World Nuclear Panel to Refer Iran to U.N. Security Council

Published: February 4, 2006
VIENNA, Feb. 3 – In a move that could change the course of international diplomacy towards Iran, the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency approved a resolution on Saturday to report the country’s nuclear case to the United Nations Security Council.

The resolution, which passed 27-3 with five abstentions, opens the door for the first time to possible punitive action against Iran in the New York body over fears that it is developing a nuclear weapon.

Cuba, Syria and Venezuela voted against the resolution. Algeria, Belarus, Indonesia, Libya and South Africa abstained.

The vote is the climax of a two-and-a-half year campaign by the Bush administration to convince the world that suspicions about Iran’s nuclear program are so serious that the issue must come before the Security Council for judgment.

Russian MP: US-Israeli anti-Iranian moves, premeditated assassination of Iranian nation
Russian Duma representative Alexi Mitrafanov Friday called the harmonized plot hatched by some EU members, United States, and Israel against Iran’s nuclear program “premeditated assassination” of the Iranian nation.”

Mitrafanov made the comment in an exclusive interview with IRNA, adding, “The reason behind US-Israeli antagonist policies pursued against Iran is your country’s independent and nationalist policies, that can be a model for other countries in the region.”

On Iran’s nuclear dossier, he said, “The united States, backed by the EU, the IAEA, and the UN Security Council lever, intends to impose sanctions against Iran, but such sanctions would initially inflict losses against the Americans and the Europeans.”

The Duma representative added, “In that case the oil prices would rise up to $100 per barrel and the West would suffer other losses, as well.”

He said, “Having the full cycle of producing nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes, too, is Iran’s natural right, and it is neither logical, nor possible to deprive your country of that legal right resorting to unreasonable pretexts.”

China’s UN Envoy: Won’t Support Sanctions Against Iran
UNITED NATIONS (AP)–China would never support sanctions against Iran as a ” matter of principle,” the Chinese ambassador to the U.N. said Friday, adding that his nation still prefers a low-key approach in confronting Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

Ambassador Wang Guangya told reporters that he did not want the Security Council to put pressure on Iran, but instead to support the International Atomic Energy Agency as it tries to defuse the standoff over Iran’s suspect nuclear program.

Iran has no bomb but it will hit back, US told
IRAN’S clerical regime is supremely confident, has a firm grip on power and is ready to retaliate against attacks by the US or Israel with missiles or by activating terrorist allies, the latest American intelligence assessment says.

The National Intelligence Director, John Negroponte, delivered an implied rebuke to those in Washington hoping the West can engineer regime change in Tehran. In Tuesday’s State of the Union address, President George Bush issued a veiled call for the Iranian people to rise up against the mullahs.

But on Thursday, as the International Atomic Energy Agency’s governing body prepared to vote on a resolution to report Iran to the UN Security Council, Mr Negroponte suggested there was no imminent threat of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Tehran “probably” did not have an atomic bomb or the fissile material to make one, he said. But the risk Iran could make or buy a nuclear device and mount it on its missiles was “reason for immediate concern”.

Mr Negroponte told the Senate intelligence committee: “Iran already has the largest inventory of ballistic missiles in the Middle East. And Tehran views its ballistic missiles as an integral part of its strategy to deter and, if necessary, retaliate against forces in the region, including United States forces.”

Mr Negroponte also noted that the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon “has a worldwide support network and is capable of attacks against US interests if it feels its Iranian patron is threatened”.

KABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 3 — Heavy fighting in southern Afghanistan between the Taliban and Afghan police forces left three policemen and at least six Taliban militants dead, Afghan officials said Friday.

United States-led coalition forces and the Afghan Army were also drawn into the fighting, providing air support and ground troops in the battle that began Thursday night and lasted into Friday afternoon, an American Army spokesman said.

No American casualties were reported, he said.

The clash was one of the most serious in months, and it could be a sign that Taliban forces were regrouping in large numbers in advance of the spring. It also came as NATO prepared to take over military command of southern Afghanistan.

