Iran
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Iran’s Nuclear Theater Meant to Divert Attention BY Ramzy Baroud
World events have taken an interesting turn recently, with the Goldstone report, which wreaked havoc in the beginning of the week being nearly completely overshadowed by Iran’s revelation of another nuclear facility, according to diplomats in Vienna on September 25. The Iran nuclear threat – although theater is a more suitable term – was highlighted… Continue reading
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Iran's Nuclear Theater Meant to Divert Attention BY Ramzy Baroud
World events have taken an interesting turn recently, with the Goldstone report, which wreaked havoc in the beginning of the week being nearly completely overshadowed by Iran’s revelation of another nuclear facility, according to diplomats in Vienna on September 25. The Iran nuclear threat – although theater is a more suitable term – was highlighted… Continue reading
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MEDIA LENS ALERT: IRAN – THE WAR DANCE
The IAEA, which met in Vienna on September 18, adopted a resolution expressing concern about “Israeli nuclear capabilities” and called on agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei to work on the issue. The motion was adopted by 49 votes to 45, with 16 abstentions. Russia and China, both permanent members of the UN security council, voted in… Continue reading
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Everything You Know About Iran Is A Myth By Lawrence of Cyberia
There are some terms that people in Islamic and Western countries should never say to each other, because they confuse and inflame more than they clarify. The most obvious ones would be ‘jihad’, ‘crusade’ and ‘great satan’. All of them are used in somewhat innocuous ways by the people who utter them, but mean something… Continue reading
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Black Sea Crisis Deepens As US-NATO Threat To Iran Grows By Rick Rozoff
Tensions are mounting in the Black Sea with the threat of another conflict between U.S. and NATO client state Georgia and Russia as Washington is manifesting plans for possible military strikes against Iran in both word and deed. Continue reading
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US strike on Iran 'feasible and credible': retired general
A devastating US military strike against Iran’s nuclear and military facilities ‘is a technically feasible and credible option,’ a retired general asserted in an article published on Friday. Continue reading
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Who Wants Sanctions on Iran? By Hamid Dabashi
In a recent congressional hearing, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman called the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act “a sword of Damocles over the Iranians” that will soon come down if President Obama’s diplomatic overture did not show signs of success by the fall. That sword is no mere metaphor and might kill more… Continue reading
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Mr. Mousavi's Gas Embargo on Iran? By Robert Naiman
In serious contention for Dumbest Washington Consensus for September is the idea of cutting off Iran’s gas imports to pressure Iran to stop enriching uranium. A majority of Representatives and Senators have signed on to legislation that seeks to block Iran’s gas imports, a top legislative priority for the so-called “Israel Lobby.” But it’s a… Continue reading
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Iran: Reply to the Campaign for Peace and Democracy By Edward S. Herman and David Peterson
The Campaign for Peace and Democracy has chosen to interpret our “Riding the ‘Green Wave'” article as a “vitriolic and dishonest attack” on its authors, and an “offensive impugning of [their] integrity.” In fact, it is nothing of the sort. Instead, it is concerned with issues of central importance to the left in the United… Continue reading
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Iran's "Leftist" Don Quixotes By Bizhan Pouya
The unfortunate truth is that, in contrast to these “revolutionary” Marxists’ intimations and inferences, there really are no organized leftist or Marxist groups inside Iran rallying workers, students, or other sectors of the Iranian society. Contrary to such claims, I suggest that, since the 1953 CIA coup which toppled the democratically elected government of Dr.… Continue reading
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Iran's Reform Movement Predicated on People BY KOUROSH ZIABARI
The gradual and steady evolution of reform movement in Iran does not essentially hinge on the struggle of reformist “leaders” and is inherently capable of growing progressively without being invigorated or revitalized by the role-playing of pragmatist politicians who have already served as the state officials under the administrations of former Presidents Khatami and Hashemi… Continue reading
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Iran's Quiet Revolution: Mohammad Javad Jahangir's The Invisible Crowd By Mohammad Salemy
Events of the past few weeks surrounding the Iranian presidential race and its aftermath not only were the most recent example of the social force called the Iranian political crowd, they were also a new chance for us to reexamine Abrahamian’s thesis regarding the political crowd in the age of global spectacle. In doing so,… Continue reading
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Left is wrong on Iran By Hamid Dabashi
When a political groundswell like the Iranian presidential election of June 2009 and its aftermath happen, the excitement and drama of the moment expose not just our highest hopes but also our deepest fault lines, most troubling moral flaws, and the dangerous political precipice we face. Continue reading
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Iran: Whose side are you on? By William Bowles
I have been reading, with much despair and a deal of consternation, the torrent of ‘analysis’ coming out of left field about which, if any, side to support in the ongoing struggles in Iran and, at the end of the day, a good deal more is revealed about the ‘left’ in the West than the… Continue reading
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How Many Leftists Are "United for Iran"?
While a number of leftists have made impassioned pleas for solidarity with Iran’s Green Movement, (throwing themselves into an obligatory intra-left battle royal that has, alas, eclipsed any battle against the illegitimate authority of unelected clerics in Iran), most leftists still appear to find it — how shall we put it? — on balance inadvisable… Continue reading
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Branding “Free Iran”
By the way, do you know that you can get free “Free Iran” t-shirts, “donated by American Apparel, a company that supports liberty and open minded thinking by people worldwide”? Continue reading
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Iran: Riding the "Green Wave" at the Campaign for Peace and Democracy and Beyond by Edward S. Herman and David Peterson
There are many problems with the Campaign for Peace and Democracy’s “Question & Answer on the Iran Crisis,” issued by the CPD on July 7, and widely circulated since then. As we try to show below, when stripped of its didactic format, this Q&A amounts to little more than an emotional plea to its target… Continue reading
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Iran: Riding the “Green Wave” at the Campaign for Peace and Democracy and Beyond by Edward S. Herman and David Peterson
There are many problems with the Campaign for Peace and Democracy’s “Question & Answer on the Iran Crisis,” issued by the CPD on July 7, and widely circulated since then. As we try to show below, when stripped of its didactic format, this Q&A amounts to little more than an emotional plea to its target… Continue reading
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Would MLK Back Iran's Protesters? By Rostam Pourzal
Combine Iran’s post-election turmoil with the controversy over the nation’s nuclear advances, and few Americans are likely to be unsympathetic toward the opposition movement there. Some bloggers have even suggested that the reformist-led protests are inspired by the teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr. Several commentators have referred to the wave of anti-theocracy rallies as… Continue reading
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Iran: the new elite By Vladimir YURTAYEV
The whole thing [the election] boils down to the following: part of the old revolutionary elite that’s taken possession of economic profits gave way to the new elite following M. Ahmadinejad’s win in 2005, an elite that’s emerged on the basis of the Army and that’s relying on the other part of the old revolutionary… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 