Once again, Trita Parsi of NIAC has asked for money. As usual, he presents himself as a genuine defender of peace and frames his critics (including me Hassan dai) as the stooges of warmongers and neocons who seek the invasion of our country. Parsi’s new writing reveals his true nature and deceit.
The lawsuit that he and NIAC filed and finally lost, showed one thing clearly that he lies as easily as we breath. He and NIAC were punished for these lies and will have to pay hundreds of thousands of Dollars. They lied to the court, their expert lied (and was disqualified) and their attorney was disbarred. In its ruling, the court sanctioned NIAC for discovery abuses and untrue declarations to the court. The judge wrote: “There is no question that plaintiffs have repeatedly tried to evade their discovery obligations… In awarding sanctions, the Court is mindful not just of the need to compensate defendant, but also of the need to deter plaintiffs from future discovery abuses.” (Ruling, p. 23)
Putin: Ending Syrian war takes priority over al-Assad’s fate
From Saad Abedine and Laura Smith-Spark, CNN
December 20, 2012 — Updated 1412 GMT (2212 HKT)
(CNN) — Russia declared Thursday that its goal is to end the bloody conflict in Syria, not help the nation’s embattled president cling to power at all costs.
“We are advocating the solution that would prevent the collapse of the region and the continuous civil war,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a televised news conference in Moscow.
“Not retain (President Bashar) al-Assad and his regime.”
To do that, he said, talks between opposing sides are crucial.
Al-Assad has not visited Moscow a lot in his tenure, and Russia does not have “special economic relations” with Syria, according to Putin.
Russia is “not concerned” about al-Assad’s fate, he said.
“We understand what’s going on there (in Syria). We know that this family has been in power for 40 years,” he said.
THE IRANIAN AMERICANS chronicles the underreported history of a group of immigrants finding refuge, overcoming adversity and ultimately creating new lives in the United States. Even though Iran is in the news virtually every day, many Americans have little knowledge of the story of the hundreds of thousands of Iranians who live in the U.S. The special is presented by the network’s flagship station in Greater Los Angeles and Southern California, PBS SoCaL.
As THE IRANIAN AMERICANS shows, the Iranians’ story begins more than two millennia ago in the Middle East, in a land that came to be called Persia. They built an empire that stretched from North Africa to India, from the Caspian to the Red Sea. A people of diverse ethnicities and faiths, they developed rich traditions that endured centuries of migrations and conquests. In the second half of the 20th century, the nation, now known as Iran, was racked by political and religious upheaval, leading ultimately to revolution. In 1979, the revolution thrust Ayatollah Khomeini into power, beginning an era when dissent was not tolerated. Tens of thousands of Iranians left their homeland for the United States, a country they would come to call home.
Iranian American immigrant family at Thanksgiving
Iranians had been immigrating to America in small numbers for decades, primarily for education, but 1979 saw massive migration. THE IRANIAN AMERICANS is an emotional account of displacement told by more than 25 Iranians who were uprooted from their home and heritage and built completely new lives in the U.S.
Iranian Americans, also called Persian Americans, who are featured in the documentary come from diverse backgrounds. They are educators, politicians, diplomats, scientists, comedians, bankers and writers, to name a few.
Among the Iranian Americans who provide an emotional and personal perspective on their experience are:
Maz Jobrani –Actor/comedian, who is also part of the “Axis of Evil” comedy group.
Jamshid “Jimmy” Delshad –Politician from California who became mayor of Beverly Hills on March 21, 2007, and again on March 16, 2010. As mayor, he was the highest-ranking elected Iranian-American official.
Firouz Naderi — Director of solar system exploration at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), he managed the Mars exploration program at the time of the landing of heralded twin Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity.
Goli Ameri –The former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs and a former delegate to the United Nations. Currently, she is Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Values and Diplomacy for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Hamid Biglari –A vice-chairman of Citicorp, the main operating arm of Citigroup, a $60 billion revenue business with operations in more than 100 countries.
