The Other Side of the 1979 Iranian Revolution
Populism helps explain not only the success of the revolution but also the continued survival of the Islamic Republic. The Republic’s constitution—with 175 clauses—transformed these general aspirations into specific inscribed promises. It pledged to eliminate poverty, illiteracy, slums and unemployment. It also vowed to provide the population with free education, accessible medical care, decent housing, pensions, disability pay and unemployment insurance. “The government,” the constitution declared, “has a legal obligation to provide the aforementioned services to every individual in the country.” In short, the Islamic Republic promised to create a full-fledged welfare state—in its proper European, rather than derogatory American, sense.
In the three decades since the revolution, the Islamic Republic—despite its poor image abroad—has taken significant steps toward fulfilling these promises. It has done so by giving priority to social rather than military expenditures, and thus dramatically expanding the Ministries of Education, Health, Agriculture, Labor, Housing, Welfare and Social Security. The military consumed as much as 18 percent of the gross domestic product in the last years of the shah. Now it takes up as little as 4 percent. The Ministry of Industries has also grown in most part because in 1979–1980 the state took over numerous large factories whose owners had absconded abroad. The alternative would have been to close them down and create mass unemployment. Since most of these factories had functioned only because of subsidies from the old regime, the new regime had no choice but to continue subsidizing them.
In the three decades since the revolution, the Islamic Republic—despite its poor image abroad—has taken significant steps toward fulfilling these promises. It has done so by giving priority to social rather than military expenditures, and thus dramatically expanding the Ministries of Education, Health, Agriculture, Labor, Housing, Welfare and Social Security. The military consumed as much as 18 percent of the gross domestic product in the last years of the shah. Now it takes up as little as 4 percent. The Ministry of Industries has also grown in most part because in 1979–1980 the state took over numerous large factories whose owners had absconded abroad. The alternative would have been to close them down and create mass unemployment. Since most of these factories had functioned only because of subsidies from the old regime, the new regime had no choice but to continue subsidizing them.
The Iranian Nuke Forgeries
By GARETH PORTER
U.S. intelligence has concluded that the document published recently by theTimes of London, which purportedly describes an Iranian plan to do experiments on what the newspaper described as a "neutron initiator" for an atomic weapon, is a fabrication, according to a former Central Intelligence Agency official.
Philip Giraldi, who was a CIA counterterrorism official from 1976 to 1992, told me that intelligence sources say that the United States had nothing to do with forging the document, and that Israel is the primary suspect. The sources do not rule out a British role in the fabrication, however.
The Times of London story published Dec. 14 did not identify the source of the document. But it quoted "an Asian intelligence source" - a term some news media have used for Israeli intelligence officials - as confirming that his government believes Iran was working on a neutron initiator as recently as 2007.
The story of the purported Iranian document prompted a new round of expressions of U.S. and European support for tougher sanctions against Iran and reminders of Israel's threats to attack Iranian nuclear programme targets if diplomacy fails.
Baluchistan and the Af/Pak War
U.S. intelligence has concluded that the document published recently by theTimes of London, which purportedly describes an Iranian plan to do experiments on what the newspaper described as a "neutron initiator" for an atomic weapon, is a fabrication, according to a former Central Intelligence Agency official.
Philip Giraldi, who was a CIA counterterrorism official from 1976 to 1992, told me that intelligence sources say that the United States had nothing to do with forging the document, and that Israel is the primary suspect. The sources do not rule out a British role in the fabrication, however.
The Times of London story published Dec. 14 did not identify the source of the document. But it quoted "an Asian intelligence source" - a term some news media have used for Israeli intelligence officials - as confirming that his government believes Iran was working on a neutron initiator as recently as 2007.
The story of the purported Iranian document prompted a new round of expressions of U.S. and European support for tougher sanctions against Iran and reminders of Israel's threats to attack Iranian nuclear programme targets if diplomacy fails.
Baluchistan and the Af/Pak War
Baluchistan is home to an insurgent movement that is not aligned with either Al-Qaeda or the Taliban and that has fought for national independence from Pakistan for more than 60 years. In this exclusive interview conducted on December 27, noted Pakistani Baluch journalist, Ahmar Mustikhan, founder and director of the American Friends of Baluchistan, spoke with me about the current regional conflict and about Baluchistan’s appeal to the West for military and diplomatic support for its struggle.
We were incorporated in Pakistan against our will on March 27, 1948, and we have lived under some form of military occupation ever since.
In the 19th century, whenever Afghanistan came under threat, it reached out to the Baluch people. There a number of inter-marriages between Pashtuns, the dominant nationality in Afghanistan, and the Baluch. In my own family there have been a number of such nuptial knots with Pashtuns, including those tied with Pashtuns from Afghanistan.
Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters Speaks Out in Support of Gaza Freedom March, Blasts Israeli-Egyptian “Siege” of Gaza
“I actually would be very interested to hear what the President of the United States has to say about this nonviolent, democratic demonstration of ordinary people from forty-two countries all over the world,” says Waters. “They feel solidarity with their brothers and sisters, other human beings who are living in conditions that none of us would stand for, for a single second, in any of our countries.”
