Barack Hussein Obama the muslim wants to take away Israel's nukes! Will Israel let herself be pressured? I sure hope not.... wouldn't count on it, though.

Obama wants to take Israel's nukes, according to reports

US President Barack Obama is working closely with Russia and Egypt on an effort to rid Israel of its supposed nuclear weapons arsenal, according to several mainstream media reports this week.
Most prominently, the Wall Street Journal reported that Obama is keen to adopt an Egyptian proposal to declare the Middle East a nuclear-free zone. A follow-up regional conference would put heavy pressure on all nations to comply.
Being the only country in the Middle East believed to possess nuclear weapons, Israel would be the clear target of such a move. Washington is suggesting that by pressuring Israel to give up its nukes, it has a much better chance to convince Iran to halt its defiant nuclear program.
That angle has become a major topic of discussion at the current Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference taking place at UN headquarters in New York. Arab and Muslim nations have enthusiastically joined and pushed the discussion on Israel's nuclear program in an effort to divert attention from Iran.
Former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton warned that Obama was playing right into the Muslims' hands, and threatening Israel's long-term security.
"The president is not happy with Israel's nuclear capabilities. I think he would be delighted if Israel gave up its nuclear weapons," Bolton told Israel's Army Radio. "The only unknown answer at this point is exactly how much pressure he would exert on Israel to do just that. Part of that pressure is being exerted right now by even considering the possibility of a conference on a nuclear-weapons-free Middle East."
Israel has never confirmed nor denied that it has nuclear weapons, though most believe the Jewish state to be in possession of at least a couple hundred warheads. Those weapons, if they exist, are the primary deterrent against yet another region-wide Arab attempt to overrun and destroy Israel. Prior to Israel's nuclear program, its Arab neighbors launched three full-scale wars aimed at annihilating the Jewish state.

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=21037 

To which Emanuel Winston adds a very astute commentary:

SKEWED FOCUS: US PROPOSAL OF A MIDEAST NUCLEAR WEAPON BAN COULD MEAN PRESSURE ON ISRAEL TO DISARM! Jerusalem Post Editorial 5/5/10

forwarded with commentary &

MADRID PEACE CONFERENCE ALL-OVER-AGAIN April 17, 2002 by Emanuel A. Winston, Middle East Analyst & Commentator

Once again the same old enemies of Israel have gathered - now under the Obama banner to water the seeds planted that are intended for Israel’s destruction.

With your patience I will offer the same plan tried by James Baker III and what came to be known as Baker’s Jew Boys: Dennis Ross, Aaron David Miller and Daniel Kurtzer in 1991 during the infamous Madrid International Conference.

Enclosed within is a brief article I wrote during the Madrid Conference predicting that an Arab Muslim country would be put up to proposing that the entire Middle East region should be made into a "Nuclear-Free Zone". Israel was the target.

Strange, isn’t it, that plotters of the old "Madrid Trap" are Obama’s counselors of today?!

COMMENTARY BY EMANUEL A. WINSTON May 6, 2010

###

                          WINSTON MID EAST ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY April 17, 2002

MADRID PEACE CONFERENCE ALL OVER AGAIN

by Emanuel A. Winston, a Middle East analyst & commentator

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir was implored not to go to the Madrid Conference of 1991. As it turned out, this was the beginning of the Oslo Process. Everyone knew - both enemies and friends - that it was one big trap. Although Baker’s Boys (the Jewish aides to James Baker) Dennis Ross, Daniel Kurtzer, Aaron Miller denied that they, as State Department apparachiks, were deeply involved, nevertheless, they bounced from room to room, cutting deals, making promises that would not ever be kept.

I recall penning an article forecasting that Egypt would be recruited by the U.S. State Department to demand that Israel stand down her nuclear deterrent. As night follows day, near the end of the Madrid Conference, Egypt’s representative recommended a "nuclear free zone" which would leave Israel to face the overwhelmingly greater conventional forces of Egypt , Syria, Iran, Iraq, among others, with only conventional arms and without her nuclear deterrent.