Iranian American WeddingGoldberg, the film’s director and executive producer, is the founder and owner of Two Cats Productions in New York, NY. For nearly 15 years, he has produced and directed news and documentaries for such networks as PBS, ABC and CBS, along with numerous networks internationally. THE IRANIAN AMERICANS was written by Goldberg and producer Sara Goldblatt, narrated by CBS Sunday Morning senior correspondent Martha Teichner and edited by Jane Wagner. The director of photography is Claudia Raschke-Robinson.
Major funding for THE IRANIAN AMERICANS is provided by Bahman and Hamila Atefi, Joseph and Mahnaz Moinian; Y&S Nazarian Foundation; Bita Daryabari; Hamid Moghadam and Christina M. Gwatkin; Pivotal Foundation/F. Francis Najafi; Nasser J. Kazeminy; Farhang Foundation; Shahbazi Family.
Iran’s nuclear reactor at Bushehr was shut down in mid-October for fear of an explosion. Saturday Dec. 1, an authoritative Russian nuclear industry source revealed the cause of its malfunction: “Indicators showed that some small external parts were… in the [Bushehr] reactor vessel….” They were identified as “bolts beneath the fuel cells.”
debkafile’s Moscow sources report this information came from a source in the office of Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Russian nuclear energy authority Rosatom, which supervised the construction of Iran’s first atomic reactor at Bushehr.
According to our intelligence sources, Russian scientists and engineers were rushed from Moscow to Bushehr when Russian leaders including Vladimir Putin were warned that the danger of an explosion at Bushehr was high. Neither Moscow nor Tehran reported what was happening. Now they are racing against the clock to get the reactor back on stream.
Three decades of US policy with Iran: Naiveté and failure
Jack Abramoff scandal and revelations about Iran lobby
The defamation lawsuit and lobby’s internal documents
Story
Oil and trade Lobby campaign
NIAC, and Iran’s oil mafia
Track II meetings
High jacking the peace movement
Money, lobby and political influence
Conclusion Thoughts
The Center of Gravity in Washington
On December 18, 2008, shortly after Barack Obama’s election, representatives of some 20 groups held their monthly meeting to discuss their lobby efforts to influence US policy toward a friendlier stance with Iran. The coordinator of this coalition declared that the group had become the “center of gravity on the Iran issue” in Congress.
The plea is from a woman as she stands over a young child, dressed in purple pants and a matching shirt. Cursing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, she asks why the girl had to die — one of eight children killed by shelling Sunday on a playground in a Damascus suburb, according to opposition activists.
The woman’s cries are among a host of heartwrenching moments captured on video from Deir al-Assafir. Posted on YouTube, and quickly spreading via social media, it begins by showing the bodies of two seemingly dead little girls on the ground, then two more bodies in a car, then adults carrying even more limp children. A young girl on the pavement cries uncontrollably, before being picked up.
By NASSER KARIMI Associated Press
TEHRAN, Iran November 21, 2012 (AP)
Iran has supplied Hamas in Gaza with the technology to “quickly” produce longer-range missiles on their own without needing direct shipments, said a report Wednesday that quoted the head of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard.
The comments by Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari offer some of the clearest insights on Iran’s weapons support for Hamas, whose Iranian-engineered Fajr-5 missiles have struck near Tel Aviv and Jerusalem during weeklong battles with Israel.
“Gaza is under siege, so we cannot help them. The Fajr-5 missiles have not been shipped from Iran. Its technology has been transferred and (the missiles are) being produced Read the rest of this entry »
Asian companies and middlemen are helping Tehran illicitly obtain American technology, investigators say, in what they describe as a worrisome trend.
By Ken Dilanian
November 17, 2012, 9:48 p.m.
Los Angeles TimesWASHINGTON — When Susan Yip stood before a federal judge in San Antonio last month, she apologized tearfully for her role in smuggling American technology to Iran.
