Iranian press snubs Trudeau admin: 'Excess Luggage: Disgruntled Canada Wants Back to Iran'.

Iranian press snubs Trudeau admin: 'Excess Luggage: Disgruntled Canada Wants Back to Iran'. (Fars).

Until yesterday it was at the forefront of the NPT-illegal economic warfare against Iran. Today, the Canadian government says it is out for a rip to find the quickest route back to the Islamic Republic – with excess luggage of course.

And with excess luggage we mean this: Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion has just told reporters that his government will lift some sanctions on Iran now that a deal has been reached to curb - what he called - its “contentious” nuclear program.

And his snobbery doesn’t stop there. Dion goes on to allege that "Canada will maintain a level of mistrust for a regime that must not have nuclear weapons, a regime that is a danger to human rights, and is not a friend to our allies, including Israel."

The Canadian foreign minister should take note:

* When his government decided to close its embassy in Tehran and leave, no one cared. Now they have had a change of heart and want back. Again no one will care. What’s so special about their reappearance anyway?

* What sanctions is Dion talking about? Technology? Food? Car? Medicine? He can spend a whole month in Tehran to look for a Canadian-made product and still find nothing. The value of Iran-Canada trade is too trivial for him to brag about.

* Dion says “Canada will maintain a level of mistrust…” Well, good for you! He can be pretty much sure that Tehran will similarly maintain the same level of mistrust over a regime that abruptly leaves and abruptly returns - just like a disgruntled, irrational and unfaithful partner! But wait a minute. Canada didn’t just abruptly close its embassy in 2012 and leave. It also expelled Iranian diplomats from Ottawa and formally listed Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism!

* When asked specifically about exporting civilian aircraft — Bombardier hopes to sell regional jets to the country's national air carrier, Iran Air — Dion said it made no sense to maintain sanctions that hurt such an important Canadian industry!

"If Airbus is able to do it, why will Bombardier not be able to do it? In which way is it helping Canada, or the Iranian people or Israel or anyone that Canada is hurting its own industry?" Dion’s comments defy logic and we are lost in translation. We just don’t know what to make of it!

* Dion claims, "Iran continues to be a state sponsor of terrorism, continues to deny as state policy the very existence of Israel…” The country the Canadian foreign minister is complaining about is now at the forefront of the Real War on Terror in Iraq and Syria, where it has lost some of its best military commanders and elites. If still in doubt, he can ask the long-suffering people of Iraq and Syria. He can even go to Europe to hear the truth from his European counterparts. It’s closer to Canada.

* The Israel Dion is so keen to defend is a regime that has committed and continues to commit crimes against humanity in Syria, Lebanon and occupied Palestinian territories, including in Gaza - with great impunity and no accountability. If still he insists, he can find out more by going through official reports published by the Human Rights Council, Amnesty International, United Nations, and several other international aid groups and agencies.

* Dion admonishes Iran for human rights abuses while he knows his country is helping Saudi Arabia in its generational wars of aggression and terror. The same government that Dion claims is a strong voice for the protection of human rights and the advancement of democratic values, stands accused of signing off on the sales of advanced surveillance technologies and weaponry to the repressive regime of Saudi Arabia. This makes Canada complicit in Saudi crimes, as its technologies and weaponry are being used against the people of Yemen in clear violation of international humanitarian law.

All this and more speaks volumes about the irrefutable fact that the comic image of Canada as the “great defender of human rights” does not hold water when it's a matter of counter-terrorism campaign and international humanitarian law. Foreign Minister Dion should keep that in mind when his Bombardier begins landing in Tehran with so much excess luggage.  

Hmmmm............Islamist respect strength like PM Harper showed, Appeasement doesn't work.

Former CIA Officials Say Iran’s Clerics Want to Goad Israel Into an Attack.

