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NYT: "JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay $88.3 million as part of a settlement with the Treasury Department over a series of transactions involving Cuba, Iran and Sudan, the agency said on Thursday. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a news release that JPMorgan processed wire transfers totaling around $178.5 million for Cuban nationals in late 2005 and early 2006, violating United States embargo laws. The bank's officers discovered the transfers in 2005, after they were tipped off by another financial institution, but failed to report them and did not take adequate steps to prevent more transfers, according to the statement. The release did not say which institution made the initial discovery. The bank was also fined for a 2009 incident in which it made a $2.9 million loan to a bank that had ties to Iran's government-owned shipping line, a violation of United States sanctions against the Middle Eastern nation. Again, JPMorgan Chase learned of the apparent violation early on but did not disclose it to regulators until March 2010, three days before it was repaid for the loan." http://t.uani.com/qFIwZZ
AZO Building: "United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) commended Liebehrr, a Swiss-German manufacturer of construction equipment for its decision to close-down operations in Iran. Liebherr employees have recently communicated to UANI that they will shut-down all business activities in Iran. UANI was also informed that the company had intimated all its previous business partners and customers in Iran about the closing down of all business interactions with them in May, 2011. UANI has praised Liebherr for this move since the company came to this decision after finding out that construction cranes were used by the Iranian regime for cruel public hangings. Mark D Wallace, UANI Ambassador and President stated that Liebherr is the fourth crane company to close business in Iran in response to UANI's crane campaign. He appreciated the company's decision and fair judgment and admired its readiness to jointly work with UANI on this critical issue of human rights. The fact that the Iranian government is utilizing cranes for public hanging of its people is definitely alarming and is causing a large number of companies to discontinue working in Iran. UANI had initially approached Liebherr in April to cease crane supply to Iran since the German government felt that there was a chance of Liebherr's cranes being utilized by banned Iranian shell companies to sustain Tehran's missile project. The cranes campaign elaborates the disgusting record of the Iranian regime of public hanging of its people using foreign construction cranes and pleaded with crane suppliers to close-down business in Iran until the government becomes a responsible member of the global community. Liebherr is the fourth crane manufacturer after Terex, Tadano and UNIC to close-down operations in Iran subsequent to the crane campaign." http://t.uani.com/q8ueI2
Reuters: "'The creation of a universally-recognised Palestinian state would be just a first step towards wiping out Israel, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday. He spoke weeks ahead of a U.N. General Assembly in New York where the Arab League plans to seek full U.N. membership for a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Aug. 16 that he would deliver the application to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at some point during a gathering of world leaders for the General Assembly starting the week of Sept. 19. Ahmadinejad, restating a position expressed soon after taking office in 2005 that Israel was a 'tumour' to be wiped off the map, urged Palestinians not to settle for a two-state solution that is backed by Abbas but to strive for a complete return of what they consider their land. 'Recognising the Palestinian state is not the last goal. It is only one step forward towards liberating the whole of Palestine,' Ahmadinejad told worshippers at Friday prayers on international Qods Day -- an annual show of support for the Palestinian cause. 'The Zionist regime is a centre of microbes, a cancer cell and if it exists in one iota of Palestine it will mobilise again and hurt everyone.'" http://t.uani.com/qlIiAO 
Commerce
Dow Jones: "Floating oil storage from the National Iranian Tanker Co. has doubled to six very-large crude carriers and 12 million barrels in the week ending Aug. 26, ICAP Shipping International Ltd. said in a note Friday. The news comes as Iran has experienced problems getting paid for its oil in India amid mounting sanctions, though it has since resolved the problem. Shipping expert ICAP, however, said 'the number of NITC VLCCs involved in short-term storage or shuttling has risen to six from three last week.' That would suggest the storage could be only temporary and not tied to long-term problems to sell Iranian oil." http://t.uani.com/pW8J6M
Culture
