who would trust Commander Cuckoo Bananas to do it right?

Feb 2, 2007

Page 1 of 2
THE ROVING EYE
The 'axis of fear' is born
By Pepe Escobar

The Bush administration, in a sense, is getting what it wants in the wider Middle East. To battle a fictitious Shi'ite crescent (a construct by Jordan's King Abdullah), it has emboldened even more a reactionary Sunni crescent (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates), thus exacerbating to a paroxysm the "strategy" it has already applied in Iraq: sectarianism as the golden parameter of imperial divide and rule. Historically, Sunnis and Shi'ites have co-existed amid social

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tensions. But never have these tensions been so cynically exploited - by Washington - as in post-invasion Iraq and the wider Middle East.

The administration of US President George W Bush was forced to acknowledge that the monumental disaster of occupied Iraq had to be blamed on a new scapegoat. Thus the umpteenth twist in the "war on terror": exit al-Qaeda, enter Iran.

The Sunni Arab "axis of fear" is merrily playing along. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia even complained in a Kuwaiti newspaper that Iran is trying to convert Sunni Arabs to Shi'ism. Even Israel is now by all means allied with Saudi Arabia against Iran - Mecca/Jerusalem against Qom; Muslims and Jews battling Muslims.

It's enlightening to compare this development with how Iran's ambassador to Syria, Mohammad Hassan Akhtari, sees it - as nothing other than a replay of the British Empire's divide-and-rule. Washington is once again sowing the seeds of discord among Muslims: "Bush and his allies are in favor of further unrest, turmoil and crises so that they can justify deployment of their troops in the region."

Shi'ites also happen to live in the midst of the "axis of fear" - such as in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf monarchies. Beyond sectarianism, Arab popular perception is alert enough to identify this for what it is: a war of the US - supported by dictatorial Arab regimes - against Islam. And the target is not only Iran: the Saudi/Israeli link is also anti-Hamas - an obvious point as the House of Saud is little else than an annex of Washington.

A recent survey of Arab public opinion by the British YouGov group revealed that Israel (88%) is the "greatest threat to the security and future" of the Middle East, followed by the US, al-Qaeda and finally Iran (33%). This has not prevented the bulk of Arab mainstream media from engaging in a systematic anti-Iranian propaganda wave.

But as Iran strives to position itself in practice as the key supporter of the Palestinian national-liberation movement, it is bound to solidify its pre-eminent popular role in the Middle East. Washington, once again, will not be amused.

Patriot games
# As even the mineral kingdom is aware, the Bush administration's war on Iran is already on. Escalation and provocation are fast reaching fever pitch. This includes: The - bogus - White House claim that Iranian "networks" are helping to target US troops in Iraq.
# An imminent Bush administration-peddled dossier detailing alleged Iranian "subversion" in Iraq, which is bound to include the surrealistic notion of Iranian "agents" collaborating with the Sunni Arab muqawama (resistance) in an anti-American orgy.
# US Special Forces destabilizing Iran on the ground (especially in Khuzestan and Sistan-Balochistan provinces).
# United Nations sanctions.
# The blacklisting of Iranian state-owned Bank Sepah.
# The deployment to Israel and Gulf states of defensive Patriot missiles (theoretically to shoot down any retaliatory, incoming Iranian Shihab-3 missiles).
# The deployment toward the Gulf of the USS John C Stennis nuclear strike force plus the USS Eisenhower nuclear strike force - in practice two huge floating airports accompanied by guided-missile cruisers, frigates, destroyers, and submarine escorts and loaded with a deluge of missiles and helicopters. In the event the Nimitz strike force - currently in San Diego - also heads to the Middle East, the attack on Iran will be a certainty.

And there is the non-stop disinformation avalanche. As in 2002, pre-shock and awe, where the focus was shifted from Osama bin Laden to Saddam Hussein, in the 2007 remix (with a nuclear twist) the focus is being moved from the quagmire in Iraq to the Iranian "threat".

The London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies has joined the fray, insisting Iran "could" be only two years away from building a nuclear bomb. This curiously ties with Likud supremo Benjamin Netanyahu claiming that Iran is "1,000 days away" from going nuclear. CNN and Fox News are mercilessly slugging it out to get prime Pentagon handouts - the best ringside view to watch the next war.

more at Asia Times Online

but there's a typo in the second sentence:

"Fears of Iranian economic dominance in Iran are being stoked"

should be:

"Fears of Iranian economic dominance in Iraq are being stoked"

in the Iraq thread here

_{"at some point I'm hopeful I'll figure out something to put here"}

Iran has begun assembling centrifuges at Natanz site: diplomats
By :
Date : 02 February 2007 0815 hrs (SST)
URL : http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/256182/1/.html

VIENNA - Iran has begun installing centrifuges at the Natanz site where it plans 3,000 of the machines to enrich uranium in defiance of UN demands to halt this sensitive nuclear activity, diplomats said Thursday.

