|
| |
Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Happiness
news & views you may not have seen about...iran, the middle east, terrorism, islam, human rights, media bias, us politics, freedom, democracy & much, much more
|
Statistics
Unique Visitors:
Total Unique Visitors:
Visitors Out:
Total Visitors Out: |
28
766
4703
4703
|
|
|
| Articles
|
Noggr Update
2007-10-03 15:50:12
Hi all,Many apologies for the lack of activity on the site as of late. Going through a very busy period at work, plus a house move. Will hopefully be back up and running soon.All the best,Noggr ...
|
French foreign minister: France must be ready for Iran war
2007-09-17 16:18:35
Interesting statement from the French...They've also advised French firms not to business in Iran...interesting.The French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said yesterday his country had to prepare for the possibility of war against Iran over its nuclear programme, but added that he did not believe any such action was imminent. Seeking to ratchet up the pressure on Iran, Mr Kouchner also told RTL radio and LCI television that the world's main powers should use further sanctions to show they were serious about stopping Tehran getting nuclear weapons, and said France had asked French firms not to bid for tenders in the Islamic Republic."We must prepare for the worst," Mr Kouchner said in an interview, adding: "The worst, sir, is war." ...
France
Iran
Minister
War
|
UN official: Iran should stop executing children
2007-09-17 16:16:38
Well, duh...Iran should immediately halt the execution of children, the U.N.'s top human rights official said Monday.Louise Arbour, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said she met with Iranian officials during a visit to Tehran earlier this month and urged them to impose a moratorium on the execution of minors."Even if the legislation in the books appears to permit the imposition of the death penalty on minors ... it would be imperative that they not be executed," she told journalists in Geneva.Iran is one of the few countries in the world that executes minors, in violation of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. ...
Children
Iran
|
Did Israel get green light from Turkey to target Iran?
2007-09-17 16:13:22
Is it all systems go?As the mystery continues over Syrian allegations that Israeli F-15 jets flew over its territory on Sept. 6, bombing some cities near the Turkish border, there has been increased speculation in Ankara that Tel Aviv received secret permission from the Turkish military for the fight by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) fighters. "Israeli pilots conducted a training mission using a longer route while equipped with auxiliary fuel tanks, dropping them on their way in order to also test their maneuvering without the tanks. I am sure Israel informed the Turkish military about the mission and that it needed to enter into Turkish airspace. During the Sept. 6 event Israeli pilots were on a training mission to test their ability to reach Iran," speculated Ankara-based Western military sources.Those speculations may also explain the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s relatively low-profile position on the issue, so far refraining from issuing a statement through which it could have sought ...
Iran
Israel
Turkey
|
More evidence of Iranian collusion in Taliban arms
2007-09-17 15:24:56
The evidence continues to mount...An Iranian arms shipment destined for the Taliban was intercepted Sept. 6 by the international force in Afghanistan in what appears to be an escalating flow of weaponry between the two former enemies, according to officials from countries in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.The shipment included armor-piercing bombs known as explosively formed projectiles, the sources said, which have been especially deadly when used as roadside bombs against foreign troops in Iraq. The NATO-led force interdicted two smaller shipments of similar weapons from Iran into southern Helmand province April 11 and May 3."It's not the fact that it's qualitatively different, but this was a large shipment which got people's attention," a U.S. official in Washington said of the most recent interception. ...
Arms
Evidence
Taliban
|
Iran steps up crackdown against 'immoral' activity
2007-09-12 12:38:31
AFP reports. The full thing can be found here.Iran is pressing on with one of its toughest moral crackdowns in years, warning tens of thousands of women over slack dress, targeting "immoral" cafes and seizing illegal satellite receivers, local media reported on Monday.The Iranian police launched the crackdown in April in a self-declared drive to "elevate security in society" that encompassed arrests of thugs, raids on underground parties and street checks of improperly dressed individuals.Reza Zarei, commander of police in Tehran province, said that since the drive began police in his region have handed out 113,454 warnings to women found to have infringed Iran's strict Islamic dress rules. ...