NY Post: "Iran's religious fundamental ists can't be pleased with "Cir cumstance," a bold denunciation of their country's intolerance, especially toward women. It features sexy lesbian encounters, bare skin, alcoholic drinks and male-female dancing -- all of which are forbidden by Iran's morality police. Shot in Lebanon using a cast of Iranians from around the world, the film is directed by the talented Maryam Keshavarz, who grew up in Iran before moving to Brooklyn with her family in 1967. She studied film at NYU; this is her first feature after making a series of experimental shorts. The story, based in part on Keshavarz's real-life experiences, revolves around a well-to-do, liberal family struggling to cope with the intolerant regime." http://t.uani.com/oZmXGu
Opinion & Analysis
Thomas Joscelyn in the Weekly Standard: "In a column for the Washington Post, David Ignatius discusses the cache of documents captured in Osama bin Laden's safe house. Ignatius writes: U.S. officials say three strong themes emerge from their reading of the files, most of which were communications between bin Laden and his top deputy Atiyah Abd al-Rahman. Indeed, because the Libyan-born Atiyah (who's known to analysts by his first name) was the boss's key link with the outside, officials see him as more important than bin Laden's nominal successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Ignatius goes on to report: Bin Laden retained until his death a passion to launch a significant attack against the United States, ideally linked to the 10th anniversary of 9/11. He and Atiyah communicated often about who might carry out such a strike, with Atiyah proposing names and bin Laden rejecting them. Bin Laden was still looking for a history-changing attack on big, economically important targets - one that would match, if not outdo, the impact of 9/11. Zawahiri, by contrast, favored an opportunistic strategy of smaller strikes. In July, the Wall Street Journal reported the same details concerning Atiyah, who was described as al Qaeda's 'operations chief.' Here is one question journalists and intelligence professionals should be asking: What role, if any, does Iran play in Atiyah's plotting? In July, the U.S. Treasury Department designated six members of an al Qaeda network based inside Iran. (See here and here for additional reporting on the designation.) Some members of the network are based outside of Iran, but funnel recruits and cash through Iranian soil. The network operates "under an agreement between al Qaeda and the Iranian government.' One member of this network is Atiyah. Treasury notes that Atiyah is al Qaeda's 'overall commander in Pakistan's tribal areas and as of late 2010, the leader of al Qaeda in North and South Waziristan, Pakistan.' The Treasury Department adds: 'Rahman was previously appointed by Osama bin Laden to serve as al Qaeda's emissary in Iran, a position which allowed him to travel in and out of Iran with the permission of Iranian officials.' The Iran-based network is headed by another terrorist, Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil (aka Yasin al Suri). The Treasury Department's designation notes that "Iranian authorities maintain a relationship with Khalil and have permitted him to operate within Iran's borders since 2005." Khalil's activities include moving "money and recruits from across the Middle East into Iran, then on to Pakistan," where they serve senior al Qaeda leaders. According to the Treasury Department, one of the senior al Qaeda leaders Khalil funnels money and recruits to in northern Pakistan is Atiyah. So, here is what we know about Atiyah and Iran: Atiyah was planning a terrorist attack against the U.S. that was potentially set to coincide with the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Atiyah worked with and for Osama bin Laden, who oversaw the plot. (We don't know, however, if this plot ever got off the ground or was just in its initial planning stages.) According to Ignatius, some U.S. intelligence officials think Atiyah is even 'more important' than Ayman al Zawahiri, al Qaeda's new emir. The described Atiyah as al Qaeda's 'operations chief.' Atiyah was appointed al Qaeda's emissary to Iran and had an explicit deal with the Iranians that allowed him to move in an out the mullahs' country. Atiyah is one of the beneficiaries of a deal between the Iranian government and Khalil, who funnels recruits and money from the Gulf States through Iran to Atiyah. I'll add one more dot: Atiyah was protected by the Iranian regime for several years after 9/11. He is one of the senior al Qaeda leaders who the Iranians refused to acknowledge holding in custody and was supposedly held under a loose form of 'house arrest.' All of which brings us back to the original question folks should be asking: What role, if any, does Iran play in Atiyah's plotting?" http://t.uani.com/nWSN0c
