If you’re defining “random Iranian” as “director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran” and “freak accident” as “attack using magnetically-attached bombs.” And who among us has not?
Yeah, sure, I’m the awful person. Not the undemocratic regime that beats and rapes dissidents and who wants to murder every Jew in the Middle East. Whatever…
“…is the seed of the Church.” – Tertullian.
I have prayed for Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani’s safe deliverance, of course. And I would not wish the sin of murdering this man upon anyone, equally of course. But, as Allahpundit noted, “The goal isn’t to kill him but to terrify him into asserting Islam’s supremacy by recanting his beliefs.” Which tells me that the Iranian regime [doesn’t] really understand Christianity nearly as well as the regime thinks that it does.
Moe Lane
Apparently, if you squint at this you can see the word ‘Zion.’
Which is apparently grounds for the Iranian regime threatening to boycott the Olympi…
(pause)
Hmm.
(pause)
OK, sure. There’s a Zion in there.
…using magnetic bombs?
The assassins, riding motorcycles, tossed bombs at — or attached them to — vehicles of the two Shahid Behesti University professors as they drove with their spouses en route to work between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m..
“A Pulsar motorbike drove close to Dr. Shahriari’s car and stuck a bomb on his car which after a few seconds exploded,” Tehran police chief Hossein Sajednia was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency.
Via Gateway Pundit/RightNetwork, via Instapundit. One nuclear scientist killed, one wounded – also wounded were their wives, and at least one driver. The Iranians are blaming Israel, of course… despite the fact that this would be precisely the sort of cinematic attack that generally stays in cinemas*. That would be because you don’t start a war to kill two scientists; and if Mossad had done this, it would have been an act of war.
On the other hand: between this situation and the Stuxnet worm, this entire Iranian nuke situation is starting to get an action-movie feel to it. Which is not actually a good thing, given a). the number of extras that typically die in action movies and b). the amount of real estate that typically gets blown up…
Moe Lane Continue reading #rsrh Iranian nuclear scientist assassination…
Well. How reassuring.
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) — Three men were accused in an alleged conspiracy to illegally export nuclear technology to Iran, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday.
The three suspects, a Los Angeles resident and two Iranians, violated trade sanctions imposed on Iran, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
[snip]
An indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles on Dec. 30 charges Jiraiir Avanessian, 56, a Los Angeles resident, and Farhoud Masoumian, 42, of Tehran, with multiple violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Iranian trade embargo, including smuggling, money laundering and other crimes.
[snip]
A third man, Amirhossein Sairafi of Iran, was charged on Jan. 4 in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles for his alleged role in the scheme.
This is technically via Hot Air Headlines, but the LA Times article that it linked to somehow managed to obscure critical details. It’s a hell of a thing when the press arm of the freaking People’s Republic of China gives you better basic information than a major American newspaper…
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
(H/T: Hot Air) It’s bad when you have somebody from this administration wincing at a proposed foreign relations move:
Sen. John Kerry has suggested becoming the first high-level U.S. emissary to make a public visit to Tehran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, a move White House officials say they won’t oppose.
“…say they won’t oppose.” How… bloodless… a response. And how quick the administration was to remind the world that as head of the Foreign Relations Committee* the movements of Senator Kerry is beyond the White House’s control. It was all his idea, in fact. A complete surprise:
The Obama administration hasn’t decided whether to make Sen. Kerry its official representative if he goes, but as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Kerry can visit if the White House and Tehran both approve.
Many opponents of Tehran’s regime oppose such a visit, fearing it would lend legitimacy to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a time when his government is under continuing pressure from protests and opposition figures. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets again this week to voice their opposition to the government following the death of a reformist cleric.
That Kerry’s timing this olive branch to the Iranian ruling regime just when street protests bubbled over is merely a sign that the Senator is watched over by a spirit possessed of vast cunning and political strategic genius.
Who hates Senator Kerry.
Moe Lane
*Yes. I know. They made John Kerry head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES, PEOPLE.
Crossposted to RedState.
This is an epic-level paragraph on the problems with getting Iran to negotiate about its nuclear program in good faith:
“It’s like playing chess with a monkey,” said one diplomat close to the talks. “You get them to checkmate, and then they swallow the king.”
That had to have been a Brit making that statement, by the way. No American would dare.
Via Hot Air Headlines.
Note the plural: while this Boston Globe article primarily references one organization (Iran Human Rights Documentation Center)…
For the past five years, researchers in a modest office overlooking the New Haven green have carefully documented cases of assassination and torture of democracy activists in Iran. With more than $3 million in grants from the US State Department, they have pored over thousands of documents and Persian-language press reports and interviewed scores of witnesses and survivors to build dossiers on those they say are Iran’s most infamous human-rights abusers.
But just as the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center was ramping up to investigate abuses of protesters after this summer’s disputed presidential election, the group received word that – for the first time since it was formed – its federal funding request had been denied.
…it goes on to note that there are reports that more Iranian human rights groups have been defunded by an administration looking for a less… confrontational… relationship with the current Iranian regime. This is more the White House’s speed:
The Obama administration has emphasized other forms of assistance, such as aid for software programs that help activists communicate on the Internet anonymously. It also has continued funding for exchange programs. In the coming months, for instance, the administration hopes to bring Iranian lawyers to major cities in the United States, including Boston, to talk with American lawyers about their concept of law.
The current Iranian regime’s ‘concept of law’ permits punishing homosexuality with death and excuses the rape of protesters. I fail to see why we need to hear their excuses for that.
(H/T: Hot Air)
Moe Lane
PS: Note, though, that we had money enough to try to get the Olympics for the Daley Machine.
PPS: In case it isn’t obvious: now would be a good time for the administration to start in motion the process where all of this becomes a regrettable misunderstanding that obviously does not reflect a change in American foreign policy with regards to Iran.
Crossposted to RedState.
As in, trying to incite the populace against a long-established demon figure.
The British government is “deeply concerned” at the arrest and detention of British Embassy employees in Tehran, the foreign secretary said today.
David Miliband said Britain had protested to the Iranian authorities about the arrests made on Saturday.
He described the detentions as “harassment and intimidation of a kind that is quite unacceptable”. He added: “We want to see (them) released unharmed.”
Iranian media reported today that authorities had detained eight employees of the British Embassy in Tehran for an alleged role in postelection protests, signaling a hardening of Iran‘s stance toward the west.
No, it’s not always about us. Continue reading Iranian regime falls back on old tricks.
