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Iran Arrests British Embassy Staff
Has the trouble in Iran just become an international crisis? The Iran government has reportedly imprisoned eight local workers from the British Embassy in Tehran. The government accuses them of playing a “significant role” in fomenting protest. On a more encouraging note, The Guardian reports, “The power struggle inside Iran appears to be moving from the streets into the heart of the regime itself this weekend amid reports that Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani is plotting to undermine the power of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.” Tensions are also rising between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the speaker of the parliament, Ali Larijani, who has pledged to investigate the violence.
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yes, especially when you are being a loudmouth criticizing a president who has done a whole lot more than bellyache since he got into office. Make a reasoned argument that doesn't make you look like a racist plutocrat, and you will not suffer ridicule in forums like this anonymous comments page (and liberals always get called out for being thin-skinned)!
Now you are turning into a commenter like the rest of us, what happened to the clear thinking and talking points?
LaughORCry; we Americans believe that Freedom of Speech is critical to maintain a Democratic Process, perhaps in YOUR country higher taxes are a result of public sentiment, here we understand that a rise in taxes will be necessary to afford two wars, and help pay for health coverage. WITH A DECLINE IN THE COST OF health coverage person, the increased tax bill will be offset.
Excellent. If self-serving non sequiturs were water, you'd be the Culligan Man. Wonderful use of the tragic and sure to be historic events taking place in Iran to vomit up your own poorly crafted, hyperbolic nonsense. We're all the better for it.
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sore loser says what?
I assume the word "local" workers mean they are not British... (Your article did not spell it out)
The people who are the real power in this country are "NOT" the people in the streets or the people who are the "REAL" majority in the country.. The religious leaders are the ones that control the country & the religious people are the one's that need to be brought down & overthrown along with their pawns who pretend to get elected & are the face of the religious dictatorship....
We should not pretend this is anything else but a religious dictatorship run by old white men who want only to be in control of the lives of millions of people. The stand behind the army & other groups of religious police & religious thugs who keep the majority of the people inline with beatings, be-headings, jail or any number of other methods of control by force... These religious dictators are nothing more than brutes & thugs that think nothing of killing anyone who disagrees with what they want.... (Sort of reminds us of the right wing religious zealots here in the US who call themselves "born again Christians" who also are nothing more then dictators of their own dictates)
We in this country should watch closely how a religion can take over & how that religion can destroy democracy & put in it's place a dictatorship run by RICH, WHITE, RELIGIOUS HYPOCRITES who would love nothing better than to be in control of this, our great nation....
Thanks Martyz42
Very Well Said !
What silliness. The so-called Islamic Republic was never a democracy. It was set up by the Muslim Mullahs in Iran and from the beginning has been headed by a Grand Ayatollah and controlled by a council of Mullahs. Blaming the current mess in Iran on a "takeover" by "WHITE' men as Martyz does is typical of the shallow thinking characteristic of racist thinking and reveals a profound ignorance of the nature of the Islamo-fascist system set up in Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Marty,
ITS NOT AN ARTICLE! it's a summary. it has a link to the real article.
Take the time to read the article before you go off on a racist, atheistic screed, please.
Bozo,
Maybe Marty read the complete AP article, and it still didn't spell out what (nationality) the workers imprisoned were. It says the same thing as this summary (local workers from the British Embassy in Tehran). Did you read it? Were they British, Iranian? What does it say mouth?
HB,
Yes, I read it, and I think the term "local" could be inferred from this except
"The British Foreign Office says the embassy has a staff of more than 100, including at least 70 LOCALLY HIRED IRANIANS" (emphasis mine)
does that make it clear enough for you?
NEXT!
So rapierwits,
You proved my point. Marty said it wasn't clear who the workers imprisoned were. You jumped on him, trying to make him look stupid, by suggesting he didn't read the actual article. I showed you that the article and this little summary said the same thing. Now you want to tell us that just because 70 of the 100 embassy staffers are Iranians, that tells you what they are. Because 7 of every 10 are Iranians, we are stupid for not concluding that the ones imprisoned are Iranians. I think that would only be true if 100 out of 100 were Iranian.
Like you said, "Take the time to read the article", only for you I'll add, "Get your facts straight before you try to make an arse out of the guy who had it right".
Why don't you just admit you were wrong, and apologize to Marty ?
BTW; Your cocky "NEXT" shows you are an arrogant piece of &$#@, even when you know you are wrong.
