Official: Iran would take action if US attacked Syria
Iran would take action if the United States were to carry out an act of “stupidity” and attack Syria, an Iranian military official was quoted as saying on Saturday, but the comments later disappeared from the state-linked agency website.
Iran has steadfastly supported Syrian President Bashar Assad in his bid to suppress an uprising which both Tehran and Damascus see as a proxy war by Israel and Western states to extend their influence in the Middle East.
“If America were to attack Syria, Iran along with Syria’s allies will take action, which would amount to a fiasco for America,” Mohammad Ali Assoudi, the deputy for culture and propaganda of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was quoted as saying.
Assoudi’s comments were first carried by the government-linked news agency Young Journalists’ Club but were later apparently taken down from the group’s website. The comments were picked up by Iranian news sites including Iran’s Jam-e Jam newspaper and the BBC’s Persian-language site.
7 Reasons Washington’s Grand Counter-Terrorism Myths Persist In The Face of Evidence
1. The bewildered herd is lost in the maze of small details, while the doctors of reality construct mental traps and dead-ends in order to contain the conversation of contested political events and issues within the parameters of the U.S.-Israeli counter-terrorism paradigm.
2. There is blind political acceptance of the White House’s institutional credibility across the political intelligentsia, by liberals, conservatives, and libertarians.
3. The brain-destroying power of mass mind control is equivalent to what nuclear bombs did to Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.
4. An officially recognized reality is a fire that nurtures the fragile collective mind, sustains social cohesion, and preserves the legitimacy of the ruling political authority.
5. The covert construction of collective memory by absolutist political authorities is a demonstration of power that is only rivaled by the power of God, and therefore, in the absence of the spirit of God, the thug with the gun who represents the government has the final say on what reality is and what it isn’t.
6. The ready-made cosmology that the U.S.-Israeli counter-terrorism paradigm provides to the world is easy to swallow and creates an order within the mind that many people do not wish to uproot by integrating into their consciousness those little scary things called “scientific facts.”
7. The official 9/11 story is a sacred creation myth which upholds the foundations of the counter-terrorism universe and gives people emotional and psychological security that is essential for the success of any human community.
Iran’s nuclear program designed to ‘finish off’ Israel, Hezbollah MP says
The entire equation in the Middle East will change, Walid Sakariya tells al-Manar TV
Hezbollah MP Walid Sakariya told Lebanese television this week that the nuclear weapon Iran is allegedly developing is intended to annihilate Israel.
In a segment recorded and translated by MEMRI (the Middle East Media Research Institute), Sakariya, also a retired general, told his interviewer on Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV Tuesday that should Iran acquire a nuclear weapon it would serve Syrian as well as Iranian interests, namely the eradication of the Jewish state.
“This nuclear weapon is intended to create a balance of terror with Israel, to finish off the Zionist enterprise, and to end all Israeli aggression against the Arab nation,” Sakariya said.
“The entire equation in the Middle East will change,” he asserted.
Iranian officials typically assert that their controversial nuclear program is meant solely for peaceful purposes.
Dentist faces sentence in fanciful Bill Gates/FBI threats
By JOE MANDAK
A former dentist is set for sentencing by a federal judge on charges that he threatened a Pittsburgh FBI agent over the phone after the agent investigated an incident in which the man called agents in Seattle, urging them to arrest Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
PITTSBURGH —A former dentist is set for sentencing by a federal judge on charges that he threatened a Pittsburgh FBI agent over the phone after the agent investigated an incident in which the man called agents in Seattle, urging them to arrest Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
The attorney for 45-year-old Anthony Dinozzi, of Youngwood, is expected to argue Wednesday that his client needs mental health treatment, not prison.
The FBI says in a criminal affidavit that Dinozzi attempted to pass himself off as a federal agent at Pittsburgh International Airport in February, when he tried to board a flight to Seattle so he could arrest Gates who – Dinozzi has claimed – was emitting waves through Dinozzi’s computer that were harming his brain.
Prosecutors say Dinozzi threatened to murder and have the Hell’s Angels attack the Pittsburgh agent.
American military stops training Afghan militia for one month to review practices after string of insider attacks
- 34 attacks in past year- with 12 in August- killing 45 international troops
- Causing tension between coalition forces and local Afghans
The U.S. military has halted the training of Afghan government-backed militias for at least a month to give the Americans time to redo the vetting of new recruits after a string of attacks by Afghan soldiers and police on their international allies, officials said Sunday.
There have been 34 insider attacks this year – at least 12 in August alone – that have killed 45 international troops, putting intense strain on the relationship between coalition forces and the Afghans they live and work with.
The shootings also have thrown doubts on one of the pillars of the American-led coalition’s planned withdrawal by the end of 2014 – training Afghan forces so they can take the lead for security in the country.
Lieutenant Colonel John Harrell, a spokesman for U.S. special operations forces in Afghanistan, said the pause in training affects about 1,000 trainees of the Afghan Local Police, a militia backed by the government in Kabul.
