has also increased dispatching of its agents, suicide
bombers, and weapons into Iraq to escalate the attacks on Iraqi
security and the US-led coalition forces to further weaken these
forces as they confront Tehran’s manipulation of the election.
Last Sunday, the Associated Press quoted Mohammad Ali Samadi,
the spokesman for the Headquarters for Commemorating Martyrs of
the Global Islamic Movement, a state-sponsored terror outfit in
Tehran, as saying that his group has signed up 30,000 volunteers
to carry out suicide attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq, or
against Israelis, or to assassinate British author Salman
Rushdie. Samadi stated that these volunteers had already carried
out suicide operations against military targets inside Israel,
but refrained from discussing attacks against U.S. troops in
Iraq saying that it "will cause problems for the country's
foreign policy. It will have grave consequences for our country
and our group. It's confidential."
The Iraqi daily Al-Shahed al-Mostaqqel reported early in the
week that “there are widespread talks among the people of the
Zeeqaar province that” one of the Iraqi parties which is
currently a member of the Interim government” has received about
$55 million from Iran for the party’s election campaign.
In Iraq, similar to other areas of its foreign policy, Tehran
plays a shrewd double game: Publicly, it participates in and
even hosts security summit meetings and issues preposterous
pronouncements about the need for peace and security in Iraq
while it secretly sends agents, weapons, money, and suicide
bombers to Iraq.
The mullahs have sharply increased suppression at home in order
to control the rising opposition of Iranians. With oil prices
running high, the mullahs’ coffers are bursting with cash while
the economic hardship and mass unemployment fester.
Seeing all this cash, greedy EU countries are salivating for
lucrative deals with Iran at the price of expediting Iran’s
nuclear program. Conveniently they also turn a blind eye to the
mullahs’ reign of terror and plunder of Iran’s wealth.
The mullahs are cleverly exploiting the bottomless greed of the
EU and its apparent appetite for appeasement of terrorist
sponsoring regimes, to advance their nuclear weapons program on
one hand, and to achieve their sinister objectives in Iraq, on
the other. The United States cannot afford to continue to stay
on the sidelines while this deadly charade billed as nuclear
diplomacy between the EU and Iran continues. Tehran’s appeasers
and the cheerleaders of the long failed policy of engagement are
now taking advantage of this policy vacuum by pushing for
further appeasement.
Appeasement of Iran’s fundamentalist mullahs must be stopped.
Washington must formulate a clear and firm Iran policy.
Political and diplomatic support for the Iranian people and
their anti-fundamentalist opposition forces seeking to replace
this regime with a secular and democratic government must be at
the core of this policy.
A free and democratic Iran is the only solution to the
mullahs-made menace which has entangled the world in its web.
The terror-sponsoring religious fascism ruling Iran must not be
allowed to spin its web of death, lies and deception any longer.
(USADI)
Return to Top
The New York Times
December 2, 2004
Iran Reportedly
Hides Work on a Longer-Range Missile
WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 - Iran is secretly developing a longer-range
ballistic missile than it has publicly acknowledged, with the
capacity to strike targets as far away as Berlin, an opposition
group plans to assert publicly on Thursday.
The group says the missile, which it says could have the
capacity to carry nuclear warheads, is being developed with help
from North Korean scientists, even as Iran has agreed to curbs
on its nuclear program in a new pact with three European
countries.
The dissident group says the new missile would have a range of
more than 1,500 miles, hundreds of miles longer than the most
advanced missiles now in Iran's arsenal, an upgraded version of
the Shahab-3 that was tested in the summer.
The group, the National Council of Resistance, is the political
arm of the People's Mujahedeen, and is listed by the United
States as a terrorist organization. It has had a mixed record of
credibility about developments in Iran. But several of its
disclosures have proved accurate and have played a significant
role in unearthing secret Iranian nuclear activities.
… In an unclassified report issued last month, the Central
Intelligence Agency said that Iran "is pursuing longer-range
ballistic missiles" than the Shahab-3 and its follow-on
versions. In public testimony last February, George J. Tenet,
then the director of central intelligence, said that Iran could
begin flight testing those longer-range missiles "in the mid- to
latter part of the decade."
Neither Iran nor the United States government has publicly
described the new missile that the Iranian group says is being
developed. Officials of the group said they believed the weapon
is known as the Ghadr… and would operate on solid-fueled
engines, meaning it could be launched much more quickly than the
liquid-fueled, medium-range missiles now in Iran's arsenal…
Reuters
December 2, 2004
Mullahs in Iran Mark
1983 Attack on U.S. Marines
TEHRAN - Iranian hard-liners erected a monument Thursday to
commemorate a suicide bombing which killed 241 U.S. servicemen
in Lebanon in 1983, witnesses said.
A group called the committee of
the "Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign"
held the event at Tehran's Behesht-e Zahra cemetery to praise
the attack 21 years ago against the United States.
"The bombing was a great achievement of Muslims in their fight
against America," said its spokesman Ali Mohammadi.
About 200 men and women gathered at the cemetery in southern
Tehran. Some dressed as suicide bombers chanted "Death to
America" and "Death to Israel" as the stone monument was
unveiled.
The group announced its existence
in June when it started registering volunteers prepared to carry
out suicide attacks on U.S.-led forces in Iraq. Iran has
strongly condemned the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.
The group said more than 25,000
"martyrdom seeking" volunteers have so far signed up and one of
its members said the registration drive would continue.
"We have been ordered to cover the
faces to avoid being recognized when traveling abroad to carry
out the attacks," a masked volunteer said at the cemetery.
Iran used to have offices in Suleimaniya and Halabja until US
special forces landed in the region in March 2003. But, Saeed
said, the Iranians have retained their spy network inside Iraq,
and are now using it to watch American forces and to help
insurgents.
"The Iranians are worried," he said. "They don't want a
pro-American government in Iraq. The Iranians want neighboring
countries to be full of anarchy, violence, and chaos."…
Return to Top
Associated Press
December 2, 2004
Diplomats: Iran May
Have Nuke Equipment
VIENNA, Austria - Iran may be hiding equipment from the U.N.
nuclear watchdog agency, foiling efforts to police a freeze of
all programs that Tehran could use to make nuclear weapons,
diplomats said Thursday.
The diplomats told The Associated
Press that Iran has yet to respond to a request by the
International Atomic Energy Agency - the U.N. nuclear watchdog -
for a full list of the components used at the suspected military
site of Lavizan-Shian after handing over a partial inventory in
October.
The incomplete inventories are particularly worrying because
they reflect purchases by Iran's Physics Research Center, an
organization run by the military, they said. Iran has insisted
its nuclear program is strictly for peaceful purposes, and the
agency has said it has found no direct evidence to challenge
that statement.
A linked issue is concern that nuclear equipment that has
disappeared from that complex might be now at a nearby site,
said the diplomats, who are accredited to the agency and spoke
on condition of anonymity.
Additionally, Tehran has ignored a months-old request to grant
IAEA inspectors access to Parchin, a military testing ground
linked to possible experiments with high explosives that can be
used with nuclear weapons, the diplomats said.
Some diplomats familiar with Iran's nuclear dossier suggested
the focus on the enrichment freeze allowed Tehran to deflect
attention from the inventory list, the missing equipment, and
the denial of access.
Return to Top
|
