(RIA Novosti via DefenseTalk.com):
TEHRAN: A pilotless Iranian reconnaissance plane circled for 25 minutes over a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf before returning safely to its base, a senior Iranian official said Tuesday.
“Our pilotless reconnaissance plane flew over the USS Ronald Reagan in the Persian Gulf unnoticed to the Americans for 25 minutes,” the official said, according to Iran’s Fars agency.
He did not say when the flight took place, but added that U.S. radars picked up the unmanned aerial vehicle after 25 minutes, and that four USAF fighters and two helicopters were scrambled to intercept it. However, the Iranian plane had already crossed the border back into Iran and landed at its base.
Read the entire report.
If you can overlook the anti-Bush tone of this blog, you’ll find a more in-depth analysis of situation. Scratch that last sentence with links to crossfirewar, I think Willard’s analysis is way off the mark.
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May 31, 2006 , by
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I doubt it, but the Iranian regime thinks so:
(AP via Iran Press News):
WASHINGTON - AP - The United States said Wednesday it would join in face-to-face talks with Iran over its disputed nuclear program if Tehran first agreed to put challenged atomic activities on hold, a shift in tactics meant to offer the Iranians a last chance to avoid punishing sanctions.
Iran dismissed the offer as “a propaganda move.”
This is part of the current regime’s broader effort to by time. The Iranians paid close attention to the way past presidents mis-handled the North Korean nuclear negotiations. And the Iranians, led by Ahmadinejad, are now playing the same game. In fact, they recently offered to restart nuclear talks with the U.S. (AFP):
VIENNA (AFP) - Iran offered to restart nuclear talks with the European Union but the EU and Washington were still pressing for sanctions if Tehran refuses to halt atomic work that could be weapons-related.
Six world powers were to meet in Vienna Thursday to bridge differences over offering Iran trade and other benefits in return for guarantees it will not make nuclear weapons, while still preparing for sanctions if Tehran does not comply, spokesmen in capitals confirmed.
But the Iranians are referring to today’s offer, by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, to conduct face-to-face talks as western propoganda. Should anyone be surprised?
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The Muslim Brotherhood is often overlooked by the mainstream media as the root of organized muslim terrorist groups including al-Qaeda. The Brotherhood also formed a sinister alliance in the 1930's and 1940's with Adolph Hitler's Nazi movement.
From the Khaleej Times Online:
AIRO - Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif has ruled out any formal recognition for the banned Muslim Brotherhood opposition movement as an authorised political party.
“If you ask my opinion regarding the authorisation of religious-based parties, I would say no,” he told independent daily Al Masri Al Yom.
The thorny issue has resurfaced since the Islamist movement, which is officially banned but tolerated, scored a major triumph in last year’s parliamentary election.
The Muslim Brotherhood, whose candidates stood as independents under the slogan “Islam is the solution,” won 88 out of the 454 seats in parliament, making it the largest opposition bloc.
But Nazif insisted: “There is no such thing called the Muslim Brotherhood. There is no parliamentary group of Muslim Brothers.”
During the November-December election, more than 1,300 Muslim Brotherhood members were rounded up and imprisoned, but most were later released.
In recent weeks, however, hundreds of members of the group were detained after joining pro-reform demonstrations.
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May 31, 2006 , by
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Finally, Michael Moore is being held to account for the leftwing propoganda dribble he produced called “Fahrenheit 9/11″. That film was so packed with lies and partial-truths I don’t know where to begin debunking them. Why bother… The film and other attempts by the leftwing-led media failed to change the outcome of the 2004 presidential election anyway.
(AP Wire/TheState.com):
BOSTON - A veteran who lost both arms in the war in Iraq is suing filmmaker Michael Moore for $85 million, alleging that Moore used snippets of a television interview without his permission to falsely portray him as anti-war in “Fahrenheit 9/11.”
Sgt. Peter Damon, a National Guardsman from Middleborough, is asking for damages because of “loss of reputation, emotional distress, embarrassment, and personal humiliation,” according to the lawsuit filed in Suffolk Superior Court last week.
Damon, 33, claims that Moore never asked for his consent to use a clip from an interview Damon did with NBC’s “Nightly News.”
He lost his arms when a tire on a Black Hawk helicopter exploded while he and another reservist were servicing the aircraft on the ground. Another reservist was killed in the explosion.