This was not the first time that a play had been made for international intervention. Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres roamed the world, meeting with heads of states to implore them to put pressure on Israel through an "International Peace Conference". In 1988, then Foreign Minister Peres, contrary to Israeli cabinet policy, tried to initiate an International Peace Conference. His then Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir called Peres’ effort "insane", "madness". The trick was always to get Israel into the arena with not one bull but dozens of bulls. Three years later, October 31 to November 2, 1991, Prime Minister Shamir was trapped into the Madrid Conference (which was the threshold of Oslo) through stealth, trickery and ever present treachery.

Now, once again, there is a major movement afoot to convene an "International Peace Conference". That is an oxymoron if there ever was one.

This is the theatrical set and the script:

First, they get a Prime Minister who believes (as all Israelis believe) that he can overcome anything. That is how they trapped Shamir.

The players today will be the U.S. State Department , the U.N. representatives, the E.U. representatives, the Arab nations, Palestinian representatives and, guess who will be the main attraction as the bull to be teased, prodded, pierced and, eventually, slaughtered?

Of course it will all be done with pressured dignity. The Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah’s phony plan, which calls for Israel’s withdrawal to the armistice borders of 1948-49 (the Auschwitz borders which invited the Arabs to create the 1967 Six Days’ War) will be the cutting edge of the groups’ persuasion. The word "normalization" appeared briefly in the Tom Friedman fantasy article that made it look like Abdullah said the words Friedman put in his mouth, but even that was too much for the Saudis and "normalization" was withdrawn.

In this next peace adventure, Israel will merely have to provide Arafat’s Palestinian terrorists with a solid State of their own where they can tool up again for weapons and no longer need to smuggle in weapons of war from an accommodating Egypt, Iran or Syria. Now, they will be able to import serious tonnage of advanced weaponry - just like all the other ‘States’ in the Arab Middle East.

Israel will be required to abandon the high ground along with the Jordan Valley, leaving open the five passes into the Jordan Valley, through which Syria and Iraq can advance their troops - cutting Israel into pieces to be devoured.

Of course, none of this will happen, because we will have a piece of paper, guaranteeing our existence, counter-stamped by the U.S. State Department and the American President. Of course, the nations present, except for Israel, will know that the U.S. State Department’s stamp of approval is bogus, irrelevant and worth less than the paper it is stamped upon - just like all the prior co-signatures on agreements with Yassir Arafat. He was supported, despite his every broken agreement - even with Arab states.

Israel will be expected to give up her water, both from the aquifers under the Judean and Samarian hills, as well as the water that flows from the Golan Heights and nourished Israel’s only fresh water resource, Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). Didn’t you know that Syria was to be bribed with the Golan which is Israel’s primary water source, as well as the high ground military position? Israel will be asked (ordered by the world) to create a capital for a non-existent people to assuage their vaunted feelings of humiliation for losing to Israel in so many wars.

When I say: "non-existent", of course, the people exist, but there was never an Arab Palestinian entity. The Arabs entered British Mandate Palestine freely (without permits - which were needed by Jews) from all the surrounding Arab countries as the Jews returned to make the desert bloom, creating jobs and good health conditions. The only "Palestinians" were the Jews under the British Mandate from 1917 to 1948 - until Israel became a State. (1)

Israel will be forced to pull back to the 1948-49 Armistice lines, giving up her defensive critical mass. For these gestures, Israel is supposed to receive "recognition" by the Arab nations. Who needs their recognition anyway? Israel exists today as a viable, thriving nation. Of course, Abdullah removed the word: "normalization" from ‘his’ peace plan, which was actually created by Tom Friedman as a trial balloon.

This would be something like the Camp David Peace Accords with Egypt where then Prime Minister Menachem Begin was euchred into signing away the Sinai Desert for "peace" and "normalization" with Egypt. This became known as the "Cold Peace" because it was all just the absence of war. That is something. No Israeli soldier has been killed on the Egyptian border. But, it was not normalization, which meant visits to each other’s countries, business ventures and the cessation of vile anti-Semitic articles in Al Ahram, Egypt’s state-controlled newspaper. Well, folks, none of this happened, except for the absence of war (so far). "Normalization" was merely a word for ‘dopes’ to buy into.

