IAEA Condemnation of Iran: An Omen of New Sanctions or a Symbolic Slap on the Wrist?

The board of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency on Friday condemned Iran for secretly building a new nuclear enrichment facility at Fordo near Qom, and called on it to mothball the new site. The resolution was backed by the permanent members of the UN Security Council, including China and Russia, as well as Germany.

Fully 25 of the 35 nations on the nuclear board voted for the resolution, India joined the consensus condemning Iran, though New Delhi issued a statement saying its vote did not signal openness to the imposition of further sanctions on Iran. Only Cuba, Venezuela and Malaysia voted against the text, with 6 others abstaining and one absent. Brazil was among those abstaining. And its abstention spells future trouble for US policy toward Iran, since President Lula da Silva appears to fear that if Iran's right to enrich is withdrawn, it could have implications for countries such as Brazil. Iran has been wooing Brazil and other Latin American countries, with some success, on anti-imperialist grounds, as WaPo rightly says.

The text (see below) affirmed Iran's right to enrich uranium for fuel under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, but nevertheless insisted that it cease its enrichment activities. The position of the IAEA and the UN Security Council that Iran's secret experiments before early 2003 and its refusal to be bound by the safeguards provisions of the Non-Proliferation Treaty have the effect of making its enrichment activities illicit. The UNSC demands that they cease until Iran allows full and completely transparent inspections. The document also said that the secret nature of the Fordo plant raised questions about whether there were other concealed sites. (In fact, outgoing IAEA head Mohammed Elbaradei confirmed that all inspectors found at Fordo was 'a hole in the ground,' not a real facility.)

Iran replies that its preference for working in secrecy was the result of military threats against its right to enrich, as enshrined in the NPT. It has allowed UN inspections, and these have never found a weapons program. Moreover, the text of the NPT (Article IV, Para. 1) explicitly says, "Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in conformity with Articles I and II of this Treaty."

Even the safeguards system, the more recent and robust version of which Iran's parliament declined to ratify, specifies inspections of fissile material, whereas Iran does not appear even to have any of the latter or to be capable of producing it for a decade or more.

Iranian leaders say that nuclear weapons are contrary to the Islamic law of war, that they do not want them and could not legally deploy them. They hold that the enrichment facilities are intended to produce fuel for a string of nuclear reactors that will keep Iran from having to use its precious petroleum, a key earner of foreign exchange and guarantor of national independence, for domestic power generation. Russia is building nuclear plants for Iran at Bushehr.

My own position is that, in addition, Iran's leadership is seeking whatis sometimes called the "Japan option" or a "rapid breakout capability." Unlike North Korea, India and Pakistan, I think Tehran genuinely does not want to actually construct and detonate a nuclear device. India and Pakistan are such large and important countries that they defied the First World nuclear club successfully and so joined it. North Korea, much smaller, weaker and poorer, has made itself an international pariah in this way, and is suffering more and more severe UN sanctions. I think most senior Iranian leaders wish to avoid those heavy sanctions, having seen what they did to Iraq.

But having a rapid breakout capability-- being able to make a bomb in short order if it is felt absolutely necessary to forestall a foreign attack-- has a deterrent effect. So Iran would have the advantages of deterrence without the disadvantages of a bomb if it could get to the rapid breakout stage.

My theory has the advantage of explaining everything about Iran's behavior-- its condemnation of the Bomb as incompatible with Islamic law, its willingness to offer fair cooperation with UN inspectors, the repeated inability of US intelligence and of the IAEA to find any trace of a weapons program, and yet Iran's frustrating lack of complete transparency and its penchant for building secret enrichment sites. You can't retain a credible rapid breakout capability, or "nuclear latency," if your enrichment facility can be destroyed by air strikes. Repeated Cheneyite and Israeli threats to attack the enrichment plant at Natanz near Isfahan are what I believe drove Iran to construct the Fordo site inside a mountain, in hopes that this step would make it impossible for an outside power to use military might to wipe out Iran's nuclear latency.

The US and Western Europe and Israel interpret Iran's secrecy as a sign that nefarious secret weapons programs are being pursued. But this conclusion is riddled with difficulties. A weapons program uses enormous amounts of water and electricity and would be very difficult to conceal nowadays from US satellite and electronic surveillance. The US knew about Fordo as soon as work began on it.

A desire on the part of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Commanders to retain the soft deterrence of a rapid breakout capability probably explains Iran's waffling on the deal tentatively adopted at Geneva on October 1. That agreement would have had Iran send 2600 pounds of its 3200 pounds of low enriched uranium (enriched to less than 5 percent) to Russia for processing, so that it could be used in Iran's small medical research reactor, and used to produce medical isotopes. In this way, the LEU, the seed stock for any potential bomb, would get used up. It would have taken Iran a couple of years to replace that LEU, reassuring Western hawks in the meantime that Iran's weapons-making capability had been temporarily blunted. But when Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's representative brought this deal back to Tehran, I believe that the IRGC commanders vetoed it because they want to retain a rapid break out potential and did not want the LEU seed stock to be lost.

That the hawks were able to veto the representative of Supreme Leader Khamenei lends credence to Gary Sick's argument that the Revolutionary Guards have carried out a soft coup behind the scenes and Iran looks more and more like a military junta.

I personally suspect that most Western officials involved in this matter know perfectly well that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program and does not want an actual bomb. I think the Western leaders do not want Iran to have nuclear latency, either, because it would change the balance of power in the Middle East and would take forcible regime change off the table as an option for the West.