Former CIA Officials Say Iran’s Clerics Want to Goad Israel Into an Attack.(Stratrisk).Source: Daily Beast.Benjamin Netanyahu, in Washington today, is laying more political groundwork for a possible preemptive Israeli airstrike against Iran’s nuclear sites.
But as Netanyahu rallies his American supporters and discourages diplomatic engagement with Tehran, some intelligence officials and Iran experts tell The Daily Beast that an Israeli attack may be exactly what Tehran’s most hard-line leaders have been trying to provoke.Marty Martin, a former senior officer in the CIA, ran the unit that hunted Al Qaeda terrorists from 2002 to 2004. Iran’s most militant leaders “are goading the Israelis,” he tells The Daily Beast, “because a bombing will help them put their internal problems aside.”
Martin, who spent most of his 25-year career at the CIA in the Middle East, argues that some clerics and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders, confronted with a discontented and restless population, are looking for ways to solidify public support. “The way they see it, if Israel bombs them it relieves the internal pressure,” says Martin. “Amid this turmoil, its always good to have an outside enemy.”
Iran’s internal troubles include a 12 percent unemployment rate, a shattered economy (due in part to international sanctions), resentment over the oppressive regime, and widespread disgust over corruption.Martin, who retired from the agency in 2007, now works as an independent consultant. He was prominent inside the agency not just for his leadership against Al Qaeda but also for his expertise on the Middle East: his Louisiana drawl disguises the fact that he speaks fluent Arabic.
“If you are an Iranian,” he says, “there is actually a benefit to an Israel strike—an Israel strike which won’t be successful completely militarily, but will be successful for saying ‘game on’!”
Paul Pillar, the former national intelligence officer for the Middle East, agrees, though he emphasizes that only part of the Iranian leadership is likely plotting this way. “It’s quite rational,” he said, “from the perspective of the specific elements in the regime that believe it would work to their political advantage.” Pillar, who spent 28 years at the CIA, is now a professor at Georgetown University. “I strongly believe that the net political effect of an attack would be to help the hardliners,” he says.
“The White House is mindful of the fact that there are radical elements in Tehran who might like to provoke an attack for their own domestic expediency.”“The White House,” Sadjadpour says, “is mindful of the fact that there are radical elements in Tehran who might like to provoke an attack for their own domestic expediency.”(The National Security Council spokesperson, asked to comment, said no one was available to address the issue this weekend.)
“I do think that a military conflagration could be one of the few things that could potentially rehabilitate the regime,” said Sadjadpour. “It could resuscitate revolutionary ideology and repair the deep fractures both amongst the political elite and among the population and the regime.”Pillar says the theory has some historical evidence on its side. “The big data point in support of this concept is the Iran-Iraq war: Saddam Hussein’s Iraq attacking Iran,” he says. “Iraq was the aggressor, and the attack [had] a big rally-around-the-flag effect and it had a positive effect in bolstering support for the [Iranian] regime. That’s the most applicable way to look at.”
Iran, in this view, could intentionally cross so-called “red lines” laid out by the Americans or Israelis, to invite an attack that it believes would be largely ineffective against its nuclear sites, and that would not bring large numbers of casualties.Another veteran of the CIA’s clandestine services, who spent years working with Iranian agents, says he finds the explanation “entirely logical.” (He asked that his name not be used because much of his work was classified.)“The guys you are talking about, they are not going to die,” he says. “They are not the ones who are going to get bombed. They can always find another lab technician, or another scientist. Those are the ones who are going to die.”Hmmmmmm.........Read the full story here.

"CHANGE" - Ahmadinejad rivals rack up parliament wins in Iran.

