I usually post here on my blog and since my blog is linked to my facebook profile, each post also gets posted there too. This is one piece of news that was so pleasing that in my rush, I actually posted it on facebook and forgot to do it here. So in case you missed it: Palestinians in the West Bank employed symbolism to which people of the world in general and the US in particular could relate… they dressed up as Na’vi people from Pandora to parallel their very real plight with that of the fictitious but still relevant plight of the Na’vi. See the pictures here.
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“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge.”
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Another guess is that the US perceives Rafsanjani and members of his faction in Iranian politics, notably Mousavi, as generally more willing to negotiate than Ahmadinejad and the Revolutionary Guards faction of Iranian politics. Also that Rafsanjani and Mousavi know this, meaning the US has in some way successfully communicated its preference for them. My guess that there is a US preference for Rafsanjani comes from the current claims that his faction’s losing power in Iran represents a Iran becoming military dictatorship, or junta. There is also the open collaboration between what is now known as the Green movement and the people in the US who are designing sanctions against Iran.
In recent weeks, senior Green Movement figures — who have been speaking at major Washington think tanks — have made up a list of IRGC-related companies they suggest targeting, which has been forwarded to the Obama administration by third parties.
There also was the episode in 2005 when the West actually told the Iranians that it wanted to wait for the results of the elections, which at the time Rafsanjani was projected to win, before making its offer on Iran’s nuclear program.
http://mideastreality.blogspot.com/2010/02/clock-has-run-out-iran-is-nuclear.html
Do you consider yourself an indigenous person?
The Hillary Clinton comedy show on Iran’s “military dictatorship”
Apparently Hillary Clinton’s spech on how Iran is a “military dictatorship” caused some chuckles amongst her audience.
To quote the Daily Star’s Rami Khouri:
If Iran is indeed becoming a military dictatorship, this probably qualifies it for American hugs and aid rather than sanctions and threats. Clinton badly needs some more credible talking points than opposing military dictatorships. ..
The US has adored military dictatorships in the Arab world, and has long supported states dominated by the shadowy world of intelligence services….Washington’s closest allies in the Middle East are military and police states where men with guns rule, and where citizens are confined to shopping, buying cellular telephones, and watching soap operas on satellite television. Countries like Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Libya, as well as the entire Gulf region and other states are devoted first and foremost to maintaining domestic order and regime incumbency through efficient, multiple security agencies, for which they earn American friendship and cooperation. When citizens in these and other countries agitate for more democratic and human rights, the US is peculiarly inactive and quiet.
http://www.iranaffairs.com/iran_affairs/2010/02/the-hillary-clinton-comedy-show-on-irans-military-dictatorship.html
Why chuckles greeted Hillary’s Gulf tour
By Rami G. Khouri
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=111835