Although some observers are wondering if Friday's vote is a prelude to stricter UN Security Council sanctions on Iran, Howard LeFrachi at CSM rightly points out that China does not want more sanctions. China was essentially blackmailed into voting for Friday's resolution, according to the Washington Post, by an Israeli threat to start a war, conveyed by Dennis Ross, a prominent member of the US Israel lobbies who also has a position in the Obama administration. But voting for an IAEA text is different from actually imposing sanctions that might hurt the Chinese economy.

Moreover, Russian Prime Minister and eminence grise Vladimir Putin is against a tightening of sanctions. India announced its opposition to a tougher economic boycott even as it voted to condemn Iran.

The reason for the reluctance of the BRIC states (Brazil, Russia, India and China) to push Iran harder economically is that they have an interest in Iran's resources not being closed off to their exploitation. Reuters just reported that: "Indian state explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC.BO) is seeking a 20-25 percent stake in a $7.5 billion phase-12 project of Iran's South Pars gas field, media reports said on Friday." India is growing 7 and 9% a year and has relatively little energy of its own, and so is very hungry for Iranian natural gas.

So far the US has managed to strongarm India into backing off, by threatening Treasury Department third-party sanctions. But it is entirely possible that Indian energy hunger will cause its firms to write off the $14 trillion US market and to partner with Iran. After all, the world economy is now about $60 trillion, and united Europe's economy is as big as that of the US. If India has a choice of seeing its growth strangled for lack of electricity to run its factories and being excluded from 23% of the world economy, it may decide that the 77% is enough of a market. The importance of the US economy as a proportion of the global whole will likely rapidly decline over the next four decades.

The same considerations affect China. Russia is different because it is an energy producer. But in a world where demand for hydrocarbons is rapidly growing, there is enough demand to go around, and Russia's economy is sufficiently diversified that it views Iran as a market and an investment opportunity. Harsher UNSC sanctions on Iran would backfire on BRIC, and therefore short of egregiously bad behavior on Iran's part (discovery of an actual, dedicated weapons plant, e.g.), the BRIC countries will likely seek to block them.

Bottom line: Friday's vote was likely symbolic and a signal to Iran from the international community that there is discomfort with its secretiveness and lack of transparency, and that many are suspicious of its motives. In China's case, it may have been a warning against actions that could harm the Middle Kingdom's burgeoning economy.

What it likely was not was a harbinger of tougher international sanctions against Tehran or a sign that BRIC is softening on that issue.

End/ (Not Continued)
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IAEA Resolution on Iran

Text of the International Atomic Energy Agency resolution on Iran from the IAEA website.

Derestricted 27 November 2009
(This document has been derestricted at the meeting of the Board on 27 November 2009)


Board of Governors
GOV/2009/82
Date: 27 November 2009
Original: English

Item 4(c) of the adopted agenda (GOV/2009/83)


Implementation of the NPT safeguardsagreement and relevant provisions ofSecurity Council resolutions 1737 (2006),1747 (2007), 1803 (2008) and 1835 (2008) in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Resolution adopted by the Board of Governors on 27 November 2009
The Board of Governors,

(a) Recalling the Resolutions adopted by the Board and the UNSC,

(b) Commending the Director General for his professional and impartial efforts to implement the Safeguards Agreement in Iran, to resolve outstanding safeguards issues in Iran and to verify the implementation by Iran of the suspension,

(c) Stressing the important role played by the IAEA in resolving the Iranian nuclear issue and reaffirming the Board’s resolve to continue to work for a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear issue,

(d) Reaffirming the inalienable rights of all the parties to the Non-Proliferation Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes in accordance with Article IV of the NPT,

(e) Commending the Director General for his proposal of an Agreement between the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Governments of the Republic of France, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Russian Federation for Assistance in Securing Nuclear Fuel for a Research Reactor in Iran for the Supply of Nuclear Fuel to the Tehran Research Reactor; appreciating the intensive efforts of the Director General to achieve an agreement on his proposal,

(f) Noting with serious concern that Iran continues to defy the requirements and obligations contained in the relevant IAEA Board of Governors and UN Security Council Resolutions,

GOV/2009/82 Page 2

(g) Also noting with serious concern that Iran has constructed an enrichment facility at Qom in breach of its obligation to suspend all enrichment related activities and that Iran’s failure to notify the Agency of the new facility until September 2009 is inconsistent with its obligations under the Subsidiary Arrangements to its Safeguards Agreement,
Cont'd (click below or on "comments")


(h) Affirming that Iran's failure to inform the Agency, in accordance with the provisions of the revised Code 3.1, of the decision to construct, or to authorize construction of, a new facility as soon as such a decision is taken, and to submit information as the design is developed, does not contribute to the building of confidence,

(i) Underlining that Iran's declaration of the new facility reduces the level of confidence in the absence of other nuclear facilities and gives rise to questions about whether there are any other nuclear facilities under construction in Iran which have not been declared to the Agency,

(j) Noting with serious concern that, contrary to the request of the Board of Governors and the requirements of the Security Council, Iran has neither implemented the Additional Protocol nor cooperated with the Agency in connection with the remaining issues of concern, which need to be clarified to exclude the possibility of military dimensions to Iran's nuclear programme,

(k) Emphasizing the Director General’s assertion that unless Iran implements the Additional Protocol and, through substantive dialogue, clarifies the outstanding issues to the satisfaction of the Agency, the Agency will not be in a position to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and

(l) Noting that the Director General has repeatedly declared that he is unable to verify that Iran’s programme is for exclusively peaceful purposes,


1. Urges Iran to comply fully and without delay with its obligations under the above mentioned resolutions of the Security Council, and to meet the requirements of the Board of Governors, including by suspending immediately construction at Qom;

