Clipmarks | merrie's 'tehran' clips

World War III Cancelled

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 16:35:32 GMT

clipped by: Elisabeth Eaves
clipper's remarks: So it turns out that Iran stopped developing nuclear weapons in 2003, according to the new National Intelligence Estimate. It's easy to distrust the U.S. intelligence community, which not only made mistakes on Al-Qaeda and Iraq, but also told us in 2005 that Tehran was determined to build nukes. But there's at least one thing we can all be relieved about today: Imminent open warfare between the U.S. and Iran is almost certainly off the table.

Clip Source: www.slate.com

If there was ever a possibility that President George W. Bush would drop bombs on Iran, the chances have now shrunk to nearly zero.

In one of the most dramatic National Intelligence Estimates ever, the 16 agencies of the U.S. intelligence community concluded today "with high confidence" that Iran "halted its nuclear weapons" four years ago, in the fall of 2003.

The NIE, which was released this afternoon, also judges "with moderate confidence" that Iran won't be "technically capable" of producing enough materials for an atom bomb—much less the bomb itself—until 2010-15 or possibly later.

Tags: iran, nuclear weapons, intelligence

The week in wildlife - pictures

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:06:25 GMT

clipped by: righthand

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Fijian crested iguana is held by a zoo keeper at Taronga zoo

Sydney

endangered species

survives on a few Fijian islands

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Iowa, US: Hogs are stranded on the roof

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Tehran, Iran: Kooshki, an Asiatic cheetah, captured by a poacher as a cub and rescued by the government, walks in his enclosure at the Pardisan zoo

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Berlin

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Vienna

at the Schöbrunn Zoo

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Birmingham, UK: A baby bamboo shark being fed tiny mysis shrimps by hand at the National Sea Life Centre in Birmingham. Staff at the aquarium are handfeeding baby sharks after the choosy fish refused to dine any other way

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

US: Five red river hogs

native rain forest habitat in central and western Africa.

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Atlanta, US: Snorkellers swim in the Georgia aquarium's ocean voyager tank with a stingray

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Edinburgh

A highland cow is prepared for the Royal Highland Show.

100,000 visitors expected

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Kandahar

explosive search dog, Leanna,

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

UK: One-month-old hen harrier chicks in Bowland moor have been fitted with microwave transmitter devices

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

The week in wildlife (13 pictures)

Tags: animals, photos

Holy Warriers Set Sights on Iran

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 17:54:27 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: Check out some of our fellow clipper's comments:

"Willhelm, there is no stopping this war. The players are all falling into place. At least we know how it will end."

"i agree this could be the final piece to the beginning of armagaddon"

"but in the book of revelation and some other books in the new and old testament percieve the bear of the North or the great bear as Russia! Russia is in no way to be taken lightly."

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

Over the past 20 years, the U.S. Christian right has evolved into one of the most powerful grassroots organising forces within the Republican Party, and a host of Christian Zionists have taken a well-earned seat at the foreign policy table.

At the same time, their support for Israel is not only growing -- it is also becoming an influential political factor.

And some have started to train their sights on Tehran. In a recent blog post datelined Jerusalem, Rosenberg wrote: "The buzz here in the last few days is that Israel is seriously considering a preemptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities and ballistic missile sites."

Rosenberg said that "the question that's been most interesting among these various administration and congressional officials is, 'Are you saying that the Bible talks about an alliance between Iran, Russia, and a group of Middle Eastern countries to attack Israel at some point?' And the answer is yes."

Tags: holy, war

Gays Exist Quietly, In Iran

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 14:51:26 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: "Shahin, 27, a chemist, has kept his gay life secret from his parents. “I don’t want to upset them,” he said. “Maybe they will consider me sick and feel sorry for me.”

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

TEHRAN, Sept. 29 — When Reza, a 29-year-old Iranian, heard that his president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had denied in New York that homosexuals were in Iran, he was shocked but not surprised. Reza knows the truth. He is gay.

“You can have a secret gay life as long you don’t become an activist and start demanding rights,” he said, speaking on the condition that his family name not be used because he feared retribution.

Reza, who shaves his head and often wears an earring in his left ear, has lived in Europe extensively. Gay life in Iran, he said, “is just complicated in the same way that it is for other groups, like workers and feminists, who don’t have many rights.”

But, speaking anonymously, several said that the president had clearly been caught off guard by the question because no one at an Iranian university would have dared to ask him such a thing. T

Fear of persecution is so strong that some gay men and lesbians have sought and received asylum in Western countries.

