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NYT: "Electronic parts made in Minnesota were smuggled through Singapore to Iran, and some of them ended up in the remote controls of makeshift bombs seized by American forces in Iraq, the Justice Department said on Tuesday. The parts are normally used in commonplace devices like routers that wirelessly connect computers and printers in a typical office network. The Justice Department said in an indictment that the ones smuggled to Iran had been put to use in sophisticated improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.'s, that could be triggered from miles away. Four men have been arrested in Singapore on charges of breaking American export-control laws by smuggling 6,000 radio frequency modules through Singapore to Iran beginning in 2007. At least 16 of the devices, bought from a Minnesota company, were found in unexploded bombs in Iraq in 2008, 2009 and 2010... About 60 percent of all American casualties in Iraq have been caused by makeshift bombs, and the American military has long reported finding evidence that the most sophisticated and deadly of them were designed or fabricated in Iran. By implicating Iran, at least circumstantially, in insurgent attacks on American soldiers in Iraq, the charges add to the ever worsening tensions between the countries." http://t.uani.com/w18Aq1
WashPost: "A proposal by Iran's supreme leader to radically alter the country's constitution and abolish the presidency is drawing praise from his supporters but criticism from influential politicians. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was appointed supreme leader for life in 1989 by Shiite Muslim clerics, said in a speech last week that, if deemed appropriate, Iran could do without a president. The post is currently held by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose 2009 reelection was disputed by opponents and led to months of street protests. Former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said publicly Tuesday that the proposal strongly undermines the ideal of an Islamic republic, in which the people elect their leaders. Ahmadinejad, for his part, said in a speech Tuesday in the eastern city of Birjand, 'We will not respond but know that the nation is awake.' He was vague on whether he was specifically addressing the proposal to eliminate his position." http://t.uani.com/uJrUkL
AFP: "US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday warned Iran that it should not meddle in Iraq when American forces leave the country at the end of this year. The Pentagon chief said that even after the last of the 39,000 combat troops are out of Iraq, the US will maintain a significant presence in the Middle East. 'As the president announced, we are going to wind down our combat forces in Iraq by the end of this year,' he told US service personnel during a visit to Tokyo. 'The mission there was to develop an Iraq that could govern and secure itself and we will maintain a long-term relationship with Iraq.' 'The message to Iran and everybody else that might have any ideas there is that the US is going to have a presence in the region for a long time to come.'" http://t.uani.com/vJ02sU
Human Rights
VOA: "International observers were recently alarmed by reports that three men were hanged in the Iranian city of Ahvaz for a series of crimes that included engaging in sodomy. According to the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights, the Iranian Student News Agency said that on September 4 three men were convicted of 'unlawful acts' and acts against Sharia, based on articles 108 and 110 of the Islamic penal code. Iran Human Rights noted that 'Articles 108 and 110 of the Iranian Islamic Penal code are part of the chapter covering Hadd for sodomy... Article 110 says punishment for sodomy is killing.' The three men, identified only by initials, were also charged with kidnapping and theft. Because of the variety of charges and the lack of due process in Iran - summary trials, the disregard for the right to defense counsel, and the practice of accusing political prisoners of criminal activity -- there is no way to know why these men were hanged. The Iranian government has a deplorable record of persecuting members of Iran's gay, lesbian and transgender, community -- the size of which remains unknown, since many individuals fear identifying themselves." http://t.uani.com/tcy227
Domestic Politics
Reuters: "Iran's parliament has dropped a summons calling President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in for questioning, Iranian media reported on Wednesday, signalling an uneasy truce after months of political struggle between rival conservative factions. One hundred of parliament's 290 members signed a motion in June summoning Ahmadinejad to face questions, amid mounting criticism, particularly from hardline conservatives who accuse the president of riding roughshod over the legislature. But, with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calling for unity among the branches of power, parliament's presiding board held back from issuing the summons and Speaker Ali Larijani said it was now invalid as several lawmakers had pulled out." http://t.uani.com/tu0etm
Bloomberg: "Iran exported 2.4 million barrels of crude a day in the first six months of the Iranian calendar year that started on March 21, said Mohsen Qamsari, head of international affairs at state-owned National Iranian Oil Co. The Gulf state sees Asia as its oil top destination, Qamsari said, according to a report published today by the state-run Press TV news channel. The nation hasn't defined any new target markets in Europe for its crude and is seeking to work with a variety of refiners in that region, he said." http://t.uani.com/rKQnlc
Foreign Affairs
