Put these to articles together, and I see, or still see, a regime on the brink of collapse. With their pursuit of weapons grade nuclear technology, and their support of terrorism throughout the Middle East, I have to agree with Leeden that it can’t happen quick enough. As Iran goes, so will go Syria. If the current regime in Iran falls, then either Assad curbs his desires, or the people there will build further pressure to topple his regime. Assuming that Pelosi doesn’t do something stupid, again…
http://pajamasmedia.com/xpress/michaelledeen/2007/05/22/more_mullahs_lies.php
So the mullahs have lied once again to the Iranian people. On Sunday, the regime promised they would not be raising gasoline prices. Less than two days later they raised them by twenty-five percent. Meanwhile housing prices are up one hundred percent, vegetables have tripled, and citizens are beaten up in the streets. And still there are apologists in the West who say this regime has the support of most Iranians.
If a government behaved like this in a free country, it would be turned out of office in a nanosecond. The Yahoo! story is pretty good, pointing out that President Ahmadi-Nezhad promised to spend Iran’s huge oil revenues on improving people’s lives, but in fact it all goes to terrorist groups like Hamas (to which they could have added Hizbollah, Islamic Jihad, al Qaeda, Fatah, and the rest of the motley jihadis).
http://www.pajamasmedia.com/2007/05/show_of_force.php
Teachers striking for equal pay, workers who for months have been barely paid enough to survive, university students uprising across Iran, women protesting, unrest in different parts of the country, the cost of living rising faster and faster, gasoline rationed, and the rivals in the Majlis (Islamic parliament) and other power houses of the Islamic Republic challenging him; they all are the nightmare that Ahmadinejad has to endure in the hope of politically surviving until the next morning.
In a political system with big figures like Rafsanjani and Khatami controlling the money, while Ahmadinejad holds the gun, the Iranian president is faced with obstacles that even his father figure, Chamran, and his godfather, Larijani, are unable to deal with in a serene manner. So what’s a repressive regime to do? Well, why not try focusing the attention to the youth’s social behavior creating an artificial crisis over the dress code?
…
Just yesterday, in the midst of police beating on two defenseless women in Haft e Tir, a popular square in Tehran, people quickly gathered, holding hands with one another and chanting loud and clear against the police, demanding them to let the women go. The police squad, suddenly frightened, radioed for help, but amid the turmoil they were kicked by a young man. Others released the victims from police custody and helped them escape to safety. The young man who also disappeared in the crowd. And today, reports from Tehran said that in another incident near an upscale shopping mall in the north of the city, a girl was being harassed by a police officer for her dress code, but then she pulled a knife and attacked the policeman. People tried to help the girl, but a special police backup unit quickly arrived and manage to take the the girl away by force.
A witness on the scene told PJ Media that after these reactions against police brutality he feels confident, powerful, and “smells freedom in the air.†Is this the beginning of something more?
Uh, oh, don’t look know, France is calling for tighter sanctions against Iran!!!
And why shouldn’t all concerned countries be calling for tighter sanctions, and sanctions with teeth.
Despite ElBaradei’s recent comments, on Wednesday he released a report saying that Iran continues to defy UN Security Council demands to scrap its uranium enrichment program and has instead expanded its activities.
ElBaradei also faulted Teheran for blocking IAEA efforts to probe suspicious nuclear activities, saying that meant it could not “provide assurances about… the exclusively peaceful nature” of its atomic program.
And, in new and worrying phrasing, it expressed concern about its “deteriorating” understanding of unexplored aspects of the program, despite four years of a probe sparked by revelations that Teheran had been clandestinely developing enrichment and other nuclear activities that could be used to make weapons for nearly two decades.
And this is sure to cause some consternation among the elite in Iran… and always a good show of force…
The U.S. Navy staged its latest show of military force off the Iranian coastline on Wednesday, sending two aircraft carriers and landing ships packed with 17,000 U.S. Marines and sailors to carry out unannounced exercises in the Persian Gulf.
One could think that all of this is happening as part of a plan… a secret plan…
The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert “black” operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.
The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, say President Bush has signed a “nonlethal presidential finding” that puts into motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran’s currency and international financial transactions.
Sounds like it’s directly from a Clancy novel…
s/know/now/g