Aggressive Acts by Iran Signal Pressure on Its Leadership
NY Times / Scott Shane and Robert F. Worth
16-Feb-2012 (4 comments)

A string of aggressive gestures by Iran this week — assassination attempts on Israelis living abroad that were attributed to Tehran, renewed posturing over its nuclear program and fresh threats of economic retaliation — suggest that Iranian leaders are responding frantically, and with increasing unpredictability, to the tightening of sanctions by the West...As investigators unearthed new evidence implicating Iran in the attacks this week in Thailand, India and Georgia, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran announced Wednesday what he said was his country’s latest nuclear advance, and Iran’s Oil Ministry threatened to pre-empt a European oil embargo by cutting off sales to six countries there.


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FG

A "Picked On" Pariah State

by FG on

Another news item posted somewhere below ties in with this perfectly.  The news report from the WS Journal is about a likely move to freeze the IRI out of the world banking system.   A barbarian state that insists in so many covert plots around the world behaves like a  pariah state and is therefore treated as the loose cannon it is.   Yet a regime that behaves like an outlaw state at home and abroad claims everyone is "picking on it" for no reason.

Past behavior and recent schemes  in India, Thailand and Georgia give credence to other recent covert schemes by Khamenei's regime-- the Saudi Ambassador plot which would also have killed a score of Americans in the nation's capital, a plot to blow up the causeway to Bahrain, and the testimony of Syrian military defectors that Khamenei's snipers are assisting Assad in Syria in targeting the people.  Thus Israel hasn't been the only target.   Also targeted have been the Saudis, the Syrian people and Bahrain regionally and the US and Britain (recall the Embassy siege and trashing) in the west.    Recall the capture of Iranian arm shipments to assist in de-stabilization schemes in Yemen and the Sudan.  

All are now credible and widely believed in by foreign governments and people.  In every case and with no exceptions, the regime's response is the same--denial, denial and denials which fall on deaf ears.  Recall the IED shipments to Iraq and the kidnapping of four American soldiers who were taken accross the border into Iran where they were interrogated and executed.   Someone even made a video on that.  Hundreds of American soldiers were killed or wounded directly as a result of Iran's aid to extremist Shiite militias there--a terrific motive in and of itself for American hostility.  Yet it is the IRI and Khamenei who has always played the xenophobic tune, blaming Americans for most problems.

Finally, note the outrageous behavior and lies abroad are consistent with its outrageous behavior toward its own people at home and similar denials.  Again, no one inside or outside the country believes the regime's lies and its laughable claims of being "beloved" by most Iranians.  

Khamenei's insistence that Iran's detestable regime served as model for the Arab Spring--something any fool would want to emulate--is greeted with contempt, jeers and mockery.  His Goebbels-style propagandists, like Manosouchehr who posts at Enduring America and Tehran Bureau, always defend in the same way, as they are trained to do.  Always we get the same diversions--bad analogies ("everyone else does it") and fallacy of degree,equating for example IRI treatment of demonstrations (murder, long prison sentences, attacks on relatives, trashing their homes, clubbing, etc.) with American treatment of demonstrators and telling us the IRI is "the freest country in the world."   Always they impress no one because the criminal reality of this regime is so obvious.



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FG

Reuthers: Iran "shadow war" intensifies, crosses borders

by FG on

NOTE: I hope it's ok to post this here under a related story rather than monopolize news "headers" here--especially since I may come across other related stuff later.

EXCERPTS:

 "He was losing a lot of blood," said Thongma, 68, who saw the Iranian man, later identified as Saeid Moradi, fleeing a rented house blown apart by a massive explosion on Tuesday. "People were shouting, 'He's got a bomb!' I tried not to look at him..."

As bombings go...this weeks trio (of attempts) seemed unusually inept...But security experts believe they sent a clear message...

COMMENT:

 If anything this report is way too reluctant to draw the only obvious conclusions under the circumstances.  All of the bombers, including one who couldn't run from the scene because he had his legs blown off, are clearly Iranian, so WHO ELSE would they work for?  Consider also the target and Iran's recent threats before answering. Also Iranian was the woman who rented the place where they stayed.   Also note the "odd" timing of her immediate departure. 

It seems like the regime has committed many inept acts lately (the Saudi Ambassador plot, the Bahrain causeway plot, the trashing of Iran's British embassy, so what else is new?  

How dumb does this regime think most people are?   The only dummies here seem to live in regime quarters in Tehran.

As I keep repeating, the "rocket scientist Supreme Leader is responsible for these attacks, his commands must be obeyed by Al Quds and he can't grasp that when he sets off bombs in other countries, especially when he kills civilians, that he is sending a second message to different and very nationalistic audiences.  Thus even when a bombing "succeeds" the tactical benefits are outweighed by the strategic losses.

A NUTSO ANALYSIS FROM SAME ARTICLE

One Gulf security source told Reuters he believed U.S. agencies were directly involved in some attacks, working alongside MEK.

Comment: Note the anonymity.  He's a security source, speculating so it must be true.

THE NEXT SENTENCE OFFERS A FAR MORE PLAUSIBLE ARGUMENT

U.S. officials have denied such suggestions, saying they would never work with the resistance groups partly because they were suspected to have been infiltrated by Iranian intelligence. 

 

//news.yahoo.com/iran-shadow-war-intensifies-crosses-borders-170007525.html

 


FG

New move would tighten Iran's links to three regional allies

by FG on

THE MOVE 

Mehr reports that the Islamic Republic has signed 10 new agreements to provide power to Syria, with plans to the biggest grid in the Islamic World, linking Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon.

ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF STRATEGIC STUPIDITY:

Does this make sense to you?

The regime wants to get as high turnout as possible but keeps banning candidates and arresting people--a deterrent to voiting.  It seems as "wise" as targeting Israelis in Iran-friendly countries in ways certain to kill local civilians and offend nationalist sensibilities.  

Many of those banned have  already served in the Majlis and thus supposedly met vettting qualifications.  Suddenly they don't qualify.  How arbitary can the regime be?  

Without giving specific names, MP Ahmad Tavakoli has claimed that Shahabeddin Sadr --- the head of a faction for the elections --- Ayatollah Alavi, and other influential legislators have been blocked by the Guardian Council. 


FG

Most lovable lines from NY Times story

by FG on

Iran tends to speak loudly but carries a small stick."

--Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (as he argues that belligerent moves by Iran actually underscored weakness).

Also from Sadjadpour: 

“Their alleged terror attacks projected incompetence more than fear, their announced nuclear progress is likely exaggerated, and their threat to pre-emptively cease oil exports to Europe turned out to be another bluff.”

How about this nice tidbit which captures the regime's strategic stupidity?:

“Iran is saying, ‘If you hit us, we will hit back..."

--Muhammad Sahimi, an analyst and professor at the University of Southern California. 

OBSERVATION #1: Iran believes (and is most likely correct) that Israel targeted her nuclear scientists and  missile sites, so Iran goes after the Israels in foreign countries using attacks which would most likely kill or maim citizens of those countries as well as the Israeli targets.  No wonder Iran is isolated!

OBSERVATION #2: Giving Iran's long time-attacks on Israel, her anti-Israeli rhetoric about destroying Israel, and her backing for Hezbollah, would the Israeli attacks on the IRI's nuclear program be understandable from a self-defense point of view?

 

Mr. Ahmadinejad’s (nuclear) remarks appeared “calibrated mostly for a domestic audience. The Iranians have for many months been putting out calendars of accomplishments, and based on their own calendars, they are many, many months behind."

-- Victoria Nuland, the US Stae Department spokeswoman.