2. Urges Iran to engage with the Agency on the resolution of all outstanding issues concerning Iran’s nuclear programme and, to this end, to cooperate fully with the IAEA by providing such access and information that the Agency requests to resolve these issues;

3. Urges Iran to comply fully and without qualification with its safeguards obligations, to apply the modified Code 3.1 and implement and ratify promptly the Additional Protocol;

4. Urges Iran specifically to provide the Agency with the requested clarifications regarding the purpose of the enrichment plant at Qom and the chronology of its design and construction;

5. Calls on Iran to confirm, as requested by the Agency, that Iran has not taken a decision to construct, or authorize construction of, any other nuclear facility which has as yet not been declared to the Agency;

6. Requests the Director General to continue his efforts to implement the Safeguards Agreement in Iran, resolve the outstanding issues which give rise to concerns, and which need to be clarified to exclude the existence of possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear programme, and to implement the relevant provisions of UNSC resolutions;

7. Further requests the Director General to report this resolution to the UNSC; and

8. Decides to remain seized of the matter.


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IRAN: Authorities confiscate lawyer Shirin Ebadi's Nobel Peace Prize

IRAN: Authorities confiscate lawyer Shirin Ebadi's Nobel Peace Prize | Babylon & Beyond | Los Angeles Times

I was privileged to be at a conference with Shirin Ebadi in early September in Atlanta, and when this relatively short and outwardly unprepossessing woman took the podium, she was transformed into something like an Old Testament prophet, preaching adherence to the rule of law and the rights of citizens with a firm, unyielding persistence and a fire in her eyes.

The Nobel medal was lucky to be associated with her. Her moral authority cannot be pilfered by some fundamentalist lowlife employed by a pedestrian authoritarian regime.


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Taliban Talks Collapse; RIC Pressure on Obama to Stay Course; German Military Head Resigns over Qunduz Bombing

Proposed talks between the US and the Taliban, to be brokered by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, have broken down because the Taliban are unwilling to talk to what they consider the foreign, illegitimate occupiers of their country. (See Mullah Omar's statement in the next post).

On the other hand, some negotiations are doing well. Aljazeera English reports on 300 Taliban fighters who recently defected to President Hamid Karzai, now pledging themselves to fight the forces of Mullah Omar. The defection occurred in Herat, western Afghanistan, where the security situation has improved during the past year (unlike that in the southern Pashtun provinces).



The NYT reports that the northern province of Qunduz has reemerged as a Taliban center. It is the northern province with the biggest proportion of Pashtuns, about 1/3 of the population, so the Taliban have a recruitment pool there. And, since the US and NATO have shifted some supply lines to Tajikistan from Pakistan, it is important to the Taliban to cut off the Tajikistan route, and Qunduz is ideally suited to this purpose. I don't agree that the resurgence there could have been prevented with some better police work. I think it is structural. If there were no supply lines to NATO from Tajikistan, I'm not sure the Taliban would have wasted resources to stage a comeback up there. They have been focused on cutting off the Khyber Pass route between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

There is another possible route, down from Lithuania to Uzbekistan through Russia, but the Russians are complaining that despite the agreement reached a year ago between Washington and Moscow allowing use of that route, the US and NATO have shipped nothing that way. Presumably the latter are afraid of becoming too beholden to Russia.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has expressed concern that any US troop escalation in Afghanistan by the US might have the effect of pushing Taliban fighters from that country into Baluchistan, Pakistan's already-troubled southwestern province, where the Baluch linguistic and ethnic group has had a strong sub-national movement, along with some separatists, for decades.

India and Russia want an Obama 'surge' in Afghanistan because they are afraid that if Muslim extremists take over the country, that development could threaten their own security. China is more or less bankrolling the Afghanistan War, and Beijing views the Taliban as close to Uighur Muslim separatists in its troubled northwestern Xianjian Province, so although they are not vocal about it, Chinese leaders are probably just as glad if the US ups its ante in Afghanistan, which has a short highland border with China.

In contrast, Pakistan does not seem eager for the further foreign troops, in part because it wants to project power and influence into Afghanistan itself. But Pakistan is not as influential as the new sub-superpower tier that some call BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China)-- though in this case it is probably just RIC, since Brazil is not involved.

Signs of what Afghanistan may yet do to the Pentagon could be discerned in Germany on Thursday, as that country's highest military official resigned over a mistaken bombing of fuel trucks in Qunduz Province, which allegedly killed over 100 civilian villagers. (The Taliban had hijacked two NATO fuel trucks coming in from Tajikistan, but the drivers got stuck in a river and had to abandon them. They invited local villagers to help themselves to the fuel. The German military, responsible for Qunduz, apparently saw a lot of people around the hijacked trucks in satellite photos, and thought they were Taliban fighters. German officials went on denying, some until this day, that any civilians were killed). There are calls for Chancellor Angela Merkel to fire from the cabinet Franz Joself Jung, who had been minister of defense when the Qunduz airstrike occurred, and who is accused of a kind of soft cover-up of the mistake, claiming to know less at the time about the events than subsequently leaked memos demonstrated was actually the case.

Word of the resignation reached Qunduz, where the elder from whose tribe most of the victims derived gave an interview in Pashto expressing satisfaction at the development. The USG Open Source Center translated it:

' Afghan elder hails German general's resignation over air raid deaths
Afghan Islamic Press
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Document Type: OSC Translated Text

Afghan elder hails German general's resignation over air raid deaths

Text of report by private Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency

Konduz, 26 November: A tribal elder in northern Afghanistan calls the resignation of the German chief of army staff a positive move.

A tribal elder from the Omarkhel tribes, Asadollah Omarkhel, says the move in protest against civilian casualties is a positive act.