Crackdown
Iran
|
Netanyahu: squeeze Iran with sanctions
2007-09-12 12:34:01
As usual, he talks sense."We cannot wait for them [Iran] to obtain nuclear weapons; we must prevent it now. This has to be the focus of all responsible countries," opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu said Monday."The military option must stay on the table, but countries like the US and some in Europe must squeeze Iran with sanctions, voluntary sanctions - not through the UN," Netanyahu said at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism's Seventh Annual Conference at IDC Herzliya."The UN is paralyzed from launching effective sanctions. They can do a lot to bring economic pressure on the Iranian regime," he added.Netanyahu suggested to "focus on the 20 to 30 European countries that prop up the Iranian oil and gas sector." ...
Iran
Sanctions
|
Israel hit Syrian base financed by Iran
2007-09-12 12:29:38
Saw this just now:JERUSALEM - Israeli warplanes last week bombed and destroyed a northern Syrian missile base that was financed by Iran, an Arab Israeli newspaper reported on Wednesday. Citing anonymous Israeli sources, the Assennara newspaper said that Israeli jets “bombed in northern Syria a Syrian-Iranian missile base financed by Iran... It appears that the base was completely destroyed.”Syria on Tuesday lodged a formal complaint with the United Nations over the “flagrant violation” of its airspace last Thursday, during which it said its air defences opened fire on Israeli warplanes flying over the northeast of the country.Israeli officials have refused to comment on the report, as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert “specifically instructed ministers not to talk about the incident related to Syria at all,” one senior Israeli government official said.A US defence official said on Tuesday that Israel had launched an air strike well inside Syria, apparently to send Damascus a messa ...
Iran
Israel
Syrian
|
I'm back
2007-09-12 12:26:37
Sorry for the long absence. Things at work have been a bit hectic, but there we go...Stories to folllow... ...
|
Read the Exordium!
2007-08-23 16:36:29
Noggr recommends reading the Exordium.The first two volumes are now out in the UK. ...
|
Recent hangings in Iran
2007-08-23 15:57:59
Iran: Three prisoners hanged in Shiraz and Zahedan Iran: Eight hanged in Saveh, Naqadeh, and Zahedan ...
Iran
|
Dresdner stops doing business in Iran, but not without protest
2007-08-23 15:53:23
That's good news, especially considering it's a large German bank. The whole article can be found here, with excerpts below.And the Islamic Republic's central bank is protesting...Dresdner Bank has decided to wind up its remaining business in Iran, a spokesman for the German bank said on Tuesday. "We are winding down our business in, with and to Iran," the spokesman said, adding that the administrative costs of doing business in Iran had become too high.Dresdner, part of German insurer Allianz, has been scaling back its activity in Iran for months. ...
Business
Iran
Protest
|
US chides allies for trade deals with Tehran
2007-08-21 11:43:41
The full thing can be found here.America's allies must do more to cut commercial and energy ties with Iran if the international campaign to halt Tehran's nuclear-weapons programs is to succeed, a top State Department official said yesterday.R. Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, said the U.S.-led drive to sanction Iran's economy through the United Nations is being undercut when allies in Europe, Turkey, India, Japan and South Korea continue to make lucrative trade deals and even offer credits to businesses trading with the Islamic Republic of Iran.The United States lost its major holdings in Iran after the 1979 revolution and has had only very limited trading since, Mr. Burns said. ...
Allies
Tehran
Trade
|
Good article on Green gone too far
2007-08-21 11:34:07
The full thing can be found here. It starts like this, but wait 'till you get to the criticisms!I believe people should be environmentally conscious. I believe people should make every rational effort to protect and preserve our planet's environment, conserve non-renewable resources, discover and use energy sources and raw materials that minimise pollution, and which are renewable or recyclable. That's just common sense.But what I'm finding increasingly annoying are "Green" busy-bodies whose remonstrations are so irrational that they risk turning the average person off being 'green' at all. A case in point.The current issue of Gay Times has a feature where three well-known personalities are subjected to a "Green Audit". While writer Julia Hailes - author of The New Green Consumer Guide - makes a few sensible recommendations, the overall impression is that she'd prefer it if we all returned to stone age living (and pre the discovery of fire, at that!). She visited the homes of Paul O'Gr ...
