| Open thread Posted: 15 Dec 2011 03:30 PM PST It looks like I will not be able to actively blog over the next couple of days. I queued up a few posts for Friday but things will likely be very light on Saturday night and Sunday. So go ahead and party! 
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| Iran planning cyber-attack on US - from Mexico? Posted: 15 Dec 2011 12:10 PM PST A very interesting article in Hudson-NY by Anna Mahjar-Barducci: Univision, the largest TV broadcaster in Spanish of the United States, recently presented a report showing that Iran is actively preparing an attack against the US to be carried out from bases in Latin America. The documentary, "La Amenaza Irani" ("The Iranian Threat"), illustrated, though undercover footage, how the growing economic, political and military ties Iran has developed in South American countries are rapidly evolving into a tangible threat for the security of the US. The documentary reveals exclusive findings, including secret video and audio recordings that provide information about a planned Iranian-backed cyber attack against the United States from Mexico.
The videos shown were part of a seven month investigation during which a team of journalists tracked the expansion of Iranian interests in the Latin America – including money laundering and drug trafficking activities by terrorist groups supported by Iran. In Venezuela, the team managed to infiltrate Iranian military training camps organized from Iranian-financed mosques within the country.
The documentary also confirms that Iran is behind money laundering and drug trafficking activities that are used to support Islamist networks and training camps in Venezuela and elsewhere, with the ultimate goal of undermining American interests in Latin America and inside the US.
The team of journalist also infiltrated the diplomatic milieu in Mexico with the help of young university students who posed as spies and offered their services to different officials from Iran, Venezuela and Cuba for carrying out a cybernetic attack on sensitive American targets that would cripple U.S. computer systems of command centers such as the White House, the Pentagon, the FBI, the CIA and different US nuclear plants.
One of the officials contacted was former Ambassador of Iran to Mexico, Mohamad Hassan Ghadiri, who was videoed while accepting the help of the Mexican students for carrying out a major informatics attack to the US. Univision reports that during his stay in Mexico, Ghadiri "embarked on a campaign to increase the presence of Iran in Mexico. His plan even included a project to open a consulate in Tijuana." The TV channel also reported that Ghadiri tried to grant access into Mexico to Edgardo Ruben Assad, an Islamic activist accused by Argentina of participating in the attacks on Jewish organizations in Buenos Aires in 1992 and 1994. Ghadiri is shown in the documentary as accepting a plan to launch from Mexico a cyber war on the U.S. Similar attitudes were found with Venezuelan and Cuban high officials, all very interested in supporting an Iranian-sponsored plot against the US.
The idea of the Iranian officials is to create a network of people in South America. One Mexican student was invited to Iran to study Islam for two months. He was ordered to learn about the Islamic religion and the Islamic revolution in order to be sent back to Mexico to preach Islam. While in Iran, the infiltrated Mexican met Muslims from Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina and Bolivia , all of whom had converted to Islam and were studying to open mosques back in Latin America. "One of the Iranian sheiks, Ali Qomi, when I first gained his trust, told me that what they are now doing is waging an intellectual war; what they are planning to do is prepare people with information so that they can attack the masses intellectually. This is what they are doing directly from Qom. Precisely in Qom,"said the undercover student, who was risking his life in Iran.
In a press release, Univision said that it had at its disposal "tens of hours of secret recordings, and had conducted extensive interviews with people who participated in the meetings, including a former Iranian ambassador; and [that they had] examined documents ranging from hand-written notes to internal federal reports, and obtained an unpublished video of a failed bomb attack against New York's JFK airport." We have heard how Iran has been infiltrating gangs in Latin America, but there is a lot of new information here. The entire Spanish-language report, along with a ten-minute excerpt of the video report, can be seen here. 
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| Unity! PA refuses to give dialysis filters to Gaza hospitals Posted: 15 Dec 2011 10:45 AM PST From PCHR: On Thursday at noon, 15 December 2011, blood filters ran out at all hospitals in the Gaza Strip, and consequently, dialyses for 450 patients who suffer from renal failure have been stopped.
In the aftermath of this serious development, PCHR participated in a meeting that was held in the office of World Health Organization in Gaza to discuss the serious impacts of the lack of this disposable on the lives of patients. The meeting was attended by figures and international and local organizations that are involved in the health sector.
The participants have concluded that the lack of this disposable seriously endangers the lives of patients, and its lack is the outcome of political differences between the Ministries of Health in Ramallah and Gaza. They have attempted to find mechanisms to provide this disposable but they have not been able as it is fully depleted in medical warehouses and pharmacies, especially in the Gaza Strip. This disposable is available only in the warehouses of the Ministry of Health in Ramallah.
It should be noted that hospitals in the Gaza Strip perform 15 dialyses every day, which requires 150 blood filters. We're in Month 8 of "unity" between the PA and the Hamas government. And nothing has changed. 