AFP: "Organisers of an international chess tournament in Corsica said on Tuesday they had expelled Iranian Grandmaster Ehsan Ghaem Maghami for refusing to take on an Israeli player. Scheduled to face Ehud Sachar in the fourth round of the Corsica Masters in the French island's city of Bastia, Maghami told organisers he would not play the Israeli for political reasons. The tournament's organiser and head of the Corsican Chess League, Leo Battesti, said there had then been no choice but to expel Maghami. 'Politics has no place in competition at this level. I was forced to expel Ehsan Ghaem Maghami, who unfortunately refused to change his mind. I had no other choice,' he said." http://t.uani.com/uMcj6k
Opinion & Analysis
Tony Karon in TIME: "Outlandish posturing on foreign policy matters is par for the course in a U.S. electoral season, but the claim that President Barack Obama will deliver Iraq on a plate to Iran by honoring the U.S. treaty obligation to withdraw American troops by New Year's Day is worth closer scrutiny. It might be said that Obama's critics, many of whom championed the Iraq invasion, doth protest too much (more on that in minute) but even his own Administration seems to buy into the logic: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday warned Tehran in her most menacing megaphone tones not to underestimate U.S. military commitment to Iraq by seeking to expand its influence there in the wake of a U.S. withdrawal. Clinton's comments were greeted with a sarcastic smile by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- and not without reason. He assured CNN that Tehran's relations with Baghdad would not change as a result of the U.S. withdrawal, precisely because Iran has 'a very good relationship' with Iran's government and parliament. Indeed, Iran has far more influence in Baghdad's decision-making than the U.S. does -- and it built and maintained that influence despite the presence of 170,000 U.S. troops at the peak of the mission. While Tehran has funded and armed Shi'ite militias that have fought the U.S. and waged sectarian war on Sunni communities, Tehran's primary influence remains its relationships with a variety of Shi'ite (and also Kurdish) politicians of Iraq's elected government. By using that influence to help bring an end to the U.S. troop presence on its Western flank, Iran is closing out a decade of remarkable strategic advances -- made with considerable, if inadvertent, help from Washington. From the moment the U.S. first backed down in 2004 to the demand by Iraqi Shi'ites for democratic elections, Iraqis began to shape their own destiny. From the first election in 2005 onward, governments in Baghdad have been (and still are) led by Iran-friendly Shi'ite Islamist parties. The Maliki government is independent and nationalist inclined, of course, and has no interest in being a cat's paw for Iran. But it is even less inclined to align itself with Washington's regional agenda, least of all on its efforts to isolate Iran. And while maintaining its independence requires good relations with both, it has often been more responsive to Iran's needs than to Washington's. Iran began the last decade squeezed on its Western flank by its most reviled and menacing enemy -- Saddam Hussein -- and on its eastern flank by the lesser, but nonetheless dangerous foe of the Taliban. The Bush Administration did Iran an epic favor by eliminating both within the space of two years (which, of course, is why Iran welcomed the U.S. invasions of both Iraq and Afghanistan). Saddam had, with Saudi and U.S. backing, waged a brutal eight-year war against Iran aimed at throttling the Islamic Revolution in its cradle, and making use of chemical weapons in order to do so. The Taliban, spurred by a vicious sectarian hatred of Shi'ites, had murdered Iranian diplomats in 1997, almost triggering a war. Bringing down the Taliban and Saddam Hussein had been Iranian objectives long before the Bush Administration adopted them. And Tehran prospered, geopolitically, in the years that followed, even as the U.S. ability to influence events in the Middle East began to decline." http://t.uani.com/uCHUIA
Robin Pomeroy & Ramin Mostafavi in Reuters: "Could Mahmoud Ahmadinejad be Iran's last president? Some Iranians think so after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei suggested scrapping a directly elected presidency, which critics say would weaken Iran's version of democracy and make the Islamic Republic more Islamic than republican. Ahmadinejad, whose second and final term ends in June 2013, dismissed Khamenei's proposal -- dropped into the middle of a lengthy speech -- as 'academic' rather than a policy plan. But clerics, politicians and analysts are taking it seriously enough to wonder whether Iran, whose bitterly contested presidential election in 2009 ignited months of street protests, will hold one at all in 2013. 'The announcement of this issue by the leader, especially at a popular gathering, cannot have been without great reason,' Etemad newspaper quoted senior cleric Mohammad Reza Abbasi-Fard as saying. Seminary teacher Mohsen Gharavian was blunter. 'Ahmadinejad is the last president to be elected directly by the people,' Abrar daily paraphrased him as saying. 'Beginning in 2013 Iran's political system will undergo a change.' Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005, pulling Iran to the right after eight years of reformist President Mohammad Khatami. His 2009 re-election was marred by alleged vote-rigging and plunged Iran into its worst turmoil since the 1979 revolution. Reformists are considering boycotting a parliamentary election in March, which would undermine Iran's democratic credentials -- that critics say are already compromised by tight restrictions and vetting by unelected clerical bodies. Initially seen as something of a Khamenei protege, Ahmadinejad has faced challenges this year from hardliners who fear his faction threatens the role of the clergy in Iran's unique form of government: a parliamentary system, with a directly elected president overseen by a powerful cleric." http://t.uani.com/sKQ1fl |
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