TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian
authorities have slowed Internet connections to a crawl or choked them
off completely before expected student protests Monday to deny the
opposition a vital means of communication. In another familiar
tactic before such rallies, authorities have ordered journalists
working for foreign media organizations not to leave their offices to
cover the demonstrations. Iran's beleaguered opposition has
sought to maintain momentum with periodic demonstrations coinciding
with state-sanctioned events. Monday's rallies will take place on a day
that normally marks a 1953 killing of three students at an anti-U.S.
protest. Since the 1990s, the day has served as an occasion for
pro-reform protests. Students are at the center of the... Read more »
Members of US House of
Representatives send letter to Secretary of State warning Islamic
Republic may try to distract world from its nuclear program by
instructing Hezbollah to launch conflict with Israel
WASHINGTON
- Iran may try to distract the international community from its nuclear
program by heating things up at Israel's northern border via Hezbollah
– dozens of members of the US House of Representatives wrote in a
letter addressed to US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton on Friday. The
letter was sent ahead of Lebanese President Michel Suleiman's upcoming
visit to the White House, scheduled for December 14, and following the
coalition agreement in the Lebanese government allowing Hezbollah to
hold on to its arms. Meanwhile, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad
Hariri on Friday announced that he plans to hold his first visit to
Syria since the death of his father Rafiq Hariri in 2005. According
to the letter, as talks with I... Read more »
Nuclear chief says Tehran will build 10 more sites like Natanz in bid to generate more electricity Iran needs 20 uranium enrichment plants to produce enough fuel for its nuclear power plants and has no plans to withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday. "To provide fuel for our nuclear power plants, we need to have 20 uranium enrichment plants," IRNA quoted Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi as saying. In a major expansion of its nuclear program, Tehran said on Sunday it would build 10 more uranium enrichment sites like its Natanz underground one monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). IRNA quotes Salehi as saying Iran needs the 20 sites because it aims to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity through nuclear powe... Read more »
Outgoing Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei signaled that he may run for the next presidential elections in Egypt that will be held in 2011. In a statement published in al-Quds al-Arabi, ElBaradei joined the ranks of the Egyptian opposition against bequeathing power to President Hosni Mubarak's son, Gamal. This is the first time ElBaradei has official spoken of the possibility of running for president. He also wrote in his statement that the parliament and presidential elections in Egypt must be conducted based on the examples of the advanced democracies in the West. (Roee Nahmias)
Information reached DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources Wednesday, Dec.
2, of the discovery by Egyptian intelligence and security units of a
large cache of bomb vests and 15-kilo explosive devices - some with
built-in detonators, others attached to timers - in the Gaza-Egyptian
border town of Rafah. They were smuggled out of the Gaza Strip and
stored in Rafah for Hamas operatives and their confederates to carry
through Sinai and across the Egyptian border into Israel, to be picked
up by suicide bombers belonging to Hamas, the Popular Resistance
Committees or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.Senior
IDF sources suggested Wednesday night that Egypt was tipped off about
the cache and Hamas' plans as a result of an incident last Wednesday,
Nov. 25, when a Hamas terrorist bound for a suicide attack in Eilat or
a military base in the... Read more »
Iranian president says International Atomic Energy Agency's decision to rebuke his country over its disputed nuclear activity is 'illegal.' He rejects option that Jewish state could attack Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities Reuters Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected on Wednesday as "illegal" a UN nuclear watchdog resolution over the country's disputed nuclear activities, state television reported. Ahmadinejad also said Israel could not do a "damn thing" to stop the Islamic state's nuclear program, which the West suspects is a front to build bombs. Iran denies the claim.