Asadollah Omarkhel is a tribal elder of the Omarkhel tribe in the Aliabad District (Konduz Province) in which more than a 100 members of his tribe were martyred on 3 September in a German-led air strike.
In an interview with Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) he said that they praise the decision. He added that many civilians are being killed in foreign troops' air strikes.

"On September more 100 civilians, most of them from Omarkhel tribe, were killed by the air strikes in the Aliabad District," he said.
Omarkhel added that they hoped other foreigners also felt such responsibility and condemn the killings of Afghan civilians and show to the world that they are against such acts.

He also called on Afghan officials to strongly condemn civilian casualties.

Omarkhel said that they hoped that the Afghan and coalition forces should take major steps to save civilians lives and avoid killing and them calling them as suspected insurgents.

On 3rd and 4th of September of the current year the Taleban hijacked two NATO fuel tankers in the Aliabad District of Konduz Province. They called on the people to come and get fuel. After people largely gathered there, NATO planes bombed the oil tankers in which more than 100 people died. For this reason the German chief of staff announced his resignation today.

(Description of Source: Peshawar Afghan Islamic Press in Pashto -- Peshawar-based agency, staffed by Afghans. The agency used to have good contacts with Taliban leadership; however, since the fall of the Taliban regime, it now describes itself as independent and self-financing). '

End/ (Not Continued)
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Mullah Omar Rejects Talks with US, Demands Western Departure

The USG Open Source Center translates the statement of Mullah Omar, leader of the "Old Taliban" in Afghanistan, on the occasion of the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice (Eid al-Adha). Mullah Omar demands and end to the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan and rejects the idea of negotiating with the US, calling it a "surrender."

November 25, 2009 Wednesday

Taleban leader calls for end to Afghan "occupation" in Id al-Adha message

Text of report by private Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency

Kandahar, 25 November: Taleban leader:

In his message on the occasion of the 1388 [year beginning 21 March 2009] Id al-Adha, Taleban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has said that by talking about negotiations, the invading Americans want the mojahedin to surrender to them - something that is impossible.

He has talked about many important issues in his long message. Talking to Afghan Islamic Press [AIP] on the phone, Taleban Spokesman Qari Mohammad Yusof Ahmadi confirmed that it was their leader's message. Because the message covers some important issues, based on its policy AIP is publishing its full text:

Message of congratulations of honourable Amir al-Momenin [Taleban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar Mojahed] on the auspicious occasion of Id al-Adha:

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. [Verse in Arabic]

I congratulate the mojahed [holy-warrior] nation of Afghanistan, the respectable families of martyrs, those who live in captivity of the enemy, the brave mojahedin [holy warriors] and all members of the Islamic Ummah [nation] on the auspicious occasion of Id al-Adha. May this sacred day be the day of eternal freedom, pride, happiness, wellbeing and success for the entire Islamic Ummah. May Allah accept the hajj, acts of worship and prayers of hajjis [pilgrims to Mecca] and make their religious gathering a cause for unity among members of the Ummah.

On the auspicious occasion of Id al-Adha and based on the needs of time, I would also like to mention a few necessary issues:

1. To Muslim and mojahed nation

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to my Muslim nation for welcoming the request of the Islamic Emirate not to participate in the American process under the name of elections and thus failing and exposing this American drama. I strongly believe that if the mojahed nation continues to extend its all-round and sincere cooperation, Allah will foil all conspiracies of the enemies of our country one after another. It is because of your sacrifices and the grace of Allah that the arrogant enemy is facing a major embarrassment and defeat and is panicking. In order to attain our Islamic objectives, you should continue your jihad and struggle and help the mojahedin who are sacrificing their lives. Strengthen the ranks of the mojahedin by joining them and by offering your wealth. I especially hope that you will take care of the families of holy martyrs and captives. Similarly, on the basis of your religious responsibility, cut all your ties with the mercenary administration in Kabul.

Those who have occupied our country and have held our nation hostage are now trying to use for some time the deceitful drama of talks the way they used the elections drama in order to secure their colonial objectives. The occupying enemy does not want talks as a result of which Afghanistan will become independent and which will end their occupation. They want talks that will ensure the continuation of their occupation and dirty colonial policies. However, the mojahed nation of Afghanistan will never accept talks that will legalize the continual presence of foreign forces in our beloved country.
Cont'd (click below or on "comments")


Afghanistan is our home and nobody negotiates with anyone about the ownership of their home and about how to share sovereignty and management responsibilities of their home. Nobody will give up their right to be the owner of their home and nobody will wilfully lose their authority in their own home. The foreigners have taken over the home of the Afghans by force and cruelty. If they want a solution to the problem, they should first end their occupation of Afghanistan. Under the pretext of talks, the invading Americans want the mojahedin to surrender to them. This is something that is impossible.

Our nation has good experiences and clear principles to guide them resolve their problems and deal with the world. Therefore, the position of the Islamic Emirate is based on Islamic and national interests and strong reasons.

2. To brave mojahedin in the trenches

Your victory against the infidel occupiers is because of help from Allah. If in return you dedicate yourselves to pleasing Allah and serving the people in exchange for His help, Allah will be kinder to you, the enemy will not be able to stand against you and you will have the pride of having defeated the colonial superpower of this century. This is something that seems to be happening already, God is willing.

Follow the orders of Allah, stay united and refrain from disunity and differences among yourself.

Obey the commands of your superiors in all matters of jihad. Be very careful not to harm civilians and public property. Pay special attention to targeting occupiers, their mercenaries and important targets only while launching martyrdom (self-sacrificing) operations. It is a religious duty of every Muslim to avoid harming ordinary people. There is no Islamic justification for killing and injuring ordinary people nor is there any space in our holy religion for such an act.

