If the U.S. wanted to do one thing that would hurt the logistics of terrorists, well, it would have to be shutting down Google Earth. Hezbollah used it to guide rockets in to Israel, the Mahdi Army used it to morter the green zone and the Taliban uses it to find secret U.S. bases. But don't take my word, watch this cool video on the Guardian's website.
(Click Here)
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Iran hiding Enriched Uranium under Dizin Resort near Tehran
This just in, Iran is hiding extra enriched Uranium under skiing resort near Tehran!! Ok, ok, just relax, I was just kidding... about hiding the Uranium under the snow at the famous but little known Dizin Resort located in the northern mountains of Tehran. But in a recent report issued in Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it had discovered an additional 460 pounds of low-enriched uranium, a third more than Iran had previously disclosed. The agency made the find during its annual physical inventory of nuclear materials at Iran’s sprawling desert enrichment plant at Natanz.
It is now thought that Iran has enough low-enriched Uranium to make an atom bomb, so in other words, according to the "corrected" report the Iranians had actually made far more uranium than previously disclosed — 209 kilograms more, an increase of a third. That amounts to a little more than 460 pounds, or about 2" of snow cover at the Dizin Resort.
The report also gave updated figures for Iran’s use of centrifuges — the machines that spin incredibly fast to enrich uranium into nuclear fuel. At Natanz, it said, Iran is feeding uranium into about 4,000 centrifuges and has 1,600 more in the wings, for a total of 5,600. That compares with 3,800 working centrifuges listed in the agency’s November report.
I thought of all this as I was sitting on the ski lift at a local mountain resort (Big Bear) looking down at all the people gleefully sliding down the mountain. What occurred to me was how perfect a place this would be to hide weapons, uranium, or something you don't want the Israeli's bombing. So why not Iran? I think they may be brazen enough to do it, ok, maybe it's a long shot, but who knows...
As a side note, if your looking for an amazing and little known place to get in some great skiing, or snowboarding if your brave enough, then check out Iran's northern mountain resorts, I promise you will not be dissapointed and who knows, you may discover something special, hidden under the snow.
It is now thought that Iran has enough low-enriched Uranium to make an atom bomb, so in other words, according to the "corrected" report the Iranians had actually made far more uranium than previously disclosed — 209 kilograms more, an increase of a third. That amounts to a little more than 460 pounds, or about 2" of snow cover at the Dizin Resort.
The report also gave updated figures for Iran’s use of centrifuges — the machines that spin incredibly fast to enrich uranium into nuclear fuel. At Natanz, it said, Iran is feeding uranium into about 4,000 centrifuges and has 1,600 more in the wings, for a total of 5,600. That compares with 3,800 working centrifuges listed in the agency’s November report.
I thought of all this as I was sitting on the ski lift at a local mountain resort (Big Bear) looking down at all the people gleefully sliding down the mountain. What occurred to me was how perfect a place this would be to hide weapons, uranium, or something you don't want the Israeli's bombing. So why not Iran? I think they may be brazen enough to do it, ok, maybe it's a long shot, but who knows...
As a side note, if your looking for an amazing and little known place to get in some great skiing, or snowboarding if your brave enough, then check out Iran's northern mountain resorts, I promise you will not be dissapointed and who knows, you may discover something special, hidden under the snow.
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Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Come Vist America, By Islamist nut Sayyid Qutb
I have been taking a course in political Islam and by the grace of Allah I have stumbled across the writings of Sayyid Qutb (sarcastic). Nevertheless, this was one interesting dude.
Qutb was one of the key thinkers for modern political Islam. He was an Egyptian nationalist, turned international student in the U.S., only to fly back to Egypt and get covered with animal fat and attacked by dogs by the Egyptian government. Perhaps it has something to do with this writings that called for the overthrow of the corrupt Egyptian regime… Never fails.
Anyway, Qutb 101 is not this post. Instead, I want to focus on some hilarious sociological observations that this Islamist made while spending just under two years in post-WWII America.
1. When Qutb was walking around New York City he referred to it as a “huge workshop” for materialism that was “noisy” and “clamorous.”
2. According to Qutb, yard work was the trendy activity for the bucolic American.
3. Qutb said “Nobody goes to church as often as Americans do… Yet no one is as distant as they are from the spiritual aspect of religion.” He went on to discuss a hedonistic dance he once attended that was sponsored by a pastor. Qutb was appalled that Americans would have magic shows, puzzle contests and other forms of entertainment at church. For him, this was church without spirituality.
4. “…that there is no correlation between the greatness of American material civilization and the men who created it,”
5. American social conversation is full of “superficial” and “empty talk.”
6. He said American football had little to do with kicking; rather, it had everything to do with harming the opponent.
7. And last but not least, Qutb said that the beat of 1950’s American Jazz was designed to provoke the tribal instincts of black people.