Yip, a Taiwanese businesswoman, was sentenced Oct. 24 to two years in prison after pleading guilty to obtaining or trying to obtain more than $2.6 million worth of parts and materials that could be used in nuclear weapons, missile guidance systems and radio jammers. The scheme involved 599 transactions with 63 U.S. companies.
An Iranian national has been charged with scheming to illegally purchase military aircraft parts for export to his rogue country, the feds announced yesterday.
Alireza Moazami Goudarzi, 28, allegedly e-mailed a US company in 2010 and offered to pay more than market value for civilian aircraft parts in order to evade the ongoing US embargo against Iran.
After the firm contacted the feds, an undercover agent began handling the proposed purchase, along with Goudarzi’s request for other items, including rotor blades for an attack helicopter that can’t be exported without a license from the State Department, according to the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office.
Goudarzi met with the undercover agent last month in Malaysia, where he was busted by local authorities and is awaiting extradition.
In Case You Missed It: “Hong Kong to Cut Iranian Ships from Register”
By Jonathan Saul & Alison Leung
Reuters
November 12, 2012
Hong Kong will stop allowing 19 ships linked to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) from operating under its flag, a government letter showed, in the latest blow to Tehran’s sanctions-hit global trade.
A letter from the Hong Kong government’s marine department (HKMD) dated November 9 and seen by Reuters showed the authority had given notice to the owners of the 19 ships. …
Hong Kong had been urged by U.S. pressure group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) to end the flagging of 19 dry bulk ships, which the group said were owned, managed or operated by IRISL and its front companies.
Experts speculate on US president’s handling of Iranian nuclear threat, Mideast peace and Clinton’s successor
Shiri Hadar
Published: 11.08.12, 01:11 / Israel News
How will Obama treat Israel? How will he handle Iranian threat? Who will replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state? Experts are already speculating about US leadership in the next four years less than 24 hours after Barack Obama was re-elected for a second term.
“Obama has prepared the ground very carefully and has the option of trying to cut some kind of a deal on the nuclear issue, and that’s worth a lot to him,” said Gary Sick [IRI Lobbyist], an Iran expert and former US national security official.
KARIN LAUB, Associated Press | November 8, 2012 | Updated: November 8, 2012 1:28am
Syrian regime opponent Aklas Ahmad Badawi speaks during the meeting of the General Assembly of the Syrian National Council in Doha, Qatar, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012. Photo: Osama Faisal / AP
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — The leadership of Syria’s main opposition bloc in exile, the Syrian National Council, has become an all-male affair after elections failed to promote a single woman to a decision-making group of 41.
Female delegates at the SNC convention under way in Qatar — some rushing toward the podium in protest after the results were announced early Thursday — say the shutout fails to reflect the key role of women in the push to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad and erodes the SNC’s attempt at diversity.
Note the title is not “Why I am voting for Mitt Romney.” That’s because the two major American parties, Democratic and Republican, represent contrasting outlooks and you vote for the one or other of them, not for a personality. The presidential candidate is captain of the team but its many other players act autonomously. The past half-century has seen a sharpening of the divide between the parties’ philosophical consistency which I (unlike most observers) see as a positive development; who needs Rockefeller Republicans, wets, or RINOs? And ticket-splitting increases gridlock.
The president as captain of his team: Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner, Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell in the White House, July 14, 2011.
close relationship between Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Jr. (D-MD) and a pro-Tehran lobbying group NIAC
New Documents Reveal the Truth about
Van Hollen’s Record on Israel, Iran
“I believe that Van Hollen’s efforts to cut off funding for the pro-freedom movement at a time when it could have been tremendously effective, is not only tragic for Iranians: it could cost the lives of American servicemen should our two nations engage in direct hostilities.” – Ken Timmerman
For immediate release
Media contact: Bud Otis. 240-500-0095
Kensington, MD – Nov 3, 2012 – New documents, released as part of a massive federal civil lawsuit, reveal the close relationship between Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Jr. (D-MD) and a pro-Tehran lobbying g
roup that has been working for years to remove U.S. sanctions on Iran.
