Quote:

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/eu-ad....

BRUSSELS, Jan 24 (Reuters) - The European Union has included Iran's state-owned Bank Tejarat among entities it is blacklisting to raise pressure on Tehran over its nuclear programme, according to an EU document published on Tuesday.

EU governments agreed on Monday to an immediate ban on all new contracts to import, buy or transport Iranian crude oil, and to freeze the assets of Iran's central bank. They also agreed to ban all trade in diamonds, gold and other precious metals with the central bank and other public bodies.

The EU said that Bank Tejarat had directly facilitated Iran's nuclear efforts, for example by helping in the movement last year of tens of millions of dollars in an effort to assist Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation to acquire yellowcake uranium.

Bank Tejarat also has a history of helping designated Iranian banks circumvent international sanctions, the EU said.

By providing financial services to other banks, Bank Tejarat has also supported the activities of subsidiaries and subordinates of the Revolutionary Guard Corps and other Iranian military organizations, the EU said.

Western powers hope the far stricter sanctions it has now imposed, bringing the EU more closely into line with U.S. policy, will force Iran to scale back or halt its nuclear work, which Western powers believe is aimed at developing weapons. Iran says it is enriching uranium solely for peaceful purposes.

Not building a nuke after all, perhaps? http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/con....

Let's invade first and verify later.

iran is coming up pretty much daily 1x in meetings and conversation. a lot of iranians are buying homes in uae. some guys i know are turning down work in iran. also it sounds like living in iran sucks these days as their currency goes up in shisha smoke. unemployment trending up. the game of chicken has started.

lastly, here is some tin for thought for you historical types. (but seriously, the geopolitical history with Iran is incredibly fascinating from WWII on.)

http://discoveringislam.org/Khomeini_bri....

The Shah's own words: "If you lift up Khomeini's beard, you will find Made In England written under his chin."

^ Because the Shah has such an unbiased perspective, entirely unswayed by a tendency to diminish his own failures, and blame the West Pull this one

So certainly we shouldn't take such a statement seriously - that Shaw, after all, was well known to be quite the prankster...

He also said he'd been visited by Islamic Angels. As I said he has his perspective

Strange, since he was a secular muslim. Got a source for that, because I can't find one.

Iran preparing now for Armageddon
Select fighters being described as 'Soldiers of Imam Mahdi'

Published: 2 days ago By Reza Kahlili

http://www.wnd.com/2012/01/iran-preparin....

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has held several secret meetings with his economic and military advisers in recent days to prepare for the possibility of war with the United States.

Sources report the preparations are to include the execution of those Iranians who oppose the regime.

Khamenei has been heard to say that the coming of the last Islamic Messiah, the Shiites’ 12th Imam Mahdi, is near and that specific actions need to be taken to protect the Islamic regime for upcoming events.

Mahdi, according to Shiite belief, will reappear at the time of Armageddon.

Selected forces within the Revolutionary Guards and Basij reportedly have been trained under a task force called “Soldiers of Imam Mahdi” and they will bear the responsibility of security and protecting the regime against uprisings. Many in the Guards and Basij have been told that the 12th Imam is on earth, facilitated the victory of Hezbollah over Israel in the 2006 war and soon will announce publicly his presence after the needed environment is created.

According to SepahOnline, sources within the Vali’eh Amr, the revolutionary forces in charge of the supreme leader’s protection, report that Khamenei held several meetings in recent days at which the leader instructed his advisers to tighten the grip on anyone who opposes or might oppose the regime in case of war.

These actions include investigations of every person or group that was pro-regime but now hold opinions contrary to regime policies. Also being created is a list, to be presented to Khamenei, to decide the fate of any opponents.

It also was decided that those political prisoners who will not repent will be executed, the sources said.

This action also was taken by the founder of the Islamic regime in 1988, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

In the book, “A Time to Betray,” it is documented when Khomeini announced the campaign, he said, “If the person at any stage or at any time maintains his (or her) support for the opposing groups, the sentence is execution. Annihilate the enemies of Islam immediately.”


The fatwa led to the execution of thousands of innocent men and women of all ages in a very short period.

The list of actions by Khamenei includes investigation of private business owners. If records show that at any time in the past they have not supported the Islamic regime, their businesses and belongings could be confiscated.

Journalists, writers and publishers who are deemed to be against the regime would be arrested and punished. Even high religious authorities who do not fully support Khamenei will be put under surveillance and dealt with if they become outspoken about the direction of the country.