The clash began when the local police investigated a report of militants in an area south of Sangin, in Helmand Province, a big poppy-growing area where antigovernment militants have allied themselves with drug traffickers. The police came under fire and found themselves battling a large group of armed men, and temporarily surrounded.
nytimes.com

AFP: Fierce Fighting in Kandahar: 23 Killed
02/03/06 “AFP” — — Kandahar — US-led coalition planes bombed Friday an area of southern Afghanistan where a fierce battle had erupted between Taliban-linked militants and police, leaving about 23 dead, officials said.

“Coalition ground and air forces are on the ground… they are bombing the Taliban,” interior ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai told AFP.

“Coalition forces provided close-air support to Afghan security forces during an engagement,” coalition spokesman Lieutenant Mike Cody confirmed.

The fighting broke out near southern Helmand province’s Sangin district when police began a security sweep in response to several recent attacks on security posts, deputy provincial governor Amir Mohammad Akhundzada told AFP.

Reports from the battlefield said 20 rebels and three policemen had been killed, Akhundzada said.

Nearly 20 insurgents and 10 policemen were also wounded, he said. “The fighting is ongoing,” he said. “The Taliban have hidden in villages; we’re worried for the security of civilians.” Akhundzada said he believed the police were up against a force of more than 200 men armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not advocating violence as such. But when I heard on the news and read in the newspapers about Jack Straw, Condoleeza Rice, Kofi Annan and others lecturing Hamas on the incompatibility of democracy and violence it nearly made me choke over my breakfast. The hypocrisy of it all. And some of our own leader writers joined in the general chorus. It takes two to tango. I did not see, in any of these calls to Hamas, reciprocal calls on Israel to stop its continuing daily violence against Palestinians.

As if democracy and violence have never existed together. As if democracy and violence do not go simply and always hand in hand. Which present day democratic state does not employ violence and terror? The US which claims to be a democratic country has used violent and terroristic means to impose its will over smaller countries. It has overthrown governments, which it does not like, by force throughout its history and has illegally invaded and terrorised many countries. The list is very long. Remember the Philippines, Cuba, Iran in the 50s, Indonesia, Chile, Guatemala, Iraq just to name a few important examples and has plans to continue to do so in the future. And what about Abu Ghraib, Baghram and Guantanamo? Are these not the living symbols of US “democracy” and violence? Stokely Carmichael, remember him of 60s fame, once said that violence is as American as apple pie. And to paraphrase Mark Antony “It is a democratic country”.

The champion of democracy in the Middle East, Israel, has occupied Palestine and practices terror on a large scale against Palestinians. Only a couple of years ago it flattened Jenin and continues to carry out what it calls “targeted killings” which are simply acts of murder. The great European democracies, England and France, maintained their colonies through violence and terror; so I wonder what Jack Straw was talking about. India, the world’s largest democracy, practices terror and violence in Kashmir.
zmag.org

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, Feb. 3 (UPI) — The avian influenza virus originated naturally and is not a biological weapon, a senior Russian scientist has said.

Oleg Kiselyov, director of the Russian Influenza Research Institute, said Thursday, “We have not advanced enough to create such a genetic machine,” the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

If the bird flu virus had been created artificially in order to be used as a biological weapon, scientists would have discovered this, he said.
upi.com

02/02/06 “OneWorld” — — Amnesty International is asking that hundreds of mentally ill people facing the death penalty in American prisons have their sentences commuted.

Ten percent of the first 1,000 people executed in the United States since 1977 suffered from illnesses ranging from schizophrenia to post-traumatic stress disorder and brain damage, the leading rights watchdog and opponent of capital punishment said in a report released Tuesday.

Another 3,400 people remain on death row and 5-10 percent of them have mental illnesses, Amnesty said, citing estimates by the National Institute of Mental Health.