And at the same time it is stopping UN inspectors from installing surveillance cameras in the huge underground hall where the production lines, or cascades, of centrifuges are being set up, the diplomats said.

Both moves mark an escalation in the international showdown with Iran over a nuclear programme which the United States and others suspect is hiding secret development of an atom bomb, and on which the UN Security Council has levied sanctions to force Tehran to halt enrichment.

A diplomat in Vienna, where the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is based, told AFP "construction has started (at the underground Natanz facility) but the cascades have not yet been assembled."

Another diplomat said bringing in centrifuge parts had started last week.

But Iran has not yet assembled a complete cascade, the basic unit for beginning actual enrichment, said the diplomats, who asked not to be named due to the confidentiality of the information.

Uranium enrichment uses centrifuges to make fuel for civilian nuclear reactors but can also produce the explosive material for atom bombs.

IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming refused to comment.

In Washington, the US administration said the report -- if confirmed -- offered more proof of Tehran's defiant stance toward the international community.

"If true, this would demonstrate that the Iranian government continues to disregard the will of the international community and the United Nations," said US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

Iran had last weekend given conflicting signals on its disputed nuclear work.

The Islamic republic's atomic energy agency denied the Iranians had started to install the 3,000 centrifuges, shortly after the head of parliament's foreign affairs and national security commission said they had.

Iran is building cascades in units of 164 centrifuges each.

Iran already has two such cascades running above-ground at a pilot enrichment plant at Natanz which would only produce small amounts of enriched uranium.

But the underground plant, protected in a bunker from possible air attack, could if running full tilt produces enough highly enriched uranium for one bomb in nine to 11 months, the London think tank the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) has said.

Diplomats said Iran was stopping UN inspectors, who are currently at Natanz, from installing surveillance cameras at the underground site.

The Iranians are "not allowing the IAEA to install the cameras inside the (underground) cascade halls (for centrifuges) in Natanz and are causing further delays in the inspectors' activity," a diplomat who closely monitors IAEA verification work told AFP.

The IAEA monitors the above-ground pilot site with cameras and visits by inspectors and is entitled under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to the same sort of presence at the underground facility, as the agency is mandated to monitor the use of nuclear material.

But the Iranians "have not yet introduced nuclear material (feedstock uranium gas) into the centrifuges at the underground site, so there is still time," a second diplomat said.

Another diplomat said: "The game is not over."

The first diplomat said: "The Iranians are now willing to accept the installation of cameras only outside the cascade halls, which will not enable the IAEA to monitor the entire uranium enrichment process."

But another diplomat said that "verification goals can be achieved from inside or outside cascade halls."

A fourth diplomat said: "Whenever something new is done, normally it takes time," referring to problems the IAEA has had in setting up verification equipment in other countries.

MORE at AFP

In Iraq, Kurds Train to Battle Iran

Friday February 2, 2007 8:16 PM

AP Photo BAG501

By KATHY GANNON

Associated Press Writer

QANDIL MOUNTAIN RANGE, Iraq (AP) - Deep in the mountains of eastern Iraq, a cluster of mud huts and the chatter of machine gun fire reveal another piece of the jigsaw puzzle called Kurdistan.

Here, recruits are training to fight Iran, one of the four countries that rule the fractured Kurdish people. And although they belong to an organization officially outlawed as terrorist by Washington, they appear to be operating unhindered from Iraqi territory controlled by U.S. forces.

A boulder-studded road spirals up through sun-soaked mountains to a pale yellow building that flies the flag of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), condemned as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and its NATO ally, Turkey.

A giant face of Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK founder who is serving a life sentence in Turkey, is painted on the mountainside. Ten miles farther on lies the Qandil range, which runs like a snow-dusted spine along Iraq's northern border with both Turkey and Iran.

In the camp, lugging heavy machine guns and AK-47 assault rifles, are men and women of the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan, or PEJAK, an offshoot set up by the PKK in 2004 to fight for Kurdish autonomy in Iran.

The PKK and its affiliates are spread through a region of some 35 million Kurds that straddles Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. PEJAK, the newest group, claims to number thousands of recruits, and targets only Iran - a mission which has made PEJAK the subject of intense speculation that it is being used to undermine the radical Islamic regime of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In the Nov. 27 issue of The New Yorker, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh wrote that PEJAK was receiving support from the U.S. as well as from Israel, which fears Iran's nuclear ambitions and Ahmadinejad's call to wipe the Jewish state off the map.