Very funny, especially since these “observations” came from the hard-ass GODFATHER of Islamist fundamentalism—what a joker.
(This is a brilliant BBC documentary on Qutb and Islamism. It's called "The Power of Nightmares.")
Qutb was one of the key thinkers for modern political Islam. He was an Egyptian nationalist, turned international student in the U.S., only to fly back to Egypt and get covered with animal fat and attacked by dogs by the Egyptian government. Perhaps it has something to do with this writings that called for the overthrow of the corrupt Egyptian regime… Never fails.
Anyway, Qutb 101 is not this post. Instead, I want to focus on some hilarious sociological observations that this Islamist made while spending just under two years in post-WWII America.
1. When Qutb was walking around New York City he referred to it as a “huge workshop” for materialism that was “noisy” and “clamorous.”
2. According to Qutb, yard work was the trendy activity for the bucolic American.
3. Qutb said “Nobody goes to church as often as Americans do… Yet no one is as distant as they are from the spiritual aspect of religion.” He went on to discuss a hedonistic dance he once attended that was sponsored by a pastor. Qutb was appalled that Americans would have magic shows, puzzle contests and other forms of entertainment at church. For him, this was church without spirituality.
4. “…that there is no correlation between the greatness of American material civilization and the men who created it,”
5. American social conversation is full of “superficial” and “empty talk.”
6. He said American football had little to do with kicking; rather, it had everything to do with harming the opponent.
7. And last but not least, Qutb said that the beat of 1950’s American Jazz was designed to provoke the tribal instincts of black people.
Very funny, especially since these “observations” came from the hard-ass GODFATHER of Islamist fundamentalism—what a joker.
(This is a brilliant BBC documentary on Qutb and Islamism. It's called "The Power of Nightmares.")
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
A little mid-week reading on Iran & Isreal
1. Those pesky Persians are at it again; they are trying to get the Russians to sell them some S-300 anti-aircraft batteries. These bad-boys are capable of tracking over 100 units at a time and have been famously called a "game changer" in the Israeli defense community. Is Iran closer to convincing the Russians to sell them a few?
2. We all know that Bush authorized the CIA and JSOC to organize a campaign of internal dissidence inside Iran. But don’t forget Israel. According to the Telegraph, Israel has been busy trying to hit Iranian nuclear scientists. The basic idea is to buy time before Persia goes nuclear.
3. NY Times newfound Iran guru, Roger Cohen, has been pumping articles out of Tehran of late. He has been writing about the normal Iranian clichés: modern youth, economic inflation and crazy turban-wearing mullahs in charge of it all. But his most recent piece takes a fresh look outside the congested streets of Tehran. Ever been hiking in Iran? I heard that the ski resort has free lift tickets... Anyone?
2. We all know that Bush authorized the CIA and JSOC to organize a campaign of internal dissidence inside Iran. But don’t forget Israel. According to the Telegraph, Israel has been busy trying to hit Iranian nuclear scientists. The basic idea is to buy time before Persia goes nuclear.
3. NY Times newfound Iran guru, Roger Cohen, has been pumping articles out of Tehran of late. He has been writing about the normal Iranian clichés: modern youth, economic inflation and crazy turban-wearing mullahs in charge of it all. But his most recent piece takes a fresh look outside the congested streets of Tehran. Ever been hiking in Iran? I heard that the ski resort has free lift tickets... Anyone?
The Holocaust memorial Israel doesn't want you to see
Bethlehem – Palestinians in late January erected a memorial site near the West Bank city of Ramallah to commemorate Nazi Germany’s crimes against the Jewish people.
Hundreds of Palestinians were estimated to have attended the event in Ni’lin, which coincided with the United Nations-declared World Holocaust Remembrance Day with photographs purchased from an Israeli museum.
"The Holocaust was a horrible and methodical murder of six million innocents, which affects all of the citizens of Israel even today," said Khaled Mahmid, who heads the Nazareth-based Arab Institute for Holocaust Research and Education.
"The Koran orders us to acknowledge the Holocaust and understand it," Mahmid added.
"The Jews must remember that many of them were saved during the Holocaust thanks to their brothers in the Arab lands," he said. "We must overcome Hitler's effects together."
He also noted that some of Israel’s behavior can be explained by the Holocaust, something he says Palestinians should take into consideration.
"The Palestinians need to understand that the Jews have a defense mechanism deriving from the horrid murder in the Holocaust," he said.
"All violence Palestinians perform on the Israelis is not effective, causes suffering, and summons Holocaust anxiety among the Jews," Mahmid added. It is for this reason, Mahmid says, that Palestinians should "understand the Holocaust, the power and strength that the Jews’ pain has."
