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CNN: "Delegations from the United States and several European nations walked out of the U.N. General Assembly Thursday during Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech, in which he repeatedly condemned the United States and said some countries use the Holocaust as an 'excuse to pay ransom... to Zionists.' Delegates from France, Germany, and the United Kingdom were among those who walked out. Delegations from Canada and Israel were not present from the beginning. In his remarks, Ahmadinejad called the September 11, 2001, attacks 'mysterious' and said they were a pretext for a U.S.-led war against Afghanistan and Iraq. He said the United States killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden instead of assigning a fact-finding team to investigate 'hidden elements involved in September 11.' He also placed blame on the United States for numerous global problems including the financial crisis, criticizing it for dominating the world's 'policy-making establishments,' overspending on the military, and 'printing trillions of dollars' that triggered inflation, according to an English translation of his speech provided by Iran's U.N. mission.' Ahmadinejad said the U.S. government views Zionism as 'sacred,' and that 'European countries still use the Holocaust after six decades as the excuse to pay (a) fine or ransom to the Zionists.' ... Wednesday evening, Ahmadinejad met with a group of U.S. university students, and then gave an interview to Iranian satellite television... Participants included students and staff from Princeton, Fordham, Hofstra, Columbia, New York University, and other schools... The group United Against Nuclear Iran -- whose founders include former CIA Director Jim Woolsey and the late Ambassador Richard Holbrooke -- slammed Wednesday's event. The participants 'should be ashamed of themselves,' said David Ibsen, the group's executive director, describing it as 'a propagandistic attempt by the regime to improve its image. Anyone claiming to support liberty, tolerance, and human rights should strongly oppose a dictator who oppresses women, kills homosexuals, violates his citizens' basic rights and religious freedoms, and pursues nuclear weapons.'" http://t.uani.com/ocfkiw
CBS New York: "In the days leading up to his latest rant at the United Nations, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad laid his head at night at the Warwick Hotel on West 54th Street. Security, as you might imagine, is incredibly tight, but CBS 2 got a camera inside... Aiello got in to the Warwick with a key provided by activists who brazenly wore anti-Ahmadinejad T-shirts in the lobby. They set up on the 11th floor, seven stories below where the Iranian leader was staying. 'You know we've had some of his entourage ask us questions, see where we're going,' said Nathan Carleton of the group United Against Nuclear Iran. The group is outraged the Warwick rented rooms to Ahmadinejad, providing a home base for his visit to the UN, where he made a predictable rant against the U.S. and Israel on Thursday... Protesters made their point outside, saying the Warwick should have joined others that refused to rent rooms to a man who tramples civil rights in Iran and works for the destruction of Israel... 'I think that it's obvious that a lot of hotels did not want to host him. Maybe they don't support him. Maybe they don't want his money. Maybe they don't want to deal with this mess that he's caused at the Warwick,' Carleton said... The anti-Ahmadinejad group hopes the Warwick pays a price for playing host, and they noted rooms that were going for $600 a night last week, were going for $400 a night this week." http://t.uani.com/p1VrXb
CBS New York Video: http://t.uani.com/qDcPm1
AP: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the U.N. nuclear watchdog of being in the pocket of the United States and illegally releasing the names of three nuclear scientists who were then assassinated by alleged Israeli-trained killers. In a wide-ranging interview Thursday evening with The Associated Press, he also claimed that explosive material - and not airliners alone - brought down the World Trade Center, attacked U.S. policies from Libya to Afghanistan, and said when his second and final term ends in two years 'new elections will be held and someone else will occupy this office.' ... On the Sept. 11 attacks, Ahmadinejad stopped short of saying the United States staged the disaster 10 years ago, but said that as an engineer, he's sure 'this was a systematic collapse of those towers.' 'I can say with certainty there must have been explosive material that was set off in sequence,' he said. He reiterated his call for an independent investigation, noting there are doubters in the United States as well. 'A few airplanes without previous coordination known to the security forces and the intelligence community in the United States cannot become missiles and target the heart of the United States,' Ahmadinejad said." http://t.uani.com/puOKzH
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
Reuters: "The United States will not 'sit idly by' while its forces are harmed by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, the top U.S. military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, said on Thursday. Mullen and U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told a Senate committee that while such attacks by groups linked to Iran had declined since the summer, the United States would not ignore it the attacks recurred. 'They (the Iranians) have been warned about continuing it ... that if they keep killing our troops, that will not be something we will sit idly by and watch,' Mullen told the Senate Armed Services Committee. 'Iran needs to understand that we're going to be around awhile here, making very clear to them that we're not -- we're not simply going to ignore what Iran is doing in -- in Iraq,' Panetta said. Fourteen U.S. services members were killed in hostile incidents in Iraq in June. Most of the deaths were attributed by U.S. officials to rocket attacks by Shi'ite militias armed by Iran." http://t.uani.com/oxhRQE