HB,
a) Although I am sure Marty would be happy to know he or she has such a staunch defender and friend in you, I believe I will give out apologies to those who deserve them and who ask for them. thank you for the attempt to edify, though.
b) And even if I was put-off by his/her inability to contextualize (and your apparent willful ignorance), it was his/ her RACIST/ ATHEISTIC SCREED that I found to be offensive. Neither of which are considered to be protected speech and such is my beef with the filters for this site.
c) As for you, sir or madam, your childish, churlish, ad hominim attacks have no place in an adult conversation and scarcely warrant a thoughtful response. I did not and will not devalue you or your worth as a human being, as you have done to me. I hope to have a more elevated exchange with you in the future.
Good night and good luck.
Rap,
One note before I go (some of us have a life other than here):
Being against people & their ways, such as radical Muslims & their equals, "Radical Religious Right Whack-Jobs" who only believe in wars & "crusades" does not make anyone an "Atheist"..
HB,
I'm not even going to justify your attempt at the last word with much. I'm just happy for you that you finally found something on which you think I should correct
Marty said
"Sort of reminds us of the right wing religious zealots here in the US who call themselves "born again Christians" who also are nothing more then dictators of their own dictates"
Then Marty said
"We in this country should watch closely how a religion can take over & how that religion can destroy democracy & put in it's place a dictatorship run by RICH, WHITE, RELIGIOUS HYPOCRITES who would love nothing better than to be in control of this, our great nation..."
Which is not really what you quoted. Copy and paste is a fairly simple process, you know. It's right click, copy, scroll down, paste.
But I did misspeak when I said "atheist" the term should have been "anti-theist" or "anti-religious". There, you finally found a misstatement over the course of 20 odd hours, good job
Now run along and go live that life of yours.
What a pussy Ah..jad is. He plays games with UK while their gov't is in turmoil and because they are our ally. No balls to come at us directly. LOL So, do we answer his call or just sit and wait? He is going to taunt us. Do we have the patience and where is the line drawn?
Guys like him make their living and earn their cred by nudging that line, squig. I reckon he's out of his league matching wits with OUR MAN.
I sure as hell hope so rapier, I sure as hell hope so. Got any ideas what Obama might do about all this in the end?
Whatever it is I reckon will take place after a lot of consideration including a possible mock debate by cabinet members or high-level staffers.
Bush may have screwed some stuff up but at least these morons in Iran and North Korea thought he was crazy enough to go to war with them. Bush was a deterrent and right now they are pushing the line to see how far they can go with Obama. Before long one of these nut jobs is going to seriously cross the line, I put my money on North Korea, and we have to hope the POTUS does the right thing to protect our nation's sovereignty and interests.
"The power struggle inside Iran appears to be moving from the streets into the heart of the regime itself this weekend"
Mossad has been very busy.
The Likudniks are just dying to create all the conditions necessary to pull us into war with Iran, and the press is going right along with it.
I don't know what is more scary: The clearly obvious deceit that is going on at all levels, or the ease with which Americans can be goaded into blind, vicious and ultimately self-destructive aggression.
ccrider27,Proove it,post your sources, if it were the Mossad, you would be thinking that it is Twinkletoes. the Mossad is true intelligence, you are just talking out of hatred.The Mossad certainly would not have you informed. and Contrary to what you believ,eThe Israeli youth and people want peace,and if a change would happen that could bring peace to all,they would be content with that. and really work towards it.Do you believe that saudi arabia,etc are the allies of the US. The only true allie is Israel.
"The only true allie is Israel."
Bwaaahahahahahahaha. Yes, what a good ally that constantly spies on America, steals classified documents to send to their government and attacked a U.S. Navy ship, killing and wounding several sailors. With allies like those who needs enemies? Israel is a despicable unflushed toilet of a country.
ccrider27do you really believe that it is just Israel they hate. fanatical Islam is on a crusade to reconquer the world,spain,england The West,you believe they hate us and want war with us because of the support to Israel.??No they hate us for who we are,what we stand for,our power and freedom and acceptance of each other.Imperfect as we are.And for your info,And when they are talking about eradicating Jews, they are also whispering all the Christians,with them.The hatred is imbedded within.(Fanatical Islam)If the US goes into war with Israel against Radical Islam is to protect ourselves,also.
No, they hate the U.S. because it props up dictators in their countries that serve American interests and keep their own people under their thumb. They hate the U.S. because America most disingenuously claims to be an "honest broker" in the Israeli-Palestinian matter but is more one-sided than a beauty contest judge who picks his own daughter to be the winner. No matter how brutal and inhuman are the Israelis' actions the U.S. never tries to use leverage to get them to desist and anytime anybody else at the U.N. tries to get a resolution condemning Israel the U.S. always vetoes it. A.I.P.A.C. has so much clout in American politics that politicians are more likely to criticize their own party's actions than those of the Israeli government.