‘The training of the ALP recruits has been paused while we go through this re-vetting process, to take a look at this process to see if there’s anything that we can improve,’ Harrell said.
‘It may take a month, it may take two months, we don’t know.’
International forces have been re-vetting Afghan forces across the board, but U.S. special operations forces decided to stop training the ones they were responsible for – the 16,000-strong ALP – while redoing the background checks.
Area 51 UFO ‘secrets’ to be revealed; ‘The trick is to highlight all the crazy stuff in the media, so the subject becomes a joke, pull the plug, then run the whole thing covertly,’ Mr Pope wrote.
Closeted UFO believers may have a reason to come out this month, at least for one night.
Delving into the extra-terrestrial mysteries of Area 51, a Smithsonian Institution affiliated museum in Las Vegas has announced plans for a one-night event featuring speakers from both the U.S. military and U.K.
The National Atomic Testing Museum announced the event, scheduled for September 22, to reveal the men’s personal stories that propelled them to write books and lead their own investigations outside, as well as inside, the military.
‘What you’re getting from this panel are people who have worked with the military, all of whom certainly agree that UFOs are real, and I think most of them would say it ought to be researched,’ Col. John Alexander, one of the scheduled speakers told the Huffington Post.
‘Here, you’re getting a small number [of participants], but high credibility people,’ he said.
Mountain bikers on Mars?
Incredible photos seem to show cyclists in space, tearing round red, rocky terrain (but they’re actually in the Chinese desert)
Are they mountain bikers from Mars? These stunning photos of mountain bikers flying through the air look as though they’ve been snapped on the Red Planet.
The incredible shots show only the silhouettes of the brave bikers as they leap through the air into the red mist.
The barren backdrop looks just like a lonely planet – as the bikers speed across the rocky terrain as though there isn’t another soul around.
But the amazing images were actually taken in the Gobi desert, in the Xinjiang province of China.
John said: ‘The shots were taken at about 6:30pm when the sun was just disappearing.
Soldier wrote in diary days before he was killed that equipment shortages would lead to deaths
‘It shows the grittiness of war’: Mother of shot Army officer reveals why she allowed his final moments to be shown on television
- Film shows disturbing footage of soldier being hauled to safety after being shot by Taliban
- No equipment to fix broken radios meant soldiers had to less capable devices that delayed helicopter by more than an hour
- Soldier wrote in diary days before he was killed that equipment shortages would lead to deaths
- Mother hopes footage will reveal equipment issues that soldiers are facing
The harrowing moment a brilliant young British Army officer lies dying after being shot by a Taliban fighter will be screened on television tomorrow night.
Lieutenant Mark Evison’s mother gave permission for the deeply upsetting images, recorded on the helmet camera of one of his soldiers, to be shown as part of BBC Three’s Our War series.
Killed in action: Lieutenant Mark Evison, 26, from the 1st Battalion, The Welsh Guards
The 26-year-old, who served with the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, was fatally wounded during a patrol when more than 50 armed Taliban fighters surrounded his men in a 360-degree ambush.
The terrifying drama and chaos of the battle is seen in graphic detail. The film shows the exhausted 7 Platoon soldiers carrying Lt Evison back to their base – a mud-walled fort – as insurgents’ bullets whistle around them.
Realising time was slipping away, Gunner Steven Gadsby, then 24, lifted ‘the boss’ onto his shoulders and dashed across an exposed bridge to the safety of the base. He was later awarded a Conspicuous Gallantry Cross for bravery.
As Lt Evison lays bleeding on the battlefield, he can be heard telling his men: ‘I’m going down… I’m going down.’
Desperately fighting to keep him alive, the guardsmen reply: ‘No you’re not, sir… Stay with us, sir… Stay f****** with us.’
Their anger and increasing frustration can be heard as they struggle to get a signal on their poorly- functioning Bowman radios.
The communications breakdown meant a helicopter to evacuate the severely injured officer was delayed by more than an hour.
Traumatised troops describe how a better radio with a stronger signal could not be used because they did not have vital spare parts to repair the equipment in the fort, Haji Alem, in a Taliban stronghold.
She said: ‘I will see it. I will force myself to see it. No, that is not incredible strength. It is just doing one’s job, what Mark would have wanted.
Get tougher on Iran over its nuclear ambitions, Israel tells world
Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has ramped up pressure on the international community to be tougher with Iran over its nuclear ambitions.
Mr Netanyahu said that without a ‘clear red line’, Tehran would continue to underestimate the determination to stop its controversial programme.
The tough language from Mr Netanyahu reflected differences that have emerged between Israel and its allies, particularly the US, over how to deal with Iran.
Israel has warned that the Iranians are quickly approaching weapons capability and that the threat of force must be seriously considered.
The US says sanctions and international diplomacy must be given more time to work.
Netanyahu, speaking to his Cabinet, said that a new report issued by the UN nuclear agency showing progress in the Iranian nuclear programme bolstered his claim that international pressure is not working.
