A Daily Briefing on Iran: Saturday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 12.24.2005:

NY Sun credits our blog: Senate Democrats Soften Iran Resolution

A Senate resolution condemning the president of Iran for anti-Semitic comments he made earlier this month is riling its Republican sponsors on Capitol Hill. They claim Senate Democrats forced them to strip language from the document expressing support for self-determination and a national referendum in the country. ...

When Mr. Santorum moved to introduce the resolution last Friday, Senator Wyden, a Democrat of Oregon, registered an unusual objection. According to the Congressional Record, Mr. Wyden told Mr. Santorum on the Senate floor that he was objecting to the resolution because his Democratic colleagues in the Senate had asked him too. Mr. Wyden did not say who asked him to issue the objection. ...

Mr. Wyden's office did not return repeated calls yesterday to explain who suggested that he object to the Iran resolution or why he was chosen to register the complaint. And a spokesman for Mr. Santorum, Robert Traynham, said he did not know who raised the objection either. "We're still trying to see who those Democrats are," he said. An Internet blog devoted to promoting Democracy in Iran, "Regime Change Iran," detailed the flap over the resolution. It simply said that "Senate Democrats" objected to the resolution. READ MORE

Finally, the main stream media is noticing. Bloggers, keep calling Chairman Lugar's office demanding hearings on Iran and call your democratic Senators asking them "who is responsible for removing the support for self-determination and a national referendum?" We need answers!

Here are a few other news items you may have missed.

IRIB News reported that Ahmadinejad criticized "suppressive nations" for suppressing "any voice under the pretext of maintaining freedom of expression and impose medieval values and manners in modern disguise on nations." The president then expressed his confidence that all kinds of oppression would come to an end once rule of Islam prevails in the whole world.
Tom Porteous, Prospect visited Jamkaran, the site of a water well where the 12th and last imam of Shia Islam, the Mahdi, is said to have disappeared a little over a thousand years ago. He discussed Ahmadinejad (and his new leadership) believes that total chaos must be created in order to hasten the return of the Mahdi and the establishment of Islamic rule throughout the world. An interesting read.
The Public Affairs Magazine reported that the week-long violence in Baluchistan is being blamed on Iranian intelligence and their Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
News Max reported that Teresa Heinz Kerry says she is "outraged" that President Bush has been too easy on Iran.
Xinhuanet reported that Russia will fully comply with a deal with Iran to supply it with the Tor-M1 air defense systems despite US objections.
MosNews reported that Iran is interested in developing military-technical cooperation with Russia.
Amir Taheri, The Jerusalem Post reminds us that Iran is not just Israel's problem.
DEBKAfile reported that thousands of Sunni secular Shiite and Kurdish protesters took to the streets of Iraq Friday, Dec. 23, over what they called “the biggest election fraud in Middle East history.”
Eli Lake, The New York Sun reported that the head of Iraq's election committee accused critics of the election of extortion.
Iran Focus reported that Iran’s powerful Interior Minister said that the echo of Iran’s “Islamic revolution” could be heard in Iraq.
Iran Focus reported that Iran’s new ambassador to IAEA submits credentials.
Mark Heinrich, Reuters published their analysis on the showdown over Iran.
Karim Sadjadpour and Ray Takeyh, The Boston Globe gave their interpretation of Iran's belligerent foreign policy toward Israel.
And finally, The Times reported that the place Iranians call “Weblogistan” has grown this year from 5.4 million blogs to today to more than 23 million. The bloggers have proved so wily and hard to censor that the Iranian Government has even considered removing Iran from the internet entirely.