The cunning enemy wants to defame mojahedin by launching bloody attacks among the people (in religious centres, mosques and similar places) and then call their attacks martyrdom attacks. Mojahedin should be vigilant about enemy tactics and never engage in this kind of activity.

You should prioritize pleasure of Allah and wellbeing of your oppressed nation. You should respect elders and prominent figures and be kind to youngsters. Ensure justice in social affairs and make sure that everyone's rights are upheld. You should fully implement the principles of the Islamic Emirate to better your jihad efforts.

Take advantage of existing experiences, advice and strong measures to prevent differences, complaints and casualties in military operations and in all other jihadi matters.

Similarly, take special care to protect your lives. Respect his rights if a member of the opposition surrenders to you, as this process is in progress.

The defeated Americans are trying to repeat the failed experience of the communists who, on the verge of their defeat, formed tribal battalions and secret armed groups under the name of tribal militias to create internal differences and to use these groups to take revenge on the mojahedin. I strongly believe that this tactic of the enemy will also fail and the enemy will be further defamed. But you should also try hard to fail the enemy's this latest plan with the help of your mojahed nation. You should punish those who supervise schism and sedition so that others learn a lesson and the dark history of wild and notorious militias is not repeated.

3. To the officials and employees of the slave Kabul administration

Stop oppressing and tormenting your Muslim and oppressed nation by serving as slaves to infidel occupiers. Foreign occupiers can never wish well for the Afghan nation. They intend to destroy the belief and sanctities of the people of Afghanistan. They plan to devour all material wealth of our country.

Slogans of reconstruction that they chant are empty words that they use to achieve their own objectives. They have pocketed back thousands of millions of dollars that they provided in aid for the so-called reconstruction of Afghanistan and they intend to entrap our country into a massive debt trap under a well-planned conspiracy.

They have come to enslave our brave nation. I call on all of you, like I have done in the past because of my responsibility, to stop living disgracefully. Stop being an enemy of your own people and instead of being shameless, stand with the mojahedin in the ranks of pride, nobility and faith.

The enemy wants to put a gun on your shoulder to kill your countrymen but you should try not to be associated with pro-Britain Shah Shoja and pro-Soviet [Nur Mohammad] Taraki, [Hafizollah] Amin, [Babrak] Karmal and Najib and carry the shame of sharing the same fate with them.

If you abandon the path of lies, you will be victorious in this world and in the world hereafter. You should realize that the magic spell of Western colonial power has been broken and realities on the ground in our beloved country show that the enemy is on the run. The caravan of truth is patiently marching forward towards its logical victorious conclusion. The brave mojahedin are improving with time and gaining experience in military, political, media and social affairs. Desperate efforts by the aggressors and their servants resemble sand castles in the way of the waves of ocean. Waves sent by the brave Afghan nation will prevail over the arrogance of the aggressor, Allah willing.

4. To the Organization of the Islamic Conference and so-called international human rights organizations

I call on the Organization of the Islamic Conference and all human rights organizations in the world to prevent the killing of civilians in Afghanistan by American and coalition forces. They should raise their voices and ask for punishment for this crime. Similarly, occupation forces led by America and the puppet administration in Kabul have in violation of all international principles set up prisons in different parts of the country where many of our innocent and poor countrymen are savagely tortured. All human rights organizations must take immediate action in line with their responsibility to stop these inhuman acts. Many of our prisoners have been martyred or maimed because of bad treatment and torture at these prisons.

If human rights organizations are not fulfilling their responsibility in order to please America and the West, they should remove their titles as human rights organizations.

5. To scholars, writers and authors

I request the independent scholars and politicians that they in all gatherings and meetings should support their innocent and oppressed people. In their books, publications and articles they should enlighten the minds of the people and the world. By using their words and their pens they should start jihad to pay for the debt for their God-given talent.

I call upon journalists and writers to play their role and make efforts supporting an independent and fully Islamic nation.

The media should convey the realities clearly to the people and should strive to tell the truth. I also call upon the caring and compassionate poets to strengthen the passion of mojahedin's achievements and struggle against the invaders and to strengthen people's sentiments for independence, honour, national unity, independence and Islamic dynamism.

6. To regional and neighbouring countries

The West's vicious expansionist colonialist plans in the region have paved the way for the overt and covert plots by known and mercenary murderers and filthy companies under the name of economic assistance and for resentment, hatred and discord among the nations of the region. These are in fact actions against human values, justice, peace, reciprocal relations and independence of the countries.

If countries of the region ignore the American colonialist interference and large-scale military presence in the region, then the entire region will remain unstable, backward and independent for ever. We confidently say that with help of Almighty God and the firm determination and resistance of the mojahedin, the enemy's ability has swiftly decreased and their vicious plans has been neutralized.

It is time that you all help and cooperate with us for freedom of our nation. The Islamic Emirates in case of mutual respect wants to take major steps to cooperate and work with all nations of the world. We see the whole region as our common home against colonialism and as a responsible force we want to play our role for the long-term peace and stability of the whole region.

7. To White House officials and pro-war Americans

Considering the current realities in Afghanistan the occupier Americans and their coalition is fully defeated in Afghanistan; a defeat which cannot be compensated by even by sending more troops or creating many illogical strategies. You must understand that the logic of force and oppression will not more work and you will not be able to use force and evil intentions to deceive the zealous Afghan people.

The people you chosen to fight with are those brave and warrior people who has the honour of toppling despotic empires in the world and has full skill and historical experience in this regard. Our Muslim nation will not allow the Western occupiers to undermine our freedom and vital values and to transform our nation as a base for plots of aggressors against other nations.