PEJAK says it regularly launches raids into Iran, and Iran has fired back with artillery. In October the English-language Iran Daily, published by Iran's official news agency, said Iran accused PEJAK of killing dozens of its armed forces in insurgent attacks.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), a presidential candidate who claims the White House is overplaying the Iranian threat, last year wrote to President Bush expressing concern that the U.S. was using PEJAK to weaken Ahmadinejad.

James Brandon, an analyst for the U.S.-based Jamestown Foundation, told The Associated Press that PEJAK has refused to discuss its funding sources. But he said its greatest threat to Iran is not military. It has veins running deep into the Iranian Kurdish population and is offering to join forces with other restless minorities in Iran, he said.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said ``Israel is not involved in any way in what's going on there.''

Meir Javedanfar, an Israel-based Iran expert, noted however that Israel has a long-standing relationship with Iraqi Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani and ``It would not surprise me to discover that Israel is using the Kurdish areas of Iraq to undermine Iran's influence in Iraq and monitor what's going on along the Iranian border, as well as to undermine the Iranian government itself.''

The AP recently spent two winter days at a PEJAK training camp tucked in the shadow of the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq, listening to its followers describe their goals and operations in Iran.

According to a camp commander, Hussein Afsheen, ``PKK gives ideological and logistical support'' while funding comes from Iranian Kurds. He said he didn't know of U.S. funding, but would gladly accept it.

The camp is designed to toughen up the new recruits, who numbered 38 during the AP's visit. Beds are single wool blankets spread over a rough concrete floor, or over a narrow steel bench that hugs an icy mud wall. The only heat comes from a wood-fired potbelly stove.

It's still pitch dark and freezing at 5 a.m., when the fighters line up and pledge allegiance to the Kurdish cause.

Soztar Afreen, a 22-year-old Syrian with a quick smile, says she joined five years ago and the first months were tough.

``I had trouble keeping up. You have to toughen yourself. The physical work is difficult but once you get used to it life here gets easier,'' she said.

She recalled that her parents, PKK sympathizers, sent her off with this plea: ``Don't let down the struggle; make us proud.''

Gunfire and explosions echo off mountainsides as recruits learn to fire artillery and rocket launchers and automatic rifles. They are taught to lay ambushes and to endure long hours isolated and in hiding.

Food is spartan - potatoes, tomato broth, onions and a lot of bread baked flat in a deep stone oven.

Much time is spent in ideological training and studying Ocalan's vision of a united Kurdistan, which the guerrillas say has gradually shifted from demanding full-blown independence to settling for autonomy as a distinct culture within the various countries where they live.

PEJAK ideology is rigorously leftist and includes equality of the sexes - unusual in this region. The camp has two leaders, a man and a woman.

The male one, Afsheen, is a Turkish Kurd who joined the PKK in 1990, at age 19. He said he enlisted after Turkish soldiers herded him, his family and his neighbors into the town square and burned down their homes.

Four shepherds were coming home and ``The soldiers just opened fire on them. I had inside of me a lot of anger. I promised I would get my revenge,'' said Afsheen.

In training, ``Recruits were put in a cave and left there for a month, allowed out only for half an hour each day. We walked for hours in frigid water,'' he said.

Afsheen said he has made several forays into Iran, including one monthlong trek to the Iranian town of Shahha three months ago, not to attack Iranians but to organize Kurds. ``We were discovered. There was a firefight and it went on until dark. We were pinned down, trapped,'' he said.

``At nightfall we found an opening and we tried to slip out but we were discovered. The firing went on again and they called in their helicopters. One of our friends was wounded and three Iranian security men were killed.''

Afsheen's co-leader is Beridon Dersim, who grew up in Austria and found her identity with the PKK.

``What I wanted I couldn't find from Turkey. I couldn't find from Europe. The PKK offered me answers about myself, about my ethnicity.''

Dersim, 32, said she wanted to pick up a gun the day she joined the PKK at 17 but it was just before her 20th birthday that she was allowed into the guerrilla ranks.

Unlike Afreen of Syria, she did not have her family's blessing, she says, and her father, a Turkish civil servant, was tortured and left in a wheelchair. She said she has since fought in gunbattles.

The guerrillas vow not to marry or visit their families lest they put them in danger or be distracted from their struggle. Afsheen said he hasn't seen his parents since their village was destroyed 16 years ago. ``I was the youngest of nine children, but maybe there are more now. I don't know.''

Dersim says her presence encourages Kurdish women but also frightens the men.

``We go to a village and when we speak they are surprised and they ask us: 'Where do you get such power to do this? How can you speak like this and in front of men?'''

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6389571,00.html?gusrc=ticker-103704