Month: September 2010

from LobeLog: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for September 30th, 2010:

The Washington Post: Thomas Erdbrink reports that sanctions imposed against Iran by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have resulted in the Iranian rial dropping in value against the U.S. dollar (by 15 percent) and the Euro since Sunday. With hard currency scarce and exchange rates on the rise, the government will receive more rials for its petrodollars to boost its income. This in turn may lead to inflation. The UAE is one of the largest finance and trading hubs in the Middle East and has been under pressure from the U.S. to impose sanctions on Iran.

The Wall Street Journal: The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies’ Mark Dubowitz and Benjamin Weinthal repeat their warnings that European firms, specifically in Germany and Switzerland, continue to do business with Iran. They say that a Swiss firm continues to provide equipment to an Iranian engineering firm and that Swiss and German companies continue to sign energy deals with the Islamic Republic. “Neither [the Swiss firm that signed a gas contract with Iran] nor any other company has been sanctioned by the U.S. Senior Obama Administration officials have told us that they are ‘very, very close’ to a decision on which firms will face penalties under U.S. law,” say Dubowitz and Weinthal. They conclude with a warning that, “The German Chancellor Angela Merkel should be held to the promises she made, including to the U.S Congress and Israeli Knesset, to stop Iran’s nuclear drive. The same goes for the rest of Europe.”

The New York Times: John Markoff and David Sanger write there may be a Biblical reference built into the code of the Stuxnet virus, which appears to have been designed to infect computers related to Iran’s nuclear program. The reference is to “the Book of Esther, the Old Testament tale in which the Jews pre-empt a Persian plot to destroy them.” Neither the Israelis nor the U.S., which both have robust cyber-warfare programs, have claimed involvement. No matter the origins, the virus serves Western interests by “ramp[ing] up psychological pressure,” observes one unnamed former U.S. intelligence official. The reporters cite a slew of troubles Iran has encountered with its nuclear program: “[S]omething — perhaps the worm or some other form of sabotage, bad parts or a dearth of skilled technicians — is indeed slowing Iran’s advance.”

Foreign Policy: Barbara Slavin interviews former Congressman and elder statesman Lee Hamilton, who is stepping down from his role as director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Hamilton will continue to advise President Obama on foreign policy and intelligence matters. He noted the President ignored his pleas to pursue the Turkish-Brazilian-brokered fuel swap agreement, which Hamilton said “wasn’t too different from what we had suggested” to Iran the previous fall. He added the U.S. “should have tried to build on the positive aspects of it” and thought the deal would come back up in future negotiations. Though currently favoring engagement and opposed to military strikes, Hamilton told Slavin: “A year from now I don’t know how I’ll feel.”

Washington Post ace Al Kamen has an outtake from Woodward’s new book that shows how Obama was on the wrong foot on Afghanistan from his first days in office:

“It wasn’t until well into the Obama presidency,” Woodward writes, that vet­eran diplomat Richard Holbrooke, the special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, “learned definitively how much the president didn’t care for him.” The two had met and chatted briefly on Jan. 22, 2009, when Obama named him to the job.

“‘Mr. President, I want to ask you one favor,’ Holbrooke had said, expressing gratitude for the highly visible assignment. ‘Would you do me the great favor of calling me Richard, for my wife’s sake?'” Woodward writes. “… She disliked the name ‘Dick,’ which the president had been using.”

Obama referred to Holbrooke as “Richard” during the announcement ceremony but, Woodward writes, “told others he found the request highly unusual and even strange. Holbrooke was horrified when he learned that his request — which he had repeated to no one — had been circulated by the president.”

This explains why Obama’s foreign policy wizards were too busy to notice that the Karzai family were some of the biggest rascals in Central Asian history.

Protest Against FBI Intimidation of the Peace Movement

Greater Seattle Veterans For Peace (VFP 92) and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) are working together to organize a Thursday afternoon rally outside of the FBI offices in downtown Seattle. Many local peace, solidarity and civil rights organizations are being invited to join us in denouncing recent FBI raids on anti-war and solidarity activists in Minnesota, Michigan and Illinois.

The protest rally and sidewalk press conference will be on Thursday, Sept. 30, 4 pm, at 1110 3rd Ave., on the northeast corner of 3rd and Spring.

For more information, call Gerry Condon at 206-499-1220.

It is critical that Veterans For Peace and all who believe in the rights of freedom of speech, assembly, and privacy make their voices heard now. If we do not, the FBI or other repressive police and military forces could literally be coming after us next.

National Veterans For Peace is calling on all VFP member to send letters of protest to the Obama administration, specifically the Department of Justice.

from LobeLog: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for September 29th, 2010:

The Wall Street Journal: Benoit Faucon and Spencer Swartz report on Iran’s announcement on Tuesday that it would begin exporting domestically refined gasoline. Iran has depended heavily on imported gasoline in the past. Yesterday’s announcement sends a message of defiance about international sanctions as well as an indicating that Iran has significantly boosted its domestic refinery capacity. “Iran has achieved self-sufficiency in production of gasoline,” said Ali Ashgar Arshi, the international affairs director at the National Iranian Oil Co. It also appears timed to echo statements from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the new sanctions have only made Iran stronger.