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| Gaza "siege" news Posted: 15 Dec 2011 09:20 AM PST Today, the besieged Gaza Strip received 220 truckloads of aid. It included 13 truckfuls of cement, gravel and iron for construction projects, 40 trucks for UNRWA projects. In addition, it exported 4.9 tons of strawberries and 6.5 tons of peppers and cherry tomatoes. Today is typical. I am fairly certain that if you add together all of the aid sent by Viva Palestina, Miles of Smiles and Free Gaza over the years, they would not equal the amount of aid sent today alone from Israel. 
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| PA lights Christmas tree in city that is losing its Christians Posted: 15 Dec 2011 08:00 AM PST Ramallah was once a Christian city. It had a clear Christian majority under Ottoman and British rule. When Jordan annexed the town, though, the demographic balance changed. By 1967 it was roughly half Muslim. Christians fled from Ramallah in the 1990s as the Muslim population grew. In February 2002, a spat between a Christian and a Muslim turned into a Muslim attack against many Christian-owned businesses, and the PA did nothing to stop it: [D]etails were emerging of a rampage of Palestinian Muslims against Christian shops and churches in Ramallah after a road-rage slaying last Thursday.
... [P]olice made no attempt to stop the mob, which besieged and damaged a widely respected youth center associated with the Boy Scouts of America after torching the Christian properties.
Palestinian police and security agencies finally stepped in when the rioters moved on local churches.
"The truth is this is a problem between Christians and Muslims," said one Christian businessman. "There is no security for us. Everyone is taking the law in his own hands....This [accused] man's brother, they burned his house, his shops, his cars, and the police of Ramallah stood by and watched. This is the democracy of Palestine?"
"The chief of security at Kalandia was in charge of this rampage," said a Muslim shopkeeper. "The mayor of Ramallah came, saw what was happening, and withdrew. I am a Muslim, but I condemn this. These are savage people."  Altogether, while Christians used to make up 10% of the Palestinian population, that number has now gone down to as little as one percent. But even though the Palestinian Authority has a horrendous record of protecting its beleaguered Christian population, they are happy to pretend that everything is OK to the world. Yesterday, PA prime minister Salam Fayyad participated in the lighting of the Ramallah Christmas tree where notables made speeches about how all Palestinian Arabs love Christmas, how Jesus came from Palestine to establish peace, and how they are still living under the yoke of horrendous Israeli occupation. I'm sure that the 1% of remaining Christians in the territories feel much better. 
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| Iran claims to have 3 US, 4 Israeli spy drones Posted: 15 Dec 2011 06:48 AM PST From Tehran Times: Iran plans to put foreign spy drones it has in its possession on display in the near future, according to an informed source close to the Tehran Times.
National reporters and foreign ambassadors based in Tehran will be allowed to visit the exhibition.
The latest domestically manufactured electronic warfare equipment will also be put on show at the exhibition.
According to the source close to the Tehran Times, the foreign unmanned aircraft that Iran has are four Israeli and three U.S. drones.
The most advanced spy drone in Iran's possession, which was recently downed, is RQ-170 unmanned U.S. plane, which the Islamic Republic announced on December 4 had been brought down by the country's armed forces.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in a recent exclusive interview with Fox News, said that the stealth drone campaign along the Iran-Afghanistan border will "absolutely" continue.
A number of countries have reportedly asked for permission to inspect the aircraft.
According to the source, the four Israeli drones that are now in Iran's possession had violated the country's airspace along the eastern borders, and the three U.S. unmanned aircraft had penetrated into the country's airspace along either the eastern or southern border.
In an interview published on January 2, 2011, the commander of the Aerospace Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, announced that the Iranian military forces had brought down two foreign spy planes over the Persian Gulf, not mentioning the exact date and location of the events. 
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| Hundreds of North Korean nuclear and missile experts in Iran Posted: 15 Dec 2011 05:35 AM PST From the Korea Times, November 13: Hundreds of North Korean experts involved in the Stalinist regime's development of nuclear and missile programs are working in major facilities across Iran, a diplomatic source said Sunday.
"We have confirmed that hundreds of North Korean engineers and scientists have been working at more than 10 nuclear and missile sites in Iran through Humint (human intelligence)," the source said. "The collaboration has been taking place for years."
North Korea has long been suspected of helping the Islamic state with a secret weapons program.
The source said the North Korean experts are from "Office 99," under the North's ruling Workers' Party Munitions Industry Department. The secret bureau is widely believed to be responsible for the Stalinist regime's exports of weapons and military technology.
In June this year, the Japanese daily Sankei Shimbun reported that Pyongyang dispatched 160 nuclear experts to Iran in an attempt to sell its nuclear and missile-related military technologies.
It claimed that the cash-strapped North was looking to sell its technology to overcome financial difficulties that have worsened since the international community slapped sanctions on it for nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. Since then, arms exports have been one of the major sources of hard currency for the communist North.
The conservative newspaper noted that the North Korean experts were believed to have helped Iran remove a computer virus from its systems at some uranium enrichment facilities and a centrifugal separator.
Last week, the Sankei Shimbun also reported that Tehran and Pyongyang have been jointly operating a secret nuclear research institute in Iran, saying 10 North Korean nuclear weapon scientists are allegedly at the institute to give advice to Iranian physicists.