Once there is a formalized International Conference with Israel in the docks to be pilloried, then anything she refuses will cause the ‘honored’ assembly to vote sanctions against her. This will mean embargoes of commerce, medical and academic research, more assistance to terrorist groups and nations. In a way, this has already begun with those so-called civilized nations like Germany, France and England, who have been persecuting Jews for centuries.

Germany started by embargoing tanks parts that were purchased with irrevocable contracts. France and England followed suit. They were ‘merely’ stopping the shipment of any military equipment - or so they said.

I am reminded of the same concept as follows:

In 1948, the U.N. had just voted to allow the State Of Israel to be partitioned into existence, along with a State for the Arabs. Immediately, President Harry Truman, through his State Department, along with France and England, issued a dictum which embargoed arms to the nascent Israel. These ‘noble characters’ were not going to encourage fighting by shipping in war materiél.

The invading armies of the seven surrounding Arab countries were well-armed by the West who didn’t stop their shipments to Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Iraq. It was anticipated that Israel would be over-run by these six Arab nations, already armed with tanks, artillery, planes and other modern weapons of the times.

Yes, it was expected (planned?) that the fledgling Jewish nation was to disappear in a swift onslaught by the Arabs and, of course, no one would expect the U.N. or the Free World to mobilize in such a short time to save the Jews. No one would blame them, just as no one blamed them as they all stood by and allowed Hitler’s Nazis to kill 6 million Jews.

This next "Peace Conference" will have the look of the Inquisition minus their hoods. Israel beat off the terrorists of today but she will be assaulted from within and without. The ‘within’ will see Shimon Peres, Yossi Beilin, the Oslo Gang, the Peace Now/Gush Shalom cabal and the other aberrant Left lined up solidly with those who are demanding Israel’s extinction. They will claim they are only working for peace but, the ‘Erev Rav’ were never on the side ethical Jews.



.....followed by this other commentary, by DebkaFile, also sent by Emanuel Winston:

OBAMA REAFFIRMS US SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL’S NUCLEAR AMBIGUITY  DEBKAfile Exclusive Report May 6, 2010, 5:26 PM (GMT+02:00)
Tags: Netanyahu Nuclear-free Mid East Obama  Israel's nuclear center at Dimona

US president Barack Obama reaffirmed his administration's commitment to supporting Israel's policy of nuclear ambiguity, whereby its possession of nuclear weapons is neither confirmed nor denied. debkafile's Washington sources report that President Obama repeated this pledge in a 20-minute telephone call to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Monday, May 3, almost a year after he gave it the first time during Netanyahu's visit to the White House on May 18, 2009.

High-ranking American sources told debkafile that Obama needed to reassure Israel his commitment on this score was solid and unchanged for four reasons:

1. Because of administration steps on the Middle East taken this week prior to and during the UN conference on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Wednesday, May 5, the five Security Council permanent members vowed to work together towards a nuclear-free Middle East. Two days earlier, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the conference that the United States "is prepared to support practical measures towards the objective of a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction."

2. There was talk in the corridors of the conference, some published by Egyptian sources, that the US and Egypt were formulating a joint Middle East nuclear policy for bringing about the dismantling of Israel's nuclear stockpiles.

3. It became clear to the White House that if Netanyahu got the notion that President Obama was retreating from his nuclear commitment to Israel, he could forget about progress in the Middle East proximity talks which his special envoy George Mitchell is working hard to jump-start this week.

4. And if that commitment were to be withdrawn, the entire Middle East would conclude that the Obama administration had also retreated from its "unshakable" pledge to support Israel's security.

A few hours after the Obama-Netanyahu conversation, former US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton said Tuesday that American-Egyptian cooperation on the Middle East nuclear issue was aimed squarely at Israel. His exact words were: "There is only one country that resolution is targeted at and that is Israel."