Several journalists already have been arrested in the past week. In a recent speech, Khamenei hinted of a warlike environment and warned those clerics who might doubt his direction of the country that their survival is tied to the survival of the Islamic regime. Many Iranians who resent the regime resent the religion it promotes, so even opposition clerics might not fare well should the regime fall.

The plan by the leader calls for total control of Tehran, the capital where the presence of the Basij and Hezbollah militias would be quite visible so that no one would dare to challenge the regime.

This news comes in light of the formation of the “Removal Committee,” which secretly would eliminate all deemed as opponents, even within the military and the government.

Khamenei’s extraordinary measures are based either on an understanding that war could be imminent or that the regime has decided to announce it has nuclear capability and is getting ready for a possible reaction from Israel or America.

Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, an influential cleric and a radical Twelver, previously had stated that Khamenei ascends to the sky every year to take direction from Imam Mahdi, and sources close to the cleric have disclosed that Khamenei has been ordered by Imam Mahdi to continue with the nuclear program despite worldwide objection as it will facilitate his coming.

Last March, a Iranian secret documentary, “The Coming Is Upon Us,” was revealed to depict Khamenei as the mythical figure who creates the environment for the reappearance of Mahdi by leading Iran to destroy Israel.

Landshark I remember talking aout this to people years ago. In the converstaion it wasn't mentioned as a big revelation, just the dort of thing people knew. I'll try to dig something up later that's web-published.
Of course, being secular doesnt meant you aren't personally a believer, and I certainly don't discount he would say something (as a politician) he didnt' believe to get an effect he desired.

Thanks Lk, and agree.

Uh-oh...


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/iran-turns....

Good, actions have consequences, and if Europe wants to play games with an embargo, they get what's coming to them.

Hahaha, this is hilarious. Play with fire, you get burned, Europe. Serves you smug bastards right.

Oops. Looks like the Massive Ordnance Penetrator may not be "big" enough to get the job done, and needs another $80,000,000 in upgrades to make it ready for the "Whack-a-Mullah" event...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424....

Quote:

Pentagon Seeks Mightier Bomb vs. Iran
By ADAM ENTOUS And JULIAN E. BARNES

WASHINGTON—Pentagon war planners have concluded that their largest conventional bomb isn't yet capable of destroying Iran's most heavily fortified underground facilities, and are stepping up efforts to make it more powerful, according to U.S. officials briefed on the plan.

The 30,000-pound "bunker-buster" bomb, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, was specifically designed to take out the hardened fortifications built by Iran and North Korea to cloak their nuclear programs.
But initial tests indicated that the bomb, as currently configured, wouldn't be capable of destroying some of Iran's facilities, either because of their depth or because Tehran has added new fortifications to protect them.

Doubts about the MOP's effectiveness prompted the Pentagon this month to secretly submit a request to Congress for funding to enhance the bomb's ability to penetrate deeper into rock, concrete and steel before exploding, the officials said.

The push to boost the power of the MOP is part of stepped-up contingency planning for a possible strike against Iran's nuclear program, say U.S. officials.

The Defense Department has spent about $330 million so far to develop about 20 of the bombs, which are built by Boeing Co. The Pentagon is seeking about $82 million more to make the bomb more effective, according to government officials briefed on the plan.

Wouldn't it be ironic if the Pentagon resorted to a low yield nuke to stop Iran from pursuing nukes?

Sometimes, if someone wants something bad enough, you just have to give it to them.

Nuke Inspectors on Rug Buying Trip

http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/....

A six-member delegation of inspectors from the United Nations' nuclear watchdog arrived in Tehran on Sunday, Iranian state television reported.

IMHO-I think it is just the Iranians running the time out on the clock. They will play a game of hide the salami just as the North Koreans did and then VOILA here is our nuclear bomb.

However, I am sure that the inspectors will buy some good rugs. Oddly enough, a few of the Iranian sites are in carpet making regions "Yeah, we didn't find any centrifuges, but our escorts took us to some nice rug bazzars. (Note: The US has prohibited the importing of Persian rugs into the US. The market of Iranian carpets is totally underwater here and flooded with great buys. Really some great deals to be had and the square footages are very low.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financial....

Speaking of Asians with nuclear devices, I read the most hair branied idea over the weekend. I can'f find the article now...Apparently some US policy makers think that Iran will be interested in a 'compromise' and that they will follow the Japanese model of nuclear weapons - get right to the very end of producing a nuclear weapon and then agree to not 'complete it' in exchange for X, Y and Z. Kind of like sex but with no happy ending.

Whatever genius at Obama, Inc., who is banking US energy security on that one should probably see how that is working out in Japan:

Japan must develop nuclear weapons, warns Tokyo governor
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/....

