Randi Rhodes Forums

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/mid ... story.html

Thai police say Iranian bomb suspects in Bangkok planned to target Israeli diplomats.

BANGKOK — Three Iranians detained after accidentally setting off explosives in Bangkok were planning to attack Israeli diplomats, Thailand’s top policeman said Thursday in the first confirmation by local officials that the group was plotting attacks in Thailand.

The allegation came after days of strong accusations by Israel that Iran was behind the botched plot as well as two others in India and the former Soviet republic of Georgia this week. Iran has denied the charges.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/joseph- ... 74572.html

Holocaust Denier Receives Award at Iranian Film Festival

The Iranian government is zealous in its contempt for the Jewish state, and cheerily calls upon European antisemites as allies. Robert Faurisson is a long-time ally of the Iranian government, and has admired their policy on Holocaust denial since 2000. Faurisson appeared at the outrageous 2006 Iranian conference questioning the Holocaust, where he asked for "one document" of proof of the Holocaust.

Robert Faurisson has argued since the 1970s that no genocide of Jews in the Second World War, nor any command from Hitler to exterminate the Jews. Faurisson was eventually convicted of Holocaust denial following France's introduction of the 1990 Gaysott Act.

Since 2008, Faurisson has appeared in public alongside French "comic" Dieudonne. Dieudonne writes vile songs mocking the Holocaust, and includes a character dressed in striped clothing, in his sketches, called "Jackie". In this video shot in 2009, Dieudonne presents Faurisson with an award for "unfrequentability and insolence".

And so to the events of this week. In a surreal and perverse way, life has imitated art, and President Ahmadinejad has awarded Robert Faurisson with 1st prize for "courage, strength and force" at the 30th International Film Festival in Tehran. Photos of Faurisson's appearance in Iran have appeared on the French website Street Press.

According to Street Press, 2nd prize in this category went to French revisionist, the openly pro-Nazi Vincent Reynard. Also invited to the film festival, was the conspiracy theorist Webster Tarpley, Cuban Holocaust denier Maria Poumier, and of course, Dieudonne himself. These alliances are deliberate. Iran is sending an unambiguous message to Jews around the world, that even the Jewish affirmation of a tragic history, is a political statement.

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Looks like that neocon tactic of removing Iraq as a counter to Iran is working out real well.

It's one of many reasons that I was against the Iraq War from day one; I said it would mostly end up strengthening Iran. And guess what, it did.

Know who told GWB that? ... Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Yeah, it's odd that the neoconservatives were supposedly puppets of Israel (according to Walt & Mearsheimer), while urging GWB to do something Israel - and even Sharon & his Likud party - opposed.

Iran is about to execute a Canadian-Iranian for creating a program that uploads photos. Yes, that is his crime.

Iran using Malekpour as 'pawn in a bloody chess game'
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20 ... an-120220/

International condemnation has yet to persuade Iran to call off a Canadian resident's imminent execution, fuelling fears that he's being used as a political tool.

Saeed Malekpour, arrested in 2008 while visiting his ailing father in Iran, faces execution for purportedly spreading corruption through a web program he developed.

His sentence has been criticized by Canada's foreign affairs department and a swelling chorus of international voices including the U.S. State Department and the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

For their part, the Iranian regime has upheld the sentence. Though the punishment was stayed last year when Iran's Supreme Court ordered a judicial review into Malekpour's case, it was later reinstated. Confirmation of the sentence comes ahead of the country's March 2 election, which many are boycotting via the Internet.

Human rights activist Maryam Nayeb Yazdi said Iran is trying to make an example of the tech expert who is being held in the notorious Evin prison.

"Saeed Malekpour is being used as a pawn in a bloody chess game," she told CTV's Canada AM on Monday.

Iranian authorities carried out 600 executions in 2011 and imprisoned more journalists and bloggers than any other country, according to a report released by the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Nayeb Yazdi said it isn't a coincidence that Iranian authorities chose to detain Malekpour whose career involves computers and web programming.

"One of the ways that the Iranian regime stays in power is by suppressing any type of information or knowledge in the country," she said in a studio interview in Toronto.

She said lawyers, university students and other "bright-minded people" are often targeted by those loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Malekpour has been accused of insulting Islam under Sharia law after someone used an Internet photo-uploading program he created to post pornography.

In late January, a spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT) told CTVNews.ca Iran refuses to discuss Malekpour's case.

"Sadly, his case is one of many examples of Iran's utter disregard for human life," DFAIT spokesperson Aliya Mawani wrote.

"The Iranian government ignores legal principles such as due process for its citizens domestically, and fails to meet its international human rights obligations generally."

[snip]

Nayeb Yazdi said she's pleading with the international community to continue asking Iran for a fair trial for Malekpour and others on death row.