Article
|
Ledeen on 'talking to Iran'
2007-08-21 11:29:48
Good article here. Some excerpts:For some time now, the chattering classes have debated whether the United States should negotiate with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Both sides have endowed the very act of negotiating with near-mythic power.The advocates suggest that "good relations" may emerge, while opponents warn it is somehow playing into the mullahs' hands. Both seem to believe that the three recent talks in Baghdad are historically significant, since they are said to be a departure from past practice.That claim is false. Every administration since Ayatollah Khomeini's seizure of power in 1979 has negotiated with the Iranians. Nothing positive has ever come of it, but most every president has come to believe that a "grand bargain" with Tehran can somehow be reached, if only we negotiate well enough.......The current administration has maintained the pattern. Despite a considerable volume of criticism of the mullahs, and open warnings of undefined consequences if Iran did not becom ...
Iran
|
UN expanded talks with Iran
2007-08-21 11:23:22
Remember that old song 'You talk too much'?...This story reminds me of it.Senior UN officials are holding a third round of talks in Tehran to discuss Iran's nuclear programme. In July, the two sides announced a two-month arrangement aimed at clearing up outstanding questions and giving the IAEA better access to nuclear sites. Under threat of further UN sanctions, Iran appears anxious to co-operate and has kept to the timetable it agreed with the UN, a BBC correspondent says. ...
Iran
|
Iran authorities lash man for having bible in car
2007-08-15 16:29:37
And this is the place that so many mainstream media organizations call a 'democracy' - get real.Iranian authorities in Tehran lashed a man on his back earlier this year for having a bible in his car, an Iranian Christian group said in a report on its website on Friday.The man was only identified by the initials A. Sh.On 5 May, the man, driving his vehicle, was involved in a road accident with a car belonging to security guards for a government official in Tehran.A bible and a video of Jesus Christ were found in the man's possession upon inspection of his vehicle by the state security forces (SSF). A. Sh. admitted to being Christian, prompting the security agents to beat him up, the report said. He was arrested and taken to a holding cell in Detention Centre 102.During interrogation security agents accused the man of converting from Islam to Christianity, a practice banned under Iran's strict theocratic laws.He was subsequently subjected to lashes on the back and underwent physical and ...
Bible
Car
Iran
|
Iran's Revolutionary Guards join US terrorist list
2007-08-15 16:22:18
That's good news - hopefully the US can be more active against them now...The Washington Post and New York Times are reporting that the US is preparing to "designate" Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organisation allowing it to target the organisation's finances among other things.The Guards work independently of Iran's armed forces and have long been connected to many terror organisations in the Middle East most notably Hezbollah in the Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza.More recently the US and Britain have accused Iran of using them in Iraq and Afghanistan to supply the insurgents and Taliban with weapons and training. That said this move is a provocative one as the Guards are still an officially sanctioned unit of the Iranian state even if they are more a clerics private army. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is said to be behind the move, according to the New York Times. ...
Guards
Iran
Terrorist
|
Iran: Release Mansour Ossanlu and Mahmoud Salehi and help end legalised discrimination against independent trades unions
2007-08-15 16:10:55
Amnesty Int'l reports. What a shame, this guy seemed to genuinely be trying to fight against the regime...In support of the International Day of Action for Mansour Ossanlu and Mahmoud Salehi on 9 August 2007, Amnesty International joins voices with the ITUC and ITF in calling for the two men to be released immediately and for any charges that have been levelled against them in connection with their peaceful and legitimate trades union work to be dropped.Mansour Ossanlu, head of the Union of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, and Mahmoud Salehi, Spokesperson for the Organisational Committee to Establish Trade Unions and former head of the Saqez Bakers’ Union, are trades union leaders who have been detained on vaguely worded charge in order to halt their efforts to build strong trades unions capable of defending the human rights of workers against the discriminatory laws and practices that curtail workers’ rights in Iran.Securing freedom for Mansour Ossanlu and Mahmoud Saleh ...
Help
Iran
|
Michael Ledeen: On the brink...
2007-08-15 16:07:55
Good article, which can be found in full here.Some excerpts are below...President Bush is annoyed that Afghan President Karzai and Iraqi President Maliki are both speaking about Iran in words reserved for an ally, rather than the main engine driving the terror wars in their countries. But if you look at the world through their eyes, it is easy enough to understand. They fear that the Americans will soon leave, and the Iranians will still be there. They know that Iran is a mortal threat, and they are now making a down payment on the insurance costs that are sure to come if the Democrats in Washington have their way. For extras, Maliki has certainly noticed that the United States is paying off the Middle Eastern Sunnis, hoping that the Saudis, Jordanians, and Gulf States will manage to contain Iran in the future. This cannot be good news in Baghdad, where the Shiites are struggling to put together a government capable of managing the country's myriad crises.......That the Iranians are at ...
