Iran

Ahmadinejad wants to kill Israelis. Now John McCain wants to kill Iranians. Were these two separated at birth?

It is all but inevitable now. Iran is threatening to cut oil production and that drove oil prices up to almost $127 a barrel today.

Again - April Fool's:

The Iranian general who helped broker an end to nearly a week of fighting between Iraqi government forces and Shiite Muslim militiamen in southern Iraq is an unlikely peacemaker.

Brig. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, who helped U.S.-backed Iraqi leaders negotiate a deal with radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr to stop the fighting in Iraq's largely Shiite south, is named on U.S. Treasury Department and U.N. Security Council watch lists for alleged involvement in terrorism and the proliferation of nuclear and missile technology.

His role as peacemaker, which McClatchy first reported Sunday, underscores Iran's entrenched political power and its alliances in Iraq, according to analysts.

All we hear about from this administration is how Iran is trying to destabilize Iraq and works against us. Now we see it was an Iranian general who put an end to last week's fighting. Just another case of believe the opposite of what your told from Bush.

Cliff has all the details. There are some very compelling reasons. What we need is a President who will sit down and talk with Iran face to face. The attitude of some that "we are too good to sit down with them" is certainly not helping our situation.

Now this is sounding familiar:

The U.N. nuclear monitoring agency presented documents Monday that diplomats said indicate Iran may have focused on a nuclear weapons program after 2003 - the year that a U.S. intelligence report says such work stopped.

Iran again denied ever trying to make such arms. Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, the chief Iranian delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency, dismissed the information showcased by the body as "forgeries."

He and other diplomats, all linked to the IAEA, commented after a closed-door presentation to the agency's 35-nation board of intelligence findings from the U.S. and its allies and other information purporting to show Iranian attempts to make nuclear arms.

I'm not saying that Iran's claim isn't bogus, but we all know about false documents regarding nuclear ambitions and leading us into war.

And we don't like it:

Iran is to launch two more rockets into space in the next few months, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced on Monday, after a firing of a rocket earlier this month sparked international concern.

"Two other rockets will be launched so that we can then send a satellite into space," Ahmadinejad said at a rally in Tehran broadcast live on state television.

"We home that Iran's first home-produced satellite will be launched in the summer," he added, reiterating a prediction made by other Iranian officials who said the satellite would be launched in May.

[SNIP]

The United States, which has led international efforts to pressure Iran to freeze controversial nuclear activities, has said Tehran's activities in space risked further isolating the Islamic republic.

I guess they don't know that we own outer space. It seems like the more we say "Iran can't do that", the more they are out to do it. Perhaps a new approach, like talking to them, is in order.

Undersecretary of state Nicholas Burns is stepping down. Burns is also one of the chief warmongers when it comes to Iran and has been referred to as the "chief American strategist on Iran".

An interesting look at how that may be the case when it comes to our "close call" with that Iranian boat. This really sounds like something Congress should be questioning.

A lot of questions into the actual effectiveness of these sanctions.

The economic impact of U.S. sanctions against Iran is unclear and Iran has signed about $20 billion in energy contracts with foreign firms since 2003, said a U.S. audit report.

"U.S. officials and experts report that U.S. sanctions have specific impacts on Iran; however, the extent of such impacts is difficult to determine," said the report by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, which was obtained by Reuters late on Tuesday.

It looks like other countries don't need the U.S. like they used to.

Seriously - will someone hand this nit-wit a newspaper?

President George W. Bush said on Tuesday that he would hold Iran responsible if it hit American ships and warned the Islamic Republic not to behave provocatively in Gulf waters.

"If they hit our ships, we will hold Iran responsible," Bush told a small group of journalists. "They'd better be careful and not be provocative."

You can tell he is making reference to last week's incident, which turned out not to be Iran! Shut this monkey up now before we end up in another war.

Bush's latest attempt to start World War 3:

The Bush administration said on Monday it had notified Congress of plans to sell Saudi Arabia a package of advanced arms in what officials have described as an effort to counter growing Iranian military clout.

That is how Bush promotes peace in the Middle East - buy selling weapons.

The ones the Iran boat was dropping in the water. The ones we thought were a threat. Well it turns out they were nothing.

Bush in Saudi to court ally on Mideast peace

That's from Reuters and of course to Bush that courting means beating a war drum. I wonder how much saber rattling he will do towards Iran today? Let's ask USA Today:

Bush takes anti-Iran push to Saudis

Yup that's what I thought.

While Bush is out there warmongering, it looks like the U.N. is having progress with Iran. Not they are willing to disclose their nuclear secrets within four weeks.

It looks like a well known prankster called "Filipino Monkey" may have been behind these threats against our ships. So we start beating war drums without confirming the so called threat? Considering the billions we spend a year on intelligence, I think we are due for a refund!