Reuters: "Seen from Iran, Libya is either the latest dictatorship to fall to an 'Islamic awakening' that will unite the Muslim Middle East, or a new foothold for the treacherous West to assert its economic and political domination over the region. Muammar Gaddafi, who fled his Tripoli compound this week, was no friend to the Islamic Republic which considered him a flamboyant despot almost as bad as the despised former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. 'Like Saddam who killed his people, in a five-month civil war he killed thousands,' said the conservative Resalat daily which accused Gaddafi of being an ally of Israel, the worst possible insult in Tehran's view, citing the disappearance of the Iranian-born leader of Lebanese Shi'ites, Imam Musa Sadr, on a visit to Libya in 1978. That incident still resonates in Iran where Gaddafi is widely seen as a brutal maverick who played a double game with the West, in recent years dumping his nuclear programme to shake off sanctions, something Tehran has said it will never do. So it was no surprise that non-Arab Iran hailed his fall as a blessing -- the latest good news from the Arab Spring. 'The heroic Libyan nation rose up against the oppressor leaders of their own volition and proved that in the era of the awakening of nations, there is no room for tyranny and that the demands of the people must be respected,' said parliament speaker Ali Larijani. Kar va Kargar daily printed pictures of the fallen leaders of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya followed by those of Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, figures Iran hopes will be the next dominos to fall to popular unrest. But Gaddafi's fate brings potential dangers to Iran's interests in the region, not least because of the heavy involvement of the West in his downfall." http://t.uani.com/qxkS3l
John Hughes in CSM: "What would be the mother of all nightmares for Barack Obama before next year's presidential election? A nuclear-armed Iran. President Obama has declared he will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear-weapons capability. But his options are limited. A strike against Iran's nuclear installations? That would mean starting another war in the midst of the US election campaign. Unlikely. Dissuade Israel from striking Iran - an attack that would necessarily involve US moral and practical support during campaign season? For Israel, a nuclear-armed Tehran is a death sentence. So reining in Israel is also unlikely. Accepting the reality of an Iran with nuclear weapons, but publicly warning Tehran against using them? Possible, but dangerously weak-looking for a president up for reelection who promised not to let this happen. I hope someone in the White House is working on this. I hope Iran is not able to do it." http://t.uani.com/nYkuHT
Mudar Zahran in Hudson New York: "All of this possibly makes Assad feel confident that Iran will stand up to his defense. Iran, however, might have other ideas. Iran has regularly used its neighbors, Syria and Lebanon, and the puppet terrorist organizations within them, to fight its own wars by-proxy against Israel, and as a boogeyman against its Arab neighbors. Yet will Iran itself engage in a war to defend the Syrian regime? Iran most likely does have a religious - or sectarian -- compassion for the Alawite rulers of Syria, Shiite fundamentalism and brotherhood-of-the- faith are very different from its Sunni counterpart's: while fundamentalist Sunni religious leaders often live a rough life and choose to give up earthly spoils for the afterlife, even choosing to die to go to Paradise, the Shiite clerics ruling Iran enjoy a very prosperous lifestyle. The system there permits them to enjoy the advantages and benefits of a lavish lifestyle. Iran is a state of 'Wilayat Al-Faqih,' or 'the rule of the clerics,' in which religious leaders have power and therefore have wealth. Despite its significant military power, and Russia's generosity in selling military technology to Iran, Iran knows it is no match for Western and Israeli military power; therefore Iran is left with only one strong arm: oil, a market which it can disrupt with its serious share of oil production and its stretching coast on the Persian gulf, and through which it can disturb the oil-exporting operations of its Arab neighbors with minimal military tension and no need for confrontations. Still, Iran's ruling clerics have more to lose the most by doing so: their lifestyle will be compromised. In addition, Iran seems to think its ambitious nuclear program is what will put it on the map of superpowers and make it invincible; therefore, Iran, despite its close ties to Syria, will less than likely do anything that would disrupt that ambition as engaging in a war to save the Syrian regime might do. Iran's rulers must be wondering if Assad is worth it. Although Iran might seriously wish to keep Assad in power, it may not have the will to fight to do so. Saddam Hussein's message to Assad may be right after all." http://t.uani.com/nldqp9 |
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