One of the event’s organizers, Mohammad Amira, deflected questions about why the memorial was chosen for Ni’lin, a devastated Palestinian town sliced apart by Israel’s separation barrier.
"We thought the public should understand the pain and suffering the Nazis caused the Jews," Amira said. "Unfortunately, we are paying the price for the immense pain suffered by the Jews during the Holocaust."
"There is no comparison between our suffering and that of the Jewish people in the Holocaust," he noted, "but everyone should understand that we are suffering too, as a result of what the Germans did to the Jews."
Amira, who is an active participant in Ni’lin’s Land Defense Committee against the Israeli constructed separation barrier, said attending Palestinians applauded the exhibit.
"People are surprised at what they see here; there are people who are seeing images of the suffering in the Holocaust for the first time," he said. "There are people who didn't know anything about Jewish history."
In mid-2008, the Hamas movement condemned the Jewish Holocaust, as well, insisting that it "was not only a crime against humanity but one of the most abhorrent crimes in modern history."
"We condemn it as we condemn every abuse of humanity and all forms of discrimination on the basis of religion, race, gender or nationality," a Hamas spokesperson said in a statement.
"And at the same time as we unreservedly condemn the crimes perpetrated by the Nazis against the Jews of Europe, we categorically reject the exploitation of the Holocaust by the Zionists to justify their crimes and harness international acceptance of the campaign of ethnic cleansing and subjection," he added.
Hundreds of Palestinians were estimated to have attended the event in Ni’lin, which coincided with the United Nations-declared World Holocaust Remembrance Day with photographs purchased from an Israeli museum.
"The Holocaust was a horrible and methodical murder of six million innocents, which affects all of the citizens of Israel even today," said Khaled Mahmid, who heads the Nazareth-based Arab Institute for Holocaust Research and Education.
"The Koran orders us to acknowledge the Holocaust and understand it," Mahmid added.
"The Jews must remember that many of them were saved during the Holocaust thanks to their brothers in the Arab lands," he said. "We must overcome Hitler's effects together."
He also noted that some of Israel’s behavior can be explained by the Holocaust, something he says Palestinians should take into consideration.
"The Palestinians need to understand that the Jews have a defense mechanism deriving from the horrid murder in the Holocaust," he said.
"All violence Palestinians perform on the Israelis is not effective, causes suffering, and summons Holocaust anxiety among the Jews," Mahmid added. It is for this reason, Mahmid says, that Palestinians should "understand the Holocaust, the power and strength that the Jews’ pain has."
One of the event’s organizers, Mohammad Amira, deflected questions about why the memorial was chosen for Ni’lin, a devastated Palestinian town sliced apart by Israel’s separation barrier.
"We thought the public should understand the pain and suffering the Nazis caused the Jews," Amira said. "Unfortunately, we are paying the price for the immense pain suffered by the Jews during the Holocaust."
"There is no comparison between our suffering and that of the Jewish people in the Holocaust," he noted, "but everyone should understand that we are suffering too, as a result of what the Germans did to the Jews."
Amira, who is an active participant in Ni’lin’s Land Defense Committee against the Israeli constructed separation barrier, said attending Palestinians applauded the exhibit.
"People are surprised at what they see here; there are people who are seeing images of the suffering in the Holocaust for the first time," he said. "There are people who didn't know anything about Jewish history."
In mid-2008, the Hamas movement condemned the Jewish Holocaust, as well, insisting that it "was not only a crime against humanity but one of the most abhorrent crimes in modern history."
"We condemn it as we condemn every abuse of humanity and all forms of discrimination on the basis of religion, race, gender or nationality," a Hamas spokesperson said in a statement.
"And at the same time as we unreservedly condemn the crimes perpetrated by the Nazis against the Jews of Europe, we categorically reject the exploitation of the Holocaust by the Zionists to justify their crimes and harness international acceptance of the campaign of ethnic cleansing and subjection," he added.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Olivier Roy talks Islam and politics at the University of San Diego
So I just asked Olivier Roy, at his speaking event at the University of San Diego, about Robert Kaplan’s article in the Atlantic, Iran's Postmodern Beast in Gaza. My question went something like this: given that your thesis separates religion from culture, how would you evaluate the Iranian proxies in the Middle East? Moreover, we have all heard of Hezbollah, Hamas, Iranian linked parties in Iraq etc. receiving weapons and money from Tehran, but is theology exported as well?
Granted I didn't record his entire response, I will do my best to summarize.
He said that Iran has done a good job separating religion from culture. But he kind of nixed my question by saying that Iran exports little theology--although many Shia clerics have spent time in Qom. According to Roy, this "glue" that Kaplan spoke of is mostly comprised of opportunity and the political desire to control. This is why weapons and money are exported, but why Persian culture and theology are mostly left out.
He concluded generally by saying that the most effective religious institutions in the world are the one's that export religion/ideology, rather than culture/social norms. Very interesting.