I guess irradiating themselves is probably not as much fun as threatening to irradiate someone else. But seriously, if the Japanese want a nuke - even taking into consideration Fukishima AND the Nagasaki/Hiroshima chapters, does anyone in their right mind think the Iranians will accept the "Japanese Model" of nuclear weapon policy.

Here is the Israeli mind right now: let's see if the Iranians come through on their oil embargo counter move. Honestly, if what we are seeing is the most advanced game theory that the Obama administration can muster, well, I guess we're ****ed is what we are unless we attack Iran.

16.5 million usd per bomb...
Boeing Company (The) Common Sto (NYSE: BA )
After Hours:: 74.62 0.07 (0.09%) 23:58
1y Target Est: 84.44

"They will play a game of hide the salami just as the North Koreans did and then VOILA here is our nuclear bomb"

Exactly like Saddam! And he hid them so well that his are still to be found!

i think the comparison between iraq and iran is apples and oranges of different ripeness.

iran has been fairly open in its rhetoric about its nuclear desires.

also, the iraq reactor and program was destroyed by the israelis in the 81 airstrike otherwise they probably would have been the first to have nuclear material...and instead of gassing the iranians they probably would have crop dusted them with who knows what.

Looks like it's almost time to get this party started!

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/....

Iran 'more willing' to attack on US soil, American intelligence chief says

Jessica Phelan January 31, 2012

Iran is newly willing to launch terrorist attacks on American soil, according to the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper.

Senior Iranian officials are "now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived US actions that threaten the regime," according to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

US intelligence agencies believe that Iran would be willing to launch terrorist attacks within America if threatened, the Washington Post reported [4].

The Post cited testimony from the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, who told the Senate Intelligence Committee today that the alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington last year was evidence of a new strategy in Tehran.

That plot "shows that some Iranian officials — probably including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived US actions that threaten the regime," Clapper said [...].

"We are also concerned about Iranian plotting against US or allied interests overseas."

According to the Post, it is the first time a US official has implicated Iran's supreme leader in the suspected assassination plot, "signaling new belief that the alleged willingness to authorize such attacks comes directly from the top."

Clapper also said that Iran's spying operations against the US, including cyber-based, had "dramatically increased in recent years in depth and complexity," Reuters reported [5].

It is not yet known if Iran has decided to pursue nuclear weapons, Clapper said, though Tehran is believed to be "technically capable of producing enough highly enriched uranium for a weapon, if it so chooses."

Recent economic sanctions [6] will do little to change the balance of power, intelligence agencies believe. "Iran's economic difficulties probably will not jeopardize the regime, absent a sudden and sustained fall in oil prices or a sudden domestic crisis that disrupts oil exports," Clapper is quoted as saying.

Clapper was speaking at an annual hearing to review global threats to the US. According to CNN [8], he listed "counterterrorism, counter-proliferation, cyber security and counter-intelligence" as the top security concerns.

In addition to Iran, China and Russia are believed to have conducted "aggresive and successful economic espionage" against the US, Reuters said. "Many intrusions" by foreign intelligence services into the computer networks of US government agencies, businesses and universities go undetected, according to Clapper.

The Al Qaeda terrorist network, however, is said to have "weakened significantly" due to Western counterterrorism strategies and the death of Osama Bin Laden. It is forecast to continuing doing so, until the centralized movement is replaced by a series of small regional cells.

However, the New York Times reported [9], homegrown extremists within the US who are inspired by, but not necessarily under the direction of Al Qaeda "are capable of conducting at least limited attacks in the next year," Clapper said.

Why The US Needs a Major War
Viktor BURBAKI | 04.01.2012 |

http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/20....

At the moment, we find ourselves in the middle of a turbulent phase of the global evolutionary cycle which commenced in the 1980ies and is projected to end by the middle of the XXI century. In the process, the US is clearly loosing its hyperpower status…

Estimates offered by experts from the Russian Academy of Science show that the current period of severe instabilities should end roughly in 2017-2019 with a crisis. The crisis will not be as deep as those of 2008-2009 or 2011-2012 and will mark the transition to an economy built on a novel technological basis. The economic revival will, in 2016-2020, likely entail serious shifts in the global power balance and serious military-political conflicts involving both the global heavyweights and the developing countries. The epicenters of the conflicts will supposedly be located in the Middle East and the post-Soviet Central Asia.

The century of the US global military-political dominance and economic primacy appears to be nearing completion. The US failed the unipolarity test and, bled by permanent Middle Eastern conflicts, currently lacks the resources retaining the global leadership would take.

