INTERNATIONAL LABOUR IRAN:SAVE ABDOLREZA GHANBARI: Abdolreza Ghanbari is an Iranian university professor who has been sentenced to death by the regime basically for the “crime” of receiving unsolicited political emails. Here is his story and appeal for solidarity from the online labour solidarity site Labour Start.################# Iran: Stop the execution
Continue readingTag: Iran
Iran under siege … for 2,500 years
David Cameron hoisted himself onto the world stage once again, as he is wont to do, and declared Iran an international threat. This is rich coming from a British PM. The Brits have been harassing Iran since the days of the Great Game. They invaded the country in the 1940s
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: No more "nuclear ambiguity"
As tensions continue to rise in the Middle East about what Iran is up to with its nuclear program, a reasonable person cannot be in much doubt. With the large number of centrifuges it’s more than obvious that Iran wants a bomb. And there can only be one intended target
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: How the GOP should criticize Obama on Iran
Leaders of Brazil, Turkey & Iran As the Republicans continue to escalate their misguided criticism of Obama and his handling of the issue of a nuclear Iran, they desperately need a brief history lesson. I am not talking about a history lesson that extends back to the days of a
Continue readingLeDaro: Benjamin Netanyahu Visiting Canada
Netanyahu is visiting Canada and Stephen Harper is bending over backwards to please Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu is building a case to bomb Iran and its nuclear facilities. Stephen Harper is reassuring Netanyahu of his loyalty. A similar case for WMD is being made for Iran as was the case before invading Iraq.
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The chances of an Israeli strike on Iran
As a large caveat, let me first say that I think it is very hard to come up with a reasonable estimate of the chances that Israel, or the US, decided to attack Iran within, say, a year. For the casual analyst like myself, we can read the statements from
Continue readingImpolitical: Late night
That was quite a moving moment from the Iranian film maker who won the best Foreign Language Film award last night (beating out Canada’s Monsieur Lazhar). The director’s speech starts at about the 2:00 minute mark. More at Andrew Sullivan’s blog on the political significance of the moment.
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: WikiLeaks: Stratfor Just Heating Up #gifiles Israel and Iran
Besides monitoring the Yes Men, Amnesty International, and a swath of international media and activist organizations, Stratfor fancied itself as a superior intelligence agency, better than the FBI anyway. Here’s their Glossary entry for FBI: Federal Bureau of Investigation, aka the Downtown Gang. Very good a breaking up used car
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: What does Stephen Harper know that American intelligence agencies don’t?
Our prime minister’s concern regarding the Iranian threat to world peace has gotten a fair amount of attention in recent weeks. Stephen Harper insists both that Iran is definitely attempting to develop nuclear weapons and that the Iranians are fanatics who would use those weapons without hesitation. On the former,
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Iran and the CNN Arizona GOP Presidential Debate
CNN Arizona GOP Debate As it often has been in the past, Iran was the principle foreign policy topic discussed in what may well be the last GOP Presidential Debate that we have to suffer through. If it is possible, the hyperbolic, warmongering rhetoric reached a new low. Additional debate
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The staggering ignorance of the public on Iran
A new CBS/Opinion Research poll indicates that 71% of Americans believe that Iran already has a nuclear weapon. Sigh. While it certainly should not be a surprise anymore given numerous past polling of a similar level of absurdity, it is still nonetheless disheartening. For the record, it is absolutely false
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Well, This Is Awkward
Israeli F-16 Showing Seven Syrian Aerial Victories and the Bombing of Iraq’s Osirik Reactor. Iran has warned it may strike pre-emptively in the face of persistent threats of imminent attack by Israeli or the United States’ forces. It sort of sounds like George w. Bush’s reasoning when he
Continue readingCNN’s Erin Burnett makes play to become this decade’s Judith Miller
Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi put he screws to Erin Burnett for her Judith Miller act – promoting a new war, this time with Iran. She employs all of the old Miller tricks, including fear mongering, acting as stenographer for hawks and presenting trumped-up ‘evidence’. You can just feel it:
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Inciting hysteria
The Vancouver Sun has a report on the reaction to our prime minister’s recent statements regarding Iran from an Iranian expatriate named Trita Parsi who is head of the “Washington-based National Iranian American Council.” A prominent Iranian expert says Prime Minister Stephen Harper is inciting “hysteria” with his comments about
Continue readingHellberta: February mid-month round-up: Greece burns, Alberta gambles & Canada trades soul for Pandas
Well it would appear that China has finally found a spot to park it’s unwanted USD. That would be here in good old Canada and all it cost them was leasing us two Pandas. What a deal! Back in 2011 I wrote a quick post about why Canada’s economy is
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: A domestic foreign policy: Iran, Israel, and the US
Foreign policy is ostensibly something to do with other countries. However, when politicians talk about it they are largely doing so for their own domestic interests. Discussions of foreign policy are constantly evolving in the ideas, rhetoric, policies and details; the discussion of Iran today is very different than it
Continue readingMadonna saves the world. Fans beg Netanyahu to delay WWIII until after Madonna concert.
Suddenly I have reason to like the pop queen. Or at least her Israeli fans. In a newly launched Facebook page, Israeli fans of U.S. pop megastar Madonna are pleading Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off any such plans to strike Iran until the Queen of Pop’s planned show
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Dear John Baird
You recently suggested that Israel has no better friend than Canada. So perhaps you would be the best one to have a chat with our friends and suggest that this kind of thing is generally frowned upon. Deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists are being carried out by an Iranian
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: John Baird’s response to the Israel/Iran conflict
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird Right now, we have one sovereign United Nations member making explicit overtures about launching a unilateral military attack on another sovereign United Nations member. It isn’t just rhetoric, there is a nontrivial possibility that this might actually occur and they have both the motive and
Continue readingNiall Ferguson cheers on war between Israel and Iran
“Hi folks, this used to be Israel. Or, was it Iran? I forgot. Oh well. Where’s my paycheque?” Or, more like an Israeli attack on Iran. The money quote: War is an evil. But sometimes a preventive war can be a lesser evil than a policy of appeasement. The people
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