This is the nation which eliminated the Russian and British empires from the map of the world. Using the past experiences with full patience, force and high morale we are continuing our holy war against the defeated invaders. Based on our faith and high morale we believe in our victory and your defeat. You need to choose logical ways instead of flexing your muscle to end the occupation of Afghanistan.

Your aggressive policies will increase your people's enemies all over the world and will make life for you as hell, this is because war and aggression is no longer acceptable for anyone.

8. To Europe and in general to the freedom-loving Western nation

Your aggressive authorities have attacked and occupied our country under the pretext of war on terror in order to increase the wealth of a few capitalists. Our youths, elders, women and children die on a daily basis by your bombs and cannons. The occupiers attack our people homes during the day and destroy our green orchards, our national wealth and our educational and business centres. To fight such a cruelty and aggression is our legitimate and national right.

We would use our full rights with all the resources we have.

You should not be deceived by your aggressive officials who call their aggression as the war of necessity. This is not a war of necessity but it is in fact a war of aggression. The expression of war on terror is a fraudulent and false tool which your authorities have in their hands. It is your moral responsibility to raise your voice in order to prevent them from cruelty.

We are in favour of an Islamic system in our country where the rights of all men and women are protected in the light of Islamic principles. We want a self-sufficient system which should be based on the Islamic principles. We want a system whose domestic and foreign policy should neither harm others nor let others to harm it. The illogical concept of war against terrorism is an expression made by the Pentagon and Washington. Through this expression, they want to occupy the independent countries. They want to snatch their natural and economic resources. They want to abuse their religion and beliefs.

9. To the entire Muslim Ummah

[Verse in Arabic] I suggest to all Muslim brothers in all corners of the world that you should act upon the sacred instructions of Islam to regain your previous pride and glory Help your innocent Muslim brothers all across the world. Take a lead in performing jihad against the cruel aggressors. Stay away from disunity and pay careful attention to all those plots and conspiracies of the enemy which had been hatched for defaming Muslims.

Stay away from all those things which harm Muslims. Focus on defeating the aggressive enemy in the battlefield. Do not engage in aimless activities. Pay serious attention to your most important objective.

Muslims all over the world should pray for the protection and success of mojahedin in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and other countries. They should provide moral and Islamic support to the mojahedin and support them in a justified Islamic way. Same as the United States and its supporters make overt and covert efforts to destabilize the Islamic world and provoke differences in the Islamic countries in order to ensure their own interests, therefore, all the Muslims must know their real enemy and should be alert to their conspiracies. [Verses of in Arabic and their translation]

The servant of Islam, Amir al-Momenin Mullah Mohammad Omar Mojahed

Source: Afghan Islamic Press news agency, Peshawar, in Pashto 1135 gmt 25 Nov 09





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'The Geographic Gap'

'The Geographic Gap' | HUMNews

Of 237 countries and territories in the world, the 4 largest newsgathering and distribution companies that supply the world with 90% of news do not cover 116 of them.

These 116 countries or territories contain 4 billion people over half the world.

63 of these media-ignored countries and territories are desperately poor.

All this has security implications for the United States. What do you want to bet that in the late 1990s, Afghanistan was in the 116? Hard to know an attack was being planned out there if you don't know the place exists.

What HUM does not say is that the ignoring of the 116 comes from the news corporations' profit motive, which is increasingly driving them to ignore most real news in favor of infotainment. Desperately poor 4th world countries? Not entertaining.

h/t Aljazeera.net's blog. In fact, Aljazeera's model, being backed by the Qatar Foundation, may be one of the few ways out of this information gap. Aljazeera English does a better job covering subsaharan Africa and Latin American than any other Anglophone news service, and they pay attention to the poor and working people.

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The Thanksgiving of the Fantasticals A Day of Rule breaking, and Spontaneous Mirth

When we used to do Thanksgiving as cross-dressing and insulting authority:

Thanksgiving was a Northeastern regional commemoration until Abraham Lincoln promulgated it as a national holiday in 1863, and it was celebrated in lots of different ways. One of those ways was for young men to dress up as women or in fantastic costumes and promenade, and mug, and make fun of authority. It was a "masculine escape" from the family, an opportunity to break rules and be outlandish. In our increasingly regimented national security state, we could do with some of that old Thanksgiving cheekiness, though we need both sexes now.

Thanksgiving in the nineteenth century in some parts of the country was a combination of Eddie Izzard (cross-dressing), Lady Gaga (wild costumes and breaking conventions), and Jon Stewart (mirthful insults directed at high political authority). Some historians suggest that the homey, nuclear-family Thanksgiving meal was a reaction against all this public rowdiness. Alas, so successful a reaction that the carnivale side of the holiday has been erased from public memory (Elizabeth Pleck, "The making of the domestic occasion: The history of Thanksgiving in the United States," Journal of Social History (Summer 1999) Vol. 32, Iss. 4; pg. 773, 17 pgs).

Pleck writes,

'As William Dean Howells put it, "The poor recognize [Thanksgiving] as a sort of carnival," a masculine escape from the family, a day of rule breaking, and spontaneous mirth . . . Drunken men and boys, often masked, paraded from house to house and demanded to be treated. Boys misbehaved and men committed physical assaults on Thanksgiving as well as on Christmas."