Multipolarity implies a much fairer distribution of wealth across the world and a profound transformation of the international institutions such as the UN, the IMF, the World Bank, etc. At the moment the Washington consensus seems irreversibly dead and the global agenda should be topped by the task of building an economy with much lower uncertainty levels, tighter financial regulations, and greater justice in the allocation of revenues and economic benefits.

The centers of economic development are drifting from the West, which counts the industrial revolution among the main accomplishments on its record, to Asia. China and India should be preparing for an unprecedented economic race in the process against the backdrop of the wider competition between the economies employing the state capitalism and the traditional democracy models. China and India, the world's two top-populous countries, will define the directions and the pace of development in the future, but the main battle over global primacy is going to be played out between the US and China, with the choice of the XXI century post-industrial socioeconomic model and political system at stake.

The question arising in the context is how the US is going to react to the transition?

* * *

It has to be taken into account that any US strategy proceeds from the assumption that loosing the global primacy is unacceptable to the country. The linkage between global leadership and the XXI century prosperity is an axiom for the US elites regardless of political details.

Mathematical modeling of the global geopolitical dynamics warrants the conclusion that a victorious large-scale war fought with conventional warfare is the US only option to reverse the fast meltdown of its unsurpassed geopolitical status.

It is an open secret that occasionally non-military methods of pushing rivals off the stage - as in the case of the collapse of the Soviet Union – also work, and the corresponding technologies are being permanently polished in the US. On the other hand, up to date countries like China or Iran evidently prove immune to external manipulation. If the current geopolitical dynamics persists, the global leadership change can be expected by 2025, and the only way the US can derail the process being to ignite a major war…

The country facing an imminent leadership loss has no option but to strike first, and this is what Washington has been doing over the past 15 years. The US specific tactic is to pick as a target not an alternative candidate for geopolitical primacy but countries engaging which appears affordable at the moment. Attacking Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and Iraq, the US sought to handle purely economic or relatively minor regional problems, but a bigger game would clearly require a more significant target. Military analysts hold that Iran plus Syria and the non-Arab Shia groups such as Lebanon's Hezbollah face the greatest chances of getting hit in the name of a new global redistribution.

The redistribution is in fact underway. The Arab Spring spun off and managed by Washington created the appropriate conditions for a merger of the Muslim world within a single caliphate. The US plan is that this new formation will help the waning hyperpower maintain its grip on the world's key energy resources and safeguard its interests vis-a-vis Asia and Africa. No doubt, the challenge prompting the US to compose this new type of arrangement is the swelling might of China.

Getting rid of Iran and Syria which stand in the way of the US global dominance would be Washington's natural next step. Attempts to topple the Iranian regime by means of inciting civilian unrest in the country failed fabulously, and military analysts suspect that an intervention scenario akin to those implemented in dealing with Iraq and Afghanistan eventually awaits Iran. The plan has serious chances to materialize even though as of today even the withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan presents the US with considerable problems.

The implementation of the Greater Middle East project - along with appreciable damage to the standing of Russia and China - would be the key prizes the US hopes to win by fighting a major war… The design became widely known in the US following the publication in the Armed Forces Journal of the notorious Peters map. The motivation which loomed behind the artifact was to muscle Russia and China out of the Mediterranean region and the Middle East, to cut Russia off the South Caucasus and Central Asia, and to disconnect China from its most important energy suppliers.

The materialization of the Greater Middle East plan would ruin Russia's prospects for a peaceful and steady development as the unstable US-controlled South Caucasus would be sending shock waves across the North Caucasus. Since, obviously, the unrest would be detonated by the forces of Muslim fundamentalism, Russia's predominantly Muslim regions are sure to be affected.

The US is unable to sustain the Washington consensus any longer relying on economic and political instruments. China's Jemin Jibao painted the picture with utmost clarity when it wrote that the US grew into a global parasite which prints unlimited quantities of dollars, exports them to pay for its imports, and thus buys Americans lavish living standards by robbing the rest of the world. Russia's premier expressed a similar view during his November 17, 2011 China tour.

At the moment China is pressing hard to limit the sphere of the US dollar circulation. The share of the US currency in China's reserves is shrinking, and in April, 2011 the Chinese Central Bank announced a plan to completely opt out of the US dollar in international clearances. The blow to the US currency domination will not remain unanswered, obviously. Iran is similarly trying to reduce the dollar share in its transactions: an Iranian oil exchange opened in July, 2011, where only Euro and Iran's own currency are accepted. Iran and China are negotiating over the supply of Chinese products in return for Iran's oil, which, among other things, would make it possible to route trade around the sanctions imposed on Iran. The Iranian leader said his country's trade volume with China should reach $100b, and that would render the US plans to isolate Iran meaningless.