Therefore, the Israeli prime minister had needed to hear from the president in person that his year-old pledge was still valid and that the joint American-Egyptian effort for nuclear-free Middle East had a single target, Iran and its nuclear program.

According to Debkafile's sources, that effort is led by Gary Seymour, WMD coordinator at the National Security Council, and Nabil Fahmy, for many years the Egyptian Ambassador to the United States. He is currently the dean of public administration at the American University in Cairo and head of the Center for Studies on Nonproliferation in the Middle East.

Our Middle East sources confirmed that Fahmy is the live wire of Egyptian policy in these areas.

Obama further promised Netanyahu that any US deal with Egypt or any other country on the nuclear issue would stipulate that Israel would not be called on to alter its nuclear stance until such time as a comprehensive Middle East peace is attained between Israel and its neighbors and all countries of the region dispose of their conventional and WMD arsenals.

Our sources in Jerusalem say that, even though Prime Minister Netanyahu welcomed President Obama's assurances and thanked him, there is still great unease in Israel's ruling circles over the very fact that the administration is actually discussing Israel's nuclear issues with Egypt.

Copyright 2000-2010 DEBKAfile.

Interesting, isn't it: notice how known Nazi supplier and collaborator Siemens is deeply involved in the suppression of freedom in Iran? Today, as NOKIA-SIEMENS, it is in the process of EXPANDING ITS NORTH-AMERICAN PRESENCE: just what we need!

First round in Internet war goes to Iranian intelligence

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

June 28, 2009, 4:00 PM (GMT+02:00)

Millions of sympathizers around the world looked forward to seeing Iran's protest movement using the Internet for the first online coup in history. Instead, the Iranian Islamic regime turned the tables: Its Internet police, arguably the largest in the world, pushed "control," "halt," "delete" and "send" buttons to activate a deadly weapon for suppressing the movement, as soon as it took to the streets to protest the June 12 election which was believed to have given Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a false victory.

By Sunday, June 28, when the Guardian Council was to hand down its final verdict on their complaints, the street rallies had petered out.

Part of the reason, DEBKAfile's intelligence sources report, was their organizers' heavy reliance on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and other social sites to orchestrate their protest movement. They did not at first appreciate that Iranian intelligence Internet experts, operating from secret headquarters established months ago, were using their communications to shoot them down.

According to our sources, that headquarters is located at the telecom center on Sepah (Khomenei) Square in Tehran. It was built for the Shah in the 1970s by the Israel construction contractors Solel Boneh and designed by Israeli intelligence and telecommunications experts.

The high-end apparatus, installed in late 2008 by the German Siemens AG and Finnish Nokia Corp. cell phone giant, gave Iranian intelligence the most advanced tools anywhere for controlling, inspecting, censoring and altering Internet and cell phone messaging. Those tools were being used weeks before the poll to identify penetrations by alien spy services, their local agents and dissident activists.

This system is capable of conducting "deep packet inspection" of every type of text and video communication in all parts of Iran on three tracks:

1. Like other advanced electronic spy systems in the world, this one uses such keywords as attack, weapons, cash, data, explosives, meeting, demonstration, resistance, protest, etc. to alert Iran within milliseconds to feeds of interest by computer or phone - mail, signals or visuals.

In a flash, intelligence analysts get a fix on the sender and the electronic addressee which are then placed on a surveillance list for further monitoring. Once identified, the sender or receiver and their connections are closely shadowed by field agents.

2. By "deep packet inspection," the secret controllers can cause delays in online data transfers, which surfers may attribute to glitches connected with their providers. The more targets under surveillance, the more online transfers are slowed down.

DEBKAfile's Iranian sources report that the day after the presidential poll and resulting street outbreaks, Iran's Internet control and tracking supervisors took over the 10 leading service providers in the country. Their first action was to slow down incoming and outgoing cyber traffic from 1,500 to 54 kilobytes to make sure that not a single byte by Internet or cell phone to or from protest leaders escaped their notice.