"CHANGE" - Ahmadinejad rivals rack up parliament wins in Iran.(AA).Conservative rivals of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appeared on course Saturday to gain firm control of parliament after elections that could embolden Iran’s nuclear defiance and give the ruling clerics a clear path to ensure a loyalist succeeds Ahmadinejad next year.
Although Iran’s 290-seat parliament has limited sway over key affairs - including military and nuclear policies - the elections highlight the political narratives inside the country since Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election in 2009 and sets the possible tone for his final 18 months in office.
Reformists were virtually absent from the ballot, showing the crushing force of crackdowns on the opposition. Instead, Friday’s elections became a referendum on Ahmadinejad’s political stature after he tried to challenge the near-total authority of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to decide critical government policies such as intelligence and foreign affairs.
The apparent setbacks for Ahmadinejad’s backers, according to early results, could signal a decisive blow in the internal political conflicts and give hard-liners an even stronger voice in Iran’s showdowns over its nuclear program.
The results also greatly reduce Ahmadinejad’s leverage to have a protégé clear the ruling clerics’ election vetting process and become a candidate to succeed him in mid-2013. It now seems likely that only staunch Khamenei loyalists could be in the running.
“It appears that the era of ‘Ahmadinejadism’ in Iran’s political history is gradually coming to an end,” said prominent Tehran-based political analyst Davoud Hermidas Bavand.“Under the present Cold War we are in, this election will increase our national security. It will make the U.S. and the West change its tone toward us,” said Mohammad Reza Bahanor, a hard-line lawmaker seeking re-election.
He predicted 80 percent of the winners belong to a group known as the ultraconservative Motahed, or United Front, which is the main anti-Ahmadinejad group. Full official results, however, were not expected until Sunday at the earliest.
Out of 197 winners that emerged by midday Saturday, at least 102 were conservatives who turned against Ahmadinejad after he openly challenged Khamenei. Also elected were six independent candidates opposed to Ahmadinejad.
Among the prominent anti-Ahmadinejad victors were: Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, whose daughter is married to Khamenei’s son; and parliament speaker Ali Larijani, who was Iran’s former nuclear negotiator.
Last month, lawmakers approved a petition to summon Ahmadinejad for public questioning over a long list of accusations, including corruption and his high-profile feud with Khamenei.
The parliament - which remains in session until the new chamber is seated in May - is expected to demand Ahmadinejad appear early next week, which would make him the first president ever to be dragged before lawmakers since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“Ahmadinejad is almost politically spent,” said the analyst Bevand.
But others, such as political commentator Ali Reza Khamesian, said it’s still too early to fully count Ahmadinejad out. “He won’t give up,” he said.
His spectacular falling out with Iran’s ruling theocracy underscores the lopsided nature of Iran’s political establishment. The president may be the international envoy of the country, but all the real power rests with the theocrats and their guardians, including the military-industrial machine of the Revolutionary Guard.
Interior Minister Mostafa Mohmmad Najjar said turnout in Friday’s election was 64.2 percent among 48 million eligible voters. That would be significantly higher than the 57 percent in the 2008 parliamentary elections. If confirmed, the figure will be used by authorities to try to discredit the opposition’s strength and their backing in the West.
“International media were surprised by the high turnout,” state TV proclaimed Saturday. “It was a slap in the face of the U.S.” The front-page headline in the hard-line daily Kayhan Saturday said the enemy was “checkmated.” Read the full story here.

"Sign of 'Changing' times?" Ahmadinejad's sister fails to win parliamentary seat.

"Sign of 'Changing' times?" Ahmadinejad's sister fails to win parliamentary seat.(AA).The younger sister of Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad failed to win a parliamentary seat in the hometown of the president, the semiofficial Mehr news agency reported Saturday.
The report said the final results from a small town southeast of the capital shows that Parvin Ahmadinejad, a close ally of the president, was defeated by her conservative rival.Parvin Ahmadinejad was running for a seat in Garmsar, about 35 miles (60 kilometers) southeast of Tehran. She is a current member of Tehran’s municipal council.
Her failure in President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s hometown is seen as a big blow to him in the first balloting since his disputed re-election in 2009.Early returns also showed conservative rivals of Ahmadinejad were elected in many other constituencies.
Out of 50 winners, at least 36 conservative opponents of Ahmadinejad had won seats in parliament.
Three other liberal-leaning candidates were elected. The tendency of the remaining 11 was not yet clear.
More than 3,440 parliamentary hopefuls - all vetted by Iran’s ruling Islamic system and none with links to the Green Movement that led protests after Ahmadinejad’s re-election - were running for seats.
The early results suggest Ahmadinejad will face a more belligerent parliament in the nearly two years remaining in his second four-year term.
Nationwide, final results are expected to be released during the weekend and early next week. Results in small towns, with few representatives in parliament, appear sooner than cities like the capital, Tehran, which has some 5 million eligible voters and 30 legislators.
The new parliament will begin its work late in June. It is expected to boost the voices of hard-line opponents of Ahmadinejad in next year's presidential elections.The results for the 290-seat parliament will have no direct influence over Iran’s nuclear program or other critical affairs, such as military or oil policies.
However, high turnout could heighten Tehran’s defiance of the international community’s effort to halt Iran's nuclear program, which the West suspects is trying to build a weapon, a charge Iran denies.Mehr said some 70 percent of more than 48 million eligible voters participated in the Friday elections.In 2008 and 2004, the turnout for parliamentary elections was 57 percent and 51 percent, respective.Hmmmmm........"CHANGE" you never know who and when it will hit.Read the full story here.