That has raised concerns that Israel could ultimately carry out a military strike against Iranian nuclear sites. US President Barack Obama said Washington wanted Iran's nuclear dispute to be resolved through diplomacy but has not... Read more »
Judges reject petition filed by terror victims' relatives calling for publication of list of Palestinian prisoners slated for release in Shalit deal, say 'we were convinced security concerns behind secrecy' Aviad Glickman The High Court of Justice on Tuesday rejected a petition filed by bereaved parents and the Almagor - Terror Victims Association, who demanded that the state make public a list of Palestinian prisoners it plans to release exchange for kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. The judges explained that they did not have the right to interfere with decisions made by the IDF censor, adding that they were convinced that "obvious security concerns" were behind the decision not to publish the list of prisoners slated for release. The judges, led by Supreme Court President Dorit Beinish, said in their ruling, "Undoubtedl... Read more »
Former Nazi camp guard stands trial in Munich on charges of helping to force 27,900 Jews into gas chambers in 1943 John Demjanjuk was brought by ambulance to a Munich court on Monday to face charges of being an accessory to the murder of 27,900 Jews at a Nazi death camp, opening the final chapter of some 30 years of efforts to prosecute the retired Ohio autoworker. The trial of the 89-year-old opened with Demjanjuk's attorney filing a motion against the judge and prosecutors, accusing them of bias. Lawyer Ulrich Busch charged that the case should never have been brought to trial. He cited cases in which Germans who were assigned to the Sobibor camp in occupied Poland, where prosecutors allege Demjanjuk served as a guard, were acquitted. "How can you say that those who gave the orders were innocent ... and the one who re... Read more »
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy expands capabilities, deploys fast attack boats, cruise missiles along Strait of Hormuz, Persian Gulf, a US intelligence study says
Iran has restructured its naval forces to give an arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard full responsibility for operations in the strategic Persian Gulf in the event of a conflict, according to a new US intelligence study. The concentration of fast attack boats and cruise missiles in and along the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, known as the IRGCN, "better allow Iranian naval assets to contribute to and extend Iran's layered defense strategy," the US Office of Naval Intelligence said in the study, dated Fall 2009. The Revolutionary Guard has gradually expanded its naval capabilities over the year... Read more »
Islamic republic continues to provoke IAEA, ordering plans for 10 new facilities to be built within two months 'in order to serve country's electricity needs.' White House: Iran isolating itself The Iranian government approved a plan Sunday to build 10 industrial scale uranium enrichment facilities, a dramatic expansion of the program in defiance of UN demands it halt enrichment. The decision comes only days after the UN nuclear watchdog agency censured Iran over its program and demanded it halt the construction of a newly revealed enrichment facility. The White House said in response that if Iran really does plan to building 10 new uranium enrichment facilities, then the development would be another instance of flaunting the United Nations. Presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs noted that the UN nuclear watchdog agency h... Read more »
TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian
authorities have slowed Internet connections to a crawl or choked them
off completely before expected student protests Monday to deny the
opposition a vital means of communication.
Nuclear chief says Tehran will build 10 more sites like Natanz in bid to generate more electricity
Outgoing Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei signaled that he may run for the next presidential elections in Egypt that will be held in 2011. In a statement published in al-Quds al-Arabi, ElBaradei joined the ranks of the Egyptian opposition against bequeathing power to President Hosni Mubarak's son, Gamal.
Information reached DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources Wednesday, Dec.
2, of the discovery by Egyptian intelligence and security units of a
large cache of bomb vests and 15-kilo explosive devices - some with
built-in detonators, others attached to timers - in the Gaza-Egyptian
border town of Rafah. They were smuggled out of the Gaza Strip and
stored in Rafah for Hamas operatives and their confederates to carry
through Sinai and across the Egyptian border into Israel, to be picked
up by suicide bombers belonging to Hamas, the Popular Resistance
Committees or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Iranian president says International Atomic Energy Agency's decision to rebuke his country over its disputed nuclear activity is 'illegal.' He rejects option that Jewish state could attack Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities
Judges reject petition filed by terror victims' relatives calling for publication of list of Palestinian prisoners slated for release in Shalit deal, say 'we were convinced security concerns behind secrecy'
Former Nazi camp guard stands trial in Munich on charges of helping to force 27,900 Jews into gas chambers in 1943
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy expands capabilities, deploys fast attack boats, cruise missiles along Strait of Hormuz, Persian Gulf, a US intelligence study says
Islamic republic continues to provoke IAEA, ordering plans for 10 new facilities to be built within two months 'in order to serve country's electricity needs.' White House: Iran isolating itself