Tehran has vented its ire on Britain because it is accused of providing the organizers of the dissident movement with London telephone numbers to circumvent the deliberate slowdown of online traffic from inside the country. These numbers gave anti-government activists instant, direct links through Western Internet providers for getting their messages out to the world. Iran suspects they were laid on by British intelligence.

Eventually, the British lines became jammed by overload.

3. Iranian intelligence made cynical use of the large amount of electronic and personal data accumulated on anti-regime elements. Instead of detaining their prey at once, Iranian intelligence invaded their computers and cell phones to plant false leads for smoking unsuspecting activists out in the open and keeping them under inspection.

Within a few days of their protest, Mir Hossein Mousavi and the bulk of his supporters, realizing their electronic campaign had been taken over by the regime to hunt them down, disappeared from the streets of Tehran.

Wednesday, June 24, when the extent of the damage the Iranian Internet invasion had inflicted on American interests was brought home to him, US secretary of defense Robert Gates ordered a special cyber defense system set up to protect the US armed forces' 15,000 Web sites, which encompass seven million computers. Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, head of the National Security Agency, was put in charge of getting the new system up and running by the end of 2010.

Tuesday, June 23, a group of US senators led by the Republic presidential candidate John McCain and independent Joe Lieberman initiated legislation to fund a cyber defense system capable of combating Internet assaults like the one mounted by the Iranian government.

***************************************************************

Review my article dated April 8th, 2008: SIEMENS: HAS THE LEOPARD CHANGED ITS SPOTS?

World War II Era

Preceding World War II Siemens was involved in the secret rearmament of Germany. During the Second World War, Siemens supported the Hitler regime, contributed to the war effort and participated in the "Nazification" of the economy. Siemens had many factories in and around notorious extermination camps such as Auschwitz and used slave labor from concentration camps to build electric switches for military uses. In one example, almost 100,000 men and women from Auschwitz worked in a Siemens factory inside the camp, supplying the electricity to the camp.^[5] The crematorium ovens at Buchenwald bear the Siemens label.

Report: German Company Sold Iran Surveillance Equipment

4 Nissan 5768, 09 April 08 11:17

by

(IsraelNN.com) The German company Siemens was very likely responsible for selling sophisticated surveillance equipment to Iran, according to the Jerusalem Post.  Austrian investigative journalist Erich Moechel first broke the story.

Moechel said he was "99 percent certain" that Siemens had provided Iran with equipment used to track landline and cellular phone conversations.  Iran also purchased "Intelligence Platform" systems allowing it to monitor financial transactions and travel, he said.

Siemens spokesmen did not confirm or deny the allegations, but said the company was careful to obey all European Union guidelines regarding trade with Iran.

**********************************************************

See also:

http://www.adl.org/Braun/dim_13_2_forgetting.asp

Contemporary scholars are continuing to learn about the extent to which Siemens, and every major German business in the Thirties and Forties, was implicated in the brutality of Nazi economic policies, most egregiously through the abuse of forced and slave laborers. Siemens ran factories at Ravensbrück and in the Auschwitz subcamp of Bobrek, among others, and the company supplied electrical parts to other concentration and death camps. In the camp factories, abysmal living and working conditions were ubiquitous: malnutrition and death were not uncommon. Recent scholarship has established how, despite German industry's repeated denials, these camp factories were created, run, and supplied by the SS in conjunction with company officials -- sometimes high-level employees.

********************************************************

And this from the Wall Street Journal: Notice how they play so self-righteous - it is all for the benefit of humanity, of course. These evil monsters are hypocrites too.COMBATING TERRORISM in Iran? Please explain to me, maybe I don't quite understand: I thought the Iranian regime IS TERROR!

How do you say "Operation Pinwale" in Farsi?

According to a somewhat confusing Wall Street Journal story,( what's so confusing about this? It seems very clear to me: we are talking collaboration with the Iranian regime here, DS) Iran has adopted NSA-like techniques and installed equipment on its national telecommunication network last year that allows it to spy on the online activities and correspondence — including the content of e-mail and VoIP phone calls — of its internet users.

Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint venture between Germany's Siemens and Finland's Nokia, installed the monitoring equipment late last year in Iran's government-controlled telecom network, Telecommunication Infrastructure Co., but authorities only recently engaged its full capabilities in response to recent protests that have broken out in the country over its presidential election.

The equipment allows the state to conduct deep-packet inspection, which sifts through data as it flows through a network searching for keywords in the content of e-mail and voice transmissions. According to the Journal, Iran seems to be doing this for the entire country from a single choke point. "Seems," because although the Journal states that Nokia Siemens installed the equipment and that signs indicate the country is conducting deep-packet inspection, the paper also says "it couldn't be determined whether the equipment from Nokia Siemens Networks is used specifically for deep packet inspection."

Although the Journal has published questionable "spying" stories in the past, we're willing to go with them on this one.

It's previously been reported that Iran was blocking access to some web sites for people inside the country as protesters took to the streets and the internet to dispute the results of the country's recent presidential election.

But sources told the Journal that the government's activities have gone beyond censorship to massive spying. They say the deep-packet inspection, which deconstructs data in transit then reconstructs it, could be responsible for network activity in Iran having recently slowed to less than a tenth of its regular speed. The slowdown could be caused by the inspection at a single point, rather than at numerous network points, as China reportedly does it.

A brochure promoting the equipment sold to Iran says the technology allows for "the monitoring and interception of all types of voice and data communication on all networks."

A spokesman for Nokia Siemens Networks defended the sale of the equipment to Iran suggesting that the company provided the technology with the idea that it would be used for "lawful intercept," such as combating terrorism, child pornography, drug trafficking and other criminal activity. Equipment installed for law enforcement purposes, however, can easily be used for spying as well.

"If you sell networks, you also, intrinsically, sell the capability to intercept any communication that runs over them," the spokesman told the Journal.

He added that the company "does have a choice about whether to do business in any country" but said, "We believe providing people, wherever they are, with the ability to communicate is preferable to leaving them without the choice to be heard."

In March, the company sold off its monitoring technology to a German investment firm.

********************************************************************

Now this piece of business news, just days ago:

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/06/23/inside-the-nortel-nokia-siemens-deal/

I am not sure exactly what EXPANDING ITS NORTH AMERICAN PRESENCE MEANS, but if the IRANIAN MODEL IS ANY INDICATION... WE ARE IN BIG TROUBLE HERE!

....Nokia Siemens, the world's No. 2 maker of wireless telecommunications gear by sales, has long sought to expand its North American presence....

******************************************************

What is also glaring in its absence is any kind of CONDEMNATION, or SANCTION, by the German government. After all, they have known about Siemens's activities in Iran for a long time. Have YOU heard about any fine, or prosecution, or incarceration, of Siemens executives regarding this specific matter? I haven't.

On the other hand, they have been FINED and INVESTIGATED over OTHER MATTERS, mind you, both in the U.S. and in Germany: over corruption and bribery issues. But what about the issue of COLLABORATION with an enemy? Nothing.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/dec/16/regulation-siemens-scandal-bribery

http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,462199,00.html

Siemens even uses as their defense the argument that they are not violating any criteria of the European Union regarding trade with Iran.

What this tells us is something very clear about both Germany and Europe's, and even the United States' position re: Siemens's activities in Iran: TACIT ACQUIESCENCE. The leadership of Iran is obviously NOT an enemy in their eyes, and it is OK to give it the most advanced technological capability, both to oppress their own population, and of course to SPY ON ISRAEL, so it can destroy it better.

.... and we already know WHO the European Union works for.....


SEE ALSO MY POST: A WRITER'S VIEW OF TODAY'S GERMANY.

THE LEOPARD, TRULY, HAS NOT CHANGED ITS SPOTS!

Update, 7/17/09 AsiaNews

» 07/17/2009 16:18

IRAN
Nokia accused of being in the service of VEVAK, Iran’s spy agency
Dariush Mirzai
Iran’s opposition calls for a boycott of Nokia and Siemens, accused of providing Iran’s secret services with technology capable of monitoring telephone use. Along with the Pasdaran and Basij, the powerful spy agency has one main purpose, to crush the country’s democratic aspirations, by torture and beheading if necessary.

