Iran Archives - Page 2 of 2

Thou shalt use energy saving bulbs

Iran’s Tabnak news site had an interesting story today about a letter they wrote to an ayatollah asking him to justify using huge light displays at religious festivals while Iran was facing an energy crisis and power cuts. Here’s my rough translation of his response:

Response of Ayatollah Mokaram Shirazi:

It is right that devotees of the Imam use energy-efficient bulbs and light-strings and make other arrangements so as not to exert a pressure on other worshipers due to power cuts while they are paying homage to the blessed birth; they should also use less energy at home in order to compensate for the light displays.

They even reproduced his handwritten response (below). That is some fantastic handwriting.

Iran

AP: US-Iran trade booming

willwardwillward@gmail.com / Iran

The AP released an article today reporting that “U.S. exports to Iran grew more than tenfold during President Bush’s years in office.” The top export was cigarettes but they also included “brassieres, bull semen, cosmetics, fur clothing, sculptures, perfume, musical instruments and possibly even weapons.” Here’s how it breaks down by state.

But here’s the real bombshell:

Sanctions are intended in part to frustrate Iran’s efforts to build its military, but the U.S. government’s own figures show at least $148,000 worth of unspecified weapons and other military gear were exported from the United States to Iran during Bush’s time in office. That includes $106,635 in military rifles and $8,760 in rifle parts and accessories shipped in 2004, the data shows.

If the US can’t even get a handle on what it sells to Iran, how does it expect other countries to do so? I can’t wait till Bill O’Reilly gets ahold of this.

Iran

It’s later than we think.

willwardwillward@gmail.com / Iran

The first time I read this story I was baffled. The second time I was mad. It’s about an “undercover” investigation in Tanzania about what countries it exports monkeys to. It mentions that a company sells 4000 monkeys a year and then zeros in on 215 monkeys sold to *gasp* Iran. Here comes the smoking gun:

“Iran is very secretive,” said Manji, who has been exporting monkeys for 22 years. “They said it [the monkeys] was for ‘our country’, for vaccine. [They said] ‘We don’t buy vaccine from anywhere; we prepare our own vaccine’.

“But I think they use it for something else. You know why? Because they don’t go on kilos. Iran wants [monkeys weighing] 1.5kg to 2.5kg, [but] 1.5kg for vaccine is not possible.”

Rubibira indicated that finding out what the Iranians wanted the monkeys for would be difficult. “They cannot say, you know. They are secretive. They wouldn’t tell the truth.”

ANALYSIS: the problem with this article is not sensationalism or flimsy sourcing; the idea of an Iranian germ warfare is a red herring. For years, we’ve had credible exile reports of a secret Revolutionary Guards program to breed scores of aquatic monkey-shark warriors. In the event of attack, these would be deployed to swarm tankers in the Straits of Hormuz, through which 40% of the world’s daily oil shipments flow. In peacetime, they will harvest caviar in the Caspian Sea.

Iran

Preparing the PR Battlefield

willwardwillward@gmail.com / 1 Comment / Iran

I’m neither in the US government nor a Baluchi tribesman so I have no way to confirm the claims in Seymour Hersh’s new article about clandestine US operations inside Iran. But I am fairly confident that there is a PR push going on to keep the storyline of possible attack on Iran in the headlines.

Exhibit A is a press conference call I was on last week sponsored by the Israel Project to discuss a new WINEP report called “The Last Resort: Consequences of Preventive Military Action against Iran.” The people running the call stressed they were not advocating attack at this time, but urged the journalists on the call to consider (read: write stories about) what such an attack would look like and what its consequences would be. WINEP, for their part, advertise the report on their site as “Thinking about Preventative Military Action against Iran.”

The goals of this seem to be testing the waters, conditioning public opinion for a possible strike, and pressuring Iran on the diplomatic track. This doesn’t tell us much about if a strike will happen or how close it might be, but it might help put the building media blitz after the Israeli exercises in the Mediterranean in better perspective.