The Weekly Standard Blog: Bill Kristol posts an excerpt from the prepared text of Joe Lieberman’s speech today at the Council on Foreign Relations. Lieberman will say, “It would also be a failure of U.S. leadership if this situation reaches the point where the Israelis decide to attempt a unilateral strike. If military action must come, the United States is in the strongest position to confront Iran and manage the regional consequences. This is not a responsibility we should outsource.” “It is time to retire our ambiguous mantra about all options remaining on the table. Our message to our friends and enemies in the region needs to become clearer: namely, that we will prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability — by peaceful means if we possibly can, but with military force if we absolutely must,” concludes Lieberman.

Commentary: Daniel Gordis, senior vice president of Jerusalem’s Shalem Center, writes in the October issue of Commentary on “The Other Existential Threat.” It’s not only the possibility of an Iranian nuclear attack on Israel that poses a threat, he writes, but on a more existential level the potential of Iran possessing of such a bomb will hang over Israel’s head. In turn, this will revert Jews back “to the status of European victims-in-waiting,” “dependent on the choices their enemies make.” In outlining what is at stake for Israel, Gordis concludes with why he does not believe Israeli leaders will allow Iran to go nuclear and what his country needs from the United States: “If Barack Obama could come to understand in precisely what way this is a matter that goes to the heart of Israel’s very existence […] his administration might recognize the profound nature of the present moment and history’s call to this president to do what must be done.”

Spiegel Online: In a contentious interview, Iran’s nuclear agency chief Ali Akbar Salehi says that Iran “will not give up [its] guaranteed right to enrich uranium to a low level for civilian purposes” and accuses the new director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, of being biased against Iran. Salehi says he is not threatening to end cooperation with the IAEA, but is issuing a “friendly, but serious, warning that one should not allow oneself to be politically instrumentalized.” He considers the MEK’s allegations about a covert nuclear facility an “unjustified allegation,” and maintains Iran is still open to a deal to acquire fuel rods for its Tehran Research Reactor.

The above cartoon is from Washington Post cartoonist Tom Toles’ sketchbook today.

Folks should photocopy this cartoon and pass it around audiences when politicians give speeches prattling about their devotions to those “who made the ultimate sacrifice for their nation”…..

from LobeLog: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for September 28th, 2010:

Washington Post: The Post picks up a report from the Associated Press about the upcoming arrival in Tehran of an Omani delegation to secure the release of the two remaining American hikers, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, detained by Iran under suspicion of espionage. Oman was also involved in the release of third hiker, Sarah Shourd, two weeks ago. The timeline for the arrival of the Omani delegation is at odds with an article in the Iranian newspaper Jomhuri-e Eslami, as reported over the weekend by the New York Times. The detention of the three — now two — Americans has been a point of tension between the U.S. and Iran for more than a year since their arrest in the mountains along the Iraqi-Iranian border.

Washington Times: In an op-ed subtitled “passive response to Iran’s proxy wars needs to end,” American Foreign Policy Council vice president and neocon pundit Ilan Berman urges the U.S. to actively and militarily engage Iran’s alleged proxies operating in Iraq and Afghanistan. Berman says the U.S. needs to publicly lay out their opposition to Iranian involvement in those countries and secure their borders with Iran. He adds: “A range of other irregular warfare initiatives can be harnessed as needed to help dismantle, disrupt and deter Iranian activities in both theaters.” Berman thinks this will restore U.S. credibility and “convince Iran that a military option, while not desirable, is both viable and inescapable if Tehran does not change course.”

National Review Online: Foundation for Defense of Democracies fellow Benjamin Weinthal writes that the Obama administration’s “intense preoccupation” with ending Israeli settlement construction resembles “the meaningless rituals of obsessive-compulsive disorder.” Weinthal echoes the discredited reverse linkage argument that a more assertive strategy towards Iran would halt Iran’s nuclear program and its support of Hamas and Hezbollah: “the key impediments to meaningful Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.” For him, “In short, it’s the Iranian regime — and not the construction of housing projects — that is the be-all and end-all of obstacles to peace in the region.”

Foreign Policy: Raja Karthikeya looks at where India stands on Iran’s nuclear ambitions, concluding it is not a simple answer. India believes a nuclear weapons possessing Iran would be destabilizing, but sees Iran’s impetus focused on Arab and Sunni threats rather than Israel. India has chosen to align itself with Arab calls for a denuclearized Middle East in an attempt to address terrorism and energy interests. India will continue to support the UN sanctions and oppose U.S. sanctions because: they would be detrimental to the population of Iran; they would impede Indian companies doing business outside Iran; and India has a tradition of opposing sanctions-based diplomacy. “The majority of Indian strategists see unilateral sanctions as a path to war,” Karthikeya concludes.