Granted I didn't record his entire response, I will do my best to summarize.
He said that Iran has done a good job separating religion from culture. But he kind of nixed my question by saying that Iran exports little theology--although many Shia clerics have spent time in Qom. According to Roy, this "glue" that Kaplan spoke of is mostly comprised of opportunity and the political desire to control. This is why weapons and money are exported, but why Persian culture and theology are mostly left out.
He concluded generally by saying that the most effective religious institutions in the world are the one's that export religion/ideology, rather than culture/social norms. Very interesting.
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Abdulmalik Rigi should slap his fellow Baluch insurgents
So the other day I was talking to Abu Guerrilla about a Dan Rather Report that highlighted the Baluchi leader Abdulmalik Rigi who is known as the "Most Wanted Man in Iran". Abu Guerilla in his infinite wisdom warned me to take this report with a grain of salt, actually he said that Rigi was not to be trusted. Well...looks like Abu G was absolutly right, but he was wrong about one thing...I should have taken the report with a bag of salt, not a grain and here's why:
On monday, a spokesman for kidnappers holding American John Solecki captive in Pakistan said the deadline to negotiate for his release was extended for a "few days" after appeals from "some international organizations." On Friday, the captors said they would kill Solecki, a United Nations official, in 72 hours if their demands were not met.
Solecki was abducted on Feb. 2 in Quetta, a major city in the southwest near the Afghan border. On Friday, his kidnappers threatened to kill him within 72 hours and issued a 20-second video of the blindfolded hostage.
Shahak Baluch, who claims to speak for the little-known Baluch United Liberation Front, announced the extended deadline in a call to the Quetta Press Club.
The group's name indicates a link to separatists rather than Islamic extremists. The Baluch are linked directly to Abdulmalik Rigi and his movement for an independent Baluchistan in southern Iran. Its demands include the release of 141 women allegedly held by Pakistani authorities, but Pakistan has denied it is holding the women.
The U.N. has been trying to establish contact with the kidnappers, officials said.
Here is a link to read all about the kidnapping and the Baluch insurgents. Click here.
On monday, a spokesman for kidnappers holding American John Solecki captive in Pakistan said the deadline to negotiate for his release was extended for a "few days" after appeals from "some international organizations." On Friday, the captors said they would kill Solecki, a United Nations official, in 72 hours if their demands were not met.
Solecki was abducted on Feb. 2 in Quetta, a major city in the southwest near the Afghan border. On Friday, his kidnappers threatened to kill him within 72 hours and issued a 20-second video of the blindfolded hostage.
Shahak Baluch, who claims to speak for the little-known Baluch United Liberation Front, announced the extended deadline in a call to the Quetta Press Club.
The group's name indicates a link to separatists rather than Islamic extremists. The Baluch are linked directly to Abdulmalik Rigi and his movement for an independent Baluchistan in southern Iran. Its demands include the release of 141 women allegedly held by Pakistani authorities, but Pakistan has denied it is holding the women.
The U.N. has been trying to establish contact with the kidnappers, officials said.
Here is a link to read all about the kidnapping and the Baluch insurgents. Click here.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Olivier Roy: über lord of the Islamic umma
Sometime tomorrow I am going--with my date Morgan Oakland--to see internationally acclaimed Islam expert, Olivier Roy, give a talk on Obama and the next way forward. While I wasn't fully diggin' what this Frenchman was rappin' in his book, Politics and Change in the Middle East, I really liked his recent article in the Herald Tribune, “Islamists you can talk to."
He separates all those Islamist crazies into two camps: global jihadists and insurgents with territorial or national agendas. He says:
"There is nothing to negotiate with the global jihadists, but the Islamo-nationalist movements simply cannot be ignored or suppressed.
Hamas is nothing else than the traditional Palestinian nationalism with an Islamic garb. The Taliban express more a Pashtu identity than a global movement."
And
"Local armed insurgents were recognized as political actors with more or less a legitimate agenda, thus separating them from the foreign-based global militants who did not give a damn about Iraqi national interests. Could the same approach be applied to the Taliban and Hamas?"
I only hope that someone in the Obama administration takes note.
He separates all those Islamist crazies into two camps: global jihadists and insurgents with territorial or national agendas. He says:
"There is nothing to negotiate with the global jihadists, but the Islamo-nationalist movements simply cannot be ignored or suppressed.
Hamas is nothing else than the traditional Palestinian nationalism with an Islamic garb. The Taliban express more a Pashtu identity than a global movement."
And
"Local armed insurgents were recognized as political actors with more or less a legitimate agenda, thus separating them from the foreign-based global militants who did not give a damn about Iraqi national interests. Could the same approach be applied to the Taliban and Hamas?"
I only hope that someone in the Obama administration takes note.
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