Tehran (AsiaNews) – A month ago Ahmadinejad’s opponents used electronic means of communication to organise and broaden their protest. The regime’s first reaction was to unleash the brutal Basij, the “volunteers” of the Revolution.

Such armed militiamen are the foot soldiers of Iran’s domestic secret service, the VEVAK, which is part of the Ministry of Intelligence (MOI). With some 20,000 employees, the MOI is at the disposal of Iran’s hard-line rulers, men like President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. But at one time, when Rafsanjani was president, the VEVAK was in the “state terrorism” big time, threatening and killing the regime’s opponents even in Western countries.

According to Yves Bonnet, a former director of the Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire (DST) (Directorate of Territorial Surveillance, the French secret service), in just two month in 1988 the VEVAK executed some 33,000 people on the order of Khomeini. No wonder then, that the VEVAK is listed as a “terrorist organisation in some countries like Canada”.1

Today the domestic spy agency runs its own prisons, torturing and beheading enemies of the state. Unlike the Pasdaran and the Basij whose task is to keep an eye on the streets of Iranian cities, VEVAK’s business is spying on Iranians and propaganda, great tools to undermine Iran’s pro-reform and pro-democracy movement.

Recent reports suggested that two major European mobile phone companies, Nokia and Siemens, with big sales in Iran (especially Nokia), have sold Iranian authorities sophisticated surveillance technology. As soon as the information became public a boycott of Nokia products was launched in Iran.

Boycotts are nothing new in the Islamic Republic. In the past “anti-Islamic” or “Zionist” firms have been targeted, sometimes on behalf of the former’s foreign competitors. Whether directly involved or not, this boycott campaign is of high propaganda value for VEVAK because in the current economic climate, fewer Iranians can afford to have a mobile phone. With fewer Iranians willing to test high tech phone surveillance, fewer dangerous messages will be sent.

All this does not mean that the report about Nokia and Siemens is not true. Over the years, business people, journalists and politicians in Tehran have developed the habit of not taking their mobile phones with them into rooms where they meet, leaving them instead outside the entrance or in a separate room. The reason for this is VEVAK’s capability of using any mobile phone left on standby as a microphone to pick up conversations.

Such high level espionage is not the only card up the spy agency’s sleeve. The best way for it to keep on eye on everyone is to monitor phone text messages. Indeed what Tehrani hasn’t received or sent a joke about the clergy or Ahmadinejad? Now fear of getting caught will lead many to censor themselves. And by blocking communications (a technique used at the height of the protest movement), the VEVAK can weaken the opposition and reinforce the image of an all-powerful state.

In order to manipulate public opinion the VEVAK does not rely on technology alone. It has established charities (in favour of suffering Iraqis and Lebanese for example) to show how good Iran is compared to the wicked West.2

Another way for the VEVAK to manipulate public opinion is to organise and invite Westerners on visits to Iran, showing nice things about Iran which will be picked up by the CNN or the BBC. The intent of Iran’s spy masters is not so much to change opinions in the West in favour of the Islamic regime, but rather to show to Iranians with access to Western media that their country is not so bad after all.

In its 30 years of existence the Islamic Republic has learnt how to stay in power. The VEVAK is the equivalent of the Shah’s brutal SAVAK. One of the reasons for the collapse of the Pahlavi regime lies in the decision made by many SAVAK officials and agents to jump ship and join Khomeini and the regime he was setting up.

At present such a “migration” appears very unlikely and this despite the contacts and parallel networks Rafsanjani built years ago inside the services which are now in the hands of his political opponents.

------------------------------------------------------

1. BONNET Y., Vevak, Au service des ayatollahs, Paris : Timée-Éditions, 2009, 454 p.

2. So-called collateral damage in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and provocative speeches by George W. Bush and Ariel Sharon have been very useful in demobilising Iran’s opposition.

MORE ON IRAN, AND ISRAEL, WITH SOME QUESTIONS: SAEED BEHREBANI on the TAMAR YONAH SHOW.