"Saeed is at imminent danger of execution as we speak," she said. "We just want justice to be served."

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Also on death row...

Youcef Nadarkhani, Iranian Pastor, May Face Execution For 'Apostasy From Islam'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/2 ... 97262.html

"A death sentence that has been sent for implementation by the judiciary would suggest the person is at imminent risk of execution," Sanei said. "If it has been sent to the implementation department, that is very troubling."

Sanei added that if the implementation has indeed been sent, Nadarkhani is "one step closer" to being executed.

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After this meeting between the Hawk Netanyahu and Obama I'm all the more convinced that Israel attacking Iran is a matter of when and not if.

When is it going to happen? Some time this spring it will happen March April or May sometime within the time frame Israel is going to launch a preemptive attack to attempt to destroy Iran's nuclear capabilities. There is nothing the U.S. can do about it, or as it sounds nothing the U.S. will do about it because Obama "recognizes Israel's sovereign right to defend itself." Which to an intelligent person notices the word defend itself, I don't see the word that Israel has the right to preemptively strike Iran....

Israeli ambassador on Andrea Mitchell

Not everyone in the country is of one mind on this.

Former Mossad Director: Romney ‘Is Making The Situation Worse’ With Iran
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/ ... orse-iran/

Halevy went on to observe, “In the effort to demolish the president [Romney] is making the situation worse.”

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In February, former Israeli intelligence chief Meir Dagan disagreed with the characerization of Iran as an “existential threat” to Israel and current Israeli intelligence chief Tamir Pardo reportedly told a gathering of Israeli ambassadors in December that Iran doesn’t pose an “existential threat” and “the term existential threat is used too freely.”

Also in February, Israeli Lt. Gen. Amnon Lipkin-Shahak reported that the Israeli military’s leadership doesn’t support a strike on Iran and the AP disclosed that Israel’s incoming air force chief Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel is “less enthusiastic about a possible attack on Iran” than the current air force chief, according to defense officials.

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I love that Facebook page. Yes, the people on both sides don't want war.

But their moronic "leaders" seem to insist on dragging them into one. Both the ayatollahs and the Likudhawks. As usual, the people are ahead, and the leaders are behind.

BTW, in Azerbaijan, another non-Iranian non-terrorist was arrested for not trying to blow up a Chabad building, the U.S. embassy, and the Israeli embassy. Actually, they arrested 22 people.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340 ... 92,00.html

The enemies of peace on both sides, suck.

Hate to say this but sometimes, so do the enemies of war :/

From the article:



Azerbaijan was actually the first Muslim republic, 1920s. Was just writing about them, in fact. The first Persian Muslim empire, the Safavids, was out of Azerbaijan.



I remember that.

Well, the leaders of both countries may not be working toward peace, but the people are.

Hundreds of Israelis march in Tel Aviv to protest war with Iran
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/hu ... n-1.420510

Hundreds of Israelis marched in Tel Aviv on Saturday to protest against a possible Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

The protest came amid a recent Facebook campaign linking Israeli and Iranian citizens in their opposition to war between the two nations. Campaign leaders, however, made it clear on their Facebook page that they had nothing to do with the Tel Aviv protest march.

Last week, graphic designers Ronny Edry and his wife, Michal Tamir, unknowingly began a Facebook phenomenon when they uploaded a poster depicting Edry and his daughter with the words, "Iranians, we will never bomb your country, we [heart] you."

That one image sparked a movement of sorts, with hundreds, if not thousands, of images sent from Israel, Iran, and elsewhere in the world, in support of exposing what participants consider to be the human side of the conflict between Iran and Israel.

“My Israeli friends, I do not hate you; I do not want war. love, Peace,” read many Iranian posters that were posted by Iranians to the new group page. Most of the Iranians, who posted messages to the Facebook group, did so with their faces partially veiled, possibly out of fear from the Iranian authorities.

Last Saturday, Edry said that Iranian group members explained that they could be arrested if recognized in the photos.

“Dear Israeli Friends and World! Iranians love peace and we hate hate!...and we don't need any Nuclear Power to show it!” one poster caption stated.

“I’m from Iran and love your idea and your efforts against war and for peace. I am really happy to get to know you and people like you, and hope to find more people like you. Here in Iran the situation is complicated and many people hate the governments and their bullshit,” another anonymous Iranian wrote in a poster he published.

On Saturday, the protest against a strike on Iran – one, it should be added, that was not endorsed by the leaders of the Facebook campaign – began its march at Tel Aviv's Habima Square, making its way to the city's Meir Park.

Participants held signs with such captions as "No to War with Iran," and "Talks, not Bombs."

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Again, I think it's sad that the Iranian lovers of peace had to hide their identities.

This is the second time I've read this in a week.

Israel’s Secret Staging Ground



Dunno, seems like the press is the one doing the sabre-rattling here.