In his interview with NBC, Damon was asked about a new painkiller the military was using on wounded veterans. He claims in his lawsuit that the way Moore used the film clip in “Fahrenheit 9/11″ - Moore’s scathing 2004 documentary criticizing the Bush administration and the war in Iraq - makes him appear to “voice a complaint about the war effort” when he was actually complaining about “the excruciating type of pain” that comes with the injury he suffered.
Read the entire story here.
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May 31, 2006 , by
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From Aryamehr:
Several media outlets in Iran reported, albeit in a restricted and censured fashion, that there has been rioting on several university campuses in Tehran for the past four days. The reformist Internet daily Rooz reported that over 500 members of riot-control units have besieged the Tehran University campus, and that there have been clashes between rioting students and Basij and police forces.
The eyewitnesses also reported that Iranian security forces fired live bullets, and that shots were fired at homes outside the university. One of the students told Rooz: "The university campus is on fire, raids are being conducted throughout the campus, and the students are in fear and anxiety… Gunfire is heard from all directions… There is blood everywhere."
Read more on the Aryamehr blog.
Other bloggers and news sources tracking the story:
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In his recent letter to President Bush, Ahmadinejad referred to a government’s role in respecting the human rights of its citizens; prisoners included (my assumption). As part of the argument that America has failed to uphold such rights he alluded to the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay:
There are prisoners in Guantanamo Bay that have not been tried, have no legal representation, their families cannot see them and are obviously kept in a strange land outside their own country. There is no international monitoring of their conditions and fate. No one knows whether they are prisoners, POWs, accused or criminals.
European investigators have confirmed the existence of secret prisons in Europe too. I could not correlate the abduction of a person, and him or her being kept in secret prisons, with the provisions of any judicial system. For that matter, I fail to understand how such actions correspond to the values outlined in the beginning of this letter, i.e. the teachings of Jesus Christ (PBUH), human rights and liberal values.
Apparently, he doesn’t practice what he preaches, Iran Press News / Telegraph:
A leading Iranian pro-democracy and women’s activist, who was jailed on trumped-up charges last year, has revealed how the clerical regime cynically deploys systemic sexual violence against female dissidents in the name of Islam.
Roya Tolouee, 40, was beaten up by Iranian intelligence agents and subjected to a horrific sexual assault when she refused to sign forced confessions. It was only when they threatened to burn her two children to death in front of her that she agreed to put her name to the documents.
Roya Tolouee and her son Nima
Perhaps just as shocking as the physical abuse were the chilling words of the man who led the attack. “When I asked how he could do this to me, he said that he believed in only two things - Islam and the rule of the clerics,” Miss Tolouee told The Sunday Telegraph last week in an interview in Washington after she fled Iran.
Read the rest here.
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May 30, 2006 , by
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In a recent interview for Guardian Unlimited, Al Gore, the political “has been”, describes the Bush administration as a renegade band of rightwing extremists. That’s kind of ironic for two reasons:
- One of the hallmarks of the Bush presidency has been big spending, something previously attributed to mostly liberal politicians
- President Bush has taken moderate positions on many issues such as the Dubai ports deal and more recently illegal immigration and border security
It’s also ironic for Gore to launch such an attack when he himself has become a renegade leftwing extremist. Growing up in Canada, we used to lovingly refer to his type as tree huggers. I would also describe about 90% of the current democratic party exactly the same way. As both a Canadian and American Citizen I can spot a leftwing politician when I see one.
Al Gore has made his sharpest attack yet on the George Bush presidency, describing the current US administration as “a renegade band of rightwing extremists”.
In an interview with the Guardian today, the former vice-president calls himself a “recovering politician”, but launches into the political fray more explicitly than he has previously done during his high-profile campaigning on the threat of global warming.
Denying that his politics have shifted to the left since he lost the court battle for the 2000 election, Mr Gore says: “If you have a renegade band of rightwing extremists who get hold of power, the whole thing goes to the right.”
Read the whole interview here.
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May 30, 2006 , by
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With congressional elections just around the corner, republicans and conservatives will be paying close attention to political races in various districts throughout the country. If you want to keep track of politicking in Alabama, Illinois and New Jersey check out Wizbang Politics.
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