Persian and Israeli Courage

Sivan 29, 5769, 21 June 09 12:54

by Thomas J. Mattingly

(Israelnationalnews.com)

On Sunday, one week ago, Israel National Radio host Tamar Yonah showed remarkable political and journalistic courage by interviewing independent and popular Iranian TV political commentator Saeed Behbahani. They

discussed Iran's presidential election rigging and the renewed possibility for a new revolution and regime change in Iran (by and for the people of Iran).

Unlike what we see, hear, and read in the mainstream media, Tamar's interview shows that the people of Israel and the people of Iran may still be long-term friends and allies. In addition, the needs and wants of the people of Iran and the people of Israel may be somewhat similar. Both Israelis and Persians need the freedom to live in peace without threats from hostile neighbors.

Seventy-five percent or more of the people of Iran (Muslim and non-Muslim) want a new, independent, non-Islamic form of government - with individual, tribal, and provincial autonomies (i.e., true regime change).

Saeed Behbahani was born into a science-oriented, Muslim political family in Iran in 1954 - one year after British and Americans helped to overthrow the elected government of Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq in a coup d'etat and installed the pro-West government of the Shah of Iran.

In the mid-1970s, the Shah's secret police arrested Mr. Behbahani for political opposition to the Shah's government. After the Grand Ayatollah Khomeini came to power in Iran in 1979 (with still-continuing British and American help, Behbahani and most Iranian intellectuals say), Khomeini's secret police arrested Behbahani for political opposition to Khomeini's government in Iran.

In 2005, during boycotted elections that first selected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Behbahani was arrested in America while videotaping an empty Iranian election-polling place in a mosque near Washington. Although numerous Iranian Muslims assaulted Behbahani, the Bush Administration labeled Behbahani as a "terrorist" and had him arrested by the local police. The numerous Muslims who assaulted Behbahani (and broke his camera) were not arrested or prosecuted. I met Behbahani when he came to me for legal help. Behbahani was later acquitted of all charges.

Saeed Behbahani and 75 percent of the people of Iran favor a new revolution and regime change in Iran (by and for the people of Iran). The Obama Administration, the British and other Western leaders are not in favor of such regime change unless they help to pick the new Iranian leader.

Muslim Brotherhood-style political-religious leaders in Iran choose the candidates permitted to run for president. The people of Iran do not choose these presidential candidates. Although pro-nuclear Mir Hossein Mousavi (supported by nominally pro-West and definitely pro-Obama Iranian oligarch Rafsanjani) allegedly won the recent presidential election in Iran, Mousavi is not the candidate of the people of Iran. Saeed Behbahani says this; and so do most people of Iran (if you listen closely).

"According to Saeed Behbahani of MihanTV, a US government emissary met in Dubai two weeks ago with Mehdi Khazali, campaign manager for Mir Hossein Mousavi, bringing assurances of US government support for his campaign," according to a June 10th report at www.Iran.org (website of Ken Timmerman's Foundation for Democracy in Iran).

With Ahmadinejad again allegedly winning the election in Iran - but with credible allegations of massive vote fraud - Behbahani and many others say that a new revolution in Iran may occur soon. However, if new revolutionary regime change in Iran occurs now, then Rafsanjani and Mousavi may soon control an Iran with nuclear capabilities. If Mousavi becomes the front man for revolution and regime change in Iran, then the only real difference may be a smiley face on a nuclear-capable Iran.

If we support the people of Iran in their legitimate self-determination endeavors (which are not anti-Israel or anti-West), then the people of Iran, America and Israel may eliminate the threats that a terror-supporting, nuclear-capable Iran may pose to Israel, America and others - and to Iran. The people of Iran may be ready, willing, and able to carry out a new revolution and regime change in Iran - despite and due to soon-escalating government violence. Since Israel, America, and the West cannot lead this revolution, how should we support the people of Iran?

Saeed Behbahani : video in Farsi - I don't understand a word but the introductory pictures are striking:

http://www.truveo.com/Binesh-Nu/id/852774978


And here is Tamar Yonah's show.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/1068