(Well, that last part we don't miss)

She continues,

"Groups of men, crossdressing, who called themselves the Fantastics or Fantasticals, masqueraded on Thanksgiving beginning in the 1780s. . . Subsequently the Fantastics copied these and other elements of English mumming, such as drunkenness and ridiculing authority . . . An editorial in a Pennsylvania newspaper in 1870 defended the Fantastics, on the grounds that "it is better to be merry than sad, and if, as some genial writer asserts, a good hearty laugh takes a nail out of your coffin, a parade of the fantasticals can not fail to lessen the bills of mortality." '

William Shepard Walsh, "Curiosities of popular customs and of rites, ceremonies, observances," Social Science (1897), p. 924 wrote as the Fantasticals were fading from public memory:

Another and somewhat strange way of observing the holiday in New York has been, up to very recent years, to dress one's self in the most fantastic costume imaginable and parade the streets. . . Hundreds of companies of these motley persons, under some such name as the " Square Back Rangers," the " Slenderfoot Army," or the " Original Hounds," and dressed chiefly, as an old account says, as "clowns, Yankees, Irishmen, kings, washerwomen, and courtiers," thronged the streets all day. These "ragamuffin parades" have fallen into disuse except for a few small boys, but as recently as 1885 they were in full swing, as the following paragraph, printed in the Sun on November 27, 1885, testifies:

" Fantastic processions burst out all over the town in unusual abundance and filled the popular eye with a panorama that looked like a crazy-quilt show grown crazy and filled the popular ear with the din of thumping drums and blaring trumpets. Thirty-six companies of fantastics had permits to march around making an uproar, and they did it with great success. Local statesmen went around.with the down-town paraders and helped them whoop things up. There were lots and lots of fantastics who hadn't any permit, and who didn't care either. They were the thousands and thousands of small boys who put on their sisters' old dresses, smeared paint on their faces, pulled on red, yellow, brown, black, and indiscriminate wigs, and pranced round their own particular streets, without the least fear of police interference.'

So, as we sit, pants unbuttoned and droopy-lidded, around the flat screen television watching other people work off their calories, we could get an inkling of past Americana if we imagined uncle Joe dressed up in one of Madonna's wilder costumes and making an obscene gesture in the general direction of the state capitol.

If only present-day Americans were not so apathetic and timid that they gave up the most basic rights enshrined in our Constitution almost without a fight just because Dick Cheney sneered at them and muttered something about national security -- if only they showed some spunk and dared break social conventions and get uppity in the cause of personal liberty rather than that of corporate perquisites from time to time-- now that would be something to be thankful for.


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Town under Camel siege

Town under siege: 6,000 camels to be shot - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

There are a million camels in Australia's outback, and the camels were key to developing it.

And the camels and cameleers of the 19th century came from . . . Afghanistan! The site notes:

' Without the Afghans much of the development of the outback would have been very difficult if not impossible. Whole communities, towns, mining establishments, pastoral properties and some well known explorations in the interior have been made successful because of their contributions.

With their camels, who received more publicity than their owners, these cameleers opened up the outback, helped with the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line and Railways, erected fences, acted as guides for several major expeditions, and supplied almost every inland mine or station with its goods and services. These 'pilots of the desert' made a vital contribution to Australia.

The first Afghans arrived in South Australia in 1838 when Joseph Bruce brought out eighteen of them, one of whom died on 1 February 1840 . . . The first camel arrived at Port Adelaide in 1840 but was shot in 1846 after it caused the death of explorer John Horrocks. '

Afghans get bad press these days, but here is an example of where they contributed to nation-building in the South Pacific, far from home.

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Training the Afghan army

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan - opinion: Training the Afghan army —Brian Cloughley

Brian Cloughley warned last September:

'In Kabul last week, “an American service member and an Afghan police officer got into an argument because the American was drinking water in front of the Afghan police, who are not eating or drinking...because of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan...[The policeman] shot the American and seriously wounded him, while other American troops responded and seriously wounded the [policeman].” This depressing cameo encapsulates the problem for foreign troops in Afghanistan. And it shows the problems that Afghans have with ignorant foreigners whose boorish insensitivity would be laughable were it not so dangerous. . . . In Afghanistan the training course is ten weeks, and 90 percent of recruits are illiterate and language-incompatible with their peers, let alone the foreigners. Afghan instructors are keen but barely effective and the logistics system is a tattered joke. Some foreign instructors may be good, but most are depressingly ignorant of language, culture and customs. It is reported that “As part of the Obama administration’s surge, the 4th Brigade of the 82nd Airborne is being deployed to serve as trainers. This brigade is a regular Army brigade not specifically structured for the advisory mission.” My case rests.'

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Tony Blair told ‘days before Iraq invasion’ WMD had been dismantled

Iraq inquiry: Tony Blair told ‘days before invasion’ WMD had been dismantled - Telegraph

What I remember is that knowledgeable inspectors and expatriate Iraq scientists were saying this all through 2002 and into early 2003.

Here is Imad Khadduri's piece from that winter: "Iraq has no N-weapons, claims expatriate scientist 06/01/2003. (Via my posting, at the time at IC.

Bush, Cheney, Blair and the gang knew they were lying. They were just confident that they could run out the clock on the truth.

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Obama Vows to Finish Job; Heroin Trade Thrives; Afghanistan, Inc.?

In the midst of the state visit to Washington of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, President Barack Obama at a brief news conference announced that he was going to "finish the job" in Afghanistan. He cautioned, however, that down the road, Afghanistan would have to provide for its own security.

As for the strong divide in the US public over the Afghanistan War, Obama said, "I feel confident that when the American people hear a clear rationale for what we're doing there and how we intend to achieve our goals, that they will be supportive." Rumors in Washington, broken by McClatchy on Monday, say that Obama with send 34,000 additional troops and will announce the move next Tuesday.

Prime Minister Singh had the day before pressured Obama to stay the course in Afghanistan, warning that a Taliban victory had the potential for destabilizing Pakistan and India.