Tags: iran, homosexuality

BIG Surprise? More Bush LIES for WAR with Iran

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 12:32:58 GMT

clipped by: righthand
clipper's remarks: Damp squib really. Who is surprised by the Bush lies any more? The Swiftboaters? Even those dumbshixs must be copping on that the emperor has no clothes and that they bought the most GIGANTIC pup of all time!

Clip Source: www.rte.ie

Iran

US overstated Iran nuclear threat

Tuesday, 4 Dec

The National Intelligence Estimate also said that Washington had consistently overstated the threat posed by Iran

The Bush administration had been insisting that the purpose of Iran's nuclear programme was to develop nuclear weapons, but the new assessment concludes that Tehran is not likely to have enough highly enriched uranium to build a bomb until 2015

The intellegence report has raised fresh questions about the White House's battered credibility five years after the US drive to invade Iraq based on dire, but false, warnings

Bush warned of the threat of a nuclear armed Iian and wrongly claimed that Tehran had openly proclaimed its desire for one

The NIE, the consensus view of all 16 US intelligence agencies, said it was unclear whether Iran sought nuclear arms and that halting its still-dormant program suggested greater susceptibility to global pressure than had been thought

Iranian government welcomed a US intelligence report

Mahmoud

Tags: bush, lies, iran, nuclear, war, ni

Father-to-be allowed into delivery room for first time in Iran

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 13:50:58 GMT

clipped by: Deepti

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Sarem hospital in Tehran last week became the first in Iran to allow a father inside a delivery room for the birth of his child. The hospital is offering couples the chance to stay together during childbirth after being told that it is permissible under Iran's Islamic laws

What has become common practice in the west is still unknown in Iran, where pregnancy and birth are still seen as women's business

But Dr Abutaleb Sarem

medical director at Sarem hospital, is urging patients to bring in husbands for health and psychological reasons. He believes the presence of fathers is necessary to soothe women's nerves and make them more willing to give birth naturally

Dr Sarem came up with the proposal after Iran's health ministry asked doctors to reduce the number of caesarean births. About 70% of babies in Iran are born by caesarean section, largely due to women's fears about the pain of childbirth and the worry that natural births make them less attractive to their husbands

Tags: iran, father, delivery, child, baby, health, childbirth

Don't Let Them Trick Us Into Another War

Sat, 06 Jan 2007 17:44:09 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks: "Before 1979, the US government strongly supported The Iranian nuclear programmes."

Clip Source: www.informationclearinghouse.info

Don't Let Them Trick Us Into Another War

Yes, Iran does need fuel.

"The Bush administration has alternately said that Iran has a secret nuclear weapons program or wants one. Without being able to prove those claims, the White House has made its case by implication, beginning with the point that Iran has ample oil reserves for its energy needs.

Ford's team commended Iran's decision to build a massive nuclear energy industry, noting in a declassified 1975 strategy paper that Tehran needed to "prepare against the time -- about 15 years in the future -- when Iranian oil production is expected to decline sharply."

Estimates of Iran's oil reserves were smaller then than they are now, but energy experts and U.S. intelligence estimates continue to project that Iran will need an alternative energy source in the coming decades. Iran's population has more than doubled since the 1970s, and its energy demands have increased even more."

"Lacking direct evidence, Bush administration officials argue that Iran's nuclear program must be a cover for bomb-making. Vice President Cheney recently said, "They're already sitting on an awful lot of oil and gas. Nobody can figure why they need nuclear as well to generate energy."

Yet Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and outgoing Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz held key national security posts when the Ford administration made the opposite argument 30 years ago."

01/05/07 - 2 Minute video:

Tags: iran, war

USA: Lies In, Truth Out in rush to more WAR

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:55:44 GMT

clipped by: righthand
clipper's remarks: "States do not pursue weapons systems as ends in themselves; and states are hardwired to ensure their own survival. It is to that end that they acquire weapons systems, to protect, enhance or advance their own strategic position and even up the odds against more powerful rivals.

As everything from the Cold War to the current deal with North Korea demonstrate, the only way to avoid nuclear conflict is to address the concerns and fears on both sides that might spark such a conflict.

Weapons systems are dangerous, but not as dangerous as the conflicts that might result in them being used. And we should also get used to the idea that the globalization of technology on the current strategic landscape makes nuclear weapons likely to become the norm among states — after all, the existing eight nuclear weapons states have no intention of relinquishing theirs, so why would any states that anticipate being in conflict with any of them refrain from pursuing those weapons when the opportun

Clip Source: tonykaron.com

The very same crew of neocons and liberal hawks and the Israeli political establishment and its allies in Washington, are goading America to attack Iran.