They don't hate America for its "freedoms". America is basically a fascist police state where the government can tap your phones, read your mail before it gets to you, intercept your e-mail, investigate what library books you check out then bar the librarian from ever telling you, spies on peaceful protesters and can declare literally anyone it wants to (just ask Jose Padilla) an "enemy combatant" and whisk you off to some Navy brig or C.I.A. dungeon for the rest of your life. America is a country where its political leadership's war criminals get away with their mass murder without any fear of ever being held accountable. America has a political system where voting in a presidential election amounts to absolutely nothing more than picking your favorite neo-conservative puppet of the elite because anything more than that and the elite would get heartburn every four years. Freedom is not having meaningless dog & pony shows unconvincingly claiming to be elections.
So nobody hates America for its "freedoms" but for its long sordid history of despicable ACTIONS and its continuance of these despicable actions in the present day, never learning from its mistakes and its arrogance in constantly acting like the world is supposed to be America's playpen to arrange however it wants whenever it wants. People have very legitimate grievances against the U.S. and plenty of reasons to hate it. I know it would be a lot more comforting to think others hate America for its "freedoms" but just because Bush claimed it doesn't make it so.
The regime in Iran has done all this to itself, with no help from us. We haven't even had an embassy there for 30 years, and we do not wish to set one up again. Americans cannot visit that country, and the US government is absolutely correct in not allowing us to go there.
Kool-aid anyone? Or maybe it should be kook-aide.
Judging from these and other comments on this issue, these are some very uninformed and riled up people. Almost ripe to dole out a little shock and awe.
Interesting how we never hear anything about the many many violations of human rights that other opposition groups in other dictatorial countries suffer - such as Burma, Egypt, Mexico, China, Syria, etc, etc. But those suffered by the Iranian opposition currently fill the internet and the airwaves.
To clear up another commonly held misconception: Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the current 'darling of democracy' in Iran was the person primarily responsible for blowing up the US Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983, resulting in the deaths of 241 American servicemen and 58 French paratroopers. Mr. Mousavi was also the mastermind of the 1988 truck bombing of the US Navy's Fleet Center in Naples, Italy that resulted in the deaths of 5 persons, including the first Navy woman to die in a terrorist attack. Both of these attacks were carried out by Hezbollah terrorist cells under his direction.
But, oddly, none of that is reported in the MSM although it's out there if you care to look.
Instead, the drum beats for war intensify. And judging from the comments on this article, the majority are primed and ready for the inevitable 'spark' (read: false flag operation) that will light the conflagration to come.
The secret agents have done their jobs very well.
Nothing can justify what this regime in Iran is doing to its own people right at this moment, and that's all there is to it. If I could do anything to help beyond moral support, I would.
That regime is a fascist police state, and its demise would be no loss to the world. If all such regimes in the world were gone, including Burma and North Korea, no one would miss them.
Much as I dislike what has happened to Iraq, I am glad Saddam Hussein was hanged. He had it coming. So do these Nazi leaders in Iran. They must hang.
Shorty is doing what he does best.Hostage taking he did to our embassy "NOW" he"s doing it again.Are we suprised I am not they should have got out of dodge.There probally going have this big court show and have it on Iranian Tv ......!
Wonder if it will be a soap opera or drama? Do you think we should help the British extract those people?
The ayatollahs can't be long for this world when to hold onto power they resort to Soviet and Nazi style repression.
The Islamofascists who run Iran have ALWAYS utilized Soviet and Nazi-style repression. They are Holocaust-deniers, for crissakes, who sponsor terrorist militias in Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza and elsewhere and who dream of finishing Hitler's "final solution" with an atomic strike against Israel and who murdered thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in Iraq by shipping shaped charges and other weapons across the Iraq border to their terrorist allies there.
And the U.S. is sponsoring terrorism inside Iran. But that's OK when the U.S. does it because when the U.S. does something it automatically makes it legitimate right?
well and succinctly put, dr. klein.
Iran is standing up on its own from inside out. If the world will be better for that,we will see the old mentalities, and opressors,have to go Isnt ajmadijanon t supposed to have been one of the terrorist that killed americans years ago.?It is them who must overthrow the ones who are holding them back..No US,UK,France, any reporters,embassy should be there now.These people incharge, explode themselves and chop heads off and answer to no one,in the name of religion.
Everyone should get out of there. They are going after anyone they can. they have to try to sell the redderick to the people of Iran that the west, other countries, tore them apart.they have to try to unite the country again by hating others. That way the Iranians,in the uprising will not continue to Focus On the Real Problem their leaders and opressors,ajmadinajon,Ayatollah,mulahs,clericks but for freedom, what we in the west concider a form of freedom for them,it has to be their own fight.Freedom isnot Free.
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"its amazing how much freedom people will sacrfice to avoid being murdered"
Yeah, just look at the Patriot Act and the made-in-Fort Detrick anthrax attacks that targeted the two senators most outspoken in their opposition to it. They changed their tune in a hurry. Good point Laughorcry.