The US efforts to undermine stability in the Middle East may in part be attributable to the reckoning that the reconstruction of the region's devastated infrastructures would necessitate massive dollar infusions, the result being the revitalization of the US economy. In 2011, the US strategy aimed at preserving its global leadership started to translate into power-based policies as Washington considers depreciating the dollar holdings among the possible solutions to the crisis problem. A major war can actually serve the purpose. In its wake, the winner would be able to impose its own terms on the rest of the world as it did when the Bretton-Woods system came into being in 1944. For Washington, running the world takes being ready to fight a major war.

Can Iran, given the necessary backing, put an end to the US universal expansion? The question will be addressed in the next paper.

Massive U.S. Military Buildup Reported Around Iran; Up to 100,000 Troops Ready By March

Posted By Mac Slavo On January 30, 2012 @ 4:40 pm In Headline News

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/ma....

While President Obama’s supporters hailed his withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq as the end of the war [1] in the middle east, behind the scenes the Pentagon has been quietly massing troops and armaments on two islands located just south of the Strait of Hormuz, and within easy striking distance of Iran.

In addition to some 50,000 U.S. troops currently in the region waiting for orders (apparently they won’t be home by this past Christmas as was originally promised), Nobel Peace Prize winner President Barack Obama is deploying an additional 50,000 soldiers to be ready for ‘any contingency’ by March:

Quote:

President Barack Obama is reported exclusively by DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s military and Washington sources to have secretly ordered US air, naval and marine forces to build up heavy concentrations on two strategic islands – Socotra, which is part of a Yemeni archipelago in the Indian Ocean, and the Omani island of Masirah at the southern exit of the Strait of Hormuz.

Since 2010, the US has been quietly building giant air force and naval bases on Socotra with facilities for submarines, intelligence command centers and take-off pads for flying stealth drones, as part of a linked chain of strategic US military facilities in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf.

The Socotra facilities are so secret that they are never mentioned in any catalogue listing US military facilities in this part of the world, which include Jebel Ali and Al Dahfra in the United Arab Emirates; Arifjan in Kuwait; and Al Udeid in Qatar – all within short flying distances from Iran.

Additional US forces are also being poured into Camp Justice on the barren, 70-kilometer long Omani island of Masirah, just south of the Hormuz entry point to the Gulf of Oman from the Arabian Sea.

Western military sources familiar with the American buildup on the two strategic islands tell DEBKA-Net-Weekly that, although they cannot cite precise figures, they are witnessing the heaviest American concentration of might in the region since the US invaded Iraq in 2003.

Then, 100,000 American troops were massed in Kuwait ahead of the invasion. Today, those sources estimate from the current pace of arrivals on the two island bases, that 50,000 US troops will have accumulated on Socotra and Masirah by mid-February. They will top up the 50,000 military already present in the Persian Gulf region, so that in less than a month, Washington will have some 100,000 military personnel on the spot and available for any contingency.

US air transports are described as making almost daily landings on Socotra and Masirah. They fly in from the US naval base of Diego Garcia, one of America’s biggest military facilities, just over 3,000 kilometers away. The US military presence in the region will further expand in the first week of March when three US aircraft carriers and their strike groups plus a French carrier arrive in the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea: They are theUSS Abraham Lincoln, USS Carl Vinson, USS Enterprise and the Charles de Gaulle nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

A fourth US carrier will be standing by in the Pacific Ocean, a few days’ sailing time from the water off Iran’s coast.

Source: Debka

Still holding out hope that we won’t go to war with Iran?

There’s already reason enough for the powers-to-be to invade Iran based on the accusations that they are in the process of manufacturing nuclear weapons. Whether true or not makes no difference, as we saw with weapons of mass destruction that have yet to be found in Iraq.

Similarly, like Saddam Hussein before them, Iran’s leadership is attempting to trade their oil without going through the proper channels – in essence attempting to bypass the United States and Europe by striking deals with China, India, and Russia that will not require the exchange of oil for US dollars, but rather, Yuan, Rupees and Gold.

It may very well be that nuclear weapons, like WMD in Iraq, are simply the pretext, rather than the real reason, that will be used to crush those who oppose the financiers, politicians and influencers behind the new world order paradigm.

Make no mistake: this is serious business. They will kill as many as is needed (on our side and theirs) in order to push the agenda forward.