Flashback: ICRC Spokesman in Gaza Describes Glaring Lack of Medical Access During Israeli Assault
ICRC was not allowed to reach the victims. No place in Gaza was safe. Ambulances, ICRC, we could not move without a green light from the Israeli authorities. And even when we were given the green light, we were told, “You have to be careful. Things might happen. Explosions can happen.” What does it mean? What guarantee I am getting from a military operation, from operators of military activities without proper guarantees?
And most often also, people were asking for evacuation at the same time in large numbers. Hundreds of people were having the same scenario. It’s not an incursion into Beit Hanoun or Jabalia or Shouka in Gaza. It’s an incursion—it’s a military operation all over Gaza. How can any humanitarian organization respond to such large-scale operation while being limited, while being denied access? Most of the time these people wanted to leave.
Like in this neighborhood, if you go around, you will see that all the houses—there is no one single exception—sustained injuries, sustained a smoke, heavy smoke, or explosions or fire into their buildings. We could not bring fire brigades. We were not allowed to bring the fire brigades. We were not allowed to move with ambulances of the PRC’s to rescue people. And families, they were calling, “Evacuate us to a safer place.” But where to take them? Even if ICRC managed to reach to these people calling, to take them where? To which place? There was no place called safe in Gaza to move these people to.
Government supporters pack cities to condemn opposition, U.S.
Thousands of Iranian political supporters jammed the streets of the capital and other cities Wednesday in response to anti-government rallies during Sunday's observances of the holy day of Ashura.
As crowds headed toward Revolution Square, they cried "Death to America," "Death to Israel," and "Death to Moussavi."
Protest organizers distributed a news release after the march that condemned the Ashura demonstrations. They accused those who participated of acting against Ashura, the holy Quran, Islamic values and the Islamic Republic, according to ILNA (Iranian Labour News Agency).
In Jerusalem on Wednesday, international representatives of jurists, parliamentarians, human rights activists and Iranian dissidents held a news conference to reveal their petition for additional sanctions against Iran.
They cited the country's "harsh crackdown on opposition demonstrators" as well as its defiance over its nuclear program.
Leading the coalition of about 60 people was Irwin Cotler, a former Justice Minister of Canada, now a Liberal Party member of the Canadian Parliament. He accused the Iranian government of "gross violations of international law."
"What we are witnessing in Ahmadinejad's Iran is a toxic convergence of four distinct yet interrelated dangers: the danger of a nuclear Iran, the danger of state-sanctioned incitement to genocide, the danger of state sponsorship of international terrorism and the danger of a massive assault on human rights," Cotler * said.
Irwin Cotler : He is a past president of the Canadian Jewish Congress. In recent decades the CJC launched campaigns to pressure the Soviet Union to allow Jewish emigration, to pressure the Canadian government to prosecute Nazi war criminals who had settled in Canada, and to enact and use hate crimes legislation against anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers such as Ernst Zündel. The CJC also works to promote tolerance and understanding between religious and ethnic groups, promotes anti-racist work and other campaigns.
( In Jerusalem, yet. Scene of more Palestinian repression of late.But hey. Does he work on behalf of the Palestinians in their holocaust ? "Gross violations of international law". Like Gaza ? BTW Many Palestinians would have been called Samaritans once upon a time : maybe why they are Semites ? Not like the Europeans. )
;Post TSA's New Security Rules And Get A Visit And Subpoena From Homeland SecurityAkmal Shaikh: China refers to controversial Opium Wars with Britain
China has warned Britain that it must stop its fierce condemnation of the execution of Shaikh for drug smuggling, or risk harming diplomatic ties between the two countries.
The official statement from the Chinese embassy said the "strong resentment" felt by the Chinese public to drug traffickers was in part based on "the bitter memory of history".
Jonathan Fenby, the author of The Penguin History of Modern China, said it was a reference to the two Opium Wars fought between China and Great Britain and its allies in the middle of the 19th century and the wider opium trade.
"It is one of those historical events that is still brought up," he said.
"How much your average Chinese person would think about it I'm not sure but it would be taught in Chinese schools for instance."
The trade in opium, often grown in India, boomed in China despite efforts to ban it with large amounts of the drugs being shipped into the country by British merchants.
Attempts by the Chinese government to disrupt the trade were met with force and Britain twice went to war to protect its stranglehold on the market and expand its reach into a country which had been closed off to western influence.
British merchants forced the Chinese to grant them access to Chinese ports and won the right for their citizens to be exempt from Chinese law.
TSA said that it was changing rules constantly.
( I can conceive of no greater stupidity. )
Report: Venture Capitalists, Food Companies Among 1,160 Businesses Lobbying on Climate Change
We take a look at some of the more unusual businesses and interest groups lobbying Congress on climate change issues. A new Center for Public Integrity analysis of federal records shows that the 140 companies that joined the fray for the first time late this year include venture capitalists, the natural gas lobby, and America’s most iconic soup maker, Campbell Soup
Appeals Court Says Tasers Can Be Excessive Force
( Public torture excessive force ? )
Canadian Study Suggests Dirt Good For Immune System?
This argument which has been buttressed now by Canadian scientists is that kids who grow up in a cleaner atmosphere have trouble dealing with medical issues when they get older. ( Would that be the super polluted air in 'super insulated' homes ? )
Scientists have found that the protein within a dirt pile actually lowers the risk of people getting a heart attack once they get older.
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