Whether Obama can 'finish the job' in Afghanistan depends on what he defines the job as. If it is to build a 21st century Afghan state and crush the Taliban and other Muslim political movements in the Pashtun areas, then I am extremely skeptical. If it is to prop up a shaky but just all right Afghan government and military before pulling out, then his odds of success, while still bad, do rise.

As for Obama's hope that the US public will rally around the flag, I wouldn't count on it over the medium to long term. His Democratic base is tired of war and of our quasi-martial-law state of siege. If he wants their support, he has to fight an extremely abbreviated war.

So I think it is entirely possible that Obama will be 0 for 2 if he escalates in Afghanistan. And it is extremely dangerous for him to go on alienating his base, which wants peace and prosperity, with policies that make rightwing Republicans happy-- coddling bankers in a jobless recovery and an escalation of an eight-year-old, increasingly unpopular war. The rightwing Republicans will vote for these measures in Congress, but put the blame on Obama for them, and benefit from Democratic disillusionment in 2012.

Gareth Porter reports that the real turn-over rate in the Afghanistan National Army is 25%, a datum obscured by the way the Pentagon changed its reporting criteria in midstream this year. Mandy Clark of CBS also reports on the challenges the US faces in training an Afghan national army.

Twelve of President Hamid Karzai's cabinet ministers are under investigation for corruption.

The Russian news service Itar-Tass reports on November 24 from Bishkek on a presentation by Mikhail Melikhov on Afghanistan at a conference on international terrorism and extremism. (The article appears to still be behind a firewall at the I-T site).

Melikhov alleged that the drug trade in Afghanistan is now worth $4 billion annually. (The gross domestic product of Afghanistan in exchange-rate terms is only only about $12 bn. per annum, so drugs account for about 1/3).

He said that during the past seven years, drug output in Afghanistan has grown 40 times over, now standing at 7,700 tons a year.

Melikhov is quoted as saying, "Practically Afghanistan has become an international drug firm."

He said the drug trade is largely in the hands of trans-national narco-terrorist cartels. He maintains that Muslim extremist organizations, including the 'Islamic Movement of Turkestan' and Hizb al-Tahrir (the Party of Liberation), are the primary drug exporters.


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4 US Troops Killed by Taliban; India Pressures US to Stay in Afghanistan

Four US troops were killed Sunday and Monday in Afghanistan in bombings or attacks. On Sunday, about 9 Afghan civilians were killed by bombings or shootings.

During his state visit to Washington, D.C., Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pressured President Barack Obama not to execute a hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan. Singh said, "I have no doubt in my mind that if Taliban and Al Qaeda group of people succeed in Afghanistan that would have catastrophic results for the security and stability not only of Pakistan but also for the security and stability of whole South Asia."

President Obama is widely thought to be likely to announce his Afghanistan plans next week. Leaks suggest that he will send 34,000 new troops. If that is so, Gen. Stanley McChrystal has won the struggle for policy decisively.

The USG Open Source Center translates a Pashto news item about fighting in Qunduz Province, north of Kabul, on Monday between Taliban on the one hand and on the other, NATO (in this case German) & Afghanistan National Army forces. About a third of Qunduz is Pashtun, and some members of that ethnic group have joined the fight against the Kabul government and its foreign backers. Taliban fighters appear to have attacked a German/ ANA convoy, but were dispersed when the Germans called in close air support:

'Severe clashes reported in Afghan north - agency
Afghan Islamic Press
Monday, November 23, 2009
Document Type: OSC Translated Text . . .

Kundoz: Heavy clashes reported in Chahardara District of Northern Kundoz Province.

According to reports since today afternoon severe clashes are taking place in the area. Afghan Security forces and ISAF, who are engaged in the battle, did not give further details about the on going clashes in the area. Local residents told Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) that centre of war is in Nahrsufi area of Chahardara District and it will possibly extend to other areas as well.

The residents say that ISAF Planes are flying over the area, taking part in the operation. A resident told (AIP) that the offensive by joint Afghan - Coalition forces is against the Taleban and explosions of Taleban planted mines were also heard in the area. Taleban did not give any details to media about the battle.

Chahardara District is located close to Konduz city which has seen clashes in past as well.

(Description of Source: Peshawar Afghan Islamic Press in Pashto -- Peshawar-based agency, staffed by Afghans. The agency used to have good contacts with Taliban leadership; however, since the fall of the Taliban regime, it now describes itself as independent and self-financing)'

Saleem Safi, writing in Pakistan's The News, explains:

'Another reason for the failure of US troops in Afghanistan has been their ignorance about the social, religious and cultural values of Afghan people. During my recent visit to Afghanistan, I was informed that . . . some . . . US soldiers invited the anger of the Afghan villagers when a US soldier was lying naked taking a sunbath after having showers in a pond in Kunnar province. He was soon spotted by Afghan village kids who got infuriated and threw stones at him. This resulted in firing at the kids by US troops and the situation turned into a bloody brawl. '

Russia Today picks up the story about the US military paying Afghan tribesmen to fight the Taliban:



Aljazeera English hosts a debate over how much authority Hamid Karzai has in Afghanistan:



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Nuclear Plants Climate Change Dead End: California Report

US should focus on energy efficiency and renewables not nuclear, says report | Energy Efficiency News

Money para.:

'Starting from scratch, it could take ten years or more to construct a new reactor, claims the group. Even if the US did make an unprecedented investment of the estimated $600 billion needed to construct 100 new reactors by 2030, it would still only reduce US emissions by around 12%. “Nuclear power is a foolish investment that will set us back in the race against global warming,” says Bernadette Del Chiaro of Environment California. '

The original report in .pdf is here

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