Morning ya'll,
It looks like A...jad is giving Europe a nudge by harassing Iranians employed by a european nation. It looks like they have responded in a measured manner. It seems to be an argument between those secure in power and those insecure in power.
It is good that the US has had no embassy in Iran for 30 years, and we should not have any relations with that country. Right now it looks like the SS/Revolutionary Guard has taken over and instituted Gestapo-type rule, which is evidently the only way they think they can maintain power.
They are not interested in negotiating with us in any way, and their leaders are simply listening to the voices in their heads that they imagine are coming from God. Their Supreme Fuehrer actually has himself confused with God, but that's not unusual for dictators.
And I have never thought that the regime in Iran was anything but a fascist police state, in the same category as Nazi Germany or the clerical-fascist states in Spain and Eastern Europe in the 1930s and 1940s. Their "democracy" was always a fraud, as anyone can see now, as they have certified the "election" of Landslide Mahmoud at gunpoint.
This regime has committed tremendous atrocities against its own people over the last 30 years, and there is no excuse for it simply by saying that this fascist regime is somehow justified in its tyranny merely because it overthrowing the previous fascist regime backed by the US.
I fear that much as it is to be desired, any talk of "democracy" or even change in Iran is just talk, at least in the foreseeable future. For one thing, the most powerful force by far in Iran is the Revolutionary Guard, which is not only the strongest military force, but is involved in everything, including profit making businesses. It is a power unto itself, and certainly has no interest in regime change or anything approaching "democracy."
Indeed it may be that the Supreme Leader is not really the Grand Ayatollah, but the head of the Revolutionary Guard.
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As someone who is living in the little satan country, I have to own up. I think I caused all these problems in Iran because I mentioned it to my news agent that I thought the other chap should have won when I bought the paper that day.
I am frightfully sorry for the inconvenience.
MOSSAD involvement!!! he admits it!!!!
Shame on all the world democracies who still have an embassy in Iran and continue business as usual with mudurers of the Iranian people.
The regime of murdurers is going to go to hell and the world would do itself a favor by being on the side of the Iranian people and not on the side of the Islamic mafia which will go to hell very soon.
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A nation with an embassy can have more influence than a nation without an embassy. They provide a conduit through which flows communications both ways. Part of the reason the US & Iran have been so tense is that we don't have direct relations with Iran and haven't for 30 years.
Those embassies actually served as places of refuge for protesters who were injured and did not go to the hospitals, which were infiltrated by Basiji.
But I think your right and that the overwhelming majority of people are on the side of the protesters and the protesters know this if they have communication with the rest of the world, which is, again, the purpose of embassies.
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Meghanisgreat:
Presuming you're American you are speaking about murderous regimes when you love the country that committed the supreme international crime that is launching a war of aggression. Nothing Iran's mullahs have ever done can compare with that. Not by a long shot. In fact nothing Iran's mullahs have done can compare with the horror that the U.S. has caused Iran ITSELF since 1953.
Let's see... C.I.A. overthrows democratically elected Iranian government because it wanted to nationalize Iran's oil resources... installs a puppet shah who answers to Washington for 26 years and rules his people with an iron fist, the C.I.A. even training his secret police in the best methods of torture... Shah Pahlavi gets overthrown in 1979 and the Iranians seize the American embassy/C.I.A. station in Tehran, taking hostages... the U.S. goads Iraq in 1980 into invading Iran because America's pissed that its loyal puppet piece of s**t got overthrown and a bloody eight year war starts... during the course of which the U.S. advises Saddam Hussein to carpet bomb Iranian cities. Iran has every right to hate America's guts. Iran is nothing to write home about but it shouldn't lower itself to have diplomatic relations with the U.S., not the other way around.
It's time for the international community to step up and cut off all resources,including financial,and start choking them(Iran) on their own stupidity and delusions. Until the mullahs and other religious nuts are thrown to the dogs with their dumb ass ideas,the people of Iran will live in oppression. The one thing that the dictators of Iran don't understand is that the world sees their tyrannical rule with modern technology,yet they continue their lies and denials. Maybe the CIA could help by starting to "remove" some of the Iranian peoples' problems.
I think your "solutions" are reckless, short-sighted, and exactly the justification that those who wish us ill would use for the development of nukes.
Walkman56:
Are you aware that the C.I.A. is currently working on Iran? That they have their proxy terrorist group Jundullah going around in Iran killing civilians, military personnel, government officials etc.?
But I forgot, terrorism is just fine when the U.S. is behind it, right? Because anything America does it automatically becomes legitimate because America does it? People like you should wear a Nazi armband so before you even open your mouth the rest of us can see how mentally handicapped you are and know to ignore you.
Thank you.
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