It went on to say that the institute received "MCNPX2.6.0," a version of North Korea's nuclear development software that analyzes the interaction of particles, exposure levels and other factors crucial for the construction of nuclear reactors and warheads.
Iran has thus far denied its military cooperation with the North and insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful, civilian energy purposes only. Some corroboration comes from Michael Ledeen: The huge detonation at Karaj, which, as I have explained, surprised the attackers and distorted our understanding. The operation was aimed at the Revolutionary Guards Corps, specifically at General Hassan Tehrani Moghadam, who was both the architect of the national missile program and one of the nastiest officials in that legendarily nasty organization. The attackers did not know that there was a large quantity of rocket fuel on the base that day (which was the reason Moghadam was there). The special fuel came from North Korea, and it was supposed to double tne range of Iran's missiles. The explosion that killed Moghadam and scores of his comrades ignited the rocket fuel, with dramatic results. To date, 377 dead have been reported to the supreme leader's office. Among the dead are the attackers–they couldn't escape the big explosion–and at least four North Korean officials, who were there for the celebration.
Ledeen's article points out that all of the recent Iranian explosions and other attacks - including some that were not widely reported - seem to have come from insiders, and he doesn't believe yesterday's Al Arabiya story that Khamenei was the target at Karaj either: The attackers came from the internal opposition, and so far as I know they had no ties to any foreign anything, not a foreign intelligence service, not a foreign military organization, not a foreign government.
Of course, as always with things Iranians, you've got to caveat what you think you know. It wouldn't be the first time I've been misinformed. But, on the other hand, I've been a lonely voice for quite a while, saying that the opposition (call it the Green Movement, for lack of an updated logo) would become more violent, that the movement was, if anything, more powerful than it was at the time of the big demonstrations a year and two years ago, and that the regime was full of opposition sympathizers and collaborators.
Because it's obvious that whoever's blowing up Iran, they've got a lot of help from some very important insiders. Don't take it from me; ask Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. He knows that if his enemies can blow up those installations, they can blow up most anything. Of late, Khamenei hasn't been particularly active in public events. Like his buddy, Hezbollah chief Nasrullah, he's keeping his head down and his profile low.
Not that Khamenei has taken vows of solitude and silence. He's fired several top Revolutionary Guards generals and colonels. Al Arabiya and other lovers of fairy tales would have us believe that Khamenei was the target of the Karaj bombing, and therefore he purged the Guards. But Khamenei wasn't the target (there was no reason to believe he would attend the ceremony; after all, he didn't even show up for the inauguration of the Bushehr nuclear plant), and while some of the Guards were indeed fired because of the bombings–they came from the counter-intelligence and "defense" organizations who are supposed to protect such facilities–others were fired because of their involvement in the burgeoning financial scandal. Other "analysts" suggest that Khamenei's son had joined President Ahmadinejad in trying to kill the old man, but there is nothing to it. Ahmadinejad might well want Khamenei to reach paradise with all due speed, but he wasn't involved in this affair.
The sources upon whom I rely for such information tell me there is more to come, and I'm sure that the supreme leader believes just that. He may not know the provenance of the army amassed against him and his regime, and he may well convince himself, as our own entrail readers have convinced themselves, that he is under siege from the satanic forces in Washington and Jerusalem. But I don't believe it. Maybe–probably, even-Stuxnet. I don't think the Greens are up to that one. Maybe, if you insist, some of the assassinations of the physicists, although I rather suspect they were suspected of disloyalty and were rubbed out by the regime.
But this is a major campaign, and I think it represents the revenge of the Iranian people against their torturers, murderers and oppressors. (h/t Missing Peace) 
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| Iran destroys dome design with hundreds of Jewish stars Posted: 15 Dec 2011 02:34 AM PST From YNet: The Tehran Municipality has demolished the dome in the city's central square on Tuesday due to criticism that the monument featured Stars of David, which are associated with Judaism.
The Iranian news agency Fars reported that "part of the dome in Revolution Square, which resembles the symbol of the Zionist regime, has been destroyed by municipality workers."
According to the report, the ornamental tiling that adorned the dome has been removed, leaving it bare. It is unclear whether the dome is to be overlaid again with more appropriately-themed tiling.
Fars said that the measure was taken due to mounting disapproval of the dome's appearance. A different Iranian website reported that worshipers from a central mosque held a protest march a few days ago, urging the municipality to remove the Jewish symbols. Here's the dome, in the middle of Revolution Square, before the destruction:
Ah, there they are. So let's destroy this evil Jewish Zionist symbol. And what does it look like after we are done eradicating this evil from our midst? Yes, right now the stars are more obvious than they were before!
But there is another issue here. The Israeli flag does not only have stars - but two straight lines as well! As all Muslims and Arabs know, those two lines represent the Nile and the Euphrates, showing Israeli expansionist designs. They are just as terrible as the six-pointed star itself. In fact, I have it on good authority that practically every building in every major city in Iran was secretly designed by Zionist engineers to include at least two parallel lines, usually on the outside walls, just to covertly show their supremacy. Just to play it safe, that Iranians should also destroy all of their structures that include parallel straight lines. (h/t T34 and someone else I can't find) 
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