First, there is no evidence that Iran is actually building a nuclear weapon

Second, even if Iran did possess nuclear weapons, the idea that it would use them to initiate a conflict in which Tehran would certainly be destroyed is based on tabloid-style alarmism about the nature of the regime in Tehran

hus the recent rebuke to Bush by both Karzai and Maliki on the question of Iran’s role in their countries.

In a remarkably shallow treatment of complaints about the New York Times coverage of the issue, its public editor concedes simply that the Times should have told readers of its previous coverage to provide “context”

The idea that the use of EFPs in Iraq is automatically a fingerprint of Iran is ridiculous.

the secret war between Washington and Tehran

Iraq and Afghanistan fear;

being caught in the crossfire between the U.S. and Iran

McCain

Ima

Tags: usa, wmd, lies, truth, media, bias, iran, nuclear

5000-year-old site discovered in Iran

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 02:33:25 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: www.tehrantimes.com

TEHRAN -- A broad site dating back to the third millennium BC was discovered during the latest excavations in Bampur region in Sistan-Baluchestan Province, southeastern Iran.

“In the Bampur valley, there is an ancient site covered with sand mounds, which is as large as the Burnt City and may belong to a civilization as great as the civilization of that the city,” Mehdi Mortazavi, an archaeologist of the University of Sistan-Baluchestan, told the Persian service of CHN on Saturday.

According to Mortazavi, the site measures 1x1.5 kilometer.

“I feel sure that there are a large number of sites like this here. Such sites may even exist in nearby regions like Saravan,” he stated.

Twenty sites -- mostly prehistoric -- have been discovered by the archaeologists of the University of Sistan-Baluchestan over the past few years.

Tags: archaeology, iran, prehistory, burnt city

Persepolis

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 12:40:43 GMT

clipped by: mona
clipper's remarks: I went to see this at the cinema last night.
And I absolutely loved it. It's political. It's critical. It's naive. It's full of wisdom. It's funny. It's sad. Its message is simple. Its message is deep. Just wonderful!

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

An Animated Adventure, Drawn From Life

MARJANE SATRAPI’S life was flashing before her eyes. There she was, a mischievous girl on the streets of Tehran, buying contraband records during the Islamic revolution. Singing the lyrics in her bedroom at the top of her teenage lungs. Fidgeting with her head scarf at the lycée. Mourning the political imprisonment of her uncle. Falling in love for the first time. Saying goodbye to her beloved parents as they sent her, their only child, to find freedom and solace in the West.

Ms. Satrapi said she wrote “Persepolis” as an answer to the relentless and loaded question of what it means to be Iranian.

‘This is a universal story.’

all dictatorships, no matter if it’s Chile, if it’s the Cultural Revolution in China or Communist Poland, it’s the same schematic.

Here in the West we judge them because we are so used to democracy

Political changes turn your life completely upside down, not because you are crazy but because you don’t have any way out.

Tags: true, story, beautifully, told

Bush: "Begone Facts, Begone"

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 00:12:19 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: How much evidence do we need to realize this man is nuts?

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Bush Says Iran Still a Danger Despite Report on Weapons

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 — President Bush said today that a new intelligence finding that Iran halted its nuclear weapons work in 2003 had not altered his sense that Iran remained a danger.

The world needed to view the report as “a warning signal,” not grounds for reassurance, he said, and the United States would not renounce the option of a military response.

“I have said Iran is dangerous,” Bush said a day after the release of the National Intelligence Estimate, representing the consensus of all 16 American spy agencies, “and the N.I.E. doesn’t do anything to change my opinion about the danger Iran poses to the world — quite the contrary.”

The report was welcomed by Iran today, which said it confirmed Tehran’s frequent protestations that its nuclear program has a purely civilian aim.

Tags: bush, politics, iran, war

Iran moves to execute porn stars

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 05:05:57 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's parliament on Wednesday voted in favor of a bill that could lead to the death penalty for persons convicted of working in the production of pornographic movies.

With a 148-5 vote in favor and four abstentions, lawmakers present at the Wednesday session of the 290-seat parliament approved that "producers of pornographic works and main elements in their production are considered corrupter of the world and could be sentenced to punishment as corrupter of the world."

