Iran reels from twin blows

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MK15Ak01.html

TEHRAN - Deadly explosions at a military base about 60 kilometers southwest of Tehran, coinciding with the suspicious death of the son of a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, have triggered speculation in Iran on whether or not these are connected to recent United States threats to resort to extrajudicial executions of IRGC leaders.

General Hasan Moghaddam, a key figure in Iran's missile program, was killed alongside 16 IRGC members on Saturday at a military site. The Guards said the accident occurred while military personnel were transporting munitions.

The IRGC praised Moghaddam, saying it would not forget his


"effective role in the development of the country's defense ... and his efforts in launching and organizing the Guards' artillery and missile units," the linchpin of the country's conventional deterrence, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

Simultaneously, Ahmad Rezai, the young son of Mohsen Rezai, commander of the IRGC guards during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1908s, currently the secretary of the Expediency Council and a presidential contender, has been found dead at a hotel in Dubai under "suspicious circumstances", according to official reports.

"If the dirty hands of foreign powers are found in any of these incidents, then the government will come under popular pressure to avenge the death of those martyrs," said a Tehran University political scientist who spoke to the author on the condition of anonymity.

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1. Will we whine and complain if they use the same technique on us?

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2. we whine and complain when they don't. nt

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3. When did the US "threaten extrajudicial executions of IRGC leaders?"

Maybe I missed that, but it's news to me.

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4. republicans openly encouraging assassinations and such

____ One of the stranger criticisms (from the foreign policy 'debate') came from Newt Gingrich, who called for “maximum covert operations– to block and disrupt the Iranian program– in– including– taking out their scientists, including breaking up their systems. All of it covertly, all of it deniable.”

He sounded a lot like a guy complaining that he couldn’t see the participants at the Ninja Parade (that’s the point: you’re not supposed to see them, they’re ninjas). Later in the debate, Rick Santorum, of all people, demonstrated a grasp of this fact, saying, “there have been scientists turning up dead in Russia and in Iran. There have been computer viruses. There have been problems at their facility. I hope that the United States has been involved with that. I hope that we have been doing everything we can covertly to make sure that that program doesn’t proceed forward.”


http://www.mediaite.com/tv/president-obama-brushes-off-gop-debate-criticism-of-his-iran-nukes-policy/

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5. +1 -- think of it this way -- if they are openly talking about it -- then there are those

in various government agencies not so openly talking about it.

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6. US and Israel Demand Greater Measures against Tehran

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,797570,00.html

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad admires Germany and German history. He has a particularly keen interest in the Nazi era. He calls Adolf Hitler a fascinating figure. In his opinion, the Holocaust never happened.

Ahmadinejad's confused views of the world and its history have helped considerably to make products made in Germany so popular in the Islamic state. German companies, primarily in the fields of mechanical engineering and chemicals, are Iran's leading Western trading partners. Germany supplies Iran with roughly the same amount of goods as France and Italy combined -- the countries that occupy second and third place in the export statistics. During the first eight months of this year alone, Germany exported goods to Iran worth €2.055 billion ($2.75 billion), according to the latest statistics from the German Economics Ministry.

The question is what Ahmadinejad is doing with all the goods that he purchases from his German business friends. True, trade with Iran is subject to strict limitations: Everything that could serve a military purpose is banned, and the energy and financial sectors are largely off limits. But the United States and Israel feel that this partial embargo doesn't go far enough. They accuse the Germans of economically stabilizing Ahmadinejad.

EU To Discuss Next Steps on Iran

The situation has been coming to a head ever since the International Atomic Energy Agency issued an alarming report last week on the progress that Iran is making with its nuclear program. On Monday, European Union foreign ministers are set to meet in Brussels to debate the next steps against Iran. As the leading European exporter to Iran, and the country with the largest historical responsibility for Israel, Germany is the main focus of these talks. German Economics Minister Phillip Rösler of the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP) realizes that trade with Iran could soon be halted. "Germany will play an active role in calling for tougher sanctions against Iran," Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert announced.

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7. Israeli secret service the Mossad linked to Iran military blast

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/14/israel-mossad-iran-blast


Iran's suspected nuclear enrichment facility under construction at Qom. Reports claim the Mossad was behind a huge blast at a facility which killed a missile development pioneer. Photograph: AP

A series of news reports linking Israel's intelligence agency the Mossad to a blast at a military facility in Iran, in which 17 people were killed and a further 15 wounded, has gained widespread coverage in the Israeli media on Monday.

While Iranian officials insist the explosion at the Bid Ganeh base was accidental, caused by the movement of ammunition, claims from anonymous western and Israeli officials that Saturday's blast was a covert Israeli operation have gained momentum.

Leading Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot picked up a post by US blogger Richard Silverstein claiming the Mossad had teamed up with Iranian militant group Mujahideen e-Khalq (MEK) to execute the alleged attack. MEK denies involvement in the attack.

Leftwing broadsheet Ha'aretz also led with reports that a western intelligence source quoted in Time magazine had claimed the Mossad carried out the attack in an attempt to stall Iran's development of a nuclear weapon. The official is said to have warned: "There are more bullets in the magazine."