AP: "A Russian engineer who worked on Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant during the final stages of construction says inexperienced workers, poor oversight and layers of bureaucracy contributed to a rash of equipment failures that delayed the reactor's startup for almost a year. A U.S. expert said the engineer's account added to concerns about the long-term safety of the Middle East's first nuclear power station, for years a source of tension between Iran and the United States. In an interview with The Associated Press, Alexander Bolgarov predicted that Iran's inexperience with nuclear power means it will rely on Russia to operate the reactor for the next five or six years." http://t.uani.com/ooHIL9
Reuters: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday said Tehran would stop producing 20 percent enriched uranium if it is guaranteed fuel for a medical research reactor, seeking to revive a fuel swap deal that fell apart in 2009. 'Any time they can guarantee us this sale ... we will stop 20 percent enrichment,' Ahmadinejad told a small group of reporters in New York, where he is attending a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly. 'Whenever these assurances are given, we will do our part,' Ahmadinejad said. 'We will cease domestic enrichment at the 20 percent level. That's all. But we will continue the building of new power plants.' ... A tentative pact brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, in 2009 to exchange Iranian low-enriched uranium (LEU) for higher-refined fuel from abroad collapsed after Iran backed away from its terms." http://t.uani.com/raHWaI
Long War Journal: "Today the US State Department added Muhammad Hisham Muhammad Isma'il Abu Ghazala, a Hamas operative who is linked to Iran and al Qaeda and fought with Ansar al Islam in Iraq, to the list of specially designated global terrorists. The designation allows the US to freeze his assets, prevent him from using financial institutions, and prosecute him for terrorist activities. Abu Ghazala 'plays an integral role in Hamas,' the State Department said. 'He has links to Iran, the world's leading State Sponsor of Terrorism, and al Qaeda.' In addition to his connections with Iran and al Qaeda, Abu Ghazala has aided terrorist networks in northern Iraq in conducting roadside bombings and rocket attacks." http://t.uani.com/qJnR8y
Human Rights
AFP: "Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, co-director of banned Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi's latest film, is among six movie makers arrested by Iranian authorities, an opposition website said in a posting seen on Thursday. Iranian media on Saturday reported the arrest of six filmmakers, but identified them only by their initials. The others are directors Nasser Saffarian, Hadi Afariden and Shahnama Bazdar, producer Katayoun Shahabi and journalist and documentary filmmaker Mohsen Shahnazdar, said Rahesabz website which represents the opposition to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The filmmakers were arrested at their homes or offices and were transferred to the notorious Evin prison in northern Tehran, relatives said, denouncing a 'new offensive' against the filmmaking community. Mirtahmasb is the notable co-director of 'This is not a Film,' which he made with Panahi, who has been under house arrest in Iran." http://t.uani.com/nt1KOk
Foreign Affairs
WashPost: "An intense two-year effort to free two American hikers from prison in Iran involved diplomats, lawyers and leaders from several countries but no direct participation from U.S. officials. The back story on how Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal were released Wednesday from Evin prison in Tehran, met by the Swiss ambassador and flown out of Iran on a private plane to the tiny sultanate of Oman highlighted the U.S. government's limited leverage with the Islamic republic. A hiking excursion in Iraq's northern Kurdish region in which three Americans apparently wandered into Iranian territory ordinarily would seem to be a minor incident, easily resolved by low-level diplomacy. But against the backdrop of three decades of mistrust and suspicion between Iran and the United States - and in the absence of diplomatic relations in that period - it generated more than two years of extended negotiations that the Obama administration was forced to follow from the sidelines. The third American, Sarah Shourd, was released on medical grounds last year." http://t.uani.com/nAlxl3
Opinion & Analysis