The term, "corrupter of the world" is taken from the Quran, the Muslims' holy book, and ranks among the highest on the scale of an individual's criminal offenses. Under Iran's Islamic Penal Code, it carries a death penalty.

Tags: iran, porn, death, koran, islam, muslim, death penalty, movies, criminal

World's Largest Carpet Woven for Worshippers

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 09:13:39 GMT

clipped by: Deepti
clipper's remarks: By any measure, it's a marvel—as a work of art, as an article of devotion, as a testament to the richness of hand-made craftwork. But who's going to take it outside and beat it?

Long known for its delicate and ornate Persian rugs, Iran has recently been losing market share to cheaper Asian manufacturers, according to industry reports

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Authorities in Iran unveiled what they described as the world's largest hand-woven rug yesterday at Tehran's open-air prayer grounds

At 60,546 square feet (5,625 square meters), the carpet is the size of a soccer field and was woven by 1,200 weavers in three villages over the course of a year and a half

The mammoth floor covering is destined for a monumental new mosque under construction in the United Arab Emirates. Emirati officials commissioned Iran's state-owned rug manufacturer to create the piece for the central prayer hall of the giant Sheikh Zayed mosque, slated to open this fall in the capital city of Abu Zaby (Abu Dhabi)

Weavers in Iran's northwestern Khorasan Province used 38 tons of wool and cotton from Iran and New Zealand to fashion the colorful covering, tying a staggering 2.2 billion knots in the process

Half of the commission, estimated at 5.8 million U.S. dollars, will go to the villagers

Tags: carpet, worship, mosque, uae, abu dhabi, iran

US No.1 BoogieMan? A bantam Cock? Worth WAR?

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 18:51:44 GMT

clipped by: righthand
clipper's remarks: "The right has decided it is at war with Iran, so a routine visit by Iran's ceremonial president to the UN GA has generated sparks. The foremost cheerleader for such a view in Congress is Sen Lieberman, who recently pressed Gen. Petraeus on the desirability of bombing Iran in order to forestall weapons smuggling into Iraq from that country.

American hawks are beating the war drums loudly because they are increasingly frustrated with the course of events. They are unsatisfied with the lack of enthusiasm among the EU and UN for impeding Tehran's nuclear energy research program. While the Bush administration insists that the program aims at producing a bomb, the Iranian state maintains that it is for peaceful energy purposes. It wants tighter sanctions on Iran at the UN but is unlikely to get them in the short term because of Russian and Chinese reluctance. They may attempt to create a "coalition of the willing" of Iran boycotters outside the UN framework."

Clip Source: www.salon.com

Turning Ahmadinejad into public enemy No. 1

Demonizing the Iranian president and making his visit to New York seem controversial are all part of the neoconservative push for yet another war.

he is not commander in chief of the Iranian armed forces

never invaded any other country

denies he is an anti-Semite

never called for any Israeli civilians to be killed

allows Iran's 20,000 Jews to have representation in Parliament

remarkably little substance to the debates now raging

His quirky personality

penchant for outrageous one-liners

combative populism are hardly serious concerns for foreign policy

Taking potshots at a bantam cock of a populist like Ahmadinejad is actually a way of expressing another, deeper anxiety

fear of Iran's rising position as a regional power

its challenge to the American and Israeli status quo

Reagan administration sold substantial numbers of arms to Iran

The sales would have been a form of treason

Ledeen is apparently accusing himself of treason

Lieberman

it is at war with Iran

Tags: iran, president, usa

Iranian TV Miniseries about the Halocaust a hit with viewers

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 04:35:45 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: From the article:

"The series could not have aired without being condoned by Iran's clerical leadership. The state broadcaster is under the control of the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khomenei, who has final say in all matters inside Iran."

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

TEHRAN, Iran — It is Iran's version of "Schindler's List," a miniseries that tells the tale of an Iranian diplomat in Paris who helps Jews escape the Holocaust _ and viewers across the country are riveted.

That's surprising enough in a country where hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has questioned whether the Holocaust even took place. What's more surprising is that government media produced the series, and is airing it on state-run television.

The Holocaust is rarely mentioned in state media in Iran, school textbooks don't discuss it and Iranians have little information about it.

Though the Habib character is fictional, it is based on a true story of diplomats in the Iranian Embassy in Paris in the 1940s who gave out about 500 Iranian passports for Jews to use to escape.

About 25,000 Jews live in Iran, the largest Jewish community in the Middle East after Israel. They have one representative in parliament, which is run mostly by Islamic clerics.

Tags: iran, holocaust, tv, politics, history