Friday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 2.10.2005:

Major DC Demonstration Feb 15th in Support for the Tehran Bus Strikers.

• ICFTU Department of Trade Union Rights joined the global labor movement in calling for the release of more than 500 Iranian bus drivers and invited members of the Iranian-American community in Washington DC to join the AFL-CIO, the Solidarity Center and the DC Metro Labor Council in a solidarity demonstration with striking bus drivers in Iran, February 15, 2006.

More Ideas on What Needs to Be Done to Resolve Irans Nuclear Crisis.

• Iran va Jahan published excerpts of an interview conducted by to Kayhan (London) with Sean McCormack, US Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs discussing why the Iranian people need US assistance to replace their government with one that supports the principles of freedom and true democracy.
• U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton, The Kansas City Star reported that we must get this right on Iran and offered some action we should take.
• Reuters reported that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Iran on to freeze its nuclear activities so negotiations can go on.

More Iranian Leaders Speak Out.

• The Jerusalem Post reported that an Iranian vice president said he did not believe that the United States will attack his country over its nuclear program, and compared US defense secretary Rumfeld's strong warnings to "Dracula showing his teeth."
• Rooz Online interviewed an Iranian Majlis Deputy who complained that now we are at the UN Security Council: "It is now clear that the Eastern policy, i.e. relying on the East, was completely wrong... you cannot create a block with weak states."

Cartoon Unrest Examined.

• Amir Taheri, The New York Post exposed the ABC's of the Rent-A-Riot in the Middle East.
• The Washington Post reported that Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen Thursday said the governments of Iran and Syria had intentionally inflamed Muslim protests against a Danish newspaper's publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad to distract attention from their own diplomatic crises.
• Eli Lake, The New York Sun reported that Secretary of State Rice said: "I don't have any doubt that given the control of the Syrian government in Syria, given the control of the Iranian government... to use this to their own purposes."
• Bernard-Henri Levy, The Wall Street Journal examined the unrest created by the cartoons of Mohammed and probed the question: What made this demented scene, this planetary upheaval, possible?
• Iranian Student News Agency published photos of Iranian Security Forces "battling" what is supposed to be an "angry mob" attacking the UK Embassy in Tehran.

Dangerous Iranian Military Developments.

• Middle East Newsline reported that Iran has quietly acquired three Su-25UBT twin-seat attack fighter-jets from Russia.
• DefenceTalk.com reported that Iran secretly tested a new surface-to-surface missile (SSM) on January 17, seeking to establish the measurements needed for long-range missiles.

A new US intelligence scandal?

• Kenneth R. Timmerman, FrontPageMagazine.com reviewed yesterday's Washington Post article and argues once again someone is leaking critical US intelligence for political gain.

The NY Times Agrees with Bush, sort of.

• The NY Times, in an editorial, is now on record that it supports the Bush administrations assessment that Iran is pursuing nuclear power, but hope for enough time for the world to put greater pressure on the regime to change.

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

• FrontPageMagazine.com published an interview with Joseph Akrami, an independent filmmaker who is the director of A Few Simple Shots, a film documenting the Iranian regime's human rights atrocities.
• The New York Times reported that the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States denounced Iran's uranium enrichment program and US policy.
• The Financial Times reported that Iranians seeking visas for Germany ahead of this summer's football World Cup could face heightened background checks and some might be barred.
• And finally, Cox & Forkum published a cartoon:Undeniable.