Iran Live Coverage: Crisis at the Central Bank?

Central Bank head Bahmani & President Ahmadinejad2055 GMT: Defiance of the Day. After recent admissions that US-led sanctions are having an effect on Iran's economy, President Ahmadinejad has returned to his tough posture. Speaking to a crowd in the western city of Hamedan, he sent the message:

Don't buy our oil? To hell with you.

It's better if you don't buy...Ten times more money will head to people's pockets through the inventions of our scientists.

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Iran Feature: Pushing Back with "Intelligence" Against the Drumbeats of War (Risen)

James Risen, the intelligence correspondent of The New York Times, posts an interesting intervention in the spin and counter-spin over "war" and Iran's nuclear programme.

Risen's colleagues David Sanger and William Broad have been fed by other US officials in the White House, the Pentagon, and the CIA to push the spectre of Iran threat. Risen's contacts in the intelligence community, however, do not believe that the information --- as opposed to the spinning of that information --- point to an imminent Iranian Bomb. 

With the brake on military action applied by President Obama last week and the likely resumption of nuclear talks with Tehran, Risen gets the space in The Times to present that line muting the drumbeats of war. Note that --- as in the pieces pushing the Iranian spectre --- the actual information given is sparse; the significance here is the presentation of that supposed material:

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U.S. Faces a Tricky Task in Assessment of Data on Iran
James Risen

While American spy agencies have believed that the Iranians halted efforts to build a nuclear bomb back in 2003, the difficulty in assessing the government’s ambitions was evident two years ago, when what appeared to be alarming new intelligence emerged, according to current and former United States officials.<

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Iran Prescription: Oh My God, Tehran Almost Has The Bomb! (Repeat as Necessary)

Iran is about a year away from developing a nuclear bomb! That is not me getting  hysterical --- it's US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in an interview on American television:

"The consensus is that, if they decided to do it, it would probably take them about a year to be able to produce a bomb and then possibly another one to two years in order to put it on a deliverable vehicle of some sort in order to deliver that weapon."

Panetta is not the only Cassandra. His statement echoes that made by Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak last November about the 'when' of Iran's supposed nuclear weapons program.

All very worrying. Just as it has been worrying on every occasion over the last 7 1/2 years when Iran was on the verge of The Bomb.

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Iran Feature: Israel's Mossad, Posing as CIA Officers, Recruited Anti-Regime Insurgents (Perry)

Jundullah leader Abdolmalek Rigi, executed June 2010Buried deep in the archives of America's intelligence services are a series of memos, written during the last years of President George W. Bush's administration, that describe how Israeli Mossad officers recruited operatives belonging to the terrorist group Jundallah by passing themselves off as American agents. According to two U.S. intelligence officials, the Israelis, flush with American dollars and toting U.S. passports, posed as CIA officers in recruiting Jundallah operatives -- what is commonly referred to as a "false flag" operation.

The memos, as described by the sources, one of whom has read them and another who is intimately familiar with the case, investigated and debunked reports from 2007 and 2008 accusing the CIA, at the direction of the White House, of covertly supporting Jundallah -- a Pakistan-based Sunni extremist organization.

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Palestine: World Bank Hands Out Urgent Political and Economic Advice

So an economic report from the World Bank gives clear advice to Ramallah not to insist on the UN vote on statehood, in the face of the resistance from Washington: with continuing, sustainable advances in its economy, the West Bank is an excellent candidate to become a state. In the meantime, there are steps to be taken: donations, an easing of Israeli restrictions, and a Palestinian Authority focused on institution-building. And the negotiating table is the "best" way of achieving the sustainable economy as well as political settlement.

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Wikileaks & Iran Flashback: How A Kickboxing Champion Became "Israeli Spy" & Was Sentenced To Death

We reported last week on the sentencing of 26-year-old Majid Jamali Fashi to death after he was convicted of the assassination of physicist Masoud Alimohammadi in January 2010.

The case always had intriguing elements, given Alimohammadi's supposed connections with Iran's nuclear programme; however, in January 2011, EA uncovered an entirely new dimension.

Jamali Fashi, a professional kickboxer, supported the regime by beating up protesters after the 2009 Presidential elections --- so how could he have be an enemy of the regime by working for Israel to murder an Iranian scientist and hinder Tehran's nuclear research?

Read on....

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WikiLeaks, Iran, & Assassination Special: Why A Kickboxing Champion Became An "Israeli Spy"

This week Iranian authorities, supporting their claim of an Israeli plot --- including the assassination of Iranian scientists --- to undermine the regime, put Majid Jamali Fash on national television. Fash dutifully confessed to worked for Israeli's intelligence service Mossad, receiving training overseas before returning to Iran to carry out nefarious plots.

What Iranian TV, and indeed the Minister of Intelligence detailing the conspiracy, failed to mention is that Fashi already had an established vocation before he supposedly colluded with the enemy.

How did a promising kickboxer, and a supporter of President Ahmadinejad, wind up before the cameras --- and possibly on the gallows --- as an Israeli agent?

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Israel-Iran Analysis: Assessing Israeli Government's Latest Moves Towards Tehran

There are "moderates" who are against a military strike on Iran and "aggressors" who, at least, want the option on the table. Despite President Shimon Peres's efforts, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, whom the premier wants to keep as close as possible, insist Iran should be presented as an "existential threat". However, Mossad, including its new head Tamir Pardo), Shin Bet, and military intelligence are maintaining distance from a war scenario, since it will be their heads off first if objectives cannot be achieved quickly. The Obama Administration is also on the side of the moderates.

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EA Appeal: Save the Vulture (Who is Not, In Fact, an Israeli Spy)

A Non-Spying Griffon VultureAs long-time readers know, our correspondent Ms. EA has a special dedication to animal welfare. She brought us the exclusive story of Winnie the Pooh's response to the swine flu scare, and last month she helped break the story of the "Israeli spy" sharks (who were not, in fact, Israeli spies) infesting Egyptian waters.

But now Ms EA has reached a new level of concern. She has learned from absolutely, totally, beyond-any-doubt media outlets that a griffon vulture is in danger of execution in Saudi Arabia because --- and you may see a theme building here --- he is accused of being an Israeli spy

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Iran Analysis: Tehran's Win-Win with the Nuclear Obsession

At this point, Iran doesn’t even need to have a real nuclear program. All it needs is a few underground bunkers with people moving in and out of them, heating uranium ore and drinking tea. They are already accomplishing most of their goals by stoking fear in the hearts of reasonable people who should be able to see through the façade of the regime.

For Tehran, this is going to be a win-win situation. If the West decides not to attack and Iran develops the weapons, it will have security against future assaults. If the West does launch an operation, expect thousands of innocent dissident Iranians to be slaughtered for supposedly helping the US, the UK, and Israel.

For the umpteenth time, the West needs to respond to the regime by helping the opposition movement in Iran. Otherwise, the talk about how Iran’s nukes will destroy us all is assisting a destruction of a different kind: the destruction of hope for a change that will bring rights and justice.

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