Iran
June 19, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The House Committee on Foreign Affairs (Subcommittee on the Middle East and Northern Africa) held a hearing yesterday on the Iranian elections. Wanting to know more about the subject, and to see our friend Tom Cotton in action, I attended. Tom delivered a strong opening statement in which he made it clear that in order to justify any change in U.S. policy toward Iran, the regime must do more than
»
June 17, 2013 — Scott Johnson
It really shouldn’t be difficult to understand Iran’s presidential election, assuming you pay attention to such things. If you get your news from the mainstream media, however, it might be close to impossible to understand it. As Paul demonstrates, going a little bit out of your way online you can quickly find just about everything you need to know about the election and the winner, one Hassan Rouhani. Take, for
»
June 16, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Judith Levy of Ricochet takes a look at the newly elected Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani. Here are my takeaways from her analysis of the man I call “Sh*t Squared” (so as to distinguish him from his election rivals, Sh*t to the third and fourth power): 1. Rouhani is a disciple of Ayatollah Khomeini. He stayed close to Khomeini while in exile and then moved up the political system once Khomeini
»
June 15, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The AP reports that Hasan Rowhani has declared the winner of Iran’s presidential vote. Rowhani reportedly gained 50.7 percent of the vote, thereby avoiding a run-off. AP describes Rowhani as a “moderate cleric.” But I prefer the description provided by an Iranian friend of my wife. She calls Rowhani “sh*t, power two” (i.e. squared) as opposed to his opponents who are sh*t, power three or four.
»
April 30, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
At his press conference today, President Obama took the same position on Syria that his spokesmen have previewed. It’s a lawyerly, two-part position. First, we don’t know for sure that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons. Second, even if it has, this is just one factor in our analysis of what to do (or not do). The first part may be true, and after Iraq we should have less
»
April 14, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Is this deja vu all over again, or what? Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will leave on Sunday for a visit to Benin, Ghana and Niger, the world’s fourth-largest uranium producer, the Fars news agency reported. He will meet the presidents of the three countries and sign agreements to develop economic and political relations, Fars said…. The Iranian president then heads to Niger on Monday for a two-day visit, the government
»
April 1, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Politico proclaims Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich) “the new Ron Paul.” That seems about right, although it may be unfair to Paul, as implausible as that sounds. Amash was one of only of only six congressmen to vote against imposing tougher sanctions on Iran last year. Dennis Kucinich joined Amish in that vote. So did Ron Paul. But I doubt that even Paul took offense at John McCain’s little joke at
»
March 28, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Our friend Edward Jay Epstein is the author of the just-published Annals of Unsolved Crime, one chapter of which addresses the case of Amanda Knox (“The Knox Ordeal”). Recent developments caused Ed to return to the case this week in “The bizarre pursuit of Amanda Knox: Injustice, Italian style.” In the Wall Street Journal today Ed reveals how Iran could get a nuclear bomb overnight: The West has tried to
»
March 26, 2013 — Scott Johnson
I want to return briefly to Obama’s Iranian new year’s greeting, the video of which I posted here. The holiday in issue is Nowruz, which I understand to predate Islam and extend back to Zoroastrianism. The White House has posted the text of the message here. Let’s take it from the top: Dorood [hello]. As you and your families come together to celebrate Nowruz, I want to extend my best
»
March 25, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Secretary of State (remember?) John Kerry took a detour to Baghdad on his current trip to the Middle East. He sought to persuade the government of Prime Minister Maliki to stop Iran from flying arms across Iraqi territory to support the Assad regime. The United States has more or less abandoned Iraq, Iraq lacks an air force, and Iran is filling the vacuum created by our withdrawal. The New York
»
March 23, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Reza Kahlili is the pseudonymous former CIA operative who penetrated Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and told the story in A Time to Betray. Kahlili has now published two columns on disclosures he attributes to a high-ranking Iranian intelligence officer: one here in the Washington Times and one here at WorldNetDaily. Using Google Earth, Kahlili briefly summarizes the contentions of his Iranian source in the video below.
»
March 21, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
According to this Washington Post report, President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu displayed “unusual solidarity” during the first day of Obama’s visit to Israel. By this, the Post means unusual solidarity for them. The Obama-Netanyahu interaction was what one expect from the leaders of two close allies, but not what we’ve seen in the past from these two, thanks to Obama’s studied belligerence. But, the appearance of good will
»
March 19, 2013 — Scott Johnson
The White House has posted the video below on its YouTube channel with this explanation: “President Obama sends best wishes to the Iranian people as they celebrate Nowruz. In his video message, the President speaks directly to the people and leaders of Iran about the opportunity to begin a new relationship between our two countries.” President Obama, with all due respect, sir, you are a complete and utter fool. Via
»
March 18, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Today’s Washington Post (print edition) proclaimed that “Obama’s trip to Israel aims to fix missteps.” But for what purpose? The Post suggests that Obama needs to fix the mistakes of his previous approach to Israel so that he can “revive” his “ill-fated effort to secure an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.” I don’t doubt that President Obama would like to revive that effort. And it’s reasonable for Obama to conclude, albeit belatedly,
»
March 13, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Recently, Iran has been expelling al Qaeda officials who holed up there for years. Bin Laden’s son-in-law, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, is only the latest example. U.S. officials and terrorism experts tell the Washington Post that these expulsions suggest growing tension between Iran’s Shiite clerics and al Qaeda’s Sunni terrorists. Yet officials and experts also believe that Iran still permits al Qaeda to use Iranian territory as a transit route to
»
March 8, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The White House insists that President Obama will go ahead and visit Israel later this month even if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not put together a governing coalition before the president arrives. Obama is scheduled to arrive March 20. Netanyahu’s deadline for forming a governing coalition is March 16. However, it’s not clear that Netanyahu will meet that deadline. And even if he does, the views of the new
»
March 6, 2013 — Scott Johnson
At Defining Ideas, Kori Schake has an excellent summary of “The view from Tehran.” Schake makes the case that the mullahs believe they are achieving their aims in their long confrontation with the United States. One of the data points in Schake’s assessment is the retirement of General Mattis ahead of schedule. From Obama’s perspective, Mattis was an inconvenient fellow “because he irritatingly kept insisting that political guidance from the
»