The revelations coincided with hearings Wednesday in which U.S. senators heard about the death penalty from relatives of crime victims.
informationclearinghouse.info

02/03/06 “ICH” — — All over the country, organized citizens are fighting to restrict the military’s presence in schools. But having recruiters troll high schools cafeterias is just one way the Pentagon inundates our youngsters with messages to “Go Army!”

Since 2002, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has spent a half-million dollars a year creating a database it claims is “arguably the largest repository of 16-25 year-old youth data in the country, containing roughly 30 million records.” In Pentagonese the database is part of the Joint Advertising, Marketing Research and Studies (JAMRS) project. Its purpose, along with additional millions spent on polling and marketing research, is to give the Pentagon’s $4 billion annual recruiting budget maximum impact. And it has lit a fire under civil libertarians, privacy advocates and counter-recruiting activists across the nation.
informationclearinghouse.info

WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld likened Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to Adolf Hitler, reflecting continuing tension in relations between the United States and the Latin American government.

Rumsfeld, asked during a National Press Club appearance Thursday about indications of a deteriorating general relationship between Washington and parts of Latin America, said he believes such a characterization “misses the mark.”

“We saw dictatorships there. And then we saw most of those countries, with the exception of Cuba, for the most part move towards democracies,” he said. “We also saw corruption in that part of the world. And corruption is something that is corrosive of democracy.”

The secretary acknowledged that “we’ve seen some populist leadership appealing to masses of people in those countries. And elections like Evo Morales in Bolivia take place that clearly are worrisome.”

“I mean, we’ve got Chavez in Venezuela with a lot of oil money,” Rumsfeld added. “He’s a person who was elected legally — just as Adolf Hitler was elected legally — and then consolidated power and now is, of course, working closely with Fidel Castro and Mr. Morales and others.”
msnbc.msn.com

The ‘worrisome’ thing in US history has been when corrupt dictatorships, which the US government takes to like pigs to mud, do their inevitable crumbling and the aspirations of the people are finally heard. Hey but we don’t know much history around here. I think the lid needs to be blown on this whole ‘democracy’ thing. A sham, right from the start. Do regular people in the US have anything to say about the actions of this government? No. Will they stop this coming war? No. Where is democracy then.

The Pentagon has set up a special unit complete with robots to conduct forensic tests in the event of a nuclear attack on the US, with the aim of identifying attackers for possible retaliation, a Pentagon official said yesterday.
guardian.co.uk

Tony Blair told President George Bush that he was “solidly” behind US plans to invade Iraq before he sought advice about the invasion’s legality and despite the absence of a second UN resolution, according to a new account of the build-up to the war published today.

A memo of a two-hour meeting between the two leaders at the White House on January 31 2003 – nearly two months before the invasion – reveals that Mr Bush made it clear the US intended to invade whether or not there was a second UN resolution and even if UN inspectors found no evidence of a banned Iraqi weapons programme.
guardian.co.uk

BAGHDAD — A mortar attack set ablaze a major petroleum facility in the northern city of Kirkuk on Thursday, stopping refining at the plant and further damaging Iraq’s beleaguered oil industry.

Iraqi oil workers were still fighting the fire late Thursday, and U.S. officials held high-level meetings in Baghdad to assess the damage. An Iraqi executive with the North Oil Co. called the incident the “most severe attack we have ever faced on an oil installation.” The mortar rounds also hit an important pipeline to Turkey that was already out of commission and was being repaired, the executive said.

The cessation of production forced the shutdown of an electricity plant that ran on petroleum supplied by the refinery.

U.S. officials said they had not yet determined how severely the attack would hamper oil production in Iraq, which fell 8% last year to half the 3 million barrels a day envisaged by American officials at the time of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Violence swept through the nation Thursday, taking the lives of at least 26 Iraqis. The U.S. military also announced the deaths of seven American servicemen since Wednesday.

In Shiite Muslim-dominated east Baghdad, car bombs detonated at a gas station and a popular market, sending up towers of fire that killed 16 people and injured 90.
latimes.com