Brink
|
Update
2007-08-13 10:06:45
Hi all,I am still extremely busy and have not been able to update the site for a while now. Hopefully work will calm down and I'll be able to get back to blogging!NtB ...
|
Update
2007-08-01 10:44:02
Hi all,I am still here, but just extremely busy and have had no time to keep the site updated for the past 4-5 days. I will try my best to update it throughout the coming days, but not making any promises at this point.As usual, please send me any news that you think I'd find interesting.All the best,NtB ...
|
Are these people (the BBC management) serious? Melanie Philips asks...
2007-07-27 18:26:51
Nice little (and very appropriate) stab at the BBC from Melanie on her blog.The BBC is apparently in crisis. We are told that its top brass take very, very seriously the blow to its integrity delivered by the recent series of scandals involving the reversed footage of the Queen and the phone-in scams. Yet the Chairman of the BBC Trust, Sir Michael Lyons, whose whereabouts when the furore exploded on July 19 in New Zealand were revealed when his phone-line went down in the middle of his interview on the BBC Radio Four Today Programme, appears therefore to have conducted his stern encounter the previous day with the Director-General, Mark Thompson — in which we were told Thompson was summoned to explain the BBC’s behaviour — in a long-distance telephone call. Some stern summons. Now we read today that the Commons Culture Select Committee, which was due to grill Mr Thompson yesterday, had to make do instead with his deputy, Mark Byford, since Mr Thompson had gone off on a family hol ...
Bbc
Management
Philips
|
Cuban doctors head for the US - Michael Moore must be upset now...
2007-07-27 18:23:36
Good article from Gateway Pundit about the reality of Cuba, and not the illusions which the left would have everyone believe.Hundreds of "Sicko" Doctors Flee Island Paradise For US Michael Moore's favorite doctors are resisting those lucrative $15 per month wages and fleeing to the US.Jacob Laksin at Front Page Magazine has some stunning figures for Sicko propagandist Michael Moore on his Cuban health care system......The doctors have a hard time making ends meet on $15 monthly wages on the Island Paradise... ...
Cuban
Doctors
Michael Moore
|
France summoned the Iranian regime's charge d'affaires
2007-07-27 17:57:04
More positive signs coming out of France, but unlikely they'll actually do anything (in policy or action against the mullahs)...they're getting too much free oil still.The charge d'affaires was summoned by the ministry Wednesday at the request by Rama Yade, French minister of state in charge of foreign affairs and human rights, according to a ministry statement.During the meeting, "we took the opportunity to express our extreme preoccupation and underscored our opposition to the death penalty, our commitment for its universal abolition, our commitment to see that Iranian authorities uphold the 2002 moratorium against stoning, our appeal that no one should be condemned to stoning," according to the statement.France condemns the execution of 12 Iranians, which occurred on July 22 and is "particularly concerned" with the fact that on July 10 an Iranian official announced that sexual orientation was one of the charges brought against those who were executed, according to the statement.O ...
France
|
Ayatollahs’ lobby In Washington offering human rights as a negotiating item
2007-07-27 17:36:40
Interesting article on how the mullahs' lobbyists use human rights as a bargaining tool.Binding accountability for Iran’s suppression of its population to nuclear issues and Iran’s meddling in Iraq amounts to doing the bidding of the ruling ayatollahs.The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) and its president Trita Parsi have organized a panel in the US House of Representatives on July 26th, 2007, titled “Human Rights in Iran and US Foreign Policy Options.”1 According to the published agenda, representatives from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch will participate. The sponsors of the program (NIAC and Trita Parsi) are key players in the lobbying enterprise of Tehran’s ayatollahs in the United States. The Iranian regime’s violations of human rights have reached unprecedented levels. Its barbaric suppression of women, workers, students and dissidents, and the stoning of a man after 11 years of imprisonment, have been the subject of broad international condem ...
Human
Human Rights
Item
Rights
Washington
|
[First] Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next [Last]
3712 blogs in our database.
Statistics resets every week.
| |
Show All