WashPost Editorial Board: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made a habit of launching a propaganda offensive in connection with his annual September visit to New York to address the U.N. General Assembly. He grants interviews, issues half-baked diplomatic proposals, hints at rapprochement with the West and occasionally promises the release of foreign prisoners. This year is no exception: On the eve of Mr. Ahmadinejad's address, two Americans imprisoned in Tehran were allowed to leave the country Wednesday after nearly 26 months of detention. The freedom of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal did not come easily, or cheaply. Though Mr. Ahmadinejad promised their release in interviews with The Post's Lally Weymouth and NBC this month, Iran's judiciary resisted, holding up the action and yielding only after $500,000 in 'bail' was paid for each of them. A similar tug of war occurred a year ago, when Mr. Ahmadinejad announced the release of another American, Sarah Shourd, a friend of the two men who had been held with them... The release of the two men is not a humanitarian gesture, as Mr. Ahmadinejad would have it, but the suspension of a criminal act - hostage-taking - by the regime. Yet the populist president has tried to use the freeing of the Americans to portray himself as a moderate who can do business with the West - in contrast to the hard-line clergy with whom he has been engaged in a prolonged power struggle... Mr. Ahmadinejad bragged to Ms. Weymouth that 'we have made a tremendous effort' to release the two Americans. 'We have done a lot to do it,' he said. So did the government of Oman, which flew the two men out of Iran; senior Iraqi officials also intervened. That Mr. Bauer and Mr. Fattal can return to their families is cause for relief, and gratitude to those who helped them. But Mr. Ahmadinejad's attempt to claim credit should be seen for what it is: a grandstanding gesture by a man who lacks the power to change Iran's destructive course." http://t.uani.com/mRhgkz
NYDailyNews Editorial Board: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a wily one. Taking the stage at the United Nations Thursday, the Israel-hating, Holocaust-denying, terrorist-arming, popular-protest-suppressing, election-stealing international outlaw delivered a performance that was rabid, even by his standards. He questioned the 9/11 attacks, calling the murder of 3,000 civilians a 'mysterious incident' 'used as a pretext' for attacking Iraq and Afghanistan. He alleged that U.S. forces killed Osama Bin Laden to conceal a widespread conspiracy. He again trafficked in Holocaust denial, charging that anyone who questions the mass murder of 6 million Jews - meaning, anyone who revises history - is threatened by the U.S. and its allies. He dreamed of the day when the one Muslim 'savior of mankind' will come, ushering in the 'creation of a supreme and ideal society with the arrival of a perfect human being.' This, said Ahmadinejad, is 'the guaranteed promise of Allah.' The logorrhea explosion earned walkouts from every respectable country gathered in the General Assembly. Heading out first was the U.S. delegation, followed by France, Germany, the United Kingdom and many others. More than a third of the seats were empty by the time Ahmadinejad finished speaking. Cowards like Bahrain remained. Be not naive: There's method to his madness. Even as Ahmadinejad throws rhetorical bombs in every imaginable direction, the evidence strongly suggests that Iranian nuclear scientists in underground bunkers are working hard to develop real bombs that can level cities in the blink of an eye. His slanders and ravings shift the focus away from that deeply sinister push... A nuke is their ticket to power and glory. The true test of principle and perseverance against this regime is coming. It is not about whether we walk out of an incendiary address, but whether we stand up to a bully whose actions will speak far louder than his words." http://t.uani.com/q3REKJ
Kishan Manocha in WSJ: "Iranian human-rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani was arrested in Tehran earlier this month-re-arrested, actually. This was Mr. Soltani's third detention since 2005. Sometimes Tehran files charges and sometimes-as currently appears to be the case for Mr. Soltani-it doesn't bother. Mr. Soltani's only crime is that he defends Iran's persecuted Bahais, who form the country's largest religious minority. Mr. Soltani, along with Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi, co-founded Iran's Centre for Human Rights Defenders, which Tehran shut down in 2008. When he was arrested this month, Mr. Soltani had been preparing to represent a number of detained Bahais who had been detained for their work at the Bahai Institute for Higher Education. This informal initiative gives young Bahais a chance to study, since Iran bars them from university for their beliefs. Mr. Soltani's arrest is only the latest in a disturbing trend. In the last several months, dozens of Iranian lawyers have been detained or imprisoned. Mohammad Mostafaei, who has defended dozens of clients from death sentences, fled Iran last year. He had been defending Sakineh Ashtiani, the woman who had been sentenced to death by stoning until an international outcry secured her a stay of execution. For his troubles, Mr. Mostafaei and his family had been detained and harassed, until he finally left the country in August 2010. His replacement, Houtan Kian, did not escape and is now in prison. Nasrin Sotoudeh, a lawyer for human-rights activists and prominent journalists, has been in jail for more than a year. Ms. Sotoudeh and Messrs. Soltani, Mostafaei and Kian are in a company of braves. Despite the government's intense crackdown, Iranian human-rights lawyers regularly defend ethnic and religious minorities, women's-rights promoters and civil-rights campaigners-always against the odds and often at tragic personal cost. Iran's government is a party to international covenants on human rights. But by snatching away one of the last defenses for Iranian activists, the authorities clearly want to smother any calls for them to abide by their obligations." http://t.uani.com/pYTYT5
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